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AUTHOR: 
 
 GIBBON, EDWARD 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 GUIZOT'S GIBBON 
 
 HISTORY OF THE . 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1841-1848 
 
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 Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. 
 
 Giiizot's Gibbon. History of the decline and fall of the 
 Roman eni])ire . By Edward Gibbon, esq. A new ed. rev. and 
 cor. tliroughout, preceded by a preface, and accompanied by 
 notes, critical and historical, relating principally to the propa- 
 gation of Christianit}' : by M. F. Guizot ... The preface, notes 
 and corrections, tr. from the French ... With an appendix , 
 containin g a sketch of the life of Gibbon ... Oxford, O., 
 D. Christy, 18^.1841-48. 
 
 2 V. 27^-. (Historical family library, v. 3) 
 
 1. Rome — Hist. — Empire, b. c. 30-a. d. 47G. 2. Byzantine empire — Hist. 
 I. Guizot, Fnnipois Pierre Guillnume, 1787-1874, ed. 
 
 Vol. Zy Cincinnati, Japies, 1848. 
 
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Columbia Winibtviitp 
 
 intteCitpofiJetogorfe 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 

 t 
 
 I 
 
GUIZOT'S GIBBON. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 OP THE 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 BY EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. 
 
 A NEW EDITION REVISED AND CORRECTED THROUGHOUT, PRECEDED BY A PREFACE, AND ACCOMPA- 
 NIED BY NOTES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, RELATING PRINCIPALLY 
 TO THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY: 
 
 BY M. F. GUIZOT, 
 
 MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE. 
 THE PREFACE, NOTES AND CORRECTIONS, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH EXPRESSLY FOR THIS EDITION. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GIBBON 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 <><«^<M'^i»«»<MM>«W>^^«*»i^*M«^^«^»»»»'^»«»«»i^ 
 
 
 OXFORD, 0. 
 PUBLISHED BY DAVID CHRISTY 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY J. A. JAMES! CINCINNATI. 
 
 1841. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ■^ 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, 
 
 BY DAVID CHRISTY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office, for the District Court of Ohio. 
 
 The extent and military force ctf the empire, in 
 
 the age of the Jlntontnes. 
 A. U. P&se 
 
 INTRODCCTION. Moderation of Au- 
 Custus. Iinitated by his sucressors 
 
 C/onquestof Britain was the first ex- 
 ception to it. Conquest of Dacia, 
 the second exception to it. Con- 
 quests of Trnjan in the east 
 
 Kesigned by his successor Hadrian. 
 Contrast ol Hadrian and Antoninus 
 Fms. Facihcsjstem of Hadrian and 
 the two Antonines. DetV-nsive wars 
 ol Marcus Antoninus. Military es- 
 tablishment of the Roman emperors 
 
 discipline. Exercises. The legions 
 under the emperors 
 
 Arms. Cavalry. Auxiliaries 
 
 Artillery. Encampment. March. 
 Number and disiH)silion of the le- 
 gions. Navy 
 
 Amount of tie whole establishment. 
 Viewoi the proviiiwsof the Roman 
 empire, bpain. Gaul. Britain, li- 
 aly 
 
 Thf* Danubo^ and lllyrian front er. 
 Khania. \oricum and Pannonia. 
 i'almatia. j'V1a?sia& Dacia. Thrace. 
 JVIaci-doMia and Greece. A«ia Minor, 
 nyria. Phce icia and Pal«'stii>e 
 
 '^KJ.Pt.. Africa. The Mediterranean 
 with Its island:^ 21 
 
 General idea of the Roman empire 22 
 
 T^ CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the union a ndinternal pro.'tperifp of the Ro- 
 man empire in the age of the Anlonine:>. 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 c 
 % 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 Principle.s of govprnm>'nt. Universal 
 snirii of toleration. Of the people. 
 
 C)t phlliirioplrtrs 
 
 Of thomajjisi rates. In thf> provinces. 
 At K'jmi'. Frei'dom «)f Rome 
 
 Italy. The provinces. Colonies and 
 municipal towns 
 
 Division of iho Lam and the Greek 
 provinces. General use of both the 
 Greek and Latin hnguagos. Slaves 
 
 Their treatment. EnfrtMichi.se meiit 
 
 Numbers. Populousiiess of the Ro- 
 man empire. Obedience and union. 
 Roman monuments. Many of them 
 erected at Private expense 
 
 t-xample of Herodes Atticus. His re- 
 putation. Most of the Roman mon- 
 uments for public use. Temples, 
 theatres, aqueducts 
 
 Number and greatness of the citie.s 
 of the empire. In Italy. Gaul and 
 Spam. Africa. Asia 
 
 Roman roads. Posts. Navigation. 
 Improvement of agriculture in the 
 western countries of the empire. In- 
 troduction of fruits, &.C. The vine. 
 1 he olive 
 
 Flax. Artificial grass. General plen- 
 ty. Arts ot luxury, p'oreign trade. 
 Ookl and silver. General felicity 
 
 Decline of courage. Of genius. De- 
 generacy 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 22 
 23 
 2-1 
 
 2.5 
 
 26 
 
 27 
 
 28 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 3] 
 32 
 
 Of the constitution of the Roman empire, in the 
 age of the JJntonines. 
 
 Idea of a monarchy. Situation of Au- 
 gustus 
 
 He reforms the senate. Resigns his 
 U8uri>ed power. Is prevailed upon 
 to resume it under the title of emiw- 
 ror. or general. Powerof the Roman 
 generals 
 
 Lieutenants of the emperor. Division 
 ot the provinces between the empe- 
 ror and the senate. The former pre- 
 serves his military command, and 
 guards, in Ro i e itself. Consular 
 and tribunitian powers 
 
 Imperial prerogatives. The magis- 
 trates. _ The senate. General idea 
 of the imperial system 
 
 Court of the emi>eror8. Deification. 
 Tnlca of Augustus and C<rsar. Cha- 
 racter anrl policv of Augustus 
 
 Image of lilierty for the i>eor>le. At- 
 tempts of the senate after the death 
 ol Caligula. Image of governtnent 
 for the armies. Their obedience. 
 J)eHignatj|on of a successor. Of Ti- 
 oenus. Of Titus 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 A. D. Paze 
 
 The race of the Coesars, and Flavian 
 ,VP lA'"!'y- Adoption and character of 
 116 1 rajan. Of Hadrian. Adoption of 
 iiQ .Jaee'der and younger Verus. Adop- 
 138-180 tion of the two Antonines 38 
 
 Character and reignof Pius. Of Mar- 
 cus. Happiness of the Romans. Its 
 precarious .nature. Memory of Ti- 
 berius, Caligula. Nero, and Domi- 
 tian. Peculiar misery of the Romans 
 under their tyrants 39 
 
 Insensibility of the Orientals. Know- 
 le(\ge and free spirit of the Ro.nans. 
 iiiXteni of their empire left them no 
 place of reluge 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The cruelty, foWes, and murder of Commodus. 
 —Kiectton of Pertinax.—His attempts to re- 
 J or in the i^tqte.—His assassination by theprceto- 
 rian guards. 
 
 __^ indulgence of Marcus 40 
 
 loO Jo his wife Fnustina. To his son 
 Conimodus. Acce.s8ion of the empe- 
 ror Commodus. Character of Com- 
 100 f '""""^•j His return to Rome. 41 
 
 ltf.J Is wounded by an assa.ssin. Hatred 
 and cruelty of Commodus towards 
 Jhesenale. TbeQuintilian brothers. 
 Ihe minister Perennius. Revolt of 
 Maternus 42 
 
 Tiie minister Cl-ander. His avarice 
 and cruelty. Sedition and death of 
 Cleander. Dissolute pleasures of 
 (^ommodus 43 
 
 His ignorance and low sports. Hunt- 
 ing «tf wild beasts. Commodus dis- 
 pljiys his skill in the nmihitheatre. 
 Acts as a gladiator. His infamy and 
 extravagance 44 
 
 Const'irac.. of his domestics. Death 
 of Com odus. Choice of Pcrtinar 
 for emperor. He is acknowledged by 
 the praeiorian guards. And by the 
 senate. The memory of Commodus 
 declared infamous 45 
 
 Lfgal jurisdiciion of the sena-e over 
 the eniperors. Virtues of Pert inax. 
 He endinvours to reform the state. 
 His regulations. His poi>ularity 46 
 
 Discontent ot the praetorians. A con- 
 spiracy prevented. Murder of Per- 
 tinax by the praetorians 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 186 
 
 189 
 
 192 
 
 193 
 
 193 
 
 193 
 
 Public sale of the empire to Didius JuKanus hy 
 tAe prwtorian guards. — Ctodius Albinus in 
 Untatn.resrennius Niger, in Syria, and So)- 
 ttmius Sererus, in Pannonia, dectmre againgt 
 the murderers of Pertinax.— Civil wars and 
 victory of Sever us over his three rivals.—Re- 
 laxation of discipline— New maxims ofgwem- 
 menu 
 
 Proportion of the miltary force to the 
 numberof the people. The institu- 
 tion of the praetorian guards. Their 
 camp, strength, and confidence 47 
 
 I heir specious claims. They offer the 
 empire to sale. It is purchased by 
 Julian. Julian is acknowledged by 
 the senate. Takes possession of the 
 palace 46 
 
 The riubiic discontent. The armies 
 of Britain. Syria, and Pannonia. de- 
 clare against Julian. Clodius Albi- 
 nus in Britain. Pescennius Niger 
 in Syria 49 
 
 Pannonia and Dalmatia, Septimius 
 geverus. De'^lared emneror by the 
 rannonian legions. Marches into 
 Italy. Advances towards Rome. 
 Distress of Julian. His uncertain 
 conduct 50 
 
 Is deserted by the praetorians. Is'on- 
 dcmned and executed by order of the 
 senate. Disgrace of the pralorian 
 guards. Funeral and apotheosis of 
 193—197. .Pertinax. Success of Soverus 
 against Niger and against Albinus. 
 Conduct of the two civil wars. Arts 
 of Severns. Towards Niger 51 
 
 TowardsAlbinus. Event of the civil 
 wars. Decided by one or two battles. 
 
 193 
 
 A. D. PaflB 
 
 prosperity. Relaxation of military 
 discipline 59 
 
 New establishnient of the praetorian 
 fuards. The oince of pretorian prae- 
 |ect. The senate^pppreesed by mil- 
 itary despotism. New maxims of the 
 imperial prerogative. 
 
 54 
 
 CHAPTER Vf. 
 
 206 
 211 
 
 212 
 213 
 
 217 
 
 218 
 
 55 
 
 56 
 57 
 
 58 
 
 59 
 
 60 
 61 
 
 The death KifSeterus.— Tyranny of Oaracalla.— 
 ysurpatton cf Macrinus.— Follies ef Elagaba- 
 Uis.— Virtues of Alexander Severus.—Licen- 
 ttpusness of the army.— General state of the 
 Jioman finances. 
 
 Great' ess and discontent of Soverus. 
 His wite the empress Julia. Their 
 two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Their 
 mutual aversion to each other 
 Three emperors., TJie Caledonian 
 war. Fiiigal and his heroes 
 Contrast of the Caledonians , nd Ro- 
 mans. Ambition MCnracalla. Death 
 ot Severus, and accession of his two 
 sons. Jealt u«yand hatred of the two 
 emperors. Fruitle-s ik gociaiion for 
 dividing th^ empire between them. 
 Murder of Geta 
 Remorse at'd cruelty of Caracalla. 
 
 Death of Papinian 
 His tyranny extended over the whole 
 empire. RelaxaMoii of discipline. 
 Murder of CarHcalla 
 Imitaiionof All XHi der. E'erti n and 
 charact r of Maerinus. Discontent 
 of the <^enate. Oisronient of ihe ar- 
 my. Macrinus attempts a reforma- 
 tion of the army 
 Death of the empre.^s Julia. Educa- 
 tion, pretensitii s and revol' of Ela- 
 gabnliis. called a first Bassianus 
 and Antoiiinus. Deti at ai'd death 
 of Maeri us. Elagabalus writes to 
 ihe ^pnate 
 219 Picture f>f Elagnhahis. His Pipersti- 
 tioii. His pr«ifligai« and elTeniinaie 
 luxury 
 Contempt of decency, which di.'^tin- 
 guislied the Roman tyrants. Dis 
 contents of the army. Alexander 
 Severus declared Ca-sar. S diiion 
 of the guiirds, and murder of K aga- 
 balus. .Accession <tf Alexander Seve- 
 rus. Power of his mother Mnma-a 
 His wis^ and moderate administra- 
 tion. Education and virtuous tem- 
 ^^ p^r ot Alexsnder Joun al of hia 
 222—235 ordinary life. General happiness 
 of the Roman world 
 Alexander refuses the name of Anto- 
 ninus. He attempts to refortn the 
 an- y. Seditions of the jiraetorian 
 guards, and murder of Uipian. Dan- 
 ger of Dion Cassius. Tumults of the 
 legions 
 Firmness of the emperor. Defects of 
 his reign and character. Digressifjn 
 on the finances of the empire. Es- 
 tablishment of the tribute on Roman 
 citizens 
 Abolition of the tribute. Tributes of 
 the province.o. Of Asia, Egypt, and 
 Gaul. OfAf icaandSpaif. Of the 
 isle of Gyarus. Amount of 1 he reve- 
 nue. Taxes on Rom .n citizens in- 
 • ^.tlJ^uted by Augustus 
 1. The customs. II. The excise. IIL 
 Pax o'l legacies and inberitances. 
 csuited to the laws and manners 
 Regulations of the emperors. Edict 
 of Caracalla. The freedom of the 
 city given to all the provincials for 
 the purpose of taxation. Temt ora- 
 ry reduction of the tribute. Conse- 
 uencesof the universal freedom of 
 ime 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 221 
 
 222 
 
 cue 
 Itoi 
 
 62 
 C3 
 
 64 
 65 
 
 06 
 67 
 
 G8 
 
 Sipee of Byzantium 
 Death of Niger and Albinus. Cruel 
 conspquencegof the civil wars. An- 
 imosity of Severus against the sen- 
 ate. The wisdom and justice of his 
 govcrument. General peace and 
 
 52 
 
 
 7 :? -) c; 
 
 7%e elevattm and tyranny of Maximin .— Rebrl. 
 Iton tn .Africa and Italy, under the autliority 
 of the senate.-— Civil wars and seditions.— Fio- 
 lent deaths of Maximin and his smt, of Maxi- 
 mum and Balbinus, and of the three Gordians. 
 — Usurpation and secular gam es of Philip. 
 
 The apparent ridicule and solid ad- 
 vantages, of h reditary succession. 
 Want of it in the Roman emtiire pro- 
 ductive of the greatest calamities. 
 -__ Bi.rth and lortunesof Maximin. His 
 235 military service and honour. Con- 
 
 spuacy of Maximin €8 
 
 Vil 
 
Vlll 
 
 A D Pagd 
 
 Murder of Alexander Soverus. Ty- 
 ranny of Maximin. Oppression of 
 Ihe provinces ^. _ , 
 
 237 Revolt in Africa. Character and ele- 
 vation of the two Gordiana. Ihey 
 iiolicit the confirmation of their au- 
 thority. The senate ratifies the 
 electionof the Gordiana 
 
 Declares Maximin a puhlic enemy. 
 Assumes ilie command of Rome and 
 Italy. Prepares for a civil war. 
 2.17 J>jleat and death of the two Gor- 
 diana. Election ot Maximus and 
 Balhinu^i by the senate 
 
 Thoir characters. Tumult at Rome. 
 The younger Gordian is declared 
 Csesar. Maximin prepares to attaciv 
 the senate, and their emperors 
 ;238 Marches into Ital.. Siege of.Aqui 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 72 
 
 '^ 
 
 238 
 
 238 
 
 leia. Conduct of Maximus. Murder 
 of Maximin and his son. His por- 
 trait. Joy of the Roman world 
 Sedition at Rome. Discontent of the 
 prffitorian guards. Mas*'acre ot 
 Maxiinus and IJalbinus. The third 
 Gordian remains sole empfror 
 Innocence and virtues of Gordinn. 
 240,242 Administration of Misitheus. The 
 
 243 Persian war. The arts ol Philij». 
 
 244 Murder of Gordian. Form ot a mil- 
 itary republic 
 
 248 Reign of Philip. Secular games. De- 
 cline of the Roman empire 
 
 74 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 doned and slain. Valerian reven- 
 ges the death of Gallus, and is ac- 
 knowledged emperor 
 253—268 Character ot Valerian. General 
 misfortunes of the reigns of Valerian 
 andGailit'nus. 1 n y > n 7 I a n 1 1 li g ba r t) a - 
 Origin and coTnCTeracyoTTne 
 
 d'i 
 
 76 
 
 it 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the state of Persia after the restoration of the 
 monarchu bu Artaieries. 
 
 The barbarians of the cast and of the 
 
 north. Revolutions of Asia 
 The Persian monarchy restored by Ar- 
 taxerxos. Reformation of the Ma- 
 gian religion . 
 
 Persian theology, two principles. Re- 
 ligious worship 
 Ceremonies and moral precepts, hn- 
 courag»'ment of agriculture. Power 
 of thf !M:igi. ?>)irit of persecution 
 Establishmriit ot ih*' royal authority 
 ill the provinces. Extent and popu; 
 lalion of IVr.sia. Recapitulation of 
 the war between the Parthian and 
 Ifi5 Roman empires. Cities of Scleucia 
 
 and Ctesit'tion 
 2!r» Conquest ot Osrhoene by the Romans. 
 2;i0 Artaxurxcs claims the provinces ol 
 Asia, and declares war against the 
 233 Romans. Pretenf!i;d victory of Alex- 
 ander Severus 
 M"re probable account of the war. 
 240 Charncfer and maxims of Artaxerx- 
 es. Military i)Ower of the Persians. 
 Their infantry contemptible. Thwir 
 cavalry excellent 
 
 i 4 
 
 78 
 79 
 
 80 
 
 81 
 
 QO 
 
 83 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The folate of Germnnv tifl the invasion of the 
 barbarians, in the time of the emperor Dccius. 
 
 Extent of German y 84 
 
 Climate, Its efTfcts on the natives. 
 Origin of the Germans co 
 
 Fables and conjectures. The Germans 
 ignorant of letters— of arts and agri- 
 rulture- of the use of metals 80 
 
 Their indolence. Their taste for strong 
 liquors. State of (Hipulation 67 
 
 German freedom. Assemblies of the 
 pt!ople. Authority of the princs 
 and magistrates. More absolute 
 over the proi^rty, than over the 
 lK>rsons, of the Germans 88 
 
 Voluntary eiigngfinents. German 
 cliastity. Its probable causes 81) 
 
 Religion. Its eff-rts in i>eace. Its ef- 
 fects in war. The biirds. Causes 
 which checked the progress of the 
 Germans 90 
 
 Want of arms. Want of discipline, 
 ('ivil dissensions of Germany. Fo- 
 mented by the policy of Koine 91 
 
 Transient union against ^Marcus .\n- 
 toiiiiius. Distinction of the Goriuun 
 tribes. Numbers 92 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The emperors Derius, Oallns, JEmilinnus, Va- 
 lerian, and Gnllienu!!.— 'Phejf^iiXTal irruption 
 at (^ e b arba r^ms.— The tliWly tyranXf:-'^'^ 
 
 248-2f.8 The nature of the subject. The 
 
 249 emperor Philip. Servire.s, revolt, 
 victory, and reign of the emperor 
 Decius 
 
 250 He marches against the Goth'. Ori- 
 
 gin of the Goths from Scandinavia. 
 Religion of th*^ Goths. Institutions 
 and death of Odin 
 
 Agreeable but uncertain livpotliesis 
 roncerning Odin. Emigration of the 
 Goth« from Scandinavia into Prus- 
 H'a. Emigration from l*riissia to tJie 
 Ukraine. 7'he Gotiiic nation increa- 
 ses in its march 
 
 Distinction of the Germans BTid Sar- 
 mntians. Description of the Uk- 
 raine. The Goths invade the Ro- 
 
 250 man provinces. Various events of 
 the Got hie war 
 
 251 Decius revives »he office of censor in 
 
 the persf>n of Valerian. The d'-sign 
 impraciicnhle, and without effect. 
 Defeat and death of IX'cius and his 
 
 92 
 
 93 
 
 94 
 
 95 
 
 Fon 
 251,25'-^ Election of Gallus. Retreat of 
 
 th" Goths. Gallus purchases t>eace 
 
 hv the payment of an annual tribute. 
 253 Popular discontent. Vicorv and 
 
 rovoit of iEiniUanus. GuUus aban- 
 
 96 
 
 2C0 
 
 , iKin and aJTiTPTrefacy 
 
 .ranks. '1 hey invade Gaul 
 
 They ravage Spain, and pass over in- 
 to Africa. Origin and renown of the 
 Suevi. A mixed bo<ly of Suevi as- 
 sume the name of Alemanni. Invade 
 Gaul and Italy. Are repulsed tmm 
 Rome by the senate and people. The 
 senators excluded by Gallienus Irom 
 the military service 
 
 Gallienus contracts an alliance with 
 the Alemanni. Inriiy ( |a nf ^fafiGoibs- 
 Conquest of ihe Dosphorus by ihe 
 Goths. The Goths acquire a navul 
 force. First naval expedition of the 
 Goths. The Goths besiege and take 
 Trebiznnd ^ , 
 
 The Hecond expedition of the Goths. 
 They plunder the cities of Bithynia. 
 Retreat of the Goths. Third naval 
 expedition of the Goths. They pass 
 tlie Bosphorusand the Hellespont 
 
 Ravage Greece, and threaten Da'y- 
 Their divi-^ions and retreat. Ruin 
 of the temple of Eohesus. Conduct 
 of the Goliis at Athens 
 
 Conquest of Armenia by the Persians. 
 Valerian marches into the east. Is 
 deteated and taken prisoner by Sapor 
 king of Persia. Sai>or overruns Sy- 
 ria. Cilicia. and Cappadocia. liold- 
 ness and success of Odcnathua 
 against Sapor 
 
 Treatment of Valerian. Character and 
 administration of Gallienus. Ihe 
 thirty tyrants. Their real number 
 was no more than nineteen 
 
 Character and merit of the tyrants. 
 Their obscure birth. The causes ot 
 their rebellion. Their violent deaths. 
 Fatal consequences of these usurpa- 
 tions 
 
 Disorders of Sicily. Tumults of Alex- 
 andria. Rebellion of the Isauriaiis. 
 Famine and pestilence 
 
 Diminution of the human species 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 98 
 
 99 
 
 100 
 
 101 
 
 102 
 
 A. D. Pa** 
 
 He carries his arms into Germany. He 
 
 builds a wall from the Rhine to the 
 
 Danube. Introduction and ■eltle- 
 
 ment of the barbarians iJH 
 
 270 Daring enterprise of the r ranks. Re- 
 
 2H) volt of Sutu minus in the east.— Of 
 
 281 Bonosusand Proculus in Gaul. Tri- 
 umph of the emperor Probus. His 
 discipline . . _ 1*3 
 
 282 His death. Election and character of 
 
 Cams. The sentiments of the senate 
 and people. Carus defeats the Sar- 
 matians.and marches into the east 124 
 
 283 He gives audience to the Persian am- 
 
 bas.sudors. His victories and extra- 
 
 283 ordinary death. He is succeeded by 
 his two sons, Carinus and Nume- 
 
 284 rian. Vices of Carinus 125 
 He celebrates the Roman games. 
 
 Spectacles of Rome. The ampbi- 
 theatre Iw 
 
 Return of Numerian with the army 
 from Persia. Death of Numerian. 
 
 2F4 Election of the emperor Diocletian J5 
 
 2b5 Defeat and death of Cariuua 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The rei^n of Diocletian and his thrte'associates, 
 JMoTimian. Galcrius, and Con sta n tins. —Oen- 
 eral re-establishment of order and tranquillity. 
 — The Persian var, rictory, and trivmpk.— 
 The new form of administration .—.Abdication 
 and retirement of Diocletian and Maximtan. 
 
 103 
 
 104 
 
 105 
 
 106 
 107 
 
 Reign of Clavdius.—__ 
 tories, triumph, an 
 
 atqfthe Ooth.i.— Fic- 
 efcat of Jiurelian. 
 
 268 Aureolus invades 
 and besieged at 
 
 Italy, is defeated 
 
 _, Milan. Death. ot 
 
 Gallienus. Character and elevation 
 
 of the emp€n)r Claudius 10< 
 
 268 Death of Aureolus. Clemency and 
 
 justice of Claudius. He undertakes 
 
 269 the reformation of the army. The 
 Goths invade the empire 108 
 
 Distress and firmness of Claudius. 
 
 270 His victory over the Goths. IKmth 
 of the emperor, who recommends 
 Aurelian for his successor. The at- 
 tempt and fallofCluiiitilius 109 
 
 Origin and services of Aurelian. Au- 
 p'lian's successful reign. His severe 
 discipline. He concludes a treaty 
 with the Goths. He resigns to them 
 the province of Dacio 110 
 
 270 The Alemannic war. The Alemanni 
 
 inva«Ie Italy. They are at last van- 
 quished by Aurelian 111 
 
 271 Superstitious ceremonies. Fortifica- 
 
 tions of Rome. Aurelian suppresses 
 the two usurpers. Succession of 
 
 271 usur^>ers iiiGaul. The reign and de- 
 feat of Tetricus 112 
 
 272 Character of Zenobia. Her beauty 
 
 and learning. Her valour. She re- 
 venges her husband's death. Sho 
 reigns over the east and Egypt 1 13 
 
 272 The expedition of Aurelian. The 
 
 pmperor defeats the Palmvrenians 
 in the battles of Antioch and Kmesa. 
 The state of Palmyra. It is besieged 
 by Aurelian 114 
 
 273 Aujellhn become* master of Zenobia 
 
 rfnd of the city. Behaviour of Zeno- 
 bia. Rebellion and ruin of Palmyra. 
 Aurelian 8iii»presses the rebellion of 
 
 274 Firmus in Egypt. Triumph of Au- 
 relian 115 
 
 His treatment of Tetricus and Zeno- 
 bia. His magnificence and devotion. 
 He suppresses a sedition at RomQ, 
 Observations upon it 116 
 
 275 Cruelty of Aurelian. He marches in- 
 
 to the cast and is assassinated 117 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Conduft afthe armv and senate after the death of 
 J9urelian.— Reigns oj' Tacitus, Probus, Carus, 
 and his sons. 
 
 Extraordinary contest between the 
 army and the senate for the choice 
 ot an emp<*ror 117 
 
 275 A peaceful interregnum of eight 
 
 months. The consul assembles the 
 senate. Character of Tacitus 118 
 
 He i< elected emri«>ror. He accepts 
 the purple. Authority of the senate. 
 27C Their joy and confidence. Tacitus 
 is acknowledged by the army. The 
 AInni invade Asia, and are repulsed 
 by Tacitus 119 
 
 276 Death of the emperor Tacitus. U«nT- 
 
 pation and death of his brother Flo- 
 rianns. Their family subsists in ob- 
 scurity. Character and elevation of 
 the emperor Probus. His resi)ectful 
 conduct towards the senate 120 
 
 Victories of Probus over the barba- 
 
 277 rians. He delivers Gaul from the in- 
 vasion of the Germans 121 
 
 285 Elevation and character of Diocletian. 
 
 His clemency and victory 
 
 286 Association and character of Maxi- 
 292 mian. AssfH-ialion of two Ca-sars, 
 
 Galerius and Constantius. Depart- 
 ments and harmony of the four Prin- 
 
 287 CCS. St;ries of events. State of the 
 peasants of Gaul 
 
 287 Their rebellion and chastisement. Re- 
 volt of Carausius in Britain. Im- 
 
 289 porlance of Britain. Power of Ca- 
 rausius 
 
 985) Acknowledged by the other emperors. 
 
 294 His death. Recovery of Britain by 
 ("onstantius. Defence ot the fron- 
 tiers. Fortifications. Dui&nsionsof 
 the barbarians. Conduct of the em- 
 perors 
 Valour of the Ca>?ar9. Treatment of 
 the barbarians. Wars of Africa and 
 
 296 Egypt. Conduct of Diocletian in 
 Egypt 
 He suppref^ses books of alchymy. TSp- 
 velt>; and progress of that art. The 
 
 282 Persian war. Tiridates the Arme- 
 
 286 nian. His restoration to the throne 
 of Armenia. Stale of the country. 
 Revolt of the people and nobles. 
 Story of Manigo 
 
 296 The Persians recover Armenia. War 
 between the Persians and the Ro- 
 mans. Defeat of Galerius. His re- 
 
 207 ception by Diocletian. Second cam- 
 paign of Galerius 
 His victory. His behaviour to his roy- 
 nl captives. \ego<:iation for peace. 
 Speech of the Persian ambassador. 
 Answer of Galerius. Moderation 
 of Diocletian. Conclusion of a trea- 
 ty of teace 
 Articles of the treaty. The Aboras 
 fixed as the limits between the em- 
 pires. Cession of five provinces be- 
 vond the Tigris. Armenia. Iberia. 
 
 303 Triumph of Diocletian and Mazi- 
 mian 
 
 Long absence of the emperors from 
 Rome. Their residence at Milan. 
 At Nicomedia. Debasement of 
 Rome and of the senate. New bo- 
 dies of guards, Jovians and Hercu- 
 lear.8 
 
 Civil magistracies laid aside. Impe- 
 rial dignity and titles. Diocletian 
 assumes the diadem, and introduces 
 the Persian ceremonial 
 
 New form of admini-^tration, two Ao- 
 giisti. and two (Vsars. Increase 
 of taxes. Abdication of Diocletian 
 and Maximian. Resemblance to 
 
 304 Charles the fifth. Long illness of 
 Diocletian 
 
 His prudence. Compliance of Max- 
 imian. Retirement of Diocletian at 
 313 Salona. His philosophy. Hisdeath. 
 De cription of Salona and the adja- 
 cent country 
 
 Of DiocUftian's palaco. Decline of 
 t he arts— of letters. The new Plato- 
 nists 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 128 
 
 129 
 130 
 
 131 
 132 
 
 133 
 134 
 
 135 
 
 136 
 
 137 
 138 
 
 139 
 
 140 
 141 
 
 Trmihles after the abdication of Diocletian .— 
 Death of Ctmstavtius.— Elevation of Constan- 
 tine and .Mfirentius.—Sir emperors at the same 
 time.— Death of Marimian and Galerius. — 
 Victories of Constantine over Marentins and 
 J.icinivs —Reunion of the empire under the au- 
 thority of Constantine. 
 
 305—323 Period of civil w ars and confu- 
 sion. CharacTer HilU situation of 
 Consfantius— of Galerius. The two 
 Caesars, S»'verHs and Maximin 142 
 
 Ambition of Galerius disapi>ointed by 
 
 974 two revolutions. Birth, education, 
 
 306 and escape of Constantine. Death of 
 Constantius, and elevation of Con- 
 stantine 143 
 He is acknowledged by Galerius, who 
 gives him only the title of Cjpsar, and 
 that of Augustus to Severus. The 
 b'Otbersand sisters of Constantine. 
 Di content of the Romans at the ap- 
 nrenension of taxes 144 
 
 306 Ma rent us declared emperor of Rome. 
 Maximian re-assumes the parple. 
 
 307' Defeat and death of Severus. Max- "*^ 
 imin gives his daughter Fausta, and 
 the title of Augustus, to Constan- 
 tine. Galerius invades I aly 145 
 
 307 His reirea,. Elevation of Licinius to 
 
 308 the rank of Augustus. Eleva'ion of 
 Maximin Sx emperors. Mislbr- 
 tuiifs ot Maximin 146 
 
 310, 311 His death. Death of Galerius. 
 His dominion shared between Max- 
 imin and Licinius 147 
 I 306—312 Adnimistration of Constantine in 
 „,_ Gaul. 1 yraniiy of Maxentius in U- 
 313 aly and Africa. C'vil war between 
 
 Constantine and Maxentius 148 
 
 Preparations. Con-tantine passes the 
 
 Alps. Battle ot Turin 149 
 
 Siege and batilp of Verona. Indolence 
 and lears of Maxent ius 150 
 
 312 Victory of Const ntiiie ne r Rome. 
 
 «.o F.?*".';^'^''P''""- His conduct at Rome 151 
 
 313 Misalliance with Licinius. War be 
 
 tween Miximin and Licinius. The 
 defeat ot Maximin. Hisdeath. Cru- 
 elty of Licinius. Unfortunate fate 
 of the empress Valeria and her mo- 
 uther ]52 
 
 314 Quarrel between Constantine and Li- 
 314 cinius. First civil war betwei:n 
 
 ^ih^"* 153 
 
 o.e ^.^'S,"*" Cibalis. Battle of Mardia. 
 313— j2j I reaty ot peace. General peace 
 1T.1 ^^nlJ^w^ofConstantino 154 
 
 3-22,323 TneG thic war 155 
 
 Secoii . civ il war between Constan- 
 llllU &hd Licinius, Battle of Hadrl- 
 32J anonle. Siege of Byzantium, and na- 
 val victory of Crispus 156 
 Battle of Clir>'sopolis. Submission and 
 324 death of Licinius. Re-union of the 
 
 empire — • 157 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The progress of the christian religion, and the 
 sentiments, manners, numbers, and condition 
 of the primilite christians. 
 
 Importance of the inquiry. Its diffi- 
 culties 
 Fivefipu'cs of the grow th orxbtl-*- 
 
 ■ tM!uV. I. 1 ail f IKS T iiAuaa. 7eal 
 oTtne Jews 
 
 Its gradual increase. Their religion 
 better suited to defence than con- 
 quest 
 
 More liberal zeal of Christianity. Ob- 
 stinacy and reasons of the believing 
 Jews. Too Nazarine ciiurchof Je- 
 rusalem 
 
 The.Ebioniies. The Gnostics 
 
 Their sects, progress, and influence, 
 rhtj daemons considered as the gods 
 of antiquity 
 
 Abhorreitce of the christians for idol- 
 atry. C remonies. Arts. Festivalc. 
 Zeal for Christianity 
 
 II. The SECOND CAUSE. The doctrine 
 of the immortality of the soul among 
 the philosophers. Among the pa- 
 gans of Greece and Rome. Aniung 
 the barbarians and the Jews 
 
 Among the christians. Approaching 
 end of the world. Doctrine of the 
 millennium 
 
 Coiiflagra<'on of Rome and of the 
 world. Th • pagans devoted to eter- 
 nal punishment 
 
 Were often ctiverted by their f.-ars. 
 ill. The third cause. Miracu- 
 lous powers oI the primitive church. 
 Tiifir truth contested. Our per- 
 plexity in defining tiie miraculous 
 period 
 
 Use of the primitive miracles, LV. 
 The FOURTH cause, Vinuesofthe 
 first chriMiaMs. Etfe •. s of their re- 
 P ntance. Care ol their reputation 
 
 Morality of the lathers. Principlesof 
 human nai ure. The primitive chris- 
 tians condemn pleasure and luxury 
 
 Their sentiments concerning marriage 
 and chastity. Tht-ir aversion 10 the 
 
 -biMiiiessot war a^id government 
 
 V. The FiKTH CAUSE. The christians 
 active 111 th govt-rnment of the 
 church. Its primitive freedom a:id 
 equality. Insiituiions of bishops as 
 presiden.s of the college of presby- 
 ters 
 
 Provincial councils. Union of the 
 church. Progress of episcopal au- 
 thority 
 
 Pre-eminence of the metropolitan 
 churches. Ambition of the Roman 
 RontiflT. Laity and clergy. Obla- 
 tions and revenue of the church 
 
 Distribution of Ihe revenue 
 
 Lxcominonication, Public penance, 
 ihe dignity of episcopal govern- 
 ment 
 
 R<'capitulation of the five causes. 
 Weakness of polytheism, Ttiesceu- 
 ticism of the pagan world proved fa- 
 vourable to the new religion. And 
 to the peace and union of the Roman 
 empire 
 
 Ilistoricai view of the progress of 
 christianitv. In the east. The 
 church of Antioch. In Egypt 
 
 Jn Kome. In Africa and the western 
 provinces 
 
 Bcjrond the limits of the Roman em- 
 pire. General protiortion of chris- 
 tians and pagans. Whether the first 
 christians w re mean and ignorant, 
 pome exceptions with regard to 
 •earning 
 
 To rank and fortune. Christianity 
 most favourably received by the 
 pocjjr and simple. Rejected by some 
 eminent men of the first and second 
 ceatuncs. Their neglect of prophe- 
 
 157 
 158 
 
 159 
 
 KiO 
 161 
 
 162 
 163 
 
 164 
 165 
 166 
 
 167 
 
 168 
 169 
 170 
 
 171 
 172 
 
 173 
 174 
 
 175 
 
 176 
 
 177 
 
 178 
 
 179 
 
 cy 
 
 Vol. I.— 2 
 
 180 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A, D. Page 
 
 Of miracles, Greneral silence concern- 
 ing the darkness of the passion 181 
 
 257 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The conduct of the Roman government towards 
 the chrt-'tians, from the reign of Jfero to that 
 oJ Constantine. 
 
 Clirisiiuniiy persecuted by the Roman 
 emf)eror8 
 
 Inquiry into their motives. Rebellious 
 spirit of the Jews. Toleration of 
 the Jewish religion. The Jews were 
 a people which followed, the chris- 
 tians a sect which deserted, the re- 
 ligion of the;r fathers 
 
 Christianity accused of atheism, aiid 
 mistalien by the (leople and philoso- 
 phers. The union and assemblies of 
 the christians considered as a dan- 
 gerous conspiracy 
 
 Their mannrrs calumniated. Their 
 imprudent defence 
 
 Idea of the conduct • f the emperors 
 towards the ciiristians. They ne- 
 
 Slected the christians as a sect of 
 ews. The fire of Rome under the 
 reign . f Nero 
 Cruel punish ■ ent of the christians as 
 the incendiaries of the city. Re- 
 marks on the pa.«sage of Taciius rel- 
 ative to the persecution of the chris- 
 tians by Nero. 
 Oppression of the Jews and christians 
 
 by Domitian 
 Execution of Clemens the consul. Ig- 
 norance of Pliny concerning the 
 christians. Trajan and his succes- 
 sors establish a legal mode of pro- 
 ceeding against tbf m 
 Popular clamours. Trials of the chris- 
 tians 
 Humanity of the Roman magistrates. 
 
 Inconsiderable number of mart vrs 
 Example of Cvprian. bish' p of'Car- 
 tha^e. His dang.r and flight. His 
 banishment. His condemnation 
 His martyrdom. Various incitements 
 to martyrdom. Ardour of the first 
 christians 
 Gradual relaxation. Three methods 
 
 of escaping martyrdom 
 Alternatives of severity and toleration. 
 The ten persecutions. Supposed 
 edicts of Tib rius and Marcus An- 
 180 toninus. State of the christians in 
 the reigns of Commodus and Seve- 
 rus 
 211— 24!l Of the successors of Severus. 
 244 or Maximin, Philip, and Decius 
 253—260 Of Valerian, Gallienus, and his 
 successors. Paul of Samusata, his 
 270 manners. He is degraded from the 
 see of Antioch 
 The sentence is executed by Aurelian, 
 284—303, Peace and pro.«perity of the 
 church under Diocletian. Progress 
 of zeal and super.stition among the 
 pagans 
 Maximian and Galerius punish a few 
 christian soldiers. Galerius prevails 
 on Diocletian to begin a general per- 
 secu ion 
 303 Demolition of the church of Nicome- 
 dia. The first edict against the 
 christians. Zeal and punishment of 
 achri<:tian 
 Fire <if the palace of Nicomedia impu- 
 ted to the c'lristians. Execution of 
 the first "edict. Demolition of the 
 churches 
 303—311 Subsequent edicts. General idea 
 of the persecution. In the western 
 provinces, under Constantius and 
 Constantine. In Italy and Africa, 
 under Maximian a d Severus 
 And under Maxentius. In Jllvricum 
 and the east, under Galerius and 
 Maximin. Galerius publishes an 
 edict of toleration 
 Peace of the church. Maximin pre- 
 pares to renew the j)ers"cution. End 
 of the persecutions. Probable ac- 
 count of the sufferings of the mar- 
 tyrs and confessors. 
 Number of martyrs 
 Conclusion 
 
 311 
 
 313 
 
 181 
 
 182 
 
 183 
 184 
 
 185 
 
 186 
 187 
 
 188 
 169 
 190 
 
 191 
 
 192 
 193 
 
 194 
 195 
 
 196 
 
 197 
 198 
 199 
 200 
 
 201 
 202 
 
 203 
 204 
 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 f^favf in ople.— Political svstem 
 ojt Cqn.'tanJive, afllt tlls f accesses. —JMilitarj/ 
 Discipline.— The palace.— The finances. 
 
 324 Design of a n^^w capital 205 
 
 Situation of Bvzantiuni. Description 
 of Co.nstantinopLe. The Bospho- 
 rus 200 
 
 The port of Constantinople. The Pro- 
 p«intis. The Hellespont 207 
 
 Advantages of Constantinople. Foun- 
 dation of the city. Its extent 208 
 
 Progress of the work. Edifices 20!' 
 
 ?WornT| Population. Privileges 210 
 
 300—500 Dedication. Form of government 
 in the Roman e.-npire. Hierarcuy of 
 the state 211 
 
 Three ranks of honour. Four divisions 
 of office, f . TTie consuls 212 
 
 The patricians. II, The prsetorian 
 prtef^ cts 213 
 
 The pra'fects of Rome and Constanti- 
 nople 214 I 
 
 Tho proconsuls, vice -prefects. Sec. 
 The governors of the provinces 215 
 
 The profession of the law. 111. The 
 military officers 216 
 
 Distinction of the troops. Reduction 
 of the legions 217 
 
 Difficulty of levies, increase of bar- 
 barian auxiliaries, IV, Seven min- 
 isters of the palace 218 
 
 1. The chamberlain. 2. The master 
 
 A. D 
 
 IX 
 
 Pago 
 219 
 
 220 
 
 221 
 
 222 
 223 
 224 
 
 of the offices. 3. The quasstor. 4. 
 
 J lie public treasurer 
 5. The private treasurer. 6, 7. The 
 
 cmintsof the domestics. Agents, or 
 
 nfticial spies, Useof torture 
 Finano'8. Tne general tribute, or in- 
 
 diction 
 Assessed in the form of a capitation 
 Capnation on trade and industry 
 Free gilts. Conclusion 
 
 CHAPTER XVllI. 
 
 Character of Constantine.— Q0MuMar.— Death 
 of Constant ine.— Division of the empire alltmg 
 lixs fh I vy "sons.— Persian inar.— '^IVagic death 
 of Constantine the lounger, and Constans.— 
 Usurpation of Magnentius.-Caj^jair.-ViC' 
 tory oJ Constantius. '^ 
 
 Character of Constantine 234 
 
 His virtues. His vices. His fami- 
 ly 225 
 324 Virtues of Crispus, Jealousy of Con- 
 .^o stantine. Edict ot Constantine. 
 326 Disgrace and death of Crispus 226 
 The empress Fausta 227 
 THp sons and nephews of Constantine. 
 Their education. Manners of the 
 Sarmatians 228 
 ^„, Ttit'ir settlement rear the Danube. 
 3,?1 The Gothic war 229 
 .W Expulsion of the Sarmatians, Dath 
 337 and funeral of Constaniioe, Fac- 
 „»-»i'>ns of the court 236 
 •53/ .Massacre of ihe princes. Division 
 JIO of the empire. Sapcr, king of Per- 
 sia 231 
 Srate of Mesopotamia and Armenia. 
 342, :5:?T-3(iO D. ath of Tiridates. The 
 
 P. rsianwar. Battle of Singara 2.32 
 
 ;WS. 34ti, :{oO Siege of Nisii.is 233 
 
 .]40 Civil war, and death of Constantine. 
 
 350 Murder of Constans. Magnentius 
 
 and Vetranio assume the purp e 234 
 
 Constantius icfuses to treat. Deposes 
 Vetranio 235 
 
 351 Mak. s war against Magnentius. Bat- 
 
 tle of Mur.- a 336 
 
 352,353 Conquest of Italy. Last defeat 
 
 and death of Magnentius 237 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Constantius ."olc ewperer.— Elevation and death 
 of Gallus.— Danger and elevation of Julian.— 
 Snrviatiuv and Persiu» tears.- Victories of 
 Julian in Gaul, "•*""^-«» 
 
 351 Power of the eunuchs. Education of 
 
 Gallus and Julian 238 
 
 Gallus declared Cuesar. Cruelty and, 
 
 354 imprudence of Gallus. Massacre of 
 
 the imi>erial ministers 239 
 
 Dangerous situation of Gallus. His 
 disgraceand death, Thedangerand 
 escape of Julian 240 
 
 355 He is sent to Athens, Recalled to Mi- 
 
 lan 241 
 
 Declared Ca-sar. Fatal end of Sylva- 
 
 357 nos. Constantius vi-s-its Rome 242 
 357,358.359 A new obelisk. The Qua- 
 
 dian and Sarmatian war 243 
 
 358 The P rsian nepociatioii 244 
 
 359 Invasion of Mesopotamia by Sapor. 
 
 Sii ge of Amida 245 
 
 3G0 Siege of Si gara. Conduct of the Ro- 
 mans. Invasion ofGuul by the Ger- 
 mans 246 
 
 356 Conduct of Julian. His first campaign 
 
 in Gaul 247 
 
 357 His second campaign. Battle of Stras- 
 
 burg 248 
 
 ^.58 Julian subdues the Franks. Makes 
 357, 35?. r(59 three expeditions beyond the 
 
 Rhine 249 
 
 Restores the cities of Gaul 250 
 
 Civil administration of Julian. De- 
 scription of Paris 251 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The motives, progress, and effects of the conrer- 
 
 Sion of rtmsfnntinp —Jf,g(l' eslt^^ly^limeiif of 
 
 the christian or catholic chvrcn. 
 
 306—337 Date of the conversion of Con- 
 stantine 
 ."^OTi— 312 His pagnn surerstifion. He pro- 
 313 lects the christians of Gaul. Edict 
 ofJVIilan 
 Use and beauty of the christian moral- 
 ity. .Theory and practice of passive 
 obedienc.i' 
 324 Divine right of Constantine. General 
 edict of toleration. Loyalty and zeal 
 of th' christian party 
 E.xp'''tation and fielief of a min'cle. 
 I. The Labprum, or standard of the 
 cross. II. The dream of Constan- 
 tine 
 T! I. Appearance of a cross in the sky 
 The conversion of Constantine might 
 
 be sincere 
 The fourth eclogue of Virgil. Devo- 
 Uon and privileges of Constantine. 
 Delay of his baptism till the ap- 
 proach of death. Propagation of 
 Christianity 
 312—4^ Change of the national religion. 
 Distinction of the spiritual and tem- 
 poral powers 
 State of the bishops under the chris- 
 tian emperors, L Election of bish- 
 ops 
 11. Ordination of the clergy. Ill, Pro- 
 
 251 
 ore* 
 
 253 
 254 
 
 256 
 257 
 
 Perty 
 
 IV. Civil jurisdiction 
 
 V. Spiritual censures. VI, Freedom 
 of pidilic preaching 
 
 VII. Privilege of legislative asscm- 
 blica 
 
 258 
 259 
 
 260 
 
 261 
 
 262 
 
 263 
 264 
 
AD. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Page 
 
 Persecution of heresy.— The schism of the Dona- 
 lists.— The Jirian controversy.— Jlthan asius.— 
 f)istracted state of the church and empire un- 
 der Constantine and his sona.— Toicraiioa of 
 paganism. 
 
 312 African controvcriy. Schism of the 
 3J5 Donatista 
 A.C. 
 360. The Trinitarian controversy. The 
 
 system ol' Plato. The Logns 
 300 Tuught in the school of Alexandria 
 A.D. 
 97 Revealed by the apostle St. John 
 The Ebionites and Ducetes 
 Mysterious nature of the Trinity. 
 Zeal of the christians. Authority of 
 the churrh 
 318 Factions. Heterodoxopinionsof Ariafl. 
 Three systems of the Trinity. 1. 
 Arianism. II. Tritheism 
 335 111. SHht'llianism. Council of Nice. 
 The Humo(jusion Arian creeds 
 Arian sects 
 
 Faith ofrhe western, or Latin, church. 
 360 Council of Rimini. Conduct of the 
 
 fraperors in the Arian controversy. 
 mfiflTerence of Constantine 
 1i25. 328-337 His zeal. He persecutes the 
 Arian and the orthodox party. Con- 
 337— 3l)l siantius favours tlie Arians 
 
 Arian councils. Character and ad- 
 ventures of Athanasius 
 3^0 Persecution against A'hanasius 
 336.341 Ili^ first exile. His second ex- 
 ile 
 349,3.51 His restoration. Resentment of 
 353—355 (''>'>8tantius. Councils of Aries 
 and .Milan 
 
 355 Conrlemnationof Athnnnsius. Exiles 
 
 356 Tliird expulsion of Athanasius from 
 
 Alexandria. His behaviour 
 356— 3t52 His retreat. Arian bishops 
 
 Divisions. 1. Rome. II. Constanti- 
 nople 
 345, &.C. Cruelty of the Arians. Tlie revolt 
 and fury of the Donatist Circumcel- 
 lions 
 312—361 Their religioussnicides. General 
 character of ihe christian sects 
 Toleration of paganism by Constan- 
 tine. By his sons 
 
 2f5r> f 
 
 2f5r> 
 207 
 
 267 
 2i>d 
 
 269 
 
 270 
 
 271 
 
 272 
 
 273 
 
 274 
 
 275 
 27ti 
 
 277 
 
 27P 
 279 
 
 2F0 
 281 
 
 282 
 
 283 
 
 284 
 285 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Julian is declared emperor by the legions of 
 Oaul.— IIis march and success —The death of 
 Constantius.— Civil administration of Julian. 
 
 Tho jealousy of Constantius against 
 Julian 286 
 
 360 Fears and envy of Constantius. The 
 
 legions of Gaul are ordered to march 
 into the east. Their discontents 287 
 
 They proclaim Julian emperor. Hia 
 protestations of innocence 288 
 
 360.361 His embassv 10 Constantius. His 
 fourth and fifth exiieditions bevond 
 
 361 tho Rhine Fruitless treaty and de- 
 claration of war 289 
 
 Julian prepares toattackCttnstanlius. 
 His march from the Riiiiic into Illy- 
 ricum 290 
 
 He justifies his cause 291 
 
 361 Hostile preparations. Death of Con- 
 stantius 292 
 361 Julian enters Constantinople. Is ac- 
 knowledged by the whole empire. 
 His civil governiucnt and private 
 
 ^life ^ 293 
 
 Reformation of the palace. Chamber 
 ofjnstice 294 
 
 Punishment of tho innocent and the 
 guilty. Clemency of Julian 295 
 
 Hi" .love of freedom and the republic. 
 His care of the Grecian cities. Ju- 
 lian an orator and a judge 296 
 
 His character 297 
 
 T - CHAPTER XXIIl. 
 
 TTie reUffion of Julian .— Universal toleration.— 
 lie at'empis to restore and reform the pagan 
 irorship-to rebuild the temple of .lerusalem.— 
 J/is artful per.<rrution of the christians.— Mu- 
 tual zeal and injustice. 
 
 351 Religion of Julian 297 
 
 His education and apostasy. Ho cm- 
 braces the mylhol >gv of paganism. 298 
 
 The allegorie.s. Th ol.)gical system 
 of Julian 29*^ 
 
 Fanaticism of the philosophers. Initi- 
 ation and fanaticism of Julian. Ilia 
 religious dissimulation 300 
 
 361 Ho writes against christiaaily. Uni- 
 versal toleration _ 301 
 361— 3tn Zeal and devn'ion of Julinn in 
 the restoration of pHg:nism. Refor- 
 mation of paganism 30^2 
 
 The phi'osoi'hers. C inversions 30.1 
 
 Tht* .lews. Description of Jerusalem. 
 Pilgrimages 304 
 
 363 Julian attempts to rebuild the tem- 
 ple. The enterprise is defeated 305 
 
 P'-rhaps by a preternatural event. 
 Paninlity of Julian 306 
 
 He prohibits the christians from 
 teaching schools. Disgrace and op- 
 ureasiun of th'* christians 307 
 
 Th-'y are condemnod to restore tho 
 pagan temples. The temple and sa- 
 cred grove of Dnphne 308 
 
 Neglect and, profanation of Daphne. 
 3G2 Removal of the dead bodies, and con- 
 flagration of the temple. Julian 
 shut! the cathedral of Antioch. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 George of Cappadocia oppresses 
 Alexandria and Egypt . 
 
 361 He i.s massurred by the people. He is 
 
 worshipiied as a saint and martyr. 
 
 362 Restoration of Athanasius 
 He is toersecuted and expelled by Ju- 
 
 361—363 lian. Zeal and imprudence of 
 the Christiana 
 
 309 
 
 310 
 
 311 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Residence of Julian at ..Antioch.— His .<tucees.<sful 
 expedition against the Persians.— Passage of 
 the 'I\gris.— The retreat and death of Julian. 
 —FAection of Jovian.— He saves the Roman ar- 
 my by a disgraceful treaty . 
 
 362 The Caesars of Julian. He rcsolv^ a to 
 
 march against the Persians 312 
 
 Julian proceeds from Constantinople 
 to Aniioeh. Licentious manners of 
 the ix'oplc of Antioch. Their aver- 
 sion to Julian. Scarcity of corn, and 
 public discontent 313 
 
 Julian composes a satire against Anti- 
 344-390 och. The sophist Libn ius 314 
 
 363 March of Julian to the Euphrates. 
 
 His design of invading Persi I. Dis- 
 nfl'ection of ttic kingot Armenia 315 
 
 Military preparation.s. Julian enters 
 tho Persian territories. His march 
 over the desert of MesojHiiamia , 316 
 
 363 His success. Description of Assyria. 317 
 
 Invasion of As.<vria. Siege of Peri- 
 sabor. Siege of Maogamalcha 318 
 
 Personal behaviour of Julian. He 
 transports his fleet from the Euphra- 
 tes to the Tigris 319 
 
 Passage of the Tigris and victory of 
 the Romans 320 
 
 Situation and obstinacy of Julian. He 
 burns his fleet 321 
 
 Marches against Sapor. Retreat and 
 distress of the Roman am. y 322 
 
 363 Julian is mortally wounded. Death of 
 
 Julian 323 
 
 Election of the emperor Jovian 324 
 
 Danger and difficulty of the retreat. 
 Negociation ami treaty of peaee 325 
 
 The weakness and disgrace of Jovian. 
 He continues his retreat to Nisibis. 
 Universal clamour against the treaty 
 of peace 326 
 
 Jovian evacuates Nisibis, and re- 
 stores the five provinces to the Per- 
 sians. Reflections on the death of 
 Julian 327 
 
 On his funeral 328 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The government and death of Jorian .—FAection 
 of yalcntinian, who associates his brother Va- 
 tens, and makes thef' ial'ii risiQn of the eastern 
 and western enrpt re.7T^Jit. fVtfrlif Proco/iius.- 
 Civil ana erclfisia.^tiral administration.— Ger- 
 many.— Britain.— Jifrica.— The east.— TheDa- 
 vube.— Death of Valcntininn .—His tiro sons, 
 Grntinn and F'alentinian II. succeed to the 
 western empire. 
 
 363 State of the church 328 
 Jovian proclaims universal toleration. 
 
 His progress from Am ioch 329 
 
 364 Jovian, with his inlant son. ucsuniea 
 
 the name and ensigns of the consui- 
 3r»4 ship. Death of Jovian. Vncancy of 
 3ti4 the throne. Election and character 
 of Valentinian. He is acknowledg- 
 ed bv the army 330 
 3.'4 A.'-B K-iaiep his brother Valens. The fi- 
 nal division of tho eastern and wes- 
 2<W> tern empires. Revolt of Procopius .331 
 3»>6 His defeat and death 332 
 373 Severe inquisition into the crime of 
 
 mngjn at Rome and Antioch 333 
 
 364— 37.") The cruelty of Valentinian and 
 Valens. Their laws ai.d govern- 
 ment 334 
 Valentinian maintains the religious 
 367— 37H toleration. Valens professes Ari- 
 anism. and inrsecutes the catholics 335 
 373 Death of Athanasiu". Just idea of 
 
 the persecution of Valens 336 
 
 370 Valentinian restrains the avarice of 
 360—384 tlie clergy. Ambition and luxu- 
 ry of Damnsus. bishop of Rome 337 
 
 364—375,31)5 Foreign wars. 1. Germany. 
 366 Tiie Alcmantii invade Gaul. Their 
 
 defeat 338 
 
 368 Valentinian passes, and fortifica, the 
 
 371 Rhine. The Burgundians 339 
 The Snxons 340 
 II. f^niTAiN. The Scots and Picts. 
 
 343— 3lir> Their invasion of Itritain 341 
 
 3(>7-370 Rest ration of Britain by Tbeo- 
 366 doNius. III. Africa. Tjraniiyof Ro- 
 
 manus 342 
 
 372. 373 Revolt of Firmus. Theodosioa 
 
 recovers Africa 343 
 
 376 He IS executed at Parthnge. State of 
 365-378 Africa. IV. The East. The Per- 
 sian war 344 
 384 T^ie treaty of peace. Adventures of 
 
 Pnrn, kieg of Armenia 345 
 
 V. The Dantbf:. Conquests of Her- 
 366 manric. The cause of the Gothic 
 
 war 346 
 
 367-3t»9, 374 Hostilities and peace. War 
 
 of the Quadi and Sarmatians .347 
 
 375 The expedition of Valentinian 348 
 
 His deal h. The einperorsGratian and 
 
 Valentinian 11. 349 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Manners of the pastoral nations.— Progress cf 
 the Huns, frtm China to Europe.— Flight of \ 
 
 A D. Page 
 
 the Qoths .— They pass the Danube.— Oothie 
 war.— Defeat and death of Valens.— Or atian 
 invests I'hevdosius vith the eastern empire. — 
 His character and success.— Peace and settle- 
 vient oj the Qoths. 
 
 .365 Earthquakes 
 
 376 The Huns and Goths. The pastoral 
 manners of the Scythians, or Tar- 
 tars. Diet 
 Habitations. Exercises 
 Government. Bit uaiion and extent of 
 
 Scythia.or Tanary 
 Original s» at of the Hi 
 quests ill Scythia 
 
 [una. Their con- 
 
 A.C 
 
 201 
 141- 
 A. 1) 
 
 100 Their emigrations 
 
 Their wars with the Chineae. Decline 
 bl and fall of the Huns 
 
 The white Hnna 
 of Sogdiana. The Huns of the Vol- 
 
 375 Their ronqueat of the Alani. Their 
 
 victories over tlie Got ha 
 
 376 The Goths implore the protection of 
 
 Valene 
 
 They are transported over the Danube 
 into the Roman empire. Their dis- 
 tress and discontent 
 
 Revolt of the Goths in Mafsia, and 
 their first victories. They penetrate 
 into Thrace 
 
 377 Operations of the Gothic war 
 
 Unio I of the Goths with the Huns. 
 
 378 Alani, &c. Victory 01 Gratian over 
 the Alemanni 
 
 VHlens marches against the Goths. 
 
 Battle of Hadrianople 
 The defeat of the Romans. Death of 
 the emperor Valens. Funeral ora- 
 tion of Valens and his army. The 
 Go'hs besiege Hadrianople 
 378,379 They ravage ihe Roman provin- 
 
 378 cea. Ma88..cre of the Gothic youth 
 in Asia 
 
 379 The emperor Gratian invests Theodo- 
 
 sius with the empire of the east. 
 Birt" and character of Theodosius 
 
 379—3^2 His jirudenf and successful con- 
 duct ofthe Gothic war 
 Divisions, defeat, und submission, of 
 
 381 the Goths. Death and funeral of 
 Athannric 
 
 386 Invasion and defeat ofthe Gruthunei, 
 
 3b3— 395 or Osiregoihs. Settlement of the 
 Goths in Thrace and Asia 
 Their ho-ftile sentiments 
 
 840 
 
 352 
 353 
 
 354 
 
 355 
 
 356 
 357 
 
 358 
 
 359 
 360 
 
 361 
 3GZ 
 
 363 
 
 364 
 
 365 
 366 
 
 367 
 
 368 
 369^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIl 
 
 Death of Gratian .—Ruin of Arianism.— Si. Jlw 
 brose.-Mrst cim^icar against Marimiis.— 
 Character, aamfni.oTyafion , arid penance of 
 Theodosius.— Death of Valentinian 1 l.—Secopd 
 ciulj/itu^t against Eugenius.— Death of Theo- 
 dtmusT 
 
 379—383 Character and conductcf theem- 
 
 jwror Gratian 369 
 
 383 His defect.". "'°rr"*fjltnf l*"* fi^tnnn 
 
 troops. Aevoll ot Moximus in Bri- ^ 
 tain 370 
 
 383 Flight and death of Gratian. Treaty 
 
 383-3*^7 of peace between Maximua and 
 
 Theodosius 371 
 
 Bnp'i.sm and orthodox edicts of Theo- 
 
 340—380 dosiu^. Arianism of Constanti- 
 nople 372 
 
 378 Gregory Nazianzen accepts the mis- 
 
 380 sionofConstantinopIe. Kuin of Ari- 
 anism at Constantinople 373 
 
 381 In the east. The council of Conatan- 
 
 tinople 374 
 
 Retreat of Gregory Nazianzen. Edicia 
 
 380—394 of Theodosius against the here- 
 tics 375 
 
 385 Execution of Prisciliian and hisasso- 
 
 375— 3^»7 ciatea. Ambrose, archbishop of 
 
 Milan 376 
 
 385 His successful opposition to the em- 
 press Justina 377 
 
 387 Maximus invades Italy 37o 
 Flight of Valentinian. Theodosius 
 
 takes arms in the cause of Valenti- 
 
 388 nian. Defeat and death of Maxi- 
 
 . niua . ^ 379 
 
 387 Virtues of Theodosius. Faults of The- 
 
 odosius 380 
 
 Th- sedition of Antioch. Clcmencyof 
 Theodosius 381 
 
 3ffl Sedition and massacre of Thessaloni- 
 
 388 ca. Influence and conduct of Am- 
 brose 382 
 
 300,388-391 Penance of Theodosius. Gen- 
 391 erosity of Theodosius. Character of 
 
 Valentinian 383 
 
 302-3?l4 His d<nth. Usurpation of Eu- 
 .'^2 genius. Theodosius preparca for 
 
 war ;)84 
 
 3^H His victory over Eugenius 385 
 
 395 Death of Theodosius. Corruption of 
 
 the times. The infantry lay aside 
 
 their armour 386 
 
 X aiAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Final destruction of pa ganisim.- Introduction of 
 the worship of saints, and relics, among the 
 ehrtittans. 
 
 378— 395 The destruction of the prgan re- 
 
 _-^ _ligton. Siateof paganism at Rom« 387 
 3H4 Pe'ition ofthe senate for the altar of 
 
 3H8 Victory. Conversion of Rome 388 
 381 Destruction of the templea in the pro- '- 
 
 vinces 389 
 
 The temple of Serapis at Alexandria. ^ 
 
 3H«» Its final destruction 390" 
 
 390 The pagan religion is prohibited 39) 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 ;^-^420 Oppreased. Finally eztiuguish- 
 
 ed 392 
 
 The worship of the christian martyrs. 
 
 General reflections 393 
 
 I. Fabulous martyra and relics. II. 
 Miracles. 111. Revival of poly tbe- 
 iam 304 
 
 IV. Introduction of pagan ceremonies 395 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 FinUl ^ifinonnflhP. f^nm^yi emnife hetyresn the 
 sons of Theodosius.— Ketgn oflarcadtus and 
 Honorius. — .administration oj Rufinus and 
 Stilicho.— Revolt and defeat of Qilao in Afri- 
 ca. 
 
 *595 Division of the empire between Area- 
 
 dius and Honorius 395 
 
 386—395 Character and administration of 
 
 Rufinus 396 
 
 395 He oppresses the east. He is disap- 
 
 pointed by the marriage of Area- 
 
 ^dius 397 
 
 Character ofStilicho, the minister and 
 
 general of the western empire. .His 
 
 385—408 military command .398 
 
 .395 The fall and death ot Rufinus 399 
 
 396 Discord of the two empires. Revolt 
 380-398 of Gildo in Africa 400 
 
 397 He is condemned by the Roman senate. 
 
 398 The African war 401 
 398 Defeat and death of Gildo. Marriage 
 
 398 and character of Honorius 402 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Rero^ ofthfi ctntj^v —ThP^f plumfer Gree-ce.— 
 ""TrnfJCioLhivasions of Italy by JJlaric and Ra- 
 dngaisus.— 7'hev ffte repulsed by Stilicho.— 7 he 
 Germans overrun Gaul.— Usurpation of Con- 
 stantine in the west.— Disgrace and death of 
 Stilicho. 
 
 395, 396 Revolt of the Goths. Alaric 
 
 marches into Greece 403 
 
 397 He is attacked by Stilicho 404 
 
 398 Escapes to Epirus. Alaric is declared 
 
 master general of the eastern Illvri- 
 cum. Is proclaimed king of the Vi- 
 400— 403 sigoths. He invades Italy 405 
 
 403 Honorius flies from Milan. He is pur- 
 sued and besieged by the Goths 406 
 
 403 Battle of Pollentia. Boldness and re- 
 
 treat of Alaric 407 
 
 404 The triumph of Honorius at Rome. 
 
 The gladiators abolished 408 
 
 404 Honorins fixes his residence at Raven- 
 
 400 na. The revolutions of Scythia 403 
 
 405 Emigration of the northern Germans. 
 
 406 Radagaisus invades Italy— besieges 
 Florence 410 
 
 406 Threatens Rome. Defeat and destruc- 
 
 tion of his army by Stilicho. The 
 remainder of the Germans invade 
 Gaul 411 
 
 407 Desolation of Gaul 412 
 R evolt of t,he BM fjsh armv. Constan- 
 
 „ thie Is acknowledged in Britain and 
 
 408 Gaul. He reduces Spain 413 
 404-408 Negociation of Alaric and Stili- 
 
 408 cho. Dehates of the Roman senate 414 
 408 Intrigues ofthe palace. Disgrace and 
 
 deaih of Stilicho 415 
 
 His memory persecuted. Tiie jxiet 
 Claud ian among the train of Stili- 
 cho's dependents 416 
 
 CHAPTER XXXr 
 
 Invasion of Italy bp Alaric— Manners of the 
 
 vle—fj ome is thrice be- 
 AUaged hilTUBJlJol^s.- 
 
 Roman senate and people — Rome is thrice be- 
 
 ■eTbjl m U olhs .- 
 
 WcTTaly.— 
 
 sieged, and at lent 
 
 Death oj Alaric^ _ 
 
 Fall of Constantine.— Gaul and Spain are oc- 
 cupied by the barbarians. — Independence of 
 Britain. 
 
 408 Weakness of the court of Ravenna. 
 
 Alaric marches to Rome 417 
 
 Hannibal at the gates of Rome. Ge- 
 nealogy ofthe senators 418 
 
 The Anician family. Wealth of the 
 Roman nobles 419 
 
 Their manners. Character ofthe Ro- 
 man nobles, by Ammianus Marcel- 
 linus 420 
 
 State and character of the people of 
 Rome . 422 
 
 Public distribution of bread, bacon, 
 oil, wine. &c. Use of the public 
 baths. Games and sp tctacles 423 
 
 408 Pooulousnessof Rome. First siege of 
 
 Rome by the Goths 404 
 
 409 Famine. Plague. Superstition. Ala- 
 
 ric accepts a ransom, and raises the 
 siege 425 
 
 Fruitless negociations for peace. 
 Change and succession of minis- 
 ters 426 
 
 409 Second siege of Rome by the Goths 427 
 A' talus is created emperor by the 
 
 410 Goi hs and Romans. He is degraded 
 by .\larir. Third siege and sack of 
 Rome by the troths 428 
 
 Respect of the Goths for the christian 
 
 religion. Pillage and fire of Rome 429 
 Captiv<'B and fugitives 430 
 
 Saek of Rome by the troops of Char lea 
 410 V. Alaric evacuates Rome, and ra- 
 
 vag«»8 Italy 431 
 
 408—412 Possession of Italy bv the Goths. 
 4lO Death of .\laric Adolphus, kingof 
 412 the Goth-, concludes a iieace with 
 
 the empire, and marehes intoGsnl 432 
 414 His marriage with Placidia. The 
 
 Gothic treasurea 433 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 410—417 Laws for the relief of Italy and 
 
 413 Rome. Revolt and defeat ot Ilerac- 
 409-413 lian, Count of Africa. Revolu- 
 tions of Gaul and Spain 434 
 
 Character and victories of the general 
 411 Constantius. Death of the usurper 
 411— 416 Constantine. Fall ofthe usur- 
 pers, Jovinus, Sebastian, and Atta- 
 lus 435 
 
 409 Invasion of Spain by the Suevi, Van- 
 dals, Alani. &c. 436 
 
 414 Adolphus, king of the Goths, marches 
 
 415 into Spain. His death. The Goths 
 415—418 conquer and restore Spain 437 
 
 Their establishment in Aquitain. The 
 420, &c. Burgundians. Stateof the barba- 
 409 riansinGaul. Revolt of Britain and 
 
 Armorica 438 
 
 409— 449 State of Britain 439 
 
 418 Assembly of the seven provinces of 
 
 Gaul 440 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Arcadius emperor of the east.— Administration 
 and disgrace of Eutropius.— Revolt of Gainas. 
 ■-Persecution of St. John Chry.--ostom.— 'J'he.o- 
 dosius il. emperor of the east.— His sister Pul- 
 cheria.—His wife Eudocia.— The Persian war, 
 and division of Armenia. 
 
 .305—1453 The empire of the east. Reign 
 395-408 of Arcadius 440 
 
 395- 3i*9 Administration and character of 
 Eutropius. His venality and injus- 
 tice 441 
 Ruinof Abundantius. Destruction of 
 
 397 Timasius. A cruel and unjust taw 
 
 of t reason 442 
 
 399 Rehellion of Tribigild 443 
 
 400 Fall of Eutropius. Conspiracy and 
 
 fall of Gainas 444 
 
 398 Election and merit of St. John Chry- 
 
 postom 445 
 
 308—403 His administration and defects. 
 403 Chrysosiom is persecuted by the em- 
 press Eudocia. Popular tumults at 
 Constantinople 4-16 
 
 404, 407 Exile ofChrysostom. His death. 
 His relics trans^iKirted to Constanti- 
 nople. Death of Arcadius 447 
 408— 415 His supposed testament. Admi- 
 414—453 nibtration of Antbemius. Cha- 
 racter and administration of Pulchc- 
 ria 448 
 Education and character of Theodo- 
 421— 4ti0 sius the Vounger. Character 
 and adventures of tlie empress Eu- 
 docia 440 
 422 The Persian war 450 
 431—440 Armenia divided between the 
 
 I'crsians and the Romans 451 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 Death of Honoriu.''.— Valentinian IH. emperor 
 of the west— Administration of his mother 
 Placidia.- .ACtius and Boniface.— Co nquest of 
 A frica by tl ie Vandals. ' ""— 
 
 423 Lnst years and death of Honorius. 
 423—425 Elevation and fall ofthe usurper 
 425—455 John. Valentinian III. emperor 
 
 ofthe west 
 425—450 Administration of his mother 
 
 Piacidia. Her two generals, ./Etius 
 
 427 and Honiface. Error and revolt of 
 Boniface in Africa 
 
 428 He invites the Vandals. Genseric 
 
 429 king of the Vandals. He lands in 
 Africa. Reviews his army. The 
 MiHirs. The Donatists 
 
 430 Tardy repentance of Boniface. De- 
 
 solation of Africa. Siege of Hip- 
 
 430,431 Death of St. Augustin. Defeat 
 
 432 and retreat of Boniface. His death. 
 
 431—439 Progress of the Vandals in Afri- 
 ca 
 
 439 They surprise Carthage. African ( 
 ilcs and captives. Fable of the 
 ven sleepers 
 
 AD. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 zi 
 
 Paga 
 
 ex- 
 
 se- 
 
 452 
 
 453 
 
 454 
 
 455 
 
 456 
 
 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI V. 
 
 T%« character, conQuestJt, and court of Attila, 
 king of the Huns.— Death of Theodosius the 
 younger.- Elevation of Marcian to the empire 
 of the east. 
 
 376-433 The Huns 458 
 
 Their establishment in modern Hun- 
 433-453 gary. Reign of Attila. His fig- 
 ure and character 459 
 He discovers the sword of Mars. Ac- 
 quires the empire of Scythia and 
 430—440 Germany. The Huns invade 
 
 Persia 460 
 
 441, &.r.. They attack the eastern e r 
 
 lavage Ltijf6p e,lm fUf W Cdnstan- 
 
 ti dOlife ^* ^ 461 
 
 The Scythian or Tartar wars. State 
 
 of the captives 462 
 
 446 Treaty of peace between Attila and 
 
 the eastern empire. Spirit of the 
 
 Azimuntines 463 
 
 Embassies from Attila to Constant i- 
 
 448 nople. The embassy of Maxiinin to 
 
 Attila 464 
 
 Tho royal village and palace 465 
 
 The behaviour of Attila to the Ronian 
 
 ambassadors. The royal feast 466 
 
 Conspiracy ofthe Romans against the 
 life of Attila. He reprimands and 
 450 forgives the emperor. Theodosius 
 the younger dies. Is succeeded by 
 Marciaff 467 
 
 Inrasion of Gau l by Attila.— He is repulsed bp 
 JKHnS dnd Ihe Visigoths.— Attila invades ana 
 evacuates Italy.— 'J Ae deaths of AUila, JEtius, 
 and Valentinian the third. 
 
 450 Attila threatens both empires, and 
 435—454 prepares to invade Gaul. Cha- 
 racter and administration of ./Etius 468 
 His connection with the Hune and 
 410-451 Alani. The Visigoths in Gaul 
 
 under the reign of The«»doric 469 
 
 435— 5;W The Goths besiege Narbonne.&c 
 420—451 The Franks in Gaul under the 
 
 451 
 
 Merovingian kiri^s 
 The adventures ofthe princess Hono- 
 
 na. Attila invades Gaul and be- 
 sieges Orleans 
 
 Alliance of the Romans and Visigoths 
 
 Attila retires to the piaiiiS of Cham- 
 pagne. Battle of Chalons 
 452 Retreat of Attila. Invasion of Italy 
 by Attila 
 
 Foundation ofthe republic of Venice 
 
 Attila gives peace to the Romans 
 
 453, 454 The death of Attila. Destruc- 
 tion ot his em[)ire 
 
 Valentinian murders the patrician 
 iEtius. Valentinian ravishes the 
 wife «if Maximus. Death of Valen- 
 tinian. SMnptoinsof lliedirnvand 
 ruin ot t Bli RPHIiiiimAcmmEiit 
 
 455 
 
 470 
 
 471 
 472 
 
 473 
 
 474 
 475 
 476 
 
 477 
 
 478 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVL 
 
 &£iilLCfcUBdi'i ftoi'erjrjjcing of the Vandals. 
 —His nacat de^rcdatiatis. — Succession ofthe 
 last emperors of the icest— Maximus, Aritus, 
 Ma^orian , Severn s, Anthemivs, Olybrius, Gly- 
 cerins, JVepOS, .^llP'listiihii -Totgl fj*i'>]rtinit 
 
 9£th£J^J^i^-^ empire.- Reign' OS UOoacer, the 
 Jirst barbarian King oj Italy. 
 
 439—455 Naval power of the Vandals. 
 
 455 The character and reign of the em- 
 peror Maximus 479 
 
 455, 4.56 His death. Sack of Rome by the 
 
 V^a-dals ^ 48O 
 450—466 The emperor Avitns. Character 
 
 olTheodonckingof the Visigoths 481 
 
 456 His expedition into Spain 482 
 
 456, 457 A Vitus is der»osed. Character 
 
 and elevation of Mnjorian 483 
 
 457—461 His salutary laws. The edifices 
 
 of Rome 484 
 
 457 Majorian prepares to in\-ade Africa 485 
 461 J he loss of his fleet. His death. Rici- 
 461—467 mer reiens under the name of 
 
 Severus. Revolt of Marcellinus in 
 Dalmatia 486 
 
 461—407 Revolt of iEgidius in Gaul. Na- 
 462, &c. val war of the Vandals. Negoci- 
 
 atiotis with the eastern empire 487 
 
 457—474 Leo, emPeror of the east. An- 
 467—472 fhen)ius, emperor ofthe west 488 
 
 4(i8 The festival of the Lujiercalia. Pre- 
 parations against the Vandals of Af- 
 rica 489 
 462—472 Failure of the expedition. Con- 
 que.st of the Visigoths in Spain and 
 Gaul 490 
 468 Trial of Arvandus 491 
 
 471 Discord of Antbemius and Ricimcr. 
 
 472 Olybrius.empcror of the west 492 
 472 Sack of Rome, and death of Antbe- 
 mius. Death of Ricimer- of Oly- 
 
 472—475 brius. Julius Nepos anH Glyce- 
 
 475 rius emperors of the west. The pa- 
 trician Ore-stes 493 
 
 476 His son Augustulu*. the last emperor 
 476—490 ofthe west. Odoacer. kingof It- 
 
 476 or 479 aly. Extinction ofthe western . 
 
 empire 494 ^^ 
 
 Augustulus is banished to the I<ucnl- 
 476—490 Ian villa. Decay of the Roman 
 
 empire 495 
 
 Character and reign of Odoacer. Mis- 
 erable state of Italy 496 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Origin, progress, and effects of the monastic It jTe. 
 — Conversion of the barbarians to Christianity 
 and .Arianism.— Persecution ofthe Vandals in 
 Africa -Extinction of Arianism among the 
 barbarians. 
 
 1. Institittion of the movastic 
 305 LIFE. Originof the monks. Antony 
 
 and the monks of Egypt 497 
 
 341 Propagation of the monastic life at 
 328,3(50 Rome. Hilarion in Palestine. Ba- 
 370 sit in Pontus. Martin in Gaul. Cau- 
 ses of the rapid progress of the mo- 
 nastic life 498 
 Obedience of the monks. Tlieir dress 
 
 and habitations 499 
 
 Their diet. Their manual labour. 
 
 Their riches 500 
 
 Their solitude. Their devotion and vi- 
 sions. The Coenobites and Anacho- 
 rets 501 
 
 395—451 Sirneon Stylites. Miracles and 
 worship ofthe monks. Superstition 
 of the age. II. Conversion ofthe 
 barbarians 502 
 
 360, &:c. Ulohilus. apostle ofthe Goths. 
 400,&c. The Go!hs. Vandals, Buigun- 
 dians. &c. embrace Christianity. 
 Motivesof their faith 503 
 
 Effects of their conversion. They are 
 
 involved in the Arian heresy 504 
 
 General toleration. Arian nersecu- 
 
 429—477 tion of the Vandals. Genseric. 
 
 477.484, 406 Hunneric.Gondamund.Thra- 
 
 523, 5.30 simund. Hilderic. Gelimer. A 
 
 general view of the persecution in 
 
 Africa 505 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 i 
 
 A. D. Pafe 
 
 Calliolic frauds. Miracle* 307 
 
 500—700 Thp ruin of A nanism among the 
 577—5^4 barbarians. Revolt and martyr- 
 dom of Hermenegild in Spain. C«>n- 
 586—589 version of Recared and the Visi- 
 goths of Spain 
 600, &n. (.'o'lver.oion of the Lombards of 
 ttli— 712 lialy. i'erso. u ion of the Jews 
 in Spain. Conclusion 
 
 508 
 
 
 509 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV III. 
 
 Reign and covversion of Cfovis.—IIis victories 
 over the Jllemanni, liurgundians, and Visi- 
 ^otks.—Establiskmtmt oj the French monarchy 
 171 Oaul.—Laws of the barbarians. —at ate ctj 
 the Romnvs.—Tlie yisigoths of Upain.—Con- 
 Quest of Britain by the Saxons. 
 
 476-4P5 The revoluti^n of Gaul. Eurir, 
 481—511 king of »he Visigoths. Clovis, 
 
 king of the F'.anks 
 486,496 Hi« victory over Syagrius. De- 
 feat and Hubmissiohof the Aleman- 
 
 510 
 
 ni 
 
 4PG Conv'rsion of Clovis 
 497. &.C. Submi«rtion of the Armorirans 
 4f*{> and ihe Roman troops. Tlie Bur- 
 500 guiidisn wiir. Vicory of Cfivis 
 t'.Vl Fi"iil conquest of Burgundy by the 
 
 507 Franks. The Gotltic war 
 
 508 Vicfiirv of Clovin. Conquest of Aqui- 
 
 tain by iho Franks 
 510, 53ti Consulship of Ciovis. Final es- 
 
 511 
 
 512 
 
 513 
 514 
 515 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 tabliflhment of the French monar- 
 chy in Gaul. Political controversy 516 
 
 Laws of the barbarians. Pecuniary 
 fines fir homicide 517 
 
 Judgments of God. Judicial combats 518 
 
 Division of iaiid by the barbarians. 
 Domain and benefices of the Mero- 
 vingians. Private usurpations 519 
 
 Personal servitude. Example of Aa- 
 vergne 520 
 
 Story of Attains 521 
 
 Privileges of the Romans in Gaul. 
 Annrchy of the Franks 522 
 
 The Visigoths of Spain. Legislative 
 nssembhes of Spain. Code of the 
 Visigoths . . 523 
 
 440 Revolution of Britain. Descent of the 
 455— 5?*2 Siixuns. Establishment of the 
 
 Sixon bei>tar< hy 524 
 
 Stale of the Britons. Their resis- 
 tance. Their flight. The fame of 
 Arthur 525 
 
 Desojjition of Britain. Servitude of 
 theBiitons. 526 
 
 Manners of the Britons . . 527 
 
 Obscure or fabulous stale of Britain. 
 
 «£4l''i£ih'' Rom an empire in the west 528 
 
 General ohsrrfations on the fall of the Romm^ 
 empire in the west. 4iii.iL 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Zeno and .^vnsta.sivs, emperors of the east. — 
 Birth, education, and first exploits of Theodo- 
 
 A. D. Paff« 
 
 ric the Ostrogoth.— His invasion and eonmiest 
 of Itafy.— l'he Guthtc kingdom of Italy— State 
 of' the vest.— Military av a civil gocernm»iit.~ 
 The senator Boethius.— Last acts and death vf 
 Theodoric, 
 
 455—475 Birth and education of Theodo- 
 ric _ 531 
 
 474-491,491-518 The reign of Zeno. The 
 
 475-488 rt-ignot Anastasius. Service and 
 
 revolt ot Theodoric 532 
 
 489 He undertakes the conquest of Ilaly. 
 
 \\y«^ march 533 
 
 489-45K) The three defeats of Odoar^r. His 
 
 493 rnppulation and death. Reign of 
 
 493— 52('; Theodoric, king of Italy. Parti- 
 
 I ion of lands 534 
 
 Sepiiraiioii of the Go'hs and ftalians. 
 Ftireign })olicy of Th»'odoric 535 
 
 509 His defensive wari<. His naval arma- 
 ments. Civil gove nment of Italy 
 according to the Rnrxan laws 536 
 
 500 Prosperity of Rome. Visit ol Theodo- 
 ric 537 
 Flourishing state of Italy. Theodoric 
 an Arian. His toleration of the ca- 
 t hones 538 
 Vices of his government. Ho rs prn- 
 voked to i>er.serute the catholics. 
 Character, studies, and honours, of 
 Bueihius 539««, 
 His paiiiotism. He is accused of 
 
 524 treason. His imprisonment and 
 
 death 540 
 
 524, 526 D'-a h of Svmmachus. Remorse 
 
 and death of Theodoric 541 
 
 GUIZOrS PREFACE. 
 
 [translation.] 
 
 '10 reprint a valuable work — to rectify, in an extensive history, omissions and errors the more 
 important, because, lost in an immense number of facts, they are eminently fitted to deceive, both the 
 superficial who believe all thfy read, and the attentive, who have no opportunity for investigation ; 
 such have been the motives which have determined me to publish with added notes, this new edition 
 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. 
 
 This period of history has been the subject of study and toil to a multitude of writers, of learned 
 men, and even of philosophers. The gradual decline of that most extraordinary power, which had 
 over-run and oppressed the world ; the fall of this greatest of empires, built upon the ruins of so many 
 kingdoms, republics, and states, both barbarous and civilized, and forming in its turn by its dismem- 
 berment, a multitude of states, republics, and kingdoms; the annihilation of the religion of Greece and 
 Rome ; the origin and progress of two new religions, which have occupied between themselves the 
 fairest countries of the earth; the old age of the ancient world, the spectacle of its expiring glory and 
 degenerate morals ; the infancy of the modern world, the description of its first advances and of the 
 new impulse given to mind and character ; such a subject must necessarily fix the attention and excite 
 the interest of those men who cannot see with indiflerence, such memorable epochs, or in the beautiful 
 expression of Corneille, 
 
 "Un grand destin commence, un grand destin s'acheve." 
 
 Thus, learning, eloquence, and the spirit of philosophy, have been emulously engaged in bringing 
 to light, and picturing the ruins of this vast edifice whose fall had been preceded, and was to be 
 followed by so much greatness. Messrs. de Tillemont, Lebeau, Ameilhou, Pagi, Eckhel, and a great 
 number of other writers, French and foreign, have examined all its parts, they have searched among 
 the rubbish for facts, details and dates, and by the aid of erudition more or less extensive, and of 
 criticism more or less enlightened, have in some manner collected and arranged anew the scattered 
 materials. Their works are of unquestionable utility, and I have no wish to diminish their merit, but 
 in digging among the ruins they have sometimes buried themselves ; either because they have 
 voluntarily limited the subject and the circle of their researches, or because the very nature of their 
 minds confined them within certain bounds. They have, while occupied in search of facts, neglected 
 the general outline of ideas, they have explored and brought to light the ruins without re-erecting the 
 monument. We do not find in their works those general views, which enable us to embrace at a 
 glance a great extent of country — a long series of ages ; and which make us distinguish clearly 
 amidst the darkness of the past, the progress of the human species, ever changing its form but not its 
 nature, its habits and not its passions, always arriving at the same results by different means ; those 
 great views, in fine, which constitute the philosophy of History, and without which it is only a mass 
 of facts, as inconclusive, as they are disconnected. 
 
 Montesquieu, on the other hand, in his " Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur et de la deca- 
 dence des Romains," glancing on every side with the eye of genius, has brought forward a multitude of 
 thoughts, always profound and almost always new, but sometimes inaccurate, and authorized less by 
 the nature and connection of facts, than by those rapid and ingenious deductions to which a superior 
 mind too easily surrenders itself, because it finds a vivid pleasure in manifesting its power in this 
 species of creation. Happily, by a beautiful provision, the errors of genius are fertile in truths, it 
 may wander for a moment from the path it has opened, but the. way is open and others follow with 
 
 • • • 
 
 xui 
 
 SI 
 
 %\ 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 ») 
 
 ■'vl 
 
 li 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
 more safety and circumspection. Gibbon, less able, less profound, of a less exalted genius than 
 Montesquieu, made himself master of a subject whose richness and extent the other had pointed out; 
 he followed with care the long array and progressive chain of facts, some of which only Montesquieu 
 had selected and recalled, rather to attach them to his own ideas, than to make the reader acquainted 
 with their progress and mutual influence. The English historian, eminently gifted with that 
 penetration which traces events to causes, and with that sagacity which separates from causes 
 eeemingly true, those which really are so ; born in an age when distinguished men carefully scrutinized 
 every part of the social machine, and endeavored to discover its action, utility, effects, and importance, 
 placed by his pursuits and by the reach of Iiis mind on an equality with the master spirits of his age, 
 brought to his researches into the materiel of history or ihe facts themselves, the criticism of a judicious 
 and learned man, and to his views of the moral of history, or the relations which connect events and 
 associate tlieir authors with them, that of an able philosopher. He knew that history if confined to 
 an account of facts merely, excites no other interest than that which men feel in the actions of their 
 fellow men, and that to be really useful and true, it ought to look upon the face of society, whose 
 image/^jt retraces under all the different points of view from which it can be considered, by the 
 statesman, the warrior, the magistrate, the financier, and the philosopher ;Jby all those indeed who 
 are capacitated by their situation or their intelligence to understand its different springs of action. 
 
 This thought, no less just than great, seems to have had its influence in the composition of the 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is not merely an account of the events which agitated 
 the Roman world from the accession of Augustus to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, but 
 the author has constantly connected with the history of events an account of the state of finances, of 
 opinions, of morals, of the military system, and of those internal and concealed causes of prosperity 
 or calamity which strengthen society, or secretly tlireatcn its well-being and existence. Gibbon, 
 faithful to the known but neglected law, which compels us always to make facts the basis of general 
 reflections, and to follow step by step their slow but necessary course, has thus composed a work, 
 remarkable for the extent of its views, though not for great elevation of thought, and full of positive 
 and interesting results, notwithstanding the scepticism of its author. 
 
 The success of this work, in an age which had produced a Montesquieu, and which at the 
 time of its publication possessed a Hume, a Robertson, and a Voltaire, certainly proves its merit, 
 and the continuance of this success to the present time is a farther confirmation of its worth. 
 In England, France, Germany, and among all the enlightened nations of Europe Gibbon is 
 always cited as authority; and even those who h^ave discovered some inaccuracies in his 
 book, or who disapprove of his sentiments, do not attempt to remove his errors or to combat 
 liis opinions, except with a cautious respect due to superior merit. I have had occasion in the 
 course of my investigations to consult the writings of philosophers who have treated of the 
 finances of the Roman empire, of learned men who have studied its chronology, of theologians 
 versed in ecclesiastical history, of civilians who have studied with care Roman jurisprudence, of 
 orientalists who have devoted themselves to Arabic literature, of modern historians who have 
 examined the subject of the crusades and their influence — and every one of these writers has observed 
 and pointed out in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire instances of careless- 
 ness, of false or at least incomplete views, and sometimes even omissions which they could not but 
 believe voluntary. They have corrected some faults, and have opposed with success some assertions, 
 but more frequently they have employed the researches and thoughts of Gibbon, either to show 
 wherein they differ from him, or to substantiate their own researches and deductions. I may perhaps 
 be permitted here to mention a certain suspense and uncertainty which I have myself experienced in 
 studying this work. I prefer to incur the hazard of speaking of myself than to omit an observation 
 which may set forth both merits and defects. After the first rapid perusal, which permitted me only 
 to feel interested in a narrative always ajiiimated notwithstanding its length, always clear notwith- 
 standing the variety of objects it presents in review before the eye, I entered into a minuTe~'examina- 
 tion of the details of which it is composed, and the opinion I then formed was, I confess, singularly 
 severe. I found in certain chapters errors which appeared to me suflJiciently important and numerous 
 to warrant the belief that the work in some parts had been written with extreme negligence ; in 
 others there appeared a general tinge of partiality and prejudice which gave to the narration of facts 
 that want of truth and justice which the English happily designate by the word misrepresentation. 
 Mutilated quotations, and the involuntary or designed omission of certain passages, rendered me sus- 
 picious of the author's integrity. The grossness of this violation of the first law of history W3S 
 
 increased to my mind by the prolonged attention with which I scnUinized each phrase, each note and 
 reflection — and in consequence I passed upon the whole work much too rigorous a judgment. After 
 this careful study of the history, I permitted some time to elapse before again reviewing it. Another 
 attentive and continuous perusal of the whole work, of the notes of the author, and of those which I 
 have thought it right to add to them, has showed me how much I have exaggerated the importance 
 of the strictures which Gibbon merited. I have been struck with the same errors, with the same 
 partiality on certain subjects, but I found that I had been far fram. rightly appreciating the vastuess 
 of Iiis-^research, the variety of his information, the extent of his knowledge, and, more than all, that 
 truly philosophical justice of his mind which judges of the past as it would of the present, without 
 being darkened by those clouds with which time surrounds the dead ; and which often prevent us 
 from seeing,(that under the toga and in the senate, men were the same that they are still in our modern 
 dress, and in our own councils — and that events transpired eighteen centuries ago in the same manner 
 as they do nowX I perceived also that Gibbon, notwithstanding his failings, was truly an able historian, 
 that his history with all its defects would always be a good work, and that his errors might be 
 corrected, and his prejudices opposed, without ceasing to admit that few men have united in a manner 
 so complete and well defined, the qualities essential to an historian. 
 
 I have then attempted in my notes only to correct facts which appeared to me false or misrepre- 
 sented, and to supply those, the omission of which might become a source of error. I am far from 
 believing that this work of correction is complete. I have been very guarded in applying it to the 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in all its extent. It would enlarge too much 
 a work already most voluminous, and add innumerable notes to the many notes of the author ; my 
 first and principal design, was to review with care those chapters devoted by Gibbon to the history of 
 the establishment of Christianity, and to re-establish in all their exactness, and place in their true light 
 the facts of which they are composed. It is in those chapters therefore that I have made the most 
 additions, other chapters also, as that which treats of the religion of the ancient Persians, or that in 
 which the author exhibits a view of the state of ancient Germany and of the migrations of the people, 
 have appeared to me to need elucidation and rectifying. Their importance will furnish my excuse. 
 In general my work has not extended much beyond the first five volumes of the new edition. Almost 
 all which concerns Christianity is found in these volumes ; in them also is seen the transition from the 
 ancient to the modern world, from the manners and the thoughts of Roman Europe to those of our 
 Europe, an epoch the most interesting and important to make clear in the whole work. Besides, 
 later times have been treated of with great care by many diff'erent writers, so that the notes I have 
 added to the last volume are few and concise, too much so perhaps ; nevertheless I can affirm that I 
 have rigidly observed the rule to say nothing which did not seem to me necessary, and to say it as 
 briefly as possible. Much has been written for and against Gibbon. From the time his work appeared 
 comments were made upon it as if it had been an ancient manuscript, and they were truly those of 
 critics. Theologians, more than all others, have complained of the manner in which he has treated 
 ecclesiastical history ; they have attacked the XV and XVI chapters sometimes with reason, often with 
 bitterness, but almost always with arms inferior to those of their adversary, who certainly possessed 
 more knowledge, more genius, more insight into his subject than his opponents, as far at least as ^ 
 their works have been within the reach of my examination. Dr. Watson, since bishop of Landaft; pub- 
 lished " A series of letters, or An apology for Christianity,'' the moderation and merit of wliich are 
 acknowledged by Gibbon himself. ' Priestley wrote ".4 letter to an incredulous philosopher containing 
 a view of the evidences of revealed religion, with observations upon the first ttvo volumes of Mr. 
 Gibbon:' Dr. White in a course of sermons, of which Dr. S. Badcock was, it is said, the real 
 author, and of which Dr. White furnished only the materials, traced a comparative view of the 
 christian and mahommedan religions (1st edition, 1784, 8vo,) in which he often opposed Gibbon, and 
 of which Gibbon himself speaks with esteem, (see memoirs of his life, p. 167, vol. 1st of miscella- 
 neous works and his letters, nos. 82, 83, &c.) These three are the adversaries most worthy of Y-v •' 
 consideration who have attacked our historian. A multitude of other writers joined them, Sir David ^*^ 
 Dalrymple, Dr. Chelsam, chaplain to the bishop of Worcester, ^ Mr. Davis, member of Baliol college^ 
 Oxford, Mr. East Apthorpe, rector of St. M ary le Bone, London, ^ J. Beattie, Mr. J. Melner, Mr. 
 
 « D. R. Watson's Apology for Christianity in a series of letters to Edward Gibbon, 1776, in 8vo. ~" 
 
 2 /. Cheham's D. D, remarks on the two last chapters of the Jlrst vol. of Mr. Gibbon's History, 6fc. Oxford, 2n<l 
 Edition, 1778, 8vo. 
 
 J-.P'^f ^^^I'^'^K'' 'fi£'*^ V^ '^'^ prevalence of Christianity before it9 civil estabUshment ivith observations tn Mf, 
 G'Monf! History, Sfc. 1778, 8fo, , - 
 
 ,jVV 
 
 V, 
 
XVI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Taylor, Mr. Travis, prebendary of Chester, and vicar of Eastham, ' Dr. Whitaker, an anonyftiouf 
 "writer, who took only the name of the Anonymous Gentleman, Mr. H. Kett, ^ <fec. &:c. arrayed 
 themselves against the new historian. He replied to some of them in a pamphlet entitled ** A defence 
 of some passages in the XV and XVI chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire."^ This defence, victorious in some points and weak in others, but excessively bitter, revealed 
 the irritation which these attacks had excited in Gibbon. This irritation, perhaps, indicated, that he 
 did not feel himself entirely irreproachable; nevertheless, he altered none of his opinions in the 
 rest of the work, which proves, at least, his sincerity. Although I have made great effort, I have been 
 able to procure but a small part of these works. Those of Dr. Chelsam, of Mr. Davis, of Mr. Tra- 
 vis, and of the anonymous writer, are the only works that I have been able to obtain. I have received 
 from them some interesting thoughts ; and when I have not been able to explain or to defend them by 
 higher authorities, I have mentioned to whom I was indebted for them. Not only in England have 
 comments been made upon Gibbon. F. A. G. Wenck, professor of law at Leipsic, a very estimable 
 literary man, undertook a translation of it into German. The first volume appeared at Leipsic in 
 1779. He also added notes, full of erudition, no less extensive than accurate. I have derived from 
 them great assistance. Unfortunately, M. Wenck did not continue his undertaking. The remaining 
 volumes have been translated by M. Schreiter, professor at Leipsic, who has added but a few notes, 
 and those very unimportant. M. Wenck announced in his preface, that he should publish particular 
 dissertations on the XV and XVI chapters, the object of which would be to examine the account 
 given by Gibbon of the propagation of Christianity. He has been dead, now, two years. Not hav- 
 inor been informed of his death, I wrote to his son, and requested a copy of them. His son wrote in 
 answer, that he had not been able to find them among his father's papers. 
 
 There is another German translation of Gibbon, witli which I am not acquainted. I have been 
 told that it contains no new notes. Many German theologians, as M. Walterslern,^ M. Luderwald,* 
 &c. have opposed Gibbon, especially in treating of the propagation of Christianity. I am acquainted 
 with the titles of their works only. M. Hugo, professor of law at Gottingen, published, in 1789, a 
 translation of the XLIV chapter, in which Gibbon treats of Roman jurisprudence, with critical notes, 
 some of which I have borrowed, but these notes establish, in general, few facts, and are not always 
 sufliciently supported with proof. 
 
 In French, I have read but one dissertation against Gibbon, inserted in the seventh volume of the 
 Snecfafcur Francais. It appeared to me very ordinary, and contains rather reasoning than facts. 
 
 Such, at least according to my knowledge, are the principal works of which the History of the 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has been the subject. Those which I have examined, have 
 been far from satisfactory to me ; and after having derived from them the most that was interesting, I 
 have myself written, upon the various parts which remained to be examined, a critical work of some 
 extent. I believe I ought here to mention the principal sources whence I have derived information 
 and facts. Besides the original authors of which Gibbon availed himself, and to which I have 
 referred as much as was in my power — such as the histpjy of Augustus, Dion Cassiu?, Ammieaps 
 Marcellinus, Eusebius, Lactantius, &c. &c., I have consulted some of the best writers who have 
 treated of the same subjects much more carefully and extensively, inasmuch as they have devoted 
 themselves especially to the study of them. Concerning the history of the primitive church, the 
 writings of the learned Gardner, the Abridgement of Ecclesiastical History by Spittler, the Ecclesi- 
 astical Hi>story of Flenke, the History of the Constitution of the Christian Church by M. Plauck, 
 and a Manuscript by the same author upon the History of the Doctrines of Christianity, History of 
 Heresies by C. G. F. Walch, the Introduction to the New Testament of Michaelis, the Commentary 
 upon the New Testament of M. Paulus, the History o/'P/if/o.so/)Ay by M. Tennemann, and particular 
 dissertations, have been my principal resources. For the account of the migrations of the people of 
 the north, the History of the North by Schloezer, the Universal History of Gatterer, the Ancient 
 History of the Teutonic Race by Adelung, Memoriae Populorum ex HistorHs Byzantinis erutse by 
 M. Stritter, have furnished me information which I should vainly have sought for elsewhere. To 
 
 t Letters to Edward Gibbon, 2d edition, London, 1785, 8vo. 
 
 2 H. Kelt's Sermons at Bampton's Lecture, 1791, 8vo. //. Kett's representation of the conduct and opitiiona of 
 the primitive christians, -with remarks on certain assertions of Mr. Gibbon and Mr. Priestly, in eight sermons, 
 
 3 A vindication of some passages in the XV and XVI chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Bo- 
 man Empire. The 2d edition which I have used was printed in London 1779. 
 
 * Die ausbreitung des christenthuins aus naturlichen ursachen von W. S. von IValterstern. Hamburg, 1788, 8vo. 
 ' Die ausbreitung der christlichen religion, von J, B, Ludei^ald, Helmstaedt, 1788, in 8vo, 
 
 PREFACE. xvii 
 
 the works of these able critics, we owe the most certain and safe knowledge we have upon this part 
 of the history of the world. Finally, I owe to the dissertations which M. Kleuker has added to his 
 German translation of the Zendavesta and of the Memoirs of Anquetil, the means of rectifying many 
 errors which Gibbon has committed in speaking of the religion of the ancient Persians. 
 
 I shall be pardoned, I trust, for giving these details. Truth requires that I should mention those 
 works without which I should have been unable to execute my undertaking ; and to name those 
 learned men, who have been, as it were, my fellow-laborers, is, without doubt, the best means to gain 
 for myself some belief. Permit me also to acknowledge how much I owe to the counsels of a man 
 no less enlightened on all subjects generally than versed particularly in the researches in which I have 
 been engaged. Without the assistance I have derived from the directions and the library of M. 
 Stapfer, I should have been often embarrassed to discover those works which could furnish me safe 
 information, and doubtless should have been ignorant of most of them. If my work shall be found to 
 possess any merit, I shall only regret that I am unable to point out precisely how considerable a por- 
 tion of it is due to him. 
 
 It remains only to say a word concerning the translation. The revision of it is the work of a 
 person too nearly related to me to permit me to speak of her otherwise than to point out what she 
 has done.* 
 
 Many have, in succession, translated the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Their 
 manner has been diflerent. Generally, the first volumes are translated with much care and nicety ; and 
 everywhere we see an effort to turn each period with elegance. The energy, the strength, and concise- 
 ness of thought, and vivacity of the original are thus sacrificed to the harmony of the sentence. The 
 translation which has now been selected for revision, though smooth and agreeable, offered but a 
 faint image of the full nervous style of the English writer. The last volumes, especially, bore the 
 impress of extreme haste— of contracted sentences— of passages robbed of those details which con- 
 stitute their force and character— and sometimes even reflections were here and there suppressed. 
 There were instances also of wrong constructions, caused less by ignorance of the English lan- 
 guage than by that inattentive negligence, which imagines a work is done before it is complete and 
 finished. Such were the principal faults which it was necessary to correct. Much care and appli- 
 cation have been given in order to remove these faults, to restore invariably the whole text of the 
 author and the text alone, and to give to his style its original and peculiar complexion even in those 
 passages where, in addition to the other peculiarities of his style, a labored conciseness, a suddenness 
 of transition scarcely natural, and a dangerous design to convey to the mind more than is expressed 
 by the words, rendered the task exceedingly difficult. Such a labor has been necessarily long and 
 tedious : its utility it would seem impossible to deny ; and now, if the translation of the History of 
 the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has been rendered faithful, if it can be read without 
 trouble and difficulty— if the notes which have been added serve to rectify the erroneous opinions of 
 the author, and to interest his readers to examine before they adopt them— the design of the editor is 
 accomplished. It is all that he desires, and certainly more than he dares to hope. 
 
 !i-'^^®r'^^''^^^°^ ^"^ correction of the translation of Gibbon's history, into the French language, was the work of the 
 mother of Guizot. 
 
 Vol.. L— A 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XIX 
 
 »l 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FIRST VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiating on the variety, or the importance of the 
 subject, which I have undertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve to render the 
 weakness of the execution still more apparent and still less excusable. But as I have presumed to 
 lay before the public a first volume only ' of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire, it will perhaps be expected that I should explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of 
 my general plan. 
 
 The memorable series of revolutions, which, in the course of abqut thirteen centuries, gradually 
 undermined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of Roman greatness, may, with some propriety, 
 be divided into the three following periods : 
 
 I. The first of these periods may be traced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the 
 Roman monarchy, having attained its full strength and maturity, began to verge towards its decline ; 
 and will extend to the subversion of the western empire, by the barbarians of Germany and Scythia, 
 the rude ancestors of the most polished nations of modern Europe. This extraordinary revolution., 
 which subjected Rome to the power of a Gothic conqueror, was completed by the beginning of the 
 sixth century. 
 
 II. The second period of the Decline and Fall of Rome may be supposed to commence with the 
 reign of Justinian, who by his laws, as well as by his victories, restored a transient splendor to the 
 eastern empire. It will comprehend the invasion of Italy by the Lombards ; the conquest of the 
 Asiatic and African provinces by the Arabs, who embraced the religion of Mahomet ; the revolt of 
 the Roman people against the feeble princes of Constantinople ; and the elevation of Charlemagne, 
 who, in the year eight hundred, established the second, or German, empire of the west. 
 
 III. The last and longest of these periods includes about six centuries and a half; from the 
 revival of the western empire, till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, and the extinction of 
 a degenerate race of princes, who continued to assume the titles of Caesar and Augustus after 
 their dominions were contracted to the limits of a single city, in which the language, as well as 
 manners, of the ancient Romans had been long since forgotten. The writer who should undertake 
 to relate the events of this period, would find himself obliged to enter into the general history of the 
 crusades, as far as they contributed to the ruin of the Greek empire ; and he would scarcely be able 
 to restrain his curiosity from making some inquiry into the state of the city of Rome during the 
 darkness and confusion of the middle ages. 
 
 » The first volume of the quarto, (in which form the work was originally published) comprbing chaps. I. to XVL 
 xviii 
 
 As I have ventured, perhaps too hastily, to commit to the press a work, which, in every sense of 
 the word, deserves the epithet imperfect, I consider myself as contracting an engagement to finish, 
 most probably in a second volume,' the first of these memorable periods ; and to deliver to the 
 public the complete History of the Decline and Fall of Rome, from the age of the Antonines to the 
 subversion of the western empire. With regard to the subsequent periods, though I may entertain 
 some hopes, I dare not presume to give any assurances. The execution of the extensive plan which 
 I have described, would connect the ancient and modern history of the world ; but it would require 
 many years of health, of leisure, and of perseverance. 
 
 Bextinck Street, 
 February 1, 1776. 
 
 P. S. The entire History, which is now published, of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire 
 in the west, abundantly discharges my engagements with the public. Perhaps their favourable 
 opinion may encourage me to prosecute a work, which however laborious it may seem, is the most 
 agreeable occupation of my leisure hours, 
 
 Ben^tixck Street, 
 March 1, 1781. 
 
 An author easily persuades himself that the public opinion is still favourable to his labours ; and I 
 have now embraced the serious resolution of proceeding to the last period of my original design, and 
 of the Roman empire, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in the year one thousand four 
 hundred and fifty three. The most patient reader, who computes that three ponderous * volumes 
 have been already employed on the events of four centuries, may, perhaps, be alarmed at the long 
 prospect of nine hundred years. But it is not my intention to expatiate with the same minuteness 
 on the whole series of the Byzantine history. At our entrance into this period, the reign of Justinian, 
 and the conquests of the Mahometans, will deserve and detain our attention, and the last age of Con- 
 stantinople (the crusades and the Turks) is connected with the revolutions of modern Europe. 
 From the seventh to the eleventh century, the obscure interval w^U be supplied by a concise narra- 
 tive of such facts as may still appear either interesting or important, 
 
 Bewtixck Street, 
 March 1, 1782. 
 
 * The author, as it frequently happens, took an inadequate measure of his growing work, 
 period has filled tivo volumes in quarto, comprising chaps. XVII. to XXXVIII, 
 2 Chaps. I. to XXXVIII. 
 
 The remainder of the first 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. 
 
 FIRST OCTAVO EDITION. 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is now delivered to the public in a more 
 convenient form. Some alterations and improvements had presented themselves to my mind, but I 
 was unwilling to injure or offend the purchasers of the preceding editions. The accuracy of the 
 corrector of the press has been already tried and approved ; and, perhaps I may stand excused, if, 
 amidst the avocations of a busy winter, I have preferred the pleasures of composition and study, to 
 the minute diligence of revising a former publication. 
 
 Bextixck Street, 
 April 20, 1783. 
 
 Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer may ascribe to himself; if any 
 merit indeed can be assumed from the performance of an indispensable duty. I may therefore be 
 allowed to say, that I have carefully examined all the original materials that could illustrate the 
 subject which I had undertaken to treat. Should I ever complete the extensive design which has 
 been sketched out in the Preface, I might perhaps conclude it with a critical account of the authors 
 consulted during the progress of the whole work ; and however such an attempt might incur the censure 
 of ostentation, I am persuaded that it would be susceptible of entertainment, as well as information. 
 
 At present I shall content myself with a single observation. Tlie biographers, who, under the 
 reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, composed, or rather compiled, the lives of the emperors, from 
 Hadrian to the sons of Cams, are usually mentioned under the names of ^lius Spartianus, Julius 
 Capitolinus, JEVms Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius PoUio, and Flavins Vopiscus. 
 But there is so much perplexity in the titles of the MSS.; and so many disputes have arisen among 
 the critics (see Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin. 1. iii. c. 6.) concerning their number, their names, and 
 their respective property ; that for the most part I have quoted them without distinction, under the 
 general and well known title of the Augustan History, 
 
 XX 
 
 I NOW discharge my promise, and complete my design, of writing the History of the Decline and 
 Fall of the Roman Empire, both in the west and the east. The whole period extends from the age 
 of Trajan and the Antonines, to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the second ; and includes 
 a review of the crusades, and the state of Rome during the middle ages. Since the publication of 
 the first* volume, twelve years have elapsed; twelve years, according to my wish, " of health, of 
 leisure, and of perseverance." I may now congratulate my deliverance from a long and laborious 
 service, and my satisfaction will be pure and perfect, if the public favour should be extended to the 
 conclusion of my work. 
 
 It was my first intention to have collected, under one view, the numerous authors, of every age 
 and language, from whom I have derived the materials of this history ; and I am still convinced that 
 the apparent ostentation would be more than compensated by real use. If I have renounced this 
 idea, if I have declined an undertaking which had obtained the approbation 0! a master-artist,^ my 
 excuse may be found in the extreme difliculty of assigning a proper measure to such a catalogue. A 
 naked list of names and editions would not be satisfactory either to myself or my readers : the char- 
 acters of the principal authors of the Roman and Byzantine History have been occasionally con- 
 nected with the events which they describe ; a more copious and critical inquiry might indeed 
 deserve, but it would demand, an elaborate volume, which might swell by degrees into a general 
 library of historical writers. For the present I shall content myself with renewing my serious pro- 
 testation, that I have always endeavoured to draw from the fountain head; that my curiosity, as well 
 as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals ; and that, if they have sometimes 
 eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact 
 were reduced to depend. 
 
 I shall soon revisit the banks of tlie lake of Lausanne, a country which I have known and loved 
 from my early youth. Under a mild government, amidst a beauteous landscape, in a life of leisure 
 and independence, and among a people of easy and elegant manners, I have enjoyed, and may again 
 hope to enjoy, the varied pleasures of retirement and society. But I shall ever glory in the name 
 and character of an Englishman : I am proud of my birth in a free and enlightened country ; and the 
 approbation of that country is the best and most honourable reward of my labours. Were I ambi- 
 tious of any other patron than the public, I would inscribe this work to a statesman, who, in a long, 
 a stormy, and at length an unfortunate, administration, had many political opponents, almost without 
 a personal enemy ; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disinterested friends ; 
 and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigour of his mind, and the felicity 
 of his incomparable temper. Lord North will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in 
 the language of truth : but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favours 
 of the crown. 
 
 In a remote solitude, vanity may still whisper in my ear, that my readers, perhaps, may inquire, 
 whether, in the conclusion of the present work, I am now taking an everlasting farewell. They shall 
 hear all that I know myself, all that I could reveal to the most intimate friend. The motives of 
 
 1 Alluding to the quarto edition, in which size the work was originally published* 
 * See Dr. Robertson's Preface to his History of America. 
 
 XXI 
 
XX 11 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 action or silence are now equally balanced ; nor can I pronounce in my most secret thoughts, on 
 which side the scale will preponderate. I cannot dissemble that six ample quartos must have tried, 
 and may have exhausted, the indulgence of the public ; that in the repetition of similar attempts, a 
 guccessful author has much more to lose than he can hope to gain ; that I am now descending into the 
 vale of years ; and that the most respectable of my countrymen, the men whom I aspire to imitate, 
 have resigned the pen of history about the same period of their lives. Yet I consider that the annals 
 of ancient and modern times may afford many rich and interesting subjects ; that I am still possessed of 
 health and leisure ; that by the practice of writing, some skill and facility must be acquired; and that, 
 in the ardent pursuit of truth and knowledge, I am not conscious of decay. To an active mind, 
 indolence is more painful than labour ; and the first months of my liberty will be occupied and 
 amused in the excursions of curiosity and taste. By such temptations, I have been sometimes 
 seduced from the rigid duty even of a pleasing and voluntary task : but my time will now be my 
 own ; and in the use or abuse of independence, I shall no longer fear my own reproaches or those 
 of my friends. I am fairly entitled to a year of jubilee: next summer and the following winter will 
 rapidly pass away ; and experience only can determine whetlier I shall still prefer the freedom and 
 variety of study, to the design and composition of a regular work, which animates, while it confines, 
 the daily application of the author. Caprice and accident may influence my choice ; but the dexterity 
 of self-love will contrive to applaud either active industry, or philosophic repose. 
 
 Dowxixe Stbt.et, 
 May 1, 1788. 
 
 P. S. I shall embrace this opportunity of introducing two verbal remarks, wliich have not conve^ 
 niently offered themselves to my notice. 1. As often as I use the definition of beyond the Alps, 
 the Rhine, the Danube, &c. I generally suppose myself at Rome, and afterwards at Constanti- 
 nople ; without observing whether this relative geography may agree with the local, but variable, 
 situation of the reader, or the historian, 2. In proper names of foreign, and especially of oriental, 
 origin, it should be always our aim to express in our English version a faithful copy of the original. 
 But this rule, which is founded on a just regard to uniformity and truth, must often be relaxed ; and 
 the exceptions will be limited or enlarged by the custom of the language and the taste of the inter- 
 preter. Our alphabets may be often defective ; a harsh sound, an uncouth spelling, might offend the 
 ear or the eye of our countrymen : and some words, notoriously corrupt, are fixed, and as it were 
 nc.ciidiized, in the vulgar tongue. The prophet Mohammed can no longer be stripped of the famous, 
 though improper appellation of Mahomet : the well-known cities of Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo, 
 would almost be lost ia the strange descriptions of Haleb, Demashk, and Al Cahira; the titles and 
 offices of the Ottoman empire are fashioned by the practice of three hundred years ; and we are 
 pleased to blend the three Chinese monosyllables, Con-fu-tzee, in the respectable name of Confucius, 
 or even to adopt the Portuguese corruption of Mandarin. But I would vary the use of Zoroaster and 
 Zerdusht, as I drew my information from Greece or Persia : since our connexion with India, tho 
 genuine Timour is restored to the throne of Tamerlane : our most correct writers have retrenched 
 the Aly the superfluous article, from the Koran ; and we escape an ambiguous termination, by adopt- 
 ing Moslem instead of Mussulman, in the plural number. In these, and in a thousand examples, the 
 phades of distinction are often minute ; and I can feel, where I cannot explain, the motives of my 
 choice. 
 
 • ,* At the end of the Hietory, the reader will find a General Index to tho whole Work, which has been drawn up by a 
 
 person frequently employed in works of this nature. 
 
 A NOTICE OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GIBBON, 
 
 It is not merely because it gratifies an idle curiosity, that 
 it is interesting to collect all the particulars relating to the 
 character of men distinguished for their works or public ac- 
 tions. These particulars ought to influence the judgment 
 we form either of their conduct or their writings. Celebrated 
 men seldom escape from that restless suspicion, which search- 
 es for their secret sentiments, and makes us attach to what- 
 ever we know of them some particular idea, founded upon 
 the opinion we have fonned of their motives. It is important 
 that these motives should be appreciated with justice, and if 
 it is iinnossible to eradicate from the mind of man the dispo- 
 sition to prejudge, which seems to be inherent in his nature, 
 we ought at least to place it upon a solid and reasonable ba- 
 sis. It is no doubt true that in some cases the opinion we 
 have of the author ought not to influence that which we form 
 of his writings — but not so with regard to the historian. He, 
 of all writers, perhaps, owes the most to the public estimation 
 of himself. He makes himself surety for the facts he relates ; 
 the value of this surety ought to be known, and it is founded, 
 not only upon the moral character of the historian and the 
 confidence his veracity can inspire, but also upon the habitu- 
 al turn of his mind, the opinions he is most inclined to adopt, 
 the peculiarities of thought by which he suffers himself to be 
 most easily led away upon whatever constitutes the atmo- 
 sphere which surrounds and colours to his eye the events he 
 describes. / will always seek the truth, vVrote Gibbon pre- 
 vious to the commencement of his liistorical labours, although 
 hitherto I have found little except the semblances of truth. 
 It is among these semblances of truth, these truth-seef/iings, 
 that the historian ought to find, and, as it were, to reproduce 
 the truth itself, in part effaced by the hand of time. It is his 
 province to judge of their value ; it is our right to estimate 
 the decision of the judge according to our opinion of his cha- 
 racter. If freedom from passion, moderation of desires, and 
 that middle condition of fortune fitted to extinguish ambition 
 by preventing want, suggests the idea of a man the most in- 
 clined to that impartiality necessary for historical writing, 
 then no man, in this respect, ever possessed more than Gib- 
 bon the qualities of a historian. 
 
 He was descended from nn ancient, but not greatly distin- 
 guished family, and could not, as he says himself in his Me- 
 moirs, while relating with some complacency his family alli- 
 ances and advantages, receive from his ancestry either glory 
 or shame. The most remarkable of his family connections 
 was his near relationship to the Chevalier Acton, celebrated 
 in Europe as the minister of the king of Naples. His grand- 
 father enriched himself by successful commercial enterprises ; 
 making, as says his grandson, his opinions subordinate to his 
 interests ; clothing in Flanders the troops of king William, 
 when he would have served king James with more willing- 
 ness, but not, perhaps, adds the historian, with so much pro- 
 fit. Less disposed than his parent to regulate his inclinations 
 according to his situation, the father of our historian dissi- 
 pated a fortune which he had acquired too easily to know its 
 talue. He thus bequeathed to his son the necessity of turn- 
 
 ing to an important use, that activity of mind, which, in a 
 more advantageous situation, the quietude of his imagination 
 and spirit would perhaps have left unemployed. This acti\'ity 
 of mind manifested itself, froln his infancy, in those interNals 
 allowed him by the weakness and infirmities with which he was 
 almost constantly afflicted till the age of fifteen. His consti- 
 tution then became strengthened, and good health was sud- 
 denly restored to him. At this age the lassitude so imuatura! 
 to childhood and youth, by repressing the sallies of the imagi- 
 nation, facilitates that close application, which is always less 
 irksome to w'ealiness than to buoyancy ; but the ill health of 
 the young Gibbon served as a pretext for the indolence of his 
 father and the irxdulgcnce of an aunt, to whose care he was 
 committed, and they gave themselves little trouble with his 
 education. All his activity therefore turned itself towards a 
 taste for reading, an occupation wliich favours indolence and 
 curiosity of mind by exen^ting from regular and assiduous 
 study. But his excellent memory and the recollection of his 
 early reading, laid the foundation of that great knowledge 
 which at last he laboured to acquire. History was his first 
 passion and became in the end his ruling taste. He already 
 brought to it that spirit of criticism and of scepticism, which 
 has since formed one of the distinctive characteristics of his 
 manner of thought and w^riting. At the age of fifteen, he 
 determined to undertake an historical work; it was the Age 
 of Sesostrls. His design was not, as from his age we would 
 naturally suppose, to paint the Wonders of the conqueror's 
 reign, but to fix the probable date of his existence. In the 
 system he had chosen, which fixed the reign of Sesostris about 
 the time of Solomon^ one objection only embarrassed him t 
 and the manner in which he obviated it is ingenious, as he 
 himself says, and for a young man of his age, is curious ; in- 
 asmuch as it shows the spirit which was one day to preside 
 over the historical composition upon which rests his fame. 
 The following is the account of it as related in his Memoirs : 
 '* In the translation of the sacred boolts," says he, " the high 
 priest Manetho made one and the same person of Sethosis or 
 Sesostris, and the elder brother of Danaus, who landed in 
 Greece, according to the marbles of Faros, 1510 years before 
 Christ; but according to my supposition, the high priest is 
 guilty of a voluntary error. Flattery is the mother of false- 
 hood. Mai^thoV history of Egypt is dedicated to Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus, Who traced his origin, either fabulous or illegiti- 
 mate, to the Macedonian kings of the race of Hercules. Da- 
 naus is one of tlie ancestors of Herciiles ; and the elder branch 
 of the family becoming extinct, the Ptolemies, his descendants, 
 fouitd themselves the sole representatives of the royal family, 
 and could claim by right of inheritafnce the throne which 
 they occupied by right of conquest." A flatterer then could 
 pay his court to the sovereign by representing Danaus, the 
 progenitor of the Ptolemies, as brother to the kings of Egypt j 
 and since the falsehood had once beeri of service, Gibboii 
 takes it for granted. The Age of Sesostris was discontinued, 
 and some years after thrown into the fire ; and Gibbon ni/ 
 more endeavoured to reconcile Jewish, Egyptian, and Grc* 
 
 xxiit 
 
XXIV 
 
 A NOTICE OF THE LIFE 
 
 AND CHARACTER OF GIBBON. 
 
 XiV 
 
 .-f 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 cian Antiquities ; lostj as he says, in too distant a cloud. But 
 this fact, which he has preserved, appeared to rae remarkable ; 
 because we seem already to recognize the historian of the 
 Decline of the Roman Empire and the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, We see the critic, who, ever armed with probabilities 
 and doubts, and always seeking in the interest or passions of 
 the writers he consults, wherewith to impugn or to modify 
 their testimony, has nothing positive and entire left of the 
 crimes and the virtues he portrays. 
 
 A mind so inquisitive, yielding to its own bent, would not 
 have left unexamined any object worthy of its attention. 
 The same curiosity, which had given him a taste for histori- 
 cal, led him also into religious controversy, and that indepen- 
 dence of thought, which revolts against authority that would 
 impose upon us generally adopted opinions, determined 
 Inm at once against the religion of his country, his parents, 
 and teachers. Proudly supposing, that unassisted he had 
 found the truth, Gibbon at the age of sixteen became a catho- 
 h'c. Dilferent circumstances produced his conversion ; but the 
 Histon/ nf the Differences of Vrotestant Churches by Bossuct 
 entirely accomplished it, at least, said he, I yielded to a nnble 
 advermry. For the only time in his life he was led away 
 bv a feeling of enthusiasm, tlie result of which increased the 
 disgust he afterwards felt for all emotions of this nature. lie 
 made ab uration of his errors before a catholic priest at Lon- 
 don on the 8th of June, 175:J, being then of the age of sixteen 
 years one month and twelve days, — (he was born the 27th of 
 April, 1737.) This abjuration was secretly made, during one 
 of those excursions which he was permitted to take, in con- 
 sequence of the negligence with which he was watched at 
 the university of Oxford, of which he was a member. Never- 
 theless, he thought it his duty to inform his father of it, who, 
 in the first transports of his anger, divulged the fatal secret. 
 The young Gibbon was sent from Oxford, and not long after 
 banisJied from his family, who sent him to Lausanne, where 
 they hoped that some years of penitence, and the instructions 
 of M. Pavilliard, the protestant clergyman, to whose care he 
 was entrusted, would bring him back to the path from which 
 he had wandered. This kind of punishment was well calcu- 
 lated to produce upon a character such as Gibbon's the de- 
 t;ired eft'cct. Consigned to ennui by his ignorance of the 
 French language, which was spoken at Lausanne, restricted 
 by the smallness of the pension to which the displeasure of 
 his father had reduced him, exposed to all kinds of depriva- 
 tion by the avarice of Mad. Pavilliard, the wife of the clergy- 
 man, who made him almost die of hunger and cold, he soon 
 felt an abatement of the generous ardour with which he at 
 llrst had hoped to sacrifice himself to the cause he had em- 
 braced : and sought in good earnest for arguments which 
 might bring him back to a faith less painful to support. It 
 is seldom the case, that in argument, one seeks in vain for 
 that which he ardently longs to find. M . Pavilliard congrat- 
 ulated himself for the influence he was gaining over the mind 
 of his ward, who assisted him with his own reflections, and 
 who mentions the transport which he felt, when he discover- 
 j ed by his own understanding an argument against transub- 
 f ytantiution. ^rThis argument produced his recantation of po- 
 i P^T* which Was made with as much readiness and sincerity 
 as had been eighteen months before his abjuration of protes- 
 tantism. Gibbon was then seventeen and a half years of 
 I nge. These changes, which at a more advanced j)eriod of 
 life would have indicated a light and unreflecting mind, pro- 
 ved only at his age, an active imagination and a mind in 
 search of truth, — but one which had too easily lost those pre- 
 judices, which are the safe-guard of youth, when as yet prin- 
 ciples cannot be based upon reason. It was then, says Gil)- 
 bon, relating this event, that I ceased my theological research- 
 es and submitted myself implicitly to the dogmas and myste- 
 ries adopted both by protestants and catholics. So rapid a 
 
 transition from one faith to another had evidently shaken hia 
 confidence in both. The enthusiastic and confident adoption 
 of opinions at first, and then the rejection of them, doubtless 
 caused in his mind a scepticism upon all kinds of religious 
 belief, and a disposition to doubt arguments which appeared 
 the most solid. \ However that may be. Gibbon seems to 
 have regarded it as one of the most fortunate circumstances 
 of his life, since rousing the attention of his parents, it forced 
 them to exercise their authority more strictly and to subject 
 him to a regular plan of education. M. Pavilliard, a judi- 
 cious and well-informed man, had not limited his attention to 
 the religious belief of his pupil. He had readily acquired the 
 ascendency over a character easily guided, and had used it to 
 regulate that active curiosity which only needed to be direct- 
 ed to the true sources of information. But the master, una- 
 ble to follow his pupil in the path he himself had directed, 
 left him to pursue it alone. The mind of the young Gibbon, 
 formed for order and method, now commenced that regular 
 and constant course of study and reflection which has so often 
 conducted him to the truth, and which would always have 
 prevented him from swerving from it, had not an excessive 
 nicety and a dangerous pronencss to prejudge, without the 
 requisite examination and reflection, sometimes led him into 
 error. 
 
 A volume of argumentative extracts from his readings was 
 published after his death, the first of which was date' about 
 the time he commenced the plan of study directed by M. Pa- 
 villiard. In reading it one cannot but be struck with tho 
 sagacity, the justice, and the ingenuity of that calm and 
 thinking mind which never wanders from the path it has 
 chosen. *' We ought to read oidy to assist us to think," i 
 says he in the notice which precedes these extracts, and 
 which seem to indicate that he intended them for publication. 
 It is indeed evident that the extracts serve only as the foun- 
 dation of his own thoughts •, but he strictly confines himself 
 to them. He follows the ideas of the author only so far as 
 they give rise to his own ; but his own thoughts never divert 
 him from those of the author. He proceeds, step by step, 
 overleaping no interval, and in a firm and sure manner. 
 We do not perceive that the course of his reflections car- 
 ries him above the subject from whence they arose, producing 
 in his mind that excitement of grand Tdeas which almost 
 always characterizes the study of strong, fertile and exten- 
 ded minds ; but nothing is lost that can furnish him material 
 for thought ; nothing escapes him which can elicit anything 
 useful, and all bespeaks the historian who knows how to ex- 
 tract from facts all thnt their known details can furnish to his 
 natural sagacity, without seeking to supply or recompose 
 those unknown parts which the imagination alone can por- 
 tray. 
 
 The Work of his conversion being achieved. Gibbon found , 
 his residence at Lausanne more agreeable than at first from 
 his situation he could have hoped. The moderate remittan- 
 ces from his father did not permit him to indulge in the plea- 
 sures and excesses of those of his young countrymen who 
 travel over Europe diffusing their thoughts and customs, only 
 to bring back to their own land the follies and fashions of 
 other countries. But this privation was the means of con- 
 firming his taste for study, and of turning his desires towards 
 a more permanent glory than could be derived from the ad- 
 vantages of fortune, and induced him to seek the more sim- 
 ple and useful society of the place in which he lived. Ow- 
 ing to his easy familiarity he was received in society with 
 marked attention, and his love of science introduced him to 
 the acijuaintance of many learned men, whose esteem gained 
 for him a respect and consideration flattering for his age, and 
 which had ever been one of his greatest pleasures. 
 
 Nevertheless, the calmness of his spirit did not shelter liim 
 from the agitations of youth. At Lausanne he saw and loved 
 
 I 
 
 Mad'lle. Curchod, since Mad. Necker, then already distin- 
 guished for her worth and beauty. His love was such as a 
 young gentleman would feel for a young and virtuous woman, 
 and Gibbon, who afterwards probably experienced no more 
 similar emorions, with a kind of pride congratulates himself 
 in his memoirs, tliat once in his Vfe he had been capable of 
 feeling so pure and exalted a sentiment. The parents of 
 Mad'lle. Curchod favoured his suit, and she herself, since she 
 was not yet reduced to that state of poverty which she after- 
 wards experienced upon the death of her father, seemed to 
 receive his addresses with pleasure. But the young Gibbon, 
 after a five years' residence at Lausanne, was recalled to Eng- 
 land, and he soon saw that he could not hope to induce his 
 father to consent to this alliance. After a painful struggle, 
 says he, I resigned myself to my destiny. He seeks not to 
 display or exaggerate his despair ; as a lover, he adds, I sigh- 
 ed, but as a son I obeyed; and this sprightly antithesis proves 
 that at the time he wrote his memoirs, there remained little 
 of the anguish of " this wound, insensibly healed by time, 
 absence and new habits (f I'fc.^'* 
 
 The habits of a man of fashion in London, less romantic, 
 perhaps, than those of a young student among the mountains 
 of Switzeriand, changed the love which he long felt for fe- 
 male society, to a simple amusement No one could ever 
 rival in his estimation Mad'lle. Curchod; and he experienced 
 with her during his life that sweet intimacy consequent upon 
 an honourable and tender love, wliich necessity and reason had 
 been able to overcome, without giving any place to reproaches 
 or bitterness of feeling. He saw her again at Paris in 1765, 
 the wife of M. Necker, and enjoying the consideration which 
 was due as well to his character as to his rank. He humor- 
 ously describes in his letters to Mr. Holroyd, the manner in 
 which she received him. "She has been," says he, "very 
 affectionate towards me, and hef husband particularly polite. 
 Could he insult me more cruelly ? To invite me everj' even- 
 ing to supper, to retire and leave me alone with his wife, is 
 assuredly treating a former lover as of no consequence." 
 Gibbon was not one very much to disquiet a husband by the 
 recollections of himself which might still exist. Capable of 
 pleasing by his intelligence, and of interesting by his gentle 
 and upright character, he was Uttle fitted vividly to excite the 
 imagination of a young person. His figure, never agreeable, 
 liad now become remarkable for its grossness ; his features 
 were animated, but without character or nobleness, and his 
 form had always been disproportionate. " M. Pavilliard," says 
 Lord Sheffield in one of his notes to the Memoirs of Gibbon, 
 " has represented to me his surprise when he saw before him 
 Mr. Gibbon, that small thin figure and that large head which, 
 in disputation, employed in favour of popery the best argu- 
 ments then in use." His feeble health in childhood, or the 
 liabits which arose out of it, had given him an awkward tim- 
 idity, of which he continually speaks in his letters, and in- 
 creased at the last his excessive corpulence, and even in his 
 youth did not permit him to engage in any bodily exercise, 
 not even for amusement. As to his moral qualities, we shall 
 perhaps be curious to know what he thought of himself at the 
 age of twenty-five. The following are the reflections he 
 makes upon this subject in his diary, commenced in his twen- 
 ty-sixth year : "According to the observations I have made 
 upon myself," says he, " it appears to me that my character 
 is virtuous, hicapable of a base action, and fonncd for generous 
 
 * The letter ia which Gibbon announces lo Mad'lle. Currhod his 
 father's opposition lo their marriage is still in manuscript. The first 
 pages are sad and tender, as was to be expected from an unfortunate 
 lover, but thn hist became gradually calm and rational, and the let- 
 ter clorf'S with these words : Therefore, Mademoiselle, I have the 
 honour to be ijour very humble and obedient servant, Edto. Gibbon. 
 He truly loved Mad'lle. Curchod ; but every one loves according 
 to his character, and that of Gibbon refused to surrender itself to 
 despair. 
 
 V OL. I.— B 
 
 deeds, but that it is proud, haughty and disagreeable in soci- 
 ety. Wit I have none ; my imagination is powerful rather 
 than pleasing, my memory is vast and excellent ; the most 
 remarkable qualities of my mind are its compass and penetra- 
 tion, but I fail in quickness and accuracy." We ought to es- 
 timate the judgment Gibbon has passed upon his own mind 
 from reading his works. The idea which this judgment sup- 
 ports of his moral character is, that, if in speaking of himself 
 he testifies that he is virtuous, though he might have been de- 
 ceived as to the extent of virtuous duties, he proved even by 
 this that he felt disposed to fulfil these duties in all the ex tent 
 he gave them; he was certainly an honest man, and always 
 would have been, because he felt a pleasure m being so. As 
 to the haughtiness and violence of which he accuses himself, 
 whether it be that his solicitude to subdue these inclinations 
 had made him feel them more strongly than others, or be- 
 cause reason had conquered, or the habit of success had calm- 
 ed them, certain it is, that those who knew him later never 
 perceived them. As to his manner in society, without doubt 
 the agrecableness of Gibbon was neither that condescension 
 which is yielding and unpretending, nor that modesty- which 
 forgets itself; but his self-esteem never showed itself in any 
 disagreeable form : anxious to succeed and to please, he wish- 
 ed to fix attention upon himself, and he obtained liis desire 
 without difficulty by a style of conversation, animated, intel- 
 ligent and full of anecdote. If the tone of his voice was pe- 
 remptory, it betrayed less a desire of ruling others than the 
 confidence he felt in liiraself; and this confidence was jrsti- 
 fiied both by his resources and his success. Neverthele.- , it 
 never misled him, and the fimlt of his conversation was a sort 
 of precision of language which gave to it an air of study and 
 arrangement This fault might perhaps have been attributed 
 to the embarrassment of speaking in a strange language, if 
 his friend Lord SheffTK^d, who defends him from the suspicion 
 of studied arrangement in his conversation, had not at least 
 granted that " before writing a note or a letter he arrau'^ed 
 completely in his mind whatever he wished to express." It 
 appears also that he always wrote in this manner. Dr. Gre- 
 gory, in his Letters upon Literature says, that Gibbon com- 
 posed while walking his room, and that " he never wrote a 
 sentence without having perfectly constructed and arranged 
 it in his mind." Besides, the French language was neariy 
 as familiar to him as the English ; his residence at Lausanne, 
 where it was exclusively spoken, had made it for some time 
 his habitual language, and he would not have been suspected 
 of having ever spoken any other, had he not been betrayed 
 by too strong an accent and by certain peculiarities, ceitaiii 
 sharp tones, which, disagreeable to ears accustomed from in- 
 fancy to softer inflections, diminished the pleasure of listening 
 to him. Three years after his return to England he published 
 in French his first work. An Essay upon the Study of Lite- 
 rature, a w^ell written piece, and full of excellent criticism. 
 It was little read by his own countrymen, but in France iT^ 
 was received with admiration, rather, however, by literanr 
 men, who saw in it a mind destined to higher efforts, than 
 by men of the worid, who are rarely pleased with a work 
 unless the author has much raciness and spirit It was in 
 the world however that Gibbon desired to succeed. Society 
 always had for him great attractions, as it ever has for those 
 who, free from particular attachments and incapable of deep 
 emotion, are satisfied whh that lively interchange of thought 
 and feeUng that compensates them for any deficiency of affec- 
 tionate and unreserved confidence. GibI)on knew that the 
 first requisite for being agreeable in the worid is to be a man 
 of the worid, and such he desired to be considered. He even 
 appears through this desire sometimes to have inclined to a 
 weak vanity. We see in his notes of liis reception by the 
 Duke de Nivemais that, by the fault of Dr. Maty, whose let- 
 ters of recommendation were badly expressed, the Duke, al- 
 
XXVI 
 
 A NOTICE OF THE LIFE 
 
 AND CHARACTER OF GIBBON. 
 
 xx\ii 
 
 though he received him witli poHteness, treated him " more 
 as a Uitrary man ilian as a man of fashion.*^ In 1763, two 
 years after the publication of his Essay upon the Study of 
 Literature, he again left England to travel, but in a situation 
 very different from that in which he was when he left it ten 
 years before. Preceded by his rising fame, he came to Paris. 
 ^ For a man of Gibbon's character, Paris, as it was then, was the 
 abode of happiness. He spent three months there in the soci- 
 ety best suited to his taste, and he regretted that time flew so 
 rapidly. *' If I had been rich and independent," says he, " I 
 should have prolonged and perhaps fixed my residence at Pa- 
 ris." But Italy awaited him. It was there, from the midst of 
 plans of various works, which, in turn adopted and rejected, 
 had occupied his mind for a long time, that the idea of that 
 work was to arise, which caused his reputation and occupied a 
 great part of liis life. " It was at Rome," says he, " the 15th 
 of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the 
 capitol, while the barefooted monks were chanting vespers in 
 the temple of Jupiter, that for the first time I was struck with 
 the idea of writing the history of the decline and fall of this 
 city ; but," he adds, " my first plan comprised more particularly 
 the decline of the city than that of the empire, and though 
 from that time my reading and reflections generally turned 
 towards this object, I permitted many years to pass on. I 
 even devoted myself to other occupations before seriously un- 
 dertaking this laborious work." Indeed, never losing sight of, 
 yet never approaching, this subject, which he looked at, as he 
 says, from a respec/ful distance, Gibbon formed and even be- 
 gan to execute some plans of historical works; but a few cas- 
 ual pieces of criticism were the only compositions that he fin- 
 ished and published during this interval. With his eye ever 
 fixed upon the end towards which he was one day to direct 
 his efforts, he approached it slowly, and doubtless the idea 
 which was at first presented to him remained strongly im- 
 pressed upon his mind. 
 
 It is difficult, in reading his account of the Roman empire 
 under Augustus and his first successors, not to feel that he 
 ^vas inspired by the view of Rome itself, of the Eternal City, 
 into which he confesses that he never entered without an emo- 
 tion which deprived him of sleep for one night. Perhaps also 
 it will not be difficult to find, in tliis impression, from whence 
 arose the conception of the work, one of the causes of that 
 war which Gibbon seems here to have declared against Chris- 
 tianity, and which appears to be suited neither to his charac- 
 ter, which was little disposed to party-spirit, nor to that mode- 
 ration of thought and sentiment, which led him always to see 
 in every subject, particular as well as general, its advantages 
 aside from its disadvantages. But Gibbon, while writing the 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has 
 seen in Christianity only the institution which established 
 vespers, the barefooted monks and the processions, instead of 
 the magnificent ceremonies of the worship of Jupiter and tri- 
 umphs of the capitol. At last, after many other attempts 
 successively abandoned, he settled entirely the plan of the 
 history of the Decline of the Empire, and commenced that 
 course of study and reading which would disclose to him a new 
 horizon, and insensibly enlarge to his vision the plan he had 
 at first formed. The embarrassment caused by the death of 
 his father, which happened about this time, the deranged state 
 of his airairs, his duties as member of parliament, which he 
 had just entered, and the distractions of a life in London, 
 prolonged, without interrupting, his studies, and retarded till 
 the year 1776 the publication of the first volume of the work. 
 Its success was wonderful. Two or three editions readily 
 disposed of had established the reputation of the author Infore 
 criticism had begun to raise her voice. She raised it at last, 
 and all the religious party, very numerous and respectable in 
 England, pronounced agsdnst the two last chapters of this 
 volume (the fifteenth and sixteenth of tlie work) which give , 
 
 the history of the establishment of Christianity. Remon* 
 strances were many and violent. Gibbon had liOt expected 
 this ; and he confesses that he was ut first frightened. " If I 
 had thought," says he, in his memoirs, '* that the majority of 
 English readers had been so tenderly attached to the name and 
 shadow of Christianity ; if I had foreseen that the pious, the 
 timid and prudent would feel, or aflect to feel with such ex- 
 quisite sensibility, I perhaps should have softened the two last 
 chapters, the cause of so much offence, which have raised ma- 
 ny adversaries against me, and gained for me but few friends." 
 l^his surprise seems to diow a man so preoccupied with liis 
 own thoughts, that he could neither foresee nor perceive those 
 of others. If this preoccupation undeniably proves his sin- 
 cerity, it at least renders his judgment liable to the suspicion 
 of prejudice and inaccuracy. Wherever prejudice reigns 
 there is no longer perfect integrity. Without precisely wish- 
 ing to deceive others, we begin by deceiving ourselves. To 
 maintain what we conisider truth, we resort to scepticisms, 
 which we scarcely own to ourselves, or which appear trifling, 
 and the passions diminish the importance of any scruple con- 
 cerning the rectitude of what they have undertaken to accom- 
 plish. It is thus, doubtless, that Gibbon was led to see in the 
 history of Christianity only what would subserve opinions ho 
 had previously formed, without a scrupulous examination of 
 facts. 
 
 The alteration of some passages which he had cited, wheth- 
 er done by design or because he had neglected to read the 
 whole of them, furnished weapons to his opponents by giving 
 them reason to doubt his honesty. The whole ecclesiastical 
 order seemed leagued against him. Those who entered the 
 lists against him obtained favour and preferment, and he ironi- 
 cally felicitated himself that he had obtained for Mr. Davis a 
 pension from the king, and for Dr. Apthorpe an archiepisco- 
 pal living. We can easily believe that the pleasure of thus 
 rallying his opponents, who had almost always attacked him 
 with more fury than discretion, compensated for the chagrin 
 he at first felt in consequence of their assaults, and also per- 
 haps prevenled him from acknowledging the real wrongs he 
 had to reproach himself with. Besides, Hume and Robert- 
 son had loaded the new historian with the most flattering tes- 
 timonies of their esteem. They both seemed to fear that the 
 manner in which these two chapters were written would injure 
 the success of the work ; but they spoke of his talents with so 
 much admiration that Gibbon was authorised to say modestly, 
 when congratulating himself ujwn the receipt of a letter from 
 Hume, " nevertheless, I have never had the presumption to 
 accept a place in the triumvirate of English historians." 
 Hume especially expressed the greatest partiality for the work 
 of Gibl>on, whose opinions approached so nearly to his own 
 in some respects, while Gibbon also esteemed the talents of 
 Hume more than those of Robertson. We perhaps ought 
 not to adopt without some restriction the judgment of Hume, 
 who, writing concerning Gibbon, praises the dignity of his 
 style. Dignity does not appear to me to be a characteristic 
 of Gibbon's style ; it is generally epigrammatic, and more for- 
 cible by its skilful phraseology than by its elevation. I would 
 subscribe more willingly to the opinion of Robertson, who, 
 having rendered justice to the extent of his knowledge, to his 
 research and accuracy, praises the interest and clearness of 
 his narration, the elegance and force of his style, and the sin- 
 gular happiness of some of his expressions, though in some 
 places he found it too laboured, and in others too quaint. 
 This fault was easily explained by his manner of composing, 
 the dilficulties he had to avoid, and the models he preferred 
 to adopt. At first the work was very laborious; he informs 
 us that he wrote the first chapter three times, the second and 
 third twice, and that he found it very difficult to preserve a 
 medium between the style of a dull chronicle and that of rhe- 
 torical declamation. He tells us also, that when he wished to 
 
 write a history of Switzerland, which he had commenced, 
 ** he perceived that his style, above prose and below poetry, 
 degenerated into verbose and bombastic declamation," which 
 he attributes to the language he had chosen ; an opinion the 
 more singular, since, according to his own account, it was 
 from a French work. Provincial Letters^ which he read al- 
 most every year, that he acquired the art of "treating a sub- 
 ject with grave and sober irony." He adds in his Essay up- 
 on Literature^ that the desire of imitating Montesquieu had 
 often led him to beco/ne obscure by expressing even common 
 thoui-hts with a sententious and oracular brevitv. Gibbon 
 had then habitually before his eyes Paschal and Montesquieu 
 in order to counteract the natural bombast of a style as yet 
 unformed. He needed to make vigorous euTorts to compress 
 it to the point demanded by these models, and these efforts 
 are very perceptible, especially in the commencement, where 
 the style he had adopted had not as yet become natural by 
 use ; but habit relaxes effort, and at the same time renders it 
 less painful. In his memoirs and in the notice which preceded 
 the last volumes of his work, Gil)bon congratulates himself for 
 the facility he had acquired. Perhaps it will be found that 
 m the last volumes this facility is sometimes obtained at the 
 expense of perfection. Having become by habit less severe 
 upon faults, which at first he had so carefully guarded against, 
 he is not always free from that kind of declamation, which 
 consists in supplying, by the convenient resource of vague 
 
 he even is destitute of the national and party prejudices" ne- 
 cessary to obtain distinction, and perhaps to accomplish any 
 thing good in the career he wished him to commence. 
 Though after the death of his father he was induced to enter 
 parliament, he confesses several times that he entered without 
 patriotism, and, as he says, without ambition, for throughout 
 he never extended his views beyond the convenient and honest 
 place oUord of trade. We could wish perhaps he had pos- 
 sessed less facility in avowing this sort of moderation, which, 
 in a man of talent, confines his desires to the easy enjoyment 
 of a fortune acquired without labour. But Gibbon expresses 
 this sentiment as freely as he had felt it. He knew only by 
 experience the discomforts connected with the situation he 
 had chosen. In truth, he seems to have felt them vividly, if 
 we may judge from some expressions in his letters upoii the 
 disgrace of the state of dependence to which he had been 
 subjected, and his regret at being seen in a situation unwor- 
 thy of his character. It is true that when he wrote these ex- 
 pressions he had lost his place. It was taken from him in 
 1782 by a revolution in the administration. He proved that 
 he was sincere in consoling himself for this reverse of fortune, 
 which had restored him to liberty, by renouncing all ambi- 
 tion, and not permitting himself to be amused with the new 
 hopes which a new revolution might excite, and by resolving 
 to leave England, where his moderate fortune did not permit 
 him to support that style of living to which the circumstances 
 
 and sonorous epithets, that energy given to thought by pre^^ of his place under government had accustomed him. 
 
 cision and conciseness of expression. This precision and con- 
 ciseness are most remarkable in the first volumes of Gibbon, 
 in which he frequently resorts to antitheses, the design of 
 which is too readily discovered, but the effect not the less felt ; 
 and there is cause perhaps at the last to regret the loss of an 
 elaborateness of construction, too little concealed but always 
 happy. At the very commencement of his work, as I have 
 already said. Gibbon became a member of parliaments The 
 nature of his mind, which could not easily express its thoughts 
 in the happiest manner, unfitted him for a public speaker. Sen- 
 sible of this defect as well as of his want of gi-acc of manner, he 
 felt a timidity which he was never able to conquer. He assist- 
 ed in silence during eight sessions. Not being attached to any 
 party by motives of ambition, and not having committed him- 
 self by the public expression of any opinion, he could with less 
 difficulty, in 1779, accept a place under governmenf, that of 
 lord commissioner of commerce, obtained for him by the friend- 
 ship of Lord Loughborough, then Mr. Wedderburnc. Gibbon 
 has been very much censured for accepting this appointment, 
 and the whole of his political career betrays a weakness of cha- 
 racter, and a want of fixed opinions ; but tliis perhaps is excu- 
 sable, since his education had rendered him almost a stranger 
 to any national feeling. After a residence of five years at Lau- 
 sanne, he had, as he says himself, " ceased to be an English- 
 man." "At the age when our habits are formed," says he, 
 *' my opinions, my habits and my feelings, were cast in a 
 foreign mould ; only a feeble, a distant and faint recollection 
 of England remained ; my mother tongue was no longer fa- 
 miliar to me." It is true, that at the time he left Switzerland, 
 the writing of a letter in English cost him much trouble. Al- 
 so, in his English letters written towards the close of his life, 
 real gallicisms occur, and lest they might not be understood, 
 he himself explains them by the French expression to which 
 they refer. 
 
 After his first return to England his father wished to get 
 him elected member of parliament. The young Gibbon, with 
 reason, preferred that the sums which would necessarily be em- 
 ployed in this election should be expended upon his travels, 
 which he knew would l)e more useful to his talents and repu- 
 tation. He therefore wrote a letter to his father upon the 
 subj^jct, which is still preserved, and in which he mentions 
 liis disinclination for public speaking, and declares "that 
 
 He went to live at Lausanne, the theatre of his first trou- 
 bles and his first pleasures, which he had since visited with 
 even new delight and affection. M. Deyverdun, who had 
 been his friend for thirty years, offered him a residence at his 
 house, which was suited to his resources, and at the same time 
 enabled him to compensate in some measure the mcdiociity 
 of his friend's fortune. He there experienced the advantage 
 of a state of society conformed to his quiet tastes, and the re- 
 pose necessary for the continuation of his work. In 1 783 he 
 executed that resolution, for which he has ever since congiat- 
 ulatcd himself. He completed at Lausanne his great work, 
 the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. " I have pre- 
 sumed," says he, in his memoirs, " to mark the moment of 
 conception, I shall now commemorate the hour of my final 
 deliverance. It was on the day or ratlier night of the 27tli 
 of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twxlve, that I 
 wrote the last lines of the last page, in a summer-house in my 
 garden. After laying down my pen I took several turns in an 
 arbour or covered walk of acacias, which commands a pros- 
 pect of the country, the lake and the mountains. The air 
 was temperate, the sky serene, the silver orb of the moon was 
 reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will 
 not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my 
 freedom and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But mv 
 pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread 
 over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave 
 of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever 
 might be the future fate of my history, the life of the histo- 
 rian must be short and precarious." This idea could not 
 long affect a man in whom the sensation of health and a 
 calmness of imagmation preserved a feeling of certainty that 
 he should enjoy a long life, and who in his last moments 
 even calculated with complacency the number of years 
 which probably he had to live. Enjoying the result of his 
 labours, he went to England this same year to attend to the 
 printing of the last volumes of liis history. His residence 
 there contributed still more to endear him to Switzerland. Un- 
 der George I. and George II. all taste for literature and talent 
 had l>ecomc nearly extinct at court The Duke of Cum- 
 berland, whose levee Gibbon one day attended, thus accosted 
 him, ** W^hat, Mr. Gibbon, still scribble, scribble!" At the 
 end of the year he left his country with Uttle regret, to return 
 
XXVlll 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GIBBON. 
 
 - 7^- 
 
 <^ 
 
 i 
 
 to Lausanne, where he enjoyed life, and where lie was be- 
 loved. I lie was deservedly dear to those with whom he had 
 lived, and who had enjoyed the advantages of his character and 
 society, which was easy and condescending, because he was 
 happy. Never carrying his desires beyond reason, he was nev- 
 er dissatisfied cither with men or things. He often spoke of 
 his situation with a satisfaction wiiich accords with the mode- 
 ration of his character : — 
 
 ^ Je suis Franrais, Tourangeau, gentilliomiue 
 J'aurais pu naiire Turc, Limousin, paysau," 
 
 says the optimist]) Gibbon said the same in his memoirs ; *' my 
 place in life might have been that of a slave, a savage or a 
 peasant, and I cannot think without pleasure of the goodness 
 of nature, who appointed my birth in a free and civilized 
 country, in an age of science and of philosophy, in a family 
 honourable in station and sufficiently provided with the gifts 
 of fortune." lie besides congratulates himself for the medi- 
 ocrity of this fortune, which had placed him in a situation ihe 
 most propitious for acquiring by his own labour an honoura- 
 ble reputation ; " for," says he, "poverty and contempt would 
 have discouraged mc, and the care of a large fortune, more 
 than adequate to my wants, would have abated my activity.'^ 
 
 He also speaks of his health, which, always good since he 
 had escaped the perils of childhood, had never permitted him 
 to experience the " madness of superfluous health." He had 
 derived for twenty years much happiness from the execution, 
 of his work, and now he enjoyed with simplicity the fruits of 
 his hibours ; and as every thing enhances pleasure in a hapj- 
 py situation, after having, doubtless, patiently endured his 
 situation as lord of trajcj when once arrived in Lausanne he 
 could not sufficiently express his delight that he had escaped 
 from this state of servitude. 
 
 His memoirs and his letters, which arc almost all address- 
 ed to Lord Sheffield, are interesting, since they are expressive 
 of benevolence of character, and of feelings, if not tender, 
 at least very affectionate towards those connected with him 
 either by ties of blood or friendship. This afTcction is ex- 
 pressed with little vivacity, but in a natural and sincere man- 
 ner. The long and intimate friendship which united him to 
 JiOrd Sheffield and M. Deyverdun is a proof of the affection 
 which he was capable of feeling and inspiring. We can 
 easily conceive that a man would inspire a strong attachment 
 whose heart, free from passion, brought to the society of his 
 friends all the sensibility it possessed, who was delighted to 
 sec them enjoying substantial pleasure, and whose honoura- 
 ble and serene soul, if it had not imparted warmth to his spi- 
 rit, had never at least obscured its brightness. The tranquilli- 
 ty of his soul was, however, disturbed during the last years 
 of his life, by the scenes of the French revolution, against 
 which he sided with so much warmth that none of those whom 
 it had driven from France, and who saw him at Lausanne, 
 could equal him in this respect. He had been for some 
 time at variance with M. Necker, but his knowledge of the 
 cliaracter and intentions of this virtuous man, his misfortunes 
 and the feelings of grief he felt in common with Gibbon for 
 the troubles of France, soon renewed their former friendship. 
 The revolution produced the same effect upon him as upon 
 many other men, distinguished no doubt, but who wrote rath- 
 er from their own reflections than from any experience they 
 had or could have upon such a subject : it caused him to re- 
 turn with greater earnestness to opinions he had held for a 
 long time. *' I have thought, sometimes," says he, in his 
 memoirs, when speaking of the revolution, " that I would 
 write a Dialogue of the Dead, in which Voltaire, Firasmus and 
 liUcian, should mutually declare hew dangerous it is to ex- 
 pose an ancient superstition to the contempt of a blind and 
 fanatic multitude." Had not Gibbon been living he might 
 have made the fourth in these dialogues and confessions. He 
 
 then maintained that he had never attacked chrislianity er* 
 cept because christians had destroyed polytheism, the ancient 
 religion of the empire. " The primitive church," he writes 
 to Lord Sheffield, *• of which I have 8})oken rather fimiharly, 
 was an innovation, and I was attached to the ancient estab- 
 lishment of paganism." He so delighted to profess his re- 
 spect for ancient institutions that sometimes in pleasantry he 
 amused himself by defending the Inquisition. At Lausanno 
 he had received in 1791 a visit from Lord Sheffield and his 
 family, and lie promised to return it soon in England. But 
 the continually increasing troubles of the revolution, the war, 
 which rendered all travelling dangerous, his enormous size and 
 his long neglected malady, which rendered motion every day 
 more difficult, made him defer from month to month so great 
 an undertaking. But at last in 1793, hearing of the death of 
 lady Sheffield, whom he tenderly loved and whom he called 
 his sister, he departed immediately to console his friend, in 
 the month of November of thi^ year. Six months after 
 his arrival in England, his comjjlaints, which originated as it 
 seems thirty years before, were increased to such a degree that 
 he was obliged to submit to an operation, which was repeated 
 many times and gave hopes of his recovery until the 16th of 
 January, 1794, when he died with calmness and without 
 pain. Gibbon left a memory dear to those who knew him, 
 and a reputation established throughout Europe. 
 
 In liis History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em-r 
 Hire, through neglect in some parts, the fitigue arising from 
 spch long continued labour is too perceptible. We tould 
 Wish that there had been a little more of that vivacity o im- 
 agination, which transports the reader into the midst of tho 
 fjccnes described, and of that warmth of feeling, which, so to 
 spe&k, makes him feel as if with his passions and personal in- 
 tellects he were one of the actors in those scenes. His im- 
 partiality between virtue and vice seems sometimes to be car- 
 ried too far, and we regret that that ingenious penetration 
 which discerns and separates so well the dilforent paits of an 
 event, has not oflener given place to that truly philosophic 
 genius that again unites them in one, and thus gives more of 
 reality and life to objects by presenting them in their com- 
 pleteness. But no one can avoid being struck with the plain- 
 ness and distinctness of so large a picture; with the always 
 just, and sometimes profound, views which accompany it ; 
 with the clearness of the development which fixes, without 
 wearying the attention ; where no vagueness troubles or em- 
 barrasses the imagination ; in fine, with that rare compass of 
 mind, which, surveying the vast field of History, examines 
 its most secret places, and shows it under all the points of 
 view from which it can be considered ; and making the reader, 
 as it were, to go around the men and events, proves to him 
 that incomplete views are always false, and that in the order 
 of events, where all thin;:;s are combined and bound together, 
 it is necessary to know the whole to have any right to judge 
 of the least detail. The interest of the narration, which per- 
 vades the whole course of the History of the Decline and 
 \Fall of the Roman Empire, is owing to the penetration and 
 admirable sagacity of the hij-torian, which divines and follows 
 the true line of facts, and places in strong light their most re- 
 mote causes. We cannot, in my opinion, accord too much 
 esteem and praise to the immense variety of his knowledge 
 and to the courage which undertook to embody it in one 
 work, to the perseverance which accomplished it, and to that 
 independence of spirit which would not be controlled cither 
 by institutions or by the times, and without which there can 
 neither be a great historian, nor a true iiistorj\ It only re- 
 mains to add a word respecting the glorj' and fame of Gibbon. 
 Before him such a work had never been accomplished, and 1 
 whatever may be found in it to criticise, and in some places ) 
 to correct, after him no more remains to be done. ; 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EXTENT AND MILITARY FORCE OF THE EMPIRE IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. 
 
 Introduction. ^^ ^^^® second ceulury of the christian 
 sera, the empire of Rome comprehended 
 the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized 
 portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive 
 monarchy were p^uarded hy ancient renown an(^ disci- 
 plined valou r. The gentle, tiut powerful, influence of 
 laws and manners had gradually cemented the union 
 of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed 
 and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The 
 image of a free constitution was preserved with decent 
 reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the 
 sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all 
 A. D. the executive powers of government. 
 96 — itfO. During a happy period of more than four- 
 score years, the public administration w'as conducted 
 by the virtues and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, 
 and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and 
 of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the pros- 
 perous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from 
 the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most im- 
 portant circumstances of its Decline and Fall ; a revo- 
 lution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt 
 by the nations of the earth. 
 
 Moderation of The principal conquests of the Romans 
 Augustus, were achieved under the republi c ; and 
 the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with 
 preserving those dominions which had been acquired 
 by the policy of the senate, the active emulation of the 
 consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. 
 The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid suc - 
 cession of triumphs ; but it was reserved for A ugu stas, 
 to relinquisli the ambitious desicrn of subduino- the 
 whole earth, and to introduce the spirit of moderation 
 into the public councils. I nclined to peace by his tem- 
 per and situation, it was easy tor him to di~3cover, that 
 Home, in her present exalted situation, had much less 
 to hope than to fear from the chance of arms ; and that, 
 in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaki^ig 
 became every day more difficult, the event more doubt- 
 ful, and the possession more precarious, and less ben- 
 eficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to 
 these salutary reflections, and cflTectually convinced 
 him, that, by the prudent vigour of his counsels, it 
 would be easy to secure every concession, which the 
 safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the 
 most formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing his 
 person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, 
 he obtained, by an honourable treaty, the restitution of 
 the standards and prisoners which had been taken in 
 the defeat of Crassus.* 
 
 » Dion Cassius (1. liv. p. 736.) with tlie annotations of Reymar, who 
 lias collected all that Roman vanity has left upon the subject. The 
 
 His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempt- 
 ed the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They 
 marched near a thousand miles to the south of the tro- 
 pic; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the inva- 
 ders, and protected the unwarlike natives of those se- 
 questered regions.'' The northern countries of Europe 
 scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest. 
 The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with 
 a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it 
 was separated from freedom ; and though, on the first 
 attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Ro- 
 man power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, re- 
 gained their independence, and reminded Augustus of 
 the vicissitude of fortune.*^ On the death of that em- 
 peror, his testament was publicly read in the senate. 
 He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, 
 the advice of confining the empire within those limits,/^" 
 which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent 
 bulwarks and boundaries; on the west the Atlantic 
 ocean ; the Rhine and Danube on the north ; the Eu- 
 phrates on the east; and towards the south the sandy 
 deserts of Arabia and Africa.'* 
 
 Happily for the repose of mankind, the imitated by hia 
 moderate system recommended by the successors, 
 wisdom of Augustus was adopted by the fears and 
 vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the 
 
 marble of Ancyra, on which Aujifustus recorded his own exploits, as- 
 serts tliat he compelled the rarlhians to restore the cnsip;ns of^ Crassus. 
 [Tlie Latin poets have celebrated with much pomp this peaceful ex- 
 ploit of Augustas.— Horace, lib. iv. od. 15, has said, 
 
 * * * * 1'ua, Ca\sar, artas 
 
 * * * Sipna nostro restituit Jovi 
 
 Derepta Parthorum superbis ' 
 
 Postihus. — 
 
 And Ovid in his Tristes, b. 2, v. 227: 
 
 Nunc petit Armenius paccm, nunc porrlgit arcuni 
 Paribus eques, timida captaque si<jna manu. — G.] 
 
 b Strabo, (1- xvi. p. 780.} Pliny the Elder, (Hist. Natur. 1. vi. c. .30- 
 35.) and Dion Cassius, (1. liii. p 723. and 1. liv. p. 734.) have left us very 
 curious details concerninf? these wars. Tlie Romans mode tbemselve* 
 masters of Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia Ftli.v, well known to 
 the Orientals, (.cee Abulfeda and tho Nubian grootrraphy, p. 52.) They 
 wore arrived within three days' journey of the Spice country, the rich 
 object of their invasion, 
 
 [It is this city of Merab that the Arabians say was the residence of 
 Reikis queen of Sheba who came to see Solomon. A bank, by which 
 the waters collected in the environs were retained, havinp been' carried 
 away, a sudden inundation destroyed the city. Traces of it yet remain. 
 It was on the borders of a country named Adramyttium, where grew a 
 peculiar aromatic drug. We therefore road in the history of this expe- 
 dition of the Romans, that they were only three days' journey from the 
 country of Spices, (See d'Anville, anc. Geojr, vol. 2. p. 222.) — G ] 
 
 c Ry the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first book 
 of the Annals of Tacitus. Sueton. in August, c. 23. and Velleius Pa- 
 terculus, 1. ii. c, 117, &c. Augustus did not receive the melancholy 
 news with all the temper and lirmness that might have been expected 
 from his character. 
 
 d 'J'acif. Annal. I. ii. Dion Cassius, 1. Ivi. p. F33, and the speech of 
 Augustus himself, in Julian's Caesars, It receives great light from the 
 learned notes of his French translator, M. Spaiihcim. 
 
 13 
 
14 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 15 
 
 pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the 
 lirst Ca3sars seldom showed themselves to the armies, 
 or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer 
 that those triumphs, which their indolence neglected, 
 should be usurped by the conduct and valour of their 
 lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was con- 
 sidered as an insolent invasion of the imperial prerog- 
 ative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of 
 every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intrusted 
 to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might 
 have proved no less fatal to himself than to the van- 
 quished barbarians.^ 
 
 Conquest of Brit- '^'^^ ^^'Y acccssion wliich the Roman 
 aiii was the tirst empire received, during the first century 
 exception to it. ^^ ^j^^ christian aera, was the province 
 of Britain. In this single instance the successors of 
 Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the ex- 
 ample of the former, rather than the precept of ihe lat- 
 ter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of 
 Gaul seemed to invite their arms ; the pleasing, though 
 doubtful, intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their 
 avarice;^ and as Britain was viewed in the light of a 
 distinct and insulated world, the conrfuest scarcely 
 formed any exception to the general system of conti- 
 nental measures. After a war of about forty years, 
 undertaken by the most stupid,« maintained by the 
 most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid, of 
 all the emperors, the far greater part of the island sub- 
 mitted to the Roman yoke.'' Tiie various tribes of 
 Britons possessed valour without conduct, and the 
 love of freedom without the spirit of union. They 
 took up arms with savage fierceness ; they laid them 
 down, or turned them against each other, with wild 
 inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were 
 successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Carac- 
 tacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism 
 of the druids, could avert the slavery of their country, 
 or resist the steady progress of the imperial generals, 
 who maintained the national glory, when the throne 
 was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious, of 
 mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined 
 to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired ; his 
 legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, 
 defeated tlie collected force of the Caledonians at the 
 foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to 
 explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, dis- 
 played the Roman arms round every part of the island. 
 The conquest of Britain was considered as already 
 achieved : and it was the design of Agricola to com- 
 plete and ensure his success by the easy reduction of 
 Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few 
 auxiliaries were sullicient.' The western isle might 
 be improved into a valuable possession, and the Brit- 
 ons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, 
 if the prospect and example of freedom were on every 
 side removed from before their eyes. 
 
 But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned 
 his removal from the government of Britain ; and for 
 ever disappointed this rational, though extensive, 
 scheme of conquest. Before his d(>parture, the pru- 
 dent general had provided for security as well as for 
 dominion. He had observed, that the island is almost 
 
 e Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola, wore chccke«l and 
 rfralli(t in llio course of tlitir victories. Corhulo was put to dralh. 
 Military merit. a.s it is adniirahly i'.\pri'.»s(d by Tacitu.s, was, in tijo 
 strictest senso of the Viyn\,,imprratoria riftn.i. 
 
 f Cajsar himself conceals that i;;nohIe motive; but it i.s mentioned 
 by Suetonius, c. 47. Tiie llritish p»'arls prtived, however, of little 
 value, oil account «»f their dark and livid colour. Tacitus oh.serves 
 with reason, (in Agricola, c. li.) that it wa.i an inherent defect. " E^o 
 facilius nrediderim, naturarn mar^aritis deessc <|uam nobis avaritiam." 
 
 (5 Claudiuii, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expre.ssed by Poni|M>niu3 
 Mela, I. iii. e. 6. (he wrote under Claudius.) that, by the success of the 
 Koman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better 
 known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in tiic midst of 
 London. 
 
 h See the admirable abridgment given by Tacitup, in the Life of 
 Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated by 
 our own ai)lii|uarians, ('amdi>n and llorsley. 
 
 » The Irish writers, jealou.s of their national honour, arc extremely 
 provoked on this orcasion, both Vfith Tacitus and with Agricola. 
 
 divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, 
 or, as they are now called, the F'riths of Scotland. 
 Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he 
 had drawn a line of military stations, which was after- 
 wards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a 
 turf rampart erected on foundations of stone.J This 
 wall of Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the 
 modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as 
 the limit of the Roman province.*^ The native Caledo- 
 nians preserved in the northern extremity of the island 
 their wild independence, for which they were not less 
 indebted to their poverty than to their valour. Their 
 incursions were frequently repelled and chastised ; but 
 their country was never subdued.' The masters of the 
 fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe turned 
 with contempt from gloomy hills, assailed by the win- 
 ter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and 
 from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of 
 the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians." 
 
 Such was the state of the Roman fron- conquest of Da- 
 tiers, and such the maxims of imperial cia; the second 
 policy from the death of Augustus to the exception, 
 accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince 
 had received the education of a soldier, and possessed 
 the talents of a general." The peaceful system of his 
 predecessors was interrupted by scenes of war and 
 conquest; and the legions, after a long interval, bf held 
 a military emperor at their head. The first exploits 
 of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike 
 of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, du- 
 ring the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity 
 the majesty of Rome." To the strength and fierceness 
 of barbarians, they added a contempt for life, which 
 was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortal- 
 ity and transmigration of the souI.p Decebalus, the 
 Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy 
 of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the pub- 
 lic fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he 
 had exhausted every resource both of valour and pol- 
 icy .'> This memorable war, with a very short suspen- 
 sion of hostilities, lasted five years ; and as the empe- 
 ror could exert, without control, the whole force of the 
 state, it was terminated by an absolute submission of 
 the barbarians."^ The new province of Dacia, which 
 formed a second exception to the precept of Augustus, 
 was about thirteen hundred miles in circumference. 
 Its natural boundaries were the Niester, the Teyss, or 
 Tibiscus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine sea. 
 The vestiges of a military road may still be traced 
 from the banks of the Danube to the neighborhood of 
 Bender, a place famous in modern history, and the ac- 
 tual frontier of the Turkish and Russian empires.' 
 
 Trajan was ambitious of fame ; and conquests of Tra- 
 as long as mankind shall continue to be- jan >» the East, 
 stow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on 
 their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever 
 
 j S«»e Horsley's Kritannia Roniana, I. i. c. 10. 
 
 k [Agricola forlilied the passage situated between Dunbrltton and Ed- 
 inburgli. of course iti Scotland itself. The EmjK'ror Adrian during his 
 slay in England, atniut tlie year I:;J1, built a rampart of turf between 
 NewCJastle and Carlisle. Antoninus Pius having gained new victories 
 over the Caledonians by the ability of his lieutenant Lollius IJrbicus, 
 built a new rampart of turf between Edinburgh and Dunbrittoii. Sep- 
 tiniius Severus, at lust, in 20^, constructed a stone wall parallel to the 
 r;irni)art of A<lrian, and in the same places. (Sie John Warburton's 
 V'iillum lioniannni, or the History and .Xnticpiities of the Roman Wall 
 commotdy called the Picts' Wall. London, 1754, in 4 to.) — 0.^ 
 
 I 'J'he poet Kuchanan celebrates, with elegance and spirit, (see his 
 Sylva\ v) the unviolatrd indppen<lenre of his native country. IJut if 
 the single testimony of Rirhard of Cirencester was sufficient to create 
 a K(»man province of Vespasiana to the north of the wall, that indc- 
 |M»ndence would be reduced within very narrow limits. 
 
 n> See .Appian (in Proopm.) and the uniform imagery of Ossian's 
 Poems, which, according to every hypothesis, were com])08ed by a na- 
 tive Caledonian. 
 
 n See Pliny's Panegyric, which seems founded on facta. 
 
 Dion Cassius, I. Ixvii. 
 
 p Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 1)4. Julian in the Caesars, with SpanJicim's ob- 
 servations. 
 
 q Plin. Epist. viii. 9. 
 
 «■ Dion Cassius. I. Ixviii. p. 112.T — 11.11. Julian in Cajsaribus. Eo. 
 trojiius, viii. ii — G. Aurolius Victor in Epitome. 
 
 » See a Memoir of M. d'Anville, on the Province of Dacia, in the 
 Academic des Inscriutions, torn, xxviii. 444 — 46(>. 
 
 be the vice of the most exalted characters. The praises 
 of Alexander, transmitted by a succession of poets and 
 historians, had kindled a dangerous emulation in the 
 mind of Trajan. Like him the Roman emperor under- 
 took an expedition against the nations of the East, but 
 he lamented with a sigh, that his advanced age scarce- 
 ly left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the 
 son of Philip.* Yet the success of Trajan, however 
 transient, was rapid and specious. The degenerate 
 Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled before his 
 arms. He descended the river Tigris in triumph, 
 from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian gulph. 
 He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the 
 last, of the Roman generals, who ever navigated that 
 remote sea. His fleets ravaged the coasts of Arabia ; 
 and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was ap- 
 proaching towards the confines of India." Every day 
 the astonished senate received the intelligence of new 
 names and new nations, that acknowledged his sway. 
 They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Col- 
 chos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian 
 monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the 
 hands of the emperor ; that the independent tribes of 
 the Median and Carducian hills had implored his pro- 
 tection ; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Meso- 
 potamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of 
 provinces.' But the death of Trajan soon clouded the 
 splendid prospect; and it was justly to be dreaded, 
 that so many distant nations would throw off the unac- 
 customed yoke, when they were no longer restrained 
 by the powerful hand which had imposed it. 
 
 Resigned by his ^^ ^^'^^ ^" ancient tradition, that when 
 successor Ha- the Capitol was founded by one of the 
 ^"^"' Roman kings, the god Terminus (who 
 
 presided over boundaries, and was represented accord- 
 ing to the fashion of that age by a large stone) alone, 
 among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place 
 to Jupiter himself. A favourable inference was drawn 
 from his obstinacy, which was interpreted by the au- 
 gurs, as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Ro- 
 man power would never recede.^ Duriiig many ages, 
 the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own ac- 
 complishment. But though Terminus had resisted the 
 majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the authority of the 
 emperor Hadrian.^ The resignation of all the eastern 
 conquests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. 
 He restored to the Parthians the election of an inde- 
 pendent sovereign, withdrew the Roman garrisons from 
 the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, 
 and, in compliance with the precept of Augustus, once 
 more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the 
 empire.* Censure, which arraigns the public actions 
 and the private motives of princes, has ascribed to 
 envy, a conduct, which might be attributed to the pru- 
 dence and moderation of Hadrian. The various char- 
 acter of that emperor, capable, by turns, of the mean- 
 est and the most generous sentiments, may afford some 
 colour to the suspicion. It was, however, scarcely in 
 his power to place the superiority of his predecessor 
 in a more conspicuous light, than by thus confessing 
 himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests 
 of Trajan. 
 
 Contrast of Ha- '^^® martial and ambitious spirit of 
 drian and Anto- Trajan formed a very singular contrast 
 ninus Pius. ^j^j^ ([^q moderation of his successor. 
 
 The restless activity of Hadrian w^as not less remark- 
 able, when compared with the gentle repose of Anto- 
 
 t Trajan's sentiments are represented in a very just and lively manucr 
 in the Caesars of Julian. 
 
 u Eutropius and Sextus Rufus have endeavoured to perpetuate the 
 illusion. See a very sensible dissertation of M. Frcret in the Academic 
 des Inscriptions, torn. xxi. p. 55. 
 
 X Dion Cassius, 1. Ixviii. ; and the Abbreviators. 
 
 y Ovid. Fast. I. ii. ver. G67. See Livy, and Dionysius ofllalicarnas- 
 Bus, under the reign of Tarquin. 
 
 « St. Augustin is highly delighted with the proof of the weakness of 
 Terminus, and the vanity of the augurs. See De Civitate Dei, iv. 29. 
 
 « Sec the Augustan History, p. 5. Jerome's Chronicle, and all the 
 Epitomisers. It is somewhat surprising, that this memorable event 
 should be omitted by Dion, or rather by Xiphilin. 
 
 r 
 
 ninus Pius. The life of the former was almost a per- 
 petual journey; and as he possessed the various tal- 
 ents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he 
 gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty. 
 Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, 
 he marched on f(;ot, and bare-headed, over the snows 
 of Caledonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt; 
 nor w^as there a province of the empire, which, in the 
 course of his reign, was not honoured with the pre- 
 sence of the monarch.'' But the tranquil life of Anto- 
 ninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy; and, du- 
 ring the twenty-three years that he directed the public 
 administration, the longest journeys of that amiable 
 prince extended no farther than from his palace in 
 Rome, to the retirement of his Lanuvian villa.*^ 
 
 Notwithstanding this difference in their paci^p system of 
 personal conduct, the general system of Hadrian'and the 
 Augustus was equally adopted and uni- ^^^'"^'^"'""'"^*- 
 formly pursued by Hadrian and' by the two Antonines. 
 They persisted in the design of maintaining the dig- 
 nity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge its 
 limits. By every honourable expedient, they invited 
 the friendship of the barbarians; and endeavoured to 
 convince mankind, that the Roman power, raised above -'" 
 the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the 
 love of order and justice. During a long period of 
 forty-three years their virtuous labours were crowned 
 with success; and if we except a few slight hostilities 
 that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the 
 reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair 
 prospect of universal peace.*^ The Roman name was 
 revered among the most remote nation? of the earth. 
 The fiercest barbarians frequently submitted their dif- 
 ferences to the arbitration of the emperor; and we are 
 informed by a contemporary historian, that he had seen 
 ambassadors who were refused the honour which they 
 came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank of sub- 
 jects.'' 
 
 The terror of the Roman arms added Defensive wars 
 weight and dignity to the moderation of of Marcus Anto- 
 the emperors. They preserved peace by ""'"^• 
 a constant preparation for war; and while justice reg- 
 ulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on 
 their confines, that they were as little disposed to en- 
 dure, as to offer, an injury. The military strength, 
 which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder 
 Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthi- 
 ans and the Germans by the Emperor Marcus. The 
 hostilities of the barbarians provoked the resentment 
 of that philosophic monarch, and, in the prosecution 
 of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained 
 many signal victories, both on the Euphrates, and on 
 the Danube.*^ The military establishment of the Ro- 
 man empire, which thus assured either its tranquillity 
 or its success, will now become the proper and impor- 
 tant object of our attention. 
 
 In the purer ages of the commonwealth, Military estab- 
 the use of arms was reserved for those R^'l^Jan'^ ° m*^^ 
 ranks of citizens who had a country to rors. 
 love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting 
 those laws, which it was their interest, as well as duty, 
 to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom • 
 was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually im- 
 
 t' 
 
 b Dion, 1. Ixix. p. 1158. Hist. August, p. 5—8. If all our historians 
 were lost, medals, inscriptions, and other monuments, would be suffi- 
 cient to record the travels of Hadrian. 
 
 c See the Augustan History and the Epitomes. 
 
 d We must, however, remember that in the time of Hadrian, a rebel- 
 lion of the Jews raged with religions fury, though only in a single prov- 
 ince : Pausanias (I. viii. c. 43.) mentions two necessary and successful 
 wars, conducted by the generals of Pius. 1st, Against the wandering 
 Moors, who were driven into the solitudes of Atlas. 2nd, Against the 
 Brigantes of Britain, who had invaded the Roman province. Both 
 these wars (with several other hostilities) are mentioned in the Au- 
 gustan History, p- lU. 
 
 e Appian of Alexandria, in the preface to his history of the Roman 
 wars. 
 
 f Dion. I. Ixxi. Hist. August, in Marco. The Parthian victories gave 
 birth to a crowd of contemptible historians, whose memory has been 
 rescued from oblivion, and exposed to ridicule, in a very lively yicce ©f 
 criticism of Lucian. 
 
 1 
 
16 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. I 
 
 Discipline. 
 
 proved into an art, and degraded into a trade.* The 
 legions themselves, even at the time vvlien they were 
 recruited in the most distant provinces, were supposed 
 to consist of Roman citizens. That distinction was 
 generally considered, either as a legal qualification, or 
 as a proper recompence for the soldier; but a more se- 
 rious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, 
 strength, and military stature.*' In all levies, a just 
 preference was given to the climates of the north over 
 those of the south : the race of men born to the exer- 
 cise of arms was sought for in the country rather than 
 in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed that 
 the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and hunts- 
 men, would supply more vigour and resolution, than 
 the sedentary trades which are employed in the ser- 
 vice of luxury.' After every qualification of property 
 had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors 
 were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of 
 a liberal birth and education ; but the common soldiers, 
 like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were 
 drawn from the meanest, and very frequently the most 
 profligate, of mankind. 
 
 That public virtue which among the an- 
 cients was denominated [>atriotism,is de- 
 rived from a strong sense of our own interest in the pre- 
 servation andprosperityofthe free government of which 
 we are members. JSuch a sentiment, which had rendered 
 the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make 
 but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants 
 of a despotic prince ; and it became necessary to sup- 
 ply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not 
 less forcible nature ; honour and religion. The peas- 
 ant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he 
 was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, 
 in which his rank and reputation would depend on his 
 own valour; and that, although the prowess of a pri- 
 vate soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his 
 own behaviour might sometimes confer glory or dis- 
 grace on the company, the legion, or even the army, 
 to whose honours he was associated. On his first 
 entrance into the service, an oath was administered to 
 him, with every circumstance of solemnity. He prom- 
 ised never to desert his standard, to submit his own 
 will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice 
 his life for the safety of the emperor and the empire.*^ 
 The attachment of the Roman troops to their standards 
 was inspired by the united influence of religion and of 
 honour. The golden eagle, which glittered in the 
 front of the legion, was the object of their fondest de- 
 votion ; nor was it esteemed less impious, than it was 
 ignominious, to abandon that sabred ensign in the hour 
 of danger.' These motives, which derived their 
 strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears 
 and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, 
 occasional donatives, and a stated recompence, after 
 the appointed time of service, alleviated the hardships 
 of the military life,*" whilst, on the other hand, it was 
 impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the 
 severest punishment. The centurions were authorized 
 
 K The poorest rank of soldiers ixissesscd above forty pound sterling, 
 (Dionye. Ilalicarn. iv. 17.) a very hijih qualification at a time when 
 money was so scarce, that an ounce of silver was equivalent to seventy 
 pound wcigiit of hrass. The populace, excluded hy the ancient consti- 
 tution, were indiscrinDinalely admitted by Marius. See Sallust. de 
 Bell. Jugurth. c. <J1. 
 
 h Ca'sar tormed his lepion Alauda of Gauls and stran^rs : but it was 
 durin? the licence of civil war ; and after the victory, ho gave them ihe 
 freedom of the city for their reward. 
 
 » S: e Ve<,"«tius de Ue Miiiiari, I. i. c. 2—7. 
 
 k The oatli of service and fidi;liiy to the emperor was annually re- 
 newed hy the troops on the first of January. 
 
 I Tacitus calls the Roman eailes, Rullorum Deos. They were placed 
 in a chapel in the camp, and with tho other deities received the reli- 
 gious worship of the troops. 
 
 m See Gronovius de Pecunia vetere, 1. iii. p. 120, &c. The emperor 
 Domitian raised the annual sti|M>nd of the legionaries to twelve piec.cs 
 of gohl, which, in his time, was equivalent to about ten of our guineas. 
 This pay, somewhat higher than our own, had been, and was after- 
 wards, gradually increa.'^ed, according to the progress of wealth and 
 military government. After twenty years' service, tho veteran re- 
 ceived llnreo thousand denarii, (about one hundred pounds sterling,) or 
 a pro|>ortionablo allowance of land. The pay and advantages of the 
 guards were, in general, about double those of the legions. 
 
 to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to 
 punish with death, and it was an inflexible maxim of 
 Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread 
 his officers far more than the enemy. From such laud- 
 able arts did the valour of the imperial troops receive 
 a defrree of firmness and docility, unattainable by the 
 impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians. 
 
 And yet so sensible were the Romans 
 of the imperfection of valour without ^.tercises. 
 skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of 
 an army was borrowed from the word which signified 
 exercise." Military exercises were the important and 
 unremitted object of their discipline. The recruits 
 and young soldiers were constantly trained both in the 
 morning and in the evening, nor was age or knowl- 
 edge allowed to excuse the veterans from the daily 
 repetition of what they had completely learnt. Large 
 sheds were erected in the winter-quarters of the troops, 
 that their useful labours might not receive any inter- 
 ruption from the most tempestuous weather ; and it 
 was carefully observed, that the arms destined to this 
 imitation of war, should be of double the weight which 
 was required in real action." It is not the purpose of 
 this work to enter into any minute description of the 
 Roman exercises. We shall only remark, that they 
 comprehended whatever could add strength to the 
 body, activity to the limbs, or grace to the motions. 
 The soldiers were diligently instructed to march, to 
 run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burthens, to 
 handle every species of arms that was used either for 
 offence or for defence, either in distant eng^agement or 
 in a closer onset: to form a variety of evolutions; and 
 to move to the sound of flutes, in the Pyrrhic or mar- 
 tial dance.P In the midst of peace, the Roman troops 
 familiarized themselves with the practice of war; and 
 it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who had 
 fou"ht ajrainst them, that the effusion of blood was 
 the only circumstance which distinguished a field of 
 battle from a field of exercise.'' It was the policy of 
 the ablest generals, and even of the emperors them- 
 selves, to encourage these military studies by their 
 presence and example; and we are informed that Ha- 
 drian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to 
 instruct the unexperienced soldiers, to reward the dili- 
 gent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of 
 superior strength or dexterity/ Under the reigns of 
 those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated 
 with success ; and as long as the empire retained any 
 vigour, their military instructions were respected as 
 the most perfect model of Roman discipline. 
 
 . ",- ilies.o Lwar had gradually The legions un- 
 
 introdiiTpTT intQ tl)(^ service m n'^y nlfpp- dcr the empo- 
 t ions and improvements . The legions, '"'*• 
 as they are described by Polybius," in the time of the 
 Punic wars, diflered very materially from those which 
 achieved the victories of Caesar, or defended the mon- 
 archy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitu- 
 tion of the imperial legion may be described in a few 
 words.* The heavy-armed infantry, which composed 
 its principal strength," was divided into ten cohorts, 
 
 Chap, h 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 11 
 
 n Exercitu.i ah erercitando, Varro de Lingua Latina, 1. iv. Cicero in 
 Tusculan. ii. 37. There is room for a very interesting work, which 
 should lay open the connection between the languages and manners of 
 nations. 
 
 o Vcgetius, 1. ii. and the re.at of his first Book. 
 
 P 'J'he Pyrrhic dunce is extremely well illustrated by M. le Beau, ifi 
 the Acndemie «Ies Itifscrijttions, lom. x-ixv. j). 2t'-2. dec. That learned 
 academician, in a scries of memoir.«i, has collected all the passages of the 
 ancients that relate to the Roman legion. 
 
 q Josepli. de Bell. Judaico, I. iii. c. 5. We nre indebted to this Jew 
 for some very curious details of Roman disciijiiite. 
 
 r Flin. Panegyr. c. 13. Life of Hadrian, in the Angustan History. 
 
 ■ See an admirable digression on the Roman di8cii»line, in the 8i.xtli 
 book of his history. 
 
 < Vegetius de Re Militari, I. ii. c. 4, &c. Considerable part of h'la 
 very perplexed abridgment was taken from tho ret'ulaUons of Trajan 
 and Hiidriun ; and the legion, as he describes it, cannot suit any other 
 age of the Roman empire. 
 
 u Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. L In the purer age of C8F?<»rir and 
 Cicero, the word miles was almost confined to the infantry. Under tho 
 lower empire, and in the times of chivalry, it was appropriated almost 
 as exclusively to the men at arms, who fought on horseback. 
 
 and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a corres- 
 pondent number of tribunes and centurions. The first 
 cohort, which always claimed the post of honour and 
 the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hun- 
 dred and five soldiers, the most approved for valour 
 and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted 
 each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole 
 body of legionary infantry amounted to six thousand 
 Armt °"® hundred men. Their arms were 
 uniform, and admirably adapted to the 
 nature of their service: an open helmet, with a lofty 
 crest; a breastplate, or coat of mail : greaves on their 
 legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The 
 buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet 
 in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a 
 light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly 
 guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, 
 the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the 
 formidable pitum^ a ponderous javelin, whose utmost 
 length was about six feet, and which was terminated 
 by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches.^ 
 This instrument was indeed much inferior to our mod- 
 ern fire-arms ; since it was exhausted by a single dis- 
 charge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. 
 Yet when it was launched by a firm and skilful hand, 
 there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its 
 reach, nor any shield or corslet that could sustain the 
 impetuosity of its weight. As soon as the Roman had 
 darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and rushed for- 
 wards to close with the enemy. His sword was a 
 short well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a dou- 
 ble edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of stri- 
 king or of pushing; but the soldier was always in- 
 structed to prefer the latter use of his weapon, as his 
 own body remained less exposed, whilst he inflicted a 
 more dangerous wound on his adversary .^ The legion 
 was usually drawn up eight deep ; and the regular dis- 
 tance of three feet was left between the files as well 
 as ranks.' A body of troops habituated to preserve 
 this open order, in a long front and a rapid charge^ 
 found themselves prepared to execute every disposi- 
 tion which the circumstances of war, or the skill of 
 their leader, might suggest. The soldier possessed a 
 frfee space for his arms and motions, and sufficient in- 
 tervals were allowed, through which seasonable rein- 
 forcements might be introduced to the relief of the ex- 
 hausted combatants.* The tactics of the Greeks and 
 Macedonians were formed on very diflferent principles. 
 The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks 
 of long pikes, wedged together in the closest drray.*' 
 But it was soon discovered by reflection, as well as 
 by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was un- 
 able to contend with the activity of the legion.*^ 
 
 Cavalry. '^^^ cavalry, without which the force 
 
 of the legion would have remained im- 
 perfect, was divided into ten troops or squadrons; the 
 first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of 
 an hundred and thirty-two men; whilst each of the 
 other nine amounted only to sixty-six. The entire es- 
 tablishment formed a regiment, if we may use the 
 modern expression, of seven hundred and twenty-six 
 horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, 
 but occasionally separated to act in the line, and to 
 compose a part of the wings of the army.** The cav- 
 
 t In the time of Poiybiu^ and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (1. v. c. 45.) 
 the steel point of the pilum seems to have been much longer. In the 
 time of Vcgetiui, it was reduced to a foot, or even nine inches. I have 
 chosen a medium. 
 
 y For the legionary arnjB, lee Lipsius de Militia RomanS, J. iii. 
 r. 3—7. 
 
 « See the beautiful eompariiinn of Virgil, Georgic. ii. v. 279. 
 
 * M. Guichard, Memoires Militaires, torn. i. c. 4. 8nd,.^onveaux 
 Memoire*, torn i. p. 293— 31L has treated the subject like a icholar 
 and an officer. 
 
 *> See Arrian> Tactics. With the true partiality of a Greek, Arrian 
 rather chose to describe the phalanx, of which he had read, than the 
 iHgions which he had c^immande^. c Polyb. 1. xvii. 
 
 <* Veget. de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 6. His positive testimony, which 
 might b« supported by circumstantial evidence, ought aurely to silence 
 tliosp critics who refuse the imperial legion its proper body of cavalrv. 
 
 Vol. I. — C 
 
 airy of the eniperors was no longer composed, like 
 that of the ancient republic, of the noblest youths of 
 Rome and Italy, who, by performing their military 
 service on horseback, prepared themselves for the offi- 
 ces of senator and consul ; and solicited, by deeds of 
 valour, the future suflfrages of their countrymen.* 
 Since the alteratipn of manners and government, the 
 most wealthy of the equestrian order were engaged in 
 the administration of justice, and of the revenue ;' and 
 whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they 
 were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a 
 cohort of foot.* Trajan and Hadrian formed their cav- 
 alry from the same provinces, and tlie same class of 
 their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. 
 The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or 
 Cappadocia. The Roman troopers despised the com- 
 plete armour with which the cavalry of the East was 
 encumbered. Their more useful arms consisted in a 
 helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of 
 mail. A javelin, and a long broad-sword, were their 
 principal weapons of ofl^ence. The use of lances and 
 of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the 
 barbarians.'' 
 
 The safety and honour of the empire 
 were principally entrusted to the legions, -^"*»'"^"®«- 
 but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every use- 
 ful instrument of war. Considerable levies were regu- 
 larly made among the provincials, who had not yet de- 
 served the honourable distinction of Romans.' Many de- 
 pendant princes and communities, dispersed round the 
 frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their 
 freedom and security by the tenure of military ser- 
 vice.* Even select troops of hostile barbarians were 
 frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their 
 dangerous valour in remote climates, and for the ben- 
 efit of the state.^ All these were included under the 
 general name of auxiliaries ; and howsoever they might 
 vary according to the diflference of times and circum- 
 stances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to 
 those of the legions themselves.' Among the auxilia- 
 
 « See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii. fiL 
 f Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii 2. The true sense of that very cunout 
 passage was first discovered and illustrated by M. de Beaufort, Bepub« 
 lique Romainc, I. ii. c. 2. 
 
 S As in the instance of Horace and Agricola. This appears to have 
 been a defect in the Roman discipline ; which Hadrian endeavoured to 
 remedy, hy ascertainio^g the legal age of a tribune. 
 
 [These details are not altogether exact. Although in the later 
 times of the republic and under the first emperors, the young Roman 
 nobles obtained the command of a squadron or of a cohort with more 
 case than in former times, still they did not obtain it without having 
 passed through a sufficiently long military service. In general they 
 served at first in the pretorian cohort, which constituted the ^neral** 
 guard. They were received into intimate intercourse with some supe> 
 rior officer (in Contubernium)and thus formed their military character. 
 It was thus that Ailius Ca?sar, though descended from a noble family, 
 served at first as contubcrnalis under the pretor M. Thermus, and aA 
 terwards under Servilius Isauricus. (Suet., Jul. 2 — 5. Plutarch in Pa- 
 rail. p. 516, ed. Frobcnius ) The example of Horace which Giblioa 
 brings forward to prove that' the young knights were made tribunes be> 
 fore they entered the service, proves nothing. For first, Horace wa» 
 not a knight ; he was the son of a frcedman of Venosa. in Apulia, who 
 held the petty office of tax-gatherer, coactor exauctionum. Beside*, 
 when the poet was made tribune, Brutus, whose army was eompaHcd 
 almost entirely of orientals, gave tliis title to all Romans of any consid- 
 oration who joined him. The emperors were still less particular in 
 their choice ; the number of the tribunes was increased ; they gave titles 
 and honors to those of the people whom they wished to attach to the 
 court. Augustus gave the sons of senators sometimes a tribuoeship, 
 and sometimes the command of a squadron. Claudius gave to the knighta 
 who entered the service, at first the command of a cohort of auxiliaries, 
 afterward that of a squadron, and at last for the first time the tribune- 
 ship. (Sueton, in Claud., p. 25, and the notes of Erncsti.) The abuses 
 which sprung out of this course, gave rise to the ordinance of Adrian, 
 who fixed the age at which they could obtain this honor. (,Spartianns 
 in .^dr. x.) This ordinance was observed aflerwards, for the emperor 
 Valerian in a lette]; addressed to Mulvius Gallicanus, prefect of the 
 pretorian guard, excuses himself for having violated it in favor of the 
 young Probus, afterwards emperor, upon whom he had conferred the 
 tribuneship thus early on account of his rare talents (Vopiscus in 
 Prob. iv.)-0.] 
 h See Arrian's Tactic*. 
 
 i Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians. Tacit. <ler> 
 mania, c. 2y. 
 
 k Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Qoadi and Mareonanni 
 to supply him with a large body of troops, which he immediately sent 
 into Britain. Dion Cassius, I. Ixxi. 
 
 1 Tacit. Annal. iv. j. Those who fix a regular proportion ofnt mutj 
 foot, and twine as many horse, confound the auxiliaries of tlie emperors 
 with the Italian allies of the republis. 
 
 2 
 
 ;vl 
 
 ii 
 
16 
 
 THE DECLINE A.ND FALL 
 
 Chap. I 
 
 Discipline. 
 
 proved into an art, and degraded into a trade.^ The 
 legions themselves, even at the time when they were 
 recruited in the most distant provinces, were supposed 
 to consist of Roman citizens. Tiiat distinction was 
 generally considered, either as a legal qualification, or 
 as a proper recompence for the soldier; but a more se- 
 rious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, 
 strength, and military stature.'' In all levies, a just 
 preference was given to the climates of the north over 
 those of the south : the race of men born to the exer- 
 cise of arms was sought for in the country rather than 
 in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed that 
 the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and hunts- 
 men, would supply more vigour and resolution, than 
 the sedentary trades which are employed in the ser- 
 vice of luxury.' After every qualification of property 
 had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors 
 were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of 
 a liberal birth and education ; but the common soldiers, 
 like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were 
 drawn from the meanest, and very frequently the most 
 profligate, of mankind. 
 
 That public virtue which among tlie an- 
 cients was denominated patriotism, is de- 
 rived from a strong sense of our own interest in the pre- 
 servation and prosperity of the free government of which 
 we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered 
 the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make 
 but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants 
 of a despotic ])rince ; and it became necessary to sup- 
 ply that defect by other motives, of a ditfcrent, but not 
 less forcible nature; honour and religion. The peas- 
 ant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he 
 was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, 
 in which hio ratik and reputation would depend on his 
 own valour; and that, although the prowess of a pri- 
 vate soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his 
 own behaviour might sometimes confer glory or dis- 
 grace on the company, the legion, or even the army, 
 to whose honours he was associated. On his first 
 entrance into the service, an oath was administered to 
 him, with every circumstance of solemnity. He prom- 
 ised never to desert his standard, to submit his own 
 will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice 
 his life for the safety of the emperor and the emj)ire.'^ 
 The attachment of the Roman troops to their standards 
 was inspired by tiie united influence of religion and of 
 honour. The golden eagle, which glittered in the 
 front of the legion, was the object of their fondest de- 
 votion ; nor was it esteemed less impious, than it was 
 ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour 
 of danger.^ These motives, which derived their 
 strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears 
 and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, 
 occasional donatives, and a stated recompence, after 
 the appointed time of service, alleviated the hardships 
 of the military life,"' whilst, on the other hand, it was 
 impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the 
 severest punishment. The centurions were authorized 
 
 S The poorest rank of soMiors ixMses^cd al»ovc forty pound sterling,', 
 (Dionys. Ilalicarn. iv. 17.) n very hiuli (|ualificatior at a time vvlini 
 moiit'y was so scarce, tliat an ounce of silver was equivalent to seventy 
 |)oui)(l wci;,'ht of iirass. Tlio populace, excluricii by the ancient consti- 
 tution, were imliscriniinaicly atlujitted by Marius. See Sallust. de 
 Bell. Jujrurth. c. !U. 
 
 h CiL'sar funned his lejrion Alauda ofOauls and stran;];ers : hut it was 
 durin:: the licence of civil war; and after the victory, ho ^'avc ihcui the 
 freedom of the citv for their reward. 
 
 i So Ve-jr-Mius do lie Afiii'.ari, I. i. c. Q— 7. 
 
 k The oath of service and fidelity to the emperor was annually re- 
 newed by the troops on the first of January. 
 
 1 Tacitus calls the UotnHii eu^hw, Hellorum Deos. They were placed 
 in a chapel in the camp, and with the other deities received the reli- 
 g>«)us worship of the troops. 
 
 m See Gronovius de Pecunia vctere, I. iii, p. liiO, Sice. The emperor 
 Dumitiaii rais^l the annual stiixnid of the leyionariis to twelve pieces 
 of fiolil, which, in his time, was eipiivalent to about ten of our guineas. 
 Tliis pay, Komewhat hi^'her tlian our own, had been, and was after- 
 wards, fjradually increased, according to the j)rov'ress of wealth and 
 military ijovernment. After twenty years' service, the veteran re- 
 (rciverl three thousand denarii, (about one hundred |>ounds sterling',) or 
 a proportionable allowance of land. The pay and advantages ol" the 
 guards were, in general, about doublo those of the legions. 
 
 to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to 
 punish with death, and it was an infiexiblc maxim of 
 Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread 
 his oflicers far more than the enemy. From such laud- 
 able arts did the valour of the imperial troops receive 
 a degree of firmness and docility, unattainable by the 
 impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians. 
 
 And vet so sensible were the Romans 
 of the 'imperfection of valour without ^-^^^i.-cs. 
 skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of 
 an army was borrowed from the word which signified 
 exercise." i\Iilitary exercises were the important and 
 unremitted object of their discipline. The recruits 
 and young soldiers were constantly trained both in the 
 morning and in the evening, nor was age or know!- 
 edge allowed to excuse the veterans from the daily 
 repetition of what tliey had completely learnt. Large 
 sheds were erected in the winter-quarters of the troops, 
 that their usetul labours mighC not receive any inter- 
 ruption from the most tempestuous weather ; and it 
 was carefully observed, that the arms destined to this 
 imitation of war, should be of duuhle the weight which 
 was required in real action." It is not the purpose of 
 this work to enter into any minute description of the 
 Roman exercises. We shall only remark, that they 
 comprehended whatever could add strength to the 
 bod}^ activity to the limbs, or grace to the motions. 
 The soldiers were diligently instructed to march, to 
 run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burthens, to 
 handle every species of arms that was used either for 
 oflunee or for defence, either in distant engagement or 
 in a closer onset: to form a variety of evolutions; and 
 to move to the sound of flutes, in the Pyrrhic or mar- 
 tial dance.P In the midst of peace, the Roman troops 
 familiarized themselves with the practice of war; and 
 it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who had 
 foui»lit a<rainst them, that the eflusion of blood was 
 the only circumstance which distinguished a field of 
 battle from a field of exercise.^ It was the policy of 
 the ablest generals, and even of the emperors them- 
 selves, to encourage these military studies by their 
 presence and example; and we are informed that Ha- 
 drian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to 
 instruct the unexperienced soldiers, to reward the dili- 
 gent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of 
 superior strength or dexterity ."" Under the reigns of 
 those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated 
 with success ; and as long as the empire retained any 
 vigour, their military instructions were respected as 
 the most perfect model of Roman discipline. 
 
 A^^in^rot|^^iriPs nf^ var had graduaH y The Icffic 
 introdiK^-cTiiito th e service man yuliilra- der the 
 t ions and improvements . The legions, '""'■*• 
 as^ they are described by Polybius," in the time of the 
 Punic wars, dillered very materially from those which 
 achieved the victories of Ciesar, or defended the mon- 
 archy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitu- 
 tion of the imperial legion may be described in a few 
 words.* The heavy-armed infantry, which composed 
 its principal strength," was divided into ten cohorts, 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 17 
 
 rions un- 
 empo- 
 
 n F.iercitns ah crercifnndo, Varro dc Linjrua Latina, 1. iv. Cicero in 
 Tusculan. ii. 37. There is room for a \ery intere.sting work, which 
 should lay open the contjection between the languages and manners of 
 natiotis. 
 
 o Veffctius, 1. ii. and the rest of his first Rook. 
 
 1> The Pyrrhic 'lunce is extremely Well illustrated by M. le Beau, in 
 the Academic des Itiscriptions, tom. x.x.w. p. 21 i. &c. That learned 
 academician, in a scries of memoirs, has collected all the patsagesof tho 
 ancients that relate to the Koman lepion. 
 
 M J()se|>Ii. de IJ<II. Judaico, I. iii. c. 5. VVe are indebted to this Jew 
 for some very curious details of Komaii discijiliise. 
 
 r Plin. Pane;:vr. c. 13. Life of Hadrian, in the Anjrusfan IIi.<ilory. 
 
 * See an admirable digression on the Roman discijiline, in the sixth 
 book of his hist<irv. 
 
 t Vegetius de Ke IMilitari: 1. ii. r. 4. &c. Considerable part of his 
 very [K-rpl'xcd abrid;,'meiit was taki-n from the res^ula'ions of Trajan 
 and Iljidrian ; and the legion, as he describes it, cannot suit any other 
 age of the Roman empire. 
 
 u Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 1. In the purer age of Ca»sr.r and 
 Cicero, the word mi/es was almost confined to the infantry. Coder the 
 lower empire, and in the times of chivalry, it was ap|)ro])riated almovt 
 as cxrlusively to the men at arriis, who fought on horseback. 
 
 and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a corres- 
 pondent number of tribunes and centurions. The first 
 cohort, which always claimed the post of honour and 
 the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hun- 
 dred and live soldiers, the most approved for valour 
 and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted 
 each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole 
 body of legionary infantry amounted to six thousand 
 Arms °"? hundred men. Their arms were 
 
 uniform, and admirably adapted to the 
 nature of their service : an open helmet, with a lofty 
 crest; a breastplate, or coat of mail : greaves on their 
 legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The 
 buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet 
 in length, and two and a half in breadth*^ framed of a 
 light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly 
 guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, 
 the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the 
 formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost 
 length was about six feet, and which was terminated 
 by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches.* 
 This instrument was indeed much inferior to our mod- 
 ern fire-arms ; since it was exhausted by a single dis- 
 -^ charge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. 
 Yet when it was launched by a firm and skilful hand, 
 * there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its 
 i reach, nor any shield or corslet that could sustain the 
 impetuosity of its weight. As soon as the Roman had 
 darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and rushed for- 
 wards to close with the enemy. His sword was a 
 short well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a dou- 
 ble edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of stri- 
 king or of pushing; but the soldier was always in- 
 structed to prefer the latter use of his weapon, as his 
 own body remained less exposed, whilst he inflicted a 
 more dangerous wound on his adversary .^ The legion 
 was usually drawn up eight deep ; and the regular dis- 
 tance of three feet was left between the files as well 
 as ranks.' A body of troops habituated to preserve 
 this open order, in a long front and a rapid chargej 
 found themselves prepared to execute every disposi- 
 tion which the circumstances of war, or the skill of 
 their leader, might suggest. The soldier possessed a 
 free space for his arms and motions, and sufficient in- 
 tervals were allowed, through which seasonable rein- 
 forcements might be introduced to the relief of the ex- 
 hausted combatants.* The tactics of the Greeks and 
 Macedonians were formed on very different principles. 
 The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks 
 of long pikes, wedged together in the closest Srray.^ 
 But it was soon discovered by reflection, as well as 
 by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was un- 
 able to contend with the activity of the legion.^ 
 
 Cuvair '^^® cavalry, without which the force 
 
 of the legion would have remained im- 
 perfect, was divided into ten troops or squadrons; the 
 first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of 
 an hundred and thirty-two men; whilst each of the 
 other nine amounted only to sixty-six. The entire es- 
 tablishment formed a regiment, if we may use the 
 modern expression, of seven hundred and twenty-six 
 horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, 
 but occasionally separated to act in the line, and to 
 compose a part of the wings of the array."* The cav- 
 
 alry of the emperors was no longer composed, like 
 that of the ancient republic, of the noblest youths of 
 Rome and Italy, who, by performing their military 
 service on horseback, prepared themselves for the ofii- 
 ces of senator and consul ; and solicited, by deeds of 
 valour, the future suffrages of their countrymen.* 
 Since the alteration of manners and government, the 
 most wealthy of the equestrian order were engaged in 
 the administration of justice, and of the revenue ;f and 
 whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they 
 were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a 
 cohort of foot.« Trajan and Hadrian formed their cav- 
 alry from the same provinces, and the same class of 
 their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. 
 The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or 
 Cappadocia. The Roman troopers despised the com- 
 plete armour with which the cavalry of the East was 
 encumbered. T^ietr more useful arms consisted in a 
 helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of 
 mail. A javelin, and a long broad-sword, were their 
 principal weapons of offence. The use of lances and 
 of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the 
 barbarians.'* 
 
 The safety and honour of the empire 
 were principally entrusted to the legions, '^"*''"'"««- 
 but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every use- 
 ful instrument of war. Considerable levies were regu- 
 larly made among the provincials, w ho had not yet de- 
 served the honourable distinction of Romans. Many de- 
 pendant princes and communities, dispersed round the 
 frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their 
 freedom and security by the tenure of military ser- 
 vice.* Even select troops of hostile barbarians were 
 frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their 
 dangerous valour in remote climates, and for the ben- 
 efit of the state.^ All these were included under the 
 general name of auxiliaries ; and howsoever they might 
 vary according to the difference of times and circum- 
 stances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to 
 those of the legions themselves.' Among the auxilia- 
 
 "• In the time of Polybiue and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (1. v. c. 45.) 
 the steel point of the pilum seems to have been much longer. In the 
 tune of Vegetius, it was reduced to a foot, or even nine inches. I have 
 rhasen a medium. 
 
 y For the legionary arms, see Lipsius de Militia RomanS, J. iii. 
 c. 2—7. 
 
 « See the beautiful eompariiinn of Virgil, Georgir. ii. v. 279. 
 
 » M. Guichard, Memoires Militaires, torn. i. c. 4. and-Nouveaui 
 Memoiren, torn i. p. 293—311. has treated the subject like a scholar 
 mid an officer. 
 
 b See Arrian's Tactics. With the true partiality of a Greek. Arrian 
 rather chose to describe the phalanx, of which he had read, than the 
 If^gions which he had commanded. c Polyb. 1, xvii. 
 
 <1 Veget. de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 6. His positive testimony, which 
 might be supported by circumstantial evidence, ought surely to silence 
 thoso critical who refuse the imperial legion its proper body of cavalry. 
 
 Vol. I. — C 
 
 e See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii. fil. 
 * Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii 2. The true sense of that very curioui 
 passa;.'e was first discovered and illustrated by M. de Beaufort, Repub- 
 lique Romainc, 1. ii. c. 2. 
 
 S As in the instance of Horace and Agricola. This appears to have 
 been a defect in the Roman discipline ; which Hadrian endeavoured to 
 remedy, by ascertaining the legal age of a tribune. 
 
 [These details are not altogether exact. Althoagh in the later 
 times of the republic and under the first emperors, the young Roman 
 nobles obtained the command of a squadron or of a cohort with more 
 case than in former times, still they did not obtain it without having 
 passed through a sufficiently long military service. In general they 
 served at first in the pretorian cohort, which constituted the feneral's 
 guard. They were received into intimate intercxiurse with some supe> 
 rior officer (in Contul>ernium)and thus formed their military character. 
 It was thus that Adius Ca?sar. though descended from a nohic family, 
 served at first an contubcrnalis under the prsetor M. Thermus, and af- 
 terwards under Servilius Isauricus. (Suet., Jul. 2 — 5. Plutarch tit Pa- 
 rail. p. 516, cd. Frobcnius ) The example of Horace which Gibimo 
 brings forward to prove that the young knights were made tribunes be- 
 fore they entered the service, proves nothing. For first, Horace wa» 
 not a knight ; he was the son of a freedman of Venosa, in Apulia, who 
 held the petty office of tax-gatherer, coactor cxauctionum. Besides, 
 when the poet was made tribune, Brutus, whose army was ctimpoitcd 
 almost entirely of orientals, ^ave tliis title to ail Romans of any consid- 
 eration who joined him. The emperors were stiJI less particular in 
 their choice ; the number of the tribunes was increased ; they gave titles 
 and honors to those of the people whom they wished to attach to the 
 court. Augustus gave the sons of senators sometimes a tribuncship, 
 and sometimes the command of a squadron. Claudius gave to the knighta 
 who entered the service, at first the command of a cohort of auxiliaries, 
 afterward that of a squadron, and at last for the first time the tribune- 
 ship. (Sueton, in Claud., p. 25, and the notes of Ernest i.) The abu.<«es 
 which sprung out of this course, gave rise to the ordinance of Adrian, 
 who fixed the age at which they could obtain this honor. (Spartianus 
 iv. Mr. X.) This ordinance was observed afterwards, for the emperor 
 Valerian in a letter addressed to Mnlvius Gallicanus, prejfcct of the 
 pretorian guard, excuses himself for having violated it in favor of the 
 young Probus, afterwards emperor, upon whom he had conferred the 
 tribuneship thus early on account of his rare talents (Vopiscua in 
 Prob. iv.)— G.] 
 h See Arrian's Tactic*. 
 
 i Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians. Tacit. Ger- 
 man ia, c. 29. 
 
 k Marcus Antoninns obliged the vanquished Quadi and Marcomannt 
 to supply him with a large body of troops, which he immediately sent 
 into Britain. Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi. 
 
 1 Tacit. Annal. iv. 5. Those who fix a regular proportion ofa« roajoy 
 foot, and twice as many horse, nonfound the auxiliaries of the emperors 
 with the Italian allies of the republia. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 ries, the bravest and most faithful bands were placed 
 under the command of praefects and centurions, and 
 severely trained in the arts of Roman discipline; but 
 the far greater part retained those arms, to which the 
 nature of their country, or their early habits of life, 
 more particularly adapted them. By this institution, 
 each legion, to whom a certain proportion of auxilia- 
 ries was allotted, contained within itself every species 
 of lighter troops, and of missile weapons ; and was 
 capable of encountering every nation, with the advan- 
 tages of its respective arms and discipline."* Nor was 
 the legion destitute of what, in modern 
 Artillery. language, would be styled a train of ar- 
 tillery. It consisted in ten military engines of the 
 largest, and fifty-five of a smaller size; but all of 
 which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, dis- 
 charged stones and darts with irresistible violence." 
 
 The camp of a Roman legion present- 
 Eucampmcnt. ^j ^^^ appearance of a fortified city." As 
 
 soon as the space was marked out, the pioneers care- 
 fully levelled the ground, and removed every impedi- 
 ment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. Its 
 form was an exact quadrangle ; and we may calculate, 
 that a square of about seven hundred yards was suffi- 
 cient for the encampment of twenty thousand Romans; 
 though a similar number of our own troops would ex- 
 pose to the enemy a front of more than treble that ex- 
 tent. In the midst of the camp, the prajtorium, or 
 general's quarters, rose above the others ; the cavalry, 
 the infantry, and the auxiliaries, occupied their re- 
 spective stations ; the streets were broad, and perfectly 
 straight, and a vacant space of about tv^'o hundred feet 
 was left on all sides, between the tents and the ram- 
 part. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet 
 high, armed with a line of strong and intricate pali- 
 sades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth 
 as well as in breadth. This important labour was 
 performed by the hands of the legionaries themselves ; 
 to whom the use of the spade and the pick-axe was 
 no less familiar than that of the sword or pilum. Ac- 
 tive valour may often be the present of nature ; but 
 such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit 
 and discipline.!* 
 
 Whenever the trumpet gave the signal 
 *'*^ * of departure, the camp was almost in- 
 stantly broke up, and the troops fell into their ranks 
 without delay or confusion. Besides their arms, which 
 the legionaries scarcely considered as an encumbrance, 
 they were laden with their kitchen furniture, the in- 
 struments of fortification, and the provision of many 
 days.i Under this weight, which would oppress the 
 delicacy of a modern soldier, they were trained by a 
 regular step to advance, in about six hours, near twen- 
 ty miles.' On the appearance of an enemy, ihey threw 
 aside their baggage, and by easy and rapid evolutions 
 converted the column of march into an order of bat- 
 tle.' The slingers and archers skirmished in the 
 front; the auxiliaries formed the first line, and were 
 seconded or sustained by the strength of the legions ; 
 the cavalry covered the flanks, and the military en- 
 gines were placed in the rear. 
 
 m Ycgetius, ii.2. Arrian.in his order ot'marcli and battlo against the 
 Alani. 
 
 n The subject of the ancient machines is treated with ;;reat knowledge 
 and ingenuity by the Chevalier Folard (Polybc, toni. ii. p. 233 — SltO.) 
 He prefers them in many respectn to our modorn cannon mortars. Wo 
 may observe, that the use of them in the fit-ld gradually became mort; 
 prevalent, in pro[>ortion as personal valour and military skill declined 
 with the Roman empire. When men were no longer found, their place 
 was supplied by machines. See Vegetius, ii.2d. Arrian. 
 
 Vegetius finishes his second book, and the description of the legion, 
 with the following emphatic words: " Univcrtsa qua; in quoquc belli 
 senere ner^ssaria esse creduntur, secum Icgio debet ubique portare, ut 
 lu quovis loco fixcrit castra, armatam facial civitatcm." 
 
 P For the Roman Castrametation, see Polybius, 1. vi. with Lipsjus de 
 Mililid Romana, Joseph, de Bell. Jud. I. iii. c. 5. V^egetius, i. 'Jl— 25. 
 iii. 9. and Mcmoires de Guichard. tom. i. c. i. 
 
 q Cicero in Tusculan. ii. 37. — Joieph. de Bell. Jud. 1. iii. 5. Fronti- 
 iius, iv. 1. 
 
 r Vegetius, i. 9. See Memoircs de TAcadcmic des Inscriptionn, tom. 
 XXV. p. 187. 
 
 1 Bee those evolutions admirably well cx])Iained by M. Guichard, 
 NouTtaui Memoires, tom. i. p. 141—234. 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1» 
 
 Such were the arts of war, by which Nnmbcranddis- 
 the Roman emperors defended their ex- nosition of the 
 tensive conquests, and preserved a mili- '^e'*'"'- 
 tary spirit, at a time when every other virtue was op- 
 pressed by luxury and despotism. If, in the consid- 
 eration of their armies, we pass from their discipline 
 to their numbers, we shall not find it easy to define 
 them with any tolerable accuracy. We may compute, 
 however, that the legion, which was itself a body of 
 six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, 
 might, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about 
 twelve thousand five hundred men. The peace estab- 
 lishment of Hadrian and his successors was composed 
 of no less than thirty of these formidable brigades ; 
 and most probably formed a standing force of three 
 hundred and seventy-five thousand men. Instead of 
 being confined within the walls of fortified cities, 
 which the Romans considered as the refuge of weak- 
 ness or pusillanimity, the legions were encamped on 
 the banks of the great rivers, and along the frontiers 
 of the barbarians. As their stations, for the most part, 
 remained fixed and permanent, we may venture to de- 
 scribe the distribution of the troops. Three legions 
 were suflicient for Britain. The principal strength 
 lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and consisted of six- 
 teen legions, in the following proportions: two in the 
 Lower, and throe in the Upper, Germaiiy; one in 
 RhEL'tia, one in Noricum, four in Pannonia, three in 
 Ma^sia, and two in Dacia. The defence of the Eu- 
 phrates was intrusted to eight legions, six of whom 
 were planted in Syria, and the other two in Cappado- 
 cia. With regard to Egypt, Africa, and Spain, as 
 they were far removed from any important scene of 
 war, a single legion maintained the domestic tranquil- 
 lity of each of those great provinces. Even Italy was 
 not left destitute of a military force. Above twenty 
 thousand chosen soldiers, distinguished by the titles 
 of City Cohorts and Praetorian Guards, watched over 
 the safety of the monarch and the capital. As the au- 
 thors of almost every revolution that distracted the 
 empire, the Praetorians will, very soon, and very loud- 
 ly, demand our attention ; but in their arms and insti- 
 tutions we cannot find any circumstance which dis- 
 criminated them from the legions, unless it were a 
 more splendid appearance, and a less rigid disci- 
 pline.* 
 
 The navy maintained by the emperors 
 might seem inadequate to their great- '^'^* 
 
 ness ; but it was fully sufficient for every useful pur- 
 pose of government. The ambition of the Romans 
 was confined to the land ; nor was that warlike people 
 ever actuated by the enterprizing spirit which had 
 prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and 
 even of Marseilles, to enlarge the bounds of the world, 
 and to explore the most remote coasts of the octan. 
 To the Romans the ocean remained an object of ter- 
 ror rather than of curiosity ;" the whole extent of the 
 Mediterranean, after the destruction of Carthage, and 
 the extirpation of the pirates, was included within 
 their provinces. The policy of the emperors was di- 
 rected only to preserve the peaceful dominion of that 
 sea, and to protect the commerce of their subjects. 
 With these moderate views, Augustus stationed two 
 permanent fleets in the most convenient ports of Italy, 
 the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other atMise- 
 num, in the bay of Naples. Experience seems at 
 length to have convinced the ancients, that as soon 
 as their galleys exceeded two, or at the most three, 
 ranks of oars, they were suited rather for vain pomp 
 than for real service. Augustus himself, in the vic- 
 tory of Actium, had seen the superiority of his own 
 light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the 
 
 t Tacitus (Annal. iv. 5.) has <»iven us a state of the legions under 
 Tiberius : and Dion Ca^;si^8 (I. Iv. p. 71*4. ) under Alexander Severuf. 
 I have endeavoured to fix on tho proper medium between these two pe- 
 riods. Sec likewi:4e Lipsiuii de iMagnitudinc Romana, 1. i. c. 4, 5. 
 
 u The Romans tried to disguise, by the pretence of religious awe, their 
 ignorancu and terror. Suo Tacit. Gsrmania, c. 34. 
 
 lofty but unwieldy castles of his rival.* Of these Li- 
 burnians he composed the two fleets of Ravenna and 
 Misenum, destined to command, the one the eastern, 
 the other the western, division of the Mediterranean ; 
 and to each of the squadrons he attached a body of 
 several thousand mariners. Besides these two ports, 
 which may be considered as the principal seats of the 
 Roman navy, a very considerable force was stationed 
 at Frejus, on the coast of Provehce, and the Euxine 
 was guarded by forty ships, and three thousand sol- 
 diers. To all these we add the fleet which preserved 
 the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a 
 great number of vessels constantly maintained on the 
 Rhine and Danube, to harass the country, or to inter- 
 cept the passage of the barbarians.y If we review 
 this general state of the imperial forces; of the caval- 
 ry as well as infantry ; of the legions, the auxiliaries, 
 the guards, and the navy ; the most liberal computa- 
 tion will not allow us to fix the entire establishment 
 Amount of the ^J Sea and by land at more than four 
 whole establish- hundred and fifty thousand men; a mili- 
 ™*^"^- tary power, which, however formidable 
 
 it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last 
 centiiry, whose kingdom was confined within a single 
 province of the Roman empire.* 
 
 Viewofthepro- ^® \i2i\e attempted to explain thespi- 
 vinccsofthe Ro- rit whicli moderated, and the strength 
 man empire. which Supported, the power of Hadrian 
 and the Antonines. We shall now endeavour, with 
 clearness and precision, to describe the provinces once 
 united under their sway, but, at present, divided into 
 so many independent and hostile states. 
 
 . Spain, the western extremity of the 
 
 '^'"* empire, of Europe, and of the ancient 
 world, has, in every age, invariably preserved the same 
 natural limits ; the Pyrenean mountains, the Mediter- 
 ranean, and the Atlantic Ocean. That great penin- 
 sula, at present so unequally divided between two 
 sovereigns, was distributed by Augustus into three 
 provinces, Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis. The 
 kingdom of Portugal now fills the place of the war- 
 like country of the Lusitanians ; and the loss sustain- 
 ed by the former, on the side of the east, is compen- 
 sated by an accession of territory towards the north. 
 The confines of Grenada and Andalusia correspond 
 with those of ancient Baetica. The remainder of 
 Spain, Gallicia and the Asturias, Biscay and Navarre, 
 Leon and the two Castiles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalo- 
 nia, and Arragon, all contributed to form the third and 
 most considerable of the Roman governments, which, 
 fi'om the name of its capital, was styled the province 
 of Tarragona." Of the native barbarians, the Celtibe- 
 rians were the most powerful, as the Cantabrians and 
 Asturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in 
 the strength of their mountains, they were the last 
 who submitted to the arms of Rome, and the first who 
 threw off the yoke of the Arabs. 
 
 Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole 
 country between the Pyrenees, the Alps, 
 the Rhine, and the Ocean, was of greater extent than 
 modern France. To the dominions of that powerful 
 monarchy, with its recent acquisitions of Alsace and 
 Lorraine, we must add the duchy of Savoy, the can- 
 tons of Switzerland, the four electorates of the Rhine, 
 and the territories of Liege, Luxemburg, Hainault, 
 Flanders, and Brabant. When Augustus gave laws 
 to the conquests of his father, he introduced a division 
 
 X Plutarch, in Marc. Anton. And yet, if we may credit Orosius, 
 thesft monstrous castles were no more than ten feet above the water, 
 vi. 19. 
 
 y Sep Lipsius, de Magnitud. Rom. 1. i. c. 5. The sixteen last chap- 
 ters of Vegeiius relate to naval affairs. 
 
 I Voltaire, Siccle de Louis XIV. c. 29. It must, however, be re- 
 meml)ered, that France still feels that extraordinary effofl. 
 
 • See Sirabo, I. ii. It is natural enough to suppose, that .Arragon is 
 derived from Tarraconensis, and several moderns who have written in 
 Latin, use those words as synonymous. It is however certain, that the 
 Arragon, a little stream which falls from the Pyrenees into tho Ebro, 
 first gave its name to a country, and gradually to a kingdom. See 
 d*.\nvillo, Gcographie du Moycn Ago, p. 181. 
 
 of Gaul, equally adapted to tne progress of the le- 
 gions, to the course of the rivers, and to the principal 
 national distinctions, which had comprehended above 
 an hundred independent states.** The sea-coast of the 
 Mediterranean, Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphine, 
 received their provincial appellation from the colony 
 of Narbonne. The government of Aquitaine was ex- 
 tended from the Pyrenees to the Loire. The country 
 between the Loire and the Seine was styled the Cel- 
 tic Gaul, and soon borrowed a new denomination from 
 the celebrated colony of Lugdunum, or Lyons. The 
 Belgic lay beyond the Seine, and in more ancient 
 times had been bounded only by the Rhine; but a lit- 
 tle before the age of Caesar, the Germans, abusing 
 their superiority of valour, had occupied a considera- 
 ble portion of the Belgic territory. The Roman con- 
 querors very eagerly embraced so flattering a circum- 
 stance, and the Gallic frontier of the Rhine, from Basil 
 to Leyden, received the pompous names of the Upper 
 and the Lower Germany.*^ Such, under the reign of 
 the Antonines, were the six provinces of Gaul ; the 
 Narbonnese, Aquitaine, the Celtic, or Lyonnese, the 
 Belgic, and the two Germanies. 
 
 We have already had occasion to men- 
 tion the conquest of Britain, and to fix ^'"a>n- 
 the boundary of the Roman province in this island. 
 It comprehended all England, Wales, and the low- 
 lands of Scotland, as far as the friths of Dunbarton 
 and Edinburgh. Before Britain lost her freedom, the 
 country was irregularly divided between thirty tribes 
 of barbarians, of whom the most considerable were the 
 Belgffi in the West, the Brigantes in the North, the 
 Silures in South Wales, and the Iceni in Norfolk and 
 SuflTolk.'* As far as we can either trace or credit the 
 resemblance of manners and language, Spain, Gaul, 
 and Britain were peopled by the same hardy race of 
 savages. Before they yielded to the Roman arms, 
 they often disputed the field, and often renewed the 
 contest. After this submission, they constituted the 
 western division of the European provinces, which 
 extended from the columns of Hercules to the wall of 
 Antoninus, and from the mouth of the Tagus to the 
 sources of the Rhine and the Danube. 
 
 Before the Roman conquest, the coun- 
 try which is now called Lombardy, was ^"'^' 
 not considered as a part of Italy. It had been occu- 
 pied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, settling 
 themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont 
 to Romagna, carried th( ir arms and diffused their name 
 from the Alps to the Apennine. The Ligurians dwelt 
 on the rocky coast, which now forms the republic of . 
 Genoa. Venice was yet unborn ; but the territories 
 of that state, which lie to the east of the Adige, were 
 inhabited by the Venetians.' The middle part of the 
 peninsula that now composes the duchy of Tuscany 
 and the ecclesiastical state, was the ancient seat of the 
 Etruscans and Umbrians ; to the former of whom Italy 
 was indebted for the first rudiments of civilized life.' 
 The Tyber rolled at the foot of the seven hills of 
 Rome, and tlie country of the Sabines, the Latins, and 
 the Volsci, from that river to the frontiers of Naples, 
 was the theatre of her infant victories. On that cele- 
 brated ground the first consuls deserved triumphs, 
 their successors adorned villas, and ifieir posterity 
 have erected convents.^ Capua and Campania pos- 
 sessed the immediate territory of Naples ; and the rest 
 of the kingdom was inhabited by many warlike na- 
 tions, the Marsi, the Samnites, the Apulians, and the 
 
 b One hundred and fifteen cities appear in the Notitia of Gaul ; and 
 it is well known that this appellation was applied not only to the capital 
 town, but to the whole territory of each state. But Plutarch and Ap- 
 pian increase the numi)er of tribes to three or four liundred. 
 
 c D'Anville. Notice de I'Ancicnne Gaule. 
 
 d Whitakcr's History of Manchester, vol. i. c. 3. 
 
 * The Italian Veneti, though often confounded with the Gnu1<«, were 
 more probably of lllyrian origin. See M. Frerct, Mcmoires xle 1' Acade- 
 mic des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. ( See Maffci Verona illustrata, I. i. 
 
 K The first contrast was observ<'d by the ancients. See Florus, i. II. 
 The second must strike every modern travsller. 
 
20 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 'I' 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Lucanians; and the sea-coasts had been covered by 
 the flourishing colonies of the Greeks. "We may re- 
 mark, that when Augustus divided Italy into eleven 
 regions, the little province of Istria was annexed to 
 that seat of Roman sovereicrnty.'* 
 The Danube '^'he European provinces of Rome were 
 and iiiyrian protected by the course of the Rhine and 
 frontier. jj^^ Danube. The latter of those migh ty 
 
 streams, which rises at the distance of only thirty 
 miles from the former, flows above thirteen hundred 
 miles, for the most part, to the south-east, collects the 
 tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is, at length, 
 through six mouths, received into the Euxine, which 
 appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters.' 
 The provinces of the Danube soon acquired the gen- 
 eral appellation of Illyricum, or the lllyrian frontier," 
 and were esteemed the most war-like of the empire ; 
 but they deserve to be more particularly considered 
 under the names of Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dal- 
 matia, Dacia, Maesia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. 
 Bbstia '^^*^ province of Rhaetia, which soon 
 
 extinguished the name of the Vindeli- 
 cians, extended from the summit of the Alps to the 
 banks of the Danube; from its source, as far as its 
 conflux with the Inn. The greatest part of the flat 
 country is subject to the elector of Bavaria; the city 
 of Augsburg is protected by the constitution of the 
 German empire; the Orisons are safe in their moun- 
 tains, and the country of Tyrol is ranked among the 
 numerous provinces of the house of Austria. 
 Noricum and The wide extent of territory which is 
 Pannonia. included between the Inn, the Danube, 
 and the Save; Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, 
 the Lower Hungary, and Sclavonia, was known to the 
 ancients under the names of Noricum and Pannonia. 
 In their original state of independence, their fierce in- 
 habitants were intimately connected. Under the Ro- 
 man government they were frequently united, and they 
 still remain the patrimony of a single family. They 
 now contain the residence of a German prince, who 
 styles himself Emperor of the Romans, and form the 
 centre, as well as the strength, of the Austrian power. 
 It may not be improper to observe, that if we except 
 Bohemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and 
 a part of Hungary, between the Teyss and the Dan- 
 ube, all the other dominions of the House of Austria 
 were comprised within the limits of the Roman em- 
 pire. 
 
 Dalmatia. . ^^almatia, to which the name of Illy- 
 ricum more properly belonged, was a 
 long, but narrow tract, between the Save and the Adri- 
 atic. The best part of the sea-coast, which still re- 
 tains its ancient appellation, is a province of the Ve- 
 netian state, and the seat of the little republic of Ra- 
 gusa. The inland parts have assumed the Sclavonian 
 names of Croatia. and Bosnia; the former obeys an 
 Austrian governor, the latter a Turkish pasha; but the 
 whole country is still infested by tribes of barbarians, 
 whose savage independence irregularly marks the 
 doubtful limit of the christian and mahometan power.' 
 MsesiaandDa- After the Danube had received the wa- 
 *•*• ters of the Teyss and the Save, it acqui- 
 
 red, at least among the Greeks, the name of Ister."" 
 It formerly divided MaBsia and Dacia, the latter of 
 which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of 
 Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. If 
 we inquire into the present state of those countries, we 
 shall find that on the left hand of the Danube, Temcs- 
 
 21 
 
 h Pliny (Hiat. Natur. 1. iii.) follows the division of Italy by Augustus. 
 
 * Tourneforl, Voyage* en Grere et Aaic Mincure, Ictlre Jtviii. 
 
 k The name of Illyricum originally belonged to the Kea-coast of the 
 Hadriatic, and was pradualiy extended by the Romans from the Alps 
 to the Euxine sea. See Serverini Pannonia, I. i. c. 3. 
 
 > A Venetian traveller, the Abbate Fortis, has fately given us some 
 •croiuit of those very obscure countries. But the geography and anti- 
 qoities of the western Illyricum can be expected only from the munili- 
 8enc« of the emperor, its sovereign. 
 
 « The Save rises near the confines of fstria, and was considered by 
 tlie B»rc tarly GfAeks as the prineipol stream of the Danube. 
 
 war and Transylvania have been annexed, after many 
 revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilst the prin- 
 cipalities of Moldavia and Wallachia acknowledge 
 the supremacy of the Ottoman Porte. On the right 
 hand of the Danube, Maesia, which, during the middle 
 ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Ser- 
 via and Bulgaria, is again united in Turkish slavery. 
 
 The appellation of Roumelia, which is xbrace. Ma. 
 still bestowed by the Turks on the ex- cedonia', and 
 tensive countries of Thrace, Macedonia, ^^«<^ce- 
 and Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient 
 state under the Roman empire. In the time of the An- 
 tonines, the martial regions of Thrace, from the moun- 
 tains of Haemus and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and 
 the Hellespont, had assumed the form of a province. 
 Notwithstanding the change of masters and of reli- 
 gion, the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine 
 on the banks of the Bosphorus, has ever since remain- 
 ed the capital of a great monarchy. The kingdom of 
 Macedonia, which, under the reign of Alexander, gave 
 laws to Asia, derived more solid advantages from the 
 policy of the two Philips ; and with its dependences 
 of Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the iEgean to 
 the Ionian sea. When we reflect on the fame of 
 Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can 
 scarcely persuade ourselves, that so many immortal 
 republics of ancient Greece were lost in a single prov- 
 ince of the Roman empire, which, from the superior 
 influence of the Achaean league, was usually denomi- 
 nated the province of Achaia. 
 
 Such was the state of Europe under . . „. 
 
 »i I) mi. • I* Asia Minor. 
 
 the Koman emperors. 1 he provmces of 
 
 Asia, without excepting the transient conquests of 
 Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the 
 Turkish power. But, instead of following the arbi- 
 trary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will be 
 safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the 
 indelible characters of nature. The name of Asia Mi- 
 nor is attributed with some propriety to the peninsula, 
 which, confined betwixt the Euxine and the Mediter- 
 ranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. 
 The most extensive and flourishing district, westward 
 of mount Taurus and the river Halys, was dignified 
 by the Romans with the exclusive title of Asia. The 
 Jurisdiction of that province extended over the ancient 
 monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime 
 countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, 
 and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in 
 arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent. 
 The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the 
 northern side of the peninsula from Constantinople to 
 Trebizond. On the opposite side, the province of 
 Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria : the 
 inland country, separated from the Roman Asia by the 
 river Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had 
 once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. 
 In this place we may observe, that the northern shores 
 of the Euxine, bpyond Trebizond in Asia, and beyond 
 the Danube in Europe, acknowledged the sovereignty 
 of the emperors, and received at their hands either 
 tributary princes or Roman garrisons. Budzak, Crim 
 Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern ap- 
 pellations of those savage countries." 
 
 Under the successors of Alexander, g -j, p},jjp„-. 
 Syria was the seat of the Seleucidse, w ho cia, and Pal- 
 reigned over upper Asia, till the success- <^s^»"e. , 
 ful revolt of the Parthians confinod their dominions 
 between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When 
 Syria became subject to the Romans, it formed the 
 eastern frontier of their empire: nor did that province, 
 in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than 
 the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and towards 
 the south, the confines of Egypt and the Red Sea. 
 Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed to, 
 and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of 
 
 n &'c tho Periplusof .Arrian. He examined the coasts of the Euxine, 
 when he wa« govtrnor of (.'jipjmdivia. 
 
 Syria. The former of these was a narrow and rocky 
 coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to 
 Wales, either in fertility oi extent." Yet Phoenicia 
 and Palestine will for ever live in the memory of man- 
 kind ; since America, as well as Europe, has received 
 letters from the one, and religion from the other.P A 
 sandy desert alike destitute of wood and water skirts 
 along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates 
 to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs was 
 inseparably connected with their independence ; and 
 wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they 
 ventured to form any settled habitation, they soon be- 
 came subjects to the Roman empire.'' 
 
 jj^ J The geographers of antiquity have fre- 
 
 ^^P ' quently hesitated to what portion of the 
 globe they should ascribe Egypt.' By its situation 
 that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense 
 peninsula of Africa; but it is accessible only on the 
 side of Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every period 
 of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman praj- 
 fect was seated on the splendid throne of the Ptole- 
 mies; and the iron sceptre of the Mamalukes is now 
 in the hands of a Turkish Pasha. The Nile flows 
 down the country, above five hundred miles from the 
 tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, and marks, on 
 either side, the extent of fertility by the measure of its 
 inundations. Cyrene, situated towards the west, and 
 along the sea-coast, was first a Greek colony, after- 
 wards a province of Egypt, and is now lost in the desert 
 of Barca.' 
 
 o [This comparison is exaggerated with the intention no doubt of at- 
 tacking the authority of the Bible which extols the fertility of Pales- 
 tine. Gibbon basefy his assertion only upon a passage from Stralw, b, 
 XVI. p 1104, «</. Almelov. and upon the present stale of the country— 
 but Strabo is speaking only of the environs of Jerusalem, which, he 
 says, were unfruitful and arid for sixty stadia around the city. He in 
 other places, gives excellent testimony to the fertilitv of many parts of 
 Palejtine. He says. "About Jericho is a forest of |>a'lm trees, and the 
 country for a hundred stadia is full of springs and well peopled " He- 
 sides, Strabo had never seen Palestine. He onlv speaks from the re- 
 ports of others, which were very likely to be as incorrect as those from 
 which he wrote his description of Germany in which Cluvier has expo- 
 sed so many errors— (Cluv. Oerma. ant. boi>k iii. ch. 1.) FinHliv bis 
 testimony is confuted and contradicted by thHtof other ancient writers 
 and by pedals. Tacitus says, in speaking of Palestine, "The men are 
 sound and robust, rains are infrequent and the soil is fertile. (Tac. Hist, 
 book v. ch.6.) Ammienus Marcellinus says also— "The last of the Sy- 
 rias IS Palestine, a country of great extent, /«/Zo/^oorfanrf irc//cM//tra- 
 teaiand, and where there are some beautiful cities which do not yield to 
 one another in any respect, but have a sort of equality which make- 
 them rivals —(L. xiv. c. 8.) See also the historian Josephus, (book vi. 
 ch. 1. p. 367.) Procopiusof Cesarea. who lived in the sixth ccnturv 
 says that Chosroes king of Persia had an extreme desire t(. make him"- 
 scirmasterof Palestine on acco«n« of its extraordinary fertilttii its 
 vtaUh and the prcat number of its inhabitants. The Saracens thought 
 the same, and feared lest Omar, who had gone to Jerusalem, charmed 
 with the fcrtilityof the country and the purity of the air, would n.ver 
 return to Medina— (Ockley, J/ist. of the Saracens, p. if^fJ.) The imiior- 
 tancc which the Romans attached to the conquest of Palestine, and the 
 obstacles w-hich they had to overcome to obtain it, prove still more the 
 wealth and population of the country. Vespasian and Titns caused 
 medals to be struck with this inscription, Judaa Capta, on which Pa- 
 lestine is represenled by a female under a palm tree- indicating the 
 excellence of the country. Other medals also show its ferlilitv— for 
 example that of Herod holding a cluster of grapes, and tliat of the 
 young Agrippa holding fruits. As to the present state of the country 
 n IS evident that no argument can be drawn from it, against its ancient 
 fertility. The calamities through which it has passed, the government 
 to which It belongs, and the situation of its inhabitants sufficiently 
 explain the savage and uncultivated aspect of this land whore even 
 Htill fertile and cultivated tracts are found, as travellers fully testify 
 among others, Shaw, Maundrell, de la Rocque, &c.— O.l 
 
 P The progress of religion is well known. The use ofletters was in- 
 troduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen hundred years be- 
 fore Christ ; and the Europeans carried them to America alwut fifteen 
 centuries after the Christian ara. But in a period of three thousand 
 years, the I hopnician alphabet received considerable alterations, as it 
 passed through the hands of the Greeks and Romans, 
 q DionCassius, lib. Ixviii. p. 11.11. 
 
 J/^olcmyan^ Strabo, with the modern geographers, fix the Isthmus 
 «,ii ? «• .^'^ '*""'^;'«'-y o*^ Asia and Africa. Dionysius, Mela, Plinv, 
 Ballust, Hirtiiis, and Solinus, have preferred for that purpose the west- 
 ern branch of the Nile, or even the great Catabathmus. or descent, 
 winch last would assign to Asia, not onlv Egypt, but part of Libya. 
 ; I ^A^V'^u "^^ f«»nded by Lacedemonians who came from Thera. an 
 island of the iKgean sea Crinus king of this island had a son named 
 Aristeus, and surnamcd Battus (from the Greek B.ttcj) because he 
 was according to some, dumb, or according to others, a stammerer and 
 embarrassed m his pronunciation. Crinus consulted the Delphic Ora- 
 cle concerning the malady of his son. The oracle replied that he would 
 not recover the free use of s,>eech until he should found a city in Africa. 
 Ihe weak state of the island Thera, and the small number of its inha- 
 oitants. prevented any emigrations. Battus did not depart The The- 
 rcans being afflicted by the plague consulted again the oracle, which 
 repeated its former response. Battus then departed, landed in Alrica 
 
 From Cyrene to the ocean, the coast 
 of Africa extends above fifteen hundred Africa, 
 miles ; yet so closely is it pressed between the Medi- 
 terranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, that its 
 breadth seldom exceeds fourscore or an hundred miles. 
 The eastern division was considered by the Romans 
 as the more peculiar and proper province of Africa. 
 Till the arrival of the Phoenician colonies, that fertile 
 country was inhabited by the Libyans, the most savage 
 of mankind. Under the immediate jurisdiction of Car- 
 thage, it became the centre of commerce and empire; 
 but the republic of Carthage is now degenerated into 
 the feeble and disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis. 
 The military government of Algiers oppresses the wide 
 extent of Numidia, as it was once united under Massi- 
 nissa and Jugurlha: but in the time of Augustus, the 
 limits of Numidia were contracted; and at least two 
 thirds of the country acquiesced in the name of Mauri- 
 tania, with the epithet of Caesariensis. The genuine 
 Mauritania, or country of the Moors, which, from the 
 ancient city of Tingi, or Tangier, was distinguished 
 by the appellation of Tingitana, is represented by the 
 modern kingdom of Fez. Salle, on the ocean, so in- 
 famous at present for its piratical depredations, was 
 noticed by the Romans, as the extreme object of their 
 power, and almost of their geography. A city of their 
 foundation may still be discovered near Mequinez, the 
 residence of the barbarian whom we condescend to 
 style the Emperor of Morocco; but it does not appear 
 that his more southern dominions, Morocco itself, and 
 Segelmessa, were ever comprehended within the Ro- 
 man province. The western parts of Africa are inter- 
 sected by the branches of mount Atlas, a name so idly 
 celebrated by the fancy of poets ;^ but which is now 
 diffused over the immense ocean that rolls between the 
 ancient and the new continent." 
 
 Having now finished the circuit of the n,, « o-. 
 
 D • 1 .ihe Alediter- 
 
 Koman empire, we may observe, that ranean with its 
 
 Africa is divided from Spain by a narrow "'and"- 
 strait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlan- 
 tic flows into the Mediterranean. The columns of 
 Hercules, so famous among the ancients, were two 
 mountains which seemed to have been torn asunder by 
 some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of the 
 European mountain, the fortress of Gibraltar is now 
 seated. The whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea, 
 its coasts, and its islands, were comprised within the 
 Roman dominion. Of the larger islands, the two 
 Baleares, which derive their name of Majorca and 
 Minorca from their respective size, are subject at pre- 
 sent, the former to Spain, the latter to great Britaii^ 
 It is easier to deplore tiie fate, than to describe the aW 
 tual condition of Corsica. Two Italian sovereigns as- 
 sume a regal title from Sardinia and Sicily. Crete, or 
 Candia, with Cyprus, and most of the smaller islands 
 of Greece and Asia, have been subdued by the Turk- 
 
 and, according to Pausanias, being frightened at the sight of a lion, ho 
 uttered a cry and suddenly recovered the use of sfieech. He took pos. 
 session of the hill Cyra, and built upon it the city Cyrene. This colony 
 soon attained a high degree of splendor. Its history and medals, which 
 are still extant, attest its power and wpalih— (See' Eckhel De doctriiia 
 nummorum veterum ; vol. iv. p. 117.) It fell at last info the power of the 
 Ptolemies, when the Macedonians invaded Egypt. The first Ptolemy 
 Lagus, called Soter, made himself master of Cyrenaica. which belonged 
 to his successors until Ptolemy Apion gave it by will to the Romans, 
 who, uniting it to Crete, formed of them one province. The port 
 of Cyrene was called Apollonia, it is now called Marzasusa or Sosvsh 
 from which d'Anville infers that it is the city which bore the name of 
 Sozu.<a during the time of the lower empire. Some ruins of Cyrene re- 
 main under the nameof Curin. The history of this colony, obscured as 
 to its origin by the fables of antiquity is related at length by many an- 
 cient and modern authors— S^c? among others Herodotus, book iv. c. 150. 
 Callimacus (who was himself a Cyrenian,) Ifymn. ad jSpoll. and the' 
 notes of Spanheim; Diodorus Siculus iv, 83; Justin xiii. 7. D'Anville, 
 Geogr. anc. vol. iii. p. 4.1, &;c. — O.'] 
 
 t The long range, moderate height, and gentle doclivify of mount At- 
 las, (.see Shaw's Travels, p. .5.) arc very unlike a solitary mountain which 
 rears its h'iad into the clouds, and seems to supjKirt the heavens. The 
 jieak of Tenerifie, on the contrary, rises a league and a half above the 
 surface of the sea, and as it was frequently visited by the Phoenicians, 
 might engage the notice of the Greek poets. See Bii'ffon, Histoire Na- 
 turelle, tom. i. p. .312. Histoire des Voyages, lorn. ii. 
 
 « M. do Voltaire, tom. xiv. p, 21^7. "unsupported by either fact or 
 probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman 
 empire. 
 
22 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 23 
 
 
 ish arms ; whilst the little rock of Malta defies their 
 power, and has emerged, under the government of its 
 military Order, into fame and opulence. 
 General idea of This long enumeration of provinces, 
 the Roman em- whose broken fragments have formed so 
 P*"- many powerful kingdoms, might almost 
 
 induce us to forgive the vanity or ignorance of the an- 
 cients. Dazzled with the extensive sway, the irresist- 
 ible strength, and the real or affected moderation of the 
 emperors, they permitted themselves to despise, and 
 sometimes to forget, the outlying countries which had 
 been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous indepen- 
 dence; and they gradually usurped the licence of con- 
 founding the Roman monarchy with the globe of the 
 earth.'' But the temper, as well as knowledge, of a 
 modern historian, require a more sober and accurate 
 language. He may impress a juster image of the 
 greatness of Rome, by observing that the empire was 
 above two thousand miles in breadth, from the wall of 
 Antoninus and the northern limits of Dacia, to mount 
 Atlas and the tropic of Cancer ; that it extended, in 
 length, more than three thousand miles, from the West 
 
 ened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of 
 their subjects. The various modes of worship, which 
 prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by 
 the people, as equally true ; by the philosopher as 
 equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. 
 And thus toleration produced not only mutual indul- 
 gence, but even religious concord. 
 
 The superstition of the people was not 
 imbittered by any mixture of theological ^^ »'>"P«opJe. 
 rancour; nor was it confined by the chains of any spe- 
 culative system. The devout poly theist, though fond- 
 ly attached to his national rites, admitted with implicit 
 faith the different religions of the earth.' Fear, grati- 
 tude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular 
 disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed 
 him to multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge 
 the list of his protectors. The thin texture of the Pa- 
 gan mythology was interwoven with various, but not 
 discordant, materials. As soon as it was allowed that 
 sages and heroes, who had lived or who had died for 
 the benefit of their country, were exalted to a state of 
 power and immortality, it was universally confessed, 
 
 ern ocean to the Euphrates ; that it was situated in the that they deserved, if not the adoration, at least the 
 
 finest part of the temperate zone, between the twenty- 
 fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of northern latitude ; and 
 that it was supposed to contain above sixteen hundred 
 thousand square miles, for the most part of fertile and 
 well cultivated land.y 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Of the union and internal prosperity of the Roman Em- 
 pire in the a^e of the Antonines, 
 
 Principles of It is not alone by the rapidity, or ex- 
 governraent. ^^^^ ^f conqucst, that we should estimate 
 the greatness of Rome. The sovereign of the Russian 
 deserts commands a larger portion of the globe. In 
 the seventh summer after his passage of the Helles- 
 pont, Alexander erected the Macedonian trophies on 
 the banks of the Hyphasis.* Within less than a cen- 
 tury, the irresistible Zingis, and the Mogul princes of 
 his race, spread their cruel devastations and transient 
 empire, from the sea of China, to the confines of Egypt 
 and Germany.'' But the firm edifice of Roman power 
 was raised and preserved by the wisdom of ages. The 
 obedient provinces of Trajan and the Antonines were 
 united by laws, and adorned by arts. They might 
 occasionally suffer from the partial abuse of delegated 
 
 fithority ; but the general principle of government 
 as wise, simple, and beneficent. They enjoyed the 
 religion of their ancestors, whilst in civil honours and 
 advantages they were exalted, by just degrees, to an 
 equality with their conquerors. 
 
 Universal spirit I. The poHcy of the emperors and the 
 of toioratiun. senate, as far as it concerned religion, 
 was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlight- 
 
 X B*«r;jior, Flist, dss Grands Chemins, 1. iii. c. 3, 2, 3, 4. a very useful 
 collection. 
 
 y See Templcman'fl survey of the Globe : but I distrust both the Doc- 
 tor'8 learning and his mafts. 
 
 » They were erected about the midway between Labor and Dtdhi. 
 The conquests of Alexander in Hindostan were confined to the Punjali, 
 a country watered by the five great streams of the Indus. 
 
 [The MyphasiR is one of the five rivers which flow into the Indus 
 or Sinde tnhft having traversed the province of Pendj-ab, a name which 
 signifies in Persian the five rivers — of these five rivers four are known 
 in tho history of Alexander's nxpedii ion — they arc the HydasjMfl, the 
 Hydraotes, the Acesinus and the Hyphasis. Geo^rraphers (lifter rospoct- 
 ing the agreement between tho ancient and modern names. Accord- 
 ing to D'Anville the Hydaspis is now the Shantron, the Acesinus is 
 the river which pa.sses by Lahore or tho Rauvee, the Hydraotes is called 
 Biah, and the Hyphasis Caul. Rennel in the maps of bis Geographv 
 of Indostan gives the nameof J?«Aa< or Chelum to the Hydai^pis, of Chu- 
 nauh to the Acesinus, nf Rauvee to the Hydraotes, and of Beijah. to the 
 Hyphasis — (see D'Anville, Oeoffr. anc. vol.2, p. 340, and tke description 
 of Indoftan bv Jamos Rennelj, vol. 2. p. 230 with the map.) An En- 
 glish writer, Mr. Vincent, has since extensively treated of all these 
 questions; and the rcsource-t which have aided him in his researches, 
 and the care ho has bestowed leave it is said, nothing more to be desi- 
 
 reverence, of all mankind. The deities of a thousand 
 groves and a thousand streams possessed, in peace, 
 their local and respective influence ; nor could the Ro- 
 man who deprecated the wrath of the Tiber, deride 
 the Egyptian who presented his offering to the benefi- 
 cent genius of the Nile. The visible powers of nature, 
 the planets, and the elements, were the same through- 
 out the universe. The invisible governors of the moral 
 world were inevitably cast in a similar mould of fiction 
 and allegory. Every virtue, and even vice, acquired 
 its divine representative; every art and profession its 
 patron, whose attributes, in the most distant ages and 
 countries, were uniformly derived from the character 
 of their peculiar votaries. A republic of gods of such 
 opposite tempers and interest required, in every sys- 
 tem, the moderating hand of a supreme magistrate, 
 who, by the progress of knowledge and flattery, was 
 gradually invested with the sublime perfections of an 
 Eternal Parent, and an Omnipotent Monarch.** Such 
 was the mild spirit of antiquity, that the nations were 
 less attentive to the difference, than to the resemblance, 
 of their religious worship. iThe Greek, the Roman, 
 and the Barbarian, as they rxret before their respective 
 altars, easily persuaded themselves, that under various 
 names, and with various ceremonies, they adored the 
 same deities. The elegant mythology of Homer gave 
 a beautiful and almost a regular form to the polythe- 
 ism of the ancient world.* 
 
 The philosophers of Greece deduced 
 their morals from the nature of man, ra- O*" P»"l"«>ph"». 
 ther than from that of God. They meditated, however, 
 on the Divine nature, as a very curious and important 
 speculation; and in the profound inquiry, they display- 
 ed the strength and weakness of the human understand- 
 ing.' Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stoics 
 and the Platonists endeavoured to reconcile the jarring 
 interests of reason and piety. They have left us the 
 most sublime proofs of the existence and perfections of 
 the first cause ; but as it was impossible for them to 
 conceive the creation of matter, the workman in the 
 
 c There is not any writer who describes in so lively a manner as He- 
 rodotus, the true genius of Polytheism. The best commentary may be 
 found in Mr. Hume's Nnturnl History of Religion; and the best contrast 
 in Bossuet's Universal History. Some obscure traces of an intolerant 
 spirit appear in the conduct of the Egyptians, (see Juvenal, Sat. xv.) 
 and the Christians, as well as Jews, who lived under the Roman em- 
 pire, formed a very important exception ; so important indeed that the 
 discussion will require a distinct chapter of this work. 
 
 d Tho rights, powers, and pretensions of tho sovereign of Olymput, 
 are very clearly described in the xvth book of the Hind: in the Greek 
 original, I mean ; for Mr. Pope, without perceiving it, has improved the 
 theology of Homer. 
 
 e See for instance. Ciesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 17. Within a rentury or 
 two the Gauls themselves applied to their gods the names of Mercury, 
 Mars, Apollo, &c. 
 
 Stoic philosophy was not suflSciently distinguished 
 from the work ; whilst, on the contrary, the spiritual 
 God of Plato and his disciples, resembled an idea, ra- 
 ther than a substance. The opinions of the Academics 
 and Epicureans were of a less religious cast; but 
 whilst the modest science of the former induced them 
 to doubt, the positive ignorance of the latter urged them 
 to deny, the providence of. a supreme Ruler. The spi- 
 rit of inquiry, prompted by emulation, and supported 
 by freedom, had divided the public teachers of philoso- 
 phy into a variety of contending sects ; but the ingeni- 
 ous youth, who, from every part, resorted to Athens, 
 and the other seats of learning in the Roman empire, 
 were alike instructed in every school to reject and to 
 despise the religion of the multitude. IHow, indeed, 
 was it possible, that a philosopher sholild accept, as 
 divine truths, the idle tales of the poets, and the inco- 
 herent traditions of antiquity ; or that he should adore, 
 as gods, those imperfect beings, whom he must have 
 despised as men IIAgainst such unworthy adversaries, 
 Cicero coudescenaed to employ the arms of reason and 
 eloquence; but the satire of Lucian was a much more 
 adequate, as well as more eflicacious, weapon. We 
 may be well assured, that a writer conversant with the 
 world, would never have ventured to expose the gods 
 of his country to public ridicule, had they not already 
 been the objects of secret contempt among the polished 
 and enlightened orders of society .s 
 
 Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which 
 prevailed in the age of the Antonines, both the inter- 
 ests of the priests and the credulity of the people were 
 sufficiently respected. In their writings and conver- 
 sation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted the inde- 
 pendent dignity of reason ; but they resigned their ac- 
 tions to the commands of law and of custom. View- 
 ing, with a smile of pity and indulgence, the various 
 errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the cere- 
 monies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the tem- 
 ples of the gods; and sometimes condescending to act 
 a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the 
 sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal robes. 
 Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to 
 wrangle about their respective modes of faith, or of 
 worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the 
 folly of the multitude might choose to assume ; and 
 they approached with the same inward contempt, and 
 the same external reverence, the altars of the Lybian, 
 the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.** 
 Ofthemagis- It is not easy to conceive from what 
 trate. motives a spirit of persecution could in- 
 troduce itself into the Roman councils. The magis- 
 trates could not be actuated by a blind though honest 
 bigotry, since the magistrates were themselves philoso- 
 phers ; and the school of Athens had given laws to the 
 senate. They could not be impelled by ambition or 
 avarice, as the temporal and ecclesiastical powers 
 were united in the same hands. The pontiffs were 
 chosen among the most illustrious of the senators ; 
 and the oflice of supreme pontiff was constantly exer- 
 cised by the emperors themselves. They knew and 
 valued jthe advantages of religion, as it is connected 
 with civil government. They encouraged the public 
 festivals which humanize the manners of the people. 
 They managed the arts of divination, as a convenient 
 instrument of policy ; and they respected, as the firm- 
 est bond of society, the useful persuasion, that, either 
 in this or in a. future life, the crime of perjury is most 
 assuredly punished by the avenging gods.' But whilst 
 they acknowledged the general advantages of religion, 
 
 „ f The admirable work of Cicero de NaturA Deorum, is the liett cIub 
 
 red. I am able to speak of his works, not being acquainted with them, we have to guide us through the dark and profound abyss He repre- 
 *^l^^ ^^^ reputation the author has acquired.— fl".] I sents with candour, and confutes with subtilty, the opinions of tha 
 
 B See M. deGuignoa, Histoires dcs Huns, 1. xv. xvi. and xvii. J philuaophers. 
 
 K 1 do not pretend to assert, that, in this irreligious age, the natural 
 terrors of superstition, dreams, omens, api>aritions, &c. had lost their 
 efficacy. 
 
 5> Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, and Plutarch, always inculcated a de- 
 cent reverence for the religion of their own country, and of mankind. 
 The devotion of Epicurus was assiduous and exemplary. Dio^en. Laert. 
 
 I 10. I/O 
 
 Polybius, 1. vi. c. 53, 54. Juvenal, Sat. xiii. laments that in his 
 liufie this apprehension had lost much of its effect. 
 
 At Rome. 
 
 they were convinced that the various modes of worship 
 contributed alike to the same salutary purposes: and 
 that, in every country, the form of superstition, which 
 had received the sanction of time and experience, was 
 the best adapted to the climate, and to its inhabitants. 
 Avarice and taste very frequently de- 
 spoiled the vanquished nations of the cle- ^" ^^^ Provinces, 
 gant statues of their gods, and the rich ornaments of 
 their temples;'' but, in the exercise of the religion 
 which they derived from their ancestors, they uniform- 
 ly experienced the indulgence, and even protection, of 
 the Roman conquerors. The province of Gaul seems, 
 and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal 
 toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing 
 human sacrifices, the emperors Tiberius and Claudius 
 suppressed the dangerous powers of the druids;' but 
 the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, 
 subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction 
 of Paganism.™ 
 
 Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, 
 was incessantly filled with subjects and 
 strangers from every part of the world," who all intro- 
 duced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their 
 native country." Every city in the empire was justi- 
 fied in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies; 
 and the Roman senate, using the common privilege, 
 sometimes interposed, to check this inundation of for- 
 eign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all the most 
 contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited ; 
 the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their 
 worshippers banished from Rome and Italy .p But the 
 zeal of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble 
 efforts of policy. The exiles returned, the proselytes 
 multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing 
 splendour, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed 
 their place among the Roman deities.^ Nor was this 
 indulgence a departure from the old maxims of gov- 
 ernment. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, 
 Cybele and -^sculapius had been invited by solemn 
 embassies ;"" and it was customary to tempt the pro- 
 tectors of besieged cities, by the promise of more dis- 
 tinguished honours than they possessed in their native 
 country.* Rome gradually became the common temple 
 of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was be- 
 stowed on all the gods of mankind.' 
 
 II. The narrow policy of preservinor, 
 without any foreign mixture, the pure ^'*^'^*^™ ^'■^'""«- 
 blood of the ancient citizens, had cheeked the fortune, 
 and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The 
 aspiring genius of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition, 
 and deemed it more prudent, as well as honourable, to 
 adopt virtue and merit for her own wheresoever llwy 
 
 were found. 
 
 amonjT 
 
 slaves or strangers, enemies or 
 
 k See the fate of Syracuse, Tarentum, Ambracia, Corinth, &.c. the 
 conduct of Verres, in Cicero, (Actio ii. Orat. 4.) and the usual jtractice 
 of governors, in the viiith Satire of Juvenal. 
 
 I Sueton. in Claud. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1. 
 
 n> Pelloutier Histoire des Celtes, tom. vi. p. 2.30—252. 
 
 " Seneca Consolat. ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit. Lips. 
 
 " Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. 1. ii. 
 
 P In the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis was drrno- 
 lishcd by the order of the Senate, (Dion Cassius, 1. xl. p. 252 ) and even 
 by the hands of the consul, (Valerius Maximus, 1. 'A.) After the death 
 of Caesar, it was restored at the public ex|X>nse, (Dion. 1. xlvii. p. 501.) 
 When Augustus was in Egypt, he revered the majesty of Serapis (Dion, 
 1. Ii. p. 647.); but in the Pomsprium of Rome, and a mile round it, he 
 prohibited the worship of the Egyptian gods, (Dion. I. liii. p. 679. I. liv. 
 p. 735.) They remained however, very fashionable under his reign 
 (Ovid, de Art. Amand. 1. 1.) and that of his successor, till the justice of 
 Tiberius was provoked to some acts of severity. (See Tacit. Annal. ii. 
 85. Joseph. Antirjuit. 1. xviii. c. 3.) 
 
 [Gibbon makes here a single event of two events, separated one from 
 the other by the distance of 166 years. It was in the year of Rome 
 535, that the Senate having ordered the destruction of the temples of 
 Isis and of Serapis, no one would lift bis hand to destroy them, and the 
 consul L. i¥!milins-Paulus took himself an axe and gave the first stroke 
 (Val. Max. book i. c. 3.) Gibbon attributes this circumstance to the 
 second demolishing which took place in 701, and which he regards as 
 the first.— ».] 
 
 q Tertullian in Apologetic, c. 6. p. 74. Edit. HaTercamp. I am 
 inclined to attribute their establishment to the devotion o^|^e Flavian, 
 family. ' .. • - 
 
 r See Livy, 1. xi. and xxir. - — -r * 
 
 * Macrob. Saturnalia, I. iii. r. 9. He givep us a form of evocation. 
 
 < Minutius Felix in Octavio, p. 54. Arnobius, 1, vi. p. 115, 
 
24 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 25 
 
 barbarians." During the most flourishing sera of the 
 Athenian commonweath, the nunriber of chizens grad- 
 ually decreased from about thirty* to twenty-one thou- 
 sand. y If, on the contrary, we study the grrowth of 
 the Roman Republic, we may discover, thaf, notwith- 
 standing the incessant demands of wars and colonies, 
 the citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tul- 
 lius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand, 
 were multiplied, before the commencement of the so- 
 cial war, to the number of four hundred and sixty- 
 three thousand men, able to bear arms in the service 
 of their country.' When the allies of Rome claimed 
 an equal share of honours and privileges, the Senate 
 indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious 
 concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid 
 the severe penalty of their rashness ; but the rest of 
 the Italian States, as they successively returned to 
 their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the repub- 
 lic,' and soon contributed to the ruin of public free- 
 dom. Under a democratical government, the citizens 
 exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers 
 will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are 
 committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the 
 popular assemblies had been suppressed by the ad- 
 ministration of the emperoFS, the conquerors were dis- 
 tinguished from the vanquished nations, only as the 
 fust and most honourable order of subjects ; and their 
 increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to 
 the same dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who 
 adopted the maxims of Augustus, guarded with the 
 strictest care the dignity of the Roman name, and 
 diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent lib- 
 erality.'' 
 
 Italy. '^*'^ ^^® privileges of Romans had been 
 
 progressively extended to all the inhabi- 
 tants of the empire, an important distinction was pre- 
 served between Italy and the provinces. The former 
 was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm 
 basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at 
 least the residence, of the emperors and the Sen- 
 ate.' The estates of the Italians were exempt from 
 taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of 
 governors. Their municipal corporations, formed after 
 the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, under 
 the immediate eye of the supreme power, with the 
 execution of the laws. From the foot of the Alps to 
 the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of Italy 
 were born citizens of Rome. Their partial distinctions 
 were obliterated, and they insensibly coalesced into 
 one great nation, united by language, manners, and 
 cB^l institutions, and equal to the weight of a power- 
 ful empire. The republic gloried in her generous pol- 
 icy, and was frequently rewarded by the merit and 
 services of her adopted sons. Had she always con- 
 fined the distinction of Romans to the ancient families 
 within the walls of the city, that immortal name would 
 have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. 
 Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was inclined 
 to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian 
 or a Lucanian : it was in Padua that an historian was 
 found worthy to record the majestic series of Roman 
 victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged 
 from Tusculuni; and the little town of Arpintim 
 
 u Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. Tho Orbia Romanus of tho learned Span- 
 heim ia a complete history of thn progrcHsivc admission of Latium 
 Italy, and tlie provinces, to the freedom of Rome. ' 
 
 X Herodotus, v. 07. It should seem, however, that he followed a 
 large and popular estimation. 
 
 y Athena'UR, Dcipnosophist. I. vi. p. 27ii. Edit. Casaubon. Meursius 
 de Fort una, c. 4. 
 
 2 See a very accnrate collection of the numhcrd of each Lustrum in 
 M. de. Beaufort, Republiquc Romainc, 1. iv. c. 4. 
 
 » Appian. dn Bell. Civil. I. i. Vclleius I'atercuius, I. ii. c. 15—17. 
 
 b MKcenasi had advised him to declare, by one edict, all his subjects 
 citizens. But we may justly suspect that the historian Dion whs the 
 author of a counnel, so much adapted to the practice of his own a^v 
 and so little to that of Augustus. " ' 
 
 c The senators were obli^jcd to have one-third of their own landed 
 property in Italy. See PI in. 1 vi. ep. 19. The qualification xvas re- 
 duced by Marcus to one-fourth. Since the reign of Trajan. Italy hud 
 sunk ne«rcr to the level of the proviocoi. 
 
 claimed the double honour of producing Marius and 
 Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after Romulus 
 and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of 
 Rome ; and the latter, after saving his country from 
 the designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with 
 Athens for the palm of eloquence.** 
 
 The provinces of the empire (as they 
 have been described in the preceding chap- Provlncea. 
 ter) were destitute of any public force, or constitutional 
 freedom. In Etruria, in Greece,* and in Gaul,' it was 
 the first care of the Senate to dissolve those dangerous 
 confederacies, which taught mankind, that, as the Ro- 
 man arms prevailed by division, they might be resisted 
 by union. Those princes, whom the ostentation of grat- 
 itude or generosity permitted for a w hile to hold a pre- 
 carious sceptre, were dismissed from their thrones, as 
 soon as they had performed their appointed task of 
 fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The 
 free states and cities which had embraced the cause 
 of Rome were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and 
 insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public au- 
 thority was every where exercised by the ministers of 
 the Senate and of the emperors, and that authority 
 was absolute, and without control. But the same sal- 
 utary maxims of government, which had secured the 
 peace and obedience of Italy, were extended to the 
 most distant conquests. A nation of Romans was 
 gradually formed in the provinces, by the double ex- 
 pedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the 
 most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the 
 freedom of Rome. 
 
 »; Wheresoever the Roman conquers, Colonics and mu- 
 he inhabits," is a very just observation n'cipal towns, 
 of Seneca,« confirmed by history and experience. 
 The natives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by inter- 
 est, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and 
 we may remark, that about forty years after the re- 
 duction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans were mas- 
 sacred in one day, by the cruel orders of Mithri- 
 dates.'' These voluntary exiles were engaged, for the 
 most part, in the occupations of commerce, agricul- 
 ture, and the farm of the revenue. But after the 
 legions were rendered permanent by the emperors, the 
 provinces were peopled by a race of soldiers ; and the 
 veterans, whether they received the reward of their 
 services in land or in money, usually settled, with 
 their families, in the country where they had honoura- 
 bly spent their youth. Throughout the empire, but 
 more particularly in the western parts, the most fertile 
 districts and the most convenient situations, were re- 
 served for the establishment of colonies ; some of 
 which were of a civil, and others of a military, nature. 
 In their manners and internal policy, the colonies 
 formed a perfect representation of their great parent ; 
 and they were soon endeared to the natives by the ties 
 of friendship and alliance, they efl!*ectually diffused a 
 reverence for the Roman name, and a desire, which 
 was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its 
 honours and advantages.' The municipal cities in- 
 sensibly equalled the rank and splendour of the colo- 
 nies ; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed 
 which was the preferable condition, of those societies 
 which had issued from, or those which had been rc- 
 
 <» The first part of tho Verona Illnstrata of the Marquic Maflfei 
 pives the clearest and most comprehensive view of the state of Italy 
 under the Caisars. 
 
 c Sec Pausanias, 1. vii. The Romans condescended to restore tli« 
 names of those assemblies, when they could no longer i>e dantrernus. 
 
 f They are frequently mentioned by Cffsar. The Abb«^ Dubon at- 
 temi)ts, with very little success, to prove that the assombjies of Gaol 
 were continued under the emperors. Hiitoiro do I'Etablisscmcnt do 
 la Monarchic Fran^Xiise, 1. i c. 4. 
 
 a Soneca in Consolat. ad Hnlviam, c. 6. 
 
 h Memnon apud Photium, c. Xi. Valer. Maxim, is. 2. Plutarch 
 and Dion Cussius swell the massacre to 150,000 citizens ; but I should 
 estci'm the Kmaller number to be more than sufiScient. 
 
 » Twenty-five colonies were settled in Spain, (sue Plin. Hist. Natur. 
 ill. 3. 4. iv. 35.) and nine in Britain, of which London, Colchester. 
 Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath, still remain considerable citie* 
 ("See Richard of Cirencester, p. 36. and Whitakcr's hibtorv of Man 
 Chester, 1. i. c. 3.) 
 
 ceived into, the bosom of Rome."' The right of La- 
 tium, as it was called, conferred on the cities to which 
 it had been granted, a more partial favour. The 
 magistrates only, at the expiration of their oflice, as- 
 sumed the quality of Roman citizens ; but as those 
 offices were annual, in a few jrears they circulated round 
 the principal families.' Those of the provincials who 
 were perniitted to bear arms in the legions ;"* those 
 who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, 
 who performed any public service, or displayed any 
 personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose 
 value was continually diminished by the increasing 
 liberality of the emperors. Yet even, in the age of 
 the Antonincs, when the freedom of the city had been 
 bestowed on the greater number of their subjects, it 
 was still accompanied with very solid advantages. 
 The bulk of the people acquired, with that title, the 
 benefit of the Roman laws, particularly in the inter- 
 esting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheri- 
 tances; and the road of fortune was open to those 
 whose pretensions were seconded by favour or merit. 
 The grandsons of the Gauls, who had besieged Ju- 
 lius Caesar in Alesia, commanded legions, governed 
 provinces, and were admitted into the Senate of 
 Rome." Their ambition, instead of disturbing the 
 tranquillity of the State, was intimately connected 
 with its safety and greatness. 
 Division of the So Sensible were the Romans of the 
 
 Latin and the influence of lanffuaffe over national man- 
 Greek provmces. „_«„ «u^* '4. mi- 
 ners, that It was their most serious care 
 
 to extend, with the proq^ress of their arms, the use 
 of the Latin tongue." The ancient dialects of Italy, 
 the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into 
 oblivion; but in the provinces, the east was less do- 
 cile than the west to the voice of its victorious pre- 
 ceptors. This obvious diflTerence marked the two 
 portions of the empire with a distinction of colours, 
 which, though it was in some degree concealed during 
 the meridian splendour of prosperity, became gradu- 
 ally more visible, as the shades of night descended 
 upon the Roman world. The western countries were 
 civilized by the same hands which subdued them. 
 As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obe- 
 dience, their minds were opened to any new impres- 
 sions of knowledge and politeness. The language of 
 Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mix- 
 ture of corruption, was so universally adopted in 
 Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia,p that the 
 faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were pre- 
 served only in the mountains, or among the pea- 
 sants.'' Education and study insensibly inspired the 
 natives of those countries with the sentiments of Ro- 
 mans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to 
 her Latin provincials. They solicited with more ar- 
 dour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom 
 and honours of the state ; supported the national dig- 
 nity in letters'^ and in arms; and, at length, in the 
 
 k Aul. Gell. Noctes Atticae, xvi. 13. The emperor Hadrian ex- 
 pressed his surprise, that the cities of Utic^, Gados, and Itatica, which 
 already enjoyed the rights of Municipia, should solicit the title of 
 colonies. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empire 
 was filled with honorary colonies. See Spanheim, de U«u Numisma- 
 turn. Dissertat. xiii. 
 
 • Spanheim, Orbis Roman, c. 8. p. 62. 
 
 m Aristid. in Romee Encomio, torn. i. p. 218. Edit. Jebb. 
 
 n Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24. Hist. iv. 74. 
 
 [Alesia was near to Semur en Auxois in Burgundy. A trace of this 
 name remains in that of Auzois the name of the country. The victory 
 of Ct-esar in Alesia may serve, says D'Anville, as the date of the sub- 
 jugation of Gaul to the R^man power. — G.] 
 
 o See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. Angustin, de Civitate Dei. xix. 7. 
 Lipsius de pronnnciatione Lingus Latine, c. 3. 
 
 P Apuleius and Augustin will answer for Africa ; Strabo for Spain 
 and Gaul ; Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, for Britain ; and Velleius 
 Paterculus, for Punnonia. To them we may add the language of the 
 inscriptions. 
 
 q The Celtic wns preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, 
 and Armorica. We may observe that Apuleius reproaches an African 
 youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic ; 
 whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak 
 Latin. (Apolog. p. 596.) The greater part of St. Austin's congrega- 
 tions were strangers to the Punic. 
 
 '' Sptain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Laean, Martial, and 
 Qointilian. 
 
 Vol. L— D 
 
 person of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the 
 Scipios would not have disowned for their country- 
 man. The situation of the Greeks was very diflferent 
 from that of the barbarians. The former had been 
 long since civilized and corrupted. They had too 
 much taste to relinquish their language, and too much 
 vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still pre- 
 serving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, 
 of their ancestors, they afliected to despise the unpol- 
 ished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they 
 were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and 
 power.* Nor was the influence of the Grecian lan- 
 guage and sentiments confined to the narrow limits of 
 that once celebrated country. Their empire, by the 
 progress of colonies and conquest, had been diflJ'used 
 from the Hadriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. 
 Asia was covered with Greek cities, and the long 
 reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a silent 
 revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pompous 
 courts those princes united the elegance of Athens 
 with the luxury of the East, and the example of the 
 court was imitated, at a humble distance, by the higher 
 ranks of their subjects. Such was the general di- 
 vision of the Roman empire into the Latin and Greek 
 languages. To these we may add a third distinction 
 for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially in . 
 ^oypt* The use of their ancient dialects, by secluding 
 them from the commerce of mankind, checked the im- 
 provements of those barbarians.* The slothful eflfemi- 
 nacy of the former exposed them to the contempt, the 
 sullen ferociousness of the latter excited the aversion, 
 of the conquerors." Those nations had submitted to the 
 Roman power, but they seldom desired or deserved 
 the freedom of the city : and it was remarked, that 
 more than two hundred and thirty years elapsed after" 
 the ruin of the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was ^ 
 admitted into the senate of Rome.* 
 I It is a just though trite observation, General use of 
 that victorious Rome was herself sub- ^^oth languages, 
 dued by the arts of Greece. /"Those immortal writers 
 who still command the admiration of modern Europe, 
 soon became the favourite object of study and imita- 
 tion in Italy and the western provinces. But the ele- 
 gant amusements of the Romans were not suflfered to 
 interfere with their sound maxims of policy. Whilst 
 they acknowledged the charms of the Greek, they 
 asserted the dignity of the Latin, tongue, and the ex- 
 clusive use of the latter was inflexibly maintained in 
 the administration of civil as well as military gov- 
 ernment.y The two languages exercised at the same 
 time their separate jurisdiction throughout the empire^ 
 the former, as the natural idiom of science ; the lax= 
 ter, as the legal dialect of public transactions. Those 
 who united letters with business were equally conver- 
 sant with both ; and it was almost impossible, in any 
 province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal educa- 
 tion, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to 
 the Latin language. 
 
 It was by such institutions that the 
 nations of the empire insensibly melted *^*** 
 
 away into the Roman name and people. But there 
 still remained, in the centre of every province and of 
 every family, an unhappy condition of men, who en- 
 dured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of so- 
 ciety. In the free states of antiquity, the domestic 
 slaves were exposed to the wanton rigour of despo- 
 tism. The perfect settlement of the Roman empire 
 
 » There is not, I believe, from Dionysius to Libanus, a single Greek 
 critic who mentions Virgil or Horace. They seem ignorant that the 
 Romans had any good writers. 
 
 t The curious reader may see in Dupio (Bibliothcque Ecclesiastiqne, 
 tom. xix. p. 1. c. 8.) how much the use of the Syriac and Egyptian Ian- 
 guages was still preserved. 
 
 u See Juvenal, Sat. iii. and xv. Ammian. Marcelin. xxii. 16. 
 
 X Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxvii. p. 127.'!. The first instance happened under 
 the reign of Septimius Severus. 
 
 y See Valerias Maximus, 1. ii. c. 2. n. 2. T^e Emperor daudioi 
 disfranchised an eminent Grecian for not undcrstariding Latin. He 
 was probably in rome public office. Suetoniut in Claud, e. lt>. 
 
w I" 
 
 26 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 s 
 
 Their treatment. 
 
 was preceded b}' ages of violence and 
 rapine. The slaves consisted, for the 
 most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands 
 by the chance of war, purchased at a vile price,' ac- 
 customed to a life of independence, and impatient to 
 break and to revenge their fetters.* Against such in- 
 ternal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had 
 more than once reduced the republic to the brink of de- 
 struction,'' the most severe regulations,*^ and the most 
 
 « In the camp of Liicullus, an ox sold for a drachma, and a slave for 
 four drachmnc, or about three shillings. Plutarch in Lucull. p. 5&). 
 
 * [It was for this reason that wars wore so .sanguinary and combats 
 BO deadly. — The immortal Robtrtson, in an excellent discourse upon 
 the state of the world at the time of flic establishment of Christianity, 
 has traced a picture of the fatal effects of slavery, in which we see 
 the depth of his views and the solidity of his jud^'mcnt. I will euc- 
 cessively contrast some jMissafres from it with the reflections of Gib- 
 bon. We cannot see without interest, truths which Gibbon appears to 
 have forgotten, or voiuntaiily neglected, thus developed by one of the 
 best of modern historians. Is is necessary to rej>eat them here in order to 
 establish the facts and their consequences with accuracy. I shall have 
 occasion more than once, to employ for this purpose, the discourse of 
 Robertson.—" Prisoners of war," says he. " were probably at first sub- 
 jected to constant pervitude. In pro|K)rtion as neces.sity or luxury 
 rendered a greater number of slaves necessary, they supplied the de- 
 ficiency by new wars, always condemning the conquered to this un- 
 happy situation. From hence arose that spirit of ferocity and despair 
 which characterized the combats of the ancients. Chains and slavery 
 were the lot of the conquered ;— thus they engaged in battle and de- 
 fended their cities with a fury and an obstinacy whiirh the dread of 
 such a fate alone could inspire. When the evils of slavery disappear- 
 ed, Christianity extended her beneficent influence to mitigate the 
 mode of warfare ; and this barbarous art. softened by the spirit of 
 philanthropy which religion inspired, lost its devastating |)ower. Se- 
 cure, whatever might happen, of his personal liberty, the con(|uercd 
 resisted with less violence, and the triumph of the conqueror was less 
 cruel. Thus humanity was introduced into the camp where before she 
 was a stranger: and if the victories of our times are less stained 
 with cruelly and blood, it is to the benevolent principles of the 
 Christian religion, rather than to any other cause, that we must attri- 
 bute it."— C] 
 
 b Diodorus Siculus in Eclog, Hist. 1. xxxiv. and xxxvi. Floru.s. iii. 
 19, 20. ' 
 
 c See a remarkable instance of severity in Cicero in Verrem. v. 3. 
 
 [ Let us look at this example— we shall see if the word severity is 
 here in its place— 
 
 During the time when L. Domitius was praetor in Pieily, a slave slew 
 a wild boar of extraordinary size. The pra-tor. astonished at the dex- 
 terity and intrepidity of the man, desired to see him. The poor un- 
 fortunate, exceedingly gratified with this distinction, presented himself 
 before the pr^tor, doubtless ex|x>cting reward and praise; but Do- 
 mitius learning that he had used only a sjM'ar to overcome and slay the 
 animal, commanded that he should be immediately executed, under 
 the barbarous pretext that the law forbade slaves to use thid weapon 
 as well as all others. Perhaps the cruelty of Domitius is still le.«s 
 astonishing than the indifference with which the Roman orator relates 
 this incident. He is so little affected that he remarks,— Durum hoc 
 fortasse videatur, nemie ego in ullam partem disputo. " Tliis jK^rhajw 
 may appear hard, as tor myself I give no opinion on either side." (Cic. 
 in Verr.) and is this the orator who says in the same speech, Facinus 
 est vincire civcm Romanuni; scelus vcrberarc; prope parricidium no- 
 care; quid dicam in crucem tollere ? "It is an offense to bind a Ro- 
 man citizen; it is a crime to scourge him; almost parricide to slay 
 liim ; what shall I say then of his execution uiwm the cro-is 7" In gen- 
 eral, this passage from Gibbon on slavery is full, not oidy of a blama- 
 ble mdifferenre, but of an exaggerated impartiality, which almost 
 
 »ount8 to dishonesty. He endeavours to extenuate the horrors of 
 slave's situation, and of the treatment he endures; he seems to 
 consider their cruel treatment as being Just if ed by vecrssity. He then 
 Mt* forth with a minute exactness the slightest alleviation of a con 
 dition so deplorable. He atuibutes the progressive amelioration of 
 slavery to the virtue or to the ;>o/iVy of the sncreifrna, and entirely 
 passes over in silence, the most efficacious cause, Christianity ; which 
 after having rendered the slaves less unhappy, has contributed at last 
 to releatio them wholly from their sufferings and their chains. It would 
 be easy here to give the most frightful and heart-rendiuff accounts of 
 the manner in which the ancient Romans treated their slaves. Entire 
 volumes are occupied with the details. I forbear to relate them. Some 
 reflections of Robertson, from the di8cour.se I have already cited, will 
 ■how that Gibbon, having placed the commencement of the ameliora- 
 tion of the slave's destiny a little after the establishment of Christian- 
 ity m the world, could not have avoided acknowledging the influence 
 of this benign cau.se if he had not chosen to say nothin<» about it — 
 ••Scarcely," says Robertson, "had ub.solute sovereignty" introduced 
 itselt into the Roman empire when domestic tyranny was brought to 
 Its height. From this impure .soil grew and 'flourished all the 
 which the exercise of power nourishes among the great, and tl 
 tice of oppression causes to spring up among the wretched. It 
 the respect inspired by any particular prcccj.t of the Gospel, it is the 
 general !»pirit of the Christian religion which, more powerful than all 
 written laws, has banished slavery from the earth. The sentiments 
 which Christianity dictated were mild and benevolent; its precents 
 gave to human natnre such a dignity, such a glory, that tl.ev wrested 
 It from the dwgraceful servitude into which it was plunged " It is 
 then in vain that Giblxm pretends uniformly to attribute the gentle 
 treatment the Romans began to adopt towards their slaves, from the 
 time of the emperors, to their desire to preserve the necessary number 
 I his cause had oiwratcd thus far in a contrary manner ; lor what rea- 
 son had It. all at once, an opposite influence ? "Their masters." says 
 he. favoured marriage among their sIawJi--and, "the .sentiments 
 or nature and habits of education contribuWd to alleviate the hardships 
 of servitude." The children of slaves wer* the property of the mastL^ 
 who could dispose of them a. of his other possessions. ^I» it inXh a 
 Situation, and in such a state of dependence that tJ 
 
 cruel treatment, seemed almost justified by the great 
 law of self preservation. But when the principal 
 nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, were united un- 
 der the laws of one sovereign, the source of foreign 
 supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the 
 Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious 
 method of propagation.** In their numerous families, 
 and particularly in their country estates, they encour- 
 aged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of 
 nature, the habits of education, and the possession of 
 a dependent species of property, contributed to alle- 
 viate the hardships of servitude.* The existence of a 
 slave became an object of greater value, and though 
 his happiness still depended on the temper and cir- 
 cumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, 
 instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged 
 l)y the sense of his own interest. The progress of 
 manners was accelerated by the virtue or policy of 
 the eniperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the 
 Antonines, the protection of the laws was extended to 
 the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of 
 life and death over the slaves, a power long exercised 
 and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and 
 reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterraneous 
 prisons were abolished ; and, upon a just complaint 
 of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained 
 either his deliverance, or a less cruel master.' ^ 
 
 Hope, the best comfort of our imper- _. _ , i * 
 feet condition, was not denied to the E"'^^*"«'"««™«"t. 
 Roman slave ; and if he had any opportunity of ren- 
 dering himself either useful or agnreeable, he might 
 very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity 
 of a few years would be rewarded with the inestima- 
 ble gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master 
 was so frequently prompted by the meaner sugges- 
 tions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it 
 more necessary to restrain than to encourage a pro- 
 fuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might de- 
 generate into a very dangerous abuse.* It was a 
 maxim of ancient jurisprudence, that a slave had not 
 any country of his own ; he acquired with his lib- 
 erty an admission into the political society of which 
 his patron was a member. The consequences of 
 this maxim would have prostituted the privileges 
 of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous 
 multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were there- 
 fore provided ; and the honourable distinction was 
 confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and 
 with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive 
 a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen 
 freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of 
 citizens and were riororously excluded from civil or 
 military honours. Whatever might be the merit or 
 fortune of tiieir sons, th&y likewise were esteemed un- 
 worthy of a seat in the Senate; nor were the traces 
 of a servile origin allowed to be completely oblitera- 
 ted till the third or fourth generation.*' Without de- 
 
 ^/^ 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 t 
 
 •^^uvt /7f^ 
 
 27 
 
 vices 
 
 lie prac- 
 
 is not 
 
 ts to 
 
 tho sentiments of 
 
 nature can devcjop themselves, and habits of education become mild 
 And powerful ? We must not attribute to causes inefficacious, or 
 iffVen without energy, effoct.s, which, in order to be explained, must be 
 traced to more powerful principles ; and, since small causes may have 
 had an evident influence, we must not forget that they are themselves 
 the effect of a first cause, higher and more enlarged, which, giving to 
 the mind and character a more disinterested and humane direction 
 disiH.ses men by their conduct and by a change of their habits ' 
 second and bring forward the happy results it would produce.— O.l 
 
 d [The Romans permitted a sort of marriage contubeminm ainoitg 
 their slaves, as well in the first ages of the republic as in latter times 
 Notwithstanding their luxury soon rendered a greater number of slaves 
 necessary, (St rah. book xiv. p. 6(j8.) the increase of slave population 
 was not suffieient, and they had recourse to the slave marts which 
 they had established for themselves in those provinces of the East sub- 
 ject to the Romans. They knew besides, that slavery is a state unfa- 
 vourable to increase of jKipulalion.- (See the Essays of Hume and 
 xha Essny upon the principle of propagation, by Malthus, vol. 1. p. 
 
 .Vvl.) — Cr.J • 
 
 e See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscrip- 
 tions addressed by slaves to their wives, children, fellow-servants, maa* 
 ters, &e. They are all. most probably, of the imperial age. 
 
 i See the Augustan History, and a "dissertation of M. de Barigny, in 
 the ?5th volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman slaves 
 
 g S.O another dissertation of M. dc Burigny, in the 37th volume, oii 
 tnc Roman freedmen. 
 
 h Si-anhtini, Orbis Ryman. 1. i. c. 16. p. 121, ft,c. 
 
 stroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect 
 of freedom and honours was presented, even to those 
 whom pri de and prej udice almost disdained to number 
 among tTie^ti unia n s pecTes. 
 
 Numbers. ^^ ^^® ^"^® proposed to discriminate 
 
 the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it 
 was justly apprehended that there might be some 
 danger in acquainting them with their own num- 
 bers.' Without interpreting, in their utmost strict- 
 ness, the liberal appellations of legions and myr- 
 iads,^ we may venture to pronounce, that the propor- 
 tion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more 
 considerable than that of servants, who can be com- 
 puted only as an expense.'' The youths of a prom- 
 ising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, 
 and their price was ascertained by the degree of their 
 skill and talents.' Almost every profession, either 
 liberal"* or mechanical, might be found in the house- 
 hold of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp 
 and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception 
 of modern luxury.'* It was more for the interest of 
 the merchant or manufacturer to purchase than to hire 
 his workmen ; and in the country, slaves were em- 
 ployed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments 
 of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, 
 and to display the multitude of slaves, we might 
 allege a variety of particular instances. It was dis- 
 covered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four 
 hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of 
 Rome.** The same number of four hundred belonged 
 to an estate which an African widow, of a very pri- 
 vate condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserv- 
 ed for herself a much larger sharp of her property .p A 
 freedman under the reign of Augustus, though his for- 
 tune had suflfered great losses in the civil wars, left be- 
 hind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two 
 hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, 
 what was almost included in the description of cattle, 
 four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves.*! 
 » , - The number of subjects who acknowl- 
 
 Populousnesfl of i i ., i r r> r •.• .. 
 
 the Roman em- edged the laws ol Kome, of citizens, ot 
 P'fe- provincials, and of slaves, cannot now 
 
 be fixed with such a degree of accuracy as the impor- 
 tance of the object would deserve. We are informed, 
 that when the emperor Claudius exercised the office 
 of censor, he took an account of six millions nine 
 hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who, 
 with the proportion of women and children, must have 
 amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The 
 multitude of subjects of an inferior rank, was uncer- 
 tain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with atten- 
 tion every circumstance which could influence the bal- 
 ance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time 
 of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there 
 were citizens, of either sex, and of every age ; and 
 that the slaves were at least equal in number to the 
 free inhabitants of the Roman world.' The total 
 amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to 
 about one hundred and twenty millions of persons : a 
 degree of population which possibly exceeds that of 
 
 i Seneca de dementia, 1. i- c. 24. The original is much stronger, 
 •' Q,uantum periculum immincret si servi nostri numerare not ccpuis- 
 sent." 
 
 j See Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii.) and Athena<us (Deipnosophist. 
 1. vi. p. 472.) The latter boldly assi-rts, that he knew very many 
 (v:ijux-oA.\oi) Romans who possessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten 
 and even twenty thousand klaves. 
 
 k In Paris there are not more than 43,700 domestics of every sort, 
 and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Messange Rechcrches sur 
 Ja Population, p. 1H6. 
 
 1 A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling : Atticus 
 always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13. 
 
 •n Many of the Roman physicians were slaves. See Dr. Middleton's 
 Dissertation and Defence. 
 
 n Their ranks and offices are very nojiioufdy enumerated by Pigno- 
 rius de Servis. 
 
 o Tacit. Annal. xlv. 43. They all were executed for not preventing 
 their master's murder. 
 
 P Apuleius in A|K>log. p. 548. Edit. Delphin. 
 
 4 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47. 
 
 r [According to Robertson there were twice as many slaves as free 
 «"itizens.— W.] 
 
 modern Europe,' and forms the most numerous socie- 
 ty that has ever been united under the same system 
 of government. 
 
 Domestic peace and union were the obedience and 
 natural consequences of the moderate and uniou. 
 comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If 
 vie turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we 
 shall behold despotism in the centre, and weakness in 
 the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the 
 administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an 
 army ; hostile barbarians established in the heart of 
 the country; hereditary satraps usurping the dominion 
 of the provinces; and subjects inclined to rebellion, 
 though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of 
 the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and perma- 
 nent. The vanquished nations, blended into one great 
 people, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of re- 
 suniing their independence, and scarcely considered 
 their own existence as distinct from the existence of 
 Rome. The established authority of the emperors 
 pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their 
 dominions, and was exercised with the same facility 
 on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on 
 those of the Tyber. The legions were destined to 
 serve against the public enemy, and the civil magis- 
 trate seldom required the aid of a military force.* In. 
 this state of general security, the leisure as well as 
 opulence both of the prince and people, were devoted 
 to improve and to adorn the Roman empire. 
 
 Among the innumerable monuments Roman monu- 
 of architecture constructed by the Ro- ments. 
 mans, how many have escaped the notice of history ! 
 how few have resisted the ravages of time and bar- 
 barism ! And yet even the majestic ruins that are 
 still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be 
 sufficient to prove, that those countries were once the 
 seat of a polite and powerful empire. Their great- 
 ness alone, or their beauty, might deserve our atten- 
 tion ; but they are rendered more interesting, by two 
 important circumstances, which connect the agreeable 
 history of the arts with the more useful history of 
 human manners. Many of those works were erected 
 at private expense, and almost all were intended for 
 public benefit. 
 
 It is natural to suppose that the great- ^ ^^ ^^^^ 
 est number, as well as the most con- erected at pri- 
 siderable, of the Roman edifices, were ^'^^^ expense, 
 raised by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded 
 a command both of men and money. Augustus was 
 accustomed to boast, that he had found his capitol of 
 brick, and that he had left it of marble." The strict 
 economy of Vespasian was the source of his magnih- 
 cence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp of his 
 genius. The public monuments with which Hadrian 
 adorned every province of the empire, were executed 
 not only by his orders, but under his immediate in- 
 spection. He was himself an artist; and he loved 
 the arts, as they conduced to the glory of the monarch. 
 They were encouraged by the Antonines, as they con- 
 tributed to the happiness of the people. But if the 
 emperors were the first, they were not the only, archi- 
 tects of their dominions. Their example was univer- 
 sally imitated by their principal subjects, who were not 
 afraid of declaring to the world that they had spirit 
 to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest 
 
 s Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, four 
 in Hungary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight in Great Britain and 
 Ireland, eight in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the European 
 Russia, six in Poland, six in Greece and Turkey, four in Sweden, three 
 in Denmark and Norway, four in the Low Countries. The whole 
 would amount to one hundred and five or one hundred and seven mil- 
 lions. See Voltaire, de Histoire Generale. 
 
 t Joseph, de Bell. Judaico, 1. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or 
 rather of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire. 
 
 u Sueton. in August, c. 38. Augustus built in Rome the temple and 
 forum of Mars the Avenger; the temple of Jupiter Tonans in the Cap- 
 itol ; that of Apollo Palatine, with public libraries; the portico and 
 basilica of Caius and Lucius ; the porticos of Livia and Octavia ; and 
 the theatre of Marcellus. The example of the sovereign was imitated 
 by hii> ministers and generals ; and his friend Agrippa left behind him 
 the immortal monument the Pantheon. 
 
28 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i«i 
 
 undertakings. Scarcely had the proud structure of 
 the Coliseum been dedicated at Rome, before the edi- 
 fices, of a smaller scale indeed, but of the same design 
 and materials, were erected for the use, and at the 
 expense, of the cities of Capua and Verona.' The in- 
 scription of the stupendous bridge of Alcantara, attests 
 that it was thrown over the Tagus by the contribution 
 of a few Lusitanian communities. When Pliny was 
 intrusted with the government of Bithynia and Pontus, 
 provinces by no means the richest or most considerable 
 of the empire, he found the cities within his jurisdic- 
 tion striving with each other in every useful and orna- 
 mental work, that might deserve the curiosity of 
 strangers, or the gratitude of their citizens. It was 
 the duty of the proconsul to supply their deficiencies, 
 to direct their taste, and sometimes to moderate their 
 emulation.^ The opulent senators of Rome and the 
 provinces esteemed it an honour, and almost an obli- 
 gation, to adorn the splendour of their age and country ; 
 and the influence of fashion very frequently supplied 
 the want of taste or generosity. Among a crowd of 
 these private benefactors, we may select Herodes Atti- 
 cus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age of the 
 Antonines. Whatever might be the motive of his 
 conduct, his magnificence would have been worthy of 
 the greatest kings. 
 
 Example of He- The family of Herod, at least after 
 rodes Atticus. [^ jj^d been favoured by fortune, was line- 
 ally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, Theseus 
 and Cecrops, TEacus and Jupiter. But the posterity 
 of so many gods and heroes was fallen into the most 
 abject state. His grandfather had suffered by the 
 hands of justice, and Julius Atticus, his father, must 
 have ended his life in poverty and contempt, had he 
 not discovered an immense treasure, buried under an 
 old house, the last remains of his patrimony. Accord- 
 ing to the rigour of law. the emperor might have 
 asserted his claim, and the prudent Atticus prevented, 
 by a frank confession, the ofliciousness of informers. 
 But the equitable Nerva, who then filled the throne, 
 refused to accept any part of it, and commanded him 
 to use, without scruple, the present of fortune. The 
 cautious Athenian still insisted that the treasure was 
 too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not 
 how to use it. Abuse it, then, replied the monarch, with 
 a good-natured peevishness ; for it is your own.' 
 Many will be of opinion that Atticus literally obeyed 
 the emperor's last instructions, since he expended the 
 greatest part of his fortune, which was much increased 
 by an advantageous marriage, in the service of the 
 public. He had obtained for his son Herod the pre- 
 fecture of the free cities of Asia ; and the young magis- 
 trate, observing that the town of Troas was indifferently 
 supplied with water, obtained from the munificence of 
 Hadrian, three hundred myriads of drachms (about a 
 hundred thousand pounds) for the construction of a 
 new aqueduct. But in the execution of the work, the 
 charge amounted to more than double the estimate, and 
 the ofllicers of the revenue began to murmur, till the 
 generous Atticus silenced their complaints, by request- 
 ing that he might be permitted to take upon himself 
 the whole additional expense.* 
 „. The ablest preceptors of Greece and 
 
 IS reputation, ^^j^ j^^j heeii invited by liberal re- 
 wards to direct the education of young Herod. Their 
 pupil soon became a celebrated orator, accord ir.g to the 
 useless rhetoric of that age, which, confining itself to 
 the schools, disdained to visit either the forum or the 
 
 « See Maffei, Verona illustrata, 1. i\'. p. 68. 
 
 J See tbn tenth book of Pliny's Epistles. He mentions the following 
 works, carried on at the expense of the cities. At Nicomedia, a new 
 furum, an aqueduct, and a canal, left unfinished by a king; at Nice, a 
 gymnasium, and a theatre which had already cost near ninety thousand 
 pounds ; baths at Prusa and Claudiop^tlis ; and an aqueduct of fixtcen 
 miles in length, for the use of Sinope. 
 
 s Hadrian afterwards made a very e(]uitable regulation, which di- 
 vided all treasure-trove between the right of property, and that of 
 diM'nvnrv- Hist. Augustus, p. 9. 
 
 « Pbilottrat. in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. p. 548. 
 
 senate. He was honoured with the consulship at 
 Rome ; but the greatest part of his life was spent in a 
 philosophic retirement at Athens, and his adjacent 
 villas ; perpetually surrounded by sophists, who ac- 
 knowledged, without reluctance, the superiority of a 
 rich and generous rival.** The monuments of his ge- 
 nius have perished ; some considerable ruins still pre- 
 serve the fame of his taste and munificence: modern 
 travellers have measured the remains of the stadium 
 which he constructed at Athens. It was six hundred 
 feet in length, built entirely of white marble, capable 
 of admitting the whole body of the people, and finished 
 in four years, whilst Herod was president of the 
 Athenian games. To the memory of his wife Regilla, 
 he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paralleled in the 
 empire: no wood except cedar, very curiously carved, 
 was employed in any part of the building. The Ode- 
 um, designed by Pericles for musical performances, 
 and the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy 
 of the victory of the arts over barbaric greatness ; as the 
 timbers employed in the construction consisted chiefly 
 of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstanding 
 the repairs bestowed on that ancient edifice by a king 
 of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod re- 
 stored its ancient beauty and magnificence.'' Nor was 
 the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the 
 walls of Athens. The most splendid ornaments bestowed 
 on the temple of Neptune in the isthmus, a theatre at 
 Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylae, 
 and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient 
 to exhaust his treasures. The people of Epirus, 
 Thessaly, Ubcea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus, experi- 
 enced his favours ; and many inscriptions of the cities 
 of Greece and Asia gratefully style Herodes Atticus 
 their patron and benefactor.** 
 
 In the commonwealths of Athens and Most of the Ro- 
 Rome, the modest simplicity of private •"«" monumentti 
 houses announced the equal condition of Smpff '*" thea-' 
 freedom; whilst the sovereignty of the tres; aqueducts, 
 people was represented in the majestic *^' 
 edifices designed to the public use;* nor was this re- 
 publican spirit totally extinguished by the introduction 
 of wealth and monarchy. It was in works of national 
 honour and benefit, that the most virtuous of the em- 
 perors aflfected to display their magnificence. The 
 golden palace of Nero excited a just indignation, but 
 the vast extent of ground which had been usurped by 
 his selfish luxury, was more nobly filled under the suc- 
 ceeding reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the 
 Claudian portico, and the temples dedicated to the 
 goddess of Peace, and to the genius of Rome.' These 
 monuments of architecture, the property of the Roman 
 people, were adorned with the most beautiful produc- 
 tions of Grecian painting and sculpture; and in the 
 temple of Peace, a very curious library was open to 
 the curiosity of the learned. At a small distance from 
 thence was situated the forum of Trajan. It was sur- 
 
 29 
 
 b Aulus GelliuB, in Noct. Attic, i. 2. ix. 2. xviii. 10. xix. J2. Philo- 
 strut, p. 564. 
 
 e fTlie Odeon was used for the representation of new comedies as 
 well as for that of tragedies. They were there played or repeated be- 
 forehand, but witiiout music or decorations, tec. No piece could bo 
 represented upon the theater which had not previously been approved 
 at the Odeon by judges ad hoc. The king of Cappadocia who re-et- 
 tablished the Odeon burnt by Sylla, was Ariobarzanes. (See Martini, 
 A Dissertation upon the Odeons of the Ancients. Leipsic, 1767, p. 10-91 ) 
 — OJ 
 
 <1 See Philostrat. 1. ii. p. 548. 560. Paui^anias, 1. i. and viii. 10. The 
 Life of Herodes. in the thirtieth volume of the Memoirs of the Acade- 
 my of Inscriptions. 
 
 e It is particularly remarked of Athens by Dics^archus, de Statu 
 Grapcia;, p. 8. inter Geoeraphos Minores, edit. Hudson. 
 
 f Donalus de RomaVetere, I. iii, c. 4— 6. Nardini iloma Antica, 
 I. iii. 11—1.1. and a MS. description of ancient Rome, by Bernardus 
 OricellariuB, or Rucellai, of whom I obtained a copy from the library of 
 the Canon Ricardi at Florence. Two celebrated pictures of Timantheii 
 and of Protogenes are mentioned by Pliny, as in the ttmplcof Peace; 
 and the Laocoon was found in the baths of Titus. 
 
 [The Emperor Vespasian who built the temple of Peace, placed in 
 it the greater number of pictures, statues, and other works of art 
 which had escaped the civil troubles. It way there the artists and sa- 
 vans of Rome assembled every day, and it was also among the foun- 
 dations of this temple that a multitude of antiques were discovered 
 (Sdc tho notes uf Reimar upon Dion Cassiur, book Ixvi. p. 1083.>-O. 
 
 1 
 
 rounded with a lofly portico, in the form of a quad- 
 rangle, into which four triumphal arches opened a 
 noble and spacious entrance : in the centre arose a co- 
 lumn of marble, whose height, of one hundred and 
 ten feet, denoted the elevation of the hill that had been 
 cut away. This column, which still subsists in its 
 ancient beauty, exhibited an exact representation of 
 the Dacian victories of its founder. The veteran sol- 
 dier contemplated the story of his own campaigns, and 
 by an easy illusion of national vanity, the peaceful 
 citizen associated himself to the honours of the triumph. 
 AH the other quarters of the capital, and all the pro- 
 vinces of the empire, were embellished by the same 
 liberal spirit of public magnificence, and were filled 
 with amphitheatres, theatres, temples, porticos, trium- 
 phal arches, baths, and aqueducts, all variously con- 
 ducive to the health, the devotion, and the pleasures of 
 the meanest citizen. The last mentioned of those 
 edifices deserve our peculiar attention. The boldness 
 of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, and the 
 uses to which they were subservient, rank the aque- 
 ducts among the noblest monuments of Roman genius 
 and power. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just 
 pre-eminence; but the curious traveller, who, without 
 the light of history, should examine those of Spoleto, 
 of Metz, or of Segovia, would very naturally conclude, 
 that those provincial towns had formerly been the resi- 
 dence of some potent monarch. The solitudes of 
 Asia and Africa were once covered with flourishing 
 cities, whose populousness, and even whose existence", 
 was derived from such artificial supplies of a peren- 
 nial stream of fresh water.s 
 
 Number and ^^® ^^"^^ Computed the inhabitants, 
 greatness of the and contemplated the public works, of 
 ciUe- of the em- the Roman empire. The observation of 
 ^"^' the number and greatness of its cities 
 
 will serve to confirm the former, and to multiply the 
 latter. It may not be unpleasing to collect a few 
 scattered instances relative to that subject, without 
 forgetting, however, that from the vanity of nations 
 and the poverty of language, the vague appellation of 
 city has been indifferently bestowed on Rome and upon 
 In Italy Laurentum. I. Ancient Italy is said to 
 
 have contained eleven hundred and 
 ninety -seven cities ; and for whatsoever aera of anti- 
 quity the expression might be intended,** there is not 
 any reason to believe the country less populous in the 
 age of the Antonines, than in that of Romulus. The 
 petty states of Latium were contained within the me- 
 tropolis of the empire, by whose superior influence 
 they had been attracted. Those parts of Italy which 
 have so long languished under the lazy tyranny of 
 priests and viceroys, had been afllicted only by the 
 more tolerable calamities of war ; and the first symp- 
 toms of decay which they experienced, were amply 
 compensated by the rapid improvements of the Cisal- 
 pine Gaul. The splendour of Verona may be traced in 
 Its remains; yet Verona was less celebrated than 
 
 Gaul and Spain. ^j^^^Y'^ ?'". ^J^"^' ^ilau or Ravenna. 
 11. 1 he spirit of miprovement had passed 
 the Alps, and been felt even in the woods of Britain, 
 which were gradually cleared away to open a free 
 space for convenient and elegant habitations. York 
 was the seat of government ; London was already en- 
 riched by commerce ; and Bath was celebrated for the 
 salutary effects of its medicinal waters. Gaul could 
 boast of her twelve hundred cities ;' and though, in the 
 
 northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris 
 itself, were little more than the rude and imperfect 
 townships of a rising people ; the southern provinces 
 imitated the wealth and elegance of Italy.* Many 
 were the cities of Gaul, Marseilles, Aries, Nismes, 
 Narbonne, Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Autun, Vienna, 
 Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose ancient condition 
 might sustain an equal, and perhaps advantageous, 
 comparison with their present state. With regard to 
 Spain, that country flourished as a province, aiid has 
 declined as a kingdom. Exhausted by the abuse of 
 her strength, by America, and by superstition, her 
 pride might possibly be confounded, if we required 
 such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Pliny 
 has exhibited under the reign of Vespa- 
 sian.i III. Three hundred African A^"<^- 
 cities had once acknowledged the authority of Car- 
 thage,™ nor is it likely that their numbers diminished 
 under the administration of the emperors. Carthage 
 itself rose with new splendour from its ashes ; and that 
 capital, as well as Capua and Corinth, soon recovered 
 all the advantages which can be separated from inde- 
 pendent sovereignty. IV. The provin- 
 ces of the East present the contrast of '^"■* 
 Roman magnificence with Turkish barbarism. The 
 ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated fields, 
 and ascribed, by ignorance, to the power of magic, 
 scarcely aflford a shelter to the oppressed peasant or 
 wandering Arab. Under the reign of the Caesars, the 
 proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous 
 cities," enriched with all the gifts of nature, and 
 adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven 
 cities of Asia had once disputed the honour of dedicat- 
 ing a temple to Tiberius, and their respective merits 
 were examined by the senate." Four of them were 
 immediately rejected as unequal to the burthen ; and 
 among these was Laodicea, whose splendour is still 
 displayed in its ruins.P Laodicea collected a very 
 considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, cele- 
 brated for the fineness of their wool ; and had received 
 a little before the contest, a legacy of above four hun- 
 dred thousand pounds by the testament of a generous 
 citizen.*! If such was the poverty of Laodicea, what 
 must have been the wealth of those cities, whose 
 claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Perga- 
 mus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long dis- 
 puted with each other the titular primacy of Asia V 
 The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a still superior 
 rank in the empire : Antioch and Alexandria looked 
 down with disdain on a crowd of dependent cities,^ 
 
 K Montfaucon T Antiquite Expliqu^^e, torn. iv. p. 2. 1, i. c. 9. Pabretti 
 
 K composed a very learned treatise on the aqueducts of Rome. 
 
 h Allan. Hist. Var. lib. ix c. 16. He lived in the time of Alexander 
 Bcvcrus. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Gr»ca, 1. iv. c. 21. 
 
 [As if:iian says that Italy hud formerly this number of cities, we in- 
 fer that in his time it had no more. Besides, we are not obliged to 
 apply this number to the time of Romulus. It is even probabll that 
 Allan meant to speak of later ages. The decrease of population from 
 the close of the republic under the emperors, seems to be acknowledged 
 by Roman authors. (See Titus Livius, book vi. c. 12 )~0 1 
 
 -nH'^T' M ^' ^"••'"f *? J*"'- . '''*'« number, however, is mentioned, 
 •""•hould be received with a degree of latitude. 
 [Tins does not appear doubtful. We cannot trust to the pawage 
 
 from Josephus— the historian gives, through the king Agrippa, th6 
 opinions of the Jews concerning the power of the Romans, and his 
 account is full of declamation from which notiiing conclusive for history 
 can be drawn. Enumerating the people subject to the Romans, he says 
 of the Gauls, that they submitted to twelve hundred Roman soldiers, 
 which is false, for there were in Gaul eight legions. (Tac. Ann. book 
 iv. c. 5.) — While there were more than ttcelvjE hundred cities.~Q.\ 
 
 k Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. .5. 
 
 [This can be said only of the Roman province, for the rest of southern 
 Gaul was far from this flourishing state. A passage from Vitruvius 
 shows how much architecture was still in its infancy in Aquitania 
 during the reign of Augustus. (Vitruvius, book ii. c. 1 ) Speaking of 
 the miserable architecture of foreign nation!*, he mentions the Gauls of 
 Aquitania. who still build their houses of wood and of straw. — GA 
 
 1 Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3, 4. iv. 35. The list soems authentic and ac- 
 curate ; the division of the provinces, and the different condition of the 
 cities, are minutely distinguished. 
 
 mStrabon. Geograph. 1. Ixvii. p. 1189. 
 
 n Joseph, de Bell. Jud. ii. 16. Philostrat. in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. n .54a 
 Edit. Olear. *^ 
 
 o Tacit. Annal. iv. 55. I have taken some pains in consulting and 
 comparing modern travellers, with regard to the fate of those eleven 
 cities of Asia. Seven or eight are totally destroyed— Hypaepe, Tralles, 
 Laodicea, Ilium, Hulicarnassus, Miletus, Ephesus, and we may add 
 Sardes. Of the remaining three, Pergamus is a straggling village of 
 two or three thousand inhabitants: Magnesia, under the name of Gu- 
 zelhissar, a town of some consequence ; and Smyrna, a great citv, peo- 
 pled by a hundred thousand souls. But even at Smyrna, while the 
 Franks have maintained commerce, the Turks have ruined the arts. 
 
 P See a very exact and pleasing description of the ruins of Laodic«a, 
 in Chandler's Travels through Asia Minor, p. 225 &c. 
 
 q Strabo, I. xii. p. 866. He had studied at Tralles. 
 
 r See a Dissertation of M. de Boze, Mem. de I'Academie, torn, xviii. 
 Aristides pronounced an oration which is still extant, to recommend 
 concord to the rival cities. 
 
 » The inhabitants. uf Egypt, exclusive of Alexandria, aroottnted to 
 Keveo millions and a half, (Joseph. d« Bell. Jud. ii. 16.) LJqder the 
 
30 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. 1L 
 
 Chap. 1L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Roman roads. 
 
 PtMtl. 
 
 and yielded with reluctance to the majesty of Rome 
 itself. 
 
 All these cities were connected with 
 each other, and with the capital, by the 
 public highways, which, issuing from the forum of 
 Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and 
 were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. 
 If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of An- 
 toninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will 
 be found that the great chain of communication, from the 
 north-west to the south-east point of the empire, was 
 drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty 
 Roman miles.* The public roads were accurately di- 
 vided by mile-stones, and ran in a direct line from one 
 city to another, with very little respect for the obstacles 
 either of nature or private property. Mountains were 
 perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest 
 and most rapid streams." The middle part of the road 
 was raised into a terrace which commanded the adja- 
 cent country, consisted of several strata of sand, gra- 
 vel, and cement, and was paved with large stones, or 
 in some places, near the capital, with granite." Such 
 was the solid construction of the Roman highways, 
 whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the effort of 
 fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of the most 
 distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse; 
 but their primary object had been to facilitate the mar- 
 ches of the legions ; nor was any country considered 
 as completely subdued, till it had been rendered, in all 
 its parts, pervious to the arms and authority of the 
 conqueror. The advantage of receiving 
 the earliest intelligence, and of conveying 
 their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to es- 
 tablish, throughout their extensive dominions, the reg- 
 ular institution of posts.*" Houses were every where 
 erected at the distance only of five or six miles; each 
 of them was constantly provided with forty horses, and 
 by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel an 
 hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads.* The 
 use of the posts was allowed to those who claimed it 
 by an imperial mandate ; but though originally intend- 
 ed for the public service, it was sometimes indulged 
 to the business or convenience of private citizens.'' Nor 
 , . was the communication of the Roman 
 avigation. empire less free and open by sea than it 
 was by land. The provinces surrounded and enclosed 
 the Mediterranean ; and Italy, in the shape of an im- 
 mense promontory, advanced into the midst of that 
 great lake. The coasts of Italy are, in general, desti- 
 tute of safe harbours ; but human industry had correct- 
 ed the deficiencies of nature ; and the artificial port of 
 Ostia, in particular, situate at the mouth of the Tyber, 
 and formed by the emperor Claudius, was a useful 
 monument of Roman greatness.' From this port, which 
 was only sixteen miles from the capital, a favourable 
 breeze frequently carried vessels in seven days to the 
 
 military government of thn Mamelukes, Syria was supposed to contain 
 ■ixty thousand villages, (Ilistoirede Timur Bee. I. v. c. 20.) 
 
 < The following Itinerary may servo to convey some idea of the direc- 
 tion of the road, and of tho distance between the principal towns. I. 
 From the wall of Antoninus to York, 222 Roman miles. II. London 
 227. II. Rhutupia; or Sandwich 67. IV. The navigation to Boulogne 
 45. V. Rheims 174. VI. Lyons 3.10. VII. Milan 324. VIII. Rome 
 4%. IX. Brundusium 3G0. X. The navigation to Dyrrachium 40. 
 XI. Byzantium 711. XII. Ancvra 283. XIII. Tarsus 301. XIV. An- 
 tioch 141. XV. Tyre 252. XVI. Jerusalem 108. In all 4080 Roman, 
 or 3740 English, miles. See the Itineraries published by Wesseling, his 
 annotations ; Gale and Stukcly for Britain, and M. Anville for Gaul and 
 Italy. 
 
 u Montfangon, I'Anliquit^ Expliqu6e, (tom. iv. p. S}. 1. i. c. 5.) has 
 described the bridge of Narni, Alcantara, Nismes, &c. 
 
 V Bergier Hist, dcs grands Chemins de 1' Empire Rom. 1. ii. c. 1 — 28. 
 
 w Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 30. Bergier Hist, des grands Che- 
 mins, 1. iv. Codex Theodosian. I. viii. tit. v. vol. ii. p. 506—563. with 
 Godefroy's learned commentary. 
 
 X In the time of Thcodosius, Cssarius, a magistrate of high rank, 
 went post from Antim-h to Constantinople. He began his journey at 
 night, was in Cappadocia (165 miles from Antioch) the ensuing evening, 
 and arrived at Constantinople the sixth day about noon. The whole 
 distance was 725 Roman, or 665 English miles. See Libanius Orat. 
 xxii. and the Itineraria, p. 572—581. 
 
 y Pliny, though a favourite and a minister, made an apology for 
 frantinf post-horses to his wife on the mo»t urgent business. Epist. x. 
 121, 122. " ' 
 
 » Bergier Hist, des grand* Chemins, I. iv. c. 49. 
 
 columns of Hercules, and in nine or ten to Alexandria 
 in Egypt.* 
 
 Whatever evils either reason or de- Improvement of 
 
 agriculture in the 
 western countries 
 
 The vine. 
 
 clamation have imputed to extensive 
 empire, the power of Rome was attend- of the empire, 
 ed with some beneficial consequences to mankind; 
 and the same freedom of intercourse which extended 
 U.e vices, diffused likewise the improvements, of so- 
 cial life. In the more remote ages of antiquity, the 
 world was unequally divided. The East was in the 
 immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the 
 West was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, 
 who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was 
 totally unknown. Under the protection of an es- 
 tablished government, the productions of happier cli- 
 mates, and the industry of more civilized nations, were 
 gradually introduced into the western countries of Eu- 
 rope ; and the natives were encouraged, by an open 
 and profitable commerce, to multiply the former, as 
 well as to improve the latter. It would be almost im- 
 possible to enumerate all the articles, either of the ani- 
 mal or the vegetable reign, which were successively 
 imported into Europe, from Asia and Egypt;** but it 
 will not be unworthy of the dignity, and much less of 
 the utility of an historical work, slightly to touch on a 
 few of the principal heads. 1. Almost introduction of 
 all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits, fruits, A.c. 
 that grow in our Eu^ropean gardens, are of foreign ex- 
 traction, which, in many cases, is betrayed even in 
 their names : the apple was a native of Italy, and when 
 the Romans had tasted the richer flavour of the apri- 
 cot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, and the 
 orange, they contented themselves with applying to all 
 these new fruits the common denomination of apple, 
 discriminating them from each other by the additional 
 epithet of their country. 2. In the time of 
 Homer, the vine grew wild in the island 
 of Sicily, and most probably in the adjacent continent ; 
 but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford 
 a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants.^ 
 A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of 
 the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, 
 more than two thirds were produced from her soil.'' 
 The blessing was soon communicated to the Narbon- 
 nese province of Gaul ; but so intense was the cold to 
 the north of the Cevennes, that in the lime of Strabo, 
 it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in those 
 parts of Gaul.* This difficulty, however, was gradu- 
 ally vanquished; and there is some reason to believe, 
 that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age 
 of the Antonines.' 3. The olive, in the 
 western world, followed the progress of 
 peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two 
 centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and 
 Africa were strangers to that useful plant ; it was na- 
 turalized in those countries ; and at length carried into 
 the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the 
 ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat, and 
 could only flourish in the neighbourhood of the sea, 
 
 * Pliny Hist. Natur. xix. 1. 
 
 b It is not improbable that the Greeks ond Phcenicians introduced 
 some new arts and productions into the neighbourhood of MarsciJlei 
 and Gades. 
 
 c See Homer Odyss. 1. ii. v. 358. 
 
 d Plin. Hist. Natur. I. xiv. 
 
 ' Strab. Geograph. 1. iv. p. 223. The intenxe cold of a Gallic winter 
 was almost proverbial among the ancients. 
 
 [Strabo says only that the grape did not ripen easily. (>| KutnKof • 
 f »*«(«$ ItKio-qiogn) They had already made attempts in the time of Au- 
 gustus to naturalize the vine in the north of Gaul, but found it too cold. 
 (Diod Siculus. p. 304.)— O.] 
 
 f [This is proved by a passage from Pliny the Elder, where he speaks 
 of a certain kind of grape (vitis picata. vinum picatum.) which grew na« 
 turally in the district of Vienna, and which, says he, has been since 
 transported into the country of Au\'ergne, of the Vivernais, and of Up- 
 per Burgundy. Pliny wrote this A. D. 11— {Hist. Jfat. book xiv. ch. 
 
 In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumenius (Pane, 
 gyric. Veter. viii. 6. edit. Delphin.) speaks of the vines in the territory 
 ofAutun, which were decayed through age, and the first plantation 
 of which was totally unknown. The Pagus Arebrignus is supposed by 
 M. d'Anville to bo the district of Bcaune, celebrated, even at present, 
 for one of the first growths of Burgundy. 
 
 The olive. 
 
 1 
 
 were insensibly exploded by industry and experience.? 
 Flax ^' '^^® cultivation of flax was transport- 
 
 ed from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the 
 whole country, however it might impoverish the par- 
 Artificial grass. ^^"'" ^^"^s on which it was sown.h 5. 
 A "e use of artificial grasses became fa- 
 miliar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces 
 particularly the Lucerne, which derived its name and 
 origin from Media.' The assured supply of wholesome 
 and plentiful food for the cattle during winter, multi- 
 plied the number of the flocks and herds, which in 
 their turn contributed to the fertility of the soil. To 
 all these improvements may be added, an assiduous at- 
 tention to mines and fisheries, which, by employing a 
 multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the 
 pleasures of the rich, and the subsistence of the poor. 
 General plenty. '^^^ elegant treatise of Columella des- 
 cribes the advanced state of the Spanish 
 husbandry, under the reign of Tiberius ; and it may be 
 observed, that those famines, which so frequently af- 
 flicted the infant republic, were seldom or never expe- 
 rienced by the extensive empire of Rome. The acciden- 
 tal scarcity in any single province, was immediately re- 
 lieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbours. 
 
 Arts of luxury. ^ -^&"culture is the foundation of manu- 
 lactures; since the productions of nature 
 are the materiili of art. Under the Roman empire, 
 the labour of an industrious and ingenious people was 
 variously, but incessantly, employed in the service of 
 the rich. In their dress, their tables, their houses, and 
 their furniture, the favourites of fortune united every 
 refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splen- 
 dour, whatever could soothe their pride, or gratify their 
 sensuality. Such refinements under the odious name 
 of lux^ury, have been severely arraigned by the moral- 
 ists of every age ; and it might perhaps be more con- 
 ducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind, 
 it all possessed the necessaries, and none the superflu- 
 ities, of ife. But in the present imperfect condition of 
 society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or 
 tolly, seems to be the only means that can correct the 
 unequa distribution of property. The diligent mecha- 
 nic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share 
 in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax 
 from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompt- 
 ed, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, 
 with whose produce they may purchase additional plea- 
 sures. This operation, the particular effects of which 
 are felt m every society, acted with much more diffusive 
 energy in the Roman world. The provinces would 
 soon have been exhausted of their wealth, if the man- 
 ufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly 
 restored to the industrious subjects the sums which 
 were exacted from them by the arms and authority of 
 Konie. As long as the circulation was confined within 
 the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political ma- 
 chine with a new degree of activity, and its consequen- 
 ces, sometimes beneficial, could never become perni- 
 cious. '^ 
 
 Foreign trade. ^^} ^^^is no easy task to confine luxury 
 withm the limits of an empire. The most 
 remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked 
 to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forest 
 ot bcythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was 
 brought over-land from the shores of the Baltic to the 
 Uanube ; and the barbarians were astonished at the 
 price which they received in exchange for so useless a 
 commodity .J There was a considerable demand for Ba- 
 bylonian carpets, and other manufactures of the East • 
 but the m ost important and unpopular branch of foreign 
 
 K Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xv.^ ' 
 
 I" Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xix. 
 
 31 
 
 trade was carried on with Arabia and India. Every 
 year, about the time of the summer solstice, a fleet of a 
 hundred and twenty vessels sailed from Myoshormos, 
 a port of Egypt on the Red Sea. By the periodical 
 assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean 
 m about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the is- 
 land of Ceylon,'' was the usual term of their navigation, 
 and it was in those markets that the merchants from 
 the more remote countries of Asia expected their arri- 
 val. Th6 teliirn of the fleet of Egypt wag fixed to the 
 nrionths of December or January ; and asisoon as their 
 rich cargo had been transported on the bafts of camels, 
 from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had descended that 
 river as far as Alexandria, it was poured, without de- 
 lay, into the capital of the empire.' The objects of 
 oriental traffic were splendid and trifling ; silk, a pound 
 of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound 
 of gold ;"> precious stones, among which the pearl 
 claimed the first rank after the diamond ;" and a varie- 
 ty of aromatics, that were consumed in religious wor- 
 ship and the pomp of funerals. The labour and risk 
 of the voyage was rewarded with almost incredible 
 profit ; but the profit was made upon Roman subjects, 
 and a few individuals were enriched at the expense of 
 the public. As the natives of Arabia and 
 India were contented with the productions ^^^ ®"*^ "'^''^'• 
 and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the 
 side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the only, 
 instrument of commerce.o It was a complaint worthy 
 of the gravity of the senate, that in the pursuit of fe- 
 male ornaments, the wealth of the state was irrecover- 
 ably given away to foreign and hostile nations.P The 
 annual loss -is computed by a writer of an inquisitive 
 but censorious temper, at upwards of eight hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling.'' Such was the style of dis- 
 content, brooding over the dark prospect of approach- 
 ing poverty. And yet, if we compare the proportion 
 between gold and silver, as it stood in the time of Pli- 
 ny, and as it was fixed in the reign of Constantine, we 
 shall discover within that period a very considerable 
 increase.' There is not the least reason to suppose that 
 gold vras become more scarce ; it is therefore evident 
 that silver was grown more common ; that whatever 
 might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian ex- 
 ports, they were far from exhausting the wealth of the 
 Roman world; and that the produce of the mines 
 abundantly supplied the demands of commerce. 
 
 Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt 
 the past, and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and 
 prosperous state of the empire was warmly felt, and 
 honestly confessed, by the provincials as well as Ro- 
 mans. "They acknowledged that the 
 true principles of social life, laws, agri- ^*^""*' M\cMy. 
 culture and science, which had been first invented by 
 the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by 
 the power of Rome, under whose auspicious influence 
 the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal govern- 
 ment and common language. They affirm, that with 
 the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly 
 multiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendour 
 
 k Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serendib by the Arabs It 
 was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually became the 
 principal mart of the East. ' "" mo 
 
 • Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. vi. Strabo, I. xvii. 
 
 n» Hist. August, p. 224. A silk garment was considered as an orna- 
 ment to a woman, but as a disgrace to a man. 
 
 n The two great pearl fisheries were the same as at present. Ormuz 
 and Capo Comorin. As well as we can compare ancient with modern 
 geography, Rome was supplied with diamonds from the mine of Jumel- 
 pur, in Bengal, which is described in the Voyages de Tavcrnier, tom. 
 II. p. .^1. 
 
 o [The natives of India were not so very incurious respecting Euro- 
 pean commodities. Arrianns gives a long list of the articles given in 
 exchange for theirs-as the wines of Italy, lead, tin, coral, apparel, 4-,c. 
 (feee the P<irtpl. maris Erythrwi in the Geog. minor of Hudson, vol. 1. 
 
 p. Jii. ) — fr. J 
 
 P Tacit. Annal. iii. 52. In a speech of Tiberiu". 
 
 q Plin. Hist. Nafur. xii. l^. In another place he computes half that 
 sum ; auingenties H. S. for India exclusive of Arabia. 
 
 r The proportion, which was 1 to 10, and Vl\. rose to 14 2 5, the legal 
 regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthnot's Tables of ancient Coins, 
 
32 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IU. 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 33 
 
 of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultiva- 
 ted and adorned like an immense garden ; and the long 
 festival of peace, which was enjoyed by so many na- 
 tions, forgetful of their ancient animosities, and deliv- 
 ered from the apprehension of future danger."* What- 
 ever suspicions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric 
 and declamation, which seems to prevail in these pas- 
 sages, the substance of them is perfectly agreeable to 
 historic truth. 
 
 Decline of \ ]X was Scarcely possible that the eyes 
 courage. ILf Sbntemporaries should discover in the 
 public felicity the latent causes of decay and corrup- 
 tion. This long pe ace^nd the unifQun.^overnmen_t q( 
 ,the Romans, in troducecTa.^fly and secxet. .pi)is5n_in to 
 t he vitals of tTie^em pirc.\ The minds of men were gra- 
 dually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was 
 extinguished, and even the militarjjsjirit^vaj^o^^ 
 The natives of Europe were UVSVe and robust. Spain, 
 Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum, supplied the legions with 
 excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of 
 the monafchy. Their personal valour remained, but 
 they no longer possessed that public courage which is 
 nourished by the love of independence, the sense of na- 
 tional honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of 
 command. They received laws and governors from 
 the W'ill of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence 
 to a mercenary army. The posterity of their boldest 
 leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and 
 subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the 
 court or standard of the emperors ; and the deserted 
 provinces, deprived of political strength or union, insen- 
 sibly sunk into the languid indifference of private life. 
 _,,.-. The love of letters, almost inseparable 
 
 Decline of genius. - j /• ^ r l* 
 
 from peace ar.d refinement, was lashion- 
 able among the subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, 
 who were themselves men of learning and curiosity. 
 It was diffused over the whole extent of their empire; 
 the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired a taste 
 for rhetoric ; Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed 
 and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube ; 
 and the most liberal rewards sought out the faintest 
 glimmerings of literary merit.* The sciences of phy- 
 sic and astronomy were successfully cultivated by the 
 Greeks ; the observations of Ptolemy and the writings 
 of Galen are studied by those who have improved their 
 discoveries and corrected their errors; but if we ex- 
 cept the inimitable Lucian, this age of indolence pass- 
 ed away without having produced a single writer of 
 original genius, or who excelled in the arts of compo- 
 sition." The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno 
 and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their 
 systems, transmitted with blind deference from one 
 generation of disciples to another, precluded every 
 generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge 
 the limits, of the human mind. The beauties of the 
 poets and orators, instead of kindling a fiu like their 
 own, inspired only cold and servile imitations : or if 
 
 » Among many other passnycs, see Pliny, (Hist. Natur. iii. 5.) Aris- 
 tides, (de Urbe Roma.) and Tortullian, (d« Anima, c. 30.) 
 ' » [This was done by Vespasian, who first began to reward professors ; 
 to each professor of eloquence, Greek or Roman, he gave centena scs- 
 tertia. He recompensed also artists and' poets. (Sueton. in Vespas. c. 
 18.) Adrian and the Antonines were less prodigal, although still very 
 liberal. -O.] 
 
 Herodes Atticus gave the sophist Polcmo above eight thousand 
 pounds for three declamations. See Philoslrat. 1. i. p. 558. The Anto- 
 nines founded a school at Athens, in which professors of grammar, rhe- 
 toric, politics, and the four great sorts of philosophy, were maintained at 
 the public expense, for the instruction of youth. The salary of a philo- 
 sopher was ten thousand drachmaD, between three and four hundred 
 pounds a year. Similar establishments wore formed in the other great 
 cities of the empire. See Lucian in Eunuch, torn. ii. p. 353. edit. Reitz. 
 Philostrat. 1. ii. p. 56C. Hist. August, p. 21. Dion Cassius. I. Ixxi. p. 
 1195. Juvenal himself, in a morose satire, which in every line betrays 
 liis own disappointment and envy, is obliged, however, to say, 
 
 O Juvenes, circumspicit et agitat vos 
 
 Materiamque sibi Ducisindulgentia quo^rit. Satir. vii. 20. 
 
 u [This sentence is a little Bevere— besides the physicians, the astro- 
 nomers, the grammarians, among whom were many very distinguished 
 men, we find also under Adrian, Suetonius, Florus, Plutarch; under the 
 Antonines, Arrianus, Pausanias, Appianus, Marcus Aurelius himself, 
 &.C. The science of jurisprudence gained much by the labors of Salvi- 
 us Julianus, of Julius Celsus, of Sextus Pomponius, of Caius and others. 
 
 any ventured to deviate from those models, they devi- 
 ated at the same time from good sense and propriety. 
 On the revival of letters, the youthful vigour of the 
 imagination, after a long repose, national emulation, a 
 new religion, new languages, and a new world, called 
 forth the genius of Europe. But the provincials of 
 Rome, trained by a uniform, artificial, foreign educa- 
 tion were engaged in a very unequal competition with 
 those bold ancients, who, by expressing their genuine 
 feelings in their native tongue, had already occupied 
 every place of honour. The name of poet was almost 
 forgotten ; that of orator was usurped by the sophists. 
 A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, dark- 
 ened the face of learning, and the decline of genius w as 
 soon followed by the corruption of taste. 
 The sublime Longinus, who in some- 
 what a later period, and in the court of a egcneracy. 
 Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient Athens, 
 observes and laments this degeneracy of his contempo- 
 raries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their 
 courage, and depressed their talents. " In the same 
 manner," says he, " as some children always remain 
 pygmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely 
 confined ; thus our tender minds, fettered by the preju- 
 dices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to ex- 
 pand themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned 
 greatness which we admire in the ancients; who, liv- 
 ing under a popular government, wrote with the same 
 freedom as they acted.'" This diminutive stature of 
 mankind, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinking 
 below the old standard, and the Roman world was in- 
 deed peopled by a race of pygmies ; when the fierce 
 giants of the north broke in and mended the puny breed. 
 They restored a manly spirit of freedom ; and after the 
 revolution of ten centuries, freedom became the happy 
 parent of taste and science. 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Of the Constitution of the Roman Empire^ in the age of 
 
 the Jintonines. 
 
 The obvious definition of a monarchy idea of a mo- 
 seems to be that of a state, in which a narchy. 
 single person, by whatsoever name he may be distin- 
 guished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws, 
 the management of the revenue, and the command of 
 the army. But, unless public liberty is protected by 
 intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so for- 
 midable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despot- 
 ism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of super- 
 stition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights 
 of mankind; but so intimate is the connexion between 
 the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church 
 has very seldom been seen on the side of the people. 
 A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of 
 arms, tenacious of property, and collected into consti- 
 tutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of 
 preserving a free constitution against the enterprises 
 of an aspiring prince. 
 
 Every barrier of the Roman constitu- situation of 
 tion had been levelled by the vast ambi- Augustus, 
 tion of the Dictator ; every fence had been extirpated 
 by the cruel hand of the Triumvir. After the victory 
 of Actium the fate of the Roman world depended on 
 the will of Octavianus, surnamed Cajsar, by his un- 
 cle's adoption, and afterwards Augustus, by the flatte- 
 ry of the Senate. The conqueror was at the head of 
 forty-four veteran legions,* conscious of their own 
 
 y lA>ngin. do Sublim. c. 43. p. 226. edit. Toll. Here, too, we may 
 say of Ix)ngiiiu8, " his own example 8tT»»-.gthens all his laws." Instead 
 of proposing his sentiments with a manly boldness, he insinuates them 
 with the most guarded cautior , pats them into the inouth of a friend, 
 and, as fa^ as we can collect from a corrupted text, makes a show of re- 
 futing them himself. 
 
 a OrdsiuB, vi 18. 
 
 (Dion rtys twenty 'ar«. (book I v. ch. 30.) Th« triumvir* uniUd, •©• 
 
 i 
 
 \. 
 
 strength, and of the weakness of the constitution, ha- 
 bituated, during twenty years civil war, to every act of 
 blood and violence, and passionately devoted to the 
 house of Caesar, from whence alone they had received, 
 and expected, the most lavish rewards. The provinces, 
 long oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed 
 for the government of a single person, who would be 
 the master, not the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. 
 The people of Rome, viewing with a secret pleasure, 
 the humiliation of the aristocracy, demanded only 
 bread and public shows; and were supplied with both 
 by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite 
 Italians, who had almostuniversally embraced the phi- 
 losophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of 
 ease and tranquillity, and suflTered not the pleasing dream 
 to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultu- 
 ous freedom. With its power, the senate had lost its 
 dignity ; many of the most noble families were extinct. 
 The republicans of spirit and ability had perished in 
 the field of battle, or in the proscription. The door of 
 the assembly had been designedly left open, for a 
 mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who 
 reflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving 
 lionour from it.'' ^ 
 
 Ho reforms the The reformation of the senate was one 
 senate. of the first Steps in which Augustus laid 
 aside the tyrant, and professed himself the father of his 
 country. He was elected censor ; and, in concert with 
 his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the sena- 
 tors, expelled a few members, whose vices or whose 
 obstinacy required a public example, persuaded near 
 two hundred to prevent the shame of an expulsion by a 
 voluntary retreat, raised the qualification of a senator to 
 about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient number 
 of Patrician families, and accepted for himself the hon- 
 ourable title of Prince of the Senate, which had always 
 been bestowed, by the censors, on the citizen the most 
 eminent for his honours and services.*^ But whilst he 
 thus restored the dignity, he destroyed the independ- 
 dence, of the senate. The principles of a free consti- 
 tution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative pow- 
 er is nominated by the executive.d 
 
 Resigns his Before an, assembly thus modelled and 
 usurped power, prepared, Augustus pronounced a studied 
 oration, which displayed his patriotism, and disguised 
 his ambition. " He lamented, yet excused, his past 
 conduct. Filial piety had required at his hands the re- 
 venge of his father's murder ; the humanity of his own 
 nature had sometimes given way to the stern laws of 
 necessity, and to a forced connexion with two unwor- 
 thy colleagues : as long as Antony lived, the republic 
 forbade him to abandon her to a degenerate Roman, 
 and a barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to sa- 
 tisfy his duty and his inclination. He solemnly res- 
 stored the senate and people to all their ancient rights; 
 and wished only to mingle with the crowd of his fel- 
 , low-citizens, and to share the blessings which he had 
 obtained for his country."* 
 
 Is prevailed upon It would require the pen of Tacitus 
 iVTir'titie^of (•^'^acj*"shad assisted at this assem- 
 Emjieror or Ge- bly) to describe the various emotions of 
 "^■^'*'- the senate ; those that were suppressed, 
 
 and those that were aflTected. It was dangerous to trust 
 
 cofiling to Appianus, had but forty-three. The testimony of Orosus is 
 of little force, sine* there are other and more safe authorities.— ^.] 
 
 i) Julius Ca'sar introduced soldiers, strangers, and half-barbarians, 
 into the senate. (Suoton. in Casar. c. 77, 80.) The abuse became still 
 more scandalous aft<;r his death. 
 
 c Dion Cassius, 1, liii. p. 093. Suetonius in August, c. 55. 
 
 <* f Augustus who wa.s then named Octavius was censor arid as such 
 hod the power of reforming the senate, of expelling unworthy members, 
 and of apiK)inting the princrps senafn.i, &r. This was what was called, 
 Senatum Icgere. It was no longer unusual, since the time of the re- 
 public, for a Censor to appoint himself the Prince oi the Semite — (Ti 
 tu3-Livius. lib. xxvii. c. 11. and xl. c. 51.) Dion affirms that this was 
 airrecal.le toanrient usage, (p. 496.) The admission ofa certain num- 
 ber of families into the patrician rank, was authorized by an express de- 
 cree of the senate, (Bii>.»i,- "s-jT^iywo-i!.-,) says Dion.— f?. J 
 
 e Dion (I. liii. p. G98.) gives us a prolix and bombast speech on this 
 great occasion. I have borrowed frorti Surtoniu.^ and Tacitus the ge- 
 neral language of Augustus. 
 
 Vol. I— E * . 
 
 the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it was 
 still more dangerous. The respective advantages of 
 monarchy and a republic have often divided specula- 
 tive inquirers; the present greatness of the Roman 
 state, the corruption of manners, and the licence of the 
 soldiers, supplied new arguments to the advocates of 
 monarchy; and these general views of government 
 were again warped by the hopes and fears of each in- 
 dividual. Amidst this confusion of sentiments, the 
 answer of the senate was unanimous and decisive. 
 They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus ; 
 they conjured him not to desert the republic, which he 
 had saved. After a decent resistance, the crafty tyrant 
 submitted to the orders of the senate ; and consented 
 to receive the government of the provinces, and the 
 general command of the Roman armies, under the 
 well-known names of Proconsul and iMPERATOR.f 
 But he would receive them only for ten years. Even 
 before the expiration of that period, he hoped that the 
 wounds of civil discord would be completely healed, 
 and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and 
 vigour, would no longer require the dangerous inter- 
 position of so extraordinary a magistrate. The memory 
 of this comedy, repeated several times during the life 
 of Augustus, was preserved to the last ages of the 
 empire, by the peculiar pomp with which the perpetual , 
 monarchs of Rome always solemnized the tenth years 
 of their reign.s 
 
 Without any violation of the princi- power of the Ro- 
 ples of the constitution, the general of n"^" generals, 
 the Roman armies might receive and exercise an au- 
 thority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, 
 and the subjects of the republic. With regard to the 
 soldiers, the jealousy of freedom had, even from the 
 earliest ages of Rome, given way to the hopes of con- 
 quest, and a just sense of military discipline. The 
 dictator, or consul, had a right to command the service 
 of the Ronian youth; and to punish an obstinate or 
 cowardly disobedience by the most severe and igno- 
 niinious penalties, by striking the oflfender out of the 
 list of citizens, by confiscating his property, and by 
 selling his person into slavery.*" The most sacred 
 rights of freedom, confirmed by the Porcian and Sem- 
 pronian laws, were suspended by the military engage- 
 ment. In his camp the general exercised an absolute- 
 power of life and death ; his jurisdiction was not con- 
 fined by any forms of trial, or rules of proceeding, and 
 the execution of the sentence w^as immediate and 
 without appeal.' The choice of the enemies of Rome 
 was regularly decided by the legislative authority. 
 The most important resolutions of peace and war were 
 seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified 
 by the people. But when the arms of the legions 
 were carried to a great distance from Italy, the gene- 
 rals assumed the liberty of directing them against 
 whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged 
 most advantageous for the public service. It was 
 from the success, not from the justice, of their enter- 
 prises, that they expected the honours of a triumph. 
 In the use of victory, especially after they were no 
 longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate, 
 they exercised the most unbounded despotism. When 
 Pompey commanded in the east, he rewarded his sol- 
 diers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, 
 founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mith- 
 ridates. On his return to Rome, he obtained by a 
 single act of the senate and people, the universal rati- 
 
 f Imperator (from which we have derived Emperor) signified under 
 the republic no more than general, and was emphatically bestowed by 
 the soldiers, when on the field of battle they proclaimed their victorious 
 leader worthy of that title. When the Roman emperors nfn^umcA it in 
 that sense, they placed it after their name, and marked how often they 
 had taken it. 
 
 S Dion, 1. liii. p. 703. &c. 
 
 h Livy, Epitom. 1. xiv. Valer. Maxim, vi. 3. 
 
 • See in the viiith book of Liv}', the conduct of Manlius Torquatus 
 and Papirius Cursor. They violated the laws of nature and humanity, 
 but they asserted those of military discipline ; and the people, who ab- 
 horred the action, were obliged to respect the principle. 
 
34 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. in. 
 
 lication of all his proceedingsJ Such was the power 
 over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome, which 
 was either granted to, or assumed by, the generals of 
 the republic. They were, at the same time, the 
 governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered pro- 
 vinces, united the civil with the military character, 
 administered justice as well as the finances, and 
 exercised both the executive and legislative power 
 of the state. 
 
 Lioutcnants of From what has been already observed 
 the emperor, in the first chapter of this work, some 
 notion may bo formed of the armies and provinces thus 
 intrusted to tlie ruling hand of Augustus. Uut as it 
 was impossible that he could personally command the 
 legions of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged 
 by the senate, as Pompoy had already been, in Ihe 
 permission of devolving the execution of his great of- 
 fice on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank and 
 authority these officers seemed not inferior to the an- 
 cient pro-consuls; but their station was dependent and 
 precarious. They received and held their commis- 
 sions at the will of a superior, to whose auspicious in- 
 fluence the merits of their actions was legally attributed.'' 
 They were the representatives of the^emperor. The 
 emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his 
 jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended overall 
 the conquests of Rome. It was some satisf\ictiun, 
 however, to the senate, that he always delegated his 
 power to the members of their body. The^jmpcrial 
 lieutenants were of consular or praetorian dignity; the 
 legions were commanded by senators, and the pr.-efec- 
 ture of Egypt was the only important trust committed 
 to a Roman kniirht. 
 
 Division of tim Within six days after Augustus had 
 provinces hetwoon been Compelled to accept so very liberal 
 Ite scirr" '"' a g-^^"*' '^e resolved to gratify the pride 
 of the senate by an easy sacrifice. He 
 represented to them that they had enlarged his powers, 
 even beyond that degree which might be required by 
 the nielancholy condition of the times. They had not 
 perrnitted him to refuse |he laborious command of the 
 armies and the frontiers ; but he must insist on being 
 allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure pro*^ 
 vinces, to the mild administration of the civil maois- 
 trate. In the division of the provinces, Augustus pro- 
 vided for his own power, and for the dignity of the 
 republic. The proconsuls of the senate,°particularly 
 those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more 
 honourable character than the lieutenants of the empe- 
 ror, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former 
 were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers.' A law 
 was passed, that wherever the emperor was present, 
 his extraordinary commission should supersede the 
 ordinary jurisdiction of the governor; a custom was 
 introduced, that tiie new conquests belonged to the 
 Imperial portion; and it was soon discovered that the 
 authority of the Prince^ the favourite epithet of Augus- 
 tus, was the same in every part of the empire. 
 
 J By tlio lavish but uneonstrained auflTrapes of the peoplo, Pompey 
 had obtained a military eommaiid scarrely iiiferiorto that of Augustus. 
 Among the extraordinary arts of jwwer executed l)y the former, wn 
 may remark the foundation of twenty-nine cities, and the distribution 
 ot three or four mdlions sterling to his troops. The ratification of his 
 acts met with some opposition and delavs in the senate. S.^e Plutarch 
 Appian. Dion Cassius, and the first book"of the epistles to Atticus. 
 
 k Under the commonwealth, a triumph could only be claimed by the 
 general, who was authorized to take the Auspices in the name of the 
 people By an exact c«msequencc drawn from this principle of policy 
 and religioii, the triumph was reserved to the emperor ; and his most 
 succcsslu! lieutenants were satisfied with some marks of distinction 
 which, under the name of triumphal honours, were invented in their 
 favour. 
 
 I [This distinction is without foundation. The lieutenants of the 
 emperor who were styled propnrtors, whether they had before been 
 praetors or consuls, were attended by six lictors, those who had the 
 right of the sword wore also a military drt-ss [pnluJamentuin) and a 
 Bword. The lieutenants sent by the senate, who were styled proconsvh 
 whether previously they had or had not been consuls," had twelve lie- 
 tors when they had been consuls, ».nd six only when they ha<l k-en 
 priptors. The provinces of Africa and Asia were never given, except 
 to ex consuls. See the account of the organization of the provinces in 
 Dion, (liD. I. iii. 12— lf,,)und in Stralm (lib. xvii. p. P40,^the CJreek 
 le*t,fof thu Latin translation ia inijK'rfect.)— O.J 
 
 In return for this imamnary conccs- «,. . 
 
 „• „ i . 1 ^ . ,^ ■: 1 he former prc- 
 
 sion, Augustus obtained an important serves his miii- 
 privilege, which rendered him master of *»''y command 
 Rome and Italy. By a dangerous ex- JileSf.' '" 
 ception to the ancient maxims, he was 
 authorized to preserve his military command, supported 
 by a numerous body of guards, even in time of peace, 
 and in the heart of the capital. His command, indeed, 
 was confined to those citizens who were engaged in 
 the service by the military oath ; but such was the 
 propensity of the Romans" to servitude, that the oath 
 was voluntarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, 
 and the equestrian order, till the homage of flattery 
 was insensibly converted into an annual and solemn 
 protestation of fidelity. 
 
 Although Augustus considered amili- Consular and tri- 
 
 tary force as the firmest foundation, he f'unitian powers, 
 wisely rej('ctcd it, as a very odious instrument, of 
 government. It was more agreeable to his temper, as 
 well as to his policy, to reign under the venerable 
 names of ancient magistracy, and artfully to collect, in 
 his own person, all the scattered rays of civil jurisdic- 
 tion. With this view, he permitted the senate to con- 
 fer upon him, for his life, the powers of the consular™ 
 and tribunitian offices," which were, in the same man- 
 ner, continued to all his successors. The consuls had 
 succeeded to the kings of Rome, and represented the 
 dignity of the state. They superintended the ceremo- 
 nies of religion, levied and commanded the legions, 
 gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and presided in 
 the assemblies both of the senate and people. The 
 general control of the finances was intrusted to their 
 care; and though they seldom had leisure to adminis- 
 ter justice in person, they were considered as the su- 
 preme guardians of law, equity, and the public peace. 
 Such was their ordinary jurisdiction; but whenever 
 the senate empowered the first magistrate to consult 
 the safety of the commonwealth, he was raised by that 
 degree above the laws, and exercised, in the defence 
 of liberty, a temporary despotism." The character of 
 the tribunes was, in every respect, difl!erent from that 
 of the consuls. The appearance of the former was 
 modest and humble; but their persons were sacred and 
 inviolable. Their force was suited rather for opposi- 
 tion than for action. They were instituted to defend 
 the oppressed, to pardon ofi[*cnces, to arraign the ene- 
 mies of the people, and, when they judged it necessary, 
 to stop, by a single word, the whole machine of gov- 
 ernment. As long as the republic subsisted, the 
 dangerous influence, which either the consul or the 
 tribune might derive from their respective jurisdiction, 
 was diminished by sevtral important restrictions. 
 Their authority expired with the year in which they 
 were elected; the former office was divided between 
 two, the latter among ten persons ; and, as both in 
 their private and public interest, they were averse to 
 each other, their mutual conflicts contributed, for the 
 most part, to strengthen rather than to destroy the bal- 
 ance of the constitution.^ But when the consular and 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 m Cicero (do Leffibus, iii. .?.') gives the consular oflRco the name of 
 Regia pot castas : nnd Polyliius ^1. vi. c. '.\.) observes three jKiwers in the 
 Roman constitution. The monarchical was represented and exercised bv 
 the consuls. 
 
 n As the tribunitian jtower (distinct from the annual office) was first 
 invented for the dictator Casar, (Dion, I. xliv. p. :te'4.) we may easily 
 conceive, Hiat it was given as a reward for having so nobly assorted, by 
 arms, thesacre<I rights of the tribunes and people. Sec his own Com- 
 mentaries, de B«ll, Civil. I. i. 
 
 o Augustus exercised nine annual consulships without interruption, 
 lie then most artfully refused that magistracy, as well ns the dictator 
 ship, absented himself from Rome, and waited till the fatal effects of 
 tumult and faction forced the senate to invest him with a perpetual 
 consulship. Augustus, as well as his successors, affected, however, to 
 conceal so invidious a title. 
 
 I' ( This equal balance was very often illusive. The establishment of 
 the office of tribunes was far frcnn having all the effect that was expect- 
 ed, and which might have been secured. There were «.bstacles even in 
 the manner of its organization, which often prevented it from bein«» of 
 any use to the people, and from counterbalancing the frequently opprca- 
 sive power of the senate. The p«'ople, by giving the senate only the 
 right of deliberation, and reserving ti» themselves that of ratifying its 
 decisions. believ<'d that they hurl prcM-rved the a p|H;arinice of sovereign- 
 ty, when they had destroyed their only fiU])i>ort. The senators, fuvs 
 
 tribunitian powers were united, when they were vested 
 for life in a single person, when the general of the 
 army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate 
 and the representative of the Roman people, it was 
 impossible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to 
 deiine the limits of his imperial prerogative. 
 Imperial prero- To these accumulated honours, the 
 gatives policy of Augustus soon added the splen- 
 
 did as well as important dignities of supreme pontiff", 
 and of censor. By the former he acquired the man- 
 agement of the religion, and by the latter a legal in- 
 spection over the manners and fortunes of the Roman 
 people. If so many indistinct and independent powers 
 did not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance 
 of the senate was prepared to supply every deficiency 
 by the most ample and extraordinary concessions. 
 The emperors, as the first ministers of the republic, 
 were exempted from the obligation and penalty of many 
 inconvenient laws : they were authorized to convoke 
 the senate, to make several motions in the same day, 
 to recommend candidates for the honours of the state, to 
 enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue 
 at their discretion, to declare peace and war, to ratify 
 treaties ; and by a most comprehensive clause, they 
 were empowered to execute whatsoever they should 
 judge advantageous to the empire, and agreeable to the 
 majesty of things private or public, human or divine.i 
 The magistrates. . ^^hen all the various powers of execu- 
 tive government were committed to the 
 imperial magistrafe, the ordinary magistrates of the 
 commonwealth languished in obscurity, without vi- 
 gour, and almost without business. The names and 
 lorms of the ancient administration were preserved by 
 Augustus with the most anxious care. The usual 
 number of consuls, praetors, and tribunes,^ were annu- 
 ally invested with their respective ensigns of office, 
 and continued to discharge some of their least impor- 
 tant fijnctions. Those honours still attracted the vain 
 ambition of the Romans ; and the emperors themselves, 
 though invested for life with the powers of the consul- 
 ship, frequently aspired to the .title of that annual dig- 
 nity, which they condescended to share with the most 
 illustrious of their fellow-citizens.* In the election of 
 these magistrates, the people, during the reign of Au- 
 
 35 
 
 De Lolme. the consuls the dictators, and the nobles, whom the people 
 had the prudence to fear, and the simplicity to trust, continued to 
 mingle with them and to practice their intrigues. They still ha 
 rangued, they still changed the place of the assemldies of the ,»eoiJe 
 they dissolved them or managed them; and the tribunes when they 
 had been lUde to effect a combination, had the vexation of seeing the 
 pr«yect8 which they had pro..ecuted with great difficulty, and even 
 with the greatest per. , baffled and defeated by miserabi; cunnin? 
 (Do holmo^ConstttuU d'JI.frleterre, chap. 7, vol. li. p: ii.) We find h 
 Valerius Maximus, a striking example of the inllucnce which the no- 
 bility often exercised over the ,Kjople, in spite of the tribunes and their 
 measures. In a time of scarcity, the tribunes wishing to proi>ose some 
 measures resix-cting c.rn. Sc.pio Na.sica restrained the a.simbly by 
 exclaiming -Silence, Romans! f know better than you what i.s for 
 it J» IT"' V^"" republic."-' T-ace/. gua-so, Quirites; plus enim c^o 
 ller^ ZJ.Vf ^"/'"^/•'^'f. '•'/»•'''?« tntelligo: Qua voce audita omnes 
 «,iZ 7''*'^'^'«""*' stlentw, majorum ejus autoritatis gudrn svorum 
 alimenforum curam cgerunt. This influence was such that the tri- 
 bunes often tell victims in their struggle with the senate, although on 
 many occasions they sustained the true interests of the iK'onle. Such 
 was the fate of the two Gracchi, so unjustly calumniated by {he nobles, 
 an^so basely abandoned by the people whose cause they had embraced. 
 
 q See a fragment of a decree of the ftnale, conferring on the emperor 
 Vespasian, all the powers grante.l to his predecessor, Augustus, Tibe- 
 rius, and Claudius. This curious and important monument is published 
 in (.ruter g lnscrij)tioiis. No. ccxiii. 
 
 s^K"/^"'"'} S'^° '"• V"" •^'J't'O"" o'" Tacitus, which Kyck {^nimad. p. 
 420. 421) and Erncsii {Excurs. ad. lib. iv. c. (5.) have published, bit 
 tins Iragment contains so many irregularities, both in the subject if«elf 
 Uien'ticit '-«"!*'' '^^^^^^S it. that doubts are entertained of its au- 
 r Two consuls were created on the Calends of January ; but in the 
 course of the year others were substituted in their places, till the an- 
 nua number seems to have amounted to no less than twelve. The 
 prmt^ors were usually sixteen or eighteen. (Lipsius in Exci>rs. D, ad 
 
 Offi^l-^'f".? • l-^ ' '"''''' "°^ mf^ntioned the iE.lilcs or Quastors. 
 Officers of the police or revenue easily adapt themselves to any form of 
 government In the time of Nero, the t/ibunes legally ,K>.ssLeTthe 
 right of t«/cr«.s-6-,0ff though it might be dangerous to exerri.se it 
 
 rant Anna .XVI. 2fi.) In the time of Trajan, it was doubtful whetl.c 
 the rribuiif ship was an office or a name. (Plin. Epist i "^r? ) 
 
 • The tyrant-M themselves were ambitious of the rnnsuW.ip. The 
 Virtuous prmc^.s were moderate in the pursuit, and exact in the dis- 
 riiarge of it. Trajan revived the ancient oath, and swore before the 
 consul 8 tribunal, that he would observe the laws. (Plin. Panegyric c 64 ) 
 
 gustus, were permitted to expose all the inconveni- 
 ences of a wild democracy. That artful prince, in- 
 stead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, 
 humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his 
 triends,and scrupulously practised all the duties of an 
 ordinary candidate.' But we may ventuie to ascribe 
 to his councils the first measure of the succeeding 
 reign, by which the elections were transferred to the 
 senate." The assemblies of the people were for ever 
 abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a 
 dangerous multitude, who, without restorino- liberty 
 might have disturbed, and perhaps endancrcred, the 
 established government. " 
 
 By declaring themselves the protec- 
 tors of the people, Marius and Caesar '^^'^ ^"''**'* 
 had subverted the constitution of their country. But 
 as soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed 
 such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred 
 persons, was found a much more tractable and useful 
 instrument of dominion. It was on the dignity of the 
 senate, that Augustus and his successors founded their 
 new empire ; and they affected, on every occasion, to 
 adopt the language and principles of Patricians. In 
 the administration of their own powers, they frequently 
 consulted the great national council, and seemed to 
 reter to its decision the most important concerns of ' 
 peace and war. Rome, Italy, and the internal provin- 
 ces, were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the 
 senate. With regard to civil objects, it was the su- 
 preme court of appeal ; with regard to criminal matters, 
 a tribunal, constituted for the trial of all offences that 
 u-cre committed by men in any public station, or that 
 altected the peace and majesty of the Roman people. 
 Ihe exercise of the judicial power became the most 
 trequent and serious occupation of the senate ; and the 
 important causes that were pleaded before them, af- 
 forded a last refuge to the spirit of ancient eloquence. 
 As a council of state, and as a court of justice, the 
 senate possessed very considerable prerogatives; but 
 in Its legislative capacity, in which it was supposed 
 virtually to represent the people, the rights of sove- 
 reignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly 
 l^.very power was derived from their authority, every 
 law was ratified by their sanction. Their regular 
 meetings were held on three stated days in every 
 month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The 
 debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the 
 emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of sena- 
 tors, sat, voted, and divided with their equals. 
 To resume, in a few words, the svs- ^ i . r 
 
 ♦,.„, ^P *u„ : • 1 ^ ^ . t^eneral idea of 
 
 tem ot the imperial government; as it the imperial sys- 
 was instituted by Augustus, and main- ^'^•n- 
 tained by those princes who understood their own 
 interest and that of the people, it may be defined an 
 absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a com- 
 monwealth. The masters of the Roman world sur- 
 rounded their throne with darkness, concealed their 
 irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves 
 the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme 
 decrees they dictated and obeyed.^ 
 
 The face of the court corresponded Court of the em- 
 with the forms of the administration. pcrors. 
 
 . ^yot'^'' Magistratuum Comitiis interesset. Tribus cum candidaiis 
 siuscircuibal : supjiiicabatiiuc more solemni. Ferebat et ipse suffra- 
 gium in tribubu.s, ut unus e populo. Suetonius in August, c. 5U. 
 
 u inm j)rimiim Comitiae cainiK) a<l patres translata sunt. Tacit. 
 Annal. i. 1.5. 'i'hc word primum .ceems to allude to some faint and uu- 
 succc.sslul efforts which were made towards restoring them to the 
 people. ° 
 
 [The cmpf;ror Caligula himself made this attempt.— he restored the 
 Comitia tothe peojde, and again deprived them of them a short time 
 alter. (tMieton. in Caio, c. 1(5. Dion, lib. lix. 9. 20.) Nevertheless, in 
 the time of Dion, the shadow of the Comitia was still preserved. (Dion, 
 lib. viii. 20.) — (?.] ^ 
 
 V Dion Cassius (I. liii. p. TO.*]— 714.) has given a very loose and i«ir- 
 tial sketch of the imperial system. To illustrate and often to correct 
 him I have meditated Tacitus, examined Suetonius, and consulted 
 the following moderns: the Abbe de la Bleterie, in the Mcmoires de 
 r.Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xix. x\i. xxiv. xxv. xxvii. Beaufort 
 RcpublKiue Jlomaine, tom. i. p. 25.S-275. Tiie Dis.^ertations of JVoodt 
 and Gronovius, dc Icfre licgiS ; printed at I.#vden, in the year 17.31 
 Cr.ivina de Im|K;rio Romano, p. 479—544. of his Opuscula. Maffci Vc^ 
 rona Illustrata, p. i. p. 24.'), &c. 
 
36 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 37 
 
 The emperors, if we except those tyrants whose capri- 
 cious folly violated every law of nature and decency, 
 disdained that pomp and ceremony which might offend 
 their countrymen, but could add nothing to their real 
 power. In all the offices of life, they affected to con- 
 found themselves with their subjects, and maintained 
 with them an equal intercourse of visits and entertain- 
 ments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were 
 suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their 
 family, however numerous or splendid, was composed 
 entirely of their domestic slaves and freedmen.''' Au- 
 gustus or Trajan would have blushed at cmployinfr 
 the meanest of the Romans in those menial offices, 
 which, in tlie household and bed-chamber of a limited 
 monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest 
 nobles of Britain. 
 
 The deification of the emperors* is the 
 Deification. Qf,jy instance in which they departed 
 from their accustomed prudence and modesty. The 
 Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the successors 
 of Alexander the first objects of this servile and impious 
 mode of adulation.y It was easily transferred from the 
 kings to the governors of Asia ; and the Roman magis- 
 trates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, 
 with the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and 
 sacrifices.* It was natural that the emperors should 
 not refuse what the proconsuls had accepted ; and the 
 divine honours which both the one and the other 
 received from the provinces, attested rather the despot- 
 ism than the servitude of Rome. But the conquerors 
 soon imitated the vanquished nations in the arts of 
 flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first Caesar too 
 easily consented to assume, during his life-time, a 
 place among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder 
 temper of his successor declined so dangerous an am- 
 bition, which was never afterwards revived, except by 
 the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus 
 permitted, indeed, some of the provincial cities to erect 
 temples to his honour, on condition that they should 
 associate the worship of Rome with that of the sove- 
 reign; he tolerated private superstition, of which he 
 might be the object;* but he contented himself with 
 being revered by the senate and people in his human 
 character, and wisely left to his successor the care of 
 his public deification. A regular custom was intro- 
 duced, that on the decease of every emperor who had 
 neither lived nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a 
 solemn decree should place him in the number of the 
 gods; and the ceremonies of his Apotheosis were 
 blended with those of his funeral.'^ This legal, and, 
 as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhor- 
 lent to our stricter principles, was received with a very 
 faint murmur," by the easy nature of polytheism ; but 
 
 w A weak prince will always be govornoH by his domoflticg. The 
 |M)wer of slaves apcravated the shame of the Kumans; and the senate 
 paid court to o Pallas or a Narcissus. There is a chance that a niodorn 
 favourite may ]»e a pentleman. 
 
 X See a treatise of Vandale dc Consecratione Principum. It would 
 be easier for mo to copy, than it has been to verify, the ({uotations of 
 that learned Dutchman. 
 
 y [This is incorrect. The successors of Alexander were not the first 
 deified sovereigns. The Egyptians had deified and worship|>cd many 
 of their kings, — the Olympus of the (Jreeks was ])coplod with divinities 
 who had reigned upon earth. Romulus himself had received the hon- 
 ours of aimtheosis (Tit. Liv. lib. i. c. 11).) a long time before AlexBiidiT 
 and his successors. It is also incorrect to confound the homage reiidered 
 by temples and altars in the provinces to Roman governors with the 
 real apotheosis of the emperors. This was not a religious worship, for 
 there were neither priests nor sacrifices. Augustus M-as severely cen- 
 sured fur having permitted himself to bo worshipped as a god in the 
 provinces. (Tac. AnvnL lib. i. c. 10.) He would not have incurred 
 this censure had such homage only been rendered to him as was given 
 to the Roman governor>». — G.l 
 
 z See a dispertation of the Abb6 Mongault in the first volume of the 
 Academy of Inscriptions. 
 
 a Jurandas(jue tuom per nomen ponimus aras, says Horace to the 
 emperor himself, and Horace was well ac«|uainted with the court of 
 Augustus. 
 
 b [The honours of apothcoma were not conferred on good prince's 
 alone. They were bestowed also on many tyrants. (See an excellent 
 treatise of Schoepflin De consecrationc imperatorvm romaaorum in his 
 Oymmentatione3 historictr et critiew. Bile 1741, p. 1. 84.) — f?.] 
 
 c See Cicero in Philippic, i. (i. Julian in Ca}saribus. Iiique Deum 
 templis jurabit Roma jK'r umbras, is the indignant expression of Luciui, 
 tut it is a patriotic, rather than a devout, indignatiur 
 
 it was received as an institution, not of religion, but of 
 policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the Anto- 
 nines, by comparing them with the vices of Hercules 
 or Jupiter. Even the characters of Cajsar or Augus- 
 tus were far superior to those of the popular deities. 
 But it was the misfortune of the former to live in an 
 enlightened age, and their actions were too faithfully 
 recorded to admit of such a mixture of fable and mys- 
 tery, as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As soon 
 as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into 
 oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, 
 or to the dignity of succeeding princes. 
 
 In the consideration of the imperial Titles of .^w^tu- 
 government, we have frequently mention- '"« n"^ Casar. 
 ed the artful founder, under his well-known title of 
 Augustus, which was not, however, conferred upon 
 him till the edifice was almost completed. The ob- 
 scure name of Octavianus, he derived from a mean 
 family, in the little town of Aricia.'* It was stained 
 with the blood of the proscription ; and he was desirous, 
 had it been possible, to erase all memory of his former 
 life. The illustrious surname of Caesar he had assumed, 
 as the adopted son of the dictator; but he had too 
 much good sense, either to hope to be confounded, or 
 to wish to be compared, with that extraordinary man. 
 It was proposed in the senate, to dignify their minister 
 with a new appellation : and after a very serious dis- 
 cussion, that of Augustus was chosen, among several 
 others, as being the most expressive of the character 
 of peace and sanctity, which he uniformly aflfected.* 
 Augustus was therefore a personal, Gsesar a family, dis- 
 tinction. The former should naturally have expired 
 with the prince on whom it was bestowed ; and how- 
 ever the latter was diffused by adoption and female 
 alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege 
 any hereditary claim to the honours of the Julian line. 
 But, at the time of his death, the practice of a century- 
 had inseparably connected those appellations with the 
 imperial dignity, and they have been preserved by a 
 long succession of emperors, Romans, Greeks, Franks, 
 and Germans, from the fall of the republic, to the pre- 
 sent time. A distinction was, however, soon intro- 
 duced. The sacred title of Augustus was always 
 reserved for the monarch, whilst the name of Ccesar 
 was more freely communicated to his relations ; and 
 from the reign of Hadrian, at least, was appropriated 
 to the second person in the state, who was considered 
 as the presumptive heir of the empire.^ 
 
 The tender respect of Augustus for a character and 
 free constitution which he had destroyed, policy of Augus. 
 can only be explained by an attentive *""• 
 consideration of the character of that subtle tyrant. A 
 cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposi- 
 tion, prompted him, at the age of nineteen, to assume 
 the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards 
 laid aside. With the same hand, and probably with 
 the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero, 
 and the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his 
 
 d [Oclavius was not descended from an obscure family, but from a dis- 
 tinguished family of the equestrian order ; his father, C. Octavius, who 
 jxjssessed great wealth, had been pru't«»r, governor of Macedonia, hon- 
 ored with the title of imperator, and was u|M>n the [toint of becoming 
 Citnsul, when be died. His mother, Attiu, was the daughter of M. At* 
 tius-KalbuK, who had also been pra-tor. Mark Anthony reproached Oc- 
 tavius with the place of his birth, Aricia, which was, nevertheless, a 
 ]aTSf municipal town, but Cicero forcibly refuted him. (Philipp. iii.u. 6.) 
 
 e Dion Cassius, 1. liii. p. 710. with the curious annotations of Reymar. 
 
 f r^71iose princes who by their birth or adoption belonged tg the family 
 of tije Ctt'sars, took the name of Ca-sar. After tlie death of Nero, tliis 
 name designated the im{>erial dignity itself, and then the chosen succes- 
 sor. The date at which it was first employed in this last sense, cannot 
 be assigned with certainty. Baeh afl'irms (Hist. JuriSpr. Rom. p. ^K)4.) 
 according to Tacitus (//!>«. lib. I.e. 15.) and Suetonius {Oalba, c. 17.) 
 that Galha conferred upon Piso Lucinianus the title of Caesar, and that 
 this was the origin of the use of this word, but the two historians say 
 simply that (jall)a adopted Piso for his successor, and makes no mention 
 of tlie name of Ca'sar. Aurelius Victor (in 'lYaj. p. .34H. ed. Arntzen.) 
 says that Adrian first received the title upon his adoption ; but since 
 the adoption of Adrian is still doubtful, and because Trajan on his 
 death bed would not probably have created a new title for a man who 
 was to succeed him, it is more than probable that yEliui Verus was the 
 first who was called Coisar, when adopted by Adrian. Spart. in wS/i'o 
 Fcro.r,. Land 2.- O.J 
 
 i 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 vices, were artificial; and according to the various 
 dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and 
 at last the father, of the Roman world. « When he 
 framed the artful system of the Imperial authority, his 
 moderation was inspired by his fears. He wished to 
 deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and 
 the armies by an image of civil government. 
 Image of liberty I. The death of Cassar was ever before 
 for the people, his eyes. He had lavished wealth and 
 honours on his adherents ; but the most favoured friends 
 of his uncle were in the number of the conspirators. 
 The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority 
 against open rebellion ; but their vigilance could not 
 secure his person from the dagger of a determined 
 republican ; and the Romans, who revered the memory 
 of Brutus,** would applaud the imitation of his virtue. 
 Caesar had provoked his fate, as much by the ostenta- 
 tion of his power, as by his power itself. The consul 
 or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title 
 of king had armed the Romans against his life. Au- 
 gustus was sensible that mankind is governed by 
 names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that 
 the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided 
 they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed 
 their ancient freedom. A feeble senate and enervated 
 people cheerfully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, 
 as long as it was supported by the virtue, or even by 
 the prudence, of the successors of Augustus. It was 
 a motive of self-preservation, not a principle of liberty, 
 that animated the conspirators against Caligula, Nero, 
 and Domitian. They attacked the person of the tyrant, 
 without aiming their blow at the authority of the em- 
 peror. 
 
 Attempt of the There appears, indeed, one memorable 
 senate after the occasiou, in which the Senate, after 
 death of Caligula, seventy years of patience, made an inef- 
 fectual attempt to reassume its long-forgotten rights. 
 When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, 
 the consuls convoked that assembly in the capitol, 
 condemned the memory of the Caesars, gave the 
 watch-word liberfy to the few cohorts who faintly ad- 
 hered to their standard, and during eight-and-forty 
 hours acted as the independent chiefs of a free com- 
 monwealth. But while they deliberated, the praetorian 
 guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother 
 of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested 
 with the imperial purple, and prepared to support his 
 election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an 
 end ; and the senate awoke to all the horrors of inevi- 
 table servitude. Deserted by the people, and threat- 
 ened by a military force, that feeble assembly was 
 compelled to ratify the choice of the praetorians, and to 
 embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius 
 had the prudence to oflfer, and the generosity to ob- 
 serve.* 
 
 [mage of govern- }^* The insolenco of the armies in- 
 ment for the ar- spired Augustus with fears of a still 
 '"'*'*• more alarming nature. The despair of 
 
 the citizens could only attempt, what the power of the 
 soldiers was at any time able to execute. How pre- 
 carious was his own authority over men whom he had 
 taught to violate every social duty! He had heard 
 their seditious clamours; he dreaded their calmer 
 moments of reflection. One revolution had been pur- 
 chased by immense rewards ; but a second revolution 
 might double those rewards. The troops professed 
 
 the fondest attachment to the house of Caesar ; but the 
 attachments of the multitude are capricious and incon-- 
 stant. Augustus summoned to his aid whatever re- 
 mained in those fierce minds of Roman prejudices; 
 enforced the rigour of discipline by the sanction of 
 law ; and, interposing the majesty of the senate between 
 the emperor and the army, boldly claimed their alle- 
 giance, as the first magistrate of the republic.'' 
 
 During a period of two hundred and . 
 twenty years, from the establishment of^^""''^''^''''"^' 
 this artful system to the death of Commodus, the dan- 
 gers inherent to a military government were, in a great 
 measure, suspended. The soldiers were .seldom roused 
 to that fatal sense of their own strength, and of the 
 weakness of the civil authority, which was, before and 
 afterwards, productive of such dreadful calamities. 
 Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their 
 palace by their own domestics : the convulsions which 
 agitated Rome on the death of the former, were con- 
 fined to the walls of the city.' But Nero involved the 
 whole empire in his ruin. In the space of eighteen 
 months, four princes perished by the sword ; and the 
 Roman world was shaken by the fury of the contend- 
 ing armies. Excepting only this short, though violent 
 eruption of military licence, the two centuries from 
 Augustus to Commodus passed away unstained with 
 civil blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The 
 emperor was elected by the authority of tlie senate^ and 
 the consent of the soldiers."^ The legions respected their 
 oath of fidelity ; and it requires a minute inspection of 
 the Roman annals to discover three inconsiderable 
 rebellions, which were all suppressed in a few months, 
 and without even the hazard of a battle." 
 
 In elective monarchies, the vacancy of Designation of a 
 the throne is a moment big with danger successor, 
 and mischief. The Roman emperors, desirous to 
 spare the legions that interval of suspense, and the 
 temptation of an irregular choice, invested their de- 
 signed successor with so large a share of present 
 power, as should enable him, after' their decease, to 
 assume the remainder, without sutFering the empire to 
 perceive the change of masters. Thus Augustus, after 
 all his fairer prospects had been snatched from him by 
 untimely deaths, rested his last hopes on Qj.,p., 
 Tiberius, obtained for his adopted son the ' *^"'"' 
 
 censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, 
 by which the future prince was invested with an au- 
 thority equal to his own, over the provinces and the 
 armies." Thus Vespasian subdued the generous mind 
 of his eldest son. Titus was adored by 
 the eastern legions, which, under his * "'" 
 
 command, had recently achieved the conquest of Judaea. 
 His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were 
 
 « As Octavianus advanced to the banquet of the Caesars, his colour 
 changed like that of the camelion ; pale at first, then red, afterwards 
 black, he at last assumed the mild livery of Venus and the Graces (Cse- 
 rars, p. 309.) This image, employed by Julian in his ingenious fiction, 
 IS just and elegant ; biit when he considers this change of character as 
 real, and ascrilies it to the jxiwer of philosophy, he does too much hon- 
 our to philosophy, and to Octavianus. 
 
 •• Two centuries after the establishment of monarchy, the emperor 
 Marcus Antoninus recommends the character of Brutus as a perfect mo- 
 del «»f Roman virtue. 
 
 i It is hiuch to he regretted that we have lost the part of Tacitus, 
 which treated of that transaction. We are forced to content ourselves 
 with the popular rumours of Josephus, and the imperfect hints of Dion 
 4nd Suetonius. 
 
 k Augustus restored the ancient severity of discipline. After the 
 civil wars, he dropped the endearing name of fellow-soldiers, and called 
 them only soldiers. (Suet, in August, c. 25.) See the use Tiberius 
 made of the senate in the mutiny of the Fanuonian legions. (Tacit. 
 Annal. i.) 
 
 1 [Caligula perished by a conspiracy formed by the officers of the 
 pra>torian guard, and Domitian would not, pcrhap.*. have been assassi- 
 nated, had not two officers of this guard engaged in accomplishing his 
 death.— C] 
 
 "» These words seem to have been the constitutional language. Sco 
 Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4. 
 
 n [This praise of the soldiery is a little exaggerated. Claudius was 
 obliged to purchase their consent to his coronation. The presents he 
 gave them, and those the praetorian guard received on several other oc- 
 casions, caused great injury to the finances of the empire. This formi- 
 dable guard besides, often favoured the cruelties of the tyrants. Their 
 di.<tant revolts were more frequent than Gibbon seems to think. Al- 
 ready under Tiberius the legions of Germany seditiously wished to 
 force Germanicus to assume the imperial purple. U|X)n the revolt of 
 Claudius Civilis under Vespasian, the legions of Gaul slew their gene- 
 ral, and promised their assistance to the Gauls who had rebelled. Ju- 
 lius Sabinus caused himself to be declared emperor, &c. The wars, 
 the merit, and the severe discipline of Trajan, Adrian, and the two 
 Antonines, feffected, after some time, more subordination. — G.) 
 
 The first was Camillas Scribonianus, who took up arms in Dnlmatia 
 against Claudius, and was deserted by his own troops in five days. 
 The second, L. Antonius, in Germany, who rebelled against Domitian ; 
 and the third, AvidiusCassius, in the reign of M. Antoninus. The two 
 last reigned but a few months, and were cut off by their own adherents. 
 We may observe, that both Camillus and Cassius coloured their ambi- 
 tion with the design of restoring the republic ; a task, said Cassiu.^:, pe- 
 culiarly reserved for his name and family. 
 
 Velleius Paterculus, I. ii. c. 131. Suelon. in Tiber, c. 30. 
 
38 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 clouded by the intemperance of youth, his designs 
 were suspected. Instead of listeningr to such unworthy 
 suspicions, the prudent monarch associated Titus to 
 the full powers of the imperial dignity; and the grate- 
 ful son ever approved himself the humble and faithful 
 minister of so indulgent a father.P 
 The race of the ^'he good sonse of Vespasian engaged 
 Ca;sar3 and the him indeed to embrace every measure 
 Flavian family, that might confirm his recent and preca- 
 rious elevation. The military oath, and the fidelity 
 of the troops, had been consecrated, by the habits of an 
 hundred years, to the name and family of the Caesars: 
 and. although that family had been continued only by 
 the fictitious riteof adoption, the Romans still revered, 
 in the person of Nero, the grandson of Germanicus, 
 and the lineal successor of Augustus. It was not 
 without reluctance and remorse, that the praetorian 
 guards had been persuaded to abandon the cause of the 
 tyrant.i The rapid downfall of Galba, Otho, and Vi- 
 tellius, tauglit the armies to consider the emperors as 
 - the creatures of thdr will, and the instruments oUheir 
 licence. The birth of Vespasian was mean; his 
 grandfather had been a private soldier, his fiither a 
 petty officer of the revenue ;■" his own merit had raised 
 him, in an advanced age, to the empire ; but his merit 
 w-as rather useful than shining, and his virtues were 
 disgraced by a strict and even sordid parsimony. Such 
 a prince consulted his true interest by the association 
 of a son, whoso more splendid and amiable character 
 might turn the public attention, from the obscure 
 origin, to the future glories, of the Flavian house. 
 Under the mild administration of Titus, the Roman 
 world enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved 
 memory served to protect, above fifteen years, the 
 vices of his brother Domitian. 
 
 A D 96 Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple 
 
 Adoption and ^''*^™ .^^^ assassins of Domitian, before 
 character of Tra- he discovered that his feeble age was 
 J^"- unable to stem the torrent of public dis- 
 
 orders, which had multiplied under the long tyranny 
 of his predecessor. His mild disposition was respected 
 by the good ; but the degenerate Romans required a 
 more vigorous character, whose justice should strike 
 terror into the guilty. Though he had several re- 
 lations, he fixed his choice on a stranger. He adopted 
 Trajan, then about forty years of age, and who com- 
 manded a powerful army in the Lower Germany ; and 
 immediately, by a decree of the senate, declared him 
 A.D. 93. his colleague and successor in the em- 
 pire.' It is sincerely to be lamented, 
 that whilst we are fatigued with the disgustful rela- 
 tion of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced to 
 collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of 
 an abridgment, or the doubtful light of a panegyric. 
 There remains, however, one panegyric far removed 
 beyond the suspicion of flattery. Above two hundred 
 and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate in 
 pouring out the customary acclamations on the acces- 
 sion of a new emperor, wished that he might surpass 
 the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan.' 
 A. D. 117. We may readily believe, that the fa- 
 
 Of Hadrian, ther of his Country hesitated whether he 
 ought to intrust the various and doubtful character of 
 his kinsman, Hadrian, with sovereign power. In his 
 last moments, the arts of tho empress Plotina, either 
 fixed the irresolution of Trajan, or boldly supposed a 
 fictitious adoption ;" the truth of which could not be 
 
 safely disputed, and Hadrian was peaceably acknowl- 
 edged as his lawful successor. Under his reign, as 
 has been already mentioned, the empire flourished in 
 peace and prosperity. He encouraged the arts, re- 
 formed the laws, asserted military discipline, and vis- 
 ited all his provinces in person. His vast and active 
 genius was equally suited to the most enlarged views, 
 and the minute details of civil policy. But the ruling 
 passions of his soul were curiosity and vanity. As 
 they prevailed, and as they were attracted by diflferent 
 objects, Hadrian was, by turns, an excellent prince, a 
 ridiculous sophist, and a jealous tyrant. The general 
 tenor of his conduct deserved praise for its equity and 
 moderation. Yet in the first days of his reign, he put 
 to death four consular senators, his personal enemies, 
 and men who had been judged worthy of empire; and 
 the tediousness of a painful illness rendered him, at 
 last, peevish and cruel. The senate doubled wheUier 
 they should pronounce him a god or a tyrant; and the 
 honours decreed to his memory were granted ta the 
 prayers of the pious Antoninus.' 
 
 The caprice of Hadrian influenced his A.ioption of the 
 
 Cnoice Ot a successor. Alter revolving rider and younger 
 
 in his mind several men of distinguished ^'*^r"«- 
 merit, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted ^lius 
 Verus, a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended 
 by uncommon beauty to the lover of Antinous."^ But 
 while Hadrian was delighting himself with his own 
 applause, and the acclamations of the soldiers, whose 
 consent had been secured by an immense donative, the 
 new Caesar* was ravished from his embraces by an un- 
 timely death. He left only one son. Hadrian com- 
 mended the boy to the gratitude of th^ Antonines. He 
 was adopted by Pius; and, on the accession of Marcus, 
 was invested with an equal share of sovereign power. 
 Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he pos- 
 sessed one virtue; a dutiful reverence for his wiser 
 colleague, to whom he willingly abandoned the ruder 
 cares of empire. The philosophic emperor dissembled 
 his follies, lamented his early death, and cast a decent 
 veil over his memory. 
 
 As soon as Hadrian's passion was Adoption of the 
 either gratified or disappointed, he re- two Antonine«. 
 solved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by placing 
 the most exalted merit on the Roman throne. His 
 discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty 
 years of age, blameless in all the offices of life ; and 
 a youth of about seventeen, whose riper years opened 
 the fair prospect of every virtue : the elder of these 
 was declared the son and successor of Hadrian, on 
 condition, however, that he himself should immediate- 
 ly adopt the younger. The two Antonines (for it is 
 of them that we are now speaking) governed the Ro- 
 man world forty-two years, with the 
 same invariable spirit of wisdom and ^' ^ ^^^^^^• 
 virtue. Although Pius had two sons,> he, preferred 
 the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family, 
 gave his daughter Faustina in marriage to young Mar- 
 cus, obtained from the Senate the tribunitian and pro- 
 consular powers, and with a noble disdain, or rather 
 
 P Sucton. in Tit. c. fi. Plin. in Pra-fat. Hist. Natur. 
 •I This idea is frequently and strongly inculcated by Tacitus. See 
 Hist. 1. 5, It). II. 76. 
 
 •■ The emperor Vespasian, with his usual good sense. lau<^hed at the 
 penealopists, who deduced his family from Flavius, the founder of 
 Reate, (his native country.) and one of the ronipuniona of Hercules 
 Suet, in Vespasian, c. 12. 
 
 'J'on.I. Ixviii. p. ll'ii. Plin. Secund. in Panejryric. 
 Felicior Au^usto, MKLioR Trajano. Eutrop. viii. 5. 
 
 « Dion (I. Ixix. p. 1-249.) afBrnis tho whole to have been a fiction, on 
 the authority of his father, who bein? governor of the province where 
 -Irajan «lied, had very good opportunities of sifting this mysterious 
 transaction Yet Dodwell (Pr«lect. Gamden xvii.) has maintained, 
 
 that Hadrian was called to tho certain hojK) of the empire, during th« 
 lifetime of Trajan. 
 
 V Dion. (Ixx. p. 1171.) Aurel. Victor. 
 
 w The deification of Antinous, his medals, statues, temples, city, ora- 
 cles, and constellation, are well known, and still dishonour the memory 
 of Hadrian. Yet we may remark, that of the first fifteen emiHjrors, 
 ( laudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct. 
 For the h.mours of Antinous, see Sjanheim, Commentaire sur les Cffl- 
 sars de Julien, p. 80. 
 
 X Hist. August, p. 13. Aurelius Victor in Epitom. 
 
 y VVithout the help of medals and inscriptions, we should l»e ignorant 
 of this fact, so honourable to the memory of Pius. " 
 
 fCJibbon attributes a merit to AnliMiinus Pius which he had not, or 
 which at least h« did not show on this «)cca8ion. He had not himrelf 
 been adopted, except on condili.m that he should adopt in his turn, M 
 Aurelius, and L. Verus. His tivo sons died in childhood, and one of 
 them, M. Galirius, seems to have survived only a few years aOer tho 
 accession of his father. Gibbon is also deceived when Jie say*. («ee 
 note,) "Without the help of medals and inscriptions, we should be ig- 
 JTi'w *■ ^"toninus had two sons." Canitolinus sayn expressly, (c 
 1.) hilit mares duo, dutt fcrmina. We are indebted to the medals only 
 for their najncs. (Pagi CHtic. Baron, ad. A. C. IGl. vol. 1. p. 33. ed. 
 raris.— O.] ^ 
 
 1 
 
 ! 
 
 « 
 
 
 Ignorance, of jealousy, associated him to all the la- 
 bours of government. Marcus, on the other hand, re- 
 vered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a 
 parent, obeyed him as his sovereign,^ and, after he 
 was no more, regulated his own administration by the 
 example and maxims of his predecessor. Their united 
 reigns are possibly the only period of history in which 
 the happiness of a great people was the sole object of 
 government. 
 
 Character and Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly 
 reign of Pius, denominated a second Numa. The same 
 love of re igion, justice, and peace, was the distin- 
 guishing characteristic of both princes. But the situ- 
 ation of the latter opened a much larger field for the 
 exercise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent 
 a few neighbouring villages from plundering each 
 other s harvests. Antoninus diffused order and tran- 
 quillity over the greatest part of the earth. His reign 
 is marked by the rare advantage of furnishino- very 
 few materials for history ; which is, indeed'I little 
 more than the register of the crimes, follies, and mis- 
 -fortunes of mankind. In private life, he was an amia- 
 ble as well as a good man. The native simplicity of 
 his virtue was a stranger to vanity or aflJectation. He 
 enjoyed with moderation the conveniences of his for- 
 tune, and the innocent pleasures of society ;* and the 
 benevolence of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful 
 serenity of temper. 
 
 Of Marcus. . '^^^ virtue of I\Iarcus Aurelius Anto- 
 1 • , , "'"^s ^^"''^s of a severer and more labo- 
 rious kind." It was the well-earned harvest of many 
 a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and 
 many a midnight lucubration. At the ago of twelve 
 ye^ars he embraced the rigid system of'the Stoics, 
 which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his 
 passions to his n^ason ; to consider virtue as the only 
 good, vice as the only evil, all things external as 
 things indiflrerent.<= His meditations, composed in the 
 tumult of a camp, are still extant; and he even con- 
 descended to give lessons of philosophy, in a more 
 public manner, than was perhaps consistent with the 
 modesty of a sage, or the dignity of an emperor.'^ But 
 his life was the noblest commentary on the precepts 
 of Zeno. He was severe to himself, indulgent to the 
 imperfections of others, just and beneficent to all 
 mankind. He regretted that Avidius Cassius, who 
 excited a rebellion in Syria, had disappointed him, by 
 a voluntary death, of the pleasure of converting an 
 enemy into a friend ; and he justified the sincerity of 
 that sentiment, by moderating the zeal of the senate 
 against the adherents of the traitor.** War he detest- 
 ed, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature; 
 but when the necessity of a just defence called upon 
 him to take up arms, he readily exposed his person to 
 eight winter campaigns, on the frozen banks of the 
 l^anube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the 
 weakness of his constitution. His memory was re- 
 vered by a grateful posterity, and above a century after 
 his death, many persons preserved the image of Mar- 
 cus Antoninus among those of their household gods.^ 
 
 39 
 
 * During the twenty-three years of Pius's reign, Marcus was only 
 two nights absent from the palace, and even those were at different 
 times. Hist. August, p. 25. 
 
 * He was fond of the theatre, and not insensible to the charms of the 
 fair sex. Marcus Anton, i. IG. Hist. Aug. p. 20, 21. Julian in Cmsar. 
 won. f.^"^.'"'^" of Marcus charged him with hypocrisy, and with a 
 A?.^ .of '.''^".'T^'.l.''.' -y '^•"''^ {>i«t'"?"'8hed Pius and even Verus (Hist. 
 i!«»^? f Z ' • '" ""spi'^'on, unjust as it was, may serve to ac- 
 count lor the superior applause bestowed upon personal nualifications. 
 /llC - k"*"^ ''^ the social virtues. Even Marcus Antoninus has been 
 called a hypocrite ; but the wildest scpticism never in.sinuated that 
 n.fn'rfi "".'" P«'''"'''y ''".a coward, or Tully a fool. Wit and valour are 
 justice ""' '"°'*' ^^^^^ ascertained than humanity or the love of 
 
 tilT"n''7 ^^^ '^Haracterised, in a few words, the principles of the ,»o- 
 Int.'. ^*^^"'^'' «aP'Pnt>«' secutus est. qui sola bona qua; honesta, mala 
 .Po H*^""" turpia; potentiam. nobilitatem, caiteraque extra animum, 
 neque boms neque mahs adnumerant. Tacit. Hist iv 5 
 read^ecn.r«t )rf"V-r ^''^ »«<^»"d expedition against the Germans, he 
 H^hnH I 1 '^^*"'TP''y ^"^ the Roman people, during three days. 
 Aupust.^n Ca8s?o?c. .1 """"^ '" ^ ' '''''^' °^ ^'■"""^^ and Asia. Hist. 
 
 f J'on '■ '«»' p' 1 190. Hist. August, in Avid. Casaio. 
 Hut. August, in Marc. Antonin. c. la 
 
 • !u ^, w" ^'^r/ called to fix the period Happiness of 
 
 in the history ot the world, during which the Romans, 
 the condition of the human race was most happy and 
 prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that 
 which elapsed from the drath of Domitian to the ac- 
 cession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Ro- 
 man empire was governed by absolute power, under 
 the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were 
 restrained by the firm but gentle hand of our four suc- 
 cessive emperors, whose characters and authomy com- 
 manded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil 
 administration were carefully preserved bv Nerva 
 Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in 
 the image of liberty, and were pleased with consider- 
 ing themselves as the accountable ministers of the 
 laws. Such princes deserved the honour of restoring 
 the republic, had the Romans of their days been capa- 
 ble of enjoying a rational freedom. 
 
 The labours, of these monarchs were ii. precarious 
 overpaid by the immense reward that in- nature, 
 separably waited on their success ; by the honest pride 
 ot virtue, and by the exquisite delight of beholding 
 the general happiness of which they were the authors. 
 A just but melancholy reflection imbittered, however, 
 the noblest of human enjoyments. They must often 
 have recollected the instability of a happiness which 
 depended on the character of a single man. The fatal 
 nioment was perhaps approaching, when some licen- 
 tious youth, or some jealous tyrant, would abuse, to 
 the destruction, that absolute power, which they had 
 exerted for the benefit of their people. 'J'he ideal re- 
 straints of the Senate and the laws might serve to 
 display the virtues, but could never correct the vices 
 of the emperor. The military force was a blind and 
 irresistible instrument of oppression ; and the corrup- 
 I tion of Roman manners would always supply flatter- 
 j ers eager to applaud and ministers prepared to serve 
 the fear or the avarice, the lust or the cruelty, of their 
 ' masters. 
 
 These gloomy apprehensions had been 
 already jusUfied by the experience of the S/^batuT^ 
 Konians. Ihe annals of the emperors Nero, and Do- 
 exhibit a strong and various picture of "^'tian. 
 human nature, which we should vainly seek amonff 
 the mixed and doubtful characters of modern history. 
 In the conduct of those monarchs we may trace the 
 utmost lines of vice and virtue; the most exalted per- 
 fection, and the meanest degeneracy, of our own 
 species. The golden age of Trajan and the Antonines. 
 had been preceded by an age of iron. It is almost 
 superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of 
 Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid 
 theatre on which they were acted, have saved them 
 from oblivion. The dark unrelenting Tiberius, the 
 furious Caligula, the feeble Claadius, the profligate 
 and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius,^ and the timid 
 inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting in- 
 famy. During fourscore years (excepting only the 
 short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign^) Rome 
 groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exter- 
 minated the ancient families of the republic, and was 
 fatal to almost every virtue, and every talent, that 
 arose in that unhappy period. 
 
 Under the reign of these monsters. Peculiar misery 
 the slavery of the Romans was accom- "^ ,*'«' Romans 
 
 panied with two peculiar circumstances, rant" .'' '^' 
 tlie one occasioned by their former liberty, the other 
 by their extensive conquests, which rendered their 
 condition more completely wretched than that of the 
 
 K \ itel lus consumed in mere eating, at least six million^ of our mo- 
 ney, in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with 
 dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog, but it i« bv 
 substituting.to a coarse word a very fine image. " At Vitellius, umbra- 
 culis hortorum abditus, ut ignava animalia, quibus si cibum eu^eeraa 
 jacent torpentque, prsterita, instantia, futura, pari oblivionedim^w>rat 
 Alque lUum iiomoro Arcino desidem et marcentem," &c. Tacit Hist 
 111.36.11.95. Sueton. in Vitel. c. 13. Dion Cassius, I. Ixv p 106« ' 
 
 h The execution of Helvidius Priscus, and of the virtuous Eponina 
 disgraced the reign of Vespasian. ^ * 
 
40 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 victims of tyranny in any other age or country. From 
 these causes were derived, 1. The exquisite sensibil- 
 ity of the sufferers; and, 2. The impossibility of es- 
 caping from tiie hand of the oppressor, 
 insensihiiity of L When Persia was governed by the 
 tho Oritntaii:. descendants of Sefi, a race of princes, 
 whose wanton cruelty often stained their divan, their 
 table, and their bed, with the blood of their favourites, 
 there is a saying recorded of a young nobleman. That 
 he never departed from the Sultan's presence, without 
 satisfying himself whether his head was still on his 
 shoulders. The experience of every day might al- 
 most justify the scepticism of Rustan.' Yet the fatal 
 sword, suspended above him by a single thread, seems 
 not to have disturbed the slumbers, or interrupted the 
 tranquillity, of the Persian. The monarch's frown, 
 he well knew, could level him with the dust; but the 
 stroke of lightning or apoplexy might be equally fatal ; 
 and it was the part of a wise man, to forget the inevi- 
 table calamities of human life in the enjoyment of the 
 fleeting hour. He was dignified with the appellation 
 of the king's slave; had, perhaps, been purchased from 
 obscure parents, in a country which he had never 
 known ; and was trained up from his infancy in the se- 
 vere discipline of the seraglio.^ His name, his wealth, 
 his honours, were the gift of a master, who might, 
 without injustice, resume what he had bestowed. Rus- 
 tan's knowledge, if he possessed any, could only serve 
 to confirm his habits by prejudices. His language af- 
 forded not words for any form of government, except 
 absolute monarchy. The history of the East informed 
 him, that such had ever been the condition of man- 
 kind.' The Koran, and the interpreters of that divine 
 book, inculcated to him, that the sultan was the des- 
 cendant of the prophet, and the vicegerent of heaven ; 
 that patience was the first virtue of a Mussulman, and 
 unlimited obedience the great duty of a subject. 
 Knowied e and '^^® Hiinds of the Romaus were very 
 free spirit of the differently prepared for slavery. Oppres- 
 Romans. ged beneath the weight of their own cor- 
 
 ruption, and of military violence, they for a long while 
 preserved the sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their 
 free-born ancestors. The education of Helvidius and 
 Thrasea, of Tacitus and Pliny, was the same as that 
 of Cato and Cicero. From Grecian philosophy, they 
 had imbibed the justest and most liberal notions of the 
 dignity of human nature, and the origin of civil socie- 
 ty. The history of their own country had taught them 
 to revere a free, a virtuous, and a victorious common- 
 wealth ; to abhor the successful crimes of Ciesar and 
 Augustus ; and inwardly to despise those tyrants whom 
 they adored with the most abject flattery. As magis- 
 trates and senators, they were admitted into the great 
 council, which had once dictated laws to the earth, 
 whose name still gave a sanction to the acts of the 
 monarch, and whose authority was so often prostituted 
 to the vilest purposes of tyranny. Tiberius, and those 
 emperors who adopted his maxims, attempted to dis- 
 guise their murders by the formalities of justice, and 
 perhaps enjoyed a secret pleasure in rendering the 
 senate their accomplice as well as their victim. By 
 this assembly, the last of the Romajis were condemned 
 for imaginary crimes and real virtues. Their infamous 
 accusers assumed the language of independent patriots, 
 who arraigned a dano^erous citizen before the tribunal 
 of his country ; and the public service was rewarded 
 by riches and honours.*" The servile judges professed 
 
 I Voyn«je dc Clinrdin en Perse, vol. iii. p. 2t>3. 
 
 k The practice of raiainj; slaves to the great offices of atate is still 
 more common amnn«r the Turks than amont' the Persians. The misc- 
 rahle countries of Georgia and Circas^ia supply rulers to the preatest 
 part of the east. 
 
 • Chardin says, that European travellers have diffused amon;; the 
 Persians some id»:as of the freedom and mildness of our government. 
 They have done them a very ill office. 
 
 m They allcs^ed the example of Scipio and Cato. (Tacit. Annal. iii. 66.) 
 Marcellus Ejiirus and Crispus Vibius had acquired two millions and a 
 half under Nero. Their wealth, which agifravated their crimes, pro- 
 tected them under Vespasian. See Tacit. Hist. iv. 43. Dialog, de 
 
 to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated in 
 the person of its first magistrate;" whose clemency 
 they most applauded when they trembled the most at 
 his inexorable and impending cruelty." The tyrant 
 beheld their baseness with just contempt, and encoun- 
 tered their secret sentiments of detestation with sincere 
 and avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate. 
 
 II. The division of Europe into a j,,,ent of their 
 number of independent states, connected empire left them 
 however, with each other, by the general noplace of refuge, 
 resemblance of religion, language, and maimers, is pro- 
 ductive of the most beneficial consequences to the lib- 
 erty of mankind. A modern tyrant, who should find 
 no resistance either in his own breast, or in his people, 
 would soon experience a gentle restraint from the ex- 
 ample of his equals, the dread of present censure, the 
 advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his ene- 
 mies. The object of his displeasure, escaping from 
 the narrow limits of his dominions, would easily ob- 
 tain, in a happier climate, a secure refuge, a new for- 
 tune adequate to his merit, the freedom of complaint, 
 and perhaps the means of revenge. But the empire of 
 the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell 
 into the hands of a single person, the world became a 
 safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of 
 imperial despotism, whether he was condemned to drag 
 his gilded chain in Rome and the senate, or to wear 
 out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the 
 frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent 
 despair.P To resist was fatal, and it was impossible 
 to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast 
 extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to 
 traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored 
 to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers, his anx- 
 ious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, 
 inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of 
 fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent 
 kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor's pro- 
 tection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive.' 
 " Wherever you are," said Cicero to the exiled Mar- 
 cellus, " remember that you are equally within the 
 power of the conqueror."' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Cruelty^ Follies, and murder of Commodtts. — Elec- 
 tion of Pertinax. — His attempts to reform the State. — 
 J/is assassination by the Prxtorian Guards. 
 
 The mildness of Marcus, which the indulgence of 
 rigid discipline of the Stoics was unable Marcus, 
 to eradicate, formed, at the same time, the most ami- 
 able, and the only defective, part of his character. 
 His excellent understanding was often deceived by the 
 unsuspecting goodness of his heart. Artful men, who 
 study the passions of princes, and conceal their own, 
 approached his person in the disguise of philosophic 
 
 Orator, c. 8. For one accusation. Rcgulus, the just ohject of Pliny's 
 satire, received from the senate the consular ornaments, and a present 
 of sixty thousand |iounds. 
 
 n The crime of majesty was formerly a treasonable offence against 
 the Uoman people. As tribunes of the jjcople, Augustus and Tiberius 
 applied it to their own persons, and extended it to an infinite latitude. 
 
 I It was Tjl»eriu8 and not Augustus, who first gave this meaning to 
 the words, crime of wfl/RS/y, "crime de Idse-majeste." (See Hist. Aug., 
 Bachii Trajanus, "27. seq<).) — f?.] 
 
 o After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of Germanicnshad been 
 put to death, Tiberius received the thanks of the senate for his clemen- 
 cy. She had not l>een publicly strangled ; nor was the body drawn with 
 a hook to the Gemonia*. where those of common malefactors were expo- 
 sed. See Tacit. Annal. vi. 25. Sueton. in Tib«'rio. c. 52. 
 
 V Seriphus was a small rocky island in the iEgean Sea, the inhabit- 
 ants of which were despised for their ignorance and obscurity. The 
 place of Ovid's exile is well known, by his just but unmanly iamentu- 
 tions. It should seem that he only received an order to leave Rome in 
 so many days, and to transport himself to Tomi. Guards and jailers 
 were unnecessary. 
 
 q Under Tiberius, a Roman knight attempted to fly to the Parthians. 
 He was stopt in the straits of Sicily ; but so little danger did there ap- 
 pear in the example, that the roust jealous of tyrants dindained to pun 
 ish it. Tacit. Annal. vi. 14. 
 
 > Cic«ro ad Familiared, iv. 7. 
 
 41 
 
 1 
 
 sanctity, and acquired riches and honours by aff*ecting 
 to despise them.* His excessive indulgence to his 
 brother, his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of 
 private virtue, and became a public injury, by the ex- 
 ample and consequences of their vices.'' 
 10 his wife Faus- Faustina, the daughter of Pius and 
 tina. the wife of Marcus, liad been as much 
 
 celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty. The 
 grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated 
 to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded 
 passion for variety, which often discovered personal 
 merit in the meanest of mankind.*^ The Cupid of the 
 ancients was, in general, a very sensual deity; and the 
 amours of an empress as they exact on her side the 
 plainest advances, are seldom susceptible of much 
 sentimental delicacy. Marcus was the only man in 
 the empire who seemed ignorant or insensible of the 
 irregularities of Faustina; which, according to the 
 prejudices of every age, reflected some disgrace on the 
 injured husband. He promoted several of her lovers 
 to posts of honour and profit,'^ and during a connexion 
 for thirty years, invariably gave her proofs of the most 
 tender confidence, and of a respect which ended not 
 with her life. In his Meditations, he thanks the gods, \ 
 who had bestowed on him a wife, so faithful, so gentle, ! 
 and of such a wonderful simplicity of manners.' The 
 obsequious senate, at his earnest request, declared her 
 a goddess. She was represented in her temples, with 
 the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres; and it was 
 decreed, that, on the day of their nuptials, the youth 
 of either sex should pay their vows before the altar of 
 their chaste patroness.' 
 
 to his son Com- The moustrous vices of the son have 
 modus. cast a shade on the purity of the father's 
 virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he sa- 
 crificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality 
 for a worthless boy ; and that he chose a successor in 
 his own family, rather than in the republic. Nothino-, 
 however, was neglected by the anxious father, and by 
 the men of virtue and learning, whom he summoned 
 to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young 
 Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to rende'r 
 him w^orthy of the throne for which he was designed. 
 But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, 
 except in those happy dispositions where it is almost 
 superfluous. The distasteful lesson of a grave philo- 
 sopher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whisper 
 of a profligate favourite : and Marcus himself blasted 
 the fruits of this laboured education, by admitting his 
 son, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full partici- 
 pation of the imperial power. He lived but four years 
 afterwards; but he lived long enough to repent a rash 
 measure, which raised the impetuous youth above the 
 restraint of reason and authority. 
 Accession of the . Most of the crimes which disturb the 
 emperor Commo- internal peace of society, are produced 
 * ""■ by the restraints which the necessary, 
 
 but unequal, laws of property have imposed on the 
 appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the pos- 
 session of those objects that are coveted by many. Of 
 all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of 
 the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the 
 pride of one man requires the submission of the multi- 
 tude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of so- 
 
 ciety lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied 
 by those of humanity. The ardour of contention, the 
 pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of 
 past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contri- 
 bute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of 
 pity. From such motives almost every page of history 
 has been stained with civil blood ; but these motives 
 will not account for the unprovoked cruelties of Corn- 
 modus, who had nothing to wish, and every thing to 
 enjoy. The beloved son of Marcus suc- 
 ceeded to his father, amidst the acclama- ^' ^' ^^• 
 tions of the senate and armies,* and when he ascended 
 the throne, the happy youth saw round him neither 
 competitor to remove, nor enemies to punish. In 
 this calm elevated station, it was surely natural, that 
 he should prefer the love of mankind to their detesta- 
 tion, the mild glories of his five predecessors, to the 
 ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian. 
 
 Yet Commodus was not, as he has character of 
 been represented, a tiger born with an Commodus. 
 insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his 
 infancy, of the most inhuman actions.'' Nature had 
 formed him of a weak, rather than a wicked, disposi- 
 tion. His simplicity and timidity rendered him the 
 slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his 
 mind. His cruelty, which at first obeyed the dictates 
 of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became 
 the ruling passion of his soul.' 
 
 Upon the death of his father, Commo- He returns to 
 dus found himself embarrassed with the itome. 
 command of a great army, and the conduct of a difficult 
 war against the Quadi and Marcomanni.J The servile 
 and profligate youths whom Marcus had banished, soon 
 regained their station and influence about the new em- 
 peror. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers 
 of a campaign in the wild countries beyond the Danube ; 
 and they assured the indolent prince, that the terror 
 of his name and the arms of his lieutenants, w'ould be 
 sufficient to complete the conquest of the dismayed 
 barbarians, or to impose such conditions, as were more 
 advantageous than any conquest. By a dexterous appli- 
 cation to his sensual appetites, they compared the tran- 
 quillity, the splendour, the refined pleasures of Rome, 
 with the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which aflJbrded 
 neither leisure nor materials for luxury."' Commodus 
 listened to the pleasing advice ; but whilst he hesitated 
 between his own inclination, and the awe which he 
 still retained for his father's counsellors, the summer 
 insensibly relapsed, and his triumphal entry into the 
 capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful 
 person,' popular address, and imagined virtues, attract- 
 ed the public favour; the honourable peace which he 
 had recently granted to the barbarians, diffused a uni- 
 versal joy;"" his impatience to revisit Rome was fondly- 
 ascribed to the love of his country; and his dissolute 
 course of amusements was faintly condemned in a 
 prince of nineteen years of acre. 
 
 During the three first years of his reign, the forms, 
 and even the spirit, of the old administration were 
 maintained by those faithful counsellors, to whom 
 Marcus had recommended his son, and for whose wis- 
 
 a See the complaints of Avidius Cassius, Hist. August, p. 45 These 
 
 '^Tu '^ lu *'■"?' *''® complaints of faction ; but even faction exaggerates, 
 rather than mvents. 
 
 aI'T^^I'^' '''' ^'i^fed brother and colleague, L. Verus. Marcus 
 Aurelius had no other brother —f?.] 
 
 ..*" *'*i»*^'".'»in "f '» constat apud Cayetam eonditiones sibi et nauticas 
 et gladiatorias, elegisse. Hist. Jiugust. p. 30. Lampridius explains the 
 
 ^^La T"* "^^'""^ /*"?I^."* "^^^^ *«"* tbe conditions which she ex- 
 acted. Hist. .Aufrust. p. 102. 
 
 d Hist. Auffust. p. 34. 
 K..'» JI*'5'"'**iI: •• '^''® '*°'''' '"'^ laughed at the credulity of Marcus: 
 
 hnlS*"?!.^'""" "u'T" •""•i".",*' ^'^ '"^y "«**•* a 'ady.) that the 
 husband will alwavs be deceived, if the wife condescends to dissemble. 
 
 H„ R "'"u^""'"*'.'- '''*' P- "^^- "'»*• August, p. :«. Commentaire 
 fle Bpanheim sur Ics Caesars de Julien, p. 289. The deification of Faus- 
 1 ! " the only defect which Julian's criticism is able to discover in the 
 all accomplMhsd character of Marcus. 
 
 Vol. I.— F 
 
 g Commodus was the first Porphyrogenitus (lK>rn since his father's 
 accession to the throne.) By a new strain of flatterv, the Egyptian me- 
 dals date by the years of his life ; as if they were synonomous to those 
 of his reign. Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. ii. p. 752. 
 h Hist. August, p. 46. [See Lampridius in Comtnod, c. i.— G.l 
 
 I Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxii. p. 1203. ■* 
 
 J According to Tertullian (Apolog. c. 25.) he died at Sirmium. But 
 the situation of Vindobona, or Vienna, where both the Victors place his 
 death, is better adapted to the operations of the war against the Mar. 
 comanni and Quadi. 
 
 [The Quad i occupied the country now called Moravia ; the Marco- 
 manni dwelt at first upon the banks of the Rhine and the Mayne. They 
 withdrew from thence during the reign of Augustus and drove the Boii 
 from Bohemia (Boishemum.) These came and occupied what is now 
 Bavaria. The Marcomanni were driven in their turn from Bohemia by 
 the Sarmatians or the Sclavonians, who actually occupied it. fSee 
 D'Anville, Oeog. anc. vol. i. p. 131.)— G".] 
 
 k Herodian, I. i. p. 12. 
 
 ' Herodian,!. i. p. 16. 
 
 m This universal joy is well described (from the medals as well as 
 historians) by Mr. Wotton, Hist, of Rome, p. 192, 193. 
 
42 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 43 
 
 '*\ 
 
 dom and integrity Commodus still entertained a reluc- 
 tant esteem. The young prince and his profligate fa- 
 vourites revelled in all the licence of sovereign power; 
 but his hands were yet unstained with blood ; and he 
 had even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which 
 might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue." A fatal 
 incident decided his fluctuating character. 
 I« wounded by One evening, as the emperor was re- 
 an assassin, tumlng to the palace through a dark and 
 ■ narrow portico in the amphitheatre," an as- 
 
 sassin, who waited his passage, rushed upon him with 
 a drawn sword, loudly exclaiming, " The senate sends 
 you ihts.''^ The menace prevented the deed ; the as- 
 sassin was seized by the guards, and immediately re- 
 vealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been 
 formed, not in the state, but within the walls of the 
 palace. Lucilia, the emperor's sister, and widow^ of 
 Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank, and jeal- 
 ous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer 
 against her brother's life. She had not ventured to 
 communicate the black desijjn to her second husband 
 Claudius Pompeianus, a senator of distinguished merit 
 and unshaken loyalty ; but among the crowd of her 
 lovers, (for she imitated the manners of Faustina) she 
 found men of desperate fortunes and wild ambition, 
 who were prepared to serve her more violent, as well 
 as her tender, passions. The conspirators experienced 
 the rigour of justice, and the abandoned princess was 
 punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death.P 
 Hatred and cru- But the words of the assassin sunk 
 Sn,\n»«rTT: ^^^P »nto ihc mind of Commodus, and 
 
 dus towardH the I . . r r j 
 
 senate. left an indelible impression ot fear and 
 
 hatred against the whole body of the senate.^ Those 
 whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers, he 
 now suspected as secret enemies. The Delators, a 
 race of men discourajred, and almost extinguished un- 
 der the former reigns, again became formidable, as 
 soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous 
 of finding disaffection and treason in the senate. That 
 assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the 
 great council of the nation, was composed of the most 
 distinguished of the Romans; and distinction of every 
 kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth 
 stimulated the diligence of the informers ; rigid virtue 
 implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commo- 
 dus; important services implied a dangerous superior- 
 ity of merit ; and the friendship of the father always 
 ensured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equi- 
 valent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution 
 of a considerable senator was attended with the death 
 of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when 
 Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became 
 incapable of pity or remorse. 
 
 The Quiniiiian Of thcse innoccut victims of tyranny, 
 brothers, none died more lamented than the two 
 brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and Con- 
 dianus ; whose fraternal love has saved their names 
 from oblivion, and endeared their memory to posterity. 
 Their studies and their occupations, their pursuits and 
 their pleasures, were still the same. In the enjoyment 
 of a great estate, they never admitted the idea of a se- 
 parate interest; some fragments are now extant of a trea- 
 tise which they composed in common ;■" and in every ac- 
 tion of life it was observed, that their two bodies were 
 animated by one soul. The Antonines, who valued their 
 virtues, and delighted in their union, raised them in the 
 same year, to the consulship ; and Marcus afterwards 
 intrusted to their joint care the civil administration of 
 Greece, and a great military command, in which they 
 
 n Manilius, the confidential secretary of Avidius Cassius was disco- 
 vered after he had lain concealed several years. The cmjieror nubly 
 relieved the public anxiety by refusing to see him, and burning his pa- 
 pers without opening them. Dion Cansiuti, 1. Ixxii. p. 120U. 
 
 See MaiTei degli Amphitheatri, p. 12C. 
 
 P Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1^205. Herodian, I. i. p. 16. Hi.«t. August, p. 4G. 
 
 1 [The conspirators were senators, and among them the assassin him- 
 •elf— -(Lucretien, Herodien, lib. I. c. 8.) — O.] 
 
 r [This work treats of agriculture, and has been often quoted by sue- 
 
 A. D J86. 
 
 obtained a signal victory over the Germans. The kind 
 cruelty of Commodus united them in death.* 
 
 The tyrant's rage, after having shed the The minister 
 noblest blood of the senate, at length re- Perennis. 
 coiled on the principal instrument of his cruelty, 
 "Whilst Commodus was immersed in blood and luxury, 
 he devolved the detail of the public business on Peren- 
 nis ; a servile and ambitious minister, who had obtain- 
 ed his post by the murder of his predecessor, but who 
 possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability. 
 By acts of extortion, and the forfeited estates of the 
 nobles sacrificed to his avarice, he had accumulated an 
 immense treasure. The pratorian guards were under 
 his immediate command; and his son, who already 
 discovered a military genius, was at the head of the 
 Illyrian legions. Perennis aspired to the empire ; or 
 what, in the eyes of Commodus, amounted to the same 
 crime, he was capable of aspiring to it, had he not 
 been prevented, surprised, and put to death. The fall 
 of a minister is a very trifling incident in 
 the general history of the empire ; but it 
 was hastened by an extraordinary circumstance which 
 proved how much the nerves of discipline were already 
 relaxed. The legions of Britain, discontented with the 
 administration of Perennis, formed a deputation of fif- 
 teen hundred select men, with instructions to march to 
 Rome, and lay their complaints before the emperor. 
 These military petitioners, by their own determined 
 behaviour, by inflaming the divisions of the guards, by 
 exaggerating the strength of the British army, and by 
 alarming the fears of Commodus, exacted and obtained 
 the minister's death, as the only redress of their grie- 
 vances.' This presumption of a distant army, and their 
 discovery of the weakness of government, was a sure 
 presage of the most dreadful convulsions. 
 
 The negligence of the public adminis- Revolt of Ma- 
 tration was betrayed soon afterwards, by ternus. 
 a new disorder, which arose from the smallest begin- 
 nings. A spirit of desertion began to prevail among 
 the troops ; and the deserters, instead of seeking their 
 safety in flight or concealment, infested the highways. 
 Maternus, a private soldier, of a daring boldness above 
 his station, collected these bands of robbers into a lit- 
 tle army, set open the prisons, invited the slaves to 
 assert their freedom, and plundered with impunity the 
 rich and defenceless cities of Gaul and Spain. The 
 governors of the provinces, who had long been the 
 spectators, and perhaps the partners, of his depreda- 
 tions, were, at length, roused from their supine indo- 
 lence by the threatening commands of the emperor. 
 Maternus found that he was encompassed, and foresaw 
 that he must be overpowered. A great effort of despair 
 was his last resource. He ordered his followers to 
 disperse, to pass the Alps in small parties and various 
 
 reedin? writers. (See P. Needhnm. Prolegomena ad Geoponica, Canv 
 bridge 1704. in 8vo. p. 17. scqq.) — Q.\ 
 
 8 In a note upon the Au;.Mistnn History, Cafaubon has collected a 
 number of particulars concerning these celebrated brothers. See p. 96. 
 of his learned commentnir. 
 
 fl'hilostratus in his life of ITerod the sophist, eayn, that the Quintil- 
 ians were not descended from the ancient citizens of Rome, but were of 
 Trojan origin. (See the Comm. of Caj^aub. before quoted.) — O.] 
 
 » Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1210. Hcrodian, 1. i. p. 22. Hist. August, p. 48. 
 Dion gives a much loss odious charnctcr of Perennis, than the other 
 historians. His moderation is almost a pledge of his veracity. 
 
 [Gibbon praises Dion for the moderation with which he speaks of Pe- 
 rennis, and, nevertheless in his own account, follows HerodianandLam- 
 pridius. It is not only with modi-ration, it is with admiration that 
 Dion speaks of Perennis. He represents him as a great man who lived 
 and died virtuous and innocent — perhaps he may be suspected of par- 
 tiality, but what is singular is, that Gibbon after having adopted tho 
 opinion of Herodian and Lampridius respecting this minister of Com- 
 modus, should embrace tho very doubtful account Dion gives of the 
 manner of his death. What probability is there, that fifteen hundred 
 men could have traversed Gaul and Italy, and have arrived at Rome 
 without being detected by the Praetorian guard, or that Perennis, the 
 prefect of the guard, should not have been apprised of their approach 
 and design, and have opposed them. Gibbon foreseeing this difficulty, 
 adds, that they inflamed the divisions of the ffitards^ but Dion saji ex- 
 pressly that they did not come to Rome, but that the Emperor went to 
 meet them and that he even reproached himself, because he had not 
 sent the pra>toriuns, who were superior in numbers, to oppose them. 
 Herodian says that Commodus having been apprised by a soldier of the 
 ambitious projects of Perennis and his ton, caused them to be attacked 
 and murdered at night.— O.j 
 
 i 
 
 disguises, and to assemble at Rome, during the licen- 
 tious tumult of the festival of Cybele." "To murder 
 Conimodus, and to ascend the vacant throne, was the 
 ambition of no vulgar robber. His measures were so 
 ably concerted, that his concealed troops already filled 
 the streets of Rome. The envy of an accomplice dis- 
 covered and ruined this singular enterprise, in the mo- 
 ment when it was ripe for execution.* 
 The minister Suspicious princes often promote the 
 Oleander, lowest of mankind, from a vain persua- 
 Bion, that those who have no dependence, except on 
 their favour, will have no attachment, except to the 
 person of their benefactor. Cleander, the successor of 
 Perennis, was a Phrygian by birth ; of a nation, over 
 whose stubborn but servile temper blows only could 
 prevail.'^ He had been sent from his native country 
 to Rome in the capacity of a slave. As a slave he en- 
 tered the imperial palace, rendered himself useful to 
 his master's passions, and rapidly ascended to the most 
 exalted station which a subject could enjoy. His in- 
 fluence over the mind of Commodus was much greater 
 than that of his predecessor; for Cleander was devoid 
 of any ability or virtue which could inspire the empe- 
 Ifis avari«:o and ror with envy or distrust. Avarice was 
 cruelty. the reigning passion of his soul, and the 
 great principle of his administration. The rank of con- 
 sul, of patrician, of senator, was exposed to public 
 sale; and it would have been considered as disaffec- 
 tion, if any one had refused to purchase these empty 
 and disgraceful honours with the greatest part of his 
 fortune." In the lucrative provincial employments, the 
 minister shared with the governor the spoils of the 
 people. The execution of the laws was venal and ar- 
 bitrary. A wealthy criminal might obtain, not only 
 the reversal of the sentence by which he w^as justly 
 condemned ; but might likewise inflict whatever pun- 
 ishment he pleased on the accuser, the witnesses, and 
 the judge. 
 
 By these means, Cleander, in the space of three 
 years, had accumulated more wealth than had ever yet 
 been possessed by any freedman.y Commodus was 
 perfectly satisfied with the magnificent presents w^hich 
 the artful courtier laid at his feet in the most season- 
 able moments. To divert the public envy, Cleander, 
 under the emperor's name, erected baths, porticos, and 
 places of exercise, for the use of the people.^ He flat- 
 tered himself that the Romans, dazzled and amused by 
 this apparent liberality, would be less affected by the 
 bloody scenes which were daily exhibited ; that they 
 would forget the death of Byrrhus, a senator to whose 
 superior merit the late emperor had granted one of his 
 daughters ; and that they would forgive the execution 
 of Arius Antoninus, the last representative of the name 
 and virtues of the Antonines. The former, with more 
 integrity than prudence, had attempted to disclose, to 
 his brother-in-law, the true character of Cleander. An 
 equitable sentence pronounced by the latter, when pro- 
 consul of Asia, against a worthless creature of the fa- 
 vourite, proved fatal to him.' After the fall of Peren- 
 nis, the terrors of Commodus had, for a short time, 
 assumed the appearance of a return to virtue. He re- 
 pealed the most odious of his acts, loaded his memory 
 
 « During the second Punic war, the Romans imported from Asia the 
 worship of the mother of the gods. Her festival, the Megalesia, lM!.ran 
 on the fourth of April, and lasted six days. The streets were crowded 
 with mad processions, the tlieatros with spectators, and the public t.i- 
 I.Ie, with uiibidden guost«. Order and rxdice were suspended, and plea- 
 sure was the only serious business of the city. See Ovid, de Fastis. 1 
 
 IV. IfKl, Sec, 
 
 V Herodian, I. i. p. 03, 28, 
 ^ Cicero pro Flacco. c. 27. 
 
 .i.*.^"V"*^!l'?'* dear bought promotions occasioned a current bon mot. 
 Inat Juliuri Solon was banished into the senate. 
 
 y Dion (1. Ixxii. p. 12, l.*J.) observes, that no freedman had possessed 
 riches equal to those of Cleander. The fortune of Pullas amounted 
 however, to upwards of five and twenty hundred thousand pounds: ter 
 tnilliea. ' 
 
 « Dion, 1 Ixxii. p 12, 13. Herodian, 1. i. p. 20. Hist. August, p. 52. 
 ■1 hese baths were situated near the Porta Capena. See Nardini Roma 
 Antica, p. 79. 
 
 a Hist. August, p. 48. 
 
 with the public execration, and ascribed to the perni- 
 cious counsels of that wicked minister, all the errors of 
 his inexperienced youth. But his repentance lasted 
 only thirty days; and, under Cleander's tyranny, the 
 administration of Perennis was often regretted. 
 
 Pestilence and famine contributed to 
 fill up the measure of the calamities of dS'iTciean. 
 Rome.** The first could only be imputed der, A. D. les. 
 to the just indignation of the gods; but a monopoly of 
 corn, supported by the riches and power of the minis- 
 ter, was considered as the immediate cause of the se- 
 cond. The popular discontent, after it had long circu- 
 lated in whispers, broke out in the assembled circus. 
 The people quitted their favourite amusements, for the 
 more delicious pleasure of revenge, rushed in crowds 
 towards a palace in the suburbs, one of the emperor's 
 retirements, and demanded, with angry clamours, the 
 head of the public enemy. Cleander, who commanded 
 the praetorian guards,'^ ordered a body of cavalry to sal- 
 ly forth, and disperse the seditious multitude. The 
 multitude fled with precipitation towards the city; se- 
 veral were slain, and many more were trampled to 
 death ; but when the cavalry entered the streets, their 
 pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts 
 from the roofs and windows of the houses. The foot 
 guards,** who had long been jealous of the prerogatives ' 
 and insolence of the praetorian cavalry, embraced the 
 party of the people. The tumult became a regular en- 
 gagement, and threatened a general massacre. The 
 pr«torians, at length, gave way, oppressed with num- 
 bers ; and the tide of popular fury returned with re- 
 doubled violence against the gates of the palace, where 
 Commodus lay, dissolved in luxury, and alone uncon- 
 scious of the civil war. It was death to approach his 
 person with the unwelcome news. He would have 
 perished in this supine security, had not two women, 
 his elder sister Fadilla, and Marcia, the most favoured 
 of his concubines, ventured to break into his presence. 
 Bathed in tears, and with dishevelled hair, they threw 
 themselves at his feet; and with all the pressing elo- 
 quence of fear, discovered to the affrighted emperor, 
 the crimes of the minister, the rage of the people, and 
 the impending ruin, which, in a few minutes, would 
 burst over his palace and person. Commodus started 
 from his dream of pleasure, and commanded that the 
 head of Cleander should be thrown out to the people, 
 The desired spectacle instantly appeased the tumult ; 
 and the son of Marcus might even yet have regained the 
 affection and confidence of his subjects.* 
 
 But every sentiment of virtue and hu- Dissolute plea- 
 manity was extinct in the mind of Com- sures of com- 
 modus. Whilst he thus abandoned the '"**^"*- 
 reins of empire to these unworthy favourites, he valu- 
 ed nothing in sovereign power, except the unbounded 
 licence of indulging his sensual appetites. His hours 
 were spent in a seraglio of three hundred beautiful wo- 
 men, and as many boys, of every rank, and of every 
 province ; and, wherever the arts of seduction proved 
 ineffectual, the brutal lover had recourse to violence. 
 
 b Herodian 1. i. p. 28. Dion, Ixxii. p. 1213. The latter says, that 
 two thousand jjejsons died every day at Rome, during a considerable 
 length of lime, 
 
 c Tuncque prjmum tres prsefecti pratorio fuore: inter qnos libertinus. 
 l-rom some remains of modesty, Cleander declined the title, whilst he 
 nssunjed the powers, of prajtorian pra^fect. As the other freedmen wer« 
 styled, from their several departments, a radonibns. ab epistoUs ; Cle- 
 ander called iumself a pvfrione, as intrusted with the defence of hi* 
 master s person. Salinasius and Casaubon seem to have talked very 
 Hlly xxyton tiiis passage. 
 
 [The text of Lampridius furnishes no reason for believing that Cle- 
 ander the one of the three pra'torian prefects who called himpelf a pu- 
 gione. Salmasins and Casaubon seem no more to think so. (Sie Hist 
 Aug. p. 48 : the Comm. of Salmasius p. 116 . the Comm. of Casaubon p! 
 
 d 'Oi Tiif 3-oXi«f v!^o, <rTp*T«»T«i. Herodian, I. i.p. 31. It is doubt- 
 ful whether he means the praetorian infantry, or the cohorte urban»», a 
 body of SIX thousand men, but whose rank and discipline were not equal 
 to their numbers. Neither Tilleinont nor Wotton choose to decide this 
 question. 
 
 [It appears to me that there is no question to decide— the passage 
 from Herodian is plain and clear, and designates the city cohorts— frora- 
 pare Dion p 797.)— O, J ^ 
 
 « Dion Cassius, I. Ixxii. p. 1215. Herodian, 1. i. p. 32. Hist, Aug. p. 48 
 
44 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 45 
 
 6f^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 The ancient ' historians have expatiated on these aban- 
 doned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every re- 
 straint of nature or modesty ; but it would not be easy 
 to translate their too faithful descriptions into the de- 
 cency of modern language. The intervals of lust were 
 filled up with the basest amusements. The influence 
 HU ignorance of a polite age, and the labour of an atten- 
 and low sports. i[yQ education, had never been able to in- 
 fuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture 
 of learning; and he was the first of the Roman empe- 
 rors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the un- 
 derstanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to ex- 
 cel, in the elegant arts of music and poetry; nor should 
 we despise his pursuits, had he not converted the plea- 
 sing relaxation of a leisure hour into the serious busi- 
 ness and ambition of his life. But Commodus, from 
 his earliest infancy, discovered an aversion to what- 
 ever was rational or liberal, and a fond attachment to 
 the amusements of the populace ; the sports of the cir- 
 cus and amphitheatre, the combats of gladiators, and 
 the hunting of wild beasts. The masters in every 
 branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his son, 
 were heard with inattention and disgust ; whilst the 
 Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the jave- 
 lin and to shoot with the bow, found a disciple who de- 
 lighted in his application, and soon equalled the most 
 skilful of his instructors, in the steadiness of the eye, 
 and the dexterity of the hand. 
 
 Hnnting of wild The servile crowd, whose fortune de- 
 beusts. pended on their master's vices, applauded 
 these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious voice of flat- 
 tery reminded him that by exploits of the same nature, 
 by the defeat of the Nemeean lion, and the slaughter of 
 the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules 
 had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal 
 memory among men. They only forgot to observe, 
 that, in the first ages of society, when the fiercer ani- 
 mals often dispute with man the possession of an un- 
 settled country, a successful war against those savages 
 is one of the most innocent and beneficial labours of 
 heroism. In the civilized state of the Roman empire, 
 the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of 
 man, and the neighbourhood of populous cities. To 
 surprise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport 
 them to Rome, that they might be slain in pomp by the 
 hand of an emperor, was an enterprise equally ridicu- 
 lous for the prince, and oppressive for the people.' Ig- 
 norant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly em- 
 braced the glorious resemblance, and styled himself 
 (as we still read on his medals'') the Rnman Htrcuks. 
 The club and the lion's hide wore placed by the side 
 of the throne, amongst the ensigns of sovereignty ; and 
 statues were erected, in which Commodus was repre- 
 sented in the character and with the attributes of the god, 
 whose valour and dexterity he endeavoured to emulate 
 in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.' 
 Commodus dis. Elated with these praises, which gra- 
 plays his skill in dually extinguished the innate sense of 
 
 the amphitheatre, i/^ i ^ j a im-* 
 
 ^ shamo, Commodus resolved to exhibit, 
 
 before the eyes of the Roman people, those exercises, 
 which till then he had decently confined within the 
 walls of his palace, and to the presence of a few fa- 
 vourites. On the appointed day, the various motives 
 of flattery, fear, and curiosity, attracted to the amphithe- 
 atre an innumerable multitude of spectators ; and some 
 degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the 
 uncommon skill of the imperial performer. Whether 
 he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound 
 
 f Bororibus suis const u prat i.<«. fpsas conoubinas si'ias sub orulis suis 
 ituprari jubtibat. Nee irrucntium in se juvcnuin carcbat infamia, omiii 
 parto cor|X)riH atquo ore in soxum utrun)*|iie |Millutus. Hist. Autj. j). 47. 
 
 S The .\frican lions, when prt-ssfd by hunger, infested the o|K'n vil- 
 lages and cultivated country ; and they infested them with impunity. 
 The royal beast was reserved for the pleasures of the cmiwror and the 
 capital; and the unfortunate peasant who killed one of them, thou<;b 
 ill his own defence, incurred a very heavy penalty. This extraordinary 
 game-la}D was mitigated by flonoriusi, and finally repeiiUfd by Justinian. 
 Codex Theodos. tom. y. p. 92, et Comment. Gothofrud. 
 
 h Spanheim do Numismat. Dissertat. xii. tom. ii. p. 493. 
 
 » Dion 1. Ixxii. p. 12J0. Hist. August, p. 49. 
 
 was alike certain and mortal. With arrow^s whose 
 point was shaped into the form of a crescent, Commo- 
 dus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut asun- 
 der the long bony neck of the ostrich.'' A pan- 
 ther was let loose ; and the archer waited till he had 
 leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same in- 
 stant the shaft flew, the beast dropped dead, and the 
 man remained unhurt. The dens of the amphitheatre 
 disgorged at once a hundred lions ; a hundred darts 
 from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead 
 as they ran raging round the arena. Neither the huge 
 bulk of the elephant, nor the scaly hide of the rhino- 
 ceros, could defend them from his stroke. ^Ethiopia 
 and India yielded their most extraordinary productions ; 
 and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre, 
 which had been seen only in the representations of art, 
 or perhaps of fancy.' In all these exhibitions, the se- 
 curest precautions were used to protect the Roman 
 Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage, who 
 might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor, 
 and the sanctity of the god.™ 
 
 But the meanest of the populace were Acts as a gladi- 
 affected with shame and indignation when ato*^- 
 they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladia- 
 tor, and glory in a profession which the laws and man- 
 ners of the Romans had branded with the justest note 
 of infamy." He chose the habit and arms of the Stcu- 
 ior, whose combat with the Reiiarius formed one of the 
 most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphi- 
 theatre. The SecuUtr was armed with an helmet, 
 sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a 
 large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured 
 to entangle, with the other to despatch, his enemy. 
 If he missed the first throw, he was obliged to fly 
 from the pursuit of the Svcutor, till he had prepared 
 his net for a second cast." The emperor fought in 
 this character seven hundred and thirty-five several 
 times. These glorious achievements were carefully 
 recorded in the public acts of the empire ; and that he 
 might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received 
 from the common fund of gladiators, a stipend so exor- 
 bitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax 
 upon the Roman people.P It may be easily supposed, 
 that in these enffaorements the master of the world was 
 always successful : in the amphitheatre his victories 
 were not often sanguinary ; but when he exercised his 
 skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his 
 wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a 
 mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obli- 
 ged to seal their flattery with their blood.'* He now 
 disdained the appellation of Hercules, iiis infamy and 
 The name of Paulus, a celebrated Seen- extravagance, 
 tor, was the only one which delighted his ear. It was 
 inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the re- 
 doubled acclamations' of the mournful and applauding 
 senate.* Claudius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband 
 
 k The ostrich's neck is throe feet long, and composed of seventeen 
 vortrbrir. See Buflon, Hist. Natnr«lle. 
 
 I Commodus killed a camclopnrdalis or girafllb, (Dion 1. Ixxii. p. 1211.) 
 the tallest, the most gentle, and the most useles.<: of the large quadru- 
 P<m1s. This singular animal, a native only of the interior parts of Afri- 
 ca, has not been seen in £uro)« since the revival of letters ; and though 
 M. do BuflTon (Hist. Naturelle, tom. xiii.) has endeavoured to describe, 
 he has not ventured to delineate, the girnfTe. 
 
 [The giraffe has oOen been twen and delineated in Europe since this 
 date. The cabinet of natural history in the Jardiii des I'lantcs {)Ofi 
 sesses one in good i)reservalion. — O.] 
 
 B' Herodian, 1. i. p. 27. Hist. August, p. 50. 
 
 u The virtuous an«l even the wise princes forbade the senators and 
 knights to embrace this scandalous profession, under pain of infamy, or 
 what was more dreaded by those profligate wretches, of exile. The 
 tyrants allured them to dishonour by tliteats and rewards. Nero onco 
 produced, in the arena, forty senators and sixty knights. See Lipsius, 
 Saturnalia, I. ii. c. 2. He hus happily corrected a jtassagc of Suetonius, 
 in Nerone, c. 12. 
 
 " liipsiuR, 1. ii. c. 7, P. Juvenal, in the eighth satire, gives a pictur- 
 esque des<Ti|ition of this combat. 
 
 p Hist. August, p. .50. Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1220. He received for each 
 time, decies, about HOOOI. slerlir.g. 
 
 <1 Victor tells us, that Commodus only allowed his antagonists a leaden 
 weapon, dreading most probably the con8e(|iience« of their despair. 
 
 r They were obligrd to repeat six hundred and twenty-six timet, 
 Paulus Jirat of the Srcutors, &.c. 
 
 " Dion, I, Ixxii. p. ];^2I. Ho ejteaks of bis own bascnc-sand danger. 
 
 I 
 
 of Lucilla, was the only senator who asserted the ho- 
 nour of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons 
 to consult their safety by attending the amphitheatre. 
 As a Rornan, he declared, that his own life was in the 
 Emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the 
 son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. 
 Notwithstanding his manly resolution, Pompeianus 
 escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and, with his 
 honour, had the good fortune to preserve his life.* 
 
 Commodus had now attained the summit of vice 
 and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering 
 court, he was unable to disguise from himself, that he 
 had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man 
 of sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit 
 was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred, by 
 the envy of every kind of merit, by the just appre- 
 hension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, 
 which he contracted in his daily amusements. His- 
 tory has preserved a long list of consular senators 
 sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, 
 with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons con- 
 nected, however remotely, with the family of the An- 
 tonines, without sparing even the ministers of his 
 crimes or pleasures." His cruelty proved at last 
 Conspiracy of fatal to himself. He had shed with im- 
 bis domestics, punity the noblest blood of Rome: he 
 perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own do- 
 mestics. Marcia, his favourite concubine, Eclectus, 
 his chamberlain, and L«tus his praetorian praefect, 
 alarmed by the fate of their companions and prede- 
 cessors, resofved to prevent the destruction which 
 every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad 
 caprice of the tyrant, or the sudden indignation of the 
 people.' Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a 
 draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued 
 Death of Com- himself with hunting some wild beasts, 
 modus. Commodus retired to sleep ; but whilst 
 
 friends and ministers of Marcus; and when, at a late 
 hour of the night, he was awakened with the news, 
 that the chamberlain and the prefect were at his door, 
 he received them with intrepid resignation, and de- 
 sired they would execute their master's orders. In- 
 stead of death, they offered him the throne of the Ro- 
 man vyorld. During some moments he distrusted their 
 intentions and assurances. Convinced at length of the 
 death of Commodus, he accepted the purple with a 
 sincere reluctance, the natural efl!ect of his knowledge 
 both of the duties and of the dangers of the supreme 
 rank.y 
 
 Lffitus conducted without delay his ^^ j^ ^^^ 
 new eniperor to the camp of the pr;eto- ledged ^by"*ihe 
 rians, diff*using at the same time through praetorian 
 the city a seasonable report that Com- s"ards; 
 modus died suddenly of an apoplexy; and that the 
 virtuous Pertinax had already succeeded to the throne. 
 The guards were rather surprised than pleased with 
 the suspicious death of a prince, whose indulgence 
 and liberality they alone had experienced ; but the 
 emergency of the occasion, the authority of their prae- 
 fect, the reputation of Pertinax, and the clamours of the 
 people, obliged them to stifle their secret discontents, 
 to accept the donative promised of the new emperor, 
 to swear allegiance to him, and with joyful acclama- 
 tions and laurels in their hands to conduct him to the 
 senate-house, that the military consent might be rati- 
 fied by the civil authority. 
 
 This important night was now far and by tbe sen- 
 spent; with the dawn of day, and the ate, a. D. 193. 
 
 commpnppmpnt nf tlio no\ir itoo»- *Wa. 1st January. 
 
 A. D. 192. jje ^-as labouring with the'effects of poi^ 
 
 3lst December. 
 
 son and drunkenness, a robust youth, by 
 profe.ssion a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strang- 
 led him without resistance. The body was secretly 
 conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion 
 was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the 
 emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of 
 Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, 
 who, by the artificial powers of government, had op- 
 pressed, during thirteen years, so many millions of 
 subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in 
 personal strength and personal abilities.^ 
 Choice of Perti- The measures of the conspirators 
 nax for emperor, were conducted with the deliberate cool- 
 ness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion 
 required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant 
 throne with an emperor, whose character would justify 
 and maintain the action that had been committed. 
 They fixed on Pertinax, praefect of the city, an ancient 
 senator of consular rank, whose conspicuous merit 
 had broke through the obscurity of his birth, and 
 raised him to the first honours of the state. He had 
 successively governed most of the provinces of the 
 empire ; and in all his great employments, military as 
 well as civil, he had uniformly distinguished himself 
 by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity of his 
 conduct.* He now remained almost alone of the 
 
 » He mixed however some prudence with Iiis courage,and passed the 
 f reateit part of bis time in a country retirement ; alleging his advan- 
 ced age, and tlie weakness of big eyes. " I never saw him in the 
 »enate," says Dion, '• except during tbe short reign of Pertinax " All 
 his infirmities bad suddenly left him, and they returned as suddenly 
 U|K)n tbe murder of that excellent prince. Dion, I. Ixxiii. p. 12'>7 
 
 u The prajfecls were changed almost hourly or daily; and' the 
 caprice of Commodus was often fatal to his most favoured chamber- 
 lains. Hist. August, p. 46, 51. 
 
 ' [Commodus bad already resolved to destroy them the following 
 night, and they chose to prevent this resolution from being put into 
 
 w Dion, I. Ixxii. p. 1222. TIcrodian. 1. i. p. 43. Hist. August, p. 52. 
 
 « Pertinax was a native of Alba Pompeia, in Piedmont, and son of 
 a Umber merchant. The order of his employments (it is marked by 
 Capitolmui) well deserves to be set down, as expressive of the form 
 ofgoveramentand mannemof theage. I. He was a centurion. 2. 
 
 commencement of the new year, the 
 senators expected a summons to attend an ignominious 
 ceremony. In spite of all remonstrances, even of 
 those of his creatures, who yet preserved any regard 
 for prudence or decency, Commodus had resolved to 
 pass the night in the gladiators' school, and from 
 thence to take possession of the consulship, in the 
 habit and with the attendance of that infamous crew. 
 On a sudden, before the break of day, the senate was 
 called together in the temple of Concord, to meet the 
 guards, and to ratify the election of a new emperor.' 
 For a few minutes they sat in silent suspense, doubt- 
 ful of their unexpected deliverance, and suspicious of 
 the cruel artifices of Commodus ; but when at length 
 they were assured that the tyrant was no more, they 
 resigned themselves to all the transports of joy and 
 indignation. Pertinax, who modestly represented the 
 meanness of his extraction, and pointed out several 
 noble senators more deserving than himself of the 
 empire, was constrained by their dutiful violence to 
 ascend the throne, and received all the titles of impe- 
 rial power, confirmed by the most sincere vows of 
 fidelity. The memory of Commodus ,j,,,g j^^ino^.^f 
 was branded with eternal infamy. The Com mo'dua'^^ de- 
 names of tyrant, of gladiator, of public dared in famous, 
 enemy, resounded in every corner of the house. They 
 decreed, in tumultuous votes,* that his honours should 
 
 Praefect of a cohort in Syria, in the Parthian war, and in Britain. 
 .*?. He obtained an jila, or squadron of horse, in Mo'sia. 4. He w.ia 
 commissary of provisions on the iEmilian way. 5. He commanded 
 the fleet upon the Rhine. C. He was procurator of Dacia, with a 
 salary of uliout IGOOI. a year. 7. He commanded the veterans of a 
 Icuion. 8. He obtained tbe rank of a senator. 9. Of praetor. 10. 
 With the command of the first legion in Rha-iia and Noricum. 11. 
 He was consul about the year 175. 12. He attended Marcus into the 
 east. 13. He commanded an army on the Danube. 14. He was con- 
 sular legate of Masia. 15. Of Dacia. 16. Of Syria. 17. Of Britain. 
 18. He had the care of the public provisions at Rome. 19. He was 
 proconsul of Africa. 20. Prafect of the city. Herodian (I. i. p. 48.) 
 does justice to bis disinterested spirit; but Capitolinus, who collected 
 every popular rumour, charges him with a great fortune acquired by 
 bribery and corruption. 
 
 y Julian, in the Csesars, taxes him with being accessary to the death 
 of Commodus. 
 
 z [The senate always assembled at the beginning of the year during 
 the night of the tirst of January. (See Savaron. u[»on Sid. Apoll. 
 b. viii. epit. 6.) and it had convened without any particular order this 
 year as usual.— fi".] 
 
 a [That which Gibbon here and in tbe notes improperly calls tumul- 
 tuous votes, was nothing more than the acclamatioiis or shouts which 
 occur so often in tbe history of the emperors. The custom was tranii- 
 ferred from the theatre to the Forum, and from the forum to tbe Sen- 
 
46 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 47 
 
 ,t 
 
 be reversed, his titles erased from the public monu- 
 ments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged 
 with a hook into the stripping-room of the gladiators, 
 to satiate the public fury ; and they expressed some 
 indignation against those officious servants who had 
 already presumed to screen his remains from the jus- 
 tice of the senate. ButPertinax could not refuse those 
 last rites to the memory of Marcus, and the tears of 
 his first protector Claudius Pompeianus, who lament- 
 ed the cruel fate of his brother-in-law, and lamented 
 still more that he had deserved it.** 
 
 ,„ , . ... The effusions of impotent raofe against 
 Legal jurisdic- ^i, u*u*i-j 
 
 lion of the sen- ^ dead emperor, whom the senate had 
 
 ate over theem- flattered when alive with the most abject 
 
 perors. servility, betrayed a just but ungenerous 
 
 spirit of revenge. The legality of these decrees was 
 
 however supported by the principles of the imperial 
 
 recalled from exile, released from prison, and restored 
 to the full possession of their honours and fortunes. 
 The unburied bodies of murdered senators (for the 
 cruelty of Commodus endeavoured to extend itself 
 beyond death) were deposited in the sepulchres of 
 their ancestors ; their memory was justified ; and 
 every consolation was bestowed on their ruined and 
 afllicted families. Among these consolations, one of 
 the most grateful was the punishment of the Delators ; 
 the common enemies of their master, of virtue, and 
 of their country. Yet even in the inquisition of these 
 legal assassins, Pertinax proceeded with a steady 
 temper, which gave every thing to justice, and nothing 
 to popular prejudice and resentment. 
 
 The finances of the state demanded the ... 
 most vigilant care ofthe emperor. Though ' '''^S"'^"^"''' 
 every measure of injustice and extortion had been adopt- 
 
 constitution. To censure, to depose, or to punish with ed, which could collect the property of the subject into 
 death, the first magistrate of the republic, who had the coffers of the prince ; the rapaciousness of Com- 
 abused his delegated trust, was the ancient and un- modus had been so very inadequate to his extrava- 
 doubted prerogative of the Roman senate ;<= but that ^ gance, that, upon his death, no more than eight thou- 
 feeble assembly was obliged to content itself with in- ' sand pounds were found in the exhausted treasury,* to 
 flicting on a fallen tyrant that public justice, from defray the current expenses of government, and to dis- 
 which, during his life and reign, he had been shielded charge the pressing demand of a liberal donative, 
 by the strong armof military despotism. | which the new emperor had been obliged to promise 
 
 the praetorian guards. Yet under these distressed cir- 
 cumstances, Pertinax had the generous firmness to re- 
 mit all the oppressive taxes invented by Commodus, 
 and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury ; 
 over to his wife and son his whole private fortune ; I declaring in a decree of the senate, " that he was bet- 
 
 Virtues of Perti- Pertinax found a nobler way of con- 
 ""»• demning his predecessor's memory ; by 
 
 the contrast of his own virtues with the vices of Com- 
 modus. On the day of his accession, he resigned 
 
 that they might have no pretence to solicit favours at 
 the expense of the state. He refused to flatter the 
 "Vanity of the former with the title of Augusta ; or to 
 corrupt the inexperienced youth of the latter by the 
 rank of Caesar. Accurately distinguishing between 
 the duties of a parent and those of a sovereign, he 
 educated his son with a severe simplicity, which, 
 while it gave him no assured prospect of the throne, 
 might in time have rendered him worthy of it. In 
 public, the behaviour of Pertinax was grave and affa- 
 ble. He lived with the virtuous part of the senate, 
 
 ter satisfied to administer a poor republic with inno- 
 cence, than to acquire riches by the ways of tyranny 
 and dishonour." Economy and industry he considered 
 as the pure and genuine sources of wealth ; and from 
 them he soon derived a copious supply for the public 
 necessities. The expense of the household was im- 
 mediately reduced to one half. All the instruments 
 of luxury, Pertinax exposed to public auction,' gold 
 and silver plate, chariots of a singular construction, a 
 superfluous wardrobe of silk and embroidery, and a 
 great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes ; ex- 
 
 (and, in a private station, he had been acquainted with cepting only, with attentive humanity, those who were 
 
 the true character of each individual,) without either born in a state of freedom, and had been ravished from 
 
 pride or jealousy; considered them as friends and the arms of their weeping parents. At the same time that 
 
 companions, with whom he had shared the dangers of he obliged the worthless favourites ofthe tyrant to re- 
 
 the tyranny, and with whom he wished to enjoy the 
 security of the present time. He very frequently in- 
 vited them to familiar entertainments, the frugality of 
 which was ridiculed by those, who remembered and 
 regretted the luxurious prodigality of Commodus.^ 
 He endeavours to To heal, as far as it was possible, the 
 reform the state, wounds inflicted by the hand of tyran- 
 ny, was the pleasing, but melancholy, task of Perti- 
 nax. The innocent victims, who yet survived, were 
 
 ate. They began under Trajan to introduce acclamations upon the 
 occasion of passing iin|)erial decrees. (I'liny the younger, Panep. 
 c. 75.) One senator read the form of the decree, and all the others 
 answered by acclamatio?is accompanied by a certain cliant or bur- 
 den, as some ofthe acclamations addressed to Pertinax and against 
 the memory of Commodus. Jlustiputriw honores detrahuntur, I'ar- 
 rieida honores detrahuntur. Ut sulvi simus, Jupiter, optime, 
 mazime, serva nobis Fertinacem. This custom existed not only in 
 the councils of state properly called, but in some assemblies of the 
 senate. Though liule suited, as it would appear to us, to the dignity 
 of a religious congregation, the early christians adopted it and even 
 Introduced it into their synods notwitlisianding the opposition of 
 some fathers of the church, among others yt. John Chrysostom. (See 
 the collection of Franc. Bern. Verrarius de veterum acclamatione et 
 plausu in Groevii Thesaur. autii/uit. roman. vol.G.)— O.] 
 
 b Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary votes, 
 which were moved by one senator, and repealed, or rather chanted, 
 by the whole body. Hist. August, p. 5'J. 
 
 « The senate condemned Nero to be put to death more malorum 
 Sueton. c. 49. -^ 
 
 [No special law authorised this right of the senate; they derived 
 it from the ancient principles of the republic. Gibbon seems to un- 
 derstand from the passage from Suetonius that the senate by its an- 
 cient right, more majorum punished Nero with death, while these 
 words more majorum refer not to the decree ofthe senate, but to the 
 kind of death, which was established by tlie ancient law of Romulus 
 (See Victor, Epitom, edit. Arntzen, p. 484, n. l.)—Q.] 
 
 «« Dion (I. Ixxiii. p. 1223.) speaks of these entertainments, as a sen- 
 ator who had supped with the emperor. Capitolinus (Hist. August. 
 p. 58.) like a slave, vvlio liad received his intelligence from one of tJie 
 
 fiCUlllOUM. 
 
 sign a part of their ill-gotten wealth, he satisfied the 
 just creditors of the state, and unexpectedly discharged 
 the long arrears of honest services. He removed the 
 oppressive restrictions which had been laid upon com- 
 merce, and granted all the uncultivated lands in Italy 
 and the provinces to those who would improve them ; 
 with an exemption from tribute, during the term often 
 years.s 
 
 Such an uniform conduct had already 
 secured to Pertinax the noblest reward of '"'^ Popularity, 
 a sovereign, the love and esteem of his people. Those 
 who remembered the virtues of Marcus were happy to 
 contemplate in their new emperor the features of that 
 bright original ; and flattered themselves, that they 
 should long enjoy the benign influence of his adminis- 
 tration. A hasty zeal to reform the corrupted state, 
 accompanied with less prudence than might have been 
 expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, 
 proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honest 
 indiscretion united against him the servile crowd, who 
 found their private benefit in the public disorders, and 
 who preferred the favour of a tyrant to the inexorable 
 equality of the laws.** 
 
 c Deeies. The blameless economy of Pius left Iiis successors a 
 treasure of vines septies millies, above two and twenty iiiilliong 
 sterling. Dion, I. Ixxiii. p. 1231. 
 
 f Hesides the design of converting these useless ornaments into 
 money. Dion (I. Ixxiii. p. 1229.) assigns two secret motives of Perti- 
 nax. He wished to expose the vices of Commodus, and to discover 
 by the purchasers those who most resembled him. 
 
 s Tbough Capitolinus has picked up many idle tales ofthe private 
 life of Pertinax, he joins with Dion and Herodian in admiring his 
 public conduct. 
 
 h Leges, rem surdam, incxorahilcm esse. T. Liv. ii. 3. 
 
 Discontent ofthe Amidst the general joy, the sullen 
 prrotorians. and angry countenance of the praetorian 
 guards betrayed their inward dissatisfaction. They 
 had reluctantly submitted to Pertinax; they dreaded 
 the strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was 
 preparing to restore; and they^ regretted the licence of 
 the former reign. Their discontents were secretly fo- 
 mented by Lffitus their prasfect, who found, when it 
 was too late, that his new emperor would reward a 
 servant, but would not be ruled by a favourite. On 
 the third day of his reign, the soldiers seized on a no- 
 ble senator, with design to carry him to the camp, and 
 to invest him with the imperial purple. Instead of be- 
 ing dazzled by the dangerous honour, the affrighted 
 victim escaped from their violence, and took refuge at 
 Acon.«pirary pre- the feet of Pertinax. A short time after- 
 vented, wards, Sosius Falco, one of the consuls 
 of the year, a rash youth,' but of an ancient and opu- 
 lent family, listened to the voice of ambition ; and a 
 conspiracy was formed during a short absence of Per- 
 tinax, which was crushed by his sudden return to 
 Rome, and his resolute behaviour. Falco was on the 
 point of being justly condemned to death as a public 
 enemy, had he not been saved by the earnest and sin- 
 cere entreaties of the injured emperor; who conjured 
 the senate, that the purity of his reign might not be 
 stained by the blood even of a guilty senator. 
 Murder of Perti- These disappointments served only to 
 rrun-CAlTm irritate the rage of the praetorian guards. 
 Marcii <2B. On the twenty-eighth of March, eighty- 
 six days only after the death of Commodus, a general 
 sedition broke out in the camp, which the oflicers want- 
 ed either power or inclination to suppress. Two or 
 three hundred of the most desperate soldiers marched 
 at noon-day, with arms in their hands and fury in their 
 looks, towards the imperial palace. The gates were 
 thrown open by their companions upon guard ; and by 
 the domestics of the old court, who had already formed 
 a secret conspiracy against the life of the too virtuous 
 emperor. On the news of their approach, Pertinax, 
 disdaining either flight or concealment, advanced to 
 meet his assassins; and recalled to their minds his 
 own innocence, and the sanctity of their recent oath. 
 For a few moments they stood in silent suspense, 
 ashamed of their atrocious design, and awed by the 
 venerable aspect and majestic firmness of their so- 
 vereign, till at length the despair of pardon reviving 
 their fury, a barbarian of the country of Tongres ^ lev- 
 elled the first blow against Pertinax, who was instantly 
 drspatclned with a multitude of wounds. His head, 
 separated from his body, and placed on a lance, was 
 carried in triumph to the praetorian camp, in the sight 
 of a mournful and indignant people, who lamented the 
 unworthy fate of that excellent prince, and the tran- 
 sient blessings of a reign, the memory of which could 
 serve only to aggravate their approaching misfortunes.^ 
 
 The power of the sword is more sen- Proportion ofthe 
 sibly felt in an extensive monarchy, than J^^^""y.fo''^«.>o 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Public sale ofthe empire to Didius JuUanus by the prssto- 
 rian guards. — Clodius Albinus in Britain, Pescennius 
 JViger in Syria, and Septiynius Sevenis in Pannonia, 
 declare agaitist the murderers of Pertinax. — Civil 
 •wars and victory of Severtis over his three rivals. — 
 RelaxatiQ7i of discipline. — J\'eiv maxims ofgovernmetit. 
 
 I If we credit Capitolinus, (which is rather difficult,) Falco behaved 
 with the most petulant mdecency to Pertinax, on the day of his ac- 
 cession. The wise emperor onlv admonished him of liis youth and 
 inexperience. Hist. August, p. 55. 
 
 k The modern bishopric of Liege. This soldier probably belonged 
 to the Batavian horse guards, who were mostly raised in the duchy 
 of Gueldres and the neighbourhood, and were distinguished by their 
 valour, and by the boldness with which they swam their liorses 
 across the broadest and most rapid rivers. Tacit. Hist. iv. 12. Dion 
 I. Iv. p. 797. Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, I. i. c. 4. ' 
 
 Dion, I. Ixxiii. p. i2:J2. Herodian, I. ii. p. 60. Hist. August, n 
 58. Victor in Epiiona. el in Ciesarib. Eutropius, vii. 16. 
 
 - ,, . , , -J 1 ^-- I rie number ofthe 
 
 in a small community. It has been cal- people, 
 culated by the ablest politicians, that no state, without 
 being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hun- 
 dredth part of its members in arms and idleness. But 
 although this relative proportion may be uniform, the 
 influence of the army over the rest of the society will 
 vary according to the degree of its positive strength. 
 The advantages of military science and discipline can- 
 not be exerted, unless a proper number of soldiers are 
 united into one body, and actuated by one soul. With 
 a handful of men, such an union would be ineffectual ; 
 with an unwieldy host, it would be impracticable ; and 
 the powers of the machine would be alike destroyed 
 by the extreme minuteness, or the excessive weight, 
 of its springs. To illustrate this observation, we need 
 only reflect, that there is no superiority of natural 
 strength, artificial weapons, or acquired skill, which 
 could enable one man to keep in constant subjection 
 one hundred of his fellow creatures: the tyrant of a 
 single town or a small district, would soon discover 
 that an hundred armed followers were a weak defence 
 against ten thousand peasants or citizens ; but an hun- 
 dred thousand well-disciplined soldiers will command, 
 with despotic sway, ten millions of subjects ; and a 
 body of ten or fifteen thousand guards will strike ter- 
 ror into the most numerous populace that ever crowd- 
 ed the streets of an immense capital. 
 
 The prastorian bands, whose licentious The prjetorlan 
 fury was the first symptom and cause of guards, 
 the decline ofthe Roman empire, scarcely amounted to 
 the last mentioned number.* They de- 
 rived their institution from Augustus. Their institution. 
 That crafty tyrant,'sensible that laws might colour, but 
 that arms alone could maintain, his usurped dominion, 
 had gradually formed this powerful body of guards, in 
 constant readiness to protect his person, to awe the sen- 
 ate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions 
 of rebellion. He distinguished these favoured troops 
 by a double pay, and superior privileges; but, as their 
 formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irri- 
 tated the Roman people, three cohorts only were sta- 
 tioned in the capital ; whilst the remainder was dis- 
 persed in the adjacent towns of Italy." But after fifty 
 years of peace and servitude, Tiberius ventured on a 
 decisive measure, which for ever riveted the fetters of 
 his country. Under the fair pretences of re- 
 lieving Italy from the heavy burthen of mil- '^'"'" ^''^'"P- 
 itary quarters, and of introducing a stricter discipline 
 among the guards, he assembled them at Rome, in a 
 permanent camp,<= which was fortified with skilful 
 care,'' and placed on a commanding situation.' 
 
 Such formidable servants are always Their strength 
 necessary, but often fatal, to the throne and confidence, 
 of despotism. By thus introducing the praetorian 
 guards as it were into the palace and the senate, the 
 emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, 
 and the weakness of the civil government ; to view the 
 vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to 
 lay aside that reverential awe, which distance only, 
 and mystery, can preserve, towards an imaginary 
 po\yer. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, 
 their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresist- 
 ible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them, 
 that the person of the sovereign, the authority of the 
 
 a They were originally nine or ten thousand men, (for Tacitus and 
 Dion arc not agreed upon the subject.) divided into as many cohorts. 
 Vitellius increased them to sixteen thousand, and as far as we can 
 learn from inscriptions, they never afterwards sunk much below that 
 number. See Lipsius de magnitudine Romana, i. 4. 
 
 b Sueton. in August, c.49. 
 
 c Tacit. Annal. iv. 2. Suet, in Tiber, c. 37. Dion Cassius, 1. Ivii. 
 p. 8G7. 
 
 d In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespa-sian, the praetorian 
 camp was attacked and defended with all the machines used in the 
 siege ofthe best fortified cities. Tacit. Hist. iii. 84. 
 
 e Close to the walls ofthe city, on the broad summit of the Q,uiri- 
 nal and Viminal hills. See Nardini Roma Antica, p. 174. Donatus 
 de Roma Antiqua, p. 46. 
 
48 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 40 
 
 "i|. 
 
 senate, the public treasure, and the seat of empire, 
 were all in their hands. To divert the praetorian 
 bands from these dangerous reflections, the firmest 
 and best established princes were obliged to mix blan- 
 dishments with commands, rewards with punishments, 
 to flatter their pride, indulge their pleasures, connive 
 at their irregularities, and to purchase their precarious 
 faith by a liberal donative ; which, since the elevation 
 of Claudius, was exacted as a legal claim, on the 
 accession of every new emperor/ 
 Their speckus The advocates of the guards endeavour- 
 clainiF. ed to justify by arguments the power 
 which they asserted by arms; and to maintain that, 
 according to the purest principles of the constitution, 
 their consent was essentially necessary in the appoint- 
 ment of an emperor. The election of consuls, of gen- 
 erals, and of magistrates, however it had been recently 
 usurped by the senate, was the ancient and undoubted 
 right of the Roman people.^ But where was the Ro- 
 man people to be found 1 Not surely amongst the 
 mixed multitude of slaves and strangers that filled the 
 streets of Rome; a servile populace, as devoid of spi- 
 rit as destitute of property. The defenders of the 
 state, selected from the flower of the Italian youth,** 
 and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were 
 the genuine representatives of the people, and the best 
 entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. 
 These assertions, however defective in reason, became 
 unanswerable, when the fierce praetorians increased 
 their weight, by throwing, like the barbarian con- 
 queror of Rome, their swords into the scale.' 
 Tliey offer the The praetorians had violated the sanc- 
 empire to sale, tity of the throne, by the atrocious mur- 
 der of Pertinax; they dishonoured the majesty of it, 
 by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without 
 a leader, for even the praefect Laetus, who had excited 
 the tempest, prudently declined the public indignation. 
 Amidst the wild disorder, Sulpicianus, the emperor's 
 father-in-law, and governor of the city, who had been 
 sent to the camp on the first alarm of mutiny, was en- 
 deavouring to calm the fury of the multitude, when he 
 was silenced by the clamorous return of the murder- 
 ers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though 
 history has accustomed us to observe every principle 
 and every passion yielding to the imperious dictates 
 of ambition, it is scarcely credible that, in these mo- 
 ments of horror, Sulpicianus should have aspired to 
 ascend a throne polluted with the recent blood of so 
 near a relation, and so excellent a prince. He had 
 already begun to use the only effectual argument, and 
 to treat for the imperial dignity ; but the more prudent 
 of the praetorians, apprehensive that, in this private 
 contract, they should not obtain a just price for so 
 valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ramparts; and, 
 with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world 
 was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auc- 
 tion. J 
 
 It is purchased This infamous offer, the most insolent ex- 
 by Julian, A. D. cess of military licence, diflTused an univer- 
 iu3.March 28th. g.^j grief,shame, and indignation through- 
 out the city. It reached at length the ears of Didius Ju- 
 lianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public 
 
 f Claudius, raised by the sohlicrs to the empire, was the first who 
 gave a donative. He gave quina deua, 121)/. (Sueton. in Claud, c. 
 10.) when Marcus, with his colleapuc Lucius Verus, toolt quiet pos- 
 session oftlie tlironc, he gave vicena, 16l>/. to each of tiie guards. 
 Hist. August, p. 25. (Dion. I. Ixxiii. p. 12:U.) We may form some 
 idea of tiie amount of tlicsc sums, by (Indrian's complaint, that tlie 
 promotion of a Crsar had cost him ter millies, two millions and a 
 half sterling. 
 
 s Cicero de Lcgibus. iii. 3. The first book of Livy, and the second 
 of Dionysius of Halitarnassus, show the autliority of the people, even 
 in the election of the kings. 
 
 h They were originally recruited in Latium, Etruria, and the old 
 colonies. (Tacit. Annal. iv. 5.) The emperor Otho compliments 
 their vanity with the flattering titles of Italitc Alumni, Romanavere 
 juventus. Tacit. Hist. i.84. 
 
 i In the siege of Rome by the Gauls. See Livy, v. 48. Plutarch, 
 in Camill. p. 143. 
 
 j Dion. I. Ixxiii. p. 1234. Herodian. I. ii. p. 63. Hist. August, p. 
 fO. Though the three historians agree that it was in fact an auction, 
 Herodian alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by the soldiers. 
 
 calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the 
 table.'' His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and 
 his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved 
 the throne, and earnestly conjured him to embrace so 
 fortunate an opportunity. The vain old man hastened 
 to the praetorian camp, where Sulpicianus was still in 
 treaty with the guards ; and began to bid against him 
 from the foot of the rampart. The unworthy nego- 
 ciation was transacted by faithful emissaries, who 
 passed alternately from one candidate to the other, and 
 acquainted each of them with the offers of his rival. 
 Sulpicianus had already promised a donative of five 
 thousand drachms (above one hundred and sixty 
 pounds) to each soldier; when Julian, eager for the 
 prize, rose at once to the sum of six thousand two 
 hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred 
 pounds sterling. The gates of the camp were instantly 
 thrown open to the purchaser; he was declared em- 
 peror, and received an oath of allegiance from the sol- 
 diers, who retained humanity enough to stipulate that 
 he should pardon and forget the competition of Sulpi- 
 cianus.' 
 
 It was now incumbent on the praito- juHan is ac- 
 rians to fulfil the conditions of the sale, knowiedged by 
 They placed their new sovereign, whom ^''® senate, 
 they served and despised, in the centre of their ranks, 
 surrounded him on every side with their shields, and 
 conducted him in close order of battle through the de- 
 serted streets of the city. The senate was commanded 
 to assemble ; and those who had been the distinguish- 
 ed friends of Pertinax, or the personal enemies of Ju- 
 lian, found it necessary to affect a more than common 
 share of satisfaction at this happy revolution." After 
 Julian had filled the senate-house with armed soldiers, 
 he expatiated on the freedom of his election, his own 
 eminent virtues, and his full assurance of the affec- 
 tions of the senate. The obsequious assembly con- 
 gratulated their own and the public felicity ; engaged 
 their allegiance, and conferred on him all the several 
 branches of the imperial power." From the senate 
 Julian was conducted, by the same mi- Takes possession 
 litary procession, to take possession of of ^'>e palace, 
 the palace. The first objects that struck his eyes, 
 were the abandoned trunk of Pertinax, and the frugal 
 entertainment prepared for his supper. The one he 
 viewed with indifference, the other with contempt. A 
 magnificent feast was prepared by his order, and he 
 amused himself till a very late hour, with dice, and 
 the performances of Pylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet 
 it was observed, that after the crowd of flatterers dis- 
 persed, and left him to darkness, solitude, and terrible 
 reflection, he passed a sleepless night; revolving, 
 most probably, in his mind his own rash folly, the fate 
 of his virtuous predecessor, and the doubtful and dan- 
 gerous tenure of an empire, which had not been ac- 
 quired by merit, but purchased by money." 
 
 k Spartianus softens the most odious parts of the character and 
 elevation of Julian. 
 
 1 [One of the principal causes of the preference given by thesoldierii 
 to Julianus, was the address he had to tell them, that Sulpicia- 
 nus would not fail to revenge upon them the death of his son-in- 
 law, (fiea Dion, p. 1234. Ilerod. lib. ii. c. 6.)— O.] 
 
 ni Dion Cassius, at that time pra;tor, had been a personal enemy to 
 Julian, 1. Ixxii. p. 1235. 
 
 n Hist, August, p. 61. We learn from thence one curious circum- 
 stance, that the new emperor, whatever had been his birth, was im- 
 mediately aggregated to the number of Patrician families. 
 
 « Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1235. Hist. August, p. 01. 1 have endeavoured 
 to blend into one consistent story, the seeming contradictions of the 
 two writers. 
 
 [These contradictions are not reconciled, and cannot be, for they 
 are real. This is the passage from the History of Augustus : 
 
 "Etiam hi primumqui Julianum odis-se co-pcrant, disscminarunt, 
 prima statim sic Pertinacis cana despecta, luxurioaum parasse con- 
 vivlum ostreis et alitibus et piscibus adornatum,quod faleum fuisse 
 constat; nam Julianus tante parsimonis fuisse perhibetur ut per 
 triduum poreellum. per triduum leporem dividcret, si quis ei forte 
 misisset ; saipe autem nulla existente religione, obribus leguminibufl- 
 que contentus, sine carne cctnaverit. Deinde neque coenavit prius 
 quam scpultus essct Pertinax et tristissimus cilium ob ejus necem 
 sumpsit, et primam noctem vigillis continuavit de tanta necessitate 
 Rollicitus." Hist, .\ugust. p. 61. 
 
 The Latin translation of the passage from Dion Cassiuf, read« 
 thus: 
 
 " Hoc modo quuni iniperium scnatus etiam consultis stabilivistet. 
 
 The public dis- He had reason to tremble. On the throne 
 content. of the World he found himself without a 
 friend, and even without an adherent. The guards 
 thenraselves were ashamed of the prince whom their 
 avarice had persuaded them to accept ; nor was there 
 a citizen that did not consider his elevation with hor- 
 ror, as the last insult on the Roman name. The no- 
 bility, vi^hose conspicuous station, and ample posses- 
 sions, exacted the strictest caution, dissembled their 
 sentiments, and met the aflfected civility of the emperor 
 with smiles of complacency, and professions of duty. 
 But the people, secure in their numbers and obscurity, 
 gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and 
 public places of Rome resounded with clamours and 
 imprecations. The enraged multitude afll'ronted the 
 person of Julian, rejected his liberality, and conscious 
 of the impotence of their own resentment, they called 
 aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert the vio- 
 lated majesty of the Roman empire. 
 The armies of The public discontent was soon dif- 
 
 i?nd^p";nn^o^nln' ^"^^^ ^^^^ ^^'^ ceutrc to the froutiers of 
 declare against ^"^ empire. 1 he armies of Britain, of 
 Julian. Syria, and of Illyricum, lamented the 
 
 death of Pertinax, in whose company, or under whose 
 command, they had so often fought and conquered. 
 They received with surprise, with indignation, and per- 
 haps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, that the 
 prffitorians had disposed of the empire by public auc- 
 tion ; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominious 
 bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was 
 fatal to Julian, but it was fatal at the same time to the 
 public peace ; as the generals of the respective armies, 
 Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius 
 Severus, were still more anxious to succeed than to 
 revenge, the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were 
 exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of 
 three legions,P with a numerous train of auxiliaries; 
 and however diflferent in their characters, they were all 
 S(»ldiers of experience and capacity. 
 Clodius Albinus Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, 
 in Britain. surpassed both his competitors in the 
 nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some 
 of the most illustrious names of the old republic.'' 
 But the branch from whence he claimed his descent, 
 was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted 
 into a remote province. It is difficult to form a just 
 idea of his true character. Under the philosophic 
 cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing 
 niost of the vices which degrade human nature.' But 
 his accusers are those venal writers who adored the 
 fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an 
 unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of vir- 
 tue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good 
 opinion of Marcus ; and his preserving with the son 
 the same interest which he had acquired with the fa- 
 ther, is a proof at least that he was possessed of a very 
 flexible disposition. The favour of a tyrant does not 
 always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he 
 may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and 
 ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own 
 service. It does not appear that Albinus served the 
 son of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, 
 or even as the associate of his pleasures. He was em- 
 
 ployed in a distant honourable command, when he re- 
 ceived a confidential letter from the emperor, acquaint- 
 ing him of the treasonable designs of some discontented 
 generals, and authorizing him to declare himself the 
 guardian and successor of the throne, by assuming the 
 title aiid ensigns of Cajsar.' The governor of Bri- 
 tain wisely declined the dangerous honour, which 
 would have marked him for the jealou.sy, or involved 
 him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He 
 courted power by nobler, or, at least, by more specious 
 arts. On a premature report of the death of the empe- 
 ror, he assembled his troops; and, in an elegant dis- 
 course, deplored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, 
 described the happiness and glory which their ances- 
 tors had enjoyed under the consular government, and 
 declared his firm resolution to reinstate the senate and 
 people in their legal authority. This popular harangue 
 was answered by the loud acclamations of the British 
 legions, and received at Rome with a secret murmur 
 of applause. Safe in the possession of this little 
 world, and in the command of an army less distin- 
 guished indeed for discipline than for numbers and 
 valour,* Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, 
 maintained towards Pertinax a stately ambiguous re- 
 serve, and instantl}'^ declared against the usurpation of 
 Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new 
 weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions 
 of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to 
 decline the lofty titles of Augustus and emperor; and 
 he imitated perhaps the example of Galba, who, on a 
 similar occasion, had styled himself the Lieutenant of 
 the senate and people." 
 
 Personal merit alone had raised Pes- Pescennius Niger 
 cennius Niger, from an obscure birth »" Syria, 
 and station, to the government of Syria; a lucrative 
 and important conrrmand, which, in times of civil con- 
 fusion, gave him a near prospect of the throne. Yet 
 his parts seem to have been better suited to the second 
 than to the first rank ; he was an unequal rival, though 
 he might have approved himself an excellent lieuten- 
 ant, to Severus, who afterwards displayed the great- 
 ness of his mind by adopting several useful institutions 
 from a vanquished enemy.* In his government, Niger 
 acquired the esteem of the soldiers, and the love of 
 the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the val- 
 our and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst 
 the voluptuous Syrians were less delighted with the 
 mild firmness of his administration, than with the aflfa- 
 bility of his manners, and the apparent pleasure with 
 which he attended their frequent and pompous festi- 
 vals.y As soon as the intelligence of the atrocious 
 murder of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes 
 of Asia invited Niger to assume the imperial purple 
 and revenge his death. The legions of the eastern 
 frontier embraced his cause ; the opulent but unarmed 
 provinces from the frontiers of ^Ethiopia ' to the Hadri- 
 atic, cheerfully submitted to his power: and the kings 
 beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated 
 his election, and oflfered him their homage and ser- 
 vices. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiv- 
 ing this sudden tide of fortune ; he flattered himself 
 that his accession would be undisturbed by competi- 
 tion, and unstained by civil blood ; and whilst he en- 
 
 joyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure 
 
 in palatium proficiscitur : ubi quum invenisset c(tnam paratam Perti- I l^® "^f^"^ ^^ victory. Instead of entering into an ef- 
 naciderlsit illam vchementer ct arcessitis, unde et quoquoinodopo- fectual negOCiatlon With the powerful armies of the 
 tuit, pretiosissimis quibusque rebus mortuoadhuc intus jacenti, se- 
 niet ingurgitavit, lu§if aleis et Pyladem saltatorem cum aiiis quibus- 
 dam assumpsit." Dion, lib. Ixxiii. p. 1255. 
 
 To add to the account of Dion the last sentence of that of Spartia- 
 nus, as Gibbon has done, is not reconciling the two passages. Rei- 
 marushasnot attempted to reconcile so evident a contradiction, he 
 hasexamined the strength of the two authorities, and prefers that 
 of Dion, winch is, besides, confirmed by Herodian. ii. 7. 1. See his 
 commentaries upon the passage of Dion, just quoted."— O.l 
 
 P Dion. I. Ixxiii. p. 1235. ■• 
 
 qThe Posthuinian and the Cejonian ; the former of whom was 
 raised to the consulship in the tifth year after its institution. 
 
 r Spartianus, in his undigested collections, mixes up all the virtues 
 and all the vices that enter into the human composition, and be- 
 stows them on the same object. Such, indeed, are many of the char- 
 acters in the Ausustan History. 
 
 Vol. I G 4 
 
 s Hist. August, p. 80. 84. 
 
 • Pertinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been left 
 for dead, in amuliny of the soldiers. Hist. August, p. 54. Yet they 
 loved and regretted him ; admirantibus earn virtutcm cui irasceban- 
 tur. 
 
 u Suelon. in Galb. c. 10. 
 
 X Hist. August, p. 76. 
 
 y Herod. 1. ii. p. 68. The chronicle of John Malala, of Antioch, 
 shows the zealous attachment of his countrymen to these festivals, 
 which at once gratified their superstition, and their love of pleasure. 
 
 2 A king of Thebes, in Egypt, is mentioned In the Augustan his- 
 tory, as an ally, and, indeed, as a personal friend of Niger. If Spar- 
 tianus is not, as I strongly suspect, mistaken, he has brought to ligfat 
 a dynasty of" tributary princes totally unknown to history. 
 
50 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 
 west, whose resolution might decide, or at least must 
 balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing 
 
 without delay towards Rome and Italy, where his pres- 
 ence was impatiently expected,* Niger trifled away 
 
 in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments 
 which were diligently improved by the decisive acti- 
 vity of Severus.^ 
 
 Pannonia and The country of Pannonia and Dalma- 
 Daimaiia. tia, which occupied the space between 
 the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of the last and 
 most dithcult conquests of the Romans. Li the defence 
 of national freedom, two hundred thousand of these 
 barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarmed the 
 - declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant 
 ' prudence of Tiberius at the head of the collected force 
 of the empire.*^ The Pannonians yielded at length to 
 the arms and institutions of Rome. Their recent sub- 
 jection, however, the neighbourhood, and even the 
 mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps the 
 climate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the pro- 
 duction of great bodies and slow minds,** all contribu- 
 ted to preserve some remains of their original ferocity, 
 and under the tame and uniform countenance of Roman 
 provincials, the hardy features of the natives were still 
 to be discerned. Their warlike youth afforded an in- 
 exhaustible supply of recruits to the legions stationed 
 on the banks of the Danube, and which, from a per- 
 petual welfare against the Germans and Sarmatians, 
 were deservedly esteemed the best troops in the ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Septimus Seve- The Pannonian army was at this time 
 •■U8. commanded by Septimus Severus, a na- 
 
 tive of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent of private 
 honours, had concealed his daring ambition, which was 
 never diverted from its steady course by the allure- 
 ments of pleasure, the apprehension of danger, or the 
 feelings of humanity.* On the first news of the mur- 
 der of Pertinax, he assembled his troops, painted in 
 the most lively colours the crime, the insolence, and 
 the weakness of the praetorian guards, and animated 
 the legions to arms and to revenge. He concluded 
 (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) 
 with promising every soldier about four hundred 
 pounds; an honourable donative, double in value to 
 the infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased 
 the empire.' The acclamations of the army immc- 
 Deciared cinpe- diately saluted Severus with the names 
 ror by the Pan- of Augustus, Pertinax, and emperor ; 
 "*"a."d.'iI3!"'' and he thus attained the lofty station to 
 April 13. which he was invited, by conscious me- 
 rit and a long train of dreams and omens, the fruitful 
 offspring either of his superstition or policy.* 
 
 The new candidate for empire saw and improved the 
 peculiar advantage of his situation. His province ex- 
 tended to the Julian Alps, which gave an easy access 
 
 Marches into into Italy; and he remembered the say- 
 Iiaiy. ing of Augustus, That a Pannonian army 
 
 a Dion, I. Ixxiii. p. 1238. Herod. I. ii. p. 67. A verse in every 
 one's mouth at that time, seems to express tiic general opinion of the 
 three rivals ; Optinius est J^Tiger, bonus J^fer, pcssinius Albus. Hist. 
 August, p. 75. 
 
 b Herodian, 1. ii. p. 71. 
 
 c See an account of that memorable war in Vellcius Paterculus, ii. 
 110, &.C. who served in the army of Tiberius. 
 
 d Such is tlie reflection of Herodian, I. ii. p. 74. VV^ill the modern 
 Austrians allow the influence ? 
 
 • In the letter to Albinus, already mentioned, Commodus accuses 
 Bererus, as one of the ambitious generals who censured iiis conduct, 
 and wished to occupy his place. Hist. August, p. 80. 
 
 ' Pannonhi was too poor to supply such a sum. It was probably 
 promised in the camp, and paid at Uonie, after the victory. In fix- 
 ing the sum, I have adufiited the conjecture of Casaubon. See Hist. 
 August, p. 66. Comment, p. 115. 
 
 g Herodian, 1. ii. p. 7. 78. Severus was declared emperor on the 
 banks of tlie Danube, either at Carnuntum, according to Spartianus, 
 (Hist. August, p. 65.) or else at Sabaria, according to Victor. Mr. 
 Hume, in supposing that the birth and dignity of Severus were too 
 much inferior to the imperial crown, and that he marched into Italy 
 as general only, has not considered this transaction with his usual 
 accuracy. (Essay on the Original Contract.) 
 
 [Cur-Auntitm, opposite to the mouth of the Morava. There is 
 some hesitation as to its situation between Petronnel and Hamburgh; 
 • imall village between tlieni seems to indicate an ancient place by 
 the name of Altenburgh, (Old Town.) D'Anville> Geogr. Anc. vol. 
 l.p. 154. Solaria, now Sarvar.— &.] 
 
 might in ten days appear in sight of Rome.'' By a 
 celerity proportioned to the greatness of the occasion, 
 he might reasonably hope to revenge Pertinax, punish 
 Julian, and receive the homage of the senate and 
 people, as their lawful emperor, before his competitors, 
 separated from Italy by an immense tract of sea and 
 land, were apprised of his success, or even of his elec- 
 tion. During the whole expedition, he scarcely allow- 
 ed himself any moments for sleep or food ; marching 
 on foot, and in complete armour, at the head of his 
 columns, he insinuated himself into the confidence and 
 affection of his troops, pressed their diligence, revived 
 their spirits, animated their hopes, and was well sa- 
 tisfied to share the hardships of the meanest soldier, 
 whilst he kept in view the infinite superiority of his 
 reward. 
 
 The wretched Julian had expected, and Advances to- 
 thought himself prepared, to dispute the wards Rome, 
 empire with the governor of Syria; but in the invin- 
 cible and rapid approach of the Pannonian legions, he 
 saw his inevitable ruin. The hasty arrival of every 
 messenger increased his just apprehensions. He was 
 successively informed, that Severus had passed the 
 Alps; that the Italian cities, unwilling or unable to 
 oppose his progress, had received him with the warm- 
 est professions of joy and duty; that the important 
 place of Ravenna had surrendered without resistance, 
 and that the Hadriatic fleet was in the hands of the 
 conqueror. The enemy was now within two hundred 
 and fifty miles of Rome; and every moment diminish- 
 ed the narrow span of life and empire allotted to Julian. 
 
 He attempted, however, to prevent, or Distress of Ju- 
 at least to protract, his ruin. He implored '»»"• 
 the venal faith of the praetorians, filled the city with 
 unavailing preparations for war, drew lines round the 
 suburbs, and even strengthened the fortifications of the 
 palace ; as if those last entrenchments could be defend- 
 ed without hope of relief, against a victorious invader. 
 Fear and shame prevented the guards from deserting 
 his standard ; but they trembled at the name of the 
 Pannonian legions, commanded by an experienced ge- 
 neral, and accustomed to vanquish the barbarians on 
 the frozen Danube.' They quitted, with a sigh, the 
 pleasures of the baths and theatres, to put on arms, 
 whose use they had almost forgotten, and beneath the 
 weight of which they were oppressed. The unprac- 
 tised elephants, whose uncouth appearance, it was 
 hoped, would strike terror into the army of the north, 
 threw their unskilful riders; and the awkward evolu- 
 tions of the marines, drawn from the fleet of Misenum, 
 were an object of ridicule to the populace; whilst the 
 senate enjoyed, with secret pleasure, the distress and 
 weakness of the usurper.* 
 
 Every motion of Julian betrayed his His uncertain 
 trembling perplexity. He insisted that conduct. 
 Severus should be declared a public enemy by the se- 
 nate. He entreated that the Pannonian general might 
 be associated to the empire. He sent public ambas- 
 sadors of consular rank to negociate with his rival ; he 
 despatched private assassins to take away his life. 
 He designed that the Vestal virgins, and all the col- 
 leges of priests, in their sacerdotal habits, and bearing 
 before them the sacred pledges of the Roman religion, 
 should advance, in solemn procession, to meet the 
 Pannonian legions; and, at the same time, he vainly 
 tried to interrogate, or to appease, the fates, by magic 
 ceremonies, and unlawful sacrifices.' 
 
 Severus, who dreaded neither his arms u .lesirtrd by 
 nor his enchantments, guarded himself ^''^ pra-torians, 
 
 h Velleius Paterculus, I, ii. r. 3. We must reckon the march from 
 the nearest verge of Pannonia, and extend iJie sight of the city ad 
 far as two hundred miles. 
 
 i This is not a puerile figure of rhetoric, but an allusion to a real 
 fact recorded by Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1181. It probably happened more 
 than once. 
 
 k Dion, 1. Ixxlil. p. 1233. Herodian, I. ii. p. 81. There is no surer 
 proof of the military skill of the Romnnn, than their first surmount 
 inp the idle terror, and afterwards disdaining the dangerous use, of 
 elephants, in war. 
 
 I Hist. August, p. 62, 63. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 61 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 from the only danger of secret conspiracy, by the faith- 
 ful attendance of six hundred chosen men, who never 
 quitted his person or their cuirasses, either by night or 
 day, during the whole march. Advancing with a 
 steady and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, 
 the defiles of the Apennines, received into his party 
 the troops and ambassadors sent to retard his progress, 
 and made a short halt at Interamnia, about seventy 
 miles from Rome. His victory was already secure ; 
 but the despair of the prjctorians might have rendered 
 it bloody ; and Severus had the laudable ambition of 
 ascending the throne without drawing the sword.™ 
 His emissaries, dispersed in the capital, assured the 
 guards, that provided they would abandon their worth- 
 less prince, and the perpetrators of the murder of Per- 
 tinax, to the justice of the conqueror, he would no 
 longer consider that melancholy event as the act of the 
 whole body. The faithless praetorians, whose resis- 
 tance was supported only by sullen obstinacy, gladly 
 complied with the easy conditions, seized the greatest 
 part of the assassins, and signified to the senate, that 
 they no longer defended the cause of Julian. That 
 assembly, convoked by the consul, unanimously ac- 
 knowledged Severus as lawful emperor, decreed divine 
 honours to Pertinax, and pronounced a sentence of de- 
 position and death against his unfortunate successor, 
 and condemned Julian was conducted into a private 
 Jrd^er^of'Tife'' se^ ^partment of the baths of the palace, and 
 nate, A. D. 193. beheaded as a common criminal, after 
 Junes. having purchased, with an immense 
 
 treasure, an anxious and precarious reign of only sixty- 
 six days." The almost incredible expedition of Se- 
 verus, who, in so short a space of time, conducted a 
 numerous army from the banks of the Danube to those 
 of the Tyber, proves at once the plenty of provisions 
 produced by agriculture and commerce, the goodness 
 of the roads, the discipline of the legions, and the in- 
 dolent subdued temper of the provinces.** 
 
 Disgrace of the '^^® ^^^^ ^^^^^ °^ Severus were be- 
 prffitorian stowed on two measures, the one dictat- 
 guards. ed by policy, the other by decency; the 
 revenge, and the honours, due to the memory of Perti- 
 nax. Before the new emperor entered Rome, he is- 
 sued his commands to the praetorian guards, directing 
 them to await his arrival on a large plain near the city, 
 without arras, but in the habits of ceremony, in which 
 they were accustomed to attend their sovereign. He 
 was obeyed by those haughty troops, whose contrition 
 was the effect of their just terrors. A chosen part of 
 the lUyrian army encompassed them with levelled 
 spears. Incapable of flight or resistance, they ex- 
 pected their fate in silent consternation. Severus 
 mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with 
 perfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy 
 from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled 
 them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, 
 on pain of death, to the distance of an hundred miles 
 from the capital. During the transaction, another de- 
 tachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy 
 their camp, and prevent the hasty consequences of their 
 despair.P 
 
 Funeral andapo- '^^^ funeral and consecration of Per- 
 theosis of Perti- tinax was next solemnized with every 
 ""• circumstance of sad magnificence.^ The 
 
 senate, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last 
 
 «n Victor and Eutropius, viii. 17. mention a combat near the Mil 
 vian bridire, the Ponte Molle, unknown to the better and more an- 
 cient writer.s. 
 
 n Dion. 1. Ixxiii. p. 1240. Herodian, 1. ii. p. 83. Hist. August, p 63. 
 
 o From these sixty six days, we must first deduct sixteen, as Per- 
 tinax was murdered on the 28th of March, and Severus most proba- 
 bly elected on the 13th of April, (see Hist. August, p. 65. and Tille- 
 mont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 393. Note 7.) We cannot 
 allow less than ten days after his election, to put a numerous army 
 in motion. Forty days remain for this rapid march ; and ns we may 
 compute about eight hundred miles from Rome to the neighbour- 
 hood of Vienna, the army of Severus marched twenty miles every 
 day, without halt or intermission. 
 
 P Dion, I. Ixxiv. p. 1241. Herodian, 1. ii. p. 84. 
 
 q Dion, (I. Ixxiv. p. 1244.) who assisted at the ceremony as a sena- 
 tor, gives a vnofX poinpou? description of it. 
 
 rites to that excellent prince, whom they had loved, 
 and still regretted. The concern of his successor was 
 probably less sincere. He esteemed the virtues of 
 Pertinax, but those virtues would for ever have con- 
 fined his ambition to a private station. Severus pro- 
 nounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, 
 inward satisfaction, and well-acted sorrow; and by 
 this pious regard to his memory, convinced the credu- 
 lous multitude that he alone was worthy to supply his 
 place. Sensible, however, that arms, not ceremonies, 
 must assert his claim to the empire, he left Rome at 
 the end of thirty days, and without sufl[ering himself 
 to be elated by this easy victory, prepared to encounter 
 his more formidable rivals. 
 
 The uncommon abilities and fortune Success of Seve- 
 of Severus have induced an elegant his- g"J and'a"ains't 
 torian to compare him with the first and AYhinus. °^*'"" 
 greatest of the Caesars."" The parallel is, at least, im- 
 perfect. Where shall we find, in the character of Se- 
 verus, the commanding superiority of soul, the ge- 
 nerous clemency, and the various genius, which could 
 reconcile and unite the love of pleasure, the thirst of 
 knowledge, and the fire of ambition ?• In one instance 
 only, they may be compared, with some degree of 
 propriety ; in the celerity of their motions, and their 
 civil victories. In less than four years,* . „ iqt lo-r 
 Severus subdued the riches of the east, ^^-^-i^^. 
 
 and valour of the west. He vanquished two competi- 
 tors of reputation and ability, and defeated numerous 
 armies, provided with weapons and discipline equal to 
 his own. In that age, the art of fortification, and the 
 principles of tactics, were well understood by all the 
 Roman generals ; and the constant superiority of Se- 
 verus was that of an artist, who uses the same instru- 
 ments with more skill and industry than his rivals. I 
 shall not, however, enter into a minute narrative of 
 these military operations; but as the two civil wars 
 against Niger and against Albinus were almost the 
 same in their conduct, event, and consequences, I shall 
 collect into one point of view, the most striking cir- 
 cumstances, tending to develop the character of the 
 conqueror, and the state of the empire. 
 
 Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable Conduct of the 
 as they seem to the dignity of public two civil wars. 
 
 transactions, oflfend us with a less degrading idea of 
 meanness, than when they are found in the intercourse 
 of private life. In the latter, they discover a want of 
 courage ; in the other, only a defect of power : and, 
 as it is impossible for the most able statesmen to sub- 
 due millions of followers and enemies by their own 
 personal strength, the world, under the name of poli- 
 cy, seems to have granted them a very liberal indul- 
 gence of craft and dissimulation. Yet 
 the arts of Severus cannot be justified "^"^ °^ ^^''*'''"" 
 by the most ample privileges of state reason. He 
 promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin ; and 
 however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths 
 and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, 
 always released him from the inconvenient obliffa- 
 tion." ^ 
 
 If his two competitors, reconciled hv . , ^r- 
 *u • J 111 1 towards Niger: 
 
 their common danger, had advanced 
 
 upon him without delay, perhaps Severus would have 
 sunk under their united effort. Had they even attack- 
 ed him, at the same time, with separate views and 
 separate armies, the contest might have been long and 
 doubtful. But they fell, singly and successively, an 
 easy prey to the arts as well as arms of their subtle 
 enemy, lulled into security by the moderation of his 
 
 r Herodian, I. iii. p. 112. 
 
 » Though it is not, most as.suredly. the intention of Lucan to exalt 
 the character of Ciesar, yettlie idea he gives of ihat hero, in the tenth 
 hook of the Pharsalia, where he describe;) him, ar the same time 
 making love to Cleopatra, sustaining a siege against the power of 
 Egypt, and conversing with the sitgcs of the country, is, in reality, 
 the noblest panegyric. 
 
 t Reckoning from this eleciion, April 13, 193, to the death of AIbi- 
 iius, February 10. 197. See Tilleinonfs Chronolo^jy. 
 
 " Herodian, I. ii. p. 85. 
 
 '<{' . 
 
 \ 
 
 
> V 
 
 6d 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 53 
 
 .♦ 
 
 professions, and overwhelmed by the rapidity of his 
 action. He first marched against Niger, whose repu- 
 tation and power he the most dreaded : but he declined 
 any hostile declarations, suppressed the name of his 
 antagonist, and only signified to the senate and people 
 his intention of regulating the eastern provinces. In 
 private he spoke of Niger, his old friend and intended 
 successor,* with the most affectionate regard, and 
 highly applauded his generous design of revenging 
 the murder of Pertinax. To punish the vile usurper 
 of the throne, was the duty of every Roman general. 
 To persevere in arms, and to resist a lawful emperor, 
 acknowledged by the senate, would alone render him 
 criminal.y The sons of Niger had fallen into his 
 hands among the children of the provincial governors, 
 detained at Rome as pledges for the loyalty of their 
 parents.' As long as the power of Niger inspired 
 terror, or even respect, they were educated with the 
 most tender care, with the children of Severus him- 
 self; but they were soon involved in their father's 
 ruin, and removed, first by exile, and afterwards by 
 death, from the eye of public compassion.* 
 
 ,„^..,. .... Whilst Severus was oncraged in his 
 
 towards Albmus. ^ i i i ^ ° 
 
 eastern war, he had reason to appre- 
 hend that the governor of Britain might pass the sea 
 and the Alps, occupy the vacant seat of empire, and 
 oppose his return with the authority of the senate and 
 the forces of the west. The ambiguous conduct of 
 Albinus, in not assuming the imperial title, left room 
 for negotiation. Forgetting, at once, his professions 
 of patriotism, and the jealousy of sovereign power, he 
 accepted the precarious rank of Caesar, as a reward for 
 his fatal neutrality. Till the first contest was decided, 
 Severus treated the man, whom he had doomed to de- 
 struction, with every mark of esteem and regard. 
 Even in the letter, in which he announced his victory 
 over Niger, he styles Albinus the brother of his soul 
 and empire, sends him the affectionate salutations of 
 his wife Julia, and his young family, and entreats him 
 to preserve the armies and the republic faithful to their 
 common interest. The messengers charged with this 
 letter were instructed to accost the Casar with re- 
 spect, to desire a priva^:e audience, and to plunge their 
 daggers into his heart.'' The conspiracy was disco- 
 vered, and the too credulous Albinus, at length, passed 
 over to the continent, and prepared for an unequal con- 
 test with his rival, who rushed upon him at the head 
 of a veteran and victorious army. 
 Event of the The military labours of Severus seem 
 civil wars, inadequate to the importance of his con- 
 quests. Two engagements," the one near the Helles- 
 pont, the other in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, decided 
 the fate of his Syrian competitor; and the troops of 
 Europe asserted their usual ascendant over the effemi- 
 nate natives of Asia.-^ The battle of Lyons, where one 
 hundred and fifty thousand « Romans were engaged, 
 was equally fatal to Albinus. The valour of the 
 British army maintained, indeed, a sharp and doubtful 
 contest with the hardy discipline of the Illyrian legions. 
 The fame and person of Severus appeared, during a 
 few moments, irrecoverably lost, till that warlike 
 
 X Whilst Severus was very dangerously ill, it was industriously 
 given out, that he intended to appoint Niger and Alhinus his succes- 
 sors. As he could not he sincere with respect to both, he uii"lit not 
 be 90 with regard to either. Yet Severus carried his hypocTJsv so 
 far, as to profess that intention in the memoirs of his own life ' 
 
 y Hist. Au<!U8t. p. 6.1. 
 
 « This practice, invented by Commodus, proved very useful to Se- 
 verus. He found, at Rome, the ciiildren of many of the principal 
 adherents of his rivals ; and he employed them more than once to 
 intimidate, or seduce, the parents. 
 
 a Herodian, I. iii. p. nfi. Hist. August, p. 67, 68. 
 
 b Hist. August. p.HJ. Spartianus has inserted this curious letter at 
 full length. 
 
 c [There were three engagements, one near to Cyzicum, not far 
 from the Hellespont; the second near Nice, in Bithynia ; the third 
 near Issus. in Cilicia. where Ale.ian(Jer had defeated Darius. (Dion, 
 p. 1247—49. Herodian, book iii. c. 2 A; 4.)—0.] 
 
 d Consult the third book.of Herodian, and the seventy-fourth book 
 of Dion Cassius. 
 
 • Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1260. 
 
 prince rallied his fainting troops, and led them on to a 
 decisive victory.' The war was finished by that me- 
 morable day. 
 
 The civil wars of modern Europe decided by one 
 have been distinguished, not only by the of two battles, 
 fierce animosity, but likewise by the obstinate perse- 
 verance, of the contending factions-. They have gene- 
 rally been justified by some principle, or, at least, co- 
 loured by some pretext, of religion, freedom, or loy- 
 alty. The leaders were nobles of independent proper- 
 ty and hereditary influence. The troops fought like 
 men interested in the decision of the quarrel ; and as 
 military spirit and party zeal were strongly diffused 
 throughout the whole community, a vanquished chief 
 was immediately supplied with new adherents, eager 
 to shed their blood in th^ same cause. But the Ro- 
 mans, after the fall of the republic, combated only for 
 the choice of masters. Under the standard of a popu- 
 lar candidate for empire, a few enlisted from aflfection, 
 some from fear, many from interest, none from princi- 
 ple. The legions, uninflamed by party zeal, were 
 allured into civil war by liberal donatives, and still 
 more liberal promises. A defeat, by disabling the 
 chief from the performance of his engagements, dis- 
 i solved the mercenary allegiance of his followers; and 
 left them to consult their own safety, by a timely de- 
 sertion of an unsuccessful cause. It was of little mo- 
 ment to the provinces, under whose name they were 
 oppressed or governed ; they were driven by the im- 
 pulsion of the present power, and as soon as that 
 ' power yielded to a superior force, they hastened to im- 
 i plore the clemency of the conqueror, who, as he had 
 : an immense debt to discharge, was obliged to sacrifice 
 : the most guilty countries to the avarice of his soldiers. 
 In the vast extent of the Roman empire, there were 
 few fortified cities capable of protecting a routed army ; 
 nor was there any person, or family, or order of men, 
 whose natural interest, unsupported by the powers of 
 government, was capable of restoring the cause of a 
 sinking party.* 
 
 Yet, in the contest between Niger and siege of By- 
 Severus, a single city deserves an hon- zaniium. 
 curable exception. As Byzantium was one of the 
 greatest passages from Europe into Asia, it had been 
 provided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of five 
 hundred vessels was anchored in the harbour.'' The 
 impetuosity of Severus disappointed this prudent 
 scheme of defence ; he left to his generals the siege 
 of Byzantium, forced the less guarded passage of the 
 Hellespont, and, impatient of a meaner enemy, pressed 
 forward to encounter his rival. Byzantium, attacked 
 by a numerous and increasing army, and afterwards by 
 the naval power of the empire, sustained a siege of 
 three years, and remained faithful to the name and me- 
 mory of Niger. The citizens and soldiers (we know 
 not from what cause) were animated with equal fury ; 
 several of the principal officers of Niger, who despair- 
 ed of, or who disdained, a pardon, had thrown them- 
 selves into this last refuge : the fortifications were es- 
 teemed impregnable, and, in the defence of the place, 
 a celebrated engineer displayed all the mechanic 
 powers known to the ancients.' Byzantium, at length, 
 surrendered to famine. The magistrates and soldiers 
 
 f Dion. 1. Ixxv. p. 1261. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 110. Hist. August, p. 
 68. The battle was fought in the plain of Trevoux, three or four 
 leagues from Lyons. See Tillemont, toin. iii. p. 406. Note 18. 
 
 [According to Herodian, it was the lieutenant Ltetus who re- 
 called the troops to the combat, and gained this battle, which was 
 almost lost by Severus. Dion also attributes to him a great part of 
 the victory. Through fear perhaps, or jealousy, Severus at last 
 caused him to be put to death. Dion. p. 1264.— O.] 
 
 « Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des 
 Romains, c. xii. 
 
 h Most of these, as may be supposed, were small of»en vessels ; some, 
 however, were galleys of two, and a few of three, ranks of oars. 
 
 i The engineer's name was Priscus. His skill saved his life, and 
 he was taken into the service of the conqueror. F'or the particulai 
 facts of the siege, consult Dion Cassiiis (I. Ixxv. p. 1251.) and Hero 
 dian (I. iii. p. 95.) for the theory of it, the fanciful Chevalier de Fo 
 lard may lie looked into. See rolybe.tom. i. p. 76. 
 
 t 
 
 
 were put to the sword, the walls demolished, the pri- 
 vileges suppressed, and the destined capital of the 
 east subsisted only as an open village, subject to the 
 insulting jurisdiction of Perinthus.J The historian 
 Dion, who had admired the flourishing, and lamented 
 the desolate, state of Byzantium, accused the revenge 
 of Severus, for depriving the Roman people of the 
 strongest bulwark against the barbarians of Pontus 
 and Asia.*^ The truth of this observation was but too 
 well justified in the succeeding age, when the Gothic 
 fleets covered the Euxine, and passed through the un- 
 defended Bosphorus into the centre of the Mediterra- 
 nean. 
 Deaths of Niger Both Niger and Albinus were disco- 
 
 CrueUonT' ^^^^^ ^"*^ P"^ ^^ ^®^^^ '" *^^^^ ^'^^^ ^^^^ 
 quences of the the field of battle. Their fate excited 
 
 civil wars. neither surprise nor compassion. They 
 
 had staked their lives against the chance of empire, 
 and suflfered what they would have inflicted ; nor did 
 Severus claim the arrogant superiority of suffering his 
 rivals to live in a private station. But his unforgiving 
 temper, stimulated by avarice, indulged a spirit of re- 
 venge, where there was no room for apprehension. 
 The most considerable of the provincials, who, with- 
 out any dislike to the fortunate candidate, had obeyed 
 the governor under whose authority they were acci- 
 dentally placed, were punished by death, exile, and 
 especially by the confiscation of their estates. Many 
 cities of the east were stript of their ancient honours, 
 and obliged to pay into the treasury of Severus, four 
 times the amount of the sums contributed by them for 
 the service of Niger.' 
 Animosity of Till the final decision of the war, the 
 
 Severus against cruelty of Severus was, in some mea- 
 the senate. ^ i-ii.i • /.. 
 
 sure, restrained by the uncertainty of the 
 
 event, and his pretended reverence for the senate. The 
 head of Albinus, accompanied with a menacing letter, 
 announced to the Romans, that he was resoTved to 
 spare none of the adherents of his unfortunate compe- 
 titors. He was irritated by the just suspicion that he 
 never had possessed the aflfections of the senate, and 
 he concealed his old malevolence under the recent dis- 
 covery of some treasonable correspondences. Thirty- 
 five senators, however, accused of having favoured the 
 party of Albinus, he freely pardoned ; and, by his sub- 
 sequent behaviour, endeavoured to convince them, that 
 he had forgotten, as well as forgiven, their supposed 
 offences. But at the same time he condemned forty- 
 one" other senators, whose names history has record- 
 ed; their wives, children, and clients, attended them 
 in death,aiTdlh6'iroBtest provincials of Spain and Gaul 
 were involved in the same ruin. Such rigid justice, 
 for so he termed it, was, in the opinion of Severus, the 
 only conduct capable of ensuring peace to the people, 
 or stability to the prince; and he condescended slight- 
 ly to lament, that, to be mild, it was necessary that he 
 should first be cruel." 
 
 i [Tcrinthus, upon the shores of the Propontis, was finally called 
 Heraclea, and this name can be traced in that of Erekli, situated 
 upon the site of this city, now in ruins. See D'Anville, Geogr. auc. 
 vol. i. p. a9i. Byzantium, afterwards Constantinople, caused in its 
 turn, the decline of Heraclea.— «.] 
 
 k Notwithstanding the authority of Spartianus and some modem 
 Greeks, we may be assured from Dion and Herodian, that Byzanti- 
 um, many years after the death of Severus, lay in ruins. 
 
 [There is no contradiction between the account of Dion and that 
 of Spartianus, and of other modern Greeks. Dion does not say that 
 Severus destroyed By/antium— he says only that he deprived it of 
 Us immunities and privileges, robbed its inhabitants of their proper- 
 ty, demolished its fortifications, and subjected the city to the juris- 
 dictjon of Perinthus. Thus, when Spartianus, Suidas and Cedre- 
 nus, say that Severus and his son Antoninus, at last restored to By- 
 zantium its rights and privileges, erected temples in it, &c., this can 
 very easily be reconciled with the account of Dion ; besides, also, 
 the latter spoke of it in the fragments of his history which have 
 »>een lost. According to Herodian, his expressions are evidently ex- 
 aggerated, and there are so many inaccuracies in his history of Se- 
 verus, that it is more than probable that thiu is one of them.— O 1 
 
 ' Dion, Ixxiv. p.1250. *-■ 
 
 n> Dion, (I. Ixxv. p. 1264.) only 29 senators are mentioned by him. 
 
 The true iriterest of an absolute mo- The wisdom and 
 narch generally coincides with that of justice of his go- 
 his people. Their numbers, their wealth vernment. 
 their order, and their security, are the best and only 
 foundations of his real greatness ; and were he totally 
 devoid of virtue, prudence might supply its place, and 
 would dictate the same rule of conduct. Severus con- 
 sidered the Roman empire as his property, and had no 
 sooner secured the possession, than he bestowed his 
 care on the cultivation and improvement of so valuable 
 an acquisition. Salutary laws, executed with inflexible 
 firmness, soon corrected most of the abuses with which, 
 since the death of Marcus, every part of the govern- 
 nient had been infected. In the administration of jus- 
 tice, the judgments of the emperor were characterized 
 by attention, discernment, and impartiality; and when- 
 ever he deviated from the strict line of equity, it was 
 generally in favour of the poor and oppressed ; not so 
 much indeed from any sense of humanity, as from the 
 natural propensity of a despot, to humble the pride of 
 greatness, and to sink all his subjects to the same 
 common level of absolute dependence. His expensive 
 taste for building, magnificent shows, and above all a 
 constant and liberal distribution of corn and provisions, 
 were the surest means of captivating the affection of 
 the Roman people.** The misfortunes of General peace 
 civil discord were obliterated. The calm a»d prosperity, 
 of peace and prosperity was once more experienced in 
 the provinces; and many cities, restored by the muni- 
 ficence of Severus, assumed the title of his colonies, 
 and attested by public monuments their gratitude and 
 felicity .P The fame of the Roman arms was revived 
 by that warlike and successful emperor,*' and he boast- 
 ed with a just pride, that, having received the empire 
 oppressed with foreign and domestic wars, he left it 
 established in profound, universal, and honourable 
 peace.' 
 
 Although the wounds of civil war Relaxation of mi- 
 appeared completely healed, its mortal ''la^y discipline, 
 poison still lurked in the vitals of the constitution. 
 Severus possessed a considerable share of vigour and 
 ability ; but the daring soul of the first Caesar, or the 
 deep policy of Augustus, were scarcely equal to the 
 task of curbing the insolence of the victorious legions. 
 By gratitude, by misguided policy, by seeming neces- 
 sity, Severus was induced to relax the nerves of disci- 
 pline." The vanity of his soldiers was flattered with 
 the honour of wearing gold rings ; their ease was 
 indulged in the permission of living with their wives 
 in the idleness of quarters. He increased their pav 
 beyond the example of former times, and taught them 
 to expect, and soon to claim, extraordinary donatives 
 on every public occasion of danger or festivity. Elated 
 by success, enervated by luxury, and raised above the 
 level of subjects by their dangerous ])rivileges,* they 
 soon became incapable of military fatigue, oppressive 
 to the country, and impatient of a just subordination. 
 Their officers asserted the superiority of rank by a 
 more profuse and elegant luxury. There is still extant 
 a letter of Severus, lamenting the licentious state of 
 
 but 41 are named in the Augustan History, p. 69. among whom are 
 
 SIX of the name of Pescennius. Herodian (I ■■ 
 
 general of the cruelties of Severus. 
 
 Herodian (I. iii. p. lis.) speaks in 
 
 1 
 
 Dion, I. Ixxvi. p. 1272. Hist. August, p. 67. Severus celebrated 
 the secular games with extraordinary magnificence, and he left in 
 the public granaries a provision of corn for seven years, at the rate 
 of 75,000 modii, or about 2500 quarters per day. lam persuaded 
 that the granaries of Severus were supplied for a long term, I ut I 
 am not less persuaded, that policy on the one hand, and admiration 
 on the other, magnified the hoard far beyond its true contents. 
 
 I' See Spanheiin's treatise of ancient medals, the inscriptions, and 
 our learned travellers, Spon and Wheeler, Shaw, Pocock, &c. who, 
 in Africa, Greece, and Asia, have found more monuments of Severus 
 than of any other Roman emperor whatsoever. 
 
 q He carried his victorious arms to Selcucia and Ctesiphon, the ca- 
 pitals of the Parthian monarchy. 1 shall have occasion to mention 
 this war in its proper place. 
 
 r Etiam in Britanuis, was his own just and emphatic expression. 
 Hist. August. 73. 
 
 I Herodian, I. iii. p. 115. Hist. August, p. 68. 
 
 t Upon the insolence and privileges of the soldiers, the 16th satire, 
 falsely ascribed to Juvenal, may \*e consulted ; the style and cirruni- 
 stances of it would induce me to believe, that it was composed under 
 the reign of Severus, or that of his son. 
 
 1 
 
 A 
 
54 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 65 
 
 the army," and exhorting one of his generals to begin 
 the necessary reformation from the tribunes them- 
 selves; since, as he justly observes, the officer who 
 has forfeited the esteem, will never command the 
 obedience, of his soldiers.' Had the emperor pursued 
 the train of reflection, he would have discovered, that 
 the primary cause of this general corruption might be 
 ascribed, not indeed to the example, but to the perni- 
 cious indulgence, however, of the commander in chief. 
 New establish- The praetorians, who murdered their 
 mentof the pre- emperor and sold the empire, had re- 
 torian guards, reived the just punishment of their trea- 
 , son ; but the necessary, though dangerous, institution 
 i of guards, was soon restored on a new model by Se- 
 i verus, and increased to four times the ancient number." 
 Formerly these troops had been recruited in Italy; and 
 as the adjacent provinces gradually imbibed the softer 
 manner of Rome, the levies were extended to Mace- 
 donia, Noricum, and Spain. In the room of these 
 elegant troops, better adapted to the pomp of courts 
 than to the uses of war, it was established by Severus, 
 that from all the legions of the frontiers, the soldiers 
 most distinguished for strength, valour, and fidelity, 
 should be occasionally draughted ; and promoted, as 
 an honour and reward, into the more eligible service 
 of the guards.' By this new institution, the Italian 
 youth were diverted from the exercise of arms, and 
 the capital was terrified by the strange aspect and 
 manners of a multitude of barbarians. But Severus 
 flattered himself, that the legions would consider these 
 chosen praetorians as the representatives of the whole 
 military order; and that the present aid of fifty thou- 
 sand men, superior in arms and appointments to any 
 force that could be brought into the field against them, 
 would for ever crush the hopes of rebellion", and secure 
 the empire to himself and his posterity. 
 The office of '^^^ command of these favo^lred and 
 prntorian pre- formidable troops soon became the first 
 feet. office of the empire. As the government 
 
 degenerated into military despotism, the przetorian 
 praefect, who in his origin had been a simple captain 
 of the guards,^ was placed, not only at the head of the 
 army, but of the finances, and even of the law. In 
 every department of administration, he represented the 
 person, and exercised the authority, of the emperor. 
 The first praefect who enjoyed and abused this immense 
 power was Plautianus, the favourite minister of Se- 
 verus. His reign lasted above ten years, till the 
 marriage of his daughter with the eldest son of the 
 emperor, which seemed to assure, his fortune, proved 
 the occasion of his ruin.* The animosities of the 
 palace, by irritating the ambition and alarming the 
 fears of Plautianus, threatened to produce a revolution, 
 and obliged the emperor, who still loved him, to con- 
 
 u [Not of the army in general, but of the troops in Gaul. Even 
 this letter and its contents seem to prove that Severus had determined 
 to re-establish the discipline of the army. Herodian is the only his- 
 torian who accuses him of having been tlie first cause of its remiss- 
 ness.— G.l 
 
 » Hist. August, p. 73. 
 
 w Herodian. I. iii. p. 131. 
 
 * Dion.l. Ixxiv. p. 1243. 
 
 y [The Prefect of the Praetorians had never been a mere captain of 
 the feuards. From the moment of the crtation of this office under 
 Aujiuatus, It was one of great power. This emperor also command- 
 ed that there should always be two Prefects of the Praetorian guard 
 who should be chosen from the equestrian rank only. Tiberius first 
 discarded the first pan of this ordinance. Alexander Severus vio 
 lated the second by appointing prefocts from among the senators. 
 It appears that it was under Commodus that the prefects of the 
 Pniitonan obtained their power over the civil jurisdiction— this ex- 
 tended only over Italy, with the exception of Rome and its territory 
 which was under the command of the prefect of the city. As to the 
 direction of the finances, and of the deduction of imposts, it was not 
 entrusted to them till after the great changes made by the first Con 
 Btantine in his organization of the empire, at least I know of no 
 passage which attributes it to them before this time, and Draken- 
 borch. who has discussed this question in his dissertation £>e officio 
 Prceftctorum prcBtorio, (c. vi.) mentions none.— O.] 
 
 s One of his most daring and wanton acfs of power, was the castra- 
 tion of an hundred free Romans, some of them married men, and 
 even fathers of families ; merely that his daughter, on her marriage 
 with the young emperor, might be attended by a train of eunuchs 
 wortliy of an eastern queen. Dion, I. Ixxvi. p. 1871. 
 
 sent with reluctance to his death.' After the fall of 
 Plautianus, an eminent lawyer, the celebrated Papi- 
 nian, was appointed to execute the motley office of 
 praitorian praefect. 
 
 Till the reign of Severus, the virtue The senate op- 
 and even the good sense of the emperors pressed by miii. 
 had been distinguished by their zeal or ^^'^ despotism, 
 affected reverence for the senate, and by a tender 
 regard to the nice frame of civil policy instituted by 
 Augustus. But the youth of Severus had been trained 
 in the implicit obedience of camps, and his riper years 
 spent in the despotism of military command. His 
 haughty and inflexible spirit could not discover, or 
 would not acknowledge, the advantage of preservina 
 an intermediate power, however imaginary, between 
 the emperor and the army. He disdained to profess 
 himself the servant of an assembly that detested his 
 person and trembled at his frown ; he issued his com- 
 mands, where his request would have proved as eflfec- 
 tual ; assumed the conduct and style of a sovereign 
 and a conqueror, and exercised, without disguise, the 
 whole legislative as well as the executive power. 
 The victory over the senate was easy ^r - ^ 
 
 1 : 1 • r^ 1 ^ New maxims of 
 
 and inglorious. Every eye and every the imperial pre- 
 
 passion were directed to the supreme rogative. 
 magistrate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the 
 state; whilst the senate, neither elected by the people, 
 nor guarded by military force, nor animated by public 
 spirit, rested its declining authority on the frail and 
 crumbling basis of ancient opinion. The fine theory 
 of a republic insensibly vanished, and made way for 
 the more natural and substantial feelings of monarchy. 
 As the freedom and honours of Rome were successively 
 communicated to the provinces, in which the old go- 
 vernment had been either unknown, or was remember- 
 ed with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims 
 was gradually obliterated. The Greek historians of 
 the age of the Antonines'' observe, with a malicious 
 pleasure, that although the sovereign of Rome, in 
 compliance with an obsolete prejudice, abstained from 
 the name of king, he possessed the full measure of 
 regal power. In the reign of Severus, the senate was 
 filled with polished and eloquent slaves from the 
 eastern provinces, who justified personal flattery by 
 speculative principles of servitude. These new advo- 
 cates of prerogative were heard with pleasure by the 
 court, and with patience by the people, when they in- 
 culcated the duty of passive obedience, and descanted 
 on the inevitable mischiefs of freedom. The lawyers 
 and the historians concurred in teaching, that the 
 imperial authority was held, not by the delegated com- 
 mission, but by the irrevocable resignation, of the 
 senate; that the emperor was freed from the restraint 
 of civil laws, could command by his arbitrary will the 
 lives and fortunes of his subjects, and might dispose 
 of the empire as of his private patrimony.' The most 
 eminent of the civil lawyers, and particularly Papinian, 
 Paulus, and Ulpian, flourished under the house of Se- 
 verus; and the Roman jurisprudence having closely 
 united itself with the system of monarchy, was sup- 
 posed to have attained its full maturity and perfection. 
 
 a Dion. 1. Ixxvi. p. 1274. Herodian, F. iii. p. 122. 129. The gram 
 marian of Alexandria seems, as it is not unusual, much better ac- 
 quainted with this mysterious transaction, and more assured of the 
 guilt of Plautianus, than the Roman senator ventures to be. 
 
 [Plautianus was a countryman, a kinsman, and an old friend of 
 Severus ; he had so entirely obtained the confidence of the emperor, 
 that he was ignorant of the abuse he made of his power. Neverthe- 
 less, Severus was at last informed of it, and began from that time to 
 place him under more restraint. The marriage of Plautilla with 
 Caracalla, was unfortunate, and this prince, who had been induced 
 by force to consent to it. threatened both father and daughter that 
 he would destroy them as soon as he should ascend the throne. Af- 
 ter this Severus feared that Plautian would exert the power which 
 he still possessed against the imperial family, and therefore had him 
 slain in his presence, under pretext of the conspiracy which Dion 
 believes, or supposes to have existed. — O.] 
 
 b Appian, in Proem. 
 
 ' Dion Cassius seems to have written with no other view than to 
 form these opinions into an historical tyAem. The Pandects will 
 show how assiduously the lawyers, on their side, laboured iu the 
 cause of prerogative. 
 
 The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of 
 the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties 
 by which it had been introduced. Posterity, who 
 experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and ex- 
 ample, justly considered him as the principal author 
 of the decline of the Roman empire. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Death of Sevenis. — Tyranny of Caracalla. — Usur- 
 pation of Macrinus. — Follies of Ela^abalus. — Virtues 
 
 of Alexander Severus. — Licentiousness of the Army. 
 
 General State of the Roman Finances. 
 
 Greatness and ^^^ ascent to greatness, however steep 
 discontent of and dangerous, may entertain an active 
 Severus. gpi^it with the consoiousness and exer- 
 cise of its own powers; but the possession of a throne 
 coiild never yet aff'ord a lasting satisfaction to an am- 
 bitious mind. This melancholy truth was felt and ac- 
 knowledged by Severus. Fortune and merit had, 
 from an humble station, elevated him to the first place 
 among mankind. ** He had been all things," as he 
 said himself, "and all was of little value."* Dis- 
 tracted with the care, not of acquiring, but of preserv- 
 ing, an empire, oppressed with age and infirmities, 
 careless of fame,** and satiated with power, all his 
 prospects of life were closed. The desire of perpe- 
 tuating the greatness of his family, was the only re- 
 maining wish of his ambition and paternal tenderness. 
 His wife the cm- Like most of the Africans, Severus 
 press Julia. ^as passionately addicted to the vain 
 studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in the 
 interpretation of dreams and omens, and perfectly ac- 
 quainted with the science of judicial astrology; which, 
 in almost every age except the present, has maintained 
 its dominion over the mind of man. He had lost his 
 first wife, whilst he was governor of the Lionnese 
 Gaul.'= In the choice of a second, he sought only to 
 connect himself with some favourite of fortune ; and 
 as soon as he had discovered that a young lady of E me- 
 sa, in Syria, had a royal nativity, he solicited, and ob- 
 tained her hand."* Julia Domna (for that was her 
 name) deserved all that the stars could promise her. 
 She possessed, even in an advanced age, the attrac- 
 tions of beauty,' and united to a lively imagination, a 
 firmness of mind, and strength of judgment, seldom 
 bestowed on her sex. Her amiable qualities never 
 made any deep impression on the dark and jealous 
 temper of her husband ; but in her son's reign, she ad- 
 ministered the principal aflfairs of the empire, with a 
 prudence, that supported his authority; and with a 
 moderation that sometimes corrected his wild extrava- 
 gances.' Julia applied herself to letters and philoso- 
 phy with some success, and with the most splendid 
 reputation. She was the patroness of every art, and 
 the friend of every man of genius.* The grateful flat- 
 tery of the learned, has celebrated her virtue; but, if 
 we may credit the scandal of ancient history, chastity 
 was very far from being the most conspicuous virtue 
 of the empress Julia.'' 
 
 Their two sons, Two SOUS, Caracalla' and Geta, were 
 
 Caracalla and the fruit of this marriage, and the des- 
 
 ^''^*' tined heirs of the empire. The fond 
 
 * ".'*'• August, p. 71. " Omnia fui, et nihil expedit." 
 
 bDion Cassius, I. Ixxvii. p. 1284. 
 
 « About the year 186, M. de Tiliemont is miserably embarrassed 
 with a passage uf Dion, in which the empress Faustina, who died in 
 the year 175, is introduced as having contributed to the marriage of 
 Beveriis. and Julia. (1. Ixxiv. p. 1243.) The learned compiler forgot, 
 inat Dion is relating, not a real fact, but a dream of Severus; and 
 oreams are circumscribed to no limits of time or space. Did M. de 
 i illemont imagine that marriages were conaummated in the temple 
 01 Venus at Rome ? Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 389. Note 6. 
 
 d Hist. August, p. 65. e Hist. August, p. 85. 
 
 f Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1304, 1314. 
 
 C See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his edition of Diogenes 
 LAertius, de Fobminis Philoeophis. 
 
 "Dion,!. Ixxvi. p. 1285.' Aurelius Victor. 
 
 » Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of his maternal 
 
 hopes of the father, and of the Roman world, were 
 sooii disappointed by these vain youths, who displayed 
 the indolent security of hereditary princes; and a pre- 
 sumption that fortune would supply the place of merit 
 and application. Without any emulation of virtue or 
 talents, they discovered, almost from their infancy, a 
 fixed and implacable antipathy for each .n 
 
 ,^♦1,,.^ T^u • • / ^^ '-"^" Their mutual 
 
 Other. 1 heir aversion, confirmed by years, aversion to 
 and fomented by the arts of their inte- *»'^*' o^*^®""- 
 rested favourites, broke out in childish, and gradually 
 in more serious, competitions; and, at length, divided 
 the theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions ; 
 actuated by the hopes and fears of their respective 
 leaders. The prudent emperor endeavoured, by every 
 expedient of advice and authority, to allay this grow- 
 ing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons 
 clouded all his prospects, and threatened to overturn a 
 throne raised with so much labour, cemented with so 
 much blood, and guarded with every defence of arms 
 and treasure. With an impartial hand he maintained 
 between them an exact balance of favour, conferred on 
 both the rank of Augustus, with the revered name of 
 Antoninus ; and for the first time the Ro- 
 man world beheld three emperors."^ Yet '^•''*^^ emi>erors. 
 even this equal conduct served only to inflame the 
 contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the right 
 of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the 
 affections of the people and the soldiers. In the an- 
 guish of a disappointed father, Severus foretold, that 
 the weaker of his sons would fall a sacrifice to the 
 stronger ; who, in his turn, would be ruined by his 
 own vices.' 
 
 In these circumstances the intelli- The Caledonian 
 gence of a war in Britain, and of an in- war, a. d. 208. 
 vasion of the province by the barbarians of the North, 
 was received with pleasure by Severus. Though the 
 vigilance of his lieutenants might have been sufficient 
 to repel the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the 
 honourable pretext of withdrawing his sons from the 
 luxury of Rome, which enervated their minds and irri- 
 tated their passions ; and of inuring their youth to the 
 toils of war and government. Notwithstanding his 
 advanced age (for he was above three-score) and his 
 gout, which obliged him to be carried in a litter, he 
 transported himself in person into that remote island, 
 attended by his two sons, his whole court, and a for- 
 midable army. He immediately passed the walls of 
 Hadrian and Antoninus, and entered the enemy's coun- 
 try, with a design of completing the long-attempted 
 conquest of Britain. He penetrated to the northern 
 extremity of the island, without meeting an enemy. 
 But the concealed ambuscades of the Caledonians, 
 who hung unseen on the rear and flanks of his army, 
 the coldness of the climate, and the severity of a winter 
 march across the hills and morasses of Scotland, are 
 reported to have cost the Romans above fifty thousand 
 men. The Caledonians at length yielded to the power- 
 ful and obstinate attack, sued for peace, and surren- 
 dered a part of their arms, and a large tract of territory. 
 But their apparent submission lasted no longer than 
 the present terror. As soon as the Roman legions had 
 retired, they resumed their hostile independence. Their 
 restless spirit provoked Severus to send a new army 
 into Caledonia, with the most bloody orders, not to 
 subdue but to extirpate the natives. They were saved 
 by the death of their haughty enemy.™ 
 
 This Caledonian war, neither marked Fingal and hit 
 by decisive events, nor attended with any heroes. 
 
 grandfather. During his reign he assumed the appellation of Anto- 
 ninus, which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. After 
 his death, the public indignation loaded him with the nick names of 
 Tarantus and Caracalla. The first was borrowed from a celebrated 
 Gladiator, the second from a long Gallic gown which he distributed 
 to the people of Rome. 
 
 k The elevation of Caracalla is fixed by the accurate M. de Tilie- 
 mont to the year 198 : the association of Geta to the year 208. 
 
 1 Herodian, I. iii. p. 130. The Lives of Caracalla and Geta, in th« 
 Augustan History. 
 
 m Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1280, «tc. Herodian, 1. Iii, p. 132, &c. 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 ■^ 
 
56 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 important consequences, would ill deserve our atten- 
 tion; but it is supposed, not without a considerable 
 degree of probability, that the invasion of Sevcrus is 
 connected with the most shining period of the British 
 history or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his 
 heroes and bards, has been revived in our language by 
 a recent publication, is said to have commanded the 
 Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have elu- 
 ded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a 
 signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the 
 son of the King of the IVorid, Caracul, fled from his 
 arms along the fields of his pride." Something of a 
 doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland tradi- 
 tions ; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most in- 
 Contrast of the ffcnious researches of modern criticism :° 
 CaiffJonians and but if we could, with safety, indulge the 
 the Romans. pleasing Supposition, that Fingal lived, 
 and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the 
 situation and manners of the contendinu nations miffht 
 amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be 
 little to the advantage of the more civilized people, if 
 we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severiis with 
 the generous clemency of Fingal ; the timid and brutal 
 cruelty of Caracalla with the bravery, the tenderness, 
 the elegant genius of Ossian; the mercenary chiefs 
 who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the 
 imperial standard, with the free-born warriors who 
 started to arms at the voice of the king of Morven ; if, 
 in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians, 
 glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the 
 degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of 
 wealth and slavery. 
 Amiiition of The declining health and last illness 
 Caracalla. of Severus inflamed the wild ambition 
 and black passions of Caracalla's soul. Impatient of 
 any delay or division of empire, he attempted, more 
 than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father's 
 days, and endeavoured, but without success, to excite 
 a mutiny among the troops.P The old emperor had 
 often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, 
 by a single act of justice, might have saved the Ro- 
 mans from the tyranny of his worthless son. Placed 
 in the same situation, he experienced how easily the 
 rigour of a judofe dissolves away in the tenderness of 
 a parent. He deliberated, he threatened, but he could 
 not punish ; and this last and only instance of mercy 
 was more fatal to the empire than a long series of 
 Death of Srve- cruelty .1 The discord of his mind irri- 
 riis, and acres- tated the pains of his body; he wished 
 liTn"/*"'"' *'''° impatiently for death, and hastened the 
 A. I) 211. instant of it by his impatience. He 
 4th Fei.ruary. expired at York, in the sixty-fifth year 
 of his life, and in the eighteenth of a glorious and suc- 
 cessful reign. In his last moments he recommended 
 concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The 
 salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the 
 understanding, of the impetuous youths; but the more 
 obedient troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance, 
 and of the authority of their deceased master, resisted 
 the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both 
 brothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon 
 left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, 
 celebrated their father's funeral with divine honours, 
 and were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sove- 
 reigns, by the senate, the people, and the provinces. 
 Some pre-eminence of rank seems to have been al- 
 
 n Ossian's Poems, vol. i. p. 175. 
 
 ° That tho Caracul of Ossian is tlie Caracalla of the Roman His- 
 tory, is, perhaps, the only point of British antiquity in which Mr. 
 Mncpherson and Mr. Whitaker are of the same opinion; and yet the 
 opinion is not without difficulty. In the Caledonian war, the son 
 of Scveru"* was known only hy the appellation of Antoniufi, and it 
 in:iy f-eem atrango, that the Hi<;hland hard should descrihe him by a 
 nicicnanie, invented four years afterwards, scarcely used by the 
 Romans till after the death of that emperor, and seldom employed 
 by the most ancient historians. See Dion, I. Ixxvii. p. 1317, Hist. 
 Aufrust. p. 89. Aurel. Victor. Eusrh. in Chron. ad ann. '214. 
 
 P Dion, I. Ixxvi. p. 1282. Mist. Aueust. p. 71. Aurel. Victor. 
 
 q Dion, I. Lvxvi. p. 1283. Hist. August, p. 89. 
 
 lowed to the elder brother ; but they both administered 
 the empire with equal and independent power.' 
 
 Such a divided form of government j^aj^ugy ^^^ ^j. 
 would have proved a source of discord tred of the two 
 between the most affectionate brothers, emperors. 
 It was impossible that it could long subsist between 
 two implacable enemies, who neither desired nor could 
 trust a reconciliation. It was visible that one only 
 could reijrn, and that the other must fall ; and each of 
 I them, judging of his rival's designs by his own, 
 guarded his life with the most jealous vigilance from 
 j the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their 
 rapid journey through Gaul and Italy, during which 
 I they never ate at the same table, or slept in the same 
 j house, displayed to the provinces the odious spectacle 
 I of fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome, they 
 ! immediately divided the vast extent of the imperial 
 I palace.* No communication was allowed between 
 their apartments ; the doors and passages were dili- 
 gently fortified, and guards posted and relieved with 
 the same strictness as in a besieged place. The em- 
 perors met only in public, in the presence of their 
 afllicted mother ; and each surrounded by a numerous 
 train of armed followers. Even on these occasions 
 of ceremony, the dissimulation of courts could ill dis- 
 guise the rancour of their hearts.* 
 
 This latent civil war already distract- „ ... 
 J . , , . 1 "^ 1 Fruitless nego- 
 
 ed the whole government, when a scheme tiotionfordivid- 
 
 was suggested that seemed of mutual ben- >"{? t*'c empire 
 efit to the hostile brothers. It was propos- ''^*'''^^" *''*^'"- 
 cd, that since it was impossible to reconcile their minds, 
 they should separate their interest and divide the em- 
 pire between them. The conditions of the treaty were 
 already drawn with some accuracy. It was agreed, 
 that Caracalla, as the elder brother, should remain 
 in possession of Europe and the western Africa ; and 
 that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and 
 Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alex- 
 andria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself 
 in wealth and greatness ; that numerous armies should 
 be constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian 
 Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival mon- 
 archies ; and that the senators of European extraction 
 should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst 
 the natives of Asia followed the Emperor of the East. 
 The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the nego- 
 tiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman 
 breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty 
 mass of conquest was so intimately united by the 
 hand of time and policy, that it required the most 
 forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had 
 reason to dread, that the disjointed members would 
 soon be reduced by a civil war under the dominion of 
 one master ; but if the separation was permanent, the 
 division of the provinces must terminate in the disso- 
 lution of an empire whose unity had hitherto remained 
 inviolate." 
 
 Had the treaty been carried into exe- Murder of Geta 
 cution, the sovereign of Europe might A. D. 212, 
 soon have been the conqueror of Asia ; ^^^ February, 
 but Caracalla obtained an easier though a more guilty 
 
 >■ Dion, I. Ixxvi. p. 1284. Herodian, I. iii. p, 135. 
 
 • Mr. Hume is justly surpripod at a passage of Herodian (I. iv. p. 
 139.) who, on this occasion, represents the imperial palace as equal 
 in extent to the rest of Rome. The whole region of the Palatine 
 Mount on which it was built, occupied, at most, a circumference of 
 eleven or twelve thousand feet. (See the Notitia and Victor, in 
 NardiuTs Roma Antica.) But we should recollect that the opulent 
 senators had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gar- 
 dens and superb palaces, the greatest part of which had been gra- 
 dually confiscated by the emperors. If Geta resided in the gardens 
 that bore his name on the Janiculum, and if Caracalla inhabited the 
 gardens of Maecenas on the Esquiline, the rival brothers were se- 
 parated from each other by the distance of several miles; and yet 
 the intermediate space was filled by the imperial gardens of Sailust, 
 of Lucullus, of Agrippa,ofDomitian,ofCaiu8, &c. all skirling round 
 the city, and all connected with each other, and with the palace, by 
 bridges thrown over the Tiber and the streets. But this explana- 
 tion of Herodian would require, though it ill deserves, a particular 
 dissertation, illustrated by a map of ancient Rome. 
 
 t Herodian,!, iv. p. 139. 
 
 "Herodian, I. iv. p. 144. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 I 
 
 victory. He artfully listened to his mother's entrea- 
 ties, and consented to meet his brother in her apart- 
 ment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the 
 raidst of their conversation, some centurions, who had 
 contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn 
 swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted 
 mother strove to protect him in her arms ; but, in the 
 unavailing struggle, she was w^ounded in the hand, 
 and covered with the blood of her younger son, while 
 she saw the elder animating and assistino-v the fury 
 of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpe- 
 trated, Caracalla, with hasty steps, and horror in his 
 countenance, ran towards the praetorian camp as his 
 only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before 
 the statues of the tutelar deities." The soldiers at- 
 tempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and dis- 
 ordered words he informed them of his imminent dan- 
 ger and fortunate escape ; insinuating that he had pre- 
 vented the designs of his enemy, and declared his 
 resolution to live and die with his faithful troops. 
 Geta had been the favourite of the soldiers ; but com- 
 plaint was useless, revenge w^as dangerous, and they 
 still reverenced the son of Severus. Their discontent 
 died away in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon con- 
 vinced them of the justice of his cause, by distributino- 
 m one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of 
 his father's reign.J* The real sentitnents of the soldiers 
 alone were of importance to his power or safety. 
 1 heir declaration in his favour commanded the dutiful 
 professions of the senate. The obsequious assembly 
 was always prepared to ratify the decision of fortune ; 
 but as Caracalla wished to assuage the first emotions 
 of public indignation, the name of Geta was mention- 
 ed with decency, and he received the funeral honours 
 of a Roman emperor.^ Posterity, in pity to his mis- 
 fortune, has cast a veil over his vices. We consider 
 that young prince as the innocent victim of his broth- 
 er s ambition, without recollecting that he himself 
 wanted power, rather than inclination, to consummate 
 the same attempts of revenge and murder.* 
 Remorse and cru- The Crime Went not unpunished, 
 ei.y of Caracalla. Neither busincss, nor pleasure, nor 
 flattery could defend Caracalla from the stinas of a 
 guilty conscience ; and he confessed, in the ano-uish 
 of a tortured mind, that his disordered fancy "often 
 beheld the angry forms of his father and his brother 
 rising into life, to threaten and upbraid him.'' The 
 consciousness of his crime should have induced him 
 to convince mankind, by the virtues of his reio-n, that 
 the bloody deed had been the involuntary effect of 
 fatal necessity. But the repentance of Caracalla only 
 prompted him to remove from the world whatever 
 could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory 
 of his murdered brother. On his return from the sen- 
 ate to the palace, he found his mother in company of 
 several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate 
 ot her younger son. The jealous emperor threatened 
 them with instant death ; the sentence was executed 
 against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the 
 emperor Marcus; and even the afflicted Julia was 
 obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her 
 sighs, and to receive the assassin with smiles of joy 
 
 57 
 
 and approbation. It was computed that under the 
 vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above twenty ' 
 thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His 
 pards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious 
 business, and the companions of his looser hours, 
 those who by his interest had been promoted to any 
 commands m the army or provinces, with the lonff- 
 connected chain of their dependants, were included fn 
 the proscription ; which endeavoured to reach every 
 one wlio had maintained the smallest correspondence 
 with Geta, who lamented his death, or who even men- 
 tioned his name.'^ Helvius Pertinax, son to the prince 
 ot that name, lost his life by an unseasonable witti- 
 cism. It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus 
 to be descended from a family in which the love of 
 liberty seemed an hereditary quality/ The particular 
 causes of calumny and suspicion were at length ex- 
 hausted ; and when a senator was accused of beino- a 
 secret enemy to the government, the emperor was sat- 
 isfied with the general proof that he was a man of 
 property and virtue. From this well-grounded princi- 
 ple he frequently drew the most bloody inferences. 
 
 The execution of so many innocent D^^th of PanJ 
 citizens was bewailed by the secret nian. ^ 
 
 tears of their friends and families. The death of Pa- 
 pinian, the praetorian praefect, was lamented as a pub- 
 lic calamity. During the last seven years of Severus, 
 he had exercised the most important offices of the 
 state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the empe- 
 ror s steps m the paths of justice and moderation. In 
 full assurance of his virtues and abilities, Severus on 
 ins death-bed had conjured him to watch over the 
 prosperity and union of the imperial family.' The 
 honest labours of Papinian served only to inflame the 
 hatred which Caracalla had already conceived against 
 his father s minister. After the murder of Getl, the 
 praefect was commanded to exert the powers of his 
 skill and eloquence in a studied apolog>' for that 
 atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had con- 
 descended to compose a similar epistle to the Sen- 
 ate, m the name of the son and assassin of Aorippi- 
 na ;5 " that it was easier to commit than to justify a 
 parricide," was the glorious reply of Papinian," who 
 did not hesitate between the loss of life and that of 
 honour. Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure 
 and unsullied from the intrigues of courts, the habits 
 of business, and the arts of his profession, reflects 
 
 wK:?""!"". •^o"'«"a»cd' "• the temple of Scrapis, the sword, with 
 rir ' " ^^ ''°'"""^' ''^ ^""^ '''^'" *■'» ^'°^^^' Geti. Dion. 1. Ixxvii. p 
 
 chni!^l'^i"";i'' ' K P'^ '^'''- ^" ''y^y ^"'"*" *'«'"? ♦f'ere was a small 
 cha^l near the hoad-quarters, in which the statue* of the tutelary 
 
 *a"lr. ^.^H'^^""^'''^ *"'^ ?''°'^'^' ""'^ ^« ^^^y remark, that the 
 tics ;,f""^S" .""•''""*' ^""»"''' "'^''^ •" <»»« fi^t rank of these dei- 
 
 oS'r.?i f.^r^llent institution, which confirmed discipline by the sane 
 tion of rnlij.,on. See Lipsius de Militia Romana, iv. 5, v. 2. 
 
 y Herodian, I. iv. p. 148. Dion I. Ixxvii. p. 1289. 
 
 Mdht^lTr^^lClrH'T"*^'*'^ ^°^'o, Sitrf,c«5, dum non sit vivns, 
 "ationnr/. If "'«»• August p. 21. Some marks of Geta's conse- 
 
 r^ ^ """ '"""d upon medals. 
 Tu'JZa^ fav""'*'')'' judgment which history has passed upon Geta is 
 writers of hi. r "'" •«"«''".«"t '-f pity alone-the te.tiiAony of he 
 theuwf.nH '"'''"T'''''*r"^'.«'"i"*^h «oved the pleasures of 
 h«m?n« : if """' .J'^V""" ""*• "U'piciuus of his brother, but he was 
 humane and learnod-he often sought to mitigate the cruel commands 
 of Wuj and of Caracalla. Herod. lib. iv. c. 3. 8partian'?n o"? 
 
 •» Dion,!. Ixxvii. p. 1307. 
 
 ^OL. I H 
 
 cDion.l.Ixxvii, p. 12P0. Herodian, I. iv. p. 150. Dion, (p. 1298 ^ 
 says, that the com.c poets no longer dorst employ the namo of Geta in 
 heir plays, and that the estates of those who mentioned it in their 
 testaments were confiscated. 
 
 d Caracalla had assumed the names of several conquered nation.' 
 Pertinax observed that the name of Oeticvs {he had obtained wme 
 
 thicus, Alomannicus, &c. Hist. Auguj«t. p. 89 
 
 nnll ' , f ^^'^^«^« P«;t"». tho«e patriots, who«; firm but useless and 
 unseasonable virtue has been immortalized by Tacitus. 
 
 \H^nih.\"yi "?\ *" commodity the value of whi.-h can I>e estimated 
 ike that ot capital, according to the profit which it brii.gs-her ereatest 
 riumph IS that^she does not become enfeebled even when she n^'rceiveg 
 herself useless for the public good, and misplaced in the midsVof sur- 
 rounding vices; such was that of Partus Thra^eas. Jfd pestremum 
 JVero virtntem tpsam exscmdere concupivit, interfccto Thrasea Paeto 
 Nero desired to destroy virtue itself in cutting off Thraseas Paetus •^ 
 (Tacitus. Ann. lib XVI. c. 21.) What a difference betiveen the cold 
 observation of Gibbon and the sentiment of admiration which inspired 
 Justus Lipsius when he exclaimed at the name of Thrascag-Sa/»e i 
 batve vtr maqve, et inter Rowanos sopienles sanctum mihi nomm ' 
 I^ magnum decus frallieo' gentis ; tu omamentvm romana' curia • tu 
 aureum sidus tencbrosi illius gvi. Tua inter homines, non kominif 
 vita; nova probitas constantia, grravitas et vifae mortisaue mgvabilis 
 tenor. Hail, hail illustrious man ! name sacred to me above all the 
 Koman sages— the honour of the Gallic nation, the ornament of the 
 Koman senate— the brilliant star of this dark age. Thy life was spent 
 indeed among men, but rained above humanity ; thy probity thine 
 deaX" "*^' thy wisdom in life are equalled only by ihy firmness in 
 
 Nero himself did not regard the virtue of Thraseas as useless, a 
 short time after the death of this resolute senator, whom he had as 
 much feared as hated, he made this reply to one who complained to 
 
 J Ij ""J""' manner with which Thraseas had decided a cause— 
 " I would that Thraseas were as much my friend as he is an upright 
 judge. E^MKo/in^ iv, ef»<ri*v «T«f f>i <?ixiiv if Stx»9-T)tf ifiAis 
 
 iTT.v (Plut. Afor. iroXiTiK* irttfrnyyiKfiotrm, c. 14.)— O.] 
 
 ^ It w said that Papinian was himself a relation of the 
 Julia. 
 
 s Tacit. Annal. ziv. 3. 
 
 k Hist. August, p. 8?, 
 
 % 
 
 ■^ 
 
 emprea 
 
 ii 
 
58 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 W' 
 
 more lustre on the memory of Papinian, than all his 
 great employments, his numerous writings, and the 
 superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has pre- 
 served through every age of the Roman jurispru- 
 dence.' 
 
 Hit tyranny ox- ^^ ^^^ hitherto been the peculiar 
 tended over the felicity of the Romans, and in the worst 
 whole empire. ^f ^jjjjgg ^j^^jj consolation, that the vir- 
 tue of the emperors was active, and their vice indo- 
 lent. Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus, vis- 
 ited their extensive dominions in person, and their 
 progress was marked by acts of wisdom and benefi- 
 cence. The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian, 
 who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the ad- 
 jacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and eques- 
 trian orders.J But Caracalla was the common enemy 
 of mankind. He left the capital [and he never re- 
 turned to it] about a year after tlie murder of Geta. 
 The rest of his rei^n was spent in the 
 several provinces of the empire, par- 
 ticularly those of the East, and every province was 
 by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty. The 
 senators, compelled by fear to attend his capricious 
 motions, were obliged to provide daily entertainments 
 at an immense expense, which he abandoned with 
 contempt to his guards ; and to erect, in every city, 
 magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either dis- 
 dained to visit, or ordered to be immediately thrown 
 down. The most wealthy families were ruined by 
 partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of 
 his subjects oppressed by ingenious and agjrvavated 
 taxes.^ In the midst of peace, and upon the slightest 
 provocation, he issued his commands, at Alexandria 
 in Egypt, for a general massacre. From a secure post 
 in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the 
 slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as stran- 
 gers, without distinguishing either the number or the 
 crime of the sufferers ; since, as he coolly inform- 
 ed the senate, a/I the Alexandrians, those who had 
 perished, and those who had escaped, were alike 
 guilty.^ 
 
 Relaxation of dis- The wisc instructions of Severus 
 cipline. never made any lasting impression on 
 
 the mind of his son, who, although not destitute of 
 imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of 
 judgment and humanity."* One dangerous maxim, 
 worthy of a tyrant, was remembered and abused by 
 Caracalla, " To secure the affections of the army, and 
 to esteem the rest of his subjects as of little mo- 
 ment."" But the liberality of the father had been 
 restrained by prudence, and his indulgence to the 
 troops was tempered by firmness and authority. The 
 careless profusion of the son was the policy of one 
 reign, and the inevitable ruin both of the army and 
 of the empire. The vigour of the soldiers, instead of 
 being confirmed by the severe discipline of camps, 
 
 i With regard tu Papinian, see Heinucciuti'ii Historia Juris Romuni, 
 I. 330, &o. 
 
 [ Papinian was not at that time Praetorian Prefect — Caracalla had 
 taken this office from him immediately after tho death of Sevcrns — 
 Such is tho account wiiich Dion gives, (p. 1'287,) and the testimony of 
 Spartianus, who gives the Prefecture to Papinian until the time of his 
 death, is of littlo force against that of a senator who then lived at 
 Rome. — O.] 
 
 j Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the neighbourhood of 
 Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. " Et lauiiatorum 
 principum usus ex lequo quamvis procul agcntibus. Baivi proximis 
 ingruunt." Tacit. Hist. iv. 75. 
 
 k Dion. 1. Ixxvii. p. 1294. 
 
 1 Dion, Ixxvii. p. 1307, Herodian, 1. iv. p. 158. The former rep- 
 resents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a perfidious one too. It 
 icemn probable, that tho Alexandrians had irritated the tyrant by their 
 railleries, and perhaps by their tumults. 
 
 [ After these masitacres, Caracalla al.xo deprived the Alexandrians 
 (if their pageants and their public feasts — he divided the city into two 
 parts, by means of a wall— he surrounded it with fortresses, that the 
 citizens might no more peaceably have intercourKO from abroad. 
 Thus, says Dion, was unhappy Alexandria treated by the ferocious 
 / boar of Ausonia — Such was in fact the epithet bestowed upon Cara- 
 ' calla by the oracle — it is even said that he was much delighted with 
 this name, and often boasted of it. (Dion, lib. Ixxvii. p. 1307.)— G.] 
 
 B Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1296. 
 
 n Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1284. Mr. Wotton (Flist. of Rome, p. 330,) sus- 
 pects that this maxim was invented by Caracalla himself, and attribu- 
 ted to his father. 
 
 melted away in the luxuries of cities. The excessive 
 increase of their pay and donatives,** exhausted the 
 state to enrich the military order, wliose modesty in 
 peace, and service in war, are best secured by an hon- 
 ourable poverty. The demeanour of Caracalla was 
 haughty and full of pride ; but with the troops he for- 
 got even the proper dignity of his rank, encouraged 
 their insolent familiarity, and, neglecting the essential 
 duties of a general, affected to imitate the dress and 
 manners of a common soldier. 
 
 It was impossible that siich a charac- j^j^^j^^ ^^ ^^^^ 
 ter, and such conduct as that of Cara- caiia. 
 calla, could inspire either love or es- A. p. 217- 
 
 . t . 1 *^ u- • 8tl» March. 
 
 teem ; but as long as his vices were 
 beneficial to the armies, he was secure from the dan- 
 ger of rebellion. A secret conspiracy, provoked by 
 his own jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant. The prae- 
 torian pra?fecture was divided between two ministers. 
 The military department was intrusted to Adventus, 
 an experienced rather than an able soldier ; and the 
 civil affairs were transacted by Opilius Macrinus, who, 
 by his dexterity in business, had raised himself, with 
 a fair character, to that high office. But his favour 
 varied with the caprice of the emperor, and his life 
 might depend on the slightest suspicion, or the most 
 casual circumstance. Malice or fanaticism had sug- 
 gested to an African, deeply skilled in the knowledge 
 of futurity, a very dangerous prediction, that Macrinus 
 and his son were destined to reign over the empire. 
 The report was soon diffused through the province ; 
 and when the man was sent in chains to Rome, he still 
 asserted, in the presence of the praefect of the city, the 
 faith of his prophecy. That magistrate, who had re- 
 ceived the most pressing instructions to inform him- 
 self of the successors of Caracalla, immediate communi- 
 cated the examination of the African to the imperial 
 court, which at that time resided in Syria. But, not- 
 withstanding the diligence of the public messengers, 
 a friend of Macrinus found means to apprize him of 
 the approaching danger. The emperor received the 
 letters from Rome ; and as he was then engaged in 
 the conduct of a chariot race, he delivered them un- 
 opened to the praetorian praefect, directing him to des- 
 patch the ordinary affairs, and to report the more im- 
 portant business that might be contained in them. 
 Macrinus read his fate, and resolved to prevent it. He 
 inflamed the discontents of some inferior oflicers, and 
 employed the hand of Martialis, a desperate soldier, 
 who had been refused the rank of centurion. The de- 
 
 o Dion, (I. Ixxviii. p. 1343.) informs us, that the extraordinary gifts 
 of Carnculla to the army amounted annually to twenty millions of 
 drachma; (about two millions three hundred and fiAy thousand pounds.) 
 There is another passage in Dion, concerning the military pay, infinitely 
 curious; were it not obscure, imperfect, and probably corrupt. The 
 bust sense Koem.s to be, that the prietorian guards received twelve hun* 
 dred and fifty drachma;, (forty pounds) a year. (Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1307.) 
 Under the reign of Augustus, they were paid at the rate of two 
 drachms, or denarii, per day, 720 a year. (Tacit. Annal. i. 17.) Domi- 
 tian, who inereaHcd the soldiers' pay one-fourth, must have raised the 
 nra-'torians to 900 drachme. (Gronovius de Pecunia Vetcri, 1. iii. c. 2.) 
 These successive augmentations ruined the empire, for, with the sol- 
 diers' pay, thoir numbers too were increased. We have seen the prae- 
 torians alone increased from 10,000 to 50,000 men. 
 
 [ Valois and Reimarus have explained in a manner very simple and 
 probable, this passage from Dion, which Gibbon, as it appears to me, 
 did not understand : 
 
 u9p»x(«i rirxyfitvois if x«*-»*> Si**oa-i»( wivt>)icovt«, TO«f SiTrtvrmxit- 
 X»A.»M5 >.:*,u3iviiv (i9»|Ki.) (Dion, lib. Ixxvii. p. 1307.) *' He com- 
 manded that the soldiers should receive more than they had yet re 
 ceivcd, as the reward of their services, the Prstoriuns twelve hundred 
 and fifty drachms, and the others five thousand drachms." Valois 
 thinks that the numbers have been transposed, and that Caracalla 
 added to the gratuities uf the Prtetoriatts five thousand drachms, and 
 twelve hundred and fifty to those of the legionaries. The Praetorians 
 hud always received more than the other soldiers — the mistake of Gib- 
 bon is that he thought the annual pay of the soldiery was meant, 
 while the sum which thejr received at the moment of their discharge, 
 as the price of their services, was intended ; Hkov rijt o-TpjtTii«; sig- 
 nifies recompense for service. Augustus had ordained that the pre- 
 torians, after sixteen campaigns, should receive five thousand drachms ; 
 the legionaries received only three thousand after twenty years.— 
 Caracalla added five thousand drachms to tho gratuity of the Prcto- 
 rians, and twelve hundred and fifty to that of the legionaries. Gibbon 
 appears to have been negligent both in confounding the gratuity of the 
 discharge with the annual nay, and in paying no regard to tho observa- 
 tion of Valois concerning toe transposition of numbers in the text of 
 Dion.—O.] 
 
 votion of Caracalla prompted him to make a pilgrimao-e 
 from Edessa to the celebrated temple of the Moon at 
 Carrhae.P He was attended by a body of cavalry ; but 
 having stopped on the road for some necessary occa- 
 sion, his guards preserved a respectful distance, and 
 Martialis approaching his person under a pretence of 
 duty, stabbed him with a dagger. The bold assassin 
 was instantly killed by a Scythian archer of the im- 
 perial guard. Such was the end of a monster whose 
 life disgraced human nature, and whose reign accused 
 the patience of the Romans.*! The grateful soldiers 
 forgot his vices, remembered only his partial liber- 
 ality, and obliged the senate to prostitute their own 
 dignity and that of religion by granting him a place 
 Imitation of among the gods. Whilst he was upon 
 Alexander, earth, Alexander the Great was the only 
 hero whom this god deemed worthy his admiration. 
 He assumed the name and ensigns of Alexander, form- 
 ed a Macedonian plialanx of guards, persecuted the 
 disciples of Aristotle, and displayed with a puerile 
 enthusiasm the only sentiment by which he discovered 
 any regard for virtue or glory. We can easily con- 
 ceive, that after the battle of Narva, and the conquest 
 of Poland, Charles the Twelfth (though he still want- 
 ed the more elegant accomplishments of the son of 
 Phihp) might boast of having rivalled his valour and 
 magnanimity : but in no one action of his life did 
 Caracalla express the faintest resemblance of the Ma- 
 cedonian hero, except in the murder of a great number 
 of his own and of his father's friends.' 
 Election and After the extinction of the house of 
 mSus °^ Severus, the Roman world remained 
 three days without a master. The choice 
 of the army (for the authority of a distant and feeble 
 senate was little regarded) hung in anxious suspense ; 
 as no candidate presented himself whose distinguish- 
 ed birth and merit could engage their attachment and 
 unite their sufirages. The decisive weight of the prae- 
 torian guards elevated the hopes of their praefects, and 
 these powerful ministers began to assert their /eo-a/ 
 claim to fill the vacancy of the imperial throne. Ad- 
 ventus, however, the senior praefect, conscious of his 
 age and infirmities, of his small reputation, and his 
 smaller abilities, resigned the dangerous honour to the 
 crafty ambition of his colleague Macrinus, whose well 
 dissembled grief removed all suspicion of his beino- 
 accessary to his master's death.* The troops neithe'r 
 loved nor esteemed his character. They cast their 
 eyes around m search of a competitor, and at last 
 yielded with reluctance to his promises of unbounded 
 A. D. 217. liberality and indulgence. A short time 
 March 11. after his accession, he conferred on his 
 son Diadumenianus, at the age of only ten years, the 
 imperial title and the popular name of Antoninus. The 
 beautifnl figure of the youth, assisted by an additional 
 donative, for which the ceremony furnished a pretext, 
 might attract, it was hoped, the favour of the army, 
 and secure tlie doubtful throne of Macrinus. 
 Disconti'nt of The authority of the new sovereiffn 
 the senate. had been ratified by the cheerful sub- 
 mission of the senate and provinces. They exulted in 
 their unexpected deliverance from a hated tyrant, and 
 It seemed of little consequence to examine into the 
 virtues of the successor of Caracalla. But as soon as 
 the first transports of joy and surprise had subsided, 
 they began to scrutinize the merits of Macrinus with 
 a critical severity, and to arraign the hasty choice of 
 the army. It had hitherto been considered as a funda- 
 mental maxim of the constitution, that the emperor 
 
 totlh^Cf'^f^yi^T' "*',""' "^V^^"" ^"^""^'^ «"d NisibiH, celebrated 
 u^^ni ll I I rr^'"'- '• IT,*" ^'""^ t''e"«« »»'ttt Abraham departed 
 
 f^r^^s^a^la^Vritl^Srni-m'^J^^^^ "^'-^^ •>-» -™-^^^'' 
 
 r -rrr ^""'"r'i;^^^-'-., "«'<>'<•»"' '• iv. p. 1G8. 
 
 i. .tm nreserv^^^^^^^ ^% .u"" """"' ""'^ *^"'""""' ^^ Alexander. 
 
 IS iiiii preserved on the medals of that emperor. See Sounheim d« IJ«i. 
 
 Numisinatum, Di««rat. xii. Herodian (1. iv. p 1^ Uad seen verv 
 
 ndiculous pictures, in which a figure wai drawT.. with o^e . 5e of thJ 
 
 face like Alexander, and the ..ther like Caracalla. 
 
 • Herodian. 1, iv. p. 169. Hist. August, p 94. 
 
 59 
 
 must be always chosen in the senate, and the sove- 
 reign power, no longer exercised by the whole body, 
 was always delegated to one of its members. But 
 Macrinus was not a senator.' The sudden elevation 
 of the pr«torian priefects betrayed the meanness of 
 their origin; and the equestrian order was still in 
 possession of that great office, which commanded with 
 arbitrary sway the lives and fortunes of the senate. 
 A murmur of indignation was heard, that a man whose 
 obscure » extraction had never been illustrated by any 
 single service, should dare to invest himself with the 
 purple, instead of bestowing it on some distinguished 
 senator, equal in birth and dignity to the splendour of 
 the imperial station. As soon as the character of 
 Macrinus was surveyed by the sharp eye of discon- 
 tent, some vices, and many defects, were easily dis- 
 covered. The choice of his ministers was in many 
 cases justly censured, and the dissatisfied people, with 
 their usual candour, accused at once his indolent lame- 
 ness and his excessive severity.'' 
 
 His rash ambition had climbed a . , 
 height where it was diflicult to stand " '"°''* 
 with firmness, and impossible to fall without instant 
 destruction. Trained in the arts of courts and the 
 forms of civil business, he trembled in the presence 
 of the fierce and undisciplined multitude, over whom 
 he had assumed the command ; his military talents 
 were despised, and his personal courage suspected ; a 
 whisper that circulated in the camp, disclosed the fa- 
 tal secret of the conspiracy against the late emperor, 
 aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of 
 hypocrisy, and heightened contempt by detestation, 
 lo alienate the soldiers, and to provoke inevitable 
 ruin, the character of a reformer was only wanting ; 
 and such was the peculiar hardship of his fate, that 
 Macrinus was compelled to exercise that invidious 
 office. The prodigality of Caracalla had left behind 
 It a long train of ruin and disorder ; and if that worth- 
 less tyrant had been capable of reflecting on the sure 
 consequences of his own conduct, he would perhaps 
 have enjoyed the dark prospect of the distress and 
 calamities which he bequeathed to his successors. 
 
 In the management of this necessary 
 reformation, Macrinus proceeded with a t^mpts"rrefo;. 
 cautious prudence, which would have mationofthe 
 restored health and vigour to the Ro- *^""^- 
 man army, in an easy and almost imperceptible man- 
 ner. To the soldiers already engaged in the service, 
 he was constrained to leave the dangerous privileges 
 and extravagant pay given by Caracalla ; but the new 
 recruits were received on the more moderate though 
 liberal establishment of Severus, and gradually formed 
 to modesty and obedience.^ One fatal error destroyed 
 the salutary effects of this judicious plan. The nu- 
 merous army, assembled in the East by the late em- 
 peror, instead of being immediately dispersed by Ma- 
 crinus through the several provinces, was suflfered to 
 remain united in Syria, during the winter that follow- 
 ed his elevation. In the luxurious idleness of their 
 quarters, the troops viewed their strength and numbers 
 
 t Dion, 1. Ixxxviii. p. 1350. Elagabalus reproached his predecessor 
 
 fi!.V' h^'"^M" «*^t""T""'""/''"'*r"^' 'h°"g>'.as prffilorian p^! 
 feet, he could not have l)een admitted into the senate aft-r the voica of 
 the cryer had cleare.l the bouse. The por«onal favour of Plaufjw^u. 
 and Scjanus had broke through the established rule. The v row in 
 deed, from ti.e equestrian order; but thry preserved the pr«efecture 
 with the rank of senator, ond even with the consulship 
 
 u He was a native of CajKarea, in Numidia. and began his fortune I.» 
 serving in the household of Plautian, from whose ruin he nirrow J 
 escaned. His enemies asserted, that ho was born a slave, and hud exer- 
 cised, amongst other infamous professions, that of gladiator. The fashion 
 ofa-spersMigihe birth and condition of an adversary, seems to have 
 
 of'the llTti e ^""^ ^^""^ "'''^""' ^" ^''^ '''""^** grammarian 
 
 ' Both Dion and Herodian speak of the virtues and vices of Ma- 
 crinus with candour and impartiality ; but the author of his life, in the 
 Augustan history, seems to have implicitly copied some of the venal 
 writers employed by Elagabalus, to blacken the memory of his predeees- 
 
 w Dion, 1. Ixxxiii. p. 1336. The sense of the author is as dear as th« 
 intention of the emjieror ; but M. Wotton hat mistaken both bv un- 
 derstanding the distinction, not of veterans and recruits, but of old >n<< 
 new legions. History of Rome, p. 347. 
 
 % 
 
 
 % 
 
60 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 communicated their complaints, and revolved in their 
 minds the advantages of another revolution. The 
 veterans, instead of being flattered by the advantageous 
 distinction, were alarmed by the first steps of the em- 
 peror, which they considered as the presage of his fu- 
 ture intentions. The recruits, with sullen reluctance, 
 entered on a service, whose labours were increased 
 while its rewards were diminished by a covetous and 
 unwarlike sovereign. The murmurs of the army 
 swelled with impunity into seditious clamours ; and 
 the partial mutinies betrayed a spirit of discontent 
 and disaffection, that waited only for the slightest oc- 
 casion to break out on every side into a general rebel- 
 lion. To minds thus disposed, the occasion soon pre- 
 sented itself. 
 
 The empress Julia had experienced 
 piew'juiii EdS- a" the vicissitudes of fortune. From an 
 cation, pretcn- humble Station she had been raised to 
 ■ions, and revolt orreatness, onlv to taste the superior bit- 
 called at first Bag- temess oi an exalted rank, bhe v/as 
 •ianu» and Anto- doomed to weep over the death of one of 
 "'"""• her sons, and over the life of the other. 
 
 The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good sense 
 must have long taught her to expect it, awakened the 
 feelings of a mother, and of an empress. Notwith- 
 standing the respectful civility expressed by the 
 usurper towards the widow of Severus, she descended 
 with a painful struggle into the condition of a subject, 
 and soon withdrew herself, by a voluntary death, 
 from the anxious and humiliating dependence.* Julia 
 Maesa, her sister, was ordered to leave the court and 
 Antioch. She retired to Emesa with an immense for- 
 tune, the fruit of twenty years favour, accompanied 
 by her two daughters, Soaemias and Mamaea, each of 
 whom was a widow, and each had an only son. Bas- 
 sianus,^ for that was the name of the son of Soaemias, 
 was consecrated to the honourable ministry of high 
 priest of the Sun ; and this holy vocation, embraced 
 either from prudence or superstition, contributed to 
 raise the Syrian youth to the empire of Rome. A 
 numerous body of troops was stationed at Emesa ; and, 
 as the severe discipline of Macrinus had constrained 
 them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager 
 to revenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed hard- 
 ships. The soldiers, who resorted in crowds to the 
 temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight 
 the elegant dress and figure of the young pontiff; they 
 recognized, or they thought that they recognized, the 
 features of Caracalla, whose memory they now adored. 
 The artful Maesa saw and cherished their rising parti- 
 ality, and readily sacrificing her daughter's reputation 
 to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that 
 Bassianus was the natural son of their murdered 
 sovereign. The sums distributed by her emissaries 
 with a lavish hand, silenced every objection, and the 
 profusion sufficiently proved the affinity, or at least 
 the resemblance, of JBassianus with the great ori- 
 ginal. 
 
 A. D. 218. The young Antoninus (for he had as- 
 
 May 11. sunied and polluted that respectable 
 
 name) was declared emperor by the troops of Emesa, 
 
 asserted his hereditary ri^ht, and called aloud on the 
 
 armies to follow the standard of a young and liberal 
 
 X Dion. I.lxxviii. p. 1330. The abridgement nf Xiphiliii, though less 
 particular, is in this place clearer than the original, 
 
 [As soon as this princess heard of the death of Caracalla, she deter- 
 mined to die of hunger. Tlifi resj»ect shown her by Macrinus, in ma- 
 king no change in her retinue or her court, |)rri»uadcd her to live ; but 
 it seems at last that the mutilated text of Dion, and the imperfect 
 abridgenacnt of Xiphilin enable us to decide that she had conceived 
 ambitious projects, and endeavoured to raise herself to the throne. She 
 wished to imitate the example of 8emiramis and Nitocris, whose 
 country bounded u|X)u her own. Macrinus rommanded her forthwith to 
 leave Antioch and to retire wherever she chose. She then returned to 
 her former design, and vuluntariiy perished of hunger. (£>iion, 1. Ixxvii. 
 p. 13a0.)— O.] 
 
 7 [He took this name from his maternal erandfather, the father of 
 Julia Maesa, his ;*randmother, aiidof Juiia Domiia the wife of Severus. 
 Victor (in his Epitome) is perhaps tlie only historian who has given the 
 key of this genealogy in saying of Caracalla : Hie Bassianus ex art 
 materni nomint dictut. Caracalla, Elagabalus, and Alexander Severus 
 •a<:ccs«ive1y bore this namc<— O.] 
 
 prince, who had taken up arms to revenge his father's 
 death and the oppression of the military order.' 
 
 Whilst a conspiracy of women and Defeat and death 
 eunuchs was concerted with prudence, of Macrinus. 
 and conducted with rapid vigour, Macrinus, who, by 
 a decisive motion, might have crushed his infant ene- 
 my, floated between the opposite extremes of terror 
 and security, which alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. 
 A spirit of rebellion diffused itself through all the 
 camps and garrisons of Syria, successive detachments 
 murdered their officers,* and joined the party of the 
 rebels ; and the tardy restitution of pay and military 
 priviliges was imputed to the acknowledged weakness 
 of Macrinus. At length he marched out of Antioch, to 
 meet the increasing and zealous army of the young 
 pretender. His own troops seemed to a. d. 218. 
 take the field with faintness and reluc- 7th June, 
 tance ; but, in the heat of the battle,'' the praetorian 
 guards, almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the 
 superiority of their valour and discipline. The rebel 
 ranks were broken ; when the mother and grandmother 
 of the Syrian prince, who, according to their eastern 
 custom, had attended the army, threw themselves from 
 their covered chariots, and, by exciting the compassion 
 of the soldiers, endeavoured to animate their drooping 
 courage. Antoninus himself, who, in the rest of his 
 life, never acted like a man, in this important crisis of 
 his fate approved himself a hero, mounted his horse, 
 and, at the head of his rallied troops, charged sword 
 in hand among the thickest of the enemy ; whilst the 
 eunuch Gannys,* whose occupations had been confined 
 to female cares and the soft luxury of Asia, displayed 
 the talents of an able and experienced general. The 
 battle still raged with doubtful violence, and Macrinus 
 might have obtained the victory, had he not betrayed 
 his own cause by a shameful and precipitate flight. 
 His cowardice served only to protract his life a few 
 days, and to stamp deserved ignominy on his misfor- 
 tunes. It is scarcely necessary to add, that his son 
 Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate. As soon 
 as the stubborn praetorians could be convinced that 
 they fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, 
 they surrendered to the conqueror ; the contending par- 
 ties of the Roman army, mingling tears of joy and ten- 
 derness, united under the banners of the imagined son 
 of Caracalla, and the east acknowledged with pleasure 
 the first emperor of Asiatic extraction. 
 
 The letters of Macrinus had conde- Elagabaius wrlten 
 scended to inform the senate of the ^o »'»e senate, 
 slight disturbance occasioned by an impostor in Syria, 
 and a decree immediately passed, declaring the rebel 
 and his family public enemies ; with a promise of par- 
 don, however, to such of his deluded adherents as 
 should merit it by an immediate return to their duty. 
 During the twenty days that elapsed from the declara- 
 tion to the victory of Antoninus, (for in so short an 
 interval was the late of the Roman world decided,) the 
 capital and the provinces, more especially those of the 
 East, were distracted with hopes and fears, agitated 
 with tumult, and stained with a useless effusion of 
 civil blood, since whosoever of the rivals prevailed in 
 Syria must reign over the empire. The specious let- 
 ters in which the young conqueror announced his vic- 
 tory to the obedient senate, were filled with professions 
 
 I According to l^mpridius, (Hist. August, p. 135.) Alexander Seve- 
 rus lived twenty-nine years, three months, and seven days. As he was 
 killed March 19, 235, he was born D«jccmbcr 12, 205, and was conse- 
 quently about this time thirteen years old, as his elder cousin might bo 
 about seventeen- This computation suits much better the history of 
 the young princes than that of Hero<Iian, (I. v. p. 181.) who reprerenti 
 him as three years youn^jer ; whilst by an opposite error of chronology, 
 ho lengthens the reign of Elagabalus two years beyond its real duration. 
 For the particulars of the corn-piracy, see Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 133y. 
 ilerodian, 1. v. p. 184. 
 
 » By u most dangerous proclamation of the pretended Antoninus, 
 every soldier who brought in his officer's head became entitled to hi« 
 private estate, at* well as to his military commission. 
 
 b Dion, I. Ixxviii. p. 1345. Hcrodian, I. v. p. 186. The battle waa 
 fought near the village of ImmK, about twoandtwenty miles from 
 Antioch. 
 
 c [Gonnys wn$ not a aunuch, (Dien, p. 1355 ) — O.] 
 
 i 
 
 of virtue and moderation; the shining examples of 
 Marcus and Augustus he should ever consider as the 
 
 freat rule of his administration ; and he affected to 
 well with pride on the striking resemblance of his 
 own age and fortunes with those of Augustus, who in 
 the earliest youth had revenged by a successful war 
 the murder of his father. By adopting the style of 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, son of Antoninus and 
 grandson of Severus, he tacitly asserted his hereditary 
 claim to the empire; but, by assuming the tribunitian 
 and proconsular powers before they had been conferred 
 on him by a decree of the senate, he offended the delica- 
 cy of Roman prejudice. This new and injudicious vio- 
 lation of the <'X)nstitution was probably dictated either 
 by the ignorance of his Syrian courtiers, or the fierce 
 disdain of his military followers.** 
 Picture of Eiaga- ^^ ^^e attention of the new emperor 
 A ''n"oio ^'^^ diverted by the most trifling amuse- 
 • ^^ ' ments, he wasted many months in his 
 luxurious progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Ni- 
 comedia his first winter after his victory, and deferred 
 till the ensuing summer his triumphal entry into the 
 capital. A faithful picture, however, which preceded 
 his arrival, and was placed by his immediate order 
 over the altar of Victory in the senate-house, conveyed 
 to the Romans the just but unworthy resemblance of 
 his person and manners. He was drawn in his sacer- 
 dotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowino- 
 fashion of the Medes and Phoenicians; his head was 
 covered with a lofty tiara, his numerous collars and 
 bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable 
 value. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his 
 cheeks painted with an artificial red and white.* The 
 grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after having 
 long experienced the stern tyranny of their own coun- 
 trynaen, Rome was at length humbled beneath the ef- 
 feminate luxury of oriental despotism. 
 
 His superstition. _T!^^,^"^ "^'^^ T'Sf 'Pff ^\ ^T^^^ 
 
 under the name of Elagabalus,' and un- 
 der the form of a black conical stone, which, as it was 
 universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that 
 sacred place. To this protecting deity, Antoninus, 
 not without some reason, ascribed his elevation to the 
 throne. The display of superstitious gratitude was 
 the only serious business of his reign. The triumph 
 of the god of Emesa over all the religions of the earth, 
 was the great object of his zeal and vanity : and the 
 appellation of Elagabalus (for he presumed as pontiff 
 and favourite to adopt that sacred name) was dearer to 
 him than all the titles of imperial greatness. In a sol- 
 emn procession through the streets of Rome, the way 
 was strewed with gold dust; the- black stone, set in 
 precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six 
 milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious em- 
 peror held the reins, and, supported by his ministers, 
 moved slowly backwards, that he might perpetually 
 enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a mag- 
 nificent temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sa- 
 crifices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with 
 every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest 
 wines, the most extraordinary victims, and the rarest 
 aromatics, were profusely consumed on his altar. 
 
 «» Dion, I. Ixxix. p. 1.T53. 
 
 « Dion. I. Ixxix p. 13G3. Herodian, 1. v. p. 189. 
 
 GnA ^'^JTnV',^,'"']-''''^ K^^'^ ^^".'"^'^ '■'°™ ^^'^ Syriac words, Ela, a 
 oort, and Oafta/, to form, the forming, or plastic God, a proper and even 
 
 y-fUf.n^"' h^^' ?T Wotton's HisVory of Rome. pTs '" 
 
 diln call, IT tf *^'''"''"' '•? '**^'^" ^'''fiS»rod in various ways. Hero- 
 hive wittenir/V^w/;^'/ '■ ^V?''"*^'"'' ^""^ »'•« ™«'« '"Od^'n ^"ler« 
 nave written It Heliogabaliu. Dion names him B.KtyxZ*K<^g . but Ela- 
 
 gabalu, « his true name, that given him by the medals, (Eckhel, ie 
 G^L T\ yet. vol. VII p. 2.50.) As to its etymology that which 
 Suh mn^f'''* " ^/''^" ^^, ^^"'^ (^'"«" ^^ "• c- 5.) but si nTat us 
 P iLr r*""" "" • '"^ ^"?*/"'"^- '■« Elanab.) derives this name of 
 u^n the mii?.U 'i:\TT ""^ 'P" '^'"^ rep-resented by HerodirL^d 
 a7«rl ,^t K *' \^^ ^^"'® of a mountain. (Oibel in the Hebrew) or 
 a large rock hewn to a point with marks representin" the sun S^^iicp 
 U was not permitted at HieraHi« in Syria to make staJues ofX'sun 3 
 moon because, as they said, they are themselves sufficiently visible" ^he 
 •un wa. represented at Eme«sa under the figure of a gleaVrik wh ch 
 a. u apgared had fallen from heaven. (Spanheim, C**ar Preuvi'i 
 
 ei 
 
 Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed 
 their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music, 
 whilst the gravest personages of the state and army, 
 clothed in long Phcenician tunics, officiated in the 
 meanest functions, with affected zeal, and secret in- 
 di^nation.K 
 
 To this temple, as to the common centre of relio-ious 
 worship, the imperial fanatic attempted to remove the 
 Ancilia, the Palladium,'^ and all the sacred pledges of 
 the faith of Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended 
 in various stations the majesty of the god of Emesa • 
 but his court was still imperfect, till a female of dis- 
 tinguished rank was admitted to his bed. Pallas had 
 been first chosen for his consort ; but as it was dreaded 
 lest her warlike terrors might affright the soft delicacy 
 of a Syrian deity, the Moon, adored by the Africans 
 under the name of Astarte, was deemed a more suitable 
 companion for the Sun. Her image, with the rich 
 offerings of her temple as a marriage portion, was trans- 
 ported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome, and 
 the day of these mystic nuptials was a general festival 
 in the capital, and throughout the empire.* 
 
 A rational voluptuary adheres with „■ 
 invariable respect to the temperate die- and SiJlu 
 tates of nature, and improves the gratifi- luxury, 
 cations of sense by social intercourse, endearing con- 
 nections, and the soft colouring of taste and the imagi- 
 nation. But Elagabalus, (I speak of the emperor of 
 that name,) corrupted by his youth, his country, and 
 his fortune, abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures 
 with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and sa- 
 tiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflamma- 
 tory powers of art were summoned to his aid : the 
 confused multitude of women, of wines, and of dishes, 
 and the studied variety of attitudes and sauces, served 
 to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new 
 inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated 
 and patronized by the monarch,J signalized his reign, 
 and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times. A 
 capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and 
 elegance; and whilst Elagabalus lavished away the 
 treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his 
 own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit 
 and magnificence unknown to the tameness of his pre- 
 decessors. To confound the order of seasons and cli- 
 niates,'' to sport with the passions and prejudices of 
 his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and 
 decency, were in the number of his most delicious 
 amusenients. A long train of concubines, and a rapid 
 succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, 
 ravished by force from her sacred asylum,^ were insuf- 
 ficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The 
 master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress 
 and manners of the female sex, preferred the distaff to 
 the sceptre, and dishonoured the principal dignities of 
 the empire by distributing them among his numerous 
 lovers ; one of whom was publicly invested with the 
 title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he more 
 properly styled himself, of the empresses, h usband." 
 
 K Hcrodian, 1. v. p. 190. 
 
 h He broke into the sanctuary of Vesta, and carried away a statue, 
 which he supposed to be the Palladium ; but the vestals boasted, that 
 by a pious fraud, they had imposed a counterfeit image on the profane 
 intruder. Hist. August, p. 103. ' 
 
 • Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1.3G0. Ilerodian, 1. v. p. 193. The subjects of the 
 empire were obliged to make liberal j.resents to the new-married couple : 
 and whatever they had promised during the life of Elagabalus, was cire- 
 lullv exacted under the administration of Mamaea. 
 
 J The invention of a new sauce was liberally rewarded : but if it waa 
 not relished, the inventor was confined to eat of nothing else, till he had 
 discovered another more agreeable to the imperial palate. Hist. Aug. 
 
 k He never would eat sea-fish except at a great distance from the sea : 
 he then would distribute vast quantities of the rarest sorts, brought at 
 an immense expense, to the peasants of the inland country. Hist 
 August, p. 109, ■' 
 
 1 Dion. I. Ixxix. p. 1358. Herodian, 1. v. p. 1P2. 
 
 m Hiemcles enjoyed that honour; but he would have been supplanted 
 by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a potion, to enervate the 
 jiowers of his rival, who being found on trial, unequal to his reputation 
 was driven with ignominy from the palace. Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1363,' 
 1364. A dancer was made prefect of the city, a charioteer prtefect of 
 the watch, a barber prtefect of the provisions. These three ministers 
 with many inferior officers. wer« all recommended enormitate membroi 
 rum. Hist. August, p. 105. 
 
 ^ 
 
02 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 03 
 
 Contempt of de- ^ '^^Y seem probable, the vices and 
 eency which dis- follies of Elagabalus have been adorned 
 tingiiiahed the ^y fancy, and blackened by prejudice." 
 
 Romaa tyrants, ^ ]•• i ^ Ti ii- 
 
 Yet confining ourselves to the public 
 scenes displayed before the Roman people, and attest- 
 ed by grave and contemporary historians, their inex- 
 pressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or 
 country. The licence of an eastern monarch is se- 
 cluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible 
 ^walls of his seraglio. The sentiments of honour and 
 gallantry have introduced a refinement of pleasure, a 
 regard for decency, and a respect for the public opi- 
 nion, into the modern courts of Europe; but the cor- 
 rupt and opulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice 
 that could be collected from the mip^hty conflux of na- 
 tions and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of 
 censure, they lived without restraint in the patient and 
 humble society of their slaves and parasites. The em- 
 peror, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects 
 "with the same contemptuous indifterence, asserted 
 without control his sovereign privilege of lust and 
 luxury. 
 
 Ducontentaof The most worthless of mankind are 
 the army. not afraid to condemn in others the same 
 disorders which they allow in themselves; and can 
 readily discover some nice difference of age, character, 
 or station, to justify the partial distinction. The licen- 
 tious soldiers, who had raised to the throne the disso- 
 lute son of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious 
 choice, and turned with disgust from .that monster, to 
 contemplate with pleasure the opening virtues of his 
 cousin Alexander the son of Mamaja. Tlie crafty Maesa, 
 sensible that her grandson Elagabalus must inevitably 
 destroy himself by his own vices, had provided an- ' 
 other and surer support of her family. Embracing a 
 favourable moment of fondness and devotion, she had 
 Alexander Se- Persuaded the young emperor to adopt 
 vcru« declared Alexander, and to invest him with the 
 
 A?D* 221 *'^'® °^ Caesar, that his own divine occu- 
 pations might be no longer interrupted 
 by the care of the earth. In the second rank that ami- 
 able prince soon acquired the affections of the public, 
 and excited the tyrant's jealousy, who resolved to ter- 
 minate the dangerous competition, either by corrupt- 
 ing the manners, or by taking away the life, of his 
 rival. His arts proved unsuccessful ; his vain designs 
 were constantly discovered by his own loquacious 
 folly, and disappointed by those virtuous and faithful 
 servants whom the prudence of Mamaea had placed 
 about the person of her son. In a hasty sally of pas- 
 sion, Elagabalus resolved to execute by force what he 
 had been unable to compass by fraud, and by a des- 
 potic sentence degraded his cousin from the rank and 
 honours of Caesar. The message was received in the 
 senate with silence, and in the camp with fury. The 
 praetorian guards swore to protect Alexander, and to 
 revenge the dishonoured majesty of the throne. The 
 tears and promises of the trembling Elagabalus, who 
 only begged them to spare his life, and to leave him 
 in the possession of his beloved Hierocles, diverted 
 their just indignation; and they contented themselves 
 with empowering their praefects to watch over the 
 safety of Alexander, and the conduct of the emperor." 
 It was impossible that such a recon- 
 ciliation should last, or that even the 
 mean soul of Elagabalus could hold an 
 empire on such humiliating terms of de- 
 pendence. He soon attempted, by a dan- 
 gerous experiment, to try the temper of the soldiers. 
 The report of the death of Alexander, and the natural 
 suspicion that he had been murdered, inflamed their 
 
 Sedition of the 
 guards and mur- 
 der of Elagaba- 
 lus, A. D. S23. 
 March 10. 
 
 passions into fury, and the tempest of the camp could 
 only be appeased by the presence and authority of the 
 popular youth. Provoked at this new instance of their 
 affection for his cousin, and their contempt for his per- 
 son, the emperor ventured to punish some of the lead- 
 ers of the mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved 
 instantly fatal to his minions, his mother, and himself. 
 Elagabalus was massacred by the indignant praetori- 
 ans, his mutilated corpse dragged through the streets 
 of the city, and thrown into the Tyber. His memory 
 was branded with eternal infamy by the senate ; the 
 justice of whose decree has been ratified by pos- 
 terity .p 
 
 In the room of Elagabalus, his cousin Accession of 
 Alexander was raised to the throne by Alexander 
 the praetorian guards. His relation to Severus. 
 the family of Severus, whose name he assumed,^ was 
 the same as that of his predecessor; his virtue and his 
 danger had already endeared him to the Romans, and 
 the eager liberality of the senate conferred upon him, 
 in one day, the various titles and powers of the impe- 
 rial dignity.' But as Alexander was a modest and du- 
 tiful youth, of only seventeen years of age, the reins 
 of government were in the hands of two women, of 
 his mother Mamaea, and of Maesa, his grandmother. 
 After the death of the latter, who survived hut a short 
 time the elevation of Alexander, Mamaea remained the 
 sole regent of her son and of the empire. 
 
 In every age and country, the wiser, rower of h\» 
 or at least the stronger, of the two sexes, mother Mamcpo. 
 has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the 
 other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In 
 hereditary monarchies, however, and especially in 
 those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, 
 and the law of succession, have accustomed us to 
 allow a singular exception ; and a woman is often 
 acknowledged the absolute sovereign of a great king- 
 dom, in which she would be deemed incapable of 
 exercising the smallest employment, civil or military. 
 But as the Roman emperors were still considered as 
 the generals and magistrates of the republic, their 
 wives and mothers, although distinguished by the 
 name of Augusta, were never associated to their per- 
 sonal honours ; and a female reign would have appeared 
 an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those primitive 
 Romans, who married without love, or loved without 
 delicacy and respect." The haughty Agrippina as- 
 pired, indeed, to share the honours of the empire, 
 which she had conferred on her son ; but her mad am- 
 bition, detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity 
 
 a Even the credulous compiler of his life, in the Augustan History, 
 (p. 111.) is inclined to suspect that his vices may have l>€cn exagge- 
 rated. 
 
 oDion, I. Ixxix. p. 1363. ITerodian, I. v. p. 105—201. Hist. Aus^ust. 
 p. 105. The last of the three liistorians seems to have followed the 
 vest authors in his account of the revolution. 
 
 P The fcra of the death of Elagabalus, and of the accession of AI- 
 cxanflcr, has employed the learning and ingenuity of Pagi, Tille- 
 niont, Valsftcchi, Vignoli, and Torre, bishop of Adria. The ques- 
 tion is most apsiurpdly intricate ; hut I still adhere to the authority of 
 Dion ; the truth of whose calculations is undeniable, and the purity 
 of whose text is justified by the agreement of Xipliilin, Zonares, 
 and Cedrenus. Elagabalus reigned three years, nine months, and 
 four days, from his victory over Macrinu8,and was killed March 10, 
 222. Hut what shall we reply to the nipdals, undoubtedly genuine, 
 which reckon the fifth year of his tribunitian power ? We shall re- 
 ply, with the learned Valsecchi, that the usurpation of Macrinus 
 was annihilated, and that the son of Caracalla dated his rtign from 
 his fathrc's death. After resolving this great difficulty, the smaller 
 knots of this question may be easily untied, or rut asunder. 
 
 ['I'liis opinion of Valesecchi has been surccsffully opposed by Eck- 
 hcl, who has shown the impossibility of reconciling it with the me- 
 dals of Elagj'balus, and has given a most satisfactory explanation of 
 the livetriliuneships of this emperor. He ascended the throne, and 
 received the tribunitian power the JCth of May, in theOTlst year of 
 Rome ; and the first of January the following year, he commenced 
 a new tribuneship, accordins to the custom rstablished by preceding 
 emperors. During the years 972, 973, and 97-4, he enjoyed the tri- 
 buneship, and he commcnred his fifth the year 975, during which he 
 wasslain.the 10th of March. (Eckliel, De doct. num. veter. vol. 
 viii. p. 430, and the following.)— Gi.] 
 
 q Lainpridius says that it was given to him by the soldiers, on ac- 
 count of bin severity in military discipline. (Lampr. in Alex. Sev. 
 c. I2and25.)— ».] 
 
 r Hist. August, p. 114. By this unusual precipitation, the senate 
 meant to confound the hopes of pretenders, and prevent the factions 
 of the armies. 
 
 « Mctellus Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the Roman 
 people, in a public oration, that had kind Nature allowed us to exist 
 without the help of women, we should be delivered from a very 
 troublesome companion; and he could recommend matrimony only 
 as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. Aulus Gellius, i. 0. 
 
 I 
 
 of Rome, was disappointed by the artful firmness of 
 Seneca and Burrhus.' The good sense, or the indif- 
 ference, of succeeding princes, restrained them from 
 offending the prejudices of their subjects ; and it was 
 reserved for the profligate Elagabalus, to discharge 
 the acts of the senate, with ttie name of his moth'er 
 Soaemias, who was placed by the side of the consuls, 
 and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of 
 the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, 
 Mamaea, declined the useless and odious prerogative, 
 and a solemn law was enacted, excludino- women for 
 ever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods, 
 the head of the wretch by whom this sanction should 
 be violated.** The substance, not the pageantry, of 
 power was the object of Mamaea's manly' ambition. 
 She maintained an absolute and lasting empire over 
 the mind of her son, and in his affection the mother 
 could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her consent, 
 married the daughter of a patrician ; but his respect 
 for his father-in-law, and love for the empress, were 
 inconsistent with the tenderness or interest of Mamsea. 
 The patrician was executed on the ready accusation of 
 treason, and the wife of Alexander driven with io^no- 
 miny from the palace, and banished into Africa.^ " 
 Wise nnd mode- Notwithstanding this act of jealous 
 rate administra- cruelty, as well as some instances of 
 *'°"' avarice, with which Mamaea is charged ; 
 
 the general tenor of her administration was equally for 
 the benefit of her son and of the empire. With the 
 approbation of the senate, she chose sixteen of the 
 wisest and most virtuous senators, as a perpetual 
 council of state, before whom every public business of 
 moment was debated and determined. The celebrated 
 Ulpian, equally distinguished by his knowledo-e of, 
 and his respect for, the laws of Rome, was at their 
 head; and the prudent firmness of this aristocracy 
 restored order and authority to the government. As 
 soon as they had purged the city from foreign super- 
 stition and luxury, the remains of the capricious 
 tyranny of Elagabalus, they applied themselves to re- 
 move his worthless creatiires from every department 
 of public administration, and to supply their places 
 with men of virtue and ability. Learning, and the 
 love of justice, became the only recommendations for 
 civil offices. Valour, and the love of discipline, the 
 only qualifications for military employments.^ 
 Education and ^"^ ^^^ ^^^st important care of Mamaea 
 virtuous temper and her wise counsellors, was to form 
 of Alexander. i\^q character of the young emperor, on 
 whose personal qualities the happiness or misery of 
 the Roman world must ultimately depend. The for- 
 tunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of 
 cultivation. An excellent understanding soon con- 
 vinced Alexander of the advantages of virtue, the 
 pleasure of knowledge, and the necessity of labour. 
 A natural mildness and moderation of temper preserved 
 him from the assaults of passion, and the allurements 
 of vice. His unalterable regard for his mother, and 
 his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his unexpe- 
 rienced youth from the poison of flattery. 
 Journal of his The simple journal of his ordinary oc- 
 ordinary life, cupations exhibits a pleasing picture of 
 an acconiplished emperor,* and with some allowance 
 for the difference of manners, might well deserve the 
 imitation of modern princes. Alexander rose early ; 
 
 t Tacit. Annal. xiii. 5. 
 
 u Hist. August, p. 102, 107. 
 
 ^n\ '^'m"' '-J"*- ^' ^"^^- Herodian. I. vl. p. 20G. Hist. August, p. 
 IJl. Ilerodian represents the patrician as innocent. The Augustan 
 History, on the authority of Dexippus, condemns him, as guilty of a 
 conspiracy against the life of Alexander. It is impossible to pro- 
 nounce between them: but Dion is an irreproachable witness of the 
 lealousy and cruelty of Mamrea tow ard the young empress, whose 
 nard fate Alexander lamented, but durst not oppose 
 
 w Herodian, I. vi. p. 203. Hist. August, p. 119. The latter insinu- 
 ates, that when any law was to be passed, the council was assisted 
 oy a number of able lawyers and experienced senators, wiiose opin- 
 ions were separately given and taken down in writing. 
 
 « See his life in the Augustan History. The undistinguishing com- 
 piier hai buried these interesting anecdotca under a load of trivial 
 and unmeaning circumstances. **' 
 
 the first nioments of the day were consecrated to pri- 
 vate devotion, and his domestic chapel was filled with 
 the images of those heroes, who, by improving or re- 
 forming human life, had deserved the grateful reve- 
 rence of posterity .y But, as he deemed the service of 
 mankind the most acceptable worship of the gods, the 
 greatest part of his morning hours was employed in 
 his council, where he discussed public affairs, and 
 determined private causes, with a patience and discre- 
 tion above his years. The dryness of business was 
 relieved by the charms of literature; and a portion of 
 time was always set apart for his favourite studies of 
 poetry, history, and philosophy. The works of Virgil 
 and Horace, the republics of Plato and Cicero, formed 
 his taste, enlarged his understanding, and gave him 
 j the noblest ideas of man and government. The exer- 
 cises of the body succeeded to those of the mind ; and 
 Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpassed 
 most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed 
 by the use of the bath and a slight dinner, he resumed, 
 with new vigour, the business of the day; and, till 
 the hour of supper, the principal meal of the Romans, 
 he was attended by his secretaries, with whom he 
 read and answered the multitude of letters, memorials, 
 and petitions, that must have been addressed to the 
 master of the greatest part of the world. His table 
 was served with the most frugal simplicity; and when- 
 ever he was at liberty to consult his own inclination, 
 the company consisted of a few select friends, men of 
 learning and virtue, amongst whom Ulpian was con- 
 stantly invited. Their conversation was familiar and 
 instructive ; and the pauses w^ere occasionally enliv- 
 ened by the recital of some pleasing composition, 
 which supplied the place of the dancers, comedians, 
 and even gladiators, so frequently summoned to the 
 tables of the rich and luxurious Romans.' The dress 
 of Alexander was plain and modest, his demeanor 
 courteous and affable : at the proper hours his palace 
 was open to all his subjects, but the voice of a crier 
 was heard, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, pronounc- 
 ing the same salutary admonitions ; " Let none enter 
 those holy walls, unless he is conscious of a pure and 
 innocent mind."* 
 
 Such an uniform tenor of life, which . „ 0900,.: 
 left not a moment for vice or folly, is a Ge,{er;i happi-* 
 better proof of the wisdom and justice of "ess of the Ro- 
 Alexander's government, than all the tri- "^»" ^^o'^'^'- 
 fling details preserved in the compilation of Lampri- 
 dius. Since the accession of Commodus, the Roman 
 world had ex})erienced, during a term of forty years, 
 the successive and various vices of four tyrants. From 
 the death of Elagabalus, it enjoyed an auspicious calm 
 of thirteen years. The provinces, relieved from the 
 oppressive taxes invented by Caracalla and his pre- 
 tended son, floiirished in peace and prosperity, under 
 the administration of magistrates, who were convinced 
 by experience, that to deserve the love of the subjects, 
 
 y [Alexander admitted into his own chapel, all the deitips of this 
 wide empire. Jesus Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius Thva- 
 ncus, &c. were there worshipped. (Lampr. in Hist. Aug. c 29 ) It 
 IS almost certain that his mother, Mainca, had instructed him in the 
 precepts of Christianity ;— historians generally agree in representing 
 her as a believer in the Christian religion,— there is at least reason to 
 believe that she had begun to delight in the principles of Christianity 
 (See Tillemont concernivg Jllezander Severus.) Gibbon has not re' 
 collected this circumstance— he even appears to have wished to tra- 
 duce the character of this empress; he has followed nearly throueh. 
 out, the account given by Herodian. who, according to the acknow- 
 ledgment even of Capitolinus, (in Maximo, c. 13.), detested Alexan- 
 der. 
 
 W^ithout believing the exaggerated prai-^e of Lampridius. we can- 
 not assent to the unjust severity of Herodian, and above all, we can- 
 not forget to mention that the virtuous Alexander Severus con- 
 firmed to the Jews the preservation of their privileges, and per- 
 mitted the exercise of the Christian relision. Hist. Aug. p. 121. 
 
 The Christians having established their worships in some public 
 place,— the tavern-keepers demanded not the right toil, but the use 
 of it for their employment— Alexander replied that it was better 
 that this place should be appropriated to the honor of God, at in 
 some manner it was, than that it should be used bv tavern-kA»nAM 
 (Hist. Aug. p. 131.)— O.] ' " *e«per». 
 
 t See the 13th Satire of Juvenal, 
 t Hilt. August, p. 119. 
 
 »'. 
 
 :^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 % 
 
64 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 f 
 
 was their best and only method of obtaining the favour 
 of their sovereign. While some gentle restraints 
 were imposed on the innocent luxury of the Roman 
 people, the price of provisions, and the interest of 
 money, were reduced by the paternal care of Alexan- 
 der, whose prudent liberality, without distressing the 
 industrious, supplied the wants and amusements of the 
 populace. The dignity, the freedom, the authority, of 
 the senate were restored ; and every virtuous senator 
 might approach the person of the emperor, without a 
 fear, and without a blush. 
 
 Alexander refu- '^^® name of Antoninus, ennobled by 
 Bcs the name of the virtues of Pius and Marcus, had 
 Antoninus. been communicated by adoption to the 
 dissolute Verus, and by descent to the cruel Commo- 
 dus. It became the honourable appellation of the sons 
 of Severus, was bestowed on young Diadumenianus, 
 and at length prostituted to the infamy of the high 
 priest of Emesa. Alexander, though pressed by the 
 studied, and, perhaps, sincere importunity of the sen- 
 ate, nobly refused the borrowed lustre of a name ; 
 whilst in his whole conduct he laboured to restore the 
 glories and felicity of the age of the genuine Anto- 
 nines.'' 
 
 He attempts to In the civil administration of Alexan- 
 refornuhearmy. (j^j.^ wisdom was enforced by power, 
 and the people, sensible of the public felicity, repaid 
 their benefactor with their love and gratitude. There 
 still remained a greater, a more necessary, but a more 
 difficult enterprise; the reformation of the military 
 order, whose interest and temper, confirmed by long 
 impunity, rendered them impatient of the restraints of 
 discipline, and careless of the blessings of public tran- 
 quillity. In the execution of his design, the emperor 
 affected to display his love, and to conceal his fear, of 
 the army. The most rigid economy in every other 
 branch of the administration, supplied a fund of gold 
 and silver for the ordinary pay, and the extraordinary 
 rewards of the troops. In their marches he relaxed 
 the severe obligation of carrying seventeen days pro- 
 vision on their shoulders. Ample magazines were 
 formed along the public roads, and as soon as they en- 
 tered the enemies' country, a numerous train of mules 
 and camels waited on their haughty laziness. As 
 Alexander despaired of correcting the luxury of his 
 soldiers, he attempted, at least, to direct it to objects 
 of martial pomp and ornament, fine horses, splendid 
 armour, and shields enriched with silver and gold. He 
 shared whatever fatigues he was obliged to impose, 
 visited, in person, the sick and wounded, preserved 
 an exact register of their services and his own grati- 
 tude, and expressed, on every occasion, the warmest 
 regard for a body of men, whose welfare, as he affected 
 to declare, was so closely connected with that of the 
 state.*^ By the most gentle arts he laboured to inspire 
 the fierce multitude with a sense of duty, and to re- 
 store at least a faint image of that discipline to which 
 the Romans owed their empire over so many other 
 nations, as warlike and more powerful than them- 
 selves. But his prudence was vain, his courage fatal, 
 and the attempt towards a reformation served only to 
 inflame the ills it was meant to cure. 
 Sedit'ons of the ^^^ prsetorian guards were attached 
 pra'torian cuards to the youth of Alexander. They loved 
 Uipian""*^" °f him as a tender pupil, whom they had 
 saved from a tyrant's fury, and placed 
 on the imperial throne. The amiable prince was sen- 
 sible of the obligation; but as his gratitude was re- 
 strained within the limits of reason and justice, they 
 
 *> See in the Hist. August, p. 116. 117, the whole contest between 
 Alexander and the senate, extracted from the journals of that as- 
 Bembly. It happened on the sixth of March, probably of the year 
 S23, when the Romans had enjoyed, almost a twelvemonth, the bless- 
 ingBof his reign. Before the appellation of Antoninus was offered 
 him as a title of honour, the senate waited to see whether Alexander 
 would not assume it as a family name. 
 
 e It was a favourite saying of the emperor's, Se militcs maKia ser- 
 ▼are. quam seipsum ; quod salus publica in his esset. Hist. August, 
 p. 130. 
 
 soon were more dissatisfied with the virtues of Alex- 
 ander, than they had ever been with the vices of 
 Elagabalus. Their praefect, the wise Ulpian, was the 
 friend of the laws and of the people; he was consi- 
 dered as the enemy of the soldiers, and to his perni- 
 cious counsels every scheme of reformation was im- 
 puted. Some trifling accident blew up their discontent 
 into a furious mutiny; and a civil war raged, during 
 three days, in Rome, whilst the life of that excellent 
 minister was defended by the grateful people. Terri' 
 fied, at length, by the sight of some houses in flames, 
 and by the threats of a general conflagration, the peo- 
 ple yielded with a sigh, and left the virtuous, but un- 
 fortunate, Ulpian to his fate. He was pursued into 
 the imperial palace, and massacred at the feet of his 
 master, who vainly strove to cover him with the purple, 
 and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable soldiers.* 
 Such was the deplorable weakness of government, 
 that the emperor was unable to revenge his murdered 
 friend and his insulted dignity, without stooping to the 
 arts of patience and dissimulation. Epagathus, the 
 principal leader of the mutiny, was removed from 
 Rome, by the honourable employment of praefect of 
 Egypt; from that high rank he was gently degraded 
 to the government of Crete; and when, at length, his 
 popularity among the guards was effaced by time and 
 absence, Alexander ventured to inflict the tardy, but 
 deserved punishment of his crimes." Under the reign 
 of a just and virtuous prince, the tyranny of the army 
 threatened with instant death his most faithful minis- 
 ters, who were suspected of an intention to correct 
 their intolerable disorders. The historian Dion Cas- 
 sius had commanded the Pannonian le- Danger of Dion 
 gions with the spirit of ancient disci- Cassius. 
 pline. Their brethren of Rome, embracing the com- 
 mon cause of military licence, demanded the head of 
 the reformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding 
 to their seditious clamours, showed a just sense of his 
 merit and services, by appointing him his colleague in 
 the consulship, and defraying from his own treasury 
 the expense of that vain dignity : but as it was justly 
 apprehended, that if the soldiers beheld him with the 
 ensigns of his oflice, they would revenge the insult in 
 his blood, the nominal first magistrate of the state re- 
 tired, by the emperor's advice, from the city, and 
 spent the greatest part of his consulship at his villas 
 in Campania.' 
 
 The lenity of the emperor confirmed Tumults of the 
 the insolence of the troops; the legions legions, 
 imitated the example of the guards, and defended 
 their prerogative of licentiousness with the same fu- 
 rious obstinacy. The administration of Alexander was 
 an unavailing struggle against the corruption of his 
 age. In Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in 
 Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh mutinies perpetually 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 65 
 
 d [Gibbon has here confounded two events altoprether different, 
 viz: the quarrel of the people with the praetorians, and the murder 
 of Ulpian. Dion first relates the death of Ulpian, then returning 
 back, a habit quite familiar to him, he says that in the life time of 
 Ulpian, there had been a war of three days between Ihe prtetorians 
 and the people ; but Ulpian was not the cause of it. Dion says, on 
 tlie contrary, that it was occasioned by some unimportant events 
 and gives the reason for the murder of Ulpian, attributinc: it to a 
 judgment, by which this prefect of the prjptorians had condemned to 
 death liis two predecessors, Chrestus and Flavian, whom the sol- 
 diers wished to avenge. Zozimus, (lib. 1. c. 2.) attributes this sen- 
 tence of condemnation to Mamn*a, but the troops could even then 
 have imputed the blame of it to Ulpian, who had profited by It, and 
 whom besides they hated. — O.] 
 
 e Though the author of the life of Alexander (Hist. August, p. 
 132.) mentions the sedition raised against Ulpian by the soldiers, hn 
 conceals the catastrophe, as it might discover a weakness in the ad- 
 ministration of his hero. From this designed omission, we may 
 judge of the weight and candour of tiiat author. 
 
 f For an account of Ulpian's fate and his own danger, see the 
 mutilated conclusion of Dion's History, 1. Ixxx. p. 1371. 
 
 [Dion posisessed no estates in Campania, and was not rich, F7e 
 says only that the emperor advised him during his consulship, to re- 
 side in Fome place out of Rome, that he returned to Rome at the 
 close of his consulship, and had an opportunity of speaking with 
 the emperor in Campania. He afked, and obtained permission to 
 pass the rest of his life in his native town, (Nicoba in Bithynia ;) it 
 was there that be put the last stroke to bit history, wbicb be 
 finished with hit second consulate.— C] 
 
 1 
 
 !■ 
 
 broke out ; his oflicers were murdered, his authority 
 was insulted, and his life at last sacrificed to the 
 Firmness of the fierce discontents of the army.K One 
 emperor. particular fact well deserves to be re- 
 corded, as it illustrates the manners of the troops, and 
 exhibits a singular instance of their return to a sense of 
 duty and obedience. Whilst the emperor lay at An- 
 tioch, in his Persian expedition, the particulars of 
 which we shall hereafter relate, the punishment of 
 some soldiers, who had been discovered in the baths 
 of women, excited a sedition in the legion to which 
 they belonged. Alexander ascended his tribunal, and 
 with a modest firmness represented to the armed mul- 
 titude the absolute necessity as well as his inflexible 
 resolution of correcting the vices introduced by his 
 impure predecessor, and of maintaining the discipline, 
 which could not be relaxed without the ruin of the 
 Roman name and empire. Their clamours interrupted 
 his mild expostulation. " Reserve your shouts," said 
 the undaunted emperor, " till you take the field against 
 the Persians, the Germans, and the Sarmatians. Be 
 silent in the presence of your sovereign and benefactor, 
 who bestows upon you the corn, the clothing, and the 
 money of the provinces. Be silent, or I shall no lon- 
 ger style you soldiers, but citizens,^ if those indeed 
 who disclaim the laws of Rome deserve to be ranked 
 among the meanest of the people." His menaces in- 
 flamed the fury of the legion, and their brandished arms 
 already threatened his person. ** Your courage," re- 
 sumed the intrepid Alexander, "would be more nobly 
 displayed in the field of battle; me you may destroy, 
 you cannot intimidate; and the severe justice of the 
 republic would punish your crime, and revenge my 
 death." The legion still persisted in clamorous sedi- 
 tion, when the emperor pronounced with a loud voice, 
 the decisive sentence, " Citizens! lay down your arms, 
 and depart in peace to your respective habitations." 
 The tempest was instantly appeased; the soldiers, 
 filled with grief and shame, silently confessed the jus- 
 tice of their punishment, and the power of discipline, 
 yielded up their arms and military ensigns, and retired 
 in confusion, not to their camp, but to the several inns 
 of the city. Alexander enjoyed, during thirty days, 
 (he edifying spectacle of their repentance ; nor did he 
 restore them in the former rank in the army, till he had 
 punished with death these tribunes whose connivance 
 had occasioned the mutiny. The grateful legion 
 served the emperor, whilst living, and revenged him 
 when dead.* 
 
 Defects of his '^^® resolutions of the multitude gene- 
 reign and char- rally depend on a moment ; and the ca- 
 acter. price of passion might equally determine 
 
 the seditious legion to lay down their arms at the em- 
 peror's feet, or to plunge them into his breast. Per- 
 haps, if the singular transaction had been investigated 
 by the penetration of a philosopher, we should dis- 
 cover the secret causes which on that occasion au- 
 thorized the boldness of the prince, and commanded 
 the obedience of the troops ; and perhaps, if it had 
 been related by a judicious historian, we should find 
 this action, worthy of Caesar himself, reduced nearer 
 to the level of probability and the common standard of 
 the character of Alexander Severus. The abilities of 
 that amiable prince seem to have been inadequate to 
 the difficulties of his situation, the firmness of his 
 conduct inferior to the purity of his intentions. His 
 virtues, as well as the vices of Elagabalus, contracted 
 a tincture of weakness and effeminacy from the soft 
 climate of Syria, of which he was a native ; though he 
 blushed at his foreign origin, and listened with a vain 
 complacency to the flattering genealogists, who de- 
 rived his race from the ancient stock of Roman nobi- 
 
 VityJ The pride and avarice of his mother cast a 
 shade on the glories of his reign ; and by exacting 
 from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which 
 she had justly claimed from his unexperienced youth, 
 Mamaea exposed to public ridicule both her son's char- 
 acter and her own.* The fatigues of the Persian war 
 irritated the military discontent; the unsuccessful 
 event degraded the reputation of the emperor as a 
 general, and even as a soldier.^ Every cause prepared, 
 and every circumstance hastened, a revolution, which 
 distracted the Roman empire with a long series of in- 
 testine calamities. 
 
 The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, n:^„.»- .u 
 
 .1 . ., ••^11,-1 1 JL»i?rc.s8ion on the 
 
 the Civil wars occasioned by his death, finances of the 
 and the new maxims of policy intro- empire. 
 duced by the house of Severus, had all contributed 
 to increase the dangerous power of the army, and to 
 obliterate the faint image of laws and liberty that was 
 still impressed on the minds of the Romans. This in- 
 ternal change, which undermined the foundations of 
 the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with some 
 degree of order and perspicuity. The personal charac- 
 ters of the emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and 
 fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are 
 connected with the general history of the Decline and 
 Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that 
 great object will not suffer us to overlook a most im- 
 portant edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communi- 
 cated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name 
 and priviliges of Roman citizens. His unbounded 
 liberality flowed not, however, from the sentiments of 
 a generous mind ; it was the sordid result of avarice, 
 and will naturally be illustrated by some observa- 
 tions on the finances of that state, from the victorious 
 ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander 
 Severus. 
 
 The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first 
 considerable enterprise of the Romans, Establishment 
 was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the 
 strength of the place, than by the unskilfulness of the 
 besiegers. The unaccustomed hardships of so many 
 winter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles 
 from home," required more than common encourage- 
 ments ; and the senate wisely prevented the clamours 
 of the people, by the institution of a regular pay for the 
 
 K Annot. Reimar. ad Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxx. p. 1369. 
 
 1» Julius Cssar had appeased a sedition with the same word Qui- 
 rttes; which, thus opposed to Soldiers, was used in a sense of con- 
 tempt, and redu«*ed the offenders to the less honourable condition of 
 mere cititens. Tacit. Anna!, i. 43. 
 
 » Hist. August, o. 132. 
 
 Vol. I.— I K 
 
 3 From the Metelli, Hist. August, p. 119. The choice was judicious. 
 In one short period of twelve years, the Metelli could reckon seven 
 consulships and five triumphs. See Velleius Paterculus, ii. 11. and 
 the Fasti. 
 
 k The life of Alexander, in the Aua:u8tan history, is the mere idea 
 of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the Cyropa^dia. The 
 accountof his reign, as given by Herodian is rational and moderate, 
 consistent with the general history of the age ; and, in some of the 
 most invidious particulars, confirmed by the decisive fragments of 
 Dion. Yet from a very paltry prejudice, the greater number of our 
 modern writers abuse Herodian, and copy the Augustan history. 
 See Mess, de Tillemont and Wotton. From the opposite prejudice, 
 the emperor Julian (in Ca?sarih. p. 315.) dwells with a visihle satis- 
 faction on the effeminate weakness of the Stfrian, and the ridiculous 
 avarice of his mother. 
 
 • [Historians differ as to the success of the expedition against the 
 Persians. Hero<lian alone speaks of defeats— Lampridius, Etropius, 
 Victor and others, say that it was glorious for Alexander — that he 
 conquered Artaxerxcs in a great battle, and drove him from the 
 frontiers of the empire. It is moreover certain that Alexander upon 
 his return to Rome, enjoyed the honors of a triumph. (Lampr. Hist. 
 Aug. c. 59. p. 133, 134.) and that he said in his address to the people, 
 *' Quirites, vicimus Persas, milites divites reduzimvs, vobis con- 
 giarum pollicemur, eras ludos circenses persicos dabimus." Alex- 
 ander, says Eckhel, had too much moderation, too much wisdom, to 
 permit that those honors, which were only the rewards of victory, 
 should be paid to him, if he had not merited them ; he would have 
 been compelled to conceal his loss — (Eckhel, Doct. Numis. vet. vol. 
 vii. p. 276.) By medals also he is described as triumphing, one 
 among others represents him crowned by Victory, between the two 
 rivers Euphrates and Tiber— P. M. TR. P. XII. cos. III. PP. Im- 
 perator paludatus D. hastam S. parazonium stat inter duos fluviog 
 humi jacentes et ah nccidente retro Victoria coronatur, /E. Max. 
 Mod. (Mus. Keg. Gall.) Although Gibbon has treated of this subject 
 more at length in speaking of the Persian monarchy, I have thought 
 it right in this place, to note whatever is opposed to his opinion. — 
 
 m According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city itself was only 
 an hundred stadia, or twelve milc8 and a half, from Rome, though somo 
 out-posts might be advanced farther on the side of Etruria. Nardini, 
 in a professed treatise, has combated the popular opinion and the au- 
 thority of two popes, and has removed Veii from Civita Castellana, to a I 
 little spot called Isola, ia the midway between Rome and the lake 
 Bracciano. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
06 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 67 
 
 v 
 
 f 
 
 soldiers, which was levied hy a general tribute, assessed 
 according to an equitable proportion on the property of 
 the citizens." During more than two hundred years 
 after the conquest of Veii, the victories of the republic 
 added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. 
 The states of Italy paid their tribute in military service 
 only, and the vast force both by sea and land, which 
 was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the 
 expense of the Romans themselves. That high- 
 spirited people (such is often the generous enthusiasm 
 of freedom) cheerfully submitted to the most excessive 
 but voluntary burthens, in the just confidence that they 
 should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. 
 Their expectations were not disappointed. In the 
 course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Car- 
 thage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in tri- 
 
 and abolition of ^^V^ ^^ ^^^^^i^' The treasures of Per- 
 the tribute on seus alone amounted to near two millions 
 Roman citizenu. sterling, and the Roman people, the 
 sovereign of so many nations, was forever delivered 
 from the weight of taxes." The increasing revenue of 
 the provinces was found sufficient to defray the ordinary 
 establishment of war and government, and the super- 
 fluous mass of gold and silver was deposited in the 
 temple of Saturn, and reserved for any unforeseen 
 emergency of the state.? 
 TributcH of the History has never perhaps suffered a 
 
 provinces, greater or more irreparable injury, than 
 in the loss of the curious register bequeathed by Augus- 
 tus to the senate,** in which that experienced prince so 
 accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of the 
 Roman empire.' Deprived of this clear and compre- 
 hensive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few im- 
 perfect hints from such of the ancients as have acci- 
 dentally turned aside from the splendid to the more 
 useful parts of history. We are informed that, by the 
 
 of Asia, conquests of Pompey, the tributes of Asia 
 were raised from fifty to one hundred 
 and thirty-five millions of drachms; or about four mil- 
 lions and a half sterling/ Under the last and most 
 
 of Egypt, indolent of the Ptolemies, the revenue of 
 Egypt is said to have amounted to twelve 
 thousand five hundred talents ; a sum equivalent to more 
 than two millions and a half of our money, but which 
 was afterwards considerably improved by the more 
 exact economy of the Romans, and the increase of the 
 
 of Gaul trade of JSthiopia and India.' Gaul was 
 
 enriched by rapine, as Egypt was by 
 
 commerce, and the tributes of those two great provinces 
 
 have been compared as nearly equal to each other in 
 
 of Africa, value.^ The ten thousand Euboic or 
 
 Phoenician talents, about four millions 
 
 sterling,^ which vanquished Carthage was condemned 
 
 to pay within the term of fifty years, were a slight 
 
 acknowledgment of the superiority of Rome,'' and can- 
 
 ■ See the 4th and 5th Books of Livy. In the Roman Census, proper- 
 ty, power, and taxation, were commensurate with each other. 
 
 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3. Cicero de Offic. ii. 22. Plutarch, 
 in P. iEmil. p. 275. 
 
 P See a fine description of this accumulated wealth of ages, in Lucan'd 
 Phars. I. iii. v. 155. &c. 
 
 q [The rationarium imperii (see further Tacitus, Suetonius in ^u/r, 
 e. ««. and Dion, p. 832.) other emperors kept similar rc<;i9ters and pub- 
 lished them, (see a dinsertution by Dr. Wolle, De Rationario imjierii 
 Rom. Leipsic 1773.) The last book of Appianus contained also the sta- 
 tistics of the Roman empire, but it is lost. — fl*.] 
 
 r Tacit, in Annal. i. II. It seems to have existed in the time of Ap- 
 plan. 
 
 • Plutarch, in Pompeio, p. 642. 
 
 [This estimate is not exact; according to Plutarch the revenues of 
 the Roman provinces of Asia, before the time of Pompey were 50 mil- 
 lions of drachms; Pompey raised them toP5 millionti, that is, to2,744,7'.)l 
 pounds sterling. Plutarch says elsewhere, that Anthony made 200,000 
 talents, that is, 38,750,000 p«)und9 sterling to be paid in Asia at one 
 time, an enormous sum ; but Appianus e.t plains it by saying that this was 
 the revenue often years. The annual revenue in the time of Anthony 
 amounted to 20,000 talents, or 3,875,000 (munds sterling.— O.] 
 
 « Strabo, I. xvii. TiS. 
 
 « Velleius Pnterculus, I. ii. c. 39. He seems to give the preference to 
 the revenue of Gaul. 
 
 V The Eub-3ic, the Phopnician, and the .Alexandrian talents were 
 double iu weight to the Attic. Sec Hoo|)er on anrieut weights and 
 measures, p. iv. c. 5. It is very probable that the same talent was car- 
 ried from Tvre to rarthago. 
 
 w Polyb. I. .\v. c. 2, 
 
 not bear the least proportion with the taxes afterwards 
 raised both on the lands and on the persons of the 
 inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was reduced 
 into a province.' 
 
 Spain, by a very singular fatality, was ^f Spain 
 the Peru and Mexico of the old world. ' 
 
 The discovery of the rich western continent by the 
 Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, 
 who were compelled to labour in their own mines for 
 the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more 
 recent history of Spanish America.^ The Phoenicians 
 were acquainted only with the sea-coast of Spain ; 
 avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome 
 and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost 
 every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, 
 silver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Car- 
 thagena which yielded every day twenty-five thousand 
 drachms of silver, or about three hundred thousand 
 pounds a year.* Twenty thousand pound weight of gold 
 was annually received from the provinces of Asturia, 
 Gallicia, and Lusitania.* 
 
 We want both leisure and materials to of the isle of 
 pursue this curious inquiry through the Gyarus. 
 many potent states that were annihilated in the Roman 
 empire. Some notion, however, may be formed of the 
 revenue of the provinces where considerable wealth had 
 been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we ob- 
 serve the severe attention that was directed to the abodes 
 of solitude and sterility. Augustus once received a peti- 
 tion from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly prayingthat 
 they might be relieved from one-third of their excessive 
 impositions. Their whole tax amounted indeed to no 
 more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five 
 pounds : but Gyarus was a little island, or rather a 
 rock, of the iEgean sea, destitute of fresh water and 
 every necessary of life, and inhabited only by a few 
 wretched fishermen.** 
 
 From the faint glimmerings of such Amount of the 
 doubtful and scattered lights, we should revenue, 
 be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair allow- 
 ance for the diflference of times and circumstances) the 
 general income of the Roman provinces could seldom 
 amount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our 
 money ;' and, 2dly, That so ample a revenue must have 
 been fully adequate to all the expenses of the moderate 
 government instituted by Augustus, whose court was 
 the modest family of a private senator, and whose 
 military establishment was calculated for the defence 
 of the frontiers, without aspiring views of conquest, or 
 any serious apprehension of a foreign invasion. 
 
 Notwithstanding the seeming proba- », « 
 
 bility of both these conclusions, the lat- citizens institu- 
 tcr of them at least is positively disowned t^d '»y Augus- 
 by the language and conduct of Augus- **"' 
 tus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this oc- 
 casion, he acted as the common father of the Roman 
 world, or as the oppressor of liberty ; whether he wished 
 to relieve the provinces, or to impoverish the senate 
 and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he as- 
 sumed the reins of government, than he frequently in- 
 
 X Appian in Punicis, p. 84. 
 
 y Dioilorus Siculus, I. v. Cadiz was built by the Phoenicians, a little 
 more than a thousand years before Christ. See Veil. Paterc. i. 2. 
 
 « Strabo. 1. iii. p. 148. 
 
 a Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3. He mentions likewise a silver 
 mine in Dalmatia, that yielded every day fift^ pounds to the state. 
 
 b Strabo, I. x. p. 4H5. Tacit. Annal. iii. 69. and iv. 30. See in 
 Tournefort, Voyages au Levant, Lettre vJii. a very lively picture of the 
 actual misery of Gyarus. 
 
 c Lipsius de magnitudine Romana (1- ><-c. 3.) computes the revenue 
 at one hundred and fifty millions of gold crowns; but his whole book, 
 though learned and iD^enious, betrays a very heated imagination. 
 
 rif Justus Lipnius has given an exaggerated estimate of the revenue 
 of tne Roman empire. Gibbon on the other hand has given it far below 
 its true amount. He fixes it at from fifteen to twenty millions sterling, 
 but if we estimate the taxes from the provinces he has already men- 
 tioned, at a motleratc calculation only, taking into account also their 
 augmentation by Augustus, they amount ▼ery nearly to this sum. 
 There still remain the provinees of Italy, of Khetia, of Noricum, of 
 Pannonia, of Greece, A:c., &.c., and moreover when we consider the pro* 
 digious expenses of some of the emperors, (Sueton. Vespas. c. 16.) we 
 see that such a revenue would by no means have been suflScicnt. The 
 authors of the univernal history (part 12) axsign forty millions iterlin^ 
 as the sum to which th« 'mblic revenue yearly amountcd.^O.j 
 
 I 
 
 timated the insufficiency of the tributes, and the neces- 
 sity of throwing an equitable proportion of the public 
 burthen upon Rome and Italy.** In the prosecution of 
 this unpopular design, he advanced, however, by cau- 
 tious and well-weighed steps. The introduction of 
 customs * was followed by the establishment of an 
 excise, and the scheme of taxation was completed by 
 an artful assessment on the real and personal property 
 of the Roman citizens, who had been exempted from 
 any kind of contribution above a century and a half.' 
 
 The customs. ^* ^" ^ great empire like that of Rome, 
 a natural balance of money must have 
 gradually established itself. It has been already ob- 
 served, that as the wealth of the provinces was attracted 
 to the capital by the strong hand of conquest and 
 power ; so a considerable part of it was restored to the 
 industrious provinces by the gentle influence of com- 
 merce and arts. In the reign of Augustus and his 
 successors, duties were imposed on every kind of mer- 
 chandise, which through a thousand channels flowed 
 to the great centre of opulence and luxury ; and in 
 whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it was the 
 Roman purchaser, and not the provincial merchant, 
 who paid the tax.R The rate of the customs varied 
 from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the 
 commodity ; and we have a right to suppose that the 
 variation was directed by the unalterable maxims of 
 policy ; that a higher duty was fixed on the articles of 
 luxury than on those of necessity, and that the produc- 
 tions raised or manufactured by the labour of the sub- 
 jects of the empire, were treated with more indulgence 
 than was shown to the pernicious, or at least the un- 
 popular commerce of Arabia and India.*» There is still 
 extant a long but imperfect catalogue • of eastern com- 
 modities, which about the time of Alexander Severus 
 were subject to the payment of duties; cinnamon, 
 myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of aromatics, 
 a great variety of precious stones, among which the 
 diamond was the most remarkable for its price, and 
 the emerald for its beauty -}- Parthian and Babylonian 
 leather, cottons, silks, both raw and manufactured, 
 ebony, ivory, and eunuchs.' We may observe that the 
 use and value of those effeminate slaves gradually rose 
 with the decline of the empire. 
 
 Ti.^ „,«:»« ^^* ^^^ excise, introduced by Aucfus- 
 
 1 he excise. .^ /v .i • -i "^ '^ , 
 
 tus alter the civil wars, was extremely 
 
 moderate, but it was general. It seldom exceeded 
 
 one per cent ; but it comprehended whatever was sold 
 
 in the markets or by public auction, from the most 
 
 considerable purchase of lands and houses, to those 
 
 minute objects which can only derive value from their 
 
 infinite multitude, and daily consumption. Such a 
 
 tax, as it aflfects the body of the people, has ever been 
 
 the occasion of clamour and discontent. An emperor 
 
 well acquainted with the wants and resources of the 
 
 state, was obliged to declare by a public edict, that 
 
 d [It is not astonishing that Augustus should hold this language. The 
 senate also declared under Nero, that the state could not subsist, unless 
 the imposts were as much augmented as they were in the time of Au- 
 gustus, (Tacitus Ann. lib. xiii. c. 50.) After the abolition of the diffe- 
 rent tributes paid by Italy, the abolition made in 646—694, and 695, of 
 Rome, the stale derived as a revenue from this great extent of country, 
 only the twentieth of the enfranchisementi^, {vicesima manumisitionum,) 
 and Cicero often complains of it, especially in his Letters to Jitticus 
 (Lib. ii. let. 15.)— O.j 
 
 e [The curitoms {portoria) hadexi<ited from the time of the ancient 
 kingis of Rome. Those of Italy were suppressed in the year of Rome 
 694 by the pra;lor Cecelius Metellus Nejios: Augustus did nothing more 
 than re-establish them, (see the preceding note.) — <?.] 
 
 f [They had for so long a time been exempt from the tax on personal 
 property only, as to the other taxes the exemption from them ii not 
 dated till the 646—94, 95.— O.] 
 
 I Tacit. Annal. xiii. 31. 
 
 h See Pliny. (Hist. Natur. 1. vi. c. 23. 1. xii. c. 18.) His observation, 
 that the Indian commodities were sold at Rome at a hundred times their 
 original price, may give us some notion of the province of the customs, 
 since that original price amounted to more than eight hundred thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 > [In the Pandectes lib. 39, vol. iv. De publican. Compare Cicero 
 Verrin ii. c. 72 and 74— O.] 
 
 k The ancients were unacquainted with the art of cutting diamonds. 
 
 * M. Bouchaud. in his treatise de I'lmpot chez les Romains, has 
 transcribed this catalogue, from the Digest, and attempts to illustrate it 
 by • very prolix commentary. 
 
 the support of the army depended in a great measure 
 on the produce of the excise." 
 
 When Augustus resolved to establish Tax on legacies 
 a permanent military force for the de- *"<l inheritances, 
 fence of his government against foreign and domestic 
 enemies, he instituted a peculiar treasury for the pay 
 of the soldiers, the rewards of the veterans, and the 
 extraordinary expenses of war. The ample revenue 
 of the excise, though peculiarly appropriated to those 
 uses, was found inadequate. To supply the deficiency, 
 the emperor suggested a new tax of five j9cr cent, on all 
 legacies and inheritances. But the nobles of Rome 
 were more tenacious of property than of freedom. 
 Their indignant murmurs were received by Augustus 
 with his usual temper. He candidly referred the whole 
 business to the senate, and exhorted them to provide 
 for the public service by some other expedient of a less 
 odious nature. They were divided and perplexed. 
 He insinuated to them, that their obstinacy would ob- 
 lige him to propose a general land-tax and capitation." 
 They acquiesced in silence." The new imposition on 
 legacies and inheritances was however mitigated by 
 some restrictions. It did not take place unless the 
 object was of a certain value, most probably of fifty 
 or an hundred pieces of gold ;v nor could it be exacted 
 from the nearest of kin on the father's side.** When 
 the rights of nature and poverty were thus secured, it 
 seemed reasonable, that a stranger, or a distant rela- 
 tion, who acquired an unexpected accession of fortune, 
 should cheerfully resign a twentieth part of it, for the 
 benefit of the state.' 
 
 Such a tax, plentiful as it must prove suited to the 
 in every wealthy community, was most laws and mun- 
 happily suited to the situation of the Ro- "*^"- 
 mans, who could frame their arbitrary wills, according 
 to the dictates of reason or caprice, without any res- 
 traint from the modem fetters of entails and settle- 
 ments. From various causes the partiality of paternal 
 affection often lost its influence over the stern patriots 
 of the commonwealth, and the dissolute nobles of the 
 empire ; and if the father bequeathed to his son the 
 fourth part of his estate, he removed all ground of 
 legal complaint.* But a rich childless old man was a 
 domestic tyrant, and his power increased with his 
 years and infirmities. A servile crowd, in which he 
 frequently reckoned praetors and consuls, courted his 
 smiles, pampered his avarice, applauded his follies, 
 served his passions, and waited with impatience for 
 his death. The arts of attendance and flattery were 
 formed into a most lucrative science ; those who pro- 
 fessed it acquired a peculiar appellation ; and the 
 whole city, according to the lively descriptions of 
 satire, was divided between two parties, the hunters 
 and their game.* Yet, while so many unjust and ex- 
 travagant wills were every day dictated by cunning, 
 and subscribed by folly, a few were the result of ra- 
 tional esteem and virtuous gratitude. Cicero, who 
 had so often defended the lives and fortunes of his 
 fellow-citizens, was rewarded with legacies to the 
 amount of an hundred and seventy thousand pounds ;* 
 nor do the friends of the younger Pliny seem to have 
 been less generous to that amiable orator.' Whatever 
 
 Di Tacit. Annal. i. 78. Two years afterwards, the reduction of th« 
 poor kingdom of Cappadi>cia gave Tiberius a pretence for diminishing 
 the excise to one hair, but the relief was of very short duration. 
 
 o [Dion neither mentions this proposition nor the capitation ; he sayi 
 only that the emperor laid a tax upon the land, and sent men througli- 
 out the country charged with the management of it, without determin- 
 ing how, and how much each ought to contribute to it. The senator! 
 then more readily consented to the tax on legacies and iuheri- 
 tanoes. — O.] 
 
 o Dion Cassius, 1. Iv. p. 794. 1. Ivi. d. 825. 
 
 P The sum is only fixed by conjecture. 
 ^ 4 As the Roman law subsisted for many a^es, the Co^nati, or rela- 
 tions on the mother's side, were not called to tne succession. This hursh 
 institution was gradually undermined by humanity, and finally abolish- 
 ed by Justinian. 
 
 T Plin. Panegyric, c. 37. 
 
 * See HeinecciuE in the Antiquit. Juris Romani, I. ii. 
 
 t Horat. I. ii. Sat. v. Petron. c. 1 16. &.c. Plin. 1. ii. Epist. 30. 
 
 u Cicero in Philip, ii. c. 16. 
 
 V 8ee his epistles. Every such will give him an occasion of display- 
 
 « 
 
 III 
 1 
 
68 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VU. 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 • 
 
 was the motive of the testator, the treasury claimed, 
 without distinction, the twentieth part of his estate ; 
 and in the course of two or three generations, the 
 whole property of the subject must have gradually 
 passed through the coffers of the state. 
 Regular iona of In the first and golden years of the 
 the eraiierora. reign of Nero, that prince, from a desire 
 of popularity, and perhaps from a blind impulse of 
 benevolence, conceived a wish of abolishing the op- 
 pression of the customs and excise. The wisest sena- 
 tors applauded his magnanimity ; but they diverted him 
 from the execution of a design, which would have dis- 
 solved the strength and resources of the republic* 
 Had it indeed been possible to realize this dream of 
 fancy, such princes as Trajan and the Antonines 
 would surely have embraced with ardour the glorious 
 opportunity of conferring so signal an obligation on 
 mankind. Satisfied, however, with alleviating the 
 public burthen, they attempted not to remove it. The 
 mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the 
 rule and measure of taxation, and protected the subject 
 of every rank against arbitrary interpretations, anti- 
 quated claims, and the insolent vexation of the farmers 
 of the revenue.y For it is somewhat singular, that in 
 every age, the best and wisest of the Roman gover- 
 nors persevered in this pernicious method of collecting 
 the principal branches at least of the excise and cus- 
 toms.* 
 
 Edict of Cara- The Sentiments, and, indeed, the situ- 
 caiia. ation of Caracalla, were very different 
 from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather 
 averse, to the welfare of his people, he found himself 
 under the necessity of gratifying the insatiate avarice 
 which he had excited in the army. Of the several 
 impositions introduced by Augustus, the twentieth on 
 inheritances and legacies was the most fruitful, as 
 well as the most comprehensive. As its influence was 
 not confined to Rome or Italy, the produce continually 
 increased with the gradual extension of the Roman 
 City. The new citizens though charged on equal 
 terms,* with the payment of new taxes, which had not 
 affected them as subjects, derived an ample compensa- 
 tion from the rank they obtained, the privileges they 
 acquired, and the fair prospect of honours and fortune 
 that was thrown open to their ambition. But the fa- 
 
 The freedom of ^^"^- ^^^^^ implied a distinction was 
 
 the cit'y'given \o ^^^^ ^" *^^® prodigality of Caracalla, and 
 
 all tho provin- the reluctant provincials were compelled 
 
 J^'ofuxkuT- to assume the vain title, and the real 
 
 Obligations, of Roman citizens. Nor 
 
 was the rapacious son of Severus contented with such 
 
 a measure of taxation, as had appeared sufficient to 
 
 his moderate predecessors. Instead of a twentieth, 
 
 he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inheritances ;'' 
 
 and during his reign (for the ancient proportion was 
 
 restored after his death) he crushed alike every part 
 
 of the empire under the weight of his iron sceptre.*= 
 
 Temporary re- When all the proviucials became 
 
 ductiott oi tiie liable to the peculiar impositions of 
 
 Roman citizens, they seemed to acquire 
 
 ing hid reverence to the dead, and his justice to the living. He recon- 
 ciled both, in his behaviour to a son who had been disinherited by his 
 mother (v. 1.) 
 
 » Tacit. Annal. xiii. 50. Esprit des Loix, I. xii. c. 19. 
 
 y See Pliny's Panegyric, the Augustan History, and Burman de Vcc- 
 tigal. passim. 
 
 « The tributes (properly so called) were not farmed ; since the good 
 princes often remitted many millions of arrears, 
 
 ' The situation of the new citizens is minutely descrilx;d by Pliny. 
 ^Panegyric, c. 37, 38, 39.) Trajan published a law very much in their 
 tavour. 
 
 b [Gibbon adopts the opinion of Spanhcim and of Burmann who attri- 
 bute to Caracalla this edict which gave the tight of citizenship to all 
 the inhabitants of the provinces. This opinion is disputed ; many pas- 
 pa^es from Spartianuy, from Aurelius victor, and Aristidcs attribute 
 this edict to Marcus Aurelius. (Sec upon this subject a learned dis- 
 lertation entitled Joh. P. Mahneri ComineiUatio de Marco Aurelio An- 
 tonino constitutionls de civitate universo orbi Romano data auctore. 
 Hala» 177'i in 8o.) It appears that Marcus Aurelius had made certain 
 tnodificntiunfl of thid edict which released the provinces from some of 
 the burdens imposed by the right of citizenship, by depriving them of 
 some of the advantages which it conferred, and that Caracalla took 
 ftway these modifications. — O] 
 
 c Dion, Ixivii. p. VHi5. 
 
 a legal exemption from the tributes which they had 
 paid in their former condition of subjects. Such were 
 not the maxims of government adopted by Caracalla 
 and his pretended son. The old as well as the new 
 taxes were, at the same time, levied in the provinces. 
 It was reserved for the virtue of Alexander to relieve 
 them in a great measure from this intolerable grie- 
 vance, by reducing the tributes to a thirtieth part of 
 the sum exacted at the time of his accession.'* It is 
 impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him 
 to spare so trifling a remnant of the public evil ; but 
 the noxious weed, which had not been totally eradi- 
 cated, again sprang up with the most luxuriant growth, 
 and in the succeeding age darkened the Roman world 
 with its deadly shade. In the course of this history, 
 we shall be too often summoned to explain the land- 
 tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, 
 wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the pro- 
 vinces for the use of the court, the army, and the 
 capital. 
 
 As long as Rome and Italy were re- Consequences of 
 spected as the centre of government, a the universal 
 national spirit was preserved by the an- freedom of Rome, 
 cient, and insensibly imbibed by the adopted, citizens. 
 The principal commands of the army were filled by 
 men who had received a liberal education, were well 
 instructed in the advantages of laws and letters, and 
 who had risen, by equal steps, through the regular 
 succession of civil and military honours." To their in- 
 fluence and example we may partly ascribe the modest 
 obedience of the legions during the two first centuries 
 of the imperial history. 
 
 But when the last enclosure of the Roman constitu- 
 tion was trampled down by Caracalla, the separation 
 of professions gradually succeeded to the distinction 
 of ranks. The more polished citizens of the internal 
 provinces were alone qualified to act as lawyers and 
 magistrates. The rougher trade of arms was abandon- 
 ed to the peasants and barbarians of the frontiers, who 
 knew no country but their camp, no science but that of 
 war, no civil law s, and scarcely those of military dis- 
 cipline. With bloody hands, savage manners, and des- 
 perate resolutions, they sometimes guarded, but much 
 oftener subverted, tlie throne of the emperors. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The election and tyranny of Maximin, — Rebellion in 
 Africa and Itahj, under the authority of the senate. — 
 Civil wars and seditions. — Violent deaths of JMaximin 
 and his son, of JMaximus and Balbinus, and of the 
 three Gordians. — Usurpation and secular games of 
 Philip, 
 
 Of the various forms of government. The apparent 
 which have prevailed in the world, an ridicule 
 hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope 
 for ridicule. Is it possible to relate, without an indig- 
 nant smile, that, on the father's decease, the property 
 of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to 
 his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to 
 himself; and that the bravest warriors and the wisest 
 statesmen, relinquishing their natural right to empire, 
 approach the royal cradle with bended knees and pro- 
 testations of inviolable fidelity? Satire and declama- 
 tion may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling 
 colours, but our more serious thoughts will respect a 
 useful prejudice, that establishes a rule of succession, 
 independent of the passions of mankind ; and we shall 
 cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which deprives 
 
 d He who paid ten aurei, the usual tribute, was char^^ed with no 
 more than the third part of an aureus, and proportional pieces of gold 
 were coined by Alexander's order. Hist. August, p. 127. with the com- 
 mentary of Salmasius. 
 
 e See the lives of Agricoln, VcN-pasian, Trajan, flcvoru!», and his three 
 coni]>etitor(- ; and indeed of all the eminent men of those timcii. 
 
 P 
 
 A 
 
 I 
 
 1" 
 
 the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal, 
 power of giving themselves a master, 
 and solid advan- '» ^^e cool shade of retirement. We 
 taees of hercdi may easily devise imaginary forms of 
 tary succession, government, in which the sceptre shall 
 be constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free 
 and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Ex- 
 perience overturns these airy fabrics, and teaches us, 
 that in a large society, the elections of a monarch can 
 never devolve to the wisest, or to the most numerous, 
 part of the people. The army is the only order of men 
 sufliciently united to concur in the same sentiments, 
 and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of 
 their fellow-citizens ; but the temper of soldiers, habi- 
 tuated at once to violence and to slavery, renders 
 them very unfit guardians of a legal or even a civil 
 constitution. Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, 
 are qualities they are too little acquainted with in 
 themselves, to appreciate them in others. Valour will 
 acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their 
 suffrage ; but the first of these merits is often lodged 
 in the most savage breasts ; the latter can only exert 
 itself at the expense of the public ; and both may be 
 turned against the possessor of the throne, by the am- 
 bition of a daring rival. 
 
 „, , ^ .. . . The superior prerogative of birth, 
 Kn'em'ire' ^'^«" ^^ ^as obtained the sanction of 
 productive of the time and popular opinion, is the plainest 
 greatest calami- and least invidious of all distinctions 
 among mankind. The acknowledged 
 right extinguishes the hopes of faction, and the con- 
 scious security disarms the cruelty of the monarch. 
 To the firm establishment of this idea, we owe the 
 peaceful succession, and mild administration, of Euro- 
 pean monarchies. To the defect of it, we must attri- 
 bute the frequent civil wars, through which an Asiatic 
 despot is obliged to cut his way to the throne of his 
 fathers. Yet, even in the East, the sphere of conten- 
 tion is usually limited to the princes of the reigning 
 house, and as soon as the more fortunate competito'r 
 has removed his brethren, by the sword and the bow- 
 string, he no longer entertains any jealousy of his 
 meaner subjects. But the Roman empire, after the 
 authority of the senate had sunk into contempt, was a 
 vast scene of confusion. The royal, and even noble, 
 families of the provinces, had long since been led in 
 triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. 
 The ancient families of Rome had successively fallen 
 beneath the tyranny of the Caesars ; and whilst those 
 princes were shackled by the forms of a commonwealth, 
 and disappointed by the repeated failure of their pos- 
 terity,* it was impossible that any idea of hereditary 
 succession should have taken root in the minds of 
 their subjects. The right to the throne, which none 
 could claim from birth, every one assumed from merit. 
 The daring hopes of ambition were set loose from the 
 salutary restraints of law and prejudice ; and the mean- 
 est of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope 
 of being raised by valour and fortune to a rank in the 
 army, in which a single crime would enable him to 
 wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and un- 
 popular master. After the murder of Alexander Seve- 
 rus, and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could 
 think himself safe upon the throne, and every barba- 
 rian peasant of the frontier might aspire to that august, 
 but dangerous station. 
 
 Birth and fortunes About thirty -two ycars before that 
 of Maximin. event, the emperor Severus, returning 
 from an eastern expedition, halted in Thrace, to cele- 
 brate, with military games, the birth-day of his younger 
 son, Geta. The country flocked in crowds to behold 
 their sovereign, and a young barbarian of gigantic 
 stature, earnestly solicited, in his rude dialect, that he 
 might be allowed to contend for the prize of wrestling. 
 
 * There had been no example of three successive generations on 
 the throne; only three insiancesof sons who succeeded their fathers. 
 The marriages of the Ca?8ars (notwithstanding the permission and 
 the frequent practice of divorcer) were generally unfruitful. ' 
 
 As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced 
 in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thracian 
 peasant, he was matched with the stoutest followers 
 of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on 
 the ground. His victory was rewarded with some 
 trifling gifts, and a permission to enlist in the troops. 
 The next day the happy barbarian was distinguished 
 above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exulting after 
 the fashion of his country. As soon as he perceived 
 that he had attracted the emperor's notice, he instantly 
 ran up to his horse, and followed him on foot, without 
 the least appearance of fatigue, in a long and rapid ca- 
 reer. " Thracian," said Severus with astonishment, 
 " art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race V " Most 
 willingly, sir," replied the unwearied youth ; and al- 
 most in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest 
 soldiers in the army. A gold collar was the prize of 
 his matchless vigour and activity, and he was imme- 
 diately appointed to serve in the horse-guards, who al- 
 ways attended on the person of the sovereign.'' 
 
 Maximin, for that was his name. His military ser. 
 though born on the territories of the '^^'^^ ^"^^ honours, 
 empire, descended from a mixed race of barbarians. 
 His father was a Goth, and his mother of the nation 
 of the Alani. He displayed, on every occasion, a va- 
 lour equal to his strength; and his native fierceness 
 was soon tempered or disguised by the knowledge of 
 the world. Under the reign of Severus and his son, 
 he obtained the rank of centurion, with the favour and 
 esteem of both those princes, the former of whom was 
 an excellent judge of merit. Gratitude forbade Maxi- 
 min to serve under the assassin of Caracalla. Hon- 
 our taught him to decline the effeminate insults of 
 Elagabalus. On the accession of Alexander, he re- 
 turned to court, and was placed by that prince in a 
 station useful to the service, and honourable to him- 
 self. The fourth legion, to which he was appointed 
 tribune, soon became, under his care, the best disci- 
 plined of the whole army. With the general applause 
 of the soldiers, who bestowed on their favourite hero 
 the names of Ajax and Hercules, he was successively 
 promoted to the first military command ;*= and had not 
 he still retained too much of his savage origin, the 
 emperor might perhaps, have given his own sister in 
 marriage to the son of Maximin.** 
 
 Instead of securing his fidelity, these Conspiracy of 
 favours served only to inflame the ambi- Maximin. 
 tion of the Thracian peasant, who deemed his fortune 
 inadequate to his merit, as long as he was constrained 
 to acknowledge a superior. Though a stranger to real 
 wisdom, he was not devoid of a selfish cunning, which 
 shov.-ed him that the emperor had lost the affection of 
 the army, and taught him to improve their discontent 
 to his ov/n advantage. It is easy for faction and ca- 
 lumny to shed their poison on the administration of 
 the best of princes, and to accuse even their virtues, 
 by artfully confounding them with those vices to 
 which they bear the nearest afllnity. The troops lis- 
 tened with pleasure to the emissaries of Maximin. 
 They blushed at their own ignominious patience, 
 which, during thirteen years, had supported the vex- 
 atious discipline imposed by an eflieminate Syrian, the 
 timid slave of his mother and of the senate. It was 
 time, they cried, to cast away that useless phantom of 
 the civil power, and to elect for their prince and gene- 
 neral, a real soldier, educated in camps, exercised in 
 war, who would assert the glory, and distribute among 
 his companions the treasures, of the empire. A great 
 army was at that time assembled on the banks of the 
 Rhine, under the command of the emperor himself, 
 
 b Hist. August, p. 138. 
 
 <= Hist. August, p. 140. Ilerodian, 1. vi. p. 223. Aurelius Victor. 
 By comparing these authors.it should seem that Maximin had the 
 ];>articular command of the Tritmllian hors^, with the general com- 
 mission of disciplining the recruits of the whole army. His biogra- 
 pher ought to have marked with more care, his exploits, and the 
 successive steps of his military promotions. 
 
 <i See the original letter of Alexander Severus, Hist. August, p. 149. 
 
 ^tr 
 
 A- 
 
 \ 
 
 % 
 
 
70 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 • 
 
 uho, almost immediately after his return from the 
 Persian war, had been obliged to march against the 
 barbarians of Germany. The important care of train- 
 ing and reviewing the new levies, was entrusted to 
 Maximin. One day, as he entered the field of exercise, 
 the troops, either from a sudden impulse, or a formed 
 conspiracy, saluted him emperor, silenced by their 
 loud acclamations his obstinate refusal, and hastened to 
 
 A. D. 235. consummate their rebellion by the murder 
 
 March 19. of Alexander Severus. 
 Murder of Alex- The circumstances of his death are 
 ander Severus. variously related. The writers, who sup- 
 pose that he died in ignorance of the ingratitude and 
 ambition of Maximin, affirm, that after taking a frugal 
 repast in the sight of the army, he retired to sleep, 
 and that, about the seventh hour of the day, a part of 
 his own guards broke into the imperial tent, and, with 
 many wounds, assassinated their virtuous and unsus- 
 pecting prince.* If we credit another, and indeed a 
 more probable, account, Maximin was invested with 
 the purple by a numerous detachment, at the distance 
 of several miles from the head-quarters; and he trusted 
 for success rather to the secret wishes than to the pub- 
 lic declarations of the great army. Alexander had 
 sufficient time to awaken a faint sense of loyalty 
 among his troops; but their reluctant professions of 
 fidelity quickly vanished on the appearance of Maxi- 
 min, who declared himself the friend and advocate of 
 the military order, and was unanimously acknowledged 
 emperor of the Romans by the applauding legions. 
 The son of Mamaea, betrayed and deserted, withdrew 
 into his tent, desirous at least to conceal his approach- 
 ing fate from the insults of the multitude. He was 
 soon followed by a tribune and some centurions, the 
 ministers of death ; but instead of receiving with manly 
 resolution the inevitable stroke, his unavailing cries 
 and entreaties disgraced the last moments of his life, 
 and converted into contempt some portion of the just 
 pity which his innocence and misfortunes must inspire. 
 His mother Mamaea, whose pride and avarice he loudly 
 accused as the cause of his ruin, perished with her 
 son. The most faithful of his friends were sacrificed 
 to the first fury of the soldiers. Others were reserved 
 for the more deliberate cruelty of the usurper; and 
 those who experienced the mildest treatment, were 
 stripped of their employments, and ignominiously dri- 
 ven from the court and army.' 
 Tyranny of The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, 
 
 Maximin. Commodus and Caracalla, were all disso- 
 lute and unexperienced youths,* educated in the pur- 
 ple, and corrupted by the pride of empire, the luxury 
 of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery. The 
 cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different source, 
 the fear of contempt. Though he depended on the at- 
 tachment of the soldiers, who loved him for virtues 
 like their own, he was conscious that his mean and 
 barbarian origin, his savage appearance, and his total 
 ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life,** 
 formed a very unfavourable contrast with the amiable 
 manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remembered, 
 that in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before 
 the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been 
 denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. 
 He recollected, too, the friendship of a few who had 
 relieved his poverty, and assisted his rising hopes. 
 But those who had spurned, and those who had pro- 
 tected, the Thracian, were guilty of the same crime, 
 
 • Hist. Aui;ust. p. IM. I have softciipd some of the most impro- 
 bable circumstances of this wretched biograplier. From this ill- 
 worded narration, it should seem that the prince's buffoon, having 
 accidentally entered the tent, and awakened the slumbering mon- 
 arch, the fear of punishment urged him to persuade the disuflfected 
 soldiers to commit the murder. 
 
 t Herodian. I. vi. p. 22:J— 227. 
 
 K Caligula, the eldest of the four, was only twenty-five years of 
 age when he ascended the throne; Caracnila was twenty-three, 
 Commodus nineteen, and Nero no more than seventeen. 
 
 b It appears that he was totally ignorant of the Greek language ; 
 which, from its universal use in conversation and letters, was an 
 CMential part of every liberal education. 
 
 the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this 
 crime many were put to death ; and by the execution of 
 several of his benefactors, Maximin published, in cha- 
 racters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness 
 and ingratitude.' 
 
 The dark and sanguinary soul of the tyrant was 
 open to every suspicion against those among his sub- 
 jects who were the most distinguished by their birth 
 or merit. Whenever he was alarmed with the sound 
 of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelent- 
 ing. A conspiracy against his life was either discov- 
 ered or imagined, and Magnus, a consular senator, was 
 named as the principal author of it. Without a wit- 
 ness, without a trial, and without an opportunity of 
 defence, Magnus, with four thousand of his supposed 
 accomplices, were put to death. Italy and the whole 
 empire were infested with innumerable spies and in- 
 formers. On the slightest accusation, the first of the 
 Roman nobles, who had governed provinces, com- 
 manded armies, and been adorned with the consular 
 and triumphal ornaments, were chained on the public 
 carriages, and hurried away to the emperor's presence. 
 Confiscation, exile, or simple death, were esteemed 
 uncommon instances of his lenity. Some of the un- 
 fortunate suflferers he ordered to be sewed up in the 
 hides of slaughtered animals, others to be exposed to 
 wild beasts, others ajjain to be beaten to death with 
 clubs. During the three years of his reign, he dis- 
 dained to visit either Rome or Italy. His camp, occa- 
 sionally removed from the banks of the Rhine to those 
 of the Danube, was the seat of his stern despotism, 
 which trampled on every principle of law and justice, 
 and was supported by the avowed power of the 
 sword.^ No man of noble birth, eleg-ant accomplish- 
 ments, or knowledge of civil business, was suflfered 
 near his person ; and the court of a Roman emperor 
 revived the idea of those ancient chiefs of slaves and 
 gladiators, whose savage power had left a deep im- 
 pression of terror and detestation.' 
 
 As long as the cruelty of Maximin Oppression of the 
 was confined to the illustrious senators, provinces, 
 or even to the bold adventurers, who in the court or 
 army expose themselves to the caprice of fortune, the 
 body of the people viewed their sufferings with indif- 
 ference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant's 
 avarice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the sol- 
 diers, at length attacked the public property. Every 
 city of the empire was possessed of an independent 
 revenue, destined to purchase corn for the multitude, 
 and to supply the expenses of the games and enter- 
 tainments. By a single act of authority, the whole 
 mass of wealth was at once confiscated for the use of 
 the imperial treasury. The temples were stripped of 
 their most valuable offerings of gold and silver, and 
 the statues of gods, heroes, and emperors, were melted 
 down and coined into money. These impious orders 
 could not be executed without tumults and massacres, 
 as in many places the people chose rather to die in the 
 defence of their altars, than to behold in the midst of 
 peace their cities exposed to the rapine and cruelty of 
 war. The soldiers themselves, among whom this sac- 
 rilegious plunder was distributed, received it with a 
 blush ; and, hardened as they were in acts of violence, 
 they dreaded the just reproaches of their friends and 
 relations. Throughout the Roman world a general 
 cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on 
 
 i Hist. August, p. 141. Herodian, 1. vii. p. 237. The latter of these 
 historians has been most unjustly censured for sparing the vices of 
 Maximin. 
 
 ^ The wife of Maximin, by insinuating wise counsels with fe- 
 male gentleness, sometimes brought back the tyrant to the way of 
 truth and humanity. See Ammianus Marcellinu*, I. xiv. c. 1. where 
 he alludes to the fact which he had more fully related under the 
 reign of the Gordians. We may collect from the medals, that Pau- 
 lina was the name of this benevolent empress ; and from the title 
 of Diva, that she died before Maximin. (Valesiusad loc. cit. Am- 
 mian.) Spanheim de U. et P. N. torn. ii. p. 300. 
 
 [ If we may believe Syncellus and Zonarus it was Maximin him- 
 self who caused her to be put to death.— G.l 
 
 I He was compared to Spartacus and Atbenio. Hist. August, 
 p. 141. *• »• - 6 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ! 
 
 the common enemy of human kind ; and at length, by 
 an act of private oppression, a peaceful and unarmed 
 provmce was driven into rebellion against him.°» 
 
 ?*n'oi^ ^/"'=*' "^^^ procurator of Africa was a ser- 
 A. D. .37. Apr.i. yant Worthy of such a master, who con- 
 sidered the fines and confiscations of the rich as one 
 of the most fruitful branches of the imperial revenue. 
 An iniquitous sentence had been pronounced acrainst 
 some opulent youths of that country, the executi^on of 
 which would have stripped them of far the greater 
 part of their patrimony. In this extremity, a resolu- 
 tion that must either complete or prevent their ruin 
 was dictated by despair. A respite of three days, ob- 
 tamed with difficulty from the rapacious treasurer, was 
 employed in collecting from their estates a great num- 
 ber of slaves and peasants, blindly devoted to the 
 commands of their lords, and armed with the rustic 
 weapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the con- 
 spiracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the 
 procurator, stabbed him with the daggers concealed 
 under their garments, and, by the assistance of their 
 tumultuary train, seized on the little town of Thys- 
 drus,» and erected the standard of rebellion against 
 the sovereign of the Roman empire. They rested 
 their hopes on the hatred of mankind against Maxi- 
 min, and they judiciously resolved to oppose to that 
 detested tyrant, an emperor whose mild virtues had 
 already acquired the love and esteem of the Romans, 
 and whose authority over the province would give 
 weight and stability to the enterprise. Gordianus, 
 their proconsul, and the object of their choice, refused, 
 with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honour, and 
 begged with tears, that they would suffer him to ter- 
 minate in peace a long and innocent life, without stain- 
 ing his feeble age with civil blood. Their menaces 
 compelled him to accept the imperial purple, his only 
 refuge indeed against the jealous cruelty of Maximin • 
 since, according to the reasoning of tyrants, those who 
 have been esteemed worthy of the throne deserve 
 death, and those who deliberate have already re- 
 belled." "^ 
 
 Character and eie- The family of Gordianus was one of 
 Gordianf '^" '^° ^^® ™°«* illustrious of the Roman sen- 
 ate. On the father's side he was de- 
 scended from the Gracchi ; on his mother's from the 
 emperor Trajan. A great estate enabled him to sup- 
 port the dignity of his birth, and, in the enjoyment of 
 It, he displayed an elegant taste and beneficent dispo- 
 sition. The palace in Rome, formerly inhabited by 
 the great Pompey, had been, during several genera- 
 tions, in the possession of Gordian's family.? It was 
 distinguished by ancient trophies of naval victories, 
 and decorated with the works of modern painting. 
 His villa on the road to Praeneste was celebrated for 
 baths of singular beauty and extent, for three stately 
 rooms of a hundred feet in length, and for a magnificent 
 portico, supported by two hundred columns of the 
 lour most curious and costly sorts of marble.i The 
 public shows exhibited at his expense, and in which 
 ine people were entertained with many hundreds of 
 w^Id beasts and gladiators,' seem to surpass the for- 
 
 71 
 
 ^Herodian, I vii. p. 238. Zosim. I. i. p. 15. 
 miles to tL-n"? *f A*^"*? °^ Byzacium. one hnndred and fifty 
 hy the rnrSi!°"*'' of Carthage. This city was decorated, probab y 
 thcitre Sc,?1;ri\n''' '"" °''f«'""y. «"d with a fine^mph,^ 
 
 P KfJ"* i*"' '• ^"- P- 239. Hist. August, p. 153. 
 niM wi« . ^"K"^'- P- ^52. The celebrated house of Pomoev in cari 
 
 tlleSv'Kd'ea J 'iTarfoT'^.^ ' ?"" ^-.-^"-"y EneraX 
 TraianTllnJni ^5 P*"^^**^"'® imperial domain. The emperor 
 tl.ose m^JS^^''' ?"•* 7®" encouraged, the rich senators to purchase 
 iiiose magnificent and useless places, (Plin. Panecvrir r ^nT o«h 
 
 rystian wl. f ^ distinguished. It appears, however, that the Ca- 
 Sed wTrh * ■*'r8''«e"' «"d that the marble of Synnada was whife 
 Jl'xed with oval spots of purple. See Salmasius"^ ad Hist Au^Sii* 
 
 ofX'?itor?"n'^v?r !o-V ^u^' "'' •°'"et>'n«- P^ve five hundred pair 
 n auiaiors, never le»s ihun one hundred and fifty. He once gave 
 
 tune of a subject ; and whilst the liberality of other 
 magistrates was confined to a few solemn festivals in 
 Rome, the magnificence of Gordian was repeated, 
 when he was aedile, every month in the year, and ex- 
 tended, during his consulship, to the principal cities 
 ot Italy. He was twice elevated to the last mention- 
 ed dignity, by Caracalla and by Alexander; for he 
 possessed the uncommon talent of acquirino- the es- 
 teem of virtuous princes, without alarming^the jeal- 
 ousy of tyrants. His long life was innocently spent 
 m the study of letters and the peaceful honours of 
 Rome ; and till he was named proconsul of Africa by 
 the voice of the senate and the approbation of Alexan- 
 der,' he appears prudently to have declined the com- 
 mand of armies and the government of provinces. As 
 long as that emperor lived, Africa was happy under 
 the adniinistration of his worthy representative ; after 
 the barbarous Maximin had usurped the throne, Gor- 
 dianus alleviated the miseries which he was unable to 
 prevent. When he reluctantly accepted the purple, 
 he was above four-score years old ; a last and valuable 
 remains of the happy age of the Antonines, whose vir- 
 tues he revived in his own conduct, and celebrated in 
 an elegant poem of thirty books. With the venerable 
 proconsul, his son, who had accompanied him into 
 Alrica as his lieutenant, was likewise declared empe- 
 ror. His manners were less pure, but his character 
 was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty- 
 two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty- 
 two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his in- 
 clinations ; and from the productions which he left 
 behind him, it appears that the former as well as the 
 latter \j'ere designed for use rather than for ostenta- 
 tion. Ihe Roman people acknowledged in the fea- 
 tures of the younger Gordian the resemblance of Scipio 
 Africanus, recollected with pleasure that his mother 
 was the grand-daughter of Antoninus Pius, and rested 
 the public hope on those latent virtues which had hith- 
 erto, as they fondly imagined, lain concealed in the 
 luxurious indolence of a private life. 
 
 As soon as the Gordians had appeased n^ ,. • . 
 the first tumult of a popular election, ^nlTrm'Jlron ^Jf 
 they removed their court to Carthage, their authority. 
 They were received with the acclamations of the Afri- 
 cans, w'ho honoured their virtues, and who, since the 
 visit of Hadrian, had never beheld the majesty of a 
 Roman emperor. But these vain acclamations neither 
 strengthened nor confirmed the title of the Gordians. 
 Ihey were induced by principle, as well as interest, 
 to solicit the approbation of the senate ; and a deputal 
 tion ot the noblest provincials was sent, without de- 
 lay, to Rome, to relate and justify the conduct of their 
 countrymen, who, having long suffered with patience, 
 were at length resolved to act with vigour. The let- 
 ters of the new princes were modest and respectful, 
 excusing the necessity which had obliged them to ac- 
 cept the imperial title ; but submitting their election 
 and their fate to the supreme judgment of the senate." 
 
 Ihe inclinations of the senate were .« 
 neither doublful nor divided. The birth ll;^^e"Vl: "o!; 
 and noble alliance of the Gordians had of the Gordians; 
 intimately connected them with the most illustrious 
 houses of Rome. Their fortune had created many de- 
 pendants in that assembly, their merit had acquired 
 many friends. Their mild administration opened the 
 flattering prospect of the restoration, not only of the 
 civil but even of the republican government. The 
 terror of military violence, which had first obliged the 
 senate to forget the murder of Alexa nder, and to ratify 
 
 for the use of the Circus one hundred Sicilian, and as many Capna- 
 docian, horses. The animals designed for huniinp. were chiefly 
 bears, boars, bulls, stags, elks, wild asses, &c. Elepj;anf8 and S 
 seem to have been appropriated to imperial maenificence. 
 
 • See the original letter, in the Augustan History, p. 152, which at 
 once shows Alexander's respect for the authority of the senate and 
 his esteem for the proconsul appointed by that assembly 
 rJ ^^»5?f '^ ***" ^*f. co"cubines, the younger Gordian left three or 
 four children. His literary productions, though less nuraeroufc 
 were by no means contemptible. «>uiuerou8, 
 
 u Herodian, I, vii. p. 243. liist. August, p. Hi. 
 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^ 
 
72 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 73 
 
 % 
 
 the election of a barbarian peasant,* now produced a 
 contrary effect, and provoked them to assert the injured 
 rights of freedom and humanity. The hatred of Maxi- 
 min towards the senate was declared and implacable ; 
 the tamest submission had not appeased his fury, the 
 most cautious innocence would not remove his suspi- 
 cions ; and even the care of their own safety urged 
 them to share the fortune of an enterprise, of which 
 (if unsuccessful) they were sure to be the first victims. 
 These considerations, and perhaps others of a more 
 private nature, were debated in a previous conference 
 of the consuls and the magistrates. As soon as their 
 resolution was decided, they convoked in the temple 
 of Castor the whole body of the senate, according to 
 an ancient form of secrecy ,y calculated to awaken their 
 attention, and to conceal their decrees. " Conscript 
 fathers," said the consul Syllanus, " the two Gor- 
 dians, both of consular dignity, the one your procon- 
 sul, the other your lieutenant, have been declared 
 emperors by the general consent of Africa. Let us 
 return thanks," he boldly continued, " to the youth 
 of Thysdrus; let us return thanks to the faithful 
 people of Carthage, our generous deliverers from a 
 horrid monster. Why do you hear me thus coolly, 
 thus timidly 1 Why do you cast those anxious looks 
 on each other 1 why hesitate 1 Maximin is a public ene- 
 my ! may his enmity soon expire with him, and may 
 we lonjj enjoy the prudence and felicity of Gordian the 
 father, the valour and constancy of Gordian the son !"■ 
 and declares I'^e noble ardour of the consul revived 
 Maximin a public the languid Spirit of the senate. By an 
 enemy. unanimous decree the elections of the 
 
 Gordians was ratified, Maximin, his son, and his ad- 
 herents, were pronounced enemies of their country, and 
 liberal rewards were offered to whosoever had the 
 courage and good fortune to destroy them. 
 
 A .1 - ««.„ Durins: the emperor's absence, a de- 
 
 Assumes the com- , ? r .i ^ • j 
 
 mand of Rome tachment of the praetorian guards re- 
 
 and Italy; mained at Rome, to protect, or rather 
 
 to command, the capital. The praefect Vitalianus had 
 signalized his fidelity to Maximin, by the alacrity with 
 which he had obeyed, and even prevented, the cruel 
 mandates of the tyrant. His death alone could rescue 
 the authority of the senate and the lives of the sena- 
 tors, from a state of danger and suspense. Before 
 their resolves had transpired, a quaestor and some tri- 
 bunes were commissioned to take his devoted life. 
 They executed the order with equal boldness and 
 success; and with their bloody daggers in their hands, 
 ran through the streets, proclaiming to the people and 
 the soldiers the news of the happy revolution. The 
 enthusiasm of liberty was seconded by the promise of 
 a large donative, in lands and money ; the statues of 
 Maximin were thrown down ; the capital of the empire 
 acknowledged, with transport, the authority of the two 
 Gordians and the senate :* and the example of Rome 
 was followed by the rest of Italy, 
 and prepares for A new spirit had arisen in that as- 
 a civil war. sembly, whose long patience had been 
 insulted by wanton despotism and military licence. 
 The senate assumed the reins of government, and, 
 with a calm intrepidity, prepared to vindicate by arms 
 the cause of freedom. Among the consular senators 
 recommended by their merit and services to the favour 
 of the emperor Alexander, it was easy to select twenty, 
 not unequal to the command of an army, and the con- 
 duct of a war. To these was the defence of Italy in- 
 trusted. Each was appointed to act in his respective 
 department, authorized to enrol and discipline the Ita- 
 lian youth, and instructed to fortify the ports and high- 
 
 X Quod tamen patres dum periculosum cxistimant; inermcs armato 
 resisterc approbuverunt. Aurelius Victor. 
 
 y Even the servants of the house, the scribes, &c. were excluded, 
 and their office was filled by the senators iliemselves. We are ob- 
 liged to the Aufiustan History, p. 159, for preserving this curious 
 example of the old discipline of the commonwealth. 
 
 « Tliis spirited speech, translated from the Augustan historian, p. 
 J56 seems transcribed by him from the original registers of the senate. 
 
 a Herodian, 1. vii. p. 2^4. 
 
 ways against the impending invasion of Maximin. A 
 number of deputies, chosen iVom the most illustrious 
 of the senatorian and equestrian orders, were des- 
 patched at the same time to the governors of the se- 
 veral provinces, earnestly conjuring them to fly to the 
 assistance of their country, and to remind the nations 
 of their ancient ties of friendship with the Roman se- 
 nate and people. The general respect with which 
 these deputies were received, and the zeal of Italy and 
 the provinces in favour of the senate, sufficiently prove 
 that the subjects of Maximin were reduced to that un- 
 common distress, in which the body of the people has 
 more to fear from oppression than from resistance. 
 The consciousness of that melancholy truth, inspires 
 a degree of persevering fury, seldom to be found in 
 those civil wars which are artificially supported for 
 the benefit of a few factious and designing leaders.** 
 
 For while the cause of the Gordians ^^^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^j^ 
 was embraced with such diffusive ardour, of the two Cor- 
 the Gordians themselves were no more, dians, a. d.237, 
 The feeble court of Carthage was alarm- '^'''^ •'"'^• 
 ed with the rapid approach of Capelianus, governor 
 of Mauritania, who, with a small band of veterans, and 
 a fierce host of barbarians, attacked a faithful, but 
 unwarlike province. The younger Gordian sallied 
 out to meet the enemy at the head of a few guards, 
 and a numerous undisciplined multitude, educated in 
 the peaceful luxury of Carthage. His useless valour 
 served only to procure him an honourable death in the 
 field of battle. His aged father, whose reign had not 
 exceeded thirty-six days, put an end to his life on the 
 first news of the defeat. Carthage, destitute of de- 
 fence, opened her gates to the conqueror, and Africa 
 was exposed to the rapacious cruelty of a slave, 
 obliged to satisfy his unrelenting master with a large 
 account of blood and treasure.*^ 
 
 The fate of the Gordians filled Rome Election of Max- 
 with just but unexpected terror. The imus and Baibi- 
 senate convoked in the temple of Con- ""' llfi/iJf;."'^^^' 
 cord, affected to transact the common 
 business of the day; and seemed to decline, with 
 tremblingr anxiety, the consideration of their own, and 
 the public, danger. A silent consternation prevailed 
 on the assembly, till a senator, of the name and family 
 of Trajan, awakened his brethren from their fatal le- 
 thargy. He represented to them, that the choice of 
 cautious dilatory measures had been long since out of 
 their power; that Maximin, implacable by nature, and 
 exasperated by injuries, was advancing toward Italy, 
 at the head of the military force of the empire ; and 
 that their only remaining alternative, was either to 
 meet him bravely in the field, or tamely to expect the 
 tortures and ignominious death reserved for unsuccess- 
 ful rebellion. " We have lost," continued he, "two 
 excellent princes ; but unless we desert ourselves, the 
 hopes of the republic have not perished with the Gor- 
 dians. Many are the senators, whose virtues have 
 deserved, and whose abilities would sustain, the im- 
 perial dignity. Let us elect two emperors, one of 
 whom may conduct the war against the public enemy, 
 whilst his colleague remains at Rome to direct the 
 civil administration. I cheerfully expose myself to 
 the danger and envy of the nomination, and give my 
 vote in favour of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my 
 choice, conscript fathers, or appoint, in their place, 
 others more worthy of the empire." The general 
 apprehension silenced the whispers of jealousy ; the 
 merit of the candidates was universally acknowledged ; 
 and the house resounded with the sincere acclamations 
 of ** long life and victory to the emperors Maximus 
 and Balbinus. You are happy in the judgment of 
 
 b Herodian, I. vil. p. 247. I. viii. p. 277. Hist. August, p. 156, 158. 
 
 c Herodian, I. vii. p. 254. Hist. Aupust. p. 150—160. We may 
 observe, that one month and six days, for the reign of Gordian, is a 
 just correction of Casaubon and Panvinius, instead of the absurd 
 readins of one year and six months. See Comuientar. p. 193. Zo 
 simus relates, 1. i. p. 17. that the two Gordians perished by a tern 
 pest in the midst of their navigation. A strange ignorance of history, 
 or a strange abuse of metaphors. 
 
 the senate ; may the republic be happy under your 
 administration I"** 
 
 Their characters. ^^^ ^''""^"^s and the reputation of the 
 new emperors justified the most san- 
 guine hopes of the Romans. The various nature of 
 their talents seemed to appropriate to each his peculiar 
 department of peace and war, without leaving room for 
 jealous emulation. Balbinus was an admired orator, 
 a poet of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, 
 who had exercised with innocence and applause the 
 civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of 
 the empire. His birth was noble,« his fortune atHuent, 
 his manners liberal and affable. In him the love of 
 pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had 
 the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for busi- 
 ness. The mind of Maximus was formed in a rougher 
 mould. By his valour and abilities he had raised 
 himself from the meanest origin to the first employ- 
 ments of the state and army. His victories over the 
 Sarmatians and the Germans, the austerity of his life, 
 and the rijjid impartiality of his justice, whilst he was 
 praifect of the city, commanded the esteem of a people, 
 whose affections were engaged in favour of the more 
 amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both been 
 consuls, (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honourable 
 office,) both had been named among the twenty lieu- 
 tenants of the senate; and since the one was sixty and 
 the other seventy-four years old,' they had both at- 
 tained the full maturity of age and experience. 
 
 Tumult at Rome. ^^}^^ ^^^ senate had conferred on 
 The younper Gor- Maximus and Balbinus an equal por- 
 Sar'" '^^"^'"* ^'°" of the consular and tribunitian 
 power, the title of fathers of their coun- 
 try, and the joint oflice of supreme pontiflT, they as- 
 cended to the capitol, to return thanks to the gods, 
 protectors of Rome.K The solemn rites of sacrifice 
 were disturbed by a sedition of the people. The li- 
 centious multitude neither loved the rigid Maximus, 
 nor did they sufllciently fear the mild and humane 
 Balbinus. Their increasing numbers surrounded the 
 temple of Jupiter; with obstinate clamours they as- 
 serted their inherent right of consenting to the election 
 of their sovereign; and demanded, with an apparent 
 moderation, that, besides the two emperors chosen by 
 *he S'^nate, a third should be added of the family of 
 the Gordians, as a just return of gratitude to those 
 princes who had sacrificed their lives for the republic. 
 At the head of the city guards, and the youth of the 
 equestrian order, Maximus and Balbinus attempted to 
 cut their way through the seditious multitude. The 
 multitude, armed with sticks and stones, drove them 
 back into the capitol. It is prudent to yield when the 
 contest, whatever may be the issue of it, must be fatal 
 to both parties. A boy, only thirteen years of age, the 
 grandson of the elder,** and nephew of the younger, 
 Gordian, was produced to the people, invested with 
 the ornaments and title of Caesar. The tumult was 
 appeased -by this easy condescension ; and the two 
 emperors, as soon as they had been peaceably ac- 
 knowledged in Rome, prepared to defend Italy against 
 the common enemy. 
 
 Whilst in Rome and Africa revolu- ^ . . 
 tions succeeded each other with such !!!?S fKn' 
 amazing rapidity, the mind of Maximin a'e and thuir em. 
 \vas agitated by the most furious pas- ^^^^^' 
 sions. He is said to have received the news of the re- 
 bellion of the Gordians, and of the decree of the senate 
 against him, not with the temper of a man but the rage 
 of a wild beast ; which, as it could not discharge it- 
 self on the distant senate, threatened the life of his 
 son, of his friends, and of all who ventured to ap- 
 proach his person. The grateful intelligence of the 
 death of the Gordians was quickly followed by the 
 assurance that the senate, laying aside all hopes of 
 pardon or accommodation, had substituted in their 
 room two emperors, with whose merit he could not be 
 unacquainted. Revenge was the only consolation left 
 to Maximin, and revenge could only be obtained by 
 arms. The strength of the legions had been assembled 
 by Alexander from all parts of the empire. Three 
 successful campaio-ns against the Germans and the 
 Sarmatians, had raised their fame, confirmed their dis- 
 cipline, and even increased their numbers, by filling 
 the ranks with the fiower of the barbarian youth. The 
 life of Maximin had been spent in war, and the candid 
 severity of history cannot refuse him the valour of a 
 soldier, or even the abilities of an experienced gene- 
 ral.' It might naturally be expected, that a prince of 
 such a character, instead of suffering the rebellion to 
 gain stability by delay, should immediately have 
 marched from the banks of the Danube to those of the 
 Tyher, and that his victorious army, instigated by con- 
 tempt for the senate, and eager to gather the spoils of 
 Italy, should have burned with impatience to finish the 
 easy and lucrative conquest. Yet as far as we can 
 trust to the obscure chronology of that period,"* it ap- 
 pears that the operations of some foreign war deferred 
 the Italian expedition till the ensuing spring. From 
 the prudent conduct of Maximin, we may learn that 
 the savage features of his character have been exao-o-er- 
 ted by the pencil of party, that his passions, however 
 impetuous, submitted to the force of reason, and that 
 the barbarian possessed something of the generous 
 spirit of Sylla, who subdued the enemies of Rome, 
 
 <l See the Au{;ustan History, p. 166, from the registers of the se- 
 nate ; the date is confessedly faulty, but the coincidence of the Apol- 
 linnrian r;ainc(« enables us to correct it. 
 
 e He was dosceiided from Cornelius Balhus, a noble Spaniard, and 
 the adopted son ofTheophaiics the Greek historian. Balbus obtain- 
 ed the freedom of Rome by the favour of Pompey, and preserved it 
 by tlie eloquence of Cicero, (see Orat. pro. Cornel. Baibo.) The 
 friendship of Osar (to whom he rendered the most important se- 
 cret services in the civil war) raised him to the consulship and the 
 pontifirate, honours never yet possessed by a stranger. The nephew 
 of tliis Balbus triumphed over the Gara'mantes. See Diclionnaire 
 de Bayle, au mot Balbus, where he dislinjruishes the several persons 
 of that n:inie, and rectifits, with his usual accuracy, the mistakes of 
 former writers concerninj; tliem. 
 
 » Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 620. But little dependence is to be had on the 
 authority of a modern Greek, so grossly ifnorant of the history of 
 the third century, that he creates several imaginary emperors, and 
 confounds those who really existed. 
 
 f Herodian, I, vii. p. 256, supposes that the senate was at first 
 convoked in the capital, and is very eloquent on the occasion. The 
 Augustan History, p. 116. seems much more authentic. 
 
 *> [A son according tn some. — Cf.] 
 
 Vol. I.— K 
 
 i In Herodian, l.vii, p. 219. and in the Augustan history, we hare 
 three several orations of Maximin to his army, on the rebellion of 
 Africa and Rome: M. de Tillemont has very justly observed, that 
 they neither agree with each other, nor with truth. Histoire dea 
 Etnpcrcurs, tom. iii. p. 799. 
 
 J The carelessness of the writers of that age leaves us in a sineu- 
 lar perplexity. 1. We know that Maximus and Balbinus were kill- 
 ed during the Capifoline games. Herodian 1. viii. p. 2^.5. The au- 
 thority of Censorinus (de Die Natali, c. 18.) enables us to fix those 
 •ranies with certainty to the year 2.^8, but leaves us in ignorance of 
 the month or day. 2. The election of Gordian by the senate, is 
 fixed, with equal certainty, to the 27th of May ; but we are at a loss 
 to discover, wlieiher it was in the same or the preceding year. Tille- 
 mont and Muratori, who maintain the two opposite opinions, bring 
 into the field a desultory troop of authorities, conjectures, and proh- 
 abilities. The one seems to draw out, the other to contract, the 
 series of events between those periods, more than can be well recon- 
 ciled lo reason and history. Yet it is necessary to choose between 
 them. 
 
 [ Eckhel has more recently discussed these questions of chronolo- 
 gy, with a clearness which gives great probability to his conclusions. 
 Settinii a.side all historians, whose contradictions are irreconcilable, 
 he consults medals only, and has eslablislied the facts before us, in 
 the following order : — 
 
 "Maximin, in the year of Rome 990, after having conquered the 
 Germans, re enters Pannonia, establishes his winter quarters at Sir- 
 
 mium, and prepares to make war with the people of the north. 
 
 The year 991, upon the calends of January, his fourth consulate 
 commences. The Gordians are elected in Africa, probably alout 
 the beginning of the month of March. The senate confirms with 
 joy this election, and declares Maximin the enemy of Rome. F'ive 
 days after hearing of this revolt, Maximin leaves Sirmium with his 
 army, to march against Italy. These events happen towards the 
 beginning of April, shorUy after the Gordians are slain in Africa, 
 by Capellianus procurator of Mauritania. The senate, in affright, 
 names Balbinus and Maximus Pupienus, and appoint the latter to 
 the care of the war against Maximin. Maximin is stopped in his 
 march near Aquileia for want of provisions, and the melting of the 
 snow. He commences the siese of Aquileia. towards the close of 
 April. Pupienus assembles his army at Ravenna. Maximin and 
 his son are murdered by the soldiery, who are irritated by the 
 resistance of Aquileia — and this was probably In the middle of 
 May. Pupienus returns to Rome, and rules with Balbinus—they 
 are assassinated towards the end of June. Gordian the younirer 
 ascends the throne. (Eckhel De doct. Nam. vet. vol. vii. "p. 
 295.)— O".] 
 
 
 « 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
 
74 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 t 
 
 '♦ 
 
 before he suffered himself to revenge his private inju- 
 ries.^ 
 
 MarchoB into im- ^^ hen the troops of Maxim in, an- 
 ly, A. D. 2:jd. Fob- vancing in excellent order, arrived at 
 '^'"y- the foot of the Julian Alps, they were 
 
 terrified by the silence and desolation that reigned on 
 the frontiers of Italy. The villages and open towns 
 had been abandoned on their approach by the inhabi- 
 tants, the cattle was driven away, the provisions re- 
 moved, or destroyed, tlie bridires broke down, nor was 
 any thing left which could afford either shelter or sub- 
 sistence to an invader. Such had been the wise or- 
 ders of the generals of the senate ; whose design was 
 to protract the war, to ruin the army of Maximin by 
 the slow operation of famine, and to consume liis 
 strength in the sieges of the principal cities of Italy, 
 which they had plentifully stored with men and provi- 
 
 SiegoofAquilcia. f^?"^^'''^"^^'^*^ deserted country. Aqui- 
 leia received and withstood the first 
 shock of the invasion. The streams that issue from 
 the head cf the Hadriatic gulf, swelled by the melting 
 of the winter snows,' opposed an unexpected obstacle 
 to the arms of Maximin. At length, on a singular 
 bridge, constructed with art and difficulty, of Targe 
 hogsheads, he transported his army to the opposite 
 bank, rooted up the beautiful vineyards in the neio-h- 
 bourhood of Aquileia, demolished the sul)urbs, and 
 employed the timber of the biiihlings in the engines 
 and towers, with which on every side he attacked the 
 city. The walls, fallen to decay during the security 
 of a long peace, had been hastily repaired on this siul- 
 den emergency; but the firmest defence of Aquileia 
 consisted in the constancy of the citizens ; all ranks 
 of whom, instead of being dismayed, were animated 
 by the extreme danger, and their knowledge of the 
 tyrant's unrelenting temper. Their courage "was sup- 
 ported and directed by Crispinus and Menophilus, two 
 of the twenty lieutenants of the senate, who, with a 
 small body of regular troops, had thrown themselves 
 mto the besieged place. The army of Maximin was 
 repulsed on repeated attacks, his machines destroyed 
 by showers of artificial fire; and the generous enthu- 
 siasm of the Aquileians was exalted into a confidence 
 of success, by the opinion, that Belenus, their tutelar 
 deity, combated in person in the defence of his dis- 
 tressed worshippers.'" 
 
 Conduct of The emperor Maximus, who had ad- 
 Maximum. vanced as far as Ravenna, to secure that 
 important place, and to hasten the military prepara- 
 tions, beheld the event of the war in the more faithful 
 mirror of reason and policy. He was too st^nsible, 
 that a single town could not resist the perseverin<r 
 efforts of a great army; and he dreaded, lest the enemf, 
 tired with the obstinate resistance of Aquileia, should 
 on a sudden relinquish the fruitless siege, and march 
 directly towards Rome. The fate of the empire and 
 the cause of freedom must then be committed to tlie 
 chance of a battle ; and what arms couhl he oppose to 
 the veteran legions of the Rhine and Danube 1 Some 
 troops newly levied among the generous but enervated 
 youth of Italy ; and a body of German auxiliaries, on 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 n^iX n'? PatorrulHs. I. ii. c. 24. The president dc Montesquieu 
 
 2.on,!rn^'M°^!J^ ^^'''*?" ^>".*'' "•"* Eucrates,) expresses the sent!, 
 ments of the dictator, in a spirited, and even a sublime manner 
 1 Muratori (Annali d'ltalia. tom. ii. p. 204,) thinks the meltin^ of 
 
 JhLT^V"'" '^^!!.r '^"" '^"^ '"^"^''^ °f J""e or July, th;m wi?h 
 that of February. The opinion of a man who passed hislife between 
 the Alps and the Apennines, is undoubtedly of great weight- vet I 
 
 ?^^ri^\n\Jt' V** ;°"« ^/"\"' °^ ^"''=»' ^^'"^•''to" take adlan 
 tage, IS to be found only in the i^atin version, and not in the Creek 
 text of Herodian. 2 That the vicissitude of suns an.l rains to 
 which the soldiers of Maximin were exposed, (Herodian. 1. viii' n 
 277.) denotes the spring raliier than the summer. We may observe 
 hkewisc, Uiat these several streams, as they melted into one. com^ 
 posed the Timavus, so poetically, (in every sense of the word,) de- 
 
 ^iil VZ A^""''- tVI^^ -?'*'■ '*^'°"^ *«'«'^« "'^'^s to ti'e east of Aqui- 
 leia. SeeCluver. Italia Antiqu.n, tom. i. p. 189 &.c 
 
 aIiiJ.*"'*"'^'*"' '•• ""*]'• ^\ ^'•- '^''^ *^^'»'^ ^^'^y was supposed to be 
 Apollo, and received under that name tlie thanks of the senate. A 
 
 STi^.Y^" '"^?w'?f ^"i'.t to Venus the Bald, in honour of the women 
 
 if-r^^.nil • ^"'''^ ^^^ 6>ven up their hair to make rones for the mil 
 iiary engines. 
 
 whose firmness, in the hour of trial, it was dangerous 
 to depend. In the midst of these just alarms, the 
 stroke of domestic con.spiracy punished the crimes of 
 Maximin, and delivered Rome and the JSenate from the 
 calamities that would surely have attended the victory 
 of an enraged barbarian. 
 
 The people of Aquileia had scarcely jv,„,,„ „f Maxi- 
 experienced any ol the common mise- min and his son, 
 ries of a siege ; their magazines were ^ ^ -^^- ^p"' 
 plentifully supplied, and several fountains within the 
 walls assured them of an inexhaustible resource of 
 fresh water. The soldiers of Maximin were, on the 
 contrary, exi)osed to the inclemency of the season, the 
 contagion of disease, and the horrors of famine. The 
 open country was ruined, the rivers filled with the 
 slain, and polluted with blood. A spirit of despair 
 and disafiection began to dilfuse itself among the 
 troops ; and as they were cut ofl' from all intelligence, 
 they easily believed that the whole empire had em- 
 braced the cau.se of the senate, and that they were 
 left as devoted victims to perish under the impregnable 
 walls of Aquileia. The fierce temper of the tyrant 
 was exasperated by disappointments, which he im- 
 puted to the cowardice of his army ; and his wanton 
 and ill-timed cruelty, instead of striking terror, in- 
 spired hatred, and a just desire of revenge. A party 
 of prcetorian guards, who trembled for their wives and 
 children in the camp of Alba, near Rome, executed 
 the sentence of the senate. Maximin, abandoned by 
 his guards, was slain in his tent, with his son, (whom 
 he had associated to the honours of the purple,) Anuli- 
 nus the pr.-vfect, and the principal ministers of his 
 tyranny." The sight of their heads, borne on the point 
 of spears, convinced the citizens of Aquileia that the 
 siege was at an end ; the gates of the city were thrown 
 open, a liberal market was provided for the hungry 
 troops of Maximin, and the whole army joined in so- 
 lemn protestations of fidelity to the senate and the peo- 
 ple of Rome, and to their lawful emperors Maximus and 
 Balbinus. JSuch was the deserved fate of 
 a brutal savage, destitut >, as he has gen- "" po't'^'t. 
 erally been represented, of every sentiment that distin- 
 guishes a civilized, or even a human, being. The body 
 was suited to tiie soul. The stature of Maximin exceed- 
 ed the measure of eight feet, and circumstances almost 
 incredible are related of his matchless strength and ap- 
 petite." Had he lived in a less enlightened age, tradi- 
 tion and poetry might well have described him as one 
 of those monstrous giants, whose supernatural power 
 was constantly exerted for the destruction of mankind. 
 It is easier to conceive than to de- j,y ,f .^e Ro- 
 scribe the universal Joy of the Roman man world, 
 world on the fall of the tyrant, the news of which is 
 said to have been carried in four days from Aquileia to 
 Ronie. The return of Maximus was a triumphal pro- 
 cession, his colleague and young Gordian went out to 
 meet him, and the three princes made their entry into 
 the capital, attended by the ambassadors of almost all 
 the cities of Italy, saluted with the splendid ofl'erings 
 of gratitude and superstition, and received with the 
 unfeigned acclamations of the senate and people, who 
 I persuaded themselves that a golden age would suc- 
 ceed to an age of iron.P The conduct of the two em- 
 perors corresponded with these expectations. They ad- 
 ministered justice in person ; and the rigour of the one 
 was tempered by the other' s clemency.^ The oppres- 
 
 n FFcrodian, I. viil p. 279. Ifi.st. Aucusf. p. 14G. The duration 
 of Max.mm's reign has not been defined with much accuracy ex- 
 cept by Kutropius, who allows iiim three years and a few davs (\ 
 ix.i); we may depcn.l on the intejrrity of the text as the LMin 
 original is checked by the Greek version bf Pa-aniu" 
 
 o Eight Roman feet and one third, which are equal to above ei'hl 
 i>"or ' InTiin ' *i"' ^'^° nicasiires are to each other in the proportion 
 ?L^,L ?Ai ■ ■^''-^ ^"r" 1 d'«^o"^»'e 0.1 the Roman foot. We are 
 told that Maxmiin could drink in a day an amphora (or about seven 
 gallons) of wine, and cat thirty or forfy pounds of meat. He could 
 move a loaded wagon, break a horse's leg with his fist, crumble 
 stones in h.s hand, and tear up small trees by the roots See hS 
 life in the Augustan History. 
 
 fh« S^ !''^ congratulatory letter of Claudius Julianus tlie consul, to 
 the two emperors, in the Augustan History. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I 
 
 sive taxes with which Maximin had loaded the rio-hts 
 of inheritance and succession, were repealed, o'r at 
 least nioderated. Discipline was revived, and with 
 the advice of the senate many wise laws were enacted 
 by their imperial ministers, who endeavoured to res- 
 tore a civil constitution on the ruins of military tyran- 
 ny. "What reward may we expect for delivering Rome 
 from a monster?" was the question asked by Maxi- 
 mus, in a moment of freedom and confidence. Balbi- 
 nus answered it without hesitation, '' The love of the 
 senate, of the people, and of all mankind." *' Alas !" 
 replied his more penetrating colleague, " Alas ! I 
 dread the hatred of the soldiers, and^the fatal effects 
 of their resentment."^ His apprehensions were but too 
 well justified by the event. 
 
 Sedition at Whilst Maximus was preparino- to 
 
 Rome. defend Italy against the common Ibe, 
 
 Balbinus, who remained at Rome, had been engaged 
 in scenes of blood and intestine discord. Distnist 
 and jealousy reigned in the senate ; and even in the 
 temples where they assembled, every senator carried 
 either open or concealed arms. In the midst of their 
 deliberations, two veterans of the guards, actuated 
 either by curiosity or a sinister motive, audaciously 
 thrust themselves into the house, and advanced by de- 
 grees beyond the altar of Victory. Gallicanus, a con- 
 sular, and Maecenas, a praetorian senator, viewed with 
 indignation their insolent intrusion : drawing their 
 daggers, they laid the spies, for such they deemed 
 them, dead at the foot of the altar, and then advancino- 
 to the door of the senate, imprudently exhorted the 
 multitude to massacre the prfetorians, as the secret ad- 
 herents of the tyrant. Those who escaped the first 
 fury of the tumult took refuge in the camp, which they 
 defended with superior advantage against the reiterated 
 attacks of the people, assisted by the numerous bands 
 of gladiators, the property of opulent nobles. The civil 
 war lasted many days, with infinite loss and confusion 
 on both sides. When the pipes were broken that sup- 
 plied the camp with w^ater, the Praetorians were re- 
 duced to intolerable distress ; but in their turn they 
 made desperate sallies into the city, set fire to a great 
 number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood 
 of the inhabitants. The emperor Balbinus attempted, 
 
 75 
 
 mained at Rome, insensibly communicated to each 
 other their complaints and apprehensions. The empe- 
 rors chosen by the army had perished with io-nominy ; 
 Uiose elected by the senate were seated on tiie throne.* 
 Ihe long discord between the civil and military pow- 
 ers was decided by a war, in which the former had ob- 
 tained a complete victory. The soldiers must now 
 learn a new^ doctrine of submission to the senate ; and 
 whatever clemency was affected by that politic assem- 
 bly, they dreaded a slow revenge, coloured by the name 
 of discipline, and justified by fair pretences of the pub- 
 lic good. But their fate was still in their own hands ; 
 and if they had courage to despise the vain terrors of 
 an impotent republic, it was easy to convince the 
 world, that those who were masters of the arms, were 
 masters of the authority, of the state. 
 
 When the senate elected two princes, ,. 
 it is probable that, besides the declared M^xi'^uTand 
 reason of providing for the various cmer- iJaibinus. 
 gencies of peace and war, tliey were actuated by the 
 secret desire of weakening by division the despotism 
 of tlie supreme magistrate. Their policy was effectual 
 but It proved fatal both to their emperors and to them- 
 selves. The jealousy of power was soon exasperated 
 by the difference of character. Maximus despised 
 Balbinus as a luxurious noble, and was in his turn dis- 
 dained by his colleague as an obscure soldier. Their 
 silent discord was understood rather than seen ;" but 
 the mutual consciousness prevented them from unitinff 
 in any vigorous measures of defence against their com- 
 mon enemies of the pra^orian camp. The whole city 
 was employed in the Capitoline games, and the empe- 
 rors were left almost alone in the palace. On a sud- 
 den they were alarmed by the approach a. D 2?8 
 of a troop of desperate assassins. Igno- Jaiy 15. * 
 rant of each other's situation or designs, for they al- 
 ready occupied very distant apartments, afraid to give 
 or to rec(uve assistance, they wasted the important 
 moments in idle debates and fruitless recriminations. 
 The arrival of the guards put an end to the vain strife! 
 They seized on these emperors of the senate, for such 
 they called them with malicious contempt, stripped 
 them of their garments, and dragged them in insolent 
 triumph through the streets of Rome, with a desio-nof 
 
 .t7f ?" f f 'li^!""* ^^"^ I":ri^I:!^'-'=f°"l''^ •'•i'':''"^ » ^'o- -'• "-' '•-"i o" th.-se unfortunate 
 
 the factions at Rome. But their animosity, though 
 smothered for a while, burnt with redoubled violence. 
 The soldiers, detesting the senate and the people, de- 
 spised the weakness of a prince, who wanted either 
 the spirit or the power to command the obedience of 
 his subjects.' 
 
 Discontent of -^^^^r the tyrant's death, his formid- 
 the prtctorian able army had acknowledged, from ne- 
 guards. cessity rather than from choice, the au- 
 thority of Maximus, who transported himself without 
 delay to the camp before Aquileia. As soon as he had 
 received their oath of fidelity, he addressed them in 
 terms full of mildness and moderation; lamented, ra- 
 ther than arraigned, the wild disorders of the times, 
 and assured the soldiers, that of all their past conduct, 
 the senate would remember only their generous deser- 
 tion of the tyrant, and their voluntary return to their 
 duty. Maximus enforced his exhortations by a liberal 
 donative, purified the camp by a solemn sacrifice of 
 expiation, and then dismissed the legions to their se- 
 veral provinces, impressed, as he hoped, with a lively 
 sense of gratitude and obedience." But nothing could 
 reconcile the haughty spirit of the praetorians. ^ They 
 attended the emperors on the memorable day of their 
 public entry into Rome ; but amidst the general accla- 
 mations, the sullen dejected countenance of the guards 
 sufficiently declared that they considered themselves 
 \Vk^^ object, rather than the partners, of the triumph. 
 VVhen the whole body was united in their camp, those 
 who had served under Maximin, and those who had re- 
 
 princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful Ger- 
 mans of the imperial guards, shortened their tortures; 
 and their bodies, mangled with a thousand wounds| 
 were left exposed to the insults or to the pity of the 
 populace.^ 
 
 In the space of a few months, six princes ri.e third Gor- 
 had been cut off by the sword. Gordian, dia.. remi.ius 
 who had already received the title of Cae- *'*^'^ pmporor. 
 sar, was tlie only person that occurred to the soldiers 
 as proper to fill the vacant throne.>' They carried him 
 to the camp, and unanimously saluted him Augustus 
 and Emperor. His name was dear to the senate and 
 people ; his tender age promised a long impunity of 
 military licence; and the submission of Rome and the 
 provinces to the choice of the praetorian guards, saved 
 the republic, at the expense indeed of its freedom and 
 dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the 
 heart of the capital.^ 
 
 q Hist. August, p. 171. 
 ' Herodian, I. viii. p. 213. 
 
 «• Herodian, I. viii. p. 2.18. 
 
 t The olt^crvition had been made iniitriidently enough in the ac- 
 clainatioiis of the senate, and Willi rcjiaid to the soldiers it curried 
 the appearanreof a wanton insult. Hist. Ausrust. p. 170. 
 
 u Disrordia* ficitnp. et qu;e iiMelli^'oroiifur potius qiiam viderentur. 
 Hist. jjM<rast. p, 170. 'I'his well chosen expression is probably sto- 
 len from some better writer. 
 
 X Meroiiian, I. viii. p. 287, 2F8. 
 
 y Q.uia non alius erat in pra;senti, is tiie expresi^ion of the .\ugU8t- 
 an flistory. 
 
 2 Quiiiiius Curtius (I. x. r. 9.) pay? an elegant compliment to the 
 emperor of the d:iy, for having, by liis happy accession, extinguish- 
 ed so many firclirands, sheathed so many sword.s. and put an end 
 to the evils of a divided government. After weigliiiig with atten- 
 tion every word of the passage, I am of opinion, that it suits better 
 with the elevation of Gordian, tliaii with any other period of the 
 Rom:iii History. In thatcase, it may serve to decide the age of' 
 Quintius Curtius. Those who piuce him under the first Casars. 
 argue from the purity of his style, but are embarrassed by the si- 
 lence of (iuintilian, in his accurate list of Roman historians : 
 
 1* 
 
 4 
 
 Mi 
 
76 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 77 
 
 % 
 
 Innocence and ^9 the third Gordian was only nine- 
 virtues of teen years of age at the time of his death, 
 Gordian. the history of his life, were it known to 
 us with greater accuracy than it really is, would con- 
 tain little more than the account of his education, and 
 the conduct of the ministers, who by turns abused or 
 goiided the simplicity of his unexperienced youth. 
 Immediately after his accession, he fell into the hands 
 of his mother's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of the 
 East, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had infested 
 the Roman palace. By the artful conspiracy of these 
 wretches, an impenetrable veil was drawn between an 
 innocent prince and his oppressed subjects, the virtu- 
 ous disposition of Gordian was deceived, and the ho- 
 nours of the empire sold without his knowledge, though 
 in a very public manner, to the most worthless of man- 
 kind. We are ignorant by what fortunate accident 
 the emperor escaped from this ignominious slavery, 
 and devolved his confidence on a minister, whose wise 
 counsels had no object except the glory of his sove- 
 reign and the happiness of the people. It should 
 
 A. D. 240. seem that love and learning introduced 
 Administration Misitheus to the favour of Gordiau. The 
 
 ofMwitiieus. young prince married the daughter of his 
 master of rhetoric, and promoted his father-in-law to 
 the first offices of the empire. Two admirable letters 
 that passed between them are still extant. The minis- 
 ter, with the conscious dignity of virtue, congratulates 
 Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the 
 eunuchs,* and still more that he is sensible of his deli- 
 verance. The emperor acknowledges, with an ami- 
 able confusion, the errors of his past conduct; and la- 
 ments, with singular propriety, the misfortune of a ■ 
 monarch, from wliom a venal tribe of courtiers perpe- 
 tually labour to conceal the truth.'' 
 Tho Porsian war, The life of Misitheus had been spent 
 
 A. D, 24'j. in the profession of letters, not of arms ; 
 yet such was the versatile genius of that great man, 
 that, when he was appointed praetorian prefect, he dis- 
 charged the military duties of his place with vigour 
 and ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, 
 and threatened Antiocii. By the persuasion of his fa- 
 ther-in-law, the young emperor quitted the luxury of 
 Rome, opened, for the last time recorded in history, 
 the temple of Janus, and marched in person into the 
 East. On his approach with a great army, the Per- 
 sians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which 
 they had already taken, and retired from the Euphra- 
 tes to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of 
 announcing to the senate the first success of his arms, 
 which he ascribed with a becoming modesty and gra- 
 titude to the wisdom of his father and pra;fect. Du- 
 ring the whole expedition, Misitheus watched over the 
 safety and discipline of the army; whilst he prevent- 
 ed their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular 
 plenty in the camp, and by cstablisliing ample maga- 
 zines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in 
 all the cities of the frontier.^ But the prosperity of 
 
 [Th«cn»njer,ture of Giblion hnsno foundation. ]M"any passa'j^es in 
 tlie work of Q,iiintu3Ciirtiijs place liiin evidently nt an earlier pe- 
 riod — thus speaking of the i'artliians he says : Nine in Part Menem 
 perventum est : tunc i^nohilem trentem ; nunc caput omnium qui 
 post Euphratem et Tigrim amnes siti liubro mari terminantur. 
 (Li^. vi. c. 2.) The empire of Parthia did not have this extent, hut 
 in the flrst century of tlie vultjar Era. It is then in this rentury 
 that we must fix the age of Quintua Curtius. Althou'^h critirs, <:ay8 
 M. dc Saint Croix, have multiplied conjecturoson thiit suhject, most 
 of them have nevertiiclcBs concluded hy adopting the opinion which 
 places Q.uintu9 Curtius under tlie reitin of Claudius — see Justus Lip- 
 sius ad ann ; Tac. lib. ii. c. 20; Michael le Tellier Pratf. in Curt ; 
 TWXemoni. Hist, des Emp.vo\. 1, p. 251; Duhos, Reflex, crit. sur 
 lapoesie, second part '^ 13; Tirabosrhi, Storia delta letter, ital. vol. 
 li. p. 149 : Exam. crit. des histor. d' Alexandre 2nd Ed. p. 104, 849. 
 850.— O.j 
 
 » Hist. August, p. ICl. From sonic hints in the two letters, I 
 ■hould suspect that the eunuchs were not expelled the palace, with- 
 out some degree of gentle violence, and that the young Gordian ra- 
 ther approved of, than consented to, their disgrace. 
 
 l< Duxit u.\oreni filiam .Misithei, queiu causa cloquentis dignum 
 parentela sua putavit ; et priefectum statim fecit; post quod, non 
 puerile jam et conteinptihile videbatur imperium. 
 
 c Hist. August, p. 162. Aurelius Victor. Porphyriusin Vit. Plotin. 
 ap. Fabriciuni. Bibliolh. GrsBC. 1. iv. c. 36. The philosopher Ploti- 
 nus accompanied the army, prompted by the love of knowledge, and 
 |)y the hop* of pcnetrutlng as far as India. 
 
 Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, 
 not without very strong suspicions of poison. Philip, 
 his successor in the praefecture, was an a. D. 243, 
 Arab by birth, and consequently, in the Arts of Philip, 
 earlier part of his life, a robber by profession. His 
 rise, from so obscure a station, to the first dignities of 
 the empire, seems to prove that he was a bold and able 
 leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to 
 the throne, and his abilities were employed to sup- 
 plant, not to serve, his indulgent master. The minds 
 of the soldiers were irritated by an artificial scarcity, 
 created by his contrivance, in tlie camp ; and the dis- 
 tress of the army was attributed to the youth and in- 
 capacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace 
 the successive steps of the secret conspiracy and open 
 sedition, which were at length fatal to Gordian. A 
 sepulchral inonnment was erected to his Murder of Gor- 
 memory on the spof^ where he was kill- dian. 
 ed, near the conflux of the Euphrates ^•^•24'*-^"'=^- 
 with the little river Aboras.* The fortunate Philip, 
 raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found 
 a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces.' 
 
 We cannot forbear transcribing the in- Formofamili- 
 genious, though somewhat fanciful, de- ^"y republic, 
 scription, which a celebrated writer of our own times 
 has traced of the military government of the Roman 
 empire. ''What in that age was called the Roman 
 empire, was only an irregular republic, not unlike the 
 aristocracy s of Algiers,^ v/here the militia, possessed 
 of the sovereignty, creates and deposes a magistrate, 
 who is styled a Dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid 
 down as a general rule, that a military government is, 
 in some respects, more republican than monarchical. 
 Nor can it be said that the soldiers only partook of the 
 government by their disobedience and rebellions. The 
 speeches made to them by the emperors, were they 
 not at length of the same nature as those formerly pro- 
 nounced to the people by the consuls and the tribunes ? 
 And although the armies had no regular place or forms 
 of assembly ; though their debates were short, their 
 action sudden, and their resolves seldom the result of 
 cool reflection, did they not dispose, with absolute 
 sway, of the public fortune? What was the emperor, 
 except the minister of a violent government, elected 
 for the private benefit of the soldiers 1 
 
 " When the army had elected Philip, who was prae- 
 torian prajfect to the third Gordian, the latter demand- 
 ed, that he might remain sole emperor; he was unable 
 to obtain it. He requested that the power might be 
 equally divided between them ; the army would not 
 listen to his speech. He consented to be degraded to 
 the rank of Ceesar ; the favour was refused him. He 
 desired, at least, he might be appointed pra?torian prae- 
 fect ; his prayer was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for 
 his life. The army, in these several judgments, exer- 
 cised the supreme magistracy." According to the his- 
 torian, whose doubtful narrative the president de Mon- 
 tesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole 
 
 <i Al>out twenty miles from the little town of Circesium, on the 
 frontier of the two empires. 
 
 [Circesium, now Korkisa — situated in the angle formed by the 
 entrance of the Chahorasor the Al. Khabour into the Euphrates. 
 This situation appeared so advantageous to Diocletian, that he tlicre 
 erected fortifications to make it a bulwark of the empire in this part 
 of Mesopotamia. (D'Anville, Geog. anc. vol. ii. p. 196.) — O.I 
 
 e The inscription (which contained a very singular pun) was 
 erased by the order of Licinius, who claimed some degree of rela- 
 tionship to Philip (Hist. August, p. 165.); but the tumulus or mound 
 of earth which formed the sepulchre still subsisted in the time of Ju- 
 lian. See Ammian Marcellin. xxiii. 5. 
 
 i Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius. vii. 20. Ammianus 
 Marcellinus, xxiii. 5. Zosimus, I. i, p. 19. Philip, who was a native 
 of Rostra, was aliout forty years uf age. 
 
 {Bostra,novf Bosrah. It was in formerages the metropolis of a 
 province known by the name of Arabia and the principal city of 
 Aurenitis, the name of which is still preserved in that of Belad 
 Ilauran and whose borders mingle with the deserts of Arabia. 
 (D'Anv.Gecgr. anc.vol. ii. p. 188.) According to Victor(in Cff'sar)Phi- 
 lip was originally froju Trachonitis another province of Arabia. — C] 
 
 s Can the epithet oi Aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, 
 to the government of Algiers ? Every military government floats 
 between the extremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy. 
 
 h The military republic of the Mamalukpii in Egypt, would have 
 afforded M. dc Montesquieu (nee Considerations sur la Grandeur et 
 la Pecjdence des Romains, c. 16.) n juster and more noble parallel. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined 
 to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recol- 
 lecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous 
 compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, 
 without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should 
 be seized, stript, and led away to instant death. 
 After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was 
 executed.' 
 
 . Qrp,ji,i O" l^'s return from the East to Rome, 
 Reign o 11 'P- Philip^ desirous of obliterating the mem- 
 ory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of 
 the people, solemnized the secular games with infinite 
 pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or re- 
 vival by Augustus,* they had been celebrated by Clau- 
 dius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now 
 renewed the fifth time on the accomplishment of the 
 Secular games, ^^H period of a thousand years from the 
 A. D. 248. April foundation of Rome. Every circum- 
 ^'' stance of the secular games was skilfully 
 
 adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep 
 and solemn reverence. The long interval between 
 them ^ exceeded the term of human life; and as none 
 of the spectators had already seen them, none could 
 flatter themselves with beholding them a second time. 
 The mystic sacrifices were performed during three 
 nights, on the banks of the Tyber ; and the Campus 
 Martius resounded with music and dances, and was 
 illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. 
 Slaves and strangers were excluded from any partici- 
 pation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of 
 twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins, of noble 
 families, and whose parents were both alive, implored 
 the propitious gods in favour of the present, and for 
 the hope of the rising generation, requesting, in reli- 
 gious hymns, that, according to the faith of their an- 
 cient oracles, they would still maintain the virtue, the 
 felicity, and the empire of the Roman people." The 
 magnificence of Philip's shows and entertainments 
 dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were 
 employed in the rites of superstition, whilst the re- 
 flecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past 
 history and the future fate of the empire. 
 Decline of the Since Romulus, with a small band of 
 Roman empire, shepherds and outlaws, fortified himself 
 on the hills near the Tyber, ten centuries had already 
 elapsed." During the four first ages, the Romans, in 
 the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the vir- 
 tues of war and government: by the vigorous exertion 
 of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they 
 had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding 
 centuries, an absolute empire over many countries of 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred 
 years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and 
 internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magistrates, 
 and legislators, who composed the thirty-five "bribes of 
 the Roman people, was dissolved into the common 
 mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of 
 
 « The Augustan History (p. 163, 164.) cannot, in this instance, be 
 reconciled with itself or with probability. How could Philip con- 
 demn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory ? How could 
 he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate, 
 exculpate himself from the guilt of his death ? PhiHp, tiiough an am- 
 bitious usurper, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chronoloui'-al 
 difhculties have likewise been discovered by the nice eyes of Tillc- 
 mont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to the 
 empire. 
 
 "l The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an en 
 lightened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that 
 the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popisli jubilees, the 
 copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface VIII. the 
 crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. 
 See M. le Chais Lettres sur les Jubiles. 
 
 1 Either of a hundred, or a hundred and ten years. Varro and 
 Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the 
 oibyi consecrated the latter, (Censorinus de Die Natal, c. 17.) The 
 emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle 
 with implicit respect. 
 
 n» The idea of the secular games is best understood from the pen 
 of Horace, and the description of Zosimus, I. ii. p. 167, &c. 
 
 n The received calculation of Varro assigns to the foundation of 
 Rome ait era that corresponds with the 754th year before Christ. 
 But go little is the chronology of Rome to be depended on, in the 
 more early ages, that Sir Isaac Nevvlon has brought the same event 
 as low as the year 687. 
 
 servile provincials, who had received the name, with- 
 out adopting the spirit, of Romans. A mercenary 
 army, levied among the subjects and barbarians of the 
 frontier, was the only order of men who preserved and 
 abused their independence. By their tumultuary elec- 
 tion, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the 
 throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over 
 the conquests and over the country of the Scipios. 
 
 The limits of the Roman empire still extended from 
 the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount 
 Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undis- 
 cerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch 
 no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had for- 
 merly been. The form was still the same, but the 
 animating health and vigour were fled. The industry 
 of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long 
 series of oppression. The discipline of the legions, 
 which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, 
 had propped the greatness of the state, was corrupted 
 by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness, of the 
 emperors. The strength of the frontiers, which had 
 always consisted in arms rather than in fortifications, 
 was insensibly undermined ; and the fairest provinces 
 were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of 
 the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the 
 Roman empire. 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Of the state of Persia after the restoration of the mo- 
 varchy by Artaxerxes. 
 
 Whenever Tacitus indulges himself The barbarians 
 in those beautiful episodes, in which he of the East and 
 relates some domestic transaction of the of the North. 
 Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to 
 relieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene 
 of vice and misery. From the reign of Augustus to \ 
 the time of Alexander Severus, the enemies of Rome I 
 were in her bosom — the tyrants, and the soldiers ; and * 
 her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in 
 the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine 
 and tho Euphrates. But when the military order had 
 levelled, in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the 
 laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, 
 the barbarians of the North and of the East, who had 
 long hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the pro- 
 vinces of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious in- 
 roads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, 
 after a long vicissitude of mutual calamities, many 
 tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves 
 in the provinces of the Roman empire. To obtain a 
 clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall en- 
 deavour to form a previous idea of the character, forces, 
 and designs of those nations who avenged the cause 
 of Hannibal and Mithridates. 
 
 In the more early ages of the world. Revolutions of 
 whilst the forest that covered Europe -^^'a- 
 afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the in- 
 habitants of Asia were already collected into populous 
 cities, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat 
 of the arts, of luxury, and of despotism. The Assy- 
 rians reigned over the East,* till the sceptre of Ninus 
 and Semiramis dropt from the hands of their enervated 
 successors. The Modes and the Babylonians divided 
 their power, and were themselves swallowed up in the 
 monarchy of the Persians, whose arms could not be 
 confined within the narrow limits of Asia. Followed, 
 as it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes, the de- 
 
 a An ancient chronologisl quoted by Vclleius Paternilus (l.i. c. 6.) 
 observes, that the Assyrians, the Meries, the Persians, and the Ma- 
 cedonians, reigned over Asia one thousand nine hundred and ninety- 
 five years, from the accession of Ninus to the defeat of Antiochus 
 by the Romans. As the latter of those great events happened 289 
 years before Christ, the former may be placed 2184 years before the 
 same tera. The Astronomical Observations, found at Babylon by 
 Alexander, went fifty years higher. 
 
 I 
 
 
 ^ 
 
78 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIU. 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 % 
 
 scendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand 
 soldiers^ under the command of Alexander, the son of 
 Philip, who was intrusted by the Greeks with their 
 glory and revenge, were sufficient to subdue Persia. 
 The princes of the house of Seleucus usurped and lost 
 the Macedonian command over the East. About the 
 same time that, by an ignominious treaty, they resigned 
 to the Romans the country on this side Mount Taurus, 
 they were driven by the Parthians, an obscure horde 
 of Scythian origin, from all the provinces of Upper 
 Asia. The formidable power of the Parthians, which 
 spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its 
 turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes; the founder 
 of a new dynasty, which, under the name of Sassa- 
 nides, governed Persia,'' till the invasion of the Arabs. 
 This great revolution, whose fatal influence was soon 
 experienced by the Romans, haj)pened in tho fourth 
 year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twenty- 
 six years after the Christian aera.* 
 The Persian mo- Artaxerxes had served with great re- 
 narciiy restored putation in the armies of Artaban, the 
 by Artaxerxes. last king of the Parthians, and it appears 
 that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal 
 ingratitude, the customary reward f(«r superior merit. 
 His birth was obscure, and the obscurity equally gave 
 room to the aspersions of his enemies, and the flattery 
 of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the 
 former, Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate com- 
 merce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier.'* The 
 latter represent him as descended from a branch of the 
 ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune 
 had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble 
 station of private citizens." As the lineal heir of the 
 monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne, and 
 challenged the noble task of delivering the Persians 
 from the oppression under which they groaned above 
 five centuries since the death of Darius. ^The Parthians 
 were defeated in three great battles. In the last of 
 these their king Artaban was slain, and the spirit 
 of the nation was for ever broken.' The authority 
 of Artaxerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great 
 assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. Two younger 
 branches of the royal house of Arsaces were con- 
 founded among the prostrate satraps. A third, more 
 mindful of ancient grandeur than of present necessity, 
 attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vassals, 
 towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia; but this 
 little army of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, 
 by the vigilance of the conqueror,* who boldly assumed 
 
 the double diadem, and the title of King of kings, 
 which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But 
 these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity 
 of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his 
 duty, and to inflame in his soul the ambition of resto^ 
 ing, in their full splendour, the religion and empire of 
 Cyrus. 
 
 I. During the long servitude of Per- Reformation of tho 
 sia under the Macedonian and the Par- Magiaii religion, 
 thian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutu- 
 ally adopted and corrupted each other's superstitions. 
 The Arsacides, indeed, practised the worship of the 
 Magi ; but they disgraced and polluted it with a va- 
 rious mixture of foreign idolatry. The memory of 
 Zoroaster, the ancient prophet and philosopher of the 
 Persians,*^ was still revered in the East ; but the obsc 
 lete and mysterious language, in which the Zendaves- 
 ta was composed,' opened a field of dispute to seventy 
 
 b [The History of Persia enumerates four dynasties from the time 
 of the earlier ages to the invasion of the Saracens; that of the IMsh- 
 dadides, that of the Ceanidcs, that of the Aschknides or Arsacides, 
 and tliat of tlie Sa^sanidca. The first commencos with Kaioniaros, 
 who is often 8ii|tposed to he tiie same as Noah. This is tlie fahuions 
 ape, in it we find reigns of seven hundred, and nine hundred years' 
 duration. The pomhats of tlic kind's with tlie Chouls or evil spirits, 
 and their keen disputes with tiic Dews or Fairies, arc as ridiculous 
 as the contests of Jupiter, of Venus, of Mars, and of the ottu'rCrcfk 
 divinities. The history of t lie dynasty of tlie Ccanides corresponds 
 to the accounts of Grecian heroes, or of our knijrhts errant. It relates 
 the heroic actions of Rustan, and his contests witli Atfendiar, the 
 eldest son of GuschtaP|)s. The great Cyrus, during the continuance 
 of this dynasty, was the real founder of the Persian kingdom. 'I'he 
 last of these kings, Iskander, appointed the nohles of the country go- 
 vernors of provinces, or satraps. One of them, Ascjiek, or Arsaces 
 made himself king, and was the founder of the dynasty of the Arsa- 
 cidffi. The Persian historians have preserved hut few of the names 
 of these monarchs, wiio were at last driven from theilironehy Ard 
 ■chir— Bahekau, or Arta\< r <s, the founder of the dynasty of the 
 Sassanidcs, which lasted funr hundred and twenty years.— (Pee a 
 dissertation of Frerek, Memoires de t'acad. des inscript. et belles 
 lettres,\o\. xvi.)— G.] 
 
 c In the five hundred and thirty eighth year of the irra of Pelcuciis. 
 See Agnthias, I. ii. p. 03. This great event (sticIi is the carelessness 
 of the Orientals) is placed hy Eiitycliius as high as the tenth year of 
 Cornmodus, and hy Moses of Chorene, as low as the reign of Philip. 
 Ammianus Marcellinus has so servilely copied (xxiii. (5.) his ancient 
 materials, which are indeed very good, that he descrihes the family 
 of the Arsacides as still seated on the Persian throne in the middle of 
 the fourth century. 
 
 <1 The tanner's name was Pahec; the soldier's Passan : from the 
 former Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Pahegan, from the latter 
 all his descendants have been styled Sassnnides. 
 
 e D'Herlielot, Rildiothequc Orientalc. Ardshir. 
 
 fDion Cassius, I. Ixxx. Herodian, 1. vi. p. 207. Ahulpharagius 
 DynaBt. p. 80. ' *■ 
 
 t See Mosea ChorenensiM, I. ii. c. 65—71. 
 
 li Hyde and Prideaux, working up the Persian legends and their 
 own conjectures into a very agreeable story, reported Zoroaster as 
 a contemporary of Darius Hysfaspes. Put it is sufllcient to oliserve, 
 that the Greek writers, who lived almost in the age of Darius, agree 
 in placing the ara of Zoroaster many hundred, or even thousand, 
 years, hefore their own time. The judicious criticism of Mr. Moylo 
 perceived, and njaintained against his uncle. Dr. Prideaux, the an- 
 tiquity of the Persian prophet. See his work, vol. ii. 
 
 i That ancient idiom was called the Z.ciid. The language of the 
 commentary, the Tehlvi, though much more modern, has ceased, 
 many ages ago, to he a living tongue. This fact alone, (if it is allow- 
 ed as authentic,) sufiicicnily warrants the antiquity of those wri- 
 tings, which M. d'Anquetil has hrought into Europe, and transla- 
 ted into French. 
 
 [ Zend tfignifics life Ihinsr. This word designates either the col- 
 let tion of the canonical hooks of the disciples of Zoroaster, or the 
 lansnase in which they are written. 'J'hey are also the hooks which 
 contain the if<^r// of life : whether the language hore, originally, 
 the name of Zend, or wiiether it had heen so named on account of 
 the contents of these hooks. Jinesta siixnifies word, oracle, reveta- 
 Hon, instruction. This word no longer designates the title of any 
 particular work, hut the collection of the hooks of Zoroaster, like 
 the Revelation of Ormuzd. This collection is sometimes called 
 Zend-Jivesita, and sometimes more hrietly Z.end. 
 
 The Zend was the ancient language of" Media, as is proved by its 
 afliniiy to the dialects of Armenia and Georgia. It was a dead 
 lan<.'ua<_'c in the time of the Arsacida^, even in those countries which 
 had heen the theatre where those events recorded in the Zend- 
 avesta transpired. Some critics, among others, Richardson and 
 Sir \V. Jones, have questioned the antiquity of these hooks. The 
 former has maintained that the Zend never was a written and 
 spoken language; that it was invented in latter times, hy the Magi- 
 cians, to he used in their an.— hut Kleuker, in the dissertations 
 which he has added to those of Anquetil and the Ahl.ti Foucher, 
 has proved— 1st. Tiiat tiie Zend in reality was fornierly a living 
 language, and spoken in apart of i'ersia.— 'Jnd, 'J'hal the language, 
 in which the hooks which contain the tenets of Zoroaster are writ- 
 ten, is the very ancient Zend— so that they could not have heen 
 written except at a time when the Zend was a living and spoken 
 langua;re.— Hrd. That the Zend, since the time it was a spoken lan- 
 gnasie, has not heen in use, as a written language, so that the hooks 
 written in the Zend, could not have heen written in that lancruage 
 except at the time when it was a living language. " 
 
 As to the time when the Zend was a sj)oken language, or aa to 
 the time when Zoroaster lived, it is still a suhject of discussion 
 among learned men— some, such as Hyde, and even Anquetil. place 
 Zoroaster under the dynasty of the Persian kings, commenced hy 
 Cyrus, and make him cotemporary with Darius Hvstaspes,— which 
 would place his life ahout the middle of the sixth century I efore 
 Christ;- others, .such as Messrs Tychsen, Hecren. &c. place l.im 
 under the dynasty of the Medes, and think that king Guschtasps, 
 under whom Zoroaster himself says that he lived, is the same as 
 Cyaxnres, 1st of the Median race of kings, who reigned seventy 
 years hefore Cyrus, and a hundred years hefore Darius Hystaspes 
 This opinion, supported hy many pas.sages of the Zendavesta, an 
 pears the most prohahle .—The description which Zoroaster himself 
 gives in the heginnins of his Vendidad of the provinces, and of the 
 principal cities of the kingdom of Guschtasps, could not he apj.lica- 
 hie to the tin«e of the Persian kings, and is suited to the dynasty of 
 the Medes. Some critics, among others, the Ahle Foucher, say 
 that there were two of the name of Zoroaster ; the most ancient, 
 (otheiwise called Zerdnscht.) the true founder of the religion of the 
 Magi, must have lived under Cyaxares 1st., and tJie second was 
 simply a reformer, under Darius Hystaspes. This opinion has no 
 other foundation than a passage from I'linv, the elder, whose au- 
 thority is very douhtful ; hccausc the knowledge of the Greeks and 
 Romans respecting Zoroaster was very uncertain and contradicto- 
 ry— (See Flyde De rel. vet. Pers. p. MKi. 'M2, 335; and a dissertation 
 by Prof. Tychsen, De relnrianum Zoroastricariim apud veterea gen- 
 tes resti^riis. In comment, soc. Ooet. vol. ii. p. 112.; also, a dis- 
 sertation hy the Abli6 Foucher, respecting the person of Zoroaster, 
 Memoires de Vacad. des inscript. et belles-lettres, vol. xxxii. p. 
 253 — 39-}. 
 
 The Pehlvi was the language of the provinces bordering ui»on 
 Assyria, and most probably of Assyria itself. Pehlvi signifies 
 valour, heroism : the pehlvi was also the language of the ancient 
 heroes and kings of Persia— the braves. A great number of Ara- 
 mean roots are found in it. Anquetil believes that it was formed 
 from the Zend : Kleuker does not adopt this idea. " The Pchlvic,*' 
 says he, " is much more flowing and is less loaded with vowels 
 than the Zend." The hooks of Zoroaster, at first written in Zend, 
 were afterwards translated into the Pehlvi and the Parsi. The Pehlvi 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 sects, who variously explained the fundamental doc- 
 trines of their religion, and were all indifferently de- 
 rided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine 
 mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the 
 idolaters, reumte the schismatics, and confute the un- 
 believers, by the infallible decision of a general coun- 
 cil, the pious Artaxerxes summoned the Mao-i from 
 all parts of his dominions. These priests, \vho had 
 so long sighed in contempt and obscurity, obeyed the 
 welcome summons ; and on the appointed day appear- 
 ed, to the number of about eighty thousand. But as 
 the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not 
 have been directed by the authority of reason, or in- 
 fluenced by the art of policy, the Persian synod was 
 reduced, by successive operations, to forty thousand 
 to four thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last 
 to seven Magi, the most respected for their learnino- 
 and piety. One of these, Erdaviraph, a young biS 
 holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren 
 three cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them off, 
 and instantly fell into a long and profound sleep \s 
 soon as he waked, he related to the kino- and to the 
 believing multitude, his journey to heaven, and his in- 
 timate conferences with the Deity. Every doubt 
 was silenced by this supernatural evidence ; 'and the 
 artic es of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with 
 equal authority and precision.^ A short delineation 
 of that celebrated system will be found useful, not 
 only to dLsplay the character of the Persian nation, 
 but to Illustrate many of their most important trans- 
 actions, both in peace and war, with the Roman em- 
 pire.'' 
 
 Persian Theology ; The great and fundamental article of 
 two pr.ncpies. the System, was the celebrated doctrine 
 of the two principles ; a bold and injudicious attempt 
 of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of 
 moral and physical evil, with the attributes of a benefi- 
 cent Creator and Governor of the world. The first and 
 original Being, in whom, or by whom, the universe 
 exists, IS denominated in the writings of Zoroaster, 
 lime xmihout bounds; but it must be confessed, that 
 this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical ab- 
 straction of the mind, than a real object endowed with 
 self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections. 
 * ronri either the blind, or the intelligent operation of 
 this infinite Time, which bears but too near an affinity 
 with the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but 
 active principles of the universe, were from all eterni- 
 ty produced, Ormusd and Ahriman, each of them pos- 
 sessed of the powers of creation, but each disposed, 
 by his invariable nature, to exercise them with differ' 
 ent designs.' The principle of good is eternally ab- 
 
 in H.1'" ^^ff^Vn*^" principle of evil eternally buried 
 in darkness. Ihe wise benevolence of Ormusd form- 
 
 Lir'^rK-^f ^ ''^- r'^r' ^"^ abundantly provided his 
 lair habitation with the materials of happiness. By 
 o L^^f^K^ providence, the motion of the planets, the 
 TJI : seasons, and the temperate mixture of the 
 elements, are preserved But the malice of Ahriman 
 nas long since pierced Ormusd's e<rfr . or, in other 
 
 7Z!\ ^^ • "''''^^^^^ ^^^ harmony of Tiis works. Since 
 that fatal irruption, the most minute articles of good 
 and evil are intimately inter mingled and agitated to- 
 
 but' it'wa%''^tin'wr"i/,pn H '^r 'V""^ y^ "> "^^'i' ^^ »»>« Sassnnides 
 i Hyde de Reliuionfi vPtPr..,.. vJ. ' o.^"*' "' P* ^- *^C.-G.] 
 
 OF THE ROMAx\ EMPIRE. 
 
 79 
 
 gether; the rankest poisons spring up amidst the most 
 salutary plan s ; deluges, earthqu^akes, and conflagra- 
 tions, attest the conflict of Nature, and the little world 
 Wl!?f«t ;f P^^^'I^f "^^' «h»kfn by vice and misfortune. 
 \\ 1st the rest of human kind are led awny captives 
 in the chains of their inArnal pnemy, the faithful Per- 
 sian alone reserves his religious' adoration for his 
 friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his ban- 
 ner of hght, in the full confidence that he shall, in the 
 last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that de- 
 cisive period the enlightened wisdom of goodness 
 will render the power of Ormusd superio? to the 
 furious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his follow- 
 ers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native 
 darkness, and virtue will maintain the eternal peace 
 and harmony of the universe.'" 
 
 The theology of Zoroaster, was dork- R.n-ious 
 y comprehended by foreigners, and even wor.:!."" 
 by the far greater number of his disciples ; but the 
 most careless observers were struck with the philo- 
 sophic simplicity of the Persian worship. "That peo- 
 ple, says Herodotus," "rejects the use of temples, 
 of altars, and oi statues, and smiles at the folly of 
 those nations, who imagine that the gods are sprung 
 rom, or bear any affinity with, the human nature. Thl 
 tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen 
 for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal 
 worship; the supreme God who fills the wide circle 
 of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed." 
 V et, at the same time, in the true spirit of a polythe- 
 ist, he accuses them of adoring earth, water, fire, the 
 winds, and the sun and moon. But the Persians of 
 every age have denied the charge, and explained the 
 equivocal conduct, which might appear to give a 
 colour to it. The elements, and more particularly 
 ire, light, and the sun, whom they call Mithra," were 
 the objects of their religious reverence, because they 
 considered them as the purest symbols, the noblest 
 productions, and the most powerful agents of the di- 
 vine power and nature.? 
 
 I 
 
 i Hyde de Religione vet'erum Pers. 
 
 c. 21. 
 
 to do evtl-Z"72nH '*"",""»" i» "ot foropd l,y *,> invcriatu nature 
 Jul ur.y„? n '"" ]"'" ""• "e became i6.ilo,Vof ,ho po^e/'aLd 
 A?S,°c.''2' r^)-0^"'''"' ""'"" ''' "'"' ^^ Zend-avesfaVby 
 
 m The modern Per.sees, (and in some degree the Sadder \ ex^lt 
 Ormnzd into the first and omnipotent cause, wlH^ hey de "ad^^^ 
 Ahrnnan into an inferior hut rel.eliious spir t. The ^desfre of 
 ologkaf sy^i^f ^'"" ""^ '''''-' contrihited to rl^fine theHhe' 
 [ Acrording to the Zendavesta, Ahriman will not be destroyed or 
 plunged forever .nlodarknes.s: ;,t the resurrection of the dead |?e 
 will he entirely defeated by Ormuzd ; his power wiM I e destroved 
 MS kingdom overturned, even toils found'uions: f c him.Jrw.li 
 he pun led in a torrent of burning metal-he will chang" is |,ear 
 
 n i ' "'"' "'" ^'';''""^ ''"'y -''"'^ '^*^'i"e; ^vill eMahlish in his eri 
 p re th. law and ord.nanres of Ormuzd ; will enter into a lea -uc of 
 eternal friendship with him, and both will chant hymns of ..raise ?n 
 honour of Etennty (See the abridgement before note ,S" 
 
 Ss^ onh^^'^J3^^v?stS"^'' '• ''' "'^- '' ■ ^'- ^--""<- °- or tfie 
 According ihe Sadder BunDehesch, a more modern work Ahri 
 man was to he destroyed, hut this is contrary iXto. lie text'of he 
 Zendavesta Itself, and to the idea whi.h its author cive.. us of le 
 kingdom of Eternity ; such as it is to be after the twelve thousand 
 years_ass..ned for llic duration of the contest between Good and 
 
 n ijerodotus 1. i. c 131. But Dr. Prideaux thinks, wirh reason 
 thai Uic use of temples was afterwards permitted in the Magian rS' 
 
 o [ Miti.ra wasthe sun among the Persians. Anquetil has disputed, 
 and triumphantly refuted the opinion of those who confound tl.cin 
 toeether-and it is evidently contrary to the te.u of the Zendavesta 
 M.thra IS the first of the Genii or Izeds, who were created l.y Or 
 muzd ; It is he who presides over all nature-from hence arose tlie 
 belief of .some of the Greeks, who said that Mithr^was the i™^ 
 £r' °T hi'r ^iT"'- "' "ad a thousand ears and ten tho sanj 
 ejes. The Chaldeans appear to have assigned him a higher rank 
 than the Persians. It ^s he who gave to the earth the light of the 
 sun J he sun named Khor (Eclat) is also an inferior genius who 
 
 Ton i'"f!JnJ: •^V'k''^"""' '"1^"^ '^••"■^ •" ^"« ^"ti^^of MUhra These 
 Gem , fellow labourers w:th another Genius, are called his kamkars 
 
 but they are never confounded in the Zend avesta. Upon the dTvg 
 devoted to a Genius, the Persian must recite, not onf/tl c praveis 
 which are appropriated to him, hut also those appointed for hil 
 kamkars ; thus the hymn or iescht to Mithra, is recited upon the 
 dny consecrated to the sun, (khor,) and vice versa. It is prohably 
 this whi.h has sometimes led to the confounding of one with the 
 other-hut Anquetil has him.self removed this error, whicii Kleuker 
 and all those who had studied the Zend nvpsta had remarked.— (See 
 the eighth dissertation of Anquetil, Kteuker's ^nhanir, part iii 
 p. 132.)— f?.] &'»«"•■ •". 
 
 P Hyde de Relig. Pers. c. 8. Notwithstanding all their distinctions 
 and protestations, which seem sincere enough, their tyrants tlie 
 Mahometans, have constantly stigmatized them as idolatrous wor- 
 shippers of the fire. 
 
 \t 
 
 « 
 
 *^k 
 
 <^ 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VUI. 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 % 
 
 Ceremonies and Every mode of reliofion, to make a 
 moral precepts, deep aiid lasting- impression on the hu- 
 man mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining 
 practices of devotion, for which we can assign no rea- 
 son ; and must acquire our esteem, by inculcating 
 moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own 
 hearts. The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly 
 provided with the former, and possessed a sufficient 
 portion of the latter. At the age of puberty, the faith- 
 ful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle, the 
 badge of the divine protection ; and from that moment 
 all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or 
 the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar 
 prayers, ejaculations, or genuflexions ; the omission 
 of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous 
 sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral 
 duties.*! The moral duties, however, of justice, mer- 
 cy, liberality, &;c. were in their turn required of the 
 disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the per- 
 secution of Ahriman, and to live with Ormusd in 
 a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will 
 be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and 
 piety.' 
 Eiiooura;rcmpnt But there are some remarkable instan- 
 of agriculture, ggs In which Zoroaster lays aside the 
 prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal 
 concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be 
 found among the grovelling or visionary schemes of 
 superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the common means 
 of purchasing the divine favour, he condemns with 
 abhorrence, as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of 
 providence. The saint, in the Magian religion, is 
 obliged to beget children, to plant useful trees, to de- 
 stroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry 
 lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pnr- 
 suiiig all the labours of agriculture. We may quote 
 from the Zendavesta a wise and benevolent maxim, 
 which compensates for many an absurdity. " He who 
 sows the ground with care and diligence, acquires a 
 greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by 
 the repetition of ten thousand prayers."* In the spring 
 of every year a festival was celebrated, destined to 
 represent the primitive equality, and the present con- 
 nexion, of mankind. The stately kings of Persia, ex- 
 changing their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, 
 freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of 
 their subjects. On that day the husbandmen were ad- 
 mitted, without distinction, to the table of the kincr 
 and his satraps. The monarch accepted their petitions, 
 inquired into their grievances, and conversed with 
 them on the most equal terms. " From your labours, 
 was he accustomed to say, (and to say with truth, if 
 not with sincerity,) from your labours, we receive 
 our subsistence ; you derive your tranquillity from our 
 vigilance ; since, therefore, we are mutually necessary 
 to each other, let us live together like brothers in con- 
 cord and love.'" Such a festival must indeed have 
 degenerated, in a wealthy and despotic empire, into a 
 theatrical representation ; but it was at least a comedy 
 well worthy of a royal audience, and which might 
 sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the mind of a 
 young prince. 
 
 q [Zoroaster was much less exnrtlng respecting the performance 
 of ceremonies than the priests of his relision afterwards were — such 
 hn« heen the course of all reliaiions: — their worship, simple in its 
 orisin, has cradunlly hecome overloaded with minute ohservances. 
 The maxim of tlie Zendavesta, referred to afterwards, proves that 
 Zoroaster did not attach to these ohservances ns much importance 
 HsCiiihou seems to think. This is proved hy this maxim, quoted by 
 Gihi>on himself, — " fie who sows grain with care and diligence 
 pains more merit than if he had repented ten thousand prayers." 
 Moreover, it is not from the Zend avesfa that Ciblion derives 
 the proof of what he advances, but from the Sadder, a much later 
 work.— Cl 
 
 •• Sec the Sadder, the smallest part of which consists of moral pre- 
 cepts. The ceremonies enjoined are infinite and trifling. Fifteen 
 KcnuHexions, prayers, &c. were required whenever the devout Per- 
 iiian cut his nails or made water ; or as often as he put on the sacred 
 girdle. Sadder, art. 14, 50, 60. 
 
 8 Zendavc«ta, torn. i. p. 324, and Precis du Systemede Zoroastre, 
 torn. iti. 
 
 t Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 19. 
 
 Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, Pover of the 
 invariably supported this exalted char- **"&'• 
 acter, his name would deserve a place with those of 
 Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly 
 entitled to all the applause, which it has pleased some 
 of our divines, and even some of our philosophers, to 
 bestow upon it. But in that motley composition, dic- 
 tated by reason and passion, by enthusiasm and by 
 selfish motives, some useful and sublime truths were 
 disgraced by a mixture of the most abject and danger- 
 ous superstition. The Mngi, or sacerdotal order, were 
 extremely numerous, since, as we have already seen, 
 fourscore thousand of them were convened in a gene- 
 ral council. Their forces were multiplied by disci- 
 pline. A regular hierarchy was diffused through all 
 the provinces of Persia ; and the Archimagus, who 
 resided at Balch, was respected as the visible head of 
 the church, and the lawful successor of Zoroaster." The 
 property of the Magi was very considerable. Besides 
 the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most 
 fertile lands of Media,' tliey levied a general tax on the 
 fortunes and the industry of the Persians.*' "Though 
 your good works," says the interested prophet, " ex- 
 ceed in number the leaves of the trees, the drops of 
 rain, the stars in the heaven, or the sands on the sea- 
 shore, they will all be unprofitable to you, unless they 
 are accepted by the dcstour^ or priest. To obtain the 
 acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faith- 
 fully pay him tithes of all you possess, of your goods, 
 of your lands, and of your money. If the destour be 
 satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures ; you will 
 secure praise in this world, and happiness in the next. 
 For the destours are the teachers of religion ; they 
 know all things, and they deliver all men."* 
 
 These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit 
 faith were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender 
 minds of youth ; since the Magi were the masters of 
 education in Persia, and to their hands the children 
 even of the royal family were intrusted.^ The Persi- 
 an priests, who were of a speculative genius, preserv- 
 ed and investigated the secrets of oriental philosophy; 
 and acquired, either by superior knowledge or superior 
 art, the reputation of being well versed in some occult 
 sciences, which have derived their appellation from 
 the Magi.' Those of more active dispositions mixed 
 with the world in courts and cities ; and it is observed, 
 that the administration of Artaxerxes was in a great 
 measure directed by the counsels of the sacerdotal or- 
 der, whose dignity, either from policy or devotion, 
 that prince restored to its ancient splendour.* 
 
 The first counsel of the Magi was Spirit of pcrso- 
 agreeable to the unsociable genius ^ of cation. 
 
 u Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 28. Both Ilydc aTid Prideaux 
 alTcct to apply to the Magian the terms consecrated to tiie Christian 
 hierarchy. 
 
 V Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii. 6. He informs us, (as far as we may 
 credit him,) of two curious particulars: 1. that the Magi derived 
 some of their most secret doctrines from the Indian Brachinani; 
 and, 2. that they were a tribe, or family, as well as order. 
 
 ^ The divine institution of tithes exhibits a singular instance of 
 conformity between the law of Zoroaster and that of Moses. Those 
 who cannot otherwise account for it, may suppose, if they please, 
 that the Magi of the latter times inserted so useful an interpolation 
 into the writings of their prophet. 
 
 [The passngc cited by Gibbon is not taken from the writings of 
 Zoroaster himself, but from the Sadder, a work, as I have before said, 
 of a much later date than that of the books which compose the 
 Zendavesta, and made by one of the Magi, for the use of the peo- 
 ple ; what it contains must not, therefore, be attributed to Zoroaster. 
 It is singular that Gibbon should seem here to deceive himself, for 
 Hyde himself has not attributed the Sadder to Zoroaster, and has 
 remarked that it is written in verse, while Zoroaster has alwayi 
 written in prose. (Hyde. c. i. p. 27.) However it may be with re- 
 gard to this Inst assertion, wliich seems to have little foundation, the 
 later date of the Sadder is incontestable — the Ahb6 Foucher does 
 not believe even that it is an extract from the hooks of Zoroaster. — 
 (Sec his dissertation already cited. Mem. de I'acad. des inacript. et 
 belles-lettres, vol. xxvii.)— G.] 
 
 « Sadder, Art. 8. 
 
 y Plato in Alcibiad. 
 
 z Pliny (Hist. Natur. I. xxx. c. 1,) observes, that magic held man- 
 kind by the triple chain of religion, of physic, and of astronomy. 
 
 a Agathias, I. iv. p. 134. 
 
 b Mr. Hume, in the Natural History of Religion, sagaciously re- 
 marks, that the most refined and philosophic sects are constantly 
 the most intolerant. 
 
 81 
 
 ■* 
 
 r 
 
 their faith, to the practice of ancient kings,^ and even 
 to the example of their legislator, who had fallen a 
 victim to a religious war, excited by his own intolerant 
 zeal."* By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise of ev- 
 ery worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely 
 prohibited. The temples of the Parthians, and the 
 statues of their deified monarchs, were thrown down 
 with ignominy." The sword of Aristotle (such was 
 the name given by the orientals to the polytheism and 
 philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken ;^ the 
 tiamcs of persecution soon reached the more stubborn 
 Jews and Christians ;« nor did they spare the heretics 
 of their own nation and relio-ion. '"' 
 
 the Caspian sea, and the gulph of Persia." That 
 country was computed to contain, in the last century, 
 five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand vil- 
 lages, and about forty millions of souls." If we com- 
 pare the administration of the house of Sassan with 
 that of the house of Sefi, the political influence of the 
 Magian with that of the Mahometan religion, we shall 
 probably infer, that the kingdom of Artaxerxes con- 
 tained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and 
 inhabitants. But it must likewise be confessed, that 
 in every age the want of harbours on the sea-coast, 
 >p, - . , ^"^1 the scarcity of fresh 'water in the inland provinces 
 
 1 , . , r " - , ^"^"lajesty of Or-, have been very unfavourable to the commerce and 
 
 the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suflfer a 
 rebel ; and the schismatics within his vast empire 
 were soon reduced to the inconsiderable number of 
 eighty thousand.^* This spirit of persecution reflects 
 dishonour on the religion of Zoroaster; but as it was 
 not productive of any civil commotion, it served to 
 strengthen the new monarchy by uniting all the va- 
 rious inhabitants of Persia in the bands of relin-ious 
 zeal. " 
 
 .t't^rrh"^ "• Artaxerxes by his valour and con- 
 rity in the pro- a"«f» had wrested the sceptre of the East 
 vincps. from the ancient royal family of Parthia. 
 There still remained the more diflicult task of estab- 
 lishing, throughout tTie vast extent of Persia, a uniform 
 and vigorous administration. The weak indulgence 
 of the Arsacides had resigned to their sons and*' bro- 
 thers the principal provinces, and the greatest oflices 
 of the kingdom, in the nature of hereditary posses- 
 sions. The vitaxie, or eighteen most powerful satraps, 
 were permitted to assume the regal title ; and the vain 
 pride of the monarch was delighted with a nominal 
 dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes of 
 barbarians in their mountains, and the Greek cities of 
 Upper Asia,* within their walls, scarcely acknowledo- 
 
 of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the 
 meanest, though most common, articles of national 
 vanity. 
 
 As soon as the ambitious mind of \r- i^ecapituiationof 
 taxerxes had triumphed over the resis- \\\l p"t,u'a7and 
 tance of his vassals, he began to threaten Roman empire, 
 the neighbouring states, who during the long slumber 
 of his predecessors, had insulted Persia with impuni- 
 ty. He obtained some easy victories over the wild 
 Scythians and the efl'eminate Indians; but the Romans 
 were an enemy, who, by their past injuries and pre- 
 sent power, deserved the utmost efl^orts of his arms. 
 A forty years' tranquillity, the fruit of valour and mo- 
 deration, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. Du- 
 ring the period that elapsed from the accession of Mar- 
 cus to the reign of Alexander, the Roman and the Par- 
 thian empires were twice engaged in war, and al- 
 though the whole strength of the Arsacides contended 
 with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event M-as 
 most commonly in favour of the latter. Macrinus, 
 indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and pu- 
 sillanimous temper, purchased a peace at the expense 
 of near two millions of our money ;» but the generals 
 of Marcus, the emperor Severus, and his son, erected 
 
 ed, or seldorn obeyed any superior; and the Parihl^n m^nf;;::;^ l^ZZ,;^^:^^,:^, anS'/ss'^fa' 
 empire exhibited, under Other names, a HvpIv ,-,r,^o-« A,r..w,rr tL;. ^,.,.i.w. *u„% "p* i^iiiiui, anu Ass>ria. 
 
 empire exhibited, under other names, a lively image 
 of the feudal system^ which has since prevailed in 
 Europe. But the active victor, at the head of a nu- 
 merous and disciplined army, visited in person every 
 province of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, 
 and the reduction of the strongest fortifications,'^ dif- 
 fused the terror of his arms, and prepared the way for 
 the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate 
 resistance was fatal to the chiefs ; but their followers 
 were treated with lenity.' A cheerful submission 
 was rewarded with honours and riches ; but the pru- 
 dent Artaxerxes, suffering no person except himself 
 to assume the title of king, abolished every interme- 
 aiate power between the throne and the people. His 
 Extent and popu- kingdom, nearly equal in extent to mo- 
 lai.cH. of Persia, dern Persia, was, on every side, bound- 
 ed by the sea, or by great rivers; by the Euphrates, 
 the 1 igris, the Araxes, the O xus, and the Indus, by 
 
 Hn!.^'"*^? ^^ Legibus, ii. 10. Xerxes, by the advice of the Ma-i, 
 destroyed the temples of Greece. i t c lun^i, 
 
 d Hyde de Relig. Persar. c. 23. 24. D'llerlelot nibliotheque 
 urieiitale Zerdusht. Life of Zoroaster in tom. ii. of the Zendavesta 
 vviir r'"P*.^*' ^'oj?es of Chorcne, 1. ii. c. 74. with Ammian. Marcellin.' 
 xxnr 6. Hereafter I shall make use of these passages. 
 
 « Kalibi Abraham, in the Tarikh Schickard, p. 108, 109. 
 
 K Basnase llj^toiredes J.iifg, I. viii. c. 3. Sozomen, 1, ii. c. 1 
 manes who suffered an ignominious deatli, may be deemed a Macian 
 as well as a Christian heretic. '' 
 
 *» Hydede Religione Persar. c. 21. 
 
 Con^n?!*"?'""-^* '*'^'® exiremely numerous. Seleucus Nicator 
 lounded thirty-nine cities, all named from himself or some of his re- 
 ations. (see Appian in Syriac. p. 124.) The sra of Seleucus (still 
 of rhri».Tril^ »''««««'e^" Christians) appears as late as the vear 508, 
 enn. P iS M„ J^'"«.*'l°^ ^'"^ ^'''*'^ <^'''«« ^^'l»"" ^^^ Parthian 
 
 Me d.rf.n^^'^',^^^'''''' ''°'- '• P- 273, ic. and M. Frerct, 
 *iein. fie lAcadenne, tom. xix 
 
 Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which 
 would have unseasonably interrupted the more impor- 
 tant series of domestic revolutions, we shall only men- 
 tion the repeated calamities of the two great cities of 
 Seleucia and Ctesiphon. 
 
 Seleucia, on the western bank of the cities ofScleucia 
 1 igris, about lorty-five miles to the north a"^ Ctesiphon. 
 of ancient Babylon, was the capital of the Macedonian 
 conquests m Upper Asia.P Many ages after the fall 
 of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine charac- 
 ters of a Grecian colony, arts, military virtue, and the 
 love of freedom. The independent republic was go- 
 verned by a senate of three hundred nobles; the peo- 
 ple consisted of six hundred thousand citizens ; the 
 walls were strong, and as long as concord prevailed 
 among the several orders of the state, they viewed with 
 contempt the power of the Parthian ; but the madness 
 of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the 
 dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted 
 almost at the gates of the colony.i The Parthian mo- 
 narchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, de- 
 lighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors ; 
 
 fl.l Tr*" ""';'V" »'<^':8'an8 distinguish that period as the dynasty of 
 thp kincs of the nations, f-ee Plin. Hist. Nat.vi 25 ^ **" J' "» 
 
 L.n , rW"'"" ^'*""- ' ^- ^^'' '^^l, :?75.) relates the Biesre of the is- 
 
 tl^s^orvof''v'''"'''^'^«""^' "^"^ '°"'^ Circumstances not unl.ke 
 iiie Biory of Nisus and Scylla. 
 
 nPn^Jif.o'ii*'' '■• ^^*- 1'''e princes of Scgestan defended their inde- 
 
 Jn nnH,„?"""^'"f"y ^^*'''' ,^* romances generally transport to 
 
 Unt t hff \ Pf "°'' ^''^. «^«"»« i>f their own time, it is not impossible 
 
 be;VJr,/^pHl'!!'fh'^'P'°".^*?^^"'^"^ ofSegestan, may have 
 
 iifen grafted on this real history. 
 
 Vol. I L g 
 
 m We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the sea- 
 coast ot Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian Ocean 
 from Cape Jask (the promontory Capella^ to cape Goadel. In the 
 time of Alexander, and probably many ages afterwards, itwasthin- 
 ly inhabited by a savage people of Icihyophagi, or Fishermen, who 
 knew no arts, who acknowledged no m.-ister, and who were divided 
 by inhospitable deserts from the rest of the world. (See A rrian de 
 Keh. Iiidicis.) In the twelfth century, the little town of Taiz (sud- 
 posed by M. d'Anville to be the Tefa of Ptolemy) was peopled and 
 enriched by the resort of the Arabian merchants. (See Geographia 
 ISubiens, p. 58. and d'Anville Geographie Aiicienne, tom. ii. p. 283 ) 
 In the last age, the whole country was divided between three 
 princes, one Mahometan and two idolaters, who maintained their 
 independence against the successors of Shah Abbas. rV'oyaeesde 
 Tavernier, part i. 1. v. p. 635.) 
 
 n Chardin, tom. iii. c. 1—3. 
 
 o Dion. I. xxviii.p. 1335. 
 
 P For the precise situation of Babylon. Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Mo- 
 dain, and Bagdad, cities often confounded with each other see an 
 excellent Geographical Tract of M. d'Anville, in Mem. de I'Acade- 
 mie, tom, xxx. 
 
 <i Tacit. Annal. xi. 42. Plin Hist. Nat. vi. 28. 
 
 P 
 
 
 8, 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1! 
 
 \ 
 
82 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. Vlll. 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 and the imperial camp was frequently pitched in the colony ; and thus the Romans, about ten years before 
 
 plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, 
 at the distance of only tliree miles from Seleucia.' 
 The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism 
 resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon 
 insensibly swelled into a great city." Under the reign 
 of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as 
 Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were re- 
 ceived as friends by the Greek colony ; 
 
 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE. 
 
 A. D. 1G5. 
 
 the fall of the Parthian monarchy, obtained a firm and 
 permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates.' 
 
 Prudence as well as glory might have ArtaxcrxcB claims 
 justified a war on the side of Artaxerxes, ti'<; provincet of 
 
 111- • i_ c j*4U„j« Asia, niid declares 
 
 had his views been confined to the de- ^.^^ against the 
 fence or the acquisition of a useful Romans, A. D. 
 frontier. But the ambitious Persian "*^^- 
 openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest; 
 
 they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian | and he thought himself able to support his lofty pre 
 kings; yet both cities experienced the same treat-' tensions by the arms of reason, as well as by those of 
 ment. The sack and conHagration of Seleucia, with power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first subdued, and his 
 the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabi- | successors had for a long time possessed, the whole 
 tants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph.' Se- extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the ^Egaean 
 A D 108 l^'^cia, already exhausted by the neigh- I sea ; the provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their 
 bourhood of a too powerful rival, sunk i empire, had been governed by Persian satraps, and all 
 under the fatal blow ; but Ctesiplion, in about thirty- j Egypt, to the confines of ^Ethiopia, had acknowledged 
 three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to their sovereignty.* Their rights had been suspended, 
 maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Se- I though not destroyed, by a long usurpation; and as 
 verus. The city was, however, taken by assault ; the ' soon as he received the Persian diadem, which birth 
 king, who defended it in person, escaped with preci- ! and successful valour had placed upon his head, the 
 pitation ; an hundred thousand captives, and a rich first great duty of his station called upon him to re 
 
 booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers." 
 Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon suc- 
 ceeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great 
 
 store the ancient limits and splendour of the monarchy. 
 The Great King, therefore, (such was the haughty 
 style of his embassies to the emperor Alexander,) 
 
 capitals of the East. In summer, the monarch of commanded the Romans instantly to depart from all 
 Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the | the provinces of his ancestors, and, yielding to the 
 mountains of Media ; but the mildness of the climate ; Persians the empire of Asia, to'content themselves 
 1 1 *- r„- n* I r _ L.^ x__ \^'\\\\ the undisturbed possession of Europe. This 
 
 haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of 
 the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians; who, 
 hy their fine horses, splendid arms, and rich apparel, 
 displayed the pride and greatness of their master.** 
 
 engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter resi- 
 dence. 
 
 Conquost of Os- From these successful inroads the 
 riiocue by the Ro- Romans derived no real or lastino- be- 
 nefit; nor did they attempt to preserve 
 
 mans. 
 
 such distant conquests, separated from the provinces j Such an embassy was much less an offer of negocia- 
 of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. " _-.- 
 
 The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene was an ac- 
 quisition of less splendour indeed, but of a far more 
 solid advantage. That little state occupied the nor- 
 thern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between 
 the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, 
 was situated about twenty miles beyond the former of 
 those rivers; and the inhabitants, since the time of 
 Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Sy 
 
 tioti than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Se- 
 verus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of 
 the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved on this 
 important contest to lead their armies in person. 
 
 If we credit what should seem the p,^,^„j^^ ^5 
 most authentic of all records, an oration of Alexander So 
 still extant, and delivered by the em-^'^''^^. 
 peror himself to the senate, we must 
 allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not 
 
 nans, and Armenians.* The feeble sovereigns of inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the 
 
 Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two con- I Persians by the son of Philip. The army of the great 
 
 r. .„« „^,^ . ..„.- .- * - king consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand 
 
 tending empires, were attached from inclination to the 
 Parthian cause; but the superior power of Rome ex- 
 acted from them a reluctant homage, which is still 
 attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the 
 Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to 
 secure some substantial pledges of their doubtful 
 fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the 
 country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong 
 town of Nisibis. During the troubles that followed 
 the death of Commodus, the princes of Osrhoene at- 
 tempted to shake off the yoke ; but the stern policy of 
 Severus confirmed their dependence,^ and the perfidy 
 A D 216 of Caracalla completed the easy conquest. 
 Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was 
 sent in chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a 
 province, and his capital dignified with the rank of 
 
 r This maybe inferred from Straho, 1. xvi. p. 743. 
 
 • Thai moat curious traveller Bernicr, who followed the camp of 
 Aurengzehe from Deiili to Cntsliinir. de«»crihr9 with ereat at-curary 
 the immense moving city. The guard of cavalry consisted Ilo.dOO 
 men. that of infantry of 10,000. It was computed that Hie camp 
 contained 150,000 horses, mnlrs, and elephants; 50,000 camels, 
 50,000 oxen, and between 300,000 and -100,000 persons. Almost all 
 Dehli followed the court, whose mn<;nificence supported its industry. 
 
 t Dion, I. Ixxi. p. 1178. Hist. August, p. :i8. Eutrop. viii. 10. 
 Euseh. in Chronic. Quadratus (quoted in the Augustan History] at- 
 tempted to vindicate the Romans, hy alleging, that the citizens of 
 Seleucia had first violated their faith. 
 
 u Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1263. Hcrodian, 1. iii. p. 120. Hist. August, 
 p. 70. 
 
 Jt The polished citizens of Aniioch called those of Edessa mixed 
 barbarians. It was, however, some praise, that of the three dialects 
 of the Syriac, the purest and most olegant (the Aramiean) was spoke 
 at Edessa. This remark M. Bayer (Hist. Edess. p. 5.) has borrowed 
 from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer. 
 
 y Dion, 1. Ixiv. p. 1348 — 1250. M. Bayer has neglected to use this 
 most important passage. 
 
 horse, clothed in complete armour of steel ; of seven 
 hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on 
 their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots armed 
 with scythes. This formidable host, the like of 
 which is not to be found in eastern history, and has 
 scarcely been imagined in eastern romance,* was dis- 
 comfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alex- 
 ander approved himself an intrepid soldier and a skil- 
 ful general. The great king fled before his valour; 
 
 2 This kingdom, from Osrhoes, who gave a new name to the coun- 
 try, to the last Ahgarus, had lasted :<53 years. Sectlie learned work 
 of M. Bayer, Historia Osrhoena et Edcssena. 
 
 > Xenophon.in the preface to the Cyropspdia, gives a clear .ind 
 magnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Herodotus 
 (I. iii. c. 79, &c.) enters into a curious and partirular description of 
 the twenty great Satrapies into which the Persian empire was di- 
 vided by Darius HystasjKjs. 
 
 b Herodian, vi.209, 212. 
 
 ' There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of Arbela, 
 in the host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes which was 
 vanquished by LiiruHus, seventeen thousand horse only were com- 
 pletely arn>ed. Anliochus hrought fifty-four elephants info the field 
 against the Romans: by his frequent wars and ncgoriations with 
 the princes of India, he had once collected an hundred and fifty of 
 those great animals; hut it may he questioned, whether the most 
 powerful monarch of Ilindostan ever formetl a line of battle of seven 
 iiundred elephants. Instead of three or four thousand elephants 
 which the Great Mogul was supposed to possess, Tavernier (Voyages, 
 part ii. I. i. p. 198.) discovered, by a more acute inquiry, that he had 
 only five hundred for his baggage, and eighty or ninety fur tlie ser- 
 vice of war. 'J'hc Greeks have varied with regard to the number 
 which I'ortis brouffht into the field ; hut Quintus Cnrtius, (viii. 13.) 
 in this instance judir^ioiis and moderate, is ronfented with eighty-five 
 elephants, distinguished liy their size and strength. In Siam, where 
 these animals are the most numerous and the most esteemed, 
 eighteen elephants are allowed as a sufficient proportion for each of 
 the nine brigades into which a just army is divided. The whole 
 number, of one hundred and sixty-two elephants of war, may some- 
 time be doubled. Hiit. des Voyages, torn. ix. p. 260. 
 
 1 
 
 ;i 
 
 
 83 
 
 an immense booty and the conquest of Mesopotamia. I of Rome. His character seems to have been marked 
 were the immediate fruits of th s s mnn vintr^rxr .Q.,«k k,, ♦i^^^^k^kj „^j .- . ay^, uK:K,ii ludrKea 
 
 were the immediate fruits of this signal victory. Such 
 are the circumstances of this ostentatious and improb- 
 able relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by 
 the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing 
 servility of his flatterers, and received without contra*^ 
 diction by a distant and obsequious senate.* Far from 
 being inclined to believe that the arms of Alexander 
 obtained any memorable advantage over the Persians, 
 we are induced to su.spect, that all this blaze of ima- 
 ginary glory was designed to conceal some real dis- 
 grace.® 
 
 More probable ac- Our Suspicions are confirmed by the 
 count of the war. authority of a Contemporary historian, 
 who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, 
 and his faults with candour. He describes the judi- 
 
 by those bold and commanding features, that generally 
 distinguish the princes who conquer, frcTm those who 
 inherit, an enipire. Till the last period of the Persian 
 monarchy, his code of laws was respected as the 
 ground-work of their civil and religious policy.' Se- 
 veral of his sayings are preserved. One of them in 
 particular discovers a deep insight inta the constitution 
 of government. "The authority of the prince," said 
 Artaxerxes, "must be defended by a military force; 
 that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes 
 must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture 
 can never flourish except under the protection of jus- 
 tice and moderation. "j Artaxerxes bequeathed his 
 new empire, and his ambitious designs against the 
 Romans, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of his o-reat 
 
 cious plan which had been formed for the conduct of father; but those designs were too extensive fo? the 
 the war. 1 hree Rornan armies were destined to invade power of Persia, and served only to involve both na- 
 
 tnp samp fimo on/l k^r ri;fr,^,,^.,* J^ t».-^ i .: : . _ i • /, , . -^ "v/m .m 
 
 Persia at the same time, and by difl'erent roads. But 
 the operations of the campaign, though wisely con- 
 certed, were not executed either with ability or success. 
 The first of these armies, as soon as it had entered the 
 marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial con- 
 flux of the Euphrates and the Tigris,' was encompassed 
 by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the arrows, 
 of the enemy. The alliance of Chosroes king of Ar- 
 menia,« and the long tract of mountainous country, in 
 which the Persian cavalry was of little service, opened 
 a secure entrance into the heart of Media, to the second 
 of the Roman armies. These brave troops laid waste 
 the adjacent provinces, and by several successful ac- 
 tions against Artaxerxes, gave a faint colour to the 
 emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious 
 army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In re- 
 passing the mountains, great numbers of soldiers 
 perished by the badness of the roads, and the severity 
 of the winter season. It had been resolved, that whilst 
 these two great detachments penetrated into the oppo- 
 site extremes of the Persian dominions, the main body, 
 under the command of Alexander himself, should sup- 
 port their attack, by invading the centre of the king- 
 dom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by hts 
 mother's counsels, and perhaps by his own fears, de- 
 serted the bravest troops, and the fairest prospect of 
 victory; and after consuming in Mesopotamia an inac- 
 tive and inglorious summer, he led back to Antioch an 
 army diminished hy sickness, and provoked by dis- 
 appointment. The behaviour of Artaxerxes had been 
 very diflferent. Flying with rapidity from the hills of 
 Media to the marshes of the Euphrates, he had every 
 where opposed the invaders in person ; and in either 
 
 lions in a long series of destructive wars and reciprocal 
 calamities. 
 
 The Persians, long since civilized and Military power 
 corrupted, were very far from possessing of t'»e Persians, 
 the martial independence, and the intrepid hardiness, 
 both of mind and body, which have rendered the 
 northern barbarians masters of the world. The science 
 of war, that constituted the more rational force of 
 Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never 
 made any considerable progress in the East. Those 
 disciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a 
 confused multitude, were unknown to the Persians. 
 They were equally unskilled in the arts of construct- 
 ing, besieging, or defending regular fortifications. 
 They trusted more to their numbers than to their cou- 
 rage ; more to their courage than to their discipline. 
 The infantry was a half-armed spiritless Their infantry 
 crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the contemptible, 
 allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a 
 victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles 
 transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the 
 seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by 
 a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels; 
 and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian 
 host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected 
 famine.'' 
 
 But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom Their cavalry ex- 
 of luxury and despotism, preserved a ceilent. 
 strong sense of personal gallantry and national honour. 
 From the age of seven years they were taught to speak 
 truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride ;\nd it was 
 universally confessed, that in the two last of these arts, 
 they had made a more than common proficiency.* The 
 
 tortune had united with the ablest conduct the most most distinguished youth were educated under the 
 undaunted resolution. But in several obstinate en- monarch's eye, practised their exercises in the eate of 
 ^gements against the veteran legions of Rome, the | his palace, and were severely trained up to the ha- 
 versian monarch had ost the flower of his troops. ! bits of temperance and obedience, in their lona and 
 i^I!Li!il !Il^?"!!:!l^^ weakened his po;yer. The laborious parties of hunting. In every provinc?, the 
 ^ *.,„... - - .1 . ^ ., . satrap maintained alike school of military virtue. The 
 
 Persian nobles (so natural is the idea of feudal tenures) 
 received from the king's bounty lands and houses, on 
 the condition of their service in war. They were 
 ready on the first summons to mount on horseback, 
 with a martial and splendid train of follovi'ers, and to 
 join the numerous bodies of guards, who were carefully 
 selected from amongst the most robust slaves, and the 
 bravest adventurers of Asia. These armies, both of 
 light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the 
 impetuosity of their charge, and the rapidity of their 
 
 lavourable opportunities of the absence of Alexander, 
 and of the confusion that followed that emperor's death, 
 presented themselves in vain to his ambition. Instead 
 of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the 
 continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest 
 from their hands the little province of Mesopotamia.^ 
 Character and '^^^' ^^'^" ^^ Artaxerxes, which from 
 maxims of Ar- the last defeat of the Parthians lasted only 
 ** a7i)'240 ^^^"'■teen years, forms a memorable aera in 
 the history of the East, and even in that 
 
 d Hist. August, p. irin. 
 
 «?pU^f - ^i*"'® ^'^'if ^ ^° chapter Cth, upon the reign of Alexander 
 Severus, and upon this event— C] 
 
 i.l«l:**® Tillemont has already observed, that Herodian's geography 
 Is somewhat confused. 6 o i j^ 
 
 m\L^V^^ of Cliorene (Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 7].) illustrates this inva- 
 
 A?.o^ ^'^'"' ^7 asserting that Chosroes, king of Armenia, defeated 
 
 nf n^ *' °"*' pursued him to the confines of India. The exploits 
 
 t« ,1 L^D^®' ''*^® ^®^" magnified 5 and he acted as a dependent ally 
 to the Romans. ' 
 
 niH ^kL'''* '^'^''ount of this war, see Herodian, I. vi. p. 2()9, SP The 
 
 Au»SstaTHis7* ^"** modern compilers have blindly followed the | 
 
 lEutycliius, torn. ii. p. ]?0. vers. Torock. The great Chosroes 
 Noushirwan sent the code of ArtaxerAcs to all his satraps, as tlie in- 
 variable rule of their conduct. 
 
 j D'tlerbelot Bibliotheque Orientale, au mot ^rdshir. We may 
 observe, that after an ancient period of faliles. and a long interval 
 of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of 
 truth with the dynasty of the Sassanides. 
 
 k Herodian, 1. vi. p. 214. Amniianns Marcellinus, I. xxiii. c. 6. 
 Some dill'erences may he ohserved hetween the two historianf:, the 
 natural eflccts of the changes produced hy a century and a half 
 
 1 The Persians are still the most skilful horsemen, and their horses 
 i tlio finest, ID the East. 
 
 i 
 
 <{'i 
 1 
 
 i 
 
84 
 
 \ 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 V 
 
 y 
 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 
 motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern 
 provinces of the declining empire of Rome." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The state of Germany till the invasion of the barbarians, 
 in the time of the emperor Decius. 
 
 The government and religion of Persia have de- 
 served some notice, from their connexion with the de- 
 cline and fall of the Roman empire. We shall occa- 
 sionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes,* 
 which, with their arms and horses, tlieir flocks and 
 herds, their Avives and families, wandered over the 
 immense plains which spread themselves from the 
 Caspian sea to the Alstula, from the confines of Persia 
 to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who 
 first resisted, then invaded, and at length overturned 
 the Western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much 
 more important place in this history, and possess a 
 stronger, and, if we may use the expression, a more 
 domestic, claim to our attention and regard. 'J'he most 
 civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the 
 woods of Germany; and in the rude institutions of 
 those barbarians we may still distinguish the original 
 principles of our present laws and manners. In "their 
 primitive state of simplicity and independence, the 
 Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and 
 delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first 
 of historians who applied the science of philosophy to 
 the study of facts. The expressive conciseness of his 
 descriptions has deserved to exercise the diligence of 
 innumerable antiquarians, and to excite the ge'iiius and 
 penetration of the philosophic historians of our times. 
 The subject, however various and important, has 
 already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully 
 discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, 
 and difficult to the writer. We sliall therefore content 
 ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, 
 some of the most important circumstances of climate, 
 of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the 
 wild barbarians of Germany such formidable enemies 
 to the Roman power. 
 Extent of Ger- Ancient Germany, excluding from its 
 
 "»any. independent limits the province westward 
 of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman yoke, 
 
 extended itself over a third part of Europe.** Almost 
 the whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, 
 Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 m From Herodotus, Xenopl.on, Horodinn, Ammianus, Chardin 
 &c., I have extracted such probable accounts of the Tersian no- 
 bility, as seem eitlier common to every age, or particular to that of 
 tlie Sassanides. 
 
 • * ['^''le Scythians, even according to the ancients, arc not Parnia- 
 tians. The Greeks, after having separated the worhHnto Greeks 
 and Barbarians, divided the finrbarians into four great classes— tlio 
 CelfB, the Scythians, the Indian:^, and the Ethiopians— all the inha- 
 bitants of Gaul they named Ceils— Scythia extended from the Baltic 
 sea, to the t?ea of Aral, '/'hose nations who are found in the north- 
 west, in the angle between the Celtic region and Srythia were 
 named Celto Scythians and tlie Sarinatians were placed in the 
 southern part of this angle. But these names of Cells. Scythians 
 Celto-Scythiansand Sarmatians, were invented by llicGrceks savs 
 Schloezer, in constquence of their profound ignorance of cosmo- 
 graphy—and iiave no foundation in reality— they are divisions 
 purely geographical, and have no reference to the real descent or re- 
 lationship of those nations. Thus all the inhabitants of Gml are 
 called Celts, by most of the ancients, while Gaul included three en 
 tirel) differerjt nations: the Belgians, the Aquitnnians, and the 
 Gauls, properly 80 called. Hi omnes livuua, institutis, leHbiis in- 
 ter se differunt (CiPsar. Comm. c. I.) Thus the Turks call all Euro- 
 Pf^"^'-i ;■''"*■*• (Schloezfry Jillgemeine .Yordische OescMchte, p. 
 289-1/. i.)-Bayer, />e or/a,ne et prisr.is sedibus Srf,tbaru7n in 
 
 Opusc. p. 64, says: '-Primus eorum.de quit.us constat Euphorus in 
 quarto histonarum libro orbem terrarum inter Srythas. IndosiEth 
 opas et Cclias dujsit. Fragnientum ejus loci Cosmers Indiconleiis 
 tea in topographia Christiana, f. 148, conservavit. Video igl»ur En 
 phorum, cum locorum positus per ccrta capita distribnere et exoli 
 care constitucret insigniorum nomina gentium vastioribus spatiis 
 adhibuisse ; nulla mala fraude at sucressu infelicl. Nam Ephoro 
 quoquo modo dicta pro exploratis habebant Graci pleriquc et Ro 
 mam; ita gliscebat error posleritati. Igitur tot tamque diversa- 
 Mtirpis gentes non modo intra communem quandnm rerrioriem defi- 
 nit«, uuum omnes Scytharuin nomen his auctoribus subierunt aed 
 etiam ab ilia regionis appellatione in candein nationem sunt ronfla- 
 t«. Bic Cimmeriorium res cum Scythicis, Scytharum cum Sarmati- 
 cot Russicis, Hunnlcn, Tataricis commiicentur."— O ] 
 
 l» [Germany was not so great in extent. It is from CiEsar, and es- 
 pecially from rtolcmy, says Gatterer, that we can ascertain what 
 ancient Germany was, before the wars of the Romans had changed 
 the situation of the nations. Germany, as changed by these wars, 
 has been described to us by Strabo, by Pliny, and by Tacitus. Ger- 
 many, properly so called, or great Germany, was bounded on the 
 west by the Rhine, on the east by the Vistula, on the north bv the 
 southern point of Norway, by Sweden and by Esthonia. The Main 
 and the mountains of Bohemia formed the boundary on the south. 
 Before the time of Ca-sar, the country comprised between the 
 Mreyenne and the Danube, was occupied in part by the Helvetians, 
 , and the other Gauls, in part by the Hcrcyninn forest ; but from the 
 j time of Ca'sar to the great migration of these nations, ihesejboun- 
 daries were removed to the Daniibe. or which is the same thing, to 
 I the Alps ofSuabia ; although the Hercynian forest siill extends from 
 north to south, a distance of nine days march along the banks of the 
 Danube. (Gafterer's Versuch eineraU>rKmeincn Weltgeschichte.n. 
 424. ed. of 1792.) 
 
 j This vast extent of country was far from being inhabited by a 
 : sinirle nation, divided intodiliorent tribes, having a common origin. 
 I Throe principal races were formed there— very distinct by their 
 I lant'iiagc, their orijiin. and their customs— the first were the Slavi 
 I or Vandals in the east— the second the Cimriatis or Cimbri in the 
 I west, and third the Germans properly called (the Suevi of Tacitu.s,) 
 I were situated between the Cimbri and the Vandals. The south was 
 j inhabited before tiie time of Casar, by nations of Gallic origin — the 
 Suevi afterwards occupied it. First— The Slavi afterwards called 
 I the Vandals. (Wendcn) were, according to some learned men, the 
 Aborigines of Germany, according to others they were not introduced 
 { here till afterwards— they possessed themselves at first, of the west- 
 ern part, which liad been abandoned by the Vandals, properly so 
 I called, whose name they assumed. "These last, says Adelung, be- 
 j longed to the race of the Suevi— Pliny. Tacitus, and Dion Cassiua 
 , mention them. They took Dacia from the Goths, but driven out in 
 : their turn, they wandered into Pannonia. into Gaul and Spain, and 
 I at last went to Africa, where they became extinct a little before the 
 j 'VHlU year aAer C\\x\s\.—Jideluv}r's altcste Oeschichte der Deutchcu 
 ihrer spraehet his zur Vuelker toandervvp. Schloezer on the con- 
 ' trary, in his universal history of the North, considers the Vandals 
 as originally from the eastern part of Germany, although unknown 
 to the Romans. He divides them into the southern Slavi, who oc- 
 cupied the country which we now call Carniola, Carinthia. Stiria, 
 Friuli, and the northern Slavi, who occupied Mecklenburgh. Pome- 
 rania, Brandenburgh, Upper Saxony, and Eusatia. Their language 
 tlie Sclavonic, is the root from whence have sprung the Russian, the 
 Polish, the Bohemian, and the dialects of Lusatia, of some parts of 
 the Duchy of Luncnburgh, of Carniola. of Carinthia, and of Stiria, 
 &c. those of Croatia, of Bosnia, and of Bulgaria. (See Schloez. Hist, 
 luiirerse/le du JVord. p. 323, 33.').) 
 
 Gatterer in his Esfai dUine Iliftoire Unirersellc, has treated this 
 subject in a more able manner — and his opinion appears to me well 
 established. He Iins shown that those countries situated west of 
 the Niemen. the Vistula, and the Theiss. were inhabited until the 
 third century, by nations, 7iot Slavi of German origin. The Slavi 
 then occupied the countries situated east of these tnree rivers ;— they 
 were divided, accordinjr to Jornandes and Procopius, into three 
 classes: the Venedi or Vandals, the Anti and the Sclavi, proper.'y 
 so called. The first, about the third century, took the name of Ve- 
 nedi. after havine driven from the country situated between the 
 Memel and the Vistula, the German Vandals or Venedi, who occu- 
 pied the country to the Carpathian mountains. The Anti dwelt be- 
 tween the Dniester and the Dnieper to the north-west of the Crimea. 
 The true Slavi or Sclavonians, in the sixth century, inliabited the 
 north of Dacia, and appear to have been the people whom Tra- 
 jj.nn drove from southern Dacia. During and after the great migra- 
 I tion of this people, these different Sclavonic tribes advanced and 
 ! took possession of all the country to the Elbe and the Saal, formerly 
 occupied by those Germans whom Tncitus calls the Suevi. It is not 
 then until since this epoch that the Slavi. at least the Anti and tho 
 Sclavonians, could be included in Germany. The V^andal SInvi are 
 the only people whose establishment In Germany might have been at 
 an earlier date. (Gatterer's Versuch ciner ^llgemeincn Meltsres- 
 chichfe. p. 5n8, edit, of 1792.) 
 
 Secondly, Adelung in UisHistoire ^ncietinede T Jlllemagne, divides 
 the people of Germany (according to Cssar, and from the earliest 
 times,) into two principal races, the Suevi and the JVon Suevi. He 
 gives to the latter, who occupied western Germany, the general 
 name of Cimbrians. It was the nameof those tribes who had passed 
 the Rhine a long time before Ca>sar, and had taken possession of a 
 great part of Gaul with Belgium. C.Tsar and Plinv also call them 
 the Belgttf. The inhabitants of the peninsula of Jutland, are also 
 called Cimbrians. Pliny also mentions the Cimbrians who lived on 
 the right bank of the Rhine. It appears probable from this, that the 
 inhabitants of western Germany were all Cimbrians. The remain- 
 der of the Cimbrians are found in Gaul and in Lower Brittany, 
 where their name is preserved in that of the Cvmri. To the race' 
 of German Cimbrians. that is to say those who lived upon the right 
 bank of the Rhine, liclonged most of those tribes whose names are 
 found in ancient authors, such as the Gutthones, or inhabitants of 
 Jutland ; the Usipeti of Westphalia, the Sigambri, In the Duchy of 
 Bers. Ac. (JJdelung's JKlteste der Deutschen, p. 239, &:c.) 
 
 Thirdly. To the east of the Cimbrian tribes, was found the nation 
 of the Suevi, who were known to the Romans at a very early date, 
 since L. Corn. Sisenna, who lived one hundred and twenty-three 
 years before Christ makes mention of them. (Nonius v. Lancea ) 
 It extended to the banks of the Vistula, and from the Hercynian fo- 
 rest, to the Baltic sea. The nation was constantly crowded on the ' 
 east by the Sclavi. who forced it to throw itself upon the Cimbri of 
 whom a part crossed the Rhine, and invaded the north of Gaul, 
 whence arose the hatred which existed between these two nations. 
 The Greek and Roman writers ordinarily comprehended under tiie 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 part of Poland, were peopled by the various tribes of 
 one great nation, whose complexion, manners, and 
 lanjruage denoted a common oriorin, and preserved a 
 striking resemblance. ^ "' . '^ ~ 
 
 was divi 
 
 south, by the Danube, from the ilTyrianVprovhiceVof 
 the empire. A ridge of hills, rising from the Danube, 
 and called the Carpathian mountains, covered Ger- 
 many on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern 
 frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the 
 Germans and the t>armatians, and was often confound 
 
 85 
 
 intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberff, 
 
 within ten degrees of the pole ; he seems to delight in 
 
 r resemblance. On the we^st 'anciPt^t" r^'r^Tn^ ^^^ «»«^^s«f Lapland and Siberia; but at present he 
 
 rein-deer, as well as the elk, and the wild bull, was a 
 native of the Hercynian forest, which then overshad- 
 owed a great part of Germany and Poland. 5 The 
 modern improvements sufficiently explain the causes 
 rof the diminution of the cold. These immense woods 
 have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from 
 
 ed by the n.ixture of warring and confederali,,. .rfbes he earth tS™^f t^eTu^'i Th.'t'''''''''* f""" 
 of the two nations. In the remote darkness nf .ho i,„„ j • j r''}s ol the sun." Ihe morasses have 
 
 north, the aneientsimnerfect1vdreHeH\'w'.li?! „^!f."..^'^'"'^i'^".<'',"' P^P""'"" =>« »'>« «oil has been 
 
 north, the ancients imperfectly descried a frozen ocean 
 that lay beyond the Baltic sea, and beyond the penin- 
 sula, or islands «= of Scandinavia. 
 
 Climate. Some ingenious writers'* have sus- 
 
 pected that Europe was much colder 
 formerly than it is at present ; and the most ancient 
 descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceed- 
 ingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints 
 of intense frost, and eternal winter, are perhaps little 
 to be regarded, since we have no method of reducino- 
 to the accurate standard of the thermometer, tiie feel- 
 ings, or the expressions, of an orator born in the hap- 
 pier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two 
 remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature. 
 1. The great rivers which covered the Roman pro- 
 vinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently 
 frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enor 
 
 mous weights. Tlie barbarians, who°often chose'that more prolific than i'nwarVT^Pro^r nVnr/'t"""" T 
 severe season for their inroads, transported, without i niates.'^ t^.^:^^ ^arcSeTc^ 
 
 cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Can- 
 ada, at this day, is an exact picture of ancient Germa- 
 ny. Although situated in the same parallel with the 
 finest provinces of France and England, that country 
 experiences the most rigorous cold. The rein-deer 
 are very numerous, the ground is covered with deep 
 and lasting snow, and the great river St. Lawrence is 
 regularly frozen, in a season when the waters of the 
 Seine and the Thames are usually free from ice.' 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to its effects on the 
 exaggerate, the influence of the climate natives, 
 of ancient Germany over the minds and bodies of the 
 natives. Many writers have supposed, and most have 
 allowed, though, as it should seem, without any ade- 
 quate proof, that the rigorous cold of the north was 
 favourable to long life and generative vigour, that the 
 w^omen were more fruitful, and the human species 
 
 cli- 
 that 
 
 apprehension or danger, their numerous armies, their' j ireTjen a7rV fG^erra,;' Sef X^ar^fanTm;!!'' 
 cavalry and the.r heavy wagons, over a vast and solid ' line limbs of the native^s, who were \l"lener^T: 
 S/T- .^''''r ^'g'^^ have not presented an ! more lofty stature than tl/epXe of e^S' °^^^ 
 
 cmistitution that supports, and even requires, the most ; and spirits. Tlie severity of a winter campaign, that 
 
 *' ~ . - chilled the courage of the Roman troops, was scarcely 
 
 felt by these hardy children of the north,*" who, in their 
 turn, were unable to resist the summer heats, and dis- 
 solved away in languor and sickness under the beams 
 of an Italian sun." 
 
 There is not any where upon the origin of the 
 Oiobe a large tract of country which Germans, 
 we have disco veered destitute of inhabitants, or whose 
 first population can be fixed with any deo-ree of his- 
 I torical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic 
 minds can seldom refrain from investigating the infan- 
 cy of great nations, our curiosity consumes itself in 
 toilsome and disappointed efforts. When Tacitus con- 
 sidered the purity of the German blood, and the for- 
 bidding aspect of the country, he was disposed to pro- 
 nounce those barbarians Inditrenx, or natives of the 
 soil. We may allow with safety, and perhaps with 
 truth, that ancient Germany was not originall}' peopled 
 by any foreign colonies already formed into a political 
 society ;« but that the name and nation received tlieir 
 
 title of the Suevi. all the tribes who occupied the region which we 
 iav« just ut'scribed ; but they sometimes give the name to particular 
 tribes lor whom they have no other name. Thus Ca-sar almost al- 
 ways calls the Catli, (now tho Hes.sians) the Suevi— afterwards this 
 name was given only to the Marcoinanni and the Quadi— who were 
 so called at the time of their invasion of Gaul and Spain, rriio 
 Marcomanni occupied at first the kinsfdom of VVirtembcr.'. and the 
 country contaiiied between the Black forest and the Da 1^1.0. from 
 which they had driven the Helvetians— Driven from thence by the 
 Komans, they established themselves in Bohemia, in Moravia, and 
 in Austria, where they subdued the Quadi, and where thev remained 
 
 in '^f'^'"'?'''""'/"!*'/"^ "'^'^•) '^'"e "n'ne Suevi is preserved 
 in that of Suabia— (./?rfe/. a,lt. jresck. der Deutsch. p. 192. &c ) 
 
 buch were the principal races who inhabited Germany. Thev 
 were driven from the east into the west, and were the stock from 
 Whence sprung the modern nations; but northern Europe has not 
 uniformly been peopled by them; other races, of different ori-in, 
 and speaking other languages, have inhabited it, and have tiiere left 
 llK'ir de^scendants. (See Schloezer, Hist. univ. du Nord, p. 291.) 
 
 i he German tribes called themselves in very remote times bv the 
 |:ener.c nameof the Teutones, (Teuten Deutschen.) a name which 
 1 acitiis supposes derivj;d from that of one of their Gods, Tuisco It 
 appears most pro!)able that this word signified simply vien, people— 
 a collec no., cf savage tribes would have given themselves no other 
 I ame ; thus the Laplanders call themselves Almag, people, the Sa- 
 uoiedes, mUetz J^issetch. men, &c. As the name of thf Oermanl, 
 {Oermant) Caesar found it in use in Gaul, and m.adc use of it as a 
 name thni known to the Romans. Many learned men from a pas- 
 sage or lacitus. {De mor. Germ. 2., have contended that it was not 
 ciyei, to the 1 eutones, till since the timo of Casar ; but Adelung has 
 satisfactorily rofutod this opinion. The name Germans is found in 
 the hHstes capuohni, (see Grater inscript, ^899, where the consul 
 Marcellus, in the year of Rome .531. is said to have defeated the 
 uauls, the Insubrians. and the Germans commanded by Virdomar 
 {>ee .^del. alt. geach. der Deutsch, p. 102.)— O.l 
 /.. o "i^'lfirn p).ilosophers of Sweden .seem agreed that the waters 
 vLnV*^ , . *" C''-.''J"a"y8'nk in a regular proportion, which they have 
 ..^^ H^^'^fl °. ««""'»'e at half an inch every year. Twenty centuries 
 ago, the flat couritry of Scandinavia must have been covered by the 
 Hoa ; while the high lands rose above the waters, as so manv islands 
 n. s.^Vr'!' o.""^ and dimensions. Such indeed is the notibn given 
 ^L L^'K 'n k!"^: Tacitus, of the vast countries round the Baltic, 
 of nTii '*" "'*"«^"«1"e Raisonnee.tom. xl. and xlv. a large abstract 
 of Dalin's History of Sweden, composed in the Swedish language 
 
 mJVL ^''u''''^^'■ M"«"<^' ^''6 Abbtdu Bos. and M. Pelloutier. 
 'list, des Celfes. tom. i. * 
 
 « Diodorus Siculus, 1 v. p. 340. Edit. Wessel. Herodian, I. vi. p. 
 2J.1. Jornandes. c. oo. On the banks of the Danube, the wine 
 
 /^m-; ■"T-y'i.'"''''"'' ""l' frequently frozen into great lumps,/r".. 
 
 /a pint Ovid, Epist. ex Ponto, 1. iv. 7, 9, 10. Virgil. Georgic I iii 
 
 •w.>. The fact is confirmed by a soldier and a philosopher, who had 
 
 experienced the intense cold of Thrace 
 I. vii. p. 560. Edit, Hutchinson. 
 
 S«e Xenophon, Anabasis, 
 
 f Buffon, lli.stoire Naturellc, tom. xii. p. 79, 116. 
 
 fCffisar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 2.3. &c. The most iiiquLsitive of the 
 Germans were ignorant of its utmost limits, nlthou"li some of thein 
 had travelled in it more than sixty days' journey. '^ 
 
 h Ciuverius (Germania Antiqua. 1. iii. c. 47.) investigates the small 
 and scattered remains of the Hercynian wood. 
 
 'Charlevoix. Histoire dii Canada. 
 
 k Olaus Rudbeck asserts that the Swedish women often bear ten 
 or twelve children, and not uncommonly twenty or thirty; but the 
 authority of Rudbeck is much to be suspected. 
 
 I In hos artus, in ha;c corpora, quae miramur, excrcscunt. Tacit. 
 Germania, 3, 20. Cluver. I. i. c. 14. 
 
 II Plutarch, in Mario. The Cimbri, by wav of amusement, often 
 slid down mountains of snow on their broad shields. 
 
 n The Romans made war in all climates, and by their excellent 
 discipline were in a great mea.siire preserved in health and vigour. 
 It may be remarked, that man is the only animal which can live 
 and multiply in every country from tho equator to the poles. The 
 hog seems to approach the nearest to our species in that privilege. 
 
 o Tacit. German, c. 3. The emigration of the Gauls followed 
 the course of the Danube, and discharged itself on Greece and Asia. 
 Tacitus could discover only one inconsiderable tribe that retained 
 any traces of a Gallic origin. 
 
 [The Gothines, a tribe of the Seine, who must not \^e confounded 
 with the Goths {Gothen.) There were along the Danube, from the 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
80 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 ^fW®' 
 
 ¥ 
 
 
 # 
 
 existence from the gradual union of some wandering 
 savages of the Hercynian woods. To assert those 
 savages to have been the spontaneous production of the 
 earth which they inhabited, would be a rash inference, 
 condemned by religion, and unwarranted by reason. 
 Fables and con- Such rational doubt is but ill-suited 
 jecturc8. with the genius of popular vanity. — 
 Among the nations who have adopted the Mosaic his- 
 tory of the world, the ark of Noah has been of the 
 same use, as was formerly to the Greeks and Romans 
 the siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged 
 truth, an immense but rude superstructure of fable has 
 been erected; and the wild Irishman,? as well as the 
 wild Tartar,i could point out the individual son of 
 Japhet, from whose loins his ancestors were lineally 
 descended. The last century abounded with antiqua- 
 A-ians of profound learning and easy faith, who, by 
 the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjectures 
 and etymologies, conducted the great grandchildren 
 of Noah from the tower of Babel to the extremities 
 of the globe. Of these judicious critics, one of the 
 most entertaining was Olaus Rudbeck, professor in 
 the university of Upsal."" Whatever is celebrated 
 either in history or fable, this zealous patriot ascribes 
 to his country. From Sweden (which formed so con- 
 siderable a part of ancient Germany) the Greeks them- 
 selves derived their Alphabetical characters, their as- 
 tronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful region 
 (for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the At- 
 lantis of Plato, the country of the Hyperboreans, the 
 gardens of the Hesperides, the Fortunate islands, and 
 even the Elysian fields, were all but faint and imperfect 
 transcripts. A clime so profusely favoured by nature, 
 could not long remain desert after the flood. The 
 learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few 
 years to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand 
 persons. He then disperses them into small colonies 
 to replenish the earth, and to propagate the human 
 species. The German or Swedish detachment (which 
 marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command 
 of Askenaz the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet,) dis- 
 tinguished itself by a more than common diligence in 
 the prosecution of this great work. The northern 
 hive cast its swarms over the greatest part of Europe, 
 Africa, and Asia ; and (to use the author's metaphor) 
 the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart. 
 The Germans igiio- But all this well-laboured system of 
 rant i.rieticrs : German antiquities is annihilated by a 
 single fact, too well attested to admit of any doubt, 
 and of too decisive a nature to leave room for any re-. 
 ply. The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were un- 
 acquainted with the use of letters ; » and the use of 
 
 time of Ciesar, ninny other trii-es of Gallic ori<rin, who could not 
 long withstand the attacks of the Siievi. The Helvetians, who 
 dwelt at the entrance of the Black forest, between the Mayenuc and 
 the Danuiie, had been driven thence Ion;.' before the lime of Ca'sar. 
 We must also mention the Polres Tectosaires. from rianyuedoc, 
 who had established themselves around the Black Forest. The 
 Boians, or Boii, who had penetrated this forest, and who have left 
 in the word Bohemia, traces of their name, were Bubjiiirated in the 
 first century, by the Marcomanni. The Boians establishing them- 
 gelvps in Noricum, were at last united with the Lombards, uud re- 
 ceived the name of Bbio Jivii, (Bavaria.) — O.] 
 
 p According to Dr. Keating, (History of Ireland, p. 13,14.) the 
 giant Parlholanus, who was the son of Seara, the son of Esra, the 
 eon of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathaclan, the son of 
 Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, landed on the coast of 
 Munster, the 14th day of May, in the year of the world one ihou- 
 ■and nine hundred and sevenly-eight. 'J'hough he succeeded in his 
 great enterprise, the loose behaviour of his wife rendered his do- 
 mestic life very unliappy, and provoked him to such a degree, that 
 he killed her favourite greyhound. Tliis. as the learned histo- 
 rian very properly observes, was the first instance of female false- 
 hood ami infidelity ever known in Irebind. 
 
 q Genealogical History of the Tartars by Abulghazi Bahadur 
 Khan. 
 
 r His work, entitled Allantica, is uncommonly scarce. Bayle has 
 given two most curious extracts from it. Republique des lettrts, 
 Janvier et Fevrier, 1685. 
 
 • Tacit. Germ. ii. 19. Literarum secreta viri pariter ac fremina; 
 ignorant. We may rest contented with this decisive authority, 
 without entering into the obscure disputes concernitig the antiquity 
 of the Runic characters. The learned Celsius, a Swede, a scho'ar, 
 and a philosopher, was of opinion, that they were nothing more 
 than the Roman letters, with the curves changed into straight lines 
 for th;ea«e of engraving. See Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes, 1. Ii. 
 c. 11. DictioMnaire Diplomatique, torn. i. p. 223. We may add, 
 
 letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes 
 a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of 
 knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, 
 the human memory soon dissipates or corrupts the 
 ideas intrusted to her charge ; and the noble faculties 
 of the mind, no longer supplied with models or with 
 materials, gradually forget their powers ; the judg- 
 ment becomes feeble and lethargic, the imagination 
 languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this impor- 
 tant truth, let us attempt, in an improved society, to 
 calculate the immense distance between the man of 
 learning and the illiterate peasant. The former, by 
 reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, 
 and lives in distant ages and remote countries ; whilst 
 the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a 
 few years of existence, surpasses, but very little, his 
 fellow-labourer, the ox, in the exercise of his mental 
 faculties. The same, and even a greater, difference 
 will be found between nations than between individu- 
 als ; and we may safely pronounce, that without some 
 species of writing, no people has ever preserved the 
 faithful annals of their history, ever made any consid- 
 erable progress in the abstract sciences, or ever pos- 
 sessed, in any tolerable degree of perfection, the use- 
 ful and agreeable arts of life. 
 
 Ofthese arts, the ancient Germans were of arts and ag- 
 wretchedly destitute. They passed their ricuiiure ; 
 lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has 
 pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appella- 
 tion of virtuous simplicity. Modern Germany is said 
 to contain about two thousand three hundred walled 
 towns.* In a much wider extent of country, the 
 geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than 
 ninety places, which he decorates with the name of 
 cities;" though, according to our ideas, they would 
 but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only sup- 
 pose them to have been rude fortifications, constructed 
 in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the 
 women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the 
 tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion.* But 
 Tacitus asserts, as a well-known fact, that the Ger- 
 mans, in his time, had no cities ; '^ and that they af- 
 fected to despise the works of Koman industry, as 
 places of confinement rather than of security.'' Their 
 edifices were not even contiguous, or formed into regu- 
 lar villas ; ^ each barbarian fixed his independent dvvel- 
 ling on a spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of 
 fresh water, had induced him to give the preference. 
 Neither stone, nor brick, nor tiles, were employed in 
 these slight habitations.* They were indeed no morr 
 than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough tim- 
 ber, thatched with straw, and pierced at tlie toj) to 
 leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most in- 
 clement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with 
 a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. 
 The nations who dwelt towards the north, clrthed 
 themselves in furs; and the women manufactured for 
 their own use a coarse kind of linen.* The game of 
 various sorts, with which the forests of Germany were 
 
 that the oldest Runic inscriptions are supposed to be of the third <en' 
 tury, and the most ancient writer who mentions the Runic charac 
 ters is Venantius Fortunatus, (Carm. vii. 18.) who lived towards the 
 end of the sixth century. 
 
 Barbara fraxineis pingatur Runa tabellis. 
 
 t Recherches Philosophiques curies Amcricains, torn. iii. p. 228. 
 The autlior of that very curious work is, if I am not misinformed, 
 a German by birth. 
 
 u The Alexandrian Geographer is often criiirised by the accurate 
 Cluvcrius. 
 
 V See Ca'sar, and the learned Mr. Whitaker in hii History of Man- 
 chester, vol. i. 
 
 w Tacit. Germ. 15. 
 ' » When the Germans commanded the Ubii of Cologne to cast off 
 the Roman yoke, and with their new freedom to resume their an- 
 cient manners, they insisted on the immediate demolition of tlie 
 walls of the colony. " Postulamus a vobis, muros colonia>, muni- 
 menta servitii detrahati.s; ctiam fera animalia, si clausa teneas, vir 
 tutis obliviscuntur." Tacit. Hist. iv. 04. 
 
 y The straggling villages of Silesia are several miles in length. 
 See Cluver. I. i. c. 13, 
 
 * One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more regular 
 structures were erected near the Rhine and Danube. Herodian. ■■ 
 vii. p. 234. 
 
 • Tacit. Germ. 17. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 87 
 
 i 
 
 - 
 
 plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants with food 
 and exercise.** Their monstrous herds of cattle, less 
 remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their util- 
 ity,«= formed the principal object of their wealth. A 
 small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted 
 from the earth ; the use of orchards or artificial mead- 
 ows was unknown to the Germans ; nor can we expect 
 any improvements in agriculture from a people, whose 
 property every year experienced a general change by 
 a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that 
 strange operation, avoided disputes, by suflering a 
 great part of their territory to lie waste and without 
 tillage.'* 
 and of tiic use Gold, silver, and iron, were extreme- 
 ofmptais. ly scarce in Germany. Its barbarous 
 inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investi- 
 gate those rich veins of silver, which have so liber- 
 ally rewarded the attention of the princes of Bruns- 
 wick and Saxony. Sweden, which now supplies 
 Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its own 
 riches ; and the appearance of the arms of the Ger- 
 mans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they 
 were able to bestow on what they must have deemed 
 the noblest use of that metal. The various transac- 
 tions of peace and war had introduced some Roman 
 coins (chiefly silver) among the borderers of the Rhine 
 and Damibe ; but the more distant tribes were abso- ' 
 lutely unacquainted with the use of money, carried on 
 their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, 
 and prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal 
 value with the silver vases the presents of Rome to 
 their princes and ambassadors." To a mind capable of 
 reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction, 
 than a tedious detail of subordinate circumstances. 
 The value of money has been settled by general con- 
 sent to express our wants and our property ; as letters 
 were invented to express our ideas ; and both these 
 institutions, by giving a more active energy to the 
 powers and passions of human nature, have^contribu- 
 ted to multiply the objects they were designed to rep- 
 resent. The use of gold and silver is in a great meas- 
 ure factitious ; but it would be impossible to enumer- 
 ate the important and various services which agricul- 
 ture, and all the arts, have received from iron, when 
 tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire, and 
 the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the 
 most universal incitement, iron the most powerful in- 
 strument, of human industry ; and it is very difficult 
 to conceive by what means a people, neither actuated 
 by the one, nor seconded by the other, could emerge 
 from the grossest barbarism.' 
 rp, „. . , , If we contemplate a savage nation in 
 
 ineir uidolencc. __„ ^„>4. ^r ..l i l ^ • ■ • ■> 
 
 any part ot the globe, a supine indo- 
 lence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to 
 constitute their general character. In a civilized state, 
 every faculty of man is expanded and exercised ; and 
 the great chain of mutual dependence connects and 
 embraces the several members of society. The most 
 numerous portion of it is employed in constant and 
 useful labour. The select few, placed by fortune above 
 that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the 
 pursuits of interest or glory, by the improvement of 
 their estate or of their understanding, by the duties, 
 the pleasures, and even the follies of social life. The 
 Germans were not possessed of these varied resources. 
 The care of the house and family, the management of 
 the land and cattle, were delegated to the old and the 
 infirm, to women and slaves. The lazy warrior, desti- 
 tute of every art that might employ his leisure hours, 
 consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifica- 
 tions of sleep and food. And yet, by a powerful diver- 
 sity of nature, (according to the remark of a writer 
 who had pierced into its darke st recesses,) the same 
 
 •> Tacit.' Germ. 5. 
 'Ctfsar de Bell. Gall. vi. 21. 
 I Tacit. Germ. 26. Casar, vi. 22. 
 J Tacit. Germ. 6. 
 
 •ifh'^ '* "*'** *^** ^^^ Mexicans and Peruvians, without the use of 
 either money or iron, had made a very great progress in the arts. 
 
 , barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most 
 I restless of mankind. They delight in sloth, they de- 
 test tranquillity .« The languid soul, oppressed with 
 I Its own weight, anxiously required some new and 
 j powerful sensation ; and war and danger were the only 
 I amusements adequate to its fierce teniper. The soimd 
 I that summoned the German to arms was grateful to 
 I his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethar- 
 gy, gave him an active pursuit, and, by stron«r cxer- 
 , cise of the body, and violent emotions of Ihe'mind 
 restored him to a more lively sense of his existence! 
 , In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians were 
 ] immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive 
 ; drinking; both of which, by dilTerent means, the one 
 by inflaming their passions, the other by extinguish- 
 ing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of 
 thinking. iThey gloried in passing whole days and 
 nights at fable ; and the blood of friends and rela- 
 tions often stained their numerous and drunken assem- 
 blies.'» Their debts of honour (for in that lio-ht they 
 have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged 
 with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate game- 
 ster, who had staked his person and liberty on a last 
 , throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision 
 of fortune, and suffered himself to be bound, chas- 
 , tised, and sold into remote slavery, by his weaker but 
 ' more lucky antagonist.' I 
 
 1 Strong beer a liquor extracted with Their ta.tc for 
 very little art from wheat or barley, and strong liquors. 
 corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) 
 into a certain semblance of wine, was sufficient for the 
 gross purposes of German debauchery. But those 
 who had tasted the rich wines of Italy, and afterwards 
 of Gaul, sighed for the more delicious species of in- 
 toxication. They attempted not however, (as has 
 since been executed with so much success,) to natu- 
 ralize the vine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; 
 nor did they endeavour to procure by industry the 
 materials of an advantageous commerce. To solicit by 
 labour what might be ravished by arms, Avas esteem- 
 ed unworthy of the German spirit.'' The intemperate 
 thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to 
 invade the provinces on which art or nature had be- 
 stowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who 
 betrayed his country to the Celtic nations, attracted 
 them to Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and 
 delicious wines, the productions of a happier cli- 
 nriate.' And in the same manner the German auxilia- 
 ries, invited into France during the civil wars of the 
 sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of 
 plenteous quarters in the provinces of Champagne 
 and Burgundy.'»r Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but 
 not the most dangerous of our vices, Avas sometimes 
 capable, in a less civilized state of manJcind, of occa- 
 sioning a battle, a war, or a revolution. J 
 
 The climate of ancient Germany has s,ate of {lopa- 
 been mollified, and the soil fertilized, '"f'on. 
 by the labour of ten centuries from the time of 
 Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at 
 present maintains, in ease and plenty, a million of 
 husbandmen and artificers, was unable to supply an 
 hundred thousand lazy warriors with the simple ne- 
 cessaries of life." The Germans abandoned their im- 
 mense forests to the exercise of hunting, employed in 
 pasturage the most considerable part of their lands, 
 bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless 
 
 g Tacit. Germ. 15. 
 
 h Tacit. Germ. 22, 23. "^ 
 
 « Id. 24. The Germans might borrow the arts of play from the 
 Romans, but the passion is wonderfully inherent in the human 
 species. 
 
 k Tacit. Germ. 14. 
 
 J Plutarch, in Camillo. T. Liv. v. 33. 
 
 m Dubos. Hist, de la Monarchie Francoise, torn. i. p. 19:^. 
 
 n Tlie Helvetian nation, which issued from the country called 
 Switzerland, contained, of every ape and sex. 368,000 persons, 
 (Ca-sar de Bell. Gall. i. 29.) At present, the numl)er of people iii 
 the Pays de Vaud ( a small district on the banks of the Leman Lake 
 much more distinguished for politeness than for industry,) amounts 
 to 112.59J. See an excellent tract of M. Muret, in the Memoires de 
 la Societe de Bern. 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
88 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I 
 
 
 # 
 
 cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and ster- 
 ility of a country that refused to maintain the multi- 
 tude of its inhabitants. When the return of famine 
 severely admonished them of the importance of the 
 arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated 
 by the emigfration of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part 
 of their youth." The possession and the enjoyment 
 of property are the pled*res which bind a civilized 
 people to an improved country. But the Germans, 
 who carried with them what they most valued, their 
 arms, their cattle, and their women, cheerfully aban- 
 doned the vast silence of their woods for the unbound- 
 ed hopes of plunder and conquest. The innumerable 
 swarms that issued, or seemed to issue, from the j^reat 
 storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of 
 the vanquished, and by the credulity of succeeding^ 
 ag-es. And from facts thus exag-orerated, in opinion 
 was gradually established, and has been suf)ported by 
 writers of distinguished reputation, that, in tbe age of 
 Caesar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the north were 
 far more numerous than they are in our days.P A more 
 serious inquiry into the causes of population seems to 
 have convicted modern philosophers of the falsehood, 
 and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To 
 the names of Mariana and of Machiavel,*' we can op- 
 pose the equal names of Robertson and Hume.' 
 
 , , I. A warlike nation like the Germans, 
 
 German freedom. ,..;4U^ ,4. „:ti •-• 1 .. 
 
 \Mthout either cities, letters, arts, or 
 money, fo'und some compensation for this savage state 
 in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured 
 their freedom, since our desires and our possessions i 
 are the strongest fetters of despotism. " Among the 
 Suiones (says Tacitus) riches are held in honour. I 
 They are therefore subject to an absolute monarch, 
 who, instead of intrustiug his people with the free use 
 of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germany, com- 
 mits them to the safe custody not of a citizen, or even 
 a freedman, but of a slave. The neighbours of the 
 Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk 'even below servitude; 
 they obey a woman."* In the mention of these ex- 
 ceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges 
 the general theory of government. We are only at a 
 loss to conceive by what means riches and despotism 
 could penetrate into a remote corner of the north, and 
 extinguish the generous flame that blazed with such 
 fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces ; or 
 how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians, so 
 distinguished in latter ages by their unconquerable 
 spirit, could thus tamely resign the great charter of 
 German liberty.* Some tribes, however, on the coast 
 of the IJaltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, 
 though without relinquishing the rights of men ;" but 
 in the far greater part of Germany, the form of govern- 
 ment was a democracy, tempered, indeed, and con- 
 trolled, not so much by general and positive laws, as 
 
 "Taul Diarotiua. r. 1—3, Machiavel. Davila, and the rest of 
 Taiil's followers, represent these emigrations too much as rc<'u!ar 
 and roncerfed moaaures. " 
 
 P Sir VVm. Temple and Montesquieu have indulged, on this sub- 
 ject, the usual livclinees» of their fancy. 
 
 q Miiciiinvel, Hist, di Fircnze, I. i. Mariana, Hist. Hispan. I.v.c. 1 
 
 r Robertson's Charles V. Hume's Political Essays. 
 
 • Tacit. r;erm;in. 4J, 45. Frenshemius (who dedicated his supple- 
 ment to Livy to Christina of Sweden) thinks proper to he very 
 aniiiy wiih the Human who expressed so very little reverence for 
 northern queens. 
 
 [The Puiones and the Sitones were the ancient inhabitants of 
 Scandinavia. Their name is preserved in that of Sweden. They did 
 not Ixlonij to the race of the Suevi, but to that of the JVonSucvi, or 
 the Cimbrians, whom the Suevi, in verv early asea, expelled from 
 I heir country, partly into the west, and partly into the north • they 
 mingled themselves finally with the Suevi and with the rJotlis. who 
 have left traces of their name and of their power in the island of 
 Ootkland.— G.] 
 
 t Mav we not suspect that superstition was the parent of despotism? 
 The descendants of Odin (whose race was not extinct till the year 
 1060) are said to have reigned in Sweden above a thousand years. 
 The temple of IJpsal wng the ancient seat of religion and empire. 
 In the year 1153, I tind a sinirular law, prohihitin<; the use and pro- 
 fession of arms to any except the king's guards. Is it not probable 
 that it was coloured by the pretence of reviving an old institution ? 
 See nalin's History of Sweden in the Bibliolh6que Raisonn^e, torn. 
 x\. xiv. 
 
 u Tacit Germ. c. 43. 
 
 by the occasional ascendant of birth or valour, of elo- 
 quence or superstition.* 
 
 Civil governments, in their first insti- Assemblies of 
 tutions, are voluntary associations for ^''^ people, 
 mutual defence. To obtain the desired end, it is ab- 
 solutely necessary that each individual should con- 
 ceive himself obliged to submit his priyate opinion 
 and actions to the jndgment of tbe greater number of 
 his associates. The German tribes were contented 
 with this rude but liberal outline of political society. 
 As soon as a youth, born of free parents, had attain- 
 ed the age of manhood, he was introduced into the 
 general council of his countrymen, solemnly invested 
 with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and 
 worthy member of the military commonwealth. The 
 assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at 
 stated seasons, or on sudden emergencies. The trial 
 of public oflences, the election of magistrates, and the 
 great business of peace and war, were determined by 
 its independent voice. Sometimes, indeed, these ira- 
 ])ortant questions were previously considered, and pre- 
 pared in a more select council of the principal chief- 
 tains.y The magistrates might deliberate and per- 
 suade, the people only could resolve and execute ; and 
 the resolutions of the Germans were for the most part 
 hasty and violent. Barbarians, accustomed to place 
 their freedom in gratify iug the present passion, and 
 their courage in overlooking all luture consequences, 
 turned away with, indignant contempt from the remon- 
 strances of justice and policy, and it was the practice 
 I to signify by a hollow murmur their dislike of such 
 ! timid counsels. But whenever a more popular orator 
 proposed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either 
 foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon 
 his fellow-countrymen to assert the national honour, 
 or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory, 
 a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the 
 eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans 
 always met in arms, and it was constantly to be dread- 
 ed, lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction 
 and strong liquors, should use those arms to enforce, 
 as well as to declare, their furious resolves. We may 
 recollect how often the diets of Poland have been pol- 
 luted with blood, and the more numerous party has 
 been compelled to yield to the more violent and sedi- 
 tious.* 
 
 A general of the tribe was elected on j^^^^^^.^^ ^^ ,,„ 
 occasions of danger; and, if the danger princos and ma- 
 was pressing and extensive, several g'strates 
 tribes concurred in the choice of the same general. 
 The bravest warrior was named to lead his country- 
 men into the field, by his example, rather than by his 
 commands. But this power, however limited, was 
 still invidious. It expired with the war, and in time 
 of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any 
 supreme chief.* Princes were, however, appointed, 
 in the general assembly, to administer justice, or 
 rather to compose diflTerences,'' in their respective dis- 
 tricts. In the choice of these magistrates, as much 
 regard was shown to birth as to merit.*" To each was 
 assigned, by the public, a guard, and a council of an 
 hundred persons ; and the first of the princes appears 
 to have enjoyed a pre-eminence of rank and honour 
 which sometimes tempted the Romans to compliment 
 him with the regal title.** 
 
 The comparative view of the powers more ab«oluto 
 of the magistrates, in two remarkable "7^' ^^^ property 
 
 . • 1 cr ' ^ ^ than over the 
 
 instances, is alone sufficient to repre- persons of thu 
 sent the whole system of German man- Germans. 
 
 X Id. c. 11— 13, &c. 
 
 y Grotius changes an expression of Tacitus, pertrnetantur Info 
 prattractantur. The correction is equally ju*st and ingenious. 
 
 ■■« Even in our ancient parliament, the barons often carried a ques- 
 tion not so much by the number of voles, as by that of their armed 
 followers. 
 
 « Crrsar de Bell. Gall. vi. 23. 
 
 b Minuunt controversias, is a very happy expression of Caeaar's. 
 
 c Rcges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtnte sumunt. Tacit. Germ. 7 
 
 ^ Cluver. Germ. Ant. I. i. c. 3«. 
 
 89 
 
 ners. The disposal of the landed property within 
 their district was absolutely vested in their hands, and 
 they distributed it every year according to a new divi- 
 sion.* At the same time the^ were not authorized to 
 punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike, a 
 private citizen.' A people thus jealous of their per- 
 _ sons, and careless of their possessions, must have 
 
 J been totally destitute of industry and the arts, but 
 
 ■^ animated with a high sense of honour and independ- 
 
 ^ ence. 
 
 Voluntary en- The Germans only respected those 
 gagements. dutics which they imposed on them- 
 selves. IThe most obscure soldier resisted with dis- 
 dain the' authority of the magistrates. "The noblest 
 youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful 
 companions of some renowned chief, to whom they de- 
 voted their arms and service.] A noble emulation pre- 
 vailed among the companion^, to obtain the first place 
 in the esteem of their chief; amongst the chiefs, to 
 acquire the greatest number of valiant companions. 
 To be ever surrounded by a band of select youths, was 
 the pride and strength of the chiefs, their ornament in 
 peace, their defence in war. The glory of such dis- 
 tinguished heroes diflTused itself beyond the narrow 
 limits of their own tribe. Presents and embassies 
 solicited their friendship, and the fame of their arms 
 often ensured victory to the party whom they espoused. 
 In the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief to 
 be surpassed in valour by his companions ; shameful 
 for the companions not to equal the value of their 
 chief. To survive his fall in battle, was indelible 
 infamy. To protect his person, and to adorn his 
 glory with the trophies of their own exploits, were 
 the most sacred of their duties. The chiefs combated 
 for victory, the companions for the chief. The noblest 
 warriors, whenever their native country was sunk in 
 the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous bands 
 in some distant scene of action, to exercise their rest- 
 less spirit, and to acquire renown by voluntary dan- 
 gers. Gifts worthy of soldiers, the warlike steed, the 
 bloody and ever victorious lance, were the rewards 
 which the companions claimed from the liberality of 
 their chief. J The rude plenty of his hospitable board 
 was the only pay that he could bestow, or they would 
 accept. War, rapine, and the free-will oflferings of 
 his friends^ supplied the materials of this munifi- 
 cence."« Mj^ institution, however it might accident- 
 ally wea^^Khe several republics, invigorated the 
 general cTIPlcter of the Germans, and even ripened 
 amongst them all t^jfi^j-irtues of which barbarians are 
 susceptible ; the faitfi and valour, the hospitality and 
 the courtesy, so conspicuous long afterwards in the 
 ages of chivalry. The honourable gifts, bestowed by 
 the chief on his brave companions, have been sup- 
 posed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudi- 
 ments of the fiefs, distributed, after the conquest of 
 the Roman provinces, by the barbarian lords among 
 their vassals, with a similar duty of homage and mili- 
 tary service.** These conditions are, however, very 
 repugnant to the maxims of the ancient Germans, who 
 delighted in mutual presents ; but without either im- 
 
 posing, or accepting, the weig-ht of obligations. 
 
 German chastity. " "^^ *^® ^^^^ ^^ chivalry, or more 
 •' properly of romance, all the men were 
 brave, and all the women were chaste ;" and notwith- 
 standing the latter of these virtues is acquired and 
 preserved with much more difficulty than the former, 
 It is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives 
 of the ancient Germans. Polygamy was not in use, 
 except among the princes, and among them only for 
 the sake of multiplying their alliances. T Divorces 
 
 e CajBar. vi. 22. Tacit. Germ. 26. t Tacit Germ 7 
 
 Tacit. Germ. 13, 14. "®*^™- ^' 
 
 h Esprit des I^ix. I. xxr. c. 3. The brilliant imagination of Men- 
 i??f"'tV *' corrected, however, by the dry cold refson of the AbW 
 de Mahly. Obserratlona aur I'HJstoire de France, torn, i p. SSj 
 tur Tac J Germ c**"!' '**' ""^ **"*' impulant, nee acceptis obligan- 
 Vol. I".— M* 
 
 were prohibited by .manners rather than by laws. 
 Adulteries were punished as rare and inexpiable 
 crimes ; nor was seduction justified by example and 
 fashion." f We may easily discover that Tacitus in- 
 dulges aiThonest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian 
 virtue with the dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies : 
 yet there are some striking circumstances that give an 
 air of truth, or at least of probability, to the conjuffal 
 faith and chastity of the Germans. 
 
 Although the progress of civilization n, p„,bnbie 
 has undoubtedly coritributed to assuage causes, 
 the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have 
 been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose 
 most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. 
 The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the 
 intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love 
 becomes most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, 
 indeed, disguised by sentimental passion. The ele- 
 gance of dress, of motion, and of manners, gives a lus- 
 tre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the 
 imagination. / Luxurious entertainments, midnight 
 dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once 
 temptation and opportunity to female frailty.'/ From 
 such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians 
 were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful 
 cares of a domestic life. ( The German huts, open on 
 every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were 
 a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, 
 the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian harami To 
 this reason another may be added, of %more honoura- 
 ble nature. The Germans treated their women with 
 esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occa- 
 sion of importance, and fondly believed, that in their 
 breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than 
 human. Some of these interpreters of fate, such as 
 Velleda, in the Batavian war, governed, in the name 
 of the deity, the fiercest nations of Germany." The 
 rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, 
 were respected as the free and equal companions of 
 soldiers ; associated even by the marriage ceremony to 
 a life of toil, of danger, and of glory." In their great in- 
 vasions, the camps of the barbarians were filled with a 
 multitude of women, who remained firm and undaunted 
 amidst the sound of arms, the various forms of destruc- 
 tion, and the honourable wounds of their sons and 
 husbands.** Fainting armies of Germans have, more 
 than once, been driven back upon the enemy, by the 
 generous despair of the women, who dreaded death 
 much less than servitude. If the day was irrecovera- 
 bly lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and 
 their children, with their own hands, from an insulting 
 victor.P Heroines of such a cast may claim our ad- 
 miration ; but they were most assuredly neither lovely, 
 nor very susceptible of love. ( Whilst they aflTected to 
 emulate the stern virtues of man, they must have re- 
 signed that attractive softness, in which principally 
 consists the charm and weakness of woman, I Con- 
 scious pride taught the German females to suppress 
 every tender emotion that stood in competition with 
 honour, and the first honour of the sex has ever been 
 that of chastity. The sentiments and conduct of these 
 high-spirited matrons may, at once, be considered as a 
 cause, as an effect, and as a proof of the general cha- 
 racter of the nation. Female courage, however it may 
 be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be 
 
 k The adulteresfl was whipped through the village. Neither wealth 
 nor beauty could inspire compassion, or procure her a second hus- 
 band, 18, 19. 
 
 > Ovid employs two hundred lines in the research of places the 
 most favourable to love. Above all, he considers tbe theatre as the 
 best adapted to collect the beauties of Rome, and to melt them into 
 tenderness and sensuality. 
 
 m Tacit. Hist, i v. 6 1,65. 
 
 B The marriage present was a yoke of oxen, horses, and arms. See 
 Germ. c. 18. Tacitus is somewhat too florid on the subject. 
 
 o The change of ezigere intb exugere is a most excellent cor- 
 rection. 
 
 p Tacit. Germ. c. 7. Plutarch In Mario. Before the wives of the 
 Teutones destroyed themselves and their children, they had oflTered 
 to surrender, on condition that they should be received ai the slavee 
 of the vestal virgins. 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
90 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 01 
 
 ♦►1 
 
 « 
 
 only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly 
 valour that distinguishes the age or country in which 
 it may be found. ^, 
 
 . The religious system of th^ Germans 
 
 e igion. ^.^ ^^^ ^.jj opinions of savages can de- 
 serve that name) was dictated by their wants, their 
 fears, and their ignorance.*! They adored the great 
 visible objects and agents of nature, the sun and the 
 moon, the fire and the earth; together with those 
 imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over 
 the most important occupations of human life. They 
 were persuaded that, by some ridiculous arts of divina- 
 tion, they could discover the will of the superior 
 beings, and that human sacrifices were the most pre- 
 cious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some 
 applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime 
 notion, entertained by that people, of the Deity, whom 
 they neither confined within the walls of a temple, 
 nor represented by any human figure ; but when we 
 recollect, that the Germans were unsjcilled in archi- 
 tecture, and totally unacquainted with the art of sculp- 
 ture, we shall readily assign the true reason of a scru- 
 ple, which arose not so much from a superiority of 
 reason, as from a want of ingenuity.'" ^ The only tem- 
 ples in Germany were dark and ancient groves, con- 
 secrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. 
 Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an in- 
 visible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear 
 or worship, impressed the mind with a still deeper 
 sense of religious horror ;• and the priests, rude and 
 illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience 
 the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify 
 impressions so well suited to their interest. 
 
 Its effects ill / The same ignorance, which renders 
 peace; barbarians incapable of conceiving or 
 embracing the useful restraints of laws, exposes them 
 nailted and unarmed to the blind terrors of superstition.f 
 The German priests, improving this favourable tem- 
 per of their countrymen, had assumed a jurisdiction 
 even in temporal concerns, which the magistrate could 
 not venture to exercise ; and the haughty warrior 
 patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it 
 was inflicted, not by any human power, but by the 
 immediate order of the god of war.' The defects of 
 civil policy were sometimes supplied by the interpo- 
 sition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was con- 
 stantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the 
 popular assemblies; and was sometimes extended to 
 a more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A 
 solemn procession was occasionally celebrated in the 
 present countries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. 
 I The unknown symbol of the Earthy covered with a 
 thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows ; 
 and in this manner the goddess, whose common resi- 
 dence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adja- 
 cent tribes of her worshippers. During her progress 
 the sound of war was hushed, quarrels were suspend- 
 ed, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an 
 opportunity of tasting the blessings of peace and har- 
 mony," The truce of Ged, so often and so ineffectually 
 proclaimed by the clergy of the eleventh century, was 
 an obvious imitation of this ancient custom.^ J 
 
 I But the influence of religion was far 
 in wa: more powerful to inflame, thauvto mode- 
 rate, the fierce passions of the Germans, f Interest 
 and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify 
 
 q Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluveriiis one hundred 
 and iwentyfour pages, on this oliscure subject. The former dis- 
 covers in Germany the gods of Greece and Rome. The latter ia 
 positive, that, under the emblems of the sun, the moon, and the 
 flte, his pious ancestors worshipped the Trinity in unity. 
 
 r [The ancient Germans had. misshapen idols, and as soon as they 
 began to build fixed habitations for themselves they raised also tem- 
 ples, such as that to the goddesd Tanfana, who presided over divina- 
 tion. (See Adelung Hist. anc. des Qermains, p. 296.) — O.] 
 
 • The sacred wood, described with such sublime horror by Lucan. 
 was in the neighbourhood of Marseilles ; but there were many of 
 the same kind in Germany. 
 
 t Tacit. Germania, c. 7. " Tacit, Germania, c. 40. 
 
 V See Dr. Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. i. note 10 
 
 the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by 
 the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of 
 success. The consecrated standards, long revered in 
 the grove of superstition, were placed in the front of 
 the battle \^ and the hostile army was devoted with 
 dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder.' 
 In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) 
 cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave 
 man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities ; 
 the wretch, who had lost his shield, was alike banish- 
 ed from the religious and the civil assemblies of his 
 countrymen.^ Some tribes of the north seem to have 
 embraced tile doctrine of transmigratiorfc,^ others 
 imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunkenness.' J 
 All agreed, that a life spent in arms, and a glorious 
 death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy 
 futurity, either in this or in another world. 
 
 The immortality so vainly promised ^^^^ ^^^^^ 
 by the priests, was, in some degree, 
 conferred by the bards. That singular order of men 
 has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who 
 have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the 
 Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their 
 genius and character, as well as the reverence paid to 
 that important office, have been sufliciently illustrated. 
 But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the 
 enthusiasm of arms and glory which they kindled in 
 the breast of their audience. Among a polished peo- 
 ple, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the 
 fancy, than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in 
 calm retirement we pursue the combats described by 
 Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the 
 fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. 
 But how faint, how cold is the sensation which a 
 peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It 
 was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that 
 the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient 
 days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains, who 
 listened with transport to their artless but animated 
 strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened 
 the effect of the military song ;* and the passions 
 which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the 
 contempt of death, were the habitual sentiments of a 
 German mind.** 
 
 Such was the situation, and such were «»..-». »i.{,i. 
 
 ^ ^ . . r^ Causes which 
 
 the manners, of the ancient German^^^ecked the 
 Their climate, their want of learning,||H^ffl.cf8 of 
 arts, and of laws, their notions of honoiH^'' ermans. 
 of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, 
 impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all con- 
 tributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet 
 we find, that, during more than two hundred and fifty 
 years that elapsed from the defeat of A'^arus to the 
 
 w Tacit. Germ. c. 7. These standards were only the heads of 
 wild beasts. 
 
 X See an instance of this custom. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. 
 
 y Caesar, Diodorus, and Liican, 8ecm to ascribe this doctrine to the 
 Gauls, but M. I'ellouiier (liistoire des Ccltes, 1. iii. c. 18.) labours to 
 reduce their expressions to a more orthodox sense. 
 
 z Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see 
 Fable xx. in the curious version of that book, published by J^. Mal- 
 let, in his introduction to the History of Denmark. 
 
 a [Besides their war songp, tlic Germans sung at their feasts (Tacit. 
 Ann. book i.e. 65.) and over the dead bodies of their heroes. Thco- 
 doric, king of the Goths, being killed in a light against Atiila, was 
 honoured with songs as they bore him from the field of battle (Jor- 
 nandes, c. 41). The same honours were paid to the remains of At- 
 iila (Jornandes, c. 49). 
 
 According to some historians, the Germans snng songs also at 
 their weddings ; but this appears to me to be little in accordance 
 with their customs. Marriage with them was nothing more than 
 the purchase of a woman. Besides, we find but one example — that 
 of the Gothic king Ataulphus, who sung himself the nuptial hymn 
 when he espoused Placidia, the sister of the emperors Arcndius and 
 Honorius (Oiympiodor, p. 8.)— but this marriage was celebrated ac- 
 cording to ifie rites of the Romans. With them songs were a part 
 of the nuptial ceremony (Adelung Hist. anc. des Qermains, page 
 382).— O.] 
 
 b See Tacit. Germ. c. 3. Diod. Sicul.l. v. Strabo. 1. iv. p. 197. The 
 classical reader may remember the rank of Demodocus in the Pbaea- 
 cian court, and the ardour infused by Tyrta-us into the fainting 
 Spartans. Yet there is little probability that the Greeks and the 
 Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be 
 spared, if our antiquarians would condescend to reflect, that similar 
 manners will naturally be produced by similar situations. 
 
 I 
 
 reign of Decius, these formidable barbarians made few 
 considerable attempts, and not any material impres- 
 sion, on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the 
 empire. Their progress was checked by their want 
 of arms and discipline, and their fury was diverted by 
 the intestine divisions of ancient Germany. 
 .„ - I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, 
 
 ' and not without truth, that the command of 
 iron soon gives a nation the command of gold. But the 
 rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those 
 valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by 
 their unassisted strength, the possession of the one as 
 well as the other. The face of a German army dis- 
 played their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer 
 kind of lances, they could seldom use. Their frameae 
 (as they called them in their own language) were long 
 spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, and 
 which, as occasion required, they either darted from a 
 distance, or pushed in close onset. With this spear, 
 and with a shield, their cavalry was contented. A 
 multitude of darts, scattered*^ with incredible force, 
 were an additional resource of the infantry. Their 
 military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more 
 than a loose mantle. A variety of colours was the 
 only ornament of their wooden or osier shields. Few 
 of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce 
 any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany 
 were neither beautiful, swift, or practised in the skil- 
 ful evolutions of the Koman menage, several of the 
 nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but, in 
 general, the principal strength of the Germans con- 
 sisted in their infantry ,'' which was drawn up in seve- 
 ral deep columns, according to the distinction of tribes 
 and of discipline. ^^^ families. Impatient of fatigue or 
 delay, these half-armed warriors rushed 
 to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks ; 
 and sometimes, by the eflfort of native valour, prevailed 
 over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the 
 Roman mercenaries. But as the barbarians poured 
 forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew 
 not how to rally or to retire. A repulse was a sure 
 defeat; and a defeat was most commonly sure de- 
 struction. When we recollect the complete armour 
 of the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evo- 
 lutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it ap- 
 pears a just matter of surprise, how the naked and 
 unassisted^lour of the barbarians could dare to en- 
 counter ii^he field the strength of the legions, and 
 the various troops of the auxiliaries, w^hich seconded 
 their operations. The contest was too unequal, till 
 the introduction of luxury had enervated the vio-our, 
 and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed 
 the discipline, of the Roman armies. \ The introduction 
 of barbarian auxiliaries into those artnies, was a mea- 
 sure attended with very obvious dangers, as it might 
 gradually instnict the Germans in the arts of war and of 
 policy. \ Although they were admitted in small num- 
 bers, and with the strictest precaution, the example of 
 Civihs was proper to convince the Romans, that the 
 danger was not imaginary, and that their precautions 
 were not always suflScient.' During the civil wars that 
 followed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid 
 » Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare 
 with Hannibal and Sertorius,' formed a great design of 
 freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, re- 
 nowned in the wars of Britain and Italy, repaired to 
 his standard. He introduced an army of Germans into 
 Gaul, prevailed on the powerful cities of Treves and 
 I-angres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions. 
 
 destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against 
 the Romans the military knowledge which he had ac- 
 quired in their service. When at length, after an ob- 
 stinate struggle, he yielded to the power of the empire, 
 Civilis secured himself and his country by an honour* 
 able treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy 
 the islands of the Rhine,'^ the allies, not the servants, 
 of the Roman monarchy. 
 
 II. The strength of ancient Germany civii dissension, 
 appears formidable, when we consider of Germany, 
 the effects that might have been produced by its united 
 effort. The wide extent of country might very pos- 
 sibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of 
 age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But 
 this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or exe- 
 cuting any plan of national greatness, was agitated 
 by various and often hostile intentions. • Germany 
 was divided into more than forty independent states ; 
 and, even in each state, the union of the several tribes 
 was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians 
 were easily provoked ; they knew not how to forgive 
 an injury, much less an insult ; their resentments were 
 bloody and implacable. I The casual disputes that so 
 frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of 
 hiinting or drinking, were sufficient to inflame the 
 niinds of whole nations ; the private feud of any con- 
 siderable chieftains diffused itselfamong their followers 
 and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the 
 defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most for- 
 midable states of Germany affected to encompass their 
 territories with a wide frontier of solitude and devasta- 
 tion. The awful distance preserved by their neigh- 
 bours, attested the terror of their arms, and in some 
 measure defended them from the danger of unexpected 
 incursions.'' 
 
 " The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who now fomented by iU> 
 speaks) were totally exterminated by the poi'cy of Rome, 
 neighbouring tribes,' provoked by their insolence, al- 
 lured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by 
 the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand 
 barbarians were destroyed ; not by the Roman arms, 
 but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the 
 nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity 
 to each other! We have now attained the utmost 
 verge of prosperity,^ and have nothing left to demand 
 of fortune, except the discord of these barbarians."' 
 These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity tlian 
 of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable 
 maxims of the policy of his countrymen , They deemed 
 it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the 
 barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither 
 honour nor advantage. Tlie money and negociations 
 of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Ger- 
 niany ; and every art of seduction was used with dig- 
 nity, to conciliate those nations whom their proximity 
 to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful 
 friends, as well as the most troublesome enemies. 
 Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most 
 trifling presents, which they received either as marks of 
 distinction, or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dis- 
 pensions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen 
 its interest by entering into secret connexions with the 
 governors of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel 
 among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of 
 Rome ; and every plan of union and public good was 
 
 c Missilia spargunt, Tacit. Germania, c. 6. Either that historian 
 random^*^"^ ^^P'cssion, or be meant that they were thrown at 
 
 alll u^% ^'"^'J PT'^'Pf ' <i'9»>n"'on from the Sarmatians, who 
 generally fought on horseback. ' 
 
 • n^^il^K^®.'*^'?" °I ^l''* ^"'erprise occupies a great part of the fourth 
 and fifth books of the history of Tacitus, and is more remarkable 
 
 2vJSAn°2^'uraVies." P^^P'^^'^^' ^'' "'"^^ ^^^'^^ »>«• observed 
 ' Tacit. Hist. iv. 13. Like them, he had lost an eye. j 
 
 e It was contained between the two branches of the old Rhine as 
 they subsisted before the face of the country was changed by art 
 and nature. See Cluver. German. Antlq. 1. iii. c. 30. 37, 
 
 h Csesar de Bell. Gall. 1, vi. 23. 
 
 ' They are mentioned, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries 
 by Naianus, Ammlanus, Claudian, &c. as a tribe of Franks, See 
 Cluver. Germ, Antiq. 1. Hi. c. 13. 
 
 [The Bructeri were a tribe of the iVon-Suevi, who dwelt south of 
 the Duchy of Oldenburgh and of Lunenhurgh, upon the banks of the 
 Lippe, and among the Hartz mountains. It was among them that 
 the priestess Velleda made herself celebrated.— C] 
 
 k Urgentibus is the common reading, but good sense, Lipsius, and 
 some MSS. declare for Vergentibus. 
 
 1 Tacit. Germanj, c. 33. The pious Abbe de la Bleterio is very 
 angry with Tacitus, talks of the devil who was a murderer from the 
 beginning, &c. &c. 
 
92 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 H 
 
 defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and 
 interest." 
 
 Transient union /fhe general conspiracy which tcmfied 
 against MarcuB the Romans under the reign ot Marcus 
 Antoniua*. Antoninus, comprehended almost all the 
 nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth 
 of the Rhine to that of the Danube." It is impossible 
 for us to determine whether this hasty confederation 
 was formed by necessity, by reason, or by passion ; 
 but we may rest assured, that the barbarians were 
 neither allured by the indolence, or provoked by the 
 ambition, of the Roman monarch. This dangerous in- 
 vasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Mar- 
 cus. He fixed generals of ability in the several sta- 
 tions of attack, and assumed in person the conduct of 
 the most important province on the Upper Danube. 
 After a long and doubtful conflict, the spirit of the 
 barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marco- 
 manni," who had taken the lead in the war, were the 
 most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were 
 commanded to retire five mile5,P from their own banks 
 of the Danube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, 
 who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote 
 island, where they might be secure as hostages, and 
 useful as soldiere.i On the frequent rebellions of the 
 Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated emperor resolved 
 to reduce their country into the form of a province. 
 His designs were disappointed by death. This formi- 
 dable league, however, the only one that appears in 
 the two first centuries of the imperial history, was 
 entirely dissipated, without leaving any traces behind 
 in Germany. 
 
 Distinction of tho lu the coursc of this introductory chap- 
 German tribes, ter, wc have confined ourselves to the 
 general outlines of the manners of Germany, without 
 attempting to describe or to distinguish the various 
 tribes which filled that great country in the time of 
 Caesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, 
 or as new tribes, successively present themselves in 
 the series of this history, we shall concisely mention 
 their origin, their situation, and their particular cha- 
 racter, ^lodem nations are fixed and permanent so- 
 cieties, connected amonw themselves by laws and 
 government, bound to their native soil by arts and agri- 
 culture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluc- 
 tuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. 
 The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the 
 tide of conquest and emigration. The same commu- 
 nities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, be- 
 stowed a new title on their new confederacy. The 
 dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the 
 independent tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten ap- 
 pellation. A victorious state often communicated its 
 own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds 
 of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of 
 a favourite leader ; his camp became their country, and 
 Som,e circumstances of the enterprise soon gave a com- 
 mon denomination to the mixed multitude. The dis- 
 tinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually 
 varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished 
 subjects of the Roman empire.' 
 
 Wars, and the administration of public 
 Nombori. ^fllairs, are the principal subjects of his- 
 tory; but the number of persons interested in these 
 
 «n Many traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus and 
 Dion ; and many more may be inferred from tlie principles of human 
 
 n Hist. August, p. 31. Ammlan. Marcellin. 1. xxxi. c.5. Aurel. 
 Victor The emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture 
 Of the palace, ami to enlist slaves and robbers. ,^r.^.^ 
 
 o The Marcomanni, a colony, who from the banks of the Rhine. 
 occuDied Bohemia and Moravia, had once erected a great and for- 
 midable monarchy under their Iting Maroboduus. See Slrabo, I. vii. 
 Veil Pat. ii. 105. Tacit, Annal. ii. 63. 
 
 p Mr Wotton (History of Rome, p. 1C6 ) Increases the prohibition 
 to ten times the distance. His reasoning is specious, but not conclu- 
 live. Five miles were sufficient for a fortified barrier. 
 
 qDlon, 1. !xxi. and Ixxii. .... , 
 
 r See an excellent dissertation on the origin and migrations of na- 
 tions ; In the Memoires de I'Acadcmie dcs Inscriptions, torn, xvlii. p. 
 48—71. It is seldom that the antiquarian and the philosopher are 
 jQ happily blended. 
 
 busy scenes, is very diflerent, according to the different 
 conditions of mankind. In great monarchies, millions 
 of obedient subjects pursue their useful occupations in 
 peace and obscurity. The attention of the writer, as 
 well as of the reader, is solely confined to a court, a 
 capital, a regular army, and the districts which hap- 
 pen to be the occasional scene of military operations. 
 But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of 
 civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics,* 
 raises almost every member of the community into ac- 
 tion, and consequently into notice. The irregular di- 
 visions and the restless motions of the people of Ger- 
 many, dazzle our imagination, and seem to multiply 
 their numbers. The profuse enumeration of kings and 
 warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget 
 that the same objects are continually repeated under a 
 variety of appellations, and that the most splendid ap- 
 pellations have been frequently lavished on the most 
 inconsiderable objects. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The emperors Decius, Gallns, ^milianus, Valerian, and 
 Gnllienus. — The general irruption of the bardariant. 
 The thirt'j tyrants. 
 
 From the great secular games cele- thc nature of the 
 brated by Philip, to the death of the em- subject, 
 peror Gallienus, there elapsed twenty ^- "• 248-268. 
 years of shame and misfortune. During that calami- 
 tous period, every instant of time was marked, every 
 province of the Roman world was afflicted, by bar- 
 barous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined 
 empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment 
 of its dissolution. The confusion of the times, and 
 the scarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal diffi- 
 culties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a 
 clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded 
 with imperfect fragments, always concise, often ob- 
 scure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to 
 collect, to compare, and to conjecture : and though he 
 ouo-ht never to place his conjectures in the rank of 
 facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the 
 sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions, 
 might, on some occasions, supply the want of historical 
 
 materials. * 
 
 There is not, for instance, any difl[iculty The cmporor 
 in conceiving, that the successive murders ^h\\\^. 
 of so many emperors had loosened all the ties of alle- 
 giance between the prince and people; that all the 
 generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the ex- 
 ample of their master ; and that the caprice of armies, 
 long since habituated to frequent and violent revolu- 
 lions, might every day raise to the throne the most 
 obscure of their fellow-soldiers. History can only 
 add, that the rebellion against the emperor Philip broke 
 out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty- 
 nine, among the legions of Msesia ; and that a subaltern 
 officer, named Marinas, was the object of their seditious 
 choice.* Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the 
 treason of the MaBsian army should prove the first 
 spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with the 
 consciousness of his guilt and of his danger, he com- 
 municated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy 
 silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of 
 disaffection : till at length Decius, one Seivices, revolt. 
 of the assembly, assuming a spirit wor- j^^f^ "mj^'ro; 
 thy of his noble extraction, ventured to Decius, 
 discover more intrepidity than the em- A- ^- 2'*^- 
 peror seemed to possess. He treated the whole busi 
 ness with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tu- 
 
 • Should we suspect that Athens contained only 21,000 citlzenf, 
 and Sparta no more than 39,000? See Hume and Wallace on the 
 numlier of mankind in ancient and modern times. 
 
 a The expression nned by Zosimus and Zonaras may signify that 
 Marinui commanded a century, a cohort, or a legion. 
 
 
 mult, and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who 
 in a very few days would be destroyed by the same in- 
 constancy that had created him. The speedy comple- 
 tion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem 
 for so able a counsellor; and Decius appeared to him 
 the only person capable of restoring peace and disci- 
 pline to an army, whose tumultuous spirit did not im- 
 mediately subside after the murder of Marinus. De- 
 ems, who long resisted his own nomination, seems to 
 have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of 
 merit, to the angry and apprehensive minds of the sol- 
 diers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the 
 event. The legions of Maesia forced their judo-e to be- 
 conrie their accomplice. They left him only the alter- 
 native of death or the purple. His subsequent conduct, 
 alter that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He 
 conducted, or followed, his army to the confines of 
 Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel 
 the formidable competitor whom he had raised up, ad- 
 vanced to meet him. The imperial troops were su- 
 perior in number ;»> but the rebels formed an army of 
 veterans, commanded by an able and experienced 
 leader Philip was either killed in the battle, or put 
 to death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son 
 and associate m the empire was massacred at Rome by 
 the prffitorian guards ; and the victorious Decius, with 
 inore favourable circumstances than the ambition of 
 that age can usually plead, was universally acknow- 
 ledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported, 
 that, imrnediately after his reluctant acceptance of the 
 title of Auaustus, he had assured Philip by a private 
 message, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly pro- 
 testing, that, on his arrival in Italy, he would resiffn 
 the imperial ornaments, and return to the condition of 
 an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere. 
 Uut in the situation where fortune had placed him, it 
 was scarcely possible that he could either foro-ive or 
 be lorgiven.*^ ° 
 
 He marches '^^® emperor Decius had employed a 
 •gainst the lew months in the works of peace and the 
 ^A d' 250 a^iministration of justice, when he was 
 summoned to the banks of the Danube by 
 the invasion of the Goths. This is the first conside- 
 rable occasion in which history mentions that great 
 people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked 
 the capital, reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So 
 memorable was the part which they acted in the sub- 
 version of the Western empire, that the name of Goths 
 is frequently but improperly used as a general appella- 
 tion of rude and warlike barbarism. 
 Origin of the In the beginning of the sixth century, 
 
 Itdina'via": ""^^^^^^'V ^^e Conquest of Italy, the 
 troths, m possession of present great- 
 ness, very naturally indulged themselves in the pros- 
 pect of past and of future glory. They wished to pre- 
 serve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit 
 to posterity their own achievements. The principal 
 minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassio- 
 dorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a 
 Oothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now 
 reduced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes.'' 
 Ihese writers passed with the most artful conciseness 
 over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its suc- 
 cessfiil valour, and adorned the triumph with many 
 Asiatic trophies, that more properly belonged to the 
 people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the 
 uncertain, but the only, memorials of barbarians, they 
 deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast 
 
 Victor' in' n'L^^ Buballa, a little village in Pannonia, (Eutrop. ix. 
 mLrelv Ir.SnV'i ',*' Epitom.) ^ems to contradict, unless it was 
 ?rtdvp««,l^H ?'.'"' '"PP?^.** descent from the Decii. Six hun- 
 ment of [L»^ "^T)^®*^ ""''"'^^ °." ^^.^ '^«<^** ' ^'"^ «» t^e commence- 
 t^rirst tl^rV'^'l^.V "^^'^ r.'-V P»ef'«ian8 of merit, and among 
 pi!k?- ^^9 s'^a^ed the consulship with the haughty Patricians 
 Plcbei.-B Deciorum animae, &c. jivcnal, gat, viii. 254 S^e t?e 
 •pirited speech of Deciu«, in Livy, x. 9, 10. * "® 
 
 5 Zosimus, I. i. p. 20. Zonares, 1. xil. p. 624. Edit. Louvr«. 
 Ihat'th. uf.n^K ''^fA^ Cassiodorus and Jornandes; it is surprisine 
 byGrX^^^tfrcrt^^^^^ '" »^« ""'•*»» ««»'^»- P«'«-'-S 
 
 03 
 
 island, or peninsula, of Scandinavia.* That extreme 
 country of the north was not unknown to the conquerors 
 of Italy ; the ties of ancient consanguinity had been 
 strengthened by recent offices of friendship ; and a 
 Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage 
 greatness, that he might pass the remainder of his days 
 m the peaceful and polished court of Ravenna.' Many 
 vestiges, which cannot be ascribeil to the arts of po- 
 pular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the Goths 
 m the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of 
 the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden 
 seems to have continued in the possession of the less 
 enterprising remnant of the nation, and a large territory 
 IS even at present divided into east and west Gothland. 
 During the middle ages, (from the ninth to the twelfth 
 century,) whilst Christianity was advancing with a 
 slow progress into the north, the Goths and the Swedes 
 composed two distinct and sometimes hostile members 
 of the same monarchy.* The latter of these two names 
 has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The 
 Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own 
 fame in arms, have, in every age, claimed the kindred 
 glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against 
 the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated, 
 that his victorious troops were not degenerated from 
 their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the 
 mistress of the world. •» 
 
 Till the end of the eleventh century. Religion of the 
 a celebrated temple subsisted at Upsal, Goths, 
 the most considerable town of the Swedes and Goths. 
 It was enriched with the gold which the Scandinavians 
 had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanc- 
 tified by the uncouth representations of the three prin- 
 cipal deities, the god of war, the goddess of generation, 
 and the god of thunder. In the general festival, that 
 was solemnized every ninth year, nine animals of every 
 species (without excepting the human) were sacrificed, 
 and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove 
 adjacent to the temple.* The only traces that now 
 subsi^st of this barbaric superstition are contained in 
 the Edda, a system of mythology, compiled in Iceland 
 about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned 
 of Denmark and Sweden, as the most valuable remains 
 of their ancient traditions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the mysterious ob- institution, and 
 scurity ot the Edda, we can easily dis- death of Odin, 
 tinguish two persons confounded under the name of 
 Odm ; the god of war, and the great legislator of Scan- 
 dinavia. The latter, the Mahomet of the north, in- 
 stituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the 
 people. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic 
 were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his 
 persuasive eloquence, and by the fame, which he ac- 
 quired, of a most skilful magician. The faiih that he 
 
 e On the authority of Ablavius. Jornandes quotes some old Gothic 
 chronicles in verse. De Reb. Geticis, c. 4. 
 
 [The Goths inhabited Scandinavia, but were not originally inhabi- 
 tants of that country. This great nation watt anciently of the race 
 of the Suevi— It occupied in the time of Tacitus, and a long tim« 
 itefore, Mecklenburgh, Pomeranin, Southern Prussia, and the north 
 west of Poland. A little before the birth of Jesus Christ, and in the first 
 following years they became subject to the monarchy of Marbod, king 
 of the Marcomanni : but Cotualda, a young Gothic prince, delivered 
 them from this sultjcction, and established himself in power over the 
 kingdom of the Marcomanni, already very much enfeebled by the 
 conquests of Tiberius. The j)Ower of the Goths at this time must 
 have been very great. The Sinus Codavus (Baltic sea) probably 
 took its name from them as it afterwards took the name of JUare 
 Suevicum and More Fenedicum, from the time of the ascendancy of 
 the Suevi and of the Venedi. The time at which the Goths passed 
 into Scandinavia, is nnknown. (See Adel. Hist. anc. des Allem. p. 
 200, Gatterer Essai d'une histoire univers. p. 458.)— C] 
 
 f Jornandes, c. 3. 
 
 K See in the Prolegomena of Grotius some large extracts from 
 Adam of Bremen, and Saxo-Grammaticus. The former wrote in 
 the ypar 1077, the latter flourished about the year 1200. 
 
 b Voltaire, Histoire de Charles XII. I. iii. When the Austriana 
 desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolphus, 
 they always represented that conqueror as the lineal successor of 
 Alaric. Harte's History of Gustavus, vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
 i See Adam of Bremen in Grotii Prolegomcnis, p. 104. The temple 
 of Upsal was destroyed by Ingo king of Sweden, who began his 
 reign in the year 1075, and about fourscore years afterwards a Chris- 
 tian cathedral was erected on its ruins. See Dalin's History of 
 Sweden, in the Bibliotheque Raisonnee. 
 
 12 
 I 
 
 II 
 
94 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 « 
 
 ♦1 
 
 n 
 
 had propagated, during a long and prosperous life, he 
 confirmed by a voluntary death. Apprehensive of the 
 ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he re- 
 solved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn as- 
 sembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself 
 in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted 
 with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in 
 the palace of the god of war.J 
 
 A bi b t '^^® native and proper habitation of 
 
 um:eruin*hypo- Odin is distinguished by the appellation 
 thesis concerning of As-gard. The happy resemblance of 
 ^'*'"" that name with As-burg, or As-of,'' words 
 
 of a similar signification, has given rise to an historical 
 system of so pleasing a contexture, that we could al- 
 most wish to persuade ourselves of its truth.' It is 
 supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barba- 
 rians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Maeotis, till 
 the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey me- 
 naced the north with servitude. That Odin, yielding 
 with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to 
 resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the 
 Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great design 
 of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a 
 religion and a people, which, in some remote age, 
 might be subservient to his immortal revenge ; when 
 his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, 
 should issue in numerous swarms from the neighbour- 
 hood of the polar circle, to chastise the oppressors of 
 mankind ."^ 
 „ . . , If so many successive sfenerations of 
 
 Emigration of^,, i.ii:'' r • ^ 
 
 the Goths from Goths wcre capable ot preservmo- a taint 
 Scandinavia into tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we 
 Ffuaiia. must not expect, from such unlettered 
 
 barbarians, any distinct account of the time and cir- 
 cumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic 
 was an easy and natural attempt. The inhabitants of 
 Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large 
 vessels, with oars," and the distance is little more than 
 one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports 
 of Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land 
 on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the 
 Christian sera," and as late as the age of the Antonines,P 
 the Goths were established towards the mouth of the 
 Vistula, and in that fertile province where the com- 
 mercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningsberg, and 
 Dantzick, were long afterwards founded.*! Westward 
 of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were 
 spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast 
 of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. A striking resem- 
 blance of manners, complexion, religion, and language, 
 seemed to indicate that the Vandals and the Goths 
 were originally one great people.' The latter appear 
 
 J Mallet, Introduction a V Hiatoire du Dannemarc. 
 
 k Mallet, c. iv. p. 55. has collected from Strabo, Pliny. Ptolemy, 
 and Stephanus Byzantiiius, the veatij^esof such a city and people. 
 
 1 l^lt cannot be true — Boyer has proved that the city of Asof was 
 not in exiHtence, till the twelfth century. (See his dissertation upon 
 the history of Asof, in the second volume of the collection of Hist, 
 russe.) — O.] 
 
 n» Thh wonderful expedition of Odin, wliich, by deducing the en- 
 mity of the Goths and Romans from so memorable a cause, might 
 •upply the noble groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely he re- 
 ceived as authentic history. According to the obvious sense of the 
 Edda, and the interpretation of the most skilful critics, As-crard, in- 
 stead of denoting a real city of the Asiatic Sarmatia, is the fictitious 
 appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the Olympus of Scandi- 
 navia : from whence the prophet was supposed to descend when he 
 announced his new religion to the Gotiiic nations, who were al- 
 ready seated in the southern parts of Sweden. 
 
 [A curious letter upon this subject may be seen, written by the 
 Swedish Ihre, judge of chancery at Upsal, and printed at Upsal by 
 Edman, in 1772, find translated into German, by M. Schloezer, at 
 Gottingen, 1773.— G.] 
 
 n Tacit. Germania, c. 44. 
 
 •* Tacit. Annal. ii. 62. If we could yield a firm assent to the na- 
 vigations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow that the Goths 
 had passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ. 
 
 p Ptolemy, I. ii. 
 
 4 By the German colonies who followed the arms of the Teutonic 
 knights. The conquest and conversion of Prussia were completed 
 by those adventurers in the thirteenth century. 
 
 r Pliny (Hist. Natur. iv. 14) and Procopius (in Bell. Vandal. 1, i. 
 e. 1.) agree in this opinion. They lived in distant ages, and pos- 
 ■eised different means of investigating the truth. 
 
 [This opinion has very little probability, the Vandali and the Goths 
 belonged equally to the great division of the Suevi ; but the two 
 tribei were very different. Those who have written upon this part 
 
 to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, 
 and Gepidae.* The distinction among the Vandals was 
 more strongly marked by the independent names of 
 Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other 
 petty states many of which, in a future age, expanded 
 themselves into powerful monarchies. 
 
 In the age of the Antonines, the Goths From Prussia to 
 were still seated in Prussia. About the ti»e Ukraine, 
 reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman province of 
 Dacia had already experienced their proximity by fre- 
 quent and destructive inroads.* In this interval, there- 
 fore, of about seventy years, we must place the second 
 migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euiine ; 
 but the cause that produced it lies concealed among 
 the various motives which actuate the conduct of un- 
 settled barbarians. Either a pestilence, or a famine, 
 a victory, or a defeat, an oracle of the gods, or the 
 eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel 
 the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the south. 
 Besides the influence of a martial religion, the num- 
 bers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most 
 dangerous adventures. The use of round bucklers 
 and short swords rendered them formidable in a close 
 engagement : the manly obedience which they yielded 
 to hereditary kings, gave uncommon union and stabili- 
 ty to their councils : " and the renowned Amala, the 
 hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, 
 king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of personal 
 merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived 
 from the Arises, or demigods of the Gothic nation.' 
 
 The fame of a great enterprise ex- Tj,e Gothic na- 
 cited the bravest warriors from all the tion increases in 
 Vandalic states of Germany, many of '^^ march, 
 whom are seen a few years afterwards combating 
 under the common standard of the Goths.'' The first 
 motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of 
 the Prypec, a river universally conceived by the an- 
 cients to be the southern branch of the Borysthe- 
 nes.* The windings of that great stream through the 
 plains of Poland and Russia, gave a direction to their 
 line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water 
 and pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle. They 
 followed the unknown course of the river, confident 
 in their valour, and careless of whatever power might 
 
 of History, appear to me to have neglected to observe that the an- 
 cients almost always gave the name of the powerful and conquering 
 people, to all the wealiand conquered tribes; thus Pliny calls all the 
 nations of the north-west of Europe Vindilli, Vandals, l>ecause at 
 this time the Vandals were without doubt the most powerful tribe— 
 Csrsar on the contrary, ranks under the name of Suevi most of the 
 tribes which Pliny classes under that of Vandals, because that the 
 Suevi, properly so called, were then the most powerful tribe of Ger- 
 many. When the Goths, becoming in their turn conquerors, had sub- 
 jected the colonies, they found in their way, these colonies lost their 
 name, when they lost their liberty, and became of the Gothic family. 
 The Vandals themselves were considered then as Goths: the Heruli, 
 the Gcpidao, &c. in the same manner. A common origin was thus 
 attributed to nations, who had been united only by the conquests of 
 one nation, and this confusion has caused innumerable errors in 
 history.— G.] 
 
 • The ^stro and Viai, the eastern and western Goths, obtained 
 those denominations from their original seats in Scandinavia. In 
 all their future marches and settlements, they preserved, with their 
 names, the same relative situation. When they first departed from 
 Sweden, the infant colony was contained in three vessels. Tha 
 third being a heavy sailer, lagged behind, and the crew, which af- 
 terwards swelled into a nation, received from that circumstance tJie 
 appellation of Gepidfe or Loiterers. Jornandes.c. 17. 
 
 [It was not in Scandinavia that the Goths were divided into 0« 
 trogoths and Viso Goths: this division took place after their irrup- 
 tion into Dacia, in the third century. Those who came from Meek- 
 lenburgh and Pomerania, were called Visigoths : those who came 
 from the south of Prussia and the northwest of Poland, were named 
 Ostrogoths. (Adel. Hist. anc. dcs Allem. p. 202. Gatl. Hist, univers. 
 p. 431.— O.] 
 
 » See a fragment of Peter Patricius in the excerpta Legationum ; 
 and with regard to its probable date, see Tiilemont, Hist, dea Em- 
 pereurs, tom. iii. p. 346. 
 
 u Omnium harum gentium insiirne, rotunda scuta, breves gladii.et 
 erga reges obsequium. Tacit. Germania, c. 43. The Goths probably 
 acquired their iron by the commerce of amber. 
 
 V Jornandcs, c. 13, 14. 
 
 "^ The Heruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are particularly 
 mentioned. See Mascou's History of the Germans, I. v. A passage 
 in the Augustan History, p. 28. seems to allude to this great emigra- 
 tion. The Marromannic war was partly occasioned by the pressure 
 of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of more northern bar- 
 barians. 
 
 X D'Anville Geographie Ancienne, and the third part of liii In- 
 comparable map of Europe. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 oppose their progress. The Bastarnffi and the Venedi 
 were the first who presented themselves ; and the 
 flower of their youth, either from choice or compul- 
 sion, increased the Gothic army. The Bastamae dwelt 
 on the northern side of the Carpathian mountains: the 
 immense tract of land that separated the Bastamae 
 from the savages of Finland, was possessed, or rather 
 wasted, by the Venedi ; y we have some reason to be- 
 lieve that the first of these nations which distino-uish- 
 ed Itself m the Macedonian war,' and was afterwards 
 divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the 
 Borani, the Carpi, &c. derived its origin from the Ger- 
 mans.* With better authority, a Sarmatian extrac- 
 tion may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered 
 themselves so famous in the middle ages.** But the 
 Distinction of confusion of blood and manners on that 
 Sat'L.""' ^«"bt^"l ^™tier often perplexed the 
 most accurate observers.' As the Goths 
 advanced near the Euxine sea, they encountered a 
 purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani,«> and 
 the Koxolani ; and they were probably the first Ger- 
 mans who saw the mouths of the Borysthenes, and of 
 tne lanais. If we inquire into. the characteristic 
 marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, 
 we shall discovt;r that those two great portions of 
 human kind were principally distinguished by fixed 
 huts or moveable tents, by a close dress, or flowino- 
 garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, 
 by a military force, consisting, for the most part, 
 either of infantry or cavalry ; and above all, by the 
 use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian, language; 
 he last of which has been diffused by conquest, from 
 the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan. 
 Description of The Goths Were now in possession 
 he Ukra.ne. of the Ukraine, a country of consider- 
 able extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with 
 navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge 
 themselves into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with 
 large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game 
 and fish, the innumerable bee-hives, deposited in the 
 hollow of old trees, and in the cavities of rocks, and 
 terming, even m that rude age, a valuable branch of 
 commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of 
 the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of 
 gram, and the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all dis- 
 played the liberality of nature, and tempted the in- 
 dustry of man.« But the Goths withstood all these 
 temptations, and still adhefed to a life of idleness, of 
 poverty, and of rapine. 
 
 The Goths invade The Scythian hordes, which, towards 
 
 thc^^Roman pro- the east, bordered on the new settlements 
 
 oj the Goths, presented nothing- to their 
 
 arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable 
 
 95 
 
 ^Jarit- Germania, c. 46. 
 
 ^ r^TV^n ^^'"'- Antlqua, I. iii. c. 4.1. 
 
 Slril7o'Ld"TacrtL'aDneir'lor''l!f •^. as originally from Germany, 
 tliem German* PtniPm« ^ '^i^"*'* U-Pliny alone positively calls 
 
 nppeiiSTthS': rXf'"ifjs"rT ^TtisTi ^'^^"'i?."^ ' 'y^e"« 
 
 Diodorus of Sicilv rnli fh^m ?^ ^ Titus Livius. Plutarch, and 
 probable The7'^?J^l*i^^„S" and this opinion is the' most 
 
 I rhose three tribes formed the great nation of the Slavi ~0 1 
 
 victory. But the prospect of the Roman territories 
 was far more al uring; and the fields of Dacia were 
 covered with rich harvests, sown by the hands of an 
 industrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a 
 warhke, people. It is probable, that the conquests of 
 Irajan, maintained by his successors, less for any 
 real advantage, than for ideal dignity, had contributed 
 to weaken the empire on that side. The new and un- 
 settled province of Dacia was neither strong enouffh 
 to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness 
 of the barbarians. As long as the remote banks of 
 the Niester were considered as the boundary of the 
 Roman power, the fortifications of the Lower Danube 
 were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants of 
 Maesia lived m supine security, fondly conceivinff 
 themselves at an inaccessible distance from any bar- 
 barian mvaders The irruptions of the Goths, under 
 the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of their 
 mistake. The king, or leader, of that fierce nation, 
 traversed with contempt, the province of Dacia, and 
 passed both the Niester and the Danube without en- 
 countering any opposition capable of retarding his 
 progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman tFoops 
 betrayed the niost important posts, where they were 
 stationed, and the fear of deserved punishment in- 
 duced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic 
 standard. The various multitude of barbarians ap- 
 peared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, 
 a city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at 
 that time the capital of the second Maesia.' The in- 
 habitants consented to ransom their lives and property, 
 by the payment of a large sum of money, and the in- 
 vaders retreated back into their deserts, animated 
 rather than satisfied, with the first success of their 
 arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelli- 
 gence was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius, 
 that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the Danube 
 a second time, with more considerable forces ; that his 
 numerous detachments scattered devastation over the 
 province of M«sia, whilst the main body of the army, 
 consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarma' 
 tians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, 
 required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the 
 exertion of his military power. 
 
 Decius found the Goths eno^o-ed be- v. 
 fore Nicopolis, on the JatrufTone of th^'r;;.! -c^^r' 
 the many monuments of Trajan's victo- ^ ^ ^• 
 ries.s On his approach they raised the siege, but with 
 a design only of marching away to a conquest of 
 greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city 
 of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near 
 the foot of Mount Ha3mus.»» Decius followed them 
 through a difficult country, and by forced marches: 
 but when he imagined himself at a considerable dis- 
 tance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned wiih 
 rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans 
 was surprised and pillaged, and, for the first lime, 
 their emperor fled in disorder before a troop of half- 
 armed barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippo- 
 polis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm.' A 
 hundred thousand persons are reported to have been 
 massacred in the sack of that great city. J Many pris- 
 oners of consequence became a valuable accession to 
 the spoil; and Prisons, a brother of the late emperor 
 
 f In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of gemnAe M». 
 TZ'y^M "'''^ "'^''^T ^° ^"^'st*'"*^ secundum, the second Mrs'a of 
 which Marciunopohs was certainly the capital. (See Hierocl« Am 
 Proy.nc.ts, and Wesseling ad locum, p. 6.16. Itinerar ) It I. ,J7 
 pris.ng how this palpable error of the scribe could escape he iudl- 
 cious correction of Grotius. «^scape ine juai- 
 
 Al.:!fr'i?"''^'''"' «^P':**8«n^ Pi-^hislaw among the Bulgarians. (!>• 
 Anville Qeog. anc. vol. i. p. 311.-0 ] s«» '*■■■. \,u 
 
 it !fl!!f ^I'^u^ '^ fi" called Nicop. The little stream, on whose hanks 
 Iom!7. p. m D'Anville. Geographic Ancien»e! 
 
 h Stephan. Byzant. deUrbibus, p. 740. Wesseline, Itinerar. p irw 
 l^onaras, by an odd mistake, ascrihes the foundation of PhiliDoono* 
 lis to the immediate predecessor of Decius. vt-^v^ 
 
 > [Now Philippopolis or Philihia: its situation between hills «▼•■ 
 295*-Vl "^""^ ^^'"'"''"""- (D'Anville Oeogr. anc. rol. L p. 
 
 i Ammian. xxxi. 5. 
 
 i 
 
 \t-^— -. ' 
 
94 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 had propagated, during a long and prosperous life, he 
 confirmed by a voluntary death. Apprehensive of the 
 ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he re- 
 solved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn as- 
 sembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself 
 in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted 
 with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in 
 the palace of the god of war.* 
 
 The native and proper habitation of 
 un^ceTaiiThyiSo- Odin is distinguished by the appellation 
 the«i» concerning of As-gard. The happy resemblance of 
 ^**'"' that name with As-burg, or As-of,'' words 
 
 of a similar signification, has given rise to an historical 
 system of so pleasing a contexture, that we could al- 
 most wish to persuade ourselves of its truth.* It is 
 supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barba- 
 rians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Maeotis, till 
 the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey me- 
 naced the north with servitude. That Odin, yielding 
 with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to 
 resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the 
 Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great design 
 of forming-, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a 
 religion and a people, which, in some remote age, 
 might be subservient to his immortal revenge ; when 
 his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, 
 should issue in numerous swarms from the neighbour- 
 hood of the polar circle, to chastise the oppressors of 
 mankind ."^ 
 
 . If so many successive generations of 
 
 UiT'S'hs" f?om Goths were capable of preserving a faint 
 Scandinavia into tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we 
 PruMia. must not expect, from such unlettered 
 
 barbarians, any distinct account of the time and cir- 
 cumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic 
 was an easy and natural attempt. The inhabitants of 
 Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large 
 vessels, with oars," and the distance is little more than 
 one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports 
 of Pomerania and Pnissia. Here, at length, we land 
 on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the 
 Christian aera,® and as late as the age of the Antonines,^ 
 the Goths were established towards the mouth of the 
 Vistula, and in that fertile province where the com- 
 mercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningsberg, and 
 Dantzick, were long afterwards founded.*i Westward 
 of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were 
 spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast 
 of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. A striking resem- 
 blance of manners, complexion, religion, and language, 
 seemed to indicate that the Vandals and the Goths 
 were originally one great people.' The latter appear 
 
 J Mallet, Introduction a V Histoire du Dannemarc. 
 
 k Mallet, c. iv. p. 55. lias collected from Straho, Pliny. Ptolemy, 
 and Stephanus Byzanlinus, the vestiges of such a city find people. 
 
 1 [It cannot be true — Boyer has proved that the city of Asof was 
 not in existence, till the twelfth century. (See his dissertation upon 
 the history of Asof, in the second volume of the collection of Hist. 
 Tusne.) — O.I 
 
 «n Thta wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducing the en- 
 mity of the Goths and Romans from so memorahle a cause, might 
 supply the noble groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely be re- 
 ceived as authentic history. According to the obvious sense of the 
 Edda, and the interpretation of the most skilful critics, As-card, in- 
 stead of denoting a real city of the Asiatic Sarmatia, is the fictitious 
 appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the Olympus of Scandi- 
 navia : from whence the prophet was supposed to descend when he 
 announced his new religion to the Gothic nations, who were al- 
 ready seated in the southern parts of Sweden. 
 
 [A curious letter upon this subject may be seen, written by the 
 Swedish Ihre, judge of chancery at Upsal, and printed at Upsal by 
 Edman, in 1772, &nd translated into German, by M. Schloezer, at 
 Gottingen, 1773.— G.J 
 
 B Tacit. Germania, c. 44. 
 
 " Tacit. Annal. ii. 62. If we could yield a firm assent to the na- 
 vigations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow that the Goths 
 had passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ. 
 
 p Ptolemy, I. ii. 
 
 «l By the German colonies who followed the arms of the Teutonic 
 knights. The conquest and conversion of Prussia were completed 
 by those adventurers in the thirteenth century. 
 
 r Pliny (Hist. Natur. iv. 14) and Procopius (in Bell. Vandal. I. i. 
 c. 1.) agree in this opinion. They lived in distant ages, and pos- 
 sessed different means of investigating the truth. 
 
 [This opinion has very little probability, the Vandals and the Goths 
 belonged equally to the great division of the Suevi ; but the two 
 Iribei were very different. Those who have written upon this part 
 
 to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, 
 and Gepidae.* The distinction among the Vandals was 
 more strongly marked by the independent names of 
 Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other 
 petty states many of which, in a future age, expanded 
 themselves into powerful monarchies. 
 
 In the age of the Antonines, the Goths From Prussia to 
 were still seated in Prussia. About the t»>e Ukraine, 
 reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman province of 
 Dacia had already experienced their proximity by fre- 
 quent and destructive inroads.* In this interval, there- 
 fore, of about seventy years, we must place the second 
 migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Engine ; 
 but the cause that produced it lies concealed among 
 the various motives which actuate the conduct of un- 
 settled barbarians. Either a pestilence, or a famine, 
 a victory, or a defeat, an oracle of the gods, or the 
 eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel 
 the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the south. 
 Besides the influence of a martial religion, the num- 
 bers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most 
 dangerous adventures. The use of round bucklers 
 and short swords rendered them formidable in a close 
 engagement : the manly obedience which they yielded 
 to hereditary kings, gave uncommon union and stabili- 
 ty to their councils : " and the renowned Amala, the 
 hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, 
 king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of personal 
 merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived 
 from the Jtnses, or demigods of the Gothic nation.^ 
 
 The fame of a great enterprise ex- ^he Gothic na- 
 cited the bravest warriors from all the tion increases in 
 Vandalic states of Germany, many of its march, 
 whom are seen a few years afterwards combating 
 under the common standard of the Goths.*' The first 
 motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of 
 the Prypec, a river universally conceived by the an- 
 cients to be the southern branch of the Borysthe- 
 nes.' The windings of that great stream through the 
 plains of Poland and Russia, gave a direction to their 
 line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water 
 and pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle. They 
 followed the unknown course of the river, confident 
 in their valour, and careless of whatever power might 
 
 of History, appear to me to have neglected to observe that the an- 
 cients almost always gave the name of the powerful and conquering 
 people, to all the weak and conquered tribes ; thus Pliny calls all the 
 nations of the north-west of Europe VIndilli, Vandals, because at 
 this time the Vandals were without doubt the most powerful tribe— 
 CiTsar on the contrary, ranks under the name of Suevi most of the 
 tribes which Pliny classes under that of Vandals, because that the 
 Suevi, properly so called, were then the most powerful tribe of Ger- 
 many. When the Goths, becoming in their turn conquerors, had sub- 
 jected the colonies, they found in their way, these colonies lost their 
 name, when they lost their liberty, and bemme of the Gotliic family. 
 The Vandals themselves were considered then as Goths : the Heruli, 
 the Gepidae, &c. in the same manner. A common origin was thus 
 attributed to nations, who had been united only by the conquests of 
 one nation, and this confusion has caused innumerable errors in 
 history.— G.] 
 
 • The Astro and Visi, the eastern and western Goths, obtained 
 those denominations from their original seats in Scandinavia. In 
 all their future marches and settlements, they preserved, with their 
 names, the same relative situation. When they first departed from 
 Sweden, the infant colony was contained in three vessels. Thu 
 third being a heavy sailer, lagged behind, and the crew, which af- 
 terwards swelled into a nation, received from that circumstance Uie 
 appellation of Gepidae or Loiterers. Jornande8,c. 17. 
 
 [It was not in Scandinavia that the Goths were divided into Os- 
 trogoths and Viso Goths: this division took place after their irrup- 
 tion into Dacia, in the third century. Those who came from Meek- 
 lenburgh and Pomerania, were called Visipoths : those who came 
 from the south of Prussia and the north-west of Poland, were named 
 Ostrogoths. (Adel. Hist. anc. des Allem. p. 202. Gatt. Hist, univers. 
 p. 431.— O] 
 
 t See a fragment of Peter Patricius in the excerpta Legationum ; 
 and with regard to its probable date, sec Tillemont, Hist, des Em- 
 pereurs, torn. iii. p. 346. 
 
 u Omnium harum gentium insisne, rotunda scuta, breves gladii, ct 
 erga regcs obsequium. Tacit. Germania. c. 43. The Goths probably 
 acquired their iron by the commerce of amber. 
 
 V Jornandes, c. 13, 14. 
 
 ^ The Heruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are particularly 
 mentioned. See Mascou's History of the Germans, I. v. A passage 
 in the Augustan History, p. 28. seems to allude to this great emigra- 
 tion. The Marcomannic war was partly occasioned by the pressure 
 of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of more northern bar- 
 barians. ^ -.11 
 
 X D'AnvJlIa Geographic Ancienne, and the third part of his in- 
 comparable map of Europe. 
 
 Cbaf. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 05 
 
 oppose their progress. The Bastamse and the Venedi 
 were the first who presented themselves ; and the 
 flower of their youth, either from choice or compul- 
 sion, increased the Gothic army. The Bastamae dwelt 
 on the northern side of the Carpathian mountains: the 
 immense tract of land that separated the Bastamae 
 from the savages of Finland, was possessed, or rather 
 wasted, by the Venedi : y we have some reason to be- 
 lieve that the first of these nations which distinguish- 
 ed itself in the Macedonian war,' and was afterwards 
 divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the 
 Borani, the Carpi, &c. derived its origin from the Ger- 
 mans.* With better authority, a Sarmatian extrac- 
 tion may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered 
 themselves so famous in the middle ages.** But the 
 Distinction of confusion of blood and manners on that 
 t^lZi-Lr'^ doubtful frontier often perplexed the 
 most accurate observers.^ As the Goths 
 advanced near the Euxine sea, they encountered a 
 purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani,-* and 
 the Roxolani ; and they were probably the first Ger- 
 mans who saw the mouths of the Borysthenes, and of 
 the Tanais. If we inquire into. the characteristic 
 marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, 
 we shall discover that those two great portions of 
 human kind were principally distinguished by fixed 
 huts or moveable tents, by a close dress, or flowing 
 garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, 
 by a military force, consisting, for the most part, 
 either of infantry or cavalry ; and above all, by the 
 use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian, language ; 
 the last of which has been diffused by conquest, from 
 the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan. 
 Description of The Goths Were now in possession 
 the Ukraine, of the Ukraine, a country of consider- 
 able extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with 
 navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge 
 themselves into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with 
 large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game 
 and fish, the innumerable bee-hives, deposited in the 
 hollow of old trees, and in the cavities of rocks, and 
 forming, even in that rude age, a valuable branch of 
 commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of 
 the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of 
 grain, and the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all dis- 
 played the liberality of nature, arid tempted the in- 
 dustry of man." But the Goths withstood all these 
 temptations, and still adhered to a life of idleness, of 
 poverty, and of rapine. 
 
 The Goths invade '^'^e Scythian hordes, which, towards 
 
 v?nce^°"''" ^'°' ^^^ ^^^^' bordered on the new settlements 
 
 of the Goths, presented nothing to their 
 
 arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable 
 
 J Tacit. Germania, c. 46. 
 
 \ ?}^^^\; ^^'■"^- Antiqua, I. iii. c. 43. 
 <?iri^ !«i''^r"''".'" ''°""°* ^^ regarded as originally from Germany 
 Slrabo and /acitus appear to doubt it-Pliny alone positively c-ills 
 
 innT„^."'"^?'..''^°'«'">'""'' I^*«n call them ScythKsTa vacuo 
 appellation at this era of history. Titus Liviiis Pi taVrh frT^ 
 
 SaiT/^'r^'""^' '^^";"^'" «-^' and"?h.^o;?;ion'i 'le'm'o"' 
 probable. They were descended from the Gauls who came into 
 Germany under the conduct of Sigovessus. They are alwav^ found 
 associated with the Gallic tribes, such as the Boiif the Taurisci &c 
 and not with the German tribes: The names of their princes or' 
 chiefs, as Chlon.x, Chlondicus, Deldon, are not German names 
 rhose who established themselves in the island of Pcu«. in the 
 Danube took the name Pucini. The Carpi appeared in 237, as a 
 tribe of the Suevi, and made an irruption into Moesia. At lencth 
 hey appeared again under the Ostrogoths, with whom they proba- 
 cy becarne amalgamated. (See Adel. Hist. anc. des All. p. 236 and 
 
 ■640, ".J 
 
 «AJ1?® Venedi, tlie S/avi, and the Antes, were the three great tribes 
 of the same people. Jornandes, c. 24. 
 [These three tribes formed the great nation of the Slavi —O 1 
 
 uulZlVlV '"''"^ assuredly deserves that title, and then his cautious 
 suspense is a proof of his diligent inquiries. 
 
 d [Jac. Reineccius thinks that among the Caucasian mountains 
 wme descendants of the nation of the Alani are still found The 
 Tartars call them Edekt-Alan: they speak a particular dialect of 
 the ancient language of the Tartars of Caucasus. V. J. Reinecciiis 
 Descr. du Caucas. (in German.) p.ii. p. 15.-Q.] "-"'"eccius. 
 
 e Geiiealogical History of the Tartars, p. 593. Mr. Bell (Vol ii 
 p. 379.) traversed the Ukraine, in his journey from Petersburg to 
 Constantinople. The modern face of the country is a just repr*.- 
 sentstion of the ancient, since, in the hands of the Cossacks, it 
 still remains in a state of nature. 
 
 victory. But the prospect of the Roman territories 
 was far more alluring; and the fields of Dacia were 
 covered with rich harvests, sown by the hands of an 
 industrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a 
 warlike, people. It is probable, that the conquests of 
 Trajan, maintained by his successors, less for any 
 real advantage, than for ideal dignity, had contributed 
 to weaken the empire on that side. The new and un- 
 settled province of Dacia was neither strong enough 
 to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness 
 of the barbarians. As long as the remote banks of 
 the Niester w^ere considered as the boundary of the 
 Roman power, the fortifications of the Lower Danube 
 were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants of 
 Maesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving 
 themselves at an inaccessible distance from any bar- 
 barian invaders. The irruptions of the Goths, under 
 the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of their 
 mistake. The king, or leader, of that fierce nation, 
 traversed with contempt, the province of Dacia, and 
 passed both the Niester and the Danube without en- 
 countering any opposition capable of retarding his 
 progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops 
 betrayed the most important posts, where they were 
 stationed, and the fear of deserved punishment in- 
 duced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic 
 standard. The various multitude of barbarians ap- 
 peared, at length, under the w^alls of Marcianopolis, 
 a city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at 
 that time the capital of the second Maesia.' The in- 
 habitants consented to ransom their lives and property, 
 by the payment of a large sum of money, and the in- 
 vaders retreated back into their deserts, animated 
 rather than satisfied, with the first success of their 
 arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelli- 
 gence was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius, 
 that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the Danube 
 a second time, with more considerable forces ; that his 
 numerous detachments scattered devastation over the 
 province of Maesia, whilst the main body of the army, 
 consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarma- 
 tians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, 
 required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the 
 exertion of his military power. 
 
 Decius found the Goths engaged be- Various events of 
 tore JNicopolis, on the Jatrus, one of the Gothic war. 
 the many monuments of Trajan's victo- ^' ^- ^^• 
 ries.s On his approach they raised the siege, but with 
 a design only of marching away to a conquest of 
 greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city 
 of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near 
 the foot of Mount H^mus.'* Decius followed them 
 through a difficult country, and by forced marches ; 
 but when he imagined himself at a considerable dis- 
 tance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned with 
 rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans 
 was surprised and pillaged, and, for the first time, 
 their emperor fled in disorder before a troop of half- 
 arnied barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippo- 
 polis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm." A 
 hundred thousand persons are reported to have been 
 massacred in the sack of that great city. J Many pris- 
 oners of consequence became a valuable accession to 
 the spoil ; and Prisons, a brother of the late emperor 
 
 { In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of seevndo Ma;- 
 siam. we may venture to substitute secundam, the second Mcsia of 
 which Marcmnopolis was certainly the capital. (See Hierocle^ de 
 Proyincils, and Wesseling ad locum, p. 6.%. Ilinerar.) It is sur- 
 prising how this palpable error of the scribe could escape the iudi- 
 cious correction of Grotius. "" 
 
 [ J^^farcianopolis, at present Prebislaw among the Bulgarians. (D* 
 Anviile Gco^. anc. vol. i. p. 311.— C] 
 
 S The place is still called Nicop. The little stream, on wliose banks 
 It stood, falls into the Danube. D'Anville, Geographic Ancienne 
 tom. I. p. 307. • 
 
 h Stephan. Byzant. deUrbibus. p. 740. VVesseling, Itinerar, p. 136 
 Zonaras, by an odd mistake, ascribes the foundation of Philippopo- 
 lis to the immediate predecessor of Decius. 
 
 ' [Now Philippopolis or Philihia: its situation between hills gives 
 it also the name Trimontium. (D'Anville Oeogr. anc. vol. i. p. 
 
 J .\mmian. x.Txi. 5. 
 
 H 71 
 
96 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Philip, blushed not to assume the purple under the 
 protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome> The 
 time, however, consumed in that tedious siege, ena- 
 bled Decius to revive the courage, restore the disci- 
 pline, and recruit the numbers, of his troops. He in- 
 tercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans, 
 who were hastening to share the victory of their coun- 
 trymen,^ intrusted the passes of the mountains to 
 officers of approved valour and fidelity;"* repaired 
 and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube, and 
 exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the pro- 
 gress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the 
 return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportu- 
 nity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own 
 glory, and that of the Roman arms." 
 Decius revives "^^ ^^® Same time when Decius was 
 theofficeofcen- Struggling with the violence of tlie 
 Bor 'jj the per- tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate 
 ■ amidst the tumult of war, investigated 
 the more general causes, that, since the age of the 
 Antonines, had so impetuously urged the decline of 
 the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was 
 impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent 
 basis, without restoring public virtue, ancient princi- 
 
 fdes and manners, and the oppressed majesty of the 
 aws. To execute this noble but arduous design, he 
 first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor ; 
 an office, which, as long as it had subsisted in its 
 pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the per- 
 petuity of the state," till it was usurped and gradu- 
 ally neglected by the Caesars.^ Conscious that the 
 favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that 
 the esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, 
 he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiassed 
 voice of the senate. By their unanimous votes, or 
 A. D. 251. 27th rather acclamations. Valerian, who was 
 October. afterwards emperor, and who then serv- 
 ed with distinction in the army of Decius, was declar- 
 ed the most worthy of that exalted honour. As soon 
 as the decree of the senate was transmitted to the em- 
 peror, he assembled a great council in his camp, and, 
 before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprized 
 him of the difficulty and importance of his great office. 
 ** Happy Valerian," said the prince to his distinguished 
 subject, *' happy in the general approbation of the sen- 
 ate and of the Roman republic ! Accept the censorship 
 of mankind ; and judge of our manners. You will 
 select those who deserve to continue members of the 
 senate ; you will restore the equestrian order to its 
 ancient splendour ; you will improve the revenue, yet 
 moderate the public burthens. You will distinguish in- 
 to regular classes the various and infinite multitude of 
 citizens, and accurately review the military strength, 
 the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome. 
 Your decisions shall obtain the force of laws. The 
 army, the palace, the ministers of justice, and the 
 great officers of the empire, are all subject to your tri- 
 bunal. None are .exempted, excepting only the ordin- 
 ary consuls,*! the praefect of the city, the king of the 
 sacrifices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity 
 inviolate) the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these 
 
 k Aurel. Victor, c. 29. 
 
 > Fictoria Carpiece, on some medals of Decius, insinuate these ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 m Claudius "(who afterwards reigned with so much glory) was 
 posted in the pass of Thermopylae with 200 Dardinians', 100 heavy 
 and 160 liglil horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000 well-armed re- 
 cruits. See an original letter from the emperor to his officer, in the 
 Augustan History, p. 200. 
 
 n Jornandes, c. 16—18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22. In the general ac- 
 count of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices of 
 the Gothic and tlie Grecian writer. In carelessness alune they are 
 alike. 
 
 o Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. viii. He 
 illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with bis usual inge- 
 nuity, and with uncommon precision. 
 
 P Vespasian and Titus were the last censors. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 
 vii. 49. Censorinus de Die Natali.) The modesty of Trajan refused 
 an honour which he deserved, and his example became a law to the 
 Antonines. See Pliny's panegyric, c. 45 and 60. 
 
 q Yet in spite of this exemption, Pompcy appeared before that tri- 
 bunal during his consulship. The occasion indeed was equally sin- 
 gular and honourable. Plutarch in Pomp. p. 630. 
 
 few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously 
 solicit the esteem, of the Roman censor.**' 
 
 A magistrate, invested with such ex- The design im- 
 tensive powers, would have appeared practicable, and 
 not so much the minister as the col- ^'"'""^ ^^''^^' 
 league of his sovereign." Valerian justly dreaded an 
 elevation so full of envy and of suspicion. He modestly 
 urged the alarming greatness of the trust, his own 
 insufficiency, and the incurable corruption of the 
 times. He artfully insinuated, that the office of cen- 
 sor was inseparable from the imperial dignity, and 
 that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the 
 support oi such an immense weight of cares and of 
 power * The approaching event of war soon put an 
 end to the piosecution of a project so specious but so 
 impracticable ; and whilst it preserved Valerian from 
 the danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disap- 
 pointment, which would, most probably, have attend- 
 ed it. A censor may maintain, he can never restore, 
 the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a 
 magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even 
 with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense 
 of honour and virtue in the minds of the people ; by 
 a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a 
 train of useful prejudices combating on the side of 
 national manners. In a period when these i-rinciples 
 are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either 
 sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a par- 
 tial instrument of vexatious oppression.'* It was easier 
 to vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public 
 vices ; yet, even in the first of these enterprises, De- 
 cius lost his army and his life. 
 
 The Goths were now, on every side, D^,fcat and death 
 surrounded and pursued by the Roman of Decius and 
 arms. The flower of their troops had ^'^ ■""• 
 perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the 
 exhausted country could no longer afford subsistence 
 for the remaininor multitude of licentious barbarians. 
 Reduced to this extremity, the Goths would gladly 
 have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty and 
 prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. 
 But the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, 
 by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a 
 salutary terror into the nations of the north, refused to 
 listen to any terms of accommodation. The high- 
 spirited barbarians preferred death to slavery. An ob- 
 scure town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii,* was 
 the scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn 
 up in three lines, and, either from choice or accident, 
 the front of the third line was covered by a morass. 
 In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a 
 youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to 
 the honours of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in 
 the sight of his afflicted father ; who, summoning all 
 his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that 
 the loss of a single soldier was of little importance to 
 the republic.'^ The conflict was terrible ; it was the 
 conflict of despair against grief and rage. The first 
 line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder ; the 
 second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate ; and 
 the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the 
 passage of the morass, which was imprudently at- 
 tempted by the presumption of the enemy. ** Here 
 the fortune of the day turned, and all things became 
 adverse to the Romans : the place deep with ooze, 
 sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as ad- 
 vanced; their armour heavy, the waters deep ; nor 
 could they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weigh- 
 ty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were in- 
 
 r Fee the original speech in the Augustan Hist. p. 173, 174. 
 
 * This transaction might deceive Zonaras, who supposes that Vale- 
 rian was actually declared the colleague of Decius, 1. xii. p. 625. 
 
 t Hist. August, p. 174. The emperor's reply is omitted. 
 
 uSuch as the attempts of Augustus towards a reformation of 
 manners. Tacit. Annal. iii. 24. 
 
 X Tillcmont, Histoire des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 598. As Zosimss 
 and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanais, they 
 place the field of battle in the plains of Scythia. 
 
 7 Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the deathi of tlM 
 two Decii ; but I have preferred the account of Jornandes. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ured to encounters m the bogs, their persons tall, their 
 spears long such as could wound at a distance."^ In 
 this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual strug- 
 gle, was irrecoverably lost ; nor could the body of the 
 emperor ever be found.* Such was the fate of Decius, 
 in the fiftieth year of liis age; an accomplished prince 
 active m war, and affable in peace;" who, together 
 with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life 
 and^death, with the brightest examples of ancient vir- 
 
 I'll"* 
 
 Election of Gal- This fatal blow humbled, for a very 
 Dek-mbei!- ""'- !i"le time, the insolence of the legions. 
 . ^,"^y appear to have patiently expected, 
 and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate 
 which regulated the succession to the throne. From ' 
 a just regard for the memory of Decius, the imperial 
 title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving 
 son; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, 
 was granted to Callus, whose experience and abilitA; 
 seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the younor 
 prince and the distressed empiro.<i The first care of 
 the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces 
 A. D. 252. ^'■o"! the intolerable wciglit of the victo- 
 ... 1 J , "°"^ Goths. He consented to leave in 
 their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an "m- ^ 
 mense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a 
 quahty"" ' of prisoners of the highest merit and 
 
 Rctroat ofthe He plentifully supplied their camp 
 • ■ with every conveniency that could as- 
 wf«f i ?'' ^"^^^3^ spirts, or facilitate their so much 
 wished for departure ; and he even promised to pay 
 them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they 
 should never afterwards infest the Roman territories 
 by their incusions.<^ 
 
 Gaiius purchasoa In the age of the Scipios, the most 
 
 E■t^!;v^Ll^^?"^^"^ ^^""^ ^^^^^ ^^^^'^ ^-^^ courted 
 
 ai tribute. "^® protection of the victorious com- 
 
 monwealth, were gratified with such 
 trittmg presents as could only derive a value from the 
 hand that bestowed them ; an ivory chair, a coarse 
 garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate 
 or a quantity of copper coin.' After the wealth of 
 nations had centred in Rome, the emperors display- 
 ed their greatness, and even their policy, by the rejru. 
 ar exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards 
 he allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of 
 
 thpJr L i?"''r^u "''"'"I ^^'^'' "^^"'' ^"^ recompensed 
 their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were 
 
 understood to flow, not from the fears, but merely 
 trom the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans ; 
 and whilst presents and subsidies were liberally dis^ 
 tribued among friends and suppliants, they were 
 sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt.s 
 '^"''"ten?''''''"' ^^^^ stipulation, of an annual pay- 
 
 , •♦u Tj- ."^^"* ^^ ^ victorious enemy, appeared 
 without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute ; 
 the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to 
 accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians ; 
 and the prince, who by a necessary concession had 
 probably saved his country, became the object of the 
 general contempt and aversion. The death of Hos- 
 
 97 
 
 r I have ventured to ropy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64 ) the nirtnrP 
 of a similar eng.i2einenl between a Roman army and German trihr 
 ^. a^Jorna^ndes. c. 18, Zosimus. 1. i. p. 22. Zonaras'. Kxii^'p'eoT" iute: 
 
 -hh'^'a ^^*'" ''^'"■^ '"/"^'^ ''^'■"'■^ ^''« 6"*^ Of the year two hundred 
 and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession of tlie consn 
 sinp on the ensnmg ralends of January consul- 
 
 d Mjpc ui)i Patres comperere ... derpmnnf vj„,^ 
 
 in Cojsaribus. • • • . aecernuni. Victor 
 
 c Zonarns, 1. xii. p. C28. 
 
 f A sella, & foffu, and a golden patera of five pounds' weight werP 
 accepted w. h joy and pratitude by the wealthy king of fept (LI 
 vy XXV... 4.) Quina rrnllia ^.ris, a weight of copper, in vflue about' 
 
 srrs':'Tuvy.^i'';f.' "r ''" ""'' ^"""^ "^'^^ ^° ^^^^^^s' "-- 
 
 (? See the firmness of a Roman general so lale as the time of A 1p» 
 *" Vof'l — N '^^ ^""^'^'^ Legationum, p 25 Edit Uu 4"' 
 
 tihanus, though it happened in tlie midst of a radn? 
 pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crimi of 
 Gallus ;'> and even the defeat of the late emperor was 
 ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious 
 counsels of his hated successor.' The tranquillity 
 which the empire enjoyed during the first year of his 
 administration k served rather to inflame than to ap- 
 pease the public discontent ; and, as soon as the ap- 
 prehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the 
 peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt. 
 
 «ut the Romans were irritated to a v . 
 stil higher degree, when they discover- iT^J ^^IJZ 
 ea that they had not even secured their ""*'• A. D. 253. 
 repose, though at the expense of their honour. The 
 dangerous secret of the wealth and weakness of the 
 empire had been revealed to the world. New swarms 
 01 barbarians, eiicouraged by the success, and not con- 
 cemng themselves bound by the obligation, of their 
 brethren, spread devastation through the Illyrian pro- 
 vinces, and terror as far as the gates of Rome. The 
 defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by 
 the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed by ^Emilia- 
 nus, governor of Paniionia and JMa^sia ; who rallied 
 the scattered forces, and revived the faintino- spirits of 
 the troops. The barbarians were unexp?ctedly at- 
 tacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Dan- 
 ube. Ihe victorious leader distributed as a donative 
 he money collected for the tribute, and the acclama- 
 tiens of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the 
 field of battle.! Gallus, who, careless of the general 
 welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, 
 was almost m the same instant informed of the suc- 
 cess, of the revolt, and of the rapid approach, of his 
 aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far 
 as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in 
 Sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared 
 the Ignominious conduct of their sovereign with the 
 glory of his rival. They admired the valour of .Emi- 
 iianus ; they were attracted by Iiis liberality, for he 
 offered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters." 
 Ihe murder of Gallus, and of his p „ , ^ ^ 
 son Volusianus, put an end to the civil ""^rd^S""'' 
 war ; and the senate gave a legal sane- ^' ^- 25^. May. 
 tion to the rights of conquest. The letters of ^mili- 
 anus to that assembly displayed a mixture of modera- 
 tion and vanity. He assured them, that he should re- 
 sign to their wisdom the civil administration ; and, 
 contenting himself with the quality of their general 
 would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and 
 deliver the empire from all the barbarians both of the 
 north and of the east." His pride was flattered by the 
 applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, 
 representing liim with the name and attributes of Her^ 
 cules the Victor, and of Mars the Aveno-er." 
 If the new monarch possessed the'' 
 
 t'o f.!ffi?;^ wanted the time, necessary tT.e tl^hTG?.^ 
 to lu Ihf these splendid promises. Less '"-. a<'d is acknow- 
 than four months intervened between '^''"fd emperor, 
 his victory and his fall.P He had vanquished Gallus • 
 he sunk under the weight of a competitor more for- 
 midable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had 
 sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honourable 
 title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Ger- 
 many<« to his aid. Valerian executed that commission 
 with zeal and fidelity, and as he arrived too late to 
 save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The 
 troops of ^mihanus, who still lay encamped in the 
 plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his 
 
 l^ul3^ P'ajrue see Jornandes, c. 19, and Victor in Csrsarihus. 
 I 1 hese iinprobable accusations are alleged by Zosimus, l.i. p. 23, 24. 
 k Jornandes, c. 19. The Gothic writer at least observed the peace 
 which his victorious countrymen had sworn to Gallus. 
 1 Zosimus, I. I. p. 25, 26. 
 m Victor in Ca?saribus. 
 n Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. 
 " Banduri Numismata, p. 94. 
 
 P Eutropius, 1. ix. c. 6. says tertio mense. Eusebiua omits this 
 emperor. " 
 
 • ''^^o^i^'u*' 1- J- P- 28. Eutropius and Victor staUon Valerian's army 
 in iviixtia. ' 
 
 
 i 
 
96 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Philip, blushed not to assume the purple under the 
 protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome.'' The 
 time, however, consumed in that tedious siege, ena- 
 bled Decius to revive the courage, restore the disci- 
 pline, and recruit the numbers, of his troops. He in- 
 tercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans, 
 who were hastening to share the victory of their coun- 
 trymen,^ intrusted the passes of the mountains to 
 officers of approved valour and fidelity;" repaired 
 and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube, and 
 exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the pro- 
 gress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the 
 return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportu- 
 nity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own 
 glory, and that of the Roman arms." 
 Decius revives ^^ ^^® ^^^^® ^^"*® when Decius was 
 the^fficeofcen- Struggling with the violence of tlje 
 Bor in the per- tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate 
 son of Valerian. ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ investigated 
 
 the more general causes, that, since the age of the 
 Antonines, had so impetuously urged the decline of 
 the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was 
 impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent 
 basis, without restoring public virtue, ancient princi- 
 ples and manners, and the oppressed majesty of the 
 laws. To execute this noble but arduous design, he 
 first resolved to revive the obsolete oflUce of censor ; 
 an office, which, as long as it had subsisted in its 
 pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the per- 
 petuity of the state,*' till it was usurped and gradu- 
 ally neglected by the Ca;sars.P Conscious that the 
 favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that 
 the esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, 
 he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiassed 
 voice of the senate. By their unanimous votes, or 
 A. D.251. 27ih rather acclamations, Valerian, who was 
 October. afterwards emperor, and who then serv- 
 ed with distinction in the army of Decius, was declar- 
 ed the most worthy of that exalted honour. As soon 
 as the decree of the senate was transmitted to the em- 
 peror, he assembled a great council in his camp, and, 
 before the investiture "of the censor elect, he apprized 
 him of the difficulty and importance of his great office. 
 " Happy Valerian," said the prince to his distinguished 
 subject, " happy in the general approbation of the sen- 
 ate and of the Roman republic ! Accept the censorship 
 of mankind ; and judge of our manners. You will 
 select those who deserve to continue members of the 
 senate ; you will restore the equestrian order to its 
 ancient splendour ; you will improve the revenue, yet 
 moderate the public burthens. You will distinguish in- 
 to regular classes the various and infinite multitude of 
 citizens, and accurately review the military strength, 
 the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome. 
 Your decisions shall obtain the force of laws. The 
 army, the palace, the ministers of justice; and the 
 great officers of the empire, are all subject to your tri- 
 bunal. None are exempted, excepting only the ordin- 
 ary consuls,*! the praefect of the city, the king of the 
 sacrifices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity 
 inviolate) the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these 
 
 k Aurel. Victor, c, 29. 
 
 1 Victoria Carpiea, on some medals of Decius, insinuate these ad - 
 vantnges. 
 
 m Claudius (who afterwards reipned with so much glory) was 
 posted in the pass of Thcrmopylo; with 200 Dardinian?, 100 heavy 
 and I6U light horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000 well-armed re- 
 cruits. See an original letter from the emperor to his officer, in the 
 AuKUSlan History, p. 200. 
 
 n Jornandes, c. 16—18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22. In the general ac- 
 count of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices of 
 the Gothic and the Grecian writer. In carelessness alone they are 
 alike. 
 
 o Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. viii. He 
 illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with his usual inge- 
 nuity, and with uncommon precision. 
 
 p Vespasian and Titus were the last censors. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 
 ▼ii. 49. Censorinus de Die Natali.) The modesty of Trajan refused 
 an honour which he deserved, and bis example became a law to the 
 Antonines. See Pliny's panegyric, c. 45 and 60. 
 
 q Yet in spite of this exemption, Pompcy appeared before that tri- 
 bunal during his consulship. The occasion indeed was equally sin- 
 gular and honourable. Plutarch in Pomp. p. 630. 
 
 few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously 
 solicit the esteem, of the Roman censor.*'' 
 
 A magistrate, invested with such ex- The dwign Im. 
 tensive powers, would have appeared practicable and 
 
 * i_ , • • . ii* 1 wilhuut effect. 
 
 not so much the minister as the col- 
 league of his sovereign.' Valerian justly dreaded an 
 elevation so full of envy and of suspicion. He modestly 
 urged the alarming greatness of the trust, his own 
 insufficiency, and the incurable corruption of the 
 times. He artfully insinuated, that the office of cen- 
 sor was inseparable from the imperial dignity, and 
 that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to tlie 
 support o\ such an immense weight of cares and of 
 power * The approaching event of war soon put an 
 end to the piosecution of a project so specious but so 
 impracticable ; and whilst it preserved Valerian from 
 the danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disap- 
 pointment, which would, most probably, have attend- 
 ed it. A censor may maintain, he can never restore, 
 the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a 
 magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even 
 with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense 
 of honour and virtue in the minds of the people ; by 
 a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a 
 train of useful prejudices combating on the side of 
 national manners. In a period when these y-rinciples 
 are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either 
 sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a par- 
 tial instrument of vexatious oppression.™ It was easier 
 to vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public 
 vices ; yet, even in the first of these enterprises, De- 
 cius lost his army and his life. 
 
 The Goths were now, on every side. Defeat and death 
 surrounded and pursued by the Roman of Decius and 
 arms. The flower of their troops had *^"' »""• 
 perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the 
 exhausted country could no longer afford subsistence 
 for the remaining multitude of licentious barbarians. 
 Reduced to this extremity, the Goths would gladly 
 have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty and 
 prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. 
 But the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, 
 by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a 
 salutary terror into the nations of the north, refused to 
 listen to any terms of accommodation. The high- 
 spirited barbarians preferred death to slavery. An ob- 
 scure town of MaBsia, called Forum Terebronii,* was 
 the scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn 
 up in three lines, and, either from choice or accident, 
 the front of the third line was covered by a morass. 
 In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a 
 youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to 
 the honours of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in 
 the sight of his afflicted father ; who, summoning all 
 his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that 
 the loss of a single soldier was of little importance to 
 the republic.^ The conflict was terrible ; it was the 
 conflict of despair against grief and rage. The first 
 line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder ; the 
 second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate ; and 
 the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the 
 passage of the morass, which was imprudently at- 
 tempted by the presumption of the eneniy. " Here 
 the fortune of the day turned, and all things became 
 adverse to the Romans : the place deep with ooze, 
 sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as ad- 
 vanced ; their armour heavy, the waters deep ; nor 
 could they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weigh- 
 ty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were in- 
 
 97 
 
 r See the original speech in the Augustan Hist. p. 173, 174. 
 
 • This transaction might deceive Zonaras, who supposes that Vale- 
 rian was actually declared the colleague of Decius, I. xii. p. 625. 
 
 t Hist. August, p. 174. The emperor's reply is omitted. 
 
 uSuch as the attempts of Augustus towards a reformation of 
 manners. Tacit. Annal. iii. 24. . „ • 
 
 X Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. lii. p. 598. As Zoeimus 
 and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanais, they 
 place the field of baule in the plains of Bcythia. 
 
 y Aureliui Victor allows two distinct actions for the dealhi of tM 
 two Decii ; but I have preferred the account of Jornandet. 
 
 ured to encounters in the bogs, their persons tall, their 
 spears long, such as could wound at a distance."* In 
 this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual strug- 
 gle, was irrecoverably lost ; nor could the body of the 
 emperor ever be found.* Such was the fate of Decius, 
 in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince, 
 active in war, and affable in peace ; ^ who, together 
 with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life 
 and death, with the brightest examples of ancient vir- 
 tue.<= 
 
 Election of Gal- This fatal blow humbled, for a very 
 
 Doiember ^^' ^'"^^ ^^"^^' ^^^ iusolence of the legions. 
 They appear to have patiently expected, 
 and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate 
 which regulated the succession to the throne. From 
 a just regard for the memory of Decius, the imperial 
 title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving 
 son ; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, 
 was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability 
 seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young 
 prince and the distressed empire.** The first care of 
 the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces 
 A. D. 252. ^f^"^ ^^^ intolerable weight of the victo- 
 i"ious Goths. He consented to leave in 
 their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an im- 
 mense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a 
 great number of prisoners of the highest merit and 
 quality. 
 
 Retreat of the He plentifully supplied their camp 
 Goths. ^vith every conveniency that could as- 
 suage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much 
 wished for departure ; and he even promised to pay 
 them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they 
 should never afterwards infest the Roman territories 
 by their incusions.* 
 
 Gallus purchases ^^ ^^^ ^S^ of the Scipios, the most 
 peaee by the pay- opulent kings of the earth, who courted 
 aTi"rlb"Jte.' """"" ^^^ protection of the victorious com- 
 rnonwealth, were gratified with such 
 trifling presents as could only derive a value from the 
 hand that bestowed them ; an ivory chair, a coarse 
 garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, 
 or a quantity of copper coin.f After the wealth of 
 nations had centred in Rome, the emperors display- 
 ed their greatness, and even their policy, by the regu- 
 lar exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards 
 the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of 
 the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed 
 their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were 
 understood to flow, not from the fears, but merely 
 from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans ; 
 and whilst presents and subsidies were liberally dis- 
 tributed among friends and suppliants, they were 
 sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt.s 
 Popular discon- Bilt this Stipulation, of an annual pay- 
 tent, ^gj^t ^Q ^ victorious enemy, appeared 
 without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute ; 
 the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to 
 accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians ; 
 and the prince, who by a necessary concession had 
 probably saved his country, became the object of the 
 general contempt and aversion. The death of Hos- 
 
 « r have ventured to ropy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64.) the picture 
 of a similar engaireinent between a Roman army and German trihe 
 
 > Jornandes, c. 18, Zosimus, I. i. p. 22. Zonaras, I. xii. p. 627. Aure- 
 Ims Victor. 
 
 b The Decii were kMled before the end of the year two hundred 
 and fifty-one, sinre tlie new princes took possession of the consul- 
 ship on the ensuing calends of January. 
 
 c Hist. Aujriist. p. 2-2:]. eives them a very honourable place amon" 
 the small number of good emperors who reigned between Au"ustu^ 
 and Dioclesian. " 
 
 d Hfpc ijiti Patres comperere decernunt. Victor 
 
 in Ca>saribu.s. 
 
 e Zonaras, I. xii. p. 628. 
 
 f A sella, a to^a, and a golden patera of five pounds' weight, were 
 accepted with joy and gratitude by the wealthy king of Ejrypt. (L\- 
 vy, xxvii. 4.) Quina millia ttris, a weijiiit of copper, in value about 
 eighteen pounds sterling, was the usual present made to foreign am- 
 bassMdort!. (Livy, xxxi. 9.) 
 
 g See the firmness of a Roman general so late as the time of Alex- 
 ander Severus, in the Excerpfa Legationum, p 25. Edit Louvre 
 
 Vol, I — N 7 ' 
 
 tilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging 
 pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of 
 Gallus ; *» and even the defeat of the late emperor was 
 ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious 
 counsels of his hated successor.' The tranquillity 
 which the empire enjoyed during the first year of his 
 administration,'^ served rather to inflame than to ap- 
 pease the public discontent ; and, as soon as the ap- 
 prehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the 
 peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt. 
 
 But the Romans were irritated to a victor and 
 still higher degree, when they discover- vok °of ^Emiiial 
 ed that they had not even secured their ""*• ^' ^- 253. 
 repose, though at the expense of their honour. The 
 dangerous secret of the wealth and weakness of the 
 empire had been revealed to the world. New swarms 
 of barbarians, encouraged by the success, and not con- 
 ceiving themselves bound by the oblijration, of their 
 brethren, spread devastation through the Illyrian pro- 
 vinces, and terror as far as the gates of Rome. The 
 defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by 
 I the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed by .^milia- 
 nus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia ; who rallied 
 tlie scattered forces, and revived the fainting spirits of 
 the troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly at- 
 tacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Dan- 
 ube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative 
 the money collected for the tribute, and the acclama- 
 ti©ns of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the 
 field of battle.' Gallus, who, careless of the general 
 welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, 
 was almost in the same instant informed of the suc- 
 cess, of the revolt, and of the rapid approach, of his 
 aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far 
 as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in 
 sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared 
 the ignominious conduct of their sovereign with the 
 glory of his rival. They admired the valour of iEmi- 
 lianus ; they were attracted by his liberality, for he 
 oflered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters."* 
 The murder of Gallus, and of his r,„.,, „, , . . 
 
 „ ^ IT- 1 • ^ -1 , ... »j all US abandoned 
 
 son Volusianus, put an end to the civil and slain. 
 war; and the senate gave a legal sane- ^- ^' 2^3. May. 
 tion to the rights of conquest. The letters of ^mili- 
 anus to that assembly displayed a mixture of modera- 
 tion and vanity. He assured them, that he should re- 
 sign to their wisdom the civil administration; and, 
 contenting himself with the quality of their general, 
 would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and 
 deliver the empire from all the barbarians both of the 
 north and of the east.° His pride was flattered by the 
 applause of the senate ; and medals are still extant, 
 representing him with the name and attributes of Her- 
 cules the Victor, and of Mars the Avenger.** 
 If the new monarch possessed the „ , . 
 abilities, he wanted the time, necessary t^e Ta'JhTf'c?!! 
 to fulfil these splendid promises. Less 'u*. and is acHnow- 
 than four months intervened between ^'"^^''^ emperor, 
 his victory and his fall.P He had vanquished Gallus : 
 he sunk under the weight of a competitor more for- 
 midable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had 
 sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honourable 
 title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Ger- 
 manyi to his aid. Valerian executed that commission 
 with zeal and fidelity, and as he arrived too late to 
 save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The 
 troops of ^milianus, who still lay encamped in the 
 plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his 
 
 h For the plapue, see Jornandes, c. 19, and Victor in Carsaribus. 
 
 I These improbable accusations are alleged by Zosimus, I. i. p. 23, 24. 
 
 k Jornandes, c. 19. The Guthic writer at least observed the peace 
 which his victorious countrymen had sworn to Gailus. 
 
 I Zosimus, I. i. p. 25, i'6. 
 
 m Victor in Csesaribus. 
 
 D Zonaras, I. xii. p. 636. 
 
 " Banduri Numismata, p. 94. 
 
 p Eutropius, ). ix. c. 6. says tertio menbe. Eusebius omits tbii 
 emperor. 
 
 q Zosimus, I. i. p. 28. Eutropius and Victor station Valerian's army 
 in Rhaetia. 
 
98 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X# 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 character, but much more by the superior strength of 
 his army; and as they were now become as incapable 
 of personal attachment as they had always been of 
 A. D.253. constitutional principle, they readily im- 
 August, brued their hands in tlie blood of a prince 
 who so lately had been the object of their partial 
 choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it 
 was Valerian's,' who obtained the possession of the 
 throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a 
 decree of innocence singular in that ag-e of revol utions ; 
 since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his 
 predecessor, whom he dethroned. 
 
 Chnrac»or of Valerian was about sixty years of age ' 
 
 Valerian, when he was invested with the purple, not 
 
 by the caprice of the populace, or tlie clamours of the 
 
 army, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman world. 
 
 In his gradual ascent through the honours of the 
 State, he had deserved the favour of virtuous princes, 
 and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants.* His 
 noble birth, his mild hut unblemished manners, his 
 learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by 
 the senate and people; and if mankind (according to 
 the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at 
 liberty to choose a master, their choice would most 
 assuredly have fallen on Valerian." Perhaps the merit 
 of this emperor was inadequate to his reputation ; per- 
 haps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were aflectcd 
 by the languor and coldness of old age. The con- 
 General miathr- sciousucss of his dccliue engaged him to 
 tun^es of t\i^ share the throne with a younger and more 
 r?an"and Gallic- active associato i" the emergency of the 
 nus. ^ times demanded a general no less than a 
 
 A. D. 253— 2G8. p^jpce ; and the experience of the Roman 
 censor might have directed him where to bestow the 
 imperial purple, as the reward of military merit. But 
 instead of making a judicious choice, which would 
 have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory, 
 Valerian, consulting only the dictates of affection or 
 vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honours 
 his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had 
 been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private 
 station. The joint government of the father and the 
 son subsisted about seven, and the sole administration 
 of Gallienus continued about eight, years. But the 
 whole period was one uninterrupted series of confusion 
 and calamity. As the Roman empire was at the same 
 time, and on every side, attacked by the blind fury of 
 foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic 
 usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity, by 
 pursuing, not so much the doubtful arrangements of 
 dates, as the more natural distribution of subjects. The 
 most dangerous enemies of Rome, durinjj the reisfus of 
 
 Inroads of the Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The 
 barbarians. Franks. 2. The Alemanni. 3. The 
 Goths ; and 4. The Persians. Under these general 
 appellations, we may comprehend the adventurers of 
 less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth 
 names would only serve to oppress the memory and 
 perplex the attention of the reader. 
 
 Origin and con- ^' -^^ ^^e posterity of the Franks com- 
 federacy of the pose one of the greatest and most enlight- 
 Franks. ^^j nations of Europe, the powers of learn- 
 
 ing and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery 
 of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credu- 
 lity, have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every 
 passage has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, 
 that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their 
 
 r [Aiirellus Virfor says thai Emilianus died of sickness ; Eutropius 
 fpeaking of his death dors not say that he was assassinated.— G.] 
 
 • He was aliout seventy at the time of Itis accession, or. as it is 
 more probable, of his death, Flist. August, p. 173. Tilleniont, Hist, 
 des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 8<J3. note 1. 
 
 t Iniinicns tyrannorum. Hist. AiiEust. p. 173. In tho glorious 
 struggle of the senate against Maxiniin, Valerian acted a very spirit- 
 ed part. Hist. August, p. l.)6. 
 
 u According to the distinction of Victor, he seems to have received 
 the title of Imp erat or from the army, and that of Augustus from the 
 senate. 
 
 ▼ From Victor and from the medals, Tillemont (tom. iii. p. 710.) 
 very }\iht\y infers, that Gallienus was associated to the empire about 
 tbe month of August of ilie year 253. 
 
 origin. It has been supposed, that Pannonia,* that 
 Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany ,>' gave birth 
 to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the 
 most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigra- 
 tions of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a senti- 
 ment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth.* 
 They suppose that about the year two hundred and 
 fort}"^,* a new confederacy was formed under the name 
 of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine 
 and the Wcser. ^Flie present circle of Westphalia, 
 the landgravate of Hesse, and the duchies of Bruns- 
 wick and Lunenburg, were the ancient seat of the 
 Chauci, who in their inaccessible morasses, defied 
 the Roman arms;'' of the Cherusci, proud of the fame 
 of Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and 
 intrepid infantry; and of several other tribes of inferior 
 power and renown.* The love of liberty was the 
 ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it 
 their best treasure ; the word that expressed that en- 
 joyment, the most pleasing to their ear. They de- 
 served, they assumed, they maintained the honourable 
 epithet of Franks, or freemen ; which concealed, 
 thouo-h it did not extincruish, the peculiar names of 
 the several states of the confederacy.'' Tacit consent, 
 and mutual advantage, dictated the first laws of the 
 union ; it was gradually cemented by habit and expe- 
 rience. Tiie league of the Franks may admit of some 
 comparison with the Helvetic body; in which every 
 canton, retaining its independent sovereignty, consults 
 with its brethren in the common cause, without ac- 
 knowledging the authority of any supreme head, or re- 
 presentative assembly.*^ But the principle of the two 
 confederacies was extremely different. A peace of two 
 hundred years has rewarded the wise and honest policy 
 of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit, the thirst of rapine, 
 and a disregard to the most solemn treaties, disgraced 
 the character of the Franks. 
 
 The Romans had long experienced the They invado 
 daring valour of the people of Lower <^aui. 
 Germany. The union of their strength threatened 
 Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required 
 the presence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of 
 imperial power.' Whilst that prince, and his infant 
 son Salonius, displayed, in the court of Treves, the 
 majesty of the empire, its armies were ably conducted 
 by their general Posthumus, who, though he after- 
 wards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faith- 
 ful to the great interest of the monarchy. The treach- 
 erous language of panegyrics and medals darkly an- 
 nounces a long series of victories. Trophies and titles 
 attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of Post- 
 humus, wh© is repeatedly styled The Conqueror of the 
 Germans, and The Saviour of Gaul.s 
 
 X Various systems liave been formed to explain a difficult passage 
 in Gregory of Tours, I. ii. c. 9. 
 
 y The Geograplierof Kavenna. i. 11. by mentioning JtTaurivgania, 
 on tlie confines of Denmark, as the ancient seat of the Franks, gave 
 birth to ;in in<;enions sys'em of Leibnitz. 
 
 z See riuver. Germania Antiqua, I. iii. r. 20. M. Freret, in the 
 Memoires dc V Academie des Inscriptions, tom. .xviii. 
 
 a Most probattly under t!ie reign of Gordian, from an accidental 
 circumstance fully canvassed by Tillemonr, tom. iii. p. 710. 1181. 
 
 b IMin. Hist. Natur. .\vi. I. The panegyrists frequently allude to 
 the moras.<c3 0f the Franks. 
 
 c Tacit. G«!rmania, c. ?H, 37. 
 
 [The confederacy of the Franks appears to have been formed, Ist, 
 of the Chauci; 2d. of the Sicambri inhabitants of the Duchy of 
 Berp; Hd, of the Atfuarians on the north of the Sicambri in the 
 principality of VValdick, letween the Dimel and the Eder; 4th, the 
 Bructeri on the borders of the Lippe, and among the Harlz; 5lb. the 
 Chamavii (Gambrivii of Tacitus) who had settled within the territory 
 of tbe Bructeri at the time of the confederation of the Prints ; Gth, 
 the Catti in Hesse.— G] 
 
 d In a subsequent pcr'od, most of the old names are occasionally 
 mentioned. Pee sonte vestiges of them in Clu ver. Germ. Antiq. J. iii. 
 
 f Simler de RepuMica Hctvct. cum notis Fuselin. 
 
 'Zosimns, I. i. p. 27. 
 
 K M. de Brcquigny (in the Memoires de I'Acndemie, tom. xxx.) has 
 given us a very curious life of Posthumus. A series of the .Augus- 
 tan History from medals and Inscriptions has been more than once 
 planned, and is still much wanted. 
 
 [Mr. Eckhel, keeper of the cabinet of medals, and professor of 
 antiquities, at Vienna, lately deceased, has supplied this deficiency 
 by an excellent work, entitled, Dortrina Nummorum Veterum Con 
 scripta. by Jos. Eckhel, 8 vol. in quarto. Vienna, 1797.— O.] 
 
 99 
 
 Kavagc Spain ; .^ut a single fact, the only one indeed 
 0/ which we have any distinct know- 
 ledge, erases, in a great measure, these monuments 
 of vanity and adulation. The Khine, though dio-nified 
 with the title of Safeguard of the provinces, was an 
 imperfect barrier against the daring sj^rit of enterprise 
 with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid 
 devastations stretched from the river to the foot of the 
 Pyrenees : nor were they stopped by those mountains. 
 Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist, 
 the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, 
 the greatest part of the reign of Gallienus, that opulent 
 country was the theatre of unequal and destructive 
 hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital of a 
 peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed ;'' 
 and so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in the 
 fifth centur)^ wretched cottages, scattered amid.^t the 
 rums of magnificent cities, still recorded the ra-re of 
 the barbarians.* When the exhausted country no 
 longer supplied a variety of plunder, the Franks seized 
 on some vessels in the ports of Spain,»^ and transported 
 and pass over in- themselves into Mauritania. The dis- 
 to Africa. taut province was astonished with the 
 
 fury of these barbarians, who seemed to fall from a 
 new world, as their name, manners, and complexion, 
 were equally unknown on the coast of Africa.^ 
 
 Origin and re- H* I" that part of Upper Saxony be- 
 nownof the Sue- youd the Elbe, which is at present called 
 ]"■ . . the marquisate of Lusace, there existed, 
 in ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the 
 superstition of the Suevi. None were permitted to 
 enter the holy precincts, without confessing, by their 
 servile bonds and suppliant posture, the Immediate 
 presence of the sovereign Deity.™ Patriotism cotitri- 
 buted as well as devotion to consecrate the Sonnen- 
 wald, or wood of the Semnones." It was universally 
 believed, that the nation had received its first exist- 
 ence on that sacred spot. At stated periods, the nume- 
 rous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood, resorted 
 thither by their ambassadors ; and the memory of their 
 common extraction was perpetuated by barbaric rites 
 and human sacrifices. The wide extended name of 
 Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany, from the 
 banks of the Oder to those of the Danube. They were 
 distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar 
 mode of dressing their long hair, which they gathered 
 into a rude knot on the crown of the head ; and they 
 delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks more 
 lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy .« Jealous, 
 as the Germans were, of military renown, they all 
 confessed the superior valour of the Suevi; and the 
 tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast 
 army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that 
 they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a 
 people, to whose arms the immortal gods themselves 
 were unequal.? 
 
 A mixed body of ^? ^'^^ ^^^i?" of the cmperor Caracalla, 
 Suevi assume the an innumerable swarm of Suevi appear- 
 narne of Alemun- ed on the banks of the Mein, and in the 
 neighbourhood of the Roman provinces, 
 in quest either of food, or plunder, or of glory.i The 
 hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a 
 great and permanent nation, and, as it was composed 
 from so many difllerent tribes, assumed the name of 
 Alemanni, or All-men ; to denote at once their various 
 
 lineage, and their common bravery.' The latter was 
 soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. 
 The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback ; but their 
 cavalry was rendered still more formidable hy a mix- 
 ture of light infantry, selected from the bravest and 
 most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had 
 inured to accompany the horsemen in the lono-est 
 march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate 
 retreat.' ^ 
 
 This warlike people of Germans had invade Gaul and 
 been astonished by the immense prepa- Italy; 
 
 rations of Alexander Severus, they were dismayed by 
 the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in valour 
 and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on 
 the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general 
 disorder that ensued after the death of Decius. They 
 inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul : 
 they were the first who removed the veil that covered 
 the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the 
 Alemanni penetrated across the Danube, and through 
 the Rha3tian Alps, into the plains of Lombardy, ad- 
 vanced as far as Ravenna, and displayed the victorious 
 banners of barbarians almost in sight of Rome.* The 
 insult and the danger rekindled Tn the senate some 
 sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the emperors 
 were engaged in far distant wars. Valerian in the East, 
 and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and re- 
 sources of the Romans were in themselves. In this 
 emergency the senators resumed the , , , . 
 
 defence of the republic, drew out the Tou^X'tJlZ 
 praetorian guards, who had been left to ^**^ ^"^ people, 
 garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by 
 enlisting into the public service the stoutest and most 
 willing of the plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished 
 with the sudden appearance of an army more numerous 
 than their own, retired into Germany, laden with spoil ; 
 and their retreat was esteemed as a victory by the un- 
 warlike Romans." 
 
 When Gallienus received the intelli- ,„, 
 gence that his capital was delivered ciuScSby'Gainc: 
 from the barbarians, he was much less nus from the mi- 
 delighted than alarmed with the courage '"'"'^ '"'''^•'• 
 of the senate, since it might one day'^prompt them to 
 rescue the public from domestic tyranny, as well as 
 from foreign invasion. His timid ingratitude was 
 published to his subject.*^, in an edict which prohibited 
 the senators from exercising any military employment, 
 and even from approaching the camps of the legions. 
 But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious 
 nobles, sinking into their natural character, accepted, 
 as a favour, this disgraceful exemption from military 
 service; and as long as they were indulged in the 
 enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their vil- 
 las, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares 
 of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers.' 
 
 h Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Instend of Pane direpto, both the sense and 
 the expression require deleto, though indeed, for ditferent reasons it 
 is alike dilficuU to correct the text of the best, and of the worst, wri- 
 ters. 
 
 i In the time of Ausonius (the end of the fourth century) TIerda or 
 Lerida was in a very ruinous state (Anson. Epist. xxv. 58.) which 
 probably was the consequence of this invasion. 
 
 k Valcsius is therefore mistaken in supposing that the Franks had 
 invaded Spain by sea. 
 
 1 Aurel. Victor, Eutrop. ii. 6. 
 
 m Tacit. Germania, 38. 
 
 " Cluver. Germ. Antiq. iii. 23. 
 
 o Sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, sic Suevorum ingenui a servis sepa- 
 rantur. A proud separation ! 
 
 P Caesar in Bello Gallico, iv. 7. 
 
 q Victor in Caracal. Pion Cassins, livii. p. 13.'>0, 
 
 r This efynioloiiy (far ditferent from those which amupc the fancy 
 of the learned) is preserved by Asinius Quadralus, an original liisfo- 
 rian, quoted by Airathia.s i. c. 5. 
 
 [The nation of the Allemanni were not formed originally by the 
 Suevi properly so called ; these have always retained their own pe- 
 culiar name. A little after the year Anno Domini 357, Ihcy made 
 an irruption info Rbetia, and not long after were united to the Ale- 
 manni. Still they have always been distinguished in their archives 
 by their own name. To Uiis day the people who occupy the north- 
 west of the Bliick Forest, call themselves Schwaben, Suabians, Sue- 
 vi, while tiiose who live near the Rhine, in Ortcnnu, Brisgau, and 
 the Margravatc of Raden, call themselves only Suabinns, and are 
 originally Alemanni. The Tenchtheri and the Usipii dwelling in 
 the interior and the north of Westphalia, according to Gatteror, 
 were the origin of the nation of the Allemanni. They occupied the 
 country in which appears for tiie first time, the name of the Alle- 
 manni, who were conquered in 213 by Caracalla. According to Taci- 
 tus (Germ. c. 32), they were well trained to fight on horseback, and 
 Aurelius Victor gives them the same praise, and finally they never 
 took part in the league of the Franks. The Allemanni became, in 
 time, the center around which gathered a crowd of the german 
 tribes. (See Eumenius Panegyr. c. 3. Ammienus Marcellinus xviii. 
 2.— xxix. 4.)— G.] 
 
 s The Suevi engaged Caesar in this manner, and the manoeuvre de- 
 served theapproliation of the conqueror, (in Rello Gallico, i, 48.) 
 
 t Hi»t. August, p. 215, 216. Dcxippus in the Excerpta Legationum, 
 p. 8. Ilieronym. Chron. Orosius, vii. 22. 
 
 u Zosimus, I. i. p. 34. 
 
 X Aurel. Victor, in Gallieno et Probo. His complaints breathe qq 
 uncommon spirit of freedom. 
 
 "V 
 
 Xik 
 
 ; 
 
 
100 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Gallienua con Another invasion of the Alemanni, 
 l7ih"the"Alemr of a more formidable aspect, but more 
 ni. glorious event, is mentioned by a writer 
 
 of the lower empire. Three hundred tliousand of 
 that warlike people are said to have been vanquished, 
 in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the 
 head of only ten thousand Romans.^ We may, how- 
 ever, with great probability, ascribe this incredible 
 victory, either to the credulity of the historian, or to 
 some exaggerated exploits of one of the emperor's 
 lieutenants. It was by arms of a very different nature 
 that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Jtaly from the 
 fury of the Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter 
 of a king of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which 
 was often confounded with the Alemanni in their wars 
 and conquests.* To the ftther, as the price of his 
 alliance, he granted an ample settlement in Pannonia. 
 The native charms of unpolished beauty seem to have 
 fixed the daughter in the affections of the inconstant 
 emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly 
 connected by those of love. But the haughty preju- 
 dice of Rome still refused the name of marriage, to 
 the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian ; and 
 has stigmatized the German princess with the oppro- 
 brious title of concubine of Gallienus.* 
 Inroads of tije HI. We have already traced the emi- 
 Goihs. gration of the Goths from Scandinavia, 
 or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the Borys- 
 thenes, and have followed their victorious arms from 
 the Borysthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of 
 Valerian and Gallienus, the frontier of the last-men- 
 tioned river was perpetually infested by the inroads 
 of Germans and Sarmatians ; but it was defended by 
 the Romans with more than usual firmness and suc- 
 cess. The provinces that were the seat of war, re- 
 cruited the armies of Rome with an inexhaustible 
 supply of hardy soldiers ; and more than one of these 
 Illyrian peasants attained the station, and displayed 
 the abilities, of a general. Though flying parties of 
 the barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the banks 
 of the Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines 
 of Italy and Macedonia, their progress was commonly 
 checked, or their return intercepted, by the imperial 
 lieutenants.'' But the great stream of the Gothic hos- 
 tilities was diverted into* a very different channel. 
 The Goths, in their new settlement of the Ukraine, 
 soon became masters of the northern coast of the 
 Euxine; to the south of that inland sea were situated 
 the soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which 
 possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could 
 resist, a barbarian conqueror. 
 
 Conquest of the The bauks of the Borysthenes are 
 Bosphorus by only sixty miles distant from the narrow 
 the Goths ; entrance <= of the peninsula of Crim Tar- 
 tary, known to the ancients under the name of Cherso- 
 nesus Taurica.'^ On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, 
 embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, 
 has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tra- 
 gedies.* The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival 
 of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and 
 religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an 
 historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants 
 of the peninsula, were in some degree reclaimed from 
 their brutal manners, by a gradual intercourse with the 
 Grecian colonies, which settled along the maritime 
 coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus, whose capi- 
 tal was situated on the Straits, through which the 
 Maeotis communicates itself to the EuxTne, was com- 
 
 y Zonarav, I. xii. p. 631. 
 
 s One of the Victors calls him king of the Marcomanni ; the other 
 of tlie Germans. 
 
 a See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 398, &c. 
 
 b See the lives of Claudius, Aureiian, and Probus, in the Augustan 
 History. 
 
 c It is about half a league in breadth. Genealogical History of 
 the Tartars, p. 598. 
 
 <» M. de Peyssonel, who had been French Consul at Caflfa, in his 
 Ohservations sur lea peuples barbares, qui ont habit6 lea bords du 
 Danube. 
 
 *■■ Ruripiden in Iphigenia in Taurid. 
 
 posed of degenerate Greeks, and half-civilized barba- 
 rians. It subsisted, as an independent state, from the 
 time of the Peloponnesian war,' was at last swallowed 
 up b)^ the ambition of Mithridates,s and, with the rest 
 of his dominions, sunk under the weight of the Roman 
 arms. From the reign of Augustus,** the kings of 
 Bosphorus were the humble, but not useless allies, of 
 the empire. By presents, by arms, and by a slight 
 fortification drawn across the isthmus, they effectually 
 guarded against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the 
 access of a country, which from its peculiar situation 
 and convenient harbours, commanded the Euxine sea 
 and Asia Minor.' As long as the sceptre was possess- 
 ed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted 
 themselves of their important charge with vigilance 
 and success. Domestic factions, and the fears, oi 
 private interest, of obscure usurpers, who seized on 
 the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart 
 of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous 
 waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the com 
 mand of a naval force, sufficient to transport theii 
 armies to the coast of Asia.'' The ships used in the 
 navigation of the Euxine were of a very ^vho acquire a 
 singular construction. They were slight naval force, 
 flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the 
 least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a 
 shelving roof, on the appearance of a tempest.* In 
 these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted 
 themselves to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the 
 conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose 
 skill and fidelity were equally suspicious. But the 
 hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, 
 and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their 
 minds the more rational confidence, which is the just 
 result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such 
 a daring spirit must have often murmured against the 
 cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest 
 assurances of a settled calm before they would ven- 
 ture to embark ; and would scarcely ever be tempted 
 to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the prac- 
 tice of the modern Turks ;" and they are probably not 
 inferior, in the art of navigation, to the ancient inhabit- 
 ants of Bosphorus. 
 
 The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast pj^^ j^^^^^ „. 
 of Circassia on the left hand, first appear- pcdiiion of the 
 ed before Pityus," the utmostlimits of the ^"^'''• 
 Roman provinces ; a city provided with a convenient 
 port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met 
 witii a resistance more obstinate than they had reason 
 to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. 
 They were repulsed ; and their disappointment seemed 
 to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long 
 as Succcssianus, an oflicer of superior rank and merit, 
 defended that frontier, all their eflfbrts were ineffectual ; 
 but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more 
 honourable but less important station, they resumed 
 the attack of Pityus ; and, by the destruction of that 
 city, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace." 
 
 ('ircling round the eastern extremity rp^^^ q^^,,, y^, 
 of the Euxine sea, the navigation from siojrp and take 
 Pityus to Trebizond is about three hun- Trtbizond. 
 dred miles.P The course of the Goths carried them in 
 
 f Straho, I. vii. p. 309. The first kings of Dosphorus were the al- 
 lies of Athens. 
 
 K Appian in Mithridut. 
 
 h It was reduced liy the arms of Aprippa. Orosius, vi.21. Eutro- 
 piu9, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within three days' march 
 of theTanais. Tacit. Annnl. xii. 17. 
 
 i Seethe Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the sincerity and the vir- 
 tues of the Scythian, wlio relates a great war of his nation against 
 the kinps of Bosphorus. 
 
 k Zosiiuus, 1. i. p. 28. 
 
 1 Strabo, 1. xi. Tacit. !Iist. iil. 47. They were called Camars. 
 
 m See a very natural picture of the Euxine navigation, in thexvith 
 letter of Tournefort. 
 
 n [Now Pitchinda. D'Anville geogr. anc. vol. ii. p. 115. — O.] 
 Arrian places the frontier garrison at Dioscurias, or Sehastopolis, [at 
 present Iskuria, Ih. vol. i. p. 115.— C] forty-four miles to the east of 
 Pityus. The garrison of Phasis consisted in his time of only four 
 hundred foot. See the Periplus of the Euxine. 
 
 o Zosimus, I. i. p. 30. 
 
 p Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxin. p. 130.) calls the distance 3610 
 ■tadia. 
 
 Sight of the country of Colchis, so famous by the ex- 
 pedition of the Argonauts ; and they even attempted, 
 though without success, to pillage a rich temple at the 
 mouth of the river Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated in 
 the retreat of the ten thousand as an ancient colony of 
 Greeks,«i derived its wealth and splendour from the 
 munificence of the emperor Hadrian, who had con- 
 structed an artificial port on a coast left destitute by 
 nature of secure harbours.' The city was large and 
 populous ; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy 
 the fury of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been 
 strengthened by a reinforcement of ten thousand men. 
 But there are not any advantages capable of supplying 
 the absence of discipline and vigilance. The nume- 
 rous garrison of Trebizond, dissolved in riot and lux- 
 ury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. 
 1 he Goths soon discovered the supine negligence of 
 the besieged, erected a lolly pile of fascines, ascended 
 the walls m the silence of the night, and entered the 
 defenceless city, sword in hand. A general massacre 
 ot the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers 
 escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The 
 most holy temples, and the most splendid edifices, 
 were involved m a common destruction. The bootv 
 that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense : 
 the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposit- 
 ed in Irebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The 
 number of captives was incredible, as the victorious 
 barbarians ranged without opposition throuo-h the ex- 
 tensive province of Pontus.' The rich spoils^'of Trebi- 
 zond filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in 
 the port. The robust youth of the sea-coast were 
 chained to the oar; and the Goths, satisfied with the 
 siiccess of their first naval expedition, returned in 
 triumph to their new establishments in the kino-dom 
 01 Bosphorus.' ° 
 
 The second ex- '^^^ second expedition of the Goths 
 pedition of the was undertaken with greater powers of 
 Goths. men and ships; but they steered a dif 
 
 101 
 
 ferent course anri Hi«Hninino. fkV i •' 7""^^" ? "" wt^ut e4uippea oy me uoths in the ports podiii, 
 
 of Pontus, followed the western coast of the Euxine, 
 passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the 
 Niester, and the Danube, and increasing their fleet by 
 the capture of a great number of fishing barks, they 
 approached the narrow outlet through which the Eux- 
 ine sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and 
 divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The gar- 
 rison of Chalcedon was encamped near the temple of 
 Jupiter Urius, on a promontory that commanded the 
 entrance of the strait; and so inconsiderable were the 
 dreaded invasions of the barbarians, that this body of 
 troops surpassed in number the Gothic army. But it 
 was m numbers alone that they surpassed it. They 
 deserted with precipitation their advantageous post, 
 and abandoned the town of Chalcedon, most plentiful- 
 ly stored with arms and money, to the discretion of 
 the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they 
 They plunder the should prefer the sea or land, Europe or 
 cfesof Bithyma. Asia, for the scene of their hostilities, a 
 perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia," once the 
 capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy con- 
 quest. He guided the march, which was only sixty 
 miles from the camp of Chalcedon,^ directed the resist- 
 less attack, and partook of the booty ; for the Goths 
 had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor, 
 whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apjemsea, Cius,^ 
 cities that had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the 
 splendour of Nicomedia, were involved in the same 
 calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without con- 
 
 trol through the whole province of Bithynia. Three 
 hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft inhabi- 
 tants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms, and 
 removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient 
 walls were suffered to moulder away, and all the reve- 
 nue of the most opulent cities was reserved for the 
 construction of baths, temples, and theatres ^ 
 
 When the city of Cyzicus withstood Ro.reat of ti.« 
 the utmost effort of ]VIithridates,> it was Goti.s! ^ "'* 
 distinguished by wise laws, a naval power of two 
 hundred galleys, and three arsenals ; of arms, of mili- 
 tary engines, and of corn.^ It was still the seat of 
 wealth and luxury ; but of its ancient streno-th nothing 
 remained except the situation, in a little island of the 
 J^ropontis, connected with the continent of Asia only 
 by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the 
 Goths advanced within eighteen miles * of the city, 
 which they had devoted to destruction ; but the rum 
 ot Cyzicus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The 
 season was rainy, and the lake Apolloniates, the reser- 
 voir of all the springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an 
 uncommon height. The little river of Rhyndacus, 
 which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and 
 rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths, 
 rheir retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where 
 the fleet had probably been stationed, was attended by 
 a long train of wagons, laden with the spoils of Bithy- 
 nia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nico- 
 media, which they wantonly burnt." Some obscure 
 hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat that secured 
 their retreat.-^ But even a complete victory would 
 have been of little moment, as the approach of the 
 autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten their re- 
 turn. To navigate the Euxine before the month of 
 May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the 
 modern Turks the most unquestionable instance of 
 rashness and folly.^ 
 
 When we are informed that the third rnir^ i 
 fleet equipped by the Goths in the ports pod i.Vo" of the 
 
 q Xenophon. Anabasis, I. iv. p. 348. Edit. Hutchinson. 
 
 'Arrian, p. 129. The general observation is Tournefort's 
 quoin by Z' cou°f "T'" ■'""•"""•"SU.. bishop of NeocWsarea, 
 
 ' Zosimus, I. i. p. 32, 33, 
 
 u [It has preserved its name joined to the preposition denotine 
 place in that of Is-Nikmid. D'Anville §eogr. anc. vol. ii. p. It-o^ 
 
 V Itiner. Hierosolym, p. 572. Wesseling ^ ^^ 
 
 ge:gKrc. v"af!n.'p^"2^?22^^"«'7'^' ^'^'^ " '^«™''^- <^'A"ville 
 
 sail of ships,' our ready imagination instantly com- 
 putes and multiplies the formidable armament; but, 
 as we are assured by the judicious Strabo,* that the 
 piratical vessels used by the barbarians of Pontus and 
 the lesser Scythia, were not capable of containing 
 more than twenty-five or thirty men, we may safely 
 affirm, that fifteen thousand warriors, at the most, em- 
 barked in this great expedition. Impatient of the 
 limits of the Euxine, they steered their destructive 
 course from the Cimmerian to the Thracian Bospho- 
 rus. When they had almost gained the middle of the 
 straits, they were suddenly driven back ^ 
 to the entrance of them ; till a favoura- ^^.Zll aid 
 Die wund, springing up the next day, the Hellespont. 
 carried them in a few hours into the placid sea, or 
 rather lake, of the Propontis. Their landing on the 
 little island of Cyzicus was attended with the ruin of 
 that ancient and noble city. From thence issuing 
 again through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, 
 they pursued their winding navigation amidst the 
 numerous islands scattered over the Archipelago, or 
 the ^gean sea. The assistance of captives and de- 
 serters must have been very necessary to pilot their 
 vessels, and to direct their various incursions, as 
 well on the coast of Greece as on that of Asia. At 
 length the Gothic fleet anchored in the port of Pirajus, 
 
 ^ Zosimus, I. i. p. 32, 33. 
 
 y He besieged the place with 400 galleys, 150,000 foot, and a nu- 
 merous cavalry See Plutarch in Lucul. Appian in Alithridat. 
 Cicero pro Lege Manilla, c. 8. 
 
 z Strabo. I. xii. p. .573. 
 
 a Pocock's Description of the East, I. ii. c. 2.3, 24. 
 
 b Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. 
 
 c Syncellus tells an unintelligible siorv of Prince Odenathus, who 
 defeated the Goths, and who was killed by Prince Odenathus. 
 
 a Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 45. He sailed with the Turka 
 from Constantinople to Caffa. 
 
 e Syncellus (p. 382.) speaks of this expedition as undertaken bv 
 the Heruli. ' 
 
 f Strabo, I. xi. p. 495. 
 
 V. \ 
 
 If -^, 
 
 It V' 
 
 >* 
 
102 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 five miles distant from Athens,^ which had attempted 
 to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. 
 Cleodamus, one of the engineers employed by the 
 emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities against 
 the Goths, had already begun to repair the ancient 
 walls, fallen to decay since the time of Sylla. The 
 efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians 
 became masters of the native seat of the muses and 
 the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned them- 
 selves to the license of plunder and intemperance, 
 their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the har- 
 bour of Piraeus, was unexpectedly attacked by the 
 brave Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleo- 
 damus from the sack of Athens, collected a hasty 
 band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and 
 in some measure avenged the calamities of his coun- 
 try.»> 
 
 Ravaj^e Greece But this exploit, whatever lustre it 
 and threaten It- might shed on the declining age of Ath- 
 ** ^' ens, served rather to irritate' than to sub- 
 
 due the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A 
 general conflagration blazed out at the same time in 
 every district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth 
 and Sparta, which had formerly waged such memora- 
 ble wars against each other, were now unable to bring 
 an army into the field, or even to defend their ruined 
 fortifications. The rage of war, both by land and by 
 sea, spread from the eastern point of Sunium to the 
 western coast of Epirus. The Goths had already ad- 
 vanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of 
 such imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallie- 
 nus from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appear- 
 ed in arms ; and his presence seemed to have checked 
 the ardour, and to have divided the strength, of the 
 Their divisions enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the He- 
 and retreat. ruli, accepted an honourable capitula- 
 tion, entered with a large body of his countrymen into 
 the service of Rome, and was invested with the orna- 
 ments of the consular dignity, which had never before 
 been profaned by the 'hands of a barbarian.' Great 
 numbers of tlie Goths, disgusted witli the perils and 
 hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Ma-sia, with 
 a design of forcing their way over the Danube to their 
 settlements in the Ukraii^. The wild attempt would 
 have proved inevitable destruction, if the discord of 
 the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians 
 the means of escape.'' The small remainder of this 
 destroying host returned on board their vessels ; and 
 measuring back their way through the Hellespont and 
 the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores 
 of Troy, whose fame, immortalized by° Homer, will 
 probably survive the memory of the (;othic con- 
 qiiests. As soon as they found themselves in safety 
 within the bason of the Kuxine, they landed at An- 
 chialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Hsemus : 
 and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the 
 use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What 
 remained of the vojago was a short and easy naviga- 
 tion.' Such was the various fiite of this third mu\ 
 greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem dif- 
 ficult to conceive, how the original body of fifteen 
 thousand warriors could sustain tlie losses and di- 
 visions of so bold an adventure. But as their num- 
 bers were gradually wasted by the sword, by ship- 
 wrecks, and by the influence of a warm climate, they 
 were perpetually renewed by troops of banditti and 
 deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and 
 
 S Flin. Hist. Natiir. iii. 7. 
 
 h Hi8t_. AiiLMist. p. 181. Victor, c. 33. Orosiiis, vii. 42. Zosimus, 
 1. 1. p. Jo. Zonariis, 1. xii. p. U.15. Syncelliis, p. 38J. Il is not with- 
 out some atieniion, that we can explain and conciliate their imper- 
 fect hints. We can still discover some « races of the partiality of 
 Deiippua, in the relation of his own and his countrymen's exploits 
 
 1 Syncellus. p. 382. The body of Heruli was for a long time faitli- 
 iiil and famous. 
 
 « Claudius, who commanded on the Danube, thought with pro- 
 
 Eriety and acted with spirit. His colleague was jealous of his fame, 
 list. August, p. 181. 
 Jornandes c.20. 
 
 by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or 
 Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious 
 opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these expe- 
 ditions, the Gothic nation claimed a superior share of 
 honour and danger ; but the tribes that fought under 
 the Gothic banners are sometimes distinguished and 
 sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of 
 that age ; and as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue 
 from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar 
 appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on 
 the mixed multitude.'" 
 
 In the general calamities of mankind. Ruin of the tem- 
 the death of an individual, however ex- p'^^' of Ephcsus. 
 alted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are pas- 
 sed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot 
 forget that the temple of Diana at Ephcsus, after 
 having risen with increasing splendour from seven re- 
 peated misfortunes," was finally burnt by the Goths 
 in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and 
 the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred 
 and magnificent structure. It was supported by an 
 hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the 
 Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout monarchs, 
 and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned 
 with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, 
 perhaps, selected from the fiivourite legends of the 
 place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the 
 the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the 
 Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the van- 
 quished Amazons." Yet the length of the temple of 
 p]phesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, 
 about two-thirds of the measure of the church of St. 
 Peter's at Rome.P In the other dimensions, it was 
 still more inferior to that sublime production of mod- 
 ern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian 
 cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong 
 temples of the pagans ; and the boldest artists of aii^ 
 ti(juity would have been startled at the proposal of 
 raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions of 
 the pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however, 
 admired as one of the wonders of the world. Suc- 
 cessive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and 
 the Roman, had revered its sanctity, and enriched its 
 splendour.*! But the rude savages of the Baltic were 
 destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they de- 
 spised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition."" 
 
 Another circumstance is related of Conduct of the 
 these invasions, which might deserve G"t''s <it Athens, 
 our notice, were it not justly to be suspected as the 
 fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told, that 
 in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the 
 libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this 
 funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their 
 chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dis- 
 suaded them from the design ; by the profound obser- 
 vation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the 
 study of books, they would never apply themselves to 
 the exercise of arms.' The sagacious counsellor 
 (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like 
 an ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and power- 
 ful nations, genius of every kind has displayed itself 
 about the same period ; and the age of science has ge- 
 nerally been the age of military virtue and success. 
 
 m Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the Philopatris) give 
 the name of Scythians to those whom Jornandes, and the Latin 
 writers, constantly represent as Goths. 
 
 n Hist. Aug. p. 178. J»rnandps, c. 20. 
 
 o Straho, I. xiv. p. 64i). Vitruvius, I. i. c. 1. prafat. I. viJ. Tacit. 
 Annal. iii.Gl. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 14. 
 
 p The length of St. Peter's is 840 palms; each palm is very little 
 short of nine Enjjlis!! inches. See Greaves's Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 
 233; On the Roman foot. 
 
 q The policy, however, of the Romans induced them to abridge the 
 extent of the sanctuary or asylum, which hy successive privileges 
 had spread itself two stadia round the temple. Strabo. 1. xiv. p. 641. 
 Tacit. Annal. iii. CO, &;c. 
 
 r They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods. See Epistol. Grc- 
 gor. Thaumat. 
 
 s Zonaras, I. xii. p. 635. Such an anecdote was perfectly suited to 
 the taste of Montaigne. He makes use of it in Itis agreeable Rssay 
 on Pedantry, 1. i. c. 24. 
 
 Conquest of Ar- ^^' The new sovereigns of Persia, 
 Per"itn8^^ the Artaxcrxes and his son Sapor, had tri- 
 ersians. umphed (as we have already seen) over 
 
 the house of Arsaces. Of the many princes of tliat 
 ancient race, Chosroes, king of Armenia, had alone 
 preserved both his life and his independence. He de- 
 lended himself by the natural strength of his country ; 
 by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malecontents ; 
 by the alliance of the Romans, and, above all, bv his 
 own coura — t__:_. •, i • , . .. j 
 
 T.t L" tf i:i" r Lf:!!"=,f ''^-^r.?!^ ., 'l-'- impoHal Al'ave was eager to secre 
 
 war, he was at length assassinated by the emissaries 
 ot ^sapor king of Persia. The patriotic satraps of Ar- 
 menia, who asserted the freedom and dio-nity of the 
 crown, implored the protection of Rome m favour of 
 liridates tlie lawful heir. But the son of Chosroes 
 was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and tlie 
 Persian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the 
 head of an irresistible force. Young Tiridates, the fu- 
 ture hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity cf 
 a servant, and Armenia continued above twenty-seven 
 years a reluctant province of the great monarchy of 
 Persia. Llated witii tliis easy conquest, and presum- 
 ing on the distresses or the degeneracy of the Romans, 
 bapor obliged the strong garrison of Carrha3 and Nisi- 
 bis to surrender, and spread devastation and terror on 
 either side of the Euphrates. 
 
 Valerian marches The loss of an important frontier, the 
 into the Eust. niin of a fiiithful and natural ally, and the 
 rapid success of Sapor's ambition, affected Rome with 
 a deep sense of the insult as well as of the dano-er. 
 Valerian flattered himself, that the vigilance of "his 
 lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of 
 the Khine and of the Danube ; but he resolved, not- 
 withstanding his advanced age, to march in person to 
 the defence of the Euphrates. During his proo-ress 
 through Asia Minor, the naval enterprises of the (loths 
 were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed a 
 transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Eu- 
 phrates, encountered the Persian monarch near the 
 walls of Edessa, was vanquished, and taken prisoner 
 Is defeated and ^^ ^^POT. The particulars of this great 
 taken prisoner bv Gveut are darkly and imperfectly repre- 
 Sapor king Jf sented ; yet, by the glimmering iight 
 '^A. b. 260. '^vhich is afforded us, we may discover a 
 lo"J,' series of imprudence, of error, and' 
 of deserved misfortune on the side of the Roman em- 
 peror. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrianus, 
 his praetorian pra^fect." That worthless minister ren- 
 dered his master formidable only to the oppressed sub- 
 jects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome.'^ By 
 his weak or wicked counsels, the imperial army was 
 betrayed into a situation, where valour and military 
 skill were equally una vail ing.y The vigorous attempt 
 of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian 
 host was repulsed with great slaughter ;'= and Sapor, 
 who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, 
 patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and 
 pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious 
 murmurs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the 
 cause of their calamities ; their seditious clamours de- 
 manded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of 
 gold was offered to purciiase the permission of a dis- 
 graceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his 
 superiority, refused the money with disdain ; and de- 
 taining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the 
 foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal 
 conference with the emperor. Valerian was reduced 
 to the necessity of intrusting his life and dignity to 
 the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was 
 natural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, 
 
 103 
 
 and his astonished troops laid down their arms.* In 
 such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of 
 Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a 
 successor entirely dependant on his pleasure. Cy- 
 riades, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with 
 every vice, was chosen to dishonour the Roman purple • 
 and the will of tlie Persian victor could not fail of be- 
 ing ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of 
 the captive army.'' 
 
 Sa|>or 
 
 the favour of his master by an act of f^KcihcU^^^d 
 treason to his native country. He con- ^'"''''•'^*^"*''^- 
 ducted Sapor over the Euphrates, and, bv the way of 
 Chalets, to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were 
 the motions of the Persian cavalrv, that, if we may 
 credit a very judicious historian,'^ the city of Antioch 
 was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly 
 gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splen- 
 did buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, 
 were either pillaged or destroyed ; and the numerous 
 inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away into 
 captivity.<J The tide of devastation was stopped for a 
 moment by the resolution of the hiah priest of E mesa. 
 Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes he appeared at the 
 head of a great body cf fanatic peasants, armed only 
 with slings, and defended his god and his property 
 from tlie sacrilegious hands of the followers of Zoroas- 
 ter.« But the ruin of Tarsus, and of many other cities, 
 furnishes a melancholy proof, that, except in this sin- 
 gular instance, the conquest of Syria and Cilicia 
 scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian arms. 
 1 he advantages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus, 
 were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal 
 force consisted in his cavalry, would have been en- 
 gaged in a very unequal combat : and Sapor was per- 
 mitted to form the siege of Cssarea, the capital of 
 Cappadocia ; a city, though of the second rank, which 
 was supposed to contain four hundred thousand inha- 
 bitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not 
 so much by the commission of the emperor, as in the 
 voluntary defence of his country. For a long time he 
 deferred its fate; and, when at last Ca^sarea'^was be- 
 trayed by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his way 
 through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert 
 their utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic 
 chief escaped the power of a foe, who might either 
 have honoured or punished his obstinate valour; but 
 many thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved 
 in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treatino- 
 his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelt}^' 
 Much should undoubtedly be allowed for nalional ani- 
 mosity, much for humbled pride and impotent revenge ; 
 yet, upon the whole, it is certain, that the same priifce, 
 who, in Armenia, had displayed the mild aspect of a 
 legislator, showed himself to the Romans under the 
 stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making 
 any permanent establishment in the empire, and sought 
 only to leave behind him a wasted desert, Mhilst*he 
 transported into Persia the people and the treasures of 
 the provinces.5 
 
 At the time when the East trembled Boldness and suc- 
 at tne name ot Sapor, he received a pre- ccssof odcnathus 
 sentnotunworthy of the greatest kino-s; «*sainst Sapor. 
 a long train of camels laden with the most rare and val- 
 
 t Moses Chorenensis. I. ii. c. 71, 73, 74. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 6^8 
 The authentic relation of the Armenian historian serves to rectffv 
 the confused account of the Greek. 'I'he latter talks of the child en 
 of Tiridates, who at that time was himself an infant. 
 
 u Hist. Aug. p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to the Christians 
 they charged him with being a magician. 
 
 « Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. 
 
 y Hist. Aug. p. 174. 
 
 X Victor in Ciesar. Eutropius, ix 7. 
 
 a Zosimus, I. i. p. 33. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 630. Peter Patricias, in 
 the Exccrpta Legal, p. 29. 
 
 b Mist Auiiust. p. 18.>. The reign of Cyriades appears in that col- 
 lection prior to the deatjj of Valerian ; but I have preferred a prol-a- 
 hie series of events to the doubtful clironology of a most inaccurate 
 writer. 
 
 c The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians, is assigned, 
 by the decisive testimony of Ammiaaus iMarcellinus, to the rei<'ii of 
 Gallienus, xxiii. 5. " 
 
 d Zosimus. I. i. p, 35 
 
 c John Malala. torn. i. p. 391 He corrupts this probable event by 
 sonio fabulous circumstances. 
 
 f Zonaras, I. xii. p. 6:50. Deep valleys were filled up with the slain. 
 Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like beasts, and many pe- 
 rished for want of food. 
 
 6 Zosimus, I. i. p. 25, asserts, that Sapor, liad he not preferred 
 spoil to conquest, might have remained master of Asia. 
 
104 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 uable merchandises. The rich offering was accom- 
 panied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from 
 Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators 
 of Palmyra. " Who is this Odenathus," (said the 
 haughty victor, and he commanded that the presents 
 should be cast into the Euphrates) "that he thus in- 
 solently presumes to write to his lord ! If he enter- 
 tains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall 
 prostrate before the foot of our throne with his hands 
 bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift de- 
 struction shall be poured on his head, on his whole 
 race, and on his country. "•» The desperate extremity 
 to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into 
 action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sa- 
 por ; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spirit 
 into a little army collected from the viflages of Syria,' 
 and the tents of the desert,'' he hovered rotund the Per- 
 sian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the 
 treasure, and what was dearer than any treasure, se- 
 veral of the women of the jrreat king ; who was at last 
 obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks of 
 haste and confusion.' By this exploit, Odenathus laid 
 the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The 
 majesty of Jlome, oppressed by a Persian, was protect- 
 ed by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra. 
 Treatment of The voice of history, which is often 
 Valerian. Hule more than the organ of hatred or 
 flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the 
 rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in 
 chains, but invested with the imperial i)urple, was ex- 
 posed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen 
 greatness; and that wiienever the Persian monarch 
 mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck 
 of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the re- 
 monstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him 
 to remember the vicissitude of fortune, to dread the 
 returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious 
 captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult. 
 Sapor still remained inflexible. When Valerian sunk 
 under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed 
 with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human 
 figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated 
 temple of Persia ; a more real moriument of triumph, 
 than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often 
 erected by Roman vanit}^™ The tale is moral and 
 pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called 
 in question. The letters still extant from the princes 
 of the East to Sapor, are manifest forgeries;" nor is it 
 natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even 
 in the person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the ma- 
 jesty of kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate 
 Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least cer- 
 tain, that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fal- 
 len into the hands of the enemy, languished away his 
 life in hopeless captivity. 
 
 Character and The emperor Gallienus, who Ivad long 
 adminUiratioM of supported with impatience the censorial 
 oanienu.. severity of his father and colleague, re- 
 
 ceived the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret 
 pleasure and avowed indifference. "I knew that my 
 father was a mortal," said he; "and since he has act- 
 ed as becomes a brave man, I am satisfied." Whilst 
 Rome lamented the fate of her sovereign, the savage 
 coldness of his son was extolled by the" servile cour- 
 
 h Petor Patricias, in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29. 
 
 ' Syror.in. a^restium nianu. ^extus Riifus, c. 23. Rufns, Victor, 
 the Ausustan Il.story. (p. 102.) and several inscriptions agree in 
 makin'i Odenathus a citizen of I'almyra. fe ^ • 
 
 k He pos.ses.sed so powerful an interest amon? the wandcrin" 
 tribes that Procopius (Rcll. Persic. 1. ii.c.5.)Hnd John Malala (torn". 
 1. p. .<9J.) style hini Prince of the Saracens. 
 
 1 Peter Patricius, p. 2.3. 
 
 mTlic Pagan writers lament, the Christians insult, the misfor- 
 tunes of Valerian Their various testimonies are accurately collec- 
 ted by lilleuionl, torn. iii. p. 7:?9, Sec. So Utile has been preserved 
 o\ ea.stern history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are 
 totally Ignorant ot the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their 
 nation. Sec Bibliotheque Orientale. 
 
 n One of these epistles is from .Artavasdes, kin? of Armenia : since 
 Ar:nenia was then a province hi Persia, the king, the kingdom, and 
 tlic rpistlc, must be fictitious. ^ 
 
 tiers, as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic.® It 
 is difficult to paint the light, the various, the incon- 
 stant character of Gallienus, which he displayed with- 
 out constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of 
 the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively 
 genius enabled him to succeed ; and as his genius was 
 destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except 
 the important ones of war and government. He was 
 a master of several curious but useless sciences, a rea- 
 dy orator, and elegant poet,P a skilful gardener, an ex- 
 cellent cook, and most contemptible prince. Whep the 
 great emergencies of the state required his presence 
 and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the 
 philosopher Plotinus,i wasting his time in trifling or 
 licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the 
 Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopa- 
 gus of Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the 
 general poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs 
 impressed a deeper sense of the public disgrace.' The 
 repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebel- 
 lions, he received with a careless smile; and singling 
 out, with affected contempt, some particular production 
 of the lost province, he carelessly asked. Whether 
 Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with li- 
 nen from Egypt, and Arras cloth from Gaul ? There 
 were, however, a few short moments in the life of Gal- 
 lienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he 
 suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier, and the cruel 
 tyrant; till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by resis- 
 tance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and 
 indolence of his character." 
 
 At a time when the reins of govern- The thirty 
 ment were held with so loose a hand, tyrants, 
 it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers should 
 start up in every province of the empire against the 
 son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fan- 
 cy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of RomiB with the 
 thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of 
 the Augustan history to select that celebrated number, 
 which has been gradually received into a popular ap- 
 pellation.* But in every light the parallel is idle and 
 defective. What resemblance can we discover be- 
 tween a council of thirty persons, the united oppres- 
 sors of a single city, and an uncertain list of indepen- 
 dent rivals, who rose and fell in irrearular succession 
 through the extent of a vast empire 1 Nor can the num- 
 ber of thirty be completed, unless we include in the 
 account the women and children who were honoured 
 with the imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, dis- 
 tracted as it was, produced only nine- Their real num. 
 teen pretenders to the throne ; Cyriades, hrr was no more 
 Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Ze- ^*'°" "'"cteen. 
 nobia, in the East; in Gaul, and the western pro- 
 vinces, Posthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus and his mo- 
 ther Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 oSee his life in the Augustan History. 
 
 P There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamium, composed by 
 Gallienus, for the nuptials of hia nephews. 
 
 Ite ait, O Juveiies, pariter sudate nn'du!Iis 
 Oiiinihiis, inter vos: non murmiira vestra columbm, 
 Brachia non hedera*, non vincant oscula concha?. 
 
 q He was on the point of giving Plotinus a ruined city of Campa- 
 nia to try the e.xperiinent of realizing Plato's Republic. See the 
 Life of Plotinus, by Porphyry, in Fabririus's Biblioth. Grtec. 1. iv. 
 
 r A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has perplexed the 
 antiquarians by its legend and reverse ; the former OallientE jiujrns- 
 tie. tlie latter Ubiqve Pax. M. Spanheim supposes that the coin wa« 
 struck by some of the enettties of Gallienus, and was designed as a 
 severe satire on that effeminate prince. But as the use of irony may 
 seem unworthy of the gravity of the Roman mint. M. de Vallemont 
 has deduced from a passage of Trebellius Pollio(Hist. August, p. 
 198.) an ingenious and natural solution. Oalliena wan first cousin 
 to the emp*^ror. By delivering Africa from the usurper Celsus. she 
 deserved the title of Augusta. On a medal in the French king's col- 
 lection, we read a similar inscription of Faustina Jiugusta round 
 the head of M.ircus Aurelius. With regard to the Ubit/ue Paz, it is 
 easily explained by the vanity of Gallienus, whoseized, perhaps, the 
 occasion of some momentary calm. See Nouvelles de la Repubiiuue 
 des Lettres, J.mvier 1700, p. 20— 34. 
 
 » This sincular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to 
 us. The reign of hi.s immediate successor was short and busy : and 
 the historians who wrote before the elevation of the family of Con- 
 slantine could not have the most remote interest to misrepresent tlic 
 character of Gallienus. 
 
 t Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to complete the number 
 
 the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillianus, and 
 Aureolus ; m Pontus,« Saturninus ; in Isauria, Trebel- 
 hanus: Piso m Thessaly ; Valens in Achaia; ./Emili- 
 anus in Egypt; and Celsus in Africa. To illustrate 
 the obscure monuments of the life and death of each 
 individual, would prove a laborious task, alike barren 
 01 instruction and of amusement. We may content 
 ourselves with investigating some general characters, 
 that most strongly mark the condition of the times, 
 and the manners of the men, their pretensions, their 
 motives, their fate, and the destructive consequences 
 ot their usurpation.^ • ^ 
 
 Character and I' IS sufliclently known, that the 
 grants*''' "'" ""^'"l'^ appellation of Tyrant was often 
 /u -u , . «niployed by the ancients to express 
 the Illegal seizure of supreme power, without any re- 
 ference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders 
 who raised the standard of rebellion against the empe- 
 ror Ga lenus, were shining models of virtue, and al- 
 most all possessed a considerable share of vigour and 
 ability. Their merit had recommended them to the 
 favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to 
 the most important commands of the empire. The 
 generals, who assumed the title of Augustus, were 
 either respected by their troops for their able conduct 
 and severe discipline, or admired for valour and suc- 
 cess in war, or beloved for frankness and generositv. 
 I he field of victory was often the scene of their elec- 
 tion; and even the armourer Marius, the most con- 
 temptible of all the candidates for the purple, was dis- 
 tinguished, however, by intrepid courage, matchless 
 strength, and blunt honesty.- His mean and recent 
 trade cast mdeed an air of ridicule on his elevation ; 
 Their obscure but his birth could not be more obscure 
 birth than was that of the greater part of his 
 rivals, who were born of peasants, and enlisted in the 
 army as private soldiers.^ In times of confusion, eve- 
 ry active gemus finds the place assigned him by na- 
 ture; m a general state of war, military merit is the 
 road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen ty- 
 rants, retricus only was a senator; Piso alone was a 
 noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight suc- 
 cessive generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius 
 Piso,' who, by female alliances, claimed a right of ex- 
 hibiting, m his house, the images of Crassus and of 
 the great Pompey.^ His ancestors had been repeated- 
 ly dignified with all the honours which the common- 
 wealth could bestow ; and of all the ancient families 
 ot Kome, the Calphurnian alone had survived the ty- 
 rariny of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso 
 added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, by 
 whose order he was killed, confessed with deep re- 
 morse, that even an enemy ought to have respected the 
 sanctity of Piso ; and although he died in arms against 
 Gallienus, the senate, with the emperor's generous 
 permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the 
 memory of so virtuous a rebel.'' 
 
 The causes of The lieutenants of Valerian werp orafp 
 their rebellion. M to ih,=^ A,tK^. „,u lu ff^ate- 
 
 ^A rru A'^ • i tather, whom they esteem- 
 ed. They disdained to serve the luxurious indo- 
 lence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman 
 world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty ; 
 
 105 
 
 « The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful ; but there teas » 
 mhels. " ' ""^ "^ acquainted with the seat of aTl U,e 
 
 * Tilletnonf, torn. iii. p. 1163, reckons them somewhat di/Teremiv 
 X See the speech of Marius. in the Augustan History nmrh' 
 nrcidenial identity of names was the only circnmst7nZ' thii .1,^ 
 temnt Pollio to imitate Sallust. ^ circumstance that could 
 
 y [Marinus was killed by a soldier who formerly had served him as 
 a workman m his shop, and who exclaimed aJ he struck lim 
 ;;^^ee ! tlie sword which you yourself made !" (Treb. fn Ej5s vTt^^ 
 
 ' Vos, O Pompilius sanguis ! is Horace's address to the Pi«o« ««« 
 Art Poet. y. 292. with Dacier's and Sanadon's notS ^^^ 
 
 • Tacit. Annal. xv. 48. Hist. 1. 15. In the former of these nns.=,.rn- 
 we may venture to change patema into materna Jn cvefvSf « 
 tion from Augustus to Alexander Scverus, one or more S^ann/.; 
 as consuls. A Piso was deemed worthy of the throne bvT,tF.^,.f^ 
 (Tacit Annal. i 13.) A second headed a forSbl^ cons^o^ra.v 
 against Nero ; and a third was adopted and declared Cffsarhvr/iK^ 
 
 b Hist. August, p. 195. The senate, in a moment J? emh^ufi^im' 
 seen,., to have presumed on the approbation of Gajfienus! "''"'' 
 
 Vol. 1. — O 
 
 and treason against such a prince might easily be con- 
 sidered as patriotism to the state, "^et if we examine 
 with candour the conduct of these usurpers. It wflUo- 
 
 ^J^f n\ "'^" ,"'•5^'* '» *' by their ambition. 
 They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus- thev 
 equally dreaded the capricio*us violence of heir t'roopi 
 
 Seted afe^'/'"''"''^'^^ l""y ''^"» imprudenSy 
 declared them deserving of the purple, thev were 
 
 Z,n,ll 1' ""'f "^^=''"«'»" ; «"<) even prudencJw'u d 
 counsel them to secure a short enjoyment of empire 
 and rather to try the fortune of war than to expe^f the 
 hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the 
 soldiers invested the reluctant victims with the ensigns 
 of sovereign authority, they sometimes mourned in V 
 cret their approaching fate. " You have lost," said 
 Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, "yoi have 
 
 wStcV/^emp^rT'^^' ^'"' '"" "^^ --^^ ^ -^ 
 
 revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who started up 
 under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one whS 
 enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As s^on 
 as they were invested with the bloody purple, they in- 
 spired their adherents with the same fLs^ and ambl 
 tion which had occasioned their own revolt. Encm- 
 passed with domestic conspiracy, military sedTtio^ 
 and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precip ces' 
 n which, after a onger or shorter tfrm of anx ety' 
 they were inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs 
 received, however, such honours, as the flattery of 
 their respective armies and provinces could bestow- 
 but their claim founded on rebellion, could never obten 
 the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome anH tiH 
 senate, constantly adhered t^o the c^ise orCalHenus 
 and he alone was considered as the sovereign of the 
 r/f% ^-^f P-""^" condescended, indeed, to acknow! 
 hp Hnn Victorious arms of Odenathus, who deserved 
 the honourable distinction by the respectful conduct 
 \yhich he always maintained towards the son of Vale- 
 rian. With the general applause of the Romans, and 
 the consent of Gallienus, the senate conferred the title 
 
 rntni".fbt'"' V^l^"^""' Palmyrenian ; and seemed to 
 intrust him with the government of the East, which 
 he already possessed, in so independent a manner, that, 
 Ike a private succession, he bequeathed it to his illus- 
 trious widow Zenobia.* 
 
 The rapid and perpetual transitions p„. , 
 from the cottage to the throne, and from Ji^cnLroT'thei,. 
 tne throne to the grave, might have usurpations, 
 amused an indifferent philosopher; were it possible 
 for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the gen- 
 eral calamities of human kind. The election of these 
 precarious emperors, their power and their death, were 
 equally destructive to their subjects and adherents. 
 
 K P'i? ?u ^^^'' ^^^^^ elevation was instantly dis- 
 charged to the troops, by an immense donative, drawn 
 Irom the bowels of the exhausted people. However 
 ZT7JV^J character, however pure their inten- 
 tions, they found themselves reduced to the hard ne- 
 cessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts 
 of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved 
 armies and provinces m their fall. There is still ex- 
 tant a inost savage mandate from Gallienus to one of 
 his ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who 
 had assumed the purple in Illyricum. "It is not 
 enough,' says that soft but inhuman prince, " that ^ 
 you externimate such as have appeared in arms : the " ' 
 chance of battle might have served me as effectually. 
 1 he male sex of every age must be extirpated: pro- 
 vided that, m the execution of the children and old 
 men, you can contrive means to save our reputation. 
 Let every one die who has dropped an expression, 
 
 c Hist. August, p. 196. 
 
 d The association of the brave Palmyrenian was the moat DOnuLr 
 act of the whole reign of Gallienus. Hist. August, p. leo ^^ 
 
 'v"^" 
 
104 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 uahle merchandises. The rich offering was accom- 
 panied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from 
 Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators 
 of Palmyra. " Who is this Odenathus," (said the 
 haufrhty victor, and he commanded that the presents 
 should be cast into the Euphrates) "that he thus in- 
 solently presumes to write to his lord ! If he enter- 
 tains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall 
 prostrate before the foot of our throne with his hands 
 bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift de- 
 struction shall be poured on his head, on his whole 
 race, and on his country. '"> The desperate extremity 
 to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into 
 action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sa- 
 por ; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spirit 
 into a little army collected from the viHages of Syria,' 
 and the tents of the desert,'^ he hovered rolmd the Per- 
 sian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the 
 treasure, and what was dearer than any treasure, se- 
 veral of the women of the great king ; who was at last 
 obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks of 
 haste and confusion.' By this exploit, Odenathus laid 
 the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The 
 majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was protect- 
 ed by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra. 
 Trratment of The voice of history, which is often 
 Vaiurian. Hulo more than the organ of hatred or 
 flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the 
 lights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in 
 chains, but invested with the imperial purple, was ex- 
 posed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen 
 greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch 
 mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck 
 of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the re- 
 monstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him 
 to remember the vicissitude of fortune, to dread the 
 returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious 
 captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult. 
 Sapor still remained itiflexible. When Valerian sunk 
 under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed 
 with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human 
 figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated 
 temple of Persia ; a more real monument of triumph, 
 than the f^mcied trophies of brass and marble so often 
 erected by Roman vanity*™ The tale is moral and 
 pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called 
 in question. The letters still extant from the princes 
 of the East to Sapor, are manifest forgeries;" nor is it 
 natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even 
 in the person of a rival, thus publicly dejirade the ma- 
 jesty of kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate 
 Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least cer- 
 tain, that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fal- 
 len into the hands of the enemy, languished away his 
 life in hopeless captivity. 
 
 Charartor and The cmpcror GalHenus, who Ifad long 
 admiriisiraiioi.uf supported with impatience the censorial 
 ;"""•" severity of his father and colleague, re- 
 
 ceived the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret 
 pleasure and avowed indifference. "I knew that my 
 father was a mortal," said he; "and since he has act- 
 ed as becomes a brave man, I am satisfied." Whilst 
 Rome lamented the fiue of her sovereign, the savao-e 
 coldness of his son was extolled by the° servile cour- 
 
 tiers, as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic." It 
 is difficult to paint the light, the various, the incon- 
 stant character of Gallienus, which he displayed with- 
 out constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of 
 the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively 
 genius enabled him to succeed ; and as his genius was 
 destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except 
 the important ones of war and government. He was 
 a master of several curious but useless sciences, a rea- 
 dy orator, and elegant poet,P a skilful gardener, an ex- 
 cellent cook, and most contemptible prince. When the 
 great emergencies of the state required his presence 
 and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the 
 philosopher Plotinus,'' wasting his time in trifling or 
 licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to°the 
 Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopa- 
 gus of Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the 
 general poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs 
 impressed a deeper sense of the public disgrace.' The 
 repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebel- 
 lions, he received with a careless smile; and singling 
 out, with affected contempt, some particular production 
 of the lost province, he carelessly asked. Whether 
 Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with li- 
 nen from Egypt, and Arras cloth from Gaul ? There 
 \yere, however, a few short moments in the life of Gal- 
 lienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he 
 suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier, and the cruel 
 tyrant; till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by resis- 
 tance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and 
 indolence of his character.' 
 
 At a time when the reins of govern- The thirty 
 ment were held with so loose a hand, tyrants, 
 it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers should 
 start up in every province of the empire against the 
 son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fan- 
 cy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the 
 thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of 
 the Augustan history to select that celebrated number, 
 which has been gradually received into a popular ap- 
 pellation.' Rut in every light the parallel is idle and 
 defective. What resemblance can we discover be- 
 tween a council of thirty persons, the united oppres- 
 sors of a single city, and an uncertain list of indepen- 
 dent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession 
 through the extent of avast empire? Korean the num- 
 ber of thirty be completed, unless we include in the 
 account the women and children who were honoured 
 with the imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, dis- 
 tracted as it was, produced only nine- Their real num. 
 teen pretenders to the throne ; Cyriades, t>«^r was no more 
 Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Ze- *''"" "'"^^^cen. 
 nobia, in the East; in Gaul, and the western pro- 
 vinces, Posthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus and his mo- 
 ther Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 h Petor Patricius, in Excerpt. Lejy. p. 29. 
 
 • Syroriiiii aurcstiuni inarin. Sextus Rufus, c. 23. Rufus Virtor 
 the Augusta,, Il.story, (p. V^2.) nm\ several inscriptrns agrce/n 
 inakinir Odenathus a citizen of Talinyra. 
 
 k fie possessed so powerful an interest amon? tlie wandering 
 tribes that Procopius (Rcll. Persic. I. ii.c.5.)and John Maiaia (toin". 
 1. p. .m.) style him Prince of tlie Saracens. 
 
 1 Peter Patricius, p. 25. 
 
 mTlie Pasan writers lament, the Christians insult, the misfor- 
 tunes of Valerian Their various testimonies are accurately collec- 
 ted by 1 illeiiionl, torn. iii. p. TH9, &c. So little has been preserved 
 ot eastern history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are 
 totally Ignorant ot the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their 
 nation. Sec Bibliotheque Orientale. 
 
 n One of tiicse ei)ist!esis from Artavasdes. kinjj of Armenia since 
 Armeiiia was then a province ui Persia, the king, the kingdom, and 
 the ♦ pistlc, must be nctitious. *' ' 
 
 oSee his life in the Aufrustan History. 
 
 P There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamium, composed by 
 Gallienus, for the nuptials of his nephews. 
 
 Ite ait, O Juvenes, pariter sudate niedullis 
 Omnibus, inter vos : noii murmiira vestra columb.T, 
 Brachia non hedera?, non vincant oscula conchsR. 
 
 q He was on the point of giving Plotinus a ruined city of Campa* 
 nia to try the experiment of realizing Plato's Republic. See the 
 Life of Plotinus, by Porphyry, in Fabricius's Biblioth. Grsec. 1. iv. 
 
 r A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has perplexed the 
 antiquarians by its legend and reverse; the former QalUencB Augns- 
 to;, the latter Ubiqvc Pax. M. Spanheim supposes that the coin wai 
 struck by some of the eneiftios of Gallienus, and was designed as a 
 severe satire on that effeminate prince. But as the use of irony may 
 seem unworthy of the gravity of the Roman mint. M. de Vallemont 
 has deduced from a passage of Trcbellius Pollio (Hist. August, p, 
 198.) an ingenious and natural .solution. Oalliena was first cousin 
 to the emporor. By delivering Africa from the usurper Celsus. she 
 deserved the title of Augusta. On a medal in the French king's col- 
 lection, we read a similar inscription of Faustina Jlugusta round 
 the head of Marcus Aurelius. With regard to the Ubi^ue Paz, it is 
 easily explained by the vanity of Gallienus, whoseized, |)crhaps, the 
 occasion of some momentary calm. See Nouvelles de la Republiuue 
 des Lettres, Janvier 1700, p. 20— 34. 
 
 » This sincular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to 
 us. The reign of his immediate successor was short and busy : and 
 the historians who wrote before the elevation of the family of Con- 
 slantine could not have the most remote interest to misrepresent the 
 character of Gallienus. 
 
 < Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to complete the number 
 
 Character and 
 merit of the 
 tyrants. 
 
 the confines of the Danube, In^enuus, Regillianus, and 
 Aureolus; m Pontus," Saturninus ; in Isauria, Tr^bel- 
 lianus: Piso in Thessaly; Valens in Achaia; ^mili- 
 anus in Lgypt; and Celsus in Africa. To illustrate 
 the obscure monuments of the life and death of each 
 individual, would prove a laborious task, alike barren 
 ot instruction and of amusement. We may content 
 ourselves with investigating some general characters, 
 that most strongly mark the condition of the times 
 and the manners of the men, their pretensions, their 
 motives, their fate, and the destructive consequences 
 of their usurpation.^ • ^ 
 
 It is sufficiently known, that the 
 odious appellation of Tj/rant was often 
 .V, -11 1 • ^"'P^^iyed by the ancients to express 
 the Illegal seizure of supreme power, without any re- 
 ference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders 
 who raised the standard of rebellion against the empe- 
 ror Ga lenus, were shining models of virtue, and al- 
 most all possessed a considerable share of vigour and 
 ability. Their merit had recommended them to the 
 favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to 
 the most important commands of the empire. The 
 generals, who assumed the title of Auorustus, were 
 either respected by their troops for their able conduct 
 and severe discipline, or admired for valour and suc- 
 cess in war, or beloved for frankness and generositv. 
 J he field of victory was often the scene of their elec- 
 tion; and even the armourer Marius, the most con- 
 temptible of all the candidates for the purple, was dis- 
 tinguished, however, by intrepid courage, matchless 
 strength, and blunt honesty.- His mean and recent 
 trade cast indeed an air of ridicule on his elevation ; 
 Their obscure but his birth could not be more obscure 
 birth than was that of the greater part of his 
 rivals, who were born of peasants, and enlisted in the 
 army as private soldiers.i In times of confusion, eve- 
 ry active genius finds the place assigned him by na- 
 ture; in a general state of war, military merit is the 
 road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen ty- 
 rants, Tetricus only was a senator; Piso alone was a 
 noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eicrht suc- 
 cessive generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius 
 Piso,' who, by female alliances, claimed a right of ex- 
 hibiting, m his house, the images of Crassui and of 
 
 I^/'^ -fi A^'^'KK P'^ ancestors had been repeated- 
 ly dignified with all the honours which the common- 
 wealth could bestow ; and of all the ancient families 
 ot Rome, the Calphurnian alone had survived the ty- 
 ranny of the Caisars. The personal qualities of Piso 
 added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, bv 
 whose order he was killed, confessed with deep re- 
 morse, that even an enemy ought to have respected the 
 sanctity of Piso; and although he died in armsagainst 
 Galheniis, the senate, with the emperor's generous 
 permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the 
 memory of so virtuous a rebel.*' 
 The causes of The lieutenants of Valerian were o-rafp- 
 
 their rebo ion. f„l tn t)i« fotk«- " ^^ la" v> ere graie- 
 
 ^A T^i, A- A • i ^^'^^'' ^^°^" ^^^'y esteem- 
 ed. They disdained to serve the luxurious indo- 
 lence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman 
 world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty • 
 
 105 
 
 u The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful; but there itaq n 
 ither" . '" '' °"^ ""^ "^ acquainted with the seat of aTlJhe 
 
 ^ SlU^.Tf "'' ^°?- r'«P- ^^^* reckons them somewhat difTerentlv 
 X See the speech of Marius, in the Augustan HisiorrD 197 tL 
 
 accidental identity of names was the only c rcumatanr^' th J; ! 
 
 tempt Pollio to imitate Sallust. ^ circumstance that could 
 
 y [Marinus was killed bj- a soldier who formerlv hiH o«.r.,o^ »,! 
 a workman in his shop.'^and who exdSd 'iJ t^^ IS h m !! 
 _^e ! the sword winch you yourself made !" (Treb. L Ejus vTtJo 
 
 * Vos, O Pompilius sanguis ! is Horace's address to the PIsoq «s»„ 
 Art Poet. y. 292. wiili Dacier's and Sanadon's notes ^'^ 
 
 • Tacit. Annal. xv. 48. Hist. 1. 15. In the former of these nn«,„«e 
 we may venture to change pat.ma into materna In evIrySff 
 tion from Augustus to Alexander Scverus, oneor more PiiLl^ ^' 
 ^Tlc^Ann^^ 'I'^^^.^^feemed worthy oVtheU.ronTbvTuSus'' 
 (Tacit Annal. i 13.) A second headed a formidable' consHrarJ 
 against Nero ; and a third was adopted and declared C^sarhCrLiK^ 
 
 b Hist. August, p. 195 The senate, in a moment of enth^u^ial'' 
 seems to have presumed on the approbation of Gallienus!""' 
 Vol. 1. — O 
 
 and treason against such a prince might easily be con- 
 sidered as patriotism to the state, fet if we examine 
 with candour the conduct of these usurpers! it wUUd- 
 pear that they were much oftener driveSrebe Ho^n 
 
 Thev d eiTt'h """' ,"'«"''■ '" " ^y '^^" '"nl'ition" 
 1 hey dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus- thev 
 
 egually dreaded the capricious violence of their t,oopi^ 
 
 declared fh^'/'"'"''^'^' ""^ ^-"^ imprudemly 
 declared them deserving of the purple, tl cv were 
 
 marked for sure destruction ; and even prudencTw'ouM 
 
 counsel them to secure a short enjoyment of empire 
 
 and rather to try the fortune of war than to expe"f the 
 
 hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the 
 
 sold ers invested the reluctant victims with the ensigns 
 
 cretTfrnT ^""•""'^•''^y sometimes mourned in^se^ 
 cret their approaching fate. " You have lost," said 
 Saturninus on the day of his elevation, " yoi have 
 
 vtt^h J ' <=<'""",';'>der, and you have made a very 
 wretched emperor. "« ^ 
 
 iulified''hr'',f "''""' °^^^*"™'""^ «'"« Their .iol„. 
 just hed by the repeated experience of deaths. 
 
 revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who started ud 
 
 under the reign of Gallienus. there was not one whS 
 
 enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As soon 
 
 as they were invested with the bloody purple thev in 
 
 spired their adherents with the same^f^rTa^d amb" 
 
 pas"et' with'"^""'''';""''^ ""^'"«" '-o'* Encom- 
 passed with domestic conspiracy, military sedition 
 and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precip Tes' 
 
 nwhich.after a onger or shorter tirm of anx etv 
 they were inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs 
 received, however, such honours as the flattery of 
 
 heir respective armies and provinces could besfow- 
 but their claim, founded on rebellion, could never obt^l; 
 the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome and th2 
 senate, constantly adhered to the caise of GaHitnu, 
 and he alone was considered as the sovereign of the 
 empire That prince condescended, indeed, to acknow! 
 edge the victorious arms of Odenathus, who deserved 
 the honourable distinction by the respectful conduct 
 which he always maintained towards the son of Vale- 
 nan. With the general applause of the Romans, and 
 the consent of Gallienus, {he senate conferred the title 
 
 fnlnThT" ""Ik'".!''"^" Palmyrenian ; and seemed o 
 intrust him with the government of the East, which 
 he already possessed, in so independent a manner, thaL 
 Ike a private succession, he bequeathed it to his illus- 
 trious widow Zenobia.* 
 The rapid and perpetual transitions p„ , 
 
 thrtbronT'^^t,'" "•" *'°""'.' ^"<' f™"' ^-n- ""■„..» 
 
 me inrone to the grave, might have usurpations. 
 ZTlr ^"^^^!^^"t philosopher; were it possible 
 for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the gen! 
 eral calamities of human kind. The election of these 
 precarious emperors, their power and their death, were 
 equally destructive to their subjects and adherent^! 
 
 It P'J? ?u '^^' ^^'l^ "^^^^^i°" ^as instantly diV 
 charged to the troops, by an immense donative, drawn 
 from the bowels of the exhausted people. However 
 virtuous was their character, however pure their intln- 
 tions, they found themselves reduced to the hard ne- 
 cessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts 
 of rapine and cruelty. When they fell,'they involved 
 armies and provinces in their fall. There is still ex- 
 tant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of 
 his ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who 
 had assumed the purple in Illyricum. "It is not 
 enough," says that soft but inhuman prince, " that - 
 you externimate such as have appeared In arms : the " 
 chance of battle might have served me as effectually. 
 1 he male sex of every age must be extirpated ; pro- 
 vided that, in the execution of the children and old 
 men, you can contrive means to save our reputation. 
 Let every one die who has dropped an expression, 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 c Hist. August, p. 196. 
 
 d The association of the brave Palmyrenian was the most ivAnnl.r 
 act of the whole reign of Gallienus. Hist. August, p 160 ^^ 
 
106 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 who has entertained a thought against me, against me, 
 the son of Valerian, the father and brother of so many 
 princes.* Remember that Ingcnuus was made empe- 
 ror : tear, kill, hew in pieces. I write to you with my 
 own hand, and would inspire you with my own feel- 
 ings.'" Whilst the public forces of the state were 
 dissipated in private quarrels, the defenceless pro- 
 vinces lay exposed to every invader. The bravest 
 usurpers were compelled, by the perplexity of their 
 situation, to conclude ignominious treaties with the 
 common enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes 
 the neutrality or services of the barbarians, and to in- 
 troduce hostile and independent nations into the heart 
 of the Roman monarchy.* 
 
 Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, 
 who, under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dis- 
 membered the provinces, and reduced the empire to 
 the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin, from whence it 
 seemed impossible that it should ever emerge. As 
 far as the barrenness of materials would permit, we 
 have attempted to trace, with order and perspicuity, 
 the general events of that calamitous period. There 
 still remain some particular facts : L The disorders 
 of Sicily ; IL The tumults of Alexandria ; and, IIL 
 The rebellion of the Isaurians, which may serve to 
 reflect a strong light on the horrid picture. 
 
 Disorders of L Whenever numerous troops of ban- 
 Sicily, ditti, multiplied by success and impuni- 
 ty, publicly defy, instead of eluding, the justice of 
 their country, we may safely infer, that the excessive 
 weakness of the government is felt and abused by the 
 lowest ranks of the community. The situation of 
 Sicily preserved it from the barbarians ; nor could the 
 disarmed province have supported an usurper. The 
 sufferings of that once flourishing and still fertile 
 island, were inflicted by baser hands. A licentious 
 crowd of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over 
 the plundered country, and renewed the memory of 
 the servile wars of more ancient times.'* Devastations, 
 of which the husbandman was either the victim or the 
 accomplice, must have ruined the agriculture of Sici- 
 ly ; and as the principal estates were the property of 
 the opulent senators cff Rome, who often enclosed 
 within a farm the territory of an old republic, it is not 
 improbable, that this private injury might aflfect the 
 capital more deeply than all the conquests of the Goths 
 or the Persians. 
 
 Tumults of Alex- IL The foundation of Alexandria 
 andria. ^as a noble design, at once conceived 
 
 and executed by the son of Philip. The beautiful 
 and regular form of that great city, second only to 
 Rome itself, comprehended a circumference of fifteen 
 miles ; ' it was peopled by three hundred thousand 
 free inhabitants, besides at least an equal number of 
 slaves.'' The lucrative trade of Arabia and India 
 flowed through the port of Alexandria to the capital 
 and provinces of the empire. Idleness was unlcnown. 
 Some were employed in blowing of glass, others in 
 weaving of linen, others again manufacturing the pa- 
 pyrus. Either sex, and every age, was engaged in 
 the pursuits of industry, nor did even the blind°or the 
 lame want occupations suited to their condition.' But 
 the people of Alexandria, a various mixture of nations, 
 united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks with 
 
 e Gallfenus had given the titles of Ctrsar and Auijustiia to his son 
 Baloninus, slain at Cologne by ihe usurper Posthuinus. A second son 
 of Gallienus succeeded to the name an«l rank of his cider brother 
 Valerian, the brother of GallienuR, was also associated to the em- 
 pire : several other brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieres of the em- 
 peror, formed a very numerous royal family. See Tillemont torn 
 iii. and M. de Brequigny in the Mcmoires de I'Academie. torn Axxii 
 p. 262. 
 
 f Hist. August, p. \89. 
 
 K Re»illianu8 had some bands of Roxolani in his service. Postliu- 
 mus a body of Franks. It was perhaps in the character of auxilia- 
 ries that the latter introduced thcmselvrs into Spain. 
 
 h Tlie Augustan History, p, 177. calls it servile bellum. See Dio- 
 dor. Sicul. I. xxxiv. 
 
 i Plin Hist. Natur. v. 10. 
 
 k Diodor. Sicul. 1. xvii. p. 500. Edit. Wesseling. 
 See a very curious letter of Hadrian, in the Augustan History, p. 
 S45. 
 
 the superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. The 
 most trifling occasion, a transient scarcity of flesh or 
 lentiles, the neglect of an accustomed salutation, a 
 mistake of precedency in the public baths, or even a 
 religious dispute,™ were at any time sufficient to 
 kindle a sedition among that vast multitude, whose 
 resentments were furious and implacable." After the 
 captivity of Valerian and the insolence of his son had 
 relaxed the authority of the laws, the Alexandrians 
 abandoned themselves to the ungoverned rage of their 
 passions, and their unhappy country was the theatre 
 of a civil wari w hich continued (with a few short and 
 suspicious truces) above twelve years." All inter- 
 course was cut off between the several quarters of the 
 afflicted city, every street was polluted with blood, 
 every building of strength converted into a citadel ; 
 nor did the tumults subside, till a considerable part of 
 Alexandria was irretrievably ruined. The spacious 
 and magnificent district of Bruchion, with its palaces 
 and museum, the residence of the kings and philoso- 
 phers of Egypt, is described above a century after- 
 wards, as already reduced to its present state of dreary 
 solitude.P 
 
 III. The obscure rebellion of Trebel- Rebellion of the 
 lianus, who assumed the purple in Isau- Isaurians. 
 ria, a petty province of Asia Minor, was attended with 
 strange and memorable consequences. The pageant 
 of royalty was soon destroyed by an officer of Gallie- 
 nus ; but his followers, despairing of mercy, resolved 
 to shake off* their allegiance, not only to the emperor, 
 but to the empire, and suddenly returned to the savage 
 manners, from which they had never perfectly been re- 
 claimed. Their craggy rocks, a branch of the wide 
 extended Taurus, protected their inaccessible retreat. 
 The tillage of some fertile valleys'* supplied them 
 with necessaries, and a habit of rapine with the luxu- 
 ries of life. In the lieart of the Roman monarchy, the 
 Isaurians long continued a nation of wild barbarians. 
 Succeeding princes,, unable to reduce them to obe- 
 dience, either by arms or policy, were compelled to 
 acknowledge their weakness, by surrounding the hos- 
 tile and independent spot with a strong chain of forti- 
 fications,' which often proved insufficient to restrain 
 the incursions of these domestic foes. The Isaurians, 
 gradually extending their territory to the sea-coast, 
 subdued the western and mountainous parts of Cili- 
 cia, formerly the nest of those daring pirates, against 
 whom the republic had once been obliged to exert 
 its utmost force, under the conduct of the great 
 Pompey.* 
 
 Our habits of thinking so fondly con- Famine and pes- 
 nect the order of the universe with the tilcncc. 
 fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been 
 decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon 
 meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodi- 
 gies, fictitious or exaggerated.' But a long and gen- 
 eral f^imine was a calamity of a more serious kind. It 
 was the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppres- 
 sion, which extirpated the produce of the present, and 
 the hope of future harvests. Famine is almost always 
 followed by epidemical diseases, the eflfcct of scanty 
 and unwholesome food. Other causes must, however, 
 have contributed to the furious plague, which, from 
 the year two hundred and fifty to the year two hun- 
 dred and sixty-five, raged without interruption in 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ni Such as the sacrilegious murder of a divine cat. See Diodor. 
 Sicul. I. i. 
 
 n Hist. August, p. 19.1. This long and terrible sedition was first 
 occasioned by a dispute between a soldier and a townsman about a 
 pair of shoes. 
 
 Dionysius apud Euseb. Hist. Ecclcs. vol. vii. p. 21. Ammian. 
 xxii. 16. 
 
 P Scaliger. Animadver. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 258. Three disserta- 
 tions of M. nonamy, in the Mem. de I'Academie, torn. ix. 
 
 [The Bruchion wjis a quarter of Alexandria which extended along 
 the largest of the two harbours, and which contained many palaces 
 occupied bythc Ptolemies, (D'Anville gcocr. anc. vol. iii. p. 10.)— O.l 
 
 q Strabo, I. xii. p. 509. ^ 
 
 J Hist. August, p. 197. 
 See Cellarius, (Jeogr. Aatiq. torn. ii. p. 137. upon tbe limits of 
 \dauria. 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 177. 
 
 every province, every city, and almost every family, 
 of the Ronian empire. During some time five thousand 
 persons died daily m Rome; and many towns, that 
 de o^u'^fi « ""^^^^ barbarians, were entirely 
 
 Diminution of the We havc the knowledge of a very 
 uman species, curious circumstance, of some use pef- 
 liaps m the melancholy calculation of human calami- 
 ties. All exact register was kept at Alexandria, of 
 all the citizens entitled to receive the distribution of 
 corn. It was found, that the ancient number of those 
 comprised between the ages of forty and seventy, had 
 been equal to the whole sum of claimants, froni four- 
 teen to fourscore years of age, who remained alive 
 ^[oVA "f/^" ^^ Gallienus.- Applying this authen- 
 tic tact to the most correct tables of mortality, it evi- 
 ^Tl P'^^^^.^^t ^bove half the people of Alexan- 
 dria had perished ; and could we venture to extend 
 the analogy to the other provinces, we might suspect, 
 that war, pestilence, and famine, had consumed, in a 
 tew years, the moiety of the human species.y 
 
 107 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Hei^rn of Claudius.— Defeat of the Goths.— Victories, 
 tnumphj and death of Aureliaii. 
 
 Under the deplorable reign of Valerian and Gallie- 
 nus, the empire was oppressed and almost destroyed 
 by the soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians. It 
 was saved by a series of great princes, who derived 
 their obscure origm from the martial provinces of II- 
 U'riciim. Within a period of about thirty years, 
 Claudius, Aurehan, Probus, Diocletian, and his col- 
 leagues, triumphed over the foreign and domestic ene- 
 mies of the state, re-established, with the military 
 discipline, the strength of the frontiers, and deserved 
 the glorious title of restorers of the Roman world. 
 Aureolus invades '^^^ removal of an efl'eminate tyrant 
 Italy, is defeated, made w^ay for a succession of heroes 
 and^^ besieged at The indignation of the people imputed 
 all their calamities to Gallienus, and the 
 tar greater part were, indeed, the consequences of his 
 dissolute manners and careless administration. He 
 was even destitute of a sense of honour, which so 
 frequently supplies the absence of public virtue ; and 
 as long as he was permitted to enjoy the possession 
 of Italy, a victory of the barbarians, the loss of a pro- 
 vince, or the rebellion of a general, seldom disturbed 
 the tranquil course of his pleasures. At length, a 
 A. D. 268. considerable army, stationed on the Up- 
 1 .u • 1 P^^ I^a"ube, invested with the imperial 
 purple their leader Aureolus ; who disdaining a con- 
 fined and barren reign over the mountains of Rhietia 
 passed the Alps, occupied Milan, threatened Rome 
 and challenged Gallienus to dispute in the field the 
 sovereignty of Italy. The emperor, provoked by the 
 insult, and alarmed by the instant danger, suddenly 
 exerted that latent vigour, which sometimes broke 
 through the indolence of his temper. Forcing him- 
 self from the luxury of the palace, he appeared in 
 arms at the head of his legions, and advanced beyond 
 the Po to encounter his competitor. The corrupted 
 name of Pontirolo" still preserves the memory of a 
 bridge over the Adda, which, durin g the action, must 
 
 u Hist. August, p. 177. Zosimus, I. i. n. 24. Zonaraq 1 rii n 
 
 ^^:^'sz^:.^:^^ - ^p^-- 'Vici^^;?^^rf "eS: 
 
 X Euseb. Hist Eccles vii, Sii. The fact is taken from the Letters 
 of D.ony.ms. who. in the time of those troubles, was I>i?hop of Alei 
 
 y In a great number of parishes 1 1,000 persons were found between 
 fourteen and eighty • 5^65 between forty and seventy See Buffon 
 Hiatoire Naturelle.tom. ii. p. 590. cvcmy. ote ounon, 
 
 . Pons Aureoli, thirteen miles from Bergamo, and thirty-two from 
 Milan. See Cluver. Italia Antiq. torn. i. p. 245. Near this nKcei^ 
 Sn VV V'^-^'i"! °''«^'"«»« '»attle of Cassano was foight between 
 the French and Austrians. The excellent relation of the ChevS 
 
 S^n plf f''^"?^'^^'/'''''^"^' Bivesa very distinct idea of the ground 
 See Polybe dc Folard, toin. iii. p. 223—248. grouna. 
 
 have proved an object of the utmost importance to 
 both armies. The Rhatian usurper, after receiving a 
 total defeat and a dangerous wound, retired into Mi- 
 lan. The siege of that great city was immediately 
 termed ; the walls were battered with every enffine in 
 use among the ancients ; and Aureolus, doubtful of 
 his internal strength, and hopeless of foreign suc- 
 cours, already anticipated the fatal consequences of 
 unsuccessful rebellion. 
 
 His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loy- 
 alty of the besiegers. He scattered libels through 
 their camp, inviting the troops to desert an unworthy 
 master, who sacrificed the public happiness to his 
 uxury, and the lives of his most valuable subjects to 
 the slightest suspicions. The arts of Aureolus diflTus- 
 ed tears and discontent among the principal officers of 
 his rival. A conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus,the 
 praetorian praefect, by Marcian, a general of rank and 
 reputation, and by Cecrops, who commanded a numer- 
 ous body of Dalmatian guards. The death of Galli- 
 enus was resolved ; and notwithstanding their desire 
 ot first terminating the siege of Milan, the extreme 
 danger which accompanied every moment's delay ob- 
 liged them to hasten the execution of their daring pur- 
 pose. At a late hour of the night, but while the em- 
 peror still protracted the pleasures of the table, an 
 alarm was suddenly given, that Aureolus, at the head 
 01 all his forces, had made a desperate sally from the 
 town ; Gallienus, who was never deficient in personal 
 bravery, started from his silken couch, and without al- 
 lowing himself time either to put on his armour, or to 
 assenible his guards, he mounted on horseback, and 
 rode tuH speed towards the supposed place of the at- 
 tack. Encompassed by his declared or concealed ene- 
 mies, he soon, amidst the nocturnal tumult, received a 
 mortal dart from an uncertain hand. Be- 
 fore he expired, a patriotic sentiment ^{^J^^i, ^^• 
 rising in the mind of Gallienus, induced Death of" 
 him to name a deserving successor, and Gallienus. 
 it was his last request, that the imperial ornaments 
 should be delivered to Claudius, who then command- 
 ed a detached army in the neighbourhood of Pavia. 
 1 he report at least was diligently propagated, and the 
 order cheerfully obeyed by the conspirators, who had 
 already agreed to place Claudius on the throne. On 
 the first news of the emperor's death, the troops ex- 
 pressed some suspicion and resentment, till the one 
 was removed, and the other assuaged, by a donative 
 of twenty pieces of gold to each soldier. They then 
 ratified the election, and acknowledged the merit of 
 their new sovereign.** 
 
 The obscurity which covered the ori- ^. 
 gin of Claudius, though it was after- ewSrofu' 
 wards embellished by some flattering emi'^'ror ciau- 
 fictions,* sufl^ciently betrays the mean- '^'"''' 
 ness of his birth. We can only discover that he was 
 a native of one of the provinces bordering on tne Dan- 
 ube ; that his youth was spent in arms, and that his 
 modest valour attracted the favour and confidence of 
 Decius. The senate and people already considered 
 him as an excellent officer, equal to the most impor- 
 tant trusts, and censured the inattention of Valerian 
 who suffered him to remain in the subordinate station' 
 of a tribune. But it was not long before that emperor 
 distinguished the merit of Claudius, by declaring him 
 general and chief of the Illyrian frontier, with the com- 
 mand of all the troops in Thrace, Maesia, Dacia, Pan- 
 nonia, and Dalmatia, the appointments of the prefect 
 of Egypt, the establishment of the proconsul of Africa, 
 and the sure prospect of the consulship. By his vic- 
 tories over the Goths, he deserved from the senate the 
 
 \2J^ *!l® ^®^**' of Gallienus, see Trebelliiis Pollio in Hist. Aupusr 
 p. 181. Zosimus, 1. 1. p. 37. Zonaras. I. xii. p. 6.14. Eutrop. ix n " 
 Aurehus Victor in Epitom. Victor in Cssar. I have compared 'and 
 blended them all, but have chiefly followed Aurelius Victor w»m 
 seems to have had the best memoirs. ' 
 
 c Some siipposed him, oddly enough, to \^e a bastard of the younirer 
 Gordian. Others took advantage of the province of Dardania, to de 
 duce hia origin from Dardaniw, and the ancient kings of Troy 
 
 
108 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 honour of a statute, and excited the jealous apprehen- 
 sions of Gallienus. It was impossible that a soldier 
 could esteem so dissolute a sovereign, nor is it easy 
 to conceal a just contempt. Some unguarded expres- 
 sions which dropt from Claudius, were officially trans- 
 mitted to the royal ear. The emperor's answer to an 
 officer of confidence, describes in very lively colours 
 his own character and that of the times. •* There is 
 not anything capable of giving me more serious con- 
 cern, than the intelligence contained in your last des- 
 patch;* that some malicious suggestions have indis- 
 posed towards us the mind of our friend and parent 
 Claudius. As you regard your allegiance, use every 
 means to appease his resentment, but conduct your ne- 
 gociation witii secrecy ; let it not reach the knowledge 
 of the Dacian troops; they are already provoked, and 
 it might inflame their fury. I myself have sent him 
 some presents : be it your care that he accept them 
 with pleasure. Above all, let him not suspect that 
 I am made acquainted with his imprudence. The fear 
 of my anger might urge him to desperate counsels."* 
 The presents which accompanied this humble epistle, 
 in which the monarch solicited a reconciliation with his 
 discontented subject, consisted of a considerable sum 
 of money, a splendid wardrobe, and a valuable service 
 of silver and gold plate. By such arts Gallienus soft- 
 ened the indignation, and dispelled the fears of his 
 lilyrian general ; and during the remainder of that 
 reign, the formidable sword of Claudius was always 
 drawn in the cause of a master whom he despised. 
 At last, indeed, he received from the conspirators the 
 bloody purple of Gallienus; but he had been absent 
 from their camp and counsels; and however he might 
 applaud the deed, we may candidly presume that he 
 was innocent of the knowledge of it.^ When Clau- 
 dius ascended the throne he was about fifty-four years 
 of age. 
 
 Death of Aurco- The siege of Milan was still continu- 
 !"«• ed, and Aureolus soon discovered, that 
 
 the success of his artifices had only raised up a more 
 determined adversary. He attempted to negociate 
 with Claudius a treaty of alliance and partition. " Tell 
 him," replied the intrepid emperor," " that such propo- 
 sals should have been made^to Gallienus ; Ae, perhaps, 
 might have listened to them with patience, and ac- 
 cepted a colleague as despicable as himself." 8 This 
 stern refusal, and a last unsuccessful effort, obliged 
 Aureolus to yield the city and himself to the discretion 
 of the conqueror. The judgment of the army pro- 
 nounced him worthy of death, and Claudius, after a 
 feeble resistance, consented to the execution of the 
 sentence. Nor was the zeal of the senate less ardent 
 in the cause of their new sovereign. They ratified, 
 perhaps with sincere transports of zeal, the election 
 of Claudius ; and as his predecessor had shown him- 
 self the personal enemy of their order, they exercised, 
 under the name of justice, a severe revenge against 
 his friends and family. The senate was permitted to 
 discharge the ungrateful office of punishment, and the 
 emperor reserved for himself the pleasure and merit of 
 obtaining by his intercession a general act of indem- 
 nity.'* 
 
 Clemency and Such ostentatious clemency discovcrs 
 justice of ciau- less of the real character of Claudius, 
 
 **""• than a trifling circumstance in which he 
 
 d Jfotoria, a periodicDl and official despatcli wliich the emperors 
 received from the frvmentarii, or ajrentH dispersed through the pro- 
 vinces. Of these we may speak hereafter. 
 
 • Hist. August, p. 208. Gallienus describes the plate, vestments, 
 ite. like a man who loved and understood those splendid trides. 
 
 'Julian (Orat. i. p. 6.) affirms that Claudius acquired the empire 
 in a just and even holy manner. But we may distrust the partiality 
 of a kinsman. 
 
 g Hist. August, p. 203. There are some trifling differences con- 
 cerning the circumstances of the last defeat and death of Aureolus. 
 
 h Aurelius Victor in Gallien. The people loudly prayed for the 
 damnation of Gallienus. The senate decreed that his relations and 
 servants should be thrown down headlong from the Gemonian stairs. 
 An obnoxious officer of the revenue had his eyes torn out whilst 
 under examination. 
 
 seems to have consulted only the dictates of his heart. 
 The frequent rebellions of the provinces had involved 
 almost every person in the guilt of treason, almost 
 every estate in the case of confiscation ; and Gallienus 
 often displayed his liberality by distributing among 
 his officers the property of his subjects. On the ac- 
 cession of Claudius, an old woman threw herself at 
 his feet, and complained that a general of the late em- 
 peror had obtained an arbitrary grant of her patrimony. 
 This general was Claudius himself, who had not en- 
 tirely escaped the contagion of the times. The em- 
 peror blushed at the reproach, but deserved the confi- 
 dence which she had reposed in his equity. The con- 
 fession of his fault was accompanied with immediate 
 and ample restitution.' 
 
 In the arduous task which Claudius ,j„ „„,i„,,k,3 
 had undertaken, of restoring the empire the refonnaiiou 
 to its ancient splendour, it was first ne- o*" the army, 
 cessary to revive among his troops a sense of order 
 and obedience. With the authority of a veteran com- 
 mander, he represented to them, that the relaxation of 
 discipline had introduced a long train of disorders, the 
 eflects of which were at length experienced by the sol- 
 diers themselves ; that a people ruined by oppression, 
 and indolent from despair, could no longer supply a 
 numerous army with the means of luxury, or even of 
 subsistence; that the danjjer of each individual had 
 increased with the despotism of the military order, 
 since princes who tremble on the throne will guard 
 their safety by the instant sacrifice of every obnoxious 
 subject. The emperor expatiated on the mischiefs of 
 a lawless caprice which the soldiers could only gratify 
 at the expense of their own blood ; as their seditious 
 elections had so frequently been followed by civil wars, 
 which consumed the flower of the legions either in 
 the field of battle, or in the cruel abuse of victory. He 
 painted in the most lively colours the exhausted state 
 of the treasury, the desolation of the provinces, the 
 disgrace of the Roman name, and the insolent triumph 
 of rapacious barbarians. It was against those barba- 
 rians, he declared, that he intended to point the first 
 effort of their arms. Tetricus might reign for a while 
 over the west, and even Zenobia might preserve the 
 dominions of the east.'' These usurpers were his per- 
 sonal adversaries ; nor could he think of indulging any 
 private resentment till he had saved an empire, whose 
 impending ruin would, unless it was timely preventedi 
 crush both the army and the people. 
 
 The various nations of Germany and ^ ^ o^^ 
 Sarmatia, who fought under the Gothic The Gorhs invade 
 standard, had already collected an arm- the empire, 
 amcnt more formidable than any which had yet issued 
 from the Euxine. On the banks of the Niester, one 
 of the great rivers that discharge themselves into that 
 sea, they constructed a fleet of two thousand, or even 
 of six thousand vessels ;' numbers which, however in- 
 credible they may seem, would have been insufficient 
 to transport their pretended army of three hundred and 
 twenty thousand barbarians. Whatever might be the 
 real strength of the Goths, the vigour and success of 
 the expedition were not adequate to the greatness of 
 the preparations. In their passage through the Bos- 
 phorus, the unskilful pilots were overpowered by the 
 violence of the current ; and while the multitude of 
 their ships were crowded in a narrow channel, many 
 were dashed against each other, or against the shore. 
 The barbarians made several descents on the coasts 
 both of Europe and Asia ; but the open country was 
 already plundered, and they were repulsed with shame 
 and loss from the fortified cities which they assaulted. 
 A spirit of discouragement and division arose in the 
 
 • Zonaras, I. xii. p. 137. 
 
 k Zonaras on this occasion mentions Posthumus; but the regis- 
 ters of the senate (Hist. August, p. 203.) prove tliat Tetricus was 
 already emperor of the western provinces. 
 
 1 The Augustan History mentions the smaller, Zonaras the larger, 
 number ; the lively fancy of Montesquieu induced him to prefer the 
 latter. 
 
 fleet, and some of their chiefs sailed away towards the 
 islands of Crete and Cyprus ; but the main body, pur- 
 sumg a more steady course, anchored at length near 
 the foot of mount Athos, and assaulted the city of 
 rhessalonica, the wealthy capital of all the Macedon- 
 ian provinces. Their attacks, in which they displayed 
 a fierce but artless bravery, were soon interrupted by 
 the rapid approach of Claudius, hastening to a scene 
 of action that deserved the presence of a warlike prince 
 at the head of the remaining powers of the empire 
 Impatient for battle, the Goths immediately broke up 
 their camp, relinquished the siege of Thessalonica, 
 
 u u-,f' r^^y ^' '^® ^^^^ °^ "^^""^ A^i^os, traversed 
 the hills of Macedonia, and pressed forwards to engao-e 
 the last defence of Italy. ° 
 
 Distress and ^^^ ^^^'1 possess an original letter 
 firmness of addressed by Claudius to the senate and 
 auu.us. people on this memorable occasion. 
 Conscript fathers," says the emperor, " know that 
 three hundred and twenty thousand Goths have in- 
 vaded the Roman territory. If I vanquish them, your 
 gratitude will reward my services. Should I fall, re- 
 member that I am the successor of Gallienus. The 
 whole republic is fatigued and exhausted. We shall 
 hght after Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, Lol- 
 lianus, Posthumus, Celsus, and a thousand others, 
 whom a just contempt for Gallienus provoked into re- 
 u' .j"' rT® ^^^ ^" ^'^"^ <^^ d^'^ts, of spears, and of 
 shields. The strength of the empire, Gaul, and Spain, 
 are usurped by Tetricus, and we blush to acknowledge 
 that the archers of the east serve under the banners of 
 Zenobia. Whatever we shall perform, will be suffi- 
 cient y great." - The melancholy firmness of this 
 epistle announces a hero careless of his fate, conscious 
 ot his danger, but still deriving a well-grounded hope 
 trom the resources of his own mind. 
 
 " Uie GotL°'" 4r,7^^^ ^7f "^ surpassed his own expec- 
 
 109 
 
 of the country, and his judicious choice of measures 
 as well as officers, assured on most occasions the suc- 
 cess ot his arms. . The immense booty, the fruit of 
 so many victories, consisted for the greater part of 
 cattle and slaves. A select body of the Gothic youth 
 was received among the imperial troops ; the remain- 
 der was sold into servitude; and so considerable was 
 the number of female captives, that every soldier ob- 
 tained to his share two or three women. A circum- 
 stance from which we may conclude, that the invaders 
 entertained some designs of settlement as well as of 
 plunder; since even in a naval expedition they were 
 accompanied by their families. III. The loss of their 
 fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had intercepted 
 the retreat of the Goths. A vast circle of Roman 
 posts, distributed with skill, supported with firmness, 
 and gradually closing towards a common centre, 
 torced the barbarians into the most inaccessible parts 
 ot mount Ha^mus, where they found a safe refuge, but 
 a very scanty subsistence. During the course of a 
 rigorous^winter, in which they were besieged by the 
 emperor's troops, famine and pestilence, desertion and 
 the sword, continually diminished the imprisoned 
 multitude. On the return of spring, . ' ^„ 
 nothing appeared in arms except a har- ' ' 
 
 dy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host 
 which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester. 
 
 The pestilence which swept away March. Death 
 such numbers of the barbarians, at "^ ^^^ emperor. 
 length proved fatal to their conqueror. XtSr/ht 
 Alter a short but glorious reign of two succcbsor. 
 years, Claudius expired at Sirmium, amidst the tears 
 and acclamations of his subjects. In his last illness, 
 he convened the principal officers of the state and 
 army, and in their presence recommended Aurelian, 
 one of his generals, as the most deserving of the 
 throne, and the best qualified to execute the great de- 
 
 under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Clau- 
 dius. The imperfect historians of an irregular war " 
 do not enable us to describe the order and circum- 
 stances of his exploits ; but, if we could be indulo-ed 
 in the allusion, we might distribute into three a'its 
 this memorable tragedy. I. The decisive battle was 
 tought near Naissus, a city of Dardania." The leaions 
 at first gave way, oppressed by numbers, and dismay- 
 ed by mislortunes. Their ruin was inevitable, had 
 not the abilities of their emperor prepared a season- 
 able relief. A large detachment rising out of the se- 
 cret arid difficult passes of the mountains, which, by 
 his orders, they had occupied, suddenly assailed the 
 rear of the victorious Goths. The favourable instant 
 was improved by the activity of Claudius. He revived 
 the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and 
 pressed the barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand 
 men are reported to have been slain in the battle of 
 iNaissus. Several large bodies of barbarians, cover- 
 ing their retreat with a movable fortification of wag- 
 gons, retired, or rather escaped, from the field of 
 slaughter. II. We may presume that some insur- 
 niountable difficulty, the fatigue, perhaps, or the dis- 
 obedience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from 
 completing m one day the destruction of the Goths. 
 1 he war was diff'used over the pr )vinces of Msesia, 
 Ihrace, and Macedonia, and its operations drawn out 
 into a variety of marches, surprises, and tumultuary 
 engagements, as well by sea as by land. When the 
 Romans suffered any loss, it was commonly occasion- 
 ed by their own cowardice or rashness ; but the su- 
 perior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge 
 
 »» Trebell. Pollio in Hist. August, p. 20 
 llist. August, in Claud. Aurelian. et 
 
 204. 
 
 -_ „ «.- -. ...».v..ai>. et Prob. Zosimus. I i n 1ft— 
 
 42. Zonaras. 1. :.ii p. 638. Aurel. Victor in Epitoim Vic w Jur^ 
 
 fJ^'- J^""'°P- •^- »• Euseb. in Chron. 
 tl^o^Srl^c^lTi. l]S)%T' ''"' °^^«°-'«°"°e- (D'Anville 
 
 his courjtry place him in that short list of emperors 
 who added lustre to the Roman purple. Those virtues 
 however, were celebrated with peculiar zeal and com- 
 placency by the courtly writers of the age of Constan- 
 tino, w-ho was the great grandson of Crispus, the eld- 
 er brother of Claudius. The voice of flattery was soon 
 taught to repeat, that the gods, who so hastily had 
 snatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit 
 and piety by the perpetual establishment of the empire 
 m his family.<i ^ 
 
 Notwithstanding these oracles, the The attemnt and 
 greatness of the Flavian family (a name fallofQuintiiius. 
 which it had pleased them to assume) was deferred 
 above twenty years, and the elevation of Claudius oc- 
 casioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, 
 who possessed not sufficient moderation or couraoe to 
 descend into the private station to which the patriot- 
 ism of the late emperor had condemned him. With- 
 oiit delay or reflection, he assumed the purple at Aqui- 
 leia, where he commanded a considerable force ; and 
 though his reign lasted only seventeen days,' he had 
 time to obtain the sanction of the senate, and to ex- 
 peTience a mutiny of the troops. As soon as he was 
 informed that the great army of the Danube had in- 
 vested the well-known valour of Aurelian with impe- 
 rial power, he sunk under the fame and 
 merit of his rival; and ordering his ^ 
 veins to be opened, prudently withdrew himself from 
 the unequal contest.* 
 
 inL^oH^^'"'^ 10 Zonaras (I. xii. p. C.??.) Claudius, before bis death, 
 ^^.,ii .1 "" ^'i'' ^''^ ''"'■P'^5 but this singular fact is rather contra- 
 dicted than confirmed by other writers. 
 
 q See the life of Claudius by Pollio, and the orations of Mamerti- 
 nus, JMimenius, and Julian. See likewise the Ca-sars of Julian, p 
 fr, •'"''^" '' was not adulation but superstition and vanity 
 
 / IThus say the most of the ancient historians ; but the number of 
 nis medals and the variety of impressions upon them, seem to de- 
 mand more time, and render the account which Zosimus gives that 
 lie reigned some months, more probable.— G 1 ' 
 
 » Zosimus, I. i. p. 42. I'ollio (Hist. Aug. p. 207.) allaws him virtue* 
 
no 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Origin and sor- The general design of this work will 
 vices of Aureiian.not permit us minutely to relate the 
 actions of every emperor after he ascended the throne, 
 much less to deduce the various fortunes of his private 
 life. We shall only observe, that the father of Aure- 
 lian was a peasant of the territory of Sirmium, who 
 occupied a small farm, the property of Aurelius, a 
 rich senator. His warlike son enlisted in the troops 
 as a common soldier, successively rose to the rank of 
 a centurion, a tribune, the praefect of a legion, the in- 
 spector of the camp, the general, or, as it was then 
 called, the duke, of a frontier ; and at length, during 
 the Gothic war, exercised the important office of com- 
 mander in chief of the cavalry. In every station he 
 distinguished himself by matchless valour,* rigid dis- 
 cipline, and successful conduct. He was invested 
 with the consulship by the emperor Valerian, who 
 styles him, in the pompous language of that age, the 
 deliverer of Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul, and the ri- 
 val of the Scipios. At the recommendation of Vale- 
 rian, a senator of the highest rank and merit, Ulpius 
 Crinitus, whose blood was derived from the same 
 source as that of Trajan, adopted the Pannonian pea- 
 sant, gave him his daughter in marriage, and relieved 
 with his ample fortune the honourable poverty which 
 Aurelian had preserved inviolate.™ 
 Aurelian'p sue- The reign of Aurelian lasted onl)^ 
 cessfui reign, four years and about nine months ; but 
 every instant of that short period was filled by some 
 memorable achievement. He put an end to the Gothic 
 war, chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recov- 
 ered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Te- 
 tricus, and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zeno- 
 bia had erected in the east, on the ruins of the afflic- 
 ted empire. 
 
 His severe dig- It was the rigid attention of Aurelian, 
 cii.iine. even to the minutest articles of disci- 
 pline, which bestowed such uninterrupted success on 
 his arms. His military regulations are contained in a 
 very concise epistle to one of his inferior officers, who 
 is co'nmanded to enforce them, as he wishes to become 
 a tribune, or as he is desirous to live. Gaming, drink- 
 ing, and the arts of divination, were strictly prohib- 
 ited. Aurelian expected that his soldiers should be 
 modest, frugal, and labori(fus ; that their armour should 
 be constantly kept bright, their weapons sharp, their 
 clothing and horses ready for immediate service; that 
 they should live in their quarters with chastity and 
 sobriety, without damaging the corn fields, without 
 stealing even a sheep, a fowl, or a bunch of grapes, 
 without exacting from their landlords, either salt, or 
 oil, or wood. "The public allowance," continues the 
 emperor, " is sufficient for their support; their wealth 
 should be collected from the spoil of the enemy, not 
 from the tears of the provincials." " A single instance 
 will serve to display the rigour, and even cruelty, of 
 Aurelian. One of the soldiers had seduced the wife 
 of his host. The guilty wretch was fastened to two 
 trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs 
 were torn asunder by their sudden separation. A few 
 such examples impressed a salutary consternation. 
 The punishments of Aurelian were terrible ; but he 
 had seldom occasion to punish more than once the 
 same offence. His own conduct gave a sanction to 
 his lawsj^and the seditious legions dreaded a chief 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 and says, that, like Pertinax, lie was killed by the licentious soldiers 
 Accordinp to De.vippus, he died of a disease. 
 
 t Thcoclius (as quoted in the Augustan History, p. 21 1.) affirms that 
 In one day lie killed with his own hand forty-eight Sarmatians, and 
 in several subsequent enfjagenients nine hundred and fifty. This 
 heroic valour was admired by the soldiers, and celebrated in their 
 rude soncs, the burthen of which was, mille, mille, mille, occidit 
 
 u Aucholius (ap. Hist, August, p. 213.) describes the ceremony of 
 the adoption, as it was performed at Byzantium, in the presence of 
 the emperor and his great officers. 
 
 » Hist. August, p. 211. This laconic epistle istruly the work of a 
 ■oldier; it abounds with military phrases and words, some of which 
 cannot be understood without difficulty. Ferramenta samiata is well 
 explained by Salmasius. The former of the words means all wea- 
 pons of otr«nce. and is contrasted with Jirma, defensive nrmouT. The 
 latter signifies keen and well sharpened. 
 
 who had learned to obey, and who was worthy to 
 command. 
 
 The death of Claudius had revived the „ , . 
 fairiting spirit of the Goths. The troops trea'SJ with thS 
 which guarded the passes of Mount Hae- Gotiis; 
 mus, and the banks of the Danube, had been drawn 
 away by the apprehension of a civil war; and it seems 
 probable that the remaining body of the Gothic and 
 Vandalic tribes embraced the favourable opportunity, 
 abandoned their settlements of the Ukraine, traversed 
 the rivers, and swelled with new multitudes the de 
 stroying host of their countrymen. Their united num- 
 bers were at length encountered by Aurelian, and the 
 bloody and doubtful conflict ended only with the ap- 
 proach of night.'"' Exhausted by so many calamities, 
 which they had mutually endured and inflicted during 
 a twenty years' war, the Goths and the Romans con° 
 sented to a lasting and beneficial treaty. It was ear- 
 nestly solicited by the barbarians, and cheerfully rati- 
 fied by the legions, to whose suflJrage the prudence of 
 Aurelian referred the decision of that important ques- 
 tion. The Gothic nation engaged to supply the armies 
 of Rome with a body of two thousand auxiliaries, 
 consisting entirely of cavalry, and stipulated in return 
 an undisturbed retreat, with a regular market as far as 
 the Danube, provided by the emperor's care, but at 
 their own expense. The treaty was observed with 
 such religious fidelity, that when a party of five hun- 
 dred men straggled from the camp in quest of plunder, 
 the king or general of the barbarians commanded that 
 the guilty leader should be apprehended and shot to 
 death with darts, as a victim devoted to the sanctity 
 of their engagements. It is, however, not unlikely, 
 that the precaution of Aurelian, who had exacted as 
 hostages the sons and daughters of the Gothic chiefs, 
 contributed something to this pacific temper. The 
 youths he trained in the exercise of arms, and near his 
 own person : to the damsels he gave a liberal and 
 Roman education, and by bestowing them in marriage 
 on some of his principal officers, gradually introduced 
 between the two nations the closest and most endear- 
 in^connexions.* 
 
 But the most important condition of a^j j^,- ^^ 
 peace was understood rather than ex- them the pro- 
 pressed in the treaty. Aurelian with- ^'"<^® °^ Dacia. 
 drew the Roman forces from Dacia, and tacitly re- 
 linquished that great province to the Goths and Van- 
 dals.y His manly judgment convinced him of the solid 
 advantages, and taught him to despise the seeming 
 disgrace, of thus contracting the frontiers of the mon- 
 archy. The Dacian subjects, removed from those dis- 
 tant possessions which they were unable to cultivate 
 or defend, added strength and populousness to the 
 southern side of the Danube. A fertile territory, which 
 the repetition of barbarous inroads had changed into a 
 desert, was yielded to their industry, and a new pro- 
 vince of Dacia still preserved the memory of Trajan's 
 conqnests. The old country of that name detained, 
 however, a considerable number of its inhabitants, 
 who dreaded exile more than a Gothic master.* These 
 degenerate Romans continued to serve the empire, 
 whose allegiance they had renounced, by introducing 
 among their conquerors the fi'-st notions of agriculture, 
 the useful arts, and the conveniences of civilized life 
 An intercourse of commerce and language was gradu- 
 ally established between the opposite banks of the 
 Danube ; and after Dacia became an independent state, 
 it often proved the firmest barrier of the empire against 
 
 w Zosim. I. i. p. 45. 
 
 » Dexippns(ap Excerpta Legal, p. 12.) relates the whole transac- 
 tion under the name of Vandals. Aurelian married one of the 
 Gothic ladies to his general Bonosus, who was able to drink with the 
 Goths, and discover their secrets. Hisi. Aui;ust. p. 247 
 
 y Hist. August, p. 222. Eutrop. ix. 15. Scxtus Rufus, c. 9. Lac- 
 tantius de Mortibus Persecutarum, c. 9. 
 
 z The Walatfliians still preserve many traces of the Latin lan- 
 guage, and have boasted, in every age, of their Roman descent. 
 They are surrounded by, but not mixed with, the Barbarians. 8e« 
 a Memoir of M. d'Anville on ancient Dacia, in the Academy of In 
 Bcriptions, torn. XXX. 
 
 the invasions of the savages of the north. A sense of 
 interest attached the more settled barbarians ?o the 
 alliance of Rome, and a permanent interest very fre! 
 
 ^hU vJ •''P'"^ ^"^^ r""'« ^"^ "««^"1 friendship. 
 This various colony, which filled the ancient province 
 and was insensibly blended into one great peo^ple?stm 
 acknow edged the superior renown and authori'ty of 
 the Gothic tribe, and claimed the fancied honour of a 
 Scandinavian origin. At the same time the lucky 
 though accidental resemblance of the name of G^ta 
 infused among the credulous Goths a vain persuasion! 
 that, in a renjote age, their own ancestors, alreadv 
 seated m the Dacian provinces, had received the in- 
 structions of Zamolxis, and checked the victorious 
 arms of Sesostris and Darius.* 
 
 TheAiemannic While the vigorous and moderate con- 
 war. duct of Aurelian restored the Illyrian 
 frontier, the nation of the Alemanni " violated the con- 
 ditions of peace, which either Gallienus had pur- 
 chased, or Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by 
 their impatient youth, suddenly flew to arms. Fortv 
 thousand horse appeared in the field,c and the number^ 
 ol the infantry doubled those of the cavalry.«» The 
 first objects of their avarice were a few cities of the 
 Rh^tian frontier; but their hopes soon rising with sue 
 cess, he rapid march of the Alemanni traced a line of 
 devastation from the Danube to the Po.« 
 A. p. 270. The emperor was almost at the same 
 September time informed of the irruption, and of t^e 
 retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting an active body 
 of troops, he marched with silence and celerity alono- 
 the skirts of the Hcrcynian forest ; and the Alemanni! 
 laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube 
 without suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an 
 advantageous post, a Roman army lay concealed and 
 prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged 
 
 ^^ ^^^\.^''?''-H ""^ ^^'^ barbarians, and permitted 
 about half their forces to pass the river without dis- 
 turbance and without precaution. Their situation and 
 astonishment gave him an easy victory; his skilful 
 conduct improved the advantage. Disposing the le- 
 gions m a semicircular form, he advanced the two 
 horns of the crescent across the Danube, and wheelinff 
 them on a sudden towards the centre, inclosed the rear 
 of the German host. The dismayed barbarians, on 
 whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld with des- 
 pair a wasted country, a deep and rapid stream, a vic- 
 torious and implacable enemy. 
 
 Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni 
 no longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian re- 
 ceived their ambassadors at the head of his camp, and 
 with every circumstance of martial pomp that could 
 display the greatness and discipline of Rome. The 
 legions stood to their arms in well ordered ranks and 
 awful silence. The principal commanders, distin- 
 guished by the ensigns of their rank, appeared on 
 horseback on either side of the imperial throne. Be- 
 hind the throne, the consecrated images of the empe- 
 ror, and his predecessors,^ the golden eagles, and the 
 various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold, 
 were exalted in the air en lofty pikes covered with sil- 
 ver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly 
 
 * See the first chapter of Jornandes. The Vandals, however (c 
 22.) maintained a short independence between the rivers Mlriiia 
 and Cr.ss.a (Maros and Kcres) which fell into the Teiss 
 
 In iw F"'' ?• ^Z^^- Zosimus, I. i. p. 43. Vopiscus in Aurelian 
 m Hist. August. However these historians differ in names 7aip 
 mann., Ju hung , and MarcomannI,) it is evident that they meanlm 
 ra?/S?l,1a?rt.i^;^nf ""^ "" •• ^"^ '' '-^"*- — car7to%^"^^? 
 i.„*L?*"/?f''"'"^' ^'V'"'^ "^"^' accurary, chooses to translate three 
 grammar! '°"'""'^ '' "' ^"^'°" " ^'^"^"^^ ^^^ngu^ni to sense llid'fo 
 niL^®.!'"^^ remark, as an instance of bad taste, that DexlDDus an- 
 ?l?j:ir;'t"o^i£'|.;e"c^"n",fh°,Vn^; ^'^'"^""* ''^ technica.?er';Ss"^p?S. 
 judi^oSs%'ffisXUoTtri:Sl?°''^""''' ^- «^«Valoisvery 
 
 111 
 
 grace and majestic figure « taught the barbarians to 
 nn?/^ the person as well as the purple of their con- 
 queror. The ambassadors fell prostrate on the ground 
 
 ZullTT ^'f ^ '^"^'^ commanded to rise, and per- 
 mitted to speak. By the assistance of interpreters 
 
 exuatHlT"''!'^"^' ^'^^^^J' "'^^"^^^^^ '^^''^ ^^P^oits,' 
 expatiated on the vicissitudes of fortune and the ad- 
 vantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed confidence 
 denianded a large subsidy, as the price of the alliance 
 which they offered to the Romans."^ The answer of ?he 
 emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their 
 ofl^er with contempt, and their demand with indicma- 
 tion, reproached the barbarians, that they were as i^no- 
 
 finally dismissed them with the choice only of submit- 
 ting to his unconditioned mercy, or awaitinrr the ut- 
 most severity of his resentment.^ Aurelian^had re- 
 signed a distant province to the Goths ; but it was 
 dangerous to trust or to pardon these perfidious bar- 
 barians, whose formidable power kept Italy itself in 
 perpetual alarms. r j t^n m 
 
 Jc^ulf^^^'llf^^' ^^''^ conference, it The Alemanni 
 
 bnouiQ seem that some unexpected emer- invade Italy, 
 gency required the emperor's presence in Pannonia. 
 He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishino- 
 the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword! 
 or the surer operation of famine. But an active des- 
 pair has often triumphed over the indolent assurance 
 of success. The barbarians, finding it impossible to 
 traverse the Danube and the Roman camp, broke 
 through the posts in their rear, which were more 
 teebly, or less carefully guarded ; and with incredible 
 diligence, but by a different road, returned towards 
 the mountains of Italy.^ Aurelian, who considered the 
 war as totally extinguished, received the mortifying 
 intelligence of the escape of the Alemanni, and of the 
 ravage which they already committed in the territory 
 ot Milan. The legions were commanded to follow, 
 with as much expedition as those heavy bodies were 
 capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy, 
 whose infantry and cavalry moved almost with equal 
 swittness. A few days afterwards the emperor him- 
 self marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a 
 chosen body of auxiliaries, (among whom were the 
 hostages and cavalry of the Vandals,) and of all the 
 praetorian guards who had served in the wars on the 
 Danube.* 
 
 As the light troops of the Alemanni and are at hn 
 had spread themselves from the Alps to vanquished by 
 the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of Aurelian. 
 Aurelian rand his ofiicers was exercised in the disco- 
 very, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous 
 detachments. Notwithstanding this desultory war, 
 three considerable battles are mentioned, in which the 
 principal force of both armies was obstinately en- 
 gaged.' The success was various. In the first, fought 
 near Placentia, the Romans received so severe a blow, 
 that, according to the expression of a writer extremely 
 partial to Aurelian, the immediate dissolution of the 
 empire was apprehended."* The crafty barbarians, 
 who had lined the woods, suddenly attacked the 
 legions in the dusk of the evening, and, it is most 
 probable, after the fatigue and disorder of a long 
 march. The fury of their charge was irresistible; 
 but at length, after a dreadful slaughter, the patient 
 firmness of the emperor rallied his troops, and re- 
 stored, in some degree, the honour of his arms. The 
 second battle was fought near Fano in Umbria; on the 
 spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal 
 to the brother of Hannibal." Thus far the successful 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 K Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 210. 
 
 h pexippua gives them a subtle and prolix oration wortliy of a 
 Grecian sophist. j • • 
 
 > Hist. August, p. 215. 
 k Dexippua, p. 12. 
 1 Victor Junior in Aurelian. 
 «n Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. 
 B The little river, or rather torrent, of Metaurua near Fano, haa 
 
112 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Germans had advanced along the -lEmilian and Fla- 
 minian way, with a design of sacking the defenceless 
 mistress of the world. But Aurelian, who, watchful 
 for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found 
 in this place the decisive moment of giving them a 
 total and irretrievable defeat." The flying remnant of 
 their host was exterminated in a third and last battle 
 near Pavia; and Italy was delivered from the inroads 
 of the Alemanni. 
 Superstitioua Fear has been the original parent of su- 
 ceremonies. perstition, and every new calamity urges 
 trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their in- 
 visible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic 
 was in the valour and conduct of Aurelian, yet such 
 was the public consternation, when the barbarians 
 were hourly expected at the gates of Rome, that by a 
 decree of the senate, the Sibylline books were con- 
 sulted. Even the emperor himself, from a motive 
 either of religion or of policy, recommended this salu- 
 tary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate,? and 
 offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, 
 whatever captives of any nation, the gods should re- 
 quire. Notwithstanding this liberal offer, it does not 
 appear that any human victims expiated with their 
 A. D. 271. blood the sins of the Roman people. The 
 Jan. 11. Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a 
 more harmless nature, processions of priests in white 
 lobes attended by a chorus of youths and virgins ; lus- 
 trations of the city and adjacent country; and sacrifices, 
 whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from 
 passing the mystic ground on which they had been 
 celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these 
 superstitious arts were subservient to the success of 
 the war ; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the 
 Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres com- 
 bating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and 
 eflfectual aid from this imaginary reinforcement.^ 
 Fortifications of But whatever confidence might be placed 
 Rome. in ideal ramparts, the experience of the 
 past, and the dread of the future, induced the Romans 
 to construct fortifications of a grosser and more sub- 
 stantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been sur- 
 rounded, by the succes"Sors of Romulus, with an an- 
 cient wall of more than thirteen miles.' The vast 
 enclosure may seem disprt)portioncd to the strength 
 and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary 
 to secure an ample extent of pasture and arable land, 
 against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes 
 of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. 
 "With the progress of Roman greatness, the city and 
 its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant 
 space, pierced through the useless walls, covered the 
 field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public 
 highways in long and beautiful suburbs.' The extent 
 of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in 
 the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estima- 
 ) tion to near fifty,* but is reduced by accurate nieasure- 
 ment to about twenty-one, miles." It was a great but 
 melancholy labour, since the defence of the capital be- 
 trayed the decline of the monarchy. The Romans of 
 
 a more prosperous age, who trusted to the arms of the 
 legions the safety of the frontier camps,* were very far 
 from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever be- 
 come necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the 
 inroads of the barbarians.^ 
 
 The victory of Claudius over the Goths, Aurelian sup- 
 and the success of Aurelian against the presses the two 
 Alemanni, had already restored to the ""'^'pe". 
 arms of Rome their ancient superiority over the bar- 
 barous nations of the north. To chastise domestic 
 tyrants, and to reunite the dismembered parts of the 
 empire, was a task reserved for the second of those 
 warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by 
 the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, 
 Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. 
 Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Mi- 
 nor, were still possessed by two rebels who alone, out 
 of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers 
 of their situation ; and to complete the ignominy of 
 Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped b)'' women. 
 
 A rapid succession of monarchs had Succession of 
 arisen and fallen in the provinces of "s"''F ''s >'• Gaul. 
 Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to 
 hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competi- 
 tor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused 
 to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious 
 city ; and, in the seventh year of his reign, became the 
 victim of their disappointed avarice.' The death of 
 Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned 
 by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplish- 
 ments* of that prince were stained by a licentious pas- 
 sion, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too 
 little regard to the laws of society, or even to those of 
 love.'' He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of 
 jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared 
 more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his 
 son. After the murder of so many valiant. princes, it 
 is somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time 
 controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more 
 singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate 
 Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria en- 
 abled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus 
 on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigour under 
 the name of those dependent emperors. Money of 
 copper, of silver, and of fjold, was coined in her name ; 
 she assumed the titles of Augusta and Mother of the 
 Camps : her power ended only with her life ; but her 
 life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetri- 
 cus.<= 
 
 When, at the instigation of his ambi- j.|,p ^^-^^ ^^^^ 
 tious patroness, Tetricus assumed the defeat of Tetri- 
 ensigns of royalty, he was govenior of *^"^- 
 the peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment 
 suited to his character and education. He reigned four 
 or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave 
 and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, 
 and by whom he was despised. The valour and for- 
 tune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect of a 
 deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy 
 
 A. D. 271. 
 Summer. 
 
 l»een immortalized, by finding such an historian as Livy, and such a 
 poet as Horace. 
 
 o It is recorded l»y an inscription found at Pezaro. See Gruter. 
 cclxxvi. 3. 
 
 p One should imacinc, he said, that you were assembled in a Chris- 
 tian church, not in tlie temple of all the pods. 
 
 q Vopiscus in Hi:!t. Auj?ust. p. 215, 216. gives a long account of 
 these ceremonies, from the registers of the senate. 
 
 T Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, 
 that for a long time Mount Ctnlius was a grove of oaks, and Mount 
 Viminal was overrun with osiers; that, in the fourth century, tlie 
 Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement ; that, till tiie time 
 of Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying ground ; 
 and that the numerous inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the 
 Quirinnl, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildinijs. 
 Of the seven hills, the Capitolinc and Palatine only, with the adja- 
 cent valleys, were the primitive habitation of the Roman people. 
 But this subject would require a dissertation. 
 
 » Expatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of 
 Pliny. ^ 
 
 t Hist. August, p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius have 
 eagerly embraced this measure. 
 
 ■-• See Nurdini, Roma Antica, 1. i. c. 8. 
 
 X Tacit. Hist. iv. 23. 
 
 y For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. Aupust. p. 21fi. 222. 
 Zosimus, I. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. 
 Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic. 
 
 z His competitor was LoUianus, or A^lianus, if, indeed, these 
 names mean the same person. See Tillemont, torn. iii. 1177. 
 
 [The medals which bear the name of Lollianus, are considered 
 spurioui), except one only, which is found in the museum of the 
 prince of Waldick. There are many which bear the name of Loe- 
 lianus. which seems to have Injenthe nameof tlic rival of Posthumus. 
 (Eck. Doct, Num. vet. vol, vii. 449.)— O.J 
 
 a The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (an. Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 187.) is worlli transcribing, as it seems fair and impartial. 
 Victorino qui post Junium PosthunmmGallias rexit neminem exisU- 
 mo proiferendum ; non in virlute Trajanum ; non Antonitium in 
 dementia ; non in gravitate Nervam ; non in gubernando a^rario 
 Vespasianum : non in censura totiusvitae ac severitatc militari Per- 
 tinacem vel Severum. Sed omnia hsec libido et cupiditas voluptatia 
 mulicrarin; sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literasmit* 
 tere quem constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri. 
 
 b He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. 
 Hist. August, p. Ib'G. Aurel. Victor in .\urelian. 
 
 c Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty tyrants. Hist. Au- 
 gust. p. 200. 
 
 situation, and conjured the emneror in 
 
 deserted in t^.! ^^^uZi^glu^ ^oZ TuT ^1''?^' 
 
 pected treachery of their chief Hnf^n^^i ♦u , 
 
 uith desperate valour, t 1 t e;\vere cu't, nlT.f f 
 
 suaded to repass the Hhine, restored tl7~? t •,, " 
 
 J ^" "J' iciuiiiie. ijyons, on the onntr>nr 
 
 had resisted with obstinate diiaffe^tion the arms of 
 Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons 'but 
 
 celebrated ,uei:^rp;i.!.-rrr:Lt"t:i:t: 
 
 Europe had produced several illustrious w^men who 
 have sustained with glory the weight of empTe "or 
 
 acters""?. Tf '''''"""' "^ such ^distingu"'^ ed'cKa 
 
 of Semirami zTnor^'P' ""^d""'"'--' ''chievements 
 oj oemiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the onlv fpmale 
 
 whose superior genius broke through the ser/ile kdo 
 
 fTsi?r^st;" ^" T^ by '•^'^ <="■"«'« anTmanl er° 
 
 n Ln I?" ''?''J^l'"'ne<l her descent from the Macedo- 
 
 man kings of Egypt, equalled in beauty her ancestor 
 
 andTatur''"ze:' v''"^'''' "'«' P"--« in cCt ^"^ 
 and valour. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely 
 
 ''"^.Tl'"" sL «%'h«most heroic of her sex^ 
 "in„ . f5|,g „.23 ^f ^ ^ complexion Cfor in 
 
 tt"efh"L'ril^' "'^^^ »"«*^ '^eco'me impif;:^ 
 ner teeth were ot a pearly whteness, and her larcre 
 
 .ttoTt^^tS^^'sretrTr '--' • '-'-^^ '^ 
 
 nornf if ?. f"i "^""""^ ^y ''"^y- She was not i"! 
 norant of the Lam tongue, but possessed in equal per- 
 fection the Greek, the Syriac, and the Eirvntian Hn 
 gjiages. She had drawn up for her ow^ tisf irepUome" 
 tLZ"u '"^""■y'S?'* '■^"'"-'y -=»™Pared Ihe'^beaT 
 limeloSr .""' '^'"" "'""=' ""^ '""'•'" "'• "»= -"- 
 
 her valour. , '^j"^ accomplished woman gave her 
 hand to Odenathus, who, from a private 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 113 
 
 Joes no, «i»h, .nS Tuiymi:! tiofnZ" «' ,\Z','C"'- 'fl!- '"> 
 Mo-v ...cm. , ,.ave been fai/er Si^,!!, Zf L',Z£ ^Zn^l^l 
 
 f Eumen. in Vet. Panoffyr iv 8 
 tl ' rl?„'"r!.io'cle"IS'„ "T.'r "■ -"? ^"'"" ""■» "»' ""O'-ed till 
 
 bclliu, Pollio. sro p l<i» 198 Augustan Hi.torj-, by Tre- 
 
 l'cr«ed il,e "iimimeT '*"'• " ""* "="'"8 ~«* ="« re- 
 
 Vol. X._P. 
 
 station, raised himself to the dominion of the Ea'sU 
 
 lighted in the exercise ^fhumi'. irrr^''^' ^t 
 ardour the wild beasts of the del or. n ' "^ u"* 
 
 and bears; and the ardour of 'zeuobr'in' t'lrdr* 
 gerous amusement was not inferior to his o,^ tl: 
 had mured her constitution to fati.r„e, disdainn,! ,t 
 
 verai miies'or/^„t*'a';"hrhe ^or.7l:^r"or"''Tr 
 
 success of Odenathim xvn« i„ o "'/"® troops. Ihe 
 
 rpietid'-^T"""^ ■''"^""- -^ i-=r^s 
 
 ^^^:X- fHs t ^. otf-'teSZ t 
 
 t}.e foundations of their united flune and nower 'tI 
 
 edl^eir captive emperor, and eveu the insensible so°n 
 \Llfe "'"'^""^ '^'^^"'-'"'"^ '■<" ''is '^Si'imate coT 
 
 After a successful expedition ao-iin«f c, 
 te Gothic plunderers of^sia "thl" p"a ! fi'=''S.'.n 
 nij reman prince returned to the city of Emesa in Sv 
 na. Invincible in war, he was ther^e cut off by doles' 
 lyJ'Z""' ""' '^'^'"''^"''rite amusement ofVunTin; 
 was the cause or at least the occasion, of his death? 
 His nephew Ma^onius, presumed to dart is iave in 
 >ef..re that of his uncle/ and though admon si ed of 
 .>» error, rej.eated the same insolence. A^a monarch 
 and as a sportsman, Odenathus was provoked took 
 away his horse, a mark of ignominy arnon^^hL h 
 banans, and chastised the ras°h yo,n^ by a fho t n 
 hnement. The offence was soo^n ?o got but he puT 
 shment was remembered; and Mseo^ius, with a few 
 darmg associates, assassinated his uncle „ the mS 
 ofa great entertainment. Herod the «on of nZ 
 •l".s, though not of Zenobia, a j°oun!; man of a soft and" 
 effeminate temper," was killed\vith Ms fa her Bui 
 
 b o„H?.' "''."""S' °r'y '*"' P'-^^S''^^ <"■ revenge iy ml 
 
 loody deed. He had scarcely time to assume he 
 
 title of Augustus before he was sacrificed by Z^Lbk 
 
 to the memory of her husband." ^enooia 
 
 With the assistance of his most faiih- , . 
 ful friends, she immediately filled the va- "u^'SZ' 
 cant throne, and governed with manly ^^1. 
 counsels Palmyra, Syria, and the East, above five 
 
 If IT ?^ '^ ul'^ of Odenathus, that amhor"Iy was 
 at an end which the senate had n-ranted birn nni„ T/ 
 personal distinction ; but his manual widow S sdafn ' 
 
 nig both the senate and Gallienus, obli.'ed one of ,"' 
 Roman generals, who was sent a<^ainst her ?n rt.rl,? 
 into Europe, with the loss of his°army andV s reput 
 .on." Instead of the little passions which so frequem- 
 ly perplex a female reign, the steady adm nistration of 
 porv" Tfltf "'''' ''y/" "-^''^ieious mix ms of 
 
 he r^'sentmenT^'f/f."'""' '" ''"<'"''• ^''« <=°"'d -=«'» 
 iier resentment ; if it was necessary to Dunisl. «h» 
 
 could impose silence on the voice of^pity.*^ He strict 
 economy was accused of avarice; yet on eveVy proncr 
 occasion she appeared magnificem and liberal %e 
 neighbouring states of Arabia, Armenia, and Persia 
 dreaded her enmity, and solicited her alliance. To iLe 
 dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the 
 Euphrates to the frontiers of B ithynia, his widow ad! 
 
 nri^'^M ■*,"-''.'*'• P 1S2. 193. Zosimus, I. i. p. 36. Zonaras Iv.l „ 
 
 1 nj. .)i "=^' of Syncellus. if not corrupl, is aljsolute noiiUn«^ 
 
 1 Ode.iallius and Zenobia often sent him, from the .doII. ^T^ 
 
 enemy. pre.en.s of gem, and .oys, wl.ich he received S infi„i« 
 
 m Some very unjust suspicions have been cam nr, >7»«..i • 
 she was accessary to her husband's dw?b Zenobia, as if 
 
 ° Uisl. August, p. 180, 181. 
 
112 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 Germans had advanced alonjr the ^Emilian and Fla- 
 minian way, with a design of sacking- the defenceless 
 mistress of the world. But Aiirelian, who, watchful 
 for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found 
 in this place the decisive moment of giving them a 
 total and irretrievable defeat.** The flying remnant of 
 their host was exterminated in a third and last battle 
 near Pavia ; and Italy was delivered from the inroads 
 of the Alemanni. 
 Superstitious Fear has been the original parent of su- 
 ccretnonies. perstition, and every new calamity urges 
 trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their in- 
 visible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic 
 was in the valour and conduct of Aurelian, yet such 
 was the ])ublic consternation, when the barbarians 
 were hourly expected at the gates of Rome, that by a 
 decree of the senate, the Sibylline books were con- 
 sulted. Even the emperor himself, from a motive 
 either of religion or of policy, recommended this salu- 
 tary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate,P and 
 offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, 
 whatever captives of any nation, the gods should re- 
 quire. Notwithstanding this liberal offer, it does not 
 appear that any human victims expiated with their 
 A. D. 271. blood the sins of the Roman people. The 
 Jan. 11. Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a 
 more harmless nature, processions of priests in white 
 Tobes attended by a chorus of youths and virgins ; lus- 
 trations of the city and adjacent country; and sacrifices, 
 whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from 
 passing the mystic ground on which they had been 
 celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these 
 superstitious arts were subservient to the success of 
 the war ; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the 
 Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres com- 
 bating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and 
 effectual aid from this imaginary reinforcement.** 
 Fortifications of But whatever confidence might be placed 
 Rome. in ideal ramparts, the experience of the 
 past, and the dread of the future, induced the Romans 
 to construct fortifications of a grosser and more sub- 
 stantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been sur- 
 rounded, by the successors of Romulus, with an an- 
 cient wall of more than thirteen miles.' The vast 
 enclosure may seem disprt)portioned to the strength 
 and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary 
 to secure an ample extent of pasture and arable land, 
 against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes 
 of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. 
 With the progress of Roman greatness, the city and 
 its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant 
 space, pierced through the useless walls, covered the 
 field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public 
 highways in long and beautiful suburbs.' The extent 
 of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in 
 the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estima- 
 tion to near fifty,* but is reduced by accurate measure- 
 ment to about twenty-one, miles." It was a great but 
 melancholy labour, since the defence of the capital be- 
 trayed the decline of the monarchy. The Romans of 
 
 been immortalized, by finding such an historian as Livy, and such a 
 poet as Horace. 
 
 o It is recorded by an inscription found at Pezaro. See Gruter. 
 cclx.xvi. 3. 
 
 P One should imacinc, he said, that you were assembled in a Chris- 
 tian church, not in ilie temple of all the pods. 
 
 q Vopiscus in Hi:?t. August, p. 215. 216. gives a long account of 
 these ceremonies, from the reftisters of the souate. 
 
 rPIin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, 
 that for a long time Mount Cirlius was a grove of oaks, and Mount 
 Vimiiiul was overrun with osiers: that, in the fourth century, the 
 Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement ; that, till the time 
 of Augustus, the Esquilinc was an unwholesome burying ground ; 
 and that the numerous inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the 
 QuirinnI, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildin-js. 
 Of the seven hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adja- 
 cent valleys, were the primitive habitation of the Roman people. 
 But this subject would require a dissertation. 
 
 a Expatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of 
 riiny. 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Voseius have 
 eagerly embraced this measure. 
 
 ■-■ See Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. f. c. 8. 
 
 a more prosperous age, who trusted to the arms of the 
 legions the safety of the frontier camps,* were very far 
 from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever be- 
 come necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the 
 inroads of the barbarians.^ 
 
 The victory of Claudius over the Goths, Aurelian sup- 
 and the success of Aurelian against the presses the two 
 Alemanni, had already restored to the "«'^'pe"- 
 arms of Rome their ancient superiority over the bar- 
 barous nations of the north. To chastise domestic 
 tyrants, and to reunite the dismembered parts of the 
 empire, was a task reserved for the second of those 
 warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by 
 the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, 
 Ulyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. 
 Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Mi- 
 nor, were still possessed by two rebels who alone, out 
 of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers 
 of their situation ; and to complete the ignominy of 
 Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women. 
 
 A rapid succession of monarchs had Succession of 
 arisen and fallen in the provinces of usurpers in Gaul. 
 Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to 
 hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competi- 
 tor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused 
 to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious 
 city ; and, in the seventh year of his reign, became the 
 victim of their disappointed avarice.' The death of 
 Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned 
 by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplish- 
 ments * of that prince were stained by a licentious pas- 
 sion, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too 
 little regard to the laws of society, or even to those of 
 love.*" He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of 
 jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared 
 more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his 
 son. After the murder of so many valiantprinces, it 
 is somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time 
 controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more 
 singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate 
 Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria en- 
 abled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus 
 on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigour under 
 the name of those dependent emperors. Money of 
 copper, of silver, and of gold, was coined in her name; 
 she assumed the titles of Augusta and Mother of the 
 Camps ; her power ended only with her life ; but her 
 life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetri- 
 cus.^ 
 
 When, at the instigation of his ambi- ^^1,^ ^pj„„ j„,j 
 tious patroness, Tetricus assumed the defeat ot^ Tetri- 
 ensigns of royalty, he was govenior of *^"^* 
 the peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment 
 suited to his character and education. He reigned four 
 or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave 
 and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, 
 and by whom he was despised. The valour and for- 
 tune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect of a 
 deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy 
 
 X Tacit. Hist. iv. 23. 
 
 y For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist, 
 
 August, p. 21G. 222. 
 Zosimus, 1. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. IS. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. 
 Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic. 
 
 z His competitor was liOllianus, or A^lianus, if, indeed, these 
 names mean the same person. See Tillemont, torn. iii. 1177. 
 
 [The medals which bear the name of Lollianus, are considered 
 spurious, except one only, which is found in the museum of the 
 prince of Waldick. There are many which bear the name of Loc- 
 lianus, which seems to have l)€ei) the name of the rival of Posthumus. 
 (Eck. Doct, Num. vet. vol. vii. 449.)— O.] 
 
 » The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (ap. Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 187.) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair ancf impartial. 
 Victorino qui post Junium PosthumumGallius rexit neminem exisU- 
 mo pra;ferendum ; non in virlute Trajanum ; non Antoninum in 
 dementia; non in gravitate Nervam ; non in gubernando a^rario 
 Vcspasianum: non in censura totiusvitx ac severitate militari Per- 
 tinacem vel Severum. Sed omnia htec libido et cupiditas voluptatis 
 mulierarin; sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtuies ejus in literasmit- 
 tere quem constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri. 
 
 b He ravished the wife of Atiitianus, an actuary^ or army agent. 
 Hist. August, p. 186. Aurel. Victor in .\urelian. 
 
 c Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty tyrants. Hist. Au* 
 gust. p. 200. 
 
 A. D. 271. 
 Summer. 
 
 situation, and conjured the emneror in 
 
 gions though disordered and dismayed bv the unev 
 
 V n '' whom 'tK'" '""''"""'' f -"-' ?"d fila! 
 tmZltltrrr' °''^"^^"''" ^^- aclnow edged 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 113 
 
 As early as th.e rJi^roTc h;:di„ r^r; Sti ol vil'^ ''"P''^^ ^™?T^' ^^ even'Te insV.'.: hr"! 
 
 station, raised himself to the dominion of the East J 
 
 lighted in the exercise of hu^"? CZT'J^ ^t 
 ardour the wild beasts of the defe'rtlio'^^rf ''.>,"'* 
 and bears; and the ardour of Sbn' tS/f' 
 ^"""^ "'"f ement was not inferior to his o«^ Shl 
 had inured her constitution to fati.r„e, disdain;,! ,t 
 
 vcrai mils"'^f7ot':5^ tTof rtrir^r 
 
 success of Odenathns was i„ a great neaire'^a;criLd 
 s^piendicl victories over the orpit hn^^ , i ■'"^" 
 Uvice pursued as far as he ?aws of f-'te inh"" ?"? 
 te foundations of their uni^d^^eld K^'xile 
 
 which ,w'f ."•">' ^""'anded, and the provinces 
 H Inch they had saved, acknowIed<red not anv l.h!? 
 sovereigns than their invincible ciaefs Th7=f 
 and people of Rome revered a'^rt^g fwholtd a™ 
 edtlieir captive emperor, and even the insensibte so°n 
 ot Valerian accented n,lo„o.i...„ <•„. i.:. > '-••-""« son 
 
 had resisted with obstinate diiaffe^tion the arms 7f 
 Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lvons " but 
 
 A. D. 273, Aurelian had no sooner secured the 
 
 """"S.f ^- P!'r„-'| P'-ovinces of Tetricus, than 
 » 1 1, . J turned his arms against Zenobia the 
 
 celebrated queen of Palmyra and the east Modern 
 
 lmveTus':L'/ wiTh^', '"'T' "'"^'"""^ womenlvh 
 nave sustained with glory the weight of empire • nor 
 
 ac"r7"Bn'tTf w """'"^ of snch^distinguis'hed'cha- 
 of Semiramir /^nnr^'P' "'^^""''tful achievements 
 oi oemiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the onlv female 
 whose superior genius broke through the serWle i?dt 
 if Isi^r^l^ ™ l'" Tu ''y;''^ <='■"""« and manners 
 Pi««^„* j^^Jt'^i equalled in beauty her ancestor 
 
 and valour. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovelv 
 "ic^^S"-" Zr =>%*« 'npst heroic of her sex. 
 ' ,''trif.J'±'^^ --P'-ion (for, in 
 
 After a successful expedition ao-nJn«f o. 
 U,e Gothie p,„„,,,,,, „f^sia "th> p"a .' ^:^^] 
 myrenian prince returned to the city of Emesa in S,- 
 a Invincible in war, he was therl cut off bv j" i" 
 wasfh?""' "'"^ his favourite amusement ofVunTin; 
 was the cause, or at least the occasion, of his deatl^? 
 His nephew Maeonius, presumed to dart is iave i'„ 
 before that of his uncle / and though admonished o? 
 1".^ error, repeated the same insolence. 4s a monarch 
 
 } iiib norse, a mark of ignominy among- the har 
 
 i' hmmwas emeXed"'ard"M!:'="°'' ""'• '^ P,""" 
 ,lo.i. „ '^ 'cineiuucrea , and Mseonius, with a few- 
 
 daring associates, assassinated his uncle in Ihe m d^ 
 
 ,b,„T'" t"'"'^'"™«"'- Herod, the son of o"ena- 
 thiis, though not of Zenobia, a young man of a soft and 
 effeminate temper,' was killed\vith' his father Bui 
 Mson.us obtained only the pleasure of revenge by iM, 
 loody deed. He had scarcely time to assume he 
 title of Augustus before he was sacrificed by Zenobia 
 to the memory of her husband." •^enooia 
 
 With the assistance of his most faiih- , . 
 fu friends, she immediately filled the va- uf/S7„'S' 
 cant throne, and governed with manlv *=e>P'- 
 
 Zr'^Bv'^^e""nh!?S„!"1..''- '^-. above five 
 
 « 1- n , ""o ui a udrK complexion (for in ^ I r» , ^-'^iii^u wiiu mauiy ^mv*^- 
 
 speaking of a lady, these trifles become importa^t^ counsels Palmyra, Syria, and the East, above five 
 Her teeth were of a pearly whitenessranrhTlari TJ"' .^ k-\^'?'^ of Odenathus, that amhS was 
 black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered bv nl c ^"^^.^^'^K ^he senate had granted him on v as a 
 the most attractive sweetness. Her voicevvas strong ^ T^! distinction ; but his manial widow d sdain 
 and harmonious. Her manly iiXstandin/ waf R ^ ^'''^' ''^^ T 
 
 strer^o-thened .r.H .A^.^.A k.. ..L.. ^^'[-^^"ding was Roman generals, who was sent againstC to retrllt 
 
 into Europe, with thp Inco ^fu:A'" ,\ r ^^^^^at 
 
 ...^^.^. iici muiiiy unaerstanding- was 
 
 fp.r 1*^'^^^ ^" tongue, but possessed in equal per- 
 fection the Greek, the Syriac, and the EffypJi^n fan 
 guaffes. She had drawn nr. f.l u^. JZ .„P P"^". ^^"" 
 
 guages. She had d^aw;:^;; for h ^ow^ utl^a!;?pit me' , l' ^T'-^"^ ^ '"'"''' -ig^rtre s^adV dministratr"of 
 tfesT "h ' ""''"Z' vf '"^"I'^^'y compared "he'beau! p„rv'" Vl^''^"^ V' """' '"'^^"""^ "^" ^" of 
 
 lies 01 Homer anrl Plat^ „r.J.^- ♦k- *...-.• /. , . poiicy. It it was PYno/]i^«f 4^ j ._ • ,. . 
 
 Xr • \ i\ ' — "'"»*" up lur tier own use an epitomi 
 
 tiesT"^' *"^'°^y'S"<' '"^"•'"a^'y compared the'^beat 
 es of Homer and Plato under the tuition of the sub- 
 lime Longinus. 
 
 This accomplished woman gave her 
 hand to Odenathus, who, from a private 
 
 ;„*^ v> —-,....,, "u,o ociit aMdHisi ner, to retreat 
 
 into Europe, with the loss of his army and his repula- 
 
 l nil V??'' "V*"" !'"'<' P^^^'""^ ^hieh so freqE^^t 
 z'eL^b?i^aVrd':dT,f"^'''.!l-.^.^:^^»"-'-?onof 
 
 her valour. 
 
 nnliVir If ;i -J "'^ "iu»i juuicious maxims of 
 
 he resentment' .T?t'"' '° P""*""' '"" '""^^ "^a'" 
 ner resentment , if n was necessary to punish she 
 
 could impose silence on the voice of pity. "^ Her strict 
 
 economy was accused of avarice; yet on every proDer 
 
 occasion she appeared magnificem and liberar^e 
 
 neighbouring states of Arabia, Armenia, and Persia 
 
 iSii::°^::^''-f'ltI'!^^.^'^^P^^ I ^"P''^"'^^ '<* '"« "•-•"- "f Bithynia! hTswISX ^d! 
 
 tv) n aro tha f.,ll ATrM„._;-./ . ^ . "'■; 
 
 f Euuien. in Vet. Panp^yr. iv 8 
 the r^'r.ro7Diocle"!an ^ZTv ^^ "^'^ ^"^"" ^«« "«» restored till 
 
 bcllius Pollio, sec p IIP 198 "'® Augustan Hjstory, by Tre- 
 
 ^^^fr\V:"''int:'^^^^^^^ but for the sake of 
 
 iterated the ex ArimeT ^ ^^'^' '° ^^*^ ^^"^6 «*"'* «he re- 
 VOL. l.^P. 
 
 ROOD'S; ^"-"=?^- P 192, 193. Zosimus, J. i. p. 36. Zonaras Ixii n 
 
 sfs^^nt Tlf^Jtf'r «^"'^ r^'-^"'^' ^'^^ othe?s confuseS and inroJ-' 
 Tnripn,?! fo ^ ^°tr^^"5e''"«' *f not corrupt, is absolute nonsensS 
 1 Odenathus and Zenobia often sent him, from the sooilg of tlf^ 
 
 enemy, presents of gems and toys, which he received S infiniti 
 
 sh:lrnVe^iL"yt?er^Zrn"d%r?h'"^» '^' '^ ^-^-' " '^ 
 «> tiisu August, p. 180, 181. 
 
 !■ 
 
114 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 ded the inheritance of her ancestors, the populous and 
 fertile kingdom of Egypt.« The emperor Claudius 
 acknowledged her merit, and was content, that, while 
 he pursued the Gothic war, she should assert the dig- 
 nity of the empire in the east.P The conduct, howev- 
 er, of Zenobia was attended with some ambiguity ; 
 nor is it unlikely that she had conceived the design of 
 erecting an independent and hostile monarchy. She 
 blended with the popular manners of Roman princes 
 the stately pomp of the courts of Asia, and exacted 
 from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to 
 the successors of Cyrus. She bestowed on her three 
 sons'! a Latin education, and often showed them to the 
 troops adorned with the imperial purple. For herself 
 she reserved the diadem, with the splendid but doubt- 
 ful title of Queen of the East. 
 
 The expedition When Aurelian passed over into Asia, 
 ofAureiian, against an adversary whose sex alone 
 A. D.272. cQxxX^ render her an object of contempt, 
 his presence restored obedience to the province of Bi- 
 thynia, already shaken by the arms and intrigues of 
 Zenobia.' Advancing at the head of his legions, he 
 accepted the submission of Ancyra, and was admitted 
 into Tyana, after on obstinate siege, by the help of a 
 perfidious citizen. The generous though fierce temper 
 of Aurelian abandoned the traitor to the rage of the 
 soldiers: a superstitious reverence induced him to 
 treat with lenity the countrymen of Apollonius the 
 philosopher.' Antioch was deserted on his approach, 
 till the emperor, by his salutary edicts, recalled the 
 fugitives, and granted a general pardon to all who, 
 from necessity rather than choice, had been engaged in 
 the service of the Palmyrenian queen. The unexpect- 
 ed mildness of such a conduct reconciled the minds of 
 the Syrians, and, as far as the gates of Emesa, the 
 wishes of the people seconded the terror of his arms.* 
 The emperor dc- Zenobia would have ill deserved her 
 Sra'„Vl'r,h'?l,r,;o. 'fP«tation, had she indolently permitted 
 of Antioch and the emperor of the west to approach 
 Emesa. within an hundred miles of her capital. 
 
 The fate of the east was decided in two great battles; 
 so similar in almost every circumstance, that we can 
 scarcely distinguish them from each other, except by 
 observing that the first Wi>s fought near Antioch," and 
 the second near Emesa.' In both, the queen of Pal- 
 myra animated the armies by her presence, and devolv- 
 ed the execution of her orders on Zabdas, who had al- 
 ready signalized his military talents by the conquest 
 of Egypt. The numerous forces of Zenobia consisted 
 for the most part of light archers, and of heavy cavalry 
 clothed in complete steel. The Moorish and Illyrian 
 horse of Aurelian were unable to sustain the ponderous 
 charge of their antagonists. They fled in real or af- 
 fected disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a labor- 
 ious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory combat, 
 and at length discomfited this impenetrable biit unwiel- 
 dy body of cavalry. The light infantry, in the mean 
 time, when they had exhausted their quivers, remain- 
 ing without protection against a closer onset, exposed 
 
 o [This appearsvery doubtful— Claudius during his reign had been 
 ■tyled emperor, by the medals of Alexandria, wliich are very nu- 
 merous. If Zenobia had any power in Egypt, it must have been at 
 the commencement of the reign of Aurelian— For the same reason 
 her conquests as far as Galatia are improbable. Perhaps Zenobia had 
 governed in Egypt, in the name of Claudius, and becoming more 
 bold alter the death of this prince, subjected it entirely to her own 
 power. — G.l 
 
 p See in Hist. August, p. 198. Aurelian's testimony to her merit • 
 and for the conquest of Egypt, Zosimus, I. i. p. :w, 40. ' 
 
 qTimolaus, Herennianus, and Vaballathus. It is supposed that 
 the two former were already dead before the war. On the last Au- 
 relian bestowed a small province of Armenia, with the title of Icing • 
 several of his medals are still extant. See Tillcmont, torn. iii. p. ligo! 
 
 'Zosimus, I. i. p. 44. 
 
 •Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 217.) gives us an authentic letter, 
 and a doubtful vision, of Aurelian. Apollonius of Tyana was born 
 about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is 
 related in so fabulous a manner by his disciples, that we are at a loss 
 to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic. 
 
 t Zosimus, I. i. p. 46. 
 
 « At a place called Immse. Eutropius, Sextus, Rufus, and Jerome, 
 mention only this first battle. 
 
 ▼ Vopiscus, in Hist. August, p. 217. mentions only the second. 
 
 their naked sides to the swords of the legions. Aure- 
 lian had chosen these veteran troops, who were usual- 
 ly stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valour 
 , had been severely tried in the Alemannic war.* After 
 \ the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to 
 * collect a third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, 
 I the nations subject to her empire had joined the stand- 
 j ard of the conqueror, who detached Probus, the bravest 
 I of his generals, to possess himself of the Egyptian 
 ' provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the wi- 
 J dow of Odenathus. She retired within the walls of 
 her capital, made every preparation for a vigorous re- 
 sistance, and declared, with the intrepidity of a hero- 
 ine, that the last moment of her reign and of her life 
 should be the same. 
 
 Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a The state of 
 few cultivated spots rise like islands out Palmyra, 
 of the sandy ocean. Even the name of Tadmor, or 
 Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as 
 in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm 
 trees which afforded shade and verdure to that temper- 
 ate region. The air was pure, and the soil, watered 
 by some invaluable springs, was capable of producing 
 fruit as well as corn. A place possessed of such sin- 
 gular advantages, and situated at a convenient dis- 
 tance^ between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterrane- 
 an, was soon frequented by the caravans which con- 
 veyed to the nations of Europe a considerable part of 
 the rich commodities of India. Palmyra insensibly 
 increased into an opulent and independent city, and 
 connecting the Roman and the Parthian monarchies by 
 the mutual benefits of commerce, was suflfered to ob- 
 serve an humble neutrality, till at length, after the vic- 
 tories of Trajan, the little republic sunk into the bo- 
 som of Rome, and flourished more than one hundred 
 and fifty years in the subordinate though honourable 
 rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period, 
 if we may judge from a few remaining inscriptions, 
 that the wealthy Palmyrenians constructed those tem- 
 ples, palaces, and porticos of Grecian architecture, 
 whose ruins, scattered over an extent of several miles, 
 have deserved the curiosity of our travellers. The ele- 
 vation of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to reflect 
 new splendour on their country, and Palmyra, for a 
 wliile, stood forth the rival of Rome : but the competi- 
 tion was fatal, and ages of prosperity were sacrificed 
 to a moment of glory.' 
 
 In his march over the sandy desert be- it is besieged by : 
 tween Emesa aud Palmyra, the emperor Aurelian; 
 Aurelian was perpetually harrassed by the Arabs; nor 
 could he always defend his army, and especially his 
 baggage, from those flying troops of active and daring 
 robbers, who watched the moment of surprise, and 
 eluded the slow pursuit of the legions. The siege of 
 Palmyra was an object far more difficult and important, 
 and the emperor, who with incessant vigour pressed 
 the attacks in person, was himself wou'lided with a 
 dart. " The Roman people," says Aurelian, in an ori- 
 ginal letter, " speak with contempt of the war which I 
 am waging against a woman. They are ignorant both 
 of the character and of the power of Zenobia. It is 
 impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations, of 
 stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile wea- 
 pons. Every part of the walls is provided with two 
 or three balisfse, and artificial fires are thrown from her 
 military engines. The fear of punishment has armed 
 her with a desperate courage. Yet still I trust in the 
 protecting deities of Rome, who have hitherto been fa- 
 
 X Zosimus I. i. p. 44—48. His account of the two battles is clear 
 and circumstantial. 
 
 y It was five hundred and thirty-seven miles from Seleuria, and 
 two hundred and three from the nearest coast of Syria, according to 
 the reckoning of Pliny, who, in a few words, (Hist. Natur. v. 21.) 
 gives an excellent description of Palmyra. 
 
 zSome English travellers from Aleppo discovered the ruins of 
 Palmyra, about the end of the last century. Our curiosity has since 
 been gratified in a more splendid manner by Messieurs Wood and 
 Dawkins. For the history of Palmyra, we may consult the masterly 
 dissertation of Dr. Halley in the Philosophical Transactions: J..OW- 
 thorp's .Abridgment, vol, iii. p. 518. 
 
 Hie r^r^r. I Citizens, their ancient pr vilejrps 
 
 H s proposals were obstinately rejected, and thp rff.!' 
 sal was accompanied with insult. -^^ ^ '^^"" 
 
 who becomes mas- The firmness of Zenobia was support- 
 inSi^i'ir'''^ '"' f ^y '^' \^P«' '^^' in a very short^Ce 
 ret.a«;<, th. A ^^^"^^"^^ould compel the Roman army to 
 
 that the kin''''V.f"\.^^ '^^ reasonable expectatbn 
 iriat the kings of the East, and particularly thp PpI 
 
 tempted to l!ii'' «^« '"considerable succours that at- 
 
 tfieconauest „r I?' I" T"" ""' ^'"""""S troops from 
 sXed to flv IFP'- ^'r^^ ""en that Zenobia re- 
 darls = and Lh il* mounted the fleetest of herdrome- 
 r.h[,, *V*"'*".^''ea<iy reached the banks of the P„ 
 phrates, about s^ty miles from Palmyra, when she was' 
 A.D.273. °y"l^^^» by the pursuit of Aurelian's 
 
 captive to ilJflet' ofTe lZlt"'''H:°7Vr'' '^ 
 
 stones were all delivered to trco'„';u'er:r,'wrirv! 
 ■ng only a garrison of six hundred archers, returned L 
 Emesa, and emp oyed some time in the dTsirTb" .on of 
 rewards and punishments at the end of so memomb"e a 
 war, which restored to the obedience of Rome lo4 
 ?:SVf VaYeL?""'"'^'' their allegiance sinc'e'-th: 
 
 ""zoira "' ; .^.t*" ** ®y"*" 1"«en was brought 
 
 Iv asked Lr h1° \ ^TT"" "^ A"'^"''"' he stem- 
 ly asked her, How she had presumed to rise in arms 
 
 apnst the emperors of Rome ! The answer of ZeTo! 
 
 "Becaus'e/^S Tf '"^« "V-Pect and firmness. 
 Because I disdained to consider as Roman emnerors 
 an Aureolus or a Gallienus. You alone I acZowl! 
 edge as my conqueror and my sovereign."- But as 
 female fortitude is commonly artificial, so it is feldom 
 
 M he'r k"thf h'- ^^' -T''^" <"■ Z-obia de- 
 serted her in the hour of trial ; she trembled at the 
 
 angry clamours of the soldiers, who called aloud for 
 her immediate execution, forgot the generous despair 
 of Cleopatra, which she had proposed asl^er moSe 
 and ignominiously purchased life by the sacrifice of 
 her fame and her friends. It was to their counsers 
 which ffoverned the weakness of her sex, that shelm 
 IMmd the guilt of her obstinate resistance; U was on" 
 their heads that she directed the vengeance of the 
 cruel Aurelian. The fame of Longinusf who was in! 
 
 S^» ofT"?*"" "",'?"°"^ '""' V^'^^f^ innocent vc- 
 tims of her fear, will survive that of the queen who 
 
 betrayed, or the tyrant who condemned, him. Genius 
 
 wtiT""!f- ^^\^ '"f Pable of moving a fierce un- 
 lettered soldier, but they had served to elevate and 
 harmonize the soul of Longinus. Without utterino- a 
 complaint he calmly followed the executioner, i.ity! 
 
 hifafflic":5Ed"f ' ^"-^ "^^'""•■"^ -""■-' ™ 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 115 
 
 
 » Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 218 
 ...e.Srpr'oStie"'"' "'™""°^'' ' "^ve endeavoured .0 extract 
 
 rua oyer a, ,„„cl, g,„2„d ,„ S',, J'i%t/S^» »«™. ^^^^^^ 
 form in eight or ten. Spp R„ffnn lul* w . "^^^J®*^ norsescan per- 
 and Shaw's Travel;, p Tg7 ^°"' "'"'• ^^^"■'eHe. tom. xi. p. 222. 
 d Pollio in Hist. Aug. p. 199. I 
 
 Vopiscus in Hist.Augu st. p. 2i9. Zosimus, I. i. p. 51. 
 
 Returning from the conquest of the p.k.,,- 
 Strnt^"."^^'!,' ^^-^y crossei tL rJin^^y'^a-.^rl 
 straits which divide Europe from Asia, when he was 
 
 h«ata'rd''r Sr tt itr >^'"rf ? 
 
 alarrned by lus rapid approach, and the helpless ci?v 
 of Palmyra felt tlie irresistible weight of Im r».^I,.^ 
 
 Ztv ^''}'T "r'n*"' of Aurelianliim 1?; ,/:S 
 he acknowledges,' that old men, women, children 
 and peasants had been involved in thaHreadfu exel 
 cu tion, which should have been confined to armed re 
 bel ion ; and although his principal concern se?ms di- 
 rected to the re-establishment of a temple of thrsun 
 he discovers some pity for the remnant of the Palmv 
 remans to whom he grants the permission of rebund- 
 ing and inhabiting their city. But it is easier to de- 
 stroy than to restore. The seat of commerce, of arts, 
 and of Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town 
 a trifling fortress, and at length a miserable viMage 
 The present citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty oi 
 forty families, have erected their mud-cott°ages Sin 
 the spacious court of a magnificent temple. 
 
 Another and a last labour still await- . ,. 
 ed the indefatigable Aurelian ; to sup- ^m? e'r"bSr; 
 press a dangerous though obscure rebel, K'rlVL^g",;"! 
 
 bank's oTJlS'lifY*™!!;'''' ''"''"y'^' '■^'1 "ri^™ on *« 
 banks of the Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally as 
 
 he proudly styled himself, of Odenathus and Zenobia 
 was no more than a wealthy merchant of Egypt i„' 
 
 tlZ,r "^ '"' '"''"- f° '"'''^' he had forS ve y 
 n ^^ eonnexions with the Saracens and the Blem- 
 mycs whose situation on either coast of the Red s7a 
 gave them an easy introduction into the Upper IjipT 
 The Egyptians he inflamed with the hope of frfedlm 
 
 IZT/ "'i^'f-'"'"''"^'' ^'here he assumed the imperial 
 purple, coined money, published edicts, and raised an 
 army, which, as he vainly boasted, he vUs capable o? 
 maintaining from the sole profits of his paper trade 
 
 of Aurlir "'"^ ''■ '■"'^'''^ ''^^•^""^ ^g«"'^' tLlpproach 
 Hte Intl?' ^'«' " ^^^ms almost unnecessary to re- 
 
 to death. Aurelian might now congratulate the sen- 
 a e the people, and himself, that in little more than 
 
 to the E!,'^:':;lr °^^^ ""'^^'^''" ^'^'^^ --^ -«- 
 
 Since the foundation of Rome, no ^ ^ „,. 
 
 fZl^\ ^^^r'?. "«^^y deserved a tri- Triton Ta.. 
 umpli than Aurelian; nor was a triumph ^'^''^n 
 ever celebrated with superior pride and magnificence.'' 
 1 he pomp was opened by twenty elephants" four royal 
 tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious an- 
 mals from every climate of the north, the east, and 
 
 l^^fr^'^^^'^.^^'^^'u^^^^^'^d by sixteen hundred 
 gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the am- 
 phitheatre. The wealth of Asia, the arms and ensigns 
 o so many conquered nations, and the mao-nificent 
 plate and wardrobe of the Syrian queen, were dis- 
 posed in exact symmetry or artifical disorder. The 
 ambassadors of the most remote parts of the earth 
 of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, InLX^l 
 China, a 1 remarkable by their rich or singular dres- 
 ses, displayed the fame and power of the Roman em- 
 peror, who exposed likewise to the public view the 
 presents that he had received, and particularly a great 
 
 cities. The victories of Aurelian were attested by the 
 
 f Hist. August, p. 2ia 
 
 g See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 220, 2-12. As an instance of 
 luxury. It IS observed, that lie had glass windows. He was remark 
 
 the letter of Aurelian, we may ju.ctly infer, that Firmus was thVlaS 
 
 hlp^Jhh''"'^ T'^'Jl'^"'!^ *^^' '^«*"<="» w«« already S^^^ 
 h See the triumph of Aurelian, described by Vopiscus He r^l 
 the particulars with his usual minuteness ; and on this occasion K 
 happen to be interesting. Hist. Au-ust. p 220 O'^a«"0». they 
 
 
116 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 long train of captives who reluctantly attended his tri- 
 umph, Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, 
 Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians. Each people was 
 distinjruished by its peculiar inscription, and the title 
 of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines 
 of the Gothic nation who had been taken in arms.* 
 But every eye, disregardinof the crowd of captives, 
 was fixed on the emperor Tetricus, and the queen of 
 the east. The former, as well as his son, whom he 
 had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic trow- 
 sers,'' a saffron tunic, and robe of purple. The beau- 
 teous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold ; 
 a slave supported the gold chain which encircled her 
 neck, and she almost fainted under the intolerable 
 weight of jewels. She preceded on foot the magnifi- 
 cent chariot in which she once hoped to enter the 
 gates of Rome. It was followed by two other chariots. 
 Still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Per- 
 sian monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian (it had 
 formerly been used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on 
 this memorable occasion, either by four stags or by 
 four elephants.' The most illustrious of the senate, 
 the people, and the army, closed the solemn proces- 
 sion. Unfeigned joy, wonder, and gratitude, swelled 
 the acclamations of the multitude ; but the satisfaction 
 of the senate was clouded by the appearnnce of Tetri- 
 cus ; nor could they suppress a rising murmur, that 
 the haughty emperor should thus expose to public 
 ignominy the person of a Roman and a magistrate.™ 
 Hig treatment of But however, in the treatment of his 
 Tetricus and Ze- unfortunate rivals, Aurelian might in- 
 "" '"• dulge his pride, he behaved towards 
 
 them with a generous clemency, which was seldom 
 exercised by the ancient conquerors. Princes who, 
 without success, had defended their throne or freedom, 
 were frequently strangled in prison, as soon as the 
 triumphal pomp ascended the capitol. These usurp- 
 ers, whom their defeat had convicted of the crime of 
 treason, were permitted to spend their lives in afilueuce 
 and honourable repose. - The emperor presented Zeno- 
 bia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or Tivoli, about 
 twenty miles from the capital ; the Syrian queen in- 
 sensibly sunk into a "Roman matron, her daughters 
 married into noble families, and her race was not yet 
 ^extinct in the fifth centuTy." Tetricus and his sou 
 were reinstated in their rank and fortunes. They erect- 
 ed on the Caelian hill a magnificent palace, and as 
 soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to supper. 
 On his entrance, he was agreeably surprised w ith a pic- 
 ture which represented their singular history. They 
 were delineated offering to the emperor a civic crown 
 and the sceptre of Gaul, and again receiving at his 
 hands the ornaments of the senatorial dignity. The 
 father was afterwards invested with the government 
 of Lucania," and Aurelian, who soon admitted the 
 abdicated monarch to his friendship and conversation, 
 familiarly asked him. Whether it were not more de- 
 sjrable to administer a province of Italy, than to reign 
 beyond the Alps ? The son long continued a respect- 
 able member of the senate ; nor was there any of the 
 
 i Amonp; barbarous nations, women have often combated by the 
 Bide of iheir hnshands. But it is almost impo««sil»le that a society of 
 Amazons xhould ever liave existed eiflier in tlic old or now world. 
 
 k The use of bracca, hreeclics, or trowsers, was still considered in 
 Italy as a Gallic and barburiau fashion. The Romans, however, 
 had made great advances towards it. To incircic the legs and 
 thighs with facia, or hands, was understood in the lime of Pompey 
 and Horace to I»e a proof of ill health and efTeminacy. In the ago 
 of Trajan, the custom was conflued to the rich and luxurious. It 
 gradually was adopted by the meanest of the people. Sec a very 
 curious note of Casaulion, ad Sueton, in August, c. 82. 
 
 > Most probably the former; the latter, seen on the medals of Au- 
 relian, only denote (according to the learned Cardinal Norris) an 
 oriental victory. 
 
 *a The expression of Calphurnius (Eclog. i. 50.) Nullos ducet cap- 
 ftoa triumphos, as applied to Rome, contains a very manifest uHu- 
 ■ion and censure. 
 
 n Vopiscus in Mist. Aug. p. 199. Ilieronym. in Chron. Prosper in 
 Chron. Baronius supposes that Zenobius, bishop of Florence in the 
 time of St. Ambrose, was of her family. 
 
 o Vopisc. in Hist. August, p. 222. Eutropius, ix. 13. Victor Ju- 
 nior. But Pollio, in Hist. August, p. 196. soys, that Tetricus was 
 made corrector of all Italy. 
 
 Roman nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well 
 as by his successors.? 
 
 So long and so various was the pomp nis magnificence 
 of Aurelian's triumph, that allhougrh it '^"'i devotion, 
 opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty of 
 the procession ascended not the capitol before the 
 ninth hour ; and it was already dark when the empe- 
 ror returned to the palace. The festival was protract- 
 ed by theatrical representations, the games of the cir- 
 cus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of gladiators, 
 and naval engagements. Liberal donatives were dis- 
 tributed to the army and people, and several institu- 
 tions, agreeable or beneficial to the city, contributed 
 to perpetuate the glory of Aurelian. A considerable 
 portion of his oriental spoils was consecrated to the 
 gods of Rome; the capitol, and every other temple, 
 glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety ; 
 and the temple of the sun alone received above fifteen 
 thousand pounds of gold.** This last was a magnifi- 
 cent structure, erected by the emperor on the side of 
 the Quirinal hill, and dedicated, soon after the tri- 
 umph, to that deity whom Aurelian adored as the 
 parent of his life and fortunes. His mother had been 
 an inferior priestess in a chapel of the sun ; a peculiar 
 devotion to the god of light, was a sentiment which 
 the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy ; and eve- 
 ry step of his elevation, every victory of his reign, 
 fortified superstition by gratitude.'" 
 
 The arms of Aurelian had vanquish- iie supprcs.qes a 
 ed the foreign and domestic foes of the ec«i't'on at Rome, 
 republic. We are assured, that, by his salutary 
 rigour, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and per- 
 nicious connivance, the luxuriant growth of a feeble 
 and oppressive government, were eradicated through- 
 out the Roman world." But if we attentively reflect 
 how much swifter is the progress of corruption than 
 its cure, and if we remember that the years' abandoned 
 to public disorders exceeded the months allotted to 
 the martial reign of Aurelian, we must confess that a 
 tew short intervals of peace were insuflicient for the 
 arduous work of reformation. Even his attempt to 
 restore the integrity of the coin, was opposed by 
 a formidable insurrection. The emperor's vexation 
 breaks out in one of his private letters : " Surely,'* 
 says he, " the gods have decreed that my life should 
 be a perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walls 
 has just now given birth to a very serious civil war. 
 The workmen of the mint, at the instigation of Feli- 
 cissimus, a slave to whom I had intrusted an employ- 
 ment in the finances, have risen in rebellion. They 
 are at length suppressed ; but seven thousand of my 
 soldiers have been slain in the contest, of those troops 
 whose ordinary station is in Dacia, and the camps 
 along the Danube."* Other writers, who confirm the 
 same fact, add likewise, that it happened soon after 
 Aurelian's triumph ; that the decisive engajrement was 
 fought on the Caclian hill; that the workmen of the 
 mint had adulterated the coin ; and that the emperor 
 restored the public credit, by delivering out good mo- 
 ney in exchange for the bad, which the people was 
 commanded to bring into the treasury." 
 
 We might content ourselves with re- Ohsorvationt 
 lating this extraordinary transaction, but "pu» it- 
 we cannot dissemble how much in its present form it 
 appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The de- 
 basement of the coin is indeed well suited to the ad- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 P Hist. August, p. 197. 
 
 •> Vopiscus in Hist. August. 222. Zosimus. 1. i. p. 56. He placed 
 In it the images of Belus and of the sun, which he had brought from 
 Palmyra. It was dedicated in the fourth year of his reign. (Euseb 
 in Chron.) but was most assuredly begun immediately on his acces- 
 sion. 
 
 T See in the Augustan History, p. 210. the omens of his fortune. 
 His devotion to the sun appears in his letters, on his medals, and is 
 mentioned in the Caesars of Julian. Coramentaire de Spanheira o. 
 109. ^ 
 
 « Vopiscus in Hist. Aug. p. 221. 
 
 ' Hist. August, p. 222. Aurelian calls those soldiers Hibtri RtvC' 
 riensea. Caatriani, and Daciaci. 
 
 " Zosimus, I. i. p. 56. Eutropiut , Ix. 14. Aurel. Victor. 
 
 ministration of Gallienus; nor is it unlikely that the I 
 instruments of the corruption might dread the inflex- 
 ible justice of Aurelian. But the ffuilt, as well as the 
 profit, must have been confined to a fev, ; nor is i^ 
 easy to conceive by what arts they could arm a people 
 whom they had iiyured, against a monarch whom they 
 had betrayed We might naturally expect, that such 
 miscreants should have shared the public detestation, 
 with the informers and the other ministers of oppres- 
 sion ; and that the reformation of the coin should have 
 been an action equally popular with the destruction of 
 those obsolete accounts, which by the emperor's order 
 were burnt in the forum of Trajan.^ In a'n age when 
 th'^ principles of commerce were so imperfectly un- 
 
 fT.Tu' T'' f^"''"""^'" ""^ ^'S'U perhaps be ef- 
 fected by harsh and injudicious means ; but a tempor- 
 ary grievance of such a nature can scarcely excite and 
 support a serious civil war. The repetition of intoler- 
 able taxes, iniposed either on the land or on the ne- 
 cessaries of iite, may at last provoke those who will 
 not, or who cannot, relinquish their country. But the 
 wb!t«nl otherwise in every operation which, by 
 whatsoever expedients, restores the just value of mo- 
 ney. The tran.sient evil is soon obliterated by the 
 
 Cr"'"'/r^'^' \°^^ ^« ^''^'^^^ among muU- 
 tudes ; and if a few wealthy individuals expedience a 
 sensible diminution of treasure, with their riches, they 
 
 nJl''^"'l-T'J''' '^^ ^'^''^ of weight and im- 
 portance which they derived from the possession of 
 them. However Aurelian might choose to disguise 
 the el ''"n '^^' '"^"rrecti'on, his reformatioli of 
 the coin could only ftjrnish a faint pretence to a party 
 already powerful and discontented. Rome, thou^^ 
 deprived of freedom, was distracted by faction. The 
 people, towards whom the emperor, himself a plebeian 
 always expressed a peculiar fondn;ss, lived J^nlerZt' 
 ual a.ssension with the senate, the equestrian order, 
 and the praetorian guards.^ Nothing less than the firm 
 though secret conspiracy of those^rders, of the au^ 
 
 tZ^ f.u^ l''h '^^ ^"^'^h «^ *he second, and the 
 arms of the third could have displayed a strength 
 capable of contending in battle with \he. veteran le- 
 gions of the Danube, which, under the conduct of a 
 mar lal sovereign, had achieved the conquest of the 
 west and of the east. ^ 
 
 Cruelty of Au- Whatever was the cause or the ob- 
 littJn K ,.,.J^^^o[this rebellion, imputed with so 
 
 ttle probability to the workmen of the mint, Aurelian 
 used his victory with unrelenting riaour.^ He was 
 naturally of a severe dispositionT A pe;san? and a 
 soldier h.s nerves yielded' not easily to ?he impres- 
 ts on 'th'^Tr'^' ""^ *^^^^"'^ «"«^-i" withoremo- 
 
 ar i st%?uth in \T''' '"^ ^f ^^- '^^^^"^^ ^-^^>i« 
 
 a valup nn thVrr r^"""'"'^ °^''^'' '^^ ^'^ ^oo small 
 a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by militarv 
 
 execution the slightest offences, and transLTed lie 
 
 ttn of hp^!'"' °^«' f""'P ^"^^ '^' ^»^i' administra! 
 inn/ 5 r '• "'"^^^ ^^ J»«t'«« ofien became a 
 b ind and furious passion ; and whenever he deai^ed 
 his own or the public safety endangered, he d^re- 
 garded the rules of evidence, and th'e proportion of 
 punishments. The unprovoked rebellioJi with which 
 the Romans rewarded his services, exasperated his 
 haughty spnit. The noblest families of the capital 
 were involved in the guilt or suspieion of this Sark 
 conspiracy. A hasty spirit of revenge urged the 
 bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to cue of the 
 nephews of the emperor. The executioners (if we 
 may use the expression of a contemporary poet) were 
 latigued, the prisons were crowded, and the unhappy 
 senate lamented the death or absenc; of its most S 
 
 117 
 
 trious members.* Nor was the pride of Aurelian less 
 off-ensive to that assembly than his cruelty. Ignorant 
 or impatient of the restraints of civil institutions, he 
 disdained to hold his power by any other title than 
 that of the sword, and governed by right of conquest 
 an empire which he had saved and subdued " """^"^^^ 
 
 It was observed by one of the most „ 
 sagacious of the Roman princes, that the .t'jM'r.d"!: 
 laients ot his predecessor Aurelian were assassinated, 
 better suited to the command of an army, than to the 
 government of an empire.c Conscious of the character 
 in which nature and experience had enabled him to 
 excel, he again took the field a few a d 2>4 
 months after his triumph. It was ex- Ocob^; 
 pedient to exercise the restless temper of the lecrions 
 in some foreign war and the Persian monarc-h, e^xult- 
 I. gin the shame of Valerian, still braved with impu- 
 nity the offended majesty of Rome. At the head of 
 an army, less formidable by its numbers than by its 
 discipline and valour, the emperor advanced as f^u as 
 the straits which divide Europe from Asia. He there 
 experienced, that the most absolute power is a weak 
 defence against the eflfects of despair. He had threat- 
 ened one of his secretaries who was accused of extor- 
 tion ; and it was known that he seldom threatened in 
 vain. I he ast hope which remained for the criminal, 
 was to involve some of the principal officers of the army 
 in his danger, or at least in his fears. Artfully counter- 
 feiting his master's hand, he showed them, in a long and 
 bloody list, their own names devoted to death. \^ iihout 
 suspecting or examining the fraud, they resolved to se- 
 cure their own lives by the murder of the emperor. On 
 his march, between Byzantium and Heraclea, Aurelian 
 \yas suddenly attacked by the conspirators, whose sta- 
 tions gave them a right to surround his person, and, after 
 a short resistance, fell by the hands of Mucapor, a gen- 
 eral whom he had always loved and a D 0-5 
 trusted. He died regretted by the army, JauuaTy.* 
 detested by the senate, but universally acknowl.dtred 
 as a warlike and fortunate prince, the useful thouah 
 severe reformer of a degenerate state.'^ ° 
 
 ' JJ'^r August, p. 222. Aurel. Victor. 
 
 niJr... IVl?^ "."^^^ ^^"""^ Aurelian's return from E-rpt See Vo 
 piscus who quotes an original letter. Hist. August p 244 
 
 ix! 14°'?os?m;,Ti ^n"^4".';- "• "? '^''? '^'^ Victor's.*'Eutropius. 
 ce- Iheir^cTearJefor'e ^'HZTT.^'' "'"^ ''''''"' «"«* P- 
 
 CHAP. xn. 
 
 Conduct of the army and Senate after the death of hire- 
 han— Reigns of Tacitus, Probus, Cams, and hii son*. 
 Such was the unhappy condition of 
 the Roman emperors, that, whatever confoVt" rlr;^ 
 might be their conduct, their fate wa<5 »''e army and the 
 commonly the same. A life of pleasure So ofl cm* 
 or virtue, of severity or mildness, of in- plJor " '"' 
 dolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and 
 almost every reign is closed by the same discrustin? 
 repetition of treason and murder. The death of Aure- 
 lian, however, is remarkable by its extraordinary con- 
 sequences. The legions admired, lamented, and re- 
 venged, their victorious chief. The artifice of his 
 perfidious secretary was discovered and punished. 
 Ihe deluded conspirators attended tijc funeral of their 
 injured sovereign, with sincere or well-feiTrned con- 
 trition, and submitted to the unanimous resolution of 
 the military order, which was sigrr.ified by the follow- 
 ing epistle : " The brave and fortunate annies to the 
 senate and people of Rome.— The crime of one man 
 and the error of many, have deprived us of the late* 
 emperor Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords 
 and fathers ! to place him in the number of the aods 
 and to appoint a successor whom your judgment "shall 
 declare worthy of the imperial purple ! None of those 
 
 » Nulla ratenati feralis pompa Fcnatus 
 Carnificum lassahit opus ; nee rarcere pleno 
 Infelix raros numerabit curia Patres. t'alphurn. EcJog i flOi 
 b According to the younger Victor, lie sometimes wore ure'diadem 
 Ijeus and Domtnus appear on his medals 
 gust^V'^o^'aV''^ observation of Diocletian. See Vopiscus in Hist. Aa- 
 
 u^^'l^i:;.^^:^^^^^' Zosimus. ,. i. p. 57. Eutrop. 
 
 *. 
 
 ^^A 
 
116 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 117 
 
 « 
 
 ♦1 
 
 ^1 
 
 H 
 
 Jong train of captives who reluctantly attended his tri- 
 umph, Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, 
 Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians. Each people was 
 distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and the title 
 of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines 
 of the Gothic nation who had been taken in arms.' 
 But every eye, disregarding the crowd of captives, 
 was fixed on the emperor Tetricus, and the queen of 
 the east. The former, as well as his son, whom he 
 had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic trovv- 
 sers,"" a saffron tunic, and robe of purple. The beau- 
 teous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold ; 
 a slave supported the gold chain which encircled her 
 neck, and she almost fainted under the intolerable 
 weight of jewels. She preceded on foot the magnifi- 
 cent chariot in which she once hoped to enter the 
 gates of Rome. It was followed by two other chariots, 
 still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Per- 
 sian monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian (it had 
 formerly been used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on 
 this memorable occasion, either by four stags or by 
 four elephants.' The most illustrious of the senate, 
 the people, and the army, closed the solemn proces- 
 sion. Unfeigned Joy, wonder, and gratitude, swelled 
 the acclamations of the multitude ; but the satisfaction 
 of the senate was clouded by the appearance of Tetri- 
 cus ; nor could they suppress a rising murmur, that 
 the haughty emperor should thus expose to public 
 ignominy the person of a Roman and a magistrate." 
 Hii treatment of 1^^^^ however, in the treatment of his 
 Tetricus and Zu- unfortunate rivals, Aurelian might in- 
 ""•*'*• dulge his pride, he behaved towards 
 
 them with a generous clemency, which was seldom 
 exercised by tlie ancient conquerors. Princes who, 
 without success, had defended their throne or freedom, 
 were frequently strangled in prison, as soon as the 
 triumphal pomp ascended the capitol. These usurp- 
 ers, whom their defeat had convicted of the crime of 
 treason, were permitted to spend their lives in affluence 
 and honourable repose. The emperor presented Zeno- 
 bia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or Tivoli, about 
 twenty miles from the capital ; the Syrian queen in- 
 sensibly sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters 
 married into noble families, and her race was not yet 
 "^extinct in the fifth century." Tetricus and his son 
 were reinstated in their rank and fortunes. They erect- 
 ed on the CaelJan hill a magnificent palace, and as 
 soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to supper. 
 On his entrance, he was agreeably surprised with a pic- 
 ture which represented their singular history. They 
 were delineated otiering to the emperor a civic crown 
 and the sceptre of Gaul, and again receiving at his 
 hands the ornaments of the senatorial dignity. The 
 father was afterwards invested with the government 
 of Lucania," and Aurelian, who soon admitted the 
 abdicated monarch to his friendship and conversation, 
 familiarly asked him. Whether it were not more de- 
 sjrable to administer a province of Italy, than to reign 
 beyond the Alps 1 The son long continued a respect- 
 able member of the senate ; nor was there any of the 
 
 I Anion;; barbarous nations, women have often ronibated by tbc 
 Bide of their Inisbands. Rnt it is almost impossible tliat a $:0(-iety of 
 Amazons sliould ever have existed either in the old or new worM. 
 
 k The use of bracca, breeches, or trowsers, wasslill considered in 
 Italy as a Gallic and barbarian fashion. The Romans, however, 
 had made great advances towards it. To incircle the legs and 
 thighs wilh facim, or bands, was understood in the lime of Pompey 
 and Horace to be a proof of ill health and etfeminacy. In the ago 
 of Trajan, the custom was confined to the rich and luxurious. It 
 gradually was adopted by the meanest of the people. Sec a very 
 curious note of Cusaulion, ad Sueton, in August, c. 82. 
 
 1 Most probably the former ; the latter, seen on the medals of Au- 
 relian, only denote (according to the learned Cardinal Norris) an 
 urienthi victory. 
 
 m The expression of Calphurnius (Eclog. i. 50.) Nullos ducet cap- 
 fi«a triumphos, as applied to Rome, contains a very manifest ullu- 
 sion and censure. 
 
 n VopiscuR in Hist. Aug. p. 199. Ilieronym. in Chron. Prosper in 
 Chron. Raronius supposes that Zenobius, bishop of Florence in the 
 time of St. Ambrose, was of her family. 
 
 o Vopisc. in Hist. August, p. 222. Eutropius, ix. 13. Victor Ju- 
 nior. But Polllo, in Hist. August, p. 196. soys, that Tetricus was 
 made corrector of all Italy. 
 
 Roman nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well 
 as by his successors.? 
 
 So long and so various was the pomp iiis magnificence 
 of Aurelian's triumph, that although it "^'"^ <J*^voiion. 
 opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty of 
 the procession ascended not the capitol before the 
 ninth hour ; and it was already dark when the empe- 
 ror returned to the palace. The festival was protract- 
 ed by theatrical representations, the games of the cir- 
 cus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of gladiators, 
 and naval engagements. Liberal donatives were dis- 
 tributed to the army and people, and several institu- 
 tions, agreeable or beneficial to the city, contributed 
 to perpetuate the glory of Aurelian. A considerable 
 portion of his oriental spoils was consecrated to the 
 gods of Rome ; the capitol, and every other temple, 
 glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety ; 
 and the temple of the sun alone received above fifteen 
 thousand pounds of gold.*' This last was a magnifi- 
 cent structure, erected by the emperor on the side of 
 the Quirinal hill, and dedicated, soon after the tri- 
 umph, to that deity whom Aurelian adored as the 
 parent of his life and fortunes. His mother had been 
 an inferior priestess in a chapel of the sun ; a peculiar 
 devotion to the god of light, was a sentiment which 
 the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infi^ncy ; and eve- 
 ry step of his elevation, every victory of his reign, 
 fortified superstition by gratitude."^ 
 
 The arms of Aurelian had vanquish- He suppresses a 
 ed the foreign and domestic foes of the sedition at Rome, 
 republic. We are assured, that, by his salutary 
 rigour, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and per- 
 nicious connivance, the luxuriant growth of a feeble 
 and oppressive government, were eradicated through- 
 out the Roman world.* But if we attentively reflect 
 how much swifter is the progress of corruption than 
 its cure, and if we remember that the years abandoned 
 to public disorders exceeded the months allotted to 
 the martial reign of Aurelian, we must confess that a 
 tew short intervals of peace were insufficient for the 
 arduous work of reformation. Even his attempt to 
 restore the integrity of the coin, was opposed by 
 a formidable insurrection. The emperor's vexation 
 breaks out in one of his private letters : " Surely," 
 says he, " the gods have decreed that my life should 
 be a perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walls 
 has just now given birth to a very serious civil war. 
 The workmen of the mint, at the instigation of Feli- 
 cissimus, a slave to whom I had intrusted an employ- 
 ment in the finances, have risen in rebellion. They 
 are at length suppressed ; but seven thousand of my 
 soldiers have been slain in the contest, of those troops 
 whose ordinary station is in Dacia, and the camps 
 along the Danube.'" Other writers, who confirm the 
 same fact, add likewise, that it happened soon after 
 Aurelian's triumph ; that the decisive engagement was 
 fought on the Cfclian hill; that the workmen of the 
 miiit had adulterated the coin ; and that the emperor 
 restored the public credit, by delivering out good mo- 
 ney in exchange for the bad, which the people was 
 commanded to bring into the treasury." 
 
 We might content ourselves with re- Ob.sorvation» 
 lating this extraordinary transaction, but "P"" "• 
 we cannot dissemble how much in its present form it 
 appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The de- 
 basement of the coin is indeed well suited to the ad- 
 
 p Hist. August, p. 197. 
 
 'i Vopiscus in Hist. August. 222. Zosimus, I. i. p. 56. He placed 
 in it the images of Bclus and of the sun, which he iiad brought from 
 Palmyra. It was dedicated in the fourth year of his reign. (Euseb 
 in Chron.) hut was most assuredly begun immediately on his acces- 
 sion. 
 
 r See in the Augustan Hititory, p. 210. the omens of his fortune. 
 His devotion to the sun appears in his letters, on his medals, and is 
 mentioned in the Caesars of Julian. Commentaire de Spauheim, p. 
 109. 
 
 » Vopiscus in Hist. Aug. p. 221. 
 
 ' Hi:!>t. August, p. S22. Aurelian calls those soldiers Hiberi Ripa- 
 rien-tes. Castriani, and Dacisci. 
 
 « Zosimus, I. f. p. 56. Eutropius, ix. 14. Aurel. Victor. 
 
 ministration of Gallienus; nor is it unlikely that the 
 instruments of the corruption might dread the inflex- 
 ible justice of Aurelian. But the guilt, as well as the 
 profit, must have been confined to a few; nor is it 
 easy to conceive by what arts they could arm a people 
 whom they had injured, against a monarch whom they 
 had betrayed. We might naturally expect, that such 
 miscreants should have shared the public detestation, 
 with the informers and the other ministers of oppres- 
 sion ; and that the reformation of the coin should have 
 been an action equally popular with the destruction of 
 those obsolete accounts, which by the emperor's order 
 were burnt in the forum of Trajan.' In an age when 
 tho principles of commerce were so imperfectly un- 
 derstood, the most desirable end might perhaps be ef- 
 fected by harsh and injudicious means ; but a tempor- 
 ary grievance of such a nature can scarcely excite and 
 support a serious civil war. The repetition of intoler- 
 able taxes, imposed either on the land or on the ne- 
 cessaries of life, may at last provoke those who will 
 not, or who cannot, relinquish their country. But the 
 case is far otherwise in every operation which, by 
 whatsoever expedients, restores the just value of mo- 
 ney. The transient evil is soon obliterated by the 
 permanent benefit, the loss is divided among multi- 
 tudes ; and if a few wealthy individuals experience a 
 sensible diminution of treasure, with their riches, they 
 at the same time lose the degree of weight and im- 
 portance which they derived from the possession of 
 them. However Aurelian might choose to disguise 
 the real cause of the insurrection, his reformatio^n of 
 the coin could only furnish a faint pretence to a party 
 already powerful and discontented. Rome, though 
 deprived of freedom, was distracted by faction. The 
 people, towards whom the emperor, himself a plebeian, 
 always expressed a peculiar fondness, lived in perpet- 
 ual dissension with the senate, the equestrian order, 
 and the praetorian guards.^^ Nothing less than the firm 
 though secret conspiracy of those orders, of the au- 
 thority of the first, the wealth of the second, and the 
 arms of the third, could have displayed a strength 
 capable of contending in battle with the veteran le- 
 gions of the Danube, which, under the conduct of a 
 martial sovereign, had achieved the conquest of the 
 west and of the east. 
 Cruelty of Au. Whatever was the cause or the ob- 
 relian. jgct of this rebellion, imputed with so 
 
 little probability to the workmen of the mint, Aurelian 
 used his victory with unrelenting rigour.* He was 
 naturally of a severe disposition. A peasant and a 
 soldier, his nerves yielded not easily to the impres- 
 sions of sympathy, and he could sustain without emo- 
 tion the sight of tortures and death. Trained from his 
 earliest youth in the exercise of arms, he set too small 
 a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by military 
 execution the slightest offences, and transferred the 
 stern discipline of the camp into the civil administra- 
 tion of the laws. His love of justice often became a 
 blind and furious passion ; and whenever he deemed 
 his own or the public safety endangered, he disre- 
 garded the rules of evidence, and the proportion of 
 punishments. The unprovoked rebellion with which 
 the Romans rewarded his services, exasperated his 
 haughty spirit. The noblest families of the capital 
 were involved in the guilt or suspicion of this dark 
 conspiracy. A hasty spirit of revenge urged the 
 bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the 
 nephews of the emperor. The executioners (if we 
 may use the expression of a contemporary poet) were 
 fatigued, the prisons were crowded, and the unhappy 
 senate lamented the death or absence of its most illus- 
 
 trious members.* Nor was the pride of Aurelian less 
 offensive to that assembly than his cruelty. Ignorant 
 or impatient of the restraints of civil institutions, he 
 disdained to hold his power by any other title than 
 that of the sword, and governed by right of conquest 
 an empire which lie had saved and subdued.** 
 
 It was observed by one of the most ,, , . 
 
 ^„^ ; r At. 1-i ■ I 1 He marchcn mto 
 
 sagacious ot the Roman princes, that the the eaM, and is 
 talents of his predecessor Aurelian were assatsiuaied. 
 better suited to the command of an army, than to the 
 government of an empire.'^ Conscious of the character 
 in which nature and experience had enabled him to 
 excel, he again took the field a few a.D. 274. 
 months after his triumph. It was ex- October, 
 pedient to exercise the restless temper of the legions 
 in some foreign war, and the Persian monarch, e'xult- 
 ing in the shame of Valerian, still braved wilh impu- 
 nity the offended majesty of Rom.e. At the iiead of 
 an army, less formidable by its numbers than by its 
 discipline and valour, the emperor advanced as far as 
 the straits which divide Europe from Asia. He there 
 experienced, that the most absolute power is a weak 
 defence against the effects of despair. He had threat- 
 ened one of his secretaries who was accused of extor- 
 tion ; and it was known that he seldom threatened in 
 vain. The last hope which remained for the criminal, 
 was to involve some of the principal officers of the army 
 in his danger, or at least in his fears. Artfully counter- 
 feiting his master's hand, he showed them, in a long and 
 bloody list, their own names devoted to death. \\ ithout 
 suspecting or examining the fraud, they resolved to se- 
 cure their own lives by the murder of the emperor. On 
 his march, between Byzantium and Heraclea, Aurelian 
 was suddenly attacked by the conspirators, whose sta- 
 tions gave them a right to surround his person, and, after 
 a short resistance, fell by the hands of Mucapor, a gen- 
 eral whom he had always loved and a. D. 275. 
 trusted. He died regretted by the army, January, 
 detested by the senate, but universally acknowledged 
 as a warlike and fortunate prince, the useful though 
 severe reformer of a degenerate state.^ 
 
 X Hist. August, p. 222. Aurel. Victor. 
 
 J it already raged before Aurelian's return from Egypt. See Vo- 
 piscus, who quotes an original letter. Hist. August, p. 244. 
 
 X Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 222. The two Victors. Eutropius, 
 ral \i I ^"""* '^'- ». p. 43.) mentions only three senators, and pla- 
 res their death before the eastern war. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Conduct of the army and Senate after the death of Aure- 
 lian — Reigns of Tacitus, Probus, Carus, and his sons. 
 
 Such was the unhappy condition of p,. „ ,. 
 
 ., Tt ' ' , , l.xtraordinary 
 
 the Koman emperors, that, whatever contest innwecn 
 might be their conduct, their fate was *''^ "^'"J* ^"<^ '''^ 
 
 1^1 A ^■ /> n 1 senate for the 
 
 commonly the same. A life of pleasure choice of an cm- 
 or virtue, of severity or mildness, of in- peror. 
 dolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and 
 almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting 
 repetition of treason and murder. The death of Aure- 
 lian, however, is remarkable by its extraordinary con- 
 sequences. The legions admired, lamented, and re- 
 venged, their victorious chief. The artifice of his 
 perfidious secretary was discovered and punished. 
 The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their 
 injured sovereign, with sincere or well-feigned con- 
 trition, and submitted to the unanimous resolution of 
 the military order, which was signified by the follow- 
 ing epistle : " The brave and fortunate armies to the 
 senate and people of Rome. — The crime of one man, 
 and the error of many, have deprived us of the late 
 emperor Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords 
 and fathers ! to place him in the number of the gods, 
 and to appoint a successor whom your judgment shall 
 declare worthy of the imperial purple ! None of those, 
 
 » Nulla catenati feralis pompa scnatus 
 Cariiificum lassabit opus ; nee rarcere pleno 
 Infelix raros numerabit curia Patres. Calphurn. Eclog. i. 60. 
 b According to the younger Victor, he sometimes wore the diadem. 
 Deus and Dominus appear on his mednls. 
 
 c It was the observation of Diocletian. See Vopiscus in Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 224. 
 
 d Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 221. Zosimus, 1. i. p. .57. Eutrop. 
 ix. 15, The two Victors. 
 
118 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 110 
 
 f 
 
 % 
 
 ♦1 
 
 n 
 
 whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our loss, 
 shall ever reign over us."* The Roman senators 
 heard without surprise, that another emperor had been 
 assassinated in his camp ; they secretly rejoiced in 
 the fall of Aurelian ; but the modest and dutiful ad- 
 dress of the legions, when it was communicated in full 
 assembly by the consul, diffused the most pleasing as- 
 tonishment. Such honours as fear and perhaps es- 
 teem could extort, they liberally poured forth on the 
 memory of their deceased sovereign. Such acknow- 
 ledgments as gratitude could inspire, they returned to 
 the faithful armies of the republic, who entertained so 
 just a sense of the legal authority of the senate in the 
 choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithstanding this flat- 
 tering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly de- 
 clined exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice 
 of an armed multitude. The strength of the legions 
 was, indeed, a pledge of their sincerity, since those 
 who may command are seldom reduced to the neces- 
 sity of dissembling; but could it naturally be expec- 
 ted, that a hasty repentance would correct the inveter- 
 ate habits of fourscore years 1 Should the soldiers 
 relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence 
 might disgrace the majesty of the senate, and prove 
 fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these 
 dictated a decree, by which the election of a new em- 
 peror was referred to the suffrage of the military or- 
 der. 
 
 A. D. 275. Feb. 3. ^^^ Contention that ensued is one of 
 
 A peaceful inter- the best attested, but most improbable, 
 
 regnum of eight events in the history of mankind.** The 
 months. ^ -f .• ^ - t , 
 
 troops, as it satiated with the exercise 
 
 of power, again conjured the senate to invest one of its 
 own body with the Imperial purple. The senate still 
 persisted in its refusal ; the army in its request. The 
 reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three 
 times, and whilst the obstinate modesty of either par- 
 ty was resolved to receive a master from the hands of 
 the other, eight months insensibly elapsed :" an ama- 
 zing period of tranquil anarchy, during which the Ro- 
 man world remained without a sovereign, without an 
 usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and 
 magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to exe- 
 cute their ordinary functions ; and it is observed, that 
 a proconsul of Asia was the only considerable person 
 removed from his ofl[ice, in the whole course of the 
 interregnum. 
 
 An event somewhat similar, but much less authen- 
 tic, is supposed to have happened after the death of 
 Romulus, who, in his life and character, bore some 
 affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant during 
 twelve months, till the election of a Sabine philoso- 
 pher, and the public peace was guarded in the same 
 manner, by the union of the several orders of the state. 
 But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of 
 the people were controlled by the authority of the 
 patricians ; and tiie balance of freedom was easily 
 preserved in a small and virtuous community.*^ The 
 decline of the Roman state, far different from its infan- 
 cy, was attended with every circumstance that could 
 banish from an interregnum the prospect of obedience 
 and harmony : an immense and tumultuous capital, a 
 wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despot- 
 ism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, 
 and the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, not- 
 
 a Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 222. Aurelius Victor mentions a for- 
 mal deputation from the troops to the senate. 
 
 b Vospiscus. our principal authority, wrote at Rome, sixteen years 
 only after tl)e death of Aurelian ; and, besides the recent notoriety 
 of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the journals of the 
 senate, and the original papers of the Ulpian library. Zosimus and 
 Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in gene- 
 ral of the Roman constitution. 
 
 e [This interregnum was at the most seven months. Aurelian was 
 assassinated towards the middle of March, in the year of Rome 1028. 
 Tacitus was elected the 25th of September, of the same year.— O.j 
 
 •» Liv. i. 17. Dionys. Halicarn. I. ii. p. 115. Plutarch in Numa, p. 
 60. The first of these writers relates the story like an orator, the 
 ■econd like a lawyer, and the third like a moralist, and none of 
 tnem probably without some iutcrniixture of faSlc. 
 
 withstanding all these temptations, the discipline and 
 memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious tem- 
 per of the troops, as well as the fatal ambition of 
 their leaders. The flower of the legions maintained 
 their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and 
 the imperial standard awed the less powerful camps 
 of Rome and of the provinces. A generous though 
 transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military 
 order ; and we may hope that a few real patriots culti- 
 vated the returning friendship of the army and the sen- 
 ate, as the only expedient capable of restoring the 
 republic to its ancient beauty and vigour. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of September, a. D. 275. Sept. 
 near eight months after the murder of 25- The consul 
 Aurelian, the consul convoked an assem- ^^^^l, ^* * ^ 
 bly of the senate, and reported the doubt- 
 ful and dangerous situation of the empire. He slightly 
 insinuated, that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers 
 depended on the chance of every hour, and of every 
 accident; but he represented, with the most convincing 
 eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any 
 further delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelli- 
 gence, he said, was already received, that the Germans 
 had passed the Rhine, and occupied some of the 
 strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambi- 
 tion of the Persian king kept the east in perpetual 
 alarms ; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum, were exposed 
 to foreign and domestic arms, and the levity of Syria 
 would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of 
 the Roman laws. The consul then addressing him- 
 self to Tacitus, the first of the senators," required his 
 opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate 
 for the vacant throne. 
 
 If we can prefer personal merit to ac- Character of 
 cidental greatness, we shall esteem the Tacitus, 
 birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of kings. 
 He claimed his descent from the philosophic historian, 
 whose writings will instruct the last generations of 
 mankind.' The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five 
 years of age.K The long period of his innocent life was 
 adorned with wealth and honours. He had twice been 
 invested with the consular dignity,'' and enjoyed with 
 elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between 
 two and three millions sterling.' The experience of 
 so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, 
 from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigour 
 of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the 
 duties, the dangers, and the temptations, of their 
 sublime station. From the assiduous study of his 
 immortal ancestor, he derived the knowledge of the 
 Roman constitution, and of human nature.^ The voice 
 of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen 
 the most worthy of empire. The ungrateful rumour 
 reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retire- 
 ment of one of his villas in Campania. He had 
 passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae, 
 when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the con- 
 sul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and 
 to assist the republic with his counsels on this import- 
 ant occasion. 
 
 e Vopiscus (In Hist. August, p. 227.) calls him, " primae scnteiilia" 
 consularis;" and soon afterwards Princeps senatus. It is natural 
 to suppose, that the monarrhs of Rome, disdaining that humble title, 
 resigned it to the most ancient of the senators. 
 
 i The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian was 
 named Cornelius, the em[)cror Claudius. But under the lower em- 
 pire, surnames were extremely various and uncertain. 
 
 K Zonaras, I. xii. p. 6:^7. The Alexandrian Chronicle, by an ob- 
 vious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian. 
 
 li In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must have 
 been Suflcctus many years before, and most probably under Vale- 
 rian. 
 
 « Bis millies oetingenties. Vopiscus In Hist. August, p. 229. 
 This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eichi 
 hundred and forty thousand Rotnan pounds of silver, each of the 
 value of throe pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus, the coin 
 h.id lost much of its weight and purity. 
 
 J After his accession, lie gave orders thai ten copies of the historian 
 should be ani:ually transcril>ed and placed in the public libraries. 
 The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valu- 
 ahle part of Tacitus was preserved in a single MS. and discovered 
 in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. TVnfe, 
 and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 0. 
 
 He \i elected He arose to speak, when, from every 
 emperor. quarter of the house, he was saluted 
 with the names of Augustus and emperor. " Tacitus 
 Augustus, the gods preserve thee, we choose thee for 
 our sovereign ; to thy care we intrust the republic and 
 the world. Accept the empire from the authority of 
 the senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, and 
 to thy manners." As soon as the tumult of acclama- 
 
 j tion subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the dan- 
 gerous honour, and to express his w^onder, that they 
 should elect his ajje and infirmities to succeed the 
 
 I martial vigour of Aurelian. " Are these limbs, con- 
 script fathers, fitted to sustain the weight of armour, 
 or to practise the exercises of the camp 1 The variety 
 of climates, and the hardships of a military life, would 
 soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only 
 by the most tender management. My exhausted 
 strength scarcely enables me to discharge the duty of 
 a senator ; how insufficient w^ould it prove to the ar- 
 duous labours of war and government ! Can you 
 hope, that the legions will respect a weak old man, 
 whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and 
 retirement ] Can you desire that I should ever find 
 reason to regretthe favourable opinion of the senate V^ 
 anil accepts the The reluctance of Tacitus, and it 
 purple. might possibly be sincere, was encoun- 
 
 tered by the aflJectionate obstinacy of the senate. Five 
 hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, 
 that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, 
 Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne 
 in a very advanced season of life ; that the mind, not 
 the body, a sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of 
 their choice ; and that they expected from him no 
 more than to guide by his wisdom the valour of the 
 legions. These pressing though tumultuary instances 
 were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius 
 Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus 
 himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils 
 which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong 
 and capricious youths, congratulated them on the elec- 
 tion of a virtuous and experienced senator, and, with a 
 manly, though perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted 
 Tacitus to remember the reasons of his elevation, and 
 to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the 
 republic. The speech of Falconius was enforced by 
 a general acclamation. The emperor elect submitted 
 to the authority of his country, and received the volun- 
 tary homage of his equals. The judgment of the 
 senate was confirmed by the consent of the Roman 
 people, and of the praetorian guards.' 
 Authority of the The administration of Tacitus was 
 senate. not uuworthy of his life and principles. 
 A grateful servant of the senate, he considered that 
 national council as the author, and himself as the sub- 
 ject, of the laws." He studied to heal the wounds 
 which imperial pride, civil discord, and military vio- 
 lence, had inflicted on the constitution, and to restore, 
 at least, the image of the ancient republic, as it had 
 been preserved by the policy of Augustus, and the vir- 
 tues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be use- 
 less to recapitulate some of the most important prero- 
 gatives w^hich the senate appeared to have regained by 
 the election of Tacitus." 1. To invest one of their 
 body, under the title of emperor, with the general 
 command of the armies, and the government of the 
 frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it 
 was then styled, the college of consuls. They were 
 twelve in number, who, in successive pairs, each 
 during the space of two months, filled the year, and 
 
 k Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 227. 
 
 ' Hist. August, p. 228. Tacitus addressed the prxturians by the 
 appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the people by that of sacra- 
 tissimi Quirites. 
 
 '"In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of an hun- 
 dred, as limited by the Canininn law, which was enacted under Au- 
 gustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubonad locum 
 Vopisci. 
 
 _" See the lives of Taciius, Florianus, and Probus, in the Augustan 
 History ; we may be well a.ssured, that whatever the soldier gave, 
 the senator had already given , 
 
 represented the dignity of that ancient office. The 
 authority of the senate, in the nomination of the con- 
 suls, was exercised with such independent freedom, 
 that no regard was paid to an irregular request of the 
 emperor in favour of his brother Florianus. " The 
 senate," exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport 
 of a patriot, " understand the character of a prince 
 whom they have chosen." 3. To appoint the procon- 
 suls and presidents of the provinces, and to confer on 
 all the magistrates their civil jurisdiction. 4. To re- 
 ceive appeals through the intermediate office of the 
 prefect of the city from all the tribunals of the em- 
 pire. 5. To give force and validity by their decrees, 
 to such as they should approve of by the emperor's 
 edicts. 6. To these several branches of authority we 
 may add some inspection over the finances, since, even 
 in the stern reign of Aurelian, it was in their power to 
 divert a part of the revenue from the public service." 
 Circular epistles were sent, without Th» ir joy and 
 delay, to all the principal cities of the em- confideiicc. 
 pire, Treves, Milan, AqiMleia, Thessalonica, Corinth, 
 Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to claim 
 their obedience, and to inform them of the happy re- 
 volution which had restored the Roman senate to its 
 ancient dignity. Two of these epistles are still ex- 
 tant. We likewise possess two very singular frag- 
 ments of the private correspondence of the senators on 
 this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy, 
 and the most unbounded hopes. " Cast away your 
 indolence," it is thus that one of the senators ad- 
 dresses his friend, " emerge from your retirements of 
 Baiae and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to the 
 senate. Rome flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. 
 Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly Roman ; 
 at length we have recovered our just authority, the end 
 of all our desires. We hear appeals, we appoint pro- 
 consuls, we create emperors ; perhaps too we may re- 
 strain them — to the wise a word is sufficient." p These 
 lofty expectations w^ere, however, soon disappointed ; 
 nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the 
 provinces should long obey the luxurious and unw^ar- 
 like nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch, the un- 
 supported fabric of their pride and power fell to the 
 ground. The expiring senate displaj'^ed a sudden lus- 
 tre, blazed for a moment, and w as extinguished for ever. 
 
 All that had yet passed at Rome was ^ ^ 075 
 no more than^ theatrical representation. Tacit iis is^c- 
 unless it was ratified by the more sub- knowledged by the 
 stantial power of the legions. Leaving '^'^'"^ ' 
 the senators to enjoy their dream of freedom and am- 
 bition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp, and 
 was there, by the praetorian prsefect, presented to the 
 assembled troops, as the prince whom they themselves 
 had demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. 
 As soon as the praefect was silent, the emperor ad- 
 dressed himself to the soldiers with eloquence and pro- 
 priety. He gratified their avarice by a liberal distri- 
 bution of treasure, under the names of pay and donative. 
 He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration, that 
 although his age might disable him from the perfor- 
 mance of military exploits, his counsels should never 
 be unworthy of a Roman general, the successor of the 
 brave Aurelian. <i 
 
 Whilst the deceased emperor w^as xhe Alani invade 
 making preparations for a second expe- Asia, and are re- 
 dition in the East, he had negociated P"'"*^'' ^> '^"'''^"^• 
 with the Alani, a Scythian people, who pitched their 
 tents in the neighbourhood of the lake Moeotis. Those 
 barbarians, allured by presents and subsidies, had 
 promised to invade Persia with a numerous body of 
 light cavalry. They were faith fiil to their engage- 
 ments ; but when they arrived on the Roman fi-ontier, 
 Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian 
 war was at least suspended, and the generals, who, 
 
 o Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. The passage is perfectly clear ; 
 yet Casauhon and Salmasius wish to correct it. 
 
 P Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 230, 232, 233. The senators cele- 
 brated the happy restoration with hecatombs and public rejoicings. 
 
 •1 Hist. August, p. 228. 
 
 r 
 
120 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 if: 
 
 « 
 
 ^i 
 
 n 
 
 during their interregnum, exercised a doubtful autho- 
 rity, were unprepared either to receive or to oppose 
 them. Provoked by such treatment, which they con- 
 sidered as trifling and perfidious, the Ahini had re- 
 course to their own valour for their payment and re- 
 ventre ; and as they moved with the usual swiftness 
 of Tartars, they had soon spread themselves over 
 the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Ga- 
 latia. The legions, who from the opposite shores of 
 the Bosphorus could almost distinguish the flames of 
 the cities and villages, impati'^ntly urged their general 
 to lead them against the invaders. The conduct of 
 Tacitus was suitable to his age and station. He con- 
 vinced the barbarians of the fiiith, as well as of the 
 power, of the empire. Great numbers of the Alani, 
 appeased by the punctual discharge of the engage- 
 ments which Aurelian had contracted with them, re- 
 linquished their booty and captives, and quietly re- 
 treated to their qwn deserts, beyond the Phasis. 
 Against the remainder who refused peace, the Roman 
 emperor waged, in person, a successful war. Second- 
 ed by an army of brave and experienced veterans, in a 
 few weeks he delivered the provinces of Asia from the 
 terror of the Scythian invasion.*" 
 Death of tho em- But the glory and life of Tacitus were 
 pcror Tacitus, of short duration. Transported, in the 
 depth of winter, from the soft retirement of Campania 
 to the foot of mount Caucasus, he sunk under the un- 
 accustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues 
 of the body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. 
 For a while, the angry and selfish passions of the sol- 
 diers had been suspended by the enthusiasm of public 
 virtue. They soon broke out w ith redoubled violence, 
 and raged in the camp, and even in the tent, of the 
 aged emperor. His mild and amiable character served 
 only to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tor- 
 mented with factions which he could not assuao-p, and 
 by demands which it was impossible to satisfy. What- 
 ever flattering expectations he had conceived of recon- 
 ciling tlie public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced, 
 that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble 
 restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by 
 anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful 
 whether the soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood 
 of this innocent prince.* It is certain that their inso- 
 A. D. 276. April lence was the cause of his death He 
 12. expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a 
 
 reign of only six months and about twenty days.* 
 Usurpation and '^'^c eyes of Tacitus were scarcely 
 
 deaiii of his bro- closed, before his brother Florianus 
 ther Florianus. showcd himsclf unworthy to reign, by 
 the hasty usurpation of the purple, without expecting 
 the approbation of the senate. The reverence for the 
 Roman constitution, which yet influenced the camp and 
 the provinces, was sutficiently strong to dispose them 
 to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the 
 precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent 
 would have evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the 
 general of the east, the heroic Probus, boldly declared 
 himself the avenger of the senate. The contest, how- 
 ever, was still unequal ; nor could the most able leader, 
 at the head of the eflfeminate troops of Egypt and Syria, 
 encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of 
 Europe, whose irresistible strength appeared to support 
 the brother of Tacitus. But the fortune and activity 
 of Probus triumphed over every obstacle. The hardy 
 veterans of his rival, accustomed to cold climates, 
 sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of 
 
 r Voj)isrus ill Hist. August, p. :W0. Zosirnus, I. i. p. 57. Zonaras. 
 1. xiii. p. 6?6. Two p.issagcs in the lifip of I'rot'ua (p. 2"6, '2'M*.) con- 
 vince ine tlia' tl.e?e Scythian invadersof Pontus were Alani. If we 
 may believe Zosimiis, (I. i. p. 58.) Florianus pursued tliem as far as 
 llie Cimmerian Bosjihorus. Bui he had scarcely time for so long 
 and dithcutt an expedition. 
 
 • Euiropius and Aurelian Victor only say that he died; Victor 
 Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus and Zonaras affirm, 
 that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus mentions both accounts, 
 and seems to hesitate. Vet surely these jarring opinions are easily 
 reconciled. 
 
 ♦ According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly two hundred 
 days. 
 
 Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkably un- 
 wholesome. Their numbers were diminished by fre- 
 quent desertion, the passes of the mountains were 
 feebly defended ; Tarsus opened its gates ; and the 
 soldiers of Florianus, when they had permitted him to 
 enjoy the imperial title about three months, delivered 
 the empire from civil war by the easy 
 sacrifice of a prince whom they despised." ^'^' 
 
 The perpetual revolutions of the throne Their family sub- 
 had so perfectly erased every notion of ^ists in obscurity, 
 hereditary right, that the family of an unfortunate em- 
 peror was incapable of exciting the jealousy of his suc- 
 cessors. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were 
 permitted to descend into a private station, and to 
 mingle with the general mass of the people. Their 
 poverty indeed became an additional safeguard to their 
 innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the senate, 
 he resigned his ample patrimony to the puhlic service,* 
 an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which 
 evidently disclosed his intention of transmitting the 
 empire to his descendants. The only consolation of 
 their fallen state, was the remembrance of transient 
 greatness, and a distant hope, the child of a flattering 
 prophecy, that, at the end of a thousand years, a 
 monarch of the race of Tacitus should arise, the pro- 
 tector of the senate, the restorer of Rome, and the con- 
 queror of the whole earth.^ 
 
 The peasants of Illyricum, who had character and 
 already given Claudius and Aurelian to eiovation of the 
 the sinking empire, had an equal right ^™i**^'°' Probus. 
 to glory in the elevation of Probus.' Above twenty 
 years before, the emperor Valerian, with his usual 
 penetration, had discovered the rising merit of the 
 young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank of tri- 
 bune, long before the age prescribed by the military 
 regulations. The tribune soon justified his choice, by 
 a victory over a great body of Sarmatians, in which he 
 saved the life of a near relation of Valerian; and de- 
 served to receive from the emperor's hand the collars, 
 bracelets, spears, and banners, the mural and the civic 
 crown, and all the honourable rewards reserved by an- 
 cient Rome for successful valour. The third, and 
 afterwards the tenth, legion were entrusted to the com- 
 mand of Probus, who, in every step of his promotion, 
 showed himself superior to the station which he filled. 
 Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the Danube, the Eu- 
 phrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the most 
 splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess 
 and his conduct in war. Aurelian was indebted to 
 him for the conquestof Egypt, and still more indebted 
 for the honest courage with which he often checked 
 the cruelty of his master. Tacitus, who desired by 
 the abilities of his generals to supply his own de- 
 ficiency of military talents, named him commander in 
 chief of all the eastern provinces, with five times the 
 usual salary, the promise of the consulship, and the 
 hope of a triumph. When Probus ascended the im- 
 perial throne, he was about forty-four years of age;' 
 in the full possession of his fame, of the love of the 
 army, and of a mature vigour of mind and body. 
 
 His acknowledged merit, and the sue- nis respectful con- 
 cess of his arms against Florianus, left duct towards the 
 him without an enemy or a competitor. **^""*®- 
 Yet, if we may credit his own professions, very far 
 from being desirous of the empire, he had accepted it 
 with the most sincere reluctance. " But it is no longer 
 in my power," says Probus, in a private letter, ** to 
 
 u Hist. AuEUst. p. 231. Zosimus, I. i. p. 58, 59. Zonaras, I. xii. p. 
 G^7. Anrelius Victor says, that Froliua ax.sumed the empire in Illy- 
 ricum ; an opinion which (though adopted by a very learned man) 
 would throw that period of history into inextricable confusion. 
 
 x Hist. August, p. 229. 
 
 y He was to send judges to the Parthians. Tersians, and Sarma- 
 tians, a president to Taprobana, and a proconsul to the Roman island, 
 (supposed by Casaubon and Salma:>iu8 to mean Britain.) Such a his- 
 tory as mine (says Vopiscus with proper modesty) will not subsist a 
 a thousand years, to expose or justify the prediction. 
 
 * For the private life of Probus, see Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 
 234-237. * 
 
 * According to the Alexandrian Chronicle, be was fifty at the time 
 of his death. 
 
 lay down a title so full of envy and of danger. I must 
 continue to personate the character which the soldiers 
 have imposed upon me.'"' His dutiful address to the 
 senate displayed the sentiments, or at least the lan- 
 guage, of a J{oman patriot: '1 When you elected one 
 of your order, conscript fathers ! to succeed the em- 
 peror Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your 
 justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns 
 of the world, and the power which you derive from 
 your ancestors, will descend to your posterity. Happy 
 would It have been, if Florianus, instead of usurping 
 the purple of his brother, like a private inheritance" 
 had expected what your majesty might determine, 
 either hi his favour, or in that of any other person. 
 The prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To 
 me they have oflfered the title of Augustus. But I 
 submit to your clemency my pretensions and my mer- 
 A.D. 276. its."« When this respectful epistle was 
 Augu.t 3. read by the consul, the senators were 
 unable to disguise their satisfaction, that Probus should 
 condescend thus humbly to solicit a sceptre which he 
 already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest 
 gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his 
 moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a 
 dissentmg voice, to ratify the election of the eastern 
 armies, and to confer on their chief all the several 
 branches of the imperial dignity: the names of Caesar 
 and Augustus, the title of father of his country, the 
 right of making in the same day three motions in the 
 senate," the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian 
 power, and the proconsular command ; a mode of in- 
 vestiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the au- 
 thority of the emperor, expressed the constitution of 
 the ancient republic. The reign of Probus correspond- 
 ed with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted 
 to direct the civil administration of the empire. Their 
 tdithful general asserted the honour of the Roman 
 arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of ffold and 
 barbaric trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories.' 
 \ et, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must secretly 
 have despised their indolence and weakness. Thouffh 
 It was every moment in their power to repeal the dis- 
 graceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the 
 fecipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from 
 all military employments. They soon experienced, 
 that those who refuse the sword, must renounce the 
 sceptre. 
 
 Victories of Pro- The Strength of Aurelian had crushed 
 
 trSns' ?" t^^7 ^'i^ }^'^ ^"^"^'^s of Rome. Af. 
 ter his death they seemed to revive with 
 an increase of fury and of numbers. They were a<Tain 
 vanquished by the active vigour of Probus, who, fn a 
 Short reign of about six years,' equalled the fame of 
 ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every 
 province of the Roman world. The dangerous fron- 
 iior ot Khaetia he so firmly secured, that he left it with- 
 out the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wander- 
 ing power of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror 
 or his arms compelled those barbarians to relinquish 
 their spoil. The Gothic nation courted the alliance of 
 so warlike an emperor.* He attacked the Isaurians in 
 ineir mountains, besieged and took several of their 
 s-rongest castles,** and flattered himself that he had for 
 
 121 
 
 ever suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence 
 so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The 
 troubles excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper 
 I^gypt, had never been perfectly appeased, and the ci- 
 f !i, Tf/^""^'^ and Coptos, fortified by the alliance 
 ,• **® B[emmyes,' still maintained an obscure rebel- 
 lion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their 
 auxiliaries the savages of the south, is said to have 
 alarmed the court of Persia,^ and the great kinor sued 
 in vain for the friendship of Probus. Most of the ex- 
 ploits which distinguished his reign, were achieved bv 
 the personal valour and conduct of the emperor, inso- 
 much that the writer of his life expresses some amaze- 
 ment how, in so short a time, a single man could be 
 present in so many distant wars. The remainino- ac- 
 tions he intrusted to the care of his lieutenants, th'e ih- 
 dicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part 
 of his glory. Cams, Diocletian, Maximian, Con- 
 stantius, Galenus, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a 
 crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or sup- 
 ported the throne, were trained to arms in the severe 
 school of Aurelian and Probus.^ 
 
 But the most important service which a n «~r 
 Probus rendered to the republic, was the Hedeiiverr^'aul 
 deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of ^"^"f" »''" invasion 
 seventy flourishing cities oppressed by "'''*'^^''""*"»' 
 the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of 
 Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with impu- 
 nity. Among the various multitude of those fierce in- 
 vaders, we may distinguish, with some degree of clear- 
 ness, three great armies, or rather nations,'successivelv 
 vanquished by the valour of Probus. He drove back 
 the i^ rancs into their morasses ; a descriptive circum- 
 stance from whence we may infer, that the confedera- 
 cy known by the manly appellation of Free, already 
 occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and al- 
 most overflowed by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, 
 and that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians 
 had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the 
 liurgundians, a considerable people of the Vandalic 
 race. They had wandered in quest of booty from the 
 banks of the Oder to those of the Seine." They es- 
 teemed themselves sufliciently fortunate to purchase, 
 by the restitution of all their booty, the permission of 
 an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that 
 article of the treaty. Their punishment was immedi- 
 ate and terrible." But of all the invaders of Gaul, the 
 most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people 
 who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Po- 
 land and Silesia.» In the Lygian nation, the Arii held 
 the hrst rank by their numbers and fierceness. "The 
 Am (it IS thus that they are described by the ener^ry of 
 i acitus) study to improve by art and circumstances 
 the innate terrors of their barbarism. Their shields 
 are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose 
 tor the combat the darkest hour of the night. Their 
 host advances, covered as it were with a funereal 
 
 ronditinn of7i ^'^^ addressed to the pra;torian prefect, (whom on 
 
 0^ Te ,;ist'Tugi:;"r2"3V.'' ''■°'"*^' '° '°"^'""' *" ^'^^^^^^ 
 suredl?i?iln J"t"''> ^"^"fi- P' 237. The date of the letter is as- 
 ^ HiJt aI^; J"''*^^4°^-ff''"- ^/J'^'r^- «^« "'ay read JSTon August. 
 t'us lessKvofirfh.^.? \/' '" °'i'^ ^''"^ ^''^ '«"^'« »^'0"'»^ treat Pro- 
 ed.evrn hefore th^^«^"^^ Antoninus. That prince had receiv- 
 
 tolin. in Ills?. August p'^/ ^ relationis. Sec Capi- 
 
 ro Macodonum n i S"-"''*'" '"^ learned work, De Epochis Sy"- 
 
 •econdvrr'If'f'-'. ••'*♦• ^^^'^^ Ensehius connects the 
 
 «^ vipSsfn^rt" A^^J'^tl,?^^ "^«^^«'^' Of thesyrian cities. 
 
 W.rr"sailrianVobref' »«"" ^ ^"^ '-? -^^ trifling story of 
 I sauna was a small province of Asia Minor between Pisidia and 
 
 C.lic.a. The Isaurians for a long time followed the business of 
 t i 7onc"i i'"'''-?'' ^^®"■ P""'-*P«' city, Isaura, xva.s destroyed by 
 n^A 1^' ^^'""i""'' "^^'^ received the surname of IsauricusZ 
 (D'Anv.Geosr. Anc. vol, ii. p. 86.— C.l 
 
 • [The Blemmyes on the borders of the Nile, near to the grand 
 cataracts. (D'AnvilleGeOjrr. Anc. vol.iii. p. 48.-0.] ^ 
 
 J Zosim. 1. 1 p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239, 240. But it 
 F^ms incredible, that the defeat of the savages of Ethiopia could 
 arrect the Persian monarch. 
 
 k Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are named by 
 Jopiscus (Hist. August, p. 241.) whose actions have not reached our 
 knowledge. 
 
 1 See the Ca'sars of Julian, and Hist. Ausust. p. 2?8 240 241 
 ni [It was not till the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maxi- 
 mian, that the Burgundians, together with the Allemanni, made an 
 nivasion nito the interior of Gaul. Under the reign of Probus they 
 endeavoured to pass the river which separated them from the Ro- 
 man empire; they were repulsed. Gattcrer thinks that ihis river 
 was the Danube. A passage from Zosimus seems to me to indi- 
 cate that It was rather the Rhine. (Zosimus, book i. p. 37. of the 
 edition of Henry Etienne, 1581.)— G.] » » "-uc 
 
 n Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. Hist. August, p. 240. But the latter pud- 
 poses the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kinca- if no 
 it was partial, like the oflfence. *" ' * 
 
 o See Cluver. German. Antiq. I. iii. Ptolemy places in their coun- 
 try the city of Cahsia. probably Calish in Silesia. 
 
 
122 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 « 
 
 ♦1 
 ♦^1 
 
 1 
 
 shade ;p nor do they often find an enemy capable of sus- 
 taining so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our 
 senses" the eyes are the first vanquished m battle. i 
 Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily dis- 
 comfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were de- 
 feated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most 
 renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands ot 
 Prohus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a 
 brave people to despair, granted them an honourable 
 capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to 
 their native country. But the losses which they suf- 
 fered in the march, the battle, and the retreat, broke 
 the power of the nation : nor is the Lygian name ever 
 repeated in the history either of Germany or of the em- 
 pire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have 
 cost the lives of four hundred thousand of the invaders ; 
 a work of labour to the Romans, and of expense to the 
 emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of eve- 
 ry barbarian.' But as the fame of warriors is built on 
 the destruction of human kind, we may naturally sus- 
 pect, that the sanguinary account was multiplied by 
 the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any 
 very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Pro- 
 
 ,' . ,. Since the expedition of Maximin, the 
 
 TrLZloG^r. Roman generals had confined their aui- 
 niany. bition to a defensive war against the na- 
 
 tions of Germany, who perpetually pressed on the fron- 
 tiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued 
 his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed 
 his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the 
 Necker. He was fully convinced that nothing could 
 reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless 
 they experienced in their own country the calanuties 
 of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the 
 last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine 
 of the most considerable princes repaired to his camp, 
 and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was hum- 
 bly received by the Germans, as it pleased the con- 
 queror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of 
 the effects and captives which they had carried away 
 from the provinces; and obliged their own magistrates 
 to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to 
 detain any part of the spoil. A considerable tribute 
 of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbari- 
 ans, was reserved for the use of the garrisons which 
 Probus established on the limits of their territory. He 
 even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Ger- 
 mans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust 
 their differences to the justice, their safety to the pow- 
 er, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the 
 
 constant residence of an imperial governor, supported 
 by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. 
 Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the 
 execution of so great a design ; which was indeed ra- 
 ther of specious than solid utility.' Had Germany 
 been reduced into ihe state of a province, the Romans, 
 with immense labour and expense, would have acquir- 
 ed only a more extensive boundary to defend against 
 the fiercer and more active barbarians of Scythia. 
 
 b Ids a wall Instead ofreducing the warlike natives 
 SLtheRhiillto of Germany to the condition of subjects, 
 the Danube. Probus contented himself with the hum- 
 ble expedient of raising a bulwark against their in- 
 roads. The country, which now forms the circle of 
 Swabia, had been left desert in the age of Augustus 
 by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants.* The 
 fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from 
 the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventu- 
 rers, of a ro ving temper and of desperate fortunes, oc- 
 P Feralia umbra, is the expression of Tacitus ; it is surely a very 
 
 bold one. 
 q Tacit. Gcrmania (c. 43.) 
 
 r Voniscus in Hist. August, p. 238. .v,»««, 
 
 . Hist. August, p. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the em- 
 peror to the senate, in which lie mentions his design of reducing 
 
 ^^'SSTvUi'^tSding to Velleius Pat.rcu.us, (il. 108,) Maro- 
 boduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia : Cluverius (German. An- 
 tiq. iii. 8.) proves that it was from Swabia. 
 
 cupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by 
 the payment of tithes, the majesty of the empire." To 
 protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons 
 was trradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. 
 Aboul the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence 
 becran to be practised, these garrisons were connected 
 and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and pali- 
 sades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the empe- 
 ror Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable 
 hei<Tht, and strengthened it by towers at convenient 
 distances. From the neishbourhood of Newstadt and 
 Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, 
 valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as the VVimpsen 
 on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks 
 of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hun- 
 dred miles.^ This important barrier, uniting the two 
 mjcrhty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, 
 seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the 
 barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could pene- 
 trate with the greatest facility into the heart of the em- 
 pire. But the experience of the world, from China to 
 Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any 
 extensive tract of country.' An active enemy, who 
 can select and vary his points of attack, must, in the 
 end, discover some feeble spot, or some unguarded mo- 
 ment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the 
 defenders is divided ; and such are the blind effects of 
 terror on the firmest troops, that a line broken m a 
 sintrle place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of 
 the^vall which Probus erected, may confirm the gen- 
 eral observation. Within a few years after his death, 
 it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ru- 
 ins, universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon, 
 now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian 
 peasant. 
 
 AmontT the useful conditions of peace introduction and 
 imposed'by Probus on the vanquished ''«^»;{;j;;'f^"„'/'' ''^^ 
 nations of Germany, was the obligation ' ' 
 
 of supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand 
 recruits, the bravest and most robust of their youth. 
 The emperor dispersed them through all the provinces, 
 and distributed this dangerous reinforcement in small 
 bands, of fifty or sixty each, among the national troops ; 
 judiciously observing, that the aid which the repub- 
 lic derived from the barbarians, should be felt but not 
 seen.y Their aid was now become necessary, ihe 
 feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces 
 could no longer support the weight of arms. 1 he har- 
 dy frontier of the Rhine and Danube still produced 
 minds and bodies equal to the labours of the camp : 
 but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminish- 
 ed their numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and 
 the ruin of agriculture, affected the principles of popu- 
 lation, and not only destroyed the strength of the pre- 
 sent, but intercepted the hope of future generations. 
 The wisdom of Probus embraced a great and benehciai 
 plan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new 
 colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he 
 bestowed lands, cattle, instruments of husbandry, and 
 every encouragement that might engage them to edu- 
 cate a race of soldiers for the service of the republic. 
 Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, 
 he transported a considerable body of Vandals, ine 
 impossibility of an escape reconciled them to their sit- 
 
 u These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were denominated 
 Decumatea. Tacit. Germania. c 29. i^ a^ rr^^itP t> 
 
 V See notes de TAhbe de la Blctene a la Germania de Tacite, P 
 1P3 His account of the wall is cliiefly borrowed (as lie says mm 
 <ie\f) from Iha^hatia Jllustrata of »cUo:pf\in. 
 ■ X See Rechcrches sur les Chinois et Ics Egyptiens, torn. il. p.^' 
 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the glo^c m 
 general, and with Germany in particular; wuh regard to the latter, 
 he quotes a work of M. Han.elman ; but he seems \7 confound ui^ 
 wall of Probus, designed against the Aleinannu with the fortifi^^ 
 tion of the Mailiaci, couBtructed in the neighbourhood of Frankion 
 
 "'^^'hc di'^trilKiIed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a -f^*"^"'/; "^1 
 was then called ; a corps, with whose established number we are no 
 
 '"c7mdeK Bdiannia. Introduction, p. 136. but he speaks from a 
 very doubtful conjecture. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 123 
 
 uation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island, 
 they approved themselves the most faithful servants of 
 the state.* Great numbers of Franks and Gepidse were 
 settled on the banks of the Danube and Rhine. A 
 hundred thousand Bastarnae, expelled from their own 
 country, cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace 
 and soon imbibed the manners and sentiments of Roman 
 subjects.*" But the expectations of Probus were too 
 often disappointed. The impatience and idleness of 
 the barbarians could ill brook the slow labours of agri- 
 culture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, risino- 
 against despotism, provoked them into hasty rebellions^ 
 alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces,'^ nor could 
 these artificial supplies, however repeated by succeed- 
 ing emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and 
 Illyricum to its ancient and native vigour. 
 Darin? enterprise Of all the barbarians who abandoned 
 of the Franks, their new settlements, and disturbed 
 the public tranquillity, a very small number returned 
 to their own country. For a short season they might 
 wander in arms through the empire ; but in the end 
 they were surely destroyed by the power of a warlike 
 emperor. The successful rashness of a party of 
 Franks was attended, however, with such memorable 
 consequences, that it ought not to be passed unnoticed. 
 They had been established by Probus on the sea-coast 
 of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the frontier 
 against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed in 
 one of the harbours of the Euxine, fell into the hands 
 of the Franks; and they resolved, through unknown 
 seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the 
 Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped 
 through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and 
 cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged their ap- 
 petite for revenge and plunder, by frequent descents on 
 the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa. 
 The opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the navies 
 of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was 
 sacked by a handful of barbarians, who massacred the 
 greatest part of the trembling inhabitants. From the 
 island of Sicily, the Franks proceeded to the columns 
 of Hercules, trusted themselves to the ocean, coasted 
 round Spain and Gaul, and steering their triumphant 
 course through the British channel, at length finished 
 their surprising voyage, by landing in safety on the 
 Batavian or Frisian shores.*^ The example of their 
 success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the 
 advantages, and to despise the dangers, of the sea, 
 pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to 
 wealth and glory. 
 
 Revolt of Satur- Notwithstanding the vigilance and ac- 
 ninusintheeast. tivity of Probus, it was almost impos- 
 sible that he could at once retain in obedience every 
 part of his wide extended dominions. The barbarians, 
 who broke their chains, had seized the favourable op- 
 portunity of a domestic war. When the emperor 
 marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the com- 
 mand of the east on Saturninus. That general, a man 
 of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by 
 the absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexan- 
 drian people, the pressing instances of his friends, and 
 his own fears ; but from the moment of his elevation, 
 he never entertained a hope of empire, or even of life. 
 "Alas !" he said, " the republic has lost a useful ser- 
 vant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the 
 services of many years. You know not," continued 
 he, " the misery of sovereign power ; a sword is per- 
 petually suspended over our head. We dread our 
 very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice 
 of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition, 
 nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can 
 protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exaltino- 
 
 » Zosimus, I. i. p. (32 According to Vopiscus, another body of 
 ^ andals was less faithful. 
 
 'I Hist. August, p. 240. They were probably expelled by the Gotiis. 
 Z08un. I. i. p. 66. 
 
 « Hist. August, p. 240. 
 
 <* Panegyr. v. 18. Zosimus, I. I. p. 66. 
 
 me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of 
 cares, and to an untimely fate. The only consolation 
 which remains is, the assurance that I shall not fall 
 alone." * But as the former part of his prediction was 
 verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed 
 by the clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince at- 
 tempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from 
 the fury of the soldiers. He had more than once so- 
 licited the usurper himself, to place ^ j. ^^^ 
 some confidence in the mercy of a sove- 
 reign who so highly esteemed his character, that he 
 had punished, as a malicious informer, the first who 
 related the improbable news of his defection.^ Satur- 
 ninus might, perhaps, have embraced the generous 
 ofll'er, had he not been restrained by the obstinate dis- 
 trust of his adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and 
 their hopes more sanguine, than those of their experi- 
 enced leader. 
 
 The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely a D 280 
 extinguished in the east, before new of BonoKus and 
 troubles were excited in the west, by the Pr"c"ius in Gaul, 
 rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus, in Gaul. The 
 most distinguished merit of those two ofl^cers, was 
 their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of 
 Bacchus, of the other in those of VenuSjS yet neither 
 of them were destitute of courage and capacity, and 
 both sustained, with honour, the august character 
 which the fear of punishment had engaged them to as- 
 sunie, till they sunk at length beneath the superior 
 genius of Probus. He used the victory with his ac- 
 customed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well 
 as the lives of their innocent families.'' 
 
 The arms of Probus had now suppres- a D 281 
 sed all the foreign and domestic ene- Triumpi. of the 
 mies of the state. His mild but steady emperor Probus 
 administration confirmed the re-establishment of the 
 public tranquillity ; nor was there left in the provinces 
 a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to re- 
 vive the memory of past disorders. It was time that 
 the emperor should re-visit Rome, and celebrate his 
 own glory and the general happiness. The triumph 
 due to the valour of Probus was conducted with a 
 magnificence suitable to his fortune, and the people 
 who had so lately admired the trophies of Aurelian, 
 gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic suc- 
 cessor.' We cannot, on this occasion, forget the des- 
 perate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved 
 with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports 
 of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood 
 for the amusement of the populace, they killed their 
 keepers, broke from the place of their confinement, 
 and filled the streets of Rome with blood and confu- 
 sion. After an obstinate resistance, they were over- 
 powered and cut in pieces by the regular forces; but 
 they obtained at least an honourable death and the 
 satisfaction of a just revenge.^ 
 
 The military discipline which reiffned u: a- ■ ^■ 
 in the camps of Probus, was less cruel 
 than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and ex- 
 act. The latter had punished the irregularities of the 
 soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevent- 
 ed them by employing^ the legions in constant and 
 useful labours. When Probus commanded in Egypt, 
 he executed many considerable works for the splen- 
 dour and benefit of that rich country. The navigation 
 
 e Vopisriis in Hist. Aiiffust. p. 24.5, 24G. The unfortunate orator 
 had studied rhetoric at Carthatio; and was therefore more probably 
 a Moor (Zosim. 1. i. p. 60.) than a GauJ, as Vopiscus calls him. 
 
 f Zonaras, I. xii. p 6:!8. 
 
 g A very surprising instance is recorded of the prowess of Proculus. 
 lie had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins. The rest of the story 
 he must relate in hi« own language ; Ex his una nocte dereni inivi ; 
 omnestanien. quod in meeraf, muiiercs intra dies quindeciin reddidi. 
 Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 246. 
 
 h Proculus, who was a native of Albenguft on tlie Genoese const, 
 armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches were great, but 
 they were acquired by ro'ihery. It was afterwards a saying of his 
 family, Nee latrones esse, nee principes sibi placere. Vopiscus ia 
 Hist. August, p. 247. 
 
 > Hist. August, p. 240. 
 
 k Zosim. I. i. p. 66. 
 
124 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 125 
 
 « 
 
 
 % 
 
 of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improv- 
 ed ; and temples, bridges, porticoes, and palaces, were 
 constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted 
 by turns as architects, as entrineers, and as husband- 
 men.' It was reported of Hannibal, that, in order to 
 preserve his troops front the dangerous temptations 
 of idleness, he had obliged them to form large planta- 
 tions of olive trees along the coast of Africa." From 
 a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in 
 covering, with rich vineyards, the hills of Gaul and 
 Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described, 
 which were ontirely dug and planted by military la- 
 bour." One of these, known under the name of 
 Mount Almo, was situated near Sirmium, the country 
 where Probus was born, for which he ever retained a 
 partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavoured 
 to secure, by converting into tillage a large and un- 
 healthy tract of marshy ground. An army thus em- 
 ployed, constituted perhaps the most useful, as well as 
 the bravest, portion of Roman subjects. 
 
 11- 1 ».i 13ut in the prosecution of a favourite 
 
 Ilia death. , , ' ^ .• r i •.! 
 
 scheme, the best of men, satisfied with 
 the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget 
 the bounds of moderation ; nor did Probus himself 
 sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his 
 fierce legionaries." The dangers of the military pro- 
 fession seem only to be compensated by a life of plea- 
 sure and idleness: but if the duties of the soldier are 
 incessantly aggravated by the labours of the peasant, 
 he will at last sink under the intolerable burthen, or 
 shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of 
 Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of his 
 troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind 
 than to those of the army, he expressed the vain hope, 
 that, by the establishment of universal peace, he 
 should soon abolish the necessity of a standing army 
 and mercenary force.? The unguarded expression 
 proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of 
 summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome labour 
 of draining the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, im- 
 patient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down their tools, 
 grasped their arms, and broke out into a furious mu- 
 tiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger, took re- 
 fuge in a lofty tower, constructed for the purpose of 
 surveying the progress of the work.i The tower was 
 A.D. 28-j. instantly forced, and a thousand swords 
 August. were plunged at once into the bosom of 
 the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops sub- 
 sided as soon as it had been gratified. They then 
 lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of 
 the emperor whom they had massacred, and hastened 
 to perpetuate, by an honourable monument, the me- 
 mory of his virtues and victories.' 
 Election an<l cha- When the legions had indulged their 
 racter ofCarus. grief and repentance for the death of 
 Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his 
 praetorian praefect, the most deserving of the imperial 
 throne. Every circumstance that relates to this 
 prince appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He 
 gloried in the title of Roman citizen ; and affected to 
 compare the purity of //zs blood, with the foreign and 
 even barbarous origin of the preceding emperors ; yet 
 the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far 
 
 J Hist. August, p. 2:Mj. 
 
 m Aurel. Victor in Proh. But tlic poliry of Hannibal, unnoticed hy 
 any more ancient writer, »s irreconcilable with the history of U\a 
 life. He left Afric:i when he was nine years old, returned to it 
 when he was forty-five, and inimediately lost his army in the deci- 
 sive battle of Zama. Livina. xxx. 47. 
 
 n Hist. August. i». 210. Eutrop. I.x. 17. Aurcl. Victor in Prob. 
 Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of Domitian, and grant- 
 ed a general permission of'planting vines to the Gauls, the Britons, 
 and the Pannonians. 
 
 o Julian bestows a severe, and indeed excessive, censure on the ri- 
 gour of F'robus, who, as he thinks, almost deserved his fate. 
 
 p Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 241. He lavishes on this idle hope a 
 large stock of very foolish eloiiquence. 
 
 q Turris ferrata. It seems to liave been a moveable tower, and 
 cased with iron. 
 
 r Probus, et vere probus situs est : Victor omnium gentium Barba- 
 rarum : victor etiani tyranuorum. 
 
 from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his 
 own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, from 
 Gaul, or from Africa.' Though a soldier, he had re- 
 ceived a learned education; though a senator, he was 
 invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an 
 age, when the civil and military professions began to 
 be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were 
 united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the 
 severe justice which he exercised against the assas- 
 sins of Probus, to whose favour and esteem he was 
 highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of 
 being accessary to a deed from whence he derived the 
 principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his 
 elevation, an acknowledged character of virtue and 
 abilities;* but his austere temper insensibly degener- 
 ated into moroseness and cruelty ; and the imperfect 
 writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall 
 not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants." When 
 Carus assumed the purple, he was about sixty years 
 of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, had 
 already attained the season of manhood.* 
 
 The authority of the senate expired rp^g sentiments 
 with Probus; nor was the repentance of the senate and 
 of the soldiers displayed by the same P«ople. 
 dutiful regard for the civil power, which they had 
 testified after the unfortunate death of Aurel ian. The 
 election of Carus was decided without expecting the 
 approbation of the senate, and the new emperor con- 
 tented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately 
 epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne.'^ A 
 behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable pre- 
 decessor, afforded no favourable presage of the new 
 reign ; and the Romans, deprived of power and free- 
 dom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs.' 
 The voice of congratulation and flattery was not how- 
 ever silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure 
 and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the 
 accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, 
 avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the cave of 
 Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some 
 recent characters. The rural deity had described, in 
 prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire 
 under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the 
 approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders 
 the sinking weight of the Roman world, shall extin- 
 guish war and faction, and once again restore the inno- 
 cence and security of the golden age.* 
 
 It is more than probable, that these pj^^„g jpfg^ts the 
 elegant trifles never reached the ears of Sarmatians, and 
 a veteran general, who, with the consent ^Vu^'*'^ '"^" ^*'° 
 of the legions, was preparing to execute 
 the long suspended design of the Persian war. Be- 
 fore his departure for this distant expedition, Carus 
 conferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the 
 title of Ca?sar, and investing the former with almost 
 an equal share of the imperial power, directed the 
 young prince, first to suppress some troubles which 
 had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of 
 his residence at Rome, and to assume the government 
 of the western provinces.'' The safety of Illyricum 
 was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sar- 
 matians ; sixteen thousand of those barbarians re- 
 
 t Yet all this may be conciliated He was born at Narbonne in 
 niyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more famous city of 
 that name in Gaul. His father might be an African, and his mother 
 a noble Roman. Carus himself was educated in the capital. See 
 Scaliger, Animadversion, ad Enscb. Chron. p. 241. 
 
 t Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and a 
 marble palace at the public expense, as a just recompense of the sin- 
 gular merit uf Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 249. 
 
 u Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 242, 240. Julian excludes the em- 
 peror Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Cajsars. 
 
 X John Malala, tom. iii. p. 401. But the authority of that ignorant 
 Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus, the city 
 of Carrhjp, and the province of Caria, the latter of which is men 
 tioned by Homer. 
 
 y Hist. August, p. 249. Carus congratulated the senate, that one 
 of their own order was made emperor. 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 242. 
 
 « Sec the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is preferred 
 by Fontenelle to that of Virgil's Pollio. See tom. iii. p. 148. 
 
 »> Hist. August, p. 353. Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi, Annal 
 
 mained on the field of battle, and the number of cap- 
 tives amounted to twenty thousand. The old emper- 
 or, animated with the fame and prospect of victory, 
 pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the 
 countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, 
 with his younger son Numerian, arrived on the con- 
 fines of the Persian monarchy. There, encamping on 
 the summit of a lofty mountain, he poi«Ued out to his 
 troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom 
 they were about to invade. 
 
 A. D. 283. The successor of Artaxerxes, Varanes, 
 
 He gives audi- or Bahrain, though he had subdued the 
 
 Samu'Lj^rs. S^g^s'*"^ »ne "'f «.he most warlike na- 
 tions ot Upper Asia,'= was alarmed at 
 the approach of the Romans, arid endeavoured to retard 
 their progress by a negociation of peace. His ambas- 
 sadors entered the camp about sunset, at the time 
 when the troops were satisfying their hunger with a 
 frugal repast. The Persians expressed their desire 
 of being introduced to the presence of the Roman 
 emperor. They were at length conducted to a soldier, 
 who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon 
 and a few hard pease composed his supper. A coarse 
 woollen garment of purple was the only circumstance 
 that announced his dignity. The conference was con- 
 ducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance. 
 Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his 
 baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their 
 master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he 
 would speedily render Persia as naked of trees, as his 
 own head was destitute of hair.'* Notwithstanding 
 some traces of art and preparation, we may discover 
 in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe 
 simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded 
 Gallienus, had already restored in the Roman camps. 
 The ministers of the great king trembled and retired. 
 His victories '^^® thr-eats of Carus were not without 
 and e.\traor- cfl^ect. He ravaged Mesopotamia, cut 
 dmary death, jp pieces whatever opposed his passage, 
 made himself master of the great cities of Seleucia 
 and Ctesiphon, (which seemed to have surrendered with- 
 out resistance,) and carried his victorious arms beyond 
 the Tigris.^ He had seized the favourable moment 
 for an invasion. The Persian councils were distracted 
 by domestic factions, and the greater part of their forces 
 were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and 
 the east received with transport the news of such im- 
 portant advantages. Flattery and hope painted, in the 
 most lively colours, the fall of Persia, the conquest of 
 Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliv- 
 erance from the inroads of the Scythian nations.' But 
 A.D. -283. the reign of Carus was destined to ex- 
 iJoc.iS. pose the vanity of predictions. They 
 were scarcely uttered before they were contradicted 
 by his death ; an event attended with such ambiguous 
 circumstances, that it may be related in a letter from 
 his own secretary to the praefect of the city. " Carus," 
 says he, " our dearest emperor, was confined by sick- 
 ness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the 
 camp. The darkness which overspread the sky was 
 so thick, that we could no longer distinofuish each 
 other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from 
 us the knowledge of all that passed in the general 
 confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap 
 of thunder, we heard a sudden cry, that the emperor 
 was dead ; and it soon appeared, that his chamber- 
 lains in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal pa- 
 
 * Agathias, I. iv. p. 135. We find one of his sayings in the Biblio- 
 ibequc Orientale of Af. d'Uerbelot. " The definition of humanity in- 
 cludes all other virtues." 
 
 d Synesiustellsthis story of Carinus; and it is much more natural 
 , ,""'!^;rs'and it of Carus, than (as Petavius and Tillemont choose to 
 OO) of Probiif). 
 
 ^•Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Eutropius, ix. 18. The two 
 
 ' To the Persian victory of Carus, I refer the dialogue of the Phi- 
 lopatris, which has so long been an object of dispute among the 
 •parnei. But to e.xplain and justify my opinion, would require a 
 uisaertation. 
 
 vilion, a circumstance whicn gave rise to the report 
 that Cams was killed by lightning. But, as far as 
 we have been able to investigate the truth, his death 
 was the natural effect of his disorder." « 
 The vacancy of the throne was not „ . 
 
 „_ J .• r , J- . L mi ile IS succeeded 
 
 productive of any disturbance. The by his two eons 
 ambition of the aspiring generals was Carinu« and Na- 
 checked by their mutual fears, and "'"'*"• 
 young Numerian with his absent brother Carinus were 
 unanimously acknowledged as Roman emperors. The 
 public expected that the successor of Carus would 
 pursue his father's footsteps, and, without allowing 
 the Persians to recover from their consternation, would 
 advance sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and 
 Ecbatana.^ But the legions, however strong in num- 
 bers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject 
 superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were 
 practised to disguise the manner of the late emperor's 
 death, it was found impossible to remove the opinion 
 of the multitude, and the power of opinion is irresis- 
 tible. Places or persons struck with lightning were 
 considered by the ancients with pious horror, as sin- 
 gularly devoted to the wrath of heaven.' An oracle 
 was remembered, which marked the river Tigris as 
 the fatal boundary of the Roman arms. The troops, 
 terrified with the fate of Carus and with their own 
 danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey the 
 will of the gods, and to lead them away from this in- 
 auspicious scene of war. The feeble emperor was un- 
 able to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Per- 
 sians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a victor- 
 ious enemy.J 
 
 The intelligence of the mysterious a. D. 384. 
 fate of the late emperor was soon carried Vices of Carinas, 
 from the frontiers of Persia to Rome ; and the senate, 
 as well as the provinces, congratulated the accession 
 of the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were 
 strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, 
 either of birth or of merit, which can alone render the 
 possession of a throne easy, and as it were natural. 
 Born and educated in a private station, the election of 
 their father raised them at once to the rank of princes ; 
 and his death, which happened about sixteen months 
 afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast 
 empire. To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, 
 an uncommon share of virtue and prudence was re- 
 quisite ; and Carinus, the elder of the brothers, was 
 more than commonly deficient in those qualities. In 
 the Gallic war, he discovered some degree of personal 
 courage ;^ but from the moment of his arrival at Rome, 
 he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and 
 to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, yet cruel ; 
 devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste ; and though 
 exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the 
 public esteem. In the course of a few months, he suc- 
 cessively married and divorced nine wives, most of 
 whom he let\ pregnant; and notwithstanding this legal 
 inconstancy, found time to indulge such a variety of 
 irregular appetites, as brought dishonour on himself 
 and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld with 
 inveterate hatred all those who might *reiTiember his 
 former obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He 
 banished or put to death, the friends and counsellors 
 whom his father had placed about him, to guide his 
 inexperienced youth ; and he persecuted with the 
 meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions, 
 who had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty 
 of the emperor. With the senators, Carinus affected 
 a lofty and regal demeanour, frequently declaring, that 
 
 g Hist. August, p. 250. Yet Eutropius, Festus, Rufus, the two 
 Victors, Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, Syncellus, and Zonaras. all 
 ascriliethe death of Carus by lightning. 
 
 h See Nemesian, Cynegeticon, v. 71, &.c. 
 
 i See Festus and his commentators, on tfie word Srribonianvm. 
 Places struck by lightning were surrounded with a wall; things 
 were buried with mysterious ceremony. 
 
 j Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Aurelius Victor seems to be- 
 lieve the prediction, and to approve the retreat. 
 
 k Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 69. He was a contemporary, tut a 
 poet. 
 
126 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XH. 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 127 
 
 n 
 
 ,1 
 
 « 
 
 n 
 
 he designed to distribute their estates among the pop- 
 ulace of Rome. From the dregs of that populace, 
 he selected his favourites, and even his ministers. 
 The palace, and even the imperial table, was filled 
 with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the various 
 retinue of vice and folly. One of his door-keepers' he 
 intrusted with the government of the city. In the 
 room of the praetorian praefect, whom he put to death, 
 Carinus substituted one of the ministers of his looser 
 pleasures. Another who possessed the same, or even 
 a more infamous, title to favour, was invested with the 
 consulship. A confidential secretary, who had ac- 
 quired uncommon skill in the art of forgery, delivered 
 the indolent emperor, with his own consent, from the 
 irksome duty of signing his name. 
 
 When the emperor Cams undertook the Persian war, 
 he was induced, by motives of affection as well as pol- 
 icy, to secure the fortunes of his family, by leaving 
 in the hands of his eldest son the armies and provin- 
 ces of the west. Tiie intelligence which he soon re- 
 ceived of the conduct of Carinus, filled him with 
 shame and resrret : nor had he concealed his resolution 
 of satisfying the republic by a severe act of justice, and 
 of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the brave 
 and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was gov- 
 ernor of Dalmatia." But the elevation of Constantius 
 was for a while deferred ; and as soon as the father's 
 death had released Carinus from the control of fear or 
 decency, he displayed to the Romans the extravagances 
 of Elagabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domi- 
 tian." 
 
 He celebrates the The Only merit of the administration 
 Roman games, of Carinus that history could record, or 
 poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendour with 
 which, in his own and his brother's name, he exhibited 
 the Roman games of the theatre, the circus, and the 
 amphitheatre. More than twenty years afterwards, 
 when the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their 
 frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of his muni- 
 ficent predecessor, he acknowledged, that the reign of 
 Carinus had indeed been a reign of pleasure." But 
 this vain prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian 
 might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and 
 transport by the Roman people. The oldest of the cit- 
 izens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the 
 triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular 
 games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they 
 were all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Ca- 
 rinus.P 
 
 Spectacles of The spcctaclcs of Carinus may there- 
 Romo. fore be ijepj illustrated by the observation 
 of some particulars, which history has condescended to 
 relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we 
 confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, 
 however we may censure the vanity of the design or 
 the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess, 
 that neither before nor since the time of the Romans, 
 so much art and expense have ever been lavished for 
 the amusement of the people.'' By the order of Pro- 
 bus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots, 
 were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The 
 spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with 
 a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand fal- 
 
 , I Cancellarius. This word, SO liuiiiMe in its oricin. hns by a sin- 
 / gnlar fortune risen into tlu; title of tlie first grrat otlire of stale in tbe 
 
 (monarciiies of Europe. SceCasaubon and Sainiasius, ad Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 253. 
 
 n» [it was a cause of grief to Carus, that his son Numerian w.is 
 still loo young to assume the government of the western provinces 
 — he would have chosen to have entrusted them to him rather than 
 to his brotlier Carinus. (Voj)isc. in Caro. )—<?.] 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 253, 2.'>4. Eutropius, i.x. 19. Vic- 
 tor Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed, was so long and prospe- 
 rous, that it must have been very unfavourai)le to tlie reputation of 
 Carinus. 
 
 o Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 254. He calls him Carus, but the 
 sense issutticiently obvious, and the words were often confounded. 
 
 p See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 42. We may observe, that the spec- 
 tacles of Probua were still recent, and that the poet is seconded by 
 the historian. 
 
 q The philosopher Montaigne (Essais, I. iii. G.) gives a very just 
 and lively view of Roman magniticence in these spectacles. 
 
 low deer, and a thousand wild boars; and all this vari- 
 ety of game was abandoned to the riotous impetuosity 
 of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day 
 consisted in the massacre of an hundred lions, an equal 
 number of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three 
 hundred bears.' The collection prepared by the young- 
 er Gordian for his triumph, and which his successor 
 exhibited in the secular games, was less remarkable by 
 the number than by the singularity of the animals. 
 Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and varie- 
 gated beauties to the eyes of the Roman people.^ Ten 
 elks, and as many cameleopards,the loftiest and most 
 harmless creatures that wander over the plains of Sar- 
 matia and -Ethiopia, were contrasted with thirty Afri- 
 can hyaenas, and ten Indian tigers, the most implaca- 
 ble savages of the torrid zone. The unolTendins 
 strength with which nature has endowed the greater 
 quadrupeds was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippo- 
 potamus of the Nile,* and a majestic troop of thirty-two 
 elephants." While the populace gazed with stupid 
 wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might in- 
 deed observe the figure and properties of so many dif- 
 ferent species, transported from every part of the an- 
 cient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this ac- 
 cidental benefit, which science might derive from folly, 
 is surely insuflicient to justify such a wanton abuse of 
 the public riches. There occurs, however, a single in- 
 stance in the first Punic war, in which the senate wise- 
 ly connected this amusement of the multitude with the 
 interest of the state. A considerable number of ele- 
 phants, taken in the defeat of the Carthaginian army, 
 were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed 
 only with blunt javelins.* The useful spectacle served 
 to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt for 
 those unwieldy animals ; and he no longer dreaded to 
 encounter them in the ranks of war. 
 
 The hunting or exhibition of wild The amphi- 
 beasts was conducted with a macrnifi- theatre, 
 cence suitable to a people who styled themselves the 
 masters of the world ; nor was the edifice appropriated 
 to that entertainment less expressive of Roman great- 
 ness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the 
 awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus, which so 
 well deserved the epithet of colossal.'^ It was a build- 
 ing of an elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four 
 feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in 
 breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with 
 four successive orders of architecture, to the height of 
 one hundred and forty feet.' The outside of the edifice 
 was encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. 
 The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the in- 
 side, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty 
 rows of seats of marble likewise, coverrd with cush- 
 ions, and capable of receiving with ease above fourscore 
 thousand spectators.* Sixty-four vomitories (for by 
 that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) 
 poured forth the immense multitude; ; and the entrances, 
 passages, and stair-cases, were contrived with such 
 exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the sena- 
 torial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at 
 
 r Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 240. 
 
 » They are called Onagri; hut the number is too inconsiderable for 
 mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephamis E.xercitat. ii. 7.) has proved 
 from Oppian, Dion, and an anonymous Greek, that Zeltras had been 
 seen at Rome. They were brought from some island of the ocean, 
 perhaps Madagascar. 
 
 t Carinus gave an hippopotamus, (see Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 66 ) 
 In the latter spectacles, I do not recollect any crocodiles, of which 
 Augustus once e.\hi!)ited thirty-six. Dion Cassius, 1. Iv. p. 781. 
 
 u Capitolin. in Hist. August, p. IG4, 1G5. We arc not acquainted 
 with the animals which he calls arc he! eon tes, some read argoleontes, 
 others ugrioleontes : both corrections arc very nu;;atory. 
 
 X Plin. Hist. Natur. viii 6. from the annals of Piso. 
 
 y See Martei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv I. i. c. 2. 
 
 « Maffci, I. ii. c. 2. The height wa.« very much exaggerated by 
 the ancients. H reached almost to the heavens, according to Cal 
 phurnms, (Eclog. vii. 23.) and surpassed the ken of human sight, 
 according to Ammianus Marcellinus. (xvi. 10.) Vet how trifling to 
 the great pyramid of Eeypt, which rises 500 feet perpendicular ! 
 
 a According to different copies of Victor, we read 77,000 or 87,000 
 spectators ; but Maflfei, (I. ii. c. 12) finds room on the open seats f"'' 
 no more than 34,000. The remainder were contained in the upper 
 covered galleries. 
 
 his destined place without trouble or confusion.'' No- 
 thinor was omitted which, in any respect, could be sub- 
 servient to the convenience and pleasure of the specta- 
 tors. They were protected from the sun and rain by 
 an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. 
 The air was continually refreshed by the playing of 
 fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful 
 scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the 
 arena^ or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and 
 successively assumed the most different forms. At 
 one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the 
 garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken 
 into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterra- 
 neous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of wa- 
 ter; and what had just before appeared a level plain, 
 might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered 
 with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters 
 of the deep.*^ In the decoration of these scenes, the 
 Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality ; 
 and we read on various occasions, that the whole fur- 
 niture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or 
 of gold, or of aniber.'^ The poet who describes the 
 games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, at- 
 tracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, 
 affirms, that the nets designed as a defence against the 
 wild beasts, were of gold wire ; that the porticoes were 
 gilded, and that the belt or circle which divided the se- 
 veral ranks of spectators from each other, was studded 
 with a precious Mosaic of beautiful stones.* 
 
 A,D. 284. In the midst of this glittering pagean- 
 
 Sept. 12. try^ jj^g emperor Carinus, secure of his 
 fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, the 
 flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, 
 who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced 
 to celebrate the divine graces of his person.' In the 
 same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles 
 from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolu- 
 tion transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre 
 of the house of Carus.R 
 
 Return of Name- ^^^ ^^^^ '^^ Carus never saw each 
 rian with the ar- Other after their father's death. The ar- 
 my from Persia, pangements which their new situation re- 
 quired, were probably deferred till the return of the 
 younger brother to Rome, where a triumph was de- 
 creed to the young emperors, for the glorious success 
 of the Persian war.** It is uncertain whether they in- 
 tended to divide between them the administration, or 
 the provinces, of the empire ; but it is very unlikely 
 that their union would have proved of any long dura- 
 tion. The jealousy of power must have been inflamed 
 by the opposiiion of characters. In the most corrupt 
 of times, Carinus was unworthy to live : Numerian 
 deserved to reign in a happier period. His aflfable 
 manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they 
 became known, the regard and aflfectionsof the public. 
 He possessed the elegant accomplishments ot a poet 
 and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest 
 and the most exalted station. His eloquence, how- 
 ever it was applauded by the senate, was formed not 
 so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the mo- 
 dern declaimers ; but in an age very far from being de- 
 stitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with 
 the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still re- 
 
 b See Maffei. I. ii. c. 5 — 12. He treats the very difficult subject 
 with all possi!>le clearness, and like an architect, as well as an anti- 
 quarian. 
 
 c Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 64, 73. These lines are curious, and the 
 whole Eclogue has been of infinite use to MafTei. Calphurnius, as 
 well as Martial, 'see his first book,) was a poet; but when they de- 
 scribed the amphitheatre, they both wrote from their own senses, 
 and to those of the Romans. 
 
 <1 Consult riin Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16. xxxvii. 11 
 
 " Balieusen gemmis, en inlita porticiis auro 
 Certatim radiant, &c. Calphurn. vii. 
 
 ' Et Martls vultuset Apollinis esse putavi, says Calphurnius : but 
 John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes 
 him as thick, short, and white, torn. i. p. 403. 
 
 K With regard to the time when these Roman games were cele- 
 brated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper, have given themselves a great 
 deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject. 
 
 •> Nemesianus (\n the Cynegeticons) seems to anticipate in his 
 fancy 'hat auspicious day. 
 
 mained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which 
 evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superi- 
 ority of his genius.' But the talents of Numerian were 
 rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. 
 When his father's elevation reluctantly forced him from 
 the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pur- 
 suits had qualified him for the cotumand of armies. 
 His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of 
 the Persian war; and he had contracted, from the heat 
 of the climate,^ such a weakness in his eyes, as obliired 
 him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself 
 to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The 
 administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, 
 was devolved on Arrius Aper, the praetorian praefect, 
 who to the power of his important office, added the 
 honour of being father-in-law to Numerian. The im- 
 perial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty 
 adherents; and during many days, Aper delivered to 
 the army the supposed mandates of their invisible so- 
 vereign.^ 
 
 It was not till eight months after the Death of Name- 
 death of Cams, that the Roman army, "^n. 
 
 returning by slow marches from the banks of the 
 Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. 
 The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the 
 court passed over to Heraclea, on the European side 
 of the Propontis."*^ But a report soon circulated 
 through the camp, at first in secret whispers, and at 
 length in loud clamours, of the emperor's death, and 
 of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who 
 still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a 
 prince who w^as no more. The impatience of the 
 soldiers could not long support a state of suspense. 
 With rude curiosity they broke into the imperial tent, 
 and discovered only the corpse of Numerian." The 
 gradual decline of his health might have induced them 
 to believe that his death was natural ; but the conceal- 
 ment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the 
 measures which Aper had taken to secure his elec- 
 tion, became the immediate occasion of his ruin. Yet, 
 even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops 
 observed a regular proceeding, w^iicli proves how 
 firmly discipline had been re-established by the mar- 
 tial successors of Gallienus. A general assembly of 
 the army w^as appointed to be held at Chalcedon, 
 whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner 
 and criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the 
 midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes form- 
 ed a great military council. They soon a. d. 248. 
 announced to the multitude, that their ,„ ^v^- \7- . 
 
 !• ij/'ii TV- 1^- Lleciiou of the 
 
 choice had lallen on Diocletian, com- emperor Diocle- 
 mander of the domestics or body-guards, tian. 
 as the person the most capable of revenging and suc- 
 ceeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes 
 of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct 
 of the present hour. Conscious that the station which 
 he had filled, exposed him to some suspicions, Dio- 
 cletian ascended the tribunal, and raising his eyes 
 towards the sun, made a solemn profession of his own 
 innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing deity." 
 Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, 
 he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains 
 to the foot of the tribunal. " This man," said he, 
 " is the murderer of Numerian ;" and, without giving 
 him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew 
 
 i He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied in 
 didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Carus, 
 with a very ambiguous inscription, " To the most powerful of ora- 
 tors." See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 25 1. 
 
 k A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vopiscus, 
 ^Hist. Auuust. p. 251.) incessantly weeping for his father's death. 
 
 1 In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design to betray 
 Carus. Hist. August, p. 250. 
 
 m We are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274. for the 
 knowledge of tlie time and place where Diocletian was elected em 
 
 ^ n Hist. August, p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hieronym. in Chron. 
 According to i\\e?c judicious writers, the death of Numerian was dis- 
 covered by the stench of his dead body. Could no aromatics lie 
 found in the imperial household ? 
 o Aurel. Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in Chron. 
 
128 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Chap. XIU. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 129 
 
 « 
 
 n 
 
 his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortu- 
 nate praefect. A charge supported by such decisive 
 proof, was admitted without contradiction, and the 
 legions, with repeated acclamations, acknowledged 
 the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian.P 
 Defeat and dentii Before we enter upon the memorable 
 
 of Curinus, yeign of that prince, it will be proper to 
 punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Nume- 
 rian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient 
 to support his legal title to the empire. But his per- 
 sonal vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and 
 situation. The most faithful servants of the father 
 despised the incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arro- 
 gance, of the son. The hearts of the people were en- 
 gaged in favour of his rival, and even the senate was 
 inclined to prefer an usurper to a tyrant. The arts of 
 Diocletian inflamed the general discontent ; and the 
 winter was employed in secret intrigues, and open 
 
 A. D. 285. preparations for a civil war. In the 
 May. spring, the forces of the east and of the 
 west encountered each other in the plains of Margus, 
 a small city of Maesia, in the neighbourhood of the 
 Danube.1 The troops, so lately returned from the 
 Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expense 
 of health and numbers, nor were they in a condition to 
 contend with the unexhausted strenjjth of the leofions 
 of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a 
 moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of 
 life. But the advantage which Carinus had obtain- 
 ed by the valour of his soldiers, he quickly lost by 
 the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife 
 he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, 
 and by a single blow extinguished civil discord in the 
 blood of the adulterer.*" 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 The reign of Diocletian and his three associates, Max- 
 imiauj Galerius, and Constantius. — General re-estab- 
 Ushment of order and tranqinllity. — The Persian ivar, 
 victory, and triumph. — The neiv form of adtninistra- 
 tion. — Abdication and retirement of Diocletian and 
 jyiuximian. 
 
 „, .. , As the reign of Diocletian was more 
 
 Elevation ami .„ . . *i .u .. r /• i • 
 
 character of Dio- iHustfious than that ot any of his pre- 
 cleiian, ^^ decessors, so was his birth more abject 
 A. D. UtiS. ^^^ obscure. The strong claims" of 
 merit and of violence had frequently superseded the 
 ideal prerogatives of nobility ; but a distinct line of 
 separation was hitherto preserved between the free 
 and the servile part of mankind. The'parents of Dio- 
 cletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a 
 Roman senator ; nor was he himself distinguished by 
 any other name, than that which he derived from a 
 small town in Dalmatia, from which his mother de- 
 duced her origin.* It is, however, probable, that his 
 father obtained the freedom of the family, and that he 
 soon acquired an office of scribe, which was common- 
 ly exercised by persons of his condition.*' Favoura- 
 ble oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior 
 merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the pro- 
 fession of arms and the hopes of fortune ; and it 
 
 p Vopi^cus in Hist. Aumist. p. 252. The reason why Diocletian 
 killed Jipor, (a wild boar.) was ("ounded on a prophecy and a pun, as 
 fooli.-ih as tiioy are wc-ll known. 
 
 q Entropius marks its situation very accurately ; it was between 
 tlie Mons Aureus and Vimiuiartini. M. d'Aiiville (Geographic An- 
 rienno, torn. i. p. lUM.) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little 
 below Belgrade and Semeiidria. 
 
 r [list. Ausust. p. 2."il. Eutropius, p. ix. 20, Aurelius Victor. 
 Victor ill Epitome. 
 
 a Eutrop. iv. 19. Victor in Epitom. The town seems to have 
 been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of [llyrians (see Cella- 
 rius Gro^rapli. Anli(]ua. toni. i. p. '<9!*>.); and the original name of 
 the fortunate slave, was probaWy Doclcs; lie fir.><t lengthened it to 
 the Grecian harmonj' of Diodes, and at length to the Roman ma- 
 jesty of Diocletianu^s. He likewise a.ssumed the p;iirician name of 
 Valerius, and it is usually given him by Aurelius Victor. 
 
 b See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of Horace. 
 Cornel. Nepos. in Vit. Eiimen, c. 1. 
 
 would be extremely curious to observe the gradation 
 of arts and accidents which enabled him in the end to 
 fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit to the 
 world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the 
 government of Maesia, the honours of the consulship, 
 and the important command of the guards of the pal- 
 ace. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian 
 war ; and, after the death of Numerian, the slave, by 
 the confession and judgment of his rivals, was de- 
 clared the most worthy of the imperial throne. The 
 malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns the savage 
 fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to 
 cast suspicions on the personal courage of the empe- 
 ror Diocletian.*^ It would not be easy to persuade us 
 of the cowardice of a soldier of fortune, who acquired 
 and preserved the esteem of the legions, as well as 
 the favour of so many warlike princes. Yet even 
 calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to at- 
 tack the most vulnerable part. The valour of Diocle- 
 tian was never found inadequate to his duty, or to the 
 occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the 
 daring and generous spirit of a hero, who courts dan- 
 ger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly challenges 
 the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were use- 
 ful rather than splendid ; a vigorous mind, improved 
 by the experience and study of mankind ; dexterity 
 and application in business ; a judicious mixture of 
 liberality and economy, of mildness and rigour ; pro- 
 found dissimulation under the disguise of military 
 frankness ; steadiness to pursue his ends ; flexibility 
 to vary his means ; and, above all, the great art of 
 submitting his own passions, as well as those of oth- 
 ers, to the interest of his ambition, and of colouring 
 his ambition with the most specious pretences of jus- 
 tice and public utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian 
 may be considered as the founder of a new empire. 
 Like the adopted son of Caesar, he was distinguished 
 as a statesman rather than as a warrior ; nor did either 
 of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose 
 could be effected by policy. 
 
 The victory of Diocletian was re- His clemency and 
 markable for its singular mildness. A victory, 
 people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the 
 conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, 
 and confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of 
 temper and equity, beheld, with the most pleasing as- 
 tonishment, a civil war, the flames of which were ex- 
 tinguished in the field of battle. Diocletian received 
 into his confidence Aristobulus, the principal minister 
 of the house of Cams, respected the lives, the for- 
 tunes, and the dignity of his adversaries, and even 
 continued in their respective stations the greater num- 
 ber of the servants of Carinus."* It is not improbable 
 that motives of prudence might assist the humanity 
 of the artful Dalmatian ; of these servants, many had 
 purchased his favour by secret treachery ; in others, 
 he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate 
 master. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of 
 Probus, and of Carus, had filled the several depart- 
 ments of the state and army with officers of approved 
 merit, whose removal would have injured the public 
 service, without promoting the interest of the succes- 
 sor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Ro- 
 man world the fairest prospect of the new reign, and 
 the emperor affected to confirm this favourable prepos- 
 session, by declaring, that, among all the virtues of 
 his predecessors, he was the most ambitious of imi- 
 tating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.' 
 
 c Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little treatise De 
 Mortibus Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity in two plarcs, 
 c. 7. 8. In chap. 9, he says of him, " erat in omni tumultu mcticu- 
 losus et animi disjectus." 
 
 d In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seems to convey a just, though 
 indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantius. It appears from 
 the Fasti, tliat Aristobulu.s remained pncfect of the city, and that he 
 ended with Diocletian, the consulship which he had commenced with 
 Carinus. 
 
 e Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, " Parentem potius quam dcrai- 
 num." Sec Hist. August, p. 30. 
 
 Association and The first Considerable action of his 
 character of reign Seemed to evince his sincerity as 
 
 Maxmiian. v, , . , . ^ •' 
 
 A. D. -285. well as his moderation. After the ex- 
 April I. ample of Marcus, he gave himself a 
 colleague in the person of Maximian, on whom he 
 bestowed at first the title of Caesar, and afterwards 
 that of Augustus.^ But the motives of his conduct, 
 as well as the object of his choice, were of a very dif- 
 ferent nature from those of his admired predecessor. 
 By investing a luxurious youth with the honours of 
 the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of private 
 gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the happiness of 
 the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-sol- 
 dier to the labours of government, Diocletian, in a 
 time of public dapger, provided for the defence both 
 of the east and of the west. Maximian was born a 
 peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sir- 
 niium. Ignorant of letters,^ careless of laws, the 
 rusticity of his appearance -and manners still betrayed 
 in the most elevated fortune the meanness of his ex- 
 traction. War was the only art which he professed. 
 In a long course of service, he had distinguished him- 
 self on every frontier of the empire ; and though his 
 military talents were formed to obey rather than to 
 command, though, perhaps, he never attained the 
 skill of a consummate general, he was capable, by 
 his valour, constancy, and experience, of executing 
 tlie most arduous undertakings. Nor were the vices 
 of Maximian less useful to his benefactor. Insensible 
 to pity and fearless of consequences, he was the ready 
 instrument of every act of cruelty which the policy of 
 tliat artful prince might at once suggest and disclaim. 
 As soon as a bloody sacrifice had been oflfered to pru- 
 dence or to revenge, Diocletian, by his seasonable in- 
 tercession, saved the remaining few whom he had 
 never designed to punish, gently censured the severity 
 of his stern colleague, and enjoyed the comparison of 
 a golden and an iron age, which was universally ap- 
 plied to their opposite maxims of government. Not- 
 withstanding the difference of their characters, the 
 two emperors maintained, on the throne, that friend- 
 ship which they had contracted in a private station. 
 The haughty turbulent spirit of Maximian, so fatal 
 afterwards to himself and to the public peace, was ac- 
 customed to respect the genius of Diocletian, and con- 
 fessed the ascendant of reason over brutal violence.*" 
 From a motive either of pride or superstition, the two 
 emperors assumed the titles, the one of Jovius, the 
 other of Herculius. Whilst the motion of the world 
 (stich was the language of their venal orators) was 
 maintained by the all-seeing wisdom of Jupiter, the 
 invincible arm of Hercules purged the earth from 
 monsters and tyraats.' 
 
 As..«)ciation of ^"^ ^^^^^ ^hc Omnipotence of Jovius 
 
 two Cn?sars, and Herculius was insufficient to sus- 
 
 Co.'"'a"'tiuK;'' tain the weight of the public adminis- 
 
 A. D. 2i>2. tration. The prudence of Diocletian 
 
 March 1. discovered, that the empire, assailed on 
 
 every side by the barbarians, required on every side 
 
 the presence of a great army, and of an emperor. 
 
 ^V ith this view, he resolved once more to divide his 
 
 f The question of the time when Maximian received tlie hon- 
 ours of CjTsar and Augustus has divided modern critics, and given 
 occasion to a great deal of learned wrangling. I have followed M. 
 de Tillemont, {Ilistoire dcs Empcreurs. torn. iv. p. .500—505.) who 
 has weighed the several reasons and difficulties with his scrupulous 
 accuracy. 
 
 5 In an oration delivered l)eforc him (Panegyr. Vet. ii.8.) Mamer- 
 tinua expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in imitating the conduct 
 of Hannibal and Scipio, had ever heard of their names. From thence 
 we may fairly infer that Ma.\imian was more desirous of being con- 
 sidered as a s^oldier, than as a man of letters: and it is in this man- 
 ner that we can often tran^ilate the language of flattery into that of 
 truth. 
 
 ••Lactantius de M. P? c. 8. Aurelius Victor. As among the Pane- 
 gyrics, we find orations pronounced in the praise of Maximian, and 
 others which flatter his adversaries at his ejipensc, we derive some 
 knowledge from the contrast. 
 
 See the second and third Panegyrics, particularly iii. 3, 10, 14. 
 but it would be tedious to copy the diffuse and affected e.xpres8ions 
 of their false eloquence. With regard to the titles, consult Aurel. 
 Victor. Lactantius de M.P. c. 52. Spanheim de Usu >iumisinatuni, 
 itf. Dissertat. xii. 8. 
 
 Vol. I R *J 
 
 unwieldy power, and with the inferior title of Caesars, 
 to confer on two generals of approved merit an equal 
 share of the sovereign authority.^ Galerius, sur- 
 named Armentarius, from his original profession of a 
 herdsman, and Constiiitius, who from his pale com- 
 plexion had acquired the denomination of Chlorus,* 
 were the two persons invested with the second hon- 
 ours of the imperial purple. In describing the coun- 
 try, extraction, and manners of Herculius, we have 
 already delineated those of Galerius, who was often, 
 ' and not improperly, styled the younger Maximian, 
 I though in many instances both of virtue and ai)ility, 
 j he appears to have possessed a manifest superiority 
 over the elder. The birth of Constantius was less ob- 
 jscure than that of his colleagues. Eutropius, his 
 I father, was one of the most considerable nobles of 
 ! Dardania, and his mother was the niece of the emperor 
 I Claudius.'" Although the youth of Constantius had 
 been spent in arms, he was endowed with a mild and 
 amiable disposition, and the popular voice had long 
 since acknowledged him worthy of the rank which he 
 at last attained. To strengthen the bonds of political, 
 by those of domestic, union, each of the emperors as- 
 sumed the character of a father to one of the Caesars, 
 Diocletian to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius ; 
 and each, obliging them to repudiate their former 
 wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage on his 
 adopted son." These four princes distributed among 
 themselves the wide extent of the Roman empire. 
 The defence of Gaul, Spain,** and Bri- n,.„„.„„„.. ^ 
 
 .. .^ .1.^* - .-, departments and 
 
 tain, was intrusted to Constantius : Ga- harmony of the 
 lerius was stationed on the banks of the '^"' p"'>ccs. 
 Danube, as the safeguard of the Illyrian provinces. 
 Italy and Africa were considered as the department of 
 Maximian ; and for his peculiar portion, Diocletian 
 reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich countries of 
 Asia. Every one was sovereign within his own juris- 
 diction; but their united authority extended over the 
 whole monarchy, and each of them was prepared to 
 assist his colleagues with his counsels or presence. 
 The Caesars, in their exalted rank, revered the majes- 
 ty of emperors, and the three younger princes invaria- 
 bly acknowledged, by their gratitude and obedience, 
 the common parent of their fortunes. The suspicious 
 jealousy of power found not any place among them ; 
 and the singular happiness of their union has been 
 compared to a chorus of music, whose harmony was 
 regulated and maintained by the skilful hand of tho 
 first artist.P 
 
 This important measure was not car- ^ • r 
 
 • 1 • . * .. ..,, , ^ . berics of events. 
 
 ned into execution till about six years 
 after the association of Maximian, and that interval of 
 time had not been <lestitute of memorable incidents. 
 But we have preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, 
 first to describe the more perfect form of Diocletian's 
 government, and afterwards to relate the actions of his 
 reign, following rather the natural order of the events, 
 than the dates oi a very doubtful chronology. 
 
 The first exploit of Maximian, though ^ p ort. 
 it is mentioned in a few words by our State of the pea- 
 imperfect writers, deserves, from its sin- *"'"* "^ ^*"'- 
 gularity, to be recorded in a history of luiman man- 
 ners. He suppressed the peasants of Gaul, who, un- 
 der the appellation of Bagaudaj,*i had risen in a gen- 
 ie Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. Eutrop. ix. 22. Lactam. 
 deM. P. c. 8. Hieronym. in Chron. 
 
 1 It is only among the modern Greeks tliat Tillemont can discover 
 his appellation of Chlorus. Any remarkable degree of paleness 
 seems inconsistent with the rubor mentioned in Panegyric, v. 19. 
 
 ni Julian, the grandson of Constantius. boasts that his family was 
 derived from the warlike Mirsians. Misopogon, p. 3-18. The Dar- 
 danians dwelt on the edge of Maesia. 
 
 n Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian ; if we speak 
 with strictness, Theodora, the wife of Constantius, was daughter 
 only to the wife of Maximian. Spanheim. Dissertat. xi. 2. 
 
 This division agrees with that of the four prajfectures; yet there 
 is some reason to doubt whether Spain was not a province of Maxi- 
 mian. See Tillemont, torn. iv. p. 517. 
 
 p Julian in Ca:sar. p. 315. Spanheim's notes to the French transla- 
 tion, p. 122. 
 
 q The general name of Bagauda (in the signification of rebels) 
 continued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some critics derive it from 
 
m 
 
 130 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 131 
 
 % 
 
 
 % 
 
 eral insurrection ; very similar to those, which in the 
 fourteenth century successively afflicted both France 
 and England.' It should seem, that very many of 
 those institutions, referred by an easy solution to the 
 feudal system, are derived from the Celtic barbarians. 
 When Caesar subdued the Gauls, that great nation 
 was already divided into three orders of men ; the 
 clergy, the nobility, and the common people. The 
 first governed by superstition, the second by arms, 
 but the third and last was not of any weight or ac- 
 count in their public councils. It was very natural 
 for the plebeians, oppressed by debt, or apprehensive 
 of injuries, to implore the protection of some powerful 
 chief, who acquired over their persons and property 
 the same absolute right as, among the Greeks and 
 Romans, a master exercised over his slaves.' The 
 
 the provinces adjacent to the ocean.* To repel these 
 desultory incursions, it was found necessary to create 
 a naval power; and the judicious measure was prose- 
 cuted with prudence and vigour. Gessoriacum, or 
 Boulogne, in the straits- of the British channel, was 
 chosen by the emperor for the station of the Roman 
 fleet ; and the command of it was intrusted to Carau- 
 sius, a Menapian of the meanest origin,'' but who had 
 long signalized his skill as a pilot, and his valour as a 
 soldiorf The intecrrity of the new admiral corresponded 
 not with his abili'ties. When the German pirates sail- 
 ed from their own harbours, he connived at their pas- 
 sage, but he diligently intercepted their return, and 
 appropriated to his own use an ample share of the 
 spoil which they had acquired. The wealth of Ca- 
 rausius was, on this occasion, very justly considered 
 
 greatest part of the nation was gradually reduced into as an evidence of his guilt ; and ^^^-^^'"^yhad already 
 a state of servitude ; compelled to perpetual labour | given orders for his death. But tl c <^^/f / ^^^^ 
 on the estates of the Gallic nobles, and confined to the foresaw and prevented the severity of the emperor 
 
 soil, either by the real weight of fetters, or by the no 
 less cruel and forcible restraints of the laws. Durincr 
 
 the long series of troubles which agitated Gaul, from 
 the reign of Gallienus to that of Diocletian, the con- 
 dition of these servile peasants was peculiarly miser- 
 able ; and they experienced at once the complicated 
 tyranny of their masters, of the barbarians, of the 
 soldiers, and of the officers of the revenue.' 
 n« • K „• Their patience was at last provoked 
 
 Their rebellion. . , *^ . g-^ • i iu^,. ,^r.., 
 
 into despair. On every side they rose 
 
 in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with 
 irresistible fury. The ploughman became a foot-sol- 
 dier, the shepherd mounted on horseback, the desert- 
 ed villages and open towns were abandoned to the 
 flames, and the ravages of the peasants equalled those 
 of the fiercest barbarians.'' They asserted the natural 
 rights of men, but they asserted those rights with the 
 most savage cruelty. The Gallic nobles, justly dread- 
 ing their revenge, either took refuge in the fortified 
 cifies, or fled from the wild scene of anarchy. The 
 peasants reigned without control ; and two of their 
 most daring leaders had the folly and rashness to as- 
 sume the imperial ornaments.* Their power soon ex- 
 pired at the approach of the legions. The strength 
 of union and discipline obtained an easy victory over 
 a licentious and divided multitude.^ A 
 and chastisement, g^^gj.^ retaliation was inflicted on the 
 
 peasants who were found in arms : the affrighted rem- 
 nant returned to their respective habitations, and their 
 unsuccessful efl'ort for freedom served only to confirm 
 their slavery. So strong and uniform is the current 
 of popular passions, that we might almost venture, 
 from very scanty materials, to relate the particulars of 
 this war ; but we are not disposed to believe that the 
 principal leaders, ^Elianus and Amandus, were chris- 
 tians,' or to insinuate, that the rebellion, as it happen- 
 ed in the time of Luther, was occasioned by the abuse 
 of those benevolent principles of Christianity, which 
 inculcate the natural freedom of mankind. 
 
 D ^B? Maximian had no sooner recovered 
 
 Revolt of Carau- Gaul from the hands of the peasants, 
 8iu6 in Britain, than he lost Britain by the usurpation 
 of Carausius. Ever since the rash but successful en- 
 terprise of the Franks under the reign of Probus, 
 their daring countrymen had constructed squadrons of 
 light brigantines, in which they incessantly ravaged 
 
 By his liberality he had attached to his fortunes the 
 fleet which he commanded, and secured the barbarians 
 in his interest. From the port of Boulogne he sailed 
 over to Britain, persuaded the legion, and the auxilia- 
 ries which guarded that island, to embrace his party, 
 and boldly assuming, with the imperial purple, the 
 title of Augustus, defied the justice and the arms of 
 his injured sovereign.*^ 
 
 When Britain was thus dismembered importance of 
 from the empire, its importance was Britain, 
 sensibly felt, and its loss sincerely lamented. The 
 Romans celebrated, and perhaps magnified, the extent 
 of that noble island, provided on every side with con- 
 venient harbours ; the temperature of the climate, and 
 the fertility of the soil, alike adapted for the produc- 
 tion of corn or of vines ; the valuable minerals with 
 which it abounded ; its rich pastures covered with in- 
 numerable flocks, and its woods free from wild beasts 
 or venomous serpents. Above all, they regretted the 
 large amount of the revenue of Britain, whilst they 
 confessed, that such a province well deserved to be- 
 come the seat of an independent monarchy.* During 
 the space of seven years, it was pos- Power of Carau- 
 sessed by Carausius ; and fortune con- *•"*• 
 tinued propitious to a rebellion supported with couraore 
 and ability. The British emperor defended the fron- 
 tiers of his dominions against the Caledonians of tho 
 north, invited, from the continent, a great number of 
 skilful artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins 
 that are still extant, his taste and opulence. Bom on 
 the confines of the Franks, he courted the friendship 
 of that formidable people, by the flattering imitation 
 of their dress and manners. The bravest of their 
 youth he enlisted among his land or sea forces ; and, 
 in return for their useful alliance, he communicated to 
 the barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military 
 and naval arts. Carausius still preserved the posses- 
 sion of Boulogne and the adjacent country. His 
 fleets rode triumphant in the channel, commanded the 
 mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the 
 coasts of the ocean, and difi'used beyond the columns 
 of Hercules the terror of his name. Under his com- 
 mand, Britain, destined in a future age to obtain the 
 
 a Celtic word Bagad, a tumultuous assembly. Scaligcr ad Euseb, Du 
 
 Cange Glossar. \ 
 
 r Chroniqite de Froissnrt. vol. i. c. 182. ii. 73— <9. The naivete of 
 his story is lost in our best modern writers. 
 
 • CJEsar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 13. Orgetorix, the Helvetian, could 
 arm for his defence a body often thousand slaves. 
 
 t Their oppression and misery are acknowledged by Eumenius, 
 (Panegyr. vi. 8.) Gallias eflTeratus in injuriia. 
 u Panegyr. Vet. ii.4. Aurelius Victor. 
 
 * iC:iianus and Amandus. We have medals coined by them. Golt- 
 siusinThes. R. A.p. 117, 121. 
 
 y Levibus projliis domuit. Eutrop. ix.20. 
 
 » The fact rests indeed on very slight authority, a life of St. Babo- 
 linus, which is probably of the seventh century. S«e Ducheiiie 
 Scriptores Rer. Fraiicicar. torn. i. p. 663. 
 
 » Aurelius Victor calls them German?. Eutropius (ix. 21.) givei 
 them the nmnc of S.ixons. But Eutropius lived in the ensuing cen- 
 tury, and seems to use tlie Inneuage of his own times. 
 
 b The tlirce expressions of Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and EurnCj 
 nius " vilissime natns." " Batnvim alumnus," and " Menapiajcivis,' 
 ejvfi us a very doubtful account of the birth of Carausius. Dr. 
 Stuicely, however, (Hist, of Carausius. p. 62.) chooses to make him » 
 native of St. David's, and a prince of the blood royal of Britain. 
 The former idea he had found in Richard of Cirencester, p. 44. 
 
 [The Menapians dwelt between the Scheldt and the Meuse, iii tne 
 southern part of Brabant. D'Anville, geogr. anc. vol. i. p. 93-7^ J 
 
 c Panegyr. v. 12. Britain at this time was secure, and slightly 
 
 guarded. _ , • u j .a 
 
 d Panegyr. Vet. v. 11. vii. 9. The orator Eumeniui wished to 
 exalt the glorv of the hero, (Constantius.) with the importance of tnc 
 conqtiest. Notwithstanding our laudable partiality for our native 
 country, it is difficult to conceive, that, in the beginning of the fourtn 
 century, England deserved all these commendations. A century 
 and half before, It hardly paid its own etubllshmenl. Se« AppJ«n 
 in Proam. 
 
 empire of the sea, already assumed its natural and re- 
 spectable station of a maritime power.* 
 
 A D 289 ^y seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Ca- 
 
 Acknowiedged by rausius had deprived his master of the 
 the otiicr cniiw- means of pursuit and revenge. And 
 '""' when, after a vast expense of time and 
 
 labour, a new armament was launched into the water,' 
 the imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element, 
 were easily baflled and defeated by the veteran sailors 
 of the usurper. This disappointed efibrt was soon 
 productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his 
 colleague, who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit 
 of Carausius, resigned to him the sovereignty of 
 Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious ser- 
 vant to a participation of the imperial honours.^ But 
 the adoption of the two Caesars restored new vigour 
 to the Roman arms ; and while the Rhine was guarded 
 by the presence of Maximian, his brave associate Con- 
 stantius assumed the conduct of the British war. His 
 first enterprise was against the important place of 
 Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the en- 
 trance of the harbour, intercepted all hopes of relief. 
 
 jL n cygcy The town surrendered after an obstinate 
 defence ; and a considerable part of the 
 naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the 
 besiegers. During the three years which Constantius 
 employed in preparing a fleet adequate to the conquest 
 of Britain, he secured the coast of Gaul, invaded the 
 country of the Franks, and deprived the usurper of the 
 assistance of those powerful allies. 
 
 A. D. 294. Before tlie preparations were finished. 
 
 His death. Coustantius received the intelligence of 
 the tyrant's death, and it was considered as a sure 
 presage of the approaching victory. The servants of 
 Carausius imitated the example of treason, which he 
 had given. He was murdered by his first minister 
 Allectus, and the assassin succeeded to his power and 
 to his danger. But he possessed not equal abilities, 
 either to exercise the one, or to repel the other. He 
 beheld, with anxious terror, the opposite shores of the 
 continent, already filled with arms, with troops, and 
 with vessels ; for Constantius had very prudently 
 divided his forces, that he might likewise divide the 
 
 A D 2<)6 attention and resistance of the enemy. 
 Recovlry of The attack was at length made by the 
 Britain by principal squadron, which, under the 
 command of the pracfect Asclepiodatus, 
 an officer of distinguished merit, had been assembled 
 in the mouth of the Seine. So imperfect in those 
 times was the art of navigation, that orators have cele- 
 brated the daring courage of the Romans, who ven- 
 tured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day. 
 The weather proved favourable to their enterprise. 
 Under the cover of a thick fog, they escaped the fleet 
 of Allectus, which had been stationed off the Isle of 
 Wight to receive them, landed in safety on some part 
 of the western coast, and convinced the Britons, that 
 a superiority of naval strength will not always protect 
 their country from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodatus 
 had no sooner disembarked the imperial troops, than 
 he set fire to his ships ; and, as the expedition proved 
 lortunate, his heroic conduct was universally admired. 
 The usurper had posted himself near London, to ex- 
 pect the formidable attack of Constantius, who com- 
 manded in person the fleet of Boulogne ; but the de- 
 scent of a new enemy required his immediate presence 
 in the west. He performed this long march in so 
 
 * Asa great number of medals of Carausius are still preserved, he 
 IS become a very favourite object of antiquariancuriosity. and every 
 circumstance of his life and actions has been investigated with saga- 
 cious accuracy. Dr. Stukely in particular has devoted a large vol- 
 utnc to the British emperor. I have used his materials, and rejected 
 niost of his fanciful conjectures, 
 
 ' When Mamertinus pronounced his first panegyric, the naval 
 preparations of .Maximian were completed ; and the'orator presaged 
 an assured victory. His silence in the second panegyric, might alone 
 inform us that the expedition had not succeeded. 
 
 f Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the medals, (Pax Augg.) inform 
 Us of this temporary reconciliation; though I will not presume (as 
 Pr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of Carausius, p. fc6, &.c.) to 
 itisert the ideuiicul articles of the treaty. 
 
 precipitate a manner, that he encountered the whole 
 force of the praefect with a small body of harassed and 
 disheartened troops. The engagement was soon ter- 
 minated by the total defeat and death of Allectus ; a 
 single battle, as it has often happened, decided the fate 
 of this great island; and when Constantius landed on 
 the shores of Kent, he found them covered with obe- 
 dient subjects. Their acclamations were loud and 
 unanimous ; and the virtues of the conqueror may in- 
 duce us to believe, that they sincerely rejoiced in a 
 revolution, which, after a separation of ten years, re- 
 stored Britain to the body of the Roman empire.** 
 
 Britain had none but domestic ene- Defence of the 
 mies to dread ; and as long as the gov- frontiers, 
 ernors preserved their fidelity, and the troops their 
 discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of 
 Scotland or Ireland could never materially afl!ect the 
 safety of the province. The peace of the continent, and 
 the defence of the principal rivers which bounded the 
 empire, were objects of far greater diflliculty and im- 
 portance. The policy of Diocletian, which inspired the 
 councils of his associates, provided for the public tran- 
 quillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissension among 
 the barbarians, and by strengthening- the „ ..^ ,. 
 
 /• .'c .• /• ^1 r» 1- -^^ T Fortifications. 
 
 tortihcations of the Roman limit. In 
 the east he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the 
 Persian dominions, and, for every camp, he instituted 
 an adequate number of stationary troops, commanded 
 by their respective officers, and supplied with every 
 kind of arms, from the new arsenals which he had 
 formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus.' Nor was 
 the precaution of the emperor less watchful against the 
 well-known valour of the barbarians of Europe. From 
 the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube, the an- 
 cient camps, towns, and citadels, were diligently re- 
 established, and, in the most exposed places, new 
 ones were skilfully constructed ; the strictest vigilance 
 was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, 
 and every expedient was practised that could render 
 the long chain of fortifications firm and impenetrable.* 
 A barrier so respectable was seldom violated, and the 
 barbarians often turned against each other their disap- 
 pointed rage. The Goths, the Vandals, Dissensions of the 
 the Gepidaj, the Burgundians, the Ale- barbarians, 
 manni, wasted each other's strength by destructive 
 hostilities, and whosoever vanquished, they vanquish- 
 ed the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian 
 enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each 
 other, that the mischiefs of civil war were now expe- 
 rienced only by the barbarians.* 
 
 Notwithstanding the policy of Dio- Conduct of the 
 cletian, it was impossible to maintain emperors, 
 an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign of 
 twenty years, and along the frontier of many hundred 
 miles. Sometimes the barbarians suspended their do- 
 mestic animosities, and the relaxed vigilance of the 
 garrisons sometimes gnve a passage to their strength 
 or dexterity. Whenever the provinces were invaded, 
 Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity 
 which he always affected or possessed ; reserved his 
 presence for such occasions as were worthy of his in- 
 terposition, never exposed his person or reputation to 
 any unnecessary danger, ensured his success by every 
 means that prudence could suggest, and displayed, 
 with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In 
 wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful 
 event, he employed the rough valour of Maximian ; 
 and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe his own 
 
 h With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a few hints 
 from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius. 
 
 i John Malela, in Chron. Autioclien, tom.i. p. 408, 409. 
 
 k Zosimus I. i. p. 3. Thai partial historian seems to celebrate the 
 visilance of Diocletian, with a design of exposing the negligence of 
 Constatitine ; we may, however, listen to an orator, " Nam quid ego 
 alarum et cohortium castra percenseam, toto Rheni et Istri et Eu- 
 phratis limite restituta." Panegyr. Vet. iv. 18. 
 
 1 Ruunt omnes in sangiiinem suum populi, quibus non contigit 
 esse Romanis. obstinata'qiie feritatis potnas nunc sponte persolvunl. 
 Pancg. Vet. iii. 16. Mamertinus illustrates the fact, by the example 
 of almost all the nations uf the world. 
 
132 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 133 
 
 % 
 
 
 % 
 
 victories lo the wise counsels and auspicious influence 
 Valour of the o^ his benefactor. But after the adop- 
 Cjpsars. tion of the two Caesars, the emperors 
 themselves, retiring to a less laborious scene of action, 
 devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the 
 Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius w^as 
 never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army 
 of barbarians on the Roman territory." The brave 
 and active Constantius delivered Gaul from a very 
 furious inroad of the Alemanni ; and his victories of 
 Langres and Vindonissa appear to have been actions 
 of considerable danger and merit. As he traversed 
 the open country with a feeble guard, he was encom- 
 passed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the 
 enemy. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres ; 
 but, in the general consternation, the citizens refused 
 to open their gates, and tlie wounded prince was drawn 
 up the wall by the means of a rope. But, on the news 
 of his distress, the Roman troops hastened from all 
 sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satis- 
 fied his honour and revenge by the slaughter of six 
 thousand Alemanni." From the monuments of those 
 times, the obscure traces of several other victories 
 over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might 
 possibly be collected ; but the tedious search would 
 not be rewarded either with amusement or with in- 
 stniction. 
 
 Treatment of the The conduct which the emperor Pro- 
 barbarians. bus had adopted in the disposal of the 
 vanquished, was imitated by Diocletian and his asso- 
 ciates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for 
 slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and 
 assigned to those districts (in Gaul, the territories 
 of Amiens, Beauvais, Cambray, Treves, Langres, and 
 Troyes, are particularly specified •*) which had been 
 depopulated by the calamities of war. They were 
 usefully employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but 
 were denied the exercise of arms, except w hen it was 
 found expedient to enrol them in the military service. 
 Nor did the emperors refuse the property of lands, 
 with a less servile teimre, to such of the barbarians as 
 solicited the protection of Rome. They granted a set- 
 tlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the Bastarnae, 
 and the Sarmatians ; and, by a dangerous indulgence, 
 permitted them in some measure to retain their national 
 manners and independence.P Among the provincials, 
 it was a subject of flattering exultation, that the bar- 
 barian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated 
 their lands, drove their cattle to the neitrhbourimr fair, 
 and contributed by his labour to the public plenty. 
 They congratulated their masters on the powerful ac- 
 cession of subjects and soldiers ; but they forgot to 
 observe, that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent 
 from favour, or desperate from oppression, were intro- 
 duced into the heart of the empire.** 
 Wars of Africa While the Caesars exercised their va- 
 and Egypt, lour on the banks of the Rhine and Da- 
 nube, the presence of the emperors was required on 
 the southern confines of the Roman world. From the 
 Nile to Mount Atlas, Africa was in arms. A confe- 
 deracy of five Moorish nations issued from their de- 
 serts to invade the peaceful provinces.' Julian had 
 
 «n lie complained, thoui^b not with the strictest truth ; ''Jam fliix- 
 isse aiinoa quindeciin ill ijuilms, in Illyriro, nd ripaiii Danuhii relc- 
 gutus cum jjentibus barbaris luctaret." Lactaiit. de M. V. c. IH, 
 , D III the Greek text of Eusebius. we read six tlioudand. a nuiiit>er 
 (which I have preferred to the sixty thousand of Jerome, Orosius, 
 •^utropius, and his (ireeic translator r^eaiiius. 
 ' P Panegyr. Vet. vii.21. 
 
 p There was a settlement of Siirinatians in the neighbourhood of 
 Treves, which seems to liave l^jen deserted by those lazy barbarians ; 
 Auaonius speaks of them in hi^j Moselle; 
 
 Unde iter incrcdieiis nemoropa per avia solum, 
 El nulla humani gpectans vestigia cultun 
 
 Arvaque Sauromatum nuper inetata colonis. 
 There was a town of the Carpi in the lower Maisia. 
 
 q Sec the rhetorical exultation of Euinenius. I'anejiyr. vii. 9. 
 
 r 8cali|!er (Animadvers. ad Kuseb. p. 243.) decides in liis usual 
 manner, that the Quiiiqiic {jentiniia, or live African nations, were 
 the Ave great citie*, the Pentapoiis of the iuoirenbivc province of Cy- 
 rciie. 
 
 assumed the purple at Carthage,* Achilleus at Alexan- 
 dria, and even the Blemmyes renewed, or rather con- 
 tinued their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely 
 any circumstances have been preserved of the exploits 
 of Maximian in the western parts of Africa ; but it ap- 
 pears by the event, that the progress of his arms was 
 rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest bar- 
 barians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from 
 the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had inspir- 
 ed their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and ha- 
 bituated them to a life of rapine and violence.* Diocle- 
 tian, on his side, opened the campaign /^^ d orie. 
 in Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, Conduct of Dio- 
 cut off the aqueducts which conveyed '^'<^^'"" '" Ej>P'- 
 the waters of the Nile into every quarter of that im- 
 mense city," and rendering his camp impregnable to 
 the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his 
 reiterated attacks with caution and vigour. After a 
 siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the 
 sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the con- 
 queror ; but it experienced the full extent of his se- 
 verity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a 
 promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious 
 persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of 
 death, or at least of exile.* The fate of Busiris and 
 of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alex- 
 andria; those proud cities, the former distinguished 
 by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of 
 the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms 
 and by the severe order of Diocletian.>' The character 
 of the Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but 
 extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this 
 excessive rigour. The seditions of Alexandria had 
 often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome 
 itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province 
 of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, 
 had embraced the alliance of the savages of ^Ethiopia. 
 The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the 
 island of Meroe and the Red sea, was very inconsider- 
 able, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons 
 rude and inoffensive." Yet in the public disorders 
 these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the 
 deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from 
 the human species, presumed to rank themselves 
 among the enemies of Rome.* Such had been the 
 unworthy allies of the Egyptians ; and w bile the atten- 
 tion of the state was engaged in more serious wars, 
 their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose 
 of the province. With a view of opposing to the 
 Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded 
 the Nobatffi, or people of Nubia, to remove from their 
 ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resign- 
 ed to them an extensive but unprofitable territory 
 above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the 
 stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard 
 the frontier of the emj)ire. The treaty long subsisted ; 
 and till the establishment of Christianity introduced 
 stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually 
 ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of Elephan- 
 tine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, 
 adored the same visible or invisible powers of tlie 
 universe.** 
 
 At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past 
 crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future 
 
 * AAer his defeat, Julian stablted himself with a dagger, and iminc< 
 diiiteiy leaped into the Hniiics. Victor in Epitome. 
 
 t Tu ferocissimos Mauritania? popiilos inarccssis montium jugis ct 
 natnrnii munitioiie tidcntes, expugiiasti, recepisti, transtuiisti. I'a 
 iieg. Vet. vi. 8. 
 
 u 8ce the description of .\lexandria, in Ilirtius de Rel. Alexandrin 
 c5. 
 
 X Eutrop. ix. i;4. Orosius. vii. 2.». John Malela in Cliron. An- 
 tioch. p. 409, 410. Vet Kumenius assures us, that Egypt was pacified 
 by the clemency of Uiocletian. 
 
 r Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction several years 
 sooner, and at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion 
 against the Koinans. 
 
 » StralK), I. xvii. p. 1, 172. Pomponiiis Mela, I. i, c. 4. His words 
 arc curious, " Intra, si credere lil»ct, vix homines uiagisquc scinifcrii 
 iEiiipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri." 
 
 * Ausussese iiiserere fortuiiir et provocarc arma Komana. 
 l» Sec Procopius dc Ucll. rer»ic. I. i. c. lU. 
 
 
 safety and happiness by many wise regulations, which 
 were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding 
 reigns.' One very remarkable edict, which he pub- 
 lished, instead of being condemned as the effect of 
 jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act 
 of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent in- 
 He suppresses quiry to be made for all the ancient 
 books of Alchemy, books which treated of the admirable 
 art of making gold and silver, and without pity com- 
 mitted them to the flames ; apprehensive, as we are 
 assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should in- 
 spire them with confidence to rebel against the empire.^ 
 But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of 
 that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory, 
 he would have converted the operation of it to the ben- 
 efit of the public revenue. It is much more likely, 
 that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such 
 magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of 
 preserving the reason and fortunes of his subjects from 
 the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked, that 
 Novelty and pro- these ancient books, so liberally ascrib- 
 gress of that art. ed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to 
 Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. 
 The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the 
 abuse of chemistry. In that immense register, where 
 Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the 
 errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the 
 transmutation of metals; and the persecution of Dio- 
 cletian is the first authentic event in the history of al- 
 chemy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused 
 that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the 
 avarice of the human heart, it w^as studied in China as 
 in Europe, with equal eagerness, and with equal suc- 
 cess. The darkness of the middle ages ensured a 
 favourable reception to every tale of wonder, and the 
 revival of learning gave new vigour to hope, and sug- 
 gested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, 
 with the air of experience, has at length banished the 
 study of alchemy ; and the present age, however de- 
 sirous of riches, is content to seek them by the hum- 
 bler means of commerce and industry.' 
 
 „. „ The reduction of Egypt was imme- 
 
 Thc Persian war. j- . i /• n i , ^l t» 
 
 diately lol lowed by the Persian war. 
 
 It was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to vanquish 
 that powerful nation, and to extort a confession from 
 the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty 
 of the Roman empire. 
 
 Tiridates the Ar- We bavc observed under the reign of 
 monian. Valerian, that Armenia was subdued by 
 the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and that, 
 after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, 
 the infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the 
 fidelity of his friends, and educated under the protec- 
 tion of the emperor. Tiridates derived from his exile 
 such advantages as he could never have obtained on 
 the throne of Armenia ; the early knowledge of adver- 
 sity, of mankind, and of the Roman discipline. He 
 signalized his youth by deeds of valour, and displayed 
 a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in every 
 martial exercise, and even in the less honourable con- 
 tests of the 01)"mpian games.^ Those qualities were 
 more nobly exerted in the defence of his benefactor 
 Licinius.s That officer, in the sedition 
 which occasioned the death of Probus, 
 
 A. D. 282. 
 
 ^ He fixed the public allowance of corn for the people of Alexan- 
 dria, at two millions of medhnni, about four hundred thousand quar- 
 ters. Chron. Paschai. p. 276. Procop. Hist. Arcan. c. 226. 
 
 J John Antiorh. in Excerp. Valcsian. p. 8M. Suidas in Diocletian. 
 
 « See a short history and confutation of Alchemy, in the works 
 of that philosophical compiler. La Mothe Le Vayer, toiu. i. p. 327— 
 
 f See the education and strength of Tiridates in the Armenian his- 
 tory of Moses of Chorer.e, I. ii. c. 76. He could seize two wild bulls 
 by the horns, and break tiiem off with his hands. 
 
 I If we give credit to the younger Victor, who supposes that in the 
 year 323 Licinius was only sixty years of age, he could scarcely bfe 
 the same person as the patron of Tiridates ; but we know from muck 
 better authority (Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. I. x. c. 8.) that Liciniut 
 was at that time in the last period of old age : sixteen years l)eforQ, 
 he is represented with ?rey hairs, and as the contemporary of Galt- 
 rius. Sec Lactaiit. c. 32. Licinius was probably born about the ye*r 
 2">0. 
 
 was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the 
 enraged soldiers w^ere forcing their way into his tent, 
 when they were checked by the single arm of the Ar- 
 menian prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed 
 soon afterw^ards to his restoration. Licinius was in 
 every station the friend and companion of Galerius, 
 and the merit of Galerius, long before he was raised 
 to the dignity of Cajsar, had been known and esteemed 
 by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor's 
 reign, Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Ar- 
 menia. The justice of the measure was not less evi- 
 dent than its expediency. It was time to rescue from 
 the usurpation of the Persian monarch an important 
 territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had been al- 
 ways granted under the protection of the empire to a 
 younger branch of the house of Arsaces.** 
 
 When Tiridates appeared on the fron- a. D. 286. 
 tiers of Armenia, he was received with His restoration to 
 an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. ^''^ ^'""""^ of Ar- 
 During twenty-six years, the country 
 had experienced the real and imaginary hardships of a 
 foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs adorned their 
 new conquest with magnificent buildings; but those 
 monuments had been erected at the expense of the 
 people, and were abhorred as badges of state of the coun- 
 slavery. The apprehension of a revolt fy- 
 
 had inspired the most rigorous precautions ; oppression 
 had been aggravated by insult, and the consciousness 
 of the public hatred had been productive of every mea- 
 sure that could render it still more implacable. We 
 have alread}^ remarked the intolerant spirit of the Ma- 
 gian religion. The statues of the deified kings of Ar- 
 menia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, 
 were broke in pieces by the zeal of the conqueror; 
 and the perpetual fire of Ormuzd was kindled and pre- 
 served upon an altar erected on the summit of mount 
 Bagavan.' It was natural, that a people Revolt of the pco- 
 exasperated by so many injuries should P'e and nobles, 
 arm with zeal in the cause of their independence, their 
 religion, and their hereditary sovereign. The torrent 
 bore down every obstacle, and the Persian garrisons 
 retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew 
 to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past 
 merit, offering their future service, and soliciting from 
 the new king those honours and rewards from which 
 they had been excluded with disdain under the foreign 
 government.^ The command of the army was be- 
 stowed on Artavasdes, w^iose father had saved the 
 infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been mas- 
 sacred for that generous action. The brother of Arta- 
 vasdes obtained the government of a province. One 
 of the first military dignities was conferred on the sa- 
 trap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, 
 who presented to the king, his sister ' and a consider- 
 able treasure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, 
 Otas had preserved from violation. Among the Arme- 
 nian nobles apj)eared an ally whose 
 fortunes are too remarkable to pass un- ^^^ ^ amgo. 
 noticed. His name w^as Mamgo, his origin was Scy-' 
 thian, and the horde which acknowledged his authority, 
 had encamped a very few years before on the skirts of 
 the Chinese empire, "* which at that time extended as 
 
 h See the sixty-second and sixty-third books of fHon Cassius. 
 
 ' Moses of Chorene. Hisl. Armcii. I. ii. c. 74. The statues had 
 l>een erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia about 130 years 
 iHjfore Ciirist, and was the first king of the family of Arsaces. (See 
 Moses Hist. Armen I. ii. c. 3.) The deification of the Arsacides is 
 mentioned by Justin (xli.5.)and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii.6.) 
 
 k The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful. Moses 
 mentions many families which were distinguished under the rei<.'n 
 of Valarsaces, (I. ii. 7.) and which still subsisted in bis own time, 
 about the middle of the fifth century. Seethe preface of bis editors. 
 
 1 She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the os patulum like 
 other women. (Hist. Armen. I. ii. c. 79.) I do not understand the 
 expression. 
 
 [Os patulum signifies simply a larfre and widely opening mouth. 
 Ovid (Metam. book xv. verse 513.) s|»eaking of the monster who at- 
 tacked Hip[K)lyta says, — '* Patulo partem maris ecumit orey Pro- 
 bably a large mouth was a common defect among the Armenians. — 
 G.] 
 
 m In the Armenian history, (l.ii. 78.; as well as in the Gcoirrapliy, 
 (p. 367.) China is called Zonia, or Zcaa^tap. It i.s characterized by 
 
 .^C*^' 
 
134 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Ghap. xin. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 « 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 far as the neighbourhood of Sogdiana." Having in- 
 curred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his 
 followers, retired to the banks of the Oxus, and im- 
 plored the protection of Sapor. The emperor of China 
 claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of so- 
 vereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of 
 hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war, by 
 the promise that he would banish Mamgo to the utter- 
 •most parts of the west ; a punishment, as he described 
 it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was 
 chosen for the place of exile, and a large district was 
 assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might 
 feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encamp- 
 menjt from one place to another, according to the dif- 
 ferent seasons of the year. They were employed to 
 repel the invasion of Tiridates ; but their leader, after 
 weighing the obligations and injuries which he had 
 received from the Persian monarch, resolved to aban- 
 don his party. The Armenian prince, who was well 
 acquainted with the merit as well as power of Mamgo, 
 treated him with distinguished respect ; and, by ad- 
 mitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and 
 faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his 
 restoration." 
 
 The Persians re- For a while, fortune appeared to favour 
 cover Armenia, the enterprising valour of Tiridates. He 
 not only expelled the enemies of his family and coun- 
 try from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the pro- 
 secution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least 
 his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The histori- 
 an, who has preserved the name of Tiridates from ob- 
 livion, celebrates, with a degree of national enthusiasm, 
 his personal prowess; and, in the true spirit of eastern 
 romance, describes the giants and the elephants that 
 fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other infor- 
 mation that we discover the distracted state of the Per- 
 sian monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was in- 
 debted for some part of his advantages. The throne 
 was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers; 
 and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength 
 of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assis- 
 tance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the 
 Caspian sea.P The civil war was, however, soon ter- 
 minated, either by a victory, or by a reconciliation; 
 and Narses, who was universally acknowledged as 
 king of Persia, directed his whole force against the fo- 
 reign enemy. The contest then became too unequal ; 
 nor was the valour of the hero able to withstand the 
 power of the monarch. Tiridates, a second time expel- 
 led from the throne of Armenia, once more took refuge 
 in the court of the emperors. Narses soon re-estab- 
 lished his authority over the revolted province: and 
 loudly complaining of the protection afforded by the 
 Ramans to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the conquest 
 of the east.'* 
 
 War between the Neither prudencB nor honour could 
 Pnrsiana and the permit the cmperors to forsake the cause 
 Romans. of the Armenian king, and it was resolv- 
 
 ed to exert the force of the empire in the 
 
 A. D. ^96. 
 
 the production of silk, hy the opulence of the natives, and by the 
 love of peace, al»ove all the other nations of the earth. 
 
 n Vouti, the first emperor of the seventli dynasty, who then reign- 
 ed in China, had political transactions with Fergana, a province of 
 Sogdiana, and is said to have received a Roman embassy (Histoirc 
 deg Huns, torn. i. p. 38.) In those ages the Chinese kept a garrison 
 at Kashgar, and one of their generals, about the time of Trajan, 
 marched as far as the Caspian Sea. With regard to the intercourse 
 between China and the western countries, a curious memoir of M. 
 de Guignes may be consulted in the Academic des Inscriptions, tom. 
 zxxii. p. 35.). 
 
 o Sec Hist. Armen. I. ii. c. 81. 
 
 pipes Persas ipsuinque rcgem ascitis Saccis, et Russis, et Gellis, 
 petit frater Ormics. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1, The Sacchse were a na- 
 tion of wandering Scythians, who encamped towards the sources of 
 the Oxus and the Jaxartcs. The Gelli were the inhabitants of Gbi- 
 lan nions the Caspian nea, and who so long, under the name of Dile- 
 mites, infested the Persian tnonarcliy. See d'llerbelot, Biblioth^que 
 Orientalo. 
 
 q Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second revolution, 
 which I tiave been obliged to collect from a paisage of Ammianus 
 Marcellinus (I. xxiii. c. 5.) Lactantius speaks of the ambition of 
 Narses, ** Concitatus domesticis exemplis avi sui Saporis ad occupan- 
 dum orientem magnii copiis inhiabat." De Mort. Persecut. c. 9. 
 
 Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm dignity which 
 he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the ci- 
 ty of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed 
 the military operations.* The conduct of the legions 
 was intrusted to the intrepid valour of Galerius, who, 
 for that important purpose, was removed from the 
 banks of the Danube to those of the Euphrates. The 
 armies soon encountered each other in the Defeat of Gale- 
 plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles ""f* 
 were fought with various and doubtful success : but 
 the third engagement was of a more decisive nature; 
 and the Roman army received a total overthrow, which 
 is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, with an 
 inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumera- 
 ble host of the Persians.^ But the consideration of the 
 country that was the scene of action, may suggest an- 
 other reason for his defeat. The same ground on 
 which Galerius was vanquished, had been rendered 
 memorable by the death of Crassus, and the slaughter 
 of ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty 
 miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhai to the 
 Euphrates; a smooth and barren surface of sandy de- 
 sert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without a 
 spring of fresh water.* The steady infantry of the Ro- 
 mans, fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope 
 for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor break 
 their ranks without exposing themselves to the most 
 imminent danger. In this situation they were gradu- 
 ally encompassed by the superior numbers, harassed 
 by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows 
 of the barbarian cavalry. The king of Armenia had 
 signalized his valour in the battle, and acquired perso- 
 nal glory by the public misfortune. He was pursued 
 as far as the Euphrates ; his horse was wounded, and 
 it appeared impossible for him to escape the victorious 
 enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the only 
 refuge which he saw before him : he dismounted and 
 plunged into the stream. His armour was heavy, the 
 river very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile 
 in breadth;" yet such was his strength and dexterity, 
 that he reached in safety the opposite bank.* With 
 regard to the Roman general, we are ignorant of the 
 circumstances of his escape ; but when he returned to 
 Antioch, Diocletian received him, not His reception by 
 with the tenderness of a friend and col- Diocletian, 
 league, but with the indignation of an offended sove- 
 reign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, 
 but humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortune, 
 was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above a 
 mile on foot, and to exhibit before the whole court, the 
 spectacle of his disgrace.^ 
 
 As soon as Diocletian had indulged «^ , ^„ „• „ 
 
 I . . , o Sjcrond campaign 
 
 nis private resentment, and asserted the of Galerius. 
 majesty of supreme power, he yielded to ^' ^- ^97. 
 the submissive entreaties of the Caesars, and permitted 
 him to retrieve his own honour, as well as that of the 
 Roman arms. In the room of the unwarlike troops of 
 Asia, which had most probably served in the first ex- 
 pedition, a second army was drawn from the veterans 
 and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a considera- 
 ble body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the im- 
 perial pay.' At the head of a chosen army of twenty- 
 five thousand men, Galerius again passed the Euphra- 
 
 r We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to cowardice 
 the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration, snys, that he re- 
 mained with all the forces of the empire ; a very hypcrlolical ex- 
 pression. 
 
 • Our five abhreviators, Eutropius, Festus. the two Victors, anil 
 Orosius, all relate the last and great battle ; but Orosius is the only 
 one who speaks of the two former. 
 
 < The nature of the country is finely described by Plutarch, in tfce 
 life of Crassus; and by Xenophon, in the first book of Anabasis. 
 
 « See Foster's Dissert.ition in the second volume of the translation 
 of the Anabasis liy Spelnian ; which I will venture to recommend as 
 one of the best versions extant. 
 
 X Hist. Armen. I. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this exploit of Tiri- 
 dates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of Galerius. 
 
 7 Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv. The mile, in the hands of Eutropiui. 
 (ix. 24.) of Festus, (c. 25.) and of Orocius, (vU. 25.) easily increased to 
 several miles. 
 
 > AureliuB Victor. Jornandes de Rebnt Geticif . c. 21. 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 tes; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open 
 plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the moun- 
 tains of Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devot- 
 ed to his cause, and the country as favourable to the ope- 
 rations of infantry, as it was inconvenient for the motions 
 His victory °^ ^^^ cavalry.* Adversity had confirm- 
 ed the Roman discipline, while the bar- 
 barians, elated by success, were become so negligent 
 and remiss, that in the moment when they least°ex- 
 pected it, they were surprised by the active conduct of 
 Galerius, who, attended only by two horsemen, had 
 with his own eyes secretly examined the state and po- 
 sition of their camp. A surprise, especially in the 
 night-time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian ar- 
 my. " Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, 
 to prevent their running away; and if an alarm hap- 
 pened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to 
 bridle, and his corselet to put on, before he could 
 mount.'"' On this occasion, the impetuous attack of 
 Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp 
 of the barbarians. A slight resistance was followed 
 by a dreadful carnage, and, in the general confusion, 
 the wounded monarch (for Narses commanded his ar- 
 mies in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. 
 His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded 
 an immense booty to the conqueror ; and an incident 
 is mentioned, which proves the rustic but martial ig- 
 norance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of 
 life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell 
 into the hands of a private soldier; he carefully pre- 
 served the bag, but he threw away its contents, judg- 
 ing that whatever was of no use could not possibly be 
 and behaviour to of any valuc.* The principal loss of 
 h.s royal captive. N^rses was of a much more affecting 
 nature. Several of his wives, his sisters, and children^ 
 who had attended the army, were made captives in the 
 defeat. But though the character of Galerius had in 
 general very little aflinity with that of Alexander, he 
 imitated, after his victory, the amiable behaviour of the 
 Macedonian towards the family of Darius. The wives 
 and children of Narses were protected from violence 
 and rapine, conveyed to a place of safety, and treated 
 with every mark of respect and tenderness, that was 
 due from a generous enemy to their age, their sex, and 
 their royal dignity."* 
 Negociation for While the east anxiously expected the 
 P^'^'^e- decision of this great contest, the empe- 
 ror Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a strong ar- 
 my of observation, displayed from a distance the re- 
 sources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for 
 any future emergency of the war. On the intelligence 
 of the victory, he condescended to advance towards the 
 frontier, with a view of moderating, by his presence 
 and counsels, the pride of Galerius. The interview of 
 the Roman princes at Nisibis, was accompanied with 
 every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem 
 on the other. It was in that city that they soon after- 
 wards gave audience to the ambassador of the great 
 King.' The power, or at least the spirit, of Narses, had 
 been broken by his last defeat; and he considered an 
 immediate peace as the only means that could stop the 
 progress of the Roman arms. He despatched Aphar- 
 ban, a servant who possessed his favour and confi- 
 dence, with a commission to negociate a treaty, or rath- 
 er to receive whatever conditions the conqueror should 
 
 135 
 
 ,l^^'^l^»^^''^jor^^y\"'Per Armeniam in hostes contendit, qure 
 fcrme sola, seu facilior vincendi via est." He followed the conduct 
 or Trajan, and the idea of Julius Ca'sar. 
 
 An.o^''""!^'?".'^ Anabasis, 1. iii. For that reason the Persian cavalry 
 encamped sixty stadia from the enemy. 
 
 r,>l7^^ 1^°'^ '^ ^^^^ ^y Ammianus, 1. ixii. Instead ofsaccum some 
 • caa scutum. 
 
 <» The Persians confessed the Roman superiority in morals as well 
 
 mi« f"""- ^l!."'°^- '\- H- ^"^ *'"^ ^^'^''^ «"d gratitude of ene- 
 mies is very seldom to be found in their own accounts 
 
 of'pit'i*rHf-^p"?S°''^^*' negociation is taken from the fragments 
 ot Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationum, published in the 
 Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under Justinian; but it is very 
 «^ident. by the nature of his materials, that they arc drawn from the 
 mort authenuc and respectable writers. 
 
 impose. Apharban opened the confer- Speech of the Pcr- 
 ence by expressing his master's gratitude sian ambassador, 
 for the generous treatment of his family, and by soli- 
 citing the liberty of those illustrious captives. He 
 celebrated the valour of Galerius, without deo-radino- 
 the reputation of Narses, and thought it no dishonour to 
 confess the superiority of the victorious Cajsar, over a 
 monarch who had surpassed in glory all the princes of 
 his race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian 
 cause, he was empowered to submit the present differ- 
 ences to the decision of the emperors themselves ; con- 
 vinced as he was, that, in the midst of prosperity, they 
 would not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. 
 Apharban concluded his discourse in the style of east- 
 ern allegory, by observing that the Roman and Persian 
 monarchies were the two eyes of the world, which 
 would remain imperfect and mutilated if either of them 
 should be put out. 
 
 ;' It well becomes the Persians," re- Answer of Gale- 
 plied Galerius, with a transport of fury, rius. 
 which seemed to convulse his whole frame, " it well 
 becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes 
 of fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the vir- 
 tues of moderation. Let them remember their own 
 moderation towards the unhappy Valerian. They van- 
 quished him by fraud, they treated him with indigni- 
 ty. They detained him till the last moment of his 
 life in shameful captivity, and after his death they ex- 
 posed his body to perpetual ignominy." Softening, 
 however, his tone, Galerius insinuated to the ambassa- 
 dor, that it had never been the practice of the Romans 
 to trample on a prostrate enemy ; and that, on this oc- 
 casion, they should consult their own dignity rather 
 than the Persian merit. He dismissed Apharban with 
 a hope, that Narses would soon be informed on what 
 conditions he might obtain, from the clemency of the 
 emperors, a lasting peace, and the restoration of his 
 wives and children. In this conference we may dis- 
 cover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his 
 deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Dio- 
 cletian. The ambition of the former grasped at the 
 conquest of the east, and had proposed to reduce Per- 
 sia into the stale of a province. The Mo<ier.ition of 
 prudence of the latter, who adhered to Diocletian, 
 the moderate policy of Augustus and the Antonines, 
 embraced the favourable opportunity of terminating a 
 successful war by an honourable and advantageous 
 peace.' 
 
 In pursuance of their promise, the em- , 
 perors soon afterwards appointed Sico- ^°"'''"«""'' 
 rius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint the 
 Persian court with their final resolution. As the min- 
 ister of peace, he was received with every mark of 
 politeness and friendship ; but under the pretence of 
 allowing him the necessary repose after so long a 
 journey, the audience of Probus was deferred from 
 day to day; and he attended the slow motions of the 
 king, till at length he was admitted to his presence, 
 near the river Asprudus in Media. The secret motive 
 of Narses in this delay, had been to collect such a 
 military force as might enable him, though sincerely 
 desirous of peace, to negociate with the greater weight 
 and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this im- 
 portant conference, the minister Apharban, the praefect 
 of the guards, and an ofiicer who had commanded on 
 the Armenian frontier.^ The first condition proposed 
 by the ambassador, is not at present of a very intelli- 
 gible nature ; that the city of Nisibis might be estab- 
 lished for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we 
 should formerly have termed it, for the staple of trade, 
 between the two empires. There is no difficulty in 
 conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to im- 
 
 ' Adeo Victor (says Aurelhis) ut ni Valerius, cujus nutu omnia 
 gerebantur, abnuisset, Romani fasces in provinciam novam ferren- 
 tur. Verum parsterrarum tamen nobis utilior qu£sita. 
 
 g He had been governor of Sumium (Pet. Patricius in Excerpt. 
 Legat. p. 30.) This province seems \o be mentioned by Moses of 
 Chorene, (Get^raph. p. 360.) and lay to the east of Mount Ararat. 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 « 
 
 
 1 
 
 136 
 
 prove their revenue by some restraints upon com- 
 merce ; but as Nisibis was situated within their own 
 dominions, and as they were masters both of the im- 
 ports and exports, it should seem, that such restraints 
 were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a 
 foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some 
 stipulations were probably required on the side of the 
 king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant 
 either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses 
 could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this 
 was the only article to which he refused his consent, 
 it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors 
 either suffered the trade to flow in its natural chan- 
 nels, or contented themselves with such restric- 
 tions, as it depended on their own authority to es- 
 tablish, 
 and articles of As soon as this difficulty was re- 
 ihe treaty, moved, a Solemn peace was concluded 
 and ratified between the two nations. The conditions 
 of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary 
 to Persia, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as 
 the history of Rome presents very few transactions of 
 a similar nature ; most of her wars having either been 
 terminated by absolute conquest, or waged against 
 barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. L The 
 Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, 
 Sihl'Eu ".;1 the Araxes, was fixed as the boanclnry 
 twecn the em- between the two monarchies." Inat 
 pifcs. river, which rose near the Tigris, was 
 
 increased a few miles below Nisibis, by the little 
 stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of 
 Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium,' a 
 frontier town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was 
 very strongly fortified.^ Mesopotamia, the object of 
 so many wars, was ceded to the empire ; and the Per- 
 sians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to that 
 great province. IL They relinquished to the Romans 
 Ce««io.. of five fi/e provinces beyond the Tigris.";^ Their 
 provinces iwjyond Situation formed a very usetul barrier, 
 the Tigris. ^nd their natural strength was soon im- 
 
 proved by art and military skill. Four of these, to 
 the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame 
 and inconsiderable extent; Intiline, Zabdicene, Arza- 
 nene, and Moxoene : but on the east of the Tigris, 
 the empire acquired the large and mountainous territo- 
 ry of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, 
 who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in 
 the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The 
 ten thousand Greeks traversed their country, after a 
 painful march, or rather engagement, of seven days ; 
 and it is confessed by their leader, in his incompara- 
 ble relation of the retreat, that they suffered more 
 from the arrows of the Carduchians, than from the 
 
 h By an error of tlie gooijraplier Ptolemy, tlie position of Sinirara 
 is reniovcd from tiic Altoras to the Ti:,'ris, which may iiave produced 
 tiie mistake of I'cter. in assigning the latter river for the houndary, 
 instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, 
 but never followed, the course of the Ti^'ris. 
 
 i [Mere are many errors. Gihiion has confounded the rivers 
 with the cities which were situated upon them— the Ahoras or ra- 
 ther tiie Chahoras; the Araxes of Xenophon has its source beyond 
 RasAin.or KeSaina (Theo(!osiopolis) about 27 leagues from the Ti- 
 eria; it receives the waters of the Mygdonius or Saocoras, about 33 
 leagues below Nisibis at a town now called JllJfahraim,—\l does 
 not pass under the walls of Singara, it is the Saocoras which jiasscs 
 through this place. This last river takes its source near Nisibis, tivc 
 leagues from the Tigris. (Sec D'Anv. the Euphrates and Tigris, p. 
 46, 49, 50, aufl the map.) 
 
 To the east of the Tigris there is another smaller river also named 
 Chahoras, and which D'Anvillc calls the Centrites, Khabour, JVice- 
 phorius, without citing the authority by which he gives it these 
 names. Gibl)OU could not have intended to speak of this river, 
 which does not pass Singara, neither flows into the Euphrates. (V. 
 Michaelis Supplem. ad lexica hehraica, third part, p. GOJ, 065.— O.] 
 j Procoitiusdc Edificiis, 1. ii. c. 6. 
 
 k Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene. and Carduene, 
 are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two. Peter (in Ex- 
 cerpt. Leg. p. JO.) inserts llehimene and Sophene. I have preferred 
 Ammianus, (I. xxv. 7.) because it might be proved that Sophene was 
 never in the hands of the Persians, either before the reign of Diocle- 
 tian, or after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those 
 of M. d'Anville, almost all the moderns, with Tillcmont and Vale- 
 Rius .It their head, have imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, 
 and not to Rome, that the five provinces were situate beyond the 
 Tigris. . . 
 
 1 Xenophon'a .Vnabasis, 1. iv. Their bows were three cubiti in 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 137 
 
 power of the great kin^.' Their posterity, the Curds, 
 with very little alteration either of name or manners, 
 acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turkish 
 sultan. III. It is almost needless to ob- ^rmeoia. 
 serve, that Tiridates, the faithful ally 
 of Rome, was restored to the throne of his fathers, 
 and that the rights of the imperial supremacy were 
 fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia 
 were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Me- 
 dia, and this increase of dominion was not so much an 
 act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces al- 
 ready mentioned beyond the Tigris, the four first had 
 been dismembered by the Parthians from the crown 
 of Armenia ; " and when the Romans acquired the 
 possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of 
 the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested 
 their ally with the extensive and fertile country of 
 Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation 
 perhaps as the modern Tauris, was frequently hon- 
 oured with the residence of Tiridates ; and as it some- 
 times bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the 
 buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the 
 Modes." IV. The country of Iberia was ^^^.^ 
 barren, its inhabitants rude and savage. 
 But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and 
 they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer 
 and more formidable than themselves. The narrow 
 defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and 
 it was in their choice, either to admit or to exclude 
 the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapa- 
 cious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer 
 climes of the south.** The nomination of the kings 
 of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian monarch 
 to the emperors, contributed to the strength and secu- 
 rity of the Roman power in Asia.P The east enjoyed 
 a profound tranquillity during forty years ; and the 
 treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly ob- 
 served till the death of Tiridates : when a new gen- 
 eration, animated with different views and different 
 passions, succeeded to the government of the world ; 
 and the grandson of Narses undertook a long and 
 memorable war against the princes of the house of 
 Constantino. 
 
 The arduous work of rescuing the Triumph of Dio- 
 distressed empire from tyrants and dotian and Max- 
 barbarians, had now been completely i-^^JJ-^ A. a m 
 achieved by a succession of Illyrian pea- 
 sants. As soon as Diocletian entered into the twen- 
 tieth year of his reign, he celebrated that memorable 
 tBra, as well as the success of his arms, by the pomp 
 of a Roman triumph.^ Maximian, the equal partner 
 of his power, was his only companion in the glory of 
 that day. The two Caesars had fought and conquered, 
 but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according 
 to the rigour of ancient maxims, to the auspicious in- 
 fluence of their l\ithers and emperors.'" The triumph 
 of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent per- 
 haps, than those of Aurclian and Probus, but it was 
 dio-nified by several circumstances of superior fame 
 and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, 
 the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective 
 trophies ; but the most distingtiished ornament was 
 of a more singular nature, a Persian victory followed 
 by an imporfant conquest. The representations of 
 
 len"th their arrows two ; they rolled down stones that were each 
 awHKUon load. The Greeks found a great many villages in that 
 
 rude country. . . ^ , ., » 
 
 m According to Eutropius (vi. 9. as the text is represented by the 
 
 best MSS.) the city of Ti^ranocerta was in Arzanene. The names 
 
 nud situation of the other three may be faintly traced, 
 n Compare Herodotus, I. i. c. 97. with Moses Choronens. llist. Ar- 
 
 men. I. ii. c. 84. and the map of Armenia given by his editors, 
 o Iliberi, locorum potentes, Caspia viaSarmatam in Armcnios rap- 
 
 tim elfundunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 34. Sec Strabon. Geograph. I. xi- 
 
 ■p Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30.) is the only writer who 
 mentions the Il)erian article of the trc.'ity. , ,. . » 
 
 q Eupeb. in Chron. Pagi ad annum. Till the discovery of the trea- 
 tise I)e Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that the triumpn 
 and the Vincenalia were celebrated at the same time. , . m. 
 
 r At the lime of the Vincenalia, Galerius seems to have kept nn 
 station on the Danube. Sec Lactam, do M. P. c. 38. 
 
 ■ 
 
 rivers, mountains, and provinces, were carried before 
 the imperial car. The images of the captive wives, 
 the sisters, and the children of the great king, afford- 
 ed a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the 
 people.* In the eyes of posterity this triumph is re- 
 markable, by a distinction of a less honourable kind. 
 It was the last that Rome ever beheld. Soon after this 
 period, the emperors ceased to vanquish, and Rome 
 ceased to be the capital of the empire. 
 
 Long absence of '^^^^ ^pot On which RomC WaS fouud- 
 
 the cmprrors ed, had bceu cousecrated by ancient 
 from Home, ceremonies and imaginary miracles. — 
 The presence of some god, or the memory of some 
 hero, seemed to animate every part of the city, and 
 the empire of the world had been promised to the 
 capitol.' The native Romans felt and confessed the 
 power of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from 
 their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest hab- 
 its of life, and was protected, in some measure, by 
 the opinion of political utility. The form and the seat 
 of government were intimately blended together, nor 
 was it esteemed possible to transport the one without 
 destroying the other." But the sovereignty of the 
 capital was gradually annihilated in the extent of con- 
 quest ; the provinces rose to the same level, and the 
 vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges, 
 without imbibing the partial affections, of Romans. 
 During a long period, however, the remains of the an- 
 cient constitution, and the influence of custom, pre- 
 served the dignity of Rome. The emperors, though 
 perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction, respected 
 their adopted country, as the seat of their power, and 
 the centre of their extensive dominions. The emer- 
 gencies of \yar very frequently required their presence 
 on the frontiers ; but Diocletian and Maximian were 
 the first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, 
 their ordinary residence in the provinces ; and their 
 conduct, however it might be suggested by private 
 motives, was justified by very specious considerations 
 of policy. The court of the emperor of the west was. 
 Their residence for the most part, established at Milan, 
 at Milan. whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, 
 appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for 
 the important purpose of watching the motions of the 
 barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the 
 splendour of an imperial city. The houses arc de- 
 scribed as numerous and well-built ; the manners of 
 the people as polished and liberal. A circus, a thea- 
 tre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore the name 
 of their founder Maximian ; porticoes adorned with 
 statues, and a double circumference of walls, contri- 
 buted to the beauty of the new capital ; nor did it 
 seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome.* To 
 and Nicomcdia. "^?l }^^ majesty of Rome was the 
 ambition likewise of Diocletian, who 
 employed his leisure, and the wealth of the east, 
 in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a city placed 
 on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an equal 
 
 • Eutropius (ix. 27.) mentions them as a part of the triumph. As 
 the persons had been restored to Narses, nothing more than their 
 images could be exhibited. 
 
 « Livy gives us a speech of Camillus on that subject, (v. 51—55.) 
 full of eloquence and sensibility, in opposition to a design of remov- 
 ing the scat of government from Rome to the neighbourins city of 
 Veii. 
 
 u Julius Capsar was reproached with the intention of removing the 
 empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in Caesar, c. 79. Ac- 
 cording to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fevre and Dacier, the third 
 ode of the third book of Horace was intended to divert Augustus 
 from the execution of a similar design. 
 
 X See Aurelius Victor, who likewise mentions the buildings erected 
 by Maximian at Carthace, probably during the Moorish war. 
 ■ball insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar. Urb. v. 
 Et Mediolani mira omnia : copia rerum ; 
 Innumerae culta^que domus ; facunda virorum 
 Ingenia, ct mores laeti, turn duplice muro 
 Ampliticata loci species; populique voluptas 
 Circus; et inclusi moles cuneata Theatri 
 Templa, Palatin.rque arces, opulensque Moneta, 
 Et Regio Herculei celebri sub honore lavacri. 
 Cunctaque marmoreis ornala Pcristyla signis ; 
 Mxniaque in valli formam circumdata lahro, 
 Omnia que magnis op«>rum v.lut temula formii 
 Excellunt; nee juncta premit vicinia Rome. 
 Vol. I S 
 
 distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By 
 the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the 
 people, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few 
 years, a degree of magnificence which might appear 
 to have required the labour of ages, and became infe- 
 rior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent 
 or populousness.y The life of Diocletian and Maxi- 
 mian was a life of action, and a considerable portion 
 of it was spent in camps, or in their long and frequent 
 marches ; but whenever the public business allowed 
 them any relaxation, they seem to have retired with 
 pleasure to their favourite residences of Nicomedia 
 and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentieth year of 
 his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it is ex- 
 tremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient 
 capital of the empire. Even on that memorable oc- 
 casion his stay did not exceed two months. Disgust- 
 ed with the licentious familiarity of the people, he 
 quitted Rome with precipitation thirteen days before 
 it was expected that he should have appeared in the 
 senate, invested with the ensigns of the consular disr- 
 nity." 
 
 The dislike expressed by Diocletian Debasement of 
 towards Rome and Roman- freedom, was Rome and of the 
 not the effect of momentary caprice, but »*'"*'<'• 
 the result of the most artful policy. That crafty 
 prince had framed a new system of imperial govern- 
 ment, which was afterwards completed by the family 
 of Constantino ; and as the image of the old consti- 
 tution was religiously preserved in the senate, he re- 
 solved to deprive that order of its small remains of 
 power and consideration. We may recollect, about 
 eight years before the elevation of Dipcletian, the 
 transient greatness, and the ambitious hopes, of the 
 Roman senate. As long as that enthusiasm prevailed, 
 man}' of the nobles imprudently displayed their zeal 
 in the cause of freedom ; and after the successors of 
 Probus had withdrawn their countenance from the re- 
 publican party, the senators were unable to disguise 
 their impotent resentment. As the sovereign of Italy, 
 Maximian was intrusted with the care of extinguish- 
 ing this troublesome, rather than dangerous, spirit, and 
 the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The 
 most illustrious members of the senate, whom Dio- 
 cletian always affected to esteem, were involved, by 
 his colleague, in the accusation of imaginary plots ; 
 and the possession of an elegant villa, or a well culti- 
 vated estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence 
 of guilt.* The camp of the praetorians, which had so 
 long oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of Rome ; 
 and as those haughty troops were conscious of the de- 
 cline of their power, they were naturally disposed to 
 unite their strength with the authority of the senate. 
 By the prudent measures of Diocletian, the numbers 
 of the praetorians were insensibly reduced, their pri- 
 vileges abolished,** and their place supplied by two 
 faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under New bodies of 
 the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, guards, Jovian* 
 were appointed to perform the service '^"** Herculians. 
 of the imperial guards.* But the most fatal though secret 
 wound, which the senate received from the hands of 
 Diocletian and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevit- 
 able operation of their absence. As long as the em- 
 perors resided at Rome, that assembly might be op- 
 pressed, but it could scarcely be neglected. The suc- 
 
 y Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. Libanius, Orat. viii. p. COS. 
 
 z Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. On a similar occasion, Ammianus men- 
 tions the dicacitas plebis, as not very agreeable to an imperial ear. 
 (See I. xvi. c. 10.) 
 
 ai Lactantius accuses Maximian of destroying fictlscriminationihus 
 lumina senatus. (De. M. P. c. 8.) Aurelius Victor speaks very doubt- 
 fully of the faith of Diocletian towards his friends. 
 
 b Truncats vires urbis, imminuto prstoriarum cohorilum atque in 
 armis vulgi numero. Aurelius Victor. Lactantius attributes to Ga* 
 lerius the prosecution of the same plan (c. 26.) 
 
 c They were old corps stationed in Illyricum ; and according to 
 the ancient establishment, they each consisted of six thousand men. 
 They had acquired much reputation by the use of the plumbatm, or 
 darts loaded with lead. Each soldier carried five of these, which h« 
 darted from a considerable distance, with great strength and dex- 
 terity. See VcgeiiuB, i. 17. 
 
138 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. Xlll. 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 139 
 
 « 
 
 n 
 
 cessors of Augustus exercised the power of dictating 
 ■whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest ; 
 but those Jaws were ratified by the sanction of the 
 senate. The model of ancient freedom was preserved 
 in its deliberations and decrees ; and wise princes, 
 ■who respected the prejudices of the Roman people, 
 were in some measure obliged to assume the language 
 and behaviour suitable to the general and first magis- 
 trate of the republic. In the armies and in the pro- 
 vinces, they displayed the dignity of monarchs ; 
 and when they fixed their residence at a distance from 
 the capital, they for ever laid aside the dissimulation 
 which Augustus had recommended to his successors. 
 In the exercise of the legislative as well as the exe- 
 cutive power, the sovereign advised with his ministers, 
 instead of consulting the great council of the nation. 
 The name of the senate was mentioned with honour 
 till the last period of the empire ; the vanity of its 
 members was still flattered with honorary distinc- 
 tions;** but the assembly which had so long been the 
 source, and so long the instrument, of power, was re- 
 spectfully suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate 
 of Rome, losing all connexion with the imperial court 
 and the actual constitution, was left a venerable but 
 useless monument of antiquity on the Capitoline hill. 
 Civil magistra- When the Roman princes had lost 
 cies, laid aside, sight of the Senate and of their ancient 
 capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature of 
 their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of pro- 
 consul, of censor, and of tribune, by the union of which 
 it had been formed, betrayed to the people its repub- 
 lican extraction. Those modest titles were laid aside ; ' 
 and if they still distinguished their high station by the 
 appellation of emperor, or impcrator, that word was 
 understood in a new and more dignified sense, and no 
 longer denoted the general of the Roman armies, but 
 Imperial dignity the Sovereign of the Roman world. The 
 and liiee. name of emperor, which was at first of 
 a military nature, was associated with another of a 
 more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or lord, in 
 its primitive signification, was expressive, not of the 
 authority of a prince over his subjects, or of a comman- 
 der over his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a mas- 
 ter over his domestic slave.' Viewing it in that odious 
 light, it had been rejected with abhorrence by the first 
 Caesars. Their resistance insensibly became more 
 feeble, and the name less odious: till at length the 
 style of our lord and emperor was not only bestowed 
 by flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws 
 and public monuments. Such lofty epithets were suf- 
 ficient to elate and satisfy the most excessive vanity ; 
 and if the successors of Diocletian still declined the 
 title of king, it seems to have been the effect not so 
 much of their moderation as of their delicacy. W her- 
 ever the Latin tongue was in use, (and it was the lan- 
 guage of government throughout the empire,) the im- 
 perial title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed 
 a more respectable idea than the name of king, which 
 they must have shared with a hundred barbarian chief- 
 tains; or which, at the best, they could dfiflve only 
 from Romulus or from Tarquin. But the sentiments 
 of the east were very different from those of the west. 
 From the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of 
 Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language by 
 the title of basikus^ or king ; and since it was consid- 
 ered as the first distinction among men, it was soon 
 employed by the servile provincials of the east, in 
 
 d See the Theodosian Code, I. vi. tit. ii. with Godcrroy's commen- 
 tary. 
 
 e See the twelfth dissertation in Spanheim's excellent work de Usu 
 Numismatum. From medals, inscriptions, and historians, he ex- 
 amines every title separately, and traces it from Augustus to the mo- 
 ment of its disappearing. 
 
 I Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3. 55, &c ) speaks of domtnus with execra- 
 tion, as synonymous to tyrant, and op[>osite to prince. And the same 
 Pliny regularly gives that title (in the tenth book of the epistles) to 
 bis friend rather than master, the virtuous Trajan. This strange 
 contradiction puzzles the commentators, who tbmk, and the trans- 
 lators, who can wri^e. 
 
 their humble addresses to the Roman throne.* Even 
 the attributes, or at least the titles, of the Divinity^ 
 were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian,who trans- 
 mitted them to a succession of Christian emperors.'' 
 Such extravagant compliments, however, soon lose 
 their impiety by losing their meaning ; and when the 
 ear is once accustomed to the sound, they are heard 
 with indifference, as vague, though excessive, profes- 
 sions of respect. 
 
 From the time of Augustus to that of Dioclptian a>- 
 Diocletian, the Roman princes convers- '"""^s the diaflem, 
 
 \ .,. ' .1 . and introduces the 
 
 ing in a familiar manner among their Persian ceremo- 
 fellow-citizens, were saluted only with njai. 
 the same respect that was usually paid to senators and 
 magistrates. Their principal distinction was the im- 
 perial or military robe of purple ; whilst the senatorial 
 garment was marked by a broad, and the equestrian 
 by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honourable 
 colour.' The pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, 
 engaged that artful prince to introduce the stately 
 magnificence of the court of Persia.^ He ventured to 
 assume the diadem, an ornament detested by the Ro- 
 mans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the use of 
 which had been considered as the most desperate act 
 of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than a 
 broad white fillet set with pearls, which encircled the 
 emperor's head. The sumptuous robes of Diocletian 
 and his successors were of silk and gold ; and it is 
 remarked with indignation, that even their shoes were 
 studded with the most precious gems. The access to 
 their sacred person was every day rendered more dif- 
 ficult, by the institution of new forms and ceremonies. 
 The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded by the 
 various schools, as they began to be called, of domestic 
 oflicers. The interior apartments were intrusted to 
 the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs; the increase of 
 whose numbers and influence was the most infallible 
 symptom of the progress of despotism. When a sub- 
 ject was at length admitted to the imperial presence, 
 he was obliged, whatever might be his rank, to fall 
 prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according to the 
 eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master.'' 
 Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of 
 private as well as public life, had formed a just esti- 
 mate both of himself and of mankind : nor is it easy 
 to conceive, that in substituting the manners of Persia 
 to those of Rome, he was seriously actuated by so 
 mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered him- 
 self, that an ostentation of splendour and luxury would 
 subdue the imagination of the multitude; that the 
 monarch would be less exposed to the rude licence of 
 
 g Synesius de Regno, Edit. Petay. p. 15. I am indebted for this 
 quotation to the Abfic de la Blcteric. 
 
 *> Sec Vendalo de Consccratione, p. 354, tec. It was customary 
 for the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws) their numen, 
 sacred majesty, divine oracles, S(c. According to Tillemont, Gre- 
 gory of Nnzianzen complains most bitterly the profanation, especi- 
 ally when it was pracli.sed by an Arian emperor. 
 
 i [In the time of the republic, says Hegewisch, when the consuls, 
 the pr.Ttors, and other magi^itrates, appeared in public to attend to 
 the duties of their office, their di^'nity was announced both by tbe 
 insiiinia which usace had sanctioned, and by the brilliant retinu«> l)y 
 which they were attended. But this dignity was attached to theof- 
 fice, and not to the individual ; this pomp belonged to the magistrate 
 and not to the man. The consul attended in the Comitia by tiie 
 whole senate, the prrctors, thequcstors, the ediles, the lictors, the ap- 
 paritors, and the heralds, upon entering his own mansion, was served 
 only by his frcedmen and slaves. The first emperors went no fur- 
 ther ; Tiberius fur his own personal attendance had but a moderate 
 number of slaves, and some frcedmen. (Tacitus, Ann. iv. 7.) But 
 as the forms of republicanism, one after another, vanished, the incli- 
 nation of the emperors tt» surround their persons with magnificent 
 pageantry, manifested itself more and n«ore. The whole magnilicenrc 
 and the ceremony of the east was introduced under Diocletian, and 
 Constantino gave his sanction to it. His palaces, his wardrobe, bis 
 table, everything pertaining to him, then distinguished the emperor 
 from his subjects, much more than his high dignity. The organiza- 
 tion which Diocletian gave his new court, attached less honour and 
 distinction to office, than to the service rendered to the members ot 
 the imperial family. (Hegewisch, Essai. Hist, sur lea finances to- 
 maines. in German, p^ Q40.> 
 
 Few historians have ctiaracterised in a more philosophic manner 
 the inthience of a new institution.— O.] 
 
 J See Spanheim de Usu Numismat. Dissertat. xii. 
 
 k Aurelius Victor. Eutropius, ix. 26. It appears by the panegr 
 rists, that the Romans were soon reconciled to the name and cere- 
 mony of adoration. 
 
 the people and the soldiers, as his person was seclud- 
 ed from the public view ; and that habits of submis- 
 sion would insensibly be productive of sentiments of 
 veneration. Like the modesty affected by Augustus, 
 the state maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical re- 
 presentation ; but it must be confessed, that of the two 
 comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and 
 manly character than the latter. It was the aim of 
 the one to disguise, and the object of the other to dis- 
 play, the unbounded power which the emperors pos- 
 sessed over the Roman world. 
 
 New form of ad- Ostentation was the first principle of 
 ministration, two the new System instituted by Diocletian. 
 August!, and two The second was division. He divided 
 tlie empire, the provinces, and every 
 branch of the civil as well as military administration. 
 He multiplied the wheels of the machine of govern- 
 ment, and rendered its operations less rapid but more 
 secure. Whatever advantages and whatever defects 
 might attend these innovations, they must be ascribed 
 in a very great degree to the first inventor ; but as the 
 new frame of policy was gradually improved and com- 
 pleted by succeeding princes, it will be more satisfac- 
 tory to delay the consideration of it till the season of 
 its full maturity and perfection.' Reserving, therefore, 
 for the reign of Constantino a more exact picture of 
 the new empire, we shall content ourselves with de- 
 scribing the principal and decisive outline, as it was 
 traced by the hand of Diocletian. He had associated 
 three colleagues in the exercise of the supreme power; 
 and as he was convinced that the abilities of a single 
 man were inadequate to the public defence, he consi- 
 dered the joint administration of four princes not as a 
 temporary expedient, but as a fundamental law of the 
 constitution. It w as his intention, that the two elder 
 princes should be distinguished by the use of the dia- 
 dem, and the title of Augusti : that, as affection or 
 esteem might direct their choice, they should regular- 
 ly call to their assistance two subordinate colleagues ; 
 and that the Caesars, rising in their turn to the first 
 rank, should supply an uninterrupted succession of 
 emperors. The empire was divided into four parts. 
 The east and Italy were the most honourable, the 
 Danube and the Rhine the most laborious, stations. 
 The former claimed the presence of the Augusit, the 
 latter were intrusted to the administration of the Cae- 
 sars, The strength of the legions was in the hands of 
 the four partners of sovereignty, and the despair of 
 successively vanquishing four formidable rivals, might 
 intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general. In 
 their civil government, the emperors were supposed to 
 exercise the undivided power of the monarch, and 
 their edicts, inscribed w'ith their joint names, were re- 
 ceived in all the provinces, as promulgated by their 
 mutual councils and authority. Notwithstanding these 
 precautions, the political union of the Roman world 
 Mas 'gradually dissolved, and a principle of division 
 was introduced which in the course of a few years, oc- 
 casioned the perpetual separation of the eastern and 
 western empires. 
 
 inrreaso of tare- '^^^ systcm of Dioclctiau was accom- 
 panied with another very material disad- 
 vantage, which cannot even at present be totally over- 
 looked ; a more expensive establishment, and conse- 
 quently an increase of taxes, and the oppression of the 
 people. Instead of a modest family of slaves and frced- 
 men, such as had contented the simple greatness of 
 Augustus and Trajan, three or four magnificent courts 
 were established in the various parts of tlie empire, 
 and as many Roman kings contended with each other 
 and with the Persian monarch for the vain superiority 
 of pomp and luxury. The number of ministers, of 
 manristrates, of officers, and of servants, who filled the 
 different departments of the state, was multiplied be- 
 
 • The innovations introduced by Diocletian, are chiefly deduced, 
 let, from some very strong passages in Lactantius; and, 2dlv, from 
 the new and various offices, which, in the Theodosian code.appear 
 already estaliliaiied in the beginning of the reign of Constantine. 
 
 yond the example of former times ; and (if we may 
 borrow the warm expression of a contemporar} ) "when 
 the proportion of those who received exceeded the pro- 
 portion of those who contributed, the provinces were 
 oppressed by the weight of tributes." °» From this 
 period to the extinction of the empire, it would be easy 
 to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamours and com- 
 plaints. According to his religion and situation, each 
 writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or 
 Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives ; 
 but they unanimously agree in representing the bur- 
 then of the public impositions, and particularly the 
 land-tax and capitation, as the intolerable and increas- 
 ing grievance of their own times. From such a con- 
 currence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to 
 extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, 
 will be inclined to divide the blame among the princes 
 whom they accuse, and to ascribe their exactions 
 much less to their personal vices, than to the uniform 
 system of their administration. The emperor Diocle- 
 tian w^as indeed the author of that system ; but during 
 his reign, the growing evil was confined within the 
 bounds of modesty and discretion, and he deserves the 
 reproach of establishing pernicious precedents, rather 
 than of exercising actual oppression." It may be 
 added, that his revenues were managed wath prudent 
 economy ; and that after all the current expenses were 
 discharged, there still remained in the imperial trea- 
 sury an ample provision either for judicious liberality 
 or for any emergency of the state. 
 
 It was in the twenty-first year of his Abdication of 
 reign that Diocletian executed his me- Diocletian and 
 morable resolution of abdicating the em- Maximian. 
 pire ; an action more naturally to have been expected 
 from the elder or the younger Antoninus, than from a 
 prince who had never practised the lessons of philoso- 
 phy either in the attainment or in the use of supreme 
 power. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the 
 world the first example of a resignation," which has 
 not been very frequently imitated by Resemblance to 
 succeeding monarchs. The parallel of ^'''aries the fifth. 
 Charles the fifth, however, will naturally oflTer itself to 
 our niind, not only since the eloquence of a modern 
 historian has rendered that name so familiar to an Eng- 
 lish reader, but from the very striking resemblance 
 between the characters of the two emperors, whose 
 political abilities were superior to their military 
 genius, and whose specious virtues were much less 
 the effect of nature than of art. The abdication of 
 Charles appears to have been hastened by the vicis- 
 situdes of fortune; and the disappointment of his 
 favourite schemes urged him to relinquish a power 
 which he found inadequate to his ambition. But 
 the reign of Diocletian had flowed with a tide of 
 uninterrupted success; nor was it till after he had 
 vanquished all his enemies, and accomplished all 
 his designs, that he seems to have entertained any 
 serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither 
 Charles nor Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced 
 period of life ; since the one was only fifty-five, and 
 the other was no more than fifty-nine, years of age ; 
 but the active life of those princes, their w^ars and 
 journeys, the cares of royalty, and their application to 
 business, had already impaired their constitution, and 
 brought on the infirmities of a premature old age.P 
 
 Notwithstanding the severity of a very a D 304 
 cold and rainy winter, Diocletian left Long jiiness of 
 Italy soon after the ceremony of his tri- D'ocieiiun. 
 umph, and began his progress towards the east, round 
 
 "» Lactant. de M. P. c. 7. 
 
 B Indicta lex nova quie sane illorum temporura modestia tolera- 
 bills, in perniciem processit. Aurel. Victor, who has treated the 
 character of Diocletian with good sense, though in bad Latin. 
 
 o Solus omnium, post conditum Romanum imperium, quiex tanto 
 fastigio sponte ad privatx vine statum civilitatemque remearet. 
 Eutrop. ix.28. \ 
 
 p The particulars of the journey and illness are taken from Lao^V 
 tantius. (c. 17.) who may sometimes be admitted as an evidence of 
 public factp, though very seldom of private ai.ecdotes. 
 
140 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Chap. XIIl. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 141 
 
 % 
 
 1 
 
 the circuit of the Illyrian provinces. From the incle- 
 mency of the weather, and the fatigue of the journey, 
 he soon contracted a slow illness ; and though he made 
 easy marches, and was generally carried in a close lit- 
 ter, his disorder, before he arrived at Nicomedia, about 
 the end of summer, was become very serious and 
 alarmincr. Durinjr the whole winter he was confined 
 to his palace : his danger inspired a general and unaf- 
 fected concern; but the people could only judge of 
 the various alterations of his health from the joy or 
 consternation which they discovered in the counte- 
 nances and behaviour of his attendants. The rumour 
 of his death was for some time universally believed, 
 and it was supposed to be concealed, with a view to 
 prevent the troubles that might have happened during 
 the absence of the Caesar Galerius. At length, how- 
 ever, on the first of March, Diocletian once more ap- 
 peared in public, but so pale and emaciated, that he 
 could scarcely have been recognised by those to whom 
 
 „. , his person was the most familiar. It 
 
 u pru enc . ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ painful strug- 
 
 fle, which he had sustained during more than a year, 
 etween the care of his health and that of his dignity. 
 The former required indulgence and relaxation, the lat- 
 ter compelled him to direct, from the bed of sickness, 
 the administration of a great empire. He resolved to 
 pass the remainder of his days in honourable repose, to 
 place his glory beyond the reach of fortune, and to re- 
 linquish the theatre of the world to his younger and 
 more active associates.^ 
 
 The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a 
 spacious plain, about three miles from Nicomedia. 
 The emperor ascended a lofty throne, and in a speech, 
 full of reason and dignity, declared his intention, both 
 to the people and to the soldiers who were assembled 
 on this extraordinary occasion. As soon as he had 
 A D 305 M divested himself of the purple, he with- 
 ' *^ ' drew from the gazing multitude ; and 
 traversing the city in a covered chariot, proceeded, 
 without delay, to the favourite retirement which he had 
 chosen in his native country of Dalmatia. On the 
 Compliance of Same day, which was the first of May,' 
 Maximian. Maximian, as it had been previously 
 concerted, made his resignation of the imperial dignity 
 at Milan. Even in the splendour of the Roman tri- 
 umph, Diocletian had meditated his design of abdi- 
 cating the government. As he wished to secure the 
 obedience of Maximian, he exacted from him, either a 
 general assurance that he would submit his actions to 
 the authority of his benefactor, or a particular promise 
 that he would descend from the throne, whenever he 
 should receive the advice and the example. This en- 
 gagement, though it was confirmed by the solemnity 
 of an oath before the altar of the Capitoline Jupiter," 
 would have proved a feeble restraint on the fierce tem- 
 per of Maximian, whose prssion was the love of 
 power, and who neither desired present tranquillity nor 
 future reputation. But he yielded, however reluctant- 
 ly, to the ascendant which his wiser colleague had 
 acauired over him, and retired, immediately after his 
 abdication, to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost 
 impossible that such an impatient spirit could find any 
 lasting tranquillity. 
 
 Retirement of Diocletian, who, from a servile ori- 
 
 Diocietianat Sa- gin, had raised himself to the throne, 
 
 *°"** passed the nine last years of his life in 
 
 a private condition. Reason had dictated, and content 
 
 seems to have accompanied, his retreat, in which he 
 
 enjoyed for a long time the respect of those princes 
 
 «l Aurelius Victor ascril)es the abdication, which iiad been so vari- 
 ously accounted for, to two causes. Ist, Diocletian's contempt of nin- 
 hition ; and 2dly, His apprehension of impending troubles. One of 
 the panegyrists (vi. 9.) mentions the age and intirmitiesof Diocletian, 
 81 a very natural reason for his retirement. 
 
 r The difficulties as well ns mistakes attending the dates, both of 
 the year and of the day of Diocletian's abdication, are perfectly 
 cleared up by Tilleniont, (Hist, des Enipercurs.toni. iv. p. 525, note 
 19.) and by Fast ad annum. 
 
 • See Panegyr. Veter. vi. 9. The oration was pronounced after 
 Maximian had re&numed the purple. 
 
 to whom he had resigned the possession of the world.* 
 It is seldom that minds, long exercised in business, 
 have formed any habits of conversing with them- 
 selves, and in the loss of power they principally re* 
 gret the want of occupation. The amiisements of let- 
 ers and of devotion, which afford so many resources 
 in solitude, were incapable of fixing the attention of 
 Diocletian ; but he had preserved, or at least he soon 
 recovered, a taste for the most innocent as well as 
 natural pleasures, and his leisure hours were suflTi- 
 ciently employed in building, planting, and garden- 
 ing. His answer to Maximian is deservedly cele- 
 brated. He was solicited by that rest- „j^ philosophy, 
 less old man to re-assume the reins of 
 government, and the imperial purple. He rejected the 
 temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing, 
 that if he could show Maximian the cabbages which 
 he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he 
 should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment 
 of happiness for the pursuit of power." In his con- 
 versations with his friends, he frequently acknowledg- 
 ed, that of all arts, the most difficult was the art of 
 reigning ; and he expressed himself on that favourite 
 topic with a degree of warmth which could be the re- 
 sult only of experience. " How often," was he ac- 
 customed to say, " is it the interest of four or five 
 ministers to combine together to deceive their sove- 
 reign ! Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity, 
 the truth is concealed from his knowledge ; he can 
 see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their 
 misrepresentations. He confers the most important 
 offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces the 
 most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. 
 By such infamous arts," added Diocletian, " the best 
 and wisest princes are sold to the venal corruption of 
 their courtiers."* A just estimate of greatness, and 
 the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish 
 for the pleasures of retirement ; but the Roman empe- 
 ror had filled too important a character in the world, 
 to enjoy without allay the comforts and security of a 
 private condition. It was impossible that he could 
 remain ignorant of the troubles which afflicted the 
 empire after his abdication. It was impossible that 
 he could be indifferent to their consequences. Fear, 
 sorrow, and discontent, sometimes pursued him into 
 the solitude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least 
 his pride, was deeply wounded by the misfortunes of 
 his wife and daughter ; and the last moments of Dio- 
 cletian were imbittered by some affronts, which Lici- 
 nius and Constantine might have spared the father of 
 so many emperors, and the first author of their own 
 fortune. A report, though of a very and death, 
 doubtful nature, has reached our times, A. D. 313. 
 that he prudently withdrew himself from their power 
 by a voluntary death.^ 
 
 Before we dismiss the consideration 
 
 Descrijjtion of Pa- 
 
 of the life and character of Diocletian, lona and the adja- 
 we may, for a moment, direct our view '^'-'"^ country, 
 to the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal 
 city of his native province of Dalmatia, was near two 
 hundred Roman miles (according to the measurement 
 of the public highways) from Aquileia and the con- 
 fines of Italy, and about two hundred and seventy 
 from Surmium, the usual residence of the emperors 
 whenever they visited the Illyrian frontier.* A miser- 
 able village still preserves the name of Salona ; but 
 
 t Eumcnius pays him a very fine compliment : " At enim divlninn 
 ilium virum, qui primus imperium et participnvit et posuit, consilii 
 et factl sui non potnitet: nee amisisse se putntquod sponte trnn.«»rrip« 
 sit, felix Iteatusquw vere quem vestra, tantoruut principum, colunl olt- 
 scquia privatum." Panegyr. Vet. vii. 15. 
 
 u We are obliged to the younger Victor for this celebrated bon mot. 
 Eutropius mentions the thing in a more general manner. 
 
 z Hist. August, p. 223. 224. Vopiscus had learned this conversa* 
 tion from his father. 
 
 J The younger Victor slightly mentions the report. But as Dio- 
 cletian had disobliged a powerful and successful party, his memory 
 has been loaded with every crime and misfortune. It has been af- 
 tirmed, that he died raving mad, that he was condemned as a cri 
 minal by the Roman senate, Scr. 
 
 t See the Itintr. p. 36i>, 2T2 Edit. We-»fifl. 
 
 90 late as the sixteenth century, the remains of a the- 
 atre, and a confused prospect of broken arches and 
 marble columns, continued to attest its ancient splen- 
 dour.* About six or seven miles from the city, Dio- 
 cletian constructed a magnificent palace, and we may 
 infer, from the greatness of tlie work, how long he 
 had meditated his design of abdicating the empire. 
 The choice of a spot, which united all that could con- 
 tribute either to health or to luxury, did not require 
 the partiality of a native. " The soil was dry and 
 fertile, the air is pure and wholesome, and though ex- 
 tremely hot during the summer months, this country 
 seldom feels those sultry and noxious winds, to which 
 the coasts of Istria and some parts of Italy are ex- 
 posed. The views from the palace are no less beauti- 
 ful than the soil and climate were inviting. Towards 
 the west lies the fertile shore tliat stretches along the 
 Hadriatic, in which a number of small islands are 
 scattered in such a manner, as to give this part of the 
 sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north side 
 lies the bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona ; 
 and the country beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a 
 proper contrast to that more extensive prospect of 
 water, which the Hadriatic presents both to the south 
 and to the east. ^I'owards the north, the view is ter- 
 minated by high and irregular mountains, situated at 
 a proper distance, and, in many places, covered with 
 villages, woods, and vineyards."** 
 Of Diocletian's Though Constantine, from a very ob- 
 paiace. vious prejudice, afllects to mention the 
 palace of Diocletian with contempt,*= yet one of their 
 successors, who could only see it in a neglected and 
 mutilated state, celebrates its magnificence in terms 
 of the highest admiration.** It covered an extent of 
 ground consisting of between nine and ten English 
 acres. The form was quadrangular, flanked with six- 
 teen towers. Two of the sides were near six hun- 
 dred, and the other two near seven hundred, feet in 
 length. The whole was constructed of a beautiful 
 free-stone, extracted from the neighbouring quarries 
 of Trau, or Tragutium, and very little inferi'or to mar- 
 ble itself. Four streets, intersecting each other at 
 right angles, divided the several parts of this great 
 edifice, and the approach to the principal apartment 
 was from a very stately entrance, which is still de- 
 nominated the Golden Gate. The approach was ter- 
 minated by a perisfylium of granite columns, on one 
 side of which we discover the square temple of ^scu- 
 lapius, on the other the octagon temple of Jupiter. 
 The latter of those deities Diocletian revered as the 
 patron of his fortunes, the former as the protector of 
 his health. By comparing the present remains with 
 the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the 
 building, the baths, bed-chamber, the atrium, the 
 basilica, and the Cyzicene, Corinthian, and Egyptian 
 halls have been described with some degree of pre- 
 cision, or at least of probability. Their forms were 
 various, their proportions just ; but they were all at- 
 tended with two imperfections, very repugnant to our 
 modern notions of taste and conveniency. These 
 stately rooms had neither windows nor cliimneys. 
 They were lighted from the top, (for the building 
 seems to have consisted of no more than one story,) 
 and they received their heat by the help of pipes that 
 were conveyed along the walls. The range of princi- 
 
 1 The Abate Fortis, in his Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 43. (printed at 
 Venice in the year 177-1, in two small volumes in quarto.) quotes a 
 MS. account of the antiquities of Salona. composed by Giambatista 
 GiuRtiani about the middle of the sixteenth century 
 
 b Adam's Antiquities of Diocletian's palace at Spalatro, p. 6. W^e 
 may add a circumstance or two from the Abate Fortis: the little 
 stream of the Hyader, mentioned by Lucan, produces most excellent 
 trout, which a sagacious writer, perhaps a monk, supposes to have 
 i>een one of the principal reasons that determined Diocletian in the 
 choice of his retirement. Fortis, p 45. The same author (p. 38.) 
 ohserves. that a taste for agriculture is reviving at Spalatro; and 
 tliat an experimental farm has lately been established near the city, 
 by a society of gentlemen. ' 
 
 eConstnntin. Orat. ad Cottum Sanct. c. 25. In this sermon, the 
 ♦■niperor, or the bishop who composed it for him, aflects to relate 
 Hie miserable end of all the persecutors of the church. 
 
 <J Constantin. Porphyr. de Statu Impcr. p. 86. 
 
 pal apartments was protected towards the south-west 
 by a portico five hundred and seventeen feet long, 
 which must have formed a very noble and delightful 
 walk, when the beauties of painting and sculpture 
 were added to those of the prospect. 
 
 Had this magnificent edifice remained in a solitary 
 country, it would have been exposed to the ravages 
 of time; but it might, perhaps, have escaped the 
 rapacious industry of man. The village of Aspala- 
 thus,« and, long afterwards, the provincial town of 
 Spalatro, have grown out of its ruins. The Golden 
 Gate now opens into the market-place. St. John 
 the Baptist has usurped the honours of ^sculapius ; 
 and the temple of Jupiter, under the protection of the 
 Virgin, is converted into the cathedral church. For 
 this account of Diocletian's palace we are principally 
 indebted to an ingenious artist of our own time and 
 country, whom a very liberal curiosity carried into 
 the heart of Dalmatia.' But there is room to sus- 
 pect, that the elegance of his designs and engraving 
 has somewhat flattered the objects which it was their 
 purpose to represent. We are informed Decline of the 
 by a more recent and very judicious trav- ari". 
 
 eller, that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not less ex- 
 pressive of the decline of the arts than of the great- 
 ness of the Roman empire in the time of Diocletian.* 
 If such was indeed the state of architecture, we must 
 naturally believe that painting and sculpture had ex- 
 perienced a still more sensible decay. The practice 
 of architecture is directed by a few general and even 
 mechanical rules. But sculpture, and, above all, 
 painting, propose to themselves the imitation not only 
 of the forms of nature, but of the characters and pas- 
 sions of the human soul. In those sublime artfe, the 
 dexterity of the hand is of little avail, unless it is an- 
 imated by fancy, and guided by the most correct taste 
 and observation. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to remark, 
 that the civil distractions of the empire, °^ '^""'• 
 the licence of the soldiers, the inroads of the barba- 
 rians, and the progress of despotism, had proved very 
 unfavourable to genius, and even to learning. The 
 succession of Illyrian princes restored the empire, 
 Avithout restoring the sciences. Their military educa- 
 tion Mas not calculated to inspire them with the love 
 of letters ; and even the mind of Diocletian, however 
 active and capacious in business, was totally unin- 
 formed by study or speculation. The professions of 
 law and physic are of such common use and certain 
 profit, that they will always secure a sufficient num- 
 ber of practitioners, endowed with a reasonable de- 
 gree of abilities and knowledge ; but it does not ap- 
 pear that the students in those two faculties appeal to 
 any celebrated masters who have flourished within that 
 period. The voice of poetry was silent. History was 
 reduced to dry and confused abridgments, alike desti- 
 tute of amusement and instruction. A languid and 
 aflfected eloquence was still retained in the pay and 
 service of the emperors, who encouraged not any arts 
 except those which contributed to the gratification of 
 their pride, or the defence of their power.** 
 
 The declining age of learning and of The new Plato- 
 mankind is marked, however, by the « J^ts. 
 
 e D'Anville, Geographic Ancienne, torn. i. p. 162. 
 
 f Messieurs Adam and Clarisseau, attended by two draughtsmen, 
 visited Spalatro in the month of July 1757. The magnificent work 
 which their journey produced was published in London seven years 
 afterwards. 
 
 g I shall quote the words of the Abate Fortis. " E'bastevolmente 
 nota agli amatori dell' archifettura, e dell' antichita, Toper-i del 
 Signor Adams, die a donato molto a que' superbi vestigi coH'abiluale 
 eleganzadelsuo toccalapis e del biilino. In generate la rozzezza del 
 scalpello, e'l cativo gusto del secolo vi gareggiano colla niagnificenza 
 del fabricato." See Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 40. 
 
 h The orator Eumenius was secretary to the emperors Maximian 
 and Constantius, and professor of rhetoric to the college of Autun. 
 His salary was six hundred thousand sesterces, which, according to 
 the lowest computation of that age, must have exceeded three 
 thousand pounds a year. He generously requested the permission 
 of employing it in rebuilding the college. See his Oration lie Res 
 taurandis Scholis; which, though not exempt frotn vanity, may 
 atone for his panegyrics. 
 
142 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 « 
 
 n 
 
 rise and rapid progress of the new Platonists. The 
 school of Alexandria silenced those of Athens ; and 
 the ancient sects enrolled themselves under the ban- 
 ners of the more fashionable teachers, who recom- 
 mended their system by the novelty of their method, 
 and the austerity of their manners. Several of these 
 masters, Ammonius, Plotinus, Amelius, and Porphy- 
 ry,' were men of profound thought and intense applica- 
 tion; but by mistaking the true object of philosophy, 
 their labours contributed much less to improve than to 
 corrupt the human understanding. The knowledge 
 that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole 
 compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, 
 was neglected by the new Platonists ; while they ex- 
 hausted their strength in the verbal disputes of meta- 
 physics, attempted to explore the secrets of the invisi- 
 ble world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with 
 Plato, on subjects of which both these philosophers 
 were as io-norant as the rest of mankind. Consuming 
 their reason in these deep but unsubstantial medita- 
 tions, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. 
 They flattered themselves that they possessed the 
 secret of disengaging the soul from its corporeal pri- 
 son ; claimed a familiar intercourse with daemons and 
 spirits ; and, by a singular revolution, converted the 
 study of philosophy into that of magic. The ancient 
 sages had derided the popular superstition ; after dis- 
 guising its extravagance by the thin pretence of alle- 
 gory, the disciples of Plotinus and Porphyry became 
 its most zealous defenders. As they agreed with the 
 Christians in a few mysterious points of faith, they at- 
 tacked the remainder of their theological system with 
 all the fury of civil war. The new Platonists would 
 scarcely deserve a place in the history of science, but 
 in that of the church the mention of them will very 
 frequently occur. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Troubles after the abdication of Diocletian^ — Death of 
 Constantius. — Elevation of Constantine and jyfaxen- 
 tins. — Six emperors at the same time. — Death ofJMaxi- 
 mian and Galerius. — Victories of Constantine over 
 JMaxentius and Licinius. — Beunion of the empire under 
 the authority of Constantine. 
 
 Period ofcivi! 
 
 The balance of power established by 
 wars and confu. Diocletian Subsisted no longer than 
 nion, while it was sustained by the firm and 
 
 A. D. 305—323. (Jexterous hand of the founder. It re- 
 quired such a fortunate mixture of different tempers 
 and abilities, as could scarcely be found, or even ex- 
 pected, a second time ; two emperors without jealousy, 
 two Caesars without ambition, and the same general 
 interest invariably pursued by four independent princes. 
 The abdication of Diocletian and Maximian was suc- 
 ceeded by eighteen years of discord and confusion. 
 The empire was aflHicted by five civil wars ; and the 
 remainder of the time was not so much a state of tran- 
 quillity as a suspension of arms between several hos- 
 tile monarchs, who, viewing each other with an eye of 
 fear and hatred, strove to increase their respective 
 forces at the expense of their subjects. 
 Character and li- As soon as Diocletian and Maximian 
 tuationofCon- had resigned the purple, their station, 
 Ntantius. according to the rules of the new consti- 
 
 tution, was filled by the two Caesars, Constantius and 
 Galerius, who immediately assumed the title of Au- 
 gustus.* The honours of seniority and precedence 
 
 i Porphyry died about the time of Diocletian's altdication. The life 
 of his master Plotinuo, which he composed, will give w^ the most 
 complete idea of the genius of the sect, and the manners of its pro- 
 fessors. This very curious piece is inserted in Fabricius, Bibliotheca 
 Grsca, torn. iv. p. 88 — 148. 
 
 a M. de Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Deca- 
 dence des Remains, c. 17.) supposes, on the authority of Orosius and 
 Euoebiua. that, on this occasion, the empire, for the first time, was 
 really divided into two parts. It is difficult, however, todi^rover in 
 what respect the plan of Galerius differed from that of Diocletian. 
 
 were allowed to the former of those princes, and he 
 continued, under a new appellation, to administer his 
 ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The 
 government of those ample provinces was sufficient to 
 exercise his talents, and to satisfy his ambition. Cle- 
 mency, temperance, and moderation, distinguished the 
 amiable character of Constantius, and his fortunate 
 subjects had frequently occasion to compare the vir- 
 tues of their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, 
 and even with the arts of Diocletian.'' Instead of imi- 
 tating their eastern pride and magnificence, Constan- 
 tius preserved the modesty of a Roman prince. He 
 declared, with unaffected sincerity, that his most va- 
 lued treasure was in the hearts of his people, and that, 
 whenever the dignity of the throne, or the danger of 
 the state, required any extraordinary supply, he could 
 depend with confidence on their gratitude and libe- 
 rality .<= The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, 
 sensible of his worth, and of their own happiness, re- 
 flected with anxiety on the declining health of the em- 
 peror Constantius, and the tender age of his numerous 
 family, the issue of his second marriage with the 
 daughter of Maximian. 
 
 The stern temper of Galerius was cast q, ^ , • 
 in a very different mould ; and while he ** ^'""* 
 
 commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom conde- 
 scended to solicit their aflfections. His fame in arms, 
 and above all, the success of the Persian war, had 
 elated his haughty mind, which was naturally impa- 
 tient of a superior, or even of an equal. If it were 
 possible to rely on the partial testimony of an injudi- 
 cious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Dio- 
 cletian to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the par- 
 ticulars of a private conversation between the two 
 fjrinces, in which the former discovered as much pusil- 
 animity as the latter displayed ingratitude and arro- 
 gance.** But these obscure anecdotes are sufficiently 
 refuted by an impartial view of the character and con- 
 duct of Diocletian. "Whatever might otherwise have 
 been his intentions, if he had apprehended any danger 
 from the violence of Galerius, his good sense would 
 have instructed him to prevent the ignominious con- 
 test ; and as he had held the sceptre with glory, he 
 would have resigned it without disgrace. 
 
 After the elevation of Constantius and The two Ca?«ari, 
 Galerius to the rank of Augusti, two new Stverus and 
 Caesars were required to supply their ^«''""'"- 
 place, and to complete the system of the imperial 
 government. Diocletian was sincerely desirous of 
 withdrawing himself from the world ; he considered 
 Galerius, who had married his daughter, as the firmest 
 support of his family and of the empire ; and he con- 
 sented, without reluctance, that his successor should 
 assume the merit as well as the envy of the important 
 nomination. It was fixed without consulting the in- 
 terest or inclination of the princes of the west. Each 
 of them had a son who was arrived at the age of man- 
 hood, and who might have been deemed the most na- 
 
 b Hie non modo amabilis, scd ctiam venerabilis Gallis fuit ; prtoci- 
 piic quod Dioclctinni suspectam prudentiam, et Maximiani sanguina- 
 riam violentiam imperio ejus evuscrant. Kutrop. Breviar. x. i. 
 
 c Divitiis Provincialium (mel. provinciamm) ac privatoruni sla 
 dens.flsci commoda nonadinodum nffectans; ducensque melius pub- 
 liens opes a privatis haberi, quam intra unum claustrum reservari. 
 Id. ibid. He carried this maxim so far, that whenever he gave an 
 entertainment, he was obliged to borrow a service of plate. 
 
 d Lactantius de Mort. Persecutor, c. 18. Were the particulars of 
 this conference more consistent with truth and decency, we niijibt 
 still ask, how they came to the knowledge of an obscure rhetorician? 
 But there are many historians who put us in mind of the admirable 
 saying of the great Conde to cardinal de Retz ; '* Ces coquins nous 
 font parler et agir, conime ilsaiiroient fait eux-memesa notre place."' 
 
 [This attack upon Lactantius is without foundation. Lactantius 
 was far from being an obscure rhetorician, since, he had taught rhe- 
 toric publicly and with the greatest success, first in Africa and af^er 
 wards in Nicomedia. His reputation gained him the esteem of Con- 
 stantine, who invited him to his court, and entrusted to him the 
 education of his son Crispus. The facts he relates in his works, took 
 place in his own time, and he cannot be accused of fraud and impos- 
 ture — satis me vixisse arbitrabor eioflicium hominisimplessesi labor 
 meusaliquos homines ab crroribus liberatos, ad iter cobleste dircxerit, 
 (De opificio Dei chap. 20.) The eloquence of Lactantius gained for 
 him the appellation of the Cicero of the Christians. (See Hist, lit 
 tcrar.of Dr. Cave, vol. i p. 113.)— O] 
 
 I 
 
 tural candidates for the vacant honour. But the impo- 
 tent resentment of Maximian was no lono-er to be 
 dreaded; and the moderate Constantius, though he 
 might despise the dangers, was humanely apprehen- 
 sive of the calamities, of civil war. The two persons 
 whom Galerius promoted to the rank of Cajsar, were 
 much better suited to serve the views of his ambition ; 
 and their principal recommendation seems to have con- 
 sisted in the want of merit or personal consequence. 
 The first of these was Daza, or, as he was afterwards 
 called, Maximin, whose mother was the sister of Gale- 
 rius. The unexperienced youth still betrayed by his 
 manners and language his rustic education, when, to 
 his own astonishment, as well as that of the world, he 
 was invested by Diocletian with the purple, exalted to 
 the dignity of Caesar, and intrusted with the sovereio-n 
 command of Egypt and Syria.' At the same tim'e, 
 Severus, a faithful servant, addicted to pleasure, but 
 not incapable of business, was sent to Milan, to re- 
 ceive, from the reluctant hands of Maximian, the Cae- 
 sarian ornaments, and the possession of Italy and 
 Africa.' According to the forms of the constitution, 
 Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the western 
 emperor; but he was absolutely devoted to the com- 
 mands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reservino- to 
 himself the intermediate countries from the confine's of 
 Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power 
 over three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confi- 
 dence, that the approaching death of Constantius 
 would leave him sole master of the Roman world, we 
 are assured that he had arranged in his mind a long 
 succession of future princes, and that he meditated his 
 own retreat from public life, after he should have ac- 
 complished a glorious reign of about twenty years.? 
 
 Ambition of Gale- , ^"* ^^^^^" ^^/^ than eighteen months, 
 rius disappointed ^^"0 Unexpected revolutions overturned 
 fr ^^"'o ""^^oiu- the ambitious schemes of Galerius. 
 ions. rpi^g hopes of uniting the western pro- 
 
 vinces to his empire were disappointed by the eleva- 
 tion of Constantine, whilst Italy and Africa were lost 
 by the successfiil revolt of Maxentius. 
 
 Birth, education. , ^' !^^^ ^^"?® °^ Conslantiuc has ren- 
 an.i escape of Con- aered posterity attentive to the most 
 
 """a" n 074 minute circumstances of his life and ac- 
 
 as the condition of his mother Helena, have been the 
 subject not only of literary but of national disputes. 
 Notwithstanding the recent tradition, which assio-ns 
 for her father a British king, we are obliged to confess, 
 that Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper ;»» but, 
 at the same time, we may defend the legality of her 
 marriage, against those who have represented her as 
 the concubine of Constantius.' The great Constantine 
 was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia;" and it 
 
 e Sublatus nuper a pccoribus et silvis, (says Lactantius de M. P c 
 fvLr " ''?^'-'"*' *^0"^>n"" protector, mox tribunus, postridie 
 him h:»'''?P,'^ Orientem. Aurelius Victor is tooliberalii givin!r 
 him the whole portion of Diocletian. b'v»"o 
 
 d/M.'p!^c''l8"'^*^ ^'"^ ^''^''^^ ^'"'^ acknowledged even by Lactantius, 
 
 t.,«J''*'^rT**^^'''"^'' ''O^'ever, rest only on the very doubtful au- 
 thority of Lactantius, de M. P. c. 20. 
 
 h This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, 
 was invented in the darkness of monasteries, was embellished by 
 il^l^J ? 5'^"/no"i>» and t»>e writers of the twelfth century, has 
 ^iJf^^^l^^ ^y T" "antiquarians of the last age, and is scriouslv 
 rcmed in the ponderous History of England, compiled by Mr. Carte 
 vol. I. p. 14, ) He transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, the 
 imaeinary father of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus 
 fhn^ '*^""' V\'^ expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and 
 Zosinm;7rii°n''«r'*''' '' « «ft,e«W.W matrimonio ejus ftlius '' 
 ^osmiiis (I It. p. /e.) eagerly seized the most unfavourable report, 
 and IS followed by Orosius, (vii. 25.) whose authority is oddly 
 enough overlooked by the indefatigable but partial Tillernont Bv 
 
 ln"arHa"ge.°" '"' '"°''' °' ""'"""' Diocletfan^acknowEdsed hei; 
 
 tin^Ih?r?h°'1 *n?f ^^'r ^J"' "7'^^ "'^'^"^ ^ *»>« P'«ce of Constan- 
 tine s birth 1. Our English antiquarians were used to dwell with 
 rapture on the wor(|s of his panegyrist ; •' Britannia^ niir nrJo^^i^ 
 nobiies fecisti.- But this celebrated passage may be Se red w t h as 
 nmch propriety to the accession as to the nativity of Constant^ e 2 
 Some of the modern Greeks Nive ascribed the honouV of Ss bi^ff, to 
 Drepanum a town on the gulf of Nicomedia, (Cellarius, om i D 
 T . ; ^^''"ch Constantine dignified with the name of Helenonolis and 
 J stmian adorned with many splendid buildings. (pforop^Kdi 
 nciii, v. 2.) It IS indeed probable enough, that Helena's father kept 
 
 143 
 
 is net surprising, that in a family and province dis- 
 tinguished only by the profession of arms, the youth 
 should discover very little inclination to improve his 
 niind ey the acquisition of knowledge.' He was about 
 eighteen years of age when his father 
 was promoted to the rank of C^sar ; but ^- ^- ^^' 
 that fortunate event was attended with his mother's 
 divorce ; and the splendour of an imperial alliance re- 
 el iiced the son of Helena to a state of disgrace and hu- 
 miliation. Instead of following Constantius in the 
 west, he remained in the service of Diocletian, siff- 
 nahzed his valour in the wars of Egypt and Persia 
 and gradually rose to the honourable station of a tribune 
 of the first order. The figure of Constantine was tall 
 and majestic ; he was dexterous in all his exercises, 
 intrepid in war, affable in peace ; in his whole con- 
 duct, the active spirit of truth was tempered by ha- 
 bitual prudence; and while his mind was eno-rossed 
 by ambition, he appeared cold and insensible'' to the 
 allurements of pleasure. The favour of the people 
 and soldiers, who had named him as a worthy candi- 
 date for the rank of Caesar, served only to exasperate 
 the jealousy of Galerius; and though prudence might 
 restrain him from exercising any open violence, an 
 absolute monarch is seldom at a loss how to execute a 
 sure and secret revenge."" Every hour increased the 
 danger of Constantine, and the anxiety of his father, 
 who, by repeated letters, expressed the warmest desire 
 of embracing his son. For some time the policy of 
 Galerius supplied him with delays and excuses, but it 
 was impossible long to refuse so natural a request of 
 his associate, without maintaining his refusal by arms. 
 1 he permission of the journey was reluctantly granted, 
 and whatever precautions the emperor might have 
 taken to intercept a return, the consequences of which 
 he, with so much reason, apprehended, they were ef- 
 fectually disappointed by the incredible diligence of 
 Constantine." Leaving the palace of Nicomedia in 
 the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, 
 Dacia, Pannonia, Italy, and Gaul, and amidst the joy- 
 ful acclamations of the people, reached the port of 
 Boulogne, in the very moment when his father was 
 preparing to embark for Britain." 
 
 The British expedition, and an easy n^^,, , ^ 
 victory over the barbarians of Caledo- s^ntfu.? Lre"-' 
 nia, were the last exploits of the reign e^at'O" "f Con- 
 of Constantius. He ended his life in TTm Julv 
 the imperial palace of York, fifteen 25. 
 months after he had received the title of Augustus, 
 and almost fourteen years and a half after he had beeii 
 promoted to the rank of Caesar. His death was im- 
 mediately succeeded by the elevation of Constantine. 
 The ideas of inheritance and succession are so very 
 
 an inn at Drepanum, and that Constantius might lodge there when 
 be returned from a Persian embassy in the reign of Aurelian. But 
 in the wandering life of a soldier, the place of his marriage, and the 
 places where his children are born, have very little connexion with 
 each other. 3. The claim of Naissus is supported by the anonymous 
 writer, published at the end of Ammianus, p. TlO. and who in •Ge- 
 neral copied very good materials: and it is confirmed by Julius Fir- 
 micius, (de Astrologia, 1. i. c. 4.) who flourished under the rei-rn of 
 Constantine himself. Some objections have been raised against the 
 integrity of the te.xt, and the application of the passage of Firmiciu«- 
 but the former is established by the best MSS. and the latter is very 
 ably defended by Lipsius de Magnitudinc Romana, Live 11 et 
 Supplement. 
 1 Literis minus instructus. Anonym, ad Ammian. p. 710. 
 m Galerius, or perhaps his own courage, exposed him to single 
 combat with a Sarmatian (Anonym, p. 710.) and with a monstrous 
 hon. See Praxagoras apnd Photium, p. 6.1 Praxagoras, an Athe- 
 nian philosopher, had written a life of Constantine, in two books 
 which are now lost. He was a contemporary. 
 
 n Zosimus, I. ii. p. 78, 70. Lactantius de M. P. c. 24. The former 
 tells a very foolish story, that Constantine caused all the post horses 
 which he had used, to be hamstrung. Such a bloody execution, 
 without preventing a pursuit, would have scattered suspicions, and 
 might have stopped his journey. 
 
 [Zosimus is not the only one who gives this account. Victor the 
 younger confirms it, Ad frustrandos insequcntcs, publica jumenta 
 quaqua iter ageret interficiens. (Vol. i. p. 633.) Aurelius Victor 
 De CVsaribus says the same thing. (Vol. i. p. 623.) (Anon, gentl.t 
 -O.J 
 
 o Anonym, p. 710. Panegyr. Veter. vii. 4. But Zosimus, I. ii. p. 79. 
 Eusebius de Vtt. Constant. 1. i. c. 21. and Lactantius de M. P. c. 24. 
 suppose, with less accuracy, that he found bis father on his deatli 
 bed. 
 
144 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 % 
 
 n 
 
 familiar, that the generality of mankind consider them 
 as founded, not only in reason, but in nature itself. 
 Our imagination readily transfers the same principles 
 from private property to public dominion : and when- 
 ever a virtuous father leaves behind him a son whose 
 merit seems to justify the esteem, or even the hopes, 
 of the people, the joint influence of prejudice and of 
 affection operates with irresistible weight. The flower 
 of the western armies had followed Constantius into 
 Britain, and the national troops were reinforced by a 
 numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the orders 
 of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains.P The 
 opinion of their own importance, and the assurance 
 that Britain, Gaul, and Spain would acquiesce in their 
 nomination, were diligently inculcated to the legions 
 by the adherents of Constantine. The soldiers were 
 asked, whether they could hesitate a moment between 
 the honour of placing at their head the worthy son of 
 their beloved emperor, and the ignominy of tamely 
 expecting the arrival of some obscure stranger, on 
 whom it might please the sovereign of Asia to bestow 
 the armies and provinces of the westi It was insi- 
 nuated to them, that gratitude and liberality held a 
 distinguished place among the virtues of Constantine ; 
 nor did that artful prince show himself to the troops, 
 till they were prepared to salute him with the names 
 of Augustus and emperor. The throne was the object 
 of his desires ; and had he been less actuated by ambi- 
 tion, it was his only means of safety. He was well ac- 
 quainted with the character and sentiments of Galerius, 
 and sufficiently apprized, that if he wished to live he 
 must determine to reiofn. The decent and even obsti- 
 nate resistance which he chose to affect,*i was con- 
 trived to justify his usurpation ; nor did he yield to 
 the acclamations of the army, till he had provided the 
 proper materials for the letter, which he immediately 
 despatched to the emperor of the east. Constantine 
 informed him of the melancholy event of his father's 
 death, modestly asserted his natural claim to the suc- 
 cession, and respectfully lamented, that the affiBction- 
 ate violence of his troops had not permitted him to 
 solicit the imperial purple in the regular and constitu- 
 tional manner. The first emotions of Galerius were 
 those of surprise, disappointment, and rage ; and as 
 he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly threat- 
 ened, that he would commit to the flames both the let- 
 ter and the messenger. But his resentment insensibly 
 He ifl acknow- Subsided ; and when he recollected the 
 ledged by Gale- doubtful chauce of War, wlicu he weigh- 
 rius, who j,Mvea g^j the character and strength of his ad- 
 
 him only liie ti- , i. j * i *u^ 
 
 tieofCaisar, and vcrsary, he Consented to embrace the 
 that of Aui;u3- honourable accommodation which the 
 t.istoSeverus. pnidence of Constantine had left open 
 to him. Without either condemning or ratifying the 
 choice of the British army, Galerius accepted the son 
 of his deceased colleague, as the sovereign of the 
 provinces beyond the Alps ; but he gave him only the 
 title of Caesar, and the fourth rank among the Roman 
 princes, whilst he conferred the vacant place of Au- 
 gustus on his favourite Severus. The apparent har- 
 mony of the empire was still preserved, and Constan- 
 tine, who already possessed the substance, expected, 
 without impatience, an opportunity of obtaining the 
 honours, of supreme power.' 
 The brothers The children of Constantius by his' 
 and sisters of second marriage were six in number, 
 Constantine. ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^y^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^j^^^^ imperial 
 
 descent might have solicited a preference over the 
 meaner extraction of the son of Helena. But Con- 
 
 P Ciinctis qui nderant nnnitcntihus, sed prtecipue Croco (alii Eroco) 
 
 Alcinannorum rege, auxilii gratia Constantium comitate, iniperiiiin 
 
 r«pit. Victor Junior, c. 41. This is perhaps the first instance of a 
 
 > harharian king, who assisted the Roman arms with an independent 
 
 ' l)ody of his own subjects. The practice grew familiar, and at last 
 
 became fatal. 
 
 q His panegyrist Eunienius (vii. 8.) ventures to affirm, in the pre- 
 sence of Constantine, that he put spurs to his horse, and tried, but in 
 vain, to escape from the hands of his soldiers. 
 
 r Lactantiufl de iM. P. p. 25. Eumenius (vll. 8 ) gives a rhetorical 
 turn to the whole transaction. 
 
 stantine was in the thirty-second year of his age, in 
 the full vigour both of mind and body, at the time 
 when the eldest of his brothers could not possibly be 
 more than thirteen years old. His claim of superior 
 merit had been allowed and ratified by the dying em- 
 peror.* In his last moments, Constantius bequeathed 
 to his eldest son the care of the safety as well as great- 
 ness of the family; conjuring him to assume both the 
 authority and the sentiments of a father with regard to 
 the children of Theodora. Their liberal education, 
 advantageous marriages, the secure dignity of their 
 lives, and the first honours of the state with which 
 they were invested, attest the fraternal aflfection of 
 Constantine ; and as those princes possessed a mild 
 and grateful disposition, they submitted without re- 
 luctance to the superiority of his genius and fortune.' 
 II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius discontent of the 
 was scarcely reconciled to the disap- Roman* at the 
 pointment of his views upon the Gallic apprehension of 
 provinces, before the unexpected loss of 
 Italy wounded his pride as well as power in a still 
 more sensible part. The long absence of the ernpe- 
 rors had filled Rome with discontent and indignation ; 
 and the people gradually discovered, that the prefer- 
 ence given to Nicomedia and Milan, was not to be 
 ascribed to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but 
 to the permanent form of government which he had 
 instituted. It was in vain that, a few months after his 
 abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, 
 those magnificent baths, whose ruins still supply the 
 ground as well as the materials for so many churches 
 and convents." The tranquillity of those elegant re- 
 cesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impa- 
 tient murmurs of the Romans, and a report was insen- 
 sibly circulated, that the sums expended in erecting 
 those buildings would soon be required at their hands. 
 About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps the 
 exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a 
 very strict and rigorous inquisition into the property 
 of his subjects, for the purpose of a general taxation, 
 both on their lands and on their persons. A very mi- 
 nute survey appears to have been taken of their real 
 estates ; and whenever there was the slightest suspi- 
 cion of concealment, torture was very freely employed 
 to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal wealth.* 
 The privileges which had exalted Italy above the rank 
 of the provinces, were no longer regarded : and the 
 officers of the revenue already began to number the 
 Roman people, and to settle the proportion of the new 
 taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had been ut- 
 terly extinguished, the tamest subjects have some- 
 times ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion 
 of their property; but on this occasion the injury was 
 aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private in- 
 terest was quickened by that of national honour. The 
 conquest of Macedonia, as we have already observed, 
 had delivered the Roman people from the weight of 
 personal taxes. Though they had experienced every 
 form of despotism, they had now enjoyed that exemp- 
 tion near five hundred years ; nor could they patiently 
 brook the insolence of an Illyrian peasant, who, from 
 his distant residence in Asia, presumed to number 
 Rome among the tributary cities of his empire. The 
 
 • The choice of Constantine, by his dying father, which is war- 
 ranted hy reason, and insinuated by Eumenius, seems to be confirm- 
 ed by the most unexceptionable authority, liie concurring evidence 
 of Lactantius (de M. P. c.24.) and of Libanus, (Oration i.) of Euse- 
 bma (in Vit. Constantin. 1. i. c. 18, 21.) and of Julian (Oration i.) 
 
 t Of the three sisters of Constantine, Constantia married the empe- 
 ror Licinius, Anastasia the Cxsar Bassianus, and IJutropia the con* 
 sul Nepotianus. The three brothers were Dalmatius, Julius Con- 
 stantius. and Anibalianus, of whom we shall have occasion to speak 
 hereafter. 
 
 u See Gruter Inscrip. p. 178. The six princes are all mentioned, 
 Diocletian and Maximian as the senior Augusti. and fathers of the 
 emperors. They jointly dedicate, for the use of their own Romans, 
 this magnificent edifice. Tiie architects have delineated the ruins 
 of these thernue; and the antiquarians, particularly Donatus a"^ 
 Nardini, have ascertained the ground which they covered. One of 
 the great rooms is now the Carthusian church ; and even one of tl>* 
 porter's lodges is sufficient to form another church, which belougi 
 to the Feuillans. 
 
 z See Lactantius de M. P. c. 26, 31. 
 
 145 
 
 rising fury of the people was encouraged by the au- 
 thority, or at least the connivance, of the senate ; and 
 the feeble remains of the praetorian guards, who had 
 reason to apprehend their own dissolution, embraced 
 so honourable a pretence, and declared their readiness 
 to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed 
 coimtry. It was the wish, and it soon became the 
 hope, of every citizen, that after expelling from Italy 
 their foreign tyrants, they should elect a prince who, 
 by the place of his residence, and by his maxims of 
 government, might once more deserve the title of Ro- 
 man emperor. The name, as well as the situation, of 
 Maxentius, determined in his favour the popular en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 Maxentius dc- Maxentius was the son of the empe- 
 cia"d" e"mpcror ^0^ Maximian, and he had married the 
 at Rome, daughter of Galerius. His birth and 
 
 Oct?'28.^' alliance seemed to oflfer him the fairest 
 promise of succeeding to the empire ; 
 but his vices and incapacity procured him the same 
 exclusion from the dignity of Caesar, which Constan- 
 tine had deserved by a dangerous superiority of merit. 
 The policy of Galerius preferred such associates, as 
 would never disgrace the choice, nor dispute the 
 commands, of their benefactor. An obscure stranger 
 was therefore raised to the throne of Italy, and the 
 son of the late emperor of the west was left to enjoy 
 the luxury of a private fortune in a villa a few miles 
 distant from the capital. The gloomy passions of his 
 soul, shame, vexation, and rage, were inflamed by 
 envy on the news of Constantino's success ; but the 
 hopes of Maxentius revived with the public discon- 
 tent, and he was easily persuaded to unite his personal 
 injury and pretensions with the cause of the Roman 
 people. Two praetorian tribunes and a commissary 
 of provisions undertook the management of the con- 
 spiracy; and as every order of men was actuated by 
 the same spirit, the immediate event was neither 
 doubtful nor diflicult. The praefect of the city, and a 
 few magistrates, who maintained their fidelity to Seve- 
 rus, were massacred by the guards ; and Maxentius, 
 invested with the imperial ornaments, was acknow- 
 ledged by the applauding senate and people as the pro- 
 tector of the Roman freedom and dignity. It is un- 
 certain whether Maximian was previously acquainted 
 Maximian rcas- with the Conspiracy; but as soon as the 
 sumes the pur* Standard of rebellion was erected at 
 '''*'• . Rome, the old emperor broke from the 
 
 retirement where the authority of Diocletian had con- 
 demned hini to pass a life of melancholy solitude, and 
 concealed his returning ambition under the disguise of 
 paternal tenderness. At the request of his son and of 
 the senate, he condescended to re-assume the purple. 
 His ancient dignity, his experience, and his fame in 
 arms, added strength as well as reputation to the party 
 of Maxentius.y 
 Defeat and death According to the advice, or rather the 
 
 of Severus. orders, of his colleague, the emperor 
 Severus immediately hastened to Rome, in the full 
 confidence, that, by his unexpected celerity, he should 
 easily suppress the tumult of an unvvarlike populace, 
 commanded by a licentious youth. But he found on 
 his arrival the gates of the city shut against him, the 
 walls filled with men and arms, an experienced gen- 
 eral at the head of the rebels, and his own troops 
 without spirit or aflfection. A large body of Moors 
 deserted to the enemy, allured by the promise of a 
 ar^e donative ; and, if it be true that they had been 
 levied by Maximian in his African war, preferring the 
 natural feelings of gratitude to the artificial ties of 
 allegiance. Anulinus, the praetorian praefect, declared 
 himself in favour of Maxentius, and drew after him 
 the most considerable part of the troops, accustomed 
 
 y The sixth Panegyric represents the conduct of Maximian in the 
 
 niost favourable light; and the anibi{^uous expression of Aurelius 
 
 V irtor, " retractnnte diu," may sijrnifv, either that he contrived, or 
 
 Hat he opposed, th« conspiracy. See Zosimus, I. ii. p. 79. and Lac- 
 
 liniiiig, de M. P. c. 26. 
 
 Vol. J — ^T lo 
 
 to obey his commands. Rome, according to the ex- 
 pression of an orator, recalled her armies ; and the 
 unfortunate Severus, destitute of force and of counsel, 
 retired, or rather fled, with precipitation to Ravenna. 
 Here he might for some time have been safe. The 
 fortifications of Ravenna were able to resist the at- 
 tempts, and the morasses that surrounded the town 
 were suflicient to prevent the approach, of the Italian 
 army. The sea, which Severus commanded with a 
 powerful fleet, secured him an inexhaustible supply 
 of provisions, and gave a free entrance to the legions, 
 which, on the return of spring, would advance to his 
 assistance from Illyricum and the east. Maximian, 
 who conducted the siege in person, was soon convin- 
 ced that he might waste his time and his army in the 
 fruitless enterprise, and that he had nothing to hope 
 either from force or famine. With an art more suit- 
 able to the character of Diocletian than to his own, he 
 directed his attack, not so much against the walls of 
 Ravenna, as against the mind of Severus. The treach- 
 ery which he had experienced, di.«:posed that unhappy 
 prince to distrust the most sincere of his friends and 
 adherents. The emissaries of Maximian easily per- 
 suaded his credulity, that a conspiracy was formed to 
 betray the town, and prevailed upon his fears not to 
 expose himself to the discretion of an irritated conquer- 
 or, but to accept the faith of an honourable capitula- 
 tion. He was at first received with humanity, and 
 treated with respect. Maximian conducted the cap- 
 tive emperor to Rome, and gave him the most solemn 
 assurances that he had secured his life by the resig- 
 nation of the purple. But Severus could obtain onFy 
 an easy death and an imperial funeral. When the 
 sentence was signified to him, the man- » n -m- i;" k 
 ner of executing it was left to his own ^- ""**'• *^*'''- 
 choice; he preferred the favourite mode of the an- 
 cients, that of opening his veins ; and as- soon as he 
 expired, his body was carried to the sepulchre which 
 had been constructed for the family of Gallienus.* 
 Though the characters of Constantine „,• • „ • . 
 
 d-nit ^' t 1 1. 1 ^ . Ma Mmian gives 
 
 Maxentius had very little aflinity his daughter 
 
 with each other, their situation and in- Fa"s'a, and the 
 terest were the same; and prudence ;!,"^„lfan!rnf 
 seemed to require that they should unite a. d. :«7., 
 their forces against the common enemy. March 3i. 
 Notwithstanding the superiority of his age and dig- 
 nity, the indefatigable Maximian passed the Alps, anil 
 courting a personal interview with the sovereign of 
 Gaul, carried with him his daughter Fausta as a | 
 pledge of the new alliance. The marriage was cele- 
 brated at Aries with every circumstance of magnifi- 
 cence ; and the ancient colleague of Diocletian, who 
 again asserted his claim to the western empire, con- 
 ferred on his son-in-law and ally the title of Augustus. 
 By consenting to receive that honour from Maximian, 
 Constantine seemed to embrace the cause of Rome 
 and of the senate ; but his professions were ambiguous ; 
 and his assistance slow and ineflectual. He consid- 
 ered with attention the approaching contest between 
 the masters of Italy and the emperor of the east, and 
 was prepared to consult his own safety or ambition in 
 the event of the war.* 
 
 The importance of the occasion called Galerius invades 
 for the presence and abilities of Galer- ''a'y- 
 ius. At the head of a powerful army collected from 
 Illyricum and the east, he entered Italy, resolved to 
 revenge the death of Severus, and to chastise the re- 
 bellious Romans; or, as he expressed his intentions, in 
 the furious language of a barbarian, to extirpate the 
 senate, and to destroy the people by the sword. But 
 the skill of Maximian had concerted a prudent system 
 
 2 The circumstances of this war, and the death of Severus, are 
 very doul*tfiilly and variously told in our ancient fragments, (see 
 Tilleinont, Hist, des Enipereurs, torn. iv. part. i. p. 555.) I have en- 
 deavoured to extract from tliem a consistent and prohahle narration. 
 
 a The sixth panegyric was pronounced to celehrate the elevation 
 of Constantine ; but the prudent orator avoids the mention either of 
 Galerius or of Maxentius. He introduces only one slight allusion to 
 the actual troubles, and to the majesty of Rome. 
 
 y.^ 
 
146 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 « 
 
 ♦1 
 
 ♦^1 
 
 % 
 
 of defence. The invader found every place hostile, 
 fortified, and inaccessible ; and though he forced his 
 way as far as Narni, within sixty miles of Rome, his 
 dominion in Italy was confined to the narrow limits 
 of his camp. Sensible of the increasing ditficulties of 
 his enterprise, the haughty Galerius made the first 
 advances towards a reconciliation, and despatched 
 two of his most considerable officers to ten»j)t the Ro- 
 man princes by the offer of a conference, and the de- 
 claration of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who 
 might obtain much more from his liberality than he 
 could hope from the doubtful chance of war.'' The 
 offers of Galerius were rejected with firmness, his per- 
 fidious friendship refused with contempt, and it was 
 not long before he discovered, that, unless he provid- 
 ed for his safety by a timely retreat, he had some rea- 
 son to apprehend the fate of Severus. The wealth, 
 which the Romans defended against his rapacious 
 tyranny, they freely contributed for his destruction. 
 'I'he name of Maximian, the popular arts of his son, 
 the secret distribution of large sums, and the promise 
 of still more liberal rewards, checked the ardour, and 
 corrupted the fidelity, of the Illyrian legions; and 
 when Galerius at length gave the signal of the retreat, 
 it was with some difficulty that he could prevail on 
 his veterans not to desert a banner which had so often 
 conducted them to victory and honour. A contempor- 
 ary writer assigns two other causes fur the failure of 
 the expedition ; but they are both of such a nature, 
 that a cautious historian will scarcely venture to adopt 
 them. We are told that Galerius, who had formed a 
 very imperfect notion of the greatness of Rome by the 
 cities of the east, with which he was acquainted, 
 found his forces inadequate to the siege of that im- 
 mense capital. But the extent of a city serves only 
 to render it more accessible to the enemy ; Rome had 
 long since been accustomed to submit on the approach 
 of a conqueror; nor could the temporary enthusiasm 
 of the people have long contended against the disci- 
 pline and valour of the legions. We are likewise in- 
 formed, that the legions themselves were struck with 
 horror and remorse, and that those pious sons of the 
 republic refused to violate the sanctity of their vener- 
 able parent.*^ But when we recollect with how much 
 ease, in the more ancient civil w^ars, the zeal of party, 
 and the habits of military obedience, had converted 
 the native citizens of Rome into her most implacable 
 enemies, we shall be inclined to distrust this extreme 
 delicacy of strangers and barbarians, who had never 
 beheld Italy, till they entered it in a hositle manner. 
 Had they not been restrained by motives of a more 
 interested nature, they would probably have answer- 
 ed Galerius in the words of Caesar's veterans : " If our 
 general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tiber, 
 we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever 
 walls he has determined to level with the ground, our 
 hands are ready to work the engines ; nor shall we 
 hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome 
 itself." These are indeed the expressions of a poet; 
 but of a poet who has been distinguished, and even 
 censured, for his strict adherence to the truth of his- 
 tory.** 
 
 His retreat '^^® legions of Galerius exhibit a 
 
 very melancholy proof of their disposi- 
 tion, by the ravages which they committed in their re- 
 treat. They murdered, they ravaged, they plundered, 
 they drove away the flocks and herds of the Italians ; 
 
 b With regard to this ne<roriation, see the frnzinents of an nii 
 onyinous historian, publislied i)y Valesius at tlie end of liis ctliiion of 
 Amminnus Marrellinus, p. 711. Tlirse fragments have furnished us 
 with several curious, and, ns it should seem, authentic anecdotc:fi. 
 
 c Lactantius de M. P. r. 28. The former of tliesc reasons ia proh- 
 ably taken from Virgil's shepherd : " Illam ego huic nostrx' similem 
 Melibobe putavi." &c. Lactantius delights in these poetical allusions. 
 4 Castra super Tusci si poncre Tybridis undas ; (Jubeas) 
 Heeperios audax vcniam metator in azros. 
 Tu quoscumque voles in planum offeiidere muros, 
 His aries actus disperget saxn larertis ; 
 Ilia licst penitus tolli quam jusscris urbem 
 Roma sit. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 381. 
 
 they burnt the villages through which they passed, 
 and they endeavoured to destroy the country which it 
 had not been in their power to subdue. During the 
 whole march, Maxentius hung on their rear, but he 
 very prudently declined a general engagement with 
 those brave and desperate veterans. His father had 
 undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with the hope 
 of persuading Constantine, who had assembled an 
 army on the frontier, to join the pursuit, and to com- 
 plete the victory. But the actions of Constantine were 
 guided by reason, and not by resentment. He persis- 
 ted in the wise resolution of maintaining a balance of 
 power in the divided empire, and he no longer hated 
 Galerius, when that aspiring prince had ceased to be 
 an object of terror/ 
 
 The mind of Galerius was the most Elevation of Li- 
 susceptible of the sterner passions, but '^'"'"^ *° "'° ■'■"'' 
 
 . * , ! , ^ ' • oi Augustus, 
 
 It was not, however, incapable or a sin- a. d. 307. 
 cere and lasting friendship. Licinius, Nor. u. 
 whose manners as well as character were not unlike 
 his own, seems to have engaged both his affection and 
 esteem. Their intimacy had commenced in the hap- 
 })ier period perhaps of their youth and obscurity. It 
 had been cemented by the freedom and dangers of a 
 military life; they had advanced almost by equal 
 steps through the successive honours of the service; 
 and as soon as Galerius was invested with the im- 
 perial dignity, he seems to have conceived the design 
 of raising his companion to the same rank with him- 
 self. During the short period of his prosperity, he 
 considered the rank of Caesar as unworthy of the age 
 and merit of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for 
 him the place of Constantius, and the empire of the 
 west. While the emperor was employed in the Italian 
 war, he intrusted his friend with the defence of the 
 Danube; and immediately after his return from that 
 unfortunate expedition, he invested Licinius with the 
 vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate 
 command the provinces of Illyricum.' The news of 
 
 his promotion was no sooner carried into ^ .,, . . 
 41 * .1 nT • • I J andofMajimin. 
 
 the east, than Maximin, who governed, 
 or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, 
 betrayed his envy and discontent, disdained the infer- 
 ior name of Coesar, and, notwithstanding the prayers 
 as well as arguments of Galerius, exacted, almost by 
 violence, the equal title of Augustus.* For the first, 
 and indeed for the last time, the Roman world was 
 administered by six emperors. In the Six emperors, 
 west Constantine and Maxentius af- A. D. 308. 
 fected to reverence their father Maximian. In the 
 east, Licinius and Maximin honoured with more real 
 consideration their benefactor Galerius. The opposi- 
 tion of interest, and the memory of a recent war, di- 
 vided the empire into two great hostile powers : but 
 their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, 
 and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the 
 elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of 
 Galerius, gave a new direction to the views and pas- 
 sions of their surviving associates. 
 
 When Maximian had reluctantly ab- Misfortunes of 
 dicated the empire, the venal orators of Maximian. 
 the times applauded his philosophic moderation. 
 When his ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a 
 civil war, they returned thanks to his generous patri- 
 otism, and gently censured that love of ease and retire- 
 ment which had withdrawn him from the public ser- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 147 
 
 e Lactantius dc M. P. c. 27. Zosim. I. ii. p. 82. The latter insinu- 
 ates, that Constantine. in his interview with Maximian, had pro- 
 mised to declare war against Galerius. 
 
 f M. de 'I'illemont (Hist.des Empercurs,tom. iv. parti, p. 559.) has 
 proved, that Licinius, without passing through tJie intermediate 
 rank of Cipsar, was declared Augustus, the 11th of November, A. 
 D. :^07. after the return of Galerius from Italy. 
 
 g Lactantius de M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared Licinius 
 Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy hi.<» younger associates, by 
 inventing for Constantine and Maximin (not Maxentius, Bce Baluzc, 
 p. 81.) the new title of sons of the Augusti. But when Maximin ac 
 qiiainted liim that he had been saluted Augustus by the army, Gale- 
 rius was obliged to acknowledge him, as well as Constantine, as 
 equal associates in the imperial dignity. 
 
 vice.** But it was impossible that minds like those of 
 Maximian and his son could long possess in harmony 
 an undivided power. Maxentius considered himself as 
 the legal sovereign of Italy, elected by the Roman se- 
 nate and people ; nor woultl he endure the control of 
 the father, who arrogantly declared, that by his name 
 and abilities the rash youth had been established on 
 the throne. The cause was solemnly pleaded before 
 the praetorian guards, and those troops, who dreaded 
 the severity of the old emperor, expensed the party of 
 Maxentius.* The life and freedom of Maximian were 
 however respected, and he retired from Italy into Illy- 
 ricum, affecting to lament his past conduct, and secret- 
 ly contriving new mischiefs. But Galerius, who was 
 well acquainted with his character, soon obliged him 
 to leave his dominions, and the last refuge of the dis- 
 appointed Maximian was the court of his son-in-law 
 Constantine.'^ He w^as received with respect by that 
 artful prince, and with the appearance of filial tender- 
 ness by the empress Fausta. That he might remove 
 every suspicion, he resigned the imperial purple a se- 
 cond tiine,* professing himself at length convinced of 
 the vanity of greatness and ambition. Had he perse- 
 vered in this resolution, he might have ended his life 
 with less dignity, indeed, than in his first retirement, 
 yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But the 
 near prospect of a throne brought back to his remem- 
 brance the state from whence he was fallen, and he re- 
 solved, by a desperate effort, either to reign or to per- 
 ish. An incursion of the Franks had summoned Con- 
 stantine, with a part of his army, to the banks of the 
 Rhine; the remainder of the troops were stationed in 
 the southern provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to 
 the enterprises of the Italian emperor, and a consider- 
 able treasure was deposited in the city of Aries. Max- 
 imian either craftily invented, or hastily credited, a 
 vain report of the death of Constantine. Without 
 hesitation he ascended the throne, seized the treasure, 
 and scattering it with his accustomed profusion among 
 the soldiers, endeavoured to awake in their minds the 
 memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before 
 he could establish his authority, or finish the negocia- 
 tion which he appears to have entered into with his 
 son Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine defeated all 
 his hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and ingra- 
 titude, that prince returned by rapid marches from the 
 Rhine to the Saone, embarked on the last-mentioned 
 river at Chalons, and at Lyons trusting himself to the 
 rapidity of the Rhone, arrived at the gates of Aries, 
 with a military force which it was impossible for Max- 
 imian to resist, and which scarcely permitted him to 
 take refuge in the neighbouring city of Marseilles. 
 The narrow neck of land which joined that place to 
 the continent was fortified against the besiegers, whilst 
 the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, 
 or for the succours of Maxentius, if the latter should 
 choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul, under the 
 honourable pretence of defending a distressed, or as he 
 might allege, an injured father. Apprehensive of the 
 fatal consequences of delay, Constantine gave orders 
 for an immediate assault ; but the scaling-ladders were 
 found too short for the height of the walls, and Mar- 
 seilles might have sustained as long a siege as it for- 
 merly did against the arms of Caesar, if the garrison, 
 conscious either of their fault or of their danger, had 
 not purchased their pardon by delivering up the city 
 
 h Se<^ Panegyr. Vet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri liheram vocem, &.c. 
 the whole piiHsa^e is imagined with artful flattery, and expressed 
 Willi an easy flow of eloquence. 
 
 i Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. Zosim. I. ii. p. 82. A report was spread, 
 that Maxentius was the son of some ohscurc Syrian, and had lieen 
 siil'siituted hy the wife of Maximian hs her own child. See Aurclius 
 Victor, .'\noiiym. Valesian. and Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. 4. 
 
 k Ab urite pulsum, ah Italia fugatum, ab Illyrico repudlatum, tuis 
 provinciis, tuis copiis, tuo pal.ttio recepisti. Eumen. in Pane-'vr 
 Vet. vii. 14. "^^ ' 
 
 I Lactantius de M. P. r. 29. Yet after the resignation of tiic 
 purple, Constantine still continued to Maximian the pomp and ho- 
 nours of the imperial dignity ; and, on all public occisions, gave the 
 right hand place to his father-in-law. Panepvr. Vet. vii. 15. 
 
 and person of Maximian. A secret but ^is death 
 irrevocable sentence of death was pro- A. D.3id! 
 nounced against the usurper, he obtained February, 
 only the same favour which he had indulged to Seve- 
 rus, and it was published to the world, that, oppres- 
 sed by the remorse of his repeated crimes, he strangled 
 himself with his own hands. After he had lost the as- 
 sistance, and disdained the moderate counsels, of Dio- 
 cletian, the second period of his active life was a series 
 of public calamities and personal mortifications, which 
 vvere terminated, in about three years, by an ignomi- 
 nious death. He deserved his fate; but we should find 
 more reason to applaud the humanity of Constantine, 
 if he had spared an old man, the benefactor of his fa- 
 ther, and the father of his wife. During the whole of 
 this melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta sa- 
 crificed the sentiments of nature to her conjugal du- 
 ties." ** 
 
 The last years of Galerius were less n^ h f 
 shameful and unfortunate; and though GaKriua. 
 he had filled with more glory the subor- A. D. 311. 
 dinate station of Caesar than the superior ^^^^' 
 rank of Augustus, he preserved, till the moment of his 
 death, the first place among the princes of the Roman 
 world. He survived his retreat from Italy about four 
 years, and wisely relinquishing his views of universal 
 empire, he devoted the remainder of his life to the en- 
 joyment of pleasure, and to the execution of some 
 works of public utility, among which we may distin- 
 guish the discharging into the Danube the superfluous 
 waters of the lake Pelso,and the cutting down the im- 
 mense forests that encompassed it ; an operation wor- 
 thy of a monarch, since it gave an extensive country 
 to the agriculture of his Pannonian subjects." His 
 death was occasioned by a very painful and lingering 
 disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course 
 oflifetoan unwieldy corpulence, was covered with 
 ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those 
 irisects who have given their name to a most loathsome 
 disease ;° but as Galerius had offended a very zealous 
 and powerful party among his subjects, his sufferings, 
 instead of exciting their compassion, have been cele- 
 brated as the visible effects of divine justice.? He had 
 no sooner expired in his palace of Nicomedia, than the 
 two emperors who were indebted for their jjj^ , . . 
 purple to his favour, began to collect their sharcdTeTween 
 forces, with the intention either of dis- Maximin and Li- 
 puting or of dividing, the dominions '^'"'"''• 
 which he had left without a master. They were per- 
 suaded, however, to desist from the former design, and 
 to agree in the latter. The provinces of Asia^'fell to 
 the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented 
 the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thra- 
 
 m Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. Eumerius in Pane-.'yr. Vet. vii. 16—91. The 
 latter of these h.is undoubtedly represented the whole adair in the 
 most favouralle light for his sovereign. Vet even from this partial 
 narrative we may conclude, that the repeated clemency of Constan- 
 tine, ami the reiterated treasons of Maximian, as tliev are described 
 by r.actantius, (de M. P. c. 29, :iO.) and copied by tlie moderns, are 
 destitute of any historicnl tbiiiidation. 
 
 [Nevertheless some Paoan authors relate them, and give credit to 
 them. Aurelius Victor says, speaking of Maximian : Cumque specie 
 officii, dolis composilis, Constantinum generum tentaret accrbe, jure 
 tamen interierat, (Aurel. Victor de C:rs:ir. vol. 1. p. 023.) Eutropius 
 s.iys also.Indcad Oallias profoctus est (Maximianus)dolocomposilo, 
 tanquam a filio essot expulsii.s, ut Constantino genero jungeretur; 
 •nolicns tamen Coii.'Jtantinuni reperta occasione interficerc, poenas 
 dedit jusiissimoexilu. (Eutropius vol. i. book i. p. G61.) (Anon 
 gentl.)— «.] 
 
 n Aurelius Victor, c. 40. But tlint lake was situated on the Upper 
 Pannonia, near the border.'? of Norirum ; and the province of Vale- 
 ria (a name which the wife of Galerius gave to the drained country) 
 undoulitedly lay between the Drave and the Danube. (Sextus Rufiis, 
 c. 9.) I should therefore suspect that Victor has confounded the 
 lake Pelso with the Volocean mnrsbes, or. ,ns thev are now called, 
 the lake Sabaton. Ii is placed in the heart of Valeria, and its present 
 extent is not less than 12 Hungarian miles (altout 70 English) in 
 length, and two in breadth. See Sevcrini Pannonia, I. i. c. !l. 
 
 o Lactantius (de M. P. c. 33.) and Eusebins (I. viii. c. 16.) descrilie 
 the symptoms and progress of his disorder with singular accuracy 
 and apparent pleasure. 
 
 P If any (like the late Dr. Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, vol. ii. p. .?07— 35fi.) still delight in recording the wondt'rful 
 deaths of the persecutors. I would recommend to their perusal an 
 admirable passage of Grotius, (Hist. I. vii. p. 332.) concerning tli« 
 last illness of Pliilip 11. of Spain. 
 
 jr ^^.^^^ 
 
 11^kax,L '"H^.^y^ 
 
148 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 cian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the 
 banks of those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst 
 of the Roman world, were covered with soldiers, with 
 arms, and with fortifications. The deaths of Maximi- 
 an and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors to 
 four. The sense of their true interest soon connected 
 Licinius and Constantine; a secret alliance was con- 
 cluded between Maximin and Maxentius, and their un- 
 happy subjects expected, with terror, the bloody conse- 
 quences of their inevitable dissensions, which were no 
 longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they 
 had entertained for Galerius.i 
 
 Administration Amonjr SO many crimes and misfor- 
 of Cunstantine tunes, occasioncd by the passions of the 
 * A^D ''30c— 31' '^^"™^" princes, there is some pleasure in 
 ■ " discoverinnr a single action which may 
 be ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth year of his 
 reign, Constantine visited the city of Autun, and gene- 
 rously remitted the arrears of tribute, reducing al the 
 same time the proportion of their assessme'nt from 
 twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to the 
 real and personal capitation.' Yet even this indul- 
 gence affords the most unquestionable proof of the 
 public misery. This tax was so extremely oppressive, 
 either in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that 
 whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was 
 diminished by despair: a considerable part of the terri- 
 tory of Autun was left uncultivated ; and great numhers 
 of the provincials rather chose to live as exiles and 
 outlaws, than to support the weight of civil society. It 
 is but too probable, that the bountiful emperor reliev- 
 ed, by a partial act of liberality, one among the many 
 evils which he had caused by his general maxims 
 of administration. But even those maxims were less 
 the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we ex- 
 cept the death of Maximian, the reign of Constantine in 
 Gaul seems to have been the most innocent and even 
 virtuous period of his life. The provinces were pro- 
 tected by his presence from the inroads of the barbari- 
 ans, who either dreaded or experienced his active va- 
 lour. After a signal victory over the Franks and Ale- 
 manni, several of their provinces were exposed by his 
 order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves, 
 I and the people seemed to have enjoyed the spectacle, 
 I without discovering, in such a treatment of royal cap- 
 . tives, anything that was repugnant to the laws of na- 
 tions or of humanity." 
 
 Tyranny of Max- "^^^^^ virtues of Constantine were ren- 
 entius in Italy dered more illustrious by the vices of 
 "a D*^'Si-3i'> Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic pro- 
 "■ vinces enjoyed as much happiness as 
 the condition of the times was capable of receivin«T, 
 Italy and Africa groaned under the dominion of a ty- 
 rant, as contemptible as he was odious. The zeal of 
 flattery and faction has indeed too frequently sacrificed 
 the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their 
 successful rivals; but even those writers^vho have re- 
 vealed, with the most freedom and pleasure, the faults 
 of Constantine, unanimously confess, that Maxentius 
 was cruel, rapacious, and profligate.* He had the 
 good fortune to suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. 
 The governor and a few adherents had been guilty ; 
 the province suffered for their crime. The flourishino- 
 cities of Cirtha and Carthage, and the whole extent of 
 that fertile country, were wasted by fire and sword. 
 The abuse of victory was followed by the abuse of law 
 and justice. A formidable army of sycophants and 
 delators invaded Africa ; the rich and the noble were 
 easily convicted of a connexion with the rebels; and 
 
 q See Eusebius. I. ix. 6. 10. I.actantius de M. P. c. 36. Zosiinusis 
 less exact, and evidently confounds Mn.\irnian with Maximin 
 
 r See the eighth Panegyr. in which Eumenins displays, in tjie nre- 
 Mnce of Constantine, the misery and the gratitude of the city of Au- 
 tun. 
 
 f . Eutropius,x.3. Panesyr. Voter, vii. 10-12. A great number of 
 the French youth were likewise exposed to the same cruel and icno 
 minious death. " 
 
 t Julian excludes Maxentius from the banquet of tlie Cirgars with 
 abhorrence and contempt; and Zo«imu8 (I. ii. p. 85.) accuses him of 
 every kind of cruelly and profligacy. ^ »* -' • 
 
 those among them who experienced the emperor's 
 clemency, were only punished by the confiscation of 
 their estates." So signal a victory was celebrated by 
 a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the 
 eyes of the people the spoils and captives of a Roman 
 province. The state of the capital was no less de- 
 serving of compassion than that of Africa. The wealth 
 of Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund for his vain 
 and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his reve- 
 nue were skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under 
 his reign that the method of exacting a free gift from 
 the senators was first invented ; and as the sum was 
 insensibly increased, the pretences of levying it, a 
 victory, a birth, a marriage, or an imperial consulship, 
 \vere proportionably multiplied." Maxentius had im- 
 bibed the same implacable aversion to the senate which 
 had characterized most of the former tyrants of Rome: 
 nor was it possible for his ungrateful temper to forgive 
 the generous fidelity which had raised him to the 
 throne, and supported him against all his enemies. 
 The lives of the senators were exposed to his jealous 
 suspicions, the dishonour of their wives and daughters 
 heightened the gratification of his sensual passions.^ 
 It maybe presumed, that an imperial lover was seldom 
 reduced to sigh in vain; but whenever persuasion 
 proved ineffectual, he had recourse to violence ; and 
 there remains one memorable example of a noble ma- 
 tron, who preserved her chastity by a voluntary death. 
 The soldiers were the only order of men whom he ap- 
 peared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome 
 and Italy with armed troops, connived at their tumults, 
 suffered them with impunity to plunder, and even to 
 massacre, the defenceless people ; ' and indulging them 
 in the same licentiousness which their emperor enjoy- 
 ed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military favour- 
 ites the splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a sena- 
 tor. A prince of such a character, alike incapable of 
 governing either in peace or in war, might purchase 
 the support, but he could never obtain the esteem, of 
 the army. Yet his pride was equal to his other vices. 
 Whilst he passed his indolent life, cither within the 
 \yalls of his palace, or in the neighbouring gardens of 
 Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare, that Ae 
 ahne was emperor, and that the other princes were no 
 more tJian his lieutenants, on whom he had devolved 
 the defence of the frontier provinces, that he might en- 
 joy without interruption the elegant luxury of the capi- 
 tal. Rome, which had so long regretted the absence, 
 lamented, during the six years of his reign, the pre- 
 sence of her sovereign.* 
 
 Though Constantine might view the Civil war bo- 
 conduct of Maxentius with abhorrence, *^^<'^'" <^on- 
 and the situation of the Romans with Maxe ".'««?'"' 
 compassion, we have no reason to pre- A. D. 3i'i. 
 sumc that he would have taken up arms to punish the 
 one, or to relieve the other. But the tyrant of Italy 
 rashly ventured to provoke a formidable enemy, whose 
 ambition had been hitherto restrained by considerations 
 of prudence, rather than by principles of justice.'' Af- 
 ter the death of Maximian, his titles, according to the 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 u '/osimus, !. ii. p. 83— F5. Aurclius Victor. 
 
 % The passage of Aurelius Victor should lie read in the following 
 manner : Primus institulo pessimo, wiMncrj/jn specie, patres oratores- 
 que pecuninm confurre prodiL'enti sibi coj;eret. 
 
 y Pane}:yr. Vet. ix. 3. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. viii. 14. et in Vii. 
 Constant. 1. 33, 34. Rufinus, c. 17. The virtuous matron who 
 stabbed herself to escape the violence of Maxentius. was a christian, 
 wife to the pra-fect of llie city, and her name was Sophronia. It 
 still remains a question among the casuists, Whether, on such occa- 
 sions, suicide is justilial>Ie ? 
 
 z Pra'torianis crdem vulgi quondam annuerel, is the vague ex* 
 pression of Aurelius Victor. See more particular, though somewhat 
 ditferent, accounts of a tumult and massacre which hannened at 
 Rome, in Eusebius. (I. viii. c. 14.) and in Zoaimus. (I. ii. p 84 ) 
 
 a ^ee in the Panegyrics, (ix. 14.) a lively description of the Indo 
 lence and vain pride of Maxentius. In another place, the orator ob- 
 serves, that the riches which Rome had accumulated in a period of 
 1060 years, were lavished by tlie tyrant on his mercenary bands; 
 redemptisad civile latrociniiim manibiis ingesseial. 
 
 b After the victory of Constantine, it was universally allowed, 
 that the motive of delivering the republic from a detested tyrant, 
 woubl, at any time, have justified his expedition into Italy Euseb. 
 u\ Vit. Conatantin. I. i. c. 26. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. 
 
 established custom, had been erased, and his statues 
 thrown down with ignominy. His son, who had per- 
 secuted and deserted him when alive, affected to dis- 
 play the most pious regard to his memory, and gave 
 orders that a similar treatment should be immediately 
 inflicted on all the statues that had been erected in 
 Italy and Africa to the honour of Constantine. That 
 wise prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, 
 with the difficulty and importance of which he was 
 sufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, 
 and sought for redress by the milder expedients of 
 negociation, till he was convinced that the hostile and 
 ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it ne- 
 cessary for him to arm in his own defence. Maxen- 
 tius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole 
 monarchy of the west, had already prepared a very 
 considerable force to invade the Gallic provinces on 
 the side of Rhsetia ; and though he could not expect 
 any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the 
 hope that the legions of lUyricum, allured by his pre- 
 sents and promises, w^ould desert the standard of that 
 prince, and unanimously declare themselves his sol- 
 diers and subjects.<= Constantine no longer hesitated. 
 He had deliberated with caution, he acted with vigour. 
 He gave a private audience to the ambassadors, who, 
 in the name of the senate and people, conjured him to 
 deliver Rome from a detested tyrant ; and, without re- 
 garding the timid remonstrances of his council, he re- 
 solved to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into 
 the heart of Italy .«> 
 
 Preparations. ^^^ enterprise was as full of danger 
 as ot glory ; and the unsuccessful event 
 of two former invasions was suflicient to inspire the 
 most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops who 
 revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both 
 those wars the party of his son, and were now restrain- 
 ed by a sense of honour, as well as of interest, from 
 entertaining an idea of a second desertion. Maxen- 
 tius, who considered the praetorian guards as the firm- 
 est defence of his throne, had increased them to their 
 ancient establishment ; and they composed, including 
 the rest of the Italians who were enlisted into his ser- 
 vice, a formidable body of fourscore thousand men. 
 Forty thousand Moors and Carthaginians had been 
 raised since the reduction of Africa. Even Sicily fur- 
 nished its proportion of troops ; and the armies of 
 Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy 
 thousand foot, and eighteen thousand horse. The 
 wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war ; and 
 the adjacent provinces were exhausted, to form im- 
 mense magazines of corn and every other kind of pro- 
 visions. 
 
 The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety 
 thousand foot and eight thousand horse ; « and as the 
 defence of the Rhine required an extraordinary atten- 
 tion during the absence of the emperor, it was not in 
 his power to employ above half his troops in the 
 Italian expedition, unless he sacrificed the public 
 safety to his private quarrel.' At the head of about 
 lorty thousand soldiers, he marched to encounter an 
 enemy whose numbers were at least four times supe- 
 rior to his own. But the armies of Rome, placed at a 
 secure distance from danger, were enervated by indul- 
 
 149 
 
 c Zosiinus, I. ii. p. 84, 8.1. Nazarius in Panegyr. x. 7—13. 
 
 nnn ««? "V^ey Vet. ix. 2. Omnibus fere tuis comitibus et ducibus 
 rnn-fr T* ■*^'^® mussantibuB, sed etiam aperte timentibus ; contra 
 !i J^f. 1''^ noniinum, contra haruspicum monita.ipse per temct liberan- 
 tl^!- l^'"P"s venisse scntires. The embassy of the Romans is 
 
 K'ro-n7'.^ »;y Zonaras (I. x^ii.) and by CedJenus, (in crpeni! 
 I I. inl \;:^-^- »'»f/'''>««n.'«'lern Greeks had the opportunity of con 
 siming many writers which have since been lost, amou'^ which we 
 
 nay reckon the life of Constantine by Praxagoras. Photius n 6^^ 
 "as made a short extract from that historical work. '' 
 
 fftr.« "'i!"^J' ''■ •'• ^-^ ''•''*' S'^*^" "^ *'''« '^"'•ious account of the 
 orceson both sides. He makes no mention of any nnv.il armaments 
 bough we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25.) that the war wis ca?-' 
 
 if^b. -^ ^^'^ ^^ ^'®" "^ ''y '•''"<^ ; •'•"d ^^^^ t'»e fleet of Constantine 
 «ook possession ot Sardinia. Corsica, and the ports of Italy 
 
 dimin^K''" ^®^' J*- ^- . J' '8 n.ol surprising that the orator should 
 au?.» Lf tV'^ ""I"*'*.'''' ""'•' 'v*'"^" ''"s sovereign achieved the con 
 tP.r.1 ^^ • .""* " appears somewhat singular, that he should es 
 letm the tyrant's army at no more thanlOO.OOO men. ^ ^. , | 
 
 gence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and thea- 
 tres of Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and 
 were chiefly composed of veterans who had almost for- 
 gotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the 
 use of arms, and the practice of war. The hardy le- 
 gions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the 
 empire against the barbarians of the north; and in the 
 performance of that laborious service, their valour was 
 exercised, and their discipline confirmed. There ap- 
 peared the same difference between the leaders as be- 
 tween the armies. Caprice or flattery had tempted 
 Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but these 
 aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of plea- 
 sure and the consciousness of his inexperience. The 
 intrepid mind of Constantine had been trained from his 
 earliest youth to war, to action, and to militarv com- 
 mand. ■^ 
 
 When Hannibal marched from Gaul constantine pas.- 
 into Italy, he was obliged, first to disco- es the Alps, 
 ver, and then to open, a way over mountains and 
 through savage nations, that had never yielded a pas- 
 sage to a regular army,^ The Alps were then guarded 
 by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels con- 
 structed with no less skill than labour and expense, 
 command every avenue into the plain, and on that side 
 render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies of the 
 king of Sardinia.^ But in the course of the interme- 
 diate period, the generals, who have attempted the pas- 
 sage, have seldom experienced any difficulty or resist- 
 ance. In the age of Constantine, the peasants of the 
 mountains were civilized and obedient subjects ; the 
 country was plentifully stocked with provisions, and 
 the.^tupendous highways, which the Romans had car- 
 ried over the Alps, opened several communications 
 between Gaul and Italy.' Constantine preferred the 
 road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of 
 mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active dili- 
 gence, that he descended into the plain of Piedmont 
 before the court of Maxentius had received any cer- 
 tam intelligence of his departure from the banks of the 
 Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated 
 at the foot of mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, 
 and provided with a garrison sufficiently numerous to 
 check the progress of an invader ; but the impatience 
 of Constantine's troops disdained the tedious forms 
 of a siege. The same day that they appeared before 
 Susa, they applied fire to the gates, and ladders to the 
 walls ; and mounting to the assault amidst a shower 
 of stones and arrows, they entered the place sword in 
 hand, and cut in pieces the greatest part of the garri- 
 son. The flames were extinguished by the care of 
 Constantine, and the remains of Susa preserved from 
 total destruction. About forty miles from thence, a 
 more severe contest awaited him. A 
 numerous army of Italians was assem- '^'"^''' »'*i'""n. 
 bled under the lieutenants of Maxentius, in the plains 
 of Turin. Its principal strength consisted in a species 
 of heavy cavalry, which the Romans, since the decline 
 of their discipline, had borrowed from the nations of 
 the east. The horses, as well as the men, were clothed 
 in com))lete armour, the joints of which were artfully 
 adapted to the motions of their bodies. The aspect 
 of this cavalry was formidable, their weight almost 
 irresistible ; and as, on this occasion, their generals 
 had drawn them up in a compact column or wedge, 
 with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they 
 flattered themselves that they should easily break and 
 
 B The three principal passages of the Alps between Gaul and Ifalv 
 are those of mount St. Bernard, mount Cenis, and mount Gemvre 
 Tradition, and a resemblance of names, {Mpes Pciniina;,) had assign- 
 ed tite first of tliese for the march of Hannibal. (Sec Siniler de Al- 
 pibus.) The Chevalier de Folard, (Polyb. toni. ii.) .nrid M. d'Anville 
 have led him over mount Genevre. Kut notwitlislandinjjthe autho-' 
 rity of an experienced oflicer and a learned geographer, the preten- 
 sions of mount Cenis are supported in a specious, not to say a con- 
 vincing, manwer by M. Grosley. Observations sur ritalie. tom i n 
 40, &c. ' ' *^' 
 
 h La Brunette near Suse, Demont, Exiles, Fenedtrelics, ConI tc 
 i See Ammian. Marcellin. xv. 10. His descrijuion of" the roads 
 over the Alps is clear, lively, and accurate. 
 
150 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I5J 
 
 % 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 trample down the army of Constantine. They might, 
 perhaps, have succeeded in their design, had not their 
 experienced adversary embraced the same method of 
 defence, which in similar circumstances had been prac- 
 tised by Aurelian. The skilful evolutions of Constan- 
 / tine divided and baffled this massy column of cavalry. 
 The troops of Maxentius fled in confusion towards 
 Turin ; and as the gates of the city were shut against 
 them, very few escaped the sword of the victorious pur- 
 suers. By this important service, Turin deserved to 
 experience the clemency and even favour of the con- 
 queror. He made his entry into the imperial palace of 
 Milan, and almost all the cities of Italy between the 
 Alps and the Po not only acknowledged the power, 
 but embraced with zeal the party, of Constantine.'' 
 Sieee and battle From Milan to Rome, the ^Emilian 
 of Verona. and Flaminian highways offered an easy 
 march of about four hundred miles ; but though Con- 
 stantine was impatient to encounter the tyrant, he pru- 
 dently directed his operations against another army of 
 Italians, who, by their strength and position, might 
 either oppose his progress, or in case of a misfortune, 
 might intercept his retreat. Ruricus Pompeianus, a 
 general distinguished by his valour and ability, had 
 under his command the city of Verona, and all the 
 troops that were stationed in the province of Venetia. 
 As soon as he was informed that Constantine was ad- 
 vancing towards him, he detached a large body of 
 cavalry, which was defeated in an engagement near 
 Brescia, and pursued by the Gallic legions as far as 
 the gates of Verona. The necessity, the importance, 
 and the difficulties of the siege of Verona, immediate- 
 ly presented themselves to the sagacious mind of Con- 
 stantino.^ The city was accessible only by a narrow 
 peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides 
 were surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river which 
 covered the province of Venetia, from whence the be- 
 sieged derived an inexhaustible supply of men and 
 provisions. It was not without great difficulty, and 
 after several fruitless attempts, that Constantine found 
 means to pass the river at some distance above the 
 city, and in a place where the torrent was loss violent. 
 He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, push- 
 ed his attacks with prudent vigour, and repelled a 
 desperate sally of Pompeianus. That intrepid gen- 
 eral, when he had used every means of defence that 
 the strength of the place or that of the garrison could 
 afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for 
 his own but for the public safety. With indefatigable 
 diligence he soon collected an army sufficient either to 
 meet Constantine in the field, or to attack him if he 
 obstinately remained within his lines. The emperor, 
 attentive to the motions, and informed of the approach, 
 of so formidable an enemy, left a part of his legions 
 to continue the operations of the siege, whilst, at the 
 head of those troops on whose valour and fidelity he 
 more particularly depended, he advanced in person to 
 engage the general of Maxentius. The army of Gaul 
 was drawn up in two linos, according to the usual 
 practice of war ; but their experienced leader per- 
 ceiving that the numbers of the Italians far exceeded 
 his own, suddenly changed his position, and, reducing 
 the second, extended the front of his first line to a 
 just proportion with that of the enemy. Such evolu- 
 tions, which only veteran troops can execute without 
 confusion in a moment of danger, commonly prove de- 
 cisive ; but as this engagement began towards the 
 close of the day, and was contested with groat ob- 
 stinacy during the whole night, there was le«s room 
 for the conduct of the generals than for the courage of 
 
 the soldiers. The return of light displayed the victo- 
 ry of Constantine, and a field of carnage covered with 
 many thousands of the vanquished Italians. Their 
 general, Pompeianus, was found among the slain; 
 Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the 
 garrison was made prisoners of war.™ When the oflH- 
 cers of the victorious army congratulated their master 
 on this important success, they ventured to add some 
 respectful complaints, of such a nature, however, as 
 the most jealous monarchs will listen to without dis- 
 pleasure. They represented to Constantine, that, not 
 contented with performing all the duties of a com- 
 mander, he had exposed his own person with an ex- 
 cess of valour which almost degenerated into rash- 
 ness ; and they conjured him for the future to pay more 
 regard to the preservation of a life, in which the safe- 
 ty of Rome and of the empire was involved." 
 
 While Constantine signalized his con- indolence and 
 duct and valour in the field, the sove- fears of Maxen- 
 reign of Italy appeared insensible of the *'""• 
 calamities and danger of a civil war which raged in 
 the heart of his dominions. Pleasure was still the 
 only business of Maxentius. Concealing, or at least 
 attempting to conceal, from the public knowledge the 
 misfortunes of his arms,** he indulged himself in a 
 vain confidence, which deferred the remedies of the 
 approaching evil, without deferring the evil itself.P 
 The rapid progress of Constantine i was scarcely suf- 
 ficient to awaken him from this fatal security; he 
 flattered himself, that his well-known liberality, and 
 the majesty of the Roman name, which had already 
 delivered him from two invasions, would dissipate 
 with the same facility the rebellious army of Gaul. 
 The officers of experience and ability, who had served 
 under the banners of Maximian, were at length com- 
 pelled to inform his effeminate son of the imminent 
 danger to which he was reduced ; and, with a freedom 
 that at once surprised and convinced him, to urge the 
 necessity of preventing his ruin, by a vigorous exer- 
 tion of his remaining power. The resources of Max- 
 entius, both of men and money, were still considera- 
 ble. The praetorian guards felt how strongly their own 
 interest and safety were connected with his cause; 
 and a third army was soon collected, more numerous 
 than those which had been lost in the battles of Turin 
 and Verona. It was far from the intention of the em- 
 peror to lead his troops in person. A stranger to the 
 exercises of war, he trembled at the apprehension of 
 so dangerous a contest ; and as fear is commonly 
 superstitious, he listened with melancholy attention 
 to the rumours of omens and presages which seemed 
 to menace his life and empire. Shame at length sup- 
 plied the place of courage, and forced him to take the 
 field. He was unable to sustain the contempt of the 
 Roman people. The circus resounded with their in- 
 dignant clamours, and they tumultuously besieged the 
 gales of the palace, reproaching the pusillanimity of 
 their indolent sovereign, and celebrating the heroic 
 spirit of Constantine.'" Before Maxentius left Rome, 
 he consulted the Sibylline books. The guardians of 
 these ancient oracles wore as well versed in the arts ot 
 this world as they were ignorant of the secrets of fate; 
 and they returned him a very prudent answer, which 
 might adapt itself to the event, and secure their repu- 
 tation whatever should be the chance of arms.* 
 
 k Zosinius as well as Eusehiu.-? hasten from tlie passage of tlie 
 Alps to the decisive anion near R;inio. We must apply to tlie two 
 Panegyrirs, for tlie intermediate actions of Constantine. 
 
 I The Marquis Maflei has examined the siejre and battle of Verona 
 with tliat degree of att«Mition and accuracy which was due to a nic 
 morable action that happened in his native country. The fortifica 
 lions of that city, constructed by Callionus, were less extensive than 
 the modern walls, and the amphitheatre was not included within 
 tlieir rircumference. See Verona IlIustratH, part. i. p. 142, 150. 
 
 ni They wanted chains for so preat a multitude of captives ; and 
 the wliole council was at a loss; but the sagacious conqueror ima 
 pined the hapjty expedient of converting into fetters the swords of 
 the vanquiihod. l'ane{,'yr. Vet. ix. 11. 
 
 II Paneiiyr. Vet. ix. 10. 
 
 o Literascalamitatum suarum indices supprimebat. Panegyr. Vet. 
 ix. ir». 
 
 P Kemedia malorum potius quam mala differebat, is tlie fine ren 
 sure which 'I'aciius passes on the supine indolence of Vitellitis. 
 
 q The Marquis Matfei has made it extremely probable that Con 
 stantine was still at Verona, the 1st of September, A D. 312, and 
 ihat the memoruble a«rn of the indictions was dated from his con 
 (jucst of the Cisalpine Gaul. 
 
 r See Panesyr. Vet. xi. 16. Lactanlius de M. P. c. 44. 
 
 t lllo die hostem Romanoruni esse periturum. The vanquished 
 prince became of course the enemy of Rome. 
 
 Victory of Con- The Celerity of Constantino's march 
 Rome"^ "^" ^^^ ^®^" compared to the rapid conquest 
 A. b. 312. of Italy by the first of the Caesars ; nor 
 28th Oct. is the flattering parallel repugnant to the 
 truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days 
 elapsed between the surrender of Verona and'^the final 
 decision of the war. Constantine had always appre- 
 hended that the tyrant would consult the dictates of 
 fear, and perhaps of prudence ; and that, instead of 
 risking his last hopes in a general engagement, he 
 would shut himself up within the walls of Rome. 
 His aniple magazines secured him against the danger 
 of famine; and as the situation of Constantino admit- 
 ted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the 
 sad necessity of destroying with fire and sword the 
 imperial city, the noblest reward of his victory, and 
 the deliverance of which had been the motive, or 
 rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war.* It was 
 with equal surprise and pleasure, that on his arrival at 
 a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from 
 Rome," he discovered the army of Maxentius pre- 
 pared to give him battle.^ Their long front filled a 
 very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to 
 the banks of the Tyber, which covered their rear, and 
 forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may 
 believe, that Constantine disposed his troops with 
 consummate skill, and that he chose for himself the 
 post of honour and danger. Distinguished by the 
 splendour of his arms, he charged in person the cav- 
 alry of his rival ; and his irresistible attack deter- 
 mined the fortune of the day. The cavalry of Max- 
 entius was principally composed either of unwieldy 
 cuirassiers, or of light Moors and Numidians. They 
 yielded to the vigour of the Gallic horse, which pos- 
 sessed more activity than the one, more firmness than 
 the other. The defeat of the two wings left the in- 
 fantry without any. protection on its flanks, and the un- 
 disciplined Italians fled without reluctance from the 
 standard of a tyrant w^hom they had always Jiated, 
 and whom they no longer feared. The praetorians, 
 conscious that their oflfences were beyond the reach of 
 mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Not- 
 withstanding their repeated efforts, those brave vete- 
 rans were unable to recover the victory ; they obtain- 
 ed, however, an honourable death ; and it was ob- 
 served that their bodies covered the same ground 
 which had been occupied by their ranks.y The con- 
 fusion then became general, and the dismayed troops 
 of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy, rush- 
 ed by thousands into the deep and rapid stream of the 
 Tyber. The emperor himself attempted to escape 
 back into the city over the Milvian bridge, but the 
 crowds which pressed together through that narrow 
 passage, forced him into the river, where he was im- 
 mediately drowned by the weight of his armour.^ His 
 body, which had sunk very deep into the mud, was 
 found with some difficulty the next day. The si^ht 
 of his head, when it was exposed to the eyes of the 
 people, convinced them of their deliverance, and ad- 
 
 „,1 r ^^r^-.y^- ^®*' •'• ^^•^- ^'- The former of ihe.se orators 
 niasmfies the hoards of corn, which Maxentius had collected from 
 Airica and the islands. And yet, if there is any truth in the scarcity 
 mentioned by Lusebius, (in Vit. Constantin. I. i. c. 36.) the imperial 
 granaries must have been open only to the soldiers. 
 
 u Maxentius . . . tandem urbe in Saxa Rubra, miilia ferme novcm 
 «scrrmie progressus. Aurelius Victor. See Cellarius Geo<'ranh 
 Antiq. torn. i. p. 463. Saxa Rubra was in the nciRhbourhood^of the 
 rt/., ",'*?•,* trjrting rivulet, illustrated by the valour and glorious 
 death 01 the three hundred Fabii. fciunuus 
 
 r«f7*'^ ^°^^ .'*^''''^'' Maxentius had taken, with the Tyber in liis 
 rear. IS very clearly described by the two Panegyrists, ix 16 x 28 
 iJn^l*^^'*^'^ latrocinii illius primis auctoribus qui, desperata venia, 
 i^ocum quern pugna; sumpserant texere corporibus. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 
 
 » A very idle rumour soon prevailed, that Maxentius, who had 
 »rtf 1 " ""^ precaution for his own retreat, had contrived a very 
 b dee wM^h'' '^^"^'■oy ^''c a""y of the pursuers ; but that the wooden 
 linage whicti was to have been loosened on the approach of Con- 
 ■lantme, unluckily broke down under the weight of the flvinp It-» 
 J'ans. M.de Tillcmont (Hist, des Empercurs. torn. iv. par"S S 
 iP.>«\V*'.*^"°"'''y ^famines whether, in contradiction to common 
 sense tlie testimony of Eusehius ard Zosimus ought to prevail over 
 lie iiiencc of Lactantius, Nazarius, and the anonymous but contem- 
 porary orator, xvho composed the ninth Panegyrii. 
 
 monished them to receive with acclamations of loyalty 
 and gratitude, the fortunate Constantine, who thus 
 achieved by his valour and ability the most splendid 
 enterprise of his life.* 
 
 In the use of victory, Constantine 
 neither deserved the praise of clemency, ^^' 'ew^ption, 
 nor incurred the censure of immoderate rio-our.'' He 
 inflicted the same treatment, to which a dtTfeatwould 
 have exposed his own person and family, put to death 
 the two sons of the tyrant, and carefully extirpated 
 his whole race. The most distinguished adherents of 
 Maxentius must have expected to share his fate, as 
 they had shared his prosperity and his crimes ; but 
 when the Roman people loudly demanded a areater 
 number of victims, the conqueror resisted, with firm- 
 ness and humanity, those scrt^ile clamours, which 
 were dictated by flattery as well as by resentment. 
 Informers were punished and discouraged ; the inno- 
 cent, who had suffered under the late' tyranny, were 
 recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. A 
 general act of oblivion quieted the minds, and settled 
 the property of the people, both in Italy and in Africa.^ 
 I he first time that Constantino honoured the senate 
 with his presence, he recapitulated his own services 
 atid exploits in a modest oration, assured that illus- 
 trious order of his sincere regard, and promised to re- 
 establish its ancient dignity and privileges. The 
 grateful senate repaid these unmeaning professions by 
 the empty titles of honour, which it was yet in their 
 power to bestow; and without presuming to ratify the 
 authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to as- 
 sign hini the first rank among the three .^ugusfi, who 
 governed the Roman world.'' Games and festivals 
 were instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, 
 and several edifices, raised at the expense of Maxen- 
 tius, were dedicated to the honour of his successful 
 rival. Ihe triumphal arch of Constantine still re- 
 mains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, 
 and a singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As 
 It was not possible to find in the capital of the empire 
 a sculptor who was capable of adorning that public 
 monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect 
 either for his memory or for the rules of propriety, 
 was stripped of its most elegant figures. The difl'er- 
 ence of times and persons, of actions and characters 
 was totally disregarded. The Parthian captives ap' 
 pear prostrate at the feet of a prince who never car- 
 ried his arms beyond the Euphrates ; and curious an- 
 tiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the 
 trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which 
 It was necessary to introduce between the vacancies 
 of ancient sculpture, are executed in the rudest and 
 most unskilful manner.* 
 
 The final abolition of the prstorian and conduct at 
 guards was a measure of prudence as Rome, 
 well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, whose 
 numbers and privileges had been restored, and even 
 augmented, by Maxentius, were for ever suppressed 
 by Constantine. Their fortified camp was destroyed, 
 and the few praetorians who had escaped the fury of 
 the sword, were dispersed among the legions, and 
 banished to the frontiers of the empire, where they 
 
 a Zosimus, I. ii. p. 86-8P, and the two Panegyrics, the former of 
 which was pronounced a few months afterwards, alFord the clearest 
 notion ol this great battle. Lactantius, Eusebius. and even the Epi- 
 tomes, supply several useful hints. * 
 
 b Zosimus the enetny of Constantine, allows (I. ii. p. 8K) that only 
 a few of the friends of Maxentius were put to death : but we niav re- 
 mark the expressive passage of Nazarius, fPanegvr. Vet. x. 6.) Om- 
 ni ms qui labefactari statum ejus potcrant cum stirpe deletis. The 
 other orator (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21.) contents himself with observ- 
 ing, that Constantine, when he entered Rome, did not imitate the 
 cruel massacres of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla. 
 
 c See the two Panegyrics, and the laws of this and the en.«:uin« 
 year, in the Theodosian Code. 
 
 d Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20. Lactantius de M. P. c. 44. Maximin, who 
 was confessedly the eldest Ca;sar. claimed, with some show of rea- 
 son, the first rank among the Augusti. 
 
 e Adhuccuncta opera qufe magnifice construxerat, urbiR fannm 
 atque basilicam, Flavii meritis patres sacravcre. Aurelius Victor 
 With regard to the theft of Trajan's trophies, consult Flaminius 
 Vacca, apud Montfaugon, Diarium Italicum, p. 250. and I'Antiouite 
 Expliquce of the latter, torn. iv. p. 171. ' 
 
152 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 « 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 'J 
 
 might be serviceable without again becoming danger- 
 ous/ By suppressing the troops which were usually 
 stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow 
 ] to tlie dignity of the senate and people, and the 
 ' disarmed capital was exposed without protection to 
 the insults or neglect of its distant master. We 
 may observe, that in this last effort to preserve their 
 expiring freedom, the Romans, from the apprehen- 
 sion of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the 
 throne. He exacted that tribute from the senate un- 
 der the name of a free gift. They implored the as- 
 sistance of Constantine. He vanquished the tyrant, 
 and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The 
 senators, according to the declaration which was re- 
 quired of their property, were divided into several 
 classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds 
 of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and 
 those whose poverty might have claimed an exemp- 
 tion, were assessed however at seven pieces of gold. 
 Besides the regular members of the senate, their sons, 
 their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed 
 the vain privileges, and supported the heavy burthens, 
 of the senatorial order ; nor will it longer excite our 
 surprise, that Constantine should be attentive to in- 
 crease the number of persons who were included un- 
 der so useful a description.* After the defeat of Max- 
 entius, the victorious emperor passed no more than 
 two or three months in Rome, which he visited twice 
 during the remainder of his life, to celebrate the so- 
 lemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years 
 of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in 
 motion to exercise the legions, or to inspect the state 
 of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, 
 Naissus, and Thessalonica, were the occasional places 
 of his residence, till he founded a new Rome on the 
 confines of Europe and Asia.** 
 „. ,,. ... Before Constantine marched into Italy, 
 
 HiB alliaiicn with, , , , , /. • , • • ! 
 
 Liriniu«, hc had sccurcd the friendship, or at 
 ■AD 313. ]east the neutrality, of Licinius, the II- 
 lyrian emperor. He had promised his 
 sister Constantia in marriage to that prince : but the 
 celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the 
 conclusion of the war, and the interview of the two 
 conquerors at Milan, which was appointed for that 
 purpose, appeared to cement the union of their families 
 and interests.' In the midst of the public festivity 
 they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each 
 other. An inroad of the Franks summoned Constan- 
 tine to the Rhine, and the hostile approach of the 
 sovereign of Asia demanded the immediate presence 
 w 1)0 V 00 ^^ Licinius. Maximin had been the se- 
 Mftximhi'^and cret ally of Maxentius, and without be- 
 Liciiiius, ing discouraged by his fate, he resolved 
 
 A.D. 313. ^y ^j.y ^j^g fortune of a civil war. He 
 
 moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of Bithynia, 
 in the depth of winter. The season was severe and 
 tempestuous ; great numbers of men as well as horses 
 perished in the snow; and as the roads were broken 
 up by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave be- 
 hind him a considerable part of the heavy baggage, 
 which was unable to follow the rapidity of his forced 
 
 f Pra'torifT leniones nr subsidia factionibus nptiora quam urbi Ro- 
 in^.snhlnta pcnitiis ; eiiiiul nrina atqitc usus indumenti militaris. 
 Aurcliiis Victor. Zosiiniis (1. ii. p. 89.) mentions Uiis fact as an 
 liistorian, and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegy- 
 ric. 
 
 g Ex omnibus provinriis optimntes viros ruriffi tua* pipneraveris ; 
 ut senattjsdii:!iitria . . . . ex totius orhis flore consisteret. Naza- 
 ritis in ParKPsryr. Vet. x. ;^.">. The word pignerareris might almost 
 serm njalirionsly rliosrn. Conrerninc the senatorial tax, see Zosi- 
 mus.l.ii.p. 115. the second tille of the sixth book of the Theodosian 
 Code, with r.odofroy's Comm(!ntary, and Memoires de PAcademie 
 dcB Inscription?, torn, xvviii, p. 726. 
 
 h From tlie Theodosian Code, we may now bc<»in to trace the 
 niutionf: of the cmper<irs ; but the dates both of time and place, have 
 ffpqiiently licen altered by the carelessness of transcribers. 
 
 i Zosimiis (I. ii. p. 89.) observes, that before the war the sister of 
 Constantine had been betrothed to Licinius. According to the 
 younger Victor, Diocletinn was invited to the nuptials; but having 
 ventured to plead his ace and infirmities, he received a second letter 
 filled with reproaches for his supposed partiality to the cause of 
 Maxentius and Maximin. 
 
 marches. By this extraordinary effort of diligence, 
 he arrived, with a harassed, but formidable army, on 
 the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus, before the lieu- 
 tenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile inten- 
 tions. Byzantium surrendered to the power of Maximin, 
 after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days 
 underthe walls of Heraclea; and he had no sooner taken 
 possession of that city, than he was alarmed by the 
 intelligence, that Licinius had pitched his camp at the 
 distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless ne- 
 gociation, in which the two princes at- The defeat, 
 tempted to seduce the fidelity of each April 30. 
 other's adherents, they had recourse to arms. The 
 emperor of the east commanded a disciplined and vet- 
 eran army of above seventy thousand men, and Licin- 
 ius, who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, 
 was at first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. 
 His military skill, and the firmness of his troops, re- 
 stored the day, and obtained a decisive victory. The 
 incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight, 
 is much more celebrated than his prowess in the bat- 
 tle. Twenty-four hours afterwards he was seen pale, 
 trembling, and without his imperial ornaments, at 
 Nicomedia, one hundred and sixty miles from the 
 place of his defeat. The wealth of Asia was yet un- 
 exhausted ; and though the flower of his veterans had 
 fallen in the late action, he had still power, if he could 
 obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria 
 and Egypt. But he survived his mis- and death of the 
 fortunes only three or four mmiths. His former, August, 
 death, which happened at Tarsus, was variously as- 
 cribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice. 
 As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of vir- 
 tue, he was lamented neither by the people nor by the 
 soldiers. The provinces of the east, delivered from 
 the terrors of civil war, cheerfully acknowledged the 
 authority of Licinius.^ 
 
 The vanquished emperor left behind Cruelty of Lici- 
 him two children, a boy of about eight, "'"'• 
 and a girl of about seven, years old. Their inoffen- 
 sive age might have excited compassion ; but the 
 compassion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, 
 nor did it restrain him from extinguishing the name 
 and memory of his adversary. The death of Severi- 
 anus will admit of less excuse, as it was dictated 
 neither by revenge nor by policy. The conqueror had 
 never received any injury from the father of that un- 
 happy youth, and the short and obscure reign of Se- 
 verus, in a distant part of the empire, was already for- 
 gotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act 
 of the blackest cruelty and ingratitude. He was the 
 natural son of Galerius, the f^riend and benefactor of 
 Licinius. The prudent father had judged him too 
 young to sustain the weight of a diadem ; but he 
 hoped that, under the protection of princes who were 
 indebted to his favour for the imperial purple, Candi- 
 dianus might pass a secure and honourable life. He 
 was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his 
 age, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported 
 either by merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate 
 the jealous mind of Licinius.' To these innocent and 
 illustrious victims of his tyranny, we must add the 
 wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When 
 that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Caesar, he 
 had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose 
 melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular 
 subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled unfortunate fate 
 and even surpassed the duties of a wife, of the empress 
 As she had not any children herself, Ji^^J^t.'J*'"'* *"" 
 she condescended toadopt the illegitimate 
 son of her husband, and invariably displayed towards 
 the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety 
 
 k Zosimus mentions the defeat and death of Maximin as ordinary 
 events ; but Lactantius expatiates on them, (de M. P. c. 45 — 50 ) as- 
 cribing them to the miraculous interposition of heaven. Licinius at 
 that time was one of the protectors of the church. 
 
 I Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurelius Victor touches on the dine- 
 rent conduct of Licinius, and of Constantine, in the use of victory. 
 
 of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her 
 ample possessions provoked the avarice, and her per- 
 sonal attractions excited the desires, of his successor 
 Maximin." He had a wife still alive, but divorce was 
 permitted by the Roman law, and the fierce passions 
 of the tyrant demanded an immediate gratification. 
 The answer of Valeria was such as became the daucrh- 
 ter and widow of emperors ; but it was tempered 'by 
 the prudence which her defenceless condition compel- 
 led her to observe. She represented to the persons 
 whom Maximin had employed on this occasion, " that 
 even if honour could permit a woman of her character 
 and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials 
 decency at least must forbid her to listen to his ad- 
 dresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and 
 his benefactor were still warm ; and while the sor- 
 rows of her mind were still expressed by her mourn- 
 ing garments. She ventured to declare, that she 
 could place very little confidence in the professions of 
 a man, whose cruel inconstancy was capable of repu- 
 diating a faithful and affectionate wife." «" On this re- 
 pulse, the love of Maximin was converted into fury 
 and as witnesses and judges were always at his dis- 
 posal, it was easy for him to cover his fury with an 
 appearance of legal proceedings, and to assault the re- 
 putation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her 
 estates were confiscated, her eunuchs and domestics 
 devoted to the most inhuman tortures, and several in- 
 nocent and respectable matrons, who were honoured 
 %yith her friendship, suffered death, on a false accusa- 
 tion of adultery. The empress herself, together with 
 her mother Prisca, was condemned to exile ; and as 
 they were ignominiously hurried from place to place 
 betore they were confined to a sequestered village in 
 the deserts of Syria, they exposed their shame^'and 
 distress to the provinces of the east, which, during 
 thirty years, had respected their august dio-nity. Dio- 
 cletian made several ineflx-ctual eff'orts to alleviate the 
 misfortunes of his daughter ; and, as the last return 
 that he expected for the imperial purple, which ho had 
 conterred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria 
 might be permitted to share his retirement of Salona 
 and to close the eyes of her afllicted father." He en 
 
 153 
 
 treated, but as he could no longer threaten, his pray- 
 ers were received with coldness and disdain ; and the 
 pride of Maximin was gratified, in treating Diocletian 
 as a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The 
 death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a 
 favourable alteration to their fortune. The public dis- 
 orders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they 
 easily foiind means to escape from the place of their 
 exi 0, and to repair, though with some precaution, and 
 in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behaviour, 
 in the first days of his reign, and in the honourable 
 rocoption which he gave to young Candidianus, in- 
 spired Valeria with a secret satisfaction, both on her 
 own account, and on that of her adopted son. But 
 these grateful prospects were soon succeeded by hor- 
 ror and astonishment; and the bloody executions 
 which stained the palace of Nicomedia, sufficiently 
 convinced her, that the throne of Maximin was filled 
 by a tyrant more inhuman than himself. Valeria con- 
 sulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still accom- 
 panied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above 
 ntteen months? through the provinces, concealed in 
 
 nfTnT'l'^K-"^"''''''.'??'^^''''' °^ Maximin were gratified at the expense 
 e« minp% "js eunuchs, who forced away wives and vi/gins, 
 
 of IPir , nH r-'^'^M k'''V"" T'^' ^"'^'°"* curiosity, lest any par^ 
 Covnp;^ nnl^^ i"'"'' "" fo"n'l unworthy of the royal embraces. 
 t2^tl ^ ^'^V'' '^''? considered as treason, and the obstinate 
 S rnH?.? ^■?. ''0"'Jcmnod to be drowned. A custom was gradually 
 «?r.n «f ,1 • '"^^ "" ''*^''^°" ^''°"''' '"'■''''■y •■» "''^« without the permis 
 l!ammi,?s de M.T: ,-.' 38.''"' '" °'""'''"' ""^'"' Pra^gustator esset." 
 
 n lactantius de M. K c. .^0. 
 Do^Pn!2^^''*" "^ '''•^^ '*'"* cognatum suum, quendam milltarem ac 
 t^is diTf V"'M° •ntercede in favour of his daughter. (Lactan- 
 hltnr!,!;r.K '*^' ^^® '•'■*' """^ sufficiently acquainted with the 
 iiisiory or these tunes to point out the person who was employed. 
 Uin\.. 1^"" quoque per varias provincias quindecim mensibus ple- 
 t«»o cultu pervagata. Lactantius de M. P. c. 5L There is some 
 • oii. X.' yj 
 
 the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at length 
 discovered at Thessalonica ; and as the sentence of 
 their death was already pronounced, they were im- 
 mediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the 
 sea. The people gazed on the melancholy spectacle; 
 but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the 
 terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy 
 fate of the wife and daughter of Diocletian. We la- 
 ment their misfortunes, we cannot discover their 
 crimes, aad whatever idea we may justly entertain of 
 the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a mailer of surprise, 
 that he was not contented with some more secret and 
 decent method of revenge.i 
 
 The Roman world was now divided 
 between Constantine and Licinius, the grr„',to'T,3 
 lormer ot whom was master of the west, Lirinins, 
 and the latter of the east. It might per- ^' ^- ^^^• 
 haps have been expected that the conquerors, fatigued 
 with civil war, and connected by a private as weU as 
 public alliance, would have renounced, or at least 
 would have suspended, any further designs of ambi- 
 tion. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed after the 
 death of Maximin, before the victorious emperors tu.'-n- 
 ed their arms against each other. The genius, the suc- 
 cess, and the aspiring temper of Constantine, may seem 
 to mark hiiii out as the aggressor; but the perfidious 
 character of Licinius justifies the most unfavourable 
 suspicions, and by the faint light which history reflects 
 on this transaction,"- we may discover a conspiracy fo- 
 mented by his arts against the authority of his col- 
 league. Constantine had lately given his sister Anas- 
 tasia in marriage to Bassianus, a man of a considerable 
 family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinsman 
 to the rank of C^sar. According to the system of 
 government instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and per- 
 haps Africa, were designed for his departments in the 
 empire. But the performance of the promised favour 
 vyas either attended with so much delay, or accompa- 
 nied with so many unequal conditions, that the fidelity 
 ot Bassianus was alienated rather than secured by the 
 honourable distinction which he had obtained. His 
 nomination had been ratified by the consent of Licinius 
 and that artful prince, by the means of his emissaries! 
 soon contrived to enter into a secret and dangerous cor- 
 respondence with the new Caesar, to irritate his discon- 
 tents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of extort- 
 ing by violence what he might in vain solicit from the 
 justice of Constantine. But the vigilant emperor dis- 
 covered the conspiracy before it was ripe for execution • 
 and, after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassia- 
 nus, despoiled him of the purple, and inflicted the de- 
 served punishment on his treason and ingratitude. 
 J he haughty refusal of Licinius, when he was requir- 
 ed to deliver up the criminals, who had taken refuge 
 in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions already en- 
 tertained of his perfidy; and the indignities oflfered at 
 ^mona, on the frontitrs of Italy, to tho statues of Con- 
 stantine, became the signal of discord between the two 
 princes.* 
 
 The first battle was fought near Ciba- First civil war 
 lis, a city of Pannonia, situated on the between ihcm. 
 river Save, about fifty miles from Sirmium.* From tho 
 
 douht whetlier we should compute the fifteen months from the mo- 
 ment ot her exile, or from that of her esrape. The expression ofver- 
 vagata seems to denote the latter ; but in that case we must suppSse. 
 that the treatise of Lactantius was written after the first civil war 
 between Licinius and Constantine. See Cuper, p. 254 
 
 q Jta illis pudicitia et conditio exltio fiiit. Lacta'iitius de M P c 
 dl. He relates tiie misfortunes of the innocent wife and dauEhter of 
 DiocJetian with a very natural mixture of pity and exultation 
 
 r 1 he curious reader, who consults the Valesian Fra"meiit p 713 
 will perhaps accuse me of giving a bold and licentious paraphrase'; 
 hut If he considers it with attention, he will acknowledge that mv 
 interpretation is probable and consistent. 
 
 8 The situation of /Eniona, or, as it is now called, Laybach, in 
 Carniola, (D Anville Geojjraphie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 187.) may sue- 
 gest a conjecture. As it lay to the north-ensl of the Julian Alps 
 that important territory become a natural object of dispute between 
 the sovereigns of Italy and of Illyricum. 
 
 t Cibalis or Cibala, (whose name is still preserved in tlie obscure 
 ruins of Swilei.) was situated about fifty miles from Sirmium, the ca- 
 pital of Illyricum, and about one hundred from Taurunum or Bel- 
 
154 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 inconsiderable forces which in this im- 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ^'a. D. m*^' poVtk7t7o'ntest two s^^^ powerful nio 
 8th Oct. narchs brought into the field, it may be 
 inferred, that the one was suddenly provoked, and that 
 the other was unexpectedly surprised. The emperor 
 of the west had only twenty thousand, and the sover- 
 eign of the east no more than five and thirty thousand, 
 men. The inferiority of number was, however, com- 
 pensated by the advantage of the ground. Constantme 
 had taken post in a defile about half a mile in breadth, 
 between a steep hill and a deep morass, and in that sit- 
 uation he steadily expected and repulsed the first attack 
 of the enemy. He pursued his success, and advanced 
 into the plain. But the veteran legions of Illyncum 
 rallied under the standard of a leader who had been 
 trained to arms in the school of Probus and Diocletian. 
 The missile weapons on both sides were soon exhaust- 
 ed ; the two armies, with equal valour, rushed to a clo- 
 ser engagement of swords and spears, and the doubtful 
 contest h"kd already lasted from the dawn of the day to 
 a late hour of the evening, when the right wing, which 
 Constantino led in person, made a vigorous and deci- 
 sive charge. The judicious retreat of Licinius saved 
 the remainder of his troops from a total defeat; but 
 when he computed his loss, which amounted to more 
 than twenty thousand man, he thought it unsafe to 
 pass the night in the presence of an active and vigorous 
 enemy. Abandoning his camp and magazines, he 
 marched away with secrecy and diligence at the head 
 of the greatest part of his cavalry, and was soon re- 
 moved beyond the danger of a pursuit. His diligence 
 preserved his wife, his son, and his treasures, which 
 he had deposited at Sirmium. Licinius passed through 
 that city, and breaking down the bridge on the Save 
 hastened to collect a new army in Dacia and Thrace. 
 In his flight he bestowed the precarious title of Casar 
 on Valeus, his general of the Illyrian frontier.'* 
 
 The plain of Mardia in Thrace was 
 Battle of Mardia. ^^^ theatre of a second battle no less ob- 
 stinate and bloody than the former. The troops on 
 both sides displayed the same valour and discipline ; 
 and the victory was once more decided by the superior 
 abilities of Constantino, who directed a body of five 
 thousand men to gain an advantageous height, from 
 whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked 
 the rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable 
 slaughter. The troops of Licinius, however, present- 
 ing a double front, still maintained their ground, till 
 the approach of night put an end to the combat, and 
 secured their retreat towards the mountains of Macedo- 
 nia.' The loss of two battles, and of his bravest vet- 
 erans, reduced the fierce spirit of Licinius to sue for 
 peace. His ambassador Mistrianus was admitted to 
 the audience of Constantino ; he expatiated on the com- 
 mon topics of moderation and humanity, which are so 
 familiar to the eloquence of the vanquished ; represent- 
 ed, in the most insinuating language, that the event of 
 the war was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable cala- 
 mities were alike pernicious to both the contending 
 parties ; and declared, that he was authorized to pro- 
 pose a lasting and honourable peace in the name of the 
 two emperors'^ his masters. Constantino received the 
 mention of Valens with indignation and contempt. 
 »*It was not for such a purpose," he sternly replied, 
 " that we have advanced from the shores of the west- 
 ern ocean in an uninterrupted course of combats and 
 victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsnian, 
 we should accept for our colleague a contemptible 
 slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of 
 
 the treaty."' It was necessary to accept this humiliat- 
 in«T condition, and the unhappy Valens, after a reign 
 of^a few days, was deprived of the purple and of his 
 life. As soon as this obstacle was removed, the tran- 
 quillity of the Roman world was easily restored. The 
 successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, 
 but they had displayed his courage and abilities. His 
 situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of des- 
 pair are sometimes formidable; and the good sense of 
 Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to 
 a third trial of the chance of arms. He Treaty of peace, 
 consented to leave his rival, or, as he December, 
 again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the 
 possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; 
 but the provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Mace- 
 donia, and Greece, were yielded to the western empire, 
 and the dominions of Constantine now extended from 
 the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Pelopon- 
 nesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty, that three 
 royal youths, the sons of the emperors, should be cal- 
 led to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the 
 young Constantine were soon afterwards declared Ca- 
 sars i^n the west, while the younger Licinius vvas in- 
 vested with the same dignity in the east. In this dou- 
 ble proportion of honours, the conqueror asserted the 
 superiority of his arms and power.^ 
 
 The reconciliation of Constantine and ^^^^^^, ^^^^ ^^^ 
 Licinius, though it was imbittered by ig^g of Constan- 
 rescntment and jealousy, by theremem- tine, 
 b ranee of recent injuries, and by the ap- ^" "• •*^^>--«^- 
 prehension of future dangers, maintained, however, 
 above eight years, the tranquillity of the Roman world. 
 As a very regular series of the imperial laws com- 
 mences about this period, it would not be diflRcult to 
 transcribe the civil regulations which employed the 
 leisure of Constantine. But the most important of his 
 institutions are intimately connected with the new 
 system of policy and religion, which was not perfectly 
 established till the last and peaceful years of his reign. 
 There are many of his laws, which, as far as they con- 
 cern the rights and property of individuals, and the 
 practice of the bar, are more properly referred to the 
 private than to the public jurisprudence of the empire; 
 and he published many edicts of so local and tempo- 
 rary a nature, that they would ill deserve the notice of a 
 general history. Two laws, however, may be selected 
 from the crowd ; the one for its importance, the other 
 for its singularity ; the former for its remarkable bene- 
 volence, the latter for its excessive severity. 1. The 
 horrid practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing 
 or murdering their new-born infants, was become every 
 day more frequent in the provinces, and especially in 
 Italy. It was the effect of distress ; and the distress 
 was principally occasioned by the intolerable burthen 
 of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel prose- 
 cutions of the officers of the revenue against their in- 
 solvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious 
 part of mankind, instead of rejoicing in an increase of 
 family, deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to re- 
 lease their children from the impending miseries of a 
 life which they themselves were unable to support. 
 The humanity of Constantino, moved, perhaps, by 
 some recent and extraordinary instances of despair,' en- 
 
 crade and the conflux of the Danube and the Save. Tlie Roman 
 £arri<?'ons and cities on those rivers are finely ilhistrated by M.d'An- 
 ville, in a memoir inserted in I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. 
 
 xxviii. . r .1 • 
 
 Q Zosimus (1. ii. p. 90, 91.) eives a very particular account of tins 
 battle ; but the descriptions of Zosimus are rlietorical rather than mi- 
 
 litttTV 
 
 ▼ Zosimus. 1. ii. p. 92, 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. 743. The Epi 
 tomes furnish some circumstances ; but they frequently confound tlie 
 two wars between Licinius and Constantino. 
 
 X Pctrus Tatricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 27. If it should be thought 
 that y»f&e='i signifies more properly a ponin law, we might conjec- 
 ture that Constantine assuming the name as well as the duties of a 
 father, had adopted his younger brothers and sisters, the children ol 
 Theodora. But in the best authors yx/xZe^i sometimes signifies a 
 husband, soinetimes a faiberin-law. and sometimes a Itinsman in 
 general. Pee Spanheim Observat. ad Julian. Orat. i. p. 72. 
 
 y Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. 713. Eutropius, x. 
 V Aurelius Victor, Euseb. in Chron. Sozomen, 1. i. c. 2. Four oi 
 these writers affirm that the promotion of the Cipsars was an article 
 of the treaty. It is however certain, that the younger Constantine 
 and Licinius were not yet born : and it is highly probable that the 
 promotion was made the Ist of March, A. D. 317. The treaty had 
 probably stipulated that the two Cffisars might be created by tiie 
 western, and one only by the eastern emperor; but each of them re- 
 served to himself the choice of the persons. „ ,r • I— 
 
 z [This explan.ition appears to mc quite improbable-Goderroi iia» 
 formed a much more happy conjecture, and has supported it by an 
 the historical circumfltances of the time in which thia edict wan pun 
 
 gaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italv, 
 and afterwards of Africa, directing immediate and suffil 
 cient relief to be given to those parents who should 
 produce before the magistrates the children whom their 
 own poverty would not allow them to educate. But 
 the promise was too liberal, and the provision too 
 vague, to effect any general or permanent benefit.* The 
 law, though It may merit some praise, served rather to 
 display than to alleviate the public distress. It still 
 remains an authentic monument to contradict and con- 
 tound those venal orators, who were too well satisfied 
 with their own situation to discover either vice or mi- 
 sery under the government of a generous sovereio-n.'- 
 2. Ihe laws ot Constantine ag-ainst rapes were dic- 
 tated with very little indulgence for the most amiable 
 weaknesses of human nature ; since the description of 
 that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence 
 which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction 
 which might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the 
 age of twenty.five, to leave the house of her parents. 
 Ihe successful ravisher was punished with death; 
 and as if simple death was inadequate to the enormity 
 of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, or torn in pieces 
 by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The viro-in's de- 
 claration, that she had been carried away with^her own 
 consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to 
 share his fate. The duty of a public prosecution was 
 intrusted to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate 
 maid ; and if the sentiments of nature prevailed on them 
 to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent 
 marriage the honour of their family, they were them- 
 selves punished by exile and confiscation. The slaves, 
 whether male or female, who were convicted of having 
 been accessary to the rape or seduction, were burnt 
 alive, or put to death by the ingenious torture of pour- 
 ing down their throats a quantity of melted lead. As 
 the crime was of a public kind, the accusation was 
 permitted even to strangers. The commencement of 
 the action was not limited to any term of years, and 
 the consequences of the sentence were extended to the 
 innocent offspring of such an irregular union.«= But 
 whenever the offence inspires less horror than the 
 punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give 
 
 155 
 
 lished. It was given 12ih May, in the year 315 at Ni«!«!ii« t i.o ,.o 
 tive place of Constantine, in Pa^inonia S eigiu . o/ Oct' o 'this 
 year, Constantine gained the baule of Cibals, against Licinius ie 
 was still in suspense respecting the fate of his amy-the clirisii-inl 
 whom he favoured, had predicted his victory witLut doubt J u' 
 tani.us, then the preceptor of Crispus, had jKt w iuen h?s w^k o'i 
 Christianity (Iibros divinarum institutionum,) and had dedrcnled 
 to Constantine. He had written with much fSrcea^inst infant 
 n^o'hanf H^^^^POsure of infants, (div. inst. book 6. c 2oT Is U not 
 Jn?.r» 'V"''^''"«antine had read this work, which he had en 
 
 ihTn^^iii;^''''''"'"'''^^'"^^' '^^'^'^ ^«« atrected amon^ othor 
 things, by the passage I have just pointed out, and that in the firs? 
 
 ?in?fn'7°p'"""T''^^'"v^^ P"^''«''«d the edict o? wh^h we have 
 i^?i.l If^'^^'y thing about this edict bears the character ornrecini 
 nrn.»^' °f » ""X rather than of deliberate reflection. The aim St 
 promises, the uncertainty of the means, of the condi ions of tl?e 
 time during which parents should be entitled to the protcct^u of 
 h^.m '* •?' ** r ^"'"'*^® this-are we not authorised to beheve t a ,hc 
 «n?^? K.°^ Constantine was excited by the influence of Lactantius 
 
 and of the principles of Christianity, and of the christians themselves' 
 already strongly ,n the confidence of the emperor. rTt her Than y 
 frZL"-"'"'"^- '^'^^Pl^^ of despair 1 This supposi ion is the more 
 l/aJj VIZ' »!""' T"^' «^.«"^P'e« <^0">d not have been recent " ^« 
 I'^^^i^ and since Constantine, then absent from Italy, could not 
 have been struck (frappe,) by his own observation. (See Hege visch 
 Essai. historique sur les finances romaines. p. 378.) "^geuiscn. 
 
 .J, tf.^^J Africa was not given till tlie year 322. It can be 
 
 MrZL^Z^/'"''} '"^ "I'T^'' °^ ^^« »""^« ^'^^ »he occasion 2nt- 
 ^nL«„ 'f^ifTered much from the cruelly of Maxentius-Constan- 
 
 h«H -n.*^ tt''^''^? J'.""'^^'^ ^""^ '^^"""^ ^''--^t parents, urged by misery, 
 had sold their children. The edict was more precise, the effect of 
 
 tTnnr'i^nr'' H m'^'"" '"^" f"« Preceding. The assistance it gave 
 to parents, and the source whence that assistance was to be derived 
 are there determined. (Code Theod. book xi. tit. 27. c 2) I the 
 direct utility oi these laws was not very extensive, they had at lenst 
 
 weln'u P nH .i"r^" IT' °'' ««»«»"'«»'*"g a decided opposition be! 
 h«H.?ii P""?''.''-'^*'^ '"^ government, and those principles which 
 had till now ruled among his subjects.— C] *^ 
 
 * Codex Theodosian. 1. xi. tit. 27. torn. iv. p. 188. with Godefroy's 
 Observations. See likewise I. v. tit. 7—8. v,uutiroy » 
 
 rot;?'!?'"*'* 'i!'"'* placita, domi prospera, annonte ubertate, fructuum 
 nTth"' ?;■'"?■''*• y^l- '^A^- '*'"'« °'a»'°" o*" ^'azarius was pro- 
 Mnr ? A°"i. .'®oi^"^ °^ **^® auinquennalia of the Ca>8ar8, the lat of 
 
 H.O Si® ^!l° edict of Constantine, addressed to the Roman people, in 
 'he Theodosian Code. I. ix. tit. 24. torn. iii. p. 189. 
 
 way to the common feelings of mankind. The most 
 odious parts of this edict was softened or repealed ia 
 the subsequent reigns ;<» and even Constantine himself 
 very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the 
 stern temper of his general institutions. Such, indeed, 
 was the singular humour of that emperor, who showed 
 himself as indulgent, and even remiss, in the execu- 
 tion of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in 
 the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe 
 a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the 
 character of the prince, or in the constitution of the 
 government." 
 
 The civil administration was some- The Gothic war 
 times interrupted by the military defence A. i). 3i2. ' 
 of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most amiable 
 character, who had received with the title of Ceesar the 
 command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as 
 well as valour, in several victories over the Franks and 
 Alemanni ; and taught the barbarians of that frontier 
 to dread the eldest son of Constantine, and the grand- 
 son of Constantius.f The emperor himself had assum- 
 ed the more difficult and important province of the 
 Danube. The Goths, who in the time of Claudius 
 and Aurehan had felt the weight of the Roman arms, 
 respected the power of the empire, even in the midst of 
 Its intestine divisions. But the strength of that war- 
 like nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty 
 years ; a new generation had arisen, who no longer 
 remembered the misfortunes of ancient days : the Sar- 
 matians of the lake Mosotis folIow"fed the Gothic stand- 
 ard either as subjects or as allies, and their united force 
 was poured upon the countries of Illyricum. Cam- 
 pona, Margus, and Bononia,^ appear to have been the 
 scenes of several memorable sieges and battles ; ^ and 
 though Constantine encountered a very obstinate re- 
 sistance, he prevailed at length in the contest, and the 
 Goths were compelled to purchase an. ignominious re- 
 treat, by restoring the booty and prisoners which they 
 had taken. Nor was this advantage sufficient to satisfy 
 the indignation of the emperor. He resolved to chas- 
 tise as well as to repulse the insolent barbarians who 
 had dared to invade the territories of Rome. At the 
 head of his legions he passed the Danube, after re- 
 pairing the bridge which had been constructed by 
 Trajan, penetrated into the strongest recesses of Dacia,' 
 and when he had inflicted a severe revenge, conde- 
 scended to give peace to the suppliant Goths, on con- 
 dition that, as often as thev were required, they should 
 supply his armies with a'body of forty thousand sol- 
 diers. J Exploits like these were no doubt honourable 
 to Constantine, and beneficial to the state ; but it may 
 surely be questioned, whether they can justify the ex- 
 aggerated assertion of Eusebius, that all Scythia, as 
 far as the extremity of the north, divided as it was into 
 so many names and nations of the most various and 
 savage manners, had been added by his victorious arms 
 to the Roman empire.'^ 
 
 d His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the repeal, "Ne 
 sub specie atrocioris judicii aliqua in ulciscendo criiuine dilatio nas- 
 ceretur." Cod. 'J'lic.od. toni. iii. p. 193. 
 
 e Eusebius (in Vila Constant. I. iii. c. 1.) chooses to affirm, tliat in 
 the reipn of this hero, Ihe sword of justice hung idle in the hands of 
 the magistrates. Eusebius himself, (I. iv. c. 29, 54.) and the Theo- 
 dosian Code will inform us, thai this excessive lenity was not owing 
 to the want either of atrocious crimiiiiils or of penal laws 
 
 f Nazarius in Panc<:yr. Vet. x. The victory of Crispus over the 
 Alemanni i? expressed on some medals. 
 
 g [Now Old Bulla, in Hungary. Kastolatz and Biddin or Viddin. 
 in Mobsia, upon the Danube.— «. J 
 
 h See Zosimus, 1. ii, p. gn, 94. ti,ough the narrative of that histo- 
 rian is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of Optatianua 
 (c. 23.) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians with the Carpi and 
 Geta', and points out the several fields of battle. It is supposed, that 
 theSarmatian games, celebrated in the month of November, derived 
 their origin from the success of this war. 
 
 i In the Caesars of Julian, (p. 329. Coinnientaire de Spanheim, p. 
 25-2.) Constantine boasts, that he had recovered the province (Dacia) 
 which Trajan had subdued. But it is insinuated liy Silenus, that 
 the conquests of Constantine were like the gardens of Adonis, which 
 fade and wither almost the moment they appear. 
 
 j Jornandes de Kebus Geticis, c. 21. I know not whether we 
 ui;iy entirely depend on his authority. Such an alliance has a very i 
 recent air, and scarcely is suited to the maxims of the beginning of 
 the fourth century. 
 
 k Eusebius in Vit. Conslantin. I. i. c. 8. This passage, however, 
 
ii' 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 156 
 
 In tliis exalted state of glory it was 
 S^od civii^war jj^poggible that Constantine should any 
 ■Sneandl-'i- longer endure a partner in the empire, 
 cinius, Confiding in the superiority of his ge- 
 
 A. D. 32J. ^^.^^ ^^^ military power, he determined, 
 without any previous injury, to exert them for the de- 
 struction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpo- 
 pular vices seemed to offer a very easy conquest.' But 
 the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, 
 deceived the expectations of his friends, as well as of 
 his enemies. Callinrr forth that spirit and those abili- 
 ties by which he had deserved the friendship of Gale- 
 ri'iis and the imperial purple, he prepared himself for 
 the contest, collected the forces of the east, and soon 
 filled the plains of Hadrlanople with his troops, and 
 the straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army 
 consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot, and 
 fifteen thousand horse; and as the cavalry was drawn, 
 for the most part, from Phrygia and Cappadocia, we 
 may conceive a more favourable opinion of the beauty 
 of the horses, than of the courage and dexterity of their 
 riders. The fleet was composed of three hundred and 
 fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. An hundred and 
 thirty of these were furnished by Egypt, and the adja- 
 cent coast of Africa. An hundred and ten sailed from 
 the ports of Phcenicia and the isle of Cyprus ; and the 
 maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria, were 
 likewise obliged to provide an hundred and ten gal- 
 leys. The troops of Constantine were ordered to ren- 
 dezvous atThessalonica; they amounted to above an 
 hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot.'" Their 
 emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, 
 and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer 
 men, than that of his eastern competitor, 'i'he legions 
 of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of 
 Europe; action had confirmed their discipline, victory 
 had elevated their hopes, and there were among them 
 a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen glo- 
 rious campaigns under the same leader, prepared them- 
 selves to deserve an honourable dismission by a last 
 effort of their valour." But the naval preparations of 
 Constantine were in every respect much inferior to 
 those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent 
 their respective quotas of men and ships to the cele- 
 brated harbour of Piraeus, and their united forces con- 
 sisted of no more than two hundred small vessels : a 
 very feeble armament, if it is compared with those for- 
 midable fleets which were equipped and maintained by 
 the republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian war." 
 Since Italy was no longer the seat of government, the 
 naval establishments of Misenum and Kavenna had 
 been gradually neglected ; and as the shipping and 
 mariners of the empire were supported by commerce 
 rather than by war, it was natural that they should the 
 most abound in the industrious provinces of Egypt and 
 Asia. It is only surprising that the eastern emperor, 
 who possessed so great a superiority at sea, should 
 have neo-lected the opportunity of carrying an offensive 
 war into the centre of his rival's dominions. 
 „ , - „ , . Instead of embracing such an active 
 
 Battle of lladria- , . , . , • l^ l i j 
 
 iioplo. resolution, which might have changed 
 
 A.D.3*>3.- the whole face of the war, the prudent 
 
 July 3. Licinius expected the approach of his 
 
 rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he had forti- 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 is taken from a general declamation oti the preatness of Constantine, 
 and not from any particular account of the Gothic war. 
 
 1 Constaniinus tainen, vir inpens, et omnia eflicere nitens qntp 
 animo praeparasspt, simul principatiim totius orbis afTectnns, Licinio 
 bellum intulit. Eutropiua, x. 5. Zosinins, I. ii. p. 89. The reasons 
 which they have assigned for the firgt civil war may, with more 
 propriety, he applied to the second. 
 
 m Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 94, 95. 
 
 n Constantine was very attentive to the privileges and comforts of 
 bis fellow-veterans, (Conveterani,) as he now began to style them. 
 Bee the Theodosian Code, 1. vii. tit. 20. torn. ii. p. 419, 4'i9. 
 
 o Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the sea, their 
 fleet consisted of three, and afterwards of four, hundred palieys of 
 three ranks of oars, all completely equipped and ready for imme- 
 diate service. The arsenal in the port of Pirjeus had cost the repub- 
 lic a thousand talents, about two hundred and sixteen thousand 
 pounds. See Thucydides de Bel, Pclopon. 1. ii. c. 13. and Meur.«iiu8 
 (le Fortuna Attica, c. 19. 
 
 fied with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehen- 
 sion of the event. Constantine directed his rnarch 
 from Thessalonica towards that part of Thrace, till he 
 found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream 
 of i.he Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of 
 Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from 
 the river to the city of Hadrianople. Many days were 
 spent in doubtful and distant skirmishes; but at length 
 the obstacles of the passage and the attack were re- 
 moved by the intrepid conduct of Constantine. In 
 this place we might relate a wonderful exploit of Con- 
 stantine, which, though it can scarcely be paralleled 
 either in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a 
 venal orator devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, 
 the partial enemy of his fame. We are assured that 
 the valiant emperor threw himself into the river He- 
 brus, accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that 
 by the effort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke, 
 slauirhtcred, and put to flight a host of an hundred and 
 fifty "thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus pre- 
 vailed so strongly over his passion, that among the 
 events of the memorable battle of Hadrianople, he 
 seems to have selected and embellished, not the most 
 important, but the most marvellous. The valour and 
 dancror of Constantine are attested by a slight wound 
 which he received in the thigh, but it may be discov- 
 ered even from an imperfect narration, and perhaps a 
 corrupted text, that the victory was obtained no less 
 by the conduct of the general than by the courage of 
 the hero ; that a body of five thousand archers marched 
 round to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, 
 whose attention was diverted by the construction of a 
 brido-e, and that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful 
 evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advan- 
 tageous post to combat on equal ground in the plain. 
 The contest was no longer equal. His confused mul- 
 titude of new levies was easily vanquished by the ex- 
 perienced veterans of the west. Thirty-four thousand 
 men are reported to have been slain. The fortified 
 camp of Licinius was taken by assault the evening of 
 the battle ; the greater part of the fugitives, who had 
 retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves next 
 day to the discretion of the conqueror, and his rival, 
 who could no longer keep the field, confined himself 
 within the walls of Byzantium.P 
 
 The siege of Byzantium, which was gj^„g ^^ jj^^^^. 
 immediateh'' undertaken by Constan- tium, and naval 
 tiue, was attended with gTeat labour and ';^^l^'y °f ^^"^■ 
 uncertainty. In the late civil wars, the 
 fortifications of that place so justly considered as the 
 key of Europe and Asia, had been repaired and 
 strengthened ; and as long as Licinius remained mas- 
 ter ot" the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to 
 the danger of famine than the army of the besiegers. 
 The naval commanders of Constantine were summon- 
 ed to his camp, and received his positive orders to 
 force the passage of the Hellespont, as the fleet of 
 Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying their fee- 
 ble enemy, continued inactive in those narrow straits 
 where its superiority of numbers was of little use or 
 advantage. Crispus, the emperor's eldest son, was 
 intrusted with the execution of this daring enterprise, 
 which he performed with so much courage and success, 
 that he deserved the esteem, and most probably excit- 
 ed the jealousy, of his father. The engagement last- 
 ed two days, and in the evening of the first, the con- 
 tending fleets, after a considerable and mutual loss, 
 retired into their respective harbours of Europe and 
 Asia. The second day about noon a strong^ south 
 wind "i sprang up, which carried the vessels of Crispus 
 
 P Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 9o, 96. This ereat battle is descril>cd in the Va 
 lesian frajjmcnt. (p. 711.) in a clear though concise manner. " Ucv 
 nius verocircum Hadrianopolin maximo exercitu latera arduimoniis 
 impleverat; iiluc toto aRinine Constantinus inflexit. Cum belhim 
 terra niarique traheretur, quamvis per arduum suis nitentibus, at- 
 tamen disciplina militari el fcliriiate, Constantinus Litinii contu- 
 sum et sine ordine agentem vicit exercitum ; leviter femore sauci- 
 
 atus." e .1,- 
 
 q Zosimus. I. ii. p. 97. 98. The current always sets out of tlie 
 Flellespont ; and when it is assisted by a north wind, no vessel can 
 
 against the enemy, and as the casual advantao-e was 
 improved by his skilful intrepidity, he soon obtained a 
 complete victory. An hundred and thirty vessels 
 were destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and 
 Amandus, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped 
 with the utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. 
 As soon as the Hellespont was open, a plentiful con- 
 voy of provisions flowed into the camp of Constantine. 
 who had already advanced the operations of the siege! 
 He constructed artificial mounds of earth of an equal 
 height with the ramparts of Byzantium. The lofty 
 towers which were erected on that foundation, galled 
 the besieged with large stones and darts from the 
 military engines, and the battering rams had shaken 
 the walls in several places. If Licinius persisted 
 much longer in the defence, he exposed himself to be 
 involved in the ruin, of the place. Before he was 
 surrounded he prudently removed his person and trea- 
 sures to Chalcedon in Asia ; and as he was always 
 desirous of associating companions to the hopes and 
 d^angers of his fortune, he now bestowed the title of 
 Caesar on Martinianus, who exercised one of the most 
 important ofiices of the empire."" 
 The battle of Such Were still the resources, and such 
 Chry.opoh8. the abilities, of Licinius, that, after so 
 many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a 
 new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the 
 activity of Constantine was employed in the siege of 
 Byzantium. The vigilant emperor did not however 
 neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A consi- 
 derable part of his victorious army was transported 
 over the Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive 
 engagement was fought soon after their landing on the 
 heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of 
 Scutari. The troops of Licinius, though thev were 
 lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined", made 
 head against their conquerors with fruitless but despe- 
 rate valour, till a total defeat, and the slaughter of five 
 and twenty thousand men irretrievably determined the 
 Submission and ^^^^ ^f their leader.' He retired to Ni- 
 death of Licini- comedia, rather with the view of gaining 
 "■• some time for negoclation, than with the 
 
 hope of any effectual defence. Constantia, his wife 
 and the sister of Constantine, interceded with her 
 brother in favour of her husband, and obtained from 
 his policy rather than from his compassion, a solemn 
 promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice 
 of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, 
 Licinius himself should be permitted to pass the re- 
 mainder of his life in peace and aflluence. The be- 
 haviour of Constantia, and her relation to the contend- 
 ing parties, naturally recalls the remembrance of that 
 virtuous matron who was the sister of Augustus, and 
 the wife of Antony. But the temper of mankind was 
 altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous for a 
 Roman to survive his honour and independence. Li- 
 cinius solicited and accepted the pardon of his offences, 
 laid himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and 
 mnsfer, was raised from the ground with insulting pity, 
 was admitted the same day to the imperial banquet, 
 and soon afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, 
 which had been chosen for the place of his confinement.^ 
 His confinement was soon terminated by death, and it 
 is doubtful whether a tumult of the soldiers, or a de- 
 cree of the senate, was suggested as a motive for his 
 execution. According to the rules of tyranny, he was 
 accused of forming a conspiracy, and of holding a 
 treasonable correspondence with the barbarians ; but 
 
 157 
 
 as he was never convicted, ehher by his own conduct, 
 or by any legal evidence, we may perhaps be allowed, 
 from his weakness, to presume his innocence." The 
 memory of Licinius was branded witli infamy, his 
 statues were thrown down, and, by a hasty edict, of 
 such mischievous tendency that it was almost imme- 
 diately corrected, all his laws, and all the judicial pro- 
 ceedings of his reiirn, were at once abolished .» By this 
 victory of Constantine, the Roman world Re union of the 
 was again united under the authority of empire, 
 one emperor, thirty-seven years after a.d.:j24. 
 Diocletian had divided his power and provinces with 
 his associate Maximian. 
 
 The successive steps of the elevation of Constan- 
 tino, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the 
 resignation of Licinius at Nicomedia, have been re- 
 lated with some minuteness and precision, not only as 
 the events are in themselves both interesting and im- 
 portant, but still more, as they contributed to the de- 
 cline of the empire by the expense of blood and trea- 
 sure, and by the perpetual increase, as well of the 
 taxes, as of the military establishment. The founda- 
 tion of Constantinople, and the establishment of the 
 christian religion, were the immediate and memorable 
 consequences of this revolution. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The progress of the christian rebgion, a7id the senti- 
 ments, maimers, numbers, and condition, of the primitive 
 christians. 
 
 attempt the passase. A south wind renders the force of the current 
 almost imperceptible. See Tournefort'a Voyage au Levant, Let. xi. 
 
 r Aurelius Victor. Zosimus. I. ii. p. 98. According to the latter, 
 Martinianus was Magister Officiorum (he uses the Latin appellation 
 in Greek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that during iiis short 
 rein[n he received the title of Augustus. 
 
 • Eusebius (in Vita Constantin. I. ii. c. 16, 17.) ascribes this decis- 
 ive victory to the pious prayers of the emperor. The Valesian frag- 
 ment (p. 714.) menlioiig a body of Gothic auxiliaries, under their 
 chief Aliquaca, who adhered to the party of Licinius. 
 
 t Zotimui, l.ii. p. 102. Victor Junior in Epitome. Anonym. Va- 
 'eaian, p. 714. 
 
 A CANniD but rational inquiry into the importance of 
 progress and establishment of Christian- t''e inquiry, 
 ity, may be considered as a very essential part of the 
 history of the Roman empire. While that great body 
 was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow 
 decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated 
 itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and 
 obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and 
 finally erocted the triumphant banner of the cross on 
 the riiins of the capitol. Nor was the influence of 
 Christianity confined to the period or to the limits of 
 the Koman empire. After a revolution of thirteen or 
 fourteen centuries, that religion is still professed by 
 the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion 
 of human kind in arts and learning as well as in arms. 
 By the industry and zeal of the Europeans, it has been 
 widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and 
 Africa ; and by the means of their colonies has been 
 firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a world 
 unknown to the ancients. 
 
 But this inquiry, however useful or , , _ , 
 entertaining, is attended with two pecu- ^''^^"''»'^•• 
 liar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials 
 of ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel 
 the dark cloud that hangs over the first age of the 
 church. The great law of impartiality too often oblio-es 
 us to reveal the imperfections of the uninsjiired teach- 
 ers and believers of the gospel ; and, to a careless ob- 
 server, their faults may seem to cast a shade on the 
 faith which they professed. But the scandal of the 
 pious christian, and the fallacious triumph of the infi- 
 del, should cease as soon as they recollect not only by 
 whom, but likewise to whom, the divine revelation was 
 given. The theologian may indulge the pleasing task 
 of describing religion as she descended from heaven, 
 arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty 
 is imposed on the historian. He must discover the 
 
 u Contra religioncm sacramenti Thessalonirsp privatusoccisui! est. 
 Eiitropius. X. G. and iiis evidence is rontirmnd bv Jerome, (in Chro- 
 nic.) as well as by ZosimuF, I. ii. p. 120. The Valesian writer is the 
 only one who mentions the soldiers, and it is Zonaras alone who 
 calls in the aiisistance of the senate. Eusebius prudently slides ovei 
 this delicate transaction. But Sozomen. a century afterwards, ven- 
 tures to assert the treasonable practices of Licinius. 
 
 X See the Theodo.«tian Code, I. xv, tit. !.■>. torn. v. p. 404, 405. The* 
 edicts of Constantine betray a degree of passion and precipitance 
 very unbecoming the character of a lawgiver. 
 
158 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 C fAP. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 / 
 
 inevitable mixture of error and corruption, which she 
 contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a 
 weak and degenerate race of beings. 
 
 Our curiosity is naturally prompted 
 IhrgZvih of to inquire by what means the christian 
 Christianity. faith obtained so remarkable a victory 
 over the established religions of the earth. To this 
 inquiry, an obvious but satisfactory answer may be 
 returned ; that it was owing to the convincing evi- 
 dence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling provi- 
 dence of its great Author. But as truth and reason 
 seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, 
 and as the wisdom of Providence frequently conde- 
 scends to use the passions of the human heart, and the 
 general circumstances of mankind, as instruments to 
 execute its purpose ; we may still be perrnitted, 
 though with becoming submission, to ask, not indeed 
 whaf were the first, but what were the secondary, 
 causes of the rapid growth of the christian church. 
 It will perhaps appear, that it was most effectually 
 favoured and assisted by the five following causes : 
 
 I. The inflexible, and, if we may use the expression, 
 the intolerant zeal of the christians, derived, it is true, 
 from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow 
 and unsocial spirit, which, instead of inviting, had de- 
 terred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. 
 
 II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every 
 additional circumstance which could give weight and 
 eflacacy to that important truth. III. The miraculous 
 powers ascribed to the primitive church. IV. The 
 pure and austere morals of the christians. V. The 
 union and discipline of the christian republic, which 
 gradually formed an independent and increasing state 
 in the heart of the Roman empire. 
 
 Thk First ^' ^® ^^^® already described the re- 
 
 Cause. Zeal of Hgious harmony of the ancient world, 
 
 the Jews. and the facility with which the most 
 
 different and even hostile nations embraced, or at 
 
 least respected, each other's superstitions.* A single 
 
 people refused to join in the common intercourse of 
 mankind. The Jews, who, under the Assyrian and 
 Persian monarchies, had languished for many ages 
 the most despised portion of their slaves,*" emerged 
 from obscurity under the successors of Alexander ; 
 and as they multiplied to a surprising degree in the 
 east, and afterwards in the west, they soon excited the 
 curiosity and wonder of other nations.<= The sullen 
 obstinacy with which they maintained their peculiar 
 rites and unsocial manners, seemed to mark them out 
 a distinct species of men, who boldly professed, or 
 who faintly disguised, their implacable hatred to the 
 rest of human-kind.'^ Neither the violence of Anti- 
 ochus, nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the 
 circumjacent nations, could ever persuade the Jews to 
 associate with the institutions of Moses the eleorant 
 mythology of the Greeks.® According to the maxims 
 of universal toleration, the Romans protected a super- 
 stition which they despised.' The polite Augustus 
 condescended to give orders, that sacrifices should be 
 offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem ;k 
 while the meanest of the posterity of Abrahani, who 
 should have paid the same homage to the Jupiter of 
 the capitol, would have been an object of abhorrence 
 to himself and to his brethren. But the moderation 
 of the conquerors was insuflUcient to appease the jeal- 
 ous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarnied 
 and scandalized at the ensigns of paganism, which 
 necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman pro- 
 
 a [This facility did not always prevent that intolerance which 
 ■eeiiia inherent in the spirit of religion whenever it is clothed with 
 power. To separate ecclesiastical from civil authority appears to 
 bctlie only means of preserving at once religion and toleration, hut 
 thi»idea is very modern. Passion blending itself with opinion, often 
 rendered the pagans intolerant or persecuting,— the Persians, the 
 Egyptians, llie Greeks, and even the Romans, may be brought in 
 proof of this. 
 
 Ist, The Persian*.— Cainhysos, the conqueror of E^ypt. condemiicd 
 the magistrates of Menipliis to death, because they hud rendered divine 
 honours to their god, Apis; he caused the god to be dragged through 
 the streets, struck him with his dagger, connnanded the priests to be 
 beaten with rods, and that all the Egyptians who should be found 
 celel)rating the feast of Apis, should be put lo the sword, and he 
 burnt all the statues of their gods. Not content with this intole- 
 rance, he sent an army to reduce the Ammonians to servitude, and 
 to burn the temple where Jupiter delivered his oracles. (See Hero 
 dotus, hook iii.c. 25,27, 28. 29, 37,— Trans, of M. Larcher, vol. in. p. 
 22, 24, 25, 33.) Xerxe's, during his invasion into Greece, acted on 
 the same principle. He demolished all the temples of Greece and of 
 Ionia, except that at Ephesus. (See Pausanias, book vii. p. 533, 
 and book x. p. 887. Strabo, book xiv. p. 941.) 
 
 2dly, The Egyptians.— They believed themsolvos polluted when- 
 ever they had drank from the same cup, or eaten at the same table 
 with a man of a 'relief different from their own. " Whoever had de- 
 signedly killed any sacred animal, was punished with death, but if 
 any one had killed, even unintentionally, a cat or an ibis, he could 
 not escape the severest punishment; the people dragged him to pun- 
 ishment and cruelly treated him,ot\en without waiting till judgment 
 liad been pronounced upon liim. Even at the time when their king. 
 Ptolemy, was not as yet the declared friend of the Roman people, 
 and when he paid his court with aii possilde care to strangers com- 
 ing from Italy, a Roman having killed a cat, the people rushed to 
 his house, and neither the entreaties of the nobles, whom the king 
 bad sent to them, nor the terror of the Roman name, were sufficiently 
 powerful to save this man from punishment, although he had unde> 
 signedly committed the deed.'' (Diodorus Sirulus, book i. $83, vol. 
 i. p. 94.) Juvenal, in his 15th satire, descril>esa bloody battle which 
 took place Itetween the inhabitants of Ontbi andTentyra, on account 
 of religious animosity. Their fury rose to such a pitch that the con- 
 querors tore and devoured upon the spot, the limbs of the vanquished 
 yet warm with life. 
 
 " Ardet adhuc Ombos et Tentyra. summusutnnque 
 Inde furor vulgo, quod numina vicinorum 
 Odit uierque locus ; quunj solos credal halwndos 
 Esse dcos quos ipse edit." 
 
 Satire, xv. verse 35. 
 3dly. The Oreeka.—'' We need not mention here, says the Abbe 
 Gu^n^e, the cities of Peloponnesus, and their severity against 
 atheism; the Ephcsians pursuing Heraclitus as an impious wretch, 
 nor the Greeks armed against each other by religious zeal, in the 
 war of the Amphictyons, Neither do w« speak of the frightful 
 
 cruelties which the three successors of Alexander exercised against 
 the Jews, to force them to renounce their religion ; nor Antiochus 
 driving the philosophers from his dominions, &c. &c. We need not 
 look so far for proofs of intolerance— Athens, the polite and learned, 
 Athens will furnish us abundant proof— Every one of its citizens 
 publicly took a solemn oath, that he would conform to the religion 
 of the country, would defend it and would enforce its respect. One 
 express law severely punished all discourse against the Gods, and a 
 rigorous decree commanded, that any one who dared to deny their 
 existence, should he impeached. 
 
 The practice of this city corresponded to the severity of its laws. 
 The proceedings instituted against Protagoras, a price put upon the 
 head of Diagoras, the danger of Aicibiades. Aristolie obliged to flee, 
 Stilpo banished, Anaxagoras escaping death with difficulty, Pericles 
 himself, after having rendered his country so many services, and ac- 
 quired 80 much glory, compelled to appear before the tribunal of the 
 people, and make his own defence— a priestess executed for having 
 introduced the worship of strange gods ; Socrates condemned and 
 drinking hemlock because he was accused of not acknowledging 
 the gods of the country, &c. All these farts too strongly attest llie 
 intolerance respecting religion, even among the most humane and 
 enlightened people of Greece, to admit of a doubt reiipecting it."— 
 Lettres de quelques Juifs porlugais a M. de Voltaire, vol. I. p. 273. 
 
 4thly, The Romans.— T\\g laws of Rome were no less express and 
 severe— Intolerance towards the worship of strange gods, pervaded 
 even the laws of the Twelve Tables. This intolerance continued 
 under the emperors- witness the advice of Miecenns lo Augustus. 
 This advice is so remarkable that I cannot forbear to insert it entire, 
 "Respect yourself, says Majcenas to Augustus, carefully honor Iba 
 cods according to the customs of our fathers, and compel {»va.y%»(t) 
 others to honor them— detest and punish the favorers of new reli- 
 gions, (roJc ji f>) ^iwtCovTetj . . , /uio-ii XX4 KoXoKji) not only on ac- 
 count of the gods, but because those who introduce new godx, lead a 
 multitude of people to follow strange laws, and hence arise combina- 
 tions, leagues, and associations,— dangerous things for a monarchy." 
 (See Dion Cassius. book lii. c. 3G. p. 6b9.) 
 
 Even the laws which the philosophers of Athens and of Rome 
 wrote for their imaginary republics, are intolerant. Plato gives no 
 religious liberty to citizens, and Cicero expressly discountenances 
 having any other gods than those sanctioned by the Slate. (Lettres 
 de quelques Juifs porlugais a M. de Voltaire, vol. i. p. 279.)— O.] 
 
 b Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque, et Persas Oriens fuit, despecli*- 
 sima pars scrvientium. Tacit. Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited 
 Asia, whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentions 
 the Syrians of Palestine, who. according to their own confession, 
 had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See 1. ii. c. 104. 
 
 c Diodorus Siculus. I. xl. Dion Cassius, I. xxxvii. p. 121. Tacit. 
 Hist. v. 1—9. Justin, xxxvi. 2, 3. 
 d Tradidit arcanoqusecumque volumine Moses, 
 Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenii, 
 Qua'situs ad fontes solos dcducere verpas. 
 The letter of this law is not to l»e found in the present volume of 
 Moses. But the wise, the humane Mainionides openly teaches, that 
 if an idolater fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from 
 instant death. See Bagnage, Histoire des Juifs, I. vi. c. 28. 
 
 e A Jewish sect, which indulged themselves in a sort of occasional 
 conformity, derived from Herod, by whose example and authority 
 they had been seduced, the name of Horodlans. But their number* 
 were so inconsiderable, and their duration so short, that Joaeplius 
 has not thought them worthy of his notice. See Prideaux's Con- 
 nexion, vol. ii. p. 285. 
 f Cicero pro Flacco, c. 28. 
 
 g Philo de Legatione. Augustus left a foundation for a pcrpetnal 
 sacrifice. Vet he approved of the neglect which his grandson Cain* 
 expressed towards the temple of Jerusalem. See Sueion. in August, 
 c. 03. and Caeaul'on'B notes on that passage. 
 
 vince.»> The mad attempt of Caligula to place his 
 own statue m the temple of Jerusalem, was defeated 
 by the unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded 
 death much less than such an idolatrous profanation.' 
 Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to 
 their detestation of foreign religions. The current of 
 zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow 
 channel, ran with tlie strength, and sometimes with 
 the fury, of a torrent. 
 
 Its gradual in- This inflexible perseverance, which 
 crease. appeared so odious or so ridiculous to 
 the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, 
 since providence has deigned to reveal to us the mys- 
 terious history of the chosen people. But the devout 
 and even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic reli- 
 gion, so conspicuous among the Jews who lived under 
 the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if 
 It IS compared with the stubborn incredulity of their 
 forefathers. When the law was given in thunder 
 from mount Sinai; when the tides of the ocean and 
 the course of the planets were suspended for the con- 
 venience of the Israelites ; and when temporal re- 
 wards and punishments were the immediate conse- 
 qiiences of their piety or disobedience, they perpetu- 
 ally relapsed into rebellion against the visible majesty 
 of their Divine King, placed the idols of the nations 
 in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fan- 
 tastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the 
 Arabs, or in the cities of Phtenicia.J As the protec- 
 tion of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the 
 ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable 
 degree of vigour and purity. The contemporaries of 
 Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indiffer- 
 ence the most amazing miracles. Under the pressure 
 of every calamity, the belief of those miracles has 
 preserved the Jews of a later period from the univer- 
 sal contagion of idolatry ; and in contradiction to eve- 
 ry known principle of the human mind, that singular 
 people seems to have yielded a stronger and Tnore 
 ready assent to the traditions of their remote ances- 
 tors, than to the evidence of their own senses.* 
 
 Thnir religion . '^J*®. Jcwish religion was admirably 
 better suited to fitted for defence, but it was never de 
 ^tueV.'""'" Signed for conquest; and it seems pro- 
 , bable that the number of proselytes was 
 
 never much superior to that of apostates. The divine 
 promises were originally made, and the distino-uishinff 
 rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a sin crle" family. 
 VVhen the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like 
 the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth 
 they received a system of laws and ceremonies, de- 
 clared himsef the proper and as it were the national 
 God of Israel ; and with the most jealous care sepa- 
 med his favourite people from the rest of mankind. 
 1 he conquest of the land of Canaan was accompanied 
 with so many wonderful and with so many bloody 
 circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a 
 state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neiffh- 
 bours. They had been commanded to extirpate some 
 01 the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the 
 mvine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness 
 of humanity. With the other nations they were for- 
 bidden to contract any marriages or alliances, and the 
 prohibition of receiving them into the conaregation, 
 
 I Jussi aCaioCiEsare, effiziem ejus in teniDlo locarp nrma Pais... 
 TT"',- ,T"="- ""'• '• «• '•""'' """ jXhu^ give a Jery cir 
 
 J For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities it mav 
 t?rv KirnffM'lf ' *V,"°" "^^ comprised in one hundred a^d in rty 
 dMA^/"^'*^"' ""!* '''* ^"'^ '*•'&« ^"<^ 'earned syntagmas which Sel- 
 den had composed on that abstruse subject. "^ «» *** '''"'^" ^^i- 
 
 be Arl.V°^^ 'r",? '''" ^'''^ f^°P'® provoke me ? and how long will It 
 ibemV'^''^ '''i!f ' "'^' ^r, ^" V'« ''Sns which I have shown among 
 ijem ? (Numbers, xiv. 11.) It would be easy, but It would be un 
 
 of^XKarcSC' '°'"'''*"' °'''' """'" ''°"' ^"' Whole feno"r 
 
 159 
 
 which in some cases was perpetual, almost always 
 extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the 
 tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the 
 Gentiles the faith of Moses, had never been incul- 
 cated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews 
 inclined to impose it on themselves as a voluntary 
 duty. ^ 
 
 In the admission of new citizens, that unsocial 
 peop e was actuated by the selfish vanity of the 
 Greeks, rather than by the generous policy of Rome. 
 1 he descendants of Abraham were flattered by the 
 opinion, that they alone were the heirs of the cove- 
 nant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the 
 value of their inheritance, by sharing it too easily 
 with the strangers of the earth. A larger acquaint- 
 ance with mankind, extended their knowledtre without 
 correcting their prejudices ; and whenever the God of 
 Israel acquired any new votaries, he was much more 
 indebted to the inconstant humour of polytheism than 
 to the active zeal of his own missionaries.' The re- 
 ligion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular 
 country as well as for a single nation ; and if a strict 
 obedience had been paid to the order, that every male, 
 three times m the year, should present himself- before 
 the Lord Jehovah, it would have been impossible that 
 the Jews could ever have spread themselves beyond 
 the narrow limits of the promised land." That ob- 
 stacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the 
 temple of Jerusalem ; but the most considerable part 
 of the Jewish religion was involved in its destruction; 
 and the pagans, who had long wondered at the strange 
 report of an empty sanctuary," were at a loss to dis- 
 cover what could be the object, or what could be the 
 instruments, of a worship which was destitute of tem- 
 ples and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet 
 even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting 
 their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead 
 of courting, the society of strangers. They still in- 
 sisted with inflexible rigour on those parts of the law 
 which it was in their power to practise. Their pecu- 
 liar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of 
 trivial though burdensome observances, were so many 
 objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, 
 to whose habits ai>d prejudices they were diametric- 
 ally opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite 
 of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a wil- 
 ling proselyte from the door of the synagogue." 
 
 Under these circumstances, christiani- More liberal zeal 
 ty offered itself to the world, armed with "f Christianity, 
 the strength of the Mosaic law, and delivered from the 
 weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth 
 of religion, and the unity of God, was as «arefully in- 
 calculated in the new as in the ancient system : and 
 whatever was now revealed to mankind concerning the 
 nature and designs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to 
 increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. 
 The divine authority of Moses and the prophets was 
 adniitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of 
 Christianity. From the beginning of the world, an un- 
 interrupted series of predictions had announced and 
 prepared the long expected coming of the Messiah, 
 who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of 
 Jews, had been more frequently represented under the 
 character of a king and conqueror, than under that of a 
 prophet, a martyr, and the Son of God. By his expia- 
 tory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of the temple 
 were at once consummated and abolished. The cere- 
 
 t Jni^H .!!' n '■^''*'®^ .i° "'f •^<^^^*'' proselytes has been very ably 
 treated by Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, I. vi. c. 6 7 J- •» r 
 
 mSee Exod. xxiv. 23. Deut. xvl. 16. the commentators, and a 
 very sensible note m the Universal History, vol. i. p. 603. edit. fol. 
 
 i^.lv .1 » , 'i^^; V.^'"^ ***■ ••»'>us»"R tl-e right of conquest, entered 
 into the Holy of Holies, It was observed with amazement, "Nulla 
 mius Dcum effigie, vacuam scdem el inania arcana. Tacit. Hist 
 V. y. Jt was a popular saying, with regard to the Jews, 
 Nil praeter nubes ct co-Ii numen adorant. 
 o A second kind of circumcision was inflicted on a Samaritan or 
 Egyptian proselyte. The sullen indifference of the Talmudlsts with 
 respect to the conversion of strangers, may be seen in Basnage' Hia- 
 loiro des Juifs, I. vi. c. 6. ^ ' 
 
 \ 
 
i*"-* 
 
 160 
 
 THE DECLINE AND PALL 
 
 \ 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV, 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 monial law, which consisted only of types and figures, 
 was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally 
 adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition 
 of mankind ; and to the initiation of blood, was substi- 
 tuted a more harmless initiation of water. The pro- 
 mise of divine favour, instead of being partially con- 
 fined to the posterity of Abraham, was universally pro- 
 posed to the freeman and the slave, to the Greek and 
 to the barbarian, to the Jew and to the Gentile. Eve- 
 ry privilege that could raise the proselyte from earth to 
 heaven, that could exalt his devotion, secure his hap- 
 piness, or even gratify that secret pride, which, under 
 ihe semblance of devotion, insinuates itself into the 
 human heart, was still reserved for the members of the 
 christian church ; but at the same time all mankind 
 was permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glori- 
 ous distinction, which was not only proffered as a fa- 
 vour, but imposed as an obligation. It became the most 
 sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among his 
 friends and relations the inestimable blessing which he 
 had received, and to warn them against a refusal that 
 would be severely punished as a criminal disobedience 
 to the will of a benevolent but all-powerful Deity. 
 Obstinacy and '^^^^ enfranchisement of the church 
 
 reasons of tiio from the bouds of the synagogue, was a 
 bciioving Jews, ^v^rk however of some time and of some 
 difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged 
 Jesus in the character of the Messiah foretold by their 
 ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher 
 of virtue and religion ; but they obstinately adhered to 
 the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of 
 imposing them on the Gentil<>s, who continually aug- 
 mented the number of believers. These judaizing 
 christians seemed to have argued with some degree of 
 plausibility from the divine origin of the Mosaic law, 
 and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. 
 They affirmed, that if the Being, who is the same 
 through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sa- 
 cred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen 
 people, the repeal of them would have been no less 
 clear and solemn than their first promulgation : fhatj 
 instead of those frequent declarations, which either 
 suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, 
 it would have been represented as a provisionary 
 scheme intended to last only till the coming of the 
 Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more per- 
 fect mode of faith and of worship:!* that the Messiah 
 himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on 
 earth, instead of authorizing by their example the most 
 minute observances of the Mosaic Iaw,*i would have 
 published to the world the abolition of those useless 
 and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering Christianity 
 to remain during so many years obscurely confounded 
 among the sects of the Jewish church. Arguments 
 like these appear to have been used in the defence of 
 the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the indus- 
 try of our learned divines has abundantly explained the 
 ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the 
 ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was 
 proper gradually to unfold the system of the gospel, 
 and to pronounce, with the utmost caution and tender- 
 ness, a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the 
 inclination and prejudices gf the believing Jews. 
 
 Tiie Nazarcne ^^^ history of the church of Jerusalem 
 rhurch of Joru- affords a lively proof of the necessity of 
 «alom. those precautions, and of the deep im- 
 
 pression which the Jewish religion had made on the 
 minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Je- 
 rusalem were all circumcised Jews; and thecongrega- 
 
 P These arjjuaionfs were urj^ed with preat ingenuity l»y tlie Jew 
 Orobio, niid refuted with equal injrenuity and raiulour by the chris- 
 tian Liuiborrli. See tlie Arnica CoUatio, (it well deserves that name.) 
 on acfouTit of liic dispute lictween tliein. 
 
 q Jcsu!*— circumcisus erat; cihis utehafur Judaicis ; vestitu si- 
 mil; ; puruatos scahie iniltebat nd eacerdotes; Paschata ct alioa d'es 
 festos religiose obgervahat : Si quos saiiavit sabbatho, ostendit non 
 tantum ex lege, sod et exreptis senteiitiis talia opera sablfatlio, non 
 interdicta. Grotiiis do V^eritale Reliijionis C'hristianffi, I. v. c. 7. A 
 little afterwards (c. IS) lie e:cpatiaiea on the condescension of the 
 apostles. 
 
 tion over which they presided, united the law of Moses 
 with the doctrine of Christ.' It was natural that the 
 primitive tradition of a church which was founded only 
 forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed 
 almost as many years under the immediate inspection 
 of his apostle, should be received as the standard of or- 
 thodoxy.* The distant churches very frequently ap- 
 pealed to the authority of their venerable parent, and 
 relieved her distresses by a liberal contribution of alms. 
 But when numerous and opulent societies were estab- 
 lished in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Al- 
 exandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, the reverence 
 which Jerusalem had inspired to all the christian colo- 
 nies insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, 
 as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who 
 had laid the foundations of the church, soon found 
 themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, 
 that from all the various religions of polytheism enlist- 
 ed under the banner of Christ: and the Gentiles, who, 
 with the approbation of their peculiar apostle, had re- 
 jected the intolerable weight of the Mosaic ceremonies, 
 at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the 
 same toleration which at first they had humbly solicit- 
 ed for their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of 
 the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was 
 severely felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, 
 though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate 
 a connexion with their impious countrymen, whose 
 misfortunes were attributed by the pagans to the con- 
 tempt, and more justly ascribed by the christians to the 
 wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired 
 from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella 
 beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languish- 
 ed above sixty years in solitude and obscurity.* They 
 still enjoyed tlie comfort of making frequent and de- 
 vout visits to the Holy City, and the hope of being one 
 day restored to those seats which both nature and reli- 
 gion taught them to love as well as to revere. But at 
 length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fana- 
 ticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their cala- 
 mities ; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated 
 rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual 
 rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of ^lia 
 Capitolina, a new city on mount Sion,'* to which he 
 gave the privileges of a colony ; and denoimcing the 
 severest penalties against any of the .Jewish people 
 who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a 
 vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the exe- 
 cuUon of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one 
 way left to escape the common proscription, and the 
 force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the in- 
 fluence of temporal advantages. They elected Marcus 
 for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, 
 and most probably a native either of Italy or of some 
 of the Latin provinces.^ At his persuasion, the most 
 considerable part of the congregation renounced the 
 Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had perse- 
 vered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits 
 and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into 
 the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their 
 union with the catholic church.'' 
 
 r P.Tne omncs Christum Drum sub lepis olmervatione crcdebant. 
 Sulpi<iu9 Severus. ii. 31. See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. c. 5. 
 
 s Moi)heim dc Rebus Chriatiaiiis ante Constantinum Magnum, p. 
 153. In this masterly performance which f shall often have orca- 
 sion to quote, he enters much more fully into the state of the primi- 
 tive churcn, than he has an op{)ortunjty of doing in his General His- 
 tory. _ 
 
 t Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 5. Lc Clerc, Hist. Erclesiast. p. 605. During 
 this occanional absence, the bishop and church of Pclla still retained 
 ^e title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontiflH re- 
 sided seventy years at Avijinon ; and the patriarchs of Alexandria 
 have lone since transferred their episcopal scat to Cairo. 
 
 u Dion Cassius, I. Ixix. The exile of the Jewisli nalion from Je- 
 rusalem is atteslfd by Aristo of Pella ; 'apud. Enseb. 1. iv. c. .">.) and 
 is mentioned by several ecrlesinstica! writers: though some of them 
 too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. 
 
 T [Marcus was a Greek prelate. (See Dcodcrlein. dc Comment. 
 Ebionobis. p. 10.)— G.] 
 
 w Eusebius, I. iv. c. C. Sulpicius Peverus. ii. 31. By comparing 
 their unsatisfactory accounts, Mosheim (p. 327, &c.) has drawn out 
 a very distinct representation of the circunistancefc and motives of 
 this revolution. 
 
 The Ebionites. "^^en the name and honours of the 
 church of Jerusalem had been restored 
 to mount bion, the crimes of heresy and schism were 
 imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes, 
 which refused to accompany their Latin bishop. Thev 
 still preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread 
 themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and 
 tormed an inconsiderable church in the city of Bercea, 
 or, as It IS now called, of Aleppo, in Syria.* The 
 name of IVazarenes was deemed too honourable for 
 those christian Jews, and they soon received from the 
 supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of 
 then condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites.y 
 In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusa- 
 lem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy, 
 whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as 
 the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the 
 law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation. The 
 humane temper of Justin Martyr inclined him to answer 
 this question in the affirmative ; and though he expres- 
 sed himself with the most guarded diffidence, he ven- 
 tured to determine in favour of such an imperfect chris- 
 tian, if he were content to practise the Mosaic ceremo- 
 nies, without pretending to assert their general use or 
 necessity.- But when Justin was pressed to declare 
 the sentiment of the church, he confessed that there 
 were very many among the orthodox christians, who 
 not only excluded their judaizing brethren from the 
 hope of salvation, but who declined any intercourse 
 with them in the common offices of friendship, hospi- 
 tality, and social life.* The more rigorous opinion 
 prevailed, as it was natural to expect, over them'ilder; 
 and an eternal bar of separation was fixed between the 
 disciples of Moses and those of Christ. The unfortun- 
 ate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates, 
 and from the other as heretics, found themselves 
 compelled to assume a more decided character; and al- 
 though some traces of that obsolete sect may be dis- 
 covered as late as the fourth century, they insensibly 
 melted away either into the church or the svnao-oo-ue."^ 
 
 161 
 
 
 fr^ H^^^!^ ^"l"'- Ecclesiast. p. 477, 5.35.) seems to have collected 
 iroiu Eusebms, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers, all the prin- 
 cipal circiimstances that relate to the Nazarenes or Ebionites. The 
 nature of their opinions soon divided them into a stricter and a mild- 
 er .sect ; and there is some reason to conjecture, that the family of 
 Jesus Christ remained members, at least, of the latter and more mo 
 aerate party. 
 
 y Some writers have been pleased to create an Ebion, the imagin- 
 ary author of their sect and name. But we can more safely rely on 
 the learned Eusebius than on the vehement Tertullian,or the credu- 
 lous Epiphanius. According to Le Clerc, the Hebrew word Ebjonim. 
 may be translated into Latin by that of Paupercs. See Flist Eccle- 
 Kiast. p. 477. 
 
 [" Ebionites."— The name of Ebionites was of earlier date The 
 
 first christians of Jerusalem were called Ebionites, on account of the 
 
 j^verty to which they were reduced by their deeds of benevolence. 
 
 See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 4. v. 34 : and c. 11. v. 30. the epistle 
 
 to the Galatians, c. 2. v. 10. Romans c. 15. v. 26.) 
 
 This name was al.*o given to tho.se Jewish christians who still re- 
 tained their Judaizing opinions, and lived at Pclla ; they were finallv 
 accused of denying the -livinity of Jesus Christ, and as such excluded 
 from the cliurch. The Socinians who have recently denied this 
 doctrine, have availed themselves of the exampleof the Ebionites. to 
 prove that the primitive christians held to the same opinions which 
 they profess on this subject. Arfemon among others, has developed 
 tins argument in all its force ; Durderlin and other modern theolo- 
 gians have proved that the Ebionites were falsely accused in this 
 respect. (Commcntaires de ebionoeis, 1770, $ 1—8,)— fi».] 
 
 z [Justin Martyr makes an important distinction, wliich Gibbon 
 has neglected to mention. The first Jewish christians were called 
 i-^iMonites. and had retired to Pella— those whom the bishop Marcus 
 persuaded to give up in part at least the Mosaic law, and to return 
 to Jerusalem, called themselves JVazflrenM.- those who persisted in 
 their Judaism preserved the name of Ebionites. These last only 
 Ju.-<tin Martyr expelled from the church, and blames with great se- 
 yerily— he shows more lenity towards the Nazarenes, who, though 
 tliey strictly obey in many respects the law of Moses, do not compel 
 converted pagans to observe it, while the El)ionites properly so 
 called. wouM force them to obey it. This appears to have been the 
 principal dirtereiice which existed between the opinions of these two 
 sects. (Sec DoKderlin. p. 2.i.)— G.] 
 
 » See the very curious Dialogue of Justin Martvr with the Jew 
 iryphon. The conference between them was held at Ephesus in 
 tne reign of Antoninus Pius, and about twenty years after the're- 
 lurn of the church of Pella to Jerusalem. For this date con«sult tlie 
 accurate account of Tillemont, Memoires Ecclcsiastiques, toin.ii. n. 
 
 ^ Of all tlie systems of Christianity, (hat of Abys.sinia is the only 
 one which still adheres to the Mosaic rites. (Geddes's Church His- 
 'ory of ^Ethiopia, and Dissertations de la Grand suria Relation du P 
 i.oiK>.) The eunuch of ilie queen Candace might suggest some sus' 
 Vol. 1. — V II 
 
 While the orthodox church preserved 
 a just medium between excessive vene- '^''^ ^"O'*^*^*- 
 ration and improper contempt for the law of Moses, the 
 various heretics deviated into equal but opposite ex- 
 tremes of error and extravagance. From the acknow- 
 ledged truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had 
 concluded that it could never be abolished. From 
 Its supposed imperfections the Gnostics as hastily in- 
 ferred that it never was instituted by the wisdom of the 
 Deity. There are some objections against the author- 
 ity of Moses and the prophets, which too readily pre- 
 sent themselves to the sceptical mind; thoutrh they 
 can only be derived from our ignorance of remote anti- 
 quity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate 
 judgment of the divine economy. These objeclions 
 were eagerly embraced and as petulantly uro-ed by the 
 vain science of the Gnostics.' As those heretics were, 
 for the most part, averse to the pleasures of sense, they 
 morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the 
 gallantries of David, and the seraglio of Solomon. The 
 conquest of the land of Canaan, and the extirpation of 
 the suspecting natives, they were at a loss how to re- 
 concile with the common notions of humanity and jus- 
 tice. But when they recollected the sanguinary list 
 of murders, of executions, and of massacres, which 
 stain almost every page of the .Tewish annals, they 
 acknowledged that the barbarians of Palestine had ex- 
 ercised as much compassion towards their idolatrous 
 enemies, as they had ever shown to their friends or 
 countrymen.'^ Passing from the sectaries of the law to 
 the law itself, they asserted that it was impossible that 
 a religion which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and 
 trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as pun- 
 ishments were all of a carnal and temporal nature, 
 could inspire the love of virtue or restrain the impetu- 
 osity of passion. The Mosaic account of the creation 
 and fall of man was treated with profane derision by 
 the Gnostics, who would not listen with patience to 
 the repose of the Deity after six days' labour, to the rib 
 of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of life and of 
 knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden fruit, 
 and the condemnation pronounced against human kind 
 for the venial offence of their first progenitors.^ The 
 God of Israel was impiously represented by the Gnos- 
 tics, as a being liable to passion and to error, caprici- 
 ous in his favour, implacable in his resentment, mean- 
 ly jealous of his superstitious worship, and confining 
 his partial providence to a single people, and to this 
 transitory life. In such a character they could discov- 
 er none of the features of the wise and omnipotent Fa- 
 ther of the universe.' They allowed that the religion 
 of the Jews was somewhat less criminal than the idol- 
 atry of the Gentiles ; but it was their fundamental doc- 
 trine, that the Christ whom they adored as the first and 
 brightest emanation of the Deity, appeared upon earth 
 to rescue mankind from their various errors, and to re- 
 veal a new system of truth and perfection. The most 
 learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension, 
 have imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnos- 
 tics. Acknowledging that the literal sense is repug- 
 
 picions ; but as we are assured (Socrates, i. 19. Sozomen, ii. 24. Lu. 
 dolphus, p. 281.) that the ^Ethiopians were not converted till the fourth 
 century; it is more reasonable to believe, that they respected the sab- 
 bath, and distinguished the forbidden meats, in imitation of the Jews 
 who, in a very early period, were seated on both sides of the Red' 
 Sea. Circumcision had been practised by the most ancient iEthio- 
 pians, from motives of licalth and cleanliness, wliich seem to be ex- 
 plained in the Retherclies Philosophiques sur les AraericaJns, torn ii 
 p. 117. 
 
 c Heausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, I. i. c. 3. has stated their 
 objections, particularly those of Faustus, tlie adversary of Au«»ustin, 
 with the most learned impartiality. " 
 
 d Apud ipsos fides obstinata, misericordia in promptii : adversus 
 oinnes alios hostile odium. Tacit. Hist. v. 4. Surely Tacitus had 
 seen the Jews with too favourable an eye. The perusal of Josephui 
 must have destroyed the antithesis. 
 
 e Dr. Burnet (.Archa^ologia, I. ii. c. 7.) has discussed the first chap, 
 ters of Genesis with too much wit and freedom. 
 
 f The milder Gnostics considered Jehovah, the Creator, as a Being 
 of a mixed nature between God and the daemon. Others confounded 
 him with the evil principle. Consult the second century of the ge- 
 neral history of Mosheim, which gives a very distinct, though con- 
 cise, account of their strange opinions on this subject. 
 
162 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 nant to every principle of faith as well as reason, they 
 deem themselves secure and invulnerable behind the 
 ample veil of allegory, which they carefully spread 
 over every tender part of the Mosaic dispensation.^ 
 rru •, =..,»- ^« It has been remarked with more in- 
 
 Thcir secta, pro- . . . 
 
 gress, and influ- genuity than truth, that the virgin purity 
 ence. of the church was never violated by 
 
 schism or heresy before the reign of Trajan or Hadrian, 
 about one hundred years after the death of Christ.*' 
 We may observe with much more propriety, that, du- 
 ring that period, the disciples of the Messiah were in- 
 dulged in a freer latitude both of faith and practice, 
 than has ever been allowed in succeeding ages. As 
 the terms of communion were insensibly narrowed, 
 and the spiritual authority of the prevailing party was 
 exercised with increasing severity, many of its most 
 respectable adherents, who were called upon to re- 
 nounce, were provoked to assert, their private opinions, 
 to pursue the consequences of their mistaken prin- 
 ciples, and openly to erect the standard of rebellion 
 against the unity of the church. The Gnostics were 
 distinguished as the most polite, the most learned, 
 and the most wealtliy of the christian name, and that 
 general appellation, which expressed a superiority of 
 knowledge, was either assumed by their own pride, 
 or ironically bestowed by the envy of their adversaries. 
 They were almost witliout exception of the race of the 
 Gentiles, and their principal founders seem to have 
 been natives of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of 
 the climate disposes both the mind and the body to 
 indolent and contemplative devotion. The Gnostics 
 blended with the faith of Christ many sublime but 
 obscure tenets, which they derived from oriental phi- 
 losophy, and even from the religion of Zoroaster, con- 
 cerning the eternity of matter, the existence of two 
 principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible 
 world." As soon as they launched out into that vast 
 abyss, they delivered themselves to the guidance of a 
 disordered imagination ; and as the paths of error are 
 various and infinite, the Gnostics were imperceptibly 
 ( divided into more than fifty particular sects,^ of whom 
 the most celebrated appear to have been the Basilidi- 
 ans, the Valentinians, the Marcionites, and, in a still 
 later period, the Manichasans. Each of these sects 
 could boast of its bishops and congregations, of its 
 doctors and martyrs,' and, instead of the four gospels 
 adopted by the church, the lieretics produced a multi- 
 tude of histories, in which the actions and discourses 
 of Christ and of his disciples were adapted to their 
 respective tenets.*" The success of the Gnostics was 
 
 g See Reausobre, Hist, du IManichcismc, I. i. c. 4. Origcn and St. 
 Auguatin were ainoii'.' the allcjijorists. 
 
 b Hegesippiis, up. Euscb. 1. iii. '32. iv. 22. Clemens AIe.\andriii. 
 Stromat. vii. 17. 
 
 [The assertion of Hejjesippus is not so posiiivc. It is only neces- 
 sary to read the entire passage sucii as it is in Ensel)ius, to see how 
 the first part is modified by ttie last, llegesippiis adds, that " up to 
 this time, the church had remained as pure and uncorruptcd as a 
 virgin. Those who strive to alter the dortrines of llie Gospel, only 
 toil ever in darkness," (Eusehins, Imok iii. c. :12. p. 81.)— «.] 
 
 i In the account of the Gnostics of the second and third centuries, 
 Mosheim is ingenious and candid ; Lc Clerc dull, hut e.\act ; Reauso 
 bre almost always an apologist ; and it is much to he feared that the 
 primitive fathers are very frequently calumniators. 
 
 k See the catalogues of Irenteus and Epiplianius, It must indeed 
 be allowed, that those writers were inclined to utultipiy the number 
 of sects which opposed the vnity of the church. 
 
 1 Eusebius. I. iv.c. 15. Sozomen, I. ii. c. 32. See in Bayle, in the 
 article of Marcion, a curious detail of a dispute on that subject. It 
 should seem that some of the Gnostics (the nasilidians) dcrlincd, and 
 even refused, the honour of martyrdom. Their reasons were singu- 
 lar and abstruse. See Mosheim, p. 359. 
 
 m See a very remarkable passsa-re of Origen (Proem, ad Lucan.) 
 That indefatigable writer, wbo had consumed his life in the study of 
 the scriptures, relies for their authenticity on the inspired authority 
 of the cimrch. It was impossible that the Gnostics could receive our 
 present gospels, many parts of wbicli (particularly in the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ) are directly, and as it might seem designedly, pointed 
 against their favourite tenets. It is therefore somewhat singular 
 that Ignatius (Epist. ad Smyrn. Patr. Apo^tol. torn. ii. p. 31.) should 
 choose to employ a vague and doubtful tradition, instead of quoting 
 the certain ti'stimony of the evangelists. 
 
 [IJishop Pearson has happily explained this singularity. "The 
 first Christians remembered many of the words of Jesus Christ, 
 which are not recorded in our Gospels, and were never even writ- 
 ten. Wherefore could not saint Ignatius who had lived with the 
 apostles or their disciples, repeat in other words, that which St. Luke 
 
 rapid and extensive." They covered Asia and Egypt, 
 established themselves in Home, and sometimes pene- 
 trated into the provinces of the west. For the most 
 part they arose in the second century, flourished du- 
 ring the third, and were suppressed in the fourth or 
 fifth, by the prevalence of more fashionable contro- 
 versies, and by the superior ascendant of the reigning 
 power. Though they constantly disturbed the peace, 
 and frequently disgraced the name, of religion, they 
 contributed to assist rather than to retard the progress 
 of Christianity. The Gentile converts, whose strong- 
 est objections and prejudices were directed against 
 the law of Moses, could find admission into many 
 christian societies, which required not from their un- 
 tutored mind any belief of an antecedent revelation. 
 Their faith was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and 
 the church was ultimately benefited by the conquests 
 of its most inveterate enemies.** 
 
 I3ut whatever diflerence of opinion rp,,^, ^^,„,^j^a con- 
 mi trht subsist between the orthodox, the sidcrcd as the 
 Eblonites, and the Gnostics, concerning gods of antiquity, 
 the divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they 
 were all equally animated by the same exclusive zeal, 
 and by the same abhorrence for idolatry which had 
 distinguished the Jews from the otJier nations of the 
 ancient world. The philosopher, who considered the 
 system of polytheism as a composition of human fraud 
 and error, could disguise a smile of contempt under 
 the mask of devotion, without apprehending that 
 either the mockery, or the compliance, would expose 
 him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he con- 
 ceived them, imaginary powers. But the established 
 religions of paganism were seen by the primitive 
 christians in a much more odious and formidable light. 
 It was the universal sentiment both of the church and 
 of heretics, that the daemons were the authors, the pa- 
 trons, and the objects of idolatry.P Those rebellious 
 spirits who had been degraded from the rank of 
 angels, and cast down into the infernal pit, were 
 still permitted to roam upon earth, to torment the 
 bodies, and to sednce the minds, of sinful men. The 
 daemons soon discovered and abused the natural pro- 
 pensity of the human heart towards devotion, and, art- 
 fully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their 
 Creator, they usurped the place and honours of the 
 Supreme Deity. 13y the success of their malicious 
 contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity 
 and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which 
 they were yet susceptible, the hope of involving the 
 human species in the participation of their guilt and 
 misery. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, 
 that they had distributed among themstilves the most 
 important characters of polytheism, one daemon as- 
 suming the name and attributes of .Jupiter, another of 
 iEsculapius, a third of Venus, and a fourth perhaps 
 of Apollo ;«i and that, by the advantage of their long 
 experience and aerial nature, they were enabled to ex- 
 ecute with suflTicient skill and dignity, the parts which 
 they had undertaken. They lurked in the temples, 
 instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented fables, pro- 
 nounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to per- 
 form miracles. The christians, who, by the interpo- 
 sition of evil spirits, could so readily explain every 
 praeternatural appearance, were disposed and even de- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 163 
 
 relates, especially at a moment when, perhaps, be had not the Gos- 
 pels in his hands, being then in prison ? (r^ee Pearson Vindic. igna- 
 tianir, part ii. c. 9. p. Oti. in vol. ii. Patr. Apostol. ed. Cotcler etcri- 
 cus, 1724. See also Davis' reply, A:c. p. 31.)— (7.] 
 
 n Faciunt favos ct vespa' ; faciunt eccleslas et Marrionita», is the 
 strong e.xpression of 'I'ertullian, wliicli I am obliged to quote from 
 memory. In the time of Epiphanius, (advers. Haroses, p. 302.) the 
 Marcioiiitcs were very numerous in Italy, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and 
 Persia. 
 
 o Augiistin is a memorable instance of this gradual progress froiii 
 reason to faith, lie was, during several year.«, engaged in the Mam- 
 chffansect. 
 
 P The unanimous sentiment of the primitive church is very clearly 
 explained by Justin Martyr. Apolog Major, by Athenagoras, Legat 
 c. 22. &c. and by I>actantius, Inslimt. Divin. ii. U— 19. 
 
 q Tertullian (Apolog. c 23.) alleges ibe confession of the da?nions 
 themselves as often as they were tormented by the christian exorcists. 
 
 sirous to admit the most extravagant fictions of the 
 pagan mythology. But the belief of the christian was 
 accompanied with horror. The most trifling mark of 
 respect to the national worship he considered as a di- 
 rect homage yielded to the daemon, and as an act of 
 rebellion against the majesty of God. 
 Abhorrence of In consequence of this opinion, it was 
 
 fovid£uy"' ^^^ ^''^* ^"* arduous duty of a christian 
 to preserve himself pure and undefiled 
 from the practice of idolatry. The religion of the na- 
 tions was not merely a speculative doctrine professed 
 in the schools or preached in the temples. The innu- 
 merable deities and rites of polytheism were closely 
 interwoven with every circumstance of business or 
 pleasure, of public or of private life; and it seemed im- 
 possible to escape the observance of them, without, at 
 the same time, renouncing the commerce of mankind, 
 and all the offices and amusements of society.' The 
 Ceremonies ^"^Po^^^^^ transactions of peace and war 
 . • were prepared or concluded by solemn 
 sacrifices, in which the magistrate, the senator, and 
 the soldier, were obliged to preside or to participate.' 
 The public spectacles were an essential part of the 
 cheerful devotion of the pagans, and the gods were 
 supposed to accept, as the most grateful offtring, the 
 games that the prince and people celebrated in honour 
 of their peculiar festivals.* The christian, who with 
 pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or 
 the theatre, found himself encompassed with infernai 
 snares in every convivial entertainment, as often as his 
 friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out 
 libations to each other's happiness." When the bride, 
 struggling with well-aflfected reluctance, was forced 
 in hymeneal pomp over the threshold of her new ha- 
 bitation,* or when the sad procession of the dead slow- 
 ly moved towards the funeral pile;^ the christian, on 
 these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert 
 the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than 
 contract the guilt inherent to those impious ceremonies. 
 Arts. Every art and every trade that was in 
 the least concerned in the framing or 
 adorning of idols was polluted by the stain of id'ola- 
 try ; ' a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal 
 misery the far greater part of the community, which 
 is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic 
 professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous 
 remains of antiquity, we shall perceive, that be- 
 sides the immediate representations of the gods, and 
 the holy instruments of their worship, the elegant 
 forms and agreeable fictions consecrated by the ima- 
 gination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest 
 ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture 
 of the pagans.* Even the arts of music and painting. 
 
 r Tertullian has written a most severe treatise against idolatry, to 
 caution hia brethren against tiie hourly danger of incurring "that 
 guilt. Recogifa sylvam, et quanta; laiitant spinae. De Corona Mill- 
 tis, c. 10. 
 
 I The Roman senate was always held In a temple or consecrated 
 place. (Aulus Gellius, xiv. 7.) Before they entered on busin.-ss. every 
 senator dropt sfime wine and frankincense on the altar. Sucton. in 
 August, c. 35. 
 
 t See Tertullian, De Spectaculifi. This severe reformer shows no 
 more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides, than to a combat of gla- 
 diators. The dress of the actors particularly offends liim. By the 
 use of the lofty buskin, tliey impiously strive to add a cubit to their 
 stature, c. 23. 
 
 u The ancient practice of concluding the entertainment with liba- 
 tions, may be found in every classic. Socrates and Seneca, in their 
 last moments, made a noble application of this custom. Tostquam 
 stagnum caiida? aqu.T introiit, respergen.* proximos servorum. addita 
 voce, libare se liqiioreni ilium Jovi Liberatori. Tacit. Annal. xv. G4. 
 
 y See the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on the nuptials 
 of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Ilymensc. lo ! Quis huic Deo com- 
 pararier ausit ? 
 
 y The ancient funernls (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are no 
 less accurately described by Virgil, than they are illustrated by his 
 commentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the flames were 
 fed with the blood of victims, and all the assistants were sprinkled 
 with lustral water. 
 
 « Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 17. 
 
 [The e.vtrava^rant and declamatory opinions of TertnUian ought 
 not to be taken for the general opinion of the first christians. Gib- 
 bon too often permits himself to represent the peculiar ideas of snch 
 or such a father of the church, as inherent principles of Christianity ; 
 which is not correct.— f?.] 
 
 » See every part of Montfaueon's Antiquities. Even tho reverses 
 
 of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same m^,me 
 origin. In the style of the fathers, Apollo and' the 
 Muses were the organs of the infernal spirit. Homer 
 and Virgil were the most eminent of his servants, and 
 the beautiful mythology which pervades and animates 
 the compositions of their genius, is destined to cele- 
 brate the glory of the demons. p]vcn the common 
 language of Greece and Rome abounded with famili■r^^ 
 but impious expressions, which the imprudent chris- 
 tian might too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear.** 
 
 The dangerous temptations which on 
 every side lurked in ambush to surprise ^^'st'vais. 
 the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled 
 violence on the days cf solemn festivals. So artfully, 
 were they framed and disposed throughout the year,' 
 that superstition always wore the appearance of plea- 
 sure, and often of virtue.*^ Some of the most sacred 
 festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute 
 the new calends of January with vows of public and ' 
 private felicity, to indulge the pious remembrance of 
 the dead and living, to ascertain the inviolable bounds 
 of property, to hail, on the return of spring, the genial 
 powers of fecundity, to perpetuate the two memorable 
 eras of Rome, the foundation of the city, and that of 
 the republic, and to restore, during the human licence 
 of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind. 
 Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the 
 christians for such impious ceremonies, by the scru- 
 pulous delicacy which they displaced on a much less 
 alarming occasion. On days of general festivit}^ it 
 was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors 
 with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown 
 their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent 
 and elegant practice might perhaps have been toferated 
 as a mere civil institution. But it most unluckily 
 happened that the doors were under the protection of 
 the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the 
 lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though 
 frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourn- 
 irig, had been dedicated in their first origin to the ser- 
 vice of superstition. The trembling christians, who 
 were persuaded in this instance to comply with the 
 fashion of their country, and the commands of the 
 magistrate, laboured under the most gloomy appre- 
 hensions, from the reproaches of their own conscience 
 the censures of the church, and the denunciations of 
 divine vengeance.** 
 
 Such was the anxious diligence which Zeai for chris-. 
 was required to guard the chastity of the tianiiy. 
 gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry. The 
 superstitious observances of public or private rites 
 were carelessly practised, from education and habit, 
 by the followers of the established religion. But as 
 
 of the Greek and Roman coins were frequently of an idolatrous 
 nature. Here indeed the scruples of the christian were suspended 
 by a stronger passion. 
 
 b Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21, 22. If a pagan friend (on the 
 occasion perhaps of sneezing) used the familiar expression of 'Jupi- 
 ter bless you." tlic christian was obliged to protest against the divi- 
 nity of Jupiter. 
 
 c Consult tbe most laboured work of Ovid, bis imperfect Fasf?. He 
 finished no more tlian the first six mouths of liie year. The compi- 
 lation of Macrobius is called the S«/«r»fl//a, but it is only a small 
 part of the first book that bfjjirs any relation to the title. 
 
 d Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of the 
 rash action of a christian soldier, who, by tlirowing away his crown 
 of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to the most immi- 
 nent danger. [This soldier did not fear the crown from his bead, 
 and throw it down conlempluonsly, — Ik; did not even throw it down, 
 —he contented himself with carrying it in his hand, while the others 
 wore it upon their foreheads. Lauream castrensem quain ra^teri in 
 capito, hie in manu geatabaf. (Argum. de corona militis. Tertull. 
 p. 100.) — G.] By the mention of the emperors (Severus and Cara-, 
 calla) it is evident, notwithstanding the wishes of M. d<* Tillemont,! 
 that Tertullian composed this treatise De Corona, long beforo he was ' 
 engaged in tlie errors of tiie Montanists. See Memoires Ecclesias- 
 tiqiies, lom. iii. p. ."^S^. 
 
 [Tertullian does not expressly name the two emperors, Severus 
 and Caracalla ; he speaks only of two emperors and of a long peace 
 which the church had enjoyed. It is generally agreed tliat Tertul- 
 lian became a Montanist about the year 200: his work, De Corona 
 militis, appears to have been written as nearly as may be. al)out the 
 year 202, before the persecution of Severus; it then is proved that it 
 was written after the author became a Montanist. (See Mosheim. 
 Disserta. de Apolog. 'J'ertull. p. .'>:?. Biblioth. rais. Ainsterd. vu!. ii 
 part ii. p. £92. Dr. Cave, Hist, litter, p. 92,03.)— «. J 
 
164 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 often as tney occurred, they afforded the christians an 
 opportunity of declaring and confirming their zealous 
 opposition. By these frequent protestations their 
 attachment to the faith was continually fortified, and 
 in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combated 
 with the more ardour and success in the holy war, 
 which they had undertaken against the empire of the 
 daemons. 
 
 The Second IL The writings of Cicero*^ repre- 
 
 C\criE. The doc- ggj^t j,^ the most lively colours the igno- 
 mlTrtaUty of ih? lauce, the errors, and the uncertainty of 
 soul among the the ancieiit philosophers with regard to 
 philosophers ; ^j^^ immortality of the soul. When they 
 are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear 
 of death, they inculcate, as an obvious though melan- 
 choly position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution 
 releases us from the calamities of life ; and that those 
 can no longer suffer, who no longer exist. Yet there 
 were a few sasfes of Greece and Rome who had con- 
 ceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster 
 idea of human nature : though it must be confessed, 
 ^that, in the sublime inquiry, their reason had been of- 
 / ten guided by their imagination, and that their ima- 
 ' gination had been prompted by their vanity. When 
 they viewed with complacency the extent of their 
 own mental powers, when they exercised the various 
 faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the 
 most profound speculations, or the most important 
 labours, and when they reflected on the desire of fame, 
 which transported them ijito future ages, far beyond 
 the bounds of death and of the grave ; they were un- 
 willing to confound themselves with the beasts of the 
 field, or to suppose, that a being, for whose dignity 
 they entertained the most sincere admiration, could be 
 limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of dura- 
 tion. With this favourable prepossession they sum- 
 moned to their aid the science, or rather the language, 
 of metaphysics. They soon discovered, that as none 
 of the properties of matter will apply to the operations 
 of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a 
 substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and 
 spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of 
 a much higher degree of virtue and happiness after the 
 release from its corporeal prison. From these specious 
 and noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the 
 footsteps of Plato, deduced a very unjustifiable con- 
 clusion, since they asserted, not only the future im- 
 mortality, but the past eternity, of the human soul, 
 which they were too apt to consider as a portion of 
 the infinite and self-existing spirit, which pervades 
 and sustains the universe.' A doctrine thus removed 
 beyond the senses and the experience of mankind, 
 might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic 
 mind : or, in the silence of solitude, it might some- 
 times impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue; 
 but the faint impression which had been received in 
 the schools, was soon obliterated by the commerce 
 and business of active life. We are sufficiently ac- 
 quainted with the eminent persons who flourished in 
 the age of Cicero, and of the first Ca;sars, with their 
 actions, their characters, and their motives, to be as- 
 sured that their conduct in this life was never retjula- 
 ted by any serious conviction of the rewards or pun- 
 ishments of a future state. At the bar and in the 
 senate of Rome the ablest orators were not apprehen- 
 sive of giving offence to their hearers, by exposing 
 that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, 
 which was rejected with contempt by every man of a 
 liberal education and understandinfr.* 
 
 Since therefore the most sublime ef- among tiie Pa- 
 forts of philosophy can extend no further gans of Greece 
 than feebly to point out the desire, the '"*^ ^^*""^ ' 
 hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, 
 there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can 
 ascertain the existence, and describe the condition, of 
 the invisible country which is destined to receive the 
 souls of men after their separation from the body. 
 But we may perceive several defects inherent to the 
 popular religions of Greece and Rome, which rendered 
 them very unequal to so arduous a task. 1. The 
 gen eral sys tem of their jnyilmlDgy was unsup ported 
 b y apy solid pro ofs ; and the wisest among the pa- 
 gans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2. 
 The description of the infernal regions had been aban- 
 doned to the fancy of painters and of poets, who peo- 
 pled them with so many phantoms and monsters, who 
 dispensed their rewanls and punishments with so 
 little equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial 
 to the human heart, was oppressed and disgraced by 
 the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions.'' 3. The 
 doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered 
 among the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome as 
 a fundamental article of faith. The providence of 
 the gods, as it related to public communities rather 
 than to private individuals, was principally displayed 
 on the visible theatre of the present world. The pe- 
 titions which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or 
 Apollo, expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for 
 temporal happiness, and their ignorance or indifference 
 concerning a future life.* The important truth of the 
 immortality of the soul was inculcated with more 
 diligence as well as success in India, in among ihe 
 Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul; and barharians; 
 since we cannot attribute such a difference to the su- 
 perior knowledge of the barbarians, we must ascribe 
 it to the influence of an established priesthood, which 
 employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of 
 ambition.^ 
 
 We miffht naturally expect, that a . , 
 
 . , *=• . , r ,*. . ' 1 , among the Jcwx; 
 
 principle so essential to religion, would 
 have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen 
 people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been 
 intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is in- 
 cumbent on us to adore the mysterious dispensations of 
 Providence,'' when we discover, that the doctrine of the 
 immortality of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses;' 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 e In particular, the first tiook of the Tiisrulan Questions, and tlie 
 treatise D»? Senectute, and the Somniuin Sripionif", ront.tin, in the 
 most Iteautifui language, every thing that Ortcian pliiiosoi)hy, or 
 Roman good sense, cuuld possiiily suggest on this dark hut important 
 ohjert. 
 
 f The pre-existenro of human souls, so far at least as that doc- 
 trine is compatihic with religion, was adopted hy many of the 
 Greek and Latin fathers. Sec Beausobre, Hist, du Maniclieisme, I. 
 vi. c. 4. 
 
 g See Cicero pro Cluent. c. CI. Ca>8ar. ap. Sallust. de Bell. Cati- 
 Uu. c. 50. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149. 
 
 Esse aliquos manes, et subtcrranca rcgna, 
 
 Nee pucri credunt, nisi qui nondumscre lavantur. 
 
 h The eleventh 1 ook of the Odyssey gives a very dreary and inco- 
 herent account of the infernal shades. Findar and Virgil have em 
 l)ellishcd the picture ; but even those poets, though more correct 
 than their great model, arc guilty of very strange inconsistencies. 
 See Hayle, Responses nux Questions d*un Provincial, part iii. c.2'2. 
 
 i See the sixteenth epistle of the fir.st hook of Horace, thethirteenth 
 Satire of Juvenal, and the second Satire of Tersius ; these popular 
 discourses express the sentiment and language of the multitude. 
 
 j If we confine ourselves to the Gauls, we may observe, thai they 
 intrusted, not only their lives, but even their money, to the security 
 of another world. Veins iile uios Galloruni ocrurrit (says Valerin? 
 Mnxinius, I. ii. c. G. p. 10.) quos mcmoria proditum est. pccunias nui 
 tuas, qua* his apud inferos redderentur, dare solitos.f; The same cus- 
 tom is more darkly insinuated by Mela. I. iii. c. S. It is almost need- 
 less to add, that the profits of trade hold a just proportion to the credit 
 of the merchant, and tiiat the Druids derived from their lioly profes- 
 sion a character of responsibility, which could scarcely Ic claimed 
 by any other order of men. 
 
 k The riyht reverend autlior of the Divine Legation of Moses as- 
 sijina a very curious reason for the omission, and most ingeniously 
 retorts it on the unbelievers. 
 
 1 [I'here is no certain proof that this omission is made. Michaelis 
 thinks that even if Moses had I ecu entirely silent, on this subject, it 
 would not warrant the conclusion that he was ignorant of the dor- 
 trine of the immortality of the soul, or did not admit its truth. Mo- 
 ses, according to him, r.ever wrote as a theologian ; — he was not 
 employed in instructinir his people in the truths of their fuith. \Vc 
 see him in his works only as a historian and a civil legislator, he re- 
 gulated rather ecclesiastical discipline than religiuus l)clief; even 
 simply as a legislator, he must often have heard of the immortality 
 of the soul. The Egyptians, among whom he had lived for forty 
 years, in their way, believed it. The account of the translation of 
 Enoch, "who walked with God, and was not, because God took 
 him," seems to indicate a knowledge of a future existence. CGen. 
 chap. v. verse 21.) The book of Job, which some attribute to Mosos, 
 alTordsstdl clearer evidence on this subject. ''And after this my botly 
 shall be destroyed, I shall sec God, whom mine eyes shall behold, I 
 shall see him and not another." (Job, chap. xix. verse 26, 27.) M. 
 Tareau. professor of Theology at Harderwyk. in XB07 published a 
 
 It IS darkly insinuated by the prophets, and during the 
 long period which elapsed between the Egyptian and 
 the Babyloman servittides, the hopes as well as fears 
 of the Jews appear to have been confined within the 
 narrow compass of the present life.'" After Cyrus had 
 permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised 
 land, and after Ezra had restored the ancient records 
 of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees 
 and the Pharisees, insensibly rose at Jerusalem." The 
 former, selected from the more opulent and distin- 
 guished ranks of society, were strictly attached to the 
 literal sense of the Mosaic law, and they piously re- 
 jected the immortality of the soul, as an opinion that 
 received no countenance from the divine book, which 
 they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the 
 authority of scripture the Pharisees added that of tra- 
 dition, and they accepted, under the name of traditions, 
 several speculative tenets from the philosophy or re- 
 ligion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or 
 predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future 
 state of rewards and punishments, were in the number 
 of these new articles of belief; and as the Pharisees, 
 by the austerity of their manners, had drawn into their 
 party the body of the Jewish people, the immortality 
 ot the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the 
 synagogue, under the reign of the Asmonaean princes 
 and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews was incapable 
 of contenting itself with such a cold and lano-uid as- 
 sent as might satisfy the mind of a polytheist° and as 
 soon as they admitted the idea of a future state, they 
 embraced it with the zeal which has always formed 
 
 trip /»hQm/»foi»iof;rt r^P *U^ a: mi • -,''■, 
 
 165 
 
 the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal Lwever Ja\^ T'''''' ""T ''^''.'^^'^ly^onnei 
 added nothing to its evidenci nr^r'^lTul'l !^.^'l^'„^?.^.^?"l^«"^"^^.«f Christ. 
 
 added nothing to its evidence, or even probability : 
 and It was still necessary, that the doctrine of life and 
 immortality, which had been dictated by nature, ap- 
 proved by reason, and received by superstition, should 
 obtain the sanction of divine truth from the authority 
 and example of Christ. "^ 
 
 among the chris- When the promise of eternal happi- 
 tians. ness was proposed to mankind on con- 
 
 dition of adopting the faith, and of observiuo- the 
 precepts ol the gospel, it is no wonder that so advan- 
 tageous an offer should have been accepted by jrreat 
 numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every 
 province m the Roman empire. The ancient chris- 
 
 tians were animated by a contempt for their present 
 existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of 
 which the doubtful and imperfect faith of modern ages 
 cannot give us any adequate notion. In a u- ^ 
 the primitive church, \he influen;e of ^^'S™/^ ^"' 
 ThthZ?"^ powerfully strengthened hy an opinion, 
 nn ' ' ^^'^'^^^^ }^ »\ay deserve respect for its useful 
 I ness and antiquity, has not been fbund agreeable to 
 experience. It was universally believed, that the end 
 
 hLn T? ' '"^ '^^ ^^""^""^ ^^ ^^^^^^^"' ^vere at 
 land. 1 he near approach of this wonderful event had 
 been predicted by the apostles ; the tradition of it was 
 preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who 
 understood m their literal sense the discourses of 
 Christ himself, were obliged to expect the second and 
 glorious coming of the Son of man in the clouds, be- 
 
 W K 1 ^i/f"^f ^'''^'''^' ^^^^^"y extinguished, which 
 had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which 
 might still be witness of the calamities of the Jews 
 under V espasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seven- 
 teen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely 
 the m3^sterious language of prophecy and revelation ; 
 nut as long as, for wise purposes, this error was per- 
 mitted to subsist in the church, it was productiVe of the 
 most salutary effects on the faith and practice of chris- 
 tians, who lived in the awful expectation of that mo- 
 ment when the globe itself, and all the various race of 
 mankind, should tremble at the appearance of their 
 divine Judge." 
 
 The ancient and popular doctrine of D.Ktrine of the 
 me nriillennium was intimately connect- Millennium. 
 
 volume in octavo with this title. " Commentatio de Immortalitatis 
 ac vit^ futurrc not.tns ab antiquissimo Jobi Scripture,'" nvvichc 
 
 ErnV'"J-' f'*' -,v" "I'^f^^r °*' •"^'^ *=«"♦«'"« indications of t e doc 
 8 r.f.u/r^n'' '"^p (^^«^ i'^J'^^'is Syntagma Commentationum, p 
 80 . Coup d ail siir I'etat de la littcrature et de I'histoire ancieiine en 
 Alemagne. hy Charles Villers, p. 63. 1809.) These indciHont n? 
 Relief .n the immortality of the'soul, are notiufl^^cie ul^cS 
 ficienUy positive to refute all objections ; all that can be S'i? thn 
 Thi's'^rn'? I*" "^ gV'^dually devc^'loped by successiAsicrod writers 
 This gradation is observed in Isaiah, David, and f^olomon, who sav" 
 
 G.il wholle u"'' f/^ as it was, and the spirit VCnso 
 
 uwi WHO pave it. Lccles. chap. xu. verse -5 9) 
 
 Rnni?nl" ^^^^ "?.** *''® ingenious conjecture of a theologian and nhilo- 
 
 2, m;."T ^"« *•?"««" .«'''i'^h might have prevented Moses fom 
 
 !li tv li^ »;« people particularly concerning the doctrine of inimor 
 
 w M..iii .''?" .•'»V'\"'*' '^'''^*= «'' civilization of that age in 
 Jl ich the egislator lived, this <loctrine, if generally believed by the 
 Jews, would necessarily have given rise to innumerable idolafrous 
 
 nperstitions which Moses wished to prevent ; his pJinci, al ,lesS 
 was to establish a firm theocracy, to preserve among his people T.e 
 Idea of the Unity of God, which should he the foundation upon which 
 eventually Christianity was to be based. Every i\ZTySh would 
 
 u.ve a tendency to obscure or weaken this idea was ca ifuirdis 
 carded Other nations had become strangely corrupt in the ir notions 
 tlT.V'"^"'^ nnmortality of the soul,-Moses wished to preven 
 tiMs, therefore he forbade the Hebrews to consult familiar snirits or 
 Who "^i^'";;'' "•■ "^^^'■^"'•''nrers. (Deut. chap, xviii v 2.') i' T lose 
 th r^ '''!^..'':?^r' ""°" *"*= r°"'l"l?" «^ f "« J^^« «"«! the l/eathen na! 
 
 ^/.., . , ,- " & "* -"WOW As the works 
 
 of the creation had been finislied in six days, their du- 
 ration, m their present state, according to a tradition 
 which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed 
 to SIX tliousand years, p By the same analogj- it was 
 inferred that this long period of labour and contention, 
 wfiich was now almost elapsed,*! would be succeeded 
 by a joyful sabbath of a thousand years; and that 
 Olirist, with the triumphant band of the saints and the 
 elect who had escaped death, or who had been miracu- 
 lously revived, would reign upon earth till the time 
 appomted for the last and general resurrection. So 
 pleasing was this hope to the mind of believers, that 
 the Atw Jerumkm, the seat of this blissful kino-dom, 
 was quickly adorned with all the gayest colours of the 
 
 E"— ""^ "*"."• "'!?" "'^ *"='*'*''^y ^^'*'> ^v'''*-'' idolatry then evcrv 
 jvl ere nsinuated Itself, win not wonder that Mosesdid not deveS 
 a . octrine, the influence of which might prove fatal ratlX than use 
 
 PI An'^r''-?"- Jg«« P--^*- fe«t. Jovit^ immo t spe Ic S" 
 » Ii. Alb. StapTer, p. 12, 13,20. Berne, lT87.)-f? ] ^ ' 
 
 m ^ce Le CIcrc. (Prolegomena ad Hist. Ecclesiast sect 1 r ft ^ 
 
 learned ?.''/!^'''r"-' '° '"'^ "'^ '''■^"'^' ^"'^^'^ »« ^e has written a 
 nient J»J'*^«o"« commentary on the Iwoks of the Old Testa 
 
 n Joseph. Antiquiiat. I. xiii. c. 10. De Bell. Jud. 11. 8. Accordintr 
 the most natural interpretation of his words, the Sadducees a"r 
 nit ed o„|y ,he Pentateuch; but it has pleased some modern critics 
 S; iiV'^ prophets to their creed, and to suppose that they contented 
 
 emselves will, rejecting the traditions of the Pharisees. Dr Jor 
 vol n p'los"'* ''"'"^ '" liis Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, 
 
 . ° 1.'l''s expectation was countenanced by the twentv fourth rlmn 
 cr Of bt. Matthew, and by the fir.st epistle Vsll'auloSTires.?: 
 Ion ans. Erasmus removes the difT.culty by tbe help of al I.^ro, v 'ul 
 metaphor ; and the learned Grotius ventures to ns niMe i ?t fir 
 
 ""Tso'Zrn'S '^V'T ^^'■"P'*«" ^^'--^^ »»'^^'"'»«d ti lake pla e 
 
 [Some modern theologians explain it without seeinj; in i either an 
 allegory or an imposture; they say that Jesus Chris talYer 1 avin" 
 announced the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, speaks 
 of his second coming, and of the signs wl.i.l. were to nrecede it_ 
 but that those who believed that this event was near? werSderoived 
 concerning the meaning of two words-an error whid. still ex is sh 
 'U 7nX'ooH ""^ ^°''**''' ^'''^«"J^n« «o Matth. chap. i4 v. i^ . a, i 
 if- «l.n J H -^^'!,^*'''^« «•«. fe--"!. " Immediately after' the tribulati „ 
 of those days, the sun shall Ik; darkened, tc." The Greek wor 
 h t."V ''S"'fies here suddenly, at once, an.l not immediately, ..n ttal' 
 
 -I rU^Sf.r'^ ^f° ""^!''" "Pl'en'-a"^^ of the siirns wbh h Jesus 
 Christ foretells, and not ibe sboriness of the interval which vvould 
 
 wT'^HM "i.T. ''°'" '"^^ t^^ ^'^ tribulaUon of which he had j us^ Zo- 
 ken. 1 he 34tli verse is this, " Verily I say unto you that tfj feSa- 
 f.o« shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Jesus in\S 
 tug to his d,.c.ples uses these words, «ur. y..,., which tl e ra'nsia. 
 ors have rendered /A,^ generation, but Jesus Christ im-ant the "«c' 
 the succession or filiution of my disciples; he speaks of a cla^sof 
 men, and not of uue generation. •' 
 
 The true meaning then, according to the learned, is. " Vcrilv \ siv 
 unto you, the race of men (which you commence) shal not pass t IMM 
 these things be fulfilled." That i.,the succession of chrisiians s! " 
 not ce.-isebelore his coming. (Seethe Commentary of M J'anlus 
 upon the New Testament. Edition of 18o2, vol. iii p. 445. 4i!i )_! 
 
 . o^.r?i ,^"'*"^S' ^•'^'i'"'''' Theory, part iii. c. 5. This tradition may 
 be traced as high as the author of the epistle of Barnabas, who wrote 
 111 the first century, and who seems to have been half a Jew 
 
 q The primitive church of Antioch computed almost 60(M) years 
 from the creation of the world to the birtli of Clirisf. Afiici.uus 
 Lactantiijs, and the Greek church, have reduced that niimlH-r to 
 j,aOO, and Lusehius has contented himself with iVJOO years These 
 calculations were formed on the Septuagint, which was uriiversallv 
 received during the six first centuries. 'J'hc authority of the Vulcate 
 and of the Hebrew text has determined the moderns, protestnnts as 
 well as catholics, to prefer a period of about 4t»00 years; though in 
 the study of profane antiquity, they often find themselves siraiUned 
 by those narrow limits. »"«uiiicu 
 
166 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Cha>. XV. 
 
 imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure and 
 spirttual pleasure would have appeared too refined for 
 its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess 
 their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden, 
 with the amusements of the pastoral life, was no 
 longer suited to the advanced state of society which 
 prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was there- 
 fore erected of gold and precious stones, and a super- 
 natural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the 
 adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose 
 spontaneous productions, the happy and benevolent 
 people was never to be restrained by any jealous lavys 
 of exclusive property.' The assurance of such a mil- 
 lennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of 
 fathers from .Tustin Martyr « and Irenaeus, who con- 
 versed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, 
 down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of 
 Constantine.* Though it might not be universally re- 
 ceived, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment 
 of the orthodox believers ; and it seems so well adapt- 
 ed to the desires and apprehensions of mankind, that 
 it must have contributed in a very considera])le degree 
 to the progress of the christian faith. But when the 
 edifice of "the church was almost completed, the tem- 
 porary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's 
 reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound al- 
 legory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and 
 useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the ab- 
 surd invention of heresy and fanaticism.'* A mysteri- 
 ous prophecy, which still forms a part of the sacred 
 canon, but which was thought to favour the exploded 
 sentiment, has very narrowly escaped the proscription 
 of the church.* 
 c a .• „ ,.f Whilst the happiness and glory of a 
 
 Conflagration of , . r» • j *! ♦u^ 
 
 Rome and of the temporal leigu wcrc promised to the 
 world. disciples of Christ, the most dreadful 
 
 calamities were denounced against an unbelieving 
 world. The edification of the new Jerusalem was to 
 advance by equal steps with the destruction of the 
 mystic Babylon ; and as long as the emperors who 
 reigned before Constantine persisted in the profession 
 of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied to the 
 city and to the empire of Rome. A regular series was 
 prepared of all the moral and physical evils which can 
 afllict a flourishing nation ; intestine discord, and the 
 invasion of the fiercest barbarians from the unknown 
 regions of the north ; pestilence and famine, comets 
 and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations.^ All these 
 were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of 
 
 r Mo3t of these pictures were borrowed from a misinterpretation 
 of Isaiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of tlie pros^sest imajres 
 may he found in Iren.Tus, (I. v. p. 455.) the disciple of I'apias, who 
 had seen the apostle St. John. .,„ , ,., ., 
 
 ■ Seethe second dialogue of Justin with Tryphon, and the seventh 
 hook of Lactantius. It is unneressnry to allege all the intermediate 
 fatiiers, as the fact is not disputed. Yet the curious reader may con- 
 sult Daille de IJsu Tatrum, I. ii. c. 4. J., . r.- .1 ^ 
 
 t The testimony of Justin, of Ins own faith and that of his ortliodox 
 brethren, in the doctrine of a millennium, is delivered in the clearest 
 and most solemn manner. (Dialog, cum Tryphonte Jul. p. 177, 178. 
 Edit Benedictiii.) If in the beginning of this important passage 
 there is any thing like an inconsistency, we may impute it as we 
 think proper, either to the author or to his transcribers. 
 
 u Dupin RibliotlH'que Erclesiasliquc, torn. i. p. '223. tom. ii. p. HOC. 
 and Mosheim, p. TiO ; though the latter of these learned divines is 
 not altogether candid on this occasion. 
 
 X In the council of Laodirea, (about the year nCO,) the Apocalypse 
 wastaciUy excluded from the sacred canon, by the same churches of 
 Asia to which it is addressed; and we may learn from the complaint 
 of Sulpicius Severus, tliat their sentence had been ratified by the 
 greater number of christians of his time. From what causes then is 
 llie Apocalypse at present so generally received by the Greek, the 
 Roman, and the protestant churches ? The following ones may he 
 assi"ncd. 1. The Greeks were subdued by the authority of an im- 
 nostor who, in the sixth century, as.sumed the character of Diony- 
 aiud the Areopa^ito, 2. A just apprehension, tliai the grammarians 
 mi^ht become more imi>ortant than the theologians, engaged the 
 council of Trent to fix the seal of their infallibility on all the books 
 of Scripture, contained in the Latin Vulgate, in the number of which 
 the Apocalypse was fortunately included. (Fr. Paolo, tstona del 
 Concilio Tridentino, 1. ii.) X Tiie advantage of turning those mys- 
 terious prophecies against the see of Rome, inspired the protestants 
 with uncommon veneration for .so useful an ally. See the ingenious 
 hnd elegant discourses oftlie present bishop of Litchfield on that un- 
 
 p\ omising suliject. 
 
 J Lactantius (Institiit. Divin. vii. 15, Atc.) relates tlic dismal tale 
 of futurity with great spirit and eIo<iuence. 
 
 the great catastrophe of Rome, when the country of 
 the Scipios and Ca?sars should be consumed by a flame 
 from heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with her 
 palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should 
 be buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. It 
 might, however, afford some consolation to Roman 
 vaiTity, that the period of their empire would be that 
 of the world itself; which, as it had once perished by 
 the clement of water, was destined to experience a 
 second and speedy destruction from the element of fire. 
 In the opinion of a general conflagration, the faith of 
 the christian very happily coincided with the tradition 
 of the east, and the philosophy of the Stoics, and the 
 analogy of nature ; and even the country, which, from 
 religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and 
 prin^cipal scene of the conflagration, was the best 
 adapted for that purpose by natural and physical 
 causes; by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and 
 numerous volcanoes, of which those of iEtna, of Vesu- 
 vius, and of Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect represen- 
 tation. The calmest and most intrepid sceptic could 
 not refuse to acknowledge, that the destruction of the 
 present system of the world by fire, was in itself ex- 
 tremely probable. The christian, who founded his 
 belief much less on the fallacious arguments of reason 
 than on the authority of tradition and the interpreta- 
 tion of scripture, expected it with terror and confidence 
 as a certain and approaching event ; and as his mind 
 was perpetually filled with the solemn idea, he con- 
 sidered everv disaster that happened to the empire as 
 an infallible symptom of an expiring world.^ 
 
 The condemnation of the wisest and ^.^e pagans dc- 
 most virtuous of the pagans, on account voted to eternal 
 of their ignorance or disbelief of the di- punishment, 
 vine truth, seems to off*end the reason and the humanity 
 of the present age.* But the primitive church, whose 
 faith was of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, 
 without hesitation, to eternal torture, the far greater 
 part of the human species. A charitable hope might 
 perhaps be indulged in favour of Socrates, or some 
 other sages of antiquity, who had consulted the light 
 of reason before that of the gospel had arisen.'' But 
 it was unanimously affirmed, that those who, since the 
 birth or the death of Christ, had obstinately persisted 
 in the worship of the daemons, neither deserved nor 
 could expect a pardon from the irritated justice of the 
 Deity. These rigid sentiments, which had been un- 
 known to the ancient world, appeared to have infused 
 a spirit of bitterness into a system of love and har- 
 mony. The ties of blood and friendship were fre- 
 quently torn asunder by the difference of religious 
 faith; and the christians, who in this world found 
 themselves oppressed by the power of the paorans, 
 were sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual 
 pride to delight in the prospect of their triumph. " You 
 are fond of spectacles," exclaims the stern Tertullian, 
 " expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and 
 eternal judgment of the universe. How shall I ad- 
 mire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I be- 
 hold so many proud monarchs, and fancied gods, 
 groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ; so many 
 magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, 
 liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against 
 
 z On this suiiject every reader of taste will be entertained witli the 
 third part of Burnet's Sacred Theory. He blends philosophy, scrip 
 lure, and tradition, into one magnificent system ; in the description 
 of which he displays a strength of fancy not inferior to thatol Mil- 
 ton himself. ^ . .. . , , . n 
 
 a And yet whatever may he the language of individuals, it is stiii 
 the public doctrine of all the christian churches; nor can even our 
 own refuse to admit the conclusions which must be drawn from the 
 eighth and the eighteenth of her Articles. The Jansenists, who have 
 so'diligently studied the works of the fathers, maintain this senti- 
 ment with distinguished zeal; and the learned M. dc Tillemont 
 never dismisses a virtuous emperor without pronouncing his damna- 
 tion. Zulnglius Is perhaps the only leader of a party who lias ever 
 adopted the milder sentiment, and he gave no less otTence to tlie 
 Lutherans than to the catholics. See Bossuet, Histoire des Varia 
 tions des Eiilises Protestantes, I. ii. c. 19— Sh>. 
 
 b Justin and Clemensof Alexandria allow that some of the pliiioso- 
 phers were instructed by the Logos; confounding its double signm 
 cation, of the human reason, and of the diviuo word. 
 
 J hT/fl ' ' ^? ^'^"y ^^"^ philosophers blushino- in 
 red hot flames with their deluded scholars; so many 
 
 V no b1tP7p>!'''"^^'"° ^'^''^ ^he tribunal, n^'of 
 Minos but of Christ; so many tragedians mo^e tune- 
 
 dt "ersl -''"i:? ,f ''if " "^'" ^%^^^"°^^ ' - --y 
 dancers— But the humanity of the reader will 
 
 permit riie to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal 
 description, ^v\nch the zealous African pursues in a 
 long variety of afl^ected and unfeeling witticisms.<J 
 
 Were often con- Doubtless there Were many amono- 
 
 ve^ru^ by their the primitive christians of a temper 
 -. r .u . "!>^^® suitable to the meekness and char- 
 ity of their profession. There were many who felt a 
 sincere compassion for the danger of their friends and 
 countrymen, and who exerted the most benevolent zeal 
 to save them from the impending destruction. The 
 careless polytheist, assailed by new and unexpected 
 
 errors, against ^y]nch neither his priests nor his phi- 
 losophers could aff-ord him any certain protection, was 
 very frequently terrified and subdued by the menace 
 of eternal tortures. His fears might assist the pro- 
 gress of his faith and reason; and if he could once 
 persuade himse f to suspect that the christian reliirion 
 might possibly be true, it became an easy task to con- 
 vince him that it was the safest and most prudent par- 
 ty that he could possibly embrace. 
 
 III. The supernatural gifts, which 
 even in this life were ascribed to the 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The Third 
 
 c.vnsE ~i""." " " '^^"^ "cic asuiiijtju 10 ine 
 
 Miraculous pow- christians above the rest of mankind 
 
 fwe^church'.""'- J^"«t h^/e conduced to their own comi 
 r • ..J tort,, and very frequently to the convic- 
 tion of infidels. Besides the occasional prodigies, 
 which might sometimes be efl'ected by the immediate 
 interpositiop/of the Deity when he suspended the 
 laws of njrftir^ for the service of religion, the chris- 
 tian church, from the time of the apostles and their 
 first disciples,* has claimed an uninterrupted succes- 
 sion of miracubus powers, the gift of toncr„es, of 
 vision, and of prophecy, the power of expeflimr dse- 
 mons, of healing the sick, and of raising the dead, 
 llie knowledge of foreign languages was frequent- 
 ly communicated to the contemporaries of Iren^us 
 though Iren^us himself was left to struggle with the 
 difficulties of a barbarous dialect, whilst he preached 
 the gospel to the natives of GmV The divine inspi- 
 ration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a 
 waking or of a sleeping vision, is described as a 
 favour very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the 
 taithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as 
 ^ upon bishops. When their devout minds were suffi- 
 Vciently prepared by a course of prayer, of fasting, and 
 V)t vigils, to receive the extraordinary impulse, they 
 Vere transported out of their senses, and delivered in 
 
 c [This translation is not correct the fir«t oo«t«.,„« • 
 Tertullian says, " llle dies nafioniV,urinspe,au^ IS"'""*'^ ' 
 
 ^nnta seculi vetiistas et tot ejus na iv tates n o i^n» f ""^' ''"'" 
 The original presents no suchi^aggS e vcj"mS^ 
 magistrates, so many sage pl.ilo.ophers, .^ ,^ar^^^ 
 &c., but s.mply magistrates, philosophers, poets &c_nr.!«fHn^„?' 
 losophos, poeras, &c.-(TertulI. De Snactac rhnn^^r i/ ''^' ^ "' 
 design of Tertullian by the vehemence of th's trenfi;f ii r '''f V'° 
 christians from the secular sportV-iven v ti?o ' ° ''''^^'"'<' '''^ 
 
 Notwithstanding this vehemerrheefsevXresbor 
 of benevolence and cbarilv towards iinbeMevers- ft7n '"."?f '^ '^"" 
 pospel has sometimes borne him above the vLfc^^^ ""^ 
 
 9'on. aui ergo putaveris nihil nos de salute S rum rnr^'f« ^^^' 
 he in his apology, inspice Dei voces literas no.Tri Vi?nT/^ ^^,1' 
 priPceptum e.-^se nobis ad redundationeirblni-n Mtt ^- ^ ^"^ -"'-^ 
 niiris Deiim orare et pcrsecutorlil .^.o m prec!.ri SeS p^H ^'^ '" ^ 
 
 an the western churches. (See ?rS u nlm'xiir iImm '^ T^'r""^ 
 II he applied himself to his daily study of fe mi nVs^c V.^,' S-'"" 
 be was accustomed to say, ^'Da r»tA/ 7no/r,-Jf,.„r. n^ ^*''^'"'''""' 
 ter." (Ilioronym, de Virfs lilustrH.ns. ToTiTokf''' "^« '"^ "•««- 
 
 ove;l°;rtt de\?t?.tro7l?sionI '^^•;^.'^'^'''^«". '" - i-POBsible to 
 found in the apostoIicTathers ''""' '"' '"^^P'^^tion. which may be 
 
 P Dc'^Tl'nif *''' "^T ^'■*^'"- P- ^- Dr. Middleton (Free Inouirv 
 mo^'dtffi u°l ^JHu^n^^^^^^ SV^rr''"^" °^ «" others w2s'tlfe 
 
 167 
 
 ecstacy what was inspired, being mere organs of thiy 
 Holy fc»pirit, just as a pipe or flute is of himVho blows 
 into it.s \Ve may add, that the desiim of these visions 
 was, tor tlie most part, either to disclose the future 
 history, or to guide the present administration, of the 
 church. The expulsion of the da^^mons from the bodies 
 ot those unhappy persons whom they had been per- 
 mitted to torment, was considered as a sio-nal thouirh 
 ordinary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly alleo-ed 
 by the ancient apologists, as the most convincino- evi- 
 dence of the truth of Christianity. The awfurcere- 
 mony was usually performed in a public manner, and 
 in the presence of a great number of spectators; the 
 patient was relieved by the power or skill of the exor- 
 cist, and the vanquished daemon was heard to confess 
 that he was one of the fiihled gods of antiquity, who 
 had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind." But 
 the miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate 
 or even preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any 
 surprise, when we recollect, that in the days of Ire- 
 njeus, about the end of the second century, the resur- 
 rection of the dead was very far from beino- esteemed 
 an uncommon event; that the miracle was" frequently 
 
 r.^ c 1 -••"", w.«v wiv. uiiiacje was irequently 
 
 performed on necessary occasions, by groat fasting 
 and the joint supplication of the church of the place 
 
 iTvl] A PT^^"^ ^^'"^ '^'^^^^^ t° their prayers had 
 lived afterwards among them many years.^ At such 
 a period, when faith could boast of so many wonder- 
 fu victories over death, it seems difficult to account 
 tor the scepticisrn of those philosophers, who still re- 
 A nil ^r ^^"^?^,the doctrine of the resurrection. 
 A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground 
 the whole controversy, and promised Theophilus 
 bishop of Antioch, that if he could be gratlfirwith 
 the sight of a single person who had been actually 
 raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace 
 the christian religion. It is somewhat r^arkabie, 
 that the pre ate of the first eastern church, howeve^ 
 anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought pro- 
 per to decline this fair and reasonable challeno-e J 
 
 Ihe miracles of the primitive church Their tTuti. con 
 after obtaining the sanction of ao-es, teJ^eJ ""' 
 have been lately attacked in a very free and ingenious 
 inquiry i"^ which, though it has met with the most 
 favourable reception from the public, appears to have 
 excite^ a general scandal among the divines of our own 
 as well as of the other protestant churches of Europe ' 
 Uur different sentiments on this subject will be much 
 less influenced by any particular arguments, than bv 
 our habits of study and reflection ; and above all, by 
 the degree of the evidence which we have accustom- 
 
 itZ T^ *? '.'''T ^"/-'^^ P'""^ "^ ^ miraculous 
 e\ent. ihe duty of an historian does,, 
 
 not call upon him to interpose his pri- c^fini:7u.^'^;„';; 
 vate judgment in this nice and impor- r-aculous period, 
 taut controversy; but he ought not to dissemble the 
 ditticulty of adopting such a theory as may reconcile 
 the interest of religion with that of reason, of makincr 
 a proper application of that theory, and of dcfinin? 
 with precision the limits of that happy period exempt 
 Irom error and from deceit, to which we mifflit be dis- 
 posed to extend the gift of supernatural powers. From 
 t^^ fi^st Qf the fathers to the last of the popes, a suc- 
 
 Tnr.^n-"*"''^^''^'' in Legatione. Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Gentes 
 Tertullian advers. Marcion t. 1. iv. The«e descrintion« -,« no. , L 
 unlike the prophetic fury, for which cfcero (do i^ St H 54 ) eZ 
 presses so liule reverence. ^ivnidi. u. oi.j ex- 
 
 fa Terlullian (Apolog. c. 23.) throws out a bold defiance to the na- 
 pn magistrates. Of the primitive miracles, the power of exorcL'^,g 
 is the only one which has been assumed by the protestants ^ 
 
 «nrtIr"iH"i' "''''• ^^^'-^'^S' '• "• ^6' 57, I. v! c. 6.^ Mr. Dodwell (Dis- 
 ser at. ad Ireria^um, ... 42.) concludes, that the second century was 
 still more fertile in miracles than the first «-«iHury was 
 
 ^^j^ Theoph.lus ad Autolycum, 1. i. p. 345. Edit. Bcnedictin. Paris, 
 
 k Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year 1747, nub- 
 
 ^ '?Jn^t^'?*^"J''y '" ^'^9, and before his death, which han- 
 
 SSs adt"ersar";s ^'^^""'^^ ^ vindication of it against his numeV- 
 
 1 The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his opponents 
 From the indignation of Mosheim (p. 221.) we may discover U^e sen-* 
 linients of the Lutheran divines. ">cniie»en- 
 
 I 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 ChapAxV, 
 
 Chip. XV. 
 
 f 
 
 1 fift 
 
 J r • o„o,.t,tnr9 vf-rv happUv disposed them to adopi 
 
 cession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of m>ra- X«<='^*7'jn,;'^!^th far greater justice, the a 
 
 cession 01 osp , interruntion, and the pro- 'he same ease, oui«b j and thus 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 del'Ts eon! n3 -Uhout imerrnption and the pro 
 ^res's of superstition was so gradual and almos imper 
 Kntfble at we know not in what particular link we 
 should break the chain of tradition. Every age bears 
 Sumonv to the wonderful events by which it was dis- 
 tinScd, and its testimony appears no less weighty 
 and respectable than that of the preceding generatio , 
 tni we are insensibly l.^d on to accuse our own incon 
 sistencv, if in tlie eighth or in the twelfth century we 
 deivto^ the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard, 
 the same de<rree of confidence which, in the second 
 lentuTweliad so liberally granted to Justin or o 
 ccniurj^, ^ those miracles is 
 
 rsre^eale^liril'Jrh^f-^^erter justice the a^^ 
 ?c winders of the evangelic history ; and hu mira- 
 cles that exceeded not the measure of their o^^ n e*- 
 nerler^Te inspired them with the most lively assurance 
 Sfrnvste'ries which were acknowledged to surpass the 
 
 testimony to lue «u,.uo..... -.>- j , ... ,■'':/. -f .hdr understanding. It is theirdeep impres- 
 
 tin"n"shed, and its testimony appears no less w i^ y '^^'^^^'.^.u^al truths,^hich has been so much 
 and respectable than that of the preceding gcne^^'io , ^';" "^ ^J^^^^ ,he name of faith; a state of mind 
 
 ».'.'.^ L- : .iK,„ ,,..1 n„ ,n accuse our own .neon- ceW ™t';\'^ „,^ ^^„,, ,edge of the Divine favour 
 
 and of future felicity, and recommended as the first or 
 perhaps the only merit of a christian. Accx,rding to 
 [he mo?e rigid doctors, the moral virtues which may 
 me iiiuii- life _. _ 1 1 „ ;„fi^^ « nm rlostitiite of any 
 
 rntrry":\vei:;;i s; Ubei^ilfgranted io Justin or to ^:^;'%:SV"^f^'^^ deslitute of any 
 
 Trpn»Mm *" It me ITUIII ui ttiijr "» "'- -"- 
 
 appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every 
 Se had unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, 
 afd dolatrous nations to convert; and sufficien mo- 
 tives might always be produced to justify the interpo- 
 sUion of heaven. And yet, since every friend to rev- 
 elation is persuaded of the reality, and e^;ery reasona- 
 ble man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous 
 Dow""s it is evident that there must have been some 
 P:rin which they were either suddenly or gradu- 
 ally withdrawn from the christian "h'"^/'- ,. ^rflnos- 
 era is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apob 
 ties the conversion of the Roman empire, or the ex- 
 nc ion of the Arian heresy," the >nsens.b.l.ty of rt^e 
 christians who lived at that tune will equal y aHord 
 fust matter of surprise They still supported he 
 pretensions after they had lost tlieir power. Credull 
 Tperforiiod the oftlce of faith ; fanat cism was per- 
 mittelTassume the language of inspiration, and the 
 effects of accident or contrivance were ascribed to 
 suoernatural causes. The recent experience of genu- 
 i^e^Sles should have instructed the christian world 
 ^the ways of Providence, and habituated their eye 
 nf wo may use a very inadequate expression) to tj.e 
 i Vie of thl divine artist. Should the most sk.lM 
 ; filter of modern Italy premime to d-orate his feeble 
 imitations with the name of Raphael or of Po"^gS °; 
 the insolent fraud would be soon discovered, and in- 
 dignantly r''J«'=t«^. .„;„„ „ay be entertained 
 ''S.^'^n.!;:/;- of Ihe mirade^ of the primitive church 
 since the time of the apostles, this »"'««' ^""f./";'- 
 ness of temper, so conspicuous »-"°"S the believers 
 of the second and third centuries, proved of some acci 
 dental benefit to the cause of truth and religion. In 
 31 times, a latent and even -voluntary s^ptic^sn 
 adheres to the most pious dispositions. I heir artmis 
 :fono7^Vcrnatural "truths is much less an -..ve con- 
 sent than a cold and passive f'l»'«'''<'"f ;. f,f "' • 
 tomed lon<r since to observe and to respect the nvar 
 tonieQiou„>i ...„„<,„„ nr !.t least our imagi 
 
 ralTor e^ffi^ey 'in^ihe w;;k"of our justification. 
 But the primitive christian demon- ^^^^ fourth 
 r^tPfl his faith hv his virtues ; ana it cause. 
 
 ratea nib idnu uj «u„. .u^ ,lJvinP Virtues of the 
 
 ru;rht:;nd:rSdS^rt!ttr:^^^ 
 
 the heart, and direct the actions, of the believer. The 
 first apologists of Christianity who justify the inno- 
 cence of their brethren, and the writers of a latter 
 penod who celebrate the sanctity of their ancestors, 
 display, in the most lively colours, the reformation of 
 manner; which was introduced into the world by the 
 breach n^ of the gospel. As it is my intention to re- 
 Sark onfy uch human causes as were per«»tted o 
 second he influence of revelat on, I shall slightly 
 menU^n two motives which might naturally render 
 To lives of the primitive christians much purer and 
 more austere than those of their pagan contemporaries 
 Ttheir degenerate successors ; repentance for their 
 nas sins, and the laudable desire of supjiorting th(4 
 StaS of the society in which they were engaged.] 
 
 'it is a very ancient reproach, sug- Effoc,. of . her 
 .rested bv the i-morance or the malice of '"'"f" 
 fnfiielity, that the christians allured into their party 
 he most atrocious criminals, who, a. soon as they 
 were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily per- 
 suaded to wash away, in the water of baptism, tne 
 t"m of their past conduct, for which the temples of 
 U e pods refused to grant them any exp ation. But 
 his^eproach, when it is cleared from ""srepresenta. 
 tion contributes as much to the honour as it did to 
 tie increase „f the church." The friends of christian- 
 V may acknowledge, without a blush, that many of 
 tW> most eminent "saints had been before their bap- 
 tise most abandoned sinners. Those persons, who 
 n "he world had followed, though in an imperfect 
 manner, the dictates of benevolence and propriety, de- / 
 rived such a calm satisfaction from the opinion of ' 
 ;re1?„wn rectitude, as rendered__ them m„eh less us- 
 
 sent man a coiu a.ui i-— •- i ;' " «nPot the invari- their own rcct tude, as renaerea iiit:..i .uuv» ..^-^ y- 
 
 tomed loner since to observe and to Tespect the mva r i their o ^^^^.^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 t,ble order of nature, our reason, or at l^^f^ ^^^^^^^^^^ and of terror, which have given birth to so many won- 
 
 _„*;..„ io nnt «nnir> entlv prepared to sustain the visi ana o* lerroi, & pvnmn e of their di- 
 
 *ii» p nrcier oi nuiiiie, i»ui nr-ucivy..- v,. — ,- 
 
 natk-n, is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visi- 
 b e a" ion of the Deity. 'buI, in the first =>?«=« "f-hr^- 
 tiinitv the situation of mankind was extremely differ- 
 cu The most curious, or the most creduous, among 
 'he paiaifs were often persuaded to enter into a socie- 
 tv which asserted an actual claim to miraculous pow- 
 e^; The primitive christians perpetually trod on mys- 
 tic ground and their minds were exercised by the 1 ab- 
 its of belicviuff the most extraordinary events. 1 ney 
 mXtZy fancied, that on every side they were in- 
 ce >u.tly a^aulted by daemons, comforted by v^ions 
 
 instructed by prophecy, and «''rpr'*;'"gly ,f ';;X 
 from duiurcr, sickness, and from death itself, by tne 
 supplicati''ons of the church. The real or imaginary 
 prodi rUs, of which they so frequently conceived 
 rhem?eives to be the objects^Jhejnstrnments^o^the 
 
 L?:?;rc'inirv:rc"r,Ve":?,|rf ?e u : ':«o,:,..uu a.e.i„, 
 
 t^'at he tHn-'f P"'---:„':,^J;l°//r;;" ra w « n,o« usually 
 
 Sh/Ec^of .he fo^rlh. whil., .he more credulo,., are un- 
 Willing to reject those of the fifth, century. 
 
 fpntin e oi me suuuuu ciii"*»"-- ■■ ' ^ 
 
 anSoterror, which have given birth to so many won- 
 derful conversions. After the example of their di- 
 vide Master, the missionaries of the gospel disdained 
 ^.ot the society of men, and especially of women op- 
 pressed by the consciousness, and very often by the 
 Es of their vices. As they emerged from sin and 
 sSe s'ti ion to the glorious hope of '"•'""rta ity, they 
 resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only of 
 viru e, but of penitence. The desire of perfection be- 
 came the ruling passion of their soul ; and it is well 
 known that whill reason embraces a cold mediocrity, 
 o"rTassions hurry us, with rapid violence, oyer the 
 space which lies between the most opposite extremes. 
 
 When the new converts had been en- Care of their 
 roL n the number of the ^lithful, and -^--"", ^ 
 were admitted to the sacraments of the church, they 
 found themselves restrained from relapsing |nto the 
 past disorders by another consideration of ^ less sp>f> 
 ual, but of a very innocent anri respectable nature. 
 Any particular society that has departed from the 
 
 great body of tlie nation, or the religion to which it 
 belonged, immediately becomes the object of universal 
 as well as invidious observation. In proportion to 
 the smallness of its numbers, the character of the so- 
 ciety may be affected by the virtue and vices of the 
 persons who compose it; and every member is en- 
 gaged to watch with the utmost vigilant attention over 
 his own behaviour, and over that of his brethren, since, 
 as he must expect to incur a part of the common dis- 
 grace, he may hope to enjoy a share of the common 
 reputation. When the christians of Bithynia were 
 brought before the tribunal of the younger Pliny, they 
 assured the proconsul, that, far from being engaged in 
 any unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a so- 
 lemn obligation to abstain from the commission of 
 those crimes which disturb the private or public peace 
 of society, from theft, robbery, adultery, perjury, and 
 fraud.P Near a century afterwards, Tertullian, with an 
 honest pride, could boast, that very few christians had 
 suffered by the hand of the executioner,'* except on ac- 
 count of their religion.' Their serious and sequester- 
 ed life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured 
 them to chastity, temperance, economy, and all the 
 sober and domestic virtues. As the greater number 
 were of some trade or profession, it was incumbent 
 on them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest deal- 
 ing, to remove the suspicions which the profane are 
 too apt to conceive against the appearances of sanctity. 
 The contempt of the world exercised them in the ha- 
 bits of humility, meekness, and patience. The more 
 they were persecuted, the more closely they adhered 
 to each other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting 
 confidence has been remarked by infidels, and was too 
 often abused by perfidious friends.' 
 Morality of the It is a Very honourable circumstance 
 fathers. for the morals of the primitive christians, 
 that even their faults, or rather errors, were deriv- 
 ed from an excess of virtue. The bishops and doc- 
 tors of the church, whose evidence attests, and whose 
 authority might influence, the professions, the princi- 
 ples, and even the practice, of their contemporaries, 
 had studied the scriptures with less skill than devo- 
 tion, and they often received, in the most literal sense, 
 those rigid precepts of Christ and the apostles, to 
 which the prudence of succeeding commentators has 
 applied a looser and more figurative mode of interpre- 
 tation. Ambitious to exalt the perfection of the gos- 
 pel above the wisdom of philosophy, the zealous 
 fathers have carried the duties of self-mortification, of 
 purity, and of patience, to a height which it is scarce- 
 ly possible to attain, and much less to preserve, in our 
 present state of weakness and corruption. A doctrine 
 so extraordinary and so sublime must inevitably com- 
 mand the veneration of the people ; but it was ill cal- 
 culated to obtain the suffrage of those worldly philo- 
 sophers, who, in the conduct of this transitory life, 
 consult only the feelings of nature and the interest of 
 society.* 
 
 Principle* of There are two very natural propensities 
 human nature, which We may distinguish in the most 
 
 169 
 
 o The imDUlatio.m of Celsns and Julian, with the defence of the fa- 
 therlariTe"; fairly stated by Spanheim. Commeutairc .ur le. Ce 
 sars dc Julian, p. 468. 
 
 virtuous and liberal dispositions, the l ove of p l easu re 
 ajiiLtheJoye^^ction. If the former be refined by art 
 and learning, improved by the charms of social -inter- 
 course, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to 
 health, and to reputation, it is productive of the great- 
 est part of the happiness of private life. The love of 
 action is a principle of a much stronger and more 
 doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, 
 
 P Plln. Epist. X. 97. 
 
 q [Tertullian says positively, no christian— nemo illiechristianus; 
 otherwise the rcsiriction he lilmself puts upon these words, and 
 which Gibbon has quoted in the preceding note, diminishes the force 
 
 of tlijs assertion, and appears to prove only tliat he knew of none. 
 
 ^•] 
 
 r Tertullian, Apolo^. «•. 44. He adds, however, with some degree 
 of hesitation, *' Aut si aliud, jam non christianus." 
 
 • The philosopher Peregrinus (of whose life and death Lucian has 
 left us so entertaining an account) imposed, for a long lime, on the 
 credulous simplicity of the christiansof Asia. 
 
 t See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac sur la Morale dea Peres. 
 
 Vol. I. — W 
 
 and to revenge ; but when it is guided by the sense of 
 propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of 
 every virtue ; and if those virtues are accompanied 
 with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, 
 may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the 
 undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of 
 pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agree- 
 able, to the love of action we may attribute most of 
 the useful and respectable, qualifications. The char- 
 acter in which both the one and the other should be 
 united and harmonized, would seem to constitute the 
 most perfect idea of human nature. The insensible 
 and inactive disposition, which should be supposed 
 alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the com- 
 mon consent of mankind, as utterly incapable of pro- 
 curing any happiness to the individual, or any public 
 benefit to the world. But it was not in this world that 
 the primitive christians were desirous of making them- 
 selves either agreeable or useful. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge, the ex- 
 ercise of our reason or fancy, and the ^liLr^'c:" 
 cneeriul now of unguarded conversation, demn pleasure 
 may employ the leisure of a liberal *""* '"*"'y* 
 mind. Such amusements, however, were rejected 
 with abhorrence, or admitted with the utmost cau- 
 tion, by the severity of the fathers, who despised all 
 knc\yledge that was not useful to salvation, and who 
 considered all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse 
 of the gift of speech. In our present state of existence, 
 the body is so inseparably connected with the soul, 
 that it seems to be our interest to taste, with innocence 
 and moderation, the enjoyments of which that faithful 
 companion is susceptible. Very different was the 
 reasoning of our devout predecessors ; vainly aspir- 
 ing to imitate the perfection of angels, they disdained, 
 or affected to disdain, every earthly and corporeal de« 
 light.** Some of our senses indeed are necessary for 
 our preservation, others for our subsistence, and others 
 again for our information, and thus far it was impos- 
 sible to reject the use of them. The first sensation of 
 pleasure was marked as the first moment of their 
 abuse. The unfeeling candidate for heaven was in- 
 structed, not only to resist the grosser allurements of 
 the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against 
 the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with in- 
 difference the most finished productions of human art. 
 Gay apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture, 
 were supposed to unite the double guilt of pride and 
 of sensuality : a simple and mortified appearance was 
 niore suitable to the christian who was certain of his 
 sins and doubtfnl of his salvation. In their censures 
 of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and cir- 
 cunistantial ; ^ and among the various articles which 
 excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false 
 hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments 
 of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows, (as 
 Jacob reposed his head on a stone,) white bread, 
 foreign \vi.nes, public salutations, the use of warm 
 baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, 
 according to the expression of Tertullian, is a lie 
 against our own faces, and an impious attempt to im- 
 prove the works of the Creator.^ When Christianity 
 was introduced among the rich and the polite, the ob- 
 servation of these singular laws was left, as it would 
 be at present, to the few who were ambitious of su- 
 perior sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as 
 agreeable, for the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a 
 merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure, 
 vvhich fortune has placed beyond their reach. The 
 virtue of the primitive christians, like that of the first 
 Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and 
 ignorance. 
 
 a Lactant. Institut. Divln. I. vi. c. 20—22. 
 
 V Consnlt a work of Clemens of Alexandria, entitled the Peda* 
 gogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as they were taught 
 in the most celebrated of the christian schools. 
 
 z Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 23. Clemens Alexandrin. Pctla- 
 gog. I. iii. c. 8. 
 
 i 
 
 / 
 
170 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 _. . ... The chaste severity of the fathers, in 
 
 Their Bentimcnts , i ^ j ^ ^i: ^c 4U^ 
 
 concerning mar- whatever related to the commerce ol the 
 ria?e and chas- j^yo sexes, flowed from the same princi- 
 '"^' pie; their abhorrence of every enjoyment 
 
 which might gratify the sensual, and degrade the spi- 
 ritual, nature of man. It was their favourite opinion, 
 that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Crea- 
 tor, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin 
 purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation 
 might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent 
 and immortal beingsJ The use of marriage was per- 
 mitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary ex- 
 pedient to continue the human species, and as a re- 
 straint, however imperfect, on the natural licentious- 
 ness of desire. The hesitation of the orthodox casuists 
 on this interesting subject, betrays the perplexity of 
 men, unwilling to approve an institution, which they 
 were compelled to tolerate.* The enumeration of the 
 very whimsical laws, which they most circumstantial- 
 ly imposed on the marriage-bed, would force a smile 
 from the young, and a blush from the fair. It was 
 their unanimous sentiment, that a first marriage was 
 adequate to all the purposes of nature and of society. 
 The sensual connexion was refined into a resemblance 
 of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and was 
 pronounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by 
 death. The practice of second nuptials was branded 
 with the name of a legal adultery ; and the persons 
 who were guilty of so scandalous an offence against 
 christian purity, were soon excluded from the honours, 
 and even from the alms, of the church.* Since desire 
 was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated 
 as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles 
 to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach 
 to the divine perfection. It was with the utmost diffi- 
 culty that ancient Rome could support the institution 
 of six vestals;^ but the primitive chuich was filled with 
 a great number of persons of either sex, who had de- 
 voted themselves to the profession of perpetual chasti- 
 ty.*' A few of these, among whom we may reckon 
 the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to dis- 
 arm the tempter.'* Some were insensible and some 
 were invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Dis- 
 daining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm 
 climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest 
 engagement; they permitted priests and deacons to 
 share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames in their 
 unsullied purity. But insulted nature sometimes vin- 
 dicated her rights, and this new species of martyrdom 
 served only to introduce a new scandal into the church.* 
 Among the christian ascetics, however, (a name which 
 they soon acquired from their painful exercise,) many, 
 as they were less presumptuous, were probably more 
 successful. The loss of sensual pleasure was supplied 
 and compensated by spiritual pride. Even the multi- 
 tude of pagans were inclined to estimate the merit of 
 the sacrifice by its apparent difficulty: and it was in 
 the praise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the 
 fathers have poured forth the troubled stream of their 
 
 J Beansobre. Hist. Critique du Maniclieismc, 1. vii. c. 3. Justin, 
 Gregory of Nyssa, Aii;iU3tin, &c. strongly inclined to this opinion. 
 
 s Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent ; they rejected 
 tSie use of marriage. 
 
 A See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, ia the 
 Morale des Peres; c. iv. 6—26. 
 
 b See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals in the memoiros 
 de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. ix. p. IGl— 2i27. Notwitlistand- 
 ing the honours and rewards which are bestowed on tliose virgins, 
 it was difficult to procure a suffifient number ; nor could the dread 
 of the most horrible death always restrain their incontinence. 
 
 c Cupididatem prorreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam. Minu- 
 cius Faelix, c. 31, Justin. Apolojj. Major. Athcnagoras in Legal. 
 c. 28. Tertullian de Cultu Fitmin. 1. ii. 
 
 d Eusebius, I. vi. 8. Before the fame of Orijen had excited envy 
 and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather admired than 
 censured. As it was his general practice to allegorize scripture, it 
 seems unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adop- 
 ted the literal sense. 
 
 • Cyprian. Epist. 4. and Dodwell Dissertat. Cyprianic iii. Some- 
 thing like this rash attempt was long afterwards imputed to the 
 founder of the order of FontcvrauU. Baylc has amused himticlf and 
 hi* readers on that very delicate subject. 
 
 eloquence.' Such are the early traces of monastic prin- 
 ciples and institutions, which, in a subsequent age, 
 have counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of 
 Christianity.* 
 
 The christians were not less averse to ,j^^.^^ aversion to 
 the business than to the pleasures of this the business of 
 world. The defence of our persons and ;^J[j^*"'' so^ern- 
 property they knew not how to reconcile 
 with the patient doctrine which enjoined an unlimited 
 forgiveness of past injuries, and commanded them to 
 invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their simplicity 
 was offended by the use of oaths, by the pomp of ma- 
 gistracy, and by the active contention of public life, 
 nor could their humane ignorance be convinced, that it 
 was lawful on any occasion to shed the blood of our 
 fellow-creatures, either by the sword of justice, or by 
 that of war ; even though their criminal or hostile at- 
 tempts should threaten the peace and safety of the 
 whole community.'' It was acknowledged, that, un- 
 der a less perfect law, the powers of the Jewish con- 
 stitution had been exercised, with the approbation of 
 heaven, by inspired prophets and by anointed kings. 
 The christians felt and confessed, that such institutions 
 might be necessary for the present system of the world, 
 and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of their 
 pagan governors. But while they inculcated the 
 maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take any 
 active part in the civil administration or the military 
 defence of the empire. Some indulgence might per- 
 haps be allowed to those persons w ho, before their con- 
 version, were already engaged in such violent and san- 
 guinary occupations ;' but it was impossible that the 
 christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, 
 could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, 
 or of princes.J This indolent or even criminal disre- 
 gard to the public welfare, exposed them to the con- 
 tempt and rt^proaches of the pagans, who very frequent- 
 ly asked, Wliat must be the fate of the empire, attack- 
 ed on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind should 
 adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect 1* 
 To this insulting question the christian apologists re- 
 turned obscure and ambiguous answers,^ as they were 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 171 
 
 f Dupin (nibliotliequo Ecclesiastique, torn. 1. p. 105.) gives a particu- 
 lar account of the dialogue of the ten virgins, us it was composed by 
 Metliodius, Bisliop of Tyre. The praises of virginity are excessive. 
 
 K The ascetics (as early as the second century) made a public pro- 
 fession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining from the use of 
 flesh and wine. Moshcim, p. 310. 
 
 h Sec the Morale des Teres. The same patient principles have 
 been revived since the Kcformation by the Socinians, the modern 
 Anabaptists, and the Quakers. Barclay, the apologist of the Qua- 
 kcrs, has protected his brethren by the authority of the primitive 
 christians, p. 542 — 511). 
 
 i Tertullian, Apolog. c. 21. De Tdololatria, c 17, 18. Origen con- 
 tra Cclsum, I. V. p.y53. I. vii. p. 348. 1. viii. p. 423— 428. 
 
 j Tertullian (tie Corona Militis, c. 11.) suggests to them the expe- 
 dient of deserting; a counsel, which, if it had Ixjen generally known, 
 was not very proper to conciliate the favour of the emperors towa'rds 
 the christian sect. 
 
 [Tertullian docs not. sui^gest to the soldiers the expedient of de- 
 sertinir, he tells thorn that they ought to be continually upon their 
 guard that thev might do nothing during their service contrary to 
 the law of (Jod, and that they should resolve to sutfer martyrdom 
 rather than be guilty of cowardly compliance, or openly to renounce 
 the service. (Apolog. chap. ii. p. 127, in fine.) Fie does not even 
 decide the question whether christians are permitted to engage in 
 the military service, he closes by saying, Futade.'iique licere milituiu 
 usque ad causaiii corona-. (Hiid. chap. ii. p. 128.) Many other pas- 
 sages in his works prove that there were very many christians in the 
 army. Hesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes insulas 
 castella municipia, ronciliabula, castra ipsa, &.c. (Apolog. chap. 
 42. p. 34.) In truth Origen (Cont. Cela. book viii.) appears to be of a 
 more rigorous opinion, but he often lays aside this exaggerated rig- 
 our, perhaps then necessary for producing great results, and he 
 speaks of the profession of arms as an Iionourable profession. (Book 
 iv. chap. 218. &.c.)—G.j 
 
 k As woll as we can judge from the mutilated representation of 
 Origen, (1. viii. p. 423.) his adversary, Cclsus, had urged his objection 
 with great force and candour. 
 
 1 [There is nothing in the refusal of the early christians to take 
 part in public affairs, which ought to astonish us. It was the natu- 
 ral consequence of the contradiction which existed between their 
 principles and the customs, laws, and action of the pagan world. Af 
 christians they could not enter the senate, which, according to Gib- 
 bon himself, always assembled in a temple or in some consecrated 
 place where each senator before taking his seat, poured a libation, 
 and burnt incense upon the altar. 
 
 As christians they could not assist at feasts and banquets, which 
 were always terminated by libations, Ac. In fine, " since the divini- 
 ties and the innumerable rites of polytheism were closely connected 
 
 unwilling to reveal the secret cause of their security ; 
 the expectation that, before the conversion of mankind 
 was accomplished, war, government, the Roman em- 
 pire, and the world itself, would be no more. It may 
 be observed, that, in this instance likewise, the situa- 
 tion of the first christians coincided very happily with 
 their religious scruples, and that their aversion to an 
 active life contributed rather to excuse them from the 
 service, than to exclude them from the honours, of the 
 state and army. 
 
 The Fifth V. But the human character, however 
 Cause. it may be exalted or depressed by a tem- 
 uJe'in^irVo-'porary enthusiasm, will return by de- 
 vernmeni of the grees to its proper and natural level, and 
 church. .^yju resume those passions that seem the 
 
 most adapted to its present condition. The primitive 
 christians were dead to the business and pleasures of 
 the world : but their love of action, which could never 
 be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a 
 new occupation in the government of the church. A 
 separate society, which attacked the established reli- 
 gion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some form 
 of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number 
 of ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual func- 
 tions, but even with the temporal direction, of the 
 christian commonwealth. The safety of that society, 
 its honour, its aggrandizement, were productive, even 
 in the most pious minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such 
 as the first of the Romans had felt for the republic, and 
 sometimes, of a similar indifference, in the use of 
 whatever means might probably conduce to so desira- 
 ble an end. The ambition of raising themselves or 
 their friends to the honours and offices of the church, 
 was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to 
 the public benefit, the power and consideration, which, 
 for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. 
 In the exercise of their functions, they were frequently 
 called upon to detect the errors of heresy, or the arts of 
 faction, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren, 
 to stigmatize their characters with deserved infamy, 
 and to expel them from the bosom of a society, whose 
 peace and happiness they had attempted to disturb. 
 The ecclesiastical governors of the christians were 
 taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the in- 
 nocence of the dove ; but as the former was refined, so 
 the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of 
 government. In the church as well as in the w^orld, 
 the persons who were placed in any public station ren- 
 dered themselves considerable by their eloquence and 
 firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their 
 dexterity in business; and while they concealed from 
 others, and perhaps iVom themselves the secret motives 
 of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the 
 turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured 
 with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy 
 from the infusion of spiritual zeal. 
 Its primitive free- The government of the church has 
 dom and equality often been the Subject, as well as the 
 prize, of religious contention. The hostile disputants 
 of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have 
 alike struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic 
 model "* to the respective standards of their own policy. 
 The few who have pursued this inquiry with more 
 candour and impartiality, are of opinion," that the apos- 
 tles declined the office of legislation, and rather chose 
 to endure some partial scandals and divisions, than to 
 
 with all the detills of public or private life, the christians could not par- 
 ticipate in them without rendering themselve.'' according to their 
 principles, guilty of impiety. It was therefore less an eflfect of their 
 doctrines, than a consequence of their situation, that they ah.^ented 
 themselves from public business. Wherever their situation presented 
 no obstacle, they manifested as much activity as the pagans. Pro- 
 inde. says St. Justin Martyr, noa solum deum adoramus et vobis in 
 rebus aliis laeti inservimiis. (.\polog, p. 64.)— G.] 
 
 m The aristocratical party in France, as well as in England, has 
 strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops. But the Calvi- 
 nistical presbyters were impatient, of a superior; and the Roman 
 pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal. See Fra Paolo. 
 
 n In the history of the christian hierarchy, I have, for the most 
 part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim. 
 
 exclude the christians of a future age from the liberty 
 of varying their forms of ecclesiastical government ac- 
 cording to the changes of times and circumstances, 
 The scheme of policy, which, under their approbation, 
 was adopted for the use of the first century, may be 
 discovered from the practice of Jerusalem, of Ephesus, 
 or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in 
 the cities of the Roman empire, were united only by the 
 ties of faith and charity. Independence and equality 
 formed the basis of their internal constitution. The 
 want of discipline and human learning was supplied 
 by the occasional assistance o^ the propheis,° who were 
 called to that function w'ithout distinction of age, of 
 sex, or of natural abilities, and who, as often as they 
 felt the divine impulse, poured forth the eflfusions of the 
 spirif in the assembly of the faithful. But these ex- 
 traordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied 
 by the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an 
 improper season, persumptuously disturbed the service 
 of the assembly, and by their pride or mistaken zeal 
 they introduced, particularly into the apostolic church 
 of Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders-^ 
 As the institution of prophets became useless, and even 
 pernicious, their powers were withdravvn,'and their of- 
 fice abolished. The public functions of religion were 
 solely intrusted to the established ministers of the 
 church, the bishops and the presbyters ,• two appellations, 
 which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguish- 
 ed the same office and the same order of persons.** The 
 name of presbyter was expressive of their age, or rath- 
 er of their gravity and wisdom. The title of bishop 
 denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of 
 the christians who were committed to their pastoral 
 care. In proportion to the respective numbers of the 
 faithful, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal 
 presbyters guided each infant congregation with equal 
 authority, and with united counsels.' 
 
 But the most perfect equality of free- institution of 
 dom requires the directing hand of a bishops as prcsj- 
 
 . '■ ... J ^1 ] r dents of the col- 
 
 superior magistrate ; and the order oi jepg of presby- 
 public deliberations soon introduces the tcra. 
 office of a president, invested at least with the author- 
 ity of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the 
 resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the public 
 tranquillity, which would so frequently have been in- 
 terrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced 
 the primitive christians to constitute an honourable 
 and perpetual magistracy, and to choose one of the 
 wisest and most holy among their presbyters to exe- 
 cute, during his life, the duties of their ecclesiastical 
 governor. It was under these circumstances that the 
 lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the 
 Jiumble appellation of presbyter ; and while the latter 
 remained the most natural distinction for the members 
 of every christian senate, the former was appropriated 
 to the dignity of its new president.* The advantages 
 of this episcopal form of government, which appears 
 
 N 
 
 o For the prophets of the primitive church, see Mosheim, Disserla- 
 tiones ad IJist. Eccles. pertinentes. torn. ii. p. 132 — 208. 
 
 p See the epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to the Corinthians. 
 
 q [The first established ministers in the church, were deacons, se- 
 ven in number, first created at Jerusalem, (Acts of the Apostles, ch. 
 vi. verses 1—7.) they were entrusted with the distribution of alms; 
 women even were engaged in this employment. After deacons 
 came elders or priests {7rgs<r&vTig-n) appointed to preserve order and 
 decorum in the community, and to act every where in its name. 
 Bishops were afterwards appointed to watch over the faith and in- 
 struction of believers. The apostles themselves ordained many bish- 
 ops. Tertullian (Adver. Marc, book iv. c. v.) Clement of Alexan- 
 dria, and many fathers of the second and third centuries, establish 
 this beyond a doubt. That equality of rank which prevailed among 
 these different functionaries did not prevent their offices from being 
 distinct even at the first. Eventually they became much more so. 
 (See Planck, Hist, of the constitution of the christian church, vol. i. 
 p. 24.— Geschichte der christlichkirchlichen Verfassung.)— O.] 
 
 r Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1. vii. • ■'*»^' 
 
 • See Jerome ad Titum,c. i. and Epistol. 85. (in the Benedictine 
 edition, 101.) and the elaborate apology of Blondel, pro sententia 
 Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is described by Jerome, of the 
 bishop and presbyters of Alexandria, receives a remarkable confir- 
 mation from the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p. 330. Vera. 
 Pocock ;) whose testimony I know not how to reject, in spite of all 
 the objections of the learned Pearson in his Vindicia; Ignatianap, pari 
 i.e. 11. 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
173 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 173 
 
 to have been introduced before the end of the first cen- 
 tury,* were so obvious, and so important for the future 
 greatness, as well as the present peace, of Christianity, 
 that it was adopted without delay by all the societies 
 ■which wer« already scattered over the empire, had ac- 
 quired in a very early period the sanction of antiqui- 
 ty,* and is still revered by the most powerful churches, 
 both of the east and of the west, as a primitive and 
 even as a divine establishment.' It is needless to ob- 
 serve, that the pious and humble presbyters, who were 
 first dignified with the episcopal title, could not pos- 
 sess, and would probably have rejected, the power 
 and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman 
 pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate. But we 
 may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their 
 original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual, 
 thouorh in some instances of a temporal, nature.^ It 
 consisted in the administration of the sacraments and 
 discipline of the church, the superintendency of reli- 
 gious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased in 
 number and variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical 
 ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their respec- 
 tive functions, the management of the public fund, 
 and the determination of all such differences as the 
 faithful w^ere unwilling to expose before the tribunal 
 of an idolatrous judge. These powers, during a short 
 period, were exercised according to the advice of the j 
 presbyterial college, and with the consent and ap- 
 probation of the assembly of christians. The primi- 
 tive bishops were considered only as the first of their 
 equals, and the honourable servants of a free people. 
 Whenever the episcopal chair became vacant by death, 
 a new president was chosen among the presbyters by 
 the suffrage of the whole congregation, every member 
 of which supposed himself invested with a sacred 
 and sacerdotal character.'^ 
 
 Provincial couii- Such was the mild and equal consti- 
 cils. tution by which the christians were gov- 
 
 erned more than an hundred years after the death of 
 the apostles. Every society formed within itself a 
 separate and independent republic ; and although the 
 most distant of these little states maintained a mutual 
 as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputa- 
 tions, the christian world was not yet connected by 
 any supreme authority or legislative assembly. As 
 the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, 
 they discovered the advantages that might result from 
 a closer union of their interest and designs. Towards 
 the end of the second century, the churches of Greece 
 and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial 
 
 synods,^ and they may justly be supposed to have bor- 
 
 ' t See the Inlroduclion to tlie Apocalypse. Bishops, under the 
 name of angels, were already instituted in the seven cities of Asia. 
 And yet tlie episUe of Clemens (which is probnhly of as ancient a 
 date) does not lead us to discover any traces of episcopacy either at 
 
 Corinth or Rome. 
 
 o Nulla ecclesia eine episcopo, has been a fact as well as a maxim 
 since the time of Terlullian and Irentpus. 
 
 T After we have pasged the difficulties of tlie first century, we find 
 the episcopal government universally estnhlistied. till it was inter- 
 rupted by the republicjin genius of the Swiss and German reformers. 
 
 w See Moslieim in the first and second centuries. Ignatius (ad 
 SmyrnsBOs. c. 3. tc.) is fond of exalting the episcopal diijniJy. Le 
 Clerc. (Hist. Ecrles. p. 569.) very bluntly censures his conduct. 
 Mosheim, with a more critical judgment, (p. 161.) suspects tlic purity 
 even of the smaller epistles. 
 
 X Nonne et laici eacerdotcs sumus? Tcrtullian, Exhort, ad Cas- 
 titat. c. 7. As the human heart in still the same, several of the ob- 
 vervations which Mr. Hume has made on Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. 
 i. p. 'B. quarto edit.) may be applied even to real inspiration. 
 * T [Synods were not the first means which independent churches 
 took to promote a closer union. Dioceses were formed at first by the 
 annexing of many small churches in the country with a church of a 
 city Many churches of a city uniting among themselves or with a 
 still larger church, gave rise to the metropolitan or archiepipcopal see. 
 Dioceses did not begin to be forme/I till towards the beginning of the 
 second century ; before this period the christians had not established 
 a sufficient number of churclies in the coyntry to render such an as- 
 sociation necessary. It is towards the middle of the same century 
 that we discover the first traces of the metropolitan constitution. 
 Provinciul synods did not commence till towards the middle of the 
 third century, and were not the first synod«. History gives us cer- 
 tain Information of synods held towards tlie c!o8e of tlie second cen- 
 tury, at Ephosus, at Jerusalem, in Pontus, and at Rome, to decide 
 the difTerences which existed between the Latin churches, and the 
 churches of Asia, respecting the time of the celebration of the Pass- 
 over, (or Easter.) But these synods were not subjected to any rcgu- 
 
 rowed the model of a representative council from the 
 celebrated examples of their own country, the Am- 
 phictyons, the Achsean league, or the assemblies of 
 the Ionian cities. It was soon established as a cus- 
 tom and as a law, that the bishops of the independent 
 churches should meet in the capital of the proviiice at 
 the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their de- 
 liberations were assisted by the advice of a few dis- 
 tinguished presbyters, and moderated by the presence 
 of a listening multitude.' Their decrees, which were 
 styled canons, regulated every important controversy 
 of faith and discipline ; and it was natural to believe 
 that a liberal effusion of the Holy Spirit would be 
 poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the 
 christian people. The institution of synods was so 
 well suited to private ambition, and to public inter- 
 est, that in the space of a few years it was received 
 throughout the whole empire. A regular correspon- 
 dence was established between the pro- Union of the 
 vincial councils, which mutually com- church, 
 municated and approved their respective proceedings ; 
 and the catholic church soon assumed the form, and 
 acquired the strength, of a great federative republic* 
 
 As the legislative authority of the Progress of epis- 
 particular churches was insensibly su- ^^pal authority, 
 perseded by the use of councils, the bishops obtained 
 by their alliance a much larger share of executive and 
 arbitrary power ; and as soon as they were connected 
 by a sense of their common interest, they were enabled 
 to attack, with united vigour, the original rights of 
 their clergy and people. The prelates of the third 
 century imperceptibly changed the language of ex- 
 hortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of 
 future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allego- 
 ries and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force 
 and of reason. They exalted the unity and power of 
 the church, as it was represented in the episcopal office, 
 of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided 
 portion.'' Princes and magistrates, it was often re- 
 peated, might boast an earthly claim to a transitory 
 dominion ; it was the episcopal authority alone which 
 was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over 
 this and over another world. The bishops were the 
 vicegerents of Christ, the successors of the apos- 
 tles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of 
 the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of confer- 
 ring the sacerdotal character, invaded the freedom both 
 of clerical and of popular elections ; and if, in the ad- 
 ministration of the church, they still consulted the 
 judgment of the presbyters, or the inclination of the 
 people, they most carefully inculcated the merit of such 
 a voluntary condescension. The bishops acknowledg- 
 ed the supreme authority which resided in the assem- 
 bly of their brethren; but in the government of his 
 peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his flock 
 the same implicit obedience as if that favourite meta- 
 phor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd 
 had been of a more exalted nature than that of his 
 sheep.*= This obedience, however, was not imposed 
 without some efforts on one side, and some resistance 
 on the other. The democratical part of the constitu- 
 tion was, in many places, very warmly supported by 
 the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior 
 clero-y. But their patriotism received the ignomini- 
 
 lar form, or to any stated time of meeting. This rcgul.Trity was es- 
 tablished by the provinii.il synods, which were formed by the union 
 of the bishops of a district who were subject to a metropolitan.— 
 a'lanck. Hist, de la constit. de I'Eglise chrciienne, vol. i. p. 00.— O.] 
 ' I Acta Concil. Carfhag. apud Cyprian. Edit. Fell, p. 158. This 
 council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from the provinces of 
 Mauritania, Nuniidia, and Africa; some presbyters and deacons as- 
 sisted at the assembly ; prffsente plebis maxima parte. 
 
 a Aguntur pricterea per Gripcinti illas, certis in locis concilia. Sec. 
 TertuUian de Jejuniis, c. 13. Tl.«! African mentions it as a recent 
 and foreign institution. The coalition of the christian churches is 
 very ably explained by Mosheim, p. 164 — 170. 
 
 b Cyprian, in his admired treatise De Unltate Erclesiip, p. ~5--fi6. 
 
 c We may appeal to the whole tenor of Cyprian's conduct, of his 
 doctrine, and of his epistles. Le Clerc. in a short life of Cyprian, 
 (Bibliothpquc Universelle, torn. xii. p. 207—378.) has laid him open 
 with great freedom and accuracy. 
 
 ous epithets of faction and schism ; and the episcopal 
 cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the la- 
 bours of many active prelates, who, like Cyprian of 
 Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambi- 
 tious statesman with the Christian virtues which seem 
 adapted to the character of a saint and martyr."* 
 Pre-eminence of The Same causes which at first had 
 the metropolitan destroyed the equality of the presb)'- 
 cburches. ^^^.g^ introduced among the bishops a 
 
 pre-eminence of rank, and from thence a superiority 
 of jurisdiction. As often as in the spring and autumn 
 they met in provincial synod, the difference of personal 
 merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the 
 members of the assembly, and the multitude was gov- 
 erned by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But 
 the order of public proceedings required a more regu- 
 lar and less invidious distinction ; the office of per- 
 petual presidents in the councils of each province, was 
 conferred on the "bishops of the principal city, and 
 these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty 
 titles of metropolitans and primates, secretly prepared 
 themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the 
 same authority which the bishops had so lately as- 
 sumed above the college of presbyters.* Nor was it 
 long before an emulation of pre-eminence and powder 
 prevailed among the metropolitans themselves, each 
 of them affecting to display, in the most pompous 
 terms, the temporal honours and advantages of the 
 city over which he presided ; the numbers and opu* 
 lence of the christians, who were subject to their pas- 
 toral care ; the saints and martyrs who had arisen 
 among them, and the purity with which they pre- 
 served the tradition of the faith, as it had been trans- 
 mitted through a series of orthodox bishops from the 
 apostle or the apostolic disciple, to whom the founda- 
 tion of their church was ascribed.' From every cause 
 either of a civil or of an ecclesiastical nature, it was 
 easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect, and 
 would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces. 
 Ambition of the The Society of the faithful bore a just 
 Roman pontifT. proportion to the capital of the empire ; 
 and the Roman church was the greatest, the most nu- 
 merous, and, in regard to the west, the most ancient 
 of all the christian establishments, many of which 
 had received their religion from the pious labours 
 of her missionaries. Instead of one apostolic founder, 
 the utmost boast of Antioch, of Ephesus, or of Co- 
 rinth, the banks of the Tyber were supposed to have 
 been honoured with the preaching and martyrdom of 
 the two most eminent among the apostles ; « and the 
 bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheri- 
 tance of whatever prerogatives were attributed either 
 to the person or to the office of St. Peter.'' The bish- 
 ops of Italy and of the provinces w^ere disposed to 
 allow them a primacy of order and association (such 
 M'as their very accurate expression) in the christian 
 aristocracy.' But the power of a monarch was reject- 
 
 d If Novatus, Felicissimus, &,c. whom the bishop of Carthage ex- 
 pelled from hid church, and from Africa, were not the most detest- 
 able monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprinn must occasionally 
 have prevailed over his veracity. For a very just account of these 
 obscure quarrels, see Mosheim, p. 497—512. 
 
 e Mosheim, p. 269. .574. Dupin, Antiqua? Eccles. Disciplin.p. 19,20. 
 
 t Terlullian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded against the heretics, 
 the right of prescription, as it was held by the apostolic churches. 
 
 K The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by most of the 
 ancients, (see Eusebins, ii. 2.5.) maintained by all tlie catliolicg, al- 
 lowed by some protestants, (see Pearson and Dodwell de Success. 
 Episrop. Roman.) but has been vigorously attacited by Spanheim. 
 (Miscellanea Sacra.iii. 3.) According to father Hardouin, the monks 
 of the thirteenth century, who composed the ^Encid, represented St. 
 Peter under the allegorical character of the Trojan hero. 
 
 »» It is in French only, that the famous allusion to St. Peter's name 
 is exact. Tu es Pierre, et sur ccttc pierre. The same is imperfect 
 in Greek, Latin, Italian, Sec. and totally unintelligible in our Teutonic 
 languages. 
 
 [This allusion is exact in the Syrio Chaldean, and it was In that 
 language that Jesus Christ made it. (Gospel, according to Matthew, 
 chap. 16. V. 17.) Peter is called Cephas, and cepha signifies base, 
 foundation rock. — G.] 
 
 i Irena<us adv. H.Treses, iii. 3. TertuUian de Prescription, c. 36. 
 and Cyprian. Epistol. 27, 55, 71, 75. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 764,) 
 and Mosheim (p. 258, 278.) labour in the interpretation of these pas- 
 Mges. Rut the loose and rhetorical style of the fathers often appears 
 favourable lo llie pretensions of Rome. 
 
 ed with abhorrence, and the aspiring genius of Rome 
 experienced from the nations of Asia and Africa, a 
 more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had 
 formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patri- 
 otic Cyprian, who ruled with the most absolute sway 
 the church of Carthage and the provincial synods, op- 
 posed with resolution and success the ambition of the 
 Roman pontiff, artfully connected his own cause with 
 that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought 
 out new allies in the heart of Asia."^ If this Punic 
 war was carried on without any effusion of blood, 
 it was owing much less to the moderation than to 
 the weakness of the contending prelates. Invectives 
 and excommunications were their only weapons ; and 
 these, during the progress of the whole controversy, 
 they hurled against each other with equal fury and de- 
 votion. The hard necessity of censuring either a 
 pope, or a saint and martyr, distresses the modem 
 catholics, whenever they are obliged to relate the par- 
 ticulars of a dispute, in which the champions of re- 
 ligion indulged such passions as seem much more 
 adapted to the senate or to the camp.^ 
 
 The progress of the ecclesiastical au- _ . 
 thority gave birth to the memorable dis- ^'"♦y.^"'' •'-'"^y- 
 tinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had been 
 unknown to the Greeks and Romans."* The former of 
 these appellations comprehended the body of the chris- 
 tian people ; the latter, according to the signification 
 of the word, was appropriated to the chosen portion 
 that had been set apart for the service of religion; a 
 celebrated order of men which has furnished the most 
 important, though not always the most edifying, sub- 
 jects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities 
 sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, 
 but their zeal and activity were united in the common 
 cause, and the love of power, which (under the most 
 artful disguises) could insinuate itself into the breasts 
 of bishops and martyrs, animated them to increase the 
 number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits of 
 the christian empire. They were destitute of'any tem- 
 poral force, and they were for a long time discouraged 
 and oppressed, rather than assisted, by the civil ma- 
 gistrates ; but they had acquired, and they employed 
 within their own society, the two most efficacious in- 
 struments of government, rewards and punishments ; 
 the former derived from the pious liberality, the latter y 
 from the devout apprehensions, of the faithful. ^^ 
 
 I. The community of goods, which oblations and 
 had so agreeably amused the imagina- revenue of the 
 tion of Plato," and which subsisted in church, 
 some degree among the austere sect of the Essenians,® 
 was adopted for a short time in the primitive church. 
 The fervour of the first proselytes prompted them to 
 sell those worldly possessions, which they despised, 
 to lay the price of them at the feet of the apostles, and 
 to content themselves with receiving an equal share 
 out of the general distribution.P The progress of the 
 christian religion relaxed and gradually abolished this 
 generous institution, which, in hands less pure than 
 those of the apostles, would too soon have been cor- 
 rupted and abused by the returning selfishness of hu- 
 man nature ; and the converts who embraced the new 
 religion were permitted to retain the possession of 
 their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, 
 and to increase their separate property by all the law- 
 ful means of trade and industry. Instead of an abso- 
 
 k See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of Ca?sarea, to 
 Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian Epistol. '5. 
 
 1 Concerning this dispute of the rehapiism of heretics; see the 
 epistles of Cyprian, and the seventh hook of Eusebius. 
 
 m From the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p. 141. Span 
 heim. Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 633. The distinction of Clerus and Laieus 
 was established before the time of TertuUian. 
 
 n The community instituted by Plato, is more perfect than that 
 wh'.ch Sir Thomas More has imagined for his Utopia. The com- 
 munity of women, and that of temporal goods, may be considered as 
 inseparable parts of the same system. 
 
 o Joseph. Aiitiquitat. xvlii. 2. Pliilo, de Vit. Contemplativ. 
 
 P See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 2, 4, 5. with Grotius's Commen- 
 tary. Mosheim, in a particular dissertation, attacks the common 
 opinion with very inconclusive arguments. 
 
 / 
 
174 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 175 
 
 lute sacrifice, a moderate proportion was accepted by 
 the ministers of the gospel ; and in their weekly or 
 monthly assemblies, every believer, according to the 
 exigency of the occasion, and the measure of his 
 wealth and piety, presented his voluntary offering for 
 the use of the common fund.*^ Nothing, however in- 
 considerable, was refused ; but it was diligently incul- 
 cated, that, in the article of tithes, the Mosaic law was 
 still of divine obligation ; and that since the Jews, un- 
 der a less perfect discipline, had been commanded to 
 pay a tenth part of all that they possessed, it would be- 
 come the disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves 
 by a superior degfee of liberality ,"" and to acquire some 
 merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, which must 
 80 soon be annihilated with the world itself.* It is 
 almost unnecessary to observe, that the revenue of each 
 particular church, which was of so uncertain and fluc- 
 tuating a nature, must have varied with the poverty or 
 the opulence of the faithful, as they were dispersed in 
 obscure villages, or collected in the great cities of the 
 empire. In the time of the emperor Decius, it was 
 the opinion of the magistrates, that the christians of 
 Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth ; 
 that vessels of gold and silver were used in their reli- 
 gious worship, and that many among their proselytes 
 had sold their lands and houses to increase the public 
 riches of the sect, at the expense, indeed, of their un- 
 fortunate children, who found themselves beggars, be- 
 cause their parents had been saints.^ We should listen 
 with distrust to the suspicions of strangers and ene- 
 mies : on this occasion, however, they receive a very 
 specious and probable colour from the two following 
 circumstances, the only ones that have reached our 
 knowledge, which define any precise sums, or convey 
 any distinct idea. Almost at the same period, the 
 bishop of Carthage, from a society less opulent than 
 that of Rome, collected an hundred thousand sester- 
 ces, (above eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling,) 
 on a sudden call of charity to redeem the brethren of 
 Numidia, who had been carried away captives by the 
 barbarians of the desert." About an hundred years 
 before the reign of Decius, the Roman church had re- 
 ceived, in a single donation, the sum of two hundred 
 thousand sesterces from a stranger of Pontus, who 
 proposed to fix his residence in the capital.'^ These 
 oblations, for the most part, were made in money ; nor 
 ^ was the society of christians either desirous or capable 
 of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the incum- 
 brance of landed property. It had been provided by 
 several laws, which were enacted with the same de- 
 sign as our statutes of mortmain, that no real estates 
 should be given or bequeathed to any corporate body. 
 
 q Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian, Apolop, c. 39. 
 r Ireiiffiiis nd. Hseres. I. iv. c. 27, 'A4. Origen in Nuiii Mom. ii. 
 Cyprian de Unilnt. Eccles. Constitul. Apostol. I. ii. c. 34, 35. Willi the 
 nutes of Cotelcrius. Tlic Constitutions introdure this divinf pre- 
 cept, by declaring that priests are ns much above kings, as the soul is 
 above the body. Among the tithable articles, they enumerate corn, 
 wine, oil, and wool. On this interestirig sulijert, consult Prideaux's 
 History of Tithes, and Fra Paolo delle Materie Bcneliciarie ; two 
 writers of a very different character. 
 
 • Tbe same opinion which prevailed about the year one thousand, 
 Wfis productive of the same effects. Most of the donaiions expre.os 
 their motive, " appropinquante mundi fine." See Mosheim's Ge- 
 neral Hiatory of the Church, vol. i. p. 437. 
 
 t Turn sumnia cura est fratribus 
 (Ut sermo testatur loquax,) 
 Olferre, fundis venditis, 
 Sesicrliorum millia, 
 Addicta avorum pra>dia 
 Fobdis sub auctionitius, 
 Succes-sor ex here? gemit 
 Sanctis egens parentibus. 
 Hsec occuluntnr abditis 
 Ecclesiaruni in angulis, 
 £t summa pictas creditur 
 Nudare dulces liheros. 
 
 Prudent, -rifi vn^uvuty. Hymn. 2. 
 The subsequent conduct of tlie deacon Laurence only proves how 
 proper a use was made of the wealth of the Roman church ; it was 
 undoubtedly very considerable; but Fra Paolo (c. 3.) appears to ex- 
 aggerate, when he supposes, that the successors of Comniodus were 
 urged to perwecute the christian.^ by their own avarice, or that of 
 their prsetorian prsfects. 
 u Cyprian. Epistol. 62. 
 ■ Tertullian de Prspscriptionc, c. 50. 
 
 without either a special privilege or a particular dis- 
 pensation from the emperor or from the senate ; ^ who 
 were seldom disposed to grant them in favour of a sect, 
 at first the object of their contempt, and at last of their 
 fears and jealousy. A transaction however is related 
 under the reign of Alexander Severus, which discovers 
 that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, 
 and that the christians were permitted to claim and to 
 possess lands within the limits of Rome itself.' The 
 progress of Christianity, and the civil confusion of the 
 empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws, 
 and before the close of the third century many consi- 
 derable estates were bestowed on the opulent churches 
 of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and 
 the other great cities of Italy and the provinces. 
 
 The bishop was the natural steward of Distribution of 
 the church ; the public stock was in- *''c revenue, 
 trusted to his care without account or controrplhe 
 presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, 
 and the more dependent order of deacons was solely 
 employed in the management and distribution of the 
 ecclesiastical revenue.* If we may give credit to the 
 vehement declamations of Cyprian, there were too 
 many among his African brethren, who, in the execu- 
 tion of their charge, violated every precept, not only 
 of evangelic perfection, but even of moral virtue. By 
 some of these unfaithful stewards the riches of the 
 church were lavished in sensual pleasures, by others 
 they were perverted to the purposes of private gain, of 
 fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury.** But as 
 long as the contributions of the christian people were 
 free and unconstrained, the abuse of their confidence 
 could not be very frequent, and the general uses to 
 which their liberality was applied, reflected honour on 
 the religious society. A decent portion was reserved 
 for the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy; a 
 sufficient sum was allotted for the expenses of the pub- 
 lic worship, of which the feasts of love, the agapse^ as 
 they were called, constituted a very pleasing part. The 
 whole remainder was the sacred patrimony of the poor. 
 According to the discretion of the bishop, it was dis- 
 tributed to support widows and orphans, the lame, 
 the sick, and the aged of the community; to com- 
 fort strangers and pilgrims, and to alleviate the mis- 
 fortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially 
 when their sufferings had been occasioned by their 
 firm attachment to the cause of religion. "= A gene- 
 rous intercourse of charity united the most distant 
 provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheer- 
 fully assisted by the alms of their more opulent breth- 
 ren,** Such an institution, which paid less regard to 
 the merit than to the distress of the object, very mate- 
 rially conduced to the progress of Christianity. The 
 pagans, who were actuated by a sense of humanity, 
 while they derided the doctrines, acknowledged tlie 
 benevolence, of the new sect." The prospect of im- 
 mediate relief and of future protection allured into its 
 hospitable bosom many of those unhappy persons 
 whom the nejrlect of the world would have abandoned 
 to the miseries of want, of sickness, and of old age. 
 There is some reason to believe, that great numbers of 
 infants, who, according to the inhuman practice of the 
 times, had been exposed by their parents, were fre- 
 quently rescued from death, baptized, educated, and 
 
 y Diocletian pave a rescript, which is only a declaration of tbe old 
 law ; '* Collegium, pi nullo speciali privilegio subnixum sit, hsredlta- 
 tem capere non posse, dut)ium non est."' Fra Paolo (c. 4.) thinks 
 that these regulations had been much neglected since tbe reign of 
 Valerian. 
 
 X Hist. August, p. 131. The ground had been public; and was 
 now disputed between the society of christians, and that of butchers. 
 
 a Constitut. .Apostol. ii. 35. 
 
 b Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 89. Epistol. 6.5. The charge is confirmed 
 by the 19th and 2t)th canon of the council of Hliberis. 
 
 c Bee the apologies ofiustin.'I'eriullian, &c. 
 
 d The wealth and liberality of the Romans to their most distant 
 brethren ia gratefully celebrated by Dionysius of Corinth, ap. Eu.seb. 
 I. iv. c. 23. 
 
 e See Lucian in Peregrin. Julian (Eplst. 49.) seems mortified, that 
 the christian charity maintains not only their own, but likewise the 
 heathen poor. 
 
 maintained by the piety of the christians, and at the 
 expense of the public treasure.' 
 
 Excommuni- II. It is the undoubted right of every 
 cation. society to exclude from its communion 
 and benefits such among its members as reject or vio- 
 late those regulations which have been established by 
 general consent. In the exercise of this power, the 
 censures of the christian church were chiefly directed 
 against scandalous sinners, and particularly those who 
 were guilty of murder, of fraud, or of incontinence ; 
 against the authors, or the followers, of any heretical 
 opinions which had been condemned by the judgment 
 of the episcopal order ; and against those unhappy 
 persons, who, whether from choice or from compul- 
 sion, had polluted themselves after their baptism by 
 any act of idolatrous worship. The consequences of 
 excommunication were of a temporal as well as a 
 spiritual nature. The christian against whom it was 
 pronounced, was deprived of any part in the oblations 
 of the faithful. The ties both of religious and of pri- 
 vate friendship were dissolved : he found himself a 
 profane object of abhorrence to the persons whom he 
 the most esteemed, or by whom he had been the most 
 tenderly beloved ; and as far as an expulsion from a 
 respectable society could imprint on his character a 
 mark of disgrace, he was shunned or suspected by the 
 generality of mankind. The situation of these unfor- 
 tunate exiles was in itself very painful and melancholy; 
 but, as it usually happens, their apprehensions far ex- 
 ceeded their sufferings. The benefits of the christian 
 communion were those of eternal life, nor could they 
 erase from their minds the awful opinion, that to those 
 ecclesiastical governors by whom they were condemn- 
 ed, the Deity had committed the keys of hell and of 
 paradise. The heretics, indeed, who might be sup- 
 ported by the consciousness of their intentions, and by 
 the flattering hope that they alone had discovered the 
 true path of salvation, endeavoured to regain, in their 
 separate assemblies, those comforts, temporal as well 
 as spiritual, which they no longer derived from the 
 great society of christians. But almost all those who 
 had reluctantly yielded to the power of vice or idolatry, 
 were sensible of their fallen condition, and anxiously 
 desirous of being restored to the benefits of the chris- 
 tian communion. 
 
 With regard to the treatment of these penitents, two 
 opposite opinions, the one of justice, the other of mercy, 
 divided the primitive church. The more rigid and in- 
 flexible casuists refused them for ever, and without 
 exception, the meanest place in the holy community, 
 which they had disgraced or deserted, and leaving 
 them to the remorse of a guilty conscience, indulged 
 them only with a faint ray of hope, that the contrition of 
 their life and death might possibly be accepted by the 
 Supreme Being.R A milder sentiment was embraced 
 in practice as well as in theory, by the purest and most 
 respectable of the Christian churches.^ The gates of 
 reconciliation and of heaven were seldom shut against 
 the returning penitent ; but a severe and solemn form 
 of discipline was instituted, which, while it served to 
 expiate his crime, might powerfully deter the specta- 
 tors from the imitation of his example. Humbled by 
 p. . ,. a publi c confessio n, emaciated by fastiinr 
 
 rubhc penance. „ ^^ , -t r—. — \ , . - . •*- - .**^^ 
 
 and clothgi l in sackclot h, the^jieuUeiit 
 ^^y pr ostrate -gfT liejiQS^^Lthe asserrr bly, imploring 
 ^^'ith tears ihe pardon of his olfences, and soliciting 
 the prayers of the faithful.' If the fault was of a very 
 heinous nature, whole years of penance were esteemed 
 
 ' Such, at least, has been the laudable conduct of more modern 
 niissionaries, under the same circumstances. Aleve three thousand 
 new-born infants are annually exposed in the streets of Pekin. See 
 LeComte Mcmoires sur la Chine, and the Recherches surles Chinois 
 et les E^jyptiefis, torn. i. p. Gl. 
 
 E The Monfanists and the Novatians, who adhered to this opinion 
 with the greatest rigour and obstinacv, found themselves at last in 
 tne number of excommunicated heretics. See the learned and co- 
 I'lous Mosheim. Secu). ii. and iii. 
 
 h Dionysius ap. Euseb. iv. 23. Cyprian, de Lapsig. 
 
 ' Cave's Primitive Christianity, part iii. c. 5. The admirers of an- 
 tiquity regret the loss of this public penance. 
 
 an inadequate satisfaction to the divine justice ; and it 
 was always by slow and painful gradations that the 
 sinner, the heretic, or the apostate, was re-admitted into 
 the bosom of the church. A sentence of perpetual 
 excommunication was, however, reserved for some 
 crimes of an extraordinary magnitude, and particulariy 
 for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who had 
 already experienced and abused the clemency of their 
 ecclesiastical superiors. According to the circum- 
 stances or the number of the guilty, the exercise of the 
 christian discipline was varied by the discretion of the 
 bishops. The councils of Ancyra and Illiberis were 
 held about the same time, the one in Galatia, the other 
 in Spain ; but their respective canons, which are still 
 extant, seem to breathe a very different spirit. The 
 Galatian, who after his baptism had repeatedly sacri- 
 ficed to idols, might obtain his pardon by a penance of 
 seven years ; and if he had seduced others to imitate 
 his example, only three years more were added to the 
 term of his exile. But the unhappy Spaniard, who had 
 committed the same offence, was deprived of the hope 
 of reconciliation, even in the article of death ; and his 
 idolatry was placetd at the head of a list of seventeen 
 other crimes, against which a sentence no less terrible 
 was pronounced. Among these we may distinguish 
 the inexpiable guilt of calumniating a bishop, a pres- 
 byter, or even a deacon.J 
 
 The well-tempered mixture of libe- The dignity of ' 
 rality and rigour, the judicious dispen- episcoH govern- 
 sation of rewards and punishments, ac- '"'^"^• 
 cording to the maxims of policy as well as justice, 
 constituted the human strength of the church. The 
 bishops, whose paternal care extended itself to the 
 government of both worids, were sensible of the im- ^ 
 portance of these prerogatives, and covering their am- /\ 
 bition with the fair pretence of the love of order, they 
 were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a discipline 
 so necessary to prevent the desertion of those troops 
 which had enlisted themselves under the banner of the 
 cross, and whose numbers every day T)ecame more 
 considerable. From the imperious declamations of 
 Cyprian, we should naturally conclude, that the doc- 
 trines of excommunication and penance formed the 
 most essential part of religion ; and that it was much 
 less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect 
 the observance of the moral duties, than to despise the 
 censures and authority of their bishops. Sometimes 
 we might imagine that we were listening to the voice 
 of INIoses, when he commanded the earth to open, and 
 to swallow up, in consuming flames, the rebellious race 
 which refused obedience to the priesthood of Aaron ; 
 and we should sometimes suppose that we heard a 
 Roman consul asserting the majesty of the republic, 
 and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the 
 rigour of the laws. " If such irregularities are suffered 
 with impunity, (it is thus that the bishop of Carthage 
 chides the lenity of his colleague,) if such irregulari- 
 ties are suffered, there is an end of episcopal vigour ; ^ 
 an end of the sublime and divine power of governing 
 the church, an end of Christianity itself." Cyprian 
 had renounced those temporal honours, which it is 
 probable he would never have obtained;' but the ac- 
 quisition of such absolute command over the con- 
 sciences and understanding of a congregation, however, 
 obscure or despised by the world, is more truly grateful 
 
 j See in Dupin, Cihiiothequc Ecclesiastique, tom. ii. p. 304— .in. a 
 short but rational exposition of the canons of those councils, which 
 were assembled in the first moments of tranquillity, after the perse- 
 cution of Diocletian. This persecution had been much less severely 
 felt in Spain than in Galatia ; a dillerence which may, in some mea- 
 sure, account for the contrast of their regulations. 
 
 k Cyprian, Epist. 69. 
 
 1 [This supposition seems to have little foundation ; the birth and 
 talents of St. Cyprian would lead us to a different conclusion. 
 Thascius Cocilius Cyjirianus Carthaginensis, artis oratorite profes- 
 sione clarus, magnam sibi gioriam, opes, honores acquisivit, epulari- 
 bus connis et largis dapibus nssuetus, pretiosa veste conspicuus, auro 
 atque purpura fulgens, fascihus oblectatus et hoiioribus, stipatus cli- 
 entium cuncis, frequentiore comitatu officii agminis honestatus ut 
 ipse de se loquitur in Episiola ad Donatum. (See Dr. Cave Hist, lit- 
 terar. vol. i. p. 87.)— £?.] 
 
176 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 to the pride of the human heart, than the possession of 
 the most despotic power, imposed by arms and conquest 
 on a reluctant people. 
 
 Recapitulation of In the coursc of this important, though 
 the five causes. perhaps tedlous, inquiry, I have at- 
 tempted to display the secondary causes which so 
 efficaciously assisted the truth of the christian religion. 
 If among these causes we have discovered any arti- 
 ficial ornaments, any accidental circumstances, or any 
 mixture of error and passion, it cannot appear surpris- 
 ing that mankind should be the most sensibly affected 
 by such motives as were suited to their imperfect na- 
 ture. It was by the aid of these causes, exclusive 
 zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, the 
 claim of miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the 
 constitution of the primitive church, that Christianity 
 spread itself with so much success in the Roman em- 
 pire. To the first of these the christians were indebted 
 for their invincible valour, which disdained to capitu- 
 late with the enemy whom they were resolved to van- 
 quish. The three succeeding causes supplied their 
 valour with the most formidable arms. The last of 
 these causes united their courage, directed their arms, 
 and gave their efforts that irresistible weight, which 
 even a small band of well-trained and intrepid volun- 
 teers has so often possessed over an undisciplined 
 multitude, ignorant of the subject, and careless of the 
 event of the war. In the various religions of poly- 
 Weakness of poly- theism, some wandering fanatics of 
 theiam. Egypt and Syria, who addressed them- 
 
 selves to the credulous superstition of the populace, 
 were perhaps the order of priests "* that derived their 
 whole support and credit from their sacerdotal profes- 
 "^^ sion, and were very deeply affected by a personal con- 
 ^^ cern for the safety or prosperity of their tutelar deities. 
 The ministers of polytheism, both in Rome and in the 
 provinces, were, for the most part, men of a noble 
 birth, and of an afiluent fortune, who received as an 
 honourable distinction the care of a celebrated temple, 
 or of a public* sacrifice, exhibited, very frequently at 
 their own expense, the sacred games," and with cold 
 indifference performed the ancient rites, according to 
 the laws and fashion of their country. As they were 
 engaged in the ordinary occupations of life, their zeal 
 and devotion were seldom animated by a sense of in- 
 terest, or by the habits of an ecclesiastical character. 
 Confined to their respective temples and cities, they 
 remained without any connexion of discipline or go- 
 vernment ; and whilst they acknowledged the supreme 
 jurisdiction of the senate, of the college of pontiffs, 
 and of the emperor, those civil magistrates contented 
 themselves with the easy task of maintaining, in peace 
 and dignity, the general worship of mankind. We 
 have already seen how various, how loose, and how 
 uncertain were the religious sentiments of polytheists. 
 They were abandoned, almost without control, to the 
 natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The acci- 
 dental circumstances of their life and situation deter- 
 mined the object as well as the degree of their devo- 
 tion ; and as long as their adoration was successfully 
 prostituted to a thousand deities, it was scarcely 
 possible that their hearts could be susceptible of a very 
 sincere or lively passion for any of them. 
 A_ . . - When Christianity appeared in the 
 
 thJf pagan'^^worhi world, cvcu thcsc faint and imperfect 
 proved favourable imprcssions had lost much of their 
 to the new religion, original power. Human reason, which 
 by its unassisted strength is incapable of perceiving 
 the mysteries of faith, had already obtained an easy 
 
 m The art?, themnnners, and the vires of the priests of the Syrian 
 Roddean, are very humorously dcscrilied hy Apuleius, in tlie eighth 
 book of his Metamorphoses. 
 
 n The office of Asiarch was of this nature, and it is frequently 
 mentioned in Aristides, the Inscriptions, &.c. It was annual and 
 elcrtive. None hut the vainest citizens could desire the honour ; 
 none hut the most wealthy could support the expense. See in the 
 Patres Apostol. torn. ii. p. 200. with how much indifference Philip 
 the Asiarch conducted himself in the martyrdom of Polycarp. There 
 were likewise Bithyniarcbs, Lyciarchs, &c. 
 
 triumph over the folly of paganism ; and when Tertul- 
 lian or Lactantius employ their labours in exposing its 
 falsehood and extravagance, they are obliged to tran- 
 scribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. 
 The contagion of these sceptical writings had been 
 diffused far beyond the number of their readers. The 
 fashion of incredulity was communicated from the 
 philosopher to the man of pleasure or business, from 
 the noble to the plebeian, and from the master to the 
 menial slave who waited at his table, and who eagerly 
 listened to the freedom of his conversation. On public 
 occasions the philosophic part of mankind affected to 
 treat with respect and decency the religious institu- 
 tions of their country ; but their secret contempt pene- 
 trated through the thin and awkward disguise, and 
 even the people, when they discovered that their deities 
 were rejected and derided by those whose rank or un- 
 derstanding they were accustomed to reverence, were 
 filled with°doubts and apprehensions concerning the 
 truth of those doctrines, to which they had yielded the 
 most implicit belief. The decline of ancient prejudice 
 exposed a very numerous portion of human kind to the 
 danger of a painful and comfortless situation. A state 
 of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive 
 minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial 
 to the multitude, that if they are forcibly awakened, 
 they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. Their 
 love of the marvellous and supernatural, their curiosity 
 with regard to future events, and their strong propensity 
 to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the 
 visible world, were the principal causes which favoured 
 the establishment of polytheism. So urgent on the 
 vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any 
 system of mythology will most probably be succeeded 
 by the introduction of some other mode of superstition. 
 Some deities of a more recent and fashionable cast 
 might soon have occupied the deserted temples of 
 Jupiter and Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the 
 wisdom of Providence had not interposed a genuine 
 revelation, fitted to inspire the most rational esteem 
 and conviction, whilst, at the same time, it was adorned 
 with all that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, 
 and the veneration of the people. In their actual dis- 
 position, as many were almost disengaged from their 
 artificial prejudices, but equally susceptible and de- 
 sirous of a devout attachment; an object much less 
 deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant 
 place in their hearts, and to gratify the uncertain eager- 
 ness of their passions. Those who are inclined to 
 pursue this reflection, instead of viewing with astonish- 
 ment the rapid progress of Christianity, will perhaps 
 be surprised that its success was not still more rapid 
 and still more universal. 
 
 It has been observed, with truth as ^g ^.^n as the 
 well as propriety, that the conquests of peace and union 
 Rome prepared and facilitated those of °!^'''>;"°'"''" 
 Christianity. In the second chapter of 
 this work we have attempted to explain in what man- 
 ner the most civilized provinces of Europe, Asia, and 
 Africa, were united under the dominion of one sove- 
 reign, and gradually connected by the most intimate 
 ties of laws, of manners, and of language. The Jews 
 of Palestine, who had fondly expected a temporal de- 
 liverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the 
 divine Prophet,® that it was found unnecessary to pub- 
 lish, or at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel.P The 
 authentic histories of the actions of Christ were com- 
 posed in the Greek language, at a considerable dis- 
 tance from Jerusalem, and after the Gentile converts 
 
 o [This insensibility was not so great as Gibbon seems to beli«*ve. 
 A prcat number of Jews were converted ; eight thouFand were 
 baptized in two days. (Acts of Apost. chap. c. v. 37— 40.) They 
 formed the first christian church. — G.] 
 
 P The modern critics are not dispa<«ed to believe what the fathers 
 almostunanimously assert, that St. Matthew composed a Hebrew 
 gospel, of which only the Greek translation is extant. It Bcemst 
 however, dangerous to reject their testimony. 
 
 [There are strong reasons to confirm this testimony. Papias. who 
 was contemporary with the apostle John, says positively that Mat- 
 thew wrote the divcoursea of Jesus Christ in Hebrew, and that eacb 
 
 were grown extremely numerous.^ As soon as those 
 histories were translated into the Latin tono-ue, they 
 were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome, 
 exceptmg only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, 
 for whose benefit particular versions were afterwards 
 made. The public highways, which had been con- 
 structed for the use of the legions, opened an easy 
 passage for the christian missionaries from Damascus 
 to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain 
 or Britain ; nor did those spiritual conquerors encoun- 
 ter any of the obstacles which usually retard or pre- 
 vent the introduction of a foreign religion into a distant 
 country. There is the strongest reason to believe, that 
 before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantino, the ' 
 faith ot Christ had been preached in every province. 
 Historical vinw ^"^ »" all the great cities of the empire ; 
 of the pro?re8s but the foundations of the several con- 
 ot Christianity gregations, the numbers of the faithful 
 who composed them, and their proportion to the un- 
 believing multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or 
 disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect 
 circumstances, however, as have reached our know- 
 ledge concerning the increase of the christian name in 
 Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the west, 
 we shall now proceed to relate, without necrlecting the 
 real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the 
 frontiers of the Roman empire. 
 
 In the east. , ^^^ ^^^^ provinces that extend from 
 the Euphrates to the Ionian sea, were 
 
 177 
 
 Ksri^^i^'L^::^- - ^j^J^ s:= hr^sr.5S;rzi^K^ 
 
 tiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the 
 gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were 
 diligently cultivated by his disciples; and it would 
 seem that, during the two first centuries, the most 
 considerable body of christians was contained within 
 those limits. Among the societies which were insti- 
 tuted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illus- 
 trious than those of Damascus, of Berea or Aleppo 
 and of Antioch. The prophetic introduction of tlie 
 Apocalypse has described and immortalized the seven 
 churches of Asia; Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, 
 Ihyatira,' Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia; and 
 their colonies were soon diffused over that populous 
 country. In a very early period, the islands of Cy- 
 prus and Crete, the provinces of Thrace and Mace- 
 donia, gave a favourable reception to the new religion ; 
 and christian republics were soon founded in the cities 
 ot Cormth, of Sparta, and of Athens.' The antiquity 
 ot the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient 
 space of time for their increase and multiplication, and 
 even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve 
 to display the flourishing condition of the orthodox 
 church, since the appellation of heretics has always 
 
 been applied to the less numerous party. To theso 
 domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the 
 complaints, and the apprehensions of the gentiles 
 themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philoso- 
 pher who had studied mankind, and who describes 
 their manners in the most lively colours, we may 
 learn, that, under the reign of Commodus, his native 
 country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and 
 cfiristians} Within fourscore years after the death of 
 Christ," the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of 
 the evil which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In 
 his very curious epistle to the emperor Trajan, he af- 
 hrms, that the temples were almost deserted, that the 
 sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers, and that 
 the superstition had not only infected the cities, but 
 had even spread itself into the villages and the open 
 country of Pontus and Bithynia.^ * 
 
 Scr^lnv^nV ^r""""^'"^ •'"'" ^ "'i""^" The church of 
 
 scrutiny ot the expressions, or of the ^tioch. 
 motives, of those writers who either celebrate or la- 
 ment the progress of Christianity in the east, it may 
 in general be observed, that none of them have left us 
 any grounds from whence a just estimate might be 
 formed of the real numbers of the faithful in those 
 provinces. One circumstance, however, has been for- 
 tunately preserved, which seems to cast a more dis- 
 tinct light on this obscure but interesting subject. Un- 
 der the reign of Theodosius, after Christianity had en- 
 joyed, during more than sixty years, the sunshine of ira- 
 
 one interpreted it as he conld. This Hchrpw was the Svrio-rhildiir 
 
 mfand'sV rr r ^•'^"^"''!? ' ^""''"' ^^^ »ronous: EuSs St'} - 
 nr2I V . -^'o^P '^'"'"'"''•<=°"fi"n *'''« account. JesusChrist himself 
 
 t^^f llA'Tff}'"''''- ^'''' •« I"-"^^'! '-y many wo i wJ fch 
 ne used and wh.ch he evanjrclists have carefully translated St 
 
 fll "VT '•'•'^•''"ff'""? the Jews, mado use of the same lanRunffP 
 Uctsof the Apostles, chap. 20. v. 2.-chap. 17. v. 4.-.chap.26 v 14 i 
 
 fnS r ^.'. ^'^^I'i'^n,' ^^""^ principal objection is, that St. MaUhew 
 tKnt ""^ V'^^'^ Testament, according to the Greek version of 
 
 wVK^^fo 'nH ?' V"^ "'" r^ '^°"'^^'' '■^^ o'' ^'>« »C" quotations 
 HebrL fo r '^ ". "^ ^?'"''' '^^^" are evidently taken from the 
 ,,' '7 ^*^'*' »"•'.. t''e other three do not differ from it,-hesideg 
 ern?ni^'^ •'"'^ not literal citations. St. Jerome says posiively con 
 sa P«"?h''^°.7°'^- '\'- '^°"''^'' '^'"'^'^ '^« ''«'' «ecn in the library it Cc- 
 mnS^: "•.*''*' citations were made in ffebrew. (in Catal.) More 
 qTe8Un"n"'Sr"°"/ °"'?" ^''^'^aeiis, express no doubt u^on this 
 question. The Greek version appears to have hcen made in he time 
 
 tX^'ZZ^Z^^^T' ^"'^ St. Augustine .mnn^'e'r^Zl 
 q Under the reigns of l^ero and Domitian, and in the cities of 
 ad V? *''^"' ^"^'O*^'^. «0"ie. and Ephesus. See Mill. P ole^omeJa 
 Jdj Nov. Testament, and Dr. Lardncr's fair and extensive collection 
 
 ncM^flh'^'A"'""'/^'''''!'""'"' '''^ "*'^''*^''- <5^) disputed the genuine- 
 fouJrtL*'*'^n"';«'y.P8e. because the church ofThyatira was not yet 
 Z AiL, EP'P"a"'U8. who allows the fact, extricates himself frJm 
 
 ofrifn^ "'*^,''^'"S^c"'°"''y^"PP°«*""'»"''*t''^»- Jo''" wrote in the 
 •Prit of prophecy. See Ahanzit Discours sur PApocalypse 
 
 out Lnl *'P!«''e''"<' Isnatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseh. iv. 2:?.) point 
 
 ?SleT/n'''"''r'^ •') ^'*^''"*' ^'•«^^^- TJ'at of Athens seemrto 
 f^a'^e^been one of the least flourishing. 
 
 Vol. I X 12 
 
 tioch consisted of one hundred thousand persons, three 
 thousand of whom were supported out of the public 
 oblations.- The splendour and dignity of the queen 
 01 the east, the acknowledged populousness of C«sa- 
 rea, Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction of 
 two hundred and fifty thousand souls in the earth- 
 quake which afflicted Antioch under the elder Justin r 
 are so many convincing proofs that the whole numbe'r 
 ot its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and 
 that the christians, however multiplied by zeal and 
 power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. 
 How diiferent a proportion must we adopt when we 
 compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, 
 the west with the East, remote villages with populous 
 towns, and countries recently converted to the faith 
 with the place where the believers first received the* 
 appellation of Christians ! It must not, however, be 
 dissembled, that, in another passage, Chrysostom, to 
 whom we are indebted for this useful information, 
 computes the multitude of the faithful as even supe- 
 rior to that of the Jews and pagans.^ But the solution 
 ot this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The 
 eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the civil 
 and the ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch ; be- 
 tween the list of christians who had acquired heaven 
 by baptism, and the list of citizens who had a right to 
 share the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, and in- 
 fants were comprised in the former ; they were ex- 
 cluded from the latter. 
 
 The extensive commerce of Alexan- 
 dria, and its proximity to Palestine, '" ^?3-pt. 
 gave an easy entrance to the new religion. It was at 
 first embraced by great numbers of the Therapeut2e, or 
 Essenians of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which 
 had abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic cerc- 
 
 t Lucian m Alexandro, c. 25. Christianitv, however, must have 
 been very unequally diffused over Pontus ; "since, in the middle of 
 tue third century there were no more than seventeen believors in the 
 extensive diocese of Nco-CTsarea. See M. de Tillemont. Memoires 
 Ecclestast. torn. iv. p. 675. from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who 
 were themselves natives of Cappadocia. 
 
 u According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered under the con- 
 sulship of the two Gemini, in the year 29 of our presentera, Pliny 
 was sent mloBithynia (according to Pagi) in the year 110. 
 V Plm. Epist. X. 97. 
 
 X Chrysostom. Opera, tom.vii. p. fi.58, 810. 
 
 f John Malela, torn. ii. p. 144. He draws the same coticlusion 
 with regard to the populousness of Antioch. 
 
 I Chrysostom, tom, i. 592. I am indebted for these pa«8ace« 
 though not for wy inference, to the learned Dr. Lardner. Credlbil' 
 ity of the Gospel History, vol. xii. p. 370. 
 
 I 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 178 
 
 monies. The austere life of the Essenians, their fasts and 
 ^xcommunications, the community of goods, the love 
 of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and he warmth 
 though not the purity of their faith, already offered a 
 verylively image of the primitive discipline/ It was m 
 L school of Afexandria that the christian theology ap- 
 pears to have assumed a regular and scientifical form , 
 and when Hadrian visited Egypt, he found achurch corri- 
 posed of Jews and of Greeks, sufhciently i^port^ant o 
 attract the notice of that inquisitive prince." But the 
 procrress of Christianity was for a long time confined 
 ivithin the limits of a single city, which was itself a 
 foreign colony, and till the close of the second cen- 
 lury the predecessors of Demetnus were the only 
 Stes of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were 
 ^onsecr^^^^^^ by th^h'ands of Demetrius, and the num. 
 ber was increased to twenty by his successor llcra- 
 clas.^ The body of the natives, a people distinguished 
 bv a sullen inflexibility of temper,'^ entertained the new 
 doctrine with coldness and reluctance : and even m the 
 time of Origen, it was rare to meet vvith an Egyptian 
 who had surmounted his early prejudices in favour of 
 the sacred animals of his country.' As soon, indeed, 
 as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of those 
 barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsa ion , e 
 cities were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Ihc- 
 bais swarmed with hermits. 
 
 A perpetual stream of strangers and 
 I« Rome. provincials flowed into the capacious 
 bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious 
 whoever was guilty or suspected, might hope, in t h. 
 Obscurity of that immense capital, to elude the vigil- 
 ance of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, 
 every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every 
 founder, whether of a virtuous or criminal association, 
 might easily multiply his disciples or accomp ices 
 The christians of Rome, at the time of the accidental 
 persecution of Nero, are represented by Taoilus as al- 
 ready amounting to a very great multitude/ and he 
 Ian' uao-e of thaf great historian is almost similar to the 
 Btvfe employed by Livy, when he relates the intro- 
 duction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus. 
 After the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the 
 senate, it was likewise apprehended that a very great 
 multuide, as it were another people, had been initiated 
 i^to hose abhorred mysteries. A more careful inqui- 
 ry soon demonstrated, that the oftenders did not exceed 
 seven thousand ; a number indeed sulficiently alarming, 
 when considered as the object ol public justice.^ It is 
 with the same candid allowance that we should inter- 
 
 Wim me same; vvQiiuivA i»..- -- 1 • /• , 
 
 met the vague expressions of Tacitus, and in a forme 
 [nstance of Pliny, when they cxasgerate the crowds 
 of deluded fanatics who had forsaken the established 
 worship of the gods. The church of Rornc was un- 
 rubteSly the Brsl and most populous of the empire ; 
 and we are possessed of an authentic record which at- 
 tests the state of religion in that city "fout the middle 
 of the third century, and after a peace of 'l'"-'):^'?''' 
 vears. The clergy, at that lime, consisted of a bishop, 
 forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, as many sub-dea- 
 cons, forty-two acolythes, and fifty readers, exorcists, 
 
 ii:otr.iro .IPS Tiiifs 1 2 c. 20—23. lias cxninined with 
 
 'p'e"u'.4 :ore„V£efc, n,jl„„, ,,o, .^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Jll'le'S ,^'lS or S>,"a°:uSally beca,.,e tl.e fa.lio,, of .he 
 
 n;,z:^'^r>:i^lj^ ..£- ^/„riu-?,uS 
 
 EutycUius, (Annal. torn. i. p. •^':^: ,\^"„^!!rer o all the ol.jeclions 
 
 d Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 16. 
 
 • Origen contra Celsmn, 1. i. p. 4U. ^^^..„, _„ 44, 
 
 co^nslernitio'^oTthe 'sJ^tl on the di-overy of Jh Jacch..n^^^^^^^ 
 whose depravity is described, and perhaps exogqerated, hy i^ivy. 
 
 and porters. The number of widows, of the infirm, 
 and of the poor, who were maintained by the oblations 
 of the faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred.'' From 
 reason, as well as from the analogy ot Antioch, we 
 may venture to estimate the christians of Rome at abou 
 fifty thousand. The populousness of that great capita 
 cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained; but the mos* 
 modest calculation will not surely reduce it _lower than 
 ITmillion of inhabitants, of whom Christians might 
 constitute at the most a twentieth part.' 
 
 The western provincials appeared to !„ Africa and 
 have derived the knowledge of christian- Jhej^-^-" P- 
 itv from the same source which had dit- 
 fused among them the language, the sentiments, and 
 the manners of Rome. In this more important circum- 
 stance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gradually fashion- 
 ed to the imitation of the capital. \ et notwithstand- 
 incr the many favourable occasions which might invite 
 the Roman missionaries to visit the Latin provinces, it 
 was late before they passed either the sea or the Alps; 
 nor can we discover in those great countries any assur- 
 ed traces, either of faith or of persecution that ascend 
 hicrher than the reign of the Antonines.' The slow pro- 
 crress of the gospel in the cold climate of Gaul, was 
 extremely difi-erent from the eagerness with which it 
 .eems to have been received on the burning sands of 
 Africa. The African christians soon lormed one ot the 
 principal members of the primitive church. The prac- 
 tice introduced into that province, of appointing bishops 
 to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequent y 
 to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply 
 the splendour and importance of their religious socie- 
 ties, which during i\^ course of the third century were 
 animated by the zeal of Terlullian, directed by theabi- 
 lities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence ot 
 Lactantlus. But if, on the contrary, we turn our eyes 
 towards Gaul, we must content ourselves with discov- 
 orin<r, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, the feeble and 
 united congregations of Lyons and Vienna; and even 
 as late as the reign of Decius, we are assured, that in a 
 few cities only, Aries, Narbonne, Thoulouse, Limoges, 
 Clermont, Tours, and Paris, some scattered churches 
 ' were supported by the devotion of a small number of 
 christians.- Silence is indeed very consistent wUh 
 devotion, but as it is seldom compatible with zeal, >^e 
 may perceive and lament the languid state of christian- 
 itv in those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic 
 for the Latin tongue; since they did not, during the 
 three first centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastical 
 writer. From Gaul, which claimed a just pre-eminence 
 of learninrr and authority over all the countries on this 
 side of th^e Alps, the light of the gospel was more 
 faintly reflected on the remote provinces of bpam ana 
 Britain ; and if we may credit the vehement assertions 
 of Tertullian, they had already received the first rays 
 of the faith, when he addressed his apology to the 
 magistrates of the emperor Severus." But the obscure 
 
 o 
 
 h Fu«cl.ius 1 vi. c. 43. The T.atin translator (M. de Valois) has 
 .hmi^la D onirto red ire the number of presbyters to forty-four. 
 
 f T 8%mporl°o" of the presbyters and of the poor to the rest of 
 the^peoplc! Ivas originally .Ix.d •^.o^TpSsn" They wc Jot's 
 
 ::;:!.icj;s.;?cKi?h^i'j;S'of^^ 
 
 Dona tstrwhose "s^^^^^^ « ronfirmed'by the tacit acknowledg; 
 men?of Auaustin, Africa was the last of the provinces which re- 
 ceived the pt^pcl. Tillcmont. Mem. Eccles.ast. torn i. p^ .54. 
 
 Turn primum intra Gallias mariyria visa. Sulp. fve "■''.•'; 
 With recard to Africa, see Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3. !»'«'"'=' 
 
 ?^rs:i^^^!^=s:?Ai:^^^^ 
 
 fn tL he-iSo^f the f^ century, the extensive d.oceses « 
 I icee of Treves and of Cologne, composed a single bishopric, wh'cU 
 hybeenT'crrr^cently founded. See Memoires de Tillemont. torn- 
 
 '^7The'd.?t-e'*of^V;rt«llian's Apology is fixed, in a dissertation of 
 Mosheim, to the year 198 
 
 and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe 
 has been so negligently recorded, that if we would re- 
 late the time and manner of their foundation, we must 
 supply the silence of antiquity by those legends which 
 avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated to the 
 monks in the lazy gloom of their convents." Of these 
 holy romances, that of the apostle St. James can alone, 
 by its single extravagance, deserve to be mentioned. 
 From a peaceful fisherman of the lake of Gennesareth, 
 he was transformed into a valorous knight, who charg- 
 ed at the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles 
 against the Moors. The gravest historians have 
 celebrated his exploits; the miraculous shrine of 
 Compostella displayed his power; and the sword of a 
 military order, assisted by the terrors of the inquisition, 
 was sufficient to remove every objection of profane 
 criticism.!* 
 
 Beyond the limits The progress of Christianity was not 
 ofthe Roman em- confined to the Roman empire ; and ac- 
 f"®- cording to the primitive fathers, who 
 
 interpret facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a 
 century after the death of its divine author, had already 
 visited every part of the Globe. "There exists not," 
 says Justin Martyr, "a people, whether Greek or 
 barbarian, or any other race of men, by whatsoever 
 appellation or manners they may be distinguished, 
 however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they 
 dwell under tents, or wander about in covered wao-o-ons, 
 among whom prayers are not offered up in the°name 
 of a crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all 
 things.'"! But this splendid exaggeration, which even 
 at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile 
 with the real state of mankind, can be considered only 
 as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer, the 
 measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his 
 wishes. But neither the belief nor the wishes of the 
 fathers, can alter the truth of history. It will still 
 remain an undoubted fact, thai the barbarians of Seythia 
 and Germany, who afterwards subverted the Roman 
 monarchy, were involved in the darkness of paganism ; 
 and that even the conversion of Iberia, of Armenia, or 
 of iEthiopia, was not attempted with any degree of 
 success till the sceptre was in the hands of an orthodox 
 emperor.' Before that time, the various accidents of 
 war and commerce might indeed diflfuse an imperfect 
 knowledge of the gospel among the tribes of Caledonia,' 
 and among the borderers ofthe Rhine, the Danube, and 
 the Euphrates.* Beyond the last-mentioned river, 
 Edessa was distinguished by a firm and early adherence 
 to the faith." From Edessa the principles of Christian- 
 ity were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian 
 cities which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes ; but 
 they do not appear to have made any deep impression 
 on the minds of the Persians, whose religious system, 
 by the labours of a well-disciplined order of priests, 
 
 179 
 
 o In the fifteenth century, tlierc were few who had either inclina- 
 tion or courage to question, whether Joseph of Arimathea founded 
 the monastery of Glastonbury, and wbcilier Dionysius the Arcopa- 
 gite preferred the residence of Paris to that of Athens. 
 
 p The stupendous metamorphosis was performed in the ninth cen- 
 tury. See Mariana, (Hist. Hisp.in. J. vii. c. 13. torn. i. p. 283. edit 
 Hag. Com. 1733.) wlio. in every sense, imitates Livy, and the honest 
 detection of the legend of St. James by Dr. Geddes, Miscellanies, vol 
 il. p. 221. ' 
 
 q Justin Martyr, Dialo?. cum Trvphon. p. 341. Irenreus adv 
 Haeres. 1. i. c. 10. Tertullian ad Jud. c. 7. See Mosheim, p. 203. 
 
 r Seethe fourth century of Mosheim's History of the Church. 
 Many, though very confused circumstances, that relate to the con- 
 version of Iberia and Armenia, may be found in Moses of Chorcnc 
 1. il. C.78— 89, ' 
 
 i According to Tertullian, the christian faith had penetrated into 
 parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arms. About a ccntiirv 
 afterwards, Ossian, thes^on of Fingal, is said to have disputed, in his 
 extreme old age, with one of the foreign missionaries, and the dispute 
 18 still extant, in verse, and in the Erse language. See Mr. Macpjicr- 
 son's Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems, p. 10. 
 
 t Tlie Goths, who ravished .\sia in ilie reign of Gallienus, carried 
 away great numbers of raptives ; some of whom were christi.ins, and 
 became missionaries. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. torn iv 
 p. 44. 
 
 n The legend of Ab^arus, fabulous as it is. alFords a decisive proof, 
 that many yenrs before Eusebius wrote iiis history, the greatest part 
 of the inhabitants of Edessa had embraced Christianity. Their ri- 
 vals, the citizens of Carrhas, adhered, on the contrary, to the cause 
 ot paganism, as late as the sixth century. 
 
 had been constructed with much more art and solidity 
 than the uncertain mythology of Greece and Rome.* 
 
 From this impartial though iiriperfect General ro 
 survey of the progress of Christianity, it tion of clmXns 
 may perhaps seem probable, that the '^"'^ pagans, 
 number of its proselytes has been excessively magni- 
 fied by fear on the one side, and by devotion on the 
 other. According to the irreproachable testimony of 
 Origen,>' the proportion of the faithful was very incon- 
 siderable, when compared with the multitude of an 
 unbelieving world ; but, as we are left without any 
 distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and 
 it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of 
 the primitive Christians. The most favourable calcu- 
 lation, however, that can be deduced from the examples 
 of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit us to imagine 
 that more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the ^ 
 empire had enlisted themselves under the banner of the 
 cross before the important conversion of Constantine. 
 But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed 
 to multiply their numbers ; and the same causes which 
 contributed to their future increase, served to render 
 their actual strength more apparent and more formid- 
 able. 
 
 Such is the constitution of civil socie- wk .1 .u * . 
 
 itr *U^* .„l,:i * r 1- • Vvhethr>r the first 
 
 ty, that whilst a few persons are distiii- christians were 
 guishod by riches, by honours, and by '"'^an and igno- 
 knowledge, the body of the people is '"''"'• 
 condemned to obscurity, ignorance, and poverty. The 
 christian religion, which addressed itself to the whole 
 human race, must consequently collect a far greater 
 number of proselytes from the lower than from the 
 superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural cir- 
 cumstance has been improved into a very odious impu- 
 tation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by « 
 the apologists, than it is urged by the adversaries, of I 
 the faith ; that the new sect of christians was almost 
 entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of 
 peasants and mechanics, of hoys and women, of beg- 
 gars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes 
 introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble 
 families to which they belonged. These obscure 
 teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) 
 are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dog- 
 matical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the 
 dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with 
 the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves 
 into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their 
 education, has the best disposed to receive the impres- 
 sion of superstitious terrors.' 
 
 This unfavourable picture, though not s„,„, „,^ j^,„ 
 tlevoul ot a lamt resemblance, betrays, with rej-ard to 
 by its dark colouring and distorted fca- •'taming; 
 tures, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith 
 of Christ diff*used itself through the world, it was em- 
 braced by several persons who derived some conse- 
 quence from the advantages of nature or forttme. Aris- 
 tides, who presented an eloquent apology to the empe- 
 ror Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher.* Justin 
 Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools 
 of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, 
 before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or 
 rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study 
 ofthe Jewish prophets.^ Clemens of Alexandria had 
 accjuired much various reading in the Greek, and Ter- 
 tullian in the Latin, language. Julius Africanus and 
 Origen possessed a very considerable share of the 
 
 X Accordins to Barde.=?anes, (.ip. Eiiseb. Pra'par. Evangel.) there 
 were some christians in Persia before llie end ofthe .second century. 
 In the time of Constantine (sec liis i':|)i.stle to Sapor. Vit. I. \v. c. 13.) 
 they composed a flouri:»iiinir clmrch. Consult Re:iii.«obre, Hist. Cri- 
 tiquf; de Munichei.-sme, torn. i. p. 160, and the Bibliotheca Orientalia 
 of Assemani. 
 
 y Origen contra Celsum, 1. viii. p. 424. 
 
 z .Miiiucius Fu;lix. c. 8. with Wowerus's notes. Celsus ap. Ori"en, 
 I. iii. p. 138—142. Julian ap. Cyril. I. vi. p. 200. Edit. Spanheiin. 
 
 a Eiiseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3. Mieronyin. Epist. 83. 
 
 b The story is prettily told in Justin's Dialogues. Tillemonf, 
 (Mem. F]cclesiast. torn. ii. p. 334.) who relates it afu^r him, is sure 
 that the old man was a disguised an<<ol. 
 
 I 
 
180 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE;. 
 
 I 
 
 learning of their times ; and although the style of 
 Cyprian is very different from that of Lactantius, we 
 might almost discover that hoth those writers had 
 been public teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of 
 philosophy was at length introduced among the chris- 
 tians, but it was not always productive of the most 
 salutary affects ; knowledge was as often the parent 
 of heresy as of devotion, and the description which 
 was designed for the followers of Artemon, may, with 
 equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that 
 resisted the successors of the apostles. " They pre- 
 sume to alter the holy scriptures, to abandon the an- 
 cient rule of faith, and to form their opinions accord- 
 ing to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of 
 the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and 
 they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in 
 measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their 
 hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects 
 of their admiration ; and they express an uncommon 
 reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are 
 derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the 
 infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel 
 by the refinements of human reason. "«= 
 with regard to Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that 
 rank and fortune, the advantacres of birth and fortune were 
 always separated from the profession of Christianity. 
 Several Roman citizens were brought before the tribu- 
 nal of Pliny, and he soon discovered, that a great 
 number of persons of every order of men in Bithynia 
 had deserted the reliijion of their ancestors.*^ His 
 unsuspected testimony may, in this instance, obtain 
 more credit than the bold challenge of Tcrtullian, 
 when he addresses himself to the fears as well as 
 to the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by as- 
 suring him, that if he persists in his cruel intentions, 
 he must decimate Carthajre; and that he will find 
 among the guilty many persons of his own rank, 
 senators and matrons of noblest extraction, and the 
 friends or relations of his most intimate friends.^ It 
 appears, however, that about forty years afterwards 
 the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of 
 this assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently 
 supposes, that senators, Roman knights, and ladies of 
 quality, were engaged in the christian sect.^ The 
 church still continued to increase its outward splen- 
 dour as it lost its internal purity; and in the reign of 
 Diocletian, the palace, the courts of justice, and oven 
 the army, concealed a multitude of christians, who en- 
 deavoured to reconcile the interests of the present with 
 those of a future life. 
 ^. ..... . And vet these exceptions are either 
 
 CnriHtiaiiity most c • i • • 
 
 favourably recciv- too tew m number, or too recent in time, 
 ed by the poor and entirely to remove the imputation of 
 ""^®* ignorance and obscurity which has been 
 
 so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christiani- 
 ty .« Instead of employing in our defence the fictions 
 of later ages, it will be more prudent to convert the 
 occasion of scandal into a subject of edification. Our 
 serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles 
 themselves were chosen by providence among the 
 
 c Kuscbius, V. 28. It may be hoped, that none, e.\rept tlie lieretirs, 
 gave occasion to ihc complaint of Celsus, (ap. Oriifen, I. ii. p. 77.) 
 that the cliristians were perpetually corrcctinf; and altcrini,' their 
 gospels. 
 
 il IMin. Episl. x. 97. Fucrunt alii similia amcntix, civcs Romani 
 
 Mulii enim omnia o^tatls, omnis ordinis, utriusquc sexus, etiam 
 
 vocantur in perirulum et vocahuntur. 
 
 e Tertulliun ad Scapulam. Yet even his ihetoric rises no higher 
 than to claim a tenth part of Carthage. 
 
 f Cyprian, Epiat. 79. 
 
 K [This incomplete enumeration ou^ht to be increased by the 
 names of many pagans converted at the very dawning of Christianity, 
 and whose conversion lessens this reproach, which the historian 
 seems to countenance, — such were the pro-consul Sergius Tnulus. 
 converted at Paphos. (Acts of the Apostles, chap, xiii. verses 7 and 
 12.) Dionysins, a member of the Areopagus, converted at Athens 
 by St. Paul, with many othcra. (Arts of the Apostles, chap. xvit. v. 
 34.) Many persons Qt the court of Nero. (Epis. to the Thilipp. chnp. 
 iv. verse 22.) Erastus. treasurer of Corinth. (Epis. tothc Romans, 
 chap. xvi. verse 23.) Sone Asiatic ciilefs. (Acts of the Apo.stles, 
 chap. xix. verse 31.) &.c. Among philosophers, we may add Tatian, 
 Athenagoras,Theophilus of Antioch, Ilegcsippus, Meliton, Miltiades 
 Pantfrnus. Ammonius, &.C., all distinj^uished fur their intelligence 
 l^nd learning.— C] 
 
 fishermen of Galilee, and that the lower we depress 
 the temporal condition of the first christians, the more 
 reason we shall find to admire their merit and success. 
 It is incumbent on us diligently to remember, that the 
 kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, 
 and that the minds afflicted by calamity and the con- 
 tempt of mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine 
 promise of future happiness ; while, on the contrary, 
 the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this 
 world, and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their 
 vain superiority of reason and knowledge. 
 We stand in need of such reflections „ . , , 
 
 r ^ /• ^1 1 r- -11 Rojcctcd by some 
 
 to comfort us for the loss OI some lllus- eminent men of 
 
 trious characters, which in our eyes the first and se- 
 might have seemed the most worthy of '^"'"^ centuries, 
 the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the 
 elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, 
 of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor 
 Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flour- 
 ished, and exalt the dignity of human nature. They 
 filled with glory their respective stations, either in ac- 
 tive or contemplative life ; their excellent understand- 
 ings were improved by study ; philosophy had puri- 
 fied their minds from the prejudices of the popular su- 
 perstition ; and their days were spent in the pursuit of 
 truth and the jiractice of virtue. Yet all these sages 
 (it is no less an object of surprise than of concern) 
 overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian 
 system. Their language or their silence equally dis- 
 cover their contempt for the growing sect, which in 
 their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire. 
 Those among them who condescend to mention the 
 christians, consider them only as obstinate and per- 
 verse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission 
 to their mysterious doctrines, without being able to 
 produce a single argument tliat could engage the at- 
 tention of men of sense and learning.'* 
 
 It is at least doubtful whether any of Their neglect of 
 these philosophers perused the apologies prophecy, 
 which the primitive christians repeatedly published in 
 behalf of themselves and of their religion,' but it is 
 much to be lamented that such a cause was not de- 
 fended by abler advocates. They expose with super- 
 fluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of polythe- 
 ism. They interest ouK^ompassion by displaying the 
 innocence and suff'erings of their injured brethren. 
 But when they would demonstrate the divine origin 
 of Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the 
 predictions which announced, than on the miracles 
 which accompanied, the appearance of the Messiah. 
 Their favourite argument might serve to edify a chris- 
 tian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the 
 other acknowledge the authority of these prophecies, 
 and both are obliged, with devout reverence, to search 
 for tlieir sense and their accomplishment. But this 
 mode of persuasion loses much of its weight 'and in- 
 fluence, when it is addressed to those who neither un- 
 derstand nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the 
 prophetic style.J In the unskilful hands of Justin and 
 of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of 
 the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types, affect- 
 
 b Dr. Lardnei, in his first and second volumes of Jewish and 
 christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the 
 younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus .Antoninus, and perhaps 
 of Epictetus, (for it is doubtful whether that philosopher means to 
 speak of the christian!?.) The new sect is totally unnoticed by Se- 
 neca, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch. 
 
 i [The emperors Adrian, Antoninus, &c. read with surprise, the 
 apoloeies of St. Justin Martyr, of Aristides, and uf Meliton, ice. — 
 (See St. Jerome, ad mag. orat. Orose, book vili. chap. xiii. p. 488)— 
 E^usebius says expressly, that the cause of Christianity was defended 
 before the senate in a very elegant discourse by Apollonius the mar- 
 tyr. Cum judex multis eum precibus obaecrassct petiissetque ab illo 
 uti coram senatu rationem fidei sus redderet, elegantissima oratione 
 prodefensione fidei pronuniiata, &c. (Vers. Lat. of Eusebius, book 
 V. chap, xxi, p. 154,— G.] 
 
 j If the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks had been alleged to 
 a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of 
 Cicero, *'Q,ua> tandem ista auguratio est. annorum potius quani aui 
 mensium aut dierum ?" De Divinatione, ii. 30. Observe with what 
 irreverence Lucian (in Alexandro, c. 13 ) and his friend Celsus ap 
 Origen (I. vii. p. 327.) express themselves roncerning the Hebrew 
 prophets. 
 
 ed conceits, and cold allegories ; and even their au- 
 thenticity was rendered suspicious to an unenlightened 
 Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries, which, un- 
 der the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls,^ 
 were obtruded on him as of equal value with the gen- 
 uine inspirations of heaven. The adoption of fraud 
 and sophistry in the defence of revelation, too often 
 reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets, 
 who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless 
 weight of cumbersome and brittle armour. 
 
 and of miracles. . ^"* ^^^ ^}'^^^ ^e excuse the supine 
 inattention of the pagan and philosophic 
 world, to those evidences which were presented by 
 the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to 
 their senses 1 During the age of Christ, of his apos- 
 tles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which 
 they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodi- 
 gies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were 
 healed, the dead were raised, dajmons were expelled. 
 
 181 
 
 tinct chapter of Pliny <i is designed for eclipses of an 
 extraordinary nature and unusual duration; but he 
 contents himself with describing the singular defect 
 of light which followed the murder of Caesar, when, 
 during the greatest part of the year, the orb of the 
 sun appeared pale and without splendour. This sea- 
 son of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared 
 Avith the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had 
 been already celebrated by most of the poets'" and 
 historians of that memorable age.» 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The co7iduct of the Roman government toivarch the chris- 
 tians, from the reign of A'ero to that of Constantine. 
 
 If we seriously consider the purity of ..u • ,- . 
 ,„^ ,u^i f , V T 1— , the christian religion, the sanctity of its securer bv U.O 
 
 as austere lives of the greater number of those who 
 
 the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and 
 General silence ^ome turned aside from the awful spec 
 
 concerning the tacle, and pursuing the ordinary occupa- 
 darkne^s of the tions of life and Study, appeared uncon- 
 scious of any alterations in the moral or 
 physical government of the world. Under the reign 
 of Tiberius, the whole earth,* or at least a celebrated 
 province of the Roman empire,*" was involved in a 
 preternatural darkness of three hours. Even this 
 miraculous event, which ought to have excited the 
 wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, 
 passed without notice in an age of science and histo- 
 ry." It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and 
 the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the im- 
 mediate eflfects, or received the earliest intelligence, 
 of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a 
 laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena 
 of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, 
 which his indefatigable curiosity could collect.^ Both 
 the one and the other have omitted to mention the 
 greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has 
 been witnes s since the creation of the globe.P A dis- 
 
 k The philosophers who derided the more ancient predictions of 
 the Sibyls, would easily have detected He Jewish and christian for- 
 geries, which had been so triumphantly quoted by the fathers fronj 
 Justm Martyr to Lactantius. When the Sibvlline verses had per- 
 formed their appomted task, they, like the system of the millennium 
 were quietly laid aside. The christian Sibyl had unluckily fi ved the 
 ruin of Rome for the year 195, A. U. C. 948. 
 
 1 The fathers, as ihcy are drawn out in battle array by Dom Cal- 
 met, (Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. iii. p. 'J95— 308.) seem to cover 
 the whole earth with darkness, in which they are followed by most 
 of the moderns. ■' 
 
 m Origen ad MaUh. c. 27. and a few modern critics, Beza, Le Clerc 
 Lardner, &c. are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea. 
 «,1 '^'lie celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned. 
 When Terlullian assures the pagans, that the mention of the pro- 
 digy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris, (see his Apolog c 21 ) 
 he prol)ably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in 
 the words of the gospel. 
 
 Seneca Quaist. Natur. 1. i. 15; vi. 1 ; vii. 17. Plin. Hist. Natur. 
 
 I. II* 
 
 P [This passage of the gospel, wronglv apprehended, has, accord- 
 ing to learned theologians, given occasion for this mistake, which 
 has occupied and wearied so many laborious commentators, although 
 Origen had already taken care to prevent it. The expression, o-j o- 
 no; IJ.IVITO, (St. Matthew, chap. 27. verse 4.'>.) docs not indicate, say 
 they, an eclipse of extraordinary and complete darkness, but some 
 obscurity occasioned in the atmosphere perhaps by clouds, perhaps by 
 fome other cause. As this obscuration of the sun seldom happened in 
 Palestine, where, in the middle of April, the heavens were ordinarily 
 clear, it received in the eyes of the Jews and christians, a character of 
 peculiar importance, especially as it was a received idea among them, 
 that if the sun concealed himself at mid day, it was a bad omen.— 
 (See Amos. chap. 8. verse 9 and 10.) The word o-xsrof is often 
 taken in this sense by writers of the same age. The Apocalypse 
 speaking of an obscurity caused by smoke and dust, says, lo-xoTia-Sx 
 i ^ixiof, the Hun was darkened. (Revelation, chap. 9. verse 2.) 
 Resides the Hebrew word ophel, which answers to the word <rxoTo,-, 
 in the septuagint, means any obscurity, and the Evangelists model- 
 ling the sense of their expressions by that of the septuagint, have 
 given to it the same latitude of meaning. This obscurity of the sky 
 usually precedes the trembling of the earth. (St. Matt. chap. 27. v. 
 .^I.) Heathen authors afford us numberless examples, to which they 
 uave at the time a miraculous interpretation. (See Ovid, book ii. v 
 •'13: book XV. v. 785. Pliny, Hist. Natur. hook ii. c. 30.) Wetsteiri 
 has collected all these examples in his edition of the New Testament, 
 vol. i. p. 557. We need not then wonder at the silence of pagari 
 writers concerning a phenomenon which did not extend beyond Je- 
 rusalem, and was not contrary to the laws of nature, although the 
 Jpws and Christians regarded it aa un inauspicious omen. See Mi- 
 
 during the first ages embraced the faith of the gospel, 
 we should naturally suppose, that so benevolent a doc- 
 trine would have been received with due reverence, 
 even by the unbelieving world ; that the learned and 
 the polite, however they might deride the miracles, 
 would have esteemed the virtues of the new sect ; and 
 that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would 
 have protected an order of men who yielded the most 
 passive obedience to the laws, though they declined 
 the active cares of war and governinent. If, on the 
 other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of 
 polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the 
 faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, 
 and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we 
 are at a loss to discover what new offence the christians 
 had committed, what new provocation could exaspe- 
 rate the mild indifl^erence of antiquity, and what new 
 motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld 
 without concern a thousand forms of religion subsist- 
 ing in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe 
 punishment on any part of their subjects, who had 
 chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensive 
 mode of faith and worship. 
 
 The religious policy of the ancient world seems to 
 have assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to 
 oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore 
 years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples 
 were punished with death by the sentence of a pro- 
 consul of the most amiable and philosophic character, 
 and according to the laws of an emperor distinguished 
 by the wisdom and justice of his general administra- 
 tion. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed 
 to the successors of Trajan are filled with the most 
 pathetic complaints, that the christians who obeyed 
 the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of conscience, 
 were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman em- 
 pire, excluded from the common benefits of their aus- 
 picious government. Tiie deaths of a few eminent 
 niartyrs have been recorded with care ; and from the 
 time that Christianity was invested with the supreme 
 power, the governors of the church have been no less 
 diligently employed in displaying the cruelty, than in 
 imitating the conduct, of their pagan adversaries. To 
 separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well as 
 interesting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and 
 error, and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the 
 causes, the extent, the duration, and the most import- 
 ant circumstances, of the persecutions to which the 
 
 chaelis notes upon the New Testament, vol. i. p. 290. Paulus, Com- 
 mentary upon the New Testament, vol. iii. p. 762.)— G.] 
 
 q Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. 30. 
 
 r Virgil. Georgic. i. 4(>6. Tibullns. I. i. Elesr. v. ver. 75. Ovid. 
 Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pliarsal. i. 540. The last of these 
 poets places this prodigy before the civil war. 
 
 8 See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph, .^ntiqiiit. xiv. 12 
 Plutarch in Caps.ir. p. 47!. Appian, Bell. Civil. I. iv. Dion Cassius 
 I. xlv. p. 431. Julius Obseqiiens, c. 128. His little treatise is an ab' 
 stract of Livy'."* prodigies. 
 
 -1 
 
182 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 Chap. XVI 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 183 
 
 first christians were exposed, is the design of the pre- 
 sent chapter.* 
 
 Inquiry into their The Sectaries of a persecuted religion, 
 motives. depressed by fear, animated with resent- 
 
 ment, and perhaps heated with enthusiasm, are seldom 
 in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or 
 candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, 
 which often escape the impartial and discerning view 
 even of those who are placed at a secure distance from 
 the flames of persecution. A reason has been assigned 
 for the conduct of the emperors towards the primitive 
 christians, which may appear the more specious and 
 probable, as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius 
 of polytheism. It has already been observed, that the 
 religious concord of the world was principally support- 
 ed by the implicit assent and reverence which the na- 
 tions of antiquity expressed for their respective tradi- 
 tions and ceremonies. It might therefore be expected, 
 that they would unite with indignation against any 
 sect of people which should separate itself from the 
 communion of mankind, and claiming the exclusive 
 possession of divine knowledge, should disdain every 
 form of worship, except its own, as impious and idola- 
 trous. The rights of toleration were held by mutual 
 indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal 
 of the accustomed tribute. As the payment of this 
 tribute was inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them 
 alone, the consideration of the treatment which they 
 experienced from the Roman magistrates, will serve to 
 explain how far these speculations are justified by 
 facts, and will lead us to discover the true causes of 
 the persecution of Christianity. 
 
 Rebellious spirit Without repeating what has been al- 
 of the Jews. ready mentioned of the reverence of the 
 Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusa- 
 lem, we shall only observe, that the destruction of the 
 temple and city was accompanied and followed by 
 every circumstance that could exasperate the minds 
 of the conquerors, and authorize religious persecution 
 by the most specious arguments of political justice and 
 the public safety. From the reign of Nero to that of 
 Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impa- 
 tience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly 
 broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrec- 
 tions. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the hor- 
 rid cruelties which they committed in the cities of 
 Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt 
 in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting na- 
 tives;** and we are tempted to applaud the severe 
 retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the 
 leorions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and cre- 
 dulous superstition seemed to render them the impla- 
 cable enemies not only of the Roman government, but 
 of human kind.'^ The enthusiasm of" the Jews was 
 supported by the opinion, that it was unlawful for them 
 
 a. [The history of tJie first a^'es of Christianity is found only in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, and if wc woiihl speak of tlie persecutions which 
 the first christians sutJi-red, we niust liave recourse to the account 
 tijore given. These persecutions at that time confined to individuals 
 and to a snnall extent of country, interested only the persecuted, 
 and by them only were remcmhercd— CJilihon in tracing tlie persecu- 
 tions no furtiier hack ilian to the time of Nero, has entirely omitted 
 those which preceded this period, the history of which is given by 
 St. Luke. The only means of justifying this omission was to ques- 
 tion the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles; for, if they are au- 
 thentic, they must necessarily be consulted — and antiquity has left 
 us but few works whose authenticity is more firmly established than 
 is thatof the Acts of the Apostles (See Lardner's Credibility of the 
 Gospcrs History, part ii.) It is then without sufiicient motive that 
 Gibt)on has preserved such an entire silence, respecting the accounts 
 given by St. Luke — and this omission is not without importance. 
 
 — «.] 
 
 b In Cyrene they massacred 2^0,000 Creeks; in Cyprus 240,000; in 
 Egypt a very great multitude. Many of these unhappy victims were 
 sawed asunder, according to a precedent to which David had given 
 the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews devoured the 
 flesli, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails like a girdle round 
 their bodies. See Dion Casitius. 1. Ixviii. p. 11 15. 
 
 [Many commentators, among others Keimnrus in his notes upon 
 Dion Cassius, think that the hatred of the Romans against the Jews 
 influenced this historian to exaggerate the cruoltics which the Jews 
 committed. (Dion Cass, book Ixxviii, 1\4C>.)—G.] 
 
 c Without repeating the well known narratives of Josephus, we 
 may learn from Dion (I. Ixix. p. 1 162.) that in Hadrian's war 580,000 
 Jews were cut otl' by the sword, beside.s an infinite number which 
 perished by famine, by disease, and by fire. 
 
 to pay taxes to an idolatrous master ; and by the flat- 
 tering promise which they derived from their ancient 
 oracles, that a conquering messiah would soon arise, 
 destined to break their fetters, and to invest the favour- 
 ites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was 
 by announcing himself as their long-expected deliver- 
 er, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham 
 to assert the hope of Israel, that the famous Barcho- 
 chebas collected a formidable army, with which he 
 resisted during two years the power of the emperor 
 Hadrian.'* 
 
 Notwithstanding these repeated pro- Toleration of the 
 vocations, the resentment of the Roman Jewish religion, 
 princes expired after the victory ; nor were their appre- 
 hensions continued beyond the period of war and dan- 
 ger. By the general indulgence of polytheism, and 
 by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were 
 restored to their ancient privileges, and once more ob- 
 tained the permission of circumcising their children, 
 with the easy restraint, that they should never confer 
 on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of 
 the Hebrew race.* The numerous remains of that peo- 
 ple, though they were still excluded from the precincts 
 of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain 
 considerable establishments both in Italy and in the 
 provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy 
 municipal honours, and to obtain at the same time an 
 exemption from the burthensome and expensive oflices 
 of society. The moderation or the contempt of the 
 Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesias- 
 tical police which was instituted by the vanquished 
 sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at 
 Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate 
 ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdic- 
 tion, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an an- 
 nual contribution.' New synagogues were frequently 
 erected in the principal cities of the empire ; and the 
 sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were 
 either commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by 
 the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in the 
 most solemn and public manner. « Such gentle treat- 
 ment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. 
 Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, 
 they assumed the behaviour of peaceable and industri- 
 ous subjects. Their irreconcilable hatred of mankind, 
 instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence, 
 evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They em- 
 braced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters 
 in trade ; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous 
 imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.** 
 
 Since the Jews, who rejected with t,,^ j^^^.^ ^^^^^ ^ 
 abhorrence the deities adored by their people which foi- 
 sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, '?*^''i' »he chris- 
 
 P , ^t 1- • /. tiansasect wbicli 
 
 enjoyed however the free exercise ot deserted, the re 
 their unsocial religion ; there must have ''gion of their 
 existed some other cause, which exposed '"'"*"• 
 the disciples of Christ to those severities from which 
 the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference 
 between them is simple and obvious ; but, according 
 to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest 
 importance. The Jews were a nation ,• the christians 
 were a sect ,- and if it was natural for every communi- 
 ty to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbours, 
 it was incumbent on them to persevere in those of their 
 
 d For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoiredes Juifs, 1. i. c 
 17. for the characters of the Messiah, according to the Rabbis, I. v. 
 c. 11—13. for the actions of Ilarchochebas, 1. vii. c. 12. 
 
 e It is to Modestinus, a Roman lawyer, (1. vi. regular.) that we arc 
 indebted for a distinct knowledge of tlie Edict of Antoninus. See 
 Casnubon ad Hist. August, p. 27. 
 
 f See Basnage, IMstoire des Juifs, i. iii. c. 2, 3. The ofiice of Pa- 
 triarch was suppressed by Theodosius the younger. 
 
 g We need only mention the Purim, or deliverance of the Jews 
 from the rage of Haman, which, till the reign of Theodosius, wb3 
 celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous intemperance. Bus- 
 nage. Hist, des Juifs, I. vi. r. 17. I. viii. r. 6. 
 
 h According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the grandson of Esau, 
 conducted into Italy the army of yfineas, king of Carthage. Another 
 colony of Iduma>ans, flying from the sword of David, took refuge in 
 the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for other ren>:onB of equal 
 weight, the name of E^lom was applied by the Jews to the Roman 
 empire. 
 
 ancestors. The voice of oracles, the precepts of philo- 
 sophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimously 
 enforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim 
 of superior sanctity, the Jews might provoke the poly- 
 theists to consider them as an odious and impure race. 
 By disdaining the intercourse of other nations, they 
 might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses 
 might be for the most part frivolous and absurd ; yet, 
 since they had been received during many ages by a 
 large society, his followers were justified by tlfe exam- 
 ple of mankind ; and it was universally acknowledged, 
 that they had a right to practise what it would have 
 been criminal in them to neglect. But this principle, 
 which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded not 
 any favour or security to the primitive church. By 
 embracing the faith of the gospel, the christians in- 
 curred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpar- 
 donable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of 
 custom and education, violated the religious institu- 
 tions of their country, and presumptuously despised 
 whatever their fathers had believed as true, or had re- 
 verenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we 
 may use the expression) merely of a partial or local 
 kind ; since the pious deserter who withdrew himself 
 from the temples of Egypt or Syria, would equally 
 disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Car- 
 thage. Every christian rejected with contempt the 
 superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. 
 The whole body of christians unanimously refused to 
 hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the 
 empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the op- 
 pressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of con- 
 science and private judgment. Though his situation 
 might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach 
 the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the 
 believing part of the pagan world. To their apprehen- 
 sions, it was no less a matter of surprise, that any in- 
 dividuals should entertain scruples against complying 
 with the established mode of worship, than if they 
 had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, 
 the dress, or the language, of their native country.' 
 Christianity ac The Surprise of tlie pagans was soon 
 anS mltake?!?; Succeeded by resentment; and the most 
 the people and pious of men Were exposed to the unjust 
 philosophers. but dangerous imputation of impiety. 
 Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the 
 christians as a society of atheists, who, by the^most 
 daring attack on the religious constitution of the em- 
 pire, had merited the severest animadversion of the 
 civil magistrate. They had separated themselves (they 
 gloried in the confession) from every mode of super- 
 stition which was received in any part of the globe by 
 the various temper of polytheism ; but it was not alto- 
 gether so evident what deity, or what form of wor- 
 ship, they had substituted to the gods and temples of 
 antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they en- 
 tertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross 
 conception of the pagan multitude, who were at a loss 
 to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was 
 neither represented under any corporeal figure or visi- 
 ble symbol, nor was adored with the accustomed pomp 
 of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices.^ The 
 sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their 
 minds to the contemplation of the existence of the 
 First Cause, were induced by reason or by vanity to 
 reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the 
 privilege of this philosophical devotion.'' They were 
 
 fn pJhJ^n^^ arguments of Cclsus, as they are represented and re- 
 
 t?nrt1o/,?".^''"' ^'- ""a ^lV^-'-'V V'' ""^y clearly discover the dis- 
 Unction that was made between the Jewish people and the Christian 
 'tct See in the Dialogue of MinuciusFoeli.v, (c. 5. G.) a fair and not 
 inelegant description of the popular sentiments, with regard to the 
 desertion of the established worship. b •" ^ me 
 
 j Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla? nulla nota simulacra ■» 
 r7-Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus unicus, solitarius, desti'- 
 J! w" • Minucius Falix, c. 10. The pagan interlocutor goes on to 
 make a dunmction in favour of the Jews, who had once a temule 
 altar, victims, 4;c. t«iupje, 
 
 vA'*, '^'^''^S"l' ^^^y^ '*'**°) ^^ ""a'", •''"d dangerous to publish, the 
 Knowledge of the true God. See the Theologie des Philosophca, in 
 
 far from admitting the prejudices of mankind as the 
 standard of truth, but they considered them as flowing 
 from the original disposition of human nature; and 
 they supposed that any particular mode of fiiith and 
 worship which presumed to disclaim the assistance of 
 the senses, would, in proportion as it receded from 
 superstition, find itself incapable of restrainino- the 
 wanderings of the fancy, and the visions of fuiatFcism. 
 Ihe careless glance which men of wit and learning 
 condescended to cast on the christian revelation, served 
 only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade 
 them, that the principle, which they might have re- 
 vered, of the divine unity, was defaced by the wild 
 enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airy speculations, 
 of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated dia- 
 logue, which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he 
 aflfects to treat the mysterious subject of the Trinitv 
 in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own 
 ignorance of the weakness of human reason, and of 
 the inscrutable nature of the divine perfections.^ 
 
 It niight appear less surprising, that the founder of 
 Christianity should not only be revered by his disciples 
 as a sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored 
 as a God. The polythcists were disposed to adopt 
 every article of faith, which seemed to offer any re- 
 semblance, however distant or imperfect, with the po- 
 pular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of 
 Hercules, and of jEsculapius, had, in some measure, 
 prepared their imagination for the appearance of the 
 Son of God under a human form.*" But they were 
 astonished that the christians should abandon the 
 temples of those ancient heroes, who, in the infancy 
 of the world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and 
 vanquished the tyrants or monsters who infested the 
 earth ; in order to choose for the exclusive object of 
 their religious worship, an obscure teacher, who, in a 
 recent age, and 'among a barbarous people, had fallen 
 a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, 
 or to the jealousy of the Roman government. The 
 Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for tem- 
 poral benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present 
 of life and immortality, which was offered to mankind 
 by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the 
 midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal 
 benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions 
 and character, were insufficient, in the opinion of 
 those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, 
 of empire, and of success; and whilst they refused to 
 acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers 
 of darkness and of the grave, they misrepresented, or 
 they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering life, and 
 Ignominious death, of the divine author of Christianity." 
 The personal guilt which every chris- The union and 
 tian had contracted, in thus preferring as.scmbiiesofthe 
 his private sentiment to the national re"^ '"''/•stians con- 
 
 i:~:_„ „,^„ . J . , • , Bideredas a dan- 
 
 ligion, was aggravated in a very high gerous conspi- 
 degree by the number and union of the "^y. 
 criminals. It is well known, and has been already ob- 
 served, that Roman policy viewed with the utmost 
 jealousy and distrust any association among its sub- 
 
 the Abbe d'Olivet's French transaction of Tully de Natura Dcorum 
 torn. 1. p. 275. ' 
 
 1 The author of the Philopatris perpetually treats the christians as 
 a company of dreaming enthusiasts, J*«A'ovio.,a.5£f.si, xi5igo3uTv. 
 Tig »ieocxTiivTe(,gi,c. and in one place manifestly alludes to the vi- 
 sion in which St. Paul was transported to the third heaven. In 
 another place, Triephon, who personates a christian, after deriding 
 the gods of paganism, proposes a mysterious onth, 
 
 ^T-yt/^iSovTx siov, ftiyetv^ etftSgOTOv, t<f aevJaivse, 
 
 Afie;.5£iv^.- St^xTKUi. (is the profane answer of Critins.) xx. cfxo« ^ 
 
 m According to Justin Martyr, (Apolog. Major, c. 70—85.) the dae- 
 mon, who had gained some imperfect knowledge of the prophecies, 
 purposely contrived this resemblance, whifh might deter, though by 
 different means, both the people and the philosophers from embracine 
 the faith of Clirist. * 
 
 n In the first and second books of Origen, Cclsus treats the birth 
 and character of our Saviour with the most impious contempt. The 
 orator Libanius praises Porphyry and Julian for confuting the follv 
 of a sect, which styles a dead man of Palestine, God, and the Son of 
 God. Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast. iii. 23. 
 
 1^' 
 
184 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 jects ; and that tlie privileges of private corporations, 
 though formed for the most harmless or beneficial 
 purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand.° 
 The religious assemblies of the christians, who had 
 separated themselves from the public worship, appear- 
 ed of a much less innocent nature : they were illegal 
 in their principle, and in their consequences might 
 become dangerous ; nor were the emperors conscious 
 that they violated the laws of justice, when for the peace 
 of society, they prohibited those secret and sometimes 
 nocturnal meetings.P The pious disobedience of the 
 christians made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, 
 appear in a much more serious and criminal light ; and 
 the Roman princes, who might perhaps have suffered 
 themselves to be disarmed by a ready submission, 
 deeming their honour concerned in the execution of 
 their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous 
 punishments, to subdue this independent spirit, which 
 boldly acknowledged an authority superior to that 
 of the magistrate. The extent and duration of this 
 spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it every day 
 more deserving of his animadversion. We have al- 
 ready seen that the active and successful zeal of the 
 christians had insensibly diffused them through every 
 province and almost every city of the empire. The 
 new converts seemed to renounce their family and 
 country, that they might connect themselves in an in- 
 dissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, 
 which every where assumed a different character from 
 the rest of mankind. Their gloomy and austere as- 
 pect, their abhorrence of the common business and 
 pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions of im- 
 pending calamities,i inspired the pagans with the ap- 
 prehension of some danger, which would arise from 
 the new sect, the more alarming as it was the more 
 obscure. " Whatever," says Pliny, "may be the prin- 
 ciple of their conduct, their inflexible obstinacy ap- 
 peared deserving of punishment."' 
 Their mannerg The precautions with which the dis- 
 calumniated. ciples of Christ performed the offices 
 of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity ; 
 but they were continued from choice. By imita- 
 ting the awful secrecy which reigned in the Eleusin- 
 ian mysteries, the christians had flattered themselves 
 that they should render their sacred institutions more 
 respectable in the eyes of the pagan world. • But the 
 event, as it often happens to the operations of subtle 
 policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. 
 It was concluded, that they only concealed what they 
 would have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken pru- 
 dence afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and 
 for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales 
 which described the christians as the most wicked of 
 human kind, who practised in their dark recesses 
 every abomination that a depraved fancy could sug- 
 gest, and who solicited the favour of their unknown 
 God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue. There 
 were many who pretended to confess or to relate the 
 ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was asserted, 
 ** that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with 
 flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initi- 
 ation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly 
 inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the inno- 
 cent victim of his error; that as soon as the cruel deed 
 
 o The emperor Trajan reriised to incorporate a company of 150 
 firemen, for the use of ihe ritv of Nicomedia. He disliked all asso- 
 ciations. See I'liii. Epist. x. 42. 43. 
 
 p The proconsul I'liny liad published a Rencral edict against un- 
 lawful meetins^s. The prudctire of the cliristians 8U8|)€nded their 
 Aaapm ; but it was impossible for them to omit the exercise of pub- 
 lic worship. 
 
 q As tin; prophecies of the anticlirLst, approaching conflagration, 
 4;c. provoked those pagans whom they did not convert, they were 
 mentioiie^l with caution and reserve ; and the Montanists were cen- 
 Bured for disclosing too freely the dangerous secret. See Mosheim, 
 p. 413. 
 
 r Neque enim dubitahani, quodcumquccssct quod fatcrentur, (such 
 arethe words of Pliny,) pervicuciain certe el inflexibilem obstinatio- 
 nem de^cre puniri. 
 
 * See Moshcim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 101. and Span- 
 heiin, Remarques sur Ics Cssars de Julieii, p. 468, &c. 
 
 was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the bloody 
 greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and 
 pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual 
 consciousness of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed, 
 that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suit- 
 able entertainment, in which intemperance served as a 
 provocative to brutal lust; till, at the appointed mo- 
 ment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame 
 was banished, nature was forgotten ; and, as accident 
 might direct, the darkness of the night was polluted 
 by the incestuous commerce of sisters and brothers, 
 of sons and of mothers."* 
 
 But the perusal of the ancient apolo- Tlieir imprudent 
 gies was sufficient to remove even the defence, 
 slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adver- 
 sary. The christians, with the intrepid security of 
 innocence, appeal from the voice of rumour to the 
 equity of the magistrates. They acknowledge, that if 
 any proof can be produced of the crimes which calum- 
 ny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most 
 severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, 
 and they challenge the proof. At the same time they 
 urge, with equal truth and propriety, that the charge 
 is not less devoid of probability, than it is destitute of 
 evidence ; they ask, whether any one can seriously 
 believe that the pure and holy precepts of the gospel, 
 which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful 
 enjoyments, should inculcate the practice of the most 
 abominable crimes : that a large society should resolve 
 to dishonour itself in the eyes of its own members; 
 and that a great number of persons of either sex, and 
 every age and character, insensible to the fear of death 
 or infamy, should consent to violate those principles 
 which nature and education had imprinted most deep- 
 ly in their minds.'' Nothing, it should seem, could 
 weaken the force or destroy the effect of so unanswer- 
 able a justification, unless it were the injudicious con- 
 duct of the apologists themselves, who betrayed the 
 common cause of religion, to gratify their devout 
 hatred to the domestic enemies of the church. It was 
 sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly 
 asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, and the 
 same incestuous festivals, which were so falsely as- 
 cribed to the orthodox believers, were in reality cele- 
 brated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and 
 by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwith- 
 standing they might deviate into the paths of heresy, 
 were stiil actuated by the sentiments of men, and still 
 governed by the precepts of Christianity.' Accusa- 
 tions of a similar kind were retorted upon the church 
 by the schismatics who had departed from its com- 
 munion,^ and it was confessed on all sides, that the 
 most scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed 
 among great numbers of those who affected the name 
 of christians. A pagan magistrate, who possessed 
 neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost im- 
 perceptible line which divides the orthodox faith from 
 heretical depravity, might easily have imagined that 
 their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of 
 their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, 
 
 t See Justin Martyr. Apolog. i. 35. ii. 14. Athenafroras, in Lega- 
 tion, c. 27. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 7—9. Minucius Foblix, c. 9, 10, 
 30, 31. The last of these writers relates the accusation in the most 
 elegant and circuntstantial manner. The answer of Tertullian is 
 the boldest and most vigorous. 
 
 u In the persecution of Lyons, some gentile slaves were compelled, 
 by the fear of tortures, to accuse their christian master. The church 
 of Lyons, writing to their brethren of Asia, treat the horrid charge 
 with proper indignation and contempt. Euseb. Hist.Eccles. v. 1. 
 
 V See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35. Irentpus adv. Hxres. i. 24. 
 Clemens Alexandrin. Stromal. 1. iii. p. 438. Euseb. iv. 8. It would 
 be tedious and disgustinc to relate all that the succeeding writers 
 have imagined, all that Epiphanius has received, and all that Tille- 
 mont has copied. M. de Bcausobre (Hist, du Manicheisme, I. ix. c. P. 
 9.) has exposed, with great spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin 
 and Pope Leo. I. 
 
 w VViien Tertullian became a Montanist, he aspersed the morals of 
 the church which he had so resolutely defended. " Sed inajoris est 
 Agape, quia per banc adoiescentes tui cum sororibuF dormiunt, appen- 
 dic<'s scilicet gulo; lascivia et luiuria." De Jejuniis, c. 17. The 35th 
 canon of the council of Illiberis provides against the scandals which 
 too oAen polluted the vigils of the church, and disgraced the chris- 
 tian name, in the eyes of unbelievers. 
 
 or at least for the reputation, of the first christians that I 
 the magistrates sometimes proceeded with more tem ' 
 
 C::' iTZZ^^r^t "^"^"^ insistent wit^": 
 re.uit 01 ttrcir judicial inquiry, that the sectaries who 
 had deserted the established worship, appca ed to'them 
 sincere in their professions, and blarneless in the^r 
 manners; however they might incur, by their absurd 
 and excessive superstition, the censure of the laws" 
 Idea of the con- , History, which undertakes to record 
 
 dnctoftheeraj)e- the transactions of thp naQt fr.^ tUr. : 
 rors towards il.e stniotinn «f f.,7 ^ ' ^^^ ^"® ^"" 
 
 christians. struction of future ages, would ill de- 
 
 A J 4 . ^f^? ^'^^^ honourable office, if she con- 
 
 descended to plead the cause of tyrants, ir to iustifv 
 the maxims of persecution. It must, however be 
 acknowledged, that the conduct of the emptors who 
 appeared the least favourable to the primiUve church 
 IS. by no means so criminal as that of modern sovel 
 
 t'rU^nsrr 'Y'''' ^'" ""'^ '' violence and 
 terror against the religious opinions of any part of 
 
 heir subjects From their reflections, or e^ven from 
 
 their own feelings, a Charles V. or a LouTs XlT 
 
 might have acquired a just knowledge of the r Ihts of 
 
 conscience of the obligation of faith, and of 'tie in- 
 
 aTfenTRor^Z'" ^?' '''' ^""^^^ ^"^ magistrates of 
 ancient Rome were strangers to those princfples which 
 inspired and authorized the inflexible obstinacy of he 
 christians in the cause of truth, nor could they them- 
 selves discover in their own breasts any motivJwhldi 
 would have prompted them to refuse a legal, and as 
 were a natural, submission to the sacred institutions 
 of their country. The same reason which con ibues 
 
 lolrnn'l '■'" ^"^'^^ "^"'^ have tended to abate Uie 
 rigour, of their persecutions. As they were actuated, 
 
 Tnlu rP^"', '"^^ ^^ ^^«^^^' but by the temper^ 
 ate policy of legislators, contempt must often have re- 
 laxed and humanity must frequently have suspend- 
 ed, the execution of those lawl, which they enacted 
 against the humble and obscure followers of Christ 
 
 weTiLt ^T'i ^^'^ f.'^'''' ^'^^^^^^^^ ^"d motives 
 Z. if 1 k' r"^ T"'"^^ •• ^' That a considerable 
 ime elapsed before they considered the new sectaries 
 TT Th.f • d^fsemng of the attention of government. 
 II. That m the conviction of any of their subjects 
 
 :ZTa ""V"^ '^ '' ^''y ^^"g^^^^-^ ^ crime, they 
 proceeded with caution and reluctance. III. That 
 
 V^T^tJ^^'^^Si'^'fi" '^' "'" of punishments; and 
 IV. That the afflicted church enjoyed many intervals 
 
 iln^r^ tranquillity Notwithstandin| the ca?e- 
 e s indifference which the most copious and the most 
 minute of the pagan writers have shown to the affairs 
 of the christians,/ it may still be in our power to con- 
 firm each of these probable suppositions, by the evi- 
 dence of authentic facts. ^ 
 
 They neglected J- By the wise dispensation of Pro- 
 ^'itTjZs' J}^^"}^'^ ^ mysterious veil was cast over 
 
 thpfaJtl. .ftK I •" ''"''^' °^ ^^^ ^b"''^'^' ^'hich, till 
 
 the faith of the christians was matured, and their num- 
 bers were multiplied, served to protect them not only 
 from the malice but even from the knowledo-e of the 
 pagan world. The slow and gradual abolition of the 
 Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and innocent dis- 
 guise to the more early proselytes of the gospel. As 
 they were far the greater part of the race of Abraham, 
 they were distinguished by the peculiar mark of cir- 
 cumcision, offered up their devotions in the temple of 
 Walem till Its final destruction, and received both 
 
 ho d J* '^vf P'^'P^'m^" ^' '^^ ^^""^"^ inspirations of 
 .A .■ y\ T\^ ^^"^'^^ converts, who by a spiritual 
 adoption had been associated to the hope of Israel 
 were likewise confounded under the garb^and apnea I 
 ance of^Jp^vs,^and as the polytlieist paitU^s f^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 «^^ig';;??i!^-^Ss^ 
 
 y In the various compilation of the Augustan History a liart of 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 185 
 
 to articles of faith than to the external worship the 
 new sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly an! 
 nounced. Its future greatness and ambition, was^per- 
 mitted to shelter itself under the genera" toleration 
 which was granted to an ancient and^celebritfd pc^'^ 
 m the Roman empire. It was not lono-, pcrhans hZ 
 fore the .fews themselves, animated wiU a^fie cer 'zea^ 
 and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradual separn 
 tion of the.r Nazarene brethren from the^doctrine of the 
 synagogue ; and they would gladly have extinguish! 
 ed the dangerous heresy in the blood of its adhe°r"nts 
 Bu the decrees of heaven had already disarmed S 
 malice; and though they might sometimes ever he 
 licentious privilege of seditionT they no longer possess! 
 
 find i? it^T'T'''-'^ 'T'''''^ J^^^^^^ ' »«^ Sid they 
 find It easy to infuse into the calm breast of a Roman 
 
 magistrate the rancour of their own zeal and prTju! 
 
 re^d; toU!.^^'"'''^* governors declared themselves 
 ready to listen to any accusation that might affect the 
 public safety ; but as soon as they were informed, that 
 It was a question not of facts but of words, a dispute 
 relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws 
 and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of tlie majes- 
 ty ot Rome seriously to discuss the obscure differ- 
 ences which might arise among a barbarous and super- 
 stitious people. The innocence of the first chrisS 
 was protected by ignorance and contempt; and the 
 mbunal of the pagan magistrate often proved their 
 most assured refuge agaTnst the fury of the syna- 
 gogue.* If indeed we were disposed to adopt the 
 raditions of a too credulous antiquity, we might re! 
 late the distant peregrinations, the wonderful achieve- 
 ments, and the various deaths of the twelve apostles'- 
 but a more accurate mqtiiry will induce us to doubt! 
 whether any of those persons who had been witnesses 
 
 L t' "V p'^i^' -^ ^^''^^ r'''^ permitted, beyond the 
 limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood" the truth 
 ot their testimony.<^ From the ordinary term of hu- 
 man hfe, It may very naturally be presumed that most 
 of them were deceased before the discontent of the 
 Jews broke out into that furious war, which was ter- 
 minated only by the ruin of .Terusalem. During a lona 
 period, from the death of Christ to that me^norabb 
 rebellion, we cannot discover any traces of Roman 
 intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden 
 the transient, but the cruel persecution, which was' 
 exercised by Nero against the christians of the capi'- 
 tal, thirty-five years after the former, and only two 
 years before the latter, of those great events The 
 character of the philosophic historian, to whom we 
 are principally indebted for the knowledo-e of this sin- 
 gular transaction, would alone be sufficient to recom- 
 mend it to our most attentive consideration. 
 
 In the tenth year of the reign of Ne- rul «„ r p 
 ro the capital of the empire was afflict- under ihel|"nTf 
 ed by a fire which raged beyond the '^'^'°- 
 memory or example of former ages.'' The monuments 
 ot Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the trophies of the 
 Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the 
 most splendid palaces, were involved in one common 
 destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quarters into 
 
 ofler a proof how strangely the Jews and christians of Rome were 
 conlonnded with each other. "umc were 
 
 .i,t ^a"" '■"/'"?, P'g''lfcnth and Jwenty-fifYI, chapters of the Acts of 
 tJie Apostles the hehaviour of Gallio, proconsul of Arhaia, and of 
 Festus, procnrator of Judea. .nu, auu ui 
 
 b [This assertion appears to me too positive, inasmuch as Gibhon 
 ••rings no proof to estahlish it, althongh the opposite opinion has 
 strong proof in Its favour. The travels of Saint I'aul, in Pamphylia, 
 in Pisidia, in Macedonia, and to Rome, his death, the journoyings of 
 bt. 1 cter, &c. finve heen examined with great care by Dr. Benson, in 
 his work, entitled, A History of the first ph.nting of Cliristianity, 
 part II See also Lardiier's Credibility of the Gospel history, part i. 
 chap. 8.— G.J 
 
 c In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria, the glory ) 
 01 martyrdom was confined to St. Petur, St. P.nnl, .-.nd St. J;4mcs. It / 
 was gradually bestowed on the rest of the apostles, by the more recent 
 Greeks, who prudently selected for the theatre of their preaching 
 and sufferings, some remote country hevond the limits of the Roman 
 empire. See Mosheim, p. 81. and Till'emoiit, Memoires Ecclesias- 
 tiques, torn. i. part. iii. 
 
 d Tacit. Annal. xv. 38—44. Sueton. in Neron. c. 38. Dion Cas- 
 siUB, I. I.xii. p. 1014. Orosius, vii.7. 
 
 / 
 
186 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 187 
 
 which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire, 
 three were levelled with the ground, and the rcmam- 
 inff seven, which had experienced the fury ot the 
 flames, displayed a melancholy prospect of nun and 
 desolation. The vigilance of government appears not 
 
 imhittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed 
 on crosses ; others sown up in the skins of wild beasts, 
 and exposed to the fury of dogs ; others again, sniear- 
 ed over with combustible mateiials, were used as 
 torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. Ihe 
 
 desoiauon. mc M^umtK.^ ^>^ ^ „,.... ,»-r, . , ♦ i^.,o «f Mprn wPTP destined for the melancholy 
 
 to have neglected any of the I'--;'"»-.-^!rh -J^^ S-J-yf Nf™ rfaccompanied with a horse-rac/, 
 alleviate the sense of so .Ireadlul «. calamity. J^he ^P^^f^'^''^;^;^;;] ^^.j,,, j,„ ^senee of the emperor who 
 
 alieViaitJ mc otjuou yji. o<-f v..x,> , 1- J 
 
 i rmperial gardens were thrown open to the distressed 
 I multitude, temporary buildings were erected tor their 
 accommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and 
 provisions was distrib.ited at a very moderate price. 
 The most generous policy seemed to have dictated the 
 edicts which regulated the disposition ot tlie streets 
 and the construction of private houses; and as it 
 usually happens, in an age of prosperity, the contta- 
 gration of Rome, in the course of a few years, pro- 
 duced a new city, more regular and more beautilul 
 than the former. But all the prudence and humanity 
 affected by Nero on tliis occasion were insufiicient 
 to preserve him from the popular suspicion. Every 
 crime miMit be imputcnl to the assassin of his wite 
 
 crime might be imp«t.-.l to the assassin ot ms « iie s.une »i.u., « ....... ■• --^ . ^ ^^^ 
 
 and mothir S.-r could the prii^e - o prosUtutoa .. ^^^J^^f^;^ !i::ivi:rtheir claim of Jver- 
 person and dignity on the theatre, be deemed incapd 
 ble of the most extravagant folly. The voice ot 
 
 rumour accused the emperor as the incendiary of his 
 own capital ; and as the most incredible stories are 
 the best adapted to the genius of an enra-jed people, 
 it was gravely reported, and firmly ix-heved, that 
 Nero, enioving the calamity which he had occasioned, 
 
 II- ir" ..-a, ,.;„,,;. w^ +<^ hits lirro thp flpstruc- 
 
 mincrlcd with the populace in the dress and attitude ot 
 a charioteer. The guilt of the christians deserved 
 indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public 
 abhorrence was changed into commiseration, trom the 
 opinion that those uniiappy wretches were sacrificed, 
 not so much to the public welfare, as to the cruelty of 
 a jealous tyrant."J Those who survey with a curious 
 eve the revolutions of mankind, may observe, that the 
 gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, ^J'lllch 
 were polluted with the blood of the first christians, 
 have been rendered still more famous, by the triumph 
 and by the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the 
 same spot,'' a temple, which far surpasses the ancient 
 .rlories of the capitol, has since been erected by the 
 christian pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of umver- 
 sal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, 
 have succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given 
 laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome, and extend- 
 ed their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast ot the 
 Baltic to the shores of the Pacific ocean. 
 
 But it would be improper to dismiss this account 
 
 Nero, enjoying the calamity which r.o nau occasiontu, y"' ""^""-■" \i„' ^.^ h^vc made some obser- 
 amused luinself with, singing to his lyre the destrnc- o N o , P cent on " ' we ha ^^^ ^.^^^^^.^^ ^.^^ 
 
 tion of ancient Troy.' To divert a suspicion, winch 
 the power of despotism was unable to suppress, the 
 emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some 
 fictitious criminals. " With this view ( continues 
 Tacitus) he inflicted the most exquisite tortures on 
 those men, who, under the vulgar appel- 
 ^;';f'e'"r't=: lation of christians, were already brand- 
 as the incendia- gd with deserved infamy. Ihey derived 
 rie«of the city. ^^^-^^ ^^.^^^^ ^^^^l origin from Christ, who 
 
 in the reio-n of Tiberius had suffered death, by the 
 sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate.? For a 
 while this dire superstition was checked ; but it again 
 burst forth;'' and not only spread itself over Judea, 
 the first scat of this mischievous sect, but was even 
 introduced into Rome, the common asylum which 
 receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is 
 atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized, 
 discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and 
 they w^ere all convicted, not "So much for the crime ot 
 setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human 
 kind.' They died in torments, and their torments wore 
 
 e The price of wheat (prolahly of the modius) was reduced i.s low 
 as terni nummi; which wouhl he equivalent toahout htlccn shi.lings 
 
 "7 We may^ohserve.lhat ttic rumour is niontioned ly Tarifus with 
 a very becoming distrust and hesitation, whilst .1 .s greedily trans 
 cribed by Suetonius, an.l solemnly rontirmed hy Dion. 
 
 r This testimony is alone sutli.ient to expose the anarhronismof 
 the Jews, who place the birth of Christ near a century sooner. (B;.s 
 nage Histoire des Juifs, I. v. c. 14. 15.) We may learn from Jose- 
 
 ItL, (Antiquitat. .xviii. '-M t»'»^lil«r^.^'^''''*rn'll~"'.? A -To th'e 
 ^nded with the last ton years of Tiherms, A. r>. 2'-.?7. As to the 
 particular tiu,e of the death of Christ, a very early trad. . on fixed it 
 to the 2:>ih of March, A. D. '29. under the consulship ot the twoGe^ 
 mini. (Tertullian adv. Juda^os.c. 8.) This date, whicli is adopted 
 by Pagi, cardinal Norris, and Le Clerc. seems at least as probable as 
 the vulgar a^ra, which is placed (I know not from what conjectures) 
 
 four years later. .■.■,• ,-,■ 
 
 b [This phrase alone : Repres/ia in prsesens exUiabths superstitto 
 rursus enivipebat. proves that the christians hitd already attracted 
 the attention of government, and that Nero was not the first who 
 nersecuted them. I am surprised that the confirmation w\uch the 
 Acta of the Apostles receive from these words ot Tacitus, Rcpre.^a 
 hi prasens, and rursus cm mpebal, has not been more insisted on.-«.] 
 Todio humani freneri. convicli. These words may either signify 
 the hatred of mankind towards the christians or the hatred of the 
 Christ ans towards mankind. I have preferred the lauer sense, as 
 fhe most agreeable to the style of Tacitus, an.l to the pop,, ar error, 
 of which a precept of the gospel (see Luke x.v. i'6.)Had been, per^ 
 ha^s the innocent occasion. My interpre^^ation is J'f ' J^d by he 
 au horUv of Lipsius; of the Italian, the French and the English 
 Sati of Trims'; of Mosheim (p.lU2.)ot !'« t>^ crc, (H.sto a 
 Ecclcsiast. p. 427.) of Dr. Lardner, (Teatimonies, vol. i. p. ^. .) and 
 of the bishop of Gloucester. (Divine Legation, vol in. p. 38.) Mut 
 as the word convict i does not unite very Imppily with the restol the 
 sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of conjunctt, 
 which is authorized by tlic valuable MS. of Florence. 
 
 vations, that may serve to remove the difficulties with 
 which it is perplexed, and to throw some light on the 
 subsequent history of the church. 
 
 1. 'I'he most sceptical criticism is ob- Remarks on the 
 liged to respect the trut!, of this extraor- PJ|»f» °.o.T"t 
 dinary fact, and the integrity ot tnis persecution of tho 
 celebrated passage of Tacitus. The christians by Ne- 
 former is confirmed by the diligent and 'o- 
 accurate Suetonius, who mentions the punishmeit 
 which Nero inflicted on the christians, a sect of men 
 who had embraced a new and criminal superstition. 
 The latter may be proved by the consent of the most 
 ancient manuscripts; by the inimitable character of the 
 style of Tacitus ; by his reputation, which guarded his 
 text from the interpolations of pious fraud ; and by the 
 purport of his narration, which accused the first christ- 
 ians of the most atrocious crimes, without insinuating 
 that they possessed any miraculous or even magical 
 powers above the rest of mankind." 2. Notwithstand- 
 ing it is probable that Tacitus was born some years 
 before the fire of Rome," he could derive only from 
 reading and conversation the knowledge of an event 
 whicliliappened during his infancy. Before he gave 
 himself to the public, he calmly waited till his genius 
 had attained its full maturity, and he was more than 
 forty years of age, when a grateful regard for the 
 memory of the virtuous Agricola, extorted from him 
 the most early of those historical compositions which 
 will deli<Tht and instruct the most distant posterity. 
 After making a trial of his strength in the life of Agri- 
 cola and the description of Germany, he conceived, 
 
 i Tacit. Annal. XV. 44. a .• ..- i 
 
 k Niirdini Roma Antica, p. 487. Donatus de Roma Antiqua.i. 
 
 '"i Sutton, in Neronc. c. 16. The epithet of malefica, which Fome 
 sagacious commentators have translated mafrical, is considered oy 
 the more rational Mosheim as only synonymous to the ezttiabtUs oi 
 
 li^^'I'lie passage roncernin? Jesus Christ, which was inserted into 
 the text of Jo«!rphus, between the time of Origcn and that of base 
 bius. may furnish an example of no vulgar forgery. The acconv 
 plishment of the prophecies, tlie virtues, miracles, and resurrection 
 of Jesus, are distincUy related. Josophus acknowledges that he ^^ns 
 the Mc.«.<iah, and hesitates wliether he should call him a man. n 
 any doubt can still remain concerning this celebrated passage, tnc 
 reader may examine the pointed objections of Le Fevre. (Haver 
 camp. Joseph, torn. ii. p. 207-273.) the laboured answers of Da i.bn^. 
 (,. 187-2:i2.) and the masterly reply (Bibliothcque Anciennc et jMo 
 de'rne,tom. vii. p. 2:17-288.) of an anonymous critic, whom I behevt 
 to have Iwen the learned AblMide Longucrue ^. _ . , „,„».,;- 
 n Pee the lives of Tacitus by l.ipsius and the Abb6 de la « « <=r7' 
 Dictionnaire de Bayle a Particle Tacit«, and Fabricms, BiblioUi 
 Latin, torn. ii. p. 38G. Edit. Ernest. 
 
 and at length executed, a more arduous work; the 
 history of Rome, in thirty books, from the fall of Nero 
 to the accession of Nerva. The administration of 
 Nerva introduced an age of justice and prosperity, 
 which Tacitus had destined for the occupation of his 
 old age ;° but when he took a nearer view of his subject. 
 judging, perhaps, that it was a more honourable or a 
 less invidious office, to record the vices of past tyrants, 
 than to celebrate the virtues of a reigning monarch, he 
 chose rather to relate, under the form of annals, the 
 actions of the four immediate successors of Augustus. 
 To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore 
 years, in an immortal work, every sentence of which 
 is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most 
 lively images, was an undertaking sufficient to exercise 
 the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest part 
 of his life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan, 
 whilst the victorious monarch extended Ihe power of 
 Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was 
 describing, in the second and fourth books of his 
 annals, the tyranny of Tiberius ;p and the emperor 
 Hadrian must have succeeded to the throne, before 
 Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of his work, could 
 relate the fire of the capital and the cruelty of Nero 
 towards the unfortunate christians. At the distance 
 of sixty years, it was the duty of the annalist to adopt 
 the narratives of contemporaries ; but it was natural 
 for the philosopher to indulge himself in the description 
 of the origin, the progress, and the character of the new 
 sect, not so much according to the knowledo-e or 
 prejiidices of the age of Nero, as according to those of 
 the time of Hadrian. 3. Tacitus very frequently trusts 
 to the curiosity or reflection of his readers to supply 
 those intermediate circumstances and ideas, which in 
 his extreme conciseness, he has thought proper to sup- 
 press. We may therefore presume to imagine some 
 probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero 
 against the christians of Rome, whose obscurity, as 
 well as innocence, should have shielded them from his 
 indignation, and even from his notice.*! The Jews, 
 who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed in 
 their own country, were a much fitter object for the 
 suspicions of the emperor and of the people : nor did 
 it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who already 
 discovered their abhorrence of the Roman joke, might 
 have recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifynig 
 their implacable revenge. But the Jews possessed 
 very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in the 
 heart of the tyrant; his wife and mistress, the beauti- 
 ful Poppaea, and a favourite player of the race of 
 Abraham, who had already employed their intercession 
 in behalf of the obnoxious people.*" In their room it 
 was necessary to oflfer some other victims, and it might 
 easily be suggested that, although the genuine fol- 
 lowers of Moses were innocent of the fire of Rome, 
 there had arisen among them a new and pernicious sect 
 of Galiljeans, which was capable of the most horrid 
 crinies. Under the appellation of Galiljeans, two 
 distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite 
 to each other in their manners and principles ; the 
 disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus of Na- 
 zareth,* and the zealots who had followed the standard 
 of Judas the Gaulonite.* The former were the friends, 
 
 Principatum Divi Nerva;, el iinperium Trajani, uberiorcm secu- 
 rioremque materiam senectuti seposui. Tacit. Hist. i. 
 
 p See Tacit. Annal. ii. 61. iv. 4. 
 
 q [The reading of the passage from Tacitus alone suffices, as I 
 have before said, to show that the sect of christ ans were not so ob- 
 icure, that they had been already put down, (rkpressa,) and that 
 they did not pass for innocent in tJie eyes of the Romans. — Q.] 
 
 r The player's name was Aliturus. Through the feamc channel, 
 Josephus (de Vita sua, c. 3.) about two years before, had obtained 
 the pardon and release of some Jewisli priests who were prisoners at 
 Rome. 
 
 1 The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. 
 ii. p. 102. 103.) has proved that tlie name of Galilxans was a very 
 
 ancient, and perhaps the primitive, appellation of the christians. 
 
 Lntiquitat. xviii. 1,2. Tillemont, Ruine des Juifs, p. 742. 
 
 t Joseph. A. ., ,. , „ 
 
 Thesonsof Judas were crucified in the time of Claudius. His grand- 
 son Eieazer, after Jerua.ilcm was taken, defended a strong fortress 
 iviih 960 of his most desperate followers. When the battering-ram 
 .'iad made a breach, they turned their swords against their wives, 
 
 the latter were the enemies, of human kind ; and the 
 only resemblance between them consisted in the same 
 inflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their 
 cause, rendered them insensible of death and tortures. 
 The followers of Judas, who impelled their country- 
 men into rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins 
 of Jerusalem ; whilst those of Jesus, known by the 
 more celebrated name of christians, diff'used themselves 
 over the Roman empire. How natural was it for 
 Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the 
 christians the guilt and the sufl'erings, which he might, 
 with far greater truth and justice, have attributed to a 
 sect whose odious memory was almost extinguished !" 
 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of *this con- 
 jecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evi- 
 dent that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's per- 
 secution' were confined to the walls of Rome ;'^ that the 
 religious tenets of the Galileans, or christian.s, were 
 never made a subject of punishment, or even of in- 
 quiry; and that, as the idea of their sufferings was, for 
 a long time, connected with the idea of crueTty and in- 
 justice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined 
 them to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage 
 had been usually directed against virtue and innocence. 
 It is somewhat remarkable, that the oppression of the 
 names ol war consumed almost at the Jews and christi- 
 same time the temple of Jerusalem and ^""^ ^^ Domitian. 
 the capitol of Rome ;^ and it appears no less singular, 
 that the tribute which d<wotion had destined to the 
 former, should have been converted by the power of an 
 assaulting victor to restore and adorn the splendour of 
 the latter.y The emperors levied a general capitation 
 tax on the Jewish people; and although the sum as- 
 sessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, 
 the use for which it was designed, and the severity with 
 which it was exacted, were considered as an intolerable 
 grievance.^ Since the officers of the revenue extended 
 their unjust claim to many persons who were strangers 
 to the blood or religion of tlie Jews, it was impossible 
 that the christians, who had so often sheltered them- 
 selves under the siiade of the synagogue, should now 
 escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they 
 were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their 
 conscience forbade them to contribute to the honour 
 of that daemon who had assumed the character of the 
 capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though de- 
 
 tlieir children, :nid at length ag:iinst their own breasts. They died to 
 the last man. 
 
 u ['I'his assertion is entirely des:itute of the appearance, and even 
 of the possibility of truth. TaciUis could not have been deceived so 
 far as to attribute to tiie chrisliniis at Rome the fry ill and the suffer- 
 inirs which he vilirht icith vinch more truth have attributed to the 
 partisans of Judjis, of Gaiilcf, for ttie.-c never came so far as to 
 Rome. Judea alone was the tiipatreoC their revolt, their etforts, 
 their opinions, their wars, and tluir ciiaslisement. (Basnage, T'ist.' 
 of the Jews, vol. i. p. 4<)l.) Hcsides the name christians !:..<i been 
 "iven a long time before at Konir, lo tl;e disciple.-, of Jesus. And 
 Tacitus afiinns it too positively, and trives the etymology of the word 
 too clearly to leave room for suspicion that there was any mistake 
 on his part. — G.] 
 
 V [This assertion is far from being evident. Su]i)icius Feverus 
 speaks of the edict published by Xero against the cliristians, poste> 
 rior to the burning of Rome. Post efiani, datis legibus religio veta- 
 batur palamque edictis pro|)Ositis christianiim esse iion licebat (book 
 ii.chap. 37.) We have no auihorify which proves that the persecu- 
 tions did not extend beyond the limits of Rome, and there is nothing 
 to weaken the authority of Urosus. who says expressly, that Neio 
 caused the christians to be persrcuted in the provinces. Nerochris- 
 tianos suppliciis ac ntortii)us ailerif, ac per omncs provincias pari 
 persecutione excruriari impcravit. (lib. viii. Hist. c. 5.) — G.] 
 
 w See Dodwell. I'ancitat. Mart. I. xiii. The Spanish Inscription 
 in Gruter, p. 2:^8, So. 9. is a manifest and acknowledged forgery, 
 contrived by that noted impostor, Cyriacus of Ancona to fiatter the 
 pride and prejudices of the Spaniards. See Ferreras, Histoire 
 d'Espagne, torn. i. p. 102. 
 
 X The capitol wns burnt during the civil war between Vitellius 
 and Vespasian, the 19th of Derenibcr. A. D. C9. On the 10th of .Au- 
 gust, A. D. 7t(, the temple of Jcrnsjilem whs destroyed by the hands 
 of the Jews themselves, rather iIkmi by tho.sc of the Romans. 
 
 y The new capitol was dedicated by Domitian. Puetoii. in Domi- 
 tian. c. 5. Plutarch in Poplicola. toiii. i p. 2:U). Edit. Bryan. The 
 gilding alone cost 12.000 talents (above two millions and a half.) It 
 was the opinion of Martial, (1. ix. Epigram :<) that if the emperor had 
 called in his debts, Jupiter himself, even though be had made a gene- 
 ral auction of Olympus, would have been unable tu pay two shillings 
 in the pound. 
 
 r. With regfird to the tribute, see Dion Cassius, i. Ixvi. p. 1082. 
 with Reimarus's notes. Spanheim, de ITsu Nnniismatuin. torn. ii. p. 
 .',7 I, and Ba.«nage, Histoire dee Juifs. I. vii. c. 2. 
 
 ^ 
 
/ 
 
 188 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVJ. 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 dining party anions the christians still adliered to the 
 law of Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish 
 i origin were detected by the decisive test of circum- 
 cision;* nor were the Roman magistrates at leisure to 
 inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. 
 Among the christians, who were brought before the 
 tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more probable, 
 before that of the procurator of Judaea, two persons are 
 said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction, 
 which was more truly noble than that of the greatest 
 -> monarchs. These were the grandsons of St. Jude the 
 ^ apostle, who himself was the brother of Jesus Christ.'* 
 Their natural pretensions to the throne of David might 
 perhaps attract tl»e respect of the people, and excite the 
 jealousy of the governor; but the meanness of their 
 garb, and the simplicity of their answers, soon con- 
 vinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable 
 of disturbing the peace of the Roman empire. They 
 frankly confessed their royal origin, and their near 
 relation to the Messiah ; but they disclaimed any 
 temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which 
 they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and 
 angelic nature. When they were examined concerning 
 their fortune and occupation, they showed their hands 
 hardened with daily labour, and declared that they de- 
 rived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a 
 farm near the village ofCocaba, of the extent of about 
 twenty-four English acres,'= and of the value of nine 
 thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. 
 The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with com- 
 passion and contompt.** 
 Execution of ^^"^ although the obscurity of the 
 Clemena the house of David might protect them from 
 "•"*"'• the suspicions of a tyrant, the present 
 
 greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous 
 temper of Domitian, which could only be appeased by 
 the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or 
 hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle 
 Flavius Sabinus," the elder was soon convicted of 
 treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the 
 name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety 
 to his want of courage and ability. ^ The emperor, for 
 a long time, distinguished so harmless a kinsman by 
 his favour and protection, bestowed on him his own 
 niece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage 
 to the hope of the succession, and invested their father 
 with the honours of the consulship. Rut he had 
 scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, 
 when on a sliglit pretence he was condemned and exe- 
 cuted ; Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on 
 the coast of Campania ; « and sentence either of death 
 or of confiscation was pronounced against a great 
 r.umber of persons who were involved in the same ac- 
 cusatL'^n. The guilt imputed to their charge was that 
 
 X Suetonius (in Domitian. r. Yl.^ lind seen an o!d nri;>n of ninety 
 publicly examined itefore tlie procurator'd tribunal. This is what 
 Martial calls, Mcntula tributis dnnuintn. 
 
 b This appellation was at first understood in the most obvious 
 sense, and it was supposed, that the brothers of Jesus were the law- 
 ful issueof Joseph and of Mary. A devout respect for the vlrfjinity 
 of the motlierof God, suggested to the Gnostirs, and afterwards to 
 the orlhodox Greeks, the expedient of bestowing a second wife on 
 Joseph. The Latins (from the time of Jerome) improved on that 
 hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph, and justified by 
 many similar examples the new interpretation that Jude, as well as 
 Simon anu James, who are styled the brothers of Jesus Christ, were 
 only his first cousins. See Tillcmont, Mem. Ecclesiast, tom. i. part 
 ii. and Beausobre, Hist. (Critique du IVIanicheisme, I. ii. r. 3. 
 
 e Thirty-nine 7rx.i5p», squares of an hundred feet each, which, if 
 strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres. But the 
 probability of circumstances, the practice of other Greek writers, and 
 Ihe authority of M. de Valoia, incline me to believe that the wX'Spoi/ 
 is used to express the Roman jugerum. 
 
 d Eusebius, iii. 20. Theetory is taken from flegesippns. 
 
 e See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus. (Mist. iii. 7-i. 
 75.) Sabinus was t)ie elder brother, and, till the accession of Vespa- 
 sian, had been considered as the principal support of the Flavian 
 family. 
 
 f Flavium Clementum patruelem suum contemtissimm inertia 
 
 ex tenuissima suspicione interemit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 1.3. 
 
 g The isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius Praisens 
 (apud Euseb. iii. 18.) banishes her to that of Pontia, which was not 
 far distant from the other. That difference, and a mistake, either 
 of Eusebius, or of his transcribers, have given occasion to suppose 
 two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of Clemens. Sec Tillemont, 
 Memoires Ecclcsiastiques, tom. ii. p. ^4. 
 
 of atheism and Jeicish manners ; *• a singular association 
 of ideas, which cannot with any propriety be applied 
 except to the christians, as they were obscurely and 
 imperfectly viewed by the magistrates and by the 
 writers of that period. On the strength of so proba- 
 ble an inter]>retation, and too eagerly admitting the 
 suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of their honour- 
 able crime, the church has placed both Clemens and 
 Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded the 
 cruelty of Domitian with the name of the second per- 
 secution. But this persiecution (if it deserves that 
 epithet) was of no long duration. A few months after 
 the death of Clemens, and the banishment of Domitilla, 
 Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter, who had en- 
 joyed the favour, but who had not surely embraced the 
 faith, of his mistress, assassinated the emperor in his 
 palace.' The memory of Domitian was condemned by 
 the senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles re- 
 called ; and under the gentle administration of Nerva, 
 while the innocent were restored to their rank and for 
 tunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon oi 
 escaped punishment.^ 
 
 II. About ten years afterwards, under ignorance of Pli 
 the reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny ny concerning th« 
 was intrusted by his friend and master '•••"snans. 
 with the government of Bithynia and Pontus. He 
 soon found himself at a loss to determine by what 
 rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct 
 I in the execution of an oflice the most repugnant to his 
 humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any judicial 
 proceedings against the christians, with whose name 
 alone he seems to be acquainted ; and he was totally 
 uninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, 
 the method of their conviction, and the degree of their 
 punishment. In this perplexity he had recourse to his 
 usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of Tra- 
 jan an impartial, and in some respects, a favourable 
 account of the new superstition, requesting the em- 
 peror, that he would condescend to resolve his doubts, 
 and to instruct his ignorance.* The life of Pliny had 
 been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the 
 business of the world. Since the age of nineteen he 
 had pleaded with distinction in the tribunals of Rome," 
 filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the 
 honours of the consulship, and had formed very nume- 
 rous connections with every order of men, both in Italy 
 and in the provinces. From his ignorance therefore we 
 may derive some useful information. We may assure 
 ourselves that when he accepted the government of 
 Bithynia, there were no general laws or decrees of the 
 senate in force against the christians ; that neither 
 Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose 
 edicts were received into the civil and criminal juris- 
 prudence, had publicly declared their intentions con- 
 cerning the new sect ; and that whatever proceed- 
 ings had been carried on against the christians, there 
 were none of sufficient weight and authority to esta- 
 blish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magis- 
 trate. 
 
 The answer of Trajan, to which the Trajan and liis 
 christians of the succeeding age have fuf-'^essors estab- 
 
 ^ , 111- on iish a legal mode 
 
 frequently appealed, discovers as much of proceeding a- 
 regard for justice and humanity as could gainst them, 
 be reconciled with his mistaken notions of religious 
 policy." Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of 
 
 h Dion. 1. Ixvii. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Pnesens, from whom it is 
 probable that he collected this account, was the correspondent of 
 Pliny. (Epistol. vii. 3.) we may consider him as a contemporary 
 writer. 
 
 i Suet, in Doniit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit. Apollon. 1. viii. 
 
 k Dion, 1. Ixvii. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. iv. 22. 
 
 1 Plin. Epistol. x. 97. The learned Mosheim expresses himself (p. 
 146, 232.) with the highest approbation of Pliny's moderate and can- 
 did temper. Notwithstanding Dr. Lardner's suspicions, (see Jewish 
 and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii. p. 46.) I urn unable to discover any 
 bigotry in his language or proceedings. 
 
 m Plin. Epist. V. 8. He pleaded his first cause A. D. 81 : the year 
 after the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in which his uncle 
 lost his life. 
 
 n Plin. Epist. X. 98. Tertullian (Apolog. c. 5.) considers this re- 
 script us a relaxation of the ancient penal laws, " quas Trajanus ex 
 
 an inquisitor, anxious to discover the most minute par- 
 ticles of heresy, and exulting in the number of his vic- 
 tims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to 
 protect the security of the innocent, than to prevent 
 the escape of the guilty. He acknowledges the diffi- 
 culty of fixing any general plan ; but he lays down 
 two salutary rules, which often aflforded relief and sup- 
 port to the distressed christians. Though he directs 
 the niagistrates to punish such persons as are legally 
 convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane in- 
 consistency, from making any inquiries concerning the 
 supposed criminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed 
 to proceed on every kind of informatioii. Anonymous 
 charges the emperor rejects, as too repugnant to the 
 equity of his government; and he strictly^requires, for 
 the conviction of those to whom the guilt of Chris- 
 tianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and 
 open accuser. It is likewise probable, that the persons 
 who assumed so invidious an office, were obliged to 
 declare the grounds of their suspicions, to specify'(both 
 in respect to time and place) the secret assemblies, 
 which their christian adversary had frequented, and to 
 disclose a great number of circumstances, which were 
 concealed with the mostvigilant jealousy from the eye 
 of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecu- 
 tion, they were exposed to the resentment of a consi- 
 derable and active party, to the censure of the more 
 liberal portion of mankind, and to the ignominy which, 
 in every age and country, has attended the character of 
 an informer. If, on the contrary, they failed in their 
 proofs, they incurred the severe and perhaps capital 
 penalty, which, according to a law published by the 
 emperor Hadrian, was inflicted on those w^ho falsely 
 attributed to their fellow-citizens the crime of Chris- 
 tianity. The violence of personal or superstitious 
 animosity might sometimes prevail over the most na- 
 tural apprehensions of disgrace and danger; but it 
 cannot surely be imagined, that accusations of so un- 
 promising an appearance were either lightly or fre- 
 quently undertaken by the pagan subjects of the Ro- 
 man empire." 
 
 Popular clamoufP. ^.^^ expedient which wa*s employed 
 to elude the prudence of the laws, aflfords 
 a sufficient proof how eflfectually they disappointed the 
 mischievous designs of private malice or superstitious 
 zeal. In a large and tumultuous assembly the restraints 
 of fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of indivi- 
 duals are deprived of the greatest part of their influ- 
 ence. The pious christian, as he was desirous to ob- 
 tain, or to escape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, 
 either with impatience or with terror, the stated returns 
 of the public games and festivals. On those occasions, 
 the inhabitants of the great cities of the empire were 
 collected in the circus or the theatre, where every cir- 
 cumstance of the place, as well as of the ceremony, 
 contributed to kindle their devotion, and to extinguish 
 their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, 
 crowned with garlands, perfumed with incense, puri- 
 fied with the blood of victims, and surrounded with 
 the altars and statues of their tutelar deities, resigned 
 themselves to the enjoyment of pleasures, which they 
 considered as an essential part of their religious wor- 
 ship ; they recollected, that the christians alone ab- 
 horred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and 
 melancholy on these solemn festivals, seemed to insult 
 or to lament the public felicity. If the empire had 
 been afllicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a 
 famine, or an unsuccessful war ; if the Tyber had, or 
 the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks ; if the earth 
 
 189 
 
 parte frustratusest;" and yet Tertullian. in another part of his Apo- 
 lo-rists. exposes the inconsistency of prohibiting inquiries, and en- 
 joining punishments. 
 
 o Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiast. I. iv. c. 9.) has preserved the edict of 
 Hadrian. He has likewise (c. 13. ) given us one still more favourable 
 under the name of Antoninus; the authenticity of which is not so 
 universally allowed. The second Apology of Justin contains some 
 curious particulars relative to the accusation of christians. 
 
 [Professor Hegelmayer has proved the authenticity of the edict of 
 Antoninus in his comm. hist, theol. in edictum imp. Antonini. (P 
 Tubing. 1777, in quarto.)— O.J 
 
 had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons 
 had been interrupted, the superstitious pagans were 
 convinced, that the crimes and the impiety of the chris- 
 tians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the 
 government, had at length provoked the Divine justice. 
 It was not among a licentious and exasperated popu- 
 lace, that the forms of legal proceedings could be ob- 
 served ; it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with the 
 blocd of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of 
 compassion could be heard. The impatient clamours 
 of the multitude denounced the christians as the ene- 
 mies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest 
 tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the 
 most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with 
 irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly 
 apprehended and cast to the lions.? The ])rovincial 
 governors and magistrates who presided in the public 
 spectacles were usually inclined to gratify the inclina- 
 tion.s, and to appease the rage, of the people, by the 
 sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom 
 of the emperors protected the church from the danger 
 of these tumultuous clamours and irregular accusa- 
 tions, which they justly censured as repugnant both to 
 the firmness and to the equity of their administration. 
 The edicts of Hadrian and of Antoninus Pius expressly 
 declared, that the voice of the multitude should never 
 be admitted as legal evidence to convict or to punish 
 those unfortunate persons who had embraced the en- 
 thusiasm of Christians.*! 
 
 III. Punishment was not the inevita- Trials of the 
 ble consequence of conviction, and the diristians. 
 christians, whose guilt was the most clearly proved 
 by the testimony of witnesses, or even by their volun- 
 tary confession, still retained in their own power the 
 alternative of life or death. It was not so much the 
 past offence, as the actual resistance, which excited 
 the indignation of the magistrate. He was persuaded 
 that he oflTered them an easy pardon, since if they con- 
 sented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar, 
 they were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and 
 with applause. It was esteemed the duty of a hu- 
 mane judge to endeavour to reclaim, rather than to 
 punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying his tone 
 according to the age, the sex, or the situatfon of the 
 prisoners, he frequently condescended to set before 
 their eyes every circumstance which could render life 
 more pleasing, or death more terrible ; and to solicit, 
 nay to entreat, them, that they would show some com- 
 passion to themselves, to their families, and to their 
 friends."" If threats and persuasions proved ineffectual, 
 he had often recourse to violence ; the scourge and the 
 rack were called in to supply the deficiency of argu- 
 ment, and every art of cruelty was emploved to sub- 
 due such inflexible, and, as it appeared lo the pagans, 
 such criminal, obstinacy. The ancient apologists of 
 Christianity have censured with equal truth and se- 
 verity, the irregular conduct of their persecutors, who, 
 contrary to every principle of judicial proceeding, ad- 
 mitted the use of torture, in order to obtain, not a con- 
 fession, but a denial, of the crime which Mas the ob- 
 ject of their inquiry.' The monks of the succeeding 
 ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes, entertained 
 themselves \vith diversifying the deaths and sufferings 
 of the primitive martyrs, have frequently invented tor- 
 ments of a much more refined and ingenious nature. 
 In particular, it has pleased them to suppose that the 
 zeal of the Roman magistrates, disdaining every con- 
 sideration of moral virtue or public decency, eudeav- 
 
 P See Tertullian. (Apolog. c. 40.) The acts of the martyrdom of 
 Polycarp exhibit a lively picture of the.se tumults, which weie 
 usually fomented by the palace of the Jews. 
 
 q These regulations are inserted in the above-rnontioned edicts of 
 Hadrian and Pius. See the apology of Melito (apud Euseb. I. iv. c 
 26.) 
 
 r See the rescript of Trajan, and the conduct of Pliny The most 
 authentic acts of the martyrs abound in these exhortations. 
 
 ■ In particular, see TertulJiaii (Apolop-. c. 2, 3.) and Laclantina 
 (Institut. Divin. v. 9.) Their reasonings arc almost the same ; hut 
 we may discover, that one of these apologists had been a lawyer 
 and the other a rhetorician. ' 
 
 -_ r 
 
190 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 oured to seduce those whom they were unable to van- 
 quish, and that by their orders the most brutal vio- 
 lence was offered to those whom they found it impos- 
 sible to seduce. It is related, that pious females, who 
 were prepared to despise death, were sometimes con- 
 demned to a more severe trial, and called upon to de- 
 termine whether they set a higher value on their reli- 
 gion or on their chastity. The youths to whose 
 licentious embraces they were abandoned, received 
 a solemn exhortation from the judge, to exert their 
 most strenuous efforts to maintain the honour of Venus 
 against the impious virgin who refused to burn in- 
 cense on her altars. Their violence, however, was 
 commonly disappointed, and the seasonable interposi- 
 tion of some miraculous power preserved the chaste 
 spouses of Christ from the dishonour even of an in- 
 voluntary defeat. We should not indeed neglect to 
 remark, that the more ancient as well as authentic 
 memorials of the church,* are seldom polluted with 
 these extravagant and indecent fictions." 
 XI •. f.»» The total disregard of truth and pro- 
 
 Humanityof the , . ,,, . , » , . /• ^iT 
 
 Roman inagia- bability m the representation ot these 
 trates. primitive martyrdoms was occasioned 
 
 by a very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical writers 
 of the fourth and fifth centuries ascribed to the magis- 
 trates of Rome the same degree of implacable and un- 
 relenting zeal which filled their own breasts against 
 the heretics or the idolaters of their own times. It is 
 not improbable that some of those persons who were 
 raised to the dignities of the empire, might have im- 
 bibed the prejudices of the populace, and that the 
 cruel disposition of others might occasionally be stim- 
 ulated by motives of avarice or of personal resent- 
 ment.^ But it is certain, and we may appeal to the 
 grateful confessions of the first christians, that the 
 greatest part of those magistrates who exercised in the 
 provinces the authority of the emperor, or of the sen- 
 ate, and to whose hands alone the jurisdiction of life 
 and death was intrusted, behaved like men of polished 
 manners and liberal education, who respected the rules 
 of justice, and who were conversant with the precepts 
 of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious 
 task of persecution, dismissed the charge with con- 
 tempt, or suggested to the accused christian some 
 legal evasion, by which he might elude the severity of 
 the laws.* Whenever they were invested with a dis- 
 cretionary power,y they used it much less for the op- 
 pression, than for the relief and benefit, of the afflicted 
 church. They were fvir from condemning all the 
 christians who were accused before their tribunal, 
 and very far from punishing with death, all those who 
 - were convicted of an obstinate adherence to the new 
 superstition. Contenting themselves, for the most 
 part, with t'ne milder chastisements of imprisonment, 
 exile, or slavery in i.h-^ mines,' they left the unhappy 
 victims of their justice some reason to hope, that a 
 prosperous event, the accession, the marriage, or the 
 
 t [The most ancient and most authentic memorials of the church, 
 do relate many examples of this fact which are no where contra- 
 dicted. Amon<» others Terlullian says, Nam proximo ad ienonem 
 damnando christianam, potius quam ad leoncm, confess! estis lahem 
 pudicitiae apud nos atrociorem onuii pctna el omni morte reputari. 
 (Apol. cap. u!t. p. 40.) Etjscl.iug savs also, "Many virgins dracged 
 into infamous places, liave lost their life rather than lose their virtue. 
 (EuBcbius. Hisf. eccles, lih. viii. ch. M. p. 'i:»5.)— f?.] 
 
 u See two instances of this kind of torture in the Acta Sincera 
 Martyrum, published by Ruinart, p. 160, 399. Jerome, in his Le- 
 gend of Paul the Hermit, tolls a strange story of a young man, who 
 was chained naked on a bed of flowcis, and assatilted by a beautiful 
 and wanton courtezan. He quelled the rising temptation by biting 
 off his tongue. 
 
 » The conversion of his wife provoked Claudius Herminianus, go- 
 vernor of Cappadocia, to treat the (Christians with uncommon se- 
 verity. Tertullian ad Scapnlam, c. ?. 
 
 X Tertullian, in his epistle to the governor of Africa, mentions 
 ■everai remarkable instances of lenity and forl)earance, which had 
 happened within his knowledge. 
 
 y Neque enim in universum aliquid quod quasi certam formam ha 
 beat, constitui potest : an expression of Trajan, which gave a very 
 great latitude to the governors of provinces. 
 
 X In metalla damnamur, in insulas relescmur. Tertullian, Apo- 
 log. c 12. The mines of Numidia contained nine bishops, with a 
 proportionable number of their clergy and people, to whom Cyprian 
 •ddremed a pious epistle of praise and comfort. See Cyprian, t^pw 
 lol. 76, 77. 
 
 triumph of an emperor, might speedily restore them by 
 a general pardon to their former state. in,.^ngiderable 
 The martyrs, devoted to immediate exe- number of mar- 
 cution by the Roman magistrates, ap- <>"• 
 pear to have been selected from the most opposite ex- 
 tremes. They were either bishops and presbyters, 
 the persons the most distinguished among the chris- 
 tians by their rank and influence, and whose example 
 might strike terror into the whole sect ; * or else they 
 were the meanest and most abject among them, partic- 
 ularly those of the servile condition, whose lives were 
 esteemed of little value, and whose sufferings were 
 viewed by the ancients with too careless an indiffer- 
 ence." The learned Origen, who, from his experience 
 as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with 
 the history of the "christians, declares in the most ex- 
 press terms, that the number of martyrs was very in- 
 considerable.'^ His authority would alone be sufficient 
 to annihilate that formidable army of martyrs, whose 
 relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs 
 of Rome, have replenished so many churches,** and 
 whose marvellous achievements have been the subject 
 of so many volumes of holy romance.' But the gen- 
 eral assertion of Origen may be explained and con- 
 firmed by the particular testimony of his friend Dio- 
 nysius, who, in the immense city of Alexandria, and 
 under the rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only 
 ten men and seven women who suffered for the pro- 
 fession of the christian name.' 
 
 a Though we cannot receive with entire confidence, either the 
 epistles, or the acts, of Ignatius, (they may be found in the 2nd vol- 
 ume of the Apostolic Fathers,) yet we may quote that bishop of An- 
 lioch as one of these exemplary martyrs. He was sent in chains to 
 Rome as a public spectacle ; and when he arrived at Troas, he re- 
 ceived the pleasing intelligence, that the persecution of Antioch was 
 already at an end. . , .». .• 
 
 [The acts of St. Ignatius are generally received as authentic. 
 Seven of his letters also— Eusebius and St. Jerome make mention ol 
 them. There are two editions of them, in one the letters are longer 
 and many passages seem to have been interpolated. The other edi- 
 tion is that which contains the real letters of St. Ignatius. Such at 
 least, is tJie opinion of the ablest and most enlightened critics. (See 
 Lardner. Cred. of the Gosp. hist, part 2. vol. i. p. 152. Less uber die 
 reli'ion. vol. 1. p. 529 ; Usscri, Dissert, de Ignatii epistolis: I earson 
 vindicite ignatianr.) It was during the reign of Trajan that the 
 bishop Ignatius was carried from Antioch to Rome, to be exposed to 
 lions in the amphitheater, in the year of Christ 107 according to 
 some, and IIG according to others..— O.l ^ r,, „ 
 
 b Among the martyrs of Lyons (Euseb. 1. v. c. 1.) the slave Blan- 
 dina was distinguished by more exquisite tortures. Of the five mar- 
 tyrs so much celebrated in the arts of Felicitas and Perpetua, two 
 were of a servile, and two others of a very mean, condition. 
 
 c Origenadvers.Celsum.l.iii. p. 116. His words deserve to be trans- 
 cribed. " OKtyot x»r» x».pK», xx« a-ipoS^x iv»eii/x^roi rrif. tu,v Xf «t- 
 
 rtxvvv it'>TiZti:ti nSvv.xxa-,." [•' Those who liavc suffered death for 
 the christian religion are few, and easily numbered."— fl".] 
 
 [The words which follow ought also to have been cited. Ood 
 not permitting that all this clas.s.of jnfiiuallfiuid become extinct, 
 which seems to indicate that Origen found the number of martyrs in- 
 considerable, only when comparing it with the numherof those who 
 survived. He speaks moreover of the state of religion under Cara- 
 calla, Elagabahis, Alexander Spvcrus. and Philip who did not per- 
 secute the christians ; it was during the reign of the last that Origen 
 wrote his books against Celsus.— W.] 
 
 d If we recollect that all the plebeians of Rome were not chris- 
 tians, and that all the christians were not saints and martyrs, we 
 may judge with how much safety religious honours can be ascribed 
 to bones or urns, indiscriminately taken from the public burial-place. 
 After ten centuries of a very free and open trade, some suspicions 
 have arisen among the more learned catholics. They now require, 
 as a proof of sanctity and martyrdom, the letters B. M., a vial M\ 
 of red liquor supposed to be blood, or the figure of a palm tree. Ihit 
 the two former .signs are of little weight, and with regard to the last, 
 it is observed by the critics, 1. Thai the fisiure. as it is called, of a 
 palm, is perhaps a cvpress, and perhaps only a stop, the flourish ot 
 a comma, used in the monumental inscriptions. 2. That the palm 
 was the symbol of victory among the pagans. 3. That among the 
 christians it served as the emblem, not only of martyrdom, but in 
 general of a joyful resurrection. See the epistle of P. Mabillon. on 
 tlie worship of unknown saints, and Muratori, supra le Antichita 
 Italiane, Dissertat. Iviii, . u m n.Tft 
 
 e As a Hpecimen of these legends, we may be satisfied with lu.uuu 
 christian soldiers crucified in one day, either by Trajan or Hadrian, 
 on Mount Ararat. See Raronius ad Martyrologium Romanum. Ti • 
 lemont. Mem. Ecclesiast. totn. ii, part ii. p.4:i8. and Geddes's Misrel- 
 lanies, vol. ii. p. 203. The abbreviation of Mil. which may signity 
 either soldiers or thousands, is said to have occasioned some extra 
 ordinary mistakes. 
 
 f Dionysius ap. Euseb. I. vi. c. 41. One of the seventeen was like 
 wise accused of robbery. [Gibbon ought to have said, '' waa falsenj 
 accused of theft"— for such is the original Greek. This christia" 
 named Nemesion falsely accused of theft before the centurion, waa 
 acquitted of a crime to which he was a stranger, («»a.xct^.«t»tk>J 
 but he was led before the governor as guilty of being a christian, and 
 the governor inflicted upon him a double torture. (St. Uenys np« *"'" 
 sebius, lib. vi. chap. 41—45.) It ought to be said also that St, Deny. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Example of Cy- . During the same period of persecu- 
 prian bishop of tion, the zealous, the eloquent, the am- 
 carwiage. bitious Cyprian governed the church, 
 
 not only of Carthage, but even of Africa. He pos- 
 sessed every quality which could engage the rever- 
 ence of the faithful, or provoke the susprcions and re- 
 sentment of the pagan magistrates. His character as 
 well as his station seemed to mark out that holy pre- 
 late as the most distinguished object of envy and of 
 danger.5 The experience, however, of the life of 
 Cyprian, is sufficient to prove, that our fancy has ex- 
 aggerated the perilous situation of a christian bishop ; »> 
 and that the dangers to which he was exposed were 
 less imminent than those which temporal ambition is 
 always prepared to encounter in the pursuit of hon- 
 ours. Four Roman emperors, with their families, 
 their favourites, and their adherents, perished by the 
 sword in the space of ten years, during which the 
 bishop of Cartilage guided by his authority and elo- 
 quence the councils of the African church. It was 
 only in the third year of his administration, that he 
 had reason, during a few months, to apprehend the 
 severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of the magis- 
 trate, and the clamours of the multitude, who loudly 
 demanded, that Cyprian, the leader of the christians, 
 His danger and shoiild be thrown to the lions. Pru- 
 fl'ght. dence suggested the necessity of a tem- 
 porary retreat, and the voice of prudence was obeyed. 
 He withdrew himself into an obscure solitude, from 
 whence he could maintain a constant correspondence 
 with the clergy and people of Carthage ; and conceal- 
 ing himself till the tempest was past, he preserved his 
 life, without relinquishing either his power or his rep- 
 utation. His extreme caution did not however escape 
 the censure of the more rigid christians who lamented, 
 or the reproaches of his personal enemies who insult- 
 ed, a conduct which they considered as a pusillani- 
 mous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty.' 
 The propriety of reserving himself for the future ex- 
 igencies of the church, the example of several hoiy 
 bishops,J and the divine admonitions which, as he de- 
 clares himself, he frequently received in visions and 
 ecstacies, were the reasons alleged in his justification.*^ 
 But his best apology may be found in the cheerful res- 
 olution, with which, about eight years afterwards, he 
 suffered death in the cause of religion. The authentic 
 history of his martyrdom has been recorded with un- 
 usual candour and impartiality. A short abstract there- 
 fore of its most important circumstances will convey 
 the clearest information of the spirit, and of the forms, 
 of the Roman persecutions.' 
 
 A. D. 257. When Valerian was consul for the 
 
 H.8 banishment, third, and Gallienus for the fourth, 
 time; Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyp- 
 rian to appear in his private council-chamber. He 
 
 191 
 
 makes particular mention of tlic principal martyrs only, and that he 
 remarks in general, that the rage of the pagans against the christians 
 gave to Alexandria the appearance of a city taken by assault. Finally 
 we remark that Origen wrote before the persecution of the Emperor 
 Deems.— G.] "^ 
 
 g The letters of Cyprian exiiihit a verv curious and original pic- 
 ture both of the man and odUe times. See likewise the two lives of 
 Cyprian, composed with equal accuracy, though with very different 
 o/^'^Uo w,°"^ !"/ ^? H'J?';?' (Bihiiotheque Universelle, torn. xii. p. 
 ^08—3/8.) the other by Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques. toin 
 IV. parti, p. 76— 4.59. ^ ' 
 
 h [Our fancy has not eiafrcrerated the perilous situation cf a chris- 
 tian *?*Ao;», since Gibbon himself says, ** the mines of Numidia con- 
 tained (at the same lime) nine bishops, with a proportionate number 
 Of ecclcsiasncs and of the faithful of their diocess, (n. 206 note T > 
 and he refers to St. Cyprian, ep. 76-77.-^.] ''^ 
 
 i Bee the polite but severe epistle of the clergy of Rome to the 
 bishop of Carthage (Cyprian. Epist. 8. 9.) Pontius labours with 
 tlie greatest care and diligence to justify his master against the 
 general censure. " 
 
 j In particular thoi^c of Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory 
 i hauniaturgus, of Neo Ca^sarea. See Euseb. Hist. Ecciesiast \ yj 
 f. 40. and Memoires de Tillemont, toin. iv. part ii. p. 685 
 
 k See Cyprian, Epist. 16. and his life by Pontius. 
 
 1 We have an original life of Cyprian by the deacon Pontius the 
 ••ompanion of his exile, and the spectator of his death ; and we like- 
 wise possess the ancient proconsular acts of his martyrdom. The«e 
 two relations are consistent with each other, and with probability • 
 and what is somewhat remarkable, they are both unsullied by any 
 fniraculous circumstances. 
 
 there acquainted him with the imperial mandate which 
 he had just received,'" that those who had abandoned 
 the Roman religion should immediately return to the 
 practice of the ceremonies of their ancestors. Cyp- 
 rian replied without hesitation, that he was a christian 
 and a bishop, devoted to the worship of the true and 
 only Deity, to whom he ofl'ered up his daily supplica- 
 tions for the safety and prosperity of the two emperors, 
 his lawful sovereigns. With modest confidence he 
 pleaded the privilege of a citizen, in refusing to o-ive 
 any answer to some invidious and indeed illegal ques- 
 tions which the proconsul had proposed. A^sentence 
 of banishment was pronounced as the penalty of Cyp- 
 rian's disobedience; and he was conducted without 
 delay to Curubis, a free and maritime city of Zeugita- 
 nia, in a pleasant situation, a feriile territory, an^d at 
 the distance of about forty miles from Carthage." The 
 exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life and the 
 consciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused 
 over Africa and Italy; an account of his behaviour 
 was published for the edification of the christian 
 world ; ° and his solitude was frequently interrupted 
 by the letters, the visits, and the congratulations of 
 the fiiithful. On the arrival of a new proconsul in 
 the province, the fortune of Cyprian appeared for 
 some time to wear a still more favourable aspect. He 
 was recalled from banishment; and though not yet 
 permitted to return to Carthage, his own gardens in 
 the neighbourhood of the capital were assigned for the 
 place oi his residence.P 
 
 At length, exactly one 5'^ear'i after 
 Cyprian was first apprehended. Gale- "'-'"^""dcmnation. 
 rius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, received the im- 
 perial warrant for the execution of the christian teachers. 
 The bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be 
 singled out for one of the first victims ; and the frailty 
 of nature tempted him to withdraw himself by a secret 
 flight, from the danger and the honour of martyrdom : ■" 
 but soon recovering that fortitude which his character 
 required, he returned to his gardens, and patiently 
 expected the ministers of death. Two officers of rank, 
 who were intrusted with that commission, placed Cy- 
 prian between them in a chariot ; and as the proconsul 
 was not then at leisure, they conducted him, not to a 
 prison, but to a private house in Carthage, which be- 
 longed to one of them. An elegant supper was pro- 
 vided for the entertainment of the bishop, and his 
 christian friends were permitted for the last time to 
 enjoy his society, whilst the streets were filled with a 
 multitude of the faithful, anxious and alarmed at the 
 approaching fate of their spiritual father.' In the morn- 
 
 m It sJionid seem that these were circular orders, sent at l'"" ^amc 
 time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap, Euseb. I. vi'... 11.) relates 
 the history of his own banishment from A '•-•"., dria almost in the 
 same manner. But as he escaped and survived the persecution, we 
 must account him either more or less fortunate than Cyprian. 
 
 n Sec Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 3. Cellarius, Gcograph. Antiq. part iii 
 p. 96. Shaw's Travels, p. 90. ; and for the adjacent country, 
 (which is terminated by Cape Bona, or the promontory of Mercury.) 
 I Afriqnc de Marniol. torn. ii. p. 49^. There are the remains of ail 
 aqiioduct near Curubis, or Curbis. at present altered intoGurbes; 
 and Dr. Shaw read an inscription, which styles that city Co'onia 
 Fuloia. 'J'he deacon Pontius (in Vif. Cyprian, c. 12.) calls "it '• Apri- 
 cum ct coinpctentem locum bospilium pro volunlate secretum. et 
 quidquid apponi eis ante promissum est, qui regnum et iuslitiam Dei 
 qua^runt." 
 
 o Sec Cyprian. Epistol.77. Edit. Fell. 
 
 P Upon his conversion, he had sold tiio.sc gardens for the beneiit of 
 the poor. The indulgence of God (most probably the lil)erality of 
 some christian friend) restored them to Cyprian. See I'ontiu.s. r. 15 
 
 q When Cyprian, a twelvemonth before, was sent into exile hp 
 dreamt tliat he should be put to death the next day. The event made 
 it necessary to explain that word, as signifying a year. Pontius, c. I?. 
 
 r [This was not, as it appears, the motive which induced St.Cvp- 
 rian to conceal himself for a time. It was threatened that he should be 
 taken to Ulica, and he wished to remain at Carthage, that he might 
 suffer martyrdom among his own Hock, and that his death ni'^ht 
 serve to confirm and instruct those whom he had nuided during his 
 life. It is thus at least that he himself explains his conduct in nno 
 of his letters: Cum perlatumad no.s fuisset fratresrarissinii. frunien- 
 larioses.se missos qui me Uticain perducerent, consili()qiiecarissimo- 
 rum persuasum e-sset ut de bonis interim secederemus; justa infcr- 
 veniente causa consensi eoquod congruat cpiscopum inea civitate in 
 qua Ecclcsiap dominies pra^sf. iilic dominum confiteri et plebem iini- 
 versam propositi prtesentis confessioiie clarificari. '(Ep. 81. p. 238.) 
 
 • Pontius (c. 15.) acknowledges that Cyprian, with whom he 
 
 i 
 
) 
 
 192 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 ing he appeared before the tribunal of the proconsul, 
 who, after informing himself of the name and situation 
 of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and 
 pressed him to reflect on the consequences of his 
 disobedience. The refusal of Cyprian was firm and 
 decisive ; and the magistrate, when he had taken the | 
 opinion of his council, pronounced with some reluc- 
 tance the sentence of death. It was conceived in the 
 following terms : " That Thascius Cyprianus should 
 be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods of 
 Rome, and as the chief and ringleader of a criminal 
 association, which he had seduced into an impious re- 
 sistance against the laws of the most holy emperors, 
 Valerian and Gallienus."* The manner of his execu- 
 tion was the mildest and least painful that could be 
 inflicted on a person convicted of any capital olfence ; 
 nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain from the 
 bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his prin- 
 ciples, or the discovery of his accomplices. 
 
 As soon as the sentence was proclaim- 
 Hi8 martyrdom, ^j^ ^ general cry of " We will die with 
 him," arose at once among the listening multitude of 
 christians who waited before the palace gates. The 
 generous eflfusions of their zeal and aflection were 
 neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to them- 
 selves. He was led away under a guard of tribunes 
 and centurions, without resistance and without insult, 
 to the place of his execution, a spacious and level plain 
 near the city, which was already filled with great 
 numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and dea- 
 cons were permitted to accompany their holy bishop." 
 They assisted him in laying aside his upper garment, 
 spread linen on the ground to catch the precious relics 
 of his blood, and received his orders to bestow five 
 and twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The | 
 martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at 
 one blow his head was separated from his body. His 
 corpse remained during some hours exposed to the 
 curiosity of the gentiles : but in the night it was re- 
 moved, and transported in a triumphal procession, and 
 with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of the 
 christians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly cele- 
 brated without receiving any interruption from the 
 Roman magistrates ; and those among the faithful, 
 who had performed the last offices to his person and his 
 memory, were secure from the danger of inquiry or of 
 punishment. It is remarkable, that of so great a mul- 
 titude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian 
 was the first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the 
 crown of martyrdom.^ 
 ... ... It was in the choice of Cyprian, either 
 
 Various incito- , i* ^ a. 
 
 .-•^018 lo martyr- to die a martyr, or to live an apostate : 
 but on that choice depended the altcrna- 
 
 dom. 
 
 tive of honour '^r infamy. Could we suppose that the 
 bishop of Carthage had employed the profession of the 
 christian faith only as the instrument of his avarice or 
 ambition, it was still incumbent on him to support the 
 
 Bupped. ])a8!»c(i tlie niglit custodin delicata. The bishop exercised a 
 last and very proper act of jurisdiction, hy directing tlial tlic younger 
 females, who watclied in the street, should be removed from the 
 dangers and temptations of a nocturnal crowd. Act. Proconsularia, 
 
 c. 2." 
 
 *t See the original sentence in tlie Acts, c. 4. and in Pontius, c. 17. 
 The latter expresses ii in a more rhetorical manner. 
 
 u [Tiiere is nothing in the lifeof St. Cyprian by Pontius, nor in the 
 ancient manuscripts, which can lead to the supposition that the dea- 
 cons and priests had, in their quality of deacons and priests, and 
 known as such, the right of accompanying their holy bishop — setting 
 Buide all idea of religion it is iujpossible not to perceive the strange 
 kind of complacency witii which tlie historian liere insists in favor 
 of the persecutors upon some alleviations to the death of a man 
 whose only crime was, that he defended with freedom and courage, 
 hisown opinions.— C] 
 
 V Pontius, c. 19. M. de Tillemont (Memoires, torn. iv. part i. p. 
 450. note 50.) is not pleased with so positive an exclusion of any for- 
 mer manvrs of the episcopal rank. 
 
 [M.de Tiih-mont, a man of integrity, exposes the difficulties which 
 he ifolind in tiie text of Pontius, and finishes by saying, that without 
 dou' t there is some mistake in it, and that it must be that Pontius 
 meant only lesser Africa or Carthage, for St. Cyprian in his fifty- 
 Hixth leUer addressed to Pupianus,speitks expressly of many bishops, 
 his colleaznes. Uui proscripti sunt, vel apprehensi in carcere et ca- 
 tenis fuerunt, ad! qui in exilium relegati, iiluslri itineread dominum 
 profccti sunt ; ant qui quibusdam locis animadversi coblestes coronas 
 de Uoniinl clarificaiione sumpserunt.— C] 
 
 character which he had assumed ; "^ and, if he pos- 
 sessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude, rather 
 to expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by a 
 single act to exchange the reputation of a whole life, 
 for the abhorrence of his christian brethren, and the 
 contempt of the gentile world. But if the zeal of Cy- 
 prian was supported by the sincere conviction of the 
 truth of those doctrines which he preached, the crown 
 of martyrdom must have appeared to him as an object 
 of desire rather than of terror. It is not easy to extract 
 any distinct ideas from the vague though eloquent de- 
 clamations of the fathers, or to ascertain the degree of 
 immortal glory and happiness which they confidently 
 promised to those who were so fortunate as to shed 
 their blood in the cause of religion.^ They inculcated 
 with becoming diligence, that the fire of martyrdom 
 supplied every defect and expiated every sin ; that 
 while the souls of ordinary christians were obliged to 
 pass through a slow and painful purification, the tri- 
 umphant sufferers entered into the immediate fruition 
 of eternal bliss, whore, in the society of the patriarchs, 
 the apostles, and the prophets, they reigned with 
 Christ, and acted as his assessors in the universal 
 judgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting / 
 repiTtation upon earth, a motive so congenial to the ,' 
 vanity of human nature, often served to animate the 
 courage of the martyrs. The honours which Rome or 
 Athens bestowed on those citizens who had fallen in 
 the cause of their country, were cold and unmeaning 
 demonstrations of respect, when compared with the 
 ardent gratitude and devotion which the primitive 
 church expressed towards the victorious champions of 
 the faith. The annual commemoration of their virtues 
 and sufl'erings was observed as a sacred ceremony, and 
 at length terminated in religious worship. Among the 
 christians who had publicly confessed their religious 
 principles, those who (as it very frequently happened) 
 had been dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of 
 the pagan magistrates, obtained such honours as were 
 justly due to their imperfect martyrdom, and their 
 generous resolution. The most pious females courted 
 the permission of imprinting kisses on the fetters 
 which they had worn, and on the wounds which they 
 had received. Their persons were esteemed holy, 
 their decisions were admitted with deference, and they 
 too often abused, by their spiritual pride and licentious 
 manners, the pre-eminence which their zeal and in- 
 trepidity had acquired.^ Distinctions like these, whilst 
 they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsider- 
 able number, of those who suffered, and of those who 
 died, for the profession of Christianity. 
 
 The sober discretion of the present Ardour of the firbt 
 ao-c will more readily censure than ad- christians. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 w Whatever opinion we may entertain of the character or princi- 
 ples of Thomas Becket, we must acknowledge that he suffered death 
 with a constancy not unworthy of the primitive martyrs. See Lord 
 Lyttelton's History of Henry H. vol. ii. p. 592, &.c. 
 
 X See in particular the treatise of Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 87—98. 
 Edit. Fell. The learning of Dodwcll (Uissertat. Cyprianic. xii. xiii.) 
 and the ingenuity of Middleton (Free Inquiry, p. 162, &c.) have left 
 scarcely any thing to add concerning the merit, the honours, and the 
 motives of the martyrs. 
 
 y Cyprian. Epistol. 5—7. 22,24. and de Unitat. Ecclcsiae. The 
 number of pretended martyrs has been very much multiplied, by the 
 custom which was introduced of bestowing that honourable name on 
 confessors. 
 
 [The letters of St. Cyprian to which Gibbon refers, do not prove 
 what he says about the spiritual pride and the licentious manners of 
 those who had publicly confessed their faith. In his fifth letter, 
 written during his retirement, St. Cyprian exhorts the deacons and 
 the priests lo supply his place, and not to permit the confessort or 
 the poor to want any thing, and to visit the former in their prison. 
 In the sixth addressed to Scrgius, to Rogatianus and to other confes- 
 sors he encourages them to suffer martyrdom, and complains that he 
 was not with them that he might kiss their pure hands, and those 
 lips which had glorified the Lord. He tells them to despise all the 
 sulferings of this life in the hope of eternal glory, &.c. The seventh 
 is addressed to his deacons and his priests ; he exhorts them in few 
 words to relieve all the poor. The twenty-second is from Lucianiia 
 to Celerinus, and is written with the greatest modesty. Lucianus 
 declares himself unworthy of the praises of his friend, and is in af 
 fliction for the death of his sisters, the victims of persecution. The 
 twentv fourth is from Caldonius to St. Cyprian, and to the priests 
 of Carthage, and is written to consult them concerning the re-ad- 
 mission of such as had fallen into error. It is only in the Treatise 
 de Antiquitate Ecclesiae, that any reproaches are made against con- 
 fessors.— G.] 
 
 mire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fer- 
 vour of the first christians, who, accordincr to the 
 lively expression of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyr- 
 dom with more eagerness than his own contemporaries 
 solicited a bishopric- The epistles which Ignatius 
 composed as he was carried in chains through the 
 cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repuo-nant 
 to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly 
 beseeches the Itomans, that when he should be ex- 
 posed in the amphitheatre, they would not, by their 
 kind but unseasonable intercession, deprive him of the 
 crown of glory ; and he declares his resolution to pro- 
 voke and irritate the wild beasts which might be em- 
 ployed as the instruments of his death.* Some stories 
 are related of the courage of martyrs, who actually 
 performed what Ignatius had intended ; who exas- 
 perated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner 
 to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires 
 which ^yere kindled to consume them, and discovered 
 a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most 
 exquisite tortures. Several examples have been pre- 
 served of a zeal impatient of those restraints which 
 the emperors had provided for the security of the 
 church. 1 he christians sometimes supplied by their 
 volunary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely 
 disturbed the pub ic service of paganism,^ and rushing 
 in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called 
 upon tliem to pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the 
 law. 1 he behaviour of the christians was too remark- 
 able to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; 
 but they seem to have considered it with much less ad- 
 miratioii than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving 
 the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude 
 of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, 
 they treated such an eagerness to die as the strano-e 
 result of obstinate despair, of stupid insensibility, or Sf 
 superstitious phrenzy.^ » Unhappy men !" exclaimed 
 the proconsul Antoninus to the christians of Asia ; " un- 
 happy men ! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it 
 so dilhcult for you to find ropes and precipices ^"'i He 
 was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned 
 and pious historian) of punishing men who had found 
 no accusers but themselves, the imperial laws not 
 having nriade any provision for so unexpected a case : 
 condemning therefore a few, as a warning to their 
 brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indionation 
 and contempt.' Notwithstanding this real or affected 
 disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was pro- 
 ductive of more salutary effects on those minds which 
 nature or grace had disposed for the easy reception of 
 religious truth. On these melancholy occasions, there 
 were many among the gentiles who pitied, who ad- 
 mired, and who were converted. The generous en- 
 thusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the 
 spectators ; and the blood of martyrs, according to a 
 well-known observation, became the seed of the church. 
 Gradual rola.xation. ?"^ although devotion had raised, 
 ♦k- r /. , eloquence continued to inflame, 
 
 this fever of the mind, it insensibly gave way to the 
 more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the 
 
 T Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur; multique avidius turn 
 martyria gloriosis mortihus qua^rebantur, quam nunc episcopatus 
 pravis ambitjoriibus appetuntur. Sulpicius Severus, I. ii. He uiiL'ht 
 have omitted the word 7IU7IC. "c mitni 
 
 a See Epist. ad Roman, r. 4, 5. ap. Patres Apostol. torn, ii n 07 
 It suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson (seeVindicis Ignatianle' 
 part II c. 9.) to justify, by a profusion of examples and authorities! 
 thesentiments of Ignatius. uuuiuruics, 
 
 hpt..Tif^V°^^^^^'''^*^"'''?'\°" ^''"*''' Corneille has founded a very 
 beautiful tragedy, is one of the most celebrated, though not perhaos 
 the most authentic, instances of this excessive zeal. We should oh 
 serve that the fiOth canon of the council of Illiberis refuses the title 
 8tro''ln^^''M ^^ido^^ who exposed themselves to death, by publicly de- 
 c See Epirtetus, I. iv. r. 7. (though the.c is some doubt whether he 
 
 niiudcs to the christians,) Marcus Antoninus de Rebus suis 1 xi c V 
 '-"''lan in Peregrin. • • u. 
 
 d Tertullian ad Scapul. c. 5. The learned are divided between 
 "irec persons of the same name, who were all proconsuls of Asia I 
 •ni inclined to ascribe this story to Antoninus Pius, who was after- 
 «Cai,d8 emperor ; and who may have governed Asia, under the reisn 
 "' 1 rajan. ^ 
 
 e Moshcim, de Rebus Christ, ante Constantin. p. 235. 
 
 Vol. I Z 13 
 
 193 
 
 love of life, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of 
 dissolution. The more prudent rulers of the church 
 found themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet 
 ardotir of their followers, and to distrust a constancy 
 which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial ' 
 As the lives of the faithful became less mortified and 
 austere, they were every day less ambitious of the 
 honours of martyrdom ; and the soldiers of Christ, in- 
 stead of distinguishing themselves by voluntary deeds 
 of heroism, frequently deserted their post, and fled in 
 confusion before the enemy whom it was their duty to 
 resist. There were three methods, however, of es- 
 caping the flames of persecution, which were not at- 
 tended with an equal degree of guilt : the first indeed 
 was generally allowed to be innocent ; the second was 
 of a doubtful, or at least of a venial, nature; but the 
 third implied a direct and criminal apostasy from the 
 christian faith. 
 
 I. A modern inquisitor would hear r^. , , 
 
 with surprise, that whenever an informa- o?e"c'aph.g mo- 
 tion was given to a Roman magistrate, tyrdom. 
 of any person within his jurisdiction who had em- 
 braced the sect of the christians, the charge was com- 
 municated to the party accused, and that a convenient 
 time was allowed him to settle his domestic concerns, 
 and to prepare an answer to the crime which was im- 
 puted to him.K If he entertained any doubt of his own 
 constancy, such a delay afforded him an opportunity of 
 preserving his life and honour by flight, of withdraw- 
 ing himself into some obscure retirement or some 
 distant province, and of patiently expecting the return 
 ot peace and security. A measure so consonant to 
 reason was soon authorized by the advice and example 
 of the most holy prelates ; and seems to have been cen- 
 sured by few, except by the Montanists, who deviated 
 into heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence to 
 the rigour of ancient disciplined^ II. The provincial 
 governors, whose zeal was less prevalent than their 
 avarice, had countenanced the practice of sellino- cer- 
 tificates, (or libels as they were called,) which attested, 
 that the persons therein mentioned had complied with 
 the laws, and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By 
 producing these false declarations, the opulent and 
 timid christians were enabled to silence the malice of 
 an informer, and to reconcile in some measure their 
 safety with their religion. A slight pen ance ' atoned 
 
 1 f/f V^^ ^P-^^'^ °^ "'"^ ^''"'■'^^ of Smyrna, ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 
 
 [The fifteenth chapter of tlie iv. book of the Hist. Ecclesiast of Eu- 
 sebius, treats principally of the martyrdom of St. Poiycarn and 
 mentions other martyrs. One instance only of weakness is relaJed 
 It IS that of a Phrygian named auintus, who. frightened at the 
 si.ht of the ferocious bea.«ts and the tortures, renounced his L.i! 
 }uZ!r^T^^ proves little against tJie mass of christians, and this 
 S^S^tS^;^!!:"^?' '""'^'' «^'°"Ser proof Of their'courage. 
 
 g In the second apology of Justin, there is a particular and very 
 cunoits instance of this legal delay. The salne indulgence was 
 granted to accused christians in the persecution of Decius: and Cv- 
 prian(de La |)6is) expressly mentions the "Dies negantibus prasti- 
 
 [The examples wliich the historian has taken from Justin Martyr. 
 fnflJ!lil F^^'V''''^ particular instances, and prove nothing as 
 the method yvhich was generally pursued towardsthe accused. On 
 the contrary. It is evident according to the same Apology of St. 
 Justin, that they seldom obtained any delay. " A man named Lu 
 cms, liimself a christian, being present at the unjust sentence given 
 by the judge Urbicus against a christian, demanded of him why he 
 thus punished a man who was neither an adulterer nor a thief nor 
 guilty of any other crime than that of confessing himself to be a 
 christian. Urbicus an.swered only these words, •' You also-voa 
 seem to be a christian." " Yes, doubtless," replied Lucius: The 
 judge commanded that heshould be put to death also. A third com 
 ~,^"J T' TlV:^^.^ V"^ whipped. (Justin Martyr, Apol. sec p. 
 90. ed. Bened. 1742.) Here then are three examples wheVe no delay 
 was granted-there are many others, such as those of Ptolemy, of 
 ri?.«^n„ .K ^i*. •'k ^^'" expressly reproaches the judges with 
 
 causing the accused to be executed before they had heard and deci- 
 ded their cause. The words of St. Cyprian are also very particular, 
 and say simply that a day was fixed upon which the christians were* 
 
 demn d — ^'1 ' ^^^^ ^'^** ^'^ "°^ *^° ^** ^^ ^'"' ^^^^ ^^^^ *^°"' 
 
 h Tertullian considers flight from persecution as an imperfect, but 
 very criminal, apostasy, as an impious attempt to elude the will of 
 God, &;c. &.C. He has written a treatise on this subject (.<!ee p. 536 
 —544. Edit. Rigalt.) which is filled with the wildest fanaticism and 
 the most incoherent declamation. It is, however, somewhat re 
 markable, that Tertullian did not suffer martyrdom himself 
 i [TJie penance was not bo slight, for it was exactly equal to tliat 
 
 i 
 
i 
 
 192 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 ing he appeared before the tribunal of the proconsul, 
 who, after informing himself of the name and situation 
 of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and 
 pressed him to reflect on the consequences of his 
 disobedience. The refusal of Cyprian was firm and | 
 decisive ; and the magistrate, when he had taken the | 
 opinion of his council, pronounced with some reluc- 
 tance the sentence of death. It was conceived in the 
 following terms : " That Thascius Cyprianus should 
 be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods of 
 Rome, and as the chief and ringleader of a criminal 
 association, which he had seduced into an impious re- 
 sistance against the laws of the most holy emperors. 
 Valerian and Gallienus."* The manner of his execu- 
 tion was the mildest and least painful that could be 
 inflicted on a person convicted of any capital offence ; 
 nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain from the 
 bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his prin- 
 ciples, or the discovery of his accomplices. 
 
 As soon as the sentence was proclaim- 
 Hi8 martyrdom. ^^^ ^ general cry of " We will die with 
 him," arose at once among the listening multitude of 
 christians who waited before the palace gates. The 
 generous effusions of their zeal and aflection were 
 neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to them- 
 selves. He was led away under a guard of tribunes 
 and centurions, without resistance and without insult, 
 to the place of his execution, a spacious and level plain 
 near the city, which was already filled with great 
 numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and dea- 
 cons were permitted to accompany their holy bisliop." 
 They assisted him in laying aside his upper garment, 
 spread linen on the ground to catch the precious relics 
 of his blood, and received his orders to bestow five 
 and twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The 
 martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at 
 one blow his head was separated from his body. His 
 corpse remained during some hours exposed to the 
 curiosity of the gentiles : but in the night it was re- 
 moved, and transported in a triumphal procession, and 
 with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of the 
 christians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly cele- 
 brated without receiving any interruption from the 
 Roman magistrates ; and those among the faithful, 
 who had performed the last offices to his person and his 
 memory, were secure from the danger of inquiry or of 
 punishment. It is remarkable, that of so great a mul- 
 titude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian 
 was the first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the 
 crown of martyrdom.^ 
 
 ,, . ... It was in the choice of Cyprian, either 
 
 zifnia to martyr- to die a martyr, or to live an apostate : 
 dom. but on that choice depended the alterna- 
 
 tive of honoui ^r infamy. Could we suppose that the 
 bishop of Carthage had employed the profession of the 
 christian faith only as the instrument of his avarice or 
 ambition, it was still incumbent on him to support the 
 
 pupped, pnosed the night cus'todia delicata. The bishop excrrised a 
 last and very proper act of jurisdiction, hy directing that tlieyounper 
 females, who watclied in the street, should be removed from the 
 dangers and tcmptationsof a nocturnal crowd. Act. Proconsularia, 
 
 c. 2. 
 
 *t See the original sentence in the Acts, c. 4. and in Pontius, c. 17. 
 The latter expresses it in a more rhetorical manner. 
 
 u [There is nothing in the lifcof St. Cyprian by Pontius, nor in the 
 ancient manuscripts, which can lead to the supposition that the dea- 
 cons and priests had, in their quality of deacons and priests, and 
 known as such, the risrht of accompanying their holy bishop— setting 
 aside all idea of religion it is impossible not to perceive the strange 
 kind of complacency with which the historian liere insists in favor 
 of the persecutors upon some alleviations to the death of a man 
 whose only crime was, that he defended with freedom and courage, 
 hisown opinions. — O.] 
 
 » Pontius, c. 19. M. de Tillemont (Memoires, torn. iv. part i. p. 
 450. note 50.) is not pleased with so positive an e.xclusion of any for- 
 mer marivrs of the episcopal rank. 
 
 [M.de Tillemont, a man of integrity, exposes the difficulties which 
 he folind in tiie te.xt of Pontius, and finishes by saying, that without 
 douM there is some mistake in it, and that it must be that Pontius 
 meant only lesser Africa or Carthage, for St. Cyprian in his fifty- 
 sixth IcUer addressed to Pupianus, speaks expressly of many bishops, 
 his colleaincrJ. Uui proscripti sunt, vel apprehensi in rarccre et ca- 
 tenis tueruiii, ad! qui in exilium relegati, iihistri itineread dominum 
 profecti sunt ; aut qui quibusdam locis animadversi calcstes coronas 
 de Domitil clarificatione sumpserunt.— O.] 
 
 character which he had assumed ; " and, if he pos- 
 sessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude, rather 
 to expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by a 
 single act to exchange the reputation of a whole life, 
 for the abhorrence of his christian brethren, and the 
 contempt of the gentile world. But if the zeal of Cy- 
 prian was supported by the sincere conviction of the 
 truth of those doctrines which he preached, the crown 
 of martyrdom must have appeared to him as an object 
 of desire rather than of terror, It is not easy to extract 
 any distinct ideas from the vague though eloquent de- 
 clamations of the fathers, or to ascertain the degree of 
 immortal glory and happiness which they confidently 
 promised to those who were so fortunate as to shed 
 their blood in the cause of religion.* They inculcated 
 with becoming diligence, that the fire of martyrdom 
 supplied every defect and expiated every sin; that 
 while the souls of ordinary christians were obliged to 
 pass through a slow and painful purification, the tri- 
 umphant sufferers entered into the immediate fruition 
 of eternal bliss, where, in the society of the patriarchs, 
 the apostles, and the prophets, they reigned with 
 Christ, and acted as his assessors in the universal 
 judgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting | 
 reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial to the ,' 
 vanity of human nature, often served to animate the 
 courage of the martyrs. The honours which Rome or 
 Athens bestowed on those citizens who had fallen in 
 the cause of their country, were cold and unmeaning 
 demonstrations of respect, when compared with the 
 ardent gratitude and devotion which the primitive 
 church expressed towards the victorious champions of 
 the faith. The annual commemoration of their virtues 
 and sufferings was observed as a sacred ceremony, and 
 at length terminated in religious worship. Among the 
 christians who had publicly confessed their religious 
 principles, those who (as it very frequently happened) 
 had been dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of 
 the pagan magistrates, obtained such honours as were 
 justly due to their imperfect martyrdom, and their 
 generous resolution. The most pious females courted 
 the permission of imprinting kisses on the fetters 
 which they had worn, and on the wounds which they 
 had received. Their persons were esteemed holy, 
 their decisions were admitted with deference, and they 
 too often abused, by their spiritual pride and licentious 
 manners, the pre-eminence which their zeal and in- 
 trepidity had acquired.^ Distinctions like these, whilst 
 they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsider- 
 able number, of those who suffered, and of those who 
 died, for the profession of Christianity. 
 
 The sober discretion of the present Ardour of the firbt 
 age will more readily censure than ad- christians. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 w Whatever opinion we may entertain of the character or princi- 
 ples of Thomas Berkct, we must acknowledge that he suffered death 
 with a constancy not unworthy of the primitive martyrs. See Lord 
 Lyttelton's History of Henry IF. vol. ii. p. 592, &c. 
 
 X See in particular the treatise of Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 87—98. 
 Edit. Fell. TJie learning of Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprianic. xii. xiii.) 
 and the ingenuity of Middleton (Free Inquiry, p. 1C2, Sec.) have left 
 scarcely any thing to add concerning the merit, the honours, and the 
 motives of the martyrs. 
 
 y Cyprian. Epistol. 5—7, 22,24. and de Unitat. Ecclesiae. The 
 number of pretended martyrs has been very much multiplied, by the 
 custom which was introduced of bestowing that lionourable name on 
 confessors. 
 
 IThe IcUers of St. Cyprian to which Gibbon refers, do not prove 
 wliat he says about the spiritual pride and the licentious manners of 
 those who had publicly confessed their faith. In his fifth letter, 
 written during his retirement, St. Cyprian exhorts the deacons and 
 the priests to .supply his place, and not to permit the confessors or 
 the poor to want any thing, and to visit the fornier in their prison. 
 In the sixth addressed to Scrgius, to Rogatianus and to other confes- 
 sors he encourages them to suffer martyrdom, and complains that lie 
 was not with them that he might kiss their pure hands, and those 
 lips which had glorified the Lord. He tells them to despise all the 
 sufferings of this life in the hope of eternal glory, &.c. The seventh 
 is addressed to his deacons and his priests ; he exhorts them in few 
 words to relieve all the poor. The twenty-second is from Lucianui 
 to Celerinus, and is written with the greatest modesty. Lucianua 
 declares himself unworthy of the praises of his friend, and is in af- 
 fliction for the death of his sisters, the victims of persecution. The 
 twenty fourth is from Caldonius to St. Cyprian, and to the priests 
 of Carthage, and is written to consult them concerning the re ad- 
 mission of such as had fallen into error. It is only in the Treatise 
 de Antiquitate Ecclesic, that any reproaches are made against con- 
 fessors.— G.] 
 
 mire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fer- 
 vour of the first christians, who, according to the 
 lively expression of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyr- 
 dom with more eagerness than his own contemporaries 
 solicited a bishopric- The epistles which Ignatius 
 composed as he was carried in chains through the 
 cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant 
 to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly 
 beseeches the Romans, that when he should be ex- 
 posed in the amphitheatre, they would not, by their 
 kind but unseasonable intercession, deprive him of the 
 crown of glory ; and he declares his resolution to pro- 
 voke and irritate the wild beasts which might be em- 
 ployed as the instruments of his death.* Some stories 
 are related of the courage of martyrs, who actually 
 performed what Ignatius had intended ; ivho exas- 
 perated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner 
 to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires 
 which ^yere kindled to consume them, and discovered 
 a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most 
 exquisite tortures. Several examples have been pre- 
 served of a zeal impatient of those restraints which 
 the emperors had provided for the security of the 
 church. 1 he christians sometimes supplied by their 
 volunary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely 
 disturbed the public service of paganism,** and rushing 
 m crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called 
 upon tliem to pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the 
 law. The behaviour of the christians was too remark- 
 able to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers: 
 but they seem to have considered it with much less ad- 
 miration than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving 
 the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude 
 of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, 
 they treated such an eagerness to die as the strano-e 
 result of obstinate despair, of stupid insensibility, or Sf 
 superstitious phrenzy.^ " Unhappy men !" exclaimed 
 the proconsul Antoninus to the christians of Asia ; " un- 
 happy men ! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it 
 so dilhcult for you to find ropes and precipices '»"'« He 
 was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned 
 and pious historian) of punishing men who had found 
 no accusers but themselves, the imperial laws not 
 having nriade any provision for so unexpected a case : 
 condemning therefore a few, as a warning to their 
 brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indio-nation 
 and contempt.' Notwithstanding this real or affected 
 disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was pro- 
 ductive of more salutary effects on those minds which 
 nature or grace had disposed for the easy reception of 
 religious truth. On these melancholy occasions, there 
 were many among the gentiles who pitied, who ad- 
 mired, and who were converted. The generous en- 
 thusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the 
 spectators ; and the blood of martyrs, according to a 
 well-known observation, became the seed of the church. 
 Gradual rela.xation. ?"\ although devotion had raised, 
 ♦u- r /. , ^" eloquence continued to inflame, 
 
 this fever of the mind, it insensibly gave way to the I 
 more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the 
 
 193 
 
 love of life, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of 
 dissolution. The more prudent rulers of the church 
 found themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet 
 ardour of their followers, and to distrust a constancy 
 which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial.' 
 As the lives of the faithful became less mortified and 
 austere, they were every day less ambitious of the 
 honours of martyrdom ; and the soldiers of Christ, in- 
 stead of distinguishing themselves by voluntary deeds 
 of heroism, frequently deserted their post, and fled in 
 confusion before the enemy whom it was their duty to 
 resist. There were three methods, however, of es- 
 caping the flames of persecution, which were not at- 
 tended with an equal degree of guilt : the first indeed 
 was generally allowed to be innocent ; the second was 
 of a doubtful, or at least of a venial, nature; but the 
 third implied a direct and criminal apostasy from the 
 christian faith. 
 
 I. A modern inquisitor would hear m. , , 
 
 with surprise, that whenever an informa- J'^scaphig nmr- 
 tion was given to a Roman magistrate, t>r<iom. 
 of any person within his jurisdiction who had em- 
 braced the sect of the christians, the charge was com- 
 niunicated to the party accused, and that a convenient 
 time was allowed him to settle his domestic concerns, 
 and to prepare an answer to the crime which was im- 
 puted to him.K If he entertained any doubt of his own 
 constancy, such a delay afforded him an opportunity of 
 preserving his life and honour by flight, of withdraw- 
 ing himself into some obscure retirement or some 
 distant province, and of patiently expecting the return 
 ot peace and security. A measure so consonant to 
 reason was soon authorized by the advice and example 
 of the most holy prelates ; and seems to have been cen- 
 sured by few, except by the Montanists, who deviated 
 into heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence to 
 the rigour of ancient disciplined^ II. The provincial 
 governors, whose zeal was less prevalent than their 
 avarice, had countenanced the practice of sellino- cer- 
 tificates, (or libels as they were called,) which attested, 
 that the persons therein mentioned had complied with 
 the laws, and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By 
 producing these false declarations, the opulent and 
 timid christians were enabled to silence the malice of 
 an informer, and to reconcile in some measure their 
 safety with their religion. A slight penance ' atoned 
 
 7 Certatmi glonosa in certamina ruebatur ; mullique avidius turn 
 martyria glonosis mortibus quffrebantur, quam nunc episcopatus 
 >rav)s ambitionibus appetuntur. Sulpicius Severus, I. ii. He micht 
 have omitted the word nunc. '"'gm 
 
 T. * ?®®j ^.P'^^- ^^ Koman. r. 4, 5. ap. Patrcs Apostol. torn ii d 27 
 It suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson (see Vindicis Ignatianffi' 
 part II. c. 9.) to justify, by a profusion of examples and authorities' 
 thesentiments of Ignatius. u uuuioriues, 
 
 hp«„Tf*^.'.^°'^J^^*''^®"'''?^'.°" ^'"<='' Corneille lias founded a very 
 beautiful tragedy, is one of the most celebrated, though not perhaos 
 the most authentic, instances of this excessive zeal. We should oh 
 snrve that the fiOtli canon of the council of lUiberis refuses the title 
 «tro Mn^ViJ ^"i^°^^ who exposed themselves to death, by publicly de- 
 
 e See Epictetus, J. iv. c. 7. (though the.e is some doubt whether he 
 
 niiudes to the christians,) Marcus Antoninus de Rebus suis I xi r V 
 I'Ucian in Peregrin. ' ' **' 
 
 i Tertullian ad Scapul. c. 5. The learned are divided between 
 inree persons of the same name, who were all proconsuls of Asia I 
 •ni inclined to ascribe this story to Antoninus Pius, who was after- 
 wards emperor ; and who may have governed Asia, under the rei^n 
 *'' 1 rajan. ° 
 
 e Moshcim, de Rebus Christ, ante Constantin. p. 235. 
 Vol. I. — Z 13 
 
 f Sec the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 
 
 [Tlie fifteenth chapter of the iv. book of the Hist. Ecrlesia^f of Eu. 
 scbius. treats principally of the martyrdom of St. Polycarn and 
 mentions other martyrs. One instance only of weakness is reia?ed 
 L ,M He fu r^ Phrygian named Quintus, who, frightened at the 
 siL'htof the ferocious beaf=t8 and the tortures, renounced hisfaiih! 
 1 his example proves little against the mass of christians, and this 
 
 a'o^\S''Sd%"::"<i!f ' ™'" «'»"«" proof Of .heir-coulag" 
 g In the second apology of Justin, there is a particular and very 
 curioirs instance of this legal delay. The same indulgence wS 
 granted to accused christians in the persecution of Decius- and Cv- 
 tmu"'! Lapeis) expressly mentions the "Dies negantibus prssti- 
 
 [The examples which the historian has taken from Justin Martyr, 
 and from St. Cyprian, are particular instances, and prove nothing as 
 o the method which was generally pursued towards the accused. On 
 the contrary. It is evident according to the same Apology of St. 
 Justin, tha they seldom obtained any delay. -A man named Lu. 
 hv ?hp'!I!?l n f !»■■•«'■»".. »'e«ng present at the unjust sentence given 
 by the judge Urbicus against a christian, demanded of him why he 
 thus punished a man who was neither an adulterer nor a thief nor 
 guilty of any other crime than that of confessing himself to be a 
 christian. Urbicus an-swered only these words, " You also— voa 
 seem to be a christian." " Yes, doubtless," replied Lucius. The 
 judge commanded that he should be put to death also. A third com 
 
 2I^;a i t^ y^^^ ""* ^^^"^ ^'^ ^^^^^ examples where no delay 
 was granted-there are many others, such as those of Ptolemy, of 
 Aiarcellos, &c. St. Justin expressly reproaches the judges with 
 causing the accused to be executed before they had heard and deci- 
 ded their cause. The words of St. Cyprian are also very particular, 
 and say simply that a day was fixed upon which the christians were* 
 
 demnT— r?'l ' ^^^^ ^^° **'** "°^ '^^ *° ** ^'"' """^ ^"^ *^°"' 
 
 h Tertullian considers flight from persecution as an imperfect, but 
 very criminal, apostasy, as an impious attempt to elude the will of 
 God, &c. Slc. He has written a treatise on tliis subject (see p. 536 
 —544. Edit. Rigalt.) which is filled with the wildest fanaticism and 
 the most incoherent declamation. It is, however, somewhat re 
 markable, that Tertullian did not suffer martyrdom himself 
 
 i [The penance was not so slight, for it was exactly equal to that 
 
 n 
 
194 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 195 
 
 for this profane dissimulation.! III. In every perse- 
 cution there were great numbers of unworthy chris- 
 tians, who publicly disowned or renounced the faith 
 which they had professed; and who confirmed the 
 sincerity of their abjuration, by the legal acts of burn- 
 ing incense or of offering sacrifices. Some of these 
 apostates had yielded on the first menace or exhortation 
 of the magistrate ; whilst the patience of others had 
 been subdued by the length and repetition of tortures. 
 The affrighted countenances of some betrayed their 
 inward remorse, while others advanced with confidence 
 and alacrity to the altars of the gods.'' But the dis- 
 guise, which fear had imposed, subsisted no longer 
 than the present danger. As soon as the severity of 
 the persecution was abated, the doors of the churches 
 were assailed by the returning multitude of penitents, 
 who detested their idolatrous submission, and who so- 
 licited with equal ardour, but with various success, 
 their readmission into the society of christians.' 
 Alternatives of I^. Notwithstanding the general rules 
 eeverity and established for the conviction and punish- 
 toieraiiou. ^gj^^ Qf jj^g christians, the fate of those 
 
 sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary government, 
 must still, in a great measure, have depended on their 
 own behaviour, the circumstances of the times, and 
 the temper of their supreme as well as subordinate 
 rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, and prudence 
 might sometimes avert or assuage, the superstitious 
 fury of the pagans. A variety of motives might dis- 
 pose the provincial governors either to enforce or to 
 relax the execution of the laws ; and of these motives 
 the most forcible was their regard not only for the 
 public edicts, but for the secret intentions of the em- 
 peror, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle 
 or to extinguish the flames of persecution. As often 
 as any occasional severities were exercised in the dif- 
 ferent parts of the empire, the primitive christians la- 
 mented and perhaps magnified their own sufferings ; 
 The ten but the celebrated number of ten perse- 
 persecutions, cutions has been determined by the ec- 
 clesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed 
 a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse for- 
 tunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of 
 Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the ten plagues 
 of Egypt, and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first 
 suggested this calculation to their minds ; and in their 
 application of the faith of prophecy to the truth of his- 
 tory, they were careful to select those reigns which 
 were indeed the most hostile to the christian cause."" 
 But these transient persecutions served only to revive 
 the zeal, and to restore the discipline, of the faithful ; 
 and the moments of extraordinary rigour were com- 
 pensated by much longer intervals of peace and se- 
 curity. The indifference of some princes, and the 
 
 of the apostles who had sacrificed to idols ; it lasted many years. — 
 (See Fieury, Hist. Ecclesiaat. vol. ii. p. 171.)— O.] 
 
 j The Libellatici, who are chiefly known by tlie writing of Cyp- 
 rian, are descrilied witli the utmost precision, in tlie copious commen- 
 tary of Moaheim, p. 483 — 489. 
 
 k Plin. Epistol. x. 97. Dionysius Alexandrin. ap. Euseb. 1. vh c. 
 41. Ad prima statim verba minantis iniiuici maximus fratrum nu- 
 merus fidem suam prodidit : nee prostratus est persccutionis inipotu, 
 Bed voluntario lapsu seipsum prostravii. Cyprian. Opera, p. 89. — 
 Among these deserters were many priests, and even bishops. 
 
 [Pliny says that the greater part of the clirisiians persisted in 
 avowing their faitli, and this was the very reason which induced 
 bim to consult Trajan— (pcriclltantium numcrus.) Eusebius (lib. 
 vi. chap. 41.) clearly establishes the fact, that the number of those 
 who renounced their faiili, was infinitely less than that of those who 
 boldly avowed it. " The prefect and the judges present at the 
 council were terrified at seeing the crowd of christians, the judges 
 even trembled." Finally St. Cyprian informs us that the greater 
 part of those who had shown themselves fainthearted during the 
 persecution of Decius, signalized their courage under that of Callus. 
 Steterunt fortes ct ipso dolore poenitentiae facti ad prwlium fortiores. 
 c (Epist. Ix. 142.)— O.] . . . ^ , 
 
 1 It was on this occasion that Cyprian wrote his treatise Dc Lap 
 ■is, and many of his epistles. The controversy concerning the 
 treatment of penitent apostates, does not occur among the christians 
 of the preceding century. Shall we ascribe this to the superiority 
 of their faith and courage, or to our less intimate knowledge of 
 
 their history ? ^ « ^ , 
 
 nt See Moaheim, p. 97. Sulpicius Sevcrua was the first author of 
 this computation ; though he seemed desirous of reserving tlie tenth 
 and greatest persecution for the coming of the antichrist. 
 
 indulgence of others, permitted the christians to enjoy, 
 though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual and public, 
 toleration of their religion. 
 
 The apology of Tertullian contains ^^^^^^^ ^^.^^^ 
 two very ancient, very singular, but at ^,^' Tiberius and 
 the same time very suspicious instances Marcus Antoni- 
 of imperial clemency ; the edicts pub- ""^• 
 lished by Tiberius, and by Marcus Antoninus, and 
 desio-ned not only to protect the innocence of the chris- 
 tians, but even to proclaim those stupendous miracles 
 which had attested the truth of their doctrine. The 
 first of these examples is attended with some difficulties 
 which might perplex the sceptical mind." We are 
 required to believe, that Pontius Pilate informed the 
 emperor of the unjust sentence of death which he had 
 pronounced against an innocent, and, as it appeared, a 
 divine, person ; and that, without acquiring the merit, 
 he exposed himself to the danger, of martyrdom; that 
 Tiberius, who avowed his contempt for all religion, 
 immediately conceived the design of placing the Jewish 
 Messiah among the gods of Rome ; that his servile 
 senate ventured to disobey the commands of their mas- 
 ter ; that Tiberius, instead of resenting their refusal, 
 contented himself with protecting the christians from 
 the severity of the laws, many years before such laws 
 were enacted, or before the church had assumed any 
 distinct name or existence ; and lastly, that the memory 
 of this extraordinary transaction was preserved in the 
 most public and authentic records, which escaped the 
 knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome, and 
 were only visible to the eyes of an African christian, 
 who composed his Apology one hundred and sixty 
 years after the death of Tiberius. The edict of Marciis 
 Antoninus is supposed to have been the effect of his 
 devotion and gratitude, for the miraculous deliverance 
 which he had obtained in the Marcommanic war. The 
 distress of the legions, the seasonable tempest of rain 
 and hail, of thunderand of lightning, and the dismay and 
 defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated by the 
 eloquence of several pagan writers. If there were any 
 christians in that army, it was natural that they should 
 ascribe some merit to the fervent prayers, which, in 
 the moment of danger, they had offered up for their 
 own and the public safety. But we are still assured 
 by monuments of brass and marble, by the imperial 
 medals, and by the Antonine column, that neither the 
 prince nor the people entertained any sense of this 
 signal obligation, since they unanimously attribute 
 their deliverance to the providence of Jupiter, and to 
 the interposition of Mercury. During the whole course 
 of his reign, Marcus despised the christians as a phi- 
 losopher, and punished them as a sovereign.^ 
 
 By a singular fatality, the hardships state of the 
 which they had endured under the go- ''^ll'^i^^^^l^!' 
 vernment of a virtuous prince, imme- modus and Se- 
 diately ceased on the accession of a ty- *«">»' „ 
 rant, and as none except themselves had • • 
 experienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were 
 protected by the lenity of Commodus. The celebrated 
 Marcia, the mo.^t favoured of his concubines, and who 
 at length contrived the murder of her imperial lover, 
 entertained a singular aflTection for the oppressed 
 church ; and though it was impossible that she could 
 reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the 
 gospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her 
 sex and profession, by declaring herself the patroness 
 of the christians.? Under the gracious protection of 
 Marcia, they passed in safety the thirteen years of a 
 
 n The testimony given by Pontius Pilate is first mentioned by Jus- 
 tin. The successive improvements which the story has acquired, 
 (as it passed through the hands of Tertullian, Eusebius, Epiplianiui, 
 Chrysostoui, Orosius, Gregory of Tours, and the authors of the se- 
 veral editions of the acts of Pilate,) are very fairly stated by Dom. 
 Calmet, Dissertat. sur I'Ecriture, tom. iii. p. 651, &c. , 
 
 o On this miracle, as it is commonly called, of the thundering le- 
 gion, see the admirable criticism of Mr. Moyle, in his Works, vol. 
 ii. p. 81— 300. ^. ^... , , „ ,rt^, 
 
 p Dion Cassius, or rather his ahbreviator, Xiphilin, 1. IxxH. p. i-fw. 
 Mr. Moyle (p. 'J66) has explained tlic condition of tlie church under 
 the reign of Commodus. 
 
 cruel tyranny ; and when the empire was established 
 in the house of Severus, they formed a domestic but 
 more honourable connexion with the new court. The 
 emperor was persuaded, that in a dangerous sickness, 
 he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or phy- 
 sical, from the holy oil, with which one of his slaves 
 had anointed him. He always treated with peculiar 
 distinction several persons of both sexes who had em- 
 braced the new religion. The nurse as well as the 
 preceptor of Caracalla were christians ; and if that 
 jroung prince ever betrayed a sentiment of humanity. 
 It was occasioned by an incident, which, however 
 trifling, bore some relation to the cause of Christianity.*! 
 Under the reign of Severus, the fury of the populace 
 was checked ; the rigour of ancient laws was for some 
 time suspended; and the provincial governors were 
 satisfied with receiving an annual present from the 
 churches within their jurisdiction, as the price, or as 
 the reward, of their moderation."^ The controversy 
 concerning the precise time of the celebration of Eas- 
 ter, armed the bishops of Asia and Italy against each 
 other, and was considered as the most important busi- 
 A. D. 198 "^?® °^ ^^^^ period of leisure and tran- 
 * • quillity." Nor was the peace of the 
 church interrupted, till the increasing numbers of pro- 
 selytes seem at length to have attracted the attention, 
 and to have alienated the mind, of Severus. With the 
 design of restraining the progress of Christianity, he 
 published an edict, which, though it was designed to 
 affect only the new converts, could not be carried into 
 strict execution, without exposing to danger and 
 piinishment the most zealous of their teachers and 
 missionaries. In this mitigated persecution, we may 
 still discover the indulgent spirit of Rome and of poly- 
 theism, which so readily admitted every excuse in 
 favour of those who practised the religious ceremonies 
 of their fathers.* 
 
 Ofthesaceessors ^"t the laws which Severus had en- 
 "^A^^^^Qnl-cun ^^^^^' ®^°" expired with the authority 
 . . ^•'- ofthat emperor; and the christians, after 
 this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eio-ht 
 years." Till this period they had usually held th^eir 
 assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. 
 They were now permitted to erect and consecrate con- 
 venient edifices for the purposes of religious worship ;* 
 to purchase lands, even at Rome itself, for the use of 
 the community ; and to conduct the elections of their 
 ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the same 
 time in so exemplary, a manner, as to deserve the re- 
 spectful attention of the gentiles.y This long repose 
 of the church was accompanied with dignity. The 
 reigns of those princes who derived thei'r extraction 
 from the Asiatic provinces, proved the most favourable 
 to the christians ; the eminent persons of the sect, in- 
 stead of being reduced to implore the protection of a 
 slave or concubine, were admitted into the palace in 
 the honourable characters of priests and philosophers; 
 and their mysterious doctrines, which were already 
 diffused among the people, insensibly attracted the 
 
 curiosity of their sovereign. When the empress Mam- 
 maea passed through Antioch, she expressed a desire 
 of conversing with the celebrated Origen, the fame of 
 whose piety and learning was spread over the east. 
 Origen obeyed so flattering an invitation, and though 
 he could not expect to succeed in the conversion of an 
 artful and ambitious woman, she listened with plea- 
 sure to his eloquent exhortations, and honourably dis- 
 missed him to his retirement in Palestine.^ The sen- 
 timents of Manmia?a were adopted by her son Alexan- 
 der, and the philosophic devotion of that emperor was 
 marked by a singular but injudicious regard for the 
 christian religion. In his domestic chapel he placed 
 the statues of Abraham, of Orpheus, of Apollonius, and 
 of Christ, as an honour justly due to those respectable 
 sages who had instructed mankind in the various modes 
 of addressing their homage to the supreme and universal 
 Deity.* A purer faith, as well as worship, -was openly 
 professed and practised among his household. Bish- 
 ops, perhaps, for the first time, were seen at court ; 
 and, after the death of Alexander, when 
 the inhuman Maximin discharged his A.D.235. 
 fury on the favourites and servants of his unfortunate 
 benefactor, a great number of christians, of every rank, 
 and of both sexes, were involved in the promiscuous 
 massacre, which, on their account, has improperly re- 
 ceived the name of persecution.'' 
 
 Notwithstanding the cruel disposition c^c-m - 
 of Maximin, the effects of his resent- JJihpTTnd' 
 ment against the christians were of a i>ecius. 
 very local and temporary nature, and the pious Origen, 
 who had been proscribed as a devoted victim, was still 
 reserved to convey the truths of the gospel to the ear of 
 monarchs.<= He addressed several edify- 
 ing letters to the emperor Philip, to his A.D.244. 
 wife, and to his mother ; and as soon as that prince, 
 who was born in the neighbourhood of Palestine, had 
 usurped the imperial sceptre, the christians acquired 
 a friend and a protector. The public and even partial 
 favour of Philip towards the sectaries of the new re- 
 ligion, and his constant reverence of the ministers of 
 the church, gave some colour to the suspicion, which 
 prevailed in his own times, that the emperor himself 
 was become a convert to the faith ; «* and afforded some 
 
 q Compare the life of Cararalla in the Augustan History, with the 
 epistle of 1 ertullian to Scapula. Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesias- 
 tical History, vol. ii. p. 5, &c.) considers the cure of Severus, by the 
 means of holy oil, with a strong desire to convert it into a miracle 
 
 r Tertullian de Fuga, c. 1.1. The present was made during the 
 least of the Saturnalia ; and it is a matter of serious concern to Ter- 
 tullian, that the faithful should be confounded with the mo.st infa- 
 nious prolesMions which purchased the connivance of the govern- 
 
 "'mill* I 
 
 • Euseb. I. V. c. 23, 24. Mosheim, p. 435—447. 
 
 snLi'i'**?/ ?^" '"^ gravi ponna vetuit. Idem eliam de chrialianis 
 canxit. Hist. August, p. 70. 
 
 u Sulpicius Severus, 1. ii. p. 384. This computation (allowing for 
 a single exception) Is confirmed by the history of Eusebius, and by 
 the wntinffs of Cyprian. , « u/ 
 
 X The antiquity of christian churches is discussed by Tillcmont 
 
 Jlernoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. part ii. p. 68-72.) and by Mr' 
 
 Moyle (vol. .. p. 378-398.) The former refers the first constriction 
 
 ot t lem to the peace of Alexander Severus; the latter to the peace of 
 
 wlhenus. f « v «• 
 
 r See the Augustan History, p. 130. TJie emperor Alexander 
 aaoptcd their method of publicly proposing the names of those per- 
 sons who were candidates for ordination. It is true, that the hon- 
 our of this practice is likewise attributed to the Jews. 
 
 z Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. vi. c. 21. Hieronym. de Script. Ec- 
 cles. c. 54. Mammae was styled a holy and pious woman, both by 
 the chri-stians and the pagans. From the former, tJierefore, it was 
 impossible that she should deserve that honourable epithet. 
 
 a See the Augustan History, p. 123. Mosheim (p. 4G5.) seems to 
 rehne too much on the domestic religion of Alexander. His desi.'n 
 of building a public temple to Christ, (Hist. August, p. 129.) and the 
 object which was suggested either to him, or, in similar circumstan- 
 ces, to Hadrian, appear to have no other foundation than an impro- 
 bable report, invented by the christians, and credulously adopted by 
 an historian of the aje of Constantine. 
 
 b [It is with reason that this massacre has been called a persecu- 
 tfon, for it lasted during the whole reign of Maximin; as we see in 
 Eusebius, (lib. vi. chap. 28. Hist. Eccles. p. 186.) Rufinus expressly 
 confirms it. Tribus annis a Maximino persccutione commota in 
 quibus flnem et persecutionis fecit et vitaj, (lib. vi. Hist. c. 19.)~0.] 
 Euseb. I. vi. c. 28. It may be presumed, that the success of tiie 
 cliristians had exasperated the increasing bigotry of the pagans.— 
 Dion Cassius, who composed his history under the former reign, had 
 most probably intended for the use of his master those counsels of 
 persecution, which he ascribes to a better age, and to the favourite 
 of Augustus. Concerning this oration of Maecenas, or rather of 
 Dion, I may refer to my own unbiassed opinion, (p. 24. note b.) and 
 to the Abb6 de la Bicterie (Memoires de I'Academie, tom. xxiv d 
 303 . tom. xxv. p. 432.) *^ 
 
 [If this was so, Dion Cassius would have known the christians; 
 they would even have been the object of his particular attention, 
 since our author supposes that it was his wish that his master should 
 profit by Jiis counsels of persecution. How shall we reconcile this 
 necessary consequence with what Gibbon has said of the ignorance 
 of Dion Cassms respecting even the name of christians ? (vol. 3. p. 
 1<5. n. 1.) The supposition made in this note is based upon no 
 proof, and it is probabie that Dion Cassius has often designated the 
 christians under the name of Jews. (See Dion Cassius, lib. Ixvii. 
 chap. 14. lib. Ixviii. chap. I.)—©.] 
 
 c Orosius, 1. vii. c. 19. mentions Origen as the object of Maxirain's 
 resentment ; and Firmilianus, a Cappadocian bishop of that age, 
 gives a just and confined idea of this persecution (apud Cyprian 
 Epist. 75.) 
 
 d The mention of those princes who were publicly supposed to he 
 christians, as we find it in an epistle of Dionysius oi Alexandria, (ap. 
 Euseb. I. vii. c. 10.) evidently alludes to Philip and his family : and 
 forms a contemporary evidence, that such a report had prevailed ; 
 but the Egyptian bishop, who lived at an humble distance from the 
 court of Rome, expresses himself with a becoming diffidence con- 
 cerning the truth ©f the fuct. The epistles of Origen 'which wera 
 
 / 
 
196 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 :M- 
 
 grounds for a fable which was afterwards invented, 
 tliat he had been purified by confession and penance 
 from the guilt contracted by the murder of his inno- 
 cent predecessor.* The fall of Philip introduced, with 
 the change of masters, a new system of 
 A.D 249. government, so oppressive to the chris- 
 tians, that their former condition, ever since the time 
 of Domitian, was represented as a state of perfect 
 freedom and security, if compared with the rigorous 
 treatment which they experienced under the short 
 reign of Decius. ' The virtues of that prince will 
 scarcely allow us to suspect that he was actuated by 
 a mean resentment against the favourites of his pre- 
 decessor ; and it is more reasonable to believe, that in 
 the prosecution of his general design to restore the 
 purity of Roman manners, he was desirous of deliver- 
 ing *the empire from what he condemned as a recent 
 and criminal superstition. The bishops of the most 
 considerable cities were removed by exile or death ; 
 the vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy 
 of Rome during six months from proceeding to a new 
 election ; and it was the opinion of the christians, that 
 the emperor would more patiently endure a competitor 
 for the purple, than a bishop in the capital. « Were it 
 possible to suppose that the penetration of Decius had 
 discovered pride under the disguise of humility, or that 
 he could foresee the temporal dominion which might 
 insensibly arise from the claims of spiritual authority, 
 we might be less surprised, that he should consider 
 the successors of St. Peter as the most formidable 
 rivals to those of Augustus. 
 
 , . -, , The administration of Valerian was 
 n/,l'!'and h^ distinguished by a levity and inconstan- 
 fuccessors, cy, ill suitcd to the gravity of the Roman 
 
 A. D. 253-260. ^g^,^,^^ i„ the first part of his reign, he 
 surpassed in clemency those princes who had been 
 suspected of an attachment to the christian faith. In 
 the last three years and a half, listening to the insinua- 
 tions of a minister addicted to the superstitions of 
 Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated the se- 
 verity, of his predecessor Decius. •> The accession of 
 Gallienus, which increased the calamities of the em- 
 pire, restored peace to the church ; and the christians 
 obtained the free exercise of their religion, by an edict 
 addressed to the bishops, and conceived in such terms 
 as seemed to acknowledge their ofllce and public cha- 
 racter.' The ancient laws, without being formally 
 repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion ; and (ex- 
 cepting some hostile intentions which are attributed 
 to the'' emperor AurelianJ ) the disciples of Christ 
 passed about forty years in a state of prosperity, far 
 more dangerous to their virtue than the severest trials 
 of persecution. ^ 
 
 The story of Paul of Samosata, who PauiofSamosa- 
 filled the metropolitan see of Antioch, ta, his manners, 
 while the east was in the hands of Ode- ^•^- ^^• 
 nathus and Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the condi- 
 tion and character of the times. The wealth of that 
 prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt, since it 
 was neither derived from the inheritance of his fathers, 
 nor acquired by the arts of honest industry. But Paul 
 considered the serA^ce of the church as a very lucrative 
 profession. • His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal 
 and rapacious ; he extorted frequent contributions from 
 the most opulent of the faithful, and converted to his 
 own use a considerable part of the public revenue. By 
 his pride and luxury, the christian religion was ren- 
 dered odious in the eyes of the gentiles. His council 
 chamber and his throne, the splendour with which he 
 appeared in public, the suppliant crowd who solicited 
 his attention, the multitude of letters and petitions to 
 which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry 
 of business in which he was involved, were circum- 
 stances much better suited to the state of a civil ma- 
 gistrate, "» than to the humility of a primitive bishop. 
 When he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul 
 affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures 
 of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded 
 with the loudest and most extravagant acclamations in 
 the praise of his divine eloquence. Against those who 
 resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the 
 prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; 
 but he relaxed the discipline, and lavished the trea- 
 sures of the church on his dependent clergy, who were 
 permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of 
 every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself 
 very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had 
 received into the episcopal palace two young and beau- 
 tiful women, as the constant companions of his leisure 
 moments." 
 
 Notwithstanding these scandalous He is degraded 
 vices, if Paul of Samosata had preserv- from the^tee of 
 ed the purity of the orthodox faith, his ^"^'"jj^'oyo. 
 reign over the capital of Syria would 
 have ended only with his life;" and had a seasonable 
 persecution intervened, an effort of courage might per- 
 haps have placed him in the rank of saints and mar- 
 tyrs. Some nice and subtle errors, which he impru- 
 dently adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and in- 
 dignation of the eastern churches.? From Egypt to 
 the Euxine sea, the bishops were in arms and in mo- 
 tion. Several councils were held, confutations were 
 published, excommunications were pronounced, am- 
 biguous explanations were by turns accepted and re- 
 
 extant in the time of Eusehius, see I. vi. c. 36.) would most probably 
 decide this curious, rather ilian important, question. . ., , 
 
 • Euseb. 1. vi. c. 34. The story, as is usual, lias been embellished 
 by succeeding writers, and is confuted with much superfluous learn- 
 ine by Frederick Spanheim (Opera Varia, torn. ii. p. 400, Set.) 
 
 t Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 3. 4. After celebrating 
 the felicity and increase of the church, under a long succession of 
 good princes; he adds, " Extitit post annos plurimos, execrabile ani- 
 mal, Decius, qui vexaret ecclesiam." 
 
 r Euseb 1. vi. c, 39. Cyprian. Epistol. 55. The see of Rome re- 
 mained vacant from the martyrdom of Fabianus, the -iOlh of Jan. 
 A D 250, till the election of Cornelius, the 4th of June, A. D. 251. 
 Dectus had probably left Rome, since he was killed before the end 
 
 of that year. ^ . , , , 
 
 h Euseb. I. vii. c. 10, Mosheim (p. 548.) has very clearly shown, 
 that the prafect Macrianus, and the Egyptian Magus, are one and 
 
 the same person. , . . -, • j- . 
 
 i Eusehius (1. vii. c. 13.) gives us a Greek version of this Latin edict, 
 which seems to liave been very concise. By another edict, he di- 
 rected that the eameteria should be restored to the christians. 
 
 j Euseb. I. vii. c. 30. Lactantius de M. P. c. 6. Hieronym. in 
 Chron. p. 177. Orosius, K vii. c. 23. Their language is in general so 
 smbiTUOUs and incorrect, that we are at a loss to determine how far 
 Aurelian had carried his intentions before he was assassinated.— 
 Most of the moderns (except Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprian, xi. 64.) 
 have seized the occasion of gaining a few extraordmary martyrs. 
 
 k [Dr. Lardner has stated with his usual impartiality, all which 
 has reached us respecting the persecution of Aureliaa, and finishes by 
 saving " After having examined with care the words of Eusebius, 
 and the accounts of other authors, the learned have generally, and 
 I lielievc very judiciously, decided that Aurelian did not confine 
 hi'nself to the intention of persecuting the christians, but that this 
 persecutton was real. It was of short duration, because the emperor 
 
 died soon after his edicts were published." (Heathen Testimonies, 
 vol. iii. p. 117. 4to edit. London, 1766.) 
 
 Basnage expresses decidedly the same opinion. Non intentatam 
 modo, Red execution! quoque brevissimo tempore mandatam, nobis 
 infixum est in aninio. Basnage, Ann. 275. No. 2, and Conf. Pagi 
 Ann. 272. No. 4.-12, and 27.3.)-0.] . 
 
 1 Paul was better pleased with the title of du^nanua, than witii 
 that of bishop. The ducenarius was an imperial procurator, so cal- 
 led, from his salary of two hundred sestertia, or 1600/. a year. (See 
 Salmaaius ad. Hist. August, p. 124.) Some critics suppose, that the 
 bishop of Antioch had actually obtained such an office from Zeno- 
 bia, while others consider it only as a figurative expression of his 
 pomp and insolence. 
 
 m Simony was not unknown in those limes ; and the clergy some- 
 times bought what they intended to sell. It appears that the bish- 
 opric of Carthage was purchased by a wealthy matron, named Lu- 
 cilla, for her servant Majorinus. The price was 400 folles. (Monu- 
 ment. Antiq. ad calcem Optati. p. 263.) Every follis contained 125 
 pieces of silver, and the whole sum may be computed at about 2400/. 
 B If we are desirous of extenuating the vires of Paul, we mnsl 
 suspect the assembled bishops of the cast of publishing the most ma- 
 licious calumnies in circular epistles addressed to all the churches of 
 the empire, (ap. Euseb. 1. vii. c. 30.) 
 
 [It nevertheless appears that the vicesand evil practices of Paul of 
 Samosata, had great influence in procuring the condemnation which 
 the bishops pronounced against him. The letter which the Synod 
 addressed to the bishops of Rome and of Alexandria was desicned, 
 says Eusebius, to inform them of Paul's change of faith, and of the 
 discussions and refutations to which it had givon rise, as well as of 
 his behaviour and hia whole conduct. Eusebius Hist. Ecclef. lib. vu 
 chap. 30.— «.] ... 
 
 p His heresy (like those of Noctus and Sabelllus, In the same cen- 
 tury) tended to confound the mysterious distinction of the divine 
 persons. See Mosheim, p. 702, &c. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 fused, treaties were concluded and violated, and at 
 length Paul of Samosata was degraded from his epis- 
 copal character, by the sentence of seventy or eiohty 
 bishops, who assembled for that purpose at Antioch 
 and who, without consulting the ricrhts of the clergy 
 or people, appointed a successor by'their own author- 
 ity. The manifest irregularity of this proceedin<r in- 
 creased the numbers of the discontented faction ;°and 
 as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts of courts 
 had insinuated himself into the favour of Zenobia, he 
 maintained above four years the possession of the epis- 
 copal house and office. The victory of Aurelian 
 changed the face of the east, and the two contending 
 parties who applied to each other the epithets of 
 schism and heresy, were either commanded or per- 
 mitted to plead their cause before the tribunal of the 
 conqueror. This public and very sincrular trial af- 
 fords a convincing proof, that the existence, the pro- 
 perty, the privileges, and the internal policy, of the 
 christians, were acknowledged, if not by the laws, at 
 least by the magistrates of the empire. As a pao-an 
 and as a soldier, it could scarcely be expected that 
 Aurelian should enter into the discussion, whether 
 the sentiments of Paul or those of his adversaries 
 were most agreeable to the true standard of the ortho- 
 Tlie sentence is ^^^ faith. His determination, however, 
 executed byAu- was founded on the general principles of 
 T'd 274. ?9"'^y ^"d reason. He considered the 
 bishops of Italy as the most impartial 
 and respectable judges among the christians, and as 
 soon as he was informed, that they had unanimously 
 approved the sentence of the council, he acquiesced 
 in their opinion, and immediately gave orders that 
 Paul should be compelled to relinquish the temporal 
 possessions belonging to an office, of which, in the 
 judgment of his brethren, he had been regularly de- 
 prived. But while we applaud the justice, we should 
 not overlook the policy, of Aurelian ; who was de- 
 sirous of restoring and cementing the dependence of the 
 provinces on the capital, by every means which could 
 bind the interest or prejudices of any part of his sub- 
 jects.** 
 
 peTur of 'X\u.^'^'^?' '^,f ^^^^"^".^ revolutions of 
 church under ^"*^ empire, the christians still flourish- 
 
 A "d'^ISS* 101 ■ t*" P^,^^^ ^^^ prosperity ; and not- 
 A. u -«>4~303 ^vithstanding a celebrated a3ra of martyrs 
 has been deduced from the accession of Diocletian ' 
 the new system of policy, introduced and maintained by 
 the wisdom of that prince, continued, during more than 
 eiDhteen years, to breathe the mildest and most liberal 
 spirit of religious toleration. The mind of Diocletian 
 himself was less adapted indeed to speculative in- 
 quiries, than to the active labours of war and govern- 
 ment. His prudence rendered him averse to any great 
 innovation, and though, his temper was not very sus- 
 ceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained 
 an habitual regard for fee ancient deities of the em- 
 P*.7' T. •"' *"® leisure oT the two empresses, of his 
 wife Prisca, and of Valeria his daughter, permitted 
 them to listen with more attention and respect to the 
 truths of Christianity, which in every age has acknow- 
 ledged its important obligations to female devotion.' 
 Ihe principal eunuchs, Lucian* and Dorotheus, Gor- 
 gonius and Andrew, who attended the person, pos- 
 sessed the favour, and governed the household, of 
 liiocletian, protected by th eir powerful influence the 
 
 q Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. I. vii. c. 30, We are entirely indebted 
 to hmi for the curious story of Paul of Samosata. ^ '""eoiea 
 
 III Tk -^ ^^ Martyrs, which is still in use among the Copts and 
 the Abyssmians, must he reckoned from the 29th of Aueust. A D 
 n!r hoVl^^*""!'"'"^ ""^ the Eiryptian year was nineteen days ear 
 «oi 1 " M i*'? i;^**' "'"i'^^^'o" ^f l>iocletian. See Dissertation Prelimi- 
 naire a I'Art de verifier Ics Dates. fc'imi 
 
 • 'f le expression of Lactantius (de M. P. c. 15.) "sacrificio nollni 
 coegh," imp ies their antecedent conversion to the faTth ; Koes 
 
 bee.rpTvMeJ.riL'^tfze?"""'*" '' '^°^'^''"' ^'' ^'^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ hal 
 
 197 
 
 t M. de 1 illeinont (Memoires Ecclesiastiqucs, tom. v. part, i n 11 
 ^,^■r^.?.°^''".°**t'^'°"' !'l® Spicilegium of Dom Luc d'Acheri, a very 
 ludan ^°'^'"*'^'°" '""^"^^ ^''^^°P Theonas composed for the u»e of 
 
 faith which they had embraced. Their example was 
 imitated by many of the most considerable officers of 
 the palace, who, in their respective stations, had the 
 care of the imperial ornaments, of the robes, of the 
 turniture, of the jewels, and even of the private trea- 
 sury; and, though It might sometimes be incumbent 
 on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed 
 m the temple," they enjoyed with their wives, their 
 children, and their slaves, the free exercise of the 
 christian religion. Diocletian and his colleatrues fre- 
 quently conferred the most important offices ?n those 
 persons who avowed their abhorrence for the worship 
 of the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for 
 the service of the state. The bishops held an honour- 
 able rank in their respective provinces, and were treat- 
 ed with distinction and respect, not only by the people 
 but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every 
 city, the ancient churches were found insufficient to 
 contain the increasing multitude of proselvtes; and in 
 their place more stately and capacious edifices were 
 erected for the public worship of the faithful. The 
 corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly la- 
 mented by Eusebius,^ may be considered not only as 
 a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which 
 the christians enjoyed and abused under the reio-u of 
 Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of 
 discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice, prevailed in 
 every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the 
 episcopal office, which everv day became an object 
 more worthy of their ambition. The bishops, who 
 contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre- 
 eminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secu- 
 lar and tyrannical power in the church; and the live- 
 ly faith which still distinguished the christians from 
 the gentiles, was shown much less in their lives, than 
 m their controversial writings. 
 
 Notwithstanding this seeming secu- „ ' , 
 
 rity, an attentive observer might dis- a^iZu'r^tiS! 
 cover some symptoms that threatened *""°"s t^e pu- 
 the church w^ith a more violent perse- ^"""* 
 cution than any which she had yet endured. The 
 zeal and rapid progress of the christians awakened the 
 polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause 
 of those deities, whom custom and education had 
 taught them to revere. The mutual provocations of a 
 religious war, which had already continued above two 
 hundred years, exasperated the animosity of the con- 
 tending parties. The pagans were incensed at the 
 rashness of a recent and obscure sect, which presum- 
 ed to accuse their countrymen of error, and to devote 
 their ancestors to eternal misery. The habits of jus- 
 tifying the popular mythology against the invectives 
 ot an implacable enemy, produced in their minds some 
 sentiments of faith and reverence for a system which 
 they had been accustomed to consider with the most 
 careless levity. The supernatural powers assumed 
 by the church inspired at the same time terror and 
 emulation. The followers of the established religion 
 intrenched themselves behind a similar fortification 
 ot prodigies ; invented new modes of sacrifice, of ex- 
 piation, and of initiation ; '^ attempted to revive the 
 credit of their expiring oracles ;y and listened with 
 eager credulity to every impostor, who flattered their 
 prejudices by a tale of wonders.' Both parties seemed 
 
 u Lactantius de M. P. c. 10. * 
 
 T Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. I. viii. c. 1. The reader who consulta 
 the original, will not accuse me of heightening the picturl EuseC 
 c^etia^'rl!" '""'"'" ^^''"' °^ ^^^ ^' the accession of the e^pSor Dio 
 
 tJin^JJll'"}'^ *^H?if ' 'l'"^"^ ^ P""^'*^^ number of instances, the mys- 
 h/AToT ,'-"P ^^^'.y^h'-aS' and the Taurobolia ; the lat.erof which 
 nf M ^ fashionable in the time of the Antonines. (see a Dissertation 
 ?i ^*;??^®rV,L" ^^^- Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom 
 11. p. 44J.) 1 he romance of Apuleius is as full of devotion as of 
 satire. 
 
 y The impostor Alexander very strongly recommended the oracle 
 ot Jrophoniiisat Mallos.and thoseof Apollo, at Claros and Miletus 
 (Lucian, tom. ii. p. 236 edit. Reifz.) The last of these, whose sin- 
 gular history would furnish a very curious episode, was consulted 
 by Diocletian before he published his edicts of persecution. (Lac- 
 tantius de M. P. c. 11.) 
 
 s Besides the ancient stories of Pythagoras and Aristeas, the ourea 
 
I 
 
 198 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 few christian sul- 
 diera. 
 
 to acknowledsfe the truthof those miracles which were 
 claimed by their adversaries; and while they were 
 contented with ascribing them to the arts of magic, 
 and to the power of daemons, they mutually concurred 
 in restoring and establishing the reign of superstition.* 
 Philosophy, her most dangerous enemy, was now con- 
 verted into her most useful ally. The groves of the aca- 
 demy, the gardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of 
 the stoics, were almost deserted, as so many different 
 schools of scepticism or impiety : ^ and many among 
 the Romans were desirous that the writings of Cicero 
 should be condemned and suppressed by the authority 
 of the senate.'^ The prevailing sect of the new Plato- 
 iiicians judged it prudent to connect themselves with* 
 the priests, whom they perhaps despised, against the 
 christians, whom they had reason to fear. These 
 fashionable philosophers prosecuted the design of ex- 
 tracting allegorical wisdom from the fictions of the 
 Greek poets ; instituted mysterious rites of devotion 
 for the use of their chosen disciples ; recommended the 
 worship of the ancient gods as the emblems or ministers 
 of the Supreme Deity, and composed against the faith 
 of the gospel many elaborate treatises,** which have 
 since been committed to the flames by the prudence of 
 orthodox emperors.' 
 
 Maximian and Although the poHcy of Diocletian and 
 Galerius punisha the humanity of Constantius inclined 
 them to preserve inviolate the maxims 
 of toleration, it was soon discovered that 
 their two associates, Maximian and Galerius, enter- 
 tained the most implacable aversion for the name and 
 religion of the christians. The minds of those princes 
 had never been enlightened by science ; education had 
 never softened their temper. They owed their great- 
 ness to their swords, and in their most elevated for- 
 tune they still retained their superstitious prejudices 
 of soldiers and of peasants. In the general adminis- 
 tration of the provinces they obeyed the laws which 
 their benefactor had established ; but they frequently 
 found occasions of exercising within their camp and 
 palaces a secret persecution,' for which the imprudent 
 zeal of the christians sometimes offered the most spe- 
 cious pretences. A sentence of death was executed 
 upon Maximilianus, an African youth, who had been 
 produced by his own father before the magistrate as a 
 sufficient and legal recruit,^ but who obstinately per- 
 
 performed at the shrine of /TIsculapius, and the fahles related of 
 Apollonius of Tyana, were frequently opposed to the miracles of 
 Christ ; tiiou£;h I agree with Dr. Lardner, (see Testimonies, vol. iii. 
 p. S.')!), 352.) that when Piiiiostratus composed the life of Apollonius, 
 he liad no such intention. 
 
 a It is seriously to be lamented, that the christian fathers, by ac- 
 knowledging the supernatural, or, as they deem it, the infernal, part 
 of paganism, destroy with their own hands the great advantage 
 which we might otherwise derive from the liberal concessions of our 
 adversaries. 
 
 b Julian (p. 301. edit. Spanheim.) expresses a pious joy, that the 
 providence of the gods had extinguished the impious sects, nnd for 
 the most part destroyed the books of the Pyrrhonians and Epicu- 
 reans, which had been very numerous, since Epicurus himself com- 
 posed no less than 300 volumes. S^ee Diogenes Laertius, I. x. c. 26. 
 
 c Cumque alios audiam mussitare indignanter, et dicere oportere 
 Btatui per senatum, aholeantur et hire scripta, quibus Christiana reli- 
 gio comprohetur, et vetustatis opprimatur auctoritas. Arnobius ad- 
 versus Gentes, I. iii. p. 103, 104. He adds very properly, Erroris con- 
 vinrite Ciceronem . . . nam intercipere scripta, et pul>licatam 
 velle submergere lectionem, non est Deum defenderesed veritatis tes- 
 titicatioricm timere. 
 
 d Lactantius (Divin. Institut. 1. v. c. 9, 3.) gives a very clear and 
 spirited account of two of these philosophic adversaries of the faith. 
 The large treatise of Porphyry against the christians consisted of 
 thirty books, and was composed in Sicily about the year 270. 
 
 e See Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. i. c. 9. and Codex Justinian, I. i. 
 tit. i. 1. 3. 
 
 t Eusebius, 1. viif. c. 4. c. 17. lie limits the number of military 
 martyrs by a remarkable expression, (o-sratviiuj toutcuv Hi ^m xx ^svt- 
 ifo,-,) of which neither his Latin nor French translator have render- 
 ed the energy. Notwithstanding the authority of Eusebius. and the 
 silence of Lactantius, Ambrose Sulpiciu^, Orosius, &c, it has been 
 long believed, that the Theba>an legion, consisting of 6000 christians, 
 * suffered martyrdom, by the order of Maximian, in the valley of the 
 Penine Alps. The story was first published about the middle of the 
 fifth century, by Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who received it from 
 certain persons, who received if from Isaac, bishop of Geneva, who 
 is said to have received it from Theodore bishop of Octodurum. The 
 abbey of St. Maurice still subsists, a rich monument of the credulity 
 of Sigismond, king of Burgundy. Sec an excellent Dissertation in 
 the thirty sixth volume of the Bibliotheque Raisonn^e. p. 427 — 154. 
 
 ff [The anecdote related at length presents the young man in a very 
 
 sisted in declaring, that his conscience would not per- 
 mit him to embrace the profession of a soldier.** It 
 could scarcely be expected that any government 
 should suffer the action of Marcellus the centurion to 
 pass with impunity. On the day of a public festival, 
 that officer threw away his belt, his arms, and the en- 
 signs of his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice, 
 that he would obey none but Jesus Christ the eternal 
 King, and that he renounced for ever the use of car- 
 nal weapons, and the service of an idolatrous master,' 
 The soldiers, as soon as they recovered from their as- 
 tonishment, secured the person of Marcellus. He was 
 examined in the city of Tingi, by the president of that 
 part of Mauritania ; and as he was convicted by his 
 own confession, he was condemned and beheaded for 
 the crime of desertion.^ Examples of such a nature 
 savour much less of religious persecution than of mar- 
 tial or even civil law : but they served to alienate 
 the minds of the emperors, to justify the severity of 
 Galerius, who dismissed a great number of christian 
 officers from their employments ; and to authorize the 
 opinion, that a sect of enthusiasts, which avowed 
 principles so repugnant to the public safety, must 
 either remain useless, or would soon become danger- 
 ous, subjects of the empire. J 
 After the success of the Persian war cuierius prevails 
 had raised the hopes and the reputation on Diocletian to 
 of Galerius, he passed a winter with ^^^^"cutiof """^^ 
 Diocletian in the palace of Nicomedia ; p*''"''*'*^" '""• 
 and the fate of Christianity became the object of their 
 secret consultations.'' The experienced emperor was 
 still inclined to pursue measures of lenity ; and though 
 he readily consented to exclude the christians from 
 holding any employments in the household or the 
 arrny, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as 
 well as cruelty of shedding the blood of those delud- 
 ed fanatics. Galerius at length extorted from him the 
 permission of summoning a council, composed of a 
 few persons the most distinguished in the civil and 
 military departments of the state.' The important 
 question was agitated in their presence, and those 
 ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it was in- 
 cumbent on them to second, by their eloquence, the 
 importunate violence of the Caesar. It may be pre- 
 sumed, that they insisted on every topic which might 
 
 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE. 
 
 different light. Maximilian was the son of Victor, a christian soldier 
 ofNumidia. His father did not present him to the magistrate at 
 having all the qualities required by law for the profession of arms. 
 The sons of soldiers were obliged to serve at the age of twenty one, 
 and Maximilian was enrolled as being of that age. He obstinately 
 refused to serve, on account of pagan ceremonies, to which he could 
 not submit, and not because his conscience did not permit him tofol' 
 low the profession of a soldier. The magistrate wished tlie father 
 to reprove his son, but the father replied : " tie has his reasons, and 
 knows what he ought to do." (Habet consilium suum, quid illi ex- 
 pediat.) Maximilian having been condemned to death, Victor re- 
 turned home thanking heaven it had given him such a son. — G.] 
 
 h Pee the Acta Sincera, p. 299. The accounts of his martyrdom, 
 and that of Marcellus, bear every mark of truth and authenticity. 
 
 i [Marcellus was in the same situation as Maximilian. Upon 
 the days of public feasts the bystanders sacrificed to the gods, Mar- 
 cellus refused to do so, saylns; " if such is the lot of the soldier that 
 he is forced to sacrifice to gods and to emperors, I renounce the vine 
 branch (vitem) and my belt. I abandon my staffof colours, and refuse 
 to serve." (Act. sine, of Ruinart ad. cit. loc.) It is evident that the 
 necessity of sacrificing to false gods alone, drove Marcellus from the 
 military profession. — 0.\ 
 
 i Acta Sincera, 302. 
 
 k De M. P. c. 11. [Lactantius (or whoever was the author ofthfs 
 little treatise) was at that time an inhabitant of Nicomedia ; but it 
 seems diflicult to conceive huw he could acquire so accurate a knowl- 
 edge of what passed in the imperial cabinet. [Lactantius, who was 
 afterwards chosen by Constantine to educate Crispus, could very 
 easily liave learnt these details from Constantine himself, who whs 
 already old enough to interest himself in the affairs of government, 
 and so situated as to be well instructed concerning them. — O.] 
 
 1 [This permission was not extorted from Diocletian. He look this 
 determination himself. Lactantius says truly : Nee tamen deflcctere 
 polui, (I)iocletianus) precipitis hominis insaninm ; placuit ergo ami- 
 corum sententiam experiri (De. mort. pers. c. 2.) But this measure 
 was in accordance with the artful character of Diocletian, who wish- 
 ed to have the appearance of doing all the good from his own im- 
 pulse, and the evil by the persuasion of another — Nam erat hujua 
 malitisp, cum bonum quid facere decrevisset, sine consilio faciebat nt 
 ipse laudaretur. Cum autem, malum quoniam id reprehendenduni 
 sciebat, in consilium multos advocabat ut aliorum culpte adscribcre- 
 tur quicquid ipse deliquerat, (Lact. ib.) Eutropius says also Moratus 
 callide fuit, sagax prsterea et admodum subtilis ingenio et qui seve- 
 ritatem suam aliena Invidia vellct explere. (Eutrop. lib c. 36.)— O] 
 
 interest the pride, the piety, or the fears, of their 
 sovereign in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps 
 they represented, that the glorious work of the deliv- 
 erance of the empire was left imperfect, as long as an 
 independent people was permitted to subsist and mul- 
 tiply in the heart of the provinces. The christians, 
 (it might speciously be alleged), renouncing the gods 
 and the institutions of Rome, had constituted a distinct 
 republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had 
 acquired any military force ; but which was already 
 governed by its own laws and magistrates, was pos- 
 sessed of a public treasure, and was intimately con- 
 nected in all its parts, by the frequent assemblies of 
 the bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and 
 opulent congregations yielded an implicit obedience. 
 Arguments like these may seem to have determined 
 the reluctant mind of Diocletian to embrace a new 
 system of persecution : but though we may suspect, 
 It IS not in our power to relate, the secret intrigues of 
 the palace, the private views and resentments, the 
 jealousy of women or eunuchs, and all those trifling 
 but decisive causes which so often influence the fate 
 ot empires, and the councils of the wisest monarchs."> 
 
 media. */"?th Signified to the christians, who, 
 
 o\ ?i?"k^* -'^ ^^*® ^°"^s® of this melancholy 
 
 2 Jrd Feb. winter, had expected, with anxiety, the 
 result of so many secret consultations. The twenty- 
 third of February, which coincided with the Roman 
 festival of the Terminalia,'> was appointed (whether 
 froni accident or design) to set bounds to the progress 
 of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the prae- 
 torian prffifect,° accompanied by several generals, tri- 
 bunes, and officers of the revenue, repaired to the 
 principal church of Nicomedia, which was situated on 
 an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part 
 l?:.,a\.JAl:^??^_^.--« instantly broke op^n ; 
 
 199 
 
 all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies 
 tor the purpose of religious worship. The philoso- 
 phers, who now assumed the unworthy office of direc- 
 ting the blind zeal of persecution, had dilio-ently 
 studied the nature and genius of the christian relTcrion : 
 and as they were not ignorant that the specufative 
 doctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in 
 he writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of 
 the apostles, they most probably suggested the order, 
 that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all 
 their sacred books into the hands of the macristrates • 
 who were commanded, under the severest penalties, to 
 burn them m a public and solemn manner. By the 
 same edict, the property of the church was at once 
 confiscated; and the several parts of which it micrht 
 consist, were either sold to the highest bidder, uniW 
 to the imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and cor- 
 porations, or granted to the solicitations of rapacious 
 courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to 
 aboish the worship, and to dissolve the government 
 ot the christians, it was thought necessary to subject 
 to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those 
 perverse individuals who should still reject the reli- 
 gion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Per- 
 sons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of hold- 
 ing any honours or employments; slaves were for 
 ever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole 
 body ot the people were put out of the protection of 
 the law. The judges were authorized to hear and to 
 deterniine every action that was brought against a 
 christian. But the christians were not pernfitted to 
 complain of any injury which they themselves had 
 suttered; and thus those unfortunate sectaries were 
 exposed to the severity, while they were excluded 
 from the benefits, of public justice. This new species 
 of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure 
 
 
 obliged to content themselves with committing- to the 
 flames the volumes of holy scripture. The ministers 
 ot Diocletian were followed by a numerous body of 
 guards and pioneers, who marched in order of battle, 
 and were provided with all the instruments used in 
 the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant 
 labour, a sacred edifice, which towered above the im- 
 perial palace, and had long excited the indignation and 
 envy of the gentiles, was in a few hours levelled with 
 the ground.P 
 
 The first edict '^^^ ^^^* ^^J ^^^ general edict of 
 against thcchris- Persecution was published ; ** and though 
 
 24th of Feb'^uary. m ^'^l^'^"' '^'", ^^^''^^ ^0 the effusion of 
 
 blood, had moderated the fury of Gale- 
 rius, who proposed, that every one refusino- to offer 
 sacrifice, should immediately be burnt alive,°the pen- 
 alties inflicted on the obstinacy of the christians mio-ht 
 be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was 
 enacted, that their churches, in all the provinces of the 
 
 isposed on this occasion to second the desi^-ns of the 
 emperors. But the policy of a well ordered govern- 
 ment must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the 
 oppressed christians ; nor was it possible for the Ro- 
 man princes entirely to remove the apprehension of 
 punishment, or to connive at every act of fraud and 
 violence, without exposing their own authority and 
 the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dan- 
 
 gers.' 
 
 empire, should be demolished to their foundations; 
 and the punishment of death was denounced against 
 
 m The only circumstance which we can discover, is the devotion 
 and jealousy of the mother of Galerius. She is described bv Lac 
 sili hL!l ""^ Deorum montmm cultrix ; mulier admodum superstitio-^a 
 rJlVrH nf" ^'^^^ 'nfluence over her son, and was offended by the dis- 
 regard of some of her christian servants. 
 
 r^riToi^nlVfTU^T-^''^^'^ *"? t'^'S' tHat the christians fasted and 
 prayed instead of taking part in the feasts and sacrifices which she 
 
 X "J^'l^^^"?^ ^i»" "'f. P«^«"s -Dapibus sacrificabat p^ene quo 
 J ?m ^LV?""" '"1^ ^.»'"''.' exhibebat. Christian! abstinehant et ilia 
 cS^r.Ki"^ epulante, jejunns hi et orationibus insistebant, hinc 
 
 COncenit nnmm nHvArenc «<-.» Irt^ ft __. t\_ >. _ ' ' _ _ 
 
 This edict was scarcely exhibited to ^ , , 
 the public view, in the most conspicu- S^f a'Trt 
 ous place of Nicomedia, before it was ^'^n- 
 torn down by the hands of a christian, who expressed, 
 at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his con- 
 tempt as well as abhorrence for such impious and tyr- 
 annical governors. His offence, according to the 
 mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved death. 
 And if it be true that he was a person of rank and 
 education, those circumstances could serve only to 
 aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, 
 by a slow fire ; and his executioners, zealous to re- 
 venge the personal insult which had been offered to 
 the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, 
 without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter 
 the steady and insulting smile which in his dying 
 agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The 
 christians, though they confessed that his conduct had 
 not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, 
 admired the divine fervour of his zeal ; and the exces- 
 sive commendations which they lavished on the 
 
 y^t^tZT^^t^^'^^::.'^'^r.^^^^^^ -- .u.u.u.uu.uun« wnicn ^ney lavished on the 
 
 justrated by M. de Boze, Mem. de TAcademieTrinscriSrio^ memory of their, hero and martyr, contributed to fix 
 ' P - ' ' a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of 
 
 1. p. 50. 
 
 o In our only MS. of Lactantius, we read profectus: but reason 
 and the authority of all the critics, allow us. instead of that wo?d' 
 which destroys the sense of the passage, to substitute prmfcctus 
 st?uJ;?o?o7;he'chiKch'!- '• ''• ^^ ^ very lively picture of the de- 
 
 q Mosheim, (p. 922— 92G.) from many scattered passages of Lactan- 
 th!J/n ' Eusebius, has collected a very just and accurate notfon of 
 mem ' ^^^^^^ ^^ sometimes deviates into conjecture and refine 
 
 Diocletian.* 
 
 r [This proves nothing. The edict of Diocletian was executed in 
 all its rigour during the remairtder of his reign. (Eusebius, Hist 
 Eccles. lib. viii. chap. 1.3.)— G.] 
 
 Many ages afterwards, Edward I. practised, with great success 
 the same mode of persecution against the clergy of England. See » 
 Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 300, last 4to edition. 
 
 B Lactantiu.s only calls him quidam, etsi non recle, uiagno tameii 
 
 /; 
 
200 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 „. - , , His fears were soon alarmed by the 
 
 Fireof the palace . r j c i ;-u U« •.r«,,r 
 
 ofNicomediaim- view of 3 danger from which he very 
 puled to the narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days 
 christians. ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^j. Njcomcdia, and even the 
 
 bedchamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames ; and 
 though both times they were extinguished without 
 any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire 
 was justly considered as an evident proof that it had 
 not been the effect of chance or negligence. The sus- 
 picion naturally fell upon the christians ; and it was 
 suggested, with some degree of probability, that those 
 desperate fanatics, provoked by their present suffer- 
 ings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had 
 entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, 
 the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two 
 emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable 
 enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resent- 
 ment prevailed in every breast, and especially in that of 
 Diocletian. A great number of persons, distinguished 
 either by the offices which they had filled, or by the fa- 
 vour which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. 
 Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the 
 court, as well as city, was polluted with many bloody 
 executions.* But as it was found impossible to extort 
 any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems 
 incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to 
 admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days 
 afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from 
 Nicomedia, declaring, that if he delayed his departure 
 from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to 
 the rage of the christians. The ecclesiastical histo- 
 rians, from whom alone we derive a partial and im- 
 perfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss 
 how to account for the fears and dangers of the eni- 
 perors. Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetori- 
 cian, were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. 
 The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine 
 wrath ; the other affirms, tliat it was kindled by the 
 malice of Galerius himself."^ 
 
 Execution of the As the edict against the christians was 
 first edict. designed for a general law of the whole 
 
 empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they 
 might not wait for the consent, were assured of the 
 coricurrence, of the western princes, it would appear 
 more consonant to our ideas of policy, that the govern- 
 ors of all the provinces should have received secret 
 instructions to publish, on one and the same day, this 
 declaration of war within their respective departments. 
 It was at least to be expected, that the convenience of 
 the public highways and established posts would have 
 enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the 
 utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the 
 extremities of the Roman world ; and that they would 
 not have suffered fifty days to elapse, before the edict 
 was published in Syria, and near four months before it 
 was signified to the cities of Africa.^ This delay may 
 perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocle- 
 tian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the mea- 
 sures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying 
 the experiment under his most immediate eye, before 
 he gave way to the disorders and discontent which it 
 must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces. At 
 
 animo, &c. r. 12. Eusebiiis (I. viii. r. o.) adorns him with secular 
 honours. Neitl»cr have condescended to mention his name; hut the 
 Greeks cclebrntc liis m(!mory under that of John. Sec Tillemont, 
 Rlenioires Ecclesiasticpies, torn. v. part ii. p. t?20. 
 
 t Lactantius dc M. 1'. c. 13, 14. I'otentissimi quondam etmuchi 
 necati, per quos palatium et ipse constiihat. Eusehius (1. viii. c.6.) 
 nientions the cruel extortions of the eunuchs, Gorgonius and Doro- 
 tbeus, and of Antliimitis. hishop of Nicomedia ; and both those wri- 
 ters desicrihe, in a vague hut tragical manner, the liorrid scenes which 
 were acted even in tlie imperial presence. 
 
 n See Iiactanlius, Eusehius, and Constantine, ad Coetum Sancto 
 rum. c. 25. Eusehius confesses Itis i<inorance of llie cause of the fire. 
 
 [Since tlie history of tliese times affords no example of any at- 
 tempt made by the christians against their persecutors, we have no 
 reason except probability for aliribulin!? to them the burning of the 
 palace, and the testimony of Constantino and Galerius remains to 
 explain it. M. de Tillemont has shown how the different accounts 
 may be reconciled. (Hieit. des Empereurs. Vie de Diocletian $ 19.) 
 — «J 
 
 V Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. torn. v. part. i. p. 43. 
 
 first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the 
 effusion of blood ; but the use of every other severity 
 was permitted, and even recommended, to tlieir zeal ; 
 nor could the christians, though they cheerfully re- 
 signed the ornaments of their churches, resolve to in- 
 terrupt their religious assemblies, or to deliver their 
 sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of 
 Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed 
 the subordinate ministers of the government. The cu- 
 rator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. 
 The proconsul transmitted him to the praetorian prae- 
 fect of Italy ; and Felix, who disdained even to give 
 an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia, 
 in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has 
 conferred fame.'' This precedent, and perhaps some 
 imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of 
 it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces, 
 in punishing with death the refusal of the christians 
 to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubt- 
 edly many persons who embraced this opportunity of 
 obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but there were 
 likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life, 
 by discovering and betraying the holy scripture into 
 the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops 
 and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, 
 the opprobrious epithet of Traditors ,• and their offence 
 was productive of much present scandal, and of much 
 future discord, in the African church.* 
 
 The copies, as well as the versions. Demolition of the 
 of scripture, were already so multiplied churcbes. 
 in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could 
 no longer be attended with any fatal consequences ; 
 and even the sacrifice of those volumes, which, in 
 every congregation, were preserved for public use, re- 
 quired the consent oIl some treacherous and unworthy 
 christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily 
 effected by the authority of the government, and by 
 the labour of the pagans. In some provinces, how- 
 ever, the magistrates contented themselves with shut- 
 ting up the places of religious worship. In others, 
 they more literally complied with the terms of the 
 edict; and after taking away the doors, the benches, 
 and the pulpit, which they burnt, as it were in a fune- 
 ral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of 
 the edifice.y It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion, 
 that we should apply a very remarkable story, which 
 is related with so many circumstances of variety and 
 improbability, that it serves rather to excite than to 
 satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of 
 whose name as well as situation we are left ignorant, 
 it should seem that the magistrates and the body of 
 the people had embraced the christian fiiith ; and as 
 some resistance might be apprehended to the execution 
 of the edict, the governor of the province was support- 
 ed by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their 
 approach the citizens threw themselves into the church, 
 with the resolution either of defending by arms that 
 sacred edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They in- 
 dignantly rejected the notice and permission which was 
 given to them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by 
 their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all 
 sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of 
 martyrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their 
 wives and children.* 
 
 Subsequent 
 edictst 
 
 w Sec the Acta Sinceraof Ruinart, p. 353; those of Foelix of Thi- 
 bara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted than in the other edi- 
 tions, which nflbrd a lively specimen of legendary licence. 
 
 X See the first book of Optatus of Milevis against the Donatists at 
 Paris, 1700. edit. Dupin. He lived under the reign of Valens. 
 
 y The ancient monuments, published at the end of Optatus, p. 261, 
 &c. describe, in a very circumstantial manner, the proceedings of 
 the governors in the destruction of churches. They made a minute 
 inventory of the plate, &.c. which they found in them. That of the 
 church of Cirta, in Numidie, is still extant. It consisted of two cha- 
 lices of gold, and six of silver ; six urns, one kettle, seven lamps, all 
 likewise of silver ; besides a large quantity of brass utensils, and 
 wearing apparel. 
 
 z [All the inhabitants, and not merely a preat number were burnt, 
 says Eusehius. Lactantius confirms this circumstance— universum 
 populum. — G.} . 
 
 Lactantius (Institut. Divin. v. 11.) confines the calannty to tne 
 conventiculum, with its congregation. Eueebms (viii. 11.) extend* » 
 
 Some slight disturbances, though they 
 . . . ^ . "^^^« suppressed almost as soon as ex- 
 cited, m Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded 
 the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to 
 msinuate, that those troubles had been secretly foment- 
 ed by tlie intrigues of the bishops, who had already 
 forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and 
 unlimited obedience.* The resentment, or the fears, 
 of Diocletian, at length transported him beyond the 
 bounds of moderation, which he had hitherto pre- 
 served,^ and he declared, in a scries of cruel edicts, 
 his intention of abolishing the christian name. By the 
 first of these edicts, the governors of the provinces 
 were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesi- 
 astical order; and the prisons, destined for the vilest 
 criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, 
 presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a se- 
 cond edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ 
 every method of severity which might reclaim them 
 from their odious superstition, and oblige them to re- 
 turn to the established worship of the gods. This 
 rigorous order was extended, by a subsequent edict, 
 to the whole body of christians, who were exposed to 
 a violent and general persecution. <= Instead of those 
 sa utary restraints, which had required the direct and 
 solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as 
 well as the interest of the imperial officers, to discover, 
 \^ P^-^u?',^"^ ^^ torment, the most obnoxious amoncr 
 the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against 
 all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary 
 from the just indignation of the gods, and of the em- 
 perors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law^ 
 the virtuous courage of many of the pagans, in con- 
 cealing their friends or relations, affords an honourable 
 proof, that the rage of superstition had not extin<ruish- 
 ed m their minds the sentiments of nature and hu- 
 manity.** 
 
 General idea of Diocletiau had no sooncr published his 
 the persecution edicts against the christians, than, as if 
 he had been desirous of committing to other hands the 
 work of persecution, he divested himself of the im- 
 perial purple. The character and situation of his col- 
 leagues and successors sometimes urged them to en- 
 force, and sometimes inclined them to suspend, the 
 execution of these rigorous laws ; nor can we acquire 
 a just and distinct idea of this important period of ec- 
 clesiastical history, unless we separately consider the 
 state of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire 
 during the space of ten years, which elapsed between 
 the first edicts of Diocletian, and the final peace of the 
 church. ^ 
 
 to a whole city, and introduces something very like a regular sleee 
 His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus. adds the important circuin- 
 stance of the permission given to the inhabitants of retiring from 
 thence. As Phrygia reached to the confines of Isauria, it is possible 
 that the restless temper of those independent barbarians may have 
 contributed to this misfortune. 
 
 .K* F"!t''""w' '.• ^"I- '^^ ^- ^^- *'° Valois (with some probability) 
 thinks that he has discovered the Svrian rebellion in an oration of 
 Liihanius ; and thai it was a rash attempt of the tribune, Eugenius 
 who, with only five hundred mcii. seized Antloch, and might per- 
 haps allure the christians by the promise of religious toleration — 
 From Eusehius (I. ix. c. 8.) as well as from Moses of Chorene, (Hist. 
 Armen. I. ii. c. 77, &c.) it may be inferred, that Christianity was al- 
 rendy introduced into Armenia. 
 
 b [He had alre.idy departed from it in his former edict. It dors not 
 appear that either re«entment or fear had any part in instigatiii" 
 iliese new persecutions; perhaps Kupcrstition, or a seeming respec't 
 for his ministers, was the cause of it. The oracle of Apollo, when 
 consulted by Diocletian, returned no answer, and said that just 
 men prevented it from speaking. Constantine. who assisted at the 
 ceremony, solemnly alfirms, that being interrogated concerning 
 these men, the chief priest named the christians. " The emperor 
 eagerly seized upon this response, and from it drew against the inno- 
 cent the sword designed to punish the guilty. He issu©<l at once 
 tiloody edicts, written, if I may use the cxprrssion, with the point of 
 the dagger; be commanded the judges to employ all their address in 
 inventing new punislunenls." Eusehius, Life of Constantine lib ii 
 chap. 51.^— O,] ' ■ ■ 
 
 c See Mo.shemi, p. 0^8; the text nf Eusebius very plainly shows 
 that the governors, whose powers were enlarged," not restrained' 
 by the new laws, could .lunish with death the most obstinate chris- 
 tians, as an example Xi, their brethren. 
 
 <l Athanasius, p. 83n. ap. Tillemont, xMcin. Ecclesiast. torn v nart 
 I. p. 90. ■ * 
 
 Vol. I 2 A 
 
 201 
 
 The mild and humane temper of Con- . 
 stantius was averse to the oppression of p"ovincesTnde; 
 any part of his subjects. The princi- ^^onstantius and 
 pal oflices of his palace were exercised ^'°"^^^"*'"«: 
 by christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their 
 fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religi- 
 ous principles. But as long as Constantius remained 
 in the subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his 
 power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to 
 disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority 
 contributed, however, to alleviate the sufferings which 
 he pitied and abhorred. He consented, with reluctance, 
 to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to protect 
 the christians themselves from the fury of the populace 
 and from the rigour of the laws. The provinces of \ 
 Gaul (under which we may probably include those I 
 ot Britain) were indebted, for the singular tranquillity 
 which they enjoyed, to the jrentle interposition of their 
 sovereign." But Datianus, the president or governor 
 of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather 
 to execute the public edicts of the emperors than to un- 
 derstand the secret intentions of Constantius ; and it 
 can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administra- 
 tion was stained with the blood of a few^ martyrs.' The 
 elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independ- 
 ent dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exer- 
 cise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did 
 not prevent him from establishing a system of tolera- 
 tion, of which he left the precept and the example to 
 his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first 
 moment of his accession, declaring himself the protec- 
 tor of the church, at length deserved the appellation of 
 the first emperor who publicly professed and establish- 
 ed the christian religion. The motives of his conver- 
 sion, as they may variously be deduced from benevo- 
 lence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse ; 
 and the progress of the revolution, which, under his 
 powerful influence, and that of his sons, rendered Chris- 
 tianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, will 
 form a very interesting and important chapter in the 
 third volume of this history. At present it may be 
 suflicient to observe, that every victory of Constantine 
 was productive of some relief or benefit to the church. 
 
 The provinces of Italy and Africa ex- 
 perienced a short but violent persecution. ;?ea;;lfd*rMax: 
 J he rigorous edicts of Diocletian were imian and Seve- 
 strictly and cheerfully executed by his '"^■ 
 associate Maximian, who had long hated the christians, 
 and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In 
 the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two 
 emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph ; se- 
 veral oppressive laws seem to have issued from their 
 secret consultations, and the diligence of the magis- 
 trates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. 
 After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, 
 Italy and Africa were administered under the name of 
 Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the im- 
 placable resentment of his master Galerius. Among 
 the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of 
 posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had 
 raised himself, through the successive honours of the 
 palace, to the important office of treasurer of the pri- 
 vate demesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for 
 being the only person of rank and distinction ^ who ap- 
 
 e Eusehius, I. vii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c. 15. Dodwell 
 (Dissertat. Cyprian, xi. 7.5.) represents them as inronsistent with 
 each other. But the former evidenUy speaks of Constantius in the 
 station ofCajsar.and the latterof the same prince in the rank of Au- 
 gustus. 
 
 f Datianus is mentioned in Gruter's Inscriptions, as having deter- 
 mined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia, and those of 
 Ebora. both cities in the southern part of Lusitania. If we recollect 
 the neighbourhood of those places to Cape St, Vincent, we may sus- 
 piict that the celebrated deacon and martvr of tliat name has been 
 inaccurately assigned by Prudentius,. &r. to Sarnsossa. or Valentia. 
 Seethe pompons history of his sufferinjrs, in the Memoires de Tille- 
 mont, torn. V. part ii. p. 58 — 85. f'ome critics are of opinion, that the 
 department of Constantius, as Cirsar, did not inrludc Spain, which 
 still continued under the imm»'diate jurisdiction of .Ma.Timian. 
 
 g [We can add also the principal eunuchs, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, 
 and Andreas, who, the personal attendants of Diocletian, possessed 
 his favor, and had the direction of his household. (V. Gibbon. 
 
 f:?i 
 
200 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 „. , , , His fears were soon alarmed by the 
 
 Fire of the palarc . ^ j r i ;-u u« ,,^,,t 
 
 of Nicomedia im- view of 3 danger from which he very 
 puted to the nariovvly escaped. Within fifteen days 
 cbristians. ^^^ ^^j^^^ ^^ Nicomcdia, and even the 
 
 bedchamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames ; and 
 though both times they Avere extinguished without 
 any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire 
 was justly considered as an evident proof that it had 
 Dot been the effect of chance or negligence. The sus- 
 picion naturally fell upon the christians ; and it was 
 suggested, with some degree of probability, that those 
 desperate fanatics, provoked by their present suffer- 
 ings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had 
 entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, 
 the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two 
 emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable 
 enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resent- 
 ment prevailed in every breast, and especially in that of 
 Diocletian. A great number of persons, distinguished 
 either by the offices which they had filled, or by the fa- 
 vour which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. 
 Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the 
 court, as well as city, was polluted with many bloody 
 executions.' But as it was found impossible to extort 
 any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems 
 incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to 
 admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days 
 afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from 
 Nicomedia, declaring, that if he delayed his departure 
 from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to 
 the rage of the christians. The ecclesiastical histo- 
 rians, from whom alone we derive a partial and im- 
 perfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss 
 how to account for the fears and dangers of the em- 
 perors. Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetori- 
 cian, were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. 
 The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine 
 wrath ; the other affirms, tliat it was kindled by the 
 malice of Galerius himself." 
 
 Execution of the As the edict against the christians was 
 first edict. designed for a general law of the whole 
 
 emnire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they 
 mi^ht not wait for the consent, were assured of the 
 concurrence, of the western princes, it would appear 
 more consonant to our ideas of policy, that the govern- 
 ors of all the provinces should have received secret 
 instructions to publish, on one and tlie same day, this 
 declaration of war within their respective departments. 
 It was at least to be expected, that the convenience of 
 
 first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the 
 effusion of blood ; but the use of every other severity 
 was permitted, and even recommended, to tlieir zeal ; 
 nor could the christians, though they cheerfully re- 
 signed the ornaments of their churches, resolve to in- 
 terrupt their religious assemblies, or to deliver their 
 sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of 
 Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed 
 the subordinate ministers of the government. The cu- 
 rator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. 
 
 the public highways and established posts would have vvhoso name as well as situation we are 1^^ ignora 
 enabled the JInperors to transmit their orders with the it should seem that the magis rates and the body 
 utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the the people had embraced the christian faith ; and 
 
 in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has 
 conferred fame.^ This precedent, and perhaps some 
 imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of 
 it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces, 
 in punishing with death the refusal of the christians 
 to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubt- 
 edly many persons who embraced this opportunity of 
 obtaining the crown of martyrdom ; but there were 
 likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life, 
 by discovering and betraying the holy scripture into 
 the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops 
 and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, 
 the opprobrious epithet of Traditurs ,• and their offence 
 was productive of much present scandal, and of much 
 future discord, in the African church." 
 
 The copies, as well as the versions, Domolltionof ilio 
 of scripture, were already so multiplied ciu.rciics. 
 in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could 
 no longer be attended with any fatal consequences ; 
 and even the sacrifice of those volumes, which, in 
 every congregation, were preserved for public use, re- 
 quired the consent of some treacherous and unworthy 
 christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily 
 effected by the authority of the government, and by 
 the labour of the pagans. In some provinces, how- 
 ever, the magistrates contented themselves with shut- 
 ting up the places of religious worship. In others, 
 they more literally complied with the terms of the 
 edict ; and after taking away the doors, the benches, 
 and the pulpit, which they burnt, as it were in a fune- 
 ral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of 
 the edifice.y It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion, 
 that we should apply a very remarkable story, which 
 is related with so many circumstances of variety and 
 improbability, that it serves rather to excite than to 
 satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of 
 
 ' ^" ifjnorant, 
 of 
 
 spatch Irom tiie p 
 extremities of the Roman world ; and that they would 
 not have suffered fifty days to elapse, before tlie edict 
 was publislied in Syria, and near four months before it 
 was signified to the cities of Africa.* This delay may 
 perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocle- 
 tian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the mea- 
 sures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying 
 the experiment under his most immediate eye, before 
 he gave way to the disorders and discontent which it 
 must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces. At 
 
 animo, &c. r. 12. Eusebins (I. viii. r. 5.) adorns Iiiin with necular 
 honours. Neither liavc condescended to mention his name ; but tlic 
 Greeks celebrate his memory under tliat of Jolin. Sec Tillemont, 
 Memoires Ecclcsiasti(iues, torn. v. part ii. p. '.ISO. 
 
 t Lactantius de .M. 1'. c. 13, 11. I'otcntissinii quondam eunuch i 
 necati, per quos palatium et ipse coustiibat. Ensebiua (1. viii. c. 6.) 
 mentions the cruel extortions of the eunuchs, Gor<;ouius and Dori)- 
 theus, and of Anthimius, bishop of Nicomedia ; and both those wri- 
 ters describe, in a va^ue but trauicai manner, tlie horrid scenes which 
 were acted even in tlie imperial presence. 
 
 n See Iiactautius. Eusebius, and Constantino, ad Ccetum Sancto 
 rum. c. 25. Eusebius confesses his ignorance of the cause of tiie fire. 
 
 [Since ibe history of tliesc times atfords no example of any at- 
 tempt made by tlie christians apainst their persecutors, wc have no 
 reason except probability for attributing to them the burning of the 
 palace, and the testimony of Constantinc and (Valerius remains to 
 explain it. RI. de Tillemont has shown how the dirt'crent accounts 
 roay l>e reconciled. (Hitit. des Empereurs. Vie de Diocletian $ 19.) 
 
 -'^•1 
 T Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. torn. v. part. i. p. 43. 
 
 as 
 
 some resistance might be apprehended to the execution 
 of the edict, the governor of the province was support- 
 ed by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their 
 api)roach the citizens threw themselves into the church, 
 with the resolution either of defending by arms that 
 sacred edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. 'J'hey in- 
 dignantly rejected the notice and permission which was 
 given to them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by 
 their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all 
 sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of 
 martyrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their 
 wives and children.* 
 
 w Pec the Acta Sinceraof Ruinart, p. 353; tliose of Fwlix of Thi- 
 bara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted than in the other edi- 
 tions, which alford a livelv specimen of legendary licence. 
 
 X See the first book of Optatus of Milevis against the Donatists at 
 Paris, 170(). edit. Dupin. He lived under the reign of Valens. 
 
 y The ancient monuments, published at the end of Optatus, p. 261, 
 fee. describe, in a very circumstantial manner, the proceedings of 
 the governors in the destruction of churches. They made a minute 
 inventory of the plate, &.c. which they found in them. That of the 
 church of Cirta, in Numidie, is still extant. It consisted of two cha- 
 lices of gold, and six of silver ; six urns, one kettle, seven lamps, al 
 likewise of silver ; besides a large quantity of brass utensils, and 
 wearing apparel. 
 
 r [.^11 the inhabitants, and not merely a ereat number were burnt, 
 says Eusebius. Lactantius confirms this circumstance— universuiu 
 populum. — G.] .. 
 
 Lactantius (Institut Divin. v. tl.) confines the calamity to tne 
 conventiculum, with its congregation. Eusebius (viii. 11.) extends it 
 
 Subsequent Some slight disturbances, thoufrh thev 
 edicts. ^.ere suppressed almost as soon as ex- 
 cited, m Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded 
 
 201 
 
 the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to 
 insinuate, that those troubles had been secretly foment- 
 ed by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already 
 forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and 
 unlimited ohedience.=^ The resentment, or the fears, 
 of Diocletian, at length transported him beyond the 
 bounds of moderation, which he had hitherto pre- 
 served," and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, 
 his intention of abolishing the christian name. By the 
 first of these edicts, the governors of the provinces 
 were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesi- 
 astical order ; and the prisons, destined for the vilest 
 criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, 
 preshyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a se- 
 cond edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ 
 every method of severity which might reclaim them 
 from their odious superstition, and oblige them to re- 
 turn to the established worship of the gods. This 
 rigorous order was extended, by a subsequent edict, 
 to the whole body of christians, who were exposed to 
 a violent and general persecution.^ Instead of those 
 sa utary restraints, which had required the direct and 
 solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as 
 well as the interest of the imperial ofiicers, to discover, 
 to P"rsiJe, and to torment, the most obnoxious amoncr 
 the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced ao-ainsl 
 all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary 
 from the just indignation of the gods, and of the em- 
 perors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law, 
 the virtuous courage of many of the pagans, in con- 
 cealing their friends or relations, affords an honourable 
 proof, that the rage of superstition had not extino-uish- 
 ed in their minds the sentiments of nature and hu- 
 manity.^ 
 
 General idea of Diocletiau had no sooner published his 
 the persecution edicts against the christians, than, as if 
 he had heen desirous of committing to other hands the 
 work of persecution, he divested himself of the im- 
 perial purple. The character and situation of his col- 
 leagues and successors sometimes urged them to en- 
 force, and sometimes inclined them to suspend, the 
 execution of these rigorous laws ; nor can we acquire 
 a just and distinct idea of this important period of ec- 
 clesiastical history, unless we separately consider the 
 state of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire, 
 during the space of ten years, which elapsed between 
 the first edicts of Diocletian, and the final peace of the 
 church. 
 
 to a whole city, and introduces something very like a regular siege 
 His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus, adds the important circum- 
 B ance of the permission given to the inhabitants of retiring from 
 thence. As Fhrygia reached to the confines of Isauria, it is possible 
 that the restless temper of those independent barbarians may have 
 contributed to this misfortune. »/"«>»- 
 
 .1,* P'^r'^V'^' '.• "''J: ""• ^- "'^- *'« Valois (with some probability) 
 thinks that he has discovered the Syrian rebellion in an oration of 
 L.ihaniu3 ; and that it was a rash attempt of the tribune, En^enius 
 who, with only five hundred men, seized Antiocb. and might per- 
 haps allure the christians by the promise of religious toleration — 
 From Eusebius (I. i.T. c. 8.) as well as from Moses of Chorene, (Hist 
 Armen. I. ii. c. 77, &c,) it may be inferred, that Christianity was al- 
 ready introduced into .\rnienia. 
 
 b [He had already departed from it in his former edict. It dors not 
 appear that either rc«entment or fear had any part in instigating 
 tliese new persecutions; perhaps superstition, or a seeming respec't 
 tor his ministers, was the cause of it. The oracle of Apollo, when 
 consulted by Diocletian, returned no answer, and said that just 
 men prevented it from speaking. Constantine, who assisted at tlie 
 ceremony, solemnly affirms, that being interrogated conceminT 
 these men, the chief priest named the cliristians. " The emperor 
 eagerly seized upon this response, and from it drew against the inno- 
 cent the sword designed to punish the guilty. He !ssu6<l at once 
 bloody edicts, written, if I may use the expression, with the point of 
 the dagger; he commanded the judges to employ all their address in 
 inventing new punislimonts." Eusebius, Life of Constantine lib ii 
 chap. .»1.^ — f?.] ' 
 
 c See IMo.«!heim, p. 938; the text of Eusebius very plainly shows 
 tliat the governors, whose powers were enlarged^ not restrained' 
 by the new laws, could .lunish with death the most obstinate chris- 
 tians, as an example to their brethren. 
 
 rt Athanasius, p. 833. ap. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. torn. v. part 
 !• p. 90. ' 
 
 Vol. I.— 2 A 
 
 I The mild and humane temper of Con- ■ , 
 stantius was averse to the oppression of ^"rovinces'rnSe; 
 any part of his subjects. The princi- '^onstantiue and 
 pal offices of his palace were exercised *^'°"^»«"t'n«5 
 by christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their 
 hdelity, and entertained not any dislike to their relim- 
 ous principles. But as long as Constantius remained 
 in the subordinate station of Ca?sar, it was not in his 
 power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to 
 disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority 
 contributed, hovrcver, to alleviate the suffcriujrs which 
 he pitied and abhorred. He consented, with reluctance, 
 to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to protect 
 the christians themselves from the fury of the populace 
 and from the rigour of the laws, l^he provinces of 
 Gaul (under which we may probably include those! 
 of Britain) were indebted, for the singular tranquillity 
 which they enjoyed, to the irentle interposition of their 
 sovereign.'' But Datianus, the president or governor 
 of .Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather 
 to execute the public edicts of the emperors than to un- 
 derstand the secret intentions of Constantius ; and it 
 can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administra- 
 tion w*as stained with the blood of a fewMnartyrs.' The 
 elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independ- 
 ent dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exer- 
 cise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did 
 not prevent him from establishing a svstem of tolera- 
 tion, of which he left the precept and the example to 
 his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first 
 moment of his accession, declaring himself the protec- 
 tor of the church, at length deserved the appellation of 
 the first emperor who publicly professed and establish- 
 ed the christian religion. The motives of his conver- 
 sion, as they may variously be deduced from benevo- 
 lence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse ; 
 and the progress of the revolution, which, under his 
 powerful influence, and that of his sons, rendered Chris- 
 tianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, will 
 form a very interesting and important chapter in the 
 third volume of this history. At present it may be 
 sufficient to observe, that every victory of Constantine 
 was productive of some relief or benefit to the church. 
 
 The provinces of Italy and Africa ex- 
 perienced a short but violent persecution. J^'ulfde" Max! 
 J he rigorous edicts of Diocletian were imian and Seve- 
 strictly and cheerfully executed by his '■"^• 
 associate Maximian, who had long hated the christians, 
 and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In 
 the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two 
 emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph; se- 
 veral oppressive laws seem to have issued from their 
 secret consultations, and the diligence of the magis- 
 trates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. 
 After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, 
 Italy and Africa were administered under the name of 
 Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the im- 
 placable resentment of his master Galerius. Among 
 the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of 
 posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had 
 raised himself, through the successive honours of the 
 palace, to the important office of treasurer of the pri- 
 vate demesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for 
 being the only person of rank and distinction 5 who ap- 
 
 e Eusebius, 1. vii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c. 15. Dodwell 
 (Disserlat. Cyprian, xi. 7.5.) represents them as inconsistent with 
 each other. But the former evidently speaks of Constantius in the 
 station ofCwsar.and the latter of the same prince in the rank of Au- 
 gustus. 
 
 f Datianus is mentioned in Gruter's Inscriptions, as having deter- 
 mined the limits between the territories of Tax Julia, and those of 
 Ebora, both cities in the southern part of Lnsiiania. If we recollect 
 the neighbourhood of those places to Cape St. Vincent, we may sus- 
 pect that the celebrated deacon and martyr of tliat name has been 
 inaccurately assigned by Prudentiiis,. &c. fo Sarnsossa. or Valentin. 
 Seethe pompous history of his sufTerings, in the .Memoires de Tille- 
 mont, torn, v. part ii. p. 58— 8.1. Fome criiicsarc of opinion, that the 
 department of Constantius, as Cirsar, did not include Spain, which 
 still continued under the immi-diate jurisdiction of Ma.ximian. 
 
 g [We can add also the principal eunuchs, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, 
 and Andreas, who, the personal attendants of Diocletian, possessed 
 his favor, and had the direction of his household. (V. Gibbo"., 
 
202 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 pears to have suffered death, during the whole course 
 of this general persecution.^ 
 
 The revolt of Maxentius immediately 
 
 under Maxcnt.us; ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^he churcheS of Italy 
 
 and Africa ; and the same tyrant who oppressed every 
 other class of his subjects, showed himself just, hu- 
 mane, and even partial, towards the afllicted christians.' 
 He depended on their gratitude and affection, and very 
 naturally presumed, that the injuries whicfi thoy had 
 suffered, and the dangers which they still apprehend- 
 ed from his most inveterate enemy, would secure the 
 fidelity of a party already considerable by their num- 
 bers and opulence. J Even the conduct of Maxentius 
 towards the bishops of Rome and Carthage, may be 
 considered as the proof of his toleration, since it is 
 probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt 
 the same measures with regard to their established 
 clergy. Marcellus, the former of those prelates, had 
 thrown the capital into confusion, by the severe pen- 
 ance which he imposed on a great number of chris- 
 tians, who, during the late persecution, had renounced 
 or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke 
 out in frequent and violent seditions ; the blood of the 
 faithful was shed by each other's hands, and the exile 
 of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less 
 eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only mea- 
 sure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church 
 of Rome. ^ The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of 
 Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensi- 
 ble. A deacon of that city had published a libel against 
 the emperor. The offender took refuge in the episco- 
 pal palace; and though it was somewhat early to 
 advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the 
 bishop refused to deliver him up to the officers of jus- 
 tice. For this treasonable resistance, Mensurius was 
 summoned to court, and instead of receiving a legal 
 sentence of death, or banishment, he was permitted, 
 after a short examination, to return to his diocese. ' 
 Such was the happy condition of the christian subjects 
 of Maxentius, that whenever they were desirous of 
 procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they 
 
 
 chap. xvi. p. 197.) Lactantius speaks of Iheir death. Potentissinii 
 Eunuciti necati per quos palatiuiii el ipse ante coiistaiiiit. (De niort. 
 pers. c. 15.) And Euscbius leaves u.s in no doul)t, naming Dorothens 
 and olherjruardians of the imperial apartments, who, " loaded hy tliR 
 emperor with the most honourable otrices, and cherished ns his sons, 
 preferred to suffer for the sake of iheir faith, all kinds of disgrace 
 and misfortune, and the most cruel death, rather than enjoy the 
 glory and the pleasures of the world." Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. chap. 
 
 h Eusebius.l. viii. c. 11. Grnter, Inacript. p. 1171. No. 18. Rufinus 
 has mistaken the office of Adauctus, as well as the place of his mar- 
 tyrdom. , . , , 
 
 i [Nothing is less true, and the passage to which the liistorian re- 
 fers the reader, is a proof of it. " Maxentius, says Eusel-ms, who 
 possessed himself of the entire power in Italy, at first feigned hiinsell 
 a christian (ic«3«:T5xpiv»To) in order to cain the favor of the people 
 at Rome. He commanded his ministers to stop the persecution of 
 christians, atrecting a hypocritical piety for the sake of appearing 
 more mild than his predecessors, but his actions proved at last that 
 he was altogether different from tchat at first he icas expected to be. 
 (Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. chap. 14.) Eusebius adds that Ma.xentius was 
 allied to Maximian who persecuted the christians, and calls them 
 brethren in wickedness (xSiK(foi tkv x*%^*v.) He attributes the 
 evils which the people suffered during the reign of these two Empe- 
 rors to the persecutions which they excited against the christians. 
 Finally the very title of this ciiapler: coneirning th» conduct of the 
 enemies of religion (:ts^i t« t^onv. t«)v t>)> iuo-iomx* sjijp^v) indicates 
 clearly what Maxentius was.— C] 
 
 j Eusebius, 1. viii. c. 14. But as Maxentius was vanquished by 
 Constantine, it suited the purpose of Lactantius to place his death 
 among those of the persecutors. 
 
 k The epitaph of Marcellus is to be found in Cruler, Inscrip. p. 
 117t?. No. :». and it cpntains all that we know of his history. Mar- 
 rcllinus and Marcellus, whose names follow in the list of popes, are 
 supiHwcd by many critics to be different persons ; but the learned 
 Abbe d<; Longuerre was convinced that they were one and the same. 
 Veridicus rector lapsisquia criniina flere 
 Pricdixit miseris, fuit omniliu^ hostis amarus. 
 Hinc furor, hinc odium ; sequilur discordia, lites, 
 Seditio, ca'des ; solvuntur fadera pacis. 
 Crimen ob alterius, Christum qui in pace negavit 
 Finibus expulsus patria et fcritale 'I'yranni. 
 Hffic breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre : 
 Marcelli populus nieritum cognoscere posset. 
 We may observe that Damasus was made bishop of Roine, A. D.36<i. 
 1 Optatuacontr. Donatist. I. i.e. 17, 18. . 
 
 [The words of Optatus are— PrntVctus (Romam) causam dixit; 
 JU3SU9 est reverti Carthaginem, perhap.s in pleading his cause he 
 justified liinjsclf. since he was ordered to return to Carthage.— f?.] 
 
 were obliged to purchase them from the most distant 
 provinces of the east. A story is related of Aglae, a 
 Roman lady, descended from a consular family, and 
 possessed of so ample an estate, that it required the 
 management of seventy-three stewards. Among these, 
 Boniface was the favourite of his mistress; and as 
 Aglae mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he 
 was permitted to sliare her bed. Her fortune enabled 
 her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred 
 relics from the east. She intrusted Boniface with a 
 considerable sum of gold, and a large quantity of aro- 
 matics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen 
 and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pil- 
 grimage as far as Tarsus in Cilicia."^ 
 
 The sanguinary temper of Galcrius, $„ inyricumand 
 the first and principal author of the per- the cast, under 
 secution, was formidable to those chris- J£i,7^„""** 
 tians, whom their misfortunes had placed 
 within the limits of his dominions ; and it may fairly 
 be presumed, that many persons of a middle rank, who 
 were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of 
 poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, 
 and sought a refuge in the milder climate of the west. 
 As long as he commanded only the armies and pro- 
 vinces of lUyricum, he could with difficulty either find 
 or make a considerable number of martyrs, in a war- 
 like country, which had entertained the missionaries 
 of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance » than 
 any other part of the empire." But when Galerius had 
 obtained the supreme power and the government of the 
 east, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal and 
 cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, 
 which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction ; but 
 in those of Syria, Palestine, and Kgypt, where Maxi- 
 mian gratified his own inclination, by yielding a rigor- 
 ous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor.P 
 The frequent disappointment of his ambitious views, 
 the experience of six years of persecution, and the sa- 
 lutary reflections which a lingering and painful dis- 
 temper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length 
 convinced him that the most violent efforts of despot- 
 ism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to 
 subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repair- 
 ing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published 
 inliis own name, and in those of Licinius and Con- 
 stantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous re- 
 cital of the imperial titles, proceeded in the following 
 manner : 
 
 " Among the important cares which Galerius jwV 
 have occupied our mind for the utility lishcs an edict 
 and preservation of the empire, it was of toleration, 
 our intention to correct and re-establish all things ac- 
 cording to the ancient laws and ptiblic discipline of the 
 Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming 
 into the way of reason and nature, the deluded chris- 
 
 m The acts of the Passion of St. nonlface,. which abound in 
 miracles and declamation, are publi.^hetl by Ruinart (p. SHii— 'Jl»l.) 
 both in Greek and Latin, from the authority of very ancient manu- 
 scripts. .^ . . ■ 
 
 [It might be doubted whether Aglae and Boniface were christians 
 at the time of their illicit union. (V. Tillemont Mem. eccles. note 
 upon the persecution of Diocletian, vol. v. note 82. p. 283.) M. de 
 Tillemont also proves this part of the history to be doubtful.— G.] 
 
 n [Soon after Christianity spread itself to the north of the Roman 
 provinces among the tril)es of (Germany, a company of christians 
 forced by the persecutions of the Emperors took refuee among the 
 Barbarians, and were received with kindness. (Bu.^ebiiw De vita 
 Const, lib. ii. c hap. 53: Semler, Selecta cap. H. E. J. 1 15.) The Goths 
 derived their first knowledge of the chri.-*tian religion, from a young 
 girl who was taken prisoner. She observed the exercises of devotion 
 while among them; she fasted, prayed and praised God day and 
 ni"ht. When she was asked to what purpose was so much painful 
 care, she replied, It is thus that Christ the Son of God ought to be 
 worshipped — (Sozomenns lib. ii. c. 0.) — <7.] 
 
 o During the four first centuries, there exist few traces of either 
 bishops or bishoprics in tlic western Illyricum. It has l-rcn thought 
 probable that the primate of Milan extended his jurisdiction over 
 Sirmium, the capital of that great province. See the Geo^raphia 
 Sacra of Charles de St.Pattl, p. 08—76. with the observations of Lu- 
 cas Fiolstenins. 
 
 P The eighth book of Eusebius, as well as the supplement concern- 
 ing the martyrs of Palestine, principally relate to the perseruiion of 
 Galerius and Maximin The general lamentations with which Lac. 
 tantins opens »!.. f'fili book of his Divine Instiiulion.«, allude to iheif 
 cruelly. 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies 
 instituted by their fathers ; and presumptuously de- 
 spising the practice of antiquity, had invented extrava- 
 gant laws and opinions according to the dictates of 
 their ^ncy, and had collected a various society from 
 the different provinces of our empire. The edicts which 
 we have published to enforce the worship of the ffods 
 having exposed many of the christians to danger and 
 distress, many having suffered death, and many more, 
 who still persist in their impious folly, beino- left des- 
 titute of any public exercise of religion, we are dis- 
 posed to extend to those unhappy men, the effects of 
 our wonted clemency. We permit them therefore 
 freely to profess their private opinions, and to assem- 
 ble in their conventicles without fear or molestation, 
 provided always that they preserve a due respect to the 
 established laws and government. By another rescript 
 we shall signify our intentions to the judges and ma- 
 gistrates ; and we hope that our indulgence will en- 
 gage the christians to offer up their prayers to the deity 
 whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity, for 
 their own and for that of the republic.'"! It is not usu- 
 ally in the language of edicts and manifestos, that we 
 should search for the real character or the motives of 
 princes ; but as these were the words of a dying em- 
 peror, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a 
 pledge of his sincerity. 
 Peace of the When Galerius subscribed this edict 
 ch.irch. of toleration, he was well assured that 
 
 r^i!"*"/'^'^^^^ ^^a^^i^y comply with the inclinations 
 of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in 
 favour of the christians would obtain the approbation 
 of Constantino. But the emperor would not venture 
 to insert m the preamble the name of Maximin, whose 
 consent was of the greatest importance, and who suc- 
 ceeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of 
 Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new 
 reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent coun- 
 sels of his predecessor ; and though he never conde- 
 scended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a 
 public edict, Sabinus, his praetorian praefect, addressed 
 a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates 
 of the provinces, expatiating on the imperial clemen- 
 cy, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the 
 christian^ and directing the officers of justice to cease 
 their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the 
 secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In conse- 
 quence of these orders, great numbers of Christians 
 were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. 
 
 1 he confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into 
 their own countries; and those who had yielded to the 
 violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repent- 
 ance their re-admission into the bosom of the church.' 
 Maximin pre- But this treacherous calm was of short 
 tKrieuiTon ^"^^*\^n 5 "o^ ^ould the christians of the 
 •^ • east place any confidence in the character 
 
 ot their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the 
 ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former 
 suggested tlie means, the latter pointed out the objects, 
 of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the wor- 
 ship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the be- 
 lief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom 
 he revered as the favourites of heaven, were frequently 
 raised to the government of provinces, and admitted 
 into his most secret councils. They easily convinced 
 him, that the christians had been indebted for their vic- 
 tories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness 
 01 polytheism had principally flowed from a want of 
 union and subordination among the ministers of reli- 
 gion. A system of government was therefore insti- 
 tuted, which was evidently copied from the policy of 
 the church. In all the great cities of the empire, the 
 
 203 
 
 temples were repaired and beautified by the order of 
 Maximm; and the officiating priests of the various 
 deities were subjected to the authority of a superior 
 pontiff destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote 
 the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, 
 in their turn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropoli' 
 tans or high priests of the province, who acted as the 
 immediate vicegerents of the emperor himself A 
 white robe was the ensign of their dignity ; and these 
 new prelates were carefully selected from the most no- 
 ble and opulent families. By the influence of the ma- 
 gistrates, and of the sacerdotal order, a great number 
 ot diitiful addresses were obtained, particularly from 
 the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which art- 
 luliy represented the well-known intentions of the 
 court as the general sense of the people ; solicited the 
 emperor to consult the laws of justice rather than the 
 dictates of his clemency ; expressed their abhorrence of 
 the christians, and humbly prayed that those impious 
 sectaries might at least be excluded from the limits of 
 their respective territories. The answer of Maximin 
 to the address which he obtained from the citizens of 
 lyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devo- 
 tion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on 
 the obstinate impiety of the christians, and betrays bv 
 the readiness with which he consents to iheir banish- 
 ment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather 
 than as conferring, an obligation. The priests as well 
 as the magistrates were empowered to enforce the exe- 
 cution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of 
 brass; and though it was recommended to them to 
 avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and igno- 
 minious punishments were inflicted on the refractory 
 christians.* ^ 
 
 The Asiatic christians had every End of the per- 
 itiing to dread from the severity of a sccutions. 
 bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of vio- 
 lence with such deliberate policy. But a few months 
 had scarcely elapsed, before the edicts published by 
 the two western emperors obliged Maximin to suspend 
 the prosecution of his designs: the civil war which he 
 so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his 
 attention ; and the defeat and death of Maximin soon 
 delivered the church from the last and most implac- 
 able of her enemies.* 
 
 In this general view of the persecu- „ , . 
 tion, which «as first authorized hy the onfTa^"?! 
 edicts ot Diocletian, I have purposely "^ the martyrg 
 refrained from describing the particular *"*' *=°"^<-'««o"- 
 sufferings and deaths of the christian martyrs. It 
 would have been an easy task, from the history of 
 Lusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and 
 from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of 
 horrid and disgusting pictures, and to fill many pages 
 with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot 
 beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire 
 and steel, savage beasts and more savage execution- 
 ers, could inflict on the human body. These melan- 
 choly scenes might be enlivened bv a crowd of visions 
 and miracles destined either to delay the death, to 
 celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics of those 
 canonized saints who suffered for the name of Christ. 
 
 ♦ '-viLT H* 9 9^ 
 
 tn^» /■.i""».^'«^"'- **• ^"-^ ''^» g'v<^" "3 a Greek version, and Lnc- 
 tan lus (de M. P. c. 34.) the Latin original, of this memorable edict 
 Neither of these writers seems to recollect how directly it coptra- 
 ancl of a^rrh' ^*'*'^ ^''''^ ''"^^ affirmed of the remorse and repent- 
 r Eusebius, I. ix. c. I. He inserts the epistle of the pra.'fect. 
 
 o/ ^^\ F'"^ehius, I. viii. c. N. I. ix. c. 9-P. Lactantius de M. P c 
 .50. J hose writers agrcfi in repres.'nting the arts of Maximin- but 
 the tortner relates the execution of several martyrs, while the latter 
 expressly affirms, occidi servos Dei vctuif. 
 
 [It is easy to reconcile them. It Is sufficient to quote the entire 
 passage from Lactantius: "Nam cum chMnentiam specie tenus pro 
 hteretur, occidi servos Dei vttuit, debiMtari jussit. Hague confesso- 
 ribus elTodiebantur oculi, amputabantur inaniis, pedes detruncaban- 
 tnr, nares vel auriculte desecahantur. Ha^c ille moliens Constantini 
 literis deterretur. Dissimnlavit ergo, et lanien, si quis inciderit mari 
 occulte mergebatur." This enumeration of the torments inflicted 
 upon the christians, is well fitted to reconcile the accounts of Lac- 
 tantius and Eusebius. Those who died in consequence of their tor- 
 tures, and those who were thrown into the sea, might well pass for 
 martyrs. This mutilation of the pasi?.igc from Lactantius alone 
 caused the apparent contradiction.— O,] 
 
 t A few days before his death he published a very ample edict of 
 toleration, in which he imputes all the severities which the chris- 
 tians suffered, to the jud-zes and governors, who had mistinderstood 
 his intentions. See the edict in Eusebius, I. Ix. c. 10. , 
 
 r.j.. ^ v^ 1>-*^A^- 
 
 -<»• ♦- ^• 
 
 >. «( t t\* 4twi 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 204 
 
 But I cannot determine what 1 ought to transcribe, till 
 I am satisfied how much 1 ought to believe." The 
 gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius him- 
 self, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever 
 might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed 
 alfthat could tend to the disgrace, of religion/ Such 
 an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion 
 that a writer who has so openly violated one of the 
 fundamental laws of history, has not paid a very strict 
 regard to the observance of the other ; and the sus- 
 picion will derive additional credit from the character 
 of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity, 
 and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of 
 almost any of his contemporaries. On some particu- 
 lar occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated 
 by some personal motives of interest or resentment, 
 when the zeal of the martyrs urged them to forget the 
 rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn 
 the altars, to pour out imprecations against the em- 
 perors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, 
 it may be presumed, that every mode of torture which 
 cruelty could invent or constancy could endure, was 
 exhausted on those devoted victims.* Two circum- 
 stances, however, have been unwarily mentioned, 
 which insinuate tliat the general treatment of the 
 christians, who had been apprehended by tiie officers 
 of justice, was less intolerable than it is usually im- 
 agined to have been. 1. The confessors who were 
 condemned to work in the mines wore permitted, by 
 the humanity or the negligence of their keepers, to 
 build chapels,* and freely to profess their religion in 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 u [HistorJc.'il criticism does not consist in rejecting indiscrmimately 
 every fact wliich does not roiricido with some peculiar system as 
 Gibbon does in tliis cliapter, in wliicli lie consents only when com- 
 pelled to It to fiive credit to the testimony of a martyr. He ou!,'ht to 
 have well considered tiie autliorities on the subject, and not have 
 excluded them from examination, for pa<;an liislorians corroborate 
 in many instances the accounts transmitted to us by tlie historians 
 of thechurcli concerning the torturos endured by the christmns.— 
 Celsus reproaches the christians with holding their meetings in se- 
 cret, from dread of punisiiment, " for wlien you are seized, says he. 
 you are dragged to punishment, and before bcmg put to death, you 
 suffer all kinds of tortures." (Orisen Cont. CcU. lib. I. ii. vi. viii. 
 passim.) Libanius.the panegyrist of Julian, speaking of the chris- 
 tians, says, " Those who practiced a corrupt religion, were in con- 
 tinual apprehension, they feared that Julian would invent torturrs 
 Btili more refined than any to which they had before been exposed, 
 such as being mutilated, burnt alive, &r., for the emperors had e.v- 
 orcisod u>'ainst them all these cruellies. (Libanii parenlalis in Ju- 
 lian, ap. Fab. Bibl. gra;c. v. 9. No. 58. p. 28:1.)— O.j 
 
 ▼ Such is the fair deduction from two remarkable passages in L,u- 
 sehius, I. viii. c. 2. and de Martyr. Palestin, c. 12. The prudence ol 
 the historian has exposed liis own character to censure and snspi 
 cion It is well known that he himself had been thrown into prison; 
 and it was suggested that he had purchased his deliverance by some 
 dishonourable compliance. The reproach was urged in his likiime. 
 and even in his presence, at the council of Tyre. Sec Tillemont, 
 Meinoires Ecrlesiasliques.toiii. viii. part. i.p. 07. 
 
 w The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the suiferings 
 of Tar.ichus, and his companions, (.\cta Sincera, Ruinari, p. 419— 
 448.) is filled with strong e.\prcssioiis of resentment and contempt, 
 which could not fail of irritating the magistrate. The behaviour of 
 iEdesiusto Hierocles, prefect of Egypt, was still more extraordinary, 
 
 /.oyoij Tl A.xt leyOK; r9v o»*x(rri)i/ , , . 7Ti^t<>x,Kjiv. Euseb. de 
 
 Martyr. Palestin. c. .'». 
 
 [There is nothing in the acts of Tarraclius and his companions 
 which appears dictated bv tierce resentment. It is the fault of |)orse- 
 culors if thoy take for cdnteinpt the firmness of those wliom they 
 persecute. "What is vour name ?" demanded the president Maxi- 
 mus, ofTarrachua. ♦' I am a chriitian." lie ordered bisjawstobe 
 broken. (Ruinart, p. 4G0.) Probus, his companion was brought 
 forward. To the same question he made the same reply, " I am a 
 christian, ard I am called Probus !' He was commanded to sacri 
 tice to obtain the esteejn of his prince, and the friendship of Maxi 
 inns. " At this price, I desire neither the esteem of the prince, nor 
 your friendship." After having suffered the most cruel tortures, he 
 was put in irons, and the judge forbade that his wounds should be 
 attended to, — sanguine tuo iinplcta est terra. (Ruinart p. 40i.) The 
 third, Andronicus, appeared ; he answered with the same firmness, 
 wiien commanded to sacrifice. The judge to deceive him, told him 
 that his brothers had complipd with this demand. " Wretch," re- 
 plied he, •' wherefore deceive me with these falsehoods ?" And 
 they were at last thrown to wild beasts. In comparing the conduct 
 of the judge with that of the martyr.-*, will any dare to say that in 
 their answ'era there was any thins unbecoming or aggravating ?— 
 Even those wlio were present at the trial, were less mild and less 
 respectful. The injustice of Maximus. revolted the feelinas of the 
 people so much, that when the martyrs appeared in the amphithe 
 ater, consternation sciaed every heart, and they murmured, saying 
 that he was an iniquitous judge, who had condemned after this man- 
 ner. Many left the scene, and went away murmuring against Maxi- 
 mus. and speaking of him with strong dislike. (Ruinart, p. 488)— O.] 
 
 X [The superior authorities were but just informed of it when the 
 president of the province, a severe and cruel man, says Eusebius. 
 $j(iled tho confessors ; some to Cyprus, otiiors into ditferont parts of 
 
 the midst of those dreary habitations.^ 2. The bish- 
 ops were obliged to check and to censure the for- 
 ward zeal of 7he christians, who voluntarily threw 
 themselves into the hands of the magistrates. Some 
 of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, 
 who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence 
 by a glorious de'ath. Others were allured by the hope 
 that a short confinement would expiate the sins of a 
 whole life ; and others again were actuated by the less 
 honourable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, 
 and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms 
 which the ciiarity of the faithful bestowed on the pri- 
 soners.' After the church had triumphed over all her 
 enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives 
 prompted them to magnify the merit of their respec- 
 tive sufferinfTs. A convenient distance of time or 
 place *Tave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; 
 and the frequent instances which might be alleged of 
 holy martyrs, whose wounds had been instantly heal- 
 ed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost 
 members had miraculously been restored, were ex- 
 tremely convenient for the purpose of removing every 
 difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most 
 extravagant legends, as tliey conduced to the honour 
 of the church, 'were applauded by the credulous mul- 
 titude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and 
 attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical 
 
 history. 
 
 Tiie vague descriptions of exile and Number of 
 imprisoniuent, of pain and torture, are so martyrs, 
 easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an art- 
 ful orator, "that we are naturally induced to inquire in- 
 to a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind ; the 
 number of persons who suffered death in consequence 
 of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, 
 and his successors. The recent legendaries record 
 whole armies and cities, which were at once svvept 
 away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. 
 The more ancient writers content themselves with 
 pouring out a liberal eflfusion of loose and tragical in- 
 vectives, withotit condescending to ascertain the pre- 
 cise number of those persons who w^ere permitted to 
 seal with their blood their belief of the gospel. From 
 the history of Eusebius, it may however be collected, 
 that only nine bishops were punished with death ; 
 and we are assured, by his particular enumeration of 
 the martyrs of Palestine, that no more than ninety- 
 two christians were entitled to that honourable * ap- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Palestine, and commanded that they should be put to the severest 
 labor. Four of them whom he commanded to abjure their faith, 
 refusin", were burnt alive. (Eus^cbius De Mart, Palest, chap. 13.— 
 
 «.] 
 
 y Euseb. de Martvr. Palestin. c. 13. 
 
 I Augustiii. Collat. Carlhagin. Dei, iii. c. 13. ap. Tillemont. Mc- 
 nioires Ecclesiastiques, torn. v. part. I. p. 46. The controversy with 
 the Donatists has reflected some, though perhaps a partial, light on 
 the history of the African church. 
 
 a [This estimate is made according to the account of the martyr*, 
 whom Eusebius mentions bx name, but he alludes to a much greater 
 number. Thus the ninth and tenth chapters of his work are entitled : 
 roncerning .Antoninus Zebinus, Germanus, and other Martyrs; 
 Concerning Peter, Wonachus, Asclepius Marcionitas, and other Mar- 
 tyrs Speaking of tho.se who sufTered under Diocletian, he says, I 
 willrelate the death of only one of them, that from this my readers 
 may imagine what the remainder suffered. (Hist. Eccles. lib. vni. 
 chap 0.) Dodwell made, before Gibbon, this estimate, and these 
 objections, but Ruinart (Act. Mart. Pref p. 24. ot seq.) has replied 
 to him in a decisive manner. Nobis constat Eusebium in historia 
 infinitos passim martyres adinisisse quamvis revera paucorum no- 
 inina recensuerit. Nee aliuin Eusebii intorpretem quam ipsummct 
 Eusebium proferimns qui (lib. iii. c. 2:i.) ait sub Trajano plurimos 
 ex fldelibus martyrii certainen subiisee (lib. v. Init.) Sub Antonino 
 et Vero Innumerabiles prope martyres per universuin orbem enituis- 
 se affirmat (lib. vi. cap. 1.) Severuin persecutionem concitasse re- 
 fert, in qua per omiies ubiqne locorum ecclesias, ab athletis pro pie- 
 late cortanlibiis illustria confecta fuerunt martyria, sic de Decii, sic 
 de Valcriani persocutionibus loquitur, qua^ non Dodwelli faveant 
 conjectationibus juiliret a>quiis lector. Even in the persecutions 
 which Gibbon lias represented as much more mild than that of Dio- 
 cletian, the number of martyrs appears much greater than that to 
 which he limits this last persecution, and this number is proved 
 correct by incontestable records. I will cite one of them only as an 
 example: we find amonir the letters of St. Cyprian, a letter from 
 liUcinnus to Celerinus. written in the depths of a prison, in which he 
 mentions seventeen of his brethren who had died ; some in the quar 
 ries. some while suffering tortures, some of hunger in dungeons. Jus. 
 si buniuSfSays he, secundum pra;ccptumimperaloris, fame etshjnccar 
 
 pellation." As we are unacquainted with the deoree of 
 episcopal zeal and courage that prevailed at that 
 time, It IS not m our power to draw any useful infer- 
 ences from the former of these facts : but the latter 
 may serve to justify a very important and probable 
 conclusion. According to the distribution of Ro- 
 man provinces, Palestine may be considered as the 
 sixteenth part of the eastern empire : ^ and since there 
 were some governors, who from a real or aflfected 
 clemency had preseTved their hands unstained with 
 the blood of the faithful,<« it is reasonable to believe 
 that the country which had given birth to Christianity! 
 produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs 
 who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius 
 and Maximin : the whole might consequently amount 
 to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is 
 equally divided, between the ten years of the persecu- 
 tion, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred 
 and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to 
 the provinces ol Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, 
 where, at the end of two or three years, the riaoir of 
 the penal laws was either suspended or abolisired, the 
 multitude of christians in the Roman empire, on 
 whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a iudi- 
 cial sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than 
 two housand persons. Since it cannot be doubted 
 that tlie christians were more numerous, and their 
 enemies more exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, 
 than they had ever been in any former persecution 
 this probable and moderate computation may teach us 
 to estimate the number of primitive saints and martyrs 
 who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of 
 introducing Christianity into the world. 
 Conclusion. ^e shall conclude this chapter by a 
 
 melancholy truth, which obtrudes itself 
 on the reluctant mind ; that even admitting, without 
 hesitation or inquiry all that history has recorded, or 
 devotion has feigned, on the subject of martvrdoms it 
 must still be acknowledged, that the christians, iTtVe 
 course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far 
 greater severities on each other, than they had experi- 
 enced from the zeal of infidels. During the ajrei of 
 Ignorance which followed the subversion of the Ro- 
 man empire in the west, the bishops of the imperial 
 city extended their dominion over Ihe laity as wdl as 
 
 th^I i\^T '^T'^- ^^^' f^b"^ of superstition 
 Ifi ^^.'?\^^ erected, and which might long have 
 defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length as! 
 
 twelfth t/th ' -'7^ '[ ^^""^ ^^"^^'^^^ ^^ho fr1)m t1fe 
 cLlotr nV ^'^^^^^^"^h ^«"tury, assumed the popular 
 character of reformers. The church of Rome defend- 
 
 205 
 
 i ed by violence the empire which she had acquired by 
 , fraud: a system of peace and benevolence was soon 
 
 disgraced by proscriptions, wars, massacres, and the 
 
 "^«^»t»/'on of the holy office. And 'as the reformers were 
 I animated by the love of civil as well as of rXTous 
 
 freedonn, the catholic princes connected the r own '„! 
 
 terest with that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and 
 
 ^ nI^T^ '^^ '''''''' ^^ ^^^'"^"^^ censures.^ In the 
 , Netherlands alone, more than one hundred thousand 
 
 of the subjects of Charles the Fifth are said to have 
 suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this ex- 
 
 Ss"^^ "l"""^"' ^' T''''^ ^y ^^^^^"^'^ ^ »'«" of 
 fmid.t iZf T^' '""^J^ preserved his moderation 
 ITftl ("O^of contending sects, and who compos- 
 ed the annals of his own age and country, at a time 
 when the invention of printing had facilitated the 
 means of intelligence, and increased the danger of de! 
 tec ion If vve are obliged to submit our belief to the 
 authority of Grot.us, it must be allowed, that the num! 
 ber 01 Protestants, who were executed i.t a single pro- 
 vince and a single reign, far exceeded that of the 
 primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries, and 
 of the Roman empire. IJut if the improbabiliti of 
 the fact Itself should prevail over the weight of evi- 
 dence; If Grotius should be convicted of "exarro-erat- 
 ing the merit and sufferings of the reformer! T'w-e 
 shal be naturally led to inquire what confidence c^n 
 be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments ot" 
 ' ancient credulity ; what degree of credit can be JsVl 
 ed to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaim^ 
 I who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the 
 (exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions in- 
 ,flicted on the christians by the vanquished rivals or 
 disregarded predecessors of their gracious sovereign 
 
 i^^^-'lh^.^^'^^^f^--^^ ^- et siti et 
 
 seem to contradict our moderate computation lut U wi l SWl' 'V^ 
 
 country of liic Roman empire, he relates, that in Thebais froi , te 
 one hundred persons had frequentlv suffered mar yrdorn m he 
 
 iSin nf "^'"''f '."r«''-'''y ''ebonies more cautious ai d moflera e 
 Ins end of a large but definite number, he speaks of many christians 
 and ?;.?'* "'°"' f '*^1"^ selects two ambiguous words (^V ' ^T.' 
 wlfatTr .'n°l7*'"'\''''"'i" '"«y «'«"'''y e'»''«r «'l'«t ''e had seen or' 
 Sni hment FThii/'' "' the expectation, or the execution!onhe 
 
 jf^5s;^a^ii:;^;Sg;^7;sJi;ij;^/'^ 
 
 Of nations were long since abolished, the R^ans ."iLfiS 
 P^rovmces according to a general proportion of the?r eJi^t'e^t a^d opt^ 
 
 ,J„^^ «'?•■'?." Possint nullam se innocentiam peremi«se nnm *.t 
 pse aud.v. ahquos gloriantes, quia ad.nini.stratio sua Sac pa^ 
 'uent incruenta. Lactant. Institut. Divin.v. ii. ^ ^' 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Foundation of Constantinople.-PoUticaUy.tem of Con- 
 stanttne and his successors.-MUitavy disciptine^ 
 ihe palace.— The finances. 
 
 The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who 
 oppose^d the greatness, and the last captive who 
 adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After a tr.in! 
 quil and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed 
 to his family the inheritance of the Roman empire • 
 a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion,' 
 and the innovations which he established have been 
 einbraced and consecrated by succeeding generations. 
 The age of the great Constantine and hil sons is filled 
 with important events ; but the historian must be op- 
 pressed by their number and variety, unless he dili- 
 gently separates from each other the scenes which are 
 connected only by the order of time. He will describe 
 the political institutions that gave strength and stabili- 
 ty to the empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars 
 and revolutions which hastened its decline. He will 
 adopt the division unknown to the ancients of civil and 
 ecclesiastical affairs : the victory of the christians, and 
 their intestine discord, will supply copious and dis- 
 tinct materials both for edification and scandal 
 
 After the defeat and abdication of Li- 
 cinius, his victorious rival proceeded to ^"""S.d.^a? "'"" 
 lay the foundations of a city destined to A. l). 324. 
 reign in future times, the mistress of the east, and to 
 survive the empire and religion of Constantine. The 
 motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first 
 induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the an- 
 cient seat of government, had acquired additional 
 weight by the example of his successors, and the 
 habits of forty years. Rome was insensibly confound- 
 
 e Grot, .\nnal. de Rebus Belgicis, I. I. p. 12 Pdit fol 
 f Fra Paolo (Istoria del Conrilio Tridentino, I. ii*i.) reduce*? the 
 number of Beliric martyrs to 50,000. I„ learning rM./l moderaii^^^^ 
 Fra-Paolo w.is not inferior to Grotius. 'J'I.e priority of time l ves 
 some advantage to the evidence of the former whicif he loTs of. •!?« 
 other Land by the distance of Venice frounhe Kirlands 
 
206 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVH. 
 
 Chap. XV 11. 
 
 ed with the dependent kingdoms which had once 
 acknowledged her supremacy ; and the country of 
 the Caesars was viewed with cold indiflference by a 
 martial prince, born in the neighbourhood of the Dan- 
 ube, educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and 
 invested with the purple by the legions of Britain. 
 The Italians, who had received Constantine as their 
 deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he 
 sometimes condescended to address to the senate and 
 people of Home ; but they were seldom honoured 
 with the presence of their new sovereign. During the 
 vigour of his age, Constantino, according to the various 
 exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow digni- 
 ty, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his 
 extensive dominions ; and was always prepared to 
 take the field either against a foreign or a domestic 
 enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of 
 prosperity and the decline of life, he began to medi- 
 tate the design of fixing in a more permanent station 
 the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the 
 choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the 
 confines of Europe and Asia; to curb, with a power- 
 ful arm, the barbarians who dwelt between the Dan- 
 ube and the Tanais ; to watch with an eye of jealousy 
 the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly 
 supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty. With 
 these views, Diocletian had selected and embellished 
 the residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Dio- 
 cletian was justly abhorred by the protector of the 
 church ; and Constantine was not insensible to the 
 ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate 
 the glory of his own name. During the late opera- 
 Situation of tions of the war against Licinius, he 
 Byzantium, had sufficient opportunity to contemplate 
 both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable 
 position of Byzantium ; and to observe how^ strongly 
 it was guarded by nature against an hostile attack, 
 whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits 
 of commercial intercourse. Many ages before Con- 
 stantine, one of the most judicious historians of an- 
 tiquity * had described the advantages of a situation, 
 from whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the 
 command of the sea, and the honours of a flourishing 
 and independent republic.'' 
 r, ' ,- e If we survey Byzantium in the ex- 
 
 Descnption of ^ ^ , . , . -^ ■/ , -^i xi_ * 
 
 Constantino- tent which it acquired With the august 
 >•»'■• name of Constantinople, the figure of 
 
 the imperial city may be represented under that of an 
 unequal triangle. The obtuse point, which advances 
 towards the cast and the shores of Asia, meets and 
 repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The 
 northern side of the city is bounded by the harbour ; 
 and the southern is washed by the Propontis, or sea 
 of Marmara. The basis of the triangle is opposed to 
 the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But 
 the admirable form and division of the circumjacent 
 land and water cannot, w^ithout a more ample explana- 
 tion, be clearly or sufficiently understood. 
 
 The winding channel through which 
 The Bosphorufi. ^,^^ ^.^^^^^ ^j- ^^^ Euxine flow with a 
 
 rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterra- 
 nean, received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name 
 not less celebrated in the history, than in the fables, 
 of antiquity ."= A crowd of temples and of votive al- 
 tars profusely scattered along its steep and woody 
 
 a Polybius, 1. iv. p. I'i:^. edit. Cnsaulton. lie ol»servcs that the 
 peace of ll»e Byzantines was frequently disturhed, and tl»e extent 
 of tiieir territory contracted, by the inroads of the wild Thracians. 
 
 li The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son of Neptune, found- 
 ed the city (>5G years before the christian a-ra. His followers were 
 drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was afterwards rebuilt 
 and fortified by the Spartan general, Pausanias. See Scaliger Ani- 
 inadvcrs. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducanpe ConsfantinO|H>li8, I. i. part i. 
 cap. 15, 16. With regard to the wars of the Byzantines against 
 Philip, the Gauls, and the kings of Bithynia, we should trust none but 
 the ancient wriicrs who lived before the greatness of the imperial 
 city had excited a spirit of flattery and fiction. 
 
 c The Bosphorus has be<;n very minutely described by Dionyaius 
 of Byzantium, who lived in the time of Domitian. (Hudson Geo- 
 graph. Minor, torn, iii.^ and by Gilles or Gyllius, a French traveller 
 
 ; of the xvith century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.) seems to have used 
 
 vliigown ey(>.<:, and the learning; of Gyllius. 
 
 banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the 
 devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the ex- 
 ample of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of the 
 inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition long 
 preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, in- 
 fested by the obscene harpies;"* and of the sylvan 
 reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the 
 combat of the cestus.« The straits of the Bosphorus 
 are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, accord- 
 ing to the description of the poets, had once floated 
 on^the face of the waters ; and were destined by the 
 
 gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the 
 eye of profane curiosity.^ From the Cyanean rocks 
 to the point and harbour of Byzantium, the winding 
 length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles,^ 
 and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at 
 about one mile and a half. The new castles of Eu- 
 rope and Asia are constructed, on either continent, 
 upon the foundations of two celebrated temples, of 
 Serapis and of Jupiter Urius. The old castles, a work 
 of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part 
 of the channel, in a place where the opposite banks 
 advance within five hundred paces of each other. 
 These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by 
 Mahomet the second, when he meditated the siege of 
 Constantinople;'' but the Turkish conqueror was most 
 probably ignorant, that near two thousand years be- 
 fore his reign, Darius had chosen the same situation 
 to connect the two continents by a bridge of boats.' 
 At a small distance from the old castles we discover 
 the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may 
 almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Con- 
 stantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to open 
 into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and 
 Chalcedon. The latter of those cities was built by 
 the Greeks, a few years before the former; and the 
 blindness of its founders, who overlooked the supe- 
 rior advantages of the opposite coast, has been stig- 
 matized by a proverbial expression of contempt.^ 
 
 d There are very few conjectures so happy as that of Le Clerc, 
 (Bibliolheque Universelle, torn. i. p. 148.) who supposes that the har- 
 pies were only locusts. The Svriac or Phrrnician name of those in- 
 sects, their noisy flight, the stench and devastation which they occa- 
 sion, and the north wind which drives them into the sea, all contri- 
 bute to form the striking resemblance. , . . u 
 e The residence of Amycus was in Asia between the old and the 
 new castles, at a place called Laurus Insana. That of Phuieus was 
 in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and the Black Sea. See 
 Gyllius de Bosph. I. ii. c. 23. Tournefort, Lettre xv. 
 
 [Amycus reigned in Bebrycia, afterwards called Biibynia. 
 was the inventor of the gauntlet, of which he made use in box 
 rciemeni of Alexandria Stromates, lib. i. p. ?.63.) " When the Argo- 
 nauts arrived in his kingdom, he presented himself liefore them, and 
 asked if any one of ihem would contend with him. Pollux accepted 
 the challenge, and killed him by a stroke upon the neck. (Bibho- 
 theque d'Apollodore lib. i. $ 20. version of M. Chivier.) Epicharmus 
 and IMsander say that Pollux did not kill Amycus, but subdued and 
 bound him— and he is thus represented upon a funeral vase given by 
 VVihckelman. (Hist, de I'Art. plalc 18. edition of 1789, in octavo.) 
 Theocritus, who gives a detailed account of the combat, (Id. 22.) 
 says that Pollux did not kill him. but made him promise never nrioro 
 to maltreat strangers who should pass through his dominions. Nice 
 phorus Callistus (Hist. Eccl. b. viii. ch. 50.) relates an ancient tradition 
 which is worthy of attention. The Argonauts having arrived in Be- 
 brycia, began to ravage it, but Amycus with his suljects. attacked 
 them and put them to flight. They took refuge in a very thick forest, 
 from which they dared not venture forth till one of the celestial deities 
 in the form of a man with the wings of the eagle, appeared to them 
 and promised them the victory. They then marched against Amycus. 
 challenged histroops, and killed him. Upon the battle-field, in com- 
 memoration of the victory, they built a temple, which they named 
 Sosthenium, because they had there recovered their courage, and they 
 also erected a statue to the divinity who appeared to them. Con 
 stantine afterwards converted it into the church of the archangel 
 Michael. (Notes of M. Clavier upon Apollod. note 88. p. \15.)—0.] 
 f The deception was occasioned by several pointed rocks alter- 
 nately covered and abandoned by the waves. At present there arc 
 two small islands, one towards either shore : that of Europe is distui- 
 guished by the column of Pompey. 
 
 K The ancients computed one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen 
 Roman miles. They measured only from the new castles, but they 
 carried the straits as far as the town of Chalcedon. 
 
 h Ducas. Hist. c. 34. Leunclavius lliist. Turcia Mnsulmanica, i- 
 XV. p. 577. Under the Greek empire these castles were used na 
 .•state prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe, or towers of 
 oblivion. ,,- 
 
 i Darius engraved in Greek and Assyrian letters, on two marinfl 
 columns, the names of his subject nations, and the amazing num- 
 bers of his land and sea forces. The Byaantines afterwards trans- 
 ported these columns into the city, and used them for the altars oi 
 their tutelar deities. Herodotus, I. iv. c. 87. 
 k Namque arlissimo inter Europam Asiamque divoriio Byzantium 
 
 He 
 
 boxing. 
 
 The port. The harbour of Constantinople, which 
 
 of fish to seek their retreat in th^f « i^^ixuuicai snoals 
 As the vicissitnrlpl nf f^!r convenient recess. 
 
 tlie largest vessels mavT« .h„: """^^ P'"'"'* 
 
 housesrwMle O^Z'ZJtXjTi: Tw^l^^ 
 Jrom the mouth of the Lvcus to that°of .hi i. I 
 InllZ"' V\^ B-Phorus'is'Ire t an sten'mrs 
 
 Ti,o ProiH)niU, Between the Bosphoras and the Hel 
 lespont, the shores of Europe and \^L 
 receding: on either side enclose the se^of Marmtrl 
 
 ^'P oZtis"° T"hr ""'.-"-'« "y the denoinTn'Sn' 
 
 Bofp, Trust thl ent™Tof°.1 ^V" '^^"« ">' "- 
 one Lndred a, rtwentv r^nJ '''t^''"''T"' '" "'""•» 
 westward course S gl, the ^iddinfT'^^r'' ""'^ 
 may at once descry the highlan" of Thraeo and"K v' 
 nia, and never lose sight of the lofty summirofMoun; 
 Olympus, covered with eternal snows «'ph„.i 
 0.. the loft a deep gulf, at the bottom^f wh^ch^mc^ 
 
 tTaif aL'',!.''"'''' *\^ '"P""^' residence of Dbcle-' 
 tian, and they pass the small islands of Cvzicusand 
 Proconncsus before thev cast anchor „t If? ii- ■" 
 Where the sea, which sepU?s l^^^^^^f^l^ 
 agam contracted into a narrow channel ^ ' 
 
 The Hellespont. ^^^ geographers who with the most 
 
 ordinary breadth of those celebrated straitTp if ..i 
 session of his mistress.. It was here likewise! fn a 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ^edem c^rorum terris adversam' Fa L„ » "^"^u "m est. qu.Trerent, 
 
 antur. quod priores illuc adJec'ti n?.n ' ^^P Chalcedonii monsfra- 
 
 'eeisfcnt. Tacit. Anrial! xH 62 ' ^ "" '°'°'"'" "'*''^''»'^ P^i^'^ 
 
 to ^Pe"k^!;/fii?„,'a'tel^n;ost oc\T''' ^'^ "°- •'-'^^ off; or, 
 fined up. See Gill, de Bo'sphoro ThraHoTTTs ' ''' '"'^""^ =^« 
 
 «n Procopius de iEdificiis | i r ■; Vi °'^L' ^' ^- . 
 ;nod.rn travellers. See Thevenot "';,*'f'"'P"0"j« confirmed by 
 
 Viilel.ardouin, p.'28'9. The chain' Ll^'i^^ '']" ^''^^rvations sur 
 
 "ear the modern Kiosk/to ?he towero? gS.*'°"1 '"" ^'''^«P«'*s 
 
 o7ZT"lfi''''"''^''y'^'"-^^^^^^ ^vas supported 
 
 i'^ll^'ni^SZ::^^:^^^ KJ;S- '■ ''') — -s the 
 
 f,'vo8 a cood description of th" Pronm? ,s l^.?""^'"""?'- '• " '^^ ^ ) 
 
 'lie vngue expression of onedav a,Tnn?'ni k^*""'^"'^ Inmself with 
 
 )" (Travels, p. 21.) talks of i^ a. h " ^''"- ^"^" ^^^^'^ 
 
 •[.''ad.h, we can only suppose son^ nJl?T 'P .'^"S^"' «« ^^ell as 
 
 »> «l'.>t judicious traveller '"''*' °^ "'^ P"^^^^ '" «»ie text 
 
 .f -Va^nSl^rnteXrrre^/d'e'-,^^^^^^^^^^^^ ?«? »"«"«"-• 
 
 ,^P'-ru , i'c!lrYv."!^8?')t t%nd?uS\^^ ^"' 
 
 !iS;eth"oS:e?' '"•'"^"•'^'^ '^ recon"c„li;.l^;;rcll'h^e: ^^^^; 
 
 207 
 
 I place where the distance hpfwnon fk^ • , 
 
 ' cannot exceed five hun'drcd^a "s ' .ha'?''?' ''^ ^""^^ 
 posed a stupendous bridTof'^boat; for ,^'""'' """ 
 of transporting into Eurone an if, „'i a *■ P"'P°^ 
 
 myriads'of barbarians.- Tsercomra^'eH rf. ■"'""'J' 
 narrow limits, may seem but 111 t^descrve , e'"-""''' 
 lar epithet of broad, which lUmer as we ^'T" 
 pheus, has frequently bestowed o.' tie nil ' ^V 
 But our ideas of greatness are nfn r^ .,• "<'"<'spont. 
 
 and contemplated the rural scenprv «nLi stream, 
 
 everv «JH^ f« *^ • 1 scenery, which appeared on 
 
 every side to terminate the prospect, insei sihlv w 
 the remembrance of the sea • ^nAhiJl^- ^°^^ 
 , those celebrated straits whh' .11 tK ?"u^ P^^"'^^ 
 
 pa:; ;ttibr:f ^hr^l - j-E,or 
 
 Simois and Scamandpr Ti,o n "^u'eis tiie 
 
 gffian to the Rha^tean promontory ; and the flanU nf 
 
 pitched his tents on tlic other. After AHv In ? A\ 
 
 rising town of Rha^teum celebrated his m?morv w kb 
 divine honours." Before rnn«tn„fi„„ ""^'"?fy " "" 
 
 nlf^^ol^^ «^"^^ ^^-"»-^^ ^^^ strailsTf^e 
 
 detta'ul:^^!?^^^ 
 
 74. Mem. 240. Academic des Inscriptions, loni. vii. IJist. p.' 
 
 r^ori^'Jl^TuttVetro^L^^^^^^^ '^^ "ellcspont, 
 
 all tl'eancientsspeak of l,/ias/^n../.Llr 1^ "'f «o^"P''or..s, ve 
 other. TUcy agr?e in g v r^g it fsradia^or ^ '"n"'^ "'^'''^f '"«" ^"« 
 est part. _ (Herodotus iS Me?,^^'^^ J'^^ f^p' -^f- '"'^V'-ow- 
 
 est part. (Herodotus in MeVomdnn' 8 . ^\>T''''' ".' ''■' "''^^^^v- 
 bo. p. 591 ; Pliny, I. iv. chan m ItT^* Jn T ''''"."' *"''''''• ^-^ • ^^'^■ 
 in the fifteenth note upo uiii cLotVr rl^""'"; "'«' «i''''o». who. 
 
 very same measure of the stadiuni wTiV ,T\\ v.i i/ '"'^f"'^'' *''^ 
 was the opinion of this great peo'r.rnic tl-.r i.. "' ^"'^"- " 
 was equal to fifty -one toiscs and he JnnlirV'.i ; "'"-'eni st.ulinm 
 the dimensions of Babylon Nmv seven of Sf«."'rH'"*' '" P*^*"^' 
 equivalent to five hundred paces'- T^t-^rf?! o?%';'''l'''' '''^'^••••'r 
 21^. feet 5 inches. (See the G^^r-'of Se^'Sot^L^^y^Jl' n^. p%T 
 
 rVc?.''?.^^ .''^'^" .node with tole^bleScSv- b M'h:'^'*'''^- 
 first of the Persians, and afterwards of IL r Vlt ^ ' "'^ vanity, 
 
 magnify the armament and the vfctorv ri^LIn""*":"^'"^ '« 
 whether the ivvaders have ever outnuSv., m " '' T'^' ''o"'*^ 
 try which they attacked outnumbered the men of any coun- 
 
 suie'feS'rs'r'SkTror^^^ ' ^"--i''> P'^a- 
 
 ;.ave disappointed the expeSoror ' ^p I nc\".'a'cr;;i^ '''T '.? 
 more as a traveller. He had visited the h- nki of M.» uT' "'"^ "'"' 
 had read Strabo; he ought to havrco «uliedr he Rnr,. *''*'•''''''•'• ^ 
 how was it possible for him trco.Sn!? i- ^'"'Y' ""''*''■«'■'''•''• 
 
 clearly descrihed l,y Homer sS°lfiadix»4 '"'• •''"' ""^ 
 
 X Zosim. I. ii 
 
 * ^usim. I. II, p. ujj. Sozonicn I ii r 1 T\,r.,.^i 
 
 Nicephorns Callistus.- 1, vii. p 48.' Zonaras Tim h 'r''' •^^ ^^'• 
 
 7.osimus places the new citv between 1\i»nll^ a? '^ '• •^'"- P- ^■ 
 
 1 apparent ^difierence may ^^e^:^!'!:^,:^^:^^^;;;:];;^^;^^ 
 
208 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 209 
 
 ^j . „r We are at present qualified to view the 
 CotunSpi- advantageous position of Constantinople; 
 which appears to have been formed by nature for the 
 Tentre and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in 
 the forty-first degree of latitude, the imperial city com- 
 manded, from her seven hills/ the opposite shores 
 of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and 
 temperate, the soil fertile, the harbour secure and ca- 
 pacious ; and the approach on the side of the continent 
 ^as of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus 
 and the Hellespont may be considered as the two gates 
 of Constantinople; and the prince who possessed 
 those important passages could always shut them 
 acrainst a naval enemy, and open them to the fleets of 
 commerce. The preservation of the eastern provinces 
 may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Con- 
 stantino, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in he 
 precedincr acre had poured their armaments into the 
 heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exer- 
 cise of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmoun- 
 Se barrier^' When \he gates of the Hellespont and 
 Bosphorus were shut, the capital still enjoyed x^it n 
 their spacious enclosure, every production which could 
 supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numer- 
 ous inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and B U y- 
 nia, which languish under the weight of Turkish 
 oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect of vineyard., 
 of gardens, and of plentiful harvests ; and the Propontis 
 has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of 
 the most exquisite fish, that are taken in their stated 
 seasons, without skill, and almost without labour.' 
 But when the passages of the straits were thrown open 
 for trade, they alternately admitted the natural and 
 artificial riches of the north and south, of the Euxine, 
 and of the Mediterranean. Whatever rude commodities 
 were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia, 
 Ts far as the sources of the Tanais and the Borys- 
 thenes ; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill ot 
 Europe or Asia ; the corn of Egypt, and the gems and 
 spices of the furthest India, were brought by the vary- 
 iL winds into the port of Constantinople, which for 
 many ages, attracted the commerce of the ancient 
 
 Tunda.ion of The prospcct of bcauty, of safety, and 
 th» city. of wealth, united in a single spot, was 
 sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as 
 some decent mixture of prodi-y and fahle has, in every 
 acre, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on 
 the ori-in of great cities," the emperor «as desirous of 
 ascribin<r his resolution, not so much to the uncertain 
 Tounsels of human policy, as to the "-fe""; e an^ 
 eternal decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his la«s 
 he has been careful to instruct posterity, tliat, n obe- 
 dience to the commands of God, he laid the ev"l-''S''ng 
 foundations of Constantinople : ' and though he has 
 not condescended to relate in what manner the celes- 
 tial inspiration was communicated to his mind, tne 
 defect of his modest silence has been liberally supplied 
 bv the ingenuity of succeeding writers; w-bo describe 
 the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of 
 Constantine, as he slept within the walls of Byzan- 
 tium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable ma 
 
 tron sinkino- under the weight of years and infirmities, 
 was sTdSy transformed fnto a blooming maid, whom 
 his own hands adorned with all the symbols of im- 
 neriargrcatness.^ The monarch awoke, i^^^^V'^^^ 
 [he aus^picious omen, and obeyed without hesUation 
 the will of heaven. The day which gave birth to a 
 citv or colony was celebrated by the Romans with 
 such ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous 
 sunerstitTcm -"and though Constantine might omit some 
 rit^swS savoured too strongly of their pagan origin, 
 yeThe was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope 
 an 1 respect on the minds of the spectiitors. On/»°'; 
 tvith a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the 
 solemn procession; and directed the line, which was 
 
 raced as'the boundary of the 'If ""^-l <=''?''«» -^^'^^j^t 
 ffrowing circumference was observed with ^foMSh 
 menrbl the assistants, who, at length, ventured o 
 Xerve! that he had already exceeded the most ample 
 measure of a o-reat city. " I shall still advance," re- 
 ,"l ed Constamine, " UU he, the jnvi-ble gu^e who 
 marches before me, thinks proper to stop. ' W ithout 
 presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this 
 ^xtSinary conductor, we shal content ourselves 
 'v^th the more humble task of describing the extent and 
 limits of Constantinople.' 
 
 In the actual state of the city, the pa- p^,^_, 
 lace and gardens of the seraglio occupy 
 the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and 
 cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own 
 measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism 
 S erected on the foundationsof a Grecian republic; but 
 i? may be supposed that the Byzantines were templed 
 by the convenLncy of the harbour to extend their hab- 
 itations on that side beyond the modern limits of the 
 scwUo. The new walls of Constantine stretched 
 rom° the port to the Propontis across the enla^g^d 
 breadth of the triangle, at the distance of fif^"" f'^'^'^ 
 from the ancient fortification ; and with the city ot 
 BvTantium they enclosed five of the seven hills, which 
 to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople 
 appear to rise above each other in beantiful order^ 
 About a century after the death of the founder, the new 
 bSnts! extending on one side up the harbour, and 
 the 'other alonglhc Propontis, already covered he 
 narrow ridacof the sixth, and the broad summit of the 
 sevenTh hiU. The necessity of protecting those sub- 
 urbs from the incessant inroads of the barbarians, en- 
 "aged the younger Theodosius to surround his capita 
 wifh an aiquate and permanent enclosure^ofw a! s 
 From the eastern promontory to the golden gate, t^e 
 extreme length of Constantinople was about three 
 Roman miles;' the circumference measured between 
 
 (Iv "S 1 ■cni.cror.if Iin l'«d i.ot licen i-rBvcmcd l.y » prdigy, 
 { l?„n 'H,avo'r""el,.cd U.. mis.nke of tl,e (,»jJ Chal«,Io„mn» 
 
 V Porork's Dpscriiitioji of Ihft East. vol. u. part. ii. P- '-'•. ""» 
 p,an of tno seven h'ills i. clear and accurate. That traveller .s sel- 
 
 riom so i^atisfa'-tory. a moncr n variety of difTer- 
 
 •/o'i„„s,.:?;v^ii;.u:i^-rASirver.;"po...u,o.Eux „ 
 
 n-natur 1...C v.niaa,„m.i.a.i,u..ni,rcmIohun,ana .li.iais, pr.- 
 „,„rd.a url.h,™ aususl.ora ,<».^'^'- /•'•'; 'P"' 
 
 d Tl... r.reck,. Thcophan«,C»rtre„„8 and the »'f "J »/ 'l/'/'^i 
 andriau Ol.ronicle. confine llien.aclvc. o v=.S"0 anj ^^"."re J£<k1 
 
 ;!,°i;jve^e»^rrorri!a:.rs.t%^,'i;rof"A;in.e..a,y. 
 
 Sec Ducance, C. 1*. 1. i. P- 24, 2j. Wrvan Amonj? other 
 
 •T«^'ei7rMr:r'ir;''rca7e«s^^ 
 
 toises. 
 
 "'r?ie ;;S';" o^r.:;,:;: ;a:v^. pro yon,n;.n.w n^ 
 
 nm. inc. julK:nle Deo, donaviino^. Cod. Thcodos. I. Iin. Ut. v. ICB- 
 
 '°rcodin,„ Anllnuilnl. Cons. p. 12 "« »-'f,".',J'^f„"'",',1;lfi- 
 
 -'ny;i'e^'Sfs^.-,:o^i;»:'»w'-o"itj^ 
 
 In 447 it was thrown down hy an earthquake, and rcbmm^^ ^^^ 
 n.onths hy the diligence of the P'-'f^l-l t^jrus. The «»/'"^^^.^^,iu.. 
 niachern.T was first taken into the city in the reign oi 
 Ducange Const. I. i. c. 10, 11. Mntifin bv 14 075 fret. '' 
 
 k The measurement is expressed '" ViV^^lC'feer the importio" 
 is reasonable to suppose tliat these were Greek feel , ij'^ P ,„ 
 
 of which has iK^cn ingeniously deteriiined l.yM. ^A^^^^^^^^ 
 
 compares the 180 feet with the 70 "{;» ^^^J^^St Sop ia Each oi 
 rnt writers, are assicncd for the height of bt. ^opiiia. 
 those cubits was equal to 27 French 'nches. ^^^^^ ^f 
 
 [The notitia dignitatum imperu, is a rccora oi an wit: 
 
 ten and eleven ; and the surface might he computed as 
 equal to about two thousand English acres. It is im- 
 possible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations 
 of modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched 
 the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villacres 
 of the European, and even of the Asiatic, coast.» But 
 the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond 
 tlie harbour, may deserve to be considered as a part of 
 the city ; "^ and this addition may perhaps authorize the 
 measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns sixteen 
 Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the circum- 
 ference of his native city." Such an extent may seem 
 not unworthy of a;i imperial residence. Yet Constanti- 
 nople must yield to Babylon and Thebes," to ancient 
 Home, to London, and even to Paris.? 
 Progress of the The master of the Roman world, who 
 work. aspired to erect an eternal monument of 
 the glories of his reign, could employ in the prosecu- 
 tion of that great work the wealth, the labour, and all 
 that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions. 
 Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestow- 
 ed with imperial liberality on the foundation of Con- 
 stantinople, by the allowance of about two millions 
 five hundred thousand pounds for the construction of 
 the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts.^ The 
 forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, 
 and the celebrated quarries of white marble in the 
 little island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible 
 stock of materials, ready to be conveyed, by the con- 
 venience of a short water-carriage, to the harbour of 
 Byzantium.' A multitude of labourers and artificers 
 urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil : 
 but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered, 
 that, in the decline of arts, the skill as well as num- 
 bers of his architects bore a very unequal proportion 
 to the greatness of his designs. The magistrates of 
 the most distant provinces were therefore directed to 
 institute schools, to appoint professors, and by the 
 hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in the 
 study and practice of architecture a sufhctent number 
 of ingenious youths, who had received a liberal edu- 
 cation.' The buildings of the new city were executed 
 by such artificers as the reign of Constantine could 
 afford ; but they were decorated by the hands of the 
 
 the court and of tlie state, of the legions, Set. It resembled our 
 court calendar, with this difference only that our calendar names 
 the persons in office, and the mo^i7io named the offices only. It ex- 
 lends from tlie time of the emperor Theodosius. 2nd. That is to say 
 from the fifth century when the empire was already divided into 
 eastern and western. It is probable that it was not then made for 
 the first Umc, and that tables of this kind existed beforr.— G 1 
 
 1 The accurate Thevenot (I. i. c. 15.) walked in one hour and 
 three quarters round two of the sides of the triangle, from the Ki- 
 osk of the seraglio to the seven towers. D'Anville examines with 
 care, and receives with confidence, this decisive testimony, which 
 gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles. The extravagant 
 computation of Toiirnefort (LeUre xi.) of thirty-four or thirty 
 miles, without including Scutari, is a strange departure from his 
 usual cliaracier. 
 
 m The 8yctp,or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth region, and were 
 very much embellished by Justinian. It has since borne the names 
 of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former is obvious ; that 
 of the latter is unknown. See Ducange Const. 1. i, c. 22. and Gyllius 
 de Byzant, I. iv. c. 10. 
 
 n One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be translated Into 
 modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 6(i0, sometimes only COO 
 French toises. See D'Anville Mcsures Itincraires, p. .53. 
 
 o When the ancient texts, which describe the size of Babylon and 
 Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and the measures as- 
 certained, we find that those famous cities filled the great but not in- 
 credible circumference of about twenty-five or thirty miles. Com- 
 pare D'Anville Mem. dc PAcademie, tom. xxviii. p. 235. with his 
 Description dc I'Egypte, p. 201, 202. 
 
 P If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal shares of 50 
 French toises, the former contains 850, and the latter 1160, of those 
 divisions. 
 
 q Six hundred rcntcnarie.^, or sixty thousand pounds weight of 
 cold. This sum is taken from Codinus Antiquit. Const, p. II. ; but 
 unless that contemptible author had derived his information from 
 some purer sources, he would probably have been unacquainted with 
 so obsolete a mode of reckoning. 
 
 r For the forests of the Black sea, consult Tournefort, Lettre xvi. 
 j^r the marble quarries of Proconnesus, see Strabo, I. xiii. p. 588. 
 The latter had already furnished the materials of the stately build- 
 ings of Cyzicua. 
 
 • S«€ the Codex Theodos. I. xiii. tit. iv. leg. 1. This law is dated in 
 the year :W4, and was addressed to the prefect of Italy, whose juris- 
 aiction extended over Africa. The commentary of Godefroy, on the 
 whole title, well deserves to be consulted. 
 
 Vol. I 2 B 14 
 
 most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and 
 Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Ly- 
 sippus, surpassed indeed the power of a Roman em- 
 peror ; but the immortal productions which they had 
 bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence 
 to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his com- 
 mands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of 
 their most valuable ornaments.* The trophies of me- 
 morable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the 
 most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the 
 sages and poets, of ancient times, contributed to the 
 splendid triumph of Constantinople ; and gave occa- 
 sion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus," who 
 observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed 
 wanting except the souls of the illustrious men whom 
 those admirable monuments were intended to repre- 
 sent. But it is not in the city of Constantine, nor in 
 the declining period of an empire, when the human 
 mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, 
 that we should seek for the souls of Homer and of 
 Demosthenes. 
 
 During the siege of Byzantium, the 
 conqueror had pitched his tent on the ^<^«fices. 
 commanding eminence of the second hill. To per- 
 petuate the memory of his success, he chose the same 
 advantageous position for the principal forum;* 
 Avhich appears to have been of a circular, or rather el- 
 liptical, form. The two opposite entrances formed 
 triumphal arches ; the porticoes, which enclosed it on 
 every side, were filled with statues ; and the centre of 
 the forum was occupied by a lofty column, of which a 
 niutilated fragment is now degraded by the appella- 
 tion of the burnt pillar. This column was erected on 
 a pedestal of while marble twenty feet high ; and was 
 composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which 
 measured about ten feet in height, and about thirty- 
 three in circumference.^ On the summit of the pillar 
 above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, 
 stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze, 
 had been transported either from Athens or from a 
 tovvn of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of 
 Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, 
 or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Con- 
 stantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the 
 globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays 
 glittering on his head.' The circus, or hippodrome, was 
 a stately building about four hundred paces in length, 
 and one hundred in breadth.* The space between the 
 two metas or goals, was filled with statues and obe- 
 lisks ; and we may still remark a very singular frag- 
 ment of antiquity ; the bodies of three serpents twis- 
 ted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had 
 once supported the golden tripod which, after the de- 
 feat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Del- 
 phi by the victorious Greeks.'' The beauty of the 
 
 t Constantino|)oIis dedrcatur potnc omnium urbium nuditatc. Hi- 
 eronym. Chron. p. 181. See Codinus, p. 8. 9. The author of the 
 Antiqiiitat. Const. I. in. (apud Banduri Imp. Orient, tom. i. p. 41.) 
 enumerates Kome» Sicily, Antioch, Athens, and a long list of other 
 cities. The provinces of Greece and Asia Minor may be supposed 
 to have yielded the richest booty. 
 
 u Hist. Coinpend p. 369. He describes the statue, or rather bust, 
 of Homer with a degree of taste which plainly indicat<?s that Cedre- 
 nus copied the style of a more fortunate age. 
 
 X Zosim. 1. ii. p. 106. Chron. Alexandrin. vcl. P.nschal. p. 284. 
 Ducange Const. I. i. c. 24. Even the last of those writers seems to 
 confound the Forum of Constantine with the Augusteum, or court 
 of the pat.icc. I am not satisfied whether I have properly distin- 
 guished what belongs to the one and the other. 
 
 y The most tolerable account of this column is given by Pocock. 
 Description of the East, vol. ii. part. ii. p. 131. But it is still in many 
 inst.inros* perplexed and unsatisfactorv. 
 
 a Ducange Const. I. i.e. 24. p. 76. aiid his notes ad Alcxiad. p. 382. 
 The statue of Constantine or Apollo was thrown down under the 
 reign of Alexis Coinnenus. 
 
 a Tournefort (Lettre xii.) computes the Almeidan at four hundred 
 paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet each, it was three 
 hundred foises in length, about forty more than the great circus of 
 Rome. See d'Anville Mesures Itineraires, p. 73. 
 
 b The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice if they were 
 able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be alleged on this 
 occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const, p. 668. Gyllius de By- 
 zant. I. ii. c. 13. 1. The original consecration of the tripod and pillar 
 in the temple of Delphi may be proved from Herodotus and Pausa- 
 nias. 2. The pagan Zosimus agrees with the three ecclesiastical his- 
 
210 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Hippodrome has been long since defaced by the rude 
 hands of the Turkish conquerors ; but, under the sim- 
 ilar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a place 
 of exercise for their horses.* From the throne, whence 
 the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding 
 staircase'* descended to the palace; a magnificent edi- 
 fice, which scarcely yielded to liome itself, and which, 
 together with the dependent courts, gardens, and porti- 
 coes, covered a considerable extent of ground upon the 
 banks of the Propontis between the Hippodrome and 
 the church of St. Sophia.* We might likewise cele- 
 brate the baths, which still retained the name of Zeux- 
 ippus, after they had been enriched, by the munifi- 
 cence of Constantine, with lofty columns, various 
 marbles, and above threescore statues of bronze.' But 
 we should deviate from the design of this history, if 
 we attempted minutely to describe the different build- 
 ings or quarters of the city. It may be sufficient to 
 observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a 
 great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure 
 of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the 
 walls of Constantinople. A particular description, 
 composed about a century after its foundation, enu- 
 merates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two 
 theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty three 
 private, baths, fifty-two porticoes, five granaries, eight 
 aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls 
 for the meetings of the senate or courts of justice, four- 
 r teen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand 
 three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which, for 
 their size or beauty, deserved to be distinguished from 
 the multitude of plebeian habitations.^ 
 
 The populousness of this favoured 
 Population, pjjy ^yjjg jj^g ^p^j j^^gj serious object of 
 
 the attention of its founder. In the dark ages which 
 succeeded the translation of the empire, the remote 
 and the immediate consequences of that memorable 
 event were strangely confounded by the vanity of the 
 Greeks, and the credulity of the Latins.*' It was as- 
 serted, and believed, that all the noble families of 
 Rome, the senate, and the equestrian order, with their 
 
 torians, Eusebius, Socrates, Soromcn, that the sacred ornaments of 
 the temple of Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of 
 Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the Hippo- 
 drome is particularly mentioned. 3. All the European travellers 
 who have visited Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to Pocock, de- 
 ncribe it in the same place, and almost in the same manner; the dif- 
 ferences between them are occasioned only by the injuries which it 
 ban sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the second broke the 
 under-jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke of his battle-axe. The- 
 venot, I. i. c. 17. 
 
 c [In 1808 the Janissaries rehellinfi: against the vizier Mustnpha 
 Baraictar, who had attempted to introduce a new system of military 
 organization, besieged and burnt the quarter of the Hippodrome oc- 
 cupied by the palaces of the viziers, and the Hippodrome was con- 
 sumed in the conflagration. — O.] 
 
 d The Latin name Cochlea was adopted by the Greeks, and very 
 frequently occurs in the Byzantine history. Ducange Const. I. ii. c. 
 1. p. 104. 
 
 e There are three topographical points which indicate the situation 
 of the palace. 1. The staircase which connected it with the Hippo- 
 drome or Atmeidan. 2. A small artificial port on the Propontis, 
 from whence there was an easy ascent, by a flight of marble steps, 
 to the gardens of the palace. .1. The Augusteum was a spacious 
 court, one side of which was occupied by the front of the palace, and 
 another by the chnrch of St. Sophia. 
 
 f Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths were a part 
 of old Byzantium. The difficulty of assigning their true situation 
 has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to connect them with 
 St. Sophia and the palace ; but the original plan inserted in Banduri, 
 places them on the other side of the city, near the harbour. For 
 their beauties, see Chron. Paschal, p. 285. and Gyllius de Byzanl. I. 
 ii. c. 7. Christodorus, (see Anfiquital. Const. 1. vii.) composed in- 
 gcriptions in verse for each of the statues. He was a Thel)an poet in 
 genius as well as in birth : — Bscotum in crasso jurares aere natum. 
 
 g See the Notitia. Ronj«» only reckoned 1780 large houwr^. domus ; 
 / but the word must have had a more dignified signification. No insufte 
 are mentioned at Constantinople. The old capital consisted of 424 
 streets, the new of 322. 
 
 h Liutprand Legatio nd Imp. Nicephorum. p. 153. The modern 
 Greeks have strangely disfigured the antiquities of Constantinople. 
 We might excuse the errors of the Turkish or Arabian writers: but 
 it is somewhat astonishing, that the Greeks, who had access to the 
 authentic materials preserved in their own language should prefer 
 fiction to truth, and loose tradition to genuine history. In a single 
 page of Codlnus we may detect twelve unpardonable mistakes; the 
 reconciliation of Severus and Niger, the marriage of their son and 
 daughter, the siege of Byzantium by the Macedonians, the invasion 
 of the Gauls, which recalled Severns toRom*»,lhe sixty years which 
 elapsed from his death to tlie foundation of Constantinople, &c. 
 
 innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to 
 the banks of the Propontis ; that a spurious race of 
 strangers and plebeians was left to possess the soli- 
 tude of the ancient capital ; and that the lands of 
 Italy, long since converted into gardens, were at once 
 deprived of cultivation and inhabitants.' In the course 
 of this history, such exaggerations will be reduced to 
 their just value: yet, since the growth of Constantin- 
 ople cannot be ascribed to the general increase of 
 mankind and of industry, it must be admitted, that 
 this artificial colony was raised at the expense of the 
 ancient cities of the empire. Many opulent senators 
 of Rome, and of the eastern provinces, were probably 
 invited by Constantine to adopt for their country the 
 fortunate spot which he had chosen for his own resi- 
 dence. The invitations of a master are scarcely to be 
 distinguished from commands; and the liberality of 
 the emperor obtained a ready and cheerful obedience. 
 He bestowed on his favourites the palaces which he 
 had built in the several quarters of the city, assigned 
 them lands and pensions for the support of their dig- 
 nity,^ and alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia 
 to grant hereditary estates by the easy tenure of main- 
 taining a house in the capital.^ But these encourage- 
 ments and obligations soon became superfluous, and 
 were gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of 
 government is fixed, a considerable part of the public 
 revenue will be expended by the prince himself, by 
 his ministers, by the officers of justice, and by the 
 domestics of the palace. The most wealthy of the 
 provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives 
 of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A 
 third and more numerous class of inhabitants will in- 
 sensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of 
 merchants, who derive their subsistence from their 
 own labour, and from the wants or luxuiy of the supe- 
 rior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinople dis- 
 puted with Rome itself the pre-eminence of riches and 
 numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together 
 with too little regard to health or convenience, scarcely 
 allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpet- 
 ual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The 
 allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the 
 increasing people; and the addition«i foundations, 
 which, on either side, were advancea into the sea, 
 might alone have composed a very considerable city.* 
 
 The frequent and regular distributions . . 
 of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of "vieges. 
 money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest 
 citizens of Rome from the necessity of labour. The 
 magnificence of the first Caesars was in some measure 
 imitated by the founder of Constantinople : ■■ but his 
 liberality, however it might excite the applause of the 
 people, has incurred the censure of posterity." A na- 
 
 i Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. 17. 
 
 j Themist. Oral. iil. p. 48. edit. Hardouin. Sozomen, I. ii. c. 3. 
 Zosim. I. ii. p. 107. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. If we could credit 
 Codinus, (p. 10.) Constantine built houoes for the senators on the 
 exact model of their Roman palaces, and gratified them, as well as 
 himself, with the pleasure of an agreeable surprise ; but the whole 
 story is full of fictions and inconsistencies. 
 
 k The law by which the younger Theodosius, in the year 438, 
 abolished this tenure, may l>e found among the Novella: of that em- 
 peror at the head of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. nov. 12. M. de 
 Tillcmont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 371.) has evidently mis- 
 taken the nature of these estates. With a grant from the imperial 
 demesnes, the same condition was accepted as a favour, which would 
 justly have been deemed a hardship, if it had been imposed ujKin 
 private property. 
 
 1 The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen, and of Aga- 
 thius, which relate to the increase of buildings and inhabitants at 
 Constantinople, are collected and connected by Gyllius, de Byzant. 
 I. i. c. 3. Sidonius .Apollinaris (in Panegyr. Anthem. 56. p. 290. edit. 
 Sirmond.) describes the moles that were pushed forwards into the 
 sea ; they consisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in 
 the water. 
 
 m Sozomen, I. ii. c. 3. Philostorg. 1. ii. c. 9. Codin. Antiqultat. 
 Const, p. 8. It appears by Socrates, I. il. c. 13. that the daily allow- 
 ances of the city consisted of eight myriads of o-<t». which we may 
 either translate with Valcsius by the words of modii of corn , or coif 
 sider as expressive of the number of loaves of bread. 
 
 n [At Rome the poor citizens who received gratuities, were en- 
 rolled In a register, their right was only a personal one. Constan- 
 tine made this right to belong to the houses of the new capital, that 
 he might Induce the lower classes of the people to build themselves 
 dwellings. (Cod. Theod. 1. xiv.)--G.] 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tion of legislators and conquerors might assert their 
 claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been pur- 
 chased with their blood ; and 4t was artfully contrived 
 by Augustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the 
 Romans should lose the memory of freedom. But the 
 prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by 
 any consideration either of public or private interest ; 
 and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt 
 for the benefit of his new capital, was applied to Teed 
 a lazy and indolent populace, at the expense of the 
 husbandmen of an industrious province." Some other 
 regulations of this emperor are less liable to blame, 
 but they are less deserving of notice. He divided 
 Constantinople into fourteen regions or quarters,P dig- 
 nified the public council with the appellation of senate,*» 
 communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy,' 
 and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, 
 the first and most favoured daughter of ancient Rome. 
 The venerable parent still maintained the legal and 
 acknowledged supremacy, which was due to her age, 
 to her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former 
 greatness." 
 
 Dedication. As Constantinc urged the proQiress of 
 A. D. 330 or 334. the work with the impatience of a lover, 
 the walls, the porticoes, and the principal edifices, 
 were completed in a few years, or, according to an- 
 other account, in a few months : * but this extraordin- 
 ary diligence should excite the less admiration, since 
 many of the buildings were finished in so hasty and 
 imperfect a manner, that, under the succeeding reign, 
 they were preserved with difficulty from impending 
 ruin." But while they displayed the vigour and fresh- 
 ness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the 
 dedication of his city.' The games and largesses 
 which crowned the pomp of this memorable festival 
 may easily be supposed : but there is one circum- 
 stance of a more singular and permanent nature, which 
 ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as the 
 birth-day of the city returned, the statue of Constan 
 
 211 
 
 o See Cod. Thcodos. I. xiii. xiv. and Cod. Justinian. Edict, xii 
 tom. ii. p. 648. edit. Gencv. See the beautiful complaint of Rome in 
 the poem of CJaudian de Bell. Giidonico. ver. 46—64. 
 
 Cum subiit par Roma mihi, divisaque sumsit 
 iEquales aurora togas ; ^gyptia rura 
 In partem ccsscre novam. 
 P The regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the code of Jus- 
 tinian, and particularly described in the Notitia of the younger 
 Theodosius; but as the four last of them are not included within the 
 wall of Constantine, it may be doubted whether this divi-sion of the 
 city should be referred to the founder. 
 
 q Senatumconstiiuit secundi ordinis; C/aro* vocavit. Anonym, 
 Valesian, p. 715. The senators of old Rome were styled Clarifsimi. 
 Seeacurious noieof Valesiusad Aminian. Marcellin. xxil. 9. From 
 the eleventh epistle of Julian, it should seem that the place of senator 
 was considered as a burthen rather than as an honour; but the 
 Ahli6 de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 271.) has shown that 
 this epistle could not relate to Constantinople. Might we not read, 
 instead of the celebrated name of Bu'Cuvnots, the obscure, but more 
 probable word B.(r*v3>ive. j ? Bisanthe or Rhobdestus, now Rhodosto, 
 was a small maritime city of Thrace. See Stephen. Byz. de Urbibus' 
 p. 225. and Cellar. Geograph. tom. i. p. 849. ' 
 
 r Cod. Theodos. I. xiv. 13. The commentary of Godefroy (tom. v. 
 p. 220.) is long, but perplexed ; nor indeed is it easy to ascertain in 
 what the Jus Italicum could consist after ihe freedom of the city 
 had been communicated to the whole empire, 
 
 • Julian (Orat, i. p. 8.) celebrates Constantinople as not less supe- 
 rior to all other cities than she was inferior to Rome itself. His 
 learned commentator (Spanheim, p, 75,76.) justifies this language by 
 several parallel and contemporary instances, Zosimus, as well as 
 Socrates and Sozomen, flourished after the division of the empire 
 between the two sons of Theodosius, which established a perfect 
 equality between the old and the new capital. 
 
 t Codinus (Antiquitat. p. 8.) affirms, that the foundations of Con- 
 ■tantinople were laid in the year of the world 5837, (A. D. 329.) on 
 the 26th of September, and that the city was dedicated the 11th of 
 May 5638 (A. D. 330.) He connects these dates with several charac- 
 teristic epochs, but they contradict each other ; the authority of Co- 
 dinus is of little weight, and the space which he assigns must appear 
 insufficient. The term often years is given us by Julian ; (Orat. i. p, 
 8.) and Spanheim labours to establish the truth of it (p. 69—75.) by 
 the help of two passages from Themistius, fOrat. iv. p. 53.) and Phi- 
 lostorgius, (I. ii. c. 9.) which form a period from the year 324 to the 
 year 334. Modern critics are divided concerning this point of chro- 
 nology, and their different sentiments are very accurately discussed 
 by Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 619—625. 
 
 tt Themistius, Orat, iii, p. 47. Zosim. I. ii. p. 108. Constantine 
 himself, in one of his laws, (Cod. Theod. I. xv. lit. i.) betravs his im- 
 patience. 
 
 » Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of superstition 
 which prevailed in their own times, assures us that Constantinople 
 was consecrated to the virgin Mother of God. 
 
 tine, frarned, by his order, of gilt wood, and bearinff 
 in its right hand a small image of the genius of the 
 place, was erected on a triumphal car. The cruards, 
 carrying white tapers, and clothed in their rich'est ap- 
 parel, accompanied the solemn procession as it moved 
 through the Hippodrome. When it was opposite to 
 the throne of the reigning emperor, he rose from his 
 seat, and with grateful reverence adored the memory 
 of his predecessor.'^ At the festival of the dedication, 
 an edict, engraved on a column of marble, bestowed 
 the title of SecoxVd or New Rome on the city of Con- 
 stantine.y But the name of Constantinople' has pre- 
 vailed over that honourable epithet ; and after the re- 
 volution of fourteen centuries, still perpetuates the 
 fame of its author.* 
 
 The foundation of a new capital is Form of govera- 
 naturally connected with the establish- "ent. 
 naent of a new form of civil and military administra- 
 tion. The distinct view of the complicated system of 
 policy, introduced by Diocletian, improved by Con- 
 stantine, and completed by his immediate successors, 
 may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture 
 of a great empire, but will tend to illustrate the se- 
 cret and internal causes of its rapid decay. In the 
 pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may be fre- 
 quently led into the more early or the more recent 
 times of the Roman history ; but the proper limits of 
 this inquiry will be included within a period of about 
 one hundred and thirty years, from the accession of 
 Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code ;»» 
 from which, as well as from the JVotitia of the east 
 and west,*: we derive the most copious and authentic 
 information of the state of the empire. This variety 
 of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of 
 the narrative ; but the interruption will be censured 
 only by those readers who are insensible to the im- 
 portance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with 
 eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or 
 the accidental event of a battle. 
 
 The manly pride of the Romans, con- Hierarchy of ti.s 
 tent with substantial power, had left to state, 
 the vanity of the east the forms and ceremonies of 
 ostentatious greatness."^ But when they lost even the 
 seniblance of those virtues which were derived from 
 their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman maur 
 ners was insensibly corrupted by the stately afl'ecta- 
 tion of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of per- 
 sonal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a repub- 
 lic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were 
 abolished by the despotism of the emperors ; who 
 substituted in their room a severe subordination of 
 
 x The earliest and most complete account of this extraordinary 
 ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle, p, 2»5. Til- 
 lemont, and the otiier friends of Constantine, who are offended with 
 the air of paganism which seems unworthy of a christian prince, 
 had a right to consider it as doubtful, but they were not authorized 
 to omit the mention of it. 
 
 y Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 2. Ducange C. P. I. i. c, 6. Velut ipsius Ro- 
 maj filiam, is the expression of .Aneustin, de Civltat, Dei, I. v. c. 25. 
 
 t Eutropius. I. X, c. 8. Julian. Orat. i. p. 8. Ducange C. P. I. i. c. 
 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on the medals of Constan- 
 tine. 
 
 a The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.) aflfects to de 
 ride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to triumph inthedis 
 appointment of Constantine, whose immortal name is now lost in 
 the vulgar appellation of Isiambol, a Turkish corruption of •*? t)!.- 
 TToKiv. Yet the original name is still preserved. 1. By the nations 
 of Europe. 2. By the modern Greeks. 3. By the Arabs, whose 
 writings are diffused over the wide extent of their conquests in Asia 
 and Africa. See D'Hcrbelot Bibliotheque Orientale, p, 275. 4. By 
 the more learned Turks, and by the emperor himself in his public 
 mandates. Cantemir's History of the Othman Empire, p. 51. 
 
 b The Theodosian code was promulgated A. D. 438. See the 
 Prolegomena of Godefroy, c. i. p. 185. 
 
 c Pancirolus, in his elalK)rate commentary, assigns to the Notitia a 
 date almost similar to that of the Theodosian code ; but his proofs 
 or rather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I should be rather in- 
 clined to place this useful work lietween the final division of the em- 
 pire, (A. D. 395.) and the successful invasion of Gaul by the barba- 
 rians (A. D. 407.) See Histoire des anciens Peuples de PEurope 
 tom. vii. p. 40. 
 
 d Scilicet externa? superbite sueto, non inerat notitia nostri, (per- 
 haps nostra) apud quos vis imperii valet, inania transmittuntur. 
 Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from the style of freedom and 
 simplicity, to that of form and servitude, may be traced in the Epis- 
 tles of Cicero, of Pliny, and of Symmachus. 
 
 • f 
 
212 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Jhap. XVll. 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 rank and office, from the titled slaves who were seat- 
 ed on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instru- 
 ments of arbitrary power. This multitude of abject 
 dependents was interested in the support of the actual 
 government, from the dread of a revolution, which 
 might at once confound their hopes, and intercept the 
 reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy (for 
 such it is frequently styled) every rank was marked 
 with the most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity 
 was displayed in a variety of trifling and solemn cere- 
 monies, which it was a study to learn, and a sacrilege 
 to neglect.* The purity of the Latin language was 
 debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride and 
 flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would 
 scarcely have understood, and which Augustus would 
 have rejected with indignation. The principal officers 
 of the empire were saluted, even by the sovereign 
 himself, with the deceitful titles of your Siticerity, 
 your Gravity^ your Excellency^ your Eminence, your 
 sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illustrious and 
 magnifictnt Highness.^ The codicils or patents of 
 their office were curiously emblazoned with such em- 
 blems as were best adapted to explain its nature and 
 high dignity; the image or portrait of the reigning 
 emperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates 
 placed on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and il- 
 luminated by four tapers ; the allegorical figures of 
 the provinces which they governed ; or the appella- 
 tions and standards of the troops whom they com- 
 manded. Some of these official ensigns were really 
 exhibited in their hall of audience ; others preceded 
 their pompous march whenever they appeared in pub- 
 lic; and every circumstance of their demeanour, their 
 dress, their ornaments, and their train, was calculated 
 to inspire a deep reverence for the representatives of 
 supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer, the 
 system of the Roman government might have been 
 mistaken for a splendid theatre, filled with players of 
 every character and degree, who repeated the language, 
 and imitated the passions, of their original model.R 
 Three ranks of All the magistrates of sufficient im- 
 honour. portance to find a place in the general 
 state of the empire, were accurately divided into three 
 classes. I. The Illustrious. 2. The Spectahiles, or 
 Respectable: And, 3. The Clarissimi ; whom we may 
 translate by the word Honourable, In the times of 
 Roman simplicity, the last-mentioned epithet was 
 used only as a vague expression of deference, till it 
 became at length the peculiar and appropriated title 
 of all who were members of the senate,** and conse- 
 quently of all who, from that venerable body, were se- 
 lected to govern the provinces. The vanity of those 
 who, from their rank and office, might claim a superior 
 distinction above the rest of the senatorial order, was 
 long afterwards indulged with the new appellation of 
 Resectable : but the title of Illustrious was always re- 
 served to some eminent personages who were obeyed 
 or reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was 
 communicated only, I. To the consuls and patricians ; 
 II. To the praetorian praefects, with the pra^fects of 
 Rome and Constantinople ; III. To the masters-gen- 
 eral of the cavalry and the infantry; and, IV. To the 
 seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their 
 sacred functions about the person of the emperor.' 
 Amontr those illustrious magistrates who were esteem- 
 
 ed co-ordinate with each other, the seniority of ap- 
 pointment gave place to the union of dignities.* By 
 the expedient of honorary codicils, the emperors, who 
 were fond of multiplying their favours, might some- 
 times gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of 
 impatient courtiers.* 
 
 I. As long as the Roman consuls were ^^^ ^^^,^,^^ 
 the first magistrates of a free state, they 
 derived their right to power from the choice of the 
 people. As long as the emperors condescended to dis- 
 guise the servitude which they imposed, the consuls 
 were still elected by the real or apparent suffrage of 
 the senate. From the reign of Diocletian, even the^se 
 vestiges of liberty were abolished, and the successful 
 candillates who were invested with the annual honours 
 of the consulship, affected to deplore the humiliating 
 condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the 
 Catos had been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, 
 to pass through the tedious and expensive forms of a 
 popular election, and to expose their dignity to the 
 shame of a public refusal ; while their own happier 
 fate had reserved them for an age and government m 
 which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the un- 
 erring wisdom of a gracious sovereign." In the epistles 
 which the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, 
 it was declared, that they were created by his sole au- 
 thority." Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt 
 tablets of ivory, were dispersed over the enipire as 
 presents to the provinces, the cities, the magistrates, 
 the senate, and the people." Their solemn inaugura- 
 tion was performed at the place of the imperial resi- 
 dence ; and during a period of one hundred and twenty 
 years, Rome was constantly deprived of the presence 
 of her ancient magistrates.? On the morning of the 
 first of January, the consuls assumed the ensigns of 
 their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple, em- 
 broidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented 
 with costly gems.'? On this solemn occasion they were 
 attended by the most eminent officers of the state and 
 army, in the habit of senators ; and the useless fasces, 
 armed with the once formidable axes, were borne be- 
 fore them by the lictors.' The procession moved from 
 the palace • to the Forum or principal square of the city ; 
 where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated 
 themselves in the curule chairs, which were framed 
 after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately 
 
 e The emperor Cratian, after confirming a law of precedency pub- 
 lished by Valenlinian, the father of iiia dioinitij, thu3 continues : Si- 
 S|uis Jgitur indebitumsibi locum usurpavorit, nulla se ignoratione de- 
 endat ; sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui divina prtecepta negieicrit. 
 Cod. Theod. I.vi. lit. v. leg. 2. 
 f Consult the M'otUia Dignitatum at the end of the Theodosian 
 
 Code, torn. vi. p. 316. „« „ . . 
 
 K Pancirolus ad Notitiam utriusqun Imperii, p. 39. But his expla- 
 nations are obscure, and he does not sufticiently distinguish the paint- 
 ed emblems from the effective ensigns of office. 
 
 h In the Pandects, which may be referred to the reigns of the An- 
 tonines. Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal title of a senator. 
 
 i Panciroi. p. 12—17. I have not taken any notice of the two In 
 ferior ranks, Perfectissimus, and Egregius, which were given to 
 many persons, who were not raised to the senatorial dignity. 
 
 k Cod. Theodos. I. vi. tit. vi. The rules of precedency are ascer- 
 tained with the most minute accuracy by the emperors, and illus- 
 trated with equal prolixity by their learned interpreter. 
 1 Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. tit. xxii. 
 
 m Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this uri- 
 worthy topic, which iy managed by Mamerlinus (Pancgyr. Vet. xi. 
 16—19.) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity, 
 n Cum de consulibus in annum creandis, solus niecum volutarem 
 . . tecoiisulemet designavi.etdeclaravi, et priorein nunrupavi; 
 are some of the expressions employed by the emperor Gratian to his 
 preceptor the poet Ausonius. 
 
 o Immanesque .... denies 
 Qui secti lerro in tabulas auroque micanlcs, 
 Inscripti rutiluin co«lato consule nonien 
 Per procercs et vulgus eant. . . .. ^ « ... i. j-/. 
 
 Claud, in n. Cons. Stilichon. 456. 
 Montfancon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks ; see 
 Supplement a I'Antiquite cxpliquee, torn. iii. p. 220. 
 p Consule la-tatur post plurima sccula viso 
 Pallanteus apox : agnoscunt rostra curules 
 Auditas quondam proavis : desuetaque cingit 
 Regius auralis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor. 
 
 Claudian in vi. Cons. Honorii,643. 
 From the reign of Cams to the sixth consulship of Honorius. there 
 was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during which the 
 emperors wore always absent from Rome on the first day of January. 
 See the Chronologie de Tillemont, torn. iii. iv. and V. 
 
 q See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii, 178. &c. ; and in iv. 
 Cons Hoiiorii. 585, &c. ; though in the latter it is not easy to separate 
 the ornaments of the emperor from those of the consul. Ausonius 
 received from the liberality of Gratian, a restis palmata, or robeot 
 state, in which the figure of the emperor ConsUntius was embroi- 
 dered. ^ . 
 
 r Cernis et armorum proreres legiimqne potentes : 
 Patricios sumunt habitus ; et more Gabino 
 Discolor incedit legio. posiiisque paniinper 
 Bellorum signis, sequiiur vexilla Cluirini. 
 Lictori cedunt aquila*. ridetque togatus 
 Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris. . 
 
 Claud, in iv. Cons. Ilonorii, 5. 
 
 strictasque procul radiare securta. 
 
 In Cons. Prob. 229. 
 
 •• See Valeeius ad Ammian. .Marcellin. I. nil. c. 7. 
 
 exercised an act of jurisdiction, by the manumission 
 of a slave, who was brought before them for that pur- 
 pose ; and the ceremony was intended to represent the 
 celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of 
 liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted amono- 
 his fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had re" 
 yealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins.* The public 
 festival was continued during several days in all the 
 principal cities ; in Rome, from custom ; in Constan- 
 tinople, froni imitation; in Carthage, Antioch, and 
 Alexandria, from the love of pleasure and the super- 
 fluity of wealth." In the two capitals of the empire 
 the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the 
 amphitheatre,- cost four thousand pounds of ffold, 
 (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds ster- 
 • ing : and if so heavy an expense surpassed the facul- 
 ties or the inclination of the magistrates themselves, 
 the sum was supplied from the imperial treasurv.x As 
 soon as the consuls had discharged these customary 
 duties, they were at liberty to retire into the shade of 
 
 l^T?^ %^1^ u V"J^y ^"""^ ^^^ remainder of the 
 12: tl»« Ijndisturbed contemplation of their own great- 
 
 ^u: J^^^ ? ^"^"^^^ V^e^iAe^ in the national coun- 
 or w^r Vh^ij Tf-f-'"''''?'^^ '^^ resolutions of peace 
 ^n 1 X /•' ^^'^^'^^ (""^^^« ^^'^y ^^-^^e employed 
 
 jn more effective offices) were of little moment ; and 
 their names served only as the legal date of the year 
 in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of 
 Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the 
 last period of Ronian servitude, that this empt^ name 
 might be compared, and even preferred, to the posses- 
 sion of substantial power. The title of consul was 
 stiff the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest 
 reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors them- 
 selves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic 
 were conscious that they acquired an additional splen- 
 dour and majesty as often as they assumed the annual 
 lionours of the consular dignity.' 
 
 The patricians. J^*® proudest and most perfect sepa- 
 ration which can be found in any aire or 
 
 fhTl'/k^^'^f "-^^^ "°H^^" ^"^ ^^^ P^«Pl«' is perhaps 
 ♦ M- u ?«. patricians and the plebeians, as it was es- 
 
 wJiuif '? 1^^^ ^''^^ ?"^ ^^ the Roman republic. 
 VVealth and honours, the offices of the state, and 
 the ceremonies of religion, were almost exclusively 
 possessed by the former; who, preserving the purity 
 of their blood with the most insulting jealousy,* held 
 their clients in a condition of specious vassala4. But 
 these distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a 
 tree people, were removed, after a long struggle, by 
 the perseverinor efforts of the tribunes. The most active 
 
 ^lrT,^ ^^ ^" P^"^"^^"^ accumulated wealth, 
 aspired to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted al- 
 iiances, and, after some generations, assumed the pride 
 of ancient nobility." The patrician families, on the 
 
 213 
 
 Auspice mox laeto sonuit clamore tribunal : 
 Te fastos meunte quater ; solemnia ludit 
 Umnia libertas : deductum vindice inorem 
 l.ex servat, fanmlusque jugo laxatus herili 
 Uucitur, et grato remeat securior ictu. 
 u rpi*hro«* -.. .1 . ^'''ud'an in iv. Cons. Honorii, 611. 
 
 sub IpJfii^a o ^"1^^".' ^o'^'""e8 istos dies, omnes ubique i^rbes que 
 ione f AntK' ' ^'^ P^"™^ '^^•'"°''^' ^' <^'onstantinopoIis deTmTta 
 Alex^ndrl ^^i 't'"'" '"'"' ^^ '^'^^incta Carthago, et domus fluminis 
 Actione • ^rmcx'^\s beneficio. "Ausonius in Grat 
 
 livelv'SllH'"f" ^'-r f"""^* ^^"- Theodori, 279-331.) describe-, in a 
 
 ^">ro7i;:T:"Hls?.^i'?eti!?.^r ^'^-^^ ^^uTroSS. ^'^ 
 py'r. Verxi"o"^ " ThiVi? ul!^'^. suscipitur. (Mamertin. in Pane- 
 
 from an Oration^ mlf 107 ^^'^'^ ""^ V'f <=0"S"'«''iP i« borrowed 
 court or r^..^'" P-^^"'^ pronounced by Julian in the yervilP 
 
 PA^cX^Tom TxlV ^y9?w1.o'^ de la^nieterle. Memoi^/s^e 
 of fhal^M • ■ ^^* P- . ^-^ ^''o delights to pursue the vesiiffPa 
 
 oaiie old constitution, and who 60metim'e« finds them in SrcoS 
 
 ^m^lTi^^efZl^'^^^^^ I^'^^«'«"« ^vere pro- 
 
 of hiimn««Jf ® ^"' Tables ; and the uniform operations 
 
 fn Li JV ?i; "'fi w7 ^"'f '^fV^'^ •^"^^^'^ ^"'^•''ed the la^ See 
 riaM ^r^"^* ^r^-^ ^''^ P'''*^^^ of fami'y urged by the consul and th^ 
 b C^l"^"'''"'^ ""^T"'^'^ ^y »^« tribune Canuleius.' ^"'^ ^^^ 
 »ar of ihf ^^1""^^^^ pictures drawn by Sallust. in the Ju^^urthine 
 «*ar, of the pr.de of the nobles, and ev«n of the VirmourMeteliJL! 
 
 Other hand, whose original number was never recruited 
 11 the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the 
 ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so 
 many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want 
 of merit or fortuiie, insensibly mingled with the mass 
 of the people.<= Very few remained who could derive 
 their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the 
 city, or even from that of the republic, when Caesar 
 and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from 
 the body of the senate a competent number of new pa- 
 trician families, in the hope of perpetuatino- an order 
 winch was still considered as honourable alid sacred ^ 
 But these artificial supplies (in which the reiffnin'ff 
 house was always included) were rapidly swept away 
 by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the 
 change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations.* 
 Little more was left when Coustantine ascended the 
 throne, than a vague and imperfect tradition, that the 
 patricians had once been the first of the Romans. To 
 form a body of nobles, whose influence may restrain, 
 while it secures, the authority of the monarch, would 
 have been very inconsistent with the character and 
 policy of Constantino ; but had he seriously entertained 
 such a design, it might have exceeded the measure 
 ot lus power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an insti- 
 tution which must expect the sanction of time and of 
 opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of patricians, 
 but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary, 
 distinction. They yielded only to the transient supel 
 nority of the annual consuls ; but they enjoyed the 
 pre-eminence over all the great officers of state, with 
 ^le niost familiar access to the person of the prince. 
 1 fiis honourable rank was bestowed on them for life • 
 and as they were usually favourites, and ministers who 
 had grow-n old in the imperial court, the true etymo- 
 logy of the word was perverted by ignorance and flat- 
 tery ; and the patricians of Constantine were reverenced 
 as the adopted /«//a«-5 of the emperor and the republic.^ 
 
 11. 1 he fortunes of the praetorian praj- The nra-torian 
 fects were essentially different from those prafccts. 
 of the consuls and patricians. The latter saw their 
 ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former 
 rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were 
 invested with the civil and military administration of 
 the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that 
 of Diocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and 
 the finances, the armies and the provinces, were in- 
 trusted to their superintending care ; and, like the 
 vizirs of the east, they held with one hand the seal, 
 and with the other the standard, of the empire. The 
 ambition of the prefects, always formidable, and some- 
 times fatal to the masters whom they served, was sup- 
 ported by the strength of the praetorian bands ; but after 
 those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocle- 
 tian, and finally suj)pressed by Constantine, the prae- 
 fects, who survived thoir fall, were reduced without 
 difficulty to the station of useful and obedient minis- 
 ters. Wh en they were no longer responsible for the 
 
 cT!!°.n® k"^^'^ to brook the idea that the honour of the con^ulshin 
 should be bestowed on the obscure merit of his lieutenant MarZ 
 
 u.p?plni^° S"^"^''^'' y^^" ^^'^'■*'' ^'"^ '^""^ of"'e Metelli themselves 
 we e confounded among the plebeians of Rome ; and from the ely! 
 niology of their name of C(rc///«5, there is reason to bSieve that 
 those haughty nobles derived their ori2in from a sutler 
 
 n.f rf/ln^i' ^r^"" -r ""^ P'"*' ®^^' r'y f<^^^ remained, not only of the old 
 patrician families, but even of those which had been created bv ci 
 sar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The fami y of ScaurJ« 
 (a branch of the patrician ^.nilii) was degraded so low that J "s 
 father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left hm only 
 en slaves, and somewhat less than three hundred pounds stTrhng^ 
 (Valerius Max.mus, I. iv. c. 4. n. 11. Aurel. Victor in Scauro The 
 family was saved from oblivion by the merit of the son "^ 
 
 Aaril^M '• ^""^'- ""'' ^^' ?'*'" Cassius. 1. iii. p. 693. The virtues of 
 flit.,? I w-as created a patrician by the emperor Vespasian, re- 
 
 flected honour on that ancient order ; but his an^stors had not kny 
 claim beyond an equestrian nobility. 
 
 e This failure would have been almost impossible if it were true 
 as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm, (ad. Sueton. in Cjb- 
 sar. c. 4*. See Hist. August, p. 20.?. and Casaubon Comment, p 220 ) 
 inat Vespasian created at once a thousand patrician families. But 
 this extravagant number is too much even for the whole senatorial 
 order, unless we should include all the Roman knights who were dis- 
 tinguished by the permission of wearing the laticlave 
 f Zosnnus, I. ii. p. 1J8; and Godefroy ad Cod. Theodos. I vi tit vi 
 
214 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 safety of the emperor's person, they resigned the 
 jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exer- 
 cised over all the departments of the palace. They 
 were deprived by Constantine of all military command, 
 as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under 
 their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops ; 
 and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of 
 the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates 
 of the provinces. According to the plan of government 
 instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their 
 praetorian praefect ; and after the monarchy was once 
 more united in the person of Constantine, he still con- 
 tinued to create the same number of fuur praofccis^ and 
 intrusted to their care the same provinces which they 
 already administered. 1. The praefect of the east 
 stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of 
 the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the 
 cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and 
 from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia. 
 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Mace- 
 donia, and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of 
 the praefect of Illyricum. 3. The power of the praefect 
 of Italy was not confined to the country from whence 
 he derived his title ; it extended over the additional 
 territory of Rhaetia as far as the banks of the Danube, 
 over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and 
 over that part of the continent of Africa which lies be- 
 tween the confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 
 4. The praefect of the Gauls comprehended under that 
 plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain 
 and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall 
 of Antoninus to the foot of mount Atlas.s 
 
 After the praetorian praefects had been dismissed from 
 all military command, the civil functions which they 
 were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations, 
 were adequate to the ambition and abilities of the most 
 consummate ministers. To their wisdom was commit- 
 ted the supreme administration of justice and of the 
 I finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, 
 comprehend almost all the respective duties of the 
 sovereign and of the people ; of the former, to protect 
 the citizens who are obedient to the laws ; of the lat- 
 ter, to contribute the share of their property which is 
 required for the expenses of the state. The coin, the 
 highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, 
 whatever could interest the public prosperity, was mo- 
 derated by the authority of the praetorian praefects. As 
 the immediate representatives of the imperial majesty, 
 they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on 
 some occasions to modify, the general edicts by their 
 discretionary proclamations. They watched over the 
 conduct of the provincial governors, removed the neg- 
 ligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From 
 all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every mat- 
 ter of importance, either civil or criminal, might be 
 brought before the tribunal of the praefect : but his 
 sentence was final and absolute ; and the emperors 
 themselves refused to admit any complaints against 
 the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom 
 they honoured with such unbounded confidence.^ His 
 appointments were suitable to his dignity;* and if ava- 
 rice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent oppor- 
 tunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, 
 and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer 
 dreaded the ambition of their praefects, they were at- 
 
 K ZosimuR, 1. ii. p. 109, 110. If wc liad not fortunately possessed 
 this satisfaciory account of the division of the power and provinces 
 of the pr&itorian prsefects, we should frequently have been perplexed 
 amidst the copious details of the Code, and the circumstantial mi- 
 nuteness of the Notitia. 
 
 h See a law of Constantine himself. A prsfectis autcm pra>torio 
 provocarc, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian. I. vii. tit. Ixii. leg. 10. Cha- 
 risius, a lawyer of the time of Constantine, (Ileinec. Hist. Juris Ro- 
 inani, p. 349.) who admits this law as a fundamental principle of 
 jurisprudence, compares the pretorian prtefects to the masters uf 
 the horse of the ancient dictators. Pandect. 1. i. tit. xi. 
 
 i When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the empire, in- 
 stituted a prsetorian prefect for Africa, he allowed him a salary 
 of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian, I. i. tit. xzvii. 
 leg. 1. 
 
 tentive to counterbalance this great oflSce by the uncer- 
 tainty and shortness of its duration.*^ 
 
 From their superior importance and The prsefects of 
 dignity, Rome and Constantinople were Romo and Con- 
 alone excepted from the jurisdiction of "antmople. 
 the praetorian praefects. The immense size of the city, 
 and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation 
 of the laws, had furnished the policy of Augustus with 
 a specious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, 
 who alone could restrain a servile and turbulent popu- 
 lace by the strong arm of arbitrary power.* Valerius 
 Messalla was appointed the first praefect of Rome, that 
 his reputation might countenance so invidious a mea- 
 sure : but, at the end of a few days, that accomplished 
 citizen™ resigned his office, declaring with a spirit 
 worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he found himself 
 incapable of exercising a power incompatible with 
 public freedom." As the sense of liberty became less 
 exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly 
 understood ; and the praefect, who seemed to have been 
 designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was 
 permitted to extend his civil and criminal jurisdiction 
 over the equestrian and noble families of Rome. The 
 praetors, annually created as the judges of law and 
 equity, could not long dispute the possession of the 
 Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who 
 was usually admitted into the confidence of the prince. 
 Their courts were deserted, their number, which had 
 once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen," was 
 gradually reduced to two or three, and their important 
 functions were confined to the expensive obligation p 
 of exhibiting games for the amusement of the people. 
 After the office of the Roman consul had been changed 
 into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the 
 capital, the praefects assumed their vacant place in the 
 senate, and were soon acknowledged as the ordinary 
 presidents of that venerable assembly. They received 
 appeals from the distance of one hundred miles ; and 
 it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that all 
 municipal authority was derived from them alone.** In 
 the discharge of his laborious employment, the gov- 
 ernor of Rome was assisted by fifteen officers, some 
 of whom had been originally his equals, or even his 
 superiors. The principal departments were relative 
 to the command of a numerous watch, established 
 as a safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal 
 disorders ; the custody and distribution of the public 
 allowance of corn and provisions ; the care of the port, 
 of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of the 
 navigation and bed of the Tyber ; the inspection of the 
 
 k For this, and the other difinitipg of the empire, it may be suffi- 
 cient to refer to the ample cominenlaries of Pancirolus and Godefroy, 
 who have diligently collected and accurately digested in their pro- 
 per order all the legal and historical material:!. From those authors, 
 Dr. Howell (History of the World, vol. ii. p. 24—77.) has deduced a 
 very distinct abridgment of the state of the Roman empire. 
 
 1 Tacit. Annal. Euseb. vi. 11. in Chron. p. 155. Dion Cassius, in 
 the oration of Mscenas, (I. vii. p. 675.) describes the prerogatives of 
 the prefect of the city as they were established in his own time. 
 
 m The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to his merit. In 
 the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to the friendship 
 of Brutus. He followed the standard of the republic till it was bro 
 ken in the fields of Philippi : he then accepted and deserved the fa- 
 vour of the most moderate of the conquerors ; and uniformly asserted 
 his freedom and dignity in the court of Augustus. The triumph of 
 Messalla was justified by the conquest of Aquitain. As an orator, he 
 disputed the palm of eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla cuiti 
 vated every muse, and was the patron of every man of genius. He 
 spent his evenings in philosophic conversation with Horace ; assumed 
 his place at table between Delia and Tibullus ; and amused his lei 
 sure by encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid. 
 
 n Incivilem esse potestatem contentans, says the translator of Ku- 
 sebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other words : quasi nes- 
 ciua exerccndi. 
 
 o See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad 1 lib. Tacit. Annal. 
 
 p Heineccii Element. Juris Civilia secund. ordinem Pandect, torn, i- 
 p. 70. See likewise Spanheim de Usu Numismatum, tom. ii. disser 
 tat. X. p. 119. In the year 450, Marrian published a law, that three 
 citizens should be annually created prtetors of Constantinople by the 
 choice of the senate, but with their own consent. Cod. Justinian. !• 
 i. lit. xxxix.leg. 2. 
 
 q Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad P. U. videtur perti- 
 nere ; sed et siquid intra centesimum milliarum. Ulpian in Pan- 
 dect. I. i. tit. xiii. n. 1. He proceeds to enumerate the various office* 
 of the prsefect, who in the code of Justinian (I. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 3.) i« 
 declared to precede and command all city magistrates line injuria 
 ac detrimeiito honoris alieni. 
 
 markets, the theatres, and of the private as well as 
 public works. Their vigilance ensured the three prin- 
 cipal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and 
 cleanliness ; and as a proof of the attention of ffo^ern- 
 ment o preserve the splendour and ornaments of the 
 J capital, a particular inspector was appointed for the 
 n™l!f^ l^.\^^^d^^"» as it were, of that inanimate 
 people, which, according to the extravagant computa- 
 .tion of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number 
 jo the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years 
 f fter the foundation of Constantinople, a similar ma- 
 l^istrate was created in that rising metropolis, for the 
 same uses and with the same powers. A perfect 
 equality was established between the dignity of the 
 two municipal, an^ that of the/our pretorian prefects.' 
 The priK5onsuls, Those who, in the imperial hierarchy 
 v.ce.pr*fecis, were distinguished by the title of Re- 
 k ♦ .1- .fP'^^if^^^^^ formed an intermediate class 
 
 between the tllustrious praefects and the honourable ma- 
 gistrates of the provinces. In this class the procon- 
 suls of Achaia and Africa, claimed a pre-eminence 
 
 itu^J^^^ Tlu^^ '° the remembrance of their ancienJ 
 dignity and the appeal from their tribunal to that of 
 the praefects was almost the only mark of their depend- 
 ence. But the civil government of the empire was 
 distr butcd into thirteen great Dioceses, each of which 
 equalled the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The 
 first of these dioceses were subject to the jurisdiction 
 of the count of the east ; and we may convey some idea 
 of the importance and variety of his functions, bv ob- 
 serving, that six hundred apparitors, who would be 
 styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, 
 or messengers, were employed in this immediate office.* 
 luJ^""^ 2,^ -^""SuM prafeci of Egypt was no longer 
 filled by a Roman knight ; but the name was retained ; 
 and the extraordinary powers which the situation of 
 the country and the temper of the inhabitants had once 
 made indispensable, were still continued to the ffov- 
 ernor. The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, 
 Pontica, and Thrace ; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pan- 
 noma, or ^yestern Illyricum ; of Italy and Africa ; of 
 (^aul. Spam, and Britain ; were governed by twelve 
 vicars or vice-prxfccts,^ whose name sufficiently ex- 
 plains the nature and dependence of their office. It 
 may be added, that the lieutenant-generals of the Ro- 
 man armies, the military counts and dukes, who will 
 
 t o'fTXr'^"'' ""^ ^"^^^^^ ^^^ '^"^ -^ ^^ 
 
 SieTovincer °^ ♦' ^^ ^^^ TV^ ""^ jealousy and ostenta- 
 the provinces. tion prevailed in the councils of the em- 
 perors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide 
 Th/v",«f^"''V -"^ to multiply the titles of power, 
 nniir .^^^""tries which the Roman conquerors had 
 united under the same simple form of administration, 
 
 luVlZTtr^^? ?'"'"^^?^ ^"'^ "^^""^^ fragments 
 hLl ?^^ ^^^ ""'^^^^ '"'P^'^ ^^^ distributed into one 
 imndred and sixteen provinces, each of which support- 
 ed an expensive and splendid establishment. Of ihese, 
 
 h ee were governed hy proconsuls, thirty-seven by con- 
 
 ThJl' u^7- '^'^''J'''^ and seventy-one hy prJdents. 
 Ihe appellations of these magistrates were different ; 
 ^ney ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their 
 dignity were curiously varied, and their situation, from 
 accidental circumstances, might be more or less affree- 
 able or advantageous. But they were all (excepting 
 
 215 
 
 only the proconsuls) alike included in the class of 
 ZTi \ P^^««"«; and they were alike intrusted, du- 
 ring the pleasure of the prince, and under the authority 
 
 tlJl ??^ . ' ""' ^}^'l ^"P"'^^^' ^'ith the adminis. 
 d?strltf -^Th'" ^"J^ '^' finances in their respective 
 mstricts. Ihe ponderous volumes of the Codes and 
 Pandects ^ would furnish ample materials foV a minute 
 nquiry into the system of provincial government as in 
 the space of six centuries it was improved bTthe wis^ 
 dom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be 
 sufficient for the historian to select two singuKd 
 salutary provisions intended to restrain the abuse of 
 authority. 1. For the preservation of peace and order! 
 f^r^^rT"^'^ ?^ the provinces were armed with the 
 swo d of justice. They inflicted corporal punish! 
 ments, and they exercised, in capital off^ences, the 
 power of life and death. But they were not authorized 
 to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice 
 t^lo ^^iu"^? ex-ecution, or to pronounce a sentence of 
 the mildest and most honourable kind of exile. These 
 prerogatives were reserved to the prefects, who alone 
 cx)uld impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold ; 
 their vicegerents were confined to the triflinor wlig-ht 
 
 ^rant r. l""""'- ' . T^^^ distinction, which ?eems to 
 grant the larger, while it denies the smaller, decree of 
 authority, was founded on a very rational mo ive^ The 
 
 passions of a provincial magistrate miffht freauentlv 
 
 VZtl^'^^A '"'' ^f%^' oppression, ^hlh EeJ 
 only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject ; thoucrh, 
 froni a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity he 
 
 lttL1^^^ ^' '''^^'^ ^y '^'' ^""^ «^ innocent bfood! 
 
 fine^o th?r^ T''"^'''^^ '}^' '^'^'^ considerable 
 nnes, or the choice of an easy death, relate more par- 
 
 ticularly to the rich and the noble; and the peTsons the 
 most exposed to the avarice or resentment ofTprZ 
 vincial magistrate, were thus removed from his ob- 
 
 trTun^rfTh?"'' ? '^" "^"? ""^"^^ ^"d i'^^Partial 
 tribunal of the pretorian prefect. 2. As it was rea- 
 
 sonably apprehended that the integrity of the jud^e 
 
 nnght be biassed, if his interest wa? concerned, ^r h^s 
 
 estblTsrerr '"f f ^ ' '^' ''''''''' regulations were 
 established, to exclude any person, without the special 
 dispensation of the emperor, from the governme^nt of 
 the province where he was born ; ^ and to prohibit the 
 governor or his son from contracting marriage with a 
 l?r.r' ''?'' inhabitant; a or from purchasing slaves, 
 
 Nofwi^ ^T'' "'T^''' '^^ "'^^"^ ^^ his jurisdiction.^ 
 Notwithstanding these rigorous precautions, the em- 
 
 ctln '^ Constantino, after a reign of twenty-five years, 
 still deplores the venal and oppressive administration 
 01 justice, and expresses the warmest indignation that 
 
 ^t L" f "'ki^V^' J"^^"' ^'^ ^^^Pateh of business, 
 his seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were 
 publicly sold, either by himself or by the officers of 
 ms court. The continuance, and perhaps the impu- 
 
 r^^Aff * ^^'^ *'"'?^.^' 'J ^^^^^^d hy the repetition of 
 impotent laws, and inefl^ectual menaces.' 
 
 claimed\'%Sr1;fu;?p.°6 "'' ""^P"^^"* ''« -"^^t assuredly dis- 
 nll Irfi^TP"'"' °'' ^'"•'■'^''^ ^^'^ fo""- hundred apparitors- and thpv 
 
 Of Italy! ^ wnether it stretched over the ten southern provinces 
 
 thJ Ti'J J'/"?''.'"'.'.- "' <:»"»"'»". could impose only two outico.- 
 feet of L™'^ '• "«"" •;,"= P'-»<:»"s"te. «uSit of ll,c ca« anSp?!: 
 
 f'Jivl'.K-x'i/.'J: 8^ci'l.'5:s?,';f-; ^rl\^T; V,- lie •■""--'• 
 
 by the emperor M.,S" & !i>e JeM in^"caih,r°(S' ITxn 
 
 a Pandect. I. xxiii. tit. ii. n. 3.1. 57, 63. 
 comnar«r'pV''rnT^H' "^^'l"*^.'" adminislrationc constitutu? aliqnld 
 mXlt:. Fn?- ^^J"^- '• "''■ "*• ^^- 'ee- '• '^his maxim of com- 
 tTt?e) fr^mCnlJ?l?'^ ^^ a ser.es of edicts (.ee the remainder of the 
 extendPH .n ?hf ^^'""^ ^"^ i'^^'"- ^^°'" ^h" prohihition, which is 
 HothP, ii ^f'e meanest officers of the ffovernor, they except only 
 civereH . nV/°'''rr ^*'? Purchase within five years may bo re^ 
 covered , after which, on information, it devolves to the treasury 
 
 cuessentra paces jam nunc offirialium manns; cessent, inquam • 
 nam si moniti non cessaverint. dadiis priecidcntur, &c. Cod. Theod' 
 L VkI ' ^"-.'ee- '• Zeno enacted, that all governors should remain 
 in the province, to answer any accusations, fifty days after the ex 
 piration of their power. Cod. Justinian 1. ii tit. xlS leg 1 
 
/ 
 
 216 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 I 
 
 Tlie proftssiou of All the civil magistrates were drawn 
 the law. from the profession of the law. The 
 
 celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the 
 youth of his dominions, who had devoted themselves 
 to the study of Roman jurisprudence ; and the sove- 
 reign condescends to animate their diligence, by the 
 assurance that their skill and ability would in time be 
 rewarded by an adequate share in the government of 
 the republic.'* The rudiments of this lucrative science 
 were taught in all the considerable cities of the east 
 and west ; but the most famous school was that of 
 Berytus,' on the coast of Phoenicia ; which flourished 
 above three centuries from the time of Alexander Se- 
 venis, the author perhaps of an institution so advan- 
 tageous to his native country. After a regular course 
 / of education, which lasted five years, the students dis- 
 persed themselves through the provinces, in search of 
 fortune and honours ; nor could they want an inex- 
 haustible supply of business in a great empire, already 
 corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of 
 vices. The court of the praetorian praefect of the east 
 could alone furnish employment for one hundred and 
 fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished 
 by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen 
 with a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the 
 causes of the treasury. The first experiment was 
 made of their judicial talents, by appointing them to 
 act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates ; from 
 thence they were often raised to preside in the tribu- 
 nals before which they had pleaded. They obtained 
 the government of a province ; and, by the aid of merit, 
 of reputation, or of favour, they ascended, by successive 
 steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state. ' In the 
 practice of the bar, these men had considered reason 
 as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted the laws 
 according to the dictates of private interest; and the 
 same pernicious habits might still adhere to their cha- 
 racters in the public administration of the state. The 
 honour of a liberal profession has indeed been vindi- 
 cated by ancient and modern advocates, who have filled 
 the most important stations with pure integrity and 
 consummate wisdom : but in the decline of Roman 
 jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was 
 pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, 
 which had once been preserved as the sacred inherit- 
 ance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of 
 freedmen and plebeians, « who, with cunning, rather 
 than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. 
 Some of them procured admittance into families for the 
 purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, 
 and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or 
 their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, 
 maintained the dignity of legal professors, by fiirnish- 
 
 d Sunima i^itur ope. ct alacri studio has le?es nostras accipitc ; ct 
 vosmetipsos sic enulitos oslenditc, ut spen vos puichcrriino fovcat : 
 toto legitinio opcre pcrfcrto, posse etiain nostram rempulilicaiii in 
 partibus ejus vobis credciidis guhcrnari. Justinian, in proem. Insti- 
 tutionnin. 
 
 e The splendour of the scliool of Berytua, which preserved in the 
 east the language and jurisprudence of the Romans, may be com- 
 puted to have histed from the third to the middle of the sixtli cen- 
 tury. Helnecc. Jur. Rom. Hist. p. 351 — 350. 
 
 f .\s in a former period I have traced the civil and military pro- 
 motion of Periinax, I shall licre insert the civil honours of Mallius 
 Theodorus. 1. He was distinpuislied by his eloquence, while he 
 pleaded as an advocate in the court of the prajtorian praefect. 2. lie 
 governed one of t!ie provinces of Africa, either as president or con- 
 sular, and deserved, by liis administration, the honour of a brass 
 statue. 3. He was appointed vicar, or vice-pra-fect, of Macedonia. 
 4. Q.ua'stor. 5. C(Mint of the sacred largesses. 6. Praetorian prir feet 
 of the Gauls; whilst he mi^ht yet be represented as a young man. 
 7. After a retreat, pcrliaps a disjirace. of many years, which Mallius 
 (confounded by sonir critics with the poet Manilius, see Fabricius 
 Hihliothec. liatin. Edit. Ernest, torn. i. c. 18. p. 501.)pmployed in the 
 Ktudy of the Grecian philosophy, he was named praetorian prrefectof 
 Italy, in the year 397. i^. While he still exercised that great office, he 
 was created, in the year 399, consul for the west : and his name, on 
 account of the infamy of his colleague the eunuch Eutropius, often 
 stands alone in the Fasti. 9. In tlie year 4()8, Mallius was appointed 
 n second time pra'torian pra'fcct of Italy. Even in the venal pane- 
 gyric of Claudian, we may discover tlie merit of Mallius Theodorus, 
 who, by a rare felicity, was the intimate friend both of Symmachus 
 and of St. Augustin. See Tillcmont, Hist, des Emp. toni. v. p. 1110 
 —1114. 
 
 K Mamcrtinud in Panegyr. Vet. xi. i20. Auslcriue apud Photium. 
 p. IdOO. 
 
 ing a rich client with subtilties to confound the plainest 
 truths, and with arguments to colour the most unjusti- 
 fiable pretensions. The splendid and popular class was 
 composed of the advocates, who filled the fonim with 
 the sound of their turgid and loquacious rhetoric. 
 Careless of fame and of justice, they are described, for 
 the most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides, who 
 conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of 
 delay, and of disappointment ; from whence, after aj 
 tedious series of years, they were at length dismissedr 
 when their patience and fortune were almost ex« 
 hausted.** 
 
 III. In the system of policy introduced Thp military 
 by Augustus, the governors, those at officers, 
 least of the imperial provinces, were invested with the 
 full powers of the sovereign himself. Ministers of 
 peace and war, the distribution of rewards and punish- 
 ments depended on them alone, and they successively 
 appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil magis- 
 tracy, and in complete armour at the head of the Ro- 
 man legions. ' The influence of the revenue, the au- 
 thority of law, and the command of a military force, 
 concurred to render their power supreme and absolute ; 
 and whenever they were tempted to violate their alle- 
 giance, the loyal province which they involved in their 
 rebellion was scarcely sensible of any change in its 
 political state. From the time of Commodus to the 
 reign of Constantino, near one hundred governors might 
 be enumerated, who, with various success, erected the 
 standard of revolt; and though the innocent were too 
 often sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimes pre^ 
 vented, by the suspicious cruelty of their master.'' To 
 secure his throne and the public tranquillity from these 
 formidable servants, Constantino resolved to divide 
 the military from the civil administration ; and to es- 
 tablish, as a permanent and professional distinction, a 
 practice which had been adopted only as an occasional 
 expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the 
 praetorian praefects over the armies of the empire, was 
 transferred to the two masters- general whom he insti- 
 tuted, the one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry ; 
 and though each of those illustrious oflicers was more 
 peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops 
 which were under his immediate inspection, they both 
 indifferently commanded in the field the several bodies, 
 whether of horse or foot, which were united in the 
 same army.' Their number was soon doubled by the 
 division of the east and west ; and as separate gene- 
 rals of the same rank and title were appointed on the 
 four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper 
 and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, tlie 
 defence of the Roman empire was at length commit- 
 ted to eight masters-general of the cavalry and in- 
 fantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military com- 
 manders were stationed in the provinces : three in 
 Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on 
 the Upper, and four on the Lower, Danube ; in Asia 
 eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles 
 of counts and dukcs,^ by which they were properly dis- 
 
 h The curious passage of Ammianus (I. xxx. c. 4.) in wliich lie 
 paints the manners of contemporary lawyers, affords a strange ini.x- 
 iure of sound sense, false rhetoric, and extravagant satire. Code- 
 froy (Prolegom. ad Cod. Theod. c. i. p. lt)j.) supports the historian 
 by similar complaints, and authentic facts. In the fourth century 
 many camels might have been laden with law books. Eunapius in 
 Vet. Edcsii, p. 72. 
 
 i See a very splendid example in the Life of Agricola, particularly 
 c. 20, 21. The lieutenant of Britain was intrusted with the same 
 powers which Cicero, proconsul ofCilicia, had exercised in the name 
 of the senate and people. 
 
 k The Abbe DuIkjs. who has examined with accuracy (see Hist, de 
 la Monarchic Fran^oise, tom. i. p. 41 — 100. edit. 1742.) the institu- 
 tions of Augustus and of Constantine, observes, that if Otho had 
 been put to death the day l)efore he executed his conspiracy, Oil»o 
 would now appear in history as innocent as Corbulo. 
 
 1 Zosimus, I. ii. p. 110. Before the end of tlie reign of Constantius. 
 the mafristri militum were already increased to four. See Valcsius 
 ad Ammian. I. xvi. c. 7. 
 
 in Though the military counts and dukes are frequently mentioned, 
 both in history and the codes, we must have recourse to the Notitia 
 for the exact knowledge of their number and stations. For the in- 
 stitution, rank, privileges, &:c. of the counts in general, see Cod. 
 Tlieod. I. vi. lit. xu.—xx. with the Commentary of Godefroy, 
 
 tinguished, have obtained in modern lanffuaees so verv 
 
 fSe " Tuu'/'h" '"Ih" r "'"If"" -"y -cirn°sS 
 surprise, uut it should be recT)llppfprl tli^f tUr. « j 
 
 of those appellations is oni;TcorSi^'„'o/the S' 
 
 fore rfS. b„t no ^ Pfoi'n^al generals were there- 
 lore auAes ; but no more than ten amons them wptp 
 dignified with the rank ot count, or companionsfa tit e 
 of honour, or rather of favour, which had been recent! v 
 nvented m the court of Constantine. A gold beh wal 
 the ens.g„ wh.ch distinguished the olficerf the counts 
 and dukes ; and besides their pay, they received a 
 liberal allowance sufficient to mainlain one hTndred 
 and mnety servants, and one hundred and fifty etht 
 horses. They were strictly prohibited from in erferfn" 
 m any matter which related%o the adminisSo""? 
 justice or the revenue; but the command wMchthev 
 exercised over the troops of their department was in 
 dependent of the authority of the magistrates Thou 
 
 ecclesi^s't cTotdf ^""^•-'"••'/-e'a sanction fo the 
 ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman emoire 
 the nice balance of the civil and the military powe s 
 The emulation, and sometimes the discord.which rS 
 ed between two professions of opposite interests a'nd 
 incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and 
 of pernicious consequences. It was seldom to be ex- 
 pected tiiat the general and the civil governor of a pr^ 
 vince should either conspire for ti.e disturbance or 
 should unite for the service, of their country Whi?e 
 the one delayed to offer the assistance which the other 
 disdained to solicit, the troops very frequently remain 
 ed without orders or without supplies! tfe I" bic 
 safety was betrayed and the defenceless subjects'^were 
 
 tr ;^;Sit?:fTrnVr^L^'^'^' ^•''" '" --" 
 
 ^':^ "' des^erveXTy <"' ^'l"«"'"«"e has been 
 .; u- L °^^®"™'y •'ensured for another innova 
 t.on which corrupted military discipline, and p "paTed 
 the rum of the empire. The niniteen years whch 
 preceded his final victory over Licinius, d blen a 
 period of license and intestine war. The rivals who 
 contended for the possession of the Roman wirid had 
 withdrawn the greatest part of their forces frnn,' ,tt 
 guard of the general fron'tier; and the principal cities 
 which formed the boundary of their respective domin 
 ions were filled with soldiers, who considered he r 
 countrymen as their most implacable enemies Af'e 
 
 tZ^rtZT'"'' ^""T' had ceased witMhe 
 111 . ' • <=?"<l<'eror wanted either wisdom or firm- 
 ness to revive the severe discipline of Diocletian a^d 
 eareTand \ '"".' '"•'"'ffenci, which habU Lad en- 
 deared and almost confirmed to the military order 
 
 l^^A^f- '*!^" "' Constantino a popular and even 
 tf it ZT "''^,''''»""'<' between^he pJatZl" 
 and the Borderers ,• the troops of the court as thp» 
 were improperly styled, and the troops of ?he fronttr^ 
 rhe former, elevated by the superiority of IheTr pay 
 and privileges, were permitted, except in the extra^ 
 ordinary emergencies of war. to occupy thei tranqiti 
 rcitie'^ '""'' "'■'he provinces.'^The LTZr- 
 ZZtT TZ'J'fr'''^ '•y """ intolerable weight 
 »i quarters. The soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues 
 
 cIvlMf ''"rr'°"' ""•' ."""'racted onl/the vice of 
 ii h' .'^^*y7«'•« ^i'her degraded by the industry 
 liZ Tl '""'''"• Z' enervated by the luxury of 
 
 el ^^"H Ki '^r"^'' """""^ '" '^'''" ''iet and appa- 
 fol . and while they inspired terror to the subjects of 
 
 e empire, they trembled at the hostile approach of 
 'he barbarians." The chain of forlificatiois which 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 » 'wt. which Godefroy ha, d,^L„,;„'°f '?'"°"' ?"«■"»» or ab. 
 » Perox crat In aims inilM », ,4™. , ' ** '* '• ""■ "'•!• ae- 10. 
 
 Vol. / 2 6 ^""'"' '"" '" '"""' " f'"- 
 
 217 
 
 ' htl-^ffV^ ^'^ colleagues had extended along the 
 t^ih ,h/ 1 ^''^ "vers, was no longer maintained 
 
 Tanee Th ''T' ^ t^","^^^ "'""he same vigi- 
 lance. The numbers which still remained under the 
 name of the troops of the frontier, might be sufficient 
 for the ordinary defence. But the r spirit was degrad- 
 ed by the humiliating reflection, that ly ^Vo \mf « 
 posed to the hardships and dangers of a^perpelual war- 
 fare, were rewarded only with Ibout two-thirds of the 
 pay and emoluments which were lavished on the troons 
 of he court. Even the bands or legions that were rais- 
 ed the nearest to the level of those unworthy fav^Ues 
 
 „T'' i" uZ '"^"^"''^ '"^g'='<'e'' by the tit le ho„: 
 our which they were allowed to assume. It was h, 
 vain that Constantine repeated the mosTdeafuT men- 
 aces of fire and sword against the Borderers X 
 
 roads of the h'^r"'' "'^'^ ^o'o"'^. '<> connive at the 
 inroads of the barbarians, or to participate in the spoil p 
 
 are seXm'rl"'""^''"! ^'""^ '"'"^''<^'">"' -"-e^s 
 veriliel T„/T u ^^ 'he application of partial se- 
 JT lu ^"""^ succeeding princes laboured to 
 restore the strength and number! of the frontier garr^ 
 so.^, the empire, ti I the last moment of its d sfo u- 
 
 wh^;h K !!"k'' '" ^""^'"'^ ""^'^^ 'he mortal wonnd 
 iuIIJa e n '" '° .™'hly or so weakly inflicted by 
 the hand of Constantine. ^ 
 
 The same timid policy, of dividino- t>.. .. ^ , 
 
 whatever i«5 II nitf^rl ^J"^ a • "^auiu^ Reduction of the 
 u iidiever is united, ot reducinff whatever legions. 
 
 IS eminent, of dreading every active power and of 
 expecting that the molt feeble will p^roveJhe most 
 obedient, seems to pervade the institutions of sevem 
 princes, and particularly those of Constantine. The 
 
 Td so oFten b "' S' ^-«-«nS' whose victorious camp^ 
 had so often been the scene of rebellion, was nourished 
 
 f .1 A.u^'' ^''.^"^^ Strength. As long as they main- 
 IZl. V^^3^,^ncient establishment of six thousan^d men, 
 they subsisted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of 
 them singly, a visible and important object in the 
 "J-; ''^i'^'V^'"^ of the Roman empire. A few vear^ 
 af^rwards, these gigantic bodies were shrunk tla^very 
 diminutive size; and when seven Wions with slrJ^P 
 
 PerstT Vet 1 1' *'^ ^^^^ '' AiS'ag^nsrth: 
 both sex;. .nHt^^ ^^'"'^"' ""T^ '^'^ inhabitants of 
 d.Tnnt ' ^ ^u^ peasants of the deserted country, 
 
 sonsTFfZV^V'''^^Z i '^^'^'y thousand p?r: 
 sons.i From this fact, and from similar examnles 
 
 leZZlTo:J\'''''r^ ''r ^^^ constit^tionTth'j 
 egionary troops, to which they partly owed their va- 
 
 ha[ u"e bt ds' orr" clissolvLV Constantino ; and 
 mat the bands of Roman infantry, which still assumed 
 the same names and the same honours, consisted 
 
 spiracv of" - '' ^"""^'"^ "^'"•' ^^' ^^»- 
 
 Jh\ll^ ^ Tr'y S'^P^i-ate detachments, each of 
 uhich was awed by the sense of its own weakness 
 could easily be checked; and the successors of Con: 
 
 illZ7tTJ^' i"^"^^' '^''' ^'^^ «^ ostentation, by 
 sstjing their orders to one hundred and thirtv-two 
 
 aST' tIT""'^ ^"/" ??^- -" of their ntlmVous 
 armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed 
 
 of cavaTrv Th'"' ^^^orts of infant'ry, and squadrons 
 ot cayaJry. 1 heir arms, and titles, and ensigns werp 
 calcu ated to inspire terror, and to displafthe variety 
 of nations who marched under the imperial standard 
 And not a vestige was left of that severe siSid v 
 which in the ages of freedom and victory, hTddhZ^ 
 
 ZtXsTy' 'r"^^-^' ^ ^^"^^^ aTmytotthe 
 contused host of an Asiatic monarch.' A more parti- 
 
 Ssanjrous"esof"a;iSe^-an!Iu.°,';^^^^^^ '"''"' '""^ "'^'^'^ ^^^'"y 
 their swords. '"'^""e, and that their cups were Jieavier than 
 
 Hi'.t.'o'fihJwoHd.'vo/Vp-l'g %u\u'- ^'Vf^- '■ ^'' "°-«"'' 
 snffiriently known I«hnnr«' t« • !^r^ 'f"''"®*^ historian, who is not 
 Constantine ' °"'* ^° justify the character and policy of 
 
 r Pancirolusad Notitiam,p. 96. Memoirea He I'Aroj^ • ^ . 
 scriptions, tom. xxv p 491 "lemoires fle 1 Academic des fn- 
 
 . Romana acies un.us prope form^e erat ct hominuui ct armorura 
 
T 
 
 218 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVU, 
 
 CtfAP. XVIL 
 
 m 
 
 cnlar enumeration, drawn from the Notitia, might ex- 
 ercise the diligence of an antiquary; but the historian 
 will content himself with observing, that the number 
 of permanent stations or garrisons established on the 
 frontiers of the empire, amounted to five hundred and 
 eighty-three ; and that, under the successors of Con- 
 stantine, the complete force of the military establish- 
 ment was computed at six hundred and forty-five 
 I thousand soldiers.* An effort so prodigious surpassed 
 the wants of a more ancient, and the faculties of a 
 later, period. 
 
 Difficulty of In the various states of society, armies 
 levies. are recruited from very different motives. 
 Barbarians are urged by the. love of war; the citizens 
 of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of 
 duty ; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a mon- 
 archy, are animated by a sentiment of honour ; but the 
 timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire 
 must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, 
 or compelled by the dread of punishment. The re- 
 sources of the Roman treasury were exhausted by the 
 increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by 
 the invention of new emoluments and indulgences, 
 which, in the opinion of the provincial youth, might 
 compensate the hardships and dangers of a military 
 life. Yet, although the stature was lowered," although 
 slaves, at least by a tacit connivance, were indiscrimi- 
 nately received into the ranks, the insurmountable dif- 
 ficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of 
 volunteers, obliged the emperors to adopt more effec- 
 tual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on 
 the veterans, as the free reward, of their valour, were 
 henceforward granted under a condition, which con- 
 tains the first rudiments of the feudal tenures ; that 
 their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should 
 devote themselves to the profession of arms, as soon 
 as they attained the age of manhood ; and their cow- 
 ardly refusal was punished by the loss of honour, of 
 fortune, or even of life.* But as the annual growth of 
 the sons of the veterans bore a very small proportion 
 to the demands of the service, levies of men were fre- 
 quently required from the provinces, and every pro- 
 prietor was obliged either to take up arms, or to pro- 
 cure a substitute, or to purchase his exemption by the 
 payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces 
 of gold, to which it was reduced., ascertains the exorbi- 
 tant price of volunteers, and the reluctance with which 
 the government admitted of this alternative, y Such 
 was the horror of the profession of a soldier, which had 
 affected the minds of the degenerate Romans, that 
 many of the youth of Italy, and the provinces, chose 
 to cut off the fingers of their right hand to escape from 
 being pressed into the service ; and this strange expe- 
 dient was so commonly practised, as to deserve the se- 
 vere animadversion of the laws,' and a peculiar name 
 in the Latin language.* 
 
 cenere. — Resia acies varia magis multis gentibus dissimilitudine ar- 
 iDoruiii auxiliorumque erat. T. Liv. I. xxxvii. c. 39, 40. Flaminius, 
 even before tliis event, had compared the army of Antiochiis to a 
 supper, in wl>icli the flesh of one vile animal was diversified by the 
 skill of the cooks. See the life of Flaminius in Plutarch. 
 
 t Agatliias, I. v. p. 157. edit. Louvre. 
 
 u Valentinian (Cod. Theodos. I. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 3.) fixes the 
 standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four inches and a 
 hair English measure. It had formerly been five feet ten Inches, and 
 in the best corps six Roman feet. Sed tunc erat amplior multitudo, 
 et phires sequebantur militiam armatam. Vegctius de Re Militari, I. 
 
 i. c. 5. 
 
 X See the two tHles, De Veteranis. and De Pilita Veteranorum, in 
 the seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age at which their 
 military service was required, varied from twenty-five to sixteen. 
 If the sons of the veterans appeared with a horse, they had a right 
 to serve in the cavalry ; two horses gave them some valuable privi 
 
 y Cod. Theod.l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 7. According to the historian 
 Socrates, (seeGodefroy ad lor.) the same emperor Valeiis sometimes 
 required eighty pieces of gold for a recruit. In the following law, it 
 is faintly expressed, that slaves shall not be admitted inter optimas 
 lectissimorum milituin turmas. 
 
 I The person and property of a Roman knight, who had mutila 
 ted his two sons, were sold at public auction by order of Augustus. 
 (Sueton in August, c. 27.) The moderation of that artful usurper 
 proves, that this example of severity was justified by the spirit of 
 the times. Ammianus makes a distinction between the effeminate 
 Italians and the hardy Gauls, (I. xv. c. 12.) Yet only fifteen years 
 
 The introduction of barbarians into the increase of bar- 
 Roman armies became every day more barian auxilia* 
 universal, more necessary, and more "*'*'• 
 fatal. The most daring of the vScythians, of the Goths, 
 and of the Germans, who delighted in war, and who 
 found it more profitable to deftnd than to ravai^e the 
 provinces, were enrolled, not only in the auxiliaries of 
 their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, 
 and among the most distinguished of the Palatine 
 troops. As they freely mingled with the subjects of 
 the empire, they gradually learned to despise their 
 mannera, and to imitate their arts. They abjured the 
 implicit reverence which the pride of Rome had ex- 
 acted from their ignorance, while they acquired the 
 knowledge and possession of those advantages by 
 which alone she supported her declining greatness. 
 The barbarian soldiers, who displayed any military 
 talents, were advanced, without exception, to the most 
 important commands ; and the names of the tribunes, 
 of the counts and dukes, and of the generals them- 
 selves, betray a foreign origin, which they no longer 
 condescended to disguise. They were often intrusted 
 with the conduct of a war against their countrymen; 
 and though most of them preferred the ties of alle- 
 giance to those of blood, they did not always avoid the 
 guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treasonable 
 correspondence with the enemy, of inviting his inva- 
 sion, or of sparing his retreat. The camps and the 
 palace of the son of Constantino were governed by the 
 powerful faction of the Franks, who preserved the 
 strictest connexion with each other, and with their 
 country, and who resented every personal affront as a 
 national indignity.'' When the tyrant Caligula was 
 suspected of an intention to invest a very extraordinary 
 candidate with the consular robes, the sacrilegious pro- 
 fanation would have scarcely excited less astonish- 
 ment, if, instead of a horse, the noblest chieftain of 
 Germany or Britain had been the object of his choice. 
 The revolution of three centuries had produced so re- 
 markable a change in the prejudices of the people, that, 
 with the public approbation, Constantino showed his 
 successors the example of bestowing the honours of 
 the consulship on the barbarians, who, by their merit 
 and services, had deserved to be ranked among the 
 first of the Romans.'^ But as these hardy veterans, 
 who had been educated in the ignorance or contempt 
 of the laws, were incapable of exercising any civil 
 offices, the powers of the human mind were contracted 
 by the irreconcilable separation of talents as well as 
 of professions. The accomplished citizens of the 
 Greek and Roman republics, whose characters could 
 adapt themselves to the bar, the senate, the camp, or 
 the schools, had learned to write, to speak, and to act, 
 with the same spirit, and with equal abilities. 
 
 IV. Besides the magistrate and gene- Seven ministers 
 rals, who at a distance from the court dif- ^^ "'c palace, 
 fused their delegated authority over the provinces and 
 armies, the emperor conferred the rank of Illuslriuus 
 on seven of his more immediate servants, to whose 
 fidelity he intrusted his safety, or his counsels, or his 
 treasures. 1. The private apartments of the palace 
 
 afterwards, Valentinian, inalaw addressed to the prafectof Gaul.ii 
 obliged to enact that these cowardly deserters shall be burnt alive. 
 (Cod. Thcod. I. vii. tit. xiii. lei?. .■>.) Their numt ers in lliyriciim 
 were so considerable that the province complained of a scarcity of 
 recruits. (Id. leg. 10.) 
 
 a They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in Plautus and 
 Festus, to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who, according to 
 Arnohius and Augustin, was under the immediate protection of the 
 goddess .Murcia. From this particular instance of cowardice, mur- 
 care Is used as synonymous to muti/are, by the writers of the middle 
 Latiniiy. Sec Lindenbrosius, and Valesius ad Ammian. Marccllin. 
 I. XV. c. 12. 
 
 b Malarichus— adhibitis Francis, quorum ea tempcstate in palatio 
 multitudo florebat, erectius jam loquebatur tumultuabaturque. Am- 
 mian. I. XT. c. 5. 
 
 « Barbaros omnium primus, ad usque fasces auxerat et trabeai 
 consularcs. Ammian. I. xx. c. 10. Eusebiua, (in Vit. Constantin. I. 
 iv. c. 7.) and Aurelius Victor seem to confirm the truth of this asser- 
 tion ; yet in the thirty two consular fasti of the reign of Constantinc, 
 I cannot discover llie name of a single barbarian. I should there 
 fore interpret the liberality of that prince, as relative to ll»e orna- 
 ments, rather than totlie office, of the consulship. 
 
 were governed by a favourite eunuch, who, in the 
 language of that age was styled the pr^uZ or pl^- 
 The cbamboriain. j * "' *"« sacred bed-chamber. His 
 V. , f . . ^^ ^'^^ '" *"<"'<! the emperor in his 
 hours of state, or m those of amusementf and loZ- 
 form about h.s person all those menial services wMch 
 
 of rov\tv iZ *'"' •^P'*'"!""'; ''""^ "-^ *»fl"ence 
 OJ royalty. Under a prince who deserved to reim the 
 
 great chamberlain (for such we may call himTwas an 
 
 useful and humble domestic; but an artful domestic 
 
 who improves every occasion of unguarded confidence' 
 
 will insensibly acquire over a feeble mind that ascendant 
 
 Tom obnYn Tutr ""^ "P'^"? virtue can se"! 
 dom obtain. The degenerate grandsons of Theodosius 
 who were luyisible to their subjects, and contempt ble 
 to the.r enem.es, exalted the prefects of their bed" W 
 ber above the heads of all the ministers of the pajace" 
 and even his deputy, the first of the splendid trafn of 
 slaves who waited in the presence, was thought wonhv 
 Asia Th'f"' fhemp„/aA& proconsuls of°Grrece or 
 tT' 7/ J""«<''f' »n of the chamberlain who was 
 
 ?±i"Ih ''.f \''^ '^' '"""''•»' ^"Perintendents°who 
 regulated the two important provinces, or the maeni- 
 
 penal table.' 2. The principal administration of public 
 affairs was committed to the diligence and abiHtC^of 
 
 '^'"' 'VmZ"^"" """'"' "f '*« "-ff""'-' He was the 
 .„.-.t.T;i A- ^l^P^^'n^masistrate of the palace, in- 
 spected the discipline of the civil and military scAoofc 
 and received appeals from all parts of the empirerfu 
 the causes which related to that numerous ^rmy of 
 privileged persons, who, as the servants of the court 
 had obtained, for themselves and families, a righrto 
 decline the authority of the ordinary judges. Thf cor- 
 respondence between the prince and his subjects was 
 
 t^llf', '^t";,"'^^' was appropriated to memorials, the 
 second to epistles, the third to petitions, and the fourth 
 to papers and orders of a miscellaneous kind. Each 
 
 dfJnftv r/.t'^'K?^ ""^'"'"''""'^ '»«»'''• of respecjFe 
 V.Ta^a J / "'''°'"' business was despatched by an 
 hundred and forty-eight secretaries, chosen for the 
 most part from the profession of the I'aw, on Account of 
 the variety of abstracts of reports and references which 
 
 te"n? T""'" '" *•!* *^"<"«« »f *eir severa 
 lunctions. From a condescension which in former 
 
 ages would have been esteemed unworthy of the Ro- 
 man majesty, a particularsecretary was allowed for the 
 r^n^l ♦?='"'^1' ^"^ interpreters were appointed to 
 receive the ambassadors of the barbarians : but the 
 department of foreign affairs, which constitutes so 
 essential a part of modern policy, seldom diverted the 
 attention of the master of the offices. His mind was 
 more seriously engaged by the general direction of the 
 
 Cll^r'^ Trf""'' °*'u"'' ^"'P'^^- There were th rty! 
 four cities, fifteen in the east, and nineteen in the west 
 
 llT '•fg»'f companies of workmen were perpe- 
 tually employed in fabricating defensive armoir of- 
 fensive weapons of all sorts, and military eZnes 
 which were deposited in the arsenals, and occasio^i^ally 
 delivered for the service of the troops. 3. In the course 
 
 The ,„,„„„. Of"'"? centuries, the office of quxslor had 
 In ,),» ;„«• «^P«"enced a very singular revolution. 
 In the infancy of Rome, two inferior magistrates were 
 
 fZtll'nZ^'^ ^^ *' P'"*P'<'' »° '«"«^« "-e coi^uls 
 worn the invidious management of the public treasure ;f 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 319 
 
 'o1ve™tr' whT ^"'1 '" -^^y proconsul, and 
 
 comm^:L^f=^[k jfe^^^ofX stx\roru::' 
 
 tors were gradually multiplied to the numberof^four 
 
 forty?" Ind 'ZVoir',' ^°' ^ ^''"' time™p:rh"apl! of 
 ,„ Jffi and the noblest citizens ambitiously solicited 
 an office which gave them a seat in the senate ,nH, 
 
 WhilstT °' f^^'S?"? »•■« honours of thetepubUc 
 
 Wh 1st Augustus affected to maintain the freedom of 
 
 election, he consented to accept the annua privneffe 
 
 of recommending, or rather indeed of nominatlil^a 
 
 certain proportion of candidates ; and it was Ms custom 
 
 to select one of these distinguished youths! to read tS 
 
 orations or epistles in the\ssemblies of 'the renate' 
 
 The practice of Augustus was imitated by succeed^; 
 
 princes ; the occasional commission was established 
 
 as a permanent office ; and the favoured qu^stor as. 
 
 suming a new and more illustrious chaS alone 
 
 nti ;... ^ """ orations, which he composed in the 
 name of the emperor,' acquired the force, and at leneth 
 the form, of absolute edicts, he was considered is fhe 
 
 tne council, and the original source of the civil juris- 
 priidence. He was sometimes invited to take lis seat 
 witf theCr J"Jieatureof the imperial consisto 7^ 
 ^moJ PJt^^^a'i pra^fects, and the master of the 
 offices ; and he was frequently requested to resolve the 
 doubts of inferior judges : but as he was not oppressed 
 with a variety of subordinate business, his leisure and 
 talents were employed to cultivate tha dignified stv"e 
 of eloquence which, in the corruption of taste and 
 
 au^""'^V slr""'^ ''? "^J^'^3^ '' ^he Roman 
 nZl'f u^^ respects, the office of the imperial 
 
 cXr butTh/ ""T'^ ''''^ '^^''^ ^ modern ?han. 
 hl.u :a \ A u^^^^^-F^""^ '^^^' ^'hi^h seems to have 
 been adopted by the illiterate barbarians, was never 
 introduced to attest the public acts of the 4 .. 
 emnerors! a T-k^ ^, * I'^^^i^ dctb oi me The public trea- 
 emperors. 4. 1 he extraordinary title of surer. 
 
 count of fhe sacred largesses, was bestowed on the trea- 
 
 oHnc'Tf " r'^ 1.'^^' ^^"^""^' ''^'^ *he intentl^^n perhaps 
 of inculcating, that every payment flowed from the vo^ 
 
 luntary bounty of the monarch. To conce^v^ the a^ 
 most infinite detail of the annual and daily exlne of 
 the civil and military administration in every part of a 
 great empire, would exceed the powers of the most 
 vigorous imagination. The actual account empired 
 several hundred persons, distributed into eleven Jff. 
 ferent offices, which were artfully contrived to exa- 
 
 i Cod. Theod. I. vi. til. 8. 
 
 ra'ctfrVf X^ Zfell^rtSIe stTS'^ofXii'hcI-^^I^V); ^'^^■ 
 "tyled the count of their camp (comes castrens I ^^T^^'*':J '\^^ 
 ;ery seriously represents to him', that Ms oTufZl\nAZTn7T 
 «mpire. must depend on the opinion which foreign ..A. k "'^^'^^^''e 
 
 ' Gutherius (de OfficiisDomus Augustie, I. ii c 20 1 Hi ^ hn. 
 
 si^nt r?ve'r«T^r '\°h'i^^H'°„'''„^f"« '■'"""''•^'^-^^^ 
 
 « ractus (Ann.1. ii. 22.) ,ay,, ,i,a. ihe ir.i ,u«.tor» wero elmed , 
 
 nually jippoinled bi. he cof.'.,. . ,', h^ ^'"l" "J" P^'iod. teen an- 
 
 they seen, <oX^"ler6„lTi:m^^^^ •''"."'""•• 
 
 ixii. 29. Suelon in An,' r • » i„ I'l j ''^.""^ (Tacit. Annal. 
 &e. |.]m. Episwi. I »0 rt ihM 1, IV.^- •■• •"■■ "'°?- P- 6!W i>61. 
 division, the place of the oZ. nr. ,L '"'""T^ »f "" imperial 
 
 ^theJtshS SSJE^--" ^> - 
 
 thaSe"; .l.e'eover„,e"'l"oa,rhri ofZ "•«"-"?". 't"^"" 
 adminislralion wns abollBl^ed • »ni^^ .,?. ^r'""- »"" provincial 
 
 occaSonallVeTer„?e^ h'T' ^>'* ^''**"''*'^ new dignity, which was 
 in trli^ied L e ^'^ ^^ "'® '^"' aPPai-^nt of the empire. Trajan 
 nnSi P ^. *''•"'* S?''*' *° Hadrian his qu^stor and cousin SeS 
 Dodwell Prajleciion. Cambden. x. xi. p. 362-294. •^""«'"- »«« 
 
 "» Terris edicta daturus ; 
 
 Supplicibus responsa.— Oracula regis 
 Eloquio crevere f uo ; nee dicnius unquam 
 
 rio..j: . -'W^JPP'as'neniinitsese Romanalocutam. 
 
 Claudian in Consnl.-.t. Mall. Theodor. :\3. See likewise Summn^h. - 
 
 (Epistol. i. 17.) and Cassiodorius. (Variar. vi 5 ) * Sjmmachu. 
 
 l! 
 
 Ml 
 
290 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVH. 
 
 « 
 
 mine and control their respective operations. The 
 multitude of these agents had a natural tendency to in- 
 crease ; and it was more than once thought expedient 
 to dismiss to their native homes the useless supernume- 
 raries, who, deserting their honest labours, had pressed 
 with too much eagerness into the lucrative profes- 
 sion of the finances." Twenty-nine provincial re- 
 ceivers, of whom eighteen were honoured with the 
 title of count, corresponded with the treasurer ; and he 
 ■extended his jurisdiction over the mines from whence 
 the precious metals were extracted, over the mints, in 
 which they were converted into the current coin, and 
 over the public treasuries of the most important cities, 
 where they were deposited for the service of the state. 
 The foreign trade of the empire was regulated by this 
 minister, who directed likewise all the linen and wool- 
 len manufactures, in which the successive operations 
 of spinning, weaving, and dying were executed, chiefly 
 by women of a servile condition, for the use of the 
 palace and army. Twenty-six of these institutions are 
 enumerated in the west, where the arts had been more 
 recently introduced, and a still larger proportion may 
 be allowed for the industrious provinces of the east." 
 The private trca- &• Besides the public revenue, which 
 surer. an absolute monarch might levy and 
 
 expend according to his pleasure, the emperors, in the 
 capacity of opulent citizens, possessed a very extensive 
 property, which was administered by the county or 
 treasurer, of the private estate. Some part had perhaps 
 been the ancient demesnes of kings and republics ; 
 some accessions might be derived from the families 
 which were successively invested with the purple ; but 
 the most considerable portion flowed from the impure 
 source of confiscations and forfeitures. The imperial 
 estates were scattered through the provinces, from 
 Mauritania to Britain ; but the rich and fertile soil of 
 Cappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that 
 country his fairest possessions,? and either Constantine 
 or his successors embraced the occasion of justifying 
 avarice by religious zeal. They suppressed the rich 
 temple of Comana, where the high priest of the god- 
 dess of war supported the dignity of a sovereign prince ; 
 and they applied to their private use the consecrated 
 lands, which were inhabited by six thousand subjects 
 or slaves of the deity and her niinisters.i But these 
 were not the valuable inhabitants: the plains that 
 stretch from the foot of mount Arga?us to the banks of 
 the Sarus, bred a generous race of horses, renowned 
 above all others in the ancient world for their majestic 
 shape and incomparable swiftness. These sacred ani- 
 mals, destined for the service of the palace and the im- 
 perial games, were protected by the laws from the 
 profanation of a vulgar master.' The demesnes of 
 Cappadocia were important enough to require the in- 
 spection of a count ,• ■ officers of an inferior rank were 
 stationed in the other parts of the empire; and the de- 
 puties of the private, as well as those of the public, 
 treasurer, were maintained in the exorcise of their in- 
 dependent functions, and encouraged to control the 
 authority of the provincial magistrates.* 6, 7. The 
 
 n Cod. Theod. I. vi. tit. 30. Cod. Jiistininn. ). xii. lit. 24. 
 
 o In the departments of tlie two counts of the treasury, the eastern 
 part of the }Cotitia happens to be very defective. It may be ob- 
 served, that we h.id a treasury rhcst in London, and a gyneceum or 
 manufacture at Winchester. But Britain was not thou<;lit wortliy 
 either of a mint or of an arsenal. Gaul alone possessed tliree of the 
 former, and eight of the latter. 
 
 p Cod. Theod. 1. vi. lit. xxx. leg. 2. and Godefroy ad loc. 
 
 q Strabon. Geograph. 1. xii. p. 809. The other temple of Comann, 
 In Pontus, was a colony from that of Cappadocia, 1. xii. p. 82.5. The 
 president Des Drosses (see his Saluste, torn. it. p. 21.) conjectures 
 ihat the deity adored in both Comanas was Beltis, the Venus of the 
 east, the goddpss uf generation ; a very different being indeed from 
 the godde.ss of war. 
 
 r Cod. Theod. I. x. lit. vi. de Grege Dominico. Godefroy has col 
 lected every circumstance of antiquity relative to the Cappndocian 
 horses. One of the flnest breeds, the Palmatian, was the forfeiture 
 of a rel)el, whose estate lay about sixteen miles from Tyana, near 
 the great road between Consta»itinopIe and Antiocli. 
 
 ■ Justinian (Novell. 30.) subjected the province of the count of 
 Cappadocia to the immediate authority of the favourite eunuch, who 
 presided over the sacred bed-chamber. 
 
 t Cod. Theod. I. vi. tit. xxz. leg. 4. &c. 
 
 chosen bands of cavalry and infantry. The counts of the 
 which guarded the person of the em- domestic*, 
 peror, were under the immediate command of the two 
 counts of the domestics. The whole number consisted 
 of three thousand five hundred men, divided into seven 
 schools, or troops, of five hundred each ; and in the east, 
 this honourable service was almost entirely appropriat- 
 ed to the Armenians. Whenever, on public ceremo- 
 nies, they were drawn up in the courts and porticoes 
 of the palace, their lofty stature, silent order, and 
 splendid arms of silver and gold, displayed a martial 
 pomp, not unworthy of the Roman majesty .'^ From 
 the seven schools two companies of horse and foot 
 were selected, of the protectors, whose advantageous 
 station was the hope and reward of the most deserving 
 soldiers. They mounted guard in the interior apart- 
 ments, and were occasionally despatched into the 
 provinces, to execute with celerity and vigour the orders 
 of their master.' The counts of the domestics had 
 succeeded to the oflice of the praetorian praefects ; like 
 the praefects, they aspired from the service of the 
 palace to the command of armies. 
 
 The perpetual intercourse between the Agents or official 
 court and the provinces was facilitated ^p'cs- 
 
 by the construction of roads and the institution of posts. 
 But these beneficial establishments were accidentally 
 connected with a pernicious and intolerable abuse. 
 Two or three hundred agents or messengers were em- 
 ployed, under the jurisdiction of the master of the of- 
 fices, to announce the names of the annual consuls, 
 and the edicts or victories of the emperors. They in- 
 sensibly assumed the license of reporting whatever 
 they could observe of the conduct either of magistrates 
 or of private citizens ; and were soon considered as the 
 eyes of the monarch, ^ and the scourge of the people. 
 Under the warm influence of a feeble reign, they mul- 
 tiplied to the incredible number of ten thousand, dis- 
 dained the mild though frequent admonitions of the 
 laws, and exercised in the profitable management of 
 the posts a rapacious and insolent oppression. These 
 official spies, who regularly corresponded with the 
 palace, were encouraged, by favour and reward, anxi- 
 ously to watch the progress of every treasonable de- 
 sign, from the faint and latent symptoms of disaflfec- 
 tion, to the actual preparation of an open revolt. Their 
 careless or criminal violation of truth and justice was 
 covered by the consecrated mask of zeal ; and they 
 might securely aim their poisoned arrows at the breast 
 either of the guilty or the innocent, who had provoked 
 their resentment, or refused to purchase their silence. 
 A faithful subject, of Syria, perhaps, or of Britain, 
 was exposed to the danger, or at least to the dread, of 
 being dragged in chains to the court of Milan or Con- 
 stantinople to defend his life and fortune against the 
 malicious charge of these privileged informers. The 
 ordinary administration was conducted by those me- 
 thods which extreme necessity can alone palliate; and 
 the defects of evidence were diligently supplied by the 
 use of torture.' 
 
 The deceitful and dangerous experi- yr „ -. . _ 
 , ^ . • • 1 '^,. t^ • Use of torture, 
 
 ment ot the criminal gusestton, as it is 
 
 emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than ap- 
 proved, in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They 
 applied this sanguinary mode of examination only to 
 servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighed 
 by those haughty republicans in the scale of justice or 
 
 u Pancirolus. p. 102—136. The appearance of these military do- 
 mestics is described in the Latin poem of Corippus, De Laudibus 
 Justin. 1. iii. 157—179. P. 419, 420. of the Appendix Hist. Byzantin. 
 Rom. 177. 
 
 z Amniianus Marrellinus, who served so many years, obtained 
 only the rank of a protector. Tiie first ten among these honourable 
 soldiers were Clarissimi. 
 
 y Xenophon. Cyropned. I. viii. Brisson, de Regno Persico, I. i. No. 
 190. p. 2G4. The emperors adopted with pleasure this Persian meta- 
 phor. 
 
 z For the Ji^entes in, Rebus, see Ammian. 1. xv. c. 3. 1, xvi. c.5. 
 I. xxii. c. 7. with the curious annotations of Valesius. Cod. Theod. 
 1. vi. tit. xxvii. xxviii. xxix. Among the passages collected in the 
 Commentary of Godefroy, the most remarkable is one from Liba" 
 nius, in his discourse concerning the death of Julian. 
 
 humanity; but they would never consent to violate the 
 from the rei.n of f,S^\„ th^atfZttil tS' 
 
 i^s bu^t'as tn*' '""T'T' '"■ "-y inn";,:™" ": 
 
 Walivh/,..^.?^ *h '^'""'«' remembrance was 
 hours o a Roman were secure from the danmr nf 
 .gnomnuous torture." The conduct of the pr"?fnci"al 
 magistrates was not, however, regulated byTe nrac 
 ftce of the city or the strict maxil^s of th J civiS 
 They found the use of torture established no o„lv 
 
 the Rhodians', wholrfshei'Tyle^S'vTo^m^ 
 
 power of emVoying fhf rkr^xM^^r^ 
 or plebeian criminals the confession of their g^iYtiU 
 
 or hrnoutble r.nVvl"'"'' "", P."^^""^ of illustrious 
 or nonouranie rank, bishops and their Dresbvters n,-^ 
 
 fessors of the liberal arts,%oldiers and"^ Aeir famiHes" 
 mion Tud^afuTir' *'>t P»='e"ty to the third gene! 
 
 s :^ r [rdutd'-LTtht r; -C^r 
 
 r h 'rfeTv'oVt""" '" '"^ ^^"^ i/nSouTltv 
 AS me saiety ot the emperor was avowedlv nrpfprro^ 
 
 rj„7a"°""''r^" "'" J"^"- »' human fy,PthedTg- 
 
 exposed to the most cruel tortures ; and the terrors of 
 
 Sr.'il"°"V'"'^"™''"""' ^l''"''' -"'ght select them as 
 lie accomplices, or even as the witnesses, perhaps of 
 an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over the heads 
 of the principal citizens of the Roman world.' 
 
 rinanw!.. These evils, however terrible thev 
 
 „ , .„ "n^y^PPeaf. were confined to the smaller 
 
 number of Roman subjects, whose dangerous situation 
 was m some degree compensated by the enjoyment of 
 those advantages, either of nature or of fortune whi^h 
 
 Ere mniT "" "/ J''"""^y "^ "^^ monarch'. The 
 dread L^r' "^ ? ^f * ^"'P''-^ ^ave much less to 
 
 miters "and V/"/^ 'k?" ?•"".*« "^"'"^ "^ ">eir 
 Sted'hv ,hi • ''"nible happiness is principally 
 anected by the grievance of excessive taxes which 
 
 SVerXTn t? '''' "^^^^^^ descend whh'aS 
 rated weight on the meaner and more indigent classes 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 221 
 
 ">o^t''ceirb7a1efcfviManro;fih'e''i:i'°r^;" '''' ^''"^'■-^"^^ ^^ the 
 ronfine it to slaves and IT nLn k'^''J^SV°'^ ^'"■•"'^- They strictly 
 that Res est f?agms:erper^u^lSra etTf ^ '' ■'^'^^ '? acknowledge, 
 b In the consrilrn;!, «f D ' ®^ ^"'^ ventatem fallat. 
 
 lier) V.l\utZTpIZiZ'^^^^^^^^ (•^•'"tina mu- 
 
 lt would be superrtuoS to a, 7^ i^oVl '^^^ V'^ '"*'''^'' tormentis. 
 
 ' c'lJie^^JS' ^^ffV ^^^^•^. """ '' ''"''''' " 
 •norum llom^um; apud"quS^nrn"/""r' «'-'^'°"'">. ^octissl- 
 c'vesque torquen'tu?." Tce^oTrt ' ?>TJ Tm'^T'' '''^ ?^"' 
 from the trial of Philotas the orart rpof fh- m i ^® *"*>' '«»^" 
 S>cul. I. xvii. p. 604. Q Cun J vi c U) ^"^'^'""^"s. (Diodor. 
 
 thes?:i;^:nSre;;yw^'^^'- '^'^ ^"- P«^> •^^ -"-ted 
 
 "'jn ad ,eg. ju,i„„ majeHtatis °'^'' of TJ.eodos.us and Justi- 
 
 »o JustTfy'^hrun/iiriil'V'' V?^ ^^'^/'^ '^^^'y" ^^o'^d in the Pandects 
 t^J maxim nf«^ practise of torture in all cases of treason -bi? 
 P) w^^h^i *ya"ny. which is admitted by Ammianus M !iv ^ 
 
 of society. An ingenious philosophers has calculated 
 delrr;"??' ■"r^"« °f "'« public impositions by tte 
 serr.h,, ."^ T"^ ^^fvitude; and'venturcs to a^ 
 
 sert that, according to an invariable law of nature it 
 must always increase with the former, and dimf„"sh'in 
 a just proportion to the latter. But this rTSi 
 which would tend to alleviate the miserS of d«^„t' 
 ;sm, IS contradicted at least by the histor^ of tt Pr'' 
 man empire ; which accuses the same princes of dr 
 spoiling the senate of its authority, and ihe province^ 
 of their wealth. Without abolishing all the vlr^^,!! 
 customs and duties on merchandizes.ih ch arc imnT 
 ceptibly discharged by the apparent 'choice of UeTu;: 
 chaser, the policy of Constantine and his successoi 
 preferred a simple and direct mode of taxation mor^ 
 congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government ° 
 
 The name and use of the indiclimil' „, , 
 
 which serve to ascertain the chronologV b^.e-^'oTtJic: 
 of the middle ages, were derived from "»"• 
 the regular practice of the Roman tributes.! The em- 
 peror subscribed with his own hand, and in purple \2 
 he solemn edict, or indiction, whiih was Sup in 
 the prmc.pa city of each diocese, during two months 
 previous to the first day of September. And! bj a verv 
 ferred'T^h""" "^ '''^'•«',«''e J^ord ind!cfion'^l trS 
 lerred to the measure of tribute which it prescribed 
 and to the annual term which it allowed fe'r the pajl 
 ment. This general estimate of the supplies was pri- 
 
 but Zl '° *'.r ' '""^ ""''^*""y -^■'' "f 'he st^fe ; 
 but as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, o^ 
 
 tl nnd^r^h ' ^'""•'f the computation, an additional 
 tax, under the name o{ mperindklion, was imposed on 
 the people, and the most valuable attribute of sove- 
 reignty was communicated to the praetorian praefects, 
 Who, on some occasions, were permitted to provide fo^ 
 the unforeseen and extraordinary exigences of the pub- 
 lic service. The execution of these laws (which it 
 would be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate 
 detail) consisted of two distinct operations ; the resolv! 
 ing the general imposition into its constituent parts, 
 which were assessed on the provinces, the cities, and 
 he individuals of the Roman world ; and the collect!"^ 
 the separate contributions of the individuals, the cities^ 
 and the provinces, till the accumulated sums were 
 noured into the imperial treasuries. But as the acclun! 
 between the monarch and the subject was pe^etua Iv 
 open, and as the renewal of the demand andcipated 
 the perfect discharge of the preceding obligation the 
 weighty machine of the finances wai mov?d by' he 
 same hands round the circle of its yearly revoliftion • 
 tmd™ r/.T"' •"'"""^hle or important inlhe adn nisi 
 tration of the revenue, was committed to the wisdom 
 of the praefects, and their provincial representatives • 
 the lucrative functions were claimed by a crowd of 
 subordinate officers, some of whom depended on the 
 ^easurer others on the governor, of the provi„ce"and 
 .In '. "i / '""'^"^hle conflicts of a perplexed jurisdic- 
 n.h.; ,1 ''•"l.^nt opportunities of disputing with each 
 other the spoils of the people. The laborious ofliccs, 
 which could be productive only of envy and reproach 
 of expense and danger, were imposed on the Dccuriom, 
 
 s Monlcsquicu, Esprit dcs Loii. ?. i|i. c. 13. 
 ,vL"orj::|r^??;>p^',;,°',,i-/- ''■»■) "- -- "- -porta,,. tr„.l,. 
 rnL^'Jl^ r.^^'®. or '"<l'ft'ons. Which may be traced as hisrh as thn 
 
 ifv/'« ^'V ;f'''«0"a»"y altered to the fir.t of Janiary See rlrt 
 ?iq.7e torn " n'S • U' '' '"'^ D'^^'^""!^'^'^ RaisSn-'d^'la D^plim " 
 w^o^k'shoTo "th'eBe'nedlTnne""'"'' ^^'^"'^^»' ^^'"'^^^ '^"'"« ^-"' '^° 
 
 fiia^'c^^df^'Jp'lfiir.H^t*".'!! /.'''^'•°'"''^*^ ^'^''«"''' ^"^^ of the Theodo- 
 nor"an?snblPrf nf » k'^I'*' ^ '^ crcumstantial rrpulations on the im- 
 fundamflnt«f nrf ","'.? • ''V^ ."'^y ««PPOse a clearer knouledjre of 
 lundamental principles than i( is at present in our power to attain. 
 
 be attribS?o r?Pf' /''^^ ^\^ establishment of the indiction is to 
 
 Antnn i«Tf V« r'' V'* abatement of it which he made at the cit? of 
 Autun, IS a proof of it. Being as yet only a CtBsar, and desirona of 
 paining the favour of the people, he would not hav^ ventured°o ere- 
 ?nS %}!T1!-^ "" l""""- ^"fe'ian Victor and Lactantius agree in m"k 
 mg Diocletian the author of this desfwjtic institution. (Aurel vTctor 
 De Ca;8ar.c.39. Lactam. De Mort. pcrsec. c. 7)-o ] ^'*"'*'- ^'"<»' 
 
222 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVH. 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom 
 the severity of the imperial laws had condemned to 
 sustain the burthens of civil society.* The whole land- 
 ed property of the empire (without excepting the patri- 
 monial estates of the monarch) was the object of ordi- 
 nary taxation ; and every new purchaser contracted the 
 obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate ctn- 
 sus^^ or survey, was the only equitable mode of ascer- 
 taining the proportion which every citizen should be 
 obliged to contribute for the public service ; and from 
 the well-known period of the indictions, there is rea- 
 son to believe that this difficult and expensive opera- 
 tion was repeated at the regular distance of fifteen 
 years. The lands were measured by surveyors, who 
 were sent into the provinces ; their nature, whether 
 arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly 
 reported ; and an estimate was made of their common 
 value from the average produce of five years. The 
 numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted an essen- 
 tial part of the report ; an oath was administered to 
 the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true 
 state of their affairs ; and their attempts to prevaricate, 
 or elude the intention of the legislator, were severely 
 watched, and punished as a capital crime, which in- 
 cluded the double guilt of treason and sacrilege." A 
 large proportion of the tribute was paid in money ; and 
 of the current coin of the empire, gold alone could be 
 legally accepted." The remainder of the taxes, accord- 
 ing to the proportions determined by the annual indic- 
 tion, was furnished in a manner still more direct, and 
 still more oppressive. According to the difierent nature 
 of lands, their real produce in the various articles of 
 wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, was trans- 
 ported by the labour or at the expense of the provin- 
 cials to the imperial maffaaines, from whence they were 
 occasionally distributed, for the use of the court, of the 
 army, and of the two capitals, Rome and Constantino- 
 ple. P The commissioners of the revenue were so fre- 
 quently obliged to make considerable purchases, that 
 they were strictly prohibited from allowing any com- 
 pensation, or from receiving in money the value of 
 those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the 
 primitive simplicity of small communities, this method 
 may be well adapted to collect the almost voluntary 
 offerings of the people ; but it is at once susceptible 
 of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost strictness, 
 which, in a corrupt and absolute monarchy, must intro- 
 duce a perpetual contest between the power of oppres- 
 
 l The title concerning the Decurions (I. xii. tit. i.) is the most am- 
 ple in the wliole TheodosJan Code ; since it contains not less than 
 one hundred and ninety-two distinct laws to ascertain the duties and 
 privileges of tliat useful order of citizens. 
 
 [It was the duty of the Decurions to fix, according to the register 
 of estates drawnup hy tJie tahularii, what each proprietor was to 
 pay. This odious employment was imperiously imposed on the 
 richest citizens of each city. They had no salary, all their recom- 
 pense was an exemption t'rom certain corporal punishments in cases 
 where they deserved them. The derurionate was the ruin of the 
 rich, so that they endeavoured to avoid this dangerous honour. — 
 They concealed themselves, they entered the military service, hut 
 their efforts were useless; they were detected, and were compelled to 
 become decurions, and the fear with which this title inspired them 
 was called impiety. — G.] 
 
 m Ilahemus enim et liuniinum numerum qui delati sunt, etagrum 
 modum. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. viii. 6. See Cod. Theod. 1. xiii. 
 tit. X. xi. with Godcfroy's Commentary. 
 
 n Siquis sacrilega vitem falce surciderit, aut feracium ramorum 
 fottus )iel)etavcrit, quo declinet (idem censuum, et mentiatur callide 
 pauperiatis ingenium, mox detenus capitate subihit exitium, et bona 
 ejus in fisci jura niigrabunt. Cod. Theod. 1. xiii. tit. xi. leg. 1. AI- 
 tfiough this law is not without its studied obscurity, it is, however, 
 clear enough to prove the minuteness of the inquisition, and the dis- 
 proportion of the penalty. 
 
 o The astonishment of Pliny would have ceased. Equidem miror 
 P. R. victisgentibus argentum semper imperitasse non aurum. Hist. 
 Natur. xxxiii. 15. 
 
 P [The proprietors were not compelled to make this transporta- 
 tion at their own expense. In the provinces situated upon the sea- 
 const, or near large rivers, there were companies of boatmen and 
 owners of vessels who were charged with this commission, and who 
 were to furnish at their own expense, the meani of transport. In 
 return, they were exempt wholly or in part, from the indiction and 
 from other taxes. They had certain privileges. Particular rules 
 determined their obligations and their rights. (Cod. Theod. I. xiii. 
 tit. 5 — 9.) The transportation over land was made in the same 
 manner, by theaiisistance of a privileged community named Bastoga, 
 its members were called baatagarii. (Cod. Theod. I. viii. tit. v.)— O.] 
 
 sion and the arts of fraud. *» The agriculture of the 
 Roman provinces was insensibly ruined, and, in the 
 progress of despotism, which tends to disappoint its 
 own purpose, the emperors were obliged to derive some 
 merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remission of 
 tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable 
 of paying. According to the new division of Italy, 
 the fertile and happy province of Campania, the scene 
 of the early victories and of the delicious retirements 
 of the citizens of Rome, extended between the sea and 
 the Apennine from the Tyber to the Silarus. Within 
 sixty years after the death of Constantine, and on the 
 evidence of an actual survey, an exemption was grant- 
 ed in favour of three hundred and thirty thousand Eng- 
 lish acres of desert and uncultivated land ; which 
 amounted to one-eighth of the whole surface of the 
 province. As the footsteps of the barbarians had not 
 yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing deso- 
 lation, which is reconied in the laws, can be ascribed 
 only to the administration, of the Roman emperors.' 
 
 Either from design or from accident. Assessed in the 
 the mode of assessment seemed to unite form of capita- 
 the substance of a land-tax with the forms *"^"- 
 of a capitation.* The returns which were sent of every 
 province or district, expressed the number of tributary 
 subjects, and the amount of the public impositions. 
 The latter of these sums was divided by the former ; 
 and the estimate, that such a province contained so 
 many capita, or heads of tribute ; and that each head 
 was rated at such a price, was universally received, not 
 only in the popular, but even in the legal computation. 
 The value of a tributary head must have varied, accord- 
 ing to many accidental, or at least fluctuating circum- 
 stances : but some knowledge has been preserved of a 
 very curious fact, the more important, since it relates 
 to one of the richest provinces of the Roman empire, 
 and which now flourishes as the most splendid of the 
 European kingdoms. The rapacious ministers of Con- 
 stantius had exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting 
 twenty-five pieces of gold for the annual tribute of 
 every head. The humane policy of his successor re- 
 duced the capitation to seven pieces. * A moderate 
 proportion between these opposite extremes of extra- 
 vagant oppression and of transient indulgence, may 
 therefore be fixed at sixteen pieces of gold, or about 
 nine pounds sterling, the common standard, perhaps, 
 of the impositions of Gaul." But this calculation, or 
 rather indeed the facts from whence it is deduced, can- 
 
 q Some precautions were taken (see Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. ii. and 
 Cod. Justinian. I. x. tit. xxvii. leg. 1 — 3.) to restrain the magistrates 
 from the abuse of their authority, either in the exaction or in the 
 purchase of corn : but those who had learning enough to read the 
 orations of Cicero against Verres, (iii. de Frumento,) might instruct 
 themselves in all the various arts of oppression, with regard to the 
 weight, the price, the quality, and the carriage. The avarice of an 
 unlettered governor would supply the ignorance of precept or pre- 
 cedent. 
 
 r Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 2. published the 24th of March, 
 A. D. 395, by the emperor Honorius, only two months after the 
 death of his father, Theodosius. He speaks of .W8,U42 Roman ju- 
 gera, which I have reduced to the English measure. The jugerum 
 contained 28,t^00 square Uomaii feet. 
 
 ■ Godefroy (Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. IIC.) argues with weight and 
 learning on the subject of the capitation ; but while he explains the 
 caput, as a share or measure of property, lie too absolutely excludes 
 the idea of a personal assessment. 
 
 t Q,uid profueril (Julianiis) anhclantibus extrema penuria Gallis, 
 hinc niaximc claret, quod primitus partes easingressus, ]tro capitibua 
 singulis tributi nomine vicenosquinos aureos reperit dagitari ; disce- 
 dens vero septenos tantum munera universa complentes. Ammian. 
 l.xvi.c. 5. 
 
 a In the calculation of any sum of money under Constantine and 
 his successors, we need only refer to the excellent discourse of Mr. 
 Greaves on the Denarius, for the proof of the following principles: 
 1. That the ancient and modern Roman pound, containing 5256 
 grains of Troy weight, is about one-twelfth lighter than the English 
 pound, which is composed of 5760 of the same grains. 2. That the 
 pound of gold which had once been divided into forty-eight aurei, 
 was at this time coined into seventy-two Nmaller pieces of the same 
 denomination. 3. That five of these aurei were the legal tender for 
 a pound of silver, and that consequently the pound of gold was ex- 
 changed for fourteen pounds eight ounces of silver, according to the 
 Roman, or about thirteen pounds, according to the English, weight. 
 4. That the English pound of silver is coined Info sixty-two shillings- 
 From these elements we may compute the Roman pound of gold, 
 the usual method of reckoning large sums, at forty pounds sterling, 
 and we may fix the currency of the aureut at Bomewhal more than 
 eleven shillings. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 223 
 
 and by the enonni/y, of the cap.'ation. AnlnZvtt ^ dft Vu^ T?.™'" °^ "'« ">«^t«fs. ^^o enjoyed the 
 explau. them may oerhnn, .X„. .._. ,. .""'"P'.'" ^"^^ "f "V^^F '''bo-.r; and as the rolls of triburwlre 
 
 explafn then, may perhaps ^eX^'sle iLroT'the" 
 ■nteresung subject of the finances of the^ declh.in'| 
 
 I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable con- 
 
 «n nualVdiw"r„" r"'' p4"^^^ ""<' -"aintains so 
 unequal a division of property, the most numerous part 
 
 of the community would be deprived of their subs^s 
 ence, by the emial !>««„»„ . v _ . , "'nr suosist- 
 
 sovereign would derive aTe^; Iriflirg re;enur"1u'eh 
 
 u1"f t"e'fract1ee"tH'""^ "' *" «»">- "rpitatl^n • 
 M, oVth/. f ? ' ""^ ""J"^' equality was no loneer 
 felt as the tribute was collected on the principle o?a 
 
 c mCs CO >trirr;r'' ™P°^'''"'"- S^vlral lSd1ge« 
 citizens contributed to compose a sino-le head or <iLr» 
 
 lufTV ^■''"" "-^ ^''^'thy provrncial, t; propor! 
 
 .on to his fortune, alone represented several of tifose 
 
 imaginary bcin<rs. Tn ^ „„rf;„„i , . "' ™°^« 
 
 ence, by the equal assessme„ro7; tax from wS'the P„°:^'l"l''7'.«-;''-'' '"''- °--WG^'^^ 
 
 ;rtbT %tzr\T^''' '"« highSthei "cT 
 
 b^tL follow „g"etmnle' Thl"^"'! '^''^' "" 'j'"^'"'^'* 
 
 accession of those of 0;^- an"''C AiTpot^ 
 lation would amount to eight hundred thousand sTls 
 affo!^ T^ °^ Constantine, the territory of ,hc ^du 
 
 capUatfon"°of"'wb'' ""'" '"''"fi-'^'-' "'""sand W, of 
 h?h,,?' ^'""" r^""" thousand were discharsed 
 by that prince from the intolerable wei-rht of tr bu| ' 
 
 A lust analncrv x,'«„i.i „ x. o"*- ^_i uiuuie. 
 
 fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary wealth 
 h v?ra -t^r 'L^? 'f'j^^^ ">! allusionThr^fj 
 
 have- painted many ^fTh'e' GalFrc nl "wUh' ^e Zt 
 
 tht'co:,': ry \tf' / '"'"'' ^PT"'"'" over the fac"e 
 oi ine country, and devounng the substance of an 
 
 hundred familie^s. II. The difficulty of aUowins an 
 
 annual sum of about nine ponnds sterlino-, even fo? the 
 
 average of the capitatioi, of Gaul, may be rende ed 
 
 more evident by the comparison of the^presenrstate 
 
 of the same country, as it is now governcTby the at! 
 
 solute monarch of an industrious, wealthy and afl^c 
 
 "7T '-rP't- 7''« »»^*^ of France cannot be maa." 
 iiified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond the an^^![ 
 
 01 inhabitants.' Seven millions of these, in the cana- 
 city of fathers, or brothers, or husbands, may d scharC 
 he obligations of the remaining multitude^of womfn 
 and ch Idren; yet the equal proportion of each t^ru" 
 lary subject will scarcely rise*^ above fifty shHlinS of 
 our money, instead of a proportion almost fouttmes 
 as considerable, which was regularly imposed on "eir 
 Gallic ancestors. The reason of this diff-erence may be 
 found, not so much m the relative scarcity or plenty of 
 gold and silver, as in the difl:erent state of socie v in an 
 cient Gaul and in moHom Fr,n„.. i. . ' "'. ^ "! ^" 
 
 anri if i„ .1 - .i-"™ '"^ ".■muer OI nail a million ; 
 
 their Lin.tir.r'^'""? administration of government 
 tneir annual payments may be computed at ahnnt 
 
 Zr Th tTt)"^'>f Y''?''^' mone^it would ap. 
 pear, that although the share of each individual was 
 four times as considerable, a fourth part onlv of thp 
 
 pToW oTGau[ ^rr "^^- '''^''' - thrt;er'a 
 hUir 1 ? • ^^'^ exactions of Constantius may 
 be calculated at seven millions sterling, which were 
 redijced to two millions by the huma^it/ir ^sdom of 
 
 But this tax, or capitation, on the pro- ^ 
 prietors of land, would have suffered a ulTl'nd in" 
 rich and numerous class of free citizens ^^'^% 
 wp!iTP1-- ^-''^. ^^^ ^^^^' «^ sharing that species of 
 
 exists in money or m merchandise, the emperors im- 
 posed a distinct and personal tributP nn tulJ a- 
 
 cCfin1d'\trifci«r.^--^^^^^^ 
 
 confined both i^ time an7"plaTe Zre" al'S t^Z 
 
 e^sXf^s"'" 'Jr' "' "•" P-d-ce of thei U: 
 Jl e\u iT" '"'^ulgence was granted to the profes- 
 sion of the liberal arts : but every other branch of com 
 mercial industry was affected /y the severity of Z 
 law. The honourable merchant of Alexandria wh„ 
 mported the gems and spices of India for the u'srof 
 he western world ; the usurer, who derived frouTlhe 
 terest of money a silent and ignominious profit t 
 ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic and 
 even the most obscure retailer of a sequeTtered villa« 
 were obliir-pd tn !„tmi» ji,. „n: A, '^" village. 
 
 cient Gaul and in m^d^m Fran7e?1 i\"'crun3".:r"e" T" ''^""'f <"-— ^''i'er of ^^sVquesTr^d Wllage" 
 
 personal freedom is the privilege of every suWect the T'* ""^"'ff'^t'" "'''"" ">« "'««<''•« of «'■« revenue iffo 
 
 whole mass of taxes, whether they are 7evTed on pro R P'"'"*''^'? of 'heir gain ; and the soyerlfgn of tl e 
 
 petty or on consiimnti^,, ™,.. i,. /• ■_ ^^V,"""" P™" Roman empire whn tnl<.^t».i .i. e...- ^ °' '"? 
 
 «hole mass of U^s:;j^;^%- ^^i:^'^;^ 
 
 L^ 0^0" oonsumption, may be flirly divided amonj 
 
 he whole body of the nation. But the far greater nar! 
 
 nces :f"frR''"'='^"' """i",'' "^ "^" ^ of thi X pC 
 V nces of the Roman world, were cultivated by slaves 
 
 or by peasants, whose dependent condition was a S 
 
 llK aifiia ut vivaiD, lu niilii lolle Irin 
 
 'i'ecommenS?or. ' " '""'"'"'* "°"""^' '^'"^^ '"« perplexity of 
 
 •he Jr^mrre.:?s";r's°oTbfrthr"d:' H ''^ '^ T^ '''""' " ^«""d«d on 
 p;.licaut?orUy:'a':i7o?C;iteXahe^ 
 
 ^^^^^^9^^^^^^^^ inclusive.) is 479,649 boys, anS 
 
 Tf^rJ.^ -~-"r — -"v.1. f^a.111 , dim me sovereig-n of the 
 Roman empire who tolerated the profession, cSnsented 
 
 birtlis, taken during eleven years, in 476 naKhes nf tL^"'^'" °*^ 
 
 Cas L 3 Th;v H^nof ^""'"«'-«'td not as Civitatrs. but merely „ \ 
 tl.P fifth »nZ^.7h "°* ^PP^^' *° ^«^e ^♦^e" episcopal se.-.ts before 
 
 b Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet, viii. 11. 
 
 c L'Abb6 du Bos. Hist. Critique de la M. F. torn i u iQi 
 
 d See Cod. Theod. I. xiii. tit i. iv. ^' ^^' * 
 
224 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIlL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 to share the infamous salary of public prostitutes." As 
 this general tax upon industry was collected every 
 fourth year, it was styled the Lustral Contribution: and 
 the historian Zosimus ^ laments that the approach of 
 the fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors 
 of the citizens, who were often compelled by the im- 
 pending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and un- 
 natural methods of procuring the sum at which their 
 property had been assessed. The testimony of Zosi- 
 mus cannot indeed be justified from the charge of pas- 
 sion and prejudice; but, from the nature of this tribute, 
 it seems reasonable to conclude, that it was arbitrary 
 in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode 
 of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and 
 the precarious profits of art or labour, are susceptible 
 only of a discretionary valuation, which is seldom dis- 
 advantageous to the interest of the treasury ; and as the 
 person of the trader supplies the want of a visible and 
 permanent security, the payment of the imposition, 
 which, in the case of a land tax, may be obtained by 
 the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by any 
 other means than those of corporal punishments. The 
 cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state, is 
 attested, and was perhaps mitigated by a very humane 
 edict of Constantine, who, disclaiming the use of racks 
 and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy prison for 
 tlie place of their confinement. « 
 
 Free sifts These general taxes were imposed 
 
 and levied by the absolute authority of 
 the monarch ; but the occasional offerings of the coro- 
 nary gold still retained the name and semblance of 
 popular consent. It was an ancient custom that the 
 allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety or de- 
 liverance to the success of the Roman arms ; and even 
 the cities of Italy, who admired the virtues of their 
 victorious general, adorned the pomp of his triumph, 
 by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which after 
 the ceremony were consecrated in the temple of Jupi- 
 ter, to remain a lasting monument of his glory to future 
 ages.'' The progress of zeal and flattery soon multi- 
 plied the number, and increased the size, of these 
 popular donations ; and the triumph of C«sar was en- 
 riched with two thousand eight hundred and twenty- 
 two massy crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty 
 thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold. 
 This treasure was immediately melted down by the 
 prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be 
 more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods : his 
 example was imitated by his successors ; and the cus- 
 tom was introduced of exchanging these splendid or- 
 naments for the more acceptable present of the current 
 gold coin of the empire.' The spontaneous ofTerino- was 
 at length exacted as the debt of duty; and instead of 
 being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was 
 supposed to be granted by the several cities and pro- 
 vinces of the monarchy, as often as the emperor con- 
 descended to announce his accession, his consulship, 
 the birth of a son, the creation of a Caesar, a victory 
 over the barbarians, or any other real or imaginary 
 event which graced the annals of his reign. The pe- 
 culiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by 
 
 custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about 
 sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed 
 subjects celebrated their own felicity, that their sove- 
 reign should graciously consent to accept this feeble 
 but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude.^ 
 
 A people elated by pride, or soured 
 by discontent, are seldom qualified to ^*'"'='"«'""- 
 form a just estimate of their actual situation. The 
 subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning 
 the decline of genius and manly virtue, which so far 
 degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors ; 
 but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, 
 the relaxation of discipline, and the increase of taxes. 
 The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice 
 of their complaints, will observe some favourable cir- 
 cumstances, which tended to alleviate the misery of 
 their condition. The threatening tempest of barbari- 
 ans, which so soon subverted the foundations of Ro- 
 man greatness, was still repelled, or suspended, on 
 the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were 
 cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were 
 enjoyed, by the inhabitants of a considerable portion 
 of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the expense 
 of the civil administration contributed to restrain the 
 irregular licence of the soldiers; and although the laws 
 were violated by power, or perverted by subtilty, the 
 sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence preserved 
 a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic 
 governments of the east. The rights of mankind might 
 derive some protection from religion and philosophy ; 
 and the name of freedom, which could no longer alarm, 
 might sometimes admonish, the successors of Augus- 
 tus, that they did not reign over a nation of slaves or 
 barbarians. ' 
 
 ^IT^^J"',^/'^'' Theodosius put an end by a law to these sliamefiil 
 profits, (Codefr. nd rod. Theod. I. xiii. tit. i. c. 1.) hut hrfore de.)r v 
 ing Inmself of ihia source of revenue, he n.ade sure of what would 
 make up his deficit. Florensius. a rich patrician, indignarU at this 
 legahzpd licentiousness, made representations concernhig it ?o t e 
 en.prror. and o induce hi.n to tolerate it no looRer. he Sffercd his 
 own property to supply this diminution of the reveni^e. The e mpe 
 ror itad the baseness to accept his offer — O ] 
 
 f Zosimus I ii.p. 115 There is probably as much passion and 
 prejudice in the attack of Zosimus, as in the elaborate defence of 
 the memory of Constantine by tiie zealous Dr. Howell. Hist, of tlie 
 World, vol. 11. p. 20. 
 
 g Cod. Theod. I. xi. tit. vii. le?. 3. 
 
 h [This custom has a much earlier dale. The Romans borrowed 
 n trom Greece. Who lias not heard of the famous oration of De- 
 mosthenes for the crown of gold, with which the citizens wished to 
 honour him, and of which iEschines wished to deprive him '— O 1 
 
 i See Lipsms de Magnitud. Romana, I. ii. c. 9. The Tarraeonese 
 Spain presenfcd the emperor Claudius with a crown of gold of seven 
 and fiaul with another of nine, hundred pounds' weight. I have 
 followed the rational emendation of Lipsiiia. * * nave 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Character of Comtanline.— Gothic war.— Death of Constan- 
 tine. — Division of the empire among his three sons. — Per- 
 sian war.— Tragic deaths of Constantine the younger and 
 Constans. — Usurpation of Magnentius. — Civil war^- 
 Victory of Constantius. 
 
 The character of the prince who re- Character of 
 moved the seat of empire, and intro- Constantine. 
 duced such important changes into the civil and religi- 
 ous constitution of his country, has fixed the attention, 
 and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grate- 
 ful zeal of the christians, the deliverer of the church 
 has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and 
 even of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished 
 party has compared Constantine to the most abhorred 
 of those tyrants, who, by their vice and weakness, dis- 
 honoured the imperial purple. The same passions have 
 in some degree been perpetuated to succeeding gene- 
 rations, and the character of Constantine is considered, 
 even in the present age, as an object either of satire 
 or of panegyric. By the impartial union of those de- 
 fects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, 
 and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his 
 most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate 
 a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the 
 truth and candour of history should adopt without a 
 blush.* But it would soon appear that the vain at- 
 tempt to blend such discordant colours, and to recon- 
 cile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure 
 
 k Cod. Theod. I. xil. tit. xiii. The senators were supposed to be 
 exempt froin the ^urum Coronarium; but the .^uri Oblatio, which 
 was required at their hands, was precisely of the same nature. 
 
 I 1 he great 1 heodosius, in his judicious advice to his son, (Clau- 
 dian in iv. Consulat. Honorii, 214. Sec.) distinguishes the station of a 
 Roman prince from that of a Parthian monarch. Virtue was nc 
 cessary for the one; birth might suffice for the other. 
 
 * On ne se Irompera point sur Constantin, en croyant tout le nial 
 qu en dit Eus6be, et tout le bien qu'en dit Zosime. Fleury Hist. Ec- 
 clesiastique, tom. iil. p. 233. Eusebius and Zosimus form, indeed. 
 K*'j*^° extremes of flattery and invective. The intermediate 
 shades are expressed by those writers, whoso character or situation 
 variously tempered the influence of their religious zeal. 
 
 of the different periods on.e'Z^ oTcZlTT'''' 
 
 Hi. virtuM. i If person, as well as the mind, of 
 
 -.1. 1, I. • '"""s'antine had been enriched bv natiirs 
 
 with her choicest endowments. His stature wasToftv 
 
 his countenance majestic, his deportmen Zcefu • hS 
 
 :S e Tnd "fTV" f'^^^'^y'-' '" every maX 
 exercise, and from his earliest youth, to a verv ad- 
 vanced season of life, he preserved the vi.rour of liis 
 constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic v r 
 tues of chastity and temperance. He delirted i?, Ihe 
 social intercourseof familiar conversation ; and though 
 witl?lS' ^""'^""'f '"<!•''?« his dispositi;„ to raiUefy 
 w th less reserve than was required by the severe dig- 
 nity of his station, the courtesy and liberalUv oM f. 
 manners gained the hearts of all who approached him 
 The sincerity of his friendship has been suspectej: 
 
 c^aoable on'""' "" '^Tr'-''''''"'' ^^at he wasTo tl 
 capable of a warm and last ng attachment The di<= 
 
 advantage of an illiterate edufation "'t prevented 
 
 him from forming a just estimate of the value of learn- 
 
 mfn.from Z'' '""'r'^-- ''--ed some encourage- 
 ment trom the munificent protection of Constantine 
 
 foUable"rnd\h' '"f^'"^'''' "^ •**"«-><=« *- ' ^e- 
 tatigrable , and the active powers of his mind were 
 
 almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or 
 
 meditating, in giving audience to ambassadors, and i°n 
 
 examining the complaints of his subjects. Even those 
 
 nrfred't^ru'' *'' I T^"fy "^'■'^ ""^'^'^^ were com! 
 pelled to acknowledge, that he possessed maananimity 
 to conceive, and patience to execute, the molt arduous 
 designs without being checked either by the prelu! 
 dices of education, or by the clamours of the mu t - 
 ude. In the field he infused his own intrepid"p ir t 
 into the troops, whom he conducted with the tale „s 
 of a consummate general ; and to his abilities, rati er 
 than to Ills fortune, we may ascribe the signa vie o 
 nes which he obtained over the foreign an! domes °c 
 foes of the republic. He loved glory as the reward 
 periiaps as the motive, of his labours.^ The boundless 
 ambition which, from the moment of his accept""g tie 
 purple at York, appears as the ruling passion of h s 
 soul,may be justified by the dangers ttlh own s tu^ 
 lion, by the .^aracter of his rivals, by the consdous- 
 ness of superior merit, and by the prospect that hi's 
 success ^youId eiiable him to restore peace and order 
 to the distracted empire. In his civil wars ao^ins 
 Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his side 
 the inclinations of the people, who compared theTn! 
 dissembled vices of those tyrants with the spi h of 
 
 » tenor rfH^'^H"" "'hi-^h seemed to direct th*^ gene- 
 ral tenor of the administration of Constantine. " 
 
 Hi,, ice,. Had Constantine fallen on the banks 
 
 ol the Tyber, or even in the ulains of 
 Hadrianople such is the character which, wUh a few 
 exceptions, he might have transmitted o posterity 
 
 derlti'^n."-'"/"': "^ Y'' '"'ff" (according to^he mt 
 
 derate and indeed tender sentence of a writer of the 
 
 ame age) degraded him from the rank whiclf he had 
 
 acquired among the most deserving of the Roman 
 
 Sf'rr Jr- ''^ "'"^ "^ Augustus, we'behold the tj^nt 
 ot the republic, converted, almost by imperceDtible de 
 
 fnlhkl'of" c' '":'":•'"■'■" -"-'?'-" o'f huTan kind 
 ,1 I f t-onstantme, we may contemplate a hero 
 Who had so long inspired his subjects with love, and 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 after ll,e ex.inctio^ of Kmi „ 'p'" 'T'-^ ''"«•'"'"• "'"' "'O'^ 
 
 deed ol^cure nroverb ^L.l!./^ ?*'"' °'""'°" ^^ « ^"'^a'' and in- 
 decern ZauentiZVlatS^.J •^^^«.'".«"n'8 prsstantissimus^. duo- 
 profusionSs. ' "' ''^"'" »<>v>««'""9 P'^PHius ob immodicas 
 
 Vol. J — 2 D j^ 
 
 • 225 
 
 his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and 
 dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune or raised 
 
 /enZTZtfr t. "---^/of dissimuTattl.'Thl 
 general peace which he mamtained dur- 
 ing the last fourteen years of his rcio-n A. D. 32;?-337. 
 was a period of apparent splendour r'ather than of real 
 prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was dls- 
 g.raced by the opposite yet^econcilable v ces of rana- 
 ciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures 
 found m the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius wprp 
 lavishly consumed ; the various innovation Sduce^ 
 by the conqueror, were attended with an increash^o^ 
 expense ; the cost of his buildings, his ecu M h f 
 festivals, required an immediate and plentifu isupplv! 
 and he oppression of the people was the only ft^L' 
 which could support the mag'nifiJence of the so^erei "n d 
 
 libera itroft^ ''''""'"'' ^""^^^^ ^^ '^'^ ^^^^-^^^^^ 
 Jiberalit> of their master, usurped with imuunitv th^ 
 
 privilege of rapine and comiption.e ATecret^bat 
 
 umversal decay was felt in every part of the pubUc 
 
 administration and the emperor himself, though he 
 
 still retained the obedience, gradually lost the estem 
 
 ^^ards the decline of life, he chose to affect, served 
 only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The 
 Asia ic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of 
 Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeCiacv 
 in the person of Constantine. He is represented whh 
 false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by 
 
 more evn ""''^'''f}^' '^^^^'^ ^ diadenf of a neVanJ 
 more expensive fashion; a profusion of ^ems and 
 pearls, of collars and braceleti, and a variegl^d flow' 
 ing robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with 
 flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely to be ex- 
 cused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at 
 a loss to discover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and 
 the simplicity of a Roman veteran/ A mind thus 
 relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapable 
 of rising to hat magnanimity which disdains suspicion! 
 I and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and 
 Licinius may perhaps be justified by the maxims of 
 policy, as they are taught in the schools of tyrants; 
 but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather 
 murders which sullied the declining age of Constan- 
 tine, will suggest to our most candid thoughts, the idea 
 ot a prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the 
 aws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to the dic- 
 tates either of his passions or of his interest. 
 
 The same fortune which so invariably 
 followed the standard of Constantine, ^^'^ family, 
 seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his domestic 
 lite. Ihose among his predecessors who had enjoyed 
 the longest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus, 
 Irajan, and Diocletian, had been disappointed Sf pos^ 
 terity ; and the frequent revolutions had never allowed 
 sufficient time for any imperial family to grow up and 
 multiply under the shade of the purple. But the roy- 
 alty of the Flavian line, which iiad been first ennobled 
 by the Gothic Claudius, descended through several 
 generations ; and Constantine himself derived from his 
 royal father the hereditary honours which he trans- 
 mitted to his children. The emperor had been twice 
 married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful object of 
 his youthful attachment,^ had lef t him only one son, 
 
 d Julian. Orat. i. p. 8. in a flattering discourse pronouncpd before 
 the son of Constantine ; and Ca^sares. n 335. ZosimiiR n i li i^c 
 The .tately buildings Of Constantinopfe 'it mayTe%Ko ed as' a 
 ^asung and unexceptionable proof of the profuseness of their foun 
 
 e The impartial Ammianns deserves all our confidence. Proxi- 
 morum fauces aperuit primus omnium Con.stantinus. L. xvi. c 8 
 Eusebius himself confesses the abuse; (Vlt. Constantin. I. iv. c 29: 
 above ^245^° imperial laws feebly point out the remedy. See 
 
 f Julian, in the Caesars, attempts to ridicule his uncle. His sus- 
 picious testimony is confirmed, however, by the learned Spanheim 
 with the authority of medals, (see Commentaire, p. 156. 299 W 
 4o9.) Eusebius (Orat. c. 5.) alleges, that Constantine dressed for'the 
 public, not for himself. Were this admitted, the vainest coxcomb 
 could never want an excuse. "^vvfiuu 
 
 g Zosimus and Zonaras agree in representing Minervina as the 
 concubine of Constantine ; but Ducange has very gallantly reiued 
 
 
226 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 who was called Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of 
 Maximian, he had three daughters, and three sons 
 known by the kindred names of Constantine, Constan- 
 tius, and Constans. The unambitious brothers of the 
 great Constantine, Julius Constantius, Dalmatius, and 
 Hannibalianus,*' were permitted to enjoy the most 
 honourable rank, and the most affluent fortune, that 
 could be consistent with a private station. The 
 youngest of the three lived without a name, and died 
 without posterity. His two elder brothers obtained in 
 marriage the daughters of wealthy senators, and pro- 
 pagated new branches of the imperial race. Galhis 
 and Julian afterwards became the most illustrious of 
 the children of Julius Constantius the Patrician. The 
 two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with 
 the vain title of Censor^ were named Dalmatius and 
 Hannibalianus. The two sisters of the great Constan- 
 tine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowed on Op- 
 tatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth and 
 of consular dignity. His third sister, Constantia, was 
 distinguished by her pre-eminence of greatness and of 
 misery. She remained the widow of the vanquished 
 Licinius ; and it was by her entreaties, that an inno- 
 cent boy, the offspring of their marriage, preserved for 
 some time, his life, the title of Caesar, and a precarious 
 hope of the succession. Besides the females, and the 
 allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelve males, to 
 whom the language of modern courts would apply the 
 title of princes of the blood, seemed, according to the 
 order of their birth, to be destined cither to inherit or 
 to support the throne of Constantine. But in less than 
 thirty years, this numerous and increasing family was 
 reduced to the persons of Constantine and Julian, who 
 alone had survived a series of crimes and calamities, 
 such as the tragic poets have deplored in the devoted 
 lines of Pelops and of Cadmus. 
 ,,. . -„ . Crispus, the eldest son of Constan- 
 
 tme, and the presumptive heir of the 
 empire, is represented by impartial historians as an 
 amiable and accomplished youth. The care of his 
 education, or at least of his studies, was intrusted to 
 Lactantius, the most eloquent of the christians ; a pre- 
 ceptor admirably qualified to form the taste, and to 
 excite the virtues, of his illustrious disciple.' At the 
 age of seventeen, Crispus was invested with the title 
 of Caesar, and the administration of the Gallic pro- 
 vinces, where the inroads of the Germans gave him an 
 early occasion of signalizing his military prowess. In 
 the civil war which broke out soon afterwards, the 
 father and son divided their powers ; and this history 
 has already celebrated the valour as well as conduct 
 displayed by the latter, in forcing the straits of the 
 Hellesporit, so obstinately defended by the superior 
 fleet of Licinius. This naval victory contributed to 
 determine the event of the war; and the names of Con- 
 stantine and of Crispus were united in the joyful 
 acclamations of their eastern subjects : who loudly 
 proclaimed, that the world had been subdued, and was 
 now governed, by an emperor endowed with every 
 virtue ; and by his illustrious son, a prince beloved of 
 heaven, and the lively image of his father's perfections. 
 The public favour, which seldom accompanies old age, 
 diffused its lustre over the youth of Crispus. He de- 
 served the esteem, and he engaged the affections, of 
 the court, the army, and the people. The experienced 
 merit of a reigning monarch is acknowledged by his 
 subjects with reluctance, and frequently denied with 
 partial and discontented murmurs; while, from the 
 
 her character, by producing a decisive passasrc from one of the pane- 
 gyrira : " Ab ipso fine piieritia? te matrimonii legibus dedisti." 
 
 h Ducange (FamiliaR Byzantinie, p. 44.) 'oeslowson him. after Zo- 
 naras. the name of Constantine ; a name somewhat unlikely, as it 
 was already occupied by the elder hrotiier. That of Hannihnli.inus 
 is mentioned in the Paschal Chronicle, and is approved by Title- 
 moot. Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 527. 
 
 i Jerom. in Chron, The poverty of Lactantius may be applied 
 either to the praise of the disinterested philosopher, or to the shame 
 of the unfeelinf! patron. See Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. vi. 
 part i. p. 345. Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiast. tom. i. p. 205. Lard- 
 ner's Credibility of the Gospel Hist, part ii. vol. vii. p. 66. 
 
 A. D. 325. Oct. 1. 
 
 Opening virtues of his successor, they fondly conceive 
 the most unbounded hopes of private as well as public 
 felicity."^ 
 
 This dangerous popularity soon ex- jealousy of Cons- 
 cited the attention of Constantine, who, tamine, A. D. 324. 
 both as a father and as a king* ^vas im- ^^^' ^^' 
 
 patient of an equal. Instead of attempting to secure 
 the allegiance of his son, by the generous ties of con- 
 fidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mis- 
 chiefs which might be apprehended from dissatisfied 
 ambition. Crispus soon had reason to complain, that 
 while his infant brother Constantius was sent, with 
 the title of Caesar, to reign over his peculiar depart- 
 ment of the Gallic provinces,' he, a prince of mature 
 years, who had performed such recent and signal 
 services, instead of being raised to the superior rank of 
 Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his father's 
 court ; and exposed, without power or defence, to 
 every calumny which the malice of his enemies could 
 suggest. Under such painful circumstances, the royal 
 youth might not always be able to compose his beha- 
 viour, or suppress his discontent ; and we may be as- 
 sured, that he was encompassed by a train of indiscreet 
 or perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to in- 
 flame, and who were perhaps instructed to betray, the 
 unguarded warmth of his resentment. An edict of 
 Constantine, published about this time, 
 manifestly indicates his real or affected 
 suspicions, that a secret conspiracy had been formed 
 against his person and government. By all the allure- 
 ments of honours and rewards, he invites informers of 
 every degree to accuse without exception his magis- 
 trates or ministers, his friends or his most intimate 
 favourites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration, that 
 he himself will listen to the charge, that he himself 
 will revenge his injuries ; and concluding with a 
 prayer, which discovers some apprehension of danger, 
 that the providence of the Supreme Being may still 
 continue to protect the safety of the emperor and of 
 the empire.™ 
 
 The informers, who complied with so r^. 
 
 I'u 1 • •.. A- iti • ^^ Disgrace and 
 
 liberal an invitation, were sufficiently death of Cris- 
 versed in the arts of courts to select the P'"". 
 friends and adherents of Crispus as the ^■^'^^- J"')- 
 guilty persons ; nor is there any reason to distrust the 
 veracity of the emperor, who had promised an ample 
 measure of revenge and punishment. The policy of 
 Constantine maintained, however, the same appear- 
 ances of regard and confidence towards a son, whom 
 he began to consider as his most irreconcilable ene- 
 my. Medals were struck with the customary vows 
 for the long and auspicious reign of the young Cajsar;" 
 and as the people, who were not admitted into tlie se- 
 crets of the palace, still loved his virtues, and respected 
 his dignity, a poet who solicits his recall from exile, 
 adores with equal devotion the majesty of the father 
 and that of the son." The time was now arrived for 
 celebrating the august ceremony of the twentieth year 
 of the reign of Constantine; and the emperor, for 
 that purpose, removed his court from Nicomedia to 
 Rome, where the most splendid preparations had been 
 made for his reception. Every eye, and every tongue, 
 affected to express their sense of the general happi- 
 ness, and the veil of ceremony and dissimulation was 
 
 k Euseh. Hist. Ecclesiast. I. x. c. 9. Eutropius (x. 6.) styles him 
 "egrecium virum;" and Julian (Orat. i.) very plainly alludes to the 
 exploits of Crispus in the civil war. SeeSpanheim. Comment, p.92. 
 
 1 Compare Idatins and the I'asrhal Chronicle, with Ammianus. (I. 
 xiv. c. 5.) The year in which Constantius was created CiFsar. seems 
 to he more accurately fixed hy the two chronolozists ; hut the hi.^to- 
 rian who lived In his court, could not be ignorant of the «/ay of the 
 anniversary. For the appointment of the new Cu^snr to the provin- 
 ces of Gaul, see Julian. Orat, i. p. 12. Godefroy, Chronol. Let^um, p. 
 26. and Blondel. de la Primaut6de I'EijIise. p. 11H3. 
 
 in Cod. Theod. I. ix. tit. iv. Godefroy suspected the secret mo- 
 tives of this law. Comment, torn, iii. p. 9. 
 
 D Ducange Fam. Byzant. p. 28. Tillemont. tom. iv. p. 610. 
 
 o His name was Porphyrins Optatianus. IMie date of his panesy- 
 tie, written according to the taste of the age in vile acrostics, is set- 
 tled by Scaliger ad Buseb. p. 250. Tillemont, torn. iv. p. 607. and 
 Fabricius Biblioth. Latin. 1. iv. c. 1. 
 
 drawn for a while over the darkest designs of reveno-e 
 and murder, p In the midst of the fcsti'val, the unfo^! 
 tunate Crispus was apprehended by order of the em 
 peror, who laid aside the tendernes^of a fa her wh™' 
 
 wasXrt a",fd ti:?"^' "' 5 ^"'f'- '^'"^ -aminl.'iS, 
 was Short and private ; i and as it was thought decent 
 
 ot uie Koman people, he was sent under a strong guard 
 
 Pola in Istria, where, soon afterwards, he lal nut 
 
 to death, either by the hand of the execu ioner, orC 
 
 dniiTs" a ttof""^"- '"k? "' P°'^°"-' The C J^ar Li'^ 
 cinius, a youth of amiable manners, was involved in 
 
 the ruin of Crispus:. and the stern jealousy of CoL- 
 
 stantine was unmoved by the prayers and telrs of Ws 
 
 favourite sister, pleading for the life of a son! whose 
 
 Zt lu" ive "t? "T^ ""/ r*-"^* '-« she dfd not 
 long survive. The story of these unhappy princes 
 
 ttirtriarand^h';""""^ "' '^''" ^""»' "'- Cs of 
 tneir tr al, and the circumstances of their death were 
 
 buried in mysterious obscurity; and the courtly bist 
 op, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the vir- 
 
 contemn? f^rth *''^?^'"g'5 e^«nts. < Such haughty 
 contempt for the opinion of mankind, whilst it im 
 prints an indelible stain on the memory of Coistan 
 tme, must remind us of the very different behaviour of 
 
 r,,, P f ^"■-"'l" yon^chs of the present age. The 
 Czar Peter, m the full possession of despoti? nower 
 submitted to the judgment of Russia, of Europ'L and 
 of posterity the reasons which had compelled'him to 
 subscribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at least 
 of a degenerate, son.» ' ^ 
 
 "^'"pSr" '^^*■ '""""^nce of Crispus was so uni- 
 Greeks who I^^^ll '"'•'""^I^dged, that the modern 
 ureeks, who adore the memory of their founder arn 
 reduced to palliate the guilt of ^a parricde, which the 
 common feelings of human nature forbade them to jus! 
 Utj. They pretend, that as soon as the afflicted father 
 discovered the falsehood of the accusation Lywhic, 
 his credulity had been so fatally misled, he published 
 to the world his repentance and remorse; that he 
 ZZt rT k"^'- ''".""^ ^•'*<''> he abstained fror^ 
 
 Mfe- andtbat f 'V.'",'' '" "?* "^dinary comforts o? 
 me, and that, for the lasting instruction of posterity 
 
 ^bleTnserrnr''*'V """* °' ^"^P"^' ^i* «>"^ ">emt i 
 DEMNED.' A tale so moral and so interesting would de- 
 serve to be supported by less exceptionable authority • 
 
 ers' thlv wilTilf "•' '°0'-\^''<'r ' ''"d authentic wftl 
 ers, they will inform us, that the repentance of Con- 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 227 
 
 p Zo«im. I. ii. p. 103. Godefroy, Chronol I^^um r. o« 
 
 » Seethe life of Constantine, particularly I ii c 18 on t..,« u 
 rfred and f.fty years afterwards Evagrius (I i/' c' 41 fSpdlL ?""" 
 the^ silence of Eusebius a vain argu'ment^ains't tUriamTofTe 
 
 I fi'^^^^J*"® '^^ ^'*'"^ '« ^'*«"**' pa"" Voltaire, part ii. r. 10 
 
 .nV';a^tv„7cS''^'',irSe"'"orrir'iL?s""'-''"'' 
 
 «"£ce. " " """Senary hl.lories he appeals with u„?l^hf„" 
 
 stantine was manifested only in acts of blood and re- 
 
 cenTsin'bv the t" "'"r*^ ''' ">« "'"'^" of an inno- 
 cent son, by the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife 
 
 They ascribe the misfortunes of Crispus to the arSnf 
 
 his step-mother Fausta, whose impTacable hat?e7 or 
 
 whose disappointed love, renewed in the Dalace' of 
 
 ?hX r"\tkeT'T' •-^'--'y ^L^yPP"'"- -d ol 
 nf^Iti ■ '*'* ""^ ,<''>"ghter of Minos, the daughter 
 of Maximian accused her son-in-law of an incestuous 
 attempt on the chastity of his father's wife; and easily 
 of d'aTh 'alTin,;'^ jealousy of the emperor a senten J 
 death against a young prince, whom she considered 
 
 chWren BuVh r^'.if™"'!!'''^ "^"^ "f her own 
 «ne amenteH f ' •''^*^^'* "">'her of Constan- 
 "ran'l.^ ^^ ""'' '■«^''ng«<i the untimely fate of her 
 grandson Crispus : nor was it long before a real or 
 
 tTtnZ- ""^'r^ connection with a slave belong- 
 ing to the imperial stables.' Her condemnation and 
 
 cha"ge":n"d tS'^^H t '""^"^ -nsequeZ^ of Tt 
 of aT,;r K 1 *1-"'"P' '''^^ suffocated by the steam 
 an e^^^^ :*•''<'•', for that purpose, had been heated to 
 
 tnought, that the remembrance of a conjugal union of 
 3 ll'T ,'!"''/he. honour of their' c^ommon off- 
 
 soSd t» K,,'""''. ^V'^ "^ "'e throne, might have 
 soltened the obdurate heart of Constantine • aiiH ner 
 suaded him to suffer his wife, however eumv she 
 
 son. ijut It seems a superfluous labour to weio-h (!,» 
 propriety, unless we could ascertain the ruTh ?f ,h s 
 singular event ; which is attended with some chrcum! 
 aSd"^ i't* ^"<*,P«'Pl«=^ity. Those who have 
 attacked, and those who have defended, the character 
 of Constantine, have alike disregarded two ve^ I 
 markable passages of two oration! pronounced Jnder 
 tuesTe^'*'"! '''^:|- J^' '■""'«' celebrates the virl 
 ta Ae dauTre^' ""v ""• ^"''""^ "''"'« impress Fans- 
 princes' te^r"^' "'•"'•'""' ""ther of so many 
 
 mother ofTbe T ^''"n"' '" '''^P""* '«"»«' that the 
 mother of the younger Constantine, who was slain 
 
 oZ"£T, "^fl *■'" '■^"•"'^ "'=''*, ;urvived to wee; 
 over the fate of her son.« Notwithstanding the posi- 
 tive testimony of several writers of the pa.^n as we 1 
 
 r^so Uot7f '"" ""^!°"' "-"^ "'"y «iirreTai;i's:me 
 cXh r ,„ h. r' "f '' ''^?'* *" '"^P^<"' that Fausta es- 
 
 The de«h, ' f '2'' '"''PrT """"y '"■h" husband. 
 1 he deaths of a son, and of a nephew, with the exe- 
 cution of a great number of respectab e and perhans 
 innoeent friends,^ who were involved in their fa«y 
 be sufficient, however, to justify the discontent of"he 
 
 affiTed"to''th^''''.'""' *" ^^P'^'" 'he satirical verses 
 amxed to the palace-gate, comparing the splendid and 
 bloody reigns of Constantine and Ncto.' 
 
 ^i^z!-ii '^^i: -ixr^o^^'rrne tr„r. o"°si 
 
 i5!.!"«!i*'"J ^""^ '^ ^'■**"'' »' «"'^' "'«'s ancetres : 
 c Monod in S, '?'"''• T*'"' ^^ ""'•^^''^ ^"s maitres. 
 camn Thonr^?. r.^'"v J""-c.4. ad calcem Eutrop. edit. Haver- 
 
 d I^nteSrirn^ '■'*^'^' ^®'.**'*' •""«' divine and pious of queens 
 d Inierfecit numerosos amicos. Eutrop. xx. 6. 
 
 e Saturni aurea ssecula qni.s requirat 7 
 Sunt hffic gemmea, sed Neroniana. 
 T, :„ „-,^„ I . . Sidon. Apollinar, v. 8. 
 
 fpH^«^^,^^^"^"'"'■• *''•'»* *•'«*« satirical lines should be attribu- 
 ted not to an obscure libeller, or a disappointed patriot, hut to Ah a- 
 vms, prime minister and favourite of the emperor We miv noi^ 
 perceive that the imprecations of the Roma, M,eop!e wire d^.I.ed 
 by humanity, as well as hy superstition. Zosii , I ii p 105 **^** 
 
228 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 % 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 Th« sons and ne- ^X the death of Crispus, the inherit- 
 phcws of Con- ance 01 the empire seemed to devolve 
 stantine. q^ the three sons of Fausta, who have 
 
 been already mentioned under the names of Constan- 
 tine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These young 
 princes were successively invested with the title of 
 Caesar ; and the dates of their promotion may be re- 
 ferred to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth 
 years of the reign of their father/ This conduct, 
 though it tended to multiply the future masters of the 
 Roman world, might be excused, by the partiality of 
 paternal affection ; but it is not so easy to understand 
 the motives of the emperor, wiien he endangered the 
 safety both of his family and of his people, by the un- 
 necessary elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius 
 and Hannibalianus. The former was raised, by the 
 title of Caesar, to an equality with his cousins. In 
 favour of the latter, Constantine invented the new and 
 singular appellation of Nobi/hsimus ,« to which he an- 
 nexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and 
 gold. But of the whole series of Roman princes in 
 any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone was dis- 
 tinguished by the title of King; a name which the sub- 
 jects of Tiberius would have detested, as the profane 
 and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The use of 
 such a title, even as it appears under the reign of Con- 
 stantine, is a strange and unconnected fact, which can 
 scarcely be admitted on the joint authority of imperial 
 medals and contemporary writers.** 
 -,. . , The whole empire was deeply inter- 
 
 Tbeir education. ^ , . ^, ,' ^. e- .1 a 
 
 ested in the education oi these nve 
 youths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine. 
 The exercises of the body prepared them for the fatigues 
 of war, and the duties of active life. Those who oc- 
 casionally mention the education or talents of Con- 
 stantius, allow that he excelled in the gymnastic arts 
 of leaping and running; that he was a dexterous 
 archer, a skilful horseman, and a master of all the dif- 
 ferent weapons used in the service either of the cavalry 
 or of the infantry. ' The same assiduous cultivation 
 was bestowed, though not perhaps with equal success, 
 to improve the minds of the sons and nephews of Con- 
 stantine. J The most celebrated professors of the chris- 
 tian faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman 
 jurisprudence, were invited by the liberality of the 
 emperor, who reserved for himself the important task 
 of instructing the royal youths in the science of gov- 
 ernment, and the knowledge of mankind. But the 
 genius of Constantine himself had been formed by 
 adversity and experience. In the free intercourse of 
 private life, and amidst the dangers of the court of 
 Galerius, he had learned to command his own pas- 
 sions, to encounter those of his equals, and to depend 
 for his present safety and future greatness on the pru- 
 dence and firmness of his personal conduct. His des- 
 tined successors had the misfortune of being born and 
 educated in the imperial purple. Incessantly sur- 
 rounded with a train of flatterers, they passed their 
 youth in the enjoyment of luxury, and the expectation 
 of a throne ; nor would the dignity of their rank per- 
 mit them to descend from that elevated station from 
 whence the various characters of human nature appear 
 to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence 
 of Constantine admitted them, at a very tender age, to 
 
 f Euseh. Oral, in Constantin. c. 3. These dates arc sufficiently 
 correct to justify tlie orator. 
 
 K Zosim. I. ii. p. 117. Under the predecessors of Constantine, JVo- 
 bilissimus was a vague epithet, rather than a legal and determined 
 title. 
 
 h Adstruunt nummi vetcres ac singularef. Spanheim de Usu Nu- 
 mismat. Dissertat. xii. vol. iJ. p. '?-'>7. Amniiaiius speaks of this 
 Roman king, (I. xiv. c. 1. and Valeaius ad loc.) The Valesian frag- 
 ment styles him king of kings; and the Paschal Chronicle (p. 286.) 
 by employing the word P>iy», acquires the weight of Latin evidence. 
 
 i His dexterity in martial exercises is celebrated by Julian, (Orat. 
 i. p. 11. Oral. ii. p. 53.) and allowed by Ammianus, (I. xxi. c. 16.) 
 
 i Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. I. iv. c. 51. Julian. Orat. i. p. 11—16. 
 with Spanhcim's elaborate Commentary. Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 109. 
 Constantius studied with laudable diligence ; but the dulness of his 
 fancy prevented him from succeeding in the art of poetry, or even 
 of rhetoric. 
 
 share the administration of the empire ; and they 
 studied the art of reigning, at the expense of the peo- 
 ple intrusted to their care. The younger Constantine 
 was appointed to hold his court in Gaul ; and his 
 brother Constantius exchanged that department, the 
 ancient patrimony of their father, for the more opulent, 
 but less martial, countries of the East. Italy, the west- 
 ern lUyricum, and Africa, were accustomed to revere 
 Constans, the third of his sons, as the representative 
 of the great Constantine. He fixed Dalmatius on the 
 Gothic frontier, to which he annexed the government 
 of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city of Cae- 
 sarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus ; 
 and the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the 
 Lesser Armenia, were destined to form the extent of 
 his new kingdom. For each of these princes a suita- 
 ble establishment was provided. A just proportion of 
 guards, of legions, and of auxiliaries, was allotted for 
 their respective dignity and defence. The ministers 
 and generals, who were placed about their persons, 
 were such as Constantine could trust to assist, and 
 even to control, these youthful sovereigns in the exer- 
 cise of their delegated power. As they advanced in 
 years and experience, the limits of their authority were 
 insensibly enlarged : but the emperor always reserved 
 for himself the title of Augustus; and while he showed 
 the Caesars to the armies and provinces, he maintained 
 every part of the empire in equal obedience to its su- 
 preme head.* The tranquillity of the last fourteen 
 years of his reign was scarcely interrupted by the con- 
 temptible insurrection of a camel-driver in the island 
 of Cyprus,' or by the active part which the policy of 
 Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of the 
 Goths and Sarmatians. 
 
 Among the different branches of the Manners of the 
 human race, the Sarmatians form a very Sarmatians. 
 remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the man- 
 ners of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure and 
 complexion of the ancient inhabitants of Europe." 
 According to the various accidents of peace and war, 
 of alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians were some- 
 times confined to the banks of the Tanais ; and they 
 sometimes spread themselves over the immense plains 
 which lie between the Vistula and the Volga." The 
 care of their numerous flocks and herds, the pursuit of 
 game, and the exercise of war, or rather of rapine, di- 
 rected the vagrant motions of the Sannatians. The 
 movable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of 
 their wives and children, consisted only of large wag- 
 gons drawn by oxen, and covered in the form of tents. 
 The military strength of the nation was composed of 
 cavalry ; and the custom of their warriors, to lead in 
 their hand one or two spare horses, enabled them to 
 advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence, which 
 surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a 
 distant enemy.** Their poverty of iron prompted their 
 rude industry to invent a sort of cuirass, which was 
 capable of resisting a sword or javeRn, though it was 
 formed only of horses' hoofs, cut into thin and polish- 
 ed slices, carefully laid over each other in the manner 
 of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under 
 garment of coarse linen.P The offensive arms of the 
 
 k F.usebius, (I. iv. c 51,52.) with a design of exalting the authority 
 and glory of Constantine, affirms, that he divided the Roman empire 
 as a private citizen might have divided his patrimony, (lis di^tri- 
 biition of the provinces may be collected from Eutropius, the two 
 Victors, and the Valesian frafinient. 
 
 1 Calocerus, the obscure leader of this rebellion, or rather tumult, 
 was apprehended and burnt alive in the market place of Tarsus, by 
 the vigilance of Dalmatius. See the elder Victor, the Chronicle of 
 Jerome, and the doubtful traditions of Theophanes and Cedrenus. 
 
 m [See the notes added to tlie ninth chapter of this work, upon the 
 people of the east, and north of Eiiropc. — O.I 
 
 n Ccllarius has collected the opinions of the ancients concerning 
 the European and Asiatic Sarmatia ; and M. d'Anville has applied 
 them to modern geography with the skill and accuracy which al- 
 ways distinguish that excellent writer. 
 
 o Ammian. I. xvii. c. 12, The Sarmatian horses were castrated 
 to prevent the mischievous accidents which might happen from the 
 noisy and ungovernable passions of the males. 
 
 P Pausanias, I. i. p. 50. edit. Kuhn. That inquisitive traveller had 
 carefully examined a Sarmatian cuirasa, which was preserved in 
 the temple of iEscuIapius at Athens. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 w,«of « "'"ii.iea, IS alone sufficient to prove thp 
 
 a sense ot humanity would have abhorred so cruel a 
 
 rve'di^dafneVsl"" ^'""^'' '" *«"'^ of w'.would 
 ,hIL °'^°^"^«'' «.° impotent a resource.i Whenever 
 
 prey ."eir'shat:? r' J™" ''''" '^'^^^ '" 1-"' o7 
 
 wTth whfch thef 'Z ""'*'• "r."'"*""* '""''S' the furs 
 wiin wnicli they were covered from head to foot and 
 
 "ed proSls of r """<'^ •"^Pi'-^d the more civil- 
 T,; P™'^'"'^'*'^ of Rome with horror and dismay. 
 
 ^'X'SZ^. :„ T^: '^"'J^' Ovid after a youth spent 
 " «• in the enjoyment of fame and Invnrv 
 was condemned to an hopeless evilJ^L ?i iuxury, 
 banks of tha no« u ""P^^^ss exile on the frozen 
 
 tTes\nZZ'Tv ".""^"'y- 'amenta tions,r he Se- 
 
 uoT^^drrj^r •''"^^ 4^^^^^ 
 
 zvffiE one lf,h^ \ ® Sarmatians were tlie Ja- 
 
 the^n'atbn Th„ T'' """'''""" '""' «"Hke tribes of 
 fo .JIl ^ allurements of plenty enffaffed them 
 
 he emplrr'T""* ?f '"''/^hmen't on'ihe fro^Ue ' o"? 
 
 obli^^d'^ .1!: n ?" ^^^\ "'^ "■"'?'' of Augustus, thev 
 
 halt of ' h^'^Tv'erT^vr^oVTib"'*^' V "'■?'"?"" '"' 
 
 &r--pltn?S;e^--^^^^^^^^ 
 
 the moment of attack, as they were provoked bvTnt, 
 
 ine Skill ot using more dangerous weapons • and al 
 
 n;"^mem:rar'""r •'^''^ T "'-trateTeir'n^ame by 
 any memorable exploits, they occasionally assistpH 
 
 &? wi^h'aT'^'.Ti^T'^' *« clsand the 
 Yermans, with a formidable body of cavalry Thev 
 
 uTafte^rlhet' ?T"^" "f -^^^^^^ '' thek ch'feft^n ^ 
 
 PouJ thp! : /'f ^^^^? ^^^ P^^««"^^ «*'the Gothic 
 power, they seem to have chosen a king from that na 
 
 tiori and frorn the illustrious race of thVAsTinli X 
 had formerly dwelt on the shores of the norUiern ocean ' 
 
 229 
 
 *• F.T?'^ ^^ '"'"' '"^ ^'^""<^o <o^'ca ferro, 
 t^l telum causas mortis habere duas. 
 
 See in the Rechcrchea sur SlV'^iw^i' — '°' '• *''• ^P- ''• ^^r. 7. 
 very curious dis.er;a ioVo„ iois^n^dS'' tI"' "* ^^ '^'-2''' ^ 
 monly extracted from the veiretaMp fpifn ^ f " .?!'"' ^^''^"^ ^^^s com- 
 Scythlans appears ,o h^irS drawn knn t^' ''."'P'oyed by the 
 "ire of human blood. The use ofvoJuS '"^ '''Pf '' ^^ ^ '"*^- 
 spread over both worlds, never nrese?rd .'^ "'"' '^ "i^ .^"^ ''^^n 
 arms of a disciplined enemy Pi^^served a savage tribe from the 
 
 in;;i;eir^i^^^:,^;;-;^P;^- -^^^ -mposed dur- 
 
 meril of elegance, a double tr^ueThlVfPv''?''^ ^^«'^^« '''^ 
 '•uman mind under very siLulirriJ.m^. ^^'''^^t a picture of the 
 many curious ol.servatiLs ^wLich no Tn^^^^^^^ ^"'^ ^l^f-^ *^°"»a'" 
 I'avean opportunity of makinePvpr A ^' ^/'^^^^ Ovid, could 
 [0 illustrate the history oT the barbSnshn«r'^T "'"''^" »«"d« 
 ;y the very accurate Cou ,t de Buat i^«; aJ-^^" ^?^" ^°?«'''er 
 "•Europe, tom. iv. c. xvi p. 286-317 Ancienne des Peuples de 
 
 t I'rincipes Sarmatarum Jazvum nenes mma /.!«if„.: 
 'eliu, anil Ve"pa.lan " ""' '""""' '" "« "'" «" bettveen v!: 
 
 err -,:„ ^:^n^^::i';^s^„ji^j\^ 
 
 This motive of enmity must havo ,^ 
 inflamed the subjects o? contnti:!! ^^^S!'^^- 
 which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike and 
 
 iS^yt r^d r:VeI^:^?h1^iS^1-^-^''"'™"; 
 
 rnl^X^HVans'i.: o%reTys"/ tre'^^' d^ 
 with the blood of the contending SaHaTs "^Aft'er 
 some experience of the superior slrength anS lumbers 
 of their adversaries, the Sarmatians implored 11^0™ 
 tection of the Roman monarch, who beheld with n?^^ 
 sure the discord of the nation's, but wtVas jJrty 
 alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. A^ soon 
 as Constantine had declared himself in fa^ur of the 
 weaker party, the haughty Alaric, king of the Goths 
 instead of expecting the attack of thelegions, boldlv 
 passed the Danube, and spread terror and devasta inn 
 through the province of iTla^sia. To oppose the "n" 
 
 [he fi"! "' ''^^''">''"? host, the aged ^Siperor took 
 the field in person; hut on this occasion either his 
 conduct or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had 
 acquired in so many foreign and domestic wars. He 
 had the mortification of seeing his troops fly before an 
 inconsiderable detachment of the barbarians, who pur" 
 sued them to the edge of their fortified camp, and 
 obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and 
 Ignominious retreat. The event of a se?on7and mo"e 
 successful action retrieved the honour of the Roman 
 name ; and the powers of art and discipline prevaTed" 
 
 vaTour"°Thrri°"'''''°^''V''^ '^""^ -"^irregula 
 ,?i « , I ^ K ."^"l" ^""y °f 'he Goths abandoned 
 
 tte of the n "'"k"" ^'T't P™""''^' ""d the p^ 
 sZ nf r ^ "."''^ • ^'"' ""•■""gh the eldest of the 
 sons of Constantine was permitted to An™ 
 supply the place of his father, the mer- AiTrii 2; 
 It of the victory, which diffused universal joy. was 
 ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the'^^lper^r 
 
 He contributed at least to improve this advantage, 
 
 coa^t of r t'' ^^•'"'^^^''"Pital. situate on the w?est?rn 
 coast of the Tauric or Crimaian peninsula, still retain- 
 ed some vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was Gov- 
 erned by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a cS 
 Citv Th'' ;^™Ph«ti?ally styled the FatlJers orthe 
 r J' . , Chersonitcs were animated ao-ainst the 
 Goths, by the memory of the wars, which, 'in the pre! 
 ceding century, they had maintained w th „ e<fual 
 forces against the invaders of their countrj. Thev 
 were connected with the Romans by the mutual bene^ 
 fits of commerce; as they were supplied from the 
 provinces of Asia with corn and maniifWtures, wh ch 
 they purchased with their only productions salt x,»v 
 and hides. Obedient to the requ'^sition 7c'o I'te'ntine' 
 they prepared, under the conduct of their malt atJ 
 
 ?aTft'rr<;th\''"""1"?!''' "-"y- o*" ^••"'^h the^princi! 
 pal strength consisted in crossbows and military char- 
 '°'^- "'e speedy march and intrepid attack of the 
 
 are laken for the ^Uto^ical^-ameVllfrs^'nt^rflHc °S''' 
 This IS the case here — fiihhnn «,^.h/^..» ^ " . sinjric nation. — 
 necessity of rxtricatinc himserf fmm n"^ a»y.other reason than the 
 make tife suppos^tToi^fh'rt re'saZn^fa^n' 'J/.'J^'X *° 
 
 bX?i.t^.^S\V^.rt7^"^'^'"^^^ 
 
 tians.whonever'?or,tda'disrctTac7^^^^^ 
 
 nlf~"« . • "^^ ^'®. frequently confu.sed and fabulous. But on thi« 
 
 nor S tlirl' "^"."^'^^ '^' ^°'' '"^ '"^^^ Part.consistent and probable- 
 nor IS there much difficulty in conceiving that an emneror nJiJh; 
 
 have access to some secret archives, which had escanei the diiiTJ^li 
 
 of meaner historians. For the situation and historv of ^hir^.« 
 
 n:^:r.:tX-9T' •^"'""'^"^ ontr.'aiSKBtd?r5:: 
 
230 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 ClTAP. XVllI. 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chersonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths, 
 assisted the operations of the imperial generals. The 
 Goths, vanquished on every side, were driven into the 
 mountains, where, in the course of a severe campaign, 
 above an hundred thousand were computed to have 
 perished by cold and hunger. Peace was at length 
 granted to their humble supplications ; the eldest son 
 of Alaric was accepted as the most valuable hostage ; 
 and Constantine endeavoured to convince their chiefs, 
 by a liberal distribution of honours and rewards, how 
 far the friendship of the Romans was preferable to 
 their enmity. In the expressions of his gratitude to- 
 wards the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still 
 more magnificent. The pride of the nation was grat- 
 ified by the splendid and almost royal decorations be- 
 stowed on their magistrate and his successors. A per- 
 petual exemption from all duties was stipulated for 
 their vessels which traded to the ports of the Black 
 sea. A regular subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, 
 oil, and every supply which could be useful either in 
 peace or war. But it was thought that the Jlarmatians 
 were sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance from 
 impending ruin ; and the emperor, perhaps with too 
 strict an economy, deducted some part of the expenses 
 of the war from the customary gratifications which 
 were allowed to that turbulent nation. 
 Expulsion of the Exasperated by this apparent neglect, 
 Sarmatians, the Sarmatians soon forgot, with the lev- 
 A. D. 334. j^y q£ barbarians, the services which 
 they had so lately received, and the dangers which 
 still threatened their safety. Their inroads on the ter- 
 ritory of the empire provoked the indignation of Con- 
 stantine to leave them to their fate ; and he no longer 
 opposed the ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, 
 who had recently ascended the Gothic throne. Wisu- 
 mar, the Vandal king, whilst alone, and unassisted, he 
 defended liis dominions with undaunted courage, was 
 vanquished and slain in a decisive battle, which swept 
 away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. The remain- 
 der of the nation embraced the desperate expedient of 
 arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herds- 
 men, by whose tumultuary aid, they revenged their de- 
 feat, and expelled the invader from their confines. 
 But they soon discovered that they had exchanged a 
 foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and 
 more implacable. Enraged by their former servitude, 
 elated by their present glory, the slaves, under the 
 name of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the posses- 
 sion of the country which they had saved. Their 
 masters, unable to withstand the ungoverned fury of 
 the populace, preferred the hardships of exile, to the 
 tyranny of their servants. Some of the fugitive Sar- 
 matians solicited a less ignominious dependence, un- 
 der the hostile standard of the Goths. A more nu- 
 merous band retired beyond the Carpathian mountains 
 among the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily 
 admitted to share a superfluous waste of uncultivated 
 land. But the far greater part of the distressed nation 
 turned their eyes towards the fruitful provinces of 
 Rome. Imploring the protection and forgiveness of 
 the emperor, they solemnly promised, as subjects in 
 peace, and as soldiers in war, the most inviolable fidel- 
 ity to the empire which should graciously receive them 
 into its bosom. According to the maxims adopted by 
 Probus and his successors, the offers of this barbarian 
 colony were eagerly accepted ; and a competent por- 
 tion of lands in the provinces of Pannoaia, Thrace, 
 Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for 
 
 the habitation and subsistence of three hundred thou- 
 sand Sarmatians.^ 
 
 By chastising the p.ide of the Goths, '^eath and funeral 
 
 .J 'It. r of Constantine, 
 
 and by accepting the homage ot a sup- a. D.;w5, July 
 pliant nation, Constantine asserted the 25. 
 
 majesty of the Roman empire ; and the ambassadors 
 of ^Ethiopia, Persia, and the most remote countries of 
 India, congratulated the peace and prosperity of his 
 government.' If he reckoned, among the favours of 
 fortune, the death of his eldest son, of his nephew, 
 and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted 
 flow of private as well as public felicity, till the thir- 
 tieth year of his reign ; a period which none of his 
 predecessors, since Augustus, had been permitted to 
 celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn festival 
 about ten months ; and, at the mature age of sixty-four, 
 after a short illness, he ended his memorable life, at 
 the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs a. D. :j37, May 
 of Nicomedia, whither he had retired 22. 
 
 for the benefit of the air, and with the hope of recruit- 
 ing his exhausted strength by the use of the warm 
 baths. The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at 
 least of mourning, surpassed whatever had been prac- 
 tised on any former occasion. Notwithstanding the 
 claims of the senate and people of ancient Rome, the 
 corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last 
 request, was transported to the city, which was destin- 
 ed to preserve the name and memory of its founder. 
 The body of Constantine, adorned with the vain sym- 
 bols of greatness, the purple and diadem, was depos- 
 ited on a golden bed in one of the apartments of the 
 palace, which for that purpose had been splendidly 
 furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court 
 were strictly maintained. Every day at the appointed 
 hours, the principal officers of the state, the army, and 
 the household, approaching the person of their sove- 
 reign with bended knees and a composed countenance, 
 offered their respectful homage as seriously as if he had 
 been still alive. From motives of policy, this theatri- 
 cal representation was for some time continued ; nor 
 could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking 
 that Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of 
 heaven, had reigned after his death.* 
 
 But this reign could subsist only in Factions of the 
 empty pageantry ; and it was soon dis- court, 
 covered that the will of the most absolute monarch is 
 seldom obeyed, when his subjects have no longer any 
 thing to hope from his favour, or to dread from his re- 
 sentment. The same ministers and generals, who 
 bowed with such reverential awe before the inanimate 
 corpse of their deceased sovereign, were engaged in 
 secret consultations to exclude his two nephews, Dal- 
 matius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he 
 had assigned them in the succession of tho empire. 
 We are too imperfectly acquainted with the court of 
 Constantine to form any judgment of the real motives 
 which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy ; unless 
 we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit 
 of jealousy and revenge against the prefect Ablavius, 
 a proud favourite, who had long directed the counsels 
 and abused the confidence of the late emperor. The 
 arguments, by which they solicited the concurrence of 
 the soldiers and people, are of a more obvious nature : 
 and they might with decency, as well as truth, insist 
 on the superior rank of the children of Constantine, the 
 danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns, and 
 the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, 
 from the discord of so many rival princes, who were 
 
 y The Ootliic and Sarmatian wars arc related in so broken and 
 imperfect a manner, tliat [ have been obliged to compare the follow- 
 ing writers who mutually supply, correct, and illustrate, each other. 
 Those who will take the same trouble, may acquire a right of criti- 
 cising my narrative. Ammianus, 1. xvii. c. 12. Anonym. Valeslan. 
 p. 715. Eutropius, X. 7. Sextus Rufug de Provinciis.c. 26. Julian. 
 Orat. i. p. 9. and Spanheim Comment, p. 94. Hieronym. in Chron. 
 Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. I. iv. c. 6. 
 men, I. i. c 8. Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 108. 
 22. Isidorus in Chron. p. 709.; in Hist, 
 tin. Porphyrogenitus de Administrat. 
 Meursii. 
 
 Socrate^l, 1. i. c. 18. Sozo- 
 
 Jornandesde Reb. Gcticis, c. 
 
 Gothcrum Grotii. Constan- 
 
 Imperii. c. 53. p. 208. edit. 
 
 I Eusebius (in Vit. Const. 1. Iv. c 50.) remarks three circumstan- 
 ces relative to these Indians. 1. They came from the shores of the 
 eastern ocean ; a description which might be applied to the coast ot 
 China or Cororaandel. 2. They presented shining gems, and un- 
 known animals. 2. They protested their kings had erected statues 
 to represent the supreme majesty of Constantine. 
 
 * Funus rclatum in urhem sui nominis, quod sane P. R. a;gerrime 
 tulit. Aurelius Victor. Constantine had prepared for himself a 
 stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles. Euseb. I. iv. c. W- 
 The best, and indeed almost the only, account of the sirknes?.deatn. 
 and funeral of ConBtanlinc, ii contained in the fourth book of me 
 Life, by Euscbius. 
 
 ' 
 
 over the Roman Lnfi b%t monarch, to reign 
 
 who was united tTth k* ^ y^yn^^^ Dalmatius, 
 
 tipsof fLn^ii "^^i^.^^is collateral relations bv the 
 
 to have concerted any measurpr'w *' ""' "PP'^" 
 
 government of Italv anrl r.^i a '^^^^ ^^^^^"^ 
 
 hrstcare was to remove the apprehensions of his kinf 
 
 security ' nt""" r""' ^'^''^ ■>« ?'«<<&«<• fo tie ; 
 security. His next emplovmpnt wp« f^ « j 
 
 specious pretence which mSrelerseh, . """' 
 
 ro,„ the obligation of an f^pj^'je^ J mir" Th" 
 
 their own safetv hv thf • u ^^' ^"^ ^° consult 
 WKo* saiety, by the punishment of the oTiilfv d 
 
 against so incredible an accusation the" 
 tlfemse[v:rar re^T "' *" ^^'^'-sfwhTdecla el 
 theretru'tioneTs '' Thl' s'^TZ'/'"'" ''''j'P "'"' 
 
 of leg.1 proceedings'^t:r:^';:;'eaTedirvlo at/r ^a 
 promiscuous massacre; which involved the two nnVl.t 
 
 tsZTuZl^T" "''■'^ ''""^■"^' of whom Dalt 
 
 Sii K:;Xh:7L;traiiitt;re',i^ 
 
 on his cousin Hannibalian.,^ tk „• ^" "^^rriage 
 
 th.policyc.ConsS::r:ga^^^^ 
 
 J ^ice,e had formed between th e several branches of 
 
 the subsequent massarle 'I'e invidious circumstances of 
 
 "eque pafruo aEflis Aaurf mu /T no^f ^^'•'' P-'^sP^^ima indole 
 ari. As both iorotnanZhrAexZ^:^^^^^^^^ 
 Jhirdyearof the Ca-sar, which d^J''^™ Chronicle mention the 
 S^ibofSepternber.A.D .137 ,M« ' ,,^^^ t»'e 18th or 
 
 •continued above four motiths. ^"^'" "'^' '"«'« '"^'^^^ry factions 
 
 "> I have related this singular anecdnfP nn ♦!,„ .. . 
 yma, I. ii. c. 16. But if «!uch a oretplt ,? *^ authority of Philo- 
 ••neand his adherents it was ardSeluh' ^""V "'^*^ ^y ^°"«^«"- 
 had served their immediate nurl.e^r.h <=0"tempt.a8 soon as it 
 
 history as certain whnn n ,1- ' ^ •'^'' ^•^•t'O" has inserted in his 
 toncernfng it -lo.] ^* "^''^^ "'^"^' ^^ ^^«"»» »<> be doubtftlt 
 
 T«U°ffiil ',*!f''fi"«'„TT'?*"-'^"°r^''»' '^"'Po^e addito percrebuisse 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 231 
 
 tt'!hLt;rin::s";::;fe°ow^'Y°"^T^"'-'^-<'' 
 
 conjugal affectio: ^Jhey we'rt T„e:m:TZV' 
 of consanguinity, and thj moling entreaties of vo,'fh 
 and mnocence. Of so numerous^ famTl v Gallus 3n5 
 Julian alone, the two younaest children nf'l„I-%. 
 stentius, were saved f^om ?he hinds « "the a sL^r 
 
 m a u^^Xid^d""?!.;'!'' ''""^^ •>="'"""« 
 
 xr^^Sa^rruSroTr^TnL^rsTnd'f 
 
 The massacre of the Flavian race was 
 succeeded by a new division of the nrr) ^'* ''^'o" »<" ti>e 
 
 interview of the three brothers. Con- ^P»-^'- 
 stantine, the eldest of the C^sars, obtained, with a cer 
 
 canitaT wT-"r?' ^' 1^^"^' '""^ Possession'of the new 
 
 faXrl' T ' V'u "^"" "^"^^ «"d «^^t of hU 
 ITut A r^""^' ^"^ ^^^ countries of the east werfl 
 allotted for the patrimony of Constantin^ !nH r 
 
 M'hile the martial nations of Eurone c 
 followed the standards of his brothers, ^'^To^a' "' 
 Constantius, at the head of the effemil ^i-^io. 
 nate troops of Asia, was left to sustain the weight of 
 
 tt/e:Ttre:^.a^3Vi^:A7rpors?nTH£ 
 
 vLS7„'ftaVrru''sTadr' ^1 ^"T^^^^^^^^ 
 
 oritv of thp R ' ^ ^"""^'^ confessed the superi- 
 
 the^t 'Ih iTo" ifiXng .^rhf wfrs"n.rt,i" 
 SJelrA''' r i*-" '^''•^ °' hif acc:s;ion, by a ver^ 
 w fiT^f H ^ y' ''"' P"'"'?*'*'''* "">» of his b rth. The 
 
 de Civitate Dei, xv 6 ) "ml Ju^n wl "'^"^'!l"' "''T • (Augustin ' 
 perstition and resentrLnt sti J,r,W^^^ '"""^ "'"' ^'"■^sed b» su. 
 tween his own cou"inrwiai l.ror^nroh n^f "»»atural allianc^ be- 
 ^»Mov. (Orat. vii D oofl %V,!.°Pr'.°^''*'!'« «P"het of 5.,^=. t. ou 
 
 since received and'^^nforced t ,s rnf.fhv *""'" -°f ""' '•«"°"« '•«« 
 introduce it either into t°erivlor / [i*'"^'"""' «''t''0"t bei,>« al.le to 
 on the subject of tVese marrinizL T^^^ "'' ^''''^P*' ^«e, 
 
 tius with ti e whole euilt of ; mn«'^ ^'^T^^^ *"' '^°"^*" Constan- 
 
 narrowly escaped.' fMs'ast,'io"'rconfi'r [.^IS' Cm,'' '""""^ '^ 
 for reasons of a very different n^fi.Vl^, ''V Athanasius. who, 
 Constantius. (torn i n pJfi 1 v« •' "^■■'^. "°^ '^^« a" enemy of 
 
 But the three abb eviSfri p.?f'""' ^°'''V" .^''^ ^^""-^ »<^<="«ation. 
 qualifying expressions l^si^emJnT^ ^""^ the Victors, use verj^ 
 quo suasore ;" •' vi mllitum " ^ "' '^""'" J"^^"'^ •" " *n^«tun, 
 
 fat^.L"beslrrdro^"^ ^'^-"r?"'^ ^"^'-''' -"'•«=" "••» 
 
 that he had Thrace "iso rchrnn al'"""'^ '^i?? ^^'"- '* ••'PP^«^« 
 took place at "/onstantiimilP ?n ..^'^'■' ^' ^'^^ '^'^'^ ^^^^ d'^'^lon 
 following year thrthrerbrof^ year after Christ, 337. The 
 
 order to mVke some alterSf f ^ I'''''^''*'^^ *" Pannonia, in 
 
 ti.i8 then obrainedT>sSon o?rnn "" ?''' f *«^"^t«°"- Con^tan- 
 changes which wer^Se in ^^^^'^'"""""P'e and of Thrace. The 
 
 rdM^„ni,r^"„^"i<^''."'"""'"- '• iv- '■ 69. 'zosi^u.. Mi n 1,7 
 
232 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 il i 
 
 <9' Im 
 
 N 
 
 pared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation. 
 A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was 
 exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was 
 placed on the spot, which might be supposed to con- 
 ceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate 
 satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and insen- 
 sible sovereign.' If any credit can be given to this 
 marvellous tale, which seems however to be counte- 
 nanced by the manners of the people, and by the ex- 
 traordinary duration of his reign, we must admire not 
 only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft 
 sequestered education of a Persian haram, the royal 
 youth could discover the importance of exercising the 
 vigour of his mind and body ; and, by his personal 
 merit, deserved a throne, on which he had been seated, 
 while he was yet unconscious of the duties and temp- 
 tations of absolute power. His minority was exposed 
 to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord ; 
 his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a 
 powerful king of Yemen, or Arabia ; and the niajesty 
 of the royal family was degraded by the captivity of a 
 princess, the sister of the deceased king. But as soon 
 as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the presumptu- 
 ous Thair, his nation and his country, fell beneath the 
 first effort of the young warrior ; who used his victory 
 with so judicious a mixture of rigour and clemency, 
 that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the 
 Arabs, the title of Doulacnaf^ or protector of the nation. ^ 
 «.„♦ f Mp-n 'I'he ambition of the Persian, to whom 
 potamia and his cnemics ascribc the virtues ot a sol- 
 Armenia, ^jier and a statesman, was animated by 
 the desire of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and 
 of wresting from the hands of the Romans the five pro- 
 vinces beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Con- 
 stantino, and the real or apparent strength of his gov- 
 ernment, suspended the attack ; and while the hostile 
 conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment, his artful 
 negotiatibns amused tlie patience, of the imperial 
 court. The death of Constantine was the signal of 
 war,^ and the actual condition of the Syrian and Arme- 
 nian frontier, seemed to encourage the Persians by the 
 prospect of a rich spoil, and an easy conquest. The 
 example of the massacres of the palace, diffused a 
 spirit of licentiousness and sedition among the troops 
 of the east, who were no longer restrained by their 
 habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the 
 prudence of Constantius, who, from the interview with 
 his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to the 
 banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually re- 
 stored to a sense of duty and discipline ; but the season 
 of anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the siege of 
 Nisibis, and to occupy several of the most important 
 fortresses of Mesopotamia.' In Armenia, the renowned 
 Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory which 
 he deserved by his valour and fidelity to the cause of 
 Rome. The firm alliance which he maintained with 
 Constantine, was productive of spiritual as well as of 
 temporal benefits ; by the conversion of Tiridates, the 
 character of a saint was applied to that of a hero, the 
 christian faith was preached and established from the 
 Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian, and Armenia 
 ,was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy 
 and religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles 
 still refused to abandon the plurality of their gods and 
 of their wives, the public tranquillity was disturbed by 
 a discontented faction, which insulted the feeble age 
 
 i AgntJiias, wlio lived in Ihe sixth cenUiry, is the author of this 
 story, (I. iv. p. 135. edit. Louvre.) He derived his information from 
 Bon»e extracts of the Persian Chronicles, obtained and translated by 
 the interpreter Sergins, during his embassy at that court. The coro- 
 nation of the mother of Sapor is likewise mentioned by Shikard, 
 (Tarikh. p. 116) and D'Herbelot. (Bil.liothoquo Orientale, p. 763.) 
 
 j D'Herbelot, Bibliollieque Onentnle, p. 764. 
 
 k Sexlus Rufus, (c. 2H.) who on this occasion is no contemptible 
 authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain for peace, and that 
 Constantine was preparing to march against them : yet the supe- 
 rior weight of the testimony of Eusebius, obliges us to admit the 
 preliminaries, if not the ratification, of the treaty. See Tillemont, 
 liist. des Empercurs, tom. iv. p. 420. 
 1 Julian. Oral. i. p. 20. 
 
 of their sovereign, and impatiently expected the hour 
 of his death. He died at length after a ^ d,34o 
 reign of fifty-six years, and the fortune 
 of "the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. 
 His lawful heir was driven into exile, the christian 
 priests were either murdered or expelled from their 
 churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicit- 
 ed to descend from their mountains ; and two of the 
 most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the 
 powers of royalty, implored the assistance of Sapor, 
 and opened the gates of their cities to the Persian gar- 
 risons. The christian party, under the guidance of 
 the archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor of 
 St. Gregory the ilhiminator, had recourse to the piety 
 of Constantius. After the troubles had continued about 
 three years, Antiochus, one of the oflicers of the house- 
 hold, executed with success the imperial commission 
 of restoring Chosroes, the son of Tiridates, to the 
 throne of his fathers, of distributing honours and re- 
 wards among the faithful servants of the house of Ar- 
 saces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which 
 was accepted by the greater part of the rebellious 
 satraps. But the Romans derived more honour than 
 advantage from this revolution. Chosroes was a prince 
 of a puny stature, and a pusillanimous spirit. Unequal 
 to the fatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind, 
 he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which 
 he built on the banks of the river Eleuthems, and in the 
 centre of a shady grove ; where he consumed his vacant 
 hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. To 
 secure this inglorious ease, he submitted to the condi- 
 tions of peace which Sapor condescended to impose ; 
 the payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of 
 the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage 
 of Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had 
 annexed to the Armenian monarchy." 
 
 During the long period of the reign of The Persian 
 Constantius, the provinces of the east ^71.360 
 
 were afllicted by the calamities of the ' * 
 Persian war. The irregular incursions of the light 
 troops alternately spread terror and devastation beyond 
 the Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from the gates 
 i of Cte'siphon to those of Antioch; and this active ser- 
 vice was performed by the Arabs of the desert, who 
 were divided in their interest and affections ; some of 
 their independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of 
 Sapor, whilst others had engaged their doubtful fidelity 
 to the emperor." The more grave and important ope- 
 rations of the war were conducted with equal vigour; 
 and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered each 
 other in nine bloody fields, in two of which Constan- 
 tius himself commanded in person." The event of the 
 day was commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the 
 battle of Singara, their imprudent valour Battle of Singara. 
 had almost achieved a signal and deci- A. D. 348. 
 sive victory. The stationary troops of Singara retired 
 on the approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over 
 three bridges, and occupied near the village of Hilleh 
 an advantageous camp, which, by the labour of his 
 
 m Julian. Grat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c. 89. 1. iii. c. 
 
 \ 9, p. '2'J6 — 240. The perfect agreement between the vague hints 
 
 of the contemporary orator, and the circumstantial narrative of tlic 
 national historian, gives light to the former, and weight to the lat- 
 ter. For the credit of Moses it may be likewise observed, that the 
 name of Antiochus is found a few yestrs before in a civil office of in- 
 ferior dignity. See Godefroy, Cod.Theod. torn. vi. p. 3,50. 
 
 D Ammianus (xiv. 4.) gives a lively description of the wandering 
 and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from the confine* 
 of Assyria to the cataracts uf the Nile. It appears from the adven- 
 tures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so entertaining a 
 manner, that the high road between Hera^a and Edessa was infested 
 by these robbers. See Hieronym. tom. i. p. 256. 
 
 o We shall take from Eutropius the general idea of the war, (x* 
 10.) A Persis enim multa et gravia perpessus, satpe captis oppiai8< 
 obsessis urbibus, cassis exorcilibus, nullumque ei contra Saporem 
 prosperum prtelium fuit, nisi quod apud Singaram, &,c. This honest 
 account is confirmed by the hints of Ammianus, Rufus, and Jcroiii. 
 The two first orations of Julian, and the third oration of Lihaiiiiis. 
 exhibit a more flattering picture ; but the recantation of both those 
 orators, after the death of Constantiug, while it restores us to ino 
 possession of the truth, degrades their own character, and that 01 
 the emperor. The commentary of Spanheim on the first oration 01 
 Julian, is profusely learned. See likewise the judicious observa- 
 tions of Tillemont, Hist, dcs Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 656 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day with a 
 deep ditch, arid a lofty rampart. His formidable host, 
 when It was drawn out in order of battle, covered the 
 banks of the river, the adjacent heights, and the whole 
 extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which sepa- 
 rated the two armies. Both were alike impatient to 
 engage; but the barbarians, after a slight resistance, 
 fled in disorder; unable to resist, or desirous to weary, 
 the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with 
 heat and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut 
 in pieces a line of cavalry, clothed in complete armour, 
 which had been posted before the gates of the camp to 
 protect their retreat. Constantius, who was hurried 
 along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to re- 
 strain the ardour of his troops, by representing to them 
 the dangers of tlie approaching night, and the certainty 
 of completing their success with the return of day. As 
 they depended much more on their own valour than 
 on the experience or the abilities of their chief, thev 
 silenced by their clamours his timid remonstrances ; 
 and rushing with fury to the charge, filled up the 
 ditch, broke down the rampart, and disiiersed them- 
 selves through the tents to recruit their exhausted 
 strength, and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. 
 iiut the priident Sapor had watched the moment of 
 victory. His army, of which the greater part, securely 
 posted on the heights, had been spectators of the action, 
 advanced in silence, and under the shadow of niffht: 
 and his Persian archers, guided by the illumination of 
 the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed 
 and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history p de- 
 clares, that the Romans were vanquished with a dread- 
 lul slaughter, and that the flying remnant of the ledons 
 \yas exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even 
 the cnderncss of panegyric, confessing that the fflorv 
 of the emperor was sullied by the disobedience of his 
 soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the circumstances 
 of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal 
 orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates 
 with amazing coolness an act of such incredible cruel- 
 ty, as, in the judgment of posterity, must imprint a 
 Jar deeper stain on the honour of the imperial name. 
 The son of Sapor, the heir of his crown, had been 
 made a captive in the Persian camp. The unhappy 
 youth, who might have excited the compassion of the 
 most savage enemy, was scourged, tortured, and pub- 
 licly executed by the inhuman Romans.«i 
 Siege of Nisibis. , Whatever advantages might attend 
 the arms of Sapor in the field, thouo-h 
 mne repeated victories diffused among the nations the 
 tame of his valour and conduct, he could not hope to 
 succeed in the execution of his designs, while the for- 
 tified towns of Mesopotamia, and above all, the strono- 
 and ancient city of Nisibis, remained in the possession 
 ot the Romans. In the space of twelve years, Nisibis, 
 which, since the time of Lucullus, had been deservedly 
 esteemed the bulwark of the east, sustained the mem- 
 orable sieges against the power of Sapor; and the 
 A. D 3:18. 346, disappointed monarch, after urgino- his 
 •^- attacks above sixty, eighty, and an hun- 
 
 dred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and io-no- 
 miny.' This large and populous city was situated 
 about two days journey from the Tigris, in the midst 
 ot a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of Mount 
 Masms. A treble enclosure of brick walls was de- 
 lended by a deep ditch ;• and the intrepid assistance of 
 
 233 
 
 Count Lucilianus, and his garrison, was seconded by 
 the desperate courage of the people. The citizens of 
 Nisibis were animated by the exhortations of their 
 bishop,^ inured to arms by the presence of danger, and 
 convinced of the intentions of Sapcr to plant a Persian 
 colony m their room, and to lead them away into dis- 
 tant and barbarous captivity. The event of the two 
 former sieges elated their confidence, and exasperated 
 the haughty spirit of the great king, who advanced a 
 third time towards Nisibis, at the head of the united 
 forces of Persia and India. The ordinary machines, 
 invented to batter or undermine the walls, were ren- 
 dered meflfectual by the superior skill of the Romans ; 
 and njany days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor em- 
 braced a resolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who 
 believed that the elements themselves were subject to 
 his po\yer. At the stated season of the meltinrr of the 
 snows m Armenia, the river Mygdonius, which'divides 
 the plain and the city of Nisibis, forms, like the Nile," 
 an inundation over the adjacent country. By the labour 
 ot the Persians, the course of the river was stopt be- 
 low the town, and the waters were confined on every 
 side by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, 
 a fleet of armed vessels, filled with soldiers, and with 
 engines which discharged stones of five hundred 
 pounds weight, advanced in order of battle, and en- 
 gaged, almost upon a level, the troops which defended 
 the ramparts. The irresistible force of the waters was 
 alternately fatal to the contending parties, till at length 
 a portion of the walls, unable to sustain the accumu- 
 lated pressure, gave way at once, and exposed an ample 
 breach of one hundred and fifty feet. The Persians 
 were instantly driven to the assault, and the fate of 
 JN isibis depended on the event of the day. The heavy- 
 armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, 
 were embarrassed in the mud, and gr«at numbers were 
 drowned in the unseen holes which had been filled by 
 the rushing waters. The elephants, made furious by 
 their wounds, increased the disorder, and trampled 
 down thousands of the Persian archers. The <rreat 
 king, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the mfsfor- 
 tunes of his arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, 
 the signal of the retreat, and suspended for some hours 
 the prosecution of the attack. But the vigilant citizens 
 improved the opportunity of the night; and the return 
 ot day discovered a new wall of six feet in height 
 rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach. 
 JNotwithstandingthe disappointment of his hopes, and 
 the loss of more than twenty thousand men. Sapor still 
 pressed the reduction of Nisibis, with an obstinate 
 hrmness, which could have yielded only to the neces- 
 sity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia 
 against a formidable invasion of the Massagetae.' 
 Alarnied by this intelligence, he hastily relinquished 
 the siege, and marched with rapid diliaence from the 
 banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxul. The dano-er 
 and difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him so^on 
 afterwards to conclude, or at least to observe, a truce 
 with the Roman emperor, which was equally orateful 
 to both princes, and Constantius himself, after the 
 deaths of his two brothers, was involved, by the revo- 
 lutions of the west, in a civil contest, which required 
 and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his 
 undivided strength. 
 
 PiU h^nI!}^?J',rnT^'''c '•""•'rtatione pusnatum est. nostrorum co- 
 f!us;r,« 'and I' R-rnrrST^"'"""- ^^•''- '' ^'' '"^^-'- E"^- 
 
 ).^nl^'sSe^;^;v;; !tJ''- ""•' '""^"- ^^^^^^ •• ^- ''■ -^^ «p- 
 
 tar'v^7i""'\"- ^''V- '• C- *~- ^'"'- "• P- ^'^ ^c. with the Commen- 
 InJo'-.^';''"''^','"- "• '^8-i>(:2.) who illustrates the circumstames 
 and asrortanis the tune, of the three sieires of Nisibis. Their dates 
 
 U V>i''fT.''A"!"*c''^ l.y Tillemont. (Hist, des Empereurs, torn Av 
 LdfJxl' ^'V- ^T^"""K *s added from Zosimus, I. iii. p. 151 
 «nd the Alexandrino Chronicle, p. "90. * 
 
 ton, iii" n" fs^'T- *•,'•"''''• *^'^'^- ^'°'''''' ^"'^ P'utarch in LucuM. 
 I i^i ,L ■*• ,^'=!''"8 "s now reduced to one hundred and fifty 
 
 Vol J — 2 E ' ^ "'^ ''"'^ ^^* ^^'"'^ nieadows. as 
 
 vml^«*°'^if "w?\'^'^,V'' "'^ ''°^"^'' ^"^^ »•'« ruins of townsand 
 villages. See Nieliuhr, Voya^'cs, tom. ii. p. 300—309 
 
 hill^^ 'r"i?H '^^ "''''*''' Tl'eodoret (I. ii. c. 30.) ascribes to St. James. 
 5ifinL''r ?^*^^^^' "'^'^ ;^^ '^^^^ performed iu a worthy cause, the 
 defence of his country, lie appeared on the walls under the figure 
 or the Roman emperor, and sent an army of gnats to sting the trunks 
 of the elephants, and to discomfit the host of the new Senn;.cherib. 
 
 u Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebulir (tom. ii. p. 307.) allows a 
 very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over which he saw a 
 "u "';""•'»'' arches; it is difficult, however, to understand this 
 parallel of a tnflmg rivulet with a mighty river. There are many 
 circumstancrs obscure, and almost unintelligible, in the description 
 of the.se stupendous water-works. 
 
 ■ ' ^^l^ are obliged to Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. p. ji.) for this inva- 
 sion of the Massagets, which is perfectly consistent with the eene- 
 ral series of events, to which we are darkly led by the broken hiatory 
 
234 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 J! i 
 
 41 ' 
 
 m' 
 
 J 
 
 Civil war. and After the partition of tlie empire, three 
 
 death of Con- years had scarcelv elapsed before the 
 
 atantine, :^^„„ ^^ r^ *,...*:„„ „„„JL„J ;.v,r^^t;««f tr. 
 
 A. D. 340. 
 March. 
 
 sons of Constaiitine seemed impatient to 
 convince mankind that they were inca- 
 pable of contenting themselves with the dominions 
 which they were unqualified to govern. The eldest of 
 those princes soon complained, that he was defrauded 
 of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered 
 kinsmen ; and though he might yield to the superior 
 guilt and merit of Constantius, he exacted from Con- 
 stans the cession of the African provinces, as an equi- 
 valent for the rich countries of Macedonia and Greece, 
 which his brother had acquired by the death of Dal- 
 matius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine 
 experienced in a tedious and fruitless negociation, ex- 
 asperated the fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly 
 listened to those favourites, who sujTuested to him that 
 his honour, as well as his interest, was concerned in 
 the prosecution of llie quarrel. At the head of a 
 tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for con- 
 quest, he suddenly broke into the dominions of Con- 
 stans, by the way of the Julian Alps, and the country 
 round Aquileia felt the first eflfects of his resentment. 
 The measures of Constans, who then resided in Dacia., 
 were directed with more prudence and ability. On 
 the news of his brother's invasion, he detached a select 
 and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops, proposing 
 to follow them in person, with the remainder of his 
 forces. But the conduct of his lieutenants soon ter- 
 minated the unnatural contest. By the artful api)ear- 
 ances of flight, Constantine was betrayed into an 
 ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, 
 where the rash youth, with a few attendants, was sur- 
 prised, surrounded, and slain. His body, after it had 
 been foupfl in the obscure stream of the Alsa, obtained 
 the honours of an imperial sepulchre ; but his provinces 
 transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who, re- 
 fusinjr to admit his elder brother Constantius to any 
 share in these new acquisitions, maintained the undis- 
 puted possession of more than two-thirds of the Roman 
 empire.^ 
 „ , ,^ The fate of Constans himself was de- 
 
 Murucr of Con- i i i , . i i *i „ 
 
 stans. layed about ten years longer, and the 
 
 A. D. 350. revenge of his brother's death was re- 
 February, served for the more icrnoble hand of a 
 domestic traitor. The pernicious tendency of the 
 system introduced by Constantine was displayed in the 
 feeble administration of his sons ; who, by their vices 
 and weakness, soon lost the esteem and affections of 
 their people. The pride assumed by Constans, from 
 the unmerited success of his arms, was rendered more 
 contemptible by liis want of abilities and apj)lication. 
 His fond partiality towards some German captives, 
 distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an 
 object of scandal to the people ; ' and Magnentius, an 
 ambitious soldier, who was himself of barbarian ex- 
 traction, was encouraged by the public discontent to 
 assert the honour of the Roman name.* The chosen 
 bands of Jovians and Herculians, who acknowledged 
 Masrnentius as their leader, maintained the most re- 
 spectable and important station in the imperial camp. 
 The friendship of Marcellinus, count of the sacred 
 largesses, supplied with a liberal hand the means of 
 
 J The causes and the events of this civil war are rrlated with 
 much perplexity and contradiction. I have cliiefly foHowed Zona- 
 ras and the younser Victor. The monody (ad calrenj Eiitrop. edit. 
 Havercamp.) pronounced on the death of Constantine, uiiRht have 
 been very instructive; hut prudence and false taste engaged the ora- 
 tor to involve himself in vnpue declamation. 
 
 s Q,uarum (genfiam) obsides pretio quiositos pueros venustiores, 
 quod cult09 hahuerat, lihidine hujusmodt arsisse pro certo habetur. — 
 Had not the depraved taste of Constans been publicly avowed, the 
 cider Victor, who held a considerable oflire in his brother's reign, 
 would not have asserted it in such positive terms. 
 
 a Julian. Orat. i. and ii. Zosim. I. ii. p. 134. Victor in Rpitome 
 There is reason to believe that Mas^ncntius was born in one of those 
 barbarian colonies which Constantius Chlorus had established in 
 Gaul. (See this History, p. 133.) His behaviour may remind us of 
 the patriot earl of Jicicester. the famous Simon de iMontfort, who 
 could persuade the good people of England, that he, a Frenchman by 
 birth, had taken arms to deliver them from foreign favourites. 
 
 seduction. The soldiers were convinced, by the most 
 specious arguments, that the republic summoned them 
 to break the bonds of hereditary servitude : and, by 
 the choice of an active and vigilant prince, to reward 
 the same virtues which had raised the ancestors of the 
 degenerate Constans from a private condition to the 
 throne of the world. As soon as the conspiracy was 
 ripe for execution, Marcellinus, under the pretence of 
 celebrating his son's birth-day, gave a splendid enter- 
 tainment to the Hhisirious and honourable persons of the 
 court of Gaul, which then resided in the city of Autun. 
 Tiie intemperance of the feast was artfully protracted 
 till a very late hour of the night ; and the unsuspecting 
 guests were tempted to indulge themselves in a dan- 
 gerous and guilty freedom of conversation. On a sud- 
 den the doors were thrown open, and Magnentius, who 
 had retired for a few moments, returned into the apart- 
 ment, invested with the diadem and purple. The con- 
 spirators instantly saluted him with the titles of Au- 
 gustus and emperor. The surprise, the terror, the 
 intoxication, the ambitious hopes, and the mutual ig- 
 norance of the rest of the assembly, prompted them to 
 join their voices to the general acclamation. The 
 guards hastened to take the oath of fidelity ; the gates 
 of the town were shut ; and before the dawn of day, 
 Magnentius became master of the troops and treasure 
 of the palace and city of Autun. By his secrecy and 
 diligence he entertained some hopes of surprising the 
 person of Constans, who was pursuing in the adjacent 
 forest his favourite amusement of hunting, or perhaps 
 some pleasures of a more private and criminal nature. 
 The rapid progress of fame allowed him, however, an 
 instant for flight, though the desertion of his soldiers 
 and subjects tieprived him of the power of resistance. 
 Before he could reach a sea-port in Spain, where he 
 intended to embark, he was overtaken near Helena,*' at 
 the foot of the Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, 
 whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of a temple, 
 executed his commission by the murder of the son of 
 Constantine.*^ 
 
 As soon as the death of Constans had Magnentius and 
 decided this easy but important revolu- Vetranio assume 
 
 1 I /• ^1 X r » ^ "»*^ purple, 
 
 tion, the example ot the court ot Autun a.d. s.'io, 
 was imitated by the provinces of the March i. 
 west. The authority of Magnentius was acknow- 
 ledged throujrh the whole extent of the two great prae- 
 fectures of Gaul and Italy ; and the usurper prepared, 
 by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure, which 
 might discharge the obligation of an immense donative, 
 and supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial 
 cotintries of Illyricum, from the Danube to the extre- 
 mity of Greece, had long obeyed the government of 
 Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity 
 of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation 
 by his experience and services in war."^ Attached by 
 habit, by duty, and by gratitude, to the house of Con- 
 stantine, he immediately gave the strongest assurances 
 to the only surviving son of his late master, that he 
 would expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person and 
 his troops, to inflict a just revenge on the traitors of 
 Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced, 
 rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; 
 their leader soon betrayed a want of firmness, or a 
 want of sincerity ; and his ambition derived a specious 
 pretence from the approbation of the princess Constan- 
 tina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had ob- 
 tained from the great Constantine, her father, the rank 
 
 b This ancient city had once flourished under the name of Flli'e- 
 ris. (Pomponius Mela, ii. 5.) The munificence of Constantine gave 
 it now splendour, and his motlwr's name. Helena (it is still railed 
 EIne) became the scat of a bishop, who long afterward;' transferred 
 his residence to Perpignan, the capital of modrrn Uousillon. ?ce 
 D'.\nville Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule. p. 380. Longuerue Descrip- 
 tion do la France, p. 223. and the Marca Hispanica, I. i. c. 2. 
 
 c Zosimus, I. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, torn ii. I. xi i. p. 13. and the 
 Abbrcviators. 
 
 d Eulropius (.X. 10.) describes Vetranio with more temper, and 
 probably with more truth, than either of the two Victors. Vetranio 
 was born of obscure parents in the wihk-st part of Ma^sia ; and so 
 much hnd his education been neglected, that, afler his elevation, lie 
 .studied tlic alphabet. 
 
 of ^^ugusta placed the diadem with her own hands on 
 the head of the Illyrian general ; and seemed to expect, 
 from his victory the accomplishment of those un- 
 
 hrth/.w'If'r'i''^ 7^''^^ fr ^^^ ^^^» disappointed 
 by the death of her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps 
 it was without the consent of Constantina, that the 
 new emperor formed a necessary, though dishonourable, 
 
 a hannp- with tk« „<>„ r^L. ^. , .' 
 
 235 
 
 alliance, with the usurper of the west, whose purple 
 was so recently stained with her brother's blood.« 
 
 Constantius re- '^^^ intelligence of these important 
 fusej, to^reucat, eveuts, which SO deeply affected the 
 • • • honour and safety of the imperial house, 
 recalled the arms of Constantius from the ino-jorious 
 prosecution of the Persian war. He recommended the 
 care of the east to his lieutenants, and afterwards to 
 his cousin Gallus, whom he raised from a prison to a 
 throne; and marched towards Europe, with a mind i 
 agitated by the conflict of hope and fear, of grief and 
 indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace i 
 the emperor gave audience to the ambassadors ofi 
 Magnentius and Vetranio. The first author of the ' 
 conspiracy, Marcellinus, who in some measure had 
 bestowed the purple on his new master, boldly accepted 
 this dangerous commission ; and his three colleao-ues 
 were selected from the illustrious personages of the 
 state and army. These deputies were instructed to 
 soothe the resentment, and to alarm the fears, of Con- 
 stantius. ,They were empowered to offer him the 
 friendship and alliance of the western princes, to ce- 
 ment their umon by a double marriage ; of Constantius 
 with the daughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius 
 himself with the ambitious Constantina; and to ac- 
 knowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence of rank, 
 which migiit justly be claimed by the emperor of the 
 east. Should pride and mistaken piety urge him to 
 refuse these equitable conditions, the ambassadors 
 were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which 
 must attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the 
 sovereigns of the west to exert their superior streno-th • 
 and to emp oy against him that valour, those abilities' 
 and those legions, to which the house of Constantine 
 had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propo- 
 sitions and such arguments appeared to deserve the 
 most serious attention ; the answer of Constantius was 
 deferred till the next day ; and as he had reflected on 
 the importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion 
 ot the people, he thus addressed his council, who list- 
 ened with real or aff'ected credulity: " Last nio-ht " 
 said he, - after I retired to rest, the shade of the great 
 Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murdered 
 brother, rose before my eyes ; his well-known voice 
 awakened me to revenge, forbade me to despair of the 
 republic, and assured me of the success and immortal 
 glory which would crown the justice of my arms." 
 Ihe authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince 
 who alleged it silenced every doubt, and excluded all 
 negociation The ignominious terms of peace were 
 rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the 
 tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Con- 
 stantius ; his colleagues, as unworthy of the privileo-es 
 ot the law of nations, were put in irons ; and the con- 
 tending powers prepared to wage an implacable war ' 
 ST'^^^n '""J-' 1. ^"^^' ^^'^^ ^'^*^ conduct, and such per- 
 
 rlT ^T r' '^^ ^"^>'' ^^ t^'« brother^f 
 
 Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul 
 The situation and character of Vetranio admitted of 
 milder measures ; and the policy of the eastern emperor 
 
 mo th'7 '%^ltr •'" »"«.«"t«gronists, and to Sepa- 
 rate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. 
 
 t. iow' %"v^'^ ^^'^ ^? ^^i^^'^^ ^^'^ frankness and sim- 
 
 icity of Vetranio, wMio, fluctuating some time between 
 
 he opposite views of honour and interest, displayed to 
 
 the world the insincerity of his temper, and^ was in- 
 
 ^sibly engaged in the snares of an artful negociation. 
 
 lial. in''?.f,'*n!".'""'' ^."''^"•'"'''e '•0"duct of Vetranio is described by J„. 
 'laii in Ills first or.ition, and accurately ctnlained bv ^ll•.nll^i„ ' . 
 
 fTe'p '':: TT""'"'' "^"'•'^*°"^ if cSnsta ntin^a.'''*''"''''"'' ^"^ 
 bee Peter tlie Palncan, lu the Excerpta Legalionum, p. 27. 
 
 Constantius acknowledged him as a legitimate and 
 equal colleague in the empire, on condition that he 
 would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnen- 
 tius, and appoint a place of interview on the frontiers 
 ot their respective provinces ; where they miffht pledge 
 their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, and retrulate 
 by common consent the future operations of th? civil 
 war. In consequence of this agreement, Vetranio ad- 
 vanced to the city of Sardica,^ at the head of twentv 
 thousand horse, and a more numerous body of infantry ' 
 a power so far superior to the forces of Constantiiis! 
 that the Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life 
 and fortiines of his rival, who, depending on the suc- 
 cess of his private negociations, had seduced the troops, 
 and undermined tlie throne, of Vetranio. The chiefs 
 who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius! 
 prepared in his favour a public spectacle, calculated to 
 discover and inflame the passions of the multitude.»» 
 Ihe united armies were commanded to assemble in a 
 large plain near the city. In the centre, according to 
 the rules of ancient discipline, a military tribunaL or 
 ratiier scaff^ild, was erected, from whence the emperors 
 were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions, 
 to harangue tiie troops. The well-ordered ranks of 
 Komans and barbarians, with drawn swords, or with 
 erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry, and the co- 
 horts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their 
 arms and ensigns, formed an immense circle round the 
 tribunal ; and the attentive silence which they pre- 
 served was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of 
 clamour or of applause. In the presence of this for- 
 midable assembly, the two emperors were called upon 
 to explain the situation of public affairs : the prece- 
 dency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of Con- 
 stantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in 
 the arts of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these 
 difficult circumstances, with firmness, dexterity, and 
 eloquence. The first part of his oration seemed to be 
 pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul ; but while he 
 tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he 
 insinuated, that none, except a brother, could claim a 
 right to the succession of his brother. lie displayed 
 with some complacency, the glories of his imperial 
 race ; and recalled to the memory of the troops, the 
 valour, the triumphs, the liberality of the great Constan- 
 tino, to whose sons they had engaged their allegiance 
 by an oath of fidelity, which the ingratitude of his 
 most favoured servants had tempted tiiem to violate. 
 Ihe officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and were 
 instructed to act their parts in this extraordinary scene, 
 confessed the irresistible power of reason and elo- 
 quence, by saluting the emperor Constantius as their 
 lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty and re- 
 pentance was communicated from rank to rank ; till 
 the plain of Sardica resounded with the universal ac- 
 clamation of "Away with these upstart usurpers! 
 Long life and victory to the son of Constantine ! Under 
 his banners alone we will fight and conquer." The 
 shout of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce 
 clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the 
 courage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection 
 of his followers, in anxious and silent suspense. In- 
 stead of embracing the last refuge of generous despair, 
 he tamely submitted to his fate; and taking the dia- 
 dem from his head in the view of both armies, fell 
 prostrate at the feet of his conqueror. Constantius 
 used his victory with prudence and moderation ; and 
 raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom he 
 affected to style by the endearing name of father, he 
 gave him his hand to descend from the throne. The 
 city of Prusa was assigned for the exile or retirement 
 of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the 
 
 g Zonnrns, torn. it. I. liii. p. 16. The position of Sardica. near the 
 modern city ol Sophia. ap|)ear9 lietier suited to this interview than 
 the situation of either Naissus or Sirmium. where it is placed hv Je- 
 r m, Socrates, and Sozomeri. ' 
 
 h gee the two first orations of Julian, particularlv n 11 • nnH 7n 
 Kimus. I. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the hiMor'iaii'serves to 
 lUusirate the ditrii.se, but vague, descriptions of the orator. ' 
 
236 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 4$h 
 
 Magncntius, 
 A. D, 351 
 
 enjoyment of ease and affluence. He often expressed 
 his grateful sense of the goodness of Constantius, and, 
 with a very amiable simplicity, advised his benefactor 
 to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seek for con- 
 tent (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful 
 obscurity of a private condition.' 
 
 Makes war against The behaviour of Constantius on 
 this memorable occasion was celebrated 
 with some appearance of justice; and 
 his courtiers compared the studied orations which a 
 Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populace 
 of Athens, with the victorious eloquence which had 
 persuaded an armed multitude to desert and depose 
 the object of their partial choice.^ The approaching 
 contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and 
 bloody kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches 
 to encounter Constantius, at the head of a numerous 
 army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks 
 and Saxons ; of those provincials who supplied the 
 strength of the legions, and of those barbarians who 
 were dreaded as the most formidable enemies of the 
 republic. The fiTtile plains' of the lower Pannonia, 
 between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, pre- 
 sented a spacious theatre; and the operations of the 
 civil war were protracted during the summer months 
 by the skill or timidity of the combatants."™ Constan- 
 tius had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel 
 in the fields of Cibalis, a name that would animate his 
 troops by the remembrance of the victory which, on the 
 same auspicious ground, had been obtained by the 
 arms of his father Constantine. Yet by the impregnable 
 fortifications with which the emperor encompassed his 
 camp, he appeared to decline, rather than to invite, a 
 general engagement. It was the object of Magnentius 
 to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish this 
 advantageous position; and he employed, with that 
 view, the various marches, evolutions, and stratagems, 
 which the knowledge of the art of war could suggest to 
 an experienced officer. He carried by assault the im- 
 portant town of Siscia ; made an attack on the city of 
 Sirmium, which lay in the rear of the imperial camp ; 
 attempted to force a passage over the Save into the 
 eastern provinces of Illyricum ; and cut in pieces a 
 numerous detachment, which he had allured into the 
 narrow passes of the Acarne. During the greater part 
 of the summer, the tyrant of Gaul showed himself 
 master of the field. The troops of Constantius were 
 harassed and dispirited ; his reputation declined in the 
 eye of the world ; and his pride condescended to solicit 
 a treaty of peace, which would have resigned to the 
 assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces 
 beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the 
 eloquence of Philip the imperial ambassador; and the 
 council as well as the army of Magnentius were dis- 
 
 f>osed to accept them. But the hauahty usurper, care- 
 ess of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders 
 that Philip should be detained as a captive, or at least 
 as a hostage ; while he despatched an officer to re- 
 proach Constantius with the weakness of his reign, 
 and to insult him by the promise of a pardon, if he 
 would instantly abdicate the purple. " That he should 
 confide in the justice of his cause, and the protection of 
 
 i The younger V^icfor assijrns to his exile the eniphntic appellation 
 of •* Voluptariuin otiiiin." Socrates (I. ii. c. 28.) is the voucher for 
 the correspondence with tlie emperor, which would eeem to prove, 
 that Vetranio was, indeed, prope ad stullitiani Rimplicissinius. 
 
 k Euin Constantius facundiu; vi dcjectum iinperio in priva- 
 tum otium removit. Q,ujb gloria post natum imperium soli processit 
 eloquio cleinentiaquc, &n. Aurelius Victor, Julian, and I'heniistius 
 (Orar. iii. and iv.) adorn this exploit with all the artificial and gaudy 
 colouring of their rhetoric. 
 
 1 Busbequiiis (p. 112.) traversed the Lower Hungary and Sclavonia 
 at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert by the recipro- 
 cal hostilities of the Turks and rliristinnsi. Yet lie mentions with 
 admiration the unconquerable fertility of the soil ; and observes 
 that the height of the crass wa.<i sufficient to conceal a loaded wngeon 
 from his sight. See likewise Browne's Travels, in Harris's Collec- 
 tion, vol. ii. p. 762, &.C. 
 
 m Zosimus gives a very large account of the war, and the negoci- 
 ntion, (1. ii. p. 123 — 130.) But as he neither shows himself a soldier 
 nor a politician, his narrative must be weighed with attention, and 
 received with caution. 
 
 an avenging Deity," was the only answer which 
 honour permitted the emperor to return. But he was 
 so sensible of the difficulties of his situation, that he 
 no long'er dared to retaliate the indignity which had 
 been offered to his representative. 'J'he negociation of 
 Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he deter- 
 mined Sylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and re- 
 putation, to desert with a considerable body of cavalry, 
 a few days before the battle of Mursa. 
 
 The city of Mursa, or Essek, cele- Battle of Mur.a, 
 brated in modern times for a bridge of A. D. ?5i. 
 boats five miles in length, over the river ^P^- '^• 
 Drave, and the adjacent morasses," has been always 
 considered as a place of importance in the wars of Hun- 
 gary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mur- 
 sa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had 
 almost scaled the walls of the town. The vigilance 
 of the garrison extinguished the flames ; the approach 
 of Constantius left him no time to continue the opera- 
 tions of the siege ; and the emperor soon removed the 
 only obstacle that could embarrass his motions, by 
 forcing a body of troops which had taken post in an 
 adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round 
 Mursa was a naked and a level plain : on this ground 
 the army of Constantius formed, with the Drave on 
 their right; while the left, eiiher from the nature of 
 their disposition, or from the superiority of their caval- 
 ry, extended far beyond the right flank of Magnentiii's." 
 Tlie troops on both sides remained under arms in anx- 
 ious expectation during the greatest part of the morn- 
 ing; and the son of Constantine, after animating his 
 soldiers by an eloquent speech, retired into a church at 
 some distance from the field of battle, and committed 
 to his generals the conduct of this decisive day.P They 
 deserved his confidence by the valour and military 
 skill which they exerted. They wisely began the ac- 
 tion upon the left; and advancing their whole wing of 
 cavalry in an oblique line, they suddenly wheeled it on 
 the right flank of the enemy, which was unprepared to 
 resist the impetuosity of their charge. But the Ro- 
 mans of the west soon rallied, by the habits of disci- 
 pline ; and the barbarians of Germany supported the 
 renown of their national bravery. The engagement 
 soon became general ; was maintained with various 
 and singular turns of fortune ; and scarcely ended with 
 the darkness of the night. The signal victory which 
 Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms of his 
 cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many 
 massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly ar- 
 mour, and breaking with their ponderous lances the 
 firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as the le- 
 gions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons 
 of the second line rode sword in hand into the intervals 
 and completed the disorder. In the meanwhile, the 
 huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost 
 naked to the dexterity of the oriental archers ; and 
 whole troops of those barbarians were urged by an- 
 guish and despair to precipitate themselves into the 
 broad and rapid stream of the Drave.i The number 
 of the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, 
 and the slaughter of the conquerors was more consider- 
 able than that of the vanquished ; ' a circumstance 
 
 D This remarkable bridge, wliich is flanked with towers, and sup- 
 ported on large wooden piles, was constructed, A. D. 1.5C6, by Sultan 
 Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies into Hungary. See 
 Browne's Travels, and Busching's Svstcm of Geography, vol. ii. 
 p. 90. 
 
 o This position, and the subsequent evolutions, are clearly, though 
 concisely, described by Julian, Oral. i. p. 36. 
 
 p Sulpicius Severus, I. ii. p. 405. The emperor passed the day in 
 prayer with Valens, the Arian bishop of Mursa, who gained his 
 confidence by announcing the success of the battle. M.deTillemont 
 (Mist, des Einpereiirs, toni. iv. p. 110.) very properly remarks the 
 silence of Julian with regard to the personal prowess of Constan- 
 tius in the battle of Mursa. The silence of flattery is sometimes 
 equal to the most positive and authentic evidence. 
 
 q Julian. Orat. i. p. 1^6, 37. ; and Orat. ii. p. .59.60. Zonaras, torn, 
 ii. I. xiii. p. 17. Zosimus, I. ii. p. 130—133. The last of these cele- 
 brates the dexterity of the archer Menelaus, who could di»char;:e 
 three arrows at the same time ; an advantage which, according to 
 his apprehension of military affairs, materially contributed to the 
 victory of Constantius. 
 
 r According to Zunaras, Constantiui, out of60,CC0 men, lost 20.000; 
 
 which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justi- 
 fies the observation of an ancient writer, that the forces 
 of the empire were consumed in the fatal battle of 
 Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army, sufficient to de- 
 fend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory, 
 of Rome.- Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile 
 orator, there is not the least reason to believe that the 
 tyrant deserted his own standard in the beginninff of 
 the engagement. He seems to have displayed the vir- 
 tues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irre- 
 coverably lost, and his camp in the possession of the 
 enemy. Magnentius then consulted his safety, and 
 throwing avyay the imperial ornaments, escaped with 
 some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, who 
 incessantly followed his rapid flight from the bankrof 
 the Drave to the foot of the Julian Alps.* 
 
 Conquest of . Jhc approach of winter supplied the 
 A i) fco mdolenc^e of Constantius with specious 
 
 ih^ w«r fill tK ''^^"''"^ ' ^^^«^^»"? the prosecution of 
 the war till the ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed 
 his residence in the city of Aquileia, and showed a 
 s^ming resolution to dispute the passage of the moun- 
 ^ms and morasses which fortified the Confines of the 
 Venetian province. The surprisal of a castle in the 
 Alps by the secret march of the imperialists, could 
 scarcely have determined him to reliiquish the pos- 
 session of Italy, if the inclinations of the people had 
 supported the cause of their tyrant." But the memory 
 of the cruelties exercised by his ministers, after the 
 unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deep im! 
 pression of horror and resentment on the minds of the 
 
 E^nnf; ^aV'^ r"'*^' '^^ ««" «f the princess 
 Eutropia, and the nephew of Constantine, had seen 
 
 ^IIra^ ^^TT -^^ '^^P^'"^ «^ the west usurped by a 
 slaves anH ^?^S""^"- ^^rming a desperate number of 
 slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard 
 hH\ fT'"" *^^"^""lity of Rome, received the 
 homage of the senate, and assuming the title of Au- 
 g^ustus precariously reigned duringa tumultof twenty- 
 
 end to his ambitious hopes : the rebellion was extin- 
 guished in the blood of Nepotian, of his mother EutJo- 
 
 ShTpH Tn n' l^^u'T^ ' ^"^ ^^^ proscription was 
 extended to all who had contracted a fatal alliance with 
 Uie name and family of Constantine.' But as soon as 
 
 ofTh?^;^'^ ' '':"/ n ^^"^^ '' ^"^^^' "^^'^^^ "^"ste? 
 who L!f f f Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, 
 f^. H^ -^^"^"'^^ /° ^^"'P ^ ^^^t in some harbour of 
 the Hadriatic, sought protection and revenge in his vic- 
 torious camp By their secret intelligence with thdr 
 countrymen, Rome and the Italian cities were persuad- 
 ed to display the banners of Constantius on their walls. 
 I he grateful veterans, enriched by the liberality of the 
 ,^ther, signalized their gratitude and loyalty to the son. 
 I he cavalry, the legions, and the auxiliaries of Italy, re 
 newed their oath of allegiance to Constantius ; and the 
 usurper, alarmed by the general desertion, was com! 
 
 and Magnentius lost 24.000 out of 36,000. The other articles of t hi. 
 a mv m.!,? h r"-°;*^'"««"^ authentic, but the numbers of the tyrani^s 
 army must have been mistaken, either by the author or hi^ trnn« 
 
 mi^/'^nJ^^r^T"''"' '"^'^ *^°"^^'*'^ »"♦-' ^^"o'^ force o7 the ves Ro-" 
 mans and barbarians, into one formidable body, which cannot bp 
 fairly estimated at less than 100.000 men. Julian Orat i n^2 i- 
 bella eftei'nl^H '' "''^^ "'^ dimicatione consumpTa; "un ad qulli^'t 
 mie rnnfL« "'^"^'^' ^""^ "'"'*"'" tr»'mphorum posse n t sec ur Hat is 
 
 amen ad orcultandum audaciae specie formidTem '' Is it mo«t i?i.^I^^ 
 
 [•je^people, and the soldiers of Ital'y, towaf's^he 'pSrtJ i'f'ihrem: 
 
 rnn i^.^® elder Victor describes in a pathetic manner the misenhia 
 
 Sue P Wi" °/ -^""^^ •■ " ^HJ"« «'o'idum ingenium adeo P R.ZrSSs 
 
 davpr?; ° '^""' " ' ''^''''" '^°'""«' ^O"' ^*«*' templaque, crSo e ca' 
 ^averibusque opplerentur bustorum modo." Athanlsii s rtom i n 
 
 kiA?rj:''' '^'^ of several illustrious victinS "ari ^.iliaS' 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 237 
 
 pelled, with the remains of his faithful troops, to retire 
 beyond the Alps into the provinces of Gail. The 
 detachments however, which were ordered either to 
 press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius, con- 
 ducted themselves with the usual imprudence of sue 
 cess ; and allowed him, in the plains of Pavia an on." 
 portunity of turning on his pursuers, and or^in^J 
 his despair by the carnage of a useless victory. J ^ ^ 
 
 1 he pride of Magnentius was reduced, 
 by repeated misfortunes, to sue, and to Y^^ ^^^^^^ *"** 
 sue in vain, for peace. He first despatch- tntf ^''^^ 
 ed a senator, in whose abilities he con- A.D.35.^ 
 fided, and afterwards several bishops "^"^"'^ ^^• 
 whose holy character might obtain a more favourable 
 audience, with the offer of resigning the purple, and 
 the promise of devoting the remainder of his life to the 
 service of the emperor. But Constantius, though he 
 granted fair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all 
 who abandoned the standard of rebellion,' avowed his 
 inflexible resolution to inflict a just punishment on the 
 crimes of an assassin, whom he prepared to overwhelm 
 on every side by the effort of his victorious arms. An 
 imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa 
 and lipain, confirmed the wavering faith of the Moor- 
 ish nations, and landed a considerable force, which 
 passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards Lyons, 
 the last and fatal station of Magnentius.* The temped 
 ot the tyrant which was never inclined to clemency 
 was urged by distress to exercise every act of oppresi 
 sion which could extort an immediate supply from the 
 cities of Gaul.^ Their patience was at length exhaust! 
 iVlAu T^^vfs, the seat of pr^torian government, 
 gave the signal of revolt, by shutting her gates against 
 Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to the 
 rank either of Cajsar or of Augustus.^ From Treves 
 Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where he was 
 soon surrounded by an army of Germans, whom the 
 pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into the 
 civil dissensions of Romc-^ In the mean time, the im- 
 penal troops forced the passages of the Cottian Alps, 
 and in the bloody combat of mount Seleucus irrevocal 
 bly fixed the title of rebels on the party of Magnen- 
 L?/ *^^Z^l unable to bring another army into the 
 held ; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted ; and 
 When he appeared in public to animate them by his 
 exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout 
 01 Long live the emperor Constantius ! " The ty- 
 rant, who perceived that they were preparino- to de- 
 serve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most 
 obnoxious criminal, prevented their desio-n by fallino- 
 on his sword : | a death more easy and mor^e honourabl? 
 than he could hope to obtain from the hands of an ene- 
 my, whose revenge would have bf en coloured with the 
 specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The 
 
 J Zosim. 1. ii p. 13!^. Victor in Ef.itomc. The oane-rvrists of 
 S^^maTS^fe^t.""' '"'" "'"'^' "•"^^"^' ^^^-^' '« men'tionWhTacct 
 , Jo^°"/^"^' *°'"- !'• '• ^"'- P- 17- Ju'ian, in several places of the 
 
 a Zos m'T fi"n"';"V-f ' T V'*^ '^'^r!"*^"'^-^ ""' Constantius f o t^^' .° b i! 
 a -^osim. I. II. p. 1.13. Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii. p. 74 
 
 4o\tTJ^T' '''' ^ Zosim. I. ii. p. 1-3. Julian, who (Oral. \. n. 
 40.) inveighs ajrainst the cruel effrcts of the tyrant's deiair me^- 
 n?nP^^''^V- '• ^'- ^V V? oPP^e^'^ive edicts which were dffiod by 
 his necessities, or by his avarice. His subjects were coinSed iX 
 purchase the imperial demesnes; a doubtful and drnUous specif 
 
 L^^^t=ii;^'ru^u;;;s.°^^ ^^^^""*°"' -"'^"^ '^ ^-'p--^ - ^'- 
 
 c The medals of Majjnentius celebrate the victories of the ti^n A.. 
 
 K'ip"?'^ °V"%^^^'^''- The C»sar was another ..Potior named 
 Dcsiderius. See Tillemont, rii«t.des Empereurs, torn. iv. r. V"? 
 
 d Julian Orat. i. p. 40. ii. p. 74. with Spanheim, p 203 'us Com- 
 mentary .1 ustratesthe trnnsactionsof this civil war Monipele. ci 
 
 tice de ik cS'n l«i'!''''P/' "'y ""^ Dauphins. Dee D'Anville No- 
 tice dela Gaule. p. 464 ; and Lonjjuerue Description de la France, p. 
 
 e Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. QG8, 269. The latter 
 mo^st vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish policy of Constan- 
 
 f Julian. Orat.. i. p. 40. Zosimus. 1. ii. p. 134. Socrates. I. ii c 
 .•?2. Sozomcn, I. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor describes his death 
 with some horrid circumstances: Transfosso latere, ut c at vas 
 corporis, vulnere naribupque et ore cruorem eflundens, cx^niravi 
 If we can give credit to Zonaras. the tyrant, before he expired liad 
 
238 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 example of suicide was imitated by Decentius, who 
 strangled himself on the news of his brother's death. 
 The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long 
 since disappeared in the battle of Mursa,^ and the pub- 
 lic tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of the 
 surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. 
 A severe inquisition was extended over all who, either 
 from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in 
 the cause of rebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena, from 
 his superior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny, 
 was sent to explore the latent remains of the conspir- 
 acy in the remote province of Britain. The honest 
 indignation expressed by Martin, vice-praefect of the 
 island, was interpreted as an evidence of his own guilt ; 
 and the governor was urged to the necessity of turning 
 against his breast the sword with which he had been 
 provoked to wound the imperial minister. The most 
 innocent subjects of the west were exposed to exile 
 and confiscation, to death and torture; and as the timid 
 are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inac- 
 cessible to mercy.'' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. • 
 
 Constantius sole emperor. — Elevation and death of Gallus. — 
 Danger and elevation of Julian. — Sarmatian and Persian 
 wars. — Victories of Julian in Gaul, 
 
 Power of the The divided provinces of the empire 
 eunuchH. were again united by the victory of Con- 
 stantius ; but as that feeble prince was destitute of 
 personal merit, either in peace or war ; as he feared 
 his generals and distrusted his ministers ; the triumph 
 of his arms served only to establish the reign of the 
 eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, 
 the ancient production of oriental jealousy and despot- 
 ism,* were introduced into Greece and Rome by the 
 contagion of Asiatic luxury.** Their progress was 
 rapid ; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, 
 had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an 
 Egyptian queen,*^ were gradually admitted into the 
 families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperors 
 themselves.^ Restrained by the severe edicts of Do- 
 mitian and Nerva,' cherished by the pride of Diocle- 
 tian, reduced to an humble station by the prudence of 
 Constantine,' they multiplied in the palaces of his de- 
 
 g Julian (Oral. i. p. 58, 59.) seems at a loss to delcrinine, wlietlier 
 lie inflicted on himself tite piinislimcnt of his crimes, whether he was 
 drowned in tl)e Drave, or wlietiier lie was carried hy the avengiii;^ 
 daemons from the fleld of battle to hid destined place uf eternal tor- 
 tures. 
 
 h Ammian. xiv. 5. xxl. 16. 
 
 a Ammianus(l. xiv. c. 2.) imputes the first practice of castration to 
 the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is supposed to have reigned 
 above nineteen hundred years before Christ. The use of eunuchs is 
 of high antiquity, both in Asia and Egypt. They are mentioned in 
 the law of Moses, Deutcron. xxiii. 1. See Goguet, Origincs des 
 Loix, Sec. Part i. I. i. c. 3. 
 
 b Eunuchum dixti velle te ; 
 
 Quia solte utunlur his regins 
 
 Terent. Eunuch, act. i. scene 2. 
 
 This play is translated from Mcnander, and the original must liave 
 appeared soon after the eastern conriuests of Alexander, 
 c Miles . . spadonilius 
 Servire rugosis potest. 
 
 Horat. Carm. v. 9. and Dacier ad loc. 
 
 By the word spado, the Romans very forcibly expressed their ab- 
 horrence of this mutilated condition. Tlie Creek appellation of eu 
 nurhs, which insensibly prevailed, had a milder sound, and a more 
 ambiguous sense. 
 
 d We need only mention Posides, a frcedman and eunuch of Clau- 
 dius, in whose favour the emperor prostituted some of the most 
 honourable rewards of military valour. See Sueton. in Claudio, c. 
 S?8. Posides employed a part of his wealth in building. 
 Ut spado vinccliat Capitolia nostra 
 Posides. Juvenal. Sat. xiv. 
 
 e Castrari marcs vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion 
 Cassius, I. Jxvii. p. 1107. Ixviii. p. 1119. 
 
 f There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137; in which 
 Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Scverus and Constantine 
 for restraining tiie tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores the miscliiefs 
 which they occasioned in other reigns. Hue accedit quod eunuchos 
 nee in consiliis nee in ministeriis halmit ; qui soli principes pcrdunt, 
 dum COS more gentium aut reguni Pcrsarum volunt viverc; qui a 
 populo etiam amicissimum semovent; qui interiiuntii sunt, aliud 
 quam rcspondetur referentes ; ciaudentes principem suum, et agentes 
 ante omnia nc quid eciat. 
 
 generate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledgd 
 and at length the direction, of the secret councils of 
 Constantius. The aversion and contempt which man- 
 kind has so uniformly entertained for that imperfect 
 species, appears to have degraded their character, and 
 to have rendered them almost as incapable as they 
 were supposed to be, of conceiving any generous sen- 
 timent, or of performing any worthy action, k But the 
 eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery and in- 
 trigue; and they alternately governed the mind of Con- 
 stantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity .•* 
 Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appear- 
 ance of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them 
 to intercept the complaints of the injured provinces, to 
 accumulate immense treasures by the sale of justice 
 and of honours; to disgrace the most important digni- 
 ties, by the promotion of those who had purchased at 
 their hands the powers of oppression,' and to gratify 
 their resentment against the few independent spirits, 
 who arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of 
 slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was 
 the chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and 
 the palace with such absolute sway, that Constantius, 
 according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian, pos- 
 sessed some credit with this haughty favourite.^ By 
 his artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to 
 subscribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, 
 and to add a new crime to the long list of unnatural 
 murders which pollute the honour of the house of Con- 
 stantine. 
 
 When the two nephews of Constan- Education of Gal- 
 tine, Gallus and Julian, were saved lus and Julian, 
 from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about 
 twelve, and the latter about six, years of age ; and, as 
 the eldest was thought to be of a sickly constitution, 
 they obtained with the less difficulty a precarious and 
 dependent life, from the affected pity of Constantius, 
 who was sensible that the execution of these helpless 
 orphans would have been esteemed, by all mankind, an 
 act of the most deliberate cruelty.^ Different cities of 
 Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of their 
 exile and education; but, as soon as their growing 
 years excited the jealousy of the emperor, he judged 
 it more prudent to secure those unhappy youths in the 
 strong castle of Macellum, near Caesarea. The treat- 
 ment which they experienced during a six years' con- 
 finement was partly such as they could hope from a 
 careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread 
 from a suspicious tyrant.' Their prison was an ancient 
 palace, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the 
 situation was pleasant, the building stately, the enclo- 
 sure spacious. They pursued their studies, and prac- 
 
 g Xenophon (Cyropa'dia, 1. viii. p. 540.) has stated the specious 
 reasons which engaged Cyrus to intrust bis person to the guard of 
 eunuch.>«. lie had ob.oerved in animals, that although the practice of 
 castration might tame their ungovernable fierceness, it did not ili- 
 minisli their strength or spirit; and he persuaded himself, that those 
 who were separated from the rest of human kind, would be more 
 firmly attached to the person of their benefactor. But a long expe- 
 rience has contradicted the judgment of Cyrus. Some particular in- 
 stances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their 
 valour, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of 
 Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunucha 
 has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty. 
 
 h See Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxi. c. Ifi. I. xxii. c. 4. The 
 wiiole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the Invectives 
 of Mamertinus, of Libaniuti:, and of Julian himself, who have insulted 
 the vices of the court of Constantius. 
 
 i Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his sovereign in choos- 
 ing the governors of the provinces, and the generals of the army, 
 and concludes his history with a very bold observation, as it is much 
 more dangerous under a feeble reign to attack the ministers than 
 the master himself. " Uti verum absolvam brevi. nt imperatore ipso 
 clarius, ita apparitorum plcri{:que magisatrox nihil." 
 
 j Apud quern (si vere dici debcat) multum Constantius potuit.— 
 Ammian. I. xviii. c. 4. 
 
 k Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90.) reproaches the apostate 
 with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa, who had 
 contributed to save his life; and we learn, though from a loss respec- 
 table authority, (Tillemont, Hist, des Empercurs, lom. iv. p. 916.) 
 that Julian w:is concealed in the sanctuary of a church. 
 
 1 The most authentic account of the education and adventures of 
 Julian, is contained in the episileor manifesto which he himself ad- 
 dressed to the senate and people of Athens. Libanius (Orat, Paren- 
 talis) on the side of the pagans, and Socrates (I. iii. c. 1.) on that ot 
 the christians, have preserved several interesting circumstances. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 tised their exercises, under the tuition «r ^u 
 
 ful masters; and the nt^L oVs h^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 to attend, or rather to guard,-th: nXws of (?L'st^^^^ the forms of judicial prLeedlngl ^The 
 
 tine, was not unworthv of thp Hi^^n 1 r i .^^.^^"' of Antioch. and ih^ nl..^.. .r ^. , ,• "® 
 
 But they could not Hi/n-.l. 1 .P'^^ ?^ ^^eir birth. 
 
 239 
 
 But thev coiilrl ^.r.* A-^ ^ oig'nity ot their birth. 
 
 "1 deprive 'o'lrtS'rf tiY'^'^'r i-*"" »'->■ 
 
 mands of a tvrant whn h^A V f ^voted to the com- 
 
 M^rci.5. '"^J?t I'allus, 111 the twenty-fifth year 
 to cement thi. r. r.^'^l' ""''^^ ""« '"'« "^ Cajsar, and 
 
 Irds the west T""^'",^ "'"i"""^'' '"' march^o- 
 
 ana me restitution of an ample patrimony." 
 
 Cru( ity and im- The Writers the most induls-ent to tlm 
 
 prudence of Ga - memnrv nf r-^n i i»iuujgeiii 10 llie 
 
 ^"^- Z}^JJ °V^^,""s, and even Julian him- 
 
 over the frail Up. Si "?^ ^^ "^'^^^^ ^o cast a veil 
 
 use of law, and 
 
 of Antioeh, a„d 7,^ pi^o;':^^^:^:::^^^ 
 
 sieged by spies and informers ; and the Cffo-^r ,tL„i<- 
 concealed in a plebeian habit very fLuen y '^fd/' 
 scended to assnme that odions charLter^ Evl'anan: 
 ment of the palace was adorned with the nsTmZn,, 
 of death and torture, and a general co stor at "n »4« 
 
 tne east, as if he had been conscious liow mncli he hLl 
 to fear, and how little he deserved to reie selected 
 for the objects of his resentment, the prof cia L '. 
 
 tie?s ,: Lrwitr"""'"^ ''^''T' =•"" >"« "- - : 
 
 sin"' hvTr """■" '■*'^'""' '"^ suspected of incen- 
 sing, by the r secret correspondence, tlie timid nnd 
 suspicions mind of Constanl'ius. I3u he for "^ ,|,at 
 he was deprivinnr himself of his only support he 
 affection of the people; whilst he furnisledTlfe ll ce 
 
 emDeroTre'7 ■"■"'" ""= "'"^ "^ '"'"'' ""^ affo ded ^: 
 emperor the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of 
 his purple, and of his life.' ° 
 
 As long as the civil war suspended m 
 
 tius dissembled his knowledo-e of the ^- ^- 354. 
 weak and cruel administratioiUo which his choir-n h.A 
 subjected the east; and the discovorv nf o ^"^ 
 
 sins secretly despatched to AnUo^b^^thrS o" 
 Gaul, was employed to convince the public Vh at tbl 
 emperor and the C^sar were united byTe same nto^ 
 res , and pursued by the same enemies.^ But'Xn hJ 
 victory was decided in favour of Constanti, I M« l 
 pendent colleague became less ulefu^d"! ^sVo nt 
 able. Every circumstance of his conduct was ^ovoroL 
 and suspiciously examined, as it was private ^^^ 
 solved, either to deprive Galh.q nf thL ^'"^V^^y ^^' 
 least to remove him 'fZ th^'li^dolInnnCr? of "Ul 
 
 ^'onslantin ifis rfr-sTscriber' t" "'^ ^''^'''' 
 
 sit thLf o'fl '"^'t '? '--a witraH:;: 
 
 he had renounced the gentleness, of her sex a nefr 
 necklace was esteemed an equivale;t price ihrlhe mtir 
 eltv of r.n"'"'"' ""^ ^''''''^' nobleman.r The^ u. 
 
 nioiea violence of popular or military executions : 
 
 Victor^: ' AccTd"?nf to °P, -iS/irs "!?""'' ^"^"""^- -" ^'^ ^-^ 
 Arian hishop was the w n« ^ ". ' ^'••"'' *"• ^'^ ^heophilus, an 
 tl'is solemn enRa'en^^entp;/'"^';''', 'l'*'^'"^' '^^ truarantee, of 
 rous firmness; hlf S d^ T MemoTm^'^H' 'i"''^''^' with gene- 
 P 112(1.) thinks It very iiiwol 1.^1 hit ''•,'^^' Empereurs, torn. iv. 
 sessed surh virtue. ""P'^o"'i'''e that an heretic should have pos- 
 
 lusMa^'Ihrson of Garihri '1" 'T °^ ^"« '^"^' "mother. Gal- 
 ^'antius; Sultan was tl i son of Jin^n'''^' of their father Julius Con- 
 
 ■n second marriage? Tilemont H [""d Jp"'" ^'^ ^'^""^^ ''P''^''^ 
 stantine. art. X)—0 j^*'"^"'°"'' "'st. des Empereurs, vie de Con- 
 
 nfp-irbu^^Ke^itauin'^wCh t\°cSu"fr; "'^ ^^"'^'^ '' ^°-^-«'- 
 of Constantius / and the vouni nrilJ '^'"""/""/^ the jealousy 
 h'mself to the Ies« cons fruou 4Ee "o? n .f "'^^'^^d/o withdraiv 
 „P See Julian ad S. P o a n"-.'^ ?'^''^'"''? "'"^ '«"*»• 
 V>rtor,Eutropius;x iV. I s^nlfconv ,h '"■°'":, '"^^''^O"- Aurelius 
 wrote his abridgtlipnt a .out fifip^n'^^ ^ "^^'^^ °^ Eutropius, who 
 ^I'en there wasTo ?o,?Eer any Siiritrf "" "^^ ^^^'^' ''^ Callus, 
 
 ^'^^uZ\lt'S"' r^^^^^^ ^'-^-'^'"'-^ assidua, hu- 
 
 ccritv nf A '*.'"'*• *^<^' Amnnan. Marce m. I. xiv c 1 tiia a rl 
 
 [Sts^r ITlS'fJv'^cJf Lr. "^" "•" •« ""represent 'f^r o"r 
 ^i- j.toan ula^ul°7vetr;:;eTf°rp?e"S '"'^"^""^ '^''^y^' I 
 
 trefusalTo^^a^ffl uTeTesi^es^ of^ *"V'*^ ^"'j' "'-« ^•'•^ 
 
 ^' death, because she hn^^^^^^ who solicited 
 
 '• Xiv. c. I'."*''""'® ^^^ ^ad been disappomted of his love. Ammian 
 
 T.«,.»^l r A • , ^^"'^^'^y ii.iu oeen massacred bv thp 
 
 as an ncfnf ' "l*^"""^', "as justly resented, not only 
 as an act of wanton cruelty, but as a dangerous insuit 
 
 ZllVi?":'^' """j^^'y "'■ Constantius. °Two m n 1 
 ters of Illustrious rank, Domitian, the orienta prefect 
 and Montins, qua;stor of the palace, were emifowere I 
 
 oi tne east, rhey were instructed to behave touardo 
 Gallus with moderation and respect, and, l,y r^en! 
 les ar s of persuasion to engage hi^ to Comply with 
 the invitation of his brother and'colleagne. The rash 
 ness of the pra^fect disappointed these prudent r^ea- 
 
 enemy. On his arrival at Antioeh, Domitian nassed 
 disdainfully before the gates of the palace, ad aSl 
 
 davs^t^ s^uner"'."^ indisposition! continued seve^f 
 days m sullen retirement, to prepare an inflammatory 
 memorial, which he transmitted to the imperircourf 
 
 GaUuf fhe'' '""/'I" •" i''" P'^'^'-'S solil.i,a.ioL of 
 Gallus, the pra>fect condescended to take his seat in 
 
 council ; but his first step was to signify a coiicise and 
 
 haughty mandate, importing that the Cssar shnnU 
 
 immediately repair to'^ItalyT and threatel.tharhe 
 
 nl^H- T"''' P?'f'' '''^ ''"'^y '>' hesitation, by sns! 
 pending the usual allowance of his household. The 
 nephew and daughter of Constantine, who could ill 
 brook the insolence of a subject, expressed therrTesen 
 ment by instantly delivering Domi'tian to the ens ody 
 of a guard. The quarrel still admitted of some terms 
 of accommodation. They were rendered impracicabl 
 by the^mprudent behaviour of Montins, a statesman, 
 
 rark ».,rtii„„1 Persons CLsascd in it; a minisicr of con"id"?S 
 rank, and two obscure agcnla, „ ho were resolved to make iheir for! 
 
 revealed bya,> old io^aTii i^i<^S>U^i^Z7'Zg,'r''"'^ '"" 
 
240 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 3i ' 
 
 iflt 
 
 whose art and experience were frequently betrayed by 
 the levity of his disposition." The quaestor reproached 
 Gallus in haughty language, that a prince, who was 
 scarcely authorized to remove a municipal magistrate, 
 should presume to imprison a praetorian pracfect ; con- 
 voked a meeting of the civil and military officers ; and 
 required them, in the name of their sovereign, to defend 
 the person and dignity of his representatives. By this 
 rash declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus 
 was provoked to embrace the most desperate counsels. 
 He ordered his guards to stand to their arms, assembled 
 the populace of Antioch, and recommended to their 
 zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His com- 
 mands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized 
 the praefect and the quaestor, and tyinfr their legs toge- 
 ther with ropes, they dragged them through the streets 
 of the city, inflicted a thousand insults and a thousand 
 wounds on these unhappy victims, and at last precipi- 
 tated their manjjled and lifeless bodies into the stream 
 of the Orontes.' 
 
 Dangerous situa- After such a deed, whatever might 
 tion of Callus, j^j^ye been the designs of Gallus, it was 
 only in a field of battle that he could assert his inno- 
 cence with any hope of success. But the mind of that 
 prince was formed of an equal mixture of violence and 
 weakness. Instead of assuming the title of Augustus, 
 instead of employing in his defence the troops and 
 treasures of the east, he suffered himself to be deceived 
 by the affected tranquillity of Constantius, who, leav- 
 ing him the vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly 
 recalled the veteran legions from the. provinces of Asia. 
 But as it still appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in 
 his capital, the slow and safer arts of dissimulation 
 were practised with success. The frequent and press- 
 ing epistles of Constantius were filled with professions 
 of confidence and friendship; exhorting the Caesar to 
 discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve 
 his colleague from a part of the public cares, and to 
 assist the west by his presence, his counsels, and his 
 arms. After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus had 
 reason to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected 
 the opportunities of flight and of resistance; he was 
 seduced by the flattering assurance of the tribune Scu- 
 dilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier, dis- 
 guised the most artful insinuation ; and he depended 
 on the credit of his wife Constantia, till the unsea- 
 sonable death of that princess completed the ruin in 
 which he had been involved by her impetuous pas- 
 sions.y 
 ... ,. , After a lonor delay, the reluctant Cae- 
 
 Ilia disffrare and ^ _ => , •'',.. 
 
 d«mth, sar set torvvards on his journey to the 
 
 A. D. 354. imperial court. From Antioch to Ha- 
 "" * drianople, he traversed the wide extent 
 of his dominions with a numerous and stately train; 
 and as he laboured to conceal his apprehensions from 
 the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained 
 the people of Constantinople with an exhibition of the 
 games of the circus. The progress of the journey 
 might, however, have warned him of the impending 
 danger. In all the principal cities he was met by min- 
 isters of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices 
 of government, to observe his motions, and to prevent 
 the hasty sallies of his despair. The persons des- 
 patched to secure the provinces which he left behind, 
 passed him with cold salutations, or affected disdain ; 
 and the troops, whose station lay along the public road. 
 
 u III the prcsftnt text of Ammianus, we read, Jisper, qiiidem, sed 
 ad lenitatem propensior ; which forms a sentence of conlradirtory 
 nonsense. With the aid of nn old ninniiscript, Valesins has rectified 
 the first of these corruptions, and we perceive a ray of light in the 
 Biibslilution of the word rafer. If wo venture to chance lenitatem 
 into leoitatem, this alteration of a single letter will render the whole 
 passace clear and consistent. 
 
 X Instead of heinc obliged to collect scattered and Imperfect hints 
 from various sources, we now enter into the full stream of the his- 
 tory of Ammianus, and need only refer to the seventh and ninth 
 chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorsius. however, (I. iii.c. 28.) 
 thouch partial to Gallus, should not he entirely overlooked. 
 
 y She had preceded her husband ; but died of a fever on the road, 
 at a little place in Bithynia, called Ca-num Gallicanum. 
 
 were studiously removed on his approach, lest they 
 might be tempted to offer their swords for the service 
 of a civil war.« After Gallus had been permitted to 
 repose himself a few days at Hadrianople, he received 
 a mandate, expressed in the most haughty and abso- 
 lute style, that his splendid retinue should halt in that 
 city, while the Caesar himself, with only ten post-car- 
 riages, should hasten to the imperial residence at Mi- 
 lan. In this rapid journey, the profound respect which 
 was due to the brother and colleague of Constantius, 
 was insensibly changed into rude familiarity; and 
 Gallus, who discovered in the countenances of the at- 
 tendants that they already considered themselves as 
 his guards, and might soon be employed as his execu- 
 tioners, began to accuse his fatal rashness, and to re- 
 collect, with terror and remorse, the conduct by which 
 he had provoked his fate. The dissimulation which 
 had hitherto been preserved, was laid aside at Petovio 
 in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the 
 suburbs, where the general Barbatio, with a select 
 band of soldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, 
 nor corrupted by rewards, expected the arrival of his 
 illustrious victim. In the close of the evening he was 
 arrested, ignominiously stripped of the ensigns of 
 Cffisar, and hurried away to Pola in Istria, a seques- 
 tered prison, which had been so recently polluted with 
 royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon in- 
 creased by the appearance of his implacable enemy 
 the eunuch Eusebius, who, with the assistance of a 
 notary and a tribune, proceeded to interrogate him con- 
 cerning the administration of the east. The Caesar 
 sunk under the weight of shame and guilt, confessed 
 all the criminal actions, and all the treasoriable de- 
 signs, with which he was charged ; and by imputing 
 them to the advice of his wife, exasperated the indig- 
 nation of Constantius, who reviewed with partial pre- 
 judice the minutes of the examination. The emperor 
 was easily convinced, that his own safety was incom- 
 patible with the life of his cousin : the sentence of 
 death was signed, despatched, and executed ; and the 
 nephew of Constantine, with his hands tied behind his 
 back, was beheaded in prison like the vilest malefac- 
 tor.* Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties 
 of Constantius, assert that he soon relented, and en- 
 deavoured to recall the bloody mandate ; but that the 
 second messenger, intrusted with the reprieve, was 
 detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded the unforgiving 
 temper of Gallus, and were desirous of reuniting to 
 fhfir empire the wealthy provinces of the east.** 
 
 Besides the reigning emperor, Julian The danger and 
 alone survived, of all the numerous pos- escape of Julian, 
 terity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his 
 royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. 
 From his retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he 
 was conveyed under a strong guard to the court of 
 Milan ; where he languished above seven months, in 
 the continual apprehension of suffering the same igno- 
 minious death, which was daily inflicted, almost before 
 his eyes, on the friends and adhereats of his persecuted 
 family. His looks, his gestures, his silence, were 
 scrutinized with malignant curiosity, and he was per- 
 petually assaulted by enemies whom he had never of- 
 fended, and by arts to which he was a stranger.'^ But 
 
 z The Thebjpan leeions, which were then quartered at Hadriano- 
 ple, sent a deputation to Gallus. with a tender of their services. 
 Ammian, 1. xiv. c. 11. The Notitia (s. 6. 20. 38. edit. Labb.) mea- 
 lions three several legions which bore the name of Thehaean. Tlie 
 zeal of M. de Voltaire, to destroy a despicable, though celebrated 
 legend, has tempted him on the slightest grounds to deny the exist- 
 ence of a Thebjean legion in the Roman armies. See Oeuvres de 
 Voltaire, torn. xv. p. 414. quarto edition. 
 
 a See the complete narrative of the journey and death of Gallus tn 
 Ammianus, I. xiv. c. 11. Julian complains that his brother was put 
 to death without a trial; attempts to justify, or at least to exru-ic. 
 the cruel revenge which he had inflicted on his enemies: but seems 
 at last to acknowledge that he might justly have been deprived of 
 the purple. 
 
 b riiilostorgius, 1. iv. c. 1. Zonaras, 1. xiii. torn. ii. p. 19. But tne 
 former was partial towards an Arian monarch, and the latter If"'-*' 
 crihed, without choice or criticism, whatever he found in the writ* 
 ingsof the ancients. 
 
 c See Ammianus Marcellin. I. xv. c. 3, 8. Julian himself, in ins 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired 
 the virtues of firmness and discretion. He defended 
 his honour as well as his life, against the insnarina 
 subtilties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured to extort 
 some declaration of his sentiments ; and whilst he 
 cautiously suppressed his grief and resentment, he 
 nobly disdained to flatter the tyrant, by any seemino- 
 approbation of his brother's murder. Julian most de''- 
 voutly ascribes his miraculous deliverance to the pro- 
 tection of the gods, who had exempted his innocence 
 from the sentence of destruction pronounced by their 
 justice against the impious house of Constantine.** 
 As the most effectual instrument of their providence, 
 he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous 
 friendship of the empress Eusebia,* a woman of beauty 
 and merit, who, by tiie ascendant which she had o-ained 
 over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced, in some 
 measure, the powerful conspiracy of the eunuchs. By 
 the intercession of his patroness, Julian was admitted 
 into the imperial presence ; he pleaded his cause with 
 a decent f^;eedom ; he was heard with favour ; and, not- 
 withstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the 
 (iangcr of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, 
 the milder sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the coun- 
 cil. JJut the effects of a second interview were dreaded 
 by the eunuchs ; and Julian was advised to withdraw 
 tor a while into the neighbourhood of Milan, till the 
 Ho is sent to emperor thought proper to assio-n the 
 
 A D^'lliT M-.V '''^^ f , ^^^^"' ^^^ ^^^ P^^^« of" his ho- 
 • • • -y nourable exile. As he had discovered, 
 from his earliest youth, a propensity, or rather passion, 
 tor the language, the manners, the learning, and the 
 religion, of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an 
 order so agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult 
 of arms, and the treachery of courts, he spent six 
 months amidst the groves of the academy, in a free in- 
 tercourse with the philosophers of the age, who studied 
 to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to 
 inflame the devotion of their royal pupil. Their labours 
 were not unsuccessful ; and Julian inviolably preserved 
 for Athens that tender regard, which seldom fails to 
 arise in a liberal mind, from the recollection of the 
 place where it has discovered and exercised its grow- 
 ing powers. The gentleness and afl^ability of manners, 
 winch us temper suggested and his situation imposed, 
 insensibly engaged the affections of the strano-ers, as 
 veil as citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of 
 Ills fellow-students might perhaps examine his beha- 
 viour with an eye of prejudice and aversion; but .Tu- 
 iian established, in the schools of Athens, a general 
 prepossession in favour of his virtues and talents, 
 which was soon diffused over the Roman world. ^ 
 Hccalied to Milan. ,. "^^'^i 1st his hours were passed in stu- 
 dious retirement, the empress, resolute 
 to achieve the generous design which she had under- 
 taken, was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. 
 Uie death of the late Caesar had left Constantius in- 
 vested with the sole command, and oppressed by the 
 accumulated weight, of a mighty empire. Before the 
 
 241 
 
 wounds of civil discord could be healed, the provinces 
 of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians. 
 1 he fe^armatians no longer respected the barrier of the 
 JJanube. The impunity of rapine had increased the 
 boldness and numbers of the wild Isaurians : those 
 robbers descended from their craggy mountains to ra- 
 vage the adjacent country, and had even presumed, 
 though without success, to besiege the important city 
 of 5!>eleucia, which was defended by a garrison of three 
 
 Roman legions. Above all, the I 
 
 ersian monarch, 
 
 epistle to the Athenians, draws a very lively and just picture of his 
 
 mvM danger and of his sentiments. He shows, however, a tendency 
 
 h.r nir? . ,'^ «"«^ef'"J-'». I'y insinuatinp, though in obscure terms. 
 
 iu, P^rnuf^'^'T^ ^^^^'■ •■ ^ P^"*^** "''"<^'' <=a"no» be reconciled 
 »>UM the truth of chronology. 
 
 rl"^."'"'?" ^^^ "'o^'^C'i the crimes and misfortunes of the family of 
 a^rppr/i ,"?V" ['"eRorical fable, which is happily conceived and 
 fron, fjr'' '■^'''''.^?' l^ ^^'■'"^ ^'"^ conclusion of the seventh Oration, 
 EirTn V- V'V ^^^" detached and translated by the Abbe de la 
 "letPTie. Vie de Jovien, torn. ii. p. 385—408. 
 
 mil.? !f T?h V'^*'^^ °^ Thessalonica in Macedonia, of a noble fa- 
 "' y, and the daughter, as well as sister of consuls. Her marriage 
 
 U^hillnrVl^Zf' T^ ''^ ^'•'''*''^ '•? '^^ y^""' 352. In a divided age, 
 nles rni/ ,« .^ K .S P^'''^« «?:?« •" ''«' Praises. See their testiuTo- 
 n^es collected by Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. p.750— 
 
 •i/ii!l''''*"''"' ^"? ^••egory Nazianzen have exhausted the arts as well 
 I r.rl« P°^'^" °^ their eloquence, to represent Julian as the first of 
 Afi.«l' **'' ''•^ J.^^""*^ °^ tyrants. Gregory was his fellow-student at 
 fu r^V '^"'^/^e symptoms, which he so tragically describes, of the 
 DortI!.- ^*^^**"f "^ °^ ^'>® apostate, amount only to some bodily im- 
 .rn^^.- "k ' ^"*^ ^° ^**™° peculiarities in liis speech and manner. He 
 of t fnlh "°J^e''«''' "'at he then foresaw and foretold the calamities 
 'i»c church and state. (Greg. Nazianzen, Oral. iv. p. 12], 122.) 
 Vol. I — 2 F 16 
 
 elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia 
 and the presence of the emperor was indispensably 
 required, both in the west and in the east. For the 
 hrst time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged, that 
 ills single strength was unequal to such an extent of 
 care and of dominion.? Insensible to the voice of flat- 
 tery, which assured him that his all-powerful virtue 
 and celestial fortune, would still continue to triumph 
 over every obstacle, he listened with complacency to 
 the advice of Eusebia, which gratified his indolence, 
 without offending his suspicious pride. As she per- 
 ceived that the remembrance cf Gallus dwelt on the 
 emperor's mind, she artfully turned his attention to the 
 opposite characters of the two brothers, which from 
 their infancy had been compared to those of Domitian 
 and of* Titus.'* She accustomed her husband to con- 
 sider Julian as a youth of a mild unambitious disposi- 
 tion, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured 
 by the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill, 
 with honour, a subordinate station, without aspirino- to 
 dispute the commands, or to shade the glories, of liis 
 sovereign and benefactor. After an obstinate thouoh 
 secret stmggle, the opposition of the favourite eunuchs 
 submitted to the ascendency of the empress; and it 
 was resolved that Julian, after celebratinir his nuptials 
 with Helena, sister of Constantius, shoufd be appoint- 
 ed, with the title of Cajsar, to reign over the countries 
 be3'ond the Alps.' 
 
 Although the order which recalled him to court was 
 probably accompanied by some intimation of his ap- 
 proaching greatness, he appeals to the people of \thens 
 to witness his tears of undissembled sorrow, when he 
 was reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement.^ 
 He trembled for his life, for his fame, and even for his 
 virtue ; and his sole confidence was derived from the 
 persuasion that Minerva inspired all his actions 
 and that he was protected by an invisible guard of 
 angels, whom for that purpose she had borrowed from 
 the sun and moon. He approached, with horror, the 
 palace of Milan ; nor could the ingenuous youth conceal 
 his indignation, when he found himself accosted with 
 ftlse and servile respect by the assassins of his family. 
 Hiusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent 
 schemes, embraced him with the tenderness of a sister; 
 and endeavoured by the most soothing caresses, to 
 dispel his terrors, and reconcile him to his fortune, 
 liut the ceremony of shaving his beard, and his awk- 
 ward demeanour, when he first exchanged the cloak 
 of a Greek philosopher for the military habit of a 
 Roman prince, amu.sed, during a few days, the levity 
 of the imperial cotirt.' 
 
 The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer 
 deigned to consult with the senate in the choice of a 
 colleague ; but they were anxious that their nomina- 
 
 g Succumhere tot necessitatibus tamque crebrisunura sequod nun- 
 quam fecerat apert6 demonstrans. Ammian. I. xv. c. 8 He then 
 expresses, in their own words, the flattering assurances of the cour- 
 
 h Tantum a temperatis moribus Julian! difTerens fratris quantum 
 inter Vespasiani hlios fuit, Domitianum et Titum. Ammian. 1. xiv. 
 c. 11. 1 lie circumstanres and education of the two brothers were 
 so nearly the same, as to afford a strong example of the innate dif- 
 ference of characters. 
 
 i Ammianus, 1. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 137, 138. 
 
 k Julian, ad S. P. Q. A. p. 275, 276. Libanius, Oral. x. p. 268. 
 Julian did not yield till the gods had signified their will by repeated 
 visions and omens. His piety then forbade him to resist. 
 
 1 Julian himself relates Cp. 274.) with some humour the circumstan- 
 ces of his own metamorphosis, his downcast looks, and his perplex- 
 ity at being thus suddenly transported into a new world, where every 
 object appeared strange and hostile. 
 
•i 
 
 242 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 r 
 
 tion should be ratified by the consent of the army. On 
 tliis solemn occasion, the ofiiards, with the other troops 
 ■whose stations were in the neighbourhood of Milan, 
 appeared under arms ; and Constantius ascended his 
 lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, 
 who entered the same day into the twenty -fifth year of 
 his age." In a studied speech, conceived and delivered 
 with dignity, the emperor represented the various 
 dangers which threatened the prosperity of the republic, 
 the necessity of naming a CaDsar for the administration 
 of the west, and his own intention, if it was agreeable 
 to their wishes, of rewarding with the honours of the 
 purple, the promising virtues of the nephew of Con- 
 stantine. The approbation of the soldiers was testified 
 by a respectful murmur; they gazed on the manly 
 countenance of Julian, and observed with pleasure, 
 that the fire which sparkled in his eyes was tempered 
 by a modest blush, on being thus exposed, for the first 
 time, to the public view of mankind. As soon as the 
 ceremony of his investiture had been performed, Con- 
 stantius addressed him with the tone of authority, 
 which his superior age and station permitted him to 
 assume ; and exhorting the new Caesar to deserve by 
 heroic deeds, that sacred and immortal name, the em- 
 peror gave his colleague the strongest assurances of a 
 friendship which should never be impaired by time, 
 nor interrupted by their separation into the most distant 
 climates. As soon as the speech was ended, the troops, 
 as a token of applause, clashed their shields against 
 their knees;" while the officers who surrounded the 
 tribunal expressed, with decent reserve, their sense of 
 the merits of the representative of Constantius. 
 
 and declared 1'^^® '^^'^ princes returned to the pa- 
 
 cvsar, lace in the same chariot; and during 
 
 A. D. 35o. Nov. 6. ^.j^g slow procession, Julian repeated to 
 himself a verse of his favourite Homer, which he might 
 equally apply to his fortune and to his fears." Thefour- 
 aiid-twenty days which the Cajsar spent at Milan after 
 his investiture, and the first months of his Gallic reign, 
 were devoted to a splendid but severe captivity ; nor 
 could the ac(juisition of honour compensate for the loss 
 of freedom.^ His steps were watched, his correspon- 
 dence was intercepted ; and he was obliged, by pru- 
 dence, to decline the visits of his most intimate friends. 
 Of his former domestics, four only were permitted to 
 attend him ; two pages, his physician, and his libra- 
 rian ; the last of whom was employed in the care of a 
 valuable collection of books, the gift of the empress, 
 who studied the inclinations as well as the interest of 
 her friend. In the room of these faithful servants, a 
 household was formed, such indeed as became the 
 dignity of a Caesar: but it was filled with a crowd of 
 slaves, destitute, and perhaps incapable, of any attach- 
 ment for their new master, to whom, for the most part, 
 they were either unknown or suspected. His want of 
 experience might require the assistance of a wise 
 council ; but the minute instructions which regulated 
 the service of his table, and the distribution of his 
 hours, were adapted to a youth still under the disci- 
 pline of his preceptors, rather than to the situation of a 
 frince intrusted with the conduct of an important war. 
 f he aspired to deserve the esteem of his subjects, he 
 was checked by the fear of displeasing his sovereign ; 
 and even the fruits of his marriage-bed were blasted by 
 
 m See Ammian.MarceUin.l. XV. c. 8. ZosimuH, I. iii. p. 1^9. Au- 
 relian Victor. Victor Junior in Epitom. Eutrop. x. 14. 
 
 n Militares omncs liorrendo frngorc scuta ^enibus illidcntcs ; quod 
 
 /est prosperitatis indicium plenum; nam contra cum liasti.s clypei 
 
 feriuntur, ira? documentum est et dolorig. . . . Ammianua adds, 
 
 with a nice distinction, Euniqueut potiori reverent ia servarctur, ncc 
 
 •upra modum laudabant nee infra quam deccbat. 
 
 o E\K»S>t irog^vftof 6a»»ro; x*» /xotg* *(XT»iyf. The word purple 
 which Homer had used as a vague but common epithet for death. 
 was applied by Julian to express, very aptly, tlie nature and object 
 of his own apprehensiona. 
 
 p He represents, in the most pathetic terms, (p. 277.) the distress 
 of his new situation. The provision for hig table was, iiowever, so 
 elegant and sumptuous, that the young philosopher rejected it with 
 disdain. Q,uum legrret libeiluin assiduo, quem Constantius ul pri- 
 vignuni ad studia mittens manu sua conscripserat, pra;!icentcr dispo- 
 nens quid in convivio Ca>8arls impendi deberet, phasianum, et vulvam 
 t sumen exigi vetuit ct inferri. Ammiau. Marcelliii. 1. xvi. c. 5. 
 
 the jealous artifices of Eusebiai herself, who, on this 
 occasion alone, seems to have been unmindful of the 
 tenderness of her sex, and the generosity of her cha- 
 racter. The memory of his father and of his brothers 
 reminded Julian of his own danger, and his apprehen- 
 sions were increased by the recent and unworthy fate 
 of Sylvanus. In the summer which p^^^^, ^^j ^f g^j 
 preceded his own elevation, that gene- vunus, 
 
 ral had been chosen to deliver Gaul ^;,{2n,^;. 
 from the tyranny of the barbarians; but 
 Sylvanus soon discovered that he had left his most 
 dangerous enemies in the imperial court. A tlexterous 
 informer, countenanced by several of the principal min- 
 isters, procured from him some recommendatory let- 
 ters ; and erasing the whole of the contents, except 
 the signature, filled up the vacant parchment with 
 matters of high and treasonable import. I3y the in- 
 dustry and courage of his friends, the fraud was how- 
 ever detected, and in a great council of the civil and 
 military ofllcers, held in the presence of the emperor 
 himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly ac- 
 knowledged. But the discovery came too late ; the 
 report of the calumny, and the hasty seizure of his 
 estate, had already provoked the indignant chief to the 
 rebellion of which he was so unjustly accused. He 
 assumed the purple at his head-quarters of Cologne, 
 and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with 
 an invasion, and Milan with a siege. In this emer- 
 gency, Ursicinus, a general of equal rank, regained, 
 by an act of treachery, the favour which he had lost by 
 his eminent services in the cast. Exasperated, as he 
 might speciously allege, by injuries of a similar na- 
 ture, he hastened with a few followers to join the 
 standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too cre- 
 dulous friend. After a reign of only twenty-eight days, 
 Sylvanus was assassinated : the soldiers who, without 
 any criminal intention, had blindly followed the ex- 
 ample of their leader, immediately returned to their 
 allegiance ; and the flatterers of Constantius celebrated 
 the wisdom and felicity of the monarch, who had ex- 
 tinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle.' 
 The protection of the Rhaetian fron- co,siantiuB visit, 
 tier, and the persecution of the catholic Rome, 
 
 church, detained Constantius in Italy \^'?^' 
 above eighteen months after the depar- ^" 
 
 ture of Julian. Before the emperor returned into the 
 east, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to 
 the ancient capital.^ He proceeded from Milan to 
 Rome along the iEmilian and Flaminian ways ; and as 
 soon as he approached within forty miles of the city, 
 the march of a prince who had never vanquished a 
 foreign enemy, assumed the appearance of a triumphal 
 procession. His splendid train was composed of all 
 the ministers of luxury ; but in a time of profound peace, 
 he was encompassed by the glittering arms of the nu- 
 merous squadrons of his guards and cuirassiers. Their 
 streaming banners of silk, embossed with gold, and 
 shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person 
 of the emperor. Constantius sat alone in a loity car 
 resplendent with gold and precious gems ; and, except 
 when he bowed his head to pass under the gates of the 
 cities, he affected a stately demeanour of inflexible, and, 
 as it might seem, of insensible gravity. The severe 
 
 q If we recolh'ct that Constantino, ilic father of Helena, died al'ove 
 eighteen years before in a mature old age, it will appear probalile, 
 that the daughter, lliougii a virgin, could not be very young at the 
 time of her marriage. She was soon afterwards delivered of a son, 
 wiio died imnipdiately, quod obstctrix corrupta mercede, mox tia- 
 turn prirpccto plusquam cotivenrrat umbiliro necavit. She accompa- 
 nied the en)pcror and empress in their journey to Rome, and the lat- 
 ter, qua>situm vonennm bibere per fraudem illexit. ut quotiescuniquc 
 concepisi?et, immnturum abjicerct partum. Ammian, 1. xvi. c. 10. 
 Our physicians will determine whether there exists such a poison. 
 For my own part. I am inclined to hope that the public malignity 
 imputed the effects of accident as the guilt of Eusebia. 
 
 r Ammianus (xv. 5 ) was perfectly well informed of the conduct 
 and fate of Sylvanus. He liimself was one of the few followers wlio 
 attended Ursicinus in his datigerous enterprise. 
 
 » For the particulars of the visit of Constantius to Rome, see Am- 
 mianus, I. .wi. c. 10. We have only to add that Thcmistius wi^« 
 appointed deputy from Constantinople, and that he composed hin 
 fourth oration for this ceremony. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 discipline of the Persian youth had been introduced by 
 the eunuchs into the imperial palace ; and such were 
 the habits of patience which they had inculcated, that 
 during a slow and sultry march, he was never seen to 
 move his hand towards his face, or to turn his eyes 
 either to the right or to the left. He was received by 
 the magistrates and senate of Rome ; and the emperor 
 surveyed, with attention, the civil honours of the re- 
 public, and the consular images of the noble families. 
 The streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. 
 Their repeated acclamations expressed their joy at 
 beholding, after an absence of thirty-two years, the 
 sacred person of their sovereign; and Constantius 
 himself expressed, with some pleasantry, his aflfccted 
 surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be 
 collected on the same spot. Tiie son of Constantino 
 was lodged in the a^^cient palace of Augustus; he pre- 
 sided in the senate, harangued the people from the 
 tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended, assisted 
 with unusual courtesy at the games of the circus, and 
 accepted the crowns of gold, as well as the panegyrics 
 which had been prepared for the ceremony by the de- 
 puties of the principal cities. His short visit of thirty 
 days was employed in viewing the monuments of art 
 and power, which were scattered over the seven hills 
 and the interjacent valleys. He admired the awful 
 majesty of the capitol, the vast extent of the baths of 
 Caracalla and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of the 
 pantheon, the massy greatness of the amphitheatre of 
 1 itus, the elegant architecture of the theatre of Pom- 
 pey and the temple of Peace, and, above all, the stately 
 structure of the forum and column of Trajan; acknow- 
 ledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and 
 to magnify, had made an inadequate report of the me- 
 tropolis of the world. The traveller, who has contem- 
 plated the ruins of ancient Rome, may conceive some 
 imperfect idea of the sentiments which they must have 
 inspired when they reared their heads in the splendour 
 of unsullied beauty. 
 
 A new obelisk , T^® Satisfaction which Constantius 
 had received from this journey excited 
 him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the 
 Romans some memorial of his own gratitude°and mu 
 
 243 
 
 nificence. His first idea was to imitate the equestrian 
 and colossal statue which he had seen in the forum of 
 Trajan ; but when he had maturely weighed the diffi- 
 culties of the execution,* he chose rather to embellish 
 the capital by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a 
 remote but polished age, which seems to have preceded 
 the invention of alphabetical writing, a great number 
 of these obelisks had been erected, in the cities of 
 Thebes and 'Heliopolis, by the ancient sovereigns of 
 Egypt, in a just confidence that the simplicity of their 
 form, and the hardness of their substance, would resist 
 the injuries of time and violence." Several of these 
 extraordinary columns had been transported to Rome 
 by Augustus and his successors, as the most durable 
 monuments of their power and victory; * but there re- 
 mained one obelisk, which, from its size or sanctity, 
 escaped for a long time the rapacious vanity of the 
 conquerors. It was designed by Constantino to adorn 
 his new city ; x and, after being removed by his order 
 
 .»,* ."?'.'"'*''*''®; '^ '^"^'^'^® P*"'"**^" °^ Persia, observed to the emperor. 
 I. K."/'l® '5^''^ *"S'' •* *'°'^®' ''^ ™"«^ ^•'"''^ of preparing a similar 
 stable (the forum of Trajan.) Another saying of Uormisdas is re- 
 corded, "that one thing only had displeased him, to find that men 
 died at Rome as well as elsewhere." If we adopt this reading of the 
 text of Ammianus {disphcuisse instead of placuisse.) we may con- 
 sider It as a reproof of Roman vanity. The contrary sense would 
 be that of a misanthrope. 
 
 u When Germanicus visited the ancient monuments of Thebes, the 
 edestof the priests explained to him the meaning of these hiero- 
 Biyphics. Tacit. Annal. ii. c. 60. Bui it seems probable, that before 
 tlie useful invention of an alphabet, these natural or arbitrarv si-ms 
 were the common characters of the Egyptian nation. See Warbur- 
 ton 8 Divme Legation of Moses, vol. iii. p. 60—243. 
 
 X See Plin. flist. Natur. I. xxxvi. c. 14, 15. 
 
 y Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xvii. c. 4. He gives us a Greek interpre- 
 tation of the hieroglyphics, and his commentator Lindenbro'^ius adds 
 a Latin inscription, which, in twenty verses of the age of Constau- 
 iius, contains a short history of the obelisk. 
 
 from the pedestal where it stood before the temple of 
 the Sun at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to 
 Alexandria. The death of Constantino suspended the 
 execution of his purpose, and this obelisk was destined 
 by his son to the ancient capital of the empire. A ves- 
 sei of uncommon strength and capaciousness was pro- 
 vide^ to convey this enormous weight of granite, at 
 least a hundred and fifteen feet in length, from the 
 banks of the Nile to those of the Tyber. The obelisk 
 of Constantius was landed about three miles from the 
 city, and elevated, by the efforts of art and labour, in 
 the great circus of Rome.^ 
 
 The departure of Constantius from^i^n ^- 
 Rome was hastened by the alarming in- lirnS^an war?'* 
 teJligence of the distress and danger of A. D. 357-359. 
 the Illyrian provinces. The distractions of civil war, 
 and the irreparable loss which the legions had sustain- 
 ed in the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries, al- 
 most without defence, to the light cavalry of the bar- 
 barians; and particularly to the inroads of the Quadi 
 a fierce and powerful nation, who seem to have ex- 
 changed the institutions of Germany for the arms and 
 military arts of their Sarmatian allies.* The garrisons 
 of the frontier were insufficient to check their progress ; 
 and the indolent monarch was at length compelled to 
 assemble, from the extremities of his dominions, the 
 flower of the Palatine troops, to take the field in per- 
 son, and to employ a whole campaign, with the pre- 
 ceding autumn and ensuing spring, in the serious pro- 
 secution of the war. The emperor passed the Danube 
 on a bridge of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered 
 his march, penetrated into the heart of the country of 
 the Quadi, and severely retaliated the calamities which 
 they bad inflicted on the Roman province. The dis- 
 mayed barbarians were soon reduced to sue for peace ; 
 they oflfered the restitution of his captive subjects as an 
 atonement for the past, and the noblest hostages as a 
 pledge for their future conduct. The generous cour- 
 tesy which was sliown to the first among their chief- 
 tains who implored the clemency of Constantius, en- 
 couraged the more timid, or the more obstinate, to 
 imitate their example; and the imperial camp was 
 crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most 
 distant tribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser 
 Poland, and who might have deemed themselves se- 
 cure behind the lofty ridge of the Carpathian moun- 
 tains. While Constantius gave laws to the barbarians 
 beyond the Danube, he distinguished, with specious 
 compassion, the Sarmatian exiles, who had been ex- 
 pelled from their native country by the rebellion of 
 their slaves, and who formed a very powerful acces- 
 sion to the power of the Quadi. The emperor, em- 
 bracing a generous but artful system of policy, released 
 the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating de- 
 pendence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to 
 the dignity of a nation united under the government 
 of a king, the friend and ally of the republic. He de- 
 clared his resolution of asserting the justice of their 
 cause, and of securing the peace of the provinces by 
 the extirpation, or at least the banishment, of the Limi- 
 gantes, whose manners were still infected with the 
 vices of their servile origin. The execution of this 
 design was attended with more difficulty than glory. 
 The territory of the Limigantes was protected against 
 the Romans by the Danube, against the hostile barba- 
 rians by the Teyss. The marshy lands, which lay be- 
 tween those rivers, and wore often covered by their 
 inundations, formed an intricate wilderness, pervious 
 only to the inhabitants, who were acquainted with its 
 secret paths, and inaccessible fortresses. On the ap- 
 
 t See Donat. Roma Antiqua, 1. iii. c. 14. I. iv.c. 12. and the learned 
 thougii confused Dissertation of Rarganiison Obelisks, inserted in the 
 fourth volume of Grajvius's Roman Antiquities, p. 1897— 19:?6. Thii 
 Dissertation is dedicated to PopeSixtus V. wiio erected the obelisk of 
 Constantius in the square before the patriarcJial church of St. John 
 Late ran. 
 
 a The events of this Quadian and Sarmatian war are related hy 
 Ammianas.xvl. 10. xvii. 12, 13. xix. 11. 
 
244 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 r 
 
 m\"^- 
 
 proach of Constantius, the Limigantcs tried the effi- 
 cacy of prayers, of fraud, and of arms ; but he sternly 
 rejected their supplications, defeated their rude strata- 
 gems, and repelled with skill and firmness the efforts 
 of their irregular valour. One of their most warlike 
 tribes, established in a small island towards the con- 
 flux of the Teyss and the Danube, consented to pass 
 the river with the intention of surprising the emperor 
 during the security of an amicable conference. They 
 soon became the victims of the perfidy which they me- 
 ditated. Encompassed on every side, trampled down 
 by the cavalry, slaughtered by the swords of the le- 
 gions, they disdained to ask for mercy ; and with an 
 undaunted countenance still grasped their weapons in 
 the agonies of death. After this victory a considerable 
 body of Romans was landed on the opposite banks of 
 the Danube; theTaifalse, a Gothic tribe engaged in the 
 service of the empire, invaded the Limigantes on the 
 side of the Teyss ; and their former masters, the free 
 Sarmatians, animated by hope and revenge, penetrated 
 through the hilly country into the heart of their ancient 
 possessions. A general conflagration revealed the huts 
 of the barbarians, which were seated in the depth of 
 the wilderness ; and the soldier fought with confidence 
 on marshy ground, which it was dangerous for him to 
 tread. In this extremity the bravest of the Limigantes 
 were resolved to die in arms, rather than to yield : but 
 the milder sentiment, enforced by the authority of their 
 elders, at length prevailed ; and the suppliant crowd, 
 followed by their wives and children, repaired to the 
 imperial camp, to learn their fate from the mouth of the 
 conqueror. After celebrating his own clemency, which 
 was still inclined to pardon their repeated crimes, and 
 to spare the remnant of a guilty nation, Constantius 
 assigned for the place of their exile a remote country, 
 where they might enjoy a safe and honourable repose. 
 The Limigantes obeyed with reluctance ; but before 
 they could reach, at least before they could occupy, 
 their destined habitations, they returned to the banks 
 of the Danube, exaggerating the hardships of their 
 situation, and requesting, with fervent professions of 
 fidelity, that the emperor would grant them an un- 
 disturbed settlement within the limits of the Roman 
 provinces. Instead of consulting his own experience 
 of their incurable perfidy, Constantius listened to his 
 flatterers, who were ready to represent the honour and 
 advantage of accepting a colony of soldiers, at a time 
 when it was much easier to obtain the pecuniary con- 
 tributions than the military service of the subjects of 
 the empire. The Limigantes were permitted to pass 
 the Danube ; and the emperor gave audience to the 
 multitude in a large plain near the modern city of Buda. 
 They surrounded the tribunal, and seemed to hear with 
 respect an oration full of mildness and dignity ; when 
 one of the barbarians, casting his shoe into the air, ex- 
 claimed with a loud voice, Marha ! Marha ! a word of 
 defiance, which was received as the signal of the tu- 
 mult. They rushed with fury to seize the person of 
 the emperor ; his royal throne and golden couch were 
 pillaged by these rude hands ; but the faithful defence 
 of his guards, who died at his feet, allowed him a 
 moment to mount a fleet horse, and to escape from the 
 confusion. The disgrace which had been incurred by 
 a treacherous surprise was soon retrieved by the num- 
 bers and discipline of the Romans ; and the combat 
 was only terminated by the extinction of the name and 
 nation of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatians were 
 reinstated in the possession of their ancient seats ; and 
 although Constantius distrusted the levity of their 
 character, he entertained some hopes that a sense of 
 gratitude might influence their future conduct. He 
 had remarked the lofty stature and obsequious de- 
 meanour of Zizais, one of the noblest of their chiefs. 
 He conferred on him the title of king; and Zizais 
 proved that he was not unworthy to reign, by a sin- 
 cere and lasting attachment to the interests of his ben- 
 efactor, who, after this splendid success, received the 
 
 name of Sarmalkus from the acclamations of his vic- 
 torious army.'' 
 
 While the Roman emperor and the The Persian 
 Persian monarch, at the distance of three negotiation, 
 thousand miles, defended their extreme ^' ^- ^'*®- 
 limits against tlie barbarians of the Danube and of the 
 Oxus, their intermediate frontier experienced the vicis- 
 situdes of a languid war, and a precarious truce. Two 
 of the eastern ministers of Constantius, the praetorian 
 praefect Musonian, whose abilities were disgraced by 
 the want of truth and integrity, and Cassian, duke of 
 Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteran soldier, opened a 
 secret negotiation with the satrap Tamsapor.'^ These 
 overtures'^of peace, translated into the servile and flat- 
 tering language of Asia, were transmitted to the camp 
 of tlie great king; who resolved to signify, by an am- 
 bassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant to 
 the suppliant Romans. Narses, wffom he invested with 
 that character, was honourably received in his passage 
 through Antioch and Constantinople : he reached Sir- 
 mium^'after a long journey, and, at his first audience, 
 respectfully unfolded the silken veil which covered the 
 haughty epistle of his sovereign. Sapor, king of 
 kings, and brother of the Sun and Moon, (such were 
 the'^lofty titles affected by oriental vanity,) expressed 
 his satisfaction that his brother, Constantius Caesar, 
 had been taught wisdom by adversity. As the lawful 
 successor of Darius Hystaspes, Sapor asserted, that 
 the river Strymon, in Macedonia, was the true and an- 
 cient boundary of his empire; declaring, however, that 
 as an evidence of his moderation, he would content 
 himself with the provinces of Armenia and Mesopota- 
 mia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his 
 ancestors. He alleged, that, without the restitution 
 of these disputed countries, it was impossible to es- 
 tablish any treaty on a solid and permanent basis ; and 
 he arrogantly threatened, that if his ambassador return- 
 ed in vain, he was prepared to take the field in the 
 spring, and to support the justice of his cause by the 
 strength of his invincible arms. Narses, who was 
 endowed with the most polite and amiable manners, 
 endeavoured, as far as was consistent with his duty, 
 to soften the harshness of the message.*^ Both the 
 style and substance were maturely weighed in the im- 
 perial council, and he was dismissed with the follow- 
 ing answer : " Constantius had a right to disclaim the 
 ofiiciousness of his ministers, who had acted without 
 any specific orders from the throne : he was not, how- 
 ever, averse to an equal and honourable treaty ; but it 
 was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose to 
 the sole and victorious emperor of the Roman world, 
 the same conditions of peace which he had indignantly 
 rejected at the time when his power was contracted 
 within the narrow limits of the east : the chance of 
 arms was uncertain ; and Sapor should recollect, that 
 if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in bat- 
 tle, they had almost always been successful in the 
 event of the war." A few days after the departure of 
 Narses, three ambassadors were sent to the court of 
 Sapor, who was already returned from the Scythian 
 expedition to his ordinary residence in Ctesiphon. 
 A count, a notary, and a sophist, had been selected 
 for this important commission; and Constantius, who 
 was secretly anxious for the conclusion of the peace, 
 entertained some hopes that the dignity of the first 
 of these ministers, the dexterity of the second, and 
 
 the rhetoric of the third,' would persuade the Persian 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 b Centi Sarmatarum macnodccori confidens apuil eosregein dedit. 
 Aurclius Victor. In a pompous oralion pronounced by Constantius 
 liiinself, lie expatiates on liia own exploits with much vanity, a"" 
 some trutli. 
 
 c Ammian. xvi. 9. , . 
 
 d Ammianus (xvii. 5.) transcribes the haughty letter. Themi?tius 
 (Oral. iv. p. 57. edit. Petav.) takes notice of the silken covering. loa- 
 tius and Zonaras mention the journey of the an>has?ador ; and Tetcr 
 the Patrician (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 28.) has informed us of his con- 
 ciliating behaviour. ., 
 
 e Ammianus, xvii. 5. and Valesfus ad loc. The sophist, or pni'o- 
 sopher, (in that age these words were almost synonymous,) wa« 
 
 monarch to abate he rigour of his demands. But 
 the progress of their negotiation was opposed and de- 
 fea ted by the hostile arts of Antoninus/a Roman sub- 
 
 i7LtP"f' "^u^" '""^ ""'"■^m oppr'ession, and was 
 adm tted into the counsels of Sapir, and even to the 
 royal table, where, according to the custom of U.e Per! 
 
 cus"ed ^Thf;'"r''""/"'!"^^^ *^^ frequently dts- 
 cussed.s The dexterous fugitive promoted his interest 
 by the same conduct whichVatified his reven^r He 
 incessantly urged the ambition of his new master to 
 
 JthrPafatl/r""'"'' °PPo«»ni'y -hen the bt'v'e " I 
 ot the Falatine troops were employed with the emneror ! 
 in a distant war on the Danube. He pressed Saoortn 
 
 Zftli'^^r*'' ='"'» -lefencelessScesTth I 
 east, w ith the numerous armies of Persia, now fortified ' 
 
 T^he ri'""!? ^"<1 j-Jpession of the fiercest barbar ans | 
 The ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and 
 a second embassy, of a still more honourable rank; was 
 
 w"^' dlt'or'eTiie?""'"^'"^"'' '"' *''=^--'^ ^^ 
 
 Invasion of Meso- The military historian,'' who was him- 
 
 •"'TTSr- ffi'-^PM to obselve the amy of 
 tnc f'ersians, as thev wprp nrpmV-i'nrr 
 to construct abridge of boat's over t^ie T ^ris Tele d 
 from an eminence the plain of Assyria, al for as tl e 
 edge of tho horizon, covered with men with horses 
 and with arms. Sapor appeared in the front, conspicul 
 
 Z lee?/!'"'''"" "^^''^ P"!""- 0" '"« '«ft hand. 
 
 nfinJ^l Ch.onites, displayed the stem countenance 
 ot an aged and renowned warrior. The monarch had 
 
 orthJllb ''•'"''" P^? ? '.''^ ""-■>' '-andtr the k ng 
 ot the Albanians, who led his independent tribes {torn 
 the shores of the Cas,>ian. The satraps and ge°,era"s 
 
 he whole army, besides the numerous train of oriental 
 luxury, consisted of more than one hundred thousand 
 effective men, inured to fati<,ue, and selected from t e 
 bravest nations of Asia. ThTRoman deserter "n 
 some measure gmdcd the councils of Sapor, had pr ," 
 dently advised, tliat, instead of wasting the summer™ 
 tedious and dimcult sieges, he should march d"cc.; 
 
 soil. ,l,„ f M ''^' V"^ ''Tf^ forwards without delay to 
 seize the feeble and wealthy metropolis of Syria. But 
 the 1 ersians were no sooner advanced into the plains of 
 Mesopotamia, than they discovered that every pre" au- 
 tion had been used which could retard their pro rress 
 or defeat their design. The inhabitants, with UieTr cat 
 tie, were secured i„ places of strength, the greeXaee 
 , hroughout the country was set on fire the fords of the 
 ZZZrfT'^'i ^y ^'"'^P ''^^'^' military encriies 
 
 Len te °? """ 7rt^ ^''"^'' "'"• " seasonable 
 swell of the waters of the Euphrates deterred the bar- 
 barians from attempting the ordinary passao-e of «,e 
 h dge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing 
 his plan of operations, tlien conducted the army by f 
 onger etrcuit, but through a fertile territory, towards 
 the head of the Kuphrates, where the infant river is 
 reduced to a shallow and accessible streari. Sapor 
 overlooked, with prudent disdain, the strength of N si- 
 6IS, but as he passed under the walls of Amida, he 
 w^: dl,': '^^^'"'thf' "'e majesty of his presence 
 TS. ,,r" ^^ "'•'' ^"i""'?" '"'" i-nmediate submission. 
 
 amin,. I °'""^ '."^"" "^'^ '■^"''<"" ''"t' "''•ich glanced 
 against the royal tiara, convinced him of his error; and 
 
 We'nd'Sf''lt"'n».'ri'''''r ''"='""■ "•"' ''''"'''' "f JamWiclms, and the 
 
 'ntemper^Scc andthe winZo^lh''^ Persians have been addicted o 
 Of Mahomet ' Kson S rL ^t'"^.^?>'^ trnimphed over tlie law 
 VoyageB'en Pers^ftom-ln^'^SJ '^'"' '' "" P' ''^-^'-- '^"^ C^'^^^'" 
 *• Antmian. 1. xviii. 6—8, 10. 
 
 245 
 
 Svilf.'^ifT"' "^'""'"^ ^^'^""^^ ^i^h impatience to the 
 advice of his ministers, who conjured him not to sacH 
 
 ' his' e:entS ^'it^ ^t^^^- V^ gratificltirof 
 nib resentment. Ihc following dav Grnmhat^* r,A 
 
 . vanced towards the gates with a select boToffoops" 
 
 and required the instant surrender of the eitv asX' 
 
 I only atonement which could be aecep W Kch an 
 
 I act ot rashness and insolence. His proposak «,.r2 
 
 I answered by a general discharge, and h 1*^0, ?! son a 
 
 j beautiful and valiant youth, 4; pierced th ouA> the 
 
 I heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balists Th» 
 
 funeral of the prince of the Cliionites was ee^;brated 
 
 according to the rites of his country; and the Irief^f 
 
 ot Sapor, that the gnilty city of Amida should serve 
 
 t^i^^r Whts'sr " ""^ ''^^"" '"' '° p^^-- 
 
 The ancient city of Amid or Amida,' ,. 
 which sometimes assumes the provincial ^''^ of Amida. 
 appellation of Diarbekir,- is advantageously situate in 
 a ferule plain, watered by the natural and artificial 
 channels of the Tigris, of'which the least incon S 
 able stream bends in a semicircular form round the 
 eastern part of the city. The emperor Constant us 
 had recently conferred on Amidathe honour of hS own 
 name, and the additional fortifications of stron.r wan" 
 
 mmt^[li"'^"'- 'i r'*' P,"""''''' "•'"' »■' "se»»I of 
 
 h^force? ,n?r'' "'"' "'5 "'"'""•''^y K"™^"" ^^^ been re- 
 nforced to tlie amount of seven legions, when the place 
 
 was invested by the arms of Sapo?.> H s first and most 
 
 ^,1 J .,_ ? ""' ^'^'"^^^ nations which followed his 
 
 standard their respective posts were assigned ; the south 
 
 o the Verta;; the north to the Albanians -the east to 
 
 he Chionites, inflamed with grief and indiL-nat^o^tl e 
 
 rvereH ?h' Seffestans, the bravest of his wlrriors 'w^to 
 
 elephants »"t?"p"'* " ''"""'''''"'le line of Indian 
 elephant^.- The Persians, on every side, supported 
 their e forts, and animated their courage; and tl e mon- 
 arch himself, careless of his rank and% afety, disry- 
 
 vo'ut fnl", ^.'r'^^Tr' "^ "'" ^'^Se, the ardour'of^a 
 >outhful soldier. After an obstinate combat, the bar- 
 barians were repulsed ; they incessantly returned to 
 te charge; they were again driven back with a dread- 
 been b?n if' f l^'«"/ebel legions of Gauls, who had 
 been banished into the east, signalized their undisci- 
 
 e pt«f"""' "^y \"°'''"f"^I S'llly into the heart of 
 the Persian camp In one of the fiercest of these re- 
 peated assaults, Amida was betrayed by the treachery 
 of a deserter who itidicated to the barbarians a se- 
 cret and neglected staircase, scooped out of the rock 
 that hangs over the stream of the Tigris. .Seventy 
 
 tW li 7,"'^ a lolty tower, which commanded 
 
 m r in f '^P "L"?'^"'''' "" '"Sh the Persian ban- 
 d Lnv^f." K • '""'f'^""=r '" "'« a'^'ailants, and of 
 dismay to the besieged ; and if this devoted band could 
 have maintained their post a few minutes longer, the 
 
 Niehuhr.tom.ii. p.:of_^og^'%',' '*^'"^^^ 2<.{. and Voyajres de 
 
 by 7rJlmhnu''s"?vfv°?"of ^f °^^'";^-'' ^''^ ^^^^ '"'""^^'y described 
 fLZ, A ' ^ ^^• ^~^-^ ^''o "cted an lionourahle oarl in the dP 
 
 ?erst;n".^ ^'"'"'''^ ^'''' ^'^^^""y' ^''«» ^''^ -'^ was sforme;, by' tt 
 nnTr?n/''T ^°- "" P«''0"s. the Albanian? are too well known fo re- 
 JZurv wSTrVr- '^'^' S*i^'^.^l^"'« i'.l.abited a lar^e Td level 
 nn^ If.^' '^'"»''''/' preserves their name, to the south of Khorasan 
 D'Hpr^lny^'i-M- """^'^«^«" ^se« Geographia Nuh:on.is. p iSand 
 DHerbelot. Bibliothcque Orientale, p. TUT.) Notwithstandina thS 
 boasted victory of Bahram. the Se^e.stans. above foursco e veafs af 
 terwards. ani»pnr no an ir,^«..««^«.,? ..„.:^' .i.. _.. ^ ,, .years at 
 
 .«_.. J ■' ""••■■•■•I, iiii: '^•-^I'nuiiis, aiiove lourscore vparc nf 
 
 terwards, appear as an independent nation, the allv of Persia We 
 are Ignorant of the situation of tJie Verta. and ChU.ites but I ^^ 
 tnchned to place then, (at least the latter) towards te confines o7 
 I India and Scyihia. See Ammian. xvi. 9. "'''""* "'« connnes of 
 
246 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XTX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 reduction of the place might have been purchased by 
 the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried, 
 without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, 
 he had recourse to the slower but more certain opera- 
 tions of a regular siege, in the conduct of which he was 
 instructed by the skill of the Roman deserters. The 
 trenches were opened at a convenient distance, and the 
 troops destined for that service advanced under the 
 portable cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch, 
 and undermine the foundations of the walls. Wooden 
 towers were at the same time constructed, and moved 
 forward on wheels, till the soldiers, who were provided 
 with every species of missile weapons, could engage 
 almost on level ground with the troops who defended 
 the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could 
 suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in 
 the defence of Amida, and the works of Sapor were 
 more than once destroyed by the fire of the Romans. 
 But the resources of a besieged city may be exhausted. 
 The Persians repaired their losses, and pushed their 
 approaches ; a large breach was made by the battering- 
 ram, and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the 
 sword and by disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. 
 The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their children, 
 all who had not time to escape through the opposite 
 gate, were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous 
 massacre. 
 
 Of Singara, &c. But the ruin of Amida was the safety 
 A. D. 360. of the Roman provinces. As soon as 
 the first transports of victory had subsided. Sapor was 
 at leisure to reflect, that to chastise a disobedient city, 
 he had lost the flower of his troops, and the most fa- 
 vourable season for conquest." Thirty thousand of his 
 veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida, during 
 the continuance of a siege which lasted seventy-three 
 days: and the disappointed monarch returned to his 
 capital with affected triumph and secret mortification. 
 It was more than probable, that the inconstancy of his 
 barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in 
 which they had encountered such unexpected difficul- 
 ties ; and that the aocd kingr of the Chionites, satiated 
 with revenge, turned away with horror from a scene of 
 action where he had been deprived of the hope of his 
 family and nation. The strength as well as spirit of 
 the army with which Sapor took the field in the ensu- 
 ing spring, was no longer equal to the unbounded views 
 of his ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest 
 of the east, he was obliged to content himself with the 
 reduction of the two fortified cities of Mesopotamia, 
 Sinjrara and Bezabde;" the one situate in the midst 
 of a sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula, sur- 
 rounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid 
 stream of the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the di- 
 minutive size to which they had been reduced in the 
 age of Constantino, were made prisoners, and sent into 
 remote captivity on the extreme confines of Persia. 
 After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror 
 abandoned that solitary and sequestered place ; but he 
 carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and 
 fixed in that important post a garrison or colony of vet- 
 erans ; amply supplied with every means of defence, 
 and animated by high sentiments of honour and fidelity. 
 Towards the close of the campaign, the arms of Sapor 
 incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise 
 against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or as it was uni- 
 
 versally esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impreg- 
 nable, fortress of the independent Arabs.P The defence 
 of the east against the arms of Sapor Conduct of the 
 required, and would have exercised, the Romans, 
 abilities of the most consummate general ; and it 
 seemed fortunate for the state, that it was the actual 
 province of the brave Ursicinus, who alone deserved 
 the confidence of the soldiers and people. In the hour 
 of danger, Ursicinus i was removed from his station by 
 the intrigues of the eunuchs ; and the military com- 
 mand of The east was bestowed, by the same influence, 
 on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran, who had 
 attained the infirmities, without acquiring the expe- 
 rience, of age. By a second order, which issued f^rom 
 the same jealous and inconstant counsels, Ursicinus 
 was again despatched to the frontier of Mesopotamia, 
 and condemned to sustain the labours of a war, the 
 honours of which had been transferred to his unworthy 
 rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station under the 
 walls of Edessa ; and while he amused himself with 
 the idle parade of military exercise, and moved to the 
 sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public defence 
 was abandoned to the boldness and diligence of the 
 former general of the east. But whenever Ursicinus 
 recommended any vigorous plan of operations ; when 
 he proposed, at the head of a light and active army, to 
 wheel round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the 
 convoys of the enemy, to harass the wide extent of the 
 Persian lines, and to relieve the distress of Amida ; the 
 timid and envious commander alleged, that he was 
 restrained by his positive orders from endangering the 
 safety of the troops. Amida was at length taken ; its 
 bravest defenders, who had escaped the sword of the 
 barbarians, died in the Roman camp by the hand of the 
 executioner : and Ursicinus himself, after supporting 
 the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was punished for the 
 misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his military 
 rank. But Constantius^oon experienced the truth of 
 the prediction which honest indignation had extorted 
 from his injured lieutenant, that as long as such max- 
 ims of government were suffered to prevail, the emperor 
 himself would find it no easy task to defend his east- 
 ern dominions from the invasion of a foreign enemy. 
 When he had subdued or pacified the barbarians of the 
 Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow marches into 
 the cast ; and after he had wept over the smoking ruins 
 of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the siege 
 of Bezabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated 
 efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams ; the 
 town was reduced to the last extremity ; but it was still 
 defended by the patient and intrepid valour of the gar- 
 rison, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the 
 emperor to raise the siege, and ingloriously to retreat 
 into his winter-quarters at Antioch.' The pride of 
 Constantius, and the ingenuity of his courtiers, were 
 at a loss to discover any materials for panegyric in the 
 events of the Persian war ; while the glory of his 
 cousin Julian, to whose military command he had in- 
 trusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the 
 world in the simple and concise narrative of his ex- 
 ploits. 
 
 In the blind fury of civil discord, invasion of Gaul 
 Constantius had abandoned to the bar- by the German*, 
 barians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still 
 acknowledged the authority of his rival. A numerous 
 
 n Ainmianu? has marked the chronolo!»y of this year hy three 
 signs, whicli do not perfectly coincide witli each oth«>r, or with tiie 
 series of llie history. 1. The corn was ripe when Sapor invaded 
 Mesopotamia; "Cum jam stipula flavente turgerent;" a circum- 
 •tance, which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally refer us to 
 the month of April or May. See flaruier's Ohservations on Scrip- 
 ture, vol. i. p. 41. Shaw's Travels, p. 335. edit. 4to. 2. The pro- 
 gress of Sapor was checked hy the overflowing of the Euphrates, 
 which generally happens in July and August. Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 21. 
 Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, torn. i. p. 696. 3. When Sapor had taken 
 Amida. after a siege of seventy-three days, the autumn was far ad- 
 vanced. " Autumno prscipiti hoidorumque improbo sidereextoto." 
 To reconcile these apparent contradictions, we must allow for some 
 delay in the Persian king, some inaccuracy in the historian, and 
 tome disorder in the seasons. 
 
 o The account of these sieges is given by Amtnianus, xx. 6, 7. 
 
 p For the identity of Virtha and Tecrit, see D'Anville, Geographic 
 Ancienne, toni. ii. p. 201. For the siege of that castle by Timur 
 Bee, or Tamerlane, see Cherefeddin, 1. iii. c. 33. The Persian biog- 
 rapher exaggerates the merit and difficulty of this exploit, which de- 
 livered the caravans of Kagdad from a formidable band of rolibers. 
 
 q Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6^ x\x. 3. xx. 2.) represents the merit and 
 disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention which a soldier 
 owed to his general. Some partiality may be suspected, yet the 
 whole account is consistent and probable. 
 
 r Ammian. XX. 11. Omisso vano incepto, hiematurus Antiochiffi 
 redit in Syriam acrumnosam, pcrpessus et ulcerum sed et atrocia, 
 diuque detlenda. It is thus that James GronoviuH has restored an 
 obscure passage; and he thinks that this correction alone would 
 have deserved a new edition of liis author ; whose sense may now be 
 da kly perceived. I expected some additipnal light from the recent 
 labours of the learned £rneatus. (LipsisB, 1773.) 
 
 fiwarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross 
 the Khine by presents and promises, by the hopes of 
 spoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories 
 which they should be able to subdue.' But the empe- 
 ror, who lor a temporary service had thus imprudentlv 
 provoked the rapacious spirit of the barbarians, soon 
 discovered and lamented the difficulty of dismissing 
 these formidable allies, after they had tasted the rich- 
 ness ot the Roman soil. Regardless of the nice dis- 
 tinction of royalty and rebellion, these undisciplined 
 robbers treated as their natural enemies all the subjects 
 ot the empire, who possessed any property which thev 
 were desirous of acquiring. Forty-five flourishing 
 cities, longres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires^ 
 btrasburg, &c. besides a far greater number of towns 
 and villag-es, were pillaged, and for the most part re- 
 duced to ashes. The barbarians of Germany, still 
 laithtul to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the 
 confinement of walls, to which they applied the odious 
 names of prisons and sepulchres ; and fixing their in- 
 dependent habitations on the banks of rivers, the 
 Khine, the Moselle, and the INIeuse, they secured them- 
 selves against the danger of a surprise, by a rude and 
 hasty fortification of large trees, which were felled and 
 thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were estab- 
 lished in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorrain; 
 the !< ranks occupied the island of the Batavians, to- 
 gether with an extensive district of Brabant, which 
 was then known by the appellation of Toxandria,* and 
 may deserve to be considered as the original seat of 
 their Gallic monarchy." From the sources, to the 
 mouth, of the Rhine, the conquests of the Germans 
 extended above forty miles to the west of that river, 
 over a country peopled by colonies of their own name 
 and nation ; and the scenes of their devastations was 
 three times more extensive than that of their conquests. 
 At a still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were 
 deserted, and the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who 
 trusted to their strength and vigilance, were obliged to 
 content themselves with such supplies of corn as thev 
 could raise on the vacant land within the enclosure of 
 their walls. The diminished legions, destitute of pay 
 and provisions, of arms and discipline, trembled at the 
 approach, and even at the name, of the barbarians. 
 Conductof Julian Under these melancholy circumstan- 
 _ ces, an unexperienced youth was ap- 
 
 pointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or 
 rather, as he expresses it himself, to exhibit the vain 
 iniage of imperial greatness. The retired scholastic 
 education of Julian, in which he had been more con- 
 versant with books than with arms, with the dead than 
 with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the 
 practical arts of war and government; and when he 
 awkwardly repeated some military exercise which it 
 was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed with a 
 s^gh, "O Plato, Plato, w^hat a task for a philosopher'" 
 Yet even this speculative philosophy, which men of 
 business are too apt to despise, had fi'lled the mind of 
 Julian with the noblest precepts, and the most shinino- 
 examples ; had animated him with the love of virtue^ 
 the desire of fame, and the contempt of death. The 
 habits of temperance recommended in the schools, are 
 still more essential in the severe discipline of a camp. 
 
 247 
 
 The simple wants of nature regulated the measure of 
 his food and sleep. Rejecting with disdain the deli- 
 cacies provided for his table, he satisfied his appetite 
 with the coarse and common fare which was allotted 
 to the meanest soldiers. During the rigour of a Gallic 
 winter he never suffered a fire in his"^ bed-chamber; 
 I and after a short and interrupted slumber, he frequently 
 j rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on 
 the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his 
 I rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of 
 his favourite studies.^ The precepts of eloquence, 
 which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of 
 declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to 
 assuage the passions of an armed multitude : and al- 
 though Julian, from his early habits of conversation 
 and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with 
 the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a 
 competent knowledge of the Latin tonffue.y Since 
 
 ro!.3lL!i T''"^^ ''r "'^ Germans, and the distress of Gaul, may be 
 collected from Julian himself. Orat.ad. S. P. Q. Athen n ^TT - 
 
 .^eri"?Mi.''c'^*l"' "''^^"'"^' ^'^'' *■• Zcsin.us, 1. iii. p. UO*.' "sozo- 
 t Ammianus (xvi. 8.) This name snems to be derived from the 
 rhe?nn.1u°'^ Pimy, and very frequently occurs in the hiJforTcs of 
 the middle age. Toxandria was a country of woods and mor-is^n^ 
 winch extended from the neighbourhood of Tongress to the cSx 
 of the Vahal and the Rhine. See Valesius, Notit. Galliar n 5^8 
 
 u The paradox of P. Danies, that the Franks never obtainVd anv 
 permanent settlement on this side of the Rhine l.efore the time of 
 tlovis, IS refuted with much learning and good sense by M Biet 
 Ln° r"p P'"''!''' ''y a chain of evidence, their uninterrupted posses 
 •lOn of Poxandria, one hundred and thirty vcars before the accession 
 of Clovis. The Dissertation of M. Kiel was crowned by the Acad" 
 n.y of Soissons, in the year 1736, and seems to have been justly nre- 
 r1 r ^°^*'® discourse of his more celebrated competitor, the Abbe le 
 laTent ''" *"^^'i"«"*"» whose name was happily expressive of his 
 
 Julian was not originally designed for the character of 
 a legislator, or a judge, it is probable that the civil 
 jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any con- 
 siderable share of his attention ; but he derived from 
 his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for justice, 
 tempered by a disposition to clemency ; the knowl- 
 edge of the general principles of equity and evidence, 
 and the faculty of patiently investigating the most in- 
 tricate and tedious questions wiiich could be proposed 
 for his discussion. The measures of policy, and the 
 operations of war, must submit to the various accidents 
 of circumstance and cliaracter, and the unpractised 
 student will often be perplexed in the application of 
 the most perfect theory. IJut in the acquisition of 
 this important science, Julian was assisted by the 
 active vigour of his own genius, as well as by the 
 wisdom and experience of Sallust, an oflicer of rank, 
 who soon conceived a sincere attachment for a prince 
 so worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptible 
 integrity was adorned by the talent of insinuating the 
 harshest truths without woundino- the delicacy of a 
 royal ear.^ ° 
 
 Immediately after Julian had received „• ^ . 
 the purple at Milan, he was sent into "" t g?uT"" 
 Gaul, with a feeble retinue of three ^- ^ ^' 
 hundred and sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where he 
 passed a painful and anxious winter, in the hands of 
 those ministers to whom Constantius had intrusted the 
 direction of his conduct, the Caesar was informed of 
 the siege and deliverance of Autun. That laro-e and 
 ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall and^'pusil- 
 lanimous garrison, was saved by the generous resolu- 
 tion of a few veterans, w^ho resumed their arms for the 
 defence of their country. In his march from Autun, 
 through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian em- 
 braced with ardour the earliest opportunity of sio-paliz- 
 mg his courage. At the head of a small bo'dy of 
 archers, and heavy cavalry, he preferred the shorter 
 but the more dangerous of two roads; and some- 
 times eluding, and sometimes resistino-, the attacks of 
 the barbarians who were masters of the field, he ar- 
 rived with honour and safety at the camp near Rheims, 
 where the Roman troops had been ordered to assemble. 
 The aspect of their young prince revived the droopino- 
 spirit ot the soldiers, and they marched from Rheims 
 in search of the enemy, with a confidence which had 
 almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni, familiar- 
 
 X The private life of Julian in Gaul, and the severe discipline 
 which he embraced, are displayed by Ammianus, (xvi. 5.) who pro- 
 fesses to praise, and by Julian himself, who atlects to ridicule (Me- 
 sopojron, p. .•J40.) a conduct which, in a prince of the house of Con- 
 stantine, might justly excite the surprise of mankind. 
 
 7 Aderat Latine quoque difTerenti sufficiens sermo. Ammianus, 
 XVI. o. But Julian, educated in the schools of Greece, alwavs con- 
 sidered the language of the Romans as a foreign and popuiardialect, 
 which he might use on necessary occasions. 
 
 T We are ignorant of the actual oliice of this excellent minister, 
 whom Julian afterwards created prefect of Gaul. Salhist was 
 speedily recalled by the jealousy of the emperor : and we may still 
 read a sensible but pedantic discourse, (p. 240— 252.) in which Julian 
 deplores tlie loss of so valuable a friend, to whom he acknowledges 
 himself indebted for his reputation. See La Bleterie, Preface a'^la 
 Vie de Jovien, p. 20. 
 
 f'**<l 
 
 M 
 
248 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 CuAP. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ized to the knowledge of the country, secretly collected 
 their scattered forces, and seizing the opportunity of a 
 dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on 
 the rear-tjuard of the Romans. Before the inevitahle 
 disorder could be remedied, two legions were destroy- 
 ed ; and Julian was taught by experience, that caution 
 and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art 
 of war. In a second and more successful action, he 
 recovered and established his military fame ; but as the 
 agility of the barbarians saved them from the pursuit, 
 his victory was neither bloody nor decisive. He ad- 
 vanced, however, to the banks of the Rhine, surveyed 
 the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the diffi- 
 culties of the war, and retreated on tlie approach of 
 winter, discontented with the court, with his army, 
 and with his own success.* The power of the enemy 
 was yet unbroken; and the Cassar had no sooner sep- 
 arated his troops and fixed his own quarters at Sens, 
 in the centre of Gaul, than he was surrounded and be- 
 sieged by^ a numerous host of Germans. Reduced in 
 this extremity to the resources of his own mind, he 
 displayed a prudent intrepidity which compensated 
 for all the deficiencies of the place and garrison ; and 
 the barbarians, at the end of thirty days, were obliged 
 to retire with disappointed rage« 
 
 His second ^^^^^^ conscious pride of Julian, who 
 campai^'n, was indebted only to his sword for this 
 A. D. 3o7. signal deliverance, was imbittcred by 
 the reflection, that he was abandoned, betrayed, and 
 perhaps devoted to destruction, by those wlio were 
 bound to assist him by every tie of honour and fidelity. 
 Marcellus, master-general of the cavalry in Gaul, inter- 
 preting too strictly the jealous orders of the court, 
 beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian, 
 and had restrained the troops under his command from 
 marching to the relief of Sens. If the Caesar had dis- 
 sembled in silence so dangerous an insult, his person 
 and authority would have been exposed to the contempt 
 of the world ; and if an action so criminal had been 
 suffered to pass with impunity, the emj)eror would 
 have confirmed the suspicions, which received a very 
 specious colour from his past conduct towards the 
 princes of the Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, 
 and gently dismissed from his ofiice.'' In his room 
 Severus was appointed general of the cavalry ; an ex- 
 perienced soldier, of approved courage and fidelity, 
 who could advise with respect and execute with zeal ; 
 and who submitted, without reluctance, to the supreme 
 command which Julian, by the interest of his patroness 
 Eusebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul.*= 
 A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for 
 the approaching campaign. Julian himself, at the 
 head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of some 
 new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly 
 penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, 
 and carefully re-established the fortifications of Sa- 
 verne, in an advantageous post, which would either 
 check the incursions, or intercept the retreat, of the 
 enemy. At the same time Barbatio, general of the in- 
 fantry, advanced from Milan with an army of thirty 
 thousand men, and passing the mountains, prepared to 
 throw a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of 
 Basil. It was reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, 
 pressed on either side by the Roman arms, would be 
 soon forced to evacuate the provinces of Gaul, and to 
 hasten to the defence of their native country. But the 
 hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, 
 or the envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio ; 
 
 a Aniinianns (xvi. 2, 3.) appears much better satisfied with tlie 
 successor tliis first cainpaifrn than Jiihau iiiinscir; who very fairly 
 owns lliat he did notiiing of consequence, and that he fled bci'urethc 
 enemy. 
 
 b Ammian. xvl. 7. Lilmnius speaks rather more advanta<;eou8ly 
 of the mihtary talents ofMarceMus, Orat. x. p. 271*. And Julian in- 
 sinuates, that he would not have >ie<>n so easily recalled, unless he 
 had given other reasons of oflTence to the court, p. 278. 
 
 c Severus, non diticors, non arro^rans, sed limga militiac fru^alitate 
 compertus; eteum recta prKeuntemsccuturus, ut doo.torem morigc- 
 rua miles. Aaimian. xvi. 11. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. HO. 
 
 who acted as if he had been the enemy of the Caesar, 
 and the secret ally of the barbarians. The negligence 
 with which he permitted a troop of pillagers freely to 
 pass, and to return almost before the gates of his camp, 
 may be imputed to his want of abilities ; but the trea- 
 sonable act of burning a number of boats, and a super- 
 fluous stock of provisions, which would have been of 
 the most essential service to the army of Gaul, was an 
 evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The 
 Germans despised an enemy who appeared destitute 
 cither of power or of inclination to offend them ; and 
 the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of 
 the expected support ; and left him to extricate him- 
 self from a hazardous situation, where he could neither 
 remain with safety, nor retire with honour.^ 
 
 As soon as they were delivered from Battle of Stras- 
 the fears of invasion, the Alemanni ijiirg, 
 
 prepared to chastise the Roman youth, ^' ^" ^'- ■^"=* 
 who presumed to dispute the possession of that coun- 
 try, which they claimed as their own by the right of 
 conquest and of treaties. They employed three days, 
 and as many nights, in transporting over the Rhine 
 their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking 
 the ponderous javelin, which he had victoriously 
 wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van 
 of the barbarians, and moderated by his experience the 
 martial ardour which his example inspired." He was 
 followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal 
 extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and 
 by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the 
 tribes of Germany. The confidence derived from the 
 view of their own strength, was increased by the intel- 
 ligence which they received from a deserter, that the 
 CaBsar, with a feeble army of thirteen thousand men, 
 occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from their 
 camp of Strasburg. With this inadequate force, Julian 
 resolved to seek and to encounter the barbarian host ; 
 and the chance of a general action was preferred to the 
 tedious and uncertain operation of separately engaging 
 the dispersed parties of the Alemanni. The Romans 
 marched in close order, and in two columns, the cav- 
 alry on the right, the infantry on the left ; and the day 
 was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the 
 enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle 
 till the next morning, and of allowing his troops to re- 
 cruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refresh- 
 ments of sleep and food. Yielding, however, with 
 some reluctance, to the clamours of the soldiers, and 
 even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted them to 
 justify by their valour the eager impatience, which, in 
 case of a defeat, would be universally branded with 
 the epithets of rashness and presumption. The trum- 
 pets sounded, the military shout was heard through 
 the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to 
 the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his 
 right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, 
 and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were 
 instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light horse 
 and of light infantry, and he had the mortification of 
 beholdino; the flight of eix hundred of his most re- 
 nowned cuirassiers.' The fugitives were stopped and 
 rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, 
 careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, 
 and urging every motive of shame and honour, led 
 them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict 
 between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and 
 bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of 
 strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and 
 
 d On the design and failure of the cooperation between Juli.in 
 and Barbatio, see Aniniianus. (xvi. 11.) and Libanius. Orat. x. p. 27.3. 
 
 e Annniaiius (xvi. 12.) describes, with his inflated eloquence, the 
 fiijure and tliaractcr of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens ingenti roboro 
 Inrertorum, ubi ardor pra>lii sperabatur inimanis, equo spumante, 
 sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidands vestitatis, armorumque 
 nitore conspicuus: nntea strenuus et miles, et utilis prster CKteroi 
 ductor. Dicenlium Ca-surem superavil a-quo marte conpressus. 
 
 f After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the rigour of ancient 
 discipline, by exposing these fugitives in female apparel to the deri- 
 sion of the whole camp. In the next campaign, tliese troops nobly 
 retrieved their honour. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 142. 
 
 temper j and as the barbarians, who served under the 
 staiidard of the empire, united the respective advantages 
 ,-,r , iP'^r^''^' ^^^'^ strenuous efforts, guided by a 
 skilful leader, at length determined the event of the 
 day. 1 he Romans lost four tribunes, and two hun- 
 dred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle 
 of Mrasburg, so glorious to the Ca5sar,s and so salutary 
 t^o the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the 
 Alemanni were slain in the field, without includino- 
 those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed 
 \yith darts whilst they attempted to swim across the 
 river. Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken 
 prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had 
 devoted themselves to follow in life or death the fate 
 of their chieftain. Julian received him with military 
 pomp in the council of his officers ; and expressincr a 
 generous pity for the fallen state, dissembled hisln- 
 Avard contempt for the abject humiliation, of his cap- 
 tive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished kino- of 
 the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the citie^s of 
 Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor 
 this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar ex- 
 perienced an honourable treatment ; but the impatient 
 barbarian could not long survive his defeat, his confine- 
 ment, and his exile.* 
 
 Julian subdues After Julian had repulsed the Ale- 
 
 a' D'aw"' "™^""^ ^^^^ ^^^® provinces of the Upper 
 • " • Rhine, he turned his arms against the 
 I ranks, who were seated nearer to the ocean on the 
 confines of Gaul and Germany; and who, from their 
 numbers, and still more from their intrepid valour, had 
 ever been esteemed the most formidable of the barba- 
 rians. Although they were strongly actuated by the 
 allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested 
 love of war, which they considered as the supreme 
 honour and felicity of human nature; and their minds 
 and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual 
 action, that, according to the lively expression of an 
 orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to them 
 ^\'f 5T^'"^ ^^ spring. In the month of December, 
 which followed the battle of Strasburg, Julian attack- 
 ed a body of six hundred Franks, who had thrown 
 themselves into two castles on the Meuse.' In the 
 midst of that severe season they sustained, with in- 
 flexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days ; till at 
 lengtii, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vi- 
 gilance of the enemy in breaking the ice of the river, 
 left them no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for 
 the first time, to dispense with the ancient law which 
 commanded them to conquer or to die. The Ca3sar 
 immediately sent his captives to the court of Constan- 
 tius, who, accepting them as a valuable present,"' re- 
 joiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to 
 the choicest troops of his domestic guards. The ob- 
 
 249 
 
 g Julian himself (ad S. r. a. Athen. p. 278.) speaks of the battle 
 of Strasburg w.tli U.e modesty of conscious merit ; .u,^,r J.. T.l 
 
 It w.th the victory of Alexander over Darius, and yet we are a 'a 
 loss to discover any of those strokes of military genius which fix the 
 attention of ages on the conduct and success ot'a sin-Ie day 
 h Ammianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the number of 
 
 Xre'Thl^fionrJ; t \^'-^- ^"' V•'^^y''''"e 'I'fferences dSppear 
 before tie 60,000 barbarians, whom Zosimus has sacrificed to the 
 glory of his hero (I. lu. p. 141.) We might attribute this extravagant 
 number to the carelessness of transcribers, if this credulous o??,ar 
 iial historian had not swelled the army of 5,000 Alemanni to an in- 
 numerable multitude of barbarians, ^M3of «^5.^o. ^xp^ap.V u "s 
 our own fault if this detection does not inspire us with proper d is' 
 trust on similar occasions. ^ ^ 
 
 i Ammian. xvi. 12. Libanius, Orat. x. p «76 
 k Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137.) draws a very lively picture of the 
 manners ot the Franks. ' ' ^ 
 
 1 Ammianus, xvii 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The Greek ora- 
 tor, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been induced to re- 
 present the Franks as consisting of a thousand men ; and as his 
 head was always full of the Pcloponi.esian war, he compares them 
 to the Lacedemonians, who were besieged and taken in the island 
 01 Sphacteria. o'anu 
 
 m Julian, ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat. x d 278 
 According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor S.^» ..uoux/;,' 
 which La Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118.) as an honest 
 confession, and Valejiius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2.) as a mean evasion 
 or the truth. Dom. Bouquet. (Ilistoriens de France, torn. i. p. 733 ) 
 by substituting aiiother word. ivou. 0-1, would suppress both ihedi'f. 
 ficulty and the spirit of this passage. 
 
 Vol. I 2 G 
 
 stinate resistance of this handful of Franks, apprised 
 Julian of the difliculties of the expedition which he 
 meditated for the ensuing spring, against the whole 
 body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and 
 astonished the active barbarians. Ordering his sol- 
 diers to provide themselves with biscuit for twenty 
 days, he suddenly pitched his camp near Tongres 
 while the enemy still supposed him in his winter-quar- 
 ters of Pans, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys 
 from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite 
 or to deliberate, ho skilfully spread his legions from Co- 
 logne to the ocean ; and by the terror, as well as by the 
 success, of his arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes 
 to implore the clemency, and to obey the commands 
 of their conqueror. The Chamavians submissively re- 
 tired to their former habitations beyond the Rhine: but 
 the Salians were permitted to possess their new estab- 
 lishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries 
 of the Roman empire." The treaty was ratified by 
 solemn oaths; and perpetual inspectors were appointed 
 to reside among the Franks, with the authority of en- 
 forcing the strict observance of the conditions. An in- 
 cident is related, interesting enough in itself, and by 
 no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who in- 
 geniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe 
 of the tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, 
 he required the son of their king, as the only hostage 
 on whom he could rely. A mournful silence, inter- 
 rupted by tears and groans, declared the sad perplexity 
 ot the barbarians; and their aged chief lamented in 
 pathetic language, that his private loss was now em- 
 bittered by a sense of the public calamity. While the 
 Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his throne, the 
 royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, 
 unexpectedly appeared before their eyes ; and as soon as 
 the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Caesar 
 addressed the assembly in the following terms : " Be- 
 hold the son, the prince whom you wept. You had 
 lost him by your fault. God and the Romans have re- 
 stored him to you. I shall still preserve and educate 
 the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue, than 
 as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to 
 violate the fiiith which you have sworn, the arms of the 
 republic will avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, 
 but on the guilty." The barbarians withdrew from his 
 presence, impressed with the warmest sentiments of 
 gratitude and admiration." 
 
 It was not enough for Julian to have ., , 
 delivered tho^provinces of Gaul from the ^1^!^::^ 
 barbarians of Germany. He aspired to the Rhine, 
 emulate the glory of the first and most ^ ^- 357-359. 
 illustrious of the emperors, after whose example he 
 composed his own commentaries of the Gallic war.? 
 Ca3sar has related, with conscious pride, the manner 
 in which he hvicc passed the Rhine. Julian could 
 boast, that before he assumed the title of Augustus, he 
 had Carried the Roman eacrles beyond that great river 
 in three successful expeditions.^ The consternation of 
 the Germans, after the battle of Strasburg, encouraged 
 him to the first attempt; and the reluctance of the 
 troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a 
 leader, who shared the fatigues and dangers which he 
 imposed on the meanest of his soldiers. The villages 
 
 n Ammian. xvii. 8. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 146—150. (his narrative is 
 ^2n .f- •^' " •"•**"''e of fable ;) and Julian, ad. S. J\ a. Athen. p. 
 2r0. ills expression, vTreSs^x^yiv /ntv f^n^xv ts Tixktwv lovtfi, XxfixS^s 
 Si le^KxTx. This difference of treatment confirms the opinion, that 
 the Sahan Franks were permitted to retain the settlements in Tox- 
 andria. 
 
 o This interestine story, wliich Zosimus has abridged, is related 
 by Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legationum, p. 15. 16. 17.) with all the 
 amplifications of Grecian rhetoric: but the silence of Libanius. of 
 Ammianus. and of Julian himself, renders the truth of it extremely 
 suspicious. 
 
 P Libanius. the friend of Julian, clearly insinuates (Orat. iv. p. 
 178.) that his hero had composed the historvof his Gallic campaigns. 
 But Zosimus (1. iii. p. 140.) seems to have derived his information 
 only from the Orations (Koyiot) and the Epistles of Julian. The 
 discourse which is addressed to the Athenians, contains an accurat*. 
 though general, account of the war against the Germans. 
 
 q See Ammian. xvii. 1—10. xviii. 2. and Zosim. I. iii. p. 144. Julian 
 ad S. P. a. Athen. p. 260. f -u lan 
 
 ULk 
 
250 
 
 THE DECLIiVE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 I 
 
 on either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully 
 stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravacres of an in- 
 vading army. The principal houses, constructed with 
 some imitation of Roman elegance, were consumed by 
 the flames; and the Caesar boldly advanced about ten 
 miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark and impe- 
 netrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages, 
 which threatened, with secret snares and ambush, every 
 step of the assailant. The ground was already covered 
 with snow; and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle 
 which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of 
 ten months to the submissive barbarians. At the ex- 
 piration of the truce, Julian undertook a second expe- 
 dition beyond the Rhine, to humble the pride of Sur- 
 mar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the Alemanni, 
 who had been present at the battle of Strasburg. They 
 promised to restore all the Roman captives who yet re- 
 mained alive ; and as the Cajsar had procured an exact 
 account from the cities and villages of Gaul, of the in- 
 habitants whom they had lost, he detected every at- 
 tempt to deceive him with a degree of readiness and 
 accuracy, which almost established the belief of his 
 supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was 
 still more splendid and important than the two former. 
 The Germans had collected their military powers, and 
 moved along the opposite banks of the river, with a 
 design of destroying the bridge, and of preventing the 
 passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan of 
 defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three 
 hundred light-armed and active soldiers, were detached 
 in forty small boats to fall down tlie stream in silence, 
 and to land at some distance from the posts of the ene- 
 my. They executed their orders with so much bold- 
 ness and celerity, that they had almost surprised the 
 barbarian chiefs, who returned in the fearless confi- 
 dence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal festi- 
 vals. Without repeating the uniform and disgusting 
 tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to ob- 
 serve, that Jiilian dictated his own conditions of peace 
 to six of the haughtiest kings of the Alemanni, three 
 of whom were permitted to view the severe discipline 
 and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by 
 twenty thousand captives, whom he had rescued from 
 the chains of the barbarians, the Caesar repassed the 
 Rhine, after terminating a war, the success of which 
 has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic 
 and Cimbric victories. 
 
 Restores the ci- As soon as the valour and conduct of 
 ties of Gaul. Julian had secured an interval of peace, 
 he applied himself to a work more congenial to his 
 humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, 
 which had suffered from the inroads of the barbarians, 
 he diligently repaired ; and seven important posts, be- 
 tween Mentz and the mouth of the Rhine, are particu- 
 larly mentioned, as having been rebuilt and fortified by 
 the order of Julian.' The vanquished Germans had 
 submitted to the just but humiliating condition of pre- 
 paring and conveying the necessary materials. The 
 active zeal of Julian urged the prosecution of the work; 
 and such was the spirit which he had diffused among 
 the troops, that the auxiliaries themselves, waiving 
 their exemption from any duties of fatigue, contended 
 in the most servile labours with the diligence of the 
 Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Ca;sar to 
 provide for the subsistence, as well as for the safety, of 
 the mhabitants and of the garrisons. The desertion of 
 the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must have been 
 the fatal and inevitable consequences of fiimine. The 
 tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted 
 by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of 
 the continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from 
 
 r Ammian. xviii. 2. Lihariius, Oral. x. p. 279. 280. Of tlipse 
 seven posts, four are at prcBcnt towns of some conspqiipiicc; Hiti- 
 B«n, Andernach, Bonn, and Nnyss. Tlio other three. Trice'sini* 
 QuadnburKimn, and Castra Herculis, or Herac!ea, no longer subsist • 
 but there is room to believe, tliat on the pround of Quadribur^inm' 
 the Dutch have constructed the fort of 8chenk, a name so offensive 
 to the fastidious delicacy of Boilenu. See D'Anville Notice de I'An- 
 cienne Gaule, p. 183. Boileau, Epiirc iv. and the notea. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 the |)lenty of the adjacent island. Six hundred large 
 barks, framed in the forest of the Ardennes, made seve- 
 ral voyages to the coast of Britain ; and returning from 
 thence laden with corn, sailed up the Rhine, and dis- 
 tributed their cargoes to the several towns and for- 
 tresses along the banks of the river." The arms of 
 Julian had restored a free and secure navigation, which 
 Constantius had offered to purchase at the expense of 
 his dignity, and of a tributary present of two thousand 
 pounds of silver. The emperor parsimoniously re- 
 fused to his soldiers the sums which he granted wnth 
 a lavish and trembling hand to the barbarians. The 
 dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian, was put 
 to a severe trial, w hen he took the field with a discon- 
 tented army, which had already served two campaigns, 
 without receiving any regular pay or any extraordinary 
 donative. 
 
 A tender regard for the peace and civil administra- 
 happiness of his subjects, was the rul- tion of Julian, 
 ing principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the 
 administration of Julian." He devoted the leisure of 
 his winter-quarters to the offices of civil government ; 
 and affected to assume with more pleasure the charac- 
 ter of a magistrate than that of a general. Before he 
 took the field, he devolved on the provincial governors 
 most of the public and private causes which had been 
 referred to his tribunal ; but, on his return, he carefully 
 revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigour of the 
 law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges 
 themselves. Superior to the last temptation of virtuous 
 minds, an indiscreet and intemperate zeal for justice, 
 he restrained, with calmness and dignity, the warmth 
 of an advocate who prosecuted, for extortion, the presi- 
 dent of the Narbonnese province. " Who will ever 
 be found guilty," exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, 
 " if it be enough to deny?" "And who," replied Julian, 
 " will ever be innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?" 
 In the general administration of peace and war, the 
 interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that 
 of his people ; but Constantius would have thought 
 himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had de- 
 frauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted 
 from an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince 
 who was invested with the ensigns of royalty, mioht 
 sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence 
 of the inferior agents ; to expose their corrupt arts, 
 and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. 
 But the management of the finances was more safely 
 intrusted to Florentius, praetorian praefect of Gaul, an 
 effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse ; and 
 the haughty minister complained of the most decent 
 and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather 
 inclined to censure the weakness of his own behaviour. 
 The Cassar had rejected with abhorrence, a mandate 
 for the levy of an extraordinary tax ; a new superdic- 
 tion, which the praifect had oflercd for his signature ; 
 and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which 
 he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the 
 court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of 
 reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them 
 with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most 
 intimate friends. After stating his own conduct, he 
 proceeds in the following terms : " Was it possible for 
 the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise 
 than I have done? Could I abandon the unhappy sub- 
 jects intrusted to my care 1 Was I not called upon to 
 defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeel- 
 ing robbers 1 A tribune wiio deserts his post is punish- 
 ed with death, and deprived of the honours of burial. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 « We may credit Julian liimself, Orat. ad S. P.a. Atheniensom, p. 
 2»». wlio gives a very particular account of the transaction. Zosi- 
 mus adds two hundred vessels more, I. iii. p. 145. If we compute 
 the 000 corn ships of Julian at only seventy tons each, they were 
 capable of exporting 120,000 quarters : (see Arbuthnot's Weightsand 
 Mcai-iires, p. 237.) and the country which could liear so large an ex- 
 portation, must already have attained an improved state of agricul- 
 ture. 
 
 t The troops once broke out into a mutiny, immediately l>cforethe 
 second passage of the Rhine. Ammian. xvii. 9. 
 
 n Ammian. .\vi. 5. xviii. I. Mainertinus in Panepyr. Vet. xi. 4 
 
 l^Z r^ ^fT^ ''^"J^ ^ pronounce h's sentence, if, 
 m the hour of danger, I myself neglected a duty fa 
 more sacred and far more important! God has placed 
 me in this elevated post; /lis providence wfu^ 
 and support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, 1 
 shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure a; d 
 upright conscience. Would to Heaven that I still 
 possessed a counsellor like Sallust! If they think 
 
 ^IZV ^"^ ^^''"^IT ? «"^«^ssor, I shall submit without 
 reluctance ; and had much rather improve the short op- 
 portunity of doing good, than enjoy a long and lasting 
 
 ZZ^oLfl T''7 ?^*^^P---io"s aifd dependent 
 situation of Julian di.splayed his virtues, and concealed 
 his defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, 
 the throne of Constantius, was not permitted to reform 
 
 ^lPvV.r'^/^' g^T^r^"'; but he had courage to 
 alleviate or to pity the distress of the people. Unless 
 he had been able to revive the martial spirit of the 
 Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refine- 
 ment among their savage enemies, he could not enter- 
 
 ftv ^^IhZTfl ^^'' of securing the public tranquil- 
 ity, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet 
 
 nroiro7tr?"K'" ^"^P"1^'' ''' - ^'-^^ ti^-' the 
 we"ttreL;t.'"'"""^' ^"' '^'^y^' ^^^ -- ^' the 
 
 Description of His Salutary influeiice restored the 
 laris cities of Gaul, which had been so lono- 
 exposed to the evils of civil discord, barbarian wa>, 
 and domestic tyranny ; and the spirit of industry was 
 revived with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture! 
 manufactures, and commerce, 'again flourished unde 
 the protection of the laws; and the curiae, or civil cor- 
 
 mem W.': ^^ '^T ^"'^ '''''^ "^^^"^ ^"^ respectable 
 
 nSp ^^/^"th were no longer apprehensive of 
 
 marriage - and married persons were no longer appre- 
 
 ^Tof^ ^Tr'^-l '^'' P"^'^^ ^"d private' fest??als 
 were celebrated with customary pomp ; and the fre- 
 
 of S "?r'^ Prosperity.y A mind like that 
 wbiPh Vr' """fu ^^^? ^^^t the general happiness of 
 which he was the author; but he viewed, with pecu- 
 liar satisfaction and complacency, the city of Paris- 
 the seat his^vvinter resid'ence, a^d the obfect even of 
 his partial affection.^ That splendid capital, which 
 now embraces an ample territory on either side of the 
 Seme, was original y confined to the small island in 
 
 triZTf 1^' V'''' ^'■""i ^'h^"^e the inhabitants 
 derive^d a supply of pure and salubrious water. The 
 
 m.^^"^ f ''/"'' "^ '^' ^'^"^^ ^"d the town was 
 accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest over- 
 spread the northern side of the Seine^ but on the south, 
 the ground, which now bears the name of the Univer' 
 
 wfh TLT^"""'^]^ '^^f '"^ '^''^ h«"«es, and adorned 
 Tr^H . fi^M 'r ^^ ^"?Phitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, 
 
 trnnr.. tk""^ ^^'' ^""'r '^^ "^^^^^^^ ^^ the Roman 
 troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by 
 
 the neighbourhood of the ocean; and with some pre^ 
 cautions, which experience had taught, the vine and 
 fig-tree were successfully cultivated.^ But, in remark 
 able winters the Seine was deeply frozen; and the 
 huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream, might be 
 compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble 
 which were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia! 
 fn tt. ^"^'°"'"^/? ?"^ corruption of Antioch, recalled 
 nf m! P^emo^jof Julian the severe and simple manners 
 of his beloved Lutetia;- where the amusements of the 
 
 251 
 
 theatre were unknown or despised. He indignantly 
 contrasted the effeminate Syrians with the bi^fl^e and 
 honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave 'he 
 
 Sc'ter""ift,t ""' u' ^"^y ^^^'•^ «^ thf Celtic 
 Character. If Julian could now revisit the canital of 
 
 France, he might converse with men of scien^ce and 
 
 genius, capable of understanding and of instructs J^a 
 
 discipleof the Greeks; he mi|ht excuse the "fly 
 
 and graceful follies of a nation, whose martial spfri^ 
 
 has never been enervated by the indulgence of h Xy 
 
 art il^r' ^/P^^"^ i^" perfection of that ineslimaWe 
 art which softens and refines and embellishes the in! 
 tercourse of social life. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 T/te vwfives, progress, and effects of the cmversion of Co^i- 
 
 christian or cuthohc church. '' 
 
 The public establishment of Christianity may be 
 considered as one of those important and domestic 
 revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity, and 
 afford the most valuable instruction.' The victories 
 and the civil policy of Constantine no lono-er influence 
 the state of Europe ; but a considerable p'ortion of the 
 globe still retains the impression which it received 
 from the conversion of that monarch ; and the eccle- 
 siastical institutions of his reign are still connected, 
 by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the pas- 
 sions, and the interests of the present generation. 
 In the consideration of a subject n«. c.k 
 which may be examined with impar- ^e'rln'of^cT 
 tiaJity, but cannot be viewed with in- ^tantine. 
 difference a difficulty immediately arises of a very 
 unexpected nature ; that of ascertaining the real and 
 precise date of the conversion of Con- 
 stantine. The eloquent Lactantius, in ^- ^- •'^• 
 the midst of his court, seems impatient* to proclaim 
 to the world the glorious example of the soveE o? 
 Gau ; who, in the first moments of his reign, ack- 
 W tod^'^ rf 'f '^'^ the^majesty of the true^i'id on- 
 fLi?nfP ^ ^^!«^rned Eusebius has ascribed the 
 faith of Constantine to the miraculous siorn which was 
 displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated an? pre! 
 pared the Italian expedition.^ The historian Zosimus 
 maliciously asserts, that the emperor ^°''"'^« 
 
 had imbrued his hands in the blood of ^ ^ ^^^ 
 
 of^Romf Ta ^'iT ^' P"'^""^y renounced the gods 
 ot Kome and of his ancestors.'' The 
 
 perplexity produced by these discordant ^- ^- *^- 
 
 tTne'hlmspV' t"^''^/^^^" the behaviour of Constan- 
 tine h mself. According to the strictness of ecclesi- 
 astical language, the first of the christian eZerors 
 was unworthy of that name, till the momenr of h s 
 death ; since it was only during his last 
 Illness that he received, as a catechumen, ^ ^ ^^• 
 the imposition of hands,' and was afterwards admit- 
 
 X Ammian. xvii. 3. Julian. Epistol. xv edit "^t.ini.ojrr, e i 
 conduct almost justifies the encomium orMamert n.?j 7^' m""'' '"^ 
 spatia divisa sunt, ut aut harLaros domitet aut Iii LT- ''^ '"? ^""' 
 perpetuum professus. aut contra hosiJm aut conVr "vil^^^ 
 
 ther Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois and M D'AnvinrMn 'tl '^f ^"''" 
 
 1 Academie de.<« Inscriptions, torn. xv. p. CiG-GOl ) 
 
 « T^v <f.x.,K AiuxfT.«i/. Julian, in Misonoffonn "idn t «. .. .• 
 or r..tetia.was the ancient name of theTS'y?wLh!'VcoVding?o 
 
 of'/iS" "' '''' '°"^^" ""^"'>'' »«^"'»^d the territorial appellation 
 b Julian, in Misopopon. p. 359, nfiO. 
 
 rins, Maximin, and even Linnils '?:Vi'cuTe"d\hl el Sia'ns'uSj^ 
 between the years 30G and .{11. me cnrisiidns, that js. 
 
 b Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. I vii «/ Tho firet -.^a « . • 
 
 ^rii,„;L^. ? .,P ' Bologna, which tlie P. de Montfaucon as- 
 ^aite nf^^lf f V H*"" T^''^'' ocnfury. (Diarium Italic, p. 4^9? Vm 
 taste of most of the editors (except Jsa>us. see Lactant edit n..fril 
 
 noy, torn i. p 596.) has felt \he genuine sfyTc of S^^^^^^^ 
 c Euseh. m Vit. Constant. I. i. c. i>7— .32 «i-taniiuB. 
 
 A Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 104. 
 • That rite was always used in maki„g a catechumen, (see Bing, 
 
 k 
 
252 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 A. D. 321. 
 
 ted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number 
 of the faithful/ The Christianity of Constantino must 
 be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense ; 
 and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow 
 and almost imperceptible gradations by which the 
 monarch declared himself the protector, and at length 
 the proselyte, of the church. It was an arduous task 
 to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education, 
 to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to un- 
 derstand that the truth of his revelation was incompat- 
 ible with the worship of the gods. The obstacles 
 which he had probably experienced in his own mind, 
 instructed him to proceed with caution in the momen- 
 tous change of a national religion ; and he insensibly 
 discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce 
 them with safety and with effect. During the whole 
 course of his reign, tlie stream of Christianity flowed 
 with a gentle, though accelerated, motion : but its ge- 
 neral direction was sometimes checked, and sometimes 
 diverted, by the accidental circumstances of the times, 
 and by the prudence, or possibly by the caprice, of 
 the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify 
 the intentions of their master in the various language 
 which was best adapted to their respective principles ;* 
 and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his 
 subjects, by publishing in the same year 
 two edicts ; the first of which enjoined 
 the solemn observance of Sunday ,*• and the second di- 
 rected the regular consultation of Aruspices.' While 
 this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the 
 christians and the pagans watched the conduct of their 
 sovereign with the same anxiety, but with very oppo- 
 site sentiments. The former were prompted by every 
 motive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the 
 marks of his favour, and the evidences of his faith. 
 The latter, till their just apprehensions were changed 
 into despair and resentment, attempted to conceal from 
 the world, and from themselves, that the gods of Rome 
 could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of 
 their votaries. The same passions and prejudices- 
 have engaged the partial writers of the times to con- 
 nect the public profession of Christianity with the 
 most Pflorious or the most ignominious era of the reign 
 of Constantine. 
 
 His pagan super- Whatever symptoms of christian pie- 
 ■tiiion. ty might transpire in the discourses or 
 
 actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near 
 forty years of age in the practice of the established 
 religion ;^ and the same conduct, which in the court 
 of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, could be 
 ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sove- 
 reign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched 
 the temples of the gods : the medals which issued 
 
 liam's Antiquities, I, x. c. i. p. 419. Doin Chardon, Hist, des Sacre- 
 mens, torn. i. p. 62.) and Constantino rereived it for the first time 
 fEuseb. in Vit. Constant. I. iv. c. 61.) ininiedialely before his baptism 
 and death. From the connexion of these two facts, Valesius (ad 
 loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted 
 by Tillemont, (Hist, des Emperenrs, torn. iv. p. 628.) an<l opposed 
 with feeble arguments by Mosheim. (p. 9Ci8.) 
 
 f Euseb. in Vit. Constant. I.iv. c. 61— 6:^ The legend of Constan- 
 tine's baptism at Rome, thirteen years before bis death, was invented 
 in t!ie eighth century, as a proper motive for his donation. Such 
 has been the gradual progress of knowledge, that a story of which 
 Cardinal BarQniu3(Annal. Ecclesiast. A. D. 324. No. 4'^ — 49.) declared 
 himself the unblushing advocate, is now feebly supported, even 
 within the verge of the Vatican. See the Antiquitates Christians, 
 torn. ii. p. 232. a work published with six approbations at Rome, in 
 Ihe year 17.51, by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican. 
 
 g The qujEstor, or secretary, who compose<l the law of the Tbco- 
 dOiJian Code, makes his master say with inditferenre, "hominibus 
 Bupradictte religionis" (I. xvi. tit. ii.'icg. i.) The minister of ecclesi- 
 astical aflfairs was allowed a more devout and respectful style, rm 
 tv5io-ft» xa»i xytJtTXTtfi nxioKiy.tif S(ta-nn*i ; the legal, modt holy, and 
 catholic worship. See Euseb. Flist. Eccleg. I. x. r.6. 
 
 J» Cod. Theodos. I. ii. tit. viii. leg. I. Cod. Justinian. 1. lil, tit. xii. 
 leg. 3. Constantine styles the Lord's day dies solis, a name which 
 rould not offend the ears of his pagan .'subjects. 
 
 i Cod. Theodos. I. xvi. tit. x. I. 1. Godnfroy, in the character of a 
 commentator, endeavours (torn. vi. p. 257.) to excuse Constantine; 
 but the more zealous Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 321. No. 18.) 
 censures his profane conduct with truth and asperity. 
 
 k Tlicodoret (I. i.e. 18.) seems to insinuate that Helena gave her 
 son a christian, education ; but we may be assured, from the superior 
 authority of Eusebius, (in Vit. Constant. I. iii. c. 47.) that she herself 
 was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge of Christianity. 
 
 from his imperial mint are impressed with the figures 
 and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Her- 
 cules ; and his filial piety increased the council of 
 Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Con- 
 stantius.' But the devotion of Constantine was more 
 peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo 
 of Greek and Roman mythology ; and he was pleased 
 to be represented with the symbols of the God of Light 
 and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity, the 
 brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal 
 beauty, and elegant accomplishments, seem to point 
 him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of 
 Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Con- 
 stantine ; and the credulous multitude were taught to 
 believe, that the emperor was permitted to behold with 
 mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity ; 
 and that, either waking or in a vision, he was blessed 
 with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious 
 reign. The sun was universally celebrated as the in- 
 vincible guide and protector of Constantine ; and the 
 pagans might reasonably expect that the insulted god 
 would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety 
 of his ungrateful favourite." 
 
 As long as Constantine exercised a He protects the 
 
 , . .^ , " . ^ ^, • christians of 
 
 limited sovereignty over the provinces G^ul^ 
 of Gaul, his christian subjects were a. d! 306-312. 
 protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws, 
 of a prince, who wisely left to the gods the care of 
 vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the 
 assertion of Constantine himself, he had been an indig- 
 nant spectator of the savage cruelties which were in- 
 fiicted, by the hands of Roman soldiers, on those citi- 
 zens whose religion was their only crime." In the east 
 and in the west, he had seen the diflferent effects of se- 
 verity and indulgence ; and as the former was rendered 
 still more odious by the example of Galerius, his im- 
 placable enemy, the latter was recommended to his 
 imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. 
 The son of Constantius immediately suspended or re- 
 pealed the edicts of persecution, and granted the free 
 exorcise of their religious ceremonies to all those who 
 had already professed themselves members of the 
 church. They were soon encouraged to depend on the 
 favour as well as on the justice of their sovereign, who 
 had imbibed a secret and sincere reverence for the 
 name of Christ, and for the God of the christians.* 
 
 About five months after the conquest a d. 3 1 3. March, 
 of Italy, the emperor made a solemn Edict of Milan, 
 and authentic declaration of his sentiments, by the cel- 
 ebrated edict of Milan, which restored peace to the 
 catholic church. In the personal interview of the two 
 western princes, Constantine, by the ascendant of ge- 
 nius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his 
 colleague Licinius ; the union of their names and au- 
 thority disarmed the fury of Maximin ; and, after the 
 death of the tyrant of the east, the edict of Milan was 
 received as a general and fundamental law of the Ro- 
 man world. P 
 
 The wisdom of the emperors provided for the resti- 
 tution of all the civil and religious rights of which the 
 christians had been so unjustly deprived. It was en- 
 
 1 See the medals of Constantine in Ducangcand Banduri. As few 
 cities had retained the privilege of coining, almost all the medals of 
 that ag» issued from the mint under the sanction of the imperial au- 
 thority. 
 
 m The panegyric of Eumcnius. (vii. inter Pancgyr. Vet.) which 
 was pronounced a few months before the Italian war, abounds with 
 the most unexceptionable evidence of the pagan superstition of Con- 
 stantine, and of hi» particular veneration for Apollo, or the Sun; to 
 which Julian alludes. (Orat. vii. p. 228. otyroKnTrj^v a-i.) See Com- 
 mentaire de Spanheiin sur les Cesars, p. 317. 
 
 n Constnntin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 23. But it might easily be 
 shown, that the Greek translator has improved the sense of the La- 
 tin original ; and the aged emperor might recollect the persecution of 
 Diocletian with a more lively abhorrence than he liad actually felt 
 in the days of iiis youth and paganism. 
 
 o See Euseb. Hist. Ercles. I. viii. 13. 1. Ix. 9. and in Vit. Const. F. I. 
 c. 16, 17. Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. 1. Cscilius de Mort. Tersecut. 
 C.25. 
 
 p Ciecilius (de Mort. Persecut. c. 48.) has preserved the Latin origi- 
 nal ; and Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. I. x. c. 5.) has given a Creek trans- 
 lation of this perpetual edict, which refers to some provisional rcgu- 
 lationa. 
 
 acted that the places of worship, and public lands, 
 which had been confiscated, should be restored to the 
 church, without dispute, without delay, and without 
 expense : and this severe injunction was accompanied 
 with a gracious promise, that if any of the purchasers 
 had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be in- 
 demnified from the imi)erial treasury. The salutary 
 regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the 
 ^aith ul, are framed on the principles of enlarged and 
 equal toleration ; and such an equality must have been 
 interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous and 
 honourable distinction. The two emperors^ proclaim 
 to the world, that the5r have granted a free and abso- 
 lute power to the christians, and to all others, of fol- 
 lowing the religion which each individual thinks pro- 
 per to pjefer, to which he has addicted his mind, and 
 which he may deem the best adapted to his own use. 
 Ihey carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove 
 every exception, and exact from the governors of the 
 provinces a strict obedience to the true and simple 
 meaning of an edict, which was designed to establish 
 and secure, wiUiout any limitation, the claims of reli- 
 gious liberty They condescend to assign two weio-htv 
 reasons which have induced them to alFow this unfver^ 
 sal toleration : the humane intention of consulting the 
 ITf r^ ^ Winess of their people ; and the pious 
 hope that, by such a conduct, they shall appease and 
 propitia e the Deity, whose seat is in heaven. They 
 gratefully acknowledge the many signal proofs which 
 
 tl\Cl '"'"p '^ •'/ '^'^ ^^^^"^ ^^^^"^ ' «"^ they trust 
 that the same Providence will forever continue to pro- 
 
 tect the prosperity of the prince and people. From 
 
 these vague and indefinite expressions of piety, three 
 
 suppositions may be deduced, of a different, buVnot of 
 
 an incompatible nature. The mind of Constantine 
 
 re fcrion^' "a ' ^!f-^'''" '\'^ P^^" ^"^ ^^e christian 
 religions. According to the loose and complying no- 
 
 tions of polytheism, he might acknowledge the God 
 L.lt ,Y^"^t^«»\^s oj of the many deities. who com- 
 posed the hierarchy of heaven. Or perhaps he might 
 wTthsTaL'' P^^^^«I?hi« %nd pleasin'g ide^, that, n^ot- 
 r^onc iwt"^ ^''^ ^''''^}^ Of names. Of rites, and of opi- 
 nions all he sects and all the nations of mankind are 
 united m the worship of the common Father and Cre- 
 ator ot the universe,'' 
 
 Use and beauty But the counsels of princes are more 
 rnoi'afity'*"''"" frequently influenced by views of tempo- 
 ral advantage, than by considerations of 
 abstract and speculative truth. The partial and increas- 
 ng favour of Constantine may naturally be referred to 
 the esteeni which he entertained for the moral character 
 ot the christians ; and to a persuasion, that the propao-a- 
 tion of the gospel would inculcate the practice of pri- 
 vate and public virtue. Whatever latitude an absolute 
 monarch may assume in his own conduct, whatever in- 
 dofcf l^^^ claim for his own passions, it is un- 
 .nl. !k ^ ^'' "l^'^'^'^ that all his subjects should re- 
 spect the natural and civil obligations of society. But 
 the operation of the wisest law^s is imperfect an^d pre- 
 carious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot al- 
 
 Shr^i?'? ^'T* ^^'^'' P'^^'^^ i« insufficient to 
 prohibit all that they condemn, nor can they always 
 
 pumsh the actions which they prohibit. The legisla- 
 tors of antiquity had summoned to their aid the pow- 
 
 which 'h J"''"" '"^.'^ "P"."""- ^"t every principle 
 which had once maintained the vigour and purity of 
 
 c^inTn.'" H P/'''' ^'^ ^°"^ ^^"^^ extinguished in a^de- 
 clinina^ and despotic empire. Philosophy still exer- 
 cised her temperate sway over the human mind, but 
 the cause of virtue derived very feeble support from 
 the influence of the pagan superstition. Under thes^ 
 
 253 
 
 discouraging circumstances, a prudent magistrate 
 might observe with pleasure the progress of a religion 
 which difi-used among the people a pure, benevolent, 
 and universal system of ethics, adapted to every duty 
 and every condition of life ; recommended as the will 
 and reason of the supreme Deity, and enforced bv the 
 sanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The ex 
 perience of Greek and Roman history could not inform 
 the world how far the system of national manners 
 might be reformed and improved by the precepts of a 
 divine revelation; and Constantine might listen with 
 some confidence to the flattering, and indeed reasona- 
 ble, assurances of Lactantius. The eloquent apologist 
 seemed firmly to expect, and almost ventured to pro- 
 mise, //m/the establishment of Christianity would re- 
 store the innocence and felicity of the primitive age : 
 ihai the worship of the true God would cxtinauish war 
 and dissension among those who mutually considered 
 themselves as the children of a common parent; that 
 every impure desjre, every angry or selfish passion, 
 would be restrained by the knowledge of the gospel ; 
 and that the magistrates might sheath the sword of jus- 
 tice among a people who would be universally actuat- 
 ed by the sentiments of truth and piety, of equity and 
 moderation, of harmony and universal love.' 
 
 The passive and unresistino- obedi- ^, 
 ence which bows under the yoke of au- l^T^^T 
 inority, or even of oppression, must obedience, 
 have appeared, in the eyes of an absolute monarch, 
 I the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic vir- 
 tties.' The primitive christians derived the institution 
 ot civil government, not from the consent of the peo- 
 ple, but from the decrees of heaven. The reignina- 
 emperor, though he had usurped the sceptre by treason 
 and murder, immediately assumed the sacred charac- 
 ter of vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone 
 he was accountable for the abuse of his power; and 
 his subjects were indissolubly bound, by their oath of 
 fidelity, to a tyrant, who had violated every law of 
 nature and society. The humble christians were sent 
 into the world as sheep among wolves ; and since they 
 were not permitted to employ force, even in the de- 
 tence of their religion, they should be still more crim- 
 inal It they were tempted to shed the blood of their 
 tellow creatures, in disputing the vain privileges, or 
 the sordid possessions, of this transitory life. Faith- 
 hil to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the reign of 
 Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submis- 
 sion, the christians of the three first centuries preserv- 
 ed their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of 
 secret conspiracy, or open rebellion. While they ex- 
 perienced the rigour of persecution, they were never 
 provoked either to meet their tyrants in the field, or in- 
 dignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote 
 and sequestered corner of the globe.^ The protestants 
 of J^ ranee, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted 
 with such intrepid courage their civil and religious 
 treedom, have been insulted by the invidious compari- 
 son between the conduct of the primitive and of the 
 reformed christians." Perhaps, instead of censure, 
 some applause may be due to the superior sense and 
 spirit ot our ancestors, who had convinced themselves 
 that religion cannot abolish the unalienable rights of 
 
 tine's procress in th*. fnith Atl' u ■ f " ^^i. *" "plainmg Constan- 
 tle, and p?inx ' ^^"^^^'"^ (P- 9'^ ^c.) is ingenious. Bub- 
 
 „,L^^^^''^»f'''^''*"^*'^''<'^'P*'°" of Lactantius, (Divin Institut v fi> 
 "ropheJ""'" ""'"' perspicuous and positive thkf.iircomes a discreet 
 
 iio . h.!f . - li ' ; ^' ^' ^* <^rotius was a republican and an ex- 
 llshed'powe?"'^"''' °^ '"^ ^^'"P" ^"^'•-'^ '""' 'o supporfufe est"- 
 
 nec nIS vpf r'*""* '■ ^^' ^^'■^?' ^' '^«'"'^" nunquam Alhlniani, 
 l",n r*^ ifth ^^''^"' 'r^"'" POtueruntchrisfiani. Ad Scapu- 
 of tharipp frnm Jir'''-r" 'iT '^".'"y ^"'^' '^c^'^des the christians 
 hRvernm^nPit^^h *"'''' ''."'' '"''"^'■>' employmenls, which would 
 t^nrtilZ^ ^'^ them to take an active part in the service of their re 
 spcctive governors. See Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 349 
 
 fnnt«/!''^ "••'•'""' J^ossuet Hist, des Variations dPs Eglises Prosleg- 
 tantes (tom. i.i. p. 210-258.) and the malicious Ilayfe, (torn ii. n 
 620) I name Bayle. for he was certainly the author of the Avis aux 
 ?aruf p'i45"' ' '° Dictionnaire Critique de ChauffepirtL f 
 
254 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 human nature.* Perhaps the patience of the primi- 
 tive church may be ascribed to its weakness, as well 
 as to its virtue. A sect of unwarlike plebeians, without 
 leaders, without arms, without fortifications, must have 
 encountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruit- 
 less resistance to the master of the Roman legions. 
 But the christians, when they deprecated the wrath of 
 Diocletian, or solicited the favour of Constantine, 
 could allege with truth and confidence, that they held 
 the principle of passive obedience, and that, in the 
 space of three centuries, their conduct had always been 
 conformable to their principles. They might add, that 
 the throne of the emperors would be established on a 
 fixed and permanent basis, if all their subjects, em- 
 bracing the christian doctrine, should learn to suffer 
 and to obey. 
 
 Divine right of In the general order of Providence, 
 Constaiaine. princes and tyrants are considered as 
 the ministers of Heaven, appointed to rule or to chas- j 
 tise the nations of the earth. But sacred history af- 
 fords many illustrious examples of the more immedi- 
 ate interposition of the Deity in the government of his 
 chosen people. The sceptre and the sword were com- 
 mitted to the hands of Moses, of Joshua, of Gideon, 
 of David, of the Maccabees ; the virtues of those he- 
 roes were the motive or the effect of the Divine favour, 
 the success of their arms was destined to achieve the 
 deliverance or the triumph of the church. If the 
 judges of Israel were occasional and temporary magis- 
 trates, the kings of Judah derived from the royal unc- 
 tion of their great ancestor, an hereditary and indefea- 
 sible right, which could not be forfeited by their own 
 vices, nor recalled by the caprice of their subjects. 
 The same extraordinary providence, which was no 
 longer confined to the Jewish people, might elect Con- 
 stantine and his family as the protectors of the chris- 
 tian world ; and the devout Lactantius announces, in 
 a prophetic tone, the future glories of his long and uni- 
 versal reign.^ Galerius and Maximin, Maxentius and 
 Licinius, were the rivals who sliared with the favour- 
 ite of Heaven the provinces of the empire. The tra- 
 gic deaths of Galerius and Maximin soon gratified the 
 resentment, and fulfilled the sanguine expectations, of 
 the christians. The success of Constantine against 
 Maxentius and Licinius, removed the two formidable 
 competitors who still opposed the triumph of the se- 
 cond David, and his cause might seem to claim the 
 peculiar interposition of Providence. The character 
 of the Roman tyrant disgraced the purple and human 
 nature ; and though the christians might enjoy his pre- 
 carious favour, tiiey were exposed, with the rest of 
 his subjects, to the eflects of his wanton and capri- 
 cious cruelty. The conduct of Licinius soon betrayed 
 the reluctance with which he had consented to the wise 
 and humane regulations of the Edict of Milan. The 
 convocation of provincial synods was prohibited in 
 his dominions ; his christian officers were ignomini- 
 ously dismissed ; and if he avoided the guilt, or rather 
 danger, of a general persecution, his partial oppres- 
 sions were rendered still more odious, by the violation 
 of a solemn and voluntary engagement.^ While the 
 east, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, 
 was involved in the shades of infernal darkness, the 
 auspicious rays of celestial light warmed and illumi- 
 nated the provinces of the west. The piety of Con- 
 stantine was admitted as an unexceptionable proof of 
 the justice of his arms ; and his use of victory con- 
 firmed the opinion of the christians, that their hero 
 was inspired, and conducted, by the Lord of hosts. 
 
 X Buclianan is the earliest, or at least llie most celebrated, of the 
 reformers, who has justified the theory of resistance. See his Dia- 
 loiiuc de Jure Regui apud Scotos, torn. ii. p. 28, 30.— edit. fol. Ruddi- 
 mau. 
 
 y Lactam. Divin. Institut. i. 1. Eusebius, in the course of his 
 history, his life, and his oration, repeatedly inculcates the divine 
 ri;jhtof Constantine to the empire. 
 
 I Our imperfect knowledge of the persecution of Licinius is de- 
 rived from Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. I. x. c. 8. Vit. Constantin. 1. i. c. 
 49.-56. 1. ii. c. 1,'J.) Aurclius Victor mentions his cruelty in gene- 
 ral terms. 
 
 A. D. 324. 
 
 The conquest of Italy produced a general edict of tol- 
 eration : and as soon as the defeat of Licinius had in- 
 vested Constantine with the sole domin- 
 ion of the Roman world, he immediate- 
 ly, by circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to im- 
 itate, without delay, the example of their sovereign, 
 and to embrace the divine truth of Christianity.* 
 
 The assurance that the elevation of j,^y^,,y and zeal 
 Constantine was intimately connected of the christiai^ 
 with the designs of Providence, instil- p^'^^' 
 led into the minds of the christians two opinions, 
 which, by a different means, assisted the accomplish- 
 ment of the prophesy. Their warm and active loyal- 
 ty exhausted in his favour every resource of human 
 industry ; and they confidently expected that their 
 strenuous efforts would be seconded by som» divine 
 and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have 
 imputed to interested motives the alliance which he 
 insensibly contracted with the catholic church, and 
 which apparently contributed to the success of his am- 
 bition. In the beginning of the fourth century, the 
 christians still bore a very inadequate proportion to 
 the inhabitants of the empire ; but among a degene- 
 rate people, who viewed the change of masters with 
 the indiflerence of slaves, the spirit and union of a re- 
 ligious party might assist the popular leader, to whose 
 service, from a principle of conscience, they had de- 
 voted their lives and fortunes.'' The example of his 
 father had instructed Constantine to esteem and to re- 
 ward the merit of the christians ; and in the distribution 
 of public offices, he had the advantage of strengthen- 
 ing his government, by the choice of ministers or ge- 
 nerals, in whose fidelity he could repose a just and un- 
 reserved confidence. By the influence of these dignified 
 missionaries, the proselytes of the new faith must have 
 multiplied in the court and army ; the barbarians of 
 Germany, who filled the ranks of the legions, were of 
 a careless temper, which acquiesced without resistance 
 in the religion of their commander ; and when they 
 passed the Alps, it may fairly be presumed, that a 
 great number of the soldiers had already consecrated 
 their swords to the service of Christ and of Constan- 
 tine.' The habits of mankind, and the interest of re- 
 ligion, gradually abated the horror of war and blood- 
 shed, which had so long prevailed among the chris- 
 tians ; and in the councils which were assembled un- 
 der the gracious protection of Constantine, the author- 
 ity of the bishops was seasonably employed to ratify 
 the obligation of the military oath, and to inflict the 
 penalty of excommunication on those soldiers who 
 threw away their arms during the peace of the church.** 
 While Constantine, in his own dominions, increased 
 the number and zeal of his faithful adherents, he could 
 depend on the support of a powerful faction in those 
 provinces, which were still possessed or usurped by 
 liis rivals. A secret disaffection was diffused among 
 the christian subjects of Maxentius and Licinius ; and 
 the resentment which the latter did not attempt to 
 conceal, served only to engage them still more deeply 
 in the interest of his competitor. The regular corre- 
 spondence which connected the bishops of the most 
 distant provinces, enabled them freely to communicate 
 their wishes and their designs, and to transmit without 
 danger any useful intelligence, or any pious contribu- 
 tions, which might promote the service of Constantine, 
 
 a Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1. ii. c, 24—42. 48— CO. 
 
 b In the iK'uinninj: of the last century, the papists of England were 
 only a thirtieth, and the Protestants of Franre only a fifteenth, 
 part of the respective nations, to whom their spirit and povv«r were a 
 constant object of apprehension. See the relations which BentivoR- 
 lio (who was then nuncio at Brussels, and afterwards cardinal) 
 transmitted to the court of Rome (Relaz.ione, loin. ii. p. 211,241.) 
 Bentivoslio was curious, well-informed, but somowhat partial. 
 
 c TInscareless temper of the Germans appears almost uniformly in 
 the history of the conversion of each of the tribes. The Icpions of 
 Constantine were recruited with Germans {Zosimus, 1. ii.p. 86.) and 
 the court oven of his father had been filled with christians. See the 
 first book of the Life of Constantine, by Eusebius. 
 
 d De his qui arma projiriunt in pace, placuit eos abstinere a com 
 munione. Concil. Arelat. Canon iii. The best critics apply theso 
 words to the peace of the church. 
 
 who publicly declared that he had taken un arm, fnr 
 the deliverance of the church." ^ 
 
 Eipcctaiion and The enthusiasm which inspired the 
 S! °' • •"-l':,n ?■"!,?"'•«?- 'he emperor him! 
 it satisfied their consc.ence"''Tl.f 'heir swords wl,ile 
 with the full assur^rtlfat tS'Tartd J^ho'l'd 
 
 the waters of Jordan, and had thrown down the walls 
 of Jcricl.0 at the sound of the trumpets of Joshua 
 would display his visible majesty Tnd power in he 
 victory of Constantine. The evidence of ecclesi"as« 
 
 V re' S'e7;Tr' *° ''"™' "'"' '"eir e.xp:ctSs 
 werL justined by the conspicuous miracle to wl.iol. 
 
 the conversion of the first christian emperor has been 
 almost unanimously ascribed. The rea*^ or in a'inarv 
 cause of so important an event .lo=o„r„ ' [■■'''S'liary 
 the attention of posteri v and I ,hln "} '''""'""'' 
 form a just estimate o7X' fam'ous vi ;„"f crian" 
 tnie, by a distinct consideration of theZ,dZZ 
 
 traordinary story, which, in the composition of a sne' 
 
 i;sra:d"ttt™rs" ^"^-"^ -fourr/roC; 
 
 Kome his own statue, bearing a cross in it^ r.vlf i a 
 
 r™ ,:?,d's&a:itvH^^ 
 
 salut ry sign, thePsy^^^lT/f^ •'aTrrl^' 
 
 o?L^n\'?^.r i-ris^^^HiteTortLtvf r 
 
 was engraved on their shield f^lsTnterwove'^^'f' 
 
 r.c^dX^eU^oX-rpr'iirs F"f ^ 
 
 SaiSs^hip'^^ K:v"='-?-"-' ^^^^^ 
 piayc/ti;: tr-i-umSro^'Thrstrs ;^^^^^ 
 
 r«.«,' an obscure, though celebrated naL which has' 
 
 OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 
 
 255 
 
 .."a »;fof'?e1|r;:ii:;e7u7adr' 'if.r""''"^" •var„.al„s. Licinius 
 .hris.ian offlceM?rd"os„,„';d U,ew\Ts'^T'" ',','" ""■""• "'"" 
 returned lo tlic niilliary service Tl.rrr..^;..','" °"'9 "'<""»■ ''='" 
 .'.red I.,- tl,el,velf,l, cLo^i^ ,|,e c^, ^cH of N l"? -c H"™'''''"''"- 
 npplicalion may be received, nnead if .],. i^ ""■ 'V'"* Particular 
 "f the Greek intcriireters Balsim„„ ■?„ ' '°°'", ""'' ''"""' Mnse 
 
 r.'4°ed" e';irrcS«o°ne'':c';.';rs T,tL"^r" "'■•">■ «->-° 
 
 5. The christian writers JusSn Minnoi i^- h'^'Z" f""« Rabirio, c. ' 
 and Maximum of Turnilave^n^^^^^^^ J^rom, 
 
 anily, deserves a place in^he Theodn«?nn r ^ °"°"'''''''« ^^ ''^"sti- 
 rm mention of it. which seems to ?i^frr ^°'^^.' '"''^""^ °^ "'^ "ndi- 
 fifth and eighteenlluuTes ofTe \7ntZor "'" '^^"^P-^^on of the 
 
 J» Eusebms, in Vit. Constantin i ; \. in n^, ■ 
 tl'e cross and inscription may 1^' i,iViU^^ «tatue. or at least 
 
 "«e second, or even the th rd v ^ir nf o^*^ ^*^^ '"^''^ Probability, to 
 d'ately after the defeit o Mjxenl?us^?i'!. '^"^ '? ^°"'^- ''""'e- 
 people werescarcely ?iU foJth'irpX'Lrme^u^ "'' ^^"^^« -''^ 
 i Apnoscas retina libens mea signa necesse est • 
 It. qmbus effigies crucis aut gemmata refufgeV 
 Aut long.s sohdo ex auro prrcfertur in ha"t f ' 
 Hoc s.gno inyictus, transmissis Alpil.us Ultor 
 Servit.um solvit iniserabile Constantinus 
 
 ***** 
 Riinnl"^, P«7«r<ruTO cemmanli textus in auro 
 
 l.^:A':;;'af;iSKSrc7'rSa'i';^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ' T„c dor.,..ion and n^SroV .t^r„'r7ir iitforTa*?:,., 
 
 been vainly derived from almost all the lanmiatres of 
 the world. It IS described > as a long pike imtrsect^d 
 by a transversa beam. The billon „„.'i '".'Y ?'''®° 
 down from the beam, was cu"ou\TyT„' ,.::^,'tt wh^ 
 the images of the reigning monarelf a ,d Ms f ,dre^ 
 The summit of the pike supported a crown nf„^M 
 whtch epclosed the mysterioui moiotrram '. - ^ 
 pressive of the figured the errs "and u.'e,,Hi:i leT 
 ters of the name of Christ." The safetv of tl,P Ik 
 was intrusted to fifty guards, of appr^^d va lot'S 
 fidelity; their station was markc.l bvhononrsJnH . 
 uments ; and some fortunate accili^t so„„ ,nroduce''d 
 an opinion, that as long as the iruards of , Vl 
 were engaged in the ex'ect.tion of U^fr oil 1 ev wer^ 
 secire and invulnerable amidst the darts of UeenemT 
 In the second civil war Licinius felt and d eadedTll* 
 power of this consecrated banner, the si'ht X hich 
 in the distress of battle, animated the soldiers of Con' 
 stantine with an invincible enthusiasm, and scattered" 
 
 ^Zn!"' TuT^r^'r""'' "'« "'"^^ of U.e"ad?e,^e 
 IJ^T: cA^ christian emperors, who respected the 
 example of Constantine, displayed in all their mu! 
 tary expeditions the standard of the cross • Tt ,n 
 the degenerate successors of The'dos "s had c Ise" 
 to appear in person at the head of their artnief^h. 
 abarum was deposited as a venerab e bu usee s -he 
 in the palace of Constantinople." Its honours are stiU 
 preserved on the medals of the Flaviatifamilv tk • 
 grateful devotion has placed the 2 nofrm Vf Jh'^J 
 in the midst of the ensiirns of Rome Th^ c i 
 epithets of, safety of the ^pub jc g 0% oTthe annT 
 restoration of public happiness, are eq„in' a pnlfeTS 
 the religious and military trophies ; and bore is stiH 
 
 t^:T. T'ffu "^^ '^ ^-"P^^"' Con^tanUus where thi 
 
 m:lTablfwt':is'''Bv"'" '"^ «<=<=-"P-ie<l Vith Thete 
 mcinorable words. By this sign THoe shalt conquek p 
 
 II. In all occasions of danger or dis- t, ° '"^*" 
 
 Tilt "■? f " P;"'^;'"*^ of the"primiti^e oLlSe?' 
 ch stians to fortify their minds and bodies by the si™ 
 
 rUe iniX d'il/'"'^ "'"'•' '" "" ''''" eccLiast e^ 
 ble Prese va V,? . ^•"'?"""""'' "'" ''''<'' ''^ "» "'falli- 
 temporal evil.i The authority of the chiii=<-li mi„i,* 
 alone have had sufficient weight to justify redevotfon 
 of Constantine, who, in the same prudent and ^ad .^^^ 
 
 svnfbor'of"b"T^^'«^^' 't ''-^'^^ and as umrte 
 symbol, of Christianity. But the testimonv of a con 
 
 temporary writer, who in a formal treatise iSL aveirj 
 
 the cause of religion, bestows on tiie pietv of the £ 
 
 peror amore awful and sublime character "^ He affirms" 
 
 ^^ th the most perfect confidence, that in the iS 
 
 which preceded the last battle against Maxent^s! 
 
 tics, who have iStuaMv torn', n/^.'*' ""Z "*' ^'^'«^'s of the cri' 
 Celtic, Teutonic, IMvr^c ArmPn^»n 1 ^''^ ^"""' ^"'^^^' Spanish. 
 See Ducan?e, in Glos^medet inim ? '." '"•"■'" ^^■"' •^^v.nologv.' 
 and Godefroy, ad Cod' Tlfel^do,. .Sm' tTuf '"'^ "°^« '^«*'^-^'» 
 
 c.e^.^n:i';o^L'?GTha"'^^^^^^^^ «--••- ^'^-a'- ^c 
 
 rum. '' ""* engraved a representation of the Laba- 
 
 m Transversa X lifera summo capite circumfleYn Phrict 
 scut.s notat. Ocilius de M. P. c. 44 Cunerf^d MP "'".-" 
 Lactant torn. ii. p. 500.) and Baronius (.403 12 No o,'" ^'^'^• 
 engraved from ancient n.onumen.s several specfm^^^ f, ^Zl 
 
 barum."te^^?It^;lrne\"Si!io^\:[L^a?V•''^^"^ 
 cate that it was never shown at ti?p' 1 1" V"r "^"^^""^ ^^^'"^ ^^ *"''•• 
 line, above tervearrXr^orA ^„ '*'^.,°r*" ^"""'y' **" Constan- 
 cini.'.s. and the" dSre^ofTj; d'.urTh'"''' "'"•^^'^"'e enemy of Li- 
 
 C.:ronogVaph.'';''°A '' ^f.^'^SpS, f^^T"' '• l '' '- '^^^^P^^-' 
 
 i«„^n^«!i^^"""*"'*^*^ Corona, c. 3. Alhanasius, tom. i n 101 Th^ 
 
 earned jesuit Petavius (Dogmata Thcolog. 1 xv c 9 10 ? h.c .i? 
 
 lected many similar passages on the virtues of th^^i.l^ J?^^'- 
 
 the iust age cnibarrai.ed our proies?am iXfputants! ' ' '''^'^^' '" 
 
256 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap, XX. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Constantinc was admonished in a dream to inscribe 
 the shields of his soldiers with the celestial sign of God, 
 the sacred monogram of the name of Christ ; that he 
 executed the commands of heaven, and that his valour 
 and obedience were rewarded by the decisive victory 
 of the Milvian bridge. Some consideration might per- 
 haps incline a sceptical mind to suspect the judgment 
 or the veracity of the rhetorician, whose pen, either 
 from zeal or interest, was devoted to the cause of the 
 prevailing faction.' He appears to have published his 
 deaths of the persecutors at Nicomedia about three 
 years after the Roman victory ; but the interval of a 
 thousand miles, and a thousand days, will allow an 
 ample latitude for the invention of declaimers, the cre- 
 dulity of party, and the tacit approbation of the em- 
 peror himself; who might listen without indignation 
 to a marvellous tale, which exalted his fiime, and pro- 
 moted his designs. In favour of Licinius, who still 
 dissembled his animosity to the christians, the same 
 author has provided a similar vision, of a form of 
 prayer, which was communicated by an angel, and re- 
 peated by the whole army before they engaged the 
 legions of the tyrant Maximin. The frequent repeti- 
 tion of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not 
 subdue, the reason of mankind ; » but if the dream of 
 Constantine is separately considered, it may be natu- 
 rally explained either by the policy or the enthusiasm 
 of the emperor. Whilst his anxiety for the ajjproach- 
 ing day, which must decide the fate of the empire, was 
 suspended by a short and interrupted slumber, the ven- 
 erable form of Christ, and the well-known symbol of 
 his religion, might forcibly offer themselves to the 
 active fancy of a prince who reverenced the name, and 
 had perhaps secretly implored the power, of the God 
 of the christians. As readily might a consummate 
 statesman indulge himself in the use of one of those 
 military stratagems, one of those pious frauds, which 
 , Philip and Sertorius had employed with such art and 
 effect.^ The preternatural origin of dreams was uni- 
 versally admitted by the nations of antiquity, and a 
 considerable part of the Gallic army was already pre- 
 pared to place their confidence in the salutary sign of 
 the christian religion. The secret vision of Constan- 
 tine could be disproved only by the event ; and the in- 
 trepid hero who had passed the Alps and the Apennine, 
 might view with careless despair the consequences of 
 a d'efeat under the walls of Rome. The senate and 
 people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odi- 
 ous tyrant, acknowledged that the victory of Constan- 
 tino surpassed the powers of man, without daring to 
 insinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of 
 the srod.s. The triumphal arch, which was erected about 
 three years after the event, proclaims, in ambiguous 
 lantniage, that, by the greatness of his own mind, and 
 
 r Cscilius". de M. P. c. 44. It is certain, limt this historical declam- 
 ation was composed and puhlishcd while Licinius, sovereign of the 
 east, still preserved tlie friendship of Constantine. and of the chris- 
 tians. Every reader ofiastc niiisl perceive tiiat the style is of a very 
 ditferent and inferior character to that of Lactantius ; and such in- 
 deed is the jnd-rmciit of I.e Clerc and Lardncr, (Bihliothcque An- 
 cienue et Moderne, torn. iii. p. 4:i8. Credihility of the Gospel, &c. 
 part ii. vol. vii. p. 1)4.) 'I'hree jirj;umenlsfrom the title of the book, 
 and from the names of Danalus and Ocilius, are produced hy the 
 advocates for Lactantius. (See the I*. Lestocq, torn. ii. p. 4G— GO.) 
 Each of these proofs is singly weak and defective, hut their concur- 
 rence has great weight. I have often llucluated, and shall tamely 
 follow the Colhert MS. in calling the author (whoever he was) Cne- 
 cilius. , . ^. 
 
 • Ocilius. de M. P. r. 46. There scorns to he some reason in the 
 observation of M. de Voltaire (t)euvres. toin. .\iv. p. '.KIT.) who as 
 cribos to the success of Constantine the superior fame of his labarum 
 above the angel of Licinius. Vet even this angel is favourably en- 
 tertained by ragi, Tillcmont, Fleury, &c. who arc fond of increasing 
 Hieir stock of miracles. ,„ ^ 
 
 t Besides these well-known examples, Tollius (Preface to Boi- 
 leau's translation of Longinus) has discovered a vision of Antigonus. 
 who assured his troops that he luid seen a pentagon (the Byinhol of 
 nafety) with these words, " In this conquer." But Tollius has most 
 ineicusably omitted to produce his authority ; and his own charac- 
 ter, literary as well as moral, is not free from reproach. See Chauf- 
 fepie Dictionnaire Critique, toni. iv. p. 400.) Without insisting on 
 the silence of Diodorus, Plutarch, Justin, Acc it may be observed that 
 Polymnus, who in a separate chapter (1. iv. c. 6.) has collected nine- 
 teen military stratagems of Antigonus, is totally ignorant of thia re- 
 inaikabic vision. 
 
 by an instinct or impulse of the divinity, he had saved 
 and avenged the Roman republic." The pagan orator, 
 who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating 
 the virtues of the conqueror, supposes that he alone 
 enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the Su- 
 preme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his 
 subordinate^deities ; and thus assigns a very plausible 
 reason why the subjects of Constantine should not pre- 
 sume to embrace the new religion of their sovereign." 
 
 III. The philosopher, who with calm Appearance of a 
 
 suspicion examines the dreams and cro..s m the .ky. 
 omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even 
 of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude, that 
 if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been de- 
 ceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has 
 much more frequently been insulted by fiction. Every 
 event, or appearance, or accident, which seems to de- 
 viate from the ordinary course of nature, has been 
 rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity; 
 and the astonished fancy of the multitude has some- 
 times given shape and colour, language and motion, 
 to the fleeting but uncommon meteors of the air.^ 
 Nazarius and^Eusebius are the two most celebrated 
 orators, who in studied panegyrics have laboured tg 
 exalt the glory of Constantine. Nine a. D.321. 
 years after the Roman victory, Naza- 
 rius* describes an army of divine warriors, who seem- 
 ed to fall from the sky : he marks their beauty, their 
 spirit, their gigantic forms, the stream of light which 
 beamed from their celestial armour, their patience in 
 sufTering themselves to be heard, as well as seen, by 
 mortals ; and their declaration that they were sent, that 
 they flew, to the assistance of the great Constantine. 
 For the truth of this prodigy, the pagan orator appeals 
 to the whole Gallic nation, in whose presence he was 
 then speaking, and seems to hope that the ancient 
 apparitions* would now obtain credit from this recent 
 and public event. 
 
 The christian fable of Eusebius, which, in the space 
 of twenty-six years, might arise from the ^ p 333 
 original dream, is cast' in a much more 
 correct and elegant mould. In one of the marches of 
 Constantine, he is reported to have seen with his own 
 eyes the luminous trophy of the cross, placed above 
 the meridian sun, and inscribed with the following 
 words: Bv this, conquer. This amazing object in 
 the sky astonished the whole army, as well as the em- 
 peror himself, who was yet undetermined in the choice 
 of a religion : but his astonishment was converted into 
 faith by^'the vision of the ensuing night. Christ ap- 
 l)eared before his eyes, and displaying the same celes- 
 tial sign of the cross, he directed Constantine to frame 
 a similar standard, and to march, with an assurance of 
 victory, against Maxentius and all his enemies.'' The 
 learned bishop of Caesarea appears to be sensible, that 
 the recent discovery of this marvellous anecdote would 
 excite some surprise and distrust among the most pious 
 of his readers. Yet, instead of ascertaining the pre- 
 cise circumstances of time and place, which always 
 serve to detect falsehood, or establish truth ; *= instead 
 
 u Instinrfu Divinitnti?. mentis magniludinc. The inscription on 
 the triumphal arch of Constantine. which has been copied by Baro- 
 nius. Cruter, &c. may still be perused by every curious traveller. 
 
 X Habeas profecto, aliquid cum ilia mente Divina secretum ; qus 
 delegata nostra Diis Minoribus cura, uni se libi dignatur ostcndcre. 
 
 Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. 
 
 y M. Frerct (Memoircs de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. iv. 
 p 411— 4;n.) explains, by physical causes, many of the prodigies of 
 antiquity ; and Fabricins, who is abused by both parties, vainly tries 
 to introduce the celestial cross of Constantine among the solar halos. 
 Bibliothec. Grjrc. tom. vi. p. H— 29. 
 
 z Nazarius inter Panegyr. Vet. x. 14. 15. It is unnecessary to 
 name the moderns, whose undislingnishing and ravenous appetite 
 has swallowed even the pagan bait of Nazarius. 
 
 a The apparitions of Castor and Pollux, particularly to announce 
 the Macedonian victory, arc attested by historians and public inonii 
 nients. See Cicero de Natura Deorum, ii. 2. iii. 5, G. Florus, 11. r- 
 Valerius Maxinius, 1. i. c. P. No. 1. Yet the most recent of these mi- 
 racles is omitted, and indireclly denied by Livy (xlv. 1.) 
 
 b Eusebius, 1. i. c. 28, 29, :^0. The silence of the same Eusebius, in 
 his Ecclesiastical History, is deeply felt by those advocates for tlio 
 miracle who are not absolutely callous. 
 
 c The narrative of Constantinc seems to indicate, thai he saw ine 
 cross in the sky before he passed the Alps against Maxentius. 1 ne 
 
 of collecting and recording the evidence of so many 
 living witnesses, who must have been spectators of 
 this stupendous miracle ;«» Eusebius contents himself 
 with alleging a very singular testimony ; that of the 
 deceased Constantine, who, many years after the event, 
 m the freedom of conversation, had related to him this 
 extraordinary incident of his own life, and had attested 
 the truth of it by a solemn oath. The prudence and 
 gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect 
 the veracity of his victorious master ; but he plainly 
 intimates, that, in a fact of such a nature, he should 
 have refused his assent to any meaner authority. This 
 motive of credibility could not survive the power of 
 the t avian family; and the celestial sign, which the 
 infidels might afterwards deride,' was disregarded by 
 the christians of the age which immediately followed 
 the conversion of Constantine.^ But the catholic 
 church, both of the east and of the west, has adopted 
 a prodigy, which favours, or seems to favour, the po- 
 pular vvorship of the cross. The vision of Constantine 
 maintained an honourable place in the legend of super- 
 stition, till tlie bold and sagacious spirit of criticism 
 presumed to depreciate the triumph, and to arraio-n the 
 truth, of the first christian emperor.8 ° 
 
 The conversion ^^^ pjotcstant and philosophic read- 
 of Constantine crs of the present age will incline to 
 might be sin- believe, that, in the account of his own 
 conversion, Constantine attested a wilful 
 falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury. They 
 may not hesitate to pronounce, that, in the choice of 
 religion, his mind was determined only by a sense of 
 interest ; and that (according to the expression of a 
 profane poet »>) he used the altars of the church as a 
 convenient footstool to the throne of the empire. A 
 conclusion so harsh and so absolute is not, how^ever, 
 warranted by our knowledge of human nature, of Con- 
 stantine, or of Christianity. In an age of religious 
 fervour, the most artful statesmen are observed to feel 
 some part of the enthusiasm which they inspire ; and 
 
 857 
 
 the n.ost orthodox saints assume the dangerous prW^ the various nrnnT.rr"^^' ^'Tu *??«!="«« »» 
 lege of defendino- the cause of truth h/ZZZlf 'llJuIlT.Jjr^^ "^ '<^''?'°"i..''". >« dwells with 
 
 lege of defending the cause of truth by the arras of 
 deceit and falsehood. Personal interest is often the 
 standard of our belief, as well as of our practice ; and 
 the same motives of temporal advantage which mio-ht 
 influence the public cgnduct and professions of Con- 
 stantine would insensibly dispose his mind to embrace 
 a religion so propitious to his fame and fortunes. His 
 vanity was gratified by the flattering assurance, that Ae 
 had been chosen by heaven to reign over the earth ; 
 
 success had justified his divine title to the throne, and 
 that title was founded on the truth of the christian re- 
 velation. As real virtue is sometimes excited by un- 
 deserved applause, the specious piety of Constantine, 
 It at first It was only specious, might gradually, by the 
 influence of praise, of habit, and of example, be ma- 
 ttired into serious faith and fervent devotion. The 
 bishops and teachers of the new sect, whose dress and 
 manners had not qualified them for the residence of a 
 court, were admitted to the imperial table; they ac- 
 companied the monarch in his expeditions ; and the 
 ascendant which one of them, an Egyptian or a 
 J!»paniard,> acquired over his mind was imputed by the 
 pagans to the effect of magic." Lactantius, who has \ 
 adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence ' 
 ot Cicero ;> and Eusebius, who has consecrated the 
 learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the service 
 ot religion,'- were both received into the friendship and 
 familiarity of their sovereign; and those able masters 
 ot controversy could patiently watch the soft and yield- 
 ing moments of persuasion, and dexterously apply the 
 arguments which were the best adapted to his charac- 
 ter and understanding. Whatever advantages might be ' 
 derived from the acquisition of an imperial proselyte, 
 he was distinguished by the splendour of his purple, 
 rather than by the superiority of wisdom or virtue, 
 trom the many thousands of his subjects who had em- 
 braced the doctrines of Christianity. Nor can it be 
 deemed incredible, that the mind of an unlettered sol- 
 dier should have yielded to the weight of evidence, 
 which, in a more enlightened age, has satisfied or sub- 
 dued the reason of a Grotius, a Pascal, or a Locke. In 
 the midst of the incessant labours of his great office, this 
 soldier employed, or affected to employ, the hours of 
 the night m the diligent study of the Scriptures, and 
 the composition of theological discourses ; which he 
 afterwards pronounced in the presence of a numerous 
 and applauding audience. In a very long discourse, 
 which is still extant, the royal preacher expatiates on 
 
 scene has been fixed by provincial vanity at Treves, Desancor>, &c. 
 Bee 1 illenioni. Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 573. 
 
 d The pious Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. torn. vii. p. 1317.) rejects 
 with a sigh the nsefol acts of Artemius. a veteran and a martyr 
 who attests, as an eyewitness, the vision of Constantine ' 
 
 e Gelasius Cyzic. in Act. Concil, Nicen. I. i. c. 4. 
 f The advocates for the vision are unable to produce a single testi- 
 mony from the fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries, who in their 
 voluminous writings, repeatedly celebrate the triumph of the church 
 and of Constantine. As these venerable men had not any dislike to 
 a miracle, we may suspect (and the suspicion is confirmed by the ig- 
 norance of Jerom) that they were all unacquainted with the life of 
 Constantine by Eusebius. This tract was recovered by the diligence 
 of those who translated or continued his Ecclesiastical History, and 
 wlio have represented in various colours the vision of the cross ' 
 
 g Godefroy was the first who, in the year 1643, (Not. ad Philostor- 
 gium, 1. i. c. 6. p. 16.) expressed any doubt of a miracle which had 
 been supported with equal zeal by Cardinal Baronius, and the Cen- 
 turiators of Magdeburg. Since that time, many of the protestant 
 critics have inclined towards doubt and disbelief. The objections 
 are urged with great force by M. Chauff"epi6; (Dictionnaire Critique 
 tom. iv.^. 6—11.) and in the year 1774, a doctor of Sorbonne, the 
 Abbe du Voisin, published an apology, which deserves the praise of 
 learning and moderation. 
 
 h Lors Constantin dit ce» propres paroles ; 
 J'ai rcnvers^ le culte des idoles : 
 Sur les debris de leurs temples fumans 
 Au Dieu du ciel j'ai prodigu6 I'encens. 
 Mais toQs mes soins pour sa grandeur supren>e 
 N'eurent jamais d'autre objet que moi-meme ; 
 Les saints antels n'etoient i mes regards 
 Q,u'un marchepi^ du trone des Cesars. 
 li'ambition, la fureur. les delices ^ 
 
 Etoient mesDieux, avoientmes sacrifices. 
 L*or des Chretiens, leurs intrigues, leur sang 
 Ont ciment^ ma fortune et mon rang. 
 The poem which contains these lines may b« read with pleasure, 
 but cannot be named with decency. 
 Vol. I — 2 H 17 
 
 peculiar complacency on the Sibylline The fourth ee- 
 verses," and the fourth eclogue of Vircril.o logue of Virgii.' 
 Forty years before the birth of Christ, the Mantuan 
 bard, as if inspired by the celestial muse of Isaiah, had 
 celebrated, with all the pomp of oriental metaphor, the 
 return of the virgin, the fall of the serpent, the ap- 
 proaching birth of a godlike child, the offspring of the 
 great Jupiter, who should expiate the guilt of human 
 kind, and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues 
 of his father ; the rise and appearance of an heavenly 
 race, a primitive nation throughout the world ; and the 
 gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the 
 golden age. The poet was perhaps unconscious of the 
 secret sense and object of tliese sublime predictions, 
 which have been so unworthily applied to the infant 
 son of a consul or a triumvir : p but if a more splendid, 
 and indeed specious, interpretation of the fourth ec- 
 logue contributed to the conversion of the first chris- 
 
 i This favourite was probably the great Osius. bishop of Cordova 
 who preferred the pastoral care of the whole church to the govern- 
 ment of a particular diocese. His character is magnificently, though 
 concisely, expressed by Athanasius, (tom. i. p. 763.) See Tillemont 
 Mem. Eccles, tom. vii. p. 524—561. Osius was accused, perhaps un- 
 justly, of retiring from court with a very ample fofi»ne. 
 
 k See Eusebius, (in Vit. Constant, passim,) and Zosimus, 1. M. p. 
 104. 
 
 1 The Christianity of Lactantius was of a moral rather than of a 
 mysterious cast. '• Erat pene rudis (says the orthodox bull) disci- 
 plinae christians, et in rhetorics melius quam in theologia versatus." 
 Defensio Fidei Nieena*, sect. ii. c. 14. 
 
 m Fabricius, with his usual diligence, has collected a list of between 
 three and four hundred authors quoted in the Evangelical Prepara- 
 tion of Eusebius. See Bibl. Graec. 1. v. c. 4. tom. vi. p. 37—56. 
 
 n See Constantin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 19, 20. He chiefly depends 
 on a mysterious acrostic, composed in the sixth age after the deluge 
 by the ErythriPan Sibyl, and translated by Cicero into Latin. The 
 initial letters of the thirty-four Greek verses, form this prophetic sen- 
 tence : Jescs Christ, Son of God, SAViora of thk World. 
 
 o In his paraphrase of Virgil, the emperor has frequently assisted 
 and improved the literal sense of the Latin text. See Blondel des 
 Sybilles, I. i. c. 14, 15. 16. 
 
 P The different claims of an elder and younger son of Pollio, of 
 Julia, of Drusun. of Marcellus, are found to be incompatible with 
 chronology, history, and the good sense of Virgil. 
 
 ^*, 
 
 fi 
 
 >.-r 
 
25G 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Constantinc was admonished in a dream to inscribe 
 the shields of his sohliers with the celestial sign of God, 
 the sacred monogram of the name of Christ ; that he 
 executed the commands of heaven, and that his valour 
 and obedience were rewarded by the decisive victory 
 of the Milvian bridge. Some consideration might per- 
 haps incline a sceptical mind to suspect the judgment 
 or the veracity of the rhetorician, whose pen, either 
 from zeal or interest, was devoted to the cause of the 
 prevailing faction.' He appears to have published his 
 deaths of the persecutors at Nicomedia about three 
 years after the Roman victory ; but the interval of a 
 thousand miles, and a thousand days, will allow an 
 ample latitude for the invention of declaimers, the cre- 
 dulity of party, and the tacit approbation of the em- 
 peror himself; who might listen without indignation 
 to a marvellous tale, which exalted his fame, and pro- 
 moted his designs. In favour of Licinius, who still 
 dissembled his'^animosity to the christians, the same 
 author has provided a similar vision, of a form of 
 prayer, which was conmiunicated by an angel, and re- 
 peated by the whole army before thev engaged the 
 legions of the tyrant Maximin. The frequent repeti- 
 tion of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not 
 subdue, the reason of mankind ; * but if the dream of 
 Constantine is separately considered, it may be natu- 
 rally explained cither by the policy or the enthusiasm 
 of the emperor. Whilst his anxiety for the approach- 
 ing day, which must decide the fate of the empire, was 
 suspended by a short and interrupted slumber, the ven- 
 erable form of Christ, and the well-known symbol of 
 his religion, might forcibly offer themselves to the 
 active fancy of a prince who reverenced the name, and 
 had perhaps secretly implored the power, of the God 
 of the christians. As readily might a consummate 
 statesman indulge himself in the use of one of those 
 military stratagems, one of those pious frauds, which 
 Philip and Sertorius had employed with such art and 
 effect.' The preternatural origin of dreams was uni- 
 versally admitted by the nations of antiquity, and a 
 considerable part of the Gallic army was already pre- 
 pared to place their confidence in the salutary sign of 
 the christian religion. The secret vision of Constan- 
 tine could be disproved only by the event ; and the in- 
 trepid hero who had passed the Alps and the Apennine, 
 might view with careless despair the consequences of 
 a d'efeat under the walls of Rome. The senate and 
 people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odi- 
 ous tyrant, acknowledged that the victory of Constan- 
 tine surpassed the powers of man, without daring to 
 insinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of 
 the irodt. The triumphal arch, which was erecteil about 
 three years after the event, proclaims, in ambiguous 
 language, that, by the greatness of his own mind, and 
 
 r Ca'cilius de M. P. C.44. It is certain, that this historical doclani- 
 alioii \v:.s roinposed and jmhlislicd wliilc Liriniud, soverei-rii of tlie 
 east, still preserved the friendship of Constantine. and of the cliris- 
 lians. Every reader of taste must perceive that the style is of a very 
 ditfcrent and inferior character to that of Laclantins ; and t^uch in- 
 deed is tiie judiriiient of Lo Clerc and Lardncr. (Rihiiotheque An- 
 cienne et Moderne, toni. iii. p. 4:i8. Credil.ility of the Gospel, &c. 
 part ii. vol. vii. p. 94.) 'J'hree arpuments from the title of ilie book, 
 and from the names of Danatus and Ocilius, are produced hy the 
 advocates fur Lactantius. (See the 1*. Lestocq, toni. il. p. 40— CO.) 
 Eacli of these proofs is sinjily weak and defective, hut their concur- 
 rence has urcat weight. I have often fluctuated, and shall /arnc/// 
 follow the Colbert MS. in calling,' the author (whoever lie was) Ca;- 
 
 cilius. 
 
 « Circilius. de M. P. c. 46. There seems to be some reason in the 
 observation of IVl. de Voltaire (l)euvres. torn. xiv. p. *.H)7.) who as- 
 cril»es to the success of Constantine the superior fame of his Jabarum 
 above the anircl of Eicinius. Vet even this ancel is favourably en- 
 tertained by Tag!. Tillcmout, FIcury, &c. who arc fond of increasing 
 their stock of miracles. . ,„ .. 
 
 t Besides these well-known examples, Tolhns (Preface to Boi- 
 leaii's translation of Lonpinu?) has discovered a vision of Antifronu.^. 
 who assured his troops that he had seen a pentagon (the symbol of 
 nafety) with these words, '' In this conquer." But Tolluis has most 
 inexcusably omitted to produce his authority; and his own charac- 
 ter, literary as well as moral, is not free from reproach. See Chaut- 
 fei»in Diclionnaire Critique, toni. iv. p. KJO.) Without inaistinp on 
 the silenceofUiodorus, Plutarch, Justin, &c. it may be observed that 
 Polysnus, who in a separate chapter (I. iv. c. 6.) has collected mnc- 
 icen military stratagems of Aiitigonus, is totally ignorant of thiti re- 
 inaikablc vision. 
 
 by an instinct or impulse of the divinity, he had saved 
 and avenged the Roman republic." The pagan orator, 
 who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating 
 the virtues of the conqueror, supposes that he alone 
 enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the Su- 
 preme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his 
 subordinate'deities ; and thus assigns a very plausible 
 reason why the subjects of Constantine should not pre- 
 sume to embrace the new religion of their sovereign." 
 
 III. The philosopher, who with calm Appearance of a 
 
 suspicion examines the dreams and cross in the sky. 
 omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even 
 of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude, that 
 if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been de- 
 ceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has 
 much more frequently been insulted by fiction. Every 
 event, or appearance, or accident, which seems to de- 
 viate from the ordinary course of nature, has been 
 rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity; 
 and the astonished fancy of the multitude has some- 
 times given shape and colour, language and motion, 
 to the fleeting but uncommon meteors of the air.^ 
 Nazarius and^Eusebius are the two most celebrated 
 orators, who in studied panegyrics have laboured tQ 
 exalt the glory of Constantine. Nine a. D.321. 
 years after the Roman victory, Naza- 
 rius^ describes an army of divine warriors, who seem- 
 ed to fall from the sky : he marks their beauty, their 
 spirit, their gigantic forms, the stream of light which 
 beamed from their celestial armour, their patience in 
 suffering themselves to be heard, as well as seen, by 
 mortals; and their declaration that they were sent, that 
 they flew, to the assistance of the great Constantine. 
 For the truth of this prodigy, the pagan orator appeals 
 to the whole Gallic nation, in whose presence he was 
 then speaking, and seems to hope that the ancient 
 apparitions* would now obtain credit from this recent 
 and public event. 
 
 The christian fable of Eusebius, which, in the space 
 of twenty-six years, might arise from the ^ ^ 33^ 
 original dream, is cast' in a much more 
 cor'rect and elegant mould. In one of the marches of 
 Constantine, he is reported to have seen with his own 
 eyes the luminous trophy of the cross, placed above 
 the meridian sun, and inscribed with the following 
 words : Bv this, conquer. This amazing object in 
 the sky astonished the whole army, as well as the em- 
 peror himself, who was yet undetermined in the choice 
 of a religion : but his astonishment was converted into 
 faith by"the vision of the ensuing night. Christ ap- 
 peared before his eyes, and displaying the same celes- 
 tial sign of the cross, he directed Constantine to frame 
 a similar standard, and to march, with an assurance of 
 victory, against Maxentius and all his enemies.'' The 
 learned bishop of Caesarea appears to be sensible, that 
 the recent discovery of this marvellous anecdote would 
 excite some surprise and distrust among the most pious 
 of his readers. Yet, instead of ascertaining the pre- 
 cise circumstances of time and place, which always 
 serve to detect falsehood, or establish truth ; <= instead 
 
 u Instincfu Divinitatis, mentis mapnitudinc. The inscription on 
 the triumphal arch of Constantine, which has been copied l>y Baro- 
 nius Gruter, &c. may still be perused by every curious traveller. 
 
 X Habeas profeclo, aliquid cum ilia mente Divina secretum ; quae 
 delcgata nostra Diia Minoribus cura, uni se libi dignatur ostcndcre. 
 I'anejtyr. Vet. ix. 2. ... 
 
 y M. Freret (.Memoires de I'Academic des Inscriptions, torn. iv. 
 n 411—437.) explains, by physical causes, many of the prodigies of 
 antiquity ; and FabriciuS; who is abused by both parties, vainly tries 
 to introduce the celestial cross of Constantine among the solar halos. 
 Bibliothec. Gr.-rc. tom. vi. p. 8— 29. 
 
 z Nazarius inter Paiiecyr. Vet. x. 14, 15. It is unnecessary to 
 name the moderns, whose undisiinpuishinp and ravenous appetite 
 has swallowed even tlie pagan bait of Nazarius. 
 
 a The apparitions of Castor and Pollux, particularly to announce 
 the Maccdoninn victory, arc attested by historians and public n1on«^ 
 iiients. See Cicero de Natura Deorum, ii.2. iii. 5, G. Florus, n. 1- 
 Valerius Maxinms. I. i. c. 8. No. 1. Yet the most recent of these mi 
 racles is omitted, and indirectly denied by Livy (xlv. 1.) 
 
 b Eusehius, 1. i. c. 28, 29, :?0. The silence of the same Eusebius, in 
 liis Ecclesiastical History, is deeply felt by those advocates for tlic 
 miracle who are not absolutely callous. 
 
 c The narrative of Constantine seems to indicate, that he saw in^ 
 cross in the sky before he passed the Alps against Maxentius. 1 nc 
 
 of collectmg and recoraing the evidence of so many 
 living witnesses, who must have been spectators of 
 this stupendous miracle ;<» Eusebius contents himself 
 with alleging a very singular testimony ; that of the 
 deceased Constantine, who, many years after the event, 
 m the freedom of conversation, had related to him this 
 extraordinary incident of his own life, and had attested 
 the truth of It by a solemn oath. The prudence and 
 gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect 
 the veracity of his victorious master ; but he plainly 
 intimates, that, in a fact of such a nature, he should 
 have refused his assent to any meaner authority. This 
 motive of credibility could not survive the power of 
 the 1- avian family; and the celestial sign, which the 
 infidels might afterwards deride,* was disregarded by 
 the christians of the age which immediately followed 
 the conversion of Constantine.' But the catholic 
 church, both of the east and of the west, has adopted 
 a prodigy, which favours, or seems to favour, the po- 
 pular vvorship of the cross. The vision of Constantine 
 maintained an honourable place in the legend of super- 
 stition, till the bold and sagacious spirit of criticism 
 presumed to depreciate the triumph, and to arraio-n the 
 truth, of the first christian emperor.s ° 
 
 The conversrion ^^^J PTOtcstant and philosophic Tcad- 
 of Constantim! crs 01 the present age will incline to 
 might be sin- believe, that, in the account of his own 
 conversion, Constantine attested a wilful 
 falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury. They 
 may not hesitate to pronounce, that, in the choice of 
 religion, his mind was determined only by a sense of 
 interest ; and that (according to the expression of a 
 profane poet »>) he used the altars of the church as a 
 convenient footstool to the throne of the empire. A 
 conclusion so harsh and so absolute is not, however, 
 warranted by our knowledge of human nature, of Con- 
 stantine, or of Christianity. In an age of religious 
 fervour, the most artful statesmen are observed to feel 
 some part of the enthusiasm which they inspire ; and 
 the most orthodox saints assume the dangerous privi- 
 lege of defending the cause of truth by the arms of 
 deceit and falsehood. Personal interest is often the 
 standard of our belief, as well as of our practice ; and 
 the same motives of temporal advantage which mio-ht 
 influence the public cgnduct and professions of Con- 
 stantine would insensibly dispose his mind to embrace 
 a religion so propitious to his fame and fortunes. His 
 vanity was gratified by the flattering assurance, that he 
 had been chosen by heaven to reign over the earth ; 
 
 857 
 
 Fcene has been fixed by provincial vanity at Treves, Besancon, &c. 
 See 1 illemonl. Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 573. 
 
 d The pious Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1317 ) rejects 
 with a sigh the nsefnl acts of Artemius, a veteran and a martvr 
 who attests, as an eye-witness, the vision of Constantine ' 
 
 e Gelasius Cyzic. in Act. Concil. Nicen. I. i. c. 4. 
 f The advocates for the vision are unable to produce a sinde testi- 
 mony from the fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries, who^in their 
 voluminous writings, repeatedly celebrate the triumph of the church 
 and of Constantine. As these venerable men had not any dislike to 
 a miracle, we may suspect (and the suspicion is confirmed by the ic- 
 norancc of Jcrom) that they were all unacquainted with the life of 
 Constantine by Eusebius. This tract was recovered by the diligence 
 of those who translated or continued his Ecclesiastical History, and 
 who have represented in various colours the vision of the cross ' 
 
 S Godefroy was the first who, in the year 1643, (Not. ad Philostor- 
 gium, I. i. c. 6. p. 16.) expressed any doubt of a miracle which had 
 been supported with equal zeal by Cardinal Baronius, and the Cen- 
 turiators of Ma>?deburg. Since that time, many of the protestant 
 critics have inclined towards doubt and disbelief. The objections 
 are urged with great force by M. Chauffepi^; (Diction naire Critique 
 lom. iv^. 6—11.) and in the year 1774, a doctor of Sorbonne, the 
 Abbe du Voisin, published an apology, which deserves the praise of 
 learning and moderation. 
 
 h Lors Consiantin dit ccs propres paroles : 
 
 J'ai renver86 le culte des idoles : 
 
 Sur lea debris de leurs temples fumans 
 
 Au Dieu du cici j'ai prodiguc I'encens. 
 
 Mais tons mes soins pour sa grandeur supreme 
 
 N'eurent jamais d'autre objet que moi-meme ; 
 
 Les saints antels n'etoient d mes regards 
 
 Qu'un marchepi^ du trone des Cesars. 
 
 li'ambition, la fureur, les delices ^ 
 
 Etoient mesDieux, avoientmes saerifices. 
 
 L'or des Chretiens, leurs intrigues, leur sang 
 
 Ont ciment^ ma fortune et mon rang. 
 The poem which contains these lines may be read with pleasure, 
 but cannot be named with decency. 
 
 Vol. I — 2 H 17 
 
 success had justified his divine title to the throne, and 
 that title was founded on the truth of the christian re- 
 velation. As real virtue is sometimes excited by un- 
 deserved applause, the specious piety of Constantine, 
 It at first It was only specious, might gradually, by the 
 influence of praise, of habit, and of example, be ma- 
 tiired into serious faith and fervent devotion. The 
 bishops and teachers of the new sect, whose dress and 
 manners had not qualified them for the residence of a 
 court, were admitted to the imperial table; they ac- 
 companied the monarch in his expeditions ; and the 
 ascendant which one of them, an Egyptian or a 
 J^paniard,' acquired over his mind was imputed by the 
 pagans to the effect of magic." Lactantius, who has 1 
 adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence ' 
 ot Cicero ;> and Eusebius, who has consecrated the 
 learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the service 
 ot re igion," were both received into the friendship and 
 tamiliarity of their sovereign ; and those able masters 
 ot controversy could patiently watch the soft and yield- 
 ing moments of persuasion, and dexterously apply the 
 arguments which were the best adapted to his charac- 
 ter and understanding. Whatever advantages might be * 
 derived from the acquisition of an imperial proselyte, 
 he was distinguished by the splendour of his purple, 
 rather than by the superiority of wisdom or virtue, 
 trom the many thousands of his subjects who had em- 
 braced the doctrines of Christianity. Nor can it be 
 deemed incredible, that the mind of an unlettered sol- 
 dier should have yielded to the weight of evidence, 
 which, in a more enlightened age, has satisfied or sub- 
 dued the reason of a Grotius, a Pascal, or a Locke. In 
 the midst of the incessant labours of his great office, this 
 soldier employed, or affected to employ, the hours of 
 the night m the diligent study of the Scriptures, and 
 the composition of theological discourses ; which he 
 afterwards pronounced in the presence of a numerous 
 and applauding audience. In a very long discourse, 
 which is still extant, the royal preacher expatiates on 
 the various proofs of religion ; but he dwells with 
 peculiar complacency on the Sibylline The fourth ec 
 verses," and the fourth eclogue of Vir(ril.« logue of Virgir. 
 Forty years before the birth of Christ, the Mantuan 
 bard, as if inspired by the celestial muse of Isaiah, had 
 celebrated, with all the pomp of oriental metaphor, the 
 return of the virgin, the fall of the serpent, the ap- 
 proaching birth of a godlike child, the offspring of the 
 great Jupiter, who should expiate the guilt of human 
 kind, and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues 
 of his father; the rise and appearance of an heavenly 
 race, a primitive nation throughout the world ; and the 
 gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the 
 golden age. The poet was perhaps unconscious of the 
 secret sense and object of these sublime predictions, 
 which have been so unworthily applied to the infant 
 son of a consul or a triumvir : p but if a more splendid, 
 and indeed specious, interpretation of the fourth ec- 
 logue contributed to the conversion of the first chris- 
 
 i This favourite was probably the great Osius. buhep of Cordova 
 who preferred the pastoral care of the whole church to the govern- 
 ment of a particular diocese. His character is magnificently, though 
 concisely, expressed by Athanasius, (tom. i. p. 703.) See Tillemont 
 Mem. Eccles, tom, vii. p. 524—561. Osius was accused, perhaps un- 
 justly, of retiring from court with a very ample fona-ne. 
 
 k See Eusebius, (in Vit. Constant, passim,) and Zosimus, 1. il. p. 
 104. 
 
 1 The Christianity of Lactantius was of a moral rather than of a 
 mysterious cast. " Erat pens rudis (says the orthodox bull) disci- 
 plinae christians, et in rhetorica melius quam in theologia versatus " 
 Defensio Fidei Nieenff, sect. ii. c. 14. 
 
 m Fabricius, with his usual diligence, has collected a list of between 
 three and four hundred authors quoted in the Evangelical Prepara- 
 tion of Eusebius. See Bibl. Graec. 1. v. c. 4. lom. vi. p. 37—56. 
 
 n See Constantin, Oral, ad Sanctos, c. 19, 20. He chiefly depends . t 
 on a mysterious acrostic, composed in the sixth age after the deluge | 
 by the Erythraean Sibyl, and translated by Cicero into Latin. The \ 
 initial letters of the thirty four Greek verses, form this prophetic sen- 
 tence : Jescs Christ, Son of God, Savioir of the World. 
 
 o In his paraphrase of Virgil, the emperor has frequently assisted 
 and improved the literal sense of the Latin text. See Bloudel doa 
 Sybilles, I. i. c. 14, 15, 16. 
 
 p The different claims of an elder and younger son of PoIIio, of 
 Julia, of DrusuR, of Marcellus. are found to be incompatible with 
 chronology, history, and the good sense of Virgil. 
 
 h^ 
 
258 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 259 
 
 / tian emperor, Viro^il may deserve to be ranked among 
 the most successful missionaries of the gospel.'' 
 
 tion and 'I'he awful mysterics of the christian 
 priv^iSsT of faith and worship were concealed from 
 Consianiine. ^^ie eyes of Strangers, and even of cate- 
 chumens, with an aftected secrecy, which served to 
 excite their wonder and curiosity/ But the severe 
 rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops 
 had instituted, were relaxed by the same prudence in 
 favour of an imperial proselyte, whom it was so im- 
 portant to allure, by every gentle condescension, into 
 the pale of the church; and Constantino was permit- 
 ted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of 
 the privileges, before he had contracted any of the 
 obligationsr of a christian. Listead of retiring from 
 the "congregation, when the voice of the deacon dis- 
 missed the profane multitude, he prayed with the faith- 
 ful, disputed with the bishops, preached on the most 
 sublime and intricate subjects of theology, celebrated 
 with sacred rites the vigil of Easter, and publicly de- 
 clared himself, not only a partaker, but, in some mea- 
 sure, a priest and hicrophant of the christian mysteries." 
 The pride of Constantino might assume, and his ser- 
 vices had deserved, some extraordinary distinction ; an 
 ill-timed rigour might have blasted the nnripcned fruits 
 of his conversion ; and if the doors of his church had 
 been strictly closed against a prince who had deserted 
 the altars of the gods,^ the master of the empire would 
 have been left destitute of any form of religious wor- 
 ship. In his last visit to Rome, he piously disclaimed 
 and insulted the superstition of his ancestors, by re- 
 fusing to lead the military procession of the equestrian 
 orderTand to offer the public vows to the Jupiter of the 
 Capitoline hill.* Many years before his baptism and i 
 death, Constantino had proclaimed to the world, that | 
 neither his person nor his image should ever more be 
 seen within the walls of an idolatrous temple ; while 
 he distributed through the provinces a variety of me- 
 dals and pictures, which represented the emperor in an 
 humble and suppliant posture of christian devotion.'' 
 D la f his ^^^^ pride of Constantine, who refus- 
 
 bapifsm tiiuhc cd thc privileges of a catechumen, can- 
 approach of i^ot easily be explained or excused ; but 
 ^*^^^^' the delay of his baptism may be justified 
 
 by the maxims and the practice of ecclesiastical anti- 
 quity. The sacrament of baptism * was regularly ad- 
 ministered by the bishop himself, with his assistant 
 clergy, in the cathedral church of the diocese, during 
 the fifty days between the solemn festivals of Easter 
 and pentecost ; and this holy term admitted a numer- 
 ous band of infants and adult persons into the bosom 
 of the church. The discretion of parents often sus- 
 pended the baptism of their children till they could 
 understand the obligations which they contracted : the 
 severity of ancient bishops exacted from the new con- 
 verts a noviciate of two or three years ; and the cate- 
 chumens themselves, from different motives of a tem- 
 
 q See Lowth de Sacra Poesi Hehrjporum Prjriect. xxi. p. 289, 29^. 
 In the examination of the fourtli eclogue, thc respectable hisliop of 
 London has displayed learning, taste, ingenuity, and a temperate 
 enthusiasm, which exalts his fancy without degrading liis judg- 
 ment. 
 
 r The distinction between the public and the secret parts of divine 
 service, the misea catechumenorum, and tiie missa JidcUum, and thc 
 mysterious veil which piety or policy hnd cast over the latter, are 
 very judiciously explained by Thiers, Exposition du Saint Sacre- 
 ment, I. i. c. 8—12. p. 59—91. : but as, on this subject, the papists 
 may reasonably be suspected, a protcstant reader will depend witli 
 more confidence on the learned Bingham. Antiquities, 1. x. c. 5. 
 
 I See Euseliius in Vit. Constant l.iv. c. 1.5— 32. and the whole tenor 
 of Constantine's sermon. The faith and devotion of the emperor 
 has furnished Ilaronius witli a specious argument in favour of his 
 early baptism. 
 
 t Zosimus, I. ii. p. 105. 
 
 u Eusebius in Vit. Constant. I. iv. c. 15, 16. 
 
 X The theory and practice of antiquity, with regard to thc sacra- 
 ment of baptism, have been copiously explained by Dom Chardon, 
 Hist, des Sacramens, torn. i. p. 3— 405; Pom Martenne, de Ritibus 
 Ecclesiie Antiquis. torn. i. ; and by Ilingham, in the tenth and 
 eleventh books of his Christian Antiquities. One circumstance may 
 be observed, in which the modern churches have materially departed 
 from the ancient custom. The sacrament of baptism, (even when it 
 was administered to infants) was iimnediately followed by connrma- 
 tiun and the holy communion. i 
 
 poral or a spiritual nature, were seldom impatient to 
 assume the character of perfect and initiated christians. 
 The sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a 
 full and absolute expiation of sin ; and the soul was 
 instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to 
 the promise of eternal salvation. Among the prose- 
 lytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it im- 
 prudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not 
 be repeated ; to throw away an inestimable privilege, 
 which could never be recovered. By the delay of 
 their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their 
 passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they 
 still retained in tlieir own hands the means of a sure 
 and absolute and easy absolution.y The sublime the- 
 ory of the iTospel had made a much fainter impression 
 on the heart than on the understanding of Constantine 
 himself. He pursued the great object of his ambition 
 through the dark and bloody paths of war and policy; 
 and, after the victory, he abandoned himself, without 
 moderation, to the abuse of his fortune. Instead of 
 asserting his just superiority above the imperfect he- 
 roism and profane philosophy of Trajan and the Anto- 
 nines, the mature age of Constantine forfeited the re- 
 putation which he had acquired in his youth. As he 
 gradually advanced in the knowledge of truth, he pro- 
 portionably declined in thc practice of virtue ; and the 
 same year of his reign in which he convened the coun- 
 cil of Nice was polluted by the execution, or rather 
 murder, of his eldest son. This date is alone suffi- 
 cient to refute the ignorant and malicious suggestions 
 of Zosimus,' who affirms that after the death of Cris- 
 pus the remorse of his father accepted from the minis- 
 ters of Christianity the expiation which he had vainlv 
 solicited from thc pagan pontiffs. At the time of th^ 
 death of Crispus, the emperor could no longer hesitate 
 in the choice of a religion ; he could no longer be ig- 
 norant that the church was possessed of an infallible 
 remedy, though he chose to defer the application of it, 
 till the approach of death had removed the temptation 
 and danger of a relapse. The bishops whoni he sum- 
 moned, m his last illness, to the palace of Nicomedia, 
 were edified by the fervour with which he requested 
 and received the sacrament of baptism, by the solemn 
 protestation that the remainder of his life should be 
 worthy of a disciple of Christ, and by his humble re- 
 fusal to wear the imperial purple after he had been 
 clothed in thc white garment of a ncophite. The ex- 
 ample and reputation of Constantine seemed to coun- 
 tenance the delay of baptism.* Future tyrants were 
 encouraged to believe, that the innocent blood which 
 they mfght shed in a long reign would instantly be 
 washed away in the waters of regeneration ; and the 
 abuse of religion dangerously undermined the founda- 
 tions of moral virtue. 
 
 The gratitude of the church has ex- Propagation of 
 alted the virtues and excused the failings Christianity, 
 of a generous patron, who seated Christianity on the 
 throne of the Roman world ; and the Greeks, who cel- 
 ebrate the festival of the imperial saint, seldom men- 
 tion the name of Constantine without adding the title 
 of equal to the aposllcs,^ Such a comparison, if it al- 
 
 y The fathers, who censured this criminal delay, could not deny 
 the certain and victorious efficacy even of a death bed baptism. The 
 ingenious riietoric of Chrysostom could find only three arguments 
 K«'ainat these prudent christians. 1. That we should love and pur- 
 sue virtue for her own sake, and not merely for the reward. 2. 
 That we may be surprised by death, without an 0|)portunity of bap- 
 tism. 3. That although we shall be placed in heaven, we shall only 
 twinkle like little stars, when rompared to the suns of righteousness 
 who have run their api)ointcd course with labour, with success, and 
 with glory. Chrysoslom in Epist. ad Helira-os, Homil. xiii. apud 
 Chardon, I list, dcs Hacremcns, torn. i. p. 49. I believe that this de- 
 lay of baptism, though attended with the most pernicious consequen- 
 ces, was never condemned by any general or provincial council, or 
 by any public act or declaration of the church. The zeal of the 
 bishops was easily kindled on much slighter occasions. 
 
 I /osimus, 1. ii. p. 104. For this disingenuous falsehood he has 
 deserved and experienced the harshest treatment from all the eccle- 
 siastical writers, except Cardinal Baronius, (A. C. 324. No. 15—28.) 
 who had occasion to employ the infidel on a particular service 
 against tlie Arian Eusel)ius. 
 
 a Eusebius, 1. iv. c. 61 02, 63. The bishop of Crcsarea Buppoaes 
 the salvation of Constantine with the most perfect confidence. 
 
 b See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 429. The Greek«i 
 
 ludes to the character of those divine missionaries, 
 must be imputed to the extravagance of impious llat- 
 lery. But if the parallel be confined to the extent and 
 number of their evangelie victories, the success of 
 Constantine might perhaps equal that of the apostles 
 themselves. By the edicts of toleration, he removed 
 the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retard- 
 ed the progress of Christianity ; and its active and nu- 
 merous ministers received a free permission, a liberal 
 encouragement, to recommend the salutary truths of 
 revelation by every argument which could affect the 
 reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the 
 two religions continued but a moment; and the pierc- 
 ing eye of ambition and avarice soon discovered, that 
 the profession of Christianity might contribute to the 
 interest of the present, as well as of a future, life.^ 
 The hopes of wealth and honours, the example of an 
 emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, dif- 
 fused conviction among the venal and obsequious 
 crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace. 
 The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the vol- 
 untary destruction of their temples, were distinguish- 
 ed by municipal privileges, and rewarded with "popu- 
 lar donatives ; and the new capital of the east gloried 
 in the singular advantage, that Constantinople was 
 never profaned by the worship of idols."* As the lower 
 ranks of society are governed by imitation, the con- 
 version of those who possessed any eminence of birth, 
 of power, or of riches, was soon followed by depend- 
 ent multitudes.^ The salvation of the common people 
 was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one 
 year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome, 
 besides a proportionable number of women and chil- 
 dren, and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of 
 gold, had been promised by the emperor to every con- 
 vert.^ The powerful influence of Constantine was not 
 circumscribed by the narrow limits of his life, or of 
 his dominions. The education which he bestowed on 
 his sons and nephews, secured to the empire a race of 
 princes, whose faith was still more lively and sincere, 
 as they imbibed, in their earliest infancy, the spirit, or 
 at least the doctrine, of Christianity. War and com- 
 merce had spread the knowledge of the gospel beyond 
 the confines of the Roman provinces ; and the barba- 
 rians, who had disdained an humble and proscribed 
 sect, soon learned to esteem a religion which had been 
 so lately embraced by the greatest monarch, and the 
 most civilized nation, of the globe.s The Goths and 
 Germans, who enlisted under the standard of Rome, 
 revered the cross which glittered at the head of the le- 
 gions, and their fierce countrymen received at the same 
 time the lessons of faith and of humanity. The kings 
 
 the Russians, and, in the darker ages, tlie Lntins themselves, have 
 been dc-sirous of placing Constantine in llie catalogue of saints. 
 
 c See the third and fourth books of his life. He was acru.'Jtomed 
 80 say, that whether Christ was preached in pretence, or in truth, he 
 should still rejoice. (I. iii. c. 58.) 
 
 d M. de •i'iileinont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 374— 61G.) has 
 defended, with slrcngtli and spirit, the virgin purity of Con.stanti- 
 liople against some malevolent insinuations of the pagan Zosimus. 
 
 e The author of the Ilistoire Politique et Philosopliique des deux 
 Indes (tom. i. p. 9.) condemns a law of Constantine, wJiirh gave 
 freedom to all the slaves who should enil)race christianitv. Tlie em- 
 peror did, indeed, publish a law, which restrained the "Jews from 
 circumcising, perhaps from keeping, any cliristian slaves, (see Euseh. 
 in Vit. Constant. I. iv. c. 27. and Cod. Tlieodos. I. xvi. tit. ix. with 
 Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p. 247.) But this imperfect excep- 
 tion related only to the Jews: and the great body of slaves, who 
 were the properly of christian or pagan ma.sters, could not improve 
 their temporal condition by changing their religion. I am ignorant 
 by what guides the Abbe Raynal was deceived ; as the total absence 
 of quotations is the unpardonable blemish of his entertaining history. 
 
 f See Acta Sti Silvestri, and Hist. Eccles. Nicephor. Callist. I. vii. 
 c. 34. ap. Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 324. No. 07—74. Such evi- 
 dence is contemptible enough ; but these circumstances are in them- 
 selves 80 probable, that t)je learned Dr. Howell (History of the 
 World, vol. iii. p. 14.) has not scrupled to adopt them. 
 
 g The conversion of the barbarians, under the reign of Constan- 
 tine, is celebrated by the ecclesiastical historians. (See Sozomen, I. ii. 
 c. 6. and Theodoret, 1 i. c. 23,24.) But Rufinus, the Latin transla- 
 tor of Eusebius, deserves to be considered as an original authority. 
 His information was curiously collected from one of the compan- 
 ions of the AposUe of ^Ethiopia, and from Bacurius, an Iberian 
 prince, who wns count of the domestics. Father Mainachi has given 
 an ample compilation on the progress of Christianity, in thc first and 
 second volumes of his great but imperfect work. 
 
 of Iberia and Armenia worshipped the God of their 
 protector; and their subjects, who have invariably 
 preserved the name of christians, soon formed a sacred 
 and perpetual connection with their Roman brethren. 
 The christians of Persia were suspected, in time of 
 war, of preferring their religion to their country; but 
 as long as peace subsisted between the two empires, 
 the persecuting spirit of the magi was effectually re- 
 strained by the interposition of Constantine.** The 
 rays of the gospel illuminated the coast of India. The 
 colonies of Jews, who had penetrated into Arabia and 
 T^thiopia,' opposed the progress of Christianity; but 
 the labour of the missionaries was in some measure 
 facilitated by a previous knowledge of the Mosaic re- 
 velation ; and Abyssinia still reveres the memory of 
 Frumentius, who, in the time of Constantine, devoted 
 his life to the conversion of those sequestered regions. 
 Under the reign of his son Constantius, Theopliilus,* 
 who was himself of Indian extraction, was invested 
 with the double character of ambassador and bishop. 
 He embarked on the Red sea with two hundred horses 
 of the purest breed of Cappadocia, which were sent 
 by the emperor to the prince of the Sabaeans, or Ho- ' 
 merites. Theophilus was intrusted with many other 
 useful or curious presents, which might raise the ad- 
 miration, and conciliate the friendship, of the barba- 
 rians ; and he successfully employed several years in 
 a pastoral visit to the churches of the torrid zone.^ 
 
 The irresistible power of the Roman change of the na- 
 emperors was displayed in the important t'""al religion, 
 and dangerous change of the national religion. The 
 terrors of a military force silenced the faint and unsup- 
 ported murmurs of the pagans, and there was reason 
 to expect, that the cheerful submission of the christian 
 clergy, as well as people, would be the result of con- 
 science and gratitude. It was long since established, 
 as a fundamental maxim of the Roman constitution, 
 that every rank of citizens was alike subject to the 
 laws, and that the care of religion was the right as 
 well as duty of the civil magistrate. Constantine 
 and his successors could not easily persuade them- 
 selves that they had forfeited, by their conversion, any 
 branch of the imperial prerogatives, or that they were 
 incapable of giving laws to a religion which they had 
 protected and embraced. The emperors still continued 
 to exercise a supreme jurisdiction over . ^ 'iio_4'ja 
 the ecclesiastical order; and the .six- ' " 
 teenth book of the Theodosian code represents, under 
 a variety of titles, the authority which they assumed 
 in the government of the catholic church. 
 
 But the distinction of the spiritual Di,,i„etion of the 
 and temporal powers,*" which had never spiritual and tem- 
 been imposed on the free spirit of i*"""*^' lowers. 
 Greece and Rome, was introduced and confirmed by 
 the legal establishment of Christianity. The office of 
 supreme pontiff, Mhich, from the time of Numa to that 
 of Augustus, had always been exercised by one of the 
 most eminent of the senators, was at length united to 
 the imperial dignity. The first magistrate of the state, 
 as often as he was prompted by superstition or policy, 
 performed with his own hands the sacerdotal func- 
 
 h See in Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. I. iv. c. 9) the pressing and 
 pathetic epistle of Constantine in favour of his christian brethren of 
 Persia. 
 
 i Sec Basnage, Hist, dcs Jnifs, tom. vii. p. 182. tom. viii. p. 333. 
 tom. ix. p. 810. The curious diliaence of this writer pursues iho 
 Jewish exiles to the extremities of the globe. 
 
 k Theophilus had been given in his infancy as a hostage by his 
 countrymen of the isle of Diva, and was educated bv the Romans in 
 learning and piety. The Maldives, of whicli Male, or Diva, may be 
 the capital, are a cluster of 1900 or 2000 minute islands in the Indian 
 Ocean. The ancients were hn perfectly acquainted with Hie Mal- 
 dives; but they are described in the two Mahometan travellers of 
 the ninth century, published by Renaudot. Ceogrnph. Nubiensis, p. 
 30,31. D'Hcrbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 704. Hist. Generate 
 des Voyages, tom. viii. 
 
 1 Philostorgius, I. iii. c. 4, 5, 6, with Godefroy's learned observa- 
 tions. Tiie historical narrative is soon lost in an inquiry concern- 
 ing the scat of paradise, strange monsters, &c. 
 
 m See the epistle of Osius. ap. Athanasium, vol. i. p. 840. The 
 public remonstrance which Osius was forced to address to the son, 
 contained the same principles of ecclesiastical and civil government 
 which he had secretly instilled into the mind of the father. 
 
 I'N 
 
260 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX* 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tions ; " nor was there any order of priests, either at 
 Rome or in the provinces, who claimed a more sacred 
 character among men, or a more intimate communica- 
 tion with the gods. But in the christian church, 
 which intrusts the service of the altar to a perpetual 
 succession of consecrated ministers, the monarch, 
 whose spiritual rank is less honourable than that of 
 the meanest deacon, was seated below the rails of the 
 sanctuary, and confounded with the rest of the faithful 
 multitude.*' The emperor might be saluted as the 
 father of his people, but he owed a filial duty and rev- 
 erence to the fathers of the church ; and the same marks 
 of respect, which Constantine had paid to the persons 
 of saints and confessors, were soon exacted by the 
 pride of the episcopal order.P A secret conflict be- 
 tween the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, embar- 
 rassed the operations of the Roman government ; and 
 a pious emperor was alarmed by the guilt and danger 
 of toucliing with a profane hand tlie ark of the cove- 
 nant. The separation of men into the two orders of 
 the clergy and of the laity was, indeed, familiar to 
 many na'tions of antiquity; and the priests of India, of 
 Persia, of Assyria, of Judea, of Ethiopia, of Egypt, 
 and of Gaul, derived from a celestial origin the tempo- 
 ral power and possessions which they had acquired. 
 These venerable institutions had gradually assimilated 
 themselves to the manners and government of their re- 
 spective countries ; i but the opposition or contempt of 
 the civil power served to cement the discipline of the 
 primitive church. The christians had been obliged to 
 elect their own magistrates, to raise and distribute a 
 peculiar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy of 
 their republic by a code of laws, which were ratified 
 by the consent of the people, and the practice of three 
 hundred years. When Constantine embraced the faith 
 of the christians, he seemed to contract a perpetual 
 alliance with a distinct and independent society ; and 
 the privileges granted or confirmed by that emperor, 
 or by his successors, were accepted, not as the preca- 
 rious favours of the court, but as the just and inalien- 
 able rights of the ecclesiastical order. 
 
 The catholic church was administered 
 fCs under' the by the Spiritual and legal jurisdiction of 
 christian emiw- eighteen hundred bishops ; ' of whom 
 '""■ one thousand were seated in the Greek, 
 
 and eight hundred in the Latin, provinces of the em- 
 pire. ^The extent and boundaries of their respective 
 dioceses had been variously and accidentally decided 
 by the zeal and success of the first missionaries, by the 
 wishes of the people, and by tlie propagation of the 
 gospel. Episcopal churches were closely planted 
 along the banks of the Nile, on the sea-coast of Africa, 
 in the proconsular Asia, and through the southern 
 provinces of Italy. The bishops of Gaul and Spain, 
 of Thrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, 
 and delegated their rural suffragans to execute the 
 
 subordinate duties of the pastoral office.' A christian 
 diocese might be spread over a province, or reduced to 
 a village ; l)ut all the bishops possessed an equal and 
 indelible character : they all derived the same powers 
 and privileges from the apostles, from the people, and 
 from the laws. While the civil and military profes- 
 sions were separated by the policy of Constantine, a 
 new and perpetual order of ecclesiastical ministers, al- 
 ways respectable, sometimes dangerous, was establish- 
 ed in the church and state. The important review of 
 their station and attributes may be distributed under 
 the following heads : I. Popular election. II. Ordi- 
 nation of the clergy. III. Property. IV. Civil juris- 
 diction. V. Spiritual censures. VI. Exercise of pub- 
 lic oratory. VII. Privilege of legislative assemblies. 
 
 I. The freedom of election* subsisted i. Election of 
 loner after the legal establishment of I'i-^hops. 
 chrTstianity ; » and the subjects of Rome enjoyed m the 
 church the privilege which they had lost in the repub- 
 lic, of choosing the magistrates whom they were 
 bound to obey. As soon as a bishop had closed his 
 eyes, the metropolitan issued a commission to one of 
 his suffragans to administer the vacant see, and pre- 
 pare, witliin a limited time, the future election. The 
 right of voting was vested in the inferior clergy, who 
 were best qualified to judge of the merit of the candi- 
 dates ; in the senators or nobles of the city, all those 
 who were distinguished by their rank or property ; and 
 finally in the whole body of the people, who, on the 
 appointed day, flocked in multitudes from the most re- 
 mote parts of the diocese,^ and sometimes silenced, by 
 their tumultuous acclamations, the voice of reason and 
 the laws of discipline. These acclamations might ac- 
 cidentally fix on the head of the most deserving com- 
 petitor ; of some ancient presbyter, some holy monk, 
 or some layman conspicuous for his zeal and piety. 
 But the episcopal chair was solicited, especially in the 
 crreat and opulent cities of the empire, as a temporal 
 rather than as a spiritual dignity. The interested 
 views, the selfish and angry passions, the arts of per- 
 fidy and dissimulation, the secret corruption, the open 
 and even bloody violence which had formerly disgraced 
 the freedom of election in the commonwealths of 
 Greece and Rome, too often influenced the choice of 
 the successors of the apostles. While one of the can- 
 didates boasted the honours of his family, a second 
 allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, 
 and a third, mo're guilty than his rivals, offered to share 
 the plunder of the church among the accomplices of 
 his sacrilegious hopes.* The civil as well as eccle- 
 siastical laws attempted to exclude the populace from 
 this solemn and important transaction. The canons 
 of ancient discipline, by requiring several episcopal 
 qtialifications of age, station, &c. restrained in some 
 measure the indiscriminate caprice of the electors. 
 
 B M. dela Bastie (Memoires de rArademic dcs Inscriptions, torn. 
 XV p 38— 01 ) lias evidently proved, that Aujiustus and lii« succes 
 sors exercised in person ait ilie sacred functiona of pontifcx iiiaxi- 
 inus, or hi«h-priest of tiic Roman empire. ., j i .» 
 
 o Something of a contrary practice had insensibly prevailed In the 
 ehurch of Constantinople; but the rigid Ambrose commanded Theo- 
 dosius to retire below the rails, and taught him lo know the dufer- 
 ence between a king and a priest. See Theodoret, 1. v. c. 18. 
 
 p At the table of the emperor Maximus, Martin, bishop of I ours, 
 received the cup from an attendant, and gave it to the presbyter his 
 companion, before he allowed the emperor to drink; the empress 
 waited on Martin at table. Sulpicius Severus, in Vit. Sti Martin, c. 
 23. and Dialogue ii. 7. Yet it may be doubted, whether these extra 
 ordinary compliments were paid to the bishop oi the saint. The 
 honours usually granted to the former character, may be seen ,»n 
 Bingham's Antiquities. I. ii. c. 9. and Vales, ad Theodoret 1. iv. c. 6. 
 See the haughty ceremonial which Leontius, bishop of rnpoli, im 
 posed on the empress. Tillemont, Hist, des Empcrcurs, torn. w. p. 
 754 Palres Apostol. torn. Ii. p. 1~9- ^ . , 
 
 Q* Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris, informs us, that the 
 kings of Egypt, who were not already priests, were initiated, attcr 
 thefr election, into the sacerdotal order. 
 
 r The numbers are not ascertained by any ancient writer, or ori- 
 ginal catalogue; for the partial lists of the ^a^te'-n churches are 
 Comparatively modern. The patient diligence of Charles a So Pao^ 
 lo of Luke Holstenius. and of Bingham, has laboriously investigated 
 all the episcopal sees of the catholic church, which was almost com- 
 mengurate with the Roman empire. The ninth book of the Chris- 
 tian Anliquilics is a very accurate map of ecclesiastical geography. 
 
 • On the subject of the rural bishops, or Chorepisopi, who voted 
 in synods, and conferred the minor ordern, see Thomassin, Disci- 
 pline de I'Eglise, tom. J. p. 447, &.c. and Chardon, Hist, des Sacre- 
 mens, tom. v. p. 59r>, ic. They do not appear till the fourth cen- 
 tury ; and this equivocal character, which had excited the jealousy 
 of the prelates, was abolished before the end of the tenth, both in 
 
 the east and the west. ,, , j , 
 
 t [This liberty was very limited, and was soon annihilated; al- 
 ready, since the third century, the deacons were no longer chosen by 
 the members of the community, but by the bishops, though it appears 
 from the letters of St. Cyprian, that in his lime no priest was elected 
 without the consent of the community, (Ep. C8.)— this was far from 
 being a free election. 'J'he bishop proposed to his parishionerg the 
 candidate whom he had chosen, and they were permitted to men- 
 tion any objections they might have to liL«« character or his manners. 
 (St. Cypr. Ep. 33.) They lost even this right, towards the middle of 
 the fourth century.— G.] ..... , _ ..„ 
 
 u Thomassin (Discipline de TEglisc, tom. n. 1. n. c. 1—8. p. b-.i— 
 72t.) has copiously treated of the election of liishops during the five 
 first centuries, both in the east and in the west ; but he shows a 
 very partial bias in favour of the episcopal aristocracy. Bingham (I. 
 iv.c. 2) is moderate; and Chnrdon (Hist, des Sacremens, tom. v. p. 
 108—128.) is very clear and concise. 
 
 V Incredibilis multiludo, non solum ex eo oppido, {Tours,) scA 
 etiam ex vicinis urbibus ad suflTragia ferenda convenerat, &.c. Sul- 
 picius Severus, in Vii. Martin, c. 7. The council of Laodicea (ca- 
 non xiii.) prohibits molis and tumults; and Justinian confines the 
 right of election to the nobility. Novell, cxxiii. 1. 
 
 X The epistles of Sidonius ApoUinaris (iv. 25. vii. 5— 9.) exhibit 
 some of the scandals of the Gallican church ; and Gaul was less po- 
 1 lished and less corrupt tlian llic cast. 
 
 The authority of the provincial bishops, who were as- 1 
 Bembled m the vacant church to consecrate the choice 
 of the people, was interposed to moderate their pas- 
 sions, and to correct their mistakes. The bishops 
 could refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate, and the 
 rage of contending factions sometimes accepted their 
 impartial mediation. The submission, or the resist- 
 ance, of the clergy and people, on various occasions, 
 afforded different precedents, which were insensibly 
 converted into positive laws, and provincial customs: y 
 but it was every where admitted, as a fundamental 
 maxim of religious policy, that no bishop could be im- 
 posed on an orthodox church, without the consent of 
 Its members. The emperors, as the guardians of the 
 public peace, and as the first citizens of Rome and 
 Constantinople, might effectually declare their wishes 
 m the choice of a primate : but those absolute monarchs 
 respected the freedom of ecclesiastical elections; and 
 while they distributed and resumed the honours of the 
 state and army, they allowed eighteen hundred per- 
 petual magistrates to receive their important oflices 
 from the free suffrages of the people.' It was agree- 
 able to the dictates of justice, that these mao-istrates 
 should not desert an honourable station from which 
 they could not be removed ; but the wisdom of councils 
 endeavoured, without much success, to enfore the resi- 
 dence, and to prevent the translation, of bishops. The 
 discipline of the west was indeed less relaxed than 
 that of the east; but the same passions which made 
 those regulations necessary, rendered them ineffectual. 
 The reproaches which angry prelates have so vehe- 
 mently urged against each other, serve only to expose 
 their common guilt, and their mutual indiscretion. 
 II. Ordination of II. The bishops alone possessed the 
 the clergy. faculty of spiritual generation : and this 
 extraordinary privilege might compensate, in some 
 degree, for the painful celibacy » which was imposed 
 as a virtue, as a duty, and at length as a positive obli- 
 gation. The religions of antiquity, which established 
 a separate order of priests, dedicated a holy race, a 
 tribe or family, to the perpetual service of the gods.** 
 buch institutions were founded for possession, rather 
 than conquest. The children of the priests enjoyed, 
 with proud and indolent security, their sacred inherit- 
 ance; and the fiery spirit of enthusiasm was abated by 
 the cares, the pleasures, and the endearments of do- 1 
 mestic life. But the christian sanctuary was open to 
 every ambitious candidate, who aspired to its heavenly 
 promises, or temporal possessions. The office of 
 priests, like that of soldiers or magistrates, was stren- 
 uously exercised by those men, whose temper and abi- 
 lities had prompted them to embrace tlie ecclesiastical 
 profession, or who had been selected by a discernino- 
 bishop, as the best qualified to promote the o-lorv and 
 interest of the church. The bishops <= (till the abuse 
 
 261 
 
 was restrained by the prudence of the la\^'s) might 
 constrain the reluctant, and protect the distressed ; and 
 the imposition of hands for ever bestowed some of the 
 most valuable privileges of civil socity. The whole 
 body of the catholic clergy, more numerous perhaps 
 than the legions, was exempted by the emperors from 
 a 1 service, private or public, all municipal offices,** and 
 all personal taxes and contributions, which pressed on 
 their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight ; and the 
 duties of their holy profession was accepted as a full 
 discharge of their obligations to the republic.' Each 
 bishop acquired an absolute and indefeasible right to 
 the perpetual obedience of the clerk whom he ordlined- 
 the clergy of each episcopal church, with its dependent 
 parishes, formed a regular and permanent society ; and 
 the cathedrals of Constantinople ' and Carthage e main- 
 tained their peculiar establishment of five hundred ec- 
 clesiastical ministers. Their ranks ^ and numbers were 
 insensibly multiplied by the superstition of the times, 
 which introduced into the church the splendid cere- 
 monies of a Jewish or pagan temple; and a long train 
 of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolythes, exorcists, 
 readers, singers, and door keepers, contributed, in their 
 respective stations, to swell the pomp and harmony of 
 religious worship. The clerical name and privilege 
 were extended to many pious fraternities, who devoutly 
 supported the ecclesiastical throne.' SLx hundred 
 paraholani, or adventurers, visited the sick at Alexan- 
 dria; eleven hundred copiatse, or grave-diggers, buried 
 the dead at Constantinople ; and the swarms of monks 
 who arose from the Nile, overspread and darkened the 
 face of the christian world. 
 
 III. The edict of Milan secured the m Property 
 revenue as well as the peace of the A.D.313. 
 church. J The christians not only recovered the lands 
 and houses of which they had been stripped by the 
 persecuting laws of Diocletian, but they acquired a 
 perfect title to all the possessions which they had 
 hitherto enjoyed by the connivance of the maaistrate. 
 As soon as Christianity became the religion of "the em- 
 peror and the empire, the national clergy might claim 
 a decent and honourable maintenance : and the pay- 
 ment of an annual tax might have delivered the people 
 
 »,H ^ fP"'P''0'nise was sometimes introduced by law or by consent • 
 eil.cr the bisliops or the people chose one of the three candiSs 
 who had been named by the other party. cano.aatcs 
 
 X All the examj)les quoted by TJiom'assin (Discipline de l'E«Iise 
 om ,1. 1. „. c. VI. p. 704-714.) appear to be e.vtraordinary acis of 
 power, and even of oppression. The confirmation of the bishop of 
 
 i!lg""("H[8?. EcdesJh'H. n^)**'"'"''"'^*"' ""' "" """'^ '^S"'^' P'^'^^^'*- 
 a The celibacy of the clergy during the first five or six centuries 
 8 a subject of discipline, and indeed of controversy, which lias been 
 very dihgently examined. See in particular Thomassin. D sdpMne, 
 miit^f M^ T.' '• p "• "-K^-.'^V P- 886-902. and Bingham's Antl 
 Snfnf.hi^,f;?- ^yf'^'^^'^f ll'ese learned but partial critics, one 
 half of the truth is produced, and the other is concealed. 
 
 b Diodorus biculus attests and approves the hereditary succession 
 jLna^.^?^"'n *f"°"P Vi« Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the In 
 dians (I I. p. 84. I. ii. p. 142-153. edit. Wesseling.) Tlie magi are 
 described by Ammianus as a very numerous family ; " Per sjBcula 
 
 ?Mh!h..° H'";^*?^^" '^ ?.'1*'^"'^"5 prosapla multitudo creata, Deorum 
 cultibus dedicata " (xxiii. 6.) Ausonius celebrates the Srirps Drui- 
 darum ; (De Professorih. Burdigal. iv.) hut we may infer from the re- 
 mark of Caesar, vi. 13.) that in the Celtic hierarchy, some room was 
 leli for choice and emulation. 
 
 c The subject of the vocation, ordination, obedience, &c. of the 
 clergy, 18 laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de I'Eglise 
 lom. 11. p. 1—83.) and Bingham, (in the fourth book of his Antioui- 
 tieH. more especially the fourth, sixth, and seventh chapters.) When 
 the brother of St. Jerom was ordained in Cyprus, the deacons forci- 
 Wy stopped Ills mouth, lest he should make a solemn protestation, 
 Which might invalidate the holy rites. ^ ' 
 
 d [This exemption was very limited. Municipal offices were of 
 two kinds, some were attached to the condition of the dweller or 
 occupier, others to that of the owner. Constantine exempted the 
 ecclesiastics from offices of the first class. (Cod. Theodos. I.xvi vol 
 2. eg. 1, 2. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 7.) They sought also to 
 obtain exemption from the second, [munera patrimonio^m ) The 
 rich in order to secure this privilege, obtained for themselves subor- 
 dinate places among the clergy. These abuses excited complaints 
 and protestations. Constantine in 320, issued an edict, by wiiich he 
 forbade the richest citizens {decuriones nn^ curiales) to enter the ec- 
 clesiastical order; and the bishops to admit any new ecclesiastics, 
 before some place was vacant by the death of its incumbent. (Gode- 
 froy ad Cod. Theod. I. xii. vol. 1. De decur.) Vaicntinian I. by an 
 edict still more general, declared that no rich citizen should have an 
 office m the church. (De Episc. lib. xvii.) He ordained also, that 
 those ecclesiastics who would be exempt from expenses to which 
 they were liable as proprietors, should be obliged to give un their 
 property to their relations. (Cod. Theodos. Ixii. vol. i. leg. 40 )—0 1 
 e The charter of immunities, which the clergy obtained from the 
 christian emperors, is contained in the sixteenth book of the Theo- 
 dosianCode; and is illustrated with tolerable candour, by the learned 
 ooflefroy, whose mind was balanced by the opposite prejudices of a 
 civilian and a protestant. i j « ^co oi a 
 
 f Justinian. Novell, ciii. Sixty presbyters, or priests, one hundred 
 deacons, forty deaconesses, ninety sub-deacons, one hundred and 
 ten readers, twenty-five chanters, and one hundred door-keepers • in 
 all, five hundred and twenty-five. This moderate number was fiied 
 by the emperor, to relieve the distress of the church, which had 
 been involved m debt and usury by the expense of a much higher 
 establishment. ° 
 
 S Universus clerus cccIesiaeCarthaginiensis . . . fere quingenti vel 
 amplius; inter quos quaniplurirni erant lectores infantuli Victor 
 Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal, v. 9. p. 78. edit. Ruinart. This rem- 
 
 ",""lr° f^ "'°''® prosperous state subsisted under the oppression of 
 the Vandals. 
 
 h The number of seven orders has been fixed in the Latin church, 
 exclusive of the episcopal character. Btit the four inferior ranks, the 
 minor orders, are now reduced to empty and useless titles. 
 
 i See Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 42, 43. Godefroy's Commen- 
 tary, and the Ecclesiastical History of Alexandria, show the danger 
 of these pious institutions, which often disturbed the peace of that 
 turbulent capital. 
 
 j The edict of Milan (de M. P. c. 48.) acknowledges, by reciting, 
 that there existed a species of landed property, ad jus corporis eo- 
 
 ruin, id est, ecclesiarum non hominum singulorum pertinentia. 
 
 Such a solemn declaration of the supreme magistrate must have been 
 received in all the tribunals as a mazim of civil law. 
 
 w 
 
26a 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 from the more oppressive tribute, which superstition 
 imposes on her votaries. But as the vi^ants and ex- 
 penses of the church increased with her prosperity, the 
 ecclesiastical order was still supported and enriched 
 by the voluntary oblations of the faithful. E ight years 
 after the edict of Milan, Constantine 
 A.D.32]. granted to all his subjects the free and 
 universal permission of bequeathinor their fortunes to 
 the holy catholic church ;'' and their devout liberality, 
 which during their lives was checked by luxury or 
 avarice, flowed with a profuse stream at the hour of 
 their death. The wealthy christians were encourafred 
 by the example of their sovereign. An absolute mon- 
 arch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charita- 
 ble without merit; and Constantine too easily believed 
 that he should purchase the favour of heaven, if he 
 maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious ; 
 and distributed among the saints the wealth of the 
 republic. The same messenger who carried over to 
 Africa the head of Maxentius, might be intrusted with 
 an epistle to Caecilian, bishop of Carthage. The em- 
 peror acquaints him, that the treasurers of the province 
 are directed to pay into his hands the sum of three 
 thousand folks, or eighteen thousand pounds sterling, 
 and to obey his further requisitions for the relief of the 
 churches of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania.* The 
 liberality of Constantine increased in a just proportion 
 to his faith and to his vices. He assigned in each city 
 a regular allowance of corn, to supply the fund of ec- 
 clesiastical charity; and the persons of both sexes 
 who embraced the monastic life, became the peculiar 
 favourites of their sovereign. The Christian temples 
 of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Constantinople, 
 &c., displayed the ostentatious piety of a prince, am- 
 bitious in a declining age to equal the perfect labours 
 of antiquity.'" The form of these religious edifices 
 was simple and oblong; though they might sometimes 
 swell into the shape of a dome, and sometimes branch 
 into the figure of a cross. The timbers were framed 
 for the most part of cedars of Libanus ; the roof was 
 covered with tiles, perhaps of gilt brass; and the 
 walls, the columns, the pa7ement, were incrusted with 
 variegated marbles. The most precious ornaments of 
 gold and silver, of silk and gems, were profusely de- 
 dicated to the service- of the altar; and this specious 
 magnificence was supported on the solid and perpetual 
 basis of landed property. In the space of two centu- 
 ries, from the reign of Constantine to that of Justinian, 
 the eighteen hundred churches were enriched by the 
 frequent and unalienal)le gifts of the prince and people. 
 An annual income of six hundred pounds sterling may 
 be reasonably assigned to the bishops, who were placed 
 at an equal distance between riches and poverty," but 
 the standard of their wealth insensibly rose with the 
 dignity and opulence of the cities which they govern- 
 ed. An authentic but imperfect" rent-roll specifies some 
 houses, shops, gardens, and farms, which belonged to 
 the three Basilkx of Rome, St. Peter, St. Paul, and 
 
 k Habeat nmisqtiisquo lirenliam sanctissimo catholica* (ecclesia) 
 venerahiliqiie concilio, decedcns bonoruin quod optavit relinqucre. 
 Cod Theodos. I. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 4. Tiiis law was published at Rome, 
 A. D. 321. at a time when Constantine might foresee the probability 
 of a rupture with the emoeror of the east. 
 
 1 Eusebius. Hist. Eccles. I. x. G. in Vit. Constantm. I. iv. c. 28.— 
 lie repeatedly expatiates on the liberality of the christian liero, 
 which the bishop himself had an opportunity of knowing, and even 
 of tasitine. . . , ^ ^ 
 
 m Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 2, 3, 4. The bishop of Ca'sarea, 
 who studied and gratified the taste of his master, pronounced in jnib- 
 lic. an elaborate description of the church of Jerusalem (in Vit. 
 Cons. I. iv. c, 4fi.) It no longer exists. I>ut he has inserted in the life 
 of Constantine (1. iii. r, 3G.) a short account of the architecture and 
 ornaments. He likewise mentions the church of the holy apostles at 
 Constantinople, (I. iv.c. 59.) r .u . • i 
 
 n See Justinian. Novell, cxxiii. X The revenue of the patriarchs, 
 and the most wealthy bishops, is not expressed : the highest annual 
 valuation of a bishopric is stated at thirty, and the lowest at two, 
 pounds of gold ; the medium might be taken at sixteen, but these va- 
 luations are much below the real value. 
 
 o See BaroniuB. (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 324. No. 58. 6j. /O. 71.)— 
 Every record which comes from the Vatican is justly suspected ; yet 
 these rent-rolls have an ancient and authentic colour ; and it is at 
 least evident, that, if forged, they were forged in a period when 
 farms, not kingdoms, were the objects of papal avarice. 
 
 St. John Lateran, in the provinces of Italy, Africa, and 
 the east. They produced, besides a reserved rent of 
 oil, linen, paper, aromatics, &c., a clear annual reve- 
 nue of twenty-two thousand pieces of gold, or twelve 
 thousand pounds sterling. In the age of Constantine 
 and Justinian, the bishops no longer possessed, per- 
 haps they no longer deserved, the unsuspecting confi- 
 dence of their clergy and people. The ecclesiastical 
 revenues of each diocese were divided into four parts ; 
 for the respective uses, of the bishop himself, of his 
 inferior clergy, of the poor, and of the public worship ; 
 and the abuse of this sacred trust was strictly and re- 
 peatedly checked.P The patrimony of the church \vis 
 subject to all the public impositions of the state.i 1 he 
 clergy of Rome, Alexandria, Thessalonica, &c. might 
 solicit and obtain some partial exemptions; but the 
 premature attempt of the great council of Rimini, 
 which aspired to universal freedom, was successfully 
 resisted by the son of Constantine.' 
 
 IV. The Latin clergy, who erected iv. Civil jurin- 
 their tribunal on the ruins of the civil diction, 
 and common law, have modestly accepted, as the gift 
 of Constantine,' the independent jurisdiction, which 
 was the fruit of time, of accident, and of their own 
 industry. But the liberality of the christian emperors 
 had actually endowed them with some legal preroga- 
 tives, which secured and dignified the sacerdotal cha- 
 racter.* 1. Under a despotic government, the bishops 
 alone enjoyed and asserted the inestimable privilege 
 of being tried only by their peers ; and even in a capi- 
 tal acciTsation, a synod of their brethren were the sole 
 judges of their guilt or innocence. Such a tribunal, 
 unless it was inflamed by personal resentment or reli- 
 gious discord, might be favourable, or even partial, to 
 tiie sacerdotal order : but Constantine was satisfied," 
 that secret impunity would be less pernicious than 
 public scandal : and the Nicene council was edified by 
 his public declaration, that if he surprised a bishop in 
 the act of adultery, he should cast his imperial niantle 
 over the episcopal sinner. 2. The domestic jurisdic- 
 tion of the bishops was at once a privilege and a re- 
 straint of the ecclesiastical order, whose civil causes 
 were decently withdrawn from the cognizance of a se- 
 cular judge. Their venial offences were not exposed 
 
 p See Thomassin, Discipline de I'Eglisc, torn. iii. I. ii. c. 13. 14, 15. 
 p 089— TOG. The lesal division of the ccclrsinstical revenue docs not 
 appear to have been established in the time of Ambrose and Chrysos- 
 toin. Simplicius and Gelasius, who were bishops of Rome m tlie 
 latter part of the fifth century, mention it in their pastoral letters as 
 a general law, which was already confirmed by the custom of Italy. 
 
 q Ambrose, the most strenuous asserter of ecclesiastical pnvilescs, 
 submits without a murmur to the payment of the land-tax. *' ^'.|^^'" 
 butum petit imperator, non negamus: agri ecclesuc solvnnt tnhu- 
 tum; solvimus qua; sunt Ctpsaris Ciesari, et qute sunt Dei Deo; tri 
 butum Casaris est; non ncgatur." Baronius labours to interpret 
 this tribute as an act of charity rather tlian of duty ; (Annal. Eccles. 
 A D 387.) but the words, if not the intentions of Ambrose, are more 
 candidly explained by Thomassin, Discipline de I'Eglise.tom. in. 1. 1. 
 c. 34. p. 2GH. . , . ... 
 
 r In Ariminensc synodo super occlcsiarum et clericornm priviic- 
 giis tractatu habito, usque eodispositio progressa est,ut juga qu.e vi- 
 derentur ad ecclesiam pertiiierc, a puhlica funclione cessareiu inquic- 
 tudiiiedcsislente; quod nostra videtur duduin sanctio rc|)ulsisse.— 
 Cod Theod.l. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 15. Had the synod of Uimini < arriod 
 this point, such practical merit might have atoned for some specula- 
 tive heresies. . j c. .. „ /i s 
 
 s From Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. 1. iv. c. 2<.) and Sozomen (1. i. 
 c 9 ) we are assured that the episcopal jurisdiction was extendcti 
 ami' confirmed by Constantine; but the forgery of a famous edut, 
 which was never fairly inserted in the Theodosian code, (see at the 
 end tom. vi. p. 303.) is demonstrated by Codefroy in the most satis- 
 factory manner. It is strange that M. de Montesquieu, who was a 
 lawyer as well as a philosopher, should allege this edict of Constan- 
 tine, (Esprit dcs Loix, 1. xxix. c. IG.) without intimating any suspi- 
 
 t The subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction has been involved in a 
 mist of passion, of prejudice, and of interest, 'i'vvo of the fairest 
 books which have fallen into my hands, are the Institutes of Canon 
 liaw, bvthe AbW; de Fleury, and the Civil History of Naples, by 
 tfiannone. Their moderation was the eflTect of situation as well as 
 of temper. Fleury was a French ecclesiastic, who respected the au- 
 thority of the parliaments; Giannone was an Italian lawyer, who 
 dreaded the power of the church. And here let me observe, that as 
 the general propositions which I advance are the result of many par- 
 ticular and imperfect facts, I must either refer the reader to those 
 modern authors who have expressly treated the subject, or sweii 
 these notes to a disagreeable and disproportioned size. 
 
 n Tillemont has collected from Rufinus, Theodoret, &c. the sen- 
 timents and language of Constantine. Mem. Eccles. tom. in. p. « w, 
 750. 
 
 to the shame of a public trial or punishment; and the 
 gentle correction, which the tenderness of youth may 
 endure from its parents or instructors, was inflicted by 
 the temperate severity of the^bishops. But if the cler- 
 gy were guilty of any crime which could not be suffi- 
 ciently expiated by their degradation from an honour- 
 able and beneficial profession, the Roman magistrate 
 drew the sword of justice, without any regard to ec- 
 clesiastical immunities. 3. Their arbitration of the 
 bishops was ratified by a positive law ; and the judges 
 were instructed to execute, without appeal or delay, 
 the episcopal decrees, whose validity had hitherto de- 
 pended on the consent of the parties. The conversion 
 of the magistrates themselves, and of the whole em- 
 pire, might gradually remove the fears and scruples of 
 the christians. But they still resorted to the tribunal 
 of the bishops, whose abilities and integrity they es- 
 teemed ; and the venerable Austin enjoyed the satis- 
 faction of complaining that his spiritual functions were 
 perpetually interrupted by the invidious labour of de- 
 ciding the claim or the possession of silver and gold 
 of lands and cattle. 4. The ancient privileo-e of sanc- 
 tuary was transferred to the christian temples, and ex- 
 tended, by the liberal piety of the younger Theodosius, 
 to the precincts of consecrated ground.^ The fuo-itive 
 and even guilty, suppliants were permitted to implore 
 cither the justice, or the mercy, of the Deity and his 
 ministers. 7'he rash violence of despotism was sus- 
 pended by the mild interposition of the church ; and 
 the lives or fortunes of the most eminent subjects 
 might be protected by tlie mediation of the bishop. 
 V. Sj.irituai cen- V. The bishop was the perpetual cen- 
 surcs. sor of the morals of his people. The 
 
 discipline of penance was digested into a system of 
 canonical jurisprudence,y which accurately defined the 
 duty of private or public confession, the rules of evi- 
 dence, the degrees of guilt, and the measure of punish- 
 ment. It was impossible to execute this spiritual cen- 
 sure, if the christian pontiff; who punished the obscure 
 sins of the multitude, respected the conspicuous vices 
 and destructive crimes of the magistrate : but it was 
 impossible to arraign the conduct of the magistrate, 
 without controlling the administration of civirgovern- 
 ment. Some considerations of religion, or loyalty, or 
 fear, protected the sacred persons of the emperors from 
 the zeal or resentment of the bishops ; but they boldly 
 censured and excommunicated the subordinate tyrants, 
 \yho were not invested with the majesty of the purple! 
 St. Athanasius excommunicated one of the ministers of 
 Egypt; and the interdict which he pronounced, of fire 
 and water, was solemnly transmitted to the churches 
 of Cappadocia.^ Under the reign of the younger The- 
 odosius, the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of the 
 descendants of Hercules," filled the episcopal seat of 
 1 tolemais, near the ruins of ancient Cyrene,'' and the 
 
 (torn it n il^i?'';';,'''- *'*• ^'''- '^^- ^- '" ^''^ ^'"••'^s of Fra-Paolo 
 ( om. IV. p. 192, &c.) there is an excellent discouri:e on the oricin 
 claims, abuses, ami limits of sanctuaries. He justly observes that 
 ancient Greece might perhaps contain fifteen or twenty azvla or 
 
 !^iH '"^V^^ • '1. ""'"''cr which at present may be found in Italy 
 within the walls of a single city. ' 
 
 Y The penitential jurisprudence was continually improved by the 
 canons of the councils. But as many cases were still left to the dis- 
 n^'r?. ° B^'*^ '"Shops, they occasionally published, after the exam- 
 ple of the Roman priptor, ilie rules of discipline which they proposed 
 
 L „ rT' •,^'"°;,'" ^''^ canonical epistles of the fourth century. 
 
 hose of Basil the Great were the most celebrated. Tiiey are inserted 
 
 hv r'ho / """f.^'^.^r^'J'^S'^' ^*°'"- "• ^- '*'• '5'-) «"d are translated 
 oy t-hardORr- Hist, dcs Sacremens, torn. iv. p. 219—277 
 
 z Basil, Epistol. xlvii. in Baronius. (Annal. Eccles. A*. D. 370. No 
 .1.) who declares that he purposely relates it, to convince governors 
 
 at they were not exempt from a sentence of excommunication. In 
 ms opinion, even a royal head is not safe from the thunders of the 
 Vatican; and the cardinal shows himself much more consistent 
 uian the lawyers and theologians of the Gallican church. 
 
 f.r!f n '°i"^ ^*^r *^i °^ '''^ ancestors, as high as Eurysthenes, the 
 first Doric king of Sparta, and the fifth in lineal descent from Her- 
 cules, wag inscribed in the public registers of Cvrene, a Lacedaimo- 
 iiian colony. (Synes. Epist. Ivii. p. J97. edit. Petav.) Such a pure 
 anrt Illustrious pedigree of seventeen hundred years, without adding 
 iiie royal ancestors of Hercules, cannot be equalled in the history of 
 tnankind. ^ 
 
 rn?n!^T'"*i''f Regno, p. 2.) pathetically deplores the fallen and 
 f'lmcd state of Cyrene, 7rM\,( ♦ ekk^v,s 7r»\uiov evofta y.xi o-imvov, x«. 
 
 !I *'•'*"<"* ''^'^ 7r»\»t (ro^«.v. vuv ^Jvnj, xoe< )t«T!-*)|?, xee< f^iyx iputt- 
 
 •"• 1 tolcmais, a new city, 83 milei to the westward of Cyrene, as- 
 
 XecL CA .\?1 .Uv rtf 
 
 283 
 
 philosophic bishop supported with dignity the charac- 
 ter which he had assumed with reluctance.*^ He van- 
 quished the monster of Libya, the president Androni- 
 cus, who abused the authority of a venal office, invented 
 new modes of rapine and torture, and aggravated the 
 guilt of oppression by that of sacrilege.** After a fruit- 
 less attenipt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild 
 and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict 
 the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice,** which de- 
 votes Andronicus, with his associates and their f ami' 
 hcs, to the abhorrence of earth and heaven. The im- 
 penitent sinners, more cruel tlian Phalaris or Senna- 
 cherib, more destructive than war, pestilence, or a 
 cloud of locusts, are deprived of the name and privi- 
 leges of christians, of the participation of the sacra- 
 ments, and of the hope of paradise. The bishop ex- 
 horts the clergy, the magistrates, and the people, to 
 renounce all society with the enemies of Christ ; to 
 exclude them from their houses and tables; and to re- 
 fuse them the common offices of life, and the decent 
 rites of burial. The church of Ptolemais, obscure and 
 contemptible as she may appear, addresses this decla- 
 ration to all her sister churches of the world ; and the 
 profane who reject her decrees, will be involved in the 
 guilt and punishment of Andronicus and his impious 
 followers. These spiritual terrors were enforced by 
 a dexterous application to the Byzantine court ; the 
 trembling president implored the mercy of the church; 
 and the descendant of Hercules enjoyed the satisfac- 
 tion of raising a prostrate tyrant from the ground.' 
 Such principles and such examples insensibly pre- 
 pared the triumph of the Roman pontiffs, who have 
 trampled on the necks of kings. 
 
 VI. Every popular government has vi. Freedom of 
 experienced the eflfects of rude or artifi- public preaching, 
 cial eloquence. The coldest nature is animated, the 
 ^ firmest reason is moved, by the rapid communication 
 I of the prevailing impulse ; and each hearer is afl'ected 
 by his own passions, and by those of the surrounding 
 multitude. The ruin of civil liberty had silenced the 
 demagogues of Athens, and the tribunes of Rome : 
 the custom of preaching, which seems to constitute a 
 considerable part of christian devotion, had not been 
 introduced into the temples of antiquity ; and the 
 ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh 
 sound of popular eloquence, till the pulpits of the 
 empire were filled with sacred orators, who possessed 
 some advantages unknown to their profiine predeces- 
 sors, s The arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were 
 instantly opposed, with equal arms, by skilful and re- 
 solute antagonists ; and the cause of truth and reason 
 might derive an accidental support from the conflict 
 of hostile passions. The bishop, or some distinguished 
 presbyter, to whom he cautiously delegated the'powers 
 
 Ci«« U c^V-^/* '>ci.v 
 
 sumed the metropolitan honours of the Pcntapolis, or Upper Libya 
 which were afterwards transferred to Soziisa. See VVessIina Itinerar' 
 p. 67,68. 732. Cellarius Geograph. tom. ii. part ii. 72—74." Carolus 
 a Sto I aulo Geograph. Sacra, p. 273. D'Anville Geographic An- 
 cienne, tom. in. p. 43, 44. Memoires de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn, 
 xxxvil. p. 363— 301. ' 
 
 c Synesius had previously represented his own disqualifications 
 (Epist. c. V. p. 246-2.-10) He loved profane studies and profane 
 sports; he was incapable of supporling a life of celibacy ; he disbe- 
 lieved the resurrection ; and he refused to preach fables to the people 
 unless he might be permitted to philosophize at home. Theophilus* 
 primate of Egypt, who knew his merit, accepted this extraordinary ; 
 compromise. See the life of Synesius in Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. 
 tom. XII. p. 499—5.54. 
 
 d See the invective of Synesius, Epist. Ivii. p. 191-201. The pro- 
 motion of Andronicus was illegal; since he was a native of Berenice 
 in the same province. The instruments of torture are curiously 
 specified, the -.fo-T.,^ iov, or press, the SxKrvk>,5e», the sro Jstt^ «/3k, the 
 (Xfo/.K/S.?, the u,ry.ygx, and the %»«>te(rTfo^oi-,thatvariouslv pressed 
 or distended the fingers, the feet, the nose, the ears, and the lips of the 
 victims. ' 
 
 e The sentence of excommunication is expressed in a rhetorical 
 style. (Synesius, Epist. Iviii. p. 201—203.) The method of involv- 
 ing whole families, though somewhat unjust, was improved into 
 national interdicts. 
 
 f See Synesius, Epist. xlvii. p. 186, 187. Epist. Ixxii. p. 218, 219.— 
 Epist. Ixxxix. p. 230, 231. 
 
 S^See Thomassin, (Discipline de I'Eglise. torn. ii. 1. iii. c. 83. p. ITCl 
 
 — 1770.) and Bingham. (Antiquities, vol. i. I. xiv. c. 4. 688—717.) 
 
 Preaching was considered as the most important ofiice of the bishop ; 
 but this function was sometimes intrusted to such presbyters as Chry- 
 soBtom and Augustin. 
 
 \r, 
 
 
264 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap* XXL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of preaching, harangued, without the danger of inter- 
 ruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds 
 had been prepared and subdued by the awful ceremo- 
 nies of religion. Such was the strict subordination 
 of the catholic church, that the same concerted sounds 
 might issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy 
 or Egypt, if they were tuned^ by the master-hand of 
 the Roman or Alexandrian primate. The design of 
 this institution was laudable, but the fruits were not 
 always salutary. The preachers recommended the 
 practice of the social duties; but they exalted the per- 
 fection of monastic virtue, which is painful to the indi- 
 vidual, and useless to mankind. Their charitable ex- 
 hortations betrayed a secret wish, that the clergy might 
 be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful, for 
 the benefit of the poor. The most sublime represen- 
 tations of the attributes and laws of the Deity were 
 sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtilties, 
 puerile rites, and fictitious miracles : and they expa- 
 tiated, with the most fervent zeal, on the religious 
 merit of hating the adversaries, and obeying the minis- 
 ters, of the church. When the public peace was dis- 
 tracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sound- 
 ed the trumpet of discord, and, perhaps, of sedition. 
 The understandings of their congregations were per- 
 plexed by mystery, their passions were inflamed by 
 invectives, and they rushed from the christian temples 
 of Antioch or Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or 
 to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and 
 language is strongly marked in the vehement declama- 
 tions of the Latin bishops ; but the compositions of 
 Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with 
 the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, 
 eloquence.' 
 
 vii. Privilege of ^11. The representatives of the chris- 
 icKisiative assem- tian republic were regularly assembled 
 *'•'*''• in the spring and autumn of each year ; 
 
 and these synods diffused the spirit of ecclesiastical 
 discipline and legislation through the hundred and 
 twenty provinces of the Roman world. '^ The arch- 
 bishop, or metropolitan, was empowered, by the laws, 
 to summon the suffragan bishops of his province ; to 
 revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to declare 
 their faith, and to examine the merit of the candidates 
 who were elected by the clergy and people to supply 
 the vacancies of the episcopal college. The primates 
 of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and after- 
 wards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample 
 jurisdiction, convened the numerous assembly of their 
 dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and 
 extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the em- 
 peror alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church 
 required this decisive measure, he despatched a per- 
 emptory summons to the bishops, or the deputies of 
 each province, with an order for the use of post-horses, 
 and a competent allowance for the expenses of their 
 A D ^14 journey. At an early period, when Con- 
 ' ■ * stantine was the protector, rather than 
 the proselyte, of Christianity, ho referred the African 
 controversy to the council of Aries ; in which the 
 bishops of York, of Treves, of Milan, and of Car- 
 thage, met as friends and brethren, to debate in their 
 native tono-ue on the common interest of the Latin or 
 
 h Q,ueen Elizabelli used this expression, and practised this art, 
 whenever she wished to prepossess the minds of her people in favour 
 of any extraordinary measure of government. The hostile effects 
 of this TO««JC were apprehended by her successor, and severely felt 
 by his son. "When pulpit, drum ecclesiastic," &.c. See Ileylin's 
 Life of Archbishop Laud, p. 152. 
 
 i Those modest orators acknowledged, that as they were destitute 
 of the gift of miracles, they endeavoured to acquire the arts of elo- 
 quence. 
 
 k The council of Nice, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ca- 
 nons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning synods, 
 metropolitans, and primates. The Niceoe canons have been va- 
 riously tortured, abused, interpolated, or forged, according lo the in- 
 terest of the clergy. The Suburbicarian churches, assigned (by Ru- 
 finus) to the bishop of Rome, have been made the subject of vehe- 
 ment controversy. (See Sirmond, Opera, torn. iv. p. 1—238.) 
 1 We have only thirty-three or forty-seven episcopal subscriptions : 
 ' but Ado, a writer indeed of small account, reckons six hundred bish- 
 ' ops in the council of Aries. Tillemonl, Mem. Ecclcs. torn. vi. ]\ 422. 
 
 western church.* Eleven years after- a.D.325. 
 wards, a more numerous and celebrated 
 assembly was convened at Nice in Bithynia, to extin- 
 guish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputes which 
 had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. 
 Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the sum- 
 mons of their indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of 
 every rank, and sect, and denomination, have been 
 computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons ; " 
 the Greeks appeared in person ; and the consent of the 
 Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman 
 pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, 
 was frequently honoured by the presence of the em- 
 peror. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated him- 
 self (with the permission of the council) on a low stool 
 in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with 
 patience, and spoke with modesty: and while he in- 
 fluenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was 
 the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the 
 apostles, who had been established as priests and as 
 gods upon earth." Such profound reverence of an ab- 
 solute monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assem- 
 bly of his own subjects, can only be compared to the 
 respect with which the senate had been treated by the 
 Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus. 
 Within the space of fifty years, a philosophic specta- 
 tor of the vicissitudes of human affairs might have 
 contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and Con- 
 stantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the 
 capitol and those of the church had alike degenerated 
 from the virtues of their founders ; but as the bishops 
 were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they 
 sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and 
 sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit, the wishes 
 of their sovereign. The progress of time and super- 
 stition erased the memory of the weakness, the pas- 
 sion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiasti- 
 cal synods ; and the catholic world has unanimously 
 submitted" to the infallible decrees of the general 
 councils. P 
 
 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Persecution of heresy.— The schism of the Donatisfs. — The 
 Arian cmitroversy. — Athanasius. — Distracted state q/* the 
 church and empire under Constant iiie and his sons. — Tole- 
 ration of paganism. 
 
 The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated 
 the memory of a prince who indulged their passions 
 and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them 
 security, wealth, honours, and revenge : and the sup- 
 port of' the orthodox faith was considered as the most 
 sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The 
 edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had con- 
 firmed to each individual of the Roman world the pri- 
 vilege of choosing and professing his own religion. 
 But"this inestimable privilege was soon violated : with 
 the knowledge of truth, the emperor imbibed the 
 maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented 
 
 m See Tillemont. torn. vi. p. 915. and Bcausobre Hist, du Manirhe- 
 isme, tom. i. p. 529. The name of bishop, which is given by Euiy- 
 chius to the 2048 ecclesiastics, (Annal. tom. i. p. 4-10. vers. Pocock.) 
 musTbc extended fur beyond the limits of an orthodox or even epis- 
 copal ordination. . 
 
 n See Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. I. ill. c. 6— 2L TiUemont, Mem. 
 Ecclcsiastiques, tom. vi. p. 669—759. 
 
 Sancimus igitur vicem legum obtinere, quffi a quatnor Sanctis 
 Conciliis . . . cxposita; sunt aut firmatiE. Prsedictarum enim quatuor 
 synodorum dogmata sicut sanctus Scripturas et regulas sicut leges 
 observamus. Justinian. Novell, cxxxi. Beveridge (ad Pandect, pro- 
 leg, p. 2.) remarks, that the em|)erors never made new laws in eccle- 
 siastical matters; and Giannone observes, in a very diflcrent spirit, 
 that they gave a legal sanction to the canons of councils. Istoria 
 Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 136. 
 
 P See the article Concilk in the Encyclopedie. tom. iii. p. 668— 6<5». 
 edition de Lurques. The author, M. le docteur Boochaud, has dis- 
 cussed, according to the principles of the Galliran church, the princi- 
 pal questions which relate lo the form and constitution of general, 
 national, and provincial councils. The editors (Sec Preface, p. xvi.) 
 have reason to be proud of thia article. Those who consult their 
 immense compilation, seldom depart so well satisfied. 
 
 from the catholic church, were afllicted and oppressed 
 by the triumph of Christianity. Constantine easily be- 
 lieved that the heretics, who presumed to dispute his 
 opinions, or to oppose his commands, were guilty of 
 the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a 
 seasonable application of moderate severities miaht 
 save those unhappy men from the danger of an ev^er- 
 lasting condemnation. Not a moment was lost in ex- 
 cluding the ministers and teachers of the separated 
 congregations from any share of the rewards and im- 
 munities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed 
 on the orthodox clergy. But as the sectaries mio-ht 
 still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, the con- 
 quest of the east was immediately followed by an edict 
 whicli announced their total destruction.* After a pre- 
 amble filled with passion and reproach, Constantine 
 absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the heretics, and 
 confiscates their public property to the use either of 
 the revenue or of the catholic church. The sects 
 against whom the imperial severity was directed, ap- 
 pear to have been the adherents of Paul of Samosata ; 
 the Montanists of Piirygia, who maintained an enthu- 
 siastic succession of prophecy ; the Novatians, who 
 sternly rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance; 
 the Marcionites and Valcntinians, under whose leadino- 
 banners the various Gnostics of Asia and Egypt had 
 msensibly rallied ; and perhaps the Manichaeans, who 
 had recently imported from Persia a more artful com- 
 position of oriental and christian theology.'' The de- 
 sign of extirpating the name, or at least of restrainino- 
 the progress, of these odious heretics, was prosecuted ' 
 with vigour and eflbct. Some of the penal regulations 
 were copied from the edicts of Diocletian ; and this I 
 method of conversion was applauded by the same j 
 bishops who had felt the hand of oppression, and had 
 pleaded for the rights of humanity. Two immaterial ' 
 circumstances may serve, however, to prove that the | 
 mind of Constantine was not entirely corrupted by | 
 the spirit of zeal and bigotry. Before he condemned 
 the Manichajans and their kindred sects, he resolved to \ 
 make an accurate inquiry into the nature of their re- ' 
 ligious principles. As if he distrusted the impartiality ' 
 of his ecclesiastical counsellors, this delicate commis- 
 sion was intrusted to a civil magistrate ; whose learn- 
 ing and moderation he justly esteemed ; and of whose 
 venal character he was probably ignorant.*: The em- 
 peror was soon convinced, that he had too hastily 
 proscribed the orthodox faith and the exemplary morals 
 of the Novatians, who had dissented from the church 
 in some articles of discipline which were not perhaps 
 essential to salvation. By a particular edict, he ex- 
 empted them from the general penalties of the law : «* 
 allowed them to build a church at Constantinople, re- 
 spected the miracles of their saints, invited their bishop 
 Acesius to the council of Nice; and gently ridiculed 
 the narrow tenets of his sect by a familiar jest ; which, 
 from the mouth of a sovereign, must have been received 
 With applause and gratitude.* 
 African contro- 'i^he Complaints and mutual accusa- 
 A Vaia "°"^ which assailed the throne of Con- 
 • • • stantine, as soon as the death of Maxen- 
 
 a Eusebius in Vit. Con«tantin. I. iii. c. 03—66. 
 
 b After some examination of the various opinions of Tillemont 
 neausobre, Lardner, /(tc. I am convinced that Manes did not propa- 
 gate his sect, even in Persia, before the year 270. It is strange, that 
 a philosophic and foreign heresy should have penetrated so rapidly 
 into the African provinces: yet I cannot easily reject the edict of 
 Uiocletian against the Manicha;ans, whicli may be found in Baro- 
 iiius. (Annal. Eccl. A. D. 287.) 
 
 c Consfantius enim, cum limatius superstitionum qutprerct sectas 
 Alanicha'orum et «iinilium. &c. Ammian. xv. 15. Strategius, who 
 from this commission olitained the surname of Musonianus, was a 
 •■hristianof the Arian sect. He acted as one of the counts at the 
 council of Sardica. Libanius praises his mildness and prudence — 
 Vales ad locum Ammian. 
 
 d Cod Theod. I. xvi. tir. v. leg. 2. As the general law is not in- 
 5'crted in the Theodosian Code, it is probable, that in the year 438 the 
 sects which it had condemned, were iilrcady extinct. * 
 
 e Sozomen, I. i. c. 22. Socrates, I. t, c. Id. These historians have 
 been susiK-cted. but I think without reason, of .in attachment to the 
 ^ovatian doctrine. The emperor said to the bishop, "Acesius, take 
 a ladder, and get up to heaven by yourself." Most of the christian 
 ■ects have, by turns, borrowed the ladder of Acesius. 
 
 Vol. I.— 2 I 
 
 j tius had submitted Africa to his victorious arms, were 
 ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte. He learn- 
 ed, with surprise, that the provinces of that great 
 country, from the confines of Cyrene to the columns 
 of Hercules, were distracted w'ith religious discord.' 
 The source of the division was dcrived'^from a double 
 election in the church of Carthage ; the second, in rank 
 and opulence, of the ecclesiastical thrones of the west. 
 Cajcilian and Majorinus were the two rival primates 
 of Africa; and the death of the latter soon made room 
 for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities and appa- 
 rent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The 
 advantage which Ca^cilian might claim from the pri- 
 ority of his ordination, was destroyed by the ille^ral, or 
 at least indecent, haste, with which it had been per- 
 formed, without expecting the arrival of the bishops of 
 Numidia. The authority of these bishops, who. to the 
 number of seventy, condemned Caecilian, and conse- 
 crated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of 
 some of their personal characters ; and by the female 
 intrigues, sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous pro- 
 ceedings, which arc imputed to this Numidian council.8 
 j The bishops of the contending factions maintained, 
 j with equal ardour and obstinacy, that their adversaries 
 were degraded, or at least dishonoured, by the odious 
 \ crime of delivering the Holy Scriptures to the officers 
 of Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well 
 j as from the story of this dark transaction, it may justly 
 I be inferred, that the late persecution had imbittered the 
 zeal, without reforming the manners, of the African 
 I christians. That divided church was incnpable of af- 
 fording an impartial judicature; the controversy was 
 ! solemnly tried in five successive tribunals, which 
 I were appointed by the emperor ; and the whole pro- 
 j ceedmg, from the first appeal to the final sentence, 
 ! lasted above three years. A severe inquisition, which 
 I was taken by the pr«torian vicar, and the proconsul of 
 I Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who had 
 been sent to Carthage, the degrees of the councils of 
 Rome and of Aries, and the supreme judgment of Con- 
 stantine himself in his sacred consistory, were all fa- 
 vourable to the cause of Caecilian ; and he was unani- 
 mously acknowledged, by the civil and ecclesiastical 
 powers, as the true and lawful primate of Africa. The 
 honours and estates of the church were attributed to his 
 suffragan bishops, and it was not without difficulty, 
 that Constantine was satisfied with inflicting the 
 punishment of exile on the principal leaders of the Do- 
 natist faction. As their cause was examined with at- 
 tention, perhaps it was determined with justice. Per- 
 haps their complaint was not without foundation, that 
 the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the 
 insidious arts of his favourite Osius. The influence 
 of falsehood and corruption might procure the condem- 
 nation of the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the 
 guilty. Such an act, however, of injustice, if it con- 
 cluded an importunate dispute, might bo numbered 
 among the transient evils of a despotic administration, 
 which are neither felt nor remembered by posterity. 
 
 Biit this incident, so inconsiderable srhism of the 
 that it scarcely deserves a place in his- l).»na(isf.s, 
 tory, was productive of a memorable ^ ^' •^^^• 
 schism, which afflicted the provinces of Africa above 
 three hundred years, and was extinguished only with 
 
 f The best materials for this part of ecclesiastical history, mav be 
 found in the edition of Optatns Milevitanus, published (Paris, i'TOO) 
 byM. Dupin, who has enriched it with critical notes, geographical 
 discujjsions, original records, and an accurate aliridgnirnt of the 
 whole controversy. M. de Tillemont has bestowed on the Donalists 
 the greatest part of a volume: (torn. vi. part, i.) and I am indebted to 
 hini for an ample collection of ail the passages of J;is favourite St. 
 I Augnstin, which relate to those heretics, 
 
 g ScliLsma igitur ilio tempore confusa- mniieris irnciindia jieperit; 
 ambitus nutrivii; avaritia roboravit. Optatus, I. i. c 19. 'J )i« lan- 
 cnage of Pnrpurius is that of a furious madman. Dicitiir le necasse 
 filios sororis tua; duos. Purpurius respondit ; Putas me terreri a te 
 . . . occidi ; et occido eos qui contra me faciunt. Acta Concil. Cir- 
 tensis, ad calc. Optat. p. 27-/. When Caecilian was invited to an 
 assembly of bishops, Purpurius said to his brethren, or rather to his 
 accomplices, *• Let him come hither to receive our imposition of 
 hands ; and we will break his bead bv way of penance." Optat. 1. i. 
 c. 19. 
 
266 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 267 
 
 Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and 
 fanaticism animated the Donatists to refuse obedience 
 to the usurpers, whose election they disputed, and 
 whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from 
 the civil and reli;Tious communion of mankind, they 
 boldly excommunicated the rest of mankind, who had 
 embraced the impious party of Caccilian, and of the 
 Traditors, from whom he derived his pretended ordina- 
 tion. They asserted with confidence, and almost with 
 exultation, that the apostolical succession was inter- 
 rupted ; that all the bishops of Europe and Asia were 
 infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; and 
 that the prerogatives of the catholic church were con- 
 fined to the chosen portion of the African believers, 
 who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of their 
 faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported 
 by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they 
 acquired a proselyte, q\v\\ from tlio distant provinces 
 of the east, they carefully repeated the sacred rites of 
 baptism'' and ordination ; as they rejected the validity 
 of those which he had already received from the hands 
 of heretics or schismatics. Bishops, virgins, and even 
 spotless infants, were subjected to the disgrace of a 
 public penance, before they could be admitted to the 
 conmiunion of the Donatists. If they obtained posses- 
 sion of a church which had been used by their 
 catholic adversaries, they purified the unhalloweil 
 building with the same jealous care which a temple of 
 idols might have required. They washed the pave- 
 ment, scraptsd the walls, burnt the altar, which was 
 commonly of wood, melted the consecrated plate, and 
 cast the holy eucharist to the dogs, with every circum- 
 stance of ignominy which could provoke and perpetuate 
 the animosity of religious factions.' Notwithstanding 
 this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who were 
 mixed and separated in all the cities of Africa, had the 
 same language and manners, the same zeal and learn- 
 ing, the same faith and worship. Proscribed by the 
 civil and ecclesiastical powers of the empire, the Do- 
 natists still maintained in some provinces, particularly 
 in Numidia, their superior numbers ; and four hundred 
 bishops acknowledged the jurisdiction of their primate. 
 But the invincible spirit of the sect sometimes preyed 
 on its own vitals ; and the bosom of their schismatical 
 church was torn by intestine divisions. A fourtli part 
 of the Donatist bishops followed thc^ independent stand- 
 ard of the Maximianists. The narrow and solitary 
 path which their first leaders had marked out, continued 
 to deviate from the great society of mankind. Even 
 the imperceptible sect of the Rogations could aflirm, 
 without a blush, that when Christ should descend to 
 judge the earth, he would find his true religion pre- 
 served only in a few nameless villages of the Cajsarean 
 Mauritania.^ 
 
 The Trinitarian The Scllism of the DouatistS WaS eon- 
 
 controversy, fined to Africa : the more diffusive mis- 
 chief of the Trinitarian controversy successively pene- 
 trated into every part of the christian world. The 
 former was an accidental quarrel, occasioned by the 
 abuse of freedom ; the latter was a high and mysterious 
 argument, derived from the abuse of philosophy. From 
 the age of Constantino to that of Clovis and Theodoric, 
 the temporal interests both of the Romans and barba- 
 rians were deeply involved in the theological disputes 
 of Arianism. The historian may therefore be permit- 
 ted respectfully to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary ; 
 and to deduce the progress of reason and faith, of error 
 and passion, from the school of Plato to the decline 
 and fall of the empire. 
 
 The genius of Plato, informed by his Thp«v8temof 
 own meditation, or by the traditional riato, 
 knowledge of the priests of Egypt, ^ had ^^"■"^^"^^ 
 ventured to explore the mysterious na- 
 ture of the Deity. When he had elevated his mind 
 to the sublime contemplation of the first self-existent, 
 necessary cause of the universe, the Athenian sage 
 was incapable of conceiving how the simple unity of 
 his essence could admit the infinite variety of distinct 
 and successive ideas which compose the model of the 
 intellectual world; how a being purely incorporeal 
 could execute that perfect model, and mould with a 
 plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain 
 hope of extricating himself from these difficulties, 
 which must ever oppress the feeble powers of the hu- 
 man mind, might induce Plato to consider the divine 
 nature under tlie threefold modification ; of the first 
 cause, the reason, or Loiros, and the soul ^,^^ logos. 
 or spirit of the universe. Ilis poetical 
 imagination sometimes fixed and animated these me- 
 taplfysical abstractions ; the three archical or original 
 principles were represented in the Platonic system as 
 three Gods, united with each other by a mysterious 
 and ineffable generation ; and the Logos was particu- 
 larly considered under the more accessible character 
 of the Son of an Eternal Father, and the Creator and 
 Governor of the world. Such appear to have been the 
 secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in 
 the gardens of the Academy ; ' and which, according to 
 
 h The rouncils of Aries, of Nice, and of Trent, confirmed the 
 wise and moderate practice of the church of Rome. The Donatists, 
 liowcver, had tlie advantajie of maintaining the sentiment of Oyp 
 rian, and of a considerable part of the primitive church. Vicetitias 
 Lirinensis (p. 332. ap. Tillemont, Mem. Ecrles. torn. vi. p. 138.) has 
 explained why the Donatists are eternally burning with the tfe?il, 
 while St. Cyprian reigns in heaven witli Jesus Christ. 
 
 I See the si\th book of Optatus Mil< vitanus, p. 91 — U>0. 
 • j Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiasii«iues, mm. vi. part i. p. 253. He 
 laughs at their partial credulity. Ho revered Augustin, the great 
 doctor of the system of predestination. 
 
 k ria'o .E^yptum perasravit ut a sacerdotibus harbari3 nuineros 
 rt calestla acciporot. Cuero de Finibus. v. S-x Tiie Egyptians 
 mi"lit still preserve the traditional creed of the patriarchs. Josephus 
 has persuaded many of the christian fathers, that IMato derived a 
 part of his knowledge from tiie Jews ; I'Ut this vain oinnioii cannot 
 be reconciled with the obscure state and unsocial manners of the 
 Jewish people, whose scriptures were not accessible to Greek curi- 
 osity till more than one hundred years after the death of Pinto. See 
 Marsliam, Canon. Chron. p. 144. Le Clcrc, Ej.istol. Critic, vii. p. 
 
 177— ini. . 
 
 1 [This account of the doctrines of Plato, appears to me, opposed 
 to the real meaning of the writings of this philosopher. The bril- 
 liancy of imagination which characterizes his metaphysical resear- 
 ches, and his highly allegorical and figurative style, have misled 
 such interpreters as either could not find, or did not seek, from his 
 works viewed as a whole and beyond the images employed by the 
 writer, the depth of the ideas of the philosopher. There is, in my 
 opinion, nothing of the Trinity in the works of Plato. He has estab- 
 lished no mysterious generation between the three principles which 
 it has been imagined tliat he clearly recognises in his writings ; and 
 lie never conceived of the ideas of which it is pretended he made 
 substances, real existence.", e.xcept as the attributes of divinity or of 
 matter. , . „ , 
 
 According to Plato, Cod and matter have existed from all eternity. 
 Before the creation of the world, matter had in itself, the principle of 
 motion, but without design or laws. It is this principle which Plato 
 calls the irrational soul of the. vorld {xKi^t; vox;.,) because in his 
 doctrine, every spontaneous and original principle of motion is called 
 soul. God wished to bestow the impress of form upon this matter ; 
 that is, first, to model matter, and from it to form bodies ; secondly, 
 to regulate its motion, and add to it design and laws. Ihiity coiild 
 not act in this operation, e.xcept according to ideas existing in his in 
 telli"encc. Their union completed it. and formed the ideal type of 
 the world. It is this ideal world, this divine intelligence existing 
 with God from all eternity, and called by Plato veu; or >.o)^o?. the 
 personification, the substantia lization of which is attributed to him, 
 while an attentive examination is sufiicient to produce the convic- 
 tion that he never gave it existenre independent of Deity, and that 
 he considered the logos only as the ensemble of the ideas of God, the 
 divine intellect in its relations to the world. The contrary opinion 
 is irreconcilable with all his philosophy. Thus he says (Timteus.p. 
 348. edit, hip.) that to the idea of divinity is essentially united that 
 of an intellinencc, a logos; he must then have admiUed a double 
 logos, one inherent in deity as an attribute, the other exisiing inde- 
 pendent of it as a sMl)Stance. He afl^rms (Tima-us, p. 316. 337. 348. 
 Sophista,vol. ii. p. '-»f)5, 266.) that intelligence, the principle of order, 
 (isu,- or xoj^o;) cannot exist but as an attribute of the soul (Cv>;»i) a 
 principle of motion and of life, the nature of which is unknown 
 
 How could he, after this, have regarded the logos as a subst.ance 
 endued with an independent existence ? Besides, he explains it by 
 these two words, trturtvfiv, science, and Siuvax intelligence, which 
 denote attributes of deity. (Sophist, vol. ii. p. 290.) Finally, it re- 
 sults from many passages, among others that of Pliileb. vol. iv. p. 
 247, 248, that Plato never gave I'lit one of these two meanings to the 
 words nous and logos ; namely, the result of the action of the 
 Deifii, that is to sriv, the order, tiic law.x which govern the world as 
 a wliole— and tWis'is Ihc rational soul of the vorld {Koyi<rTm,f,^rjx>i) 
 or the very cause of this result ; that is, the divine intelligence.— 
 When he separates God, the ideal type, from the world and matter, 
 he does it in order to explain how. according to his system, God has 
 proceeded from the creation to unite the principle of order which he 
 had in himself, his own intelligence, the logos, to the principle ot 
 motion, to the irratinvtl ^onl. alnrros psvche, which was in matter. 
 When bespeaks of the place which the ideal world (to-tj? viijTo;) 
 occupies, it is to designate the divine intellect which was the cause 
 of it. In no part of his writings is there found a real personification 
 
 the more recent disciples of Plato, could not be per- 
 fectly understood, till after an assiduous study of thirty 
 years." 
 
 taught in the The armsof the Macedonians diffused 
 andHa ovcr Asia and Egypt the language and 
 
 Before Christ learning of Greece ; and the theological 
 300- system of Plato w^as taught, with less 
 
 reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in 
 the celebrated school of Alexandria." A numerous 
 colony of Jews had been invited, by the favour of the 
 Ptolemies, to settle in their new capital.^ While the 
 bulk of the nation practised the legal ceremonies, and 
 pursued the lucrative occupations of commerce, a few^ 
 Hebrews, of a more liberal spirit, devoted their lives 
 to religious and philosophical contemplation, p They 
 cultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardour, 
 the theological system of the Athenian sage. But their 
 national pride would have been mortified by a fair con- 
 fession of their former poverty : and they boldly mark- 
 ed, as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold 
 and jewels which they had so lately stolen from their 
 Before Christ Egyptian ancestors. One hundred years 
 100. before the birth of Christ, a philosophi- 
 
 cal treatise, which manifestly betrays the style and 
 sentiments of the school of Plato, was produced by 
 the Alexandrian Jews, and unanimously received as a 
 genuine and valuable relic of the inspired wisdom of 
 Solomon.i A similar union of the Mosaic faith and the 
 Grecian philosophy,' distinguishes the works of Philo, 
 
 of the pretended existences of which it is said he formed a Trinity 
 and if this personification existed, it would have been equally applica- 
 ble to many other ideas of which many diflferent Trinities mi^ht have 
 been formed. Moreover, this error, into which most of the interpre- 
 ters of Plato have fallen, ancients as well as moderns, was suflici'^ntlv 
 natural. Besides the liability to be led into error by his figurative 
 style; besides the necessity there was that his system of ideas should 
 be comprehended as a whole, and not explained bv isolated passa- 
 ges; the very nature of his doctrines would lead to it. When 
 Plato appeared, the uncertainty of human knowledge, and the con- 
 stant deceptions of the senses were acknowledged, and this gave 
 rise to a general scepticism. Socrates wished to shelter morality 
 from this scepticism ; Plato endeavoured to keep metaphysics free 
 from It, by seeking in the human intellect for that source of certainty 
 which the senses could not furnish. He invented the system of in- 
 nate ideas, the ensemble of which formed, accordin«» to him, the 
 ideal world ; and he atfirmed, that these ideas were the veritable at- 
 tributes, aUached not only to our representations of objects, but also 
 to the nature of the objects themselves. He gave to these ideas a 
 positive existence as attributes ; his commentators could easiiv give 
 them a real existence as substances, inasmuch as the terms which 
 he used to designate them, «uto to xxkov, auro to xyxv-.v. (beauty it- 
 self, goodness itself,) might be made use of in thissubstantialization 
 (hypostasis.)— O.] 
 
 m The modern guides who led me to the knowledge of the Platonic 
 system, are Cudworth, (Intellectual System, p. 568— 620.) Basnage 
 (Hist, des Juifs, I. iv. c. iv. p. 53—86.) Le Clcrc, (Epist. Crit. vii. p' 
 194—209.) and Brucker, (Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 675—706.) As 
 the learning of these writers was equal, and their intention different 
 an inquisitive observer may derive instruction from their disputes, 
 and certainty from their agreement. 
 
 n Brucker, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 1349—1357. The Alexandri- 
 an school is celebrated by Strabo, (1. xvii.) and Amrnianiis, (\xii. 6.) 
 
 o Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xii. c. 1—3. Basnage, Hist, des Juifs. I. 
 vii. c. 7. = , 
 
 P For the origin of the Jewish philosophy, see Euscbius, Preparat 
 Evangel, viii. 9, 10. According to Philo. the Therapeuta> studied 
 phdosophy ; and Brucker has proved, (Hist. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 
 78/.) that they gave the preference to that of Plato. 
 
 q See Calmet, Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. ii. p. 277. Tiie book 
 of the Wisdom of Solomon was received by many of the fathers as 
 the work of that monarch ; and although rejected by the protesfants 
 for want of a Hebrew original, it has obtained, with the rest of the 
 Vulgate, the sanction of the council of Trent. 
 
 r [The philosophy of Plato was not the onlv source of that which 
 was professed in the school of Alexandria, this citv, in which the 
 Grecian, the Jewish, and the Egyptian literature existe'd, was the the- 
 atre of a strange amalgamationof the systems of these three nations. 
 The Greeks introduced Platonisin. which had already been some- 
 what altered ; the Jews, who had imbibed at Babylon many oriental 
 ideas, and whose theological or philosophical opinions had.'in conse- 
 quence, undergone great changes, endeavoured to reconcile this 
 Platonism with their new doctrines, and entirely disfigured it; and 
 hnally, the Egyptians who would not aiiandon their own opinions 
 which the Greeks themselves respected, laboured on their part to 
 arrange them with those of their neighbours. The influence of the 
 oriental philosophy, rather than that of Platonism. appears in the 
 Book of Wisdom, and in Ecclesiasticus. We find in these book^ 
 and in thogeof the later prophets, as Ezekiel. ideas which the Jews 
 did not have before the Babylonish captivity, and the germ of 
 which cannot be found in Plato, and evidently came from the East. 
 Thus God is represented by the image of light, and the principle of 
 evil Uy that of darkness; the history of good and bad angels, para 
 disc and hell, &c. are dogmas, the origin, or at least the certain de 
 termination of which can he referred only to the oriental philosophy. 
 Plato believed matter to be eternal— the Orientals and the Jews re 
 garded it as the creation of God. who alone is eternal. It is impossi- 
 
 which were composed for the most part under the rei>n 
 of Augustus.' The material soul of the universe* might 
 offend the piety of the Hebrews : but they applied the 
 character of the Logos to the Jehovah of Moses and 
 the patriarchs ; and the Son of God was introduced 
 upon earth under a visible and even human appear- 
 ance, to perform those familiar offices which seem in- 
 compatible with the nature and attributes of the uni- 
 versal cause." 
 
 The eloquence of Plato, the name of „ , , , 
 Solomon, the authority of the school of ,hrA,H7s,i^^ 
 Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews S'- ■'obn, 
 j and Greeks, were insufficient to establish ^ ^ ''~* 
 . the truth of a mysterious doctrine, which might please, 
 but could not satisf}-, a rational mind. A prophet, or 
 { apostle, inspired by the Deity, can alone exercise a 
 , lawful dominion over the faith of mankind ; and the 
 I theology of Plato might have been for ever confound- 
 : ed with the philosophical visions of the Academy, the 
 I Porch, and the Lycanim, if the name and divine attri- 
 j butes of the Logos had not been confirmed by the 
 I celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the evan- , 
 ! gelists.' The christian revelation, which was consum- 
 j mated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world 
 : the amazing secret, that the Lo;ros, who was with God, 
 from the beginning, and was God, who had made all 
 things, and for whom all things had been made, was 
 incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth ; who had 
 : been born of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross. 
 Besides the general design of fixing on a perpetual ba- 
 sis the divine honours of Christ, the most ancient and 
 respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed 
 to the evangelic theologian, a particular intention to 
 confute two opposite heresies, which disturbed the 
 
 hie to explain the philosophy of the school of Alexandria by the 
 I mixture of the Jewish theology and the Greek philosophy alone; 
 the influence of the oriental philosophy, liule as it might have been' 
 j understood, was every instant felt there. Thus, according to the Zen- 
 davesta. it was by the word (honover) more ancient than the world, 
 that Ormuzd created all things. This irord is the logos of Philo, 
 very difterent, of course, from that of Plato. I have before showed' 
 that Plato never personified the logos or the ideal type of the world • 
 Philo hazarded this personification. The Deitv, according to him,' 
 has a double logos; the first (\c5-0; ivSixiiTCi) is the ideal type of the 
 world, the ideal world, it is i\\e first born of the Deity ; tiie second 
 (Ko-yo; rrfc-of.xo,-) is the very word of God, personified under the 
 image of a being acting to create the visible world, snd to render it 
 like the ideal world ; it is the second son of God. Pursuing his reve- 
 ries s;ill further, Philo went so far as to per.-onifv anew the ideal 
 world under the image of a celestial man (suf^t.'.c; aiSfx-^s^-) the 
 primitive type of man, and the visible world under the image of ano- 
 ther man less perfect than the celestial man. Certain ideas of ori- 
 ental philosojihy gave rise to this strange abuse of allegorv, and we 
 have only to refer to tliem in order to perceive what alterations Pla- 
 tonism had already undergone, and what was the source of those 
 alterations.— still the Platonism of Philo is more pure than that of all 
 theother Jews of Alexandria. (See Buhle, Introd. to the History of 
 Modern Philosophy, in German, p. .590. and the followiii!: ; Michaelis, 
 Introd. to the New Testament, in German, p.irt 2 ; p. 973.) This 
 niixtureof orientalism, platonism, and Judaism, irav.- rise to'gnosti- 
 cisin, which has produced so many theoio^iral and nhilosophlral ex- 
 travagances, and in which oriental idt;as evidently predominate.— 
 
 8 The Platonism of Philo, which was fmions to a proverb, is 
 proved beyond a doubt by Le Clerc. (Epist. Crii. viii. p. 211— 2-»8.) — 
 Basnage (Hist, des Juifs, 1. iv. c. 5.) lias clearlv ascertained, tliat the 
 theological worksof Pliilo were composed before the death, and most 
 probably before tlie birth, of Chri.«t. In .'-ucli a time of darkness, the 
 knowledge of Philo is more astonishing than his errors. Bull, De- 
 fens. Fid. Nicen. s. i. c. i. p. I'j. 
 
 t Mens agitat moUni, et iiiagno se corpore miscet. 
 Besides this material soul, Cudworth has discovered (p. .562 ) in Ame- 
 lius. Porphyry, Plotinus. and, as he thinks, in Plato himself, a supe- 
 rior. s|)iritual, .<n;)c?ro.?wi/G7j soul of the universe. But this double 
 soul u exploded by Brucker, Basnage, and Le Clerc, as an idle fancy 
 of the latter Platonists. 
 
 u Petav. Dogmata Theologica, torn. ii. I. viii. c. 2. p. 791, Bull 
 Defens. Fid. Niren. s. i. c. I. p. 8—13. This notion, till it was' 
 abused by the Arians, was freely adopted in the chri.-«tian theology. 
 Tertullian (adv. Praxeam, c. 16.) has a remarkable and dangerous 
 passage. After conirasting, with indiscreet wit, the nature of God, 
 and the actions of Jehovah, he conchuhs : Scilicet ut hac de (ilio 
 Dei non credenda fuisse, si non scripta essent ; fortasse non credenda 
 de Patre licet scripta. 
 
 V The Platonists admired the he<:inning of the Gospel of St. John, 
 ascontaining an exact transcript of their own principles. Angusiiu 
 de Civitat. Dei, x. 29. Amelius apud Cyril, advers. Julian. I. viii. p. 
 283. But in the rhird and fourili c(;nluiies, the Platonistsof .Alexan- 
 dria might improve their trinity, by the secret study of the chrisiiau 
 theology. 
 
 [A short consideration of the sense in which St. John has taken 
 the word logos, will prove that he did not borrow it frtmi the philo- 
 sophy of Plato. The evangelist makes use of this word without any 
 previous explanation, as a term which his contemporaries already 
 
268 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The Ebionitea peace of the primitive church.'' I. The 
 and Docetes. faith of the Ebionites,* perhaps of the 
 Nazarines, y was gross and imperfect. They revered 
 Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, endowed with 
 supernatural virtue and power. They ascribed to his 
 person and to his future reign all the predictions of the 
 Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual and ever- 
 lasting kingdom of the promised Messiah.' Some of 
 them might confess that he was born of a virgin ; but 
 they obstinately rejected the preceding existence and di- 
 
 kiicw and would coini)rchend. In order to ascertain the sense 
 which lie jiives to it, we liave only to find oiil what was the mean- 
 ing given to ii in his time. We find that it was used in two senses ; 
 the one was attached to tlie word logos tiy tlic Jews of Palestine, the 
 other hy tl'.e school of Alexandria, and especially hy Philo. The 
 Jews had ever feared to pronounce the name of Jehovah ; they had 
 contracted the hahit of desi'.'natinst God hy eome of his attrihutes ; 
 they called him sometimes Wisdom, and anain the fVord. "Tlie 
 heavens were made hy the IVord of tlie Lord." (Ps. 33 : vcr. 6.) — 
 Accustomed to allesory, ti.ey often nddress«.-d this attribute of deity 
 as a ireal heing. fVisdom, in tiie wonls of Solomon, says, " The 
 Lord possessed me in the hejiinnins? of liis way, before his works of 
 old. I was set up from everlastin'^, from the he<iinninz, or ever the 
 earth wai?." Scr.. (Prov, i*. ver. 22, &.C.) Their sojourn in Persia 
 only increased their })rop(;nsily for prolonjjed alle^rorics. The Eccle- 
 siasticus of Siradi, and the Book of Wisdom, contain alleyorical de- 
 scriptions of Wisdom,— such as this,—" I came out of the mouth of 
 the Most High, and covered ilie earth as a cloud. I alone compassed 
 the circuit of heaven, and walked in the bottom of the deep. The 
 Creator created me from the fiealnning, before the world, and I 
 shall e.xist tiirouglioiit all ages. He that nourishes himself with my 
 fruits, shall no more hunger, and he that shall drink from my source, 
 shall no more thirst." (Ecclesiasticus. chap. 24 : v. 3. 5. 9. 21. See 
 also the book of tlie Wisdom of Solomon, chap. 7. 9.) From these 
 we may see what the Jews understood hy the Hebrew and Chaldaic 
 words, which sijnifit'd Wisdom and Word, and which were trans 
 laied into Greek, hy the words o-3t<=*, ^''y^i, simply an attribute of 
 Deiiy which they allegorically personified, but of which they did not 
 make a «listinct heiiij: independent of God. The school of Alexan- 
 dria an<l Piiilo, among others, mingling the Grecian ideas with the 
 Jewish and oriental; yielding to their inclination for mysticism: per- 
 sonified the logos, and represented it (see note preceding) as a dis- 
 tinct existence created by God, and intermediate between God and 
 man ; it is the second logos of i'hilo. (>^o>oi »-^o^of»xo;) he who lias 
 acted from the creation of the world,— the only one of his kind 
 (fiovcytvm) creator of the visible world {*orfioi «t»3>iT0j) which God 
 formed after the ideal world (xo(r/xoj vouto,-) which was in himself, 
 and which was the first logos (i xvjorxTOi) the first-born (o Trfir^v 
 Tf$3( vn{) of tiie Deity. The logos taken in this sense was then a 
 created being, 'i)ut anterior to the creation of the world, next to God, 
 and entrusted with the execution of the purposes of God concerning 
 man. Wliich of these two meanings did St. John intend to give to 
 the word logos, in the first chapter of his gospel, and in all that he 
 has written ? 
 
 St. John was a Jew, born and brought up in Pale.stine ; he knew 
 nothing, or at least very little, of the philosophy of the Greeks, or 
 that of the Jews, who had adopted, or were influenced by tlie Gre- 
 cian philosophy. He would then naturally attach that meaning to 
 the word logos, which the Jews of Palestine attached to it. If we 
 compare the attributes which he gives to the logos, with those which 
 are given to it in Proverbs, in the Wisdom of Solomon, and in Eccle- 
 siasficus, we shall see that they are the same. "'J'he word was in 
 
 vine perfections of the Logos, or Son of God, which are 
 so clearly defined in the gospel of St. John. About fifty 
 years afterwards, the Ebionites, whose errors are men- 
 tioned by Justin Martyr with less severity than they 
 seem to deserve," formed a very inconsiderable portion 
 of the christian name. II. The Gnostics, who were 
 distinguished by the epithet o^Bocctes, deviated into the 
 contrary extreme ; and betrayed the human, while they 
 asserted the divine, nature of Christ." Educated in the 
 school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the 
 Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest .2^07j, or 
 Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward 
 shape and visible appearances of a mortal ; *= but they 
 vainly pretended, that the imperfections of matter are 
 incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance. 
 While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount Cal- 
 vary, the Docetcs invented the impious and extrava- 
 gant hypothesis, that, instead of issuing from the womb 
 of the Virgin,'' he had descended on the banks of 
 the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood ; that he 
 had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of his 
 disciples ; and tliat the ministers of Pilate had wasted 
 their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who scented 
 to expire on tlie cross, and, after three days, to rise 
 from the dead.* 
 
 The divine sanction, which the apos- Myterious nature 
 tie had bestowed on the fundamental of the Trinity, 
 principle of the theology of Plato, encouraged the 
 
 269 
 
 a Justin Martyr. Dialog, cum Tryphonte, p. 143. 144 See Le 
 Clerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 615. Bull, and his editor Grabe, (Judicium 
 Eccles. Cathol. c. 7. and Appendix,) attempt to distort either the sen- 
 timents or the words of Justin ; but their violent correction of the 
 text is rejected even by the Benedictine editors. 
 
 b [The greater part of the Docetes rejected the real divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, as well as his human nature; they were of the nuniber of the 
 Gnostics, some of whose philosophers, among whcMn Gilibon classes 
 himself, chose to derive their opinions from those of Plato. These phi- 
 losophers did not consider that Platonism had been the suliject of con- 
 tinual changes, and that those changes which gave it some correspon- 
 dence with the opinions of the Gnostics, were posterior to the ac- 
 knowledired rise ofthe sects comprised underthis name. Mosheim has 
 proved (Inst. Hist. Ec.Maj.,$I, p. 13C. 339.) that the oriental philoso- 
 phy combined with the cabalistic philosophy of the Jews, gave birth 
 to Gnosticism. The agreement which exists between thisdoctrine and 
 the monumental records which remain to us of the orientals, such as 
 the Chaldeans and Persians, is evident; and was the source of the 
 errors of the gncstic christians, who wished to reconcile their ancient 
 opinions with their new belief. It is for this cause that they deny the 
 liuman natureof Christ ; they also deny his intimate union with God, 
 and believe him to be only one of the substances (/flones) created by 
 God. As tiiey believed in the eternity of matter, and regarded it as 
 the principle of evil ; in opposition to the Deity, the first cause, and 
 principle of good, they would not admit that one of the pure sub- 
 stances, one of the iEones proceeding from God would have allied 
 himself to the principle of evil, by assuming a material nature, and 
 
 ■" of Jesus 
 
 list afterwards really personifies that which his predecessors had 
 only poetically personified, for he atlirms that the IVord was made 
 flesh, (v. 14.) and it was to prove this that he wrote. Closely exam- 
 ined, the ideas which he gives of the logos, cannot be made to agree 
 with those which Philo and the school of Alexandria held concern- 
 ing if. On the contrary, his ideas corresponded to those of the Jews 
 of Palestine. Perhaps St. Jonn, making use of a word which was 
 understood to explain a doctrine which was not, changed a little its 
 nieaning. W^e believe we discover this alteration upon comparing 
 ditferent passages of his wriliniis. It is remarkable that the Jews of 
 Palestine, who did not see this alteration, could perceive nothing 
 stranirc in what St. John said of the logos, at least they understood it 
 without difiiculty, while the Greek and the Gru!cised Jewish philo- 
 sophers on their part, endeavoured to reconcile their prejudices and 
 opinions with the ideas of the Evangelist, who did not expressly con- 
 tradict them. This circumstance must have favoured the progress 
 of Cliristianity, as the christian lathers of the two first centuries and 
 after, who trained almost all according to the school of Alexandria, 
 attached to the logos of St. John a meaning very similar to that in 
 which Philo understood it. Their doctrine approached very near to 
 that which in the fourth century the council of Nice condemned in 
 the person of Arius. — O.] 
 
 w See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 377. — 
 The gospel, according to St. John, is supposed to have be«n pub- 
 lished about seventy years after the death of Christ. 
 
 X The sentiments of the Ebionites are fairly stated by Mosheim, (p. 
 331.) and Le Clerc. (Hist. Eccles. p. 5:^5.) The Clementines, pub- 
 lishetl among the apostolical fathers, are attributed by the critics to 
 one of these sectaries. 
 
 y Stanch polemics, like Bull, (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 2.) insist 
 on the orthodoxy of the Nazarenes ; which appears less pure and 
 certain in the eyes of Mosheim, (p. 3:'.0.) 
 
 z The humhie condition and sufTerings of Jesus have always been 
 a stumbling hlock to the Jews. " Deus . . . contrariis colorihus 
 Messiam depinxeral; futurus erat Rex, Judex, Pastor," &c. See 
 Limborch et Orobio, Amica Collal. p. 8—19. 5:t— 76. 192—234. But 
 this objection has obliged the believing christians to liA up their eyes 
 to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. 
 
 Trinity from the Valentinians and 
 Hist, du Manicheisme, 1, iii. c. 5—7. 
 
 d Non dignum est e.t utero credere Deum, et Dcum Christum .... 
 non dignum est ut tanta majcstas per sordes et squalores mulieris 
 transire credatur. The Gnostics asserted the impurity of the matter, 
 and of marriage ; and they were scandalized by the gross interpreta- 
 tions of the fathers, and even of Augustin himself. See Beausobre, 
 tom. ii. p. 523. 
 
 e Apostolis adhuc in sserulo superstitibns npud Judoium Christi 
 sanguine recente,et phantasma corpus Domini asserebatur. Cote- 
 lerius thinks (Patres Apostol. tom. ii. p. 1!4.) that those who will not 
 allow the Docetes to have arisen in the time of the apostles, may 
 with equal reason deny that the snn shines at noon day. These 
 Docetcs, who formed the most considerable party among the Gnos- 
 tics, were so called, because they granted only a seeming body to 
 
 Christ. .„ . u 
 
 [The name, Docetes, was not given to these sectaries till in the 
 course of the second century. This name did not designate one sect, 
 properly so called, but was applied to all the sects, who taught the 
 non-reality of the material body of Jesus Christ, of this number 
 were the Valentinians, the Basilidians, the Ophites, the Marcion- 
 ites, against whom Tertullian wrote his book, De Carne Christi. and 
 other gnostics. Clement of Alexandria indeed expressly mentions 
 (book iii. Stromat. chap. 13. p. 552.) a sect of Docetes, and even 
 names as one of its leaders, a certain Cassianus, but all things con 
 sidered, we are led to the belief that there it was not a particular 
 sect. Philastrius (De Haires. c. 31.) reproaches Saturninus with 
 being one of the Docetcs. Ireneus (.\dversus Hsereses, chap. 23.) re- 
 proaches Basilidos in the same manner. Epiphanius and Philastrius, 
 who have treated at length of each particular heresy, do not men- 
 tion especially that of the Docetes. Serapion, bishop of Antioch, 
 (Eusebius. Hist. Ecclesiast, l»ook vi. chap. 12.) and Clement of Alex 
 andria (book vii. Stromat, p. 900.) appear to be the first who made 
 use of this as a generic name, and it is found on no previous record, 
 although the error it indicates, existed even in the time of the Apos 
 ties. See Ch. Guil. Fr. Walch. Hist, of Heresies, vol. I. p. 233 
 Tillemont, Mem. pour servir a PHist. Ecclesiast. vol. ii. p. 50. Bu 
 dscus De Eccl. Apostol. chap. 5. $7.)— G.] 
 
 the respectable name of Plato was used bv the „;..!,« I vflif f, 7"' «"''.'> questions as had perplexed the 
 <lni ' anil ah„=oH K„ .i^^ u .• . . ^ ® ortho- 1 Wisest of the Grecian sages. AV here the subject lies 
 
 o&l X^L^tiT^t "TT"""^'. "! ^'^'"*" ^"^'"'^^^ ""'y P^^haps be measured by the deface 
 SD n wH.^?, TK^I^ discreet silence of the in- of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence. These spfcu- 
 
 i^Z'ZZninJ^e 'iXr he' tl^tZiZt '^"""fV-'-'' "' "-"? ^'^-^<> - the amusen^enfo^a 
 tinction and the emialitv n^.V! .k^ j- • ' ^ ^'^l ^""^"t '"'"''' became the most serious business of the 
 
 thoughts in everv s^Tn nf the t "• ^''P'""^^'"? '"^ I "-""terof &„ seemed to imply a perpetual subordination 
 r,»ll«5 .^f..Ji "^fy.^^P "V ,'"1.""'y> ""e are com- to the voluntary author of his existence • » but a* the 
 
 ? port :n"be::lr\r tnfthr r^^^^ f- '"' "' ^''""'l"'"- '" "^-^ ■"-» spSS\'nd''att'r:cL'd 
 
 caoacitv of the hZan J^H w ^ ? • ""'' ^^l" I '^"'^' "">'* *>« supposed to transmit the properties of 
 
 St the noLs^r,imi V " ""^y ?'";-^ t» ab- a common nature," they durst not presume to circum- 
 wS so c oselfadfe ^to all ,r„'' ""^"^ matter ! scribe the powers or tL duration^f the Son of Tn 
 rxoerimental knowled^! B . P^^'^Pt'ons of our I eternal and omnipotent Father. Fourscore years after 
 to ?eason of nfin^^ cnC f ^°°" ^', ^'"^ P''*"™^ i "■« ''^^''^ "^ Christ, the christians of Bithynia declared 
 
 a J plta^r Smsten^es w^hich'T' - 'TTf^ ' ^^"^ """" '" ^''''' ""' «1"»l '""J ^^tlute divinity of 
 doctrfnes o^the eaZurchurch fro,^ ,hT' -^ ^^ i u' ^"^f' j^ '^'" "?''* «^''^»t '"^^^i^ f-* 'hrone of 
 the Platonic schooT *' °P""""' "^ ''"''^\" ^''^ "",' !>?" ^perceptibly checked by the 
 
 discuss, in the gardens of Athens or the library of served in th^ writJnn-c ^fKu^ ♦k.^i^J^:":!::;.!. Z..„?.,''. . 
 Alexandria^ the abstruse questions of metaphysical 
 science. The lofty speculations, which neither con 
 
 served m the writing-s of the theologians who flourished 
 after the end of the apostolic age, and before the orio-in 
 vinced the imderstandi'n^c^"rn7.nTt J'^T "''"'"•''" ''""r" ''^. J^^ "^"^^ controversy. Their suffrage is claimed, 
 thrPlatoni.t.thrr^. 1 ^' ^^^'^^^fP^^ '^'^^^ ^^^"^1 confidence, by the orthodox and by the 
 
 iv ti. !'rll?t"?!f "„l^l ^.^^^ ^.f ^^^««ly overlooked heretical parties; and Uie most inquisitive critics have 
 
 by the idle, the busy, and even the studious part of 
 mankind.* But after the Logos had been revealed as 
 the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and the reli- 
 gious worship of the christians ; the mysterious system 
 was embraced by a numerous and increasing multitude 
 m every province of the Roman world. Those persons 
 who, from their age, or sex, or occupations, were the 
 least qualified to judge, who were the least exercised 
 
 f Some proofs of the respect which the christians entertained for 
 the person and doctrine of Plato, may be found in De la Mothe le 
 
 toJn.^'^.Tso'^'TS: i?; *'"• '^*'- ''^': ^"^ "asnage, Hist.desJuifs, 
 
 ,,m S^1?."J'°"n.^!!^;,-^'^''*I'^"1 omnium hsereticorum condimentari- 
 utn factum, lertullian.de Anima, c. 2:<. Petavius (Dogm. Theo 
 & ?• "^aP''"'.^^- 2;) shows that this was a general complaint. 
 Beausobre (Tom ,. I. ,„ c. 19.) has deduced the Gnostic errors from 
 Platonic principles ; and as, in the school of Alexandria those princ" 
 pies were blended with the oriental philosophy. (Brucker. torS i n 
 /o^nf Mn«f.?""'7/i °^ Beausobre may be reconciled with thTo iS- 
 lon of Mosheim (General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 37.) 
 
 siast m e to^ i"n rf^^ °^ ^^''T^' ^*t^ ^"P'"' Bi'»'iotheque Eccle- 
 siastique, torn. j. p. 66.) was the hrst who employed the word Triad 
 Jrmry, that abstract term, which was already familiar to the 
 schools of philosophy, must have been introduced into The theoloiy 
 of the christians after the middle of the second century '"="'"ey 
 
 1 Athanasius. torn. i. p. 808. His expressions have an uncommon 
 energy ; and as he was writing to monks, there could not be any oc- 
 casion for him to affect a rational language. ^ 
 r-.L, ? .|''*'»*'f«' which professed to explain the opinions of the an- 
 cient philosophers concerning the nature of the gods, we might ex- 
 hnnV?,*''*''*"'r*' ^^^ theological Trinity of Plato. But Cicero very 
 honestly confessed, that although he had translated the Timaus he 
 unJf rrf H^de^taid that mysterious dialogue. See Hieron^ni! 
 prujf. ad. I. xii. hi Isaiam, toin. v. p. 154. ' 
 
 lairly allowed, that if they had the good fortune of pos- 
 sessing the catholic verity, they have delivered their 
 conceptions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes con- 
 tradictory language.^ 
 
 .u^i* ^^^ <^eVOtion of individuals was Authority of the 
 
 the tirst circumstance which distingiii.sh- chufch. 
 ed the christians from the Platoni'sts : the second was 
 the authority of the church. The disciples of philoso- 
 
 1 Tertnllian. in Apoloir. c. 40. See Raylc. Diciionnaire, au mot 
 !s,imonide His remarks on the presumption of Tertullian, are pro- 
 found and interesting. .a.c,ic 
 
 m Lactantius, iv. 8. Yet the Probole or Prolatio, which the most 
 orthodox divines borrowed witliout scruple from the Valentinian« 
 and Illustrated by the comparisons of a fountain and stream tho sun* 
 "!?° '^^^.'^^yS' &^c- either meant nothing, or favoured a material idea 
 of the divine generation. See Reaiisohro, tom. i. I iii. c 7 p ^AS 
 
 n .Many of the primitive writers have frankly confessed, "that the 
 Son mved Ins l.eing to the will of the Father. See CI;irke'« .Scrin- 
 tiire Trinity, p. 280-287. On the other hand, Athanasius and his 
 followers seem unwilling to grant what thev are afr.iid to denv — 
 The schoolmen extricate themselves from this difficultv by thedis- 
 tinction of a preceding ^nA a concomitant will. Petav Docm The- 
 olog. tom. ii. 1. vi. c. 7. p. .')87— 603. 
 o See Petav. Dozm. Theolou. torn. ii. I. ii. c. 10. p. ViO. 
 ^ni^"''"'®"''"^ Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicern. Plin. Epist. 
 X. 9/. The sense of Deus, t)isj, Elnkim, in the ancient lan^uagps, is 
 critically examined by Le Clerc, (Ara Critica, p. l.>0— Ia6.) and the 
 propriety of worshipping a very excellent creature is ally defended 
 by the Socinlan Emiyn. (Tracis. p. 29— re. 51—145.) 
 
 q See Dailiti deUsu Putrum.and l.e Clerc Bibliotheque Universelle 
 torn. X. p. 409. To arraign the faith of the Anti Nicene fathers was 
 the object, or at least has been the effect, of thestnpendon<» work of 
 Petavius on the Trinity ; (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii.) nor has the deep 
 impression been erased by the learned defence of bishop Bull 
 
270 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXT. 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 /' 
 
 2 
 
 phy asserted the rights of intellectual freedom, and 
 their respect for the sentiments of their teachers was a 
 liberal and voluntary tribute, which they offered to su- 
 perior reason. But the christians formed a numerous 
 and disciplined society; and the jurisdiction of their 
 laws and magistrates was strictly exercised over the 
 minds of the faithful. The loose wanderings of the 
 imagination were gradually confined by creeds and 
 confessions;' the freedom of private judgment sub- 
 mitted to the public wisdom of synods ; the authority 
 of a theologian was determined by his ecclesiastical 
 rank ; and the episcopal successors of the apostles 
 inflicted the censures of the church on those who de- 
 viated from the orthodox belief. But in an age of 
 religious controversy, every act of oppression adds new 
 force to the elastic vigour of the mind ; and the zeal or 
 obstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes stimulated 
 
 by secret motives of ambition or avarice. 
 _ Factions. ^ metaphysical argument became the 
 cause or pretence of political contests ; the subtilties 
 of the Platonic school were used as the badges of 
 popular factions, and the distance which separated 
 their respective tenets was enlarged or magnified by 
 the acrimony of dispute. As long as the dark heresies 
 of Praxeas and Sabellius laboured to confound the 
 Father with the Son,' the orthodox party might be 
 excused if they adhered more strictly and more ear- 
 nestly to the distinction, than to the equality, of the di- 
 vine persons. But as soon as the heat of controversy 
 had subsided, and the progress of the Sabellians was 
 no longer an object of terror to the churches of Rome, 
 of Africa, or of Egypt; the tide of theological opinion 
 began to flow with a gentle but steady motion toward 
 the contrary extreme ; and the most orthodox doctors 
 allowed themselves the use of the terms and definitions 
 which had been censured in the mouth of the sectaries.* 
 After the edict of toleration had restored peace and 
 leisure to the christians, the Trinitarian controversy 
 was revived in the ancient seat of Platonism, the 
 learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexan- 
 dria ; and the flame of religious discord was rapidly 
 communicated from the schools to the clergy, the 
 people, the province, and the east. The abstruse ques- 
 tion of the eternity of the Logos was agitated in eccle- 
 siastical conferences, and popular sermons ; and the 
 
 heterodox opinions of Arius" were soon 
 ■ made public by his own zeal, and by 
 that of his adversaries. His most implacable adver- 
 saries have acknowledged the learning and blameless 
 life of that eminent presbyter, who, in a former elec- 
 tion, had declared, and perhaps generously declined, 
 his pretensions to the episcopal throne.* His com- 
 petitor Alexander assumed the ofllce of his judge. The 
 important cause was argued before him ; and if at first 
 he seemed to hesitate, he at length pronounced his final 
 sentence, as an absolute rule of faith.y The undaunted 
 presbyter, who presumed to resist the authority of his 
 angry bishop, was separated from the communion of 
 
 r Tlie most ancient creeds were drawn up with the greatest lati- 
 Mide. See Bull (Jiidiciiini Ecclcs. Calliol.) who trios to prevent 
 Episcopius from deriving any advantajjc from this observation. 
 
 • Tlie heresies of Praxeas, Sabeliius, &c, are accurately explained 
 hy Mosheim. (p. 423. 680 — 714.) Praxeas, who came to Rome about 
 the end of the second century, deceived, for some time, the simpli- 
 city of the bishop, and was confuted by tlie pen of the angry Tcr- 
 tullian. 
 
 t Socrates acltnowled<;es, that the heresy of Arius proceeded from 
 liis strone desire to embrace an opinion the most diametrically oppo- 
 site to that of Sabeliius. 
 
 u The figure and manners of Arius, the character and numbers of 
 liis first prof^elytes, are painted in very lively colours by Epipbanius, 
 (torn. i. Ha?re3. Ixix. 3. p. 729.) and we cannot but regret lliat he 
 should soon forget the historian, to as.sume the taf^k of controversy. 
 
 X See Pliilostorgius, (I. i. c, 3.) and Godefroy's ample Commentary. 
 Vet the credibility of Pliilostorgius is lessened, in the eyes of the or- 
 thodox, by liis Arianism ; and in those of rational critics, hy his 
 passion, liis prejudice, and his i<;iiorance. 
 
 y Sozomen (I. i. c. 15.) represents Alexander as indiiTerent, and 
 even ignorant, in the beginning of the controversy ; while Socrates 
 (I. i. c. 5.) ascribes tiie origin of the dispute to the vain curiosity of 
 his theological speculations. Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Errlcsiasiiral 
 History, vol. ii. p. 178.) has censured, with his usual freedom, the 
 conduct of Alexander; t^o; o^ynv t!^%irrtT»^ .... 6/«o(«»( ^fomiv 
 
 the church. But the pride of Arius was supported by 
 the applause of a numerous party. He reckoned among 
 his immediate followers two bishops of Egypt, seven 
 presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may appear 
 almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large 
 majority of the bishops of Asia appeared to support or 
 favour his cause; and their measures were conducted 
 by Eusebius of Casarea, the most learned of the chris- 
 tian prelates ; and by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had 
 acquired the reputation of a statesman without forfeit- 
 ing that of a saint. Synods in Palestine and Bithynia 
 were opposed to the synods of Egypt. The attention 
 of the prince and people was attracted by this theolo- 
 gical dispute ; and the decision, at the ^ ^ 318—325 
 end of six years,* was referred to the ' 
 supreme authority of the general council of Nice 
 
 When the mysteries of the christian Three systems of 
 faith were dangerously exposed to pub- H'e trinity, 
 lie debate, it might be observed, that the human un- 
 derstanding was capable of forming three distinct, 
 though imperfect, systems, concerning the nature of 
 the Divine Trinity; and it was pronounced, that none 
 of these systems, in a pure and absolute sense, were 
 exempt from heresy and error.* 1. According to the 
 first hypothesis, which was maintained by Arius and 
 his disciples, the Logos was a dependant and sponta- 
 neous production, created from nothing by the will of 
 the Father. The Son, by whom all things were made,** 
 had been begotten before all worlds, and the longest 
 of the astronomical periods could be compared only as 
 a fleeting moment to the extent of his duration ; yet 
 this duration was not infinite,' and there had been a 
 time which preceded the ineflfable generation of the 
 Logos, On this only-begotten Son the Almighty Fa- 
 ther had transfused his ample spirit, and impressed 
 the effulgence of his glory. Visible image of invisible 
 perfection, he saw, at an immeasurable distance be- 
 neath his feet, the thrones of the brightest archangels : 
 yet he shone only with a reflected light, and, like the 
 sons of the Roman emperors, who were invested with 
 the titles of Caesar or Augustus,** he governed the uni- 
 verse in obedience to the will of his Fa- ^ .^^ 
 ther and Monarch. II. In the second " "^"""• 
 hypothesis, the Logos possessed all the inherent, in- 
 communicable perfections, which religion and philoso- 
 phy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three distinct 
 and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal and 
 co-eternal beings, composed the Divine Essence;' and 
 it would have implied contradiction, that any of them 
 should not have existed, or that they should ever cease 
 to exist.^ The advocates of a system which seemed to 
 establish three independent Deities, attempted to pre- 
 serve the unity of the First Cause, so conspicuous in 
 the design and order of the world, by the perpetual 
 concord of their administration, and the essential 
 agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this 
 unity of action may be discovered in the societies of 
 men, and even of animals. The causes which disturb 
 
 t The flames of Arianism might burn for some time in secret ; but 
 there is reason to believe that they burst out with violence as early 
 as the year 319. Tillemont, Mem. Ercles. torn. vi. p. 774 — 780. 
 
 a Quid credidit ? Certe, aut tria iiomina audiens tres Deos esse 
 credidit, et idololatra etfcctus est : aut in tribus vorabulis trinomi- 
 nem credens Deuni, in Sabellii lurresim incurrit ; aut edoctus ab Aria- 
 nis unum esse verum Deum Patrem, filium et spiritum sanctum cre- 
 didit creaturas. Aut extra h.TC quid credere potuerit nescio. Hiero- 
 nym. adv. Luciferianos. Jerom reserves for the last the orthodox 
 system, which is more complicated and ditTicult. 
 
 b Ah the doctrine of absolute creation from nothing, was gradually 
 introduced among the christians, (Beausobre. torn. ii. p. 1G5— 215.) 
 thedignitv of the «JorJl-mo« very nsturallv rose with thatof the tcorfr. 
 
 c The metaphysics of Dr. Clarke (Scripture Trinity, p. 276—280.) 
 could digest an eternal generation from an infinite cause. 
 
 d This profane and absurd simile is employed by several of the 
 primitive fathers, particularly by Athenagoras, in his apology to the 
 emperor Marcus and his son ; and it is alleged, witliout censure, by 
 Bull himself. See Defens. Fid. Nicen. sccl. iii. c .'i. No. 4. 
 
 e See Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 559. 579. This danger- 
 ous hypothesis was countenanced by the two Grcgories, of Nyssa 
 and Nazianzen, by Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, &.c. — 
 Sec Cudworth, p. 60?. Le Clerc, Bibliothcquc L^niverselle, torn, 
 xviii. p. 97—105. 
 
 f Augustin seems to envy the freedom of the philosophers. Libc- 
 ris verbis loquuntur philosonhi .... Nosautem non diclmusduo vel 
 tria principia, duos vel tres Deos. J)€ Civitat. Dei, x. 23. 
 
 their harmony proceed only from the imperfection and 
 inequality of their faculties: but the omnipotence 
 which IS guided by infinite wisdom and goodness, can- 
 not fail of choosing the same means for the accomplish- 
 Sabelliani8m. P^nt of the same ends. III. Three Be- 
 - , . . *"oS» Who, by the self-derived necessity 
 of their existence, possess all the divine attributes in the 
 most perfect degree ; who are eternal in duration, in- 
 finite in space, and intimately present to each other, 
 and to the whole universe; irresistibly force them- 
 selves on the astonished mind, as one and the same 
 Being,? who, in the economy of grace, as well as in 
 that of nature, may manifest himself under different 
 forms, and be considered under different aspects. By 
 this hypothesis, a real substantial Trinity is refined 
 into a trinity of names, and abstract modifications, 
 that subsist only in the mind which conceives them. 
 The Logos is no longer a person, but an attribute ; and 
 It is only m a figurative sense, that the epithet of Son 
 can be applied to the eternal reason which was with 
 God from the beginning, and by ivhich, not by whom, 
 all things were made. The incarnation of the Logos is 
 reduced to a mere inspiration of the Divine Wis'dom, 
 which filled the soul, and directed all the actions, of 
 the man Jesus. Thus, after revolving round the theo- 
 logical circle, we are surprised to find that the Sabel- 
 han ends where the Ebionite had begun; and that the 
 incomprehensible mystery which excites our adoration, 
 eludes our inquiry .•» 
 
 Council of Nice, If the bishops of the council of Nice* 
 A. D. 32.5. had been permitted to follow the un- 
 biassed dictates of their conscience, Arius and his 
 associates could scarcely have flattered themselves 
 with the hopes of obtaining a majority of votes, in fa- 
 vour of an hypothesis so directly adverse to the two 
 most popular opinions of the catholic world. The 
 Arians soon perceived the danger of their situation, 
 and prudently assumed those modest virtues, which, 
 in the fury of civil and religious dissensions, are sel- 
 dom practised, or even praised, except by the weaker 
 party. They recommended the exercise of christian j 
 charity and moderation ; urged the incomprehensible 
 nature of the controversy ; disclaimed the use of any 
 terms or definitions which could not be found in the 
 scriptures ; and offered, by very liberal concessions, 
 to satisfy their adversaries, without renouncing the in- 
 tegrity of their own principles. The victorious faction 
 received all their proposals with haughty suspicion ; 
 and anxiously sought for some irreconcilable mark of 
 distinction, the rejection of which might involve the 
 Arians in the guilt and consequences of heresy. A 
 letter was publicly read, and ignominiously torn, in ] 
 which their patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenu- 
 ously confessed, that the admission of the Homoousion, 
 The llomoou- or Consubstantial, a word already fami- 
 «•»"• liar to the Platonists, was incompatible 
 with the principles of their theological system. The 
 fortunate opportunity was eagerly embraced by the 
 bishops, who governed the resolutions of the synod ; 
 and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose,'^ 
 they used the sword, which heresy itself had drawn 
 
 271 
 
 g Boetius, who was deeply versed in the philosophy of Plato and 
 Aristotle, explains the unity of the Trinity by ihe indifference of the 
 Uiree persoris. See the judicious remarks of Le Clerc, Bibliotheque 
 Choiaie, tom. xvi. p. 225, &c. ^ 
 
 h If the Sabellians were startled at this conclosion, they were driv- 
 en down another precipice into the confession, that the Father was 
 born of a virgin, th.ai he had sufiered on the cross ; and thus deserved 
 the odious epithet of Patri-passians, with which they were branded 
 by their adversaries. See the invectives of Tertullian against Praxeas 
 and the temperate reflections of Mosheim, (p. 423. 681.) and Beau- 
 sobre, tom. i. I. iii. c. 6. p. 533. 
 
 i The transactions of the council of Nice arc related by the ancients 
 not only in a partial, but in a very imperfect, manner. Such a pic- 
 ture as FraPaolo would have drawn, can never be recovered • but 
 such rude sketches as have been traced by the pencil of bigotry' and 
 that of reason, may be seen in Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles.lom v p 
 b69— 759.) and in Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. x i) 435 
 — 454.) *^ 
 
 k We are indebted to Ambrose (de Fide, I. iii. cap. ult.) for ilie 
 Knowledge of this curious anecdote. Hoc verbum posuerunt patre- 
 quod viderunt adversariis esse formidini ; ut tanquam evaginato ab 
 ipsifl gladio, ipsum nefanda; caput heerefieos ainputarent. 
 
 from the scabbard, to cut ofl" the head of the hated 
 monster. The consubstantiality of the Father and the 
 Son was established by the council of Nice, and has 
 been unanimously received as a fundamental article of 
 the christian faith, by the consent of the Greek, the 
 Latin, the Oriiental, and the protestant churches. 'But 
 if the same word had not served to stigmatize the 
 heretics, and to unite the catholics, it would have been 
 inadequate to the purpose of the majority, by whom it 
 was introduced into the orthodox creed. This majoritv 
 was divided into two parties, distinguished by a con- 
 trary tendency to the sentiments of the Tritheists and 
 of the Sabellians. But as those opposite extremes 
 seemed to overthrow the foundations either of natural 
 or revealed religion, they mutually agreed to qualify 
 the rigour of their principles; and to disavow the just 
 but invidious consequences, which might be uro-cd" by 
 their antagonists. The interest of the common cause 
 inclined them to join their numbers, and to conceal 
 their diflJerences ; their animosity was softened by 
 the healing counsels of toleration, and their disputes 
 were suspended by the use of the mysterious Homouu- 
 sion, which either party was free to interpret accordino- 
 to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian sense, which", 
 about fifty years before, had obliged the council of An- 
 tioch ' to prohibit this celebrated term, had endeared it 
 to those theologians who entertained a secret but par- 
 tial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more 
 fashionable saints of the Arian times, the intrepid 
 Athanasius, the learned Gregory Nazianzen, and the 
 other pillars of the church, who supported with ability 
 j and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared to consider 
 the expression of substance, as U it had been synony- 
 mous with that oi nature i and they ventured to illus- 
 trate their meaning, by affirming that three men, as 
 they belong to the safne common species, are consub- 
 stantial, or homoousian to each other."" This pure and 
 distinct equality was tempered, on the one hand, by 
 the internal connection, and spiritual penetration, 
 which indissolubly unites the divine persons; » and on 
 the other, by the pre-eminence of the Father, which 
 was acknowledged as far as it is compatible with the 
 independence of the Son." Within these limits the 
 almost invisible and tremulous ball of orthodo.xy was 
 allowed securely to vibrate. On cither side, beyond 
 this consecrated ground, the heretics and tlie demons 
 lurked in ambush to surprise and devour the unhappy 
 wanderer. But as the degrees of theological hatred 
 depend on the spirit of the Avar, rather than on the im- 
 portance of the controversy, the heretics who degraded, 
 were treated with more severity th^n those who anni- 
 hilated, the person of the Son. The life of Athanasius 
 was consumed in irreconcilable opposition to the im- 
 pious madness of the Arians ; p but he defended above 
 twenty years the Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra ; 
 and when at last he was compelled to withdraw him- 
 self from his communion, he continued to mention, 
 with an ambiguous smile, the venial errors of his re- 
 spectable friend.i 
 
 The authority of a general council, to 
 which the Arians themselves had been 
 
 Arian creeds. 
 
 1 See Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. sect. ii. c. i. p. 25—26. He thinks 
 it his duty to reconcile two orthodox synods. 
 
 m According to Aristotle, the stars were homoousian to e:ich other. 
 ''Th-AiHomoousios mcansof one substance in t/wr/, hath been shown 
 by Petavius, Curcellaciis, Cudworth. Le Clerc, &c. and to prove it, I 
 would be actum agere:' This is the just remark of Dr. Jortin, (vol. 
 II. p. 212.) who examines the Arian controversy with learning, can- 
 dour, and ingenuity. 
 
 n See Petavius (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. iv. c. 16. p. 453, &c > 
 Cudworth, (p. .559.) Bull. (sect. iv. p. 28.5—290. edit. Grab.) The 
 5Tff.%x.f>iJ.j,or circumincessio, is perhaps the deepest and darkest 
 corner of the whole theological abyss. 
 
 o The third section of Bull's Defence of the Nicene faith, which 
 some of his antagonists have called nonsense, and others heresy, is 
 consecrated to the supremacy of the Father. 
 
 P The ordinary appellation witli which Athanasius and his fol- 
 lowers chose to compliment the Arians, was that of Ariomanites. 
 
 q Epiphanius, tom. i. Ha^res. I.xxii. 4. p. 837. See the adventureg 
 of Marcellus, in Tillemont. (.Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 880— 899.) his 
 work, in one book, of the unity of God, wa.s answered in the three 
 books, which are still extant, of Eusebius. After a long and careful 
 examination. Petavius (torn. ii. 1. i. c. 14. p. 78.) has reluctantly pro- 
 nounced the condemnation of Marcellus, 
 
 \' * 
 
272 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 compelled to submit, inscribed on the banners of the 
 orthodox party, the mysterious characters of the word 
 Homoousion, which essentially contributed, notwith- 
 standing some obscure disputes, some nocturnal com- 
 bats, to maintain and perpetuate the uniformity of 
 faith, or at least of language. The Consubstantialists, 
 who by their success have deserved and obtained the 
 title of catholics, gloried in the simplicity and steadi- 
 ness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated 
 variations of their adversaries, who were destitute of 
 any certain rule of faith. The sincerity or the cunning 
 of the Arian chiefs, the fear of the laws or of the peo- 
 ple, their reverence for Christ, their hatred of Athana- 
 sius, all the causes, human and divine, that influence 
 and disturb the councils of a theological faction, in- 
 troduced among the sectaries a spirit of discord and 
 inconstancy, which, in the course of a few years, erect- 
 ed eighteen different models of religion,' and avenged 
 the violated dignity of the church. The zealous Hil- 
 ary,' who, from the peculiar hardships of his situation, 
 was inclined to extenuate rather than to aggravate the 
 errors of the oriental clergy, declares, that in the wide 
 extent of the ten provinces of Asia, to which he had 
 been banished, there could be found very few prelates 
 who had preserved the knowledge of the true God.* 
 The oppression which he had felt, the disorders of 
 which he was the spectator and the victim, appeased, 
 during a short interval, the angry passions of his soul ; 
 and in the following passage, of which I shall tran- 
 scribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily de- 
 viates into the style of a christian philosopher. "It 
 is a thing," says Hilary, " equally deplorable and 
 dangerous, that there are as many creeds as opinions 
 among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as 
 many sources of blasphemy as there are faults among 
 us ; because we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain 
 them as arbitrarily. The Homoousion is rejected, and 
 received, and explained away by successive synods. 
 The partial or total resemblance of the Father and of 
 the Son, is a subject of dispute for these unhappy 
 times. Every year, nay every moon, we make new 
 creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of 
 what we have done, we defend those who repent, we 
 anathematize those whom we defended. We condemn 
 either the doctrine of others in ourselves, or our own 
 in that of others ; and reciprocally tearing one another 
 to pieces, we have been the cause of each other's 
 
 Tuin. 
 
 1J u 
 
 Arian sects. 
 
 It will not be expected, it would not i 
 perhaps be endured, that I should swell 
 this theological digression, by a minute examination , 
 of the eighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the | 
 most part, disclaimed the odious name of their parent, 
 Arius. It is amusing enough to delineate the form, 
 and to trace the vegetation, of a singular plant ; but i 
 the tedious detail of leaves without flowers, and of j 
 branches without fruit, would soon exhaust the pa- 1 
 tience, and disappoint the curiosity, of a laborious stu- , 
 dent. One question which gradually arose from the j 
 Arian controversy, may however be noticed, as it serv- j 
 ed to produce and discriminate the three sects, who 
 were united only by their common aversion to the Ho- 
 moousion of the Nicene synod. 1. If they were ask- 
 
 ed, whether the Son was like unto the Father; the 
 question was resolutely answered in the negative, by 
 the heretics who adhered to the principles of Arius, or 
 indeed to those of philosophy; which seem to estab- 
 lish an infinite difference between the Creator and the 
 most excellent of his creatures. This obvious conse- 
 quence was maintained by ^tius,' on whom the zeal 
 of his adversaries bestowed the surname of the Athe- 
 ist. His restless and aspiring spirit urged him to try 
 almost every profession of human life. He was suc- 
 cessively a slave, or at least a husbandman, a travel- 
 ling tinker, a goldsmith, a physician, a schoolmaster, 
 a theologian, and at last the apostle of a new church, 
 which was propagated by the abilities of his disciple 
 Eunomius.y Armed with texts of scripture, and with 
 captious syllogisms from the logic of Aristotle, the 
 subtle .Etius had acquired the fame of an invincible 
 disputant, whom it was impossible either to silence or 
 to convince. Such talents engaged the friendship of 
 the Arian bishops, till they were forced to renounce, 
 and even to persecute, a dangerous ally, who, by the 
 accuracy of his reasoning, had prejudiced their cause 
 in the popular opinion, and offended the piety of their 
 most devoted followers. 2. The omnipotence of the 
 Creator suggested a specious and respectful solution 
 of the likeness of the Father and the Son ; and faith 
 might humbly receive what reason could not presunie 
 to deny, that the supreme God might communicate his 
 infinite perfections, and create a being similar only to 
 himself.' These Arians were powerfully supported 
 by the weight and abilities of their leaders, who had 
 succeeded To the management of the Eusebian interest, 
 and who occupied the principal thrones of the east. 
 They detested, perhaps with some aflfectation, the im- 
 piety of iEtius ; they professed to believe, either with- 
 out reserve, or according to the scriptures, that the 
 Son was different from all other creatures, and similar 
 only to the Father. But they denied, that he was 
 either of the same, or of a similar, substance ; some- 
 times boldly justifying their dissent, and sometimes 
 objecting to the use of the word substance, which 
 seems to imply an adequate, or at least a distinct, no- 
 tion of the nature of the Deity. 3. The sect which 
 asserted the doctrine of a similar substance, was the 
 most numerous, at least in the provinces of Asia ; and 
 when the leaders of both parties were assembled in the 
 council of Seleucia,* their opinion would have prevail- 
 ed by a majority of one hundred and five, to forty-three 
 1 bishops. The Greek word, which was chosen to ex- 
 I press this mysterious resemblance, bears so close an 
 ' affinity to the orthodox symbol, that the profane of 
 every age have derided the furious contests which the 
 diff*erence of a single diphthong excited between the 
 Homoousians and the Homoiousians. As it frequent- 
 ly happens, that the sounds and characters which ap- 
 proach the nearest to each other accidentally represent 
 the most opposite ideas, the observation would be it- 
 self ridiculous, if it were possible to mark any real and 
 sensible distinction between the doctrine of the Semi- 
 Arians, as they were improperly styled, and that of the 
 catholics themselves. The bishop of Poitiers, who m 
 his Phrygian exile very wisely aimed at a coalition of 
 
 r Athanasius, in his epistle concerning tlie Synods of Seleiicia and 
 Rimini, (toiii. i. v. 8P6— 905.) »ins jriven an ample list of Arian creeds, 
 which has »»cen enlaraed and improved by the labours of the inde- , 
 fatisahlc Tillemont. (Mem. Ecclcs. lorn. vi. p. 477.) I 
 
 • Erasmus, with admirable sense and freedom, has delineated the | 
 hist character of Hilary. To revise his text, to compose the annals 
 of his lite, and to justify his sentiments and conduct, is the province 
 of the Benedictine editors. ... 
 
 t Absque episropo Eieusio et pancis cum eo. ex mnjore parte Asiana; 
 d^cem provinria;, inter quas consisto, vere Deum nesciunt. Atque 
 uiinam penitus nescirent ! rum prorliviore enim vejiia ignorarent 
 qiiam obtrectarent. Hilar, de Synodis, sive de Fide Orientalium. c. 
 63 p 1186 edict. Benedict. In the celebrated parallel between alhe- 
 isrn and superstition, the bishop of Poitiers would have been surpris- 
 ed in the philosophic society of Bayle and Plutarch. 
 
 u Hilarius ad Constantium, I. ii. c, 4, 5, p. 1227. 12yP. This re- 
 markable passape deserved the attention of Mr. Locke, who has 
 transcribed it (vol. iii. p. 470.) into the model of his new common- 
 place look. 
 
 X In PhilostorRius (1. iii. c. 15.) the cliaracter and adventures of 
 yEiius appear singular enough, though they are carefully softened 
 bv the hand of a friend. The editor Godefroy, (p. 153.) who was 
 niore attached to his principles than to his author, has collected the 
 odious circumstances which his various adversaries liave preserved 
 
 or invented. . j u .v .i,^— 
 
 y According to the judgment of a man who respected both those 
 sectaries, ^tius had been endowed with a stronger understanding, 
 and Eunomius had acquired more art and learning. (Philostorpius. 
 1. viii. c. 18.) The confession and apology of Eunomius (Fabncius, 
 Bibllot. Grffic. tom. viii. p. 258—305.) is one of the few heretical 
 pieces which have escaped. . „ „ , on-r ^ .i,^,- 
 
 z Yet, according to the opinion of Estius and Bull, (p. 29*.) there 
 is one power, that of creation, which God cannot communicate to a 
 creature. Estuis, who so accurately defined the limits of omnipo- 
 tence, was a Dutchman by birth, and by trade a scholastic divmc. 
 
 1 Dupin. Bibliot. Eccles. tom. ivii. p. 45. 
 
 a Pabinus (ap. Socrat. I. ii. c. 39.) had copied the acts ; Athanasius 
 and Hilary have explained the divisions of this Arian synod ; the 
 
 I other circumstances which are relative to it are carefully collected 
 
 1 by Baronius and Tillemont. 
 
 parties, endeavours to prove that, by a pious and faith- 
 ful interpretation,^' the Hormiousion may be reduced to 
 a consubstantial sense. Yet he confesses that the 
 word has a dark and suspicious aspect; and, as if 
 darkness were congenial to theological disputes, the 
 Semi-Arians, who advanced to the doors of the church, 
 assailed them with the most unrelenting fury. 
 Faith of the vest- The provinces of Egypt and Asia 
 cTurch" '^''•" ^^^^h cultivated the language and 
 I u J .1- manners of the Greeks, had deeply im- 
 
 bibed the venom of the Arian controversy. The fa- 
 miliar study of the Platonic system, a vain and aro-u- 
 mentative disposition, copious and flexible idiom, sSp- 
 phed the cjergy and people of the east with an inex- 
 haustible flow of words and distinctions ; and, in the 
 midst of their fierce contentions, they easily forgot the 
 doubt which is recommended by philosophy, and the 
 submission which is enjoined by religion. The in- 
 habitants of the west were of a less inquisitive spirit; 
 their passions were not so forcibly moved by invisible 
 objects, their mmds were less frequently exercised by 
 the habits ol dispute ; and such was the happy io-no- 
 ranee of the Gallican church, that Hilary himself, 
 above thirty years after the first general council, was 
 still a stranger to the Nicene creed.<^ The Latins had 
 received the rays of divine knowledge through the 
 dark and doubtful medium of a translation. The pov- 
 erty and stubbornness of their native tongue was not 
 always capable of aff-ording just equivalents for the 
 breek terms, for the technical words of the Platonic 
 philosophy ,<J which had been consecrated, by the ffos- 
 pcl or by the church, to express the mysteries of the 
 christian faith ; and a verbal defect might introduce 
 into the Latin tlieology a long train of error or per- 
 plexity.-* But as the western provincials had the good 
 fortune of deriving their religion from an orthSdox 
 source, they preserved with steadiness the doctrine 
 which they had accepted with docility ; and when the 
 Arian pestilence approached their frontiers, they were 
 supplied with the seasonable preservative of the Ho- 
 moousion, by the paternal care of the Roman pontiff*. 
 Council of Rimini, Their Sentiments and their temper were 
 A D.360. displayed in the memorable synod 
 of Kimini, which surpassed in numbers the council of 
 Nice, since it was composed of above four hundred 
 bishops of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and II- 
 lyricum. From the first debates it appeared, that only 
 fourscore prelates adhered to the party, though they 
 affected to anathematize the name and memory of 
 Anus. But this inferiority was compensated by the 
 advantages of skill, of experience, and of discipline; 
 and the minority was conducted by Valens and Ursa- 
 cius, two bishops of Illyricum, who had spent their 
 lives in the intrigues of courts and councils, and who 
 had been trained, under the Eusebian banner, in the 
 religious wars of the east. By their arguments and 
 negociations, they embarrassed, they confounded, they 
 at last deceived, the honest simplicity of the Latin 
 bishops; who suffered the palladium of the faith to be 
 extorted from their hands by fraud and importunity, 
 rather than by open violence. The council of Rimini 
 was not allowed to separate, till the members had im- 
 prudently subscribed a captious creed, in which some 
 
 273 
 
 b Fideh et pia intellijrentia . . . De Synod, c. 77. p. 1)93. In his 
 M« «P«''^etica notes (first published by the Benedictines from a 
 MS. of Chartres) he observes, that he used this cautious expression, 
 q». intelligerem et impiam, p. 1206. See p. 1 146. Philostorgius, who 
 S.UV those objects through a different medium, is inclined to forget 
 tie difference of the important diphthong. See in particular viii. 17. 
 and (jodefroy, p. 3o2. 
 
 c Testor Deiim cctli atque terrte mecum neutrum audi?sem sem- 
 per tamen utrumque sensisse .... Regeneratus pridem et in enis- 
 copatu ahquaniisper manens fidem Nicenam nunquam nisi exsula- 
 turus audiyi. Hilar, de Synodis, c. xci. p. 1-205. The Benedictines 
 are persuaded that he governed the diocese of Poitiers several vears 
 itefore his exile. j^u.^" 
 
 d Seneca (Epist. Iviii.) complains that even the to st' of the Platon- 
 isi«, (tlie ens of the bolder schoolmen) could not l)e expressed bv a 
 JiBtin noun. ' 
 
 e The preference which the fourth council of the Lateran at 
 length gave to a numerical rather than a gcncrical unity, (sec Petav 
 «<)in. II. l.iv. c. 13. p. 424.) was favoured by the Latin language ' 
 ^P'«»; seems to excite the idea of substance, trinitas of qualities. 
 
 Vol. I — 2 K 18 
 
 expressions, susceptible of an heretical sense, were 
 inserted m the room of the Homoousion. It was on 
 this occasion, that, according to Jerom, the world was 
 surprised to find itself Arian.^ But the bishops of the 
 Latin provinces had no sooner reached their respective 
 dioceses, than they discovered their mistake, and re- 
 pented of their weakness. The ignominious capitula- 
 tion was rejected with disdain and abhorrence ; and 
 the Homoousian standard, which had been shaken but 
 not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all the 
 churches of the wpst.K 
 
 Such was the rise and proorress, and n j 
 such were the natural revolutions, of liiTot ii^f.^'k^'iS; 
 those theological disputes, which dis- controversy, 
 turbed the peace of Christianity under the reiffns of 
 Constantine and of his sons. "But as those princes 
 presumed to extend their despotism over the faith, as 
 well as over the lives and fortunes, of their subjects ; 
 the weight of their suff^rage sometimes inclined the 
 ecclesiastical balance : and the prerogatives of the 
 King of heaven were settled, or changed, or modified, 
 in the cabinet of an earthly monarch. 
 
 The unhappy spirit of discord which , 
 pervaded the provinces of the east, in- PontLmrnrA ^^L 
 terrupted the triumph of Constantine; ^^4 '"'* ^^ '^• 
 but the,emperor continued for some time to view, with 
 cool and careless indiff-erence, the object of the dis- 
 pute. As he was yet ignorant of the difficulty of ap- 
 peasing the quarrels of theologians, he addressed to 
 the contending parties, to Alexander and to Arius, a 
 moderating epistle ;»' which may be ascribed, with far 
 greater reason, to the untutored sense of a soldier and 
 statesman, than to the dictates of any of his episcopal 
 counsellors. He attributes the origin of the whole 
 controversy to a trifling and subtle question, concern- 
 ing an incomprehensible point of the law, which was 
 foolishly asked by the bishop, and imprudently re- 
 solved by the presbyter. He laments that the chris- 
 tian people, who had the same God, the same reli- 
 gion, and the same worship, should be divided by 
 such inconsiderable distinctions ; and he seriously re- 
 commends to the clergy of Alexandria the example of 
 the Crreek philosophers ; who could maintain their ar- 
 guments without losing their temper, and assert their 
 freedom without violating their friendship. The in- 
 ditterence and contempt of the sovereign would have 
 been, perhaps, the most eff^ectual method of silencing 
 the dispute, if the popular current had been less rapid 
 and impetuous, and if Constantine himself, in the 
 midst of faction and fanaticism, could have preserved 
 the calm possession of his own mind. But his eccle- 
 siastical ministers soon contrived to seduce the impar- 
 tiality of the magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the 
 proselyte. He was provoked by the 
 insults which had been offered to his "•«^«'»'-A.D.325 
 statues ; he was alarmed by the real, as well as the 
 imaginary, magnitude of the spreading mischief; and 
 he extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from 
 the nioment that he assembled three hundred bishops 
 withm the walls of the same palace. The presence 
 of the monarch swelled the importance of the debate; 
 his attention multiplied the arguments; and he ex- 
 posed his person with a patient intrepidity, which an- 
 imated the valour of the combatants. Notwithstand- 
 ing the applause which has been bestowed on the elo- 
 quence and sagacity of Constantine,' a Roman general, 
 whose religion might be still a subject of doubt, and 
 whose mmd had not been enlightened either by study 
 
 f Ingemuit totus orbis.et Arianum se esse iniratusest. Hieronym 
 adv. Lucifer, tom. i. p. 145. 
 
 « The story of the council of Rimini is very ele?antly told by 
 Su Ipicius Severus, (Hist. Sacra, I. ii. p. 419-430. edit. Lupd. Bat. 
 J04/.) and by Jerom, in his dialogue against the Luciterians. Tlie 
 design of the latter is to apologize for the conduct of the Latin bish- 
 ops, who were deceived, and who repented. 
 
 h Eu.sebius, in Vit. Constant. 1. ii. c. 64—72. The principles of 
 loleratioii and religious indifference, contained in this epistle, have 
 given great offence to Baronius, Tiilemont, &c. who suppose that the 
 emperor had some evil counsellor, either Satan or Eusebius, at his 
 elbow. See Jortin's Remarks, tom. ii, p. 183. 
 
 i Eusebius in Vit. Constanlin. 1. iii. e. 13. 
 
274 
 
 THE DECLLVE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 or by inspiration, was indifferently qualified to dis- 
 cuss, in the Greek language, a metaphysical question, 
 or an article of faith. But the credit of his favourite 
 ^sius, who appears to have presided in the council of 
 Nice, might dispose the emperor in favour of the or- 
 thodox party ; and a well-timed insinuation, that the 
 same Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now j)rotected the 
 heretic, had lately assisted the tyrant,'^ might exaspe- 
 rate him against their adversaries. The Nicene creed 
 was ratified by Constantinc ; and his firm declaration, 
 that those who resisted the divine judgment of the 
 synod, must prepare themselves for an immediate ex- 
 ile, annihilated the murmurs of a feeble opposition ; 
 which, from seventeen, was almost instantly reduced 
 to two, protestant bishops. Eusebius of CaRsarea 
 yielded a reluctant and ambiguous consent to the Ho- 
 moousion ;' and the wavering conduct of the Nicome- 
 dian Eusebius served only to delay, about three 
 He persecutes the months, his disgrace and exile.™ The 
 Arians. impious Arius was banished into one 
 of the remote provinces of Illyricum ; his person and 
 disciples were branded, by law, with the odious name 
 of Porphyrians ; his writings were condemned to the 
 flames, and a capital punishment was denounced 
 against those in whose possession they should be 
 found. The emperor had now imbibed the spirit of 
 controversy, and the angry sarcastic style of his edicts 
 was designed to inspire his subjects with the hatred 
 which he had conceived against the enemies of Christ." 
 , .. ., But, as if the conduct of the cmporor 
 
 and the ortho- ,,, -iii • -xir 
 
 dox party, had been guided by passion instead ot 
 A. D. 328—337. principle, three years from the council of 
 Nice were scarcely elapsed, before he discovered some 
 symptoms of mercy, and even of indulgence, towards 
 the proscribed sect, which was secretly protected by 
 his favourite sister. The exiles were recalled ; and 
 Eusebius, who gradually resumed his influence over 
 the mind of Constautine, was restored to the episcopal 
 throne, from wiiich he had been ignominiously de- 
 graded. Arius himself was treated by the whole court 
 with the respect which would have been due to an in- 
 nocent and oppressed man. His faith was approved 
 by the synod of Jerusalem ; and the emperor seemed 
 impatient to repair his injustice, by issuing an abso- 
 lute command, that he should be solemnly admitted 
 to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople. 
 On the same day, which had been fixed for the triumph 
 of Arius, he expired ; — and the strange and horrid cir- 
 cumstances of his death might excite a suspicion, 
 that the orthodox saints had contributed, more effica- 
 ciously than by their prayers, to deliver the church 
 from the most formidable of her enemies." The three 
 principal leaders of the catholics, Athanasius of Alex- 
 andria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Paul of Constanti- 
 nople, were deposed on various accusations, by the 
 sentence of numerous councils ; and were afterwards 
 banished into distant provinces by the first of the chris- 
 tian emperors, who, in the last moments of his life, 
 received the rites of baptism from the Arian bishop 
 of Nicomedia. The ecclesiastical government of Con- 
 
 k Theodoret has preserved (I. i.e. 20.) an epistle from Constautine 
 to the peopje of Nicomedia, in which the monarch declares himself 
 the puhlic accuser of one of his subjects; he styles Etisehius, o rn 
 Tu$*vv»x)(5 wfjLOTtiTii Tvfx/xv<rTy,i ; and he complains of his hostile he- 
 haviour during the civil war. 
 
 1 See in Socrates, (I. i. c. 8.) or rather in Theodoret, (I. i. r. 12.) an 
 original letter of Eusebius of Cajsarea. in which he attempts to jus- 
 tify his subscribing the Ilomoousion. Tlic character of Eusebius 
 has always been a problem ; but those who liave read the second 
 rritical epistle of Le Clerc, (Ars Critica, torn. iii. p. :U) — ttf).) must 
 entertain a very unfavourable opinion of the orthodoxy and sinceri- 
 ty of the bishop of Cwsarna. 
 
 » Athanasius, torn. i. 727. Philostorgius, 1. i. c. 10. and Godefroy's 
 Ct)n»mcntary, p. 41. 
 
 n Socratea. 1. i. c. 9. In his circular letters, whicli were addressed 
 to tlie several cities, Constautine employed agaiust tlic heretics the 
 arms of ridicule and comic raillery. 
 
 o We derive the original story from Athanasius, (torn. i. p. 670.) 
 who expresses some reluc.t;ince to stigmatize the memory of the dead. 
 He might cxaggeraip ; but the perpetual commerce of Alexandria and 
 Constantinople would have rendered it dangerous to invrnt. Those 
 who press the literal narrative of the death of Arius, (his bowels sud- 
 denly burst out in a privy,) must make their option between poison 
 and miracle. 
 
 stantine cannot be justified from the reproach of levity 
 and weakness. But the credulous monarch, unskilled 
 in the stratagems of theological warfare, might be de- 
 ceived by the modest and specious professions of the 
 heretics, whose sentiments he never perfectly under- 
 stood ; and while he protected Arius, and persecuted 
 Athanasius, he still considered the council of Nice as 
 the bulwark of the christian faith, and the peculiar 
 glory of his own reign, p 
 
 The sons of Constantine must have Constantius 
 been admitted from their childhood into favours the 
 the rank of catechumens, but they imitat- a^d! 337— 361. 
 ed, in the delay of their baptism, the ex- 
 ample of their father. Like him, they presumed to 
 pronounce their judgment on mysteries into which 
 they had never been regularly initiated ; '^ and the fate 
 of the Trinitarian controversy depended, in a great 
 measure, on the sentiments of Constantius; who in- 
 herited the provinces of the east, and acquired the 
 possession of the whole empire. The Arian presby- 
 ter or bishop, who had secreted for his use the testa- 
 ment of the deceased emperor, improved the fortunate 
 occasion which had introduced him to the familiarity of 
 a prince, whose public counsels were always swayed 
 by his domestic favourites. The eunuchs and slaves 
 diffused the spiritual poison through the palace, and 
 the dangerous infection was communicated by the fe- 
 male attendants to the guards, and by the empress to 
 her unsuspicious husband.' The partiality which Con- 
 stantius always expressed towards the Eusebian fac- 
 tion, was insensibly fortified by the dexterous manage- 
 ment of their leaders ; and his victory over the tyrant 
 ^Nlagnentius increased his inclination, as well as abili- 
 t}--, to employ the arms of power in the cause of 
 Arianism. While the two armies were engaged in 
 the plains of Mursa, and the fate of the two rivals de- 
 pended on the chance of war, the son of Constantine 
 passed the anxious moments in a church of the mar- 
 tyrs, under the walls of the city. His sj)iritual com- 
 forter, Valens, the Arian bishop of the diocese, em- 
 ployed the most artful precautions to obtain such early 
 intelliofence as mi<jht secure either his favour or his 
 escape. A secret chain of swift and trusty messen- 
 gers informed him of the vicissitudes of the battle; and 
 while the courtiers stood trembling round their affright- 
 ed master, Valens assured him that the Gallic Iciiions 
 gave way ; and insinuated, with some presence of 
 mind, that the glorious event had been revealed to him 
 by an angel. The grateful emperor ascribed his suc- 
 cess to the merits and intercession of the bishop of 
 Mursa, whose faith had deserved the public and mira- 
 culous approbation of heaven." The Arians, who con- 
 sidered as their own the victory of Constantius, pre- 
 ferred his glory to that of his father.* Cyril, bishop 
 of Jerusalem, immediately composed the description 
 of a celestial cross, encircled with a splendid rainbow, 
 which, during the festival of Pentecost, about the third 
 hour of the day, had appeared over the mount of 
 Olives, to the edification of the devout pilgrims, and 
 
 p The change in the sentiments, or at least in the conduct, of Con- 
 stantine, may he traced in Kiisebiiis, (in Vit. Constant. I. iii. c. SH. I. 
 iv. c. 41.) Socrates, (I. i. c. 2:<— :!•.).) .^ozomen, (I. ii. c. 16— 3 J.) Theo- 
 doret, (l.i. r. 14—34.) and Piiilostorgius, (I. ii.c. 1 — 17.) But the first 
 of these writers was too near the scene of action, and the others 
 were too remote from it. It is singular ent)Ugh, that the important 
 task of continuing the history of tie church, should have leca left 
 tor two laymen and a licretic. 
 
 q Ciuia etium turn catechumcnus sncramentum fidci merito vide- 
 rctur potujsse nescirc. Sulp. Pevor. Hist. Sacra, l.ii. p. 410. 
 
 r Socrates, I. il. c. 2. Sozomen, I. iii. c. 18. Ailianas. torn. i. p. 
 813 — 834. lie observes that the eunuchs arc the natural enemies of 
 the Son. Compare I)r. Jortin's Rj-marks on Ecclesiastical History, 
 vol. IV. p.?. with a certain aenealoiy in Condiile, (ch.iv.) which ends 
 with one of the first com|ianions otChristoplier Columbus. 
 
 • Sulpicius Severns, in Hist. Sa'^ra, I. ii. p. 40.1. 406. 
 
 t Cyril (afnul Raron. A. D. 353. No. 26.) expressly observes, that in 
 the reign of Constantine tlie cross had been found in the bowels of 
 t'le earth ; hut that it had appeared, in the reign of Constantius, in 
 the midst of the heavens. This opposition evidently proves, that 
 Cyril was ignorant of the stupendous miracle to wliirh the conver- 
 sion of Constantine is attributed ; and this ignorance is the more sur- 
 prising, since it was no more ih.in twelve years aOer his deatli. that 
 Cyril was consecrated bishop of Jerusalem, t>y the immediate sue 
 cessor of Eusebius of Ciesarea. See Tillemont, Mem. Ecclcs torn, 
 viii.p. 715. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 the people of the holy city." The size of the meteor ' 
 was gradually magnified; and the Arian historian has 
 ventured to affirm, that it was conspicuous to the two 
 armies in the plains of Fannonia ; and that the tyrant, 
 who IS purposely represented as an idolater, fled be- 
 fore the auspicious sign of orthodox Christianity.' 
 Arian councils. '^^^^. Sentiments of a judicious stran- 
 ger, who has impartially considered the 
 ?3pft ""'^'^ ^' ecclesiastical discord, are always 
 
 nns wh /"' T^'^'V "''^ ^ ^^'""'^ P^««^^^ of Ammia- 
 nus who served in the armies, and studied the charac 
 ter, of Constantius, is perhaps of more value than 
 many pages of theological invectives. " The christ an 
 
 IS plain and simple, he confounded by the dotao-c of 
 superstition Instead of reconciling the>arties b| the 
 weight of his authority, he cherislfed and propao^ted! 
 by verbal disputes, the differences which his vaf^cu 
 
 IZTs of bi?h"''^- iT'^- '^^j^^^y^ ^'^^ coveredvWUi 
 troops of bishops galloping from every side to the as- 
 
 laToure'd't:'^'.' ''T calf synods ; Jnd while hey^ 
 aboured to reduce the whole sect to their own par- 
 ticular opinions, the public establishment of the posts 
 n^vs ^'.T'^jr'"^ ^y their hasty and repeated ^our! 
 neys. y Our more intimate knowledge of the ec- 
 desiastical transactions of the reign of Constantius 
 would furnish an ample commenta?y on this remark ' 
 able passage; which justifies the rational apprehen- 
 sions of Athanasius, that the restless activUy^of the 
 clergy, who wandered round the empire in search of 
 the true faith, would excite the contempt and lau.hte 
 of the unbelieving world.^ As soon as the emperor 
 was relieved from the terrors of the civil war!Tie de- 
 voted the leisure of his winter quarters at Aries Milan, 
 tXTr T^ ^^"«t^f "ople, to the amusements o 
 Pvin f.^,'^"^,^^^«^«y •• the sword of the magistrate, and 
 sons of ft r" ' ^'' ""^h^-thed, to enforce the rea- 
 Tx faith of T^rT'"' "1^ "' ^' ^PP°««^ the ortho- 
 moitv .!nH I ' '' '" '^^^^'^ confessed that his inca- 
 
 K P.fr,^?!.^"^.'^"''^'''''^ equal to his presumption.^ 
 The eunuchs, the women, and the bishops, whi gov- 
 erned the vam and feeble mind of the en peror,Tad 
 mspired him with an insuperable dislike to the Homo- 
 
 r^n?? ' ^"L ^^ *'"'J^. conscience was alarmed by the 
 impiety of ^tius. The guilt of that atheist was ao-- 
 gravated by the suspicious favour of the unfortunate 
 
 whn V^ '/I ®''''" ^^^ ^^^^^'^ o^ the imperial ministers, 
 who had been massacred at Antioch, were imputed 
 
 mindofP^^'f'?' "^^'^f dangerous sophist. The 
 mind of Constantius, which could neither be moderated 
 
 either side of the dark and empty abyss, by his horror 
 
 cLdp„.?i!?T ^""''^^^ '' ^'^ alternately embraced and 
 condemned the sentiments, he successively banished 
 
 fest v^tv h. '",^ '\^ 'r?''" ^^ P"bli« business or 
 selS tv. ^^^Pi^y^d 7^0^ days, and even nights, in 
 comnn.5^ h 'T^f' ^"^ Weighing the syllables: wliich 
 composed his fluctuating creeds. The subject of his 
 meditations still pursued and occupied his slumbers ; 
 
 u It is not easy to determine how far the in<renuitv of Cvril miahi 
 be assis ed by some natural appearances of a sohnr fak) ^ " 
 
 Arexandrr;&nici;'r'-r^''r '' '°"°^^'*^^ b; the author of the 
 
 GoSred Diicrt n i'««l'^n^H''^'"""^\"^ by Nicephorus. (See 
 
 from tllel^anfof a,*; en^i!y.^ ''^ ''"""^ "°^ ''^^'' ^ "'*^«'^'«' «^^" 
 
 y So curious a passage well deserves to he transcribed Chri^tii- 
 
 ToZ-"^ZTcrlZT"' f ^""P'"^*^'"' anili sup'er'tUione'con^n. 
 
 t^rntHic.?^ , • *^^ Perplexius.quam componenda gravius exci- 
 
 aret discidia pliirima; qu.r progressa fusius a uit concertatlone ver 
 
 « Athanas. torn. i. p, 870. 
 
 I i*i r'';S''*?Q' MhM- ^.^"'^V • Sozomen, 1. iv. c. 12-no. Theodoret, 
 ''•^- l«-32. I'hilostorg. ]. iv. c. 4-12. J. 5. c. 1-4. I. iv. e. 1-5 
 
 Eccl!s lorn' "; i- ZL'l^ ^''^l^^'\^^- '• P- 831. Tillemont (Mem. 
 fv fnn^ri^' ;A- ^■''•^ ''"^ <-ollfcted several instances of the haugh- 
 S?"Ha7r'Tf.?°"''"."?' ^;r ^''^ ^^^^^"^'J treatises of L^ciftr 
 
 .iniSu"s.^I''° "" ""'^^'*^°-" ''I^enrpL^SrSeum J'e' 
 
 275 
 
 the incoherent dreams of the emperor were received as 
 
 tTlToff rtr"fV^"u^ he accepted with complacency 
 the ofty title of bishop of bishops, from those eccle- 
 siastics who forgot the interest of their order for the 
 gratification of their passions. The design of estab- 
 hshing an uniformity of doctrine, which had enaaffed 
 him to convene so many synods in Gaul, Italy, fllvri- 
 cum, and Asia, was repeatedly baffled by his own 
 levity, by the divisions of the Arians, and by theTe" 
 sistance of the catholics ; and he resolved, as the last 
 and decisive effort, imperiously to dictate the decrees 
 of a general council. The destructive earthquake of 
 ^lcomedla, the difficulty of finding a convenient place 
 and perhaps some secret motives of policy, produced 
 an alteration in the summons. The bishops of the east 
 were directed to meet at Seleucia, in Isauria ; while 
 those of the west held their deliberations at Rimini, on 
 the coast of the Hadriatic ; and instead of two or three 
 deputies from each province, the whole episcopal body 
 was ordered to march. The eastern council, after con- 
 suming four days in fierce and unavailing debate, sepa- 
 rated without any definite conclusion. The council of- 
 the west was protracted till the seventh niontli. Tau 
 rus, the pr^torian pra?fect, was instructed not to dis- 
 miss the prelates till they should all be united in the 
 same opinion; and his efforts were supported by a 
 power of baiiishing fifteen of the most refractory, and 
 a promise of the consulship if he achieved so difficult 
 an adventure. His prayers and threats, 
 the authority of the sovereicrn, the so- ^.D. 3C0. 
 phistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress of cold 
 and liunger, and the tedious melancholy of a hopele-^ 
 exile, at length extorted the reluctant consent of the 
 bishops of Rimini. The deputies of the east and oi 
 the west attended the emperor in the palace of Con 
 stantinople and he enjoyed the satisfaction of imposinfr 
 on the world a profession of faith which established 
 the /^/irnm, ^v^thout expressing the comubsfanfia/Hy. 
 of the Son of God.«= But the triumph of Arianism had 
 been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clerffv, 
 whom it was impossible either to intimidate or to cor^ 
 rupt; and the reign of Constantius was disgraced by 
 the unjust and ineffectual persecution of the oreat 
 Athanasius. '^ 
 
 We have seldom an opportunity of ^, 
 observing either in active or specula- Sl^.rrof AtSj- 
 tive lite, what effect may be produced, "«'''"«• 
 or what obstacles may bo surmounted, by the force of 
 a single mind, M'hen it is inflexibly applied to the pur- 
 suit of a single object. The immortal name of Atha- 
 nasius « \yill never be separated from the catholic doc- 
 trine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated 
 every moment and every faculty of his beinfr. Edu- 
 cated in the family of Alexander, he had vio-orously 
 opposed the early progress of the Arian heresy; he 
 exercised the important functions of secretary under 
 the aged prelate; and the fathers of the Nicene coun- 
 cil beheld, with surprise and respect, the risino- vir- 
 tues of the young deacon. In a time of public dang-er, 
 the dull claims of age and of rank are sometimes su- 
 perseded ; and within five months after his return from 
 IN ice, the deacon Athanasius was seated on the archi- 
 episcopal throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent 
 station above forty-six years, and his 
 long administration was spent in a per- ^' ^ 306— .•?-.?. 
 petual combat against the powers of Arianism. Five 
 times was Athanasius expelled from his throne ; twenty 
 years he passed as an exile or a fugitive; and almost 
 
 c Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra. I. ii. p. 418-4:0. The Greek historians 
 were very iirnorant of tlie all:<irs of the west 
 
 u.iX'l'^r''Vf^^'r\ \''^^ firesory N:,zianzen composed a panegyric 
 instead of a life^of Athanasms. but we should enjoy and improve the 
 advantage of drawing our most authentic materials from the rich 
 luiid ot Ins own epistles and apolotrics. (toni. i. p. 670— 9JI.) I shall 
 not imitate the e.xample of Soc.aics. (I. ii. c. 1.) who published the 
 nrsi edition of his history without giving himself the trouble to con- 
 .sult the writings of Athanasiu.s. Vet even Socrates, the more curi- ' 
 ous Sozomen, and the learned Theodoret, connect the life of Atha 
 nasins with the scries of ecclesiastical history. The diligence of 
 Tillemont, (ton., viii.) and of the Benedictine editors, has collected 
 every fact, and examined every difticully. 
 
276 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 every province of the Roman empire was successively 
 witness to his merit, and his sufferings in the cause 
 of the Homoousion, which he considered as the sole 
 pleasure and business, as the duty, and as the glory, 
 of his life. Amidst the storms of persecution, the 
 archbishop of Alexandria was patient of labour, jealous 
 of fame, careless of safety ; and although his mind 
 was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism, Athana- 
 sius displayed a superiority of character and abilities, 
 which would have qualified him, far better than the 
 degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government of 
 a great monarchy. His learning was much less pro- 
 found and extensive than that of Eusebius of Caesarea, 
 and his rudo eloquence could not be compared with 
 the polished oratory of Gregory or Basil ; but when- 
 ever the primate of Egypt was called upon to justify 
 his sentiments, or his conduct, his unpremeditated 
 style, either of speaking or writing, was clear, forci- 
 ble, and persuasive. He has always been revered in 
 the orthodox school, as one of the most accurate mas- 
 ters of the christian theology ; and he was supposed to 
 possess two profane sciences, less adapted to the epis- 
 copal character, the knowledge of jurisprudence,* and 
 that of divination.' Some fortunate conjectures of fu- 
 ture events, which impartial rcasoners might ascribe 
 to the experience and judgment of Athanasius, were 
 attributed by his friends to heavenly inspiration, and 
 imputed by his enemies to infernal magic. 
 
 But as Athanasius was continually engaged with 
 the prejudices and passions of every order of men, 
 from the monk to the emperor, the knowledge of hu- 
 man nature was his first and most important science. 
 He preserved a distinct and unbroken view of a scene 
 which was incessantly shifting ; and never failed to 
 improve those decisive moments which are irrecovera- 
 bly past before they are perceived by a common eye. 
 The archbishop of Alexandria was capable of distin- 
 guishing how far he might boldly command, and 
 where he must dexterously insinuate; how long he 
 might contend with power, and when he must with- 
 draw from persecution; and while he directed the 
 thunders of the church against heresy and rebellion, 
 he could assume, in the bosom of his own party, the 
 flexible and indulgent temper of a prudent leader. 
 The election of Athanasius has not escaped the re- 
 proach of irregularity and precipitatiron ;« but the pro- 
 priety of his behaviour conciliated the affections both 
 of the clergy and of the people. The Alexandrians 
 were impatient to rise in arms for the defence of an 
 eloquent and liberal pastor. In his distress he always 
 derived support, or at least consolation, from the faith- 
 ful attachment of his parochial clergy ; and the hun- 
 dred bishops of Egypt adhered, with unshaken zeal, 
 to the cause of Athanasius. In the modest equipage, 
 which pride and policy would affect, he frequently 
 performed the episcopal visitation of his provinces, 
 from the mouth of the Nile to the confines of J:'lthio- 
 pia ; familiarly conversing with the meanest of the 
 populace, and humbly saluting the saints and hermits 
 of the desert.^ Nor was it only in ecclesiastical as- 
 semblies, among men whose education and manners 
 were similar to his own, that Athanasius displayed 
 the ascendancy of his genius. He appeared with 
 easy and respectful firmness in the courts of princes ; 
 
 e Sulpicius Severus (Hist. Sacra, I. ii. p. 396.) calls him a lawyer, a 
 jurisconsult. This character cannot now be discovered either in tiie 
 life or writings of Athanasiu?. 
 
 f Dicebatur enini fntidirarum sortium fidein, quaeve augurales por- 
 tenderent ulites scientissime callens aliquoties prit'dixisse futura. 
 Ainmianus, xv. 7. A prophecy, or rather a joke, is related by Sozo- 
 men, (1. iv. c. 10.) wliich evidently proves (if the crows speak Latin) 
 that Athanasius understood the language of the crows. 
 
 g The irrecular ordination of Atlianasius was slightly mentioned 
 in the council.^ which were held against him. See Piiilostorg. 1. ii. 
 c. 11. and Godefroy, p. 71.: hut it can scarcely he supposed that the 
 assembly of lh« bishops of Egypt would solemnly attest a public 
 falsehood. Athanas. torn. i. p. 726. 
 
 h See the History of the fathers of the Desert, published by Ros- 
 weide; and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. vii. in the lives of An- 
 thony, Pachomius, &.c. Athanasius himself, who did not disdain to 
 compose the life of his friend Anthony, has carefully observed how 
 often the holy monk deplored and prophesied the mischiefs of the 
 ^rian heresy. Athanas. torn. ii. p. 492—498, &c. 
 
 and in the various turns of his prosperous and adverse 
 fortune, he never lost the confidence of his friends, or 
 the esteem of his enemies. 
 
 In his youth, the primate of Egypt persecution 
 resisted the great Constantine, who against Athana- 
 had repeatedly signified his will, that «'"«. ^- ^'^^ 
 Arius should be restored to the catholic communion.' 
 The emperor respected, and might forgive, this inflex- 
 ible resolution ; and the faction who considered Atha- 
 nasius as their most formidable enemy, were constrain- 
 ed to dissemble their hatred, and silently to prepare 
 an indirect and distant assault. They scattered ru- 
 mours and suspicions, represented the archbishop as a 
 proud and oppressive tyrant, and boldly accused him 
 of violating the treaty which had been ratified in the 
 Nicene council, with the schismatic followers of Me- 
 letius.^ Athanasius had openly disapproved that ig- 
 nominious peace, and the emperor was disposed to be- 
 lieve that he had abused his ecclesiastical and civil 
 power, to persecute those odious sectaries ; that he 
 had sacrilegiously broken a chalice in one of their 
 churches of^Mareotis ; that he had whipped or impris- 
 oned six of their bishops ; and that Arsenius, a seventh 
 bishop of the same party, had been murdered, or at 
 least mutilated, by the cruel hand of the primate.^ 
 These charges, which afiected his honour and his life, 
 were referred by Constantine to his brother Dalmatius 
 the censor, who resided at Antioch ; the synods of 
 Caesarea and Tyre were successively convened ; and 
 the bishops of the east were instructed to judge the 
 cause of Athanasius, before they proceeded to conse- 
 crate the new church of the resurrection at Jerusalem. 
 The primate might be conscious of his innocence ; but 
 he was sensible that the same implacable spirit which 
 had dictated the accusation, would direct the proceed- 
 ing, and pronounce the sentence. He prudently de- 
 clined the tribunal of his enemies, despised the sum- 
 mons of the synod of Csesarea; and, after a long and 
 artful delay, submitted to tlie peremptory commands 
 of the emperor, who threatened to punish his criminal 
 disobedience if he refused to appear in the council of 
 Tyre.*" Before Athanasius, at the head ^ d. 335. 
 of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed from 
 Alexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the 
 Meletians ; and Arsenius himself, his imaginary vic- 
 tim, and his secret friend, was privately concealed in 
 his train. The synod of Tyre was conducted by Eu- 
 sebius of Csesarea, with more passion, and with less 
 art, than his learning and experience might proniise ; 
 his numerous faction repeated the names of homicide 
 and tyrant ; and their clamours were encouraged by 
 the seeming patience of Athanasius; who expected 
 the decisive moment to produce Arsenius alive and un- 
 hurt in the midst of the assembly. The nature of the 
 other charges did not admit of such clear and satisfac- 
 tory replies ; yet the archbishop was able to prove, 
 that, in the village, where he was accused of breaking 
 a consecrated chalice, neither church nor altar nor 
 chalice could really exist. The Arians, who had se- 
 cretly determined the guilt and condemnation of their 
 enemy, attempted, however, to disguise their injustice 
 by the imitation of judicial forms ; the synod appointed 
 
 i At first Constantine threatened in speaking, but requested in 
 writing, >ca« »>?»?<».,- jujw tfTuKti, yfx(fu>v Si r^t'-. His letters grad- 
 ually assumed a menurinp tone; but while lie required that the en- 
 trance of the church should be open to all, he avoided the odious 
 name of Arius. Athanasius, like a skilful politician, has accurately 
 marked these distinctions, (tom. i. p. 788.) which allowed him some 
 scope for excuse and dolay. 
 
 k The Meletians in Egypt, like the Donatists in Africa, were pro- 
 duced by an episcopal quarrel which arose from the persecution. I 
 have not leisure to pursue the ol>scure controversy, which teems to 
 have been misrepresented by the partiality of .\thanasius, and the 
 ignorance of Epiphanius. See Mosheim's General History of the 
 Cijurch, vol. i. p. 201. 
 
 1 The treatment of the six bishops is specified by Sozomen, (I. ii. c. 
 115.) but Athanasius himself, so copious on the subject of Arseniua 
 and the chalice, leaves this grave accusation without a reply. 
 
 m Athanas. tom. i. p. 788. Socrates. 1. i. c. 28. Sozomen, I. ii. c. 
 
 an episcopal commission of six delegates to collect 
 evidence on the spot ; and this measure, which was 
 vigorously opposed by the Egyptian bishops, opened 
 new scenes of violence and perjury." After the return 
 of the deputies from Alexandria, the majority of the 
 council pronounced the final sentence of degradation 
 and exile against the primate of Egypt. The decree, 
 expressed in the fiercest language of malice and re- 
 venge, was communicated to the emperor and the cath- 
 olic church ; and the bishops immediately resumed a 
 mild and devout aspect, such as became their holy 
 pilgrimage to the sepulchre of Christ." 
 " A^'n^^i?"^' "^"^ ^^® injustice of these ecclesias- 
 A u. 3.^6. tical judges had not been countenanced 
 by the submission, or even by the presence, of Atha- 
 nasius. He resolved to make a bold and dangerous 
 experiment, whether the throne was inaccessible to 
 the voice of truth ; and before the final sentence could 
 be pronounced at Tyre, the intrepid primate threw 
 himsell into a bark which was ready to hoist sail for 
 the imperial city. The request of a formal audience 
 might have been opposed or eluded ; but Athanasius 
 concealed his arrival, watched the moment of Con- 
 stantine s return from an adjacent villa, and boldly en- 
 countered his angry sovereign as he passed on horse- 
 back through the principal street of Constantinople. 
 fc>o strange an apparition excited his surprise and in- 
 dignation ; and the guards were ordered to remove the 
 importunate suitor ; but his resentment was subdued 
 by involuntary respect; and the haughty spirit of the 
 emperor was awed by the courage and eloquence of a 
 bishop, who implored his justice and awakened his 
 conscience.P Constantine listened to the complaints 
 of Athanasius with impartial and even gracious atten- 
 tion ; the members of the synod of Tyre were summon- 
 ed to justify their proceedings; and the arts of the Eu- 
 sebian faction would have been confounded, if they 
 had not aggravated the guilt of the primate, by the 
 dexterous supposition of an unpardonable offence; a 
 criminal design to intercept and detain the corn-fleet 
 ot Alexandria, which supplied the subsistence of the 
 new capital.i The emperor was satisfied that the 
 peace of Egypt would be secured by the absence of a 
 popular leader ; but he refused to fill the vacancy of 
 the archiepiscopal throne ; and the sentence which, 
 alter long hesitation, he pronounced, was that of a 
 jealous ostracism, rather than of an ignominious exile, 
 m the remote province of Gaul, but in the hospitable 
 court of Ireves, Athanasius passed about twenty-eio-ht 
 months. The death of the emperor changed the face 
 ot public aff-airs ; and, amidst the general indulgence 
 and restoration, of a young reign, the primate was re- 
 A. 1)^338. stored to his country by an honourable 
 edict of the younger Constantine, who expressed a 
 deep sense of the innocence and merit of his venerable 
 guest.' 
 
 His ^scgnd exile, The death of that prince exposed 
 Athanasius to a second persecution; 
 and the feeble Constantius, the sovereign of the east, 
 soon became the secret accomplice of the Eusebians. 
 Ninety bishops of that sect or faction assembled at 
 
 277 
 
 Antioch, under the specious pretence of dedicating the 
 cathedral. They composed an ambiguous creed, 
 which is faintly tinged with the colours of semi-arian- 
 ism, and twenty-five canons, which still reo-ulate the 
 discipline of the orthodox Greeks.' It was" decided 
 with some appearance of equity, that a bishop de- 
 prived by a synod, should not resume his episcopal 
 functions, till he had been absolved by the jtido-ment 
 of an equal synod; the law was immediately applied 
 to the case of Athanasius ; the council of Antioch pro- 
 nounced, or rather confirmed, his degradation; a 
 stranger, named Gregory, was seated on his throne : 
 and Philagrius,* the praefect of Egypt, was instructed 
 to support the new primate with the civil and military 
 powers of the province. Oppressed by the conspiracy 
 ot the Asiatic prelates, Athanasius withdrew from 
 Alexandria, and passed three" years as an exile and a 
 suppliant on the holy threshold of the Vatican.^ By 
 the assiduous study of the Latin language, he soon 
 qualified himself to negociate with the western clergy : 
 his decent flattery swayed and directed the haughty 
 Julius : the Roman pontiff" was persuaded to consider . 
 his appeal as the peculiar interest of the apostolic see; 
 and his innocence was unanimously declared in a 
 council of fifty bishops of Italy. At the end of three 
 years, the primate was summoned to the court of Mi- 
 lan by the emperor Constans, who, in the indulgence 
 of unlawful pleasures, still professed a lively regard 
 for the orthodox faith. The cause of truth and justice 
 was promoted by the influence of gold,?^and the minis- 
 ters of Constans advised their sovereign to require the 
 convocation of an ecclesiastical assembly, which mi<rht 
 act as the representatives of the catholic churSh. 
 iNmety-four bishops of the west, and 
 seventy-six bishops of the east, en- A. D. 346. 
 countered each other at Sardica, on the verae of the 
 two empires, but in the dominions of the prStector of 
 Athanasius. Their debates soon degenerated into hos- 
 tile altercations; the Asiatics, apprehensive for their 
 personal safety, retired to Philippopolis in Thrace- 
 and the rival synods reciprocally hurled their spiritual 
 thunders against their enemies, whom they piously 
 condemned as the enemies of the true God. Their 
 decrees were published and ratified in their respective 
 provinces : and Athanasius, who in the west was re- 
 vered as a saint, was exposed as a criminal to the ab- 
 horrence of the east.- The council of Sardica reveals 
 the first symptoms of discord and schism between the 
 Greek and Latin churches, which were separated by 
 the accidental difference of faith, and the permanent 
 distinction of language. 
 
 0-. 
 
 ..,. The emperor, in his Epistle of Convocation, (Euseb. in Vit. Con- 
 stant. I. iv. c. 42.) seems to prejudgesomememhersof the clergy, and 
 it was more than probable that the synod would apply these re. 
 preaches to Athanasius. 
 
 -fio ^ni? Parl»r"l?*"' ^^^ second Apoiosy of Athanasius (tom. i. p. 
 .b.}-808.) and his Epistles to the Monks, (p. »08— 866.) They are 
 justified by original and authentic documents; but they would 
 J'lspire more confidence if he appeared less innocent, and his enemies 
 less .it>sura. 
 
 o Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. I. iv. c. 41—47. 
 
 P Athanas. tom. i. p. 804. In a church dedicated to St. Athana- 
 s^us this situation would afford a better subject for a picture, than 
 most of the storie.^ of miracles and martyrdoms. 
 
 n V^l«*"^^: ^^'"- '• ^:/^^- Eunapius has related (in Vit. Sophist. 
 5 ,-.' **V^ "• Co'nmelln.) a strange example of the cruelly and ere- 
 ouiity of Constantine on a similar occasion. The eloquent Sopater 
 a ^yrlaR philo.«opiier, enjoyed his friendship, and provoked the re- 
 f-entmeiit of Ablavius, his praetorian prefect. The corn -fleet was 
 •letained for want of a south-wind ; the people of Constantinople 
 were discontented ; and Sopater was l)eheaded, on a charge that he 
 ha,i bound the winds by the power of magic. Suidas adds, that Con- 
 stantine wished to prove, by this execution, that he had absolutely 
 renounced the superstition of the Gentiles. 
 
 r In his return he saw Constantius twice, at Vimlniacum, and at 
 »-a?sarea in Cappadocia. (Athanas. tom. i. p. 676.) Tillemont sup- 
 poses that Constantine introduced him to the meeting of the three 
 •^oyal brothers ia Tannonla. (Memoires Eccles. tom. viii. p. 69.) 
 
 8 See Beveridge, Pandect, tom. i. p. 429—452. and tom ii Annntn 
 tion. p 182. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vf. p. SlSs"" St Flli 
 lary of Poitiers has mentioned this synod of Aniioch with too much 
 favour and respect. He reckons ninety seven bishops. 
 
 t Phis magKstrate, so odious to Athanasius. is praised by Greeorv 
 Nazianzen, tom. i. Orat, xxi. p. 390, 391. ^ Gregory 
 
 r ., ^.S«pe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem. 
 
 1- or the credit of human nature, I am always pleased to discover 
 
 rams Td .Monsters.'" ""'' '"'" '"'°'" ^"^^ "«^ represented as ty' 
 u The chronolo^ncal difficulties whir h perplex the residence of 
 Athanasius at Rome are strenuously agitated by Valesius,(Ohservat. 
 ad Calcem, tom. ii. Hist. Eccles. 1. i. c. 1-5.) and Tillemont rM-m 
 Eccles tom. viii. p. 674, &c.) I have followed the simp.TTyprh^Ss 
 of Valesius, who allows only one journey, after the intrusion of 
 
 X I cannot forbear transcril)ing a judicious observation of Wetstein. 
 (Prolegomon. N. T. p. 19.) Si tamen Historiam Ecciesiasticam veli- 
 mus consulere, patebit jam inde a seculo quarto, cum ortiscontrover- 
 siis, ecclesiaj Grajciffi doc tores in duas partes scinderentur. incenio 
 eloqiientia, numero, tantum non aequales, earn partem qus vincere 
 cupiebatRomam confugisse majestatemque pontificiscomiter colui^t-e. 
 eoque pacto oppressis per pontificem et episcopos Latinos adversariia 
 prrevaluisse, atque orthodoxiam in conriliis stabilivisse. Earn ob 
 causam Athanasius, non sine comitatu, Romam petiit, pluresque an- 
 nos ibi Uxs\t. ' ^ 
 
 y Philostorgius, 1. iii. c. 12. If any corruption was used to pro- 
 mote the Interest of religion, an advocate of Athanasius might justify 
 or excuse this questionable conduct, by the example of Cato and Sid- 
 ney: the former of whom is said to have given, and the latter to have 
 received, a bribe, in the cause of liberty. 
 
 z The canon which allows appeals to the Rom;>n pontilft, has al- 
 most raised the council of Sardica tothe dignity of a general council ; 
 and its acts have been iunorantly or artfully confounded with those 
 of the Nicene synod. See Tillemont, torn. viii. p. 689. and Gcddes'i 
 Tracts, vol. ii. p. 419—460. 
 
278 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 ^ 
 
 and restoration, During his second exile in the west, 
 A. D. 349. Athanasius was frequently admitted to 
 the imperial presence ; at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Vero- 
 na, Padua, Aquileia, and Treves. The bishop of the 
 diocese usually assisted at these interviews ; the mas- 
 ter of the offices stood before the veil or curtain of the 
 sacred apartment ; and the uniform moderation of the 
 primate might be attested by these respectable wit- 
 nesses, to whose evidence he solemnly appeals.* Pru- 
 dence would undoubtedly suorcrest the mild and res- 
 pectful tone that became a subject and a bishop. In 
 these familiar conferences with the sovereign of the 
 west, Athanasius might lament the error of Constan- 
 tius, but he boldly arraigned the guilt of his eunuchs 
 and his Arian prelates ; deplored the distress and dan- 
 ger of the catholic church ; and excited Constans to 
 emulate the zeal and glory of his father. The empe- 
 ror declared his resolution of employing the troops 
 and treasures of Europe in the orthodox cause; and 
 signified, by a concise and peremptory epistle to his 
 brother Constantius, that unless he consented to the 
 immediate restoration of Athanasius, he himself, with a 
 fleet and army, would seat the archbishop on the throne 
 of Alexandria.'' But this religious war, so horrible to 
 nature, was prevented by the timely compliance of 
 Constantius ; and the emperor of the east condescend- 
 ed to solicit a reconciliation with a subject whom he 
 had injured. Athanasius waited with decent pride, 
 till he had received three successive epistles full of 
 the strongest assurances of the protection, the favour, 
 and the esteem of his sovereign; who invited him to 
 resume his episcopal seat, and who added the humili- 
 ating precaution of engaging his principal ministers to 
 attest the sincerity of his intentions. They were man- 
 ifested in a still more public manner, by the strict or- 
 ders which were despatched into Egypt to recall the 
 adherents of Athanasius, to restore their privileges, to 
 proclaim their innocence, and to erase from the public 
 registers the illegal proceedings which had been ob- 
 tained during the prevalence of the Eusebian faction. 
 After every satisfaction and security had been given, 
 which justice or even delicacy could require, the pri- 
 mate proceeded, by slow journeys, through the prov- 
 inces of Thrace, Asia, and Syria; and his progress 
 was marked by the abject homage of the oriental bish- 
 ops, who excited his contempt without deceiving his 
 penetration.*^ At Antioch he saw the emperor Con- 
 stantius ; sustained, with modest firmness, the em- 
 braces and protestations of his master, and eluded the 
 proposal of allowing the Arians a single church at 
 Alexandria, by claiming, in the other cities of the em- 
 pire, a similar toleration for his own party ; a reply 
 which might have appeared just and moderate in the 
 mouth of an independent prince. The entrance of the 
 archbishop into his capital was a triumphal proces- 
 sion ; absence and persecution had endeared him to the 
 Alexandrians ; his authority, which he exercised with 
 rigour, was more firmly established ; and his fame was 
 diffused from ^Ethiopia to Britain, over the whole ex- 
 tent of the christian world.^ 
 
 Resentment of ^"^ ^^^^ subjcct who has rcduccd his 
 CoiiHtantius, A. D. prince to the necessity of dissembling, 
 *'*^- can never expect a sincere and lasting 
 
 a As Athanasius dispersed secret invectives n^ninst Constantius, 
 (seotlie Epistle to the Monk^s,) at the same time that he assured him 
 of his profound respect, \vc might distrust the professions of the arch- 
 bishop. Tom. i. p. G77. 
 
 b Notwithstanding the discreet silence of Athanasius^ and the 
 manifest forirery of a letter inserted hy Socrates, these menaces are 
 proved by the tinqueslionahle evidence of Lucifer of Cagiiari, and 
 even of Constantius himself. See Tillemont, torn, viii.' p. 693. 
 
 e I have always entertained some doubts concerning the retracta- 
 tion of Ursacius and Valens. (Athanas. torn. i. p. 776.) Their epistles 
 to Julius bishop of Rome, and to Atlianasius himself, are of so differ- 
 ent a cast from eacli other that they cannot b<»th be genuine. The 
 one speaks the languajie of criminals who confess their guilt and in- 
 famy ; the other of enemies, who solicit on equal terms an honour- 
 able reconciliation. 
 
 4 The circumstances of his second return may be collected from 
 Athanasius himself, torn. i. p. 769. and 822—843. Socrates, 1. ii. c. 18. 
 Sozomen, I. iii. c. 19. Theodoret. I. ii. c. 11, 12. Philostorgius, I. iii. 
 c 12. 
 
 forgiveness ; and the tragic fate of Constans soon de- 
 prived Athanasius of a powerful and generous pro- 
 tector. The civil war between the assassin and the 
 only surviving brother of Constans, which afflicted 
 the empire above three years, secured an interval of 
 repose to the catholic church ; and the two contending 
 parties were desirous to conciliate the friendship of a 
 bishop, who, by the weight of his personal authority, 
 might determine the fluctuating resolutions of an im- 
 portant province. He gave audience to the ambassa- 
 dors of the tyrant, with whom he was afterwards ac- 
 cused of holding a secret correspondence;* and the 
 emperor Constantius repeatedly assured his dearest 
 father, the most reverend Athanasius, that, notwith- 
 standing the malicious rumours which were circulated 
 by their* common enemies, he had inherited the senti- 
 ments, as well as the throne, of his deceased brother.^ 
 Gratitude and humanity would have disposed the pri- 
 mate of Egypt to deplore the untimely fate of Con- 
 stans, and to abhor the guilt of Magnentius ; but as he 
 clearly understood that the apprehensions of Constan- 
 tius were his only safeguard, the fervour of his praj-- 
 ers for the success of the righteous cause might per- 
 haps be somewhat abated. The ruin of Athanasius 
 was no longer contrived by the obscure malice of a 
 few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused the author- 
 ity of a credulous monarch. The monarch himself 
 avowed the resolution, which he had so long suppress- 
 ed, of avenging his private injuries ;« and the first 
 winter after his victory, which he passed at Aries, 
 was employed against an enemy more odious to him 
 than the vanquished tyrant of Gaul. 
 
 If the emperor had capriciously de- councils of Aries 
 creed the death of the most eminent and Milan, A. D. 
 and virtuous citizen of the republic, ^^-^-^^s. 
 the cruel order would have been executed without hes- 
 itation, by the ministers of open violence or of spe- 
 cious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty 
 with which he proceeded in the condemnation and 
 punishment of a popular bishop, discovered to the 
 world that the privileges of the church had already 
 revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman 
 government. The sentence which was pronounced in 
 the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by a large majority 
 of the eastern bishops, had never been expressly re- 
 pealed ; and as Athanasius had been once degraded 
 from his episcopal dignity by the judgment of his 
 brethren, every subsequent act might be considered as 
 irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the 
 firm and effectual support which the primate of Egypt 
 had derived from the attachment of the western church, 
 engaged Constantius to suspend the execution of the 
 senteTice, till he had obtained the concurrence of the 
 Latin bishops. Two years were consumed in eccle- 
 siastical negociations ; and the important cause be- 
 tween the emperor and one of his subjects was sol- 
 emnly debated, first in the synod of Aries, and after- 
 wards in the great council of Milan, ^ which consisted 
 of above three hundred bishops. Their integrity was 
 gradually undermined by the arguments of the Arians, 
 the dexterity of the eunuchs, and the pressing solici- 
 tations of a prince, who gratified his revenge at the 
 expense of his dignity ; and exposed his own passions, 
 whilst he influenced those of the clergy. Corruption, 
 the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, 
 was successfully practised ; honours, gifts, and immu- 
 
 e Athanasius, (torn. i. p. 677, 678.) defends his innocence by pa- 
 thetic complaints, solemn assertions, and specious arguments. He 
 admits that letters had been forged in his name, but he requests that 
 his own secretaries, and those of the tyrant, may l)e examined, 
 whether those letters had been written by the former or received by 
 the latter. 
 
 f Athanas. torn. I. p. 82.j— 844. 
 
 g Athanas. torn. i. p. 861. Theodoret, I. ii. r. 16. The emperor 
 declared, that he was more desirous to subdue Athanasius, than he 
 had been to vanquish Magnentius or Sylvanus. 
 
 h The affairs of the council of Milan are fo imperfectly and erro- 
 neously related by the Greek writers, that we must rejoice in the 
 8U))ply of some letters of Eusebius, extracted by Barouius from the 
 archives of the church of Vercellie, and of an old life of Dionysius 
 of Milan, published by Dollandus. See Baronius, A. D. 355. and 
 Tillcmontj torn. vii. p. 1415. 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 nities, were offered and accepted as the price of an 
 episcopal vote ; ' and the condemnation of the Alexan- 
 drian primate was artfully represented as the only 
 measure \yhich could restore the peace and union of 
 the catholic church. The friends of Athanasius were 
 not, however, wanting to their leader or to their cause. 
 With a manly spirit, which the sanctity of their char- 
 acter rendered less dangerous, they maintained, in 
 public debate, and in private conference with the em- 
 peror, the eternal obligation of religion and justice. 
 Ihey declared, that neither the hope of his favour, nor 
 the fear of his displeasure, should prevail on them to 
 join in the condemnation of an absent, an innocent a 
 respectable brother.'' They affirmed, with apparent 
 reason, that the illegal and obsolete decrees of the 
 council of Tyre had long since been tacitly abolished 
 by the imperial edicts, the honourable re-establishment 
 ol the archbishop of Alexandria, and the silence or re- 
 cantation of his most clamorous adversaries. They 
 alleged, that his innocence had been attested by the 
 unanimous bishops of Egypt, and had been acknowl- 
 edged in the councils of Rome and Sardica,J by the im- 
 partial judgment of the Latin church. They deplored 
 the hard condition of Athanasius, who, after enioyinff 
 so many years his seat, his reputation, and the seem- 
 ing confidence of his sovereign, was again called upon 
 to confute the most groundless and extravagant accu- 
 sations, rheir language was specious ; their conduct 
 was honourable : but in this long and obstinate con- 
 test, which fixed the eyes of the whole empire on a 
 single bishop, the ecclesiastical factions were prepared 
 to sacrifice truth and justice to the more interestincr 
 object of defending, or removing, the intrepid cham''- 
 pion of the Nicene faith. The Arians still thouoht it 
 prudent to disguise, in ambiguous language, thei? real 
 sentiments and designs : but the orthodox bishops, 
 armed with the favour of the people, and the decrees 
 ot a general council, insisted on every occasion, and 
 particularly at Milan, that their adversaries should 
 purge themselves from the suspicion of heresy, before 
 they presumed to arraign the conduct of the great Ath- 
 anasius." 
 
 Condemnation of ^"t the voicc of reason (if reason 
 AHianasius, A. D. was indeed on the side of Athanasius) 
 . ■ was silenced by the clamours of a fac- 
 
 tious or venal majority ; and the councils of Aries and 
 Milan were not dissolved, till the archbishop of Alex- I 
 andria had been solemnly condemned and deposed by i 
 the judgment of the western, as well as of the eastern, 
 church. The bishops, who had opposed, were re- ' 
 quired to subscribe, the sentence ; and to unite in reli- | 
 gious communion with the suspected leaders of the 
 adverse party. A formulary of consent was transmit- 
 ted by the messengers of state to the absent bishops : 
 and all those who refused to submit their private opin- 
 ion to the public and inspired wisdom of the councils 
 of Aries and Milan, were immediately banished by the 
 emperor, who affected to execute the decrees of the 
 catholic church. Among those prelates who led the 
 honourable band of confessors and exiles, Liberius of 
 Rome, Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves, Diony- 
 sius of Milan, Eusobius of Vercellae, Lucifer of Cagli- 
 ari, and Hilary of Poitiers, may deserve to be particu- 
 
 279 
 
 I The hoTTOurs, presents, feasts, which seduced so many bishops 
 are mentioned with indiffnation by those who were too pure or too 
 proud to accept them. " We combat (says Hilary of Poitiers) against 
 Constantms the antichrist ; who strokes the belly instead of scourc- 
 
 co^tV'co'ns'tant^ c'.5:°p" uT' ''''''' ' "*^ "^"^^^'^ P^'^^^" «''-'- 
 k Soniethlnp of this opposition is mentioned by Ammianus (xv. 7.) 
 Who had a very dark and superficial knowledge of ecclesiastical his- 
 tory. Liberius . . . perseveranter renitebatur. nee visum hominem 
 necauditum damnare nefas ultimum sa-pe cxclamans: aperte scili' 
 fnfestus &r"* imperatoris arbitrio. Id enim ille Athanasio semper 
 
 1 More properly by the orthodox part of the council of Sardis. If 
 the bishops of both parlies had fairly voted, the division would have 
 ^een 94 to /6. M. de Tillemont (see torn. viii. p. 1147—1158) is 
 justly surprised that so small a majority should have proceeded so 
 Vigorous y apamst their adversaries, the principal of whom they 
 immediately deposed. ' 
 
 m Sulp. Severus in Hist. Pacra, 1. ii. p. 412. 
 
 larly distinguished. The eminent station of Liberius, 
 who governed the capital of the empire; the personal 
 merit and long experience of the venerable Osius, who 
 was revered as the fiivourite of the great Constantino, 
 and the father of the Nicene faith ; placed those pre- 
 lates at the head of the Latin church : and their exam- 
 ple, either of submission or resistance, would probably 
 be imitated by the episcopal crowd. But the repeated 
 attempts of the emperor, to seduce or to intimidate the 
 bishops of Rome and Cordova, were for some lime in- 
 effectual. The Spaniard declared himself ready to 
 suffer under Constantius, as ho had suffered three- 
 score years before under his grandfiuhcr Maximian. 
 The Roman, in the presence of his sovereign, asserted 
 the innocence of Athanasius, and his own freedom. 
 When he was banished to Beraea in Thrace, he sent 
 back a large sum which had been offered for the ac- 
 commodation of his journey; and insulted the court 
 of Milan by the haughty remark, that the emperor 
 and his eunuchs might want that gold to pay their 
 soldiers and their bishops." The resolution of Libe- 
 rius and Osius was at length subdued by the hard- 
 ships of exile and confinement. Tiie Roman pontiff ' 
 purchased his return by some criminal compliances ; 
 and afterwards expiated his jruilt by a seasonable re- 
 pentance. Persuasion and violence were employed to 
 extort the reluctant signature of the decrepit bishop of 
 Cordova, whose strength was broken, and whose fac- 
 ulties were perhaps impaired, by the weight of an hun- 
 dred years ; and the insolent triumph of the Arians 
 provoked some of the orthodox party to treat with in- 
 human severity the character, or rather the memory, 
 of an unfortunate old man, to whose former services 
 Christianity itself was so deeply indebted." 
 
 The fall of Liberius and Osius re- 
 flected a brighter lustre on the firmness ^''^'^** 
 of those bishops who still adhered, with unshaken 
 fidelity, to the cause of Athanasius and religious truth. 
 The ingenious malice of their enemies had deprived 
 them of the benefit of mutual comfort and advice, sep- 
 arated those illustrious exiles into distant provinces, 
 and carefully selected the most inhospitable spots of a 
 ; great empire.? Yet they soon experienced that the 
 I deserts of Libya, and the most barbarous tracts of 
 j Cappadocia, were less inhospitable than the residence 
 I of those cities, in which an Arian bishop could satiate, 
 I without restraint, the exquisite rancour of theological 
 j hatred.'! Their consolation was derived from the con- 
 I sciousness of rectitude and independence, from the ap- 
 plause, the visits, the letters, and the liberal alms of 
 ! their adherents ;>• and from the satisfaction which they 
 soon enjoyed of observing the intestine divisions of 
 the adversaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the 
 nice and capricious taste of the emperor Constantius, 
 and so easily was he offended by the slightest devia- 
 tion from his imaginary standard of christian truth ; 
 that he persecuted, with equal zeal, those who defend- 
 ed the consubstanfialily, those who asserted the similar 
 subsfatice, and those who denied the likeness, of the Son 
 of God. Three bishops, degraded and banished for 
 those adverse opinions, might possibly meet in the 
 same place of exile ; and, according to the difference 
 
 n The exile of Liberius is mentioned by Ammianus, xv. 7. See 
 Theodoret, 1. ii. c. 16. Athanas. tom. i. p. 834—837. Hilar. Frae- 
 nient i. ^ 
 
 , ° '^^^, ''f^ ^^ <^sius is collected by Tillemont, (tom. vii. p. 524— 
 .507.) who in tlie most extravagant terms first admires, and then re- 
 probates the bishop of Cordova. In the midst of their lamentations 
 on his fall ; the prudence of Athanasius may be distinguished from 
 the blind and intemperate zeal of Hilary. 
 
 p The confessors of the west were successively banished to the 
 deserts of Arabia or Thebais, the lonely places of Mount Taurus, 
 the wildest parts of Phryjria, which were in the possession of the 
 impious Montanists. <tc. When the heretic ^tius was loo favoura- 
 bly entertained at Mopsuestia in Cilicia, the place of his exile was 
 changed, by the advice of Acacius. to Am'ilada, a district inhabited 
 by savages, and infested by war and pestilence. Philostorir. I. v. c. 2. 
 
 q See the cruel treatment and stranjrc olstinacv of Eusebius in 
 his own letters, ptjblis'ied by Bnronins, A. D. :?56. No. 92—102. 
 
 r Cajterum exules satis constat, tolius orbis studiis celebratos pe- 
 cuniasque eis in sumptum afl^atim congestas Icgationibus quoquc eos 
 plebis catholicae ex omnibus fere provinciis frequcntatos. Sulp 
 Sever. Hist. Sncra, p. -114. Athanas. torn. i. p. 836—840 
 
280 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 of their temper, might either pity or insult the blind 
 enthusiasm of their antagonists, whose present suffer- 
 ings would never be compensated by future happiness. 
 Third expulsion of ^^^, disgrace and exile of the ortho- 
 Athanasius from dox bishops of the west wefc designed 
 Akixandria, A. D. ag go many preparatory steps to the 
 ruin of Athanasius himself.' Six-and- 
 twenty months had elapsed, during which the imperial 
 court secretly laboured, by the most insidious arts, to 
 remove him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the 
 allowance which supplied his popular liberality. But 
 when the primate of Egypt, deserted and proscribed 
 by the Latin church, was left destitute of any foreign 
 support, Constantius despatched two of his sectaries 
 with a verbal commission to announce and execute the 
 order of his banishment. As the justice of the sen- 
 tence was publicly avowed by the whole party, the 
 only motive which could restrain Constantius from 
 giving his messengers the sanction of a written man- 
 date, must be imputed to his doubt of the event ; and 
 
 stripped naked, scourged, and violated; the houses 
 of wealthy citizens were plundered ; and, under the 
 mask of religious zeal, lust, avarice, and private re- 
 sentment, were gratified with impunity, and even with 
 applause. The pagans of Alexandria, who still form- 
 ed a numerous and discontented party, were easily 
 persuaded to desert a bishop whom they feared and es- 
 teemed. The hopes of some peculiar favours, and 
 the apprehension of being involved in the general pen- 
 alties of rebellion, engaged them to promise their sup- 
 port to the destined successor of Athanasius, the fa- 
 mous George of Cappadocia. The usurper, after re- 
 ceiving the consecration of an Arian synod, was placed 
 on the episcopal throne by the arms of Sebastian, who 
 had been appointed count of Egypt for the execution 
 of that important design. In the use, as well as in 
 the acquisition, of power, the tyrant George disregard- 
 ed the laws of religion, of justice, and of humanity ; 
 and the same scenes of violence and scandal which 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 aaie, musi oe imputed to his doubt of the event; and had been exhibited in the capital, were repeated in 
 to a sense of the danger to which he might expose the more than ninety episcopal cit^s of Egypt! ^Encour 
 second citv. and the most fert « nrnvJnPA nf ti.^ «,,,. ^«.«.i k„ « ./ Wl„_./_.: ._ ^sypi- rincour- 
 
 s'econd city, and the most fertile province, of the em 
 pire, if the people should persist in the resolution of 
 defending, by force of arms, the innocence of their spi- 
 ritual father. Such extreme caution afforded Atha- 
 nasius a specious pretence respectfully to dispute the 
 truth of an order, which he could not reconcile, either 
 with the equity, or with the former declarations, of his 
 gracious master. The civil powers of Egypt found 
 themselves inadequate to the task of persuading or 
 compelling the primate to abdicate his episcopal throne; 
 and they were obliged to conclude a treaty with the 
 popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it was stipu- 
 lated, that all proceedings and hostilities should be sus- 
 pended till the emperor's pleasure had been more dis- 
 tinctly ascertained. By this seeming moderation, the 
 catholics were deceived into a false and fatal security ; 
 while the legions of the Upper Egypt, and of Libya, 
 advanced, by secret orders and hasty marches, to be- 
 siege, or rather to surprise, a capital habituated to se- 
 dition, and inflamed by religious zeal.' The position 
 of Alexandria, between the sea and the lake Mareotis, 
 facilitated the approach and landing of the troops ; 
 who were introduced into the heart of the city, before 
 any effectual measures could be taken, either to shut 
 the gates, or to occupy the important posts of defence. 
 At the hour of midnight, twenty-three days after the 
 signature of the treaty, Syrianus, duke of Egypt, at 
 the head of five thousand soldiers, armed and prepared 
 for an assault, unexpectedly invested the church of St. 
 Theonas, where the archbishop, with a part of his 
 clergy and people, performed their nocturnal devo- 
 tions. The doors of the sacred edifice yielded to the 
 inipetuosity of the attack, which was accompanied 
 with every horrid circumstance of tumult and blood- 
 shed ; but, as the bodies of the slain, and the frag- 
 ments of military weapons, remained the next day an 
 unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the cath- 
 olics, the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered as 
 a successful irruption rather than as an absolute con- 
 quest. The other churches of the city were profaned 
 by similar outrages ; and, during at least four months, 
 Alexandria was exposed to the insults of a licentious 
 army, stimulated by the ecclesiastics of an hostile fac- 
 tion. Many of the faithful were killed, who may de- 
 serve the name of martyrs, if their deaths were neither 
 provoked nor revenged ; bishops and presbyters were 
 treated with cruel ignominy ; consecrated virgins were 
 
 • Ample materials for the history of this third persecution of 
 Athanasius inny he found in his own works. Sec partirularlv his 
 very able Apology to Constantius, (torn. i. p. G7H.) his first Apolocv 
 for h 18 flicht. (p. 701.) his prolix Ejjfcitie to the Solitaries, p. (808 ^ 
 and the orijrinal Protest of the People of Alexandria nsainst the 
 violences com milted hy Syrianus, (p. 86G.) Sozomen (I. iv. c. 9 ) has 
 thrown mto the narrative two or three luminous and important cir- 
 cumstances. ' 
 
 t Athanasius had lately sent for Anthony, and some of his chosen 
 monks. They descended from their mountain, announced to the 
 Alexandrians the sanctity of Athanasius, and were honourahly con- 
 ducted hy the archbishop as far as the gates of the city. Athanas 
 torn. II. p. J9I, 492. S«e likewise Rufinus, iii. 164. in Vil. Patr. p. 524* 
 
 aged by success, Constantius ventured to approve the 
 conduct of his ministers. By a public and passionate 
 epistle, the emperor congratulates the deliverance of 
 Alexandria from a popular tyrant, who deluded his 
 blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence ; expati- 
 ates on the virtues and piety of the most reverend 
 George, the elected bishop ; and aspires, as the patron 
 and benefactor of the city, to surpass the fame of 
 Alexander himself. But he solemnly declares his un- 
 alterable resolution to pursue with fire and sword the 
 seditious adherents of the wicked Athanasius, who, 
 by flying from justice, has confessed his guilt, and 
 escaped the ignominious death which he had so often 
 deserved.* ' 
 
 Athanasius had indeed escaped from 
 the most imminent dangers ; and the ad- "'^ behaviour, 
 ventures of that extraordinary man deserve and fix our 
 attention. On the memorable night when the church 
 of St. Theonas was invested by the troops of Syrianus, 
 the archbishop, seated on his throne, expected, with 
 calm and intrepid dignity, the approach of death. 
 VVhile the public devotion was interrupted by shouts 
 of rage and cries of terror, he animated his tremblintr 
 congregation to express their religious confidence, by 
 chanting one of the psalms of David, which celebrates 
 the triumph of the God of Israel over the haughty and 
 impious tyrant of Egypt. The doors were at length 
 burst open; a cloud of arrows was discharged among 
 the people; the soldiers, with drawn swords, rushed 
 forwards into the sanctuary; and the dreadful gleam 
 of their armour was reflected by the holy luminaries 
 which burned round the altar.' Athanasius still re- 
 jected the pious importunity of the monks and pres- 
 byters, who were attached to his person; and nobly 
 refused to desert his episcopal station, till he had dis- 
 missed m safety the last of the congregation. The 
 darkness and tumult of the night favoured the retreat 
 of tl»« archbishop ; and though he was oppressed by the 
 waves of an agitated multitude, though he was thrown 
 to the ground, and left without sense or motion, he still 
 recovered his undaunted courage, and eluded the eager 
 search of the soldiers, who were instructed by their 
 Arian guides, that the head of Athanasius would he 
 the most acceptable present to the emperor. From that 
 moment the primate of Egypt disappeared from the 
 eyes of his enemies, and remained above six years 
 concealed in impenetrable obscurity .y 
 
 u Athanas. torn. i. p. 694. The emperor, or his Arian secretaries, 
 
 ^r l.^K*'^^ •*'■'' P''^^*' ^'^^"' resentment, betray their fears and esteem 
 of Athanasius. 
 
 X These minute circumstances are curious, as they are literally 
 transcribed from the protest, which was publicly presented three 
 days afterwards by the catholics of Alexandria. See Athanas. torn. 
 1. p. oo7. 
 
 y The Jan«eni8t8 have often compared Athanasius and Arnauld, 
 and have expatiated with pleasure on the faith and zeal, the merit 
 and exile, of those celebrated doctors. This concealed parallel is 
 very dexterously managed by the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, 
 torn. I. p. 130. 
 
 His retreat The dcspotic power of his implacable 
 A. D. 3o6-.%^ enemy filled the whole extent of the Ro- 
 man vt'orld ; and the exasperated monarch had endea- 
 voured, by a very pressing epistle to the christian 
 princes of Ethiopia, to exclude Athanasius from the 
 most remote and sequestered regions of the earth. 
 Counts, i)rfefects, tribunes, whole armies, were suc- 
 cessively employed to pursue a bishop and a fuo-itive; 
 the vigilance of the civil and military power's was 
 excited by the imperial edicts ; liberal rewards were 
 promised to the man who sliould produce Athanasius, 
 either alive or dead; and the most severe penalties 
 were denounced against those who should dare to pro- 
 tect the public enemy.^ But the deserts of Thebais 
 were now peopled by a race of wild, yet submissive, 
 fanatics, who preferred the commands of their abbot 
 to the laws of their sovereign. The numerous disci- 
 ples of Anthony and Pachomius received the fuo-itive 
 primate as their father, admired the patience and hu- 
 mility with which he conformed to their strictest insti- 
 tutions, collected every word which dropped from his 
 lips as the genuine effusions of inspired wisdom; and 
 persuaded themselves, that their prayers, their fasts, 
 and their vigils, were less meritorious than the zeal 
 which they expressed, and the dangers which they 
 braved, in the defence of truth and innocence.* The 
 monasteries of Egypt were seated in lonely and deso- 
 late places, on the summit of mountains, or in the 
 islands of the Nile ; and the sacred horn or trumpet 
 of Tabenne was the well-known signal which assem- 
 bled several thousand robust and determined monks, 
 W'ho, for the most part, had been the peasants of the 
 adjacent country. When their dark retreats were in- 
 vaded by a military force, which it was impossible to 
 resist, they silently stretched out their necks to the 
 executioner; and supported their national character, 
 that tortures could never wrest from an Egyptian the 
 confession of a secret which he was resolved not to 
 disclose.*' The archbishop of Alexandria, for whose 
 safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was lost amono- 
 a uniform and well-disciplined multitude ; and on the 
 nearer approach of danger, he w^as swiftly removed, by 
 their officious hands, from one place of concealment to 
 another, till he reached the formidable deserts, which 
 the gloomy and credulous temper of superstition had 
 peopled with demons and savage monsters. The re- 
 tirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the life 
 of Constantius, was spent, for the most part, in the 
 society of the monks, who faithfully served him as 
 guards, as secretaries, and as messengers; but the 
 importance of maintaining a more intimate connexion 
 with the catholic party tempted him, whenever the 
 diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from 
 the desert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and 
 to trust his person to the discretion of his friends and 
 adherents. His various adventures might have fur- 
 nished the subject of a very entertaining Romance. He 
 was once secret(^d in a dry cistern, which he had 
 scarcely left before he was betrayed by the treachery 
 of a female slave ; <^ and he was once concealed in a 
 still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin, 
 only twenty years of age, and who was celebrated in 
 the whole city for her exquisite beauty. At the hour 
 of midnight, as she related the story many years after- 
 wards, she was surprised by the appearance of the 
 archbishop in a loose undress, who, advancino- with 
 hasty steps, conjured her to afford him the prot'ection 
 
 T Hmc jam toto orhc profujius Athanasius, nnc ullus ei tutus ad 
 latendiim supererat locus. Trii-uiii, prafecti, com.tcs, exercitus quo- 
 que, ad pervesti^andum euni moverentur cdictis imperialil^us ; nra:- 
 ima drlatorilnis proponuntur, si quis eum vivum, si id minus, caput 
 certe Athaiiasii detulisset. Rufin, I. i.e. 16 
 
 a GrcEor Naziarizen. toin. i. Orat. xxi. p. r>84, 385. See Tillcraont, 
 Mem. Lcclcs. torn. vii. p. 176—410. 820—880. 
 
 b Et nulla tormentoruiii vi.« invoniri adhuc potuit ; qua; obdurate 
 iilius tractus latroni invito elicere potuit, ut nomen proprium dicat 
 Ammian. xxii. 16. and Valesius ad locum. 
 
 c Kufin. I. i. c. 18. Sozomen, I, iv. c. 10. This and the following 
 story will he rendered impossible, if we suppose that Athanasius 
 hadV^ d' '^ ^''*^ asylum which he accidentally or occasionally 
 
 Vox.. I — 2 L 
 
 281 
 
 which he had been directed by a celestial vision to seek 
 under her hospitable roof. The pious maid accepted 
 and preserved the sacred pledge which was intrusted 
 to her prudence and courage. Without imparting the 
 secret to any one, she instantly conducted Athanasius 
 into her most secret chamber, and watched over his 
 safety with the tenderness of a friend and the assiduity 
 of a servant. As long as the danger continued, she 
 regularly supplied him with books and provisions 
 washed his feet, managed his correspondence, and 
 dexterously concealed from the eye of sus])icion, this 
 familiar and solitary intercourse, between a sainl whose 
 character required the most unblemished chastity, and 
 a female whose charms might excite the most danger- 
 ous emotions.'' During the six years of persecution 
 and exile, Athanasius repeated his visits to his fair and 
 fiiithful companion ; and the formal declaration, that he 
 saw the councils of Rimini and Scleucia,« forces us to 
 believe that he was secretly present at tiie time and 
 place of their convocation. I'he advantage of person- 
 ally negociating with his friends, and of observing 
 and improving the divisions of his enemies, mio-h*t 
 justify, in a prudent statesman, so bold and dann-erous 
 an enterprise ; and Alexandria was connected by trade 
 and navigation with every sea-port of the Mediterra- 
 nean. From the depth of his inaccessible retreat, the 
 intrepid primate waged an incessant and offensive war 
 japinst the protector of the Arians; and his seasona- 
 ble writings, which were diligently circulated, and 
 eagerly perused, contributed to unite and animate the 
 orthodox party. In his public apologies, which he ad- 
 dressed to the emperor himself, he sometimes affected 
 the praise of moderation ; whilst at the same time, in 
 secret and vehement invectives, he exposed Constan- 
 tius as a weak and wicked prince, the executioner of 
 his family, the tyrant of the republic, and the antichrist 
 of the church.f In the height of his prosperity, the 
 victorious monarch, who had chastised the rashness of 
 Gallus, and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who 
 had taken the diadem from the head of Vetranio, and 
 vanquished in the field the legions of Magnentius, re- 
 ceived from an invisible hand a wound, winch he could 
 neither heal nor revenge ; and the son of Constantine 
 was the first of the christian princes who experienced 
 the strength of those principles, which, in the cause 
 of religion, could resist the most violent exertions of 
 the civil power. 
 
 The persecution of Athanasius, and of . . 
 so many respectable bishops, who suf- "''"P** 
 
 fered for the truth of their opinions, or at least for the 
 integrity of their conscience, was a just subject of in- 
 dignation and discontent to all christians, except those 
 who were blindly devoted to the Arian fiiction. The 
 people regretted the loss of their faithful pastors, 
 whose banishment was usually followed by the intru- 
 sion of a strangers into the episcopal chair, and loudly 
 complained that the right of election was violated, and 
 that they were condemned to obey a mercenary usurper, 
 whose person was unknown, and whose principles were 
 suspected. The catholics might prove to tlie world, 
 that they were not involved in the guilt and heresy of 
 their ecclesiastical governor, by publicly testifying 
 
 d Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac. c. 136. in Vit. Pairum, p. 776.) the 
 original author of this anecdote, had conversed with the damsel 
 who in her old age stilJ remembered with pleasure so pious and hon- 
 ouraMe a connexion. I cannot indulge tl:e delicacy of Baronius 
 Valesius, Tillemont, &c. who almost reject a story so unworthy as 
 Uiey deem it, of the gravity of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 nn-'^^'l'''"".^: *°'"' '• ^*- ^^- ^ ^"'■^® ^^■'^'' Tillemont, (torn. viii. p. 
 119/.) that his expressions imply a personal, though perhaps secret, 
 visit to the synods. o i « . 
 
 f The epistle of Athanasius to the monks, is filled with reproaches, 
 which tlie public must feel to he true. (vol. i. p. 834—856.) find, in 
 roinplimenl to his readers, he has introduced the comparisons of 
 Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, <fec. Tlie boldness of 11 il.iry was at- 
 tended with less danger, if he published his invective in Gaul after 
 the revolt of Julian ; but Lucifer sent his libels to Constantius, and 
 almost challenged the reward of martyrdom. See Tillemont, torn 
 vii. p. 905. 
 
 e Athanasius (torn. i. p. 811.) complains in general of this practice, 
 whicii he afterwards exemplifies (p. 861.) in the pretended election 
 of Faelix. Three eunuchs represented the Roman people, and three 
 prelates, who followed the court, assumed the functions of the bi- 
 shops of the Suburbicarian provinces. 
 
i 
 
 282 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 Divisions. 
 
 their dissent, or by totally separating 
 themselves from his communion. The 
 first of these methods was invented at Antioch, and 
 practised with such success, that it was soon difTused 
 over the christian world. The doxology, or sacred 
 hymn, which celebrates the glory of the Trinity, is 
 susceptible of very nice, but material, inflections; 
 and the substance of an orthodox, or an heretical, 
 creed, may be expressed by the difference of a dis- 
 junctive, or a copulative, particle. Alternate respon- 
 ses, and a more regular psalmody,** were introduced 
 into the public service by Flavianusand Diodorus,two 
 devout and active laymen, who were attached to the 
 Nicene faith. Under their conduct, a swarm of monks 
 issued from the adjacent desert, bands of well-disci- 
 plined singers were stationed in tlie cathedral of An- 
 tioch, the Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost,' was triumphantly chanted by a full cho- 
 rus of voices; and the catholics insulted, by the purity 
 of their doctrine, the Arian prelate, who had usurped 
 the throne of the venerable Eustathius. The same 
 zeal which inspired their songs prompted the more 
 scrupulous members of the orthodox party to form se- 
 parate assemblies, which were governed by the pres- 
 byters, till the death of their exiled bishop allowcnl the 
 election and consecration of a new episcopal pastor.'^ 
 The revolutions of the court multiplied the numl)cr of 
 pretenders ; and the same city was often disputed, un- 
 der the reign of Constantius, by two, or three, or even j 
 four bishops, who exercised their spiritual jurisdiction j 
 over their respective followers, and alternately lost and , 
 regained the temporal possessions of the church. The 
 abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman gov- 
 ernment new causes of tyranny and sedition ; the bands 
 of civil society were torn asunder by the fury of religi- 
 ous factions ; and the obscure citizen, who might calm- 
 ly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successive 
 emperors, imagined and experienced, that his own life 
 and fortune were connected with the interests of a po- 
 pular ecclesiastic. The example of the two capitals, 
 Rome and Constantinople, may serve to represent the 
 state of the empire, and the temper of mankind, under 
 the reign of the sons of Constantine. 
 
 I. The Roman pontiff, as long as he 
 maintained his station and his princi- 
 ples, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great 
 people ; and could reject with scorn the prayers, the 
 menaces, and the oblations of an heretical prince. 
 When the eunuchs had secretly pronounced the exile 
 of Liberius, the well-grounded apprehension of a tu- 
 mult engaged them to use the utmost precautions in 
 the execution of the sentence. The capital was in- 
 vested on every side, and the praefect was commanded 
 to seize the person of the bishop, either by stratagem, 
 or by open force. The order was obeyed, and Liberius, 
 with the greatest difliculty, at the hour of midnight, 
 was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of the Roman 
 people, before their consternation was turned into rage. 
 As soon as they were informed of his banishment into 
 Thrace, a general assembly was convened, and the 
 clergy of Rome bound themselves, by a public and 
 solemn oath, never to desert their bishop, never to ac- 
 knowledge the usurper Feelix ; who, by the influence 
 of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen and con- 
 secrated within the walls of a profane palace. At the 
 end of two years their pious obstinacy subsisted entire 
 
 h Tliomassin (Discipline de rEL'lisc, torn. i. 1. ii. c. 72, 73. p. OOG— 
 984.) h»8 collected many curious facts roncernin^ the origin and pro- 
 gress of chiirch-singinjj, both in tlie east and west. 
 
 i Philostorgius, \. iii. c. 13. Godefruy has e.\ainined this suhject 
 with singular accuracy, (p. 147, &c.) There were three heterodox 
 forms : *' To the Father by tlie Son, and in the Holy Ghost." •' 'J'o 
 the Father, and the So4i, in tiic Holy Gliost," and " 'i'o the Father in 
 the Son and the Holy Ghost." 
 
 k After the exile of Eustathius, under the reign of Constantine, 
 the rigid party of the orthodox formed a separation which afterwards 
 degenerated into a scliism.and lasted above fourscore years. See 
 Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 35 — 54,1137 — 1158. tom. viii. p. 
 537 — 632, 1314—1332. In many churches the Arians and Homoou 
 ■ians, who had renounced each other's communion, continued for 
 Boroe time to join in prayer. Philostorgius, 1. iii. c. 14. 
 
 Rome. 
 
 and unshaken; and when Constantius visited Rome, 
 he was assailed by the importunate solicitations of a 
 people, who had preserved, as the last remnant of their 
 ancient freedom, the right of treating their sovereign 
 with familiar insolence. The wives of many of the 
 senators and most honourable citizens, after pressing 
 their husbands to intercede in favour of Liberius, were 
 advised to undertake a commission, which in their 
 hands would be less dangerous, and might prove more 
 successful. The emperor received with politeness these 
 female deputies, whose wealth and dignity were dis- 
 played in the magnificence of their dress and orna- 
 ments : he admired their inflexible resolution of follow- 
 ing their beloved pastor to the most distant regions of 
 the earth ; and consented that the two bishops, Libe- 
 rius and FjbHx, should govern in peace their respective 
 congregations. But the ideas of toleration were so re- 
 pugnant to the practice, and even to the sentiments, 
 of those times, that when the answer of Constantius 
 was publicly read in the circus of Rome, so reasonable 
 a project of accommodation was rejected with contempt 
 and ridicule. The eager vehemence which animated 
 the spectators in the decisive moment of a horse-race, 
 was now directed towards a different object; and the 
 circus resounded with the shout of thousands, who re- 
 peatedly exclaimed, *' One God, one Christ, one bish- 
 op.'* The zeal of tlie Roman people in the cause of 
 Liberius, was not confined to words alone ; and the 
 dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited soon 
 after the departure of Constantius, determined that 
 prince to accept the submission of the exiled prelate, 
 and to restore him to the undivided dominion of the 
 capital. After some ineffectual resistance, his rival 
 was expelled from the city by the permission of the 
 emperor, and the power of the opposite faction ; the 
 adherents of Failix were inhumanly murdered in the 
 streets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in 
 the churches ; and the face of Rome, upon the return 
 of a christian bishop, renewed the horrid image of the 
 massacres of Marius, and the proscriptions of Sylla.* 
 
 IL Notwithstanding the rapid increase 
 of christians under the reign of the Fla- ""'' **" '"opc« 
 vian family, Rome, Alexandria, and the other great 
 cities of the empire, still contained a strong and power- 
 ful faction of infidels, who envied the prosperity, and 
 who ridiculed, even on their theatres, the theological 
 disputes of the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed 
 the advantage of beinsT born and educated in the bosom 
 of the faith. The capital of the east had never been 
 polluted by the worship of idols ; and the whole body 
 of the people had deeply imbibed the opinions, the 
 virtues, and the passions, which distinguished the 
 christians of that aire from the rest of mankind. After 
 the death of Alexander, the episcopal throne was dis- 
 puted by Paul and Macedonius. By their zeal and 
 abilities they both deserved the eminent station to 
 which they aspired ; and if the moral character of 
 IMacedonius was less exceptionable, his competitor had 
 the advantage of a prior election and a more orthodox 
 doctrine. His firm attachment to the Nicene creed, 
 which has given Paul a place in the calendar among 
 saints and martyrs, exposed him to the resentment of 
 the Arians. \\\ the space of fourteen years he was five 
 times driven from the throne ; to which he was more 
 frequently restored by the violence of the people, than 
 by the permission of the prince ; and the power of 
 Macedonius could be st^cured only by the death of his 
 rival. The unfortunate Paul was drao-ired in chains 
 from the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia to the most 
 desolate places of Mount Taurus," confined in a dark 
 
 1 See, on tliis eccies-astiral revolution of Rome, .Ammianus, xv. 7. 
 Athanas. tom. i. p. 834— HIJI. Sozonicn, I. iv. c. 15. Throdoret. I. 
 ii. c. 17. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, I. ii. p. 413. Hieronym. Chron. 
 .Marcellin. el Faustin. Libcll. p. 3, 4. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. 
 vi. p. 3r6. 
 
 m Cucusus was the last staire of his life and pufTerinss. The situ- 
 ation of that lonely town, on theconfinesof C;i|ipadocia, Cilif ia, and 
 the Lesser .Armenia, has occasioned some ROo<:ra}ihic!i| perplexity; 
 but we are directed to the true spot by the course of the Uonmn road 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 and narrow dungeon, left six days without food, and at 
 length strangled, by the order of Philip, one of the 
 principal ministers of tlie emperor Constantius." The 
 first blood which stained the new capital was spilt in 
 this ecclesiastical contest; and many persons were 
 slain on both sides, in the furious and obstinate sedi- 
 tions of the people. The commission of enforcing a 
 sentence of banishment against Paul, had Been intrust- 
 ed to Hermogenes, the master-general of the cavalry ; 
 but the execution of it was fatal to himself. The 
 catholics rose in the defence of their bishop ; the pal- 
 a^ of Hermogenes was consumed ; the first military 
 officer of the empire was dragged by the heels through 
 the streets of Constantinople, and, after he expired, 
 his lileless corpse was exposed to their wanton in- 
 sults.'* The fate of Hermogenes instructed Philip, the 
 praetorian praefect, to act with more precaution on a 
 similar occasion. In the most gentle and honourable 
 terms he required the attendance of Paul in the baths 
 of Zeuxippus, which had a private communication with 
 the palace and the sea. A vessel, which lay ready at 
 the garden stairs, immediately hoisted sail ; and, while 
 the people were still ignorant of the meditated sacri- 
 lege, their bishop was already embarked on his voyao-e 
 to Thessalonica. They soon beheld, with surprise 
 and indignation, the gates of the palace thrown open, 
 and the usurper Macedonius seated by the side of the 
 praefect on a lofty chariot, which was surrounded by 
 troops of guards with drawn swords. The military 
 procession advanced towards the cathedral ; the Arians 
 and the catholics eagerly rushed to employ that impor- 
 tant post; and three thousand one hundred and fifty 
 persons lost their lives in the confusion of the tumult. ! 
 Macedonius, who was supported by a regular force, i 
 obtained a decisive victory; but his reign was dis- 
 turbed by clamour and sedition ; and the causes which 
 appeared the least connected with the subject of dis- 
 pute, were sufficient to nourish and to kindle the flame 
 of civil discord. As the chapel in which the body of 
 the great Constantine had been deposited was in a 
 ruinous condition, the bishops transported those vene- 
 rable remains into the church of St. Acacius. This 
 prudent and even pious measure was represented as a 
 wicked profanation, by the whole party which adhered 
 to the Homoousian doctrine. The factions immedi- 
 ately flew to arms, the consecrated ground was used as 
 their field of battle ; and one of the ecclesiastical his- 
 torians has observed, as a real fact, not as a figure of 
 rhetoric, that the well before the church overflowed 
 with a stream of blood, which filled the porticoes and 
 the adjacent courts. The writer who should impute 
 these tumults solely to a religious principle, would be- 
 tray a very imperfect knowledge of human nature ; yet 
 it must be confessed, that the motives which misled 
 the sincerity of zeal, and the pretence which disguised 
 the licentiousness of passion, suppressed the reinorse 
 which, in another cause, would have succeeded to the 
 rage of the christians of Constantinople.? 
 Cruelty of the The cruel and arbitrary disposition of 
 Arians. Constantius, which did not always re- 
 quire the provocations of guilt and resistance, was 
 justly exasperated by the tumults of his capital, and 
 the criminal behaviour of a faction, which opposed the 
 authority and religion of their sovereign. The ordi- 
 
 283 
 
 from Ctpsarea to Anazarlius. See Cellarii. Geograph. tom. ii. p. 213. 
 Wesselinp ad Itincrar. p. 179 — 71'3. 
 
 B Athanasius (tom, i. p. 703—813, 814.) affirms, in the most posi- 
 tive terms, that Paul was murdered ; and appeals not only to common 
 fame, but even to the unsuspicious testimony of Philagrius, one of 
 the Arian persecutors. Yet he acknowledges, that the heretics at- 
 tributed to disease the death of the bishop of Constantinople. Atha- 
 nasius is servilely co|)iC(l by Socrates, (I. ii. c. 2G.) but Sozomen, who 
 discovers a more liberal temper, presumes (I. iv. c. 2.) to insinuate a 
 prudent doubt. 
 
 o Ammianus (xiv. 10.) refers to his own account of this tragic 
 event. But we no longer possess that part of his liistory. 
 
 P See Socrates, I. ii. c. 6, 7—12, 13—17. 16—26, 27—38. and Sozo- 
 men, I. iii. 3.4.7—9, 1, iv. c.ii. 21. The acts of St. Paul of Constan- 
 tinople, of which Photius has made an abstract, (Phot. Bibliot. p. 1419 
 — 1430.) are an indiflTcrcnt copy of these Iiistorians ; but a modern 
 Greek, who could write the life of a saint without adding fables and 
 miracles, is entitled to some commendation. 
 
 'nary punishments of death, exile, and confiscation, 
 were inflicted with partial rigour; and the Greeks still 
 revere the holy memory of two clerks, a reader and a 
 sub-deacon, who were accused of the murder of Her- 
 mogenes, and beheaded at the gates of Constantinople. 
 By an edict of Constantius against the catholics, which 
 has not been thought worthy of a place in the Theo- 
 dosian code, those who refused to communicate with 
 the Arian bishops, and particularly with Macedonius, 
 were deprived of the immunities of ecclesiastics, and 
 of the rights of christians ; they were compelled to 
 relinquish the possession of the churches ; and were 
 strictly prohibited from holding their assemblies within 
 the vvalls of the city. The execution of this unjust 
 law, in the provinces of Thrace and Asia Minor, was 
 conimitted to the zeal of Macedonius; the civil and 
 military powers were directed to obey his commands; 
 and the cruelties exercised by this Semi-Arian tyrant 
 in the support of the Homoiousion^ exceeded the com- 
 mission, and disgraced the reign, of Constantius. The 
 sacraments of the church were administered to the re- 
 luctant victims, who denied the vocation, and abhorred 
 the principles, of Macedonius. The rites of baptism 
 were conferred on women and children, who, for that 
 purpose, had been torn from the arms of their friends 
 and parents ; the mouths of the communicants were 
 held open, by a wooden engine, while the consecrated 
 bread was forced down their throat ; the breasts of ten- 
 der virgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-shells, 
 or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy 
 boards.*! The Novatians of Constantinople, and the 
 adjacent country, by their firm attachment to the Ho- 
 moousian standard, deserved to be confounded with the 
 catholics themselves. Macedonius wes informed, that 
 a large district of Paphlagonia ' was almost entirely 
 inhabited by those sectaries. He resolved either to 
 convert or to extirpate them ; and as he distrusted, on 
 this occasion, the efficacy of an ecclesiastical mission, 
 he commanded a body of four thousand legionaries to 
 march against the rebels, and to reduce the territory of 
 Mantinium under his spiritual dominion. The Nova^ 
 tian peasants, animated by despair and religious fury, 
 boldly encountered the invaders of their country, and 
 though many of the Paphlagonians were slain, the 
 Roman legions were vanquished by an irregular mul- 
 titude, armed only with scythes and axes; and, except 
 a few who escaped by an ignominious flight, four 
 thousand soldiers were left dead on the field of battle. 
 The successor of Constantius has expressed, in a con- 
 cise but lively manner, some of the theological calami- 
 ties which afflicted the empire, and more especially the 
 east, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his 
 own passions, and of those of his eunuchs. " Many 
 were imprisoned, and persecuted, and driven into exile. 
 Whole troops of those who are styled heretics were 
 massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. 
 In Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Galatia, and in many other 
 provinces, towns and villages were laid waste, and 
 utterly destroyed." ■ 
 
 While the flames of the Arian contro- '^^^^ •"^^olt and 
 versy consumed the vitals of the empire, ^^'-{^f >,'?^ '^"" 
 the Alrican provinces were infested by coilions, 
 their peculiar enemies the savage fana- ^- ^- ^^' ^^' 
 tics, who, under the name of Circunicellions, formed the 
 strength and scandal of the Donatist party.* The se- 
 
 q Socrates, 1. ii. c. 27. .18. Sozomen, I. iv. c.21. The principal as- 
 sistants of Macedonius, in the work of persocution, were the two bi- 
 shops of Nicomedia and (-vzictis, who were esteemed for ther vir- 
 tues, and especially for their charity. I cannot forbear reminding 
 the reader, that the difFerencc between the Homoousion and Homoi- 
 ousian, is almost invisible to the nicest tlieological eye. 
 
 r We are ignorant of the precise situation of Mantinium. In 
 speaking of these /our bands of legionaries, Socralcj:, Sozomen. and 
 the authorof tlie Actsof St. Paul, use the indefinite terms of «p«jytt3i, 
 :^a.\xvyi;, Tuyfj^xTx, wliich Nifpphorus very properly translates 
 thousayids. Vales, ad Socrat. I. ii. c. 38. 
 
 8 Julian. Epistol. Iii. p. 436. edit. Spanheim. 
 
 t See OptatUR Milevitanus, (particularly iii. 4.) with the Donatist 
 history, by iSI. Dupin, and the original pieces at the end of his edi- 
 tion. The numerous circumstances which Augusiin has mentioned, 
 of the fury of the Circumcellions against others, and against them 
 
 ♦ 
 
 ■^ 
 
284 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 vere execution of the laws of Oonstantine had excited 
 a spirit of discontent and resistance ; the strenuous 
 efforts of his son Constans, to restore the unity of the 
 church, exasperated the sentiments of nmtual hatred, 
 which had first occasioned the separation ; and the 
 methods of force and corruption employed by the two 
 imperial commissioners, Paul and Macarius, furnished 
 the schismatics with a specious contrast between the 
 maxims of tiie apostles and the conduct of their pre- 
 tended successors." The peasants who inhabited tlie 
 villajjes of Numidia and Mauritania, were a ferocious 
 race, who bad been imperfectly reduced under the au- 
 thority of the Roman laws; who were imperfectly con- 
 verted to the christian faith ; but who were actuated by 
 a blind and furious enthusiasm in the cause of their Do- 
 natist teachers. They indigrnantly supported the exile 
 of their bishops, the demolition of their churches, and 
 the interruption of their secret assemblies. The vio- 
 lence of the officers of justice, who were usually sus- 
 tained by a military ijuard, was sometimes repelled with 
 equal violence ; and the blood of some popular ecclesias- 
 tics, which had been shed in the quarrel, inflamed their 
 rude followers with an eajjer desire of revenofino- the 
 death of these holy martyrs, 13y their own cruelty and 
 rashness, the ministers of persecution sometimes pro- 
 voked their fate ; and the guilt of an accidental tumult 
 precipitated the criminals into despair and rebellion. 
 Driven from their native villages, the Donatist pea- 
 sants assembled in formidable gangs on the edge of the 
 Getulian desert; and readily exchanged the habits of 
 labour for a life of idleness and rapine, which was con- 
 secrated by the name of religion, and faintly condemned 
 by the doctors of the sect. The leaders of the Circum- 
 cellions assumed the title of captains of the saints ; 
 their principal weapon, as they were indifferently pro- 
 vided with swords and spears, was a huge and weighty 
 club, which they termed an Israelite ,- and the well- 
 known sound of " Praise be to God," which they used 
 as their cry of war, diffused consternation over the un- 
 armed provinces of Africa. At first their depredations 
 were coloured by the plea of necessity ; but they soon 
 exceeded the measure of subsistence, indulired without 
 control their intemperance and avarice, burni the vil- 
 lages which they had pillaged, and reigned the licen- 
 tious tyrants of the open countr3% The occupations 
 of husbandry, and the administrations of justice, were 
 interrupted ; and as the Circumcellions pretended to 
 restore the primitive equality of mankind, and to reform 
 the abuses of civil society, they opened a secure asy- 
 lum for the slaves and debtors, who flocked in crowds 
 to their holy standard. When they were not resisted, 
 they usually contented themselves with plunder, but 
 the slightest opposition provoked them to acts of vio- 
 lence and murder; and some catholic priests, who had 
 imprudently signalized their zeal, were tortured by the 
 fanatics with the most refined and wanton barbarity. 
 The spirit of the Circumcellions was not always ex- 
 erted against their defenceless enemies; they engaged, 
 and sometimes defeated, the troops of the province; 
 and in the bloody action of Bagai, they attacked in 
 the open field, but with unsuccessful valour, an ad- 
 vanced guard of the imperial cavalry. The Donatists 
 who were taken in arms received, and they soon de- 
 served, the same treatment which might have been 
 shown to the wild beasts of the desert. The captives 
 
 ■elves, have l)oen liihorioiisly rollcctcd l»y TiUoinoiit, Mem. Errlcs. 
 toiii. vi. p. 147 — 1G5; and lie has often, though without design, ex- 
 posed tiie injuries which had provoked tliose fanatics. 
 
 u It is annisinp enoush to ol>serve the language of opposite parties, 
 when they speal« of the same men and things. Cratus, liishop of 
 Carihage, begins tiie acrlamalions of an orthodox synod, '' Gratias 
 Deo onmipotcnti et Chiisfo Jesu . . . qui imperavit religiossimo 
 Constanii injperatori, ut votum gercret unitatis, et mitteret minis- 
 tros sancii oi>cri>j fumufis Dei Pauliim el iMarariuni." Monument, 
 Vet. ad Calcem Optati, p. 'AV.]. •' Erce suhito," (says the Donatist 
 author of the passion of Marculus) "de Constantis regis tyrannita 
 domo . . . poliutum Macarianu> persccutionis murmur incrcpuit, el 
 duobus hestiin ai\ Africam missis, eodem scilicet Macario et Paulo 
 execratidum prorsus ac diruin ecclesiip certamen indictuni est ; ut 
 populuschristianus ad unionem cum traditorihnsfnciendam, nudatis 
 militum gladiis et draconum pra^scntibug signis, et tuharum vocihus 
 COgeretur." Monument, p. 30-1. 
 
 died, without a murmur, either by the sword, the axe, 
 or the fire ; and the measures of retaliation were mul- 
 tiplied in a rapid proportion, which aggravated the 
 horrors of rebellion, and excluded the hope of mutual 
 forgiveness. In the beginning of the present century, 
 the example of the Circumcellions has been renewed 
 in the persecution, the boldness, the crimes, and the 
 enthusiasm of the Camisards; and if the fanatics of 
 Languedoc surpassed those of Numidia, by their mili- 
 tary achievements, the Africans maintained their fierce 
 independence with more resolution and perseverance.* 
 
 Such disorders are the natural effects Their religious 
 of religious tyranny ; but the rage of the suicides. 
 Donatists was inflamed by a frenzy of a very extraor- 
 dinary kind; and wiiich, if it really prevailed among 
 them in so extravagant a degree, cannot surely be pa- 
 ralleled in any country or in any age. Many of these 
 fanatics were possessed with the horror of life, and 
 the desire of martyrdom ; and they deemed it of little 
 moment by what means, or by what hands, they per- 
 ished, if their conduct was sanctified by the intention 
 of devotino- themselves to the fflory of the true faith, 
 and the hope of eternal happiness. y Sometimes they 
 rudely disturbed the festivals, and profaned the tem- 
 ples, of paganism, with the design of exciting the most 
 zealous of the idolaters to revenge the insulted honour 
 of their gods. They sometimes forced their way into 
 the courts of justice, and compelled the affrighted judge 
 to give orders for their immediate execution. They 
 frequently stopped travellers on the public highways, 
 and obliged them to inflict the stroke of martyrdom, by 
 the promise of a reward, if they consented, and by the 
 threat of instant death, if they refused to grant so very 
 singular a fiivour. When they were disappointed of 
 every other resource, they announced the day on which, 
 in the presence of their friends and brethren, they 
 should cast themselves headlong from some lofty rock ; 
 and many precipices were shown, which had acquired 
 fame by the number of religious suicides. In the ac- 
 tions of these desperate enthusiasts, who were admired 
 by one party as the martyrs of God, and abhorred by 
 the other as the victims of Satan, an impartial philo- 
 sopher may discover the influence and the last abuse 
 of that inflexible spirit, which was originally derived 
 from the character and principles of the Jewish nation. 
 
 The simple narrative of the intestine g^„^^^, ^,,^,^^j^, 
 divisions, which distracted the peace, of the christian 
 and dishonoured the triumph, of the ^^5*. A. D. 312— 
 church, will confirm the remark of a ' * 
 pagan historian, and justify the complaint of a venera- 
 ble bishop. The experience of Ammianus had con- 
 vinced hiin, that the enmity of the christians towards 
 each other, surpassed the fury of savage beasts against 
 man ;^ and Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically la- 
 ments, that the kingdom of heaven was converted, by 
 discord, into the image of chaos, of a nocturnal tem- 
 pest, and of hell itself." The fierce and partial wri- 
 ters of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, 
 and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have paint- 
 ed the battle of the angels and dapmons. Our calmer 
 reason will nject such pure and perfect monsters of 
 vice or sanctity, and will impute an equal, or at least 
 an indiscriminate, measure of good and evil to the hos- 
 tile sectaries, who assumed and bestowed the appella- 
 tions of orthodox and heretics. They had been edu- 
 cated in the same religion, and the same civil society. 
 Their hopes and fears in the present, or in a future, 
 life, were balanced in the same proportion. On either 
 side, the error might be innocent, the faith sincere, the 
 practice meritorious or corrupt. Their passions were 
 
 X The Hidtoire des Camisards, in 3 vols. 12 mo. Villefrariche, 1760, 
 may he recommended as accurate and impartial. It requires some 
 attention to discover the religion of the author. 
 
 y The Donatist suicides alleged in their justificRtion the example 
 of Kazias, which is related in the 14th chapter of the second book of 
 the MaccabeeB. 
 
 r. Nullas infestaa hominihus hestias, ut sunt cihi feralcs plerique 
 christianorum expertus. Ammian. xxii. 5. 
 
 a Gregor. Nazianzen, Oral. i. p. 33. See Tillemont, torn. vi. p. 501» 
 quarto edit. 
 
 excited by similar objects ; and they might alternately 
 abuse the fayonr of the court, or of the°peopIe. The 
 metaphysical opinions of the Athanasians and the Ad' 
 ans, could not luduence their moral characte ; and 
 hey were alike actuated by the intolerant spirit, which 
 
 of Uie1o"sp:l:"'^' '"''" »"-^ P"- -<» -•"Pl-^ ■^-i- 
 Toleration of A modern writer, who, with a iust 
 
 fnrrZT 7J*fiJ^."?e' has prefixed to his own his- 
 tory the honourable epithets of political and philosoph- 
 ical,'' accuses the timid prudence of Montesquieu, for 
 neglecting to enumerate, among the causes of the de- i 
 cline of the empire, a law of Constantino, by which ' 
 the exercise of the pagan worship was absolutely sup- 
 pressed, and a considerable part of his subjects was 
 left destitute of priests, of temples, and of aiy pu 1 c 
 religion The zeal of the philcJsophic historian L the 
 r^hts of mankind, has induced him to acquiesce in 
 the ambiguous testimony of those ecclesiastics, who 
 have too lightly ascribed to their fiivourite hero the 
 77^m/ of a general persecution.*^ Instead of alleo-ino-this 
 imaginary law which would have blazed in the "front 
 of the imperial codes, we may safely appeal to the 
 original epist e, which Constantino addressed to he 
 followers of the ancient religion; at a time when le 
 no longer disguised his conversion, nor dreaded te I 
 rivals of his throne. He invites and exhor'^! in e 
 most pressing terms, the subjects of the Roman em- 
 pire to imitate the example of their master ; but he de- 
 by Constantinc, ^^^^es, that those who still refuse to I 
 mo,r r 1 • ^Pf". their eyes to the celestial lio-ht, I 
 may freely enjoy their temples, and their fancied crJds ' 
 A report, that the ceremonies of i)ao-anism were s.m 
 pressed is formally contradicted by^the emperor lim-' 
 self, who wisely assigns, as the principle of his mod- 
 eration, the invincible force of habit, of prejudice and 
 ot superstition.^ Without violating th^ JanctTty of 
 his promise, without alarming the fears of the pa4ns 
 he artful monarch advanced, by slow and cautious 
 steps, to undermine the irregular and decayed fabric 
 of polytheism. The partial acts of severity^which c 
 occasionally exercised, though they were secretly 
 prompted by a christian zeal, were coloured by the 
 fairest pretences of justice and the public good j and 
 while Constantine designed to ruiii the foundations, 
 he seemed to reform the abuses, of the ancient rouZul 
 t^cLT example of the wisest of his predecessors 
 n.. 1^ T"^'^'""'^'^' ^^'^ "'^"t ngoTous penalties, the 
 occult and impious arts of divination ; which excited 
 the vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts, 
 of hose who were discontented with their present con- 
 Uition. An ignominious silence was imposed on the 
 oracles, which had been publicly convicted of fraud 
 and falsehood ; the effeminate priests of the Nile were 
 abolished ; and Constantine discharged the duties of a 
 Koman censor, when he gave orders for the demolition 
 of several temples of Phcenicia; in which every mode 
 of prostitution was devoutly practised in the face of 
 day and to the honour of Venus.%- The imperial city 
 ol Constantinople was, m some measure, raised at the 
 expense, and was adorned with the spoils, of the onu- 
 lent temples of Greece and Asia ; the sacred property 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 285 
 
 : was confiscated ; the statues of gods and heroes were 
 transported, with rude familiarity, among a people who 
 considered them as objects, not of adoration, but of 
 curiosity: the gold and silver were restored to circa- 
 ation ; and the magistrates, the bishops, and the eu- 
 nuchs, improved the fortunate occasion of eratifvino- 
 
 ButTh^ '^h' '"'!' '^'''' '^'^^^^' ^"^ '^'"''^ rfsentiienf : 
 vi « depredations were confined to a small part 
 of the Roman world ; and the provinces had been lon^ 
 since accustomed to endure the same sacrilecrious ra- 
 ])iiie, from the tyranny of princes and proconsds, who 
 
 P^Hllici'^ ' ,«»«P^^f ed of any design to subve t the 
 established religion.^ 
 
 The sons of Constantine trod in the 
 footsteps of their father, with more ^"'^'"ssonF. 
 I zeal, and with less discretion. The pretences of ra- 
 j pine and oppression were insensibly multiplied ;« every 
 indulgence was shown to the illegal behaviour of the 
 
 V nt^rnV "^^^>^.^«"^t ^7« explained to the disad- 
 vantage of paganism ; and tlie demolition of the tem- 
 pies was celebrated as one of the auspicious events of 
 I the reign of Constans and Constantius.»^ The name' 
 ^ of Constantius is prefixed to a concise law, which 
 { might have superseded the necessity of any future pro- 
 i :;'T"';- '' 't ^' ""' ^'""^"^^' t^^^'i" all places, and 
 'el^lllf ' ^^V^P^"" ^'^ immediately shut, and 
 j ^^ir^^"!^y guarded, that none may have the power of 
 offending. It is likewise our pleasure, tha? all our 
 subjects should abstain from sacrifices. If any one 
 I sliould be guilty of such an act, let him feel the sword 
 of vengeance, and after his execution, let his property 
 be confiscated to the public use. We denoince the 
 same penalties against the governors of the provinces. 
 It they neglect to punish the criminals.'-^ J3ut there 
 IS the strongest reason to believe, that this formidable 
 edict was either composed without being published, 
 or was published without being executed. The evil 
 dence of facts, and the monuments which are still ex- 
 tant of brass and marble, continue to prove the public 
 exercise of the pagan worship during the whole reiffn 
 of the sons of Constantine. In the east, as well as in 
 the west, in cities, as well as in the country, a great 
 number of temples were respected, or at least were 
 spared; and the devout multitude still enjoyed the 
 uxiiry of sacrifices, of festivals, and of processions, 
 by the permission, or by the connivance, of the civil 
 govermnent About four years after the supposed 
 date of his bloody edict, Constantius visited the tem- 
 ples of Rome ; and the decency of his behaviour is 
 recominended by a pagan orator as an example worthy 
 ot the unitation of succeeding princes. "That em- 
 peror, says Symmachus, "suffered the privik-ffcs of 
 the vestal virgins to remain inviolate; he bestowed the 
 sacerdotal dignities on the nobles of Rome, g-ranted 
 the customary allowance to defray the expenses of the 
 public rites and sacrifices ; and, though he had em- 
 
 P^et^i^ricf SliS'l^Sis'llilr ^U^^'^ ''' i^^aUissemet^s des Euro- 
 P<^oi^pr!iS^;^Sl-S^-^Or. m^ U. c.- 
 
 deinde (Lys tl.e K^.terrprUm ico'sVn i ,Ss ^"•" 
 
 n.ature in years and pioty, he declares to he idXers/c x \ i nt 
 ;hc^rr;?ij;r;i^o?shir"""^'^"' "^^ toexcrcL^;Ve%^;il'-/ 
 «=;' ^'J^.f'f ''^'"^';" Vit.Conslantin. I. iii. c. 54-58, and 1. iv c ^3- 
 of"tl.T R.r.h''n f ^"^^o^i'y '»ay be con.pared with the suppreslio^ 
 ^nn.Sr^aJe'ofSirR'oi!;^ '^'"°""- °^ ^'^ ^-"P'« o^ ^-' S ihe 
 
 ner's Jewish and Heathen Testimonies. voUv. p 1 J 
 
 g Amnuanns (xxii. 4.) spraks of some court eutmrhs who wer. 
 spons templorum pasti. Lihanius says (Orat. ro rimnl n o^^ 
 n .^nvo' ;;'"P^'r,°'^'^" ^'«^« »^vay a temple, like a' o-^! or a i J 
 aslave orapold cup; hut the devout philUplier tak?. c ' ,^7o ' ?, 
 l^V^r'nT ^.•'••IV'esio"^ favouritcs'very seldom pro%ered 
 h See Gotiitfred. Cod. TJieodos. tom. vi. p %•• I ih.,f OrnV n 
 rcuta . c. X. in Fahric. Bibl. Gra^c. tom. vli p. dils ' * ^'•''' ^^■ 
 
 1 1 lacujt omnil.us locis atquc urhihus universis claudi urotinus tern 
 pla et accessu vet.tis omnil.us Jicentiam deli.iquend peSs abn^-" 
 L'ari. \olumus et.am cunetos a sacrificiis abstinere. Q, id ^Icufs 
 a iquid forte hujusmodi pcrpetraverit. pladio sfcrnatur f.?rnu5?e^ 
 
 r "plo^Sur:;?.'"'"'*'""^ r '''''' = '' sinSr ^dS'^I^ 
 1 xvi t ^ ip" / oT"""'"'*, ^""'^"'•P "epiexerint. Cod. TJieodos. 
 ;, .hLnlto ;.r.7 Chronolocry h.-.s discovered some contradiction 
 
 the d-ite of thisextravasant law ; the onlv one, perhaps, by which ' 
 
 M "ef^ESe"AI'e^"tT/ '^^""*^'^'•'' "■^'•^^"''' ""^ confi^atiin 
 M.ne u Lasiie (."Mem. de I'Academie, tom. xv. p. 9^\) coniectnrpa 
 
 with a show of reason, that this was no more ti.a.r the nSes of '^ 
 law, the heads of an intended hill, which were found in &;riniia 
 MeraoriiE among the papers of Constantius, and afterwards ina-rtpd 
 as a worthy model, in the Theodosian Code. inserted, 
 
 m 
 
t 
 
 286 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 braced a different religion, lie never attempted to de- 
 prive the empire of the sacred worship of antiquity.'"' 
 The senate still presumed to consecrate, by solemn 
 decrees, the divine memory of their sovereigns ; and 
 Constantino himself was associated, after his death, 
 to those gods whom he had renounced and insulted 
 during his life. The title, the ensigns, the preroga- 
 tives, of SOVEREIGN PONTIFF, which had been institu- 
 ted by Numa, and assumed by Augustus, were ac- 
 cepted without hesitation, by seven christian empe- 
 rors ; who were invested with a more absolute author- 
 ity over the religion which they had deserted, than 
 over that which they professed.* 
 
 The divisions of Christianity suspended the rum of 
 oai,^rtn/i{m,-'" and the holy war against the infidels was 
 less vigorously prosecuted by princes and bishops, 
 who were more immediately alarmed by the guilt and 
 danger of domestic rebellion. The extirpation o( idol- 
 atry" might have been justified by the established prin- 
 ciples of^intolerance : but the hostile sects, which al- 
 ternately reigned in the imperial court, were mutually j 
 apprehensive" of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, , 
 the minds of a powerful, though declining faction. 
 Every motive of authority and fasiiion, of interest and 
 reason, now militated on the side of Christianity ; but 
 two or three generations elapsed, before their victori- 
 ous influence was universally felt. The religion which 
 had so long and so lately been established in the Ro- 
 man empire was still revered by a numerous people, 
 less attached indeed to speculative opinion, than to 
 ancient custom. The honours of the state and army 
 were indifferently bestowed on all the subjects of 
 Constantino and Constantius; and a considerable por- 
 tion of knowledge and wealth and valour was still 
 engaged in the service of polytheism. The super- 
 stition of the senator and of the peasant, of the poet 
 and the philosopher, was derived from very different 
 causes, but they mot with equal devotion in the tem- 
 ples of the 8-ods. Their zeal was insensibly provoked 
 by the insulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and 
 
 their hopes were revived by the well-grounded confi- 
 dence, that the presumptive heir of the empire, a young 
 and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the 
 arms of the barbarians, had secretly embraced the re- 
 litrion of his ancestors. 
 
 k Syminacli. Epistol. x. 54. . « • « 
 
 I The fourtli Dissertation of M. de la Bastie sur le Souverain 1 on^ 
 tificat des Empercurs Romains, (in the Mem. de I'Acad. toin. xv. p. 7j 
 —141.) is a very learned and judicious performance, which explains 
 the state, and proves the toleration, of pacanism from Constantine 
 to Graliaii. 'J'hc assertion of Zosimus, that Gratian was the first 
 who refused the pontifical robe, is confirmed, beyond a doubt ; and 
 the murmurs of bigotry, on that subject, are almost silenced. 
 
 m As I have freely anticipated the use of pagans and paganism, I 
 shall now trace the singular revolutions of those rolebratcd words. 
 1. n^T-x, in the Doric dialect, so familiar to the Italians, signifies a 
 fountain; and the rural neiiihbourhood which frequented the same 
 fountain, derived tlie common appellation of patrns and pagans, 
 (Festus sub voce, and Serving ad Virpil. Georpic. ii. 382.) 2. By an 
 easy extension of the word, pagan and rural became almost synony- 
 mous. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxviii. 5.) and the meaner rustics acquired 
 that name, which has been corrupted into peasants in the modern 
 languages of Europe. 3. The amazing increase of the military order 
 introduced the necessity of a correlative term, (Hume's Essays, vol. 
 I. p. 555.) and all the people who were not enlisted in the service of 
 the prince, were branded with the contemptuous epithets of pagans. 
 (Tacit Hist. iii. 24. 43. 77. Juvenal. Satir. xvi. Tertullian de Pal- 
 lio, c. 4.) 4. The christians were the soldiers of Christ ; their adyer- 
 Barics who refused his sacrament, or military oath of baptism, might 
 deserve the metaphorical name of pagans: and this popular reproach 
 was introduced as early as the reign of Valcntinian (A. D. 365.) into 
 imperial laws (Cod. Theodos. 1. .vvi. tit. ii. leg. 18.) and theological 
 writings, ."i. Christianitv gradually filled the cities of the empire ; 
 the old religion, in the time of I'rudentius (advcrs. Symmachum, 1. i. 
 ad fin.) and Orosius, (in Prasfat. Hist.) retired and languished in ob- 
 scure villages; and the word pagans, with Its new signification, re- 
 verted to its primitive origin. 6. Since the worship of Jupiter and 
 his family has expired, the vacant title of pagans has been succes- 
 sively applied to all the idolaters and polytheists of the old and new 
 world. 7. The Latin chri.-^tians l»cstowed it, without scruple, on 
 their mortal enemies the Mahometans; and the purest Unitarians 
 were branded with the unjust reproach of idolatry and paganism. 
 See Gerard Vossius Etvmologicon Linguffi Latinm, in his works, tom. 
 1 p 420 Godefroy's Commentary on the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. 
 V. 250! and Ducange, mcdijr el infima; Latinitat. Glossar. 
 
 n In the pure language of Ionia and Athens, E»;r«,\ov. and A«rp..« 
 were ancient and familiar words. The former expressed a likeness, 
 nn apparition, (Homer. Odyss. xi. 601.) a representation, an image, 
 created either by fancy or art. The laUer denoted any sort of ser 
 vice or slavery. The Jews of Egypt, who translated the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, restrained the use of these words (hxod. xx. 4, 5) to the 
 religious worship of an image. The peculiar idiom of the HcllenistB, 
 or Grecian Jews, has been adopted by the sacred and ecclesiastical 
 writers- and the reproach of idolatry {EiS^\oKctrpii<»,) has stigma- 
 tized that visible and abject mode of superstition, which some sects 
 of Christianity should not hastily impute to the polytheists of Greece 
 and Rome. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Julian IS declared emperor hy the letrims of Gaul— His 
 march and success.— The death of Constantius.— Civil 
 adiidnislration of Julian. 
 
 While the Romans languished un- The jealousy 
 der the itrnominious tyranny of eunuchs of Constantius 
 and bishops, the praises of Julian were '^"--^ J"'"^"' 
 repeated with transport in every part of the empire, 
 except in the palace of Constantius. The barbarians 
 of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of 
 the young Caesar; his soldiers were the companions 
 of his vfctory; the grateful provincials enjoyed the 
 blessings of his reign ; but the favourites, who had 
 I opposed his elevation, were offended by his virtues ; 
 i and they justly considered the friend of the people as 
 ' the enemy of the court. As long as the fame of Julian 
 I was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace, who were 
 ! skilled in the language of satire, tried the efficacy of 
 ' those arts which they had so often practised with suc- 
 cess. They easily discovered, that his simplicity was 
 not exempt from affectation : the ridiculous epithets of 
 an hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, 
 were applied to the dress and person of the philosophic 
 warrior ; and his modest despatches were stigmatized 
 as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquacious 
 Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art 
 of war amidst the groves of the academy.'' The voice 
 of malicious folly was at length silenced by the shouts 
 of victory ; the conqueror of the Franks and Alemanni 
 could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; 
 and the monarch himself was meanly ambitious of 
 stealing from his lieutenant the honourable reward of 
 his labours. In the letters crowned with laurel, which, 
 according to ancient custom, were addressed to the 
 provinces, the name of Julian was omitted. " Con- 
 stantius had made his dispositions in person ; he had 
 sio-nalized his valour in the foremost ranks ; his mili- 
 tary conduct had secured the victory ; and the captive 
 kino- of the barbarians was presented to him on the 
 field of battle," from which he was at that time distant 
 above forty days' journey.^ So extravagant a fable 
 was incapable, however, of deceiving the public credu- 
 lity, or even of satisfying the pride of the emperor him- 
 self. Secretly conscious that the applause and favour 
 of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes of Ju- 
 lian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the 
 subtle poison of those artful sycophants, who coloured 
 their mischievous designs with the fairest appearances 
 of truth and candour.'^ Instead of depreciating the 
 merits of Julian, they acknowledged, and even exag- 
 gerated, his popular fame, superior talents, and impor- 
 tant services. But they darkly insinuated, that the 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 a Omnes qui plus potcrant In palailo, adulandi professores jam 
 doctU recte consilta. prospereque completa verfebant in deridiculum 
 t-?lia sine modo strepentes insulse ; in odium venit cum vlctoriis suis : 
 canclla non homo ; ut hirsutum Julianum carpentes. appellantesque 
 loquacem talpam, et purpuratam simiam, et litterionem Gra^cum ; e t 
 hiscongrucntia plurima atque vernacula principi resonanti^s, audire 
 hmc taliaquc gestienti, virtutes ejus obruerc verbis impudentibus cona- 
 bantur, ct segnem inccssentes el tiniidum et umbratilein, gestaque 
 secus verbis comptiorihus exornantem. Animianus, xviK 1 1. 
 
 b Aminian,xvi. 12. The orator Themistius (iv. p. 50, o/.) believed 
 whatever was contained in the imperial letters, which were address- 
 ed to the senate of Constantinople. Aurelius Victor, who published 
 his Abridgment in the last year of Constantius, ascribes t»e Ger- 
 man victories to the wisdom of the emperor, and i\\t fortune of tne 
 Caesar. Yet the historian, soon afterwards, was indebted to the la- 
 vour or esteem of Julian for the honour of a bra.^s statue ; and the 
 important offices of consular of the second Pannonia, and prtefecl ol 
 
 the city. Ammian. xxi. 10. j. . . _ i ..^..„ tit.iiia 
 
 c Callido nocendi artificio, accusatoriam dintntem laudum tituhs 
 peragebant ... Ha; voces fuerunt ad inflammand.i odia P'obrisotn 
 nibus poieniiores. See Mamertin. in Actione Graliarum in vet. fa- 
 ncgyr. xi. 5, 6. 
 
 virtues of the Caesar might instantly be converted into 
 the most dangerous crimes, if the inconstant multitude 
 should prefer their inclinations to their duty ; or if the 
 general of a victorious army should be tempted from 
 his allegiance by ihe hopes of revenge, and indepen- 
 dent greatness. The personal fears of Constantius 
 Fears and onvy of Were interpreted by his council as a 
 Constam.us. laudable anxiety for the public safety ; 
 whilst m private, and perhaps in his own breast, he 
 disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear 
 the sentiments of hatred and envy, which he had se- 
 cretly conceived for the inimitable virtues of Julian. 
 The legions of Pf apparent tranquillity of Gaul, 
 Gaul are orderod ^^^o the imminent danorer of the eastern 
 (o^march into the provinces, offered a specious pretence 
 A. b. .%o. April. ^^^ the design which was artfully con- 
 certed by the imperial ministers. They 
 resolved to disarm the Cssar; to recall those faithful 
 troops who guarded his person and dignity ; and to 
 ejmploy, in a distant war against the Persian monarch, 
 the hardy veterans who had vanquished, on the banks 
 ot the Khine, the fiercest nations of Germany. While 
 Julian used the laborious hours of his winter-quarters 
 at 1 aris in the administration of power, which, in his 
 hands, was the exercise of virtue, he was surprised by 
 the hasty arrival of a tribune and a notary, with posi- 
 tive orders from the emperor, which they were directed 
 to execute, and he was commanded not to oppose. 
 Constantius signified his pleasure, that four entire le- 
 gions, the Celtfe, and Petulants, the Heruli, and the 
 liatavians, should be separated from the standard of i 
 Julian, under which they had acquired their fame and 
 discipline ; that in each of the remaining bands three 
 hundred of the bravest youths should be selected ; and 
 that this numerous detachment, the strength of the; 
 Gallic army, should instantly begin their march, and 
 exert their utmost diligence to arrive, before the open- i 
 ing of the campaign, on the frontiers of Persia.** The 
 Caesar foresaw and lamented the consequences of this 
 fatal mandate. Most of the auxiliaries, who enjracred 
 their voluntary service, had stipulated, that they should 
 never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public faith 
 of Rome, and the personal honour of Julian, had been 
 pledged for the observance of this condition. Such 
 an act of treachery and oppression would destroy the 
 confidence, and excite the resentment, of the indepen- 
 dent warriors of Germany, who considered truth a.s the 
 noblest of their virtue?, and freedom as the most valu- 
 able of their possessions. The legionaries, who en- 
 joyed the title and privileges of Romans, were enlist- 
 ed for the general defence of the republic ; but those 
 mercenary troops heard with cold indifference the an- 
 tiquated names of the republic and of Rome. Attach- 
 ed either from birth or long habit, to the climate and 
 manners of Gaul, they loved and admired Julian ; they 
 
 .f fi!^''?V^"*? P^'^^P^ *'^^^^' *^^ emperor ; they dread- , 
 ed the laborious m-arch, the Persian arrows, and the ' 
 burning deserts of Asia They claimed as their own 
 ^e country which they had saved ; and excused their,' 
 Hant of spirit by pleadmg the sacred and more imme- ' 
 diate duty of protecting their families and friends. ' 
 Ihe apprehensions of the Gauls were derived from the 
 knowledge of the impending and inevitable dano-er. 
 AS soon as the provinces were exhausted of their nn\- 
 wS).'/'7f ^' ^^^ Germans would violate a treaty 
 ^t^ndli^l been imposed on their fears ; and notwith- 
 standing the abilities and valour of Julian, the general 
 
 wot^ldTr f T^' '° ^^""^ '^^ P"^li« calamities 
 Iwttl Tif "^'^' "?"'* ^"^ ^^""^^l^' ^^t^r a vain re- 
 r^i« nr'/^^'- ^ PP^T^^ »" the camp of the barba- 
 rians, or a crimmal in the palace of Constantius. If 
 Julian complied with the orders which he had received 
 
 287 
 
 he subscribed his own destruction, and that of a peo- 
 pie who deserved his affection. But a positive refusal 
 was an act ol rebellion, and a declaration of war. 
 
 The inexorable jealousy of the emperor, the peremp- 
 tory, and perhaps insidious, nature of liis commands, 
 eft not any room for a fair apology, or candid interpre- 
 tation ; and the dependent station of the Caesar scarcely 
 allowed him to pause or to deliberate. Solitude in- 
 creased the perplexity of Julian ; he could no lonorpr 
 apply to the faithful counsels of Sallust, who had been 
 removed from his office by the judicious malice of the 
 eunuchs: he could not even enforce his representations 
 by the concurrence of the ministers, who would have 
 been afraid, or ashamed, to approve the ruin of Gaul. 
 Ihe moment had been chosen, when Lupicinus,- the 
 general of the cavalry, was despatched into Britain, to 
 repulse the inroads of the Scots and Picts; and Flo- 
 rentius was occupied at Vienna by the assessment of 
 the tribute. The latter, a crafty and corrupt states- 
 man, declining to assume a responsible part on this 
 dangerous occasion, eluded the pressing and repeated 
 invitations of Julian, who represented to him, that in 
 every important measure, the presence of the praefect ' 
 was indispensable in the council of the prince. In the 
 I meanwhile the Caesar was oppressed by the rude and 
 j importunate solicitations of tlie imperial messeno-ers 
 j who presumed to suggest, that if he expected the re- 
 : turn of his ministers, he would charge himself with 
 the guilt of the delay, and reserve for them the merit 
 , of the execution. Unable to resist, unwilling to com- 
 ! ply, Julian expressed, in the most serious terms, his 
 wish, and even his intention, of resigning the purple, 
 which he could not preserve with honoin-, but which 
 he could not abdicate with safety. 
 
 After a painful conflict, Julian was 
 compelled to acknowledge, that obedi- '^^^" discontents, 
 ence was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and 
 that the sovereign alone was entitled to judo-e of the 
 public welfare. He issued the necessary or'ders for 
 carrying into execution the commands of Constantius; 
 a piart ot the troops began their march for the Alps: 
 and the detachments from the several garrisons moved 
 towards their respective places of assembly. Tliev 
 advanced with difficulty through the tremblino- and 
 affrighted crowds of provincials ; who attempted to ex- 
 ^ cite their pity by silent despair, or loud lamentations ; 
 while the wives of the soldiers holdino- their infants in 
 I their arms, accused the desertion of their husbands, in 
 j the mixed language of grief, of tenderness, and of in- 
 dignation. This scene of general distress afflicted the 
 humanity of the Caesar; he granted a sufficient num- 
 ber of post-M-aggons to transport the wives and fami- 
 lies of the soldiers,^ endeavoured to alleviate the hard- 
 , ships which he was constrained to inflict, and increas- 
 ed, by the most laudable arts, his own popularity, and 
 j the discontent of the exiled troops. The grief of an 
 armed multitude is soon converted into rao-e ; their 
 licentious murmurs, which every hour were communi- 
 cated from tent to tent with more boldness and effect, 
 prepared their minds for the most daring acts of sedi- 
 tion ; and by the connivance of their tribunes, a season- 
 able libel was secretly dispersed, which painted, in 
 lively colours, the disgrace of the Caesar, the oppres- 
 sion of the Gallic army, and the feeble vices of the ty- 
 rant of Asia. The servants of Constantius were aston- 
 ished and alarmed by the progress of this dantrerous 
 spirit. They pressed the Caesar to hasten the depart- 
 ure of the troops ; but they imprudently rejected the 
 honest and judicious advice of Julian; who proposed 
 
 e«Mi /.""""i^ interval, which may he interposed, het%veen the hv- 
 Jnowfni^ *"1«"* '"•'"•" **'■* °f Arnmianus, (xx. I 43^n"tead of i 
 wouTd r!n t. ".^'^"1 'P'"":? ^°' ^ '"«^<^" of ^"^ee thousand miles ' 
 S.1 '^Th/ '"^ o'-de'-f of Constantius as extravagant as they were I 
 S oJ* r,!^ ^'°T. ""^ ^'*"' ^o"''^ "o^ ''ave reached Syria til tl| ' 
 
 e Ammianus, xx. I. The valour of Lucipinus, and his military 
 skill, are acknowledged I.y the historian, who, in his aHecrod lan- 
 fruasre. accuses the general of exalting the horns of his pride, hellow- 
 Jiig in a tragic tone, and exciting a douht whether he was more cruel 
 or avaricious. The danger from tlie Scots and Picte was so serious, 
 that Julian himself had some thoughts of passins over into the island 
 
 f He granted them the permission of the cursiis claviUarJs, or cUi- 
 biifaris. These post-waggons are often mentioned in the code, and 
 were supposed to carry fifteen hundred pounds' weight. Sec Vah s 
 ad Ammian. XX. 4. ^ * 
 
 I 
 
 in 
 
 t' 
 
288 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Cbap. XXII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 289 
 
 •i\ 
 
 il' 
 
 that they should not march throu<rh Paris, and suggest- 
 ed the danger and temptation of a last interview. 
 They proclaim Ju- As sooH as the approach of the troops 
 liari omiKjror. \vas announccd, tlie Ca?sar wont out to 
 meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been 
 erected in a plain before the gates of the city. After 
 distinguishing the ofTicers and soldiers, who by their 
 rank or merit deserved a peculiar attention, Julian ad- 
 dressed himself in a studied oration to the surroundinjj 
 multitude : he celebrated their exploits with grateful 
 applause ; encouraged tliein to accept, with alacrity, 
 the honour of serving under the eyes of a powerful 
 and liberal monarch ; and admonislied them, that the 
 commands of Augustus required an instant and cheer- 
 ful obedience. The soldiers, who were apprehensive 
 of offending their general by an indecent clamour, or 
 of belying their sentiments by false and venal accla- 
 mations, maintained an obstinate silence ; and after a 
 short pause, were dismissed to their quarters. The 
 principal oHicers were entertained by the Ca;sar, who 
 professed, in the warmest language of friendship, his 
 desire and his inability to reward, according to their 
 deserts, the brave companions of his victories. They 
 retired from the feast, full of grief and perplexity; and 
 lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore them 
 from their beloved general and their native country. 
 The only expedient which could prevent their separa- 
 tion was boldly agitated and apjiroved ; the popular 
 resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular con- 
 spiracy ; their just reasons of complaint were height- 
 ened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by 
 wine ; as, on the eve of their departure, the troops were 
 indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of mid- 
 night, the impetuous multitude, with swords, and 
 bows, and torches, in their hands, rushed into the sub- 
 urbs ; encompassed the palace ;5 and, careless of fu- 
 ture dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable 
 words, Julian Augustus ! The prince, whose anxious 
 suspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclama- 
 tions, secured the doors against their intrusion ; and, 
 as long as it was in his power, secluded his j)erson 
 and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. 
 At the dawn of day, the soldiers, whose zeal was irri- 
 tated by opposition, forcibly entered the palace, seized, 
 with respectful violence, the object of their choice, 
 guarded Julian with drawn swords through the streets 
 of Paris, })laced him on the tribunal, and with repeated 
 shouts saluted him as their emperor. Prudence as 
 well as loyalty inculcated the propriety of resisting 
 their treasonable designs ; and of ])roparing, for his 
 oppressed virtue, the excuse of violence. Addressing 
 himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals, 
 he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes 
 expressed his indignation; conjured them not to sully 
 the fame of their immortal victories; and ventured to 
 promise, thatif tluy would inmiediately return to their 
 allegiance, he would undertake to obtain from the em- 
 peror not only a free and gracious pardon, hut even 
 the revocation of the orders which had excited tlu ir 
 resentment. But the soldiers, who were conscious of 
 their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude of 
 Julian, than on the clemency of the emperor. Their 
 zeal was insensibly turned into impatience, and their 
 
 g Most pro!)a»i1y tlic palace of tlie hatlis. (Tfiermarum,) of wliirh a 
 solid ami lofiy liall still sulisista in tlie rue de la harpe. The l)uil(l- 
 iriL'S roveifd a ronsidcralilc space of the inochTii (luarter of the mii- 
 versity ; and tlie uardons, under tlie Merovingian kiniis. comniunica- 
 ted with the aMu yofSt. Ctrinain d»;s I'rez. Ily the injuries of lime 
 and the >i'i)rni;ins, tliis ancient palace wag reduced, in the twelfth 
 century, to a maze of ruins : whose dark recesses were the scene of 
 licentious love. 
 
 FiX|)lirat aula sinus monteniquc amploctitur alls ; 
 
 Multiplici latehra ttceleium t«-rsura ruloreui. 
 
 pereuntix sa*pe pudorid 
 
 Cclatura nef;is, Veneriscjue accoaiinoda /«r//s. 
 (These lines are quoted from the Ar. hitreniua. 1. iv. c. 8. a poetical 
 work of John de Hauinvillc, or llanville, a monk of t^t. Alhan's, ahout 
 tlie year IIDO. See Warton's History of Enjjlisii Poetry, vol. i. dis- 
 sert, ii.) Vel such thefts miyht he less pernicious to mankind than 
 thctheolo^iical disputes of tlie Sorhonne, which liave hecn since ajii- 
 lated on the same grouiid. Bonamy, Mem. dc I'Acadeiuio, torn. iv. 
 p. 678— 682. 
 
 slP 
 
 impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sustained, 
 till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their re- 
 proaches, and their menaces ; nor did he yield, till he 
 had been repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, 
 he must consent to reifrn. He was exalted on a shield 
 ill the presence, and amidst the unanimous acclama- 
 tions, of the troops ; a rich military collar, which was 
 offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem '^ the 
 ceremony was concluded by the promise of a moderate 
 donative;' and the new emperor, overwhelmed with 
 real or aflected grief, retired into the most secret re- 
 cesses of his apartment.'^ 
 
 The grief of Julian could proceed iiis protestations 
 only from his innocence; hut his inno- of innocence, 
 cence must appear extremely doubtful • in the eyes of 
 those who have learned to suspect the motives and the 
 professions of princes. His lively and active mind 
 was susceptible of the various impressions of hope 
 and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty and of am- 
 bition, of the love of fame and of the fear of reproach. 
 But it is impossible for us to calculate the respective 
 weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascer- 
 tain the principles of action which might escape the 
 observation, while they guided or rather impelled, the 
 steps of Julian himself. The discontent of the troops 
 was produced by the malice of his enemies ; their tu- 
 mult was the natural effect of interest and of passion ; 
 and if Julian had tried to conceal a deep design under 
 the appearances of chance, he must have employed the 
 most consummate artifice without necessity and prob- 
 ably without success. He solemnly declares, in the 
 presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, 
 and of all the other deities, that till the close of the 
 evening which preceded his elevation, he was utterly 
 icrnorant of the desi"-ns of the soldiers ;" and it may 
 seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero, and 
 the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious con- 
 fidence that Constantius was the enemy, and that he 
 himself was the favourite, of the gods, might prompt 
 him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspi- 
 cious moment of his reign, which was predestined to 
 restore the ancient religion of mankind. When Julian 
 had received the intelligence of the conspiracy, he re- 
 signed himself to a short slumber; and afterwards re- 
 lated to his friends that he had seen the genius of the 
 empire waiting with some impatience at his door, 
 pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of 
 spirit and ambition." Astonished and perplexed, he 
 addressed his prayers to the great Jupiter; who imme- 
 diately signified, by a clear and manifest omen, that 
 he should submit to the will of heaven and of the 
 army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary 
 maxims of reason, excites our suspicion and eludes our 
 inqtiiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once 
 so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a 
 
 h Even in this tumultuous moment, Julian attended to the forms 
 of superstitious ceremony ; and ot'stinately refused the inauspicious 
 use of a female necklace, or a horse collar, which the impatient sol- 
 diers would have emi»Ioyed in the room of a diadem. 
 
 i An equal proportion' of gold and silver, five pieces of the former, 
 one pound of the latter; the whole amounting to about five pounds 
 ten shillings of our money. 
 
 k For the whole narrative of this revolt, we may appeal to ait- 
 thcntic and orijiinal materials ; Julian himself, (ad S. P. Q. Atheni- 
 cnsem, p. 2H'»— 2Hi',) Lilanius, (Ornt. Parental, c. 44—48. in Fabri- 
 cius Hihliot. GriEC. torn. vii. p. 260—273.) Ammianiis, (xx. 4.) and 
 Zosimus, (I. iii. p. 1.51 — 1.53.) who, in the reign of Julian, appears to 
 follow the more respectable authority of Eun.-ipius. With such guides 
 we mifffit neglect the ahbreviator.*! and ecclesiastical historians. 
 
 1 Emropins. a respectable witness, uses a doubtful expression, 
 "consensu militum," (x. 15.) Cregory Nazianzen, whose ignorance 
 might excuse his fanaticism, directly charges the apostate with pre- 
 sumption, madness, and impious rebellion, («u5«^f<x, »iTovot»,ma-t^tt», 
 Orat. iii. p. 67. 
 
 m Julian, ad S. P. Q.. Athen. p. 284. The devout Abb6 de Ja Ble- 
 terie (V'ie de Julien, p. 159.) is almost inclined to respect the devout 
 protestations of a pagan. 
 
 n Ammian. xx. 5. with the note of Lindenbrogius on tiie ir»»nius of 
 th«« empire. Juli.-tn himself, in a confidential letter to his friend and 
 physician, Oribasian (Epist. xvii. p. 384.) mentions another dream, 
 to which, before the event, he gave credit; of a stately tree thrown 
 to the ground, of a small plant striking a deep root into the earth. 
 Even in his sleep, the mind of the Ca'sar must have been agitated by 
 the hopes and fears of his fortune. Zosimus, (I. iii. p. 155.) related a 
 subsequent dream. 
 
 noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles 
 of virtue and veracity. 
 His embassy to To moderate the zeal of his party, to 
 Constantius. protect the persons of his enemies," to 
 defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which 
 were formed against his life and dignity, were the 
 cares which employed the first days of the reign of 
 the new emperor. Although he was firmly resolved 
 to maintain the station which he had assumed, he was 
 still desirous of saving his country from the calamities 
 of civil war, of declining a contest with the superior 
 forces of Constantius, and of preserving his own char- 
 acter from the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. 
 Adorned with the ensigns of military and imperial 
 pomp, Julian showed himself in the field of Mars to 
 the soldiers, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in 
 the cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. 
 He recapitulated their victories, lamented their suffer- 
 ings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, 
 and checked their impetuosity ; nor did he dismiss the 
 assembly, till he had obtained a solemn promise from 
 the troops, that if the emperor of the east would sub- 
 scribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any 
 views of conquest, and satisfy themselves with the 
 tranquil possession of the Gallic provinces. On this 
 foundation he composed, in his own name, and in that 
 of the army, a specious and moderate epistle,? which 
 was delivered to Pentadius, his master of the ofl[ices, 
 and to his chamberlain Eutherius ; two ambassadors 
 whom he appointed to receive the answer, and observe 
 the dispositions of Constantius. This epistle is in- 
 scribed with the modest appellation of Caesar ; but Ju- 
 lian solicits, in a peremptory though respectful man- 
 ner, the confirmation of the title of Augustus. He ac- 
 knowledges the irregularity of his own election, while 
 he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and vio- 
 lence of the troops which had extorted his reluctant 
 consent. He allows the supremacy of his brother 
 Constantius ; and engages to send him an annual pres- 
 ent of Spanish horses, to recruit his army with a select 
 number of barbarian youths, and to accept from his 
 choice a praetorian praefect of approved discretion and 
 fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination 
 of his other civil and military officers, with the troops, 
 the revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces be- 
 yond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to con- 
 sult the dictates of justice ; to distrust the arts of those 
 venal flatterers, who subsist only by the discord of 
 princes ; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honour- 
 able treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and 
 to the house of Constantine. In this negociation Ju- 
 lian claimed no more than he already possessed. The 
 delegated authority which he had long exercised over 
 the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was still 
 obeyed under a name more independent and august. 
 The soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution 
 which was not stained even with the blood of the 
 guilty. Florentius was a fugitive; Lupicinus a pris- 
 oner. The persons who were disaffected to the new 
 government were disarmed and secured ; and the va- 
 cant offices were distributed, according to the recom- 
 mendation of merit, by a prince who despised the in- 
 trigues of the palace, and the clamours of the sol- 
 diers.i 
 ,,. ,7. , The negociations of peace were ac- 
 
 liiR fuarth and • j j ^ j i ^i 
 
 fifth expeditions companied and supported by the most 
 beyond the vigorous preparations for war. The 
 
 a!*!)^ 360 3C1. ^"""^.y* which Julian held in readiness 
 for immediate action, was recruited and 
 augmented by the disorders of the times. The cruel 
 
 o The difficult situation of the prince of a rebellious army, is finely 
 dcscrilied by Tacitus. (Hist. 1.80 — 85.) But Olho had much more 
 guilt, and much less abilities, than Julian. 
 
 p To this ostensible epistle he added, says Ammianus, private let- 
 ters, ohjurfratorias et mordaces, which the historian had not seen, 
 and would not have published. Perhaps they never existed. 
 
 q Sec the first transactions of his reign, in Julian ad S. P. Q,. Athen, 
 p. 285. 286. Ammianus, zx. 5. 8. Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 49, 50. p. 
 273—275. 
 
 Vol. I 2 M - 19 
 
 persecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled 
 Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. 
 They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon 
 from a prince whom they could trust, submitted to the 
 restraints of military discipline, and retained only their 
 implacable hatred to the person and government of 
 Constantius.' As soon as the season of the year per- 
 mitted Julian to take the field, he appeared at the head 
 of his legions ; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the 
 neighbourhood of Cleves ; and prepared to chastise 
 the perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who pre- 
 sumed that they might ravage, with impunity, the fron- 
 tiers of a divided empire. The diflSculty, as well as 
 glory, of this enterprise, consisted in a laborious march; 
 and Julian had conquered, as soon as he could penetrate 
 into a country, which former princes had considered as 
 inaccessible. After he had given peace to the barba- 
 rians, the emperor carefully visited the fortifications 
 along the Rhine from Cleves to Basil ; surveyed, with 
 peculiar attention, the territories which he had recov- 
 ered from the hands of the Alemanni, passed through 
 Besancon,* wiiich had severely suffered from their fury, 
 and fixed his head-quarters at Vienna for the ensuing 
 winter. The barrier of Gaul w-as improved and 
 strengthened with additional fortifications ; and Julian 
 entertained some hopes that the Germans, whom he 
 had so often vanquished, might, in his absence, be re- 
 strained by the terror of his name. Vadomair*was 
 the only prince of the Alemanni, whom he esteemed 
 or feared ; and while the subtle barbarian affected to 
 observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms 
 threatened the state with an unseasonable and danger- 
 ous war. The policy of Julian condescended to sur- 
 prise the prince of the Alemanni by his own arts ; and 
 Vadomair, who, in the character of a friend, had in- 
 cautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman gov- 
 ernors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment 
 and sent away prisoner into the heart of Spain. Be- 
 fore the barbarians were recovered from their amaze- 
 ment, the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of 
 the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river, renewed 
 the deep impressions of terror and respect which had 
 been already made by four preceding expeditions." 
 
 The ambassadors of Julian had been •px\x\i\cs 
 instructed to execute, wuth the utmost and * declarlaton 
 diligence, their important commission. ^ war, 
 But, in their passage through Italy and a.d.361. 
 Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious and af- 
 fected delays of the provincial governors ; they were 
 conducted by slow" journeys from Constantinople to 
 Caesarea in Cappadocia; and when at length they 
 were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they 
 found that he had already conceived, from the des- 
 patches of his own oflUcers, the most unfavourable 
 opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic 
 army. The letters were heard with impatience ; the 
 trembling messengers were dismissed w^th indigna- 
 tion and contempt ; and the looks, the gestures, the 
 furious language of the monarch, expressed the dis- 
 order of his soul. The domestic connexion, which 
 might have reconciled the brother and the husband of 
 Helena, was recently dissolved by the death of that 
 princess, whose pregnancy had been several times 
 fruitless, and was at last fatal to herself.* The em- 
 
 r Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 50. p. 275, 276. A strange disorder, since 
 it continued above seven years. In the factions of the Greek repub- 
 lics, the exiles amounted to 20,000 persons; and Isocrates assures 
 Philip, that it would be easier to raise an army from the vagabonds 
 than from the cities. See Hume's I^says, torn. 1. p. 426, 427. 
 
 • Julian. (Epist. zxxviii. p. 414.) gives a short description of Ve- 
 sontio or Besancon; a rocky peninsula almost encircled by the river 
 Doux ; once a magnificent city, filled with temples, &c. now reduced 
 to a small town, emerging, however, from its ruins. 
 
 t Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was promoted 
 from a barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of Phcenicia. 
 He still retained the same artful character: (Ammian. xxi. 4.) but 
 under the reign of Valens, he signalized his valour in the Armenian 
 war, (xxix. 1.) 
 
 n Ammian. zx. 10. xxi. 3, 4. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 155. 
 
 X Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near those of hef 
 sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Via J^omentana. Ammian. 
 xxi. 1. Libanius has composed a very weak apology to justify bis 
 
 ( 
 
288 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 289 
 
 that they should not march throu<rh Paris, and suggest- j 
 ed the danger and temptation of a last interview. 
 Thoy proclaim Ju- As soon as the approach of the troops i 
 lian einj)oror. was annouuccd, the ('a'sar wont out to j 
 meet them, and ascended his tribunal, whicii had been I 
 erected in a plain before the gates of the city. After , 
 distinguishing the oflTicers and soldiers, who by their 
 rank or merit deserved a peculiar attention, Julian ad- 
 dressed himself in a studied oration to the surrounding 
 multitude: he celebrated their exploits with grateful 
 applause ; encouraged theia to accept, with alacrity, 
 the honour of serving under the eyes of a powerful 
 and liberal monarch ; and admonished them, that the 
 commands of Augustus required an instant and cheer- 
 ful obedience. The soldiers, who were apprehensive 
 of offiMidiuir their general by an indecent clamour, or 
 of belying their sentiments by false and venal accla- 
 mations, maintaiiu;d an obstinate silence ; and after a 
 short pause, were dismissed to their quarters. The 
 principal officers were entertained by the Caesar, who 
 professed, in the warmest language of friendsliip, his 
 desire and his inability to reward, according to their 
 deserts, the brave companions of his victories. They 
 retired from tiie feast, full of grief and perplexity; and 
 lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore them 
 from their beloved general and their native country. 
 The only expedient which could ])revent their separa- 
 tion was boldly agitated and approved ; the popular 
 resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular con- 
 spiracy ; their just reasons of complaint were height- 
 ened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by 
 wine ; as, on the eve of their departure, the troops were 
 imlulgcd in licentious festivity. At the hour of mid- 
 night, the impetuous multitude, with swords, and 
 bows, and torclies, in their hands, rushed into the sub- 
 urbs ; encompassed the palace ;' and, careless of fu- 
 ture dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable 
 words, Julian Augustus ! The prince, whose anxious 
 suspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclama- 
 tions, secured the doors against tlnnr intrusion ; and, 
 as long as it was in his power, secluded his person 
 and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. 
 At the (lawn of day, the soldiers, whose zeal was irri- 
 tated by opposition, forcibly entered the palace, seized, 
 with respectful violence, the object of their choice, 
 guarded Julian with drawn swords through the streets 
 of Paris, })laced him on the tribunal, and with rej)eated 
 shouts saluted him as their emperor. Prudence as 
 well as loyalty inculcated the j)ropriety of resisting 
 their treasonable designs ; and of pn^paring, for his 
 oppressed virtue, the excuse^ (»f violence. Addressing 
 himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals, 
 he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes 
 expressed his indignation; conjured them not to sully 
 the fame of their immortal victories; and ventured to 
 promise, that if they would immediately return to their 
 allegiance, he would undertake to obtain from the em- 
 peror not only a free and gracious pardon, but even 
 the revocation of tlie orders which had excited their 
 resentment. JJut the soldiers, who were conscious of 
 their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude of 
 Julian, than on the clemency of the emperor. Their 
 zeal was insensibly turned into impatience, and their 
 
 g Most probaMy the palace of tlic hatlis, {Thermarum,) of which a 
 solid aiitl lofty liall still suhsists in the rue de la harpc. The liuild- 
 itiL'S covei»(i a considcratilt' spa<«! of tlio inodcrii (piartcr of the uni- 
 versity ; and tl.e nardiMis, under the Merovingian kin^s. corninnnira- 
 ted vvitii the aliln y ofSt. (Ji-rmain d».s I'rez. By the injuries of lime 
 and the Norni:ins, tl'is ancient palace was roduceil, in the twelfth 
 century, to a maze of ruins : whose dark recesses were the scene of 
 licenliotis lovf. 
 
 F.xplicat au!a sinus montcmquc ainplectifur alis ; 
 
 Multiplici latehra Kceiciiim tersnra rii! oreui. 
 
 poreiintis sa-pc pudoris 
 
 Cclatura pef;is, VcneriMiiie acconnnoda/jirA/s. 
 (These lines are (pioted from the Ar. hitrenius. I. iv. r. P. a poetical 
 work of John de Hantnvillc,or lla»iville,a monk of St. Alhan's, about 
 tiie year 1190. See W'arton's History of En;;lish rootry. vol. i. dis- 
 sert, ii.) Vet such thefts nii^'ht be less pernicious to mankind than 
 llie theotojiical dispiucs of tjie Sorboime, which have been since agi- 
 tated on the same utound. Boiiamy, Mem. dc rAcademie, loin. xv. 
 p. 678-682. 
 
 impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sustained, 
 till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their re- 
 proaches, and their menaces ; nor did he yield, till he 
 had been repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, 
 he must consent to reign. He was exalted on a shield 
 in the presence, and amidst the unanimous acclama- 
 tions, of the troops ; a rich military collar, which was 
 offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem ;'' the 
 ceremony was conchnled by the promise of a moderate 
 donative;' and the new emperor, overwhelmed with 
 real or affected grief, retired into the most secret re- 
 cesses of his apartment.'' 
 
 The grief of Julian could ])roceed \\u protestations 
 only from his innocence; but his inno- of innocence, 
 cence must appear extremely doubtful' in the e5"es of 
 those who have learned to suspect the motives and the 
 professions of princes. His lively and active mind 
 was susceptible of the various impressions of hope 
 and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty and of am- 
 bition, of the love of fame and of the fear of reproach. 
 IJut it is impossible for us to calculate the respective 
 weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascer- 
 tain the j)rinci|)les of action which might escape the 
 observation, wliile they guided or rather impelled, the 
 steps of Julian himself. The discontent of the troops 
 was produced by the malice of his enemies ; their tu- 
 mult was the natural effect of interest and of passion; 
 and if Julian had tried to conceal a deep design under 
 the appearances of chance, he must have employed the 
 most consummate artifice without necessity and prob- 
 ably without success. He solemnly declares, in the 
 presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, 
 and of all the other deities, that till the close of the 
 evening which preceded his elevation, he was utterly 
 ignorant of the designs of the soldiers ;"* and it may 
 seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero, and 
 the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious con- 
 fidence that Constantius was the enemy, and that he 
 himself was the favourite, of the gods, might prompt 
 him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspi- 
 cious moment of his reign, which was predestined to 
 restore the ancient religion of mankind. When Julian 
 had received the intelligence of the conspiracy, he re- 
 signed himself to a short slumber; and afterwards re- 
 lat(>d to his friends that he had seen the genius of the 
 empin; waiting with some impatience at his door, 
 pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of 
 spirit and ambition." Astonished and perplexed, he 
 addressed his prayers to the great Jupiter; who imme- 
 diately signified, by a clear and manifest omen, that 
 he should submit to the will of heaven and of the 
 army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary 
 maxims of reason, excites our suspicion and eludes our 
 inqtiiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once 
 so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a 
 
 h Even in this turnnltuous moment, Julian attended to tlie forms 
 of BuperstitiiMis ceremony ; and ot-stinately refused the inauspicious 
 use of a female necklace, or a horse collar, which the impatient sol- 
 diers would have em;tloyed in the room of a diadem. 
 
 i An ecpial ))roportion of pold and silver, five piece>5 of the former, 
 one pound of the latter ; the whole amounting to about five pounds 
 ten sliilliniis of our money. 
 
 k For the whole narrative of this revolt, we may appeal to au- 
 thentic and original materials; Julian himself, (ad S. I*. Q. Atheni- 
 ensem, p. 2H'J— 2HS.) Lilanius, (Orat. Tarcntal. c. -14— 4K in Fabri- 
 cius Hibliot. Graic. torn. vii. p. t'GO— 27Lt.) Amminnus, (x.\. 4.) and 
 Zosimus, (I. iii. p. l.'il — 15^.) who, in the rei^n of Julian, appears to 
 follow the more respectable authority of Eiin.-ipius. With such guides 
 we mifrht neglect the abbreviators and cccIesiastTal historians. 
 
 1 Eutropins, a respectable witness, uses a doul'lful expression, 
 "consensu militiim," (x. 1.').) Gregory Nazianzen, whose iunoranrc 
 inisiht excuse his fanaticism, directly charges the apostate wtlh pre- 
 sumption, madness, and impious rebellion, «u$«^i<x,tin-ovo<«,«o-ipiix, 
 Orat.iii. p. 67. 
 
 m Julian, ad S. P. (X. Athen. p. 284. The tievout Abb6 de la file- 
 feri<! (Vie <lc Julien, p. 159.) is almost inclined to respect the devout 
 protestations of a patzan. 
 
 n Amrnian, x\. 5. with the note of Lindenbrogius on the Cinius of 
 the empire. Julian himself, in a confidential letter to his friend and 
 physician, Oriliasian (Epist. xvii. p. 384.) mentions another dream, 
 to which, before the event, he t:avc credit; of a stately tree thrown 
 to the :;ronnd, of a small plant strikinji a deep root into tlie earth. 
 I'vcn in his sleep, the mind of the Caesar must have been agitated by 
 the hopes and fears of his fortune. Zosiinua, (I. iii. p. 155.) relates a 
 subsequent dream. 
 
 noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles 
 of virtue and veracity. 
 His embassy to To moderate the zeal of his party, to 
 Con«tantiu8. protect the persons of his enemies," to 
 defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which 
 were formed against his life and dignity, were the 
 cares which employed the first days of the reign of 
 the new emperor. Although he w^as firmly resolved 
 to maintain the station which he had assumed, he was 
 still desirous of saving his country from the calamities 
 of civil war, of declining a contest with the superior 
 forces of Constantius, and of preserving his own char- 
 acter from the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. 
 Adorned with the ensigns of military and imperial 
 pomp, Julian showed himself in the field of Mars to 
 the soldiers, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in 
 the cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. 
 He recapitulated their victories, lamented their suffer- 
 ings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, 
 and checked their impetuosity ; nor did he dismiss the 
 assembly, till he had obtained a solemn promise from 
 the troops, that if the emperor of the east would sub- 
 scribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any 
 views of conquest, and satisfy themselves with the 
 tranquil possession of the Gallic provinces. On this 
 foundation he composed, in his own name, and in that 
 of the army, a specious and moderate epistle,? which 
 was delivered to Pentadius, his master of the ofllices, 
 and to his chamberlain Eutherius; two ambassadors 
 whom he appointed to receive the answer, and observe 
 the dispositions of Constantius. This epistle is in- 
 scribed with the modest appellation of Caesar ; but Ju- 
 lian solicits, in a peremptory though respectful man- 
 ner, the confirmation of the title of Augustus. He ac- 
 knowledges the irregularity of his own election, while 
 he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and vio- 
 lence of the troops which had extorted his reluctant 
 consent. He allows the supremacy of his brother 
 Constantius ; and engages to send him an annual pres- 
 ent of Spanish horses, to recruit his army with a select 
 number of barbarian youths, and to accept from his 
 choice a praetorian praefect of approved discretion and 
 fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination 
 of his other civil and military officers, with the troops, 
 the revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces be- 
 yond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to con- 
 sult the dictates of justice ; to distrust the arts of those 
 venal flatterers, who subsist only by the discord of 
 princes ; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honour- 
 able treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and 
 to the house of Constantine. In this negociation Ju- 
 lian claimed no more than he already possessed. The 
 delegated authority which he had long exercised over 
 the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was still 
 obeyed under a name more independent and august. 
 The soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution 
 which was not stained even with the blood of the 
 guilty. Florentius was a fugitive ; Lupicinus a pris- 
 oner. The persons who were disaffected to the new 
 government were disarmed and secured ; and the va- 
 cant offices were distributed, according to the recom- 
 mendation of merit, by a prince who despised the in- 
 trigues of the palace, and the clamours of the sol- 
 diers.*! 
 .... : , The negociations of peace were ac- 
 
 Hm ruurth and • j j ^ i i .i 
 
 fifth exiMjditions companied and supported by the most 
 btyond the vigorous preparations for war. The 
 
 aI"d^'360, 3G1. ^^'".y* which Julian held in readiness 
 for immediate action, was recruited and 
 augmented by the disorders of the times. The cruel 
 
 o The difficult situation of the prince of a rehellioug army, is finely 
 described hy Tacitus. (Hist. 1.80 — 85.) But Otho had much more 
 guilt, and much less abilities, than Julian. 
 
 p To this ostensible epistle he added, says Ammianus, private let- 
 ters, objurgatorias et mordaces, which the historian had not seen, 
 and would not have published. Perhaps they never existed. 
 
 q Sec the first transactions of his reign, in Julian ad S. P. Q,. Alhen, 
 f). 285. 286. Ammianus, xz. 5. 8. Liban. Oral. Parent, c. 49, 50. p. 
 273—275. 
 
 Vol. I 2 M - 19 
 
 persecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled 
 Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. 
 They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon 
 from a prince whom they could trust, submitted to the 
 restraints of military discipline, and retained only their 
 implacable hatred to the person and government of 
 Constantius.' As soon as the season of the year per- 
 mitted Julian to take the field, he appeared at the head 
 of his legions; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the 
 neighbourhood of Cloves; and prepared to chastise 
 the perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who pre- 
 sumed that they might ravage, with impunity, the fron- 
 tiers of a divided empire. The difficulty, as well as 
 glory, of this enterprise, consisted in a laborious march ; 
 and Julian had conquered, as soon as he could penetrate 
 into a country, which former princes had considered as 
 inaccessible. After he had given peace to the barba- 
 rians, the emperor carefully visited the fortifications 
 along the Rhine from Cleves to Basil ; surveyed, with 
 peculiar attention, the territories which he had recov- 
 ered from the hands of the Alemanni, passed through 
 Besancon,' which had severely suffered from their fury, 
 and fixed his head-quarters at Vienna for the ensuinrg 
 winter. The barrier of Gaul was improved and 
 strengthened with additional fortifications ; and Julian 
 entertained some hopes that the Germans, whom he 
 had so often vanquished, might, in his absence, be re- 
 strained by the terror of his name. Vadomair*was 
 the only prince of the Alemanni, whom he esteemed 
 or feared ; and while the subtle barbarian affected to 
 observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms 
 threatened the state with an unseasonable and danger- 
 ous war. The policy of Julian condescended to sur- 
 prise the prince of the Alemanni by his own arts ; and 
 Vadomair, who, in the character of a friend, had in- 
 cautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman gov- 
 ernors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment 
 and sent away prisoner into the heart of Spain. Be- 
 fore the barbarians were recovered from their amaze- 
 ment, the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of 
 the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river, renewed 
 the deep impressions of terror and respect which had 
 been already made by four preceding expeditions." 
 The ambassadors of Julian had been ppu^jp^g ^ 
 iristructed to execute, with the utmost and' dedarL^tton 
 diligence, their important commission, of war. 
 But, in their passage through Italy and A.D.361. 
 Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious and af- 
 fected delays of the provincial governors ; they were 
 conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to 
 Caesarea in Cappadocia; and when at length they 
 were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they 
 found that he had already conceived, from the des- 
 patches of his own officers, the most unfavourable 
 opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic 
 army. The letters were heard with impatience ; the 
 trembling messengers were dismissed with indigna- 
 tion and contempt ; and the looks, the gestures, the 
 furious language of the monarch, expressed the dis- 
 order of his soul. The domestic connexion, which 
 might have reconciled the brother and the husband of 
 Helena, was recently dissolved by the death of that 
 princess, whose pregnancy had been several times 
 fruitless, and was at last fatal to herself.* The em- 
 
 r Liban. Oral. Parent, c. 50. p. 275, 276. A strange disorder, since 
 it continued above seven years. In the factions of the Greek repub- 
 lics, the exiles amounted to 20,000 persons; and Isocrates assures 
 Philip, that it would be easier to raise an army from the vagabond! 
 than from the cities. See Hume's I^says, tom. 1. p. 426, 427. 
 
 • Julian. (Epist. xxxviii. p. 414.) gives a short description of Ve- 
 sontio or Besancon; a rocky peninsula almost encircled by the river 
 Doux ; once a magnificent city, filled with temples, &c. now reduced 
 to a small town, emerging, however, from its ruins. 
 
 t Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was promoted 
 from a barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of Phcenicia. 
 He still retained the same artful character: (Amrnian. xxi. 4.) hut 
 under the reign of Valens, he signalized his valour in the Armeniaa 
 war, (xxix. 1.) 
 
 a Amrnian. xx. 10. xxi. 3, 4. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 155. 
 
 z Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near those of her 
 sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Via J^omentana. Amrnian. 
 xxi. 1. Libanius has composed a very weak apology to Justify his 
 
290 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXU. 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 291 
 
 t 
 
 press Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment of 
 her life, the warm and even jealous affection v^rhich 
 she had conceived for Julian ; and her mild influence 
 mio-ht have moderated the resentment of a prince, who, 
 since her death, was abandoned to his own passions, 
 and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a 
 foreign invasion obliged him to suspend the punish- 
 menfof a private enemy; he continued his march to- 
 wards the confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient 
 to signify the conditions which might entitle Julian 
 and his guilty followers to the clemency of their of- 
 fended sovereign. He required, that the presumptu- 
 ous Cajsar should expressly renounce the appellation 
 and rank of Augustus, which he had accepted from the 
 rebels ; that he should descend to his former station 
 of a limited and dependent minister ; that he should 
 vest the powers of the state and army in the hands of 
 those officers who were appointed by the imperial 
 court ; and that he should trust his safety to the as- 
 surances of pardon, which were announced by Epic- 
 tetus, a Gallic bishop, and one of the Arian favourites 
 of Constantius. Several months were ineffectually 
 consumed in a treaty which was ncgociated at the dis- 
 tance of three thousand miles between Paris and An- 
 tioch ; and soon as Julian perceived that his moderate 
 and respectful behaviour served only to irritate the 
 pride of an implacable adversary, he boldly resolved 
 to commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil 
 war. He gave a public and military audience to the 
 quaestor Leonas : the haughty epistle of Constantius 
 was read to the attentive multitude ; and Julian pro- 
 tested, with the most flattering deference, that he was 
 ready to resign the title of Augustus, if he could obtain 
 the consent "of those whom he acknowledged as the 
 authors of his elevation. The faint proposal was im- 
 petuously silenced ; and the acclamations of "Julian 
 Augustus, continue to reign, by the authority of the 
 array, of the people, of the republic which you have 
 saved," thundered at once from every part of the field, 
 and terrified the pale ambassador of Constantius. A 
 part of the letter was afterwards read, in which the 
 emperor arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he 
 had invested with the honours of the purple ; whom 
 he had educated with so much care and tenderness ; 
 whom he had preserved in his infancy, when he was 
 left a helpless orphan. " An orphan ! " interrupted 
 Julian, who justified his cause by indulging his pas- 
 sions ; " Does the assassin of my family reproach me 
 that I was left an orphan T He urges me to revenge 
 those injuries which I have long studied to forget." 
 The assembly was dismissed ; and Leonas, who, with 
 some difficulty, had been protected from the popular 
 fury, was sent back to his master with an epistle, in 
 which Julian expressed, in a strain of the most vehe- 
 ment eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, 
 and of resentment, which had been suppressed and 
 imbittered by the dissimulation of twenty years. After 
 this message, which might be considered as a signal 
 of irreconcilable war, Julian, who, some weeks before, 
 had celebrated the christian festival of the Epiphany ,y 
 made a public declaration that he committed the care 
 of his safety to the Immortal gods ; and thus publicly 
 
 renounced the religion, as well as the friendship, of 
 Constantius.' 
 
 The situation of Julian required a vig- j„,ian prepares 
 orous and immediate resolution. He had to attack Con- 
 discovered from intercepted letters, that ^tantius. 
 his adversary, sacrificing the interest of the state to that 
 of the monarch, had again excited the barbarians to in- 
 vade the provinces of the west. The position of two 
 magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the 
 lake of Constance, the other formed at the foot of the 
 Cottian Alps, seemed to indicate the march of two ar- 
 mies ; and the size of those magazines, each of which 
 consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or 
 rather flour,* was a threatening evidence of the strength 
 and numbers of the enemy, who prepared to surround 
 him. But the imperial legions were still in their dis- 
 tant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly guarded ; 
 and if Julian could occupy, by a sudden incursion, the 
 important provinces of lllyricum, he might expect that 
 a people of soldiers would resort to his standard, and 
 that the rich mines of gold and silver would contribute 
 to the expenses of the civil war. He proposed this 
 bold enterprise to the assembly of the soldiers ; in- 
 spired them with a just confidence in their general, and 
 in themselves ; and exhorted them to maintain their 
 reputation, of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to 
 their fellow-citizens, and obedient to their officers. His 
 spirited discourse was received with the loudest accla- 
 mations, and the same troops which had taken up arms 
 against Constantius, when he summoned them to leave 
 Gaul, now declared with alacrity, that they would fol- 
 low Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. 
 The oath of fidelity was administered ; and the sol- 
 diers, clashing their shields, and pointing their drawn 
 swords to their throats, devoted themselves, with hor- 
 rid imprecations, to the service of a leader whom they 
 celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul, and the conqueror 
 of the Germans.'' This solemn engagement, which 
 seemed to be dictated by affection rather than by duty, 
 was singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been ad- 
 mitted to the office of prajtorian praefect. That faith- 
 ful minister, alone and unassisted, asserted the rights 
 of Constantius in the midst of an armed and angry 
 multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen an hon- 
 ourable but useless sacrifice. After losing one of his 
 hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees 
 of the prince whom he had offended. Julian covered 
 the prefect with his imperial mantle, and protecting 
 him from the zeal of his followers, dismissed him to 
 his own house, with less respect than was perhaps due 
 to the virtue of an enemy .«= The high office of Nebri- 
 dius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces of 
 Gaul, which were now delivered from the intolerable 
 oppression of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable 
 administration of the friend of Julian, who was per- 
 mitted to practise those virtues which he had instilled 
 into the mind of his pupil.** 
 
 The hopes of Julian depended much ^jg 0,3,^1, f^ni 
 less on the number of his troops, than the Rhine into 
 on the celerity of his motions. In the l"y"c"m- 
 
 hero from a very absurd charge : of poisoninj; his wife, and reward- 
 ing her physician with his moll\cr's jewels. (See the stventh of 
 aeventeen new orations, ptiMislicd at Venice, 1754, from a MS. in St. 
 Mark's library, p. 117—127.) Elpidius, the praitorian prtefect of the 
 east, to whose evideiire the accuser of Julian appeals, \a arraitrned 
 by Labanius. as effeminate and ungrateful ; yet the rcli«;ion of Elpi- 
 dius is praised hy Jeroni, (torn. i. p. 243.) and his humanity by Am- 
 
 niianus, (xxi. 6.) • u • .• • r. • 
 
 J Feriarum die quern cclebrantes mense Januario, chrisiiani Epi- 
 BAania dirtif ant, pro!»ressus in eorum ecclesiam. solcmniter numine 
 orato discessit. Amuiian. xxi. 2. Zonaras oJiserves, tha^it was on 
 Christmas day, and his assertion is not inconsistent; since the 
 churches of Esypt, Asia, and perhaps Oaul, celebrated on the same 
 day (the 6th of January) the nativity and the baptism of their Saviour. 
 The Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of the real date of his 
 birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th of December, the Bruma 
 lia, or winter solstice, when the pagans annually celebrated the birth 
 of the Sun. See Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian church, 1. 
 XX. c. 4. and Beausobre. Hist. Critique du Maniclieisme, torn. ii. p. 
 080—700. 
 
 s The public and secret negociations between Constantius and Ju« 
 lian must be extracted, with some caution, from Julian himself. 
 (Ornt. ad S. P. a. Athen. p. 286.) Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c. 51. p. 
 276.) Ammianus. (xx. 9.) Zosimus, (I. iii. p. 154.) and even Zonaras, 
 (torn. ii. I. xiii. p. 20. 21. 22.) who on this occasion, appears to have 
 possessed and used some valuable materials. 
 
 a Three hundred myriads, or three millions of medimni, a corn- 
 measure familiar to the Athenians, and which contained six Roman 
 modii. Julian explains, like a soldier and a statesman, the danger 
 of bis situation, and the necessity and advantages of an offensive 
 war, (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286, 287.) 
 
 b See his oration, and the behaviour of the troops, in Animian. 
 
 xxi. 5. 
 
 c Fie sternly refused his hand to the suppliant prefect, whom he 
 sent into Tuscanv. (Ammian. xxi..5.) Libanius, with savage fury, 
 insults Nebridiusi applauds the soldiers, and almost censures the hu- 
 manity of Julian. (Orat. Parent, c 53. p. 278.) 
 
 d Ammlan. xxi. 8. In this promotion, Julian obeyed the law 
 which he publicly imposed on himself. Neque civilis quisquam ju- 
 dex, ncc militaris rector, alioquodam prseter merita suffragante, ad 
 potiorcm veniat gradiim. (Ammian. xx. 5.) Absence did not 
 weaken his regard for Sallust, Willi whose name (A. D. 363.) he ho- 
 noured the consulship. 
 
 execution of a daring enterprise, he availed himself 
 of every precaution, as far as prudence could sun^gest; 
 and where prudence could no longer accompany his 
 steps, he trusted the event to valour and to fortune. 
 In the neighbourhood of Basil he assembled and divi- 
 ded his army.* One body, which consisted of ten 
 thousand men, was directed, under the command of 
 Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to advance through 
 the midland parts of Rhaetia and Noricum. A similar 
 division of troops, under the orders of Jovius and Jovi- 
 nus, prepared to follow the oblique course of the high- 
 ways, through the Alps and the northern confines of 
 Italy. The instructions to the generals were conceiv- 
 ed with energy and precision : to hasten their march 
 in close and compact columns, which, according to the 
 disposition of the ground, might readily be changed 
 into any order of battle ; to secure themselves against 
 the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant 
 guards ; to prevent resistance by their unexpected arri- 
 val ; to elude examination by their sudden departure ; 
 to spread the opinion of their strength, and the terror 
 of his name; and to join their sovereign under the 
 walls of Sirmium. For himself, Julian had reserved 
 a more ditficult and extraordinary part. He selected 
 three thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, 
 like their leader, to cast behind them every hope of 
 a retreat : at the head of this faithful band, he fearless- 
 ly plunged into the recesses of the Marcian, or black 
 forest, which conceals the sources of the Danube ;^ 
 and, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown 
 to the world. The secrecy of his march, his diligence, 
 and vigour, surmounted every obstacle ; he forced his 
 way over mountains and morasses, occupied the bridges 
 or swam the rivers, pursued his direct course,^ without 
 reflecting whether he traversed the territory of the 
 Romans or of the barbarians, and at length emerged, 
 between Ratisbon and Vienna, at the place where he 
 designed to embark his troops on the Danube. By a 
 well-concerted stratagem, he seized a fleet of light 
 brigantines,'' as it lay at anchor ; secured a supply of 
 coarse provisions, sufficient to satisfy the indelicate 
 but voracious appetite of a Gallic army ; and boldly 
 committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The 
 labours of his mariners, who plied their oars with in- 
 cessant diligence, and the steady continuance of a fa- 
 vourable wind, carried his fleet above seven hundred 
 miles in eleven days ;' and he had already disembarked 
 his troops at Bononia, only nineteen miles from Sir- 
 mium, before his enemies could receive any certain in- 
 telligence that he had left the banks of the Rhine. In 
 the course of this long and rapid navigation, the mind 
 of Julian was fixed on the object of his enterprise ; and 
 though he accepted the deputation of some cities, 
 which hastened to claim the merit of an early submis- 
 sion, he passed before the hostile stations, which were 
 placed along the river, without indulging the tempta- 
 tion of signalizing an useless and ill-timed valour. 
 The banks of the Danube were crowded on either side 
 with spectators, who gazed on the military pomp, an 
 
 e Ammianus (xxi. 8.) ascribes the same practice, and the same 
 mot ve, to Alexander the Great, and other skilful generals. 
 
 f This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest, which, in 
 the time of Cjesar, stretched away from the country of the Rauraci 
 (Basil) into the boundless regions of the north. See Cluver. Germa- 
 nia Antiqua. I. iii. c, 47. 
 
 f Compare Lii.anius, Orat. Parent, c. 53. p. 278, 279. with Gregory 
 Nazianzen. Orat. iii. p. 68. Even the saint admires the speed ''and 
 secrecy of his march. A modern divine might apply to the progress 
 of Julian, tiie lines which were originally designed for another apos- 
 tate : *^ 
 
 ^So eagerly the fiend 
 
 O er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies, 
 n In that interval the Notitia places two or three fleets, the Lau- 
 liacensis, (at Lauriacum.or Lorch,) the .\rlapengis, the Maginensis; 
 and mentions five legions, or cohorts, of Lihurnarii, who should be a 
 •Oft of marines. Sect. Iviii. edit. Labb. 
 
 i Zosimus alone (I. iii. p. 156.) has specified this interesting circum- 
 ■tance. Mamertinus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 6—8.) who accompanied 
 Julian, as count of the sacred largesses, describes this voyage in a 
 florid and picturesque manner, challenges Triptolemus and the Ar- 
 f^onauts of Greece, &c. 
 
 ticipated the importance of the event, and diffused 
 through the adjacent country the fame of a young hero, 
 who advanced with more than mortal speed at the 
 head of the innumerable forces of the west. Lucilian, 
 who, with the rank of general of the cavalry, com- 
 manded the military powers of lllyricum, was alarm- 
 ed and perplexed by the doubtful reports, which he 
 could neither reject nor believe. He had taken some 
 slow and irresolute measures for the purpose of col- 
 lecting his troops ; when he was surprised by Dagala- 
 iphus, an active officer, whom Julian, as soon as he 
 landed at Bononia, had pushed forwards with some 
 light infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his 
 life or death, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and 
 conducted to the presence of Julian ; who kindly rais- 
 ed him from the ground, and dispelled i^e terror and 
 amazement which seemed to stupify his faculties. 
 But Lucilian had no sooner recovered his spirits, than 
 he betrayed his want of discretion, by presuming to 
 admonish his conqueror, that he had rashly ventured, 
 with a handful of men, to expose his person in the 
 midst of his enemies. " Reserve for your master 
 Constantius these timid remonstrances," replied Juli- 
 an, with a smile of contempt ; " when I gave you my 
 purple to kiss, I received you not as a counsellor, but 
 as a suppliant." Conscious that success alone could 
 justify his attempt, and that boldness only could com- 
 mand success, he instantly advanced, at the head of 
 three thousand soldiers, to attack the strongest and 
 most popular city of the Illyrian provinces. As he 
 entered the long suburb of Sirmium, he was received 
 by the joyful acclamations of the army and people ; 
 who, crowned with flowers, and holding lighted tapers 
 in their hands, conducted their acknowledged sov- 
 ereign to his imperial residence. Two days were de- 
 voted to the public joy, which was celebrated by the 
 games of the Circus ; but, early on the morning of the 
 third day, Julian marched to occupy the narrow pass 
 of Succi, in the defiles of mount Hajmus; which, al- 
 most in the midway between Sirmium and Constanti- 
 nople, separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by 
 an abrupt descent towards the former, and a gentle de- 
 clivity on the side of the latter.'' The defence of this 
 important post was intrusted to the brave Nevitta; 
 who, as well as the generals of the Italian division, 
 successfully executed the plan of the march and junc- 
 tion which their master had so ably conceived.' 
 
 The homage which Julian obtained. He justifien his 
 from the fears or the inclination of the cause, 
 
 people, extended far beyond the immediate eflfect of 
 his arms." The pra^fectures of Italy and lllyricum 
 were administered by Taurus and Florentius, who 
 united that important oflice with the vain honours of 
 the consulship ; and as those magistrates had retired 
 with precipitation to the court of Asia, Julian, who 
 could not always restrain the levity of his temper, 
 stigmatized their flight by adding, in all the acts of the 
 year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two 
 consuls. The provinces which had been deserted by 
 their first magistrates acknowledged the authority of 
 an emperor, who, conciliating the qualities of a sol- 
 dier with those of a philosopher, was equally admired 
 in the camps of the Danube, and in the cities of Greece. 
 From his palace, or, more properly, from his head- 
 quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he distributed to 
 the principal cities of the empire a laboured apology 
 for his own conduct; published the secret despatches 
 of Constantius ; and solicited the judgment of mankind 
 between two competitors, the one of whom had ex- 
 
 k The description of Ammianus, which might be supported by 
 collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the Augustim 
 Suecorvm, or passes of Succi. M. D'Anville from the trifling re- 
 semblance of names, has placed tbem between Sardica and Naissus. 
 For my own justification, I am oliliged to mention the only error 
 which I have discovered in tlie maps or writings of that admirable 
 geographer. 
 
 1 Whatever circumstances we may borrow elsewhere, Ammianus 
 (xxi. 8, 9, 10.) still supplies the series of the narrative. 
 
 m Ammian. xxi, 9, 10. Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 54. p. 379, 280. 
 Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 156, 157. 
 
292 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXn. 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i I 
 
 f 
 
 pelled, and the other had invited, the barbarians." Ju- 
 lian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach 
 of ingratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as 
 well as by arms, the superior merits of his cause ; and 
 to excel, not only in the arts of war, but in those of 
 composition. His epistle to the senate and people of 
 Athens " seems to have been dictated by an elegant en- 
 thusiasm ; which prompted him to submit his actions 
 and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his 
 own times, with the same humble deference, as if he 
 had been pleading, in the days of Aristides, before the 
 tribunal of the Areopagus. His application to the 
 senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestow 
 the titles of imperial power, was agreeable to the 
 forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was 
 summoned by Tertullus, praefect of the city; the epis- 
 tle of Julian was read ; and as he appeared to be mas- 
 ter of Italy, his claims were admitted without a dis- 
 senting voice. His oblique censure of the innovations 
 of Constantine, and his passionate invective against 
 the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satis- 
 faction ; and the senate, as if Julian had been present, 
 unanimously exclaimed, ** Respect, we beseech you, 
 the author of your own fortune."? An artful expres- 
 sion, which, according to the chance of war, might be 
 differently explained ; as a manly reproof of the in- 
 gratitude of the usurper, or as a flattering confession, 
 that' a single act of such benefit to the state ought to 
 atone for all the failings of Constantius. 
 Hostile prcpara- The intelligence of the march and 
 tions. rapid progress of Julian was speedily 
 
 transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor, 
 had obtained some respite from the Persian war. Dis- 
 guising the anguish of his soul under the semblance 
 of contempt, Constantius professed his intention of re- 
 turning into Europe, and of giving chace to Julian ; 
 for he never spoke of this military expedition in any 
 other light than that of a hunting party.** In the camp 
 of Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design 
 to his army ; slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness 
 of the Caesar ; and ventured to assure them, that if the 
 mutineers of Gaul presumed to meet them in the field, 
 they would be unable to sustain the fire of their eyes, 
 and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset. The 
 speech of the emperor was received with military ap- 
 plause, and Theodotus, the president of the council of 
 Hierapolis, requested, with tears of adulation, that his 
 city might be adorned with the head of the vanquished 
 rebel.' A chosen detachment was despatched away 
 in post-waggons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the 
 pass of Succi ; the recruits, the horses, the arms, and 
 the magazines which had been prepared against Sapor, 
 were appropriated to the service of the civil war ; and 
 the domestic victories of Constantius inspired his par- 
 tisans with the most sanguine assurances of success. 
 The notary Gaudentius had occupied in his name the 
 provinces of Africa ; the subsistence of Rome was in- 
 tercepted ; and the distress of Julian was increased by 
 an unexpected event, which might have been produc- 
 tive of fatal consequences, Julian had received the 
 
 Julian, ad S. P. ft. Athen, p. 286.) positively asserts, that lie in- 
 tercepted the letters of Constantius to the barbarians : and Libanius 
 as pobitively ailirms, that he read them on his march to the troops 
 and the cities. Yet Amniianus (xxi. 4.) expresses liiinsclf with cool 
 and candid hositaiion, Ki famts solius adinittenda est fides. He spe- 
 cifies, however, an intercepted letter from Vadomair to Constantius. 
 which supposes an intimate correspondence between them : Caesar 
 tuus disciplinam non habet." 
 
 o Zosimus mentions his epistles to the Athenians, the Corinthians, 
 and the Lacedspmonians. The substance was probably the same, 
 though the address was properly varied. The epistle to the Athe- 
 nians is still extant, (p. 268— 287.) and has afforded much valuable 
 information. It deserves the praises of the Abb6 de la Blelerie, 
 (Pref. k rnistoire de Jovien, p. 24, 25.) and is one of the best mani- 
 festos to be found in any language. 
 
 p Jiuctori tuo reverentiam rogamus. Ammian. xxi. 10. It is 
 amusing enough to observe the secret conflicts of the senate between 
 flattery\nd fear. See Tacit. Hist. i. 85. 
 
 q Tanquam vcnaticam prtrdam caperet: hoc eniro ad leniendum 
 suorum metum suliinde prn;dicabat. Ammian. xxi. 7. 
 
 r See the speech and preparations in Amniianus, xxi. 12. The vile 
 Theodotus afterwards implored and obtained his pardon from the 
 merciful conqueror, who signified his wish of diminishing his ene- 
 mies, and increasing the number of bis friends, (xxii. 14.) 
 
 submission of two legions and a cohort of archers, who 
 were stationed at Sirmium ; but he suspected, with 
 reason, the fidelity of those troops, which had been 
 distinguished by the emperor ; and it was thought ex- 
 pedient, under the pretence of the exposed state of the 
 Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most impor- 
 tant scene of action. They advanced, with reluctance, 
 as far as the confines of Italy ; but as they dreaded the 
 length of the way, and the savage fierceness of the 
 Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of one of 
 their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to erect the ban- 
 ners of Constantius on the walls of that impregnable 
 city. The vigilance of Julian perceived at once the 
 extent of the mischief, and the necessity of applying 
 an immediate remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back 
 a part of the army into Italy ; and the siege of Aqui- 
 leia was formed with diligence, and prosecuted with 
 vigour. But the legionaries, who seemed to have re- 
 jected the yoke of discipline, conducted the defence 
 of the place with skill and perseverance; invited the 
 rest of Italy to imitate the example of their courage 
 and loyalty ; and threatened the retreat of Julian, if he 
 should be forced to yield to the superior numbers of 
 the armies of the east.* 
 
 But the humanity of Julian was pre- g^,^ ^p^^,, ^f 
 served from the cruel alternative, which Constantius, 
 he pathetically laments, of destroying, ^^^^v^^* 
 or being himself destroyed : and the sea- 
 sonable death of Constantius delivered the Roman em- 
 pire from the calamities of civil war. The approach of 
 winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch ; and his 
 favourites durst not oppose his impatient desire of re- 
 venge. A slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned 
 by the agitation of his spirits, was increased by the 
 fatigues of the journey; and Constantius was obliged 
 to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles 
 beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after a short illness, 
 in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth 
 of his reign.* His genuine character, which was com- 
 posed of pride and weakness, of superstition and. cru- 
 elty, has been fully displayed in the preceding narra- 
 tive of civil and ecclesiastical events. The long abuse 
 of power rendered him a considerable object in the 
 eyes of his contemporaries ; but as personal merit can 
 alone deserve the notice of posterity, the last of the 
 sons of Constantine may be dismissed from the world, 
 with the remark, that he inherited the defects, without 
 the abilities, of his father. Before Constantius expired, 
 he is said to have named Julian for his successor ; nor 
 does it seem improbable, that his anxious concern for 
 the fate of a young and tender wife, whom he left 
 with child, may have prevailed, in his last moments, 
 over the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eu- 
 sebius, and his guilty associates, made a faint attempt 
 to prolong the reign of the eunuchs, by the election of 
 another emperor; but their intrigues were rejected, 
 with disdain, by an army which now abhorred the 
 thought of civil discord ; and two officers of rank were 
 instantly despatched, to assure Julian, that every sword 
 in the empire would be drawn for his service. The 
 military designs of that prince, who had formed three 
 diffierent attacks against Thrace, were prevented by 
 this fortunate event. Without shedding the blood of 
 his fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a doubt- 
 ful conflict, and acquired the advantages of a complete 
 victory. Impatient to visit the place of his birth, and 
 
 • Ammian. xxi. 7. 11, 12. Hesoems to describe, with superfluous 
 labour, the operations of the siege of Aquileia, which on this occa- 
 sion, maintained its iniprejinaMe fame. Gregory Nazianzen (Oral, 
 iii. p. 68.) ascribes this accidental revolt to the wisdom of Constan- 
 tius, whose assured victory he announces with some appearance of 
 truth. Conslantio qucmcredebat procul dubio fore victorein ; nemo 
 enim omnium tunc ab hac constant! sententia discrepebat. Ammian. 
 xxi. 7. 
 
 t His death and character are faithfully delineated by Ammianus; 
 (xxi. 14, 15, 16.) and we are authorised to despise and detest the 
 foolish calumny of Gregory, (Oral. iii. p. 68.) who accuses Julian of 
 contriving the death of his benefactor. The private repentance of 
 the emperor, that he had spared and promoted Julian, (p. 69. and 
 Orat. xxi. p. 389.) is not improbable in itself, nor incompatible with 
 the public verbal testament, which prudential considerations might 
 dictate in the last momenta of his life. 
 
 J 
 
 the new capital of the empire, he advanced from Nais- 
 sus through the mountains of Hsemus, and the cities 
 of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at the distance 
 of sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to 
 receive him ; and-he made his triumphal entry amidst 
 the dutiful acclamations of the soldiers, the people, 
 Julian enters ^"d the Senate. An innumerable multi- 
 Constantinople, tude pressed around him with eager re- 
 spect; and were perhaps disappointed 
 when they observed the small stature and simple garb 
 of a hero, whose unexperienced youth had vanquished 
 the barbarians of Germany, and who had now traversed 
 in a successful career, the whole continent of Europe,* 
 from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Bos- 
 phorus." A few days afterwards, when the remains 
 of the deceased emperor were landed in the harbour, 
 the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affected 
 humanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his 
 diadem, and clothed in a mourning habit, he accompa- 
 nied the funeral as far as the church of the Holy Apos- 
 tles, where the body was deposited : and if these 
 marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute 
 to the birth and dignity of his imperial kinsman, the 
 tears of Julian professed to the world, that he had for- 
 got the injuries, and remembered only the oblio-ations, 
 which he had received from Constantius.'^ As soon 
 as the legions of Aquileia were assured of the death 
 of the emperor, they opened the gates of the city, and, 
 by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders, obtained an 
 and is acknow- ^^sy pardon from the prudence or lenity 
 Jcdged by the of Julian; who, in the thirty-second year 
 whole empire. ^^ ^is age, acquired the undisputed pos- 
 session of the Roman empire.*' 
 
 nis civil govern- Philosophy had instructed Julian to 
 Sife"** **"' <^^"™P^'"« the advantages of action and 
 retirement; but the elevation of his 
 birth, and the accidents of his life, never allowed him 
 the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely 
 have preferred the groves of the academy, and the so- 
 ciety of Athens ; but he was constrained, at first by the 
 will, and afterwards by the injustice, of Constantius, 
 to expose his person and fame to the dangers of im- 
 perial greatness ; and to make himself accountable to 
 the world, and to posterity, for the happiness of mil- 
 lions.' Julian recollected with terror the observations 
 of his master Plato,'' that the government of our flocks 
 and herds is always committed to beings of a superior 
 epecies; and that the conduct of nations requires and 
 deserves the celestial powers of the gods or of the 
 genii. From this principle he justly concluded, that 
 the man who presumes to reign, should aspire to the 
 perfection of the divine nature ; that he should purify 
 his soul from her mortal and terrestrial part ; that he 
 should extinguish his appetites, enlighten his under- 
 standing, regulate his passions, and subdue the wild 
 beast, which, according to the lively metaphor of Aris- 
 totle,** seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot. 
 The throne of Julian, which the death of Constantius 
 
 293 
 
 u In describing the triumph of Julian, Ammianus (xxii 1 2 ) as- 
 sumes the lofty tone of an orator or poet; while Libanius (Orat 
 Parent, c. 56. p. 281.) sinks to the grave simplicily of an historian 
 
 X The funeral of Constantius is described by Ammianus, (xxi 16 \ 
 Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat.iv. p. l]9.)Mamertinus, (in Panegyr Vet 
 XI. 27 ) Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c. Ivi. p. 283.) and rhiloslorgius. (l' 
 VI. c. 6.. with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 265.) These writers, and 
 their follower, pagans, catholics, Arians, beheld with very different 
 eyes both the dead and the living emperor. 
 
 y The day and year of the birth of Julian, are not perfectly ascer- 
 tained. The day is probably the sixth of November, and the vear 
 must be either 331 or 332 Tillemont. Hist, des Empereurs, tom^ iv' 
 8c? date *"^^' J^yzantin. p. 50. I have preferred the ear- 
 
 « Julian himself (p. 253-267.) has expressed these philosophical 
 Ideas with much eloquence, and some affectation, in a verv elabonte 
 epistle to Themistius. The Abbe de la Bleterie, (torn, ii p I46_i?n 
 who has given an elegant translation, is inclined to believe that it 
 was the celebrated Themistius, whose orations are still extant 
 
 e Julian ad Themist. p. 258. Petavius (not. p. 95.) observes that 
 this parage is taken from the fourth book De Legibus ; but either Ju- 
 lian quoted from memory, or his MSS. were different from ours — 
 Xenophon opens the Cyropaedia with a similar reflection. 
 
 b O Ji MvS^wjrov itiA.iuwvapx"*', Jrpoo-TjSno-* K«4 6i,p.ov. AHstOtap 
 
 Julian, p. 261. The MS. of Vossius, unsatisfied with a single beast 
 affords the stronger reading of Siip«», which the experience of des- 
 potum may warranC 
 
 fixed on an independent basis, was the seat of reason, 
 of virtue, and perhaps of vanity. He despised the 
 honours, renounced the pleasures, and discharged with 
 incessant diligence the duties, of his exalted station ; 
 and there were few among his subjects who would 
 have consented to relieve him from the weicrht of the 
 diadem, had they been obliged to submit thei? time and 
 their actions to the rigorous laws which their philoso- 
 phic emperor imposed on himself. One of his most 
 intimate friends,«= who had often shared the frugal sim- 
 plicity of his table, has remarked, that his light and 
 sparing diet (which was usually of the vegetable kind) 
 left his mind and body always free and active, for the 
 various and important business of an author, a pontiff; 
 a magistrate, a general, and a prince. In one and the 
 same day, he gave audience to several ambassadors, 
 and wrote, or dictated, a great number of letters to his 
 generals, his civil magistrates, his private friends, and 
 the diflferent cities of his dominions. He listened to 
 the memorials which had been received, considered 
 the subject of the petitions, and signified his intentions 
 more rapidly than they could be taken in short-hand- 
 by the diligence of his secretaries. He possessed 
 such inflexibility of thought, and such firmness of at- 
 tention, that he could employ his hand to write, his ear 
 to listen, and his voice to dictate ; and pursue at once 
 three several trains of ideas without hesitation, and 
 without error. While his ministers reposed, the prince 
 flew with agility from one labour to another, and, after 
 a hasty dinner, retired into his library, till the public 
 business, which he had appointed for the evening 
 sunjmoned him to interrupt the prosecution of his 
 studies. The supper of the emperor was still less 
 substantial than the former meal ; his sleep was never 
 clouded by the fumes of indigestion ; and, except in 
 the short interval of a marriage, which was the efl=ect 
 ot policy rather than love, the chaste Julian never 
 shared his bed with a female companion.<» He was 
 soon awakened by the entrance of fresh secretaries, 
 who had slept the preceding day; and his servants 
 were obliged to wait alternately, while their indefati- 
 gable master allowed himself scarcely any other re- 
 freshment than the change of occupations. The pre- 
 decessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother, and his 
 cousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of 
 the circus, under the specious pretence of complying 
 with the inclinations of the people ; and they fre- 
 quently remained the greatest part of the day, as idle 
 spectators, and as a part of the splendid spectacle, till 
 the ordinary round of twenty-four races « was com- 
 pletely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian, who 
 felt and professed an unfashionable dislike to these 
 Irivolous amusements, condescended to appear in the 
 circus ; and after bestowing a careless glance on five 
 or six of the races, he hastily withdrew, with the im- 
 patience of a philosopher, who considered every mo- 
 ment as lost, that was not devoted to the advantage of 
 the public, or the improvement of his own mind.' By 
 
 c Libanius (Orat. Parentalis. c. Ixxxiv. Ixxxv. p. 310. 31 1 312 ^ haa 
 given this interestin- detail of the private life of Julian. ' He h " 
 self (in Misopogon, p. 350.) mentions his vegetable diet, and upbraids 
 the gross and sensual appetite of the people of Antioch. 
 
 d Leclulus . . . Vestal ium toris purior, is the praise which Ma- 
 mertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13.) addresses to Julian himself. Liba- 
 nius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew 
 a woman before his marri.ige, or after the death of his wife. fOral 
 Parent, c. xxxviii. p. 313.) The chastity of Julian is confirmed by 
 the impartial testimony of Ammianus, (xxv. 4.) and the partial si- 
 lence of the christians. Yet Julian ironically urges the reproach of 
 the people of Antioch, that he almost always {d><r in^Trxv, in Misopo- 
 gon. p. 345.) lay alone. This suspicious expression is explained bv 
 the Abl>e de la Bleterie (Hist, de Jovien, torn. ii. p. 103—109.) with 
 candour and ingenuity. 
 
 e See Salmasiusad Sueton. in Claud, c. xxi. A twenty fifth race 
 or missus, was added, to complete the number of one hundred cha- 
 riots, four of which, the four colours, started each heat. 
 
 Centum quadrijugos agitabo^id flumina currus. 
 It appears that they ran five or seven times round the Meta, (Sueton. 
 in Domitian. c.4.) and (from the measure of the Circus Maximus at 
 Rome, the Hippodrome at Constantinople, &c.) it might be about a 
 four-mile course. 
 
 f Julian, in Misopogon, p. 340. Julius Caesar had offended the 
 Roman people by i;eading his despatches during the actual race Au- 
 gustus indulged their taste, or his own, by his constant attention to 
 
294 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 this avarice of time, he seemed to protract the short 
 duration of his reign ; and if the dates were less se- 
 curely ascertained, we should refuse to believe, that 
 only sixteen months elapsed between the death of 
 -. . Constantius and the departure of his 
 
 AXifh successor for the Persian war. The ac- 
 March, tions of Julian can only be preserved by 
 A. D. 363. ^j^g ^^^g ^f ^j^g historian ; but the portion 
 
 of his voluminous writings, which is still extant, re- 
 mains as a monument of the application, as well as 
 of the genius, of the empire. The Misopogon, the Cae- 
 sars, several of his orations, and his elaborate work 
 against the christian religion, were composed in the 
 long nights of the two winters, the former of which he 
 passed at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch. 
 Reformation of The reformation of the imperial court 
 the palace. was one of the first and most necessary 
 acts of the government of Julian.5 Soon after his en- 
 trance into the palace of Constantinople, he had occa- 
 sion for the service of a barber. An officer magnifi- 
 cently dressed, immediately presented himself. " It 
 is a barber," exclaimed the prince, with affected sur- 
 prise, " that I want, and not a receiver-general of the 
 finances."'' He questioned the man concerning the 
 profits of his employment; and was informed, that 
 besides a large salary and some valuable perquisites, 
 he enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty servants, and 
 as many horses. A thousand barbers, a thousand cup- 
 bearers, a thousand cooks, were distributed in the se- 
 veral offices of luxury ; and the number of eunuchs 
 could be compared only with the insects of a summer's 
 day.' The monarch who resigned to his subjects the 
 superiority of merit and virtue, was distinguished by 
 the oppressive magnificence of his dress, his table, his 
 buildings, and his train. The stately palaces erected 
 by Constantino and his sons, were decorated with 
 many-coloured marbles, and ornaments of massy gold. 
 The most exquisite dainties were procured, to gratify 
 their pride, rather than their taste ; birds of the most 
 distant climates, fish from the most remote seas, fruits 
 out of their natural season, winter roses, and summer 
 snows.'' The domestic crowd of the palace sur- 
 passed the expense of the legions; yet the smallest 
 part of this costly multitude was subservient to the 
 use, or even to the splendour, of the throne. The 
 monarch was disgraced, and the people was injured, 
 by the creation and sale of an infinite number of ob- 
 scure and even titular employments; and the most 
 "worthless of mankind might purchase the privilege of 
 being maintained, without the necessity of labour, 
 from°the public revenue. The waste of an enormous 
 household, the increase of fees and perquisites, which 
 were soon claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes 
 which they extorted from those who feared their en- 
 mity, or solicited their favour, suddenly enriched these 
 haughty menials. They abused their fortune, without 
 considering their past or their future condition; and 
 their rapine and venality could be equalled only by the 
 extravagance of their dissipations. Their silken robes 
 were embroidered with gold, their tables were served 
 with delicacy and profusion ; the houses which they 
 built for their own use, would have covered the farm 
 of an ancient consul ; and the most honourable citi- 
 
 the important business of the circus, for which he professed the 
 wannest inclination. Sucton. in August, c. xlv. 
 
 K The reforniation of the palace is described by Ammianus, (xxii. 
 4.) Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c. Ixii. p.2'*8, &.c.) Mainertinus, (in Pa- 
 negyr. Vet. xi. 11.) Socrates, (I. iii. c. 1.) and Zonaras, (torn. ii. I. 
 xiil. p. 24.) 
 
 b E^o non rationalem jussi sed tnnsorem acciri. Zonaras uses 
 the less natural image of a senator. Yet an ofiicpr of the finances, 
 who was satiated with wealth, might desire and obtain tlie honours 
 of the senate. 
 
 arc the original words of Libanius, which I have faithfully quoted, 
 lest I should be suspected of magnifying the abuses of the royal 
 household. 
 
 k The erpre88ion§ of Mamertinus are lively and forcible. Uuin 
 etiam prandiorum etcsnarum laboratas magnitudines Romanus po- 
 puhis sensit; cum quiesitissiniBR dapes non gustu sed difficultatibus 
 ctiimarentur ; miracula avium, longinqui maris pisces, alieni tempo- 
 ris poma, Kstivoa nivei, hybernie ro8». 
 
 zens were obliged to dismount from their horses, and 
 respectfully to salute an eunuch whom they met on the 
 public highway. The luxury of the palace excited 
 the contempt and indignation of Julian, who usually 
 slept on the ground ; who yielded with reluctance to 
 the indispensable calls of nature ; and who placed his 
 vanity, not in emulating, but in despising, the pomp 
 of royalty. By the total extirpation of a mischief 
 which was magnified even beyond its real extent, he 
 was impatient to relieve the distress, and to appease 
 the murmurs, of the people ; who support with less 
 uneasiness the weight of taxes, if they are convinced 
 that the fruits of their industry are appropriated to the 
 service of the state. But in the execution of this sa- 
 lutary work, Julian is accused of proceeding with too 
 much haste and inconsiderate severity. By a single 
 edict, he reduced the palace of Constantinople to an 
 immense desert, and dismissed with ignommy the 
 whole train of slaves and dependents,' without provid- 
 ing any just, or at least benevolent, exceptions, for the 
 age, the services, or the poverty, of the faithful do- 
 mestics of the imperial family. Such indeed was the 
 temper of Julian, who seldom recollected the funda- 
 mental maxim of Aristotle, that true virtue is placed 
 at an equal distance between the opposite vices. I ho 
 splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics, the 
 curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had 
 appeared so ridiculous in the person of Constantme, 
 were consistently rejected by his philosophic succes- 
 sor. But with the fopperies, Julian affected to re- 
 nounce the decencies, of dress ; and seemed to value 
 himself for his neglect of the laws of cleanliness. In 
 a satirical performance, which was designed for tho 
 public eye, the emperor descants with pleasure, and 
 even with pride, on the length of his nails, and tho 
 inky blackness of his hands ; protests, that although 
 the greatest part of his body was covered with hair, 
 the use of the razor was confined to his head alone ; 
 and celebrates, with visible complacency, the shaggy 
 and populous'^ beard, which he fondly cherished, after 
 the example of the philosophers of Greece. Had Ju- 
 lian consulted the simple dictates of reason, the first 
 magistrate of the Romans would have scorned the af- 
 fecfation of Diogenes, as well as that of Darius. 
 
 But the work of public reformation chamber of jus- 
 would have remained imperfect, if Julian \'co- 
 had only corrected the abuses, without punishing the 
 crimes, of his predecessor's reign. " We are now de- 
 livered," says he, in a familiar letter to one of his in- 
 timate friends, "we are now surprisingly delivered 
 from the voracious jaws of the Hydra." I do not 
 
 mean to apply that epithet to my brother Constantius. 
 He is no more ; may the earth lie light on his head . 
 But his artful and cruel favourites studied to deceive 
 and exasperate a prince, whose natural mildness caii- 
 not be praised without some efforts of adulation. It is 
 not, however, my intention, that even those men should 
 be oppressed : they are accused, and they shall enjoy 
 the benefit of a Mr and impartial trial." To conduct 
 this inquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest 
 rank in the state and army ; and as he wished to escape 
 the reproach of condemning his personal enemies, he 
 fixed this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on the 
 Asiatic side of the Bosphorus ; and transferred to the 
 commissioners an absolute power to pronounce and 
 
 1 Yet Julian himself was accused of bestowing whole towns on the 
 eunuchs. (Orat. vii. against Polyclct. p. 117—127.) Libanius con 
 tents himself with a cold l>ut positive denial of the fact, which seems, 
 indeed, to belong more properly to Constantius. Tliis charge, how- 
 ever, may allude to some unknown circumstance. 
 
 m In the Misopogon (p. :W8, 339.) he draws a very singular picture 
 of himself, and the following words are strangely characteristic 
 
 Aoro{ jrpoo-iSiix* TOW fiaJuv TOoTOv* Truyywv* .... t»ut« toi di«e5»9y- 
 Tuiw Kvtxojuoti Touv ^3ijp^v tL<rnip iv Koxf^n tu>v infimv. The friends of 
 the Abbe de la Bleterie adjured him, in the name of the French na- 
 tion, not to translate this passasre, so offensive to their delicacy. 
 (Hist, de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 94.) Like him. I have contented my«eli 
 with a transient allusion : but the little animal which Julian names, 
 is a beast familiar to man, and signifiei love. 
 
 n Julian, epist. xxiii. p. 389. He uses the words neKxj*»p»\o¥ \.5fm¥, 
 in writing to his friend Hermogenes, who, like himself, wai conver- 
 sant with tho Greek poets. 
 
 execute their final sentence, without delay, and with- 
 out appeal The office of president was exercised by 
 the venerable prasfect of the east, a second Sallust," 
 whose virtues conciliated the esteem of Greek so- 
 phists, and of christian bishops. He was assisted by 
 the eloquent Mamertinus, P one of the consuls elect, 
 whose mem IS loudly celebrated by the doubtful evil 
 dence of his own applause. But the civil wisdom of 
 two magistrates was overbalanced by the ferocious 
 TrhPtTn^ o^our generals, Nevitta, Agile, Jovinus, and 
 Arbetio. Arbetio, whom the public would have seen 
 with less surprise at the bar than on the bench, was 
 supposed to possess the secret of the commission ; the 
 armed and the angry leaders of the Jovian and Hercu- 
 lian bands encompassed the tribunal; and the judges 
 were alternately swayed by the laws of justice, Ld^by ' 
 the clamours of faction.^ > «"u u_y 
 
 Punishment of The chamberlain Eusebius, who had 
 
 themrioccntand SO long abused the favour of Constan- 
 „ . , ^/"^' expiated, by an ignominious death, 
 
 the insolence, the corruption, and cruelty, of his servile 
 reign. The executions of Paul and Apodemius (the 
 former of whom was burnt alive) were accepted as an 
 inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of 
 
 lirZ^ A^'^^. ^°"'.'"'' ^'^^"^ th««« Jegal tyrants 
 had betrayed and murdered. But justice herself (if 
 
 we may use the pathetic expression of Ammianus M 
 appeared to weep over the fate of Ursulus, the trea- 
 surer of the empire; and his blood accused the in^ra- 
 titude of Julian whose distress had been seasonablv 
 re leved by the intrepid Hberality of that honest minis^- 
 
 K JV- • /^^^ ""f- ^^^ soldiers, whom he had provoked 
 bj his indiscretion, was the cause and the excuse of 
 his death ; and the emperor, deeply wounded by his 
 own reproaches, and those of the public, offered some 
 
 of his oonfi ^^^%^^^"y -^ Ursulu's, by t'he restkutil 
 of his confiscated fortunes. Before the end of the year 
 m which they had been adorned with the ensigns of 
 Uie prefecture and consulship,- Taurus and Florentius 
 uere reduced to implore the clemency of the inexora- 
 ble tribunal of Chalcedon. The fonLr was banTshed 
 to VercelliE m Italy, and a sentence of death was pro- 
 nounced against the latter. A wise prince should have 
 rewarded the crime of Taurus : the faithful minister! 
 
 tor ii\- 1 r^" '^^""^ '" ^^^ ^^"^^ 0^ his benefac 
 tor and his awful sovereign. But the guilt of Floren- 
 
 ZiTtn'^f '\' 'fr'''^ '' '^^ J"^^- ^ -^ his escape 
 served to display the magnanimity of Julian ; who no- 
 
 rltT^i '^'' 'T'^'f"^ ^^^^^^"^^ «^^^ informer! and 
 refused to learn what place concealed the wretehed fu- 
 
 ^llr^K 1 IVu^^ resentment.' Some months after 
 the tribunal of Chalcedon had been dissolved, the pra.- 
 torian vicegerent of Africa, the notary Gaude;tius,Cd 
 
 A tei;;!" 1,^"^" "^ ^i^yP'' ^^'^ ^^^^"ted at Ant och! 
 Artemius had reigned the cruel and corrupt tyrant of a 
 
 295 
 
 p. 696.) I have used the si r name of il. L ^'"P«'"«"'-s, torn. iv. 
 thet. Vbe second SalfusI extorted t^resteem^^r^^r/^ 
 themselves; and Gre^orv Na/iinrpn wf,« !lf 5^ ^ the christians 
 
 n.?ni^^?srj:HL,^,u^irr;S;r/nSSt'L^Je:"'- ^•^'""°"« ^''^ 
 n^pi^5TST^i^i1.jS-^"-^^ 
 
 hear Taurus summoned as a crimTnal unicr U.e consulshi^'n'r"? *° 
 
 Srihrr'""'"°"' "^''^ ''°"^«""^' Fiorentius was J otab ly Sehv^d 
 till the commencement ol the ensuing year V'^"^oiy aeiayed 
 
 t Ammian. xx. 7. 
 
 D 37^°^"^!!^ *a"''^ ""'^ punishment of Artemius. see Julian. (Enist x 
 Art^L^ Ammianus. (xxii. 6. and Vales, ad loc.) The merit of 
 
 i^^Ssta « hn'l';^ ''r!?"f''^^^ ^^"'P'^^' «"d "^^^ put to death by aS 
 Jl a ; !;. " '^0""^^^^ the Greek and Latin churches to honour hi^m 
 Snitr, ^^'■; K^"' M ecclesiastical history attests, thathe was nS 
 dW^r^^'l"*'**^* »° ^"""' *' '» notaltogefher easy to justifv this^S 
 diserett promotion. Tillcmont, Mem. &:cles. tom^ vii. p! 1?19. 
 
 N 
 
 great province. Gaudentius had long practised the 
 arts of calumny against the innocent, the virtuous and 
 even the person of Julian himself. ' Yet thed ium- 
 stances of their trial and condemnation were so u^- 
 skilfully managed, that these wicked men obtained, in 
 the public opinion, the glory of suffering for the ob- 
 stinate loyalty with which they had supported Uie 
 cause of Constantius The rest of his servant^ were 
 protected by a general act of oblivion ; and they were 
 left to enjoy with impunity the bribes which thev had 
 accepted either to defend the oppressed, or te oppress 
 the friendless. This measure, which, o^ the soJnTest 
 principles of policy, may deserve our approbation, was 
 executed in a manner which seemed to degrade the 
 majesty of the throne. Julian was tormented bv the 
 
 importunities of amultitude, particularly of Effvptians 
 who loudly demanded the gifts which they^had iml 
 prudently or illegally bestowed ; he foresaw the end- 
 less prosecution of vexatious suits; and he enjraffed a 
 promise, which ought always to have been sacred, that 
 if they would repair to Chalcedon, he would meet Ihem 
 in person, to hear and determine their complaints Buf 
 as soon as they were landed, he issued an absolute or- 
 der, which prohibited the watermen from transportino- 
 any Egyptian to Constantinople; and thus detained 
 his disappointed clients on the Asiatic shore, till their 
 patience and money being utterly exhausted, thev were 
 obliged to return, with indignant murmurs to their na- 
 tive country.' 
 
 The numerous army of spies, of agents, clemency of 
 and informers, enlisted by Constantius TZJ.""^ 
 to secijre the repose of one man, and to interrupt that 
 ot millions, was immediately disbanded by his o-ene- 
 
 IZ'SnT'-'^'l •^""•^'i ^"^ '^°^ ^" hi« suspicions, 
 and gentle in his punishments; and his contempt of 
 treason was the result of judgment, of vanity, and of 
 ^nS';K f;"'^^""« of superior merit, he was per- 
 suaded that fevv among his subjects would dare to nieet 
 him m the field, to attempt his life, or even to seat 
 themselves on his vacant throne. The philosopher 
 could excuse the hasty sallies of discontent ; and the 
 hero could despise the ambitious projects which sur- 
 passed the fortune or the abilities of the rash conspi- 
 rators. A citizen of Ancyra had prepared for his own 
 use a piirple garment ; and this indiscreet action, which 
 under the reign of Constantius, would have been con- 
 sidered as a capital offence," was reported to Julian by 
 the officious importunity of a private enemy. The 
 nionarch, after making some inquiry inte the rank and 
 character of his rival, despatehed the informer with a 
 present of a pair of purple slippers, to complete the 
 magnificence of his imperial habit. A more dangerous 
 conspiracy was formed by ten of the domestic guards, 
 who had resolved to assassinate Julian in the field of 
 exercise near Antioch. Their intemperance revealed 
 their guilt ; and they were conducted in chains to the 
 presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a lively 
 representation of the wickedness and folly of their en- 
 terprise, iristead of a death of torture, which they de- 
 served and expected, pronounced a sentence of exile 
 against the two principal offenders. The only instance 
 in which Julian seemed to depart from his accustomed 
 clemency, was the execution of a rash youth, who, 
 with a feeble hand, had aspired to seize the reins of 
 empire. But that youth was the son of Marcellus, the 
 general of cavalry, who, in the first campaign of the 
 Gallic war, had deserted the standard of th? C^sar, 
 and the republic. Without appearing to indulge his 
 personal resentment, Julian might easily confound the 
 crime of the son and of the father ; but he was recon- 
 
 dosifnus^rS'l?,- ? v-^' f"*^ y^"^^^^ ^J^ "*''"'" ; a"'^ the Codex Theo- 
 p 218 ad locum!* ^^' '' ^"** ^odefroy's Commentary, tom i. 
 
 y The president Montesquieu (Considerations sur Ja Grandeur Sec 
 de. Roma.ns, c. xiv. in his works, tom. iii. p. 448, 449.) excuses thhl 
 minute and absurd tyranny, by supposing that actions the most ?n 
 different m our eyes, might excite, in a Roman mind the idea of 
 gu.li and danger. This strange apology is supported by a stSnw 
 imsapprehension of the English laws, "chez une nation «»^S 
 
 est defendu de boire a la sant^ d' une ccrtaine perwnne '♦' ••**"*' 
 
296 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 ciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of 
 the emperor endeavoured to heal the wound which had 
 been inflicted by the hand of justice.' 
 
 - ^ Julian was not insensible of the ad- 
 
 Jo'^Tndfhf;:: vantages of freedom.* From his studies 
 public. he had imbibed the spirit of ancient 
 
 sages and heroes : his life and fortunes had depended 
 on the caprice of a tyrant ; and when he ascended the 
 throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the re- 
 flection, that the slaves who would not dare to censure 
 his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues. 
 He sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism, 
 which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits ot 
 fourscore years, had established in the empire. A mo- 
 tive of superstition prevented the execution of the de- 
 siffn which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving 
 his head from the weight of a costly diadem ;^ but he 
 absolutely refused the title of dominus, or lord"' a word 
 which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Ro- 
 mans, that they no longer remembered its servile and 
 humiliatinfT origin. The office, or rather the name, ot 
 consul, wa"s cherished by a prince who contemplated 
 with reverence the ruins of the repubhc ; and the same 
 behaviour which had been assumed by the prudence ot 
 Augustus, was adopted by Julian from choice and in- 
 AD363 clination. On the calends of January, at 
 Jan. 1. * break of day, the new consuls, Mamer- 
 tinus and Ncvitta, hastened to the palace to salute the 
 emperor. As soon as he was informed of their ap- 
 proach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced 
 to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates 
 to receive the demonstrations of his affected humility. 
 From the palace they proceeded to the senate. 1 he 
 emperor, on foot, marched before their litters ; and the 
 ffazintr multitude admired the image of ancient times, 
 or sec'^etly blamed a conduct, which, in their eyes, de- 
 irraded the majesty of the purple." But the behaviour 
 Sf Julian was uniformly supported. During the games 
 of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, per- 
 formed the manumission of a slave in the presence ot 
 the consul. The moment he was reminded that he 
 had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magis- 
 trate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds 
 of gold ; and embraced this public occasion of declaring 
 to the world, that he was subject, like the rest of his 
 fellow-citizens, to the laws,' and even to the forms, of 
 the republic. The spirit of his administration, and his 
 regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to 
 confer on the senate of Constantinople the same hon- 
 ours, privileges, and authority, which were still en- 
 joyed by the senate of ancient Rome.R A legal fiction 
 was introduced, and gradually established, that one 
 half of the national council had migrated into the east : 
 and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting the 
 
 I The clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which was formed 
 aeainst his life at Antioch, are described by Amroianus, (xxii. 9, 10. 
 and Vales, ad loc.) and Lihanius. (Oral. Parent, c. 99. P- 323) 
 
 a According to some, says Aristotle, (as he is quoted by Julian ad 
 Themist. p. 261.) the form ofa»»solute government, the ^».u»:««r.XM», 
 is contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher chose, 
 however, lo involve this eternal truth in artful and laboured obscu- 
 
 " b That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of Julian him- 
 self. Ammian. xxii. 10. ^, . . 
 
 c I.U.anius. (Oral. Parent, c. 95. p. 320.) who mentions the wish 
 and design of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious language, (Si»v out™ 
 yv»,vT«,v . . . . oiKK" *iv aMi'vuii. o »«\u<.)i',) that tliB empcror was re- 
 strained by some particular revelation. 
 
 d Julian in Misopogon,p. 343. As he never abolished, by any 
 public law, the proud appellation, of despot, or dominus, they are 
 Btill extant on his medals ; (Ducange. Fam. Byzantin, p. 38, 39.) and 
 the private displeasure which he affected to express, only gave a 
 different tone to the servility of the court. The Abhe de la DIcterie 
 rHist de Jovien, torn. ii. p. 99—102.) has curiously traced the origin 
 and progress of the MvotAdominus under the imperial government. 
 
 e Ammian. xxii. 7. The consul Mamerlinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 
 *»8— :^0.) celebrates the auspicious day, like an eloquent slave, aston- 
 Tahed and intoxicated By the condescension of his master. 
 
 / Personnl satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables: 
 Si male condiderit in quem quiscarmina, jusest 
 
 Judiciumque . 
 
 Julian (in Misopogon, p. 337.) owns himself subject to the law ; and 
 the Ab5.e de la BIcterie (Hist, de Jovien, torn. il. p. 92.) has eagerly 
 embraced a declaration so agreeable to his own system, and indeed to 
 the true spirit, of the imperial constitution, 
 fl Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 158. 
 
 title of senators, acknowledged themselves the mem- 
 hers of a respectable body, which was p rmitted to re- 
 present the majesty of the Roman name. From Con- 
 stantinople, the attention of the monarch was extended 
 to the municipal senates of the provinces. He abol- 
 ished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious ex- 
 emptions which had withdrawn so many idle citizens 
 from the service of their country; and by imposing an 
 equal distribution of public duties, he restored the 
 strencrth, the splendour, or, according to the glowing 
 expression of Libanius,»» the soul of the expiring cities 
 of his empire. The venerable age of His care of the 
 Greece excited the most tender compas- Grecan c.t.es, 
 sion in the mind of Julian ; which kindled into rapture 
 when he recollected the gods, the heroes, and the men 
 superior to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to 
 the latest posterity the monuments of their genius, or 
 the example of their virtues. He relieved the distress, 
 and restored the beauty, of the cities of Lpirus aud 
 Peloponnesus.' Athens acknowledged him for her 
 benefactor ; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of 
 Corinth, aaain rising from her ruins with the honours 
 of a Roman colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent 
 republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of 
 the Isthmus, which were celebrated m the amphithea- 
 tre with the hunting of bears and panthers. From 
 this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, 
 which had inherited from their remote ancestors the 
 sacred office of perpetuating the Olympic, the 1 ythi- 
 an, and the Nemean games, claimed a just exemption. 
 The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by 
 the Corinthians ; but the poverty of Argos tempted the 
 insolence of oppression ; and the feeble complaints of 
 its deputies were silenced by the decree of a provincial 
 magistrate, who seems to have consulted only the in- 
 terest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years 
 after this sentence, Julian * allowed the cause to be re- 
 ferred to a superior tribunal; and his eloquence was 
 interposed, most probably with success, in the defence 
 of a city, which had been the royal seat of Agamem- 
 non,' and had given to Macedonia a race of kings and 
 
 conquerors." 
 
 The laborious administration of mill- Julian an orator 
 tary and civil affairs, which were multi- a"-; » J^^^e^- 
 plied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exer- 
 cised the abilities of Julian ; but he frequently assumed 
 the two characters of orator" and of judge," which are 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 297 
 
 h 'H THc flo«x.i? .(r%«? ^«%»i ToXi»f lo-Tiv. See Libanius, (Orat, 
 Parent c 71 p. 296.) Ammianus. (xxii. 9.) and the Thcodos.an Code 
 Tl xH lit i. leg. 50-55.) with Godcfroy's Commentary, (torn. iv. p. 
 Q90_402 ) Yet the whole subject of the Curia, nolwiihBtanding 
 very ample materials, still remains the most obscure m the legal 
 
 ''Tcium naulo^riitrarida et siti anhelantia visebantur, ea nunc per- 
 lui mundari.madere; Fora, Deambulacra, Gymnasia, IjbIw et gau- 
 deni^ms populis frequentari dies festos. et celehrari veteres, et novo, 
 Jnhonoremprincipisconsecrari. (Mamertm. xi. 9.) "e particularly 
 restored the city of Nicopolis, and the Actiac games, which had been 
 
 '"f ruHan'^Epirxxxv. p. 407-411. This epis.le which illustrates 
 the declining aire of Greece, is omitted by the Abbe de la Bleterie , 
 and strangely disfigured by the Latin translator, who. by rendering 
 IVii^i!*, tributum, and .*.«t»., populus, directly contradicts the 
 
 ''rHe^erg^eTin'Myceme, at the distance of fifty stadia, or six 
 m le 8 from Argos : but these cities, which alternately flourished, are 
 ?infounded by the Greek poets. Strabo, I. viii. p. 579. edit. Amstcl. 
 
 ^'m Marsham. Canon. Chron, p. 421. This P«Jie;««J'XTTs'tH"ct 
 and Hercules, may be suspicious; yet it was "'lowed, after a strict 
 inquiry by the judges of the Olympic games (Herodot. I. v. c. 22.) at 
 a ?ime when the Macedonian kings were obscure and ""Popular in 
 Greece When the Achiean league declared against Philip.it was 
 thought decent that the deputies of Argos should retire. (T. Ltv. 
 
 *" His^eloquence is celebrated by Libanius. (Orat. Parent, c. 75,76. 
 D. 300. 301.) who distinctly mentions the orators of Homer, feocraies 
 (I. iii. c. 1.) has rashly asserted that Julian was the only prince, 
 since Julius Caesar, who harangued the senate. All the Predccessorg 
 of Nero. (Tacit. Annal. xiii. 3.) and many of his successors, possessed 
 the faculty of speaking in public; and it might be proved by various 
 examples, that they frequenUy exercised it in the senate. 
 
 o Ammianus f xxii. 10.) has in.partially stated the merits and de- 
 fects of his judicial proceedings Li»>aniu8 (Orat. Parent, c 90. 9i. 
 p. 315. &c.) has seen only the fair side, and Jw picture, if it flatters 
 the person, expresses at least the duties, of the judge. Gregory Na- 
 zianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 120.) who suppressei the ▼i'.^"**' ""J,"1S!^ 
 rates even the Tenial faulu, of the apoetatc, trmmphantly Mkf, 
 
 almost unknown to the modpm tj^vproiVno r.p v • . , 
 
 The arts of persuasion, ^om.^^^^^^ \ Z^r^' '^'^ ^T '"^^ ^'J^f ^^^" ^^ '^'^ '"^^^^^ ^^"^e. His 
 
 first C^sars were nco- lected bfthe mili^^^^^^^^^ f ^''''!-\T P^^^'^^^^^» ^"^ sublime than that of C«- 
 
 and Asiatic pride of their succLsorsafdfftf.v^^^^^^^ T'' T ^'^'^rf P"''""' the consummate prudence of 
 descended to harancrue the soldTers u^iom tW Z { Augustus. The virtues of Trajan appear more steady 
 
 they treated with siFent tVa^ite^t^wl^^^ j ^ "^^t:^.^: ^'tt fc' ^T"^ 1 ''T ^^- 
 
 place whore he could TxhTb rwith tt llf ^ro^^^^^^^^^ tT^it '"? ' s?^'"' ^"'t '''T'^ >^^-^ ^^^ ^e 
 themaxi,nsofarcpttblican,andthetairtfora2: ^r^ ±^'Z ^T^^^Jt: ^— ^^^eld an 
 
 the maxims of a republican, and the talents of a rheto- 
 rician. He alternately practised, as in a school of de- 
 clamation, the several modes of praise, of censure, of 
 exhortation ; and his friend Libanius has remarked, 
 that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the sim' 
 P^e, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of 
 Nestor, whose words descended like the flakes of a 
 winter s snow, or the pathetic and forcible eloquence 
 of Ulysses. Ihc functions of a judge, which are 
 sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were 
 exercised by Julian, not only as a duty but as an 
 amusement ; and although he might have trusted the 
 in egrity and discernment of his praetorian prefects, he 
 often placed himself by their side on the seat of judff- 
 nient. The acute penetration of his mind was aoree- 
 ably occupied m detecting and defeating the chica- 
 f ?: ^Vr^ advocates, who laboured to disguise the 
 truth of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. 
 He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked 
 indiscreet or unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by 
 the loudness of his voice, and the agitation of his body, 
 the earnest vehemence with which he maintained his 
 opinion against the judges, the advocates, and their 
 clients. Uut his knowledge of his own temper prompt- 
 ed him to encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of 
 fiis friends and ministers ; and whenever they ventured 
 to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the spec- 
 tators could observe the shame, as well as the ffrati 
 
 emperor who made no distinction between his duties 
 and his pleasures; wlio laboured to relieve the distress 
 and to revive the spirit of his subjects ; and who en- 
 deavoured always to connect authority with merit and 
 happiness with virtue. Even faction, and rclidous 
 action, was constrained to acknowledge the superiori- 
 ty of his genius, in peace as well as in war, and to 
 confess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julian was a 
 lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire 
 of the world. 1 * 
 
 CHAPTER XXHI. 
 
 The religion of Julian.— Universal toleraiioiu— He attempts 
 to restore and reform the pagan worship-to rebuild th^ 
 temple ofJenisaleni. His artful persectttion of the chria- 
 tians.— Mutual zeal and injustice. 
 
 IleIi«rion of 
 Julian. 
 
 ttide, of their monarch T he deprPprnV T„ .., T 'a. ' ' ■ " . ^'""'" °' JJiocletian to the exile of 
 almost always founded on he nrfJ^,!"'"^'?."!'? „'^.'?^"!^'."^: A"??'" "^.'^''^-''^ view of the character 
 
 I , - -.^ ^v^v/iv>.>c7 \JL o unau were 
 
 almost always founded on the principles of justice ; 
 and iie had the firmness to resist the two most danfjer- 
 ous temptations which assault the tribunal of a sove- 
 reign, under the specious forms of compassion and 
 eqiiity. He decided the merits of the cause without 
 weighing the circumstances of the parties ; and the 
 poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to 
 satisfy the just demands of a noble and wealthy adver- 
 sary. He carefully distinguished the judge from the 
 legislator ;P and though he meditated a necessary re- 
 formation of the Roman jurisprudence, he pronounced 
 sentence according to the strict and literal interpreta- 
 tion of those laws, which the magistrates were bound 
 to execute, and the subjects to obey. 
 
 The character of Apostate has injured 
 
 the reputation of Julian ; and the enthu- 
 
 siasm which clouded his virtues, has exao-jrerated 
 the real and apparent magnitude of his faulfs! Our 
 partial ignorance may represent him as a philosophic 
 monarch, who studied to protect, with an equal hand, 
 the religious factions of the empire; and to allay the 
 theological fever which had inflamed the minds of the 
 people, from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile of 
 
 and conduct of Julian will remove this favourable pre- 
 possession for a prince who did not escape the general 
 contagion of the times. We enjoy the singular ad- 
 vantage of comparing the pictures which have been 
 delineated by his fondest admirers, and his implacable 
 enemies. The actions of .Julian arc faithfully related 
 by a judicious and candid historian, the impartial spec- 
 tator of his life and death. The unanimous evidence 
 of his contemporaries is confirmed by the public and 
 private declarations of the emperor himself; and his 
 various writings express the uniform tenor of his reli- 
 gious sentiments, which policy would have prompted 
 , him to dissemble rather than to affect. A devout and 
 sincere attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome 
 
 rpi " ,. ;^J'. I oiin^cic uiuiuiiiiieni lor ine ffoas ot Athens and Rnm*i 
 
 Hi. r,l,a,ac.cr, J^lf""^^''}' of pnnces if they wereJ constituted the ruling passion of Julian^" the „o«Tr^ 
 
 into thewnrlH I'^'^u • "'r''''ri''.'"'.''"'''=''^'""'^''4°'"''" """ffl'tened understanding were hetraved and 
 1" ,u ^f "^'?'!"*' ''?"''* 'mniediatcly sink to the lowestfcorruptcd hy the influence of superstitious nrehidice- 
 rI:,.lr'"'2'.":i!!'r_^'!°P« of merging from theirjand L pha^ntoms which c^siT^Ti\r^^:if 
 
 obscurity. 13ut the personal merit of Julian was, in 
 some measure, independent of his fortune. Whatever 
 had been his choice of life, by the force of intrepid 
 courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would 
 have obtained, or at least he would have deserved, the 
 highest honours of his profession ; and Julian mio-ht 
 have raised himself to the rank of minister, or geneml, 
 ot the state 4n which he was born a private citizen. If 
 the jealous caprice of power had disappointed his ex- 
 pectations ; if he had prudently declined the paths of 
 greatness, the employment of the same talents in stu- 
 dious solitude would have placed, beyond the reach of 
 kings, his present happiness and his immortal fame. 
 When we inspect, with minute or perhaps malevolent 
 attention, the portrait of .Julian, something seems want- 
 
 the emperor, had a real and pernicious efl'ect on the 
 government of the empire. The vehement zeal of the 
 christians, who despised the worship, and overturned 
 the altars, of those fabulous deities, engaged their vo- 
 tary in a state of irreconcilable hostility with a very 
 numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes 
 tempted, by the desire of victory, or the shame of a re- 
 pulse, to violate the laws of prudence, and even of jus- 
 tice. The triumph of the party, which he deserted and 
 opposed, has fixed a stain of infamy on the name of 
 
 Whctl.er such a judpc was fit to be seated between Minos and Rl.a 
 •lamanthu.o, m the Elysian fields ? 
 
 f,L^^^ '*'? '"**'f "''''L' •'•"''"" «"af'^<l i" a rfiiin of sixteen months 
 ft} four have l^en admiilod into the codecs of Thcodosi.is and Jus- 
 t man. (Gotl.ofred. Cliron. Logum, p. Gl-GT.) The Al.be de la 
 ?. mI:.' iV°7',!'- »:• ?2n-:i:'6.) has choLen one of these laws ?o giJe 
 ieist'rc^tL'SKr^^r '''''' which is forcible and elaborate/but 
 Vol. I 2 N 
 
 q- - - - Diirtor fortissimus armis; 
 Conditoret legum celeberrimus; ore manuque 
 Consultor patriaR ; sed non consultor habeiuJie 
 Religionis ; aiiians lerceutuin millia Divuin. 
 rerfuliis ille Deo, sed uoii et perfidus orl»i. 
 
 „,, ^ Prudent. A potheosiij, 450. &.C. 
 
 1 lie consciousness of a generous sentiment seems to Jiave raised tbe 
 chri.-JMaii poet above his usual mpdiorrity. 
 
 a I shall transcribe some of iiisown expressions from a short reli- 
 gions discourse which tlic imperial pontiff composed to censure the 
 bold impiety of a Cynic. Aat.' i/^^i kt« Sy, t. Tt>,- 5»k; ^^<^f^K*, x«« 
 
 ns >c*< Ci» jrpsi xycti^i Sktstotxs, Trpcf StSxTKxKui, frp<i{ n»rifixc 
 
 ^poix„S'uovx:. Orat. vii. p. 212. The variety and copiousness of 
 the Greek tongue seems inadequate to the fervour of his devotion. 
 
296 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of 
 the emperor endeavoured to heal the wound which had 
 been inflicted by the hand of justice.' 
 
 Julian was not insensible of the ad- 
 Jo'^Tdl'":: vantages of freedom.* From his studies 
 public. he had imbibed the spirit of ancient 
 
 saffes and heroes : his life and fortunes had depended 
 on the caprice of a tyrant ; and when he ascended the 
 throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the re- 
 flection, that the slaves who would not dare to censure 
 his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues. 
 He sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism, 
 which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits ot 
 fourscore years, had established in the empire. A mo- 
 tive of superstition prevented the execution of the de- 
 sign which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving 
 
 his head from the weight of a costly diadem ; «= but he 
 absolutely refused the title of dominus, or lord,^ a word 
 which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Ro- 
 mans, that they no longer remembered its servile and 
 humiliatincr origin. The office, or rather the name, ot 
 consul, wa"s cherished by a prince who contemplated 
 with reverence the ruins of the repubhc ; and the same 
 behaviour which had been assumed by the prudence ot 
 Augustus, was adopted by Julian from choice and m- 
 A D 363 clination. On the calends of January, at 
 Jan. 1. ' break of day, the new consuls, Mamer- 
 tinus and Nevitta, hastened to the palace to salute the 
 emperor. As soon as he was informed of their ap- 
 proach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced 
 to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates 
 to receive the demonstrations of his affected humility. 
 From the palace they proceeded to the senate. Ihe 
 emperor, on foot, marched before their litters ; and the 
 ffaziuff multitude admired the image of ancient times, 
 or secretly blamed a conduct, which, in their eyes, de- 
 graded the majesty of the purple." But the behaviour 
 of Julian was uniformly supported. During the games 
 of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, per- 
 formed the manumission of a slave in the presence ot 
 the consul. The moment he was reminded that he 
 had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magis- 
 trate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds 
 of gold ; and embraced this public occasion of declaring 
 to the world, that he was subject, like the rest of his 
 fellow-citizens, to the laws,' and even to the forms, ot 
 the republic. The spirit of his administration, and his 
 regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to 
 confer on the senate of Constantinople the same hon- 
 ours, privileges, and authority, which were still en- 
 joyed by the senate of ancient Rome.* A legal fiction 
 was introduced, and gradually established, that one 
 half of the national council had migrated into the east : 
 and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting the 
 
 title of senators, acknowledged themselves the mem- 
 bers of a respectable body, which was p rmitted to re- 
 present the majesty of the Roman name. From Con- 
 stantinople, the attention of the monarch was extended 
 to the municipal senates of the provinces. He abol- 
 ished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious ex- 
 emptions which had withdrawn so many idle citizens 
 from the service of their country; and by imposing an 
 equal distribution of public duties, he restored the 
 strength, the splendour, or, according to the glowing 
 expression of Libanius,** the soul of the expiring cities 
 of his empire. The venerable age of His care of the 
 Greece excited the most tender compas- Grecian cues, 
 sion in the mind of Julian ; which kindled into rapture 
 when he recollected the gods, the heroes, and the men 
 superior to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to 
 the latest posterity the monuments of their genius, or 
 he example of their virtues He relieved the distress 
 and restored the beauty, of the cities of Lpirus aud 
 Peloponnesus.* Athens acknowledged him for her 
 benefactor ; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of 
 Corinth, aaain rising from her ruins with the honours 
 of a Roman colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent 
 republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of 
 the Isthmus, which were celebrated in the amphithea- 
 tre with the hunting of bears and panthers. From 
 this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, 
 which had inherited from their remote ancestors the 
 sacred office of perpetuating the Olympic, the Pythi- 
 an, and the Nemean games, claimed a just exemption. 
 The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by 
 the Corinthians; but the poverty of Argos tempted the 
 insolence of oppression ; and the feeble complaints ot 
 its deputies were silenced by the decree of a provincial 
 maffistrate, who seems to have consulted only the in- 
 terest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years 
 after this sentence, Julian » allowed the cause to be re- 
 ferred to a superior tribunal; and his eloquence was 
 interposed, most probably with success, m the defence 
 of a city, which had been the royal seat of Agamem- 
 non,> and had ^ven to Macedonia a race of kings and 
 
 conquerors." . /. -v 
 
 The laborious administration of mill- Julian an orator 
 tary and civil affairs, which were multi- ^"d a judge, 
 plied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exer- 
 cised the abilities of Julian ; but he frequently assumed 
 the two characters of orator" and of judge," which are 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 z Tlie clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which was formed 
 aeainst his life at Anfioch, are described by Ainmianus. (xxu. 9, 10. 
 and Vales, ad loc.) and Lihanius. (Orat. Parent, c. 99. P- 323 ) 
 
 a According to some, says Aristotle, (as he is quoted by Julian ad 
 Themist. p. 261.) the form of a»«olutc government, the 7r»^p»<nKii», 
 i» contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher chose, 
 however, to involve this eternal truth in artful and laboured obscu- 
 
 ''V^That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of Julian him- 
 self. Ammian. xxii. 10. , . . . 
 c LU.anius. (Orat. Parent, c. 95. p. 320.) who mentions the wish 
 and desien of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious Irfnguage, (5i-v o«t<» 
 yy«vT«.v . . . . »KK' „v »fA%iv<^v h K«,xu<«v,) that tlic cmpcror was re- 
 strained by some particular revelation. ,_ . u 
 
 d Julian in Misopogon, p. 343. As he never abolished, by any 
 public law, the proud appellation, of despot, or dominus, they arc 
 Btill extant on his medals ; (Ducange. Fam. Byzanlin, p. 38. 39.) and 
 the private displeasure which he affected to express, only gave a 
 different tone to the servility of the court. The Abbe de la Bleteric 
 f Mist de Jovien, torn. ii. p. 99—102.) has curiously traced the origin 
 and nroeress of the word dominu* under the imperial government. 
 
 e Ammian. xxii. 7. The consul Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 
 «»8_-?0 ) celpbrates the auspicious day, like an eloquent slave, aston- 
 Tabed and intoxicated by the condescension of his master. 
 t Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables: 
 Si male condiderit in quern quiscarmina, jusest 
 
 Judiciumque , . . , . 
 
 Julian (in Misopogon, p. 337.) owns himself subject to the law ; and 
 the Abt.e de la Blcterie (Hist, de Jovien, tom. il. p. 92.) has eagerly 
 embraced a declaration so agreeable to his own system, and indeed to 
 the true spirit, of the imperial constitution, 
 c Zoaunus, 1. iii. p. 158. 
 
 h 'H THc Souxn? .(r%v« >^«%n Ts\i«? iTT.v. See Lihanius, (Orat. 
 Parent C 71 p. 296.) Ammianus, (xxii. 9.) and the Tlieodosian Code 
 flxH tit. i leg. 50-55.) with Godcfroy's Commentary, (tonri. iv. p. 
 ^0Z.4(« Yet the whole subject of the Curia:, notwitbiitanding 
 ver7 ample materials, still remains the most obscure in the legal 
 
 ''^'aL^^'ulo^rnirarida et siti anhelantia viscbantur, ea nunc per- 
 lu mundari,madere; Fora, Deambulacra, Gymnasia. Itttw et gau- 
 dentrus popuhs frequentari dies fesios. et celebrari veteres, et novoi 
 inhonoremprincipisconsccrari. (Mamertin. xi. 9.) "epa^"^"'"'/ 
 restored the city of Nicopolis, and the Actiac games, which had been 
 
 '"k' jXV^Tx'xxv. p. 407-411. This epistle, which illustrate, 
 the decI.ninJSge of Greece, is omitted by the Abbe de la Bleter.e; 
 and suangely disfigured by the Latin translator, who, by rendering 
 ;;rMT?r.L<««,: and .i«T-., populus, directly contradicts the 
 
 '^r He're'gn°eT'i"n"Mycen«, at the distance of fiHy stadia or sit 
 mles from Argos: but these cities, which alternately flourished, are 
 Confounded by the Greek poets. Strabo, 1. vili. p. 579. edit. Amstcl. 
 
 ^'m Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 421. This PcJ/e^^eJ^o?, JemenM 
 and Hercules, may be suspic^us; yet it ^^^^ «''°'*;^^' .''^^^ ^J^^^^ 
 inquiry by the judges of the Olympic games, (Herodot. I. v. c. 22.) at 
 a time when the Macedonian kings were obscure and unpopular in 
 GrcTce When the Achaean league declared against Philip, U was 
 thoujjht decent that the deputies of Argos should retire. (P. Liv. 
 
 *"Hif eloquence is celebrated by Libanlus, (Orat. Parent, c. 75, 76. 
 n. 300, 301.) who distinctly mentions the orators of Homer. Socrates 
 (I. iii. c. 1.) has rashly asserted that Julian was the only prince, 
 since Julius C»sar, who harangued the senate. All the predecessors 
 of Nero, (Tacit. Annal. xiii. 3.) and many of bis «»««»«"' P°«f,f^^^ 
 the faculty of speaking in public; and it might be proved by variou» 
 examples, that they frequently exercised it in the fcnate. 
 
 o Animiamis(xxii. 10.) has i"'PVlL'^"y «*?^*?. ''^.Snt c M 91 
 fects of his judicial proceedings. Libanms (Orat. Parent- ^-""jj^ 
 p. 315. Sec.) has seen only the fair side, an/ h".P'<=i"'«'^^ "JJ^g" 
 the person, expresses at least the duties, of the judge. Gregory Na- 
 zianzen, (Orat iv. p. 120.) who suppresses the V'.l"**' ""J.^iSl* 
 rates even the vonlal faults, of tbe apoetate, triumphantly aiki, 
 
 first Caesars: were ncMected bfthe mi iflrv f^^^ ^ "^ "^flT ^°'''"^"^ "'"^ ^"'''™e than that of C^ 
 
 5"ii^i-i«.P^"-*- their tlt^^ 
 
 and Asiatic pride ot their successors ; and if they con- 
 descended to harangue the soldiers whom they feared, 
 they treated with silent disdain the senators whom they 
 dispised. The assemblies of the senate, which Con- 
 stantius had avoided, were considered by Julian as the 
 place where he could exhibit, with the most propriety, 
 the maxims of a republican, and the talents of a rheto- 
 rician. He alternately practised, as in a school of de- 
 clamation, the several modes of praise, of censure, of 
 exhortation; and his friend Lihanius has remarked, 
 that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the sim 
 
 Die. COnflSP stvln nf IVTr..,^! ..!-- . • 
 
 Augustus. The virtues of Trajan appear more steady 
 and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is more sim- 
 pie and consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity 
 with hrmness, and prosperity with moderation. After 
 an interval of one hundred and twenty years from the 
 death of Alexander Severus, the Romans beheld an 
 emperor who made no distinction between his duties 
 and his pleasures; who laboured to relieve the distress 
 and to revive the spirit of his subjects ; and who en- 
 deavoured always to connect authority with merit, and 
 happiness with virtue. Even faction, and religious 
 
 
 of Ulysses. The functions of a judge, which are 
 sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were 
 exercised by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an 
 amusement ; and although he might have trusted the 
 integrity and discernment of his praetorian prefects, he 
 often placed himself by their side on the seat of iudff- 
 nient. The acute penetration of his mind was ao-ree- 
 ably occupied in detecting and defeating the chica- 
 nery of the advocates, who laboured to disguise the 
 truth of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. 
 He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked 
 indiscreet or unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by 
 the loudness of his voice, and the agitation of his body, 
 the earnest vehemence with which he maintained his 
 opinion against the judges, the advocates, and their 
 clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompt- 
 ed him to encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of 
 ms triends and ministers; and whenever they ventured 
 to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the spec- 
 tators could observe the shame, as well as the grati- 
 tude, of their monarch. The decrees of Julian were 
 almost always founded on the principles of justice ; 
 and he had the firmness to resist the two most danger- 
 ous temptations which assault the tribunal of a sove- 
 reign, under the specious forms of compassion and 
 eqiiity. He decided the merits of the cause without 
 weighing the circumstances of the parties ; and the 
 poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to 
 satisfy the just demands of a noble and wealthy adver- 
 sary. He carefully distinguished the judge from the 
 legislator ;P and though he meditated a necessary re- 
 tormation of the Roman jurisprudence, he pronounced 
 sentence according to the strict and literal interpreta- 
 tion ot those laws, which the magistrates were bound 
 to execute, and the sul)jects to obey. 
 
 lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire 
 01 the world. *» '^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 The religion of Julian.— UjiiversaUoleration.— He attemvts 
 to restore and reform the pagan wa,'ship—to rebuild the 
 temple ofJ^iu^alem His artful persectttim of the chria- 
 tians.— Mutual zeal ajid injustice. 
 
 Religion of 
 Julian. 
 
 The character of Apostate has injured 
 
 the reputation of Julian ; and the enthu -... 
 
 siasm which clouded his virtues, has exago-erated 
 the real and apparent magnitude of his faults! Our 
 partial ignorance may represent him as a philosophic 
 monarch, who studied to protect, with an equal hand, 
 the religious factions of the empire ; and to allay the 
 theological fever which had inflamed the minds of the 
 people, from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile of 
 Athanasius. A more accurate view of the character 
 and conduct of Julian will remove this favourable pre- 
 possession for a prince who did not escape the eeneral 
 contagion of the times. We enjoy the singular ad- 
 vantage of comparing the pictures which have been 
 delineated ^ his fondest admirers, and his implacable 
 enemies. The actions of Julian arc Aiith fully related 
 by a judicious and candid historian, the impartial spec- 
 tator of his life and death. The unanimous evidence 
 ot his contemporaries is confirmed by the public and 
 private declarations of the emperor himself; and his 
 various writings express the uniform tenor of his reli- 
 gious sentiments, which policy would have prompted 
 him to dissemble rather than to afiect. A devout and 
 sincere attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome 
 
 rni ** ,. .;•' I oiiicciu aiuiciiiueni lor ine arods ot Athpn<5 nnH T?.^m/» 
 
 Hi. character. . ^''e generality of princes, if they wereJ constituted the ruling nassio/i of Julian -"the Do«Tr^ 
 
 into the wo,lH "''■'m •"'^ "";'•' I'i'^P'.''' ""'' "^^t "'''^'^4»f «" ^-'lightened understanding were betr,wed<fnd 
 iTir i^ = . ' '^".l''' '""T'^'-^Hy "'""^ to the lowestfcorrupted by the influence of superstlttus Treiudice • 
 ZLlr''^i^,';:;!!'r.l'l°?^°L^™-/i"S '•-"• theirjand th'e pha^ntonis which or^sU.r:ZTl^Zn^of 
 
 obscurity. But the personal merit of Julian was, in 
 some measure, independent of his fortune. Whatever 
 Jiad been his choice of life, by the force of intrepid 
 courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would 
 have obtained, or at least he would have deserved, the 
 highest honours of his profession ; and Julian mio-ht 
 have raised himself to the rank of minister, or genenil, 
 of the state 4n which he was born a private citizen. If 
 the jealous caprice of power had disappointed his ex- 
 pectations ; if he had prudently declined the paths of 
 greatness, the employment of the same talents in stu- 
 dious solitude would have placed, beyond the reach of 
 kings, his present happiness and his immortal fame. 
 When we inspect, with minute or perhaps malevolent 
 attention, the portrait of .hilian, something seems want- 
 
 the emperor, had a real and pernicious effect on the 
 government of the empire. The vehement zeal of the 
 christians, who despised the worship, and overturned 
 the altars, of those fabulous deities, engaged their vo- 
 tary in a state of irreconcilable hostility with a very 
 numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes 
 tempted, by the desire of victory, or the shame of a re- 
 pulse, to violate the laws of prudence, and even of jus- 
 tice. The triumph of the party, which he deserted and 
 opposed, has fixed a stain of infamy on the name of 
 
 Wl.cilier sucli a jud-c was fit to be seated between Minos and Rl.a 
 <l.imaMtl.Ui>, in the Elysian fields ? 
 p Of the laws whicl. Julian enacted in a rfign of sixteen months 
 
 t n^;.?'"^roH^r*'L" ^;l"""'^'^ *"»° ^"e codes of Theodosins and Jus-' 
 R L, • /.Got''P'^red. Chron. Legum, p. C4-G7.) The Abbe de la 
 B etene (torn. n. p. 329-:u?6.) has chosen one of these laws to give 
 
 iels puVthin'in "cr^'k " '''''' ^""''^'^ '= ^'''''''' "^"^ eIaborate;but 
 
 Vol. I 2 N 
 
 q- - • - Diirfor fortissimus armis; 
 Conditoret legum celeherrimus; ore manuque 
 Consnitor patriae ; sed non consultor hal)endie 
 RelijL'ionis ; ainans tercenlum miilia Divuin. 
 Perfidiis ille Deo, sed non et pcrfidus orhi. 
 „,, ^ Prudent. Apotheosis, 4.50, &c. 
 
 i he consciousness of c generous sentinicnt seems to liave raised tbe 
 christian poet above his usual mediorrity. 
 
 a I sliall transcribe some of iiisown expressions from a short reli- 
 gions discourse which the imperial pontiff composed to censure the 
 bold impiety of a Cynic. Aki\.' iju^s »t« S,, t. tsj 5«»j »-i(pp«x«, x»« 
 9«A.u), x«i <r«*3(r, xM< «(Jo/*«<, jTwvi' xtrKuig tx toi<»ut« a-f«rx«, «i(r*-ip sy 
 T«s Kxt Ofx jrpsf xy»3i>i ^tca-Orxf, ;rpof StSxTKxKtis, rrpfis wxTifxc 
 
 ^pcix>,S!f^ovxi. Orat. vii. p. 212. The variety and copiousness of 
 the Greek tongue seems inadequate to the fervour of his devotion. 
 
 11 
 
 f-« 
 
298 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^< 
 
 Julian ; and the unsuccessful apostate has been over- 
 whelmed witli a torrent of pious invectives, of which 
 the signal was given by the sonorous tnimpet" of Gre- 
 gory Nazianzen.« The interesting nature of the events 
 which were crowded into the short reign of this active 
 emperor, deserve a just and circumstantial narrative. 
 His motives, his counsels, and his actions, as far as 
 they are connected with the history of religion, will be 
 the subject of the present chapter. 
 His education Tlie cause of his strange and fatal 
 and apostaay. apostasy, may be derived from the early 
 period of his life, when he was left an orphan in the 
 hands of the murderers of his family. The names of 
 Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and of 
 religion, were soon associated in a youthful imagina- 
 tion, which was susceptible of the most lively impres- 
 sions. The care of his infancy was intrusted to Euse- 
 bius, bishop of Nicomedia,'' who was related to him 
 on the side of his mother; and till Julian reached the 
 twentieth year of his age he received from his christian 
 preceptors the education not of a hero, but of a saint. 
 The emperor, less jealous of a heavenly than an earthly 
 crown, contented himself with the imperfect character 
 of a catechumen, while he bestowed the advantages 
 of baptism" on the nephews of Constantine.' They 
 were even admitted to the inferior offices of the eccle- 
 siastical order; and Julian publicly read the Holy 
 Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia. The study of 
 religion, which they assiduously cultivated, appeared 
 to produce the fairest fruits of faith and devotion.* 
 They prayed, they fasted, they distributed alms to the 
 poor, gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs of 
 the martyrs; and the splendid monument of St. Ma- 
 mas, at Caesarea, was erected, or at least was under- 
 taken, by the joint labour of Gallus and Julian.'^ They 
 respectfully conversed with the bishops, who were 
 eminent for superior sanctity, and solicited the bene- 
 diction of the monks and hermits, who had introduced 
 into Capadocia the voluntary hardships of the ascetic 
 life.' As the two princes advanced towards the years 
 of manhood they discovered, in their religious senti- 
 ments, the difference of their characters. The dull and 
 obstinate understanding of Gallus embraced, with im- 
 plicit zeal, the doctrines of Christianity ; which never 
 influenced his conduct, or moderated his passions. The 
 mild disposition of the younger brother was less re- 
 pugnant to the precepts of the gospel ; and his active 
 curiosity might have been gratified by a theological 
 
 b The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm, and more 
 vanity, addresses liis discourse to lieaven and earth, to men and an- 
 gels, to the living and the dead ; and above all, to the preat Constan- 
 tius, (*• Ti« otto-iviTi;, an odd pagan expression.) lie conoltides with 
 a bold assurance, that he has erected a moimment not less durable, 
 and much more portable, than tfie coluauis of Hercules. See Creg. 
 Nazianzen. Oral. iii. p. 50. iv. p. 134. 
 
 c See this long invective, which has been injudiciously divided into 
 two orations in Gregory's Works, torn. i. p. 49— 1:<4. Paris, 16:?0. It 
 was puhlislied by Gregory and liis friend Basil (iv. p. VX.^.) aliout six 
 months after the death of Julian, when his remains had been car- 
 ried to Tarsus, (ivi p. 120.) but while Jovian was still on the throne, 
 (iii. p. 54. iv, p. 117.) I have derived much assistance from a French 
 version and remarks printed at Lyons, 1735. 
 
 d Nicomedia; ah Eusebio educatus episcopo, quem genere longius 
 continaebat. (Ammian. xxii. 9.) Julian never expresses any grati 
 tude towards that Arian preliite ; but he c.ilebrates his preceptor, ilie 
 eunuch Mardonius, atid describes his mode of education, which in 
 ipired his pupil with a passionate admiration for the genius, and per- 
 haps the religion of Homer. Misopogon, p. 351. 3.52. 
 
 c Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He laboured to etface that holy mark in the 
 blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium. Bar. Annal. EccJes. A. D. 3GI. 
 No. 3, 4. 
 
 f Julian himself (Epist. II. p. 454.) assures the Alexandrians that he 
 bad iteen a christian (he must mean a sincere one) till the twentieth 
 year of his ace. 
 
 g Sec his christian, and even his ecclesiastical, education, in Gre- 
 gory, (iii. p. 58.) Socrates, (I. iii. c. 1.) and Sozomen, (1. v. c. 2.) He 
 escaped very narrowly from beinsr a bishop, and perhaps a saint. 
 
 k The share of the work which had been allotted to Gallus, was 
 prosecuted with vigour and .success; buttlie earth obstinately rejected 
 and subverted the structures which were imposed by the sacrilegious 
 hand of Julian. Greg. iii. p. 59— Gl. Su.li a partial earthquake, at- 
 tested by many living spectators, would form one of the clearest mi 
 racles in ecclesiastical history. 
 
 i The philosopher (Fragment, p. 288.) ridicnles the iron chains, 
 tec. of these solitary fanatics (see Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.ix. 
 p. 061,662.) who had forgot that man is by nature a gentle and social 
 animal, MvflpaijrB ^vrn jroMTixti ^«n« x«i ^M'P". The Pagan supposes, 
 that Iwcause they bad renounced the goda, they were possessed and 
 tormented by evil demons. 
 
 system, which explains the mysterious essence of the 
 Deity, and opens the boundless prospect of invisible 
 and future worlds. But the independent spirit of Ju- 
 lian refused to yield the passive and unresisting obe- 
 dience which was required, in the name of religion, by 
 the haughty ministers of the church. Their specula- 
 tive opmions were imposed as positive laws, and 
 guarded by the terrors of eternal punishments ; but 
 while they prescribed the rigid formulary of the 
 thoughts, the words, and the actions of the young 
 prince; whilst they silenced his objections, and se- 
 verely checked the freedom of his inquiries, they se- 
 cretly provoked his impatient genius to disclaim the 
 authority of his ecclesiastical guides. He was edu- 
 cated in the Lesser Asia, amidst the scandals of the 
 Arian controversy .'' The fierce contests of the eastern 
 bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds, and 
 the profane motives which appeared to actiiate their 
 conduct, insensibly strengthened the prejudice of Ju- 
 lian, that they neither understood nor believed the re- 
 ligion for which they so fiercely contended. Instead of 
 listening to the proofs of Christianity with that favoura- 
 ble attention which adds weight to the most respectable 
 evidence, he heard with suspicion, and disputed with 
 obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines for which he 
 already entertained an invincible aversion. Whenever 
 tiie young princes were directed to compose declama- 
 tions on Ilie subject of the prevailing controversies, 
 Julian always declared himself the advocate of pagan- 
 ism ; under the specious excuse that in the defence of 
 the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be 
 more advantageously exercised and displayed. 
 
 As soon as Gallus was invested with He embraces the 
 the honours of the purple, Julian was mythology of pa- 
 permitted to breathe the air of freedom, ?*"'«•"• 
 of literature, and of paganism.* The crowd of sophists, 
 who were attracted by the taste and liberality of their 
 royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the 
 learning and the religion of Greece; and the poems of 
 Homer, instead of being admired as the original pro- 
 ductions of human genius, were seriously ascribed to 
 the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the muses. The 
 deities of Olympus, as they are painted by the immor- 
 tal bard, imprint themselves on the minds which are 
 the least addicted to superstitious credulity. Our fa- 
 miliar knowledge of their names and characters, their 
 forms and attributes, seems to bestow on those airy be- 
 ings a real and substantial existence ; and the pleasing 
 enchantment produces an imperfect and monientary as- 
 sent of the imagination to those fables, which are the 
 most repugnant to our reason and experience. In the 
 age of Julian, every circumstance contributed to pro- 
 long and fortify the illusion ; the magnificent temples 
 iof Greece and Asia ; the works of those artists who 
 !had expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the divine 
 conceptions of the poet ; the pomp of festivals and sa- 
 crifices ; the successful arts of divination ; the popular 
 traditions of oracles and prodigies ; and the ancient 
 practice of two thousand years. The weakness of 
 polytheism was, in some measure, excused by the mo- 
 deration of its claims ; and the devotion of the pagans 
 was not incompatible with the most licentious scepti- 
 cism.™ Instead of an indivisible and regular system, 
 which occupies the whole extent of the believing mind, 
 the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a thou- 
 sand loose and flexible parts, and the servant of the 
 gods was at liberty to d«'finc the degree and measure 
 of his religious fiiith. The creed which Julian adopt- 
 ed for his own use was of the largest dimensions ; and 
 
 k See Julian apud Cyril. I. vi. p. 200. I. viii. p. 253. 262. " Vou 
 persecute." says he, "those heretics who do not mourn the dead 
 man precisely in the way which you approve.'' Fie shows liimself 
 a tolerable ihcolocian ; but he maintain^ that the christian Trinity is 
 not derived from the doririne of Paul, of Jesus, or of Moses. 
 
 I Libanius, Orat. Parent»lis, r. 9. 10. p. 2^2. &c. Gres. Nazianzen, 
 Orat. iii. p. 61. Eunap. Vit. Sophist, in Maximo, p. 68— 70. F.-lit. 
 Commelin. 
 
 in A modern pliilosophcr has inccnioualy compared the diiTcrenl 
 operation of theism and polytheism, with regard to the doubt or con- 
 viction which they produce in the human mind. See Hume's E»« 
 ■ays, vol. ii. p. 444 — 457. in 8vo. edit. 1777. 
 
 by a strange contradiction, he disdained the salutary 
 yoke of the gospel, whilst he made a voluntary oflTerino- 
 of his reason on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One 
 of the orations of Julian is consecrated to the honour 
 of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who required from 
 her effeminate priests the bloody sacrifice, so rashly 
 performed by the madness of the Phrygian boy. The 
 pious emperor condescends to relate, without a blush, 
 and without a smile, the voyage of the goddess from 
 the shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tyber ; 
 and the stupendous miracle, which convinced the sen- 
 ate and people of Rome that the lump of clay, which 
 their ambassadors had transported over the seas, w^as 
 endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine power." 
 For the truth of this prodigy, he appeals to the public 
 monuments of the city ; and censures, with some acri- 
 mony, the sickly and affected taste of those men, who 
 impertinently derided the sacred traditions of their an- 
 cestors," 
 
 The allegories. ^"* ^^^® devout philosopher, who sin- 
 cerely embraced, and warmly encou- 
 raged, the superstition of the people, reserved for 
 himself the privilege of a liberal interpretation ; and 
 silently withdrew from the foot of the altars into the 
 sanctuary of the temple. The extravagance of the 
 Grecian mythology proclaimed with a clear and audi- 
 ble voice, that the pious inquirer, instead of beino- 
 scandalized or satisfied with the literal sense, should 
 diligently explore the occult wisdom, which had been 
 disguised, by the prudence of antiquity, under the 
 mask of folly and fable.P The philosophers of the 
 Platonic school,*! Plotinus, Porphyry, and the divine 
 lambhchus, were admitted as the most skilful masters 
 of this allegorical science, which laboured to soften 
 and harmonize the deformed features of paganism. 
 Julian himself, who was directed in the mysterious 
 pursuit by ^desius, the venerable successor of lam- 
 blichus, aspired to the possession of a treasure, which 
 he esteemed, if we may credit his solemn asseverations, 
 far above the empire of the world.' It was indeed a 
 treasure, which derived its value only from opinion ; 
 and every artist, who flattered himself that he had ex- 
 tracted the precious ore from ibe surrounding dross, 
 claimed an equal right of stamping the name and fio-- 
 ure the most agreeable to his peculiar fancy. The 
 fable of Atys and Cybele had been already explained 
 by Porphyry; but his labours served only to animate 
 the pioiis industry of Julian, who invented and pub- 
 lished his own allegory of that ancient and mystic tale. 
 This freedom of interpretation, which might gratify 
 the pride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of their 
 art. Without a tedious detail, the modern reader could 
 not form a just idea of the strange allusions, the forced 
 etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the impenetrable 
 obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal the 
 system of the universe. As the traditions of pagan 
 mythology were variously related, the sacred interpre- 
 ters were at liberty to select the most convenient cir- 
 
 299 
 
 n The IdKan mother landed in Italy about the end of the second 
 Punic war. The miracle of Claudia, either virgin or matron, who 
 cleared her fame by disgracing the graver modesty of the Romnn 
 ladies, is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Their evidence is collected 
 by Drakenborch, (ad Silium Itaiicum, xvii. 33.) but we may observe 
 that Livy (xxix. 14.) slides over the transaction with discreet ambi- 
 guity. 
 
 o I cannot refrain from transcribing the emphatical words of Julian- 
 
 £M«' S$ aOXIJ T«lf TTOKiT, TTia-TlvHV fixKKOV TX TOiX\JTX, Y TCUT5JT* TCI{ 
 
 Ko^yo.? wv TO yvx.p.ov Sp,,u-j miv, v>Mi S, s^t fv £k,mi. Orat v p 
 
 16 J. Julian likewise declares his firm belief in the ancilia, the holy 
 shields, which dropt from heaven on the Quirinal hill ; and pities 
 the strange bhndtiess of the christians, who preferred the cross to 
 these celestial trophies. Apud. Cyril. I. vi. p, 194. 
 
 p Seethe principles of allegory, in Julian. (Orat. vii. p 216 '>^« ) 
 His reasoning is less absurd than that of some modern theologians 
 who assert that an extravagant or contradictory doctrine mustle di- 
 vine ; since no man alive could have thought of inventing it. 
 
 q Eunapius has made these sophists the subject of a partial and 
 fanatical history ; and tiie learned Brucker (Hist. Philosoph. torn. ii. 
 p. 217— 30.T) has employed nmch labour to illustrate their obsciire 
 uvcs and inroinprehensible doctrines. 
 
 r Julian. Orat. vii. p. ','22. He swears with the most fervent and 
 enthusiastic devotion ; and trembles, lest he should betray too much 
 of these holy mysteries, which the profane might deride with an im- 
 pious Sardonic laugh. 
 
 cumstances ; and as they translated an arbitrary cy- 
 pher, they could extract from ant/ fable any sense 
 which was adapted to their favourite system of reli- 
 gion and philosophy. The lascivious form of a naked 
 Venus was tortured into the discovery of some moral 
 precept, or some physical truth ; and the castration of 
 Atys explained the revolution of the sun between the 
 tropics, or the separation of the human soul from vice 
 and error.' 
 
 The theological system of Julian ap- Theological sy.- 
 pears to tiave contained the sublime and tem of Julian, 
 important principles of natural religion. But as the 
 faith, which is not founded on revelation, must remain 
 destitute of any firm assurance, the disciple of Plato 
 imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgar super- 
 stition ; and the popular and philosophic notion of the 
 Deity seems to have been confounded in the practice,/ 
 the writings, and even in the mind, of Julian.* The 
 pious emperor acknowledged and adored the eternal 
 cause of the universe, to whom he ascribed all the 
 perfections of an infinite nature, invisible to the ej^es, 
 and inaccessible to the understanding, of feeble mor- 
 tals. The supreme God had created, or rather, in the 
 Platonic language, had generated, the gradual succes- 
 sion of dependent spirits, of gods, of daemons, of he- 
 roes, and of men ; and every being which derived its 
 existence immediately from the first cause, received the 
 inherent gift of immortality. That so precious an ad- 
 vantage might not be lavished on unworthy objects, 
 the Creator had intrusted to the skill and power of the 
 inferior gods the office of forming the human body, and 
 of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the 
 vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct 
 of these divine ministers he delegated the temporal 
 government of this lower world ; but their imperfect 
 administration is not exempt from discord or error. 
 The earth, and its inhabitiicts, are divided among 
 them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva, of Mer- 
 cury or Venus, may be distinctly traced in the laws 
 and manners of their peculiar votaries. As long as 
 our immortal souls are confined in a mortal prison, it is 
 our interest, as well as our duty, to solicit the favour, 
 and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of heaven ; 
 whose pride is gratified by the devotion of mankind ; 
 and whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive 
 some nourishment from the fumes of sacrifice." The 
 inferior gods might sometimes condescend to animate 
 the statues, and to inhabit the temples, which w^ere de- 
 dicated to their honour. They might occasionally visit 
 the earth, but the heavens were the proper throne and 
 symbol of their glory. The invariable order of the sun, 
 moon, and stars, was hastily admitted by Julian as a 
 proof of their eternal duration ; and their eternity was 
 a suflicicnt evidence that they were the workmanship, 
 not of an inferior deity, but of the Omnipotent King. 
 In the system of the Platonists, the visible was a type 
 of the invisible world. The celestial bodies, as they 
 were informed by a divine spirit, might be considered 
 as the objects the most worthy of religious worship. 
 The Sun, whose genial influence pervades and sustains 
 the universe, justly claimed the adoration of mankind, 
 as the bright representative of the Logos, the lively, 
 the rational, the beneficent image of the intellectual 
 Father.* 
 
 » Sj?e tlio fifth oration of Julian. But all the allegories which 
 ever issued from the IMatonic school, are not worth the short poem 
 ot tutulluson the same extraordinary subject. The transition of 
 Atys, from tho wildest enliiusiasm to sober pathetic complaint, for 
 his irretrievable loss, must inspire a man with pity, an eunuch with 
 despair. 
 
 t The true religion of Juli.in may be deduced from the Cipsars, p. 
 308. with Spanheim's notes and illustrations, from the frastnents in 
 Cyril, I. ii. p. 57, 58. and especially from the theological oration in 
 Solem Regem, p. 130—1.58. addressed, in the confidence of friend- 
 ship, to the prsfect Sallust. 
 
 u Julian adopts this gro:?s conception, by ascribing it to his favour- 
 ite Marcus Antoninus. (Cssares!, p. 335 ) The Stoics and Platonists 
 hesitated between the analogy of bodies, and the purity of spirits • 
 yet the gravest philosophers inclined to the whimsical fancy of Aris- 
 tcphanesand Lucian, that an unbelieving age might starve the im- 
 mortal gods. See Observations de Spanheim, p. 284. 444, &.c. 
 
300 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 « 
 
 * 
 
 Panatici«m I" every age, the absence of genuine 
 
 of the phi. inspiration is supplied by the strong 
 loBophers. illusions of enthusiasnn, and the mimic 
 arts of imposture. If, in the time of Julian, these arts 
 had been practised only by the pagan priests, for the 
 support of an expiring cause, some indulgence might 
 perhaps be allowed to the interest and habits of the 
 sacerdotal character. But it may appear a subject of 
 surprise and scandal, that the philosophers themselves 
 should have contributed to abuse the superstitious cre- 
 dulity of mankind,^ and that the Grecian mysteries 
 should have been supported by the magic or theurgy 
 of the modern Platonists. They arrogantly pretended 
 to control the order of nature, to explore the secrets of 
 futurity, to command the service of the inferior dae- 
 mons, to enjoy the view and conversation of the supe- 
 rior gods, and, by disengaging the soul from her mate- 
 rial bands, to re-unite that immortal particle with the 
 infinite and Divine Spirit. 
 
 Initiation and fa- The devout and fearless curiosity of 
 naticism of Julian. Julian tempted the philosophers with 
 the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the situ- 
 ation of their young proselyte, might be productive of 
 the most important consequences.* Julian imbibed the 
 first rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the 
 mouth of ^Edesius, who had fixed at Pergamus his 
 wandering and persecuted school. But as the declin- 
 ing strength of that venerable sage was unequal to the 
 ardour, the diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil, 
 two of his most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and 
 Eusebius, supplied, at his own desire, the place of 
 their aged master. These philosophers seem to have 
 prepared and distributed their respective parts ; and 
 they artfully contrived, by dark hints, and affected dis- 
 putes, to excite the impatient hopes of the aspirant, 
 till they delivered him into the hands of their associ- 
 ate, Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of 
 the Theurgic science. By his hands, Julian was se- 
 cretly initiated at Ephesus, in the twentieth year of 
 his age. His residence at Athens confirmed this un- 
 natural alliance of philosophy and superstition. He 
 obtained the privilege of a solemn initiation into the 
 mysteries of Eleusis, which, amidst the general decay 
 of the Grecian worship, still retained some vestiges 
 of their primaeval sanctity ; and such was the zeal of 
 Julian, that he afterwards invited the Eleusinian pon- 
 tiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole purpose of con- 
 summating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the great 
 work of his sanctUication. As these ceremonies were 
 performed in the depths of caverns, and in the silence 
 of the night ; and as the inviolable secret of the myste- 
 ries was preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I 
 shall not presume to describe the horrid sounds, and 
 fiery apparitions, which were presented to the senses, 
 or the imagination, of the credulous aspirant,* till the 
 visions of comfort and knowledge broke upon him in a 
 blaze of celestial light.'' In the caverns of Ephesus 
 and Eleusis, the mind of Julian was penetrated with 
 
 Tu »onTt» 3r«Tp3f. Julian. Epist. xli. In another plarc (apud Cyril. 
 I. ii. p. 69.) he rails the sun, God, and the titrone of God. Julian hc- 
 lieved the Platonirian Trinity, and only hiaines the christians for pre- 
 ferring a mortal to an immortal Logos. 
 
 7 Thesopliistsof Eunapius perform as many miracles as the saints 
 of the desert: and the only circumstanrc in their favour is, that 
 they are of a less gloomy complexion. Instead of devils with horns 
 and tails, Jamldichus evoked the genii of love, Eros and Anteros, 
 from two adjacent fountains. Two beautiful boys issued from the 
 water, fondly embraced him ad their father, and retired at his com- 
 mand. P. 26. 27. 
 
 % The dexterous management of these sophists, who played their 
 credulous pupil into eacli other's hands, is fairly told liy Eunapius 
 (p. 69 — 76.) with unsuspected simplicity. The Abbe de la Bleterie 
 understands, and neatly describes, the whole comedy. (Vic de Ju- 
 lien, p. 61— 67.) 
 
 X When Julian, In a momentary panic, made the sign of the cross, 
 the daemons instantly disappeared. (Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 71.) 
 Gregory supposes that they were frightened, but the priests declared 
 that they were indignant. The reader, according to the measure of 
 liis faith, will determine this profound question. 
 
 b A dark and distant view of the terrors and joys of initiation, is 
 vhown by Dion, Chrysostom, Tliemistius, Proclus. and Siobirus. 
 The learned author of the Divine Legation has exhibited their words. 
 ;vol. i p. 239. 247, 248. 280. edit. 1765.) which he dexterously or for- 
 cibly applies to his own hypothesis. 
 
 sincere, deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he 
 might sometimes exhibit the vicissitudes of pious 
 fraud and hypocrisy, which may be observed, or at 
 least suspected, in the characters of the most conscien- 
 tious fanatics. From that moment he consecrated his 
 life to the service of the gods ; and while the occupa- 
 tions of war, of government, and of study, seemed to 
 claim the whole measure of his time, a stated portion 
 of the hours of the night was invariably reserved for 
 the exercise of private devotion. The temperance 
 which adorned the severe manners of the soldier and 
 the philosopher, was connected with some strict and 
 frivolous rules of religious abstinence ; and it was in 
 honour of Pan or Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Ju- 
 lian, on particular days, denied himself the use of 
 some particular food, which might have been offensive 
 to his tutekr deities. By these voluntary fasts, he 
 prepared his senses and his understanding for the fre- 
 quent and familiar visits with which he was honoured 
 by the celestial powers. Notwithstanding the modest 
 silence of Julian himself, we may learn from his faith- 
 ful friend, the orator Libanius, that he lived in a per- 
 petual intercourse with the gods and goddesses ; that 
 they descended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of 
 their favourite hero ; that they gently interrupted his 
 slumbers by touching his hand or his hair ; that they 
 warned him of every impending danger, and conducted 
 him, by their infallible wisdom, in every action of his 
 life ; and that he had acquired such an intimate knowl- 
 edge of his heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the 
 voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of 
 Apollo from the figure of Hercules.*= These sleeping 
 or waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence 
 and fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to 
 the level of an Egyptian monk. But the useless lives 
 of Antony or Pachomius, were consumed in these vain 
 occupations. Julian could break from the dream of su- 
 perstition to arm himself for battle ; and after vanquish- 
 ing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmly retired 
 into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws of 
 an empire, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pur- 
 suits of literature and philosophy. 
 
 The important secret of the apostasy nis religious dia- 
 of Julian was intrusted to the fidelity of simulation, 
 the initiated, with whom he was united by the sacred 
 ties of friendship and religion.'* The pleasing rumour 
 was cautiously circulated among the adherents of the 
 ancient worship ; and his future greatness became the 
 object of the hopes, the prayers, and the predictions of 
 the pagans, in every province of the empire. From 
 the zeal and virtues of their royal proselyte, they fondly 
 expected the cure of every evil, and the restoration of 
 every blessing; and instead of disapproving of the ar- 
 dour of their pious wishes, Julian ingenuously confessed 
 that he was ambitious to attain a situation, in which he 
 might be useful to his country and to his religion. 
 But this religion was viewed with an hostile eye by 
 the successor of Constantine, whose capricious pas- 
 sions alternately saved and threatened the life of Ju- 
 lian. The arts of magic and divination were strictl}*^ 
 prohibited under a despotic government, which conde- 
 scended to fear them ; and if the pagans were reluctantly 
 indulged in the exercise of their superstition, the rank 
 of Julian would have excepted him from the general 
 toleration. The apostate soon became the presump- 
 tive heir of the monarchy, and his death could alone 
 have appeased the just apprehensions of the christians." 
 
 c Julian modestly confined him to obscure and occasional hints; 
 but Libanius expatiates with pleasure on the fasts and visions of the 
 religious hero. (Legat. ad Julian, p. 157. and Orat. Parental, c. 
 lx.vxiii. p. :W9, 3KI.) 
 
 d Tiibanius, Orat. Parent, c. x. p. 233, 234. Callus had some rea- 
 son to suspect the secret apostasy of his brother; and in a letter 
 which may be received as genuine, he exhorts Julian tu adhere to 
 the religion of their ancestors; an argument which, as it should 
 seem, was not yet perfectly ripe. See Julian. Op. p. 454. and Hist. 
 de Jovicn, tom. ii. p. 141. 
 
 e Gregory, (iii. p. 50.) with inhuman zeal, censuresConstantiusfor 
 sparing the infant apostate (x>kc>i{ ff-<*)5ivTx.) His French translator 
 (p. 265.) cautiously observes, that such expressions must not be prises 
 a la iRttre- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 301 
 
 lVr:tdr2U:^^^^ I and dexterity with which he wielded the weapons of 
 
 theibm permitted him ta join in the public worship of 
 
 !if "'7 r^K^' '""''-^'^^y ^^^P^^^d- Libanius has con- 
 sidered the hypocrisy of his friend as a subject not of 
 censure, but of praise. » As Xhe statues of the ffods ," 
 says that orator, " which have been defiled with filth, 
 are again placed in a magnificent temple ; so the beauty 
 of truth was seated in the mind of Julian, after it had 
 been purified from the errors and follies of his educa- 
 tion. His sentiments were changed, but as it would 
 have been dangerous to have avowed his sentiments, 
 his conduct still continued the same. Very differenJ 
 from the ass m ^sop, who disguised himself with a 
 
 Indii' l"""'^^'^" was obliged to conceal himself 
 under the skin of an ass ; and, while he embraced the 
 dicta es of reason, to obey the laws of prudence and ne- 
 cessity."' The dissimulation of Julian lasted above 
 ten years, from his secret initiation at Ephesus to the be- 
 ginning of the civil war; when he declared himself at 
 once the implacable enemy of Christ and of Constantius. 
 1 his state of constraint might contribute to strengthen 
 his devotion ; and as soon as he had satisfied the obli- 
 gation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at the assem- 
 blies of the christians, Julian returned, with the im- 
 patience of a lover, to burn his free and voluntary in- 
 cense on the domestic chapels of Jupiter and Mercury. 
 But as every act of dissimulation must be painful to an 
 ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity increased 
 the aversion of Julian for a religion which oppressed 
 the freedom of his mind, and compelled him to hold a 
 conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human 
 nature, sincerity and courao-e. 
 
 ^h;;:r.ft";."^^ th Jil^'ofi'^ '" of Julian might prefer 
 * *\ c • u ^? . , °^ Homer, and of the Scipios, 
 
 to the new faith, which his uncle had established in 
 
 the Roman empire; and in which he him^^elf hnH hJ ^^r^^in^^the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian sur- 
 sanctified by the sacramenrofbaptJsr Bnt^f " P^^ed the world by an edict, which was'not unworthy 
 
 sanctified by the sacrament of baptism. But, as a 
 philosopher, it was incumbent on him to justify his 
 dissent from Christianity, which was supported by the 
 number of its converts, by the chain of prophecy, the 
 splendour of miracles, and the weight of evidence. 
 lfieelaboratework,s which he composed amidst the 
 preparations of the Persian war, contained the sub- 
 stance of those arguments which he had loner revolved 
 m his mmd.^ Some fragments have been transcribed 
 and preserved, by his adversary, the vehement Cyril of 
 Alexandria ; »> aiid they exhibit a very singular mixture 
 ot wit and learning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The 
 elegance of the style, and the rank of the author, re- 
 commended his writings to the public attention ; ' and 
 m the impious list of the enemies of Christianity, the 
 celebrated name of Porphyry was effaced by the supe- 
 rior merit or reputation of Julian. The minds of the 
 faithful were either seduced, or scandalized, or alarmed; 
 and the pagans, who sometimes presumed to enffajre in 
 the unequal dispute, derived, from the popular work of that he mi^ht enio 
 
 IZJ^r^j:^'''^::- i-i--ibie supply of L.i^:: "^^i 
 
 or to despise the understandings, of his antagonists' 
 who could obstinately resist the force of reason and elo- 
 quence. 
 
 The christians, who beheld with horror Universal tole- 
 and indignation the apostasy of Julian, ration, 
 had much more to fear from his power than from his 
 arguments. The pagans, who were conscious of his 
 fervent zeal, expected, perhaps with impatience, that 
 t'je names of persecution should be immediately kin- 
 dled against the enemies of the gods ; and that the 
 ingenious malice, of Julian would^invent some cruel 
 refinements of death and torture, which had been 
 unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of his pre- 
 decessors. But the hopes, as well as the fears, of the 
 religious factions were apparently disappointed, by the 
 prudent humanity of a prince,'^ who was careful of his 
 own faine, of the public peace, and of the rights of 
 mankind. Instructed by history and reflection, Julian 
 was persuaded, that if the diseases of the body may 
 sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel 
 nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the 
 mind. The reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot 
 of the altar; but the heart still abhors and disclaims 
 the sacrilegious act of the hand. Religious obstinacy 
 IS hardened and exasperated by oppression ; and, as 
 soon as the persecution subsides, those who have 
 yielded, are restored as penitents, and those who have 
 resisted, are honoured as saints and martyrs. If Ju- 
 lian adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and 
 his colleagues, he was sensible that he should stain 
 his memory with the name of tyrant, and add new glo- 
 ries to the catholic church, which had derived strength 
 and increase from the severity of the pagan magistrates. 
 Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of dis- 
 turbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian sur- 
 
 fallacious objections. But in the assiduous pro'secu- 
 tion of these theological studies, the emperor of the 
 Romans imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions 
 of a polemic divine. He contracted an irrevocable ob- 
 ligation to maintain and propagate his religious opin- 
 ions ; and whilst he secretly applauded the strength 
 
 f LibaniU'5. Orat. Parental, c. ix. p. 233 
 
 % Fabricius (Biblioth. Grtec. I. v. c. viii. n 88— QO ^ and T nrHn«r 
 meathon Test.monies, vol. iv. p. 44-470 fave ac?ura?e,y c^^mpHed 
 tians """^ discovered of Julian's xvork against the chr is 
 
 h About seventy years after the death of Julian, he evrcuted a 
 task which had been feebly attempted by Philip of Sidefa pSix anS 
 contemptible writer. Even the work of Cyril has not entirely sat?s 
 fied the most favourable judges: and the Abbe de la Bleterie (Pre- 
 face a la Hist, de Jovien, p. .30. 32.) wishes that some theolorrien phi- 
 losophe (a strange centaur) would undertake the refutation of Julian 
 
 . Libamus, (Orat Parental, c. Ixxxvii. p. 313.) who has been sus^ 
 
 pected of as.sisling his Iriend. prefers this divine vindication (Orat it 
 
 n necem Julian, p. 255. edit. Morel, to the writings of Pornhvrv' 
 
 Ills judgment may be arraigned, (Socrates, 1. iii. c. S3.) but Libanius 
 
 cannot be accused offlattcryto a dead prince ui i.iuanius 
 
 of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to afl 
 the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a 
 free and equal toleration ; and the only hardship which 
 he inflicted on the christians, was to deprive them of 
 the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom 
 they stigmatized with the odious titles of idolaters and 
 heretics. The pagans received a gracious permission, 
 or rather an express order, to open all their temples ; » 
 and they were at once delivered from the oppressive 
 laws, and arbitrary vexations, which they had sustained 
 under the reign of Constantine and of his sons. At 
 the same time the bishops and clergy, who had been 
 banished by the Arian monarch, were recalled from 
 exile, and restored to their respective churches; the 
 Donatists, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the Euno- 
 mians, and those who, with a more prosperous fortune, 
 adhered to the doctrine of the council of Nice. Julian, 
 who understood and derided their theological disputes, 
 invited to the palace the leaders of the hostile sects, 
 that he might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their 
 furious encounters. The clamour of controversy 
 sometimes provoked the emperor to exclaim, " Hear 
 me ! the Franks have heard me, and the Alemanni ;" 
 but he soon discovered that he was now engaged with 
 more obstinate and implacable enemies ; and though he 
 exerted the powers of oratory to persuade them to live 
 in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satis- 
 fied, before he dismissed them from his presence, that 
 he had nothing to dread from the union of the chris- 
 tians. The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this af- 
 
 k Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c. Iviii. p. 283, 284.) has eloquently ex- 
 plained the tolerating principles and conduct of his imperial friend. 
 In a very remarkable epLsUe to the people of Bostra, Julian himself 
 (epist. Ii.) professes his moderation, apd betrays his zeal, wliirh ia 
 acknowledged by Ammianus, and e.vposedby Gregory. (Orat. iii. p. 
 72.) 
 
 1 In Greece the temples of Minerva were opened by his express 
 command, before the death of Constantius (Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 
 55. p. 280); and Julian declares Jiimself a pagan, in his public mani- 
 festo to the Athenians. This unquestionable evidence may correct 
 the hasty assertion of Ammianus, who seeins to suppose Constanti- 
 nople to be the place where he discovered his attachment to the gods. 
 
302 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIII. 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 fected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine j 
 divisions of the church ; and the insidious design ot 
 undermining the foundations of Christianity, was inse- 
 parably connected with the zeal, which Julianjprofessed, 
 to restore the ancient religion of the empire." 
 
 As soon as he ascended the throne, he 
 ^rJdl'Tlhe assumed, according to the custom of his 
 restoration of pa predecessors, the character ot supreme 
 ganiBui. pontiff; not only as the most honourable 
 
 title of imperial greatness, but as a sacred and impor- 
 tant office ; the duties of which he was resolved to 
 execute with pious diligence. As the business of the 
 state prevented the emperor from joining every day m 
 the public devotion of his subjects, he dedicated a do- 
 mestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun ; his gardens 
 were filled with statues and altars of the gods ; and 
 each apartment of the palace displayed the appearance 
 of a magnificent temple. Every morning he saluted 
 the parelit of light with a sacrifice ; the blood of an- 
 other victim was shed at the moment when the sun 
 sunk below the horizon ; and the moon, the stars, and 
 the genii of the night, received their respective and 
 seasonable honours from the indefatigable devotion ot 
 Julian. On solemn festivals, he regularly visited the 
 temple of the god or goddess to whom the day was 
 peculiarly consecrated, and endeavoured to excite the 
 relicrion of the magistrates and people by the example 
 of his own zeal. Instead of maintaining the lotty 
 state of a monarch, distinguished by the splendour of 
 his purple, and encompassed by the golden shields ot 
 his guards, Julian solicited, with respectful eagerness, 
 the meanest offices which contributed to the worship 
 of the gods. Amidst the sacred but licentious crowd 
 of priests, of inferior ministers, and of female dancers, 
 who were dedicated to the service of the temple, it was 
 the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow 
 the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, 
 and, thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of the 
 expiring animal, to draw forth the heart or liver, and to 
 read, with the consummate skill of an haruspex, the 
 imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of the 
 pagans censiTred this extravagant superstition, which 
 affected to despise the restraints of prudence and de- 
 cency. Under the reign of a prince, who practised the 
 rigid maxims of economy, the expense of religious 
 worship consumed a very large portion of the revenue ; 
 a constant supply of the scarcest and most beautiful 
 birds was transported from distant climates, to bleed 
 on the altars of the gods; an hundred oxen were fre- 
 quently sacrificed by Julian on one and the same day ; 
 and it soon became a popular jest, that if he should re- 
 turn with conquest from the Persian war, the breed^ of 
 horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yet 
 this expense may appear inconsiderable, when it is 
 compared with the splendid presents which were offer- 
 ed, either by the hand, or by order, of the emperor, to 
 all the celebrated places of devotion in the Roman 
 world ; and with the sums allotted to repair and deco- 
 rate the ancient temples, which had suffered the silent 
 decay of time, or the recent injuries of christian rapine. 
 Encouraged by the example, the exhortations, the libe- 
 rality, of their pious sovereign, the cities and families 
 resumed the practice of their neglected ceremonies. 
 " Every part of the world, exclaims Libanius, with 
 devout transport, " displayed the triumph of religion ; 
 and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding 
 victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of 
 priesta and prophets, without fear and without danger. 
 The sound of prayer and of music was heard on the 
 tops of the highest mountains ; and the same ox afford- 
 ed a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for their joy- 
 ous votaries." ° 
 
 But the genius and power of Julian Reformation of 
 were unequal to the enterprise of restor- pagani«m. 
 ing a religion, which was destitute of theological prin- 
 ciples, of moral precepts, and of ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline ; which rapidly hastened to decay and dissolu- 
 tion, and was not susceptible of any solid or consistent 
 reformation. The jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff, 
 more especially after that office had been united with 
 the imperial dignity, comprehended the whole extent 
 of the Roman empire. Julian named for his vicars, 
 in the several provinces, the priests and philosophers, 
 whom he esteemed the best qualified to co-operate in 
 the execution of his great design ; and his pastoral let- 
 ters,° if we may use that name, still represent a very 
 curious sketch of his wishes and intentions. He di- 
 rects, that in every city the sacerdotal order should be 
 composed, without any distinction of birth or fortune, 
 of those persons who were the most conspicuous for 
 their love of the gods, and of men. *' If they are 
 cruilty," continues he, "of any scandalous offence, 
 They should be censured or degraded by the superior 
 pontiff; but, as long as they retain their rank, they are 
 entitled to the respect of the magistrates and people. 
 Their humility may be shown in the plainness of their 
 domestic garb; their dignity, in the pomp of holy vest- 
 ments. When they are summoned in their turn to offi- 
 ciate before the altar, they ought not, during the ap- 
 pointed number of days, to depart from the precincts 
 of the temple ; nor should a single day be suffered to 
 elapse, without the prayers and the sacrifice, which 
 they are obliged to offer for the prosperity of the state, 
 and of individuals. The exercise of their sacred func- 
 tions requires an immaculate purity, both of mind and 
 body ; and even when they are dismissed from the 
 temple to the occupations of common life, it is incum- 
 bent on them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of 
 their fellow-citizens. The priests of the gods should 
 never be seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation 
 should be chaste, his diet temperate, his friends of 
 honourable reputation ; and if he sometimes visits the 
 forum or the palace, he should appear only as the ad- 
 vocate of those who have vainly solicited either justice 
 or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity 
 of his profession. Licentious tales, or comedies, or 
 satires, must be banished from his library, which ought 
 solely to consist of historical and philosophical writ- 
 ings ; of history which is founded in truth, and of 
 philosophy which is connected with religion. The 
 impious opinions of the epicureans and sceptics de- 
 serve his abhorrence and contempt ;p but he should 
 diligently study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato, 
 and^of the Stoics, which unanimously teach that there 
 are gods ; that the world is governed by their provi- 
 dence ; that their goodness is the source of every tem- 
 poral blessing ; and that they have prepared for the 
 human soul a^future state of reward or punishment." 
 The imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive 
 language, the duties of benevolence and hospitality; 
 exhorts^ his inferior clergy to recommend the universal 
 practice of those virtues ; promises to assist their indi- 
 gence from the public treasury ; and declares his reso- 
 lution of establishing hospitals in every city, where 
 the poor should be received without any invidious dis- 
 tinction of country or of religion. Julian beheld with 
 envy the wise and humane regulations of the church ; 
 
 m Aminianus. xxii. 5. Sozoinen, I. v. c. 5. Beslia nioritur, tran- 
 quillitas redit .... omnea episcopi qui tie proprus sedibus fuerant 
 externiinati, per indulgentiam novi priniipis ad ecclesias redeunt. 
 Jerom. adversus Luciferianos, torn. ii. p. 143. Optatus accuses the 
 Donatistf for owing their safety to an apostate, (I. u. c. 16. p. 36, 37. 
 
 edit. Dupin.) . , , . -u j u » i- 
 
 B The restoration of the pagan worship is described by Jaiian, 
 
 (Misopogon, p. 346.) liibanius, (Orat. Parent, c. 60. p. 286, 287. and 
 Orat. Consular ad Julian, p. 245, 246. edit. Morel.) Ammianus, (xxii. 
 12.) and GrcKory Nazianzen. (Orat. iv. p. 121.) Tlicse writers agree 
 in the essential, and even minute, facta; but the dilferent lights in 
 wliich they view the extreme devotion of Julian, are expressive of 
 the gradations of self applause, passionate admiration, mild reproof, 
 and partial invective. 
 
 o See Julian. Epistol. xlix. Ixii. Ixiii. and a long and curious frag- 
 ment, without beginning or end, (p. 2ri8— 305.) The supreme pon- 
 tifl" derides the Mosaic history, and the christian discipline, preters 
 the Greek poets to the Hebrew prophets, and palliates, with the skill 
 of a Jesuit, the relative worship of images. 
 
 P The exultation of Julian, (p. 301.) that these impious sects, and 
 even their writings, are extinguished, may he consistent enough with 
 the sacerdotal character ; but it is unworthy of a philosopher to wish 
 that any opinions and arguments the most repugnant to his own 
 should be concealed from the knowledge of mankind. 
 
 and he very frankly confesses his intention to deprive 
 the christians of the applause, as well as advantage, 
 which they had acquired by the exclusive practice of 
 charity and beneficence.* The same spirit of imitation 
 might dispose the emperor to adopt several ecclesias- 
 tical institutions, the use and importance of which 
 were approved by the success of his enemies. But if 
 these imaginary plans of reformation had been real- 
 ized, the forced and imperfect copy would have been 
 less beneficial to paganism, than honourable to Chris- 
 tianity .•• The gentiles, who peaceably followed the 
 customs of their ancestors, were rather surprised than 
 pleased with the introduction of foreign manners; and, 
 in the short period of his reign, Julian had frequent oc- 
 casions to complain of the want of fervour of his own 
 party.* 
 
 The philosophers. ^.'^^^ enthusiasm of Julian prompted 
 him to embrace the friends of Jupiter as 
 his personal friends and brethren ; and though he par- 
 tially overlooked the merit of christian constancy, he 
 admired and rewarded the noble perseverance of those 
 gentiles who had preferred the favour of the gods to 
 that of the emperor.* If they cultivated the literature, 
 as ^yelI as the religion, of the Greeks, they acquired an 
 additional claim to the friendship of Julian, who ranked 
 the niuses in the number of his tutelar deities. In the 
 religion which he had adopted, piety and learning were 
 almost synonymous ; " and a crowd of poets, of ''rheto- 
 ricians, and of philosophers, hastened to the imperial 
 court, to occupy the vacant places of the bishops, who 
 had seduced the credulity of Constantius. His suc- 
 cessor esteemed the ties of common initiation as far 
 more sacred than those of consanguinity : he chose his 
 favourites among the sages, who were deeply skilled 
 in the occult sciences of magic and divination ; and 
 every impostor, who pretended to reveal the secrets of ! 
 futurity, was assured of enjoying the present hour in j 
 honour and afl[luence.» Among the philosophers, Max- 1 
 imus obtained the most eminent rank in the friendship ' 
 of his royal disciple, who communicated, with unre- 
 served confidence, his actions, his sentiments, and his 
 religious designs, during the anxious suspense of the 
 civil war.y As soon as Julian had taken possession 
 of the palace of Constantinople, he despatched an hon- 
 ourable and pressing invitation to Maximus, who then 
 resided at Sardis in Lydia, with Chrysanlhius, the as- 
 sociate of his art and studies. The prudent and super- 
 stitions Chrysanthius refused to undertake a journey 
 vyhich showed itself, according to the rules of divina- 
 tion, with the most threatening and malignant aspect : 
 but his companion, whose fanaticism was of a bolder 
 cast, persisted in his interrogations, till he had extort- 
 ed from the gods a seeming consent to his own wishes, 
 and those of the emperor. Tlie journey of Maximus 
 through the cities of Asia displayed the triumph of 
 philosophic vanity ; and the magistrates vied with each 
 other m the honourable reception which they prepared 
 for the friend of their sovereign. Julian was pronounc- 
 
 <l \etlie insinuates, that the christians, under the prefencp of 
 charity, inveigled children from their religion and parents, conveyed 
 them on shipboard and devoted those victims to a life of poverty or 
 servitude in a remote country, (p. 305.) Had the charge been proved 
 It was his duty, not to complain, but to punish. ' 
 
 ,J" Gregory Nazianzen is facetious, ingenious, and argumentative 
 (Orat. III. p. 101, 102, &r.) He ridicules the folly of such vain imita- 
 tion ; and amuses himself with inquiring, what lessons, moral or 
 theological, could be extracted from the Grecian fables. 
 
 • He accuses one of his pontiffs of a secret confederacy with tlie 
 christian bishops and presbyters, (Epist. Ixii.) 'Of^y i,v sroA\„v utv 
 
 oKiy^fixv «<r«y y,A>v :>rfOi t«5 fi.«j; and again, ^/U«f St euro. px6uA«u.c 
 &C. Epist. Ixiii. r t- i, 
 
 t He praises the fidelity of Callixene, priestess of Ceres, who had 
 oeen twice as constant as Penelope, and rewards her with the priest- 
 liood of the Phrygian goddess at Pessinus. (Julian. Epist. xxi ) He 
 applauds the firmness of Sopaterof Hierapolis, wlio had been repeat- 
 ^'I'y pressed by Constantius and Gallus to apostatize. (Epist. xxvii. 
 
 ^^n^* ^x'^'^'"" "^»*-9* ^"y^i ■^•' ««• fi'*" ''P«. Oral. Parent. c. 77. 
 p. ju.;. The same sentiment is frequently inculcated by Julian 
 Libanius, and the rest of their party. J' « . 
 
 'j'^*'®rj"'^'*'*''y *"*^ credulity oY the emperor, who tried every 
 mode ofdrvinaiion, are fairly exposed by Ammianus, xxii. 12. 
 
 y Julian. Epist. xxxviii. Three other epistles (xv. xvi. xxxix.) in 
 the same style of friendship and confidence, are addressed to the phi 
 loeopner Maximus. 
 
 803 
 
 iiig an oration before the senate, when he was informed 
 of the arrival of Maximus. The emperor immediately 
 interrupted his discourse, advanced to meet him, and, 
 after a tender embrace, conducted him by the hand into 
 the midst of the assembly; where he publicly acknow- 
 ledged the benefits which he had derived from the in- 
 structions of the philosopher. Maximus,'' who soon 
 acquired the confidence, and influenced the councils, of 
 Julian, was insensibly corrupted by the temptations' of 
 a court. His dress became more splendid, his de- 
 meanour more lofty, and he was exposed, under a suc- 
 ceeding reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means 
 by which the disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the 
 short duration of his favour, a very scandalous propor- 
 tion of wealth. Of the other philosriphers and sophists, 
 who were invited to the imperial residence by the 
 choice of Julian, or by the success of Maximus, few 
 were able to preserve their innocence or their reputa- 
 tion.* The liberal gifts of money, lands, and houses, 
 were insufficient to satiate their rapacious avarice ; and 
 the indignation of the people was justly excited by the 
 remembrance of their abject poverty and disinterested 
 professions. The penetration of Julian could not al- 
 ways be deceived : but he was unwilling to despise 
 the characters of those men whose talents deserved his 
 esteem : he desired to escape the double reproach of 
 imprudence and inconstancy ; and he was apprehensive 
 of degrading, in the eyes of the profane, the honour 
 of letters and of religion.'' 
 
 The favour of Julian was almost equal- 
 ly divided between the pagans, who had ^°"''""""»- 
 firmly adhered to the worship of their ancestors, and 
 the christians, who prudently embraced the religion of 
 their sovereign. The acquisition of new proselytes « 
 gratified the ruling passions of his soul, superstition 
 and vanity ; and he was heard to declare, with the en- 
 thusiasm of a missionary, that if he could render each 
 individual richer than Midas, and every city greater 
 than Babylon, he should not esteem himself the bene- 
 factor of mankind, unless, at the same time, he could 
 reclaim his subjects from their impious revolt against 
 the immortal gods.*> A prince, who had studied human 
 nature, and who possessed the treasures of the Roman 
 I empire, could adapt his arguments, his promises, and 
 , his rewards, to every order of christians ; * and the 
 merit of a seasonable conversion was allowed to sup- 
 ply the defects of a candidate, or even to expiate the 
 guilt of a criminal. As the army is the most forcible 
 engine of absolute power, Julian applied himself, with 
 peculiar diligence, to corrupt the religion of his troops, 
 without whose hearty concurrence every measure must 
 be dangerous and unsuccessful ; and the natural tem- 
 per of soldiers made this conquest as easy as it was 
 important. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves 
 to the faith, as well as to the fortunes, of their victori- 
 ous leader; and even before the death of Constantius, 
 
 T Eunapius (in Maximo, p. 77, 78, 79. and in Chrysanthio, p. J47, 
 148.) has minutely related tiiese anecdotes, whicli he conceives to be 
 tlic most important events of the age. Yet he fairly confesses the 
 frailty of Maximus. His reception at Constantinople is described by 
 Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 86. p. .301.) and Ammianus, (xxii. 7.) 
 
 a Chrysanthius, who had refused to quit Lydia, was created high- 
 priest of the province. His cautious and temperate use of power se- 
 cured him after the revolution; and he lived in peace; while Maxi- 
 mus, Priscus, tc. were persecuted by the christian ministers. Sec 
 the adventures of those fanatic sophists, collected by Bruckcr, torn. 
 II. p. 281 — 293. 
 
 b See Libanius. (Orat. Parent, c. 101, 102. p. 324—326.) and Euna- 
 pius (Vit. Sophist, in Proa^resio, p. ]26.) Some students, whose ex- 
 pectations perliaps were groundless or extravagant, retired in disgust, 
 (Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. p. 120.) It is strange that we should not bo 
 able to contradict the title of one of Tillemont's chapters, (Hist, des 
 Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 960.) •• La cour de Julien est pleine de philo- 
 sophes et de gens perdus." 
 
 c Under the reign of Lewis XIV. his subjects of every rank aspired 
 to the glorious title of C»nJ'crfj>«eur, expressive of their zeal and 
 success in makin<; pro.selytes. The word and the Idea are growing 
 obsolete in Fr;ii»ce ; may they never he introduced into England ' 
 
 d See the strong expressions of Libanius, wliich were probably 
 those of Julian himself. (Orat. Parent, c. ."iO. p. 285.) 
 
 e When Gregory Nazianzpn (Orat. x. p. 167.) is desirous to mag- 
 nify the christian firmness of his brother Caisarius, physician to the 
 imperial court, lie owns that Csesarius disputed with a formidable ad- 
 versary, TroKw ev OTrKotg^ xcti /ityxv it Koyaav Ji«i-eT>)T». In hls invCC* 
 
 lives he scarcely allows any share of wit or courage to the apostate.. ° 
 
804 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXIH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 305 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 
 It 
 
 i 
 
 
 he had the satisfaction of announcing to his friends, 
 that they assisted with fervent devotion, and voracious 
 appetite, at the sacrifices, which were repeatedly offer- 
 ed in his camp, of whole hecatombs of fat oxen.' The 
 armies of the east, which had been trained under the 
 standard of the cross, and of Constantius, required a 
 more artful and expensive mode of persuasion. On 
 the days of solemn and public festivals, the emperor 
 received the homage, and rewarded the merit, of the 
 troops. His throne of state was encircled with the 
 military ensigns of Rome and the republic ; the holy 
 name of Christ was erased from the Labarum ,- and the 
 symbols of war, of majesty, and of pagan superstition, 
 were so dexterously blended, that the faithful subject 
 incurred the guilt of idolatry, when he respectfully 
 saluted the person or image of his sovereign. The 
 soldiers passed successively in review : and each of 
 them, before he received from the hand of Julian a 
 liberal donative, proportioned to his rank and services, 
 was required to cast a few grains of incense into the 
 flame which burnt upon the altar. Some christian con- 
 fessors might resist, and others might repent ; but the 
 far greater number, allured by the prospect of gold, and 
 awed by the presence of the emperor, contracted the 
 criminal engagement; and their future perseverance in 
 the worship of the gods was enforced by every consi- 
 deration of duty and of interest. By the frequent re- 
 petition of these arts, and at the expense of sums which 
 would have purchased the service of half the nations 
 cf Scythia, Julian gradually acquired for his troops the 
 imaginary protection of the gods, and for himself the 
 firm and effectual support of the Roman legions.^ It 
 is indeed more than probable, that the restoration and 
 encouragement of paganism revealed a multitude of 
 pretended christians, who, from motives of temporal 
 advantage, had acquiesced in the religion of the former 
 reign ; and who afterwards returned, with the same 
 flexibility of conscience, to the faith which was pro- 
 fessed by the successors of Julian. 
 
 While the devout monarch incessantly 
 laboured to restore and propagate the re- 
 ligion of his ancestors, he embraced the extraordinary 
 design of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. In a 
 public epistle*' to the nation or community of the Jews, 
 dispersed through the provinces, he pities their mis- 
 fortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their con- 
 stancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and 
 expresses a pious hope, that, after his return from the 
 Persian war, he may be permitted to pay his grateful 
 vows to the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. 
 The blind superstition, and abject slavery, of those un- 
 fortunate exiles, must excite the contempt of a philoso- 
 hic emperor; but they deserved the friendship of Ju- 
 ian, by their implacable hatred of the christian name. 
 The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the fecun- 
 dity of the robellious church : the power of the Jews 
 was not equal to their malice ; but their gravest rabbis 
 approved the private murder of an apostate ; ' and their 
 seditious clamours had often awakened the indolence 
 of the pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Con- 
 stantino, the Jews became the subjects of their revolted 
 
 f Julian. Epist. xxxviii. Ainminiius, xxii. 12. Ailco ut indies 
 ptcne singulos niilitcs carnia distentiore sa<:ina victitantes inciiltiua, 
 potusquc aviditatc corrcpti, liutnpris inipnsiti traiiscuiiiluin per pla- 
 teas, ex publicia wdihus .... ad sua diversoria portarcntur. The 
 devout prince and the indi<;nant historian describe the same scene; 
 and in Illyricum or Antioch, similar causes must have produced si- 
 milar effects. 
 
 g Grejrory (Orat.iij. p. 74, 75. 83— 86.) and Lihanius (Orat. Parent. 
 
 C. l.\XXi. IXXXii. p. ;iU7, 308.) wtpi txut)iv mv (rjr8J))v, kx •epvxju.'' ttK^- 
 
 Tov « V ))>..«) (TO »» fiiyxv. The sophist owns and justifies the expense of 
 these military conversions. 
 
 h Julian's epistle (xxv.) is addressed to the community of the 
 Jews. Aldus (Venet. 1499,) has branded it with an «« yv);cr»oj ; but 
 thisstiznia is justly removed by the subsequent editors Tetavius and 
 Spanheim. The epistle is mentioned bySozomen, (I. v. c. 22.) and 
 the purport of it is confirmed by Gregory, (Orat. iv. p. 111.) and by 
 Julian liimsfclf. Fragment, p. 295. 
 
 i The Misnali denounced death aeainst those who abandoned the 
 foundation. The judgment of zeal is exftlained by Marsliam, (Ca- 
 non. Chron. p. 161, 1G2. edit. fol. London, 1C72.) and Basnage. (Hist. 
 des Juifs, loin. viii. p. 120.) Constantine made a law to protect 
 christian converts from Judaism. Cod. Theod. I. xvl. tit. viii. leg. 1. 
 Godefroy, torn. vi. p. 215. 
 
 Fi 
 
 children, nor was it long before they experienced the 
 bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil immunities 
 which had been granted, or confirmed, by Severus, 
 were gradually repealed by the christian princes ; and 
 a rash tumult, excited by the Jews of Palestine,^ seem- 
 ed to justify the lucrative modes of oppression, which 
 were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the court 
 of Constantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was still 
 permitted to exercise a precarious jurisdiction, held 
 his residence at Tiberias ; ' and the neighbouring cities 
 of Palestine were filled with the remains of a people, 
 who fondly adhered to the promised land, lint the 
 edict of Hadrian was renewed and enforced ; and they 
 viewed from afar the walls of the holy city, which were 
 profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the cross, and 
 the devotion of the christians.™ 
 
 In the midst of a rocky and barren 
 country, the walls of Jerusalem" en- 
 closed the two mountains of Sion and Acra, within an 
 oval figure of about three English miles." Towards 
 the south, the upper town, and the fortress of David, 
 were erected on tlie lofty ascent of mount Sion : on the 
 north side, the buildings of the lower town covered the 
 spacious summit of mount Acra ; and a part of the hill, 
 distinguished by the name of Moriah, and levelled by 
 human industry, was crowned with the stately temple 
 of the Jewish nation. After the final destruction of the 
 temple, by the arms of Titus and Hadrian, a plough- 
 share was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a 
 sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion was deserted ; and 
 the vacant space of the lower city was filled with the 
 pirblic and private edifices of the >Elian colony, which 
 spread themselves over the adjacent hill of Calvary. 
 The holy places were polluted with the monuments of 
 idolatry; and, either from design or accident, a chapel 
 was dedicated to Venus, on the spot which had been 
 sanctified by the death and resurrection of Christ.? 
 Almost three hundred years after those stupendous 
 events, the profane chapel of Venus was demolished 
 by the order of Constantino; and the removal of the 
 earth and stones revealed the holy sepulchre to the eyes 
 of mankind. A magnificent church was erected on that 
 mystic ground, by the first christian emperor ; and the 
 effects of his pious munificence were extended to every 
 spot which had been consecrated by the footsteps of 
 patriarchs, of prophets, and of the Son of God.*i 
 
 The passionate desire of contemplating T>\\„t\ma„c^ 
 the original monuments of their redemp- ° ° 
 tion, attracted to Jerusalem a successive crowd of pil- 
 grims, from the shores of the Atlantic ocean, and the 
 most distant countries of the east : ' and their piety was 
 authorised by the example of the empress Helena, who 
 appears to have united the credulity of age with the 
 warm feelings of a recent conversion. Sages and he- 
 roes, who have visited the memorable scenes of ancient 
 
 k Et interca (during the civil war of Magnentius) Judjcorum sedi- 
 tio, qui pnfricium nefarie in regni specicm sustulerunt, oppressa. 
 Aurelius Victor, in Constantio, c. xlii. See TJIlemont, Hist, des 
 Enipereurs, tom. iv. p. 379. in 4lo. 
 
 1 The city and synagogue of Tiberias are curiously described by 
 Ucland. Falestin. tom. ii. p. 1030—1042. 
 
 m Rasnage has fully illustrated the state of the Jews under Con- 
 stantine and his successors, (tom. viii. c. iv. p. Ill — 153.) 
 
 n Keland (Palestin. I. i. p. 309. 390. I. iii. p. 838.) describes, with 
 learning and perspicuity, Jerusalem, und the face of the adjacent 
 country. 
 
 o I have consulted a rare and curious treatise of M. D'Anville, sur 
 I'ancienne Jerusalem, Paris, 1747. p. 75. The circumference of the 
 ancient city (Euseb. Freparat. Evangel. I. ix. c. 36.) was twenty- 
 seven stadia, or 2550 toises. A plan, taken on the spot, assigns no 
 more than 1980 for the modern town. The circuit is defined by na- 
 tural landmarks, which cannot be mistaken or removed. 
 
 P See two curious passages in Jerom. (tom. i. p. 102. tom. vi. p. 
 315.) and the ample details of Tillemont. (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. 
 i. p. 5G9. torn. ii. p. 2H9. 294. 4to edition.) 
 
 q Eusebius, in Vit. Constantin. I. iii. c. 25—47. 51—53. The empe- 
 ror likewise built churches at Bethlem, the Mount of Olives, and the 
 oak of Mamre. The holy sepulchre is described by Sandys, (Tra- 
 vels, p. 125 — 133.) and curiously delineated by Le Bruyn. (Voyage 
 au Levant, p. 288—296.) 
 
 r Tlie Itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem, was composed in 
 the year 333, for the use of pilgrims; among whom Jerom. (tom. i. 
 p. 126.) mentions the Britons und the Indians. The causes of this 
 superstitious fashion are discussed in the learned ond judicious pre- 
 face t)f Wesscling. (Itincrar. p. 5:i7— 545.) 
 
 wisdom or glory, have confessed the inspiration of the 
 genius of the place ; » and the christian, who knelt be- 
 fore the holy sepulchre, ascribed his lively faith, and 
 his fervent devotion, to^the more immediate influence 
 of the divine Spirit. The zeal, perhaps the avarice, of 
 the clergy of Jerusalem, cherished and multiplied these 
 beneficial visits. They fixed, by unquestionable tra- 
 dition, the scene of each memorable event. They ex- 
 hibited the instruments which had been used in the 
 passion of Christ ; the nails and the lance that had 
 pierced his hands, his feet, and his side ; the crown of 
 thorns that was planted on his head ; the pillar at which 
 he was scourged ; and, above all, they showed the cross 
 on which he suflfered, and which was dug out of the 
 earth in the reign of those princes, who inserted the 
 synibol of Christianity in the banners of the Roman 
 legions.* Such miracles as seemed necessary to ac- 
 count for its extraordinary preservation and seasonable 
 discovery, were gradually propagated without opposi- 
 tion. The custody of the true cross, which on Easter 
 Sunday was solemnly exposed to the people, was in- 
 trusted to the bishop of Jerusalem; and he alone might 
 gratify the curious devotion of the pilgrims, by the gift 
 of small pieces, w^hich they had enchased in gold or 
 gems, and carried away in triumph to their respective 
 countries. But as this gainful branch of commerce 
 rnust soon have been annihilated, it was found conve- 
 nient to suppose, that the marvellous wood possessed 
 a secret power of vegetation ; and that its substance, 
 though continually diminished, still remained entire 
 and unimpaired." It might perhaps have been expect- 
 ed, that the influence of the place, and the belief of a 
 perpetual miracle, should have produced some salutary 
 effects on the morals, as well as on the faith, of the 
 people. Yet the most respectable of the ecclesiastical 
 writers have been obliged to confess, not only that the 
 streets of Jerusalem were filled with the incessant tu- 
 mult of business and pleasure,' but that every species 
 of vice, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, murder, 
 was familiar to the inhabitants of the holy city.^ The 
 wealth and pre-eminence of the church of Jerusalem 
 excited the ambition of Arian, as well as orthodox, can- 
 didates ; and the virtues of Cyril, who, since his death, 
 has been honoured with the title of Saint, were dis- 
 played in the exercise, rather than in the acquisition, 
 of his episcopal dignity.' 
 
 Julian attempts to The Vain and ambitious mind of Ju- 
 rcbuiid the temple. Han might aspiro to restore the ancient 
 glory of the temple of Jerusalem.* As the christians 
 were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting 
 
 I Cicero (de Finibus, v. i.) has beautifully expressed the common 
 sense of mankind. 
 
 t Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 326. No. 42—50.) and Tfllemoiit 
 (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 8—16. ) are the historians and champions of 
 this miraculous invention of the cross, under the reign of Constan- 
 tine. Their oldest witnesses are Paulinus, Sulpichis Severus, Rufi- 
 nus, Ambrose, and perhaps Cyril of Jerusalem. The silence of Eu- 
 sebius, and the Bourdeaux pilgrim, which satisfies those who think, 
 perplexes those who believe. See Jorlin's sensible remarks, vol. ii. 
 
 u This multiplication ia asserted by Paulinus, (Epist. xxxvi. See 
 Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 149.) who seems to have improved 
 a rhetorical flourish of Cyril into a real fact. The same supernatu- 
 ral privilege must have been communicated to the Virgin's milk, 
 (Erasmi Opera, tom. i. p. 778. Lugd. Batav. 1703. in Colloq. de Pe- 
 regrinat. Relisionis ergo) saints' heads. &c. and other relics, which 
 are repeated^in so many different churches. 
 
 X Jerom, (tom. i. p. 103.) who resided in the neighbouring village 
 of Bethlem, describes the vices of Jerusalem from his personal expe- 
 rience. 
 
 y Gregor. Nyssen. apud Wesseling, p. 539. The whole epistle, 
 which condemns either the use or the abuse of religious pilgrimage, 
 is painful to the catholic divines, while it is dear and familiar to our 
 protestant polemics. 
 
 X He renounced his orthodox ordination, officiated as a deacon, 
 and was re-ordained by the hands of the Arians. But Cyril after- 
 wards ci.anged with the times, and prudently conformed to the Ni- 
 cene faith. ii'I-mont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii.) who treats his me- 
 mory with tenderness and respect, has thrown his virtues into the 
 text, and his faults into the notes, in decent obscurity, at the end of 
 the volume. 
 
 a Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare. 
 Ammian. xxiii. i. The temple of Jerusalem had been famous even 
 among the gentiles. They had many temples in each city (at Si- 
 chem five, at Gaza eight, at Rome four hundred and twenty-four ;) 
 nut the wealth and religion of the Jewish oation was centred in one 
 •pot. 
 
 Vol. I.— 2 20 
 
 destruction had been pronounced against the whole 
 fabric of the Mosaic law, the imperial sophist would 
 have converted the success of his undertaking into a 
 specious argument against the faith of prophecy, and 
 the truth of revelation.** He was displeased with the 
 spiritual worship of the synagogue ; but he approved 
 the institutions of Moses, who had not disdained to 
 adopt many of the rites and ceremonies of Egypt.* 
 The local and national deity of the Jews was sincerely 
 adored by a polytheist, who desired only to multiply 
 the number of the gods ; ^ and such was the appetite 
 of Julian for bloody sacrifice, that his emulation might 
 be excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered, 
 at the feast of the dedication, twenty-two thousand 
 oxen, and one hundred and twenty-thousand sheep.« 
 These considerations might influence his designs ; but 
 the prospect of an immediate and important advantage 
 w^ould not suflfer the impatient monarch to expect the 
 remote and uncertain event of the Persian war. He 
 resolved to erect, without delay, on the commanding 
 eminence of Moriah, a stately temple, which might 
 eclipse the splendour of the church of the Resurrec- 
 tion on the adjacent hill of Calvary ; to establish an 
 order of priests, whose interested zeal would detect the 
 arts, and resist the ambition, of their christian rivals ; 
 and to invite a numerous colony of Jews, whose stern 
 fanaticism would be always prepared to second, and 
 even to anticipate the hostile measures of the pagan 
 government. Among the friends of the emperor (if 
 the names of emperor and of friend are not incompati- 
 ble) the first place was assigned, by Julian himself, to 
 the virtuous and learned Alypius.' The humanity of 
 Alypius was tempered by severe justice, and manly 
 fortitude ; and while he exercised his abilities in the 
 civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in his 
 poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of 
 the odes of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian 
 communicated, without reserve, his most careless levi- 
 ties, and his most serious counsels, received an extra- 
 ordinary commission to restore, in its pristine beauty, 
 the temple of Jerusalem ; and the diligence of Alypius 
 required and obtained the strenuous support of the go- 
 vernor of Palestine. At the call of their great delive- 
 rer, the Jews, from all the provinces of the empire, 
 assembled on the holy mountain of their fathers ; and 
 their insolent triumph alarmed and exasperated the 
 christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of re- 
 building the temple has, in every age, been the ruling 
 passion of the children of Israel. In this propitious 
 moment the men forgot their avarice, and the women 
 their delicacy ; spades and pickaxes of silver were pro- 
 vided by the vanity of the rich, and the rubbish was 
 transported in mantles of silk and purple. Every 
 purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand 
 claimed a share in the pious labour; and the commands 
 of a great monarch were executed by the enthusiasm 
 of a whole people.^ 
 
 Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts The enterprise i« 
 of power and enthusiasm were unsuc- defeated; 
 cessful ; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which 
 
 b The secret intentions of Julian are revealed by the late bishop of 
 Gloucester,^ the learned and dogmatic Warburton ; who, with the 
 authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives and conduct of the 
 Supreme Being. Tlie discourse entitled Julian, (3d edition, London, 
 1751.) is strongly marked with all the peculiarities which are impu- 
 ted to theWarburtonian school. 
 
 c I shelter myself behind Maimonides, Marsham, Spencer, Le 
 Clerc, Warburton, &c. who have fairly derided the fears, the folly, 
 and the falsehood of some superstitious divines. See Divine Lega- 
 tion, vol. iv. p. 25, &.C. 
 
 d Julian (Fragment, p. 295.) respectfully styles him f»ty»s fiie?, and 
 mentions him elsewhere (Epist. Ixiii.) with still higher reverence. 
 He doubly condemns the christians: for believing, and for renounc- 
 ing, the religion of the Jews. Their Deity was a true, but not the 
 only, God. Apud Cyril. I. ix. p. 305, 306. 
 
 e I Kings viii. 63. 2 Chronicles vii. 5. Joseph. Antiquitat. Ju- 
 daic. I. viii. c. 4. p. 431. edit. Havercamp. As the blood and smoke 
 of so many hecatombs might be inconvenient, Lightfoot, the chris- 
 tian Rabbi, removes them by a miracle. Le Cierc (ad loca) is bold 
 enough to suspect the fidelity of the numbers. 
 
 f Julian, epist. xxix. xxx. La Bleterie has neglected to tranalate 
 the second of these epistles. 
 
 g See the zeal and impatience of the Jews in Gregory Nasianzen 
 (Orat. ix. p. IIL) and Tbeodoret, (1. iii. c.20.) 
 
306 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 \< .V 
 
 s 
 
 ik; 
 
 is now covered by a Mahometan mosque,*" still con- 
 tinued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin 
 and desolation. Perhaps the absence and death of the 
 emperor, and the new maxims of a christian reign, 
 migiit explain the interruption of an arduous work, 
 which was attempted only in the last six months of the 
 life of Julian.' But the christians entertained a natural 
 and pious expectation, that, in tliis memorable contest, 
 the honour of religion would be vindicated by some 
 signal miracle. An earthquake, a whirlwind, and a 
 fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new 
 foundations of the temple, are attested, with some va- 
 riations, by contemporary and respectable evidence.^ 
 This public event is described by Ambrose,'' bishop of 
 Milan, in an epistle to the emperor Thcodosius, which 
 must provoke the severe animadversion of the .Tc^ws ; 
 by the eloquent Chrysostom,' who might appeal to the 
 memory of the elder part of his congregation at Anti- 
 och ; and by Gregory Nazianzen," who published his 
 perhaps by a pre- accouut of the miraclc before the expira- 
 tcrnaturai event, tiou of the samc year. The last of these 
 writers has boldly declared, that this preternatural 
 event was not disputed by the infidels ; and his asser- 
 tion, strange as it may seem, is confirmed by the un- 
 exceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus." 
 The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, with- 
 out adopting the prejudices, of his master, has recorded, 
 in his judicious and candid history of his own times, 
 the extraordinary obstacles which interrupted the 
 restoration of the temple of Jerusalem. " Whilst 
 Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, 
 urged, with vigour and diligence, the execution of the 
 work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foun- 
 dations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered 
 the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the 
 scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious 
 element continuing in this manner obstinately and 
 resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance ; 
 the undertaking was abandoned." Such authority 
 should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an in- 
 credulous, mind. Yet a philosopher may still require 
 the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spec- 
 tators. At this important crisis, any singular accident 
 of nature would assume the appearance, and produce 
 the eflfects, of a real prodigy." This glorious delive- 
 
 rance would be speedily improved and magnified by the 
 pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the active 
 credulity of the christian world ; and, at the distance 
 of twenty years, a Roman historian, careless of theo- 
 logical disputes, might adorn his work with the spe- 
 cious and splendid miracle.P 
 
 The restoration of the Jewish temple Partiality of 
 was secretly connected with the ruin of J"'''^"- 
 the christian church. Julian still continued to main- 
 tain the freedom of religious worship, without distin- 
 guishing, whether this universal toleration proceeded 
 from his justice or his clemency. He aflected to pity 
 the unhappy christians, who were mistaken in the 
 most important object of their lives ; but his pity was 
 degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by 
 hatred ; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in 
 a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly 
 wound, whenever it issues from the mouth of a sove- 
 reign. As he was sensible that the christians gloried 
 in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced, and 
 perhaps enjoined the use of the less honourable appel- 
 lation of Galil.eans.1 He declared, that, by the folly 
 
 Chap. XXIH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 807 
 
 h Built by Omar, the second Khalif, who died, A. D. 644. This 
 great ntosquc covers the whole consecrated ground of tlie Jewish 
 temple, and constitutes almost a square of 7G0 toiscs, or one Roman 
 niilc in circumference. S?ee D'Anville Jerusalem, p. 45. 
 
 i Ammianus records the consuls of ilie year 363, before he pro- 
 ceeds to mention the tAoM^/jfs of Julian. Templum . . . instaurare 
 iiumptilius cogitabat immodicis. Warhurton hast a secret wish to 
 anticipate the design ; but he must have understood, from former 
 examples, tliat tlie execution of such a work would iiave demanded 
 many years. 
 
 j The subsequent witnesses, Socrates, Sozomcn, Theodoret, Phi- 
 lostorgius, &c. add contradictions, rather than authority. Compare 
 the objections of Basnage (Ilist. des Juifs, torn. viii. p. l.")? — 16H.) 
 with Warburton's answers, (Julian, p. 174 — 258.) Tlie bishop lias 
 ingeniously explained the miraculous crosses which appeared on tlie 
 garments of tlie spectators by a similar instance, and the natural ef- 
 fects of lightning. 
 
 k Ambros. torn. ii. epist. xi. p. 946. edit. Benedictin. He composed 
 this fanatic epistle (A. D. 388.) to justify a bishop, who had been 
 condemned by the civil magistrate, for burning a synagogue. 
 
 1 Chrysosfom, torn. i. p. 5P0. advers. Judaos et Gcntes, tom. ii. p. 
 574.de Sto Bahyla, edit. Montfaucon. I have followed the common 
 and natural supposition ; but the learned Benedictine, who dates the 
 composition of these sermons in the year 383, is confident they were 
 never pronounced from the pulpit. 
 
 m Greg. Nazianzen, Orat.iv.p. 110 — 113. To Ji kw 5r5pi/3o>)Tov «-«o-i 
 
 n Ammian. xxiii. 1. Cum itaque rei fortitcr instaret Alypius, ju- 
 varetque provincial rector, metuendi globi Hammarum prope funda- 
 menta crebris assultibus erumpentes fccere locum exu^^tis aliquoties 
 operantibus inaccessum ; hocque modo elemcnto dnstinatius repel- 
 lente, cessavit inceptum. Warhurton labours (p. 60 — 90.) to extort a 
 confession of the miracle from the mouths of Julian and Libanius, 
 and to employ the evidence of a rabbi, who lived in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. Such witnesses can only be received by a very favourable 
 judge. 
 
 o [Michaelis has given an ingenious and very probable explana- 
 tion of this singular fact, the truth of which the positive testimony of 
 Ammianus, a contemporary and a pagan, does not permit us in the 
 least to question. A passage from Tacitus has furnished him with 
 this explanation. This liiRtorian writing of Jerusalem, says: "The 
 place was built upon a situation strongly fortified by nature, and was. 
 moreover, defended by a mass of works which even in a less advan- 
 tageous position, would have rendered it respectable. Two hills of 
 great height (Mount Zion and the Mount of the Temple, situated 
 
 near to each other in the pouthcrn part of Jerusalem) were entirely 
 surrounded with walls skilfully constructed and strengthened by 
 numerous projections and fosses which guarded agamst the attack 
 of the besiegers in every direction. The temple itself was a kind of 
 citadel which also had walls still better constructed and fortified, 
 —even the porches around the temple were excellent fortifications. 
 There was within the walL^a fountain which was never exhausted, 
 and there were also vast subterranean passages under the mountains, 
 and pools and cisterns for containing rain water." (Tacitus Hist, 
 book V. chap, 1 1 and 12.) 
 
 These subterraneous vaults and cisterns must have been very con- 
 siderable. They furnished water during the siege of Jcrusaleni, to 
 eleven hundred thousand inhabitants, for whom the fountain of Si- 
 loam was not sufhcicnt, and there could have been no fall of^ rain in 
 the time, for the citv was besieged from the month of April to the 
 month of August, atime of the year during which it seldom rains at 
 Jerusalem. The subterranean vaults served after, and even before, 
 the return of the Jews from Babylon, as places of concealment, not 
 only for provisions, the oil, wine, and corn, but also for the treasures 
 which had been kept in the temple. Josephus has related many cir- 
 cumstances which show their extent. When Jerusalem was on the 
 point of being taken by Titus, the leaders of the rebels placing their 
 last hope in these vast excavations (vjtovomoo,-, i/jroj-x.s., Jiu)pujc««.) 
 formed the project of concealing themselves there during the burn- 
 in" of the city, and until the departure of the Roman army. The 
 greater part had not time to put this into execution ; but one of 
 them, Simon, the son of Giora, and some of his companions, having 
 furnished themselves with provisions, and tools for piercing the 
 earth, descende<l into this retreat. There he remained until Titus 
 had departed for Home, but urged by hunger, he suddenly emerged 
 from the very place where the temple had stood, and appeared m 
 the midst of the Roman guards. He was arrested and conducted to 
 Rome in triumph. His appearance led to the conclusion that other 
 Jews micht have chosen the same place of refuge : search was made, 
 and a great number were found. (Joseph, De bel. Jud. book vii.cS,) 
 It is probable that the greater pari of these subterranean cavities 
 were made in the time of Solomon, when it was very customary to 
 excavate the earth— scarcely any other date can be assigned to them. 
 The Jews when they returned from exile, were too poor to under- 
 take such works, and although Herod in rebuilding the temple, con- 
 structed some subterranean chanibcrs, (Joseph. Antiq.Jud. xy, ii. 7.) 
 the haste in which this edifice was completed, does not permit us to 
 believe that these excavations were made in his time. Some were 
 sewers, others served to conceal the immense treasures which Cras- 
 sus had amassed by plunder twenty years before the war of the 
 Jews, and which doubtless, had been since replaced. The temple 
 was destroyed in the year 70, after Christ, the attempts of Julian to 
 rebuild it, and the facts related by Ammianus, coincide with the year 
 three hundred and sixty-three. Between these two events an inter- 
 val of about three hundred years had then elapsed, during which 
 time the vaults closed up by rubbish, would have become filled with 
 inflammable air.* The workmen employed by Julian in digging, 
 reached the vaults beneath the temple ; they took torches to examino 
 them, the sudden flame drove back those who approached, detona- 
 tions were heard, and the phenomenon was repeated every time 
 that any one penetrated into these new cavities. This explanation 
 is confirmed by an account given by JosephUs of an event very simi- 
 lar. King Herod had heard that immense treasures were concealed 
 in the tomb of David. He descended into it at night with some men 
 who were in his confidence. He found in the first vault only jewels 
 and garnients, but wishing to penetrate into the second vault, which 
 had been closed a long time, he was driven back as soon as he opened 
 U. by the flamc.<s, which killed two of those who accompanied him. 
 (Antiq. Jud. xvi. 7. 1.) As there was here no occasion for a miracle, 
 this fact must be regarded as a new proof of the truth of what Am- 
 mienus and contemporary writers have related. — G.] 
 
 P Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the christian cr5»ic». presumes to 
 doubt the truth of this famous miracle. (Jewish and Heathen Tes- 
 timonies, vol. iv. p. 47—71.) The silence of Jerom would lead to a 
 suspicion, that the same story, which was celebrated at a distance, 
 might be despised on the spot, 
 q Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was confirmed by the 
 
 of the Galila?ans, whom he describes, as a sect of fa- 
 natics, contemptible to men, and odious to the g"ods, 
 the empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction ; 
 and he insinuates in a piiblic edict, that a frantic patient 
 might sometimes be cured by salutary violence.' An 
 ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and 
 counsels of Julian, that, according to the difference of 
 their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects de- 
 served his favour and friendship, while the other was 
 entitled only to the common benefits that his justice 
 could not refuse to an obedient people.' According to 
 a principle pregnant with mischief and oppression, the 
 emperor transferred to the pontiffs of his own religion 
 the management of the liberal allowances from the pub- 
 lic revenue, which had been granted to the church by 
 the piety of Constantino and his sons. The proud 
 system of clerical honours and immunities, which had 
 been constructed with so much art and labour, was 
 levelled to the ground ; the hopes of testamentary do- 
 nations were intercepted by the rigour of the laws ; 
 and the priests of the christian sect were confounded 
 with the last and most ignominious class of the people. 
 Such of these regulations as appeared necessary to 
 check the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics, 
 were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an 
 orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which 
 policy has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on 
 the sacerdotal order, viust be confined to those priests 
 who profess the religion of the state. But the will 
 of the legislator was not exempt from prejudice and 
 passion ; and it was the object of the insidious policy 
 of Julian, to deprive the christians of all the temporal 
 honours and advantages which rendered them respecta- 
 ble in the eyes of the world.* 
 
 He prohibits the A just and scverc censure has been 
 christians from inflicted on the law which prohibited 
 
 teaching schools, .i i • *• e > i • ., . f 
 
 " the christians from teaching the arts of 
 
 grammar and rhetoric." The motives alleged by the 
 enriperor, to justify this partial and oppressive measure, 
 might command, during his life-time, tlie silence of 
 slaves and the applause of flatterers. Julian abuses 
 the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be in- 
 differently applied to the language and the religion of 
 the Greeks : he contemptuously observes, that the 
 men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to 
 claim or to enjoy the advantages of science ; and he 
 vainly contends, that if they refuse to adore the gods 
 of Homer and Demosthenes, . they ought to content 
 themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the 
 churches of the Galila»ans.» In all the cities of the 
 Roman world, the education of the youth was intrusted 
 to masters of grammar and rhetoric ; who were elected 
 by the magistrates, maintained at the public expense, 
 and distinguished by many lucrative and honourable 
 privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have in- 
 cluded the physicians, and professors of all the liberal 
 arts ; and the emperor, who reserved to himself the ap- 
 
 • It Is a fact becrtininic every day more known, that whenever vaulti for a \nn% time closed 
 up have lieen Ojiened, one of two thin|r!i liapnen*. either that the torchw are extin«nii»lie<l, umI 
 the men faint and fall and won die ; or if the air in iiiflamnLiblc, a small flame play* around 
 the L-unp, which extends and iiicreaaet till it beooiues a general conflajration, ofteu foUow«d 
 by au es|)lci(ion, .-lud kills all who may be there. 
 
 Invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburfon has justly ob- 
 served (p. a,").) that llie Platonists believed in the mysterious virtue 
 of words ; and Julian's dislike for the name of Christ might proceed 
 from superstition, as well as from contempt. 
 
 r Fragment, Julian, p. 288. He derides the /u»-p*» V»-Kk\*ij>v^ 
 (Epist. vii.) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as to 
 
 wish (Epist. Xlii.) xxovraf txa-ixi. 
 
 -^ Ou yxpfjiOi os/iig itti xsftiJ^sftBV •) iKt»iptiv 
 AvJ'fi*j, 01 x< oioiTtv XTrixiaivr* xixvxrotTiv, 
 These two lines, which Julian has changed and perverted in the 
 true spirit of a bigot, (Epist. xlix.) are taken from the speech of yEo- 
 Iu8, when he refuses to grant Ulysses a fresh supply of winds. 
 (Odyss. X. 7.S.) Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. lix. p. 286.) attempts to 
 (justify this partial liehaviour, by an apology, in which persecution 
 peeps through the mask of candour. 
 
 t These laws which affected the clergy, may be found in the slight 
 hints of Julian himself, (Epist. Iii.) in the vague declamations of 
 Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 8G, 87.) and in the positive assertions of Sozo- 
 nien, (1. v. c. 5. ) 
 
 a Inclemens . . . perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian. xxii. 10. 
 XXV. 5. 
 
 X The edict itself, which is still extant among the epistles of Ju- 
 lian, (xlii.) may be compared with the loose invectives of Gregory, 
 (Orat. Iii. p. 96.) Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1291—1294.) 
 has collected the seeming ditferences of ancients and moderns. — 
 They may be easily reconciled. The christians were directly forbid 
 to teach, they were indirectly forbid to learn ; since they would not 
 frequent tiie schools of the pagans. 
 
 probation of the candidates, was authorized by the 
 laws to corrupt, or to punish, the religious constancy 
 of the most learned of the christians.y As soon as the 
 resignation of the more obstinate ' teachers had estab- 
 lished the unrivaled dominion of the pagan sophists, 
 Julian invited the rising generation to resort with free- 
 dom to the public schools, in a just confidence, that 
 their tender minds would receive the impressions of 
 literature and idolatry. If the greatest part of the 
 christian youth should be deterred by their own 
 scruples, or by those of their parents, from accepting 
 this dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at the 
 same time, relinquish the benefits of a liberal educa- 
 tion. Julian had reason to expect that, in the space 
 of a few years, the church would relapse into its pri- 
 maeval simplicity, and that the theologians, who pos- 
 sessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence 
 of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of 
 blind and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the 
 truth of their own principles, or of exposing the various 
 follies of poly theism.* 
 
 It was undoubtedly the wish and the Disgrace and op- 
 design of Julian to deprive the christians pression of 'the 
 of the advantages of wealth, of knowl- *^'>"stians. 
 edge, and of power ; but the injustice of excluding them 
 from all offices of trust and profit, seems to have been 
 the result of his general policy, rather than the imme- 
 diate consequence of any positive law.'' Superior me- 
 rit might deserve, and obtain, some extraordinary ex- 
 ceptions ; but the greater part of the christian olTicers 
 were gradually removed from their employments in the 
 state, the army, and the provinces. The hopes of fu- 
 ture candidates were extinguished liy the declared par- 
 tiality of a prince, who maliciously reminded them, 
 that it was unlawful for a christian to use the sword, 
 either of justice or of war ; and who studiously guarded 
 the camp and the tribunals with the ensigns of idolatry. 
 The powers of government were intrusted to the pa- 
 gans, who professed an ardent zeal for the religion of 
 their ancestors ; and as the choice of the emperor was 
 often directed by the rules of divination, the favourites 
 whom he preferred as the most agreeable to the gods, 
 did not always obtain the approbation of mankind." 
 Under the administration of their enemies, the chris- 
 tians had much to suffer, and more to apprehend. The 
 temper of Julian was averse to cruelty ; and the care 
 of his reputation, which was exposed to the eyes of 
 the universe, restrained the philosophic monarch from 
 violating the laws, of justice and toleration, which ho 
 himself had so recently established. But the provin- 
 cial ministers of his authority were placed in a less 
 conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary 
 power, they consulted the wishes, rather than the 
 commands, of their sovereign ; and ventured to exer- 
 cise a secret and vexatious tyranny against the sec- 
 taries, on whom they were not permitted to confer the 
 honours of martyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled 
 as long as possible his knowledge of tlie injustice 
 that was exercjsed in his name, expressed his real 
 sense of the conduct of his officers, by gentle reproofs 
 and substantial rewards. 
 
 y Codex Theodos. 1. xiii. tit. iii. de medicis et professoribus, leg. 5. 
 (published the 17th of June, received at Spolcto in Italy, the 29th of 
 July, A. D. 363.) with Godefroy's Illustrations, lorn. v. p. 31. 
 
 z Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution. Sicut a majori- 
 bus nostris compertum habemtis, oinnes ubique propemodem . . . of- 
 ficium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30. Projeresius, a chris- 
 tian sophist, refu8e<l to accept the partial favour of the emperor. 
 Hieronym. ia Chron. p. 185. Edit. Scaliger. Eunapius in Prosere- 
 sio, p. 126. 
 
 a They had recourse to the expedient of composing books for their 
 own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris produced his chris- 
 tian imitations of Homer, (a sacred history in twenty-four-books,) 
 Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozomen is satisfied, that they 
 equalled, or excelled, the originals. 
 
 b It was the instruction of Julian to his magistrates, (Epist. vii ) 
 IT poT I /AxaSxi ntv To« THs flio(rt/2««s x»i wjtvu 9>ijM« Siiv. Sozomen 
 (I. v. c. 18.) and Socrates (1. iii. c. 13.) must be reduced to the stan- 
 dard of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 95.) not less prone to exaggeration, 
 but more restrained by the actual knowledge of his contemporary 
 readers. 
 
 c "Titf b) fiw* xst itivs %*t f*t St^nf. Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 88. 
 p. 314. 
 
 H 
 
308 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXIII. 
 
 The most effectual instrument of op- 
 dcmued~to*'°re: prcssion, with which they were armed, 
 store the pagan \vas the law that obliged the christians 
 temples. ^^ ^^^^ f^^j ^^^ ample satisfaction for 
 
 the temples which they had destroyed under the pre- 
 ceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had 
 not always expected the sanction of the public autho- 
 rity ; and the bishops who were secure of impunity, 
 had often marched at the head of their congregations, 
 to attack and demolish the fortresses of the prince of 
 darkness.'* The consecrated lands, which had increased 
 the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy, were 
 clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these 
 lands, and on the ruins of pagan superstition, the chris- 
 tians had frequently erected their own religious edifi- 
 ces : and as it was necessary to remove the church 
 before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice and 
 piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, 
 while the other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious 
 violence.* After the ground was cleared, the restitu- 
 tion of those stately structures, which had been levelled 
 with the dust, and of the precious ornaments, which 
 had been converted to christian uses, swelled into a 
 very large account of damages and debt. The 
 authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the 
 inclination to discharge this accumulated demand : 
 and the impartial wisdom of a legislator would have 
 been displayed in balancing the adverse claims and 
 complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration. 
 But the whole empire, and particularly the east, was 
 thrown into confusion by the rash edicts of Julian ; 
 and the pagan magistrates, inflamed by zeal and re- 
 venge, abused the rigorous privilege of the Roman 
 law, which substitutes, in the place of his inadequate 
 property, the person of the insolvent debtor. Under 
 the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa,' had 
 laboured in the conversion of his people with arms 
 more effectual than those of persuasion.* The magis- 
 trates required the full value of a temple which had 
 been destroyed by his intolerant zeal : but as they 
 were satisfied of his poverty, they desired only to bend 
 his inflexible spirit to the promise of the slightest com- 
 pensation. They apprehended the a^ed prelate, they 
 inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard ; a.id his 
 naked body, anointed with honey, was suspended, 
 in a net, between heaven and earth, and exposed to the 
 stings of insects, and the rays of a Syrian sun.** From 
 this lofty station, Mark still persisted to glory in his 
 crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his persecu- 
 tors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and 
 dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph. 
 The Arians celebrated the virtue of their pious confes- 
 sor; the catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance ; ' 
 and the pagans, who might be susceptible of shame or 
 
 d Greg, Naz. Orat. iii, p. 74. 91, 92. Socrates, 1. iii. c. 14. Theo- 
 doret, I. iii. c.6. Some drawback, however, may be allowed for the 
 violence of their zeal, not Icms partial than the zeal of Julian. 
 
 e If we compare the gentle language of Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 
 60. p. 286.) with the passsionate exclamations of Gregory. (Orat. iii. p. 
 86, 87.) we may <ind it difficult to persuade ourselves, that the two 
 oratort are really describing the same events. 
 
 f Restan, or Arethusa, at the equal distance of sixteen miles be- 
 tween Emesa {Hems) and Epiphania, {Hamath,) was founded, or at 
 least named, by Seleucus Nicator. Its pecular jera dates from the 
 year of Rome 685 ; according to the medals of the city. In the de- 
 cline of the Scleucides, Emesa and Arethusa were usurped by the 
 Arab Sampsiccramus, whose posterity, the vassals of Rome, were not 
 extinguished in the reign of Vespasian. See D'Anville's Maps and 
 Geographic Ancienne, torn, ii. p. 134, Wesseling, Itineraria, p. 188. 
 and Noris. Epoch, Syro-Macedon, p. 80, 481, 482. 
 
 C Sozomen, I. v. c. 10. It is surprising, that Gregory and Theodo- 
 ret should suppress a circumstance, which, in their eyes, must have 
 enhanced the religious merit of the confessor. 
 
 h The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which Gregory has so 
 tragically painted, (Orat, iii. p. 88, 91,) are confirmed by the unexcep- 
 tionable and reluctant evidence of Libanius. M*(xo( ixkvo; x(i/u«- 
 
 uvSftnus vow t(ro9iOf «TT» T««{ Ti/uac(;, xttt 9«»'H tw, Ti(<^«%i|ref tvovf. 
 
 Epist. 730, p. 330, 351. Edit, Wolf. Amsiel. 1738, 
 
 i HipiM«%>iT05, certatim eumsibi (chnsliani) vindicant. It is thus 
 that LaCroze and Wolfius (ad loc.) have explained a Greek word, 
 whose true signification had been o)ii>taken by former interpreters, 
 and even by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne, torn. iii. 
 
 6371.) Yet Tillemont is strangely puzzled to understand (Mem. 
 rrle?«. torn. vii. p. 1309.) how Gregory and Thcodoret could mistake 
 a Seni) Arian bishop for a saint. 
 
 remorse, were deterred from the repetition of such un- 
 availing cruelty.^ Julian spared his life ; but if the 
 bishop 'of Arethusa had saved the infancy of Julian,' 
 posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of 
 praising the clemency, of the emperor. 
 
 At the distance of five miles from An- rphc temple and 
 tioch, the Macedonian kings of Syria ^cred grove of 
 had consecrated to Apollo one of the i^"phn«- 
 most elegant places of devotion in the pagan world." 
 A magnificent temple rose in honour of the god of 
 light ; and his colossal figure" almost filled the capa- 
 cious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and 
 gems, and adorned by the skill of the grecian artists. 
 The deity was represented in a bending attitude, with 
 a golden cup in his hand, pouring out a libation on the 
 earth, as if he supplicated the venerable mother to give 
 to his arms the cold and beauteous Daphne : for the spot 
 was ennobled by fiction ; and the fancy of the Syrian 
 poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks 
 of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient 
 rites of Greece were imitated by the royal colony of 
 Antioch. A stream of prophecy, which rivalled the 
 truth and reputation of the Delphic oracle, flowed from 
 the Castalian fountain of Daphne." In the adjacent 
 fields a stadium was built by a special privilege^P 
 which had been purchased from E lis; the Olympic 
 games were celebrated at the expense of the city, and 
 a revenue of thirty thousand pounds sterling was an- 
 nually applied to the public pleasures.** The perpetual 
 resort of pilgrims and spectators insensibly formed, in 
 the neighbourhood of the temple, the stately and pop- 
 ulous village of Daphne, which emulated the splen- 
 dour, without acquiring the title, of a provincial city. 
 The temple and the village were deeply bosomed in a 
 thick grove of laurels and cypresses, which reached as 
 far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the 
 most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. 
 A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from 
 every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth, and the 
 temperature of the air ; the senses were gratified with 
 harmonious sounds and aromatic odours ; and the 
 peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to 
 luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like 
 Apollo, the object of his desires ; and the blushing 
 maid was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the 
 folly of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the 
 philosopher wisely avoided the temptation of this sen- 
 sual paradise,' where pleasure, assuming the character 
 of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 k See the probable advice of Sallust, (Greg. Nazianzen. Orat. iii. 00. 
 91.) Libanius intercedes for a similar offender, lest they should find 
 many Marks; yet he allows, that if Orion had secreted the conse- 
 crated wealth, he deserved to suffer the punishment of Marsyas; to 
 be flayed alive. (Epist. '30. p. 349—351.) 
 
 1 Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 90.) is satisfied that, by saving the apostate, 
 Mark had deserved still more than he had suffered. 
 
 m The grove and temple of Daphne are described by Strabo, (1. xvl. 
 p. 1089, 1090. edit. Amstel. 1707.) Libanius, (Njenia, p. 185. 188. 
 Antiochic. Orat. xi. p. 360. 381.) and Sozomen, (I. v. c. 19.) Wesse- 
 ling (Itinerar. p. 581.) and Casaubon (ad Hist. August, p. 64.) illus- 
 trate this curious subject. 
 
 D Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti sequiparans mag- 
 nivudinem. Ammian. xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter was sixty 
 feet high, and his bulk was consequently equal to that of a thousand 
 men. Bee a curious Memoire of the Abb6 Gedoyn. (Academic des 
 Inscriptions, turn. ix. p. 198.) 
 
 Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on a leaf dipped 
 in the Castalian stream ; a trick, which, according to the physician 
 Vandale (de Oraculis, p. 281. 282.) might be easily performed by 
 chemiciil preparations. The emperor stopi)ed the source of such 
 dangerous knowledge: which was again opened by the devout curi- 
 osity of Julian. 
 
 P It was purchased, A. D. 44. In the year 92 of the rra of Antioch 
 (Noris. Epoch. Syro-Maced. p. 139—174.) for the term of ninety 
 Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were not regularly 
 celebrated till the reign of Commodus. See the curious details in the 
 Chronicle of John Malala. (torn. i. p. 293. 320. 372—381.) a writer 
 whose merit and authority are confined .within the limits of his na- 
 tive city. 
 
 q Fifteen talents of gold bequeathed by Sosibius, who died In the 
 reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the Syrian cities, in the 
 age of Constantine, are compared in the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 6 
 (Hudson, Geograph. Minor, torn, iii.) 
 
 r Avidio Cassio Syriacos legiones dedi luxuria diffloentes ct Paph- 
 nicis moribus. These are the words of the emperor Marcus Anto- 
 ninus, in an original letter preserved by his biographer in Hist. Aa- 
 gust. p. 41. Cassias dismissed or punislied every soldier who was 
 seen at Daphne. 
 
 manly virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued 
 tor many ages to enjoy the veneration of natives and 
 strangers , the privileges of the holy ground were en- 
 larged by the munificence of succeeding emperors ; 
 and every generation added new ornaments to the splen- 
 dour of the temple.' ^ 
 
 Neglect and When Julian, on the day of the an- 
 
 j,rofanation of nual festival, hastened to adore the 
 Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was 
 
 300 
 
 raised to the highest pitch of eagerness and impatience, 
 nf vJoZ^ ^nniajTination anticipated the grateful pomp 
 of victims, of libations, and of incense ; I long proccs- 
 sion of youths and virgins, clothed in white robes, the 
 symbol of their innocence ; and the tumultuous con- 
 course of an innumerable people. But the zeal of 
 Antioch was diverted, since the reign of Christianity, 
 into a different channel. Instead of hecatombs of faJ 
 oxeii sacrificed by the tribes of a wealthy city to their 
 tutelar deity, the emperor complains that he found only 
 a single goose, provided at the expense of a priest, the 
 pale and solitary inhabitant of this decayed temple.^ 
 The altar vvas deserted, the oracle had been reduced to 
 silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the in- 
 troduction of christian and funeral rites. After Baby- 
 las « (a bishop of Antioch who died in prison in the 
 persecution of Deems) had rested near i century in 
 his grave, his body, by the order of Ca3sar Gallus, was 
 transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne. A 
 magnificent church was erected over his remains ; a 
 portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the main- 
 tenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the chris- 
 tians of Antioch, who were ambitious of lying at the 
 feet of their bishop ; and the priests of Apollo retired, 
 with their aff-righted and indignant votaries. As soon 
 as another revolution seemed to restore the fortune 
 of paganism, the church of St. Babylas was demol- 
 ished, and new biiildings were added to the mouldering 
 edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian 
 kings But the first and most serious cari of Julian 
 was to deliver his oppressed deity from the odious 
 presence of the dead and living christians, who had so 
 effectually suppressed the voice of fraud or enthusi- 
 Removal of the ^^"[*-* ^^^ scene of infection was puri- 
 dead bodies, and ficd according to the forms of ancient 
 
 conflagration of rituals • iho. \r.A\r.c j *»"^*«"<' 
 
 the temple. "luais , the bodies were decently re- 
 
 moved ; and the ministers of the church 
 were permitted to convey the remains of St. Babylas 
 ^ their former habitation within the walls of Antioch. 
 Ihe modest behaviour which might have assuaged the 
 jealousy of an hostile government, was neglected on 
 this occasion by the zeal of the christians. The lofty 
 car, that transported the relics of Babylas, was fol- 
 lowed, and accompanied, and received, by an innume- 
 rable multitude, who chanted with thunderino^ accla- 
 rnations, the Psalms of David the most expreSsive of 
 their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return of 
 the saint was a triumph ; and the triumph was an in- 
 sult on the religion of the emperor, who exerted his 
 pride to dissembje his resentment. During the nig-ht 
 which terminated this indiscreet procession, the tem- 
 ple of Daphne was in flames ; the statue of Apollo was 
 consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a na- 
 ked and awful monument of ruin. The christians of 
 ;^"^*Qc» asserted, with religious confidence, that the 
 
 powerful intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the 
 lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof: but as 
 Julian was reduced to the alternative, of believinjr 
 either a crime or a miracle, he chose, without hesita- 
 tion, without evidence, but with some colour of prob- 
 ability to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of 
 the Gahl^ans.y Their offence, had it been sufficilntly 
 proved, might have justified the retaliation, which was 
 immediately executed by the order of i , " . 
 Julian, of shutting the doors, and confis- '.".tdrliof A';^ 
 eating the wealth, of the cathedral of An- ^'°*=*'- 
 tioch. To discover the criminals who were ffuiltv of 
 the tumult, of the fire, or of secreting the riches of the 
 church, several ecclesiastics were tortured,' and a 
 presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was beheaded bv 
 the sentence of the count of the east. But this hastv 
 act was blamed by the emperor ; who lamented, with 
 real or affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his 
 ministers would tarnish his reign with the disgrace of 
 persecution.* ^ 
 
 The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly 
 checked by the frown of their sovereign ; but when 
 the father of his country declares himself the leader 
 of a faction, the licence of popular fury cannot easily 
 be restrained, nor consistently punished Julian, in a 
 public composition, applauds the devotion and loyalty 
 of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had 
 destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the 
 balilaeans ; and faintly complains, that they had re- 
 venged the injuries of the gods with less moderation 
 than he should have recommended." This imperfect 
 and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the ec- 
 clesiastical narratives ; that in the cities of Gaza, 
 Ascalon, Caesarea, Heliopolis, &c. the pagans abused 
 without prudence or remorse, the moment of theiJ 
 prosperity. That the unhappy objects of their cruelty 
 were released from torture only by death ; that as their 
 mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they 
 were pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits 
 of cooks, and the distaff's of enraged women t and that 
 the entrails of christian priests and virgins, after they 
 had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed 
 with barley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean 
 animals of the city.' Such scenes of religious mad-' 
 ness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture 
 of human nature ; but the massacre of Alexandria at- 
 tracts still more attention, from the certainty of the fact 
 the rank of the victims, and the splendour of the capi- 
 tal of Egypt. ^ 
 
 Georgc-f from his parents or his edu- George of r«n 
 cation, surnamed the Cappadocian, was padocia, '^" 
 born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's shop. From 
 this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the 
 talents of a parasite ; and the patrons, whom he assid- 
 uously flattered, procured for their worthless depend- 
 ant a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the 
 army with bacon. His employment was mean ; he 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 • Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, (Pompev ) quo locus 
 b, spat.o9.or fieret; delectatus am«nitate loci et aq^ar Jm abSndan 
 
 »• T.wi"in''^M?' "'• '^' ®"'"« «"'■"«' ^^ Provinces? c 16. 
 «,,h i„ ("^'""P??""' P- 361, 362.) discovers his own character 
 
 t^a's XTner^ouf ""^°""'°"' -•'"P'-^^' -•-'' always cS: 
 
 m^s^asceptTc """• "'' P"*' "' P' ^^''^- «9-^65.) becomeTaT 
 X EcclesiasliCBl critics, particularly those who love relics emit in 
 P*^ w"/Trn'"-'""^"P*'^^P°Son,p.361.)and Libanfus (nS p 
 18o.) that Apollo was disturbed by the vicinity of one dead ma J' 
 r^r .i^T'f.""' •^""- '20 clears and purifies the whole grofind ac-" 
 Kf dIV, '"'' '^'''"' **** Athenians formerly practised in the 
 
 tbPir a w. ^ A '^*'^'opo?on. p. 361.) rather insinuates, than affirms, 
 the.rgu.ll. Ainmianus, xxii. 13.) treats the imputation as /rB/J^f" 
 mu, rumor, and relates the story with extraordinary candour 
 
 z Quo tarn atroci casu repenle consumpto, ad id usq»?e imDeratoris 
 ra provex.t. ut qu«estiones agitare ju beret sol ito aSLrer rtet J. 
 Iian blames the lenity of the mac'istrates of Aminrh w. ^ • 
 ecclesiam Antiochia^^claudi. Th?s^;ntStiJn^C° peVV^^^ 
 
 ^:^^^^is''''^^ '' the^AHK.T'iL^'i'ieTe'r ^dr/u^: 
 
 * Besides the ecclesiastical historians, who are more or Ii>m m h« 
 suspected we may allege the passion of St. TheoXI in t" AcS 
 Nnrera of Kij.nart, p. 591. The complaint of Julia?eivJS L oH 
 guial and authentic air. -""«» gives ii an on- 
 
 b Julian, Misopogon, p. 361 
 
 c See Gregory Nazianken. ^Orat. iii. p 87.) Sozomen H v c ) 
 
 was a native of Gflza, and had conversed w th the confessor Zeno 
 
 2^.) Pliilostorgius, (I. V.I. c. 4. with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 284 ) 
 adds some tragic circumstances of christians, who were ItteraliL 
 sacrificed at the altars of the gods, &c. «^'-«"y 
 
 d The life and death of Georye or Cappadocia are described hv 
 Ammianus, (xxii. 11.) Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. xxi n -vjo -jo- 
 389, 390.) and Epiplmn^s. (Ha^res. Ixxvi.) The invectLfof fhe 
 two saints might n*t deserve much credit, unless th«»v w^il A. V: 
 ed by the tesr^-ony of tJie cool and impirt."al fn^del ^ "*"''""" 
 
 \ 
 
310 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXHl. 
 
 Chap. XXIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 m 
 
 Tendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the 
 basest arts of fraud and corruption ; but his malversa- 
 tions were so notorious, that George was compelled to 
 escape from the pursuits of justice. After this dis- 
 grace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune 
 at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real 
 or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From 
 the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he collected 
 a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and 
 theology ; * and the choice of the prevailing faction 
 promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of 
 Athanasius. The entrance of the new a-chbishop v^as 
 that of a barbarian conqueror ; and each moment of his 
 reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The 
 catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to 
 a tyrant, qualified, by nature and education, to exercise 
 on,,ros.c« Alex- the office of persecution ; but hc oppres- 
 andria& Egypt, sed with an impartial hand the various 
 inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of 
 Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty 
 station ; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and 
 servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were 
 impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal mo- 
 nopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, fu- 
 nerals, &c. and the spiritual father of a great people 
 condescended to practise the vile and pernicious arts 
 of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget, 
 nor forgive, the tax, which he suggested, on all the 
 houses of the city ; under an obsolete claim, that the 
 royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the 
 Ptolemies and the Caesars, the perpetual property of 
 the soil. The pagans, who had been flattered with the 
 hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout 
 avarice ; and the rich temples of Alexandria were 
 
 torious death of the arch-bishop obliterated the memo- 
 ry of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and 
 sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of 
 those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom 
 of the catholic church.»» The odious stranger, dis- 
 o-uisino- every circumstance of time and place, assumed 
 the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a christian hero ; 
 and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been trans- 
 formed ^ into the renowned St. George ^nd worshipped 
 of England, the patron of arms, of chi- ^«^^^ «^'"^ ^'"^ 
 valry, and of the garter.' • r j r 
 
 About the same time that Julian was informed ot 
 the tumult of Alexandria, he received intelligence from 
 Edessa, that tlie proud and wealthy faction of the 
 Arians had insulted the weakness of the Valentinians, 
 and committed such disorders as ought not tobe sufTer- 
 ed with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without 
 expectintr the slow forms of justice, the exasperated 
 prince directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edes- 
 sa "^ by which he confiscated the whole property of 
 the church : the money was distributed among the sol- 
 diers : the lands were added to the domain ; and this 
 act of oppression was aggravated by the most ungene- 
 rous irony. " I show myself," says Julian, " the true 
 friend of the Galila^ans. Their admirable law has 
 promised the kingdom of heaven to the poor ; and they 
 will advance with more diligence in the paths of virtue 
 and salvation, when they are relieved by my a^ist- 
 ance from the load of temporal possessions, lake 
 care," pursued the monarch, in a more serious tone, 
 *' take care how you provoke my patience and humani- 
 ty. If these disorders continue, I will revenge on the 
 macristrates the crimes of the people ; and you will 
 hav^e reason to dread, not only confiscation and exile. 
 
 avarice; and the rich temples ot Alexanaria were ";-;:;7^\;"/g;,;;i;r'The tumults of Alexandria 
 either pillaged or insulted by the -u^ty prelat , v ho ^ut fire^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ . 
 
 exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone, " How long 
 
 will these sepulchres be permitted to stand 1" Under 
 
 the reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, 
 
 or rather by the justice, of the people ; and it was not 
 
 without a violent struggle, that the civil and military 
 
 powers of the state could restore his authority, and 
 
 gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed 
 
 at Alexandria the accession of Julian, announced the 
 
 A. D.361. downfall of the arch-bishop. George, 
 
 Nov'. 30. with two of his obsequious ministers, 
 
 count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint, 
 
 were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public 
 
 He is massacred prisou. At the end of twenty-four days. 
 
 were doubtless of a more bloody and dangerous nature 
 but a christian bishop had fallen by the hands of the 
 pacrans; and the public epistle of Julian affords a 
 very lively pooof of the partial spirit of his adminis- 
 tration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria 
 are mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness ; 
 and he^'laments, that, on this occasion, they should 
 have departed from the gentle and generous manners 
 which attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely 
 censures the offence which they had committed against 
 the laws of justice and humanity; but he recapitulates, 
 with visible complacency, the intolerable provocations 
 which thev had so long endured from the impious ty- 
 
 of a superstitious ^n.„Uituae, impatient of thejedious y-^"-}yj^^:^':t^rZ''::nZZ^^^^^ 
 forms of judicial proceedings. 
 
 Due. 34. 
 
 The ene 
 mies of ""gods and men expired under 
 their cruel insults ; the lifeless bodies of the arch- 
 bishop and his associates were carried in triumph 
 through the streets on the back of a camel ; and the 
 inactivity of the Athanasian party ^ was esteemed a 
 shining example of evangelical patience. The remains 
 of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; 
 and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their 
 resolution to disappoint the devotion of the christians, 
 and to intercept the future honours of these martyrs, 
 who had been punished like their predecessors, by the 
 enemies of their religion.8 The fears of the pagans 
 were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meri- 
 
 chastise the insolence of the people; yet, in considera 
 tion of their founder Alexander, and of Serapis, their 
 tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious pardon to 
 the guilty city, for which he again feels the affectioii 
 of a brother." 
 
 After the tumult of Alexandria had 
 subsided, Athanasius, amidst the public 
 acclamations, seated himself on the 
 throne from whence his unworthy corn- 
 
 Restoration of 
 
 Athanasius, 
 
 A. D. 302. 
 
 Feb. 21. 
 
 h Some Donatists (Optatus Milev. p. 60. 303. ed. . Dupi . a 
 ^illen.ont, Mem.Ecclcs. torn. vi. p. 713. in 4to.) and PnsciMian 
 r lemon . Mem. Ercle.. torn. viii. p. 517. in 4lo.) .ave in like mi 
 
 e After tlic massacre of George, the emperor Julian repeatedly sent 
 orders to preserve the library for his own use, and to torture the 
 ■laves who niiglU be suspected of secreting any hooks. He praises 
 Uie merit of the collection, from whence hc had borrowed and trans- 
 cribed several manuscripts while hc pursued his studies in Cappa- 
 docia. He could wish, indeed, that the works of the Galila-ans 
 miffht perish ; but he requires an exact account even of those theo- 
 logical volumes, lest otiicr treatises more valuable should be confoun- 
 ded in their lo3s. Julian, Epist. ix. xxxvi. 
 
 t Philostorgiua, with cautious malice, insinuates their ffuilt, x!«i 
 T» A9»»«<r«¥ yvuo/MMv <rTf»Ttiy*\v:ti ria *-p*5iu)s, 1. vii. c.2. Godeiroy, 
 
 f Cineres projecit in mare, i<l metucns ut clamabat, nc, collectis su- 
 premis.ttdeaillisexstrucrcnt; ut rainuis, quideviarea relijjionecoin- 
 Dulsi pertuleie cruciabiles pcBuas, ad u^me gloriosam mortem inle- 
 merata fide pro-'ressi, ct nunc Martyrks .^onellnntur. Aminlan. 
 xxil. 11. Epipliaiiius proves to the Arians, thai c^orge was not a 
 martyr. 
 
 and 
 
 Tillemont, Mem.Ecclcs. tom. vi. p. vi.i. m iiu.; am. "."",7 '"'^IM" 
 (Tillemont. Mem. Ercle.. tom. viii. p. 517. in 4lo.) have in like man 
 ner usurped the honours of catholic saints and martyrs. 
 
 YThesiints of Cappadocia. Basil and the Gregories, were jgnorant 
 of the ? hiv companion. Pope Gelasius, (A, D. 494.) the first catho- 
 Mc who acknowledges St. George, places ^\\^ ,f^'^?S '\eJr^^[\y'^^ 
 "qui Deo masis quam hominibus noti sunt." "e rejects hi* Acts a« 
 the composition of heretics. Some, perhaps not the oldest, of tlie 
 spurirs Arts, arc still extant ; and, through a cloud of fction, we 
 may yet distinguish the combat which St. George of Cappadocia sus- 
 tained, in the presence of Queen Mexandria, against the magteian 
 
 athanasius. , , , . • i ... „„ »». 
 
 k This traiipformation is not given as absolutely certain, but as w 
 tremely probable. See the Longueruana, torn. i. p. 194. 
 
 1 A curious history of the worship of St. George, from the sixtl 
 century, (when he was already revered in fa'^^tine in Armenia, at 
 Rome, and at Treves in Gaul.) might be extracted from ^r^j"ey'';^ 
 (History of St. George, 2d edition, London, 16.W, in ^'o. p- J^O »"^^ 
 the Rollandists. (Act SS. Mens. April, tom. iii. p. 10<1— 103.) I i9 
 fame and popularity in Europe, and especially in England, proceeded 
 from the crusades. 
 
 r Julian.' Epist." x."'ile allowed his friends to assuage his angcr.- 
 Aminian. xxii. 11. 
 
 petitor had been precipitated : and as the zeal of the 
 archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise 
 of his authority tended not to inflame, but to reconcile, 
 the minds of the people. His pastoral labours were 
 not confined o the narrow limits of Egypt. The state 
 of the christian world was present to his active and 
 capacious mind ; and the age, the merit, the reputation 
 ot Athanasius, enabled him to assume, in a moment of 
 clanger, the office of ecclesiastical dictator." Three 
 years were notyet elapsed since the majority of the bish- 
 ops of the west had ignorantly, or reluctantly, sub- 
 scribed the confession of Rimini. They repented, they 
 believed but they dreaded the unseasonable riaJur of 
 their orthodox brethren ; and if their pride was slrono-er 
 than their faith, they might throw themselves into ?l,e 
 arms of the Arians, to escape the indignity of a public 
 penance, which must degrade them to the condition of 
 obscure laymen. At the same time, the domestic dif- 
 ferences concerning the union and distinction of the 
 divine persons, were agitated with some heat amoncr 
 the catholic doctors ; and the progress of this metaph/- 
 sical controversy seemed to threaten a public and ast- 
 np division of the Greek and Latin churches. ByThe 
 
 enl'"of Ah''^'"' '^'"'^' '^ ''^'''^ ^he name and pre- 
 sence of Athanasius gave the authority of a general 
 council, the bishops who had unwarily deviatfd into 
 error, were admitted to the communion of the church, 
 on the easy condition of subscribing the Nicene creed 
 without any formal acknowledgment of their past fault 
 or any minute definition of their scholastic opinions 
 The advice of the primate of Egypt had already pre^ 
 pared the clergy of Gaul and Spain, of Italy and Greece 
 for the reception of this salulary measur^e ; anTnoN 
 ^^lthstandlng the opposition of some ardent spirits,P 
 the tear of the common enemy promoted the peace and 
 harmony of the christians."! ^ ^^ <xna 
 
 He is persecuted The skill and dilio-ence of the nrimatP 
 and expelled by nf Prr,r^* u i • 'o^"^^ "/ me primate 
 Julian. ' ^^ ^"gypt had improved the season of 
 
 ^•v/ of' \^^"Jl"i"ity, before it was interrupted by 
 Oct^23. the hostile edicts of the emperor.^ Ju- 
 han who despised the christians, honoured Athanasius 
 with his sincere and peculiar hatred. For his sake 
 a one, he introduced an arbitrary distinction, repugnant 
 at least to the spirit of his former declarations." He 
 mamtained, that the Galilaeans, whom he had recalled 
 from exile, were not restored, by that general indulg- 
 ence, to the possession of their respective churches ; 
 ^1 t^^?^P^^sscd his astonishment, that a criminal 
 who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment 
 of the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of 
 the laws, and insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne 
 of Alexandria, without expecting the orders of his 
 sovereign. As a punishment for the imaginary offence, 
 he again banished Athanasius from the cityl and he 
 was pleased to suppose, that this act of justice would 
 be highly agreeable to his pious subjects. The press- 
 ing solicitations of the people soon convinced him, 
 
 ^r^^itfT^'''''^f!^^ Alexandrians were christians 
 and that the greatest part of the christians were firmly 
 attached to the cause of their oppressed primate. But 
 the knowledge of their sentiments, instead of persuad- 
 ing him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend to 
 all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The 
 zeal of the multitude rendered Julian still more inexo- 
 
 811 
 
 rable ; he was alarmed by the danger of leaving at the 
 head of a tumultuous city, a daring and popular leader ; 
 and the language of his resentment discovers the opin' 
 ion which he entertained of the courage and abilities of 
 Athanasius. The execution of the sentence was still de- 
 
 llfr.f7 ! ''''u^'''" ""' negligence of Ecdicius, prs- 
 feet ot Egypt, who was at length awakened from his le- 
 thargy by a severe reprimand. " Though you neo-lect " 
 says Juhan, "to write to me on any Stlier subj-ect, at 
 
 ZTa aV'^-'^^'V ^"^^^^^ ^"^ «^ yourconcluct'to- 
 u ards Athanasius, the enemy of the gods. My inten- 
 tions have been long since communicated to you. I 
 swear by the great Serapis, that unless, on the calends 
 of December, Athanasius has departed from Alexan- 
 dria nay from Egypt, the officers of your government 
 Shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You 
 know my temper ; I am slow to condemn, but I am 
 still slower to forgive." This epistle was enforced 
 
 o See Athanas. ad. Rufin. tom. ii n 40 41 • nml Pm-r k^^- 
 zen Oni iii n "in-. 'ii\i' 1 ."'"•"• I'. '*»», '*'■ , ana ureg. JNazian- 
 
 pi have not leisure to follow the blind obstinacy of 1 udr^r «f 
 Caghari. See his adventures in Tillemont Mpm L?L . ''^'^ ^^ 
 
 h.-.r ^ r,u * ■'' ^*"o tj^ioiii;; was uiiiorcea 
 
 u A ^^^[l^Postscript, written with the emperor's own 
 hand. The contempt that is shown for all the gods 
 fills me with grief and indignation. There is nothing 
 that 1 should see, nothing that I should hear, with 
 more pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from 
 au ±.gypt. The abominable wretch! Under my 
 reign, the baptism of several Grecian ladies of the 
 highest rank has been the effect of his persecutions." • 
 1 he death of Athanasius was not expresdij command- 
 ed ; but the prefect of Egypt understood, that it was 
 sater tor him to exceed, than to neglect, the orders of 
 an irritated master. The archbishop prudently re- 
 tired to the monasteries of the desert; eluded, with his 
 usual dexterity, the snares of the enemy ; and lived to 
 triumph over the ashes of a prince, who, in words of 
 formidable import, had declared his wish that the 
 whole venom of the Galilaean school were contained 
 in the single person of Athanasius.* . 
 
 I have endeavoured faithfully to repre- .^^ , . • 
 sent the artful system by which Julian dence^'or^ 
 proposed to obtain the efl^ects, without christians, 
 iitcurring the guilt or reproach of persecution. But if 
 the deadly spirit of fiinaticism perverted the heart and 
 understanding of a virtuous prince, it must, at the 
 same time, be confessed, that the real suflferinrrs of the 
 christians were inflamed and magnified by human pas- 
 sions and religious enthusiasm. The meekness and 
 resignation which had distinguished the primitive dis- 
 ciples of the gospel, was the ^bject of the applause, 
 rather than of the imitation, of their successors. The 
 christians, who had now possessed above forty years 
 the civil and ecclesiastical government of the empire, 
 had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity," and 
 the habit of believing, that the saints alone were en- 
 tit ed to reign over the earth. As soon as the enmity of 
 Julian deprived the clergy of the privileges which had 
 been conferred by the favour of Constantino, they com- 
 plained of the most cruel oppression ; and the free tol- 
 eration of idolaters and heretics was a subject of " 
 grief and scandal to the orthodox party.^ The acts of 
 violence, which were no longer countenanced by the 
 magistrates, were still committed by the zeal of the 
 people. At Pessinus, the altar of Cybele was over- 
 turned almost in the presence of the emperor ; and in 
 the city of Caesarea in Cappadocia, the temple of For- 
 tune, the solo place of worship which had been left to 
 the pagans, was destroyed by the rage of a popular tu- 
 mult. On these occasions, a prince, who felt for the 
 honour of the gods, was not disposed to interrupt the 
 course of justice; and his m ind was still more deeply 
 
 of U,rrni"^nr7'i""*"'K"'- • ' ^''/^ preserved the ambiguous sense 
 to crcltl gulTt? ambiguity of a tyrant who wished to find, or 
 
 .^rJ^^* ^K^u ^P's^'^'S of Julian, which explain his intentions and 
 conduct with regard to Athanasius, should be disposed in the follow- 
 l"Ji ^'So^^^e"*' order, xxvi. x. vi. See likewise Greg. Nazianzen, 
 '^V-P. .'?*'**• s'ozomen, I. v. c. l."*. Socrates, I. iii. c. 14 Theodo- 
 ret, I. III. c. 9. and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. lorn. viii. n 361-- 368 
 who has used some materials prepared by the Bollandists.' 
 u See the fair confession of Grecory. (Orat iii p 61 G'* ) 
 
 \ 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 I 
 
 31^ 
 
 exasperated, when he found, that the fanatics, who had 
 deserved and suffered the punishment of incendiaries, 
 were rewarded with the honours of martyrdom. ^ Ihe 
 christian subjects of Julian were assured of the hostile 
 desio-ns of their sovereign ; and, to their jealous appre- 
 hension, every circumstance of his government might 
 afford some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In 
 the ordinary administration of the laws, the christians, 
 who formed so large a part of the people, must fre- 
 quently be condemned : but their indulgent brethren, 
 without examining the merits of the cauise, presumed 
 their innocence, allowed their claims, and miputed the 
 severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious 
 persecution.' These present hardships, intolerable as 
 they might appear, were represented as a slight prelude 
 of the impending calamities. The christians consider- 
 ed Julian as a cruel and crafty tyrant ; who suspended 
 the execution of his revenge, till he should return vic- 
 torious from the Persian war. They expected, that as 
 soon as he had triumphed over the foreign enemies ot 
 Rome, he would lay aside the irksome mask of dissi- 
 mulation; that the amphitheatres would stream with 
 the blood of hermits and bishops ; and that the chris- 
 tians, who still persevered in the profession ot the 
 faith, would be deprived of the common benefits ot 
 nature and society.* Every calumny »> that cou d 
 wound the reputation of the Apostate, was credulously 
 embraced by the fears and hatred of his adversaries ; 
 and their indiscreet clamours provoked the temper ot a 
 sovereign, whom it was their duty to respect, and their 
 interest to flatter. They still protested, that prayers 
 and tears were their only weapons against the impious 
 tyrant, whose head they devoted to the justice of of- 
 fended heaven. But they insinuated, with sullen reso- 
 lution, that their submission was no longer the effect 
 of weakness ; and that, in the imperfect state of human 
 virtue, the patience which is founded on principle, 
 may be exhausted by persecution. It is impossible to 
 determine how far the zeal of Julian would have pre- 
 vailed over his good sense and humanity ; but, if we 
 seriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the 
 church, we shall be convinced that, before the empe- 
 ror could have extinguished the religion of Christ, he 
 must have involved his country in the horrors of a ci- 
 vil war.*= 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Residence of Julian at Antioch.—Ws succmful expedition 
 against the Persians.— Passu f^e of the Ti^is.—The re- 
 treat and death of Julian.— Election of Jwian.—He saves 
 the Roinan army hy a disgraceful treaty. 
 
 The c^sars of The philosophical fable which Julian 
 
 Julian. composed under the name ot the v^s.- 
 
 SARS,* is one of the most agreeable and instructive pro- 
 
 ductions of ancient wit.'' During the freedom and 
 equality of the days of the Saturnalia, Romulus prepared 
 a feast for the deities of Olympus, who had adopted him 
 as a worthy associate, and for the Roman princes, who 
 had reicrned over his martial people, and the vanquish- 
 ed nations of the earth. The immortals were placed 
 in just order on their thrones of state, and the table of 
 the Ceesars was spread below the moon, in the upper 
 region of the air. The tyrants, who would have dis- 
 graced the society of gods and men, were thrown head- 
 long, by the inexorable Nemesis, into the Tartarean 
 abyss. The rest of the Caesars successively advanced 
 to their seats ; and, as they passed, the vices, the de- 
 fects, the blemishes of their respective characters, were 
 maliciously noticed by old Silenus, a laughing moral- 
 ist who disguised the wisdom of a philosopher under 
 the mask of a Bacchanal.^ As soon as the feast was 
 ended, the voice of Mercury proclaimed the will ot Ju- 
 piter, that a celestial crown should be the reward of 
 superior merit. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Trajan, and 
 Marcus Antoninus, were selected as the most illus- 
 trious candidates; the effeminate Constantine-* was 
 not excluded from this honourable competition, and the 
 great Alexander was invited to dispute the prize of 
 llory with the Roman heroes. Each of the candidates 
 was allowed to display the merit of his own exploits ; 
 but, in the judgment of the gods, the modest silence ot 
 Marcus pleaded more powerfully than the elaborate ora- 
 tions of his haughty rivals. When the judges of this 
 awful contest proceeded to examine the heart, and to 
 scrutinize the springs of action ; the superiority of the 
 imperial Stoic appeared still more decisive and conspi- 
 cuous." Alexander and Caesar, Augustus, Trajan, and 
 Constantine, acknowledged, with a blush, that fame, or 
 power, or pleasure, had been the important object of 
 their labours : but the gods themselves beheld, with 
 reverence and love, a virtuous mortal, who had prac- 
 tised on the throne the lessons of philosophy ; and 
 who, in a state of human imperfection, had aspired to 
 imitate the moral attributes of the Deity. The value 
 of this agreeable composition (the C^sars of Julian) 
 is enhanced by the rank of the author. A prince, who 
 delineates, with freedom, the vices and virtues of his 
 predecessors, subscribes, in every line, the censure or 
 approbation of his own conduct. 
 
 In the cool moments of reflection, Ju- jjg resolves to 
 lian preferred the useful and benevolent ".arch against 
 virtues of Antoninus ; but his ambitious 'Y.^^^^^^ 
 spirit was inflamed by the glory of Alex- 
 ander; and he solicited, with equal ardour, the esteem 
 of the wise, and the applause of the multitude. In the 
 season of life, when the powers of the mind and body 
 enjoy the most active vigour, the emperor, who was 
 instructed by the experience, and animated by the suc- 
 cess, of the German war, resolved to signalize his 
 reiffn by some more splendid and memorable achieve- 
 ment. The ambassadors of the east from the conti- 
 nent of India, and the isle of Ceylon,' had respectfully 
 
 T Grec Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 91. iv. p. 133. He praises tlio riot- 
 ers of Ca^sarea, T«r»v ^. r-v ^.y:.xocu.v x;.. ^'f'^^^;;*" ^-^n^ VJq' 
 See Sozomen. 1. v. 4. 11. Tillen.ont (Mem. Eccles. 1°'"; v • P-.649, 
 6500 owns, that their beliaviour was not dans I ordre commun . but 
 he^is perfectly satisfied, as tlie great St. Basil always celebrated the 
 
 festival of these blessed martyrs. , . ., •. >» 
 
 X Julian determined a law suit asrainst the new cl'nstlan ci y at 
 Maiuma. the port of Gaza ; and his sentence, though it mi-ht Ikj 
 imputed to bigotry, was never reversed by his auccessors. Sozo- 
 inen. l. v. c. 3. Reland. Palestin. torn. ii. p. 791. „„,^n^_ tt, 
 
 a Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 93. 94, 95. Orat. iv. p. ^1** ) P'«^?"J^J.^ 
 speak from the information of Julian's confidants, whom Orosius 
 ls'\\. 30.) could not have seen. . 
 
 ^ b Gregorv (Orat. iii. p. 91.) charges the Apostate with -ecret sacn^ 
 ficcsof boys and girls; and positively affirms, that the dead bodi^J 
 weVe thrown into the Orontes. See Theodoret, I. iii. c. 26, 27. and 
 J^eequ'vo^ri candour of the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de J«l'cn. p. 
 35I T2 Yet contemporary malice could not impute to Julian the 
 uoop^of n.artyrs, mJre especially in the west, which BaronUis so 
 greedily swallows, and Tillemont so faintly rejects. (Mem. Eccles. 
 
 tom. vii. p. 12U5— 1315.) .sr • - /nroi iv n l^i 
 
 c The resignation of Gregory is truly edify ng. (Orat. v. p. U., 
 
 124.) Yet, when an officer of Julian attempted to «f'^«/"'« f !'"7o 
 of Nazianzus, he would have lost his life, if he had not yielded to 
 the zeal of the bishop and people. (Oral. xix. P- 30f ;> ^ °«« f^'^ 
 flections of Chrysostora, as they are alleged by Tillemont. (Mem. 
 Eccles. tom. vii. p. 575.) . . , • ■ Aw.^^^r in 
 
 a See thif fable or satire, p. 306-336. of the Leipwg editioaof Ju- 
 
 1- ^'o «.«rkQ The French version of the learned Ezekiel Spanheim 
 
 Par s 1683) is coarse? languid, and correct: and his notes, prooft 
 
 llultritioiis tc. are piled on each other till they form a mass of 557 
 
 . i^r n nd n.iirio naces The Abbe de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien. 
 
 'irTT24'lST)haf more happily expressed the spirit, as well as 
 
 irscnse, of the original, which he illustrates with some concise and 
 
 '""K^^nnnS (in his preface) has most learnedly discussed the ety 
 mLiiS resemblance. Ud disagreement of the Greek satyr, 
 a dra.naUc piece, which was acted after the tragedy ; and the Latin 
 satWeHiromSatura) a misctllantou. composition, either in prose or 
 terse B"tthc Ca-sirs of Julian are of such an original cast, thai 
 thP rritic is perplexed to which class he should ascrilie them. , 
 c This ini^ed character of Silenus is finely painted in the .nth 
 
 "iTv'e?yymp'arV.al reader must perceive and eond^n t^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 nf T.ii'nn acainst his uncle Constantine, and the christian religion, 
 on tS ; occason. e interpreters are compelled, by a more sa"ed 
 li?ereit. ^"renounce their illegiance. and to desert the cause of their 
 
 '^"^N^nH^n wa^ secretlv inclined to prefer a Greek to a Roman. But 
 
 saluted the Roman purple.^ The nations of the west 
 esteemed and dreaded the personal virtues of Julian, 
 both in peace and war. He despised the trophies of a 
 Gothic victory ,»» and was satisfied that the rapacious 
 barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from any 
 fiiture violation of the faith of treaties by the terror of 
 his name, and the additional fortifications with which 
 he strengthened the Thracian and Illyrian frontiers. 
 The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only 
 rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms ; and he 
 resolved, by the final conquest of Persia, to chastise 
 the haughty nation which had so long resisted and in- 
 sulted the majesty of Rome.' As soon as the Persian 
 monarch was informed that the throne of Constantius 
 was filled by a prince of a very different character, he 
 condescended to make some artful, or perhaps sincere, 
 overtures, towards a negociation of peace. But the 
 pride of Sapor was astonished'T)y the firmness of Ju- 
 lian ; who sternly declared, that he would never con- 
 sent to hold a peaceful conference among the flames 
 and ruins of the cities of Mesopotamia ; and who added, 
 with a smile of contempt, that it was needless to treat 
 by ambassadors, as he himself had determined to visit 
 speedily the court of Persia. The impatience of the 
 emperor urged the diligence of the military prepara- 
 tions. The generals were named, a formidable army 
 was destined for this important service ; and Julian, 
 marching from Constantinople through the provinces 
 of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch about eight months 
 after the death of his predecessor. His ardent desire 
 to march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the 
 indispensable duty of regulating the state of the em- 
 pire ; by his zeal to revive the worship of the gods ; 
 and by the advice of his wisest friends ; who repre- 
 sented the necessity of allowing the salutary interval 
 of winter-quarters, to restore the exhausted strength of 
 the legions of Gaul, and the discipline and spirit of 
 the eastern troops. Julian was persuaded to fix, till 
 Julian proceeds the ensuing Spring, his residence at An- 
 
 no7o''rAn;!: *^°^^' among a people maliciously dis- 
 och, posed to deride the haste and to censure 
 
 August. the delays, of their sovereign.^ 
 Licentious man- If Julian had flattered himself, that 
 ners of the pco- his personal connexion with the capital 
 pie of Antioch. ^f the east would be productive of mu- 
 tual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a 
 very false estimate of his own character, and of the 
 manners of Antioch.' The warmth of the climate dis- 
 posed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment 
 of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentious- 
 ness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary 
 softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law, 
 pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendour of dress 
 and furniture was the only distinction of the citizens 
 of Antioch. The arts of luxury were honoured ; the 
 
 lo which the namesof Taprobana.Serendih, and Ceylon, have be-'n 
 successively applied, manifests how imperfectly the seas and lands 
 to the east of Cape Comorin were known to the Romans. 1. Under 
 the reign of Claudius, a frcedman, who farmed the customs of the 
 Red Sea, was accidentally driven by the winds upon this strange 
 and undiscovered coast : he conversed six months with the natives • 
 and the king of Ceylon, who heard, for the first time, of the power 
 and justice of Rome, was persuaded to send an embassy to the em- 
 peror. (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 24.) 2. The geographers (and even Pto- 
 lemy) have magnified, above fifteen times, the real size of this new 
 world, which they extended as far as the equator, and the neieh- 
 bourhood of China. * 
 
 s These embassies had been sent to Constantius. Ammianus, who 
 unwarily deviates into gross flattery, must have forgotten the length 
 of the way, and the short duration of the reign of Julian. 
 
 h Gothos sa'pe fall.ices et perfidog; hostes quaerere se meliorea 
 aiebat; illisenim sufficere mercatores Galatos per quos iibique sine 
 conditionis discrimiiie venumdantur. Within less than fifteen years, 
 these Gothic slaves threatened and subdued their masters. 
 
 i Alexander reminds his rival Ca?sar, who depreciated the fame 
 iind merit of an Asiatic victory, that Crassus and Anthony had felt 
 the Persian arrows ; and that the Romans, in a war of three hundred 
 years, had not yet subdued the single province of Mesopotamia or 
 Assyria. (Casares. p. 324.) 
 
 k The design of the Persian war is declared by Ammianus, (xxii. 
 7. 12 ) Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c. 79, 80. p. 305, 306.) Zosimus, (1. Ui. 
 p. 158.) and Socrates, (I. iii. c. 19.) 
 
 1 The Satire of Julian, and the Homilies of St.Chrysostom. exhi- 
 bit the same picture of Aniioch. The miniature which the Abbe de 
 la Bleterie has copied from thence, (Vie de Julien, p. 332.) is elegant 
 and correct. r / o 
 
 Vol. I 2 P 
 
 serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule ; 
 and the contempt for female modesty and reverent age, 
 announced the universal corruption of the capital of the 
 east. The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather 
 passion of the Syrians : the most skilful artists were 
 procured from the adjacent cities;" a considerable 
 share of the revenue was devoted to the public amuse- 
 ments ; and the magnificence of the games of the the- 
 atre and circus was considered as the happiness, and 
 as the glory, of Antioch. The rustic manners of a 
 prince who disdained such glory, and was insensible 
 of such happiness, soon disgusted the delicacy of his 
 subjects; and the effeminate orientals could neither 
 imitate, nor admire, the severe simplicity which Julian 
 always maintained, and sometimes aflTected. The days 
 of festivity, consecrated, by ancient custom, to the ho- 
 nour of the gods, were the only occasions in which Ju- 
 lian relaxed his philosophic severity ; and those festi- 
 vals were the only days in which the Syrians of Anti- 
 och could reject the allurements of pleasure. The 
 majority of the people supported the glory of the 
 christian name, which had been first invented by their 
 ancestors :■ they contented themselves with disobeyirtg 
 the moral precepts, but they were scrupulously at- 
 tached to the speculative doctrines, of their religion. 
 The church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and 
 schism ; but the Arians and the Athanasians, the fol- 
 lowers of Meletius and those of Paulinus,** were actu- 
 ated by the same pious hatred of their common adver- 
 sary. 
 
 The strongest prejudice was entertain- Their aversion to 
 ed against the character of an apostate, Julian, 
 the enemy and successor of a prince who had engaged 
 the aflfections of a very numerous sect ; and the remo- 
 val of St. Babylas excited an implacable opposition to 
 the person of Julian. His subjects complained, with 
 superstitious indignation, that famine had pursued the 
 emperor's steps from Constantinople to Antioch ; and 
 the discontent of a hungry people was exasperated by 
 the injudicious attempt to relieve their distress. The 
 inclemency of the season had affected the scarcity of corn, 
 harvests of Syria; and the price of and public di«- 
 bread,P in the markets of Antioch, had consent, 
 naturally risen in proportion to the scarcity of com. 
 But the fair and reasonable proportion was soon viola- 
 ted by the rapacious arts of monopoly. In this un- 
 equal contest, in which the produce of the land is 
 claimed by one party as his exclusive property ; is 
 used by another as a lucrative object of trade ; and is 
 required by a third for the daily and necessary support 
 of life ; all the profits of the intermediate agents are 
 accumulated on the head of the defenceless consumers. 
 The hardships of their situation were exaggerated and 
 increased by their own impatience and anxiety ; and 
 the apprehension of a scarcity gradually produced the 
 appearances of a famine. "When the luxurious citizens 
 of Antioch complained of the high price of poultry and 
 fish, Julian publicly declared, that a frugal city ought 
 to be satisfied with a regular supply of wine, oil, and 
 bread ; but he acknowledged, that it was the duty of a 
 
 m Laodicea furnished charioteers; Tyre and Berytus, comedians ; 
 Cassarea, pantomimes; Heliopolis, singers; Gaza, gladiators ; Asca* 
 Ion, wrestlers; and Castabala, rope-dancers. Seethe Expositioto- 
 tius Mundi. p. 6. in the third tome of Hudson's Minor Geographers. 
 
 B Xp«o-T8v j'l ccy^MX-aivri;, ix*T« ^eXi«x^ev ecvTi TV ^40;. The people 
 
 cf Antioch ingenuously professed their attachment to the Chi 
 (Christ) and the Kappa (Constantius.) Julian in Misopogon, p. 357. 
 
 o The schism of Antioch, which Listed eighty-five years, (A. D. 
 330 — 415.) was inflamed, while Julian resided in (hat city, by the in> 
 discreet ordination of Paulinns. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. 
 vii. p. 803. of the quarto edition, (Paris, 1701, &c.) which hencefor* 
 ward I shall quote. 
 
 p Julian states three difl*erent proportions, of five, ten, or fifteen 
 modii of wheat, for one piece of gold, according to the degrees of 
 plenty and scarcity, (in Misopogon, p. 369.) From this fact, and 
 from some collateral examples, I conclude, that under the successors 
 of Constantine, the moderate price of wlieat was about thirty-two 
 shillings the English quarter, which is equal to the average price of 
 the sixty-four first vears of the present century. Sec Arbuthnot's 
 tables of Coins, Weights, and Measures, p. 88, 89. Plin. Hist, Na- 
 tur. xviii. 12. Mem. de I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. zxviii. 
 p. 718—721. Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the 
 Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 246. This last I am proud to quote, 
 as the work of a sage and a friend. 
 
 4, 
 
314 
 
 THE DECLINE AiND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 S15 
 
 sovereiorii to provide for the subsistence of his people. 
 "With this salutary view, the emperor ventured on a 
 very dangerous and doubtful step, of fixing, by legal 
 authority, the value of corn. He enacted, that, in a 
 time of scarcity, it should be sold at a price which had 
 seldom been known in the most plentiful years, and 
 that his own example mi^ht strengthen his laws, he 
 sent into the market four hundred and twenty-two 
 thousand modt'i, or measures, which were drawn by 
 his order from the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis, 
 and even of Egypt. The consequences mi^ht have 
 been foreseen, and were soon felt. The imperial wheat 
 was purchased by the rich merchants ; the proprietors 
 of land, or of corn, withheld from the city the accus- 
 tomed supply ; and the small quantities that appeared 
 in the market were secretly sold at an advanced and 
 illegal price. Julian still continued to applaud his 
 own policy, treated the complaints of the people as a 
 vain and ungrateful murmur, and convinced Antioch 
 that he had inherited the obstinacy, though not the 
 cruelty, of his brother Gallus.i The remonstrances of 
 the municipal senate served only to exasperate his in- 
 flexible mind. He was persuaded, perhaps with truth, 
 that the senators of Antioch who possessed lands, or 
 were concerned in trade, had themselves contributed to 
 the calamities of their country; and he imputed the 
 disrespectful boldness which they assumed, to the 
 sense, not of public duty, but of private interest. The 
 whole body, consisting of two hundred of the most 
 noble and wealthy citizens, were sent, under a guard, 
 from the palace to the prison ; and though they were 
 permitted, before the close of evening, to return to 
 their respective houses,' the emperor himself could not 
 obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily granted. 
 The same grievances were still the subject of the same 
 complaints, which were industriously circulated by the 
 wit and levity of the Syrian Greeks. During the li- 
 centious days of the Saturnalia, the streets of the city 
 resounded with insolent songs, which derided the laws, 
 the religion, the personal conduct, and even the beard, 
 of the emperor ; and the spirit of Antioch was mani- 
 fested by the connivance of the magistrates, and the 
 applause of the multitude.* The disciple of Socrates 
 was too deeply affected by these popular insults ; but 
 the monarch, endowed with quick sensibility, and pos- 
 sessed of absolute power, refused his passions the gra- 
 tification of revenge. A tyrant might have proscribed, 
 without distinction, the lives and fortunes of the citi- 
 zens of Antioch; and the unwarlike Syrians must 
 have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapacious- 
 ness, and the cruelty, of the faithful legions of Gaul. 
 A milder sentence might have deprived the capital of 
 the east of its honours and privileges ; and the cour- 
 tiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian, would have ap- 
 plauded an act of justice, which asserted the dignity of 
 the supreme magistrate of the republic* But instead 
 of abusing, or exerting, the authority of the state, to 
 revenge his personal injuries, Julian contented himself 
 Julian r.ompo.c8 a with an inoffensive mode of retaliation, 
 ntire against An- which it would be in the power ot lew 
 *»*»«•>• princes to employ. He had been insult- 
 
 ed by satires and libels ; in his turn, he composed, un- 
 der the title of the Enemy of the Beard, an ironical con- 
 fession of his own faults, and a severe satire of the li- 
 centious and effeminate manners of Antioch. This 
 imperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates 
 
 q Nunquam a proposito declinabat, Onlli siinilis fratrii*, liret in 
 cruentus. Aniniian. xxii. 14. Tlie ignorance of the most enlightened 
 princes may claim some excuse ; but we cannot be satisfied with Ju- 
 lian's own defence, (in Misopngon, p. ?6f*, 3G9.) or the elaborate apo- 
 logy of Lihanius. (Orat. Parental, c. xcvii. p. 321.) 
 
 r Their sliort and easy confinement ig gently touched by Libanius. 
 (Orat. Parental, f . xcviii. p. 3^2, 323.) 
 
 ■ Libanius, (nd Anliocheno« de Impcratoris ira, c. 17, 18, 19, in 
 Fahricius, Bihiiot. Graec. torn. vii. p. 221—223.) like a skilful advo- 
 cate, severely censures the folly of the people, who suffered for the 
 ^inie of a few obscure and drunken wretches. 
 
 t Libanius (ad Antiochen. c. vii. p. 213.) reminds Antioch of the 
 recent chastisement of Cxsarea; and even Julian (in Misopogon, p. 
 355.) insinuates how severely Tarentum had expiated the iaiult to 
 the Roman ambassadors. 
 
 of the palace ; and the Misopogon '^ still remains a sin- 
 gular monument of the resentment, the wit, the huma- 
 nity, and the indiscretion, of Julian. Though he af- 
 fected to laugh, he could not forgive.* His contempt 
 was expressed, and his revenge might he gratified, by 
 the nomination of a governor y worthy only of such 
 subjects : and the emperor, for ever renouncing the un- 
 grateful city, proclaimed his resolution to pass the en- 
 suing winter at Tarsus in Cilicia.' 
 
 Yet Antioch possessed one citizen, ^^^ ^p^j^^ Liba- 
 whose genius and virtues might atone, niu^. 
 
 in the opinion of Julian, for the vice and A. D. ^314-320, 
 folly of his country. The sophist, Li- 
 banius, was born in the capital of the east ; he pub- 
 licly professed the arts of rhetoric and declamation at 
 Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople, Athens, and, during 
 the remainder of his life, at Antioch. His school was 
 assiduously frequented "by the Grecian youth ; his dis- 
 ciples, who sometimes exceeded the number of eighty, 
 celebrated their incomparable master; and the jealousy 
 of his rivals, who persecuted him from one city to ano- 
 ther, confirmed the favourable opinion which Libanius 
 ostentatiously displayed of his superior merit. The 
 preceptors of Julian had extorted a rash but solemn as- 
 surance, that he would never attend the lectures of 
 their adversary : the curiosity of the royal youth was 
 checked and inflamed : he secretly procured the writ- 
 ings of this dangerous sophist, and gradually surpassed, 
 in^the perfect imitation of his style, the most laborious 
 of his domestic pupils.' When Julian ascended the 
 throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and re- 
 ward the Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a de- 
 generate age, the Grecian purity of taste, of manners, 
 and of religion. The emperor's prepossession was 
 increased and justified by the discreet pride of his 
 favourite. Instead of pressing, with the foreniost of 
 the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople, Libanius 
 calmly expected his arrival at Antioch ; withdrew 
 from court on the first symptoms of coldness and indif- 
 ference ; required a formal invitation for each visit ; 
 and taught his sovereign an important lesson, that he 
 might command the obedience of a subject, but that he 
 mu'st deserve the attachment of a friend. The sophists 
 of every ajye, despising, or affecting to despise, the 
 accidental ^distinctions of birth and fortune,*' reserve 
 their esteem for the superior qualities of the mind, 
 with which they themselves are so plentifully en- 
 dowed. Julian might disdain the acclamations of a 
 venal court, who adored the imperial purple; but he 
 was deeply flattered by the praise, the admonition, the 
 freedom, and the envy, of an independent philosopher, 
 who refused his favours, loved his person, celebrated 
 his fame, and protected his memory. The voluminous 
 writings of Libanius still exist; for the most part, they 
 are the vain and idle compositions of an orator, who 
 cultivated the science of words ; the productions of a 
 recluse student, whose mind, regardless of his contem- 
 poraries, was incessantly fixed on the Trojan war, and 
 the Athenian commonwealth. Yet the sophist of 
 Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginary ele- 
 vation ; he entertained a various and elaborate corres- 
 
 « On the Buhjen of the Misopogon, see Ammianus, (xxii. 14.) Liba- 
 nius. (Orat. I'arcntalis.c. xcix. p. 323.) Gregory Naiianzen, (Orat. iv. 
 p. 133.) and the Chronicle of Antioch, by John Malela. (tom. ii. p. 15, 
 16.) I have essential obligations to the translation and notes of the 
 Abba dc la Bleterie. (Vie de Jovien. tom. ii. p. 1—138.) 
 
 X Anunianus very justly rem.irks, Coactus dissimuiare pro tem- 
 pore, ira sufflabatur interna. The elaborate irony of Julian at length 
 bursts forth into serious and direct invective. 
 
 J Ipse autem Antiochi;im egrcssiirus. HeliopoJIten quendam Alex- 
 andrum Syriara^ jurisdirtione prcfeclt, turbulentum el saivum ; dice- 
 batque non ilium mcruisse, sed Antiochicnsibus avaris et contume- 
 liosis hujusmodi judicem convenire. Ammian. xxiii. 2. Libanius, 
 (Epist. 722. p. 346. 347.) who confesses to Julian himself, that he had 
 shared the general discontent, pretends that Alexander was a useful 
 though harsh reformer of the manners and religion of Antioch. 
 
 B Julian, in Misopogon. p. 364. Ammian. xxiii. 2. and Valcsius ad 
 loc. Libanius, in a professed oration, invites him to return to his 
 loyal and penitent city of Antioch. 
 
 a Libanius, Orat.Parent.c. vii. p. 230, 231. 
 
 b Eunapius reports, that Libanius refused the honorary rank of 
 prirtorian prefect, ns less illustrious than the title of Sophist, (in Vit. 
 Sophist, p. i:»5.) The critics have olw^rvcd a similar sentiment in 
 one of the epistles (xviii. edit. Wolf.) of Libanius himself. 
 
 pondence;* he praised the virtues of his own times ; 
 he boldly arraigned the abuses of public and private 
 life ; and he eloquently pleaded the cause of Antioch 
 against the just resentment of Julian and Theodosius. 
 It is the common calamity of old age,** to lose what- 
 ever might have rendered it desirable ; but Libanius 
 experienced the peculiar misfortune of surviving the 
 religion and the sciences, to which he had consecl-ated 
 his genius. The friend of Julian was an indignant 
 spectator of the triumph of Christianity ; and his bigot- 
 ry, which darkened the prospect of the visible worid, 
 did not inspire Libanius with any lively hopes of celes- 
 tial glory and happiness." 
 
 March of Julian to '^'\® martial impatience of Julian 
 iiie Euphrates, Urged him to take the field in the be- 
 MaVch^s' ginning of the spring ; and he dismissed, 
 with contempt and reproach, the senate 
 of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor beyond the 
 limits of their own territory, to which he was resolved 
 never to return. After a laborious march of two days,^ 
 he halted on the third at Berea, or Aleppo, where he 
 had the mortification of finding a senate almost entirely 
 christian ; who received, with cold and formal demon- 
 strations of respect, the eloquent sermon of the apostle 
 of paganism. The son of one of the most illustrious 
 citizens of Berea, who had embraced, either from inte- 
 rest or conscience, the religion of the emperor, was dis- 
 inherited by his angry parent. The father and the son 
 were invited to the imperial table. Julian, placing 
 himself between them, attempted, without success, to 
 inculcato the lesson and example of toleration ; sup- 
 ported, with affected calmness, the indiscreet zeal of 
 the aged christian, who seemed to forget the senti- 
 ments of nature, and the duty of a subject; and at 
 length turning towards the afflicted youth, " Since you 
 . have lost a father," said he, " for my sake, it is in- 
 cumbent on me to supply his place." s The emperor 
 was received in a manner much more agreeable to his 
 wishes at Batnae, a small town pleasantly seated in a 
 ffrove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city of 
 Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were de- 
 cently prepared by the inhabitants of Batnae, who 
 seemed attached to the worship of their tutelar deities, 
 Apollo and Jupiter; but the serious piety of Julian was 
 offended by the tumult of their applause ; and he too 
 clearly discerned, that the smoke which arose from 
 their altars, was the incense of flattery, rather than of 
 devotion. The ancient and magnificent temple, which 
 had sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapo- 
 lis,'' no longer subsisted ; and the consecrated wealth, 
 which afforded a liberal maintenance to more than 
 three hundred priests, might hasten its downfal. Yet 
 Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of embracing a philoso- 
 pher and a friend, whose religious firmness had with- 
 
 c Near two thousand of his letters, a mode of composition in which 
 Libanius was thought to excel, are still extant, and already published. 
 The critics may praise tlieir subtle and elegant brevity; yet Dr. 
 Bentley (Dis'sertation upon Phalaris, p. 487.) might jnstly, thou-'h 1 
 quaintly, observe, that '• you feel by the emptiness and deadness of 
 them, that you converse with some dreaming pedant, with his elbow 
 on hisdc.ek.*' 
 
 <l His birth is assigned to the year 314. He mentions the seventy- 
 sixth year of his age, (.■V.D. 390.) and seems to allude to some events 
 of a still later date. 
 
 e Libanius has composed the vain, prolix, but curious, narrative 
 of his own lifte, (tom. ii. p. 1—84. edit. Morell.) of which Eunapius 
 (p. 130—135.) has left a concise and unfavourable account. Among 
 the moderns. Tillemont, (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 571-576.) 
 Pahricius, (Bibliot. Gra'c. tom. vii. p. 378— 414.) and Lardner, (Hea- 
 then Testimonies, tom. iv. p. 127—163.) have illustrated the charac- 
 ter and writings of this famous sophist. 
 
 f From Antioch to Litarbe, on the territory of Chalcis, the road, 
 over hills and through morasses, was extremely bad; and the loose 
 stones were cemented only with sand. (Julian, epi.sf. xxvii.) It is 
 singular enough that the Romans should have neglected the great 
 communication between Antioch and the Euphrates. See Wesse- 
 ling. Itinerar. p. 190. Bergier, Hist, des Grands Cliemins, tom. ii. d. 
 100. 
 
 t Julian alludes to this incident, (epist. xxvii.) which is more dis- 
 tinctly related by Theodoret, (I. iii. c. 22.) The intolerant spirit of 
 the father is applauded by Tillemont, (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. 
 p. 534.) and even by La Bleterie. (Vie de Julien, p. 413.) 
 
 h See the curious treatise de Dea Syria, inserted among the works 
 of Lucian. (tom. iii. p. 451—490. edit. Reitz.) The singular appella 
 lion of JSTinus vetus, (Ammian. xiv. 8.) might induce a suspicion 
 tliat Hierapolis had been the royal seat of the Assyrians. 
 
 ••I 
 
 stood the pressing and repeated solicitations of Con- 
 stantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged 
 at his house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In 
 the hurry of military preparation, and the careless con- 
 fidence of a familiar correspondence, the zeal of Julian 
 appears to have been lively and uniform. He had now 
 undertaken an important and difficult war ; and the 
 anxiety of the event rendered him still more attentive 
 to observe and register the most trifling presages, from 
 which, according to the rules of divination, any knowl- 
 edge of futurity could be derived." He informed Liba- 
 niiis of his progress as far as Hierapolis, by an elegant 
 epistle,^ which displays the facility of his genius, and 
 his tender friendship for the sophist of Antioch. 
 
 Hierapolis, situate almost on the banks His design of in- 
 of the Euphrates,' had been appointed vading Persia, 
 for the general rendezvous of the Roman troops, who 
 immediately passed the great river on a bridge of 
 boats, which was previously constructed." If the in- 
 clinations of Julian had been similar to those of his 
 predecessor, he might have wasted the active and im- 
 portant season of the year in the circus of Samosata^or 
 in the churches of Edessa. But as the warlike empe- 
 ror, instead of Constantius, had chosen Alexander for 
 his model, he advanced without delay to Carrha?," a 
 very ancient city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of 
 fourscore miles from Hierapolis. The temple of the 
 Moon attracted the devotion of Julian ; but the halt of 
 a few days was principally employed in completing the 
 immense preparations for the Persian war. The secret 
 of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own 
 breast ; but as Carrhae is the point of separation of the 
 two great roads, he could no longer conceal, whether 
 it was his design to attack the dominions of Sapor on 
 the side of the Tigris, or on that of the Euphrates. 
 The emperor detached an army of thirty thousand men, 
 under the command of his kinsman Procopius, and of 
 Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They were 
 ordered to direct their march towards Nisibis, and to 
 secure the frontier from the desultory incursions of 
 the enemy, before they attempted the passage of the 
 Tigris. Their subsequent operations were left to the 
 discretion of the generals ; but Julian expected, that 
 after wasting with fire and sword the fertile districts 
 of Media and Adiabene, they might arrive under the 
 walls of Ctesiphon about the same time that he him- 
 self, advancing with equal steps along the banks of 
 the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the Per- 
 sian monarchy. The success of this Disaffection of the 
 well-concerted plan depended, in a great king of Armenia, 
 measure, on the powerful and ready assistance of the 
 king of Armenia, who without exposing the safety of 
 his own dominions, might detach an army of four 
 thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot, to the as- 
 sistance of the Romans." But tlie feeble Arsaces Ti- 
 ranus,P king of Armenia, had degenerated still more 
 shamefully than his father Chosroes, from the manly 
 virtues of the great Tiridates ; and as the pusillanimous 
 monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger and 
 glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the 
 more decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He 
 
 i Julian (epist. xxviii.) kept a regular account of all the fortunate 
 omens; but he suppresses i lie inauspicious signs, which Ammianus 
 (xxiii. 2.) has carefully recorded. 
 
 k Julian, epist. xxvii. p. 399— 402. 
 
 1 I take the earlie.<!t opportunity of arkiiowledplng my obligations 
 to M. D'Anville, for his recent eeography of the Euphrates and Ti- 
 eris, (Paris, 1780, in 4to.) which particularly illustrates the expedi- 
 tion of Julian. 
 
 m There are three passages within a few miles of each other; 1. 
 Zeugma, celebrated by the anrienfs; 2. Bir, frequented by the mo- 
 derns ; and, 3. The bridge of Membigz, or Hierapolis, at the distance 
 of four parasangs from the city. 
 
 n Haran, or Carrhre, was the ancient residence of the Sabsans, 
 and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of Schultens, (ad 
 calcem Vit. Saladin.) a work from which I have obtained mucli ori- 
 ental knowledire, concerning the ancient and modern geography of 
 Syria and the adjacent countries. 
 
 o See Xonophon. Cyropned. I. iii. p. 189. edit. Hutchinson. Artavas- 
 des might have supplied Mark Antony with 16,ftV0 horse, armed and 
 disciplined after the Parthian manner. (Plutarch, in M. Antonio, 
 tum. V. p. 117.) 
 
 p Mn^es of Chnrene (Hist. Armeniac. I. iii. c. 1]. p. 243) fixss his 
 accession (A. D. 354.) to the 17th year of Constantius. 
 
316 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 expressed a pious attachment to the memory of Con- 
 stantius, from whose hands he had received in mar- 
 riaffe Olympias, the daughter of the praefect Ablavius ; 
 and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as 
 the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the 
 dicrnity of a barbarian king.'* Tiranus professed the 
 chnstian religion ; he reigned over a nation of chris- 
 tians ; and he was restrained, by every principle of 
 conscience and interest, from contributing to the vic- 
 tory, which would consummate the ruin of the church. 
 The alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the 
 indiscretion of Julian, who treated the king of Armenia 
 as his slave, and as the enemy of the gods. The 
 haughty and threatening style of the imperial man- 
 dates ' awakened the secret indignation of a prince, 
 who, in the humiliating state of dependence, was still 
 conscious of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the 
 lords of the east, and the rivals of the Roman power. 
 Military prepi- The military dispositions of Julian 
 rations. were skilfully contrived to deceive the 
 spies, and to divert the attention, of Sapor. The le- 
 gions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis 
 and the Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the 
 right ; traversed the level and naked plain of Carrhae ; 
 and reached, on the third day, the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium, or 
 Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian 
 kings. From thence the emperor pursued his march, 
 above ninety miles, along the winding stream of the 
 Euphrates, till, at length, about one month after his 
 departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers of 
 Circesium, the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. 
 The army of Julian, the most numerous that any of the 
 Caesars had ever led against Persia, consisted of sixty- 
 five thousand effective and well-disciplined soldiers. 
 The veteran bands of cavalry and infantry, of Romans 
 and barbarians, had been selected from the different 
 provinces ; and a just pre-eminence of loyalty and val- 
 our was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the 
 throne and person of their beloved prince. A formi- 
 dable body of Scythian auxiliaries had been trans- 
 ported from another climate, and almost from another 
 world, to invade a distant country, of whose name and 
 situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and 
 war allured to the imperial standard several tribes of 
 Saracens, or roving Arabs, whose service Julian had 
 commanded, while he sternly refused the payment of 
 the accustomed subsidies. The broad channel of the 
 Euphrates* was crowded by a fleet of eleven hun- 
 dred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to satis- 
 fy the wants, of the Roman army. The military 
 strength of the fleet was composed of fifty armed gal- 
 leys ; and these were accompanied by an equal number 
 of flat-bottomed boats, which might occasionally be 
 connected into the form of temporary bridges. The 
 rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber, and 
 partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an al- 
 most inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, of 
 utensils and provisions. The vigilant humanity of 
 Julian had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar 
 and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but he prohibited 
 the indulgence of wine ; aud rigorously stopped a long 
 string of superfluous camels, that attempted to follow 
 the rear of the army. The river Chaboras falls into 
 
 the Euphrates at Circesium ;♦ and as soon as the trum- 
 pet gave the signal of march, the Romans j^^-^^ enters the 
 passed the little stream which separated Persian territo- 
 two mighty and hostile empires. The "®";^ -j 7^^. 
 custom of ancient discipline required a 
 military oration ; and Julian embraced every opportu- 
 nity of displaying his eloquence. He animated the 
 impatient and attentive legions by the example of the 
 inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ances- 
 tors. He excited their resentment by a lively picture 
 of the insolence of the Persians ; and he exhorted them 
 to imitate his firm resolution, either to extirpate that 
 perfidious nation, or to devote his life m the cause of 
 the republic. The eloquence of Julian was enforced 
 by a donative of one hundred and thirty pieces of silver 
 to every soldier ; and the bridge of the Chaboras was 
 instantly cut away, to convince the troops that they 
 must place their hopes of safety in the success of their 
 arms. Yet the prudence of the emperor induced him 
 to secure a remote frontier, perpetually exposed to the 
 inroads of the hostile Arabs. A detachment of four 
 thousand men was left at Circesium, which completed, 
 to the number of ten thousand, the regular garrison of 
 that important fortress." 
 
 From the moment that the Romans en- hj, march over 
 tered the enemy's country,' the counter jJ^J-J^.^' 
 of an active and artful enemy, the order ^' » 
 of march was disposed in three columns.^ The strength 
 of the infantry, and consequently of the whole army, 
 was placed in the centre, under the peculiar command 
 of heir master-general Victor. On the right, the brave 
 Nevitta led a column of several legions along the 
 banks of the Euphrates, and almost always m sight 
 of the fleet. The left flank of the army was protected 
 by the column of cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthaeus 
 were appointed generals of the horse; and the singular 
 adventures of Hormisdas* are not undeserving of our 
 notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal race of 
 the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority 
 of Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable 
 court of the great Constantine. Hormisdas at first 
 excited the compassion, and at length acquired the es- 
 teem, of his new masters ; his valour and fidelity raised 
 him to the military honours of the Roman service ; and, 
 though a christian, he might indulge the secret satis- 
 faction of convincing his ungrateful country, that an 
 oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous ene- 
 my. Such was the disposition of the three principal 
 columns. The front and flanks of the army were co- 
 vered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment of fifteen 
 hundred light-awned soldiers, whose active vigilance 
 observed the most distant signs, and conveyed the ear- 
 liest notice, of any hostile approach. Dagalaiphus, 
 and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene, conducted the troops 
 of the rear-guard ; the baggage securely proceeded in 
 the intervals of the columns ; and the ranks, from a 
 motive either of use or ostentation, were formed in 
 such open order, that the whole line of march extended 
 almost ten miles. The ordinary post of Julian was at 
 the head of the centre column ; but as he preferred the 
 dutips of a general to the state of a monarch, he rapidly 
 moved, with a small escort of light cavalry, to the 
 front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence cmjld 
 animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The 
 
 q Ammian. xx. 11. Atlianasius (torn. I. p. 856.) says, in general 
 terms, thai Constantius gave liis V>rother'ii widow tsij p»fi3j«po»,-, an 
 expression more suitaltle to n Roman than a christian. 
 
 r Ammianus (xxiii. 2,) uses a word much too soft for the occasion. 
 monuerat. Muratori (Fahricius, Bibliothec, Gr«c, torn. vii. p. 86.) 
 has pgblislied an epistle from Julian to the satrap Arsaces; fierce, 
 vulgar, and (though it might deceive Sozonien, I. vi. c, 5,) most pro- 
 bably spurious. La Bleterie (Hist, de Jovien, torn, il, p. 339.) trans- 
 lates and rejects it. ,..00 
 
 ■ LatissimumflumenEuphratenartabat. Ammian. xxlil. 3. some- 
 what higher, at the fords of Thapsacus, the river is four stadia, or 
 800 yards, almost an English mile, brond. (Xenophon Anabasis, 1. 1. 
 p. 41, edit, Hutchinson, with Foster's Observations, p. 29, &c. in the 
 8d volume of Spelman's translation.) If the breadth of the Euphra 
 tes at Blr and Zeugma is no more than 130 yards, (Voyages de Nie- 
 buhr, lorn. il. p. 335,) the enormous difference must chiefly arise from 
 the depth of the channel. 
 
 t Monumentum tutisslmum et fahr<i politum. nijus mcenia Abora 
 (the orientals aspire Chnboran or Chabour) et Euphrates ambiunt 
 flumina. velutspatium insulare fingentcs. Ammian. xxiii. 0. 
 
 u The enterprise and armament of Julian are de8cril>ed by himseir, 
 (Epist. xxvii,) Ammi.'.nus Marcelllnus. (xxiii. 3, 4. 5.) L'baniiiB. 
 (Orat. Parent, c. 108, 109. p im, 333.) Zosimus. (I. »'. P- '«>. 161, 
 162.) Sozomen, (I. vl. c. 1.) and John Malela. (torn. 11. P.- 1') ... 
 
 z Before he enters Persia, Ammianus copiously describes (xxm. 6. 
 P. 396-419. edit. Gronov. in 4to.) the eighteen great satrapies, or 
 province*-, (as far as the Serie or Chinese frontiers,) which were sub- 
 lect to the Sassanides, .^„ » . 
 
 y Ammianus (xxiv. 1.) and Zosimus (I. ill, p. 162, 163.) have accu- 
 rately expressed the order of march. . , ., . . ^f 
 
 X The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some mixture of 
 fable. (Zosimus. I. II. p. 100-102. Tlllemont, Hwt. des Empereurs, 
 tom. iv. p. 198.) It is almost Impossible that he should be the bro- 
 ther (frater gcrnianus)of an eldest and posthumous child: nor do I 
 recoiled thai Ammianus ever gives him that UUe. 
 
 country which they traversed from the Chaboras, to 
 the cultivated lands of Assyria, may be considered as 
 a part of the desert of Arabia, a dry and barren waste, 
 which could never be improved by the most powerful 
 arts of human industry. Julian marched over the 
 same ground which had been trod above seven hund- 
 red years before by the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, 
 and which is described by one of the companions of his 
 expedition, the sage and heroic Xenophon.* "The 
 country was a plain throughout, as even as the sea, 
 and full of wormwood ; and if any other kind of shrubs 
 or reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell, 
 but no trees could be seen. Bustards and ostriches, 
 antelopes and wild asses," appeared to be the only in- 
 habitants of the desert; and the fatigues of the march 
 were alleviated by the amusements of the chace."-— 
 The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by 
 the wind into clouds of dust : and a great number of 
 the soldiers of Julian, with their tents, were suddenly 
 thrown to the ground by the violence of an unexpected 
 hurricane. 
 
 His success. '^^\ ®^"<^y P^^ins of Mesopotamia 
 
 were abandoned to the antelopes, and 
 wild asses of the desert; but a variety of populous 
 towns and villages were pleasantly situated on the 
 banks of the Euphrates, and in the islands which are 
 occasionally formed by that river. The city of Annah, 
 or Anatho,«= the actual residence of an Arabian emir, 
 is composed of two long streets, which enclose, within 
 a natural fortification, a small island in the midst, and 
 two fruitful spots on either side, of the Euphrates. 
 Ihe warlike inhabitants of Anatho showed a disposi- 
 tion to stop the march of a Roman emperor; till they 
 were diverted from such fatal presumption by the mild 
 exhortations of prince Hormisdas, and the approaching 
 terrors of the fleet and army. They implored, and ex- 
 perienced, the clemency of Julian, who transplanted 
 the people to an advantaareous settlement, near Chalcis 
 in S>yria, and admitted Pusaeus, the governor, to an 
 honourable rank in his service and friendship. But 
 the impregnable fortress of Thilutha could scorn the 
 menace of a siege ; and the emperor was obliged to 
 content himself with an insulting promise that, when 
 he had subdued the interior provinces of Persia, Thi- 
 lutha would no longer refuse to grace the triumph of 
 the conqueror. The inhabitants of the open towns, un- 
 able to resist, and unwilling to yield, fled with precipi- 
 tation ; and their houses, filled with spoil and provi- 
 sions, were occupied by the soldiers of Julian, who 
 massacred, without remorse, and without punishment, 
 some defenceless women. During the march, the Su- 
 renas, or Persian general, and Malek Rodosaces, the 
 renowned emir of the tribe of Gassan,- incessantly 
 hovered round the army: every straggler was intercept- 
 ed ; every detachment was attacked ; and the valiant 
 Hormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their 
 hands. But the barbarians were finally repulsed ; the 
 country became every day less favourable to the opera- 
 tions of cavalry ; and when the Romans arrived at Ma- 
 cepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall, which had 
 been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to 
 secure their dominions from the incursions of the 
 
 a See the flr^t book of the Anabasis, p. 45, 46. This nlpasln«» 
 work IS original and authentic. Yet Xeniphon's r^emo y perS 
 T'7i r^" "*^'?'^ 'I'i expedition, has sometLe, berayed him • and 
 ra^oTrrprr'^^irallo^^^'^'^"""*" larger than eiL.er TJoldTe'r 
 ^i\ Jln/-^ '^'.'"f."' *''? ?"«'''^ translator of the Anahasis, (vol. i. n 
 file Si ^"'^ °''^ "^'"^ "'* 'oe-l,uck, and the wild as. with 
 
 • ^,®^f^^'°y?P?^„'?® Tavernler. part i. 1. iii. p. 316. and more esoe- 
 cially Viapgi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. Ictt. xvii p 67^ Ac He 
 
 travellers seldom possess any previous knowledge of the countries 
 TJ^'ff'n^^y ""•"'• ^""^ ""** Tournefort deserve%n honourable ex 
 
 -n**A'^»II'°''l."K°"!'"K' ''V:?' '°y" Ammianus; an high encomium for 
 ■ n Arab. The tribe of Gassan had settled on the edge of Syria and 
 reigned sometime in Damascus, under a dynasty of thirty one kings 
 
 Arabic^ o'7^-«"^r Onentale. p 360. Pococke, Specimen HisI 
 Arabic4B, p.7d-,8. The name of Rodosaces does not appear in the 
 
 817 
 
 Medes. These preliminaries of the expedition of Ju- 
 lian appear to have employed about fifteen days ; and 
 we may compute near three hundred miles from the 
 fortress of Circesium to the wall of Macepracta * 
 
 The fertile province of Assyria,' which Description of 
 stretched beyond the Tigris, as far as Assyria, 
 the mountains of Media,* extended about four hundred 
 iniles from the ancient wall of Macepracta, to the ter- 
 ritory of Basra, where the united streams of the Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris discharge themselves into the Per- 
 sian Gulf.»» The whole country might have claimed 
 the peculiar name of Mesopotamia ; as the two rivers 
 which are never more distant than fifty, approach, be- 
 tween Bagdad and Babylon, within twenty-five milfs 
 of each other. A multitude of artificial canals, duff 
 without much labour in a soft and yielding soil, con- 
 nected the rivers, and intersected the plain of Assyria. 
 Ihe uses of these artificial canals were various and im- 
 portant. They served to discharge the superfluous 
 vvaters from one river into the other, at the season of 
 their respective inundations. Subdividing themselves 
 into smaller and smaller branches, they refreshed the 
 dry lands, and supplied the deficiency of rain. They 
 facilitated the intercourse of peace and commerce; and, 
 as the dams could be speedily broke down, they armed 
 the despair of the Assyrians with the means of oppos- 
 ing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading 
 army. To the soil and climate of Assyria, nature had 
 denied some of her choicest gifts, the vine, the olive, 
 and the fig-tree ; but the food which supports the life 
 of man, and particularly wheat and barley, were pro- 
 duced with inexhaustible fertility ; and the husband- 
 man, who committed his seed to the earth, was fre- 
 quently rewarded with an increase of two, or even of 
 three, hundred. The face of the country was inter- 
 spersed with groves of innumerable paJm-trees;' and 
 the diligent natives celebrated, either in verse or prose, 
 the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, 
 1 M^^^"^^®^' ^^^ leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were 
 skilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially 
 those of leather and linen, employed the industry of a 
 numerous people, and afforded valuable materials for 
 foreign trade ; which appears, however, to have been 
 conducted by the hands of strangers. Babylon had 
 been converted into a royal park ; but near the ruins of 
 the ancient capital, new cities had successively arisen, 
 and the populousness of the country was displayed in 
 the multitude of towns and villages, which were built 
 of bricks, dried in the sun, and strongly cemented with 
 bitumen ; the natural and peculiar production of the 
 Babylonian soil. While the successors of Cyrus 
 reigned over Asia, the province of Assyria alone main- 
 tained, during a third part of the year, the luxurious 
 plenty of the table and household of the Great Kinff. 
 Four considerable villages were assigned for the sub- 
 sistence of his Indian dogs; eight hundred stallions, 
 and sixteen thousand mares, were constantly kept, at 
 the expense of the country, for the royal stables ; and 
 as the daily tribute, which was paid to the satrap, 
 amounted to one English bushel of silver, we may 
 
 n ^?/^ Ammianus (xxiv. 12) Libanius, (Orat. Parental. c. 1 10. 1 IJ 
 p. 334.) Zosimus, (I. in. p. 164—168.) ' 
 
 f The description of Assyria is furnished by Herodotus (I i c 192 
 ?ifi "Tt^ B "'I"'",? "":*'«8 for children, and sometim^s'for phi'loso- 
 P''"^:i.y ^"••'^^^O' C-^v'- P- 1070-1082.) and by Ammianus (I xxiH 
 c. 6. The most useful of the modern travellers are Tave?nier fniri 
 I. .11 p. 226-258.) Otter, rtom. ii. p. 35-69 and leg-^li* )Snd 
 Niebuhr. (lom. ii. p. 172-288.) Yet I much ree^rer tLt 711' r , 
 ./Jrai.ofAbulfeda has not been translated ^" that the /r«t 
 
 . ^ AmmianuR remarks, that the primitive Assyria which comnri. 
 bended N.nus (Nineveh) and Arbela. had assunffih^nmre recent' 
 and peculiar appellat.on of Adiabene ; and he seems to fix Teredon 
 
 i^nl/nr' a' •''"'^- AP«"o"'«' «« »''« "^^"«« cities of the actual X' 
 vince of Assyria. »»-»««. piu 
 
 friJ,hVv° ^'"^'^.'^PJ}^.''^ Apamea. or Corna. (one hundred milet 
 from the Persian Gulf.) into the broad stream of the Pastigris. or 
 Shat-ul-Arab. The Euphrates formerly reached the sea by fSpJ- 
 rate channel, which was obstructed and diverted by the citirens of 
 Orchoe. about twenty miles to the south-east of modern Basra 
 170^"9I )^* '" Memoiresdel'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ixx p! 
 
 I The learned Kaempfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a travel- 
 ler. has exhausted (Amopnitat. Exolicie, Fascicu!. iv n 6«)_764S 
 the whole subject of palui-irees. *-««■ iv. p. oou— 704.J 
 
318 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 C^t 
 
 
 compute the annual revenue of Assyria at more than 
 twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling.* 
 
 The fields of Assyria were devoted by 
 
 ""iylia, Julian to the calamities of war ; and the 
 A.D.363, May. pj^iiQsopi^ej retaliated on a guiltless 
 
 people the acts of rapine and cruelty which had been 
 committed by their haughty master in the Roman pro- 
 vinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned the riv- 
 ers to their assistance : and completed, with their own 
 hands, the ruin of their country. The roads were ren- 
 dered impracticable ; a flood of waters was poured into 
 the camp ; and, during several days, the troops of Ju- 
 lian were obliged to contend with the most discour- 
 aging hardships. But every obstacle was surmounted 
 by the perseverance of the legionaries, who were inured 
 to toil as well as to danger, and who felt themselves ani- 
 mated by the spirit of their leader. The damage was 
 gradually repaired ; the waters were restored to their 
 proper channels ; whole groves of palm-trees were cut 
 down, and placed along the broken parts of the road ; 
 and the army passed over the broad and deeper canals, 
 on bridges of floating rafts, which were supported by 
 the help of bladders. Two cities of Assyria presumed 
 to resist the arms of a Roman emperor : and they both 
 paid the severe penalty of their rashness. At the dis- 
 Biege of Peri- tancc of fifty miles from the royal resi- 
 "sabor, deucc of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, or Anbar, 
 held the second rank in the province: a city, large, 
 populous, and well fortified, surrounded with a double 
 wall, almost encompassed by a branch of the Eu- 
 phrates, and defended by the valour of a numerous 
 garrison. The exhortations of Hormisdas were re- 
 pulsed with contempt ; and the ears of the Persian 
 prince were wounded by a just reproach, that, unmind- 
 ful of his royal birth, he conducted an army of strangers 
 against his king and country. The Assyrians main- 
 tained their loyalty by a skilful as well as vigorous 
 defence; till the lucky stroke of a battering-ram, 
 having opened a large breach by shattering one of the 
 angles of the wall, they hastily retired into the forti- 
 fications of the interior citadel. The soldiers of Juli- 
 an rushed impetuously into the town, and, after the 
 full gratification of every military appetite, Perisabor 
 was reduced to ashes ; and the engines which as- 
 saulted the citadel were planted on the ruins of the 
 smoking houses. The contest was continued by an 
 incessant and mutual discharge of missile weapons ; 
 and the superiority which the Romans might derive 
 from the mechanical powers of their balistae and cata- 
 pults was counterbalanced by the advantage of the 
 ground on the side of the besieged. But as soon as 
 an Hdepolis had been constructed, which could engage 
 on equal terms with the loftiest ramparts, the tremen- 
 dous aspect of a moving turret, that would leave no 
 hope of resistance or of mercy, terrified the defenders 
 of the citadel into an humble submission ; and the 
 place was surrendered only two days after Julian first 
 appeared under the walls of Perisabor. Two thousand 
 five hundred persons, of both sexes, the feeble remnant 
 of a flourishing people, were permitted to retire : the 
 plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and of splendid 
 furniture, were partly distributed among the troops, 
 and partly reserved for the public service ; the useful 
 stores were destroyed by fire, or thrown into the stream 
 of the Euphrates; and the fate of Amida was revenged 
 by the total ruin of Perisabor. 
 
 The city, or rather fortress, of Mao- 
 of Maogamalcha.gj^^jjj^j^j^^ which was defended by six- 
 teen large towers, a deep ditch, and two strong and 
 
 k Assyria yielded to the Persian entrap an Artaba of silver eacli 
 day. The well-known proportion of weichts and measures), (see 
 Bishop Hooper'* elaborate Inquiry,) the specific pravity of water and 
 silver, and the value of that metal, will ntford, after a short process, 
 the annual revenue which I have stated. Yet the Great King re- 
 ceived no more than 1000 Euhoic, or Tyrian, talents (253,000/.) from 
 Assyria. The comparison of two passages in Herodotus (I. i.e. 192. 
 1. iii. c. 89—96.) reveals an important ditference between the gross 
 and the net revenue of Persia ; the sums p.iid by the province, and 
 the gold or silver deposited in the royal treasure. The monarch 
 might annually save three millions six hundred thousand pounds, of 
 the seventeen or eighteen millions raised upon the people. 
 
 solid walls of brick and bitumen, appears to have been 
 constructed at the distance of eleven miles, as the safe- 
 guard of the capital of Persia. The emperor, appre- 
 hensive of leaving such an important fortress in his 
 rear, immediately formed the siege of Maogamalcha ; 
 and the Roman army was distributed for that purpose, 
 into three divisions. Victor, at the head of the caval- 
 ry, and of a detachment of heavy-armed foot, was 
 ordered to clear the country, as far as the banks of the 
 Tigris, and the suburbs of Ctesiphon. The conduct 
 of the attack was assumed by Julian himself, who 
 seemed to place his whole dependence in the military 
 encrines which he erected against the walls; while he 
 secretly contrived a more efficacious method of intro- 
 ducing his troops into the heart of the city. Under 
 the direction of Nevitta and Dagalaiphus, the trenches 
 were opened at a considerable distance, and gradually 
 prolonged as far as the edge of the ditch. The ditch 
 was speedily filled with earth ; and, by the incessant 
 labour of the troops, a mine was carried under the foun- 
 dations of the walls, and sustained, at sufficient inter- 
 vals, by props of timber. Three chosen cohorts advan- 
 cing in a single file, silently explored the dark and 
 dangerous passage ; till their intrepid leader whispered 
 back the intelligence, that he was ready to issue from 
 his confinement into the streets of the hostile city. 
 Julian checked their ardour, that he might ensure their 
 success ; and immediately diverted the attention of the 
 garrison, by the tumult and clamour of a general 
 tssault. The Persians, who, from their walls, con- 
 temptuously beheld the progress of an impotent attack, 
 celebrated with songs of triumph the glory of Sapor ; 
 and ventured to assure the emperor, that he might 
 ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could 
 hope to take the impregnable city of Maogamalcha. 
 The city was already taken. History has recorded 
 the name of a private soldier, the first who ascended 
 from the mine into a deserted tower. The passage 
 was widened by his companions, who pressed forwards 
 with impatient valour. Fifteen hundred enemies were 
 already in the midst of the city. The astonished gar- 
 rison abandoned the walls and their only hope of safe- 
 ty ; the gates were instantly burst open ; and the re- 
 venge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by lust 
 or avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing mas- 
 sacre. The governor, who had yielded on a promise 
 of mercy, was burnt alive, a few days afterwards, on 
 a charge of having uttered some disrespectful words 
 against the honour of prince Hormisdas. The fortifi- 
 cations were razed to the ground ; and not a vestige 
 was left, that the city of Maogamalcha had ever existed. 
 The neighbourhood of the capital of Persia was adorned 
 with th'ree stately palaces, laboriously enriched with 
 every production that could gratify the luxury and 
 pride of an eastern monarch. The pleasant situation 
 of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris, was im- 
 proved, according to the Persian taste, by the symme- 
 try of flowers, fountains, and shady walks : and spa- 
 cious parks were enclosed for the reception of the 
 bears, lions, and wild boars, which were maintained 
 at a considerable expense, for the pleasure of the royal 
 chace. The park-walls were broke down, the savage 
 game was abandoned to the darts of the soldiers, and 
 the palaces of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by the 
 command of the Roman emperor. Julian, on this oc- 
 casion, showed himself ignorant, or careless, of the 
 laws of civility, which the prudence or refinement of 
 polished ages have established between hostile princes. 
 Yet these wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts 
 any vehement emotions of pity or resentment. A sim- 
 ple, naked statue, finished by the hand of a Grecian 
 artist, is of more genuine value than all these rude and 
 costly monuments of barbaric labour : and, if we are 
 more deeply affected by the ruin of a palace, than by 
 the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity inust have 
 formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of 
 human life.* 
 \ The operations of the Assyrian war are circumstantially related 
 
 819 
 
 Personal beha- JuHan was an object of terror and ha-' man. " Riches arp tliP r.T.5^«* «r j • 
 
 -:7:::L»r.i.'°''-.«.p-!-= -d the painters ^^.,^^^^1:^: :^Cvi^zi '^T^^ ^^ 
 
 of this fruitful country are proposed as the prize of 
 
 of that nation represented the invader of their country 
 under the emblem of a fiirious lion, who vomited from 
 his mouth a consuming fire." To his friends and sol- 
 diers the philosophic hero appeared in a more amiable 
 light; and his virtues were never more conspicuously 
 displayed, than in the last and most active period of 
 
 your valour and discipline. Believe me,- added Ju- 
 lian, *;the Roman republic, which formeriy possessed 
 such immense treasures, is now reduced to want and 
 wretchedness ; since our princes have been persuaded, 
 l7th interested ministers, to purchase with 
 
 his life. He practised, without eff-ort," and "almost gold^hTtr^n^aumTv'nrthrhflf''' '" o^u 
 without merit, the habitual qualities of temperance is exhnn<,tpH?ti^^ ba barians. The revenue 
 
 «efa. wfe w^hxsr':f :St/ £„i \S^j^^^^F^^=^^^ 
 
 s,r.rLtrns.s..'-±«iE^i^'?"=^^^^^^^ 
 
 indulgence of the most natural appetites." In the 
 warni climate of Assyria, which solicited a luxurious 
 people to the gratification of every sensual desire," a 
 youthful conqueror preserved his chastity pure and in- 
 violate : nor was Julian ever tempted, even by a mo- 
 tive of curiosity, to visit his female captives of exqui- 
 site beauty ,P who, instead of resisting his power, would 
 have disputed with each other the honour of his em- 
 braces. With the same firmness that he resisted the 
 allurements of love, he sustained the hardships of war. 
 When the Romans marched through the flat and flood- 
 ed country, their sovereign, on foot, at the head of his 
 legions, shared their fatigues and animated their dil- 
 igence. In every useful labour, the hand of Julian 
 was prompt and strenuous ; and the imperial purple 
 was wet and dirty, as the coarse garment of the 
 meanest soldier. The two sieges allowed him some 
 remarkable opportunities of signalizing his personal 
 valour, which, in the improved state of the military 
 art, can seldom be exerted by a prudent general. The 
 emperor stood before the citadel of Perisabor, insensi- 
 ble of his extreme danger, and encouraged his troops 
 to burst open the gates of iron, till he was almost 
 overwhelmed under a cloud of missile weapons, and 
 huge stones, that were directed against his person. 
 As he examined the exterior fortifications of Maoga- ' 
 raalcha, two Persians, devoting themselves for their 
 country, suddenly rushed upon him with drawn cime- 
 ters: the emperor dexterously received their blows on 
 his uplifted shield; and, with a steady and well-aimed 
 thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead at his feet. 
 The esteem of a prince who possesses the virtues which 
 
 subject; and the authority which Julian derived from 
 his personal merit, enabled him to revive and enforce 
 the rigour of ancient discipline. He punished with 
 death, or ignominy, the misbehaviour of three troops 
 of horse, who, in a skirmish with the Surenas, had 
 lost their honour, and one of their standards : and he 
 distinguished with obsidionah crowns the valour of the 
 foremost soldiers, who had ascended into the city of 
 Maogamalcha. After the siege of Perisabor, the firm- 
 ness of the emperor was exercised by the insolent 
 avarice of the army, who loudly complained, that their 
 services were rewarded by a trifling donative of one 
 
 advantage IS seated in the mind, I shall not blush to 
 acknowledge an honourable poverty, which, in the 
 days of ancient virtue, was considered as the g-lorv of 
 Fabricius. That glory, and that virtue may be your 
 own, if you listen to the voice of heaven and of your 
 leader. But if you will rashly persist, if you are de- 
 termined to renew the shameful and mischievous ex- 
 amples of old seditions, proceed.— As it becomes an 
 emperor who has filled the first rank amontr men, I 
 am prepared to die, standing; and to despise a preca- 
 rious life, which every hour may depend on an acci- 
 dental fever. If I have been found unworthy of the 
 
 I;??^^^^ ; ^^f'^ ^'^ x'^'T '^""''"^ y«"' (I speak it with 
 pride and pleasure,) there are many chiefs, whose 
 
 merit and experience are equal to the conduct of the 
 most important war. Such has been the temper of mv 
 reign, that I can retire, without regret, and without 
 apprehension, to the obscurity of a private station."' 
 Ihe modest resolution of Julian was answered by the 
 unanimous applause and cheerful obedience of the Ro- 
 mans, who declared their confidence of victory, while 
 they fought under the banners of their heroic prince. 
 1 heir courage was kindled by his frequent and familiar 
 asseverations, (for such wishes were the oaths of Ju- 
 lan,) " So may I reduce the Persians under the yoke !" 
 
 1 hus may I restore the strength and splendour of the 
 republic !' The love of fame was the ardent passion 
 of his soul : but it was not before he trampled on the 
 ruins of Maogamalcha, that he allowed himself to say, 
 
 V\ e have now provided some materials for the sophist 
 of Antioch." • *^ 
 
 The successful valour of Julian had tri- 
 
 - _- _ „„ |.«oov.ccco uic viriues wnicn i ne successful valour of Julian had tri 
 
 he approves, is the noblest recompense of a deserving umphed over all the obstacles that onno^ i'" transport* h\n 
 
 subject; and the authoritV which Julian A^r\^^A A.^± ^A Lc ^.-„u ._ "^ OOS^aCieS tnat oppos- fleet from the Eu- 
 
 hundred pieces of silver 'HiV 1? ."';;'."^^'\^ "^ ""^ t^vt^r eAunguisnea ; ana the only remaining quarter of 
 cxttsedTnThe t^^^^^^^^ "" li" n^l^^l^l-^" ^^^ ^atGk colony had resumed, with the Ass^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ^j r- _ 1 X ^1 Z^ ^I'l'"'' neei irom the Ku- 
 
 ed his march to the gates of Ctesiphon. phrates to the 
 But the reduction, or even the siege, of '^'°"''- 
 the capital of Persia, was still at a distance: nor can 
 the military conduct of the emperor be cleariy appre- 
 hended, without a knowledge of the country which 
 was the theatre of his bold and skilful operations.* 
 1 wenty miles to the south of Bagdad, and on the eas- 
 tern bank of the Tigris, the curiosity of travellers has 
 observed some ruins of the palaces of Ctesiphon, which 
 m the time of Julian, was a great and populous city. 
 The name and glory of the adjacent Seleucia were for 
 ever extinguished ; and the only remaining quarter of 
 
 expressed in the grave and manly language of a Ro 
 
 guage and manners, the primitive appellation of Coche. 
 Coche was situate on the western side of the Tigris; 
 but it was naturally considered as a suburb of C'tesi- 
 phon, with which we may suppose it to have been 
 connected, by a permanent bridge of boats. The united 
 parts contributed to form the common epithet of Al 
 
 n^4-"""M-"y V" • '''• ^' ?: "^'.^-^ Lihanius, (Orat. Parent, r. 1 12-123 
 
 fc?^Tv n'\n'l4J?'Sh"'- P:,l?S-'«9-.) Pd ^'^cgory Nazianzcn; 
 
 (Ural. IV. p. 113. 144.) The military criticisms of tlie saint are de- 
 voutly copied byTillemont his faithful slave, 
 tn Lihanius de ulciacenda Juliani nece, c. 13. p. 162. 
 
 acLofiMi^T"V?ro"^'''?°f.^^'"'' ^'"^"'^^•■♦^"'IScipio, were CrV ^"' "" '" *""" "'« common epiinet oi Al 
 
 n'e^riSur- '""'" ' "'"''''^ was voluntary, and. in hiropinion. Modain, THE CITIES, which the orientals have bestow- 
 o saiiust (ap. Vet. Scholiast. Juvenal. Satir. i. 104.) observes that . ^" ^^® Winter residence of the Sassanides ; and the 
 
 nihi corrupiMis moribus. The matrons and virciis of Babvron " -. - - 
 
 freely mngled with the men. in Ifceniious banquets and as the v 
 
 felt the intoxication of wine and love, thev eraduaMv ^n i aii^«-^ 
 
 rumplerely, threw aside .he incumbrance o7d';ss.";yuirimum^,na 
 
 corpornm velamenta projiciunl. Q. Curtius. v 1 "'"'"""• ""» 
 
 P Ex virginibus autem, quae speciosa; sunt capt.-p', et in Pcrsidc nbi 
 fa-minarum pulchritudo excellit. nee contrectare al.quam voTui^'ner 
 videre. Ammian. xxiv. 4. The native race of Persians is smaM 
 and ugly : but it has been improved by the perpetual r^iSre of Cir 
 iirp'.%"20.) ^""'^°'' '• "'• '• ®^- ^"«'°"' «'«^- Natu?ene! toil,: 
 q Obsidionalibus coronis donati. Ammian. xxiv. 4. Either Ju- 
 iian or his historian were unskilful antiquaries. He should have 
 whn"hrH"H» ."""^^"'V The obstdioHal were the reward of a generic 
 Who had delivered a besieged city. ( Aulius Gellius, Noct. AtulV.T) 
 
 whole circumference of the Persian capital was strong- 
 ly fortified by the waters of the river, by lofty walls. 
 
 he,r rZJ^ ^^^^u "' 0"?'"a and genuine. Ammianus micht 
 1 ear, could transcribe, and was incapable of inventing it. I have 
 used some slight freedoms, and conclude with the mosr forcible sen- 
 tence. 
 
 ■ Ammian. xxiv. 3. Lihanius, Orat. Parent, c. 122. p. 346. 
 
 t M. D'Anville (Mem. de I'Arademie des Inscriptions, tom. xxvlii 
 p. 246. 259.) has ascertained the true position and distance of Baby- 
 lon, Snieucia, Ctesiphon, Bagdad. &:c. The Roman traveller, Pietro 
 della Valle, (tom. i. lett. xvii. p. 650—780.) seems to be the most iniel- 
 ligent spectator of that famous province. He is a gentleman and a 
 Bcliolar, but intolerably vain and prolix. 
 
 .k 
 
320 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 >ii|i 
 
 and by impracticable morasses. Near the ruins of Se- 
 leucia the camp of Julian was fixed, and secured, by a 
 ditch and rampart, against the sallies of the numerous 
 and enterprising garrison of Coche. In this fruitful 
 and pleasant country, the Romans were plentifully sup- 
 plied with water and forage: and several forts, which 
 might have embarrassed the motions of the army, sub- 
 mitted, after some resistance, to the efforts of their val- 
 our. The fleet passed from the Euphrates into an arti- 
 ficial derivation of that river, which pours a copious 
 and navigable stream into the Tigris, at a small dis- 
 tance below the great city. If they had followed this 
 royal canal, which bore the name of Nahar-Malcha, 
 the intermediate situation of Coche would have separat- 
 ed the fleet and army of Julian ; and the rash attempt ot 
 steering against the current of the Tigris, and forcing 
 their way through the midst of a hostile capital, must 
 have been attended with a total destruction of the Ro- 
 man navy. The prudence of the emperor foresaw the 
 danger, and provided the remedy. As he had minute- 
 ly studied the operations of Trajan, m the same coun- 
 try, he soon recollected, that his warlike predecessor 
 had dug a new and navigable canal, which, leaving 
 Coche on the right hand, conveyed the waters of the 
 Nahar-Malcha into the river Tigris, at some distance 
 ah(yve the cities. From the information of the peasants, 
 Julian ascertained the vestiges of this ancient work, 
 which were almost obliterated by design or accident. 
 By the indefatigable labour of the soldiers, a broad and 
 deep channel was speedily prepared for the reception 
 of the Euphrates. A strong dyke was constructed 
 to interrupt the ordinary current of the Nahar-Malcha : 
 a flood of waters rushed impetuously into their new 
 bed; and the Roman fleet, steering their triumphant 
 course into the Tigris, derided the vain and ineff-ectual 
 barriers which the Persians of Ctesiphon had erect- 
 ed to oppose their passage. 
 
 As it became necessary to transport 
 TrrTand^v?' the Roman army over the Tigris, another 
 tory of the Ro- labour presented itself, of less toil, but ot 
 "»*"'• more danger, than the preceding expedi- 
 
 tion. The stream was broad and rapid ; the ascent steep 
 and difficult ; and the entrenchments which had been 
 formed on the ridge of the opposite bank, were lined 
 with a numerous army of heavy cuirassiers, dexterous 
 archers, and huge elephants; who (according to the ex- 
 travagant hyperbole of Libanius) could trample, with 
 the same ease, a field of corn, or a legion of Romans. 
 In the presence of such an enemy, the construction ot 
 a bridce was impracticable ; and the intrepid prince, 
 who instantly seized the only possible expedient, con- 
 cealed his design, till the moment of execution, from 
 the knowledtre of the barbarians, of his own troops, 
 and even of his generals themselves. Under the spe- 
 cious pretence of examining the state of the magazines, 
 fourscore vessels were gradually unladen ; and a se- 
 lect detachment, apparently destined for some secret 
 expedition, was ordered to stand to their arms on the 
 first sicrnal. Julian disguised the silent anxiety of his 
 own mind with smiles of confidence and joy ; and 
 amused the hostile nations with the spectacle of mi i- 
 tary games, which he insultingly celebrated under the 
 walls of Coche. The day was consecrated to plea- 
 sure ; but as soon as the hour of supper was past, the 
 emperor summoned his generals to his tent ; and ac- 
 quainted them, that he had fixed that night for the pas- 
 sage of the Tigris. They stood in silent and respect- 
 ful astonishment ; but, when the venerable Sallust as- 
 sumed the privilege of his age and experience, the rest 
 of the chiefs supported with freedom the weight of 
 his prudent remonstrances.^ Julian contented himself 
 
 ■ .. TI.P Roval Canal {JSTahar- Maleha) might be Buccessively re- 
 
 Euphrates 6e/o» ctesiphon. ^,„ *., a.T-Yw».v ixSi.v. *«• 
 
 p, J^yt^r Rien n'cst beau que le vrai : a maxim which should be 
 
 Inscribed on the desk of every rhetorician „.„-,-|. t have 
 
 , Libaniua alludes to the most powerful of the generals, l nave 
 
 with observing, that conquest and safety depended on 
 the attempt; that instead of diminishing, the number 
 of their enemies would be increased, by successive 
 reinforcements ; and that a longer delay would nei- 
 ther contract the breadth of the stream nor level the 
 height of the bank. The signal was instantly given, 
 and obeyed : the most impatient of the legionaries 
 leaped into five vessels that lay nearest to the bank ; 
 and as they plied their oars with intrepid diligence, 
 they were lost, after a few moments, in the darkness 
 of the night. A flame arose on the opposite side ; and 
 Julian, who too clearly understood that his foremost 
 vessels, in attempting to land, had been fired by the 
 enemy, dexterously converted their extreme danger in- 
 to a presage of victory. -Our fellow soldiers, he ea- 
 gerly exclaimed, "are already masters of the bank , 
 iee-they make the appointed signa : let us hasten to 
 emulate and assist their courage." The ""ited and 
 rapid motion of a great fleet broke the violence of the 
 current, and they reached the eastern shore of the li- 
 gris with sufficient speed to extinguish the flames, and 
 rescue their adventurous companions. /I he difficulties 
 of a steep and lofty ascent were increased by the 
 weight of armour, and the darkness of the night. A 
 shower of stones, darts and fire, was incessantly dis- 
 charged on the heads of the assailants ; who after an 
 arduous struggle climbed the bank, and stood victori- 
 ous upon the rampart. As soon as they possessed a 
 more equal field, Julian, who, with his light infanry, 
 had led the attack,' darted through the ranks a skil- 
 ful and experienced eye : his bravest soldiers, accor- 
 ding to the precepts of Homer,* were distributed in 
 the front and rear : and all the trumpets of the imperial 
 army sounded to battle. The Romans, after sending 
 up a military shout, advanced in measured steps to 
 the animating notes of the martial music ; launched 
 their formidable javelins ; and rushed forwards with 
 drawn swords, to deprive the barbarians, by a closer 
 onset, of the advantage of their missile weapons. 1 he 
 whole engagement lasted above twelve hours ; till the 
 crradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a 
 disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was 
 criven by the principal leaders, and the Surenas him- 
 self. They were pursued to the gates of Ctesiphon ; 
 and the conquerors might have entered the dismayed 
 city,»' if their general, Victor, who was dangerously 
 wounded with an arrow, had not conjured them to de- 
 sist from a rash attempt, which must be fatal, it it 
 were not successful. On ihdr side, the Romans ac- 
 knowledged the loss of only seventy-five men ; while 
 they affirmed, that the barbarians had left on the field 
 of battle two thousand five hundred, or even six 
 thousand, of their bravest soldiers. The spoil was 
 such as might be expected from the riches and lux- 
 ury of an oriental camp ; large quantities of silver and 
 gold, splendid arms and trappings, and beds and tables 
 of massy silver. The victorious emperor dis ributed, 
 as the rewards of valour, some honourable gifts, 
 civic, and mural, and navftl crowns ; which he, and 
 perhaps he alone,** esteemed more precious than he 
 wealth of Asia. A solemn sacrifice was ofl-ered to the 
 god of war, but the appearances of the victims threaten- 
 ed the must inauspicious events ; and Julian soon dis- 
 covered, by less ambiguous signs, that he had now 
 reached the term of his prosperity .« 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ventured to name Sallust. Ammianus says of all the 'eadej., quod 
 nrlimctu territi duces concordi prccaiu fieri prohi»«retentarenl. 
 '"'mnc miperator . . . (says Ammianus) ipse cum ^ev's 'irnjam- 
 r«p auxiliis iver prima postremaquc discurrens. &c. Yet Aosimus, 
 hTs fr"cid, dS^s Sot allow him to pass over the river till two days 
 
 """serundJm Homericam dispositionem A similar disposition is 
 ascril^d to the wise Nesior. in the fourth book of the Iliad , and 
 Hiimer was never absent from the mind ol Julian, 
 "rperras terrore 'ubito miscuerunt, versi^juc a^minibus totn.s pen- 
 tis. aportas Ctcsiphontis porlas victor "^'•««,r"Vt'^*=i' ?' T^JIoC- 
 darum orcasio fuisset, quam ^"^^ Y <^»°lf;J,?!^'"L^; ik.^^^^ 
 ciis, c. 28.) Their avarice might dispose them to hear the advice oi 
 
 ^ e The labour of the canal, the paswiqc of »he Tigris and the vic- 
 tory, are described by Ammianus, (xxiv. 5, 6.) Libanius, (Orat. 
 
 Situation and ob- On the second day after the battle 
 
 nerculians, and the remaining troops, 
 which composed near two-thirds of the whole armv 
 were securely wafted over the Tigris.*' While tL 
 Persians beheld from the walls of Ctesiphon the deso^ 
 lation of the adjacent country, Julian cast many an 
 anxious look towards the north, in full expectation, 
 that as he himself had victoriously penetrated to the 
 capital of Sapor, the march and junction of his lieuten! 
 ants, Sebastian and Procopius, would be executed with 
 the sanrie courage and diligence. His expectations 
 were disappointed by the treachery of the^irme^i"^ 
 
 .tetr^'?'^^"'^',-^"^ "^^^^ probably directed, he 
 desertion of his auxiliary troops from the camp of the 
 Romans;' and by the dissensions of the two generals 
 who were incapable of forming or executing fny^Tan 
 for the public service. When the emperor\ad"lin" 
 quished the hope of this important reinforcement he 
 condescended to hold a council of war, JrZro^^X 
 af er a full debate, the sentiments of those le^nerals 
 who dissuaded the siege of Ctesiphon, as a fruitless 
 and pernicious undertaking. It is not easy for us to 
 conceive by what arts of fortification a city thrice be- 
 sieged and taken by the predecessors of Julian could 
 be rendered impregnable against an army of sixtV thou- 
 r.nl^l''"'""/' f "^J^anded by a brave aid experienced 
 g^enera , and abundantly supplied with ships, provi- 
 sions, battering engines, and military stores. But we 
 TfTrf'! ^'T-^^'J''^"* the love of glory, and contempt 
 of danger, which formed the character of Julian, that 
 nLr? "?' ^iscouraged by any trivial or imaginary 
 obstacles/ At the very time when he declined the 
 s le^e of Ctesipnon he rejected, with obstinacy and 
 disdain, the most flattering offers of a negotiation of 
 peace. Sapor, who had been so long accustomed to 
 the tardy ostentation of Constantius, was surprised by 
 the intrepid diligence of his successor. As far as the 
 confines of India and Scythia, the satraps of the distant 
 provinces were ordered to assemble their troops, and 
 to march, without delay, to the assistance of their 
 monarch. But their preparations were dilatory, their 
 
 TTT f^A V ^"^ ^^^^^^ '^^P^^ ««»ld lead an army 
 into the field, he received the melancholy intelligence 
 of the devastation of Assyria, the ruin of his palaces, 
 tho nn^^ "^?!f t^'^- ^^^^^* t^««P«' -^'^^ defended 
 humbled m the dust; he took his repasts on the 
 ground ; and the disorder of his hair expressed the 
 grief and anxiety of his mind. Perhaps he would not 
 have refused to purchase, with one half of his kincr- 
 dom, the safety of the remainder ; and he would ha?e 
 
 ffll'"^!,'':^'^ ^;"^^'^' ^" ^ t^^^ty of peace, the 
 Unlr th"""^ dependant ally of the Roman conqueror. 
 Under the preteiice of private business, a minister of 
 rank and confidence was secretly despatched to em- 
 \IZV^^ ^r' "^ "?^"^i«das, and to request, in the 
 anguage of a suppliant, that he might be introduced 
 
 nr nJ «lfr'T v^ '^'^ emperor.^ The Sassanian 
 prince, whether he listened to the voice of pride or hu- 
 manity, whether he consulted the sentiments of his 
 mrth, or the duties of his situation, was equally in- 
 clined to promote a salutary measure, which would 
 terminate the^cal amities of Persia, and secure the tri- 
 
 Pitrent.c 124-128. p. 347-353.) Greg. Nasianzen. (Orat. iv n 115 ^ 
 /'S'i';V'- P- '81-1«3.) and Sextus Rufus. (de Provinriisfc. Sp! 
 first onluhnH^Il '"'yr-'' ^°""^'' *" ^'"'^'^ divisions, of which thi 
 l!l ?? '^J"** P^f*'"' ^"'.'"S *^^ "*g''^- (Amminn. xxiv. 6.) The 
 Tfi-T? ^'/"V"* 'r^"? 7>08imus transports on the third day, (I. iii n 
 
 mTam?«'^.;nH°M "'??"" P'-°»«'='0". among whom the hisfor an Am-' 
 rnianus, and the future emperor Jovian, actually served ■ some 
 
 wNo o'nenVi5^du^T.:syf.;VSs"' '''''''' ''' "^^^^^"^"^ ""-'^-«' 
 
 hi iV ,^ni*'?lK"^ Circumstance, which is consistent with truth, proba 
 hility and Libanius. (Orat. Parent, c. 131. p. 355 ) 
 
 f CIvitas mexpiignabilis. facinus audai et importunum. Ammia- 
 Sr !ltl' A J- ■ "'* '^^"°«'-o'die^ Eutropius. turSs aside from tr^ff- 
 Jlio Lnl-^rif "!''"* populatus, castra apiid Ciesiphontem statJva 
 
 S ?..norZ ^nlJ qLT*'?*''"'^"* ^*"°'' ^- »• 16- Zwinius is artful 
 or lenornnt. and Socrates inaccurate. 
 
 Vol. I. — 2 Q 21 
 
 321 
 
 umph of Rome. He was astonished by the inflexible 
 hrmness of a hero, who remembered, most unfortunate- 
 ly lor himself and for his country, that Alexander had 
 uniiormly rejected the propositions of Darius. But as 
 Julian was sensible, that the hope of a safe and hon- 
 ourable peace might cool the ardour of his troops 2 
 he earnestly requested, that Hormisdas would private- 
 ly dismiss the minister of Sapor, and conceal this 
 dangerous temptation from the knowledge of the camp.« 
 
 Ihe honour, as well as interest, of „^ Vumc 1 
 Julian, forbade him to consume his time fle":''" 
 
 under the impregnable walls of Ctesiphon ; and as of- 
 ten as he defied the barbarians, who defended the city, 
 to meet him on the open plain, they prudently replied, 
 that If he desired to exercise his valour, he might seek 
 the army of the Great King. He felt the insult, and 
 he accepted the advice. Instead of confining his ser- 
 vile march to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, 
 he resolved to imitate the adventurous spirit of Alex- 
 ander, and boldly to advance into the inland provinces, 
 till he forced his rival to contend with him, perhaps 
 in the plains of Arbela, for the empire of Asia. The 
 magnanimity of Julian was applauded and betrayed by 
 the arts of a noble Persian, who, in the cause of his 
 country, had generously submitted to act a part full of 
 danger, of falsehood, and of shame.** With a train of 
 faithful follow^ers, he deserted to the imperial camp; 
 exposed, m a specious tale, the injuries which he had 
 sustained ; exaggerated the cruelty of Sapor, the dis- 
 content of the people, and the weakness of the monar- 
 chy; and confidentially oflfered himself as the hostage 
 and giiide of the Roman march. The most rational 
 grounds of suspicion were urged, without effect, by 
 the wisdom and experience of Hormisdas; and the 
 credulous Julian receiving the traitor into his bosom, 
 was persuaded to issue an hasty order, which, in the 
 opinion of mankind, appeared to arraign his prudence, 
 and to endanger his safety. He destroyed, in a single 
 hour, the whole navy, which had been transported 
 above five hundred miles, at so great an expense of 
 toil, of treasure, and of blood. Twelve, or, at the most, 
 twenty-two, small vessels were saved, to accompany, 
 on carriages, the march of the army, and to form oc- 
 casional bridges for the passage of the rivers. A sup- 
 ply of twenty days' provisions was reserved for the 
 use of the soldiers ; and the rest of the magazines, with 
 a fleet of eleven hundred vessels, which rode at anchor 
 in the Tigris, were abandoned to the flames, by the 
 absolute command of the emperor. The christian 
 bishops, Gregory and Augustin, insult the madness 
 of the Apostate, who executed, with his own hands, 
 the sentence of divine justice. Their authority, of less 
 weight, perhaps, in a military question, is confirmed 
 by the cool judgment of an experienced soldier, who 
 was himself a spectator of the conflagration, and who 
 could not disapprove the reluctant murmurs of the 
 troops.' Yet there are not wanting some specious, 
 and perhaps solid, reasons, which might justify the 
 resolution of Julian. The navigation of the E uphrates 
 never ascended above Babylon, nor that of the Tigris 
 above Opis.»^ The distance of the last-mentioned city 
 from the Roman camp was not very considerable ; and 
 Julian must soon have renounced the vain and im- 
 
 , ?.7''''2"'"s. Orat. Parent, c. 130. p. 354. c. 139. p. 361; Socratcj*. 
 I. III. C.21. The ecclesiastical historian imputes the refusal of peace 
 to the advice of Maximus. Such advice was unworthy of a philoso- 
 pher ; but the philosopher was Jiltewise a magician, who flattered the 
 hopes and passions of his master. 
 
 h The arts of this newZopyrus (Greg. Nazianzen.Orat. iv. p. 115, 
 116.) may derive some credit from the testimony of two ahhreviators, 
 (Sextus Rufus and Victor,) and the casual hints of Libanius, (Orat. 
 Parent, c. 134. p. 357.) and Ammianus, (xxiv. 7.) The course of ge- 
 nuine history is interrupted by a most unseasonable chasm in the 
 text of Ammianus. 
 
 of-I^'^o'^™'"'''""^' ^^^*'v- 7.) Libanius, (Orat. Parcntalis,c. 132, 133. 
 p. 356, 3o7.; Zosimus, (I. iil. p. 183.) Zonaras, (torn. ii. I. xiii. p. 26.) 
 Gregory, (Orat. iv. p. 116.) and Augusiin, (de Civitate Dei, I. iv. c. 
 29. 1. v. c. 21.) Of these Libanius alone attempts a faint apology for 
 his hero; who, according to Ammianus, pronounced his own con- 
 demnation, by a tardy and ineffectual attempt to extinguish the 
 flames. 
 
 k Consult Herodotus, (I. i. c. 194.) Strabo, (I. xvi. p. 1074 ) and Ta- 
 vernier, (part i. I. ii. p. 153.) 
 
322 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 323 
 
 practicable attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet 
 against the stream of a rapid river,^ which iii several 
 places was embarrassed by natural or artificial cata- 
 racts."" The power of sails and oars was insufficient ; 
 it became necessary to tow the ships against the cur- 
 rent of the river ; the strength of twenty-thousand sol- 
 diers was exhausted in this tedious and servile labour; 
 and if the Romans continued to march along the banks 
 of the Tigris, they could only expect to return home 
 without achieving any enterprise worthy of the genius 
 or fortune of their leader. If, on the contrary, it was 
 advisable to advance into the inland country, the de- 
 struction of the fleet and magazines was the only mea- 
 sure which could save that valuable prize from the 
 hands of the numerous and active troops which mi^ht 
 suddenly be poured from the gates of Ctesiphon. Had 
 the arms of Julian been victorious, we should now 
 admire the conduct, as well as the courage of a hero, 
 who, by depriving his soldiers of the hopes of a retreat, 
 left them only the alternative of death or conquest." 
 and marches The Cumbersome train of artillery 
 agaitiHt Sapor, and waggons, which retards the opera- 
 tions of a modern army, were in a great measure un- 
 known in the camps of the Romans." Yet, in every 
 age, the subsistence of sixty thousand men, must have 
 been one of the most important cares of a prudent 
 general ; and that subsistence could only be drawn 
 trom his own or from the enemy's country. Had it been 
 possible for Julian to maintain a bridge of communica- 
 tion on the Tigris, and to preserve the conquered pla- 
 ces of Assyria, a desolated province could not afftjrd 
 any large or regular supplies, in a season of the year 
 when the lands were covered with the inundation of the 
 Euphrates,^ and the unwholesome air was darkened 
 with swarms of innumerable insects.*! The appear- 
 ance of the hostile country was far more inviting. The 
 extensive region that lies between the river Tigris and 
 the mountains of Media, was filled with villages and 
 towns ; and the fertile soil, for Ihe most part, was in 
 a very improved state of cultivation. Julian might 
 expect, that a conqueror, who possessed the two forci- 
 ble instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would 
 easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or 
 avarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Ro- 
 mans, this rich and smiling prospect was instantly 
 blasted. Wherever they moved, the inhabitants deserted 
 the open villages, and took shelter in the fortified towns ; 
 the cattle was driven away ; the grass and ripe corn 
 were consumed with fire ; and as soon as the flames 
 had subsided, which interrupted the march of Julian, 
 he beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked 
 desert. This desperate but efiectual method of defence, 
 can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people 
 who prefer their independence to their property ; or by 
 the rigour of an arbitrary government, which consults 
 the public safety without submitting to their inclina- 
 tions the liberty of choice. On the present occasion, 
 the zeal and obedience of the Persians seconded the 
 commands of Sapor ; and the emperor was soon reduced 
 to the scanty stock of provisions which continually 
 
 1 A celeritnte Tigris incipit vocari, ita appellant Medi sagiUam 
 Plin. Hist. Natur. vi. 31. 
 
 m One of llieae dykes, which produces an artificial cascade or ca- 
 taract, iii described by Tavernier, (part i. 1. ii. p. 226.) and Thevcnot, 
 (part ii. I. i. p. 193.) The Persians, or Assyrians, laboured to inter- 
 rupt the navigation of the river. (Strabo, I. xv. p. 1075. D'Anville, 
 I'Euphrate el le Tigre, p. 98, 99.) 
 
 n Recollect the successful and applauded rashness of Aenthocles 
 and Cortez, who burnt their ships on the coasts of Africa and Mexico. 
 
 o See the judicious reflections of the author of the Essai sur la 
 Tactique, loin. ii. p. 287— .353. and the learned remarks of M. Gui- 
 chardt, Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, torn. i. p. 351—382. on the 
 bagcaRfi a^fJ subsistence of the Roman armies. 
 
 p The Tigris rises to the south, the Euphrates to the north, of tlie 
 Armenian mountains. The former overflows in March, the latter in 
 July. These circumstances are well explained in the Geographical 
 Dissertations of Foster, inserted in Spelman's Expedition of Cyrus, 
 ▼ol. ii. p. 26. 
 
 q Ammianu8(xxiv. 8.) describes, as he had felt, the inconveniency 
 of the flood, the heat, and the insects. The lands of Assyria, op 
 pressed by the Turks, and ravaged by the Curds, or Arabs, yield an 
 increase of ten, fifteen, and twenty fold, for the seed which is cast 
 into the ground by the wretched and unskilful husbandmen. Voy- 
 ages de Niebuhr. torn. ii. p. S79. 285. 
 
 wasted in his hands. Before they were entirely con- 
 sumed, he might still have reached the wealthy and 
 unwarlike cities of Ecbatana, or Susa, by the effort of 
 a rapid and well directed march ;' but he was deprived 
 of this last resource by his ignorance of the roads, and 
 by the perfidy of his guides. The Romans wandered 
 several days in the country to the eastward of Bagdad ; 
 the Persian deserter, who had artfully led them into 
 the snare, escaped from their resentment ; and his fol- 
 lowers, as soon as they were put to the torture, con- 
 fessed the secret of the conspiracy. The visionary 
 conquests of Hyrcania and India, which had so long 
 amused, now tormented, the mind of Julian. Con- 
 scious that his own imprudence was the cause of the 
 public distress, he anxiously balanced the hopes of 
 safety or success, without obtaining a satisfactory an- 
 swer, either from gods or men. At length, as the only 
 practicable measure, he embraced the resolution of di- 
 recting his steps towards the banks of the Tigris, with 
 the de'sitrn of saving the army by a hasty march to the 
 confines'^of Corduene; a fertile and friendly province, 
 which acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. The 
 desponding troops obeyed the signal of the retreat, only 
 seventy days after they had passed the ^^^^ ^^ 
 Chaboras, with the sanguine expectation 
 of subverting the throne of Persia.' 
 
 As long as the Romans seemed to Retreat and dis- 
 advance into the country, their march tress of the Ro- 
 was observed and insulted from a dis- '"^" """y- 
 tance, by several bodies of Persian cavalry; who, 
 showing themselves, sometimes in loose and some- 
 times in closer order, faintly skirmished with the ad- 
 vanced guards. These detachments were however 
 supported by a much greater force ; and the heads of 
 the columns were no sooner pointed towards the Tigris 
 than a cloud of dust arose on the plain. The Romans, 
 who now aspired only to the permission of a safe and 
 speedy retreat, endeavoured to persuade themselves, 
 that this formidable appearance was occasioned by a 
 troop of wild asses, or perhaps by the approach of some 
 friendly Arabs. They halted, pitched their tents, for- 
 tified their camp, passed the whole night in continual 
 alarms ; and discovered, at the dawn of day, that they 
 were surrounded by an army of Persians. This 
 army, which might be considered only as the van of 
 the barbarians, was soon followed by the main body 
 of cuirassiers, archers, and elephants, commanded by 
 Meranes, a general of rank and reputation. He was 
 accompanied by two of the king's sons, and many of 
 the principal satraps ; and fame and expectation exag- 
 gerated the strength of the remaining powers, which 
 slowly advanced under the conduct of Sapor himself. 
 As the Romans continued their march, their long 
 array, which was forced to bend or divide, according 
 to the varieties of the ground, afforded frequent and 
 favourable opportunities to their vigilant enemies. 
 The Persians repeatedly charged with fury ; they were 
 repeatedly repulsed with firmness ; and the action at 
 Maronga, which almost deserved the name of a battle, 
 was inarked by a considerable lo.ss of satraps and 
 elephants, perhaps of equal value in the eyes of their 
 monarch. These splendid advantages were not ob- 
 tained without an adequate slaughter on the side of the 
 Romans : several officers of distinction were either 
 killed or wounded : and the emperor himself, who, 
 on all occasions of danger, inspired and guided the 
 valour of his troops, was obliged to expose his person, 
 and exert his abilities. The weight of offensive and 
 defensive arms, which still constituted the strength 
 and safety of the Romans, disabled them from making 
 
 r Isidore of Chnrax (Mansion. Parthic. p. 5.6. in Hudson. Geo- 
 graph. Minor, torn, ii.) reckons 129 schieni from Seleucia, and Thevc- 
 not (pan i. 1. 1. ii. p. 209— 24.1.) 128 hours' march from Bagdad to 
 Ecbatana, or Hamadan. These measures cannot exceed an ordinary 
 parasang, or three Roman miles. 
 
 • The march of Julian from Ctesiphon is circumstantially, liut not 
 clearly, described by Ammianus, (xxiv.7, 8.) Libanins. (Orat. Parent, 
 c. 134. p. S-S?.) and Zosimus. (I. iii. p. 183.) The two last seem igno- 
 rant that their conqueror was retreating, and Libaiiius absurdly con- 
 finet him to the banks of the Tigris. 
 
 any long or eflfectual pursuit ; and as the horsemen of 
 the east were trained to dart their javelins, and shoot 
 their arrows, at full speed, and in every possible direc- 
 tion,* the cavalry of Persia was never more formidable 
 than in the moment of a rapid and disorderly flight. 
 But the most certain and irreparable loss of the Ro- 
 mans was that of time. The hardy veterans, accus- 
 tomed to the cold climate of Gaul and Germany, 
 fainted under the sultry heat of an Assyrian summer ; 
 their vigour was exhausted by the incessant repetition 
 of march and combat ; and the progress of the army 
 was suspended by the precautions of a slow and dan- 
 gerous retreat, in the presence of an active enemy. 
 Every day, every hour, as the supply diminished, the 
 value and price of subsistence increased in the Roman 
 camp." Julian, who always contented himself with 
 such food as a hungry soldier would have disdained, 
 distributed, for the use of the troops, the provisions of 
 the imperial household, and whatever could be spared 
 from the sumpter-horses of the tribunes and generals. 
 But this feeble relief served only to aggravate the 
 sense of the public distress ; and the Romans began to 
 entertain the most gloomy apprehensions that, before 
 they could reach the frontiers of the empire, they 
 should all perish, either by famine, or by the sword of 
 the barbarians."^ 
 
 Julian is mortal- While Julian struggled with the almost 
 ly wounded. insuperable difficulties of his situation, 
 the silent hours of the night were still devoted to study 
 and contemplation. Whenever he closed his eyes in 
 short and interrupted slumbers, his mind was agitated 
 with painful anxiety ; nor can it be thought surprising, 
 that the genius of the empire should once more appear 
 before him, covering with a funereal vail his head and 
 his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the im- 
 perial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and 
 stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with the 
 coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, 
 which shot athwart the sky, and suddenly vanished. 
 Julian was convinced that he had seen the menacing 
 countenance of the god of war; y the council which he 
 summoned, of Tuscan Haruspices,* unanimously pro- 
 nounced that he should abstain from action : but, on 
 this occasion, necessity and reason were more preva- 
 lent than superstition ; and the trumpets sounded at 
 the break of day. The army marched through a hilly 
 country ; snd the hills had been secretly occupied by 
 the Persians. Julian led the van, with the skill and 
 attention of a consummate general ; he was alarmed 
 by the intelligence that his rear was suddenly attacked. 
 The heat of the weather had tempted him to lay aside 
 his cuirass ; but he snatched a shield from one of his 
 attendants, and hastened, with a sufficient reinforce- 
 ment, to the relief of the rear guard. A similar danger 
 recalled the intrepid prince to the defence of the front; 
 and, as he galloped between the columns, the centre 
 of the left was attacked and almost overpowered, by 
 a furious charge of the Persian cavalry and elephants. 
 This huge body was soon defeated, by the well-timed 
 evolutions of the light infantry, who aimed their wea- 
 pons, with dexterity and effect, against the backs of 
 
 t Chardin, the most judicious of modern travellers, describes (torn, 
 iii. p. 57, 58. Accredit, in 4io.)the education and dexterity of the Per- 
 sian horsemen. Brissonius (de Regno Persico, p. UoO. CCl, &c,) lias 
 collected the testimonies of antiquity. 
 
 u In Mark Antony's retreat, an attic chfcnix pold for fifty drach- 
 ma*, or, in other words, a pound of flour for twelve or fourteen shil 
 Imps ; barley bread was sold for its weight in silver. It is impossible 
 to peruse the interestmg narrative of Plutarch (tom. v. p. 102-116.) 
 williout perceiving that Mark Antony and Julian were pursued by 
 the same enemies, and involved in the same distress. 
 
 X Ainmian. xxiv. 8. xxv. 1. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 184—186. Libanius, 
 Orat. Parent, c. 134, 135. p. 357— .359, The sophist of Antioch ap- 
 pears ignorant that the troops were hungry. 
 
 y Ammian. xxv. 2. Julian had sworn in a passion, nunquam se 
 Marti sacra facturum, (xxiv. 6.) Such whimsical quarrels were not 
 uncommon between the gods and their insolent votaries; and even 
 the prudent Augustus, after his fleet had been twice shipwrecked, ex- 
 cluded Neptune from the honours of public processions. See Hume's 
 philosophical Reflections. Essays, vol. ii. p. 418. 
 
 X They still retained the monopoly of the vain but lucrative sci- 
 ence, which had been invented in Hctruria : and professed to derive 
 their knowledge of signs and omens, from the ancient books of Tar 
 quittius, a Tuscan sage. 
 
 the horsemen, and the legs of the elephants. The 
 barbarians fled : and Julian, who was foremost in every 
 danger, animated the pursuit with his voice and ges- 
 tures. His trembling guards, scattered and oppressed 
 by the disorderly throng of friends and enemies, re- 
 minded their fearless sovereign that he was without 
 armour; and conjured him to decline the fall of the 
 impending ruin. As they exclaimed,* a cloud of darts 
 and arrows was discharged from the flying squadrons ; 
 and a javelin, after razing the skin of his arm, trans- 
 pierced the ribs, and fixed in the inferior part of the 
 liver. Julian attempted to draw the deadly weapon 
 from his side; but his fingers were cut by the sharp- 
 ness of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse. 
 His guards flew to his relief; and the wounded empe- 
 ror was gently raised from the ground, and conveyed 
 out of the tumult of the battle into an adjacent tent. 
 The report of the melancholy event passed from rank 
 to rank ; but the grief of the Romans inspired them 
 with invincible valour, and the desire of revenge. The 
 bloody and obstinate conflict was maintained by the 
 two armies till they were separated by the total dark- 
 ness of the night. The Persians derived some honour 
 from the advantage which they obtained against the 
 left wing, where Anatolius, master of the offices, was 
 slain, and the praefect Sallust very narrowly escaped. 
 But the event of the day was adverse to the barbarians. 
 They abandoned the field ; their two generals, Mera- 
 nes and Nohordates,*' fifty nobles or satraps, and a 
 multitude of their bravest soldiers : and the success of 
 the Romans, if Julian had survived, might have been 
 improved into a decisive and liseful victory. 
 
 The first words that Julian uttered, ^j^^ ^ , - 
 after his recovery from the fainting fit ' Julian, 
 into which he had been thrown by loss A. D. 363. 
 of blood, were expressive of his martial *^ ^' 
 
 spirit. He called for his horse and arms, and was 
 impatient to rush into the battle. His remaining 
 strength was exhausted by the painful eflTort ; and the 
 surgeons, who examined his wound, discovered the 
 symptoms of approaching death. He employed the 
 awful moments with the firm temper of a hero and a 
 sage ; the philosophers who had accompanied him in 
 this fatal expedition, compared the tent of Julian with 
 the prison of Socrates ; and the spectators, whom duty, 
 or friendship, or curiosity, had assembled round his 
 couch, listened with respectful grief, to the funeral 
 oration of their dying eniperor.<= " Friends and fellow- 
 soldiers, the seasonable period of my departure is now 
 arrived, and I discharge, with the cheerfulness of a 
 ready debtor, the demands of nature. I have learned 
 from philosophy, how much the soul is more excellent 
 than the body ; and that the separation of the nobler 
 substance should be the subject of joy, rather than 
 of affliction. I have learned from religion, that an 
 early death has often been the reward of piety ; ^ and 
 I accept, as a favour of the gods, the mortal stroke that 
 secures me from the danger of disgracing a character, 
 which has hitherto been supported by virtue and forti- 
 tude. I die without remorse, as I have lived without 
 guilt. I am pleased to reflect on the innocence of my 
 private life ; and I can affirm with confidence, that the 
 supreme authority, that emanation of the divine Power, 
 has been preserved in my hands pure and immaculate. 
 Detesting the corrupt and destructive maxims of des- 
 
 a Clamabanl hinc inde candidati (see the note of Valcsius) quos 
 disjecerat terror, ut fugientium molem tanquam ruinam male com- 
 positi culminis declinarct. Ammian. xxv. 3. 
 
 b Sapor himself declared to the Romans, that it was his practice to 
 comfort the families of the deceased satran<», by sending them, as a 
 present, the heads of the guards and oflicers who had not fallen by 
 their master's side. Libanius. de nece Julian, ulcis. c. xiii. p. 163. 
 
 c The character and situation of Julian might countenance the 
 suspicion, that he had previously composed the elaborate oration 
 which Ammianus heard, and has transcribed. The version of the 
 Abb6 de la BIcterie is faithful and elegant. I have followed him ia 
 expressing the Platonic idea of emanatlons,'which is darkly insinu- 
 ated in the original. 
 
 d Herodotus (I. i. c. 31.) has displayed that doctrine in an agree- 
 able tale. Yet the Jupiter (in the 16th book of the Iliad) who la- 
 ments with tears of blood the death of Sarpedon his son, had a very 
 imperfect notion of happiness or jflory beyond (ho grave. 
 
 - :■»'. 
 
324 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 potism, I hare considered the happiness of the people 
 as the end of g^overnment. Submitting my actions to 
 the laws of prudence, of justice, and of moderation, I 
 have trusted the event to the care of Providence. 
 Peace was the object of my counsels, as long as peace 
 was consistent with the public welfare ; but when the 
 imperious voice of my country summoned me to arms, 
 I exposed my person to the dangers of war, with the 
 clear fore-knowledge (which I had acquired from the 
 art of divination) that I was destined to fall by the 
 sword. I now offer my tribute of gratitude to the 
 eternal Being, who has not suffered me to perish by the 
 cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger of conspiracy, 
 or by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He has 
 given me, in the midst of an honourable career, a 
 splendid and glorious departure from this world ; and 
 I hold it equally absurd, equally base, to solicit, or 
 to decline, the stroke of fate. — Thus much I have at- 
 tempted to say ; but my strength fails me, and I feel 
 the approach of death. — I shall cautiously refrain from 
 any word that may tend to influence your suffrages in 
 the election of an emperor. My choice might be im- 
 prudent or injudicious ; and if it should not be ratified 
 by the consent of the army, it might be fatal to the per- 
 son whom I should recommend. I shall only, as a 
 good citizen, express my hopes, that the Romans may 
 be blessed with the government of a virtuous sove- 
 reign." After this discourse, which Julian pronounced 
 in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he distributed, by a 
 military testament,* the remains of his private fortune ; 
 and making some inquiry why Anatolius was not pre- 
 sent, he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that 
 Anatolius was killed ; and bewailed with amiable in- 
 consistency, the loss of his friend. At the same time 
 he reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators ; 
 and conjured them not to disgrace, by unmanly tears, 
 the fate of a prince, who in a few moments would be 
 united with heaven, and with the stars.' The specta- 
 tors were silent ; and Julian entered into a metaphysi- 
 cal argument with the philosophers Priscus and 
 Maximus, on the nature of the soul. The efforts which 
 he made, of mind as well as body, most probably has- 
 tened his death. His wound began to bleed with fresh 
 violence ; his respiration was embarrassed by the 
 swelling of the veins ; he called for a draught of cold 
 water, and, as soon as he had drank it, expired without 
 pain, about the hour of midnight. Such was the end 
 of that extraordinary man, in the thirty-second year of 
 his age, after a reign of one year and about eight 
 months, from the death of Constantius. In his last 
 moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, 
 the love of virtue and of fame, which had been the 
 ruling passions of his life.* 
 
 Election of the cm- The triumph of Christianity, and the 
 pcror Jovian. A.D. calamities of the empire, may, in some 
 3GaJune27. measure, be ascribed to Julian himself, 
 who had neglected to secure the future execution of 
 his designs, by the timely and judicious nomination 
 of an associate and successor. But the royal race, 
 of Constantius Chlorus was reduced to his own per- 
 son ; and if he entertained any serious thoughts of 
 investing with the purple the most worthy among 
 the Romans, he was diverted from his resolution by 
 the difficulty of the choice, the jealousy of power, 
 the fear of ingratitude, and the natural presumption 
 of health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unex- 
 pected death left the empire without a master, and 
 
 • The soIdJers who h;«d made their verbal, or nuncupatory, testa- 
 ments, upon actual service, (in procinciu.) were exempted from the 
 formalities of the Roman law. See Heineccius, (Antiquit. Jur. Ro- 
 man, tom. i. p. 504.) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, I. xxvii.) 
 
 f This union of the human soul with the divine irthcreal fu^stancc 
 of the universe, is the ancient doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato ; hut 
 it seems to exclude anv personal or conscious immortality. See 
 Warburton's learned and rational olwervations. Divine Legation, 
 vol. ii. p- 199^316. 
 
 ( The whole relation of the death of Julian is Riven by Ammianus, 
 (xxv. 3.) an intelligent spectator. Libanius, who turns with horror 
 from the Hcene, has supplied some circumstances. (Orat. Parental, 
 c. I3&— 140. p. 359 — 363.) The calumnies of Gregory, and the le- 
 geudi of more recant saints, ma*y now Ik; tiUntly despised 
 
 without an heir, in a state of perplexity and dan- 
 ger, which in the space of fourscore years, had ne- 
 ver been experienced, since the election of Diocletian. 
 In a government, which had almost forgotten the 
 distinction of pure and noble blood, the superiority 
 of birth was of little moment ; the claims of ofhcial 
 rank w^ere accidental and precarious ; and the can- 
 didates who might aspire to ascend the vacant throne, 
 could be supported only by the consciousness of 
 personal merit, or by the hopes of popular favour. 
 But the situation of a famished army, encompassed 
 an all sides by an host of barbarians, shortened the 
 moments of grief and deliberation. In this scene of 
 terror and distress, the body of the deceased prince, 
 according to his own directions, was decently em- 
 balmed Tand, at the dawn of day, the generals con- 
 vened a military senate, at which the commanders of 
 the legions, and the officers, both of cavalry and 
 infantry, were invited to assist. Three or four hours 
 of the night had not passed away without some se- 
 cret cabals ; and when the election of an emperor was 
 proposed, the spirit of faction began to agitate the as- 
 sembly. Victor and Arinthffius collected the remains 
 of the court of Constantius ; the friends of Julian 
 attached themselves to the Gallic chiefs, Dagalaiphus 
 and Nevitta ; and the most fatal consequences might 
 be apprehended from the discord of two factions, 
 so opposite in their character and interest, in their 
 maxims of government, and perhaps in their religious 
 principles. The superior virtues of Sallust could 
 alone reconcile their divisions, and unite their suf- 
 frages ; and the venerable praefect, would immediately 
 have been declared the successor of Julian, if he him- 
 self with sincere and modest firmness, had not alleg- 
 ed his age and infirmities, so unequal to the weight 
 of the diadem. The generals, who were surprised 
 and perplexed by his refusal, showed soine disposi- 
 tion to adopt the salutary advice of an inferior officer,** 
 that they should act as they would have acted in the 
 absence of the emperor; that they should exert their 
 abilities to extricate the army from the present distress ; 
 and, if they were fortunate enough to reach the con- 
 fines of Mesopotamia, they should proceed with unit- 
 ed and deliberate counsels in the election of a law- 
 ful sovereign. While they debated, a few voices 
 saluted Jovian, who was no more than /rs/' of the do- 
 mestics, with the names of Emperor and Augustus. 
 The tumultuary acclamation was instantly repeated 
 by the guards who surrounded the tent, and passed, 
 in a few minutes, to the extremities of the line. The 
 new prince, astonished with his own fortune, was 
 hastily invested with the imperial ornaments, and 
 received an oath of fidelity from the generals, whose 
 favour and protection he so lately solicited. The stron- 
 gest recommendation of Jovian was the merit of his 
 father, count Varronian, who enjoyed, in honourable 
 retirement, the fruit of his long services. In the ob- 
 scure freedom of a private station, the son indulged 
 his taste for wine and women ; yet he supported, with 
 credit, the character of a christian^ and a soldier. 
 Without being conspicuous for any of the ambitious 
 qualifications which excite the admiration and envy 
 of mankind, the comely person of Jovian, his cheer- 
 ful temper, and familiar wit, had gained the affection 
 of his fellow-soldiers ; and the generals of both parties 
 acquiesced in a popular election, which had been con- 
 ducted by the arts of their enemies. The pride of this 
 
 b Ilonoratior aliqnis miles: perhaps Ammianus himself. The 
 modest and judicious historian describes the scene of the election, at 
 which he was undoubtedly present, (xxv. 5.) 
 
 i The primus or primicerius. enloyed the dignity of a senator ; and 
 thoush only a tribune, he ranked with the military dukes. Cod. 
 Theodosian. I. vi. tit. xxiv. These privileges are perhaps more re- 
 cent than the time of Jovian. 
 
 k The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates, (1. iii. c. S3.) Sozomen, (I 
 vi. c. 3.) and Theodoret, (1. iv. c. 1.) ascribe to Jovian the merit of a 
 confessor under the preccdine reign; and piously suppose, that he 
 refused the purple till the whole army unanimously exclaimed that 
 they were christians. Ammianus. calmly pursuini! his narrative, 
 overthrows the legend by a single sentence. Hostiis pro Joviano 
 extisque inspectis, pronuntiatum est, k.t. xxv. 6- 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 unexpected elevation was moderated by the just ap- 
 prehension, that the same day might terminate the life 
 and reign of the new emperor. The pressing voice of 
 necessity was obeyed without delay ; and the first or- 
 ders issued by Jovian, a few hours after his predecessor 
 had expired, were, to prosecute a march, which could 
 alone extricate the Romans from their actual dis- 
 tress.' 
 
 Danger and diffi- '^**® esteem of an enemy is most sin- 
 cuity of the re- cerely expressed by his fears ; and the 
 
 -TuVjT '''''' ^^^'^^ °^ ^^^' ^^y be accurately mea- 
 u- J 1- sured by thejoywith which he celebrates 
 
 his deliverance. The welcome news of the death of Ju- 
 lian, which a deserter revealed to the camp of Sapor, 
 inspired the desponding monarch with a sudden confi- 
 dence of victory. He immediately detached the royal 
 cavalry, perhaps the ten thousand imimrtals,'^ to se- 
 cond and support the pursuit ; and discharged the 
 whole weight of his united forces on the rear-guard of 
 the Romans. The rear-guard was thrown into uisor- 
 der;the renowned legions which derived their titles 
 trom Diocletian, and his warlike colleague, were broke 
 and trampled down by the elephants ; and three tri- 
 bunes lost their lives in attempting to stop the flight of 
 their soldiers. The battle was at length restored by 
 the persevering valour of the Romans ; the Persians 
 were repulsed with a great slaughter of men and ele- 
 phants ; and the army, after marching and fiffhtinff a 
 long summer's day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara, 
 on the banks of the Tigris, about one hundred miles 
 above Ctesiphon." On the ensuing day the barbarians, 
 instead of harassing the march, attacked the camp, 
 of Jovian; which had been seated in a deep and se- 
 questered valley. From the hills, the archers of Per- 
 sia insulted and annoyed the wearied legionaries; and 
 a body of cavalry, which had penetrated with des- 
 perate courage through the praetorian gate, was cut in 
 pieces, after a doubtful conflict, near the imperial tent. 
 In the succeeding night, the camp of Carche was pro- 
 tected by the lofty dykes of the river ; and the Ro- 
 man army, though incessantly exposed to the vexati- 
 ous pursuit of the Saracens, pitched their tents near 
 the «ty of Dura,« four days after the death of Julian. 
 Ihe Tigris was still on the left; their hopes and pro- 
 visions were almost consumed ; and the impatient sol- 
 diers, who had fondly persuaded themselves that the 
 frontiers of the empire w^ere not far distant, requested 
 their new sovereign, that they might be permitted to 
 hazard the passage of the river. With the assistance 
 01 his wisest officers, Jovian endeavoured to check their 
 rashness : by representing, that if they possessed suf- 
 ficient skill and vigour to stem the torrent of a deep 
 and rapid stream, they would only deliver themselves 
 naked and defenceless to the barbarians who had oc- 
 ciipied the opposite banks. Yielding at length, to 
 their clamorous importunities, he consented! with 
 reluctance, that five hundred Gauls and Germans, ac- 
 customed from their infancy to the waters of the 
 Rhine and Danube, should attempt the bold adventure, 
 which might serve either as an encouragement, or as 
 a warning, for the rest of the^rmy. In the silence of 
 the night, they swam the Tigris, surprised an unguard 
 
 325 
 
 -?- 
 
 I Ji.'^?!!!'''""' ''"'; '"■> *"" •'"'"" fn"" ""s life an impartial nor- 
 
 .T^;:;.'aTj';^tr;!.';5^rc'f "^ '="'^""« "^ «V?». Scaf'diS^„.^ 
 
 m Regms equitatus. It appears from Proconius that thP immnr 
 ^Is so famous under Cyrus and his successo^^w^re revived Twe 
 Fe'r^icorp! oJsr'i.r'^" "'''• '^ ^"^ ^^'^--■^^^-' BriiliirSe Reg'o 
 In.". ?'I?^ °^*''"'^ v\\\^\l^i Of the inland country are irreroverablv 
 
 ed post of the enemy, and displayed at the dawn of 
 day the signal of their resolution and fortune. The 
 success of this trial disposed the emperor to listen 
 to the promises of his architects, who proposed to con- 
 struct a floatmg bridge of the inflated skins of sheep, 
 oxen, and goats, covered with a floor of earth and fas- 
 cines.P Two important days were spent in the ineffect- 
 ual labour ; and the Romans, who already endured the 
 miseries of famine, cast a look of despair on the Tigris 
 and upon the barbarians ; whose numbers and obstina- 
 cy increased with the distress of the imperial army <i 
 
 In this hopeless situation, the fainting- xr . 
 
 spirits of the Romans were revived by ireT/o/ pel "' 
 the sound of peace. The transient pre- •'"'y- 
 sumption of Sapor had vanished : he observed, with 
 serious concern, that, in the repetition of doubtful 
 combats, he had lost his most faithful and intrepid 
 nobles, his bravest troops, and the greatest part of 
 his tram of elephants : and the experienced monarch 
 feared to provoke the resistance of despair, the vicis- 
 situdes of fortune, and the unexhausted powers of 
 the Roman empire; which might soon advance to re- 
 lieve, or to revenge the successor of Julian. The 
 feurenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, ap- 
 peared in the camp of Jovian ;' and declared, that iL 
 clemency of his sovereign was not averse to sionifv 
 the conditions on which he would consent to spare 
 and to dismiss the Caesar with the relics of his cap- 
 tive army. The hopes of safety subdued the firmness 
 ot the Komans; the emperor was compelled, by the 
 advice of his council, and the cries of the soldiers, to 
 embrace the offer of peace ; and the praefect Sallust 
 was immediately sent, with the general Arinthaus, 
 to understand the pleasure of the Great Kino-. The 
 crafty Persian delayed, under various pretences, the 
 conclusion of the agreement ; started difficulties, re- 
 quired explanations, suggested expedients, receded 
 trom his concessions, increased his demands, and 
 wasted four days in the arts of negociation, till he had 
 consumed the stock of provisions which yet remained 
 m the camp of the Romans. Had Jovian been capa- 
 ble of executing a bold and prudent measure, he 
 would have continued his march, with unremitting dil- 
 igence ; the progress of the treaty would have suspen- 
 ded the attacks of the barbarians; and, before the 
 expiration of the fourth day, he might have safely 
 reached the fruitful province of Corduene, at the 
 distance only of one hundred miles.* The irresolute 
 emperor, instead of breaking through the toils of the 
 enemy, expected his fate with patient resignation; and 
 accepted the humiliating conditions of peace, which it 
 was no longer in his power to refuse. The five pro- 
 vinces beyond the Tigris, which had been ceded by 
 the grandfather of Sapor, were restored to the Persian 
 monarchy. He acquired, by a single article, the im- 
 pregnable city of Nisibis; which had sustained, in 
 three successive sieges, the efforts of his arms. Sin- 
 gara, and the castle of the Moors, one of the strongest 
 places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismembered 
 from the empire. It was considered as an indulffence, 
 that the inhabitants of those fortresses were permitted 
 to retire with their effects ; but the conqueror rigorous- 
 ly insisted, that the Romans should for ever abandon 
 the king and kingdom of Arme nia. A peace, or rather 
 
 P A similar expedient was proposed to the loaders of the ten thou- 
 sand, and wisely rejected. Xenophon, Anabasis, I. iii. p. o^-i ^Sfi 
 2^7. It appears, from our modern travellers thkt r-.ff« flnnHnr^.' 
 bladders, perform The trade and navigatTon o7'the Tigril ^ " 
 
 q The first military acts of the reipn of Jovian are related bv Am. 
 m.anus, (XXV. 6 ) Libanius. (Orat. Parent, c. lie J.%4 ) and^Zo^ 
 
 ^f.i^n Pr n. the ocular testimony of Eutropius (.mo a Persia afque 
 altero P o-ho vicfus i. 17.) must incline us to suspect, that Amn ia- 
 nus has been too jealous of the Komnn arms 
 
 r Sextus Riifiis (de Provinciis. c. 29.) embraces a poor subterfuee 
 of national vanity. Tanta reverentia nominis Romani fuit, ut a Per- 
 siS7)rmu5 de pacesermo haberetur. 
 
 • It is pre.sumptuou8 to controvert the opinion of Ammianus a 
 soldier and a spectator. Yet it is difficult to understand how the 
 mountains of Corduene could extend over the plain of Assyria, as low 
 a. the conflux of ibe Tigris and the great Zab: or how an armvlf 
 sij^ty thousand men could march one hundred miles in four days 
 
 Hit 
 
326 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 .OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 a lono- truce, of thirty years, was stipulated between 
 the hostile nations ; the faith of the treaty was ratified 
 by solemn oaths, and religious ceremonies ; and host- 
 ages of distinguished rank were reciprocally delivered 
 to secure the performance of the conditions.' 
 The weakness The sophist ofAntioch, who saw with 
 and disgrace of Indignation the sceptre of his hero in the 
 Jovian. feeble hand of a christian successor, pro- 
 
 fesses to admire the moderation of Sapor, in contenting 
 himself with so small a portion of the Roman empire. 
 If he had stretched as far as the Euphrates the claims 
 of his ambition, he might have been secure, says Liba- 
 nius, of not meeting with a refusal. If he had fixed, 
 as the boundary of Persia, the Orontes, the Cydnus, 
 the Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus, flatter- 
 ers would not have been wanting in the court of Jovian 
 to convince the timid monarch that his remaining pro- 
 vinces would still afljord the most ample gratifications 
 of power and luxury." Without adopting in its full 
 force this malicious insinuation, we must acknowledge 
 that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty was 
 facilitated by the private ambition of Jovian. The ob- 
 scure domestic, exalted to the throne by fortune, ra- 
 ther than by merit, was impatient to escape from the 
 hands of the Persians ; that he might prevent the de- 
 signs of Procopius, who commanded the army of 
 Mesopotamia, and establish his doubtful reign over 
 the legions and provinces which were still ignorant 
 of the hasty and tumultuous choice of the camp beyond 
 the Tigris.* In the neighbourhood of the same river, 
 at no very considerable distance from the fatal station 
 of Dura,'' the ten thousand Greeks, without generals, 
 or guides, or provisions, were abandoned, about twelve 
 hundred miles from their native country, to the resent- 
 ment of a victorious monarch. The difference of 
 their conduct and success depended much more on their 
 character than on their situation. Instead of tamely re- 
 signing themselves to the secret deliberations and pri- 
 vate views of a single person, the united councils of the 
 Greeks were inspired by the generous enthusiasm of a 
 popular assembly ; where the mind of each citizen is 
 filled with the love of glory, the pride of freedom, 
 and the contempt of death. Conscious of their supe- 
 riority over the barbarians in arms and discipline, they 
 disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate : every 
 obstacle was surmounted by their patience, couraoe, 
 and military skill ; and the memorable retreat of the 
 ten thousand exposed and insulted the weakness of the 
 Persian monarchy.' 
 
 He continues his As the pricc of his disgraceful con- 
 retreat to Nisibia. sessions, the emperor might perhaps 
 have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans 
 should be plentifully supplied ;* and that they should 
 be permitted to pass the Tigris on the bridge which 
 was constructed by the hands of the Persians. But, 
 if Jovian presumed to solicit those equitable terms, 
 they were sternly refused by the haughty tyrant of the 
 east ; whose clemency had pardoned the invaders of 
 his country. The Saracens sometimes intercepted the 
 
 t 'I'he treaty of Dura is recorded wirh grief or indignation by Anfi- 
 minnus (xxv. 7.) liibanius, (Orat. I'arent. c. 142. p. 1164.) Zosimiis, 
 i. iii. p. 190, 191.) Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 117, 118. who im- 
 putes the distress to Julian, the deliverance to Jovian,) and Eutro- 
 pius, (x. 17,) The last mentioned writer, who was present in a mi- 
 litary station, styles this peace necessarian! quidem sed ignobilem. 
 
 a LUmnius, Orat. I'arent. c. \A\\. p. :<64, ?G.). 
 
 z Conditionil)us . .. dispendiosis Romanic reipublicte impositis. . . . 
 quihus cupidior regni quam glorix Jovianus imperio rudis adquievit. 
 Sextus Kufus de Provinciis, c. 29. La Bleteri«; has expressed, in a 
 lonj; direct oration, these specious considerations of public and pri- 
 vate interest, (tlist. de Jovicn, tom. i. p. 39, &c.) 
 
 y 'J'he generals were murdered on the banks of the Zabatus. (Ana- 
 basis, I. ii. p. 156. I. iii. p. 226.) or irreat Zah, a river of Assyria, 400 
 feet broad, which falls into the Tigris fourteen hours below Mosul. 
 The error of the Greeks bestowed on the great and lesser Zab the 
 names of the Wolf (Lycus,) and the Ooat (Capros.) They created 
 these animals to attend the Tyger of the east. 
 
 X The Cyopcedia is vague and languid ; the jinabasis circumstan- 
 tial and animated. Such is the eternal difference between fiction and 
 truth. 
 
 a According to Rufinus, an immediate supply of provisions was 
 ptipulated by the treaty ; and Theodoret affirms, that the obligation 
 was faithfully discharged by the Persians. Fuch a fact is probable, 
 but uBdoubtedly false. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. 
 p. 708. 
 
 strasfglers of the march ; but the generals and troops 
 of Sapor respected the cessation of arms ; and Jovian 
 was suffered to explore the most convenient place for 
 the passage of the river. The small vessels, which 
 had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet, per- 
 formed the most essential service. They first convey- 
 ed the emperor and his favourites ; and afterwards, in 
 many successive voyages, a great part of the army. 
 But, as every man was anxious for his personal safe- 
 ty, and apprehensive of being left on the hostile shore, 
 the soldiers, who were too impatient to wait the slow 
 returns of the boats, boldly ventured themselves on 
 light hurdles, or inflated skins ; and drawing after 
 them their horses, attempted, with various success, to 
 swim across the river. Many of these daring adven- 
 turers were swallowed by the waves; many others, 
 who were carried along by the violence of the stream, 
 fell an easy prey to the avarice or cruelty of the wild 
 Arabs ; and the loss which the army sustained in the 
 passage of the Tigris, was not inferior to the carnage 
 of a day of battle. As soon as the Romans had land- 
 ed on the western bank, they were delivered from the 
 hostile pursuit of the barbarians; but, in a laborious 
 march of two hundred miles over the plains of Meso- 
 potamia, they endured the last extremities of thirst and 
 hunger. They were obliged to traverse a sandy des- 
 ert, which, in the extent of seventy miles, did not af- 
 ford a single blade of sweet grass, nor a single spring 
 of fresh water ; and the rest of the inhospitable waste 
 was untrod by the footsteps either of friends or ene- 
 mies. Whenever a small measure of flour could be 
 discovered in the camp, twenty pounds' weight were 
 greedily purchased with ten pieces of gold :*• the 
 beasts of burthen were slaughtered and devoured ; and 
 the desert was strewed with the arms and bagfiraffe of 
 the Roman soldiers, whose tattered garments and mea- 
 gre countenances displayed their past suflerings and 
 actual misery. A small convoy of provisions advan- 
 ced to meet the army as far as the castle of Ur ; and 
 the supply was the more grateful, since it declared 
 the fidelity of Sebastian and Procopius. At Thilsa- 
 phata,*^ the emperor most graciously received the gen- 
 erals of Mesopotamia ; and the remains of a once 
 flourishing army at lengith reposed themselves under 
 the walls of Nisibis. The messengers of Jovian had 
 already proclaimed, in the language of flattery, his 
 election, his treaty, and his return ; and the new 
 prince had taken the most effectual measures to secure 
 the allegiance of the armies and the provinces of Eu- 
 rope ; by placing the military command in the hands 
 of those officers, who, from motives of interest, or in- 
 clination, would firmly support the cause of their ben- 
 efactor.'' 
 
 The friends of Julian had confidently •., . , , 
 
 , , /• 1 • 1- Universal clamour 
 
 announced the success oi his expedi- against the treaty 
 tion. They entert»ned a fond persua- o*' P«ace. 
 sion, that the temple of the gods would be enriched 
 with the spoils of the east : that Persia would be re- 
 duced to the humble state of a tributary province, gov- 
 erned by the laws and magistrates of Rome ; that the 
 barbarians would adopflhe dress, and manners, and 
 language, of their conquerors; and that the youth of 
 Ecbatana and Susa would study the art of rhetoric 
 under Grecian masters.' The progress of the arms 
 
 b We may recollect some lines of Lucan, (Pharsal.iv. 95.) who de- 
 scribes a similar di>itress of Ca?sar*s army in Spain: 
 Sa*va fames aderat — — 
 Miles eget : toto censu non prodigus emit 
 Exiguani Ccrcrem. Proh lucri pallida tabes! 
 Nou dppst proiato Jejunus venditor auro. 
 See Guichardt. (Nouveaux Memoires Miiitaires, tom. i. p. 379 — 382.) 
 His Analysis of the two Campaigns in Spain and Africa, is the no- 
 blest monument that has ever been raised to the fame of Cmsar. 
 
 c M. D'Anville (see his Maps, and I'Euphratc et le Tigre, p. 92,93.) 
 traces their march, and assigns the true position of Hatra, Ur, and 
 Thilsaphata, whicli Ammifrnus has mentioned. He does not com- 
 plain of the Sainiel, the deadly hot wind, which Tlievenot (Voyages, 
 part ii. I. i. p. 292) so much dreaded. 
 
 d The retreat of Jovian is described by Ammianus, (xzv. 9.) Liba- 
 nius, (Orat. Parent, c. 143. p. 365.) and Zosimus, (I. iii. p. 194.) 
 
 c Lihanius, Orat. Parent, c. 145. p. 366. Such were the natural 
 iiopes and wislies of a rhetorician. 
 
 327 
 
 ;fre'flnd,^^omKim^^^^^ P-oked to exclaim, "O emperor! may 
 
 ^ris, his afl-ectionate su"were Krant of the ' -" ^«^i- 
 
 fate and forttines of their prince. Their contempla- 
 tion of fancied triumphs was disturbed by the melan- 
 
 choy nimour of his death; and they' persisted to 
 doubt, after they could no longer deny, the truth of 
 that fatal event.f The messengers of Jovian promul- 
 gated the specious tale of a prudent and necessary 
 peace : the voice of fame, louder and more sincere, re- 
 vealed the disgrace of the emperor, and the conditions 
 of the ignommious treaty. The minds of the people 
 were filled with astonishment and grief, with indiana- 
 tion and terror, when they were informed that the^un- 
 worthy successor of Julian relinquished the five pro- 
 vinces, which had been acquired by the victory of Ga- 
 erius ; and that he shamefully surrendered to the bar- 
 barians the important city of Nisibis, the firmest bul- 
 
 wark of the provinces of the east.^ T^e deVD "d" ZTo\T.^Z\ \^'-^7^^^''^^''^^^^ '^^ ^ 
 
 dangerous question, how far the puhlic faith «L'u '^'^^.^^'^J'''^^:... T^^e highways were 
 
 dangerous question, how far the puhlic faith should 
 be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the 
 public .safety, was freely agitated in popular conversa- 
 tion ; and some hopes were entertained, that the empe- 
 ror would redeem his pusillanimous behaviour by a 
 splendid act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible spi- 
 rit of the Roman senate had always disclaimed the un- 
 equal conditions which were extorted from the distress 
 of her captive armies ; and, if it were necessary to 
 satisfy the national honour, by delivering the ffiiiltv 
 general into the hands of the barbarians, the greatest 
 part of the subjects of Jovian would have cheerfully 
 acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times.J» 
 Jovian evacuates ^"t the emperor, whatever mio-ht be the 
 
 ;T::^;Lrep^Tjrit"!t^ 
 
 vinccs to the Per- "»e absolute master of the laws and arms 
 
 Mans. of the state ; and the same motives which 
 
 August. had forced him to subscribe, now pressed 
 
 him to execute, the treaty of peace. He was impa 
 
 ions ! Jovian, who m a few weeks had assumed the 
 habits of a prince,' was displeased with freedom, and 
 tlTth T^ ?"'^ ' rt "' ^" ^^^sonably supposed, 
 
 to suhn^it rr p' "^ '^^ P'^P'" "^'^^^ incline them 
 to submit to the Persian government, he published an 
 
 edict, under pain ofdeath, that they should leave the 
 city within the term of three days. Ammianus has de- 
 lineated in lively colours the scene of universal despair 
 "^^'T he seems to have viewed with an eye of compasi 
 sion The martial youth deserted, with indignant 
 grief the walls which they had so gloriously de^fend- 
 ert ; the disconsolate mourner dropt a last tear over the 
 tomb of a son or husband, which must soon he pro- 
 faned by the rude hand of a barbarian master; and the 
 aged citizen kissed the threshold, and cluntr to the 
 doors, of the house, were he had passed the cheerful 
 
 crowded with a trembling multitude : the distinctions 
 of rank, and sex, and age, were lost in the general ca- 
 lamity livery one strove to bear away some fraffment 
 trom the wTeck of his fortunes ; and as they could not 
 comniand the immediate service of an adequate num- 
 ber of horses or waggons, they were obliged to leave 
 behind them the greatest part of their valuable effects. 
 1 he savage insensibility of Jovian appears to have aff- 
 gravated the hardships of these unhappy fugitive! 
 rhey were seated, however, in a new-built quarter of 
 Amida ; and that rising city, with the reinforcement of 
 a very considerable colony, soon recovered its former 
 splendour, and became the capital of Mesopotamia.' 
 JMmilar orders were despatched by the emperor for the 
 evacuation of Singara and the castle of the Moors • 
 and for the restitution of the five provinces beyond the 
 ligris. Sapor enjoyed the glory and the fruits of his 
 victory ; and this ignominious peace has justly been 
 considered as a memorable a^ra in the decline and fall 
 
 tient to secure an empire at the expense of a W nrn nf hi T? "^^/norame a^ra in the decline and fall 
 
 vinces ; and the respe'ctable nam'Xliln'JnH^lfr f ^'I'^ri'^i;!"?^"^- .^^^ predecessors of Jovian had 
 
 vmces; and the respectable names ofreliaion and hon- 
 our concealed the personal fears and the^" ambition of 
 Jovian. Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of 
 the inhabitants, decency, as well as prudence, forbade 
 the emperor to lodge in the palace of Nisibis ; but the 
 next morning after his arrival, Bineses, the ambassa- 
 dor of I ersia, entered the place, displayed from the cit 
 
 sonietimes relinquished the dominion of distant and un- 
 profitable provinces ; but, since the foundation of the 
 city, the genius of Rome, the god Terminus, who guar- 
 ded the boundaries of the republic, had never retired 
 betore the sword of a victorious enemy.™ 
 
 After Jovian had performed those en- Reflections on 
 gagements, w^hich the voice of his peo- the death 
 
 adel the standard nf th*» ProoV i/: ' *^ j — » w c uil- j^ngemenis, w^nicn tne voice of h s peo- the death 
 ?„'his'tre:rc":eUl,^?^«iv^'T;X^rit™.^ • ?^^^ vioLe, he hastened 
 
 in his name, the cruel alternative of exile or servitude. 
 I he principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till that fatal 
 moment, had confided in the protection of their sover- 
 eign, threw themselves at his feet. They conjured him 
 not to abandon, or, at least, not to deliver, a faithful 
 colony to the rage of a barbarian tyrant, exasperated 
 by the three successive defeats, which he had expe- 
 rienced under the walls of Nisibis. They still possess- 
 ed arms and courage to repel the invaders of their coun- 
 try ; they requested only the permission of usino- them 
 in their own defence ; and as soon as they had asserted 
 their independence, they should implore the favour of 
 being again admitted into the rank of his subjects, 
 i heir arguments, their eloquence, their tears, were in- 
 effectual. Jovian alleged, with some confusion, the 
 sanctity of oajhs ; and, as the reluctance w4th which he 
 accepted the present of a crown of gold, convinced the 
 citizens of their hopeless condition, the advocate Syl- 
 
 away from the scene of his disgrace, and proceeded 
 with his whole court, to enjoy the luxury ofAntioch." 
 Without consulting the dictates of religious zeal, he 
 was prompted, by humanity and gratitude, to bestow 
 the last honours on the remains of his deceased sove- 
 reign -and Procopius, who sincerely bewailed the loss 
 ot his kinsman, was removed from the command of 
 the army, under the decent pretence of conductino- the 
 tuneral. The corpse of Julian was transported l^rom 
 JNisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march of fifteen days ; 
 and, as it passed through the cities of the east, was sa- 
 Juted by hostile factions, with mournful lamentations 
 and clamorous insults. The pagans already placed 
 their beloved hero in the ranks of those gods whose 
 w'orship he had restored ; while the invectives of the 
 christians pursued the soul of the apostate to hell, and 
 
 t The people of Carrhfp, a city devoted to pa-anism buried the in 
 auspicious inessenger under a pile of stones. (zSs J i fp igi ^ 
 Llt.amus, when he received the fatal intelligence, cast his eve on hi^ 
 sword; hut he recollected that Plato hnd condemned su^^fde and 
 
 g Ammianus and Entropius may be admitted as fair and credihlP 
 witnesses of the public language and opinions. The peopfe of An 
 tioch reviled an ignominious peace, which exposed them to the Per 
 
 C^.^'Jnl""''"^*''"^ defenceless frontier. (E.vcerpt! VaTes'ana p 
 5U4. ex Johannc Antiocheno.) •x-^-oiana, p. 
 
 .h« '*'.''* ^^^ ^^ '* Bleterie (Hist, de Jovien. tom. i. p. 212— 207 \ 
 
 L ^^ ^^'®'!"^J'5 performed a royal act. A brave officer his name- 
 sake, who had been thought worthy of the purple, was drap"d?rom 
 supper, thrown intoa well, and stoned to death without any form ^ 
 trial, or evidence of euilt. Ammian. xxv. 8. ^ 
 
 k See XXV. 9. and Zosimus, I. iii. p. 194, 195. 
 suited."'*'"* ^^^''^''^' P- 300- The ecclesiastical Notitia may be con- 
 
 m Zosiinus l.iii. p 192, 193. Sexlus Rufus de Provinciis, c. 29 
 
 applied and interpreted with some caution. 
 
 D Ammianus, xxv 9. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 196. He might be cdax. 
 
 ,^'o° y«"f r'<l"« indulgens. But I agree with La Bleterie (tom. i 
 P" ^'^r^r'*-) '" rejecting the foolish report of a Bacchanalian riot* 
 (ap. Suidam) celebrated at Antiocb, by the emperor, his wife and a 
 troop of concubines. "" •*"'"• 
 
 .h** T**®. ^^^^^^ ^^ Bleterie /torn. i. p. 156. 209.) handsomely exposes 
 the brutal bigotry of Baronius. who would have thrown Julian to 
 
328 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 his body to the grave. p One party lamented the ap- 
 proaching ruin of their altars ; the other celebrated the 
 marvellous deliverance of the church. The christians 
 applauded, in lofty and ambig^uous strains, the stroke 
 of divine vengeance, which had been so long suspended 
 over the guilty head of Julian. They acknowledge, 
 that the death of the tyrant, at the instant he expired 
 beyond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints of Egypt, 
 Syria, and Cappadocia ;*i and instead of suffering him to 
 fall by the Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed 
 the heroic deed to the obscure hand of some mortal or 
 immortal champion of the faith.' Such imprudent de- 
 clarations were eagerly adopted by the malice or cre- 
 dulity of their adversaries ;• who darkly insinuated, or 
 confidently asserted, that the governors of the church 
 had instigated and directed the fanaticism of a domes- 
 tic assassin.* Above sixteen years after the death of 
 Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently urg- 
 ed, in a public oration, addressed by Libanius to the 
 emperor Theodosius. His suspicions are unsupported 
 by fact or argument; and we can only esteem the gener- 
 ous zeal of the sophist of Antioch, for the cold and ne- 
 glected ashes of his friend." 
 
 and funeral of It was an ancient custom in the fune- 
 Julian. rals, as well as in the triumphs, of the 
 Romans, that the voice of praise should be correct- 
 ed by that of satire and ridicule ; and that in the 
 midst of the splendid pageants, which displayed the 
 glory of the living or of the dead, their imperfection 
 should not he concealed from the eyes of the world.* 
 This custom was practised in the funeral of Julian. The 
 comedians, who resented his contempt and aversion 
 for the theatre, exhibited, with the applause of a chris- 
 tian audience, the lively and exaggerated representa- 
 tion of the faults and follies of the deceased emperor. 
 His various character and singular manners afforded an 
 ample scope for pleasantry and ridicule.^ In the exer- 
 cise of his uncommon talents, he often descended bev 
 low the majesty of his rank. Alexander was transform- 
 ed into Diogenes ; the philosopher was degraded into 
 a priest. The purity of his virtue was sullied by ex- 
 cessive vanity ; his superstition disturbed the peace, 
 and endangered the safety, of a mighty empire ; and 
 his irregular sallies were the less entitled to indulgence, 
 as they appeared to be the laborious efforts of art, or even 
 of affectation. The remains of Julian were interred at 
 Tarsus in Cicilia ; but his stately tomb, which arose 
 in that city, on the banks of the cold and limpid Cyd- 
 nus,* was displeasing to the faithful friends who loved 
 
 p Compare the sophist and the saint. (Lihanius, Monod. torn. ii. p. 
 251. and Orat. Parent, c. 145. p. 3G7. c. 156. p. 377. with Grcjrory Na- 
 zianzen, Orat. iv. p. 125 — 132.) The christian orator faintly utters 
 some exhortations to modesty and foreiveness: but lie is well satis- 
 fied, that the real sutfcrings uf Julian will far exceed the fabulous tor- 
 ments of Ixion or Tantalus. 
 
 q Tillemont, (Hist, des Empcreurs, torn. iv. p. 519.) has collected 
 these visions. Some saint or an£;el was observed to be absent in the 
 iiigbt on a secret expedition. 
 
 r Sozomcn (I. vi. 2.) applauds the Greek doctrine of tyrannicide; 
 but the whole passajje, which a Jesuit might have translated, is pru- 
 dently suppressed by the president Cousin. 
 
 • Immediately after the death of Julian, an uncertain rumour was 
 scattered, telo cecidisse Romano. It was carried by some deserters 
 to the Persian camp ; and the Romans were reproached as the assas- 
 pins of the emperor by Sapor and his subjects. (Aminian. xxv. 6. Li- 
 banius de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. xiii. p. 162, 163.) It was urged, 
 as a decisive proof, that no Persian had appeared to claim the prom- 
 ised reward. Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 141. p. 363. But the flying 
 horseman, who darted the fatal javelin, mi!;ht be ij^norant of its ef- 
 fect; or he might be slain in the same action. Ammiunus neither 
 feels nor inspires a suspicion. 
 
 t 'Of Tif tvxiKYiv nKi^gvv Tft) ar^'jjv mutjov ap^ovT*. This dark and 
 ambiguous expression may point to Athanasius, the first, without a 
 rival, of the christian clergy. (Lihanius de ulcis. Jul. nece, c. 5. p. 
 149. La Bleterie, Hist, de Jovien, lorn. i. p. 179.) 
 
 u The orator (Fabricius, Bibliot. Ora'c. tom. vii. p. 145 — 179.) scat- 
 ters suspicions, demands an inquiry, and insinuates, that proofs 
 iniffht still tte obtained. He ascribes the success of the Huns to the 
 criminal neglect of revenging Julian's death. 
 
 X At the funeral of Vespasian, the comedian who personated that 
 frugal emperor, anxiously enquired, how much it cost? — " Fourscore 
 thousand pounds." (renties.) — "Give me the tenth part of the sum, 
 and throw my body into the Tyber." Sueton. in Vespasian, c. 19. 
 with the notes of Casaubon and Gronovius. 
 
 y Gregory (Orat. iv. p. 119, 120.) compares this supposed ignominy 
 and ridicule to the funeral honours of Constantius, whose body was 
 chanted over Mount Taurus by a choir of angels. 
 
 X Quintiui Curtius, 1. iii. c. 4. The luxuriancy of his descriptions 
 
 and revered the memory of that extraordinary man. 
 The philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish, 
 that the disciple of Plato might have reposed amidst 
 the groves of the academy ;* while the soldier exclaim- 
 ed in bolder accents, that the ashes of Julian should 
 have been mingled with those of Caesar, in the field of 
 Mars, and among the ancient monuments of Roman vir- 
 tue.** The history of princes does not very frequently 
 renew the example of a similar comoetition. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The government and death of Jovian. — Election of Valenti- 
 nian, who associates his Irrother Valens, and makes the 
 final division of the eastern and western empires. — Revolt 
 of Procopius. — Civil and ecclesiastical administration. — 
 Germany. — Britain. — Africa. — The east. — The Danube. 
 — Death of Valentinian. — His two sons, Gratian and Va- 
 lentinian II. succeed to the western empire. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The death of Julian had left the public state of the 
 affairs of the empire in a very doubtful Chnrch, 
 and dangerous situation. The Roman ^' ^' ^**^* 
 army was saved by an inglorious, perhaps a necessa- 
 ry, treaty ; * and the first moments of peace were con- 
 secrated by the pious Jovian to restore the domestic 
 tranquillity of the church and state. The indiscretion 
 of his predecessor, instead of reconciling, had artfully 
 fomented, the religious war ; and the balance which 
 he affected to preserve between the hostile factions, 
 served only to perpetuate the contest, by the vicissi- 
 tudes of hope and fear, by the rival claims of ancient 
 possession and actual favour. The christians had 
 forgotten the spirit of the gospel ; and the pagans had 
 imbibed the spirit of the church. In private families, 
 the sentiments of nature were extinguished by the blind 
 fury of zeal and revenge : the majesty of the laws was 
 violated or abused ; the cities of the east were stained 
 with blood ; and the most implacable enemies of the 
 Romans were in the bosom of their country. Jovian 
 was educated in the profession of Christianity ; and as 
 he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the banner of the 
 cross, the Labarum of Constantine, which was again 
 displayed at the head of the legions, announced to the 
 people the faith of their new emperor. As soon as he 
 ascended the throne, he transmitted a circular epistle to 
 all the governors of provinces; in which he confessed 
 the divine truth, and secured the legal establishment, 
 of the christian religion. The insidious edicts of Ju- 
 lian were abolished ; the ecclesiastical immunities were 
 restored and enlarged ; and Jovian condescended to 
 lament, that the distress of the times obliged him to 
 diminish the measure of charitable contributions.** The 
 christians were unanimous in the loud and sincere ap- 
 plause which they bestowed on the pious successor of 
 Julian. But they were still ignorant what creed, or 
 what synod, he would choose for the standard of or- 
 thodoxy; and the peace of the church immediately 
 revived those eager disputes which had been suspended 
 during the season of persecution. The episcopal 
 leaders of the contending sects, convinced, from expe- 
 
 has been often censured. Yet it was almost the duty of the histo- 
 rian to describe a river, whose waters had nearly proved fatal to 
 Alexander. 
 
 a Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 156. p. 377. Yet he acknowledges 
 with gratitude the liberality of the two royal brothers in decorating 
 the tomb of Julian, (de ulcis. Jul. nece, c. 7. p. 152.) 
 
 b Cujus suprema et cincres. si qui tunc juste consuleret, non C^d- 
 nus viderc debcrct, quamvis gratissimus amnis et liquidus: sed ad 
 pcrpetuandnm glorinm rerte factorum pritterlambere Tiberis, interse- 
 cans urbem a>ternnm, divorumque vcieruin monumenta prccstringens. 
 Ammian. xxv. 10. 
 
 X The medals of Jovian adorn him with victories, laurel crowns, 
 and prostrate captives. Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 52. Flattery 
 is a foolish stiicide ; she destroys herself with her own hands. 
 
 b Jovian restored to the church tow ocpx****' xor/uew ; a forcible and 
 comprehensive expression. (Philostorgius, I. viii. c. 5. with Gode- 
 froy's Dissertations, p. 329. Sozomen, I. vi. c. 3.) The new law 
 which condemned the rape or marriage of nuns, (Cod. Theod. I. ix; 
 tit. xxv. leg. 2.) is exaggerated by Sozomen ; who supposes, that an 
 amorous glance, the adultery of the heart, was punished with death 
 by the evangelic legislator. 
 
 rience, how much their fate would depend on the 
 earliest impressions that were made on the mind of an 
 untutored soldier, hastened to the court of Edessa, or 
 Antioch. The highways of the east were crowded 
 with Homoousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and 
 Lunomian bishops, who struggled to outstrip each 
 other m the holy race; the apartments of the palace 
 resounded with their clamours ; and the ears of their 
 prince were assaulted, and perhaps astonished, by the 
 singular mixture of metaphysical argument and pas- 
 sionate invective.' The moderation of Jovian, who 
 recommended concord and charity, and referred the 
 disputants to the sentence of a future council, was in- 
 terpreted as a symptom of indifference; but his attach- 
 ment to the Niccne creed was at length discovered and 
 declared, by the reverence which he expressed for the 
 celtsttal^ virtues of the great Athanasius. The intrepid 
 veteran of the f\iith, at the age of seventy, had issued 
 from his retreat on the first intelligence of the tyrant's 
 death. The acclamations of the people seated him 
 once more on the archiepiscopal throne ; and he wisely 
 accepted, or anticipated, the invitation of Jovian. The 
 venerable figijre of Athanasius, his calm courage, and 
 insinuating eloquence, sustained the reputation which 
 he had already acquired in the courts of four succes- 
 sive princes.* As soon as he had gained the confidence, 
 and secured the faith, of the christian emperor, he re- 
 turned in triumph to his diocese, and continued, with 
 mature counsels, and undiminished vio-our, to direct 
 ten years longer,' the ecclesiastical government of 
 Alexandria, Egypt, and the catholic church. Before 
 his departure from Antioch, he assured Jovian that his 
 orthodox devotion would be rewarded with a lono- and 
 peacefu reign. Athanasius had reason to hope, that 
 he shoiild be allowed either the merit of a successful 
 prediction, or the excuse of a grateful, though ineffec- 
 tual, prayer.K ° 
 
 Jovian proclaims The slightest force, when it is applied 
 umversai tolera- to assist and guide the natural descent 
 ; of Its object, operates with irresistible 
 
 weight ; and Jovian had the good fortune to embrace 
 the religious opinions which were supported by the 
 spirit of the times, and the zeal and numbers of the 
 most powerful sect.^ Under his reign, Christianity 
 obtained an easy and lasting victory ; and as soon as 
 the smile of royal patronage was withdrawn, the genius 
 of paganism, which had been fondly raised and cher- 
 ished by the arts of Julian, sunk irrecoverably in the 
 (lust. In many cities, the temples were shut or de- 
 serted : the philosophers, who had abused their tran- 
 sient favour, thought it prudent to shave their beards, 
 and disguise their profession ; and the christians re- 
 joiced, that they were now in a condition to forgive, 
 or to revenge, the injuries which they had sufl^ered 
 under the preceding reign.' The consternation of the 
 
 329 
 
 e Compare Socrates, I. iii.c. 25. and Philoslorgius, I. viii.c. 6 with 
 Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 330. viu.i,. o. wiiu 
 
 -,l»''fllMr'°"'/ff''*"'"'' *^"'"^'y expresses the impious and extrava- 
 gant flattery of the emperor to the archbishop, ri ^p^ to. e.o.rov 
 
 ^VT rrnrnr::'^ ^ ^"^ ^''^ Original epistle in Athanasius. tom. ii. p. 
 SLf T^T^ ^•''I'a".''^" (Orat. XXI. p. 392.) celebrates the friend- 
 ship of Jovian and Athanasius. The primate's journey was advised 
 by the Egyptian monks. (Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. torn, viii p oon 
 T o' ml^"""*'/'!*-^* the court of Antioch, is agreeably repre.«ented~by 
 La Bleterie. (Hist, de Jovien, tom. i. p. 121 1-18.) he translates the 
 singu ar and original conferences of the emperor, the primate of 
 L-ypt, and the Arian deputies. The Abb6 is not satisfied with the 
 
 IT^t^ in i?f^"^'^ ?/■ '7*''" ■ •*"' '•'* P'^'-tiality for Athanasius as- 
 sumes, in Ins eyes, the character of justice. 
 
 rTni»!!r«.'!i" m""'" "^ '".' '^^''"' " perplexed with some difficulties. 
 i7 ^-^ M ' ^oT- K^*^?'*""- '°'"- ^"'- P- 719-723.) But the date (A. 
 D. 3.3. .May 2.) which seems the most consistent with history and 
 
 Ja?i?,"om.7ii p 8M ''""'*'"''*' ''^"'- ^^^^^c' Osservazioni Lette- 
 
 • * r ®®. Vi? o^'sei'vajions of Valesius and Jortin, (Remarks on Eccle- 
 siasiiral History, vol. iv. p. 3F.) on the original letter of Alhanasfus 
 which IS preserved by Theodoret, (I. iv. c. 3.) In some MSS this in-' 
 discreet promise is omitted ; perhaps by the catholics, jealous of the 
 prophetic fame of their leader. ■* ^ 
 
 h Athanasius (apud Theodoret, 1. iv. c. 3.) magnifies the number 
 of the orthodox, who composed the wiiole world, jrap.J ox.vcov Tu,y 
 or f rt'" '^'"""""^""'- This assertion was verified in the space of thirty 
 i Socrates, I. iji. c. 24. Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 131 ) and 
 
 mln^.nf ;£/■*'• P*^«'?»'^''j?' '': '48. p. 369.) expresses the living iinti' 
 ments of their respective factions. « »^"" 
 
 Vol. I — 2 R 
 
 pagan world was dispelled by a wise and gracious 
 edict of toleration ; in which Jovian explicitly declared, 
 that although he should severely punish the sacrileo-- 
 lous rites of magic, his subjects might exercise, witli' 
 freedom and safety, the ceremonies of the ancient wor- 
 ship. The memory of this law has been preserved by 
 the orator Themistius, who was deputed by the senate 
 ot Constantinople to express their loyal devotion for 
 the emperor. Themistius expatiates on the clemency 
 of the divme nature, the facility of human error, the 
 rights of conscience, and the independence of the mind ; 
 and, with some eloquence, inculcates the principles of 
 philosophical toleration ; whose aid superstition her- 
 self, m the hour of her distress, is not ashamed to im- 
 plore. He justly observes, that, in the recent chanftes, 
 both religions had been alternately disoraced by*the 
 seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those 
 votaries of the reigning purple, who could pass with- 
 out a reason, and without a blush, from the church to 
 the temple, and from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred 
 table of the christians.^ 
 
 In the space of seven months, the Ro- „• 
 man troops, who were now returned to "" ZS.*^^""* 
 Antioch, had performed a march of fif- A.D..%3. Oct. 
 teen hundred miles; in which they had endured all 
 the hardships of war, of famine, and of climate. Not- 
 withstanding their services, their fatigues, and the ap- 
 proach of winter, the timid and impatient Jovian avow- 
 ed only, to the men and horses, a respite of six weeks. 
 Ihe emperor could not sustain the indiscreet and ma- 
 licious raillery of the people of Antioch.' -He was im- 
 patient to possess the palace of Constantinople; and 
 to prevent the ambition of some competitor, who mijrht 
 occupy the vacant allegiance of Europe. But he s?on 
 received the grateful intellig^ence, that his authority 
 was acknowledged from the thracian Bosphorus to the 
 Atlantic ocean. By the first letters which he des- 
 patched from the camp of Mesopotamia, he had dele- 
 gated the military command of Gaul and Illyricum to 
 Malarich, a brave and faithful officer, of the nation of 
 the Franks ; and to his father-in-law, count Lucillian, 
 who had formerly distinguished his courage and con- 
 duct in the defence of Nisibis. Malarich had declined 
 an office to which he thought himself unequal ; and Lu- 
 cillian was massacred at Rheims, in an accidental mu- 
 tiny of the Batavian cohorts.- But the moderation of 
 Jovinus, master-general of the cavalry, who forgave 
 the intention of his disgrace, soon appeased the tumult, 
 and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers. The 
 oath of fidelity was administered, and taken, with loy- 
 al acclamations ; and the deputies of the western ar- 
 mies ■ saluted their new sovereign as he descended from 
 mount Taurus to the city of Tyana, in Cappadocia. 
 rrom Tyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra, 
 capital of the province of Galatia ; where Jovian as- 
 sumed, with his infant son, the name and ensigns of 
 the consulship.^ Dadastana, p an ob- 
 scure town, almost at an equal distance ^^j^- ^^' 
 between Ancyra and Nice, was "marked ^' 
 
 A kkL "J^^i"."^' ^rat. V. p. 63-71. edit, riarduin. Paris. 1684. The 
 Ahh^ de la Bleterie judiciously remarks. (Hist, de Jovien, tom i n 
 199.) that Sozomen has forgot the ceneral toleration ; and Themis* 
 tius, the establishment of the catholic religion. Each of them tomcd 
 away from the object which he disliked ; and wished to suppress the 
 Joiia^n "'^ honourable, in his opinion, to Uie emj^ro? 
 
 1 O; i, A.T.6Z.K «% iid^a,5 J.,K,.vT6 ^poi eeuTO-: «^^' .^.<rx«,»TO» 
 
 hbelUs.) Johan. Antiochen. in Excerpt. Valesian. p. 845. The Ii* 
 bels of Antioch may be admitted on very slight evidence 
 
 m Compare Ammianus (xxv. 10.) who omits the name of the Ba- 
 tavians, with Zosimus. (I. iii. p. ]97.) who removes the scene of ac- 
 tion from Rlieinis to Sirmium. 
 
 n Quos capita scholarum ordo castrensis appellat. Ammian. xxv. 
 10. and Vales, ad locum. 
 
 o Cujus vagitus. pertinaciter reluctantis, ne in curuli sella vehere- 
 tur ex more, id quod mox accidit protendebat. Augustus and his suc- 
 cessors respectfully solicited a dispensation of age for the sons or 
 nephews whom they raised to the consulship. But the curule chair 
 of the first Brutus had never been dishonoured by an infant 
 
 P The Itinerary of Antoninus fixes Dadastana 125 Roman miles 
 from Nice ; 1 17 from Ancyra. (Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 142.) The oil- 
 grim of Bourdeaux by omittine some stages, reduces the whole space 
 from 242 to 181 miles. vTesseling, p. 574. 
 
330 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 for the fatal term of his journey and his life. After in- 
 (lulginrr himself with a plentiful, perhaps an intempe- 
 rate, supper, he retired to rest; and the next mor- 
 ning the emperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. 
 The cause of this sudden death was va- 
 ^"'m!*!?.''''"'" "ously understood. By some it was as- 
 cribed to the consequences of an indi- 
 gestion, occasioned either by the quantity of the wine, 
 or the quality of the mushrooms, which he had swal- 
 lowed in the evening. According to others, he was 
 suffocated in his sleep by the vapour of charcoal, which 
 extracted from the walls of the apartment the unwhole- 
 some moisture of the fresli piaster.*! But the want of a 
 regular inquiry into the death of a prince, whose reign 
 and person were soon forgotten, appears to have been 
 the only circumstance which countenanced the malicious 
 whispers of poison and domestic guilt.*^ The body of 
 Jovian was sent to Constantinople, to be interred with 
 his predecessors, and the sad procession was met on the 
 road by his wife Charito, the daughter of count Lucil- 
 lian ; who still wept the recent death of her father, and 
 was hastening to dry her tears in the embraces of an 
 imperial husband. Her disappointment and grief were 
 imbittered by the anxiety of maternal tenderness. Six 
 weeks before the death of Jovian, his infant son had 
 been placed in the curule chair, adorned with the title 
 of NuhilissimuSf and the vain ensigns of the consulship. 
 Unconscious of his fortune, the royal youth, who, from 
 his grandfather, assumed the name of Varronian, was 
 reminded only by the jealousy of the government, that 
 he was the spn of an emperor. Sixteen years after- 
 wards he was still alive, but he had already been de- 
 prived of an eye ; and his afflicted mother expected, 
 every hour, that the innocent victim would be torn from 
 her arms, to appease, with his blood, the suspicions of 
 the reigning prince.* 
 
 Vacancy of the After the death of Jovian, the throne of 
 throne, the Roman world remained ten days ' 
 
 Feb. 17—26. without a master. The ministers and 
 generals still continued to meet in council ; to exercise 
 their respective functions; to maintain the public order ; 
 and peaceably to conduct the army to the city of Nice 
 in Bithynia, which was chosen for the place of the 
 election." In a solemn assembly of the civil and mili- 
 tary powers of the empire, the diadem was again un- 
 animously offered to the praefect Sallust. He enjoyed 
 the glory of a second refusal : and when the virtues 
 of the father were alledged in favour of his son, the 
 praefect, with the firmness of a disinterested patriot, 
 declared to the electors, that the feeble age of the one, 
 and the unexperienced youth of the other^ were equal- 
 ly incapable of the laborious duties of government. 
 Several candidates were proposed ; and after weighing 
 the objections of character or situation, they were suc- 
 cessively rejected : but, as soon as the name of Valen- 
 tinian w^as pronounced, the merit of that officer united 
 the suffrages of the whole assembly, and obtained the 
 sincere approbation of Sallust himself. 
 
 q See Ammianus, (xxv. 10.) Eufropiiis, (x. 18.) who mijrht like- 
 wise be presenl; Jerom. (torn. i. p. 26. ad Heliotlorurn.) Orosius, 
 vli. 31.) Sozomen, (I. vi. 6.) Zosimus, (1. iii. p. 197, 198.) and Zona- 
 ras, (loin. ii. 1. xiii. p. 28, 29.) We cannot expect a perfect agree- 
 ment, and we shall not discuss minute ditfercnces. 
 
 r Ammianus, unmindful of hig usual candour and good sense, com- 
 pares the death of the harmless Jovian to that of the second Africa- 
 nus, who had excited the fears and resentment of the popular faction. 
 
 • Chrysostom, torn. i. p. 336. 344. edit. Monlfaucon. The christian 
 orator attempts to comfort a widow bv the examples of illustrious 
 misfortunes; and observes, that of nine emperors (including the 
 Cttsar Gallus) who had reigned In his time, only two (Constantine 
 and Constantius) died a natural death. Such vague consolations 
 have never wiped away a single tear. 
 
 t Ten days appear scarcely sufficient for the march and election. 
 Butit rnay be observed: 1. That the generals might command the 
 expeditious use of the public posts for thomsclvcs. their attendants, 
 and messengers. 2. That the troops, for the ease of the cities, marcli 
 ed in many divisions ; and that the head of the column might arrive 
 at Nice when the rear halted at Ancyra. 
 
 u Ammianus, xxvi. 1. Zosimus. I. iii. p. 198. Phllostorgius, 1. vill. 
 c. 8. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 334. Philostorgius, who appears to 
 have obtained some curious and authentic intelligence, ascribes the 
 choice of Valentinian to the praefect Sallust, the master-general 
 Arintheus, Degalaiphus count of the domestics, and the patrician Da- 
 tianus, whose pressing recommendations from Ancyra had a weighty 
 influence in the election. 
 
 Election and 
 
 Valentinian was the son of count 
 Gratian, a native of Cibalis in Pannonia, character of Va- 
 who, from an obscure condition, had rais- luniinian. 
 ed himself, by matchless strength and dexterity, to 
 the military commands of Africa and Britain ; from 
 which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious 
 integrity. The rank and services of Gratian contribut- 
 ed, however, to smooth the first steps of the promotion 
 of his son; and afforded him an early opportunity of 
 displaying those solid and useful qualifications, which 
 raised his character above the ordinary level of his fel- 
 low-soldiers. The person of Valentinian was tall, 
 graceful, and majestic. His manly countenance deep- 
 ly marked with the impression of sense and spirit, in- 
 spired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear ; 
 and, to second the efforts of his imdaunted courage, 
 the son of Gratian had inherited the advantagres of a 
 strong and healthy constitution. By the habits of 
 chastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites 
 and invigorate the faculties, Valentinian preserved his 
 own and the public esteem. The avocations of a mili- 
 tary life had diverted his youth from the elegant pur- 
 suits of literature ; he was ignorant of the Greek lan- 
 guage., and the arts of rhetoric ; but as the mind of the 
 orator w^as never disconcerted by timid perplexity, he 
 was able, as often as the occasion prompted him, to 
 deliver his decided sentiments with bold and ready 
 elocution. The laws of martial discipline were the 
 only laws that he had studied ; and he was soon dis- 
 tinguished by the laborious diligence, and inflexible 
 severity, with which he discharged and enforced the 
 duties of the camp. In the time of Julian he provoked 
 the danger of disgrace, by the contempt which he pub- 
 licly expressed for the reigning religion ;^ and it should 
 seem, from his subsequent conduct, that the indiscreet 
 and unseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the ef- 
 fect of military spirit, rather than of christian zeal. He 
 was pardoned, however, and still employed by a prince 
 who esteemed his merit:* and in the various events of 
 the Persian war, he improved the reputation which ho 
 had already acquired on the banks of the Rhine. The 
 celerity and success with w hich he executed an im- 
 portant commission, recommended him to the favour of 
 Jovian, and to the honourable command of the second 
 school^ or company, of Targeteers, of the domestic 
 guards. In the march from Antioch, he had reached 
 his quarters at Ancyra, when he was unexpectedly 
 summoned, without guilt, and without intrigue, to as- 
 sume, in the forty-third year of his age. the absolute 
 government of the Roman empire. 
 
 The invitation of the ministers and ge- „^ ;, acknowled- 
 aerals at Nice was of little moment, un- ged by the army, 
 less it were confirmed by the voice of the ^^'^' 
 army. The aged Sallust, who had long 
 observed the irregular fluctuations of popular assem- 
 blies, proposed, under pain of death, that none of those 
 persons, whose rank in the service might excite a party 
 in their favour, should appear in public on the day of the 
 inauguration. Yet such was the prevalence of ancient 
 superstition, that a whole day was voluntarily added 
 to this dangerous interval, because it happened to be 
 the intercalation of the Bissextile.* At length, when 
 the hour was supposed to be propitious, Valentinian 
 
 X Ammianus, (xxx. 7. 9.) and the youncer Victor, have furnished 
 the portrait of Valentinian, which naturally precedes and illustrates 
 the history of his reign. 
 
 y At Antioch, where he was ol)ligcd to attend the emperor to the 
 temple, he struck a priest, who had presumed to purify him with 
 lustral water. (Sozomen, I. vi. c. 0. Theodoret, 1. iii. c. 15.) Such 
 public defiance might become Valentinian ; but it could leave no 
 room for the unworthy delation of the philosopher Maximus, which 
 supposes some more private otlence. (Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 200, 201.) 
 
 z Socrates, 1. iv. A previous exile to Melitcne, or Thebais, (the 
 first might be possible.) is interposed by Sozomen (I. vi. c. 6.) and 
 Philostorgius, (I. vii. c. 7. with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 293.) 
 
 a Ammianus, in a long, because unfeasonahle digression, (xxvi. i. 
 and Valcsius ad locum,) rashly supposes that he understands an as- 
 tronomical question, of which his readers are ignorant. It is treated 
 with more judgment and propriety by Censorius, (de Die Natali, c. 
 20.) and Macrobius. (Saturnal. 1. i. c. 12—16.) The appellation of 
 Bissextile, which marks the inauspicious year, (August, ad Janu- 
 ar(ajn. Epist. 119.) is derived from the repetition of the tizth day of 
 the calends of March. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 showed himself from a lofty tribunal : the judicious 
 choice was applauded ; and the new prince was so- 
 lemnly invested with the diadem and the purple, 
 amidstthe acclamations of the troops, who were dispo^ 
 sedm martial order round the tribunal. But when 
 he stretched forth his hand to address the armed multi- 
 tude, a busy whisper was accidentally started in the 
 ranks, and insensibly swelled into a loud and imperi- 
 ous clamour, that he should name, without delay, a 
 col eague in the empire. The intrepid calmness of Va- 
 
 in^H hftr JT^ ''iT^' ^"^ commanded respect; 
 and he thus addressed the assembly : "A few minutes 
 since It was myour power, fellow-soldiers, to have 
 left me in the obscurity of a private station. Judging, 
 from the testimony of my past life, that I deserved to 
 reign, you have placed me on the throne. It is now 
 m^ duty to consult the safety and interest of the repub- 
 
 irn*., f H '?'°^^ ""i ^'l^ ""^^^^^^ »« undoubtedly too 
 great for the hands of a feeble mortal. I am conscious 
 
 of the limits of my abilities and the uncertainty of my 
 life ; and far from declining, I am anxious to solicit, 
 the assistance of a worthy colleague. Bnt, where dis' 
 cord may be fatal, the choice of a faithful friend re- 
 quires mature and serious deliberation. That delibe- 
 ration shall be m^cars. Let your conduct be dutiful 
 and consistent. Retire to your quarters ; refresh your 
 minds and bodies ; and expect the accustomed donative 
 on the accession of a new emperor.'"> The astonished 
 troops, with a mixture of pride, of satisfaction, and of 
 terror, confessed the voice of their master. Their an- 
 gry clamours subsided into silent reverence; and Valen- 
 tinian, encompassed with the eagles of the leo-ions, and 
 
 onn/'7T- ^'""rP °^'^^" cavalry and infa'ntry, was 
 conducted in warlike pomp to the palace of Nice. As 
 he was sensible however, of the importance of preven- 
 ting some rash declaration of the soldiers, he consulted 
 the assembly of the chiefs; and their real sentinients 
 were concisely expressed by the generous freed o^n of 
 
 cer^" if^vn"'- " •]''' ^r"^"' P^^"^^'" «^^d that offi- 
 cer. If you consider only your family, you have a bro- 
 ther ; if you love the republic, look round for the most 
 deserving of the Romans.-c The emperor, v ho sup 
 pressed his displeasure, without alterincr his intentioS 
 slowly proceeded from Nice to Nicom^edia and Con! 
 and associates hu stantinople. In one of the suburbs of that 
 bro.lH,r Vain.,, capital," thirty days after his own cleva- 
 Mkrchi; t'on. he bestowed tl)e title of Augustus 
 on his brother Valens ; and as the^bold- 
 es patriots were convinced, that their opposTtion! wi h- 
 out being serviceable to their country, would be fatSl 
 to themselves, the declaration of his Absolute will was 
 received with silent submission. Valens was now ?n 
 
 iter rriv * ^^^T "■ ^'' "§:« ' •"" »"•« abilities haS 
 never been exercised in any employment, military or 
 c vil ; and his character had not inspired the worM 
 with any sanguine expectations. He possessed, how- 
 ever, one quality, which recommended him to vLlenTi- 
 man, and preserved the domestic peace of the empire ; 
 a devout and grateful attachment to his benefactor 
 whose superiority of genius as well as of authority 
 Valens humbly and cheerfully acknowledged in every 
 action of hisjife.' ^ 
 
 The final division Before Valentinian divided the provin- 
 
 west^rer,;;^' Z' ^^^^^^«^"!^? ^^e administration of 
 A. D. 364. June. }^^ empire. All ranks of subjects who 
 
 r T 1- ^*^?" injured or oppressed under the 
 
 reign of Julian, were invited to support their public as- 
 cusations. The silence of mankind attested the spot- 
 less integrity of the prefect Sallust ;' and his own pres- 
 
 331 
 
 sing solicitations, that he might be permitted to retire 
 from the business of the stateT were rejected by Valen- 
 tinian w^ith the most honourable expressions of friend 
 ship and esteem. But among the favourites of the late 
 emperor, there were many who had abused his credu- 
 lity or superstition ; and who could no lono-er hone to 
 be protected either by favour or justice.^ The ffS 
 part of the ministers of the palace, and the gov^emo^s 
 of the provinces, were removed from their respective 
 s a ions; yet the eminent merit of some office^rs wis 
 distinguished from the obnoxious crowd ; and notwith- 
 standing the opposite clamours of zeal and resentment, 
 the whole piioceedings of this delicate inquiry appear 
 to have been conducted with a reasonable share of wis- 
 dom and moderation.i> The festivity of a new reig-n 
 received a short and suspicious interruption from the 
 sudden illness of the two princes : but as soon as their 
 
 Sn^^f .r''^' -^^ '\^^ ^'^ Constantinople in the be- 
 ginning of the spring. In the castle, or palace, of Medi- 
 ana, only three miles from Naissus, they executed the 
 solemn and final division of the Roman empire.' Va- 
 ientinian bestowed on his brother the rich praefecture 
 
 P.!cf/ '/'iTu^^^ ^°'''^' ^^""^« t^ the confines of 
 Persia ; whils he reserved for his immediate govern- 
 ment the warlike prjBfcctures of Illyricum, Italy, and 
 r^mnnrt""" '^//^^^^\^ity of Greece to the Caledonian 
 
 f^^^ /Vf ^""^ ^^"^ ^^'^ ^^"^P^^t ^^ Caledonia to the 
 foot of Mount Atlas. The provincial administration 
 remained on its former basis ; but a double supply of 
 generals and magistrates was required for two councils 
 and two courts : the division was made with a just re- 
 gard to their peculiar merit and situation,and seven mas- 
 ter-generals were soon created, either of the cavalry or 
 intantry. When this important business had been 
 amie^ab y transacted,Valentinian and Valens embraced 
 tor the last time. The emperor of the west established 
 his temporary residence at Milan ; and the emperor of 
 the east returned to Constantinople, to assume the do- 
 minion of fifty provinces, of whose language he was 
 totally Ignorant.'' 
 
 The tranquillity of the east w^as soon Revolt of Procc 
 disturbed by rebellion; and the throne of * T^^t 
 Valens was threatened by the daring at- S^-pt: % 
 tempts of a rival, whose affinity to the emperor Julian « 
 was his sole merit, and had been his only crime Pro- 
 copius had been hastily promoted from the obscure sta- 
 tion of a tribune, and a notary, to the joint command of 
 the army of Mesopotamia; the public opinion already 
 named him as the successor of a prince who was desti- 
 tute of natural heirs ; and a vain rumour was propagat- 
 ed by his friends, or his enemies, that Julian, before 
 the altar of the Aloon, at Carrhaj, had privately invest- 
 ed Procopius vyith the imperial purple.- He endeavour- 
 ed, by his dutiful and submissive behaviour, to disarm 
 the jealousy of Jovian ; resigned, without a contest, his 
 military command ; and retired, with his wife and fami- 
 ly, to cultivate the ample patrimony which he possess- 
 ed in the province of Cappadocia. These useful and 
 innocent occupations were interrupted by the appear- 
 ance of an officer, with a band of soldiers, who, in the 
 
 b Valentinians first speech is full in Ammianus, (xxvi " \ conri«P 
 and sententious in Philostorgius, (I. viii. c. H ) "' •^°"^"'® 
 
 c Si lues. amas. iniperator opiime, hahes fratrern ; si rempuhlicam 
 nuare quern vrstisis. Ammian. xxvi. 4. In the division of tie en • 
 pire Valen » una n retained that sincere counsellor for himself re fi 
 
 d In suburbano. Ammian. xxvi. 4. The famous ^eWome«. or field 
 of Mars was distant from Constantinople either seven stadia or 
 
 s,rt.Y:'in. 1% S7^s:i?r "^^ ^'^^^'^^^^ -^^ '°^- -- ^--^^^ 
 
 e Participemquidem legiiimum potestatis; sed in modum apparilo- 
 r VnV^1[h'V' "' P^o?,''«<l'«"5 aperiet textus. Ammian. xxvil 4 
 f Notwithstanding the evidence of Zonarae, Suidas, and the Pus 
 
 dial Chronicle. M.deTiilemont (Hist. desEmuereurs tom v n r7i \ 
 v^xshe. to disbelieve these stories si avantagTuS un Tyen ^' ^^^'^ 
 
 luml^^Kll^t^^T^^ ^".'^ exasperates the sufTeriups'^oYMaximus 
 (p. 82, 8.g yet he allows, tliat this sophist or macician the phH r f«' 
 vourite of Julian, and the personal enemy of VafenUn aS ^vas dS" 
 missed on the payment of a small fine. dieniinian, was dis- 
 
 h The loose assertions of a ceneral disgrace (Zosimus 1 iv d "on 
 are detected and refuted by Tillemont, (tSm. v u « n ^' * 
 
 i Ammianus, xxvi. 5. • f-~'-; 
 
 ner nlTp^nMhyf '?!,'••" ^""''T^ ^^'""^^ suhapresti.s inpenii, nee hclllois 
 nee hheralibus studiis eriiditus. Ammian. xxxi. 14. The orator 
 
 Tr«t t"imo",n' T\^)^^^ ^Z""*"^. ""P^rtinonce of a Greek, wished for 
 first time to speak the Latin language, the dialect of his soverei-n. 
 Tijv Ai»/.«xTOi' xpssTnaav. Orat. vi. p. 71. »-'i»"» 
 
 1 The uncertain degree of alliance, or consanguinity, is expreswd 
 by the words «viv.of, cotrnatus, consobrinus. (.See Valesius ad Am- 
 mian. xxiii. d.) j he mother of Procopius might be a sister Qf BasilU 
 na, and count Julian, the mother and uncle of the Apostate. Du- 
 cange, Fam. Byzantm. p. 49. *^ 
 
 m An.mian. xxiii. 3. xxvi. 6. He mentions the report with much 
 hesitation ; susurravit ohscunor fama ; nemo enim dicti auctor exit 
 tit verus. It serve*, however, to remark, that Procopius was a pa. 
 fd,"iiisVre!ensi;r" '°" "°^ appear to have promote'i, or o^s.'iu'it. 
 
 t 
 
332 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 name of his new sovereigns, Valentinian and Valens, 
 was depatched to conduct the unfortunate Procopius 
 either to a perpetual prison, or an ignominious death. 
 His presence of mind procured him a longer respite, and 
 a more splendid fate. Without presuming to dispute 
 the royal mandate, he requested the indulgence of a 
 few moments to embrace his weeping family ; and, 
 while the vigilance of his guards was relaxed by a 
 plentiful entertainment, he dexterously escaped to the 
 sea-coast of the Euxine, from whence he passed over 
 to the country of Bosphorus. In that sequestered re- 
 gion he remained many months, exposed to the hard- 
 ships of exile, of solitude, and of want; Ijis melancho- 
 ly temper brooding over his misfortunes, and his mind 
 agitated by the just apprehension, that, if any accident 
 should discover his name, the faithless barbarians would 
 violate, without much scruple, the laws of hospitality. 
 In a moment of impatience and despair, Procopius em- 
 barked in a merchant vessel, which made sail for Con- 
 stantinople ; and boldly aspired to the rank of a sove- 
 reign, because he was not allowed to enjoy the securi- 
 ty of a subject. At first he lurked in the villages of Bi- 
 thynia, continually changing his habitation, and his dis- 
 guise." By degrees he ventured into the capital, trust- 
 ed his life and fortune to the fidelity of two friends, a 
 senator and a eunuch, and conceived some hopes of 
 success, from the intelligence which he obtained of the 
 actual state of the public affairs. The body of the 
 people was infected with a spirit of discontent : they 
 regretted the justice and the abilities of Sallust, who 
 had been imprudently dimissed from the praefecture of 
 the east. They despised the character of Valens, which 
 was rude without vigour, and feeble without mildness. 
 They dreaded the influence of his father-in-law, the 
 patrician Petronius, a cruel and rapacious minister, 
 who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tribute that 
 might remain unpaid since the reign of the emperor 
 Aurelian. The circumstances were propitious to the 
 designs of a usurper. The hostile measures of the 
 Persians required the presence of Valens in Syria : 
 from the Danube to the Euphrates the troops were in 
 motion ; and the capital was occasionally filled with the 
 soldiers who passed or repassed the Thracian Bospho- 
 rus. Two cohorts of Gauls were persuaded to listen 
 to the secret proposals of the conspirators; which were 
 recommendea by the promise ofa liberal donative ; and 
 as they still revered the memory of Julian, they easily 
 consented to support the hereditary claim of his pro- 
 scribed kinsman. At the dawn of day they were 
 drawn up near the baths of Anastasia ; and Procopius, 
 clothed in a purple garment, more suitable to a player 
 than to a monarch, appeared as if he rose from the dead, 
 in the midst of Constantinople. The soldiers, who 
 were prepared for his reception, saluted their trembling 
 prince with shouts of joy, and vows of fidelity. Their 
 numbers were soon increased by a sturdy band of pea- 
 sants, collected from the adjacent country ; and Pro- 
 copius, shielded by the arms of his adherents, was 
 successively conducted to the tribunal, the senate, and 
 the palace. During the first moments of his tumultu- 
 ous reign, he was astonished and terrified by the gloo- 
 my silence of the people; who were either ignorant of 
 the cause, or apprehensive of the event. But his mili- 
 . tary strength was superior to any actual resistance: 
 the malcontents flocked to the standard of rebellion ; 
 the poor were excited by the hopes, and the rich were 
 intimidated by the fear, of a general pillage ; and the 
 obstinate credulity of the multitude was once more de- 
 ceived by the promised advantages of a revolution. 
 The magistrates were seized ; the prisons and arsenals 
 broke upon ; the gates and the entrance of the harbour 
 were diligently occupied ; and, in a few hours, Proco- 
 pius became the absolute, though precarious, master of 
 
 n One of his retreats was a country-house of Eunomius, the here- 
 tic. The master was absent, innocent, ignorant; yet he narrowly 
 escaped a sentence of death, and was banished into the remote parts 
 of Mauritania. (Philostorg. I. ix. c. 5. 8. and Godefroy'a Dissert, p. 
 369—378.) 
 
 the imperial city. The usurper improved this unex- 
 pected success with some degree of courage and dexte- 
 rity. He artfully propagated the rumours and opin- 
 ions the most favourable to his interest; while he delud- 
 ed the populace by giving audience to the frequent but 
 imaginary, ambassadors of distant nations. The large 
 bodies of troops, stationed in the cities of Thrace, and 
 the fortresses of the Lower Danube, were gradually 
 involved in the guilt of rebellion ; and the Gothic prin- 
 ces consented to supply the sovereign of Constantinople 
 with the formidable strength of several thousand auxi- 
 liaries. His generals passed the Bosphorus, and sub- 
 dued, without an eflfort, the unarmed, but wealthy, pro- 
 vinces of Bilhynia and Asia. After an honourable de- 
 fence, the city and island of Cyzicus yielded to his pow- 
 er; the renowned legions of the Jovians and Herculians 
 embraced the cause of the usurper, whom they were or- 
 dered to crush ; and, as the veterans were continually 
 augmented with new levies, he soon appeared at the head 
 of an army, whose valour, as well as numbers, were not 
 unequal to the greatness of the contest. The son of 
 Hormisdas," a youth of spirit and ability, condescend- 
 ed to draw his sVord against the lawful emperor of the 
 east; arid the Persian prince was immediately invested 
 with the ancient and extraordinary powers of a Roman 
 proconsul. The alliance of Faustina, the widow of the 
 emperor Constantius, who intrusted herself and her 
 daughter to the hands of the usurper, added dignity and 
 reputation to his cause. The princess Constantia, 
 who was then about five years of age, accompanied, in 
 a litter, the march of the army. She was shown to the 
 multitude in the arms of her adopted father; and, as 
 often as she passed through the ranks, the tenderness 
 of the soldiers was inflamed into martial fury : p they 
 recollected the glories of the house of Constantino, and 
 they declared, with loyal acclamation, that they would 
 shed the last drop of their blood in the defence of the 
 royal infant.** 
 
 In the mean while Valentinian was Hi? defeat and 
 alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful a. a 366. 
 intelligence of the revolt of the east. May 28. 
 The difficulties of a German war forced him to confine 
 his immediate care to the safety of his own dominions; 
 and, as every channel of communication was stopt or 
 corrupted, he listened, with doubtful anxiety, to the ru- 
 mours which were industriously spread, that the defeat 
 and death of Valens had left Procopius sole master of 
 the eastern provinces. Valens was not dead : but, on the 
 news of the rebellion, which he received at Cassarea, 
 he basely despaired of his life and fortune; proposed 
 to negociatc with the usurper, and discovered his secret 
 inclination to abdicate the imperial purple. The timid 
 monarch was saved from disgrace and ruin by the firm- 
 ness of his ministers, and their abilities soon decided 
 in his favour the event of the civil war. In a season 
 of tranquillity, Sallust had resigned without a murmur ; 
 but as soon as the public safety was attacked, he ambi- 
 tiously solicited the pre-eminence of toil and dan- 
 ger ; and the restoration of that virtuous minister to 
 the prefecture of the east, was the first step which in- 
 dicated the repentance of Valens, and satisfied the 
 minds of the people. The reign of Procopius was ap- 
 parently supported by powerful armies, and obedient 
 provinces. But many of the principal officers, milita- 
 ry as well as civil, had been urged, either by motives 
 of duty or interest, to withdraw themselves from the 
 CTuilty scene, or to watch the moment of betraying and 
 
 o Ilormisdffi niaturo juvcni FTormisdsc rcpalis illius filio. potesta- 
 tern proconsulis detulit; et civilia, more veterum.et belln, recturo. 
 Ammian. xxvi. 8. The Persian prince escaped witli lionour and 
 safety, and was afterwards, (A.D. 3F0.) restored to tlie same extra- 
 ordinary office of proconsul of Bithynia, (Tillemont, Hist, des Eiiipe- 
 reurs, torn. v. p. 204.) I am i(;norant whether the race of Sassan 
 was propacated. I find (A. D. ."iN.) a pope Ilorniisdas ; but he was 
 a native of Prusino, in Italy. (Pagi. Brev. Pontific. torn. i. p. 247.) 
 
 P The infant rebel was afterwards tlie wife of the emperor Gra- 
 tian, but she died young and citildless. See Ducange, Fam. Byzan- 
 tin. p. 48—50. 
 
 q Sequimini culminis pummi prosapiam, was the language of Pro- 
 copius: who affected to despise the obscure birth and fortuitoui 
 election, of the upstart Fannonian. Aiumian. zxvi. 7. 
 
 deserting the cause of the usurper. Lupicinus advan- 
 ced by hasty marches, to bring the legions of Syria 
 to the aid of Valens. Arintheiis, who" in strenath, 
 beauty, and valour, excelled all the heroes of the a^e, 
 attacked with a small troop, a superior body of The 
 rebels. V^ hen he b.held the faces of the soldiers who 
 had served under his banner, he commanded them, 
 with a loud voice, to seize and deliver up their pretend- 
 ed leader; and such was the ascendant of his genius, 
 that his extraordinary order was instantly obeyed.' 
 Arbetio, a respectable veteran of the great Constantine', 
 who had been distinguished by the honours of the con- 
 sulship, was persuaded to leave his retirement, and 
 once more to conduct an army into the field. In the 
 heat of action, calmly taking oflThis helmet, he showed 
 his gray hairs, and venerable countenance; saluted 
 the soldiers of Procopius by the endearing names of 
 children and companions, and exhorted them no Ion- 
 ger to support the desperate cause of a contemptible 
 tyrant ; but to follow their old commander, who had 
 so otten led them to honour and victory. In the two 
 engagements of Thyatira' and Nacosia, the unfortunate 
 Procopius was deserted by his troops, who were se- 
 duced by the instructions and example of their perfidi- 
 ous officers. After wandering some time amontr the 
 woods and mountains of Phrygia, he was betraye"d by 
 his desponding followers, conducted to the imperial 
 camp, and immediately beheaded. He suffered the 
 ordinary fate of an unsuccessful usurper: but the acts 
 ol cruelty which were exercised by the conqueror, un- 
 der the forms of legal justice, excited the pity and in- 
 dignation of mankind.* 
 
 Solvere inrjuisi- Sucli indeed are the common and na- 
 ireTflia^ic tnral fruits of despotism and rebellion, 
 at Rome and An- ^"^ the inquisition into the crime of ma- 
 ' a' D 373 &c P^\^h'^h' ""der the reign of the two 
 • • • • brothers, was so rigorously prosecuted 
 both at Rome and Antioch, was interpreted as the fatal 
 symptom, either of the displeasure of heaven, or of the 
 depravity of mankind." Let us not hesitate to indulo-e 
 a liberal pride, that in the present age, the enlio-htened 
 part of Europe has abolished * a cruel and odious pre- 
 judice, which reigned in every climate of the globe, 
 and adhered to every system of religious opinions.y 
 The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world, admit- 
 ted with equal credulity and similar abhorrence, the 
 reality of that infernal art,« which was able to control 
 the eternal order of the planets, and the voluntary ope- 
 rations of the human mind. They dreaded the myste- 
 rious power of spells and incantations, of potent herbs, 
 and execrable rites, which could extinguish or recall 
 
 333 
 
 r Et dedicriatns hominem supcrare ceriamine despicabilem. aurto- 
 fitatis et celsi fiducia corporis, ipsis hostibus jiissit. suum vincire rec- 
 torem : atque ita turmaruni antesitinanus umbratijis comnrensus <8u- 
 orum manihus. The stren-th and beauty of Arintheus. the new 
 Hercules are celebrated by SI. Basil; who supposes that God had 
 created him as an inimitable model of tlie human species. The 
 pamters and sculptors could not express his figure: the historians 
 appeared fabulous when they related his exploits. (Ammian. xxvi. 
 and Vales, ad loc.) 
 
 • The same field of baUle is placed by AmmSanus in Lycia, and by 
 Zosmjus at J hyatira ; wliich are at thedi.^fance of 150 miles from 
 each other. But Thyalira alluitur Lvre, (Piin. Hist. Natur. v 31. 
 Cellarius, (.eoarnph. Anliq. torn. il.p. 79.) and the transcribers mi"ht 
 easily convert an oI«rure river into a well-known province. * 
 
 t The advenurres, usurpation, and full of Proropiiis. are related in 
 Sn-f^'/.wyf'^Vnf' *'^ A'nmianus, (xxvi. 6-10.) and Zosimus. (I. iv! p. 
 20.1-210.) i hey often illustrate, and seldom contradict each other, 
 i hcmisiius, Oral. vil. p. 91, 92.) adds some base panegyric ; and Eu- 
 napius (p. 83. 84.) some malicious satire. 
 
 u Libanius do ulciscend. Julian, nece. c. ix. p. 1,58, 159 The so 
 pliist deplores the public frenzy, but he does not (after tiieir deaths) 
 impeach the justice of the emperors. 
 
 X The French and English lawyers, of the present age, allow the 
 theorif, and deny the practice of witchcraft. (Denisarl, Recueil de 
 J)eci.«!ions de Jurisprudence, au mot SomVr.'f.tom iv p 5>3 Biick- 
 stone's Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 60.) As private reason always pre- ' 
 vents, or outstrips, public wisdom, the president Montesquieu (Esprit 
 des Loix. I. xn. c. 5, 6.) rejects the existence of macic. 
 
 y See CEuvres de Bayle, torn. iii. p. .'>G7— 589. The sceptic of Rot- 
 terdam exhibits, according to liia custom, a strange medley of loose 
 Knowledge and lively wit. 
 
 2 The pagans distinguished between pood and bad magic the 
 Theurgic and the Goetic. (Hist, de I'Academe, &c. toin. vil. p 25 ) 
 But they could not have defended this obscure distinction against the 
 acute logic of Bayle. In the Jewish and christian systern, all da' 
 mons arc infernal spirits; and a// commerce with them is idolatry, 
 apostasy, &c., which deserves death and damnation. | 
 
 life, inflame the passions of the soul, blast the works of 
 creation, and extort from the reluctant daemons the se- 
 crets of futurity. They believed, with the wildest in- 
 consistency, that thispraiternatural dominion of the air, 
 of earth, and of hell, was exercised, from the vilest 
 motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled haffs, 
 and Itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives 
 in penury and contempt.* The arts of magic were 
 equally condemned by the public opinion, and by the 
 laws of Rome ; but as they tended to gratify the most im- 
 perious passions of the heart of man, they were continu- 
 ally proscribed, and continually practised.'' An imaoi- 
 nary cause is capable of producing the most serious and 
 mischievous effects. The dark predictions of the death 
 of an emperor, or the success of a conspiracy, were 
 calculated only to stimulate the hopes of ambition, and 
 to dissolve the ties of fidelity; and the intentional guilt 
 of magic was aggravated by the actual crimes of trea- 
 son and sacrilege.^ Such vain terrors disturbed the 
 peace of society, and the happiness of individuals ; and 
 the harmless flame which insensibly melted a waxen 
 image, might derive a powerful and pernicious energy 
 from the affrighted fancy of the person whom it was 
 maliciously designed to represent.** From the infusion 
 of those herbs, which were supposed to possess a su- 
 pt^matural influence, it was an easy step to the use of 
 more substantial poison ; and the folly of mankind 
 sometimes became the instrument, and the mask, of the 
 most atrocious crimes. As soon as the zeal of infor- 
 mers was encouraged by the ministers of Valens and 
 Valentinian, they could not refuse to listen to another 
 charge, too frequently mingled in the scenes of domes- 
 tic guilt; a charge ofa softer and less malignant na- 
 ture, for which the pious, though excessive, rigour of 
 Constantine had recently decreed the punishment of 
 death.* This deadly and incoherent mixture of trea- 
 son and magic, of poison and adultery, afforded infinite 
 gradations of guilt and innocence, of excuse and ag- 
 gravation, which in these proceedings appear to have 
 been confounded by the angry or corrupt passions of 
 the jiidges. They easily discovered, that the degree 
 of their industry and discernment was estimated b/the 
 imperial court, according to the number of executions 
 that were furnished from their respective tribunals. It 
 was not without extreme reluctance that they pro- 
 nounced a sentence of acquittal ; but they eagerly ad- 
 mitted such evidence as was stained with perjury, or 
 procured by torture, to prove the most improbable 
 charges, against the most respectable characters. The 
 progress of the inquiry continually opened new subjects 
 of criminal prosecution ; the audacious informer, whose 
 falsehood was detected, retired with impnnity; but the 
 wretched victim, who discovered his real, or pretefnded, 
 accomplices, was seldom permitted to receive the 
 price of his infamy. From the extremity of Italy and 
 Asia, the young and the aged were dragged in chains 
 to the tribunals of Rome and Antioch. Senators, ma- 
 trons, and philosophers, expired in ignominious and 
 
 a The Oanidia of Horace (Carm. I. v. Od. 5. with Dacier's and Sa- 
 nadon's illustrations) is a vulgar uifch. The Ericlito of Lucan 
 (Pharsal. vi. 430—8:50.) is tedious, disgusting, but sometimes sublime. 
 She chides the delay of the furies; and threatens, with tremendous 
 otiscurity, to pronounce their real names; to reveal the true infernal 
 countenance of Hecate; to invoke the secret powers that lie helow 
 hell, &c. 
 
 b Genus bominum pofentihus infidum, sperantibus falla.x, quod in 
 civitate nostra et velabiiur semper et retinebitur. Tacit. Hist. i. 22. 
 See AugusMn, de Civitate Dei, I, viii. c. 19. and the Theodosian 
 Code, I. ix. tit. xvi. with Godefroy's Commentary. 
 
 c The persecution of Antioch was occasioned by a criminal con- 
 sultation. The twenty-four leUers of the alphalMjt were arranged 
 round a magic tripod : and a dancing ring, which had been placed in 
 the centre, pointed to the four first letters in the name of the future 
 etnperor. e. E. O. A. Theodorus (perhaps with many others who 
 owned the fatal syllables) was executed. Theodosius succeeded 
 Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 353 — 372.) has copiously 
 and fairly examined this dark transaction of the reign of Valens. 
 d Limiis ut liic durescit, et Iiaic ut cera liquescit 
 
 Uno eodemque igni Virgil. Bucolic, viii. 89. 
 
 Devovei absentes, simulacraque cerea figit. 
 
 Ovid, in Episi. Hypsil. ad Jason. 91. 
 Such vain incantations could affect the mind, and increase the dis- 
 ease, of Germanicus. Tacit. Annal. ii. 69. 
 
 e SceHeineccius Antiquitat. Jaris Roman, torn. ii. p. 353. &e. Cod. 
 Theodosian. I. ix. lit. 7. with Godefroy'g Commentary. 
 
 m 
 
 
 r 
 
334 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 cruel tortures. The soldiers, who were appointed to 
 guard the prisons, declared, with a murmur of pity and 
 indignation, that their numbers were insufficient to op- 
 pose the flight, or resistance, of the multitude of cap- 
 tives. The wealthiest families were ruined by fines 
 and confiscations ; the most innocent citizens trembled 
 for their safety ; and we may form some notion of the 
 magnitude of the evil, from the extravagant assertion 
 of an ancient writer, that, in the obnoxious provinces, 
 the prisoners, the exiles, and the fugitives, formed the 
 greatest part of the inhabitants.' 
 The cruelty of When Tacitus describes the deaths 
 Vaientiiiian and of the innoccnt and illustrious Romans, 
 A* 'D^ijCi-STS ^^^ ^'^^® sacrificed to the cruelty of the 
 first Caesars, the art of the historian, or 
 the merit of the suflferers, excite in our breasts the most 
 lively sensations of terror, of admiration, and of pity. 
 The coarse and undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus 
 has delineated his bloody figures with tedious and 
 disgusting accuracy. But as our attention is no longer 
 engaged by the contrast of freedom and servitude, of 
 recent greatness and of actual misery, we should turn 
 with horror from the frequent executions, which dis- 
 graced, both at Rome and Antioch, the reign of the 
 two brothers.^ Valens was of a timid, »> and Valenti- 
 nian of a choleric, disposition.' An anxious regard for 
 his personal safety was the ruling principle of the admin- 
 istration of Valens. In the condition of a subject, he 
 had kissed, with trembling awe, the hand of the op- 
 pressor ; and when he ascended the throne, he reasona- 
 bly expected, that the same fears, which had subdued 
 his own mind, would secure the patient submission of 
 his people. The favourites of Valens obtained, by the 
 privilege of rapine and confiscation, the wealth which 
 his economy would have refused."^ They urged, with 
 persuasive eloquence, that, in all cases of treason, sus- 
 picion is equivalent to proof; thai the power, supposes 
 the intention, of mischief ; that the intention is not less 
 criminal than the act ; and that a subject no longer de- 
 serves to live, if his life may threaten the safety, or 
 disturb the repose, of his sovereign. The judgment 
 of Valentinian was sometimes deceived, and his con- 
 fidence abused ; but he would have silenced the infor- 
 mers with a contemptuous smile, had they presumed 
 to alarm his fortitude by the sound of danger. They 
 praised his inflexible love of justice ; and, in^the pursuit 
 of justice, the emperor was easily tempted to consider 
 clemency as a weakness, and passion as a virtue. As 
 long as he wrestled with his equals, in the bold com- 
 petition of an active and ambitious life, Valentinian 
 was seldom injured, and never insulted, with impu- 
 nity : if his prudence was arraigned, his spirit was 
 applauded; and the proudest and most powerful 
 generals were apprehensive of provoking the resent- 
 ment of a fearless soldier. After he became master of 
 the world, he unfortunately forgot, that where no re- 
 sistance can be made, no courage can be exerted ; and 
 instead of consulting the dictates of reason and mag- 
 nanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his tem- 
 per, at a time when they were disgraceful to himself, 
 
 f The cruel persecution of Rome and Antioth is described, and 
 most probably exagucratod. by Ammianus (xxviii. 1. xxix. 1,2.) and 
 Zosimu., (I. xy. p 2Hi-218.) The philosopher Maximus. with some 
 S*"^^ 'aa'aor'''^'* '" ^^e cjiargc of magic; (Eunapius in Vit. So- 
 ^Ll ;#-^;i ' ^ an»J y?""S Chrysostom, who had accidentally found 
 one of the proscribed books, gave himself for lost. (Tillemont Hist 
 dea Empereurs, torn. v. p. HJO.) ^ emuiii, insi. 
 
 K Consult the six last books of Ammianus. and more narticularlv 
 tlie portraits of thu two royal brothers, (xxx. 8. 9. xxxi. 14 ) Tillc- 
 inonl has collected (torn. v. p. 12— 18. p. 127-133.) from all antiquity 
 their virtues and vices. ' 
 
 h The younger Victor asserts that lie was valde timidus: yet he 
 liehaved, as almost every luan would do, with decent resolution at 
 the head of an army. Tlie same historian attempts to prove, that 
 his angfr was harmless. Ammianus observes, with more candour 
 and judgment, incidentia crimina ad conteinptam vel lasam principis 
 amplitudinem traheiis, in sanguinem gajviebat, 
 
 > Cum esset ad acerbitafem naturse calore propensior . . . pcenas 
 per ignes nugebat et gladios. Ainmian. xxx. 8. See xxvii, 7. 
 
 k I have transferred the reproach of avarice from Valens to his 
 ■ervants. Avarice more properly belongs to ministers than to kings • 
 in Whom that passion is commonly extinguished by absolute pOsses- 
 
 and fatal to the defenceless objects of his displeasure. 
 In the government of his household, or of his empire, 
 slight, or even imaginary, oflfences, a hasty word, a 
 casual omission, an involuntary delay, were chastised 
 by a sentence of immediate death. The expressions 
 which issued the most readily from the mouth of the 
 
 emperor of the west were, " Strike oflf his head ;" 
 
 " burn him alive ;" — " let him be beaten with clubs 
 till he expires ;" ' and his most favoured ministers soon 
 understood, that, by a rash attempt to dispute, or sus- 
 pend, the execution of his sanguinary commands, they 
 might involve themselves in the guilt and punishment 
 of disobedience. The repeated gratification of this 
 savage justice hardened the mind of Valentinian against 
 pity and remorse ; and the sallies of passion were con- 
 firmed by the habits of cruelty.™ He could behold 
 with calm satisfaction the convulsive agonies of torture 
 and death : he reserved his friendship for those faithful 
 servants whose temper was the most congenial to his 
 own. The nierit of Maximin, who had slaughtered the 
 noblest families of Rome, was rewarded with the royal 
 approbation, and the prsefecture of Gaul. Two fierce 
 and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations 
 of Innocence^ and Mica .iurea, could alone deserve to 
 share the favour of Maximin. The cages of those 
 trusty guards were always placed near the bedchamber 
 of Valentinian, who frequently amused his eyes with 
 the grateful spectacle of seeing them tear and devour 
 the bleeding limbs of the malefactors who were aban- 
 doned to their rage. Their diet and exercises were 
 carefully inspected by the Roman emperor ; and when 
 Innocence had earned her discharge, by a long course 
 of meritorious service, the faithful animal was again 
 restored to the freedom of her native woods." 
 
 But in the calmer moments of reflec- Their laws and 
 tion, when the mind of Valens was not government, 
 agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the 
 tyrant resumed the sentiments, or at least the conduct, 
 of the father of his country. The dispassionate judg- 
 ment of the western emperor could clearly perceive, 
 and accurately pursue, his own and the public interest; 
 and the sovereign of the east, who imitated with equal 
 docility the various examples which he received from 
 his elder brother, was sometimes guided by the wis- 
 dom and virtue of the praefect Sallust. Both princes 
 invariably retained, in the purple, the chaste and tem- 
 perate simplicity which had adorned their private life; 
 and, under their reign, the pleasures of the court never 
 cost the people a blush or a sigh. They gradually 
 reformed many of the abuses of the times of (^nstan- 
 tius ; judiciously adopted and improved the designs of 
 Julian and his successor; and displayed a style and 
 spirit of legislation which might inspire posterity with 
 the most favourable opinion of their character and go- 
 vernment. It is not from the master of Innocence^ that 
 we should expect the tender regard for the welfare of 
 his subjects, which prompted Valentinian to condemn 
 the exposition of new-born infants;" and to establish 
 fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and privileges, 
 in the fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of 
 an illiterate soldier founded a useful and liberal insti- 
 tution for the education of youth, and the support of 
 
 1 He sometimes expressed a sentence of death with a tone of plea- 
 santry: *' Abi, Comes, ct muta ci caput, qui sibi niutarl provinciam 
 cupit." A boy, who had slipped too liastily a Spartan hound • an 
 armourer who had made a polished cuirass that wanted some grains 
 of the legitimate weight, &;c. were the victims of his fury 
 
 m The innocents of Milan were an agent and three apparitors, 
 whom Valcntinmn condemned for signifying a legal summons. Am- 
 mianus xxvii. i.) strangely supposes, that all who had been uniustiv 
 executed were worshipped as martyrs by the christians. His impar- 
 tial silence does not allow us to iKilieve, that the great ciian.berlain 
 
 •{?w\""^ "'«« burnt a'ive for an act of oppression. (Chron. Paschal. 
 
 p. OtA,.) 
 
 D nt bene meritam in sylvas jussit abire Innoxiam. Ammian. xxix 
 J. and Valesiiis ad locum. 
 
 o See the Code of Justinian, I. viii. tit. Hi. lej. 2. Unusquisque so- 
 iM)iem suam nutriat. Quod si exponendam putaverit animatlvcrsioni 
 aquae const ituta est Bul.jacehit. For the present I shall not interfere 
 in the dispute between Noodt and Binkershoek . how far, or how 
 ong. this unnatural practice had been condemned or abolished by 
 law, philoaophy, and the more civilized state of society. 
 
 declining science.P It was his intention, that the arts 
 of rhetoric and grammar should be taught in the Greek 
 and Latin anguages, in the metropolis of every pro- 
 vince ; and as the size and dignity of the school was 
 usually proportioned to the importance of the ciu', he 
 academies of Rome and Constantinople claimed a ius^ 
 and singular pre-eminence. The fraaments of t^,e 
 iterary edicts of Valentinian imperfectly Represent Z 
 school of Constantinople, which was gradually im! 
 proved by subsequent regulations. That school con- 
 sisted of llmty-onc professors in different branches of 
 learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers : five 
 sophists, and ten grammarians for theGreek, and three 
 orators, and ten grammarians for the Latin, tongue • 
 besides seven scribes, or, as they were then stfled; 
 antiquarians, whose laborious pens supplied the public 
 
 ' iT/r's' The ^7 %"^ r"'' ""P'^' of "^« «l"' c 
 
 .„ 1, J . ^ '"" "^ ™"''"'=' "■'"<''' ^^as prescribed to 
 
 ',""';!;'%!!.■"»-.-"''-. - ." affords the first 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 outlines of the form and discipm^Tf'a moderVuniver teStThela^vr;"'' ='"'!'""'>■ "' ^''"^'' ^^^-^ 
 
 sity It was required that they ^h uld br n': prer 
 
 certificates from the magistrates of their native'^prSv- 
 
 nce. fheir names, professions, and places of abode 
 
 were regularly entered in a public rea ster. The stn' 
 
 iTirf^a:,""" '-''T'^, P™''"'"«<' f?om wasUng tl i 
 time m feasts, or in the theatre ; and the term of the r 
 education was limited to the age of twenty. Ve nr^ 
 feet of the city was empowered to chastise the idle and 
 refrac ory by stripes or expulsion; and he was directed 
 to make an annual report to the faster of the offices 
 that the knowledge and abilities of the scholars S 
 be usefully applied to the public service. TheTnsti 
 tntions of Valentinian contributed to secure the benefits 
 m/ f Kv "u** P''"'^/ ^"<' "•« <="'*= were guarded by 
 
 the ^rSe',*""'! ' i "'* ^^Z"-".' freel/elected as 
 the tribunes and advocates of the people, to support 
 
 tribunafs If' h"" ' • 'T'' •""=" g" 'bailee;, befor^e'^the 
 ftrtl r ' T^S?'"'^^' Of «-en at the foot 
 
 335 
 
 But themosthononrablo circumstance VI ■■ • 
 01 the character of Valentinian ;<, ,1,^ y?'""''"'"" m«in. 
 flrmo^l. . • ""*^' ""'an, is the lams ihe re eiotii 
 firm and temperate impartiality which he '"'""ion. 
 uniformly preserved in an age of relis ^■'^■^-373. 
 lous contention. His strong sense, unenlightened but 
 uncorrupted, by study, declined with respecTful indif- 
 ference, the subtle questions of theologrcal debate 
 The government of the earth claimed his viellance' 
 and satisfied his ambition ; and while he remembered 
 tha he was the disciple of the church, he nc^erS 
 that he was the sovereign of the clergy. Under The 
 reign of an apostate, he had signalized his zealTr the 
 honour of Christianity : he allowed to his subjects he 
 privilege which he had assumed for himself; and thev 
 rnigh accept, with gratitude and confidence the gene^ 
 ral toleration which was granted by a prince addiM»!t 
 to passion, but incapable 'of fear or of di gu?se.^ Thf 
 pagans, the Jews, and all the various sects which ac! 
 knowledged the divine authority of Christ, were p?^ 
 tected bv thp. lawc rr^»« ^«k:.-„- * . P*"^ 
 
 , . - -»......«, J iJWf*\ci ur popular in- 
 
 suit; nor was any mode of worship prohibited by Va- 
 lent.n.an except those secret and criminal practices- 
 which abused the name of religion for the dark purposed' 
 of vice and disorder. The art'' of magic, as it was more 
 cruelly punished, was more strictl/ proscribed bit 
 the emperor admitted a formal distinction to protect the 
 anient methods of divination, which were approved by 
 the senate, and exercised by the Tuscan hlruspices^ 
 He had condemned, with the consent of the most ra- 
 lonal pagans the licence of nocturnal sacrifices b^t 
 
 ^VconTuf oTi\''"'"l' ''''^''''''^ ofPr^text^tus 
 proconsul of Achaia, who represented, that the life of 
 
 the Greeks would become dreary and comfortless if 
 they were deprived of the invalLble ble^rg of \he 
 
 rand nerhan^?;''"""'- Philosophy alone ca^n boast! 
 (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philoso* 
 phy,) that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the 
 
 of the imperial thro„;:"¥rj fi7ane:s'^;^"e"dinger L SuUhL^^'^'"' 7' '?'"' P""^'>^« ^'^^^^^ 
 
 administered by two princes, who had b^en soTon^ Sd bv^U .; ^''^''''"^^^ ^^^^"' ^^^^^ ^^^ en- 
 accustomed to the rigid economy of a pri^^ ^t^-fl ^ i^ t;^^^^^^^^^:"- 
 
 The friend of toleration was unfortun- Valens professes 
 ately placed at a distance from the scene ^'^•'^"'s'"' a"'! p^r- 
 of the fiercest controversies. As soon S'"' '^' '^"'°- 
 as the christians of the west had extri- A.D.3G7-378. 
 cated themselves, from the snares of the creed of Ri- 
 mini, they happily relapsed into the slumber of ortho- 
 doxy ; and the small remains of the Arian party, that 
 still subsisted, at Sinnium or Milan, might be consi- 
 dered, rather as objects of contempt than of resentment. 
 Jiut in the provinces of the east, from the Euxine to 
 the extremity of Thebais, the strength and numbers of 
 the hostile factions were more equally balanced ; and 
 this equality, instead of recommending the counsels of 
 peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of relicr. 
 lous war. The monks and bishops supported their 
 
 acci stomed to the rigid economy of a private fortune? 
 hut in the receipt and application of the revenue, a dis- 
 cerning eye niight observe some difTerence between the 
 government of the east and of the west. Valens was 
 persuaded, that royal liberality can be supplied o^ly 
 by public oppression, and his ambition never aspired 
 to secure, by their actual distress, the future sSui 
 
 wetluTtax' "^ "^ • T^\ '"^'^'^'^ »f increasing the 
 weight of taxes, which, in the space of forty years, had 
 been gradually doubled, he reduced, in the first year 
 of his reign, one fourth of the tribute of the east.' Va- 
 lentinian appears to have been less attentive and less 
 anxious to relieve the burthens of his people He 
 might reform the abuses of the fiscal adiSS'ation 
 bnt he exacted, without scruple, a very large share of 
 he private property; as he was convinced ?hat the 
 vouirh!: '"'"i'" '"PPT*^ ""^ '■"'"y °f individuals! 
 
 defell':„7imprv"ml7K"sfai'™?;-rlfrrr"^""; i"^""- ■""""'^ -" "'^"•"P^ supportedtheir 
 oftheeastwho^„joyedthepresentTe;efi?L„,-''/'l f^"r"'%''r^ mvectives; and their invectives were 
 the indulgence of iheir prince "Aesollh^r. "^ T?^^^^ followed by blows. Anthanasius still reign- 
 c,,i„^j:i ^ .. r. J. : pfince. ine solid, but less ed atAexandnai tfiP tlir^n^c ^e n^^^4.^^.: i. ° , 
 
 ♦u • J , : J'^J^" "'^ p"^ociii ueneni, applauded 
 
 he indulgence of their prince. The solid, but less 
 Plendid, merit of Valentinian was felt and acknowl! 
 
 edged by the subsequent generation.' 
 
 Code f'xtii ?t"'iit'^ \TTT' 'T "•^f''^'"^^ '" »he Theodosian 
 lJes\l-A il^^^^^^^ and I. xiv. tit. ix 
 
 froy,) we may consult GiannonrTlstoH. nfv"' V'"^' «" *^^' ^^''^^• 
 ni.)Vho has treated thelnteresting subfcc wit'If 'hl^'^;,'- ''J''^- 
 osity of a man of letters, who studied Some^ c h istorv '""' 
 
 aili^Jly jr ^oil; Jh^te^'otS cS^^^«^'^ ^^S^. Which 
 
 coni^fTac^^ 
 
 5?6 ) has amused himself with celebrating the virtues^n^d ffJninJ^f 
 zTS "l"?v" o 'c'S»o""--^^7 of thi ape in whTch he ^eT °' 
 
 ed at -Alexandria ; the thrones of Constantinople and 
 Antioch were occupied by Arian prelates, and every 
 episcopal vacancy was the occasion of a popular tu- 
 mult. The Homoousians were fortified by the recon- 
 ciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian, or Semi-Arian, bish- 
 ops; but their secret reluctance to embrace the divi- 
 nity of the Holy Ghost, clouded the splendour of the 
 triumph : and the declaration of Valens, who in the 
 hrst years of his reign, had imitated the impartial con- 
 diict ot his brother, was an important victory on the 
 side of Arianism. The two brothe rs had passed their 
 
 cninTfiffon""*'^^^- °.^.? '" ®^'"''^'° •'"H''"* ""'i 'Jata' ; quihus uni- 
 Th2^^ ^ ?^- ^"'-'"0 "."•'ihisset colendi libera facultas tributa est. Cod 
 
 m« V «HH th ""• '•• • ''^'' '^? ^- . '^" *"*■"' declaration of Valentinian, we 
 
 .V n%n/> 'Te°"^^^"T"'.'''°^^'"'"'«""«'^"'f-9) Zosimus. (I. 
 IV. p. 204.) and Sozomen, (I. vi. c. 7. 21.) Baronius would natural v 
 
 blame such ratjona^ toleration, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 370. No. 129^ 
 
336 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 private life in the condition of catechumens ; but the 
 piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament 
 of baptism, before he exposed his p'^rson to the dancrers 
 of a Gothic war. He naturally addressed himself to 
 Eudoxus," bishop of the imperial city; and if the ig- 
 norant monarch was instructed by that Arian pastor in 
 the principles of heterodox theolof^y, his misfortune, 
 rather than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence 
 of his erroneous choice. Whatever had been the de- 
 termination of the emperor, he must have offended a 
 numerous party of his christian subjects ; as the lea- 
 ders both of the Homoousians and of the Arians be- 
 lieved, that, if they were not suffered to reign, they 
 were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he 
 had taken this decisive step, it was extremely difhcult 
 for him to preserve either the virtue, or the reputation 
 of impartiality. He never aspired, like Constantius, 
 to the fame of a profound theologian; but, as he had 
 received with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eu- 
 doxus, Valens resigned his conscience to the direction 
 of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted by the in- 
 fluence of his authority, the re-union of the Athanasian 
 heretics to ihe body of the catholic church. At first, 
 he pitied their blindness ; by degrees he was provoked 
 at their obstinacy ; and he insensibly hated those sec- 
 taries to whom he was an object of hatred.* The fee- 
 ble mind of Valens w^as always swayed by the persons 
 with whom he familiarly conversed ; and the exile or 
 imprisonment of a private citizen are the favours the 
 most readily granted in a despotic court. Such punish- 
 ments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the 
 Homoousian party; and the misfortune of fourscore ec- 
 clesiastics of Constantinople, who, perhaps accidental- 
 ly, were burnt on shipboard, was imputed to the cruel 
 and premeditated malice of the emperor, and his Arian 
 ministers. In every contest, the catholics (if we may ' 
 anticipate that name) were obliged to pay the penalty 
 of their own faults, and of those of their adversaries. 
 In every election, the claims of the Arian candidate 
 obtained the preference; and if they were opposed by j 
 the majority of the people, he was usually supported by \ 
 the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the j 
 terrors of a military force. The enemies of Athanasi- : 
 us attempted to disturb the last years of his venerable | 
 age ; and his temporary retreat to his father's sepulchre i 
 has been celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal of a 
 great people, who instantly flew to arms, intimidated ; 
 the praifect ; and the archbishop was permitted to end 
 his life in peace and in glory, after a reign of forty- 
 Death of Atha- seven years. The death of Athana- 
 iiasius. sius was the signal of the persecution 
 
 ^'^- *^jj^- of Egypt ; and the pagan minister of Va- 
 lens, who forcibly seated the worthless 
 Lucius on the archiepiscopal throne, purchased the fa- 
 vour of the reigning party, by the blood and sufferings 
 of their christian brethren. The free toleration of the 
 heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly lamented, as 
 a circumstance which aggravated the misery of the 
 catholics, and the guilt of the impious tyrant of the 
 east.y 
 
 Just idea of hu The triumph of the orthodox party has 
 persecution. left a deep stain of persecution on the 
 memory of Valens ; and the character of a prince, who 
 derived his virtues, as well as his vices, from a feeble 
 understanding, and a pusillanimous temper, scarcely 
 deserves the labour of an apology. Yet candour may 
 discover some reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical 
 ministers of Valens often exceeded the orders, or even 
 the intentions, of their master; and that the real meas- 
 ure of facts has been very liberally magnified by the 
 
 u Eudoxuswns of a mild and timid disposition. When he baptized 
 Valfins (A. D. ?67.) he must have heen extremely old ; since lie liad 
 studied theology Hfty-tive years before, under Lucian.a learned and 
 pious martyr. Philostorg. I. ii. c. 14 — IG. I. iv. c. 4. with Godefroy, 
 p. 8-2. 5>06. and Tiilcmont, Mem. Eccles. torn. v. p. 474— 480, tc. 
 
 X Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxv. p. 432.) insults tJie persecuting 
 Bpirit of the Arians as an infaliihie symptom of error and heresy. 
 
 y This sketch of the ecclesiastical government of Valens is drawn 
 from Socrates, (I. iv.) Sozomen, (1. vi.) Theodoret, (I. Jr.) and the 
 Immense oompilationsof Tilleroont, (particularly torn, vi.viii. and ix.) 
 
 vehement declamation, and easy credulity, of his anta- 
 gonists.* I. The silence of Valentinian may suggest 
 a probable argument, that the partial severities, which 
 were exercised in the name and provinces of his col- 
 league, amounted only to some obscure and inconsi- 
 derable deviations from the established system of reli- 
 gious toleration : and the judicious historian, who has 
 praised the equal temper of the elder brother, has not 
 thought himself obliged to contrast the tranquillity of 
 the west with the cruel pprsecution of the east.* 
 2. Whatever credit may be allowed to vague and dis- 
 tant reports, the character, or at least the behaviour, of 
 Valens may be most distinctly seen in his personal 
 transactions with the eloquent Basil, archbishop of 
 Caesarea, who had succeeded Athanasius in the man- 
 agement of the Trinitarian cause.** The circumstan- 
 tial narrative has been composed by the friends and ad- 
 mirers of Basil; and as soon as we have stripped away 
 a thick coat of rhetoric and miracle, we shall be aston- 
 ished by the unexpected mildness of the Arian tyrant, 
 who admired the firmness of his character, or was ap- 
 prehensive, if he employed violence, of a general re- 
 volt in the province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, 
 who asserted, with inflexible pride,*= the truth of his 
 opinions, and the dignity of his rank, was left in the 
 free possession of his conscience, and his throne. The 
 emperor devoutly assisted at the solemn service of the 
 cathedral ; and, instead of a sentence of banishment, 
 subscribed the donation of a valuable estate for the use 
 of an hospital, which Basil had lately founded in the 
 neighbourhood of Caesarea.** 3. I am not able to dis- 
 cover, that any law (<?uch as Theodosius afterwards 
 enacted against the Arians) was published by Valens 
 against the Athanasian sectaries ; and the edict which 
 excited the most violent clamours, may not appear so 
 extremely reprehensible. The emperor had observed, 
 that several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy dis- 
 position under the pretence of religion, had associated 
 themselves with the monks of Egypt; and he directed 
 the count of the east to drag them from their solitude ; 
 and to compel those deserters of society to accept the fair 
 alternative, of renouncing their temporal possessions, 
 or of discharging the public duties of men and citizens." 
 The ministers of Valens seem to have extended the 
 sense of this penal statute, since they claimed a right 
 of enlisting the young and able-bodied monks in the 
 imperial armies. A detachment of cavalry and infan- 
 try, consisting of three thousand men, marched from 
 Alexandria into the adjacent desert ofNitria,' which 
 was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers 
 were conducted by Arian priests ; and it is reported, 
 that a considerable slaucrhter was made in the monas- 
 tones which disobeyed the commands of their sove- 
 reign.K 
 
 z Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecrlesiasiicnl History, vol. iv. p. 78.) has 
 already conceived and intimated the same suspicion. 
 
 a This reflection is so obvious and forcible, that Orosiu?, (I. vii, c. 
 n2, 33.) delays the persecution till after the death of Valentinian. 
 Socrates, on the other hand, supposes (I. iii. c. 32.) that it was ap- 
 pea!>-ed by n philosophical oration, which Themistius pronounced in 
 the year 374. (Orat. xii. p. 154. in Latin only.) Such contradictions 
 diminish the evidence, and reduce the term, of the persecution of 
 Valens. 
 
 b Tiilcmont, whom I follow and ahridjic, has extracted (Mem. Ec- 
 cles. tom. viii. p. 153 — 167.) the most authentic circumstances from 
 the Panegyrics of the two GreRories ; the brother, and the friend, of 
 Basil. Tlie letters of Basil himself (Dupin, Bibliotheqne Ecclesias- 
 tique, tom. ii. p. 155 — IbU.) do not present the image of a very lively 
 [Mirsecution. 
 
 c Basilius CsDsariensis episcopus Cappadocis clarus habetur . , . . 
 qui multa continentia; et incenii bona uno superbis malo pcrdidit. 
 This irreverent |»as3a!»e is perfectly in the style and character of St. 
 Jerom. It does not appear in Scaliger's edition of his Chronicle ; but 
 Isaac Vossius found it in some old MSS. which bad not been re- 
 formed by the monks. 
 
 d This noble and charitable foundation (almost a new city) sur- 
 passed in merit, if not in creatness. the pyramids or the walls of 
 Babylon. It was principally intended for the reception of lepers. 
 (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. xx. p. 439.) 
 
 e Cod. Theodos. I. xii. tit. I. leg. 63. Godefroy, (tom. iv. p. 409 — 
 413.) performs the duty of a commentator and advocate. Tillemont 
 (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 808.) supposes a second law to excuse his 
 orthodox friends, who liad misrepresented the edict of V^alens, and 
 suppressed the liberty of choice. 
 
 f SeeD'Anville, Description de l*Egypte, p. 74. Hereafter I thnll 
 consider the monastic institutions. 
 
 g Socrates, I. iv. c. 24, 25 Orosias, I. vii. c. 33. Jerom in Cbron. 
 
 Valentinian re- 
 strains thn 
 nvarice of the 
 
 clergy. 
 
 A. D. 370 
 
 Ied'hv?h''°"^'.*^°"' ^^^^h ^^^« been 
 imed by the wisdom of modern legis- 
 
 rZ l?i!^^.i" !^^ --1th and avafice 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 337 
 
 «r»k^ 1 '^caiiii ana avarice 
 
 ished the ecclesiastics and monks not to f"nae„rth; 
 
 obeTncI wi h ^hr' ^'"t' ■' """ ""^nad'C dt 
 ThTj- . '"® animadversion of the civil iiiHo-P 
 
 The director was no longer permitted to receive a^v 
 
 oSict was decK nu'S V randre m'^ Z "'" 
 ..on was confiscated for the use of the treS Rv 
 
 rSnTlSS;!' f """* -4 ^"Ssaml 
 
 That all ;::sZ o- h't Lks"tic:i"'l '/'"p^ ' ^"-^ 
 
 dcred incapable of receivlncr T„v ,t ,'^" "^^'^ '""" 
 
 females of ^ noble and nmW?. 'k ""^ """ e^Pi^e, the 
 very ample share of .".^ ^ ! ''""'*^ possessed a 
 of tts?devout females h»H"'''K ^'1^^' ""-J '"='"? 
 
 christianity/not oX with Ir .T"*^ *" "*»'=»""«= "^ 
 standing, but w th tK^^^^ ""der- 
 
 with th^e' ea,erit:':;7a™L".'^Trrsa:?2etr 
 
 {." r ^T cts te'rr ' t' ---d .^^ ' 
 sjb^,nLviirLrsra'b° atari^;!'zi= 
 
 tl e den '",'• ''r'-'P'' "fa young and beamlfnl woma„^ 
 Xec full''''"'^ f."" ,"?"'«"* household and .he 
 
 STs'ot\TnStm1r;"'Tl:^ '^"^**'"^"' »"" *« 
 of thp n„™- 1 J- "mily. The immense fortunes 
 
 ^ Imf , I '"''.'*' '■''"''' g"<l"ally consumed in aWsh 
 wlTo had 'T"'Z' pilgrimages; and theanfdmoTk 
 Who had assrgned himself the first, or nossihiv .h» 
 solo, place in the testament of his sp rituaTdaulhter 
 
 po i^nil^tl *" '''"'T- r^^' *^ '""""^ face of hy: 
 ;i,„I.^' "'.atAe was only the instrument of charitv kL 
 the steward of the poor. Tlie lucrative, but dis" ac'eful 
 trade,' which was exercised by the c ergy o°def«"rf 
 he expectations of the natural heirs, had^nrovoked the 
 
 tlMth^; •''■'' '""" '^^'hers very honestly confess 
 
 that the Ignominious cd ct of Valentininn w/c !.?=. j 
 
 ."oire"^'""? ""'' ">^ christian prstsh'ddiserv^d 
 to lose a privilege, which was still enioved hvtnm„ 
 dians, charioteers, and the ministers of WoU ButX' 
 
 mere,. " "7',"^' «"h the vigilant dexterity of private 
 interest and Jerom, or Ambrose, miffht natientlv .i 
 quiesce m the-justice of an ineffeclualfr saKy^aw 
 
 onal :!?'?''='^"'=« '["<' checked in the pursuit of peTl 
 ^^H^ljmolument, they would exert a more laudable 
 
 industry to increase the wealth of the church • and 
 
 Stfp'a'tSr ^^ -'"• '"^ ^p~ ~ "' 
 
 co^sp^to^'^Ll^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ms clergy by the publication of the law T' "^'"1* "' 
 
 constS ZV" °' '"• JPP^''^^ ""^ *»m"lt, was 
 constrained, by superior vio ence, to retire inin »!,« 
 
 suburbs. Damasus prevailed; the wel -d puted vie! 
 
 anitM rsetn"de':.'b''!,^ "' "^ '"'"="»" ' »"« hundred 
 „J°;''."9 -seven dead bodies" were found in the Bwiilirn 
 
 tt'^mJt"' "i''r "'« christians hold theirrel^ ou" 
 assemblies ; and it ivas long before the angry minds of 
 
 }.nK'"?f """"', 'heiraccSstomed tranquiimr When 
 I consider the splendour of the capital, I am not LT 
 
 I esit of'ambtt';- '"'"^'"^ ^ ^^ sLul'd iXme Z 
 ^!fj. \ .'""^ ■"*"• and produce the fiercest and 
 
 se^n e^'ha't'te :Tb'- ''^"^i Te^^^*""' -"^^"« "'' 
 secure, tnat he will be enriched by the ofTerinos of 
 
 matrons ; » that, as soon as his dress is composed with 
 chaZ"fi ""*, "".'* *'^8^"cc, he may proceed in hiS 
 chariot, through the streets of Rome; f and that thf 
 sumptuousness of the imperial table «^II ^"f'eaoa h! 
 
 Cl"'' /"? K '"'=^'<' ^"tc^tainments p ovTded^by .he 
 taste and at the expense, of the Roman pontiffs. How 
 
 would T:/'"'?^^'^ i^omiu^e, the hones pa^nT 
 Zl, A f ,, P?"""^ consult their true happinesiif 
 euselr°^K"*^'"^ ""* S'''=""«^^ cf 'he citfas an ex: 
 D arv W^^l' ■""""""' ^''.^y "'""'"l imitate Oie e"e!n. 
 
 and sobrletv xXr""'"' ""''''P^' ^'^"'^ temperance 
 ana soDriety, whose mean apparel and downpa^f l^^bo 
 
 recommended their pure and modest vfr.ue to the Dei tv 
 and his true worshippers.". The schism of Damasus 
 and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the lattor ■ 
 and the wisdom of ,hl pra.fec.^Pra,.matus' restored 
 
 p. 189. and tom. ii n 919 ti.« ~._ »! Z~Z. 
 
 miracles, which prove u,e truth o7rhof °r .^.^yP* Pe^-^ormed many 
 
 (Remarks, vol. iv n 79 ) hut tvhnt I ^^'' 5*""- ^'^''^ says Jortin 
 
 h Cod. Thcodos.'^i.'x;;*. Ti .' ii'Ur 2^ GodI?'" V''"^' ^'^"^^ 
 after the example of Baronius fmn,ru,i? "^^ n^^' ^**""- ^'- P- 49.) 
 
 inVputed'lo h /;,^roSi,o„r- LTSI"/'" "!«^'" which t 
 «■». piihlicly area, ed a"Z lo»« if^h/"'"/'"'".' ""' ''""P'Ui., 
 
 »nd the d.i,isl„er ; but hrdSri. fh.? hf ""' '^"' "' '"e molher 
 10 «ny Mifi,), or .ensual nS» ' "' '"= """ "'"'«'' ''« Influence 
 Vol. 1.-2 S ' " ' ^ 
 
 f^Z C^r '^SS- - « .- cU^il c«S 
 , ^il- "•' -'-- "--.e-r Se. X--^ M, X^ 
 
 moul, (Mem. Ecl,'"'Zl"»'p "npe-J"? I"' """"' ""^^ •" ™'- 
 
 thalThe r J wa'Sled r M dT,,1'™ "".'Hi" ^''" ''urnt, a„5 
 own clergy, eravedie-er.' ehLwT.™ ""'cP'ed at the liead of l.i. 
 none of »" party wSe killed hniH,.; ""'' ,■"'«'' B'adiatora; that 
 bodie. were Lnd. Thi, milion i. ™,hr 'If aT''?'' i."^ ''"'>' ''cad 
 the first volume ofliis works PnWwhcd by the P. SIrmond, in 
 
 SanrTaMS MlSie "orti;eVJ,':n"'''V?,,''™^'''>' '"« '^'•"'cl. of 
 
 T,?et':;ot;"araYir;nLc^X^"p^o.^tr^/^ ^^^ -'^-^^u- 
 
 ad loc. ) A curious inscriptior/GrutJr MCII No «^ rJ^^"** •^*'*'- 
 columns, his religions and civil honours In oJliini ^^ °'''''' '" *^" 
 of the Sun, and of Vesta, Aujur SSce " ^^ h " ^^^^ was pontiff 
 
338 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 the tranquillity of the city. Praetextatus was a philo- 
 sophic pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness ; 
 who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when 
 he assured Damasus, that if he could obtain the bish- 
 opric of Rome, he himself would immediately embrace 
 the christian religion/ This lively picture of the 
 wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century, 
 becomes the more curious, as it represents the inter- 
 mediate degree between the humble poverty of the 
 apostolic fishermen, and the royal state of a temporal 
 prince, whose dominions extend from the confines of 
 Naples to the banks of the Po. 
 
 Foreign wars. When the Suffrage of the generals and 
 
 A. Dr3G4-375. of the army committed the sceptre of the 
 Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his reputa- 
 tion in arms, his military skill and experience, and his 
 rigid attachment to the forms, as well as spirit, of an- 
 cient discipline, were the principal motives of their 
 judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, who 
 pressed him to nominate his colleague, was justified by 
 the dangerous situation of public affairs; and Valenti- 
 nian himself was conscious, that the abilities of the 
 most active mind were unequal to the defence of the 
 distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as 
 the death of Julian had relieved the barbarians from the 
 terror of his name, the most sang^uine hopes of rapine 
 and conquest excited the nations of the east, of the north, 
 
 and of the south. Their inroads were 
 A. D. 364— 3ij. Qf^gjj vexatious, and sometimes formida- 
 ble ; but, during the twelve years of the reign of Va- 
 lentinian, his firmness and vigilance protected his own 
 dominions ; and iiis powerful genius seemed to inspire 
 and direct the feeble counsels of his brother. Perhaps 
 the method of annals would more forcibly express the 
 urgent and divided cares of the two emperors ; but the 
 attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted 
 by a tedious and desultory narrative. A separate 
 view of the five great theatres of war; L Germany ; 
 IL Britain ; IIL Africa; IV. The East; and, V. The 
 Danube; will impress a more distinct image of the 
 military state of the empire under the reigns of Valenti- 
 nian and Valens. 
 
 I Germany. ^* '^'^^ ambassadors of the Alemanni 
 
 The Alcmaiini had been offended by the harsh and 
 "a*''d^3(3!;" haughty behaviour of Ursacius, master 
 
 of the offices;* who, by an act of unsea- 
 sonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as well 
 as the quantity, of the presents, to which they were 
 entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession 
 of a new emperor. They expressed, and they commu- 
 nicated to their countrymen, their strong sense of the 
 national affront. The irascible minds of the chiefs 
 were exasperated by the suspicion of contempt ; and 
 the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before 
 Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul 
 were in flames ; before his general Dagalaiphus, could 
 encounter the Alemanni, they had secured the captives 
 A. D. 306. and the spoil in the forests of Germany. 
 January. Jn the beginning of the ensuing year, the 
 military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid 
 columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine, during 
 the severity of a northern winter. Two Roman counts 
 were defeated and mortally wounded ; and the standard 
 of the Heruli and Batavians fell into the hands of the 
 conquerors, who, displayed, with insulting shouts and 
 menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard 
 was recovered ; but the Batavians had not redeemed 
 the shame of their disgrace and flight in the eyes of 
 their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valenti- 
 nian, that his soldiers must learn to fear their com- 
 
 ■i 
 
 nla. 5. Pro-consul of Achala. 6. Praefecl of Rome. 7. Prsetorlan 
 prfcfect of Italy. 8. Of Illyricuni. 9. Consul elect; but he died be- 
 fore the beginnins of the year 383. Sea Tillemont, Hist, des Einpc- 
 reurs, torn. v. p. 241. 736. 
 
 ■ Facite me Romanx urbis episcopum ; et ero protinns christianus. 
 (Jerom. torn. ii. p. 165.) It is more than probable that Damasus 
 tvould not have purchased his conversion at such a price. 
 
 t Ammian. xxvi. 5. Valesius adds a long and good note on the 
 master of the ofRces. 
 
 mander, before they could cease to fear the enemy. 
 The troops were solemnly assembled ; and the trembling 
 Batavians were enclosed within the circle of the impe- 
 rial army. Valentinian then ascended his tribunal ; and, 
 as if he disdained to punish cowardice with death, he 
 inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy on the oflficers, 
 whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to be 
 the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were 
 degraded from their rank, stripped of their arms, and 
 condemned to be sold for slaves to the highest bidder. 
 At this tremendous sentence the troops fell prostrate on 
 the ground, deprecated the indignation of their sove- 
 reign, and protested, that, if he would indulge them in 
 another trial, they would approve themselves not un- 
 worthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers. 
 Valentinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to their 
 entreaties; the Batavians resumed their arms ; and, with 
 their arms, the invincible resolution of wiping away 
 their disgrace in the blood of the Alemanni." The prin- 
 cipal command was declined by Dagalaiphus; and that 
 experienced general, who had represented, perhaps 
 with too much prudence, the extreme difliculties of the 
 undertaking, had the mortification, before the end of 
 the campaign, of seeing his rival Jovinus convert those 
 difficulties into a decisive advantage over the scattered 
 forces of the barbarians. At the head Their defeat, 
 of a well disciplined army of cavalry, 
 infantry, and light troops, Jovinus advanced with cau- 
 tious and rapid steps, to Scarponna,* in the territory of 
 Metz, where he surprised a large division of the Ale- 
 manni, before they had time to run to their arms ; and 
 flushed his soldiers with the confidence of an easy 
 and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather 
 army, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devas- 
 tation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on 
 the shady banks of the Moselle. Jovinus, who had 
 viewed the ground with the eye of a general, made his 
 silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he 
 could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the 
 Germans. Some were bathing their huge limbs in the 
 river; others were combing their long and flaxen hair; 
 others again were swallowing large draughts of rich 
 and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard the sound 
 of the Roman trumpet ; they saw the enemy in their 
 camp. Astonishment produced disorder ; disorder was 
 followed by flight and dismay ; and the confused mul- 
 titude of the bravest warriors was pierced by the swords 
 and javelins of the legionaries and auxiliaries. The 
 fugitives escaped to the third, and most considerable, 
 camp, in the Catalaunian plains, near Chalons in Cham- 
 pagne : the straggling detachments were hastily re- 
 called to their standard ; and the barbarian chiefs, 
 alarmed and admonished by the fate of their compan- 
 ions, prepared to encounter, in a decisive battle, the 
 victorious forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The 
 bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole summer's 
 day, with equal valour, and with alternate success. 
 The Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about 
 twelve hundred men. Six thousand of the Alemanni 
 were slain, four thousand were wounded ; and the brave 
 Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant of their host 
 as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned to Paris, to 
 receive the applause, of his sovereign, and the ensigns 
 of the consulship for the ensuing year.^ j^j 
 The triumph of the Romans was indeed 
 sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom 
 they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their 
 indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, 
 which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was 
 followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son 
 
 n Ammian. xxvii. 1. Zoslmus, I. iv. p. 2C8. The disgrace of the 
 Batavians is suppressed l)y the contemporary soldier, from a regard 
 for military honour, which could not affect a Greek rhetorician of 
 the succeeding age. 
 
 X See D'Anville, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 587. The name 
 of the Moselle, which is not specified by Ammianus, is clearly under* 
 stood by Mascou. Hist, of the ancient Germans, (vii. 2.) 
 
 y The battles are described by Ammianus, (xxvii. 2.) and by Zosi- 
 mus, (I. iv. p. 309.) who supposed Vaientiiiian to have been present. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of Vadomair ; a German prince, of a weak and sickly 
 constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit. 
 1 he domestic assassin was instigated and protected by 
 the Romans;' and the violation of the laws of human- 
 ity and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of 
 the weakness of the declining empire. The use of 
 the dagger is seldom adopted in public councils, as 
 long as they retain any confidence in the power of the 
 swr orQ. 
 
 Valentinian While the Alemanni appeared to be 
 
 i^fi''?^K*"p. ■''" ^^\^^^^^^ ^y their recent calamities, the 
 A. D.'^^i'"' P"d« «f Valentinian was mortified by the 
 TLf * .u ""^:^Pected surprisal of Moguntiacum, 
 or Mentz, the principal city of the Upper Germany; 
 In the unsuspicious moment of a christian festival, 
 Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long medi^ 
 tated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine, intered 
 the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of 
 captives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute 
 
 Count Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and Illyricum, 
 was ordered to invade their country, most probably on the 
 side of Rha^tia. The emperor in person, accompanied 
 by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a 
 formidable army, which was supported on both flanks 
 by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-general of 
 the cavalry and infantry of the west. The Alemanni, 
 unable to prevent the devastation of their villages, fixed 
 their camp on a lofty and almost inaccessible mountain, 
 m the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and resolutely 
 expected the approach of the Romans. The life of 
 V alentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the in- 
 trepid curiosity with which he persisted to explore 
 some secret and unguarded path. A troop of barbari- 
 ans suddenly rose from their ambuscade; and the em- 
 peror, who vigorously spurred his horse down a steep 
 and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him 
 his armour-bearer, and his helmet, magnificently en- 
 riched with gold and precious stones. At the signal 
 of the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed 
 and ascended the mountain of Solicinium on three dif- 
 ferent sides. Every step which they gained increased 
 their ardour, and abated the resistance of the enemy: 
 
 f.ux-u^i'' "."^'^^ ^'^''^^^ ^^^ occupied the summit 
 ot the iHll, they impetuously urged the barbarians down 
 the northern descent, where count Sebastian was posted 
 to intercept their retreat. After this signal victory, 
 > alentinian returned to his winter-quarterl at Treves 
 where he indulged the public joy by the exhibition of 
 splendid and triumphal games.* But the wise monarch, 
 instead of aspmng to the conquest of Germany, con- 
 fined his attention to the important and laborious de- 
 lence ot the Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose 
 strength was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, 
 w-hich incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes 
 of the north." The banks of the Rhine, from its source 
 to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted with 
 strong castles and convenient towers ; new works, and 
 new arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince ' 
 who was skilled in the mechanical arts ; and his nume- 
 rous levies of Roman and barbarian youth were severely 
 trained in all the exercises of war. The progress of 
 the work, which was sometimes opposed by° modest 
 representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts, 
 
 r Studio solicitantc nostrorum. occubuit. Ammian. xxvii. 10. 
 
 ^O^TnH ^liT Ta ?^ Y"'^"^'"'''" '^ '■«'"^*'*1 *'y Ammianus, (xxvii. 
 10.) and celebrated by Ausonius, (Mosell, 421, &c.) who foolishlv 
 ■upposes, that the Romans were ignorant of the sources of the K 
 
 b Immanis enim natio, jam inde ab incunabulis primis varietate 
 mprr'"ir"'.'""*V *^*.«^P'"8 adolescit, ut fuisse longis sa^culis a^sti- 
 PpiniJil'^P^ A'""™''-*"- .^J^viii. 5 The count deBuat. (Hist, des 
 Peuples de 1 Europe, torn. iv. p. 370.) ascribes the fecundity of the 
 Alemanni to their easy adoption of strangers. 
 
 [This explanation (says Malthus) only increases the difficultv It 
 places the earth upon i ho tortoise without informing us upon what 
 the tortoise rests. The question arises, what was tliis inexhaustible 
 reservoir of the north whence issued such an incessant torrent of In- 
 trepid warriors. I do not think that the solution which Montesouieu 
 nas Riven of this grand problem, is admissible. (See Grandeur et \ 
 D^adence des Romatns, c. 16. p. 187.) The difficulty disappears if 
 we apply a well authenticated and known fact concerning America ' 
 
 839 
 
 secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subse- 
 quent years of the administration of Valentinian.- 
 
 Ihat prudent emperor, who dilioently n,. p 
 practised the wise maxims of DiocFetian, difn""'""" 
 was studious to foment and excite the ^- ^- 371. 
 intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the 
 middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of 
 Lusace and Fhuringia, on either side of the Elbe, were 
 occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians ; 
 a warlike and numerous people of the Vandal race < 
 whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a powerfJl 
 kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishincr prov^ 
 ince. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient 
 manners of the Burgundians, appears to have been the 
 ditterence of their civil and ecclesiastical constitution. 
 Ihe appellation of Hendinos was given to the king or 
 general, and the title of Sinhim to the high priest? of 
 the nation. The person of the priest was sacred, and 
 ms dignity perpetual ; but the temporal government was 
 held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of war 
 accused the courage or conduct of the king, he was 
 immediately deposed ; and the injustice of his subjects 
 made hini responsible for the fertility of the earth, and 
 the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall 
 more properly within the sacerdotal department.' The 
 disputed possession of some salt-pits' en^raged the 
 Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent^con tests ; 
 the latter were easily tempted, by the secret solicita- 
 tions, and liberal offers, of the emperor; and their fab- 
 ulous descent from the Roman soldiers, who had 
 tormerly been left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus. 
 was admitted with mutual credulity, as it was conducive 
 to mutual interest.8 An army of fourscore thousand 
 liurgundians soon appeared on the banks of the Rhine, 
 and impatiently required the support and subsidies 
 which Valentinian had promised ; but they were amused 
 with excuses and delays, till at length, after a fruitless 
 expectation, they were compelled to retire. The arms 
 and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the fury 
 of their just resentment : and their massacre of the cap- 
 tives served to imbitler the hereditary feud of the Bur- 
 gundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a 
 wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by some alte- 
 ration of circumstances; and, perhaps, it was the 
 original design of Valentinian to intimidate, rather 
 than to destroy ; as the balan ce of power would have 
 
 to the nations of ancient Germany. I mean if we suppose that wlien 
 there was neither war nor famine, the population increased so ra- 
 pidly, that It doubled in iwenly-five or thirty years. The probability 
 and eJiren tlie necessity of this supposition, is manifest from the pic- 
 ture drawn by Tacitus, of tiie manners and customs of the Germans 
 (See Tacit. 79« J»/or. Qermanomm, c. 16. 18, 19. 20.) Tiiese customs' 
 so favourable to an increase of population, and that spirit of enter- 
 prise and emigration so fitted to remove the fear of want, present the 
 pictute of a state of society endowed with a principle of irresistible 
 increase. They show us the inexJiaustible source of those armies 
 and colonies, whose onset the Roman empire so long sustained, and 
 by which at last it fell. It is not probable that at any time the popu- 
 lation of Germany had doubled during two successive periods or 
 even during one of twenty five years. The perpetual wars of these 
 people, the rude state of agriculture among them, and especially the 
 strange custom adopted by many tribes, of surrounding themseive* 
 with forests, were absolutely opposed to such an increase. Probably 
 the whole country was at no time well peopled, though often it waa 
 surcharged with an excess of population. But instead of attemptine 
 to clear their forests, to drain their marshes, or to render their soil 
 capable of supporting an increasing population, it was more agreeable 
 to their warlike habits and their restless disposition, to go to other 
 countries in search of food, of booty, and of glory. (Essai aur U 
 prtncipe de Population, vol. i. p. U5.)—0.] 
 
 c Ammian. xxviii. 2. Zosimus. I. iv. p. 214. The younger Victor 
 mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian, nova arma meditari • 
 niigere terra sen limo simulacra. 
 
 d Bellicosos et pui)is immensa; viribus aflluentes ; et ideo metuendos 
 finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5. 
 
 e I am always apt to suspect historians and travellers of improving 
 extraordinary facts into general laws. Ammianus ascribes a simi- 
 lar custom to Egypt; and the Chinese have imputed it to the Tatsin, 
 or Roman empire. (DeGuignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. part i. p. 79.) 
 f Salinarum finiumque causa Alemannis sape jurgabant. Am- 
 mian. xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the po.ssession of the Sala, a 
 river wbicli produced salt, and which had been the object of ancient 
 contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. and Lipsius ad loc. 
 
 g Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam Burgun- 
 dii, sciunt: and the vague tradition gradually assumed a more regu- 
 lar form. (Oros. 1. vii. c. 32.) It is annihilated by the decisive au- 
 thority of Pliny, who composed the History of Drusus, and served in 
 Germany. (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5.) within sixty years after the 
 death of that hero. Ocrmanorum genera quinque ; Vindiii, quorum 
 pars Burgxindiones, S{c, (Hist. Natur. iv. p. 28.) 
 
340 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 been equally overturned by tbe extirpation of eitber of 
 the German nations. Among the princes of the Ale- 
 manni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had 
 assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved 
 his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a 
 light and unencumbered band, condescended to pass 
 the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and 
 would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, 
 if his judicious measures had not been defeated by the 
 impatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards 
 admitted to the honour of a personal conference with 
 the emperor ; and the favours which he received, fixed 
 him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere 
 friend of the republic.** 
 -,. o The land was covered by the fortifi- 
 
 cations of Valentinian ; but the sea- 
 coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depre- 
 dations of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in 
 which we have a dear and domestic interest, escaped 
 the notice of Tacitus ; and in the maps of Ptolemy, 
 it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric pe- 
 ninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth 
 of the Elbe,' This contracted territory, the present 
 duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was inca- 
 pable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of 
 Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the 
 British island with their language, their laws, and 
 their colonies ; and who so long defended the liberty 
 of the north aorainst the arms of Charlemajjne.^ The 
 solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the 
 similar manners, and loose constitution, of the tribes 
 of Germany : which were blended with each other by 
 the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The sit- 
 uation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace 
 the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates ; 
 and the success of their first adventures would natur- 
 ally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, 
 who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their 
 woods and mountains. Every tide might float down 
 the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and 
 intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unboun- 
 ded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and 
 luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, 
 however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the 
 Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt 
 along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed 
 arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits 
 of naval war; but the difficulty of issuing through 
 the northern columns of Hercules,' (which, during 
 several months of the year, are obstructed with ice,) 
 confined their skill and courage within the limits of 
 a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful arma- 
 ments which sailed from the mouth of the Elbe, 
 would soon provoke them to cross the narrow isth- 
 mus of Sleswig, and to launch their vessels on the 
 great sea. The various troops of pirates and adven- 
 turers, who fought under the same standard, were in- 
 sensibly united into a permanent society, at first of 
 rapine, and afterwards of government. A military 
 confederation was gradually moulded into a national 
 body, by the gentle operation of marriage and consan- 
 guinity ; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the al- 
 liance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. 
 
 h The wars and negotiations, relative to the Bur^undians and Ale- 
 manni, are distinctly related by Animianus Marrellinuji. (xxviii. 5. 
 zxix. 4. XXX. 3.) Orosius, (I. vii. c. 33.) and the Chronicles of Jerom 
 and Cassiodorus, fix some dates, and add some circumstances. 
 
 i Ew* rev x\jxtv» Ttji K.tuS>pt*>ti %ipTev»|T»i 2;3«tovi{. At the northern 
 extremity of the peninsula, (the Cimbric promontory of Pliny, iv. 
 27.) Ptolemy fixes the remnant of the Cimbri, He filis the interval 
 between the Saxons and the Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who 
 were united as early as the sixth century, under the national appel- 
 lation o( Danes. See Chiver. German. Antiq. I. iii. c.2l, 22, 23. 
 
 k M. D'Anville (Etablisscmcnt des Etats de I'Europc, Slc. p. 19 — 
 20.) has marked the extensive limits of the Saxony of Charlemagne. 
 
 I The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to pass, or even to 
 approach, the Sound, (styled, from an obvious resemblance, the co- 
 lumns of Hercules,) and the naval enterprize was never resumed. 
 (Tacit, do Moribus German, c. 34.) The knowledge which the Ro- 
 mans acquired of the naval powers of the Baltic, (c. 44, 45.) was Ob' 
 tained by their land journeys in search of amber. 
 
 If the fact were not established by tbe most unques- 
 tionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the cre- 
 dulity of our readers, by the description of the ves- 
 sels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in 
 the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, 
 and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat- 
 bottomed boats was framed of light timber, but the 
 sides and upper works consisted only of wicker, with 
 a covering of strong hides." In the course of their 
 slow and distant navigations, they must always have 
 been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the 
 misfortune, of shipwreck ; and the naval annals of 
 the Saxons were undoubtedly filled with the accounts 
 of the losses which they had sustained on the coasts of 
 Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates 
 braved the perils both of the sea and of the shore : 
 their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise ; 
 the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of 
 handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a 
 vessel ; and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of 
 a tempest, which concealed their design, and dispers- 
 ed the fleets of the enemy ." After they had acquired an 
 accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the 
 west, they extended the scene of their depredations, 
 and the most sequestered places had no reason to 
 presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so 
 little water, that they could easily proceed fourscore 
 or a hundred miles up the great rivers; their weight 
 was so inconsiderable, that they were transported on 
 waggons from one river to another ; and the pirates 
 who had entered the mouth of the Seine, or of the 
 Rhine, might descend, with the rapid stream of the 
 Rhone, into the Mediterranean. 
 
 Under the reign of Valentinian, the ^ ^^ ^^^ 
 maritime provinces of Gaul were afflic- 
 ted by the Saxons : a military count was stationed for 
 the defence of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and 
 that officer, who found his strength, or his abilities, 
 unequal to the task, implored the assistance of Seve- 
 rus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, sur- 
 rounded and outnumbered, were forced to relinquish 
 their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and 
 robust youth to serve in the imperial armies. They 
 stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat ; and the 
 condition was readily granted by the Roman general ; 
 who meditated an act of perfidy," imprudent as it was 
 inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive, and in arms, 
 to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The prema- 
 ture eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly pos- 
 ted in a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade ; and 
 they would perhaps have fallen the victims of their 
 own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarm- 
 ed by the noise of the combat, had not hastily advan- 
 ced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm 
 the undaunted valour of the Saxons. Some of the 
 prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword, to 
 shed their blood in the amphitheatre : and the orator 
 Symmachus complains, that twenty-nine of those des- 
 perate savages, by strangling themselves with their 
 own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the 
 public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of 
 Rome were impressed with the deepest horror, when 
 they were informed, that the Saxons consecrated to 
 the gods the tythe of their human spoil ; and, that 
 
 m Quin et Aremoricus piratam Saiona tractus,-^— 
 S|)erahat ; cui pelle saliim fulcare Rritannum 
 Ludus ; et assuto glaucum mare findere iembo. 
 
 Sitlon. in Panegyr, Avit. 369. 
 The genius of Caisar imitated, for a particular service, these rude, 
 but light, vessels, which were likewise used by the natives of Britain. 
 (Comment, de Bell. Civil, i. 51. and Guichardt, Nouveaux Memoires 
 Militaires, torn. ii. p. 41, 42.) The British vessels would now asion- 
 idh the genius of Ca'sar. 
 
 n The bestori<;inal account of the Saxon pirates may be found in 
 Sidoniui Apollinaris, (I. viii. epist. 6. p. 223. edit. Sirmond.) and the 
 best commentary in the Abh6 du Bos. (Hist. Critique de la Monar- 
 chic Fransoise, &.c. torn. i. 1. i. c. 16. p. 146—153. See likewise p. 
 77, 78.) 
 
 Ammian (xxviii. 5.) justifies this breach of faith to pirates and 
 robbers; and Orosius (I. vii. c. 32.) more clearly expresses their real 
 guilt; virtute atque agiiitate terribiies. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 they ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous 
 sacriiice." 
 
 II. Britain. II. The fabulous colonies of EffVD- 
 
 "'%1r '"" "^"« ,«"'' Trojans, of Scandinavians, 
 
 „ri^. ,„j *1 , ^P*n">"ls. which flattered the 
 
 pride and amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, 
 
 have insensibly vanished in the light of science and 
 
 J^^n. f" I ^^% P'?^^"' 'S^ '« =«"sfied with the 
 sample and rational opinion, that the islands of Great 
 Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from the 
 adjacent com nent of Gaul. From the coast of Ken,! 
 
 ry of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved, in the 
 perpetual resemblance of languatre, of reli<rion and 
 
 of manners: and the peculiar^hlr;cts>the'BrU. 
 ish tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence 
 of accidental and local circumstances.' The Korean 
 province was reduced to the state of civilized "nd 
 peaceful servitude: the rights of savage freedom 
 Th^i l°Tr""^ l" "'« ""™^^ ""'"S of^Caledoni" 
 
 as ea"rlv ar.'h "^ '!"" "T^r."'" ''^'""' ''''' -^i^^ed 
 two ^re^t^k ' TF" of Constantine, between the, 
 two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts • who 
 have since experienced a very difi-erent for une ' The 
 power, and almost the memory, of the Picts have 
 been extinguished by their succ^Uful rivalf; and the 
 
 i„^n'/ f 1""':.""""^"^ '■"' ^Ses the dignity of an in! 
 dependent kingdom, have multiplied by an equal and 
 vo untary union, the honours of the Englisl name. 
 The hand of nature had contributed to mark the an 
 cient distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former 
 were the men of the hills, and the latter those of The 
 plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia maybe con- 
 
 fZe s7a.Vr!n"' '""'^ """"'y' ^^••''<=''' even Tn 
 -J . . "' '■■'•*Se, was capab e of producing a 
 
 mcA,ot wheat-eaters, expressed the contempt, or envy, 
 eLh J'"^V'^°""'i higblander. The cultivation of the 
 earth might introduce a more accurate separation of 
 property, and the habits of a sedentary life ; bm the 
 love of arms and rapine was still the ruling passion 
 of the Picts; and their warriors who stripped them- 
 
 everof the r'^°^ ''";:" V"* distinguisKSd, in the 
 eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of paint- 
 
 i-c-fitter'^Th''"*'"'' ^'"' gaud/colours and fS- 
 ll riF, f„; u "'fT" P*" "'■ Caledonia irregular- 
 nav tfj. ? "^'''u^l*' ^'""" ■•"'=' ^'-i^h s-'arcehr re- 
 W^, ,L ? ' ?f ""* husbandman, and are most profita- 
 
 were cIh ^a ^^'l'"^ "'^ <"""«• ^he highlanders 
 
 were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and 
 hunters ,• and, as they seldom were fixed to any per- 
 
 7sc"„l ""f \'°"; *!y "^'^'"'""^ '"« expressive Lme 
 ot :>cots, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be 
 
 equivalent to that of wand^ers or vagrants. The in! 
 
 341 
 
 -ac'^ifices ot-??.2saxoni ' ^"^ "^''^ /^^^ inconsistency, the human 
 
 das . . . sermo baud multumdiversi L 'vin vjr a ' sacra deprehen- 
 Ladobserved their commrreS (Comme^ rini^'""" 
 
 13.) and in his time the emigration from t?^«Bel.^,.r^^^^^ 
 K?'l^' «^ 'east an historical, event, (via) CamSe? the British 
 
 n;i?^o..^.^lnrdr.?onT ir^xix?)^ «^""'"^ -t^Uies^lS 
 
 habitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh 
 h^^?^ K°°^" ^^\^^^ters. The deop lakes and 
 bays which intersect their country are plentifully stor- 
 ed with fish ; and they gradually ventured to cast 
 their nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of 
 the Hebrides, so profusely scattered along the west- 
 ern coast of Scotland, tempted their cufiositv and 
 improved their skill ; and they acquired, by s W de- 
 pees, the art, or rather the habit, of managinatheir 
 boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering the r 
 nocturnal ^'o^^se by the light of the well known-stars 
 The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch 
 the shores of a spacious island, which obtained from 
 its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of Green ; and 
 has preserved, with a slight alteration, the name of 
 i^rin, or lerne, or Ireland. It is probable, that in 
 some remote period of antiquity, the fertile plains of 
 Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots : and that 
 the strangers of the north, who had dared to encoun- 
 ter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests 
 over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary 
 island. It is certain, that, in the declining age of the 
 Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland and the Isle of Man, 
 were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, 
 who were often associated in military enterprise, were 
 deeply affected by the various accidents of their mu- 
 ual fortunes. They long cherished the lively tradi- 
 tion ot their common name and origin: and the mis- 
 sionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light 
 of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain 
 opinion, that their Irish countrymen were the natural, 
 as well as spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The 
 loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the 
 venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over 
 the darkness of the eighth century. On this slight 
 Joundation, an huge superstructure of fable was grad- 
 ually reared, by the bards, and the monks ; two orders 
 ot men, who equally abused the privilege of fiction. 
 Ihe Scottish nation, with mistaken p^ride, adopted 
 their Irish genealogy: and the annals of a long line 
 oi imaginary kings have been adorned by the fancy of 
 Boethius, and the classic elegance of Buchanan.* 
 
 Six years after the death of Constan- r,,^ . . . 
 tine, the destructive inroads of the "IZT"""^ 
 ^cots and Picts required the presence of ^- ^- 343-3C6. 
 his youngest son, who reigned in the western empire 
 Constans visited his British dominions: but we may 
 form some estimate of the importance of his achieve- 
 JTn^v hio^ language of panegyric, which celebrates 
 ih/J^A PT^^ 7^' ^'i^ elements, or, in other words, 
 the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the 
 port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich.- The 
 
 etnXtrf '^^ T '^^'^'^ Provincials continued to 
 experience, frorn foreign war and domestic tyranny 
 
 tToTn'f^r""''^ ?y '^//'^^^^ ""^ ^°""P^ administral 
 IZf V r.?"'^'' .of Constantius ; and the transient 
 relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Ju- 
 i ian, was soon lost by the absence a nd death of their 
 
 ^i T^® 'V*!] descent of the Scots has been revived in the l^er mn 
 
 f^k»I'm'?'^r'';i,^- "1*^ ^t'-enuously supported by^he Rev M? IvT' 
 taker. (Hist, of Manchester vnl in An ai^ / '"« «,ev. nir. vv hi- 
 
 of the Britons asserted. &c. J?' 54i29f ) YeV he^.^t"""? i?*^'^'''^ 
 TAaMhe Scots of Ammianus Mrrcellii n^ ^ a n ,m f "'''*''*'''*^^*' '• 
 
 hints of their eini-ration from another country 2 VaL/ «// .k J^^ 
 counts of sucj,e,..igrations, which have been asserfed^rre^e Jed bv 
 Irish bards, Scotch historians, or English antim.nriil /n ^ ' ^ 
 Camden, Usher, Stillingfleet &c ) are tntX^f i ?' ^^"^''""a". 
 
 U.reeofthe Irish tribes, w^hiTh^rtmlnTonThXtmnA D TL"\ 
 were of Caledonian extraction. 4. That a yo.in^?er Knch of C,?^"^ 
 
 l"narcKyon;eland'' A^r th' ''"^«'' -'I--d anoCstsfed^'tfe 
 encrbetwPPn Mr Whw ? ' these concessions, the remaining differ- 
 ence between Mr. Whitaker and his adversaries is minute and nh 
 
 Jny/^; Jn^ .^'""'r *'"''"-y' «"'''^»' "« produces of a FLrpus t^.e 
 cousin of Ossian who was transplanted (A. D. 320 ) froni Irl land to 
 
 J;^^*'.°"r^' M ''""■r * '^o'Uectural supplement To iirEripo^^^^^^^ 
 and the feeble evidence of R chard of CirenreRtPr « m«nl V^r .i ' 
 fourteenth century. The lively ^pirit^ofVh^raS aT nge, ious 
 antiquarian has tempted him to forget the nature of a q Son 
 which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides *^"^^^'°°' 
 u Hyeme tumentes ac sa^vientes undas cakastis Oceani sub remii 
 
 .d ^,«^™ Mi„«c. p«,. sc. Tine j,:r(2s^i?.r.^';L„?;r»; 
 
342 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 f 
 
 benefactor. The sums of gold and silver which had 
 been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for 
 the payment of the troops, were intercepted by the 
 avarice of the commanders ; discharges, or, at least, 
 exemptions, from the military service were publicly 
 sold ; the distress of the soldiers, who were injurious- 
 ly deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, pro- 
 voked them to frequent desertion ; the nerves of disci- 
 pline were relaxed, and the highways were infested 
 with robbers.* The oppression of the good, and the 
 impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to diffuse 
 through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt ; 
 and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, 
 might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the 
 weak and distracted government of Britain. The hos- 
 tile tribes of the north, who detested the pride and 
 power of the king of the world, suspended their domestic 
 feuds, and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, 
 the Picts,and the Saxons, spread themselves,with rapid 
 and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the 
 shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature, 
 every object of convenience or luxury, which they 
 were incapable of creating by labour, or procuring by 
 trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful prov- 
 ince of Britain.y A philosopher may deplore the eter- 
 nal discord of the human race, but he will confess, 
 that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation 
 than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Con- 
 stantine to that of the Plantagenets, this rapacious spi- 
 rit continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledo- 
 nians : but the same people, whose generous humani- 
 ty seems to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgrac- 
 ed by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace, and 
 of the laws of w"ar. Their southern neighbours have 
 felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations 
 of the Scots and Picts ;' and a valiant tribe of Caledo- 
 nia, the Attacotti,* the enemies, and afterwards the 
 soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, 
 of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they 
 hunted in the woods for prey, it is said, that they at- 
 tacked the shepherd rather than his flock ; and that 
 they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny 
 parts both of males and females, which they prepared 
 for their horrid repasts.** If, in the neighbourhood of 
 the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race 
 of cannibals had really existed, we may contemplate, 
 in the period of the Scottish history, the opposite ex- 
 tremes of savage and civilized life. Such reflections 
 tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas ; and to encour- 
 age the pleasing hope, that New Zealand may pro- 
 duce, in some future age, the Hume of the southern 
 
 hemisphere. 
 
 r Every messenger who escaped across 
 
 Brtarr; the British channel, conveyed the most 
 Thcodosius. melancholy and alarming tidings to the 
 A. D. 367-370. ^^^^ of Valentinian ; and the emperor 
 
 was soon informed, that the two military commanders 
 of the province had been surprised and cut off by the 
 barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, was 
 hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the 
 court of Treves. The representations of Jovinus ser- 
 ved only to indicate the greatness of the evil ; and, after 
 
 X Libanius, Oral. Parent, c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious passage 
 has escaped the diligence of our Britisli antiquaries. 
 
 y The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the 
 liehts, &c. of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, 
 vol ii' p 34^. and Mr. Macpherson's introduction, p. 242—286. 
 
 I Lord Littleton .has circumstantially related, (History of Henry 
 II vol i p 182 ) and Sir David Dalrymplc has slighUy mentioned, 
 (Annais'of Scotland, vol. i. p. 09.) a barharous inroad of the Scots, 
 at a lime (A. D. 1137) when law, religion, and society, must have 
 softened their primitive manners. • a r> a 
 
 a Attacottibellicosahominumnatio. Ammian. xxvii. 8. Camden 
 (Introduct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in the text of Je 
 rom The bands of Attacotti, which Jerom had seen in Gaul, were 
 afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum. (Noiitia, S. vui. xxxix. 
 
 * *b Cum ipse adolescentulus in GalU& viderim Attacottos (or Sco 
 tos) eentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnihus; et cum per silvas 
 porcorum ereees, et arinentorum pecudumque reperiant, pastorum 
 nates etfeminarum papillas solere absclndere; et has solas ciborum 
 delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerom, (torn, i\. p. 75.) 
 whose veracity 1 find no reason to question. 
 
 a long and serious consultation, the defence, or rather 
 the recovery, of Britain, was intrusted to the abilities 
 of the brave Theodosius. The exploits of that gen- 
 eral, the father of a line of emperors, have been cele- 
 brated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the 
 ao-e : but his real merit deserved their applause; and his 
 nomination was received, by the army and province, as 
 a sure presage of approaching victory. He seized the 
 favourable moment of navigation, and securely landed 
 the numerous and veteran bands of the Heruli, and 
 Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In ins march 
 from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated sev- 
 eral parties of the barbarians, released a multitude of 
 captives, and, after distributing to his soldiers a small 
 portion of the spoil, established the fame of disinte- 
 rested justice, by the restitution of the remainder to the 
 ricrhtful proprietors. The citizens of London, who 
 had almost despaired of their safety, threw open their 
 (rates ; and as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the 
 court of Treves the important aid of a military lieu- 
 tenant, and a civil governor, he executed, with wisdom, 
 and viaour, the laborious task of the deliverance of 
 Britain. The vagrant soldiers were recalled to their 
 standard ; an edict of amnesty dispelled the public 
 apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated 
 the rigour of martial discipline. The scattered and 
 desultory warfare of the barbarians, who infested the 
 land and sea, deprived him of the glory of a signal 
 victory; but the prudent spirit, and ^ j^ g^g^^^ggg 
 consummate art, of the Roman general, 
 were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, 
 which successively rescued every part of the province 
 from the hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. The 
 splendour of the cities, and the security of the fortifi- 
 cations, were diligently restored, by the paternal care 
 of Theodosius : who with a strong hand confined the 
 trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of the 
 island ; and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of 
 the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reign of 
 Valentinian.* The voice of poetry and panegyric may 
 add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the un- 
 known regions of Thule were stained with the blood of 
 the Picts;*'that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves 
 of the Hyperborean ocean ; and that the distant Orkneys 
 were the scene of his naval victory over the Saxon pi- 
 rates.** He left the province with a fair, as well as splen- 
 did, reputation: and was immediately promoted to the 
 rank of master-general of the cavalry, by a pnnce, who 
 could applaud, without envy, the merit of his ser- 
 vants. In the important station of the Upper Dan- 
 ube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated 
 the armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen 
 to suppress the revolt of Africa. 
 
 III. The prince who refuses to be in. 
 
 the judge, instructs his people to con- Tyranny 'of**Ro- 
 sider him as the accomplice, of his mm- manus. 
 isters. The military command of Afri- A.D.366,&c. 
 ca had been long exercised by count Romanus, and hia 
 abilities were not inadequate to his station : but, as 
 sordid interest was the sole motive of his conduct, he 
 acted, on most occasions, as if he had been the enemy 
 of the province, and the friend of the barbarians of the 
 desert. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, 
 and Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripoli, had 
 lon(r constituted a federal union,' were obliged, for the 
 
 c Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. 1. xxvi. 4. xxvii. 8. 
 xxviii. 3.) the whole series of the British war. 
 
 d Horrescit .... ratibus impervia Thule. 
 
 Hie .... necfalso nomine Pictos 
 
 Edomuit. Scotunique vago mucrone secutua. 
 
 Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas. 
 
 Claudian. in iii. Cons. Hononi, ver. 53, ic 
 
 Maduerunt Saxone fuso 
 
 Orcades : incaluit Tictorum sanguine Thule. 
 Scotorum curaulos flevit glacialis lerne. 
 
 In IV. Cons. Hon. ver. 31, &c. 
 See likewise Pacatus. (in Panejryr. Vet. xii. 5^ But it is not easy to 
 appreciate the intrinsic value of flattery and "Jf aP^,^/: • ^^"^P"® 
 the British Victories ofBolanus (Siatms, Silv. v. 2.) with his real cha- 
 racter. (Tacit, in Vit. A^ricol. c. 16.) 
 
 e Aminianus frequently mentions their concilium ^nnuum- «f *'• 
 mum, &c. Leptia and Sabrata are long since ruined ; but the city of 
 
 first time, to shut their gates against a hostile inva- 
 sion ; several of their most honourable citizens were 
 surprised and massacred; the villages, and even the sub- 
 urbs, were pillaged ; and the vines and fruit-trees of 
 that rich territory were extirpated by the malicious sav- 
 ages of Getuha. The unhappy provincials implored 
 the protection of Romanus ; but they soon found that 
 their military governor was not less cruel and rapacious 
 
 343 
 
 word, and to the people.* He was received as the 
 deliverer of his country ; and, as soon as it appeared 
 that Romanus was formidable only to a submissive 
 province, the tyrant of Africa became the object of 
 universal contempt. The ruin of Ca^sarea, which was 
 plundered and burnt by the licentious barbarians, con- 
 vinced the refractory cities of the danger of resistance ; 
 the power of lirmus was established, at least in the 
 
 than the barbarians. As they were incapable of furnsh- p ovinces of MZt.nr^^ ^T"" ^" '^^ 
 
 ing the four thousand camels, and thp^vnrKJ.JTi,! LTIT:! ''Lr^T"^"'^ ,^"^ Numidia; and it seemed 
 
 ing the four thousand camels, and the exorbitant pre- 
 sent, which he required, before he would march to the 
 assistance of Tripoli, his demand was equivalent to a 
 refusal, and he might justly be accused as theauthorof 
 the public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three 
 cities, they nominated two deputies, to lay at the feet 
 of Valentinian the customary offering of a gold victo- 
 ry ; and to accompany this tribute, of duty, rather 
 than of gratitude, with their humble complaint, that 
 they were ruined by the enemy, and betrayed by their 
 governor. If the severity of Valentinian had been 
 rightly directed, it would have fallen on the guilty 
 head of Romanus. But the count, long exercisid in 
 the arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty 
 messenger to secure the venal friendship of Remiffius, 
 master of the offices. The wisdom of the imperial 
 council was deceived by artifice ; and their honest in- 
 dignation was cooled by delay. At length, when the 
 repetition of complaint had been justified by the repeti- 
 tion of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was 
 sent from the court of Treves, to examine the state of 
 Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid im- 
 partiality of Palladius was easily disarmed : he was 
 tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public 
 treasure, which he brought with him for the payment 
 of the troops ; and from the moment that he was con- 
 scious of his own guilt, he could no longer refuse to 
 attest the innocence and merit of the count. The 
 charge of the Tripoli tans was declared to be false and 
 frivolous ; and Palladius himself was sent back from 
 Treves to Africa, with a special commission to disco- 
 ver and prosecute the authors of this impious conspi- 
 racy against the representatives of the sovereign. His 
 inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and 
 success, that he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who 
 had sustained a recent siege of eight days, to contradict 
 the truth of their own decrees, and to censure the be- 
 haviour of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was 
 pronounced, without hesitation, by the rash and head- 
 strong cruelty of Valentinian. The president of 
 Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of the 
 province, was publicly executed at Utica; four distin- 
 guished citizens were put to death, as the accomplices 
 of the imaginary fraud ; and the tongues of two others 
 were cut out, by the express order of the emperor. 
 Romanus, elated by impunity, and irritated by resist- 
 ance, was still continued in the military command ; till 
 the Africans were provoked, by his avarice, to join the 
 rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor.^ 
 Revolt of Firmus, His father Nabal was one of the richest 
 A. D. 372. and most powerful of the Moorish prin- 
 ces, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But 
 as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very 
 numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was 
 eaj^erly disputed ; and Zamma, one of his sons, was 
 slain in a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. 
 The implacable zeal, with which Romanus prosecuted 
 the legal revenge of this murder, could be ascribed 
 only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred ; but, on 
 this occasion, his claims were just, his influence was 
 weighty, and Firmus clearly understood, that he must 
 either present his neck to the executioner, or appeal 
 from the sentence of the imperial consistory, to his 
 
 Oea, the native country of Apuleius, still flourishes under the pro- 
 vmoal denomination of Tripoli. See Cellarius, (Geograph. Anii- 
 qua, tom^ii part ii. p. 81.) D'Anville (Geographic Ancienne. torn, 
 in. p. <l, ,<2.) and Marmol. (Afrique. tom.ii. p. 562.) 
 o/-^"""''*"* ^^'''- ^- Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p 
 2j. 676.) has discussed the chronological difficulties of the history of 
 count Romanus. ' 
 
 to be his only doubt, whether he should assume the 
 diadem of a Moorish king, or the purple of a Roman 
 emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans 
 soon discovered, that, in this rash insurrection, they 
 had not sufficiently consulted their own strencrth, 
 or the abilities of their leader. Before he could 
 procure any certain intelligence, that the emperor of 
 the west had fixed the choice of a general, or that a 
 fleet of transports was collected at the mouth of the 
 Rhone, he was suddenly informed, that the ffreat 
 Iheodosius, with a small band of vete- rr, ^ • 
 rans, had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, ^t^^^r^lj:; 
 on the African coast ; and the timid ^- ^- 3^- 
 usurper sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military 
 genius. Though Firmus possessed arms and treasures, 
 his despair of victory immediately reduced him to the 
 use of those arts, which, in the same country, and in a 
 similar situation, had formerly been practised by the 
 crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an ap- 
 parent submission, the via^ilance of the Roman general ; 
 to seduce the fidelity of his troops ; and to protract the 
 duration of the war, by successively engaginff the in- 
 dependent tribes of Africa to espouse his quarrel, or 
 to protect his flight. Theodosius imitated the example, 
 wu *S-"^ ^^^ success, of his predecessor Metellus. 
 When l'irmus,in the character of a suppliant, accused 
 his own rashness, and humbly solicited the clemency 
 of the emperor, the lieutenant of Argentinian received 
 and dismissed him with a friendly embrace; but he 
 diligently required the useful and substantial pledges 
 of a sincere repentance ; nor could he be persuaded, by 
 the assurances of peace, to suspend, for an instant, the 
 operations of an active war. A dark conspiracy was 
 detected by the penetration of Theodosius; and he sat- 
 isfied, without much reluctance, the public indignation, 
 which he had secretly excited. Several of the g-uilty 
 accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, accordinrr to 
 ancient custom, to the tumult of a military executron ; 
 many more, by the amputation of both their hands, 
 continued to exhibit an instructive spectacle of horror ; 
 the hatred of the rebels was accompanied with fear ; 
 and the fear of the Roman soldiers was mingled with 
 respectfiil admiration. Amidst the boundless plains 
 ot Getuha, and the innumerable valleys of mount 
 Atlas, It was impossible to prevent the escape of Fir- 
 nius : and ii: the usurper could have tired the patience 
 of his antagonist, he would have secured his person in 
 the depth of some remote solitude, and expected the 
 hopes of a future revolution. He was subdued by the 
 perseverance of Theodosius ; who had formed an in- 
 flexible determination, that the war should end only 
 by the death of the tyrant ; and that every nation of 
 Africa, which presumed to support his cause, should 
 be involved in his ruin. At the head of a small body 
 of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five 
 hundred men, the Roman general advanced, with a 
 steady prudence, devoid of rashness or of fear, into the 
 heart of a country, where he was sometimes attacked 
 by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The boldness 
 of his charge dismayed the irregular barbarians ; they 
 were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly re- 
 treats ; they were continually baffled by the unknown 
 resources of the military art ; and they felt and confessed 
 the just superiority which was assumed by the leader 
 
 g The chronoloffy of Amminnus is loose and obscure : and Orosius 
 (X. vil. ft. 33. p. 551. edit. Havercamp.) seems fo place the revolt of 
 Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and Valens. Tillemont (Hist, 
 des Emp. torn. v. p. 691.) endeavours to pick his way. The patient 
 and sure-footed mule of the Alps may be trusted in the most slippery 
 
 
344 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 ill 
 
 till 
 
 of a civilized nation. When Theodosius entered the 
 extensive dominions ofl^mazen, king- of the Isaflenses, 
 the haughty savage required, in words of defiance, his 
 name, and the object of his expedition. " I am," re- 
 plied the stern and disdainful count, " I am the general 
 of Valentinian, the lord of the world ; who has sent me 
 hither to pursue and punish a desperate robber. Deliver 
 him instantly into my hands ; and be assured, that if 
 thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible 
 sovereign, thou, and the people over whom thou reign- 
 est, shall be utterly extirpated." As soon as Igmazen 
 was satisfied that his enemy had strength and resolu- 
 tion to execute the fatal menace, he consented to pur- 
 chase a necessary peace by the sacrifice of a guilty 
 fugitive. The guards that were placed to secure the 
 person of Firmus, deprived him of the hopes of escape ; 
 and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished 
 the sense of danger, disappointed the insulting triumphs 
 of the Romans, by strangling himself in the night. 
 His dead body, the only present which Igmazen could 
 offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a 
 camel ; and Theodosius, leading back his victorious 
 troops to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclama- 
 tions of joy and loyalty.** 
 
 He is executed Africa had been lost by the vices of 
 at Carthage, Romanus ; it was restored by the virtues 
 A. D. 376. of Theodosius : and our curiosity may 
 be usefully directed to the inquiry of the respective 
 treatment which the two generals received from the 
 imperial court. The authority of count Romanus had 
 been suspended by the master-general of the cavalry ; 
 and he was committed to safe and honourable custody 
 till the end of the war. His crimes were proved by 
 the most authentic evidence ; and the public expected, 
 with some impatience, the decree of severe justice. 
 But the partial and powerful favour of Mellobaudes 
 encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtain 
 repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd 
 of friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty 
 conduct by the additional guilt of fraud and forgery. 
 About the same time, the restorer of Britain and Africa, 
 on a vague suspicion that his name and services were 
 superior to the rank of a subject, was ignominiously 
 beheaded at Carthage. Valentinian no longer reigned ; 
 and the death of Theodosius, as well as the impunity 
 of Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the 
 ministers who abused the confidence, and deceived the 
 inexperienced youth, of his sons.* 
 
 State of Afrira. }^ the geographical accuracy of Am- 
 mianus had been tortunately bestowed 
 on the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have 
 traced, with eager curiosity, the distinct and domestic 
 footsteps of his march. 13ut the tedious enumeration 
 of the unknown and uninteresting tribes of Africa may 
 be reduced to the general remark, that they were all 
 of the swarthy race of the Moors; that they inhabited 
 the back settlements of the Mauritanian and Numidian 
 provinces, the country, as they have since been termed 
 l3y the Arabs, of dates and of locusts,'' and that, as the 
 Roman power declined in Africa, theboundary of civil- 
 ized manners and cultivated land was insensibly con- 
 tracted. Beyond the utmost limits of the Moors, the 
 vast and inhospitable desert of the south extends above 
 a thousand miles to the banks of the Niger. The an- 
 cients, who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge 
 of the great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes 
 tempted to believe, that the torrid zone must ever re- 
 main destitute of inhabitants :' and they sometimes 
 
 h Ammian. xxtx. 5. The text of this long cliaptcr (fifleen quarto 
 pages) ifl broken and corrupted; and the narrative ia perplexed by 
 the want of chronological and geographical land-marks. 
 
 i Aniniianu!*, xxviii. 4. Orosius, I. vii. c. 33. p. 551, 552. Jerom. 
 in Chron. p. 187. 
 
 k Leo Africanns (in the Viaggl de Ramuaio, torn. I. fol. 78—83.) 
 has traced a curious picture of the people and the country ; which 
 are more minutely described in the Afrique de Marmol, torn. iii. p. 
 1—54. 
 
 1 This uninhabitable zone was gradually reduced by the improve- 
 menta of ancient treography. from forty-five to twenty-four, or even 
 sixteen, degrees of latitude. See a learned and judicious note of Dr. 
 Robertson, Hist, of America, vol. i- p. 426 
 
 abused their fancy by filling the vacant space with 
 headless men, or rather monsters ;" with horned and 
 cloven-footed satyrs ;" with fabulous centaurs ;" and 
 with human pygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful 
 warfare against the cranes.P Carthage would have 
 trembled at the strange intelligence, that the countries, 
 on either side of the equator, were filled with innume- 
 rable nations, who dilfered only in their colour from 
 the ordinary appearance of the human species ; and 
 the subjects of the Roman empire might have anxiously 
 expected, that the swarms of barbarians, which issued 
 from the north, would soon be encountered from the 
 south by new swarms of barbarians, equally fierce, and 
 equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would in- 
 deed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the character of their African enemies. The 
 inaction of the negroes does not seem to be the effect, 
 either of their virtue, or of their pusillanimity. They 
 indulge, like the rest of mankind, their passions and 
 appetites ; and the adjacent tribes are engaged in fre- 
 quent acts of hostility.^ But their rude ignorance has 
 never invented any effectual weapons of defence, or of 
 destruction ; they appear incapable of forming any ex- 
 tensive plans of government, or conquest ; and the ob- 
 vious inferiority of their mental faculties has been dis- 
 covered and abused by the nations of the temperate 
 zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked 
 from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native 
 country ; but they are embarked in chains 'J and this 
 constant emigration, which, in the space of two centu- 
 ries, might have furnished armies to overrun the globe, 
 accuses the guilt of Europe, and the weakness of 
 Africa. 
 
 IV. The ignominious treaty, which jy rp^^ East. 
 saved the army of Jovian, had been The Persian war, 
 faithfully executed on the side of the ^ ^' 3*^—378. 
 Romans; and as they had solemnly renounced the 
 sovereignty and alliance of Armenia and Iberia, those 
 tributary kingdoms were exposed, without protection, 
 to the arms of the Persian monarch.* Sapor entered 
 the Armenian territories at the head of a formidable 
 host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot ; 
 but it was the invariable practice of Sapor to mix war 
 and negociation, and to consider falsehood and perjury 
 as the most powerful instruments of regal policy. He 
 affected to praise the prudent and moderate conduct of 
 the king of Armenia ; and the unsuspicious Tiranus 
 was persuaded, by the repeated assurances of insidious 
 friendship, to deliver his person into the hands of a 
 faithless and cruel enemy. In the midst of a splendid 
 entertainment, he was bound in chains of silver, as an 
 honour due to the blood of the Arsacides ; and after a 
 
 m Intra, si credere libet, vis jam homines et magis semiferi . . . 
 Blemmyes, Satyri, &c. Pomponius Mela, i. 4. p. 26. edit. Voss. in 
 Hvo. Pliny phitonophicnlhj explains (vi. 35.) tl»e irregularities of 
 nature, which he had credulously admitted, (v. 8.) 
 
 n If the satyr was the Orangoutang, the great human ape, (Buffon. 
 Hist. Nat. tom. xiv. p. 43, &:c.) one of that species might actually he 
 shown alive at Alexandria in the reign of Constantine. Yet some 
 difticulty will still remain about the conversation which St. Anthony 
 held with one of these pious savages in the desert of Thebais. (Jerom 
 in Vit, Paul. Eremit. tom. i. p. 238.) 
 
 o St. Anthony likewise met one of these monsters; whose exist- 
 ence was seriously asserted by the emperor Claudius. The public 
 laughed ; but liis pra-fecl of Egypt had the address to send an artful 
 preparation, the embalmed corps of an Hippocentaxir; which was 
 preserved almost a century afterwards in the imperial palace. See 
 Pliny, (Hist. Natut. vii. 3. ) and the judicious observations of Fre- 
 ret. (Memoires de I' Acad. tom. vii. p. 321, &.C.) 
 
 p 'i'he fable of the pygmies is as old as Homer, (Iliad, iii. 6.) The 
 pygmies of India and ^Ethiopia were (trispithami) twenty-seven 
 inches high. Every spring their cavalry (mounted on rams and 
 goats) marched in battle array to destroy the cranes' eggs, aliter 
 (says Pliny) futuris gregibus non resisti. Their houses were built 
 of mud, feathers, and egg shells. See Pliny (vi. 35. vii. 2.) and Strabo, 
 (I. ii. p. 121.) 
 
 q The third and fourth volumes of the valuable Ilistoirc dcs Voy- 
 ages describe the present state of the negroes. The nations of thn 
 sea coast have been polished by European commerce; and those of 
 the inland country have been improved by Moorish colonies. 
 
 r Hidtoire Philosophique et Politique, &.c. tom. iv. p. 192. 
 
 t The evidence of Ammianus is original and decisive (xxvil. 13.) 
 Moses of Chorene (1. iii. c. 17. p. 249. and c. 34. p. 2(i9.) and Proco- 
 pius (de Bell. Porsico, I. i. c. 5. p. 17. edit. Louvre.) have been con- 
 sulted; but those historians, who confound distinct facts, repeat the 
 same events, and introduce strange stories, must t)e used with diffi 
 dence and caution. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 short confinement in the Tower of Oblivion at Ecba- 
 tana, he was released from the miseries of life, either 
 by his own dagger, or by that of an assassin. The 
 kingdom of Armenia was reduced to the state of a 
 Persian province; the administration was shared be- 
 tween a distinguished satrap and a favourite eunuch ; 
 and Sapor marched, without delay, to subdue the mar- 
 tial spirit of the Iberians. Sauromaces, who reigned 
 in that country by the permission of the emperors, was 
 expelled by a superior force ; and, as an insult on the 
 majesty of Rome, the king of kings placed a diadem 
 on the head of his abject vassal Aspacuras. The city 
 of Artogerassa' was the only place of Armenia which 
 presumed to resist the effort of his arms. The treasure 
 deposited in that strong fortress tempted the avarice of 
 J Sapor; but the dangler of Olympias, the wife, or wi- 
 
 I dow, of the Armenian king, excited the public com- 
 
 passion, and animated the desperate valour of her 
 subjects and soldiers. The Persians were surprised 
 and repulsed under the walls of Artogerassa, by a bold 
 and well concerted sally of the besieged. But the 
 forces of Sapor were continually renewed and increased ; 
 the hopeless courage of the garrison was exhausted ; 
 the strength of the walls yielded to the assault; and 
 the proud conqueror, after wasting the rebellious city 
 With fire and sword, led away captive an unfortunate 
 aueen, who, m a more auspicious hour, had been the 
 destined bride of the son of Constantine." Yet if Sa- 
 por already triumphed in the easy conquest of two de- 
 pendent kingdoms, he soon felt, that a country is un- 
 subdued, as long as the minds of the people are actu- 
 ated by a hostile and contumacious spirit. Tlie satraps, 
 whom he was obliged to trust, embraced the first op- 
 portunity of regaining the afl^ection of their countrymen, 
 and of signalizing their immortal hatred to the Persian 
 name. Since the conversion of the Armenians and 
 Iberians, those nations considered the christians as the 
 favourites, and the Magians as the adversaries, of the 
 Supreme Being ; the influence of the clergy, over a su- 
 perstitious people, was uniformly exerted in the cause 
 of Rome ; and as long as the successors of Constantino 
 disputed with those of Artaxerxes the sovereignty of 
 the intermediate provinces, the religious connexion 
 always threw a decisive advantage into the scale of 
 the empire. A numerous and active party acknowl- 
 edged Para, the son of Tiranus, as the lawful sove- 
 reign of Armenia, and his title to the throne was deeply 
 rooted in the hereditary succession of five hundred 
 years. By the unanimous consent of the Iberians, the 
 coiintry was equally divided between the rival princes ; 
 and Aspacuras, who owed his diadem to the choice of 
 Sapor, was obliged to declare, that his regard for his 
 children, who were detained as hostages by the tyrant, 
 was the only consideration which prevented him from 
 openly renouncing the alliance of Persia. The empe- 
 ror Valens, who respected the obligations of the treaty, 
 and who was apprehensive of involving the east in a 
 dangerous war, ventured, with slow and cautious mea- 
 sures, to support the Roman party in the kingdoms of 
 Iberia and Armenia. Twelve legions established the 
 authority of Sauromaces on the. banks of the Cyrus. 
 The Euphrates was protected by the valour of Arin- 
 theus. A powerful army, under the command of count 
 Trajan, and of Vadomair, king of the Alemanni, fixed 
 their camp on the confines of Armenia. But they 
 were striclly enjoined not to commit the first hostilities, 
 which might be understood as a breach of the treaty ; 
 and such was the implicit obedience of the Roman ge- 
 neral, that they retreated, with exemplary patience, 
 under a shower of Persian arrows, till they had clearly 
 acquired a just title to an honourable and legitimate 
 victory. Yet these appearances of war insensibly 
 
 345 
 
 subsided in a vain and tedious negociation. The con- 
 tending parties supported their claims by mutual re- 
 proaches of perfidy and ambition ; and it should seem, 
 that the original treaty was expressed in very obscure 
 terms, since they were reduced to the necessity of mak- 
 ing their inconclusive appeal to the partial testimony of 
 the generals of the two nations, who had assisted at the 
 negociations.' The invasion of the Goths and Huns 
 which soon afterwards shook the foundations of the 
 Roman empire, exposed the provinces of Asia to the 
 arms of Sapor. But the declining age, and perhaps 
 the infirmities of the monarch, suggested new maxims 
 ot tranquillity and moderation. His death, 
 which happened in the full maturity of a ^ ^- ^^• 
 reign of seventy years, changed in a moment the court 
 and councils of Persia; and their attention was most 
 probably engaged by domestic troubles, and the dis- 
 tant efforts of a Carmanian war.y The remembrance 
 of ancient injuries was lost in the enjoyment of peace. 
 Ihe kingdoms of Armenia and Iberia rpb« 
 were permitted, by the mutual though tacit piace*.^ 
 consent of both empires, to resume their A.D.384. 
 doubtful neutrality. In the first years of the reign of 
 Theodosius, a Persian embassy arrived at Constanti- 
 nople, to excuse the unjustifiable measures of the for- 
 mer reign ; and to offer, as the tribute of friendship, or 
 even of respect, a splendid present of gems, of silk, and 
 of Indian elephants.* 
 
 In the general picture of the affairs of Adventures of 
 the east, under the reign of Valens, the Para, king of 
 adventures of Para form one of the most -A'^enia. 
 striking and singular objects. The noble youth, by 
 the persuasion of his mother Olympias, had escaped 
 through the Persian host that besieged Artogerassa, 
 and implored the protection of the emperor of the east. 
 By his timid councils. Para was alternately supported, 
 and recalled, and restored, and betrayed. The hopes 
 of the Armenians were sometimes raised by the pre- 
 sence of their natural sovereign ; and the ministers of 
 Valens were satisfied, that they preserved the integrity 
 of the public faith, if their vassal was not suffered to 
 assume the diadem and title of king. But they soon 
 repented of their own rashness. They were confounded 
 by the reproaches and threats of the Persian monarch. 
 They found reason to distrust the cruel and inconstant 
 temper of Para himself: who sacrificed, to the slight- 
 est suspicions, the lives of his most faithful servants ; 
 and held a secret and disgraceful correspondence with 
 the assassin of his father and the enemy of his country. 
 Under the specious pretence of consulting with the 
 emperor on the subject of their common interest. Para 
 was persuaded to descend from the mountains of Ar- 
 menia, where his party was in arms, and to trust his 
 independence and safety to the discretion of a perfidious 
 court. The king of Armenia, for such he appeared in 
 his own eyes and in those of his nation, was received 
 with due honours by the governors of the provinces 
 through which he passed ; but when he arrived at Tar- 
 sus in Cilicia, his progress was stopped under various 
 pretences ; his motions were watched with respectful 
 vigilance, and he gradually discovered that he was a 
 prisoner in the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed 
 his indignation, dissembled his fears, and, after secretly 
 preparing his escape, mounted on horseback with three 
 hundred of his faithful followers. The officer stationed 
 at the door of his apartment, immediately communica- 
 
 t Perhaps A rtagera, or Ardis; under whose walls Caius, the 
 grandson of Angusius, was wounded. This fortress was situate 
 above Amida, near one of the sources of the Tigris. See D'Anville 
 Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 106. ' 
 
 u Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs. tom. v. p. 701.) proves, from 
 chronology, that Olympias must liave l)eenthe mother of Para. 
 
 Vol. I.— 2 T 
 
 X Ammianus (xxvii. 12. xxix. 1. xxx. 1, 2.) has descrrbed the events, 
 without the dates, of the Persian war. Moses of Chorene (Hist. Ar- 
 men. I. iii. c.28. p. 261. c. 31. p. 266. c. 35. p. 271.) affords some ad- 
 ditional facts ; but it is extremely difficult to separate truth from fable. 
 
 y Artaxerxes was the successor and brother {the cousin geman) of 
 the great Sapor ; and the guardian of his son Sapor III. ( Agathias, I. 
 iv. p. 136. edit. Louvre.) See the Universal History, vol. xi. p. 86. 
 161. Theauthorsof that unequal work have compiled the Sassanian 
 dynasty with erudition and diligence ; but it is a preposterous arrange* 
 ment to divide the Roman and Oriential accounts into two distinct 
 histories. 
 
 z Pacatus in Panegyr. Vet. iii. 22. and Orosius, I. vit. e. 34. Ictam- 
 que turn fir-dus est, quo univer^us Oriens usque ad nunc (A. D. 416.) 
 tranquiliissim^ fruitur. 
 
846 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 ted his flight to the consular of Cilicia, who overtook 
 him in the suburbs, and endeavoured, without success, 
 to dissuade him from prosecuting his rash and danger- 
 ous design. A legion was ordered to pursue the royal 
 fugitive; but the pursuit of infantry could not be very 
 alarming to a body of light cavalry ; and upon the first 
 cloud of arrows that was discharged into the air, they 
 retreated with precipitation to the gates of Tarsus. 
 After an incessant march of two days and two nights. 
 Para and his Armenians reached the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates ; but the passage of the river, which they were 
 obliged to swim, was attended with some delay and 
 some loss. The country was alarmed ; and the two 
 roads, which were only separated by an interval of 
 three miles, had been occupied by a thousand archers 
 on horseback, under the command of a count and a tri- 
 bune. Para must have yielded to superior force, if 
 the accidental arrival of a friendly traveller had not 
 revealed the danger and the means of escape. A dark 
 and almost impervious path securely conveyed the Ar- 
 menian troop through the thicket ; and Para had left 
 behind him the count and the tribune, while they pa- 
 tiently expected his approach along the public high- 
 ways. They returned to the imperial court to excuse 
 their want of diligence or success ; and seriously al- 
 leged, that the king of Armenia, who was a skilful 
 magician, had transformed himself and his followers, 
 and passed before their eyes under a borrowed shape. 
 After his return to his native kingdom. Para still con- 
 tinued to profess himself the friend and ally of the 
 Romans; but the Romans had injured him too deeply 
 ever to forgive, and the secret sentence of his death was 
 signed in the council of Valens. The execution of the 
 bloody deed was committed to the subtle prudence of 
 count Trajan ; and he had the merit of insinuating him- 
 self into the confidence of the credulous prince, that he 
 might find an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart. 
 Para was invited to a Roman banquet, which had been 
 prepared with all the pomp and sensuality of the east : 
 the hall resounded with cheerful music, and the com- 
 pany was already heated with wine ; when the count 
 retired for an instant, drew his sword, and gave the 
 signal of the murder. A robust and desperate barba- 
 rian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and 
 though he bravely defended his life with the first wea- 
 pon that chance oflJered to his hand, the table of the 
 A. D. 374. imperial general was stained with the 
 royal .blood of a guest, and an ally. 
 Such were the weak and wicked maxims of the Roman 
 administration, that, to attain a doubtful object of poli- 
 tical interest, the laws of nations, and the sacred rights 
 of hospitality, were inhumanly violated in the face of 
 the world.* 
 
 V. The Dan- V. Durinw; a peaceful interval of thirty 
 OBE. Conquests years, the Romans secured their fron- 
 of Hermaiiric. tjgrg^ ^nd the Goths extended their do- 
 minions. The victories of the great Hermanric,'* king 
 of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race of 
 the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of 
 his countrymen, to the exploits of Alexander; with 
 this singular, and almost incredible, difference, that 
 the martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of being 
 supported by the vigour of youth, was displayed with 
 
 flory and success in the extreme period of human life, 
 etween the age of fourscore and one hundred and ten 
 years. The independent tribes were persuaded, or com- 
 pelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the 
 sovereign of the Gothic nation : the chiefs of the Visi- 
 goths, orThervingi, renounced the royal title, and assu- 
 med the more humble appellation of Judges,- and,amono- 
 those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus, were 
 
 & See in Amtnianus (xxx. 1.) the adventures of Para. Mosni of 
 Chorene calla him Tiridates; and tells a long, and not improhabie, 
 story of hisson Gnclus; who afterwards made himself popular in 
 Armenia, and provoked the jealousy of the reigning king, (I. ili. c, 
 21, Sec. p. 253, ice.) 
 
 b The concise account of the reign and conquests of Hermanric, 
 icems to be one of the valuable fragments which Jornandes (c. 28.) 
 borrowed from the Gothic histories of Ablavius, or Cassiodoruf . 
 
 the most illustrious, by their personal merit, as well 
 as by their vicinity to the Roman provinces. These 
 domestic conquests, which increased the military power 
 of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He 
 invaded the adjacent countries of the north ; and twelve 
 considerable nations, whose names and limits cannot 
 be accurately defined, successively yielded to the su- 
 periority of the Gothic arms.*^ The Heruli, who inha- 
 bited the marshy lands near the lake Maeotis, were 
 renowned for their strength and agility ; and the assis- 
 tance of their light infantry was eagerly solicited, and 
 highly esteemed, in all the wars of the barbarians. 
 But the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the 
 slow and steady perseverance of the Goths ; and, after 
 a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the re- 
 mains of that warlike tribe became a useful accession 
 to the camp of Hermanric. He then marched against 
 the Venedi ; imskilled in the use of arms, and formida- 
 ble only by their numbers, which filled the wide extent 
 of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths, 
 who were not inferior in numbers, prevailed in the 
 contest, by the decisive advantages of exercise and 
 discipline. After the submission of the Venedi, the 
 conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far as the 
 confines of the iEstii : ^ an ancient people, whose name 
 is still preserved in the province of Esthonia. Those 
 distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were supported 
 by the labours of agriculture, enriched by the trade of 
 amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the 
 mother of the gods. But the scarcity of iron obliged 
 the iEstian warriors to content themselves with wooden 
 clubs ; and the reduction of that wealthy country is as- 
 cribed to the prudence, rather than to the arms, of 
 Hermanric. His dominions, which extended from the 
 Danube to the Baltic, included the native seats, and 
 the recent acquisitions, of the Goths ; and he reigned 
 over the greatest part of Germany and Scythia with the 
 authority of a conqueror, and sometimes with the cru- 
 elty of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of the 
 globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory 
 of its heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost bu- 
 ried in oblivion ; his exploits are imperfectly known ; 
 and the Romans themselves appeared unconscious of 
 the progress of an aspiring power, which threatened 
 the liberty of the north, and the peace of the empire.* 
 
 The Goths had contracted anheredita- The cause of the 
 ry attachment for the imperial house of Gothir war. 
 Constantino, of whose power and liber- ^' ^- *^' 
 ality they had received so many signal proofs. They 
 respected the public peace : and if an hostile band 
 sometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their 
 irregular conduct was candidly ascribed to the ungov- 
 ernable spirit of the barbarian youth. Their contempt 
 for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised 
 to the throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths 
 with bolder hopes ; and, while ihey agitated some de- 
 sign of marching their confederate force under the 
 national standard,' they were easily tempted to embrace 
 the party of Procopius ; and to foment, by their dange- 
 rous aid, the civil discord of the Romans. The public 
 treaty might stipulate no more than ten thousand auxilia- 
 ries ; but the design was so zealously adopted by the 
 chiefs of the Visigoths, that the army which passed the 
 Danube amounted to the number of thirty thousand men.* 
 
 c M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuplcn de I'Europe, torn. viTp. 311—329.) 
 investigates, with more industry than success, the nations subdued 
 by the arms of Hermanric. He denies the existence of the Vaaino- 
 bronca, on account of the immoderate length of their name. Yet the 
 French envoy to Katistion, or Dresden, must have traversed the 
 country of the Mediomntrki. 
 
 d The edition of Groiius (Jornandes, p. 642.) exhibits the name of 
 JEstri. But reason and the Ambrosian MS. have restored the ^stii, 
 whose manners and situation are expressed by the pencil of Tacitus. 
 (Germania, c.45.) 
 
 e Ammianus (xxxi. 3.) observes, in genera) terms: Ermenrichi 
 . . . nobilissimi regis, et per multa variaque fortiter facta, yicinis 
 gentibus formiduti, &c. 
 
 f Valens .... docetur relationihus Ducum, gentem Gothorum, ea 
 tempestaleintaclam ideoque sa^vissimam, conspirantem in unum, ad 
 pervndendam parari collimitia Thraciarum. Ammian. xxvi. 6. 
 
 K M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuples de TEuropc, torn. vi. p. 332.) has 
 curiously ascertained tiie real number of these auxiliaries. The 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 They marched with the proud confidence, that their 
 invincible valour would decide the fate of the Roman 
 empire ; and the provinces of Thrace groaned under 
 the weight of the barbarians, who displayed the inso- 
 lence ot masters, and the licentiousness of enemies. 
 Uut the intemperance which gratified their appetites, 
 retarded their progress ; and before the Goths could 
 receive any certain intelligence of the defeat and death 
 of Procopms, they perceived, by the hostile state of 
 the country, that the civil and military powers were 
 resumed by his successful rival. A chain of posts and 
 fortifications, skilfully disposed by Valens, or the 
 generals of \alens, resisted their march, prevented 
 their retreat, and intercepted their subsistence. The 
 fierceness of the barbarians was tamed and suspended 
 by hunger; they indignantly threw down their arms 
 at the feet ot the conqueror, who offered them food and 
 chains ; the numerous captives were distributed in all 
 the cities of the east ; and the provincials, who were 
 soon tamihanzed with their savage appearance, ven- 
 tured, by degrees, to measure their own strength with 
 these formidable adversaries, whose name had so lono- 
 been the object of their terror. The king of Scythia 
 (and Hermanric alone could deserve so lofty a title') 
 was grieved and exasperated by this national calamity. 
 His ambassadors loudly complained, at the court of 
 Valens, of the infraction of the ancient and solemn alli- 
 ance, which had so long subsisted between the Romans 
 and the Goths. They alleged, that they had fulfilled 
 the duty of allies, by assisting the kinsman and suc- 
 cessor of the emperor Julian; they required the imme- 
 diate restitution of the noble captives; and they urged 
 a very singular claim, that the Gothic generals, 
 marching in arms, and in hostile array, were entitled 
 to the sacred character and privileges of ambassadors. 
 The decent, but peremptory, refusal of these extrava- 
 gant demands, was signified to the barbarians by 
 Victor, master-general of the cavalry ; who expressed, 
 with force and dignity, the just complaints of the em- 
 peror of the east.*' The negociation was interrupted; 
 and the manly exhortations of Valentinian encouracred 
 his timid brother to vindicate the insulted majesty^of 
 the empire.* 
 
 Hostilities and '^'><^ Splendour and magnitude of this 
 
 A iT^v- iro ^°^*"^ war are celebrated by a contempo- 
 A. u. JO. joj. rary historian : ^ but the events scarcely 
 deserve the attention of posterity, except as the pre- 
 liminary steps of the approaching decline and fall of the 
 empire. Instead of leading the nations of Germany 
 and Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or even to the 
 gates of Constantinople, the aged monarch of the Goths 
 resigned to the brave Athanaric the danger and glory 
 of a defensive war, against an enemy, who wielded 
 with a feeble hand the powers of a mighty state. A 
 bridge of boats was established upon the Danube; the 
 presence of Valens animated his troops ; and his igno- 
 rance of the art of war was compensated by personal 
 bravery, and a wise deference to the advice of Victor 
 and Arintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry and 
 infantry. The operations of the campaign were con- 
 ducted by their skill and experience; but they found it 
 impossible to drive the Visigoths from their strong 
 posts in the mountains; and the devastation of the 
 plains obliged the Romans themselves to repass the 
 ^Danube on the approach of winter. The incessant 
 rains which swelled the waters of the river, produced 
 
 347 
 
 3,IK)() of Ammianus, and the 10,000 of Zosimus, were only the first 
 divisionsof the Gothic army. 
 
 h The march, and subseijuent negociation, are described in the 
 Fraunients of Eunapius. (Excerpt. Legal, p. 18. edit. Louvre.) The 
 provincials, who afterw.irds beranie familiar with the barbarians 
 found that their strength was more apparent than real. They were 
 tall of stature ; but their legs were clumsy, and their shoulders were 
 narrow. 
 
 i Valens enim, ut consulto placuerat fratri, ciijus regebatur arbi- 
 trio, arma concussit in Goihos ratione justa permotus. Ammianus 
 (xxvii. 4.) then proceeds lo describe, not the country of the Goths 
 but the peaceful and obedient province of Thrace, which was not af- 
 fected by the war. 
 
 k Eunapius, In Excerpt. Legal, p. 18, 19. The Greek sophist mu««l 
 have considered as one and the same war, the whole series of Gothic 
 ototory till the victories and peace of Theodosius. 
 
 a tacit suspension of arms, and confined the emperor 
 Valens, during the whole course of the ensuing summer 
 to his camp of xMarcianapolis. The tliird year of the 
 war was more favourable to the Romans, and more per- 
 nicious to the Goths. The interruption of trade de- 
 prived the barbarians of the objects of luxury, which 
 they already confounded with the necessaries of life • 
 and the desolation of a very extensive tract of country 
 threatened them with the horrors of famine. Athanario 
 was provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle, which he 
 lost, m the plains ; and the pursuit was rendered more 
 bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious gene- 
 rals, who had promised a large reward for the head of 
 every Goth that was brought into the imperial camp. 
 The submission of the barbarians appeased the re- 
 sentment of Valens and his council ; the emperor lis- 
 tened with satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent 
 remonstrance of the senate of Constantinople, which 
 assumed, for the first time, a share in the public delib- 
 erations ; and the same generals, Victor and Arintheus, 
 who had successfully directed the conduct of the war, 
 were empowered to regulate the conditions of peace! 
 The freedom of trade which the Goths had hitherto 
 enjoyed, was restricted to two cities on the Danube ; 
 the rashness of their leaders was severely punished by 
 the suppression of their pensions and subsidies ; and 
 the exception, which was stipulated in favour of Atha- 
 naric alone, was more advantageous than honourable 
 to the judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this 
 occasion, appears to have consulted his private interest, 
 without expecting the orders of his sovereign, supported 
 his own dignity, and that of his tribe, in the personal 
 interview which was proposed by the ministers of 
 Valens. He persisted in his declaration, that it was 
 impossible for him, without incurring the guilt of per- 
 jury, ever to set his foot on the territory of the empire ; 
 and it is more than probable, that his regard for. the 
 sanctity of an oath was confirmed by the recent and 
 fatal examples of Roman treachery. The Danube, 
 which separated the dominions of the two independent 
 nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. 
 The emperor of the east, and the judge of the Visigoths, 
 accompanied by an equal number of armed followers, 
 advanced in their respective barges to the middle of the 
 stream. After the ratification of the treaty, and the de- 
 livery of hostages, Valens returned in triumph to Con- 
 stantinople; and the Goths remained in a state of 
 tranquillity about six years; till they were violently 
 impelled against the Roman empire by an innumerable 
 host of Scythians, who appeared to issue from the fro- 
 zen regions of the north.' 
 
 The emperor of the west, who had re- «t f,. ^ .. 
 signed to his brother the command of the and ^matiaui. 
 Lower Danube, reserved for his imme- A. d. 374. 
 diate care the defence of the Rhaetian and Illyrian 
 provinces, wiiich spread so many hundred miles along 
 the greatest of the European rivers. The active policy 
 of Valentinian was continually employed in adding 
 new fortifications to the security of the frontier: but 
 the abuse of this policy provoked the just resentment 
 of the barbarians. The Quadi complained, that the 
 ground for an intended fortress had been marked out 
 on their territories; and their complaints were urged 
 with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius, 
 master-general of Illyricum, consented to suspend the 
 prosecution of the work, till he should be more clearly 
 informed of the will of his sovereign. This fair occa- 
 sion of injuring a rival, and of advancing the fortune 
 of his son, was eagerly embraced by the inhuman 
 Maximin, the prefect, or rather tyrant, of Gaul. The 
 passions of Valentinian were impatient of control ; and 
 he credulously listened to the assurances of his favour- 
 
 1 The Gothic war is described by Ammianus, (xxvii. 5.) Zosimus 
 (I. iv. p. 211— 214.) and Themislius. (Oral. x. p. 129—141.) The ora- 
 tor Themistius was sent from the Senate of Constantinople to congra- 
 tulate the victorious emperor; and his servile eloquence compareg 
 Valens on the Danube, to Achilles in the Scamander. Jornandes 
 forgets a war peculiar to the VisiGotha, and inglorious to lh« Gothic 
 nape. (Mascou's Hist, of the Germans, vii. 3.) 
 
348 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 ?! 
 
 I 
 
 ite, that if the government of Valeria, and the direction 
 of the work, were intrusted to the zeal of his son Mar- 
 cellinus, the emperor should no longer be importuned 
 with the audacious remonstrances of the barbarians. 
 The subjects of Rome, and the natives of Germany, 
 were insulted by the arrogance of a young and worth- 
 less minister, who considered his rapid elevation as 
 the proof and reward of his superior merit. He affected, 
 however, to receive the modest application of Gabinius, 
 king of the Quadi, with some attention and regard ; 
 but this artful civility concealed a dark and bloody de- 
 sign, and the credulous prince was persuaded to accept 
 the pressing invitation of Marcellinus. I am at a loss 
 how to vary the narrative of similar crimes ; or how to 
 relate, that, in the course of the same year, but in re- 
 mote parts of the empire, the inhospitable table of two 
 imperial generals was stained with the royal blood of 
 two guests and allies, inhumanly murdered by their 
 order, and in their presence. The fate of Gabinius 
 and of Para was the same : but the cruel death of their 
 sovereign was resented in a very ditferent manner by 
 the servile temper of the Armenians, and the free and 
 daring spirit of the Germans. The Quadi were much 
 declined from that formidable power, which, in the 
 time of Marcus Antoninus, had spread terror to the 
 gates of Rome. But they still possessed arms and 
 courage ; their courage was animated by despair, and 
 they obtained the usual reinforcement of the cavalry of 
 their Sarmatian allies. So improvident was the assas- 
 sin Marcellinus, that he chose the moment when the 
 bravest veterans had been drawn away, to suppress the 
 revolt of Firm us ; and the whole province was exposed, 
 with a very feeble defence, to the rage of the exaspe- 
 rated barbarians. They invaded Pannonia in the sea- 
 son of harvest ; unmercifully destroyed every object of 
 plunder which they could not easily transport ; and 
 either disregarded or demolished the empty fortifica- 
 tions. The princess Constantia, the daughter of the 
 emperor Constantius, and the grand-daughter of the 
 great Constantine, very narrowly escaped. That royal 
 maid, who had innocently supported the revolt of Pro- 
 copius, was now the destined wife of the heir of the 
 western empire. She traversed the peaceful province 
 with a splendid and unarmed train. Her person was 
 saved from danger, and the republic from disgrace, by 
 the active zeal of Messala, governor of the provinces. 
 As soon as he was informed that the village, where she 
 stopped only to dine, was almost encompassed by the 
 barbarians, he hastily placed her in his own chariot, 
 and drove full speed till he reached the gates of Sir- 
 mium, which were at the distance of six-and-twenty 
 miles. Even Sirmium might not have been secure, if 
 the Quadi and Sarmatians had diligently advanced 
 during the general consternation of the magistrates and 
 people. Their delay allowed Probus, the praetorian 
 praefect, sufficient time to recover his own spirits, and 
 to revive the courage of the citizens. He skilfully di- 
 rected their strenuous efforts to repair and strengthen 
 the decayed fortifications ; and procured the seasonable 
 and effectual assistance of a company of archers, to 
 protect the capital of the Illyrian provinces. Disap- 
 pointed in their attempts against the walls of Sirmium, 
 the indiornant barbarians turned their arms afjainst the 
 master-general of the frontier, to whom they unjustly 
 attributed the murder of their king. Equitius could 
 bring into the field no more than two lei;ions ; but they 
 contained the veteran strengrth of the Maesian and Pan- 
 nonian bands. The obstinacy with which they dispu- 
 ted the vain honours of rank and precedency, was the 
 cause of their destruction ; and, while they acted with 
 separate forces and divided councils, they were sur- 
 prised and slaughtered by the active vigour of the 
 Sarmatian horse. The success of this invasion pro- 
 voked the emulation of the bordering tribes ; and the 
 province of Maesia would infallibly have been lost, if 
 young Theodosius, the duke, or military commander, 
 of the frontier, had not signalized, in the defeat of the 
 
 public enemy, an intrepid genius, worthy of his illus- 
 trious father, and of his future greatness." 
 
 The mind of Valentinian, who then re- .pj^^ expedition, 
 sided at Treves, was deeply aflfected by 
 the calamities of Illyricum ; but the lateness of the 
 season suspended the execution of his designs till the 
 ensuing spring. He marched in person, ^ ^ ^^ 
 with a considerable part of the forces of 
 Gaul, from the banks of the Moselle; and to the sup- 
 pliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who met him 
 on the way, he returned a doubtful answer, that, as 
 soon as he reached the scene of action, he should ex- 
 amine, and pronounce. When he arrived at Sirmium, 
 he gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrian prov- 
 inces ; who loudly congratulated their own felicity 
 under the auspicious government of Probus, his praeto- 
 rian praefect." Valentinian, who was flattered by 
 these demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude, 
 imprudently asked the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic phi- 
 losopher of intrepid sincerity," whether he was freely 
 sent by the wishes of the province ; " With tears and 
 groans am I sent (replied Iphicles) by a reluctant 
 people." The emperor paused ; but the impunity of 
 his ministers established the pernicious maxim, that 
 they might oppress his subjects, without injuring his 
 service. A strict inquiry into their conduct would 
 have relieved the public discontent. The severe con- 
 demnation of the murder of Gabinius, was the only 
 measure which could restore the confidence of the 
 Germans, and vindicate the honour of the Roman name. 
 But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magna- 
 nimity which dares to acknowledge a fault. He forgot 
 the provocation, remembered only the injury, and ad- 
 vanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiate 
 thirst of blood and revenore. The extreme devastation, 
 and promiscuous massacre, of a savage war, were jus- 
 tified in the eyes of the emperor, and perhaps in those 
 of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation : p and 
 such was the discipline of the Romans, and the con- 
 sternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the 
 Danube without the loss of a single man. As he had 
 resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi by a 
 second campaign, he fixed his winter-c^uarters at 
 Bregetio, on the Danube, near the Hungarian city of 
 Presburg. While the operations of war were suspended 
 by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an 
 humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conque- 
 ror; and, at the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their 
 ambassadors were introduced into the imperial council. 
 They approached the throne with bended bodies, and 
 dejected countenances ; and, without daring to complain 
 of the murder of their king, they affirmed, with solemn 
 oaths, that the late invasion was the crime of some 
 irregular robbers, which the public council of the na- 
 tion condemned and abhorred. The answer of the em- 
 peror left them but little to hope from his clemency or 
 compassion. He reviled, in the most intemperate 
 language, their baseness, their ingratitude, their inso- 
 lence. — His eyes, his voice, his colour, his gestures, 
 expressed the violence of his ungoverned fury ; and, 
 while his whole frame was agitated with convulsive 
 passion, a large blood-vessel suddenly burst in his 
 
 m Amniianus (xxix. 6.) and Zosimus, (I. iv. p. 219, 220.) carefully 
 mark the origin and prosress of tlie Qtiadic and Sarmatian war. 
 
 n Ammianus, (xxx. 5.) wlio aclinowledgcs the merit, has censured, 
 with becoming asperity, the oppressive administration, of Pcironius 
 Probus. When Jerom translated, and continued, the chronicle of 
 Eusebius, (A. D. :i80. Pec Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. lom. xii. p. 53, 
 626.) he expressed the truth, or at least the public opinion of his 
 country, in the following words: " I'robus P, P. Illyrici iniquissimia 
 trihutorum exnctionibus, ante provincias quas rcgebat, quam a bar- 
 baris vaslarentur, eraaity (Chron. edit. Scaliger, p. 187. Animad- 
 vers. p. 259.) The laint afterwards formed an intimate and tender 
 friendship with tJie widow of Probus ; and the name of count Equi- 
 tius. with less propriety, but without mucli injustice, has been substi- 
 tuted in the text. 
 
 o Julian (Oral. vi. p. 198.) represents his friend Iphicles as a man 
 of virtue and merit, who had made himself ridiculous and unhappy, 
 by adopting the extravagant dress and manners of the Cynics. 
 
 P Ammian. xxx. 5. Jcrom, who exaggerates tlie misfortune of 
 Valentinian, refuses Itim even this last consolation of revenge. Ge- 
 iiitali vastato solo, et inultam patriam derelinquens, (torn. i. p. 36.) 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 } 
 
 body; and Valentinian fell speechless into the arms 
 of his attendants. Their pious care immediately con- 
 cealed his situation trom the crowd ; but, in a few 
 *"''S'ian^'" P'*""^^S' ^he emperor of the west expired 
 
 till tC r«'. '!! ^" ^^?y ""^ P^^"' retaining his senses 
 til he last ; and struggling, without succesi, to declare 
 hib intentions to the generals and ministers, who sur- 
 NoJ^n^H- '°""^f^ the royal couch. Valentinian 
 ivov 17th ^vas about fifty-four years of a^e ; and he 
 wanted only one hundred days to accomplish the twelve 
 years ot his reign .i 
 
 The emperor. The polygamy of Valentinian is seri- 
 
 lenu"r;?7" ^."'^y ^""'Sif ^y «« ecclesiastical histo- 
 thp fM.\ o^ %!"j . T^® empress Severa (I relate 
 the fable) admitted into her familiar society the lovely 
 Justina, the daughter of an Italian governor: her ad- 
 
 fp/n in"tK K^?^ "'^^^ "^^'•'»«' ^'^ich she had often 
 fmn.. S ♦ -^^ "7^ expressed with such lavish and 
 niprudent praise, that the emperor was tempted to in- 
 troduce a second wife into his bed ; and his public 
 edict extended to all the subjects of the empir^, the 
 
 Self'"'r.P"^"^^^^"'^^^ ^« ^^d assLedfir 
 
 ofTeason .« ^ lY^ "l"^ ^^ ^''"'*^^' ^^^"^ ^^e evidence 
 ot reason as well as history, that the two marriao-es 
 of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were 
 
 rZitT^Ti^^"'"^* ^"^ '^^' he used the a'ndent 
 permission of divorce, which was still allowed by the 
 
 was Jhe r^JftV' Tr^^^^.d^'^ned by the church. sJvera 
 ^^fm ^K^ K ^' ^^.^^tian, who seemed to unite every 
 
 pi«t?n^^K ^'^^'^^ ^"'*'^^ him to the undoubted sue- 
 cession of the western empire. He was the eldest son 
 
 free an AT^' whose glorious reign had confirmed the 
 free and honourable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Be- 
 fore he had attained the ninth year of his age, the royal 
 youth received from the hands of his indulgent fathe 
 the purple robe and diadem, with the title of Augustus 
 the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and 
 applause of the armies of Gaul ;• and the name of Gra- 
 
 l^.WK ^ '^''l ^"^ ^^^ "^"™^^ of Valentinian and Valens, 
 in all the legal transactions of the Roman government 
 
 t^n^e the'srnfv"'^ '^' ffrand-daughterff CoZlt 
 I aht. nf tK %^^l«"t»«»an acquired all the hereditary 
 rights of the Flavian family ; which, in a series of 
 three imperial generations, were sanctified by time, 
 
 of ^!rf ?K ^\l '^^'^^«r ^ °^ ^^^ P^«P^«- At the death 
 vLr nf K '' '^^ '"T^ y^"^h ^^« i" the seventeenth 
 year of his age ; and his virtues already justified the 
 
 [rJn'"'" m' 7'"?? "^ '^^ ^^'"y ^"^ P««Ple- But Gra! 
 Trpvl! \-i?^^°?^ apprehension, in the palace of 
 
 Vallnti'nil i .'.'' '^ ^'"'"T °^"^^"y h""^^^d »»i'-«» 
 Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio 
 
 The passions which had been so long suppressed b^ 
 he presence of a master, immediately revived in the 
 mperial council ; and the ambitious design of reigninff 
 MelloUT' «^/" i«^ant,was artfully%xecuted bf 
 Mellobaudes and Equitius, who commanded the at- 
 tachnrient of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They 
 
 nonnfr 1 A '"''' honourable pretences to remove the 
 poptilar leaders, and the troops of Gaul, who micrht 
 have asserted the claims of the lawful successor: they 
 suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopes of 
 toreign and domestic enemies, by a bold and decisive 
 measura. Ihe empress Justina, who had been left in 
 a palace about one hundred miles from Breffetio was 
 
 \Tft^l'r'''\'' ^PP^^^ ^" ^^^ campfwUhThe 
 son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after 
 
 349 
 
 the death of Valentinian, the infant prince of the same 
 name, who was only four years old, was shown, in the 
 arms of his mother, to the legions; and solemnly in! 
 vested, by military acclamation, with the titles and 
 ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers 
 of a civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise 
 and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian! He 
 cheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared 
 that he should always consider the son ef^Justina as a 
 brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress, with 
 her son \alentinian, to fix their residence at Milan in 
 the fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he as- 
 sumed the more arduous command of the countries 
 beyond the Alps Gratian dissembled his resentment 
 II he could safely punish, or disgrace, the authors of 
 
 vi^K?"?"^''^' ^"^ ^''°]'^h h^ uniformly behaved 
 with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he 
 gradually confounded, in the administration of the 
 western empire, the office of a guardian with the au- 
 thority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman 
 world was exercised in the united names of Valens 
 and his two nephews ; but the feeble emperor of the 
 east, who succeeded to the rank of his elder brother, 
 never obtained any weight or influence in the councils 
 ot the west.* 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Manners of the pastoral naiions.^Progress of the Huns 
 frorn Chna to Europe-Flight of thtGoih^U-They pc^ 
 the Danube.— Gothc war.— Defeat and death of Va^s.— 
 Graitan invests Theodosius with the easteni empire - 
 His character and success.— Peace and settlement of ihe 
 
 q See, on the death of Valentinian, Ammiann^ .'rrr ft \ v^ • 
 0. IV. p. 221.) Victor, (in Epitom.) Socafes ri .V r \\ ?°'*7V'' 
 rom, (in Chron. p. 187. and torn, n ?S id i pl L^; ? ^^^ ■' 
 inuch variety of circumstances^mon^; the^- "nd Ammi.Lif;* '' 
 eloquent, that he writes nonsense. Ammianus is so 
 
 r Socrates (I. iv. c. 31.) is the only orieinal witnew of »hia f««ii,h 
 «ory. so repuenani to the laws and manners of the Romin/ [hat it 
 
 TyfM^.fnZ7l '".' *'°!''"''" ""'^ «'*^°^«»« dissertation of M. Bona 
 niy. (Mem. de I' Academic, torn, xxx o ."^94— 40'; ^ Vm f ...J:, i? 
 
 jerve the natural circumstances ofVhShath ; Sad^fVollowin'/zo.' 
 
 n^nxL ''^P^^^"^ J"«^"'»^ «« an o'd woman, the widow of Jlag: 
 
 »n'H'^?""'^""' '"y^'- ^-^ ''««cribe8 the form of this military election 
 Jniln T*' '"V«!»'i"fe. Valentinian does not appTarto hive coS' 
 ■ulted, or even informed, the senate of Rome. ^^ 
 
 In the second year of the reio-n of Va- r, 
 lentinian and Valens, on the mSrning of aVI^"' 
 the twenty-first day of July, the greatest J"'/ aist.' 
 part of the Roman world was shaken by a violent and 
 destructive earthquake. The impression was commu- 
 nicated to the waters ; the shores of the Mediterranean 
 were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea; great 
 quantities of fish were caught with the hand ; far^e 
 vessels were stranded on the mud ; and a curious spec- 
 tator » amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contem- 
 plating the various appearance of valleys and moun- 
 tains, which had never, since the formation of the fflobe 
 been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon returned! 
 with a weight of an immense and irresistible delujre, 
 which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, ot' 
 Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt; large boats were 
 transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at 
 the distance of two miles from the shore; the people 
 with their habitations, were swept away by the waters- 
 and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the 
 latai day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost 
 their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report 
 ol which was magnified from one province to another 
 astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome; and 
 tlieir altrighted imagination enlarged the real extent of 
 a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding- 
 earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Pales- 
 tine and Bithynia; they considered these alarmiuff 
 strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful ca- 
 lamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to con- 
 found the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sink- 
 ing world.^' It was the fashion of the tim es, to attribute 
 
 Drov'l3'";i?r«!'''H"'',.^^- Z*^«'"'"«- '• '^- P- 222, 223. Tillemont haa 
 proved. (Hi.«(. deg Empereors. tom. v. p. 707— 709 ) that Gratian 
 returned ,n Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. J have endeavoCreS to ex 
 Z^^Xn7^iyle!^ °'"' '"' ^'°'""'' dominions, as he us.d it, in an 
 
 a Such is the had taste of Ammi.inus, (xxvi. 10.) that it is not easv 
 to distinguish his facts from his metaphors. Yet hepoMtivelvaffiruiY 
 that he saw iJ-e rotten carcass of a ship, ad secundum la-pidem nt 
 Methone, or Modon, in Peloponnesus. ^ ' 
 
 b TJie earthquakes and inundations are variously doscribed bv I i 
 banius, (Orat de ulciscenda Juliani nece. c. x. in Fahricius BibT 
 ^'""^^TJ'^- P- '^«- «•*»" a learned note of Olearius Zos"mu8 r ' 
 .V. p. S21.; Sozomen, (I. vi. c. 2.) Cedrenus, (p. 310. "h ) a° dTrom 
 
 4; 
 
350 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 I* 
 
 eveiy remarkable event to the particular will of the 
 Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by 
 an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical 
 opinions of the human mind ; and the most sagacious 
 divines could distinguish, according to the colour of 
 their respective prejudices, that the establishment of 
 heresy tended to produce an earthquake ; or that a 
 deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress 
 of sin and error. Without presuming to discuss the 
 truth or propriety of these lofty speculations, the his- 
 torian may content himself with an observation, which 
 seems to be justified by experience, that man has much 
 more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, 
 than from the convulsions of the elements.*^ The mis- 
 chievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a hurricane, 
 or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very considerable 
 proportion to the ordinary calamities of war ; as they 
 are now moderated by the prudence or humanity of the 
 princes of Europe, who amuse their own leisure, and 
 exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice 
 of the military art. But the laws and manners of 
 modern nations protect the safety and freedom of the 
 vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizen has sel- 
 dom reason to complain, that his life, or even his for- 
 tune, is exposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous 
 period of the fall of the Roman empire, which may 
 justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness 
 and security of each individual were personally attack- 
 ed ; and the arts and labours of ages were rudely de- 
 faced by the barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The 
 The iiuns and invasion of the Huns precipitated on the 
 GoihB, provinces of the west the Gothic nation, 
 
 A. D. 370. which advanced, in less than forty years, 
 from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by 
 the success of their arms, to the inroads of so many 
 hostile tribes, more savage than themselves. The 
 original principle of motion was concealed in the 
 remote countries of the north ; and the curious obser- 
 vation of the pastoral life of the Scythians,** or Tar- 
 tars,* will illustrate the latent cause of these destructive 
 emigrations. 
 
 The different characters that mark the 
 nianne?rortJio civilized nations of the globe, may be 
 Scythians, or ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of 
 Tartars. reason ; which so variously shapes, and 
 
 80 artificially composes, the manners and opinions of 
 an European or a Chinese. But the operation of in- 
 stinct is more sure and simple than that of reason ; it 
 is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a quadruped, 
 than the speculations of a philosopher ; and the savage 
 tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the con- 
 dition of animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to 
 themselves and to each other. The uniform stability 
 of their manners is the natural consequence of the im- 
 perfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar 
 situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments, 
 still continue the same: and the influence of food or 
 climate, which, in a more improved state of society, is 
 suspended, or subdued, by so many moral causes, 
 most powerfully contributes to form, and to maintain, 
 the national character of barbarians. In every age, 
 
 (in Chron, p. 186. and torn. i. p. 250. in Vit. Ililarion.) Epidaurus 
 must liav« been ovprwhelincd, had not the prudent citizens placed 
 St. liilarion, an E<;yptian monk, on the beach, fie made the sign of 
 therroas: tlie mountain-wave stopped, hovvcd, and returned. 
 
 c Dica'archus, tiie Peripatetic, composed a formal treatise, to prove 
 this obvious trutti ; wliich is not ilic most honourable to the human 
 species. (Cicero, de Othciis, ii. 5.) 
 
 d The original Scythians of Herodotus, (I. iv. c. 47—57. 99—101.) 
 were confined by the Danube and the Talus Ma'otis, within a square 
 of 4000 stadia, (4(]0 Roman miles.) See D'Anville. (Mem. de I'Ara- 
 demie, torn. XXXV. p. 573—591.) Diodorus Siculus (torn. i. I. ii. p. 155. 
 edit. Wesseling) has marked the gradual progress of the name and 
 nation. 
 
 e The Tatars, or Tartars, were a primitive tribe, the rivals, and at 
 length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the victorious armies of Zin- 
 ghis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars formed the vanguard ; and 
 the name, which first reached the ears of foreiiners, was applied to 
 the whole nation. (Freret, in the Hist, de I'Academie, tom. xviii. p. 
 60.) In speaking of all, or any, of the northern shepherds of Eu- 
 rope, or Asia, I indifferently use the appellations of 5<;ytAjan5 or Tar- 
 tars. 
 
 the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been 
 inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, 
 whose indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and 
 whose restless spirit disdains the confinement of a se- 
 dentary life. In every age, the Scythians, and Tartars, 
 have been renowned for their invincible courage, and 
 rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have been re- 
 peatedly overturned by the shepherds of the north; and 
 their arms have spread terror and devastation over the 
 most fertile and warlike countries of Europe.' On 
 this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober 
 historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision; 
 and is compelled, with some reluctance, to confess, 
 that the pastoral manners, which have been adorned 
 with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are 
 much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a 
 military life. To illustrate this observation, I shall 
 now proceed to consider a nation of shepherds and of 
 warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Their 
 diet; II. Their habitations ; and. III. Their exercises. 
 The narratives of antiquity are justified by the expe- 
 rience of modern times ; « and the banks of the Borys- 
 thenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga, will indiffe- 
 rently present the same uniform spectacle of similar 
 and native manners.** 
 
 I. The corn, or even the rice, which j^j^^ 
 constitutes the ordinary and wholesome 
 food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the 
 patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy 
 savages, who dwell between the tropics, are plentifully 
 nourfshed by the liberality of nature ; but in the climates 
 of the north, a nation of shepherds is reduced to their 
 flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the 
 medical art will determine, (if they are able to deter- 
 mine) how far the temper of the human mind may be 
 affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable, food; 
 and whether the common association of carnivorous 
 and cruel, deserves to be considered in any other light 
 than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice 
 of humanity.' Yet if it be true, that the sentiment of 
 compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight 
 and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe, that 
 the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of 
 European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and 
 most disgusting simplicity, in the tent of a Tartarian 
 shepherd. The ox, or the sheep, are slaughtered by 
 the same hand from which they were accustomed to 
 receive their daily food ; and the bleeding limbs are 
 served, with very little preparation, on the table of 
 their unfeeling murderer. In the military profession, 
 and especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the 
 exclusive use of animal food appears to be productive 
 of the most solid advantages. Corn is a bulky and 
 perishable commodity ; and the large magazines, which 
 are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our 
 troops, must be slowly transported by the labour of 
 men or horses. But the flocks and herds, which ac- 
 company the march of the Tartars, afford a sure and 
 
 f Imperium Asia* ter qntsHivere : Ipsi perpetuo ab alieno imperiu, 
 
 aut intacti, aut inricti, mansere. Since the time of Justin, (ii. 2) 
 
 they have multiplied this account. Voltaire, in a few words, (tom. 
 
 X. p. 64. Hist. Generalc, c. 156.) has abridged the Tartar conquests. 
 
 Ofl o'er the trembling nations from afar, 
 
 Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war. 
 
 g The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious, though imperfect, 
 portrait of the Scythians. Amonj the moderns, who describe the 
 uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulgh.Tzi Bahadur, ex- 
 presses his native feelings; and his Genealogical History of the Ta- 
 tars has Iwen copiously illustrated by the French and English editors. 
 Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubruquis, (in the Hist, des Voyages, tom. vii.) 
 represent the Mo'juls of I ho fourteenth century. To these guides t 
 haveadfled Gerbillon, and the other Jesuits, (Description de la Chine, 
 par Du Halde, tom. iv.) who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tar- 
 tary ; and that honest and intelligent traveller. Bell, of Antermony, 
 (two volumes In 4to. Glasgow, 1763.) 
 
 h The ITzbecks arc the most altered from their primitive manners ; 
 1. by the profession of the Mahometan religion ; and, 2. by the pos 
 session of the cities and harvests of the great Bucharia. 
 
 i H est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont «n general 
 cruel? et feroces plus que' les aulrcs hommes. Cette observation est 
 de tons les lieux, et de tous les terns : la barbaric Anglaiseestconnue, 
 &c. Emile de Rousseau, tom. i. p. 274. Whatever wc may think of 
 the general observation, we shall not easily allow the truth of hia 
 example. The good natured complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic 
 lametJtations of Ovid, seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility. 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 increasing supply of flesh and milk : in the far greater 
 part of the uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the 
 grass IS quick and luxuriant, and there°are few places 
 so extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the north 
 cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is 
 mtitipl.ed and prolonged, by the undistinguishingap- 
 petite and patient abstinence of the Tartars. They in- 
 differently feed on the flesh of those animals that have 
 
 UoL'^tf "I \^' ''^^'^' "' ^^^^ ^i^d «^ disease. 
 Horse-flesh which m every age and country has been 
 
 proscnbed by the civilized nations of EuropJ and AsTa" 
 
 they devour with peculiar greediness ; and this sinaulaJ 
 
 taste facilitates the success of their military operates. 
 
 ri.e active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in 
 
 their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate 
 
 number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, 
 
 either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger 
 
 of the barbarians Many are the resources of couraae 
 
 and poverty. When the forage round a camp of Tartars 
 
 is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest part 
 
 nrlTA ■ l""' ^"^ P'^'^'^^ ^^^ ^^«h, either smoked, 
 or dried in the sun. On the sudden emergency of a 
 hasty march, they provide themselves with a sufficient 
 quantity of little bails of cheese, or rather of hard cTrS 
 which they occasionally dissolve in water ; and this 
 unsubstantial diet will support, for many da;s, the life, 
 and even the spirits, of the patient warrior. But this 
 extraordmary abstinence, which the Stoic would an- 
 prove, and the hermit might envy, is commonly suc- 
 ceeded by the most voracious indulgence of appetite. 
 I he wines of a happier climate are the most grateful 
 present, or the most valuable commodity, that can be 
 offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their 
 industry seems to consist in the art of extracting from 
 mare s milk a fermented liquor, which possesses a very 
 strong power of intoxication. Like the animals of 
 prey, the savages, both of the old and new world, expe- 
 rience the alternate vicissitudes of famine and plenty; 
 and their stomach is inured to sustain, without much 
 nconvenieiice, the opposite extremes of hunger and of 
 intemperance. ° 
 
 Habitations. . ^^'.J^ ^^^ ages of rustic and martial 
 
 simplicity, a people of soldiers and hus- 
 bandmen are dispersed over the face of an extensive 
 and cuivated country ; and some time must elapse 
 before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy could be 
 assembled under the same standard, either to defend 
 their own confines, or to invade the territories of the 
 adjacent tribes. The progress of manufactures and 
 commerce insensibly collects a large multitude within 
 the walls of a city; but these citizens are no lonaer 
 soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the 
 state of civil society corrupt the habits of the milita- 
 illiu ,/^^.P?«toral manners of the Scythians seem 
 to unite the different advantages of simplicity and re- 
 finement. The individuals of the same trib J are con- 
 stantly assembled, but they are assembled in a camp; 
 and the nnt-ivp smnf ^^f *u j .i.^ , , , i ' 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 351 
 
 and the nati.e spirit of th^se daun ^ss shepherr"]^ .T^W^'r"'^ "^f have been celebrate?;s boW 
 L"i™?'?.^.,fc»'-' -PP»' and emulation." thfb„: ' tTll o'^ ",tT„S.L"£K'T':^"' ?-'- "ad seated 
 
 animated by mutual support and emulation. The hou- 
 ses ot the lartars are no more than small tents, of an 
 oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for 
 the proiniscuoiis youth of both sexes. The palaces 
 ot the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that 
 they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons, and 
 drawn by a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. 
 The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the adja- 
 cent pastures, retire, on the approach of night, within 
 he protection of the camp. The necessity of prevent- 
 ing the most mischievous confusion, in such a perpetual 
 concotirse of men and animals, must gradually intro- 
 duce, in the distribution, the order, and the g-uard, of 
 the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As 
 soon as the forage of a certain district is consumed, 
 the ti^be, or rather array, of shepherds, makes a regula^ 
 march to some fresh pastures ; and thus acquire! in 
 he ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the prac- 
 tical knowledge of one of the most important and diffi 
 
 he T^L /''""'" ^^ ^^" '^^^^"« '' i" ll^e summer, 
 tint/ ?r t^^?"^%towards the north, and pitch thei^ 
 hnlTnA f ^""^^^^^ "^^^' or, at least, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of a running stream. But in the winter thev 
 return to the south, and shelter their camp behind some 
 convenient eminence, against the winds, which Tre 
 chilled in their passage over the bleak and icy regions 
 of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to 
 diffuse, among the wandering tribes, the spirit of em^! 
 grat.on and conquest. ThI connexion betweenThe 
 people and their territory is of so frail a texture thnt 
 It may be broken by the slightest accident. The carip 
 and not tlie soil, is the native country of the genuTn^ 
 Tartar. W ahin the precincts of that camp, his famZ 
 his companions, his property, are always' incMeJ] 
 
 bv tCnhfp.Tf '^T"' "^r"^"^' ^^ '' «^iJ^ surrounded 
 in nis eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear or the re- 
 sentment of injury, the impatience of servitude, have 
 
 ofiZlR'^un ^"ffi^i-^-"-s to urge the trfbes 
 of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown coun- 
 tries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful 
 subsistence, or a less formidable enemy. The^revdlu- 
 
 ofXlnth ""^^,^^'T ^^«q"«"tly determined the fate 
 of the south; and in the conflict of hostile nations, the 
 victor and the vanquished have alternately drove, and 
 been driven, from the confines of China to those of 
 Germany .k These great emigrations, which have been 
 sometimes executed with almost incredible diligence 
 
 climate. It is well known, that the cold of Tartarv is 
 much more severe than in the midst of the temperate 
 zone might reasonably be expected; this uncommon 
 r gour IS attributed to the height of the plains, whTh 
 rise, especially towards the east, more than half a mile 
 above the leve of the sea; and to the quantity of salt- 
 petre, with which the soil is deeply impregnaid.» In 
 the winter season, the broad and rapid rivers, that dis- 
 charge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian, or 
 with/if?' T '''■''""ly frozen; the fields are covered 
 with a bed of snow ; and the fugitive, or victorious, 
 tribes may securely traverse, with their families, their 
 waggons, and their cattle, the smooth and hard surface 
 of an immense plain. «uixat.e 
 
 III. The pastoral life, compared with ^ 
 the labours of agriculture and manufac- ■^*"'^'«^«- 
 tures, 18 undoubtedly a life of idleness ; and as the 
 most honourable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve 
 on their captives the domestic management of the cat- 
 tle, their own leisure is seldom disturbed by any servile 
 and assiduous cares. But this leisure, instead of bein? 
 devoted the soft enjoyments of love and harmonv, 
 is usefully spent in the violent and sanguinary exerciJe 
 of the chace. The plains of Tartary a^e filled wkh a 
 strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are easily 
 trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The 
 
 Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold 
 and .<^Ki till riHoro • OK.J ^ t__^ „ -• , . _ 
 
 them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposed 
 by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil 
 life, to eat to drink, and even to sleep, without dis- 
 mounting from their steeds. They excel in the dex- 
 terous management of the lance ; the long Tartar bow is 
 drawn with a nervous arm ; and the weighty arrow is 
 directed to its object with unerring aim, and irresistible 
 lorce. These arrows are often pointed against the 
 harmless animals of the desert, which increase and 
 multiply in the absence of their most formidable enemy ; 
 the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the 
 
 «« yi'?se Tartar emigrations have been discovered by M. de Gurff- 
 
 ^r^'hi nh**"'^ ^f^ """'' *°'"' '■ "•) « «'^*'^'" »"d 'abori/us interpreter 
 of the Chinese anguatre ; who has thus laid open new and inipJrtenJ 
 scenes in the history of mankind. "uporiant 
 
 I A plain in the Chinese Tartary only eightv leajrues from th- 
 great wall, was found hy the missionaries to he threftSand eeo 
 metrical paces above the level of the sea. Montesquieu, who has 
 used, and abused, the relations of travellers, deduces the revolution- 
 *»nl» «««,„*• " r ^"/"^ "iv/oL luipi^itaiii. aim aim- °^ Asialrom tins important circumstance, that lieat and cold weak 
 
 cult operations of war. The choice of stations is regu- 1 ("fis^ru Ses S, h xVTc. s.)'*" *''*'"' '^"^''"' *"^ temp^?Se wnl" 
 
 I! 
 
352 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 stag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and pa- 
 tience both of the men and horses are continually ex- 
 ercised by the fatigues of the chace; and the plentiful 
 supply of game contributes to the subsistence, and 
 even luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of 
 the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the destruc- 
 tion of timid or innoxious beasts ; they boldly en- 
 counter the angry wild boar, when he turns against 
 his pursuers, excite the sluggish courage of the bear, 
 and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbers in 
 the thicket. Where there is danger, there may be 
 glory ; and the mode of hunting, which opens the fair- 
 est field to the exertions of valour, may justly be con- 
 sidered as the image, and as the school, of war. The 
 general hunting-matches, the pride and delight of the 
 Tartar princes, compose an instructive exercise for their 
 numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles 
 in circumference, to encompass the game of an exten- 
 sive district ; and the troops that form the circle regu- 
 larly advance towards a common centre ; where the 
 captive animals, surrounded on every side, are aban- 
 doned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, 
 which frequently continues many days, the cavalry 
 are obliged to climb the hills, to swim the rivers, and 
 to wind°through the valleys, without interrupting the 
 prescribed order of their gradual progress. They ac- 
 quire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, 
 to a remote object ; of preserving their intervals ; of 
 suspending, or accelerating, their pace, according to the 
 motions of the troops on their right and left; and of 
 watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. 
 Their leaders study, in this practical school, the most 
 important lesson of the military art; the prompt and 
 accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. 
 To employ against a human enemy the same patience 
 and valour, the same skill and discipline, is the only 
 alteration which is required in real war; and the amuse- 
 ments of the chace serve as a prelude to the conquest 
 of an empire." 
 
 The political society of the ancient 
 Government. Q^^^^^g i.^g jj^g appearance of a volun- 
 tary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of 
 Scythia, distinguished by the modern appellation of 
 Hards, assume the form of a numerous and increasing 
 family ; which, in the course of successive generations, 
 has been propagated from the same original stock. 
 The meanest, and most ignorant, of the Tartars, pre- 
 serve, with conscious pride, the inestimable treasure 
 of their genealogy ; and whatever distinctions of rank 
 may have been introduced, by the unequal distribution 
 of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, 
 and each other, as the descendants of the first founder 
 of the tribe. The custom which still prevails, of 
 adopting the bravest and most faithful of the captives, 
 may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this 
 extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal 
 and fictitious. But the useful prejudice, which has 
 obtained the sanction of time and opinion, produces the 
 effects of truth ; the haughty barbarians yield a cheerful 
 and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood ; and 
 their chief, or rnursa, as the representative of their 
 great father, exercises the authority of a judge in peace, 
 and of a leader in war. In the original state of the 
 pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we may continue 
 to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent 
 chief of a large and separate family ; and the limits of 
 their peculiar territories were gradually fixed, by su- 
 perior force, or mutual consent. But the constant ope- 
 ration of various and permanent causes contributed to 
 unite the vagrant hords into national communities, un- 
 der the command of a supreme head. The weak were 
 
 m Petit de la Croix (Vie do Gengiscnn, 1. iii. c. 7.) represents the 
 full glory and extent of tiie Mojiiil chace. The Jesuits Gerbillon and 
 Verbiesl followed the entperor Kainhi when he hunted in Tartary. 
 fDuhalde, Description de la Chine, lorn. iv. p. 81. 290, ice. folio edit.) 
 His grandson, Kienlone, who unites the Tartar discipline with the 
 laws and learning of China, describes, (Eloge de Moukden, p. 273— 
 285.) as a poet, the pleasures which he had oft«n enjoyed as a sports- 
 man. 
 
 desirous of support, and the strong were ambitious of 
 dominion ; the power, which is the result of union, op- 
 pressed and collected the divided forces of the adjacen*. 
 tribes; and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to 
 share the advantages of the victory, the most valiant 
 chiefs hastened to range themselves and their followers 
 under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. 
 The most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the 
 military command, to which he was entitled by the su- 
 periority, either of merit, or of power. He was raised 
 to the throne by the acclamations of his equals ; and 
 the title of Khan expresses, in the language of the 
 north of Asia, the full extent of the regal dignity. The 
 right of hereditary succession was long confined to the 
 blood of the founder of the monarchy ; and at this mo- 
 ment all the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the 
 wall of China, are the lineal descendants of the re- 
 nowned Zingis." But, as it is the indispensable duty 
 of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects into 
 the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded , 
 and some royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and 
 valour, is intrusted with the sword and sceptre of his 
 predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are levied 
 on the tribes, to support the dignity of their national 
 monarch, and of their peculiar chief; and each of those 
 contributions amounts to the tythe, both of their proper- 
 ty, and of their spoil. A Tartar sovereign enjoys the 
 tenth part of the wealth of his people; and as his own 
 domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much 
 larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the 
 rustic splendour of his court, to reward the most de- 
 serving, or the most favoured, of his followers, and to 
 obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the 
 obedience which might be sometimes refused to the 
 stern mandates of authority. The manners of his sub- 
 jects, accustomed like himself to blood and rapine, 
 might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of tyr- 
 rany, as would excite the horror of a civilized people ; 
 but the power of a despot has never been acknowledged 
 in the deserts of Scythia. The immediate jurisdiction 
 of the Khan is confined within the limits of his own 
 tribe ; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has 
 been moderated by the ancient institution of a national 
 council. The Coroultai," or Diet, of the Tartars, was 
 regularly held in the spring and autumn, in the midst 
 of a plain ; where the princes of the reigning family, 
 and tlie mursas of the respective tribes, may conveni- 
 ently assemble on horseback, with their martial and 
 numerous trains ; and the ambitious monarch, who re- 
 viewed the strength, must consult the inclination, of 
 an armed people. The rudiments of a feudal govern- 
 ment may be discovered in the constitution of the 
 Scythian or Tartar nations ; but the perpetual conflict 
 of those hostile nations has sometimes terminated in 
 the establishment of a powerful and despotic empire. 
 The victor, enriched by the tribute, and fortified by the 
 arms, of dependant kings, has spread his conquests 
 over Europe or Asia; the successful shepherds of the 
 north have submitted to the confinement of arts, of laws, 
 and of cities; and the introduction of luxury, after de- 
 stroying the freedom of the people, has undermined 
 the foundations of the throne.P 
 
 The memory of past events cannot situation nnd ex- 
 long be preserved, in the frequent and tent of Scythia 
 remote emigrations of illiterate barbari- "' Tartary. 
 ans. The modern Tartars are ignorant of the conquests 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 n Sec the second volump of the Genealogical History of the Tar- 
 tars, and the list of the Khans, at the end of the life of Gengis, or 
 Zingis. Under the reijrn of Timur, or Tamerlane, one of his subjects, 
 a descendant of Zincis, stiM bore the regal appellation of Khan ; and 
 the conqueror of Asia contented himself with the title of Emir, or 
 Sultan. Abulghaii, part v. c. 4. D'Herbeiot, Bibliotheque Orientale, 
 p. 878. . 
 
 o See the Diets of the ancient Huns, (de Gnignes, tom. li. p. 26.) and 
 a curious description of those of Zingis. (Vie de Gengiscan, 1. 1. c. 6. 
 1. iv. c. 11.) Such assemblies arc frequently mentioned in the Per- 
 Sinn history of Timur ; though they served only to countenance the 
 rssoluiions of their master. , 
 
 p Montesquieu labours to explain a difference which has not exist 
 ed. between the liberty of the Arabs, and the perpetual nUvety of th« 
 Tartars. (Esprit dei Loii, 1. xvii. c. 5. 1, iviii. c. 19, &c.) 
 
 of their ancestors ; i and our knowledge of the history 
 of the Scythians is derived from their intercourse with 
 the learned and civilized nations of the south, the 
 Greeks, the Persians, and the Chinese. The Greeks, 
 vvho navigated the Euxine, and planted their colonies 
 along the sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect 
 discovery of Scythia; from the Danube, and the con- 
 fines ot 1 hrace, as far as the frozen Majotis, the seat 
 of eternal winter, and mount Caucasus, which, in the 
 language of poetry, was described as the utmost boun- 
 dary of the earth. They celebrated, with simple cre- 
 dulity, the virtues of the pastoral life:' they enter- 
 tained a more rational apprehension of the streno-th 
 and numbers of the warlike barbarians,' who con- 
 temptuously baffled the immense armament of Darius 
 the son of Hystaspes.* The Persian monarchs had 
 extended their western conquests to the banks of the 
 Danube, and the limits of European Scythia. The 
 eastern provinces of their empire were exposed to the 
 Scythians of Asia ; the wild inhabitants of the plains 
 beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, 
 which direct their course towards the Caspian sea. 
 1 he Jong and memorable quarrel of Iran and Touran 
 is still the theme of history or romance; the famous, 
 perhaps the fabulous, valour of the Persian heroes 
 Kustan and Asfendiar, was signalized, in the defence 
 of their country against the Afrasiabs of the north ; « 
 and the invincible spirit of the same barbarians 
 resisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms of 
 Cynis and Alexander.' In the eyes of the Greeks 
 and Persians, the real geography of Scythia was boun- 
 ded, on the east, by the mountains of Imaus, or Caf; 
 and their distant prospect of the extreme and inacces- 
 sible parts of Asia was clouded by ignorance or per- 
 plexed by fiction. But those inaccessible regions are 
 the ancient residence of a powerful and civilized na- 
 lion,y which ascends, by a probable tradition, above 
 forty centuries ; « and which is able to verify a series 
 of near two thousand years, by the perpetual testimony 
 ot accurate and contemporary historians.* The annals 
 
 353 
 
 q Abu ghaziKhan,tnt ictwofinst parts of his Genealogical History 
 relates the miserable fables and traditions of the Uzbek Tartars con! 
 cerningthe times which preceded the reign of Zingis *'*"*'^*^°"- 
 
 fr^ ./"m*'"!;^''^."V^ *^^^ °^ '"« ^''«^' J"P'»er tu?nsawav his eyes 
 f om tl'e Lloody fie d. of Troy, to the plains of Thrace and ScvtiK 
 
 lino"eni''sc"e';;e. "^ '"''"°""= *"^ P'«^P«^^' '^^"^'d a more peaceTui or 
 • Thucydides, I. ii. c. 97. 
 
 »hl M«M^* ■^°'"}^ ^°^. ""^ Herodotus. When Darius advanced into 
 the Moldavian desert, between the Danube and the Neisfer. the khg 
 
 tVeme?dr a^go^^"! """ ' "^°"^^' ' '''^^ ' '^^'^ -^ «- aVrowsTa' 
 
 .f J,r?hrBn.,iXq''u7c5?^ ^^y -P-^- 
 
 relebrated n. an epic poem of sixty thousand rhymed c^ouplelsb; 
 uirn^ XuJ^^Z- °^ ^'"'V^- ®^^ *"^ "*»'°^y of ^'arf^r Shaw, p^ 
 JJrsuft-^of oTl'^^t^ari'^ari;!;?;" '"' '''' '^"^^ '^^ -^P-^^ed'tlfc 
 X The Caspian sea, with its rivers, and adjncent tribes arp inhnri 
 ously Illustrated in the Examen Critiques 6eJ uSorilTd\U!^^^^ 
 which compares the true geography, and the errors produced by the 
 vanity or ignorance of the Groeks. pruuucea oy lue 
 
 ^ J'l'^ °''.'"'"^' **^*« °'"*''« "a"on appears to have been in the north 
 west of China, in the provinces of Chensi and ChlnsK Underthe two 
 first dynasties, the principal town was still a movablecamp ; the vTl 
 ases were thinly scattered ; more land xvas employed in p^?tu elhan 
 Jn tillage : the exercise of hunting was ordained to clear tl.ecountrj 
 from wild beasts ; Petcheli (where Pekin stands) was a deser?; and 
 the southern provtnces were peopled with Indian savacesTheTv- 
 ITextni' ^"" ^'"'^'^ Christ 206) gave the empireiractual fonn 
 
 n^'-J''!'^'''* Of ^fie Chinese monarchy has been variouslv fixed from 
 29o2 to 2132 years before Christ ; and the year 2637 has bLnchose^ 
 
 difference arises from the uncertain duration of the two first dynas^ 
 lies ; and the vacant space that lies beyond them as far as the rp-.l 
 or fabulous, times of Fohi. or Hoangti."^ SemSn dates Sfs ainhen-' 
 tic chronology from the year 841 : the thirty-six eclinsesof C«nf iS 
 (thirty. one of which have been verified) we e Sved Keen S 
 years 722 and 480 before Christ. The A*ir.,r/ca/ j;SSof ChTna dies 
 not ascend above the Greek Olympiads. ^ °°^^ 
 
 * After several apes of anarchy and despotism, the dynasty of the 
 Hnn (l»efore Christ 206) tvas the sra of the revival of learS The 
 Iragments of ancient literature were restored ; the characters were 
 improved and fixed; and the future preservation of books was se 
 cured by the useful inventions of ink, paper, and the art of printing 
 Nmetyseven years before Christ, Seinatsien published the first his- 
 tory of China. His labours were illustrated, and continued, by a se 
 nes of one hundred and eighty historians. Tlic suhBtance of their 
 works IS still extant : and the most considerable of Ibem arc now de- 
 posited in the kine of France'i library. 
 
 Vol. I— 2 U ^3 
 
 of China" Illustrate the state and revolutions of the 
 pastoral tribes, which may still be distinguished by 
 the varrue appellation of Scythians, or Tartars; thi 
 vassals, the enemies and sometimes the conquerors, 
 of a^reat empire; whose policy has uniformly opposed 
 the blind and impetuous valour of the barbarians of the 
 north. From the mouth of the Danube to the sea of 
 Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one 
 hundred and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are 
 equal to more than five thousand miles. The latitude 
 ot these extensive deserts cannot be so easily, or so 
 accurately, measured; but from the f)rtieth decrree, 
 which touches the wall of China, we may securel? ad' 
 vance above a thousand miles to the northward, till 
 our progress is stopped by the excessive cold of Siberia. 
 In that dreary climate, instead of the animated picture 
 ot a lartar canip, the smoke which issues from the 
 earth or rather from the snow, betrays the subterrane- 
 ous dwellings of the Tongouses, and the Samoiedes : 
 the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied 
 by the use of rein-deer, and of large dogs ; and the con- 
 querors of the earth insensibly degenerate into a race 
 ot detornied and diminutive savages, who tremble at 
 the sound of arms/ 
 
 The Huns, who under the reign of Original seat of 
 Valens threatened the empire of Rome, The Huns, 
 had been formidable, in a much earlier period, to the 
 empire of China.'' Their ancient, perhaps their oriffi. 
 nal, seat, was an extensive, though dry and barren 
 tract of country, immediately on the north side of the 
 great wall. Tlieir place is at present occupied by the 
 lorty-nine hords or banners of the Mongous, a pasto- 
 ral nation, which consists of about two hundred thou- 
 sand families.* But the valour of the Huns had exten- 
 ded the narrow 1 in, its of their domin- Their conquest, 
 ions ; their rustic chiefs, who assumed i" Scythia. 
 the appellation of Taiijou, graduallv became the con- 
 querors, and the sovereigns, of a formidable empire. 
 1 owards the east, their victorious arms were stopped 
 only by the ocean ; and the tribes, which are thinlv 
 scattered between the Amoor and the extreme penin- 
 sula of Corea, adhered, with reluctance, to the stan- 
 dard of the Huns. On the west, near the head of the 
 Irtish, and m the valley of Imaus, they found a more 
 ample space, and more numerous enemies. One of 
 the lieutenants of the Tanjou subdued, in a single ex- 
 pedition, twenty-six nations; the Igours,'distin(ruish- 
 ed above the Tartar race by the use of letters, were in 
 thenumberof his vassals; and, by the strange con- 
 nexion of human events, the flight of one of those 
 vagrant tribes recalled the victorious Parthians from 
 the invasion of Syria.R On the side of the north, 
 the ocean was assigned as the limit of the power of 
 the Huns. Withont enemies to resist their progress, 
 or witnesses to contradict their vanity, they might 
 securely achieve a real or imaginary conquest of the 
 frozen regions of Siberia. The Northern sea was fix- 
 ed as the remote boundary of their empire. But the 
 name of that sea, on whose shores the patriot Sovou 
 embraced the life of a shepherd and an exile,** may be 
 
 b China has been illustrated by the labours of the French • of the 
 niissionaries at Pekin, and Messrs. Freret and DcGuignes at Paris 
 J lie substance of the three preceding notes is extracted from the 
 Ckouktngr, with the preface, and notes of M. de Guijines, Paris, 1770 • 
 The Ton^Kien-KangMou, lrans]at€d by the P.de Maiila, under the 
 name of tiist Genera le de la Chine, tom. i. xlix.— cc ; the Memoirci 
 sur la Chine. Paris. 1776. ic. tom. i. p. 1—323. tom. ii. p. 5—364 ; the 
 Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p. 1-131. tom. v. p. 345—362; and the 
 Memoires de PAcademie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 377—402 tom 
 XV. p. 49.7—564. tom. xviii. p. 178—295. tom. xxxvi. p. 164—2.38 
 
 c See the Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii. and the Ge- 
 nealogical History, vol. ii. p. 620— 664. 
 
 d M. de Guignes (torn. ii. 1—124.) has given the original liistory of the 
 ancient Hiongnou, or Huns. The Chinese geography of their country, 
 (torn. 1. p. Iv — Ixiii.) seems to comprise a part of their conquests. * 
 
 e Seem Duhalde (tom. iv. p. 18—65.) a circumstantial description, 
 with a correct map. of the country of the Mongous. 
 
 f The Igours, or Vigours, were divided into three branches ; hont. 
 ers, shepherds, and husbandmen ; and the last class was despised by 
 the two former. See Abulghazi, part ii. c. 7. f * 
 
 g Memoires de PAcademie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv. p. 17 33 
 
 The comprehensive view of M. de Guignes has compared these dis' 
 tant events. '-«. ««. 
 
 b The fame of Sovou, or So ou, his merit, and his singular adven- 
 
354 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 SH 
 
 transferred, with much more probability, to the Bai-j maidens of China was devoted to the rude embraces 
 kal, a capacious bason, above three hundred miles in of the Huns ;» and the alliance of the haughty lan- 
 lencrth, which disdains the modest appellation of a | jous was secured by their marriage with the genuine, 
 lake," and which actually communicates with the seas or adopted, daughters of the imperial family, which 
 of the north, by the lona course of the Angara, the Ton- ! vainly attempted to escape the sacrilegious pollution, 
 ffuska, and the Jenissea. The submission of so many The situation of these unhappy victims is described in 
 ^- • ...-,.. .. -.1- .r .i-_ rn__:... . the verses of a Chinese princess, who laments that 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 distant nations might Hatter the pride of the Tanjou ; 
 but the valour of the Huns could be rewarded only 
 
 she had been condemned by her parents to a distant 
 
 by the enjoyment of the wealth and luxury of the ! exile, under a barbarian husband; who complains 
 empire of the south. In the third century before the | that sour milk was her only drink, raw flesh her only 
 christian sera, a wall offifteeu hundred miles in length food, a tent her only palace; and who expresses, 
 was constructed, to defend the frontiers of China in a strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish, 
 aoainst the inroads of the Huns;'' but this stupendous that she were transformed into a bird, to fly back 
 work, which holds a conspicuous place in the map of to her dear country ; the object of her tender and 
 the world, has never contributed to the safety of an perpetual regret.° 
 
 unwarlike people. The cavalry of the Tanjou fre- The conquest of China has been Decline and fall 
 quently consisted of two or three hundred thousand twice achieved by the pastoral tribes of the Hum. 
 men, formidable by the matchless dexterity with ' of the north : the forces of the Huns were not inferior 
 which they managed their bows and their horses ; by : to those of the Moguls, or of the Mantcheoux ; and 
 theirhardy patience insupporting the inclemency oflhe; their ambition might entertain the most sanguine 
 weather ; and by the incredible speed of their march, i hopes of success. But their pride was humbled, and 
 which was seldom checked by torrents, or precipices, j their progress was checked, by the arms and policy 
 by the deepest rivers, or by the most lofty mountains. | of Vouti,P the fifth emperor of the powerful dynasty 
 Their wars wiih'rhey Spread themselves at once over j of the Han. In his long reign of fifty- Ant. Christ, 
 the Chinese, the face of the country ; and their rapid four years, the barbarians of the south- I4i-b7. 
 Ant. Chri.si, 201 |„jppj_uQgity surprised, astonished, and : em provinces submitted to the laws and manners of 
 disconcerted the grave and elaborate tactics of a Chi- ! China: and the ancient limits of the monarchy were 
 nese army. The emperor Kaoti,» a soldier of fortune, enlarged, from the great river of Kiang, to the port of 
 whose personal merit had raised him to the throne, I Canton. Instead of confining himself to the timid 
 marched against the Huns with those veteran troops operations of a defensive war, his lieutenants penetra- 
 ted many hundred miles into the country of the Huns. 
 In those boundless deserts, where it is impossible to 
 form magazines, and diflicult to transport a suflficient 
 supply of provisions, the armies of Vouti were repeat- 
 edly exposed to intolerable hardships : and, of one 
 hundred and forty thousand soldiers, who marched 
 against the barbarians,thirty thousand only returned in 
 safety to the feet of their master. These losses, liow- 
 ever, were compensated by splendid and decisive suc- 
 cess. The Chinese generals improved the superiority 
 which they derived from the temper of their arms, 
 their chariots of war, and the service of their Tartar 
 auxiliaries. The camp of the Tanjou was surprised 
 in the midst of sleep and intemperance : and, though 
 the monarch of the Huns bravely cut his way through 
 the ranks of the enemy, he left above fifteen thousand 
 of his subjects on the field of battle. Yet this signal 
 victory, which was preceded and followed by many 
 bloody engagements, contributed much less to the de- 
 struction of ^he power of the Huns, than the effectual 
 policy which was employed to detach the tributary 
 nations from their obedience. Intimida- Ant. Christ. 70. 
 ted by the arms, or allured by the prom- 
 ises, of Vouti and his successors, the most considera- 
 ble tribes, both of the east and of the west, disclaim- 
 ed the authority of the Tanjou. While some acknow- 
 ledged themselves the allies or vassals of the empire, 
 they all became the implacable enemies of the Huns : 
 and the numbers of that haughty people, as soon as 
 they were reduced to their native strength, might, 
 perhaps, have been contained within the walls of 
 one of the great and populous cities of China.'' 
 The desertion of his subjects, and the perplexities of 
 a civil war, at length compelled the Janjou himself to 
 renounce the dignity of an independent sovereign, 
 and the freedom of a warlike and high- ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^ 
 spirited nation. He was received at bi- 
 gan, the capital of the monarchy, by the troops, the 
 
 n A supply of women is mentioned ns a customary article of treaty 
 anti tribute. (Flist. dc la Conqu6te de la Chine, par les Tartarea 
 Mantrheoux, torn. i. p. 18C, 187. with the note of the editor.) 
 
 o De Guipncs, Hist, des Huns. torn. ii. p. 62. 
 
 P See the reign of the emperor Vouti, in the Kangr-Mou, torn. iil. p. 
 1—98. His various and inconsistent character seems to be impar- 
 tially drawn. 
 
 q This expression is used in the memorial to the emperor Venti. 
 (Duhnldc, torn. ii. p. 4 IT.) Without adoptinir the exagceralions of 
 Marco Polo and Isaac Vossiu«, we may rationally allow for Pekin, 
 two millions of inhabitants. The cities of the south, which contain 
 tlie manufactures of China, are still more populous. 
 
 which had been trained up in the civil wars of China. 
 But he was soon surrounded by the barbarians; and, 
 after a siege of seven days, the monanih, hopeless of 
 relief, was reduced to purchase his deliverance by an 
 ignominious capitulation. The successors of Kaoti, 
 whose lives were dedicated to the arts of peace, or the 
 luxury of the palace, submitted to a more permanent 
 disgrace. They too hastily confessed the insufficien- 
 cy of arms and fortifications. They were too easily 
 convinced, that while the blazing signals announced 
 on every side the approach of the Huns, the Chinese 
 troops, who slept with the helmet on their head, and 
 the cuirass on their back, were destroyed by the in- 
 cessant labour of ineffectual marches.™ A regular 
 payment of money and silk, was stipulated as the con- 
 dition of a temporary and precarious peace ; and the 
 wretched expedient of disguising a real tribute, under 
 the names of a gift or a subsidy, was practised by the 
 emperors of China, as well as by those of Rome. But 
 there still, remained a more disgraceful article of trib- 
 ute, which violated the sacred feelings of humanity and 
 nature. The hardships of a savage life, which destroy 
 their in infancy the children who are born with a less 
 healthy and robust constitution, introduce a remarka- 
 ble disproportion between the numbers of the two 
 sexes. The Tartars are an ugly and even deformed 
 race; and, while they consider their own women as 
 the instruments of domestic labour, their desires, or 
 rather their appetites, are directed to the enjoyment of 
 more elegant beauty. A select band of the fairest 
 
 tures, are still celebrated in China. See the Eloge de Moukden, p. 20. 
 and notes, p. 241— 247 ; and Memoires sur la Ciiinc, torn. iii. p. 317— 
 960. 
 
 i See Ishrand Ives, In Harris's Collection, vol. ii. p. 931 ; Bell's Tra- 
 vels, vol. i, p. 247 — 2.54; and Gmelin, in the Hist. Generate des Voy- 
 ages, tom. xviii. p. 283 — 329. They ail remark the vulgar opinion, 
 that the holy sea grows angry and tempestuous, if any one presumes 
 to call it a lake. This grammatical nicety often excites a dispute, 
 t>etween the absurd superstition of the mariners, and the absurd oh- 
 Btinary of travellers. 
 
 k The construction of the wall of China is mentioned by Duhalde 
 (torn. ii. p. 45.) and De Guisrnes, (tom. ii. p. 59.) 
 
 1 See the life of Lieoupang, or Kaoti, in the Hist, de la Ciiinc, pub- 
 lished at Paris, 1777, &c. tom. i. p. 442—522. This voluminous work 
 is a translation (by the P. de Mailla) of the Tunir-Kien Kavg-Mou, 
 the celebrated abridgement of the great history of Semakouang, (A. 
 D. 1084.) and his continuators. 
 
 m See a free and ample memorial, presented by a mandarin to the 
 emperor Venti (before Christ 180—157.) in Duliakle, tom. ii. p. 412— 
 426.) from a collection of state papers, marked with the red pencil by 
 Kamhi himself, p. 384—612.) Another memorial from the minister 
 of war, (Kang Mou, tom. ii. p. 553.) supplies some curious circuiu- 
 Btances of the mauners of the Huns. 
 
 II 
 
 mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the hon- 
 ours that could adorn and disguise the triumph of 
 Chinese vanity.' A magnificent palace was prepared 
 for his reception ; his place was assigned above all 
 the princes of the royal family ; and the patience of 
 the barbarian king was exhausted by the ceremonies 
 of a banquet, which consisted of eight courses of 
 meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music. But he 
 perfiDrmed, on his knees, the duty of a respectful hom- 
 age to the emperor of China ; pronounced, in his own 
 name, and in the name of his successors, a perpetual 
 oath of fidelity ; and gratefully accepted a seal, which 
 was bestowed as the emblem of his regal dependance. 
 After this humiliating submission, the Tanjous some- 
 times departed from their allegiance, and seized the 
 favorable moments of war and rapine ; but the mon- 
 archy of the Huns gradually declined, till it was bro- 
 A. D. 48. ^*^"» ^y ^^^^^ dissension, into two hos- 
 tile and separate kingdoms. One of 
 the princes of the nation was urged, by fear and am- 
 bition, to retire towards the south with eight herds, 
 which composed between forty and fifty thousand fam- 
 ilies. He obtained, with the title of Tanjou, a con- 
 venient territory on the verge of the Chinese provin- 
 ces ; and his constant attachment to the service of the 
 empire was secured by weakness, and the desire of re- 
 venge. From the time of this fatal schism, the Huns 
 of the north continued to languish about fifty years; 
 till they were oppressed on every side by their foreio-n 
 and domestic enemies. The proud inscription* ofa 
 column, erected on a lofty mountain, announced to 
 posterity, that a Chinese army had marched seven 
 hundred miles into the heart of their country. The 
 Sienpi,* a tribe of oriental Tartars, retaliated the inju- 
 ries which they had formerly sustained ; and the pow- 
 A.D. 93. ^"^ ^^ ^^® Tanjous, after a rei^n of thir- 
 j , - , *®^" hundred years, was utterly destroy- 
 ed before the end of the first century of the christian 
 era." 
 
 Thfciremigra- The fate of the Vanquished Huns was 
 A d'Too tec ^^^^''sified by the various influence of 
 • • character and situation.'^ Above one 
 hundred thousand persons, the poorest, indeed, and 
 the most piisillanimous of the people, were contented 
 to remain in their native country, to renounce their 
 peculiar name and origin, and to mingle with the vic- 
 torious nation of the Sienpi. Fifty-eight herds, about 
 two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more hon- 
 ourable servitude, retired towards the south ; implored 
 the protection of the emperors of China; and were 
 permitted to inhabit, and to guard, the extreme frontiers 
 of the province of Chansi and the territory of Ortous. 
 But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns 
 maintained, in their adverse fortune, the undaunted 
 spirit of their ancestors. The western world was 
 open to their valour; and they resolved, under the 
 conduct of their hereditary chieftains, to discover and 
 subdue some remote country, which was still inacces- 
 sible to the arms of the Sienpi, and to the laws of 
 China.y The course of their emigration soon carried 
 them beyond the mountains of Imaus, and the limits of 
 the Chinese geography; but?i>^ are able to distinguish 
 the two great divisions of these formidable exiles. 
 
 355 
 
 which directed their march towards the Oxus, and to- 
 wards the Volga The first of these The white Huns 
 colonies established their dominion in ofSo-diana. 
 the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the 
 eastern side of the Caspian ; where they preserved 
 the name of Huns, with the epithet of Euthalites, 
 or Nepthahtes. Their manners Mere softened, and 
 even their features were insensibly improved, by the 
 mildness of the climate, and their long residence in a 
 flourishing province,' which mitrht still retain a faint 
 impression of the arts of Greece.* The white Huns 
 a name which they derived from the change of their 
 complexions, soon abandoned the pastoral life of 
 Scythia. Gorgo, which, under the appellation of 
 Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary splendour, 
 was the residence of the king, who exercised a legal 
 authority over an obedient people. Their luxury was 
 maintained by the labour of the Sogdians ; and the 
 only vestige of their ancient barbarism, was the cus- 
 tom which obliged all the companions, perhaps to the 
 number of twenty, who had shared the liberality of a 
 wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same grave.'' 
 The vicinity of the Huns to the provinces of Per- 
 sia, involved them in frequent and bloody contests 
 with the power of that monarchy. But they respected, 
 in peace, the faith of treaties ; in war, the dictates of 
 humanity ; and their memorable victory over Pereses, 
 or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as well as the 
 valour, of the barbarians. The second The Hun.«.of the 
 division of their countrymen, the Huns Volga, 
 
 who gradually advanced towards the north-west, were 
 exercised by the hardships of a colder climate, and a 
 more laborious march. Necessity compelled them to 
 exchange the silks of China for the furs of Siberia; 
 the imperfect rudiments of civilized life were obliter- 
 ated ; and the native fierceness of the Huns was exas- 
 perated by their intercourse with the savage tribes, 
 who were compared, with some propriety, to the wild 
 beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon 
 rejected the hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and 
 while each herd was governed by its peculiar Mursa, 
 their tumultuary council directed the public measures 
 of the whole nation. As late as the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, their transient residence on the eastern banks of 
 the Volga was attested by the name of Great Hun- 
 gary.*= In the winter, they descended with their 
 flocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty 
 river; and their summer excursions reached as hitrh 
 as the latitude of Saratoflf, or perhaps the conflux of the 
 Kama. Such at least were the recent limits of the black 
 Calmucks,'' who remained about a century under the 
 protection of Russia ; and who have since returned to 
 their native seats on the frontiers of the Chinese em- 
 pire. The march, and the return, of those wandering 
 Tartars, whose united camp consists of fifty thousand 
 tents or families, illustrate the distant emigrations of 
 the ancient Huns.* 
 
 r See the Kang Mou, tom. iii. p. 150 and the subsequent evenis 
 under the proper years. This memorable festival is celebrated in ' 
 98 90 ^^ Moukden, and explained in a note by the P. Gaubil, p. 
 
 ^/.T*^l?.'".^'^'''P*'*l.",^^"*^°'"P°^<''' °" t^e spot by Pankou, president 
 of the Tribunal of History. (KanjMou, tom. iii. p. :^92 ) Similar 
 monuments have been discovered in many parts of Tartarv. (His 
 loire desHuns, tom. ii. p. 122.) 
 
 t M. de Gulgnes (tom. i. p. 189.) has inserted a short account of the 
 Dienpi. 
 
 " .The wra of the Huns is placed, by the Chinese. 1210 years before 
 oo« **;.. '^® series of their kinijs does not commence till the year 
 230. (Hist, des Huns, torn. ii. p. 2J. 12:<.) ! 
 
 i The various accidentb, the downfall and flight of the Huns, are 
 related in the Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 88. 91. 95. 1.19, &c. The small ! 
 numbers of each hord may be ascribed to their losses and divisions, i 
 
 y M. de Gulgnes has skilfully traced the footsteps of the Hun.s ' 
 through the vast deserts of Tartary, (tom. ii. p. 123. 277, &c. 325, &c.) | 
 
 T Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, reigned in Sogdiana, when it wa» 
 invaded (A. D. 1218.) by Zingie and hie moguls. The oriental histo- 
 rians (see D'HerI.eloi, Petit de la Croix. &:c.) relebrate the populous 
 cities which he ruined, and the fruitful country which he desolated 
 In tl»€ next century, the same provinces of Chorasmia and Mawaral- 
 nahr were described by Abulfeda. (Hudson. Geograph. Minor.tom 
 iii. Their actual misery may be seen in the Genealogical HistoVv of 
 the Tartars, p. 423—469. ' 
 
 a Justin (xli. 6.) has left a short abridgment of the Greek kings of 
 Bactriana. To their industry I should ascribe the new and extraor- 
 dinary trade, which transported the mercliandisesof India into Eu- 
 rope, by the Oxus, the Caspian, the Cyrus, the Phasis, and the Euxine. 
 The other ways, both of the land and sea, were possessed by the Se- 
 leucides and the Ptolemies. (See lEsprit des Loix, 1. xxi.) 
 
 b Procopius de Bell. Persico, I. i. c. 3. p. 9. 
 
 c In the thirteenth century, the monk Ruhniquis (who traversed 
 the immense plain of Kipznk, in his journey to the court of the Great 
 Khan) observed the remarkable name of Hungary, with the traces 
 of a common language and origin. (Hist, des Voyages, torn. vii. p. 209.) 
 
 d Bell, (vol. i. p. 29— 34.) and the editors of the Genealogical Hig- 
 tory, (p. 539.) have described the Calmucks of the Volga in the begin- 
 ning of tiie present century. 
 
 e This great transmigration of 300.000 Calmucks,. or Torgouts, hap- 
 pened in the year 1771. The original narrative of Kien long, the 
 reigning emperor of China, which was intended for the inscription 
 of a column, has been translated by the missionaries of Pekin. (Me- 
 moire sur la Chine, tom. I. p. 401—418, The emperor effecU the 
 
 .1 
 
356 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 '^* 
 
 l| 
 
 i 
 
 Their conquest It is impossible to fill the dark inter- 
 of the Aiani. val of time which elapsed, atter ine 
 Huns of the Volga were lost in the eyes of the Chi- 
 nese, and before they showed themselves to those of the 
 Romans. There is some reason, however, to appre- 
 hend, that the same force which had driven them from 
 their native seats, still continued to impel their march 
 towards the frontiers of Europe. The power of the 
 Sienpi, their implacable enemies, which extended 
 above three thousand miles from east to west,' must 
 have gradually oppressed them by the weight and ter- 
 ror of a formidable neighbourhood ; and the iliglit of 
 the tribes of Scylhia would inevitably tend to increase 
 the strength, or to contract the territories, of the Huns. 
 The harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes 
 would offend the ear, without informing the under- 
 standing, of th^ reader; but I cannot suppress the 
 very natural suspicion, that the Huns of the north de- 
 rived a considerable reinforcement from the ruin of the 
 dynasty of the south, which in the course of the third 
 century, submitted to the dominion of China; that 
 the bravest warriors marched away in search of their 
 free and adventurous countrymen ; and that, as they 
 had been divided by prosperity, they were easily re- 
 united by the common hardships of their adverse for- 
 tune.* The Huns, with their flocks and herds, their 
 wives and children, their dependants and allies, were 
 transported to the west of the Volga, and they boldly 
 advanced to invade the country of the Alani, a pastoral 
 people, who occupied, or wasted, an extensive tract of 
 the deserts of Scythia. The plains between the Vol- 
 ga and the Tanais were covered with the tents of the 
 Alani, but their name and manners were diffused over 
 the wide extent of their conquests ; and the painted 
 tribes of the Agathyrsi and Geloni were confounded 
 among their vassals. Towards the north, they pene- 
 trated into the frozen regions of Siberia, among the 
 savages who were accustomed, in their rage or hunger, 
 to the taste of human flesh ; and their southern inroads 
 were pushed as far as the confines of Persia and In- 
 dia. The mixture of Sarmatic and German blood had 
 contributed to improve the features of the Alani, to 
 whiten their swarthy complexions, and to tinge their 
 hair with a yellowish cast, which is seldom found in 
 the Tartar race. They were less deformed in their 
 persons, less brutish in their manners, than the Huns ; 
 but they did not yield to those formidable barbarians 
 in their martial and independent spirit; in the love of 
 freedom, which rejected even the use of domestic 
 slaves ; and in the love of arms, which considered war 
 and rapine as the pleasure and the glory of mankind. 
 A naked cimeter, fixed in the ground, was the only 
 object of their religious worship ; the scalps of their 
 enemies formed the costly trappings of their horses ; 
 and they viewed, with pity and contempt, the pusillan- 
 imous warriors, who patiently expected the infirmities 
 of age, and the tortures of lingering disease.** On the 
 banks of the Tanais, the military power of the Huns 
 and the Alani encountered with equal valour, but with 
 unequal success. The Huns prevailed in the bloody 
 contest: the king of the Alani was slain; and the 
 remains of the vanquished nation were dispersed by 
 
 Their victoriei 
 
 over tlie Gothd, 
 
 A. D. 375. 
 
 the ordinary alternative of flight or submission.' A 
 colony of exiles found a secure refuge in the moun- 
 tains of Caucasus, between the Euxine and the Cas- 
 pian ; where they still preserve their name and their 
 independence. Another colony advanced, with more 
 intrepid courage, towards the shores of the Baltic, 
 associated themselves with the northern tribes of Ger- 
 many, and shared the spoil of the Roman provinces 
 of Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the na- 
 tion of the Alani embraced the offers of an honourable 
 and advantageous union ; and the Huns, who esteem- 
 ed the valour of their less fortunate enemies, proceed- 
 ed, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to in- 
 vade the limits of the Gothic empire. 
 
 The great Hermanric, whose domi- 
 nions extended from the Baltic to the 
 Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of 
 age and reputation, the fruits of his victories, when he 
 was alarmed by the formidable approach of an host of 
 unknown enemies,"^ on whom his barbarous subjects 
 might, without injustice, bestow the epithet of bar- 
 barians. The numbers, the strength, the rapid mo- 
 tions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns, were 
 felt, and dreaded, and magnified, by the astonish 
 ed Goths; who beheld their fields and villages con- 
 sumed with flames, and deluged with indiscriminate 
 slaughter. To these real terrors they added, the sur- 
 prise and abhorrence which were excited by the shrill 
 voice, the uncouth gestures, and the strange deformity, 
 of the Huns. These savages of Scythia were com- 
 pared (and the picture had some resemblance) to the 
 animals who walk very awkwardly on two legs ; and 
 to the misshapen figures, the Termini^ which were 
 often placed on the bridges of antiquity. They were 
 distinguished from the rest of the human species by 
 their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, 
 deeply buried in the head ; and as they were almost 
 destitute of beards, they never enjoyed either the man- 
 ly graces of youth, or the venerable aspect of age.* 
 A fabulous origin was assigned, worthy of their form 
 and manners ; that the witches of Scythia, who, for 
 their foul and deadly practices, had been driven from 
 society, had copulated in the desert with infernal 
 spirits; and that the Huns were the offspring of this 
 execrable conjunction.™ The tale, so full of horror 
 and absurdity, was greedily embraced by the credu- 
 lous hatred of the Goths ; but, while it gratified their 
 hatred, it increased their fear, since the posterity of 
 daemons and witches might be supposed to inherit 
 some share of the preeternatural powers, as well as of 
 the malignant temper, of their parents. Against these 
 enemies, Hermanric prepared to exert the united forces 
 of the Gothic state ; but he soon discovered that his 
 vassal tribes, provoked by oppression, were much more 
 inclined to second, than to repel, the invasion of the 
 Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani" had for- 
 merly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the 
 cruel tyrant had condemned the innocent wife of the 
 traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses. The 
 
 
 »l 
 
 ■mooth and specious language of the Son of Heaven, and the Father 
 of his people. ,. ^ . 
 
 f The Knnz-Mou (torn. iii. p. 447.) ascribes to their conquests a 
 ■pace of 14,000 lis. According to the present standard. 200 Us (or 
 more accurately 193) are equal to one degree of latitude ; and one 
 Enelish mile consequently exceeds three miles of China. But there 
 are strong reasons lo believe tiiat the ancient li scarcely equalled one- 
 half of the modern. See the elaborate researches of M. d'Anville. a 
 veoeraoher. who is not a stranger in any age, or climate, of the globe. 
 (Memolres de I'Acad. torn. ii. p. 125-502. Mesures Ilineraires, p. 
 
 ^'^£"866 Vhe Histoire des Huns, torn. il. p. 125-144. The subsequent 
 hUtory (p. 145—277.) of three or four Hunnic dynasties evi.lently 
 prove«, that their martial spirit was not impaired by a long residence 
 
 \ Ulque hominil.us quietis et placidis otium est voluptabile, ita 
 illos oericula Juvant et bella. Judicatur ibi heatus qui in pralio pro. 
 fuderit animam: senescentes etiani et fortuitis inortibus mundo di- 
 gressos. ut degeneres et ignavos conviciis atrocibus insectantur. U e 
 UUflt think highly of the conquerors of such men. 
 
 i On the subjpct of the .\lani. see Aminianns. (xxxi.2.) Jornandes, 
 (lie Rebus Getiris. c. 24.) M. de Guignes. (Hist, des Huns, torn. ii. 
 p. 279.) and the Genealogical History of the Tartars, (torn. ii. p. 617.) 
 
 k As we are possessed of the authentic history of the Finns, it 
 would be impertinent to repeat, or to refute, the fables, which misrep 
 resent their origin and progress, their passage of the mud or water 
 of the Maolis, in pursuit of an ox or stag, les Imlrs qu'ils avoient de- 
 couvertps, &c. (Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 224. Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 37. Pro- 
 copius. Hist. Miscell. c.5. Joruandes.c. 24. Grandeur et Decadence, 
 ice. des Romains, c. 17.) 
 
 1 rrodigiosjc fornue, et pandi ; ut bipedes existimes hestias; vcl 
 qualeslncommerginandispontibiis. oflRciatiRtipifcsdoianturinrompti. 
 Ammian. xxxi. 1. Jornandes, (c. 24.) draws a strong caricature of a 
 Calmuck fare. Species pavenda nigredine . . . qiispdam deformis 
 otfa, non facies ; habensque ningis puncta quam luiuica. See BufTon. 
 Hist. Naturelle. torn. ii. p. 380. 
 
 m This execrable origin, which Jornandes (c. 24.) describes with 
 the rancour of a Goth, might be orlginnlly derived from a more pleas- 
 ing fable of the Greeks. (Herodot. I. iv. c. 9, &.c.) 
 
 n The Roxolani may be the fathers of the P-c. the Russians, 
 (d'Anville, Empire de RuMic, p. 1—10.) whose residence (A. D. 862.) 
 about Novogrod Veliki cannot be very remote from that which the 
 Geographer of Ravenna (i. 12. iv. 4. 46. v. 28. 30.) assigns to the Roxo- 
 lani, (A. D. 886.) 
 
 brothers of that unfortunate woman seized the favoui- 
 abie moment of revenge. The aged king of the Goths 
 languished some time after the dangerous wound 
 which he received from their daggers ; but the con- 
 duct of the war was retarded by his infirmities ; and 
 the public councils of the nation were distracted by a 
 spirit of jealousy and discord. His death, which has 
 been imputed to his own despair, left the reins of gov- 
 ernment in the hands of Whithimer, who, with the 
 doubtful aid of some Scythian mercenaries, maintained 
 the unequal contest against the arms of the Huns and 
 the Alani, till he was defeated and slain, in a decisive 
 battle. The Ostrogoths submitted to their fate : and 
 the royal race of the Amali will hereafter be found 
 among the subjects of the haiijrhty Attila. But the 
 person of Witheric, the infant king, was saved by the 
 diligence of Alatheus and Saphrax ; two warriors of 
 approved valour and fidelity; who by cautious 
 marches, conducted the independent remains of the 
 nation of the Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or 
 Niester; a considerable river, which now separates 
 the Turkish dominions from the empire of Russia. 
 Un the banks of the Niester, the prudent Athanaric, 
 more attentive to his own than to the general safety, 
 had fixed the camp of the Visigoths ; with the firm 
 resolution of opposing the victorious barbarians, whom 
 he thought it less advisable to provoke. The ordin- 
 ary speed of the Huns was checked by the weight of 
 the baggage, and the encumbrance of captives'; but 
 their military skill deceived, and almost destroyed, 
 the army of Athanaric. While the judge of the Visi- 
 goths defended the banks of the Niester, he was en- 
 compassed and attacked by a numerous detachment 
 of cavalry, who by the light of the moon, had passed 
 the river in a fordable place; and it was not without 
 the utmost efforts of courage and conduct, that he was 
 able to effect his retreat towards the hilly country. 
 The iindaunted general had already formed a new and 
 judicious plan of defensive war ; and the strong lines, 
 which he was preparing to construct between the 
 mountains, the Pruth and the Danube, would have 
 secured the extensive and fertile territory that bears 
 the modern name of Walachia, from the destructive 
 inroads of the Huns." But the hopes and measures 
 of the judge of the Visigoths were soon disappointed, 
 by the trembling impatience of his dismayed country- 
 men ; \yho were persuaded by their fears, that the in- 
 terposition of the Danube was the only barrier that 
 could save them from the rapid pursuit, and invincible 
 valour, of the barbarians of Scythia. Under the com- 
 mand of Fritigern and Alavivus,P the body of the na- 
 tion hastily advanced to the banks of the great river, 
 and implored the protection of the Roman emperor of 
 the east. Athanaric himself, still anxious to avoid 
 the guilt of perjury, retired, with a band of faithful 
 followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland ; 
 which appears to have been guarded, and almost con- 
 cealed, by the impenetrable forests of Transylvania.^ 
 
 The Goths im- After Valens had terminated the Gothic 
 plore thfi protec- War with some appearance of glory and 
 tion^of^Vaiong. success, he made a progress through his 
 ^dominions of Asia, and at length fixed 
 his residenc6ln the capital of Syria. The five years' 
 which he spent at Anlioch were employed to watch, 
 from a secure distance, the hostile designs of the Per- 
 sian monarch ; to check the depredation's of the Sara- 
 cens and Isaurians ; • to enforce, by arguments more 
 
 357 
 
 o 1 he text of Ammianus seems to he imperfect or corrupt • hut the 
 nature of the ground explains, and almost defines, the Gothic ram' 
 part. Memoires de I'Academie, ice. torn, xxviii, p. 444—4(50 
 
 p M. de Dual (Hist, des Peuples de I'Europe, tom. vi. p 407 ) has 
 conceived a strange idea, that Aiavivus was the same person as VI 
 philasthe Gothic bishop: and that Ulphilas, the grandson of a Can 
 padocian captive, became a temporal prince of the Goths. 
 
 q Ammianus (xxxi. 3.) and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis c 24 ) 
 describe the subversion of the Gothic empire by the Huns. ' * 
 
 r The chronology of Ammianus is obscure and imperfect. Tiile- 
 mont has laboured to clear and settle the annals of Valens. 
 
 winfe^r'Slid H^eVSso? A«T« Minnrf;?- JJl^ ''aurians.each of Constantinople. Basil. Epist. ccl. apud Tillemont, Hist, des Em- 
 winier, iniesiea the roads of Asia Minor, as far as the neighbourhood 1 pereurs, torn. e. p. 106. 
 
 prevalent than those of reason and eloquence, the be- 
 lief of the Arian theology ; and to satisfy his anxious 
 suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the inno- 
 cent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor 
 was most seriously engaged, by the important intelli- 
 gence which he received from the civil and military 
 officers who were intrusted with the defence of the 
 Danube. He was informed, that the north was agita- 
 ted by a furious tempest; that the irruption of the 
 Huns, an unknown and monstrous race of savages had 
 subverted the power of the Goths; and that the 'sup- 
 pliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride 
 was now humbled in the dust, covered a space of many 
 miles along the banks of the river. W^ith outstretched 
 arms, and pathetic lamentations, they loudly deplored 
 their past misfortunes and their present danger ; ac- 
 knowledged, that their only hope of safety was in the 
 clemency of the Roman government; and most solemnly 
 protested, that if the gracious liberality of the emperor 
 would permit them to cultivate the waste lands of 
 Thrace, they should ever hold themselves bound, by 
 the strongest obligations of duty and gratitude, to obey 
 the laws, and to guard the limits, of the republic. 
 These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors 
 of the Goths, who impatiently expected from the mouth 
 of Valens an answer that must finally determine the 
 fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor of the 
 east was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority 
 of his elder brother, whose death hap- a. D. 375. 
 pened towards the end of the preceding Nov. 17.' 
 year; and as the distressful situation of the Goths re- 
 quired an instant and peremptory decision, he was 
 deprived of the favourite resources of feeble and timid 
 minds ; who consider the use of dilatory and ambigu- 
 ous measures as the most admirable efforts of consum- 
 mate prudence. As long as the same passions and 
 interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war 
 and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated 
 in the councils of antiquity, will frequently present 
 themselves as the subject of modern deliberation. But 
 the most experienced statesman of Europe has never 
 been summoned to consider the propriety, or the dan- 
 ger, of admitting, or rejecting, an innumerable multi- 
 tude of barbarians, who are driven by despair and hun- 
 ger to solicit a settlement on the territories of a civi- 
 lized nation. When that important proposition, so 
 essentially connected with the public safety, was re- 
 ferred to the ministers of Valens, they were perplexed 
 and divided; but they soon acquiesced in the flattering 
 sentiment which seemed the most favourable to the 
 pride, the indolence, and the avarice of their sovereign. 
 The slaves, who were decorated with the titles of prae- 
 fects and generals, dissembled or disregarded the terrors 
 of this national emigration, so extremely difl^erent from 
 the partial and accidental colonies, which had been re- 
 ceived on the extreme limits of the empire. But they 
 applauded the liberality of fortune, which had con- 
 ducted, from the most distant countries of the globe, a 
 numerous and invincible army of strangers, to defend 
 the throne of Valens ; who might now add to the royal 
 treasures the immense sums of gold supplied by the 
 provincials to compensate their annual proportion of 
 recruits. The prayers of the Goths were granted, and 
 their service was accepted by the imperial court; and 
 orders were immediately dei^patched to the civil and 
 military governors of the Thracian diocese, to make 
 the necessary preparations for the passage and subsis- 
 tence of a great people, till a proper and sufficient ter- 
 ritory could be allotted for their future residence. The 
 liberality of the emperor was accompanied, however, 
 with two harsh and rigorous conditions, which prudence 
 niight justify on the side of the Romans, but which 
 distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths, 
 Before they passed the Danube, they were required to 
 deliver their arms ; and it was insisted, that their chil- 
 
358 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 A V 
 
 dren should be taken from them, and dispersed through 
 the provinces of Asia ; where they might be civilized 
 by the arts of education, and serve as hostages to se- 
 cure the fidelity of their parents. 
 „. Durinnr this suspense of a doubtful and 
 
 They are trans- ,. ^ ^ » • x- *u • *• ♦ r>^tU^ 
 
 ported over the distant uegociation, the impatient tiotris 
 
 Danube into the made somc rash attempts to pass the 
 Roman empire. Danube, without the permission of the 
 government, whose protection they had implored. 
 Their motions were strictly observed by the vigilance 
 of the troops which were stationed along the river; 
 and their foremost detachments were defeated with 
 considerable slaughter ; yet such were the timid coun- 
 cils of the reign of Valens, that the brave officers who 
 had served their country in the execution of their duty, 
 were punished by the loss of their employments, and 
 narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The impe- 
 rial mandate was at length received for transporting 
 over the Danube the whole body of the Gothic nation ; ' 
 but the execution of this order, was a task of labour 
 and difficulty. The stream of the Danube, which in 
 those parts is above a mile broad," had been swelled 
 by incessant rains ; and, in this tumultuous passage, 
 many were swept away, and drowned, by the rapid 
 violence of the current. A large fleet of vessels, of 
 boats, and of canoes, was provided ; many days and 
 nights they passed and repassed with indefatigable 
 toil ; and the most strenuous diligence was exerted by 
 the officers of Valens, that not a single barbarian, of 
 those who were reserved to subvert the foundations of 
 Rome, should be left on the opposite shore. It was 
 thought expedient that an accurate account should be 
 taken of their numbers ; but the persons who were em- 
 ployed soon desisted, viith amazement and dismay, 
 from the prosecution of the endless and impracticable 
 task : " and the principal historian of the age most se- 
 riously affirms, that the prodigious armies of Darius 
 and Xerxes, which had so long been considered as the 
 fables of vain and credulous antiquity, were now justi- 
 fied, in the eyes of mankind, by the evidence of fact 
 and experience. A probable testimony has fixed the 
 number of the Gothic warriors at two hundred thousand 
 men ; and if we can venture to add the just proportion 
 of women, of children, and of slaves, the whole mass 
 of the people which composed this formidable emigra- 
 tion, must have amounted to near a million of persons, 
 of both sexes, and of all ages. The children of the 
 Goths, those at least of a distinguished rank, were 
 separated from the multitude. They were conducted, 
 without delay, to the distant scats assigned for their 
 residence and education ; and as the numerous train of 
 of hostages or captives passed through the cities, their 
 gay and splendid apparel, their robust and martial 
 figure, excited the surprise and envy of the provincials. 
 But the stipulation, the most offi[^nsive to the Goths, 
 and the most important to the Romans, was shamefully 
 eluded. The barbarians, who considered their arms 
 as the ensigns of honour, and the pledges of safety, 
 were disposed to offer a price, which the lust or ava- 
 rice of the imperial officers was easily tempted to ac- 
 cept. To preserve their arms, the haughty warriors 
 consented, with some reluctance, to prostitute their 
 wives or their daughters ; the charms of a beauteous 
 maid, or a comely boy, secured the connivance of the 
 inspectors ; who sometimes cast an eye of covetousness 
 on the fringed carpets and linen garments of their new 
 
 t The passage of the Danube is ex;iose«l by Amininnus, (xxxi. 3, 
 4.) Zosimus. (I. iv. p. 2*23, :<24.) Eiinapinj" in Esrerpt, L«2at. (p. 19, 
 20.) and Jornnndes. (r. 25, 26.) Ammianus declares (c. 5.) that he 
 means only, iiwas rerum diperere summitate.t. But he often lakos a 
 false measure of their importance ; and his superfluous prolixity is 
 disagreeably hnlanced by his unseasonable brevity. 
 
 u Chishull, a curious traveller, has remarked the breadth of the Da 
 nuhe, which he passed to the south of Bucliarest, near the conflux of 
 the Arpish, (p. 77.) He admires the beauty and spontaneous plenty 
 of MiEsia. or Bulgaria. 
 
 X duem si scire velit, Lihyci velit spquoris idem 
 
 Scire quam multa^ Zephyro truduntur harcnn*. 
 
 Ammianus has inserted, in his prose, these lines of Virgil. (Ccorgic. 
 
 1. W.) originally designed by the poet to express the impossibility ot 
 
 numbering the diflTeront sorts of vines. See Plin. Hist. Natur. I. xiv. 
 
 alHes,y or who sacrificed their duty to the mean con- 
 sideration of filling their farms with cattle, and their 
 houses with slaves. The Goths, with arms in their 
 hands, were permitted to enter the boats ; and, when 
 their strength was collected on the other side of the 
 river, the immense camp which was spread over the 
 plains and the hills of the Lower Maesia, assumed a 
 threatening and even hostile aspect. The leaders of 
 the Ostrogoths, Alatheus and Saphrax, the guardians 
 of their infant king, appeared soon afterwards on the 
 northern banks of the Danube; and immediately des- 
 patched their ambassadors to the court of Antioch, to 
 solicit with the same professions of allegiance and grati- 
 tude, the same favour which had been granted to the 
 suppliant Visigoths. The absolute refusal of Valens 
 suspended their progress, and discovered the repen- 
 tance, the suspicions, and the fears, of the imperial 
 
 council. 
 
 An undisciplined and unsettled nation Their disfrosa 
 of barbarians required the firmest temper, and discontent, 
 and the most dexterous management. The daily sub- 
 sistence of near a million of extraordinary subjects 
 could be supplied only by constant and skilful dili- 
 gence, and might continually be interrupted by mis- 
 take or accident. The insolence, or the indignation, 
 of the Goths, if they conceived themselves to be the 
 objects, either of fear, or of contempt, might urge them 
 to the most desperate extremities ; and the fortune of 
 the state seemed to depend on the prudence, as \yell as 
 the integrity, of the generals of Valens. At this im- 
 portant crisis, the military government of Thrace was 
 exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whose venal 
 minds the slightest hope of private emolument out- 
 weighed every consideration of public advantage ; and 
 whose guilt was only alleviated by their incapacity of 
 discerning the pernicious effects of their rash and 
 criminal administration. Instead of obeying the or- 
 ders of their sovereign, and satisfying, with decent 
 liberality, the demands of the Goths, they levied an 
 ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of the 
 hungry barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an 
 extravagant price ; and, in the room of wholesome 
 and sul)stantial provisions, the markets were filled with 
 the flesh of dogs, and of unclean animals, who had 
 died of disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition 
 of a pound of bread, the Goths resigned the possession 
 of an expensive, though serviceable, slave; and a 
 small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with 
 ten pounds of a precious, but useless, metal.' When 
 their property was exhausted, they continued this ne- 
 cessary traffic by the sale of their sons and daiighters; 
 and notwithstanding the love of freedom, which ani- 
 mated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the hu- 
 miliating maxim, that it was better for their children to 
 be maintained in a servile condition, than to perish in 
 a state of wretched and helpless independence. The 
 most lively resentment is excited by the tyranny of 
 pretended benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of 
 gratitude which they have cancelled by subsequent in- 
 juries : a spirit of discontent insensibly arose in the 
 camp of the barbarians, who pleaded without success 
 the merit of their patient and dutiful behaviour, and 
 loudly complained of the inhospitable treatment which 
 they had received from their new allies. They beheld 
 around them the wealth and plenty of a fertile pro- 
 vince, in the midst of which they suffered the intoler- 
 able hardships of artificial famine. But the means of 
 relief, and even of revenge, were in their hands; since 
 the rapaciousness of their tyrants had left, to an injur- 
 
 y Eiinnpius and Zosimus curiously specify these articles of Gothia 
 wealth and luxury. Yet it must be presumed, that they were the 
 manuraciures of the provinces ; wJiich the barbarians had acquired ai 
 the spoils of war ; or as the gifts, or merchandise, of peace. 
 
 2 Decern libras; the word sj/rcr must he understood. Jornandet 
 betrays the passions and prejudices of a Goth, Tlte servile Greeks, 
 Eunapiusand Zosimus, disguise the Roman impression, atid execrate 
 the perfidy of the barbarians. Ainmianus. a patriot historian, slightly 
 and reluctantly touches on the odious subject. Jerom, who wrote 
 almost on the spot, is fair, though concise. Per avaritiam Maiimi 
 I ducis, ad rebellionem fame coaeti sunt, (in Chron.) 
 
 ^ 
 
 ed people, the possession and the use of arms. The 
 clamours of a multitude, untaught to disauise their 
 sentiments, announced the first symptoms of resis- 
 tance, and alarmed the timid and guilty minds of Lu- 
 picmus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who 
 subslituted the cunning of temporary expedients to the 
 wise and salutary counsels of general policy, attempted 
 to remove the Goths from their dangerous station on 
 the frontiers of the empire ; and to disperse them, in 
 separate quarters of cantonment, through the interior 
 provinces. As they were conscious how ill they had 
 deserved the respect, or confidence, of the barbarians, 
 they diligently collected, from every side, a military 
 force, that might urge the tardy and reluctant march of 
 a people, who had not yet renounced the title, or the 
 duties, of Roman subjects. But the generals of Valens, 
 while their attention was solely directed to the dis- 
 contented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships 
 and the fortifications which constituted the defence of 
 the Danube. The fatal oversight was observed, and 
 improved, by Alatheus and Saphrax, who anxiously 
 watched the favorable moment of escapino- from the 
 pursuit of the Iluns. By the help of such rafts and 
 ves.sels as could be hastily procured, the leaders of 
 the Ostrogoths transported, without opposition, their 
 king and their army; and boldly fixed an hostile and 
 independent camp on the territories of the empire.* 
 Revolt of the Under the name of judges, Alavivus 
 
 Goths in Miesia, and Fritigem were the leaders of the 
 "Ihc": '"' Visigroths in peace and war ; and the au- 
 , . , thority which they derived from their 
 
 birth, was ratified by the free consent of the nation. 
 In a season of tranquillity, tlieir power might have 
 been equal, as well as their rank ; but, as soon as their 
 countrymen were exasperated by hunger and oppres- 
 sion, the superior abilities of Fritigem assumed the 
 military command, which he was qualified to exercise 
 tor the public welfare. He restrained the impatient 
 spirit of the Visigoths, till the injuries and the insults 
 ot their tyrants should justify their resistance in the 
 opinion of mankind; but he was not disposed to sacri- 
 fice any solid advantages for the empty praise of jus- 
 tice and moderation. Sensible of the benefits which 
 would result from the union of the Gothic powers un- 
 der the same standard, he secretly cultivated the 
 friendship of the Ostrogoths ; and while he professed 
 an implicit obedience to the orders of the Roman gen- 
 erals, he proceeded by slow marches towards Marcian- 
 opohs, the capital of the Lower Maesia, about seventy 
 miles from the banks of the Danube. On that fatal 
 spot, the flames of discord and mutual hatred burst 
 forth into a dreadful conflagration. Lupicinus had in- 
 ^^^^^ H^e Gothic chiefs to a splendid entertainment; 
 and their martial train remained under arms at the en- 
 trance of the palace. But the gates of the city were 
 strictly guarded, and the barbarians were sternly ex- 
 cluded from the use of a plentiful market, to which 
 ^ley asserted their equal claim of subjects and allies. 
 Iheir humble prayers were rejected with insolence 
 and derision; and as their patience was now exhaust- 
 ed, the townsmen, the soldiers, and the Goths, were 
 soon involved in a conflict of passionate altercation 
 and angry reproaches. A blow was imprudently giv- 
 en ; a sword was hastily drawn ; and the first blood 
 that was spilt in this accidental quarrel, became the 
 signal of a long and destructive war. In the midst 
 of noise and brutal intemperance, Lupicinus was in- 
 formed, by a secret messenger, that many of his sol- 
 diers were slain and despoiled of their arms ; and as 
 he was already inflamed by wine, and oppressed by 
 sleep, he issued a rash command, that their death 
 should be revenged by the massacre of the guards of 
 Fritigem and Alavivus. The clamorous shouts and 
 dying groans apprized Fritigem of his extreme dan- 
 ger ; and, as he possessed the calm and intrepid spirit 
 of a hero, he saw that he was lost if he allowed a mo- 
 
 359 
 
 ment of deliberation to the man who had so deeply in- 
 jured him. "A trifling dispute," said the Gothic 
 leader, with a firm but gentle tone of voice, *^ appears 
 to have arisen between the two nations ; but it may 
 be productive of the most dangerous consequences, 
 unless the tumult is immediately pacified by the assur- 
 ance of our safety, and the authority of our presence." 
 At these words, Fritigem and his companions drew 
 their swords, opened their passage through the unre- 
 sisting crowd, wiiich filled the palace, the streets, and 
 the gates, of Marcianopolis, and, mounting their hor- 
 ses, hastily vanished from the eyes of the astonished 
 Komans. The generals of the Goths were saluted by 
 the fierce and joyful acclamations of the camp ; war 
 was instantly resolved, and the resolution was execu- 
 ted without delay : the banners of the nation were dis- 
 played according to the custom of their ancestors: 
 and the air resounded with the harsh and mournful 
 music of the barbarian trumpet.^' The weak and guil- 
 ty Lupicinus, who had dared to provoke, who had 
 neglected to destroy, and who still presumed to des- 
 pise, his formidable enemy, marched against the 
 Goths, at the head of such a military force as could 
 be collected on this sudden emergency. The barba- 
 rians expected his approach about nine miles from Mar- 
 cianopolis ; and on this occasion the talents of the 
 general were found to be of more prevailino- efficacy 
 than the weapons and discipline of the troo^is. The 
 valour of the Goths was so ably directed by the gen- 
 ius of Fntigern, that they broke, by a close and vigor- 
 ous attack, the ranks of the Roman legions. Lupici- 
 nus left his arms and standards, his tribunes and his 
 bravest soldiers, on the field of battle; and their use- 
 less courage served only to protect the ignominious 
 flight of their leader. " That successful day put an 
 end to the distress of the barbarians, and the security 
 of the Romans : from that day, the Goths, renouncing 
 the precarious condition of strangers and exiles, as- 
 sumed the character of citizens and masters, claimed 
 an absolute dominion over the possessors of land, and 
 held, m their own right, the northern provinces of the 
 empire, which are bounded by the Danube." Such 
 are the words of the Gothic historian,<= who celebrates, 
 with rude eloquence, the glory of his countrymen. 
 But the dominion of the barbarians was exercised only 
 for the purposes of rapine and destruction. As they 
 had been deprived, by the ministers of the emperor, 
 of the common benefits of nature, and the fair inter- 
 course of social life, they retaliated the injustice on 
 the subjects of the empire ; and the crimes of Lu- 
 picinus were expiated by the ruin of Thov penetrate 
 the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the into Thrace, 
 conflagration of their villages, and the massacre, or 
 captivit}^ of their innocent families. The report of 
 the Gothic victory was soon difl:"used over the ad- 
 jacent country ; and while it filled the minds of the 
 Romans with terror and dismay, their own hasty im- 
 prudence -contributed to increase the forces of Friti- 
 gem, and the calamities of the province. Some time 
 before the great emigration, a numerous body of 
 Goths, under the command of Suerid and Colias, had 
 been received into the protection and service of the 
 empire.'* They were encamped under the walls of 
 Hadrianople : but the ministers of Valens were anx- 
 ious to remove them beyond ^he Hellespont, at a 
 
 a Ammianuf, xxxi. 4, 5w 
 
 b Vexiliis de more suhlatis, audilisque triste sonanfihus classicis. 
 Ammian.xxxi.5. These are the raucacorni/a of Claudian, (in Rufin 
 It. 57.) the large horns of the Uri, or wild bull ; such as have been 
 more recently used by the Swiss cantons of Uri and Underwald 
 (Simler dc Republica Helvet. I. ii. p. 20). edit. Fuselin. Tipnr. 17.?4.) 
 Thetr military horn is finely, thouRh perhaps rasuallv. introduced ia 
 an orisinal narrative of the battle of Nancy. (A. D. 1477.) " Attend- 
 ant le combat le dit cor fut corne par trois fois, tant que Je vent du 
 souflleur pouvoit diircr ; ce qui eshahit fort Monsieur de Bourgoi^ne; 
 car deja a Moral Vavoit oiuj." (See the Pieces Justificatives in"'the* 
 4to edition of Philippe pe Comines, torn. iii. p. 493.) 
 
 c Jornandes de Rebus Geiicis, c. 26. p. 618. edit. Grot. These 
 splendidi panni (they are comparatively such) are undoubtedly trans- 
 cribed from the larger histories of Priscus, Ablavius, or Cassiodorius 
 
 d Cum populissuis longe ante suscepti. We are ignorant of the 
 precise date and circumstances of their transmigration. 
 
360 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 '■\ 
 
 t 
 
 K1K 
 
 distance from the dangerous temptation which might 
 so easily be communicated by the neighbourhood, and 
 the success, of their countrymen. The respectful sub- 
 mission with which they yielded to tlie order of their 
 march, might be considered as a proof of their fidelity; 
 and their moderate request of a sufficient allowance of 
 provisions, and of a delay of only two days, was ex- 
 pressed in the most dutiful terms. But the first magis- 
 trate of Hadrianople, incensed by some disorders 
 which had been committed at his country-house, re- 
 fused this indulgence ; and arming against them the 
 inhabitants and manufacturers of a populous city, he 
 urged, with hostile threats, their instant departure. 
 The barbarians stood silent and amazed, till they were 
 exasperated by the insulting clamours, and missile 
 weapons, of the populace : but when patience or con- 
 tempt was fatigued, they crushed the undisciplined 
 multitude, inflicted many a shameful wound on the 
 backs of their flying enemies, and despoiled them of 
 the splendid armour," which they were unworthy to 
 hear. The resemblance of their sufferings and their 
 actions soon united this victorious detachment to the 
 nation of the Visigoths ; the troops of Colias and Sue- 
 lid expected the approach of the great Fritigern, rang- 
 ed themselves under his standard, and signalized their 
 ardour in the siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance 
 of the garrison informed the barbarians, that, in the 
 attack of regular fortifications, the efforts of unskilful 
 courage are^eldom effectual. Their general acknow- 
 ledged his error, raised the siege, declared that " he 
 was at peace with stone walls," ' and revenged his 
 disappointment on the adjacent country. He accepted, 
 with pleasure, the useful reinforcement of hardy work- 
 men, who laboured in the gold mines of Thrace,* for 
 the emolument, and under the lash, of an unfeeling 
 master ; ^ and these new associates conducted the bar- 
 barians, through the secret paths, to the most seques- 
 tered places, which had been chosen to secure the in- 
 habitants, the cattle, and the magazines of corn. With 
 the assistance of such guides, nothing could remain 
 impervious or inaccessible : resistance was fatal ; 
 flight was impracticable : and the patient submission 
 of ^helpless innocence seldom found mercy from the 
 barbarian conqueror. In the course of these depreda- 
 tions, a great number of the children of the Goths, 
 who had been sold into captivity, were restored to the 
 embraces of their aflSicted parents ; but these tender 
 interviews, which might have revived and cherished 
 in their minds some sentiments of humanity, tended 
 only to stimulate their native fierceness by the desire 
 of revenge. They listened, with eager attention, to the 
 complaints of their captive children, who had suffered 
 the most cruel indignities from the lustful or angry 
 passions of their masters, and the same cruelties, the 
 same indignities, were severely retaliated on the sons 
 and daughters of the Romans.' 
 
 ^ .• '' r.i The imprudence of Valens and his 
 Gothic wnr, ministers had introduced into the heart 
 A. D. 377. of the empire a nation of enemies ; but 
 the Visigoths might even yet have been reconciled, by 
 the manly confession of past errors, and the sincere 
 performance of former engagements. These healing 
 and temperate measures seemed to concur with the 
 
 e An iinperinl manufacture of iiliiel<1s, &c. was estahlislied at Ha- 
 drianople; and tJie populace were headed by the Fabricenscs or 
 workmen. (Vales, ad Ammian. xxxi. 0.) 
 
 f Pacem sibi esse cum parietibus memorans. Ammian. xxxi. 7. 
 
 g These mines were in the country of the Bessi, in the rid5;e of 
 mountains, the Khodoi)o, that runs between Philippiand rhilippopo- 
 lis; two Macedonian cities, which derived their name and origin 
 from the father of Alexander. From the mines of Thrace he annu- 
 ally received the value, not the weight, of a thousand talents; 
 (200,000/.) a revenue which paid the phalanx, and corrupted the ora- 
 tors of Greece. See Diodor. Siculus, torn. ii. I. xvi. p. 88. edit. Wes 
 seling. Godefroy's Commentary on the Theodosian Code.toni. ni. 
 p. 496. Cellarius, Geouraph. Antiq. tom. i. p. GTG. 857. D'Anville, 
 Geopraphie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 336. 
 
 h As those unhappy workmen often ran away, Valens had enact- 
 ed severe laws to drag them from their hiding-places. Cod. Theodo- 
 sian, 1. z. tit. xix. leg. 5. 7. 
 
 i SeeAmmianu8,xxxi.5,6. Thehistorianof the Gothic war loses 
 time and space, by an unseasonable recapitulation of the ancient in- 
 roads of tbe barbarians. 
 
 ' timorous disposition of the sovereign of the east: but, 
 on this occasion alone, Valens was brave ; and his un- 
 seasonable bravery was fatal to himself and to his 
 subjects. He declared his intention of marching from 
 Antioch to Constantinople, to subdue this dangerous 
 rebellion ; and, as he was not ignorant of the difficul- 
 ties of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of his 
 nephew, the emperor Gratian, who commanded all the 
 forces of the west. The veteran troops were hastily 
 recalled from the defence of Armenia ; that important 
 frontier was abandoned to the discretion of Sapor ; 
 and the immediate conduct of the Gothic war was in- 
 trusted, during the absence of Valens, to his lieuten- 
 ants Trajan and Profuturus, two generals who indul- 
 ged themselves in a very false and favourable opinion 
 of their own abilities. On their arrival in Thrace, 
 they were joined by Richomer, count of the domes- 
 tics ; and the auxiliaries of the west, that marched 
 under his banner, were composed of the Gallic legions, 
 reduced indeed by a spirit of desertion, to the vain ap- 
 pearances of strength and numbers. In a council of war, 
 which was influenced by pride, rather than by reason, it 
 was resolved to seek, and to encounter, the barbarians ; 
 who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile mead- 
 ows, near the most southern of the six mouths of the 
 Danube.^ Their camp was surrounded by the usual 
 fortification of waggons ;' and the barbarians, securo 
 within the vast circle of the enclosure, enjoyed the 
 fruits of their valour, and the spoils of the province. 
 In the midst of riotous intemperance, the watchful 
 Fritigern observed the motions, and penetrated the de- 
 signs", of the Romans. He perceived, that the num- 
 bers of the enemy were continually increasing; and, 
 as he understood their intention of attacking his rear, 
 as soon as the scarcity of forage should oblige him to 
 remove his camp; he recalled to their standard his 
 predatory detachments, which covered the adjacent 
 country. As soon as they descried the flaming bea- 
 cons," they obeyed, with incredible speed, the signal 
 of their leader ; the camp was filled with the martial 
 crowd of barbarians ; their impatient clamours de- 
 manded the battle, and their tumultuous zeal was ap- 
 proved and animated by the spirit of their chiefs. 
 The evening was already far advanced ; and the two 
 armies prepared themselves for the approaching com- 
 bat, which was deferred only till the dawn of day. 
 While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted 
 courage of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual ob- 
 ligation of a solemn oath ; and as they advanced to 
 meet the enemy, the rude songs, which celebrated the 
 glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their 
 fierce and dissonant outcries ; and opposed to the arti- 
 ficial harmony of the Roman shout. Some military 
 skill was displayed by Fritigern to gain ^^e advantage 
 of a commanding eminence; but the bloody conflict, 
 which began and ended with the light, was maintain- 
 ed, on either side, by the personal and obstinate efforts 
 of strength, valour, and agility. The legions of Ar- 
 menia supported their fame in anns; but they were 
 oppressed by the irresistible weight of the hostile 
 multitude : the left wing of the Romans was thrown 
 into disorder, and the field was strewed with their 
 mangled carcasses. This partial defeat was balanced, 
 however, by partial success ; and when the two arm- 
 ies, at a late hour of the evening, retreated to their re- 
 spective camps, neither of them could claim the hon- 
 ours, or the effects, of a decisive victory. The real 
 
 k The Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 226, 227. edit. Wcsselinjj) marks 
 the situation of this place about sixty miles north of Tomi, Ovid's 
 exile : and the name of Salices (the willows) expresses the nature of 
 the soil. . , .^ 
 
 1 Tliis circle of wagsons, the Carraffo, was the usual fortification 
 of the barbarians. (Vcfictius dc Re Militari, I. iii. c. 10. Valcsius ad 
 Ammian. xxxi. 7.) The practice and the name were preserved by 
 their descendants, as late as the fifteenth century. The Charroy, 
 which surrounded the Ost, is a word familiar to the readers of Frois- 
 sard, or Cominee. 
 
 m Statim ut accensi malleoli. I hare used the literal sense of real 
 torches or beacons : but I almost suspect, that it is only one of those 
 turgid metaphors, those false ornameuls, that perpetually disOgure 
 the style of Aniiniauuti. 
 
 loss was more severely felt by the Romans, in proper- 
 tion to the smallness of their numbers ; but the Goths 
 were so deeply confounded and dismayed, by this vig- 
 orous, and perhaps unexpected, resistance, that they 
 remained seven days within the circle of their fortifi- 
 tions. Such funeral rites, as the circumstances of 
 time and place would admit, were piously dischar<red 
 to some ofiicers of distinguished rank; but the indis- 
 criminate vulgar were left unburied on the plain. 
 1 heir flesh was greedily devoured by the birds of prey 
 who, in that age, enjoyed very frequent and delicious 
 feasts; and several years afterwards the white and 
 naked bones, which covered the wide extent of the 
 fields, presented to the eyes of Ammianus, a dreadful 
 mounment of the battle of Salices." 
 Union of the The progress of the Goths had been 
 
 S"un'/A'.amJlc M ^''^'^, ^^^ ^^^ ^^"^^^"^ «^«"^ ^^ ^^at 
 
 uhn.! bloody day; and the imperial generals, 
 
 x^hose army would have been consumed by the repel 
 nlan of .W^ ^«°"*f «\ ^"^braced the more rational 
 n essurl of k"^''"^ '^'^ barbarians, by the wants and 
 pressure of their own multitudes. They prepared to 
 
 tweeTthp' I'^'^T^' I" '^' "^"^^ «"/« «f &e' 
 tween the Danube, the desert of Scythia, and the 
 
 should be insensibly wasted by the inevitable opera- 
 tion of famine. The design was prosecuted with 
 
 IIuLTaT'^''^ ^"^^^'^' '^^ barbarians had almost 
 exhausted their own magazines, and the harvests of 
 the country ; and the diligence of Saturninus, the 
 master-general of the cavalry, was employed to im- 
 
 Roman fortifications His labours were interrupted 
 hnrii ^^^"^"^ intelligence, that new swarms of bar- 
 sunnnr'f Jh ^^^^^^ '^^ unguarded Danube, either to 
 frprif Ti ^ ^^"f' ""' '? ""'^^^^ ^^^ example, of Friti- 
 gern. 1 he just apprehension, that he himself might 
 be surrounded, and overwhelmed, by the arms of hos- 
 
 nn^"K .?''>''" ''^i'^"^' compelled Saturninus to re- 
 linquish the siege of the Gothic camp ; and the indig- 
 nant Visigoths, breaking from their confinement, satiS- 
 ffnn Ir.l: *"""?*/ ,^"^ revenge by the repeated devasta- 
 tion of the fruitful country, which extends above three 
 hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to the 
 straits of the Hellespont.o The sagacious Fritio-ern 
 had successfully appealed to the passions, as welT as 
 to the interest, of his barbarian allies; and the love 
 of rapine, and the hatred of Rome, seconded, or even 
 prevented, the eloquence of his ambassadors. He ce- 
 
 ;"T rl'^"^' ^"^ "'^^"^ ^I'i^n^e with the great 
 S.nL.'^v ' f/^""t^y"«,^"» who obeyed Alatheus and 
 J^aphrax as the guardians of their infant king: the 
 long animosity of rival tribes was suspended by the 
 sense of their common interest ; the independent part 
 of the nation was associated under one standard : and 
 he chiefs of the Ostrogoths appear to have yielded to 
 ^e superior genius of the general of the Visigoths. 
 He obtained the formidable aid of the Taifalae, whose 
 military renown was disgraced and polluted by the 
 pub he infamy of their domestic manners. Every 
 youth, on his entrance into the world, was united bv 
 the ties of honourable friendship, and brutal love, to 
 some warrior of the tribe ; nor could he hope to be re- 
 leased from this unnatural connexion, till he had ap- 
 proved his manhood, by slaying, in single combat, a 
 huge bear, or a wild boar of the forest.P But the most 
 
 36i 
 
 ThJK'*'.''''*"*"""^"''.*^"^'''^«"*e8 ossibus campi. Ammian xxxi 7 
 The hislonan mmht have viowed ih#»«P nialnl liti.-/ . j- '* 
 
 o Ammian. xxxi. 8. 
 nrri^f""*^ Taifalorum gentem turpem, et ohscenjc vitze flaeitils ita 
 lur m»r»* '"^k""'" ' "' "P"*^ ^^^ "«'"^"'^* concublius fcPdere Sen 
 iunomH '"'^«^«'''.«^<«»'«viriditatemin eorum poliutis usibuScon- 
 jumpturi. Porro, si qui jam adultus aprum exceperit solus, vel intS- 
 remit ur^um immanem. colluvione liberatur inccsii. Amndan ,5x1 
 thP hTl" "I*' «;eeks. likewise, more especially amonrthe Cretans 
 ISrafKe ' ""^ ^"""^''''P ^'"^ ^ontUmed. and sullied, byCnT 
 
 Vol. I 2 V 
 
 powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from 
 the camp of those enemies who had expelled them 
 from their native seats. The loose subordSn and 
 extensive possessions, of the Huns and the A lani de- 
 layed the conquests, and distracted the counc Is of that 
 victorious people. Several of the hords we e a lured 
 by the liberal promises of Fritio-ern • anH tL ^i 
 cavalry of Scythia added weight and enerly X 
 steady and strenuous efforts of t^ Gothic in fSy The 
 
 fct nTan l'' ''f^ "-er forgive the succS;or of 
 Valentinian, enjoyed and increased the general conf,, 
 sion ; and a seasonable irruption of the Alemannr^^ 
 to the provinces of Gaul, engaged the aUemron 'and' 
 diverted the forces, of the emperor of the west."' 
 
 Une of the most dangerous inconveni- Victorv of Cm 
 ences of the introduction of the barbari- tbn o,jf ""tbo 
 ans into the army and the palace, was ^'TTU 
 sensibly felt in their correspondence with ^ May'.''' 
 their hostile countrymen; to whom they imprudentlv 
 or maliciously revealed the weakness of the Romail 
 empire. A soldier, of the life guards of Gratian, was 
 of the nation of the Alemanni, Ind of the tribe of the 
 Lentienses, who dwelt beyond the lake of Constance 
 Some domestic business obliged him to request a leave 
 of absence. In a short visit to his family\nd friends 
 he was exposed to their curious inquiries; and the 
 vanity of the loquacious soldier tempted him to display 
 
 ad theTl' ^^^"^,»r-'"'' ^'^^^ '^^ ^^'^^« °^ ^he sfate^ 
 and the designs of his master. The intelligence, that 
 
 rlT"^ T% P;;^P^""S 'o lea^l the military force of 
 Gaul, and of the west, to the assistance of his uncle 
 Valens, pointed out to the restless spirit of the Ale- 
 f!.lTJ' ^^%7^°"^e"t, and the mode, of a successful 
 Ihf f ":u " \ntejprise of some light detachments, 
 ^ho, m the month of February, passed the Rhine upon 
 the ice, was the prelude of a more important war. The 
 boldest hopes of rapine, perhaps of conquest, out- 
 weighed the considerations of timid prudence, or na- 
 tional faith Every forest, and every villa ere, poured 
 forth a band of hardy adventurers ; and the grJat army 
 ^J A ^^;"^^""»' which, on their approachfwas esti- 
 mated at forty thousand men by the fears of the people, 
 vvas afterwards magnified to the number of seventy 
 thousand, by the vain and credulous flattery of the im- 
 perial court. The legions, which had been ordered to 
 march into Pannonia, were immediately recalled, or 
 detained, for the defence of Gaul; the military com- 
 mand was divided between Nanienusand Mellobaudes; 
 and the youthful emperor, though he respected the lontr 
 experience and sober wisdom of the former, was much 
 more inclined to admire, and to follow, the martial ar- 
 dour of his colleague ; who was allowed to unite the 
 incompatible characters of count of the domestics, and 
 of king of the Franks. His rival Priarius, king of the 
 Alemanni, was guided, or rather impelled by the same 
 headstrong valour; and as their troops' were animated 
 by the spirit of their leaders, they met, they saw, thev 
 encountered, each other, near the town of Arcrentaria, 
 or Colmar,' in the plains of Alsace. The gIo?y of the 
 day was justly ascribed to the missile weapons, and 
 well-practised evolutions, of the Roman soldiers ; the 
 Alemanni, who long maintained their ground, were 
 slaughtered with unrelenting fury ; five thousand only 
 ot the barbarians escaped to the woods and mountains; 
 and the glorious death of their king on the field of bat- 
 tle, saved hira from the reproaches of the people, who 
 are always disposed to accuse the justice, or policy, 
 of an unsuccessful war. After this signal victory, 
 which secured the peace of Gaul, and asserted the 
 honour of the Roman arms, the emperor Gratian ap- 
 peared to proceed witho ut delay on his eastern expedi- 
 
 q Ammian. xxxi. 8, 9. Jerom. (tom. i. p. 26.) enumerates the na- 
 tions, and marks a calamitous period of twenty years. This epistle 
 to Heliodoriis was composed in the year 397. (Tillemont, Mem. Ec- 
 cJes. tom. XII. p. 645.) 
 
 fiv'-Jk® ^'*^j?r '♦a."'®' y»'-^«'»<«'"'fl. or Argentovaria, is accurately 
 h\ed by M. d'Anvilie (Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, n 96—99 ) at 
 ^/^i^7il"'7c!;'"'*K '^'"^"e". or thirty-four and a half Roman milw, to 
 the South of Sirasburg. From its ruins the adjacent town of CoW 
 Has arisen. 
 
 
35'^ 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX VL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 „■ V 
 
 i r 
 
 P 
 
 4'k 
 
 tion ; but as he approached the confines of the Ale- 
 manni, he suddenly inclined to the left, surprised them 
 by his unexpected passage of the Rhine, and boldly 
 advanced into the heart of their country. The barba- 
 rians opposed to his progress the obstacles of nature 
 and of courage ; and still continued to retreat, from one 
 hill to another, till they were satisfied, by repeated 
 trials, of the power and perseverance of their enemies. 
 Their submission was accepted, as a proof, not indeed 
 of their sincere repentance, but of their actual distress ; 
 and a select number of their brave and robust youth 
 was exacted from the faithless nation, as the most sub- 
 stantial pledge of their future moderation. The sub- 
 jects of the empire, who had so often experienced that 
 the Alemanni could neither be subdued by arms, nor ^ 
 restrained by treaties, might not promise themselves 
 any solid or lasting tranquillity : but they discovered, 
 in the virtues of their young sovereign, the prospect of 
 a long and auspicious reign. When the legions climbed 
 the iiTountains, and scaled the fortifications, of the barba- 
 lians, the valour of Gratian was distinguished in the 
 foremost ranks ; and the gilt and variegated armour of 
 his guards was pierced and shattered by the blows, 
 ■which they had received in their constant attachment 
 to the person of their sovereign. At the age of nine- 
 teen, the son of Valentinian seemed to possess the tal- 
 ents of peace and war; and his personal success against 
 the Alemanni was interpreted as a sure presage of his 
 Gothic triumphs.* 
 
 Vaicng marches While Gratian deserved and enjoyed 
 •gainst the the applause of his subjects, the emperor 
 
 GotK^ 378, Valens, who, at length, had removed his 
 May30-June'ii. cuurt and army from Antioch, was re- 
 ceived by the people of Constantinople as the author 
 of the public calamity. Before he had reposed him- 
 self ten days in the capital, he was urged by the licen- 
 tious clamours of the Hippodrome, to march against 
 the barbarians, whom he had invited into his domin- 
 ions : and the citizens, who were always brave at a 
 distance from any real dannrer, declared, with confi- 
 dence, that, if they were supplied with arms, iheij alone 
 would undertake to deliver the province from the rav- 
 ages of an insulting foe.* The vain reproaches of an 
 ignorant multitude hastened the downfall of the Roman 
 empire ; they provoked the desperate rashness of Va- 
 lens ; who did not find, either in his reputation, or in 
 his mind, any motives to support with firmness the 
 public contempt. He was soon persuaded, by the suc- 
 cessful achievements of his lieutenants, to despise the 
 power of the Goths, who, by the diligence of Fritigern, 
 were now collected in the neighbourhood of Hadrian- 
 ople. The march of the Taifalm had been intercepted 
 by the valient Frigerid ; the king of those licentious 
 barbarians was slain in the battle ; and the suppliant 
 captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate the 
 lands of Italy, which were assigned for their settlement, 
 in the vacant territories of Modena and Parma." The 
 exploits of Sebastian,'^ who was recently engaged in 
 the service of Valens, and promoted to the rank of 
 master-general of the infantry, were still more honour- 
 able to himself, and useful to the republic. He ob- 
 tained the permission of selecting three hundred sol- 
 diers from each of the legions ; and this separate de- 
 
 • The full and Impartial narrative of Ammlanus (xxx'i. 10.) may 
 derive some additional liRht from tho Epitome of Victor, llie Cliron 
 icie of Jerora, and the History of Orosius, (I. vii. c. 33. p. 552. edit. 
 Havercamp.) 
 
 t Moratus paucissimos dies, scditionc popularium levium pulsus. 
 Ammian. xxxi. 11. Socrates (1 . iv. c. 38.} supplies the dates and some 
 circumstances. 
 
 u Vivosque omncs circa Mutinam, Regiumque, ci Parmam, Italica 
 oppida, rura cultures cxterminavit. Ammianus, xxxi. 9. Those 
 cities and districts, about ten years after the colony of the Taifala?, 
 appear in a very desolate state. See Muratori, Dissertazioni sopra 
 le Antichitd Italiana, torn. i. Dissertat. xxi. p. 354. 
 
 X Ammian. xxxi. II. Zosimus. I. iv. p. 228— 230. The latter ex- 
 
 ftatiates on the desultory exploits of Sebastian, and despatches, in a 
 ew lines, the important battle of Iladrianople. According to the ec- 
 clesiastical critics, who hate Sebastian, the praise of Zosimus is dis- 
 5 race. (Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 121.^ His prnlu- 
 ice and ignorance undoubtedly render him a very questionable judge 
 of merit. 
 
 ' tachment soon acquired the spirit of discipline, and the 
 exercise of arms, which were almost forgotten under 
 the reign of Valens. By the vigour and conduct of 
 Sebastian, a large body of the Goths was surprised in 
 their camp : and the immense spoil, which was recov- 
 ered from their hands, filled the city of Hadrianople, 
 and the adjacent plain. The splendid narratives, which 
 the general transmitted of his own exploits, alarmed 
 the imperial court by the appearance of superior rrierit ; 
 and though he cautiously insisted on the difficulties of 
 the Gothic war, his valour was praised, his advice was 
 rejected; and Valens, who listened with pride and 
 pleasure to the flattering suggestions of the eunuchs 
 of the palace, was impatient to seize the glory of an 
 easy and assured conquest. His army was strength- 
 ened by a numerous reinforcement of veterans ; and his 
 march from Constantinople to Hadrianople was con- 
 ducted with so much military skill, that he prevented 
 the activity of the barbarians, who designed to occupy 
 the intermediate defiles, and to intercept either the 
 troops themselves, or their convoys of provisions. The 
 camp of Valens, which he pitched under the walls of 
 Hadrianople, was fortified, according to the practice of 
 the Romans, with a ditch and rampart ; and a most 
 important council was summoned, to decide the fate 
 of the emperor and of the empire. The party of reason 
 and of delay was strenuously maintained by Victor, 
 who had corrected, by the lessons of experience, the 
 native fierceness of the Sarmatian character ; while 
 Sebastian, with the flexible and obsequious eloquence 
 of a courtier, represented every precaution, and every 
 measure, that implied a doubt of immediate victory, as 
 unworthy of the courage and majesty of their invinci- 
 ble monarch. The ruin of Valens was precipitated by 
 the deceitful arts of Fritigern, and the prudent admo- 
 nitions of the emperor of the west. The advantages 
 of negociatinnr in the midst of war, were perfectly un- 
 derstood by the general of the barbarians ; and a chris- 
 tian ecclesiastic was despatched, as the holy minister 
 of peace, to penetrate, and to perplex, the councils of 
 the enemy. The misfortunes, as well as the provoca- 
 tions, of the Gothic nation, were forcibly and truly 
 described by their ambassador ; who protested, in the 
 name of Fritigern, that he was still disposed to lay 
 down his arms, or to employ them only in the defence 
 of the empire ; if he could secure for his wandering 
 countrymen, a tranquil settlement on the waste lands 
 of Thrace, and a sufficient allowance of corn and cattle. 
 But he added, in a whisper of confidential friendship, 
 that the exasperated barbarians were averse to these 
 reasonable conditions ; and that Fritigern was doubtful 
 whether he could accomplish the conclusion of the 
 treaty, unless he found himself supported by the pres- 
 ence, and terrors, of an imperial army. About the 
 same time, count Richomer returned from the west to 
 announce the defeat and submission of the Alemanni; 
 to inform Valens, that his nephew advanced by rapid 
 marches at the head of the veteran and victorious le- 
 gions of Gaul ; and to request, in the name of Gratian 
 and of the republic, that every dangerous and decisive 
 measure might be suspended, till the junction of the 
 two emperors should insure the success of the Gothic 
 war. But the feeble sovereign of the east was actuated 
 only by the fatal illusions of pride and jealousy. He 
 disdained the importunate advice; he rejected the hu- 
 miliating aid ; he secretly compared the ignominious, 
 or at least the inglorious, period of his own reign, with 
 the fame of a beardless youth ; and Valens rushed into 
 the field, to erect his imaginary trophy before the dili- 
 gence of his colleague could usurp any share of the 
 triumphs of the day. 
 
 On the ninth of August, a day which p^^^ig ^f nj^^jy. 
 has deserved to be marked among the anople, 
 
 most inauspicious of the Roman calen- ^^ ^^ 
 dar,y the emperor Valens, leaving, under 
 
 3C3 
 
 y Amminnus (xxxi. 12, 13) almoit alone descri»)es the councils and 
 actions which were terminated by the fatal battle of Hadrianople. 
 We might censure the vices of his style, the disorder and perplexity 
 
 of his narrative : but we must now take leave of this impartial his 
 torian ; and reproach is silenced by our regret for such an irreparable 
 loss. 
 
 t The difference of the eight miles of Ammlanus, and the twelve 
 of Idatius, can only embarrass those critics, (Valesius ad loc.) who 
 suppose a great army to be a mathematical point, without space or 
 dimensions. 
 
 a Strong guard, his baggage and military treasure, 
 marched from Hadrianople to attack the Goths, who 
 were encamped about twelve miles from the city.' By 
 some mistake of the orders, or some ignorance of the 
 groiind, the right wing, or column of cavalry, arrived 
 in sight of the enem}', whilst the left was still at a con- 
 siderable distance ; the soldiers were compelled, in the 
 sultry heat of summer, to precipitate their pace ; and 
 the line of battle was formed with tedious confusion, 
 and irregular delay. The Gothic cavalry had been de- 
 tached to forage in the adjacent country ; and Fritigern 
 still continued to practise his customary arts. °He 
 despatched messengers of peace, made proposals, re- 
 quired hostages, and wasted the hours, till the Romans, 
 exposed without shelter to the burning rays of the sun, 
 were exhausted by thirst, hunger, and intolerable 
 fatigue. The emperor was persuaded to send an am- 
 bassador to the Gothic camp ; the zeal of Richomer, 
 who alone had courage to accept the dangerous com- 
 mission, was applauded ; and the count" of the do- 
 mestics, adorned with the splendid ensigns of his dig- 
 nity, had proceeded some way in the space between 
 the two armies, when he was suddenly recalled by the 
 alarm of battle. The hasty and imprudent attack was 
 made by Bacurius the Iberian, who commanded a body 
 of archers and targeteers ; and as they advanced with 
 rashness, they retreated with loss and disgrace. In 
 the same moment, the flying squadrons of Alatheus 
 and Saphrax, whose return was anxiously expected by 
 the general of the Goths, descended like a whirlwind 
 from the hills, swept across the plain, and added new 
 terrors to the tumultuous, but irresistible, charge of 
 the barbarian host. The event of the battle of Hadri- 
 anople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire, may be 
 The defeat of described in a few words: the Roman 
 the Romans, cavalry fled ; the infantry was abandon- 
 ed, surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful 
 evolutions, the firmest courage, are scarcely suflicient 
 to extricate a body of foot, encompassed, on an open 
 plain, by superior numbers of horse : but the troops of 
 Valens, oppressed by the weight of the enemy and 
 their own fears, were crowded into a narrow space, 
 where it was impossible for them to extend their 
 ranks, or even to use, with eflfect, their swords and 
 javelins. In the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and 
 of dismay, the emperor, deserted by his guards, and 
 wounded, as it was supposed, with an arrow, sought 
 protection among the Lancearii and the Mattiarii, who 
 still maintained their ground with some appearance of 
 order and firmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and 
 Victor, who perceived his danger, loudly exclaimed, 
 that all was lost, unless the person of the emperor 
 could be saved. Some troops, animated by their ex- 
 hortation, advanced to his relief: they found only a 
 bloody spot, covered with a heap of broken arms and 
 mangled bodies, without being able to discover their 
 unfortunate prince, either among the living or the 
 dead. Their search could not, indeed, be successful, 
 if there is any truth in the circumstances with which 
 Death of the em- some historians have related the death 
 peror Vaiena. of the cmperor. By the care of his at- 
 tendants, Valens was removed from the field of battle 
 to a neighbouring cottage, where they attempted to 
 dress his wound, and to provide for his future safety. 
 But this humble retreat w^as instantly surrounded by 
 the enemy : they tried to force the door ; they were 
 provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof, till 
 at length, impatient of delay, they set fire to a pile of 
 dry faggots, and consumed the cottage with the Roman 
 emperor and his train. Valens perished in the flames ; 
 and a youth, who dropped from the window, alone es- 
 caped, to attest the melancholy tale, and to inform the 
 
 Goths of the inestimable prize which tliey had lost by 
 their own rashness. A great number of brave and distin- 
 guished officers perished in the battle of Hadrianople, 
 which equalled, in the actual loss, and far surpassed, 
 in the fatal consequences, the misfortune which Rome 
 had formerly sustained in the fields of Cannai.* Two 
 master-generals of the cavalry and infantry, two oreat 
 officers of the palace, and thirty-five tribunes, were 
 found among the slain ; and the death of Sebastian 
 might satisfy the world, that he was the victim, as 
 well as the author, of the public calamity. Above 
 two-thirds of the Roman army were destroyed : and the 
 darkness of the night was esteemed a very favourable 
 circumstance ; as it served to conceal the flight of the 
 multitude, and to protect the more orderly retreat of 
 Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the general 
 consternation, maintained the advantage of calm cour- 
 age, and regular discipline.'' 
 
 While the impressions of grief and Funeral oration 
 terror were still recent m the minds of of Valens and his 
 men, the most celebrated rhetorician of ^^"^y- 
 the age composed the funeral oration of a vanquished 
 army, and of an unpopular prince, whose throne was 
 already occupied by a stranger. " There are not want- 
 ing," says the candid Libanius, " those who arraign the 
 prudence of the emperor, or who impute the public 
 misfortune to the want of courage and discipline in 
 the troops. For my own part, I reverence the memory 
 of their former exploits : I reverence the glorious death, 
 which they bravely received, standing and fighting in 
 their" ranks: I reverence the field of battle, stained 
 with t/teir blood, and the blood of the barbarians. 
 Those honourable marks have been already washed 
 away by the rains; but the lofty monuments of their 
 bones, the bones of generals, of centurions, and of 
 valiant warriors, claim a long-er period of duration. 
 The king himself fought and fell in the foremost ranks 
 of the battle. His attendants presented him with the 
 fleetest horses of the imperial stable, that would soon 
 have carried him beyond the pursuit of the enemy. 
 They vainly pressed him to reserve his important life 
 for the service of the republic. He still declared that 
 he was unworthy to survive so many of the bravest 
 and most faithful of his subjects ; and the monarch was 
 nobly buried under a mountain of the slain. Let none, 
 therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the barba- 
 rians to the fear, the weakness, or the imprudence, of 
 the Roman troops. The chiefs and the soldiers were 
 animated by the virtue of their ancestors, whom they 
 equalled in discipline, and the arts of war. Their 
 generous emulation was supported by the love of glory, 
 which prompted them to contend at the same time with 
 heat and thirst, with fire and the sword ; and cheer- 
 fully to embrace an honourable death, as their refuge 
 against flight and infamy. The indignation of the 
 gods has been the only cause of the success of our 
 enemies." The truth of history may disclaim some 
 parts of this panegyric, which cannot strictly be re- 
 conciled with the character of Valens, or the circum- 
 stances of the battle: but the fairest commendation is 
 due to the eloquence, and still more to the generosity, 
 of the sophist of Antioch.<= 
 
 The pride of the Goths was elated by The Goths beiiego 
 this memorable victory ; but their ava- Hadrianople. 
 rice was disappointed by the mortifying discovery, 
 that the richest part of the imperial spoil had beea 
 
 a Nec ulla, annalilius, praitcr Cannensem pugnam ita ad interne- 
 cionem reslegitur gesta. Ammian. xxxi. 13. According to the grave 
 Polybius, no more than 370 horse, and 3,000 foot, escaped from the 
 field of CanniB : 10,000 were made prisoners ; and the number of ttie 
 slain amounted to 5,630 horse, and 70.000 foot. (Polyb. I. iii. p. 371. 
 edit. Casaubon. in 8vo.) Livy (xxii. 49.) is somewhat less bloody : 
 he slaughters only 2,7C0 horse, and 40,000 foot. The Roman army 
 was supposed to consist of 87,200 effective men, (xxii. 36.) 
 
 b We have gained some faint light from Jerom, (torn. i. p. 26. and 
 in Chron. p. 188.) Victor, (in Epitome,) Orosius, (I. vii. c. 33. p. 5.54.) 
 Jornandes, (c, 27.) Zosimus, (I. iv. p. 230.) Socrates, (1. iv. c. 38.) So 
 zomen, (I. vi. c.40.) Idatius, (in Chron.) But their united evidence, 
 if weighed against Ammianus alone, is light and unsubstantial. 
 
 c Libanius de uliscend. Julian. Nece, c. 3. in Fabriciuf, Bibliot. 
 . Gru?c. torn. vii. p. 146—148. 
 
 
 l 
 
364 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 lit 
 
 within the walls of Hadrianople. They hastened to 
 possess the reward of their valour ; but they were en- 
 countered by the remains of a vanquished army, with 
 an intrepid resolution, which was the effect of their 
 despair, and the only hope of their safety. The walls 
 of the city, and the ramparts of the adjacent camp, 
 were lined with military engines, that threw stones of 
 an enormous weight ; and astonished the ignorant bar- 
 barians by the noise, and velocity, still more than by 
 the real effects, of the discharge. The soldiers, the 
 citizens, the provincials, the domestics, of the palace, 
 were united in the danger, and in the defence : the fu- 
 rious assault of the Goths was repulsed ; their secret 
 arts of treachery and treason were discovered; and, 
 after an obstinate conflict of many hours, they retired 
 to their tents ; convinced, by experience, that it would 
 be far more advisable to observe the treaty, which their 
 sagacious leader had tacitly stipulated with the fortifi- 
 cations of great and populous cities. After the hasty 
 and impolitic massacre of three hundred deserters, an 
 act of justice extremely useful to the discipline of the 
 Roman armies, the Goths indignantly raised the siege 
 of Hadrianople. The scene of war and tumult was 
 instantly converted into a silent solitude ; the multi- 
 tude suddenly disappeared ; the secret paths of the 
 woods and mountains were marked with the footsteps 
 of the trembling fugitives, who sought a refuge in the 
 distant cities of Illyricum and Macedonia : and the 
 faithful officers of the household, and the treasury, 
 cautiously proceeded in search of the emperor, of 
 whose death they were still ignorant. The tide of the 
 Gothic inundation rolled from the walls of Hadriano- 
 ple to the suburbs of Constantinople. The barbarians 
 were surprised with the splendid appearance of the 
 capital of the east, the height and extent of the walls, 
 the myriads of wealthy and affrighted citizens who 
 crowded the ramparts, and the various prospect of the 
 sea and land. While they gazed with hopeless desire 
 on the inaccessible beauties of Constantinople, a sally 
 was made from one of the gates by a party of Sara- 
 cens,^ who had been fortunately engaged in the service 
 of Valens. The cavalry of Scythia was forced to yield 
 to the admirable swiftness and spirit of the Arabian 
 horses : their riders were skilled in the evolutions of 
 irregular war; and the northern barbarians were aston- 
 ished and dismayed by the inhuman ferocity of the 
 barbarians of the south. A Gothic soldier was slain 
 by the dagger of an Arab ; and the hairy, naked sav- 
 age, applying his lips to the wound, expressed a hor- 
 rid delight, while he sucked the blood of his van- 
 quished enemy.* The army of the Goths, laden with 
 the spoils of the wealthy suburbs, and the adjacent ter- 
 ritory, slowly moved from the Bosphorus, to the moun- 
 tains which form the western boundary of Thrace. 
 The important pass of Succi was betrayed by the fear, 
 or the misconduct, of Maurus; and the barbarians, 
 who no longer had any resistance to apprehend from 
 the scattered and vanquished troops of the east, spread 
 themselves over the face of a fertile and cultivated 
 country, as far as the confines of Italy, and the Hadri- 
 atic sea.' 
 
 The Romans, who so coolly, and so concisely, 
 
 d Valens had gained, or rather purchaaed, the friendship oftlie Sa- 
 racens, whose vexatious inroads were fnit on the borders of Phrpni- 
 cia, Palestine, end E^ypt. The christian faith had Ixjen lately intro- 
 duced amone a people, reserved, in a future age, to propagate another 
 religion. (Tilleniont, Hist, des Einpcreurs, torn. v. p. 1U4. 106. 141. 
 Mem. Eccles. torn. vii. p. 593.) 
 
 e Crinitus quidam, nudus omnia printer pultcm, suhraurum et In- 
 gubre strcpens. Ammian. xixi. IG. and Vales, ad loc. The Aralts 
 often fought naked ; a custom which may be ascribed to their sultry 
 climate, and ostentatious bravery. The description of this unknown 
 lavage, is the lively portrait of Derar, a name so dreadful to the 
 ehristians of Syria. See Ockley's Hist, of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 72. 
 84. 87. 
 
 t The series of events may still he traced in the last pages of Ain- 
 mianus, (xxxl. 15. 16.) Zosimus, (I. iv, p. 227. 2HI.) whom we are 
 now reduced to cherish, misplaces the sally of the Aralis before the 
 death of Valens. Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 20.) praises t ho 
 CortUity of Thrace, Macedonia, Stc, 
 
 mention the acts of Justice which are They ravage the 
 exercised by the legions,* reserve their Roman provinces 
 compassion, and their eloquence, for their ^- ^" ^^' ^^' 
 own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded, and 
 desolated, by the arms of the successful barbarians. 
 The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narra- 
 tive exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfor- 
 tunes of a single family,** might exhibit an interesting 
 and instructive picture of human manners ; but the te- 
 dious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints 
 would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader. 
 The same censure may be applied, though not perhaps 
 in an equal degree, to the profane and the ecclesiasti- 
 cal, writers of this unhappy period ; that their minds 
 were inflamed by popular and religious animosity ; 
 and, that the true size and colour ot every object is 
 falsified by the exaggerations of their corrupt elo- 
 quence. The vehement Jerom ' might justly deplore 
 the calamities inflicted by the Goths, and their barba- 
 rous allies, on his native country of Pannonia, and the 
 wide extent of the provinces, from the walls of Con- 
 stantinople to the foot of the Julian Alps; the rapes, 
 the massacres, the conflagrations ; and, above all, the 
 profanation of the churches, that were turned into sta- 
 bles, and the contemptuous treatment of the relics of 
 holy martyrs. But the saint is surely transported be- 
 yond the limits of nature and history, when he affirms, 
 " that, in those desert countries, nothing was left ex- 
 cept the sky and the earth ; that, after the destruction 
 of the cities, and the extirpation of the human race 
 the land was overgrown with thick forests, and inex- 
 tricable brambles ; and that the universal desolation, 
 announced by the prophet Zephaniah, was accomplish- 
 ed, in the scarcity of the beasts, the birds, and even 
 the fish." These complaints were pronounced about 
 twenty years after the death of Valens ; and the Illy- 
 rian provinces, which were constantly exposed to the 
 invasion and passage of the barbarians, still continu- 
 ed, after a calamitous period of ten centuries, to sup- 
 ply new materials for rapine and destruction. Could it 
 even be supposed, that a large tract of country had 
 been left without cultivation and without inhabitants, 
 the consequences might not have been so fatal to the 
 inferior productions of animated nature. The useful 
 and feeble animals, which are nourished by the hand 
 of man, might suffer and perish, if they were depriv- 
 ed of his protection, but the beasts of the forest, his 
 enemies, or his victims, would multiply in the free 
 and undisturbed possession of their solitary domain. 
 The various tribes that people the air, or the waters, 
 are still less connected with the fate of the human 
 species ; and it is highly probable, that the fish of the 
 Danube would have felt more terror and distress, from 
 the approach of a voracious pike, than from the hos- 
 tile inroad of a Gothic army. 
 
 Whatever may have been the just ^ _ . 
 
 - ^, •' , . . /• i-» Massarre of the 
 
 measure oi the calamities ot Europe, Gothic youth in 
 there was reason to fear that the same . A""* 
 calamities would soon extend to the • • < • 
 peaceable countries of Asia. The sons of the Goths 
 had been judiciously distributed through the cities of 
 the east ; and the arts of education were employed to 
 polish, and subdue, the native fierceness of their tem- 
 
 g Observe with how much indifference Ca»sar rclatei!, in the Com- 
 mentaries of the Gallic war. tkut, he put to death the whole senate of 
 the Veneti, who had yielded to his mercy, (iii. 16.) that he laboured 
 to extirpate the whole nation of the Eburones, (vi. 31.) that forty 
 thousand persons were ninKgacred at Bour>;es by the just revenge of 
 his soldiers, who spared neither age nor sex, (vii. 27, &.c.) 
 
 h Such are the accounts of tiie sack of Magdeburg, by the ecclesi- 
 astic and the fisherman, which Mr. Harte has transcribed, (Hist, of 
 Gustavus Adolphu;', vol. i. p. 313 — 320.) with some apprehension of 
 violating the dignity of iiistory. 
 
 i Et vastatis urbihus hominiltusque interfectis, solitudincm et rari- 
 tatem besliarum quoque fieri, et volatilium, pisciutnque: testis Hly- 
 rirum est, testis Thracia, testis in quo ortus sum solum (Pannonia) ; 
 uhi prieter ccblum et terram, et rrescentes vepres, et condtMisa sylva- 
 rum euncta perierunt. Tom. vii. p. 950. ad 1 Cap. Sophonias; and 
 torn. i. p. 26 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 per. In the space of about twelve years, their num- 
 bers had gradually increased; and the children, who, 
 in the first emigration, were sent over the Hellespont 
 had attained, with rapid growth, the strength and 
 spirit of perfect manhood.^ It was impossible to con- 
 ceal from their knowledge the events of the Gothic 
 war; and, as those daring youths had not studied the 
 language of dissimulation,they betrayed their wish,their 
 desire, perhaps their intention, to emulate the glorious 
 example of their fathers. The danger of the times 
 seemed to justify the jealous suspicions of the provin- 
 cials ; and these suspicions were admitted as unques- 
 tionable evidence, that the Goths of Asia had formed 
 a secret and dangerous conspiracy against the public 
 safety. The death of Valens had left the east with- 
 out a sovereign ; and Julius, who filled the important 
 station of master-general of the troops, with a hio-h 
 reputation of diligence and ability, thought it his duly 
 to consult the senate of Constantinople; which he 
 considered, during the vacancy of the throne, as the 
 representative council of the nation. As soon as he 
 had obtained the discretionary power of actino- as 
 he should judge most expedient for the good of the 
 republic, he assembled the principal officers ; and pri- 
 vately concerted effectual measures for the execution 
 of his bloody design. An order was immediately pro- 
 mulgated, that, on a stated day, the Gothic youth 
 should assemble in the capital cities of their respec- 
 tive provinces, and, as a report was industriously cir- 
 culated, that they were summoned to receive a liberal 
 gilt of lands and money, the pleasing hope allayed the 
 lury of their resentment, and, perhaps, suspended the 
 motions of- the conspiracy. On the appointed day, 
 the unarmed crowd of the Gothic youth was carefully 
 collected in the square, or forum ; the streets and ave- 
 nues were occupied by the Roman troops ; and the 
 rools of the houses were covered with archers and 
 slingers. At the same- hour, in all the cities of the 
 east, the signal was given of indiscriminate slaugh- 
 ter ; and the provinces of Asia were delivered, by The 
 cruel prudence of Julius, from a domestic enemy, 
 who, in a few months, might have carried fire and 
 sword from the Hellespont to the Euphrates.! The 
 urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubt- 
 edly authorize the violation of every positive law 
 How far that,or any other, consideration, may operate, to 
 dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, 
 is a doctrine of which I shall desire to remain ignorant. 
 The emperor Gra. The emperor Gratian was far^advan- 
 iosi^'rhti'e'Sf^^P »^is march towards the plains of 
 empire of the east. Hadrianople, when he was informed, at 
 
 '^■j?,;.?9'**' ^''?^ ^y *^® confused voice of fame, 
 • and afterwards by the more accurate 
 reports of Victor and Richomer, that his impatient 
 colleague had been slain in battle, and that two- 
 thirds of the Roman army were exterminated by 
 the sword of the victorious Goths. Whatever re- 
 sentment the rash and jealous vanity of his uncle 
 miffht deserve, the resentment of a generous mind is 
 easily subdued by the softer emotions of grief and 
 compassion ; and even the sense of pity was soon lost 
 in the serious and alarming consideration of the state 
 of the republic. Gratian was too late to assist, he was 
 too weak to revenge, his unfortunate colleao-ue ; and 
 the valiant and modest youth felt himself unequal to 
 the support of a sinking world. A formidable tempest 
 of the barbarians of Germany seemed ready to burst 
 over the provinces of Gaul ; and the mind of Gratian 
 was oppressed and distracted by the administration of 
 
 365 
 
 the western empire. In this important crisis, the ffov- 
 ernment of the east, and the conduct of the Gothic 
 war, required the undivided attention of a hero and a 
 statesman. A siibject invested with such ample com- 
 mand would not long have preserved his fidelity to a 
 distant benefactor ; and the imperial council embraced 
 the wise and manly resolution, of conferring an obliga- 
 tion, rather than of yielding to an insult. It was the 
 wish of Gratian to bestow the purple as the reward of 
 virtue; but, at the age of nineteen, it is not easy for a 
 prince, educated in the supreme rank, to understand 
 the true characters of his ministers and generals He 
 attempted to weigh, with an impartial hand,* their 
 various merits and defects; and, whilst he checked 
 the rash confidence of ambition, he distrusted the cau- 
 tious wisdom, which despaired of the republic. As 
 each moment of delay diminished something of the 
 power and resources of the future sovereign of the 
 east, the situation of the times would not allow a tedi- 
 ous debate. The choice of Gratian was soon declar- 
 ed m favour of an exile, whose father, only three 
 years before, had suffered, under the sanction of hia 
 authority, an unjust and ignominious death. The 
 great Theodosius, a name celebrated in history, and 
 dear to the catholic church," was summoned to the 
 imperial court, which had gradually retreated from the 
 confines of Thrace to the more secure station of Sir- 
 mium. Five months after the death of Valens, the 
 emperor Gratian produced before the assembled troops, 
 Ae« colleague, and M«V master; who, after a modest, 
 perhaps a sincere, resistance, was compelled to ac- 
 cept, amidst the general acclamations, the diadem, the 
 purple, and the equal title of Augustus." The provin- 
 ces of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, over which Valens 
 had reigned, were resigned to the administration of the 
 new emperor ; but, as he was specially intrusted with 
 the conduct of the Gothic war, the Illyrian praefecture 
 was dismembered ; and the two great dioceses of Da- 
 cia and Macedonia were added to the dominions of the 
 eastern empire." 
 
 The same province, and, perhaps, the Birth and rha. 
 same city,P which had given to the throne racter ofTheo- 
 the virtues of Trajan, and the talents of ""*' 
 Hadrian, was the original seat of another family of 
 Spaniards, who, in a less fortunate ao-e, possessed, 
 near fourscore years, the declining empire of Rome.*" 
 They emerged from the obscurity of municipal hon- 
 ours by the active spirit of the elder Theodosius, a 
 general, whose exploits in Britain and Africa have 
 formed one of the most splendid parts of the annals of 
 Valentmian. The son of that general, who likewise 
 bore the name of Theodosius, was educated, by skil- 
 ful preceptors, in the liberal studies of youth ; but he 
 was instructed in the art of war by the tender care 
 and severe discipline of his father.' Under the stan- 
 
 k Eunapms (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 20.) foolishly supposes a nrn>ter- 
 natural growth of the young Goths, that he may introduce Cad mu!'. 
 armed men, who sprung from the dragon's teeth, &c. Such was the 
 Greek eloquence of the times. "^^"wasine 
 
 ■oi..^"!'"'*T'' ^^^''^^""y approves this execution, efficacia velox et 
 S^i ''■• Y^'*"**- '=°"f'"de8 his work, (xxxi. 16.) Zosimus, who is 
 curious and copious, (I. iv. p. 233-236.) mistakes the date, and li 
 Th/n^i!i..."'^ the reason, why Julius did not consult the emperor 
 I heodoslus, who had not yel ascended the throne of the east. 
 
 m A life of Theodosius the Great was composed in the Ii.st cen- 
 tury, (Pans, 1679. in 4to ; 1680, in 12mo.) to inflame the mind of the 
 yourig Dauphin with catholic zeal. The author, FIcchier, atter- 
 wards bishop of Nisines, was a celebrated preacher ; and his history 
 IS adorned^ or L-iinted. with pulpit-pjoquence ; but he takes his learn 
 ing from Baronius, and his principles from St. Ambrose and St Au- 
 gustin. 
 
 n The birtli. character, and elevation of Theodosius, are marked 
 \lfs^^^^"f' ('" ,^a.negyr. Vet. xii. 10-12. Themistius, (Orat. xiv. p. 
 182.) Zosimus. (I. iv. p. 231.) Aucu.stin, (dc Civitat. Dei, v. 25 ) Oro- 
 Bius, (I. VII. c. 34.) Sozomcn. (1. vii. c. 2.) Socrates, (I. v. c. 2.) Theo- 
 doret. (I. v. c. 5.) Philostorgius. (I. ix. c. 17. with Godefrov, p. 393 ) 
 the Epitome of Victor, and the Chronicles of Prosper. Idatii^s. and 
 Marcellinus, in the Thesaurus Temporum of Scali^er. 
 
 o Tilleinont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 716? &c. 
 
 V It alien, founded by Sripio Africanus for his wounded veterans 
 of Italy. The rums still appear, about a league above Seville, hut on 
 the opposite bank of the river. See the Hispania Illustrata of No- 
 nius, a short, though valuable, treatise, c. xvii. p. 6 1—67. 
 
 q r agree with Tilleinont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 726.) in 
 suspecting the royal pedigree, which remained a secret till the pro- 
 motion of Theodosius. Even after that event, the silence of Paca- 
 tus outweighs the venal evidence of Themistius, Victor, and Clau- 
 dian, who connect the family of Theodosius with the blood of Traian 
 and Hadrian. * 
 
 T Pacatus compares, and consequently prefers, the youth of Theo- 
 dosius to the military education of Alexander, Hannibal, and the 
 second Africanus; who, like him, had served under their fathers, 
 
 ? 
 
366 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 |PPI 
 
 
 dard of such a leader, young Theodosius sought glory | 
 and knowledge, in the most distant scenes of military 
 action ; inured his constitution to the difference of 
 seasons and climates ; distinguished his valour by sea 
 and land; and observed the various vv'arfare of the 
 Scots, the Saxons, and the Moors. His own merit, 
 and the recommendation of the conqueror of Africa, 
 soon raised him to a separate command; and, in the 
 station of Duke of Maesia, he vanquished an army of 
 Sarmatians ; saved the province ; deserved the love of 
 the soldiers ; and provoked the envy of the court.' His 
 rising fortunes were soon blasted by the disgrace and 
 execution of his illustrious father; and Theodosius ob- 
 tained, as a favour, the pernussion of retiring to a pri- 
 vate life in his native province of Spain. He displayed 
 a firm and temperate character in the ease with which 
 ho adapted himself to this new situation. His time 
 was almost equally divided between the town and coun- 
 try ; the spirit, which had animated his public conduct, 
 was shown in the active and affpctionate performance 
 of every social duty; and the diligence of the soldier 
 was profitably converted to the improvement of his 
 ample patrimony,' which lay between Valladolid and 
 Segovia, in the midst of a fruitful district, still famous 
 for a most exquisite breed of sheep." From the in- 
 nocent, but humble, labours of his farm, Theodosius 
 was transported, in less than four months, to the 
 throne of the eastern empire ; and the whole period of 
 the history of the world will not perhaps afford a simi- 
 lar example of an elevation, at the same time so pure 
 and so honourable. The princes who peaceably inherit 
 the sceptre of their fathers, claim and enjoy a legal 
 right, the more secure, as it is absolutely distinct from 
 the merits of their personal characters. The subjects 
 who, in a monarchy, or a popular state, acquire the 
 possession of supreme power, may have raised them- 
 selves, by the superiority either of genius or virtue, 
 above the heads of their equals; but their virtue is sel- 
 dom exempt from ambition ; and the cause of the suc- 
 cessful candidate is frequently stained by the guilt of 
 conspiracy, or civil war. Even in those governments 
 which allow the reiffninjj monarch to declare a col- 
 leagfue, or a successor, his partial choice, which may 
 be influenced by the blindest passions, is often directed 
 to an unworthy object. But the most suspicious ma- 
 lignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure 
 solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the 
 hopes, of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the 
 exile would long since have been forgotten, if his gen- 
 uine and distinguished virtues had not left a deep im- 
 pression in the imperial court. During the season of 
 prosperity, he had been neglected ; but, in the public 
 distress, his superior merit was universally felt and ac- 
 knowledged. What confidence must have been reposed 
 in his integrity, since Gratian could trust, that a pious 
 son would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the 
 murder of his father ! What expectations must have 
 been formed of his abilities to encourage the hope, that 
 a single man could save, and restore, the empire of the 
 east ! Theodosius was invested with the purple in the 
 thirty-third year of his ajje. The vulgar gazed with 
 admiration on the manly beauty of his face, and the 
 graceful majesty of his person, which they were pleased 
 to compare with the pictures and medals of the empe- 
 ror Trajan ; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in 
 the qualities of his heart and understanding, a more 
 important resemblance to the best and greatest of the 
 Roman princes. 
 
 • Ammianus (xxix. 6.) mentions this victory of Theodosius Junior 
 Dux Maesiae, prima etiam lum lanugine juvenis, princeps postea per- 
 spectissimus. The same fact is attested by Themistius and Zosimus; 
 but Theodoret, (1. v. c. 5.) who adds some curious circumstances, 
 strangely applies it to the time of the interregnum. 
 
 t Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 9.) prefers the rustic life of Theo- 
 dosius to that of Cincinnatus ; the one was the effect of choice, the 
 other of povorty. 
 
 tt M. d'Anville (Geographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 2o.) has fixed the 
 •ituatioD of Caucha or Coca, in the old province of Gallicia, where 
 Zo«imus and Idatius have placed the birtn, or patrimony, of Theodo- 
 sius. 
 
 It is not without the most sincere re- His prudent and 
 gret, that I must now take leave of an ^^^^,^ of the Go- 
 accurate and faithful guide, who has ihic war. 
 composed the history of his own times, ^ ^' 379—382. 
 without indulging the prejudices and passions, which 
 usually affect the mind of a contemporary. Ammianus 
 Marcellinus, who terminates his useful work with the 
 defeat and death of Valens, recommends the more glo- 
 rious subject of the ensuing reign to the youthful vig- 
 our and eloquence of the rising generation.' The rising 
 generation was not disposed to accept his advice, or to 
 imitate his example ; ^ and, in the study of the reign of 
 Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate the partial 
 narrative of Zosimus, by the obscure hints of fragments 
 and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or 
 panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ec- 
 clesiastical writers, who, in the heat of relifjious fac- 
 tion, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity 
 and moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, 
 which, will continue to involve a considerable portion 
 of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, 1 shall 
 proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet 1 may 
 boldly pronounce, that the battle of Hadrianople was 
 never revenged by any signal or decisive victory of 
 Theodosius over the barbarians ; and the expressive 
 silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by the 
 observation of the condition and circumstances of the 
 times. The fabric of a mighty state which has been 
 reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be 
 overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal 
 power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real 
 measure of the calamity. The loss of forty thousand Ro- 
 mans, who fell in the plains of Hadrianople, might 
 have been soon recruited in the populous provinces of the 
 east, which contained so many millions of inhabitants. 
 The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest, 
 and most common, quality of human nature; and suf- 
 ficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe, might 
 have been speedily taught by the care of the surviving 
 centurions. If the barbarians were mounted on their 
 horses, and equipped with the armour, of their van- 
 quished enemies, the numerous studs of Cappadocia 
 and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of cav- 
 alry ; the thirty-four arsenals of the empire were plen- 
 tifully stored with magazines of offensive and defensive 
 arms : and the wealth of Asia might still have yielded 
 an ample fund for the expenses of the war. But the 
 effects which were produced by the battle of Hadrian- 
 ople on the minds of the barbarians, and of the Romans, 
 extended the victory of the former, and the defeat of 
 the latter, far beyond the limits of a single day. A 
 Gothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent mode- 
 ration, that, for his own part, he was fatigued with 
 slaughter; but that he was astonished how a people, 
 who fled before him like a flock of sheep, could still 
 presume to dispute the possession of their treasures and 
 provinces.' The same terrors, which the name of the 
 Huns had spread among the Gothic tribes, were in- 
 spired, by the formidable name of the Goths, among 
 the subjects and soldiers of the Roman empire.* If 
 Theodosius, hastily collecting his scattered forces, had 
 led them into the field to encounter a victorious enemy, 
 
 X Let us hear Ammianus himself. Haec, ut miles quondam et 
 Graeciis, a principaiu CsesarisNervoe exorsus ad usque Valentis interi- 
 tum, pro virium explicavi mensura : nunquam, ut arbitror, sciens, si- 
 lentio ausus corrumpere vel mendacio. Scribant reliqua poiiores 
 aetate, doctrinisciue florenies. Quos id, si libuerit, aeeressun^s, pro- 
 cudere linguas ad majores nioneo stilos. Amniian. xxxi. 16. The first 
 thirteen bi^ks, a superficial epitome of two hundred and fifty-seven 
 years, are now lost : the last eighteen, which contain no more than 
 twenty-five years, still preserve the copious and authentic history of 
 his own limes. 
 
 y Amniianus was the last subject of Rome who composed a profane 
 history in the Latin language. The east, in the next century, pro- 
 duced smiie rhetorical historians, Zosimus, Olympiodorus, Malcnus, 
 Candidus, Sec. See Vossius de Historicis GrsBCis, 1. ii. c. 18. de His- 
 toricis Latinis, 1. ii. c. 10, Ice. 
 
 t Chrysostom, torn. i. p. 344. edit. Montfaucon. I have verified, and 
 examined, this passage : but I should never, without the aid of Title- 
 mont (Hist, des Erap. tom. v. p. 152,) have detected an historical 
 anecdote, in a strange medley of moral and mystic exhortations, ad' 
 dre.Med, by the preacher of Antioch, to a young widow. 
 
 a Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legation, p. 21. 
 
 his army woiild have been vanquished by their own 
 fears; and his rashness could not have been excused 
 by the chance of success. But the great Theodosius, 
 an epithet which he honourably deserved on this mo- 
 mentous occasion, conducted himself as the firm and 
 faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his head- 
 quarters at Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian 
 diocese ; ^ from whence he could watch the irregular 
 motions of the barbarians, and direct the operations of 
 his lieutenants, from the gates of Constantinople to the 
 shores of the Hadriatic. The fortifications and garri- 
 sons of the cities were strengthened ; and the troops, 
 among whom a sense of order and discipline was re- 
 vived, were insensibly imboldened by the confidence 
 of their own safety. *From these secure stations, they 
 were encouraged to make frequent sallies on the barba- 
 rians, who infested the adjacent country ; and, as they 
 were seldom allowed to engage, without some decisive 
 superiority, either of ground or of numbers, their enter- 
 prises were, for the most part, successful ; and they 
 were soon convinced, by their own experience, of the 
 possibility of vanquishing their invincible enemies. 
 The detachments of these separate garrisons were 
 gradually united into small armies ; the same cautious 
 measures were pursued, according to an extensive and 
 well-concerted plan of operations; the events of each 
 day added strength and spirit to the Roman arms; and 
 the artful diliaence of the emperor, who circulated the 
 most favourable reports of the success of the war, con- 
 tributed to subdue the pride of the barbarians, and to 
 animate the hopes and courage of his subjects. If, 
 instead of this faint and imperfect outline, we could 
 accurately represent the counsels and actions of Theo- 
 dosius, in four successive campaiorns, there is reason 
 to believe, that his consummate skill would deserve 
 the applause of every military reader. The republic 
 had formerly been saved by the delays of Fabius ; and, 
 while the splendid trophies of Scipio, in the field of 
 Zama, attract the eyes of posterity, the camps and 
 marches of the dictator among the hills of Campania, 
 may claim a juster proportion of the solid and inde- 
 pendent fame, which the general is not compelled to 
 share, either with fortune or with his troops. Such 
 was likewise the merit of Theodosius ; and the infir- 
 mities of his body, which most unseasonably languished 
 under a long and dangerous disease, could not oppress 
 the vigour of his mind, or divert his attention from the 
 public service.*^ 
 
 Divisions, defeat. "^^^ deliverance and peace of the Ro- 
 and submission, man provinces'* was the work of pru- 
 
 3G7 
 
 °A.*D. 379-382 ^^"^^' ^^*^®'' ^^^^ of valour ; the pru- 
 dence of Theodosius was seconded by 
 fortune : and the emperor never failed to seize, and to 
 improve, every favourable circumstance. As long as 
 the superior genius of Fritigern preserved the union, 
 and directed the motions, of the barbarians, their pow- 
 er was not inadequate to the conquest of a great empire. 
 The death of that hero, the predecessor and master of 
 the renowned Alaric, relieved an impatient multitude 
 ^om the intolerable yoke of discipline and discretion. 
 The barbarians, who had been restrained by his authority, 
 abandoned themselvres to the dictates of their passions ; 
 and their passions were seldom uniform or consistent. 
 An army of conquerors was broken into many disor- 
 derly bands of savage robbers ; and their blind and ir- 
 regular fury was not less pernicious to themselves, 
 than to their enemies. Their mischievous disposition 
 was shown in the destruction of every object, which 
 
 b See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws. Codex Theodos. tom. i 
 Prolesomen. p. xcix. — civ. «^"i. i. 
 
 c Most writers insist on the illness, and Ion- repose, of Theodosius, 
 at I hessalonica : Zosimus, to diminish his ?lory ; Jornandes, to fa- 
 vour the Goths ; and the ecclesiastical writers, to introduce his bao- 
 tism. *^ 
 
 d Compare Themistius, (Orat. xiv. p. 181.) with Zosimus, (1. iv. n 
 2.32) Jornandes, c. xxvii. p. 649.) and the prolix Commentary of m" 
 de Buat, (Hist, des Peuples, &c. tom. vi. p. 477—552.) The Chroni- 
 cles of Idatius and Marcellinus allude, in general terms, to magna cer 
 Umina, magna multaque pralia. Thetwo epithets are not easily 
 reconciled. •' 
 
 they wanted strength to remove, or taste to enjoy ; and 
 they often consumed, with iYnprovident rao-e, the har- 
 vests, or the granaries, which soon afterwards became 
 necessary for their own subsistence. A spirit of dis- 
 cord arose among the independent tribes and nations, 
 which had been united only by the bands of a loose 
 and voluntary alliance. The troops of the Huns and 
 the Alani would naturally upbraid the fliaht of the 
 Goths ; who were not disposed to use with moderation 
 the advantages of their fortune: the ancient jealousy of 
 the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths could not lonjr be 
 suspended ; and the haughty chiefs still remembered 
 the insults and injuries, which they had reciprocally 
 offered, or sustained, while the nation was seated in 
 the countries beyond the Danube. The progress of 
 domestic faction abated the more diflJ'usive sentiment 
 of national animosity ; and the officers of Theodosius 
 were instructed to purchase, with liberal gifts and 
 promises, the retreat, or service, of the discontented 
 party. The acquisition of Modar, a prince of the royal 
 blood of the Amali, gave a bold and faithful champion 
 to the cause of Rome. The illustrious deserter soon 
 obtained the rank of master-general, with an important 
 command ; surprised an army of his countrymen, who 
 were immersed in wine and sleep; and after a cruel 
 slaughter of the astonished Goths, returned with an 
 immense spoil, and four thousand waggons, to the im- 
 perial camp.« In the hands of a skilful politician, the 
 most different means may be successfully appUed to 
 the same ends : and the peace of the empire, which had 
 been forwarded by the divisions, was accomplished by 
 the re-union, of the Gothic nation. Atha- n.,.! „ »r 
 
 _„^" .1111 • Ueath and fune- 
 
 naric, who had been a patient spectator raiof Ati.anaric, 
 of these extraordinary events, was at ^-^ •*^^- Jan-25. 
 length driven, by the chance of arms, from the dark 
 recesses of the woods of Caucaland. He no longer 
 hesitated to pass the Danube ; and a very considerable 
 part of the subjects of Fritigern, who already felt the 
 inconveniences of anarchy, were easily persuaded to 
 acknowledge for their king a Gothic judge, whose 
 birth they respected, and whose abilities they had fre- 
 quently experienced. But age had chilled the daring 
 spirit of Athanaric ; and, instead of leading his people 
 to the field of battle and victory, he wisely listened to 
 the fair proposal of an honourable and advantageous 
 treaty. Theodosius, who was acquainted with the 
 merit and power of his new ally, condescended to meet 
 him at the distance of several miles from Constantino- 
 ple ; and entertained him in the imperial city, with the 
 confidence of a friend, and the magnificence of a mon- 
 arch. " The barbarian prince observed, with curious 
 attention, the variety of objects which attracted his no- 
 tice, and at last broke out into a sincere and passionate 
 exclamation of wonder. I now behold (said he) what 
 I never could believe, the glories of this stupendous 
 capital ! and as he cast his eyes around, he viewed, and 
 he admired, the commanding situation of the city, the 
 strength and beauty of the walls and public edifices, 
 the capacious harbour, crowded with innumerable ves- 
 sels, the perpetual concourse of distant nations, and 
 the arms and discipline of the troops. Indeed, (con- 
 tinued Athanaric,) the emperor of the Romans is a god 
 upon earth; and the presumptuous man, who dares to 
 lift his hand against him, is guilty of his own blood." ' 
 The Gothic king did not long enjoy this splendid and 
 honourable reception ; and, as temperance was not the 
 virtue of his nation, it may justly be suspected, that 
 his mortal disease w^as contracted amidst the pleasures 
 
 e Zosimus (1. IV. p. 232.) styles him a Scythian, a name which the 
 more recent Greeks seem to have appropriated to the Goths. 
 
 f The reader will not be displeased to see the original words of Jor- 
 nandes, or the author whom he transcribed. Re?iam urbem ineressua 
 est, miransque. En, inquit, cerno quod ssepe ihcredulus audiebam, 
 famam videlicet tantse urbis. Et hue illuc oculos volvens, nunc si- 
 tum urbis commeatumque navium, nunc mania clara prospectans, 
 miratur; populosque diversarum gentium, quasi fonte in unoe diver, 
 sis partibus scaturiente unda, sic quoque militem ordinatum aspici- 
 ens. Deus, inquit, est sine dubio terrcnus Imperator, et quisquis ad- 
 versus eum manum moverit, ipse sui sanguinis reus existit. Jornan- 
 des (c. xxviii. p. 650.) proceeds to mention his death and funeral 
 
368 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 m 
 
 of the imperial banquets. But the policy of Theodo- 
 sius derived more solid benefit from the death, than he 
 could have expected from the most faithful services, 
 of his ally. The funeral of Athanaric was performed 
 with solemn rites in the capital of the east ; a stately 
 monument was erected to his memory ; and his whole 
 army, won by the liberal courtesy, and decent grief, 
 of Theodosius, enlisted under the standard of the Ro- 
 man empire.s The submission of so great a body of 
 the Visigoths was productive of the most salutary con- 
 sequences ; and the mixed influence of force, of reason, 
 and of corruption, became every day more powerful, 
 and more extensive. Each independent chieftain has- 
 tened to obtain a separate treaty, from the apprehension 
 that an obstinate delay might expose him, alone and 
 unprotected, to the revenge, or justice, of the conque- 
 ror. The general, or ratlier the final, capitulation of 
 A D 382 o t 3 ^^^ Goths, may be dated four years, one 
 * ' ' month, and twenty-five days, after the 
 defeat and death of the emperor Valens.** 
 Invasion and de- The provinces of the Danube had 
 feat of the Gru- been already relieved from the opres- 
 goZf"'^'*'**" sive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostro- 
 A.' D. 336. goths, by the voluntary retreat of Ala- 
 October. thcus and Saphrax ; whose restless spirit 
 had prompted them to seek new scenes of rapine and 
 glory. Their destructive course was pointed towards 
 the west ; but we must be satisfied with a very ob- 
 scure and imperfect knowledge of their various adven- 
 tures. The Ostrogoths impelled several of the Ger- 
 man tribes on the provinces of Gaul; concluded, and 
 soon violated, a treaty with the emperor Gratian ; ad- 
 vanced into the unknown countries of the north ; and, 
 after an interval of more than four years, returned, 
 with accumulated force, to the banks of the Lower 
 Danube. Their troops were recruited with the fiercest 
 warriors of Germany and Scythia; and the soldiers, or 
 at least the historians, of the empire, no longer recog- 
 nised the name and countenances of their former ene- 
 mies.' The general, who commanded the military and 
 naval powers of the Thracian frontier, soon perceived 
 that his superiority would be disadvantageous to the 
 public service ; and that the barbarians, awed by the 
 presence of his fleet and legions, would probably de- 
 fer the passage of the river till the approaching winter. 
 The dexterity of the spies, whom he sent into the 
 Gothic camp, allured the barbarians into a fatal snare. 
 They were persuaded, that, by a bold attempt, they 
 might surprise, in the silence and darkness of the 
 night, the sleeping army of the Romans ; and the 
 whole multitude was hastily embarked in a fleet of 
 three thousand canoes.* The bravest of the Ostro- 
 goths led the van ; the main body consisted of the re- 
 mainder of their subjects and soldiers; and the women 
 and children securely followed in the rear. One of the 
 nights without a moon had been selected for the exe- 
 cution of their design ; and they had almost reached 
 the southern bank of the Danube, in the firm confi- 
 dence that they should find an easy landing, and an 
 unguarded camp. But the progress of the barbarians 
 was suddenly stopped by an unexpected obstacle ; a 
 triple line of vessels, strongly connected with each 
 other, and which formed an impenetrable chain of two 
 miles and a half along the river. While they strug- 
 gled to force their way in the unequal conflict, their 
 
 g Jornandes, c. xxviii. p. GoO. Evon Zosimus, (1. iv. p. 246.) is com- 
 pelled to approve the generosity of Theodosius, so honourable to him- 
 aelf, and so beneficial to the public. 
 
 h The short, but authentic, hints in the FV«/i of Idatius (Chron. 
 Scaliger. p. 52.) are stained with conteniponiry passion. The four- 
 teenth oration of Theinistius is a compliment to peace, and the consul 
 Saturninus, (A. D. 383.) 
 
 i EJfoj TO ixuSixov ir»Ttv nyvarr'iv. ZosimuS, 1. iv. p. 252. 
 
 k I am justified, by reason and example, in applying this Indian 
 name to the /uav--5u\i)t of the barbarians, the single trees hollowed 
 into the shape of a boat, :ta.>!34» /usvo^uA-ww ^^iiilg,»Txv■r^i. Zosimus, 1. 
 
 iv. p. isa. 
 
 Ausi Danubium quondam tranare Gruthungi 
 In lintres fregere nemus : ter mille ruebant 
 Per fluvium plense cuneis immanibus alni. 
 
 Claudian, ia iv. Cous. Hon. G23. 
 
 right flank was overwhelmed by the irresistible attack 
 of a fleet of galleys, which were urged down the 
 stream by the united impulse of oars and of the tide. 
 The weight and velocity of those ships of war broke, 
 and sunk, and dispersed, the rude and feeble canoes 
 of the barbarians : their valour was ineffectual ; and 
 Alatheus, the king, or general, of the Ostrogoths, 
 perished, with his bravest troops, either by the sword 
 of the ftomans, or in the waves of the Danube. The 
 last division of this unfortunate fleet mii^ht regain tho 
 opposite shore ; but the distress and disorder of the 
 multitude rendered them alike incapable either of ac- 
 tion or counsel ; and they soon implored the clemency 
 of the victorious enemy. On this occasion, as well as 
 on many others, it is a diflicult task to reconcile the 
 passions and prejudices of the age of Theodosius. The 
 partial and malignant historian, who misrepresents 
 every action of his reign, affirms, that the emperor did 
 not appear in the field of battle till the barbarians had 
 been vanquished by the valour and conduct of his lieu- 
 tenant Promotus.' The flattering poet, who celebrated, 
 in the court of Honorius, the glory of the father and of 
 the son, ascribes the victory to the personal prowess 
 of Theodosius ; and almost insinuates, that the king 
 of the Ostrogoths was slain by the hand of the empe- 
 ror." The truth of history might perhaps be found in 
 a just medium between these extreme and contradic- 
 tory assertions. 
 
 The original treaty which fixed the g^j,,^^^^, „f j,,^ 
 settlement of the Goths, ascertained Goths in Thraca 
 their privileges, and stipulated their ^"\)^^JJj_395 
 obligations, would illustrate the history 
 of Theodosius and his successors. The series of their 
 history has imperfectly preserved the spirit and .sub- 
 stance of this singular agreement." The ravages of 
 war and tyranny had provided many large tracts of 
 fertile and uncultivated land for the use of those bar- 
 barians, who might not disdain the practice of agricul- 
 ture. A numerous colony of the Visigoths was seated 
 in Thrace; the remains of the Ostrogoths were plant- 
 ed in Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were 
 supplied by a distribution of corn and cattle ; and their 
 future industry was encouraged by an exemption from 
 tribute, during a certain term of years. The barbari- 
 ans would have deserved to feel the cruel and perfidi- 
 ous policy of the imperial court, if they had suflTered 
 themselves to be dispersed through the provinces. 
 They required, and they obtained, the sole possession 
 of the villages and districts assigned for their resi- 
 dence ; they still cherished and propagated their native 
 manners and language; asserted, in the bosom of des- 
 potism, the freedom of their domestic government; 
 and acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperor, 
 without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the 
 laws and magistrates of Rome. The hereditary chiefs 
 of the tribes and families were still permitted to com- 
 mand their followers in peace and war; but the royal 
 dignity was abolished; and the generals of the Goths 
 were appointed and removed at the pleasure of the em- 
 peror. An army of forty thousand Goths was main- 
 tained for the perpetual service of the empire of the 
 east; and those haughty troops, who assumed the 
 title of FfFdera/i\ or allies, were distinguished by their 
 gold collars, liberal pay, and licentious privileges. 
 Their native courage was improved by the use of arms, 
 and the knowledge of discipline ; and, while the re- 
 
 1 Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 2V2— 255. He too frequently betrays his poverty 
 of judgment, by difijrracins the most serious narratives with trifling 
 and iucrodible circumstances. 
 
 ni Odothsi regis opiina 
 
 Retulit Vcr. 632. 
 
 The opiina were the siwils which a Roman general could only win 
 from the king, or general, of the enemy, whom he had slain with his 
 own hands : and no more than three such examples are celebrated in 
 the victorious aires of Rome. 
 
 n See Themislius, Orat. xvi. p. 211. Claudian (in Eutrop. 1. ii. 
 152.) mentions the Phrygian colony : 
 
 Ostrogothis colitur mistisque Gruthungis 
 
 Phryx aper 
 
 and then proceeds to name the rivere of Lydia, the Pactolus and Her- 
 rau8. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 public was guarded, or threatened, by the doubtful 
 sword of the baroarians, the last sparks of the military 
 flame were finally extinguished in the minds of the 
 Romans." Theodosius had the address to persuade his 
 allies, that the conditions of peace which had been ex- 
 torted Irom him by prudence and necessity, were the 
 voluntary expressions of his sincere friendship for the 
 Gothic nation. P A different mode of vindication or 
 apology was opposed to the complaints of the people; 
 who loudly censured these shameful and danoerous 
 concessions/! The calamities of the war were painted 
 in the most lively colours ; and th? first symptoms of 
 the return of order, of plenty, and security, were dili- 
 gently exaggerated. The advocates of Theodosius 
 could affirm with some appearance of truth and rea- 
 son, that It was impossible to extirpate so many war- 
 like tribes, who were rendered desperate by the loss 
 ot their native country ; and that the exhausted pro- 
 vinces would be revived by a fresh supply of soldiers 
 and husbandmen. The barbarians still wore an anary 
 and hostile aspect; but the experience of past times 
 might encourage the hope, that they would acquire 
 the habits of industry and obedience; that their man- 
 ners would be polished by time, education, and the 
 influence of Christianity; and that their posterity 
 would insensibly blend with the great body of the Ro- 
 man people.*" "^ 
 
 Their hostile Notwithstanding these specious aron- 
 8e«t.me.us. gumcnts, and these sanguine expecta- 
 Uons, It was apparent to every discerning eye, that the 
 Goths would long remain the enemies, and might soon 
 become the conquerors, of the Roman empire. Their 
 rude and insolent behaviour expressed their contempt 
 ot the citizens and provincials, whom they insulted 
 with impunity To the zeal and valour of the bar- 
 barians, Theodosius was indebted for the success of 
 Ins arms ; but their assistance was precarious ; and 
 they were sometimes seduced, by a treacherous and 
 inconstant disposition, to abandon his standard, at the 
 moment when their service was the most essential. ' 
 During the civil war against Maximus, a great num- 
 ber ot Gothic deserters retired into the morasses of 
 Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces, and ohliaed 
 the intrepid monarch to expose his person, and exert 
 his povver, to suppress the rising flame of rebellion.* 
 1 he public apprehensions were fortified by the stron? 
 suspicion, that these tumults were not the effect of ac- 
 cidental passion, but the result of deep and premedi- 
 r 1 u "i^"- \^ ^""^ generally believed, that the 
 Goths had signed the treaty of peace with an hostile 
 and insidious spirit; and that their chiefs had previ- 
 ously bound themselves, by a solemn and secret oath, 
 never to keep faith with the Romans; to maintain the 
 fairest show of loyalty and friendship, and to watch 
 the favourable moment of rapine, of conquest, and of 
 revenge. But, as the minds of the barbarians were 
 not insensible to the power of gratitude, several of the 
 Gothic leaders sincerely devoted themselves to the 
 service of the empire, or, at least, of the emperor: the 
 
 369 
 
 whole nation was insensibly divided into two opposite 
 tactions, and much sophistry was employed in conver- 
 sation and dispute, to compare the obligations of their 
 tirst, and second, engagements. The Goths, who con- 
 sidered themselves as the friends of peace, of justice, 
 and of Rome, were directed by the authority of Fral 
 vitta, a valiant and honourable youth, distinguished 
 above the rest of his countrymen, by the politeness 
 ot his manners, the liberality of his sentin^ents, and 
 the mild virtues of social life. But the more nume- 
 rous taction adhered to the fierce and faithless Piiulf 
 who inflamed the passions, and asserted the indepen- 
 dence of his warlike followers. On one of the solemn 
 testivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited 
 to the imperial table, they were insensibly heated by 
 wine, till they forgot the usual restraints of discretion 
 and respect; and betrayed, in the presence of Theo- 
 dosius, the fatal secret of their domestic disputes. 
 1 he emperor, who had been the reluctant witness of 
 this extraordinary controversy, dissembled his fears 
 and resentment, and soon dismissed the tumultuous 
 assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and exasperated by the 
 insolence of his rival, whose departure from the palace 
 might have been the signal of a civil war, boldly fol- 
 lowed him; and, drawing his sword, laid Priulf dead 
 at his feet. Their companions flew to arms ; and the 
 taithful champion of Rome would have been oppressed 
 by superior numbers, if he had not been protected by 
 the seasonable interposition of the imperial guards.** 
 ^uch were the scenes of barbaric rage, which dis- 
 graced the palace and table of the Roman emperor; 
 and, as the impatient Goths could only be restrained 
 by the firm and temperate character of Theodosius, the 
 public safety seemed to depend on the life and abilities 
 of a single man.* 
 
 o Compare Jornandes, (c xx. 27.) who marks the condition and 
 numbers of the Gothic F\Bderati, with Zosimus, (1. iv. p. 258.) who 
 mentions their golden collars ; and Pacatus, (in Panegyr.VeTxii 37 ) 
 who applauds, with false or foolish joy, their bravery and discipline 
 
 P Amator pacisgenensque Gothorum, is the praise bestowed by the 
 npiro»M"^"^"'/''- '''''''•^ "^'^^ represents his nation as innotent, 
 f ?vv thlT'^"' "^""^ ^° anger, and patient of injuries. According to 
 Livy, the Romans conquered the world in their own defence. 
 
 wi'th th'p rhruf!i!l"i'^* invectives of Zosimus, (always discontented 
 nil?,.. ^1 ^'^'^ reigns,) see the grave representations which Sy- 
 ?pfIvV Tht'"?','*' ^h«.^'"Pf^r Arcadius, (de Regno, p. 25, 26. edit. 
 Li h« w J, philosophic bishoD of Cyrene was near enough to judge ; 
 and he wag sufficiently remove,! from the temptation of fear or flittery 
 
 ro'iI»f ""'?"' ^^T--K*^'- P- ^i*' 212> composes an elaboiSte S 
 rational apology, which is not, however, exempt from the pueriliTies 
 
 Thrace bmK"; ^'^^^""l •^°"*? T'^ ^^^^''"^ ^^e wildT^ s of 
 1 hrace ; but Theodosius enchanted the men and women, whose pre- 
 decessors in the same country had torn Oroheus in pieces &c 
 
 .Constantinople was deprived, half a day, of the public allowance 
 of bread, u. expiate the murder of a Gothic soldier.- .ivIvT./rriKu 
 Morer*^ ^"'^^ °^ ^^® people. Libanius, Orat. xii. p. 394. edit 
 
 «f !»?°''i'"""' ^' '^^' P- .267-271. He tells a long and ridiculous glory 
 of the adventurous prince, who roved the country with only five horse- 
 
 wom'an's^co'tuge. &?. '^^"^ '^^^^''^^^^ ^^ipp^d, and killed in an old 
 Vol. I 2 W 24 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 De^h of Gratian.— Ruin of Arianism.— St. Ambrose.-^ 
 J^irst ami war, agaimt Maximus.— Character, adminis- 
 tration and penance, of Theodosius.— Death of VaJen- 
 iimmi IL— Second civil war, against Eugcnius,— Death 
 of Iheodosius. 
 
 The fame of Gratian, before he had p. 
 accomplished the twentieth year of his coolT'of "J 
 age, was equal to that of the most cele- emperor Gratian, 
 brated princes. His gentle and amiable ^' ^ 379-383. 
 disposition endeared him to his private friends, the 
 graceful affability of his manners engaged the affection 
 of the people : the men of letters, who enjoyed the 
 liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence, of 
 their sovereign ; his valour and dexterity in arms were 
 equally applauded by the soldiers; and the clergy 
 considered the humble piety of Gratian as the first and 
 most useful of his virtues. The victory of Colmar 
 had delivered the w^st from a formidable invasion ; 
 and the grateful provinces of the east ascribed the 
 merits of Theodosius to the author of his greatness, 
 and of the public safety. Gratian survived those me- 
 niorable events only four or five years ; but he sur- 
 vived his reputation; and, before he fell a victim to 
 rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect 
 and confidence of the Roman world. 
 
 n V^T5^^^^T1fi'H"^^'" Excerpt. Legat. p. 21, 22.) with Zosimus, 
 A K." ^a\u^ ^f-® difference of circumstances and names must un- 
 doubtedly ^>e applied to the same story. Fravitta, or Travitta, waa 
 afterwards consul (A. D. 401.) and still continued his faithful ser^i- 
 ces to the eldest son of Theodosius. (Tillemont, Hist, des Empe- 
 reurs, torn. v. p. 467.) ^ 
 
 X Les Goths ravagerent tout depuis lo Danube jusqu'au Bosphore : 
 extennmerent Valens et son arm^e : et ne repasserent le Danube, 
 nue pour abandonner I'affreuse solitude qu'ils avoient faite. (OEuvres 
 de Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 479. ; Considerations sur les Causes do 
 la Grandeur et de la Decadence des Remains, c. xvii.) Tho presi- 
 dent Montesquieu seems ignorant, that the Goths, after the defeat of 
 Valens, never abandoned the Roman territory. It is now thirty yeare 
 says Claudian, (de Bello Getico, 166, &c. A. D. 404.) ' 
 
 Ex quo jam patrios gens haec oblita Triones, 
 Atque Istrum transvecta semel, vestigia fixi 
 
 Threicio funesta solo 
 
 . The error is inexcusable ; since it disguisps the principal and Imme- 
 I diate cause of the fall of the western empire of Rome. 
 
370 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE I^OMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I jf ;!►*#;■ 
 
 The remarkable alteration of his cha- ) 
 His f c ects. j^^^^j. Qj conduct, may not be imputed to 
 
 the arts of flattery, which had besieged the son of Val- 
 cntinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong pas- 
 sions which that gentle youth appears to have escaped. 
 A more attentive view of the life of Gratian, may per- 
 haps sujrgest the true cause of the disappointment of 
 the public hopes. His apparent virtues, instead of being 
 the hardy productions of experience and adversity, 
 were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal edu- 
 cation. The anxious tenderness of his father was con- 
 tinually employed to bestow on him those advantages, 
 which he might perhaps esteem the more hijrhly, as 
 he himself had been deprived of them ; and the most 
 skilful masters of every science, and of every art, had 
 laboured to form the mind and body of the young 
 prince.* The knowledge which they painfully com- 
 municated was displayed with ostentation, and cele- 
 brated with lavish praise. His soft and tractable dis- 
 position received the fair impression of their judicious 
 precepts, and the absence of passion might easily be 
 mistaken for the strength of reason. His preceptors 
 gradually rose to the rank and consequence of minis- 
 ters of state ; '' and, as they wisely dissembled their 
 secret authority, he seemed to act with firmness, with 
 propriety, and with judgment, on the most important 
 occasions of his life and reign. But the influence of 
 this elaborate instruction did not penetrate beyond the 
 surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so accurately 
 guided the steps of their royal pupil, could not infuse 
 into his feeble and indolent character, the vigorous and 
 independent principle of action, which renders the 
 laborious pursuit of glory essentially necessary to the 
 happiness, and almost to the existence, of the hero. 
 As soon as time and accident had removed those faith- 
 ful counsellors from the throne, the emperor of the 
 west insensibly descended to the level of his natural 
 genius; abandoned the reins of government to the am- 
 bitious hands which were stretched forward to grasp 
 them ; and amused his leisure with the most frivolous 
 gratifications. A public sale of favour and injustice 
 was instituted, both in the court, and in the provinces, 
 by the worthless delegates of his power, whose merit 
 it was made sacrilege to question.*^ The conscience of 
 the credulous prince was directed by saints and bish- 
 ops;** who procured an imperial edict to punish, as a 
 capital offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the 
 isrnorance, of the divine law.' Amonjx the various arts 
 which had exercised the youth of Gratian, he had ap- 
 plied himself, with singular inclination and success, 
 to manasfe the horse, to draw the bow, and to dart the 
 javelin ; and these qualifications, which might be use- 
 ful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler purposes 
 of hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the im- 
 perial pleasures, and plentifully stocked with every 
 species of wild beasts ; and Gratian neglected the 
 duties, and even the dignity, of his rank, to consume 
 iRrhole days in the vain display of his dexterity and 
 boldness in the chace. The pride and wish of the 
 Roman emperor to excel in an art, in which he might 
 be surpassed by the meanest of his slaves, reminded 
 
 a Valentinian was less atlenlive to the religion of his son ; since 
 he intrusted the education of Gratian to Ausonius, a professed pajran. 
 (Mem. de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xv. p. 12.') — 138.) The 
 poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age. 
 
 b Ausonius was successively promoted to the praetorian praefecture 
 of Italy, (A. D. 377.) and of Gaul, (A. D. 378.) and was at length in- 
 vested with the consulship (A. D. 379.) He expressed his gratitude 
 in a servile and insipid piece of flattery, (Actio Gratiarum,'p. 699— 
 736.) which has survived more worthy productions. 
 
 c Dispulare de principal! judicio non oportet. Sacrilegii enim in- 
 ■tar est dubltare, an is dignus sit, quern elegerit imperator. Codex 
 Justinian. 1. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 3. This convenient law was revived 
 and promulgated, after the death of Gratian, by the feeble court of 
 Milan 
 
 i Ambrose composed for his instruction a theological treatise on the 
 faith of the Trinity : and Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. 
 p. 158, 159.) ascribes to the archbishop the merit of Graiiau's intole- 
 rant laws. 
 
 e Qui divina legis sanctitatem nesciendo omittunt, aut negligendo 
 violant, et offendunt, sacrilegium commiltunt. Codex Justinian. I. 
 is. tit. xxix. leg. 1. Theodosius indeed may claim histhare, in the 
 merit of this compr»hensive law. 
 
 the numerous spectators of the examples of Nero and 
 Commodus ; but the chaste and temperate Gratian was 
 a stranger to their monstrous vices ; and his hands 
 were stained only with the blood of animals.' 
 
 The behaviour of Gratian, which de- Discontent of the 
 graded his character in the eyes of man- '^"T'^^'^J^r* 
 kind, could not have disturbed the secu- 
 rity of his reign, if the army had not been provoked to 
 resent their peculiar injuries. As long as the young 
 emperor was guided by the instructions of his masters, 
 he professed himself the friend and pupil of the sol- 
 diers ; many of his hours were spent in the familiar 
 conversation of the camp ; and the health, the com- 
 forts, the rewards, the honours, of his faithful troops, 
 appeared to be the object of his attentive concern. 
 But, after Gratian more freely indulged his prevailing 
 taste for hunting and shooting, he naturally connected 
 himself with the most dexterous ministers of his fa- 
 vourite amusement. A body of the Alani was received 
 into the military and domestic service of the palace; 
 and the admirable skill, which they were accustomed 
 to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia, was 
 exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in the parks and 
 enclosures of Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and 
 customs of thesse favourite guards, to whom alone he 
 intrusted the defence of his person : and, as if he meant 
 to insult the public opinion, he frequently showed him- 
 self to the soldiers and people, with the dress and arms, 
 the long bow, the sounding quiver, and the fur gar- 
 ments, of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy specta- 
 cle of a Roman prince, who had renounced the dress 
 and manners of his country, filled the minds of the 
 lej^ions with grief and indignation.* Even the Ger- 
 mans, so strong and formidable in the armies of the 
 empire, affected to disain the strange and horrid 
 appearance of the savages of the north, who, in the 
 space of a few years, had wandered from the banks 
 of the Volga to those of the Seine. A loud and 
 licentious murmur was echoed through the camps 
 and garrisons of the west; and as the mild indolence 
 of Gratian neglected to extinguish the first symp- 
 toms of discontent, the want of love and respect 
 was not supplied by the influence of fear. But the 
 subversion of an established government is always 
 a work of some real, and of much apparent difliculty; 
 and the throne of Gratian was protected by the sanc- 
 tions of custom, law, religion, and the nice balance of 
 the civil and military powers, which had been esta- 
 blished by the policy of Constantine. It is not very 
 important to inquire from what causes the revolt of 
 Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the 
 parent of disorder; the seeds of rebellion happened to 
 fall on a soil which was supposed to be more fruitful 
 than any other in tyrants and usurpers ;'' the legions 
 of that sequestered island had long been famous for a 
 spirit of presumption and arrogance ; • and the name 
 of Maximus was proclaimed, by the Revolt of Maxi- 
 tumultuary but unanimous voice, both "i"* "> Britain, 
 of the soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, 
 or the rebel, for his title was not yet ascertained by 
 fortune, was a native of Spain, the countryman, the 
 fellow-soldier, and the rival of Theodosius, whose ele- 
 vation he had not seen without some emotions of envy 
 and resentment : the events of his life had long since 
 fixed him in Britain ; and I should not be unwilling to 
 
 f Ammianus (xxxi. 10.) and the younger Victor acknowledge the 
 virtues of Gratian ; and accuse, or rather lament, his degenerate taste. 
 The odious panillol of Commodus is saved by " licet incruentus ;" 
 and perhaps Philost(»ri:ius (1. x. c. lU. and Gotlefroy, p. 412.) had 
 guarded with some similar reserve, the comparison of Nero. 
 
 ? Zosimus (1. iv. p. 217.) and the younger Victor ascribe the revo- 
 lution to the favour of the Alani, and the discontent of the Roman 
 troops. Dum exercitum negligeret, etpaucos ex Alanis, quos ingenti 
 auro ad se traustulerat, anteferret veteri ac Romano militi. 
 
 h Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum, is a memorable expres- 
 sion, used by Jerom in the Pelagian controversy, and variously tor- 
 lured in the disputes of our national antiquaries. The revolutions of 
 tlte last age appeared to justify the image of the sublime Bossuet, 
 " cette isle, plus orageuse que les mers qui renvironnent." 
 
 j Zosimus says of the British soldiers, tu-»- »kkuv ^mttkvtmv t\io» 
 
 ! 
 
 find some evidence for the marriage, which he is said 
 to have contracted with the daughter of a wealthy lord 
 of Caernarvonshire.'' But this provincial rank might 
 justly be considered as a state of exile and obscurity; 
 and if Maximus had obtained any civil or military of- 
 fice, he was not invested with the authority either of 
 governor or general.^ His abilities, and even his in- 
 tegrity, are acknowledged by the partial writers of the 
 age ; and the merit must indeed have been conspicu- 
 ous, that could extort such a confession in favour of 
 the vanquished enemy of Theodosius. The discontent 
 of Maximus might incline him to censure the conduct 
 of his sovereign, and to encourage, perhaps without 
 any views of ambition, the murmurs of the troops. 
 But in the midst of the tumult, he artfully, or mo- 
 destly, refused to ascend the throne; and some credit 
 appears to have been given to his own positive decla- 
 ration, that he was compelled to accept the dangerous 
 present of the imperial purple." 
 
 Plight and doath But there was danger likewise in re- 
 .T''\. ^"^^"^ ^^^ empire; and from the mo- 
 ment that Maximus had violated his allegiance to his 
 awful sovereign, he could not hope to reign, or even 
 to live. It he confined his moderate ambition within 
 the narrow limits of Britain. He boldly and wisely 
 resolved to prevent the designs of Gratian ; the youth 
 of the island crowded to his standard, and he invaded 
 Gaul with a fleet and army, which were lomr after- 
 wards remembered, as the emigration of a consider- 
 able part of the British nation." The emperor, in his 
 peaceful residence of Paris, was alarmed by their hos- 
 tile approach ; and the darts which he idly wasted on 
 lions and bears, might have been employed more hon- 
 ourably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts an- 
 nounced his degenerate spirit and desperate situation ; 
 and deprived him of the resources, which he still 
 might have found, in the support of his subjects and 
 allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of opposino- the 
 march of Maximus, received him with joyful andloyal 
 acclamations ; and the shame of the desertion was 
 transferred from the people to the prince. The troops, 
 whose station more immediately attached them to the 
 service of the palace, abandoned the standard of Gra- 
 tian the first time that it was displayed in the neicrh- 
 bourhood of Paris. The emperor of the west fled 'to- 
 wards Lyons, with a train of only three hundred 
 horse ; and, in the cities along the road, where he 
 hoped to find a refuge, or at least a passage, he was 
 taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is shut 
 against the unfortunate. Yet he miaht still have 
 reached, m safety, the dominions of hi? brother, and 
 soon have returned with the forces of Italy and the 
 east, if he had not suflfered himself to be fatally de- 
 ceived by the perfidious governor of the Lyonnese 
 province. Gratian was amused by protestations of 
 doubtful fidelity, and the hopes of a support, which 
 could not be effectual ; till the arrival of Andragathius, 
 the general of the cavalry of Maximus, put an end to 
 his suspense. That resolute officer executed, without 
 
 371 
 
 k Helena the daughter of Eudda. Her Chapel may still be seen at 
 Caer^eeont, now Caernarvon. (Carte's Hist, of England, vol. i. p. IGS 
 irom RowlancUsTVIona Antiqua.) The prudent reader may not per- 
 haps be satisfied with such Welch evidence. ^ 
 
 1 Camden (vol i. introduct. p. ci.) aopo nts him governor of Bri- 
 tain; and the father of our antiquities is followed, as usual, by his 
 blind progeny. Pacatus and Zosimus had taken some pains to pro- 
 ven this error or fable; and I shall protect myself by their decisive 
 testimonies. Kegali habitu ex ulem suurn, illi exules orbis ind'ue 
 runt, (in Panogyr. Vet. xir. 23.) and the (5reek historian still less 
 equivocally, >vro, (Maximus) i* .5. ..j ,,;,,, .,,.^,, .,,j,, .^HxJ^ 
 
 m Sulpicius Sevenis, Dial.jg ii. 7. Orosius, 1. vii. c. 34. p. 556. 
 They both acknowledge (Sulpic.us had been his subject) his inno- 
 cence and merit. It is singular enough, that Maximus should be less 
 favourably treated by Zosimus, the partial adversary of his rival I 
 
 n Archbishop Usher (Antiquitat. Britan. Eccles. p. 107, 1(»8) has ' 
 dil (gently collected the legends of the island, and the continent The ^ 
 whole emis^ration consisted of 30,000 soldiers, and 100,000 plebeians 
 M''r!ivf ^"L^"* '" ?;^^"^- Their destined brides, St. Uriula, with 
 11, WW noble, and 00,000 plebeian, virgins, mistook their way ; landed i 
 at Cologne, and were all most cruelly murdered by the Huns But ! 
 the plebeian sisters have been dtfraudod of their equal honours ; and. ' 
 what IS still harder, John Triihemius presumes to mention the child, 
 ren of these British virgins, . I 
 
 remorse, the orders, or the intentions, of the usurper. 
 Gratian, as he rose from supper, was de- a D sa? 
 livered into the hands of the assassin ; Aug. 25.' 
 and his body was denied to the pious and pressing 
 entreaties of his brother Valentinian." The death of 
 the emperor was followed by that of his powerful 
 general Mellobaudes, the king of the Franks ; who 
 maintained, to the last moment of his life, the ambi- 
 guous reputation, which is the just recompence of 
 obscure and subtle policy .p These executions miffht 
 be necessary to the public safety : but the successful 
 usurper, whose power was acknowledged by all the 
 provinces of the west, had the merit, and the satisfac- 
 tion, of boasting, that, except those who had perished 
 by the chance of war, his triumph was not stained by 
 the blood of the Romans.<» 
 
 The events of this revolution had Treaty of peso, 
 passed in such rapid succession, that it between Maxl- 
 would have been impossible for Theo- S'osius"*^ ^''*°* 
 dosius to march to the relief of his bene- Al-'aasa-ae?. 
 factor, before he received the intelligence of his de- 
 feat and death. During the season of sincere grief, 
 or ostentatious mourning, the eastern emperor was in- 
 terrupted by the arrivaPof the principal chamberlain 
 of Maximus ; and the choice of a venerable old man, 
 for an ofliee which was usually exercised by eunuchs, 
 announced to the court of Constantinople the gravity 
 and temperance of the British usurper. The ambas- 
 sador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct 
 of his master ; and to protest, in specious language, 
 that the murder of Gratian had been perpetrated, with- 
 out his knowledge or consent, by the precipitate zeal 
 of the soldiers. But he proceeded, in a firm and equal 
 tone, to offer Theodosius the alternative of peace or 
 war. The speech of the ambassador concluded with 
 a spirited declaration, that although Maximus, as a 
 Roman, and as the father of his people, would choose 
 rather to employ his forces in the common defence of 
 the republic, he was armed and prepared, if his friend- 
 ship should be rejected, to dispute, in a field of battle, 
 the empire of the world. An immediate and peremp- 
 tory answer was required ; but it was extremely difl[i- 
 cult for Theodosius to satisfy, on this important oc- 
 casion, either the feelings of his own mind, or the ex- 
 pectations of the public. The imperious voice of hon- 
 our and gratiti>de called aloud for revenge. From the 
 liberality of Gratian, he had received the imperial 
 diadeni : his patience would encourage the odious 
 suspicion, that he was more deeply sensible of former 
 injuries, than of recent obligations ; and if he accepted 
 the friendship, he must seem to share the guilt, of the 
 assassin. Even the principles of justice, and the in- 
 terest of society, would receive a fatal blow from the 
 impunity of Maximus : and the example of successful 
 usurpation would tend to dissolve the artificial fabric 
 of government, and once more to re-plunge the empire 
 in the crimes and calamities of the preceding age. 
 But, as the sentiments of gratitude and honour should 
 invariably regulate the conduct of an individual, they 
 may be overbalanced in the mind of a sovereign, by 
 the sense of superior duties ; and the maxims both of 
 justice and humanity must permit the escape of an 
 atrocioiis criminal, if an innocent people would be in- 
 volved in the consequences of his punishment. The 
 assassin of Gratian had usurped, but he actually pos- 
 
 o Zosimus (I. IV. p. i48, 249.) has transported the death of Gratian 
 from Lugdunum in Gaul (Lyons) to Singidunum in Moesia. Some 
 hints may bo extracted from the Chronicles; some lies may be de- 
 tected in Sozomen (I. vii. c. 13.) and Socrates, (1. v. c. 11.) Ambrose 
 18 our most authentic evidence, (torn. i. Enarrat. in Psalm Ixi. p. 961. 
 tom. 11. epist. xxiv. p. 83S, &c. and de Obiiu Valentinian. Consolat. 
 ho. 28. p. 1182.) 
 
 P Pacatus (xii. 28.) celebrates his fidelity; while his treachery i» 
 marked in Prosper's Chronicle, as the cause of the ruin of Gratian. 
 
 Ambrose, who has occasion to exculpate himself, only condemns the 
 of Vallio, a faithful servant of Gratian, (tom. ii epist. xxiv. p. 
 
 death 
 
 891. edit. Benedict.) 
 
 q He protested, nullum ex adversariis nisi in acie occubuisse. Sulp 
 Severus in Vit. B. Martin, c. 23. The orator of Theodosius bestows 
 reluctant, and therefore weighty, praise on his clemency. Si cui 
 ille, pro ceteris sceleribus suis, minus crudelis fuisse videtur. (Pa- 
 negyr. Vet. xii. 28.) 
 
 i 
 
372 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X?CVII. 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 »1A 
 
 sessed, the most warlike provinces of the empire : the 
 east was exhausted by the misfortunes, and even by 
 the success, of the Gothic war ; end it was seriously 
 to be apprehended, that, after the vital strength of the 
 republic had been wasted in a doubtful and destructive 
 contest, the feeble conqueror would remain an easy 
 prey to the barbarians of the north. These weighty 
 considerations engaged Theodosius to dissemble his 
 resentment, and to accept the alliance of the tyrant. 
 But he stipulated, that Maximus should content him- 
 pelf with the possession of the countries beyond the 
 Alps. The brother of Gratian was confirmed and se- 
 cured in the sovereignty of Italy, Africa, and the 
 western lUyricum ; and some honourable conditions 
 were inserted in the treaty, to protect the memory, and 
 the laws, of the deceased emperor.' According to the 
 custom of the age, the images of the three imperial 
 colleagues were exhibited to the veneration of the 
 people : nor should it be lightly supposed, that, in the 
 moment of a solemn reconciliation, Theodosius secret- 
 ly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge.* 
 Baptism and or- The Contempt of Gratian for the Ro- 
 thodnx edicu of p^ajj soldiers had exposed him to the 
 A D*'S). fatareffects of their resentment. His 
 Feb. 28. profound veneration for the christian 
 clergy was rewarded by the applause and gratitude of 
 a powerful order, which has claimed, in every age, the 
 privilege of dispensing honours, both on earth and 
 in heaven.* The orthodox bishops bewailed his death, 
 and their owo irreparable loss ; but they were soon 
 comforted by the discovery, that Gratian had com- 
 mitted the sceptre of the east to the hands of a prince 
 whose humble faith, and fervent zeal, were supported 
 by the spirit and abilities of a more vigorous charac- 
 ter. Among the benefactors of the church, the fame 
 of Constantine has been rivalled by the glory of Theo- 
 dosius. If Constantine had the advantage of erecting 
 the standard of the cross, the emulation, of his suc- 
 cessor assumed the merit of subduing the Arian her- 
 esy, and of abolishing the worship of idols in the Ro- 
 man world. Theodosius was the first of the emperors 
 baptized in the true faith of the Trinity. Although he 
 "was born of a christian family, the maxims, or at least 
 the practice, of the age, encouraged him to delay the 
 ceremony of his initiation; till he was admonished of 
 the danger of delay, by the serious illness which 
 threatened his life, towards the end of the first year 
 of his reign. Before he again took the field against 
 the Goths, he received the sacrament of" baptism 
 from Acholius, the orthodox bishop of Thessalonica:* 
 and, as the emperor ascended from the holy font, still 
 glowing with the warm feelings of regeneration, he 
 dictated a solemn edict, which proclaimed his own 
 faith, ^nd prescribed the religion of his subjects. " It 
 is our pleasure (such is the imperial style) that all the 
 nations, which are governed by our clemency and 
 moderation, should stedfastly adhere to the religion 
 which was taught by St. Peter to the Romans ; which 
 faithful tradition has preserved ; and which is now 
 profbssed by the pontiff of Damasus, and by Peter, 
 tishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. Ac- 
 cording to the discipline of the apostles, and the doc- 
 trine of the gospel, let us believe the sole deity of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; under an equal 
 majesty, and a pious Trinity. We authorize the fol- 
 lowers of this doctrine to assume the title of catholic 
 
 christians ; and as we judge, that all others are extra- 
 vagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous 
 name of heretics ; and declare, that their conventicles 
 shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of 
 churches. Besides the condemnation of divine jus- 
 tice, they must expect to sutTer the severe penalties, 
 which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, 
 shall think proper to inflict upon them." ^ The faith 
 of a soldier is commonly the fruit of instruction, rather 
 than of inquiry ; but as the emperor always fixed his 
 eyes on the visible landmarks of orthodoxy, which he 
 had so prudently constituted, his religious opinions 
 were never affected by the specious texts, the subtle 
 arguments, and the ambiguous creeds, of the Arian 
 doctors. Once indeed he expressed a faint inclina- 
 tion to converse with the eloquent and learned Euno- . 
 mius, who lived in retirement at a small distance from 
 Constantinople. But the dangerous interview was 
 prevented by the prayers of the empress Flaccilla, 
 •who trembled for the salvation of her husband ; and 
 the mind of Theodosius was confirmed by a theologi- 
 cal argument, adapted to the rudest capacity. He had 
 lately bestowed, on his eldest son Arcadius, the name 
 and honours of Augustus, and the two princes were 
 seated on a stately throne to receive the homage of 
 their subjects. A bishop, Amphilochius of Iconium, 
 approached the throne, and after saluting, with due 
 reverepce, the person of his sovereign, he accosted the 
 royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which 
 he might have used towards a plebeian child. Pro- 
 voked by this insolent behaviour, the monarch gave 
 orders, that the rustic priest should be instantly driven 
 from his presence. But while the guards were forc- 
 ing him to the door, the dexterous polemic had time 
 to execute his design, by exclaiming with a loud voice, 
 " Such is the treatment, O emperor ! which the King 
 of heaven has prepared for those impious men, who 
 affect to worship the Father, but refuse to acknow- 
 ledsje the equal majesty of his divine Son." Theo- 
 dosius immediately embraced the bishop of Iconium ; 
 and never forgot th'e important lesson, which he had 
 received from this dramatic parable." 
 
 Constantinople was the principal seat ArianismofCon- 
 and fortress of Arianism ; and, in a long . *^^"V"°»'!!^. 
 interval of forty years,* the faith of the a.d.340-380. 
 princes and prelates, who reigned in the capital of the 
 east, was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and 
 Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of Macedoni- 
 us, which had been polluted with so much christian 
 I blood, was successively filled by Eudoxius and Damo- 
 philus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of 
 vice and error from every province of the empire ; the 
 eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new 
 occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis; and 
 we may credit the assertion of an intelligent observer, 
 who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their 
 loquacious zeal. "This city," says he, J* is full of me- 
 chanics and slaves, who are all of them profound theo- 
 logians ; and preach in the shops, and in the streets. If 
 you desire a man to change a piece of silver, he in- 
 forms you, wherein the Son differs from the Father : 
 if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told, by way of 
 reply, that the Son is inferior to the Father; and if 
 you inquire, whether the bath is ready, the answer is, 
 that the Son was made out of nothing." *• The here- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 r Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quaa non abrogavit hoslis, 
 (torn. ii. epist. xvii. p. 827.) 
 
 t Zosimufl, 1. iv. p. 251, 252. We may disclaim his odious suspi- 
 cions ; but we cannot reject the treaty of peace which the friends of 
 Theodosius have absolutely forgotten, or slishtly mentioned. 
 
 t Their oracle, the archbishop of Milan, assigns to his pupil Gratian 
 a high and respectable place in heaven, (torn. ii. de Obit. Val. Con- 
 8ol. p. X193.) 
 
 u For the bjptiem of Theodosius, see Sozomen, (I. vii. c. 1.) Socra- 
 tes, (I. V, c. 6.) and Tillemont, (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 728.) 
 
 X Ascoliua, or Acholius, was honoured by the friendship, and the 
 praiaes, of Ambrose ; who styles him, murus fidei atque sauctitatis, 
 rtom. ii. epist. xv. p. 820.) and afterwards celebrates nis speed and 
 diligence in running to Constantinople, Italy, &c. (epist. xvi.p. 822.) 
 a virtue which does not appertain either to a wall or a bishop. 
 
 y Coilex Theodos. 1. xvi. lit. i. leg. 2. with Godefroy's Commentary, 
 torn. vi. p. 5 — 9. Such an edict deserved the wannest praises of Ba- 
 ronius, auream sanctiunem, edictum pium ct salutare.— Sic itur ad 
 asl ra. 
 
 I Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 6. Theodorel, 1. v. c. 16. Tillemont is dis- 
 
 K leased (Mem. Eccles. tnm. vi. p. 627, 628.) with the terms of" nistic 
 ishop," "obscure city." Yet I must take leave to think, that both 
 Amnliilochiusand Iconium were objects of inconsiderable magnitude 
 in tne Roman empire. 
 
 » Sozomen, 1. vii. c 5. Socrates, 1. v. c. 7. Marcellin. In Chron. 
 The account of forty years must be dated {torn the election or intni- 
 sion of Eusebius ; who wisely exchanged the bishopric of Nicomedia 
 for the throne of Constantinople. 
 
 b See Jortiu's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p 71. 
 The thirtv-third Oration of Gregory Nazianzen aflftiris, indeed, some 
 similar ideas, even some still more ridiculous; but I have not yet 
 
 tics, of various denominations, subsisted in peace un- 
 der the protection of the Arians of Constantinople ; 
 who endeavoured to secure the attachment of those 
 obscure sectaries ; while they abused, with unrelent- 
 ing seventy, tlie victory which they had obtained over 
 the followers of the council of Nice. During the par- 
 tial reigns of Constantius and Valens, the feeble rem- 
 nant ol the Homoousians was deprived of the public 
 and private exercise of their religion ; and it has been 
 observed, in pathetic language, that the scattered 
 flock was left without a shepherd, to wander on the 
 mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves.*^ 
 But as their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived 
 strength and vigour from oppression, they seized the 
 first moments of imperfect freedom, which they acquir- 
 ed by the death of Valens, to form themselves into a 
 regular congregation, under the conduct of an episco- 
 GregoryNazi. pal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, 
 anz.„ Bag , ^^^ Gregory Nazianzen,'' were dis- 
 tinguished above all their contemporaries,' by the rare 
 union of profane eloquence and^f orthodox piety! 
 l^Zl^^ ' 7^ "^'^^^ sometimes be compared, by 
 
 of t^. !n ^'' ? n \ '^" P"^"^' '^ '^^ "^««t celebrated 
 of he ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the 
 strictest friendship They had cultivated, with equal 
 
 AthTn'^ th ^T'Jib^^^] «t»dies in the ' schools^ of 
 Athens they had retired, with equal devotion, to the 
 same solitude in the deserts of Pontus ; and every spark 
 of emulation or envy, appeared to be totally extinguish- 
 ed in the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregofy and 
 ♦n tl u- ^^^ ^^^V^tion of Basil, from a private life 
 
 to the archiepiscopal throne of Ca^sarea, discovered to 
 the world, and perhaps to himself, the pride of his char- 
 acter ; and the first favour which he condescended to 
 
 in^lT^''" ^'^ ^'''^'\^- "^^^ received, and perhaps was 
 intended, as a cruel insult.' Instead of employ ng the 
 superior talents of Gregory in some useful and con- 
 spicuous station, the haughty prelate selected, among 
 the fifty bishoprics of his extensive province, thS 
 wretched village of Sasima,^ without w-ater, without 
 verdure, without society, situate at the junction of 
 three highways, and frequented only by the incessant 
 passage of rude and clamorous waggoners. Grefforv 
 submitted with reluctance to this ""humiliating exile : 
 he was ordained bishop of Sasima; but he solemnly 
 protests, that he never consummated his spiritual 
 marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards 
 consented to undertake the government of his native 
 church of Nazianzus,'^ of which his father had been 
 
 373 
 
 fartft\%r;^! ^nd^'iiUriTSori? p""^*^' ^^'^^ ' ^"^^^ - ^- 
 
 SrsX^teTI^LTuVd" ^^^="^^^'^ ^'^ inveteS?e'Stf of Thl 
 
 h^y^^t^ Gregory Nazianzen mistook thirty years in his own a<re 
 he was born, as well as his friend Basil, aboul the year 329 ffi 
 Kn^ f T' ^''^""'^1^'Py of Suidas has been praciousl/Scpfved -be 
 cause 11 removes the scandal of Gregory's father a sRint it^J^^j^n 
 begetung children after he became a bishop. (TmLoil Mem Ec- 
 cles. torn. IX. p, 693— 697.) \*"iciiiujii, mem. tc- 
 
 (iL?'frVl ^""T u\^''^ '•r" ^'<''' contains some beautiful lines 
 ^el!.S^ ?oLTr*ll^n^,stp"? '^^'^ ^'^ ^^^'^^ -^ «^-^ ^'^ ^^ 
 
 wovai xsivst Kcyuiv. 
 
 O/toTTtyef Ti x«i o-uvio-Tioj jBfOf 
 Kxj tig (V xftpziv . 
 
 in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena iH^roooon .i.« „ ^ 
 thetic cdhiplaint to her friend Hermia : ^^^'^^sses the same pa- 
 
 ls all the counsel that we two have shared 
 The sister's vows. Sec. ' 
 
 Shakespeare had never read the poems of Gre^orv Na^ian^n,, u„ 
 ienommof the Greek lan.uag.^ Xi his nSer^fongu^f?he?an^^^^^^^ 
 of nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain 'anguage 
 
 K This unfavourable portrait of Sasima is drawn by Greeorv Nn7\ 
 anzen (tom ii de Vita sua p. 7, 8.) Its precise situation'S^Sne 
 miles from Archilais, and thiriy.two from Tyana, is fixed in the It^Le 
 rary of Antoninus, (p. 144. edit. Wesseling.) '^®' 
 
 h The name of Nazianzus has been immortalized by Grecorv • but 
 his native town under the Greek or Roman title of Dioc»sare7 (Til- 
 lemont Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 692.) is mentioned by PUny, (vi i} 
 
 bishop above five-and-forty years. But 
 as he was still conscious that he deserv '""'®P^" ^^^ '"'"- 
 ed another audience, and another theatre, tr;!."^"""- 
 ne accepted, with no unworthy ambi- A. D. 378. Nor. 
 tion, the honourable invitation, which was addressed 
 to him from the orthodox party of Constantinople On 
 his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertain;d in 
 the house of a pious and charitable kinsman ; the most 
 spacious roorn was consecrated to the uses of reHgTous 
 worship; and the name of Jnasiasia ^^^s chosfi^ to 
 express the resurrection of the Nicene faith This 
 private conventicle was afterwards converted into a 
 magnificent church; and the credulity of the succeed 
 ing age was prepared to believe the miracles and 
 visions, which attested the presence, or at least the 
 protection, of the Mother of God.^ The pulpit of the 
 Anastasia was the scene of the labours and triumphs 
 of Gregory Nazianzen ; and, in the space of two veirs 
 he experienced all the spiritual adventures which 
 
 tlnnllTn^ ^t P'f P«^°"s «f adverse fortunes of a mis- 
 sionary. Ihe Arians, who were provoked by Uie 
 boldness of his enterprise, represented his doctrine, 
 as it he had preached three distinct and equal deities! 
 and the devout populace was excited to suppress, bv 
 violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies of the 
 Athanasian heretics. From the cathedral of St. So- 
 phia, there issued a motley crowd " of common beff- 
 gars, who had forfeited their claim to pity ; of monkl 
 who had the appearance of goats or satyrs ; and of 
 women, more terrible than so many Jezebels." The 
 doors of the Anastasia were broke open; much mis- 
 chiet was perpetrated, or attempted, with fticks, 
 stones, and firebrands; and as a man lost his life in 
 the affray, Gregory, who was summoned the next 
 morning before the magistrate, had the satisfaction of 
 supposing that he publicly confessed the name of 
 l-hrist. After he was delivered from the fear and dan- 
 ger of a foreign enemy, his infant church was disgrac- 
 ed and distracted by intestine faction. A stranger'who 
 assumed the name of Maximus,» and the cloak of a 
 t.ynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the confi- 
 dence of Gregory ; deceived and abused his favourable 
 opinion ; and forming a secret connexion with some 
 bishops of Egypt, attempted, by a clandestine ordina- 
 t!on, to supplant his patron in the episcopal seat of 
 Constantinople. These mortifications mi<rht some- 
 times tempt the Cappadocian missionary to^earet his 
 obscure solitude. But his fatigues were rewarded by 
 the daily increase of his fame and his congregation ; 
 and he enjoyed the pleasure of observino-, that the 
 greater part of his numerous audience retired from his 
 ^ sermons, satisfied with the eloquence of the preacher "" 
 or dissatisfied with the manifold imperfections of their 
 taith and practice." 
 
 The catholics of Constantinople were 
 animated with joyful confidence by thea^^^r.^n.toT. 
 baptism and edict of Theodosius ; and A. D. 380. * ' 
 they impatiently waited the eflfects of his ^"''' ^• 
 gracious promise. Their hopes were speedily accom- 
 plished ; and the emperor, as soon as he had finished 
 the operations of the campaign, made his public entry 
 into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The 
 next day after his arrival, he summoned Damophilus 
 
 Ptolemy, and Hierocles. (Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 709.) It aDpeara 
 to have been situate on the edffe of Isauria. '^t>b"*^iv 
 
 i See Ducange, ConsUnt. Christiana, I. iv. p. 141, 142. The Su» 
 Miry.'' ^"^""'*^" ^*- '*'"• <^- 5-) is interpreted to mean the Virgin 
 
 k Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 432, &c.) dilieently collects, 
 hhnsd?' ^*P^*"'S, the oratorical and poetical hints of Gregory 
 
 1 He pronounced an oration ^om. i.Orat. xxili. p. 409.) in his praise; 
 but after their quarrel, the name of Maximus was changed into that 
 Of Heron, ^sce Jerom, tom. i. in Cataloc Script. Eccles. p. 301.) I 
 touch slightly on these obscure and personal squabbles. 
 • " Under the modest emblem of a dream Gregory (tom. ii. Carmen 
 IX. p. 78.) describes his own success with some human complacency. 
 Yet It should seem, from his familiar conversation with his auditor 
 
 . lu^ ^^^'"- '; *'P''!.^- ^^ Nepotian. p. 14.) that the preacher under- 
 stood the true value of popular applause. 
 n LachiymaB auditorum laudes tuae sint, is the lively and judicious 
 
 '^ 
 
 4 
 
374 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVII. 
 
 Chap. XXVII. 
 
 ^ 
 
 to his presence ; and offered that Arian prelate the hard 
 alternative of subscribing the nicene creed, or of in- 
 stantly resigning-, to the orthodox believers, the use 
 and possession of the episcopal palace, the cathedral 
 of St. Sophia, and all the churches of Constantinople. 
 The zeal of Damophilus, which in a catholic saint 
 would have been justly applauded, embraced, without 
 hesitation, a life of poverty and exile," and his removal 
 was immediately followed by the purification of the 
 imperial city. The Arians might complain, with some 
 appearance of justice, that an inconsiderable congre- ■ 
 gation of sectaries should usurp the hundred churches, 
 which they were insufficient to fill : whilst the far 
 greater part of the people was cruelly excluded from 
 every place of religious worship. Theodosius was 
 still inexorable : but as the angels who protected the 
 catholic cause, were only visible to the eyes of faith, 
 he prudently reinforced those heavenly legions, with 
 the more effectual aid of temporal and carnal weapons; 
 and the church of St. Sophia was occupied by a large 
 body of the imperial guards. If the mind of Gregory 
 was susceptible of pride, he must have felt a very 
 lively satisfaction, when the emperor conducted him 
 through the streets in solemn triumph ; and, with his 
 own hand, respectfully placed him on the archiepis- 
 copal throne of Constantinople. But the saint (who 
 had not subdued the imperfections of human virtue) 
 was deeply affected by the mortifying consideration, 
 that his entrance into the fold was that of a wolf, 
 rather than of a shepherd ; that the glittering arms, 
 which surrounded his person, were necessary for his 
 safety ; and that he alone was the object of the impre- 
 cations of a great party, whom, as men and citizens, 
 it was impossible for him to despise. He beheld the 
 innumerable multitude of either sex, and of every age, 
 who crowded the streets, the windows, and the roofs 
 of the houses ; he heard the tumultuous voice of rasre, 
 grief, astonishment, and despair; and Grefjory fairly 
 confesses, that on the memorable day of his installa- 
 tion, the capital of the east wore the appearance of a 
 city taken by storm, and in the hands of a barbarian 
 conqueror.P About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius 
 declared his resolution of expelling from all the 
 churches of his dominions the bishops and their clergy, 
 who should obstinately refuse to believe, or at least 
 to profess, the doctrine of the council of Nice. His 
 In the enst. iieutenant Sapor was armed with the am- 
 A.D. 381. pie powers of a general law, a special 
 Jan. 10. commission, and a military force ;*i and 
 this ecclesiastical revolution was conducted with so 
 much discretion and vigour, that the religion of the 
 emperor was established, without tumult, or blood- 
 shed, in all the provinces of the east. The writings 
 of the Arians, if they had been permitted to exist,' 
 would perhaps contain the lamentable story of the per- 
 secution, which afflicted the church under the reign 
 of the impious Theodosius ; and the sufferings of their 
 holy confessors misrht claim the pity of the disinter- 
 ested reader. Yet there is reason to imagine, that the 
 violence of zeal and revenge was, in some measure, 
 eluded by the want of resistance ; and that, in their 
 adversity, the Arians displayed much less firmness, 
 than had been exerted by the orthodox party under the 
 reigns of Constantius and Valens. The moral char- 
 acter and conduct of the hostile sects appear to have 
 been governed by the same common principles of na- 
 
 o Socrates (1. v. c. 7.) and Sozompn (1. vii. c. 5.) relate the evan- 
 gelical words and actions of Damophilus without a word of approba- 
 tion. He considered, says Socrates, that it is difficult to resist the 
 powerful ; but it was easy, and would have been profitable, io submit. 
 
 p See Gregory Nazianzen, torn. ii. de Vita sua, p. 21, 22. For the 
 sake of posterity, the bishop of Constantinople records a stupendous 
 urodigy. In the month of November, it was a cloudy morning, but 
 ihe sun broke forth when the procession entered the church. 
 
 q Of the three ecclesiastical historians, Theodoret alone (1. v. c.2.) 
 has mentioned this important commission of Sapor, which Tillemont 
 (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 723.) judiciously removes, from the 
 reign of Gratian, to that of Theodosius. 
 
 r I do not reckon Philostorgius, though he mentions (I ix. c. 19.) 
 the expulsion of Damophilus. The Eunomian history has been care- 
 fully strained through an orthodox sieve. 
 
 ture and religion ; but a very material circumstance 
 may be discovered, which tended to distinguish the 
 degrees of their theological faith. Both parties, in 
 the schools, as well as in the temples, acknowledged 
 and worshipped the divine majesty of Christ; and, as 
 we are always prone to impute our own sentiments 
 and passions to the Deity, it would be deemed more 
 prudent and respectful to exaggerate, than to circum- 
 scribe, the adorable perfections of the Son of God. 
 The disciple of Athanasius exulted in the proud con- 
 fidence, that he had entitled himself to the divine fa- 
 vour; while the follower of Arius must have been 
 tormented, by the secret apprehension, that he was 
 guilty, perhaps, of an unpardonable offence, by the 
 scanty praise, and parsimonious honours, which he be- 
 stowed on the Judge of the world. The opinions of 
 Arianism might satisfy a cold and speculative mind ; 
 but the doctrine of the Nicene creed, most powerfully 
 recommended by the merits of faith and devotion, was 
 much better adapted to become popular and successful 
 in a believing age. 
 
 The hope, that truth and wisdom •phg council of 
 would be found in the assemblies of the ConRtaminopie, 
 orthodox clergy, induced the emperor to ^- ^' ^^' ^"y* 
 convene, at Constantinople, a synod of one hundred 
 and fifty bishops, who proceeded, without much diffi- 
 culty or delay, to complete the theological system 
 which had been established in the council of Nice. 
 The vehement disputes of the fourth century had been 
 chiefly employed on the nature of the Son of God. 
 and the various opinions which were embraced con- 
 cerning the second, were extended and transferred, by 
 a natural analogy, to the third, person of the Trinity.* 
 Yet it was found, or it was thought, necessary, by the 
 victorious adversaries of Arianism, to explain the am- 
 biguous language of some respectable doctors ; to con- 
 firm the faith of the catholics ; and to condemn an un- 
 popular and inconsistent sect of Macedonians; who 
 freely admitted that the Son was consubstantial to the 
 Father, while they were fearful of eeeming to acknowl- 
 edge the existence of Three Gods. A final and unan- 
 imous sentence was pronounced to ratify the equal 
 Deity of the Holy Ghost ; the mysterious doctrine has 
 been received by all the nations, and all the churches, 
 of the christian world ; and their grateful reverence 
 has assigned to the bishops of Theodosius, the second 
 rank among the general councils.* Their knowledge 
 of religious truth may have been preserved by tradi- 
 tion, or it may have been communicated by inspiration; 
 but the sober evidence of history will not allow much 
 weight to the personal authority of the fathers of Con- 
 stantinople. In an age, when the ecclesiastics had 
 scandalously degenerated from the model of apostoli- 
 cal purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always 
 the most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal 
 assemblies. The conflict and fermentation of so many 
 opposite interests and tempers inflamed the passions 
 of the bishops : and their ruling passions were, the 
 love of gold, and the love of dispute. Many of the 
 samp prelates who now applauded the orthodox piety 
 of Theodosius, had repeatedly changed, with prudeiit 
 flexibility, their creeds and opinions; and in the vari- 
 ous revolutions of the church and state, the religion 
 of their sovereign was the rule of their obsequious 
 faith. When the emperor suspended his prevailing in- 
 fluence, the turbulent synod was blindly impelled by 
 the absurd or selfish motives of pride, hatred, and re- 
 sentment. The death of Meletius, which happened 
 
 * Le Clerc has eiven a curious extract (Bibliotheque Universelle 
 torn, xviii. p. 91—1(0 of the theological sermons which Gregory 
 Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople airainst the Arians, Euno- 
 mians, Macedonians, 5cc. He tells the Macedonians, who deified the 
 Father anil the Son, without the Holy Ghost, that they might as well 
 be styled Tritheists as Detheists. Gregory himself was almost a 
 Tritheist ; and his monarchy of heaven resembles a well-regulated 
 aristocracy. . ... 
 
 t The first ceneral council of Constantinople now triumphs in the 
 Vatican : but the popes had long hesitated, and their hesitation per- 
 plexes, and almost staggers, the humble Tillemont. (Mem. Eccle«. 
 lom. ix. p. 499, MO.) 
 
 
 at the council of Constantmople, presented the most 
 favorable opportunity of terminating the schism of 
 Antioch, by suffering his aged rival, Paulinus, peacea- 
 bly to end his days in the episcopal chair. The faith 
 and virtues of Paulinus were unblemished. But his 
 cause was supported by the western churches ; and he 
 bishops of the synod resolved to perpetuate the mis- 
 chiefs of discord, by the hasty ordination of a periur- 
 ed candidate," rather than to betray the imagined dicr. 
 mty of the east, which had been illustrated by the 
 birth and death of the Son of God. Such unjust and 
 disorderly proceedmgs forced the gravest members of 
 the assembly to dissent and to secede ; and the dam- 
 
 of battle could be compared only to wasps or magpies, 
 to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of geese.« ^ 
 Retreat of Gre- A Suspicion may possibly arise that 
 gon^ Nazianzen. SO unfavourable a picture cf ecclesiasti- 
 ♦; 1 u J* r synods has been drawn by the par- 
 
 infider But'thT '^'''"''; \''''^'^ '' some malicious 
 mtidel. But the name of the sincere historian who 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 has conveyed this instructive ressrio t^^e krwleTci: leasi fif'teen'r^"" ^l ''^^^" ■^^^^^' ^^ P-^-'l-tel^t 
 of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs of tn! If" ^ n " ^^^^'^ f^'^^' ^5^'"^^ ^^e heretics ; " more 
 
 c ^ •: V.V.V.TV, icovswii i,u iiie KnowiPri<T( 
 
 of posterity must silence the impotent murmurs of su 
 perstition and bigotry. He was one ofThe most pio^s 
 and eloquent bishops of the age ; a saint and a d^o^.^. 
 of the church; the scourge of Arianism, and the pil- 
 lar of the orthodox faith ; a distinguished member of 
 the coimc.1 of Constantinople, in which, after the 
 dea h of M.Ietuis, he exercised the functions of presi^ 
 dent : in a word-Gregory Nazianzen himself. ^The 
 Sr.^";£""?"! '^^':^' -^'fh he experienced,. 
 
 375 
 
 more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia; where 
 
 veX\l^ '^' '""'^"^^^ °^^i^ 1^'^' about etht 
 
 Ju^^'fl ! ^^^^'•^•jses of poetry and devotion. The 
 
 itle of Saint has been added to his name • but th^ 
 
 :S :ra mol '? '^"S ^"' ^^^ ^^^^nce^his genius! 
 
 ory^N?zirz"n!^'^""^ ^"^^" ^" '''' "^^^^ ^^^-^- 
 
 It was not enough that Theodosius Edicts of TJ.eo. 
 had suppressed the insolent reign of dolfaS^^ 
 Arianism, or that he had abundantly ^''^ Wiic. 
 revenged the injuries which the catholics m-^4 
 sustained from the zeal of Constantius and Valens 
 1 he orthodox emperor considered every heretic as a 
 reoei against the supreme powers of heaven and of 
 earth; and each of these powers might exercise their 
 peculiar jiiris( ictjon over the soul and body of the 
 guilty. The decrees of the council of Constantinople 
 had ascertained the true standard of the faith ; and the 
 ecclesiastics, who governed the conscience of Theodo- 
 sius, suggested the most effectual methods of persecu- 
 tion. In the space of fifteen years, he promulgated at 
 
 . -. — • . ..^"^..oi vnc; iicicuus, more 
 
 especially against those who rejected the doctrine of 
 the Irinity; and to deprive them of every hope of 
 escape, he sternly enacted, that if any laws or re- 
 scripts should be alleged in their favour, the judges 
 should consider them as the illegal productions either 
 
 Jr^TJ:^ "'•"''^- ^l'^ ^^"""^ «^^^"^« ^'^^^ directed 
 against the ministers, the assemblies, and the persons, 
 
 ot the heretics; and the passions of the legislator were 
 
 expressed in the language of declamation and invec- 
 
 live. I. I np> hArofinol ♦^^.^U^-- .-.l_ 
 
 instead of derogating from the truth of hTs'evfdence tTve'''? tL*'',! ^'TI^' of declamation and invec 
 afrordsanadditionalproofofthespiritwhieh jrS !t j.'.i '"^l"*™''''''' 'eachers, who usurped the 
 the deliberations of the synod. Their Unanimous suf- IxJhfZZ "^ ,t''''°P^l "' P'O'^J^'''-' were n^ot only 
 frage had confirmed the pretensions which the h;J.„. tl../'?"" "?* P"yileges and emoluments so liber- 
 
 fro^-a ko^ c "—"j'"'^' *»tcu uimnimoussu - 
 
 of rnnlnt" T'^ '^" pretensions which the bishop 
 of Constantinople derived from the choice of the peo- 
 pie, and the approbation of the emperor. But GrLo 
 
 ally granted to the orthodox clergy, but they were ex- 
 posed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation. 
 If they presumed to preach the doctrine, or to practise 
 
 ry soon became the victim of malice and envy The' he ri.h^rrTif^- '" ^'"'"5 '^'^ ^°"'^'"^' «^ '^ P^^^^'^e 
 bishops of the east, his strenuous adherents, provoked nfJnhir) T' «f^"T "^ f^^^ts. A fine of ten pounds 
 by his moderation in the affairs of Antioch, Lf and oned oS of 1?' ^^^"' ^""^['^ T "?^^ «^^^^'"^) ^^' ^^' 
 
 b^ his moderation in the affairs o? r/t^cr^nS 
 him, without support, to the adverse faction of the 
 Egyptians; who disputed the validity of his election, 
 
 hiL'T'T'^^ ^''^'^^^ ^^^ ^^'°^*^^^ ^^"«"» that prohil 
 bited the licentious practice of episcopal translations. 
 The pride, or the humility, of Gregory, prompted him 
 
 o athir ' """T"' '^^''^' "^'^^^ ^^^« been imputed 
 to ambition and avarice; and he publicly offered, not 
 without some mixture of indignation, to renounce the 
 
 posed on every person who should dare to confer, or 
 receive, or promote, an heretical ordination; and it 
 was reasonahly expected, that if the race of pastors 
 could be extinguished, their helpless flocks would be 
 compe led, by ignorance and hunger, to return within 
 the pale of the catholic church. II. The rigorous pro- 
 hibition of conventicles was carefully extended to 
 every possible circumstance, in which the heretics 
 could assemble with the intention of worshippino- God 
 
 government of a church, which had been estored and f "';!., ^^.^'"nb'e with the intention of worshipping God 
 almost created, by his labours. His resigns' was Th.Pr'?"""''^'"^^ of their conscience, 
 
 accepted by the synod, and by the emperor whmTre J ''I'S'^^mefngs, whether public or secret, by 
 readiness than he seems to have ejected At Z^ n' ^^ "'?.^'' '" "'"«' "' *" "•« country, weri 
 1™!.*'!- •■5"»?.'>' have hoper; 7Zyt frdts'o'f' Zl L'!:!f"l!'l.^L":!J:'''=^"/ Theodosi.^ ; and 
 
 time When he might have hoped to enjoy the fruits of 
 his victory, his episcopal throne was filled by the sen- 
 ator Nectarius ; and the new archbishop, accidentally 
 recomnriended by his easy temper and venerable aspect 
 
 m\ftf '" ^'^7 '^f ceremony of his consecraUon; 
 If had previously despatched the rites of his bap^ 
 I sm. After this remarkable experience of the ingrat- 
 itude of princes and prelates, Gregory retired once 
 
 the building, or ground, which had been used for that 
 Illegal purpose, was forfeited to the imperial domain. 
 111. It was supposed that the error of the heretics 
 could proceed only from the obstinate temper of their 
 minds ; and such a temper was a fit object of censure 
 and punishment. The anathemas of the church were 
 fortified by a sort of civil excommunication ; which 
 separated them from their fellow-citizens, by a peculiar 
 brand of infamy ; and this declaration of the supreme 
 magistrate tended to justify, or at least to excuse, the 
 
 infinite nf o fr.r,^*:^ ^ .,} mi . . ' 
 
 cIpsSm *mon?!l'h™„'tlf iJl'^ "i i — ■."" ~ J"— 'J. "• a' .«asi lo excuse, tne 
 
 r'"'""''^^^ri:'S7Z:l7&:°oXfi^^^^^^^^^ '^"l?"" P^P-'^^o- The sectaries ^ere 
 
 bvJn^V'h Ji'iiCr^J.""""' "•"" •l""y ^-li'beiiew-th'a J.^T^il I gi-=;<l«ally disqualified for the possession of honourable 
 whirL''™ lt'o'Lr.„T%"S7S'y Chr',,'!^?/ "'^T' 1 VA''"fl^- ^mP'oyn^-i's ■< and Theodosius was satis- 
 cl.ar,c,erof,,ai„u .M.m Eccle, t^om'^x p 5?1 '' ° ' ' . I^'"' *"' """ J"'"""' '^''«" •«= decreed, that, as 
 
 >noraTTn,l°S':;,^/±"X„"^^^Y'"»"''•'™^i^^ Hi,!'''« Eunomians distinguished the nature of the Son 
 
 81 l.iom.ii. Carmen r.nsf, s',.Ik ll:.".'?hLP, ?>!. tp«': 'v- p. i making their wills. or of receivin.. anv advantage 
 
 from tpcfl»m«r.*o».,T ^^„^*: rrn - 5-1. "^/^ ., «> *". 
 
 TiUen^onl\^u7Z^wJjb^^l^^^^ ^^'^'' ''''""' ""' of receiving any advantage 
 
 "s^ GVc\"fr/rul^'^n'rY!lJ sua^'^'ds-si Tho r u ^l'"" testamentary donations. The |uilt of the Mani- 
 
 irrrlr?'''"^\"J' l^'^^y-'''*^^"'' Orati ^vas esteemed of such magnitude, that 
 
 several starres of this businrs.. Th. n.r„.,.:.„ ,.r^u. .^i^.^^ '".^he ,t ^ould be cxpiatcd only by the death of the offender ; 
 
 soveral sta.es of this business. The peroration ;fThei;:;'C(tom"i o 
 rf^\l. 7^'"^ ^^ ^1^''''^ ^ "•'l'^'^" ^«*^« «f '«Pn --ind angels, thi' cit^v 
 subii'^r'"^""""' '^' '^' ""^ '^^ ^^«^' ^'' •« P^^hetic', ai d aimis^ 
 
 -••;•■- . i * ^ *l^" ^."^y ^^ understood to mean, that such was his natural tem- 
 
 vi^ I ^t""'i?M "'•^'nation of Nectarius is attested by Sozomen n ' 'hfl'J'r '^ 'T'^u ""^ hard^n^d or inflamed by religious zeal. From 
 Anrl\^-\^"^ Tillemont observes, (Mem. Eccles. tom^ ix p 7%^; r' ^'7^"'^"/' ^^ ^^*'^'^« Nectareius to prosecute the heretics of 
 Apres tout, ce narro de Sozomene est si hontpnv iv.,ir tnn-^lA ' ,i 1 Constantinople. 
 
 y mele, et surtout pour TheXe? qu'i vaut m eu^^tm^aUler d 1? de' ' f ' ?"" '^'' The,xlosian Code, I. xvi. tit. v. leg. 6-23. with Gode- 
 truire, qu' a le eoutenir r an admirable canon^f criS ! '' ^'" J /K«^Sr"? MM-llS ^''^' *""* *"'' ^'"''*' summary, or P^H 
 
376 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 and the same capital punishment was inflicted on the 
 Audians, or Quartodecimans,^ who should dare to per- 
 petrate the atrocious crime of celebrating, on an im- 
 proper day, the festival of Easter. Every Roman 
 might exercise the right of public accusation: but the 
 office o{ Inquisitor of the Faith, a name so deservedly 
 abhorred, was first instituted under the reign of Theo- 
 dosius. Yet we are assured, that the execution of his 
 penal edicts was seldom enforced ; and that the pious 
 emperor appeared less desirous to punish, than to re- 
 claim, or terrify, his refractory subjects.^ 
 
 r, . „ p The theory of persecution was estab- 
 Execution of _. , , , _,/ , r. . , 
 
 PrisciUian and lished by Theodosius, whosejustice and 
 his asBtwiatcB, piety havc been applauded by the saints : 
 A. D. 385. ^^^ ^^^ practice of it, in the fullest ex- 
 tent, was reserved for his rival and colleague, Maxi- 
 mus, the first, among the christian princes, who shed 
 the blood of his christian subjects, on account of their 
 religious opinions. The cause of the Priscillianists,* 
 a recent sect of heretics, who disturbed the provinces 
 of Spain, was transferred, by appeal, from the synod 
 of Bourdeaux to the imperial consistory of Treves ; 
 and by the sentence of the praetorian praefect, seven 
 persons were tortured, condemned, and executed. The 
 first of these was PrisciUian 'himself, bishop of Avi- 
 la,K in Spain ; who adorned the advantages of birth and 
 fortune, by the accomplishments of eloquence and 
 learning. Two presbyters, and two deacons, accom- 
 panied their beloved master in his death, which they 
 esteemed as a glorious martyrdom ; and the number 
 of religious victims was completed by the execution 
 of Latronian, a poet, who rivalled the fame of the an- 
 cients; and of Euchrocia, a noble matron of Bour- 
 deaux, the widow of the orator Delphidius.'' Two 
 bishops, who had embraced the sentiments of Priscil- 
 lian, were condemned to a distant and dreary exile ;' 
 and some indulgence was shown to the meaner crim- 
 inals, who assumed the merit of an early repentance. 
 If any credit could be allowed to confessions extorted 
 by fear or pain, and to vague reports, the offspring of 
 malice and credulity, the heresy of the Priscillianists 
 would be found to include the various abominations of 
 magic, of impiety, and of lewdness.*' PrisciUian, 
 who wandered about the world in the company of his 
 spiritual sisters, was accused of praying stark-naked in 
 the midst of the congregation ; and it was confidently 
 asserted, that the effects of his criminal intercourse 
 with the daughter of Euchrocia, had been suppressed, 
 by means still more odious and criminal. But an ac- 
 curate, or rather a candid, inquiry, will discover, that 
 if the Priscillianists violated the laws of nature, it was 
 not by the licentiousness, but by the austerity, of their 
 lives. They absolutely condemned the use of the 
 marriage-bed : and the peace of families was often dis- 
 turbed by indiscreet separations. They enjoined, or 
 recommended, a total abstinence from all animal food ; 
 
 c They always kept their Easter, like the Jewish passover, on the 
 fourteenth day of the first imwn after the vernal equinox ; anil thus 
 
 Seriinaciously opp<isedlhe Roman church and Nicene synod, which 
 a,d fixed Easter to a Sunday. Bingham's Antiquities, 1. xx. c. 5. vol. 
 ii. p. 309. fol. edit. 
 
 d Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 12. 
 
 e See the Sacred History of Sulpicius Sevenis, (1. ii. p. 437 — 452. 
 edit. Lusrd. Bat. 1G47.) a correct and orisinal writer. Dr. Lard nor 
 (Credibility, &c. part ii. vol. ix. p. 256—350.) has laboured this arti- 
 cle with pure learnins^, good sense, and moderation. Tillemonl 
 (Mem. Eccles. torn. viii. p. 491 — 527.) has raked together all the dirt 
 of the fathers : an useful scavenger ! 
 
 f Severus Sulpicius mentions the arch-heretic with esteem and pity. 
 Fajlix profecto, si non pravo studio corrumpisset optimum ingenium : 
 prorsus multa in eo anmii et corporis bona cernes. (Hist. Sacra. 1. ii. 
 p. 439.) Even Jrrom (torn. i. in Script. Eccles. p. 302.) speaks with 
 temper of PrisciUian and Latronian. 
 
 K Tiie bishopric (in Old Castile) is now worth 20,000 ducats a year, 
 (Husching's Geography, vol. ii. p. 308.) and is therefore much less 
 iikely to prixluce the author of a new heresy. 
 
 h Lxprobabatur mulieri viduae nimia religio, et diligentius culla 
 divinitas. (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29.) Such was the idea of a 
 humane, though ignorant, polytheist. 
 
 i One of them was sent into Syllinam insulam quae ultra Britan- 
 niam est. What must have been the ancient condition of the rocks 
 of Scilly 7 (Camden's Britannia, vol. ii. p-. 1519.) 
 
 k The scandalous calumnies of Augustin, pnjpe Leo, &c. which Til- 
 lemont swallows like a child, and Lardner refutes like a man, may 
 •uggest some candid suspicions in favour of the older Gnostics. 
 
 and their continual prayers, fasts, and visrils, inculcat- 
 ed a rule of strict and perfect devotion. The specula- 
 tive tenets of the sect, concerning the person of Christ, 
 and the nature of the human soul, were derived from 
 the Gnostic and Manichaean system ; and this vain 
 philosophy, which had been transported from Egypt 
 to Spain, was ill adapted to the grosser spirits of the 
 west. The obscure disciples of PrisciUian suffered, 
 languished, and gradually disappeared ; his tenets 
 were rejected by the clergy and people, but his death 
 was the subject of a long and vehement controversy ; 
 while some arraigned, and others applauded, the jus- 
 tice of his sentence. It is with pleasure that we can 
 observe the humane inconsistency of the most illustri- 
 ous saints and bishops, Ambrose of Milan,>and Martin 
 of Tours ; "* who, on this occasion, asserted the cause 
 of toleration. They pitied the unhappy men, who had 
 been executed at Treves ; they refused to hold com- 
 munication with their episcopal murderers ; and if Mar- 
 tin deviated from that generous resolution, his motives 
 were laudable, and his repentance was exemplary. 
 The bishops of Tours and Milan pronounced, without 
 hesitation, the eternal damnation of heretics ; but they 
 were surprised, and shocked, by the bloody image of 
 their temporal death, and the honest feelings of nature 
 resisted the artificial prejudices of theology. The hu- 
 manity of Ambrose and Martin was confirmed by the 
 scandalous irregularity of the proceedings atrainst 
 PrisciUian and his adherents. The civil and ecclesi- 
 astical ministers had transgressed the limits of their 
 respective provinces. The secular judge had presum- 
 ed to receive an appeal, and to pronounce a definitive 
 sentence, in a matter of faith, and episcopal jurisdic- 
 tion. The bishops had disgraced themselves, by ex- 
 ercising the function of accusers in a criminal prosecu- 
 tion. The cruelty of Ithacius," who beheld the tor- 
 tures, and solicited the death, of the heretics, provok- 
 ed the just indignation of mankind ; and the vices of 
 that profligate bishop were admitted as a proof, that 
 his zeal was instigated by the sordid motives of inter- 
 est. Since the death of PrisciUian, the rude attempts 
 of persecution have been refined and methodized in 
 the holy office, which assigns their distinct parts to the 
 ecclesiastical and secular powers. The devoted vic- 
 tim is regularly delivered by the priest to the magis- 
 trate, and by the magistrate to the executioner ; and 
 the inexorable sentence of the church, which declares 
 the spiritual guilt of the offender, is expressed in the 
 mild language of pity and intercession. 
 
 Among the ecclesiastics, who illuS- Ambrose, arch- 
 
 trated the reign of Theodosius, Gregory imhop of Milan. 
 
 Nazianzen was distinguished by the tal- ^ "• •»'*-3''7- 
 ents of an eloquent preacher ; the reputation of mira- 
 culous gifts added weight and dignity to the monastic 
 virtues of Martin of Tours ;*» but the palm of episcopal 
 vigour and ability was justly claimed by the intrepid 
 Ambrose.P He was descended from a noble family of 
 Romans ; his father had exercised the important office 
 of praetorian prefect of Gaul ; and the son, after pass- 
 ing through the studies of a liberal education, attained, 
 in°the regular gradation of civil honours, the station 
 of consular of Liguria, a province which included the 
 iiuperial residence of Milan. At the age of thirty-four. 
 
 1 Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 891. 
 
 ' the 
 
 m In the Sacred History, and the Life of St. Martin, Sulpicius Se- 
 verus uses 8t>me caution; but he declares himself more freely in the 
 Dialogues, (iii. 15.) Martin was reproved, however, by his own con- 
 science, and by an angel ; nor could he afterwards perform miracles 
 with so much ease. 
 
 n The catholic presbyter, (Sulp. Sever. 1. ii. p. 4-18.) and the pagan 
 orator, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29.) reprobate, with equal indig- 
 nation, the character and conduct of Ithacius. 
 
 o The Life of St. Martin and the Dialogues concerning his mira- 
 des, contain facts adapted to the grossest barbarism, in a style not 
 unworthy of the Augustan age. So natural is the alliance between 
 good taste and good sense, that I am always astonished by this con- 
 trast. ^ , . J n 
 
 P The short and superficial Life of St. Ambrose, by his deacon Fau- 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 N 
 
 I 
 
 ev 
 
 inus, (Appendix ad edit. Benedict, p. i.— xv.) has the mem of original 
 .'vidence. Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. lorn. x. p. 78-306) and the 
 Benedictine editors, (p. xxxi.— Ixiii.) have laboured with their utual 
 diligence. 
 
 and before he had received the sacrament of baptism 
 Ambrose, to his own surprise, and to that of the world! 
 was suddenly transformed from a governor to an arch- 
 bishop. W ithout the least mixture, as it is said, of 
 art or mtrigue, the whole body of the people unani- 
 mously saluted him with the episcopal title; the con- 
 cord and perseverance of their acclamations were as- 
 cribed to a preternatural impulse ; and the reluctant 
 magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual 
 offtce, for which he was not prepared by the habits and 
 occupations of his former life. But the active force of 
 his genius soon qualified him to exercise, with zeal 
 and prudence, the duties of his ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion ; and, while he cheerfully renounced the vain and 
 spleridid trappings of temporal greatness, he conde- 
 scended, for the good of the church, to direct the con- 
 science of the emperors, and to control the administra- 
 tion of the empire. Gratian loved and revered him as a 
 J^ther; and the elaborate treatise on the faith of the 
 Irinity, was designed for the instruction of the younff 
 prince. After his tragic death, at a time when the em- 
 press Justina trembled for her own safety, and for that 
 of her son Valentinian, the archbishop of Milan was 
 despatched, on two different embassies, to the court 
 of Ireves. He exercised, with equal firmness and 
 dexterity, the powers of his spiritual and political 
 characters ; and perhaps contributed, by his authoritv 
 and eloquence, to check the ambition of Maximus, and 
 to protect the peace of Italy .q Ambrose had devoted 
 his life, and his abilities, to the service of the church. 
 Wealth was the object of his contempt; he had re- 
 nounced his private patrimony ; and he sold, without 
 hesitation, the consecrated plate, for the redemption 
 of captives The clergy and people of Milan were at- 
 tached to their archbishop ; and he deserved the 
 esteem, without soliciting the favour, or apprehendino- 
 the displeasure, of his feeble sovereigns. 
 His sucr^ssfui The government of Italy, and of the 
 young emperor, naturally devolved to 
 his mother Justina, a woman of beauty 
 and spirit, but who, in the midst of an 
 orthodox people, had the misfortune of 
 professing the Arian heresy, which she 
 endeavoured to instil into the mind of her son. .Tustina 
 was persuaded, that a Roman emperor mio-ht claim, 
 in Jus own dominions, the public exercise of his reli- 
 gion ; and she proposed to the archbishop, as a mode- 
 rate and reasonable concession, that he should resign 
 the use of a single church, either in the city or suburbs 
 ot Milan. But the conduct of Ambrose was governed 
 by very different principles.' The palaces of the earth 
 might indeed belong to C^sar; but the churches were 
 the houses of God ; and, within the limits of his dio- 
 cese, he himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles 
 was the only minister of God. The privileges of 
 Christianity, temporal as well as spiritual, were con- 
 fined to the true believers; and the mind of Ambrose 
 was satisfied, that his own theological opinions were 
 the standard of truth and orthodoxy. The archbishop, 
 who refused to hold any conference, or negociation, 
 with the instruments of Satan, declared, with modest 
 firinness, his resolution to die a martyr, rather than to 
 yield to the impious sacrilege ; and Justina, who re- 
 sented the refusal as an act of insolence and rebellion, 
 hastily determined to exert the imperial prerogative 
 of her son. As she desired to perform her public de- 
 votions on the approaching festival of Easter, Ambrose 
 was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed 
 the summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but 
 he was followed, without his consent, by an innumer- 
 able people: they pressed, with impetuous zeal, 
 ngamst the gates of the palace ; and the affriirhted 
 
 377 
 
 opposition to 
 the empress 
 Ju.stina, 
 A. D. 335, 
 April 3— 
 April 10. 
 
 ministers of Valentinian, instead of pronouncing a sen- 
 tence of exile on the archbishop of Milan, humbly re- 
 quested that he would interpose his authorit'y, to prote^ 
 the person of the emperor, and to restore the tranquillity 
 of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose receiv- 
 ed and communicated were soon violated by a perfidious 
 court : and, during six of the most solemn daVsrwhich 
 christian piety has set apart for the exercise of reliaion 
 die city was agitated by the irregular convulsions of tul 
 mult and fanaticism. The officers of the household were 
 directed to prepare, first, the Portian, and afterwards 
 the new Basilica, for the immediate reception of the em- 
 peror and his mother. The splendid canopy and hang- 
 ings of the royal seat were arranged in the customanr 
 manner ; but it was found necessary to defend them, bv 
 a strong guard, from the insults of the populace. The 
 Anan ecclesiastics, who ventured to show themselves 
 m the streets, w^ere exposed to the most imminent dan- 
 ger of their lives ; and Ambrose enjoyed the merit and 
 reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from the 
 hands of the enraged multitude. 
 
 But while he laboured to restrain the effects of 
 their zeal, the pathetic vehemence of his sermons con- 
 tinually inflamed the angry and seditious temper of the 
 people of Milan. The characters of Eve, of the wife 
 of Job, of Jezebel, of Herodias, were indecently ap- 
 plied to the mother of the emperor ; and her desire to 
 obtain a church for the Arians, was compared to the 
 most cruel persecutions which Christianity had endured 
 under the reign of paganism. The measures of the 
 court served only to expose the magnitude of the evil 
 A fine of two hundred pounds of gold was imposed on 
 the corporate body of merchants and manufacturers • 
 an order was signified, in the name of the emperor, to 
 all the officers, and inferior servants, of the courts of 
 justice, that, during the continuance of the public dis- 
 orders, they should strictly confine themselves to their 
 houses : and the ministers of Valentinian imprudently 
 confessed, that the most respectable part of the citizens 
 of Milan was attached to the cause of their archbishop 
 He was again solicited to restore peace to his country, 
 by a timely compliance with the will of his sovereign. 
 The reply of Ambrose was couched in the most humble 
 and respectful terms, which might, however, be inter- 
 preted as a serious declaration of civil war. " His 
 life and fortune were in the hands of the emperor ; but 
 he would never betray the church of Christ, or de- 
 grade the dignity of the episcopal character. In such 
 a cause he was prepared to suffer whatever the malice 
 of the demon could inflict; and he only wished to die 
 in the presence of his faithful flock, and at the foot of 
 the altar; he had not contributed to excite, but it was 
 in the power of God alone to appease, the rage of the 
 people : he deprecated the scenes of blood and confu- 
 sion which were likely to ensue ; and it was his fer- 
 vent prayer, that he might not survive to behold the 
 ruin of a flourishing city, and perhaps the desolation 
 of all Italy." • The obstinate bigotry of Justina would 
 have endangered the empire of her son, if, in this con- 
 test with the church and people of Milan, she could 
 have depended on the active obedience of the troops 
 of the palace. A large body of Goths had marched to 
 occupy the Basilica, which was the object of the dis- 
 pute : and it might be expected from the Arian prin- 
 ciples, and barbarous manners, of these foreign mer- 
 cenaries, that they would not entertain any scruples 
 in the execution of the most sanguinary orders. They 
 w^ere encountered, on the sacred threshold, by the 
 archbishop, who, thundering against them a sentence 
 of excommunication, asked them, in the tone of a 
 father and a master. Whether it was to invade the 
 house of God, that they had implored the hospitable 
 
 q Ambrose himself (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 888-^91.) gives the 
 emperor a very spirited account of his own embassy. 
 
 r His own representation of his principles and conduct (tom ii 
 tpist. XX. XXI. xxii. p. 852-880.) is one of the curious monuments of 
 e^clesiJisiical antiquity. It contains two letters to his sister Marcel- 
 nont7adln%^^^^^^^^ ^ Valentinian, and the sermon de Basilicis 
 VoL.*'l.H2 X 
 
 • Retz had a similar message from the queen, to request that he 
 would appease the tumult of Paris, h was no longer in his power 
 &c. A quoi j'ajoutai tout ce que vous pouvez vous imagioer de re- 
 spect, de douleur, de regret, et de soumission, &c. (Memoires, tom 
 i. p. 140.) Certainly I do not compare either the causes, or the men ' 
 vet the coadjutor himself had some idea (p. 84.) of imitating St. Am- 
 brose. 
 
 / 
 
 I 
 
378 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 protection of the republic 1 The suspense of tlie bar- 
 barians allowed some hours for a more effectual nego- 
 ciation ; and the empress was persuaded, by the ad- 
 vice of her wisest counsellors, to leave the catholics 
 in possession of all the churches of Milan ; and to 
 dissemble, till a more convenient season, her intentions 
 of revenge. The mother of Valentinian could, never 
 forgive the triumph of Ambrose ; and the royal youth 
 uttered a passionate exclamation, that his own servants 
 were ready to betray him into the hands of an insolent 
 priest. 
 
 A D 388 '^''^ ^^^^ °^ ^^^ enipire, some of 
 
 which were inscribed with the name of 
 Valentinian, still condemned the Arian heresy, and 
 seemed to excuse the resistance of the catholics. I3y 
 the influence of Justina, an edict of toleration was pro- 
 mulgated in all the provinces which were subject to 
 the court of Milan ; the free exercise of their reliirion 
 was granted to those who professed the faith of Rim- 
 ini ; and the emperor declared, that all persons who 
 should infringe this sacred and salutary constitution, 
 should be capitally punished, as the enemies of the 
 public peace.' The character and language of the 
 archbishop of Milan may justify the suspicion, that 
 his conduct soon afforded a reasonable ground, or at 
 least a specious pretence, to the Arian ministers, who 
 watched the opportunity of surprising him in some act 
 of disobedience to a law, which he strangely repre- 
 sents as a law of blood and tyranny. A sentence of 
 easy and honourable banishment was pronounced, 
 which enjoined Ambrose to depart from Milan without 
 delay ; whilst it permitted him to choose the place of 
 his exile, and the number of his companions. But 
 the authority of the saints, who have preached and 
 practised the maxims of passive loyalty, appeared to 
 Ambrose of less moment than the extreme and press- 
 ing danger of the church. He boldly refused to obey ; 
 and his refusal was supported by the unanimous con- 
 sent of his faithful people." They guarded by turns 
 the person of their archbishop ; the gates of the cathe- 
 dral and the episcopal palace were strongly secured ; 
 and the imperial troops, who had formed the blockade, 
 were unwilling to risk the attack, of that impregnable 
 fortress. The numerous poor, who had been relieved 
 by the liberality of Ambrose, embraced the fair occa- 
 sion of signalizing their zeal and gratitude ; and as 
 the patience of the multitude might have been exhaus- 
 ted by the length and uniformity of nocturnal vigils, 
 he prudently introduced into the church of Milan the 
 useful institution of a loud and regular psalmody. 
 While he maintained this arduous contest, he was in- 
 structed, by a dream, to open the earth in a place 
 where the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Pro- 
 tasius,* had been deposited above three hundred years. 
 Immediately under the pavement of the church two 
 perfect skeletons were found,^ with the heads separat- 
 ed from their bodies and a plentiful effusion of blood. 
 The holy relics were presented, in solemn pomp, to 
 the veneration of the people ; and every circumstance 
 of this fortunate discovery was admirably adapted to 
 promote the designs of Ambrose. The bones of the 
 martyrs, their blood, their garments, were supposed 
 to contain a healing power ; and their preternatural in- 
 fluence was communicated to the most distant objects, 
 without losing any part of its original virtue. The ex- 
 traordinary cure of a blind man,' and the reluctant con- 
 
 t Sozomen alone (1. vii. c. 13.) throws this luminous fad into a 
 dark and perplexed narrative. 
 
 u Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia niori parata cum cpiscnpo suo . . . 
 Nos adhuc frisidi excitabamur tameu civitate attonita alque lurbata. 
 Augustin. Confession. 1. ix. c. 7. 
 
 X Tillemonl, Mem. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 78. 498. Many churches in 
 Italy, Gaul, &.c. were dedicated to these unknown martyrs, of wluun 
 St. Gervaise seems to have been more fortunate than his companion. 
 
 y Invonimus mirse magnitudinis viros d\K>s, ut prisca sptas fercbitt, 
 tf»m. ii. Epiat. xxii. p. 875. The size of these skeletons wiis fortu- 
 nately, or skilfully, suited to the popular prejudice of the gradual 
 decrease of the human stature ; which has prevailed in every age 
 since the time of Homer. 
 
 Grandiaque etfossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris. 
 
 « Ambrofl. lom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin. Confes. 1. ix. c. 7. 
 
 fessions of several demoniacs, appeared to justify the 
 faith and sanctity of Ambrose ; and the truth of those 
 miracles is attested by Ambrrse himself, by his secre- 
 tary Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the celebrated 
 Au"'ustin, who, at that time, professed the art of rhe- 
 toric in Milan. The reason of the present age may 
 possibly approve the incredulity of Justina and her 
 Arian court; who derided the theatrical representa- 
 tions, which were exhibited by the contrivance, and at 
 the expense, of the archbishop.* Their effect, how- 
 ever, on the minds of the people was rapid and irre- 
 sisliljle; and the feeble sovereign of Italy found him- 
 self unable to contend with the favourite of heaven. 
 The powers likewise of the earth interposed in the de- 
 fence of Ambrose : the disinterested advice of Theo- 
 dosius was the genuine result of piety and friendship; 
 and the mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile 
 and ambitious designs of the tyrant of Gaul.'' 
 
 The reign of Maximus might have ivja^imus in- 
 ended in peace and prosperity, could he vadcs itniy 
 have contented himself with the posses- "^^i^-u^t!* 
 sion of three ample countries, which now " 
 
 constitute the three most flourishing kingdoms of 
 modern Europe. But the aspiring usurper, whose 
 sordid ambition was not dignified by the love of glory 
 and of arms, considered his actual forces as the instru- 
 ments only of his future greatness, and his success 
 was the immediate cause of his destruction. The 
 wealth which he extorted « from the oppressed pro- 
 vinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was employed in 
 levying and maintaining a formidable army of barba- 
 rians, collected, for the most part, from the fiercest 
 nations of Germany. The conquest of Italy was the 
 object of his hopes and preparations ; and he secretly 
 meditated the ruin of an innocent youth, whose gov- 
 ernment was abhorred and despised by his catholic 
 subjects. But as Maximus wished to occupy, with- 
 out resistance, the passes of the Alps, he received, 
 with perfidious smiles, Domninus of Syria, the am- 
 bassador of Valentinian, and pressed him to accept 
 the aid of a considerablo body of troops for the service 
 of a Pannonian war. The penetration of Ambrose had 
 discovered the snares of an enemy under the profes- 
 sions of friendship ; ^ but the Syrian Domninus was 
 corrupted, or deceived, by the liberal favour of the 
 court of Treves ; and the council of Milan obstinately 
 rejected the suspicion of danger with a blind confi- 
 dence, which was the effect, not of courage, but of 
 fear. The march of the auxiliaries was guided by 
 the ambassador ; and they were admitted, without dis- 
 trust, into the fortresses of the Alps. But the crafty 
 tyrant followed, with hasty and silent footsteps, in the 
 rear; and as he diligently intercepted all intelligence 
 of his motions, the gleam of armour, and the dust ex- 
 cited by the troops of cavalry, first announced the 
 hostile approach of a stranger to the gates of Milan. 
 In this extremity, Justina and her son might accuse 
 their own imprudence and the perfidious arts of Maxi- 
 mus ; but they wanted time, and force, and resolution, 
 to stand against the Gauls and Germans, either in the 
 field, or within the walls of a large and disaflTected 
 city. Flight was their only hope, Aquileia their only 
 refuge ; and as Maximus now displayed his genuine 
 charactor, the brother of Gratian might expect the 
 same fate from the hands of the same assassin. Maxi- 
 mus entered Milan in triumph ; and if the wise arch- 
 
 de Civilai. Dei, 1. xxii. c. 8. Paulin. in Vila St. Ambros. c. 14. in 
 Append. Beneclict. p. 4. The blind man's name was Severus ; he 
 touched the holy jrarment, recovered his sight, and devoted the rest 
 of his life (at least twenty five years) to the service of the church. I 
 should recommend tiiis miracle to our divines, if it did not prove iho 
 worship of relics, as well as the Nicene creed. 
 
 a Paulin. in \'it. St. Ambros. c. 5. in Append. Benedict, p. 5. 
 
 b Tillemont, Mem, Eccles. tom. x. p. 190.750. He partially allows 
 the mediation n{ Thecnlosius; and capriciously rejects that of Maxi- 
 mus, thouch it is attested by Prosper, Sozomen, and Theodoret. 
 
 c The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog, iii. 15.) inflicts a much 
 deeper wound than the feeble declamation of Pacatus, (xii. 25. 36.) 
 
 d Eslo tutior adversus hominem, pacis involucro tegentem, was the 
 wise caution of Ambrose (tont. ii. p. 891.) after his return from his 
 secoutl embassy. 
 
 bishop refused a dangerous and criminal connexion 
 with the usurper, he might indirectly contribute to 
 the success of his arms, by inculcating from the pul- 
 pit, the duty of resignation, rather than that of resis- 
 Vduce." The unfortunate Justina reached Aquileia in 
 safety ; but she distrusted the strength of the fortifi- 
 cations ; she dreaded the event of a siege : and she 
 resolved to implore the protection of the great Theo- 
 dosius, whose power and virtue were celebrated in all 
 the countries of the west. A vessel was secretly pro- 
 vided to transport the imperial family ; they embarked 
 with precipitation in one of the obscure harbours of 
 Venetia, or Istria ; traversed the whole extent of the 
 Hadriatic and Ionian seas; turned the extreme pro- 
 montory of Peloponnesus; and, after a long, but suc- 
 j I cessful, navigation, reposed themselves in the port of 
 
 Flight of Valen- Thessalonica. All the subjects of Val- 
 tinian. eutinian deserted the cause of a prince, 
 
 who, by his abdication, had absolved them from the 
 duty of allegiance ; and if the little city of ^Emona, 
 on the verge of Italy, had not presumed to stop the 
 career of his inglorious victory, Maximus would have 
 obtained, without a struggle, the sole possession of 
 the western empire. 
 
 Theodosius takes , I"stead of inviting his royal guests 
 arms in the cause ^<^ ^"^ palace of Constantinojde, Theo- 
 of Vaientiniar,, dosius had somc uuknown reasons to fix 
 • "^'- their residence at Thessalonica; but 
 these reasons did not proceed from contempt or indif- 
 ference, as he speedily made a visit to that city, ac- 
 companied by the greatest part of his court and senate. 
 After the first tender expressions of friendship and 
 sympathy, the pious emperor of the east gently ad- 
 nionishcd Justina, that the guilt of heresy was some- 
 tinries punished in this worfd, as well as in the next ; 
 and that the public profession of the Nicene faith 
 would be the most eflicacious step to promote the re- 
 storation of her son, by the satisfaction it must occa- 
 sion both on earth and in heaven. The momentous 
 question of peace or war was referred by Theodosius, 
 to the deliberation of his council ; and the arguments 
 vyhich might be alleged on the side of honour and jus- 
 tice, had acquired, since the death of Gratian, a con- 
 siderable degree of additional weiorht. The persecu- 
 tion of the imperial f^imily, to wl ch Theodosius him- 
 self had been indebted foi Ii.s fortune, was now 
 aggravated by recent and repeated injuries. Neither 
 oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundless ambition 
 of Maximus ; and the delay of vigorous and decisive 
 measures, instead of prolonging the blessings of peace, 
 would expose the eastern empire to the danger of an 
 hostile invasion. The barbarians, who had passed the 
 Danube, had lately assumed the character of soldiers 
 and subjects, but their native fierceness was yet un- 
 tamed ; and the operations of a war, which would ex- 
 ercise their valour, and diminish their numbers, mio-ht 
 tend to relieve the provinces from an intolerable op- 
 pression. Notwithstanding these specious and solid 
 reasons, which were approved by a majority of the 
 council, Theodosius still hesitated, whether he should 
 draw the sword in a contest, which could no longer 
 admit any terms of reconciliation ; and his magna"ni- 
 mous character was not disgraced by the apprehen- 
 sions which he felt for the safety of his inf\mt sons, 
 and the welfare of his exhausted people. In this mo- 
 ment of anxious doubt, while the fate of the Roman 
 world depended on the resolution of a single man, the 
 charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded 
 the cause of her brother Valentinian.' The heart of 
 Theodosius was softened by the tears of beauty ; his 
 afTections were insensibly engaged by the graces of 
 
 e Barontus (A. D. aS7. No. 63.) applies to this season of public dis- 
 tress some of the penitential sermons of the archbishop. 
 
 f The llisht of Valentinian. and the love of Theodosius for his sister 
 are related by Zosimus, (I. iv. p. 203, 2W.) Tillemont produces some 
 weak and ambiguous evidence to antedate the second marriage of 
 Iheodosnis, (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 740.) and consequently 
 to refute ces conies do Zosime, qui seroient trop contraires a la uiote 
 do rheodoso ^ 
 
 379 
 
 youth and innocence ; the art of Justina manao-od and 
 directed the impulse of passion ; and the cele'bration 
 ot the royal nuptials was the assurance and sicrnal of 
 the civil war. The unfeeling critics, who consider 
 every amorous weakness as an indelible stain on the 
 memory of a great and orthodox emperor, are inclined, 
 on this occasion, to dispute the suspicious evidence of 
 the historian Zosimus. For my own part, I shall frank- 
 ly confess, that I am willing to find, or even to seek, 
 mthe revolutionsof the world, some traces of the mild 
 and tender sentiments of domestic life ; and, amidst 
 tlie crowd of fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can 
 distinguish, with peculiar complacency, a gentle hero 
 who may be supposed to receive his armour from the 
 hands of love. The alliance of the Persian kin^ was 
 secured by the faith of treaties ; the martial barbarians 
 were persuaded to follow the standard, or to respect 
 the frontiers, of an active and liberal monarch ; and 
 the dominions of Theodosius, from the Euphrates to 
 the Hadriatic, resounded with the preparations of war 
 both by land and sea. The skilful disposition of the 
 forces of the east seemed to multiply their numbers, 
 and distracted the attention of Maximus. He had rea- 
 son to fear, that a chosen body of troops, under the 
 command of the intrepid Arbogastes, would direct 
 their march along the banks of the Danube, and boldly 
 penetrate through the Rhaetian provinces into the cen- 
 tre of Gaul. A powerful fleet was equipped in the 
 harbours of Greece and Epirus, with an apparent de- 
 sign, that as soon as a passage had been opened by a 
 naval victory, Valentinian and his mother should land 
 m Italy, proceed, without delay, to Rome, and occupy 
 the majestic seat of religion and empire. In the mean 
 while, Theodosius himself advanced, at the head of a 
 brave and disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy 
 rival, who, after the siege of .Emona, had fixed his 
 camp in the neighbourhood of Siscia, a city of Pan- 
 nonia, strongly fortified by the broad and rapid stream 
 01 the Save. 
 
 The veterans, who still remembered n.r .. . j i .. 
 the long resistance, and successive re- ""of Maximum' 
 sources, of the tyrant Magnentius, mio-ht , ^- ^ 3^- 
 prepare themselves for the labours "of ^""«-A"S"«t- 
 three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his 
 successor, who, like him, had usurped the throne of the 
 west, was easily decided in the term of two months,* 
 and within the space of two hundred miles. The su- 
 perior genius of the emperor of the east might prevail 
 over the feeble Maximus, who, in this impor'tant crisis, 
 showed himself destitute of military skill, or personal 
 courage ; but the abilities of Theodosius were second- 
 ed by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous 
 and active cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after 
 their example, the Goths themselves, were formed in- 
 to squadrons of archers ; who fought on horseback, 
 and confounded the steady valour of the Gauls and 
 Germans, by the rapid motions of a Tartar war. After 
 the fatigue of a long march, in the heat of summer, 
 they spurred their foaming horses into the waters of 
 the Save, swam the river in the presence of the enemy, 
 and instantly charged and routed the troops who 
 guarded the high ground on the opposite side. Mar- 
 cellinus, the tyrant's brother, advanced to support them 
 with the select cohorts, which were considered as the 
 hope and strength of the army. The action, which had 
 been interrupted by the approach of night, was re- 
 newed in the morning ; and, after a sharp^conflict, the 
 surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of Maximus 
 threw down their arms at the feet of the conqueror. 
 Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal 
 acclamations of the citizens of ^mona, Theodosius 
 pressed forwards, to terminate the war by the death or 
 captivity of his rival, who fled before him with the 
 diligence of fear. From the summit of the Julian 
 Alps, he descended with such incredible speed into 
 
 g See Gotlefroy's Chronology of the Laws, Cod. Theodog. tom. I. p. 
 cxix. 
 
380 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIT. 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 P'l 
 
 ' M\ 
 
 the plain of Italy, that he reached Aquileia on the 
 evening of the first day ; and Maximus, who found 
 himself encompassed on all sides, had scarcely time to 
 shut the gates of the city. But the gates could not 
 long resist the effort of a victorious enemy : and the 
 despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the soldiers 
 and people, hastened the downfall of the wretched 
 Maximus. He was dragged from his throne, rudely 
 stripped of the imperial ornaments, the robe, the dia- 
 dem, and the purple slippers; and conducted, like a 
 malefactor, to the camp and presence of Theodosius, 
 at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The be- 
 haviour of the emperor was not intended to insult, and 
 he showed some disposition to pity and forgive, the 
 tyrant of the west, who had never been his personal 
 enemy, and was now become the object of his con- 
 tempt. Our sympathy is the most forcibly excited by 
 the misfortunes to which we are exposed ; and the 
 spectacle of a |)roud competitor, now prostrate at his 
 feet, could not fail of producing very serious and sol- 
 emn thoughts in the mind of the victorious emperor. 
 But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity was check- 
 ed by his regard for public justice, and the memory 
 of Gratian : and he abandoned the victim to the pious 
 zeal of the soldiers, who drew him out of the imperial 
 presence, and instantly separated his head from his 
 body. The intelligence of his defeat and death was 
 received with sincere or well-dissembled joy : his son 
 Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of Augus- 
 tus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold 
 Arbogasles ; and all the military plans of Theodosius 
 were successfully executed. When he had thus ter- 
 minated the civil war, with less difficulty and blood- 
 shed than he might naturally expect, he employed the 
 winter months of his residence at Milan, to restore the 
 state of the afflicted provinces ; and early in the spring 
 he made, after the example of Constantine and Con- 
 stantius, his triumphal entry into the ancient capital 
 of the Roman empire.^ 
 
 Virtues of Theo- The orator, who may be silent without 
 **"■• danger, may praise without difficulty, 
 and without reluctance ;' and posterity will confess, 
 that the character of Theodosius*' might furnish the 
 subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wis- 
 dom of his laws, and the success of his arms, rendered 
 his administration respectable in the eyes both of his 
 subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised 
 the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their 
 residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was 
 chaste and temperate ; he enjoyed, without excess, the 
 sensual and social pleasures of the table ; and the 
 warmth of his amorous passions was never diverted 
 from their lawful objects. The proud titles of impe- 
 rial greatness were adorned by the tender names of a 
 faithful husband, an indulgent father ; his uncle was 
 raised, by his affectionate esteem, to the rank of a sec- 
 ond parent. Theodosius embraced, as his own, the 
 children of his brother and sister ; and the expres- 
 sions of his regard were extended to the most distant 
 and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His 
 familiar friends were judiciously selected from among 
 those persons, who, in the equal intercourse of private 
 life, had appeared before his eyes without a mask : 
 the consciousness of personal and superior merit cna- 
 
 h Besidps the hints which may be gathered from chronicles and 
 ecclesiastical history. Zosimus, (1. iv. p.2r>y --IG?.) Orosiiis, (1. vii. c. 
 35.) and Pacatus, (in Panejiyr. Vet. xii. 30—47.) supply the loose and 
 scanty materials of this civil war. Ambrose (torn. ii. Epist. xl. p. 952, 
 953.) darkly alludes to the well-known evrnls of a masazine sur- 
 prised, an action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, &c 
 Ausonius (p. 256. edit. Toll.) applauds the peculiar merit, and gojd 
 fortune, of A(iuileia. 
 
 i Quam prompium laudare principem, tarn tntum sihiissn de prin- 
 cipe. (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 2.) Laiinus Pacalus Prepanius, a 
 native of Gaul, pronounced this oration at Rome. (A. 1>. 388.) He was 
 afterwards proconsul of Africa : and his friend Ausonius pnusrs him 
 as a poet, second only to V^irgil. See Tillcmont, Hist, des Enipereurs, 
 torn. V. p. 30.3. 
 
 k See the fair portrait of Theodosius, by the younger Victor ; the 
 strokes are distinct, and the colours are mixed. The jiraise of P.ic i- 
 lus is too vague ; and Claudian always seems afraid of exalting tlv 
 father above the son. 
 
 bled him to despise the accidental distinction of the 
 purple ; and he proved by his conduct, that he had 
 forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully re- 
 membered all the favours and services, which he had 
 received before he ascended the throne of the Roman 
 empire. The serious, or lively, tone of his conversa- 
 tion, was adapted to the age, the rank, or the charac- 
 ter, of his subjects whom he admitted into his socie- 
 ty; and the affability of his manners displayed the 
 image of his mind. Theodosius respected the sim- 
 plicity of the good and virtuous; every art, every tal- 
 ent, of a useful, or even of an innocent, nature, was 
 rewarded by his judicious liberality ; and, except the 
 heretics, whom he persecuted with implacable hatred, 
 the diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscri- 
 bed only by the limits of the human race. The gov- 
 ernment of a mighty empire may assuredly suffice to 
 occupy the time and the abilities of a mortal : yet the 
 diligent prince, without aspiring to the unsuitable re- 
 putation of profound learning, always reserved some 
 moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement 
 of reading. History, which enlarged his experience, 
 was his favourite study. The annals of Rome, in the 
 long period of eleven hundred years, presented him 
 with a various and splendid picture of human life; and 
 it has been particularly observed, that whenever he pe- 
 rused the cruel acts of Cinna, of Marius, or of Seylla, he 
 warmly expressed his generous detestation of those 
 enemies of humanity and freedom. His disinterested 
 opinion of past events was usefully applied as the 
 rule of his own actions ; and Theodosius has deserv- 
 ed the singular commendation, that his virtues always 
 seemed to expand with his fortune : the season of his 
 prosperity was that of his moderation ; and his clem- 
 ency appeared the most conspicuous after the danger 
 and success of the civil war. The Moorish guards of 
 the tyrant had been massacred in the 5-rst heat of the 
 victory ; and a small number of the most obnoxious 
 criminals suffered the punishment of the law. But 
 the emperor showed himself much more attentive to re- 
 lieve the innocent, than to chastise the guilty. The 
 oppressed subjects of the west, who would have deem- 
 ed themselves happy in the restoration of their lands, 
 were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent 
 to their loss ; and the liberality of the conqueror sup- 
 ported the aged mother, and educated the orphan 
 daughters, of Maximus.' A character thus accom- 
 plished, might almost excuse the extravagant supposi- 
 tion of the orator Pacatus ; that if the elder Brutus 
 could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern repub- 
 lican would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius, his 
 hatred of kings ; and ingenuously confess, that such a 
 monarch was the most faithful guardian of the happi- 
 ness and dignity of the Roman people." 
 
 Yet the piercing eye of the founder Faultn of Theo- 
 of the republic must have discerned two dosius. 
 essential imperfections, which might, perhaps, have 
 abated his recent love of despotism. The virtuous 
 mind of Theodosius was often relaxed by indolence," 
 and it was sometimes inflamed by passion." In the 
 pursuit of an important object, his active courage was 
 capable of the most vigorous exertions ; but, as soon 
 as the design was accomplished, or the danger was 
 (Surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and 
 forgetful that the time of a prince is the property of 
 his people, resigned himself to the enjoyment of the 
 innocent, but trilling, pleasures of a luxurious court. 
 The natural disposition of Theodosius was hasty and 
 
 1 Amhros. lorn. ii. Kpi.-'l. xi. p. Pr>5. Pacalus. from the wauLof skill, 
 or of courace, omits this jrlorious circumstance. 
 
 Ill Parat. in Paiiecyr. V»>t. xii. 20. 
 
 n Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 271, 272. His partial evidence is marked by an 
 air of candour and truth. He observes these vicissitudes of slotli and 
 activity, not as a vice, but as a singularity, in the character of Theo- 
 dosius. 
 
 o This clioleric temper is ackno\vlpd2;ed. and excused, by Victor. 
 
 Sed habe:< (8;iys Ambrose, in derent and manly lancruajje, to his stive- 
 
 reign) naturae impelum, quern si quis lenire velil, cilo vencs ad 
 
 misericordiam : si quis stimulei, in ma^is evsuscitas, ut euni revocare 
 
 i vix possis. Horn. ii. epist. Ii. 9W.) Theodosius (Claud, in iv. Cons 
 
 ' Hon. 2r.fij fi.''.) exhori.s hi.s .'son to moderate his anger. 
 
 I 
 
 choleric; and in a station where none could resist, 
 and lew would dissuade, the fatal consequence of S 
 resentment, the humane monarch was justly ala med 
 by the consciousness of his inf.rmity and of\i pX- 
 
 or regulate, the intemperate sallies of passion ; and 
 tie success of his efforts enhanced the merit of his 
 
 tlTn?-- .^"' •""' P"'"'""' ^'""« »''i''h claims the 
 merit of victory, ,s exposed to the danger of defeat • 
 and the reign of a wise and merciful prince was pollu 
 ted by an act of cruelty, which would stain the annals 
 of Nero or Domitian. Within the space of Zee 
 years, the inconsistent historian of Theodosius must 
 r„H ?h '' • ^1."""'"'"" P""""" »*■ "'« "'i^-ns of Anl^ch 
 lonica ' """ """'•'"""= "'■ ""^ P«°P'« °f I'he"^': 
 
 '''r,tr"%,,T'''f'r';'/ imp^lience of the inhabi- 
 A. D. :«7. ""f""' Antioch was never satisfied with 
 .„, A ■ J their own situation, or with the charac- 
 ter, and conduct, of their successive sovereio-„s The 
 
 ch rc"he"s':^r„'r'??K°'"'""^ "fP''?"^'' «'"' ^oJof leil 
 cnurcnes, and, as three rival bishops disputed the 
 
 throne of Ant.och the sentence which decided their 
 pretensions excited the murmurs of the two unsuccess- 
 ful congregations. The exigences of the Goth c war 
 
 ell oi^or.h'"''' '^TT' '''^' accompanU-d .: To, : 
 elusion of the peace, had constrained he emperor to 
 aggravate the weight of the public impositbns • ami 
 the provinces of Asia, as they had not been h, vol ved 
 
 h"e re, ef 7;V""' "" '^^ '-"-d '» cTJ^'^et 
 ZIZJX'a i u""^'^- ^''« ""'P'cious period now 
 approached of the tenth year of h s rei.rn ; a fest^va^ 
 more grateful to the soldiers, who receive 1 a Ubera 
 
 fnrh;;H'h""'V" "'^ ^"''J<''='^' ^^ose voluntary 0^,' 
 ings had been ong since converted into an extraordina- 
 
 terr"Dted'''!h7r'' ''""'?• , ''^^' '='''"' of taxation b- 
 he r'^^bunaf nftr'^' ^"^ P'^^^^es, of Antioch ; and 
 ine tribunal of the magistrate was besieo-ed by a sun- 
 Pl ant crowd ; who, in pathetic, bnt.at fiTst' in respeX 
 M, language, solicited the redress of their Vrlvai^es 
 They were gradually incensed by the pride of S 
 haughty rulers, who treated their com'plain^ a a 
 
 tosharn a!?''""''- ">«i^«''«i"<^«l ""it degenerated in- 
 to sharp and angry invectives ; and from ^he subordi- 
 nate powers of government, the invectives of the peo- 
 ple insensibly rose to attack the sacred character'^Tf 
 Feb. iw. 'he emperor himself. Their fury, pro- 
 
 itself on .h» ? ^^ ? '?'''''■'' oPPos't'o". discharged 
 itsell on the images of the imperial familv whi.-l, 
 
 were erected, as objects of pubUc vener" ti^^n^ he 
 most conspicuous places of the city. The sta nes of 
 Theodosius, of his father, of his wife Flacci a of 
 
 l^ZllT' ^T'''"l '^'"^ H-orius, were'I' 'oTent 
 ly thrown dovyn from their pedestals, broken in pieces 
 
 rJ^W^ with contempt through the streets: a'^d the' 
 ndigmties which were offered to the representations of 
 mperial majesty, sufficiently declared the impious and 
 treasonable wishes of the populace. The t7nuU was 
 almost immediately siippres'sed by the M of a 
 body of archers ; and Antioch had leisure to reflect on 
 l„l t„ Z/"^ consequences of her crime.P Accord- 
 ing to the duty of his office, the governor of the pro- 
 vince despatehed a faithful narrative of the whole 
 transaction ; while the tremblinsr citizens intrusted 
 
 leir rlrr"" "^ '^'l' """"' "'"^ "'« assurance o 
 and to^h f' *" "■* 'r' °f '"'^^i^" "'«ir bishop, 
 and to the eloquence of the senator Hilarius, the 
 friend, and, most probably, the disciple, of Liba;ius 
 whose genius, on this melancholy occasion, was no! 
 
 and Constantinopl e, were separated by the distance of 
 
 «-^«??*-'"."''''"^?^'^'"^*"^'''sinffenuous account (\ iv n a^Q o-q ^ 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 381 
 
 eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the dili- 
 eence of the imperial posts, the guilty city was severe- 
 ly punished by a long and dreadful interval of sus- 
 pense. Every rumour agitated the hopes and fears of 
 the Antiochians, and they heard with terror, that the"r 
 sovereign, exasperated by the insult which ad been 
 offered to his own statues, and, more esneciallv t^ 
 those of his beloved wife, had resolved toTeJe ^^ith 
 the ground the offending city and tn tl^l 
 «^thout distinction of age^or'X,' tre'criminTi^nir;^: 
 itants ,' many of whom were actually driven, by their 
 
 Syria, and the adjacent desert. At 
 length, twenty.four days after the sedi- *""'''' 22. 
 tion, tlie general Hellebicus, and Ca;sarius, ma^^ter of 
 the offices declared the will of the emperor and the 
 sentence of Antioch. That proud capT/af was de<rra! 
 ded from the rank of a city; Ld the metropol,^ of^he 
 east, stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its reve- 
 nues, was subjected, under the humiliat n<r denoriina 
 tion of a village, to the jurisdiction of LaodTcea • 
 Ihe baths, the circus, and the theatre, were shut and 
 that every source of plenty and pleasure mi^ht Lt the 
 same time be iiUercepted, the distribution of'corn was 
 abolished by the severe instructions of Theodos us 
 His commissioners then proceeds to inquire iJo the 
 
 Sd oflh'ot'? h"t •:. "*' *"'" "•'"' ''"<' perpetrated? 
 and of those who had not prevented, the destruction 
 of the .acred statues. The tribunal of HellebfcusranS 
 Ca^sarius, encompassed with armed soldiers, was 
 erected in the midst of the forum. The noblest and 
 mos wealthy of the citizens of Antioch appealed be- 
 fore them in chains; the examinalion was assisted by 
 the use of torture, and their sentence was pronounced 
 or suspended, according to the judgment of these ex- 
 traordinary magistrates. The houses of the crir^?nats 
 were exposed te sale, their wives and childreTwe e 
 suddenly reduced, from alfiuence and luxury, "c^^e 
 most abject distress; and a bloody execution was ex- 
 peeted to conclnde the horrors of a day,' whTch the 
 prea<.her of Antioch, the eloquent Chrysostom 1 as 
 represented as a lively ima.e if the last Ifid unWesal 
 .Hgment of the world. But the ministers oTtTcZ 
 dosius performed, with reluctance, the cruel task 
 which had been assigned them ; they dropped a .renMe 
 tear over the calamities of the people; a'^'ll tl^y I iV 
 
 TfiZ'l '"TT""" • '" '!'<' P'''''''S solicitations of 
 
 le monks and hermits, who descended in swarms from 
 
 tl e mountains." Hellebicus and Ca^sarins were pol 
 
 siiaded to suspend the execution of their sentence ; 'and 
 
 r^' K-^'u ' :*"" "'^ ^"'""^ should remain at An"^ 
 och while the latter returned, with all possible speed, 
 
 sulfthe^tin"7if' ""'1 P^?^>™ed once more to con! 
 suit the will of his sovereiirn. The re- r-i 
 sentment of Theodosius had already rS'SJi' 
 
 and the orator, had obtained a favourable audience • 
 and the reproaches of the emperor were the complaints 
 of injured friendship, rather than the stern menaces of 
 pride and power. A free and general pardon w^as 
 granted to the city and citizens of Antioch ; the pri! 
 
 ^^Vr"? .r'",- '"■""■" "P""' ="«' senators, who des- 
 paired of their lives, recovered the possession of their 
 houses and estates; and the capital of the east was 
 
 ^^^^Tt^^ 
 
 t As the days of the tumult depend on the morable festival nf 
 
 »mont'S^^^^^^ 
 
 (Chrysostom, torn. xiii. p. ia5. 110.) ^' ■^ " Montfaucou. 
 
 u Chrysostom opposes their courage, which wis nnt nMa«i«^ • u 
 
 much ri.sk, to the coAar.ily flight of the CynicsT ^^^^"^^^^ ^'^h 
 
382 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 senate of Constantinople, who had generously inter- 
 ceded for their distressed brethren : he rewarded the 
 eloquence of Hilarius with the government of Pales- 
 tine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioeh with the 
 warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. 
 A rii 25 ^ thousand new statues arose to the 
 ^" ' clemency of Theodosius ; the applause 
 of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his 
 own heart; and the emperor confessed, that, if the 
 exercise of justice is the most important duty, the in- 
 dulgence of mercy is the most exquisite pleasure, of a 
 sovereign.* 
 « J. . , The sedition of Thessalonica is ascri- 
 
 Soditiun and man- i /• i i 
 
 sacre of Thcssaio- bed to a more shamelul cause, and was 
 
 uica. productive of more dreadful consequen- 
 
 A. D. 390. ^^g^ ,|,^^j. g^^^^ ^ijy^ ^j^g metropolis of 
 
 all the Illyrian provinces, had been protected from the 
 dangers of the Gothic war by strong fortifications, and 
 a numerous garrison, Botheric, the general of those 
 troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a barba- 
 rian, had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who exci- 
 ted the impure desires of one of the charioteers of 
 the Circus. The insolent and brutal lover was thrown 
 into prison by the order of Botheric ; and he sternly 
 rejected the importunate clamours of the multitude, 
 who, on the day of the public games, lamented the 
 absence of their favourite ; and considered the skill 
 of a charioteer as an object of more importance than 
 his virtue. The resentment of the people was imbit- 
 tered by some previous disputes; and, as the strength 
 of the garrison had been drawn away for the service 
 of the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose num- 
 bers were reduced by desertion, could not save the 
 unhappy general from their licentious fury. Botheric, 
 and several of his principal officers, were inhumanly 
 murdered ; their mangled bodies were drajjged about 
 the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Mi- 
 lan, was surprised by the intelligence of the audacious 
 and wanton cruelty of the people of Thessalonica. 
 The sentence of a dispassionate judge would have in- 
 flicted a severe punishment on the authors of the crime ; 
 and the merit of Botheric might contribute to exas- 
 perate the grief and indignation of his master. The 
 fiery and choleric temper of Theodosius was impatient 
 of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he 
 hastily resolved, that the blood of his lieutenant 
 should be expiated by the blood of the guilty people. 
 Yet his mind still fluctuated between the councils of 
 clemency and of revenge ; the zeal of the bishops had 
 almost extorted from the reluctant emperor the prom- 
 ise of a general pardon ; his passion was again in- 
 flamed by the flattering su^rgestions of his minister, 
 Ilufinus ; and, after Theodosius had despatched the 
 messengers of death, he attempted, when it was too 
 late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The pun- 
 ishment of a Roman city was blindly committed to 
 the undistinjruishinor sword of the barbarians ; and 
 the hostile preparations were concerted with the dark 
 and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The 
 people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in 
 the name of their sovereign, to the games of the cir- 
 cus : and such was their insatiate avidity for those 
 amusements, that every consideration of fear, or suspi- 
 cion, was disregarded by the numerous spectators. 
 As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers, 
 who had secretly been posted round the Circus, re- 
 ceived the signal, not of the races, but of a general 
 massacre. The promiscuous carnaae continued three 
 hours, without discrimination of strangers or natives, 
 of age or sex, of innocence or guilt; llie most modor- 
 
 X The sedition of Aniioch is reprraenti'd in a lively, and almost 
 dramatic, manner, by two orators, who had their respertive shares of 
 interest and merit. See Libanius, (Orat. xiv. xv. p. 389-4*^0. edit. 
 Morel. Oral. i. p. 1—14. Venct. 175-4.) and the twenty orations of 
 St. John Chrysoslom, de Statuis, (torn. ii. p. 1—2*25. edit. i^Iontfau- 
 con.) I do not pretend to mwc/t Jpersonal acquaintance with Chry- 
 ■ostom; but Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 2G3— 283.) and 
 Hennant (Vie de St. Chrysostome, torn. i. d. 137—224.) had read him 
 with pious curiosity, and diligence. 
 
 ate accounts state the number of the slain at seven 
 thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers, that 
 more than fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to 
 the manes of Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had 
 probably no concern in his murder, oflfered his own 
 life, and all his wealth, to supply the place of one of 
 his two sons; but, while the father hesitated with 
 equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, 
 and unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined 
 his suspense, by plunging their daggers at the same 
 moment into the breasts of the defenceless youths. 
 The apology of the assassins, that they were obliged 
 to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves on- 
 ly to increase, by an appearance of order and design, 
 tlie horrors of the massacre, which was executed by 
 the commands of Theodosius. The guilt of the empe- 
 ror is aggravated by his long and frequent residence 
 at Theslialonica. The situation of the unfortunate ci- 
 ty, the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and 
 faces of the inhabitants, were familiar, and even pre- 
 sent, to his imagination ; and Theodosius possessed a 
 quick and lively sense of the existence of the people 
 whom he destroyed.J" 
 
 The respectful attachment of the em- Influence and 
 
 ,' ,, 1 111- conduct ol Am- 
 
 peror to the orthodox clergy, had dispos- i^ryse. 
 ed him to love and admire the character A. D. 388. 
 of Ambrose ; who united all the episcopal virtues in 
 the most eminent degree. The friends and ministers of 
 Theodosius imitated the example of their sovereign ; 
 and he observed, with more surprise than displeasure, 
 that all his secret counsels were immediately commu- 
 nicated to the archbishop; who acted from the lauda- 
 ble persuasion, that every measure of civil government 
 may have some connexion with the glory of God, and 
 the interest of the true religion. The monks and pop- 
 ulace of Callinicum, an obscure town on the frontier 
 of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by 
 that of their i)ishop, had tumultuously burnt a conven- 
 ticle of the Valentinians, and a synagogue of the 
 Jews. The seditious prelate was condemned, by the 
 magistrate of the province, either to rebuild the syn- 
 agogue, or to pay the damage ; and this moderate sen- 
 tence was confirmed by the emperor. But it was not 
 confirmed by the archbishop of Milan.' He dictated 
 an epistle of censure and reproach, more suitable, per- 
 haps, if the emperor had received the mark of circum- 
 cision, and renounced the faith of his baptism. Am- 
 brose considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the per- 
 secution of the christian, religion ; boldly declares, that 
 he himself, and every true believer, would eagerly dis- 
 pute with the bishop of Callinicum the merit of the 
 deed, and the crown of martyrdom ; and laments, in 
 the most pathetic terms, that the execution of the sen- 
 tence would be fatal to the fame and salvation of 
 Theodosius. As this private admonition did not pro- 
 duce an immediate efllect, the archbishop from his pul- 
 pit, * publicly addressed the emperor on his throne ;'' 
 nor would he consent to oflfcr the oblation of the altar, till 
 he had obtained from Theodosius a solemn and positive 
 declaration, which secured the impunity of the bishop 
 and monks of Callinicum. The recantation of Theo- 
 dosius was sincere ;*= and, during the term of his res- 
 
 y The orisinal evidence of Ambrose, (torn. ii. Epist. li. n. 998.) 
 Ausustin, (do Civitat Dei, v. 26.) and Paulinos, (in Vit. Ambros. c. 
 24.) is d«'livered in vairue expressions of horror and pity. It is illus- 
 trated by the subsequent and unoipial teslim<inies of Sozomen, (1. 
 vii. C.25.) Theodoret, (1. v. c. 17.) Theophanos, (Chronotrraph. p. 02.) 
 CednMuis, (p. 317.) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. .xiii. p. 3^t.> Zosimus nlonf, 
 the partial enemy i>f Thetnlosius, most unaccountably passes over in 
 silence the worst of his actions. 
 
 « See the whole iransaclions in Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xl. xli. p. 
 946 - 956.) aiul his biographer Paulinos, (c. 23.) Bayle and Barbeyrac 
 (Morales des Peres, c. xvii. p. 325, kc ) have justly condemned the 
 archbishop. 
 
 a His sermon is a stranjre allesrory of Jeremiah's rod, of an almond- 
 tree, of the wiiman who washed and anointed the feet of Christ. But 
 the peroration is direct and personal. 
 
 b Hodie, Episc(tpe, de me proposuisti. Ambrose motlestly confessed 
 it: but he sternly reprimanded Timasius, general of the horse and 
 foot, who had })re8umcd to say, that the monks of Callinicum do 
 served punishment. 
 
 c Yet, five years afterwards, wlj^n Theodosius was absent from his 
 spiritual guide, ho tolerated tho Jews, and condemned Ihfi destruc- 
 
 
 i 
 
 idence at Milan, his affection for Ambrose was contin- 
 ually increased by the habits of pious and fami ar 
 conversation. ^ i«imiiiar 
 
 P.nnnpo f TK ^^^" Ambrosc was informed of the 
 
 '^""r«i"fj'''°- Pffssacre of Thessalonica, his mind was 
 
 A. D. 390. ".'^ed With horror and anguish. He re- 
 
 . tired into the country to indulire his 
 
 as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid silence 
 would render him the accomplice of his ff,mt, he re! 1 
 l-resented m a private letter, the enorm ty of the ' 
 
 penitence. 1 he episcopal vigour of Ambrose was 
 tempered by prudence ; and he^ontented himself ^^?h 
 si^Nifying-an indirect sort of excommunication hv 
 the assurance, that he had been warned r a vision^ 
 
 sence, of Theodosius ; and by the advice that h^ 
 would confine himself to the use of priyer', without 
 presummg to approach the altar of Christ or o re 
 
 stTnl f ,\°'y "'f'"'^' ^'"'' 'hose hSSthat were" 
 St II polluted with the blood of an innocent neoDle 
 
 e?;^7bTti.r of'h"'^ '"''^'"1 •'y '■'^ oZirA 
 
 had KewJiei L"1,'?",'P'""'^' f'"''"' ! "'Xl. after he 
 lences of his rf-h f "'''^'""' """* '"oP^able conse- 
 omed manner Z' 7^' ^^• P'?""'^"^' '" '^^ «<=<=»«- 
 church"? mIL '^h "'■'" '"' ''ovotions in the great 
 .h„ , . K- V "• *** ^''^5 Stopped in the porch bv 
 the archbishop ; who, in the tone and lan.rua.re of an 
 a.„bassador of heaven, declared to Ws' sofereLn 
 
 C: 'riL^or Tu^bir J;srn^^d V!'lft^ 
 
 arerrd%"o1.,Xf:''hf, homicide afTlJe'^'n^ 
 
 r,:?s-ri^": iS •' ^- ";:'Li?^riiL^^ 
 
 tions of peace and pardon were accep'ted • and the 
 public penance of Theodosius has beerreco?ded as 
 
 chur°ch "•^T?"""""'^''' ^™"'^ '" 'he annals o? the 
 fi^^ij" Afcofding to the mildest rules of eccle<.ias. 
 tical discipline, which were established in the fourth 
 century, the crime of homicide was exollu-Thllhl 
 penitence of twenty years :• and as U wa's imposs^J'e 
 
 mMtVfT "^ '""""" '"■"• '0 P"^?e 'he accumulated 
 fhm 1H K^ 1^'^^"^ ,of Thessalonica, the murderer 
 
 uiN e htTof^hTsS'^'^rti "^ 't ■'^r'"""'" 
 
 "1 ine cnurch ot Milan, he shou d humbly solicit «i.l. 
 sighs and tears the pardon of his sins.'^ I„ ^ ';"^ 
 ntual cure, Ambrose employed the various me I od?of 
 
 ^^f ^ilf .^'"'''l'",' ""' '•"^'o'-*'' '0 the communion of 
 
 he faithf.il ; and the edict, which interposes a si^uta 
 
 •y interval of thirty daysbetween the sentence and the 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 383 
 
 i Ambri>s. tom. ii. Epist li n 4^7 *nini u- • , . 
 rhapsody cm a noble suhiWt 4,^1,. ^*- , P'* ^P'^^'*" is a miserable 
 wri!;. ills composit ; ni a e desTifuToUa ^'I ""''''' ^^^" ^^ '^'^^^ 
 spirit of Tertullian, the copioS eTe.a^^^^^^^ 
 w.t of Jerom, or the grave energy of Au"ust?n Lactant.us, the lively 
 
 ^ni'^^^ilai^^l^^^^^^^^^ ivi.) the volun- 
 
 proslrate state; and four in is^Zintl^^'' '''' ^^^^^^ '^ ^'^^cn in a 
 (Bfveridge, Pandect torn i? n ir -F f'^S"'"'^- I have the orifrinal 
 
 Hist. des-^Sacremens; Tom v ^n 2r9 IrrTnf'^H'^n''^''"" (Chardon 
 of St. Basil. ' P* -^'^-2' 7.) of the Canonical Epistles 
 
 and Paulinus, (in Vil. Ambro. r ^u^^T''' ','■''' 9>V^l- Dei, v. 26.) 
 ".en(l.vii.c.25.)conci»p"»^iL,'-*'"™™ " ignorant; Sozo- 
 
 execution, may be accepted as the worthy fruits of hi., 
 repentance. Posterity has applauded the virUious 
 firmness of the archbishop : and the example of Theo! 
 dosius may prove the beneficial influence of 'host 
 
 ra£o'reh:n''r'' ""ft'"""' " -"-ch, exalted abo'e 
 the apprehension of human punishment, to resnect 
 
 n fnc?"' ""'' "Jr'"'"^' of an invisible Jud.re. "& 
 prince," says Montesquieu, " who is actn=r.,!H h.- .1 
 hopes and fears of religion, may ^e cTmpld \o ^ 
 
 of his "keel,:; '^'" Th '"'''''••''"'' 'V'^''''' '° «^ h-d^ 
 ui Ills heepcr. The motions of the roval animal 
 
 «•. 11 therefore depend on the inclination, a7d iute "s t 
 
 of he man who has acquired such dangerous aS 
 
 nty over him; and the priest, who holdS in his hand 
 
 '^^z^'^i:^^ "^ ''■''-^' - ™o^-'' 
 
 00^ ^u * 1- ^ passions. The cause of humanitv 
 same Amh*^ Persecution, have been asserted" bytl^e' 
 sZest"'''""''' "■'"' ■=1"''' '""Sy, and with Jqual 
 
 After the defeat and death of the tv- ^ 
 ^nt of Gaul, the Roman world was I S^E^^^L": 
 the possession of Theodosius. Hederiv- A. ». 3»i_39i, 
 ed from the choice of Gratian his honourable title to 
 he provinces of the east : he had acquired the west hv 
 the right of conquest; and the threi years, wZch he 
 
 uthority of ];;;;;" '"^""^ •="''"°>'«^ '" '-'or: 'he 
 autnorityo the laws: and to correct the abuses which 
 
 had prevailed with impunity under the usurnatio of 
 I name^f' V,l"' 1- "'' ""'""'y "^ Valeutinia'n. The 
 
 ic acts butcher/"' """"'"Jy '"^<'"<"* '" 'he pub! 
 son of i„«," ""'*'"■ ?S^' '"'^ •'oul'tful faith, of the 
 
 of an OH hn?'*' "^^T"^ "• '•'l""'-'^ "•« P^"''™* care 
 ot an orthodox guardian; and his specious ambilion 
 
 ZtltZTT'l ""? ""fortunate "youth, .ntom" 
 struggle, and almost without a murmur, from the ad- 
 ministration and even from the inheritan^cTthe e™- 
 Pire. Jt 1 heodosms had consulted the rigid maxims 
 °'^ '"'orest and policy, his conduct would" !,ave been 
 justified by his friends ; but the generosity of his be- 
 
 PP aus7of ",•: '""r-"'''^ <""'''^'''" •"•' ^'''o^ed the 
 applause of his most inveterate enemies. He seated 
 
 Va entinian on the throne of Milan; and, without stin- 
 ulatiug any present or future advantages restored Im 
 to the absolute dominion of all tl,e%,ovinces f om 
 whid, he had been driven by the arm" of Maximr 
 added'the r""" A^^'' "'"P'" patrimony, Theodod IS 
 
 yond the ii''"' ^"u- f u^'""' !?"■' "<' "'e countries be- 
 yond the Alps, which his successful valour had recov- 
 ered from the assassin of Gratian.' Satisfied with "he 
 glory w-h,ch he had acquired, by revenging the deatit 
 of his benefactor, and delivering the wfst from the 
 yoke of tyranny, the emperor returned from MiL to 
 
 t^e east 'i"""'"^! ,""'''■'" "'" P''="''^<""' Possession 0? 
 the east, insensibly relapsed into his former habits of 
 
 uxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged his ob- 
 ligation to the brother, he indulged his conju.ra| ten- 
 derness to the sister, of ValentLian : and pSslerit?, 
 which admires the pure and singular glory of his ele- 
 vation, roust applaud his unrivalled generosity in the 
 use of victory. -^ 
 
 The empress Justina did not lono- sur- ^, 
 
 ITuV'T '" ['"'y- ""<'' tl'0"ffi-she wS,".,"'" 
 beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she A. d. :»?."- 
 
 was not allowed to influence the government of her 
 f 1 •■ u ir , Pernieions attachment to the Arian sect 
 which Valentinian had imbibed from her example af,d 
 instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a mo e 
 
 N ice a„^ r"''«rT- "'' ^'""'■"S ^<"-' for the faith of 
 ^lce, and his filial reverence for the character and au- 
 
 of'zSim,r,"h'i;;;i'f:ri7. ;%'; ■ AS;;;;;r J' "'^"h''^"'"■'' f"'" 
 
 I Sozomen, 1. vii. c. H. His chronology is very irregular. 
 
 li 
 
 
384 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 thority of Ambrose, disposed tlie catholics to entertain 
 the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the young 
 emperor of the west.' They applauded his chastity 
 and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his applica- 
 tion to business, and his tender affection for his two 
 sisters ; which could not, however, seduce his impar- 
 tial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the 
 meanest of his subjects. But this amiable ^outh, be- 
 fore he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, 
 was oppressed by domestic treason; and the empire 
 was again involved in the horrors of a civil war. 
 Arbogastes,"" a gallant soldier of the nation of the 
 Franks, held the second rank in the service of Gratian. 
 On the death of his master he joined the standard of 
 Theodosius ; contributed, by his valour and military 
 conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant ; and was 
 appointed, after the victory, master-general of the ar- 
 mies of Gaul. His real merit, and apparent fidelity, 
 had gained the confidence both of the prince and peo- 
 ple ;"his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance 
 of the troops; and, whilst he was universally esteem- 
 ed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty barba- 
 rian was secretly determined either to rule, or to ruin, 
 the empire of the west. The important commands of 
 the army were distributed among the Franks ; the 
 creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the hon- 
 ours and offices of the civil government; the progress 
 of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from 
 the presence of Valentiiiian ; and the emperor, with- 
 out power, and without intelligence, insensibly sunk 
 into the precarious and dependent condition of a cap- 
 tive." The indignation which he expressed, though it 
 might arise only from the rash and impatient temper 
 of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous 
 spirit of a prince, who felt that he was not unworthy 
 to reign. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan 
 to undertake the office of a mediator; as the pledge 
 of his sincerity, and the guardian of his safety. He 
 contrived to apprize the emperor of the east of his 
 helpless situation ; and he declared, that, unless The- 
 odosius could speedily march to his assistance, he 
 must attempt to escape from the palace, or rather pris- 
 on, of Vienna in Gaul, where he had imprudently fix- 
 ed his residence in the midst of the hostile faction. 
 But the liopes of relief were distant and doubtful ; 
 and, as every day furnished some new provocation, 
 the emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily 
 resolved to risk an immediate contest with his power- 
 ful general. He received Arbogastes on the throne ; 
 and, as the count approached with some appearance of 
 respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed 
 him from all his employments. " My authority," re- 
 plied Arbogastes with insulting coolness, *' docs not 
 depend on the smile, or the frown, of a monarch ;" 
 and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground. 
 The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one 
 of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its 
 scabbard ; and it was not without some degree of vio- 
 lence that he was prevented from using the deadly 
 weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few 
 days after this extraordinary quarrel, in 
 which he had exposed his resentment 
 and his weakness, the unfortunate Val- 
 entinian was found strangled in his apartment; and 
 some pains were employed to disguise the manifest 
 guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the world, that 
 the death of the young emperor had been the volunta- 
 ry effect of his own despair.** His body was conduct- 
 
 1 See Ambroflp, (lom. ii. de Obit. Valfniinian. c. 15, &;c. p. 1178. c. 
 36, &c. p. llS-t.) When the youii^ eniprror irave an entorjuinniont, 
 he fasted himself; he refused to see an handsome actress, kc. Since 
 he ordered his wiUl beasts to be killed, it is unjienerous in Philostor- 
 giiis, (1. xi. c. 1.) to reproach him with the love of that amusement. 
 
 m Zosimiis (1. iv. p. 275.) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he 
 is detested by Socrates (1. v. c. 25.) and Omsius, (I. vii. c. 35.) 
 
 n Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 9. p. 165. in the second volume of the 
 Hiatorians of France) has preserved a curious fraiiment of Sulpicius 
 Alexander, an historian far more valuable than himself. 
 
 o Godefr.ty (Dissertal. ad Philostorg. p. 4'29— 4;34.) has diliccntly 
 collected all the circumstances of the death of Valentinian II The 
 
 His death, 
 
 A. D. 302. 
 
 May 15. 
 
 ed with decent pomp to the sepulchre of Milan ; and 
 the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to com- 
 memorate his virtue, and his misfortunes.'' On this 
 occasion, the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to 
 make a singular breach in his theological system ; and 
 to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the 
 firm assurance, that their pious brother, though he had 
 not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, 
 without difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss.** 
 
 The prudence of Arbogaste^s had pre- i^r.^.p^tion of 
 pared the success of his ambitious de- Eugcniuc 
 signs ; and the provincials, in whose ^.D. 3D2— 394. 
 breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty were 
 extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the un- 
 known master, whom the choice of a Frank might 
 place on the imperial throne. But some remains of 
 pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Ar- 
 bogastes himself ; and the judicious barbarian thought 
 it more advisable to reign under the name of some 
 dependent Roman. He bestowed the purple on the 
 rhetorician Eugenius;' whom he had already raised 
 from the place of his domestic secretary, to the rank ©f 
 master of the offices. In the course both of his private 
 and public service, the count had always approved the 
 attachment and abilities of Eugenius ; his learning and 
 eloquence, supported by the gravity of his manners, 
 recommended him to the esteem of his people ; and 
 the reluctance, with which he seemed to ascend the 
 throne, may inspire a favourable prejudice of his vir- 
 tue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new 
 emperor were immediately despatched to the court of 
 Theodosius, to communicate, wiih affected grief, the 
 unfortunate accident of the death of Valentinian ; and, 
 without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to re- 
 (juest, that the monarch of the east would embrace, as 
 his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had 
 obtained the unanimous suffrage of the armies and 
 provinces of the west.* Theodosius was justly pro- 
 voked, that the perfidy of a barbarian should have de- 
 stroyed, in a moment, the labours, and the fruit, of his 
 former victory ; and he was excited, by the tears of 
 his beloved wife,* to revenge the fate of her unhappy 
 brother, and once more to assert by arras the violated 
 majesty of the throne. But as the second conquest 
 of the west was a task of difficulty and danger, he 
 dismissed, with splendid presents, and an ambiguous 
 ansv/er, tlie ambassadors of Eugenius ; and almost 
 two years were consumed in the preparations of the 
 civil war. Before he formed any decisive Thcodn.sius pre- 
 resolution, the pious emperor was anx- P^^^^ 'o' ^^■'^• 
 ious to discover the will of Heaven : and as the pro- 
 gress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi 
 and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who 
 possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of mira- 
 cles, and the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one 
 of the favourite eunuchs of the palace of Constantino- 
 ple, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed 
 up the Nile as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of 
 Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais." In the 
 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 variations, and the ignorance, of contemporary writers, prove that it 
 was secret. 
 
 P De Obilil Valentinian. lom. ii. p. 1173-1196. He is forced to 
 speak a discreet and obscure languape : yet he is much bolder than 
 any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would have dared to be. 
 
 q See. c. 51. p. 1188. c. 75. p. 1193. Don Chanlon, (Hist.des Sacra- 
 moiis, tom. i. p. 86.) who owns that St. Ambrose most strenuously 
 maintains the indispensable necessity of baptism, labours to recon- 
 cile the contradiction. 
 
 r Quern sibi Germanus famidtim delegerat exul, 
 is the contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.) Eu- 
 penius prof«s»t'd Christianity; but his secret attachment to paganism 
 (Sozoinen, I. vii. c.22. Philostorg. I. xi. c. 2.) is probable in a gram- 
 marian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus, (1. iv. p. 276, 
 277.) 
 
 t Zosimus, (I. iv. p. 278.) mentions this embassy ; but he is diverted 
 by another story from relating the events. ^ 
 
 cvps^iwit. Zosim. 1. iv. p. 277, He afterwards says (p. 280 ) that 
 Galla died in childbed ; and intimates that the affliction of her hus- 
 band was extren)e, but short. 
 
 u Lyco^wlis is the modern Siut, orOsiot, a town of Said, about the 
 size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable trade with the kingdom 
 of Sennaar, and has a very convenient fountain, " cujus potti bi^ua 
 virginitatis eripiuntur." See D'Anville, Deprription de I'Kgypte, p. 
 
 neighbourhood of that citv nn t *u ^^^ 
 
 foo,l U,at had been prp"red"'l,vt;"''°"' 'f""" ''"^ 
 Five dav« nf iUr^ P^^Pf^ea by lire, or any human art. 
 
 cd a smnlT ; ndowranU^av n?d''" '"^'"'^''^ "P-^"" 
 of suppliants wbo'succcs^^;'eirHr'rr''' """'' 
 
 industry of the two master.o-e„erals St^^h /n 
 masius, was dirPPtP.l t. .l*^.;,"^' . ^' ^^^'.^cho and Ti- 
 
 ble danger to the Goths ZKu 7 T' '* ^^"°"'^- 
 that the^Ioody confl ct mi ht J -'-''t^ V^""'^' ^■'^^' 
 numbers of thrcoZueror^^T"''';!''^ '^'' pride and 
 auxiliaries, and SrTus,";..er"V tho II"'' '' '!i^^.^ 
 bravely on the field of battTe But h^ ''f ""' ^''^ 
 not purchased by their bbod • tho V i '''"^^^'^ '''"* 
 theiradvantaoe- nnH fLi I ^^^"^s mamtained 
 
 revive the discipline of ihriVl , "(""bers, and t< 
 
 ™utu;i aston:bLt: we';:arin^t "sfrwcr:^' 
 
 lli» .ictorj over Tile emperor of the west, or, to sneak 
 . .„ ."."" J ., - ,?'"'""^' ' o"' dangerous 
 
 it might prove to eVtend t be .• f ! ';""' d^ngeroiis 
 skilful anta.Toni,t wi, " r " °^ '^"^'^""^ "^^'n^t a 
 
 to contract-or to nul ipirhfri'"'"'^'' "'" '"'P'"^' 
 tack.' Arbcrastes fiv£^^h- . "™' methods of at- 
 
 Italy : the troons of Th- ^ ' °" ""^ """^""^ °^ 
 
 cup,, without rcsistanc;:Te7r vLce?ofT" onh °" '"''■ ■ '''^ ''"^y^' ThVoiokus wa "sUeTed "7,1"" 
 
 far as the foot of tlie JniiVn P';''^'""=esof Pannonia, as 
 sages of the mounnin. , "^'P';. """l^ven the pas- 
 artTully, abandoned to lerM"*'""?''""^- " Pcrhaps 
 ?d from the iUsa^dheh.n'' '-T^''' "« ''«^«"d- 
 tl.e fonriidabl^ caC Jr.^l V" '' '"T.S*'""'^'''"'"'''' 
 covered with armT'Lnd ti„, ^'^ "'"^ ^"'""='"^' ">«' 
 
 a negodatfon and Tt?."'''*'''"^''''"'^ "'« '"'?« "^ 
 
 y OOZOmen. 1. vii r 0.» r'i„..j:.._ ,. ^'.iinMnin._y 
 
 the 
 
 pass the rear of the eastern "rm Th» 'i " Z'T' 
 
 thi nw'' ^T,?'-'' ■•"^■»^<'^' ^^''i«h tl'^y stipulated as 
 
 ed t'he ""1 P"P" <=""''' ""' easily be procur- 
 
 ratific„io ^.7 «"''^«"''«<l- on his own tablets, the 
 
 was revived bv',,'-''"^'- '^".^ ^P'"' "^ >"' '"^^'^'^ 
 >>ds revived by tins seasonab e reinforcement- and 
 
 diZ,5 .1^''''"!'' ''^^^'^^ principal officers appeared to 
 distrust either the justice, or the success, of his arins 
 In the heat ot the battle, a violent tempest,* such as fs 
 
 elT tIT"^ l''^,^^r'.«-dd-'y arose from the 
 
 east. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their 
 
 n from thn u>it.«h,«o;#„ ,.r*K„ .. • . , . .•'^ " " 
 
 TSozomen I'vii c -'SriL"V''''r*'""".'''">'- ""- ample of the ancient Ii 
 
 «■..., ,1 "' ".■"T/ • ""^ "«? ludsi come 
 
 lian dreams, and the orarlog of the Nile -=•- «' 
 
 VetH..V^ 
 
 ••» Claudian (in iv. Cons Hnnnr rr ji,^ \ - . 
 plana of the two usurpers: ' ^""'^ Contrasts the military 
 
 . . . . Novitas audere priorem 
 Suadebat ; cautumque dabant exempla sequenlem 
 Hic nova moliri praeceps ; Itic quaerire tmus 
 Providufl. Hic fusis ; colleclis liribus ille 
 
 ^ ^^ "^hSr^;:;^;:;;:^j,;;^r-^^----^-tus 
 
 Of G^^S'Sm J^i ^S" S^^^i^ '" '""^ --try 
 
 25 
 
 o «i^ J r \ ■ ""!''*"> "' ^"^ wina, wnich blew 
 a cloud of dust ,n the faces of the enemy, disordered 
 their ranks, wrested their weapons fro.n their hands 
 and diverted, or repelled, their ineffectual javeHns 
 Ihis accidental advantage was skilfully improved- the 
 violence of the storm was magnified by trsuperlu! 
 
 rmotoTr'^-M^"^^' ""^ ^'^^y yielded wSt 
 shame to the invisible powers of heaven. Mho seemed 
 
 o militate on the side of the pious empemr. His vfc- 
 
 tory was decisive; and the deaths of his two rivals 
 
 acnnirld Il^A ^'^"'^"^^^'1 Eugenius, who had almost 
 acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to 
 
 lITJc u- "'^'''^ "'^/.^^ conqueror; and the unrelent- 
 ing- soldiers separated his head from his body, as he lav 
 prostrate at the feet of Theodosius. Arbogastes, afte^ 
 the loss of a battle, in which he had discharged the 
 duties of a soldier and a general, wandered several 
 days among the mountains. But when he was con- 
 vinced that his cause was desperate, and his escape 
 impracticable, the intrepid barbarian imitated the ex- 
 ample of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword 
 
 aoramst his nwn Kri^Qc-f ^VU^ r„*_ -r xi • 
 
 r -" — " ittxx.^w corner of Italy ; and the le- 
 gitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced 
 the archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the 
 submission of the provinces of the west. Those pro- 
 vmces were involved in the guilt of reb ellion; while 
 
 d Theodoret affirms, that St. John and St. Philip, appeared to th* 
 waking, or sleeping emperor, on horseback, &c. This S thTfim^n 
 
 Sna"in' ^I.,^P««;;;li^^chivalry, 'which afterwards became i%u?i in' 
 Spain, and in the Crusades. t^f^i^u m 
 
 e Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis 
 Ubruit adversas acies ; revolutaque tela 
 Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. 
 O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit, ab antris 
 Aiolus armatas hyemes: cui militat jEther, 
 hi conjurati veniunt ad classica venti. 
 These famous lines of Claudian, (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c. A D 
 JJ(y.) are alleged by his conteniporaries, Augustin and Orosius • who 
 suppress the pagan deity of iEolus; and add some circumstknces 
 fi;om the information of eye-witnesses. Within four months after the 
 
 MoseZand jShur^"'' '^ ''"''^^^ '' '''' ^^^^^"^°"« "^'^^'^^ <>' 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 \ 
 t 
 
 fj 
 
386 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 r A X 1 «« \.^A rncUtPrl ! nprnetuallv adverse to the fame of Thcodosius, has 
 the inflexible couranre of Ambrose alone had resi^^^^^^^ pernicious effects; 
 
 the claims of successful usurpation. W ith a man y exa^^eraiea nis vlc«^, ,_V „..K:...t. ^^JtotPrl 
 
 freedom, which mijrht have been fatal to any other sub 
 ject, the archbishop rejected the gifts of Lugenius, 
 declined his correspondence, and withdrew himselt 
 from Milan, to avoid the odious presence of a tyrant; 
 whose downfall he predicted in discreet and ambigu- 
 ous languao-e. The merit of Ambrose was applauded 
 by the conqueror, who secured the attachment ot the 
 people by his alliance with the church : and the clem- 
 ency of Theodosius is ascribed to the humane inter- 
 cession of the archbishop of Milan.' 
 
 After the defeat of Eujrcnius, the 
 
 ^•"'dopir'" merit, as well as the authority of Theo- 
 
 A. D. 3115. dosius was cheerfully acknowledcred by 
 
 ••''"• ^^' all the inhabitants of the Roman world. 
 
 The experience of his past conduct encourajrcd the 
 
 he boldly asserts, that every rank of subjects imitated 
 the effeminate manners of their sovereign ; that every 
 species of corruption polluted the course of public and 
 private life ; and that the feeble restraints of order and 
 decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that 
 deo-enerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, 
 the consideration ofduty and interest to the base in- 
 dulcrence of sloth and appetite.' The complaints of 
 contemporary writers who deplore the increase of lux- 
 ury, and depravation of manners, are commonly ex- 
 pressive of their peculiar temper and situation. 1 here 
 are few observers, who possess a clear and comprehen- 
 sive view of the revolutions of society ; and who are ca- 
 pable of discovering the nice and secret springs ot ac- 
 tions, which impel, in the same uniform direction, the 
 
 The experience of his past conduct encourasca me '"'"'; "V'"' ";"■„;•" i^g „fa multitude of individ- 
 -^t pfeasing expectations of his future retgn^ 
 
 the acre of the emperor, which did not exceed fifty 
 yearsr seemed to extend the prospect of the public fe- 
 licity. His death, only four months after his victory, 
 was considered by the people as an unforeseen and 
 fatal event, which destroyed, in a moment, the hopes 
 of the rising generation. But the indulgence of ease 
 and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of dis- 
 ease.s The strength of Theodosius was unable to sup- 
 port the sudden and violent transition from the palace 
 to the camp ; and the increasing sy njptoms of a dropsy 
 announced the speedy dissolution of the emperor. 
 The opinion, and perhaps the interest, of the public 
 had confirmed the division of the eastern and western 
 empires; and the two royal youth, Arcadius and 
 Honorius, who had already obtained, from the tender- 
 ness of their father, the title of Augustus, were destin- 
 ed to fill the thrones of Constantinople and of Rome. 
 Those princes were not permitted to share the danger 
 and glory of the civil war;»> but as soon as Theodosius 
 had triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he called his 
 younger son, Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the victo- 
 ry, a'nd to receive the sceptre of the west from the 
 hands of his dying father. The arrival of Honorius 
 at Milan was welcomed by a splendid exhibition of 
 the games of the circus ; and the emperor, though 
 be was oppressed by the weight of his disorder, con- 
 tributed by his presence to the public joy. But the 
 remains of his strength were exhausted by the painful 
 effort, which he made to assist at the spectacles of the 
 mornino-. Honorius supplied, during the rest of the 
 day, the place of his father ; and the great Theodosius 
 expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the 
 recent animosities of a civil war, his death was uni- 
 versally lamented. The barbarians, whom he had 
 vanquished, and the churchmen, by whom he had been 
 subdued, celebrated, with loud and sincere applause, 
 the qualities of the deceased emperor, which appeared 
 the most valuable in their eyes. The Romans were 
 terrified by the impending dangers of a feeble and di- 
 vided administration; and every disgraceful moment 
 of the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius and Honorius 
 revived the memory of their irreparable loss. 
 Corruption of In'thc faithful picture of the virtues 
 the limes. of Theodosius, his imperfections have 
 not been dissembled ; the act of cruelty, and the ha- 
 bits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of 
 the greatest of the Roman princes. An historian. 
 
 r ThP events of this civil war are Rallirrpd from Ainbrosr, (torn. ii. 
 Epist Ixii. p. l(«*i) Paulimis, {\n Vil. Ambms. c. 20-3-1.) A«i'j;ustin, 
 (de Civitat. Dei. v. 2f>,) Omsius, (1. vii. c. 3.',. Soz..men, (1 vn. c. 24.) 
 Thoodorel, (I. v. c. 24.) Zosimus, (I. iv. p. 2S\. JS2.1 (-Uiiuhan, (in m. 
 Cons. Hon. 63-105. in iv. Cuns. Hon. 70-117.) and the Chronicles 
 published by Soalii^cr, ^„ v . ., r .- <• 
 
 K This disease, ascribed by Socrates (1. v. c. 26.) to the fai.irues of 
 war, is represented by Philostor-ins (1. xi. c. 2.) as the etT.cl of sloth 
 and intemperance; for which Photius calls hnn an imi)UiUnl liar. 
 
 (Godefroy, Dissert, p. 438.) . • i r .u 
 
 h Zosimus supposes, tliatthe boy Honorius accompanied his father, 
 (1. iv. p. 280.) Yet the quaiUo flagrabant pectora voto, is all that Hat- 
 tery would allow to a contemporary poet ; who clearly describes the 
 emperor's refusal, and the journey of Honorius, ft/ter the victory. 
 (CUudian iu iii. Cons. 7S— 125 ) 
 
 uals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree of truth, that 
 the luxury of the Romans was more shameless and 
 dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age 
 of Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration 
 cannot be ascribed to any beneficial improvements, 
 which had rrradually increased the stock of national 
 riches. A long period of calamity or decay must have 
 checked the industry, and diminished the wealth, ot 
 the people; and their profuse luxury must have been 
 the result of that indolent despair, which ejijoys the 
 present hour, and declines the thoughts of luturity. 
 The uncertain condition of their property discouraged 
 the subjects of Theodosius from engaging m those 
 useful and laborious undertakings which require an 
 immediate expense, and promise a slow and distant 
 advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and de- 
 solation tempted them not to spare the remains ol a 
 patrimony, which might, every hour, become the prey 
 of the rapacious Goth. And the mad prodigality, 
 which prevails in the confusion of a shipwreck or a 
 sieire, may serve to explain the progress of luxury 
 amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation. 
 The effeminate luxury, which infected rpy^^ infantry lay 
 the manners of courts and cities, had aMo their ar- 
 instilled a secret and destructive poison • 
 
 into the camps of the legions; and their degeneracy 
 has been marked by the pen of a military writer, who 
 had accurately studied the genuine and ancient prin- 
 ciples of Roman discipline. It is the just and impor- 
 tant observation of Vegetius, that the infantry was 
 invariably covered with defensive armour, from the 
 foundation of the city, to the reign of the emperor 
 Gratian. The relaxation of discipline, and the disuse 
 of exercise, rendered the soldiers less able, and less 
 willino-, to support the fatigues of the service; they 
 complained of the weight of the armour, which they 
 seldom wore ; and they successively obtained the per- 
 mission of laying aside both their cuirasses and their 
 helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors, the 
 short sword, and the formidable pilum, which had 
 subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their 
 feeble hands. As the use of the shield is incompatible 
 with that of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the 
 field ; condemned to suffer, cither the pain ot wounds, 
 or the icrnominy of flight, and always disposed to pre- 
 fer the more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the 
 Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt the benefits, 
 and adopted the use, of defensive armour; and, as 
 they excelled in the management of missile weapons, 
 they easily overwhelmed the naked and trembling 
 legions, whose heads and breasts were exposed, with- 
 oiU defence, to the arrows of the barbarians. The loss 
 of armies, the destruction of cities, and the dishonour 
 of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited the succes- 
 sors of Gratian to restore the helmets and cuirasses of 
 the infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their 
 own, and the public, defence ; and their pusillanimous 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 I Zosimus, I. iv. p. 2^14. 
 
 indolence may be considered as the immediate cause 
 ot the downfall ot the empire." 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 387 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ^'IfL ^f^'^'i'"''' < Pfl^^nism.-Introdudmi of ihe wor- 
 ship of saints, and relics, among ihe christians. 
 
 The destruction _,,'^"j: ruin of paganism, in the ao-e of 
 of the pagan re- Theodosius is perhaps the only example 
 a!d. 378-305. o' "le total extirpation of any ancient 
 and popular superstition ; and may there- 
 fore deserve to be considered, as a sino-ular event Tn 
 the history of the human minrf Th« li- J- 
 i^QnPoinlKr fL 1 "" ," "^^"^- I "e christians, more 
 especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the 
 prudentdelays of Constantine, 'and the^equ-^l^olerat on 
 of the elder \ alentinian ; nor could they deem their 
 conquest perfect or secure, as long as their adTeTsa ies 
 were permitted to exist. The influence, which \m- 
 brose and his brethren had acquired over the youth of 
 Gnitian, and the piety of TJieLosius, wa emXyed 
 to infuse the maxims of persecution in o the breists of 
 ihe.r imperial proselytes. Two specious princ pies 
 of religious jurisprudence were established fmm 
 whence they deduced a direct and rigorous contusion 
 against the subjects of the empire, who still ad eed 
 
 rate isT T"''' '^ '^'''' ""^^«^«^« ^ '^-' the m alls- 
 he neglects to prohibit, or to punish ; and that tbp 
 idolatrous worship of Aibulous ^deities and 'real d^! 
 mons, is the most abominable crime acreinst tl e su- 
 preme majesty of the Creator. The laws of Moses 
 and the examples of Jewish history,' were 1 as til v 
 perhaps erroneously, applied by the clergy to t^fe 
 mild and universal reign of Christianity.*' The zeal 
 of the emperors was excited to vindicate their own 
 honour, and that of the Deity : and the temples of the 
 Roman word were subverted about sixty years after 
 the conversion of Constantine. ^ ^ 
 
 tTutV"^'"'" /j?""}^^^ ^«® ^^ ^^uma, to the reign 
 ism a Rome. of Gratian, the Romans preserved the 
 regular succession of the several colleges of the sacer- 
 dotal order.c Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their su- 
 preme jurisdiction over all things, and person^! that 
 were consecrated to the service of the gods fand the 
 
 Ind TrL^r''''"' '"^''^ perpetually arose ii a loose 
 and traditionary system, were submitted to the judcr. 
 ment of their holy tribunal. Fifteen grave and learn- 
 ed AuauRs observed the f\ice of the heavens, and pre- 
 scribed the actions of heroes, according to he flight 
 
 nLie nf O '^''"" ^''^''' of the Sibylli^^e books (their 
 lame of Quindecemvirs was derived from their num- 
 as ilS'r^ ^ consulted the history of future, and, 
 devltPd tb.f """' ^^.^«"^'"f "^ events. Six Vestals 
 devoted their virginity to the guard of the sacred fire, 
 and of the unknown pledges of the duration of Rome; 
 vvli.ch no mortal had been suffered to behold with im- 
 punity." Seven Epulos prepared the table of the o-ods 
 
 k Veptius, de Re Militari, 1. j. c. 10. The series of calimitie. 
 which he mark^ compel us to believe, that the //f ;o to wh" m he 
 dedicates h.s book, is the last and m.«t inirloriuuB of the^4 e mj ^n,^ 
 
 niio jubet (the T\los.uc Law) parci, ncc fratri, et per amalam conin 
 gein trladium vindicem ducit, &c »^ p^^' amauiiii conju- 
 
 b Bayle (torn. ii. p 40G in his Commentaire Philosophioue) iusti 
 fo-s and limits these intolerant laws by the le^nooril rei m ..f } f 
 vah over the Jews. Tiie attempt is laudSe ^ '^" '*^ •^*^''"- 
 
 ii V^fiVl K.v"iV onV^tv''"' ^^-''''^W '.'.'^'•^^'•^••'y in Cicero, (de Le-ibus 
 li-.'S^ '^^l {\- ^l I>«"n.vsius Halicarnas.sensis, (1. jj , 119 loq 
 edit. Hudson,) Beaufort, (Renublique Komaine, to , i V 1 OoT aTni 
 Moyle (VOL .. ». 10-5.5.) fhe last is the work of an £riihsh wS ^ 
 as well as of a Roman anliciuary. x^"c"sn wniir, 
 
 d These mystic, and perhajjs iinaiii nary symbols, have driven birih 
 I various fables and conjectures. It see.ns%rubable,thaV tlfe pX 
 h T "" ""''V "^^"^'^l'"*"*^ ^"bits und a half hi^h) of Slirferva- 
 uith a lance and disialV; that it was usually enclosed in a "cnV/o.^ 
 
 re« ''j.i '—, "'''' ^ 'T^''' •^■^'■^^l ''■•'' VUicid by its .side, to d?sr'on- 
 tr^ vn"T^ '"■ «=!*^"l::'?''v Sp'^ iMezeriac, (Couunent. sir les E " 
 tread Ovide, torn. .. p. (>0-C6.j and Lipsius, tom. iii. p. 610. de Ves t 
 
 I conducted the solemn procession, and remilated thp 
 ceremonies of the annual' festival. The thrfe fI'm^'^Is" 
 of Jupiter, of Mars, and ofQuirinus, were considered 
 as the peculiar ministers of the tlrPP mnTcf 
 ful deities, who watched ove the fie of Rol ^Tr 
 the universe. The King of th^l I ""^ ^""^ ^^ 
 
 ed the person of Numtand'o; hirs"":::;;:^^^ 
 
 royal hands, fhe confraternities of the Saliaxs thp 
 LuPERCAi s, &c., practised such rites, as mt^t extort 
 a smile of contempt from every reasonable man wit 
 a lively confidence of recommending then^^e";es to 
 he favour of the immortal gods. The LtloHty which 
 els oH" P"^^\V^'^ formerly obtained in th^^ ^out 
 elhnll ?^r^^'' '''^' gradually abolished by tho 
 establishment of monarchy, and the removal of t e 
 seat of empire. Rut the dignity of their sacred ' 
 character was still protected b/the laws and manners 
 of their country; and they still continued, moTeesne! 
 e a ly the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capi^l 
 am sometimes in the provinces, the rights of Uie 
 ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of 
 purple, chariots of state, and sumptuous entertain- 
 ments, attracted the admiration of the people; and 
 they received, from the consecrated lands, and the 
 public revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally sup- 
 ported the splendour of the priesthood, and all the ex- 
 penses of the religious worship of the state. As the 
 service of the altar was not incompatible with the 
 command of armies, the Romans, after their consul- 
 ships and triumphs, aspired to the place'of pontiff, or of 
 augur; the seats of Cicero «= and Pompey were filled 
 in he fourth centiiry, by the most illustrious members 
 of he senate; and the dignity of their birth reflected 
 additional splendour on their sacerdotal character. 
 I he hftcen priests, who composed the college of pon- 
 tifls, enjoyed a more distinguished rank al the com- 
 panions of their sovereign ; and the christian emper- 
 ors condescended to accept the robe and ensi/ms, 
 
 pontiff. But when Gratian asccmded the throi^e more 
 scrupulous, or more enlightened, he sternly rejected 
 those profane symbols ; ^ applied to the service of the 
 state or of the church the revenues of the priests and 
 vesta s ; aboli-shed their honours and immunities ; and 
 dissolved the ancient fabric of Roman superstition, 
 which was supported by the opinions, and habits, of 
 e even hundred years. Paganism was still the con- 
 stitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple, 
 in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue 
 and altar of Victory :s a majestic female standing on 
 a globe, with flowing garments, expanded wino-s,''and 
 a crown of laurel in her outstretched hand.^ The 
 senators were sworn on the altar of the goddess, to ob- 
 serve the laws of the emperor and of the empire ; and 
 a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary 
 prelude of their public deliberations.^ The removal 
 of this ancient monument was the only injury which 
 Constantius had offered to the superstition of the Ro- 
 mans. The altar of Victory was again restored by 
 .liihan, tolerated by Valentinian, and once more ban- 
 ished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian.^ But the 
 emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were 
 exposed to the public veneration : four hundred and 
 twenty.four temples, or chapels, still remained to sat- 
 isly the devotion of the people : and in every quarter 
 
 r Cicero frankly, (ml Atticum, 1. ii. Epist. 5.) or indirectly, (ad Fa- 
 n-iiliar. 1. xy. Lpist. 4.) confesses that the Augurate is the suoreme 
 object of h.s wishes. Pliny is proud to tread^'in the fcKitsfeps f>f cT 
 
 f^?» /••."'■ '''"'",• ^-^ V]'^ ^'*^' ^'''*'" "f tradition might be continued 
 from history, and marble.s. ° 
 
 f Zosimus 1. iv. p. 5M9, 2o0. I have suppressed the foolish pu,, 
 a^oont Pout if ex and Maxim us. 
 
 K This slanie was t r.-insported from Tarentum to Rome, placed in 
 lUo Cin-m Juha by Ca-sar, and decorated by Augustus with th« 
 spoils of hL'ypt. 
 
 h Prudeniius (1. ii. in initio) lias drawn a very awkward portrait of 
 Victory ; but the curious reader will obtain more satisfaction from 
 Montfaucon's Anticpnties, rtoni. i. p. 'M\.) 
 
 i SeeSuetenius, (in Auir. c. a"), i and the exordium of Pliny's Paneevr 
 
 Cus^and ASr ""'"'""*' """"■" "' "" '"" "'™"'"' ^r-S^- 
 
388 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of Rome the delicacy of the christians was offended 
 bv the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice.* , ^ , . 
 
 But the christians formed the least 
 r;.rV/ lUe numerous party in the senate of Rome ;- 
 altar of Victory, and it was only by their absence, mat 
 A. D. 384. ^j^gy ^.Q^^i^j express their dissent from the 
 legal, thouorh profane, acts of a papran majority. In 
 that assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for 
 a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of fanat- 
 icism. Four respectable deputations were success- 
 ively voted to the imperial court," to represent the 
 grievances of the priesthood and the senate; and to 
 solicit the restoration of the altar of Victory. The 
 conduct of this important business was intrusted to 
 the eloquent Symmachus," a wealthy and noble sena- 
 tor, who united the sacred characters of pontiff and 
 augur, with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa, 
 and prefect of the city. The breast of Symmachus 
 was animated by the warmest zeal for the cause of ex- 
 piring paganism ; and his religious antagonists lamen- 
 ted the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy of his 
 moral virtues.P The orator, whose petition is extant 
 to the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difh- 
 culty and danger of the office which he had assumed. 
 He cautiously''av(»ids every topic which might appear 
 to reflect on the religion of his sovereign ; humbly de- 
 clares, that prayers and intreaties are his only arms ; 
 and artfully draws his arguments from the schools of 
 rhetoric, rather than from those of philosophy. Sym- 
 machus endeavours to seduce the imagination of a 
 young prince, by displaying the attributes of the god- 
 dess of Victory ; he insinuates, that the confiscation 
 of the revenues, which were consecrated to the service 
 of the Gods, was a measure unworthy of his lib- 
 eral and disinterested character; and he maintjiins, 
 that the Roman sacrifices would be deprived of their 
 force and energy, if they were no longer celebrated at 
 the expense, as well as in the name, of the republic. 
 Even scepticism is made to sup|)ly an apology for su- 
 perstition. The great and incomprehensible secret of 
 the universe eludes the inquiry of man. Where reason 
 cannot instruct, custom may be permitted to guide ; and 
 every nation seems to consult the dictates of prudence, 
 by a faithful attachment to those rites, and opinions, 
 which have received the sanction of ages. If those 
 ages have been crowned with glory and prosperity, if 
 the devout people have frequently obtained the bless- 
 ings which they have solicited at the altars of the 
 gods, it must appear still more advisable to persist in 
 the same salutary practice ; and not to risk the un- 
 known perils that may attend any rash innovations. 
 The test of antiquity and success was applied with 
 singular advantage to the religion of Numa ; and 
 Rome herself, the' celestial genius that presided over 
 the fates of the city, is introduced by the orator to 
 plead her own cause before the tribunal of the empe- 
 rors. ** Most excellent princes," says the venerable 
 matron, ** fathers of your country! pity and respect 
 my age, which has hitherto flowed in an uninterrtipted 
 course of piety. Since I do not repent, permit me to 
 continue in the practice of my ancient rites. Since I 
 am born free, allow me to enjf.y my domestic institu- 
 tions. This religion has reduced the world under my 
 
 1 The Notitia Vrbis, moro rpcont than Constanlino, tloos nr>t finil 
 one christian church wonlw to be naint'd amnivj; tho eilitices nf du' 
 city. Ambrose (lorn. ii. epi'sl. x,vii. p. KiTi.) deplorrs ihc public siaii- 
 dals of Koine, which conlluually otfcndoa the t'yes, iho ears, and itie 
 nostrils, of the faithful. 
 
 m Ambrose repeatedly aflinn.s, in contradiction to common sense, 
 (Moyle's Works, \o\. ii. p. 117.) tlial tlie clirislians had amajurily iu 
 
 the senate. , , , ,. 
 
 n The first (A. D. 3.S2.) to Gralian, who refused them aiidience. 
 The second (A. D. 38-t.) to Valentinian, when the field was dispuiod 
 by Symmachus and Ambrose. The third (A. D. .'IS-i.) to Tlieodosius ; 
 and the fourth (A. D 39'2.i to Valentinian. Lardner (Heathen Tes- 
 timonies, vol. iv. p. 372 -399.) fairly repre.sents the whole transaction. 
 
 o Symmachus, who was invested with all llie civil and sacerdotal 
 honours, repreeemed the emi)eror under the two character."! of Pon- 
 tifex Maximus, and Princeps Senatus. See the proud inscription 
 at the head of his works. 
 
 P As if any one, says Prudentius, (in Syinmach. i. 639.) should di? 
 in the mud with an uistnimcnt of gold and ivory. Even saints, and 
 polemic saints, treat this adversary with respect and civility. 
 
 laws. These rites have repelled Hannibal from the 
 city, and the Gauls from the capitol. Were my gray 
 hairs reserved for such intolerable disgrace ] I am 
 ignorant of the new system, that I am required to 
 a^opt; but I am well assured, that the correction of 
 old age is always an ungrateful and ignominious 
 ofl'ice."*' The fears of the people supplied what the 
 discretion of the orator had suppressed ; and the 
 calamities, which afflicted, or threatened, the dechning 
 empire, were unanimously imputed, by the pagans, to 
 the new religion of Christ and of Constantine. 
 
 But the hopes of Symmachus were Conversion of 
 repeatedly baflled by the firm and dexte- ^^•;'"^^ ^^^ 
 rous opposition of the archbishop of Mi- 
 lan ; who fortified the emperor against the fallacious 
 eloquence of the advocate of Rome. In this contro- 
 versy, Ambrose condescends to speak the language of 
 a philosopher, and to ask, with some contempt, why it 
 should be thought necessary to introduce an imaginary 
 and invisible power, as the cause of those victories, 
 which were suflSciently explained by the valour and 
 discipline of the legions. He justly derides the ab- 
 surd reverence for antiquity, which could only tend to 
 discourage the improvements of art, and to replunge 
 the human race into their original barbarism. Irom 
 thence crradually rising to a more lofty and theological 
 tone, he pronounces, that Christianity alone is the doc- 
 trine of truth and salvation; and that every mode ot 
 polytheism conducts its deluded votaries, through the 
 paths of error, to the abyss of eternal perdition.' Ar- 
 <ruinents like these, when they were suggested by a 
 favourite bishop, had power to prevent the restoration 
 of the altar of Victory ; but the same arguments fell, 
 with much more energy and eflfect, from the mouth of 
 a conqueror ; and the gods of antiquity were dragged 
 in triumph at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius.' In a 
 full meeting of the senate, the emperor proposed, ac- 
 cording to^'the forms of the republic, the important 
 question. Whether the worship of Jupiter, or that of 
 Christ, should be the religion of the Romans 1 The 
 liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was 
 destroyed by the hopes and fears that his presence in- 
 i spired ; and the arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a 
 recent admonition, that it might be dangerous to oppose 
 I the wishes of the monarch. On a regular division of 
 ' the senate, Jupiter was condemned and degraded by 
 the sense of a very large majority ; and it is rather 
 surprising, that any members should be found bold 
 enough to declare, by their speeches and votes, that 
 they were still attached to the interest of an abdicated 
 deity.* The hasty conversion of the senate must be 
 attributed either to supernatural or to sordid motives; 
 and many of these reluctant proselytes betrayed, on 
 every favourable occasion, their secret disposition to 
 throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. But 
 
 a See the fifiy-fotirth Epistle of the tenth book of Symmachus. In 
 the form and disposition of his l^n books of Epistles, he imitated the 
 vouii'-er Pliny : whose rich and florid stylo he was supposed, by his 
 friends, to etpial or excel. (Macrob. Saiurnal I. v. c. 1.) IJut the 
 luxuriancy of Symmachus consists of barren leaves, without fruits, 
 and even wiih.Ait llowers. Few facts, and few sentiments, can be 
 extracted from his verbose correspondence. tHp f.,r- 
 
 r See Ambrose, (torn. ii. Epist. xvii. xvm. p. Rij-S33.) 1 he lor 
 mer of these epistles is a short caution ; the latter is a formal reply to 
 the petition or lihel of Symmachus The same ideas are more co- 
 p ously expressed in the po.try, if it may desorve that name, of Pru- 
 dentius, who composed his two bo..ks af.;ainsl Symmachus (A. I). IW.) 
 while that senator was still alive. It is whimsical enough, that 
 Montesciuieu (Considerations, &c. c. xix. torn, m p. 4^7.) should 
 overhHik the two professed antaL'onists of Symmachus; and ainuse 
 hims( If with descantintr on the more remote and indirect confutations 
 t»t Urosius, St. AuL'ustin and Sylvian. ,, . . ,r.i > • . „ 
 
 s Soe Prudentius, (in Svmmach. 1. 543, kc) The christian 
 acre.'S with the pajran Zosi'mus, (1. iv. p. 2^.). in placing this visit 
 nf Theodosins after the second civil war, jremini bis victor CKde ly- 
 ranni. (1. i. 410.) But the time and circumstances are better suited 
 
 to his first triumph. i„„i„..fl,i 
 
 f Prudentius, after provin- that the sense of the senate is declared 
 by a lesal maiirity, procee«ls to .say, (6*39, &.c.)^ 
 
 " Adsp'ice quam pleiio subsellia nostra benaiu 
 
 Decernant infame Jovis pulvinar, etomne 
 
 Idolium longe purgata ab urbe fueandum. 
 
 ()ua vocat esregii senientia Principis, ilUic 
 
 Libera, cum pedibus, tum corde, freciuentia trans.t. 
 Zosiimis ascribes to the ct.nscript fathers a heathenish courage, 
 which few of them arc f'und to popsess. 
 
 they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the 
 cause of the ancient became more hopeless; they 
 yielded to the autliority of the emperor, to the fashion 
 of the times, and to the intreaties of their wives and 
 children," who were instigated and governed by the 
 clergy of Rome and the monks of the east. The edify- 
 ing example of the Anician family was soon imitated 
 by the rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paulini,the 
 Gracchi, embraced the christian religion ; and " the 
 luminaries of the world, the venerable assembly of 
 Catos, (such are the high-flown expressions of Pru- 
 dentins,) were impatient to strip themselves of their 
 pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old ser- 
 pent ; to assume the snowy robes of baptismal inno- 
 cence; and to humble the pride of the consular fasces 
 before the tombs of the martyrs." ' The citizens, who 
 subsisted by their own industry, and the populace, 
 who were supported by the public liberality, filled the 
 churches of the Lateran, and Vatican, with an inces- 
 sant throng of devout proselytes. The decrees of the 
 senate, which proscribed the worship of idols, were 
 ratified by the general consent of the Romans : r the 
 splendour of the capitol was defaced, and the solitary 
 temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt.' Rome 
 submitted to the yoke of the gospel; and the van- 
 quished provinces had not yet lost their reverence for 
 the name and authority of Rome. 
 
 Destruction of ^ ''^ filial piety of the emperors them- 
 Ihe nrSce, "' ^^^''''^ engaged them to proceed, with 
 A. D. .181. ice. sowie caution and tenderness, in the re- 
 formation of the eternal city. Those ab- 
 solute monarchs acted with less recrard to the preju- 
 dices of the provincials. The pioiTs labour which 
 had been suspended near twenty years since the death 
 of Constantius,* were vigorously resumed, and finally 
 accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosins. Whilst that 
 warlike prince yet struggled with the Goths, not for the 
 glory but for the safety of the republic, he ventured to 
 offend a considerable party of his subjects, by some 
 acts which might perhaps secure the protection of 
 heaven, but which njust seem rash and unseasonable 
 in the eye of human prudence. The success of his first 
 experiments against the pagans, encouraged the pious 
 emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts of proscrip- 
 tion ; the same laws which had been orio-inally pub- 
 lished in the provinces of the east, were applied, after 
 the defeat of Maximus, to the whole extent of the 
 western empire ; and every victory of the orthodox 
 Theodosins contributed to the triumph of the christian 
 and catholic faith .»» He attacked superstition in her 
 most vital part, by prohibiting the use of sacrifices, 
 which he declared to be criminal as well as infamous ; 
 and if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned 
 the impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the 
 victims,«= every subsequent explanation tended to in- 
 volve, m the same guilt, the general practice o{immo- 
 latton, which essentially constituted the religion of 
 the pagans. As the temples had been erected for the 
 
 389 
 
 uJerom specifies the pontiir Albinus, who was surrounded with 
 suchabelipvin? family of children and ffrand-cliildrenas.would have 
 been sufficient to convert evoii Jupiter himself; an extraordinarv 
 proselyte! (toni. i. ad Laelam. p. 54.) ^ 
 
 X Exultare Paires videas, pulcherrima mundi 
 Lumina; Conciliumiiue semim cestire Catonum 
 Candidiore toga niveum pietalis amictum 
 Tu r Su'^fre; et exuvias deponere pontificales. 
 The fancy of Pnidentius is warmi'd and elevated by victory. 
 
 y Prudentius, after he has described the conversion of the senate 
 and people, asks, with some inith and confidence, 
 
 Et dubiiamus adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe, dicatam 
 In le^es ininsisse tuas ? 
 X Jerom exults in the desolation of the capitol, and the other tem- 
 ples of Rome. (torn. i. p. 54. tom. ii. p. O.j.) 
 
 » Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10. Genev. 1634. published bv 
 James (yodefroy, and now extremely scarce) accuses Valentinian and 
 yalens, of prohibiting sacrifices. Some partial order may have been 
 issued by the eastern emperor; bat the idea of any general law is 
 contradicted by the silence of the code, and the evidence of ecclesi- 
 astical history 
 b See his laws in the Theodosian code, I. xvi. tit. x. leg. 7—11. 
 c Homer's Sacrifices are not accompanied with any inquisition of 
 entrails, (see I-eithius, Antiquitat. Homer. 1. i. c. 10. 16.) The Tus- 
 cans, who produced the first Haruspices, subdued both the Greeks 
 and the Romans. (Cicero de Divinationt/", il. 23.) 
 
 purpose of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent 
 prince to remove from his subjects the dangerous 
 temptation, of oflfending against the laws which he 
 had enacted. A special commission was granted to 
 Cynegius, the praetorian prefect of the east, and after- 
 wards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two offi- 
 cers of distinguished rank in the west; by which 
 they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or 
 destroy the instruments of idolatry, to abolish the 
 privileges of the priests, and to confiscate the conse- 
 crated property for the benefit of the emperor, of the 
 church, or of the army.'^ Here the desolation might 
 have stopped; and the naked edifices, which were no 
 longer employed in the services of idolatry, mio-ht 
 have been protected from the destructive rao-e of fanat- 
 icism. Many of those temples were the most splen- 
 did and beautiful monuments of Grecian architecture ; 
 and the emperor himself was interested not to deface 
 the splendour of his own cities, or to diminish the 
 value of his own possessions. Those stately edifices 
 might be suffered to remain, as so many lasting tro- 
 phies of the victory of Christ. In the decline of the 
 arts, they might be usefully converted into magazines, 
 manuAictures, or places of public assembly; and per- 
 haps, when the walls of the temple had been sufli- 
 ciently purified by holy rites, the worship of the true 
 deity might be allowed to expiate the ancient guilt of 
 idolatry. But as long as they subsisted, the 'pagans 
 fondly cherished the secret hope, that an auspicious 
 revolution, a second .Tnlian, might again restore the 
 altars of the gods ; and the earnestness with which 
 they addressed their unavailing prayers to the throne," 
 increased the zeal of the christian reformers to extir- 
 pate, without mercy, the root of superstition. The 
 laws of the emperors exhibit some symptoms of a 
 milder disposition ;^ but their cold and languid efl'orts 
 were insufiicient to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and 
 rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by 
 the spiritual rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy 
 Martin, bishop of Tours,^ marched at tho head of his 
 fiiithful monks to destroy the idols, the temples, and 
 the consecrated trees of his extensive diocese; and, in 
 the execution of this arduous task, the prudent reader 
 will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid 
 of miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons. In Syria, 
 the divine and excellent Marcellus,** as he is styled by 
 Theodoret, a bishop animated with apostolic fervour, 
 resolved to level with the ground the stately temples 
 within the diocese of Aparnea. His attack was resis- 
 ted, by the skill and solidity with which the temple 
 of Jupiter had been constructed. The building was 
 seated on an eminence : on each of the four side's, the 
 lofty roof was supported by fifteen massy columns, 
 sixteen feet in circumference ; and the large stones, 
 of which they were composed, were firmly 'cemented 
 with lead and iron. The force of the strongest and 
 sharpest tools had been tried without eflfect. It was 
 found necessary to undermine the foundations of the 
 columns, which fell down as soon as the temporary 
 wooden props had been consumed with fire; and the 
 difficulties of the enterprise are described under the 
 allegory of a black dannon, who retarded, though he 
 could not defeat, the operations of the christian engin- 
 eers. Elated with victory, Marcellus took the field in 
 
 A Zosiinus, 1. iv. p. 245. 249. Theodoret, I. v. c. 21. Tdatius in 
 
 a'^'"-; n""*^^^^""" -^n^'^'"^"- J- "'• c- ^^- ap"fl Baroniuni, Anna). Eccle.o. 
 A D. .'t>59. No. 52. Libanius (pro Templis, p. 10.) labours to prove, 
 that tho commands of Theodosins wore not direct and positive. 
 
 e Cod. Tiieodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8. 18. There is room to believe, 
 th.it this temple of Ede.ssa which Theodosins wished tosnve for civil 
 uses, was soon afterwards a heaj) of ruins. (Libanius pro Templis, p 
 26, 27. and Godefroy's notes, p. 59.) r i- 
 
 f See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis, pronounced, or 
 rather composed, about the year 390. I have consullpd, with advan- 
 tage, Di\ Lardner's version and remarks. (Heathen Testimonies, vol. 
 iv. p. 1.3.'> — 163.) 
 
 (? See the Life of Martin, by Sulpicius Severus, c. 9-14. The 
 saint once mistook (as Don Quixote miirht have done) a harmless 
 funeral for an idolatrous procession, and imprudently commited a 
 miracle. 
 
 h Comnare Sozomen (I. vii. c. 1."^.) with Theodoret, (1. v. c 21 ) 
 Between them, Uiey relate the crusade and death of Marcellus.' 
 
390 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CnAP.'XXVm. 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 person against the powers of darkness ; a numerous 
 troop of soldiers and gladiators inarched under the 
 episcopal banner, and he successively attacked the 
 villages and country temples of the diocese of Apa- 
 mea. Whenever any resistance or danger was appre- 
 hended, the champion of the faith, whose lameness 
 would not allow him either to fight or fly, placed 
 himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach of 
 darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his 
 death : he was surprised and slain by a body of ex- 
 asperated rustics ; and the synod of the province 
 pronounced without hesitation, that the holy Marcellus 
 had sacrificed his life in the cause of God. In the sup- 
 port of this cause, the monks, who rushed, with tumul- 
 tuous fury, from the desert, distinguished themselves by 
 their zeal and diligence. They deserved the enmityof the 
 paijans ; and some of them might deserve the reproach- 
 es of avarice and intemperance ; of avarice, which 
 they gratified with holy plunder, and of intemperance, 
 •which they indulged at the expense of the people, 
 who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud 
 psalmody, and artificial paleness.* A small number 
 of temples were protected by the fears, the venality, 
 the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal governors. The temple of the celestial Venus at 
 Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumfe- 
 rence of two miles, was judiciously converted into a 
 christian church ; ^ and a similar consecration has 
 preserved inviolate the majestic dome of the Pantheon 
 at Rome.' But in almost every province of the Roman 
 world an army of fanatics, without authority, and 
 without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; 
 and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still 
 displays the ravages of f/iose barbarians, who alone 
 had time and inclination to execute such laborious 
 destruction. 
 
 The temple of I" ^^'^s wide and various prospect of 
 
 S«'rapis at Alex- devastation, the spectator may distin- 
 *"''"■'*• guish the ruins of the temple of Serapis, 
 
 at Alexandria."* Serapis does not appear to have been 
 one of the native gods, or monsters, who sprung from 
 the fruitful soil of superstitious Egypt." The first of 
 the Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream, to 
 import the mysterious stranger from the coast of Pon- 
 tus, where he had been long adored by the inhabitants 
 ofSinope; but his attributes and his reign were so 
 imperfectly understood, that it became a subjectof dis- 
 pute, whether he represented the bright orb of day, or 
 the gloomy monarch of the subterraneous regions." 
 The Egyptians, who were obstinately devoted to the 
 religion of their fathers, refused to admit this foreign 
 deity within the walls of their cities.P But the obse- 
 quious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of 
 the Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the 
 power of the god of Pontus : an honourable and do- 
 mestic genealogy was provided ; and this fortunate 
 usurper was introduced into the throne and bed of 
 Osiris,*! the husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch 
 
 i Libaniiis, pro Tomplis, p. 10—13. He rails at thesp blaclr-sarbod 
 men, the clirisiian inmilis, who eut more than elephants. Poor ele- 
 phants ! they are temperate animals. • 
 
 k Prosper Aquitan. 1. iii. c. ilS. apud Baronium ; Annal. Ecclrs. 
 A. D. 389, No. 58, &c. The temple liacl been shut sometime, and the 
 ucress to it was overcmwu with brambles. 
 
 1 IKinatiis, lloma Antiqua et Nova, 1. i v. c. 4. p. 408. This conse- 
 cration was performed by pope Boniface IV. I am i-inorant of the 
 favourable circumstances which liad preserved the Pantheon above 
 two hundred years after tiie rciL'n of Tlieodoaius. 
 
 ra Sophronius composed a recent and separate history, (Jernm, in 
 Script. Eccles. torn. i. p. ;><».■}.) which has furnished inalcrials to Soc- 
 rates, (I. V. c. 16.) Theodoret (1. v. c. C^i.) and Kufnuis. (I. ii. c. *22.) 
 Yet the last, who had been at Alexandria before and after the event, 
 may deserve the credit of an original w itness. 
 
 n' Gerard V'ossius (Opera, toiu. v. p. f^O. ami de Idololatria, 1. i. r. 
 29.) strives to support the stranre notion of the falhei-s ; that the ])n 
 lri;"rch Joseph was adored in Kgypt, as the bull Apis, and the god 
 Serapis. 
 
 o OrigoDei nondum nostris celebrata. iEpyptiorum antisfiles .tic 
 memorant, Sec, Tacit. Hist. iv. 8.1. Tlie Grerks, who had travelled 
 into Keypt, were alike itrnorant of this new Deity. 
 
 P Macrobius, Saturnal. 1. i. c. 7. Such a living fact decisively 
 proves ijis foreijrn extraction. 
 
 M At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in the same temple. The 
 precedency which the queen assumed, may eeem to betray her un- 
 
 of Egypt. Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar 
 protection, gloried in the name of the city of Serapis. 
 His temple,' which rivalled the pride and magnificence 
 of the capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of 
 an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the 
 level of the adjacent parts of the city ; and the interior 
 cavity was strongly supported by arches, and dis- 
 tributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments. 
 The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a 
 quadrangular portico ; the stately halls, and exquisite 
 statues, displayed the triumph of the arts ; and the 
 treasures of ancient learning were preserved in the 
 famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with 
 new splendour from its ashes.' After the edicts of 
 Theodosius had severely prohibited the sacrifices of 
 the pagans, they were still tolerated in the city and 
 temple of Serapis ; and this singular indulgence was 
 imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors of 
 the christians themselves : as if they had feared to 
 abolish those ancient rites, which could alone secure 
 the inundations of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, 
 and the subsistence of Constantinople.* 
 
 At that time" the archiepiscopal its fuml deatruc- 
 throne of Alexandria was filled by The- tion. 
 
 ophilus,^ the perpetual enemy of peace A. D. 389. 
 and virtue ; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alter- 
 nately polluted with gold, and with blood. His pious 
 indignation was excited by the honours of Serapis; 
 and the insults which he olTered to an ancient chapel 
 of Bacchus, convinced the pagans that he meditated a 
 more important and dangerous enterprise. In the 
 tumultuous capital of Egypt, the .slightest provoca- 
 tion was suflicient to inflame a civil war. The vota- 
 ries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers were 
 much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms 
 at the instigation of the philosopher 01ympius,y who 
 exhorted them to die in the defence of the altars of the 
 gods. The pagan fanatics fortified themselves in the 
 temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis ; repelled the be- 
 siegers by daring sallies, and a resolute defence ; and, 
 by the inhuman cruelties which they exercised on 
 their christian prisoners, obtained the last consolation 
 of despair. The eflTorts of the ])rudent magistrate were 
 usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till 
 the answer of Theodosius should determine the fate 
 of Serapis. The two parties assembled, without arms, 
 in the principal square; and the imperial rescript was 
 publicly read. But when a sentence of destruction 
 against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the 
 christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst 
 the unfortunate pagans, whose fury had given way to 
 consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and 
 eluded, by their flight or obscurity, tiie resentment of 
 their enemies. Theodosius proceeded to demolish the 
 temple of Serapis, without any other difficulties, than 
 those which he found in the weight and solidity of 
 the materials ; but these obstacles proved so insuper- 
 able, that he was obliged to leave the foundations ; 
 
 equal alliance with the stranser of Pontus. But the superiority of 
 the female sex was established in Ecypt as a civil and religious in- 
 stitution, (l)iodor. Sicul. torn. i. 1. i. p. .11. edit. Wesseling.) and the 
 same order is observed in Plutarch's Treatise of Isis and Osiris; 
 whom he identifies with Serapis. 
 
 r Ammianus. (xxii. IG ) The Expositiototius IMundi, (p. 8. in Hud- 
 son's Geojrraph. Minor, tom. iii.) and RuHnus, (1. ii. c.2"2 ) celebrate 
 the Serupeum as one of tlie wonders of the world. 
 
 s See Memoires dc I'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. ix. p. 397— 41G. 
 The old library of the Ptolemies was totally consumed in Csesar's 
 Alexandrian war. Marc Antony cav»^ the whole ci»llection of Per- 
 jramus (•2(t0,fHt0 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the foundation of the new 
 library of Alexandria. 
 
 t Libanius (pro Tenqdis. p.21.) indiscreetly provokes his christian 
 masters by this insultim; remark. 
 
 u We may choose between the date of Marcellinus, (A. D. 339.) or 
 that of Prosper. (A. D. .191.) Tillemnni, (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 
 310. 77^^.) preft-rs the tormer, anil Pa^'i tiie latter. 
 
 X Tilleniont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 1 ll -500. The ambitruous 
 situation of Theophilus, (a xaint as the friend of Jeroni, a. devil as the 
 enemy of Chrysostom.) produces a sort of impartiality ; yet, u[)on the 
 whole, the balance is justly inclined asrainst him. 
 
 > Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411.) has alleged a 
 beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from Damascus, which shows 
 the devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light of a warrior, but 
 of a prophet. 
 
 
 and to content himself with reducing the edifice itsplf 
 to a heap of rubbish, a part of whicl. was soon after- 
 
 eTln'honour oni^'' V' ""'^^ '"'"^ ^^^ ^ ^'^"^^h, erec - 
 
 itr rv of A p1 l''^''''''"./''^^'^''^- '^^« valuable 
 library ot Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed ; and 
 
 near tvveny years alterwards, the appearance of t e 
 empty shelves excited the regTet and indignation of 
 every spectator whose mind was not total 1^ darkened 
 by religious prejudice.' 7'he compositions of ancTn 
 genius, so many of which have irretrievably perished 
 might surely have been excepted from the wr^kof 
 Idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of sue- 
 ceeding ages ; and either the zeal or the avarice of 
 the archbishop a ,night have been satiated with the 
 rich spoils, which were the reward of his victorv 
 While the images and vases of gold and silve were 
 carefully melted, and those of a less valuable metal 
 were contemptuously broken and cast into the stree s 
 rheophilus laboured to expose the frauds and vTces 
 of the ministers of the idols : their dexterity in the 
 management of the loadstone ; their secret methods 
 of n troducing a human actor into a hollow statue 
 and their scandalous abuse of the confidence of devoul 
 husbands, and unsuspecting females.'' Charcres hke 
 these may seem to deserve some decrrce of credit ts 
 they are not repugnant to the crafty and interested 
 spirit 01 superstition. But the same spirit s enua Iv 
 prone to the base practice of insulting Ld caluiS 
 1 ng a fallen enemy ; and our belief is'^naturaHy cheek- 
 ed by the reflection, that it is much less diflicult to'n 
 vent a fictitioiis story, than to support a p acUcal 
 fraud. The colossal statue of Serapis - wi^ iulJ\\? \ 
 ;n the ruin of his temple and relig?or Igreat num 
 ber of plates of different metals, "artificially joined tT 
 gother, composed the majestic figure of theVei v who 
 touched on either side the walls of the sm Jtuar^ 
 1 he aspect of Serapis, his sittino- posture and Z 
 sceptre which he bo/e in his left h^idr^re Utrielv 
 similar to the ordinary representation^ of Jupiter H^ 
 was distinguished from Jupiter by the biskeV Z 
 
 mb ematic monster, which he held in hi; right hand 
 th head and body of a serpent branching fn to tTree 
 tails which were again terminated by the triple heids 
 of a dog a hon, and a wolf. It was cLfide tfTaS 
 ed, that If any impious hand should dare to violate the 
 inajesty of the god, the heavens and the earth woild 
 nsantly return to their original chaos. Tn Vtrep d 
 so dier, animated by zeal, alid armed with a weS v 
 battle axe, ascended the ladder; and even the chris^ 
 
 the cLe' nf ^ • ""'T^ ^r v^ffor«"S Stroke against 
 
 the chee.v of Serapis ; the cheek fell to the mund • 
 
 he thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and 
 
 ndTrluillhr^'Th '''T' ^heir accustoTeT^rlr 
 Mows tr huL il^ victorious soldier repeated his 
 ^;^^;;s^_thejiuge Idol was overthrown, and broken in 
 
 391 
 
 Svf^i'ust e^,^s^rbru"!^• ^'""=^ ^ ^'^'^^> -^ - controvSsia; ';-Jitii:; 
 
 -crnSs'5.i;it:J'U''i^^^!;^r"''¥^;::^'' "^'^^ ^---tes the 
 xiii. P.453.)quitcsanepis K ireT.fP T""' ^^''l"' F^""'^^^' ^"•"• 
 the nrlmate with Iho^Sr^I,^^^^^^ ^^'"^'^ reproaches 
 
 b Rufintis names thruHesrori^Tf.rn'^ ^"^^ ''^'j'^*"'"'*«''^«f«'"f^s. 
 p^, fau.iliarly c mvc^Sed w^ih m^ '^ '," the character of the 
 
 betrayed himself in » mnmnm D- /^ ^ "^ ^'^''""^ "^ quality ; till he 
 
 "f ^schines,(seeBavle Dieii nnw A':''"'^ "npartial narrative 
 the adventure of I\S;sJo3.rn.'^ 
 
 p. 877. edit. Havercamp 'liay Se thll'^ u' •^"*^^'*^- '■ ^^*i*- ^' •^• 
 been practised with suVcess ^ ^ ^""^'^ amorous frauds have 
 
 turesque and satisfactory. '^ '^ "*"<^'i "i^re pic- 
 
 ' M^elTiff ;'"^''.""fe 'nanus, motique verenda 
 Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent 
 (Lucan iii ^4''^ u'?,^*;?^"^ rexlituras membra secures. 
 i^.i^^\, s!^^^?^lS^;^^"^--i- 1-tc.an of Italy, 
 
 pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiouslv 
 dragged through the streets^f Alexandria Hfl 
 mangled carcass was burnt in the amphitheatre, amidst 
 he shouts of the poptilace ; and uLy persons ^trl 
 buted their conversion to this discovery of the impo- 
 tence of their tutelar deity. The popular mode7of 
 religion that propose any visible and LteriroCts 
 of worship, have the advantage of adapting and ff 
 miharizing themselves to the senses of rSa Ind bui 
 his advantage IS counterbalanced by the va ion; and 
 nevitaole accidents to which the fai?h of the 'doiater 
 IS exposed. It s scarcely possible, that, in eve' 
 disposition of mind, he should preserve hs imphch 
 reverence for the idols, or the relics, which the naked 
 eye, and the profane hand, are unable to distinguish 
 
 and If, in the hour of danger, their secret and miracu- 
 lous virtue does not operate for their own prese vaUon, 
 he scorns the vain apologies of his priests, and justly 
 derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious 
 altachment.e After the fall of Serapis, somTws 
 
 ZZf'^l 'T'''''' ^ '''' P^^"«' ^hat thelfll 
 nould refuse his annual supply to the impious masters 
 ot Lgypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inunda- 
 tion seemed to announce the displeasure of the river- 
 ^oa. iJu this delay was soon compensated by the 
 rapid swc 1 of the waters. They suddenly rose to such 
 an uniisual height, as to comfort the discontented party 
 with the pleasing expectation of a deluge ; till tlw 
 peaceful river again subsided to the well-known and 
 tertiizing IcatcI of sixteen cubits, or about thirty 
 ill nglish feet.' -^ 
 
 The temples of the Roman empire t. 
 were deserted, or destroyed ; but the in- ^j'^n irp';,"hnt 
 genious superstition of the pao-ans still c**' A.D.yjO; 
 attempted to elude the laws of^Theodosius, by which 
 all sacrifices had been severely prohibited. The in- 
 habitants of the country, whose conduct was less ex- 
 posed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their 
 ^^^Kfous under the appearance of convivial, meetings 
 On the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in 
 great ntjmbcrs under the spreading shade of some con-' 
 secrated trees ; sheep and oxen were slaughtered and 
 roasted ; and this rural entertainment was sanctified 
 by the use of incense, and by the hymns, which were 
 sung ,n honour of the gods. But it was alleged, 
 that, as no part of the animal was made a burnt-ofl 
 tering, as no altar was provided to receive the blood 
 and as the previous oblation of salt cakes, and the con- 
 cluding ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted, 
 these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the 
 guilt, or penalty, of an illegal sacrifice.^ Whatever 
 mightbe the truth of the facts, or the merit of the distinc- 
 I T\ r^nr ''''? P^'^^^^c^s were swept away by the last 
 edict of Theodosius; which inflicted a deadly wound 
 on the superstition of the pagans.' This prohibitory 
 law IS expressed in the most absolute and compre- 
 hensive terms. " It is our will and pleasure," says 
 the emperor, " that none of our subjects, whether 
 magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or 
 however humble may be their rank and condition, 
 shall presume, m any city, or in any place, to worship 
 
 c.Ji iTIl!,l'''^'""V^ ^^^ I^^^^»™iation affords frequent examples of the 
 sudden chance from superstition to contempt "'pits oi me 
 
 f Sozomen, 1. yii. c 20. I have supplied the measure. The samo 
 standard, of the inundation, and consequently of the cubit has fmf 
 firmly subsisted since the ti.ne of Herodotus. SerFrem in he 
 Me,n « e I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344-irGreaves's 
 IMiscellaneous Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyptian cubit is ahm.t 
 twetity-two inches of the English measure. ''-^^"^" '^"^'^ '^ ^''o^^' 
 rrnn/io "1"? ^^'■'' Temjdis, p. 15, 16, 17.) pleads their cause with 
 ?entleand ins.nuaimg rhetoric. From the earliest a?e, such feasts 
 had enlivened the country ; and those of Bacchus (Geo^jc n 380 ) 
 had producecl the theatre of Athens. See Godefro>, ad loc. LibJm 
 and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 2S4. ^i^an. 
 
 h Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals, (A. D. 309.) " Ab^oue 
 ullo sacrificio, atque ulla superstitione damnabili." But nine years 
 afterwards he foiand it necessary to reiterat- and enforce the same 
 pro\ ISO. (Codex Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 17. 19.) 
 
 • Cod. Theodos. 1 xvi. til. x. leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Eccles. 
 History vol. iv. p 1.J4.) censures, with becoming asperity, the stvle 
 and sentiments of this intolerant law. /jii^oiyio 
 
'^ 
 
 392 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 nR 
 
 an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless vic- 
 tim." The art of sacrificing, and the practice of di- 
 vination by the entrails of the victim, are declared 
 (without any regard to the object of the inquiry) a 
 crime of high treason against the state ; which can 
 be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The 
 rites of pagan superstition, which might seem less 
 bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly inju- 
 rious to the truth and honour of religion ; luniinaries, 
 garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine, are 
 specially enumerated and condemned ; and the harm- 
 less claims of the domestic genius, of the household 
 gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The 
 use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies, 
 subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house, or 
 estate, where they have been performed ; and if he 
 has artfully chosen the property of another for the 
 scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, 
 without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of 
 gold, or more than one thousand pounds sterling. A 
 fine, not less considerable, is imposed on the conni- 
 vance of the secret enemies of religion, who shall 
 neglect the duty of their respective stations, either to 
 reveal, or to punish, the guilt of idolatry. Such was 
 the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, 
 which were repeatedly enforced by his sons and 
 grandsons, with the loud and unanimous applause of 
 the christian world.'' 
 
 In the cruel reigns of Decius and 
 oppresst , Diocletian, Christianity had been pro- 
 scribed, as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary 
 religion of the empire ; and the unjust suspicions 
 which were entertained of a dark and dangerous fac- 
 tion, were, in some measure, countenanced by the in- 
 separable union, and rapid conquests, of the catholic 
 church. But the same excuses of fear and ignorance 
 cannot be applied to the christian emperors, who vio- 
 lated the precepts of humanity and of the gospel. 
 The experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as 
 well as folly, of paganism ; the light of reason and of 
 faith had already exposed, to the greatest part of man- 
 kind, the vanity of idols; and the declining sect, 
 which still adhered to their worship, might have been 
 permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the religious 
 customs of their ancestors. Had the pagans been ani- 
 mated by the undaunted zeal, which possessed the 
 minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the 
 church must have been stained with blood ; and the 
 martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have embraced 
 the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives and 
 fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate 
 zeal was not congenial to the loose and careless tem- 
 per of polytheism. The violent and repeated strokes 
 of the orthodox princes, were broken by the soft and 
 yielding substance against which they were directed ; 
 and the ready obedience of the pagans protected them 
 from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian code.' 
 Instead of asserting, that the authority of the gods 
 was superior to that of the emperor, they desisted, 
 with a plaintive murmur, from the use of those sacred 
 rites which their sovereign had condemned. If they 
 were sometimes tempted, by a sally of passion, or by 
 the hopes of concealment, to indulge their favourite 
 superstition ; their humble repentance disarmed the 
 severity of the christian magistrate, and they seldom 
 refused to atone for their rashness, by submitting, 
 with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the gos- 
 pel. The churches were filled with the increasing 
 
 k Such a chargp should not be lightly made ; but it may siirply be 
 iMSiified by the authority of St. August in, who thus addrpssps the 
 Donalisls. "Quis nostrum, quis vostrum non laudat Ipges ab impr- 
 raloribus datas ailversus sucrificia paganorum ? El certe longe Ibi 
 poena severior consliluta est; illius quippe impielalis capitalo aup- 
 plicium est." Episl. xciii. No. 10. quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque 
 Choisie, torn. viii. p. 277.) who adds some judicious reflections on the 
 intolerance of the victorious christians. 
 
 I OrosiuB, 1. vii. c. 28. p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat. in Psalm cxl. 
 apud Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 458.) insults their 
 cowardice. " Quis eorum comprehensus est in sacrificio (cum his 
 lecibus ista prohiberentur) et non negavit 1" 
 
 multitude of these unworthy proselytes, who had con- 
 formed, from temporal motives, to the reigning reli- 
 gion ; and whilst they devoutly imitated the postures, 
 and recited the ])rayers, of the faithful, they satisfied 
 their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of 
 the gods of antiquity." If the pagans wanted patience 
 to suffer, they wanted spirit to resist ; and the scatter- 
 ed myriads, who deplored the ruin of the tennples, 
 yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of their ad- 
 versaries. The disorderly opposition ° of the peasants 
 of Syria, and the populace of Alexandria, to the rage 
 of private fanaticism, was silenced by the name and 
 authority of the emperor. The pagans of the west, 
 without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius, dis- 
 graced, by their partial attachment, the cause and 
 character of the usurper. The clergy vehemently ex- 
 claimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by 
 the guilt of apostasy ; that, by his permission, the 
 altar of Victory was again restored ; and that the idol- 
 atrous symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed 
 in the field, against the invincible standard of the cross. 
 But the vain hopes of the pagans were soon annihilated 
 by the defeat of Eugenius ; and they were left exposed 
 to the resentment of the conqueror, who laboured to de- 
 serve the favour of heaven by the extirpation of idolatry .<> 
 
 A nation of slaves is always prepared ^^^ ^^^„y ^^^ 
 to applaud the clemency of their master, linguished. 
 who, in the abuse of absolute power, ^'^*g^f^^^' 
 does not proceed to the last extremes of 
 injustice and oppression. Theodosius might undoubt- 
 edly have proposed to his pagan subjects the alterna- 
 tive of baptism or of death ; and the eloquent Libanius 
 has praised the moderation of a prince, who never en- 
 acted, by any positive law, that all his subjects should 
 immediately embrace and practise the religion of their 
 sovereign.? The profession of Christianity was not 
 made a"n essential qualification for the enjoyment of 
 the civil rights of society, nor were any peculiar hard- 
 ships imposed on the sectaries, who credulously re- 
 ceived the fables of Ovid, and obstinately rejected the 
 miracles of the gospel. The palace, the schools, the 
 army, and the senate, were filled with declared and 
 devout pagans ; they obtained, without distinction, the 
 civil and military honours of the empire. Theodosius 
 distinguished his liberal regard for virtue and genius, 
 by the consular dignity, which he bestowed on Sym- 
 machns ;'» and by the personal friendship which he ex- 
 pressed to Libanius ;' and the two eloquent apologists 
 of paganism were never required either to change, or to 
 dissemble, their religious opinions. The pagans were 
 indulged in the most licentious freedom of speech and 
 writing; the historical and philosophical remains of 
 Eunapius, Zosimus," and the fanatic teachers of the 
 school of Plato, betray the most furious animosity, 
 and contain the sharpest invectives, against the senti- 
 ments and conduct of their victorious adversaries. If 
 these audacious libels were publicly known, we must 
 
 m I/ibanius Cpro Templis, p. 17, IS.) mentions, without censure, the 
 occasional conformity, and as it were, thealrical play, of these hypo- 
 
 c rilos 
 
 n I.ibanius concludes his apology, (p. 32 ) by declaring to the em- 
 peror, that unless ho expressly warrants the destruction of the tem- 
 ples, 'ci' ^su? Ta»v aypuviiO-TTOTag^xxt auroif, iex« T-^ vo/tui /50)i5ij(rOW- 
 Ttti, the priiprielors will defend themsrlves and the laws. 
 
 o Paulinus, in Vit. Anibros. c. 26. Augustin de Civital. Dei, 1. v. c. 
 26. Theodoret, 1. V. C.21. , ...»,. 
 
 P Libanius suggests the form of a persecutmg edict, which Theo- 
 dosius michl enact : (pro Templis, p. 32.) a rash joke, and a danger- 
 ous experiment. Some princes would have taken his advice, 
 q Penique pro mrritis terrestribus aeque rependena. 
 Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honores. 
 
 Ipse magisiratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal 
 Contulit 
 
 Prudent, in Symmacli. i. 617, kc. 
 r Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32.) is proud that Theodosius should 
 thu.s disliniruish a man, wlio even in his presence would swear by 
 Jupiter. Yet this presence seems to be no more than a figure of 
 rhetoric. 
 
 s Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate of the Trea- 
 sury, reviles, with partial and indecent bisotry, the christian prin- 
 ces, and even the father of his sovereign. His work must have been 
 privately circulated, since it escaped the invectives of the ecclesi- 
 astical historians prior to Evagrius, (1. iii. c. 40—42.) who lived to- 
 wards the end of the sixth century. 
 
 applaud the good sense of the christian princes who 
 viewed, with a smile of r»r»nfor««« *u i i^""^^^» ^"O 
 
 of superstition anTdesDa.r - R.f/\h • ''' '*,"F'^^ 
 
 wlucll prohibited the Sces^a"„Vt:Sl'/r 
 gamsm were rigidly executed; and every hour eon: 
 tnbuled to destroy the influenc; of a reli Jion?whrch 
 was supported by custom, rather than by° argument 
 
 llJw ""f 'h^""'' "■•"'« philosopher, m™y be 
 secretly nourished by prayer, me<fitation,%„d Sy- 
 bu the excrcse of public uorship appears to be th^ 
 only solid foundation of the reliaious sentiments nf.h! 
 
 Sl'^'Thil f "'-'"-/?- f"n:"lratn"'a'„'d 
 habit. The interruption of (hat public exercise mav 
 consummate, m the period of a few vears ih» ilT '^ 
 tant work of a natioLl revolution ^Tlie memoT^f 
 
 he'arldaM.Trr""""' '°?^ •*" P^e^-v^d! wXut 
 Th.^t . I^^ "'^1'™''"' Of temples, and of books" 
 
 the L?h,7h ^"'S"'/^'"'^« •»'"')« »re still agitated by 
 the blind hopes and terrors of superstilioif will l.„ 
 soon persuaded by their superiors, to dfrec ttheirvows 
 
 rmJtTn^s;i.frf:[tT;uTt'a„1'''"--^'^ 
 
 of the new doctrine, ^^iSf sprtualt nCTS 
 
 fn X'worltX: T""- T 8.--»t!"n°that arte 
 n ijie world after the promulgat on of the imnerial 
 
 wch •'':„rsT'"' 7'""" "•« f''<^ of «h« ™fho 
 
 nCnni -™ .7 , 'T^' y" ^o »«""«• '"'"S the fall of 
 pn^nnum. that only twenty-eight years after the dea°h 
 of rheodostus, the faint and minute vestio-es were no 
 longer visible to the eye of the legislator.'' 
 Tlie »o„i„p of The ruin of the pao-an relin-ion i«! Ho 
 rtT'"" ^"i''?'' by the sophi^sts', as a Sful and 
 earth with H..?""''""" /'■'"^'Sy' "hich covered the 
 
 pathetic strain, .if. u ''"^^ '■'^'*'^' "n solemn and 
 sepulchres Ind thn h ^T^'^f ^'^'' <'°"^"""' '"*» 
 
 adort^eS by the statues of ?ll ^^T' ''^'''!' ^'^ ^''" 
 luted bv th. lii * ,*[ °^ .'he gods, were basely pol- 
 
 S 5? " .cs.'' ,°;;''?" '''""• "»M«".."t 
 
 lur ine mu tilude of their crimes have suffered i inst 
 and .gnc^inious death ; their bodies, still marked by 
 tl.e impression of the lash, and the siars of^hose tor 
 
 g s'at^.'tcr'r'"":^"''' 'V'' sentence" ortr ma." 
 uS.r I (continues Eunapius) "are the sods 
 
 which the earth produces in our davs- s„ch U?v^ 
 martyrs, the suprLe arbitrators of ^ur' ^rand 
 
 ed'TtU":^^ ^f''} I'"'' """•'^ "« nor^on^ecra' 
 ted as the objects of the veneration of the peonle "y 
 
 s^aeThe ?■""""' '^'', "•»"<=«' « >"= natural eVXh to 
 
 ^voLiorXr'""^,'"'''''^'' "^o spectator of a 
 revolution, which raised those obscure victims of the 
 
 -rotmorfon,' 'V'" ""'' "' -•'='-«»' and .^ inciW: 
 protectors of the Roman empire. The grateful respect 
 of t_he christians for the martyrs of the faith wasev 
 alted by time atul victory, iJito religfous adoraTion ' 
 and the most illustrious of the saints and prophets 
 
 ty O^rtL^T'^i'lf ""^ ''""""'^ "f «he'ma> 
 
 deaths of S. P„. '' ""fJ^'^ yf"^ ^'■'«' 'he glorious 
 oeatlis ot S,i. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the 
 
 ^f'l^l^^oadweredminguished b; the tombs, ormher 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 393 
 
 3;vfere"'-:,^eht^t^-^^^^^ 
 
 fisherman- and their vene able Ln ''^"""^'^«' and a 
 under the altars of Phtic hon^s „.^^g j j 
 
 the royal c^ co^tinua ^Vffere^'u.e u',rbl'"1'"'^ "' 
 rifice.*' The npw ^^r.tot r /u ^ unbloody sac- 
 
 to produce any ancieit and d'/''!^'" «orld, unable 
 enr ched bv the sno k If H T''^'"' *'°P'"««' "as 
 bodies of SV AndTew St. lE a'nd rr""''l T''« 
 reposed, near three httt^dred vearf n 7 V' ^'^ 
 graves, from whence they were tntisooed^^ "^T"^ 
 
 head of Z . '^nP^'*^' Arcadius himself, at the 
 
 .nHc \ T^^ Illustrious members of the clerav 
 
 ^Smcd^^:fp;^,t---,^st^^ 
 
 and tT? f ""^ '''"'' ""<' '"«"3'rs, af cr a feeWe 
 et a/inrb is^d™- fin-^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ^yTatSrch^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 crated by some portion of hoi J relics vhicht^ aI a 
 ■nflamed the devotion of the faithfLl!' '^'^ ""'* 
 
 In the long period of twelve hundred r.„. i » 
 years, which elapsed between the re.Vn ''"'"oL"""" 
 of Constantine and the reformation of Luther the 
 worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and 
 perfect simplicity of the christian mode ; and some 
 sytnptoms of degeneracy may be observed even i^the 
 
 nt^fsTnrior.''''' '"'"'''' ""' ^"erishedt-hi'sV'r! 
 I. The satisfactory experience, that ip,, , 
 
 It ''"'u "^ '"'"^^ ""« """^ ^-alnablc 'i^^'L'HrrS'- 
 than gold or precious stones,' stimulated the cler.rv to 
 multiply the treasures of the church. Without much 
 
 or skeletons, and actions for names. The fame of 
 
 he apostles, and of the holy men who had imUat^d 
 
 heir virtues, was darkened by religious ficIiZ. To 
 
 the invincible band of genuine and primitive martyrs! 
 
 Augustm (v. 26.) deny the char-e ^ ^ ^°*^ ' "'*'" ^^^^^ St. 
 
 "^ssed the Koran, with the pecumr i.st y.ho V'*' J."*1"'«'^'0". Pos- 
 
 he curious and honest story'^ofUeir exnuls on l^'^^i'ii""^^^; ^'^ 
 lames, vol. i. p. 1— igg ) expulsion in Geddes. (Miscel- 
 
 ^-^^T,TZ^}^^T^^^^^ crodannis, &c. 
 
 "HIS was afterwards satisfied Hi»7hi«" T'a The younger Theodo- 
 
 Premature. ^^^stiea, that his judgment had been somewhat 
 
 lottPt, of M. Chais, tnm W '"' """""" "'"' fnlfnaiuing 
 
 are ^^{^^i^Z '^c}eSc"l "Sri '"^ VT""'*"'- ""ich 
 
 Zetihe^]- ^'■""""' "">' '""'^''"J' «^i" »™e W^» of the .pirit™ 
 
 t M. lie Beausobre (Hisl. <iu Manicheismc Uim il r, aiq ^ v 
 plied « worldly s«,ae to llie pious obiervaTiu'nTihe fte^'of f '"^ 
 na, who carefully preserved The relics of It^oly^^^^at^"'"'- 
 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXLX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 395 
 
 
 '* 
 
 394 
 
 they added myriads of imaginary heroes who had 
 never existed, except m the fancy of crafty or credu 
 lous legendaries ; and there is reason to suspect that 
 Tours micrht not be the only diocese in which the bones 
 2f a malefactor were adored instead of those of a 
 saint.8 A superstitious practice, which tended to in- 
 crease the temptations of fraud, and credulity, insen- 
 sibly extinguished the light of history, and of reason, 
 
 in the christian world. ♦;*:^„ 
 
 11. But the progress of superstition 
 
 II. Miracles. ^^^^^ j^^ve been much less rapid and 
 victorious, if the faith of the people had not been as- 
 listed by he seasonable aid of visions and miracles 
 ti asceLin the anthenticity and virtue of the most 
 suspicious relics. In the reign of the yo"ng«^^J^[,^ 
 dosius, Lucian,^ a presbyter of Jerusalem, and the 
 eccles^stical minister of the village of Caphargamala, 
 about twenty miles from the city, related a very sin- 
 gular dream, which, to remove his doubts had beon 
 repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable 
 ficrure stood before him in the silence of the night, 
 with a long beard, a white robe, and a gold rod ; an- 
 nounced himself by the name of Gamaliel, and reveal- 
 edtothe astonished presbyter, that his own corpse, 
 with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend Nicode- 
 mus, and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr ot 
 
 the other cities of the provmce. And yet the bishop 
 enumerates above seventy miracles, of which three 
 were resurrections from the dead, in the space ot two 
 years, and within the limits of his own diocese. It 
 we enlarge our view to all the dioceses, and all the 
 saints, of the christian world, it will not be easy to 
 calculate the fables, and the errors, which issued from 
 this inexhaustible source. But we may surely be al- 
 lowed to observe, that a miracle, in that age of super- 
 stition and credulity, lost its name and its merit, since 
 it could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the 
 ordinary, and established, laws of nature. 
 
 Ill The innumerable miracles, of iii. Revival of 
 which the tombs of the martyrs were the polyihei«rn^ 
 perpetual theatre, revealed to the pious believer the 
 actual state and constitution of the invisible world , 
 and his religious speculations appeared to be founded 
 on the firm basis of fact and experience. \\ hatever 
 micrht be the condition of vulgar souls, in the long 
 interval between the dissolution and the resurrection 
 of their bodies, it was evident that the superior spirits 
 of the saints and martyrs did not consunrie that por- 
 tion of their existence in silent and inglorious sleep. 
 It was evident (without presuming to determine the 
 place of their habitation, or the nature of their felicity) 
 that they enjoyed the lively and active consciousness 
 
 „,us, and the illustrious Stephen the /^^^^ ;-^;]>:;^ j;^ f their happiness, their virUie, and their powers ; and 
 the christian faith, were secretly buried in tj e ad aceiit ot tnc r pp^ ^^^. ^^^^^^^ ^^^ possession of their 
 
 field. He added, with some impatience, that it Mas 
 time to release himself, and his companions, trom 
 their obscure prison ; that their appearance would be 
 salutary to a distressed world; and that they had 
 made choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jeru- 
 salem of their situation and their wishes. I he doubts 
 and difficulties which still retarded this important dis- 
 covery, were successively removed by new visions ; 
 and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the 
 presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins 
 of Gamaliel, of his son, and of his friend, were found 
 in recrular order ; but when the fourth coffin, which 
 contaTned the remains of Stephen, was shown to the 
 H.Tht, the earth trembled, and an odour, such as that 
 of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the 
 various diseases^of seventy-three of the assistants. 
 
 that they had already secured the possession of their 
 eternal reward. The enlargement of their intellectual 
 faculties surpassed the measure of the human imagina- 
 tion ; since it was proved by experience, that they were 
 capable of hearing and understanding the various 
 petitions of their numerous votaries; who, in the 
 same moment of time, but in the most distant parts of 
 the world, invoked the name and assistance ot btephen 
 or of Martin." The confidence of their petitioners 
 was founded on the persuasion that the saints, who 
 reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth ; 
 thai they were warmly interested in the prosperity of 
 the catholic church ; and that the individuals, who 
 imitated the example of their faith and piety, were the 
 peculiar and favourite objects of their most tender re- 
 gard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship might be 
 
 various diseases^of seventy-three of the assistan s f^7;^^*^^'^;"-;'id;;ations of a less exalted kind : 
 The.companions of Stephe.i were eftn ,e^^^^^,^ ,^ 'rvTewed! ^ilh partial affection, the places which 
 
 residence of Caphargamala : but the relics of the first 
 martyr were transported, in solemn procession, to a 
 church constructed in their honour on mount Sion ; 
 and the minute particles of those relics, a drop ot 
 blood,' or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, 
 in almost every province of the Roman world, to pos- 
 sess a divine and miraculous virtue. The grave and 
 learned Augustin,^ whose understanding scarcely ad- 
 mits the excuse of credulity, has attested the innumer- 
 able prodigies which were performed in Africa by the 
 relics of St. Stephen ; and this marvellous narrative is 
 inserted in the elaborate work of the City of God, which 
 the bishop of Hippo designed as a solid and immortal 
 proof of the truth of Christianity. Augustin solemn y 
 declares, that he had selected those miracles only 
 which were publicly certified by the persons who were 
 either the objects, or the spectators, of the povver ol 
 the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted, or forgot- 
 ten ; and Hippo had been l ess favourably treated than 
 
 r Martin ..f Tours, (see his Life, c. 8. by Sulpicius Sevorus) cKion- 
 edlhisXf^S'on from the moulti of the dead man The error is 
 Allowed to be natural; iho discovery is supposed to be miraculous. 
 Which of the two was likely to happen most frequently J 
 
 hLuctan composed in Greek his original narraii 
 trfnl ated by Avitus, and published by Barou.us. cAnna\. Lccles. 
 » n 4n nJ 7-16.) The Benedictine editors of St. Au<iustin have 
 
 • ^; Atthp Pi.d of the work De Civitate Dei) two several copies, 
 given (at the *:" "' ^^"V:,^„, "^it jg t^e character of falsehood U. be 
 r'^ Tn.?Uronsistenr S mos incredVble parts of the legend are 
 **^^h«1 iS Sffiened bv Tillen^^^^^^ (Mem. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 9, &c.) 
 "•^TDh alof St Stephe\iVb Jnl wai annually liquefied at Naples, 
 tilli^was^upe;sede5 by St. Januarius. (Ruinart. Hist. Tersecut. 
 
 the space of thirteen years. ^'^^J^j j^, ^^ ^ft^n borrowed, and 
 Sr^r^i^ Js-a^e^ fff^i l^sUn ["bf the whole w^rk^c^^^^^^^^^^ 
 merit of a magnificent design, vigorously, and not unakilfully, exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 thev viewed, with partial afi^ection, the places which 
 had been consecrated by their birth, their residence, 
 their death, their burial, or the possession of their relics 
 The meaner passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, 
 may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast ; yet the 
 saints themselves condescended to testify their grate- 
 ful approbation of the liberality of their votaries : and 
 the sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled a^inst 
 those impious wretches, who violated their magnificent 
 shrines, or disbelieved their supernatural power.« 
 Atrocious, indeed, must have been the guilt, and 
 strancre would have been the scepticism, of those men, 
 if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine 
 acrency, which the elements, the whole range of the 
 animal creation, and even the subtle and myisib e 
 operations of the human mind, were compelled to 
 obey.P The immediate, and almost instantaneous, 
 
 1 «?PP Aueustin de Civitat. Dei, 1. xxii. c 22. and the Appendix, 
 , vK rnnf^i.H two b^x>ks of St. Stephen's miracles, by Evodius, 
 h-^^hnn of U/aUs Freculphvs (apud ^Basnape, Hist. «ies Juifs, torn, 
 vi i n^mhaspreserve"7a Gallic or Spanish pmverb, "Whoever 
 VrPt'e^ndst^ have road all the miracles of St. Stephen, he lies.' ^ 
 ^mBurn^Kae Statu Mortuorum, p. 56-&4.) collects the opinions 
 of the fatheJi, as far as they assert the sleep or repc^e, of human 
 i.uVrull the lay of iudirmenl. He afterwards exposes (p. 91., &c.) 
 ule inr.Vnveniences Nvhich must arise, if they possessed a more active 
 
 '"^^ ?":S^ius pSe.l\he souls of the pn.phets and martyrs either 
 in the b\Um of Abraham, (in loco refrlgerii,) .>r else under the^altar 
 o? gSi Nee posse suis tumulis et ubi voluerunt adesse prsesentes. 
 Rut len.m ftom ii. P. 122.) sternly refutes this blasphemy. Tu Dexi 
 fe"es pones' fa^slolis vincula injicies, ut usaue ad dfiem jud.cu 
 
 :neaK custo;iia,^ec sint cum I>«"^'°S,Xii«Xa„"e"e STt 
 pat Spniiiintnr Af^num nuocunque vadit. bi Agnus upique, ergo, et 
 h^qiXm Agmfsuni,\biqueU^^^ sunt. Et cum diabolus 
 
 et dsemones toto va^entur in orbe, &c. „,::„«) 
 
 540 J^eVs ; wiSVheVeC^d^ of so'me wholesome severiUea, such 
 
 effects, that were supposed to follow the prayer, or 
 the offence, satisfied the christians of the ample mea- 
 sure of favour and authority which the saints enjoyed 
 in the presence of 4he Supreme God ; and it seemed 
 almost superfluous to inquire, whether they were con- 
 tinually obliged to intercede before the throne of 
 grace ; or whether they might not be permitted to 
 exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence 
 and justice, the delegated powers of their subordinate 
 ministry. The imagination, which had been raised 
 by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship 
 of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such in- 
 ferior objects of adoration as were more proportioned 
 to its gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The 
 sublime and simple theology of the primitive chris- 
 tians was gradually corrupted ; and the monarchy 
 of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtilties, 
 was degraded by the introduction of a popular my- 
 thology which tended to restore the reio-n of polv- 
 theism.*» ° * ^ 
 
 IV. introduc- I^* As the objects of religion were 
 tion of pagan gradually reduced to the standard of the 
 ceremonies. imagination, the rites and ceremonies 
 were introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect 
 the senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the 
 fifth century,' Tt;rtullian, or Lactantius," had been 
 suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival 
 of some popular saint, or martyr,' they would have 
 gazed with astonishment, and indignation, on the pro- 
 fane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and 
 spiritual worship of a christian congregation. As soon 
 as the doors of the church were thrown open, they 
 must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the 
 perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, 
 which diffused, at noon-day, a gawdy, superfluous, 
 and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they 
 approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their 
 way through the prostrate crowd, consisting for the 
 most part of. strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to 
 the city on the vigil of the feast, and who already felt 
 the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and, perhaps, of 
 wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the 
 walls and pavement of the sacred edifice ; and their 
 fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be the 
 language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or 
 the ashes, of the saint, which were usually concealed, 
 by a linen or silken veil, from the eyes of the vulgar. 
 The christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, 
 in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful interces- 
 sion, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of 
 temporal, blessings. They implored the preservation 
 of their health, or the cure of their infirmities ; the 
 fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety and 
 happiness of their children. Whenever they under- 
 took any distant or dangerous journey, they requested, 
 that the holy martyrs would be their guides and pro- 
 tectors on the roads; and if they returned without 
 having experienced any misfortune, they again hasten- 
 ed to the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with 
 grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the me- 
 mory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls 
 were hung round with symbols of the favours which 
 
 they had received ; eyes, and hands, and feet, of gold 
 and silver: and edifying pictures, which could not 
 long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous de- 
 votion, represented the image, the attributes, and the 
 miracles of the tutelar saint. The same uniform 
 original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the 
 most distant ages and countries, the same^method of 
 deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the senses, of 
 mankind : " but it must ingenuously be confessed, that 
 the ministers of the catholic church imitated the' pro- 
 fane model, which they were impatient to destroy. 
 The most respectable bishops had persuaded them- 
 selves, that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully 
 renounce the superstition of paganism, if they found 
 some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom 
 of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, 
 in less than a century, the final conquest of the Ro- 
 man empire : but the victors themselves were insen- 
 sibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.' 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Final division of the Roman empire between the sons of 
 Tfmdosius.— Reign of Arcadius atid Honorius.— Admin- 
 istration of Rujinus and Stiiicho. — Revolt and defeat of 
 Gildo in Africa. 
 
 Division of tho 
 empire between 
 Arcadiua and 
 Honorius, 
 A. D. 395. 
 Jan. 17. 
 
 as burnin,£?the synagogue, driving tho obstinate infidels to starve 
 among the rocks, &c. See the orisiinal letter of Severus, bishop of 
 Blinorca, (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ. Dei,) and the judicious 
 remark of Basnajje, (torn. viii. p. 215-251.) 
 
 q Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 431.) observes, like a philosopher, 
 tJie natural llux and reflux of polytheism and theism. 
 
 r D'Aubigne (see his own Memoirs, p. l.'>6-160.) frankly offered, 
 with the consent of tlie Huiuenot ministers, to allow the first 40U 
 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du Perron haggled for forty 
 vears more, which were indiscreetly given. Yet neither party would 
 have f.mnd their account in this foolish bargain. 
 
 • The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian, Lactantius, 
 Arnobms, &c. is so extremely pure and spiritual, that tlieir decla- 
 matiiuis against the pagan sometimes glance against the Jewish cere- 
 monies. 
 
 t Faustusthe Manichsean accuses the catholics of idolatry, Ver- 
 litjs idola in martyres . . . quc«s votissimilibus colitis. M. de Beau- 
 •obre (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, lom. ii. p. 629—700.) a protes- 
 tont, but a philosopher, has represented w ith candour and learning 
 the introduction of christian idolatry in the fourth and fiftii cen- 
 turies. 
 
 The genius of Rome expired with The- 
 odosius; the last of the successors of 
 Augustus and Constantine, who appear- 
 ed in the field at the head of their armies, 
 and whose authority was universally ac- 
 knowledged throughout the whole entent of the em- 
 pire. The memory of his virtues still continued, 
 however, to protect the feeble and inexperienced youth 
 of his two sons. After the death of their father, Ar- 
 cadius and Honorius were saluted, by the unanimous 
 consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the 
 east, and of the west ; and the oath of fidelity was 
 eagerly taken by every order of the state ; the senates 
 of old and new Rome, the clergy, the magistrates, the 
 soldiers, and the people. Arcadius, who then was 
 about eighteen years of age, was born in Spain, in the 
 humble habitation of a private family. But he re- 
 ceived a princely education in the palace of Constan- 
 tinople; and his inglorious life was spent in that 
 peaceful and splendid seat of royalty, from whence he 
 appeared to reign over the provinces of Thrace, Asia 
 Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the lower Danube to 
 the confines of Persia and Ethiopia. His younger 
 brother, Honorius, assumed, in the eleventh year of 
 his age, the nominal government of Italy, Africa, Gaul, 
 Spain, and Britain; and the troops, wiiich guarded 
 the frontiers of his kingdom, were opposed, on one 
 side, to the Caledonians, and on the other, to the Moors. 
 The great and martial praefecture of Illyricum was di- 
 vided between the two princes ; the defence and pos- 
 session of the provinces oi Noricum, Pannonia, and 
 Dalmatia, still belonged to the western empire ; but 
 the two large dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, which 
 Gratian had intrusted to the valour of Theodosius, 
 were for ever united to the empire of the east. The 
 boundary in Europe was not very different from the 
 line which now separates the Germans and the Turks; 
 and the respective advantages of territory, riches, pop- 
 ulousness, and military strength, were fairly balanced 
 and compensated, in this final and permanent division 
 of the Roman empire. The hereditary sceptre of the 
 sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature, 
 and of their father ; the generals and ministers had 
 
 u The resemblance of superstition, which could not be imitated, 
 might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has seized this 
 idea, which he distorts, by rendering it too general and absolute. (Di- 
 vine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c,) 
 
 X The imitation of paganism is the subject of Dr. Middleton'a 
 agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton's animadversions obliged 
 him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120— 132.) the history of the two religionji ; 
 and to prove the antiquity of the christian copy. 
 
396 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 I 
 
 been accostomed to adore the majesty of the royal in- 
 fants; and the army and people were not admonished 
 of their rights, and of their power, by the dangerous 
 example of a recent election. The gradual discovery 
 of the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the 
 repeated calamities of their rei^n, were not sufficient 
 to obliterate the deep and early impressions of loyalty. 
 The subjects of Rome, who still reverenced the per- 
 sons, or rather the names, of their sovereigns, beheld 
 with equal abhorrence, the rebels who opposed, and 
 the ministers who abused, the authority of the throne. 
 Character and Theodosius had tamished the glory of 
 administration j^jg rei""n by the elevation of Rufinus ; an j 
 of Rufinus. odious^'favourite, who, in an age of civil 
 380^395. and religious faction, has deserved, from 
 every party, the imputation of every crime. The 
 strong impulse of ambition and avarice* had urged 
 Kufinus to abandon his native country, an obscure 
 corner of Gaul,^ to advance his fortune in the capital 
 of the east: the talent of bold and ready elocution •= 
 qualified him to succeed in the lucrative profession of 
 the law ; and his success in that profession was a reg- 
 ular step to the most honourable and important employ- 
 ments of the state. He was r-ised, by just degrees, 
 to the station of master of the offices. In the exercise 
 of his various functions, so essentially connected with 
 the whole system of civil government, he acquired the 
 confidence of a monarch, who soon discovered his dil- 
 igence and capacity in business, and who long re- 
 mained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the 
 covetousness of his disposition. These vices were 
 concealed beneath the mask of profound dissimulation ;*> 
 his passions were subservient only to the passions of 
 his master; yet, in the horrid massacre of Thessalo- 
 nica, the cruel Rufinus inflamed the fury, without imi- 
 tating the repentance, of Theodosius. The minister, 
 who viewed with proud indifference the rest of man- 
 kind, never forgave the appearance of an injury; and 
 his personal enemies had forfeited, in his opinion, the 
 merit of all public services. Promotus, the master- 
 general of the infantry, had saved the empire from the 
 invasion of the Ostrogoths ; but he indignantly sup- 
 ported the pre-eminence of a rival, whose character 
 and profession he despised; and, in the midst of a 
 public council, the impatient soldier was provoked to 
 chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the fiwour- 
 ite. This act of violence was represented to the em- 
 peror as an insult, which it was incumbent on his dig- 
 nity to resent. The disgrace and exile of Promotus 
 were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, with- 
 out delay, to a military station on the banks of the 
 Danube; and the death of that general (though he 
 was slain in a skirmish with the barbarians) was im- 
 puted to the perfidious arts of Rufinus.' The sacrifice 
 of a hero gratified his revenge ; the honours of the 
 consulship elated his vanity ; but his power was still 
 imperfect and precarious, as long as the important posts 
 of prsefect of the east, and of praefect of Constantino- 
 ple, were filled by Tatian,^ and his son Proculus ; 
 whose united authority balanced, for some time, the 
 ambition and favour of the offices. The two prsefects 
 were accused of rapine and corruption in the adminis- 
 
 tration of the laws and finances. For the trial of 
 these illustrious oflfenders, the emperor constituted a 
 special commission : several judges were named to 
 share the guilt and reproach of injustice ; but the right 
 of pronouncing sentence was reserved to the president 
 alone, and that president was Rufinus himself. The 
 father, stripped of the praefecture of the east, was 
 thrown into a dungeon ; but the son, conscious that 
 few ministers can be found innocent, where an enemy 
 is their judge, had secretly escaped ; and Rufinus must 
 have been satisfied with the least obnoxious victim, if 
 despotism had not condescended to employ the basest 
 and most ungenerous artifice. The prosecution was 
 conducted wiFh an appearance of equity and inodera- 
 tion, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a favour- 
 able event ; his confidence was fortified by the solemn 
 assurances and perfidious oaths of the president, who 
 presumed to interpose the sacred name of Theodosius 
 himself; and the unhappy father was at last persuaded 
 to recall, by a private letter, the fugitive Proculus. 
 He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and 
 beheaded, in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, 
 with a precipitation which disappointed the clemency 
 of the emperor. Without respecting the misfortunes 
 of a consular senator, the cruel judges of Tatian com- 
 pelled him to behold the execution of his son : the fe- 
 tal cord was fastened round his own neck ; but in the 
 moment when he expected, and perhaps desired, the 
 relief of a speedy death, he was permitted to consume 
 the miserable remnant of his old age in poverty and 
 exile.* The punishment of the two prefects might, 
 ' perhaps, be excused by the exceptionable parts of their 
 own conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be pallia- 
 ted by the jealous and unsociable nature of ambition : 
 but he indulged a spirit of revenge, equally repugnant 
 to prudence and to justice, when he degraded their na- 
 tive country of Lycia from the rank of Roman pro- 
 vinces ; stigmatized a guiltless people with a mark of 
 ignominy ; "and declared, that the countrymen of Ta- 
 tian and Proculus should forever remain incapable of 
 holdinfT any employment of honour or advantage, un- 
 der the imperial government.»» The new prefect of 
 the east (for Rufinus instantly succeeded to the vacant 
 honours of his adversary) was not diverted, however, 
 by the most criminal pursuits, from the performance 
 of the religious duties, which in that age were consid- 
 ered as the most essential to salvation. In the suburb 
 of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he had built a mag- 
 nificent villa ; to which he devoutly added a stately 
 church, consecrated to the apostles St. Peter and St. 
 Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers and 
 penance of a regular society of monks. A numerous, 
 and almost general, synod of the bishops of the east- 
 ern empire was summoned to celebrate, at the same 
 time, the dedication of the church, and the baptism of 
 the founder. This double ceremony was performed 
 with extraordinary pomp ; and when Rufinus was pu- 
 rified, in the holy font, from all the sins that he had 
 hitherto committed, a venerable hermit of Egypt rash- 
 ly proposed himself as the sponsor of a proud and am- 
 bitious statesman.' 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ■ Juvenum rorantia colla 
 
 a Alecto, envious of the public felicity, convenes an infernal sy- 
 notl; Megsera recommends her pupil Rufinus, and excites him to 
 deeds of mischief, &c. But there is as much diftVrence between 
 Claudian'B fury and that of Virgil, as between the characters of Tur- 
 nus and Rufinus. 
 
 b It is evident, (Tillemonl, Hist, des Emp. lorn. v. p. 770.) though 
 de Marca is ashamed of his countryman, that Rufinus was born at 
 Elusa, the metropolis of Novempopulania, now a small village of 
 Gascony. (D'Anville, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 289.) 
 
 c Philoslorgius, 1. xi. c. 3. with Godefroy's Dissert, p. 440. 
 
 d A passage of Suidas is expressive of his profound dissimulation :* 
 
 e Zosimns, I. iv. p. 272, 273. 
 
 f Z»»simus, who describes the fall of Tatian and his son, (I. iv. p. 
 273, 274.) asserts their innocence; and even his testimony may out- 
 weigh the charges of their enemies, (Cod. Thood. toin. iv.p. 48j) who 
 accuse them of oppressing the Curia. The connexion of Tatiun 
 with the Arians, while he was pnefect of Egypt, (A. D. 373.) inclines 
 Tillemonl to believe that he was guilty of everv crime. (Hist, des 
 Kmp. torn. V. p. 360. Mem. Ecclcs. loni. vi. p. uSO.) 
 
 \nte patrum vultus stricta cecidere securi. 
 Ibatcrandaevus natomorientesupersies 
 
 Post irabeas exsul. , „ . J" f''^^ '• ^^:, , ., 
 
 The facts of Zosimvis explain the a//«sions of Claudian ; but his 
 clissic interpreters were ignorant of the fourth century. The fatal 
 cord I found, with the help of Tillemout, in a sermon of St. Asierius, 
 
 ^' h This oilious law is recited, and repealed, by Arcadius, (A. D. rrf)6 ) 
 in the Tlipodusian Code, I. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 9. The sense, as it is 
 explained by Claudian (in Rufm. i. 234.) and Godefroy, (torn, i i. p. 
 279.) is perfectly clear. 
 
 Exscindere cives 
 
 Funditus; et nomen gentis delere laborat. 
 The scruples of Pagi and Tillemonl can arise only from their zeal 
 for the glory of Thet>do8lus. 
 
 i Ainmonius . . . Rufinum propriis manibus suscepit sac ro font* 
 mundatum. See Rosweyde's Vitae Patrum, p. 947. Sozomen (1. viil. 
 c 17.) inenti.ms iho church and monastery ; and TillemoiU (Mem. 
 Ecclps. loin. ix. p. 953.) reconls this synod, in which Si. Gregory ol 
 Nyssa performed a conspicuous part. 
 
 He oppreweg The character of Theodosius imposed 
 A.' T395. "^^ ^'^ minister the task of hypocrisy, 
 J .u u ^^"^"^iscruised, and sometimes restrain- 
 ed, the abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehen- 
 sive of disturbing the indolent slumber of a prince, 
 still capable of exertingr the abilities, and the virtue 
 which had raised him to the throne.* But the absence 
 and, soon afterwards, the death, of the emperor, conl 
 firmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the per- 
 son and dominions of Arcadius ; a feeble youth, whom 
 the imperious praefect considered as his pupil, rather 
 than his sovereign. Regardless of the public opinion, 
 he indulged his passions without remorse, and without 
 resistance; and h.s malignant and rapacious spirit re- 
 jected every passion that might have contributed to his 
 own glory, or the happiness of the people. His ava- 
 nce,> which seems to have prevailed, in his corrupt 
 mild, over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth 
 of the east, by the various arts of partial, and general, 
 extortion ; oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, iml 
 moderate fines, unjust confiscations, forced or fictitious 
 testaments, by which the tyrant despoiled of their 
 lawful inheritance the children of strangers, or ene- 
 mies; and the public sale of justice, as wellas of fa- 
 
 nople. The ambitious candidate eajrerly solicited at 
 the expense of the fairest part of his patrimony, the 
 honours and emoluments of some provincial ga;ern- 
 ment: the lives and fortunes of the unhappy pPon?e 
 were abandoned to the most liberal purchasir7aK e 
 public discontent was sometimes appeased by the 
 
 waT pTofithr ""rP"'^f ^""^'"^^' ^'^ '^^ punish'men 
 was profitable only to the prefect of the east, his ac- 
 
 n r rjlhl ^ •^""^'" passions, the motives of Rufi- 
 nus might excite our curiosity; and we miirht be 
 
 ZTltVVT'''^- '''''' ^'^^^^^-^ he vTola^ed every 
 principle of humanity and justice, to accumulate those 
 immense treasures, which he could not sr^nd without 
 folly, nor possess without danger. Perhaps he vainlv 
 imagined, that he laboured for the interest^of an o"^ 
 
 n.?nfl '^1""^^°"^*^^ ^"^"^^^ t« bestow his roya^ 
 pupil, and the august rank of empress of the easV 
 
 av'aHce^'w^.'r'^' '^"^^^' '^ the^pinion, that hi^ 
 IJriA? he instrument of his ambition. He as- 
 
 basls wK r t^' r""^°" " ^^^"^^ ^"^ independent 
 orth^youn ' ""^ lonpr depend on the caprice 
 
 tlie hea^rS^ S- T P''°u- ^'' ^^ """^""'^^ '^ conciliate 
 d stribution Ir^K '"^"^ -"u '"^ P^^P^"' ^y the liberal 
 
 with so Zpl?tM''' .""•??' ^'^'"'^ ^^ had acquired 
 with so much toil, and with so much guilt. The ex- 
 
 ^JenlTT'7 '^ ^"^""^ '^^t ^™ '^y the reproach, 
 him witL f ' ■^'"'" '^'^^^th ; his dependents served 
 khTd wl i ""^^r"'; 't^" ""^^^^^^^ hatred of man- 
 fear Th/f ^Ti ^^'^ ^^^ '^^ ^"^"«"^« of servile 
 ihJ'nrJe^. 1°^ ^•"'','^" proclaimed to the east, that 
 desn^atl nf ^^''' '"^"'^^^ ^'^' "^"^h abated in thp 
 Sabl^ • T.'*'""''^ ^"'l""*^' ^^' active ^nd inde- 
 of £ ^ r '^%r'^''}' «f revenge. Lucian, the son 
 iLoLl fj V'^'^Ti^^ the oppressor of Gaul, and 
 the enemy of Julian, had employed a considerable part 
 ot his inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption 
 to purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and theT.h 
 office of count of the east. But the new manristra^te 
 imprudently departed from the maxims of the" court, 
 
 leg. unic. to discourage the prosecutKm of treasonable or sacHe 
 gious, words. A tyrannical statute always proves the existence of 
 tyranny ; but a laudable edict may only contain the HnPrim.r,lr?f„/ 
 J.ons or ineffoctuai wishes, of the prince^or h^s m?nisTe,^ Ihis V 
 am afraid, ,s a jnst, though mortifying, caAon of criticism. '' ^ 
 
 ' nuctibus auri 
 
 397 
 
 and of the times; disgraced his benefactor, by the 
 contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration; 
 and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which mighl 
 have tended to the profit of the emperor^ uncle. Ar- 
 «nu"' ^^;f« easily persuaded to resent the supposed in- 
 sult; and the prefect of the east resolved to^ execute 
 in person the cruel vengeance, which he meditated 
 against this ungrateful delegate of his power. He 
 performed vvith incessant speed the journey of seven 
 or eight hundred miles, from Constantinople to Anti" 
 och, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of niirht 
 and spread universal consternation among a people ig-I 
 norant of his design but not ignorant of his character. 
 I he count of the fifteen provinces of the east was 
 dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitra- 
 ry tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest 
 evidence of his integrity, which was nSt impeached 
 even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian wks con- 
 demned, almost without a trial, to suflfer a cruel and 
 ignominious punishment. The ministers of the ty- 
 rant by the order, and in the presence, of their master, 
 beat him on the neck with leather thongs, armed at the 
 extremities with lead ; and when he fainted under the 
 violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter, 
 to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the inl 
 dignant city. No sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this 
 inhuman act, the sole object of his expedition, than he 
 returned, amidst the deep and silent curses of a trem- 
 bling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his 
 diligence was accelerated by the hope of accomplish- 
 ing, without delay, the nuptials of his dau(rhter with 
 the emperor of the east." ° 
 
 But Rufinus soon experienced, that a He » d.Vanpoint- 
 prudent minister should constantly se- ''^^ ^y <''e mar- 
 cure his royal captive by the strong, "'i' VS"^'""' 
 though invisible, chain of habit; and April oi?- 
 that the merit, and much more easily the favour, of the 
 absent, are obliterated in a short time from the mind 
 ot a weak and capricious sovereign. While the pro- 
 tect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret conspi- 
 racy of the favourite eunuchs, directed by the ffreat 
 chamberlain Eutropius, undermined his power in the 
 palace of Constantinople. They discovered that Ar- 
 cadius was not inclined to love the daughter of Rufi- 
 nus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for 
 his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her 
 place the fair Kudoxia, the daughter of Bauto •» a 
 geiieral of the Franks in the service of Rome ; and 
 who was educated, since the death of her father, in 
 the family of the sons of Promotus. The youno- em- 
 peror, whose chastity had been strictly guarded b% the 
 pious care of his tutor Arsenius," eagerly listened to 
 the artful and flattering descriptions of the charms of 
 l^.udoxia ; he gazed with impatient ardour on her pic- 
 ture, and he understood the necessity of concealinff 
 his amorous designs from the knowledge of a minis- 
 ter, who was so deeply interested to oppose the con- 
 summation of his happiness. Soon after the return of 
 Kufinus, the approaching ceremony of the royal nup- 
 tials was announced to the people of Constantinople, 
 who prepared to celebrate, with false and hollow ac' 
 clamations, the fortune of his daughter. A splendid 
 train of eunuchs and officers, issued, in hymeneal 
 pomp, from the gates of the palace ; bearing aloft the 
 diadem, the robes, and the inestimable ornaments, of 
 the future empress. The solemn procession passed 
 through the streets of the city; which were adorned 
 with garlands, and filled with spectators ; but, when 
 
 m 
 
 Caetera segnis ; 
 
 Expleri ille calor nequit 
 
 Congest* cumulantur opes ; orbisque rapinas 
 
 Accipit una domus. — ^ 
 
 rhia character (Claudian. in Rufin. i. 184-220.) is confirmed bv Je- 
 HS/^i'n 'Iffif'*^''"^"'' ^^^^^^""^ insatiabilis avariti™Sm^ Td 
 t^e^ajr^ofElnlpi^r""' ''' " ^^ ^'^ ^"^ ^^ ^-^-' ^^^ -P''^ 
 
 Ad facinus velox ; penitus regione remotas 
 
 Impieter ire vias. 
 This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. i. 5M1.) is again explained bv 
 the circumstantial narrative of Zusiinus, (1. v. p ^ 2^ ) 
 ri,". ^fT"f' fl %^- 2^3.) praises the valour, prudence", and intee- 
 vl 77^ ''"'^- ^^^ Tillemonl, Hist. 'des Empereurs, tor^. 
 
 o Arsenius escaped from the palace of Constantinople, and passed 
 fifty-five years in rigid penance in the monasteries of feeypi Soa 
 Tillrmont, Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p. 676-702 ; and FlIuK* Hist 
 Eccles. torn. y. p. 1, &c. but the latter, for the want of authemlc ma.' 
 tenals, has given too much credit lo the legend of Metaphrasles 
 
 \ 
 
398 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 it reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the 
 principal eunuch respectfully entered the mansion, in- 
 vested the fair Eudosia with the imperial robes, and 
 conducted her in triumph to the palace and bed of Ar- 
 cadius.P The secrecy, and success, with which this 
 conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted, im- 
 printed a mark of indelible ridicule on the character of 
 a minister, who had suffered himself to be deceived, 
 in a post, where the arts of deceit and dissimulation 
 constituted the most distinguishing merit. He consid- 
 ered, with a mixture of indignation and fear, the vic- 
 tory of an aspiring eunuch, who had so secretly cap- 
 tivated the favour of his sovereign ; and the disgrace 
 of his daughter, whose interest was inseparably eon- 
 nected wiFh his own, wounded the tenderness, or at 
 least the pride, of Rufinus. At the moment when he 
 flattered himself that he should become the father of a 
 line of kings, a foreign maid, who had been educated 
 in the hous'e of his implacable enemies, was introdu- 
 ced into the imperial bed ; and Eudoxia soon display- 
 ed a superiority of sense and spirit, to improve the as- 
 cendant which her beauty must acquire over the mind 
 of a fond and youthful husband. The emperor would 
 soon be instructed to hate, to fear, and to destroy, the 
 powerful subject, whom he had injured ; and the con- 
 sciousness of guilt deprived Rufinus of every hope, 
 either of safety or comfort, in the retirement of a pri- 
 vate life. But he still possessed the most effectual 
 means of defending his dignity, and perhaps of op- 
 pressing his enemies. The prasfect still exercised an 
 uncontrolled authority over the civil and military gov- 
 ernment of the east: and his treasures, if he could re- 
 solve to use them, might be employed to procure pro- 
 per instruments, for the execution of the blackest de- 
 signs, that pride, ambition, and revenge, could sug- 
 'gest to a desperate statesman. The character of Rufi- 
 nus seemed to justify the accusations, that he conspir- 
 ed against the person of his sovereign, to seat him- 
 self on the vacant throne ; and that he had secretly in- 
 vited the Huns and the Goths to invade the provinces 
 of the empire, and to increase the public confusion. 
 The subtle praefeet, whose life had been spent in the 
 intrigues of the palace, opposed, with equal arms, the 
 artful measures of the eunuch Eutropius; but the 
 timid soul of Rufinus was astonished by the hostile 
 approach of a more formidable rival, of the great Stil- 
 icho, the general, or rather the master, of the empire 
 
 of the west.i 
 
 ^, . _ . The celestial gift which Achilles ob- 
 
 Hchrthc minfs: tained, and Alexander envied, of a poet 
 tcr, and general, worthy to celebrate the actions of heroes, 
 of the western ^^^ ^^^^ enjoyed by Stilicho, in a much 
 empire. ... ■. ■'■^. .1.1 i 
 
 higher degree than might have been ex- 
 pected from the declining state of genius, and of art. 
 The muse of Claudian,' devoted to his service, was 
 always prepared to stigmatize his adversaries, Rufi- 
 nus, or Eutropius, with eternal infamy; or to paint in 
 the most splendid colours, the victories, and virtues, 
 of a powerful benefactor. In the review of a period 
 indifferently supplied with authentic materials, we 
 cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of Honorius, 
 from the invectives, or tlie panegyrics, of a contempo- 
 rary writer ; but as Claudian appears to have indul- 
 ged the most ample privilege of a poet and a courtier, 
 some criticism will be requisite to translate the lan- 
 guage of fiction, or exaggeration, into the truth and 
 simplicity of historic prose. His silence concerning 
 the family of Stilicho may he admitted as a proof, 
 that his patron was neither able, nor desirous, to boast 
 
 p This story (Zoslmus, 1. v. p. 290.) proves that the hymeneal rites 
 of antiquity were still practised, without idolatry, by the christians 
 of the east ; and the bride was forcibly conducted from the house of 
 her parents to that of her husband. Our form of marriage requires, 
 with less delicacy, the express and public consent of a virgin. 
 
 q Zosimus, (1. V. p. 290.) Orosius, (I. vii. c. 37.) and the Chronicle 
 of Marcellinus. Claudian (in Rufin. ii. 7—100,) paints in lively co- 
 lours the distress and guilt of the praefeet. 
 
 r Stilicho, directly or indirectly, is the perpetual theme of Clau- 
 dian. The youth and private life of the hero are vaguely expressed 
 in the poem on his first consulship, 35-140. 
 
 of a long series of illustrious progenitors ; and the 
 slight mention of his father, an officer of barbarian 
 cavalry, in the service of Valens, seems to counten- 
 ance the assertion, that the general, who so long 
 commanded the armies of Rome, was descended from 
 the savage and perfidious race of the Vandals.* If 
 Stilicho had not possessed the external advantages of 
 strength and stature, the most flattering bard, m the 
 presence of so many thousand spectators, would have 
 hesitated to aflirm, that he surpassed the measure of 
 the demi-gods of antiquity ; and that whenever he 
 moved, with lofty steps, through the streets of the 
 capital, the astonished crowd made room for the stran- 
 aer, who displayed, in a private condition, the awful 
 majesty of a hero. From his earliest youth he embra- 
 ced the profession of arms; his prudence and valour 
 were soon distinguished in the field ; the horsemen 
 and archers of the east admired his superior dexterity ; 
 and in each degree of his military promotions, the 
 public judgment always prevented and approved the 
 choice of the sovereign. He was named by Theodo- 
 sius, to ratify a solemn treaty with the monarch of 
 Persia : he supported, during that important embassy, 
 the dignity of the Roman name ; and after his return 
 to Constantinople, his merit was rewarded by an inti- 
 mate and honourable alliance with the imperial fami- 
 ly. Theodosius had been prompted, by a pious mo- 
 tive of fraternal affection, to adopt, for his own, the 
 daughter of his brother Honorius : the beauty and ac- 
 com'plishmcnts of Serena* were universally admired 
 by the obsequious court; and Stilicho obtained the 
 preference over a crowd of rivals, who ambitiously 
 disputed the hand of the princess, and the favour of 
 her adoptive father." The assurance that the husband 
 of Serena would be faithful to the throne, which he was 
 permitted to approach, engaged the emperor to exalt 
 the fortunes, and to employ the abilities, of the sagacious 
 and intrepid Stilicho. He rose through the ma military 
 successive steps of master of the horse, n°'^^4na 
 and count of the domestics, to the su- ^' "• •***^'* ^■ 
 preme rank of master-general of all the cavalry and 
 infantry of the Roman, or at least of the western, em- 
 pire ;» and his enemies confessed, that he invariably 
 disdained to barter for gold the rewards of merit, or to 
 defraud the soldiers of the pay and gratifications, 
 which they deserved, or claimed, from the liberality 
 of the state.y The valour and conduct which he after- 
 wards displayed, in the defence of Italy, against the 
 arms of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify the fame 
 of his early achievements ; and in an age less atten- 
 tive to the laws of honour, or of pride, the Roman 
 generals might yield the pre-eminence of rank, to the 
 ascendant of superior genius.' He lamented and re- 
 venged the murder of Promotus, his rival and his 
 friend ; and the massacre of many thousands of the 
 flying Bastarnae is represented by the poet, as a 
 bloody sacrifice, which the Roman Achilles offered to 
 
 399 
 
 s Vandaloruni, imbellis, avarjB, perfidae et dolosae, gentis, genero 
 editus. Orosius, I. vii. c. 33. Jerom (tom. i.ad Geroutiam, p. 93.) calls 
 him a semi-barbarian. 
 
 t Claudian, in an imperfect poem, has drawn a fair, perhaps a flat- 
 tering, portrait of Serena. That favourite niece of ThecHlosius was 
 born, as well as her sister Thermantia, in Spain; from whence, in 
 their earliest youth, ihey were honourably conducted tx) the palace 
 itf Constantinople. ,.,,.,. 11 
 
 u Some doubt may be entertained, whether tins adoption was legal, 
 or only metaphorical, (see Ducange, Fain. Byzant, p. 75.) An old 
 inscription gives Stilicho the singular title of Pro-gener Ihvt Tneo- 
 
 dosii. . . , 
 
 X Claudian (Laus Serenae, 190. 193.) expresses, in poetic language, 
 the "dilectus ecjuorum," and the "geminomox idem culmine duxit 
 agmina." The inscription adds, "count of the domestics," an im- 
 jKinant command, which Stilicho, in the height of his grandeur, 
 might prudently retain. 
 
 y The beautiful lines of Claudian (in i. Cons. Stilich. ii. 113.) dis- 
 play his trenius: but the inteirrily of Stilicho (in the miliury admin- 
 istration) is much more firmly established by the unwilling evidence 
 of Zosimus, (I. V. p. 345.) 
 
 X Si bellica moles 
 
 Ingrueret, quamvis annis el jure minori, 
 
 Cedere grandaevos e(iuitum peditumque magistro9 
 
 Adspiceres. , .„-. . 
 
 Claudian, Laus Seren. p. 196, «c. 
 A modern general would deem their submission, either heroic patr». 
 otism, or abject servility. 
 
 the manes of another Patroclus. The virtues and vic- 
 tories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus: and the 
 arts of calumny might have been successful, if the ten- 
 der and vigilant Serena had not protected her husband 
 against his domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the 
 field the enemies of the empire.* Theodosius contin- 
 ued to support an unworthy minister, to whose dili- 
 gence he delegated the government of the palace, and 
 of the east ; but when he marched against the tyrant 
 Eugenius, he associated his faithful general to the la- 
 bours and glories of the civil war; and, in the last 
 moments of his life, the dying monarch recommended 
 to Stilicho the care of his sons, and of the republic.'' 
 The ambition and the abilities of Stilicho were not 
 unequal to the important trust; and he claimed the 
 guardianship of the two empires during the minority 
 of Arcadius and Honorius.'^ The first measure of his 
 administration, or rather of his reign, displayed to the 
 nations the vigour and activity of a spirit worthy to 
 command. He passed the Alps in the depth of win- 
 ter ; descended the stream of the Rhine, from the for- 
 tress of Basil to the marches of Batavia ; reviewed 
 the state of the garrisons; repressed the enterprises 
 of the Germans ; and, after establishing along the 
 banks a firm and honourable peace, returned wiUi in- 
 credible speed to the palace at Milan.'' The person 
 and court of Honorius were subject to tiie master-gen- 
 eral of the west ; and the armies and provinces of Eu- 
 rope obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority, 
 which was exercised in the name of their youn<r sov- 
 ereign. Two rivals only remained to dispute the 
 claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. 
 Within the limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor, main- 
 tained a proud and dangerous independence ; and the 
 minister of Constantinople asserted his equal reifrn 
 over the emperor, and the empire, of the east, ° 
 
 The fall and , ^^^ impartiality which Stilicho affect- 
 death of Rufinusi ^^» ^^ ^^6 common guardian of the royal 
 Nov^'oy' brothers, engaged him to regulate the 
 equal division of the arms, the jewels, and 
 the magnificent wardrobe and furniture, of the deceased 
 emperor." But the most important object of the in- 
 heritance consisted of the numerous legions, cohorts, 
 and squadrons, of Romans, or barbarians, whom the 
 event of the civil war had united under the standard 
 of Theodosius. The various multitudes of Europe 
 and Asia, exasperated by recent animosities, were 
 overawed by the authority of a single man ; and the 
 rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of the 
 citizens from the rapine of the licentious soldier.' 
 Anxious, however, and impatient, to relieve Italy 
 from the presence of this formidable host, which 
 could be useful only on the frontiers of the empire, 
 he listened to the just requisition of the minister of 
 Arcadius, declared his intention of re-conducting in 
 person the troops of the east ; and dexterously em- 
 
 a Compare the poem on the first consulship (I. 95—115.) with the 
 Laus Serena, i'iflT—XVT. where it unfortunately breaks off.) We 
 may perceive the deep inveterate malice of Kufinus. 
 
 •* Quem/ra/rifrMs ipse 
 
 Discedens clypeiimque defensorfinciuo dcdisti. 
 Yet the nomination (iv. Cons. Hon. 432.) was private, (iii. Cons. Hon 
 1 12.) cuncu>s discedere . . . jubet; and may therefore be suspected 
 Zosinuis, and Suidas, apply to Stilicho, and Rufinus, the same equal 
 title of Ea-ixpo-.rci, guardians, or procurators. 
 
 c The Roman la"w distinguishes two sorts of minority, which ex- 
 pired at the age of fourteen, and of twenty-five. The one was sub- 
 ject to the tutor, or guardian, of the person ; the other to the curator, 
 or trustee, of the estate. (Heineccius, Anti(iuitat. Rom. ad Jurispru- 
 dent, pertinent. I. i. tit. xxii.xxiii. p. 218-232.) But these le^al 
 Ideas were never accurately transferred into the constitution of an 
 elective monarchy. 
 
 d See Claudian (i. Cons. Siilich. i. 188—2^12.) but he must allow 
 more than fifteen days for tlie journey and return between Milan and 
 Leyden. 
 
 e I Cons. Stilich. ii. 8S-91. Not only the robes and diadems of the 
 deceased emperor, but even the helmets, sword-hilts, belts, cuirasses, 
 ac. were enriched with pearls, emeralds, and diamonds. 
 
 ' _ Tantoque remoto 
 
 Principe, mutatas orbis non sensit habenas. 
 This high commendation (i. Cons. Siil. i. 149.) may be justified by 
 the fears of the dying emperor, (de Bell. Gildon. 292-301.) and the 
 peace arid good order which were enjoyed after his death, (i. Cons, 
 otil. 1. 510 — 168.) 
 
 ployed the rumour of a Gothic tumult, to conceal his 
 private designs of ambition and revenge.^ The guilty 
 soul of Rufinus was alarmed by the° approach of a 
 warrior and a rival, whose enmity he deserved ; he 
 computed, with increasing terror, the narrow space of 
 his life and greatness ; and, as the last hope of safety, 
 he interposed the authority of the emperor Arcadius. 
 Stilicho, who appears to have directed his march 
 along the sea-coast of the Hadriatic, which was not 
 far distant from the city of Thessalonica, when he re- 
 ceived a peremptory message, to recall the troops of 
 the east, and to declare, that his nearer approach 
 would be considered, by the Byzantine court, as an 
 act of hostility. The prompt and unexpected obedi- 
 ence of the general of the west, convinced the vul- 
 gar of his loyalty and moderation ; and, as he had 
 already engaged the affection of the eastern troops, he 
 recommended to their zeal the execution of his bloody- 
 design, which might be accomplished in his absence, 
 \yith less danger perhaps, and with less reproach. 
 Stilicho left the command of the troops of the east, to 
 Gainas, the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly relied; 
 with an assurance, at least, that the hardy barbarian 
 would never be diverted from his purpose by any con- 
 sideration of fear or remorse. The soldiers were 
 easily persuaded to punish the enemy of Stilicho, and 
 of Rome; and such was the general hatred which 
 Rufinus had excited, that the fatal secret, communica- 
 ted to thousands, was faithfully preserved during the 
 long march from Thessalonica to the gates of Con- 
 stantinople. As soon as they had resolved his death, 
 they condescended to flatter his pride; the ambitious 
 pra^^fect was seduced to believe, that those powerful 
 auxiliaries might be tempted to place the diadem on 
 his head; and the treasures which he distributed, 
 with a tardy and reluctant hand, were accepted by the 
 indignant multitude, as an insult, rather than as a 
 gift. At the distance of a mile from the capital, in 
 the field of Mars, before the palace of Hebdomon, the 
 troops halted : and the emperor, as well as his minis- 
 ter, advanced, according to ancient custom, respectful- 
 ly to salute the power Which supported their throne. 
 As Rufinus passed along the ranks, and disguised, 
 with studied courtesy, his innate haughtiness, the 
 wings insensibly wheeled from the right and left, and 
 enclosed the devoted victim within the circle of their 
 arms. Before he could reflect on the danger of his 
 situation, Gainas gave the signal of death T a daring 
 and forward soldier plunged his sword into the breast 
 of the guilty praefeet, and Rufinus fell, groaned, and 
 expired, at the feet of the affrighted emperor. If the 
 agonies of a moment could expiate the crimes of a 
 whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a breathless 
 corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity • 
 miffht perhaps be affected by the horrid circumstances 
 which accompanied the murder of Rufinus. His 
 mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fury of the 
 populace of either sex, who hastened in crowds, from 
 every quarter of the city, io trample on the remains 
 of the haughty minister, at whose frown they had so 
 lately trembled. His right hand was cut off, and car- 
 ried through the streets of Constantinople, in cruel 
 mockery, to extort contributions for the avaricious ty- 
 rant, whose head was publicly exposed, borne aloft on 
 the point of a long lance.'' According to the savage 
 maxims of the Greek republics, his innocent family 
 would have shared the punishment of his crimes. The 
 wife and daughter of Rufinus were indebted for their 
 safety to the influence of religion. Her sanctuary 
 protected them from the raging madness of the peo- 
 ple ; and they were permitted to spend the remainder 
 
 f Stilicho's march, and the death of Rufinus, are described by Clau- 
 dian, (in Rufin. I. ii. 101 — 4."53.) Zcxsimus, (1. v. p. 296, 297.) Sozomen, 
 (1. viii. c. i.) Socrates, (I. vi. c. i.) Philostorpius, (I. xi. c. 3.) with 
 Godefroy, p. 441.) and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. 
 
 h The dissection of Rufinus, which Claudian performs with the 
 savace coolness of an anatomist, (in Rufin. ii. 405—415.) is likewise 
 specified by Zosimus and Jerom, (torn. i. p. 26.) 
 
400 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 (^ 
 
 of their lives in the exercises of christian devotion, in 
 
 the peaceful retirement of Jerusalem.' 
 
 T^ I r ,u^ The servile poet of Stilicho applauds, 
 
 Discord of the . , /. . ^ . , - ■ • j j j 
 
 two empires, With ferocious joy, this horrid deed, 
 A. D. 31H), &c. which, in the execution, perhaps, of jus- 
 tice, violated every law of nature and of society, pro- 
 faned the majesty of the prince, and renewed the dan- 
 gerous examples of military licence. The contempla- 
 tion of the universal order and harmony had satisfied 
 Claudian of the existence of the Deity ; hut the pros- 
 perous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his 
 moral attributes ; and the fate of Rufinus was the 
 only event which could dispel the religious doubts of 
 the poet.^ Such an act might vindicate the honour of 
 Providence ; but it did not much contribute to the 
 happiness of the people. In less than three months 
 they were informed of the maxims of the new admin- 
 istration, by a singular edict, which established the 
 exclusive right of the treasury over the spoils of Rufi- 
 nus ; and silenced, under heavy penalties, the pre- 
 sumptuous claims of the subjects of the eastern em- 
 pire, who had been injured by his rapacious tyranny.* 
 Even Stilicho did not derive from the murder of his 
 rival the fruit which he had proposed ; and though he 
 gratified his revenge, his ambition was disappointed. 
 Under the name of a favourite, the weakness of Arca- 
 dius required a master, but he naturally preferred the 
 obsequious arts of the eunuch Eutropius, who had ob- 
 tained his domestic confidence ; and the emperor con- 
 templated, with terror and aversion, the stern genius 
 of a foreign warrior. Til! they were divided by the 
 jealousy of power, the sword of Gainas, and the 
 charms of Eudoxia, supported the favour of the 
 great chamberlain of the palace : the perfidious Goth, 
 who was appointed master-general of the east, betray- 
 ed, without scruplej the interest of his benefactor, and 
 the same troops, who had so lately massacred the 
 enemy of Stilicho, were engajjed to support, against 
 him, the independence of the throne of Constantino- 
 ple. The favourites of Arcadius fomented a secret 
 and irreconcilable war against a formidable hero, who 
 aspired to govern, and to defend, the two empires of 
 Rome, and the two sons of Theodosius. They inces- 
 santly laboured, by dark and treacherous machinations, 
 to deprive him of the esteem of the prince, the respect 
 of the people, and the friendship of the barbarians. 
 The life of Stilicho was repeatedly attempted by the 
 dagger of hired assassins ; and a decree was obtained, 
 from the senate of Constantinople, to declare him an 
 enemy of the republic, and to confiscate his ample 
 possessions in the provinces of the east. At a time 
 when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman 
 name depended on the firm union, and reciprocal aid, 
 , of all the nations to whom it had been gradually com- 
 municated, the subjects of Arcadius and Honorius 
 were instructed, by their respective masters, to view 
 each other in a foreign, and even hostile, light ; to re- 
 joice in their mutual calamities, and to embrace, as 
 their faithful allies, the barbarians, whom they excited 
 to invade the territories of their countrymen." The 
 natives of Italy, affected to despise the servile and 
 effeminate Greeks of Byzantium, who presumed to imi- 
 tate the dress, and to usurp the dignity, of Roman 
 senators ;" and. the Greeks had not yet forgot the sen- 
 
 \ The pacran Zosimii? mentions their sanctuary and pilijrimajtP. 
 The sister uf Rufinus, Sylvania, who passed her life in Jerusalem, is 
 famous in monastic history. 1. The studious virgin had dilinently, 
 and even repeatedly, perused the commentators on the Bible, Ori- 
 pen, Gregory, Basil, ice. to the amount of five millions of lines. 2. 
 At the age of threescore, she could boast, that she had never washed 
 her hands, face, or any part of her whole Ixidy, except the tips of her 
 fingers, to receive the communion. See the Vitae Patrum,p. 779. 977. 
 
 k See the beautiful exordium of his invective against Rufinus, 
 which is curiously discussed by the sceptic Bayle, Dictionnaire Cri- 
 tique, RuFiN. Not. E. 
 
 I See the Theo<losian Code, 1. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 14, 15. The new 
 ministers attempted, with inconsistent avarice, to seize the spoils of 
 llieir predecessor, and to provide for their own future security. 
 
 m See Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. 1. i. 275. 292. 296. 1. ii. 83.) and 
 Zosimus, (1. V. p. .302.) 
 
 n Claudian turns the consulship of the eunuch Eutropius into a 
 national reflection, (I. ii. 131.) 
 
 timents of hatred and contempt, which their polished 
 ancestors had so long entertained for the rude inhabi- 
 tants of the west. The distinction of two govern- 
 ments, which soon produced the separation of two na- 
 tions, will justify my design of suspending the series 
 of the Byzantine history, to prosecute, without inter- 
 ruption, "the disgraceful, but memorable, reign of Ho- 
 norius. 
 
 The prudent Stilicho, instead of per- Revolt of Gildo, 
 sisting to force the inclinations of a in Afriro, 
 prince, and people, who rejected his a. D. 3t<G— 398. 
 government, wisely abandoned Arcadius to his un- 
 worthy favourites : and his reluctance to involve the 
 two empires in a civil war displayed the moderation 
 of a minister, who had so often signalized his military 
 spirit and abilities. But if Stilicho had any longer 
 endured the revolt of Africa, he would have betrayed 
 the security of the capital, and the majesty of the 
 western emperor, to the capricious insolence of a 
 Moorish rebel. Gildo," the brother of the tyrant Fir- 
 mus, had preserved and obtained, as the reward of his 
 apparent fidelity, the immense patrimony which was 
 forfeited by treason ; long and meritorious service, in 
 the armies of Rome, raised him to the dignity of a 
 military count; the narrow policy of the court of The- 
 odosius had adopted the mischievous expedient, of 
 supporting a legal government by the interest of a 
 powerful family; and the brother of Firmus was in- 
 vested with the command of Africa. His ambition 
 soon usurped the administration of justice, and of the 
 finances, without account, and without control ; and 
 he maintained, during a reign of twelve years, the 
 possession of an office, from which it was impossible 
 to remove him, without the danger of a civil war. 
 During those twelve years, the provinces of Africa 
 groaned under the dominion of a tyrant, who seemed 
 to unite the unfeeling temper of a stranger, with the 
 partial resentments of domestic faction. The forms 
 of law were often superseded by the use of poison ; 
 and if the trembling guests, who were invited to the 
 table of Gildo, presumed to express their fears, the in- 
 solent suspicion served only to excite his fury, and he 
 loudly summoned the ministers of death. Gildo al- 
 ternately indulged the passions of avarice and lust;' 
 and if his dnys were terrible to the rich, his ntirhfs 
 were not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The 
 fairest of their wives and daughters were prostituted 
 to the embraces of the tyrant ; and afterwards aban- 
 doned to a ferocious troop of barbarians and assassins, 
 the black or swarthy natives of the desert; whom 
 Gildo considered as the only guardians of his throne. 
 In the civil war between Theodosius and Eugenius, 
 the count, or rather the sovereign, of Africa, maintained 
 a haughty and suspicious neutrality ; refused to assist 
 either of the contending parlies with troops or vessels, 
 expected the declaration of fortune, and reserved for 
 the conqueror the vain professions of his allegiance. 
 Such professions would not have satisfied the master 
 of the Roman world : but the death of Theodosius, 
 and the weakness and discord of his sons, confirmed 
 the power of the Moor ; who condescended, as a proof 
 of his moderation, to abstain from the use of the dia- 
 
 Plaudentem cerne senatum 
 
 Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque quirites: 
 O patribus plebes, O digni consule patres. 
 It is curious to observe the first syinptoms of jealousy and schism, be- 
 tween old and new Rome, between the Greeks and Latins. 
 
 o Claudian may have exaggerated the vices of Gildo; but his 
 lVIot>rish extraction, his notorious actions, and the complaints of St. 
 Augustin, may justify the poet's invectives. Baronius (Annal.Eccles. 
 A. D. 398. No. 35—56.) has treated the African rebellion vrith skill 
 and learning. 
 
 p fnsiat terribilis vivis, morientibus haeres, 
 Virj'inibus raptor, thalamis obsca-nus adulter. 
 Nulla quies : oritur praeda cessante libido, 
 Divitibusque dies, ei nox metuenda maritis. 
 
 Mauris clarissima qu8e(iue 
 
 Fastidita datur. 
 
 Baronius condemns, still more severely, the licentiousness of Gildo ; 
 as his wife, his daughter, and his sister, were examples of perfect 
 chastity. The adulteries of the African soldiers are checked Dy one 
 of the imperial laws. 
 
 dera, and to supply Rome with the customary tribute, 
 or rather subsidy, of corn. In every division of the 
 empire, the five provinces of Africa were invariably 
 assigned to the west; and Gildo had consented to 
 govern that extensive country in the name of Hono- 
 rius ; but his knowledge of the character and designs 
 of Stilicho, soon engaged him to address his homage 
 to a more distant and feeble sovereign. The minis- 
 ters of Arcadius embraced the cause of a perfidious 
 rebel ; and the delusive hope of adding the numerous 
 cities of Africa to the empire of the east, tempted 
 them to assert a claim, which they were incapable of 
 supporting, either by reason or by arms.i 
 He is condemn. , When Stilicho had given a firm and 
 ed by the Ru- decisive answer to the pretensions of the 
 "a d"^? Byzantine court, he solemnly accused 
 ,.*,,' ^ the tyrant of Africa before the tribunal, 
 which had formerly judged the kings and nations of 
 the earth ; and the image of the republic was revived, 
 after a long interval, under the reign of Honorius. 
 1 he emperor transmitted an accurate and ample de- 
 tail of the complaints of the provincials, and the 
 crimes of Gildo, to the Roman senate; and the mem- 
 bers of that venerable assembly were required to pro- 
 nounce the condemnation of the rebel. Their unani- 
 mous suflTrage declared him the enemy of the republic ; 
 and the decree of the senate added a sacred and legi- 
 timate sanction to the Roman arms.' A people, who 
 still remembered, that their ancestors had been the 
 masters of the world, would have applauded, with 
 conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom ; 
 if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer 
 the solid assurance of bread, to the unsubstantial 
 visions of liberty and greatness. The subsistence of 
 Kome depended on the harvests of Africa ; and it was 
 evident, that a declaration of war would be the signal 
 of famine. The praefect Symmachus, who presided 
 m the deliberations of the senate, admonished the 
 minister of his just apprehension, that as soon as the 
 revengeful Moor should prohibit the exportation of 
 corn, the tranquillity, and perhaps the safety, of the 
 capital, would be threatened by the hungry rage of a 
 turbulent multitude.* The prudence of Stilicho con- 
 ceived, and executed, without delay, the most effec- 
 tual measure for the relief of the Roman people. A 
 large and seasonable supply of corn, collected in the 
 inland provinces of Gaul, was embarked on the rapid 
 stream of the Rhone, and transported, by an easy 
 navigation, from the Rhone to the Tyber. During the 
 whole term of the African war, the granaries of Rome 
 were continually filled, her dignity was vindicated 
 fronri the humiliating dependence, and the minds of 
 an immense people were quieted by the calm confi- 
 dence of peace and plenty.* 
 
 The African war. ^Tl^® 7c -^ ""^ ^°"'*'' ^"^ *^® COUiiyxct 
 
 A. D. 398. °/.\"® African war, were intrusted by 
 Stilicho to a general, active and ardent 
 ^avenge his private injuries on the head of the tyrant. 
 1 he spirit of discord, which prevailed in the house of 
 Nabal, had excited a deadly quarrel between two of 
 his sons, Gildo and Mascezel.« The usurper pursued, 
 with implacable rage, the life of his youno-er brother, 
 whose courage and abilities he feared ; ani Mascezel' 
 oppressed by superior power, took refuge in the court 
 
 ^, ,. 1 ^"^"® ^"^"^ sortem numerosas transtulit urbes. 
 Claudian (de Bell. Gildonico, 230-3W.) has touched, with political 
 delicacy, the intrigues of the Byaantine court, which are likewise 
 mentioned by Zosimus, (1. v. p. 302.) "a-ewise 
 
 r Symmachus (1 iv. epist. 4.) expresses the judicial forms of the 
 
 • Claudian finely displays these complaints of Symmachus, in a 
 ffddon.ls-lSt ' ^""^"""^ ' '^'""*' of /upiter, (de Bell 
 
 u He was of a mature age ; since he had formerly (A. D. 373) served 
 against his brother Firmus. (Ammian. xxix. 5.) Claudian, Who un 
 derstood the court of M.ian, dwells on the injuries, rather than the 
 merits, of Mascezel,(de Bell. Gild. 389^14.) ^The Moorish wa? was 
 not worthy of Honorius, or Stilicho, &c. 
 
 Vol. I,— 3 A 26 
 
 401 
 
 of Milan : where he soon received the cruel intelli- 
 gence' that his two innocent and helpless children had 
 been murdered by their inhuman uncle. The affliction 
 of the father, was suspended only by the desire of re- 
 venge The vigilant Stilicho already prepared to col- 
 lect the naval and military forces of the western 
 empire ; and he had resolved, if the tyrant should be 
 able to wage an equal and doubtful war, to march 
 against him m person. But as Italy required his pre- 
 sence, and as it might be dangerous to weaken the de- 
 fence of the frontier, he judged it more advisable, that 
 Mascezel should attempt this arduous adventure, at' 
 the head of a chosen body of Gallic veterans, who 
 had lately served under the standard of Eugenius. 
 1 hese troops, who were exhorted to convince the world 
 that they could subvert, as well as defend, the throne 
 A r^'T'*' ««"sisted of the Jotnan, the Herculian, 
 and the Jugusjan, legions ; of the A'ervian auxilia- 
 ries ; of the soldiers, who displayed in their banners 
 the symbol of a /ion, and of the troops which were dis- 
 tinguished by the auspicious names of Fortunate, and 
 Invincible, Yet such was the smallness of their Es- 
 tablishments, or the difficulty of recruiting, that these 
 seven bands,' of high dignity and reputation in the ser- 
 vice ot Kome, amounted to no more than five thou- 
 sand eflTeclive men.^ The fleet of galleys and trans- 
 ports sailed m tempestuous weather from the port of 
 nsa, in luscany, and steered their course to the little 
 island of Capraria : which had borrowed that name 
 from the wild goats, its original inhabitants, whose 
 place was now occupied by a new colony of a strange 
 and savage appearance. "The whole island (says au 
 ingenious traveller of those times) is filled, or rather 
 defiled, by men, who fly from the light. They call 
 themselves Monks, or solitaries, because they choose 
 t^ live alone, without any witnesses of their actions. 
 1 hey fear the gifts of fortune, from the apprehension 
 of losing them ; and, lest they should be miserable, 
 they embrace a life of voluntary wretchedness. How 
 I absurd IS their choice ! how perverse their understand- 
 ing ! to dread the evils, without being able to sup- 
 port the blessings, of the human condition. Either 
 this melancholy madness, is the effect of disease, or 
 else the consciousness of guilt urges these unhappy 
 men to exercise on their own bodies the tortures which 
 are inflicted on fugitive slaves by the hand of jus- 
 tice. ^ Such was the contempt of a profane magis- 
 trate for the monks of Capraria, who were revered, by 
 the pious Mascezel, as the chosen servants of God » 
 Some of them were persuaded, by his entreaties, to 
 embark on board the fleet; and it is observed, to the 
 praise of the Roman general, that his days and nights 
 were eniployed in prayer, fasting, and the occupa'tion 
 of singing psalms. The devout leader, who, with 
 such a reinforcement, appeared confident of victory 
 avoided the dangerous rocks of Corsica, coasted along 
 the eastern side of Sardinia, and secured his ships 
 against the violence of the south wind, by castino- an- 
 chor in the safe and capacious harbour of Cagtiari, 
 at the distance of one hundred and forty miles from 
 the African shores.'' 
 
 X Claudian, Bell Gild. 415-423. The change of discipline al- 
 
 ^r'^i'ftlf T/^,^'^r""''.y'S'^ names of ie^,o, Cohors^^MaZpL 
 his. See the Nohtia Imperit, S. 38. 40. '^ 
 
 y Orosius (1. vii. c. 36. p. 565.) qualifies this account with an ex- 
 pression of doubt ; (ut aiunt) and it scarcely coincides with the S,^*. 
 ^uixSp»g of Zosimus, (1. V. p. 303.) Yet Claudian, after some decla- 
 mation about Cadmus's soldiers, frankly owns, that Stilicho sen a 
 
 s7mchA"T3llln '^"'"^'^ ^^' "^ ^'"^^^"'■^ ^""^- (iCona 
 
 ' r-^'^^rok ^"^'•- Numatian. Itinerar. i. 439-443. He afterwards 
 (.iio-o-b.) mentions a relijrious madman on the listof Gorffona, For 
 such profane remarks, Kutilius and his accomplices are styfed, by his 
 commentator Barthius, rabiosi canes diaboli. TiUemont (Mem: Ec- 
 cies. torn. xii. p. 471.) more calmly observes, that the unbelievinir 
 poet praises where he means to censure. 
 
 a Orosius, 1. vii. c. 36. p. 564. Aupustin commends two of these 
 savage saints of the Isle of Goats, (epist. Ixjrxi. apud Tillemont. Mem 
 fcccles. torn, xiii, p. 317. and Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 398 
 .No. 51.) 
 
 b Here the first book of the Gildonic war is terminated. The rest 
 of Claudian 's poem has been lost; and we are ignorant hote. or 
 where, the army made good their landing in Africa. 
 
 >.'^, 
 
402 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Dcf at and death Cfildo was prepared to resist the in- 
 of gIicIo.^'* vasion with all the forces of Africa. By 
 A. D.398. the liberality of his gifts and promises, 
 he endeavoured to secure the doubtful allegiance of 
 the Roman soldiers, whilst he attracted to his standard 
 the distant tribes of Gaetulia and ^Ethiopia. He 
 proudly reviewed an army of seventy thousand men, 
 and boasted, with the rash presumption which is the 
 forerunner of disijTace, that his numerous cavalry 
 would trample under their horses' feet the troops of 
 Mascezel, and involve, in a cloud of burning sand, 
 the natives of the cold regions of Gaul and Germany.' 
 But the Moor, who commanded the legions of Hono- 
 rius, was too well acquainted with the manners of his 
 countrymen, to entertain any serious apprehension of a 
 naked and disorderly host of barbarians; whose left 
 arm, instead of a shield, was protected only by a man- 
 tle; who were totally disarmed as soon as they had 
 darted their javelin from their rii^ht hand ; and whose 
 horses had never been taught to bear the control, or to 
 obey the guidance, of the bridle. He fixed his camp 
 of five thousand veterans in the face of a superior en- 
 emy, and, after the delay of three days, gave the sig- 
 nal of a general engagement.** As Mascezel advanced 
 before the front with fair offers of peace and pardon, 
 he encountered one of the foremost standard-bearers 
 of the Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck 
 him on the arm with his sword. The arm, and the 
 standard, sunk under the weight of the blow ; and the 
 imaginary act of submission was hastily repeated by 
 all the standards of the line. At this signal the dis- 
 aflfected cohorts proclaimed the name of their lawful 
 sovereign ; the barbarians, astonished by the defection 
 of their Roman allies, dispersed, according to their 
 custom, in tumultuary flight ; and Mascezel obtained 
 the honours of an easy, and almost bloodless, victory.' 
 The tyrant escaped from the field of battle to the sea- 
 shore; and threw himself into a small vessel, with 
 the hqpe of reaching in safety some friendly port of 
 the empire of the east ; but the obstinacy of the wind 
 drove him back into the harbour of Tabraca,' which 
 had acknowledged, with the rest of the province, the 
 dominion of Honorius, and the authority of his lieu- 
 tenant. The inhabitants, as a proof of their repentance 
 and loyalty, seized and confined t* 3 person of Gildo 
 in a dungeon; and his own deSjj^air saved him from 
 the intolerable torture of supporting the presence of 
 an injured and victorious brother.* .The captives, and 
 the spoils, of Africa, were laid at the feet cjf the em- 
 peror; but Stilicho, whose moderation appeared more 
 conspicuous and more sincere in the midst of prosper- 
 ity, still affected to consult the laws of the republic ; 
 and referred to the senate and people of Rome the 
 judgment of the most illustrious criminals.^ Their 
 trial was public and solemn ; but the judges, in the ex- 
 ercise of this obsolete and precarious jurisdiction, 
 were impatient to punish the African magistrates, who 
 had intercepted the subsistence of the Roman people. 
 The rich and guilty province was oppressed by the 
 imperial ministers, who had a visible interest to mul- 
 tiply the number of the accomplices of Gildo ; and if 
 
 an edict of Honorius seems to check the malicious 
 industry of informers, a subsequent edict, at the dis- 
 tance of ten years, continues and renews the prosecu- 
 tion of the offences which had been committed in the 
 time of the general rebellion.' The adherents of the 
 tyrant who escaped the first fury of the soldiers and 
 the judges, might derive some consolation from the 
 tragic fate of hi's brother, who could never obtain his 
 pardon for the extraordinary services which he had 
 performed. After he had finished an important war 
 in the space of a single winter, Mascezel was received 
 at the court of Milan with loud applause, affected 
 gratitude, and secret jealousy ;* and his death, which, 
 perhaps, was the effect of accident, has been consid- 
 ered as the crime of Stilicho. In the passage of a 
 bridge, the Moorish prince, who accompanied the mas- 
 ter-general of the west, was suddenly thrown from his 
 horse into the river ; the officious haste of the attend- 
 ants was restrained by a cruel and perfidious smile, 
 which they observed on the countenance of Stilicho; 
 and while they delayed the necessary assistance, the 
 unfortunate Mascezel was irrecoverably drowned.' 
 
 The joy of the African triumph was Marriage and 
 happily connected with the nuptials of character of Ho- 
 the emperor Honorius, and of his cousin ""J^"^ 398. 
 Maria, the daughter of Stilicho: and 
 this equal and honourable alliance seemed to invest 
 the powerful minister with the authority of a parent 
 over his submissive pupil. The muse of Claudian 
 was not silent on this propitious day ;" he sung, in 
 various and lively strains, the happiness of the royal 
 pair; and the glory of the hero, who confirmed their 
 union, and supported their throne. The ancient fables 
 of Greece, which had almost ceased to be the object 
 of religious faith, were saved from oblivion by the 
 genius of poetry. The picture of the Cyprian grove, 
 the seat of harmony and love ; the triumphant pro- 
 gress of Venus over her native seas, and the mild in- 
 fluence which her presence diffused in the palace of 
 Milan, express to every age the natural sentiments of 
 the heart, in the just and pleasing language of allego- 
 rical fiction. But the amorous impatience, which 
 Claudian attributes to the young prince," must excite 
 the smiles of the court ; and his beauteous spouse (if 
 she deserved the praise of beauty) had not much to 
 fear or to hope from the passions of her lover. Hono- 
 rius was only in the fourteenth year of his age ; Se- 
 rena, the mother of his bride, deferred, by art or per- 
 suasion, the consummation of the royal nuptials; 
 Maria died a virgin, after she had been ten years a 
 wife ; and the chastity of the emperor was secured by 
 the coldness, or, perhaps, the debility, of his constitu- 
 tion." His subjects, who attentively studied the char- 
 acter of their young sovereign, discovered that Hono- 
 rius was without passions, and consequently without 
 talents ; and that his feeble and languid disposition 
 was alike incapable of discharging the duties of his 
 rank, or of enjoying the pleasures of his age. In his 
 early youth he made some progress in the exercises of 
 riding and drawing the bow : but he soon relinquished 
 these fatiguing occupations, and the amusement of 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 c Orosius must be responsible for the account. The presumption 
 of Gildo and his various train of barbarians is celebrated by Clau- 
 dian, (i Cons. Stil. 1. i. 345 — 355.) 
 
 d St. Ambrose, who had been dead about a year, revealed, in a vi- 
 sion, the time and place of the victory. Mascezel afterwards related 
 his dream to Paulinus, the original biographer of the saint, from 
 whom it might easily pass to Orosius. 
 
 e Zosimus (I. V. p. 303.) supposes an obstinate combat ; but the 
 narrative of Orosius appears to conceal a real fact, under the dis- 
 guise of a miracle. 
 
 f Tabraca lay between the two Hip|>08. (Cellarius, torn. ii. p. ii. 
 p. 112. D'Anville, torn. iii. p. 84.) Orosius has distinctly named the 
 field of battle, but our isnorance cannot define the precise situation. 
 
 g The death of Gildo is expressed by Claudian, (i Cons. Slil. 1. 
 357.) and his best interpreters, Zosimus and Orosius. 
 
 h Claudian (ii Cons. Stilich. 99—119.) describes their trial, (tre- 
 muit quos Africa nuper, cernunt rostra reos,) and applauds the resto- 
 ration of the ancient constitution. It is here that he introduces t^ie 
 famous sentence, so familiar to the friends of despotism : 
 
 Nunquam libertaa gratior exstat 
 
 Quam sub rege pio. 
 
 But the freedom, which depends on royal piety, scarcely deserves 
 that appellation. 
 
 i See the Theotlosian Code, 1. ix. tit. xxxix. lep. 3. tit. xl. lej. 19. 
 
 k Stilicho, who claitned an equal share in all the victories of The<v 
 dosiusand his son, partirulady assorts, that Africa was recovered 
 by the wisdom of his counsels. (See an inscription produced by 
 
 , Baronius.) ,„ . ,. . . • j • 
 
 1 I have softened iho narrative of Zosimus, which, m its crude sim- 
 pliciiy, is almost incredible, (1. v. p. 303.) Orosius damns the victo- 
 ' rious ceneral, (o. 538.) for violating the richt of sanctuary. 
 
 m (flaudian, as the poet laurrat, composed a serious and elaborate 
 epilhalamium of aiO lines; besides 8t)me gay Fescennines, which 
 were suns, in a more licentious tone, on the wedding-night. 
 
 u " Calrt obvius ire 
 
 Jam princeps, tardumque cupit discedere solem. 
 Nobilis baud alitor sojiipes. 
 (de Nuptiis Honor, et Mariae, 287.) and more freely in the Fescen- 
 nines (112-126.) 
 
 Dices, O quoties, hoc mihi dulcius 
 Quam flavc»s decits vincere Sarmatas 
 
 Tum victor niadido prosilias toro 
 Nocturni referens vulnera prcelii. 
 See Zosimus, 1. v. p. 333. 
 
 feeding poultry became the serious and daily care of 
 the monarch of the west,? who resiorned the reins of 
 empire to the firm ajid skilful hand of his guardian 
 Stihcho. The experience of history will countenance 
 the suspicion, that a prince who was born in the pur- 
 ple, received a worse education than the meanest peas- 
 ant of his dominions ; and that the ambitious minister 
 suffered him to attain the age of manhood, without at- 
 tempting to excite his courage, or to enliahten his un- 
 derstanding.'! The predecessors of Ho'norius were 
 accustomed to animate, by their example, or at least 
 by their presence, the valour of the legions ; and the 
 dates of their laws attest the perpetual activity of their 
 motions through the provinces of the Roman world. 
 But the son of Theodosius passed the slumber of his 
 life, a captive in his palace, a stranger in his country, 
 and the patient, almost the indifferent, spectator of the 
 ruin of the western empire, which was repeatedly at- 
 tacked, and finally subverted, by the arms of the bar- 
 barians. In the eventful history of a reign of twenty- 
 eight years, it will seldom be necessary to mention 
 the name of the emperor Honorius. 
 
 403 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 lievolf of the Goths.— They plunder Greece.— Two ^eat in- 
 vasionaof Italy hy Atari c and Radagaisus.—They are re- 
 puked by Stiliclio.—The Germans overrun Gaul—Vsur- 
 
 ^^T^.^-C ^^^^^^^ in the west.— Disgrace and death 
 oj istilicho. 
 
 Revolt of the If the subjects of Rome could be io-no- 
 A.d':'&. L\"* f .their obligations to the great 
 1 heodosius, they were too soon convinc- 
 ed, how painfully the spirit and abilities of their de- 
 ceased emperor had supported the frail and moulderinjr 
 edifice of the republic. He died in the month of Jan- 
 uary ; and before the end of the winter of the same 
 year, the Gothic nation was in arms.* The barbarian 
 auxiliaries erected their independent standard ; and 
 boldly avowed the hostile designs which they had loner 
 cherished in their ferocious minds. Their country*^ 
 men, who had been condemned, by the conditions of 
 the last treaty, to a life of tranquillity and labour, de- 
 serted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet ; 
 and eanrerly resumed the weapons which they had re- 
 luctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube 
 were thrown open ; the savage warriors of Scythia is- 
 sued from their forests ; and the uncommon severity of 
 the winter allowed the poet to remark, " that they rol- 
 led their ponderous waggons over the broad and icy 
 back of the indignant river."" The unhappy natives 
 of the provinces to the south of the Danube submitted 
 to the calamities, which, in the course of twenty years, 
 were almost grown familiar to their imagination ; and 
 the various troops of barbarians, who gloried in the 
 Gothic name, were irregularly spread from the woody 
 shores of Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople.^ 
 The interruption, or at least the diminution, of the 
 subsidy, which the Goths had received from the pru- 
 dent liberality of Theodosius, was the specious pre- 
 
 P Procopius de^Bell. Gothico, 1. I. c. 2. I have borrowed the gene- 
 ral practice of Honorius, without adopiins the singular, and indeed 
 improbable, tale, which is related by the Greek historian 
 o.^ VI ol^*'?'?^ of Theodosius, or rather Claudian, (iv. Cons. Honor 
 214-41S.) might compose a fine institution for the future prince of a 
 great and free nation. It was far above Honorius, and his de«renerate 
 subjects. ° 
 
 a The revolt of the Goths, and the blockade of Constantinople, are 
 distinctly mentioned by Claudian, (in Rufin.'l. ii. 7—100.) Zosimus 
 (1. v. p. 292.) and Jornandes, (de Rebus Gelicis, c. 29.) -^"s^'nus* 
 
 b Alii per terga ferocis 
 
 Danubii solidata niunt ; expertaque remis 
 Frangunt stagna rotis. 
 Claudian and^ Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchan«rine the 
 metaphors and properties of liquid water, and solid ice. Much false 
 wit has been expended in this easy exercise. 
 
 c Jerom, torn. i. p. 26. He endeavours to comfort his friend Helio- 
 dorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian, by a 
 furious recapitulation of all the public and private misfortunes of 
 the limes. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. xii. p. 200, &c. 
 
 tence of their revolt : the affront was imbittered by 
 their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius ; 
 and their resentment was inflamed by the weakness, 
 or treachery, of the minister of Arcadius. The fre- 
 quent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the barbarians, 
 whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were 
 considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty cor- 
 respondence: and the public enemy, from a inotive 
 either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst 
 the general devastation, to spare the private estates of 
 the unpopular prajfect. The Goths, instead of being 
 impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their 
 chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius 
 of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from 
 the noble race of the Balti ;<» which yielded only to 
 the royal dignity of the Amali : he had solicited the 
 command of the Roman armies ; and the imperial 
 court provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their 
 refusal, and the importance of their loss. Whatever 
 hopes might be entertained of the conquest of Con- 
 stantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned- an 
 impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided 
 court, and a discontented people, the emperor Arcadius 
 was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms ; but 
 the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the 
 strength of the city ; and the fortifications, both of the 
 sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and 
 random darts of the barbarians. Alaric disdained to 
 trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined coun- 
 tries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a 
 plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province 
 which had hitherto escaped 'the ravages of war.* 
 
 The character of the civil and milita- Alaric marches 
 ry officers, on whom Rufinus had devol- imo Greece, 
 ved the government of Greece, confirm- ^' ^' ^^' 
 ed the public suspicion, that he had betrayed the an- 
 cient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic inva- 
 der. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son 
 of a respectable father ; and Gerontius, who comman- 
 ded the provincial troops, was much better qualified 
 to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant, than to 
 defend, with courage and ability, a country most re- 
 markably fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had 
 traversed, without resistance, the plains of Macedo- 
 nia and Thessaly,^^s far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a 
 steep and woody range of hills, almost impervious to 
 his cavalry. They stretched from east to west, to 
 the edge of the sea-shore; and left, between the pre- 
 cipice and the Malian gulph, an interval of three hun- 
 dred feet, whicK, in some places, was contracted to a 
 road capable of admitting only a single carriage.' In 
 this narrow pass of Thermopylas, where Leonidas and 
 the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted 
 their lives, the Goths might have been stopped or des- 
 troyed, by a skilful general ; and perhaps the view of 
 that sacred spot might have kindled some sparks of 
 niilitary ardour in^ the breasts of the degenerate 
 Greeks. The troops which had been posted to de- 
 fend the straits of Thermopylae, retired, as they were 
 directed, without attempting to disturb the secure and 
 rapid passage of Alaric ;« and the fertile fields of 
 Phocis, and Baeotia, were in^antly covered by a del- 
 uge of barbarians; who massacred the males of 
 an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful 
 
 d Baltha, or bold; origo mirifica, says Jornandes, (c. 29.) This 
 illustrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic 
 province of Septimania, or Languedoc ; under the corrupted appel- 
 lation of Baux ; and a branch of that family afterwards settled in 
 the kingdom of Naples. (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist. Gothic, p. 
 53.) The lords of Baux, near Aries, and of seventy-nine subordinate 
 
 B laces, were independent of the counts of Provence. (Longuerue, 
 'escription de la France, tom. i. p. 357.) 
 
 e Zosimus (1. v. p. 293— 295) is our best cruide for the conquest of 
 Greece ; but the hints and allusions of Claudian are so many rays of 
 historic light. 
 
 f Compare Herodotus, (1. vii. c. 176.) and Livy, (xxxvi. 15.) The 
 narrow entrance of Greece was probably enlarged by each successive 
 ravisher. 
 
 g He passed, says Eunapiiis, (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93. edit. Com- 
 melin, 1596.) through the straits, St» rw nvKiiv (of Thermopylse) 
 
404 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap* XXX. 
 
 :( 
 
 females, with the spoil, and cattle, of the flaming 
 villages. The travellers, who visited Greece several 
 years afterwards, could easily discover the deep and 
 bloody traces of the march of the Goths ; and Thebes 
 was less indebted for her preservation to the strength 
 of her seven gates, than to the eager haste of Alaric, 
 who advanced to occupy the city of Athens, and the 
 important harbour of the Piraeeus. The same impa- 
 tience urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a 
 siege by the offer of a capitulation ; and as soon as the 
 Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, 
 they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part 
 of their wealth, as the ransom of the city of Minerva, 
 and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by 
 solemn oaths, and observed with mutual fidelity. 
 The Gothic prince, with a small and select train, was 
 admitted within the walls ; he indulged himself in the 
 refreshment of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet 
 which was provided by the magistrate, and affected to 
 show that he was not ignorant of the manners of civi- 
 lized nations.^ But the whole territory of Attica, 
 from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Mega- 
 ra, was blasted by his baleful presence ; and, if we 
 may use the comparison of a contemporary philoso- 
 pher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty 
 skin of a slaughtered victim. The distance between Me- 
 gara and Corinth could not much exceed thirty miles ; 
 but the had road,, an expressive name, which it still 
 bears among the Greeks, was, or might easily have 
 been made, impassable for the march of an enemy. 
 The thick and gloomy woods of mount Citha?ron cov- 
 ered the inland^country ; the Scironian rocks approach- 
 ed the water's edge, and hung over the narrow and 
 winding path, whTch was confined above six miles 
 along the sea-shore.' The passage of those rocks, so 
 infamous in every age, was terminated by the isthmus 
 of Corinth ; and a small body of firm and intrepid 
 soldiers might have successfully defended a temporary 
 intrenchment of five or six miles from the Ionian to 
 the ^gean sea. The confidence of the cities of Pelo- 
 ponneslis in their natural rampart, had tempted them 
 to neglect the care of their antique walls ; and the 
 avarice of the Roman governors had exhausted and 
 betrayed the unhappy province.^ Corinth, Argos, 
 Sparta yielded without resistance to the arms of the 
 Goths ; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were 
 saverl, by death, from beholding the slavery of their 
 families, and the conflagration of their cities.' The 
 vases and statues were distributed among the barba- 
 rians, with more regard to the value of the materials, 
 than to the elegance of the workmanship ; the fe- 
 male captives submitted to the laws of war; the 
 enjoyment of beauty was the reward of valour; and 
 the Greeks could not reasonably complain of an 
 abuse, which was justified by the example of the 
 heroic times." The descendants of that extraordi- 
 nary people, who had considered valour and discipline 
 
 h In obedience to Jerom, and Clandian, (in Rufin. 1. ii. 191) I 
 have mixed some darker colours in the mild representation of Zosi- 
 mus, who wished to soften the calamities of Athens. 
 
 Nee fera Cecropi:ifl traxlssent vincula malres. 
 Synesius (Episl. clvi. p. 273. edit. Petav.) observes, that Athens, 
 whose sufferings he imputes to the proconsul's avarice, was at that 
 time less famous for her schools of philostiphy than for her trade of 
 
 honey. . ^ . 
 
 I Vallata man Scironia rupes 
 
 Et duo continue connectens seiiuora muro 
 
 Isthmos . ^ 
 
 Claudian de Bell. Getico, 1S8. 
 The Scironian rocks are described by Pausanias, (I. i. c. 44. p. 107. 
 edit Kuhn,) and our modern travellers, Wheeler, (p. 436.) and 
 Chandler, (p. 298.) Hadrian made the road passable f;>r two carnanes 
 k Claudian (in Rufin. I. ii. 186. and do Bello Getico, 611, &c.) 
 vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene of rapine and de- 
 
 "^^i^Tp'.T/" »«*?«; A-««'«" «»' TiTf^K.?, &c. These generous lines of 
 Homer (Odyss. 1. v. 306.) were transcribed by one of the captive 
 youths of Corinth: and the tears of Mummius may prove that the 
 rude conqueror, though he was ignorant of the value of an original 
 picture, possessed the purest source of good taste, a benevolent heart. 
 (Plutarch. Symposiac. 1. ix. lorn. ii. p. 737. edit. Wechel.) 
 
 m Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience of those 
 female captives, who gave their charms, and even their hearts, to 
 the murderers of their fathers, brothers, &c. Such a passion (of hri- 
 yhile for Achilles) is touched with admirable delicacy by Racine. 
 
 as the walls of Sparta, no longer remembered the 
 generous reply of their ancestors to an invader more 
 formidable than Alaric. " If thou art a god, thou 
 wilt not hurt those who have never injured thee ; if 
 thou art a man, advance — and thou wilt find men 
 equal to thyself."" From Thermopylae to Sparta, the 
 leader of the Goths pursued his victorious march, 
 without encountering any mortal antagonists ; but 
 one of the advocates of expiring paganism has confi- 
 dently asserted, that the walls of Athens were guard- 
 ed by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable 
 iEgis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles ;" and that 
 the conqueror was dismayed by the presence of the 
 hostile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it 
 would perhaps be unjust to. dispute the claim of the 
 historian Zosimus to the common benefit ; yet it can- 
 not be dissembled, that the mind of Alaric was ill 
 prepared to receive, either in sleeping or waking vis- 
 ions, the impressions of Greek superstition. The 
 soncrs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had proba- 
 bly "never reached the ear of the illiterate barbarian ; 
 and the christian faith, which he had devoutly em- 
 braced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities 
 of Rome and Athens. The invasion of the Goths, 
 instead of vindicating the honour, contributed, at 
 least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains of 
 patranism ; and the mysteries of Ceres, which had 
 subsisted eighteen hundred years, did not survive 
 the destruction of Eleusis, and the calamities of 
 
 Greece.P 
 
 The last hope of a people who could He is attacked 
 no longer depend on their arms, their by St'lL^o, 
 gods, or their sovereigns, was placed in 
 the powerful assistance of the general of the west ; 
 and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse, 
 advanced to chastise, the invaders of Greece.^ A 
 numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of Italy ; 
 and the troops, after a short and prosperous naviga- 
 tion over the Ionian sea, were safely disembarked on 
 the isthmus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody 
 and mountainous country of Arcadia, the fabulous res- 
 idence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of a 
 lono and doubtful conflict between two generals not 
 unworthy of each other. The skill and perseverance 
 of the Roman at length prevailed ; and the Goths, 
 after sustaining a considerable loss from disease and 
 desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of 
 Pholoe, near the sources of the Peneus, and on the 
 frontiers of Elis ; a sacred country, which had for- 
 merly been exempted from the calamities of war.' 
 The camp of the barbarians was immediately besieg- 
 ed ; the waters of the river* were diverted into another 
 channel ; and while they laboured under the intolera- 
 ble pressure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of cir- 
 cumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. 
 After these precautions, Stilicho, too confident of vic- 
 tory, retired to enjoy his triumph, in the theatrical 
 games, and lascivious dances, of the Greeks ; his 
 
 n Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 471. edit. Brian) gives the genu- 
 ine answer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus atucked Sparta with 
 •25,000 f<R)t, 2,000 horsp, and 24 elephants ; and the defence of that 
 open town is a fine comment on the laws of Lycurgus, even in the 
 
 last stacc of decay. «... , ui • . j u- 
 
 o Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx. 64.) had so nobly painted him. 
 
 P Eunapius (in Vit. PhiU>8«iph. p. 90—93.) intimates that a troop of 
 monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gt»thic camp. 
 
 q For Slilicho's Greek war, compare the honest narrative of Zosl- 
 nuis (I V p 295,296.) with the curious circuiiislanlial flattery of 
 Claudian (i Cons.Stilich. 1. 172-1S6. iv. Cons. Hon. 459-487.) A3 
 the event was not glorious, it is artfully thrown into the shade. 
 
 r The tro*»ps who marched through Elis delivered up their arms. 
 This security enriched the Eleans, who were lovers of a rural life. 
 Riches begat pride : they disdained their privilege, and they suffered. 
 Polybius advises them to retire once more within their magic circle. 
 See a learned and judicious discourse on the Olympic games, which 
 Mr. West has prefixed to his translation of Pindar. 
 
 • Claudian (in iv. Cons. Hon. 480.) alludes to the fact without nam- 
 in" the river: perhaps the Alpheus, (i Cons. Stil. I. i. 185.) 
 
 ° Et Alpheus Geticis augustus acervis 
 
 Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit aniores. 
 Yet 1 should prefer the Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and deep 
 bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the sea below Cylenne. 
 It had been joined with the Alpheus, to cleanse the Augean stable, 
 (Ceiiarius, tom. i. p. 700. Chandler'* Travels, p. 286.) 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 soldiers, deserting their standards, spread themselves 
 over the country of their allies, which they stripped 
 of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands 
 of the enemy. Alaric appears to have seized the 
 favourable moment to execute one of those hardy en- 
 terprises, in which the abilities of a general are dis- 
 played with more genuine lustre, than in the tumult of 
 a day of battle. To extricate himself from the prison 
 of Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should 
 pierce the intrenchments which surrounded his camp ; 
 that he should perform a diflicult and dangerous march 
 of thirty miles, as far as the gulf of Corinth ; and 
 that he should transport his troops, his captives, and 
 his spoil, over an arm of the sea, which in the narrow 
 interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at 
 least half a mile in breadth.* The operations of Alaric 
 
 Escapes to Eni- """^^ ^^Y® ^^^« secret, prudent, and 
 rus. rapid ; since the Roman general was 
 
 r. *u 1. . ^<>"^o"n<^ed by the intelligence, that the 
 Goths, who had eluded his efforts, were in full pos- 
 session of the important province of Epirus. This 
 unfortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to 
 conclude the treaty, which he secretly negociated, 
 with the ministers of Constantinople. The apprehen- 
 sion of a civil war compelled Stilicho to retire, at the 
 haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of 
 Arcadius ; and he respected, in the enemy of Rome, 
 the honourable character of the ally and servant of the 
 emperor of the east. 
 Alaric is declared A Grecian philosopher," who visited 
 
 rrst!rnny-'S2"''.""'^"«P^^ «^«" ^^^^^ the death of 
 ricum, Iheodosius, published his liberal opin- 
 
 A. U. 398 ions concerning the duties of kings, and 
 the state of the Roman republic. Synesius observes, 
 and deplores, the fatal abuse, which the imprudent 
 bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the 
 military service. The citizens, and subjects, had 
 purchased an exemption from the indispensable duty 
 ot delending their country; which was supported by 
 the arms of barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of 
 bcythia weTe permitted to disgrace the illustrious diff- 
 mties of the empire ; their ferocious youth, who dis- 
 dained the salutary restraint of laws, were more anx- 
 ious to acquire the riches, than to imitate the arts, of a 
 people, the object of their contempt and hatred ; and 
 the power of the Goths was the stone of Tantalus, 
 perpetually suspended over the peace and safety of 
 the devoted state. The measures which Synesius re- 
 commends are the dictates of a bold and generous 
 patriot. He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage 
 of his subjects by the example of manly virtue; ^o 
 banish luxury from the court, and from the camp ; to 
 substitute, in the place of the barbarian mercenaries, 
 an army of men, interested in the defence of their 
 
 111 ^f ^.^^^'J P'^P^'^y ' ^° ^«^^«' i^ such a mo- 
 ment of public danger, the mechanic from his shop, 
 
 and the philosopher from his school; to rouse the inl 
 
 dolent citizen from his dream of pleasure, and to arm, 
 
 |or the protection of agriculture, the hands of the la' 
 
 borious husbandman. At the head of such troops, 
 
 who might deserve the name, and would display the 
 
 spirit, of Romans, he animates the son of Theodosius 
 
 to encounter a race of barbarians, who were destitute 
 
 tni h" V!f ^""^^1' ^"i "^^^'^ ^^ ^"^y ^«^n his arms, 
 till he had chased them far away into the solitudes of 
 
 hcythia; or had reduced them to the state of ignomin- 
 ious servitude, which the Lacedemonians formerly 
 imposed on the captive Helots.'^ The court of Area- 
 dius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and 
 ^^J^^_^ the advice, of Syne s ius. Perhaps the phi- 
 
 ChafS'^'n oiVP-T^K^^; Plin.Hist.Natur.iv.3. Wheeler, p. 308. 
 
 uncet[w?;nihe twoTanX""'''' '"'"^ ^'^'''''' P'^"'^^' ^^« '^'«- 
 
 as"dfDutv'fm.i^v'rPnpr.r*" ^•'^- ^' 397-400.) at Constantinople, 
 with a cmw^^f^ilH L*^ ^^^ emperor Arcadius. He presented him 
 
 iTon^Vnleno^^ptl-^^TtTe^^^^ 
 
 "^'"s^^^si-u^ ^k^ernl V°^^^^ P-^^- ^'' ^-^ 
 
 405 
 
 losopher, who addresses the emperor of the east in the 
 language of reason and virtue, which he might have 
 used to a Spartan king, had not condescended to form 
 a practicable scheme, consistent with the temper, and 
 circumstances, of a degenerate age. Perhaps the 
 pride of the ministers, whose business was seldom in- 
 terrupted by reflection, might reject, as wild and vis- 
 ionary, every proposal, which exceeded the measure 
 ol their capacity, and deviated from the forms and 
 precedents of office. While the oration of Synesius 
 and the downfall of the barbarians, were the topics' 
 ot popular conversation, an edict was published at 
 Constantinople, which declared the promotion of Ala- 
 ric to the rai|k of master-general of the eastern Illyri- 
 cum. The Roman provincials, and the allies, who 
 had respected the faith of treaties, were justly indio-- 
 nant, that the ruin of Greece and Epirus should be so 
 liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was re- 
 ceived as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he 
 had so lately besieged. The fathers, whose sons he 
 had massacred ; the husbands, whose wives he had 
 violated were subject to his authority: and the suc- 
 cess ot his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every 
 leader of the foreign mercenaries. The use to which 
 Alaric applied his new command, distinguishes the 
 hrm and judicious character of his policy. He issued 
 h^ orders to the four magazines and manufactures of 
 ottensive and defensive arms, Margus, Ratiaria, Nais- 
 sus, and rhessalonica, to provide his troops with an 
 extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords, and 
 spears; the unhappy provincials were compelled to 
 torge the instruments of their own destruction ; and 
 the barbarians removed the only defect which had 
 sometimes disappointed the efforts of their couraae y 
 The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and 
 the confidence m his future designs, insensibly united 
 the body of the nation under his victorious standard • 
 and, with the unanimous consent of the barbarian 
 chieftains, the master-general of Illyricum was eleva- 
 ted, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and sol- 
 emnly proclaimed king of the Visigoths.' andkinaofth^ 
 Armed with this double power, seated on Visigoths, 
 the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his 
 deceitful promises to the courts of Arcadius and Ho- 
 norius;» till he declared and executed his resolution 
 of invading the dominions of the west. The provin- 
 ces of Europe which belonged to the eastern emperor, 
 were already exhausted ; those of Asia were inacces- 
 sible ; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted 
 his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the 
 beauty, the wealth of Italy, which he had twice visit- 
 ed ; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic stand- 
 ard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with 
 the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs ^ 
 
 The scarcity of facts,<= and the uncer- He invade. I'taly, 
 tainty of dates,** oppose our attempts to A- ^ 400—403. 
 
 y qui foedera rumpit 
 
 Ditatur: qui servat, eget : vastator Achlvae 
 Centi«,el Epirum nuper populalus inultam 
 Praesidet Illyrico: jam, quos obsedit, amicos 
 Ingrcditur muros ; illis responsa daturus, 
 Quorum conjugibus potitur, natosque peremit. 
 Claudian in Eutrop. 1. ii. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy (de 
 Bell. Getic. 533—543.) in the use which he had made of this Illvrian 
 jurisdiction. •/••*»" 
 
 T Jornandes, c. 29. p. 651. The Gothic historian adds, with un- 
 usual spirit, Cum suis deliberans suasit suo labore quserere reena 
 quam alienis per otiuin subjacere. ° ' 
 
 » Discors odiisque anceps civilibus Orbis 
 
 Non sua vis tutata diu, dum fadera fallax 
 Ludit, et alternae perjuria venditat aulae. 
 
 ^ ,, ., ^ ,. Claudian de Bell. Get. 565. 
 
 ^. . , ^ Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem. 
 Ihis authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least bv 
 Claudian, (de Bell. Getico, 547.) seven years before the event. But 
 as it was not accomplished within the term whicli has been rashly 
 fixed, the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning, 
 
 c Our beet materials are 970 verses of Claudian, in the poem on the 
 Getic war, and the beginning of that which celebrates the sixth con- 
 sulship of Honorius. Zosimus is totally silent; and we are reduced 
 to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as we can pick from Orosius and 
 the Chronicles. 
 
 d Notwithstanding the gross errors of Jornandes, who confounds 
 the Italian wars of Alaric. (c.29.) his date of the consulshio of Stili 
 cho and Aurelian (A. D. 400.) is firm and respectable. It is carta hi 
 
406 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 I It 
 
 |l 
 
 describe the circumstances of the first invasion of 
 Italy by the arms of Alaric. His march, perhaps from 
 Thessalonica, through the warlike and hostile country 
 of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps ; 
 his passage of those mountains, which were strongly 
 iraarded by troops and intrenchments ; the siege of 
 Aqnileia, and the conquest of the provinces of Istria 
 and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable 
 time. Unless his operations were extremely cautious 
 and slow, the length of the interval would suggest a 
 probable suspicion, that the Gothic king retreated to- 
 wards the banks of the Danube, and reinforced his 
 army with fresh swarms of barbarians, before heaorain 
 attempted to penetrate into the heart of Italy. Since 
 the public and important events escape the diligence 
 of the historian, he may amuse himself with contem- 
 plating, for a moment, the influence of the arms of 
 Alaric° on the fortunes of two obscure individuals, a 
 presbyter of Aquileia, and a husbandman of Verona. 
 The learned Rufinus, who was summoned by his ene- 
 mies to appear before a Roman synod," wisely prefer- 
 red the dangersof a besieged city ; and the barbarians, 
 who furiously shook the walls of Aquileia, might save 
 him from the cruel sentence of another heretic, who, 
 at the request of the same bishops, was severely whip- 
 ped, and condemned to perpetual exile on a desert 
 island.^ The old man,^ who had passed his simple 
 and innocent life in the neighbourhood of Verona, was 
 a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of bishops; 
 his pleasures, his desires, his knowledge, were confin- 
 ed within the little circle of his paternal farm; and a 
 staff supported his aged steps, on the same ground 
 where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this 
 humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian describes 
 with so much truth and feeling) was still exposed to 
 the undistinguishing rage of war. His trees, his old 
 contempfrrary trees,*' must blaze in the conflagration of 
 the whole country ; a detachment of Gothic cavalry 
 might sweep away his cottage and his family ; and 
 the* power of Alaric could destroy this happiness, 
 which he was not able either to taste, or to bestow. 
 »* Fame," says the poet, "encircling with terror her 
 gloomy wings, proclaimed the march of the barbarian 
 army, and fiUed Italy with consternation :" the appre- 
 hensions of each individual were increased in just 
 proportion to the measure of his fortune : and the 
 most timid, who had already embarked their valuable 
 effects, meditated their escape to the island of Sicily, 
 or the African coast. The public distress was aggra- 
 vated by the fears and reproaches of superstition.' 
 Every hour produced some horrid tale of strange and 
 portentous accidents : the pagans deplored the neglect 
 of omens, and the interruption of sacrifices ; but the 
 christians still derived some comfort from the power- 
 ful intercession of the saints and martyrs.^ 
 „ fl. , The emperor Honorius was distin- 
 
 HonoriMs flics . , , / i- i- . i .1 
 
 from Milan, guished, above his subjects, by the pre- 
 A. D. 403. eminence of fear, as well as of rank. 
 
 from ClamVian, (Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. torn. v. p. 804.) that the 
 batilo of PoUentia was fought, A. D. 403 ; but wo caimot easily fill the 
 
 interval. . . . ,. 
 
 e Tantum Romanae urbis judicium fugis, ut maffis obsidionem bar- 
 baricam, quain pacata urbis judicium volis sustinerp. Jerom, torn, 
 ii. p. 239. Rufinus understood his own danger; the peaceful city 
 was inflamed by the beldam Marcella, and the rest of Jerom's faction. 
 
 f Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who was persecuted 
 and insulted by the furious Jerom. (Jortin's Remarks, vol. iv. p. 10^1, 
 Ac.) See the original edict of banishment in the Theodosian Code, 
 1. xvi. tit. V. leg. 43. 
 
 g This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui suburbumi nusquam egres- 
 Stis est) is one of the earliest and most pleasing compofiiions of 
 Claudian. Cowley's imitation (Hurd's edition, vol. ii. p. 211.) has 
 some natural and happy strokes : but it is much inferior to the origi- 
 nal portrait, which is evidently drawn from the life. 
 
 h Ingeritem meminit parvo qui germine quercum 
 iEqua&vumque videt consenuisse nemus. 
 A neighbouring wood born with himself he sees, 
 And loves his old contemporary trees. 
 In this passage, Cowley is perhaps superior to his original ; and the 
 English poet, who was a good botanist, has concealed the oaku, under 
 a more general expression. 
 
 . Claudian de Bell. Get. 192— 26G. He may seem prolix : but fear 
 and superstition occupied as large a space in the mimis of the Italians. 
 
 k From the passages of Paulinus, which Baronius has produced, 
 
 The pride and luxury in which he was educated, had 
 not allowed him to suspect, that there existed on the 
 earth any power presumptuous enough to invade the 
 repose of the successor of Augustus. The arts of 
 flattery concealed the impending danger, till Alaric 
 approached the palace of Milan. But when the sound 
 of war had awakened the young emperor, instead of 
 flying to arms with the spirit, or even the rashness, of 
 his age, he eagerly listened to those timid counsellors, 
 who "proposed to convey his sacred person, and his 
 faithful attendants, to some secure and distant station 
 in the provinces of Gaul. Stilicho alone > had courage 
 and authority to resist this disgraceful measure, which 
 would have abandoned Rome and Italy to the barba- 
 rians ; but as the troops of the palace had been lately 
 detached to the Rhaetian frontier, and as the resource 
 of new levies was slow and precarious, the general of 
 the west could only promise, that, if the court of Mi- 
 lan would maintain their ground during his absence, 
 he would soon return with an army equal to the en- 
 counter of the Gothic king. Without losing a mo- 
 ment, (while each moment was so important to the 
 public safety,) Stilicho hastily embarked on the Lari- 
 an lake, ascended the mountains of ice and snow, 
 amidst the severity of an Alpine winter, and suddenly 
 repressed, by his unexpected presence, the enemy, 
 who had disturbed the tranquillity of Rhaetia." The 
 barbarians, perhaps some tribes of the Alemanni, re- 
 spected the firmness of a chief, who still assumed the 
 language of command ; and the choice which he con- 
 descended to make, of a select number of their bravest 
 youth, was considered as a mark of his esteem and fa- 
 vour. The cohorts, who were delivered from the 
 neighbouring foe, diligently repaired to the imperial 
 standard ; and Stilicho issued his orders to the most 
 remote troops of the west, to advance, by rapid 
 marches, to the defence of Honorius and of Italy. 
 The fortresses of the Rhine were abandoned ; and the 
 safety of Gaul was protected only by the faith of the 
 Germans, and the ancient terror of the Roman name. 
 Even the legion, which had been stationed tO guard 
 the wall of Britain against the Caledonians of the 
 north, was hastily recalled ;° and a numerous body of 
 the cavalry of the Alani was persuaded to engage in 
 the service of the emperor, who anxiously expected 
 the return of his general. The prudence and vigour 
 of Stilicho were conspicuous on this occasion, which 
 revealed, at the same time, the weakness of the falling 
 empire. The legions of Rome, which had long since 
 languished in the gradual decay of discipline and cour- 
 age, were exterminated by the Gothic and civil wars ; 
 and it was found impossible, without exhausting and 
 exposing the provinces, to assemble an army for the 
 defence of Italy. 
 
 When Stilicho seemed to abandon his ne is pursued 
 sovereign in the unguarded palace of ^^^ ^l^^^""^ ^^ 
 Milan, °he had probably calculated the 
 term of his absence, the distance of the enemy, and 
 the obstacles that might retard their march. He prin- 
 cipally depended on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the 
 Mincius, the Oglio, and the Addua ; which, in the 
 winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melt- 
 ing of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad 
 and impetuous torrents." But the season happened to 
 
 (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 403, No. 51.) it is manifest, that the general 
 alarm had pervaded all Italy, as far as Nola in Campania, where that 
 famous penitent had fixed his abode. , . . • u 
 
 1 Solus erat Stilicho, fcc. is the exclusive commendation which 
 Claudian bestows, (de Bell. Get. 267.) without condescending to ex- 
 cept the emperor. How insignificant must Honorius have appeared 
 
 in his own court 1 ,^ ... . /. , 
 
 m Tlie fiice of the country, and the hardiness of Stilicho, are finely 
 described, (de Bell. Get. 340-363.) 
 
 n Venit et extremis legio prseienta Briunnis 
 Quae Scoto dat frena truci. 
 
 De Bell. Get. 416. 
 
 Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan, 
 must have required a loncer space of time than Claudian seems wil- 
 ling to allow for the duration of the Gothic war. 
 
 o Every traveller must recollect the face of Lombardy, (seeFonte- 
 nelle, torn. v. p. 279.) which is often tormented by the capricious and 
 irregular abundance of waters. The Ausirians, before Genoa, were 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 :h 
 
 be remarkably dry; and the Goths could traverse, 
 without impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose 
 centre was famtly marked by the course of a shallow 
 stream. The bridge and passage of the Addua were 
 secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic armv • 
 and as Alaric approached the walls, or rather the sub- 
 urbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of 
 seeing the emperor of the Romans fly before him. 
 Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen 
 and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the Alps, with 
 
 I^^uTa r^^'T''- ^& P^'^°" *" ^h« ^"y of Aries, 
 v^hich had often been the royal residence of his prede- 
 cessors. But Honorius p had scarcely passed the Po, 
 before he was overtaken by the speed of the Gothic 
 cava ry ;q since the urgency of the danger compelled 
 hini to seek a temporary shelter within the fortification 
 of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piedmont, situate on the 
 banks of the Tanarus.' The siege of an obscure 
 place which contained so rich a prize, and seemed in- 
 capable of a long resistance, was instantly formed, and 
 ndefatigably pressed, by the king of the Goths ; and 
 the bold declaration, which the emperor might after- 
 wards make, that his breast had never been susceptible 
 of fear, did not probably obtain much credit, even in 
 US own court.- In the last and almost hopeless ex- 
 tremity, after the barbarians had already proposed the 
 indignity of a capitulation, the imperial captive was 
 
 l?n r { '"''"'^"^ ^^ '^" ^^"^^' '^^ approach, and at 
 length the presence, of the hero, whom he had so lone- 
 
 expected. At the head of a chosen and intrepid van°- 
 guard, Mihcho swam the stream of the Addua, to ffain 
 the time which he must have lost in the attack of the 
 bridge ; the passage of the Po was an enterprise of 
 much less hazard and difficulty; and the successful 
 action, in which he cut his way through the Gothic 
 camp under the walls of Asta, revived the hopes, and 
 vind icated the honour, of Rome. Instead of |raspinff 
 the fruit of his victory, the barbarian was graduallv 
 invested, on every side, by the troops of the west, who 
 successively issued through all the passes of the 
 Alps; his quarters were straitened; his convoys were 
 intercepted ; and the vigilance of the Romans pre- 
 pared to form a chain of fortifications, and to bcsieore 
 the lines of the besiegers. A military council was 
 assembled of the long-haired chiefs of the Gothic na- 
 tion ; of aged warriors, whose bodies were wrapped in 
 Jars, and whose stern countenances were marked with 
 honourable wounds. They weighed the glory of per- 
 sisting in their attempt against the advantage of secur- 
 ing their plunder ; and they recommended the prudent 
 measure of a seasonable retreat. In this important 
 debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror 
 of Rome ; and after he had reminded his countrymen 
 of their achievements and of their designs, he con- 
 cluded his animating speech, by the soleSn and posi- 
 tive assurance, that he was resolved to find, in Italy, 
 either a kingdom or a grave.* 
 
 Battle of Pollen- '^^^ 'oose discipline of the barbarians 
 A n'ani always exposed them to the danger of a 
 MarclS surprise; but, instead of choosing the 
 
 dissolute hours of riot an d intemperance, 
 
 encamped in the dry bed of the Polcevera " Ne «,-,rPhh^ »> r. — 
 Murau^r.) " mai passato per mente a queTuoni Alemann^che^aue? 
 f^S^S^^^rrS^^'^^^'^^- - instante cr.'i'a'.-'i.^'Jf,^ 
 8vo edilO d Italia, tom. xvi. p. 443. Milan, 1753, 
 
 non^st!^^^^^^^^^^^ was Ho- 
 
 d'5Siia, tom.?;.^p^-4^V^' ""'' '• ^-^ ^"^ ^^"'•"^""' (^'^"^li 
 
 •1v?w ""^^^^-^^ ^?^'l^ '"^y ^^ ^'^<'PtI in the Itineraries (n 9« 2«S ^Qd 
 with Wesselmg s Notes.) Asta lay some mile/on the ?i4t Imrid 
 
 r Asia, or Asti, a Roman colony, is now the ranitii «f ^\?i^ . 
 country which, in the sixieomh^ilnmryXvol?^^^^^ 
 Savov, (Leandro Alberti Descrizzione d'ltalia, p. S2 ) ' ""^ 
 
 the next'^eVr'rRoT.fp" fi' "^i"'" , "f '"\S^^ ^^'^ this'^roud langua<^e 
 {v,. Cons.'Hon'i49T ' ^"' ^""^'""^ ""^^^ ^-^'^ ^^^ «'«"« ^^ d-«Ser! 
 
 ' Vrcrus?humum"'" "°"^' ""'' "^"^^ ^^"^^« 
 
 407 
 
 Stilicho resolved to attack the chrhfian Goths, whilst 
 they were devout^ employed in celebrating the festi- 
 val of haster.u The execution of the stratagem, or 
 as It was termed by the clergy, of the sacrilfgt w^s 
 intrusted to Saul, a barbarian and a pagan, who had 
 served however, with distinguished reputat on amonff 
 the veteran generals of Theodosius. The camp of thf 
 Goths which Alaric had pitched in the neighbo^uLod 
 of Pollentia,^ was thrown into confusion by the sudden 
 and impetuous charge of the imperial cavalry; but in 
 a few moments, the undaunted genius of their leader 
 gave them an order, and a field, of battle ; and as 
 soon as they had recovered from their astonishment 
 the pious confidence, that the God of the Christians 
 would assert their cause, added new strength to their 
 
 "^TJJ r-J"" '^? engagement, which was loner 
 ma ntained with equal courajre and success, the chief 
 ot the Alani, whose diminutive and savatre form con- 
 cealed a magnanimous soul, approved his suspected 
 loyalty, by the zeal with which he fought, and fell in 
 the service of the republic ; and the fame of this gallant 
 barbariari has been imperfectly preserved in the verses 
 ot Claudian, since the poet, who celebrates his virtue 
 has omitted the mention of his name. His death was 
 
 whni ^^ '^' ^i"}' '".^ t'^'^'^y «^ '^^ squadrons 
 which he commanded ; and the defeat of the wino- of 
 
 cavalry might have decided the victory of Alaric if 
 Milicho had not immediately led the Roman and bar- 
 barian infantry to the attack. The skill of the irenera! 
 and the bravery of the soldiers, surmounted every obi 
 stacle. In the evening of the bloody day, the Goth«5 
 retreated from the field of battle ; the entrenchments 
 ot their camp were forced, and the scene of rapine 
 and slaughter made some atonement for the calamities 
 which they had inflicted on the subjects of the em- 
 pire.y The magnificent spoils of Corinth and Arffo.s 
 enriched the veterans of the west; the captive wife 
 of Alaric, who had impatiently claimed his promise 
 of Roman jewels and patrician handmaids,' was re- 
 duced to implore the mercy of the insultino- foe • and 
 niany thousand prisoners, released from the Gothic 
 chains, dispersed through the provinces of Italy the 
 praises of their heroic deliverer. The triumph of 
 Stilicho^ was compared by the poet, and perhaps by 
 the public to that of Marius ; who, in the same part 
 ot Italy had encountered and destroyed another amiy 
 of northern barbarians. The huge bones, and the 
 empty helmets, of the Cimbri and of the Goths 
 would easily be confounded by succeeding genera^ 
 tions ; and posterity might erect a common trophy to 
 the memory of the two most illustrious generals, who 
 Had vanquished, on the same memorable ground the 
 two most formidable enemies of Rome »> * 
 
 uJf^A ^^Tr^"- u^ C^?"dianc has cele- BoIdnes.,and re- 
 
 brated, with lavish applause, the victory treat of Alaric. 
 
 u Orosius (l. vii. c. 370 is shocked at the impiety of the Roman- 
 
 7.^''/,"^''^^^^'',^ ^^''^' ^""'^^y' ^"'^h pious chrisUans. Ye , at the 
 same time, public prayers were offered at the shrine of St Thoma, 
 of Edessa, for the destruction of the Arian robber. See Tillemont' 
 (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 529.) who quotes an homilv wh T ha« 
 been erroneously ascribed to St. Chrysostom. "^"'"y' ^*^'<^*» ^^ 
 of TnHn ^'^f.'-I^s »<" P^H^^^ia are twenty-five miles to the soutli-east 
 of Turin C os, in the same neighbourhood, was a royal chace f th« 
 kiners of Lomhan v nnrl .. »,.,on ^;, — ...u-.^l " V .' ^-'lace ot the 
 
 and possibly not less genuine than those of Livy. ^"^<^"instances, 
 
 ... ^ „„, ... .,„^^ oaiiic- inrij;uuournooa, was a rova chacp .^f tK« 
 
 kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which excused^the prediction 
 " penetrabis ad urbem.'' (Cluver. Ital. Antiq. torn. T p IK?''"' 
 y Orosius wishes, in doubtful words, to insinuate the def^of th« 
 riZl''^^ J^'SnameH v cimus, victores victi sumus." Prosper (In 
 Chron.) makes it an equal and bloody battle ; but the Gothic wrkers 
 de^il\t' viaoJy.^''""'^ '"^ Jornandes, (de Reb. Get. c. 2^5 a^lnl'i 
 
 z Demons Ausonedum gemmata monilia matrum, 
 Komanasque alta famulas cervice pelebat. 
 
 1 i*i Zf^^T, <Do Bell Got. 530-647.) and PrudentiS'(in f y'l;.^i^ch. 
 k liemtr T^.'"'''^^'"'''''' ^•'.^''"^ ambiguity, the Roman %^clorv of 
 Pollentia. They are poetical and party writers ; yet some credit i« 
 
 notoHetyUrctl."'^'''""' ^'''''''''' ''''' '^'^ '''''''"^ b^the recent 
 
 ivl ^l*"^'*"'s peroration is strong and elegant ; but the identity of 
 
 PhnPn'"?^r ^ ^"^ ■^'^l^''' ^"1^*^' '""«^ be understcK)d (like Virgil's 
 Philippi, Georgic 1. 490.) according to the loose geography of a poet 
 Verce l» and Pollentia are sixty miles from elch oiLr; aKe 
 latitude IS still greater, if the Cimbri were defeated in the wide and 
 barren plain of Verona. (Maffei, Vemna Illustrata, P. i. n 54 -62 Y 
 ♦h^ ^**"d»an and Prudontius must be strictly examined; to reduce 
 the figures, and extort the historic sense, of those poets. 
 
'If 
 
 J 
 « 
 
 408 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 
 of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days in the life 
 of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse be- 
 stows more genuine praise on the character of the 
 Gothic king. His name is, indeed, branded with tlie 
 reproachful epithets of pirate and robber, to which the 
 conquerors of every age are so justly entitled ; but the 
 po<;t of Stilicho is compelled to acknowledge, that 
 Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind, which 
 rises superior to every misfortune, and derives new re- 
 sources from adversity. After the total defeat of his 
 infantry, he escaped, or rather withdrew, from the 
 field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry 
 entire and unbroken. Without wasting a moment to 
 lament the irreparable loss of so many brave com- 
 panions, he left his victorious enemy to bind ii» chains 
 the captive images of a Gothic king;"* and boldly re- 
 solved to break through the unguarded passes of the 
 Apennine, to spread desolation over the fruitful face 
 of Tuscany, and to conquer or die before the gates of 
 Rome. The capital was saved by the active and in- 
 cessant diligence of Stilicho; but he respected the 
 despair of his enemy ; and, instead of committing the 
 fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he 
 proposed to purchase the absence of the barbarians. 
 The spirit of Alaric would have rejected such terms, 
 the permission of a retreat, and the offer of a pension, 
 with contempt and indignation ; but he exercised a 
 limited and precarious authority over the independent 
 chieftains, who had raised him, for their service, above 
 the rank of his equals ; they were still less disposed 
 to follow an unsuccessful general, and many of them 
 were tempted to consult their interest by a private ne- 
 gociation with the minister of Honorius. The king 
 submitted to the voice of his people, ratified the 
 treaty with the empire of the west, and repassed the 
 Po, with the remains of the flourishing army which 
 he had led into Italy. A considerable part of the 
 Roman forces still continued to attend his motions ; 
 and Stilicho, who maintained a secret correspondence 
 with some of the barbarian chiefs, was punctually ap- 
 prized of the designs that were formed in the camp 
 and council of Alaric. The king of the Goths, ani- 
 bitious to signalize his retreat by some splendid 
 achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city 
 of Verona, which commands the principal passage of 
 the Rhaitian Alps ; and, directing his march through 
 the territories of those German tribes, whose alliance 
 would restore his exhausted strength, to invade, on the 
 side of the Rhine, the wealthy and unsuspecting pro- 
 vinces of Gaul. Ignorant of the treason, which had 
 already betrayed his bold and judicious enterprise, he 
 advanced towards the passes of the mountains, already 
 possessed by the imperial troops ; where he was ex- 
 posed, almost at the same instant, to a general attack 
 in the front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In this 
 bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of 
 Verona, the loss of the Goths was not less heavy than 
 that which they had sustained in the defeat of Pollen- 
 tia; and their valiant kinjj, who escaped by the swift- 
 ness of his horse, must either have been slain or made 
 prisoner, if the hasty rashness of the Alani had not 
 disappointed the measures of the Roman general. 
 Alaric secured the remains of his army on the adjacent 
 rocks ; and prepared himself, with undaunted resolu- 
 tion, to maintain a siege against the superior numbers 
 of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he 
 could not oppose the destructive progress of hunger 
 and disease ; nor was it possible for him to check the 
 continual desertion of his impatient and capricious 
 barbarians. In this extremity he still found resources 
 in his own courage, or in the moderation of his adver- 
 sary ; and the retreat of the Gothic king was con- 
 
 sidered as the deliverance of Italy.' Yet the people, 
 and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational 
 judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed 
 to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often van- 
 quished^ so often surrounded, and so often dismissed, 
 the implacable enemy of the republic. The first mo- 
 ment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and 
 joy ; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and 
 calumny.' 
 
 The citizens of Rome had been aston- ^^^ triumph of 
 ished by the approach of Alaric; and Honorius at 
 the dilicrence with which they laboured R«'"J^- ^^ 
 to restore the walls of the capital, con- 
 fessed their own fears, and the decline of the empire. 
 After the retreat of the barbarians, Honorius was di- 
 rected to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, 
 and to celebrate in the imperial city the auspicious 
 sera of the Gothic victory, and of his sixth consul- 
 ship.8 The suburbs and the streets, from the Milvian 
 bridge to the Palatine mount, were filled by the Ro- 
 man'^people, who, in the space of an hundred years, 
 had only thrice been honoured with the presence of 
 their sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the 
 chariot where Stilicho was deservedly seated by the 
 side of his royal pupil, they applauded the pomp of a 
 triumph, which was not stained, like that of Constan- 
 tino, or of Theodosius, with civil blood. The proces- 
 sion passed under a lofty arch, which had been pur- 
 posely erected : but in less than seven years, the 
 Gothic conquerors of Rome might read, if they were 
 able to read, the superb inscription of that monument, 
 which attested the total defeat and destruction of their 
 nation.'' The emperor resided several months in the 
 capital, and every part of his behaviour was regulated 
 with care to conciliate the affection of the clergy, the 
 senate, and the people of Rome. The clergy was edi- 
 fied by his frequent visits, and liberal gifts, to the 
 shrines of the apostles. The senate, who, in the tri- 
 umphal procession, had been excused from the humil- 
 iating ceremony of preceding on foot the imperial 
 chari'ot, was treated with the decent reverence which 
 Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The peo- 
 ple were repeatedly gratified by the attention and 
 courtesy of Honorius in the public games, which were 
 celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence not 
 unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the appointed 
 number of chariot-races was concluded, the decoration 
 of the circus was suddenly changed ; the hunting of 
 wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertain- 
 ment; and the chase was succeeded by a military 
 dance, which seems, in the lively description of Clau- 
 dian, to present the image of a modern tournament. 
 
 In these games of Honorius, the in- ^^^ ^,^jj,,„„ 
 human combats of gladiators' polluted, abolished, 
 for the last time, the amphitheatre of 
 Rome. The first christian emperor may claim the 
 honour of the first edict, which condemned the art and 
 amusement of shedding human blood,^ but this bene- 
 volent law expressed the wishes of the prince, with- 
 out reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a 
 civilized nation below the condition of savage canni- 
 bals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, 
 victims, were annually slaughtered in the great cities 
 of the empire ; and the month of December, more 
 
 -Chap. XXX. 
 
 r.^^ i' 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 i V' 
 
 d Et gravant en airain ses freles avanlagcs 
 De mes etata conquis enchaincr leg images. 
 The practice of exposing in triumph, the images of kin^s and pro- 
 vinces, was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithndates him- 
 self was twelve feet high, of massy gold. Frienshem. Supplement. 
 Liviau. ciii. 47.) 
 
 e The Getic war and the sixth consulship of Honorius obscurely 
 connect the events of Alaric's retreat and losses. 
 
 f Taceo de Alarico . . . acepe vicio, saepe concluso, semperquedi- 
 misso. Orosius, I. vii. c. 37. p. 567. Claudian (vi. Cons. Hon. 320.) 
 drops the curtain with a fine image. , v- «• 
 
 K The ren.ainder of Claudian's poem on the sixth consulship of 
 Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and the games, (330— 
 
 h* See thp inscription in Mascou's History of the Ancient Germans, 
 viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet, Getarum nalionem 
 in omne aevum domitam, &c. ,.,■,.. i. 
 
 i On the curious, though horrid, subject of the gladiators, consult 
 the two books of the Saturnalia, of Lipsius, who, as an a«^»g"«"f;'' 
 is inclined to excuse the practice of antivuttt/, (tom. iii. p.4b^54o ) 
 
 k Cwl. Theodos. I. xv. tit. xii. leg. 1. The Commentary of Godp- 
 froy affords large materials (torn. v. p. 396.) for the history of gladi- 
 ators. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 peculiarly devoted fo the combats of Gladiators, still 
 exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a grateful 
 
 409 
 
 ■JT' 
 
 H. 
 
 , .ppcctacie of blood and cruelt3\ Aniids't the general 
 joy of the victory of Pollentia, a christian poet exhort^ 
 ed the emperor to extirpate, by his authority," the hor- 
 - rid custom which had so long resisted the voice of hu- 
 manity and religion.* The pathetic representations of 
 prudentius were less effectual than the generous bold- 
 ness of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, whose death 
 was more useful to mankind than his life."* The 
 Romans were provoked by the interruption of their 
 pleasures ; and the rash monk, who had descended in- 
 to the arena, to separate the gladiators, was over- 
 whelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness 
 of the people soon subsided; they respected the memory 
 of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of rnar- 
 tyrdom : and they submitted, without a murmur, to the 
 laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human 
 sacrifices of the amphitheatre. The citizens, who adher- 
 ed to the manners of their ancestors, might perhaps in- 
 sinuate, that the last remains ofa martial'spirit werepre- 
 served in this school of fortitude, which accustomed the 
 Romans to the sight of blood, and to the contempt of 
 death : a vain and cruel prejudice,*so nobly confuted by 
 ^the valour of ancient Greece, atid of modern Europe." 
 Honoriut fixes '^'^8 recent danger, to which the per- 
 hi«rciii«Jonceai son of tho (3mperor had been exposed in 
 ""aTd.'4m. ^¥ defenceless palace of Milan, urged 
 liim to seek a retreat in some inaccessi- 
 ble fortress of Italy, where he might securely remain, 
 while the open country was covered by a deluge of 
 barbarians. On the coast of the Hadriatic, about ten 
 or twelve miles from the most southern of the seven 
 months of the Po,* the Thessalians had founded the 
 ancient colony of Ravenna,* ^vhich they afterwards 
 resigned to the natives of Umbria:' Augustus, who 
 had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, 
 at the distance of three miles from the old town, a ca- 
 pacious harbour, for the reception of two hundred and 
 fifty ships of war. ' This naval establishment, which 
 included the arsenals and^nagazines, the barracks' of 
 tho troops, and the houses of the artificers; derived 
 its origin and name from the permanent station of the 
 Roman fleet; the intermediate sp^'ce was soon filled 
 with buildings and inhabitants, and the three exten- 
 sive and populous quarters of Ravenna gradually con- 
 tributed to form*one of the most important. cities of 
 Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poured a co- 
 pious stream of the waters of the Po through the 
 midst of the city, to the entrance of the harbour; the 
 same waters were introduced into the profoundditches 
 that encompassed the walls ; they were distributed, 
 by a thousand subordinate canals, into every part of 
 the city, which they divided into a variety of small 
 islands ; the communication was maintained only by 
 the use of boats and bridges ; and the houses of Ra- 
 venna, whose appearance may be compared to that of 
 Venice, were raised on the foundation of wooden 
 piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many 
 miles, was a deep and impassable marsh ; and the 
 artificial causeway, >vhich c6nnected Ravenna with 
 the continent, might. be easily guarded, or destroy- 
 
 • • » 
 
 I See the peroration of Prudentius, (In Srmmach. X. Vu 1121— J131.) 
 
 who had doubtless read the elegant invective of Lactantius. (Divio. 
 
 Instituu I. vi. c. 20.) The christian apologists have not spared these 
 
 bloody games, which were introduced in the religious festivals of 
 
 ipaganism, . • , , . ,'.-.'■■,'..■ ^ 
 
 ♦ a Theo<loret, I. r. c. 26. I wish to bellevo the Blory of' St. Tele- 
 
 • machus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no altar has been erect- 
 ed, 10 the only monk who died a martyr in tlie cause of humanity. . 
 ^ n Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum nmnuUia vl- 
 deri snloi, et haud tcio an iu sit, ut nunc fit. Cicero Tusculan. ii. 
 
 ^17. He faintly censures the abu^e, and warmly defends the u««, of 
 
 /those sports ; oculls nulla poterat esse fortior contra dolorem et mor- 
 
 .. tem disclplina. Senec* (episi. vll.) shows the feelings of a man. ' 
 
 _o This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (1. v. p. 327.) 
 
 Pliny, (iii. 20.) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce P«Bj»»«,p.65l.edit. 
 
 Berkl.) Claudian, (in vi Cons. Honor. 494, &c.) SIdonius Apolllnarls, 
 
 g. I. epist. 6. 8) Jomandes, (de Keb. OeU c. 29.) Procopius, (de 
 ell. Gothic. 1. 1. c. 1. p. 309. ediu Louvre,) and Cluverius, (lul. 
 Antin. tom. I. p. 301—307.) Yet I still want a local anUqnarian, and 
 ■ •good iop«>gr8phical map. ■ ^ 
 
 Vol. I 3 B 
 
 > .-.-i/*-. 
 
 cd, on the approach of an hostile army. These* mo- 
 rasses were, interspersed, however, with vineyards ; 
 and though the soil was exhausted by four or five 
 crops, the town enjoyed a more plentiful supply of 
 wine than of. fresh watcr.P The air, instead of receiv- 
 ing the sickly, and almost pestilential, exhab.tions of 
 low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like the 
 neighbourhood of .Alexandria, as .uncommonly puro 
 and saliibrious; and this singular advantarre was as- 
 cribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which 
 swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome sta<r- 
 nation of the waters, and floated, every dav, the ves- 
 sels of the adjacent country into the heart ofRavenna. 
 The gradual retreat of the sea, has left the modern 
 city at the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic ; 
 and as early as the fifih or sixth century of the chris- 
 tian aera,'the port of Augustus was converted into 
 pleasant orchards ; and a lonely prove of pines cover- 
 ed the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at an- 
 chor .<« Even this alteration contributed to increase 
 natural strength of the place ; and the shallowness of 
 the water was a suflicient barrier against the large 
 ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation 
 was fortified by art and labour ; and' in the twentieth 
 year of his age, the emperor of the west, anxious only 
 forJiis personal safety, retired to the perpetual confine- 
 ment of tho walls' and morasses of Ravenna. .The 
 exampleof Honorius was imitated by his feeble succes- 
 sors the Gothic kings, and afterwards the exarchs, who 
 occupied the throne and palace of tho emperors ; and, 
 till themiddleof the eighth century, Ravenna was consi- 
 dered as theseatofgovernmenl, and the capital of Italy.' 
 The fears of Honorius were not with- The revoJatlont 
 out loundation, nor were his precautions uf Scythia.-^- 
 wiihout eflect. While Italy rejoiced in ..A- a -ioc^- 
 hcr deliyerance'frora the Goths, -a furious tempest 
 was ^.Kcited among the nations of Germany, who yield- 
 ed to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been 
 gradually commiinicated from the eastern extremity of 
 the continent of Asia. - . The Chinese annals, as they 
 ha.ve been interpreted by the learned iiidjuslry of the 
 present age, may be usefully applied - to reveal' the 
 secret and remote causes of the fall -of the Roman 
 empire. The extensive territory to the horth of the 
 great wall wai possessed, after the flight of the Huns, 
 by the Victorious Sienpi : whd were sometimes broken 
 into" independent tribes, and sometimes re-united under" 
 a supreme chief; till at length styling themselves 
 TVpa, or masters of the earth, :th 07 acquired a vmore 
 solid cdnsistence, and n more formidable power. - The 
 Topa:feoon compelled the- pastoral nations of ^he 
 eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of their 
 arms; they invaded Chinain a period of weakness and 
 and intestine discord; and lhefortunateTartars,adoptinff 
 the laws and manners of the vanquished people, foundeS 
 an imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred 
 and sixty 'years over the northern provinces of the 
 monarchy. Some gfenerations before they ascended 
 the throne t)f China, one of the Topa princes had 
 enlisted iii^his cavalry a slave. of the name of Moko, 
 renowned for; his valour ; but who was tempted, by 
 the fear^of punishment to desert Jiis standard, and 
 to range the desert at the bead of a. hundred followers. 
 This gang of-robbers and outlaws swelled into a 
 camp, a tribe, a numerous people,^ distinguished T)y 
 the appellation, of Geougen ,-. and their -hereditary 
 chieftainSi-die^qster ityof.Moko the slave, assumed 
 
 w 5fJ* Wi^-^?" "*• ?' f -^ P^^y" o'* the trick of the knave; who 
 r?.^li ^ '"o ^'°e instead of water : but he seriously declares that " 
 !..!i^ ? '.K . v^"*** " more valuable than a vineTanL Sidonlua 
 complains that the town ta desUiute of fountains and aqueducts ; and 
 ranks the want of fresh water among ihe.locAl evils, ••chjM the 
 '^'**i^'J''j?[;"**' ^^«n««n« of gnats, fcc*-- - ' • .^ - 
 ' 5. "• * ,* ^^ Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has M aclm(. 
 rablr Uaiisplanted ftpm Boccaccio, (Oiomata, iii. novrtl. riil.) was 
 aciM in the wood of CMasei, a corrupt word from O/osstB, the naval 
 staiion, wbich, with the intermediate road, or iiuhurt)» th« Via Ce^ 
 •antj eonstituted the trMt city of Ravenna. • >> <: -'. ■ * 
 
 r From (he year 4(X, the dates 6f the Theodosian C<rie, become ie- 
 denlarT at Constantinoj^leand Bavenna, ^Sjee Oo^efinoj^ Chrtmology 
 
 'v. .V^,... i of UieUwf^tom.-Ujtxja»Jii,fccr 5: v v\ ^ ^'^ 
 
 •- r V ■• •- >^' 
 
 *'-■ 
 
408 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 
 <**' 
 
 of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days in the life 
 of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse be- 
 stows more genuine praise on the character of the 
 Gothic king. His name is, indeed, branded with the 
 reproachful epithets of pirate and robber, to which the 
 conquerors of every age are so justly entitled ; but the 
 poet of Stilicho is compelled to acknowledge, that 
 Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind, which 
 rises superior to every misfortune, and derives new re- 
 sources from adversity. After the total defeat of his 
 infantry, he escaped, or rather withdrew, from the 
 field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry 
 entire and unbroken. Without wasting a moment to 
 lament the irreparable loss of so many brave com- 
 panions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in chains 
 the captive images of a Gothic king;"* and boldly re- 
 solved to break through the unguarded passes of the 
 Apennine, to spread desolation over the fruitful face 
 of Tuscany, and to conquer or die before the gates of 
 Rome. The capital was saved by the active and in- 
 cessant diligence of Stilicho; but he respected the 
 despair of his enemy; and, instead of committing the 
 fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he 
 proposed to purchase the absence of the barbarians. 
 The spirit of Alaric would have rejected such terms, 
 the permission of a retreat, and the offer of a pension, 
 with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a 
 limited and precarious authority over the independent 
 chieftains, who had raised him, for their service, above 
 the rank of his equals; they were still less disposed 
 to follow an unsuccessful general, and many of them 
 were tempted to consult their interest by a private ne- 
 gociation with the minister of Honorius. The king 
 submitted to the voice of his people, ratified the 
 treaty with the empire of the west, and repassed the 
 Po, with the remains of the flourishing army which 
 ho had led into Italy. A considerable part of the 
 Roman forces still continued to attend his motions ; 
 and Stilicho, who maintained a secret correspondence 
 with some of the barbarian chiefs, was punctually ap- 
 prized of the designs that were formed in the camp 
 and council of Alaric. The kingr of the Goths, am- 
 bitious to signalize his retreat by some splendid 
 achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city 
 of Verona, which commands the principal passage of 
 the Rhactian Alps ; and, directing his march through 
 the territories of those German tribes, whose alliance 
 would restore his exhausted strength, to invade, on the 
 side of the Rhine, the wealthy and unsuspecting pro- 
 vinces of Gaul. Ignorant of the treason, which had 
 already betrayed his bold and judicious enterprise, he 
 advanced towards the passes of the mountains, already 
 possessed by the imperial troops ; where he was ex- 
 posed, almost at the same instant, to a general attack 
 in the front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In this 
 bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of 
 Verona, the loss of the Goths was not less heavy than 
 that which they had sustained in the defeat of Pollen- 
 tia ; and their valiant kingr, who escaped by the swift- 
 ness of his horse, must either have been slain or made 
 prisoner, if the hasty rashness of the Alani had not 
 disappointed the measures of the Roman general. 
 Alaric secured the remains of his army on the adjacent 
 rocks ; and prepared himself, with undaunted resolu- 
 tion, to maintain a siege against the superior numbers 
 of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he 
 could not oppose the destructive progress of hunger 
 and disease ; nor was it possible for him to check the 
 continual desertion of his impatient and capricious 
 barbarians. In this extremity he still found resources 
 in his own courage, or in the moderation of his adver- 
 sary ; and the retreat of the Gothic king was con- 
 
 sidered as the deliverance of Italy." Yet the people, 
 and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational 
 judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed 
 to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often van- 
 quished^ so often surrounded, and so often dismissed, 
 the implacable enemy of the republic. The first mo- 
 ment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and 
 joy ; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and 
 
 calumny.' 
 
 The citizens of Rome had been aston- ,j,^^ triumph of 
 ished by the approach of Alaric; and Honoriuaat 
 the diligence with which they laboured ^^^ ^ 
 to restore the walls of the capital, con- 
 fessed their own fears, and the decline of the empire. 
 After the retreat of the barbarians, Honorius was di- 
 rected to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, 
 and to celebrate in the imperial city the auspicious 
 sera of the Gothic victory, and of his sixth consul- 
 ship.« The suburbs and the streets, from the Milvian 
 bridge to the Palatine mount, were filled by the Ro- 
 man'^people, who, in the space of an hundred years, 
 had only thrice been honoured with the presence of 
 their sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the 
 chariot where Stilicho was deservedly seated by the 
 side of his royal pupil, they applauded the pomp of a 
 triumph, which was not stained, like that of Constan- 
 tine, or of Theodosius, with civil blood. The proces- 
 sion passed under a lofty arch, which had been pur- 
 posely erected: but in less than seven years, the 
 Gothic conquerors of Rome might read, if they were 
 able to read, the superb inscription of that monument, 
 which attested the total defeat and destruction of their 
 nation.* The emperor resided several months in the 
 capital, and every part of his behaviour was regulated 
 with care to conciliate the affection of the clergy, the 
 senate, and the people of Rome. The clergy was edi- 
 fied by his frequent visits, and liberal gifts, to the 
 shrines of the apostles. The senate, who, in the tri- 
 umphal procession, had been excused from the humil- 
 iating ceremony of preceding on foot the imperial 
 chariot, was treated with the decent reverence which 
 Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The peo- 
 ple were repeatedly gratified by the attention and 
 courtesy of Honorius in the public games, which were 
 celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence not 
 unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the appointed 
 number of chariot-races was concluded, the decoration 
 of the circus was suddenly changed ; the hunting of 
 wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertain- 
 ment; and the chase was succeeded by a military 
 dance, which seems, in the lively description of Clau- 
 dian, to present the image of a modern tournament. 
 
 In these games of Honorius, the in- ^^^ gj^jiator. 
 human combats of gladiators' polluted, abolished, 
 for the last time, the amphitheatre of , . , 
 Rome. The first christian emperor may claim the 
 honour of the first edict, which condemned the art and 
 amusement of shedding human blood,* but this bene- 
 volent law expressed the wishes of the prince, with- 
 out reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a 
 civilized nation below the condition of savage canni- 
 bals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, 
 victims, were annually slaughtered in the great cities 
 of the empire ; and the month of December, more 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 *A*: 
 
 409 
 
 d Et gravant en airain ses frcles avantajrrs 
 De mes elats conquis enchainer lea images. 
 The practice of expoeing in triumph, the images of kings and pro- 
 vinces, was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithridates him- 
 self was twelve feet high, of massy gold. Frienshera. Supplement. 
 Livian. ciii. 47.) 
 
 e The Getic war and the sixth consulship of Hononus obscurely 
 connect the events of Alaric's retreat and losses. _ „ j: 
 
 r Taceo do Alarico . . . sape vicio, saepe concluso^ BemRe"l"£^': 
 misso. Orosius, 1. vii. c. 37. p. 567. Claudian (vi. Cons. Hon. 320.) 
 drops the curtain with a fine image. , „.,.u:„ «<■ 
 
 g The remainder of Claudian's poem on the sixth consulshipof 
 Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and the games, CJdU— 
 
 ^^' See the inscription in Mascou's History of the Ancient Germans, 
 viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet, Getarum nationem 
 in omne 8Bvum domitam,&c. , j- . _- .^.,...1* 
 
 i On the curious, though horrid, subject of the gladiatore, consult 
 the two books of the Saturnalia, of Lipsius, who, as an anttquartan, 
 is inclined to excuse the practice of an/jorui/y, (tom. ui. p. "^^-^J 
 
 k Cod. Theodos. I. XV. tit. xii. leg. 1. The Commentary of Gtxle- 
 froy affords large materials (torn. v. p. 396.) for the history of gladi- 
 ators. 
 
 V.:> 
 
 .^, -^ 
 
 Bonoriuf fixes 
 hi* ronidcnce^at 
 Ituvcnna. 
 
 :. A. U. 4M. 
 
 peculiarly devoted to the combats of Gladiators, still 
 exhibited tothe eyes of the Roman people a grateful 
 spectacle of blood and cruelty. Amidst the general 
 joy of the victory of Pollentia, a christian poet exhort- 
 ed, the emperor to extirpate, by his authority, the hor- 
 jid custom whicli had so long resisted the voice of hu- 
 manity and religion.V The pathetic representations of 
 prudentius were less effectual than the generous bold- 
 ness of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, whose death 
 was more useful to mankind than his life." The 
 Romans were provoked by the interruption of their 
 pleasures ; and the rash mpnk, who had descended in- 
 to the arena, to separate the gladiators, was over- 
 whelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness 
 of the people soon subsided; they respected the memory 
 of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of rjiar- 
 tyrdom : and they submitted, without a murmur, to the 
 laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human 
 • sacrifices of the amphitheatre. The citizens,' who adher- 
 ed to the manners of their ancestors, might perhaps in- 
 sinuate, that the last remains ofa martial spirit werepre- 
 uerved in thisschool of fortitude, which accustomed the 
 Romans to the sight of blood, and to the contempt pf 
 : death : a vain and cruel prejudice,*so nobly confuted by 
 the valour of ancient Greece, and of modern Europe." 
 ; The recent danger, to which the per- 
 son of the em))eror had been exposed in 
 the defenceless palace of Milan, arged 
 him to seek a retreat in some inaccessi- 
 ble fortress of Italy,"where he might securely remain, 
 while the open country was covered by a deluge of 
 barbarians. On the coast of the Hadriatic, about ten 
 or twelve miles from the most southern pf the seven 
 mouths of the PoV'the Thessalians had founded the 
 ancient colony of Ravenna,® ^vhich, they afterwards 
 resigned to the natives of Umbriai' Augustus, vilio 
 had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, 
 at ilie distance of three miles from the old town, a ca- 
 pacious harbour, for the reception of two hundred and 
 nfty shins of war." ^Tliis naval establishment, which 
 includca the arsenals and\nagia.zine8,.the' barracks' of 
 Iho troops, and the houses of the ^rtificersi "derived 
 its origin and name from the permanent station of the 
 Roman fleet; the intermediate spg^'ce was soon filled 
 with buildings iandinhahitanta, and the threio exten- 
 sive and populous quarters of Ravenna gradually con- 
 ^tributcd to form*one of the most impbrtant. cities of 
 Italy. The prirjcipal canal of Augustus poured a'co- 
 pious stream 'of the waters of the Po through the 
 midst of the city, to the entraince of the harbour; the 
 same waters wierie introduced into the profound ditches 
 ihat encompassed the walls ; they were distributed, 
 by a thousand subordinate canals, into every part .of 
 the city, which they divided into a variety of small 
 islands ; the communication was maintained only by 
 the use of boats and hridges ; and the houses of Ra- 
 venna, whose appearance may be compared to that of 
 Venice, Were raised on the foundation of wooden 
 piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many 
 miles, was a deep and impassable marsh ; and the 
 artificial causeway. Which connected Ravenna with 
 the continent, might be easily guarded, or destroy- 
 
 * i 
 
 \ - 
 
 I Se«lheperorationofPrudenliu«,(1nSrmihach. Ilti.llSl— J131.) 
 
 ' who had doubtless read the elerant invective of Lactantius. (Divio. 
 Instituu I. vi. c. 30.) The christian apologists have not spared these , 
 bloody games, which were .Introduced in the religious leBtivaU of 
 
 •psffanism. .. .• - ., •?, ■. ■ . -t-Tv'.- ''».'■•». '.'^ 
 
 m Theodoret, 1. t. c, 56. I wish to bellevo the flory of St. Tele- 
 machus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no altar has been erect- 
 ed, lo the only monk who died a martyr in ine cause of humanity. 
 ' a Crudele g ladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanura wmnullit rl 
 
 deri eolet, ef Aoi^d tcio an iu sit, ut nunc fit. Cicero Tusculan. II . ^ ^_. 
 
 17. He faintly censures the abuse, and warmly defends the u$t!y of ranks the want of ireah- water among the, local avil^ ••ph^ ^^ 
 
 (these sports ; oculis nulla poierat esse fortior contra doloremi et mor- croaking of frogs, theitiniging of gnatj, kcf'-^ « '-- :r ^^-^. *>• - V' / 
 
 .temdisclplina. Senec*(episi. vii.) shows the feelings of a man. ' ^ «..-*-.-.- ^^- - - -«» . . . .,^_,._ ^__ ^ ^j.-f 
 
 ■ • This account of Ravenna is drawn from Straoo, (!• ▼• P- 327.) 
 Pliny, (ill. 20.) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce f-Bi*"*,'!*. 651. edit. 
 Berkl.) Claudian, (in vi Cons. Honor. 494, &c.) Sidonius Ipollinarls, 
 
 g. I. episu 6. 8) Jomandes, (de Reb. Geu c. 29.) Procopius, (de 
 ell. Gothic. 1.' 1. c.'l. p. 309. ediu Louvre,) and Clnv«rius, (ual 
 
 i!lntiq. torn. i. p. 301 
 
 :. 1. p. 
 -OOtT) 
 
 ftrnod top<Kraphical map. > 
 
 VoL.1.— 3B 
 
 Yet I still want a local anlljiaariaii,Aiid 
 
 
 ed, on the approach of an hostile army. . These mo- 
 rasses were, interspersed, however, with yineyards ; 
 and though the soil was. exhausted. by four or 'five 
 crops, the town enjoyed ia, more plentifur supply of 
 wine than of. fresh water." , The air, instead of receiv- 
 ing the sickly, and almost pestilential, exhalations of 
 low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like the 
 neighbourhood of Alexandria, as ."uncommonly, pure 
 and salubrious; and this singular advantage was as- 
 cribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which 
 swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome stag- 
 nation of the waters, and floated, every day, the ves- 
 sels of the adjacent country into the heart of Ravenna. 
 The gradual retreat of the sea, has left the modern 
 city at 'the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic ; 
 and as early as Ihefifih or sixth century of the chris- 
 tian 'aera, 'the port of Augustus was converted into 
 pleasant Orchards; and a lonely prove of pines cover- 
 ed the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at an- 
 chor.** ;. Even this alteration, contributed to. increase 
 natural strength of the place ; and the shallowness of 
 the water was a sufiicient barrier against the large 
 ships of the enerny. This advantageous situation 
 was fortified by art and labour ; and' in the twentieth 
 year of his age, "the emperor of the west, anxious only 
 for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confine- 
 ment of the walls' and morasses of Ravenna. ', The 
 example of Honorius was imitated by hia/eeble succes- 
 sob the Gothic kings, iind afterwards the exarchs, who 
 occupied the throne and palace of the emperors ; and, 
 till themiddleof the eighth century, Ravenna was consi- 
 dered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy.' 
 The fears of Honorius were not with- "rht revolutions 
 odt foundation, nor were his precautions ■ wfBcythia,, , 
 Without eflect."?jiWhile Italy rejoiced in ' r ' v -^'X 
 her delivcrance'-from thej^Goths, "a furiobs tempest 
 was excited among the nations of Gernriany, who yield- 
 ed to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been 
 gradually communicated :^rom the eastern extremity of 
 the cbntmejfit of Asia.-. The Chinese annals, as they, 
 bare b6en Interpreted by the learned industry of the' 
 present age, -rijay^ be' usefully ^applied to leveal- the 
 secret and remote causes of the fall ^of the Roman 
 empire. The ; extensive territory to' the horth of the 
 great wall was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, 
 by the victorious Sienpi: who wf5re "sometimiBS broken^ 
 into'ijj^dependeiH tribes, and sometimes re^nnited .tuiderT 
 a supreme^chief ; till -^aulength - styling themselves 
 Tbjpa, or masters of, the" earth, they acquired a vinbrc 
 solid .consistence, and ti more formidable power^r The 
 Topa^ feoon 'compelied . the - pastoral nations of nhe 
 eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of .their 
 arms; they inyaded Chinain a period of weakness and 
 and intestine discord; and the fortunate Tartar8,adoptinsr 
 the laws and manners of the vanquished people, founded 
 an imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred 
 and sixty.years over the northern provinces of the 
 monarchy. ; Some generations before they ascended 
 the throne t)f China, one of the Topa princes had 
 enlisted in ?>his, cavalry a slave, of the name of Moko, 
 renowned for: his valour ; but who was tempted, by 
 the fear ;^ erf panishment to desert his -standard, aftd 
 to range the desert at the head of a hundred ^followers. 
 This gang ofiTobbers and outlaws swelled into a 
 camp, a .tribe, 'a 'nnmerous people," distinguished liy 
 the - appellation. -«r. Qeougen fv «nd i. their »^bereditary 
 chieflainSjHhe posterity of. Moko jhe slave, assunied 
 
 - — ' \» ^\ '■ . -'-^ ' -. ■■ "-.■ ' . _ :,.... — ^-r — "^ 
 
 . p Martial (epigcam iiL 56, 57.) plajs on the txick of the knave, vho 
 had sold him wjne instead of water : but he aerioualy declares, that 
 a cistern at Ravenna -is more valuable than a'vineTard. Sidonius 
 complains that the tQwn is destitute of fountains and aqpieducts ; and 
 
 4 The Ikble of Theodore and Ifonona, which I^dea hu *> a^al. 
 rably tr»nspUnted frpm Boccaccio, (Oiornata,. iii* oovell. viii.) was 
 actM in the wood of Chiatn, a corrupt Vrord from CloMnt^ the naval 
 station, which, with the intermediate road, CiT jtubuft^tM yia Ca> 
 •arU, constituted the Xrwrfs city of Bavenna.- -»!> .^ •'.. . \^^. 'i ->' 
 
 r From \he jear '401, the datee of the TheodosiaQ Gdle, become §•> 
 deoUxT at ConstamloojjleAnd Bavesna. ;See Oo^efroj^ Ckronojqg^ 
 
 
 ,» 
 
 x ^ «... 
 
410 
 
 the; decline. and fall 
 
 Ch^p. xjgc.:; 
 
 : » 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth 
 of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants, was exer- 
 cised by those misfortunes which are the school of 
 heroes. He bravely strugcrled with adversity, broke 
 the imperious yoke of the 'fopa, and became the legis- 
 lator of his nation, and the conqueror, of Tartary. 
 His troops were distributed into regular bands of a 
 hundred and of a thousand men; cowards were stoned 
 to death ; the most splendid honours were proposed 
 as the reward of valour ; -and Toulun, who had know- 
 ledge enough to despise the learning of China, adop- 
 ted only such arts and institutions as were favourable 
 to the military spirit of his government. His tents, 
 which he removed in the winter season to a more 
 southern latitude, were pitched, during the summer, 
 on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests 
 stretched from Corea far beyond the river Irtish. He 
 Tanquished, in the country to the north of the Caspian 
 sea, the nation of the Huns; and the new title of A'Aan, 
 or CagaUf expressed the fame and power which he de- 
 rived from this memorable victory." 
 En.i5r.ti0n of The chain of events is interrupted, 
 the northern or rather IS concealed, as it passes 
 
 ' a*d""4u5 ^''^^ ^^*® Volga to the Vistula, through 
 '' * * ■ the dark interval which separates the 
 extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the Roman, 
 geography. Yet the temper of the barbarians, and 
 the experience of successive emigrations, sufEciently 
 declare, that the Hutis, who were oppressed by the 
 arms of the Geougen, soon withdrew from the pre- 
 sence of an insulting victor The countries towards 
 the Kuxino were already occupied by their kindred 
 tribes ; and their hasty flight, which thejr soon con- 
 verted into a bold attack, would more naturally be 
 directed towards the rich and level plains, through 
 which the Vistula^ently flows into the Baltic sea. 
 The north must again' have been alarmed and agitated 
 by the invasion of the Iluns; and the nations who 
 retreated before them must have pressed with incum- 
 bent weight on the confines of Germany.* The inhab- 
 itants of those regions, which the ancients have 
 assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Burgun- 
 dians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning to 
 the fugitives of Sarmatia their woods and morasses ; 
 or at least of discharging, their superfluous numbers 
 on the provinces of the Roman empire." About four 
 years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the 
 title of Khan of the Geougen, another barbarian, the 
 haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus,* marched from 
 the northern extremities of (Jermany almost to the 
 gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to 
 achieve the destruction of the west. The Vandals, 
 the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed tho strength 
 of this mighty host ; but the Alani, who had found 
 an hospitable reception in their new seats, added 
 their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Ger- 
 mans ; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly 
 to the standard of Radagaisus, that, by some histo- 
 rians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. 
 Twelve thousand warriors, distinguished above the 
 vulgar by their noble birth, or their valiant deeds, 
 glittered m the van ;' and tho whole multitude, which 
 
 ■ See M. de Guignes, Hist, ilea Huns. lorn. i. p. 179— 1S9. torn. ii. p. 
 205. 3at-3a9. 
 
 t Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. I. c. ill. p. 1?2.) has observed an 
 emigration from ihe Palus Mseolis to the nonh of Germany, which 
 he aacribea to famine. But his views of ancient history are strangely 
 darkened by ignorance and om.)r. 
 
 u Zosimus (I. V. p. 331.) uses the general description of the nations 
 heyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their 8ituati(^n, and conse- 
 quently their names, are manifestly shown, even in tho various epi- 
 thets which each ancient writer may have casually added. 
 
 X Tho name of Rhadagast waa that of a local deity of the Obotrilcs, 
 (in IVIecklenbur^h.) A hero might naturally assume the appellation 
 of his tutelar god ; but it Is not probable that iho barbarians should 
 worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou, Hist, of the Germans, 
 viil. 14. N - 
 
 J Olympiodonis (apud Photium, p. 190.) uses the Greek word, 
 Oirrif*»T(n ; which doeg not convey any precise idea. I suspect that 
 they wero the princes and nobles, with their faithful companions ; 
 the knights witn their atiuires, as they would have boon styled somo 
 C8nturi«i afterwards. 
 
 was not less thaa two hundred thousand fighting meii "^ 
 might be increased, by the accession of women ' of^ 
 children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hm3«M 
 dred thousand persons. This formidable etniaratlo^Pl 
 issued from the same coast of the Baltic,, which had-^ 
 poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and Teutones 
 to assault Rome and Italy in the vigour of the fepub- 
 lic. After the departure of those barbarians, their na- 
 tive country, which was marked by the vestiges of 
 their greatness, long ramparts, and gigantic moles* 
 remained, during some ages, a vast and dreary solitude*; 
 till the human species was renewed by the powers of 
 generation, and tlie vacancy was filled by the influx of 
 new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an 
 extent of land, which they are unable to cultivate, 
 would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of - 
 their neighbours, if the government of Europe did not 
 protect the claims of dominion and property. 
 
 The correspondence of nations was, Ra^agaitoi in- 
 in that age, so imperfect and precarious, vade« itaw, 
 that the revolutions of the north might ^- ^- ™.' 
 escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna ; till 
 the dark cloud, which was collected along the const 
 of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of tho 
 Upper Danube. The emperor of the west, if. his 
 ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of 
 the impending danger, was satisfied with being the oc- 
 casion, and the spectator, of the war.* The safety of 
 Rome was intrusted to the counsels, and the sword, of 
 Stiiicho; but such was the feeble and exhausted 
 state of the empire, that it was impossible to. restore 
 the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by ,a 
 vigorous eifort, the invasion of the Germans.'' The: 
 hopes of the vigilant minister of Ilonorius were 'con- 
 fined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandonr 
 ed the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed the new 
 levies, which were rigorously exacted, and. pusillani*. 
 mously eluded ; employed the most efiicacious means 
 to arrest, or allure, the deserters ; and offered the gift 
 of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the 
 slaves who would cnlist.« By these, efforts ho pain-\. 
 fully collected, from the subjects of a great empire, an 
 army of thirty or forty thousand men, which, in the 
 days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been instant- 
 ly furnished by tho free citizens of the territory of 
 Rome.'' Tho thirty legions of Stiiicho were rein- 
 forced by a large body of barbarian auxiliaries; the 
 faithful Alani were personally attached to his service; 
 and the troops of Iluns and of Goths, who marched 
 under the banners of their native princes, Huldin* 
 and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment 
 to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of 
 the confederate Germans passed, without resistance, 
 the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine; leaving on one 
 hand the inaccessible palace of Honorius, securely 
 buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on the 
 other, the camp of Stiiicho, who had fixed his head- 
 quarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have 
 avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his 
 distant forces. Many cities of Italy Bc«icge« Fio- 
 wcrc pillaged, or destroyed; and the '^"*=®' 
 
 Chap. XXX, 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 411 
 
 1 Tacit, do IMoribus Gcrmannrum, C. 37. 
 a Ciijiis aG;eadi 
 
 Spectator vel causa fui. 
 
 Claiidian, vi. Cons. Tlon. 439. 
 is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, 
 wliich he had seen somewhat nearer. . - 
 
 b Zosimus (1. V. p. 331.) transpv>rw the war, and the victory 01 
 Stiiicho, beyond tho Danube. A strango er^or, which is awkwardly 
 and imperfectly cured, by reading A^»3» for lo-Tpov. (Tillemont, Hist, 
 des Emp. loin. v. p. 607.) In po<Kl policy, wo must use tho service 01 
 Zosimus, without cslecmin;; or trusting him. . 
 
 c CVde.x Tijootlos. 1. vii. tit. xiii. le?. 16. The dale of this law CA., 
 D. 40G. May 18.) satisfies me, as it had done Godefrov, (toni. »• P- 
 387.) of tho true year of the invasion of lladai;aisus. Tillemont, rag , 
 and Muralori, prefer tho preceding year; but ihev are boima oy cet- 
 tain obligations of civility and respect, to St. Paulinus of JNoia. 
 
 d Soon after Komo had been taken by the Gauls, ihe 3^"?,';!^'^^, . 
 sudden emergency, armed ten legions, 3,000 horse, and '^''■^^l^g\ 
 a force which tho city could not have sent forth under Augus"' 
 (Livy, vii. -25.) This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, du^ 
 clearly explained by ^loniosquieu. , ^ 
 
 4\ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■''.'i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 - -I 
 
 Vicffe of Florence,* by Radagaisus, is one of the ear- 
 liest events in the history of that celebrated republic ; 
 whose firmness checked and delayed the unskilful fu- 
 ry of the barbarians. The senate and people trembled 
 at tlieir approach within a Inmdred and eighty miles of 
 Rome ; and anxiously compared the danger which 
 they had escaped, with the new perils to which they 
 were exposed. Alaric was a christian and a soldier, 
 the leader of a discipline'd army; who understood the 
 laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, 
 and who had familiarly conversed with the subjccls 
 of the empire in the same camps, and the same chur- 
 , ches. The savajje Radajraisus was a stranofcr to the 
 manners, the religion, and even the language, of the 
 - civilized nations of the south. The fierceness of his 
 temper was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it 
 was universally believed, that he had bound himself, 
 and threatens by a Solemn vow, to reduce the city into 
 Rome. a heap of stones and ashes, and to sac- 
 rifice the most illustrious of the Roman senators, on 
 the altars of those gods, who were appeased by 
 human blood. The public danger, which should have 
 reconciled all domestic animosities, displayed the in- 
 curable madness of religious faction. The oppressed 
 votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the im- 
 placable enemy of Rome, the character of a devout 
 {)agan ; loudly declared, that they were more appre- 
 lensive of tho sacrifices, than of the arms, of Rada- 
 gaisus; and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of 
 their country, which condemned the faith of their 
 christian adversaries.' 
 
 Defeat .nd dc Flp^encc was rcduced to the last ex- 
 iruciionofhitar. trcmity ; and the famimg courage of the 
 wy ^y fj''"Q^°' citizens was supported only by the au- 
 ^' * ' . thority of St. Ambrose, who had com- 
 municated, in a dream, the promise of a speedy deliv- 
 erance.« On a sudden, they beheld, from their walls, 
 the banners of Stiiicho, who advanced, with his uni- 
 ted force, to the relief of the faithful city ; and who 
 soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the bar- 
 barian host. The apparent contradictions of those 
 writers who variously relate the defeat of Radagaisus, 
 may be reconciled, without ofiTering much violence to 
 their respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, 
 ■who were intimately connected by friendship and re- 
 ligion, ascribe this miraculous victory to the provi- 
 dence of God, rather than to the valour of man.** They 
 strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of 
 bloodshed; and positively afiirm, that the Romans, 
 whose camp was the scene of plenty and idleness, en- 
 joyed the distress of the barbarians, slowly expiring 
 on the sharp and barren ridge of the hills of Fa^sulae, 
 which rise above the city of Florence. Their extra- 
 vagant assertion, that not a single soldier of tho chris- 
 tian army was killed, or even wounded, may be dis- 
 missed with silent contempt; but the rest of the nar- 
 rative of Augustin and Orosius is consistent with the 
 state of the war, and the character of Stiiicho. Con- 
 . scious that he commanded the last army of the repub- 
 lic, his prudence would not expose it, in the open 
 field, to the headstrong fury of the Germans. The 
 
 • Machiavel has explained, at least as a ohilosopher, the origin of 
 Florence, which insensibly descended, forine benefit of trade, from 
 the rock of Faesula to tho banks of the Arno. (Istoria Florentin. 
 lorn. i. 1. li. p. 36. Londra, 1747.) The triumvirs sent a colony to 
 Florence, which, under Tiberius, (Taciu Annal. I. 79.) deserved the 
 reputation and name ot ^ Jtourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. 
 torn. I. p. 507, &c. 
 
 f Yet the Jupiter of Rada<^i9U9. who worshipped Thor and Woden, 
 waa verr different from the Olympic or Capitoline Jove. The ac- 
 commodating temper of polytheism mi?ht unite those various and 
 remote deities ; but the genuine Komaoi abhorred tho human sacri- 
 fices of Gaul and Germany. 
 
 . g Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros e. 50.) relates this story, which he 
 received from the mouth of Punsophia herself, a religious matron of 
 Florence. Yet the archbishop soon ceaaed to take an active part in 
 the business of the world, and never became a popular saint. 
 
 h Aufusiin de Civiui. Dei, v. v. 23. Orosius, f. vii. c. 37. p. 5C7— 
 571. The two friends wr\>te in Africa, ten or twelve years after the 
 victory; and their authority is implicit W followed by Isidore of Se- 
 ville, (In Chron. p. 713. edit. Grot.) How many interesting facts 
 might Orosius have iiisertud in the vacant space which is devoted to I 
 pii/Ui Qonsense I > 
 
 method of surrounding the enemy with a strong line 
 of circumvallations, which he had twice employed 
 against the Gothic king, was repeated on a larger 
 scale, and with more considerable effect. The ex- 
 amples of Cffisar must have been familiar to the most 
 illiterate of the Roman warriors; and the fortifica- 
 tions of Dyrrachium, which connected twenty-four 
 castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen 
 miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which 
 might confine, and starve, the most numerous host of 
 barbarians.' The Roman troops had no less degenerated 
 from the industry, than from the valour, Of their ances- 
 tors ; and if the servile and laborious work offended . 
 the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many 
 thousand peasants, who would labour, though, per- 
 haps, not fight, for the salvation of their native coun- 
 try. The imprisoned multitude of horses and men'' 
 was gradually destroyed by famine, rather than by tho 
 sword ; but the Romans were exposed, during the pro- 
 gress of such an extensive work, to the frequent at- 
 tacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the 
 hungry barbarians would precipitate them against the 
 fortifications of Stiiicho; the general might some- 
 times indulge the ardour of his brave auxiliaries, who 
 eagerly pressed to assault the camp of the Germans ; 
 and these various incidents might produce the sharp 
 and bloody conflicts which dignify the narrative of 
 Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcelli- 
 nus.' A seasonable supply of men and provisions 
 had been introduced into the walls of Florence, and 
 the famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn be- 
 sieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike na- 
 tions, after the loss of his bravest warriors, was redu- 
 ced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or 
 in the clemency of Stiiicho." But the death of tho 
 royal captive, who was ignbminiously beheaded, dis- 
 graced the triumph of Rome and of Christianity ; and 
 the short delay of his execution was sufficient to 
 brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and delib- 
 erate cruelty." The famished Germans, who escaped 
 the fury of the au.xiliaries, were sold as slaves, at the 
 contemptible price of as many single pieces of gold ; 
 but the difference of food and climate swept away 
 great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and it 
 was observed, that the inhuman purchasers, instead of 
 reaping the fruits of their labour, "were soon obliged 
 to provide the expense of their interment. Stiiicho 
 informed the emperor and the senate of his success ; 
 and deserved, a second time, tlie glorious title of De- 
 liverer of Italy.' .' 
 
 The fame of the victory, and more The remaiiTder 
 especially of the miracle, has lencour- 9^ ^^^ Germans 
 
 J ^ • • 4U «. aI. t I invade GauJ, 
 
 aged a vain persuasion, that the whole a. D, 40G. 
 army, or rather nation, of Germans, who Dec. 31. 
 migrated from the shores of the Baltic, miserably per- ^ 
 ished under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was ' 
 the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faith- 
 ful companions, and of more than one third of the 
 
 i Franguntur monies, planumque per ardua Caesar -^ ^ v 
 Ducit opus; pandit lossasjturritaquesummia h^. 
 
 Disponait castella jugis, ma^oque recessu ^ ^ 
 
 A m plexus fines; sal tusnemorosaque tesqua ••i*V»«^ 
 
 £t silvas, vastnque feras inda^ne claudit. 
 Yet the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii.44.) is far greater 
 than the amplifications of Lucan. (Pharsal.l.vi. 29—63.) 
 
 k The rhetorical expressions of OTosius, "In arido et aspero mon- 
 tis jugo;" " in unum ac parvum verticemr[^ are not very suitable to 
 the encampment of a croat army. But Faesulae, only three miles 
 frdm Florence, might afford space for the head-quarters of Radasaisua, 
 and would be comprehended within the circuit of the Roman lines. 
 
 I See Zosimu?, 1. v. p. 331. and the. Chronicles of Prosper and 
 Marcellinus. , ' 
 
 m Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180.) uses an expression (»p»r. 
 nrmtfrMxt) which would denote asirid and friendly alliance, and 
 render Stiiicho still more criminal. , The paulisper detentus, deinde 
 interfecius, of Orosius, is sufficiently odious. 
 
 B Orosius, piously inhuman, sacrifices the king and people, Agag 
 and the Araalekiies, without a symptom of compassion. The bloody 
 actor is less detestable than the cool nnfecling historian. 
 
 o And Claudian's muse, was she asleepi had she been ill paidf 
 Metbtnks the seventh consulship of Hoaorius (A. D. 407.) would 
 have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was discovered 
 that the state could no longer be saved, Stiiicho (after Romulus, Ca- 
 millus, and Marius) might have been worthily surnamed the founk 
 founder of Rome. 
 
 t. ♦ 
 
* 
 
 f- 
 
 '♦1 
 
 4134 
 
 rarioas multitude of Suercs and Vandals, of Alani 
 and Burgundians, who adhered to the standard of their 
 etneral*? The union of snch an armj might excite 
 oar Borprise, but the causes of separation are obvious 
 and forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of 
 Talour, the jealousy of command, the impatience of 
 subordination, and the obstinate conflict of opinions, 
 of interests, and of passions, among so many kings 
 and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or to obey. 
 After the defeat of RadagaUus, two parts of the Oei- 
 man host, which must have exceeded the number ot 
 on9 hundred thousand men, still remained in arms, be- 
 tween the Apennine and the Alps, or between the Alps 
 and the Danube. It is uncertain whether they at- 
 tempted to revenge the death of their general; but 
 their irregular fury was soon diverted by the prudence 
 and firmness of Stilicho, who opposed their march, 
 and facilitated their retreat; who considered the safety 
 of Rome and Italy as the great object of his care, and 
 who sacrificed, with too much indifference, the wealth 
 and tranquillity of the distant provinces.' Tho bar- 
 barians acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian 
 deserters, the knowledge of the country, and of the 
 roads; and the invasion of Gaul, which Alaric had 
 designed, was executed by the remains of the great 
 army of Uadagaisus.' 
 
 ^ Yet if they expected to derive any assistance Irom 
 the tribes of Germany, who inhabited the banks of the 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL Cnip/XXX. 
 
 season when the waters of the Rhine weremostprb 
 hably frozen, they entered, without opposition, thr ^ 
 fenceless provinces of Gaul. This memorable^ y"^' 
 sacre of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the- 
 Bur^undians, who never afterwards retreated, maybe 
 considered as the fall of the Roman empire in thaw 
 
 ->^s. 
 
 considercQ u» ...^ -» . empire in the.» - 
 
 countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which!' 
 had so long separated the savage and the civilized nar 
 tions of the earth, were from that fatal moment levelled ' 
 with the ground.*. : *-.^^ 
 
 While the peace of Germany was se- De^olatiooofV* 
 cured bv the attachment of the Franks, Gtul..".. 
 'nd the^ neutrality of the Alemanni, the A. D. 407^. 
 suhiects of Rome, unconscious of their approaching . 
 calamities, enjoyed the state of quiet and prosperity.,- 
 which had seldom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. . 
 Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze m the 
 pastures of the barbarians ; their huntsmen penetraledj 
 without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the 
 Hercynian wood.- =* The banks of the Rhine were 
 crowned, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses, 
 and well-cultivated farms; and if a poet descended 
 the river, he might express his doubt, on which side : 
 was situated the territory of ^h« «;>"^^"^- ,^> ^ 
 scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into 
 a desert, Ld the prospect of the smoking ruins could 
 alone distinguish the solitude of nature from^^^«/^^^^^ " 
 lation of man. . The flourish mg city of Mt-^ 
 
 the tribes of Germany, who inhabited the banks of the lation oi 3' ,^';" .^ ^^^ ^lany .thousand chris 
 Rhine, their hope, were d~^ 
 
 preserved a state of inactive neutrality; and the 
 Franks distinguished their xeal and courage in the de- 
 fence of the empire. In the rapid progress down the 
 Rhine, which was the first act of tho administration 
 of Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar at- 
 tention, to secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, 
 and to remove the irrcqoncilable enemies of peace and 
 of the republic. Marcomir, one of their kings, was 
 publicly convicted, before the tribunal of the Roman 
 maffistrato, of violating the faith of treaties. He was 
 sentenced to a mild, but distant, exile, in the province 
 of Tuscany ; and this degradation of the regal dignity 
 
 ^_ /• _ r ^^.^:*:..o. tt%A voennfmpnt of his sub- 
 
 rn';""^ inh«ma,^ry '----i i" the church. 
 Worms perished after a long and obstinate siege ; 
 Strasbur.', Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Araiens,- 
 fipcr enMe c^cl oppression of the German yolce;, 
 and tho consuming flames of war spread from the 
 banks of the Rhin'o over the preatest part of the sej- 
 enuen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive 
 country. M far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyre- 
 nccn-tis delivered to the barbarians, who drove be- 
 fore them, in a promiscuous crowd, tho b.shop, the 
 sector and the v'^rgin. ladon with the spoils of their 
 houses and Ju'r,.'^ The ecclesiastics, to whom we 
 . . ..J /•— .1.;. «i»na (tnscriDtion of the pub.io 
 
 of Tuscany: and this degradation of tho regal digmty ^o»so' Jjna auar,.^^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^^^ ^f ^^^ p„b5io 
 
 was so far^rom exciting .he resentment of us s^u^^ 
 
 jects, that they punished with death the turbulent 
 Sunno, who attempted to revenge his brother; and 
 maintained a dutiful allegiance to the princes, who 
 were established on the throne by the choice of btil- 
 icho.» When the limits of Caul and Germany were 
 shaken by the northern emigration, the Franks bravely 
 encountered the single force of the Vandals; who, 
 regardless of tho lessons of adversity, had again sep- 
 arated their troops from the standard of their barbarian 
 allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness; and 
 twenty thousand Vandals, with their king Godigisclus, 
 were slain in the field of battle. The whole people 
 must have been extirpated, if the squadrons of the 
 Alani, advancing to their relief, had not trampled 
 down the infantry of the Franks ; who, after an hon- 
 ourable resistance, were compelled to relinquish the 
 unequal contest. The victorious confederates pursued 
 their march, and on the last day of the year, in a 
 
 p A Unnintnis pasaaee of ProBpc-r's Chrt»uiclo, " M Ires juirtcs. per 
 dileVosprincipes.divisusexercitu,,^' reduces ihe miracle of Ho- 
 rercp ainl c' nice S »ho hislory of Iialy, Gaul, and Gormany. . 
 - r&i s ana Jea,m p..*iuvely chirgp him wiih insiiguung the m- 
 T;5ion " Excitaia) a Stilichoue genios," &c. They must mean .n- 
 directlv He saved Italy at the expense of Gaul. 
 
 r The count de Buat is satisfied, thr, the Germans who mvaded 
 Ga\i\ were the ttco thirds ih^ yet renuii.ied of the army of Uadagai- 
 EU3. See the Hisioire Aoclenne d^ Peuples de I'Europe; (torn. vii. 
 D 87-121. Paris, 1772.) an elaborate work, wluch 1 had not the aa- 
 Vanta-o of perusini^ till the year 1777. As early as 17/1, 1 find the 
 
 are indebiea lor una t*iwu« « r--- ^^, ,._.••„ «!,« 
 
 cala,nities, emhraced «''\°PP?''""' ? °Sf^i'°' ',"/oked 
 christians to repent of the sins which ''"-l P'»;°^^^^^ 
 the Divine Justice, and to renounce the P" ™ 
 Toods of a wretched and deceitful world. But as ih? 
 Pcla'ian controversy,' which attempts to =ound he ; 
 ahvss of grace and' predestination, soon became the 
 
 serious employment of the Latin clergy «h« J" »»' 
 donee which had decreed, or foreseen, or permitted, 
 such a train of moral and natural evils, was rashly 
 w.fghed in the imperfect and fallacious bnlance of 
 reason. Tho crimes, and the misfortunes, of JJe jut 
 ferin-r people, were presumptuously compared «ith _ 
 hose oVthei; ancestors; and 'W """'S-'c/ «hej;'„ 
 vine Justice, which did not exempt from the common 
 destruction the feeble, ihe guiltless the "'f""* P"'""". 
 of the human species. These idle d'^P'-t^"*^ "J^*^; 
 lookcd the invariable laws of nature, which have con 
 nccted peace wit h innocence, plenty with indu sn?.^ 
 
 Homan subject, and a scmi-barbanan. rqf, ) describes ll^e 
 
 u Claudian (i. Cons. StiL I. i.?-l, J-c. >; "; *.^^^^^^ 
 
 tho Ardei 
 Gallic cr 
 
 same ^idea expressed in a rou^h draught of tho present History 
 same luea i .^,j ^ similar intimation in Mascou, (vm. lu.) S 
 
 I 
 
 have since observed a sunjiar imimauon m maaum., y,„. e^.j ouch 
 agreement, without mutual communication, may add some weight 
 
 to our common sentiment. . 
 
 , , Provincia missos 
 
 E-xpellcl citius fasces, quam Francia reges 
 
 i-i lion /?p?n*i^s![l'i i 233. ic.) is clear and satisfactory. These 
 k Sgs o?Ft^mce arrinknoS'u> Gregory of Tours; but.the author .f 
 ihoGestaFrancorum mentiowiboih Sunno and Marcomir, and names 
 ihS latJer ns the father of Pharamond, (in lom. u. p. d-13.) He seems 
 lu vsTiio from good materials, which ho did not understand, 
 
 . &c. torn. i. p. 171.> would read ^"''»,^^* "^Xedrn.erof the 
 
 ennes) insteali of Alfu^; ^V! .^/l^^ ^ eno»^^^^^^^^ ^''''" 
 
 ;illic calllo trraz ng beyond the Llbe. '^'^•.'^".v" „^' -..-er or any 
 al leti'mphy'lhc Elbe, and the Hercynian, ?'="\<V any nver or^.^^ / 
 sL:\, in (Jormany. Claudian is not prepared for the strict 
 
 c 
 
 NV , ... 
 
 tion of our antiquaries. 
 
 X Gcinina-squo viator 
 
 ltt^^J!^f^J^- Sni^^^iS^- hl^self^ 
 cap !ve with his bishop.and Mlow-ctuens 
 i The Pelagian doctrine, whic'^ w- f'" 
 condemned, in the fpaco of _tcn 
 Aucrusii " " ' " 
 
 w-citi7.en3. . n 405. ^^^ 
 
 h was first a?iiated l^^J^^^^ St. 
 years, at Home '^"^^^.f^J'^^favour- 
 Utho Greek church wafi^^»^ ••. 
 
 able to his a^Uersaries; audCwnat is slngula^^^^^^^ 
 
 not lake any part in a dispute Nvhich llity coui 
 
 mod, in tho space of ten y^-^f ' ;^^^V'eek c lurch was favour- 
 iufon-ht and conquereil : V'- ,»^o f''/^*^^^^^^ 
 able to his »t\ versaries ; and (wha '? ^l Rular cnouj^ Understand. 
 
 
 
 # 
 
 
 I. 
 
 4' 
 
 ■:- '.£ 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 413 
 
 gnd safety with valour. The timid and selfish policy 
 of the court of Ravenna might recall the palatine le- 
 gions for the protection of Italy ; the remains of the 
 stationary troops might be unequal to the arduous 
 task; and the barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the 
 unbounded license of spoil to the benefits of a moder- 
 ate and regular stipend. But the provinces of Gaul 
 v^cre filled with a numerous race of hardy and robust 
 youth, who,- in the defence of their houses, their fami- 
 lies, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would 
 have deserved to vanquish. The knowledge of their 
 native country would have enabled them to oppose 
 continual and insuperable obstacles to the projrress 
 of an invader; and the deficiency of the barbarians, 
 in arms as well as in discipline, removed the only pre- 
 tence which excuses the submission of a populous 
 country to the inferior numbers of a veteran army. 
 When France was invaded by Charles the fifth, he in- 
 quired of a prisoner. How many days Paris might be 
 distant from the frontier] *• Perhaps twelve^ hut they 
 will be days of battle.''* Such was the gallant an- 
 swer which checked the arrogance of that ambitious 
 prince. The subjects of Honorius, and those of Fran- 
 cis I. were animated by a very different spirit; and in 
 less than two years, the divided troops of the savages 
 of the Baltic, whose numbers, were they fairly stated, 
 would appear contemptible, advanced, without a com- 
 bat, to tho foot of tho Pyrenscan mountains. 
 Revolt of tho Bri. . I" the early part of the reign of Hono- 
 . ijHh army, nus, the Vigilance of otilicho had suc- 
 • A- ^' *^^' cessfully guarded the remote island of 
 Britain from her incessant enemies of the ocean, the 
 mountains, and the Irish coast.'' But those restless 
 barbarians could not neglect the fair opportunity of 
 tho Gothic war, when the walls and stations of the 
 province were stripped of the Roman troops. If any 
 of the legionaries were permitted to return from the 
 Italian expedition, their faithful report of the court 
 and character of Honorius must have tended to dis- 
 solve the bonds of allegiance, and to exasperate the 
 seditious temper of the British army. The spirit of 
 revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age of Gal- 
 lienus, was revived by the capricious violence of the 
 soldiers; and tho unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, 
 candidates, who were the objects of their choice, were 
 the instruments, and at length the victims, of their 
 passion." Marcus was the first whom they placed on 
 the throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain and of the 
 west. They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus, 
 the oath of fidelity, which they had imposed on them- 
 selves; and their disapprobation of his manners may 
 seem to inscribe an honoarable epitaph on his tomb. 
 Gralian was the next whom they adorned with the dia- 
 dem and the purple ; and, at the end of four months, 
 Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The 
 memory of the great Constantine, whom the British 
 legions had given to the church and to the empire, 
 suggested the singular motive of their third choice. 
 _ /* ; . They discovered in the ranks a private 
 knowiedged in'*^ soldier of the name of Constantine, and 
 Britain and Gaul, their impctuous levity had already seated 
 A. D.407. jjjj^ Qj^ ^^g throne, before they perceiv- 
 ed his incapacity to sustain the weight of that glori- 
 
 a See the Memolres de Guillaume du BeKay, 1. vi. In the French, 
 the original roproof is less obviotis, and more pointed, from the 
 double sense of the word jounu*^ which alike signifies, a day's tra- 
 vel, or a battle. . _ 
 
 k Claudian. (i. Cons. Siil. l. II. 25a ) It Is supposed, that the Scots 
 of Ireland invadeil, by sea, the wh^e western coast of Britain : and 
 •ome slight credit may be given even lo Nennius and the Irish tra« 
 rtltions. (Cane's Hist, of England, vnl. I. p. 169. Whitaker's Genu- 
 • Ine History of the Britons, p. l9a) Tl»e sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, 
 which were extant in tho ninth century, must have contained as 
 many thousand lies; yet we may believe, that, In ono of these Irish 
 inroads, the future ap«>stlo was led away captive. (Usher. Aniiquit. 
 Ecclos. Briiann. p. 431. and Tillemoni. Mem. Eccles. lom. xvl. p. 456, 
 
 782, fcc) . *,. *r-x 
 
 e The British ustirpcrs are taken from Zoslmus, 0* ▼»• p. 371— 37^.) 
 Orosius, (\. Tii. c 40. p. 576, 677.) Olympiodorus, (apud Phoilurn, p. 
 18<l, 181.) the ecclesiastical histMians, *n4 the ChroniclM. The 
 lAiins ar© ignorant of Marcus. - . . " ' - 
 
 ous appellation.* Yet the authoriiy of Constantine 
 was less precarious, and his government was more 
 successful, than the transient reigns of Marcus and of 
 Gratian. The danger of leaving his inactive troops in 
 those camps, which had been twice polluted with 
 blood and sedition, urged him to attempt the reduction 
 of the western provinces. He landed at Boulogne 
 with an inconsiderable force ; and after he had repos- 
 ed himself some days, he summoned the cities of 
 Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the barbarians, ' 
 to acknowledge their lawful sovereign. They obeyed 
 the summons without reluctance. The neglect of the 
 court of Ravenna had absolved a deserted people from 
 the duty of allegiance ; their actual distress encourag- 
 ed them to accept any circumstances of change, with- 
 out apprehension, and, perhaps, some degree of hope ; 
 and they might flatter themselves, that the troops, the 
 authority, and even the name of a Roman emperor, 
 who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the un- 
 happy country from the rage of the barbarians. The 
 first successes of Constantine against the detached 
 parties of the Germans, were magnified by the voice 
 of adulation into splendid and decisive victories; 
 which the reunion and insolence of the enemy soon 
 reduced to their just value. His negociations procur- 
 ed a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of 
 the barbarians were engaged, by tho liberality of his 
 gifts and promises, to undertake the defence of the 
 Rhine, these expensive and uncertain treaties, instead 
 of restoring 4ho pristine vigour of the Gallic frontier, 
 served only to disgrace the majesty of the prince, and 
 to exhaust what yet remained of the treasures of the 
 republic. Elated however with this imaginary tri** 
 umph, the vain deliverer of , Gaul advanced into tho 
 provinces 6f the south, to encounter a more pressing 
 and personal danger. Sams the Goth was ordered to 
 lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the .emperor 
 rionorius ; and the forces of Britain and Italy were 
 unworthily-consumed in this domestic quarrel. After 
 the loss of his two bravest generals, Justinian and 
 Nevigastes, the former of whom was slain in the field 
 of battlci the latter in a,peaceful but treacherous inter-' 
 view, Constantine fortified himself within, the walls 
 of Vienna. The place was inefiectually .attacked 
 seven days ; and the imperial army supported, in a 
 precipitate retreat, the ignominy of purchasing a se- 
 cure passage from the freebooters and outlaws of the 
 Alps." Those mountains now separated the dominions 
 of two rival monarchs: and the fortifications of the 
 double frontier were guarded by the troops of the em- 
 pire, whose arms would have been more usefully eni- 
 E loved to maintain the Roman limits against the bar- 
 arians of Germany and Scythia. . i ' -55 
 
 On the side of the Pyrenees, the am- lie reduce* Spaiq, 
 bition of Constantine might be justified A.D-409. . - 
 by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon 
 established by the conquest, or rather submissionj of 
 Spain; which yielded to the influence of regular and 
 habitual subordination, and received the laws and ma- 
 gistrates of the Gallic praefecture. The only opposi- 
 tion which was made to the authority of Constantine 
 proceeded not so much from the pow^ers of govern- 
 ment, or the spirit of the people, as from the private 
 zeal and interest of the family of Theodosius. » Four 
 brothers 'had obtained by the favour of their kinsman, 
 the deceased emperor, an honourable rank, and ample 
 possessions, in their native country : and the grateful 
 yotiths resolved to risk those advantanres in the service 
 
 ■* tT^I* 
 
 4 Cum In. Constantino incmut4xntiam * . . execrarentur. ^idoalus' 
 Apollinaris, 1. v. fpist.9. p. 139. edit, accund. Sirmond.) Yet Sido- 
 nluB Tnieht be templed, by so &ir a pun, to stigmatize a prince^ who 
 had disgraced his grandfather. > *^' ^V 
 
 • Bagaudtt is tho name which Zasimas applies to (hemj pertiapa 
 thejr deserved a less odious character. (See Dubois, Hisi. Critique, 
 torn. 1. p. 203. and Ihii History, voU 11. p. 121.) 'We thaU Iteviof . 
 them again. ,„....-- 7- - .^ 2* V i'"^ 
 
 t Veriniaxms, Didymot, Theodoaliis, «nd Lagodiui, who In Modem 
 courts, would be styled princes of the blood, were not distinguished 
 by any rank or prtvilegeg abore Um rest of their fellow-subjectf. 
 
 ■fr. 
 
 M. 
 
.V 
 
 iU 
 
 the'decline and' fall 
 
 
 of hur fion.' After an' onsuccessfui effort to maintain 
 their ground at the head of the stationary troops of 
 Lusitania, they retired to their estates ; where they 
 armed and levied, at their own expense, a considerable 
 bod/ of slaves and dependents; and boldly marched to 
 occupy the strong posts of the Pyrcnajan mountains. 
 This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the 
 sovereign of Gaul and Britain ; and he was compelled 
 16 negociate'with some troops of barbarian auxiliaries, 
 for the service of the Spanish war. They were dis- 
 tinguished by the title o( Honorians ,^ a name which 
 might have reminded them of their fidelity to their 
 lawful sovereign ; and if it should candidly be allow- 
 ed that the Scots were influenced *by any partial affec- 
 tion for a British prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni 
 could be tempted only by the profuse liberality of the 
 usurper, who distributed among the barbarians the 
 military, and even the civil, honours of Spain. The 
 nine bands of Ilonorxans^ which may be easily traced 
 on the establishment of the western empire, could not 
 exceed the number of five thousand men; yet this in- 
 considerable force was sufficient to terminate a war, 
 which had threatened the power and safety of Con- 
 stantine. The rustic army of the Theodosian family 
 was surrounded and destroyed in the Pyrenees ; two 
 of the brothers had the good fortune to escape by sea 
 to Italy, or the east; the other two, after an interval 
 of suspense, were executed at Aries ; and if Honorius 
 could remain insensible of the public disgrace, he 
 might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes 
 of his generous kinsmen. Such were the feeble arras 
 which decided the possession of the western provinces 
 of Europe, from the walls of Antoninus to the col- 
 umns ot Hercules. The events of peace and war 
 have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and 
 imperfect view of the historians of the times, who 
 were equally ignorant of the causes, and of the eff*ects, 
 of the most important revolutions. But the total de- 
 cay of the national strength had annihilated even the 
 last resource of a despotic government; and the reve- 
 nue of exhausted provinces could no longer purchase 
 the military service of a discontented and pusillani- 
 mous people. 
 
 N'ceociation of The poct, whoso flattery has ascribed 
 Aiaric iir.d Siiii- to the itoman eagle the victories of Pol- 
 yLab 404—408. ^^"^'^ ^^^ Verona, pursues the hasty re- 
 treat of Alaric, from the confines of 
 Italy, with a horrid train of imaginary spectres, such 
 as might hover over an army of barbarians, which 
 was almost exterminated by war, famine, and disease.** 
 In the course of this unfortunate expedition, the king 
 of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considera- 
 ble loss ; and his harassed forces required an interval 
 of repose to recruit their numbers, and revive their 
 confidence. Adversity had exercised and displayed 
 the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his valour in- 
 vited to the Gothic standard the bravest of the barba- 
 rian warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, 
 were agitated by the desire of rapine and conquest. 
 He had deserved the esteem, and he soon accepted the 
 friendship, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the ser- 
 vice of the emperor of the east, Alaric concluded, with 
 the court of Ravenna, a treaty of pcace^and alliance, 
 by which he was declared master-general of the Ro- 
 man armies throughout the prajfecture of Illyricum ; 
 and it was claimed, accordinjj to the true and ancient 
 limits, by the minister of Honorius.' The execution 
 of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated, 
 or implied, in the articles of the treaty,' appears to 
 
 I Theso Jfonoriani, or Ilonoriaci, consisted of two bands of Scots, 
 or Altacotti, two of Moore, two of iMarcomanni, ihe Victores, tiio 
 Ascarii, and the Gallicani. (Nolilia Imperii, sect, xxxviii. edit. I^b.) 
 They were part of thi sixty-five Auxilta Falalina, and are prouerly 
 styled, »» r^ rnvKif :r«£n{, by Zosiinu?, (I, vi. 374.) 
 
 Ii -Comitalur euntcm 
 
 Pallor, et airs fames ; et saucia 11 vidua ora 
 < Luctus; clinferni siridentes agmine morbi. 
 
 Claudian in vi Cons. Hon. 321, Jcc. 
 i These dark transactions are invesligated by the count do Buat, 
 
 have been suspended by the fonnidable irfuptioh'pf >! 
 Radagaisus; and the neutrality of the Gothic Riu^l^' 
 may perhaps be compared to the indifference of Cjesar-^l 
 who in the conspiracy of Catiline, refused either tov^i 
 assist, or to oppose, the enemy of the republic. AfleVi*^ 
 the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his prei-^ -^ 
 tensions to the provinces of the east; appointed civiU^^, 
 magistrates for the administration of justice, and of^'i 
 the finances ; and declared his impatience to lead, to 
 the gates of Constantinople, the united armies of the 
 Romans and of the Goths. The prudence, however,: 
 of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war, and his perfect 
 knowledge of the weakness of the state, may counte- . 
 nance the suspicion, that domestic peace, rather than 
 foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and, 
 tliat nis principal care was to employ the forces of 
 Alario at a distance from Italy. This design could 
 not long escape the penetration of the Gothic king, 
 who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a 
 treacherous, correspondence with the rival courts; 
 who protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his lan- 
 guid operations in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon 
 returned to claim the extravagant reward of his inef. 
 fectual services. From his camp near iEmona,^ on 
 the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the emperor of 
 the west a long account of promises, of expenses, and 
 of demands ; called for immediate satisfaction, and 
 clearly intimated the consequences of a refusal; "^ Yet, 
 if his conduct was hostile, his language was decent 
 and dutiful. He humbly professed himself the friend 
 of Stilicho, and the soldier of Honorius ; offered his 
 person and his troops to march, without delay, against 
 the usurper of Gaul; and solicited, as ^ permanent 
 retreat lor the Gothic nation, the possession of some 
 vacant province of the western empire. . 
 
 The political and secret transactions of Debates ©r th« 
 two statesmen, who laboured to deceive Roman «enRto. . 
 each other and the world, must for ever ' 
 
 have been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the 
 cabinet, if the debates of a popular assembly had not 
 thrown some rays of light on tl»e correspondence of Ala- 
 ric and Stilicho. The necessity of finding some artificial 
 support for a government, which, from a principle, 
 not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to 
 negociato with its own subjects, had insensibly reviv- 
 ed the authority of the Roman senate : and the minis- 
 ter of Honorius respectfully consulted the legislative 
 council of the republic. Stilicho assembled the sen^ 
 ate in the palace of the Cajsars : represented, in a 
 studied oration, the actual slate of affairs ; proposed 
 the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to 
 their consideration the choice of peace or war. The 
 senators, as if they had been suddenly awakened from 
 a dream of four hundred years, appeared on this im- 
 portant occasion to be inspired by ihe courage, rather 
 than the wisdom, of their predecessors. They loud- 
 ly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary ac- 
 clamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of 
 Rome to purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce 
 from a barbarian king; and that, in the judgment of a 
 magnanimous people, the chance of ruin was ahyays 
 preferable to the certainty of dishonour. The n)iiiis- 
 ter, whoso pacific intentions were seconded only by 
 the voices of a few servile and venal followers, at- 
 tempted to allay the general ferment, by an apology 
 for his own conduct, and even for the demands of the 
 Gothic prince. " The payment of a subsidy, which 
 had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought not 
 (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered 
 in the odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransomi 
 extorted by the menaces of a barbarian enemy. Ala- 
 ric had faithfully asserted the just pretensions of the 
 
 (Hist, dcs Peuplos de I'Europe, torn. vii. c. ill.— Tiil. P-. ^^'Z?^n 
 whose laborious accuracy may somciinies fatigue a oupfrfi*^'*' ^^ 
 
 k See Zosiinus, 1. v. p. 3:i4, 333. He interrupts his f^^^^^y. .^*i": 
 live, to relate the fable of ^mona, and of ihe ship Argo: wnit.n^..j^ 
 drawn overland fa>m tliat place to iho HaJriaiic. ^•^^°'"®"j\V)ubU 
 c. 25. 1. \x. c. 4.) and Socrates, (I. viii. c. 10.) cast a pale ana u<^ 
 ful light ; and Orosius (1. vii. c. 38. p. 671.) is abominably pani**. 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 ■ >■-:' 
 
 :^i 
 
 
 1...^, 
 
 ; * 
 
 
 4h 
 
 m 
 
 republic to the provinces which were usurped by the 
 Greeks of Constantijiople ; he modestly required the 
 fair and stipulated recompence of his services ; and if 
 he had desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, 
 he had obeyed, in his retreat, the peremptory, ihoutrh 
 private, letters of the emperor himself. These co^ii- 
 contradiciory orders (he M'ould not dissemble the 
 errors of his own family) had been procured by the 
 intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife 
 had been too deeply affected by the discord of the 
 Toyal brothers, the sons of her adopted father; and the 
 scntimcnls of nature had too easily prevailed over the 
 stern dictates of the public welfare." These ostensi- 
 ble reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure in- 
 trigues of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by 
 the authority of Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm 
 debate, the reluctant approbation of the senate. The 
 
 415 
 
 sentation of the difficulty and . expense of such a distant 
 expedition, checked this strange and sudden sally of 
 active diligence ; but the dangerous project of showin^r 
 the emperor to the camp of Pavia, which was com°- 
 posed of the RoiTian troops, the enemies of Stilicho, 
 his barbarian auxiliaries, remained fixed and unaltera- 
 hie. The minister wa.s pressed, by the advice of his 
 confidant Justinian, a Roman advocate, of a lively and 
 penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial 
 to his reputation and safety. His strenuous, but inef- 
 fectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius • 
 and the prudent lawyer withdrew himself from the im- 
 pending ruin of his patron. 
 
 In the passage of the emperor through Disgrace and 
 Bologna, a mutiny of the guards was 'Jeathof Stii- 
 excited and appeased by the secret poli- ''a\ ^og 
 cy of Stilicho ; who announced his in- Auguii 23. 
 
 u r • » 1 i^ «. , s^^.."kv.. X jiu uy ui oiiiicuo ; >vno announced his in- Au''uiii 'n 
 
 r l\°rLVTou:" /ir, r'r^-^^jl'^ll -1.1^ suuc.|o„s . dpci.a.e .he ^4, r "ascribed .Tuis 
 
 sum of four thousand pounds of gold was granted, 
 under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of 
 Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the Jvino- of 
 the Goths. Lampadius alone, one of the most ifius- 
 trious members of the assembly, still persisted in his 
 dissent ; exclaimed with a loud voice, *♦ This is not a 
 treaty of peace, but of servitude;"' and escaped the 
 danger of such bold opposition by immediately retir- 
 ing to the sanctuary of a christian church. 
 Intrigues of the ^^^ the rcign of Stilicho drew to- 
 A d'SI;'m„, wards its end; and the proud minister 
 A.D.40d.May. ^^^^^^ perccivc the symptoms of his 
 approaching disgrace. The general boldness of Lam- 
 padius had been applauded; and the senate, so patient- 
 ly resigned to a long servitude, rejected with dis- 
 dain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. 
 The troons, who still assumed the name and preroga- 
 tives of Roman legions, were exasperated by the par- 
 tial, affection of Stilicho for the barbarians; and the 
 people imputed to the mischievous policy of the min- 
 ister the public misfortunes, which were the natural con- 
 sequence of their own degeneracy. YetStilicho might 
 have continued to brave the clamours of the people, and 
 even the soldiers, if he could have maintained his do- 
 minion over the feeble mind of his pupil. But the re- 
 spectful attachment of Honorius was converted into fear, 
 suspicion, and hatred. The crafty Olympius," who con- 
 cealed his vices under the mask of christian piety, had 
 secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose favour 
 he was promoted to the honourable offices of the im- 
 perial palace. . Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting 
 emperor, who had attained the twenty-fifth year of his 
 age, that he was without weight, or authority, in his 
 own government ; and artfully alarmed his timid and 
 indolent disposition by a lively picture of the designs 
 of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his 
 sovereign, with the ambitious hopes of placing the 
 diadem on the head of his son Eucharius. The empe- 
 ror was instio^ted, by his new favourite, to assume 
 the tone of independent dignity ; and the minister 
 was astonished to find, that secret resolutions were 
 formed in the court and council, which were repuo-- 
 nant to his interest, or to his intentions. Instead of 
 residing in the palace of Rome, Honorius declared, 
 that it was his pleasure to return to the secure fortress 
 of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death of 
 his brother Arcadius, he prepared to visit Constantino- 
 ple, and to regulate, with the authority of a guardian, 
 the provinces of the infant Theodosius." The repre- 
 
 A ZoBimua, 1. y. p. 33S, 339. He repe*ts the words of Lampadius 
 
 o\yn intercession, the merit of their pardon. 'After 
 this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the 
 minister, whom he now considered as a tyrant, and 
 proceeded on his way to the camp of Pavia ; where 
 he was received by the loyal acclamations of the 
 troops who were assembled for the service of the 
 Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he 
 pronounced, as ho had. been taught, a military oration 
 in the presence of the soldiers, whom the charitable 
 visits, and artful discourses, of Olympius had prepar- 
 ed to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At the 
 first signal they massacred the friends of Stilicho, tho 
 most illustrious officers of the empire, two pratorian 
 praefects, of Gaul, and of Italy ; two masters-general 
 of the cavalry and infantty; the master of the offices, 
 the <^uoestor, tho treasurer, and the count of the do- 
 mestics. Many lives were lost; many houses were 
 plundered ; tho furious sedition continued to rage till 
 the close of the evening ; and the trembling emperor, 
 who was seen in tho streets of Pavia, without his 
 robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his fa- 
 vourite; condemned the memory of the slain ; and 
 solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their 
 assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia 
 filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy ap- 
 prehensions ; and he instantly summoned, in the camp 
 of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders, who 
 were attached to his service, and would be involved 
 in his ruin. Tho impetuous voice of the assembly 
 called aloud for arms, and for revenge ; to march, with- 
 out a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero 
 whom they had so often followed to victory ; to sur- 
 prise, to oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, 
 and his degenerate Romans ; and perhaps to fix the 
 diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead 
 of executing a resolution, which might have been 
 justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was 
 iirecoverably lost He was still ignorant of the fate 
 or the emperor; he distrusted the fidelity of his own 
 party ; and he viewed with horror the fatal con«;e- 
 quences of arming a crowd of licentious barbarians, 
 against the soldiers and people of Italy. The confed- 
 erates, impatient of his timorous and doubtful delay, 
 hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the hour 
 of midnight, Saras, a Gothic warrior, renowned among 
 the barbarians themselves for his strength and valour) 
 suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plunder- 
 ed the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, 
 who guarded his person, and penetrated to the tent, 
 where the minister, pensive and sleepless, meditated 
 <>° .the dangers of his situation. Stilicho escaped 
 
 M they were 8ix>kri^i'ilir«'N^^^ with difficulty from the sword of the Goths: and, af- 
 
 L f!,'l'^A*!!'!V':*'L'l*^"/*^^'"l"V'Gjreekforthe bcncfitof hisrea^ | ter issuing a last and generous admonition to the cities 
 
 of Italy, to shut their gates against the barbarians, 
 his confidence, or his despair, urged him to throw 
 himself into Ravenna, which was already in the ab- 
 solute possession of his enemies. Olympius, who had 
 
 .. , — ^w ........ ...wwi^rTTK lui mo ucuuiikui II 19 rciauerB. 
 
 «e came from the coast of the Euxine, and exercised a splendid 
 iuitulV'"'',^* *• '^'"V.'V'J!: ^"« '^•••.Xf..if iii^f^i^of. His actions 
 bl« - T, r" ^i^^^'^ie'"' ^h«ch ZoBlmus 0. ▼. p. 340.) exposes with vlsi- 
 ■ivi!^ ''*'^*'°°- Aimisun revered the pieiy of Olympius, whom he 
 •yies a true son of the churchr (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 408. 
 lh«Li • *f • Tlllemon^ INIem. Eccles. torn. xiii. p. 467, 468.) But 
 irort^"^^^' Ti^J^*^ ^^^ African saint so unworthily bestows, might 
 
 ■ I •' *■ ^®'l ^'^'" ignorance, as from adulation, • 
 
 lo uSflI"V*' ^^-.P- ^ ^^' Soromen, 1. Ix. c. 4. Stilicho offered 
 
 uDoeriake the journey to Consiaaiiaople, that he might divert Ho 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 
 noriua froni the rain attempt. The eastern empire would not hara 
 obeyed, and could not have been conquered. 
 
 ■.T«r 
 
 ^'*^| 
 
 s.»- 
 
416 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 >. ^»* 
 
 -asscuncd the dominipD of HoDorioSj was speedily: In- 
 $?nned,: that bis rival, had embraced,, as a suppliant, 
 the^altar.of the christian church. ' Th« base and cruel 
 disposition of the hypocrite was incapable of pity or 
 remorse ; but he piously affected to elude, rather than 
 ,to Yiolate, the privilege of the sanciuary. Count 
 Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers, appeared, at the 
 ^dawn of day, before the gates of the church at Raveu- 
 oa, I The bishop was satisfied by a solemn oath, that 
 the imperial mandate only directed them to secure the 
 person, of Stilicho : but, as soon as the unfortunate 
 minister had been templed beyond the holy threshold, 
 he produced the warrant for his instant execution. 
 Siilicho supported, with calm resignation, the inju- 
 rious names of traitor and parricide ; repressed the un- 
 seasonable zeal of his followers, who were ready to 
 attempt an ineffectual rescue ; and, with a firmness 
 not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals, sub- 
 mitted his neck to the sword of Heraclian.* 
 His memory per- The Servile crowd of the palace, who 
 t^,<^ •ecuted. \^^^ go jopg adored the fortune of Stili- 
 cho, affected to insult his fall; and the most distant 
 connexion'with the master-general of the west, which 
 had 80 lately been a title to wealth and honours, was 
 studiously, denied, and rigorously punished. His 
 familyi- united by a triple ^liance with the family of 
 Theodoslus, might envy the condition of the ineanest 
 peasant.;.. The flight of his son Eucherius was inter- 
 cepted ; and the death of thai innocent youth soon 
 followed -the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the 
 place of her sister Maria; and who, like Maria, had 
 remained a virgin in the imperial bed.' - The friends 
 of Stilicho,' who had escaped the massacre of Pavia, 
 were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olym- 
 pius : and the most exquisite cruelty was employed to 
 extort the confession of a treasonable and sacrilegious 
 conspiracy. They died in silence; their firmness 
 justified the choice,' and perhapa absolved the inno- 
 cence, of their patron ; and the despotic power, which 
 could take his life without a trial, and stigmatize his 
 memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the 
 impartial suffrage of posterity.' The services of 
 Stilicho are great and manifest ; his crimes, as they are 
 vaguely stated in the language of flattery and hatred, 
 are obscure, at least, and improbable. About four 
 months after his death, an edict was published, in the 
 name of Honorius, to restore the free communication 
 of the two empires, which had been so long interrupt- 
 ed by the />mWi*c enemy.* The minister, whose fame 
 and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state, 
 was accused of betraying Italy to the barbarians ; 
 whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at Vero- 
 na, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended 
 design of placing the diadem on the head of his son 
 Euclierius, could not have been conducted without 
 preparations or accomplices ; and the ambitious father 
 would not surely have left the future emperor, till the 
 twentieth year of his age, in the liumble station of 
 tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho 
 was arraigned by the malice of his rival. Tiie sea- 
 sonable, and almost miraculous, deliverance was de- 
 voutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy; who 
 
 o Zosinms (1. v. p. 3.%— 315.) haa copiously, thoiish not clearly, re- 
 lated ihe di.iijrace and death of Siilicho. Olyinpioilorua, (apud Phot. 
 p. 177.) Orositis, (I. vii. c. 33. p. 571, 57-2.) Sozomen, (I. ix. c. 4.) and 
 PhiU»siorgius, (1. xi. c. 3. 1. xii. c. 2.) afford supplfmental hints. 
 
 f Zosinius, 1. V. p. 333. The marriage of a clirislian with two lis- 
 ters, scandalizes Tillpniont, (Hist, dra Kniprronrs, lorn. v. p. 557.) 
 who expects, in vain, that Pope Innocent I. should have done some- 
 thin? in the way cither of censure or of dispensation. 
 
 q Two of. his frionds are honourably mentioned, (Zosimus, 1. v. p. 
 
 346.) Peter, chief of the school of notaries, and the peat chamber- 
 
 • lain Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the bed-chamber; and it is 
 
 Burprisinp, that under a feeble priace, the bed-chamber was notable 
 
 to secure him. 
 
 r Oa>sius (1. vil. c. 33. p. 571, 572.) seems to copy the false .nnd fu- 
 rious manifosios, which were dispersed through ilio provinces by the 
 new administration. 
 
 ■ Seethe Theodosian Code, 1. vii. lit. xvl. leg. 1. 1. ix. til. xlii. le*. 
 22. Stilicho is branded with the name of prado publicum, wfjo em- 
 ployed his wealihi ad oiitnem ditandam, inquictandamque barba- 
 - riem. 
 
 asserted that the restoration of idols, and tbv 
 tion of the church, would have been the fir5 
 of iho reign of Eucherius. The son of 
 
 ■/-..'■ 
 
 fc^iVi 
 
 ever, was educated in the bosom of chrlstianity^w 
 his father had uniformly professed, and zealousl^Sin. 
 ported.* Serena had borrowed her magnificent' ^P" 
 lace from the statue of Vesta ;« and the pacr^^^L 
 crated the memory of the sacriligious minjstcr "blra 
 whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of Rort/-^ 
 had been committed to the llames.' The pride ahd' 
 power of Stilicho constituted his real K"il^ An hbbi. 
 ourable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrr- 
 men, appears to have contributed to the success bf-B» 
 unworthy rival : and it is tlie last humiliation of tha 
 character of Honorius, that posterity has not cond^ 
 scended to reproach him with his base ingrratitudfr to 
 the guardian of his youth, and the support of Ms ' 
 empire. ' 'J; . 
 
 Among the train of dependents, whose The poetciaa. 
 wealth and dignity attracted the notice ' ., dian. , • 
 of their own times, our curiosity is excited by the cefc 
 ebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the 
 favour of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the riiiii 
 cf his patron. The titular offices of tribune and no^" 
 lary fixed his rank in the imperial court ;.he^ was in* 
 debted, to the powerful intercession of Serena for. his 
 marriage with a very rich heiress of the province of 
 Africa ;*■ and the statue of Claudian, erected- in. the 
 forum' of Trajani' was a monument of the taste- and 
 liberality of the Roman senate." . After the praises of 
 Stilicho became ofiensive and criminal, Claudian was 
 exposed to the enmity of a powerful and unforgiving 
 courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of 
 wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the op- 
 posite characters of two praitorian prafects of Italy ; 
 he contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher, who 
 sometimes resigned the'hours of business to slumber, 
 perhaps to study, with the interested diligence of a ra- 
 pacious minister, indefatigable in the pursuit of unjust 
 or sacrilegious gain. ** How happy," continues Clau- 
 dian, *♦ how happy might it be for the people of Italy, 
 if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian 
 would always sleep !"•. The repose of Mallius was 
 not disturbed bv this friendly and gentle admonition; 
 but the cruel vigilance of Hadrian watched the oppor- 
 tunity of revenge, and easily obtained, from the ene- 
 mies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an obnoxious 
 poet. Tlie poet concealed himself, however, during 
 the tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dic- 
 tates of prudence rather than of honour, ho addressed, 
 in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble re- 
 cantation to the oflfended praifect. He deplores, in 
 
 . t Au^ustin himself is satisfied with the effectual laws which Stili- 
 cho haa enacted against heretics and idt»laters; and which are still 
 extant in the Co^le' He only applies to Olympius for their confirma- 
 tion. (Ban.)nius. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 40^. No. 19.) 
 
 u Zosimus, I. V. p. 351. We may observe the bad taste of the age, 
 in dressins their statues with such awkward finery. 
 
 X See Kutilius Numaiianus, (liinerar. 1. ii. 41—60.) to whom reli- 
 gious enihu3ia5m has dictated some elegant and forcible lines. Sulj' 
 cho likewise stripped the gold plates from the doors of the capitol, 
 and read a paiph»"tic sentence, which was rnsraven under them. 
 (Zasimus, 1. v. p. av2.) These are fiK.lish stories ; yet the charge o! 
 impiety adds weijilit and credit to the prJiise, which Zosimus rcluc- 
 tiintly brstovvs, of i»is virtues. . 
 
 r At the nuptials of Or[)hpus (a modest comparison !) all the parts 
 of aninjated nature contributed their various gifts ; and the god^ 
 themselves enriched their favourite. Claudian had neither flocKs 
 nor herds, nor vines, nor olives. His wealthy bride was heiress to 
 them all. Rut ho carried to Africa a recommendatory letter from 
 Serena, his Juno, and was made happy. (Epist. ii. ad Serenam.) 
 
 X Claudian fpcls the honour like a man who deserved it, (in PJ^'*]* 
 Bell. Get.) The original inscription, on marble, was found a^j'^'^'^^^' 
 in the fifteenth ccnturv. In the house of Tomponius Lxtus. The sta- 
 tue of a port, fur superior to Claudian, should have been ^^^^^°* 
 during his life-time, by the men of letters, his countrymen, ana con- 
 tcm'pi>rurios. It was a noble design. 
 
 & See epigram x.x.v. , 
 
 Mallius induli^et somno noclcsque diesque: <^^ 
 
 Insomuifl 2Viflr<i/5 sacra, profana, rapiu . .- 
 
 Omnibus, hoc, Italae rentes, e.xposcite votis; > 
 
 Mallius ut vigilct, uonuiat ut Tharius. ir., :„ n^^P. 
 
 Hadrian was a Phafian (of Alexandria.) See his publiclife in uoae 
 froy, Cod. Thcodos. torn. vi. p. 30-1. Mallius did not f^l^ays siecn- 
 He compo.-ied some elegant dialo£uc8 on the Greek ayft-^"^' °' "**••** 
 ral j)hilo3ophy, (Claud, in Mall. Thcodor. Cons. 61— m) 
 
 '■ji^-t 
 
 ^^^1 
 
 '.■< 
 
 m 
 
 ! { 
 
 I. 
 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF^THE ROMAN EiMPIRE. 
 
 piournful strains, the fatal indiscretion into which he 
 had heen hurried by passion and folly; submits to the 
 imitation of his adversary, the generous examples of 
 tl,e clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions ; and 
 expresses his hope, that the magnanimity of Hadrian 
 ^vill not trample on a defenceless and contemptible 
 foe, already humbled by disgrace and poverty; and 
 deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the 
 ^death of his dearest friends.'' Whatever might be 
 the success of his prayer, or the accidents of his'' future 
 life, llie period of a few years levelled in the grave the 
 minister nnd the poet; but the name of Hadrian is al- 
 most sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is read with 
 pleasure in every country which has retained, or ac- 
 ■ quired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we 
 fairly balance his merits and his defects, w^e shall ac- 
 knowledge, that Claudian does not either satisfy, or 
 silence, our reason. It wonld not be easy to produce 
 a passage that deserves the epithet of sublime or pa- 
 thetic ; to select a verse, that melts the heart, or en- 
 larges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in 
 the poems of Claudian, the happy invention, and arti- 
 ficial conduct, of an interesting fable, or the just and 
 lively representation of the characters and situations 
 of real life. For the service of his patron, he publi.sh- 
 ed occasional panegyrics and invectives ; and the de- 
 sign of these slavish compositions encouraged his 
 propensity to exceed the limits of .truth and nature. 
 These imperfections, however, are compensated in 
 some degree by the poetical virtues of Claudian. He 
 was endowed with the rare and precious talent of rais- 
 ing the meanest, of adorning the most barren, and of 
 diversifying the most similar, topics; his colouring, 
 more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and splen- 
 did ; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, 
 the advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copi- 
 ous fancy, an easy, and sometimes forcible, expres- 
 sion, and a perpetual flow of harmonious versifi- 
 cation. To these commendations, independent of any 
 accidents of time and place, Nve must add the peculiar 
 merit which Claudian derived from the unfavourable 
 circumstance? of his birth. In the decline of arts and 
 of empire, a native of Egypt,* who had received the 
 education of a Greek, assumed, in a mature age, the 
 familiar use and absolute command of the Latin lan- 
 guage ;** soared above the heads of his feeble contem- 
 poraries ; and placed himself, after an interval of three 
 hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome.* 
 
 417 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 Invasion of Ilalu by AIar{r.~-Manners of the Roman senate 
 and people, — liome is thrice besieged ^ and. at length pit' 
 laged, by the Goths.— Death of Alaric. — The Goths evacu- 
 ate Italxj. — Fall of Constantine. — Gaul and Spain are 
 occupied by the barbarians. — Independence of Britain. 
 
 WeaknoMofihe '^"f incapacity of a weak and dis- 
 cuuri of Ravenna, tracted government may often assume 
 &r femb^r ^^® appearance, and produce the eflfects, 
 .. P em e . q{ ^ treasonable correspondence with 
 the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been Intro- 
 duced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably 
 
 b See Claudian's first epistle. Yet, in some places, an air of ironj 
 and indignation, betrays his secret relucunce. 
 
 e National vanity has made hira a Florentine, or a Spaniard. But 
 the first epistle of Claudian proves him a native of Alexandria. 
 (Fabricius, Biblioc Latin, tom.. iii. p. 191—202. edit. Ernest.) 
 
 * Hia first Latin verses were composed during iho consulship of 
 Probinus.A. D.aas. . 
 
 Komanoe bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, 
 , Et LatisB cessit Grala Thalia iogvt. 
 Beside some Greek epigrams, which are still extani, the Latin poet 
 had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus, Anazarbus,Bery- 
 lus, Nice, Jcc. It b more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, thjin 
 of authentic history. 
 
 • Sixada (Prolusion vi.) allows him lo contend wiih the five heroic 
 poeu^, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statins. His patron is 
 the accomplished courtier, Balthazar Ciuitiglione. His admirers are 
 numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reprxMch the exotic 
 weeds, or flowers, which spring too luxuriantly ia his Latin soil. 
 
 Vol. I 3 C 37 
 
 have advised the same measures which were actually- 
 pursued by the ministers of Honorius.* The king of 
 the Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some 
 reluctance, to destroy the formidable adversary, by 
 whose arms, in Italy as well as in Greece, he had been 
 twice overthrown. 7hcir active and interested hatred 
 laboriously accoiiiplished the disgrace and ruin of the 
 great Slihcho. fhe valour of Sarus, his famein arms, 
 and his personal or hereditary infiuence over the con- 
 federate barbarians, could recommend him only to the 
 friends of their country, who despised, or detested, 
 the worthless characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and 
 \ igilantius. By the pressing instances of the new 
 favourites, these generals, unworthy as they had 
 shown themselves of the name of soldiers,*' were pro- 
 moled to the command of the cavalry, of the infantry, 
 and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince would 
 have subscribed with pleasure the edict which the 
 fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and de- 
 vout emperor. Honorius excluded all persons, who 
 were adverse to the catholic church, from holding any 
 office in the state ; obstinately rejected the service of 
 all those who dissented from his religion; and rashly 
 disqualified many of his bravest and most skilful offi- 
 cers, who adhered to the pagan' worship, or who had 
 j imbibed the opinions of Arianism.* These measures, 
 so advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have ap- 
 i proved, and might perhaps have suggested ; but it 
 may seem doubtful, whether the barbarian would have 
 promoted his interest at the expense of the inhuman 
 and absurd cruelty, which was perpetrated by the di- 
 rection, or at least with the connivance, of the imperial 
 ministers. The foreign auxiliaries, who had been at- 
 tached to the person of Stilicho, lamented his death j 
 but the desire of revenge was checked by a natural 
 apprehension for the safety of their wives and children; 
 who were detained as hostages in the strong cities of 
 Italy, where they had likewise deposited their most 
 valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a 
 common signal, the cities of Italy were polluted by 
 the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and pil- 
 lage, which involved, in promiscuous destruction, the 
 families and fortunes of the barbariar.s. Exasperated 
 by such an injury, which might have awakened the 
 tamest and most servile spirit, they cast a look of in- 
 dignation and hope towards the camp of Alaric, and 
 unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implaca- 
 ble war, the perfidious nation, that so basely violated 
 the laws of hospitality. - By the imprudent conduct of 
 the ministers or Honorius, the republic lost the assis- 
 tance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of 
 her bravest soldiers ; and the weight of that formida- 
 ble army, which alone might have determined the 
 event of the war, was transferred from the scale of the 
 Romans into that of the Goths. 
 
 In the arts of negociation, as well as ai • 
 in those of war, the Gothic king main- Rome, 
 tained his superior ascendant over an ^^'l^' 
 
 enemy, whose seeming changes proceed- ^^' *'* 
 ed from the total want of counsel and design. From 
 his camp, on the confines of Italy, Alaric attentively 
 observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the 
 progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hos- 
 tile aspect of a barbarian invader, and assumed the 
 more popular appearance of the friend and ally of the 
 great Stilicho ; to whose virtues, when they were no 
 longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute of sin- 
 cere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the < 
 malcontents, who urged the king of the Goths to in- 
 vade Italy, was enforced b y a lively sense of his per- 
 
 .,' T^t series of etentf, from the death of Stilicho, lo the arrival of 
 Alaric before Rome, can only be found in Zoeimus, 1. r. p. ^7—350, 
 
 The expression of Zosimus is strong and lively, «-T«^p9nri» 
 tttw»mrmt Te4( wK»ft*»»t mfxtrrmf sufficient to excite the contempt . 
 of the enemy. ' • ■ 
 
 « Eos qui cathollca sectc sont Inimici, intra palaiium militare 
 pruhibemus. NuUus nobis sit aliqai ratione conjunctus, qtli a nobis 
 fide et relif lone discordat. Cod. Theodoe. 1. xvj. tit. v. leg. 42. and 
 Godcfroy's Commenury. torn. vi. p. 164. This law was applied iu 
 the utmost latitudr, and rigorously executed. Zoeimus, L v. p 36i 
 
 1 
 
 
 '•1 
 
 \ 
 
 

 
 Lj"' 
 
 418 
 
 THE DECLINE AND Fxtt 
 
 Chap* XXx£ 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 419 
 
 vtr.jl 
 
 sonal injuriep; and he might speciously complain, 
 that the imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the 
 payment of the four thousand pounds of pold ; which 
 had been granted by the Roman senate, cither to re- 
 ward his services, or to appease his fury. His decent 
 firmness was supported by an artful moderation, which 
 contributed to the success of his designs. He re- 
 quired a fair and reasonable satisfaction : but he gave 
 the strongest assurances, that, as soon as he had ob- 
 tained it, he would immediately retire. He refused 
 to trust the faith of the Romans, unless -/Etius and 
 Jason, the sons of two great officers of state, were 
 sent as hostages to his camp : but he offered to deliv- 
 er, in exchange, several of the noblest youths of the 
 Gothic nation. ,The modesty of Alaric was interpre- 
 ted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence 
 of his weakness and fear. They disdained either to 
 negociate a treaty, or to assemble an army ; and with 
 a rash confidence, derived only from their ignorance of 
 the extreme danger, irretrievably wasted the decisive 
 moments of peace and war. While they expected, in 
 sullen silence, that the barbarians should evacuate the 
 confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid marches, 
 passed the Alps and the Po ; hastily pillaged the 
 cities of Aquileia, AUinum, Concordia, and Cremona, 
 which yielded to his arms ; increased his forces by 
 the accession of thirty thousand auxiliaries; and, 
 without meeting a single enemy in the field, advanced 
 as far as the edge of the morass which protected the 
 impregnable residence of the emperor of the west. 
 Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, 
 the prudent leader of the Goths proceeded to Rimini, 
 stretched iiis ravajcs along the sea-coast of the Ha- 
 driatic, and meditated the conquest of the ancient 
 mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose 
 zeal and sanctity were respected by the barbarians 
 themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and 
 boldly denounced the Indignation of Heaven against 
 the oppressors of the earth : but the saint himself was 
 confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that 
 he felt a secret and preternatural impulse, which di- 
 rected, and even compelled, his march to the gates of 
 Rome. He felt, that his genius and his fortune wore 
 equal to the most arduous enterprises ; and the enthu- 
 siasm which he communicated to the Goths, insensibly 
 removed the popular, and almost superstitious, rever- 
 ence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman 
 name. His troops, animated by the hopes of spoil, 
 followed the course of the Flaminian way, occupied 
 the unguarded passes of the Apennine,** descended 
 into the rich plains of Umbria ; and, as they lay en- 
 camped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might wan- 
 tonly slaughter and devour the milk-white oxen, which 
 had been so long reserved for the use of Roman tri- 
 umphs.' A lofty situation, and a seasonable tempest 
 of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of 
 Narni ; but the king of the Goths, despising the igno- 
 ble prey, still advanced with unabated vigour ; and 
 after he had passed through the stately arches adorned 
 with the spoils of barbaric victories, he pitched his 
 camp under the walls of Rome.' 
 
 Ilannihal at the During a period of six hundred and 
 gates of Romo. nineteen years, the scat of empire had 
 never been violated by the presence of a foreign ene- 
 
 d Addison (see his Works, vol. ii. p. 5-1. etlit. Bajkcrville) has 
 given a very picturesque description of the road ihroiiirh the Apen- 
 nine. The Goths were not at leisure to ubservo the beauties of the 
 prospect; but thcv were pleased to find that the Saxa Intercisa, a 
 narrow passage, which Vespasian liad cut Ihnnish the rock, (Cluver. 
 Italia Anliq. torn. i. p. CIS.) wa.s toully nf'.'lecled. 
 
 e Mine albi Clituinni gregcji, et maxima Taurus 
 Viclima; saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro 
 Romanoa ad tcmpla Deura duxcrw Triumphna. 
 Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propenius, I.iican, Sllius 
 Italicus, Claudian, &c. whose passa^^'cs may be found in Cluverius 
 and Addison, have celebrated Iho triumphal viciiins of iho Clitum- 
 nus. 
 
 f Some ideas of the march of Alaric are borruwed from tho journey 
 of Honoriufl over the samo ground. (Soo Claudian in vi. Cons. lion. 
 401—5^.) The measured distance between Ravenna and Home, 
 was 2^1 Kumau miles. Iiinerar. >Ve33eliug. p. 1-^6. 
 
 my. The onsuccessfnT expedition of Hannibali^f eeryJ 
 ed only to display the character of the senate and ped^'^ 
 pie : of a senate degraded, rather than 'ennobled h4 
 the comparison of an assembly of icings ; and of a 
 people, to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus ascribed 
 the inexhaustible resources of the hydra.** Each of the 
 senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplish- 
 ed his term of military service, either in a subordinate or 
 a superior station ; and ihe decree, which invested with 
 temporary command all those who had been consuls 
 or censors, or dictators, gave ihe republic the immedi- 
 ate assistance of many brave and experienced generals. 
 In the beginning of the war, the Roman people con- 
 sisted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an 
 age to bear arms.* Fifty thousand had already died in 
 the defence of their country ; and the twenty-three 
 legions which were employed in the different camps 
 of Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain, required 
 about one hundred thousand men. But there still re- 
 mained an equal number in Rome, and the adjabent 
 territory, who ^ere animated by the same intrepid 
 courage; and every citizen was trained, from his earli- 
 est youth, in the discipline and exercises of a soldier* 
 Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of the sen- 
 ate, who, without raising the siege of Capua, or re- 
 calling their scattered forces, expected his approach. 
 He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the dis- 
 tance of three miles from the city ; and he was soon 
 informed, that the ground on which he had pitched his 
 tent, was sold for an adequate price at a public auc- 
 tion ; and that a body of troops was dismissed by an 
 opposite road, to reinforce the legions of Spain.^ He 
 lea his Africans to tlie gates of Rome, where he found 
 three armies in order of battle, prepared to receive 
 him; bat Hannibal dreaded tho event of a^combat, 
 from which he could not hope to escape, unless he 
 destroyed tho last of his enemies ; and his speedy re- 
 treat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans. 
 From the time of tho Punic war, Gencak>py of the 
 the uninterruptv'^d succession of senators *tnator». - 
 had preserved the name arid image of the republic ; 
 and the degenerate sul»jects of Honorius ambitiously 
 derived their descent from tho heroes who had repuls- 
 ed the arms of Hannibal, and subdued the nations of 
 the earth. The temporal honours, which the devout 
 Paula* inherited and despised, are carefully recapitu- 
 lated by Jcrom, the guide of lier conscience, and the 
 historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, 
 Rogatus, which ascended as high as Agamemnon, 
 might seem to betray a Grecian origin ; but her mother, 
 Ulcesilla, numbered the Scipios, TlOmilius Paulus, and 
 the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors ; and Toxotius, 
 the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage frgpti 
 iBneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of 
 the rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by 
 
 f Th'> march and retreat of Hannibal are described by Livy, 1. 
 xxvi. c. 7, S, 9, 10, 11 ; and the reader is made a spectator of the inie- 
 rtstin!: scene. 
 
 b These comparisons were usnl by Cyneaa, tho cotinsellor of Pyf' 
 rhus, after his return from his eu>ba5sy, in which ho had diligently 
 studied the discipline and manners of Kome. See Plutarch in Fyr- 
 rho, torn. ii. p. -l.^U. 
 
 i In the inreo certaus ■which were made of tho Roman people, 
 aVnit the lime of thf Fiinic war, ilic nvmibcrs stand as follows, (^ce 
 Livy, Epitom. I. xx. Hist. 1. xxvii. .%. xxix. 37.) '270;n3, 137,10S, 
 21 1,000. The fall of the second, and tho risn of the third, appears so 
 enonin)US, that several critics, notwithstanding tho unanimity of the 
 IMSS., have suspccie«l some corruption of the text of Livy. (See 
 DrakenlK»rch ad xxvii. 3G. and Boaufort, Republiijuo Komaine, torn. 
 i. p. yi3.) They did not consider Uial tho second census was taken 
 only al Rome, and that the nutnbers were diminished, not only by 
 the death, but likewise by the absence, of many soldiers. »" i"| 
 third censits, Livy expressly affirms, that the legions were musterea 
 by tho care of particxilar connnissaries. From tho numbers on tno 
 list, wo must always deduct one-twelfth above threescore, and mca- 
 pablo of bearing arms. See Population »lc la France, p. 72. 
 
 k Livy considers these two incidents as the ctTccts only of cnatic 
 and counise. I suspeci that they were both managed by tho aumi: 
 rablo policy of the senate. , . ^_ 
 
 1 See Jefvwn, lom. I. p. 1G9, 170. ad Eustochium; ho ^*'f^9^''-°f 
 Paula the splendid titles of Gracrhorum stirp.s soboles Scipionum, 
 Pauli hxres, cujus vocabuluni trahit, Martice Papyria) Muiris ai"^ 
 cani vera ei cermana prv^^ago. This particular dcscnptioii ^UPP^ . 
 a more solid title than the surname ot Julius, which Toxotius *'''j . 
 with a thous-^nd families of the wiMorn provinces, beo ino i" 
 of Tacilvis, of Gruier's Inscriptions, ,S:c. 
 
 < J 
 
 • 1,; 
 > ■ 
 
 i 
 
 
 these lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause 
 of their parasites, thcj' easily imposed on the credulity 
 ^f the vulgar; and were countenanced, in some mea- 
 sure, by the custom of adopting the name of their pa- 
 tron, which had always prevailed among ihefreedmen 
 and clients of illustrious Aimilies. Most of those 
 families, however, attacked by so many causes of ex- 
 ternal violence or internal decay, were gradually extir- 
 f»ated : and it would be more reasonable to seek for a 
 incal descent of twenty generations, among the moun- 
 tains of the Alps, or in tiic peaceful solitude of Apulia, 
 than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune, of 
 danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each 
 successive reign, and from every province of the em- 
 pire, a cruwd of hardy adventurers, rising to eminence 
 by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the 
 honours, and the palaces of Rome; and oppressed, or 
 protected, the poor and humble remains of consular 
 families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of 
 their ancestors.'" 
 Tho Anician In the time of Jerom and Claudian, 
 fa^miiy. the senators unanimously yielded the 
 pre-eminence to the Anician line; and a slight view 
 of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and 
 antiquity of the noble families, which contended only 
 for the second place." During the Bve first ages of 
 the city, the name of the Anicians was unknown ; 
 they appear to have derived their origin from Prae- 
 nestc ; and the ambition of those new citizens was 
 long satisfied with the plebeian honours of tribunes 
 
 • of the people." One hundred and sixty-eight years 
 before the christian era, the family was ennobled 
 by the prajtorship of Anicius, who gloriously termi- 
 nated tho lllyrian war by the conquest of the nation, 
 and the captivity of their king.? From the triumph 
 of that general, three consulships, in distant periods, 
 mark the succession of the Anician name.*» From tho 
 
 ' reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the west- 
 ern empire, that name shone with a lustre which was 
 not eclipsed, in the public estimation, by the majesty 
 of the imperial purple.' The several branches, to 
 whom it was communicated, united, by marriage or 
 inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the 
 Petronian, and the Olybrian houses ; and in each gen- 
 eration the number of consulships was multiplied by 
 an hereditary claim.' The Anician family excelled in 
 faith and in riches; they were the first of the Roman 
 senate who embraced Christianity ; and it is probable 
 that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and 
 prafect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the 
 
 m Tacitus (Annal. lii. 55.) affirms, that bolwecn iho battle of Ac- 
 tiumand the reignof Vespasian, the senate was gradually filled with 
 neie families from the INlunicipia and colonies of Italy. 
 
 B Nee quistiuam Pn.>cerum toniet (licet sere veluslo 
 
 * Fioreat, el claro cineatur Roma senatii) , 
 Se jactare parem; sed prima sedc relicta 
 Aucheniig, de jure licet certare secundo. 
 
 Claud, in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 13. 
 Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii, has 
 amazed the critics; but they all ajree, that whatever may be the 
 true reading, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Ani- 
 cian family. ^ .. , , ^,r » . • 
 
 o The earliest date in the annals of Piehms, is that of M. Anicms 
 Gallus, Trib. PL A; U. C. oO&. Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, A. U. 
 C. 508. is distinguished by the epithet of Pnunestinus. Livy (.\lv. 
 43.) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome. 
 
 P Livy, xliv. 30, 31. ilv. 3. 26. 43. He fairly appreciates the merit 
 of Anicius, and justly observes, that his fame was clouded by the su- 
 perior lustre of the Macedonian, which preceded the lllyrian iri- 
 
 q Tiie dates of the three consulships are, A. U. C 593. 818. 967. the 
 two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second of 
 these consuls distinsuishtxl himself only by his infamous flattery ; 
 (Tacit. Annal. xv. 71.) but even the evidence of cnmcs, if they bear 
 Ihe sump of greatness and antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance, 
 to prove the genealogy oi a noble house. 
 
 r In the sixth centurv, the nobility of the Anician name is men- 
 tioned (Cassloilor. Variar. 1. x. Ep. 10. 12.) with singular respect by 
 - the miaister of a Gothic king of luly. 
 
 • - FixuttDomues 
 
 Cognaioa procedit honos ; quemcumque requiraa 
 ~ Hac de siirpe virum, cerium est do consule uascl. 
 •^ ■ Per fasces numerantur avi, sempeniue ronata 
 
 ■^ • Nobiliuie virvnt, et prolem faui sequuntur. 
 
 ' '(Claudian In Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, kc.) The Annli, whose 
 • name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the tasii with 
 many consulship*, from the lime of Vespasian lo tho fourth century. 
 
 party of Maxenlius, by the Tcadiness with which he 
 accepted the religion of Conslantine.* Their ample 
 patrimony was increased by the industry of Prohus, 
 the chief of the Anician family ; who shared with 
 Gratien the honours of tlie consulship, and exercised, 
 four times, the high office of praetorian praefect." His 
 immense estates were scattered over the wide extent 
 of the Roman world ; and though the public might 
 suspect, or disapprove, the methods by which they 
 had benn acquired, the generosity and magnificence of 
 that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his 
 clients, and the admiration of stranorers.* Such was 
 the respect entertained for his meniory, that the two 
 sons of Probus, in their earliest youth, and at the re- 
 
 3uest of the senate, were associated in the consular 
 ignity : a memorable distinction, without example, 
 in the annals of Rome.'^ 
 
 " The marbles of the Anician palace," Wealth of the 
 were used as a proverbial expression of Roman nobiei. 
 opulence and splendour ;* but the nobles and senators 
 of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that il- 
 lustrious family. The accurate description of the city, 
 which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumer- 
 ates dne thousand seven hundred and eighty lumse^, 
 the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens.* 
 Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse 
 the exaggeration of the poet, That Rome contained a 
 multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal 
 to a city: since it included within its own precincts, 
 every thing which could be subservient either to use 
 or luxury ; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, 
 baths, porticoes, shady groves, and artificial aviaries.* 
 Thehistorian Olympiodorus, who represents the state 
 of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths,* con- 
 tinues to observe, that several of the richest senators 
 received from their estates an annual income of four 
 thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty 
 thousand pounds sterling; without computing the 
 stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they 
 been sold, might have equalled in value one-third of 
 the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an 
 ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred 
 pounds of gold might be considered as no more than 
 adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank, which 
 required many expenses of a public and ostentatious 
 kind. Several examples are recorded, in the age of 
 Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated 
 the year of their practorship, by a festival, which last- 
 ed seven days, and cost above one hundred thousand 
 pounds sternng.* The estates of the Roman senators, 
 
 t The title of first christian senator may be justified by the autho- 
 rity of Prudentius, (in Svmmach. i. 553.) and the dislike of the pa- 
 eans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, 
 u>m. iv. p. 183. V. p. 44. Baron. Annal. A. D. 312. No. 78. A. D. 322. 
 No. 2. . 
 
 o Probus . . . claritudine generis el potentia el opum inagnilu- 
 dine, cognilus Orbi Romano, per quern universum pane patrimonia 
 sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est ncslri. Ammian. 
 Warcellin. xxvii. 11. His children and widow erected for him a 
 magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the lime 
 of pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. 
 Baronius, who laments the ni in of this christian monument, has dili- 
 
 fently preserved the inscriptions and basso-relievos. See Annal. 
 ;ccles. A.D.395. No.5-17. ^„ 
 
 X Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome, to hear St. 
 Ambrose, and to see Probus. (Paulin. in Vil. Ambroa.) Claudian (ia 
 Cons. Prt>bin. et Olybr. 30— 60.) seems at a loss how to express the 
 "lory of Probus. 
 
 " J See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths, 
 z Secundiaus, the Manichaean, ap Banm. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 390. 
 
 No. 34. ^ • • 
 
 » See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89. 493. 500. ^ 
 
 b Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia sylvas ; . 
 Vernula qus vario carmine ludit avis. 
 
 Claud. Rutil. Numitian. Iiinerar. ver. 111. 
 The poet lived at the lime of the Gothic invasion. A moderate pal- 
 ace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres, (Val.Max. 
 iv. 4.) In laxiiatera ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a 
 judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. I. p. 562. last 8vo. edition. 
 
 c This curious account of Rome, in the reign of Honorius, »■ f^und 
 in a fragment of the historian Olyrapiodonis, ap. PhMium, p. 137. 
 
 d The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, 
 during their respective pnrtorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, cen/«- 
 wanes, (or hundred weight of gold ) See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 
 197. This popular estimation allows some latitude ; but it u difficult 
 
» " 
 
 I ■ ir 
 
 vr 
 
 ■.-»•.■ 
 
 
 ■■*^ 
 
 420 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 ■t-r- 
 
 CkAR XXXI.^- 
 
 which so. far .exceeded the proportion of modern 
 'wealtbt were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their 
 possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and iEg^ean 
 seas, to the most distant provinces: the city of Nico- 
 polis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal mon- 
 ument of the Actian victory, was the property of the 
 devout Pauta ;• and it is observed by Seneca, that the 
 livers, which had divided hostile nations, now flowed 
 through the lands of private citizens.' According to 
 their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Ro- 
 mans were eitlier cultivated by the labour of their 
 slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to 
 the industrious farmer. The economical writers of 
 antiquity strenuously recomnjend the former method, 
 wherever it may be practicable; hut if the object 
 should be removed, by its distance or magnitude, from 
 the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the ac- 
 tive care of an old hereditary tenant, alUtrhed to the 
 soil, and interested in the produce, to the mercenary 
 administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, 
 steward.* 
 
 . The opulent nobles of an immense 
 
 Their muner*. ^gpi^^j^ ^,|,q were never excited by the 
 
 pursuit of military fflory, and seldom engiiged in the 
 occupations of civil government, naturally rcsifrned 
 their leisure to the business and amusements of private 
 life. At Rome, commerce was always held m con- 
 tempt; but the senators, from the first age of tlie re- 
 public, increased their, patrimony, and multiplied their 
 clients, by the lucrative practice of usury; and the 
 obsolete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual 
 inclinations and interest of both parties.** A consider- 
 able mass of treasure must always have existed at 
 Home, either In the current coin of the empire, or in 
 the form of gold and silver plate; and there were 
 many sideboards in the time of Pliny, which contain- 
 ed more solid silver, than had been transported by 
 Scipio from vanquished Carthage.* The greater part 
 of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse 
 luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth : 
 and idle In a constant round of dissipation. Their de- 
 sires were continually gratified by tho labour of a 
 thousand hands; of the numerous train of their do- 
 mestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of pun- 
 ishment : and of tho various professions of artificers 
 and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled 
 by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of 
 many of the conveniences of life, which have been in- 
 vented or improved by the pro;rress of industry; and 
 tho plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real 
 
 demie drs Insrriplions, loni xxvil, p. 727.) was equally applied to a 
 purao of 1'25 pieces of silver, and to a small copper cuiu of the value of 
 
 "e'sT P*^ ^^ ^^^^ purse. In ihe former sense, ihe 25,000 fulles 
 would be equal lo 150,000/, j In the latter, to five or six pounds slcrl- 
 insj. The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There 
 must have existed some third, and middle value, which is here un- 
 derstood -, but aM)bi«uitx is an inexcusable fault in the language of 
 laws. 
 
 e Nicopolis .... in .\rliaco lillore siia possossionis voslrae nunc 
 pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in pnofal. Comment, ad Tpislol. ad 
 Tilum, torn. ix. p. 2 13. M. de Tilletiumt supposes, strauetMy enoush, 
 that it was pan of Agajncmnon's inheritance. Mem. Eccles. lorn, 
 xii. p. 85. 
 
 f Senc-ca, Epiil, l.vxxix. His languaL'o isof thedoclamatory kind: 
 but tier UiiiiiK'n could srarcply pxaa-icrue the avarice and luxury of 
 the Koman5. The philosopher iiiujsi'lf deserved some share of tho 
 reproach ; »f it be true tliat his rigorous exaction of (luutlrine^e/ities, 
 above three hundred thousand pounds, which ho had lent at hi^h in- 
 terest, protokfd a rebellion in Uriiain. (Dion Cai<»lus, I. Ixii. p. 
 10(X{.) Acconhng to tho conjecture of Gale, (Antoninut^'s Itineniry 
 in Hritaia. p. W.) the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, 
 in SutTolk, and auuihcF in the kin<;doui of Naples. 
 
 g Volusius, a wealthy seniitor, (Tacit, .\nnal. iii. 30.) always pre- 
 ferred t*"nants born on tho estate. Columella, who received this 
 maxim from him, arsues very judiciously on tho subject. De lie 
 )tuslicn,l. i. c. 7. p. -Ul^, edit, Gesner. Leipsi^. J735. 
 
 h Valesius (ad Ammian. xiv. 6.) has proved, frjm Chr>sostom, and 
 Au«(uslin, that the senators were not allowed to lend money at usury. 
 Yot it apjM ars from tho Theodosian C\>de, (see Gixlefroy, ad 1. ii. tit, 
 xxxlil. touj. i. p. '2J0-iS0 ) that they were liermltiod to take six per 
 cent, or one b ilf of the legal interest; and, what is nwre singular, 
 tliis pr rmis3..)n was granted to the tjoiing senators. 
 
 i Flin His:. Naiur. xxxiii.jO. He states the silver at only 1390 
 pounds, whith is increased by Livy (xjcx. io.) lo 10U,(^23: the fornur 
 seems too livile (or an opulenl cii/, tlie laiter loo much for an/ pri- 
 vuto 9ldcb.>ari. - -. 
 
 comforts among the* modern nations of EuropeVthioV 
 the senators of Home could derive from all the refine-«.V 
 ments of pompous or sensual luxury .^ Their luxury ■ 
 and their manners, have been the subject of minute 
 and laborious disquisition : but as such inquiries^ 
 would divert me too long from the design of the pres-'S' 
 ent work, I shall produce an authentic state of Romfr • 
 and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly appUca-^ 
 ble to the period of the Gothic invasion. AmmianuSc 
 Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of thfr 
 empire as the residence the best adapted to the histo- 
 rian of his own times, has mixed with the narrativebf 
 public events, a lively representation of the scenes 
 with which he was familiarly conversant. The judi- 
 cious reader will not always approve the asperity of 
 censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of 
 expression : he will perhaps detect the latent preju-.- 
 dices, and personal resentnvpnts, which soured the 
 temper of Anunianus himself; but he will surely ob-. 
 serve, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting and 
 original picture of the manners of Rome.* 
 
 ♦"* The greatness of Rome (such is the character of th« 
 ...nguageof the historian) was founded on Roman nohies, * 
 the^rare, and almost incredible, alliance Jf Ammianus 
 
 _ — Q ___ ^ j^ 
 
 language of the historian) was founded on Roman nohies, 
 the^rare, and almost incredible, alliance Jy Ammiam 
 
 > • . o /• mi 1 Aiarccliinus. 
 
 of virtue and of fortune. 1 he long pe- 
 riod of her infancy was employed in a laborious strug-' 
 gle against the tribes of Italy, the neighSours and ene- 
 mies of the rising city. In the strength end ardour. 
 of youth, she sustained tho storms of war; carried- 
 her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; . 
 and brought home triumi)hant laurels from every coun- 
 try of the globe. At length, verging towards old age,- 
 and sometimes conquering by the terror oijly of her 
 name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquilli- 
 ty. The VENERABLE ciTV, which had trampled on 
 the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a 
 system of laws, tho perpetual guardians of justice and 
 freedom, was Content, like a wise and wealthy parent, - 
 to devolve on the Casars, her favourite sons, the care 
 of governing her ample patrimony." A secure and 
 profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the 
 reign of Noma, succeeded to the tumults of a repub- 
 lic : while Rome was still adored as the queen of the 
 earth ; and tho subject nations still reverenced the 
 name of the people, and the majesty of the senate. 
 But this native splendour (continues Ammianus) is 
 degraded, and sullied, by the conduct of some nobles; 
 who, unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of 
 their country, assume an unbounded licence of vice 
 and folly. They contend with each other in the emp- 
 ty vanity of titles and surnames; and curiously select, 
 or invent, the most lofty and sonorous appellations, 
 Reburrus, or Fahunius, Pagonius, or Tarrasius,» which 
 may impress the cars of the vulgar with astonishment 
 and respect. Ffom a vain ambition of perpetuating 
 their memory, they aflTcct to multiply their likeness, in 
 statues of bronze and marble ; nor are they satisfied, 
 
 k The learned Arbuthnoi (Tables ofAncient Coins, .Vc. p. 153.) has , 
 
 observed with humour, and I bclicvo with truth, '»>''^i A%'}^^','' ,2" 
 neither glass to his windows, nor a shirt to his back. %"'^^'')''q 
 lower empir?, the use of linen and glajs became somewnai moru 
 
 common, , i, T»,,v-«>fnVen 
 
 I it is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which 1 nave wk 
 
 with the text of Anunianus. 1. I have melted down >»^o "'f^^J'^v! 
 the sixth chapter of the fourteenth, and the fourth of the uvi m/ 
 eighth b.xik, 2. I have siven order and connexion to the co"'"|'J 
 mass of materials. 3. I havo 8..ftened gome extravagant {'yP^^'^'p;' 
 and pared away some S'lorrtluilies of the original. 4. 1 "^^^^ "^ j • 
 ojied sMne observations which were insinuated, railier l',^?"J^'',Hy'"Jppj' 
 With these allowances, my version will be found, not literal inucc , 
 but faithful and exact. .. r A.r..«iinua. 
 
 m Claudian, who seems to havo read the history of Ammianus, 
 speaks of this great revolution in a much less courtly style ; 
 Pi«tquam jura ferox in se communia Cae.sar 
 Transiulit ; et laj)si mores; desnetaquo priscis 
 Ariibus, in gremium pacis servile recps.-«i. .„« „ .19 
 
 . De Bell. Gildonico, p. ;j»j 
 
 n The minute diligenceof anti(iuarian9,has not been =»''!f.;*' giitcU' 
 these extraordinary names, I am of opinion that they w^-^c " j^p. 
 by the historian himself, who was afraid of any Pf'"V"^i,?; , iiions of 
 plic.lion. It is certain, however, that tho s.mple '\f""' /'V^ r, five, 
 the Romans were gradually lengthened to the «^»"^»*".,"' 1 Miecius 
 or even seven, i>omi>ou8 surnames; as f^;;'"^^f\*=^' ^J.^ ^ * Is Ceuu- 
 i-MaPMunins Furius lialburius Cajcilianua Placidus. See >oris 
 la^ih. Pisan. Dissert, iv. p. 435. 
 
 5fV 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 1:' 
 
 I 
 
 if- 
 
 % 
 
 % ^ ' ^ 
 
 421 
 
 unless ihosG statues are covered with plates of gold : 1 presume to settle on the silken folds of their aWdoA 
 
 consul, alter he had subdued, by his arms and coun- unguarded and impeiceptiblo chink, thty deplore ttieir 
 
 intolerable hardships, anJ lament, in aflVctrd lantrua<re, 
 that they were not born in the land of the Cimmmans,* 
 tlie regions of eternal darkness. In th.se joumevs 
 into the country," the whole body of the household 
 marches wiih tiioir master. In the same manner as 
 the cavalry and inlantry, the hcavv and ihe li^ht arm- 
 ed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are mar- 
 shalled by the skill of their miliiary leaders; so the 
 domestic otrieer^ who boar a rod, as an ensign of 
 authority, distrihuto and arranire the numerous ^rain 
 ot slaves and altendants. The baggarre and wardrobe 
 move in the front; and are immediately followed by 
 a multitude of cooks, and inferior minis.iers, emploved 
 m the service of the kitchens, and of the table. The 
 main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of 
 slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle 
 or dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the fa- 
 vourite band of eunuchs, distributed from age to youth, 
 according to the order of seniority. Their numbers, 
 and their deformity, excite the horror of the indignant 
 spectators, who are ready to execrate the memory of 
 Semiramis, for the cruel art which she invented, of 
 frustrating the purposes of nature, and of blastin<r in 
 the bud the hopes of future generations. In the exer- 
 cise of domestic jurisdiction, the nobles of Rome ex- 
 press an exquisite sensibility for any pcrsoml injury, 
 and a contemptuous inditTerr'nce for the rest of the hu- 
 man snecies. When they have called fr warm wat^r. 
 if a slave has been tnrdy in his obedience, he is in^ 
 stantly chastised wiih three hundred lashes: but 
 should the same slave commit a wilful murder, the 
 master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless frl- 
 low ; but that, if he repeats the ofllnco, he shall not 
 escape jpunishment. Hospitality was formerly tbe 
 virtue or the Romans; and every stranger, who cooM 
 plead either merit or misfortune, was relieved, or re- 
 warded, by their generosity. At present, if a foreigner, 
 perhaps of no ccntemniible rank, is introduced to OM 
 of the proud and wealthy senators, he i^ welcomed 
 indi-ed in the first audience, with such warm profes- 
 sions, and such kind inquiries, that he retires, eiwfcMi- 
 cd with the affability of his illustrious friend, and M 
 of regret that he had so long dela3*ed his journey to 
 Rome, the. native seat of manners, as well as of em- 
 pire. Secure of a favourable reception, he repeau bis 
 visit the ensuing day, and b mortified by tW discnre. 
 rv, that his person, his name, and his covntrr, mie 
 already forgotten. If he still has resoluUon to prn^ 
 vere, he is gradually numbered in the train of dri 
 dents, and obtains the permission lo pay his assiJi 
 and unprofitable court to a haughty pairoo, ii 
 of gratitude or friendship ; who srarcelj* ^ems w 
 remark his presence, his departure, or Kts mttm. 
 W henever the rich prepare a solemn and peMlar »o- 
 tertainment ;* whenever thej celebrate, mith profuse 
 
 sels, the power of king Antiochus. Tho ostentation 
 of displaying, of magnifying, perhaps, the rent-roll of 
 the estates which they possess in all the provinces, 
 from the rising to -the sotting sun, provokes the just 
 resentment of every man, who recollects, that their 
 poor and invincible ancestors were not distino-uished 
 from the meanest of tho soldiers, by the delicacy of 
 their food, or the splendour of their apparel. Rut the 
 modern nobles measure their rank and consequence 
 accordmg to the loftiness of their chariots," and the 
 . weighty magnificence of their dress. Their lono- 
 robes of silk and purple float in the wind ; and as they 
 are agitated, by art or accident, they occasionally dis- 
 cover the under garments, the rich tunics, embroidered 
 with the finrures of various animals,? Followed by a 
 train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, 
 they move along the streets with the same impetuous 
 speed as if they travelled with post-horses; and the 
 example of the senators is boldly imitated by the ma- 
 trons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continu- 
 ally Jrivin^ round the immense space of the city and 
 suburbs. \\ henever these persons of high distinction 
 condescend lo visit the public baths, they assume, on 
 their entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, 
 and appropriate to their own use the conveniences 
 \vhich were designed for the Roman people. If, in 
 these places of mixed and general resort, they meet 
 any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they 
 express their affection by a tender embrace; while 
 they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow- 
 citizens, who aro not permitted to aspire above the 
 honour of kissing their hands, or their knees. As 
 soon as they have indulged thcm.selvcs in the refresh- 
 ment of tho bath, they resume their rings, and the 
 other ensigns of their dignity; select from their pri- 
 vate wardrobe of the finest linen, such as mi^rht suffice 
 for a dozen persons, the gjuments the most agreeable to 
 their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same 
 haughty (femeanour; which perhaps micrht have been 
 excused in the great Marctdlus, after the conquest of 
 Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake 
 more arduous achievements; they visit their estates 
 in Italy, and procure themselves, by the toil of servile 
 hands, the amusements of the chase.i If at any time, 
 but more especially on a hot day, they have couraae 
 to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine lak'e' 
 to their elegant villas on the sea-coast of Puteoli and 
 ^ayela,* they compare their own expeditions to the 
 marches of C^sar and Alexander. Yet should a fly 
 
 ri.*riT*^? '•«'-r»/r/r, or coaches of ihe Romans, were often of solid silver, 
 
 curiously carved ami engraved ; and the trapuines of the mules or I r • , 
 
 jorses, were emb.issed with gold. This niasnificence continued i ^f gratitude Or friendship ; 
 
 meot s*^ MM '^^ "Pl^^^l'J equipanes of the nobles, who came out to 
 meet bt. Melania, when she returned to Rome, six years before the 
 Sin NoTa'n <f ^"r^' ^Pi«'- lx:LXvii. Plin. Hist. Ltur. xxx Hi. 49 
 raulin. ^o Ian. apud Ban.n. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 397. No. 5 ) Yet 
 fhat^.s"hTn" !^*^h^"5ed for convenience; and a plain mSlern ioach 
 that IS hun? upon springs, is much preferable lo the silver or «»old 
 K«^ a";'n""y. which rolled on the axle-tree, and were ei^ed, 
 lor the most part, to the inclemency of the weather. • 
 
 toVr'l i*/'°;";'>' o''.A»ierius. t.isbop of A.iiasia. .M. de Valois has dis- 
 Lear, lil Ainmian. ,iv. G.) that this was a new fasl.ion • that 
 r^nrLmiH f* •'""'•"I"* ''?'>'«• woods, huntin-matchcs. ir. Hw-rc 
 
 ■uE h? fi ' *""' '°.''^">'; I."'' ^'"'**''* more pious co«on.h. sub. 
 « c t e fi-ure or legend of some favooriie saint. 
 
 anJ ,t'2J "^ f Ef''5l"*» '• 6. Three Urge wild boars were allured 
 
 •ophic s ,Srt"man **'"''°"^ interrupiinx the studies of the philo- 
 
 In'if^''? '^'.'""Sc from ihe inauspicious word ^cemut, which stands 
 cornim. fi '. ^ '"""^'"'a'- 1*"c iHo Ukes. A vernus and Lurrinu.. 
 ZTnZl''%^ a'K' *"':" °"'"' "'"^ **'"« fashioned by the aiupen- 
 • rnr?^.i ".^ Agrlppa Into the Julian port, which opened, ihrouah 
 
 the il, V i*''"'Ki"^'?.i''* 5^""' °'" **""^"' ^'»^t". who resided on 
 ii»!^r„}\^* described (Georgic II. 161.) this work at the moment of 
 »ivcd n. .Vh .! ??r ** ^O"«"'en">tor.. wpecinlly Catron, havn de- 
 «t^d vo^^ f ^'T ^*'?''°' S"«tO'««u«. •««d Dion. Earthquakes 
 
 Wr^nl rT°* ^V^ ^"•'*"'^'''' *"* ^"^ o*" «''« ^OMuUy, and turned the 
 tnillo Peiu *• •''n'' ^''* .>•5^' ^5^. '"•<> «»>« Monte Xuovo. See O 
 lonii fl„ f '^""°«^'""°"' ''''"•' Campania FeUcc, p. 239. 24^. &c. An- 
 »onn 8a„fei,c„ Campania, p. H. 88. *^ 
 
 di. InierSr. ?.""'•"* " I'uleolana; loca erteroquj valde expetcn 
 Auic. ivul' •""*" "'*"* muliiiudine p«u« fuglenda. Cicero ftd 
 
 »*rimM dmrlj 
 
 t The proverbial expression of Crm* 
 nally l>orrowed from the dnrriptioM of HoMer ia4f« ewvi 
 Njok of the Od>$»ry.) which be apptjM !• a te^MMe »mU t»« 
 country on the shore* of the ereaa. S<« ErasMi ^^^rm 
 works, torn. Ii. p. 593. the L^ydea c^iUott. "••'^ 
 
 n We may learn fruni Seneca, eptst. cxxiiL tkree c«Hm 
 stances relative 10 the journey ■ of the Kouaa*. 1 The* 
 reded by a troop of Numidiaa li^ht horse. «htt i'-iiaTaJ_ hm m 
 cloud of dust, the approktch of a great aua. ' g. Th»«> ^,^^^1^ *-^: .^ 
 transjv.rted not only the precious vMca^k«t eve. t^^^tiTH!! 
 self of chry«ial and mumt, wliirh !«« « mimmti mLmm^r^\^ 
 learned French translatjy of Seneca, (to* m. ». Mi'"7"^,, ^.y 
 the porcelain of China and Japan. 3. "fhr M lalifa* fa^M aT — - 
 young slaves were covered with « BeJicai«4 
 which secured Ihem acainst the effects of the sva aarf t< 
 
 M Dislributio aulemnium sportularum. The tm^rtuim^ mr sj 
 /*. were amall baskets. su|>|.OMd 10 contata a qvauta* mt 
 Sions, of the value of IOj ^uadraniea, ar («Hrepear« 
 which were ranged in ontrr in tl.c ball, and aaicatatioasly « 
 ted lo the hungry or service crowd, who waited at iWMttr 
 indelicate custom is very frequently raentioiMd ia the < 
 Martial, and the satires of Juveaal. Sec likewise s^ 
 Claud, c 81. in Neron. c. 16- In Dooiitlaa. c. 4. 7. These tma»,t^^ 
 provtsiona were afterwards converted into larje p eccs of tnid >^ 
 . illver coin, or plate, which were motaally (iven and irre-^-wl evU 
 I by the persons of the highest rank. (See SyauMcb eput-'i~ir^ 
 
 U-l-t- 
 
 •• '■•' /r 
 
 -»'--S^ ,--^ r --< 
 
420 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Cha>; XXXl. 
 
 vkidi %6.iu ^zeeeded the pTopoiiion of modern ; comforts amon^ the' modem nations of EuroDA-'A^'^ 
 wealtk, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their j the senators of Rome could deriTc from all the r fi ^^ 
 po t s eti i o tts extended (ar bejond the Ionian and .C^can ments of pompous or sensual loxory.k Their luxn"^^ 
 seas, to the most distant provinces: the cilj of Nico- ' and their manners, have been the subject of minbto 
 perils, vhieh Aagostas bad founded as an eternal mon- and laborious disquisition: but as such ina 'ri 
 nn^eot U the AetiaD ▼ictory, was the property of the : would divert me too long from the design of the o ^ 
 d . -t Paula;* and it is observed by Seueca, that the ent work, I shall produce an authentic state of Rom" 
 Tiverft, vfaieb bad divided hostile nations, now flowed < and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly anoli ^ 
 throogb the labds of private citizens.' According to | ble to the period of the Gothic invasion. Ammianu^ 
 thctr temper and circumstance, the estates of the Ro- ' Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the 
 vans wcie either cultivated by the labour of their 'empire as the residence the best adapted to the histo- 
 slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to | rian of his own times, has mixed wiih the narratireof 
 tfac iadsstrious farmer. T^e economical writers of i public events, a lively representation of the scenes 
 antiquity strenuously recommend the former method, j with which he was familiarly conversant The judi- 
 wberever it may be practicable; but if the object cious reader will not always approve the asperity of 
 ihoiild be removed, by its distance or magnitude, from .' censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of 
 fbe maediate eye of tite master, they prefer the ac- expression : he will perhaps detect the latent preja- 
 five care of an old hereditary tenant, aitiirhed to the dices, and personal resentments, which soured the 
 soil, and in^^rested in the produce, to the mercenary j temper of Amrnianus himself; but he will surely ob- 
 adminirtratiofl of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, serve, with philosophic curiosity, the interesiina and 
 steward.' original picture of the manners of R(.me.* ** .- 
 
 Thtirimmmtn. '^^ opulcnt nobles of an immense ** The greatness of Rome (such is the p, ' 
 
 capital, who were never excited by the ! language of the historian) was founded on Rom7n'nnhi«, ^ 
 pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the j the rare, and almost incredible, alliance ^i' AmmunuB 
 occupations of civil government, naturally resigned of virtue and of fortune. The long pe- **"«"""••• . 
 tlicir leisure to tlie business and amusements of private I riod of her infancy was employed in a laborious strug- 
 life. At Rome, commerce was always held id con-! gle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbours and ene- 
 tempt; but the senators, from the first aj:e of the re- mies of the rising city. In the strength and ardour 
 public, increased their patrimony, and multiplied their - • • - - . 
 
 clienU, by the lucrative practice of usury; and the 
 obsolete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual 
 jnclinauons and interest of both parties." A consider- 
 able mass of treasure must always have existed at 
 Rome, either In the current coin of the empire, or In 
 the form of gold and silver plate ; and there were 
 many sideboards in the time of Pliny, which contain- 
 ed more solid silver, than had been transported by 
 Scipio from vanquished Carthage.' The greater part 
 of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes In profuse 
 luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth : 
 and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their de- 
 sires were continually gratified by the labour of a 
 thousand hands; of the numerous train of thrir do- 
 mestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of pun- 
 ishment: and of tho various professions of artificers 
 and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled 
 by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of 
 many of the conveniences of life, which have been in- 
 vented or improved by tho progress of industry; and 
 the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real 
 
 demie dn Insxrripiions, torn xxvli, p. 727.} was equally applied to a 
 purse of 120 pieces i>r ail vcr,atid lo a small copper cuiii of the value of 
 2 6*27 P*'^ ^^ ^^^^ purse. In ihe former sense, iho 2:.,aX) folles 
 would be equal lo 150,000/, { In the latter, lo five or six pounds slrrl- 
 in». The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculowg. There 
 inust have exisKxl some third, and middle value, which is here un- 
 derstood ; but aujbiguily is an inexcusable fault in the lan-^wa-e of 
 laws. o = "• 
 
 NIcopolis . , , . inActiaco liilore siu possessionis veslrsB nunc 
 para vel maxima eat. Joron, i„ praefal. Comment, ad Episiol. ad 
 Ilium, l*im. ix.p. JIS. M. deTilleiiKiiil supposes. slran"»'ly enou-'h 
 that It was pan of Agamemnon's iahc.-iiance. Mem. Eecles. umi! 
 xii. p. 85. 
 
 f Seneca, Epist, Ixxxix. His laniruaL-e isof thedoclamalorv kind • 
 but decUmaiior, could scarcely oxag-eritp ilie avarice and luxury of 
 the Koinan^. The philosoplier himsilf deserved some share uf tho 
 reproach ; Jl it be true lliat his rljjon.us exaction of Uuadrinecntien, 
 above three hundred thousand pounds, which ho had Ipnt at hi"h in- 
 1^^^?^ pruToked a rebellion in Briiaiij. (Dion Cai^sius, 1. Ixii. p. 
 
 'r.iry 
 
 Jury, 
 
 •Mill Kii i-napica. 
 
 f - A . ' u ' -r— ""•! v^'acii. Annul, iii. 30.)al\vav3 l 
 
 ferred tenants born on tho estate. Columella, wl^fJceivcd this 
 maxim fn.in h.m, argues very judiciously on the subject. De K? 
 Kusticn, 1. 1. c. 7. p. ^», edit, Gesner. Leipsi?. J735. '' 
 
 A 
 \ 
 
 xxxiii. u.m. I. p. -zju-'i^-y ) that they were permiiiPd lo' take' six nor 
 cent, or one bilf of the legal interest ; an.!, what is more sin-ufar 
 this pcnijiss.on was granted to the young senators. o » »i 
 
 i Flin His:. Naiur. xxxiii. 5f», He slates the silver at only 43^ 
 pounds, wh:ch IS increased by Livy (xjcr. 45.) to 100,0-23: the former 
 t^'i^Jld'^ ■"'ll """ opulent oil/, tho latter loo nmch for any pri- 
 
 of youth, she sustained tho storms of war; carried 
 her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; 
 and brought home trium]>hant laurels from every coun- 
 try of the ^lobc. At Icng^th, verging towards old age, 
 and sometimes conquering by the terror oply of her 
 name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquilli- 
 ty. The VENERABLE ciTV, which had trampled on 
 the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a 
 system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice and 
 freedom, was Content, like a wise and wealthy parent, 
 to devolve on the Caisars, her favourite sons, the care 
 of poverning" her ample pnirimony." A secure and 
 profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the 
 reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a repub- 
 lic: while Ronno was still adored as the queen of the 
 earth; and the subject nations still reverenced the 
 name of the people, and the majesty of the senate. 
 But this native splendour (continues Ammianus) is 
 degraded, and sullied, by the conduct of some nobles; 
 who, unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of 
 their country, assume an unbounded licence of vice 
 and folly. They contend with each other in the emp- 
 ty vanity of titles and surnames; and curiously select, 
 or invent, the most lofty and sonorous appellations, 
 Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius, or Tarrasius," which 
 may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment 
 and respect. Ffom a vain ambition of perpetuating 
 their memory, they affect to multiply their likeness, in 
 statues of bronze and marble; nor are they satisfied, 
 
 k The learned Arbuthnoi (Tables of Ancient Coins, !cc. p. 153.) has , 
 ob5orved with humour, and I believe with irulh, that Augustus had 
 neithrr glass to his wirulows, nor n shin to his back. Under the 
 lower empire, the use of linen and gla-s became somewhat moro 
 common, 
 
 \ It is incumbent on me to expl;iin the liberties which I have taken 
 with ili»' text of Ammianus. 1. 1 have lurlted down into one piece 
 Ihesixtli chapter of the fuirteeniii, and the fourth of the twenty- 
 eighth b<xik, 2. I have z'won order and connexion to the confused 
 mass of materials. X I have softened gome extravagant hyperboles, 
 and pared away some suuerlluities of the original. 4. I have devcl-. 
 oj)ed some observations which were insinuated, ratlier than expre.ssed. 
 With llipse allowances, my version will be found, not liteYal indeed, 
 but faithful and exact. ' . 
 
 m Claudian, who seems to have read the history of Ammianus, 
 speaks of this ^reat revolution in a much less courtly style: - ,'■ 
 Postquain jura ferox in se communia Caesar , / . 
 
 Translulit ; et laj)3i mores; desnetaquo priscis 
 Arlibus, in gremiuin pacis servile recessi. ■ \.o 
 
 . De Bell, Gildonico, p. 49. . 
 
 n The minute diliijenceof anticiuarians, has not been ^^leto verny- 
 these extraordinary names, I am of opinion thatlhey were inventeu 
 by the historian himself, who was afraid of any personal satire* or ap- 
 plication. It is certain, however, that tho simple denominations oi 
 the Romans were gradually lengthened to the number of four, nye, 
 or even seven, pomivtus surnames; as for instance, ^I*^'^''"' , f'ff'' 
 iMaenunius Furius IJalburius Caecilianiis Placidns. See Norls ceno- 
 taph, Pisan. DiBscrt. iv. p. 433. 
 
 
 ■''% 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 ) 
 
 l«. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 421 
 
 CnAP. XXXI. 
 
 unless those statues are covered with plates of gold : { presume to settle on the silken folds of their gilded 
 "n honourable distinction, first granted to Acillus the ' umbrellas ; should a sun-bcam penetrate through some 
 consul, after he had s.ibdued, by his~ arras and coun- unguarded and imperceptible chmk, they deplore their 
 gels, the power of king Antiochus. The ostentation 
 
 of displaying, of magnifying, perhaps, the rent-roll of 
 ^e estates which they possess in all the provinces, 
 from the rising to -the setting sun, provokes the just 
 yesentment of every man, who recollects, that their 
 poor and invincible ancestors were not distinguished 
 from the meanest of the soldiers, by the delicacy of 
 llieir food, or the splendour of their apparel. But the 
 
 intolerable hardships, and lament, in afflicted language, 
 that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians,* 
 the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys 
 into the country,' the whole body of the household 
 marches with their master. In the same manner as 
 the cavalry and infantry, the heavy and the light arm- 
 ed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are mar- 
 shalled by the skill of their military leaders ; so the 
 
 n^odern nobles measure 7heiV"rank"and' consequence j domestic' officers, who be;tr a rod, as an ensign of 
 according to the loftiness of their chariots,' and the | authority, distribute and 
 
 the numerous train 
 
 arrange 
 wei-htv magnificence of their dress. Therr'long [ of slayeVand attendants. The ba-gage and wardrobe 
 " - ° thev move in the front; and are immediately followea by 
 
 xohes of silk and purple float in the wind; and as . — .. , .. , , \ , -/. - • • - i u 
 
 are aaiiated, by art or accident, they occasionally dis- a mulutude of cooks, and mferior ministers, emploved 
 cover^the under jjarments, the rich tunics, embroidered j in the service of the kitchens, and of the table. 1 he 
 with the ficTures of various animals,? Followed by a j main body is composed of a promiscuousjcrowd ot 
 
 train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, I slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle 
 they move alon<r the streets with the same impetuous | or dependent plebeians. 1 he rear is closed by the fa- 
 sppcd as if the/ travelled with post-horses; and the vourite band of eunuchs, distributed from age to youth. 
 
 example of t!ie senators is boldly imitated by the ma- 
 trons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continu- 
 ally driving round the immense spare of the city and 
 suburbs, ^Vhenever tliese persons of high distinction 
 condescend lo visit the public baths, they assume, on 
 their entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, 
 and appropriate to their own use the conveniences 
 which were designed for tlie Roman people. If, in 
 these places of mixed and general resort, they meet 
 any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they 
 express their aflfection by a tender embrace; while 
 they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow- 
 citizens, who are not permitted to asjiire above the 
 honour of kissing their hands, or their knees. As 
 soon as they have indulged themselves in the refresh- 
 ment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the 
 other ensigns of their dignity; select from their pri- 
 vate wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might suffice 
 for a dozen persons, the garments the most agreeable to 
 their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same 
 haughty demeanour; which perhaps might have been 
 excused in the great Marct'llus, after the conquest of 
 Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake 
 more arduous achievements; they visit their estates 
 in Italy, and procure themselves, by the toil of servile 
 hands, the amusements of the chase.' If at any time, 
 but more especially on a hot day, they have courage 
 to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine lake' 
 to their cleirant villas on the sea-coast of Puteoli and 
 Cayeta,* they compare their own expeditions to the 
 marches of Ca?sar and Alexander. Yet should a fly 
 
 o The rarriica, or coaches of the Romans, were often of solid silver, 
 curiously carved and engraved ; and the trappings of the mules, or 
 korses, w»'re embossed with cold. This niasnificence continued 
 from tho rei!»n of Nero to that of Ilonorius: and the Appian way was 
 covered with the splendid equvpajies of the nobles, who came out to 
 meet St. IMelania, when she returned to Rome, six years before the 
 Gothic sie<ie. (Seneca, epist. Ixxxvii. Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 49, 
 Paul in. Nolan, apud Barxui. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 397. No. 5.) Yet 
 pomp is well exchanged for convenience: and a plain motlern coach, 
 that is hunsj upon sprinsrs, is much preferable to the silver or gold 
 carts of antiquity, which'rolled on the axle-tree, and were exposed, 
 for the most part, lo the inclemency of the weather. 
 
 P Ina homily of Ahterius, liisUop of Aiiia^ia, M. de Valois has dis- 
 covered (nd Ainmian. xiv. 6.) that this was a new fashion- that 
 bears, wolves, lions, and ligors, woods, huntin?rnntclics, Sec. w^ro 
 represented in embroidery ; and that the more pious coxconil»« sub- 
 stituted the figure or le<:end of some favourite saint. 
 
 q See Pliny's Epistles, i. 6, Three Urge wild boars were allured 
 &>i^ taken in the toils without interrupiins the studies of the philo- 
 sophic sportsman. 
 
 •■ The cliangc from the innuiipicions word Jtcemut, which stands 
 In Ihe text, is immaterial. The two lakes. Avernus and Lurriniif, 
 communicated with each oilier, and were fashioned by ihe siupcn- 
 . ^Jous moles of Agrlppa into the- Julian port, which opened, ihroujfh 
 • narrow entrance, into the gulf of Puieoli. Virgil, who resided on 
 the spot, has described (Georgic H. 161.) this work at the moment of 
 I's execution; and his commentntors, especially Catron, havn de- 
 rived much lichl from Strain), Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes 
 wnd volcaiioa have changed the face of tlie country, and turned Hie 
 Lncrine lake, since the year 1538, into the Monte Nuovo. See Cn- 
 millo Pell^jirino Disrorsi dclla CMiiipania Felice, p. 239. 244, &.C. An- 
 tonii Panfelicii Campania, p. 13. 88. 
 
 • Tiie re;«na Cuniana ei Puloolana; lora cvteroqui valde expelon- 
 °!ti' tnterpeilanttum auiem muliiiudine pcue fusienda. Cicero ad 
 Aiilc. xvi. 17. 
 
 accordinof to the order of seniority. Their numbers, 
 and their^'deformity, excite the horror of the indignant 
 spectators, who are ready to execrate tlxe memory of 
 Semiramis, for the cruel art which she invented, of 
 fmstraiinjT the purposes of nature, and of blasting in 
 the bud the hopes of future generations. In the exer- 
 cise of domestic jurisdiction, the nobles of Rome ex- 
 press an exquisite sensibility for any personal injury, 
 and a contemptuous indiflference for the rest of the hu- 
 man species. When they have called for warm water, 
 if a slave has been tardy in his obedience, he is in- 
 stantly chastised w^ith three hundred lashes: but 
 should the same slave commit a wilful murder, the 
 master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless fel- 
 low ; but that, if he repeats the oflence, he shall not 
 escape punishment. Hosnitaliiy was formerly the 
 virtue of the Romans; and every stranger, who could 
 plead either merit or misfortune, was relieved, or re- 
 warded, by their generosity. At present, if a foreigner, 
 perhaps of no contemptible rank, is introduced to one 
 of the proud and wealthy senators, he is welcomed 
 indcetj in the first audience, with such warm pn»fcs- 
 sions, and such kind inquiries, that he retires, enchant- 
 ed with the afi'ability of his illustrious friend, and full 
 of regret that he had so long delayed his journey to 
 Rome, the. native seat of manners, as well as of em- 
 pire. Secure of a favourable reception, he repeats his 
 visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discove- 
 ry, that his person, his name, and his country, are 
 already forgotten. If he still has resolution to perse- 
 vere, he is gradually numbered in the train of depen- 
 dents, and obtains the permission to pay his assiduous 
 and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable 
 of gratitude or friendship ; who scarcely deigns to 
 remark his presence, his departure, or his return. 
 Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular en- 
 tertainment ;* whenever they cele1)rate, with profuse 
 
 t The proverbial expression of Cimmeriam darkness was origi- 
 nally lK)rrowed from the description of Homer, (in4lie elevenih 
 book of the Odyssey.) which he applies lo a remote and fahulous 
 country on the shores of the ocean. See Erasmi Adagia, io liia 
 works, torn. li. p. 59:». the Lcyden edition. 
 
 n Wc may learn from Seneca, epist. cxxUi. three curious circam- 
 stances relative lo the Journeys of the Romans. 1. Tlicy were pre- 
 ceded by a troop of Numidian light-horse, who annuunced, by a 
 cloud of dust, the npproncli of a great man. S. Their bagsageinulca 
 transported not only tho precious vases, but even llie fragile ves- 
 sels of chryrital and murra, which last it almost prov<Nl, by the 
 learned French iranxiaiiy of Seneca, (torn. iii. p. 402—422.) to mean 
 the porcelain of China nnd Japan. 3. The beautiful faces of the 
 young slaves were covered with a medicated crust, or ointment, 
 which secured them against the effects of ihe sun and ftost. -> 
 
 z Distrihutio solemniutn s[>orlularum. The sportulm, or $p0rt€t- 
 U, were small baskets, supposed to contain a quantity of hot provi- 
 sions, of the value of 10<J cjuadrantes, or lwelve|>ence halfpennjr, 
 which were ranged in order in the ball, and ostentatiously distrib«- 
 ted to the hungry or servile crowd, who wailed at the door. This 
 Indelicate custom is very frequently mentioned in the epigrams of 
 Martial, and the satires of Juvenal. See likewise Suetonius, In 
 Claud, c 81. in Neron, c. )«• In Domitlan. c. 4. 7. These baskeuof 
 provisions were aflerwards converted into large pieces of gold and 
 silver coin, or plate. Which were motnally given and accepted, eveo 
 by the persons of tbe highest rank, (See Sjrmmach. epii»t. iv, 55. ix. 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
^ 
 
 422 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap;; 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: 
 
 423 
 
 and"pernicious luxury, their private banquets ; the 
 choice of the guests is the subject of anxious deliber^ 
 «tinn. The modest, the sober, and the learned, are 
 seldom preferred ; and the nomenclators, vrho are com- 
 monly swayed by interested motives, have the address 
 to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure names 
 of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent 
 and familiar companions of the great, are those "para- 
 sites, who practise the most useful of all arts, the art 
 of flattery ; who eagerly applaud each word, and every 
 action, of their immortal patron ; graze with rapture on 
 his marble columns, and variegated pavements ; and 
 strenuously praise the pomp and elegance, which he 
 is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit. 
 At the Roman tables, the birds, the squirrelsj or the 
 fish, which appear of an uncommon size, are contem- 
 plated with curious attention; a pair of scales is ac- 
 curately applied, to ascertain their real weight; and, 
 "u hile the more rational guests are disgusted by the 
 vain and tedious repetition, notaries are summoned to 
 attest, by an authentic record, the truth of such a mar- 
 vellous event. Another method of introduction into 
 the houses and society of the great, is derived from 
 the profession of gaming, or, as it is more politely 
 styled, of play. The confederates are united by a 
 strict and indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of 
 .conspiracy: a superior, degree of skill m the Tessera- 
 rian art (which may be interpreted the game of dice 
 and tables') is a sure road to wealtli and reputation. 
 A master of that sublime science, who in a supper, or 
 assembly, is placed below a man^istrate, display's in his 
 countenance the surprise and indignation, which Cato 
 might be supposed to feel, when he was refused the 
 prttiorship by the votes of a capricious people. The 
 acquisition of knowledge seldom en^gcs the ciiriosi- 
 ty of the nobles, who abhor the fatigue, and disdain 
 the advantages, of study ; and the only books which 
 they peruse are the Satires of Juvenal, and the ver- 
 bose and fabulous histories of Marius Maxinius.* The 
 libraries, which they have inherited from their fathers, 
 are secluded, like dreary sepulchres, from the light of 
 day.'' But liie costly instruments of the theatre, flutes, 
 and enormous lyres, and hydraulic organs, are con- 
 structed for their use ; and the harmony of vocal and 
 instrumental music is incessantly repeated in the pal- 
 aces of Rome. In those palaces, sound is preferred 
 to sense, and the care of the body to that of the mind. 
 It is allowed as a salutary maxim, that the light and 
 frivolous suspicion of a contagious malady, is of sufii- 
 cient weight to excuse the visits of the most intimate 
 friends ; and even the servants, who are despatched to 
 
 124. and Misccll. p. 256.) on solemn occasions, of consulships, mar- 
 riages, tec. 
 
 J The want of an English name oblises me to refer to the common 
 genus of squirrels, the Latin pits, the French loir; a little animal, 
 who inhabtt^thc woods, and remains torpid in cold weather. (S»^ 
 Pun. lli*l. Natur. viii. 82. ButTon, Hist. Naturellc, torn. viii. p. 13B. 
 Pennant's Synopsis of Ciuadriipeds. p. 2?9.) The art of rearing and 
 fattening ercai numl>ers of glires was practised in Roman villas, as 
 a profitahle article of rural economy. (Vnrro. de Re Uustica, iii. 15.) 
 Tne excessive demand of them for luxurious taMes, was increased 
 hy the foolisli proliiliiiinus of the Ccnxors ; and it is reported, that 
 they are still esteemed in modern Rome, and are frciiucntly sent as 
 pre^sents hy the Colonna prinrcs. (See Broticr, the last editor of 
 riiny, lorn. ii. p. 4.V?. apud BarlKJU, 1779.) 
 
 s This came, which mi'^hl he translated by the more familiar 
 names of trictrac, or backpammoH, was a favourite amusement of 
 the gravest Romans ; and old .Mucius Sca'vola, the lawyer, had the 
 reputation of a very skilful player. It was called luilus duodecin 
 scriptorum, from the twelve scripta, or tines, which equally divided 
 the alveolus or tahle. On these, the two armies, the while and the 
 black, each consistin;; of fifteen men, or calculi, were regularly 
 placed, and alternately moved, according to the laws of the pame ; 
 and the chances of xhc tes-iera-, or dice. Dr. Hyde, who dilicently 
 traces the history and varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic 
 etymology) from Ireland to Japan, pours forth, on this trifling sub- 
 ject, a copious torrent of classic and oriental learning. Sec Syntag- 
 ma Dissertal. torn. ii. p. 217— 405. 
 
 a .Marius Maximus, homo omnium vcrboslssimui, qui ct mythis- 
 lortcis »e vohiminibus implicavit. Vopiscus, in Hist, .\ugust. p. 242. 
 He wrote the lives of the emperors, from Trajan to Alexander Sevc- 
 rus. See Ocrard Vossius dc llistoricis Latin. I. ii. c. 3. in his works, 
 vol. \v. p. 57. 
 
 b This satire is probably exnpgeratcd. The Saturnalia of Macro- 
 biu9,'and the epistles of Jerom. ulford natisfactory proofs, that chris- 
 tian ilieolocy, and clannic literature, were studiously cultivated by 
 several Romans, of both sexes, and of the highest rank. 
 
 make the decent inquiries, are not suffered t<w*T^^ 
 home, till they have undergone the ceremoai^^ 
 previous ablution. Yet this selfish and unmanW 4f« 
 icacy occasionally yields to the more imperiods- pjL 
 sion of avarice. The prospect of gain wifi urs» a ricl^^ 
 and gouty senator as far as Spoleto; every sentimen^S 
 of arrogance and- dignity is subdued by tho; hobe»c^*»" " 
 an inheritance, or even of a legacy; andiwSSi^ 
 childless citizen is the most powerful of the Romaxwi|. 
 The art of obtaining the signature of a favourable tes?*^ 
 tament, and sometimes of hastening the momeot.of itij 
 execution, is perfectly understood ; and it has happen** . • 
 ed, that in the same house, though in different aparU^ * ' 
 ments, a husband and a wife, with the laudable desiga 
 of over-reaching each other, have summoned their re- 
 spective lawyers, to declare, at the same time, Uieir 
 mutual, but contradictory, intentions. The distress 
 which follows and chastises extravagant lux\iry, often. " 
 reduces the great to the use of the most humiliating 
 expedients. When they desire to borrow, they earn 
 ploy the base and supplicating style of the slave in- 
 the comedy ; but when they are called upon to pay^ 
 they assume the royal and tragic declamation of th^ 
 grandsons of Hercules. If the demand is repeated,* 
 they readily procure some trusty sycophant, instructed . 
 to maintain a charge of poison, or magic, against the 
 insolent creditor; who is seldom released from prison, 
 till ho has signed a discharge of the whole debt.. * 
 These vices, which degrade the moral character of the 
 Romans, are mixed with a ^)uerile superstition, that , 
 disgraces their understandinjr. They listen with coii?, 
 fidence to the predictions of haruspices, who preteiidj ' 
 to read, in the entrails of victims, the signs of future 
 greatness and prosperity ; and there are many who do 
 not presume either to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in 
 public, till they have diligently consulted, according 
 to the rules of astrology, the situation of Mercury, 
 and the aspect of the moon.« It is singular enough, 
 that this vain credulity may often be discovered among 
 the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt, or deny, 
 the existence of a celestial power." 
 
 In populous cities, which arc the scat state and rba- 
 of commerce and manufactures, the mid- racter of the 
 
 ,. • i' • 1 » -. ^ I I _:..^ people of Rome. 
 
 die ranks of inhabitants, who derive *^ ' 
 their subsistence from the dexterity, or labour, of their 
 hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most use- 
 ful, and, in that sense, the most respectable, part of 
 the community. But the plebeians of Rome, who 
 disdained such sedentary and servile arts, had been 
 oppressed, from the earliest times, by the weight of 
 debt and usury ; and the husbandman, during the term 
 of his military service, was obliged to abandon the 
 cultivation of his farm,<» The lands of Italy, which 
 had been originally divided among the families of free 
 and indigent'^proprictors, were insensibly purchased, or 
 usurpedj^'by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age 
 which preceded the fall of the republic, it was com- 
 puted, that only two thou.sand citizens were possessed 
 of any independent substance." Yet as long as the 
 people bestowed, by their sufTrajres, the honotirs ot 
 the state, tlio command of the legions, and the admin- 
 i.stration of wealthy provinces, their conscious pncie 
 alleviated, in some measure, the hardships of poverty , 
 and their wants were seasonably supplied by the am- 
 bitious liberality of the candidates, who aspired to se- 
 cure a venal majority in the thirty-five tribes, or tne 
 
 considered the 
 
 c Macrol.iu?, the friend of these Roman nobles, ct 
 stars as the cuisc, or at least the si-ns, of future events, (de ou» 
 Scipion. 1. i. c 19. p. G8.) <• n ^.f ihp ex* 
 
 d The histories of Livy (see particularly vi. ?.6.) a'^^'.' If/. Vlie 
 torlions of the rich, and the sutferincs of the poor ♦''j'';'^"- og p. 
 melancholy Mory of n brave old soldier. (Dionys. "''^'>';^'' 'ny re- 
 al?, edit. Hudson, and Livy. ii. 23.) n.usl have ^^^n frcnuen^/g^ly 
 peated in those primitive times, which have been so unu 
 
 e Non esse in civitatc duo millia hominum qui rf n» 1'",^^'^" 'nun 
 Ortic. ii. 21. and comment. PauL Manut. 'J ^g'^'g';.ch of the tri- 
 
 Umio'ftheGracclji. 
 (7erp'lutarch",rto deplore, and pcrhai>3 to cxasgeratc, the misery 
 the common people. 
 
 cero. 
 
 -'*ir. 
 
 -,«/« i<^\ 
 ■/■>? 
 
 ■^r^ 
 '^l'^. 
 
 -= ii 
 
 
 
 . I 
 
 vaguc^compiitation was made A. U. C. C49. in a speech of^the 
 bune PhilippuB, and it was his object, as well as 
 
 hundred and ninety-three centuries, of Rome. But 
 ^vhen the prodigal commons had imprudently aliena- 
 ted not only tiie* t/sc, but the inheritance^ of power, they 
 sunk, under the reign of the Cajsars, into a vile and 
 ■wretched populace, which must, in a few generations, 
 have been totally extinjruished, if it had not been con- 
 tinually recruited by the manumission of slaves, and 
 the influx of strangers. As early as the time of Ha- 
 drian, it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives, 
 that the capital had attracted the vices of the universe, 
 and tlie manners of the most opposite nations. The 
 iutcmporance of the Gauls, the cunning and levity of 
 the Greeks, the savage obstinacy of the Egyptians 
 and Je^ws, the servile temper of the Asiatics, and the 
 dissolute, efleminate prostitution of the Syrians, were 
 mingled in the various multitude ; which, under the 
 proud and false denomination of Romans, presumed 
 to despise their fellow-subjects, and even their sove- 
 reigns, who dwelt beyond the precincts of the eter- 
 nal CITY.' • • ; 
 
 Public distribu. ^^^ t^»« n^"?*^ «>^ ^^^^^ city was still 
 tion of bread. prououuced with rcspcct; the frequent 
 bacon, oil, wine, q^^j capricious tumulls of its inhabitants 
 were indulged with impunity ; and the 
 successors of Constantino, instead of crushing the 
 last remains of the democracy, by the strong arm of 
 military power, embraced the mild policy of Augustus, 
 and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the 
 idleness, of an innumerable people.* I. For the con- 
 venience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distribu- 
 tions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of 
 bread ; a great number of ovens was constructed and 
 maintained at the public expense; and at the appoint- 
 ed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket, 
 ascended the flight of steps, which liad been assiirned 
 to his peculiar quarter or division, and received, either 
 as a gift, or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the 
 weight of three pounds for the use of his family. 
 II. The forest of Lucania, whose acorns fattened large 
 droves of wild hogs,*' aflTorded, as a species of tribute, 
 a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat. 
 During five months of the year, a regular allowance 
 of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens ; and 
 the annual consumption of the capital, at a time when 
 it was much declined from its former lustre, was as- 
 certained, by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at 
 three millions six hundred and twenty-eight thousand 
 pounds.' III. In the manners of antiquity, the use of 
 oil was indispensable for the lamp, as well as for the 
 bath ; and the annual tax, which was imposed on 
 Africa for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight 
 of three millions of pounds, to the measure, perhaps, 
 of three hundred thousand English gallons. IV. The 
 anxiety of Augustus to provide the metropolis with 
 sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended beyond that 
 necessary article of human subsistence ; and when the 
 
 f See the third Satire (60—125.) of Juvenal, who indignantly com- 
 plains, 
 
 ■ Quamvis rjuota portio fjpcis Achaei ! 
 
 Jampridein Syrus in Tiberira detiuiit Orontes ; 
 Et linguam el nmres, &c. 
 Benera, when he proposes to comfort his mother (Consolat. ad IIclv. 
 e. 6 ) by the reflection, that a great pari of mankind were in a state 
 of exile, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of Rome were born 
 In the city. 
 
 % Almost all that Is said of the bread, bacon, oil. wine, «tc. may he 
 found in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian Code : which ex- 
 pressly treats of ihe police of the ereal cities. See particularly the 
 titles iii. iv. xv. xvi. ivii. xxiv. The collateral testimonies arc pro- 
 duced in Godefroy's Commentary, and it is needless to transcrilic 
 them. According to a law of Theodosius, which appreciates in 
 money tile military allowance, a piec« of ^old (eleven shillings) was 
 equivalent to eighty pounds of bacon, or to eichty pounds of oil, or to 
 twelve modil (or perks) of salt. (Cod. Theod. I. viii. tit. Iv.'lra;. 17.) 
 This equation, compared with another of seventy pounds of bacon 
 for an •mpkora, (Cod. Thcod. I. xiv. tic iv. leg. 4.) fixes the price of 
 wine at about sixteen-pence the gallon. 
 
 b The anonymous author of the Description of the World (p. 14. 
 In torn. iii. Geo»raph. Minor. Hudson) ol>serve« of Lucania In his 
 l>arbarous LaAin, Re^io optima, et ipsa omnibus habundnns. et lar- 
 dum multum foras emittit. Propter qood est in monUbus, cujutnss- 
 cam animalium variam, &.c. 
 
 » See Novell, ad calccm Co<l. Theod. D. Valent. I. i. tit. iv. This 
 Uw was published at Rome, June Die S9tb, A. D. iH^, 
 
 popular clamour accused the dearness and scarcity of 
 wine, a proclamation was issued, by the grave refor- 
 mer, to remind his subjects, that no man could reason- 
 ably complain of thirst, since the aqueducts of Agrippa 
 had introduced into the city so many copious streams 
 of pure and salubrious water.'' This rigid sobriety 
 was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous 
 design of Aurelian ' does not appear to have been ex- 
 ecuted in its full extent, the use of wine was allowed 
 on very easy and liberal terms. The administration 
 of the public cellars was delegated to a magistrate of 
 honourable rank ; and a considerable part of the vin- 
 tage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate in- 
 habitants of Rome. - - . 
 
 The stupendous aqueducts, so justly Use of the pub- 
 celebrated by the praises of Augustus i'*"- baths, 
 himself, replenished the Thermx^ or baths, which had 
 been constructed, in every part of the city, with impe- 
 rial maornificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, 
 which were open, at stated hours, for the indiscrimin- 
 ate service of the senators and the people, contained 
 above sixteen hundred seats of marble ; and more than 
 three thousand were reckoned in the baths of Diocle- 
 tian."* The walls of the lofty apartments were cover- 
 ed with curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the 
 pencil in the elegance of design, and the variety of 
 colours. The Egyptian granite was beautifully in- 
 crusted with the precious green marble of Numidia ; 
 the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the 
 capacious basons, through so many wide mouths of 
 bright and massy silver; and the meanest Roman 
 coiTld purchase, with a small copper coin, the daily 
 enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which 
 might excite the envy of the kings of Asia." From 
 these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and 
 ragged plebeians, without shoes and without a mantle ; 
 who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum, 
 to hear news, and to hold disputes ; who dissipated, in 
 extravagant paining, the miserable pittance of their 
 wives and children ; and spent the hours of the night 
 in obscure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of 
 gross and vulgar sensuality." r" 
 
 But the most lively and splendid Game* and sperr. 
 amusement of the idle multitude, de- tarks. 
 pended on the frequent exhibition of public games and 
 spectatles. The piety of christian- princes had sup- 
 pressed the inhuman combats of gladiators ; but the 
 Roman people still considered the circus as their home, 
 their temple, and the seat of the republic. The impa- 
 tient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their 
 places, and there were many Mho passed a sleepless 
 and anxious night in the adjacent porticoes. From 
 the morning to the evening, careless of the sun, or of 
 the rain, the spectators, who sometimes amounted to 
 the number of four hundred thousand, remained in 
 eager attention ; their eyes fixed on the horses and 
 charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, 
 for the success of the colours which they espoused : 
 and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the 
 event of a race.P The same immoderate ardour in- 
 
 k-Sueton. in Au?ust. c. 42. The atmust debauch of the emperbr 
 himself, in iiis favourite wine of RhaeUa, never exceeded a teztarius, 
 (an English pinU) Id. c. 77. Torrenlius ad loc and Arbuthnoi's 
 Tables, p. 86. 
 
 I His design was to plant vineyards alon* the sea coast of Hctru- 
 ria : (Vopiscus, in Hist. August, p. 225.) the dreary, unwholesome, 
 uncultivated Maremmt of modern Tuscany. 
 
 Bt Olympiodor. ap«id Phot. p. 197. 
 
 a Seneca (epistol. Ixxxvi.) compares the baths of Sclpio Africanus. 
 at his villa of Liternum, with the magnificence (which was contin- 
 ually increasin?) of the public fiathsof Rome, ton; before tlie stately 
 Thermal of Antoninus and Diocletian were erected. The fuaJran* 
 paid for admission was the quarter of the a*, about one-eighth of an 
 English penny. 
 
 o Amminnus. xl». c- 8. and I. xxvlii. c. 4.) after dcscriWnj Ihe 
 luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome, exposes, with equal tudigna* 
 lion, the vices and follies of the common people. • *^ 
 
 p Juvenal. Saiir. xl. 191, 8cc The expressions of the historian 
 Ammianus, are not less stronf; and animated than those of the sati- 
 rists: and both the one and the other painted from the life. The 
 numbers which the great circus was capable of receiving, arc taken 
 IVom the original Xotitia of the city. The differences between 
 them prove that thrjr did not transcribe each otlier ; but the sum maj 
 
 f 4 
 
 M 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1 
 
^>^- 
 
 421 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 425 
 
 Bpire<} their clamours, and their applause, as often as 
 ihey were entertained with the hunting of wild beasts, 
 and- the various modes of theatrical representation. 
 These representations in modem capitals may deserve 
 to be considered as a pure and elegant school of taste, 
 and perhaps of virtue. But the Traorjc and Comic 
 Muse of the Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the 
 iniitatioQ of Attic ^enius,'' had been a' most totally si- 
 lent since the fall of the- republic;' <irJ. their place 
 was unworthily occupied by licentious fare, effemin- 
 ate music, and splendid pageantry. The pantominoes," 
 who maintained their reputation from the age of Au- 
 gustus to the sixth century, expressed, without the use 
 of words, the various fables of the gods and heroes of 
 antiquity'; and the perfection of their art, which some- 
 times disarmed the gravity of the philosopher, always 
 excited the applause and wonder of the people. The 
 vast and magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by 
 three thousand female dancers, and by three thousand 
 singers, with the masters of their respective choruses. 
 Such was the popular favour which they enjoyed, that, 
 in a time of scarcity, when all strangers were banislied 
 from the city, the merit of contributing to the public 
 
 f Measures exempted ihem from a law, which was strict- 
 y executed against the professors of the liberal arts.' 
 Fop«iou*neH nf ^^ i^ Said, that tlie foolish curiosity of 
 . Rome. Elagabalus attempted to discover, from 
 
 the quantity of spiders' webs, the number of the in- 
 habitants of Rome. A more rational method of in- 
 quiry mi^ht not have been undeserving of the attention 
 of the wisest princes, who could easny have resolved 
 a question so important for the Roman government, 
 and 80 interesting to succeeding^ ages. The births 
 and deaths of the citizens were duly registered ; and 
 if any writer of antiquity had condescended to men- 
 tion the annual .amount, or the common average, we 
 might now produce some satisfactory calculation, 
 which would destroy the extravagant assertions 'of 
 critics, and perhaps confirm the modest and probable 
 conjectures of philosophers.* The most diligent re- 
 searches liavc collected only the following circumstan- 
 ces; which, slifiht and imperfect as they are, may 
 tend in some degree to illustrate the question of the 
 populousness of ancient Rome. I. When the capital 
 of the empire was besieged by the Goths, the circuit 
 of the walls was accurately measured by Ammonius, 
 the mathematician, who f()und it equal to twenty-one 
 miles.* It should not be forgotten that the form of 
 the city was almost that of a circle ; the geometrical 
 figure which is known to contain the largest space 
 within any given circumference. IL The architect 
 Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age, and 
 whose evidence, on this occasion, has peculiar weight 
 
 appenr incredible, though the country on these occasions flocked to 
 the city. 
 
 ^ Sometimes indeed they composed original pieces. 
 
 Vcsliilia Grzca 
 
 Ausi dcsorcre etcele'Tarc domestica facta. 
 Ilorat. E|iistol. ad I'isoncs, 2t?j. and ilic learned, Ihouch perplexed, 
 note of Dacier, who might hnvc allowed the nnmc of tra;!edies to the 
 Brutua and the Decius of Tncuvins, or to the C<i(e of Maternus. 
 *J'he Oc/«tJia, ascrilied to one of the Scnccns, slill remains a very un* 
 favoural'Ie spcrinjcn of Roman tragedy. 
 
 r In the time of Qiiintiiinn and Pliny, a tratjic poet was reduced 
 to the imperfect method of Itiring a great room, and readim: iii«! play 
 to llie company, wiioni he invited for thnl purpose. (See Diaioj. dc 
 Oj-atorihus, r. 9. U. ami IMin. Epistof. vii. 17.) 
 
 • See tiic Dialogue of I<ucian, entitled dc Saltntione, torn. li. p. 2G5 
 — 317. edit. Rciiz. The pantomimes obtained the honouratdc name 
 of -/••?J9-s^»4 ; and it was required, that they should l>c conversant 
 wjih almost cvnry art and science. Burette (in the Mcnioircs de 
 I'Acaacmic des Inscriptions, torn. i. p. 127, &.c.) has given a sliorl 
 hie'.ory of the art of pantomimes. 
 
 t Animinnus, I. xiv. c. 6. He complains, with iTcccnt indignation, 
 that the streets of Rome were tilled with crowds of females, who 
 might have givtn children to the state, but whose only occupation 
 W3.S to curl and dress their hair, and Jactari volubililius gyris, dum 
 eiprimunt innumcra Rlnujlacra.qu.-c: unxere fabulx Iheatrales. 
 
 « l^ipsitis, (tom. iii. p. 423. de Magnitud. Romana, I. iii. c. 3.) and 
 Isaac Vossins, (Oliservat. Var. p. 2C— 31.) liave indulged stransc 
 dreams of four, or night, or fourteen millions in Rome. Mr. Hume, 
 (E-'says, vol. l. p. 450 — 457.) with admirable good sense and srcpti- 
 cism, I'ctrays some secret disposition to extenuate the populousness 
 of ancient tmica. 
 
 X Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197, Sec Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. lorn. 
 ii. p. 4U0. 
 
 and 
 tions 
 
 Char. XXXU 
 
 authority observes, that the innumerable hablta-^ 
 , of the Koman people would have spread th^: 
 selves far beyond the narrow limits of the ritv . !?> 
 that-thewant of ground, which was probai^'i^^ 
 tracted on every side by gardens and villas, suff^ested" 
 the common, though mconvenient, practice of 
 the houses to a considerable height in the air J^' r"^ 
 the loftiness of these buildings, which often cons* t rf 
 of hasty work and insuflicienl materials, was thee* 
 of frequent and fatal accidents; and it was repeated!^* 
 enacted by Augustus, as well as by Nero, that thtf- 
 height of private edifices within the walls of Rome 
 should not exceed the measure of seventy feet from 
 the ground.* III. Juvenal* laments, as it should seem, 
 from his own experience, the hardships of the poorei* 
 citizens, to whom he addresses the salutary advice of 
 emigraiing, without delay, from the smoke of Rome 
 since they might purchase, in the little towns of ItalyV 
 a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the same price 
 which they annually paid for a dark and miserable 
 lodging. House-rent was therefore immoderately 
 dear; the rich acquired, at an enormous expense, the 
 fjround, which they covered with palaces and gardens* 
 but the body of the Roman people was crowded into, 
 a narrow space ; and the diflierent floors, and apart- 
 ments, of the same house were divided, as it is still 
 the custom of Paris, and other cities, among several 
 families of plebeians. IV. The total number of 
 houses in the fourteen regions of the city, is accurate- 
 ly stated in the description of Rome, composed undet 
 the reign of Theodosius, and they amount to forty- 
 eight thousand three hundred and eighty-two.'* The 
 two classes of domus and of insula:^ into which they 
 are divided, include all the habitations of the capital, 
 of every rank and condition, from the marble palace 
 of the Anicii, with a numerous establishment of freed- 
 men and slaves, to the lofly and narrow lodging-house, 
 where the poet Codrus, and his wife, were permitted 
 to hire a wre.tchcd garret immediately under the tiles. 
 If we adopt* the same average, which, under similar 
 circumstances, has been found applicable to Paris," 
 and indiflerently allow about twenty-five persons for 
 ( ach house, of every degree, we may fairly estimate 
 the inhabitants of Rome at twelve hundred thousand : 
 a number which cannot be thought excessive for the 
 capital of a mighty empire, tliough it exceeds the pop- 
 ulousness of the greatest cities of modern Europe.^ ; 
 
 Such was the slate of Rome under the 
 rcijrn of lionorius ; at the timo when E'"^'',f°®.°^ - 
 
 , t^ „ , . I , . . Rome by the ." 
 
 the Gothic army formed the siege, or Goths, 
 rather the blockade, of the city.' By a A. D. 408. 
 
 J In en nutcm majcstatc urhis, ct civiunrt Infinita frequentia innii* 
 mcrahiles hahiintioncs opus fuit cxplicarc. Krpo cum recipere non 
 jMisscl area plana tantnm multitudinrni in tirhe, ad au.xilium altitu- 
 dinis n-dificiorum res ipsa coc;'it deveniro. Vitruv. ii. 8. This pas- 
 i«ape, which I owe to Vossius, is clear, stronp. and comprehensive, 
 s The successive testimonies of Pliny, Arislides. Claudian, Bull- 
 lius, &c. prove the intrnfTiciency of these restrictive edicts. Sec Ltp-^ 
 sius, de >iaf;nitud. Ilomnna. I. iii. c. 4. 
 
 'J'uhulata lihi jum tertia fumant: 
 
 Tu ncj^cis ; nam si pradidus trepidatur ab imif 
 Uliimus ardebit, quern tegulasola tueiur . 
 
 A pluvia. Juvenal. '^ntJT- '^'! ^^Vi.a 
 
 a Read thn whole third satire, but partii ularly JGG. 223, &c. ino 
 description of a crowded inauln, or lodfiWij:- house, in Petroniu., ^. 
 95.97.) perfectly tallies with the complaints of Juvenal; '"J'"! ^° 
 learn fron> Ircal authority, that in the time of Augustus, (neinec- 
 cius. Hist. Juris Roman, c. iv. p. Jbl.) the ordinary rent ot "'^ *^V^* 
 tn\ canacula. or apartments of an insula, annually produced loriy 
 thousand sesterces, between three and four hundred pounds S'^""""^* 
 (Pandect. I. xix. tit. ii. No. 3n.)a sum which proves at once the large 
 citcnt, and hij;h value, of those common liuiidinps. - of 
 
 b This sum total is composed of 1780 domus, or preat "O"^'' , 
 46.002 insula, or plebeian habitations; (sec Nardini. Roma Aniica. u 
 
 cntof 
 
 111. p. 88.) and these numbers arc nKccrtaincd by *''^ "5' r^ii 
 
 the texts of the ditlcrenl J^otitig. Nardini, I. viii. p. '*^°- *'""• ,,. i- 
 
 c See that accurate writer, M. dc Messancc, Recherches sur 
 Population, p. 175-187. From probable or certain gro|>nd3.i'e-^^ 
 si-ns to Paris 23,505 houses, 71,114 families, and 5'b,G20 innan u^^^ 
 
 d This computation is not very ditferenl from that wnicn • 
 tier, the last editor of Tacitus, (tom. *«• P- -'^"O hns a«^"'"^*^^^^^^^ 
 similar principles; though he seems to aim at a degree oi v^^ 
 which it is neither possible nor important to obtain. • -. 
 
 • For the events of the first sieiie of Rome, whichtire ottcn c 
 founded with those of llic second and third, see Zosimus, i- » v 
 :}50-:t54. Soxomcn, 1. ix. c. 6. Olympiodorus. ap. Pnoj: P' 
 Philoslorgius, I. xii. c. 3. and Godcfroy, Dissertat. p. 407— 4"». 
 
 1 
 
 
 = 1 
 
 
 n ■ 
 
 
 180. 
 
 I 
 
 skilfi'^ disposition of his numerous forces, who impa- 
 tiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric en- 
 compassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal 
 rratcs, intercepted all communication with the adjacent 
 country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the 
 Tiber, from which the Romans derived the surest and 
 most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emo- 
 tions of the nobles, and of the people, were those of 
 surprise and indignation, that a \'ile barba.rian should 
 dare to insult the capital of the world ; but their arro- 
 gance was soon humbled by misfortune ; and their un- 
 inanly rage, instead ^f being directed against an ene- 
 my in arms, was meanly exercised on a defenceless 
 and innocent victim. Perhaps in the person of Sere- 
 na, the Romans might have respected the niece of 
 Theodosius, the aunt, nay, even the adopted mother, 
 of the reigning emperor ; but they abhorred the widow 
 of Stilicho ; and they listened with credulous passion 
 .to the tale of calumny, which accused her of main- 
 taining a secret and criminal correspondence with the 
 Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the same 
 popuhir phrensy, the senate, without requiring any ev- 
 idence of her guilt, pronounced the sentence of her 
 death. Serena was ignominiously strangled ; and the 
 infatuated multitude were astonished to find, that this 
 cruel act of injustice did not immediately produce the 
 retreat of the barbarians, and the deliverance of the 
 city. That unfortunate city gradually 
 Famine. experienced the distress of scarcity, and 
 at length the horrid calamities of famine. The daily 
 allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to 
 one-half, to one-third, to nothing; and the price of 
 corn still continued to riso in a rapid and extravagant 
 proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to 
 purchase the necessaries of life, solicited the precari- 
 ous charity of the rich; and for a while the public 
 misery was alleviated by the humanity of Lrcta, the 
 widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her res- 
 Jdcnco at Rome, and consecrated, to the use of the in- 
 digent, Uie princely revenue, which she annually re- 
 ceived from the grateful successors of her husband.' 
 But these private and temporary donatives were in- 
 suflicient to appease the hunger of a numerous people ; 
 ,and the progress of famine invaded the marble palaces 
 of. the senators themselves. The persons of both 
 sexes, who had been educated in the enjoymeiit of 
 ease and luxury, discovered how little is requisite to 
 supply the demands of nature ; and lavished their 
 unavailing treasures of gold and silver, to obtain the 
 coarse and scanty sustenance which they would for- 
 merly have rejected with disdain. The food the most 
 repugnant to sense or imagination, the aliments the 
 most^unvvholesome and pernicious to the constitution, 
 .were eagerly devoured, and fiercely disputed, by the 
 rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was entertained, 
 that some desperate wretches fed on the bodies of their 
 fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly murdered ; 
 and even mothers, (such was the horrid conflict of the 
 two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in 
 the human breast,) even mothers are said to have tast- 
 ed the flesh of their slaughtered infants !« Many 
 thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their 
 houses, or in the streets, for want of sustenance ; and 
 as the public sepulchres without the walls were in the 
 power of tlie enemy, the stench, which arose from so 
 '^ many putrid and unburied carcasses, in- 
 
 ^'*»'"'- fected the air; and the miseries of fam- 
 ine were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of 
 a pestilential diseuse. The assurances of speedy and 
 
 ' The mother of Laeta was named Pfssumena. Her father, family t 
 
 Bnd country, are unknown. Ducange, Earn. Byzantin. p. 59. 
 
 ' ■ K Ad nefandos cibos erupit esurienlium rabies, et sua Invlcarn 
 
 . membra laniarunt, dum mater non parcii lactenli Infaniite ; et reel- 
 
 pit utero, quern pauHo ante effUderal. Jerom ad Principiam, tom. I. 
 
 P- 121. The same horrid circumstance ii likewise told of the ■lenea 
 
 of Jerusalem and Paris. For the latter, compare the tenth book of 
 
 tbe Heiirinde. and the Journal de Menri IV. tom. iv. p. 47—63; and 
 
 ■ observe that a plain narrative of facta is much more pathetic, limn 
 
 the most laboured dcKriptions of epic poetry. 
 
 Vol. I — 3 D 
 
 effectual relief, which were repeatedly transmitted 
 from the court of Ravenna, supported, for some time, 
 the fainting resolution of the Romans, till at length 
 the despair of any human aid tempted them to accept 
 the offers of a preternatural deliverance. Pompeianus, 
 prajfect of the city, had been persuaded, ' suj^rsiitioD. 
 by the art or fanaticism of some Tuscan ■ 
 diviners, that, by the mysterious force of spells and 
 sacrifices, they could extract the lightning from the 
 clouds, and point those celestial fires against the camp 
 of tlie barbarians.** The important secret was com- 
 municated to Innocent, the bishop of Rome ; and the 
 successor of St. Peter is accused, perhaps without 
 foundation, of preferring the safety of the republic to 
 the rifTid severity of the christian worship. But when 
 the question was agitated in the senate, when it was 
 proposed as an essential condition, that those sacrifices 
 should be performed in the capitol, by the authority, 
 and in the presence, of the magistrates ; the majority 
 of that respectable assembly, apprehensive either of 
 the Divine or of the imperial displeasure, refused to 
 join in an act, which appeared almost equivalent to 
 the public restoration of paganism.' 
 
 The last resource of the Romans was AJanc^acjp;-^^ 
 in the clepiency, or at least in the mo- ^1,0 pjepo. 
 deration, of the king of the Goths. The A. D. 409. 
 senate, who in this emergency assumed the supreme 
 powers of government, appointed two ambassadors to 
 negociate with the enemy. This important trust was 
 defegated to Basilius, a senator, of Spanish extraction, 
 and already conspicuous in the administration of prov- 
 inces; and to John, the first tribune of the notaries, 
 who was peculiarly qualified, by his dexterity in bus- 
 iness, as well as by his former intimacy with the Gothic 
 prince. When they were introduced into his presence, 
 they declared, perhaps in a more lofly style than be- 
 came their abject condition, that the Romans were 
 resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or 
 war ; and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and hon- 
 ourable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and 
 prepare to give battle to an innumerable people, exer- 
 cised in arms, and animated by despair. "The thicker 
 the hay, the easier it is mowed," was the concise reply 
 of the barbarian ; and this rustic metaphor was accom- 
 panied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of 
 his contempt for the menaces of an un warlike populace, 
 enervated by luxury before they were emaciated by 
 famine. He then condescended to fix the ransom, 
 which he would accept as the price of his retreat from 
 the walls of Rome : all the gold and silver in the city, 
 whether it were the property of the state, or of indivi- 
 duals ; all the rich and precious movables ; and aU the 
 slaves who could prove their title to the name of harha- 
 rians. The ministers of the senate, presumed to ask 
 in a modest and suppliant tone, " If such, O king ! are 
 your demands, what do you intend to leave usV 
 " Your /ires," replied the haughty conqueror. They 
 trembled, and retired. Yet before they retired, a short 
 suspension of arms was granted, which allowed some 
 time for a more temperate negociation. The stern fea- 
 tures of Alaric were insensibly xelaxed ; he abated 
 much of the rigour of his terms ; and at length con- 
 
 b Zosimus (I. V. p. 355, 356.) speaks of these ceremonies, like a 
 Greek unacquainted with the national superstition of Rome aud 
 Tuscany. I suspect, that they consisted of two parts, the secret, and 
 the public ; the former were probably an imitation of the arts and 
 spells, by which Numa bad drawn down Jupiter and bis thunder on 
 Mount Aventine. 
 
 Qnid afrant laqaeis, qas carmina dicant, 
 
 duaque trahant superia sedibos arte Jovem 
 Scire nefas homini. 
 The a»cr7>a, or shields of Mars, the pignora Imperii^ which were 
 buried in solemn procession 00 the calends of March, derived their 
 origin from this mysterious erent. (Ovid. Fast. Ili.259— 398.) ]» was 
 probably dcslirned to revtre this ancient festival, which had beerj 
 suppressed by Theodosius, In that case, we recover a chronological 
 date (March the l8^ A. D. 4W.) which Daa not hitherto been ob- 
 served * -^ 
 
 i Sozomen 0- li. C) Insinuates, that the experiment was actually, 
 though unsuccessfully, made ; but he does not mention the name of 
 Innocent : and Tillc'mont (Mem. Ercles. tom. x. 645.) ia determined 
 not to beUeve, that a pope coald be guilty of such impious conde- 
 tcenaion. , 
 
 1 
 
•f. ■ 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Italy and the provinces, were intercepted by the calam- 
 ities of war; the gold and gems ha/ been exchanged 
 durinrr the famine, for the vilest sustenance: the 
 hoards of secret wealth were still concealed by the ob- 
 stinacy y avarice; and some remains of consecrated 
 spoils afforded the only resource that could avert the 
 impending rum of the city. As soon as the Romans 
 had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they 
 were restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment of 
 peace and plenty. Several of the gates were cautiously 
 opened ; the importation of provisions from the river. 
 
 ?»nri fho o^;o«««» . ' -.-..V, ....... »..c ,„u,, ». niKii J c»u>'ifciuo numerous lor a reiinue 0! honour «,»j 
 
 and the adjacent country, was no longer obstructed by too feeble for an army of defence. Six Ihousan/'T? i^ 
 the Goths; the citizens resnrtPri in ^r^x.vie ♦« tu« r-«l .:^„^ .u» a i .^ - """^r, , "^V^ mousand Dal- 
 
 haly and the Danube. If these modest teL.^*c^«M 
 be rejected, Alaric showed a disposition tb^}°?^^1 
 his pecuniary demands, and even to content li?^°*?? ^ 
 with the possession of Noricum, an exhau8ift?^*^iS ' 
 impoverished country, perpetually exposed toihk * •;! 
 roads of the barbarians of Germany." But the h '*'** ^ 
 of peace were disappointed by the weak obstinacv*^'^ 
 interested views, of the minister Olympius. With ^f 
 listenin^r to the salutary remonstrances of the senate 
 he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct or 
 military escort too numerous for a retinue of honour anJ 
 
 the Goths ; the citizens resorted in crowds to the free 
 market, which was held during three days in the sub- 
 urbs ; and while the merchants, who undertook this 
 gainful trade, made a considerable profit, the future 
 subsistence of the city was secured by the ample 
 magazines which were deposited in the public and pri- 
 vate granaries. A more regular discipline, than could 
 have been expected was maintained in the camp of 
 Alaric ; and the M-ise barbarian justified his retrard for 
 the faith of treaties, by the just severity with which he 
 chastised a party of licentious Goths, who had insulted 
 some Roman citizens on the road to Ostia. His army, 
 enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly 
 advanced into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany, 
 where he proposed to establish his winter quarters : 
 and the Gothic standard became the rcfuo-o of forty 
 thousand barbarian slaves, who had broke their chains, 
 and aspired, under the command of their great deliv- 
 erer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace of their 
 cruel servitude. About the same time, he received a 
 more honourable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, 
 whom Adolphus,' the brother of his wife, had conduct- 
 r(l, at his pressing invitation, from the banks of the 
 Danube to those of the Tiber, and who had cut their 
 way, with some diificulty and loss, through the superior 
 numbers of the imperial troops. A victorious leader, who 
 united the daring spirit of a barbarian with the art and 
 discipline of a Roman general, was at the head of a hun- 
 dred thousand fighting men ; and Italy pronounced with 
 terror and respect, the formidable name of Alaric." 
 Froitif'st n«>:;ocia- -^^ ^ho distance of fourteen centuries 
 tion.^for^ponj|c. we may be satisfied with relating the 
 ■ ' . ' military exploits of the conqucro*rs of 
 Rome, without presuming to investigate the motives 
 of their political conduct. In the midst of his ap- 
 parent prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of 
 some secret weakness, some internal defect ; or perhaps 
 the moderation which he displayed, was intended only 
 to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the minis- 
 ters of Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly 
 declared, that it was his desire to be considered as the 
 friend of peace, and of the Romans. Three senators, 
 at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to the 
 court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchantro of hostncres, 
 and the conclusion of the treaty ; and the proposals, 
 which he more clearly expressed during the course of 
 the negociations, could only inspire a doubt of his sin- 
 cerity, as they might seem inadequate to the state of 
 
 ro^k^rJ^^nH M,^ J'^'^^'^'^o mgrecliptit of the most expensive Roman 
 cookery, and ihe best sort commonly »r,l,l for fifteen denarii or ten 
 sh.ll.nL'S, iho pound. See Pliny, Hisl.Nalur. x i i 1 1 I wJ^brm.I, 
 from India; and iho same country, the coast of Ma libar, si^l aS 
 the grea 63 plenty : but the improvement of trade anJ I avi-a ion 
 h,i3 mullipl.pd the quantity, and reduced the price. See Histoire 
 Pi^litique ct Philosophique, «!tc. torn. I. p. 4:,7. "laiuiro 
 
 I This Gothic chieftain is called, by Jornaniles and Isidore Athnul 
 phus; hyZoshmrs and Orosws, Alaulphus; and by Olvrnniodor^ s 
 AJaoulphus. I have used the celebrated name of Ly/,S wS 
 flcems to be authorized by the practice of the Swedes, the sons or 
 brothers, of the ancient Goths. ' ' ^^ 
 
 m The treaty between Alaric and the Romans, &c. is taken from 
 Z..8.rnus, 1. V. p ^34, :i33. .X.S, 359. 3r/2, 3G.'j. The additional circmn- 
 BUuceg aro loo few and iriUing to rcciuire any other ciuolaiion. 
 
 matians, the flower of the imperial legions, were order 
 ed to march from Ravenna to Rome, throuo-h an' oo^n 
 country, which was occupied by the formiJable mvrr 
 ads of the barbarians. These brave legionaries, encoin- 
 passed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folly, 
 their general, Valcns, with an hundred soldiers, escan^d '^ 
 from the field of battle ; and one of ihe ambassador^ ^' 
 who could no longer claim the protection of the law of ; 
 nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a i 
 ransom of thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Ataric X 
 instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility 'l| 
 immediately renewed his proposals of peace ; and the' 
 second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived 
 weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, 
 bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the 
 road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers."* ** * ^" 
 
 Olympius P might have continued to in-,,. ^, "'• 
 
 suit the just resentment of a people.whoc^J^^IL^ofminiS: 
 loudly accused him as the author of the if" ";•« 
 
 public calamities; but his power was undermined by 
 the secret intrigues of the palace. The favourite eu- 
 nuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the 
 empire, to Jovius, the praetorian pra?fect; an unworthy 
 servant, who did not atone, by the merit of personal 
 attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of his ad- 
 niinistration. The exile, or escape of the guilty Olym- 
 pius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he 
 experienced the adventures of an obscure and wander- 
 ing life ; he again rose to power; he fell a second time 
 into disgrace ; his ears were cut off; he expired under 
 the lash ; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful 
 spectacle to the friends of Slilicho. After the removal 
 of Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with 
 religious fanaticism, the pagans and heretics were de- 
 livered from the impolitic proscription which excluded 
 them from the dignities of the state. The brave Gen- 
 nerid,*! a soldier of barbarian origin, who still adhered 
 to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay 
 aside the military belt ; and though he was repeatedly 
 assured by the emperor himself, that laws were not 
 made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused to 
 accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in hon- 
 ourable disgrace, till he had extorted a general act of 
 Justice from tlic distress of the Roman Government. 
 The conduct of Genncrid, in the important station to 
 which ho was promoted or restored, of master-general 
 ofDalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum and Rha^ia, seemed 
 to revive the discipline and spirit of the republic. From 
 a life of idleness and want, his troops were soon habitu- 
 
 M 
 
 n Zosimus, 1. v. p. 3C7— .?r,9. 
 
 o Zosinjus, l. V. p. 3G0— 3G'2. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, 
 escaped iho impending calauiities of the city. Orosius, 1. vii. c. 39. 
 p. 573. 
 
 P For tlte adventures of Olyripiiis, and his successors in the min- 
 istry, see Zosimus, 1. v. p. 363'. 363, 306. and Ol ympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 
 lyo, ISl. ' *- J ^ . . M 
 
 q Zosimus, (1. V. p. 3G1.) relates this circnmsiance with visible 
 complacency, and celebrates the chancier of Gennerid as t'^e last 
 glory of expiring paf^anism. Very dilTerent were the sentiments oi 
 Iho council of Carthasf'j who deputed four bishops to the court of Ka- 
 venna, to complain of the law, which had been just enacted, that all 
 converaiona to Christianity should be free and voluntary. See i>aro- 
 nius, Anual. Ecclos. A. D. 409. No. 1'3. A. D. -110. No. 17, 43. 
 
 .ff 
 
 t. * 
 
 ated to severe exercise, and plentiful subsistence ; and 
 his private generosity often supplied the rewards, which 
 were denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the court of 
 Ravenna. The valour of Gennerid, formidable to ihe 
 adjacent barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the 
 lllyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the 
 empire with a reinforcement of ten thousand Huns, 
 who arrived on the confines of Italy, attended by such 
 a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of 
 sheep and oxen, as might have been suflicient, not 
 only for the march of an army, but for the settlement 
 of a colony. But the court and councils of Honorius 
 still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of 
 corruption and" anarchy. Instigated by the praefect 
 Jovius, the guards rose in furious mutiny and demand- 
 ed the heads of two generals, and of the two princi- 
 pal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise 
 of safety, were sent on ship-board, and privately exe- 
 cuted ; while the favour of the eunuchs procured them 
 a mild and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople. 
 Eusebius the eunuch, and the barbarian Allobich, suc- 
 ceeded to the command of the bedchamber and of the 
 guards; and the mutual jealousy of these subordi- 
 nate ministers was the cause of their mutual destruc- 
 tion. By the insolent order of the count of the domes- 
 tics, the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to 
 death with slicks, before the eyes of the astonished 
 emperor : and the subsequent assassination of Allo- 
 bich, in the midst of a public procession, is the only 
 circunristance of his life in which Honorius discovered 
 the faintest symptom of courajre or resentment. Yet 
 before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had contributed 
 their part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the 
 conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish and 
 perhaps a criminal motive, had negociated with Alaric, 
 in a personal interview under the walls of Rimini. 
 During the absence of Jovius, the emperor was per- 
 suaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, 
 such as neither his situation, nor his character, "could 
 enable him to support ; and a letter, signed with the 
 name of Honoriirs, was immediately despatched to the 
 praetorian praefect, granting him a free permission to 
 dispose of the public money, but sternly refusino- to 
 prostitute the military honours of Rome to the proud 
 demands of a barbarian. This letter was imprudently 
 communicated to Alaric himself, and the Goth, who in 
 the whole transaction had behaved with temper and 
 decency, expressed, in the most outrageous language, 
 his lively sense of the insult so wantonly offered to his 
 person, and to his nation. The conference of Rimini 
 was hastily interrupted ; and the prajfect Jovius, on 
 his return to Ravenna, was compelled to adopt, and 
 even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the court. 
 By his advice and example, the principal ofliccrs of the 
 state and army were obliged to swear, that, without 
 listening, in a/jy circumstances, to ani/ conditions of 
 peace, they would still persevere in perpetual and im- 
 placable war against the enemy of the republic. This 
 rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to all 
 future negociation. The ministers of Honorius were 
 heard to declare, that, if they had only invoked the 
 name of the Deity, they would consult the public 
 safety, and trust their souls to the mercy of heaven : 
 but they had sworn, by the sacred head of the emperor 
 himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that 
 august seat of majesty and wisdom ; amd the violation 
 of their oath would expose them to the temporal penal- 
 ties of sacrilege and rebellion.' 
 e . . While the emperor and his court en- 
 
 PN'cond ?icire • j '.l h • i • 
 
 of Rome by joy^d, With sullen pride, the security of 
 
 the Gotha, the marshcs and fortifications of Ravenna, 
 
 A. D. 409. ti^py abandoned Rome, almost without 
 
 427 
 
 defence, to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was 
 the moderation which he still preserved, or aflfected, 
 that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian 
 way, he successively despatched the bishops of the 
 towns of Italy to reiterate his oflfers of peace, and to 
 conjure the emperor, that he would save the city and 
 Its inhabitants from hostile fire, and the sword of the 
 barbarians.' These impending calamines were how- 
 ever averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius, 
 but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; 
 who employed a milder, thouah not less eflfectual, 
 method of conquest. Instead of assaulting the capital, 
 he successively directed his eflforls ajrainst the Port of 
 Ostia, one of the boldest and most stupendous works 
 of Roman magnificence* The accidents to which the 
 precarious subsistence of the city was continually ex- 
 posed in a winter navigation, and an open road, had 
 suggested to the genius of the first Caesar the useful 
 design, which was executed under the reign of Clau- 
 dius. The artificial moles, which formed the narrow 
 I entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly repelled 
 : the fury of the waves, while the largest vessels secure- 
 j ly rode at anchor within three deep and capacious ba- 
 j sons, which received the northern branch of the Tiber, 
 about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia." 
 I The Roman Port insensibly swelled to the size of an 
 episcopal city,* where the corn of Africa was deposit- 
 ed in spacious granaries for ihe use of the capital. As 
 soon as Alaric was in possession of that important 
 place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion ; 
 and his demands were enforced by the positive decla- 
 ration, that a refusal, or even a delay, should be in- 
 stantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, 
 on which the life of the Roman people depended. The 
 clamours of that people, and the terror of famine, sub- 
 dued the pride of the senate : they listened, without 
 reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor 
 on the throne of the unworthy Honorius; and the suf- 
 frage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple on 
 Attains, praefect of ihe city. The grateful monarch 
 immediately acknowledged his protector as master- 
 general of the armies of the vvest ; Adolphus, with 
 the rank of count of the domestics, obtained the cus- 
 tody of the person of Attalus ; and the two hostile 
 nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of 
 friendship and alliance.^ 
 
 r Zosimus, 1. V. p. 367 — 369. This custom of swearinsby the head, 
 or life, or safety, or genius, of the sovereign, was of thehishest anti- 
 quity, both in Esypt (Genesis, xlii. 15.) and Scyihia. It'was soon 
 transferred, by flattery, to the Caesars ; and Tenullian complains, 
 that it was the only oath which the Romans of his time affected to 
 reverence. See an elegant Dissertation of the Abb6 Massieu on the 
 
 Oaths of the Ancients, in the Mem. de I'Academie des Inscriptions, 
 torn. i. p. 208,209. ^ ' 
 
 • Zosimus, 1. V. p. 368, 369. I have softened the expressions of Ala- 
 ric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner, on the history of Rome. 
 
 t See Suoton. in Claud, c. 20. Dion Cassius, 1. Ix. p. 949. eUit. 
 Reimar, and the lively description of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, &c. In 
 the sixteenth century, when the remains of this Augustan port were 
 still visible, the antiquarians sketched the plan, (see D'Anville, 
 Mem. de I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxx. p. 198.) and declared, 
 with enthusiasm, that all the monarchs of Europe would be unable 
 to execute so great a work. (Bergier, Hist, des Grands Chemins des 
 Romains, tom. ii. p. 356.) 
 
 u The Ostia Tyherina, (see Cluvcr. Italia Antiq.l. iii. p. 870—879.) 
 in the plural number, the two mouths of the Tiber, were separated by 
 the Holy Island, an equilateral triansrle, whose sides were each of 
 them computed at about two miles. The colony of Ostia was founded 
 immediately beyond the left, or southern, and the Port immediately 
 beyond the right, or northern, branch of the river; and the disunce 
 between their remains measures something more than two miles on 
 Cingolaiii's map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud deposited 
 by the Tiber, had choked the harbour of Ostia ; the progress of the 
 same cause had added much to the size of the Holy Island, and gra- 
 dually left both Ostia and the port at a considerable distance from 
 the shore. The dry channels, (fiumi morti,) and the large estuaries 
 (stagno di Ponente, de Levante,) mark the chanses of the river, and 
 the efforts of the sea. Consult, for the present state of this dreary 
 and desolate tract, the excellent map of the ecclesiastical state by 
 the mathematicians of Benedict XIV. ; an actual survey of the Agro 
 Romano, in six sheets, by Cingolani, which contains 11.3,819 rubbia 
 (about 570,000 acres ;) and the large topographical map of Ameti, in 
 eight sheets. 
 
 K As early as the third, (Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel, part 
 ii. vol. iii. p. 89—9-2.) or at least the fourth, century, (Carol, a Sancto 
 Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47.) the port of Rome was an episcopal city, 
 which was demolished, as it should seem, in the ninth century, by 
 Pope Gregory IV. during the incursions of the Arabs. It is now re- 
 duced to an inn, a church, and the house, or palace, of the bishop ; 
 who ranks as one of six cardinal bishops of the Roman church. See 
 Eschinard, Descrizione di-Roma e del' Agro Romano, p. 328. 
 
 y For the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, 1. vi. p. 377 — 380. 
 Sozomen, I. ix. c. 8, 9. Olympiodor. ap. Phot, p. 180, 181. Philo- 
 storg. 1. xii. c. 3. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 470. 
 

 426 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 ''iS^ 
 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 427 
 
 sented to raise the siege, on the immedinte payment of 
 five thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thousand pounds 
 of silver, of four thousand robes of silk, of three thou- 
 sand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and of three thousand 
 pounds weight of pepper.^ But the public treasury was 
 exhausted ; the annual rents of ihe great estates in 
 Italy and the provinces, were intercepted by the calam- 
 ities of war; the gold and gems had been exchanged 
 during the famine, for the vilest sustenance; "the 
 hoards of secret wealth were still concealed by the ob- 
 stinacy l)f avarice; and some remains of consecrated 
 spoils afforded the only resource that could avert the 
 impending ruin of the city. As soon as the Romans 
 had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they 
 were restored, in some measure, to tlie enjoyment of 
 peace and plenty. Several of the ^ates were cautiously 
 opened ; the importation of provi>ions from the river, 
 and the adjacent countr}', was no longer obstructed by 
 the Goths ; the citizens resorted in crowds to the free 
 market, which w-as held during three days in the sub- 
 urbs ; and while the merchants, who undertook this 
 gainful trade, made a considerable profit, the future 
 
 subsistence of the city was secured by the ample 'passed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to^ministerialfoUy* 
 magazines which were deposited in the public and pri- their general, Valons, with an hundred soldiers, escaped 
 
 vate granaries. A more regular disciplino, than could ' 
 
 have been expected was maintained in the camp of 
 
 his fortune. The barbarian still aspi/^dW th * ;i«^ 
 master-general of the armies of the west- W^ 
 lated an annual subsidy of corn and money- a?J?-^ 
 chose the provinces of Dalmaf.a, Norfcum; aftd Wn^ 
 tia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would hv^ 
 commanded the important communication b t ' * 
 Italy and ihe Danube If these modest terms Vfi^Sa-« 
 be rejected, Alaric showed a disposition to reli v* 
 
 his pecuniary demands, and even to content hi"m°*]f ^ 
 with the possession of Noricum, an exhausted ^'^n^ 
 impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the^i^ 
 roads of the barbarians of Germany." But the hoD^ 
 of peace were disappointed by the weak obstinacy or 
 interested views, of the minister Olympius. Withont 
 listening to the salutary remonstrances of the senate 
 he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a 
 military escort too numerous for a retinue of honour and 
 too feeble for an army of defence. Six thousand Dal- 
 matians, the flower of the imperial legions, were order- 
 ed to march from Ravenna to Rome, ihrouo-h an op'eh 
 country, which was occupied by the formiJfable myri- 
 ads of the barbarians. These brave lefjionaries, encorii- 
 
 Alaric ; and the wise barbarian justified his regard for 
 the faith of treaties, by the just severity with which ho 
 chastised a party of licentious Goths, who had insulted 
 some Roman citizens on the road to Ostia. His army, 
 enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly 
 advanced into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany, 
 where ho proposed to establish his winter quarters ; 
 and the Gothic standard became the refuge of forty 
 thousand barbarian slaves, who had broke their chains, 
 and aspired, under the command of their great deliv- 
 erer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace of their 
 cruel servitude. About the same time, he received a 
 more honourable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, 
 whom Adolj)hus,' the brother of his wife, had conduct- 
 ed, at his pressing invitation, from the banks of the 
 Danube to those of the Tiber, and who had cut their 
 way, with some diificulty and loss, through the superior 
 numbersofthe imperial troops. A victorious leader, who 
 united the daring spirit of a barbarian with the art and 
 discipline of a Roman general, was at the head of a hun- 
 dred thousand fighting men ; and Italy pronounced with 
 terror and respect, the formidable name of Alaric." 
 Froitifsinojjocia- -^^ ^^0 distance of fourteen centuries, 
 lion, for poarc. we may be satisfied with relating the 
 military exploits of the conquero^rs of 
 Rome, without presuming to investigate the motives 
 of their political conduct. In the midst of his ap- 
 parent prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of 
 some secret weakness, some internal defect ; or perhaps 
 the moderation which he displayed, was intended only 
 to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the minis- 
 ters of Honorius. The kincr of the Goths repeatedly 
 declared, that it was his desire to be considered as the 
 friend of peace, and of the Romans. Three senators, 
 at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to the 
 
 court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchantre of hostages, j justice from the'distrcss of the Roman^ Government, 
 and the conclusion of the treaty ; and the proposals, The conduct of Gennerid, in the important station to 
 
 scaped 
 from the field of battle ; and one of the ambassadors 
 who could no longer claim the protection of the law of 
 nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a 
 ransom of thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, 
 instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility, 
 immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the 
 second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived 
 weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, 
 bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the 
 road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers.** ' ^ -I, 
 
 Olympius P might have continued to in-,,. V'^-'^ 
 
 suit the just resentment of a people,who ccwion of minii. 
 loudly accused him as the author of the ^f ■'.^■ 
 
 public calamities ; hut his power was undermined by 
 the secret intrigues of the palace. The fiivourite eu- 
 nuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the 
 empire, to Jovius, the praetorian pra:fect; an unworthy 
 servant, who did not atone, by the merit of personal 
 attachment, fur the errors and misfortunes of his ad- 
 ministration. The exile, or escape of the cuilty Olym- 
 pius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune : he 
 experienced the adventures of an obscure and wander- 
 ing life ; he again rose to power; he fell a second time 
 into disgrace ; his ears were cut off; he expired under 
 the lash ; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful 
 spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal 
 of Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with 
 religious fanaticism, the pagans and heretics were de- 
 livered from the impolitic proscription which excluded 
 them from the dignities of the state. The brave Gen- 
 nerid,'' a soldier of barbarian origin, who still adhered 
 to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay 
 aside the military belt : and though he was repeatedly 
 assured by the emperor himself, that laws were not 
 made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused to 
 accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in hon- 
 ourable disfrrace, till lie had extorted a f^cncrnl act of 
 
 which he more clearly expressed during the course of 
 the negociations, could only inspire a doubt of his sin- 
 cerity, as they might seem inadequate to the state of 
 
 k Pepper waa a favourito ingreilirnt of ihe most exponsivp Romrxn 
 cookery, ami the b.'sl sort commonly soM for fifiOLMi drnarii, or ton 
 shilhnirs, iho pound. See Pliny, Hist. Naiur. xii. It. It was bnniirht 
 from India; and iho samo couiury, the coaat of iMalabar, alill alfords 
 the greatest plenly: but iho improvement of trade and navigation 
 li 13 multiplu'd the quantity, and reduced the price. See Histoire 
 Pi'lJTi'iue ct Philosophicjue, ice. torn. I. p. -I.")?. 
 
 I This Gothic chieftain ia called, by Jornandes and Uh\oro,Alhaul- 
 phits; by Zosinuis and Origins, Atati/phun; and by Olyrnpiodonis 
 Ailuoulphus. I have used the celebrated name of Adulp/ms which 
 flccjns to be autiiorized by tlie practice of the Swedes, the sons or 
 brothers, of the ancient Goths. ' 
 
 n» The treaty b( tween Alaric and the Romans, kc. is taken from 
 Zo5i:r,u.^, I. V. p. Xy\, X5. X^S, 3:)9. 30'2, 3C'i. The additional circum- 
 Btuucci arc I'jo lew and trilling lu rctiuire any other quotation. 
 
 which ho was promoted or restored, of nia.stcr-gcncral 
 ofDalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum and Rhxtia, seemed 
 to revive the discipline and spirit of the republic. From 
 a life of idleness and want, his troops were soon habitu- 
 
 n Zosinius, 1. V. p. 307— .^GQ. 
 
 o Zosimus, I. V. p. 3G0— 3G:. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, 
 escaped the impending calamities of tho city. Orosius, 1. vii. c. >yf» 
 p. 573. 
 
 P For tlie adventures of Olvmpius, and hi.i .«?uccrs5or3 in the vnia- 
 i.stry. see Zosimus, I. v. p. 363. 3<w, 306. and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 
 lyo, ISl. . , . .^,_ 
 
 Q Zosimus, (1. V. p. 3GI.) relates this circumstance with 7'sioi» 
 ' ^ - • - - • • - — -: > as the lasfc 
 
 men is of 
 
 -, 
 
 } 
 
 complacency, and ci-lebratcs the chanicter of Gcniieriit a 
 glory of expiring paganism. Very ditlerent were the senti .„ 
 the council of Carthaqe, who deputed f(Uir bishops to tho <^<^"'\*^\ ,,,* 
 venna. to complain of the law, which had bern just en icicd, l"'^,^ ^t 
 conversiuns to clirislianity sliould bp fn>e and voluntary, ate i>a 
 nius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 400. No. ivi. A. D. -110. No. ir, -13. 
 
 ated to severe exercise, and plentiful subsistence ; and 
 his private generosity often supplied the rewards, which 
 were denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the court of 
 Ravenna. The valour of Gennerid, formidable to the 
 adjacent barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the 
 Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the 
 empire with a reinforceinent of ten thousand Huns, 
 who arrived on the confines of Italy, attended by such 
 a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of 
 sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient, not 
 only for the march of an army, but for the settlement 
 of a colony. But the court and councils of Honorius 
 still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of 
 corruption and' anarchy. Instigated by the praefect 
 .Tovius, the guards rose in furious mutiny and demand- 
 ed the heads of two generals, and of the two princi- 
 pal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise 
 of safety, were sent on ship-board, and privately exe- 
 cuted ; while the favour of the eunuchs procured them 
 a mild and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople. 
 Eusebius the eunuch, and the barbarian Allobich, suc- 
 ceeded to the command of the bedchamber and of the 
 guards ; and the mutual jealousy of these subordi- 
 nate ministers was the cause of their mutual destruc- 
 tion. By the insolent order of the count of the domes- 
 tics, the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to 
 death with sticks, before the eyes of the astonished 
 emperor : and the subsequent assassination of Allo- 
 bich, in the midst of a public procession, is the only 
 circumstance of his life in which Honorius discovered 
 the faintest symptom of courage or resentment. Yet 
 before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had contributed 
 their part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the i 
 conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish and ■ 
 perhaps a criminal motive, had negociated with Alaric, ' 
 in a personal interview under the walls of Rimini. 
 During the absence of Jovius, the emperor was per- 
 suaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, 
 such as neither his situation, nor his character, could 
 enable him to support; and a letter, signed with the 
 name of Honorius, was immediately despatched to the 
 praetorian prefect, granting him a free permission to 
 dispose of the public money, but sternly refusing to 
 prostitute the military honours of Rome to the proud 
 demands of a barbarian. This letter was imprudently 
 communicated to Alaric himself, and the Goth, who in 
 the whole transaction had behaved with temper and 
 decency, expressed, in the most outrageous language, 
 his lively sense of the insult so wantonly oifered to his 
 person, and to his nation. The conference of Rimini 
 was hastily interrupted ; and the praefect Jovius, on 
 his return to Ravenna, was compelled to adopt, and 
 even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the court. 
 By his advice and example, the principal officers of the 
 state and army were obliged to swear, that, without 
 listening, in a/iy circumstances, to any conditions of 
 peace, they would still persevere in perpetual and im- 
 placable war against the enemy of the republic. This 
 rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to all 
 future negociation. The ministers of Honorius were 
 heard to declare, that, if they had only invoked the 
 name of the Deity, they would consult the public 
 safety, and trust their souls to the mercy of heaven : 
 but they had sworn, by the sacred head of the emperor 
 himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that 
 august seat of majesty and wisdom ; and the violation 
 of their oath would expose them to the temporal penal- 
 ties of sacrilege and rebellion.' 
 
 While the emperor and his court en- 
 
 ST.mc'ify Joy^'^' ^'i^*^ sullen pride, the security of 
 
 the Goths, the marshes and fortifications of Ravenna, 
 
 A. D. 40'.>. thpy abandoned Rome, almost without 
 
 r Zosimus, 1. V, p. 367 — 369. This custom of swearinsby the head, 
 or lifp, or safety, or cenius, of the sovereign, was of tlie hightst anti- 
 quity, both in Esrypt (Genesis, xlii. 15.) and Scythia. Il~was soon 
 transferred, by flattery, to the Caesars ; and Tenullian complains, 
 that it was the only oath which the Romans of his lime affected to 
 reverence. See an elegant Dissertation of the Abbe Massieu on the 
 
 defence, to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was 
 the moderation which he still preserved, or affi?cted, 
 that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian 
 way, he successively despatched the bishops of the 
 towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace, and to 
 conjure the emperor, that he would save the city and 
 its inhabitants from hostile fire, and the sword of the 
 barbarians.' These impending calamities were how- 
 ever averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius, 
 but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; 
 who employed a milder, though not less effectual, 
 method of conquest. Instead of assaulting the capital, 
 he successively directed his efforts against the Port of 
 Ostia, one of the boldest and most stupendous works 
 of Roman magnificence* The accidents to which the 
 precarious subsistence of the city was continually ex- 
 posed in a winter navigation, and an open road, had 
 suggested to the genius of the first Caesar the useful 
 design, which was executed under the reign of Clau- 
 dius. The artificial moles, which formed the narrow 
 entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly repelled 
 the fury of the waves, while the largest vessels secure- 
 ly rode at anchor within three deep and capacious ba- 
 sons, which received the northern branch of the Tiber, 
 about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia." 
 The Roman Port insensibly swelled to the size of an 
 episcopal city,* where the corn of Africa was deposit- 
 ed in spacious granaries for the use of the capital. As 
 soon as Alaric was in possession of that important 
 place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion ; 
 and his demands were enforced by the positive decla- 
 ration, that a refusal, or even a delay, should be in- 
 stantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, 
 on which the life of the Roman people depended. The 
 clamours of that people, and the terror of famine, sub- 
 dued the pride of the senate : they listened, without 
 reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor 
 on the throne of the unworthy Honorius; and the suf- 
 frage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple on 
 Attains, prefect of the city. The grateful monarch 
 immediately acknowledged his protector as master- 
 general of the armies of the west ; Adolphus, with 
 the rank of count of the domestics, obtained the cus- 
 tody of the person of Attains ; and the two hostile 
 nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of 
 friendship and alliance.y 
 
 Oaths of the Ancients, in the Mem. de I'Acadcmie des Inscriptions, 
 torn. i. p. 208,209. 
 
 « Zosimus, 1. v. p. 368, 369. I have softened the expressions of Ala- 
 ric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner, on the history of Rome. 
 
 t See Sucton. in Claud, c. 20. Dion Cassius, I. Ix. p. 949. edit. 
 Reimar, and the lively description of Juvenal, Salir. xii. 75, &c. In 
 the sixteenth century, when the remains of this Augustan port were 
 still visible, the antiquarians sketched the plan, (see D'Anville, 
 Mem. de I'Acadetnie des Inscriptions, tom. xxx. p. 198.) and declared, 
 with enthusiasm, that all the monarchs of Europe would be unable 
 to execute so great a work. (Bcrgier, Hist, des Graiids Chemins des 
 Romains, tom. ii. p. 356.) 
 
 u The Ostia I'yherhia, (see Cluver. Italia Anliq.l. iii. p. 870—879.) 
 in the plural number, the two mouths of the Tiber, were separated by 
 the Holy Island, an equilateral Irianirle, whose sides were each of 
 them computed at about two miles. The colony of Ostia was founded 
 immediately boyond the left, or southern, and ihe Port immediately 
 beyond the right, or northern, branch of the river; and the distance 
 between their remains measures something more than two miles on 
 Cingolani's map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud deposited 
 by the Tiber, had choked the harbour of Ostia ; the progress of the 
 same cause had added much to the size of the Holy Island, and gra- 
 dually left both Ostia and the port at a considerable distance from 
 the shore. The dry channels, (fiumi morti,) and the large estuaries 
 (stagno di Ponente, de Levanlo,) mark tlie changes of the river, and 
 tiie efforts of the sea. Consult, for the present state of this dreary 
 and desolate tract, the excellent map of the ecclesiastical state by 
 the mathematicians of Benedict XIV. ; an actual survey of ihe Agro 
 Jtomano, in six sheets, by Cingolani, which contains 113,819 rttbbia 
 (about 570,(KX) acres;) and the large topographical map of Ameti, in 
 eight sheets. 
 
 X As early as the third, (Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel, part 
 ii. vol. iii. p. 89—9-2.) or at least the fourth, century, (Carol, a Sancto 
 Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47.) the port of Rome was an episcopal city, 
 which was demolished, as it should seem, in the ninth century, by 
 Pope Gregory IV. during the incursions of llie Arabs. It is now re- 
 duced to an inn, a church, and the house, or palace, of the bishop ; 
 who ranks as one of six cardinal bishops of the Roman church. See 
 EschinardjDescrizione di Roma e del' Agro Romano, p. 328. 
 
 y f'or the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, 1. vi. p. 377 — 380. 
 Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 8, 9. Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181. Fhilo- 
 storg. 1. xii. c. 3. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 470. 
 
 T-' 
 
428 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 Atulu.i. created The gates of the city were thrown 
 emperur by the open, and the new emperor of the Ro- 
 Goths and Ro- mans, encompassed on every side by 
 the Gothic arms, was conducted, in tu- 
 multuous procession, to the palace of Augustus and 
 Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and milita- 
 ry dignities among his favourites and followers, Atta- 
 ins convened an assembly of the senate ; before whom, 
 in a formal and florid speech, he asserted his resolu- 
 tion of restoring the majesty of the republic, and of 
 uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt and the 
 east, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty 
 of Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every 
 reasonable citizen with a just contempt for the charac- 
 ter of an unwarlike usurper; whose elevation was the 
 deepest and most ignominious wound which the re- 
 public had yet sustained from the insolence of the 
 barbarians. But the populace, with their usual levity, 
 applauded the change of masters. The public discon- 
 tent was favourable to the rival of Honorius ; and the 
 sectaries, oppressed by his persecuting edicts, expect- 
 ed some degree of countenance, or at least of tolera- 
 tion, from a prince, who, in his native country of Ionia, 
 had been educated in the pagan superstition, and who 
 had since received the sacrament of baptism from the 
 hands of an Arian bishop.' The first days of the 
 reign of Attains were fair and prosperous. An officer 
 of confidence was sent with an inconsiderable body of 
 troops to secure the obedience of Africa : the great«^st 
 part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic 
 powers ; and though the city of Bologna made a vig- 
 orous and eflfectual resistance, the people of Milan, 
 dissatisfied perhaps with the absence of Honorius, 
 accepted, with loud acclamations, the choice of the 
 Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army, 
 Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to the gates 
 of Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal 
 ministers, of Jovius, the praetorian praefect, of Valens, 
 master of the cavalry and infantry, of the quaestor 
 Potamius, and of Julian, the first of the notaries, was 
 introduced, with martial pomp, into the Gothic camp. 
 In the name of their sovereign, they consented to ac- 
 knowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and 
 to divide the provinces of Italy and the west between 
 the two emperors. Their proposals were rejected with 
 disdain ; and the refusal was aggravated by the in- 
 sulting clemency of Attains, who condescended to 
 promise, that, if Honorius would instantly resign the 
 purple, he should be permitted to pass the remainder 
 of his life in the peaceful exile of some rerpote island.* 
 So desperate indeed did the situation of the son of 
 Theodosius appear, to those who were the best ac- 
 quainted with his strength and resources, that Jovius 
 and Valens, his minister and his general, betrayed their 
 trust, infamously deserted the sinking cause of their 
 benefactor, and devoted their treacherous allegiance 
 to the service of his more fortunate rival. Astonished 
 by such examples of domestic treason, Honorius trem- 
 bled at the approach of every servant, at the arrival 
 of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, 
 who might lurk in his capital, his palace, his bed- 
 chamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbour of 
 Ravenna, to transport the abdicated monarch to the 
 dominions of his infant nephew, the emperor of the 
 east. 
 
 He is degraded ^"^ there IS a Providence (such at 
 By Alaric, least was the opinion of the historian 
 Procopius**) that watches over innocence 
 
 A. D. 410. 
 
 s We may admit the evidence of Sozomen for the Arian baptism, 
 and thai of Philostorgius for the pagan education, of Attalus. The 
 visible joy of Zosimus, and the discontent which he imputes to the 
 Anician family, are v^y unfavourable to the Christianity of the new 
 emperor. 
 
 * He carried hig insolence so far, as to declare that he should mu- 
 tilate Honorius before he sent him Into exile. But this assertion of 
 Zoflimus is destroyed by the more impartial testimony of Olympiodo- 
 nw, who attributes the ungenerous proposal (which was absolutely 
 rejected by Atulus) to the baseness, and perhaps the treachery of 
 Jovius. 
 
 b Procop. do Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 2. . 
 
 and folly ; and the pretensions of Honorius to its pe- 
 culiar care cannot reasonably be disputed. At the 
 moment when his despair, incapable of any wise or 
 manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a sea- 
 sonable reinforcement of four thousand veterans unex- 
 pectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To these 
 valiant strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupt- 
 ed by the factions of the court, he committed the walls 
 and gates of the city; and the slumbers of the emperor 
 were no lonnrer disturbed by the apprehension of im- 
 minent and internal danger. The favourable intelli- 
 gence which was received from Africa suddenly 
 changed the opinions of men, and the state of public 
 aflfairs. The troops and ofllicers, whom Attalus had 
 sent into that province, were defeated and slain ; and 
 the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own alle- 
 giance, and that of his people. The faithful count of 
 Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed 
 the attachment of the imperial guards ; and his vigi- 
 lance, in preventing the exportation of corn and oil, 
 introduced famine, tumult, and discontent, into the 
 walls of Rome. The failure of the African expedition, 
 was the source of mutual complaint and recrimination 
 in the party of Attalus; and the mind of his protector 
 was insensibly alienated from the interest of a prince, 
 who wanted a spirit to command, or docility to obey. 
 The most imprudent measures were adopted, without 
 the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and 
 the obstinate refusal of the senate to allow, in the em- 
 barkation, the mixture even of five hundred Goths, 
 betrayed a suspicious and distrustful temper, which, 
 in their situation, was neither generous nor prudent. 
 The resentment of the Gothic king was exasperated 
 by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised 
 to the rank of patrician, and who afterwards excused 
 his double perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that 
 he had only seemed to abandon the service of Honorius, 
 more eflTectually to ruin the cause of the usurper. In 
 a large plain near Rimini, and in the presence of an 
 innumerable multitude of Romans and barbarians, the 
 wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the dia- 
 dem and purple ; and those ensigns of royalty were 
 sent by Alaric, as the pledge of peace and friendship, to 
 the son of Theodosius.' The officers who returned to 
 their duty were reinstated in their employments, and 
 even the merit of a tardy repentance was graciously 
 allowed ; but the degraded emperor of the Romans, 
 desirous of life, and insensible of disgrace, implored 
 the permission of following the Gothic camp, in the 
 train of a haughty and capricious barbarian.** 
 
 The degradation of Attalus removed Third eicge and 
 the only real obstacle to the conclusion of *'"^'' v**" Jon^e by 
 the peace ; and Alaric advanced within ^a^d'410. 
 three miles of Ravenna, to press the ir- Aug. 24. 
 resolution of the imperial ministers, whose insolence 
 soon returned with the return of fortune. His indigna- 
 tion was kindled by the report, that a rival chieftain, 
 that Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the 
 hereditary foe of the house of Balti, had been received 
 into the palace. At the head of three hundred follow- 
 ers, that fearless barbarian immediately sallied from 
 the gates of Ravenna; surprised, and cut in pieces, a 
 considerable body of Goths ; re-entered the city in 
 triumph ; and was permitted to insult his adversary, 
 by the voice of a herald, who publicly declared that the 
 guilt of Alaric had for ever excluded him from the 
 friendship and alliance of the emperor." The crime and 
 
 c See the Cause and circumstances of the full of Attalus in Zosimus, 
 I. vi. p. 380-383. Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 8. Philoslor?. I. xii. c. 3. The 
 two acts of indemnity in the Theo<losian Co<le, I. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg, 
 11,22. which were published the 12ih of February, and the Sth of 
 August, A. D. 410, evidently relate to this usurper. 
 
 d In hoc, Alaricus, imperatore facto infecto, refecto, ac defecto 
 . . . Mimum risit, et ludum speciavit imperii. Oroeius, I. vii. c. ^, 
 p. 582. 
 
 e Zosimus, 1. vi. p. 384. Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 9. Philostorgius, 1. xii 
 c. 3. In this place the text of Zosimus is mutilated, and we have lost 
 the remainder of his sixth and last book, which ended with the sack 
 of Rome. Credulous and partial as he is, we must take our leave of 
 that historian with some regret. 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 folly of the court of Ravenna was expiated, a third time, 
 by the calamities of Rome. The king of the Goths, 
 who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder 
 and revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of 
 the capital; and the trembling senate, without any 
 hopes of relief, prepared, by a desperate resistance, to 
 delay the ruin of their country. But they were unable 
 to guard against the secret conspiracy of their slaves 
 and domestics ; who, either from birth or interest, were 
 attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of 
 midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and 
 the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous 
 sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and 
 sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the 
 imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so con- 
 siderable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licen- 
 tious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.' 
 Respect of the The proclamation of Alaric, when he 
 G01I18 for the forced his entrance into a vanquished 
 
 christian religion. „u., j- • , 1 i ^^ 
 
 City, discovered, however, some regard 
 for the laws of humanity and religion. He encouraged 
 his troops boldly to seize the rewards of valour, and 
 to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and 
 effeminate people : but he exhorted them, at the same 
 time, to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and 
 to respect the churches of the apostles, St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, as holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst 
 the horrors of a nocturnal tumult, several of the chris- 
 tian Goths displayed the fervour of a recent conver- 
 sion ; and some instances of their uncommon piety and 
 moderation are related, and perhaps adorned, by the zeal 
 of ecclesiastical writers.* While the barbarians roamed 
 through the city in quest of prey, the humble dwelling 
 of an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to the ser^ 
 vice of the altar, was forced open by one of the pow- 
 erful Goths. He inimediately demanded, though in 
 civil language, all the gold and silver in her posses- 
 sion ; and was astonished at the readiness with which 
 she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate, 
 of the richest materials, and the most curious work- 
 manship. The barbarian viewed with wonder and 
 delight this valuable acquisition., till he was interrupted 
 by a serious admonition, addressed to him in the fol- 
 lowing words : "These," said she, "are the conse- 
 crated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you presume 
 to touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on 
 your conscience. For my part. I dare not keep what 
 I am unable to defend." The Gothic captain, struck 
 with reverential awe, despatched a messenger to inform 
 the king of the treasure which he had discovered ; and 
 received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all the 
 consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported, 
 A^'ithout damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. 
 From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to 
 the distant quarter of the Vatican, a numerous detach- 
 ment of Goths, marching in order of battle through the 
 principal streets, protected, with glittering arms, the 
 long train of their devout companions, who bore aloft, 
 on their heads, the sacred vessels of gold and silver ; 
 and the martial shouts of the barbarians were mintrled 
 with the sound of religious psalmody. From all'the 
 adjacent houses, a crowd of christians hastened to join 
 this e lifying procession ; and a multitude of fugitives. 
 
 429 
 
 without distinction of age, or rank, or even of sect, 
 had the good fortune to escape to the secure and 
 hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned 
 work, concerning the City of God, was professedly 
 composed by St. Augustin, to justify the ways of 
 Providence m the destruction of the Roman greatness 
 He celebrates, with peculiar satisfaction, this memora- 
 ble triumph of Christ; and insults his adversaries, by 
 challenging them to produce some similar example of 
 a town taken by storm, in which the fabulous gods of 
 antiquity had been able to protect either themselves or 
 their deluded votaries.** 
 
 In the sack of Rome, some rare and rilla^e a d fi 
 extraordinary examples of barbarian vir- of ktme" 
 tue had been deservedly applauded. But the holy pre- 
 cincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches could 
 receive but a very small proportion of the Roman peo- 
 ple : many thousand warriors, more especially of the 
 Huns, who served under the standard of Alaric, were 
 strangers to the name, or at least to the faith, of Christ ; 
 and we may suspect, without any breach of charity or 
 candour, that, in the hour of savage licence, when everv 
 passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed", 
 the precepts of the gospel seldom influenced the behav- 
 iour of the Gothic christians. The writers, the best dis- 
 posed to exaggerate their clemency, have freely con- 
 fessed, that a cruel slaughter was made of the Ro- 
 mans;' and that the streets of the city were filled with 
 dead bodies, which remained without burial during the 
 general consternation. The despair of the citizens was 
 sometimes converted into fury; and whenever the 
 barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended 
 the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, 
 and the helpless. The private revenge of forty thousand 
 slaves was exercised without pity or remorse ; and 
 the ignominious lashes which they had formerly receiv- 
 ed, were washed away in the blood of the guilty, or 
 obnoxious, families. The matrons and virgins of Rome 
 werel^posed to injuries more dreadful, in the appre- 
 hension of chastity, than death itself; and the ecclesi- 
 astical historian has selected an example of female vir- 
 tue, for the admiration of future ages.'' A Roman lady, 
 of singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the 
 impatient desires of a young Goth, who according to 
 the sagacious remark of Sozomen, was attached to the 
 Arian heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, 
 he drew his sword, and with the anger of a lover, 
 slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still 
 continued to brave his resentment, and repel his love, 
 till the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, 
 respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vat- 
 ican, and gave six pieces of gold to the guards of the 
 church, on condition that they should restore her Invi- 
 olate to the arms of her husband. Such instances of 
 courage and generosity were not extremely common. 
 The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites 
 without consulting either the inclination, or the duties, 
 of their female captives : and a nice question of casu- 
 istry was seriously agitated. Whether those tender vic- 
 tims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the 
 violation which they sustained, had lost, by their mis- 
 
 # 
 
 f Adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat, irrumpit. Oro- 
 Bjus, I. vii. c. 39, p. 573. He despatches this great event in seven 
 words; but he employs wh«>le pasjes in celebrating the devotion of 
 the Goths. I have extracted, from an improbable story of Procopius, 
 the circumstances which had an air of probability. Procop. de Bell. 
 Vandal. 1. i. c. 2. He supposes, that the city was surprised while the 
 senators slept in the afiernwn ; but Jeroni, with more authority and 
 more reason, aflirms, that it was in the nijiht, nocte Moab capta est- 
 node cecidit murus ejus, torn. i. p. 121. ad Principiam. ' 
 
 g Orosius, (I. vii. r. M. p. 573— 57(i.) applauds ilie piety of the chris- 
 tian Goths, without sceinint; to {)erceive that the greatest part of 
 them were Arian heretics. Jornandes (c. 30. p. 653.) and Isidore of 
 Seville, (Chron. p. 714, edit. Grot.) who were both attached to the 
 Gothic cause, have repeated and embellished these edifying tales. 
 According to Isidore, Alaric himself was heard to say, that he 
 Waged war with the Romans, and not with the apostles. Such was 
 the style of the seventh century ; two hundred years before, the fame 
 and merit had been ascribed, not to the apostles, but to Christ. 
 
 h Pec Anpustin, de Civitat. Dei, 1. i. c. 1—6. He particularly an- 
 peals to the examples of Troy, Syracuse, and Tarentnm. 
 
 i Jerom (torn. i. p. 121. ad Principiam) has applied to the sack of 
 Rome all the stronp expressions of Virgil : 
 
 Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando, 
 Explicet, &c. 
 Procopius (I. i. c. 2.) positively nffirms, that great numbers were 
 slam l>y the Goilis. Augustin (de Civ. Dei., I. i. c. 12, 13.) offers 
 christian comfort for the death of U)o$:e whose lodieslmutt a corpora) 
 had remained (m tanta strage) uiiburied. Baronius, from the dif- 
 ferent writings of the fathers, h.ns thrown some light on the sack of 
 Rome. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 410. No. 16.— 44. 
 
 k Sozomen, I. ix. c, 10. Augustin (de Civitat, Dei. I. i. r, 17.) inti- 
 mates, that some virgins or matrons actually killed themselves to es- 
 cape violation ; and though he ndniires tlieir spirit, he is obliged, by 
 his theology, to condemn their rash presumption. Perhaps the good 
 bishop of Hippo was too easy In the belief, as well as too rigid in the 
 censure, of this act of female heroism. The twenty maidens (if 
 they ever existed) who threw themselves into the Elbe, when Mag- 
 deburg was taken by storm, have been multiplied to the number of 
 twelve hundred. See Harte's History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. 
 p. 308. 
 
 ir 
 
 i 
 
430 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 fortune, the glorious crown of virginity.^ There were 
 other losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and 
 more general concern. It cannot be presumed, that 
 all the barbarians were at all times capable of perpe- 
 trating such amorous outrages; and the want of youth, 
 or beauty, or chastity, protected the greatest part of the 
 Roman women from the danger of a rape. But avarice 
 is an insatiate and universal passion ; since the enjoy- 
 ment of almost every object that can afford pleasure 
 to the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be 
 procured by the possession of wealth. In the pillage 
 of Rome, a just preference was given to gold and jew- 
 els, which contain the greatest value in the smallest 
 compass and weight; but after these portable riches 
 had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the 
 palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid 
 and cosily furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, 
 and the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were 
 irregularly piled in the waggons, that always followed 
 the march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite 
 works of art were roughly handled, or wantonly des- 
 troyed : many a statue was melted for the sake of the 
 precious materials ; and many a vase, in the division 
 of the spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke 
 of a battle-axe. The acquisition of riches served only 
 to stimulate the avarice of the rapacious barbarians, 
 who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and by tortures, 
 to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden 
 treasure.™ Visible splendour and expense were alleged 
 as a proof of a plentiful fortune: the appearance of 
 poverty was imputed to a parsimonious disposition ; 
 and the obstinacy of some misers, who endured the 
 most cruel torments before they would discover the 
 secret object of their affection, was fatal to many un- 
 happy wretches, who expired under the lash, for re- 
 fusing to reveal their imaginary treasures. The edi- 
 fices (if Rome, though the damage has been much 
 exaggerated, received some injury from the violence of 
 the (joths. At their entrance through the Salarian 
 gate, they fired tiie adjacent houses to guide their 
 march, and to distract the attention of the citizens : 
 the flames, which encountered no obstacle in the 
 disorder of the night, consumed many private and 
 public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of 
 Sallust" remained, in the aire of Justinian, a stately 
 monument of the Gothic conflagration." Yet a con- 
 temporary historian has observed, that fire could 
 scarcely consume the enormous beams of solid brass, 
 and that the strength of man was insufficient to subvert 
 the foundations of ancient structures. 8ome truth may 
 possibly he concealed in his devout assertion, that the 
 wrath of heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile 
 rage; and that the proud forum of Rome, decorated 
 with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was 
 levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning.? 
 
 I S<'e Auenstin. de Civilat. Dei, I. i. c. IG. 18. He treats tlie siih- 
 jert witii remarkalilc arcur.-iry ; and after admittini: tli:il there can- 
 not he any rrinie, where there is no consent, he adds, Scd quia non 
 solum quod ad dolorem, veruni eiiain quod ad lihidineni, pertinef, in 
 corpore alicno pcrpRtrari potest ; quirquid talc factum fueril, etsi re 
 tentam constantissimo anitno pudiciti:im non excutit. pudorem ta- 
 mer, incuiit, ue credatur factum cum inentig eliam voluntate, quod 
 fieri forlasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate non potuit. In c. ly. he 
 makes some curious distinctions between moral and physical vir- 
 ginity. 
 
 m Marrella, a Roman lady, equally respectal)le for licr rank, lier 
 nge, and her piety, was thrown on the ground, and beaten and cru 
 elly whipped, ca-pani fustihus flasjtilisque, &c. Jtrom, torn. i. p. 121. 
 nd Principiam. Sic Aujjusiin, de ('iv. Dei, I. i. c. 10. The modern 
 Pnrco di Roma, p. '2<'8. jjives an idea of tiie various methods of tor- 
 turins^ prisoners for cold. 
 
 n The historian Sallust, who usefully practised the vices wliich he 
 lias so eloquently censured, empl"y<^rf tl'e plunder of Numidia to 
 adorn his palace and gardens on the Uuirinal hill. The spot where 
 the house stood is now marked hy the church of St. Susanna, sepa- 
 rated only by a street from the baths of Diocletian, and not far dis- 
 tant from the Salarian cate. See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. Jlt2, 193. 
 and the great Plan of Modern Rome, by Nolli. 
 
 o The expressions of Procopius are distinct and moderate, (de 
 Rell. Vandal. I. i. c. 2) The Chronicle of Marcellinus speaks too 
 strongly, partem urbia Romx cremavit ; and the words of Philostor 
 gius {iv ipi.Tioi? ^1 T»if rroKfx-i xii/^ift);, I. xii. c. 3.) couvcy a false 
 and exaggerated idea. Bargieus has composed a particular disserta- 
 tion (see tom. iv. Antiquit. Rom. Gra;v.) to prove that the edifices of 
 Rome were not subverted by the Goths and Vandals. 
 
 P Orosius, 1. ii. c. 19. p. 143. He speaka as if be disapproved all 
 
 Whatever might be the numbers, of Captives and fu- 
 equestrian or plebeian rank, who perish- gitives 
 ed in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed, 
 that only one senator lost his life by the sword of the 
 enemy.'! But it was not-easy to compute the multi- 
 tudes, who from an honourable station, and a pros- 
 perous fortune, were suddenly reduced to the miserable 
 condition of captives and exiles. As the barbarians 
 had more occasion for money than for slaves, they 
 fixed, at a moderate price, the redemption of their indig- 
 nant prisoners ; and the ransom was often paid by the 
 benevolence of their friends, or the charity of stran- 
 gers.' The captives, who were regularly sold, either 
 in open market, or by private contract, would have 
 legally regained their native freedom, which it was 
 impossible for a citizen to lose, or to alienate.* But 
 as it was soon discovered, that the vindication of their 
 liberty would endanger their lives; and that the 
 Goths, unless they were tempted to sell, might be pro- 
 voked to murder, their useless prisoners ; the civil ju- 
 risprudence had been already qualified by a wise 
 regulation, that they should be obliged to serve the 
 moderate term of five years, till they had discharged 
 by their labour the price of their redemption.* The 
 nations who invaded the Roman empire, had driven 
 down before them, into Italy, whole troops of hungry, 
 and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servi- 
 tude than of famine. The calamities of Rome and 
 Italy dispersed the inhabitants to the most lonely, the 
 most secure, the most distant places of refuge. While 
 the Gothic cavalry spread terror and desolation along 
 the sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the little is- 
 land of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from 
 the Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their 
 hostile attempts ; at so small a distance from Rome, 
 great numbers of citizens were securely concealed in 
 the thick woods of that sequestered spot." The ample 
 patrimonies, which many senatorian families possessed 
 in Africa, invited them, if they had time and prudence 
 to escape from the ruin of their country, to embrace 
 the shelter of that hospitable province. The most il- 
 lustrious of these fugitives was the noble and pious 
 Proba,' the widow of the pra?fect Petronius. After 
 
 statues; vel Deum vel hominem montiuntur. They consisted of the 
 kincs of Alba and Rome from iT^neas, the Romans, illustrious either 
 in arms or arts, and the deified Ca'sars. The expres.sion which lie 
 USPS of Forum is Komewhat ambiguous, since there existed Jive 
 principal Fora; but as they were all contiguous and adjacent, in the 
 plain which is surrounded by the Capitoline, the Quirinal, the Es- 
 quiline. and the Palatine hills, they might fairly be considered as 
 one. See the Roma Antiqna of Donntiis, p. 1C2— 201. and the Ro- 
 ma Antica of Nardini, p. 212—273. The former is more useful for 
 the ancient descriptions, the latter for the actual topography. 
 
 q Orosius (I. ii. c. 19. p. 142.) compares the cruelty of the Gauls 
 and the clemency of the Cotbs. Ihi vix quemquam invenium sena- 
 torem, qui vel absens evaserit ; hie vix quemquam requiri, qui forte 
 lit latens perierit. Rut there is an air of rhetoric, and perhaps of 
 falsehood, in this antithesis ; and Socrates (I. vii. c. 10.) affirms, per- 
 haps by an opposite exagccration, that jnawy senators were put to 
 death with various and exquisite tortures. 
 
 r Multi . . . christiani in captivilatem ducti sunt. Augustin, de 
 Civ. Dei, 1. i. c. 14. and tlie christians experienced no peculiar hard- 
 ships. 
 ( See Heineccius, Antiquifat. Juris Roman, tom. i. p. 96. 
 t Appendix Cod. Theodos. xvi. in Sirmond. Opera, torn. i. p. 735. 
 This edict was published on the lltli of December, A. D. 408. and is 
 more reasonable than properly belonged to the ministers of Honorius. 
 u Emintis Igilii sylvosa cacnmina min)r ; 
 Qucni fraudaro nofas laudis hoiiore suae. 
 Hsec proprins nup( r lulata est insula sallus ; 
 
 Sivp loci ingenio, seu Domini genio. 
 GurgilP cum modico victricibns obstilit armls, 
 
 Tanrpiam bmgincjuo dissociata mari, 
 Hoec mulios lacera suscepit ab urbe fugatos, 
 
 Hie fessis posilo cprta timoresahis. 
 Phirinia lerrono populavomt aequora bollo, 
 
 Contra naiurani classe timenuus cques: 
 Umiin, niira fides, vario discrimine portum ! 
 Tarn prope Romania, lam procul esse Gelis. 
 
 Kutilius, in Itinerar. 1. i. 325. 
 Thei.sland is now called Giglio. SeeCluver. Ital. Aniiq. l.ii.p.502. 
 X As the adventures of Probaand her family are connected with the 
 life of St. Augustin, they are diligently illustrated by Tillemont, 
 Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 620— GXi. Sometime after their arrival in 
 Africa, Demeirias took the veil, and made a vow of virginity ; an 
 event which was considered as of the highest importance to Rome 
 and to the world; All the Saints wrote congratulatory letters to her ; 
 that of Jerom is still extant, (tom. i. p. 62—73. ad Deinetriad. de ser- 
 vanda Virginitat.) and contains a mixture of absurd reasoning, spirit- 
 ed declamation, and curious facts, some of which relate to the siege 
 and sack of Rome. 
 
 the death of her husband, the most powerful subject 
 of Rome, she had remained at the head of the Anician 
 fanriily, and successively supplied, from her private 
 fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three 
 sons. A\hen the city was besieged and taken by the 
 Goths, Froba, supported, with christian resignation, 
 the loss of immense riches, embarked in a smlll ves- 
 sel, from whence she beheld, at sea, the flames of her 
 burnmg palace, and fled with her daughter LjEta, and 
 her grand-daughter, the celebrated virgin Demetrias 
 to the coast of Africa. The benevolent profusion with 
 which the matron distribtited the fruits, or the price, 
 of her estates, contributed to alleviate the misfortunes 
 of exile and captivity. Rut even the family of Proba 
 herself was not exempt from the rapacious oppression 
 of count Heraclian, who basely sold, in matrimonial 
 prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome, to the lust 
 or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugi- 
 tives were dispersed through the provinces, alontr the 
 coast of Egypt and Asia, as far as Constantinople and 
 Jerusalem ; and the village of Bethlem, the solitary 
 residence of; St. Jerom and his female converts, was 
 crowded with illustrious begirars of either sex, and 
 every age, who excited the public compassion by the 
 remembrance of their past fortune^ This awful catas- 
 trophe of Rome filled the astonished empire with crrief 
 and terror. So interesting a contrast of greatness^and 
 nun, disposed the fond credulity of the people to de- 
 plore, and even to exaggerate the afflictions of the 
 queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent 
 events the lofty metaphors of oriental prophecy, were 
 sometimes tempted to confound the destruction of the 
 capital, and the dissolution of the globe. 
 Sack of Rome There exists in human nature a strong 
 by the troops of propensity to depreciate the advantao-es"^ 
 V anj to magnify the evils, of the present 
 
 times. \ at when the first emotions had subsided, and 
 a fair estimate was made of the real damage, the more 
 learned and judicious contemporaries were forced to 
 confess, that infant Rome had formerly received more 
 essential injury from the Gauls than she had now sus- 
 tained from the Goths in her declining ao-e.'= The 
 experience of eleven centuries had enabled" posterity 
 to produce a much more singular parallel ; and to 
 afllrm with confidence, that the ravages of the harba- I 
 nans, whom Alaric had led from the banks of the 
 Danube, were less destructive, than the hostilities 
 exercised by the troops of Charles the fifth, a catholic 
 prince, who styled himself emperor of the Romans.* 
 1 he Goths evacuated the city at the end of six days, 
 but Rome remained above nine months in possession 
 of the imperialists ; and every hour was stained by 
 some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The 
 authority of Alaric preserved some order and moder- 
 ation among the ferocious multitude, which acknow- 
 ledged him for their leader and king; but the consta- 
 ble of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of 
 the walls ; and the death of the general removed every 
 restraint of discipline, from an army which consisted 
 of three independent nations, the Italians, the Span- 
 iards, and the Germans. In the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, the manners of Italy exhibited a re- 
 markable scene of the depravity of mankind. They 
 united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an unset- 
 
 y See the pathetic complaint of Jerom (tom. v. p. 400.) in his pre- 
 lace to the second book of his Commentaries on the prophet Ezckiel 
 
 « Orosius, thouiih with some theoloirical partiality, slates this com- 
 parison, 1. lie 19. p 142 1. vii. c. 30.>. 575. But, in the history of 
 ihe lakins of Rome by the Gauls, every thine is uncertain, and per- 
 haps fabulous. See Beaufon siir I'lncerliiude, Sec. de I'Histoire Ro- 
 inaine, p. .ly,; and Melot in the Mem. Ue I'Academie des Inscriot 
 torn. XV. p. 1-21. ^^wpi. 
 
 * The reader who wishes to inform himself of the circumstances 
 f<\ this famous event, mav peruse an admirable narrative in Dr Ro- 
 bPTlson's History of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 2S3. or consult the Annali 
 <i Italia of the learned Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 2;3()-244. octavo edition 
 II he IS desirous of examining the originals, he may have rpcoursp to the 
 Pighteenth book of the great, but unfinished, history of Guiccardini 
 out the account which most truly deserves the name of authentic 
 atid original, is a little book, entitled, // Sacco di Roma, composed, 
 within less than a month after the assault of the city, by the brother- 
 ly the historian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able ma- 
 gisiraip, and a dispassionate writer. i 
 
 431 
 
 tied state of society, with the polished vices that 
 spring from the abuse of art and luxury; and the 
 loose adventurers, who had violated every prejudice of 
 patriotism and superstition to assault the palace of the 
 Koman pontifl", must deserve to be considered as the 
 most profligate of the Ka/ians, At the same a^ra, the 
 Spaniards were the terror both of the old and of the 
 new vvorld : but their high-spirited valour was dis- 
 graced by gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and unre- 
 leimng cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame 
 and riches, they had improved, by repeated practice 
 the most exquisite and effectual method of torturinff 
 their prisoners : many of the Castilians, who pillao-ed 
 Rome, were familiars of the holy inquisition; and 
 some volunteers, perhaps, were lately returned from 
 the conquest of lAIexico. The Germans were less cor- 
 rupt than the Italians, less cruel than the Spaniards; 
 and the rustic, or even savajje, aspect of those Tra- 
 montane warriors, often disguised a simple and mer- 
 ciful disposition. But they had imbibed, in the first 
 fervour of the reformation-, the spirit, as well as the 
 principles, of Luther. It was their favourite amuse- 
 ment to insult, or destroy, the consecrated objects of 
 catholic superstition ; they indulged, without pity or 
 remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of every 
 denomination and deoree, who form so considerable 
 a part of the inhabitants of modern Rome; and their 
 fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of anti- 
 christ, to purify, with blood and fire, the abominations 
 ot the spiritual Babylon.'' 
 
 The retreat of the victorious Goths, 
 who evacuated Rome on the sixth day <= ^'a''''<'»n;-"a««'s 
 might be the result of prudence; but it "^e. Unl/^''' 
 was not surely the effect of fear.** At the ^ ^ ^Z^^- 
 head of an army, encumbered with rich ^"^' ''^' 
 and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced 
 along the Appian way into the southern provinces c f 
 j Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his pas- 
 I sage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the 
 ; unresisting country. The fate of Capua, the proud and 
 : luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which was re- 
 1 specied, even in its decay, as the eiohth city of the 
 ;empire,« is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent 
 town of Nolaf has been illustrated on this occasion, by 
 the sanctity of Paulinus,^ who was successively a 
 consul, a monk, and a bishop. At the aoe of forty, he 
 renounced the enjoyment of wealth andlionour, o'f so- 
 ciety and literature, to embrace a life of solitude and 
 penance ; and the loud applause of the clergy encou- 
 racred him to despise the reproaches of his worldly 
 friends, who ascribed this desperate act to some dis- 
 order of the mind or body.^ An early and passionate 
 attachment determined him to fix his humble dwellino- 
 in one of the suburbs of Nola, near the miraculous 
 tomb of St. Felix, which the public devotion had 
 already surrounded with five large and populous 
 chur ches. The remai ns of his fortune and of his un- 
 
 b The fiirioiis spirit of Luther, the effert of temper and enthusiasm" 
 has been forcibly attacked, (Bossuet, Hist, des Variations des Efflisps 
 Protestantps, livrp i. p. 20-36.) and feebly defpndcd. (Seckendorf, 
 Comnient. de Lutheranismo, especially 1. i. No. 78. p. 120. and 1. iii 
 iNo. rsz. p. o.>o.) 
 
 c Marcellinus, in Chron. Orosius, (1. vii. c. 30. p. 57.->.) asserts, lh.it 
 he left Rome on the third day ; but thisdilTorence is easily reconciled 
 by the successive motions of great bodies of trmips. 
 
 d Socrates (I. vii. c. 10.) pretends, without any colour of truth or 
 reason, that Alaric fled on the report, that the armies of the eastern 
 empire were in full march to attack him. 
 
 e Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 2.3;?. edit. Toll. The luxury of 
 Capua had formerly surpassed that of Sybaris itself. See Atheiiaeus 
 Deipnoso})hist. 1. xii. p. 528. edit. Casaubon. 
 
 f Forty-eight years before the foundatit.n of Rome, (about SOObef .re 
 the christian era,) the Tuscans built Capua and Nola, at the distance 
 ol twenty-three miles from each other; but the latterof the two cities 
 never emerged from a state of mediocrity. 
 
 K Tillemont (Mem. Ecclos. tom. xiv. p. 1 -I4G.) has compiled, 
 with his usual diligence, all that relates to the life and writiiiL'S of 
 Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own pen, and by the 
 praises of St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Auirusiin, Sulpicius Severus, 
 occ. his christian friends and contemporaries. 
 
 rno ^^^ ^^^ atfpclionate letters of Ausonius (epist, xix.— xxv. p. G50— 
 cys. edit. Toll.) to his colleague, his friend, and his disciple, Pauli- 
 nus. The religion of Ausonius is still a problem, (see Mem. de I'Aca 
 deinie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 123- 139.) I believe that it was 
 such in his own lime, and, consequently, that in his heart he wa« 
 a pagan. 
 
 4 
 
 M 
 
432 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Possession of 
 Italy by the 
 Goths. 
 A. D. 408—412. 
 
 derstanding' were dedicated to the service of the glo- 
 rious martyr; whose praise, on the day of his festival, 
 Paulinus never failed to celebrate by a solemn hymn ; 
 and in whose name he erected a sixth church, of superior 
 eJesfance and beauty, which was decorated with many 
 curious pictures, from the history of the Old and New 
 Testament. Such assiduous zeal secured the favour of 
 the saint,' or at least of the people; and, after fifteen 
 ye'ars' retirement, the Roman consul was compelled to 
 accept the bishopric of Nola, a few months before the 
 city was invested by the Goths. During the siege, 
 some religious persons w«re satisfied that they had 
 seen, either in dreams or visions, the divine form of 
 their tutelar patron ; yet it soon appeared by the event, 
 that Faelix wanted power, or inclination, to preserve the 
 flock, of which he had formerly been the shepherd. 
 Nola was not saved from the general devastation ;^ and 
 the captive bishop was protected only by tiie general 
 opinion of his innocence and poverty. Above four 
 years elapsed from the successful invasion of Italy by 
 the aims of Alaric, to the voluntary retreat of the 
 Goths under the conduct of his successor Adolphus ; 
 and, during the whole time, they reigned 
 without control over a country, which, in 
 the opinion of the ancients, had united 
 all the various excellences of nature and 
 art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy had attained 
 in the auspicious age of the Antonines, had gradually 
 declined with the decline of the empire. The fruits of a 
 long peace perished under the rude grasp of the barbari- 
 ans; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the 
 more elegant refinements of luxury, which had been 
 
 ?repared for the use of the soft and polished Italians, 
 ilach soldier, however, claimed an ample portion of 
 the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and 
 wine, that was daily collected and consumed, in the 
 Gothic camp ; and the principal warriors insulted the 
 villas and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cice- 
 ro, along the beauteous coast of Campania. Their trem- 
 bling captives, the sons and daughters of Roman senators, 
 presented, in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts'of 
 Falernian wine, to the haughty victors who stretched 
 their huge limbs under the shade of plane trees,' artifici- 
 ally disposed to exclude the scorching rays, and to admit 
 the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights were 
 enhanced by the memory of past hardships : the com- 
 parison of their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of 
 Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube, 
 added new charms to the felicity of the Italian climate." 
 Death of Alaric, Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, 
 A. D. 410. were the object of Alaric, he pursued 
 that object with an indefatigable ardour, which could 
 neither be quelled by adversity, nor satiated by suc- 
 cess. No sooner had he reached the extreme land of 
 Italy, than he was attracted by the neighbouring pros- 
 pect of a fertile and peaceful island. Yet even the 
 possession of Sicily he considered only as an interme- 
 diate step to the important expedition, which he al- 
 ready meditated against the continent of Africa. The 
 straits of Rhegium and Messina" are twelve miles in 
 
 i The humble Paulinus once presumed to say, that ho believed St. 
 Faelix did love him ; at least, as a master loves his little dog. 
 
 k See Jornandes, tie Reb. tret. c. 30. p. 65.3. Philostorgius, I. xii. c. 
 3. Aususlin, de Civ. Dei. I. i. c. 10. Baronius, Annal. Ecclcs. A. 1). 
 410. No. 4.-., 46. 
 
 1 The plutanus, or plane-tree, was a favourite of the ancients, by 
 whom it WHS propagated, for the sake of shade, from the east to 
 Gaul. Pliny, Hist. Nalur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions several of an 
 enormous size : one in the imperial villa, at Velitrae, which Caligula 
 called his nest, as the branches were capable of holdin;: a large table, 
 the proper attendants, and the emperor himsflf, whom Pliny quaintly 
 styles pars umbra ; an expression which might, with equal reason, 
 be applied to Alaric. 
 
 m The pn>stnite south to the destroyer yields 
 Her boasted lilies, and her golden fields ; 
 With grim delight the banul of winter view 
 A brighter day, and skies of azure hue ; 
 Scent the new fragrance of the opening rose, 
 And quatTthe pendant vinUige as it grows. 
 See Gray's poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197. Instead of com- 
 piling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray 
 apply the powe's of his genius to finish the philosophic poem, of 
 which he has left such an exquisite specimen 1 
 n Fur the perfect description of the straits of Messina, Scylla, Cha- 
 
 A.D.412. 
 
 length., and, in the narrowest passage, about one mile 
 and a half broad ; and the fabulous monsters of the 
 deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Cha- 
 rybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and un- 
 skilful mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of 
 the Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, 
 which sunk, or scattered, many of the transports; 
 their courage was daunted by the terrors of a new ele- 
 ment ; and the whole design was defeated by the pre- 
 mature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short ill- 
 ness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious 
 character of the barbarians was displayed, in the fu- 
 neral of a hero, whose valour, and fortune, they cele- 
 brated with mournful applause. By the labour of a 
 captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of 
 the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of 
 Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the 
 splendid spoils, and trophies, of Rome, was construct- 
 ed in the vacant bed ; the waters were then restored 
 to their natural channel ; and the secret spot, where 
 the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was for 
 ever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the pris- 
 oners, who had been employed to execute the work.** 
 The personal animosities, and heredi- Adolphus kingof 
 tary feuds, of the barbarians, were sus- the Goths con- 
 pended by the stronsr necessity of their c'y'ps « i^ace 
 
 rr • J xL i_ A J 1 L ..!_ with the empire, 
 
 afiairs; and the brave Adolphus, the and marches into 
 brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, tianf, 
 was unanimously elected to succeed to 
 his throne. The character and political system of the 
 new king of the Goths, may be best understood from 
 his own conversation with an illustrious citizen of 
 Narbonne; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the 
 Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the presence 
 of the historian Orosius. " In the full confidence of 
 valour and victory, I once aspired (said Adolphus) to 
 change the face of the universe ; to obliterate the 
 name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion of 
 the Goths ; and to acquire, like Augustus, the immor- 
 tal fame of the founder of a new empire. By repeated 
 experiments, I was gradually convinced, that laws arc 
 essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well- 
 constituted state ; and that the fierce untractable hu- 
 mour of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salu- 
 tary yoke of laws, and civil government. From that 
 moment I proposed to myself a different object of glo- 
 ry and ambition ; and it is now my sincere wish, that 
 the gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the 
 merit of a stranger, who employed the sword of the 
 Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and maintain, the 
 prosperity of the Roman empire. "p With these pa- 
 cific views, the successor of Alaric suspended the 
 operations of war; and seriously negociated with the 
 imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance. It 
 was the interest of the ministers of Honorius, who 
 were now released from the obligation of their extrav- 
 agant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight 
 of the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their 
 service against the tyrants and barbarians who infested 
 the provinces beyond the Alps.** Adolphus, assuming 
 the character of a Roman general, directed his march 
 from the extremity of Campania to the southern pro- 
 vinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force or agree- 
 ment, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne, 
 Thoulouse, and Bourdeaux ; and though they were 
 repulsed by count Boniface from the walls of Mar- 
 seilles, they soon extended their quarters from the 
 Mediterranean to the ocean. The oppressed provin- 
 
 rybdis, &c. see Cluverius, (Ttal. Antiq. I. iv. p. 1293. and Sicilia An- 
 tiq. I. i. p. 60—76.) who had diligently studied the ancients, and sur- 
 veyed with a curious eye the actual face of the country. 
 
 o Jornandes, de Keb. Get. c. 30. p. 654. 
 
 P Orosius, I vii. c. 43. p. 584, 5H5. He was sent by St. Augustln, 
 in the year 415, from Airica to Palestine, to visit St. Jerom, and to 
 consult with him on the subject of the Pelagian controversy. 
 
 q Jornandes supposes, without much probability, that Adolphus 
 visited and plundered Rome, a second time, (more locustarum erasit.) 
 Yet he agrees with Orosius in supposing, that a treaty of peace waa 
 concluded between the Gothic prince and Honorius. See Oro«. 1 
 vii. c. 43. p. 584, 585. Jornandes, de Reb. Geticis, c. 31. p. 654, 605. 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 re'\"e'S^\^d '|;^tlt 3^^^^^^^^^^ The„upaalgift,whieh,accordi,..o 
 
 pretended allies; yet some speeiouLdours we^ n "^ItTr.fJl'^^T^^''^:}- »ff-ed to Placidia. con: 
 
 Th- ^r,T ^^n^'^' "["''"> "•« "»'«"«« »f 'he Goths, 
 rhe cit.es of Gaul, whtctt they attacked, might perhaps 
 
 be cons.dered as in a state of rebellion against the kov 
 !™,"\!." . °. ."°"°""/ :,*''* micXes of the treaty, or thi se 
 
 cret instructions of the court, might sometimes be al- 
 
 leged in favour of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus ; 
 and the guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of hosi 
 
 Ji ! ^t"";? ''^y' be imputed, with an appearance of 
 
 truth,totheunaovernablespiritofabarbarianhost,impa. 
 tient of peace or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been 
 
 lesseftectuahosof.enthetemperthantorelaxthecourage 
 of the Goths, and they had imbibed the vices, without 
 imitating the arts and institutions, of civilized society .^ 
 His marriage The professions of Adolphus were 
 
 wkhPianJia, probably sincere, and his attachment to 
 ,, * * ^"® cause ot the republic was secured by 
 
 the ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired 
 over the heart and understanding of the barbarian kino-. 
 
 sisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. 
 Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes, carried a basin 
 meach hand ; and one of these basins was filled with 
 pieces of gold, the other with precious stones o an i^s- 
 
 and of the Goths, was appointed to lead the rhorus of 
 the hymenaeal song; and the degraded emperor miaht 
 aspire to the praise of a skilful musician. The barba 
 nans enjoyed the insolence of their triumph ; and the 
 provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered! 
 by the mild influence of love and reason, the fierce 
 spirit of their Gothic lord.« ' ^^^^ 
 
 The hundred basins of gold and gems. The Gothic 
 presented to Placidia at her nuptial irt^asures. 
 feast, formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic 
 treasiires; of which some extraordinary specimens 
 may be selected from the history of the successors of 
 Adolphus. Many curious and costly ornaments of 
 pure gold enriched with jewels, were found in their 
 
 Placidia,Uhe daughter of the ffr?atThpLn«r.e^^^ ^^^ ^"VV,"'^^''^^ ^'^^'^ jewels, were foi 
 Galla, hi's second wife had eeerved [rovi eSil i n itf" ^?^\^«""^' ^^-^ ^^ was pillaged, in the sixth 
 the palace of Constantinople , but t&ntful .' o v teen^; ^^ '^'' .^^^"^^^ •' T'^ ^"P^' ' ^ chalices ; fif- 
 of her life is connnected wifh the revolutions which agf- :::i;t:i:: o' t's^s ' " -" ^'-^'^ communion ; 
 ^ted the western empire under the reign of her brother ''^'''^ P^^^^^ ""' ^^^^«' 
 Honorius. \Vhen Rome was lirst invested by the arms 
 ot Alaric, Placidia, who was then about twenty years 
 of age, resided in the city ; and her ready consent to the 
 death of her cousin Serena has a cruel and unorateful ap- 
 pearance, which, accordinnr to the circumstances of the 
 action, may be aggravated or excused, by the consider- 
 tion of her tender age.' The victorious barbarians de- 
 tained, either as a hostage or a captive," the sister of 
 rr"?,""^* ^"^^^'bile she was exposed to the disgrace 
 of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic clmp, 
 she experienced, however, decent and respectful treat- 
 ment, fhe authority of Jornandes, who praises the beau- 
 ty ot Placidia, may perhaps be counterbalanced by the 
 silence, the expressive silence of her flatterers : yet the 
 spendour of her birth, the bloom of youth, the eletrance 
 of rnanners, and the dexterous insinuation which she 
 condescended to employ, made a deep impression on the 
 mind of Adolphus ; and the Gothic kina aspired to call 
 himself the brother of the emperor. The ministers of 
 Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an alli- 
 ance so injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride- 
 and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia, as an 
 indispensable condition of the treaty of peace. But the 
 daughter of Theodosius submitted, without reluotanop 
 
 i:it it'"' r/ ]"; .7"''""T'/- y-"" and vaiS I fi'vi h;'^drd roSd'piers t:i''^ 
 
 prince, who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature, but ^ ^ 
 
 who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace 
 and beauty. The marriage of Adolphus and Placidia" 
 was consummated before the Goths retired from Italy, 
 and the solemn, perhaps the anniversary, day of their 
 nuptials was afterwards celebrated in the house of In- 
 genuus, one of the most illustrious citizens of Narbonne 
 in Gaul. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman 
 empress, was placed on a throne of state; and the king 
 of the Goths, who assumed, on this occasion, the Ro- 
 man habit, contented himself with a less honourable 
 
 1 - , . - . to liold the books of the gos- 
 pels : this consecrated wealth* was distributed by the 
 son of Clovis among the churches of his dominions, 
 and his pious liberality seems to upbraid some former 
 sacrilege of the Goths They possessed, with more 
 security of conscience, the famous missorium, or great 
 dish for the service of the table, of massy gold, of the 
 weight of five hundred pounds, and of far superior 
 value from the precious stones, the exquisite work- 
 manship, and the tradition that it had been presented, 
 by^tius the patrician, to Torismond, kina of the 
 Goths One ot the successors of Torismond pur- 
 chased the aid of the French monarch by the promise 
 of this magnificent gift. When he was seated on the 
 throne of Spain, he delivered it with reluctance to the 
 ambassadors of Dagobert; despoiled them on the 
 road; stipulated, after a long negociation, the inade- 
 quate ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold • 
 and preserved the missorium, as the pride of the Gothic 
 treasury.*' When that treasury, after the conquest of 
 Spain was plundered by the Arabs, they admired, and 
 they have celebrated, another object still more remark- 
 able: a table of considerable size, of one single piece 
 ot solid emerald,*^ encircled with three rows of fine 
 pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty.five feet 
 of gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of 
 
 feome portion 
 
 r The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their first transactions 
 In Gaul, are dark and doubtful. I have derived much assistance 
 from Mascou, (Hist, of the Ancient Germans, 1. viii. c. 29. 35, 36, 37 ) 
 who has Illustrated and connected the broken chronicles and fra.^- 
 ments of the times. ° 
 
 Ti'n!^®/? account of Placidia In Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 72, and 
 Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. i. p. 260. 386. torn. vi. p. 240. 
 t Zi>simu8, 1. V. p. 350. *^ 
 
 u Zosimus, 1 vi. p 33.3. Orosius, (1. vii. c. 40. p. 576.) and the 
 Chronicles of Marcellini.s and Idatius, seem to suppose, that the 
 Goths did not carry away Placidia, till after the last sie?e of Rome 
 ^ See the pictures of Adolphus and Placidia, and the account'of 
 their marriage, in Jornande-s do Reb. Geticis, c. 31. p. 654, 655 With 
 regard to the Place where the nupiials were stipulated or consum- 
 mated.or celebrated, the MSS.of /.rnandes vary between two neiVh. 
 bouring niios, Forli and Imola, (Forum Livii and Forum Cornelli ) 
 It IS fair and easy to reconcile ^e Gothic historian with Olympiodo- 
 rus, (see Maacou, 1. viii. c. 46.) but Tillemont prows peevish, and 
 an^*'i^ a*' h " "°^ ^^^^ ^*^'*® ^° ^^ ^*^ conciliate Jornandes with 
 Vol, I — 3 E gg 
 
 y The Visigoths (the subjects of Adolphus) restminPfl w ....»,»» 
 queiit laws, the prodigality of conjugal love it wfsTl Ir^^i S » h'^ 
 band to make any gift or settlemem^for ^e b'ene^rof iifwife dlrin'.' 
 the first year of their marriage; and his liberality coufd not at anf 
 time, exceed the temh part of his property. The Lombards wpr« 
 somewhat more indulgent: they allowed hen^or/," LapTmSiateW 
 after the wedding night ; and this famous gift, ihf rS S"TrS/ 
 night equal the fourth part of the husband's subsrance. S me caJ* 
 
 nVT.n",''"i''"?.' V'^^^'*' ^'^'•^^ ^'''^ ^"«"Pf» '0 stipulate beforXnd a 
 present, which they were too sure of not deserving. See Montesfmieu 
 t:spnt des Loix, 1. xix. c. 25. Muratori, dell'^Aniich tTltS anp' 
 tom. 1. Dissertazion xx. p. 213. Aiuicuiia iiaiiane, 
 
 z We owe the curious detail of this nuptial feast to the historian 
 Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 1S5. 188 nisionan 
 
 » See in the great collection of the historians of France bv Dom 
 Bouquet, tom. Ji. Greg. Turonens. 1. iii. c. 10. p. 191. Gesta^eeam 
 Francorum, c. 23. p. 557. The anonymous writer, with an ienoS 
 
 r.f ^ fv,^" ""'!"' 'y^""^'' ^'^^^ '^''^ instruments of chrisfranwor 
 ship had belonged to the temple of Solomon. If he has any meanTnT 
 It must be, that they were found in the sack of Rome ^ meaning, 
 
 FranceTm 5^^ Slr'""-*'^ 1*7^ testimonies in the historians of 
 t ranee, tom. u. Fredegani Scholastici, Chron. c. 73, p. 441 Frede 
 gar. Fragment, ni. p. 463. Gesta Regis Dagoben. c. 2§ p! 587 The 
 
 Thp'IS?.V[^''^"""'*r'^l^^ '^^^"^«^ S''^'" happened AD. ^31 
 The 200,000 pieces of gold were appropriated by Da<'obert to iha 
 foundation of the church of St Denys. ^^'^a^oen to me 
 
 c The president Goguet (Origine des Loix, kc. tom. ii. p. 239.) i* 
 of opinion, that the stupendous pieces of emerald, the statues and col- 
 umns, which antiquity has placed in Egypt, at Gades, at Constanti- 
 noplp, wer(^ 'n/:?^!"^ a'^'fioal compositions of colored glass. The 
 famous emerald dish, which is shown at Genoa, is supposed to count 
 tenance the suspicion. ff^^^ w luuu- 
 
 d Elmacin. Hisu Saraceriica, 1. i. p. 85. Roderic. Tolet. Hist. Arab 
 c. 9. Cardonne, Hist, de I'Afrique, et de I'Espagne sous les AraEi* 
 torn. I. p. 83. It wafl called the* Table of SolomL%«ordin6 S the 
 
 r 
 
434 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 of the Gothic treasures might be the gift of friendship, 
 OT the tribute of obedience; but the far greater part 
 had been the fruits of war and rapine, the spoils of the 
 empire, and perhaps of Rome. 
 
 frthere- After the deliverance of Italy from 
 jie *of iiaiyVmi the oppression of the Goths, some secret 
 Rome. ^ counsellor was permitted, amidst the 
 
 A. D. 410-417. f^^jtioj^g of the palace, to heal the 
 
 wounds of that afflicted country." By a wise and hu- 
 mane regulation, the eight provinces which had been 
 the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Pice- 
 num, Samnium, Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lu- 
 cania, obtained an indulgence of five years : the ordi- 
 nary tribute was reduced to one-fifth, and even that 
 fifth was destined to restore, and support, the useful 
 institution of the public posts. By another law, the 
 lands, which had been left without inhabitants or cul- 
 tivation, were granted, with some diminution of taxes, 
 to the neighbours who should occupy, or the strangers 
 who should solicit, them; and the new possessors 
 were secured against the future claims of the fugitive 
 proprietors. About the same time a general amnesty 
 was published in the name of Honorius, to abolish 
 the guilt and memory of all the involuntary offences, 
 which had been commited by his unhappy subjects, 
 during the term of the public disorder and calamity. 
 A decent and respectful attention was paid to the re- 
 storation of the capital ; the citizens were encouraged 
 to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed or 
 damaged by hostile fire ; and extraordinary supplies 
 of corn were imported from the coast of Africa. The 
 crowds that so lately fled before the sword of the bar- 
 barians, were soon recalled by the hopes of plenty and 
 pleasure ; and Albinus, proefect of Rome, informed the 
 court, with some anxiety and surprise, that, in a single 
 day, he had taken an account of the arrival of fourteen 
 thousand strangers.' In less than seven years, the 
 vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost oblitera- 
 ted ; and the city appeared to resume its former splen- 
 dour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced 
 her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the 
 storms of war; and was still amused, in the last mo- 
 ment of her decay, with the prophecies of revenge, 
 of victory, and of eternal dominion.* 
 Revolt and de- This apparent tranquillity was soon 
 feat of Hera- disturbed by the approach of an hostile 
 Africa*:"""* armament from the country which afford- 
 A. D. 413. ed the daily subsistence of the Roman 
 people. Heraclian, count of Africa, who, under the 
 most difficult and distressful circumstances, had sup- 
 ported with active loyalty the cause of Honorius, was 
 tempted, in the year of his consulship, to assume the 
 character of a rebel, and the title of emperor. The 
 ports of Africa were immediately filled with the naval 
 forces, at the head of which he prepared to invade 
 Italy : and his fleet, when it cast anchor at the mouth 
 of the Tyber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes 
 and Alexander, if all the vessels, including the royal 
 galley, and the smallest boat, did actually amount to 
 the incredible number of three thousand two hundred.** 
 
 custom of the Orientals, who ascribe to that prince every ancient 
 work of knowledge or magnificence. , 
 
 e His three laws are inserted in the Theodosian Code, 1. xi. tit. 
 xxviii. leg. 7. L. xiii. tit. xi. lejj. 13. L. xv. tit. xiv. leg. 14. The 
 expressions of the last are very remarkable ; since they contain not 
 only a pardon, hut an apology. 
 
 f OlympiodoruB ap. Phot. p. 188. Philostorgius (I. xii. c. 5.) ob- 
 serves, that when Honorius made his triumphal entry, he encouraged 
 the Romans, with his hand and voice (x«'p» »«» >-\«.tt>(,) to rebuild 
 their city ; and the Chronicle of Prosper commends Heraclian qui in 
 Romans urbis reparalionem atrenuum exhibuerat mittisterium. 
 
 % The date of the voyage of Claudius Rutilius Numatianus, is 
 clogged with some difficulties; but Scaliger has deduced from astro- 
 nomical characters, that he left Rome the 24ih of September, and 
 embarked at Porto the 9th of October, A. D. 416. See Tillemont, 
 Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 820. In this poetical Itinerary, Ru 
 tilius (I. i. 115, &LC.) addresses Rome in a high strain of congratula 
 lion : 
 
 Erige crinales lauros, seniumque sacrati 
 Verticis in virides Roma recinge comns, &c. 
 
 h Orosius composed his history in Africa, only two years after the 
 •vents; yet his authority seems to be overbalanced by the improba- 
 bility of the fact. The Chronicle of Marceliinus gives Uerachan 700 
 
 Yet with such an armament, which might have sub- 
 verted, or restored, the greatest empires of the earth, 
 the African usurper made a very faint and feeble im- 
 pression on the provinces of his rival. As he marched 
 from the port, along the road which leads to the gates 
 of Rome, he was encountered, terrified, and routed, by 
 one of the imperial captains ; and the lord of this 
 mighty host, deserting his fortune and his friends, ig- 
 nominiously fled with a single ship.' When Heraclian 
 landed in the harbour of Carthage, he found that the 
 whole province, disdaining such an unworthy ruler, 
 had returned to their allegiance. The rebel was be- 
 headed in the ancient temple of Memory ; his consul- 
 ship was abolished '^ and the remains of his private 
 fortune, not exceeding the moderate sum of four thou- 
 sand pounds of gold, were granted to the brave Con- 
 stantius, who had already defended the throne, which 
 he afterwards shared with his feeble sovereign. Ho- 
 norius viewed with supine indiflierence the calamities 
 of Rome and Italy ;* but the rebellious attempts of 
 Attalus and Heraclian against his personal safety, 
 awakened, for a moment, the torpid instinct of his na- 
 ture. He was probably ignorant of the causes and 
 events which preserved him from these impending 
 dangers, and as Italy was no longer invaded by any 
 foreign or domestic enemies, he peaceably existed in 
 the palace of Ravenna, while the tyrants beyond the 
 Alps were repeatedly vanquished in the name, and by 
 the lieutenants, of the son of Theodosius."" In the 
 course of a busy and interesting narrative, I might 
 possibly foroet to mention the death of such a prince: 
 and I shall therefore take the precaution of observing, 
 in this place, that he survived the last siege of Rome 
 about thirteen years. 
 
 The usurpation of Constantine, who Revolutions of 
 received the purple from the legions of Gaul and Spain, 
 Britain, had been successful ; and seem- ^- ^-^^^^ '•13- 
 ed to be secure. His title was acknowledged, from 
 the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules; 
 and, in the midst of the public disorder, he shared the 
 dominion, and the plunder, of Gaul and Spain, with 
 the tribes of barbarians, whose destructive progress 
 was no longer checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees. 
 Stained with the blood of the kinsmen of Honorius, 
 he extorted, from the cotirt of Ravenna, with which 
 he secretly corresponded, the ratification of his rebel- 
 lious claims. Constantine engaged himself, by a sol- 
 emn promise, to deliver Italy from the Goths : ad- 
 vanced as far as the banks of the Po ; and after alarm- 
 ing, rather than assisting, his pusillanimous ally, 
 hastily returned to the palace of Aries, to celebrate, 
 with intemperate luxury, his vain and ostentatious 
 triumph. But this transient prosperity was soon in- 
 terrupted and destroyed by the revolt of count Geron- 
 tius, the bravest of his generals ; who, during the 
 absence of his sonConstans, a prince already invested 
 with the imperial purple, had been left to command in 
 the provinces of Spain. For some reason, of which 
 we are ignorant, Gerontius, instead of assuming the 
 diadem, placed it on the head of his friend Maximus, 
 who fixed his residence at Tarragona, while the active 
 
 ships, and 3000 men ; the latter of these numl)ers is ridiculously cor- 
 rupt ; but the former would please me very much. 
 
 I The Chronicle of Idatiiis affirms, without the least appearance 
 of truth, that he advanced as far as Otriculum, in Umbria, where he 
 was overthrown in a great battle, with the loss of fifty thousand men. 
 
 k See Cod. Theod. 1. xv. tit. xiv. leg. 13. The legal acts performed 
 in his name, even the manumission of slaves, were declared invalid, 
 till they had been formally repeated. 
 
 1 1 have disdained to mention a very foolish, and probably a false, 
 report, (Proc op. dc Bell. Vandal. I. i. r. 2.) that Honorius was alarmed 
 by the loss of Rome, till he understood that it was not a favourite 
 chicken of that name, but onlij the capital of the world, which had 
 been lost. Yet even this story is some evidence of the public opinion. 
 
 m The materials for the lives of all these tyrants are taken from 
 six contempornrv historians, two Latins and four Greeks : Orosius, 
 I. vii. c. 42. p. 581, 582, 583. Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, apud 
 Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 9. in the historians of France, tom. ii. p. 165, 
 106. Zosimus, vi. p. 370, 371. Olympiodorus, apud Phot. p. 180, 
 181. 184, 185. Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 12, 13, 14, 15. and Philostorgius, I. 
 xi. c. 5, G. with Godefroy's Dissertation?, p. 447— 481. besides the 
 four Chronicles of Prosper Tyro, Prosper of AquiUiin, IdaUus, and 
 Marcelliniui. 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 count pressed forwards, through the Pyrenees, to sur- 
 prise the two emperors, Constantine and Constans, be- 
 fore they could prepare for their defence. The son 
 was made prisoner at Vienna, and immediately put to 
 death : and the unfortunate youth had scarcely leisure 
 to deplore the elevation of his family ; which had 
 tempted or compelled him sacrilegiously to desert the 
 peadefijl obscurity of the monastic life. The father 
 maintained a siege within the walls of Aries; but 
 those walls must have yielded to the assailants, had 
 not the city been unexpectedly relieved by the approach 
 of an Italian army. The name of Honorius, the pro- 
 clamation of a lawful emperor, astonished the con- 
 tending parties of the rebels. Gerontius, abandoned 
 by his own troops, escaped to the confines of Spain ; 
 and rescued his name from oblivion, by the Roman 
 courage which appeared to animate the last moments 
 01 his life. In the middle of the night, a great body 
 ot his perfidious soldiers surrounded and attacked his 
 house, which he had strongly barricaded. His wife, 
 a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani, and some 
 taithful slaves, were still attached to his person ; and 
 he used, with so much skill and resolution, a large 
 magazine of darts and arrows, that above three htm- 
 dred of the assailants lost their lives in the attempt. 
 His slaves, when all the missile weapons were spent, 
 fled at the dawn of day; and Gerontius, if he had not 
 been restrained by conjugal tenderness, might have 
 imitated their example; till the soldiers, provoked by 
 such obstinate resistance, applied fire on all sides to 
 the house. In this fatal extremity, he complied with 
 the request of his barbarian friend, and cut ofl?" his 
 head. The wife of Gerontius, who conjured him not 
 to abandon her to a life of misery and disgrace, eao-er- 
 ly presented her neck to his sword ; and the tragic 
 scene was terminated by the death of the count him- 
 self, who, after three ineflfectual strokes, drew a short 
 dagger, and sheathed it in his heart." The unprotected 
 Maximus, whom he had invested with the purple, was 
 indebted for his life to the contempt that was enter- 
 tained for his power and abilities. The caprice of the 
 barbarians who ravaged Spain, once more seated this 
 imperial phantom on the throne : but they soon resiffn- 
 ed him to the justice of Honorius; and the tyrant 
 Maximus, after he had been shown to the people of 
 Kavenna and of Rome, was publicly executed. 
 Character and '^^e general, Constantius was his 
 
 victories of the name, who raised by his aoDroach thp 
 ^^neraiCon.ta«- ^ ,^ ^Hes, and dLsipatcTCe troops 
 .u- . V, f^erontius, was born a Roman; and 
 
 this remarkable distinction is strongly expressive of 
 the decay of military spirit among the subjects of the 
 empire. The strength and majesty that were conspi- 
 cuous m the person of that general,^ marked him, in 
 the popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the 
 throne, which he afterwards ascended. In the familiar 
 intercourse of private life, his manners were cheerful 
 and engaging ; nor would he sometimes disdain, in 
 the licence of convivial mirth, to vie with the panto- 
 mimes themselves, in the exercises of their ridiculous 
 profession. But when the trumpet summoned him to 
 arms; when he mounted his horse, and, bending 
 down (for such was his singular practice) almost upon 
 the neck, fiercely rolled his large animated eves round 
 the field, Constantius then struck terror into his foes, 
 and inspired his soldiers with the assurance of victory' 
 He had received from the court of Ravenna the impor- 
 tant commission of extirpating rebellion in the pro- 
 vinces of the west ; and the pretended emperor Con- 
 
 n The praises which Sozomen has bestowed on this act of desniir 
 appear strange and scanduhnis in the mouth of an ecclesiStical his 
 lorian. He observes (p. 379.) that the wife of Gerontius i?s a An? 
 
 o E.Jot «v.,v- Tup^vw.Jsc, is the expression of Olympioilonis whirh 
 he seems to have borrowed from ^:^/,^,, a tragedy oF Euripides of 
 
 II. p. •M.i. ver. .iw.) 1 his allusion may prove, that the ancient ipi<ri,. 
 poets were el.ll familiar to the Greeks of the fifth century? ^'' =''' 
 
 435 
 
 stantine, after enjoying a short and anxious respite, 
 was again besieged in his capital by the arms of a 
 more formidable enemy. Yet this interval allowed 
 time for a successful negociation with the Franks and 
 Alemanni; and his ambassador, Edobic, soon re- 
 turned, at the head of an army, to disturb the opera- 
 tions of the siege of Aries. The Roman general, in- 
 stead of expecting the attack in his lines, boldly, and 
 perhaps wisely, resolved to pass the Rhone, and to 
 meet the barbarians. His measures were conducted 
 with so much skill and secrecy, that, while they en- 
 gaged the infantry of Constantius in the front they 
 were suddenly attacked, surrounded, and destroyed by 
 the cavalry of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had 
 silently gained an advantageous post in the rear 
 1 he remains of the army of Edobic were preserved 
 by flight or submission, and their leader escaped 
 trom the field of battle to the house of a faithless 
 triend ; who too clearly understood, that the head 
 ot his obnoxious guest would be an acceptable and 
 lucrative present for the imperial general. On this 
 occasion Constantius behaved with the magnanimity 
 of a genuine Roman. Subduing, or suppressing, every 
 sentiment of jealousy, he publicly acknowledtred the 
 merit and services of Ulphilas : but he turne'd with 
 horror from the assassin of Edobic; and sternly 
 intimated his commands, that the camp should no 
 longer be polluted by the presence of an unarateful 
 wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and 
 hospitality The usurper, who beheld, from the walls 
 ot Aries, the ruin of his last hopes, was tempted to 
 place some confidence in so generous a conqueror 
 He required a solemn promise for his security; and 
 after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the sacred 
 character of a christian presbyter, he ventured to open 
 the gates of the city. But he soon experienced, that 
 the principles of honour and integrity, which might 
 regulate the ordinary conduct of ^Constantius, were 
 siiperseded by the loose doctrines of political morality. 
 1 tie Roman general, indeed, refused to Death of the 
 sully his laurels with the blood of Con- "supper Coa- 
 stantine ; but the abdicated emperor, and "' a.'d%ii 
 his son Julian, were sent under a strong Nov.'ss. ' 
 guard into Italy ; and before they reached the palace 
 ot Kavenna, they met the ministers of death. 
 
 At a time when it was universally Fall of the u«,r- 
 contessed, that almost every man in the p^*", Jovinus, 
 empire was superior in personal merit to Attar'**"' *"** 
 the princes whom the accident of their A. 0.411-416 
 birth had seated on the throne, a rapid succession of 
 usurpers, regardless of the fate of their predecessors, 
 still continued to arise. This mischief was peculiarly 
 felt in the provinces of Spain and Gaul, where the 
 principles of order and obedience had been extinffuish- 
 ed by war and rebellion. Before Constantine resigned 
 the purple, and in the fourth month of the siege of 
 Aries, intelligence was received in the imperial camp, 
 that Jovinus had assumed the diadem at Mentz, in the 
 Upper Germany, at the instiaation of Goar, kino- of 
 the Alani, and of Guntiarius, king of the Burgundians • 
 and that the candidate, on whom they had bestowed 
 the empire, advanced with a formidable host o'f bar- 
 barians, from the banks of the Rhine to those of the 
 Rhone. Every circumstance is dark and extraordinary 
 in the short history of the reign of Jovinus. It was 
 natural to expect, that a brave and skilAil general, at 
 the head of a victorious army, would have asserted, 
 in a field of battle, the justice of the cause of Honorius. 
 The hasty retreat of Constantius might be justified* 
 by weighty reasons; but he resigned, without a 
 struggle, the possession of Gaul : and Dardanus, the 
 praetorian praefect, is recorded as the only magistrate 
 who refused to yield obedience to the usurper.* 
 
 P Sidonius Apollinaris (1 v. epist. 9. p. 139. and Not. Sirmond. p 
 i-xS.) after stigmatizmg the tmonstancy of Constantine, the facilitu 
 of Jovinus, the/)c/:/?//y of Gerontius, continues to observe that n/Z th« 
 vices of these tyrants were united in the person of Dardanut Yet 
 the praefect supi)oited a respectable character in the world, and eveij 
 
 « 
 
436 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 When the Goths, two years after the sieo^e of Rome, 
 established their quarters in Gaul, it was natural to 
 suppose that their inclinations could be divided only 
 between the emperor Honorius, with whom they had 
 formed a recent alliance, and the degraded Attalus, 
 whom they reserved in their camp for the occasional 
 purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch. 
 Yet in a moment of disgust, (for it is not easy to as- 
 sign a cause, or a date,) Adolphus connected himself 
 with the usurper of Gaul ; and imposed on Attalus the 
 ignominious task of negociating the treaty, which 
 ratified his own disgrace. We are again surprised to 
 read, tiiat, instead of considering the Gothic alliance 
 as the firmest support of his throne, Jovinus upbraid- 
 ed, in dark and ambiguous lanjruaore, the officious im- 
 portunity of Attalus ; that, scorning the advice of his 
 great ally, he invested with the purple his brother 
 Sebastian ; and that he most imprudently accepted 
 the service of Sarus, when that gallant chief, the 
 soldier of Honorius, was provoked to desert the court 
 of a j>rince, who knew not how to reward or punish. 
 Adolphus, educated among a race of warriors, who 
 esteemed the duty of revenge as the most precious 
 and sacred portion of their inheritance, advanced with 
 a body often thousand Goths to encounter the heredi- 
 tary enemy of the liouse of Balti. He attacked Sarus 
 at an unguarded moment, when he was accompanied 
 only by eighteen or twenty of his valiant followers. 
 United by friendship, animated by despair, but at 
 length oppressed by multitudes, this band of heroes 
 deserved the esteem, without exciting the compassion, 
 of their enemies ; and the lion was no sooner taken in 
 the toils,*! than he was instantly despatched. The 
 death of Sarus dissolved the loose alliance which 
 Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of Gaul. 
 He again listened to the dictates of love and prudence ; 
 and soon satisfied the brother of Placidia, by the as- 
 surance that he would immediately transmit to the 
 palace of Ravenna the heads of the two tyrants, Jo- 
 vinus and Sebastian. The king of the Goths executed 
 his promise without difficulty or delay : the helpless 
 brothers, unsupported by any personal merit, were 
 abandoned by their barbarian auxiliaries ; and the 
 short opposition of Valentia was expiated by the ruin 
 of one of the noblest cities of Gaul. The emperor, 
 chosen by the Roman senate, who had been promoted, 
 degraded, insulted, restored, again degraded, and 
 again insulted, was finally abandoned to his fate; but 
 when the Gothic king withdrew his protection, he 
 was restrained, by pity or contempt, from offering any 
 violence to the person of Attalus. The unfortunate 
 Attalus, who was left without subjects or allies, em- 
 barked in one of tlie ports of Spain, in search of some 
 secure and solitary retreat: but he was intercepted at 
 sea, conducted to the presence of Honorius, led in 
 triumph through the streets of Rome or Ravenna, and 
 publicly exposed to the gazing multitude, on the 
 second step of the throne of his invincible conqueror. 
 The same measure of punishment, with which in the 
 days of his prosperity, he was accused of menacing 
 his rival, was inflicted on Attalus himself; he was 
 condemned, after the amputation of two fingers, to a 
 perpetual exile in the isle of Lipari, where he was 
 supplied with the decent necessaries of life. The re- 
 mainder of the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by 
 rebellion ; and it may be observed, that, in the space 
 of five years, seven usurpers had yielded to the fortune 
 of a prince, who was himself incapable either of 
 counsel or of action. 
 
 in the church; held a devout corrospondence with St. Aiigustin and 
 St. Jeroni ; and was complimented by the latter (lorn. iii. p. 66.) with 
 the epithets of Chrislianorum Nobiliasiine, and Nobilium Christiau- 
 isaime. 
 
 q The expression may be understood almost literally : Olymplo- 
 dorus says, ^'X-i; (r;(xxo<; i^j,ygyt<rxv. 2:»xxoj (or <r*it 5,') may si'jnify 
 a sack, or a loose garment ; and this method of entangling and catch- 
 ing an enemy, laciniis contortis, was much practised by the Huns. 
 (Ammian. xxi. 2.) II fut pris vif nvec des filets, is the translation of 
 Tillemont, Hist, des Empcrcurs, torn. v. p. COS, 
 
 The situation of Spain, separated on invasion of Spaia 
 
 all sides from the enemies of Rome, by 'Jy/'>'lf"«^''V"• 
 , , , . 1 1 • \ dais, Alani, &,c. 
 the sea, by the mountains, and by inter- a. d. 40i). 
 
 mediate provinces, had secured the long Oct- 13- 
 tranquillity of that remote and sequestered country; 
 and we may observe, as a sure symptom of domestic 
 happiness, that, in a period of four hundred years, 
 Spain furnished very few materials to the histofy of 
 the Roman empire. The footsteps of the barbarians, 
 who, in the reign of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond 
 the Pyrenees, were soon obliterated by the return of 
 peace; and in the fourth century of the christian aera, 
 the cities of Emerita, or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, 
 Bracara, and Tarragona, were nnmbercd with the 
 most illustrious of the Roman world. The various 
 plenty of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral 
 kingdoms, was improved and manufactured by the 
 skill of an industrious people ; and the peculiar ad- 
 vantages of naval stores contributed to support an ex- 
 tensive and profitable trade.' The arts and sciences 
 flourished under the protection of the emperors; and 
 if the character of the Spaniards was enfeebled by 
 peace and servitude, the hostile approach of the Ger- 
 mans, who had spread terror and desolation from the 
 Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed to rekindle some sparks 
 of military ardour. As long as the defence of the 
 mountains was intrusted to the hardy and faithful 
 militia of the country, they successfully repelled the 
 frequent attempts of the barbarians. But no sooner 
 had the national troops been compelled to resign their 
 post to the Honorian bands, in the service of Constan- 
 tine, than the gates of Spain were treacherously be- 
 trayed to the public enemy, about ten months before 
 the sack of Rome by the Goths." The consciousness 
 of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the mer- 
 cenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station ; 
 to invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the 
 Alani ; and to swell the torrent which was poured 
 with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to 
 the sea of Africa. The misfortunes of Spain may be 
 described in the language of its most eloquent histo- 
 i rian, who has concisely expressed the passionate, and 
 perhaps exao-gerated, declamations of contemporary 
 writers.' " The irruption of these nations was follow- 
 ed by the most dreadful calamities : as the barbarians 
 exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes 
 of the Romans and the Spaniards ; and ravaged with 
 equal fury the cities and the open country. The pro- 
 gress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to 
 feed on the flesh of their fellow-creatures ; and even 
 the wild beasts, who multiplied, without control, in 
 the desert, were exasperated, by the taste of blood, and 
 the impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and de- 
 vour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the 
 inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion 
 of the people was swept away ; and the groans of the 
 dying excited only the envy of their surviving friends. 
 At length the barbarians, satiated with carnage and 
 rapine, and afllicted by the contagious evils which 
 they themselves had introduced, fixed their permanent 
 seats in the depopulated country. The ancient Galli- 
 cia, whose limits included the kingdom of old Castille, 
 was divided between the Suevi and the Vandcils ; the 
 Alani were scattered over the provinces of Cartha- 
 gena and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the At- 
 lantic ocean ; and the fruitful territory of Boetica was 
 
 r Without recurrinij to the more ancient writers, I shall quote 
 three respectable testimonies which belong to the fourth and seventh 
 centuries ; the Ezpositio totius Mundi, (p. 18. in the third volume of 
 Hudson's Minor GeoRraphers,) Ausonius, (de Claris Urbibus. p. 242. 
 edit. Toll.) and Isidore of Seville. (Pro-fat. nd Chron. ap. Grotium, 
 Hist. Goth, p, 707.) Many particulars relative to the fertility and 
 trade of Spain, may be found in Nonnius, Hispania Illustrata, and 
 in Huet, Hist, du Commerce des Anciens, c, 40, p. 228—234. 
 
 » The date is accurately fixed in the Fasti, and the Chronicle of 
 Idatius. Orosins (I. vii. c. 40. p. 578.) imputes the loss of Spjiln to 
 the treachery of the Ilonorians ; while Sozomen (I. ix. c. 12.) accu- 
 ses only their negligence. 
 
 t Idatius wishes to apply the prophecies of Daniel to these national 
 calamities ; and is therefore obliged to accommodate the circuiustan- 
 ce*i of the event to the terms of the prediction. 
 
 allotted to the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic 
 nation. After regulating this partition, the conquer- 
 ors contracted with their new subjects some recipro- 
 cal engagements of protection and obedience : the 
 lands were again cultivated ; and the towns and vil- 
 lages were again occupied by a captive people. The 
 greatest part of the Spaniards was even dispo.sed to 
 prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism, to 
 the severe oppressions of the Roman government; yet 
 there were many who still asserted their native free- 
 dom, and who refused, more especially in the moun- 
 tains of Gallicia, to submit to the barbarian yoke." " 
 Adolphus. king The important present of the heads of 
 IVrhesinto ^ovinus and Sebastian, had approved 
 Spain. the friendship of Adolphus, and restored 
 
 A.D.4I4. Gaul to the obedience of his brother 
 Honorius. Peace was incompatible with the situation 
 and temper of the king of the Goths. He readily ac- 
 cepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms 
 against the barbarians of Spain; the troops of Con- 
 stantius intercepted his communication with the sea- 
 ports of Gaul, and gently pressed his march towards 
 the Pyrenees ;Mie passed the mountains, and surprised, 
 in the name of the emperor, the city of Barcelona. The 
 fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride was not 
 abated by time or possession ; and the birth of a son, 
 surnamed, from his illustrious grandsire, Theodosius, 
 appeared to fix him for ever in the interest of the re- 
 public. The loss of that infant, whose remains were 
 deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches near 
 Barcelona, afl[licted his parents ; but the grief of the 
 Gothic king was suspended by the labours of the 
 field ; and the course of his victories was soon inter- 
 rupted b^ domestic treason. He had imprudently re- 
 ceived into his service one of the followers of Sarus, a 
 barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a diminutive sta- 
 li]re ; whose secret desire of revenging the death of 
 his beloved patron, was continually irritated by the 
 sarcasms of his insolent master. 
 
 His death, Adolphus was assassinated in the 
 
 ^u^ut!*'' P^^^^'® °^ Barcelona ; the laws of the 
 "»"'"• succession were violated by a tumultu- 
 ous faction ; y and a strangrer to the royal race, Sin- 
 geric, the brother of Sarus himself, was seated on the 
 Gothic throne. The first act of his reign was the in- 
 human murder of the six children of Adolphus, the 
 issue of a former marriage, whom he tore, without 
 pity, from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop.' 
 The unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful 
 compassion, which she might have excited in the most 
 savage breasts, was treated with cruel and wanton in- 
 sult. The daughter of the emperor Theodosius, con- 
 founded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was com- 
 pelled to march on foot above twelve miles, before the 
 horse of a barbarian, the assassin of a husband whom 
 Placidia loved and lamented.* 
 
 The Goths con- "^"^ Placidia soon obtained the plea- 
 quer and restore sure of revenge ; and the view of her 
 A d'415_418 !&"?'"""«"S Sufferings might rouse an 
 indignant people against the tyrant, who 
 was assassinated on the seventh day of his usurpa- 
 tion. After the death of Singeric, the free choice of 
 the nation bestowed the Gothic sceptre onWallia; 
 
 i-oo V,"'"u^*^*' ^^*'"' Hispanicis. I. v. c. I. torn. i. p. 148. Hag. Comit. 
 i/.U. He had read, in Orosius (I. vii. c. 41. p. .'>79.) that the barba- 
 rians had turned their swords into ploughshares: and that many of 
 the provmcials preferred inter barliaros pauperem libertatem quam 
 inter Romanos tributariam solicitudinem sustinere. 
 
 X This mixture of force and persuasion may \)C fairly inferred 
 ironi comparing Orosius and Joruandes, the Roman and the Gothic 
 iiistonan. 
 
 y According to the system of Jornandes (c. 33. p. 659.) the true 
 Hereditary ritihts to the Gothic sceptre was vested in the Amali- but 
 riose princes, who were the vassals of the Huns, commanded the 
 'rihes of the Ostrogoths in some distant parts of Germany or Scythia 
 
 I The murder is related by Olympiodorus ; but the number of the 
 cmirtren is taken from an epitaph of suspected authority. 
 j„* T'*® '?^»*'' o*" Adolphus was celebrated at Constantinople with 
 •iluminations and Circensian games. {See Chron. Alexandrin ) It 
 niay seem doubtful, whether the Greeks were actuated, on this oc- 
 casion, by their hatred of the barbarians, or of the Latins. 
 
 437 
 
 whose warlike and ambitious temper appeared, in the 
 beginning of his reign, extremely hostile to the re- 
 public. He marched in arms, from Barcelona to the 
 shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients re- 
 vered and dreaded as the boundary of the world. But 
 when he -reached the southern promontory of Spain »» 
 and, from the rock now covered by the fortress of Gib- 
 raltar, contemplated the neighbourinor and fertile coast 
 of Africa, Wallia resumed the designs of conquest, 
 which had been interrupted by the death of Alaric. 
 The winds and waves again disappointed the enter- 
 prise of the Goths ; and the minds of a superstitious 
 people were deeply affected by the repeated disasters 
 of storms and shipwrecks. In this disposition, the 
 successor of Adolphus no longer refused to listen to a 
 Roman ambassador, whose proposals were enforced by 
 the real, or supposed, approach of a numerous army, 
 under the conduct of the brave Constantius. A solemn 
 treaty was stipulated and observed : Placidia was 
 honourably restored to her brother; six hundred thou- 
 sand measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry 
 Goths ;«= and Wallia engaged to draw his sw^ord in 
 the service of the empire. A bloody war was instant- 
 ly excited among the barbarians of Spain ; and the 
 contending princes are said to have addressed their 
 letters, their ambassadors, and their hostages, to the 
 throne of the western emperor, exhorting him to re- 
 main a tranquil spectator of their contest ; the events 
 of which must be favourable to the Romans, by the 
 mutual slaughter of their common enemies.'* The 
 Spanish war was obstinately supported, during three 
 campaigns, with desperate valour, and various suc- 
 cess ; and the martial achievements of Wallia difll'used 
 through the empire the superior renown of the Gothic 
 hero. He exterminated the Silingi, who had irretriev- 
 ably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of 
 Bcetica. He slew, in battle, the king of the Alani; 
 and the remains of those Scythian wanderers, who 
 escaped from the field, instead of choosing a nevir 
 leader, humbly sought a refuge under the sta^idard of 
 the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards 
 confounded. The Vandals themselves, and the Suevi, 
 yielded to the efl'orts of the invincible Goths. The 
 promiscuous multitude of barbarians, whose retreat 
 had been intercepted, were driven into the mountains 
 of Gallicia ; where they still continued, in a narrow 
 compass, and on a barren soil, to exercise their do- 
 mestic and implacable hostilities. In the pride of vic- 
 tory, W^allia was fiiiihful to his engagements: he re- 
 stored his Spanish conquests to the obedience of Hon- 
 orius ; and the tyranny of the imperial officers soon 
 reduced an oppressed people to regret the time of 
 their barbarian servitude. While the event of the war 
 was still doubtful, the first advantages obtained by 
 the arms of Wallia had encouraged the court of Ra- 
 venna to decree the honours of a triumph to their 
 feeble sovereign. He entered Rome like the ancient 
 eonquerors of nations; and if the monuments of' ser- 
 vile corruption had not long since met with the fate 
 which they deserved, we should probably find that a 
 crowd of poets, and orators, of majristrates, and bish- 
 ops, applauded the fortune, the wisdom, and the in- 
 vincible courage, of the emperor Honorius.* 
 
 b Quod Tartessiacis avus hujns Vallia; terris 
 Vandalicas turmas, et juncti Martis Alanos 
 Stravit, et occidu.nm texere cadavera Ca/pen 
 
 Sidon. Apollinar. in Panegyr. Anthem. 363. 
 _, . p. 3tj0. edit. Sirmond. 
 
 .v,*" 7r^ Biipply was very acceptable: the Goths were insulted by 
 the Vandals of Spam with the epithet of Trulj, Iwcausc, in their ex- 
 treme distress, they had given a piece of gold for a trula, or about 
 hall a pound of flour. Oiympiod. apud Phot. p. 189. 
 
 d Orosius inserts a copy of these pretended letters. Tu rum om- 
 nibus pacem babe, omniumque obsides accipe ; nos nobis confliginjus. 
 nobis perimus. tibi vincimus; immortalis vero qurpstus erit reipub- 
 Ilea? tuip, SI utrique pereamus. The idea is just ; but I cannot per. 
 suadc myself that it was entertained, or expressed, by the harbarians. 
 e Romam Iriumphans ingreditur, is the formal expression of Pros- 
 per's Chronicle. The facts which relate to the death of Adolphus, 
 and the exploits of Wallia, are related from Olympiodorus, (ap Phot, 
 p. 188.) Orosius, (I. vii. c. 43. p. 584—587.) Jornandes, de Rebus Ge- 
 ticis, c. 3J, 32.) and the Chronicles of Idatius and Isidore. 
 
 f 
 
438 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Their establish- 
 ment in Aqui- 
 tain, 
 A. D. 410. 
 
 Such a triumph might have been just- 
 ly claimed by the ally of Rome, if Wal- 
 lia, before he repassed the Pyrenees, 
 had extirpated the seeds of the Spanish 
 war. His victorious Goths, forty-three years after 
 they had passed the Danube, were established, ac- 
 cording to the faith of treaties, in the possession of 
 the second Aquitain ; a maritime province between 
 the Garonne and the Loire, under the civil and eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction of Bourdeaux. That metropolis, 
 advantageously situated for the trade of the ocean, 
 was built in a regular and elegant form ; and its 
 numerous inhabitants were distinguished among the 
 Gauls by their wealth, their learning, and the polite- 
 ness of their manners. The adjacent province, which 
 has been fondly compared to the garden of Eden, is 
 blessed with a fruitful soil, and a temperate climate : 
 the face of the country displayed the arts and the re- 
 wards of industry ; and the Goths, after their martial 
 toils, luxuriously exhausted the rich vineyards of 
 Aquitain.' The Gothic limits were enlarged, by the 
 additional gift of some neighbouring dioceses ; and 
 the successors of Alaric fixed their royal residence at 
 Thoulouse, which included five populous quarters, or 
 cities, within the spacious circuit of its walls. About 
 the same time, in the last years of the reign of Hono- 
 The Burgun- rius, the GoTHS, the BuRGUNDiANS, and 
 dians. the Franks, obtained a permanent seat 
 and dominion in the provinces of Gaul. The liberal 
 grant of the usurper Jovinus to his Burgundian allies, 
 was confirmed by the lawful emperor ; the lands of 
 the First, or Upper, Germany, were ceded to those 
 formidable barbarians ; and they gradually occupied, 
 either by conquest or treaty, the two provinces which 
 still retain, with the titles of Duchy and of Counfy, 
 the national appellation of Burjrundy.K The Franks, 
 the valiant and faithful allies of the Roman republic, 
 were soon tempted to imitate the invaders, whom they 
 had so bravely resisted. Treves, the capital of Gaul, 
 was pillaged by their lawless bands ; and the humble 
 colony, which they so long maintained in the district 
 of Toxandria, in Brabant, insensibly multiplied along 
 the banks of the Meuse and Scheld, till their indepen"^ 
 dent power filled the whole extent of the Second, or 
 Lower, Germany. These facts may be suflficiently 
 justified by historic evidence : but the foundation of 
 the French monarchy by Pharamond, the conquests, 
 the laws, and even the existence, of that hero, have 
 been justly arraigned by the impartial severity of 
 modern criticism.'' 
 
 State of the har- The ruin of the opulent provinces of 
 barians in Gaul, Gaul may be dated from the establish- 
 A. D. 420 &c. meM of these barbarians, whose alliance 
 was dangerous and oppressive, and who were capri- 
 ciously impelled, by interest or passion, to violate the 
 public peace. A heavy and partial ransom was im- 
 posed on the surviving provincials, who had escaped 
 the calamities of war ; the fairest and most fertile 
 lands were assigned to the rapacious strangers, for the 
 use of their families, their slaves, and their cattle; 
 and the trembling natives relinquished with a sigh the 
 inheritance of their fathers. Yet these domestic mis- 
 fortunes, which are seldom the lot of a vanquished 
 people, had been felt and inflicted by the Romans 
 themselves, not only in the insolence of foreign con- 
 
 quest, but in the madness of civil discord. The tri- 
 umvirs proscribed eighteen of the most flourishing 
 colonies of Italy ; and distributed their lands an3 
 houses to the veterans who revenged the death of 
 Caesar, and oppressed the liberty of their country. Two 
 poets, of unequal fame, have deplored, in similar cir- 
 cumstances, the loss of their patrimony ; but the le- 
 gionaries of Augustus appear to have surpassed, in 
 violence and injustice, the barbarians who invaded 
 Gaul under the reign of Honorius. It was not with- 
 out the utmost difliculty that Virgil escaped from the 
 sword of the centurion, who had usurped his farm in 
 the neighbourhood of Mantua;' but Paulinus of Bour- 
 deaux received a sum of money from his Gothic pur- 
 chaser, which he accepted with pleasure and surprise; 
 and, though it was much inferior tp the real value of 
 his estate, this act of rapine was disguised by some 
 colours of moderation and equity.^ The odious name 
 of conquerors was softened into the mild and friendly 
 appellation of the guests of the Romans ; and the bar- 
 barians of Gaul, more especially the Goths, repeated- 
 ly declared, that they were bound to the people by the 
 ties of hospitality, and to the emperor by the duty of 
 allegiance and military service. The title of Honorius 
 and his successors, their laws, and their civil magis- 
 trates, were still respected in the provinces of Gaul, 
 of which they had resigned the possession to the bar- 
 barian allies; and the kings, who exercised a supreme 
 and independent authority over their native subjects, 
 ambitiously solicited the more honourable rank of mas- 
 ter-generals of the imperial armies.' Such was the 
 involuntary reverence which the Roman name still im- 
 pressed on the minds of those warriors, who had borne 
 away in triumph the spoils of the capitol. 
 
 Whilst Italy was ravaged by the n i m •. • 
 
 z-,^., „ , ■^ . rP ,^ ^ Revolt of Britain 
 
 (joths, and a succession of feeble tyrants and Armorica, 
 oppressed the provinces beyond the ^- ^ '*^- 
 Alps, the British island separated itself from the body 
 of the Roman empire. The regular forces, which 
 guarded that remote province, had been gradually with- 
 drawn ; and Britain was abandoned, without defence, 
 to the Saxon pirates, and the savages of Ireland and 
 Caledonia. The Britons, reduced to this extremity, 
 no longer relied on the tardy and doubtful aid of a de- 
 clining monarchy. They assembled in arms, repelled 
 the invaders, and rejoiced in the important discovery 
 of their own strength." Afflicted by similar calami- 
 ties, and actuated by the same spirit, the Armorican 
 provinces (a name which comprehended the maritime 
 countries of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire") 
 resolved to imitate the example of the neighbouring 
 island. They expelled the Roman magistrates, who 
 acted under the authority of the usurper Constantine; 
 and a free government was established among a peo- 
 ple who had so long been subject to the arbitrary will 
 of a master. The independence of Britain and Ar- 
 morica was soon confirmed by Honorius himself, the 
 lawful emperor of the west ; and the letters, by which 
 he committed to the new states the care of their own 
 
 f Ausoniiisi (tie Claris Urbihua, p. "f)?— 2G2.) celebrates Boiirdeniix 
 with the partial atfertion of a native. See in Salvian (de Gubern. 
 Dei, p. 228. Paris, 1»)0."<.) a florid description of the provincesof Aqui- 
 tain and Novenipnpulania. 
 
 g Orosius (I. vii. c. 32. p. .WO.) rommends the mildness and mod- 
 esty of these Burgundians. who treated their subjects of Gaul as 
 their ciiristian brethren, Masroii has illustrated tbe origin of their 
 kingdom in the four first annotations at the cud of his laborious His- 
 tory of the Ancient Germans, vol. ii. p, 555 — 572, of the English 
 tran<>lation. 
 
 h See Mascon, I, viii, c. 43, 44, 45. Except in a short and suspicious 
 line of the Chronicle of Prosper, (in tom, i, p. 638.) the name of 
 Pharamond is never mentioned before the seventh century. The 
 author of the Gesta Francoruin (in lorn. ii. p. 513.) suggest.-?, proba- 
 bly enough, that the choice of Pliaramond, or at least of a king, was 
 recommended to the Franks by his father Marcomir, who was an 
 fiile in Tuscany. 
 
 i O Lycida, vivi pervenimus: ndvena nostri 
 (duod niinquain veriti sumus) ut possessor agelli 
 Diceret: H.ic measunt ; veteres migrate coloni. 
 Nunc virti tristes, &c. 
 Sec the whole of the ninth eclogue, with the useful Commentary of 
 t*nrviU8. Fifteen miles of the Mantuan territory were as.««igned to 
 the veterans, with a reservation, in favour of the inhabitants, of 
 three iinlcs round the city. Even in this favour they were cheated 
 by Alfenus Varus, a famous lawyer, and one of the commissioners, 
 who measured eight hundred paces of water and morass. 
 
 k Sec the remarkable passage of the Eucharisticon of Paulinus, 
 0(;>. ajnid Masroii, 1. viii. c. 42. 
 
 I This important truth is established by the accuracy of Tillemont. 
 (Mist, des Emp. torn. v. p. 641.) and by the ingenuity of the Abbe 
 nulms. (Hist, de I'Estabnssemenl de Ja Monarchic Francoise dani 
 les Gaules. tom. i. p. 259.) 
 
 m Zosiinus (I. vi. p. 376. 383.) relates in a few words th« revolt 
 ?! ,'r'." ""** Armorica. Our antiquarians, even the great Camden 
 lUmself. have been betrayed into many gross errors, by their imper- 
 fect knowledge of the history of the continent. 
 
 n The limits of Armorica are defined by two national geographerB. 
 Messieurs de Valoia and d'Anville, in their JVVi7ia« of Ancient 
 i>aul. The word had been used in a more extensive, and was after- 
 I wards contracted to a much narrower, signification. 
 
 safety, might be interpreted as an absolute and perpet- 
 ual abdication of the exercise and rights of sovereign- 
 ty. This interpretation was, in some measure, justi- 
 fied by the event. After the usurpers of Gaul had 
 successively fallen, the maritime provinces were re- 
 stored to the empire. Yet their obedience was imper- 
 feet and precarious : the vain, inconstant, rebellions 
 disposition of the people, was incompatible either with 
 freedom or servitude;" and Armorica, though it could 
 not long maintain the form of a republic,P was agitated 
 by frequent and destructive revolts. Britain was irre- 
 coverably lost.i But as the emperors wisely acqui- 
 esced in the independence of a remote province, tlie 
 separation was not imbittered by the reproach of ty- 
 ranny or rebellion ; and the claims of allegiance and 
 protection were succeeded by the mutual and volunta- 
 ry offices of national friendship/ 
 
 State of Briiain, This revolution dissolved the artificial 
 A, a 40U-449. fabric of civil and military government ; 
 and the independent country, during a period of forty 
 years, till the descent of the Saxons, was ruled by the 
 
 439 
 
 authority of the clergy, the nobles, and the mnniiipal 
 towns.' I. Zosimus, who alone has preserved the 
 memory of this singular transaction, very accurately 
 observes, that the letters of Honorius were addressed 
 to the cities of Britain.' Under the protection of the 
 Romans, ninety-two considerable towns had arisen in 
 the several parts of that great province; and, amono- 
 these, thirty-three cities were distinguished above the 
 rest by their superior privileges and importance." 
 P.ach of these cities, as in all the other provinces of 
 the empire, formed a legal corporation, for the purpose 
 of regulating their domestic policy ; and the powers 
 of municipal government were distributed among an- 
 nual magistrates, a select senate, and the assembly of 
 the people, according to the original model of the Ro- 
 man constitution.^ The management of a common 
 revenue, the exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction, 
 and the habits of public counsel and command, were 
 inherent to these petty republics ; and when they as- 
 serted their independence, the youth of the city, and 
 of the adjacent districts, would naturally range them- 
 selves under the standard of the magistrate. But the 
 desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping 
 the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and 
 inexhaustible source of discord ; nor can it reasonably 
 be presumed, that the restoration of British freedom 
 was exempt from tumult and faction. The pre-emin- 
 ence of birth and fortune must have been frequently 
 
 o Gens inter gemlnos notissima clauditur amnes, 
 
 Armoricana prius veleri cognomine dicta. 
 
 Torva, ferox, ventosa, procax, incauta, rcbellis ; 
 
 Inconstans, disparque sibi novitatis amore; 
 
 Prodisra verborum, sod non et prodiga facti. 
 Erricus, Monach. in Vii, St. Gerniani, 1. v.apud Vales. Nolit. Gallia- 
 rum, p. 43. Valesius alleges several testimonies to confirm this 
 character; to which I shall add the evidence of the presbyter Con- 
 stantine, (A. D. 489.) who, in the life of St. Germain, calls the 
 Armorican rebels mobilem et indisciplinalum populum. See the 
 historians of France, tom. i. p. 643. 
 
 P I thought il necessary to enter my protest against this part of the 
 system of the Abbe Dubos, which Montesquieu has so vigorously op- 
 posed. See Esprit dcs Loix, 1. xxx. c. 24. 
 
 q Kp!Tav¥i*v uiv toi Paiacocis* *v*<rMTx<rjxt hxst« jsjov, are the WOrds 
 
 of Procopius. (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 2, p. 181. Louvro edition,) in a 
 very important passage, which has been too much neglected. Even 
 Bede (Hist. Gent. Anglican. 1. i. c. 12. p. 50. edit. Smith) acknowl- 
 edges that the Romans finally left Britain in the reign of Honorius. 
 let oijr modern historians and antiquaries extend the term of their 
 dominion ; and there are some who allow only the interval of a few 
 mouths between their departure and the arrival of the Saxons. 
 
 r Bede has not forgotten the occasional aid of the legions against 
 the Scots and Pictfl ; and more authentic proof will hereafter be 
 produced, that the independent Britons raised 12,000 men for the 
 service of the emperor Antheniius, in Gaul. 
 
 • I owe it to myself, and to historic truth, to declare, that some cir- 
 cumstances '\n this paragraph are founded only on conjecture and 
 analogy. The stubbornness of our language has sometimes forced 
 nie to deviate from the conditional into the indicative mood. 
 
 t Hpo; Tst; IV Bpiravvia. >ioK!tg. ZosiinilS, 1. vi. p. 383, 
 
 u Two cities of Britain were municipiu, nine colonies, ten Latii 
 jure donattr, twelve stipendiaries of eminent note. This detail is 
 •aken from Richard of Cirencester, de Sitii Britanniae, p. 36; and 
 though it may not seem probable, tha; he wrote from the MSS. of a 
 Koman general, he shows a genuine knowledge of antiquity, very 
 ^rtraordinary for a monk of the fourteenth century. 
 
 » See Maffei Verona Illustrata, part i. 1. v. p. 83—106. | 
 
 Violated by bold and popular citizens ; and the haugh- 
 ty nobles, who complained that they were become the 
 subjects of their own servants,y would soirietimes re- 
 gret the reign of an arbitrary monarch. H. The ju- 
 risdiction of each city over the adjacent country, was 
 supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal 
 senators; and the smaller towns, the villages, and the 
 proprietors of land, consulted their own safety by ad- 
 hering to the shelter of these rising republics. The 
 sphere of their attraction was proportioned to the re- 
 spective degrees of their wealth and populousness ; 
 but the hereditary lords of ample possessions, who 
 were not oppressed by the neighbourhood of any pow- 
 erful city, aspired to the rank of independent princes, 
 and boldly exercised the rights of peace and war! 
 The gardens and villas, which exhibited some faint 
 imitation of Italian elegance, would soon be converted 
 into strong castles, the refuge, in time of dancrer, of 
 the adjacent country:^ the produce of the land was 
 applied to purchase arms and horses; to maintain a 
 military force of slaves, of peasants, and of licentious 
 followers ; and the chieftain might assume, within his 
 own domain, the powers of a civil magistrate. Sev- 
 eral of these British chiefs might be the genuine pos- 
 terity of ancient kings ; and many more would be 
 tempted to adopt this honourable genealojry, and to 
 vindicate their hereditary claims, which had^'been sus- 
 pended by the usurpation of the Caisars.* Their sit- 
 uation, and their hopes, would dispose them to affect 
 the dress, the language, and the customs of their an- 
 cestors. If the princes of Britain relapsed into bar- 
 barism, while the cities studiously preserved the laws 
 and manners of Rome, the whole island must have 
 been gradually divided by the distinction of two na- 
 tional parties ; again broken into a thousand subdivi- 
 sions of war and Action, by the various provocations 
 of interest and resentment. The public strength, in- 
 stead of being united against a foreign eneniy, was 
 consumed in obscure and intestine quarrels ; and the 
 personal merit which had placed a successful leader 
 at the head of his equals, might enable him to subdue 
 the freedom of some neighbouring cities ; and to claim 
 a rank among the tyrants,^ who infested Britain after 
 the dissolution of the Roman government. HI. The 
 British church might be composed of thirty or forty 
 bishops,'' with an adequate proportion of the inferior 
 clergy ; and the want of riches (for they seem to have 
 been poor)"* would compel them to deserve the public 
 esteem, by a decent and exemplary behaviour. The 
 interest, as well as the temper, of the clergy, was fa- 
 vourable to the peace and union of their distracted 
 country : those salutary lessons might be frequently 
 inculcated in their popular discourses ; and the episco- 
 pal synods were the only councils that could pretend 
 to the weight and authority of a national assembly. 
 In such councils, where the princes and magistrates 
 sat promiscuously with the bishops, the important af- 
 fairs of the state, as well as of the church, might be 
 freely debated ; differences reconciled, all ianceslform- 
 
 y Leges restituit, libertatemque reducit, 
 Et servos famulis non sinit esse suis, 
 
 , . Itinemr. Rutil.l. i. 215. 
 
 z An inscription (apud Sirmond, Not. ad Sidon. Apollinar. p. 59 ) 
 describes a castle, cum muris et port is, tuitioni omnium, erected by 
 Dardanus on his own estate, near Sistcron, in the second Narbon- 
 nese, and named by him Theopolis. 
 
 a The establishment of their power would have been easv indeed, 
 if >ve could adopt the impracticable scheme of a lively and learned 
 antiquarian ; who supposes, that the British monarchs of the several 
 tribes continued to reign, though with subordinate jurisdiction, from 
 the lime of Claudius to that of Honorius. See Whitaker's History 
 of Manchester, vol. i. p. 247—257. 
 
 b Alkk' ut» v-ra Tvfxwoiq ajr* xoTt) tfttvi, Procopius, de Bell. Van- 
 dal. I. i. c. 2. p. 181. Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannonim, was 
 the expression of Jerom, in the year 41.5. (torn, ii, p. 255. ad Ctesi- 
 phont.) By the pilgrims, who resorted every year to the Holy Land, 
 the monk of Bethlem received the earliest and most accurate intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 c See Bingham's Eccles. Antiquities, vol. i. 1. ix. c. 6. p. 394. 
 
 A It is reported of three British bishops who assisted at the council 
 of Rimini, A. D. 359. tarn pauperes fuisse ut nihil haberent. Sulpi- 
 cius Severus, Hist. Sacra, 1. ii. p. 420. Some of their brethren, how- 
 ever, were in better circumstances. 
 
 ill, 
 
 i' 
 
440 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 ed, contributions imposed, wise resolutions often con- 
 certed, and sometimes executed ; and there is reason 
 to believe, that, in moments of extreme danger, a 
 Fendragon, or Dictator, was elected by the i^eneral 
 consent of the Britons. These pastoral cares, so 
 worthy of the episcopal character, were interrupted, 
 however, by zeal and superstition; and the British 
 clergy incessantly laboured to eradicate the Pelagian 
 heresy, which they abhorred, as the peculiar disgrace 
 of their native country.^ 
 
 Assembly of the . It is somewhat remarkable, or rather 
 seven provincca it IS extrcmely natural, that the revolt of 
 ^^^f**!)' 418 I^r'tain and Armorica should have intro- 
 duced an appearance of liberty into the 
 obedient ptovinces of Gaul. In a solemn edict,^ filled 
 with the Strongest assurances of that paternal affection 
 which princes so often express, and so seldom feel, the 
 emperor Honorius promulgated his intention of con- 
 vening an annual assembly of the severi provifices .- a 
 name peculiarly appropriated to Aquitain and the an- 
 cient Narbonneso, which had long since exchanged 
 their Celtic rudeness for the usefuTand elegant arts of 
 Italy.K Aries, the seat of government and commerce, 
 was appointed for the place of the assembly ; which 
 regularly continued twenty-eight days, from the fif- 
 teenth of August to the thirteenth of September, of every 
 year. It consisted of the praetr-rian priefect of the 
 Gauls ; of seven provincial governors, one consular, 
 and six presidents; of the magistrates, and perhaps 
 the bishops, of about sixty cities; and of a competent, 
 though indefinite, number of the most honourable and 
 opulent possessors of land, who might justly be consid- 
 ered as the representatives of tht'ir country. They 
 were empowered to interpret and communicate the 
 laws of their sovereign ; to expose the grievances and 
 wishes of their constituents; to moderate the exces- 
 sive or unequal weight of taxes ; and to deliberate on 
 every subject of local or national importance, that 
 could tend to the restoration of the peace and prosper- 
 ity of the seven provinces. If such an institution, 
 which gave the people an interest in their own govern- 
 ment, had been universally established by Trajan or 
 the Antonines, the seeds of public wisdom and virtue 
 might have been cherished and propajrated in the em- 
 pire of Rome. The privileges of the subject would 
 have secured the throne of the monarch ; the abuses of 
 an arbitrary administration might have been prevented, 
 in some degree, or corrected, by the interposition of 
 these representative assemblies; and the country 
 would have been defended against a foreign enemy 
 by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the mild 
 and generous influence of liberty, the Roman empire 
 might have remained invincible and immortal ; or if 
 its excessive magnitude, and the instability of human 
 affairs, had opposed such perpetual continuance, its 
 vital and constituent menibers might have separately 
 preserved their vigour and independence. But in the de- 
 cline of the empire, when every principle of health and 
 life had been exhausted, the tardy application of this par- 
 tial remedy was incapable of producing any important or 
 salutary effects. The emperor Honorius expresses 
 his surprise, that he must compel the reluctant prov- 
 inces to accept a privilege which they should ardently 
 have solicited. A fine of three, or even five, pounds 
 cf gold was imposed on the absent representatives ; 
 who seemed to have declined this imaiiinary gift of a 
 free constitution, as the last and most cruel insult of 
 their oppressors. 
 
 e Consult Usher, de Antiq. Ecclcs. Briiannicar. c. 8—12. 
 
 f See the correct text of this edict, as published by Sinnond. 
 (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 147.) Hincmar, of Rlieinis, who assi-rns 
 a pliKceloihe bishops, had probably seen (in tlif ninth century) a 
 more perfect copy. Dubos, Hist. Critique de la IVlonarchie Francoise, 
 lom. i. p. 241— 255. 
 
 ft It is evident from the Notilia, that the seven provinces were the 
 Viennensis, the maritime Alps, the first and second Narbonnese, 
 Novempopulania, and the first and second Acjuiiain. In the room 
 of the first Aquitain, the Abbe Dubcs, on the authority of Hincmar, 
 deeires to introduce the first Lugdunensis, or Lyonnese. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 Arcadius emperor of the east. — Administration and dis' 
 
 frace of Eutropius. — Revolt of Gainas. — Persecution of 
 t. John Chrysostoni. — Theodosius II. emperor of the east. 
 His sister Pulcheria. — His wife Eudocia. — The Persian war, 
 and division of Armenia. 
 
 The division of the Roman world be- The em pi re of the 
 tween the sons of Theodosius, marks the . D*'*'*/dij« 
 final establishment of the empire of the Re'ign'of Arcadius] 
 east, which, from the reign of Arcadius a. d. 31)5— 4U8.' 
 to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted 
 one thousand and fifty-eight years in a state of pre- 
 mature and perpetual decay. The sovereign of that 
 empire assumed, and obstinately retained, the vain, 
 and at length fictitious title of the Emperor of the 
 Romans ; and the hereditary appellation of Cesar and 
 Augustus continued to declare, that he was the legiti- 
 mate successor of the first of men who had reirrned 
 over the first of nations. The palace of Constantinople 
 rivalled, and perhaps excelled the magnificence of 
 Persia, and the eloquent sermons of St. Chrysostom * 
 celebrate, while they condemn, the pompous luxury of 
 the reign of Arcadius. " The emperor," says he, 
 " wears on his head either a diadem, or a crown of gold, 
 decorated with precious stones of inestimable value. 
 These ornaments, and his purple garments, are reserv- 
 ed for his sacred person alone ; and his robes of silk 
 are embroidered with figures of golden dragons. His 
 throne is of massy gold. "Whenever he appears in 
 public, he is surrounded by his courtiers, his guards 
 and his attendants. Their spears, their shields, their 
 cuirasses, the bridles and trappings of their horses, 
 have either the substance, or the appearance, of gold ; 
 and the large splendid boss in the midst of their shield, 
 is encircled with smaller bosses, which represent the 
 shape of the human eye. The two mules that draw 
 the chariot of the monarch, are perfectly white, and 
 shining all over with gold. The chariot itself, of pure 
 and solid gold, attracts the admiration of the spectators, 
 who contemplate the purple curtains, the snowy carpet, 
 the size of the precious stones, and the resplendent 
 plates of gold, that glitter as they are agitated by the 
 motion of the carriage. The imperial pictures are 
 white, on a blue ground : the emperor appears seated 
 on his throne, with his arms, his horses, and his 
 guards beside him, and his vanquished enemies in 
 chains at his feet." The successors of Constantino 
 established their perpetual residence in the royal city, 
 which he had erected on the verge of Europe and 
 Asia. Inaccessible to the menaces of their enemies, 
 and perhaps to the complaints of their people, they 
 received, with each wind, the tributary productions of 
 every climate : while the impregnable strength of 
 their capital continued for ages to defy the hostile at- 
 tempts of the barbarians. Their dominions were 
 bounded by the Hadriatic and the Tigris ; and the 
 whole interval of twenty-five days' navigation, which 
 separated the extreme cold of Scythia from the torrid 
 zone of Ethiopia,*' was comprehended within the limits 
 of the empire of the east. The populous countries of 
 that empire were the seat of art and learning, of luxu- 
 ry and wealth ; and the inhabitants, who had assumed 
 
 a Father Monlfaucon, who, by the command of his Benedictine 
 superiors, was compelled (see Longueruana, tom. i. p. 205.) to execute 
 the laborious edition of St. Chrysostom, in thirteen volumes in folio, 
 (Paris, 1738 ) amused himself with extracting from that immense col- 
 lectii»n of morals some curious antiquities, which illustrate the man- 
 ners of the Themlosian age. (See Chrysostom. Opera, tom. xiii. p. 
 192—196. and his French Dissertation, in the Memoires de I'Acad. 
 des Inscriptions, tom. xiii. p. 474- 490.) 
 
 b Acconlins? to the loose reckoning, that a ship could sail, with a 
 fair win<l, 1(X)0 stadia, or 125 miles, in the revolution of a day and 
 night, Diodorus Siculus computes ten days from the Palus Moeotis to 
 Rhodes, and four days from Rhodes to Alexandria. The navigation 
 of the Nile, from Alexandria to Syene, under the tropic of Cancer, 
 required, as it was against the stream, ten days more. Diodor. Sicul. 
 tom. i. 1. iii. p. 200. edit. Wesseliug. He might, without much im- 
 propriety, measure the extreme heat from the verge of the torrid 
 zone ; but he speaks of the Moeotis in the 47th degree of northern 
 latitude, as if it lay within the polar circle. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 the language and manners of Greeks, styled them- 
 selves, with some appearance of truth, the most en- 
 lightened and civilized portion of the human species. 
 The form of government was a pure and simple mon- 
 archy ; the name of the Roman Republic, which so 
 long preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was con- 
 fined to the Latin provinces ; and the princes of Con- 
 stantinople measured their greatness by the servile 
 obedience of their people. They were ignorant how 
 much this passive disposition enervates and degrades 
 every faculty of the mind. The subjects, who had 
 resigned their will to the absolute commands of a mas- 
 ter, were equally incapable of guarding their lives and 
 fortunes agairist the assaults of the barbarians, or of 
 defending their reason from the terrors of superstition 
 Administration The first eveuts of the reio-n of Arca- 
 
 441 
 
 and character of j; j fx • ,~ 'J°" ~' ^"^" 
 
 Eutropiu.-. <li"s and Honorms are so intimately con- 
 A.D. 3[>5-:m. nected, that the rebellion of the Goths, 
 and the faJl of Rufinus, have already claimed a place 
 in the history of the west. It has already been observed, 
 that Eutroiiius,*^ one of the principal eunuchs of the 
 palace of Constantinople, succeeded the haughty min- 
 ister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose 
 vices he soon imitated. Every order of the state 
 bowed to the new favourite ; and their tame and obse- 
 quious submission encouraged him to insult the laws 
 and what is still more difficult and dangerous, the 
 manners, of his country. Under the weakest of the 
 predecessors of Arcadius, the reign of the eunuchs had 
 been secret and almost invisible. They insinuated 
 themselves into the confidence of the prince ; but their 
 ostensible functions were confined to the menial 
 service of the wardrobe and imperial bedchamber 
 They might direct, in a whisper, the public counsels, 
 and blast, by their malicious suggestions, the fame 
 and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens; but they 
 never presumed to stand forward in the front of em- 
 pire, •» or to profane the public honours of the state 
 Eutropius was the first of his artificial "Sex, who 
 dared to assume the character of a Roman magistrate 
 and general.* Sometimes in the presence °of the 
 blushing senate, he ascended the tribunal, to pronounce 
 judgment, or to repeat elaborate harangues ; and some- 
 times appeared on horseback, at the head of his troops, 
 m the dress and armour of a hero. The disregard of 
 custom and decency always betrays a weak a'nd ill- 
 regulated mind ; nor does Eutropius seem to have 
 compensated for the folly of the design by any supe- 
 rior merit or ability in the execution. His former 
 habits of life had not introduced him to the study of 
 the laws, or the exercises of the field ; his awkward 
 and unsuccessful attempts provoked the secret con- 
 tempt of the spectators ; the Goths expressed their 
 wish that such a general might always command the 
 armies of Rome ; and the name of the minister was 
 branded with ridicule, more pernicious perhaps than 
 hatred, to a public character. The subjects of Arca- 
 dius were exasperated by the recollection, that this de- 
 formed and decrepit eunuch,' who so perversely mim- 
 
 c Barthuis, who adored his author with the blind superstition of a 
 commentator, gives the preference to the two books which Claudian 
 composed against Eutropius, above all his other productions (Bail 
 let, Jugemens des Savans, tom. iv. p. 227.) They are indeed a very 
 elegant and spirited satire; and would be more valuable in an histo 
 rical light, if the invective were less va?ue, and more temperate 
 
 d After lamenting the progress of the eunuchs in the Roman oal- 
 ace, and defining their proper functions, Claudian adds, 
 
 A fronte recedant 
 
 Imperii. In Eutrop. i. 422. 
 
 Yet it does not appear that the eunuch had assumed any of the effi- 
 cient offices of the empire, and he is styled only praepositus sacri cu- 
 biculi, in the edict of his banishment. See Cod. Theod. 1. ix. tit. xl. 
 
 e Jamque oblita sul, nee sobria divitiis mens 
 
 In miseras leges hominumque negolia ludit; 
 
 Judicat eunuchus 
 
 Arma etiam violare parat . . 
 Claudian, (i. 229—270.) with that mixture of indignation and humour 
 which always pleases in a satiric poet, describes the insolent folly 
 of the eunuch, the disgrace of the empire, and the joy of the Goths. 
 
 Gaudet, cum viderit hostis, 
 
 Et sentit jam deesse viros. 
 f The poet's lively description of his deformity (i. 110—125 ) is 
 confirmed by the authentic testimony of Chrysostom ; (tom. iii. p 
 
 Vol. I. — 3 F 
 
 icked the actions of a man, was born in the most abject 
 condition of servitude ; that before he entered the im- 
 perial palace, he had been successively sold, and pur- 
 chased, by an hundred masters, who had exhausted 
 his youthful strength in every mean and infamous 
 office, and at length dismissed him in his old age to 
 freedom and poverty.? While these disgraceful stories 
 were circulated, and perhaps exaggerated, in private 
 conversations, the vanity of the favourite was flattered 
 with the niost extraordinary honours. In the senate, 
 in the capital, in the provinces, the statues of Eutro^ 
 pius were erected, in brass, or marble, decorated with 
 the symbols of his civil and military virtues, and in- 
 scribed with the pompous title of the third founder of 
 Constantinople. He was promoted to the rank of 
 patrician, which began to signify, in a popular, and 
 even a legal acceptation, the father of the emperor ; and 
 the last year of the fourth century was polluted by the 
 consulship of a eunuch and a slave. This strange and 
 inexpiable prodigy »» awakened, however, the 'preju- 
 dices of the Romans. The effeminate consul was re- 
 jected by the west, as an indelible stain to the annals 
 of the republic : and, without invoking the shades of 
 Brutus and Camillus, the colleague of Eutropius, a 
 learned and respectable magistrate,' sufficiently repre- 
 sented the different maxims of the two administrations. 
 The bold and vigorous mind of Ru- hi. venality and 
 nnus seems to have been actuated by a injustice, 
 more sanguinary and revengeful spirit; but the 
 avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that 
 of the praefect.'^ As long as he despoiled the oppres- 
 sors, who had enriched themselves with the plunder 
 of the people, Eutropius might gratify his covetous 
 disposition without much envy or injustice: but the 
 proorress of his rapine soon invaded the wealth which 
 had been acquired by lawful inheritance, or laudable 
 industry. The usual methods of extortion were prac- 
 tised and improved ; and Claudian has sketched a 
 lively and original picture of the public auction of the 
 state. " The impotence of the eunuch" (says that 
 agreeable satirist) »' has served only to stimulate his 
 avarice : the same hand which, in his servile condi- 
 tion, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the cof- 
 fers of his master, now grasps the riches of the world ; 
 and this infamous broker of .the empire appreciates 
 and divides the Roman j)rovinces, from mount Hsemus 
 to the Tigris. One man at the expense of his villa, 
 is made proconsul of Asia; a second purchases Syria 
 with his wife's jewels ; and a third laments, that he 
 has exchanged his paternal estate for the government 
 of Bithynia. In the antichamber of Eutropius, a large 
 tablet is exposed to public view, wliich marks the re- 
 spective prices of the provinces. The diflferent value 
 of Pontus, of Galatia, of Lydia, is accurately distin- 
 guished. Lycia may be obtained for so many thou- 
 sand pieces of gold ; but the opulence of Phrygia will 
 
 384. edit. Montfaucon;) who observes, that when the paint was 
 washed away, the face of Eutropius appeared more ugly and wrin- 
 kled than that of an old woman. Claudian remarks, (i. 469.) and the 
 remark must have been founded on experience, that there was 
 scarcely any interval between the youth and the decrepit a'-e of a 
 eunuch. ^ ° 
 
 5 Eutropius appears to have been a native of Armenia or Assyria. 
 His three sorvices, which Claudian more particularly describes, were 
 these : 1. He spent many years as the catamite of Ptolemy, a groom 
 or soldier of the imperial stables. 2. Ptolemy gave him to the old 
 general Arintheus, for whom he very skilfully exercised the profes- 
 sion of a pimp. 3. He was given, on her marriage, to the daughter 
 of Arintheus; and the future consul was employed to comb her hair, 
 to present the silver ewer, to wash, and to fan his mistress in hot 
 weather. See 1. i. 31—137. 
 
 h Claudian, (1. i. in Eutrop. 1—22.) after enumerating the various 
 prodigies of monstrous births, speaking animals, showers of blood or 
 stones, double suns, &c. adds, with some exaggeration, 
 
 Omnia cesserunt eunucho consule monstra. 
 The first book concludes with a noble speech of the goddess of Rome 
 to her favourite Honorius, deprecating the new ignominy to which 
 she was exposed. 
 
 i Fl. Mallius Theodorus, whose civil honours and philosophical 
 works, have been celebrated by Claudian in a very elegant panegyric. 
 
 k MiSuajv Sf y.Sti Tu) srXKra, drunk with riches, is the forcible expres- 
 sion of Zosimus ; (1. v. p. 301.) and the avarice of Eutropius is equally 
 execrated in the Lexicon of Suidas, and the Chronicle of Marcelli- 
 nus. Chrysostom had often admonished the favourite, of the vanity 
 and danger of immoderate wealth, lom. iii. p. 381. 
 
 
442 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 443 
 
 Tpquire a more considerable sum. The eunuch wishes 
 to obliterate, by the general disgrace, his personal 
 ignominy; and as he has been sold himself, he is 
 desirous of selling: the rest of mankind. In the eager 
 contention, the balance, which contains the fate and 
 fortunes of the province, often trembles on the beam ; 
 and till one of the scales is inclined, by a superior 
 weight, the mind of the impartial judge remains in 
 anxfous suspense.* Such " (continues the indignant 
 poet) " are the fruits of Roman valour, of the defeat 
 of Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey." This 
 venal prostitution of public honours secured the im- 
 punity o{ future crimes ; but the riches, which Eiitro- 
 pius derived from confiscation, were already stained 
 with injustice ; since it was decont to accuse, and to 
 condemn, the proprietors of wealth which he was im- 
 patient to confiscate. Some noble blood was shed by 
 the hand of the executioner ; and the most inhospitable 
 extremities of the empire were filled with innocent 
 Ruiiiof Abun- and illustrious exiles. Among the gen- 
 dantius, erals and consuls of the east, Abundan- 
 tius" had reason to dread the first eflfects of the resent- 
 ment of Eutropius. He had been guilty of the un- 
 pardonable crime of introducing that abject slave to 
 the palace of Constantinople : and some degree of 
 praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful 
 favourite, who was satisfied with the disgrace of his 
 benefactor. Abundantius was stripped of his ample 
 fortunes by an imperial rescript, and banished to Pit- 
 yus, on the Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman 
 world ; where he subsisted by the precarious mercy 
 of the barbarians, till he could obtain, after the fall of 
 Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon in Phcenicia. The 
 , ^. destruction of Timasius ° required a 
 
 of Timasius. , , \ c- *. 
 
 more serious and regular mode oi at- 
 tack. That great officer, the master-general of the 
 armies of Theodosius, had signalized his valour by a 
 decisive victory, which he obtained over the Goths of 
 Thessaly ; but he was too prone, after the example 
 of his sovereign, to enjoy the luxury of peace, and to 
 abandon his confidence to wicked and designing flat- 
 terers. Timasius had despised the public clamour, 
 by promoting an infamous dependent to the command 
 of a cohort; and he diserved to feel the ingratitude 
 of Bargus, who was secretly instigated by the favour- 
 ite to accuse his patron of a treasonable conspiracy. 
 The general was arraigned before the tribunal of Ar- 
 cadius himself; and the principal eunuch stood by the 
 side of the throne to suggest the questions and answers 
 of his sovereign. But as this form of trial might be 
 deemed partial and arbitrary, the further inquiry into 
 the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Saturninus 
 and Procopius ; the former of consular rank, the latter 
 still respected as the father-in-law of the emperor 
 Valens. The appearances of a fair and legal proceed- 
 ing were maintained by the blunt honesty of Proco- 
 pius ; and he yielded with reluctance to the obse- 
 quious dexterity of his colleague, who pronounced 
 a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate 
 Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated, in 
 the name of the emperor, and for the benefit of the 
 favourite ; and he was doomed to perpetual exile at 
 Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts 
 
 certanlum saepo duonim 
 
 Diversum suspendit onus : cum pondore judex 
 Vereit, et in gcniiiias nutat provincia lancrs. 
 Claudian (i. 192-209) so curiously distingiiishrs the circumstances 
 of the sale, th.at ihey all seem to allude to particular anecdotes. 
 
 Bi Claudian (i. 154—170.) mentions the guilt and exile of Abun- 
 dantius, nor Could he fail to quote the example of the artist, who 
 made the first trial of the brazen bull, which he presented to Phala- 
 ris. See Zosimus, 1. v. p. 302. Jerom, lom. i. p. 26. The difTerence 
 of place is easily reconciled ; but the decisive authority of Asterins 
 of Amasia, (Orat.rv. p. 76. apud Tillemont, Hist.desEmpereurs, loni. 
 V. p. 436.) must turn the scale in favour of Piiyus. 
 
 n Suidas (most probably from the history of Eunapius) has given a 
 ver)r unfavourable picture of Timasius. The account of his accuser, 
 the judges, trial, &c. is perfectly agreeable to the practice of ancient 
 and modern courts. (Seo Zosimus,!. v. p. 298-30CI.) I am almost 
 tempted to quote the romance of a great master, (Field in-: 's Works, 
 vol. iv. p. 49, &c 8vo. edit.) which may be considered va the history 
 of human nature. 
 
 of Libya." Secluded from all human converse, the mas- 
 ter-general of the Roman armies was lost for ever to 
 the world ; but the circumstances of his fate have been 
 related in a various and contradictory manner. It is 
 insinuated, that Eutropius despatched a private order 
 for his secret execution.P It was reported, that, in 
 attemptinor to escape from Oasis, he perished in the 
 desert, of thirst and hunger; and that his dead body 
 was found on the sands of Libya.i It has been as- 
 serted, with more confidence, that his son Syagrius, 
 after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents 
 and emissaries of the court, collected a band of Afri- 
 can robbers ; that he rescued Timasius from the place 
 of his exile; and that both the father and the son dis- 
 appeared from the knowledge of mankind."" But the 
 ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to pos- 
 sess the reward of guilt, was soon afterwards circum- 
 vented and destroyed, by the more powerful villany of 
 the minister himself; who retained sense and spirit 
 enough to abhor the instrument of his own crimes. 
 
 The public hatred, and the despair of A cruel and un- 
 individuals, continually threatened, or just law oftrea- 
 sremed to threaten, the personal safety a.d. 397. 
 of Eutropius ; as well as of the numerous Sept. 4. 
 adherents, who were attached to his fortune, and had 
 been promoted by his venal favour. For their mutual 
 defence, he contrived the safeguard of a law, which 
 violated every principle of humanity and justice." I. 
 It is enacted, in the name, and by the authority, of 
 Arcadius, that all those who shall conspire, either 
 with subjects, or with strangers, against the lives of 
 any of the persons whom tlie emperor considers as the 
 members of his own body, shall be punished with 
 death and confiscation. This species of fictitious and 
 metaphorical treason is extended to protect, not only 
 the illusfrtims officers of the state and army, who are 
 admitted into the sacred consistory, but likewise the 
 principal domestics of the palace, the senators of Con- 
 stantinople, the military commanders, and the civil 
 magistrates of the provinces : a vague and indefinite 
 list, wiiich, under the successors of Constantine, in- 
 cluded an obscure and numerous train of subordinate 
 ministers. II. This extreme severity njight perhaps 
 be justified, had it been only directed to secure the 
 representatives of the sovereign from any actual vio- 
 lence in the execution of their office. But the whole 
 body of imperial dependents claimed a privilege, or 
 rather impunity, which screened them, in the loosest 
 moments of their lives, from the hasty, perhaps the 
 justifiable, resentment of their fellow-citizens : and, 
 by a strange perversion of the laws, the same degree 
 of guilt and punishment was applied to a private 
 quarrel, and to a deliberate conspiracy against the 
 emperor and the empire. The edict of Arcadius most 
 positively and most absurdly declares, that in such 
 cases of treason, thoughts and actions ought to be pun- 
 ished with equal severity ; that the knowledge of a 
 mischievous intention, unless it be instantly revealed, 
 becomes equally criminal with the intention itself;* 
 
 o The creat Oasis was one of the snots in the sands of Libya, wa- 
 tered with springs, and capable of prouucins; wheat, barley, and palm- 
 trees. It was about three days' journey from north to south, about 
 half a day in breadth, and at the distiinre of about five days' march 
 to the west of Abydus, (m the Nile. See D'Anville, Description de 
 rEf,'ypte, p. 1S6— i>!8. The barren dt^sert which encompasses Oasis 
 (Zosimus, I. v. p. 3(X».) has supsf'slfd the idea of comparative fertility, 
 and even the epithet of the happy island. (Herodot. iii. 26.) 
 
 P The lino of Claudian, in Lutrop. I. i. 180. 
 
 Marmaricus Claris violatur csedibus Hammon, 
 evidently alludes xohis persuasion of the death of Timasius. 
 
 q Sozomen, 1. viii. c. 7. He speaks from report, "•; t.i '.? «ir«59A«iv 
 
 r Zosimus, 1. V. y>. 300. Yet he seems to suspect that this rumour 
 was spread by the friends of Eutropius. 
 
 » See the Theodosian Code, 1. ix. til. 14. ad lejem Corneliam de 
 Sirarii.s, k<r. 3. and the Code of Justinian, 1. ix. lit. viii. ad lepem 
 Juliam de INlajestate, lef . 5. The alteration of tiie /*'//«, from murder 
 to treason, was an improvement of the subtle Trib».»nian. GiKlefroy, 
 in a formal dissertation, which he \v,\& ins- rled in his Commentary, 
 illustrates this law of Arcadius, and explains all the difficult passa- 
 pes which had been perverted by the jurisconsults of the darker ages. 
 See tom. iii. p. S8— 111. 
 
 t IJartolus und(>rstands a simple and naked consciousness, without 
 any siirn of approbation or concurrence. For this opinion, says Bal- 
 dus, he is now ryasting in hell. For my own pan, continues tlie 
 
 and that those rash men, who shall presume to solicit 
 the pardon of traitors, shall themselves be branded 
 with public and perpetual infamy. III. " With re- 
 gard to the sons of traitors," (continues the emperor,) 
 " although they ought to share the punishment, since 
 they will probably imitate the guilt, of their parents ; 
 yet, by the special effect of our imperial lenity, we 
 grant them their lives : but, at the same time, we de- 
 clare them incapable of inheriting either on the father's 
 or on the mother's side, or of receiving any gift or 
 legacy, from the testament either of kmsmen or of 
 strangers. Stigmatized with hereditary infamy, ex- 
 cluded from the hopes of honours or fortune, let them 
 endure the pangs of poverty and contempt, till they 
 shall consider life as a calamity, and death as a com- 
 fort and relief." In such words, so well adapted to 
 insult the feelings of mankind, did the emperor, or 
 rather his favourite eunuch, applaud the moderzUion 
 of a law, which transferred the same unjust and in- 
 human penalties to the children of all those who had 
 seconded, or who had not disclosed, these fictitious 
 conspiracies. Some of the noblest regulations of Ro- 
 man jurisprudence have been suflfered^to expire; but 
 this edict, a convenient and forcible engine of minis- 
 terial tyranny, was carefully inserted in the codes of 
 Theodosius and Justinian ; and the same maxims 
 have been revived in modern ages, to protect the elec- 
 tors of Germany, and the cardinals of the church of 
 Rome." 
 
 ReiK-iiionof Yet these sanguinary laws, which 
 
 Tribipiid, spread terror among a disarmed and 
 
 A. D. :wi). dispirited people, were of too weak a 
 texture to restrain the hold enterprise of Tribigild * the 
 Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which 
 had been planted by Theodosius in one of the most 
 fertile districts of Phrygia,^ impatiently compared the 
 slow returns of laborious husbandry with the success- 
 ful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric : and their 
 leader resented, as a personal affront, his own ungra- 
 cious reception in the palace of Constantinople. A soft 
 and wealthy province, in the heart of the empire, was 
 astonished by the sound of war; and the faithful vassal, 
 who had been disregarded or oppressed, was again 
 respected, as soon as he resumed the hostile character 
 of a barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields, be- 
 tween the rapid Marsyas and the winding Ma?ander,' 
 were consumed with fire ; the decayed walls of the 
 city crumbled into dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; 
 the trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody mas- 
 sacre to the shores of the Hellespont; and a consid- 
 erable part of Asia Minor was desolated by the rebel- 
 lion of Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked 
 by the resistance of the peasants of Pamphylia ; and 
 the Ostrogoths, attacked in a narrow pass, between the 
 city of Selgae,* a deep morass, and the craggy clifl^s of 
 mount Taurus, were defeated with the loss of their 
 bravest troops. But the spirit of their chief was not 
 
 discreet Heineccius (P^lement.Jur. Civil. 1. iv. p. 411.) I must ap- 
 prove the theory of Bartolus ; but in practice I should incline to the 
 flenliment of Baldus. Yet Bartolus was gravely quoted by the law- 
 yers of Cardinal Richelieu: and Eutropius was indirectly guilty of 
 the murder of the virtuous de Thou. 
 
 u Godefroy, tom. iii. p. 89. It is, however, suspected, that this law, 
 80 repugnant to the maxims of Germanic freedom, has been surrep- 
 titiously added to the golden bull. 
 
 X A copious and circumstantial narrative (which he might have 
 reserved for more important events) is bestowed by Zosimus (I. v. p. 
 304—312.) on the revolt of Tribigild and Gainas. Sec likewise Soc- 
 rates, 1. vi. c. 6. and Sozomen, 1. viii. c. 4. The second book (<f Clau- 
 dian against Eutropius, is a fine, though imperfect piece of history. 
 
 y Claudian (in Eutrop. 1. ii. 237— 2o0.) very accurately ob.serVes, 
 that the ancient name and nation of the Plirytrians extended very 
 far on every side, till their limits were contracted by the colonies of 
 the Bithynians of Thrace, of the Greeks, and at la.st of the Gauls. 
 His df^scription (ii. 2i")7— 272.) of the firiility of Phrygia, and of the 
 four rivers that produced gold, is just and picturesque. 
 
 z Xenophon. Anabasis, 1. i. p. 11, 12. edit. Hulchiiis)n. Strabo, 1. 
 xii. p. 865. <dit. Amstel. Q. Curt. I. iii. c. 1. Claudian compares 
 the, junction of the ]Marsyas and Majander to that of the Saone and 
 ihelihone: with this dltfcrence, however, tliat the smaller of the 
 Phrygian rivers is not accelerated, but retarded, by the larger. 
 
 a St'Ujae, a colony of the Lacedaemonians, had f jrmcrly numbered 
 twenty thousand citizens; but in tiie age of Zosimus it wjis reduced 
 to a »ro>w.>^i /, or small town. See Cellarius, Geograph. Autiq. tom. ii. 
 p. 117. 
 
 daunted by misfortune ; and his army was continually 
 recruited by swarms of barbarians and outlaws, who 
 were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery, 
 under the more honourable names of war and conquest. 
 The rumours of the success of Tribigild might for 
 some time be suppressed by fear, or disguised by flat- 
 tery ; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and 
 the capital. Every misfortune was exaggerated in dark 
 and doubtful hints ; and the future designs of the 
 rebels became the subject of anxious conjecture. 
 Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country, 
 the Romans were inclined to suppose that he meditat- 
 ed the passage of mount Taurus, and the invasion of 
 Syria. If he descended towards the sea, they imputed, 
 and perhaps suggested, to the Gothic chief, the more 
 dangerous project of arming a fleet in the harbours of 
 Ionia, and of extending his depredations along the 
 maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to the port 
 of Constantinople. The approach of danger, and the 
 obstinacy of Tribigild, who refused all terms of ac- 
 commodation, compelled Eutropius to summon a coun- 
 cil of war.** After claiming for himself the privilege 
 of a veteran soldier, the eunuch intrusted the guard of 
 Thrace and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth ; and ' 
 the command of the Asiatic army to his favourite Leo; 
 two generals, who differently, butefliectually, promoted 
 the cause of the rebels. Leo,'^ who, from the bulk of 
 his body, and the dulness of his mind, was surnamod 
 the Ajax of the east, had deserted his original trade 
 of a wool-comber, to exercise, with much less skill 
 and success, the military profession ; and his uncertain 
 operations were capriciously framed and executed, 
 with an ignorance of real difficulties, and a timorous 
 neglect of every favourable opportunity. The rash- 
 ness of the Ostrogoths had drawn them into a disad- 
 vantageous position between the rivers Melas and 
 Eurymedon, where they were almost besieged by the 
 peasants of Pamphylia; but the arrival of an imperial 
 army, instead of completing their destruction, afll'orded 
 the means of safety and victory. Tribigild surprised 
 the unguarded camp of the Romans, in the darkness 
 of the night ; seduced the faith of the greater part of 
 the barbarian auxiliaries, and dissipated, without much 
 effort, the troops, which had been corrupted by the re- 
 laxation of discipline, and the luxury of the capital. 
 The discontent of Gainas, who had so boldly contrived 
 and executed the death of Rufinus, was irritated by 
 the fortune of his unworthy successor; he accused his 
 own dishonourable patience under the servile reign of 
 a eunuch ; and the ambitious Goth was convicted, at 
 least in the public opinion, of secretly fomenting the 
 revolt of Tribigild, with whom he was connected by a 
 domestic, as well as by a national, alliance.^ When 
 Gainas passed the Hellespont, to unite under his stan- 
 dard the remains of the Asiatic troops, he skilfully 
 adapted his motions to the wishes of the Ostrogoths ; 
 abandoning, by his retreat, the country which they de- 
 sired to invade; or facilitating, by his approach, the 
 desertion of the barbarian auxiliaries. To the impe- 
 rial court he repeatedly magnified the valour, the gen- 
 ius, the inexhaustible resources, of Tribigild ; con- 
 fessed his own inability to prosecute the war ; and 
 extorted the permission of negociating with his invin- 
 cible adversary. The conditions of peace were dicta- 
 ted by the haughty rebel ; and the peremptory demand 
 of the head of Eutropius, revealed the author and the 
 design of this hostile conspiracy. 
 
 ») The council of Eutropius, in Claudian, may be compared to that 
 of Domitian in the fourth satire of Juvenal. The principal members 
 of llie former were juvenes protervi lascivique senes ; one of them 
 h.Td been a cook, a second a wool-comber. The language of their 
 original profession exposes their assiiij)ed dignity ; and their trifling 
 conversation about tragedies, dances, &c. is made still more ridicu- 
 lous by tlie importance of the debate. 
 
 c Claudian (I. ii.37G— 461.) has branded him with infamy; and 
 Zosimus, in niore temperate language, confirms his reproaches. L. v. 
 p. 3tl5. 
 
 d The conspiracy of Gainas and Tribigild, which is attested by the 
 Greek historian, had not reached the ears of Claudian, who attribulea 
 the revolt of the Ostrogoth to his own martial spirit, and the advic0 
 of his wife. 
 
444 
 
 Fall of Eutro- 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXH. 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 445 
 
 plus, 
 A. D. 399. 
 
 The bold satirist, who has indulored 
 his discontent by the partial and passion- 
 ate censure cf the christian emperors, 
 violates the dijornity, rather than the truth, of history, 
 by comparing the son of Theodosius to one of those 
 harmless and simple animals, who scarcely feel that 
 they are the property of their shepherd. Two pas- 
 sions, however, fear and conjugal affection, awakened 
 the languid soul of Arcadius ; he was terrified by the 
 threats of a victorious barbarian : and he yielded to 
 the tender eloquence of his wife Eudoxia, who, with a 
 flood of artificial tears, presenting her infant children 
 to their father, implored his justice for some real or 
 imaginary insult, which she imputed to the audacious 
 eunuch.* ITie emperor's hand was directed to siorn 
 the condemnation of Eutropius; the magic spell, which 
 during four years had bound the prince and the people, 
 was instantly dissolved ; and the acclamations, that so 
 lately hailed the merit and fortune of the favourite, 
 were converted into the clamours of the soldiers and 
 people, who reproached his crimes, and pressed his 
 immediate execution. In this hour of distress and 
 despair, his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the 
 church, whose privileges he had wisely, or profanely, 
 attempted to circumscribe ; and the most eloquent of 
 the saints, John Chrysostom, enjoyed the triumph of 
 protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice had rais- 
 ed him to the ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople. 
 The archbishop, ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, 
 that he might be distinctly seen and heard by an innu- 
 merable crowd of either sex and of every age, pro- 
 nounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse on the 
 forgiveness of injuries, and the instability of human 
 greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted 
 wretch, who lay grovelling under the table of the al- 
 tar, exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle ; and 
 the orator who was afterwards accused of insulting 
 the misfortunes of Eutropius, laboured to excite the 
 contempt, that he might assuage the fury, of the peo- 
 ple.'' The powers of humanity, of superstition, and 
 of eloquence, prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was 
 restrained, by her own prejudices, or by those of her 
 subjects, from violating the sanctuary of the church ; 
 and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate, by the milder 
 arts of persuasion, and by an oath, th;it his life should 
 be spared.* Careless of the dignity of their sovereign, 
 the new ministers of the palace immediately published 
 an edict, to declare that his late favourite had dis- 
 graced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish 
 his statues, to confiscate his wealth, and to inflict a 
 perpetual exile in the island of Cyprus.^ A despica- 
 ble and decrepit eunuch could no longer alarm the fenrs 
 of his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what 
 yet remained, the comforts of peace, of solitude, and 
 of a happy climate. But their implacable revenge 
 still envied him the last moments of a miserable life, 
 and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of 
 Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope 
 of eluding, by a change of place, the obligation of an 
 
 • This anecdote, which Pliilostorgius alone has preserved, (1. xi. c. 
 6. and Gothofred. Dissertal. p. 4r>l— 4.')6.) is curious and important; 
 since it connects the revolts of the Goths with the secret intrigues of 
 the palace. 
 
 f See the homily of Chrysostom, torn. iii. p. 391— 38S. of which the 
 •xordluni is particularly beautiful. Socrates, I. vi. c. 5. Sozomen, 
 1. VIM. C.7. Momfaucon (in his life of Chrysostom, torn. xiii. p. 135.) too 
 hastily supposes that Tribi-ild was actually in Constantinople ; and 
 that he commanded the soldiers who were ordered to seize Eutropius 
 Even Claudian, a pairan poet, (Praefat. ad. 1. ii. in Eulrop. 27.) has 
 Ciemioued the flight of the eunuch to the sanctuary. 
 
 Suppliciterque pias humilis prostratus ad aras 
 Mitigat iratas voce tremente nurus. 
 
 K Chrysostom, in another Homily, (torn. iii. p. 33G.) afTecls to de- 
 flare, that Eutropius would not have been taken, ha^l he not deserted 
 the church. Zosinuis, (1. v. p. 313.) on the coiilrary pretends, that 
 lus enemies forced him 0^apTao-xvTs« :tuToi) from the sanctuary. 
 Yet the promise is an evidence of some treaty ; and the sirun" assu- 
 rance of Claudian, (praefat. ad. 1. ii. 46.) " 
 
 Sed tameu exemplo non feriere tuo, 
 may be considered as an evidence of some promise. 
 
 A *'T.^onA'^^^^■ '• '^- ''^- ^'^- ^^S- l"*- The date of that law (Jan. 17, 
 A. D. 399.) IS erroneous and corrupt; since the fall of Eutropius could 
 not happen till the autumn of the same year. See Tillemont, Hist, 
 aes Empereurs, torn. v. p, 7dO. ' 
 
 oath, engaged the empress to transfer the scene of his 
 trial and execution from Constantinople to the adjacent 
 suburb of Chalcedon. The consul Aurelian pronounced 
 the sentence ; and the motives of that sentence expose 
 the jurisprudence of a despotic government. The 
 crimes which Eutropius had committed against the peo- 
 ple, miirht have justified his death ; but he was found 
 guilty of harnessing to his chariot the sacred animals, 
 who, from their breed, or colour, were reserved for the 
 use of the emperor alone.' 
 
 While this domestic revolution was conspiracy and 
 transacted, Gainas '' openly revolted from fail otoainas, 
 his allegiance: united his forces, at A. D. 400. 
 Thyatira in Lydia, with those of Tribigild ; and still 
 maintained his superior ascendant over the rebellious 
 leader of the Ostrogoths. The confederate armies ad- 
 vanced, without resistance, to the straits of the Hel- 
 lespont, and the Bosphorus ; and Arcadius was in- 
 structed to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions, 
 by resigning his authority and his person to the faith 
 of the barbarians. The church of the holy martyr 
 Euphemia, situate on a lofty eminence near Chalce- 
 don,* was chosen for the place of the interview. 
 Gainas bowed, with reverence, at the feet of the em- 
 peror, whilst he required the sacrifice of Aurelian and 
 Saturninus, two ministers of consular rank; and their 
 naked necks were exposed, by the haughty rebel, to 
 the edge of the sword, till he condescended to grant 
 them a precarious and . disgraceful respite. The 
 Goths, according to the terms of the agreement, were 
 immediately transported from Asia into Europe ; and 
 their victorious chief, who accepted the title of master- 
 general of the Roman armies, soon filled Constanti- 
 nople with his troops, and distributed among his de- 
 pendents the honours and rewards of the empire. In 
 his early youth, Gainas had passed the Danube as a 
 suppliant, and a fugitive : his elevation had been the 
 work of valour and fortune; and his indiscreet or per- 
 fidious conduct, was the cause of his rapid downfall. 
 Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the arch- 
 bishop, he importunately claimed, for his Arian sec- 
 taries, the possession of a peculiar church ; and the 
 pride of the catholics was offended by the public tol- 
 eration of heresy." Every quarter of Constantinople 
 was filled with tumult and disorder; and tfie barba- 
 rians gazed with such ardour on the rich shops of the 
 jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were 
 covered with gold and silver, that it was judged pru- 
 dent to remove those dangerous temptations from their 
 sight. They resented the injurious precaution ; and 
 some alarming attempts were made, during the night, 
 to attack and destroy with fire the imperial palace." In 
 this state of mutual and suspicious hos- j 1 . 00 
 tility, the guards, and the people of Con- " >• * • 
 stantinople, shut the gates, and rose in arms to prevent, 
 or to punish, the conspiracy of the Goths. During 
 the absence of Gainas, his troops were surprised and 
 oppressed ; seven thousand barbarians perished in 
 this bloody massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the 
 catholics uncovered the roof, and continued to throw 
 down flaming logs of wood, till they overwhelmed 
 their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or 
 conventicle of the Arians. Gainas 'was either inno- 
 cent of the design, or too confident of success : he was 
 
 i Zfwinnis, 1. v. p. 313. Philostorgius, 1. xj. c. 6. 
 
 k Zosimus, (1. v. p. 3i;J— 323.) Socrates, (I. vi. c. 4.) Sozomen, (1. 
 viii. c. 4.) and Theodoret, (1. v. c.32, 33.) represent, though with some 
 various circumstances, the conspiracy, defeat, and death of Gainas. 
 
 J Oo-i*? Ei,c»!M«»« M^pTvpioi, is the expression of Zosimus himself, 
 (1. V. p. 314.) who inadvertently uses the fashionable language of the 
 christians. Evagrius describes (1. ii.c.3.)the situation, architecture, 
 relics, and miracles of that celebrated church, in which the general 
 council of Chalcedon was afterwards held. 
 
 m The pious remonstrances of Chrysostom, which do not appear in 
 his own writings, are strongly urged by Theodoret; but his insinu- 
 ation that they were successful, is disproved by facts. Tillemont 
 (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. 383.) has discovered, that the emperor, 
 to satisfy the rapacious demands of Gainas, was obliged to melt the 
 plate of the church of the apostles. 
 
 n The ecclesiastical historians, who sometimes guide and some- 
 times follow, the public opinion, most confidently assert, that the 
 palace of Constantinople was guarded by legions ol' angels. 
 
 astonished by the intelligence, that the flower of his 
 army had been ingloriously destroyed ; that he him- 
 self was declared a public enemy ; and that his 
 countryman, Fravitta, a brave and loyal confederate, 
 had assumed the management of the war by sea and 
 land. The enterprises of the rebel, against the cities of 
 Thrace, were encountered by a firm and well-ordered 
 defence ; his hungry soldiers were soon reduced to the 
 grass that grew on the margin of the fortifications; 
 and Gainas, who vainly regretted the wealth and 
 luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate resolution of 
 forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was des- 
 titute of vessels ; but the woods of the Chersonesus 
 afforded materials for rafts, and his intrepid barba- 
 ^^ rians did not refuse to trust themselves 
 
 to the waves. But Fravitta attentively 
 watched the progress of their undertaking. As soon 
 as they had gained the middle of the stream, the Ro- 
 man galleys," impelled by the full force of oars, of the 
 current, and of a favourable wind, rushed forwards in 
 compact order, and with irresistible weight ; and the 
 Hellespont was covered with the fragments of the 
 Gothic shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, 
 and the loss of many thousands of his bravest soldiers, 
 Gainas, who could no longer aspire to govern, or to 
 subdue, the Romans, determined to resume the inde- 
 pendence of a savage life. A light and active body 
 of barbarian horse, disengaged from their infantry and 
 baggage, might perform, in eight or ten days, a march 
 of three hundred miles from the Hellespont to the 
 Danube ; p the garrisons of that important frontier had 
 been gradually annihilated ; the river, in the month 
 of December, would be deeply frozen ; and the un- | 
 bounded prospect of Scythia w as opened to the am- 
 bition of Gainas. This design was secretly commu- 
 nicated to the national troops, who devoted themselves ' 
 to the fortunes of th'eir leader ; and before the signal j 
 of departure was given, a great number of provirfcial ' 
 auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to ' 
 their native country, were perfidiously massacred. 
 The Goths advanced, by rapid marches, through the 
 plains of Thrace; and they were soon delivered from 
 the fear of a pursuit, by the vanity of Fravitta, who, 
 instead of extinguishing the war, hastened to enjoy 
 the popular applause, and to assume the peaceful hon- 
 ours of the consulship. But a formidable ally appear- 
 ed in arms to vindicate the majesty of the empire, and 
 to guard the peace and liberty of Scythia.i The su- 
 perior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns, opposed the 
 progress of Gainas ; an hostile and ruined country 
 prohibited his retreat; he disdained to capitulate; 
 and after repeatedly attempting to cut his way through 
 the ranks of the enemy, he was slain, with his desp'e- 
 A. D. 401. rate followers, in the field of battle. 
 Januarys. Eleven days after the naval victory of 
 the Hellespont, the head of Gainas, the inestimable 
 gift of the conqueror, was received at Constantinople 
 with the most liberal expressions of gratitude; and 
 the public deliverance was celebrated by festivals and 
 illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became the 
 subject of epic poems ; ' and the monarch, no longer 
 
 Election «nd 
 merit ol Chry- 
 so.«tom. 
 A. I). .3C8. 
 Feb. 26. 
 
 o Zosimus (1. V. p. 319.) mentions thpse eralleys by the name of Li- 
 biirm'ans, and observes, that they were as'swift (without explaining 
 the difference between them) as the vessels with fifty oars ; but that 
 they were far inferior in speed to the triremes, which had been lone 
 disused. Yet he reasonably concludes, from the testimony of Poly"- 
 bi us, that galleys of a still larger size had been constructed in the 
 Punic wars. Since the establishment of the Roman empire over the 
 Mediterranean, the useless art of building large ships of war had pro- 
 bably been neglected, and at length forgotten. 
 
 P Chishull(Travels, p. 61— 63. 72— 76.) proceeded from Gallipoli, 
 through Hadrianople, to the Danube, in about fifteen days. He was 
 in the train of an English ambassador, whose baggage consisted of 
 seventy-one waggons. That learned traveller has the merit of tra- 
 cing a curious and unfrequented route. 
 
 q The narrative of Zosimus, who actually leadsGainas beyond the 
 Danube, must be corrected by the testimony of Socrates, and Sozo- 
 men, that he was killed in Thrace; and by the precise and authentic 
 dates of the Alexandrian, or Paschal, Chronicle, p. 307. The naval 
 victory of the Hellespont is fixed to the month Apellaeus, the tenth 
 of the calends of January, (December 23.) the head of Gainas was 
 brought to Constantinople the third of the nones of January, (Janu- 
 ary 3,) in the month Audynaeus. 
 
 r Eusebius Scholasticus acquired much fame by his poem on the 
 
 oppressed by any hostile terrors, resigned himself to 
 the mild and absolute dominion of his wife, the fair 
 and artful Eudoxia ; who has sullied her fame by the 
 persecution of St. John Chrysostom. 
 
 After the death of the indolent Necta- 
 rius, the successor of Gregory Nazian- 
 zen, the church of Constantinople was 
 distracted by the ambition of rival can- 
 didates, who were not ashamed to solicit, with gold 
 or flattery, the suffrage of the people, or of the favour- 
 ite. On this occasion, Eutropius seems to have de- 
 viated from his ordinary maxims ; and his uncorrupt- 
 ed judgment was determined only by the superior 
 merit of a stranger. In a late journey into the east 
 he had admired the sermons of John, a native and 
 presbyter of Antioch, whose name had been distin- 
 guished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden 
 Mouth.* A private order was despatched to the gov- 
 ernor of Syrifi ; and as the people might be unwilling 
 to resign their favourite preacher, he was transported"^ 
 with speed and secrecy in a post-chariot, from An- 
 tioch to Constantinople. The unanimous and un- 
 solicited consent of the court, the clergy, and the 
 people, ratified the choice of the minister; and, both 
 as a saint, and an orator, the new archbishop surpas- 
 sed the sanguine expectations of the public. Born of 
 a noble and opulent family, in the capital of Syria, 
 Chrysostom had been educated, by the care of a tender 
 mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. 
 He studied the art of rhetoric in the school of Liba- 
 nius ; and that celebrated sophist, who soon discovered 
 the talents of his disciple, ingenuously confessed, 
 that John would have deserved to succeed him, had 
 he not been stolen away by the christians. His piety 
 soon disposed him to receive the sacrament of bap- 
 tism ; to renounce the lucrative and honourable pro- 
 fession of the law ; and to bury himself in the adja- 
 cent desert, where he subdued the lusts of the flesh 
 by an austere penance of six years. His infirmities 
 compelled him to return to the society of mankind ; 
 and the authority of Meletius devoted his talents to 
 the service of the church: but in the midst of his 
 family, and afterwards on the archiepiscopal throne, 
 Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the 
 monastic virtues. The ample revenues, which his 
 predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he 
 diligently applied to the establishment of hospitals; 
 and the multitudes, who were supported by his char- 
 ity, preferred the eloquent and edifying discourses of 
 their archbishop, to the amusements of the theatre or 
 the circus. The monuments of that eloquence, which 
 was admired near twenty years at Antioch and Con- 
 stantinople, have been carefully preserved ; and the 
 possession of near one thousand sermons, or homilies, 
 has authorized the critics ' of succeeding times to ap- 
 preciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They 
 
 Gothic war, in which he had served. Near forty years afterwards, 
 Ammonius recited another poem on the same subject, in the presence 
 of the emperor Tiioodosius. See Socrates, 1. vi. c. G. 
 
 8 The sixth b.mk of Socrates, the eighth of Sozomen, and the fifth 
 of Theodoret, afford curious and authentic materials f)rthe life of 
 John Chrys<istom. Besides those general historians, I have taken for 
 my guides the four principal biographers of the saint. 1. The author 
 of a partial and passional*^ Vindication of the Arciibishop of Constan- 
 tinople, composed, in the form of a dialogue, and under the name of 
 his zealous partizan, Palladius, bishop uf Helenopolis. (Tillemont, 
 Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 500-53.3. It is inserted anions the works 
 of Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 1—90. edit. Montfaucon. 2." The mode- 
 rate Erasmus, (tom. ii. epist. mcl. p. 1331—1:^7. edit. I.ugd. Bat.) 
 His vivacity and good sense were his own ; his errors, in the unculti- 
 vated slate of ecclesiastical antiquity, were almost inevitable. 3. 
 The learned Tillemont, (Mem. Ecclesiasiiqurs, torn. xi. p. 1—405. 
 547-62G, <kc. &;c.) who compiles the lives of the saints with incrr-di- 
 blo patience, and religious accuracy. He has minutely searched the 
 voluminous works of Chrysostom himself. -1. Father' Montfaucon ; 
 who has pprused tiiese wurks with the curious diliL'ence of an editor, 
 discovered several new homilies, and asain reviewed and composed 
 the Life of Chrysostom. (Opera Chrysostom, torn. xiii. p. 91—177.) 
 
 t As I am ahnost a stranger to the voluminous sermons of Chrysos- 
 tom, I have given my confidence to the two most judicious and mode- 
 rate of the ecclesiastical critics, Erasmus (tom. iii. p. 1344.) and Du- 
 pin ; (Biblioiheque Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. p. 38.) yet the good taste 
 of the former is sometime? vitiated by an excessive lovp of antiquity ; 
 and the good sense uf the latter is always rt?strained by prudential 
 considerations. 
 
446 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 447 
 
 unanimously attribute to the christian orator, the free 
 command of an elegant and copious language ; the 
 judgment to conceal the advantages which he derived 
 from the knowledge of rhetoric and piiilosophy ; an 
 inexhaustible fund of metaphors and similitudes, of 
 ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most fa- 
 miliar topics; the happy art of engaging the passions 
 in the service of virtue ; and of exposing the folly, as 
 well as the turpitude, of vice, almost with the truth 
 and spirit of a dramatic representation. 
 His administra- The pastoral labours of the archbishop 
 tion and defects, of Constantinople provoked, and gradu- 
 A. D. 398, 403. ^^^ united against him, two sorts of 
 enemies ; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, 
 and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his 
 reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered, from the 
 pulpit of St. Sophia, against the degeneracy of the 
 christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, 
 without wounding, or even marking, the character of 
 any individual. When he declaimed against the pe- 
 culiar vices of the rich, poverty might obtain a tran- 
 sient consolation from his invectives ; but the guilty 
 were still sheltered by their numbers ; and the reproach 
 itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and 
 enjoyment. But as the pyramid rose towards the 
 summit, it insensibly diminished to a point; and the 
 magistrates, the ministers, the favourite eunuchs, the 
 ladies of the court," the empress Eudoxia herself, had 
 a much larger share of guilt, to divide among a smal- 
 ler proportion of criminals. The j)ersonal applications 
 of the audience were anticipated, or confirmed, l>y the 
 testimony of their own conscience; and the intrepid 
 preacher assumed the dangerous right of exposing 
 both the offence and the offender to the public abhor- 
 rence. The secret resentment of the court encouraoed 
 the discontent of the clergy and monks of Constanti- 
 nople, who were too hastily reformed by the fervent 
 zeal of their archbishop. He had condemned, from 
 the pulpit, the domestic females of the clergy of Con- 
 stantinople, who, under the name of servants, or sis- 
 ters, afforded a perpetual occasion either of sin or of 
 scandal. The silent and solitary ascetics, who had 
 secluded themselves from the world, were entitled to 
 the warmest approbation of Chrysostom ; but he de- 
 spised and stigmatized, as the disgrace of their holy 
 profession, the crowd of derrcnerate monks, who, from 
 some unworthy motives of pleasure or profit, so fre- 
 quently infested the streets of the capital. To the 
 voice of persuasion, the archbishop was obliged to add 
 the terrors of anthority ; and his ardour, in the exer- 
 cise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not always ex- 
 empt from passion : nor was it always guided by pru- 
 dence. Chrysostom was naturally of a choleric dis- 
 position.'^ Although he stniggled, according to the 
 precepts of the gospel, to love his private enemies, he 
 indulged hiinself in the privilege of hating the ene- 
 mies of God and of the church ; and his sentiments 
 were sometimes delivered with too much energy of 
 countenance and expression. He still maintained, 
 from some considerations of health, or abstinence, his 
 former habits of taking his repasts alone ; and this in- 
 hospitable custom,?" which his enemies imputed to 
 
 u The females of C»»nstanlinoplo distinguisheiUhemselves bylheir 
 enmity orlhoir atiaclunrnt to Chrysostom. Three nobleand opulent 
 widows, Marsa, Castriria, and Eneraphia, were the leaders of the 
 persfciiiion. (Pullud. Dialoii. torn. xiii. p. 11) It was impossible that 
 they should forgive a preacher, who reproached their affectation to 
 conceal, by the ornaments of dn-ss, iheirage and u^Miness, (Pallud. p. 
 27.) Olympias, by eciuul zeal, displayed in a more pious cause, has ob- 
 tained the title of Saint. SeeTillemonl, Mem. Eccl. lom. xi. 116 — 110. 
 
 X Sozomen, and more especially Socrates, have defined the real 
 character of Chrysostom with a temperate and impartial freedom, 
 very offensive to liis blind adinirers. Those historians lived in the 
 next generation, wlien parly violence was abatetl, and had converse*! 
 with many persons intimately aciniainied with llie virtues and im- 
 perfections of the saint. 
 
 y Palladius (torn. xiii. p. 40, &c.) very seriously defends the arch- 
 bishop. 1. He never lasted wine. 2. The weakness uf his stomach 
 required a peculiar diet. 3. Business, or study, or devotion, often 
 kept him fasting till sun-set. 4. He detested the noise and levity of 
 great dinners. 5. He saved the expense for the use of the poor. 6. 
 He was apprehensive, in a capital like Conslauiinople, of the envy 
 and reproach of partial iuviiations. 
 
 pride, contributed, at least, to nourish the infirmity of 
 a morose and unsocial humour. Separated from that 
 familiar intercourse, which facilitates the knowledge 
 and the despatch of business, he reposed an unsus- 
 pecting confidence in his deacon Serapion ; and seldom 
 applied his speculative knowledge of human nature to 
 the particular characters, either of his dependents, or 
 of his equals. Conscious of the purity of his inten- 
 tions, and perhaps of the superiority of his genius, 
 the archbishop of Constantinople extended the juris- 
 diction of the imperial city, that he might enlarge the 
 sphere of his pastoral labours ; and the conduct which 
 the profane imputed to an ambitious motive, appeared 
 to Chrysostom himself in the light of a sacred and 
 indispensable duty. In his visitation through the 
 Asiatic provinces, he deposed thirteen bishops of Ly- 
 dia and Phrygia ; and indiscreetly declared, that a 
 deep corruption of simony and licentiousness had in- 
 fected the whole episcopal order." If those bishops 
 were innocent, such a rash and unjust condemnation 
 must excite a well grounded discontent. If they were 
 guilty, the numerous associates of their guilt would 
 soon discover, that their own safety depended on the 
 ruin of the archbishop ; whom they studied to repre- 
 sent as the tyrant of the eastern church. 
 
 This ecclesiastical conspiracy was chrysostom i8 
 managed by Theophilus,* archbishop of perHecutodby the 
 Alexandria, an active and ambitious "'"'P'"'"^^ ^q^^*'*^* 
 prelate, who displayed the fruits of ra- 
 pine in monuments of ostentation. His national dis- 
 like to the rising greatness of a city, which degraded 
 him from the second, to the third, rank, in the chris- 
 tian world, was exasperated by some personal disputes 
 with Chrysostom himself.*' By the private invitation 
 of the empress, Theophilus landed at Constantinople, 
 with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to encounter 
 the populace ; and a train of dependent bishops, to se- 
 cure, by their voices, the majority of a synod. The 
 synod *^ was convened in the suburb of Chalcedon, 
 surnamed the OaA-^ where Rufinus had erected a state- 
 ly church and monastery; and their proceedings were 
 continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A bishop 
 and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constantino- 
 ple ; but the frivolous or improbable nature of the 
 forty-seven articles which they presented against him, 
 may justly be considered as a fair and unexceptionable 
 panegyric. Four successive summons were signified 
 to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust either his 
 person, or his reputation, in the hands of his implaca- 
 ble enemies, who prudently declining the examination 
 of any particular charges, condemned his contuma- 
 cious disobedience, and hastily pronounced a sentence 
 of deposition. The synod of the Oak immediately 
 addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their judg- 
 ment, and charitably insinuated, that the penalties of 
 treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher, 
 who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the em- 
 press Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely 
 arrested, and conducted through the city, by one of 
 the imperial messengers, who landed him, after a short 
 navitration, near the entrance of the Euxine ; from 
 whence, before the expiration of two days, he was 
 gloriously recalled. 
 
 The first astonishment of his faithful popular tumulta 
 people had bet n mute and passive : they at Coustumiuo- 
 suddenly rose w ith unanimous and irre- i''"- 
 
 z Chrysostom declares his free opinion, (torn. \x. horn. iii. in Act. 
 Apostol. p. 29.) that the number of bishops who might be saved, bore 
 a very small proportion to those who woidd be damned. 
 
 a See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. lom. xi. p. 441—500. 
 
 b I have purposely omitted the controversy which arose among the 
 monks of Egypt concerning Origenism and Anthropomorphism: the 
 dissimulation and violence of Theophilus ; his artful management of 
 the simplicity of Epiphanius; the persecution and flight of the long 
 or tall, brothers ; the ambiguous simport which they received at Con- 
 stantinople from Chrysostom, ice. Sec. 
 
 ■ c Photius (p. .^3—60) has preserved the original acts of the synod 
 of the Oak, which destroy the false asaertion, that Chrysostom was 
 condemned by no more than thirty-six bishops, of whom iweniy-nine 
 were Egyptians. Forty-five bishops subscribed his senieuce. See 
 Tillemout, Mem. Eccles. turn. ^i. p. 593. 
 
 sistible fury. Theophilus escaped ; but the promiscu- 
 ous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners were 
 slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constanti- 
 nople."* A seasonable earthquake justified the inter- 
 position of Heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled for- 
 wards to the gates of the palace ; and the empress, 
 agitated by fear or remorse, threw herself at the feet 
 of Arcadius, and confessed, that the public safety 
 could be purchased only by the restoration of Chrysos- 
 tom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable 
 vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia were profuse- 
 ly illuminated; and the acclamations of a victorious 
 people accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, 
 the triumph of the archbishop ; who too easily con- 
 sented to resume the exercise of his functions, before 
 his sentence had been legally reversed by the authori- 
 ty of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant, or careless, 
 of the impending danger, Chrysostom indulged his 
 zeal, or perhaps his resentment ; declaimed with pe- 
 culiar asperity against female vices ; and condemned 
 the profane honours which were addressed, almost in 
 the precincts of St. Sophia, to the statue of the em- 
 press. His imprudence tempted his enemies to in- 
 flame the haughty spirit of Eudoxia, by reporting, or 
 perhaps inventing, the famous exordium of a sermon, 
 " Herodias is again furious ; Herodias again dances ; 
 she once more requires the head of John :" an inso- 
 lent allusion, which, as a woman and a sovereign, it 
 was impossible for her to forgive.*^ The short interval 
 of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more 
 effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of the 
 archbishop. A numerous council of the eastern pre- 
 lates, who w^ere guided from a distance by the advice 
 of Theophilus, confirmed the validity, without exam- 
 ining the justice, of the former sentence ; and a de- 
 tachment of barbarian troops was introduced into the 
 city, to suppress the emotions of the people. On the 
 vigil of Easter, the solemn administration of baptism 
 was rudely interrupted by the soldiers, who alarmed the 
 modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated by 
 their presence the awful mysteries of the christian 
 worship. Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia, 
 and the archiepiscopal throne. The catholics retreat- 
 ed to the baths of Constantino, and afterwards to the 
 fields: where they were still pursued and insulted by 
 the guards, the bishops, and the magistrates. The 
 fatal day of the second and final exile of Chrysostom 
 was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of 
 the senate-house, and of the adjacent buildings ; and 
 this calamity was imputed, without proof, but not 
 without probability, to the despair of a persecuted 
 faction.^ 
 
 Exile of Chry- Cicero might claim some merit, if his 
 Bostom. voluntary banishment preserved the peace 
 
 \ ^' ^' °^ *^® republic ;« but the submission of 
 June 20. Chrysostom was the indispensable duty 
 of a christian and a subject. Instead of listening to 
 his humble prayer, that he might be permitted to reside 
 at Cyzicus, or Nicomedia, the inflexible empress as- 
 signed for his exile the remote and desolate town of 
 Cucusus, among the ridges of mount Taurus, in the 
 Lesser Armenia. A secret hope was entertained, that 
 the archbishop might perish in a difficult and danger- 
 ous march of seventy days in the heat of summer, 
 
 through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was 
 continually tlireatened by the hostile attacks of the 
 Isaurians, and the more implacable fury of the monks. 
 Yet Chrysostom arrived in safety at the place of his 
 confinement; and the three years, which he spent at 
 Cucusus, and the neighbouring town of Arabissus, 
 were the last and most glorious of his life. His cha- 
 racter was consecrated by absence and persecution ; 
 the faults of his administration were not long remem- 
 bered ; but every tongue repeated the praises of his 
 genius and virtue ; and the respectful attention of the 
 christian world was fixed on a desert spot among the 
 mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the arch- 
 bishop, whose active mind was inviirorated by misfor- 
 tunes, maintained a strict and frequent correspondence'' 
 with the most distant provinces; exhorted the separ- 
 ate congregation of his faith. ful adherents to persevere 
 in their allegiance ; urged the destruction of the tem- 
 ples of Phoenicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the 
 isle of Cyprus ; extended his pastoral care to the mis- 
 sions of Persia and Scythia ; negociated, by his am- 
 bassadors, with the Roman pontiff, and the emperor 
 Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a partial synod, 
 to the supreme tribunal of a free and generous council. ' 
 The nriind of the illustrious exile was still independent; 
 but his captive body was exposed to the revenge of 
 the oppressors, who continued to abuse the name and 
 authority of Arcadius.' An order was despatched for 
 the instant removal of Chrysostom to the extreme 
 desert of Pityus : and his guards so faithfully obeyed 
 their cruel instructions, that, before he nis death 
 reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he A. D. jot! 
 expired at Comana, in Pontus, in the Sept. 14. 
 sixtieth year of his age. The succeeding generation 
 acknowledged his innocence and merit. The arch- 
 bishops of the east, who might blush that their pre- 
 decessors had been the enemies of Chrysostom, were 
 gradually disposed, by the firmness of the Roman 
 pontiff, to restore the honours of that „. 
 venerable name.^ At the pious solicita- ".''.eS To Con" 
 tion of the clergy and people of Con- Ktaiitim.jde, 
 stantinople, his relics, tliirty years after ^-^-^^^Jan-T. 
 his death, were transported from their obscure sepul- 
 chre to the royal city.» The emperor Theodosius ad- 
 vanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon ; and, fall- 
 ing prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of 
 his guilty parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia, the forgive- 
 ness of the injured saints.™ 
 
 Yet a reasonable doubt may be enter- The death of 
 tained, whether any stain of hereditary Arcadius. 
 guilt could be derived from Arcadius to'^* ^•^^'*- ^^-^ ^• 
 his successor. Eudoxia was a young and beautiful 
 woman, who indulged her passions, and despised her 
 husband : count John enjoyed, at least, the familiar 
 
 d Palladius owns, (p. 30 ) that if the people of Constantinople had 
 found Theophilus, they would certainly have thrown him into the 
 sea. Socrates mentions (1. vi, c. 17.) a battle between the mob and 
 the sailors of Alexandria, in which many wounds were given, and 
 some lives were lost. The massacre of tiie monks is observed only 
 by the pagan Zosimus, (1. v. p. 321.) who acknowledges that Chrysos- 
 tom had a singular talent to lead the illiterate multitude, *iv yxf h 
 
 « See Socrates, 1. vi. c. 18. Sozomen, 1. viii. c. 20. Zosimus (1. v. 
 p. I>24. 327.) mentions, in general terms, his invectives against Eu- 
 doxia. The homily, which begins with those famous words, is reject- 
 ed as spurious. Montfaucon, tom. xiii. p. 151. Tillemont, Mem. Ec- 
 cles. tom. xi. p. 603. 
 
 f We might naturally expect such a charge from Zosimus ; (1. v. p. 
 327.) but it is remarkable enough, that it should be confirmed by So- 
 crates, 1. vi. c. 18. and the Paschal Chronicle, p. 307. 
 
 g He displays those specious motives, (Post Reditum, c. 13, 11.) in 
 the language of an orator and a politician. 
 
 h Two hundred and forty-two of the epistles of Chrysostom are still 
 extant. (Opera, tom. iii. p. .528—736.) They are addressed to a prnat 
 variety of persons, and siiow a firmness of mind, much superior to 
 that of Cicero in his exile. The fourteentii epistle contains a curious 
 narrative of the dangers of liis journey. 
 
 i After the exile of Chrysostom, Theophilus published an enor- 
 mous and //orriA/e volume against him, in wiiich he perpetually re- 
 peats the polite expressions of hosteni humanitatis, sacrilegorum 
 principem, immundum dicmonem ; he affirms, thai John Chrysos- 
 tom had delivered his soul to be adulterated by the devil; and 
 wishes that some further punishment, adequate (if possible) lo the 
 magnitude of his crimes, may be inflicted on him. St. Jerom, at 
 the request of his friend Theophilus, translated this cdifyinj: per- 
 formance from Greek into Latin. See Facundus Herniian. Defens. 
 pro iii Capiiul. I. vi. c. 5. published by Sirnion. Opera, lom. ii d! 
 595, 59G, 597. ' ^ 
 
 k His name was inserted by his surces.<!or Atticus in the Dypfirs 
 of the church of Constantinople, \. D, 4IH. Ten years afrervvarda 
 he was revered asa sainf.Cyril, who inherited the place, and the pas- 
 sions, of his uncle 1'heophilus, yielded with nmch reluctance. See 
 Facund. Hermian. 1. 4. c. 1. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. d. 
 277—283. 
 
 1 Socrates, I. vii. c. 45. Theodoret. 1. v. c. ?.(}. This event recon- 
 ciled the Joanuitcs, who had hitherto refused ro acknowledge hi* 
 successors. During his lifetime, the Joanuitcs were rcspecied by 
 the catholics, as the true and ■ orthodox communion of Constantino- 
 ple. 'J'heir olistinacy gradually drove them to the brink of schism. 
 
 m According to some accounts, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 
 438. No. 9, 10.) the emperor was forced to send a letter of invitation 
 and exrusc?, before the body of the ceremonious saint could be re- 
 moved from Comana. 
 
448 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 iH 
 
 r, 
 
 '^' 
 
 confidence of the empress ; and the public named him 
 as the real father of Theodosius the younfrer." The 
 birth of a son was accepted, however, hy the pious 
 husband, as an event the most fortunate and honourable 
 to himself, to his family, and to the eastern world: 
 and the royal infant, by ati unprecedented fiivour, was 
 invested with the titles of Ca;sar and Augustus. In 
 less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom 
 of youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a mis- 
 carriajre; and this untimely death confounded the 
 prophecy of a holy bishop," who, amidst the universal 
 joy, had ventured to foretell, that she should behold 
 the loner and auspicious reiirn of her glorious son. 
 The catholics applauded the justice of Heaven, which 
 avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom ; and per- 
 haps the emperor was the only person who sincerely 
 bewailed the loss of the haujrhty and rapacious Eu- 
 doxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted him more 
 deeply than the public calamities of the east;P the 
 licentious excursions from Pontus to Palestine, of the 
 Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused tlie weak- 
 ness of the government ; and the earthquakes, the con- 
 flagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts,*» 
 which the popular discontent was equally disposed to 
 attribute to the incapacity of the monarch. At length, 
 in the thirty-first year of his age, after a reign (if we 
 may abuse that word.) of thirteen years, three months, 
 and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace of 
 Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his cha- 
 racter; since in a period very copiously furnished 
 with historical materials, it has not been possible to 
 remark one action that properly belongs to the son 
 of the great Theodosius. 
 
 Hisfiuppospd The historian Procopius •■ has indeed 
 tesiumeiit. illuminated the mind of the dying em- 
 peror with a ray of human prudence, or celestial wis- 
 dom. Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, 
 the helpless condition of his son Theodosius, who was 
 no mure than seven years of age, the dangerous fac- 
 tions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezde- 
 gerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the 
 allegiance of an ambitious subject, by the participation 
 of supreme power, he boldly appealed to the magnanim- 
 ity of a king; and placed, by solemn testament, the 
 sceptre of the east in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. 
 The royal guardian accepted and discharged this hon- 
 ourable trust with unexampled fidelity ; and the in- 
 fancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and 
 councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of 
 Procopius ; and his veracity is not disputed by Aga- 
 thias,* while he presumes to dissent from his judgment, 
 and to arraign the wisdom of a christian emperor, who, 
 so rashly, though so fortunately, committed his son 
 and his dominions to the unknown faith of a stranger, 
 a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hun- 
 dred and fifty years, this political question misht be 
 debated in the court of Justinian ; but a prudent his- 
 torian will refuse to examine the propriety^ till he has 
 ascertained the truth of the testament of Arcadius. As 
 
 o Zosimus. I. V. p. 315. The chastity of an empress slioiild not 
 lie iiiipe.ir.hcd vvitliout producing a witness ; hut it is astoni^iiin?, 
 that the witness should write and live under a prince, whose legiti- 
 macy lie dared to attack. VVe must suppose that his history was a 
 party libel, privately read and circulated hy the pagans. Tillemont 
 (Hist, des l^mpercurs, torn. v. p. 782.) is not averse to brand the re- 
 putation of Budoxia. 
 
 o Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the order 
 which lie iiud obtained for the destruction of eijilit pasan temples of 
 that city. Pee the curious details of his life, (Baroiiius, A. D. 401. 
 No. 17—51.) oripinally written in Greek, or perhaps in Syriac, by a 
 monk, one of his Tivouritc deacons. 
 
 p Pliilostorji. I. xi. c. 8. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 457. 
 
 q Jcrom. (torn. vi. p. 73. 7G.) describes, in lively colours, the re- 
 gular and destructive march of the locusts, which spread a dark 
 cloud, between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Sea- 
 Boiiahle winds scattered iheuj, partly into the Dead sea, and partly 
 into the Mediterranean. 
 
 r Procopius, de Bell. Persic. I. i. c. 2. p. 8. edit. Louvre. 
 
 • .Asathias, I. iv. p. 136, 137. Although he confesses the preva- 
 lence of the tradition, he asserts that Procopius was the first who had 
 committed it to writing, Tillemont (Mist, des Einpereurs, torn. vi. 
 p. 5'.J7'.) argues very sensibly on the merits of this fable. Ilis criti- 
 cism was not warped hy any ecclesiastical authority : Both Proco- 
 pius and Agathias are half pagans. 
 
 it stands without a parallel in the history of the world, 
 we may justly require that it should be attested by the 
 positive and unanimous evidence of contemporaries. 
 The strange novelty of the event, which excites our 
 distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their 
 universal silence annihilates the vain tradition of the 
 succeeding age. 
 
 The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, Administration 
 ifthev could fairly be transferred from of Authemius. 
 
 •' •' ,,.,.. An 40H— 4 1 S 
 
 private property to public dominion, /^•"•^"*=— ^^•'• 
 would have adjudged to the emperor Honorius the 
 guardianship of his nephew, till he had attained, at 
 least, the fourteenth year of his age. But the weak- 
 ness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign, dis- 
 qualified him from prosecuting this natural claim ; and 
 such was the absolute separation of the two mon- 
 archies, both in interest and aflfection, that Constanti- 
 nople would have obeyed, with less reluctance, the or- 
 ders of the Persian, than those of the Italian, court. 
 Under a prince, whose weakness is disguised by the 
 external signs of manhood and discretion, the most 
 worthless favourites may secretly dispute the empire 
 of the palace; and dictate to submissive provinces the 
 commands of a master, whom they direct and de- 
 spise. But the ministers of a child, who is incapable 
 of arming them with the sanction of the royal name, 
 must acquire and exercise an independent authority. 
 The great ofllicers of the stale and army, who had been 
 appointed before the death of Arcadius, formed an aris- 
 tocracy, which might have inspired them with an idea 
 of a free republic ; and the government of the eastern 
 empire was fortunately assumed by the praefect An- 
 themius,* who obtained, by his superior abilities, a 
 lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The 
 safety of the young emperor proved the merit and in- 
 tegrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sus- 
 tained the force and reputation of an infant reign. 
 Uldin, with a formidable host of barbarians, was en- 
 camped in the heart of Thrace : he proudly rejected 
 all terms of accommodation; and pointing to the 
 rising sun, declared to the Roman ambassadors, that 
 the course of that planet should ah>ne terminate the 
 conquests of the Huns. But the desertion of his con- 
 federates, who were privately convinced of the justice 
 and liberality of the imperial ministers, obliged Uldin 
 to repass the Danube : the tribe of the Scyrri, which 
 composed his rear-guard, was almost extirpated ; 
 and many thousand captives were dispersed, to culti- 
 vate, with servile labour, the fields of Asia.** In the 
 midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was pro- 
 tected by a strong enclosure of new and more exten- 
 sive walls ; the same visfilant care was applied to re- 
 store the fortifications of the lllyrian cities; and apian 
 was judiciously conceived, which, in the space of seven 
 years, would have secured the command of the Dan- 
 ube, by establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of 
 two hundred and fifty armed vessels." 
 
 But the Romans had so long been ac- Character and 
 customed to the authority of a monarch. Administration 
 
 •' , _ , /. ot rulchcria. 
 
 that the first, even among the females, ot a. d. 414—453. 
 the imperial fiimily, who displayed any courage or 
 capacity, was permitted to ascend the vacant throne of 
 Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria,y who w^as only two 
 years older than himself, received at the ageof sixteen, 
 the title of Jugtista ,• and though her favour might 
 sometimes be clouded by caprice or intrigue, she con- 
 
 t Socrates, 1. vii. c. 1. Anthemius who was the grandson of Phil- 
 ip, one of the ministers of Constantius, and the grandfather of the 
 emperor Anthemius. After his return from the Persian embassy, 
 he was appointed consul and pra'torian prefect of the east, in the 
 year 405 ; and held the priefecture about ten years. See his hon- 
 ours and praises in Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 359. Tille- 
 mont. Hist, des Emp. tom. vi. p. 1, Sec. 
 
 u Sozomen, I. ix. c. 5. He saw some Scyrri at work near mount 
 Olympus in Bithynia, and cherished the vain hope that those cap- 
 tives were the last of the nation. 
 
 X Cod. Theod. 1. vii. tit. xvii. I. xv. tit. i. leg. 49. 
 
 y Sozomen has filled three chapters with a magnificent panegyric 
 of Pulcheria, (I. ix. c 1. 2. 3) and Tillemont (Memoires Eccles. tom. 
 XV. p. 171 — 184) has dedicated a separate article to the honour of 
 St. Pulcheria, virgin, and empress. 
 
 449 
 
 tinued to govern the eastern empire near forty years ; 
 during the long minority of her brother, and, after his 
 death, in her own name, and in the name of Marcian, 
 her nominal husband. From a motive, either of pru- 
 dence, or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy ; and 
 notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of 
 Pulcheria,* this resolution which she communicated to 
 her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by the 
 christian world, as the sublime eflx)rt of heroic piety. 
 In the presence of the clergy and people, the three 
 daughters of Arcadius* dedicated their virginity to 
 God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was in- 
 scribed on a tablet of gold and gems ; which they 
 j)ublicly ofl?ered in the great church of Constantinople. 
 Their palace was converted into a monastery ; and all 
 males, except the guides of their conscience, the saints 
 who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were scru- 
 pulously excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, 
 her two sisters, and a chosen train of favourite dam- 
 sels, formed a religious community : they renounced 
 the vanity of dress ; interrupted, by frequent fasts, their 
 simple and frugal diet; allotted a portion of their time 
 to works of embroidery ; and devoted several hours of 
 the day and night to the exercises of prayer and psal- 
 mody. The piety of a christian virgin was adorned 
 by the zeal and liberality of an empress. Ecclesias- 
 tical history describes the splendid churches, which 
 were built at the expense of Pulcheria, in all the 
 provinces of the east; her charitable foundations for 
 the benefit of strangers and the poor ; the ample dona- 
 tions which she assigned for the perpetual mainte- 
 nance of monastic societies ; and the active severity 
 \vith which she laboured to suppress the opposite here- 
 sies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Such virtues were 
 supposed to deserve the peculiar favour of the Deity ; 
 and the relics of martyrs, as well as the knowledge of 
 future events, were communicated in visions and'reve- 
 lations to the imperial saint. " Yet the devotion of 
 Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable attention 
 from temporal aff*airs : and she alone, among all the 
 descendants of the great Theodosius, appears to have 
 inherited any share of his manly spirit and abilities. 
 The elegant and familiar use which she had acquired, 
 both of the Greek and Latin languages, was readily 
 applied to the various occasions of speaking or writing 
 on public business ; her deliberations were maturely 
 weighed ; her actions were prompt and decisive ; and 
 while she moved without noise or ostentation the 
 wheel of government, she discreetly attributed to the 
 genius of the emperor, the long tranquillity of his reiirn. 
 In the last years of his peaceful life, Europe was In- 
 deed afllicted with the arms of Attila; but the more 
 extensive provinces of Asia still continued to enjoy a 
 profound and permanent repose. Theodosius the 
 younger was never reduced to the disgraceful necessity 
 of encountering and punishing a rebellious subject: 
 and since we cannot applaud the vigour, some praise 
 may be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the ad- 
 ministration of Pulcheria. 
 
 Education and The Roman world was deeply in- 
 
 character of terested in the education of its master. 
 I*'u'nctr '"' '^^ ^ regyilzT course of study and exercise- 
 was judiciously instituted ; of the mili- 
 tary exercises of riding, and shooting with the bow ; 
 
 I Suidas (Excerpta, p. 68. in Script. Byzant.) pretends, on the 
 credit of the Nestorian?, that Pulcheria was exasperated against 
 their founder, because he censured her connection with the beautiful 
 raulmus, and her incest with her brother Theodosius. 
 
 a See Durange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 70. Flaccilla, the eldest 
 (laughter, either died before Arcadius, or. if 5A« lived till the year 
 431. (Marcellin. Chron.) some defect of mind or body must have 
 excluded her from the honours of her rank. 
 
 b She was admonished, by repeated dreams, of the place where 
 the relics of the forty martyrs had been buried. The ground had 
 successively belonged to the house and earden of a woman of Con- 
 stantinople, to a monastery of Macedonian Monks, and to a church 
 of St. Thyrsus, erected by Ca?sarius, who was consul A. D. 397 ; 
 and the memory of the relics was almost obliterated. Notwithstan- 
 ding the charitable wishes of Dr. Jortin, (Remarks, tom. iv. p. 234.) 
 It IS not easy to acquit Pulcheria of some share in the pious fraud ; 
 which must have been transacted when she was more than five and 
 thirty years of age. 
 
 Vol. I 3 G 29 
 
 of the liberal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philo- 
 sophy: the most skilful master of the east ambitious- 
 ly solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and 
 several noble youths were introduced into the palace, 
 to aninidte his diligence by the emulation of friend- 
 ship. Pulcheria alone discharged the important task 
 of instructing her brother in the arts of government; 
 but her precepts may countenance some suspicion of 
 the extent of her capacity, or of the purity of her in- 
 tentions. She taught him to maintain a grave and 
 majestic deportment ; to walk, to hold his robes, to 
 seat himself on his throne, in a manner worthy of a 
 great prince; to abstain from laughter; to listen with 
 condescension ; to return suitable answers ; to assume, 
 by turns, a serious or a placid countenance ; in a 
 word, to represent with grace and dignity the external 
 figure of a Roman emperor. But Theodosius « was 
 never excited to support the weight and glory of an 
 illustrious name ; and, instead of aspiring to imitate 
 his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to 
 measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weak- 
 ness of his father and his uncle. Arcadius and Ho- 
 norius had been assisted by the guardian care of a 
 parent, whose lessons were enforced by his authority 
 and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is 
 born in the purple, must remain a stranger to the voice 
 of truth ; and the son of Arcadius was condemned to 
 pass his perpetual infancy, encompassed only by a 
 servile train of women and eunuchs. The ample 
 leisure, which he acquired by neglecting the essential 
 duties of his high office, was filled by idle amuse- 
 ments, and unprofitable studies. Hunting was the 
 only active pursuit that could tempt him beyond the 
 limits of the palace ; but he most assiduously labour- 
 ed, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp, in the 
 mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and 
 the elegance with which he transcribed religious 
 books, entitled the Roman emperor to the singular 
 epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair writer. Separated 
 from the world by an impenetrable veil, Theodosius 
 trusted the persons whom he loved ; he loved those 
 who were accustomed to amuse and flatter his indo- 
 lence ; and as he never perused the papers that were 
 presented for his royal signature, the acts of injustice 
 the most repugnant to his character, were frequently 
 perpetrated in his name. The emperor himself was 
 chaste, temperate, liberal, and merciful ; but these 
 qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues, 
 when they are supported by courage, and regulated 
 by discretion, were seldom beneficial, and they some- 
 times proved mischievous, to mankind. His mind, 
 enervated by a royal education, was oppressed and 
 degraded by abject superstition : he fasted, he sung 
 psalms, he blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines 
 with which his faith was continually nourished. The- 
 odosius devoutly worshipped the dead and living 
 saints of the catholic church; and he once refused 10 
 eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an excom- 
 munication on his sovereign, condescended to heal 
 the spiritual wound which he had inflicted.* 
 
 The story of a fair and virtuous mai- Character and 
 den, exalted from a private condition to "'^ventures of 
 the imperial throne, might be deemed Eud3,'''^* 
 an incredible romance, if such a ro- A. D. 421— 4G0. 
 mance had not been verified in the marriage of Theo- 
 dosius. The celebrated Athenais ' was educated by 
 
 c There is a remarkable difference between the two ecclesiastical 
 historians, who in general bear so close a resemblance. Sozomen ('. 
 i.Y. c. 1.) ascribes to Pulcheria the government of the empire, and the 
 education of her brother ; whom lie scarcely condescends to praise. 
 Socrates, though he aflTectedly disclaims all hopes of favour or 
 fame, composes an elaborate panegyric on the emperor, and cau- 
 tiously siipprcssfs the merits of his sister, (I. vii. c. 22. 42.) Philo- 
 storgius (l.xii. c. 7.) eTpressses the influence of Pulcheria in gentle 
 and courtly language, t»j oxa-iKiKxi <rKfiSK"<riti 'vjTvipi-r^iuevifi xx< Sttv. 
 Suvuo-of J. Suidas, (Excerpt, p. 5."^.) gives a true char.tcter of Theodo- 
 sius ; and T have followed the example of Tillemont, (torn. iv. p. 25.) 
 in borrowing some strokes from the modern Greeks. 
 
 d Theodoret, I, v. c. 37. The bishop of Cyrrbus one of the first 
 men of his age for his learning and piety, applauds the obedience of 
 Theodosius to the divine laws. 
 
 e Socrates (I. vii. c. 21.) mentions her name, (Athenais, the daugh- 
 
1^ 
 
 •i 
 
 450 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 451 
 
 
 U 
 
 her father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the 
 Greeks ; and so advantageous was the opinion which 
 the Athenian philosopher entertained of his contem- 
 poraries, that he divided his patrimony between his 
 two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy 
 of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively confi- 
 dence that her beauty and merit would be a sufficient 
 portion. The jealousy and avarice of her brothers 
 soon compelled Athenais to seek a refuge at Constan- 
 tinople ; and with some hopes, either of justice or 
 favour, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That 
 sagacious princess listened to her eloquent complaint ; 
 and secretly destined the daughter of the philosopher 
 Leontius for the future wife of the emperor of the 
 east, who had now attained the twentieth year of his 
 age. She easily excited the curiosity of her brother, 
 by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais ; 
 large eyes, a well -proportioned nose, a fair com- 
 plexion, golden locks, a slender person, a graceful de- 
 meanour, an understanding improved by study, and a 
 virtue tried by distress. Theodosius, concealed be- 
 hind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was per- 
 mitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the modest 
 youth immediately declared his pure and honourable 
 love ; and the royal nuptials were celebrated amidst 
 the acclamations of the capital and the provinces. 
 Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce the 
 errors of paganism, received at her baptism the chris- 
 tian name of Eudocia: but the cautious Pulcheria 
 withheld the title of Augusta, till the wife of Theo- 
 dosius had approved her fruitful ness by the birth of a 
 daughter, who espoused, fifteen years afterwards, the 
 emperor of the west. The brothers of Eudocia obey- 
 ed, with some anxiety, her imperial summons ; but as 
 she could easily forgive their fortunate unkind ness, 
 she indulged the tenderness, or perhaps tl j vanity, of 
 a sister, .by promoting them to the rank of consuls 
 and praefects. In the luxury of the palace, she still 
 cultivated those ingenuous arts, which had contributed 
 to her greatness ; and wisely dedicated her talents to 
 the honour of religion and of her husband. Eudocia 
 composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books 
 of the Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel 
 and Zechariah ; a cento of the verses of Homer, ap- 
 plied to the life and miracles of Christ, the legend of 
 St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian victories 
 of Theodosius : and her writings, which were applaud- 
 ed by a servile and superstitious age, have not been 
 disdained by the candour of impartial criticism.' The 
 fondness of the emperor was not abated by time and 
 possession; and Eudocia, after the marriage of her 
 daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful 
 vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her 
 ostentatious progress through the east may seem in- 
 consistent with the spirit of christian humility : she 
 pronounced, from a throne of gold and gems, an elo- 
 quent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her 
 royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city, be- 
 stowed a donative of two hundred pounds of gold to 
 restore the public baths, and accepted the statues 
 which were decreed by the gratitude of Antioch. In 
 the Holy Land, her alms and pious foundations ex- 
 ceeded the munificence of the great Helena ; and 
 though the public treasure might be impoverished by 
 this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious sat- 
 
 ter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist,) her baptism, innrriage. and 
 poetical genius. The most ancient account or her history is in Jolin 
 Malala, (part ii. p. 20. 21. edit. Venet. 1733.) nnd in the Pjtschai 
 Chronicle, (p. -31 1, 312.) Those authors had probably seen original 
 pictures of the empress Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, 
 ■Cedrenus, k.c. have di«;played the love, rather than the talent, of 
 fiction. From Nicephorua. indeed, I have ventured to assume her 
 age. Tl»e writer of a romance would not have imagined, that Atlie- 
 nais was near twenty-eight years old wlien she inflamed tlie heart 
 of a young em})eror. 
 
 f Socrates. 1. vii. c. 21. Phoiiug, p. 413— 420. The Homeric cento 
 Is still extant, and has been repeatedly printed ; but the claims of 
 Eudocia to that insipid performance is disputed by the critics. See 
 Fabricius, Biblioth. Grsc. tom. i. p. 357. The Ionia, a miscella- 
 neous dictionary of history and fable, was compiled by anotiier em- 
 press by the name of Eudocia, who lived in the eleventh century; 
 and the work is still extant in manuscript. 
 
 isfaction of returning to Constantinople with the chafns 
 of St. Peter, the right arm of St. Stephen, and an un- 
 doubted picture of the Virgin, painted by St. Luke.* 
 But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of the glories 
 of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmind- 
 ful, perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she am- 
 bitiously aspired to the government of the eastern em- 
 pire; the palace was distracted by female discord; 
 but the victory was at last decided, by the superior 
 ascendant of the sister of Theodosius. The execution 
 of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the disgrace of 
 Cyrus, praetorian praefect of the east, convinced the 
 public, that the favour of Eudocia was insufficient to 
 protect her most faithful friends; and the uncommon 
 beauty of Paulinus encouraged the secret rumour, that 
 his jTuilt was that of a successful lover.^ As soon as 
 the empress perceived that the affection of Theodosius 
 was irretrievably lost, she requested the permission 
 of retiringr to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She 
 obtained her request ; but the jealousy of Theodosius, 
 or the vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in 
 her last retreat ; and Saturninus, count of the domes- 
 tics, was directed to punish with death two ecclesi- 
 astics, her most favoured servants. Eudocia instant- 
 ly revenged them by the assassination of the count : 
 the furious passions, which she indulged on this sus- 
 picious occasion, seemed to justify the severity of 
 Theodosius ; and the empress, ignominiously stript 
 of the honours of her rank," was di.«?graced, perhaps 
 unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The remainder of 
 the life of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent in 
 exile and devotion ; and the approach of age, the 
 death of Theodosius, the misfortunes of her only 
 daughter, who was led a captive from Rome to Car- 
 thage, and the society of the holy monks of Palestine, 
 insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her mind. 
 After a full experience of the vicissitudes of human 
 life, the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired, 
 at Jerusalem, in the sixty-seventh year of her age ; 
 protesting with her dying breath, that she had never 
 transgressed the bounds of innocence and friendship.* 
 The gentle mind of Theodosius was The Persian war, 
 never inflamed by the ambition of con- A. D. 422. 
 quest, or military renown ; and the slight alarm of a 
 Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the 
 east. The motives of this war were just and honour- 
 able. In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the 
 supposed guardian of Theodosius, a bishop, who as- 
 pired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of the 
 fire-temples of Susa.* His zeal and obstinacy were 
 revenged on his brethren : the Magi excited a cruel 
 persecution ; and the intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was 
 imitated by his son Varanes, or iJahram, who soon af- 
 terwards ascended the throne. Some christian fugi- 
 tives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were stern- 
 ly demanded, and generously refused ; and the refusal, 
 aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a 
 war between the rival monarchies. The mountains 
 
 g Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 438. 43f).) is copious and florid ; 
 but he is accused of placing the lives of ditfercnt ages on the same 
 level of authenticity. 
 
 h In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I have imitated 
 th« caution of Evngrius, (I. i. c. 21.) and count Marcellinus, (in 
 Chron. A. D. 440. and 444.) The two authentic dates assigned by 
 the latter, overturn a great part of the Greek fictions; and the cele- 
 brated story of the apple, tLC. is fit only for the Arabian Nights, 
 where something nut very unlike it may be found. 
 
 I Priscus, (in Excerpt. Lcgat. p. 69.) a contemporary, and a cour- 
 tier, drily mentions her pagan and christian names, without adding 
 any title of honour or respect. 
 
 k For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long residence at 
 Jerusalem, her devotion, alms, &.c. see Socrates, (I. vii. c. 47,) and 
 Evagrius, (I. 1. c. SO. 21, 22.) The Paschal Chronicle may some- 
 times deserve regard: and, in the domestic history of Antioch, 
 John Malala becomes a writer of good authority. The Abbe 
 Guente, in a memoir on the fertility of Palestine, of which I have 
 only seen an e.\iract. calculates the gifts of Eudocia at 30,488 
 pounds of gold, above 80(),U0U pounds sterling. 
 
 1 Theodorct, I. v. c. 39. Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 356 
 —364. Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental, tonr.. iii. p. 396. tom. iv. p. 61. 
 Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but extols the constancy of 
 his martyrdom. Vet I do not clearly understand the casuistry which 
 prohibits our repairing the damage which we have unlawfully com- 
 mitted. 
 
 of Armenia, and the plains of Mesopotamia, were 
 filled with hostile armies ; but the operations of two 
 successive campaigns were not productive of any de- 
 cisive or memorable events. Some engagements were 
 fought, some towns were besieged, with various and 
 doubtful success ; and if the Romans failed in their 
 attempt to recover the long-lost possessions of Nisibis, 
 the Persiaris were repulsed from the walls of a Meso- 
 potamian city, by the valour of a martial bishop, who 
 pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. 
 Thomas the apostle. Yet the splendid victories, 
 which the incredible speed of the messenger Palladius 
 repeatedly announced to the palace of Constantinople, 
 were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics. From 
 these panegyrics the" historians of the age might bor- 
 row their extraordinary, and perhaps fabulous, tales; 
 of the proud challenge of a Persian hero, who was 
 entangled by the net, and despatched by the sword, 
 of Areobindus the Goth ; of the ten thousand Immor- 
 tals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman camp ; 
 and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who 
 were impelled by a panic terror to throw themselves 
 headlong into the Euphrates. Such events may be 
 disbelieved or disregarded ; but the charity of a bish- 
 op, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have digni- 
 fied the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivTon. 
 Boldly declaring, that vessels of gold and silver are 
 useless to a god who neither eats nor drinks, the gen- 
 erous prelate sold the plate of the church of Amida ; 
 employed the price in the redemption of seven thou- 
 sand Persian captives; supplied their wants with 
 affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their 
 native country, to inform their king of the true spirit 
 of the religion which he persecuted. The practice of 
 benevolence in the midst of war must always tend to 
 assuage the animosity of contending nations ; and I 
 wish to persuade myself, that Acacius contributed to 
 the restoration of peace. In the conference which 
 was held on the limits of the two empires, the Ro- 
 man ambassadors degraded the personal character of 
 their sovereign, by a vain attempt to magnify the 
 extent of his power; when they seriously advised the 
 Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the 
 wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this dis- 
 tant war. A truce of one hundred years was solemn- 
 ly ratified ; and although the revolutions of Armenia 
 might threaten the public tranquillity, the essential 
 conditions of this treaty were respected near four- 
 score years by the successors of Constantine and Ar- 
 taxerxes. 
 
 Armenia divid- Since the Roman and Parthian stand- 
 ed between the ards first encountered on the banks of 
 Ro'i/"'^ ^^« the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia " 
 was alternately oppressed by its formi- 
 dable protectors ; and in the course of this history, 
 several events, which inclined the balance of peace 
 and war, have been already related. A disgraceful 
 A. D. 431—440. ti^^^^y h^<i resigned Armenia to the am- 
 ' bition of Sapor ; and the scale of Persia 
 appeared to preponderate. But the royal race of Ar- 
 saces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan ; 
 the turbulent nobles asserted, or betrayed their heredi- 
 tary independence ; and the nation was still attached 
 to the christian princes of Constantinople. In the be- 
 ginning of the fifth century, Armenia was divided by 
 the progress of war and faction ; ** and the unnatural 
 
 m Socrates (1. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21.) is the best author for the Per- 
 iiian war. We may likewi.se consult the three Chronicles, the Pas- 
 chal, and those of Marcellinus and Malnla. 
 
 D This account of the ruin and division of the kingdom of Arme- 
 nia is taken from the third book of the Armenian history of Moses 
 of Chorcne. Deficient as he is in every qualification of a good his- 
 torian, his local information, his passions, and his prejudices, are 
 strongly expressive of a native and contemporary. Proropius (de 
 Edirtciis. 1. iii. c. i. 5.) relates the same facts in a very different man- 
 ner ; but I have extracted the circumstances the most probable in 
 tliemselves, and the least inconsistent with Moses of Cliorene. 
 
 o The western Armenians used the Greek language and charac- 
 ters in their religious oflfices; but the use of th.it ho.stile tongue was 
 prohibited by tlio Persians in the eastern provinces, which were 
 
 division precipitated the downfall of that ancient 
 monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned 
 over the eastern and most extensive portion of the 
 country ; while the western province acknowledged 
 the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the supremacy of the 
 emperor Arcadius. After the death of Arsaces, the 
 Romans suppressed the regal government, and im- 
 posed on their allies the condition of subjects. The 
 military command was delegated to the count of the 
 Armenian frontier; the city of TheodosiopolisP was 
 built and fortified in a strong situation, on a fertile 
 and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates ; 
 and the dependent territories were ruled by five sa- 
 traps, whose dignity was marked by a peculiar habit 
 of gold and purple. The less fortunate nobles, who 
 lamented the loss of their king, and envied the hon- 
 ours of their equals, were provoked to negociate their 
 peace and pardon at the Persian court ; and returning, 
 with their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, ac- 
 knowledged Chosroes for their lawful sovereign. 
 About thirty years afterwards, Artasires, the nephew 
 and successor of Chosroes, fell under the displeasure 
 of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia; and 
 they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the 
 room of an unworthy king. The answer of the arch- 
 |)ishop Isaac, whose sanction they earnestly solicited, 
 is expressive of the character of a superstitious people. 
 He deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of 
 Artasires ; and declared, that he should not hesitate 
 to accuse him before the tribunal of a christian emper- 
 or, who would punish, without destroying, the sinner. 
 " Our king," continued Isaac, "is too much addicted 
 to licentious pleasures, but he has been purified in the 
 holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of women, 
 but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He 
 may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an 
 undoubted catholic; and his faith is pure, though his 
 manners are flagitious. I will never consent to aban- 
 don my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves ; and 
 you would soon repent your rash exchange of the in- 
 firmities of a believer, for the specious virtues of a 
 heathen."*! Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the 
 factious nobles accused both the king and the arch- 
 bishop as the secret adherents of the emperor; and 
 absurdly rejoiced in the sentence of condemnation, 
 which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly pro- 
 nounced by Bahrain himself. The descendants of 
 Arsaces were degraded from the royal dignity,' which 
 they had possessed above five hundred and sixty 
 years;* and the dominions of the unfortunate Arta- 
 sires, under the new and significant appellation of 
 Persarmenia, were reduced into the form of a province. 
 This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman 
 government ; but the rising disputes were soon ter- 
 minated by an amicable, though unequal, partition of 
 the ancient kingdom of Armenia ; and a territorial 
 acquisition, which Augustus might have despised, 
 
 ol)liged to use the Syriac, till the invention of Armenian letters by 
 .Mesrolics. in the beginning of the fifth century, and the subsequent 
 version of the Bible into the Armoitian language ; an event which 
 relaxed the connexion of the church and nation with Constantino- 
 pie. 
 
 p Moses Clioren. I. iii. c. 59. p. :>09, and p. 358. Procopius, de 
 Edificiis, 1. iii. c. 5. TJieodosiopolis stands, or rather stood, about 
 thirty-five miles to the east of Arzoronm, the modern capital of 
 Turkish Armenia. See D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii.p. 
 99, 100. *^ 
 
 q Moses Choren. I. iii. c. 63. p. 316. According to the Institution 
 of St. Gregory the apostle of Armenia, the archbishop was always 
 of the royal family ; a circumstaBce which, in some degree, correct- 
 ed the influence of the sacerdotal cliaracler. and united the mitre 
 with the crown. 
 
 r A brancii of the Royal hoiise of Arsaces still subsisted with the 
 rank and possessions (as it should seem) of Armenian satraps. See 
 Moses Choren. I. iii. c. 05. p. 321. 
 
 8 Valarsaccs was appointed kins of .Armenia by his brother the 
 Parthian monarch, immediately after the defeat of Aiitiochus Side- 
 tes. (Moses Choren. I. ii. c. 2. p. 85.) one hundred and thirty years 
 before Christ. Without depehdin<r on the various and contradictory 
 periods of the reigns of the List kings, we may be assured, that tho 
 ruin of the Armenian kingdom happened after the council of Chal- 
 cedon. A. D. 431 ; (I. iii. c. 61. p. 31'2.) and under Veramus, or Bah. 
 ram. king of Persia, (I. iii. c. 64. p 31T.) who reigned from A. D. 
 420 to 4-10. Bee Assemanni, Bibiiut. Oriental, tom. iii. p. 39(i. 
 
452 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 reflected gome lustre on the declining empire of the 
 younger Theodosius. 
 
 453 
 
 * !• 
 
 (!i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 Death of Honarius. — Valentinian III. emperor of the west, — 
 Administration of his mother Placidia. — JEtius and Bon- 
 iface. — Conquest of Africa by tlie Vandals, 
 
 Last years and DuRiNG a long and disgraceful r'iign 
 deaih of Hono- of twcnty-cight years, Honorius, emper- 
 "'a. d. 42a or of the west, was separated from the 
 Aug. 27. friendship of his brother, and afterwards 
 of his nephew, who reigned over the east: and Con- 
 stantinople beheld, with apparent indifference and 
 secret joy, the calamities of Kome. The strange ad- 
 venture of Placidia* gradually renewed, and cement- 
 ed, the alliance of the two empires. The daughter 
 of the great Theodosius had been the captive and the 
 queen of the Goths ; she lost an affectionate husband ; 
 she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin ; 
 she tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, 
 in the treaty of peace, for six hundred thousand mea- 
 sures of wheat. Afler her return from Spain to Italy, 
 Placidia experienced a new persecution in the bosom of 
 her family. She was averse to a marriage, which had 
 been stipulated without her consent; and the brave 
 Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom 
 he had vanquished, received, from the hand of Hono- 
 rius himself, the struggling and reluctant hand of the 
 widow of Adolphus. But her resistance ended with 
 the ceremony of the nuptials ; nor did Placidia refuse 
 to become the mother of Honoria and Valentinian the 
 third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion 
 over the mind of her grateful husband. The generous 
 soldier, whose time had hitherto been divided between 
 social pleasure and military service, was taught new 
 lessons of avarice and ambition : he extorted the title 
 of AuoTistus ; and the servant of Honorius was as- 
 sociated to the empire of the west. The death of 
 Constantius, in the seventh month of his reign, in- 
 stead of diminishing, seemed to increase, the power 
 of Placidia ; and the indecent familiarity *• of her 
 brother, which might be no more than the symptoms 
 of a childish affection, were universally attributed to 
 incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base intrigues 
 of a steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness was 
 converted into an irreconcilable quarrel : the debates 
 of the emperor and his sister were not long confined 
 within the walls of the palace; and as the Gothic 
 soldiers adhered to their queen, the city of Ravenna 
 was agitated with bloody and dangerous tumults, 
 which could only be appeased by the forced or volun- 
 tary retreat of Placidia and her children. The royal 
 exiles landed at Constantinople, soon after the mar- 
 riage of Theodosius, during the festival of the Per- 
 sian victories. They were treated with kindness and 
 magnificence ; but as the statues of the emperor Con- 
 stantius had been rejected by the eastern court, the 
 title of Augusta could not decently be allowed to his 
 widow. Within a few months after the arrival of 
 Placidia, a swift messenger announced the death of 
 Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the im- 
 portant secret was not divulged, till the necessary 
 orders had been despatched for the march of a large 
 body of troops to the sea-coast of Dalmatia. The 
 shops and the gates of Constantinople remained shut 
 during seven days ; and the loss of a foreign prince, 
 who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was 
 
 a See pages 433—437. 
 
 b T» <T\ivix¥i %.Ar* rrofi* n\vn%r*, U the expression of Olympiodo 
 ru9, (apud Photium. p. 197.) who meansi, perlinps, to deHcribe the 
 ■ame caresses which Mahomet bestowed on his daughter Fhateinali. 
 Quando, (pays the prophet himself,) quando suhit mihi desiderium 
 Paradisi, osruior earn, et ingero iingiiam meam in os ejus. Bui this 
 sensual indulgence was justified by miracle and mystery ; and the 
 anecdote has been communicated to the public by the reverend father 
 Maracci, in his Version and Confutation of tbe Koran, torn, i, p. 
 98* ^ 
 
 celebrated with loud and affected demonstrations of the 
 public grief. 
 
 While the ministers of Constantinople ^. . , 
 deliberated, the vacant throne of Honorius fan of the usurp- 
 was usurped by the ambition of a stran- ^"^ J«hn. 
 ger. The name of the rebel was John : he ^ ^- ^'^3-425. 
 filled the confidential office of Primicerius^ or principal 
 secretary ; and history has attributed to his character 
 more virtues than can easily be reconciled with the vio- 
 lation of the most sacred duty. Elated by the submis- 
 sion of Italy, and the hope of an alliance with the Huns, 
 John presumed to insult, by an embassy, the majesty 
 of the eastern emperor; but when he understood that 
 his agents had been banished, imprisoned, and at 
 length chased away with deserved ignominy, John 
 prepared to assert, by arms, the injustice of his claims. 
 In such a cause, the grandson of the great Theodosius 
 should have marched in person ; but the young em- 
 peror was easily diverted, by his physicians, from so 
 rash and hazardous a design ; and the conduct of the 
 Italian expedition was prudently intrusted to Ardabu- 
 rius, and his son Aspar, who had already signalized 
 their valour against the Persians. It was resolved, 
 that Ardaburius should embark with the infantry ; 
 while Aspar, at the head of the cavalry, conducted 
 Placidia, and her son Valentinian, along the sea-coast 
 of the Hadriatic. The march of the cavalry was per- 
 formed with such active diligence, that they surprised, 
 without resistance, the important city of Aquileia ; 
 when the hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confound- 
 ed by the intelligence, that a storm had dispersed the 
 imperial fleet; and that his father, with only two 
 galleys, was taken and carried a prisoner into the port 
 of Ravenna. Yet this incident, unfortunate as it 
 might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy. Arda- 
 burius employed, or abused, the courteous freedom 
 which he was permitted to enjoy, to revive among the 
 troops a sense of loyalty and gratitude; and, as soon 
 as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, he invited, 
 by private messages, and pressed the approach of 
 Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity trans- 
 formed into an angel, guided the eastern cavalry, by a 
 secret, and, it was thought, an impassable, road, through 
 the morasses of the Po; the gates of Ravenna, after a 
 short struggle, were thrown open ; and the defenceless 
 tyrant was delivered to the mercy, or rather, to the 
 cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand was first 
 cut off; and after he had been exposed, mounted on an 
 ass, to the public derision, John was beheaded in the 
 circus of Aquileia. The emperor Theodosius, when 
 he received the news of the victory, interrupted the 
 horse-races, and singing, as he marched through the 
 streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his people from 
 the hippodrome to the church, where he spent the re- 
 mainder of the day in grateful devotion.'^ 
 
 In a monarchy, which, accordinof to ,r , .• . ,„ 
 
 % "i • 1 1 • 1 I Valentinian III. 
 
 various precedents, might be considered emperor of the 
 as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, ^<'^*« 
 it was impossible that the intricate claims ^' ^' '^^-^^• 
 of female and collateral succession should be clearly de- 
 fined ;'' and Theodosius, by the right of consanguinity 
 or conquest, might have reigned the sole legitimate em- 
 peror of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes 
 were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway ; but 
 his indolent temper gradually acquiesced in the dic- 
 tates of sound policy. He contented himself with the 
 possession of the east ; and wisely relinquished the 
 laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful war 
 against the barbarians beyond the Alps ; or of securing 
 the obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose 
 minds were alienated by the irreconcilable difference 
 
 c For these revolutions of the western empire, consult Olympio- 
 dor. apud Phot. p. 192, 193. 196, 197. 200. Sozomen. 1. ix. c. 16. So- 
 crates, I. vii. 23, 24. Philostorgius, I. xii. c. 10. 11. and Godefroy, 
 Dissertat. p. 486. Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. I. i. r. 3. p. 182, 183. 
 Tlieophanes, in Chrono'jrraph. p. 72. 73. and the Chronicles. 
 
 d See Groiius de Jure Belli et Pacis, I. ii. c. 7. He has laiioriously, 
 hut vainly, attempted to form a reasonable system of jurisprudence, 
 from the various and discordant modos of royal succession, which 
 have l)een introduced by fraud or force, by time or accident. 
 
 of language and interest. Instead of listening to 
 the voice of ambition, Theodosius resolved to imi- 
 tate the moderation of his grandfather, and seat 
 his cousin Valentinian on the throne of the west. 
 The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople 
 by the title of Nobilissimus .• he was promoted, before 
 his departure to Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity 
 of Caesar ,• and, after the conquest of Italy, the patri- 
 cian Helion, by the authority of Theodosius, and in 
 the presence of the senate, saluted Valentinian the 
 third by the name of Augustus, and solemnly invested 
 him with the diadem, and the imperial purple." By 
 the agreement of the three females who governed the 
 Roman world, the son of Placidia was betrothed to 
 Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius and Athenais; 
 and, as soon as the lover and his bride had attained the 
 age of puberty, this honourable alliance was faithfully 
 accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation, 
 perhaps, for the expenses of the war, the western Illy- 
 ricum was detached from the Italian dominions, and 
 yielded to the throne of Constantinople.^ The emper- 
 or of the east acquired the useful dominion of the rich 
 and maritime province of Dalmatia, and the dangerous 
 sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum', which had been 
 filled and ravaged above twenty years by a promiscu- 
 ous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Bava- 
 rians. Theodosius and Valentinian continued to respect 
 the obligations of their public and domestic alliance : 
 but the unity of the Roman government was finally 
 dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of 
 all future laws was limited to the dominions of their 
 peculiar author ; unless he should think proper to com- 
 municate them, subscribed with his own hand, for the 
 approbation of his independent colleague.^ 
 Administration Valentinian, when he received the title 
 of his mother ol Augustus, was no more than six years 
 P'^^'^'f- of age ; and his long minority was in- 
 
 A.U. 4^-4.w. trusted to the guardian care of a mother, 
 who might assert a female claim to the succession of the 
 western empire. Placidia envied, but she could not 
 equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of 
 Theodosius; the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise 
 and successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Val- 
 entinian was jealous of the power which she was inca- 
 pable of exercising :•• she reigned twenty-five years, in 
 the name of her son; and the character of that unwor- 
 thy emperor gradually countenanced the suspicion, that 
 Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute edu- 
 cation, and studiously diverted his attention from every 
 manly and honourable pursuit. Amidst the decay of 
 Hertwogener. tnil^'a^y Spirit, her armies were com- 
 ais, ^tiuaand manded by two generals, ./Etius'and 
 ^"'^'''^^- Boniface,*' who may be deservedly named 
 
 e The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori, Annali d'lta- 
 lia. torn. iv. p. 139.) whether Valentinian received the imperial dia- 
 dem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, 1 am willing to be- 
 lieve, that some respect was shown to the senate. 
 
 f The count de Buat (llist.des Peuples de lEurope, torn. vil. p. 
 292—300.) has established the reality, explained the motives, and 
 traced the consequences, of this remarkable cession. 
 
 g See the first j^Tovel of Theodosius. by wliich he ratifies and 
 communicates (A. D. 438.) the Theodosian Code. About forty 
 years before that time, the unity of legislation had been proved by 
 an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the cities of Apu- 
 lia and Calabria, produced a law of the east to justifv their exemp- 
 tion from municipal offices ; (Cod. Theod. I. xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13.) and 
 the western emperor was oliliged to invalidate, by a special edict, 
 the law, quam constat ineis partibus esse danmosam. Cod. Theod. 
 i. xi. tit. i. leg. 158. 
 
 h Cassiodorius (Varior. I. xi. Epist. i, p. 238.) has compared the 
 regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns tlic weakness 
 of the mother of Valentinian. and praises the virtues of his royal 
 mistress. On this occasion, flattery seems to have spoken the lan- 
 guage of truth. 
 
 i Philostorgius, I. xii. c. 12. and Godefroy's Dissertat. p. 493, &c. : 
 and Renatus Frigeridus. apud Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 8. in torn. ii. p. 
 163. The father of iEtius was Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of 
 the province of Scythia. and master general of the cavalry : his 
 mother was a rich and noble Italian. From his earliest youth, 
 i¥!tius, as a soldier and a hostage, had conversed with the barba 
 riais. 
 
 k For the character of Boniface, see Olymplodorus, apud Phot, 
 p. 1% ; and St. Aucustin, apud Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. t. xiii. 
 p. 712—715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at length deplored the fall of 
 his friend, who after a solemn vow of chastity, had married a sec- 
 ond wife of the Arian sect, and who was suspected of tceeping sev- 
 eral concubines in his bouse. 
 
 as the last of the Romans. Their union might have 
 supported a sinking empire; their discord was the 
 fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The 
 invasion and defeat of Attila, have immortalized the 
 fameof^tius; and though time has thrown a shade 
 over the exploits of his rival, the defence of Marseilles, 
 and the deliverance of Africa, attest the military 
 talents of count Boniface. In the field of battle, in 
 partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the 
 terror of the barbarians : the clergy, and particularly 
 his friend Augustin, were edified by the christian piety 
 which had once tempted him to retire from the world : 
 the people applauded his spotless integrity : the army 
 dreaded his equal and inexorable justice, which may 
 be displayed in a very singular example : A peasant, 
 who complained of the criminal intimacy between his 
 wife and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his 
 tribunal the following day ; in the evening the count, 
 who had diligently informed himself of the time and 
 place of the assignation, mounted his horse, rode ten 
 miles into the country, surprised the guilty couple, 
 punished the soldier with instant death, and silenced 
 the complaints of the husband, by presenting him, the 
 next morning, with the head of the adulterer. The. 
 abilities of iEtius and Boniface might have been use- 
 fully employed against the public enemies, in separate 
 and important commands ; but the experience of their 
 past conduct should have decided the real favour and 
 confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melan- 
 choly season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone 
 had maintained her cause with unshaken fidelity ; and 
 the troops and treasures of Africa had essentially con- 
 tributed to extinguish the rebellion. The same rebel- 
 lion had been supported by the zeal and activity 
 of jEtius, who brought an army of sixty thousand 
 Huns from the Danube to the confines of Italy, for the 
 service of the Usurper. The untimely death of John 
 compelled him to accept an advantageous treaty ; but 
 he still continued, the subject and the soldier of Val- 
 entinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a treasonable 
 correspondence with his barbarian allies, whose re- 
 treat had been purchased by liberal gifts, and more 
 liberal promises. But jEtius possessed an advantage 
 of singular moment in a female reign : he was present : 
 he besieged, with artful and assiduous flattery, the 
 palace of Ravenna ; disguised his dark designs with the 
 mask of loyalty and. friendship ; and at length deceived 
 both his mistress and his absent rival, by a subtle conspi- 
 racy, which a weak woman, and a brave man could not 
 easily suspect. He secretly persuaded,' 
 Placidia to recall Boniface from the gov- ^"ZuiLTxa'' 
 ernment of Africa; he secretly advised Africa. 
 Boniface to disobey the imperial sum- ^' ^- ^'^'^' 
 mons : to the one, he represented the order as a sen- 
 tence of death ; to the other he stated the refusal as a 
 signal of revolt; and when the credulous and unsus- 
 pectful count had armed the province in his defence, 
 ^tius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebel- 
 lion, which his own perfidy had excited. A temperate 
 inquiry into the real motives of Boniface, would have 
 restored a faithful servant to his duty, and to the re- 
 public; but the arts of ^tius still continued to betray 
 and to inflame, and the count was urged, by persecu- 
 tion, to embrace the most desperate counsels. The 
 success with which he eluded or repelled the first 
 attacks, could not inspire a vain confidence, that, at the 
 head of some loose, disorderly Africans, he should be 
 able to withstand the regular forces of the west, com- 
 manded by a rival, whose military character it was 
 impossible for him to despise. After some hesitation, 
 the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface 
 despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the 
 
 1 Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 3, 4. p. 182— ISG.) relates the 
 fraud of .Sitius, the revolt of Boniface, and tne loss of Africa. This 
 anecdote, which is supported by some collateral testimony, (seeRui- 
 nart Hist. Persecui. Vandal, p. 420, 421.) seems agreeable to the prac- 
 tice of ancient and modern courts, and would be naturally revealed 
 by the repentance of Boniface. 
 
454 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 it- 
 
 camp, of Gonderic, king of the "Vandals, with the pro- 
 posal of a strict alliance, and the offer of an advantage- 
 ous and perpetual settlement. 
 He invites the After the retreat of the Goths, the 
 Vandals. authority of Honorius had obtained a 
 A. D. 428. precarious establishment in Spain ; ex- 
 cept only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi 
 and the Vandals had fortified their camps, in mutual 
 discord, and hostile independence. The Vandals pre- 
 vailed ; and their adversaries were besieged in the 
 Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till the 
 approach of count Asterius compelled, or rather pro- 
 voked, the victorious barbarians to remove the scene 
 of the war to the plains of Boetica. The rapid pro- 
 gress of the Vandals soon required a more effectual 
 opposition ; and the master-general Castinus marched 
 against them with a numerous army of Romans and 
 Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior enemy, 
 Castinus fled with dishononr to Tarragona; and this 
 memorable defeat, which has been represented as the 
 punishment, was most probably the effect, of his rash 
 presumption.™ Seville and Carthagena became the 
 reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquer- 
 ors ; and the vessels which they found in the harbour 
 of Carthagena, might easily transport them to the iles 
 of Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, 
 as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed their fa- 
 milies and their fortunes. The experience of navi- 
 gation, and perhaps the prospect of Africa, encourag- 
 ed the Vandals to accept the invitation which they re- 
 ceived from count Boniface ; and the death of Gonde- 
 ric served only to forward and animate the bold 
 enterprise. In the room of a prince not conspicuous 
 for any superior powers of the mind or body, they 
 Genserir, kin«r acquired his bastard brother, the terrible 
 of the Vandals. Genseric ; " a name, which, in the de- 
 struction of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal 
 rank with the names of Alaric and Attila. The king 
 of the Vandals is described to have been of a middle 
 stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he had 
 contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His 
 slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep 
 purposes of his soul ; he disdained to imitate the lux- 
 ury of the vanquished ; but he indulged the sterner 
 passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of 
 Genseric was without bounds, and without scruples ; 
 and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark 
 engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be 
 useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies 
 the seeds of hatred and contention. Almost in the 
 moment of his departure he was informed, that Her- 
 manric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage 
 the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to 
 abandon. Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued 
 the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as Merida ; pre- 
 cipitated the king and his array into the river Anas, 
 and calmly returned to the sea-shore, to embark his 
 He lands in victorious troops. The vessels which 
 Africa, transported the Vandals over the modern 
 ^Ma^'^' Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only 
 *^' twelve miles in breadth, were furnished 
 
 by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their de- 
 parture ; and by the African general, who had implor- 
 ed their formidable assistance." 
 
 m See the Chrnniclrs of Prosper and Idalius. Salvian (de Gubor- 
 nal. Dei, 1. vii. p. 246. Paris, 1608.) ascribes the victory of the Vandals 
 to their superior piety. They fasted, they prayed, they carried a 
 Bible in the front of the host, with the dfsian, perhaps, of reproach- 
 ing the perfidy and sacrilege of their enemies. 
 
 n Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura mediocris et 
 equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxurise con- 
 temptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicilandas gentes provi- 
 dentissimus, seinina contentionum jacere, odia miscere paratus. Jor- 
 nandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33. p. 657. This jwrtrait, which is 
 drawn with some skill and a strong likeness, must have been copied 
 from the Gothic history of Cassiodorius. 
 
 o See the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a Spaniard and a 
 conlemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in the month of 
 May, of the year of Abraham (which commences in October) 2444. 
 This date, which coincides with A. D. 429, is confirmed by Isidore, 
 anoiher Spanish t>iahap, and is justly preferred lo the opinion of those 
 
 Our fancy, so long accustomed to reviewa his army, 
 
 exaggerate and multiply the martial ^- ^- ^29. 
 swarms of barbarians that seemed to issue from 
 the north, will perhaps be surprised by the account 
 of the army which Genseric mustered on the coast of 
 Mauritania. The Vandals, who in twenty years had 
 penetrated from the Elbe to mount Atlas, were united 
 under the command of their warlike king ; and he 
 reigned with equal authority over the Alani, who had 
 passed, within the term of human life, from. the cold 
 of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate. 
 The hopes of the bold enterprise had excited many 
 brave adventurers of the Gothic nation ; and many 
 desperate J)rovincials were tempted to repair their 
 fortunes by the same means which had occasioned 
 their ruin. Yet this various multitude amounted only 
 to fifty thousand effective men ; and though Genseric 
 artfully magnified his apparent strength, by appoint- 
 ing eighty chiliarcfis^ or commanders of thousands, 
 the fallacious increase of old men, of children, and of 
 slaves, would scarcely have swelled his army to the 
 number of fourscore thousand persons.^ But his own 
 dexterity, and the discontents of Africa, soon fortified 
 the Vandal powers, by the accession of numerous and 
 active allies. The parts of Mauritania, 
 which border on the great desert, and *® °°'** 
 the Atlantic ocean, were filled with a fierce and un- 
 tractable race of men, whose savage temper had been 
 exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of 
 the Roman arms. The wandering Moors,i as they 
 gradually ventured to approach the sea-shore, and the 
 camp of the Vandals, must have viewed with terror 
 and astonishment the dress, the armour, the martial 
 pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who 
 had landed on their coast ; and the fair complexions 
 of the blue-eyed warriors of Germany formed a very 
 singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue, which 
 is derived from the neighbourhood of the torrid zone. 
 After the first difficulties had in some measure been 
 removed, which arose from the mutual ignorance of 
 their respective language, the Moors, regardless of 
 any future consequence, embraced the alliance of the 
 enemies of Rome ; and a crowd of naked savages 
 rushed from the woods and valleys of mount Atlas, 
 to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who 
 had injuriously expelled them from the native sove- 
 reignty of the land. 
 
 The persecution of the Donatists,' ^, -, 
 was an event not less favourable to the ^ "® "°"'»^'''»- 
 designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before he 
 landed in Africa, a public conference was held at 
 Carthage, by the order of the magistrate. The ca- 
 tholics were satisfied, that, after the invincible reasons 
 which they had alleged, the obstinacy of the schis- 
 matics must be inexcusable and voluntary; and the 
 emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most 
 rigorous penalties on a faction, which had so long 
 abused his patience and clemency. Three hundred 
 bishops," with many thousands of the inferior clergy, 
 were torn from their churches, stripped of their eccle- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 455 
 
 writers, who have marked for that event, one of the two preceding 
 years. See Pasi Critica, torn. ii. p. 205, &c. 
 
 P Compare Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 5. p. 190.) and Vic- 
 tor Vetensis, (de Persecutione Vandal. 1. i. c. 1. p. 3. edit. Ruinajt.) 
 We are assured by Idalius, that Gensrric evacuated Spain, cum Van- 
 dalis omnibus eorumque familiis ; and Possidius (in Vit. August in. c. 
 28. apud Kuinart, p. 427.) describes his army as manus ingens imma- 
 nium gentium Vandalorum et Alanorum, commixtam secum habens 
 Goihorum geniem, aliammque diversarum personas. 
 
 q For the manners of the Moors, see Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. 
 ii. c. 6. p. 249.) for their figure and complexion, M. de Buffon. (Hist! 
 Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 430.) Procopius says in general, that the 
 Motirs had joined the Vandals before the death of Valenlinian, (de 
 Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c.5. p. I'JO ) and it is probable, that the independ- 
 ent tribes did not embrace any uniform system of policy. 
 
 «• See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 516—558. and the 
 whole series of the persecution, in the original monuments, publish- 
 ed by Dupin at the end of Oplaius, p. 323—515. 
 J The Donatist bishops, at the conference of Carthage, amounted to 
 27^; and they assertecf, that their whole number was not less than 
 400. The Catholics had 286 present, 120 absent, besides sixty-lour 
 vacant bighoprics. 
 
 siastical possessions, banished to the islands, and 
 proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal 
 themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their nu- 
 merous congregations, both in cities and in the coun- 
 try, were deprived of the rights of the citizens, and 
 of the exercise of religious worship. A regular scale 
 of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds of silver, 
 was curiously ascertained, according to the distinc- 
 tions of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of as- 
 sisting at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine 
 had been levied five times, without subduing the ob- 
 stinacy of the offender, his future punishinent was 
 referred to the discretion of the imperial court.* By 
 these severities, which obtained the warmest appro- 
 bation of St. Augustin," great numbers of Donatists 
 were reconciled to the catholic church : but the fana- 
 tics, who still persevered in their opposition, were 
 provoked to madness and despair ; the distracted 
 country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the 
 armed troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed 
 their rage against themselves, or against their adver- 
 saries ; and the calendar of martyrs received on both 
 sides a considerable augmentation.* Under these 
 circumstances, Genseric, a christian, but an enemy of 
 the orthodox communion, showed himself to the Don- 
 atists as a powerful deliverer, from whom they might 
 reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppres- 
 sive edicts of the Roman emperors.^ The conquest of 
 Africa was facilitated by the active zeal, or the secret 
 favour, of a domestic faction ; the wanton outrages 
 against the churches and the clergy, of which the Van- 
 dals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the fan- 
 aticism of their allies; and the intolerant spirit, which 
 disgraced the triumph of Christianity, contributed to 
 the loss of the most important province of the west.' 
 The court and the people were aston- 
 ished by the strange intelligence, that a 
 virtuous hero, after so many favours, and 
 so many services, had renounced his allegiance, and 
 invited the barbarians to destroy the province intrusted 
 to his command. The friends of Boniface, who still 
 believed that his criminal behaviour might be excused 
 by some honourable motive, solicited, during the ab- 
 sence of ^tius, a free conference with the^count of 
 Africa; and Darius, an ofl^cer of high distinction, was 
 named for the important embassy.* In their first in- 
 terview at Carthage, the imaginary provocations were 
 mutually explained; the opposite letters of .^tius 
 were produced and compared ; and the fraud was easi- 
 ly detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented their 
 fatal error ; and the count had sufficient magnanimity to 
 confide in the forgiveness of his sovereign, or to expose 
 
 Tardy repent- 
 ance of Boniface. 
 A. D. 430. 
 
 t The fifth title of the sixteenth book of the Theodosian Code, ex- 
 hibits a series of the imperial laws against the Donatists, from the 
 year 400 to the year 428. Of these the 54th law, promulgated by Ho- 
 norius, A. T). 414, is the most severe and effectual. 
 
 u S». Ausustin altered his opinion with regard to the proper treat- 
 ment of heretics. His pathetic declaration of pity and indulgence 
 for the Manichaeans, has been inserted by Mr. Locke, (vol. iii. p. 469.) 
 among the choice of specimens of his common-place book. Anoiher 
 philosopher, the celebrated Bayle, (tom. ii. p. 445—496.) has refuted, 
 with superfluous diligence and ingenuity, the arguments, by which 
 the bishop of Hippo justified, in his old age, the persecuiiou of the 
 Donatists. 
 
 X See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 536—592. 806. The 
 Donatists boasted of thousands of these voluntary martyrs. Augus- 
 lin asserts, and probably with truth, that these numbers were much 
 exaesrerated ; but he sternly maintains, that it was better that some 
 should burn themselves in this world, than that all should burn in 
 hell flames. 
 
 y According lo St. Augustin and Theodoret. the Donatists were in- 
 clined to the principles, or at least to the party, of the Arians, which 
 Genseric supported. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 68. 
 
 z See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 428. No. 7. A. D. 439. No. 35. 
 The cardinal, though more inclined to seek the cause of great events 
 in heaven than on the earth, has observed the apparent connexion 
 of the Vandals and the Donatists. Under the reign of the barbarians, 
 the schismatics of Africa enjoyed an obscure peace of one hundred 
 years ; at the end of which, we may again trace them by the lisht of the 
 imperial persecutions. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccl.tom.vi. p. 192, &,c. 
 
 a In a confidential letter to count Boniface, St. Augustin, without 
 examining the grounds of the quarrel, piously exhorts him to dis- 
 charge the duties of a christian and a subject ; to extricate himself 
 without delay from his dangerous and guilty situation ; and even, if 
 he could obtain the consent of his wife, to embrace a life of celibacy 
 and penance. (Tillemont, Mem. Ecc. I. xiii. p. 890.) The bishop was 
 mtiinaiely connected with Darius, the minister of peace. (Id. p. 928.) 
 
 his head to her future resentment. His repentance 
 was fervent and sincere; but he soon discovered, that 
 it was no longer in his power to restore the edifice 
 which he had shaken to its foundations. Carthage, 
 and the Roman garrisons, returned with their general 
 to the allegiance of Valentinian ; but the rest of Africa 
 was still distracted with war and faction; and the in- 
 exorable king of the Vandals, disdaining all terms of 
 accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the pos-* 
 session of his prey. The band of veterans, who 
 marched under the standard of Boniface, and his hasty 
 levies of provincial troops, were defeated with consid- 
 erable loss: the victorious barbarians insulted the 
 open country ; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius, 
 were the only cities that appeared to rise above the 
 general inundation. 
 
 The long and narrow track of the Afri- Dtsoiat ion of 
 can coast was filled with frequent monu- Africa, 
 ments of Roman art and magnificence; and the re- 
 spective degrees of improvement might be accurately 
 measured by the distance from Carthage and the Med- 
 iterranean. A simple reflection will impress every 
 thinking mind with the clearest idea of fertility and 
 cultivation : the country was extremely populous ; the' 
 inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for their own 
 use ; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat, 
 was so regular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the 
 name of the common granary of Rome and of mankind. 
 On a sudden, the seven fruitful provinces, from Tan- 
 gier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by the invasion of 
 the Vandals : whose destructive rage has perhaps been 
 exaggerated by popular animosity, reliirious zeal, and 
 extravagant declamation. War, in its fairest form im- 
 plies a perpetnal violation of humanity and justice ; 
 and the hostilities of barbarians are inflamed by the 
 fierce and lawless spirit which incessantly disturbs 
 their peaceful and domestic society. The Vandals, 
 where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter ; 
 and the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expi- 
 ated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they had 
 fallen. Careless of the distinctions of age, or sex, or 
 rank, they employed every species of indignity and 
 torture, to force from the captives a discovery of their 
 hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified 
 his frequent examples of military execution : he was 
 not always the master of his own passions, or of those 
 of his followers ; and the calamities of war were aggra- 
 vated by the licentiousness of the Moors, and the 
 fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not easily be 
 persuaded that it was the common practice of the Van- 
 dals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit-trees, of a 
 country where they intended to settle : nor can I be- 
 lieve that it was a usual stratagem to slaughter great 
 numbers of their prisoners before the walls of a be- 
 sieged city, for the sole purpose of infecting the air, 
 and producing a pestilence, of which they themselves 
 must have been the first victims.'' 
 
 The generous mind of count Boniface Siepe of Fii (>po, 
 was tortured by the exquisite distress A. b. 430, Ma/, 
 of beholding the ruin which he had occasioned, and 
 whose rapid progress he was unable to check. After 
 the loss of a battle, he retired into Hippo Regius; 
 where he was immediately besieged by an enemy, 
 who considered him as the real bulwark of Africa. 
 The maritime colony of Hippo^'^ about two hundred 
 
 b The original complaints of the desolation of Africa, are contained, 
 1. In a letter from Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, to excuse his ab- 
 sence from the council of Ephesus, (ap. Kuinart, p. 429.) 2. In the 
 life of St. Augustin, by his friend and colleague Possidius, (ap. Kui- 
 nart, p. 427.) 3. In the history of the Vandalic Persecution, by Vic 
 tor Vitensis. (1. i. c. 1, 2, 3. edit. Kuinart.) The last picture, which 
 was drawn sixty years after the event, is more expressive of the au 
 thor's passions than of the truth of facts. 
 
 c See Cellarius, Geograph. Aniiq.tom. ii. part ii. p. 112. Leo Afrl 
 can. in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 70. L'Afrique de Marmol, tom. ii. p. 
 434. 437. Shaw's Travels, p. 46, 47. The old Hippo Regius was 
 finally destroyed by the Arabs in the seventh century ; but a new 
 town at the distance of two miles, was built with the materials ; and 
 it contained, in the sixteenth century, about three hundred families 
 of industriojis but turbulent manufacturers. The adjacent territory 
 is renowned for a pure air, a fertile soil, and plenty of exquisite fruits. 
 
1 
 
 456 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 Death of St. Au- 
 
 gu>;tin, 
 
 A. D. 430, 
 
 AuL'. 28. 
 
 miles westward of Cartharre, had formerly acquired the 
 distinguishing" epithet of Regius, from the residence of 
 Numidian kings; and some remains of trade and popu- 
 lousness still adhere to the modern city, which is known 
 in p]urope by the corrupted name of Bona. The military 
 laboursand anxious reflections, of count Boniface, were 
 alleviated by the edifying conversation of his friend 
 St. Augustin :^ till that bishop, the light and pillar of 
 the catholic church, was gently released, 
 in the third month of the siege, and in the 
 seventy-sixth year of his age, from the 
 actual and the impending calamities of his 
 country. The youth of Augustin had been stained, by 
 the vices and errors, which he so ingenuously confes- 
 ses ; but from the moment of his conversion to that of 
 his death the manners of the bishop of Hippo were pure 
 and austere ; and the most conspicuous of his virtues 
 was an ardent zeal against heretics of every denomina- 
 tion ; the Manichaeans, the Donatists, and the Pelagi- 
 ans, against whom he waged a perpetual controversy. 
 When the city, some months after his death, was 
 burnt by the Vandals, the library was fortunately 
 saved, which contained his voluminous writings ; two 
 hundred and thirty-two separate books or treatises on 
 theological subjects, besides a complete exposition of 
 the psalter and the gospel, and a copious magazine 
 of epistles and homilies.' According to the judgment 
 of the most impartial critics, the superficial learning of 
 Augustin was confined to the Latin language ; ' and 
 his style, though sometimes animated by the eloquence 
 of passion, is usually clouded by false and atfected 
 rhetoric. But he possessed a strong, capacious, argu- 
 mentative mind ; he boldly sounded the dark abyss 
 of grace, predestination, free-will, and original sin: 
 and the rigid system of Christianity, which he framed 
 or restored,^ has been entertained, with public applause, 
 and secret reluctance, by the Latin church.'' 
 n»f „.„ A ^y ^he skill of Boniface, and perhaps 
 
 Defeat and re- , r, . /• ,i -.r i i / 
 
 treat of Boni- by the Ignorance of the Vandals, the 
 ** A* n 411 siege of Hippo was protracted above four- 
 * ■ ' teen months ; the sea was continually 
 open; and when the adjacent country had been exhaust- 
 ed by irregular rapine, the besiegers themselves were 
 compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The 
 importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the 
 regent of the west. Placidia implored the assistance of 
 her eastern ally ; and the Italian fleet and army were re- 
 inforced by Aspar, who sailed from Constantinople with 
 a powerful armament. As soon as the force of the two 
 empires was united under the command of Boniface, 
 he boldly marched against the Vandals ; and the loss 
 of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of 
 Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of de- 
 
 457 
 
 d The life of St. An?ustin, by Tillemnnt, fills a quarto volume 
 (Mem. Eccles. lorn, xiii.) of more than one thousand pages ; and ilie 
 diligence of that learned Jansenist was excited, on this occasion, i)y 
 factious and devout zeal for the founder of his sect. 
 
 e Such, at least, is the account of Victor Vilensis; (de Persecut. 
 Vandal. I. i.e. 3.) though Gennadius seems to doubt whether any 
 person had read, or even collected all the works of St. Augustin. (see 
 Hieronym. Opera, torn. i. p. 319. in Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.) They 
 have been repeatedly printed ; and Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. 
 iii. p. 158— 2.'>7.) has given a large and satisfactory abstract of tliem 
 as iney stand in the last edition of the Benedictines. My personal 
 ac(iuaintance with the bishop of Hippo does not extend beyond the 
 Confeatiions, and the City of Uod. 
 
 f In his early youth (Conlesa. i. 14.) St. Augustin disliked and neg- 
 lected the study of Greek; and he frankly owns that he read the Pla- 
 tonisls in a Latin version. (Confess. vii..9.) Some modern critics 
 have thought, that his ignorance of Greek disrjualified him from ex- 
 p«>undingihe Scriptures; and Cicero or Quiiuilian would have re- 
 quired the knowledge of that language in a professor of rhetoric. 
 
 f These questions were seldom agitated, from the time of St. Paul 
 to that of St. Augustin. I am informed that the Greek fathers main- 
 tain the natural sentiments of the Semi-Pelacians ; and that the or- 
 thodoxy of St. Augustin was derived from the Manichaean school. 
 
 h The church of Kome has canonized Ausustin, and reprobated 
 Calvin. Yet as the real difference between them is invisible even 
 to a theological microscope, the IVIolinists are oppressed by the 
 authority of the saint, and the Jansenists are disgraced by their 
 resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while the prolestant Ar- 
 niinians stand aloof, and deride the mutual perplexity of the dispu- 
 tiints. (See a curious Review of the Controversy, by Le Clerc, 
 Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xiv. p. 144—398.) Perliaps a reasoner 
 Biill more independent, may smile in his turn, when he peruses an 
 Anuiniaji Commentary on the Epistle to the Komans. 
 
 spair; and the people of Hippo were permitted, with 
 their families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of 
 the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were either 
 slain or made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, 
 whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the 
 republic, might enter the palace of Ravenna with some 
 anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of 
 Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank 
 of patrician, and the dignity of master-general of the 
 Roman armies ; but he must have blushed at the sight 
 of those medals, in which he was represented with the 
 name and attributes of victory.' The discovery of his 
 fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distin- 
 guished favour of his rival exasperated the haughty 
 and perfidious soul of -/Etius. He hastily returned 
 from Gaul to Italy, with a retinue, or rather with an 
 army, of barbarian followers ; and such was the weak- 
 ness of the government, that the two generals decided 
 their private quarrel in a bloody battle. His death, 
 Boniface was successful ; but he received ^' D. 432. 
 in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his 
 adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in 
 such christian and charitable sentiments, that ho ex- 
 horted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept 
 iEtius for her second husband. But -^tius could not 
 derive any immediate advantage from the generosity of 
 his dying enemy : he was proclaimed a rebel by the 
 justice of Placidia; and though he attempted to 
 defend some strong fortresses erected on his patrimo- 
 nial estate, the imperial power soon compelled him to 
 retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. 
 The republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of 
 the service of her two most illustrious champions.^ 
 
 It might naturally be expected, after 
 the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals Va°nSin 
 would achieve, without resistance or de- Africa, 
 lay, the conquest of Africa. Eightyears a.d.431— 439. 
 however elapsed, from the evacuation of Hippo to the 
 reduction of Carthage. In the midst of that interval, the 
 ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent prosper- 
 ity, negociated a treaty of peace, by which he gave hia 
 son Hunneric for a hostage ; and consented to leave 
 the western emperor in the undisturbed possession of 
 the three Mauritanias.* This moderation, which can- 
 not be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the 
 policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompassed 
 with domestic enemies ; who accused the baseness of 
 his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his 
 nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, in- 
 deed, he sacrificed to his safety ; and their mother, the 
 widow of the deceased king, was precipitated, by his 
 order, into the river Ampsaga. But the public dis- 
 content burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspira- 
 cies ; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have shed 
 more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, 
 than in the field of battle." The convulsions of Africa, 
 Avhich had favoured his attack, opposed the firm estab- 
 lishment of his power; and the various seditions of 
 the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and catholics, 
 continually disturbed, or threatened, the unsettled 
 reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Car- 
 
 i Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head of Valen- 
 tinian ; on the reverse, Boniface, with a scourge in one hand, and a 
 palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which is drawn by 
 four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags ; an unlucky embiem ! 
 I should doubt whether another example can be found of the head of 
 a subject on the reverse of an imperial medal. See Science des Me- 
 dailies, by the Pere Jobert, tom. i. p. 132—150. edit, of 1739, by the 
 baron de la Baslie. 
 
 k Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 3. p. 195.) continues the his- 
 tory of Boniface no further than his return to Italy. His death is 
 mentioned by Prosper and Marcellinus; the expression of the latter 
 that jTltius, the day before had provided himself with a longer spear, 
 implies something like a regular duel. 
 
 » See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. j. c. 4. p. 186. Valenlinian 
 published several humane laws, to relieve the distress of his Numi- 
 dian and Mauritanian subjects ; he discharged them, in a great mea- 
 sure, from the payment of their debts, reduced their tribute to one 
 eighth, and gave them a right of appeal from the provincial magis- 
 trates to the praefect of Rome. Cod. Theod. tom. vi. Novell, p. 11, 12. 
 
 m Victor Viteosis, de Persecut. Vandal. I. 11, c. 5. p. 2(J. The cru- 
 elties of Genseric towards his subjects, are strongly expressed in 
 J Prosper'* Clironicie, A. D. 4-12. 
 
 thage, he was forced to withdraw his troops from the 
 western provinces ; the sea-coast was exposed to the 
 naval enterprises of the Romans of Spain and Italy; 
 and in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city of 
 Corta still persisted in obstinate independence." These 
 difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the 
 perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric ; who alter- 
 nately applied the arts of peace and war to the estab- 
 lishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a 
 solemn treaty, with the hope of deriving some advan- 
 tage from the term of its continuance, and the moment 
 of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was re- 
 laxed by the protestations of friendship, which con- 
 cealed his hostile approach ; and Carthage was at 
 length surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and 
 eighty-five years after the destruction of the city and 
 republic by the younger Scipio." 
 
 They surprise .\ "^"^ 9\^y ^^^ ^"!«^ ^^om itS ruinS, 
 
 Carthase, With the title of a colouy ; and though 
 Oct^bcr^* Carthage might yield to the royal pre- 
 ^"^ ^^ ' rogatives of Constantinople, and perhaps 
 to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendour of An- 
 tioch, she still maintained the second rank in the 
 west; as the Rome (if we may use the style of con- 
 temporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and 
 opulent metropolis P displayed in a dependent condi- 
 tion, the image of a flourishing republic. Carthage 
 contained the manufactures, the arms, and the trea- 
 sures of the six provinces. A regular subordination 
 of civil honours gradually ascended from the procu- 
 rators of the streets and quarters of the city, to the 
 tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title 
 of proconsul, represented the state and dignity of a 
 consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were 
 instituted for the education of the African youth ; and 
 the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and 
 philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek and 
 Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were 
 uniform and magnificent : a shady grove was planted 
 in the midst of the capital ; the new port, a secure and 
 capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial 
 industry of citizens and strangers ; and the splendid 
 games of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost 
 in the presence of the barbarians. The reputation of 
 the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their coun- 
 try, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to 
 their subtle and faithless character.«> The habits of 
 trade, and the abuse of luxury, had corrupted their 
 manners ; but their impious contempt of monks, and 
 the shameful practice of unnatural lusts, are the two 
 abominations which excite the pious vehemence of 
 Salvian, the preacher of the age.' The king of the 
 Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voFuptuous 
 people ; and the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom 
 of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not with- 
 out energy) was reduced by Genseric into a state of 
 ignoniinious servitude. After he had permitted his 
 licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he 
 instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppres- 
 
 n Pnssidius, in vit. Augustin. c, 28. apud Ruinart. p. 428. 
 
 o 8ee the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and Marcellinus. 
 They mark the same year, but different days, for the surprisal of 
 Carth.ngc. 
 
 P The picture of Carthage as it flourished in the fourth and fifth 
 centuries, is taken from tlie expositio totius Mundi, p. 17, 18. in the 
 third volume of Hudson's Minor Geographers, from Ausonius de 
 Claris Urhibus, p. 228, 229; and principally from Salvian, deGuber- 
 natione Dei, I. vii. p. 257, 258. I am surprised that the JVotitia 
 should not place either a mint, or an arsenal, at Carthage; but only 
 a gynecneum, or female manufacture. 
 
 q The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi, compares, 
 in his barbarous Latin, the country and the inhabitants; and, after 
 stigmatizing their want of faith, he coolly concludes, Difficile autem 
 inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci boni esse possunt. 
 
 1 . Jo. 
 
 r He declares, thnt the peculiar vices of each country were col- 
 lected in the sink of Carthage, (1. vii. p. 257.) In the indulgence of 
 vice, the Africans applauded their manly virtue. Et illi se magis 
 virilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime viros fteminei usus 
 probrositate fregissent, (p. 268.) The streets of Carthage were pollu- 
 ted by effeminate wretches, who publicly assumed the countenance, 
 the dress, and the character, of women, (p. 261.) If a monk ap- 
 peared in the city, the holy man was pursued with impious scorn 
 and ridicule ; defestantibuB ridentium cachinnis, (p. 289.) 
 
 Vol. I 3 H 
 
 sion. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all 
 persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, 
 silver, jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel, to 
 the royal officers ; and the attempt to secrete any part 
 of their patrimony, was inexorably punished with 
 death and torture, as an act of treason against the 
 state. The lands of the proconsular province, which 
 formed the immediate district of Carthage, were ac- 
 curately measured, and divided among the barbarians; 
 and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar domain the 
 fertile territory of Byzancium, and the adjacent parts 
 of Numidia and Getulia.* 
 
 It was natural enough that Genseric African exile* 
 should hate those whom he had injured : and captives, 
 the nobility and senators of Carthage were exposed 
 to his jealousy and resentment ; and all those who re- 
 fused the ignominious terms, which their honour and 
 religion forbade them to accept, were compelled by 
 the Arian tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual 
 banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the 
 east, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, 
 and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the^public 
 compassion ; and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret 
 still preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian • 
 and Maria.* The Syrian bishop deplores the misfor- 
 tunes of Caelestian, who, from the state of a noble and 
 opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced, with his 
 wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a 
 foreign country ; but he applauds the resignation of 
 the christian exile, and the philosophic temper, which, 
 under the pressure of such calamities, could enjoy 
 more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of 
 wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria, the 
 daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon, is singular 
 and interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she'^was 
 purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of 
 Syria, who afterwards sold her as a slave in their na- 
 tive country. A female attendant, transported in the 
 same ship, and sold in the same fanjily, still continu- 
 ed to respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced 
 to the common level of servitude ; and the daughter 
 of Eudaemon received from her grateful aflfection the 
 domestic services which she had once required from 
 her obedience. This remarkable behaviour divulged 
 the real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of "the 
 bishop of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the 
 generosity of some soldiers of the garrison. The 
 liberality of Theodoret provided for her decent main- 
 tenance ; and she passed ten months among the dea- 
 conesses of the church ; till she was unexpectedly in- 
 formed, that her father, who had escaped from the 
 ruin of Carthage, exercised an honourable office in 
 one of the western provinces. Her filial impatience 
 was seconded by the pious bishop: Theodoret, in a 
 letter still extant, recommends Maria to the bishop 
 of Mgx, a maritime city of Cilicia, which was fre- 
 quented during the annual fair by the vessels of the 
 west; most earnestly requesting, that his colleague 
 would use the maiden with a tenderness suitable to 
 her birth ; that he would intrust her to the care of 
 such faithful merchants, as would esteem it a suffi- 
 cient gain, if they restored a daughter, lost beyond all 
 human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent. 
 
 Aipong the insipid legends of eccle- Fable of the 
 siastical history, I am tempted to distin- Seven Sleepers, 
 guish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers,-* 
 whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of 
 the younger Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa 
 
 • Compare Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 5. p. 189, 190. and 
 Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. I. i. c. 4. 
 
 t Ruinart (p, 444—457.) has collected from Theodoret, and other 
 authors, the misfortunes, real and fabulous, of the inhabitants of 
 Carthage. 
 
 n The choice of fabulous circumstances is of small importance ; 
 yet I have confined myself to the narrative which was translated 
 from the Syriac by the care of Gregory of Tours, (de Gloria Martyr- 
 um, I. i. c. 95. in Max. Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xi. p. 856.) to the 
 Greek acts of their martyrdom, (apud Photium, p. 1400, 1401.) and 
 to the Annals of the patriarch Eutychius, (tom. i. p. 391. 531, 532. 
 535. Vers. Pocock.) 
 
458 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 by the Vandals.' When the emperor Decius perse- 
 cuted the christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus 
 concealed thenmselves in a spacious cavern in the side 
 of an adjacent mountain ; where they were doomed 
 to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the en- 
 trance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge 
 stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, 
 which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring 
 the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and 
 eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the 
 slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the 
 mountain had descended, removed the stones, to sup- 
 ply materials for some rustic edifice : the light of the 
 sun darted into the cavern, and the Seven Sleepers 
 were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they 
 thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the 
 calls of hunger ; and resolved that Jamblichus, one 
 of their number, should secretly return to the city, to 
 purchase bread for the use of his companions. The 
 youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could 
 no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his 
 native country ; and his surprise was increased by 
 the appearance of a large cross, triumphantly erected 
 over the principal gate of Ephesus. His singular 
 dress, and obsolete language, confounded the baker, 
 to whom he oflfered an ancient medal of Decius as the 
 current coin of the empire ; and Jamblichus, on the 
 suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before 
 the judge. Their mutual inquiries produced the 
 amazing discovery, that two centuries were almost 
 elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped 
 from the rage of a pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephe- 
 sus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and, as it 
 is said, the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to 
 visit the cavern of the Seven Sleepers ; who bestow- 
 ed their benediction, related their story, and at the 
 same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this 
 marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud 
 and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authen- 
 tic tradition may be traced within half a century of 
 the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian 
 bishop, who was born only two years after the death 
 of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his 
 two hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the 
 young men of Ephesus.^ Their legend, before the 
 end of the sixth century, was translated from the 
 Syriac into the Latin laniruage, by the care of Gre- 
 gory of Tours. The hostile communions of the east 
 preserve their memory with equal reverence ; and 
 their names are honourably inscribed in the Roman, 
 the Habyssinian, and the Russian calendar.' Nor has 
 their reputation been confined to the christian world. 
 This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn when 
 he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, 
 as a divine revelation, into the Koran.* The story of 
 
 the Seven Sleepers has been adopted, and adorned, by 
 the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the 
 Mahometan religion;'' and some vestiges of a similar 
 tradition have been discovered in the remote extrem- 
 ities of Scandinavia.' This easy and universal belief, 
 so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascrib- 
 ed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We im- 
 perceptibly advance from youth to age, without ob- 
 serving the gradual, but incessant, change of human 
 afl[*airs ; and even in our larger experience of history, 
 the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series 
 of causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolu- 
 tions. But if the interval between two memorable 
 aeras could be instantly annihilated : if it were pos- 
 sible, after a momentary slumber of two hundred 
 years, to display the new world to the eyes of a spec- 
 tator, who still retained a lively and recent impression 
 of the o/rf, his surprise and his reflections would fur- 
 nish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. 
 The scene could not be more advantageously placed, 
 than in the two centuries which elapsed between the 
 reigns of Decius and of Tlieodosius the younger. 
 During this period, the seat of government had been 
 transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of 
 the Thracian Bosphorus ; and the abuse of military 
 spirit had been suppressed by an artificial system of 
 tame and ceremonious servitude. The throne of the 
 persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of 
 christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated 
 the fabulous gods of antiquity : and the public devo- 
 tion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and 
 martyrs of the catholic .church, on the altars of Diana 
 and Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was 
 dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and 
 armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen 
 regions of the north, had established their victorious 
 reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 459 
 
 X Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by Assemanni, (Bibliot. 
 Orienlla. lorn. i. p. M6. 3:W.) place tlje resurrection of the Seven 
 Sleepers in the year 7:JC, (A. D. 42.).) or 748, (A. D. 437.) of the tera 
 of the Seieucides. Their Greek acts, which Phoiius had read, as- 
 sign the date of the thirty eighth year of the rei^'u of Theodosius, 
 which may coincide eitlier with A. D. 439, or 44C. The period which 
 had elapsed since the perspcution of Decius is easily ascertained ; 
 and nothing less than the ignorance of Mahomet, or the legenda- 
 ries, could suppose an interval of three or four hundred years. 
 
 y James, one of the orthodox fathers of the Syrian church, was 
 born A. D. 452 ; he began to compose his sermons A. D. 474 : he was 
 made bishop of Batnie, in the district of Sarug. and province of Me- 
 sopotamia, A. D. 519, and died A. D. 521. (Asscmanni, torn. i. p. 
 288. 289.) For the homily de Pueris Epkesinis, see p. 335—339: 
 though I could wish that Assemanni had translated the te.xt of 
 James of Sarug, instead of answcrinc the objections of Baroniusi. 
 
 s See the J9ct€ Sanctorum of the Bollandists. (Mensis Julii, torn, 
 vi. p. 375—597.) This immense calendar of saints, in one hundred 
 and twenty six years, (1644—1770.) and in fifty volumes in folio, 
 has advanced no further than the 7th day of October. The sup- 
 pression of the Jesuits has most probably checked an undertaking, 
 which, through the medium of fable and superstition, communicates 
 much historical and philosophical instruction. 
 
 a See Maracci Alcoran, Sura xviii. torn. i. p. 420—427. and tom. i. 
 partiv. p. 103. With such an ample privilege, Mahomet has not 
 shown mucJi taste or ingenuity. He has invented the dog (Al Ra- 
 kim) of the Seven Sleepers ; the respect of the sun, who altered his 
 course twice a day, that he might shine into the cavern ; and the 
 care of God himself, who preserved their bodies from putrefttclion, 
 by turning them to the right and left. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 The character, conquests, and court of Attila, king of the 
 Huns. — Death of Theodosius the younger, — Elevation of 
 Marciun to the empire oftlie east. 
 
 The western world was oppressed by The Hun«, 
 the tJoths and Vandals, who fled before A. D. 370—433. 
 the Huns ; but the achievements of the Huns them- 
 selves were not adequate to their power and prosper- 
 ity. Their victorious hordes had spread from the 
 Volga to the Danube; but the public force was ex- 
 hausted by the discord of independent chieftains ; their 
 valour was idly consumed in obscure and predatory 
 excursions ; and they often degraded their national 
 dignity, by condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to 
 enlist under the banners of their fugitive enemies. In 
 the reign of Attila,* the Hims again became the ter- 
 ror of the world ; and I shall now describe the char- 
 acter and actions of that formidable barbarian ; who 
 alternately insulted and invaded the east and the west, 
 and urged the rapid downfall of the Roman empire. 
 
 b See D'Herbelof, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 139; and Renaudot 
 Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 39. 40. 
 
 c Paul, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Festis Langohardorum, I. f. r. 
 4. p. 745, 746. eilit. Grot.) who lived towards the end of the eighth 
 century, has placed in a cavern, under a rock, on the shore of the 
 ocean, the Seven Sleepers of the north, whose long repose was re- 
 spected by the barbarians. Their dress declared them to Iw Ro- 
 miins, and the deacon conjectures, that they were reserved by Pro- 
 vidence as the future apostles of those unbelieving countries. 
 
 a The authentic materials for the history of Attila may be found 
 in Jornandes. (de Rebus Geticis, c. 34—50, p. 660—688. edit. Grot.) 
 and Priscus. (Exrerpta de Legationihus. p. 33—76. Paris, 1648.) I 
 have not seen the Lives of Attila, composed by Juvencus Cajlitis Ca- 
 lanus Dalmatinus, in the twelfth century, or by Nicholas Olahus, 
 archbishop of Gran, in the sixteenth. See Mascou's History of the 
 Germans, ix. 23. and Maffei Osservazioni Litterarie, tom. i. p. 88. 
 89. Whatever the modern Hungarians have added must !)« fabu- 
 lous ; and they do not seem to liave excelled in the art of fiction. 
 They suppose, that when Attila invaded Gaul and Italy, married 
 innumerable wives, ^c. he was one hundred and twenty years of 
 age. Thwrocz Chron. p. i. c. Wi. in Script. Hungar. tom. i. p. 76. 
 
 Their cstabiibh- I" the tide of emigration, which im- 
 ment in modern petuously rolled from the confines of 
 Hungary. CWiuTi to those of Germany, the most 
 
 powerful and populous tribes may commonly be 
 found on the verge of the Roman provinces. The ac- 
 cumulated weight was sustained for a while by arti- 
 ficial barriers ; and the easy condescension of the 
 emperors invited, without satisfying, the insolent de- 
 mands of the barbarians, who had acquired an eager 
 appetite for the luxuries of civilized life. The Hun- 
 garians, who ambitiously insert the name of Attila 
 among their native kings, may affirm with truth, that 
 the hordes, which were subject to his uncle Roas, or 
 Rugilas, had formed their encampments within the 
 limits of modern Hungary,** in a fertile country, which 
 liberally supplied the wants of a nation of hunters and 
 shepherds. In this advantageous situation, Rugilas, 
 and his valiant brothers, who continually added to 
 their power and reputation, commanded the alternative 
 of peace or war with the two empires. His alliance 
 with the Romans of the west was cemented by his 
 personal friendship for the great jEtius ; who was al- 
 ways secure of finding, in the barbarian camp, a hos- 
 pitable reception, and a powerful support. At his 
 solicitation, and in the name of John the usurper, sixty 
 thousand Huns advanced to the confines of Italy ; 
 their march and their retreat were alike expensive to 
 the state; and the graceful policy of^tius abandoned 
 the possession of Pannonia to his faithful confeder- 
 ates. The Romans of the east were not less appre- 
 hensive of the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the 
 provinces, or even the capital. Some ecclesiastical 
 nistorians have destroved the barbarians with lio-ht- 
 ning and pestilence ; ^ but Theodosius was reduced to 
 the more humble expedient of stipulating an annual 
 payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of gold, 
 and of disguising this dishonourable tribute by the 
 title of general, which the king of the Huns conde- 
 scended to accept. The public tranquillity was fre- 
 quently interrupted by the fierce impatience of the 
 barbarians, and the perfidious intrigues of the Byzan- 
 tine court. Four dependent nations, among whom 
 we may distinguish the Bavarians, disclaimed the 
 sovereignty of the Huns; and their revolt was en- 
 couraged and protected by a Roman alliance ; till the 
 just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas, were 
 effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his ambassa- 
 dor. Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate : 
 their decree was ratified by the emperor; and two 
 ambassadors were named, Plinthas, a general of 
 Scythian extraction, but of consular rank ; and the 
 quajstor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman, 
 who was recommended to that office by his ambitious 
 colleague. 
 
 Reiffn of Attila, The death of Rugilas suspended the 
 A. D. 433—453. progress of the treaty. His two nephews, 
 Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne of 
 their uncle, consented to a personal interview with 
 the ambassadors of Constantinople; but as they 
 proudly refused to dismount, the business was trans- 
 acted on horseback, in a spacious plain near the city 
 of Margus, in the Upper Mcesia. The kings of the 
 Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain 
 honours, of the negociation. They dictated the con- 
 ditions of peace, and each condition was an insult on 
 the majesty of the empire. Besides the freedom of a 
 safe and plentiful market on the banks of the Danube, 
 
 b Hungary has been successively occupied by three Scythian coIo 
 nies. 1. The Huns of Attila ; 2. The Abares, in the sixth century ; 
 and, 3. The Turks or Masiars, A. D. 889 ; the immediate and genu- 
 ine ancestors of the modern Hungarians, whose connection with the 
 two former is extremely faint and remote. The Prodromus and 
 J^otitia of Matthew Belius appear to contain a rich fund of infor- 
 mation concerning ancient and modern Hungary. I have seen the 
 extracts in Bibliotheque Ancicnne et Modfrne, tom. zxii. p. 1 — 51. 
 and Bibliotheque Raisonn^e. tom. xvi. p. 127 — 175. 
 
 c Socrates, I. vii. c. 43. Theodoret. I. v. c. 36, Tillemont, who 
 always dependH on the faith of his ecclesiastical authors, strenuous- 
 ly contends, (Hist. des. Emp. tom. vi. p. 130. 607.) that the wars and 
 personage! were not the same. 
 
 they required that the annual contribution should be 
 augmented from three iiundred and fifty to seven 
 hundred pounds of gold ; that a fine, or ransom, of 
 eight pieces of gold, should be paid for every Roman 
 captive, who had escaped from his barbarian master ; 
 that the emperor should renounce all treaties and en- 
 gagements with the enemies of the Huns ; and that 
 all the fugitives, who had taken refuge in the court, or 
 provinces, of Theodosius, should be delivered to the 
 justice of their offended sovereign. This justice was 
 rigorously inflicted on some unfortunate youths of a 
 royal race. They were crucified on the territories of 
 the empire, by the command of Attila : and as soon as 
 the king of the Huns had impressed the Romans with 
 the terror of his name, he indulged them in a short 
 and arbitrary respite, whilst he subdued the rebellious 
 or independent nations of Scythia and Germany.** 
 
 Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced iiisfij^ureand 
 his noble, perhaps his regal, descent* character, 
 from the ancient Huns, who had formerly contended 
 with the monarchs of China. His features, according 
 to the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the 
 stamp of his national origin; and the portrait of Attila 
 exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck ;' 
 a large head, a swarthy complexion, small deep-seat- 
 ed eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, 
 broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous 
 strength, though of a disproportioned form. The 
 haughty step and demeanour of the king of the Huns 
 expressed the consciousness of his superiority above 
 the rest of mankind ; and he had a custom of fiercely 
 rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror 
 which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was not in- 
 accessible to pity ; his suppliant enemies mioht con- 
 fide in the assurance of peace or pardon ; and Attila 
 was considered by his subjects as a just and indulgent 
 master. He delighted in war; but, after he had as- 
 cended the throne in a mature ago, his head, rather 
 than his hand, achieved the conquest of the north ; and 
 the fame of an adventurous soldier was usefully ex- 
 changed for that of a prudent and successful general. 
 The effects of personal valour are so inconsiderable, 
 except in poetry or romance, that victory, even among 
 barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill, with 
 which the passions of the multitude are combined and 
 guided for the service of a single man. The Scythian 
 conquerors, Attila and Zingis, surpassed their rude 
 countrymen in art, rather than in courage; and it may 
 be observed, that the monarchies, both of the Huns 
 and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on 
 the basis of popular superstition. The miraculous 
 conception, which fraud and credulity ascribed to the 
 virgin-mother of Zingis, raised him above the level of 
 human nature ; and the naked prophet, who, in the 
 name of the Deity, invested him with the empire of 
 the earth, pointed the valour of the Moguls with irre- 
 sistible enthusiasm.^ The religious arts of Attila 
 were not less skilfully adapted to the character of his 
 age and country. It was natural enough, that the 
 Scythians should adore, with peculiar devotion, the 
 god of war ; but as they were incapable of forming 
 either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, 
 they worshipped their tutelar deity under the sym- 
 bol of an iron cimeter.*' One of the shepherds of 
 
 d See Priscus, p. 47. 48. and Hist, des Peuples de I'Europc, tom. vii. 
 c. xii. xiii. xv. 
 
 e Priscus, p, 39. The modern Hunsarians have deduced his genea- 
 logy, which ascends, in the thirty-fifih degree, to Ham the son of 
 Noaii : yet they are ignorant of his father's real name. (De Guignes. 
 Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. p. 297.) 
 
 f Compare Jornandes (c. 35. p. 661.) with BufTon, Hist. Naturelle, 
 tom. iii. p. 380. 'I'he former had a right to observe, originisBua" sig- 
 na restituens. The character and portrait of Attila are probably 
 transcritied from Cassiodorius. 
 
 g Abulphrag. Dynast, vers. Pocock, p. 281. Genealogical History 
 of the Tartars, by Ahulghazi Bahader Khan, part. iii. c. 15. part \v. 
 c. 3. Vie de Gengiscan, par Petit de la Croix, 1. i. c. 1. 6. The rela- 
 tions of the missionaries, who visited Tartaryin the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, (see the seventh volume of the Histoire des Voyages) express 
 the popular language and opinions : Zingis is styled the son of God, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 b Nee teinplum apud eoa visitur, aut dulubrum, ne tugurium qui- 
 
 !■ 
 
460 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 461 
 
 Hci^isfiovers the the Huns perceived, that a heifer, who 
 sword of Marn. was grazing:, had wounded herself in 
 the foot, and curiously followed the track of the 
 blood, till he discovered, among the long grass, 
 the point of an ancient sword, which he dug out of 
 the ground, and presented to Altila. That magnani- 
 mous, or rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious 
 gratitude, this celestial favour ; and, as the rightful 
 possessor of the sword of Mars^ asserted his divine 
 and indefeasible claim to the dominion of the earth.* 
 If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn 
 occasion, a lofty altar, or rather pile of faggots, three 
 hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised 
 in a spacious plain ; and the sword of Mars was 
 placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which 
 was annually consecrated by the blood of sheep, 
 horses, and of the hundredth captive.^ Whether hu- 
 man sacrifices formed any part of the worship of At- 
 tila, or whether he propitiated the god of war with the 
 victims which he continually offered in the field of 
 battle, the favourite of Mars soon acquired a sacred 
 character, which rendered his conquests more easy 
 and more permanent ; and the barbarian princes con- 
 fessed, in the language of devotion or flattery, that 
 they could not presume to gaze, with a steady eye, on 
 the divine majesty of the king of the Huns.' His 
 brother Bleda, who reigned over a considerable part 
 of the nation, was compelled to resign his sceptre, and 
 his life. Yet even this cruel act was attributed to a 
 supernatural impulse; and the vigour with which 
 Attila wielded the sword of Mars, convinced the 
 world, that it had been reserved alone for his invin- 
 cible arm.»> But the extent of his empire affords the 
 only remaining evidence of the number, and impor- 
 tance, of his victories; and the Scythian monarch, 
 however ignorant of the value of science and philo- 
 sophy, might, perhaps, lament, that his illiterate sub- 
 jects were destitute of the art which could perpetuate 
 the memory of his exploits. 
 
 and acquires the If a line of Separation Were drawn be- 
 KandS' tween the civilized and the savage cli- 
 many. iiiates of the globe ; between the inhabi- 
 
 tants of cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hun- 
 ters and shepherds, who dwelt in tents; Attila might 
 aspire to the title of supreme and sole monarch of the 
 barbarians."* He alone, among the conquerors of an- 
 cient and modern times, united the two mighty king- 
 doms of Germany and Scythia ; and those vague ap- 
 pellations, when they are applied to his reign, may be 
 understood with an ample latitude. Thuringia, which 
 stretched beyond its actual limits as far as the Danube, 
 was in the number of his provinces : he interposed, 
 with the weight of a powerful neighbour, in the do- 
 mestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his lieuten- 
 ants chastised, and almost extirminated, the Burgun- 
 dians of the Rhine. He subdued the islands of the 
 ocean, the kingdomsof Scandinavia, encompassed and 
 divided by the waters of the Baltic ; and the Huns 
 
 dem rulmo tectum cerni usquam potest; scd pladius Bnrbarico ritu 
 humi ligitur niidus, euniqiie ut Marteni regioncin qiias circuincirrant 
 pr.Tsulem vericundius rolunt. Animinii. Marccllin. xxxi. 2. and the 
 learned ^fote.s ofliiiideiilioroitisand Valcsiun. 
 
 i Priacus relates this remarkable story, both in his own text. {p. 05.) 
 and in the quotation made by Jornandes. (c. 35. p. 662.) He might 
 have explained the tradition, or fable, which characlerixed this fa- 
 mous sword, and the name, as well as aitributes, of the Scythian deity 
 whom he has translated into the Mars of the Greeks and Romans. ' 
 
 k lierodot. I. iv. c. 02. For the sake of economy, I have calcula- 
 ted by the smallest stadium. In the human sacrifices, they cut off 
 the shoulder and arm of the victim, which they threw up into the 
 air, and drew omens ami presages from the manner of their falling 
 on the pile. 
 
 1 Priscus, p. 5.1. A more civilized hero, Auzustus himself, was 
 pleased, if the person on whom he Axed his eyes pecmcd unable to 
 support thoir divine lustre. Sueton. in August, c. 70. 
 
 m The count de Ouat (Hist, des Peuples de I'Europe, torn. vii. p. 
 428, 409) attempts to clear Attila from the murder of his brother ; 
 and is almost inclined to reject the concurrent testimony of Jornan- 
 des, and the contemporary Chronicles. 
 
 D Fortissimarum gentium dominus, qui inaudita ante se potentia, 
 solus Scythica el Germanica regna possedit. Jornandes, c. 49. p. 
 684. Priscus, p. 64, 65. M. de Guignes, by his knowledge of the 
 Chinese, has acquired (torn. ii. p. 295«-3Ul.) an adequate idea of the 
 empire of Altila. J 
 
 might derive a tribute of furs from that northern re- 
 gion, which has been protected from all other conquer- 
 rors by the severity of the climate and the courage of 
 the natives. Towards the east, it is difficult to cir- 
 cumscribe the dominions of Attila over the Scythian 
 deserts ; yet we may be assured that he reigned on the 
 banks of the Volga; that the king of ihe^Huns was 
 dreaded not only as a warrior, but as a magician;® 
 that he insulted and vanquished the Khan of the for- 
 midable Geougen ; and that he sent ambassadors to 
 negociate an equal alliance with the empire of China. 
 In the proud review of the nations who acknowledg- 
 ed the sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, 
 during his life-time, the thought of a revolt, the Gep- 
 idae and the Ostrogoths were distinguished by their 
 numbers, their bravery, and the personal merit of their 
 chiefs. The renowned Ardaric, king of the Gepidae, 
 was the faithful and sagacious counsellor of the mon- 
 arch, who esteemed his intrepid genius, whilst he 
 loved the mild and discreet virtues of the noble Wala- 
 mir, king of the Ostrogoths. The crowd of vulgar 
 kings, the leaders of so many martial tribes, who serv- 
 ed under the standard of Attila, were ranged in the 
 submissive order of guards and domestics, round the 
 person of their master. They watched his nod ; they 
 trembled at his frown ; and at the first signal of his 
 will, they executed, without murmur or hesitation, 
 his stern and absolute commands. In time of peace, 
 the dependent princes, with their national troops, at- 
 tended the royal camp in regular succession; but 
 when Attila collected his military force, he was able 
 to bring into the field an army of five, or, according to 
 another account, of seven, hundred thousand barba- 
 rians.P 
 
 The ambassadors of the Huns might rp^g ^ • '. 
 awaken the attention of Theodosius, by vad^e Pers'ia" 
 reminding him, that they were his neigh- ^- ^- 430-440. 
 hours both in Europe and Asia; since they touched 
 the Danube on one hand, and reached, with the other, 
 as far as the Tanais. In the reign of his father Arca- 
 dius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the 
 provinces of the east ; from whence they brought away 
 rich spoils and innumerable captives.'* They advan- 
 ced by a secret path along the shores of the Caspian 
 sea ; traversed the snowy mountains of Armenia ; pass- 
 ed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Halys ; recruited 
 their weary cavalry with the generous breed of Cappa- 
 docian horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, 
 and disturbed the festal songs, and dances, of the citi- 
 zens of Antioch. Egypt trembled at their approach ; 
 and the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land pre- 
 pared to escape their fury by a speedy embarkation. 
 The memory of this invasion was still recent in the 
 minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Altila might 
 execute, with superior forces, the design which these 
 adveniurers had so boldly attempted ; and it soon be- 
 came the subject of anxious conjecture, whether the 
 
 o See Hist, des Huns, torn. if. p. 290. Tl»e Geougcn believed, that 
 the Huns could excite, at pleasure, storms of wind and rain. This 
 phenomenon was produced by the slone Qeii: to whose magic pow- 
 er the loss of a battle was ascribed by the Mahometan Tartars of 
 the fourteenth century. See Cherefeddiu Ali, Hist, de Timur Bee. 
 tom. i. p. 82, 83. ' 
 
 P Jornandes, c. 35. p. 661. c. 37. p. 667. See Tillemont, Hist, des 
 Empereurs. tom. vi. p. 129. 1^8. Corneille has represented the pride 
 of .\iiiia to bis subject kings ; and his tragedy opens with these two 
 ridiculous lines. 
 
 IIh ne sont pas venus, nos deux rois .' qu'on leur die 
 Qu'ils «e font trop altendre. et qu'Attilas'ennuie. 
 The two kings of the Gepida- and the Ostrogoths are profound poli- 
 ticians and sentimental lovers ; and the whole piece exhibits the de- 
 fects, without the genius, of the poet. 
 
 q alii per Caspia claustra 
 
 Armeniasque nivcs. inopino tramite ducti 
 Invadunt Orientes opes : jam pascua funiant 
 Cappadocum, volucrumque parens Arga^us equorum 
 Jam rubet altus Halys, nee se defendit iniquo 
 Monte Cilix ; Syric iractus vastantur amieni ; 
 Assuetumque choris et Icta plehe canorum 
 Proterit iuibellem sonipes hostilis Oronicm. 
 
 Claudian, in Rutin. I. ii. 28—35. 
 See likewise, in Eutrop. I. i 243—251. and the strong description of 
 Jerom,who wrote from his feelings, tom. i. p. 26. ad Heliodor. p. 
 320, ad OcenQ. Pbilostorgius, (1. ii. c. 8.) mentions tbki irruption. 
 
 tempest would fall on the dominions of Rome or of 
 Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the 
 Huns, who were themselves in the rank of powerful 
 princes, had been sent to ratify an alliance and society 
 of arms with the emperor, or rather with the general, 
 of the west. They related, during their residence at 
 Rome, the circumstances of an expedition, which they 
 had lately made into the east. After passing a desert 
 and a morass, supposed by the Romans to be the lake 
 Moeotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and 
 arrived, at the end of fifteen days' march, on the con- 
 fines of Media ; where they advanced as far as the un- 
 known cities of Basic and Cursic. They encountered 
 the Persian army in the plains of Media ; and the air, 
 according to their own expression, was darkened by a 
 cloud of arrow. But the Huns were obliged to retire 
 before the numbers of the enemy. Their laborious re- 
 treat was effected by a different road ; they lost the 
 greatest part of their booty; and at length returned to 
 the royal camp, with some knowledge of the country, 
 and an impatient desire of revenge. In the free con- 
 versation of the imperial ambassadors, who discussed, 
 at the court of Attila, the character and designs of their 
 formidable enemy, the ministers of Constantinople ex- 
 pressed their hope, that his strength might be diverted 
 and employed in a long and doubtful contest with the 
 princes of the house of Sassan. The more sagacious 
 Italians admonished their eastern brethren of the folly 
 and danger of such a hope ; and convinced them, that 
 the Modes and Persians were incapable of resisting the 
 arms of the Huns; and, that the easy and important 
 acquisition would exalt the pride, as well as power, 
 of the conqueror. Instead of contenting himself with 
 a moderate contribution, and a military title, which 
 equalled him only to the generals of Theodosius, Attila 
 would proceed to impose a disgracefal and intolerable 
 yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive Romans, 
 who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the 
 empire of the Huns.' 
 
 They attack the While the powers of Europe and Asia 
 easiern empire. Were solicitous to avert the impending 
 A. D. 441, &c. danger, the alliance of Attila maintained 
 the Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enter- 
 prise had been concerted between the courts of Raven- 
 na and Constantinople, for the recovery of that valua- 
 ble province ; and the ports of Sicily were already 
 filled with the military and naval forces of Theodosius. 
 But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negociations 
 round the world, prevented theirdesigns, by exciting the 
 king of the Huns to invade the eastern empire ; and a 
 trifling incident soon became the motive, or pretence, 
 of a destructive war.' Under the faith of a treaty of 
 Margus, a free market was held on the northern side 
 of the Danube, which was protected by a Roman for- 
 tress, surnamed Constantia. A troop of barbarians 
 violated the commercial security ; killed, or dispersed 
 the unsuspecting traders ; and levelled the fortress with 
 the ground. The Huns justified this outrage as an act of 
 reprisal ; alleged, that the bishop of Margus had en- 
 tered their territories, to discover and steal a secret 
 treasure of their kings ; and sternly demanded the 
 guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the fugitive 
 subjects, who had escaped from the justice of Attila. 
 The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of 
 war ; and the Maesians at first applauded the generous 
 firmness of their sovereign. But they were soon intim- 
 idated by the destruction of Viminiacum and the ad- 
 jacent towns ; and the people were persuaded to adopt 
 the convenient maxim, that a private citizen, however 
 
 r See the original conversation of Priscus, p. 64, 65. 
 
 • Priscus, p. 331. His history contained a copious and elegant ac- 
 count of the war; (Evagriu?, I. i, c. 17.) but the extracts which re- 
 late to the embassies are the only parts that have reached our times. 
 The original work was accessible, however, to the writers, from 
 whom we borrow our imperfect knowledge, Jornandes, Theopha- 
 ne5, count Marcellinus, Prosper-Tyro, and the author of the Alex- 
 andrian, or Paschal, Chronicle. M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuples de 
 I'Europe, tom. vii. c. xv.) has examined the cause, the circumstan- 
 ces, and the duration, of this war ; and will not allow it to extend 
 Iwyond tiie year four hundred and forty-four. 
 
 innocent or respectable, may be justly sacrificed to the 
 safety of his country. The bishop of Margus, who 
 did not possess the spirit of a martyr, resolved to pre- 
 vent the designs which he suspected. He boldly 
 treated with the princes of the Huns ; secured, by sol- 
 emn oaths, his pardon and reward ; posted a numerous 
 detachment of barbarians, in silent ambush, on the 
 banks of the Danube ; and, at the appointed hour, 
 opened, with his own hand, the gates of his episcopal 
 city. This advantage, which had been obtained by 
 treachery, served as a prelude to more honourable and 
 decisive victories. The Illyrian frontier was covered 
 by a line of castles and fortresses ; and though the great- 
 est part of them consisted only of a sincjle tower, with a 
 small garrison, they were commonly sufficient to repel, 
 or to intercept, the inroads of an enemy, who was io-no- 
 rant of the art, and impatient of the delay, of a reoular 
 siege. But these slight obstacles were instantly swept 
 away by the inundation of theHuns.^ They destroyed, 
 with fire and sword, the populous cities of Sirmium 
 and Singidinum, of Ratiaria and Marcianapolis, of 
 Naissus and Sardica; where every circumstance in 
 the discipline of the people, and the construction of 
 the buildings, had been gradually adapted to the sole- 
 purpose of defence. The whole breadth „„. ,. „_, -, 
 
 e ^ . J , and ravage Eu- 
 
 ot iiiurope, as it extends above five rojK?, as faras 
 
 hundred miles from the Euxine to the Constantinople. 
 Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and des- 
 olated, by the myriads of barbarians whom Attila led 
 into the field. The public danger and distress could 
 not, however, provoke Theodosius to interrupt his 
 amusements and devotion, or to appear in person at 
 the head of the Roman legions. But the troops, which 
 had been sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled 
 from Sicily ; the garrisons, on the side of Persia, were 
 exhausted ; and a military force was collected in Eu- 
 rope, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the gen- 
 erals had understood the science of command, and their 
 soldiers the duty of obedience. The armies of the 
 eastern empire were vanquished in three successive 
 engagements ; and the progress of Attila may be 
 traced by the fields of battle. The two former, on the 
 banks of the Utus, and under the walls of Marcianap- 
 olis, were fought, in the extensive plains between the 
 Danube and mount Haemus. As the Romans were 
 pressed by a victorious enemy, they gradually and un- 
 skilfully retired towards the Chersonesus of Thrace; 
 and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of the 
 land, was marked by their third and irreparable defeat. 
 By the destruction of this army, Attila acquired the 
 indisputable possession of the field. From the Helles- 
 pont to Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constanti- 
 nople, he ravaged, without resistance, and without 
 mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. He- 
 raclea and Hadrianople might perhaps escape this 
 dreadful irruption of the Huns ; but the words, the 
 most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are 
 applied to the calamities which they inflicted on sev- 
 enty cities of the eastern empire." Theodosius, his 
 court, and the unwarlike people, were protected bj' the 
 walls of Constantinople ; but those walls had been 
 shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of fifty- 
 eight towers had opened a large and tremendous 
 breach. The damage indeed was speedily repaired ; 
 but this accident was aggravated by a superstitious 
 fear, that Heaven itself had delivered the imperial city 
 to the shepherds of Scythia, who were strangers to the 
 laws, the language, and the religion, of the Romans.* 
 
 t Procopius, de Edificiis. 1. iv. c, 5. These fortresses were after- 
 wards restored, strengthened, and enlarged, by the emperor Jusli- 
 nian ; but they were soon destroyed by. the Abarcs, who succeeded 
 to the power and possessions of the Huns. 
 
 u Septuaginta civitates (says Prosper-Tyro,) depr?pdalione vasfa- 
 ta;. The language of count Marcellinus is still more forcible. Pene 
 totam Europam, invasis ezcisisque civitatibus atque casteliis, con- 
 rasit. 
 
 X Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 106, 107.) has paid 
 great attention to this memorable earthquake ; which was felt as far 
 from Constantinople as Antioch and Alexandria, and is celebrated 
 by all the ecclesiastical writers. In the hands of a popular preach- 
 er, an earthquake is an engine of admirable effect. 
 
462 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 •JF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 463 
 
 The Scythian or In all their invasions of the civilized 
 Tartar wars, empires of the south, the Scythian shep- 
 herds have been uniformly actuated by a savage and 
 destructive spirit. The laws of war, that restrain the 
 exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on 
 two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge 
 of the permanent benefits which may be obtainedby a 
 moderate use of conquest; and a just apprehension, 
 lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's 
 country, may be retaliated on our own. But these con- 
 siderations of hope and fear are almost unknown in 
 the pastoral state of nations. The Huns of Attila 
 may, without injustice, be compared to the Moguls 
 and Tartars, before their primitive manners were 
 changed by religion and luxury ; and the evidence of 
 oriental history may reflect some light on the dark and 
 imperfect annals of Rome. After the Moguls had sub- 
 dued the northern provinces of China, it was seriously 
 proposed, not in the hour of victory and passion, but in 
 calm deliberate council, to exterminate all the inhabi- 
 tants of that populous country, that the vacant land 
 might be converted to the pasture of cattle. The firm- 
 ness of a Chinese mandarin,^ who insinuated some 
 principles of rational policy into the mind of Zingis, 
 diverted him from the execution of this horrid de- 
 sign. But in the cities of Asia, which yielded to the 
 Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the rights of war was 
 exercised, with a regular form of discipline, which 
 may, with equal reason, though not with equal author- 
 ity, be imputed to the victorious Huns. The inhabi- 
 tants, who had submitted to their discretion, were or- 
 dered to evacuate their houses, and to assemble in 
 some place adjacent to the city ; where a division was 
 made of the vanquished into three parts. The first 
 class consisted of the soldiers of the garrison, and of 
 the young men capable of bearing arms ; and their fate 
 was instantly decided : they were either enlisted 
 among the Moguls, or they were massacred on the spot 
 by the troops, who, with pointed spears, and bended 
 bows, had formed a circle round the captive multitude. 
 The second class, composed of the young and beatiti- 
 ful women, of the artificers of every rank and profes- 
 sion, and of the more wealthy or honourable citizens, 
 from whom a private ransom might be expected, was 
 distributed in equal or proportionable lots. The re- 
 mainder, whose life or death was alike useless to the 
 conquerors, were permitted to return to the city ; which, 
 in the meanwhile, had been stripped of its valuable 
 furniture ; and a tax was imposed on those wretched 
 inhabitants for the indulgence of breathing their native 
 air. Such was the behaviour of the Moguls, when 
 they were not conscious of any extraordinary rigour.' 
 But the most casual provocation, the slightest motive, 
 of caprice or convenience, often provoked them to in- 
 volve a whole people in an indiscriminate massacre : 
 and the ruin of some flourishing cities was executed 
 with such unrelenting perseverance, that, according to 
 their own expression, horses might run, without stum- 
 bling, over the ground where they had once stood. 
 The three great capitals of Khorasan, Maru, Neisa- 
 bour, and Herat, were destroyed by the armies of Zin- 
 gis ; and the exact account, which was taken of the 
 slain, amounted to four millions three hundred and 
 forty-seven thousand persons.* Timur, or Tamerlane, 
 was educated in a less barbarous age, and in the pro- 
 
 fession of the Mahometan religion : yet, if Attila 
 equalled the hostile ravages of Tamerlane,'' either the 
 Tartar or the Hun might deserve the epithet of the 
 Scourge of God.*^ 
 
 It may be aflirmed, with bolder assu- stateofthe 
 ranee, that the Huns depopulated the captives, 
 provinces of the empire, by the number of Roman sub- 
 jects whom they led away into captivity. In the 
 hands of a wise legislator, such an industrious colony- 
 might have contributed to diffuse, though the deserts 
 of Scythia, the rudiments of the useful and ornamental 
 arts ; but these captives, who had been taken in war, 
 were accidentally distributed among the hordes that 
 obeyed the empire of Attila. The estimate of their 
 respective value was formed by the simple judgment 
 of unenlightened, and unprejudiced, barbarians. Per- 
 haps they might not understand the merit of a theolo- 
 gian, profoundly skilled in the controversies of the 
 Trinity and the Incarnation ; yet they respected the 
 ministers of every religion; and the active zeal of the 
 christian missionaries, without approaching the person, 
 or the palace, of the monarch, successfully laboured 
 in the propagation of the gospel.** The pastoral tribes, 
 who were ignorant of the distinction of landed proper- 
 ty, must have disregarded the use, as well as the 
 abuse, of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an elo- 
 quent lawyer could excite only their contempt, or their 
 abhorrence.' The perpetual intercourse of the Huns 
 and the Goths had communicated the familiar know- 
 ledge of the two national dialects; and the barbarians 
 were ambitious of conversing in Latin, the military 
 idiom, even of the eastern empire.' But they disdained 
 the language, and the sciences, of the Greeks ; and the 
 vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed 
 the flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to 
 find, that his robust servant was a captive of more value 
 and importance than himself. The mechanic arts were 
 encourajred and esteemed, as they tended to satisfy the 
 wants of the Huns. An architect, in the service of One- 
 gesius, one of the favourites of Attila, was employed to 
 construct a bath : but this work was a rare example of 
 private luxury ; and the trades of the smith, the car- 
 penter, the armourer, were much more adapted to sup- 
 ply a wandering pef)ple with the useful instruments of 
 peace and war. But the merit of the physician was 
 received with universal favour and respect; the bar- 
 barians who despised death, might be apprehensive of 
 disease; and the haughty conqueror trembled in the 
 presnnce of a captive, to whom he ascribed, perhaps, 
 an imaginary power, of prolonging, or preserving his 
 life.K The Huns might be provoked to insult the'^mis- 
 ery of their slaves, over whom they exercised a de- 
 
 j He represented to tlie emperor of the Mosuts, that the four pro- 
 vinces (Pelchell, ChanronR. Ctianai, and Leaolonjr) which he already 
 possessed, might annually produce, under a mild adminintration 
 50(J.0(M) ounces of silver, 400,000 measures of rire, and 800.000 pie- 
 res of silk. Gauliil, Hist, de la Dynnstie des Mongous, p. 58, 59 
 Yelutchousay (such was the name of the mandarin) was a wise and 
 virtuous minister, who saved his country, and civilized the conque- 
 rors. See p. 102, lOH. ^ 
 
 X Particular instances would he endless; but the curious reader 
 may consult the life of GenRiscan, by Petit de la Croix, the Histoire 
 des Mongous, and the fifteenth hook of the History of the Huns. 
 ^nn'^L^"^"' ^•^^^♦^'OOOJ at Herat, 1,600,000; nt Neisabour, 1,737,- 
 000. DHerbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 380, 38J. I use the 
 orthography of D'Anville's maps. It must however be allowed, 
 that the Persians were disponed to exaggerate their losses, and the 
 Moguls to magnify their exploits. 
 
 b Cherefcddin Ali, his servile panegyrist, would afford us many 
 horrid examples. In his camp before Delhi. Timur massacred 
 100.000 Indian prisoners, who had smiled when the army of their 
 countrymen appeared in sight. (Hist, de Timur Ber, torn. iii. p. 90.) 
 The people of lsj)ahHn supplied 70,000 human sculls for the struc- 
 ture of several lofty towers. (Id. toni. i. p. 434.) A similar tax 
 was levied on the revolt of Bagdad ; (torn. iii. p. 370.) and the exact 
 account, which Cherefeddin was not able to procure from the pro- 
 per otticers, is slated by anotlier historian (Ahmed Arabsiada, toni. 
 ii. p. 175. vers. Manger) at 90,000 heads. 
 
 e The ancients. Jornandes. Priscus. &:c. are ignorant of this epi- 
 thet. The modern Hungarians have imagined that it was applied 
 t)y a hermit of Gaul, to Attila, who was pleased to innert it among 
 the titles of his royal dignity. Mascou, ix. 2\\. and Tillemont, Hist, 
 des Empcreurs, tom. vi. p. 143. 
 
 d 'J'lie missionaries of St. Chrysoslom had converted great num- 
 bers of the Scythians, who dwell beyond the Danube, in tents and 
 waggons. Theodoret, I. v. c. 31. Photius. p. 1517. The Mahome- 
 tans, the Nestorians. and the Latin christians, thought themselves 
 secure of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis, wlio treated 
 the rival missionaries with impartial favour. 
 
 e The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his legions, had 
 been particularly offended with the Roman laws and lawyers. One 
 of the barbarians, after the effectual precautions of cutting out the 
 tongue of an advocate, and sewing up his mouth, observed with 
 much satisfaction, that the viper could no longer liiss. Florus, iv. 
 
 t Priscus, p. 59. It should seem that the Huns preferred the Goth- 
 ic and lialin languages to their own ; which was probably a harsh 
 and barren idiom. 
 
 K Philip de Comines, in his admirable picture of the last moments 
 of Lewis XI. (Memoires I. vi. c. 12.) represents the insolence of his 
 
 Ehysician, who, in five months, extorted 54,000 crowns, and a ricii 
 uhopric, from the siern avaricious tyrant. 
 
 spotic command ;'' but their manners were not suscep- 
 tible of a refined system of oppression ; and the efforts 
 of courage and diligence were often recompensed by 
 the gift of freedom. The historian Priscus, whose em- 
 bassy is a source of curious instruction, was accosted 
 in the camp of Attila, by a stranger, who saluted him 
 in the Greek language, but whose dress and figure 
 displayed the appearance of a wealthy Scythian." In 
 the siege of Viminiacum he had lost, according to his 
 own account, his fortune and liberty : he became the 
 slave of Onegesius : but his faithful services, against 
 the Romans and the Acalzires, had gradually raised 
 him to the rank of the native Huns ; to whom he was 
 attached by the domestic pledges of a new wife and 
 several children. The spoils of war had restored and im- 
 proved his private property ; he was admitted to the 
 table of his former lord ; and the apostate Greek blessed 
 the hour of his captivity, since it had been the introduc- 
 tion to an independent and happy state, which he held by 
 the honourable tenure of military service. This re- 
 flection naturally produced a dispute on the advantages 
 and defects of the Roman government, which was se- 
 verely arraigned by the apostate, and defended by 
 Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The freed- 
 man of Onegesius exposed, in true and 'lively colours, 
 the vices of a declining empire, of which he had so 
 long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Ro- 
 man princes, unable to protect their subjects against 
 the public enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms 
 for their own defence ; the intolerable weiirht of taxes, 
 rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbi- 
 trary modes of collection ; the obscurity of numerous 
 and contradictory laws ; the tedious and expensive 
 forms of judicial proceedings; the partial administra- 
 tion of justice ; and the universal corruption, which 
 increased the influence of the rich, and aggravated the 
 misfortunes of the poor. A sentiment of patriotic sym- 
 pathy was at length revived in the breast of the fortu- 
 nate exile ; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, 
 the guilt or weakness of those magistrates, who had 
 perverted the wisest and most salutary institutions.' 
 Treaty of peace The timid, or selfish, policy of the 
 Snd7he%;^s'tlrn w^^tem Romans had abandoned the 
 empire, eastern empire to the Huns.^ The loss 
 
 A. D. 446. of armies, and the want of discipline, or 
 virtue, were not supplied by the personal character of 
 the monarch. Theodosius might still affect the style, 
 as well as the title, o( Invincible .Augustus ,- but he was 
 reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who impe- 
 riously dictated these harsh and humiliating condi- 
 tions of peace. I. The emperor of the east resigned, 
 by an express or tacit convention, an extensive and 
 important territory, which stretched along the south- 
 ern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum or Bel- 
 grade, as far as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace. The 
 breadth was defined by the vague computation of 
 fifteen days' journey ; but, from the proposal of At- 
 tila, to remove the situation of the national market, it 
 soon appeared, that he comprehended the ruined city 
 of Naissus within the limits of his dominions. H. 
 The king of the Huns required and obtained, that his 
 tribute or subsidy should be augmented from seven 
 hundred pounds of gold to the annual sum of two 
 thousand one hundred ; and he stipulated the imme- 
 diate payment of six thousand pounds of gold to de- 
 fray the expenses, or to expiate the guilt, of the war. 
 One might imagine, that such a demand, which 
 scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth, 
 would have been readily discharged by the opulent 
 
 h Priscus (p. 61.) extols the equity of the Roman laws, which pro- 
 tected the life of a slave. Occidere solent (says Tacitus of the Ger- 
 mans) non disriplina et severitate, sed iinpetu et ira, ut inimicum, 
 nisi quod impiine. De Morilms Germ. c. 25. The Heruli, who 
 were the subjects of Attila, .claimed, and exercised, the power of 
 life and death over their slaves. See a remarkable instance in the 
 second book of Agathias. 
 
 i See the whole conversation in Priscus, p. 59 — 62. 
 
 k Nova iterum Orienli assurpit ruina .... quum nulla ab Occi- 
 dentalibus ferrentur auxilia. Prosper-Tyro composed his Chronicle 
 in the west ; aud his observation implies a censure. 
 
 empire of the east; and the public distress aflJbrds a 
 remarkable proof of the impoverished, or at least of 
 the disorderly, state of the finances. A large propor- 
 tion of the taxes, extorted from the people, was de- 
 tained and intercepted in their passage, through the 
 foulest channels, to the treasury of Constanlfnople. 
 The revenue was dissipated by Theodosius, and his 
 favourites, in wasteful and profuse luxury ; which 
 was disguised by the names of imperial magnificence, 
 or christian charily. The immediate supplies had 
 been exhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military 
 preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, 
 but capriciously, imposed on the members of^the sen- 
 atorian order, was the only expedient that could dis- 
 arm, without less of time, the impatient avarice of 
 Attila ; and the po'verty of the nobles compelled them 
 to adopt the scandalous resource of exposing to pub- 
 lic auction the jewels of their wives, and the heredi- 
 tary ornaments of their palaces." HI. The king of the 
 Huns appears to have established, as a principle of 
 national jurisprudence, that he could never lose the 
 property, which he had once acquired, in the persons 
 who had yielded either a voluntary, or reluctant, sub- 
 mission to his authority. From this principle he 
 concluded, and the conclusions of Attila were irrevo- 
 cable laws, that the Huns, who had been taken pris- 
 oners in war, should be released without delay, and 
 without ransom ; that every Roman captive, who had 
 presumed to escape, should purchase his right to 
 freedom at the price of twelve pieces of gold ; and 
 that all the barbarians, who had deserted the standard 
 of Attila, should be restored, without any promise, or 
 stipulation, of pardon. In the execution of this cruel 
 and ignominious treaty, the imperial oflicers were 
 forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters 
 who refused to devote themselves to certain death ; 
 arid the Romans forfeited all reasonable claims to the 
 friendship of any Scythian people, by this public con- 
 fession, that they were destitute either of faith, or 
 power, to protect the suppliants, who had embraced 
 the throne of Theodosius."" 
 
 The firmness of a single town, so ob- Spirit of the 
 scure, that, except on this occasion, it Azimumines. 
 has never been mentioned by any historian or geogra- 
 pher, exposed the disgrace of the emperor and empire. 
 Azimus, or Azimuntium, a small city of Thrace on 
 the Illyrian borders," had been distinguished by the 
 martial spirit of its youth, the skill and reputation of 
 the leaders whom they had chosen, and their daring 
 exploits against the innumerable host of the barba- 
 rians. Instead of tamely expecting their approach, 
 the Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and successful 
 sallies, the troops of the Huns, who gradually de- 
 cliiied the dangerous neighbourhood ; rescued from 
 their hands the spoil and the captives, and recruited 
 their domestic force by the voluntary association of 
 fugitives and deserters. After the conclusion of the 
 treaty, Attila still menaced the empire with implac- 
 able war, unless the Azimuntines were persuaded, or 
 compelled, to comply with the conditions which their 
 sovereign had accepted. The ministers of Theodo- 
 sius confessed with shame, and with truth, that they 
 no longer possessed any authority over a society of 
 
 1 According to the description, or rather invective, of Chrvsostom 
 an auction of Byzantine luxury must have been very productive' 
 Every wealthy house possessed a semicircular table of massy silver 
 such as two men could scarcely lift, a vase of solid gold of the weieht 
 of forty pounds, cups, dishes of the same metal, &c. 
 
 m The articles of the treaty, expressed without much order or pre- 
 cision, may be found in Priscus. (p. 34—37. 53, &c.) Count Marcel li- 
 nus dispenses some comfort, by observing, Isl. T//at Attila himself 
 solicited the peace and presents, which he had formerly refused ; and 
 2dly. That about the same time, the ambassadors of India presented' 
 a fine large tame tieer to the emperor Theodosius. 
 
 n Priscus, p. 35, 36. Among the hundred and eisrhty-two forts, or 
 castles, of Thrace, enumerated by Procopius, (de Edificiis, 1. iv. c. xi. 
 tom. ii. p. 92. edit. Paris,) there is one of the name of Esimontou\ 
 whose position is doubtfully marked, in the neighbourhood of ^n- 
 chialus and the Euxine sea. The name and walls of Azimuntiam 
 might subsist till the reign of Justinian ; but the race of its brave 
 defenders had been carefully extirpated by the jealousy of the Roman 
 princes. 
 
 i. 
 
464 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 465 
 
 men, who so bravely asserted their natural indepen- 
 dence ; and the king of the Huns condescended to 
 negociate an equal exchange with the citizens of Azi- 
 mus. They demanded the restitution of some shep- 
 herds, who, wiih their cattle, had been accidentally 
 surprised. A strict, though fruitless, inquiry was al- 
 lowed : but the Huns were obliged to swear, that 
 they did not detain any prisoners belonging to the 
 city, before they could recover two surviving country- 
 men, whom the Azimuntines had reserved as pledges 
 for the safety of their lost companions. Attila, on his 
 side, was satisfied, and deceived, by their solemn as- 
 severation, that the rest of the captives had been put 
 to the sword ; and that it was their constant practice, 
 immediately to dismiss the Romans and the deserters, 
 who had obtained the security of the public faith. This 
 prudent and officious dissimulation may be condemned, 
 or excused, by the casuists, as they incline to the 
 rigid decree of St. Augustin, or to the milder senti- 
 ment of St. Jerom and St. Chrysostom : but every 
 soldier, every statesman, must acknowledge, that if 
 the race of the Azimuntines had been encouraged and 
 multiplied, the barbarians would have ceased to 
 trample on the majesty of the empire." 
 Embassies from . It Would havc been strange, indeed, 
 Atfiia to Con- if Theodosius had purchased, by the 
 stantinopie. j^gg ^f honour, a securc and solid tran- 
 quillity ; or if his tameness had not invited the repe- 
 tition of injuries. The Byzantine court was insulted 
 by five or six successive embassies ;p and the minis- 
 ters of Attila were uniformly instructed to press the 
 tardy or imperfect execution of the last treaty ; to pro- 
 duce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were 
 still protected by the empire ; and to declare, with 
 seeming moderation, that unless their sovereign ob- 
 tained complete and immediate satisfaction, it would 
 be impossible for him, were it even his wish, to 
 check the resentment of his warlike tribes. . Besides 
 the motives of pride and interest, which might prompt 
 the king of the Iluns to continue this train of nego- 
 ciation, he was influenced by the less honourable 
 view of enriching his favourites at the expense of his 
 enemies. The imperial treasury was exhausted, to 
 procure the friendly offices of the ambassadors, and 
 their principal attendants, whose favourable report 
 might conduce to the maintenance of peace. The 
 barbarian monarch was flattered by the liberal recep- 
 tion of his ministers; he computed with pleasure the 
 value and splendour of their gifts, rigorously exacted 
 the performance of every promise, which woiild con- 
 tribute to tlieir private emolument, and treated as an 
 important business of state, the marriage of his secre- 
 tary Constantius.'J That Gallic adventurer, who was 
 recommended by iEtius to the king of the Huns, had 
 engaged his service to the ministers of Constanti- 
 nople, for the stipulated reward of a wealthy and 
 noble wife; and the daughter of count Saturninus was 
 chosen to discharge the obligations of her country. 
 The reluctance of the victim, some domestic troubles, 
 and the unjust confiscation of her fortune, cooled the 
 ardour of her interested lover; but he still demanded, 
 in the name of Attila, an equivalent alliance ; and 
 after many ambiguous delays and excuses, the Byzan- 
 tine court was compelled to sacrifice to this insolent 
 stranger the widow of Armatius, whose birth, opa- 
 
 o The peevish dispute df St. Jernm and St. Augustin, who laboured, 
 by diflTerent expedients, to reconcile the seeming quarrel of the two 
 apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, depends on the solution of an impor- 
 tant question, (Miildleton's Works, vol. ii. p. 5—10.) wliich has been 
 frequently agitated by catholic and proleatant divines, and even by 
 lawyers and philosophers of every age. 
 
 p Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, &c. c. xix.) has 
 d"lineated, with a bold and easy pencil, some of the most striking 
 circumstances of the pride of Attila, and the disgrace of the Romans. 
 He deserves the praise of having read the Fragments of Priscus, 
 which have been loo much disregarded. 
 
 q See Priscus, p. 69. 71, 72, ice. I would fain believe, that this ad- 
 venturer was afterwards crucified by the order of Attila, on a suspi- 
 cion of treasonable practices ; but Priscus (p. 57.) has too plainly dis- 
 lincuished two persons of the name of Constantiua, who, from tlie 
 ■imilar events of their livea, might have been easily confounded. 
 
 The embaRsy of 
 Maximin to 
 Attila. 
 
 A. D. 448. 
 
 lence, and beauty, placed her in the most Illustrious 
 rank of the Roman matrons. For these importunate 
 and oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable 
 return ; he weighed, with suspicious pride, the char- 
 acter and station of the imperial envoys ; but he con- 
 descended to promise, that he would advance as far 
 as Sardica, to receive any ministers who had been in- 
 vested with the consular dignity. The council of 
 Theodosius eluded this proposal, by representing the 
 desolate and ruined condition of Sardica ; and even 
 ventured to insinuate, that every ofl[icer of the army or 
 household was qualified to treat with the most power- 
 ful princes of Scyihia. Maximin,' a respectable 
 courtier, whose abilities had been long exercised in 
 civil and military employments, accepted with reluc- 
 tance the troublesome, and perhaps dangerous, com- 
 mission, of reconciling the angry spirit of the king of 
 the Huns. His friend, the historian Prisons,* em- 
 braced the opportunity of observing the barbarian hero 
 in the peaceful and domestic scenes of life ; but the 
 secret of the embassy, a fatal and guilty secret, was 
 intrusted only to the interpreter Vigilius. The two 
 last ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble sub- 
 ject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant 
 chieftain of the tribe of the Scyrri, returned at the 
 same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. 
 Their obscure names were afterwards illustrated by 
 the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of their 
 sons; the two servants of Attila became the fathers 
 of the last Roman emperor of the west, and of the first 
 barbarian king of Italy. 
 
 The ambassadors, who were followed 
 by a numerous train of men and horses, 
 made their first halt at Sardica, at the 
 distance of three hundred and fifty miles, 
 or thirteen days' journey, from Constantinople. As 
 the remains of Sardica were still included within the 
 limits of the empire, it was incumbent on the Romans 
 to exercise the duties of hospitality. They provided, 
 with the assistance of the provincials, a sufficient num- 
 ber of sheep and oxen ; and invited the Huns to a splen- 
 did, or, at least, a plentiful, supper. But the harmony of 
 the entertainment was soon disturbed by mutual preju- 
 dice and indiscretion. The greatness of the emperor 
 and the empire was warmly maintained by their min- 
 isters ; the Huns, with equal ardour, asserted the supe- 
 riority of their victorious monarch: the dispute was 
 inflamed by the rash and unseasonable flattery of Vi- 
 Sfilius, who passionately rejected the comparison of a 
 mere mortal with the divine Theodosius ; and it was 
 with extreme difficulty that Maximin and Priscus were 
 able to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry 
 minds, of the barbarians. When they arose from table, 
 the imperial ambassador presented Edecon and Orestes 
 with rich gifts of silk robes and Indian pearls, which 
 they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could not for- 
 bear insinuating, that he had not always been treated 
 with such respect and liberality : and the oflfensive 
 distinction, which was implied, between his civil office 
 and the hereditary rank of his colleague, seems to have 
 made Edecon a doubtful friend, and Orestes an irrec- 
 oncilable enemy. After this entertainment, they trav- 
 elled about one hundred miles from Sardica to Nais- 
 sus. That flourishing city, which had given birth to 
 the great Constantine, was levelled with the ground ; 
 the inhabitants were destroyed or dispersed ; and the 
 appearance of some sick persons, who were still per- 
 
 r In the Persian treaty concluded in the year 422, the wise and 
 eloquent Maximin had been the assessor of Ardaburius. (Socrates, 1. 
 vii. c. 20.) When Marcian ascended the throne, the office of Great 
 Chamberlain was bestowed on Maximin, who is ranked, in a public 
 edict, among the four principal ministers of state. (Novell, ad Caic. 
 C<h1. Theod. p. 31.) He executed a civil and military commission in 
 the eastern provinces ; and his death was lamented by thesavacesof 
 jEihiopia, whose incursions he had repressed. See Priscus, p. 40, 41. 
 
 • Priscus was a native of Panium in Thrace, and deserved, by his 
 eloquence, an honourable place among the sophists of the age. His 
 Byzantine history, which related to his own tunes, was comprised in 
 seven books. See Fabricius, Bibliot. Grac. torn. vi. p. 335, 236. 
 Notwithstanding the charitable judgment of the critic*, I euspect 
 that Priscus was a pagan. 
 
 mitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served 
 only to increase the horror of the prospect. The sur- 
 face of the country was covered with the bones of the 
 slain ; and the ambassadors, who directed their course 
 to the north-west, were ^obliged to pass the hills of 
 modern Servia, before they descended into the flat and 
 marshy grounds, which are terminated by the Danube. 
 The Huns were masters of the great river; their navi- 
 gation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of 
 the trunk of a single tree : the ministers of Theodosius 
 were safely landed on the opposite bank ; and their bar- 
 barian associates immediately hastened to the camp of 
 Attila, which was equally prepared for the amusements 
 of hunting, or of war. No sooner had Maximin advan- 
 ced about two miles from the Danube, than he began to 
 experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror. 
 He was sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant 
 valley, lest he should infringe the distant awe that was 
 due to the royal mansion. The ministers of Attila 
 pressed him to communicate the business, and the in- 
 structions, which he reserved for the ear of their sov- 
 ereign. When Maximin temperately urged the con- 
 trary practice of nations, he was still more confounded 
 to find, that the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, 
 those secrets (says Priscus) which should not be re 
 
 to her other favours, the gift, or at least tlie loan, of a 
 suflicient number of beautiful and obsequious damsels. 
 The sunshine of the succeeding day was dedicated to 
 repose ; to collect and dry the baggage, and to the re- 
 freshment of the men and horses; but, in the evening, 
 before they pursued their journey, the ambassadors 
 expressed their gratitude to the bounteous lady of the 
 village, by a very acceptable present of silver cups, 
 red fleeces, dried fruits, and Indian pepper. Soon after 
 this adventure, they rejoined the march of Attila, from 
 whom they had been separated about six days ; and 
 slowly proceeded to the capital of an empire, which 
 did not contain, in the space of several thousand miles, 
 a single city. 
 
 As for as we may ascertain the vague The r«vai viiia-e 
 and obscure geography of Priscus, this and 'palace. " 
 capital appears to have been seated between the 
 Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills, in the 
 plains of Upper Hungary, and most probably in the 
 neighbourhood of Jazberin, Agria, or Tokay." In its ori- 
 gin, it could be nothing more than an accidental camp, 
 which, by the long and frequent residence of Attila, 
 had insensibly swelled into a huge village, for the re- 
 ception of his court, of the troops, who followed his 
 person, and of the various multitude of idle or indus- 
 
 Ifi*^A.'j ^1*® "?^^ themselves, had been treacherously | trious slaves and retainers.' The baths, constructed 
 
 refusal to by Onegesius, were the only edifice of stone ; the ma- 
 
 disclosed to the public enemy. On his 
 comply with such ignominious terms, the imperial 
 envoy was commanded instantly to depart ; the order 
 was recalled ; it was again repeated ; and the Huns 
 renewed their ineflfectual attempts to subdue the pa- 
 tient firmness of Maximin. At length, by the inter- 
 cession of Scotia, the brother of Onegesius, whose 
 friendship had been purchased by a liberal gift, he 
 was admitted to the royal presence, but, instead of 
 
 terials had been transported from Pannonia; and since 
 the adjacent country was destitute even of large lim- 
 ber, it maybe presumed that the meaner habitations of 
 the royal village consisted of straw, of mud, or of can- 
 vass. The wooden houses of the more illustrious 
 Huns, were built and adorned with rude magnificence, 
 according to the rank, the fortune, or the taste of the 
 proprietors. They seem to have been distributed with 
 
 obtaining a decisive answer, he was compelled to un- \ some degree of order and symmetry ; and each spot 
 dertake a remote journey toward the north, that Attila \ became more honourable as it approached the person of 
 might enjoy the proud satisfaction of receiving, in the j the sovereign. The palace of Attila, which surpassed 
 eo.«« «o.v,« fk^ .,.^k^^^„j r .u,. -__.-__ __ 1 ^ij Q^j^pj. i^ouses in his dominions, was built entirely of 
 
 wood, and covered an ample space of ground. The 
 outward enclosure was a lofty wail, or palisade, of 
 smooth square timber, intersected with high towers, 
 but intended rather for ornament than defence. This 
 ersed the plains of Hungary, suppose that they passed | wall, which seems to have encircled the declivity of a 
 several navigable rivers, either in canoes or portable i hill, comprehended a great variety of wooden edifices, 
 boats ; but there is reason to suspect that the winding adapted to the uses of royalty. A separate house was as- 
 stream of the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might present itself signed to each of the numeous wives of Attila; and, in- 
 in different places under different names. From the con- stead of the rigid and illiberal confinement imposed by 
 
 I Asiatic jealousy, they politely admitted the Roman am- 
 bassadors to their presence, their table, and even to the 
 freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maximin of- 
 
 same camp, the ambassadors of the eastern and west 
 ern empires. His journey was regulated by the 
 guides, who obliged him to halt, to hasten his march, 
 or to deviate from the common road, as it best suited 
 the convenience of the king. The Romans who trav 
 
 tiguous villages they received a plentiful and regular 
 supply of provisions; mead instead of wine, millet in 
 the place of bread, and a certain liquor named camusy 
 which, according to the report of Priscus, was dis- 
 tilled from barley.* Such fare might appear coarse and 
 indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of Con- 
 stantinople : but in their accidental distress, they 
 were relieved by the gentleness and hospitality of the 
 same barbarians, so terrible and so merciless in war. 
 The ambassadors had encamped on the edge of a large 
 morass. A violent tempest of wind and rain, of thun- 
 der and lightning, overturned their tents, immersed 
 their baggage and furniture in the water, and scattered 
 their retinue, who wandered in the darkness of the 
 night, uncertain of their road, and apprehensive of 
 some unknown danger, till they awakened by their 
 cries the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, the 
 property of the widow of Bleda. A bright illumina- 
 tion, and in a few moments, a comfortable fire of reeds, 
 was kindled by their officious benevolence : the wants, 
 and even the desires, of the Romans were liberally 
 satisfied ; and they seem to have been embarrassed by 
 the singular politeness of Bleda's widow, who added 
 
 t The Huns themselves still continued to despise the labours of 
 agriculture: they abused the privilege of a victorious nation; and 
 the Goths, their industrious subjects who cultivated the earth, dread- 
 ed their neighbourhcKKJ, like that of so many ravenous wolves. (Pris- 
 cus, p. 45.) In the same manner the Sarts and Tadgics provide for 
 their own subsistence, and for that of the Usbec Tartars, their lazy 
 and rapacious sovereigns. See Genealogical History of the Tartars, 
 p. 42.3. 455, &c. 
 
 Vol. I.— 3 I 30 
 
 fered his presents to Cerca, the principal queen, he 
 admired the singular architecture of her mansion, the 
 height of the round columns, the size and beauty of the 
 wood, which was curiously shaped, or turned, or pol- 
 ished, or carved ; and his attentive eye was able to 
 discover some taste in the ornaments, and some reo-u- 
 larity in the proportions. After passing through the 
 guards, who watched before the gate, the ambassa- 
 dors were introduced into the private apartment of 
 Cerca. The wife of Attila received their visit sitting, 
 or rather lying, on a soft couch ; the floor was covered 
 with a carpet ; the domestics formed a circle round the 
 queen ; and her damsels, seated on the ground, were 
 employed in working the variegated embroidery which 
 adorned the dress of the barbaric warriors. The Huns 
 
 u It is evident, that Priscus passed the Danube and the Teyss, and 
 that he did not reach the foot of the Carpathian hills. Agria, Tokay, 
 and Jazberin, are situated in the plains circumscribed by this defini- 
 tion. M. de Buat (Histoire des Peuples, Sec. tom. vii. p. 461.) has 
 chosen Tokay ; Otrokosci, (p. 130. apud Mascou, ix. 23.) a learned 
 Hungarian, has preferred Jazberin, a place about thirty-six miles 
 westward of Buda and the Danube. 
 
 X The royal village of Attila may be compared to the city of Kara- 
 corum, the residence of the successors of Zingis; which, though it ap- 
 pears to have been a more stable habitation, did not equal the sizeor 
 splendour of the town and abbey of Si. Donys, in the I3th century. 
 (See Rubruquis, in the Histoire Generate des Voyases, tom. vii. p. 
 286.) The camp of Aurenezebe, as it is so agreeably described by 
 Bernier, (tom. ii. p. 217—235.) blended the manners of Scytliia with 
 the magnificence and luxury of Hiudostan. 
 
466 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The behaviour 
 of Attila totlie 
 Roman ambaa- 
 Badors. 
 
 were ambitious of displaying those riches which were 
 the fruit and evidence of their victories : the trappings 
 of their horses, their swords, and even their shoes, 
 were studded with gold and precious stones ; and their 
 tables were profusely spread with plates, and goblets, 
 and vases of gold and silver, which had been fashioned 
 by the labour'of Grecian artists. The monarch alone 
 assumed the superior pride of adhering to the simpli- 
 city of his Scythian ancestors." The dress of Attila, 
 his arras, and the furniture of his horse, were plain, 
 without ornament, and of a single colour. The royal 
 table was served in wooden cups and platters ; flesh 
 was his only food ; and the conqueror of the north 
 never lasted the luxury of bread. 
 
 When Attila first gave audience to the 
 Roman ambassadors on the banks of the 
 Danube, his tent was encompassed with 
 a formidable guard. The monarch him- 
 self was seated in a wooden chair. His stern counte- 
 nance, angry gestures, and impatient tone, astonished 
 the firmness of Maximin ; but Virgilius had more rea- 
 son to tremble, since he distinctly understood the 
 menace, that if Attila did not respect the law of na- 
 tions, he would nail the deceitful interpreter to a cross, 
 and leave his body to the vultures. The barbarian 
 condescended, by producing an accurate list, to expose 
 the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed that 
 no more than seventeen deserters could be found. But 
 he arrogantly declared, that he apprehended only the 
 disgrace^ of contending with his fugitive slaves ; since 
 he despised their impotent efforts to defend the prov- 
 inces which Theodosius had entrusted to their arms; 
 ♦* For what fortress," (added Attila,) " what city, in 
 the wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to 
 exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that 
 it should be erased from the earth V lie dismissed, 
 however, the interpreter, who returned to Constanti- 
 nople with his peremptory demand of more complete 
 restitution, and a more splendid embassy. His anger 
 gradually subsided, and his domestic satisfaction, in a 
 marriage which he celebrated on the road with the 
 daughter of Eslam, might perhaps contribute to mol- 
 lify the native fierceness of his temper. The entrance 
 of Attila into the royal village, was marked by a very 
 singular ceremony. A numerous troop of women came 
 out to meet their hero and their king. They marched 
 before him, distributed into long and regular files : the 
 intervals between the files were filled by white veils 
 of thin linen, which the women on either side bore 
 aloft in their hands, and which formed a canopy for a 
 chorus of young virgins, who chanted hymns and songs 
 in the Scythian language. The wife of his favourite 
 Onegesius, with a train of female attendants, saluted 
 Attila at the door of her own house, on his way to 
 the palace; and oflTered, according to the custom of 
 the country, her respectful homage, by entreating him 
 to taste the wine and meat, which she had prepared 
 for his reception. As soon as the monarch had gra- 
 ciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics 
 lifted a small silver table to a convenient height, as he 
 sat on horseback ; and Attila, when he had touched 
 the goblet with his lips, again saluted the wife of 
 Onegesius, and continued his march. During his 
 residence at the seat of empire, his hours were not 
 wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the 
 king of the Huns could maintain his superior dignity, 
 without concealing his person from the public view. 
 He frequently assembled his council, and gave audi- 
 ence to the ambassadors of the nations ; and his peo- 
 ple might appeal to the supreme tribunal, which he 
 held at stated times, and, according to the eastern cus- 
 tom, before the principal gate of his wooden palace. 
 The Romans, both of the east, and of the west, were 
 
 J WheA the Mopuls displayed the spoilflof Asia, in the diet of Ton- 
 cat, the throne of Zingis was still covered with the original black 
 felt carpet, on which he had been seated, when he was raised to the 
 command of his warlike countrymen. See Vie de Gcngiscan, 1. iv. 
 c. 9. 
 
 twice invited to the banquets, where Attila feasted 
 with the princes and nobles ofScythia. The royal feaii. 
 Maximin and his colleagues were stop- 
 ped on the threshold, till they had made a devout liba- 
 tion to the health and prosperity of the king of the Huns; 
 and were conducted, after this ceremony, to their respec- 
 tive seats in a spacious hall. The royal table and couch, 
 covered with carpets and fine linen, was raised by sev- 
 eral steps in the midst of the hall ; and a son, an uncle, 
 or perhaps a favourite king, were admitted to share the 
 simple and homely repast of Attila. Two lines of 
 small tables, each of which contained three or four 
 guests, were ranged in order on either hand ; the right 
 was esteemed the most honourable, but the Romans in- 
 genuously confess, that they were placed on the left; 
 and that Beric, an unknown chieftain, most probably 
 of the Gothic race, preceded the representatives of 
 Theodosius and Valentinian. The barbarian monarch 
 received from his cup-bearer, a goblet filled with wine, 
 and courteously drank to the health of the most dis- 
 tinguished guest; who rose from his seat, and ex- 
 pressed, in the same manner, his loyal and respectful 
 vows. This ceremony was successively performed for 
 all, or at least for the illustrious persons of the assem- 
 bly; and a considerable time must have been con- 
 sumed, since it was thrice repeated, as each course or 
 service was placed on the table. But the wine still 
 remained afttr the meat had been removed ; and the 
 Huns continued to indulge their intemperance long 
 after the sober and decent ambassadors of the two em- 
 pires had withdrawn themselves from the nocturnal 
 banquet. Yet before they retired, they enjoyed a sin- 
 gular opportunity of observing the manners of the na- 
 tion in their convivial amusements. Two Scythians 
 stood before the couch of Attila, and recited the verses 
 which they had composed, to celebrate his valour and 
 his victories. A profound silence prevailed in the 
 hall; and the attention of the guests was captivated 
 by the vocal harmony, which revived and perpetuated 
 the memory of their own exploits : a martial ardour 
 flashed from the eyes of the warriors, who were impa- 
 tient for battle ; and the tears of the old men expres- 
 sed their generous despair, that they could no longer 
 partake the danger and glory of the field.' This en- 
 tertainment, which might be considered as a school of 
 military virtue, was succeeded by a farce, that debased 
 the dignity of human nature. A Moorish and a Scy- 
 thian "buffoon successively excited the mirth of the 
 rude spectators, by their deformed figure, ridiculous 
 dress, antic gestures, absurd speeches, and the strange 
 unintelligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic, and 
 the Hunnic languages ; and the hall resounded with 
 loud and licentious peals of laughter. In the midst of 
 this intemperate riot, Attila alone, without a change of 
 countenance, maintained his stedfast and inflexible 
 gravity; which was never relaxed, except on the en- 
 trance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons : he embraced 
 the boy with a smile of paternal tenderness, gently 
 pinched him by the cheek, and betrayed a partial af- 
 fection, which was justified by the assurance of his 
 prophets, that Irnac would be the future support of his 
 family and empire. Two days afterwards, the ambas- 
 sadors received a second invitation ; and they had rea- 
 son to praise the politeness, as well as the hospitality, 
 of Attila. The king of the Huns held a lonor and 
 fiimiliar conversation with Maximin; but his civility 
 was interrupted by rude expressions, and haughty re- 
 proaches; and he was provoked, by a motive of inter- 
 est, to support, with unbecoming zeal, the private 
 claims of his secretary Constantius. ** The emperor" 
 (said Attila) " has long promised him a rich wife ; 
 Constantius must not be disappointed ; nor should a 
 Roman emperor deserve the name of a liar." On the 
 third day, the ambassadors were dismissed ; the free- 
 
 467 
 
 dom of several captives was granted, for a moderate 
 ransom, to their pressing entreaties ; and, besides the 
 royal presents, they were permitted to accept from each 
 of the Scythian nobles, the honourable and useful gift 
 of a horse. Maximin returned, by the same road, to 
 Constantinople ; and though he was involved in an 
 accidental dispute with Beric, the new ambassador of 
 Attila, he flattered himself that he had contributed, by 
 the laborious journey, to confirm the peace and alli- 
 ance of the two nations.* 
 
 Conspiracy of ^^^ the Roman ambassador was igno- 
 the Romai.8 rant of the treacherous design, which 
 TauM had beeri concealed under the mask of 
 
 the public faith. The surprise and satis- 
 faction of Edecon, when he contemplated the splen- 
 dour of Constantinople, had encourageh the interpre- 
 ter Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with 
 the eunuch Chrysaphius,'' who governed the emperor 
 and the empire. After some previous conversation, 
 and a mutual oath of secrecy, the eunuch, who had 
 not, from his own feelings or experience, imbibed any 
 exalted notions of ministerial virtue, ventured to pro- 
 pose the death of Attila, as an important service, by 
 which Edecon might deserve a liberal share of the 
 wealth and luxury which he admired. The ambas- 
 sador of the Huns listened to the tempting offer ; and 
 professed, with apparent zeal, his ability, as well as 
 readiness, to execute the bloody deed ; the design was 
 communicated to the master of the offices, and the 
 devout Theodosius consented to the assassination of 
 his invincible enemy. But this perfidious conspi- 
 racy was defeated by the dissimulation, or the repen- 
 tance, of Edecon; and, though he might exaggerate 
 his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he seem- 
 ed to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit of 
 an early and voluntary confession. If we now review 
 the embassy of Maximin, and the behaviour of Attila, 
 we must applaud the barbarian, who respected the 
 laws of hospitality, and generously entertained and 
 dismissed the minister of a prince who had conspired 
 against his life. But the rashness of Vigilius will ap- 
 pear still more extraordinary, since he 'returned, con- 
 scious of his guilt and danger, to the royal camp ; ac- 
 companied by his son, and carrying with him a 
 weighty purse of gold, which the favourite eunuch 
 had furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and 
 to corrupt the fidelity of the guards. The interpreter 
 was instantly seized, and dragged before the tribunal 
 of Attila, where he asserted his innocence with spe- 
 cious firmness till the threat of inflicting instant death 
 on his son, extorted from him a sincere discovery of 
 the criminal transaction. Under the name of ransom, 
 or confiscation, the king of the Huns accepted two 
 hundred pounds of gold for the life of a traitor, whom 
 he disdained to punish. He pointed his just indigna- 
 He reprimands ^ion against a nobler object. His am- 
 and forgives the bassadors Eslaw and Orestes were im- 
 emperor. mediately despatched to Constantinople, 
 
 with a peremptory instruction, which it was much 
 safer for them to execute than to disobey. They boldly 
 entered the imperial presence, with the fatal purse 
 hanging down from the neck of Orestes ; who inter- 
 rogated the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside 
 the throne, whether he recognised the evidence of his 
 guilt. But the office of reproof was reserved for the 
 superior dignity of his colleague Eslaw, who gravely 
 addressed the emperor of the east in the following 
 
 z If we may believe Plutarch, (in Demetrio, torn. v. p. 24.) it was the 
 custom of the Scythians, when they indulged in the pleasures of the 
 table, to awaken their languid courage by the martial harmony of 
 twanging their bow-strings. 
 
 * The curious narrative of this embassy, which required few obser- 
 vations, and was not susceptible of any cullateral evidence, may be 
 found in Priscus, p. 49—70. But I have not confined myself to the 
 same order; and I had previously extracted the historical circum- 
 stances, which were less intimately connected with the journey, and 
 business, of the Roman ambassadors. 
 
 l> M. de Tillemont has very properly siven the succession of cham- 
 berlains, who reigned in the name of Theodo.sius. Chnsaphius was 
 the last, and, according to the unanimous evidence of history, the 
 worst, oflhese favourites. (See Hist, des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 117 
 —119. Mem. Eccles. tom. xv. p. 438.) His partiality for his godfather, 
 the heresiarch Eutyches, engaged him to persecute the orthodox 
 party. 
 
 words : " Theodosius is the son of an illustrious and 
 respectable parent; Attila likewise is descended from 
 a noble race; and Ae has supported, by his actions, 
 the dignity which he inherited from his father Mund- 
 zuk. But Theodosius has forfeited his paternal hon- 
 ours, and, by consenting to pay tribute, has degraded 
 himself to the condition of a slave. It is therefore 
 just, that he should reverence the man whom fortune 
 and merit have placed above him; instead of attemp- 
 ting, like a wicked slave, clandestinely to conspire 
 against his master." The son of Arcadius, who was 
 accustomed only to the voice of flattery, heard with 
 astonishment the severe language of truth : he blush- 
 ed and trembled ; nor did he presume directly to re- 
 fuse the head of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and 
 Orestes were instructed to demand. A solemn em- 
 bassy, armed with full powers and magnificent gifts, 
 was hastily sent to deprecate the wrath of Attila ; 
 and his pride was gratified by the choice of Nomius 
 and Anatolius, two ministers of consular or patrician 
 rank, of whom the one was great treasurer, and the 
 other was master-general of the armies of the east. 
 He condescended to meet these ambassadors on the 
 banks of the river Drenco; and though he at first af- 
 fected a stern and haughty demeanour, his anger was 
 insensibly mollified by their eloquence and liberality. 
 He condescended to pardon the emperor, the eunuch, 
 and the interpreter; bound himself by an oath to ob- 
 serve the conditions of peace ; released a great num- 
 ber of captives ; abandoned the fugitives and deser- 
 ters to their fate ; and resigned a large territory, to the 
 south of the Danube, which he had already exhausted 
 of its wealth and inhabitants. But this treaty was 
 purchased at an expense which might have supported 
 a vigorous and successful war ; and the subjects of 
 Theodosius were compelled to redeem the safety of a 
 worthless favourite by oppressive taxes, which they 
 would more cheerfully have paid for his destruction.* 
 
 The emperor Theodosius did not lonor ^^ ^ . 
 survive the most humiliating circum- Younger dies, 
 stance of an inglorious life. As he was a.d.4.'»o.' 
 riding, or hunting, in the neighbourhood ''"'*' ^' 
 of Constantinople, he was tlirovvn from his horse into 
 the river Lycus : the spine of the back was injured 
 by the fall ; and he expired some days afterwards, in 
 the fiftieth year of his age, and the forty-third of his 
 reign."* His sister Pulcheria, whose authority had 
 been controlled both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs 
 by the pernicious influence of the eunuchs, was 
 unanimously proclaimed empress of the east ; and the 
 Romans, for the first lime, submitted to a female reign. 
 No sooner had Pulcheria ascended the throne, than 
 she indulged her own and the public resentment, by 
 an act of popular justice. Without any legal trial, 
 the eunuch Chrysaphius was executed before the gates 
 of the city ; and the immense riches which had been 
 accumulated by the rapacious favourite, served only 
 to hasten and to justify his punishment.' Amidst the 
 general acclamations of the clergy and people, the 
 empress did not forget the prejudice and disadvantao-e 
 to which her sex was exposed ; and she wisely re- 
 solved to prevent their murmurs by the choice of a 
 colleague, who would always respect the superior 
 rank and virgin chastity of his wife. She „ ^ • , . 
 
 u Lj^-ai- and IS succeeded 
 
 gave her hand to Marcian, a senator, by Mardan. 
 about sixty years of age ; and the no- 
 
 Aug. 25. 
 
 minal husband of Pulcheria was solemnly invested 
 
 c This secret conspiracy, and its important consequences, may be 
 traced in the fragments of Priscus, p. 37, 38, 39. 54. 70, 71, 72. The 
 chronology of that historian is not fixed to any precise date ; but the 
 series of negociations between Attila and the eastern empire, must be 
 included between the three or four years which are terminated, A. D. 
 450, by the death of Theodosius. 
 
 d Theodorus the Reader, (see Vales. Hist. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 563.) 
 and the Paschal Chronicle, mention the fall without specifying the 
 injury : but the consequence was so likely to happen, and so unlikely 
 to be invented, that we may safely give'credit to Nicephorus Callis- 
 tus, a Greek of the fourteenth century. 
 
 e Pulchoriae natu (says count Marcellinus) sua cum avaritia inter- 
 emptus est. She abandoned the eunuch to the pious revenge of a 
 •on, whose father had suiTered at his instigation. 
 
468 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 469 
 
 I 
 
 with the imperial purple. The zeal which he display- 
 ed for t!»e orthodox creed, as it was established by the 
 council of Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the 
 grateful eloquence of the catholics. But the beha- 
 viour of Marcian in a private life, and afterwards on 
 the throne, may support a more rational belief, that 
 he was qualified to restore and invigorate an empire, 
 which had been almost dissolved by the successive 
 weakness of two hereditary monarchs. He was born 
 in Thrace, and educated to the profession of arms ; 
 but Marciau's youth had been severely exercised by 
 poverty and misfortune, since his only resource, when 
 he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in two 
 hundred pieces of trold, which he had borrowed of a 
 friend. He passed nineteen years in the domestic and 
 military service of Aspar, and his son Ardaburius ; 
 followed those powerful generals to the Persian and 
 African wars ; and obtained, by their influence, the 
 honourable rank of tribune and senator. His mild 
 disposition, and useful talents, witliout alarming the 
 jealousy, recommended Marcian to the esteem and 
 favour, of his patrons; he had seen, perhaps he had 
 felt, the abuses of a venal and oppressive administra- 
 tion ; and his own example gave weight and energy 
 to the laws, which he promulgated fur the reformation 
 of manners.' 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Invasion of Caul bt/ Attila.—He is repulsed by JFAius and 
 ihe Visisuths, — Attila invades and evacuates Italy. — The 
 deaths of Attila, Mtius, and Valentiniun III. 
 
 Attila threaiong It was the Opinion of Marcian, that 
 both empires. -yyaj. should be avoided, as long as it is 
 ■:;'»5r<S! '° possible to preserve a secure an.l hon- 
 A. D,450. curable peace; but it was likewise his 
 opinion, that peace cannot be honourable or secure, if 
 the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war. 
 This temp'erate courage dictated his reply to the 
 demands of Attila, who insolently pressed the pay- 
 ment of the annual tribute. The emperor signified to 
 the barbarians, that they must no lonorer insult the 
 majesty of Rome by the mention of a tribute; that he 
 was disposed to reward, with becoming liberality, 
 the faithful friendship of his allies; but that, if they 
 presumed to violate the public peace, they should feel 
 that he possessed troops, and arms, and resolution, to re- 
 pel their attacks. The same language, even in the camp 
 of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, 
 whose bold refusal to deliver the presents, till he had 
 been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a 
 sense of dignity, and a contempt of danger, which At- 
 tila was noT prepared to expect from the degenerate 
 Romans.* He threatened to chastise the rash suc- 
 cessor of Theodosius; but he hesitated, whether he 
 should first direct his invincible arms against the 
 eastern or the western empire. While mankind await- 
 ed his decision with awful suspense, he sent an equal 
 defiance to the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople ; 
 and his ministers saluted the two emperors with the 
 same haughty declaration. " Attila, my lord, and thy 
 lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his imme- 
 diate reception." *" But as the barbarian despised, or 
 affected to despise, the Romans of the east, whom he 
 had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolu- 
 tion of suspending the easy conquest, till he had 
 achieved a more glorious and important enterprise. 
 In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the 
 
 Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and fer- 
 tility of those provinces ; but the particular motives 
 and provocations of Attila, can only be explained by 
 the state of the western empire under the reign of Val- 
 entinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the ad- 
 ministration of iEtius.<= 
 
 After the death of his rival Boniface, ^^^^^^,^^ ^^^ 
 iEtius had prudently retired to the tents administration 
 of the Huns ; and he was indebted to of ^tius. 
 their alliance for his safety and his re- A-"--iJJ-4m- 
 storation. Instead of the suppliant language of a 
 guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at the head of 
 sixty thousand barbarians ; and the empress Placidia 
 confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the condescen- 
 sion, which might have been ascribed to cleniency, 
 was the effect ^of weakness or fear. She delivered 
 herself, her son Valentinian, and the western empire, 
 into the hands of an insolent subject ; nor could Pla- 
 cidia protect the son-in-law of Boniface, the virtuous 
 and faithful Sebastian,'* from the implacable persecu- 
 tion, which urged him from one kingdom to another, 
 till he miserably perished in the service of the Van- 
 dals. The fortunate ^tius, who was immediately 
 promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested 
 with the honours of the consulship, assumed, with 
 the title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the 
 whole military power of the state ; and he is some- 
 times styled, by contemporary writers, the duke, or 
 general, of the Romans of tlie west. His prudence, 
 rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the grand- 
 son of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; 
 and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace and 
 luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the 
 glorious light of a hero and a patriot, who supported 
 near twenty years the ruins of the western empire. 
 The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses, that 
 jt:tius was born for the salvation of the Roman repub- 
 lic ; « and the following portrait, though it is drawn in 
 the fairest colours, must be allowed to contain a 
 much larger proportion of truth than of flattery. " His 
 mother was a wealthy and noble Italian, and his 
 father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in 
 the province of Scylhia, gradually rose from the sta- 
 tion of a military domestic, to the dignity of master 
 of the cavalry. Their son, who was enrolled almost 
 in his infancy in the guards, was given as a hostage, 
 first to Alaric, and afterwards to the Huns ; and he 
 successively obtained the civil and military honours 
 of the palace, for which he was equally qualified by 
 superior merit. The graceful figure of Mims was not 
 above the middle stature; but his manly limbs were 
 admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility ; 
 and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing 
 a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. 
 He could patiently endure the want of food or of 
 sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of 
 the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine 
 courage, that can despise not only dangers but inju- 
 ries ; "and it was impossible either to corrupt, or de- 
 ceive, or intimidate, the firm integrity of his soul.'" 
 
 f Proooplus, do Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 4. Evaprius, I. ii. c. i. Theo- 
 plianes p. IK), 91. Novell, ad Calceiu Cod. Theod. torn. vi. p. 30, 
 The praises wtiich St. Leo and the calholica have hestowed on Mar 
 cian, are diligently transcribed by Baronius, as an encouragement for 
 future princes, 
 a See Prisrus. p. 39. 72. . . ^ . . . .u- 
 
 b The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which introduces this 
 haughty message during the lifeUine of Theodosius, may have an- 
 ticipated tlie date ; hut the dull annalist was incapable of inventing 
 Ihe original and genuine style of Auila. 
 
 c The second book of the Ilistoire Critique de I'Etablissement de 
 la Monarchic Francoise, torn. i. p. 1^9—424. throws great light on 
 the slate of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila ; but the inKcn- 
 iou8 author, the Abb6 Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system 
 
 and conjecture. j-. .« • 
 
 d Victor Vitensis (de Perserut. Vandal. 1. i. r. 6. p. 8. edit. Kui- 
 nari) calls him, accr consilio et strenuus in hello : but his courage, 
 when he became unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness ; 
 and Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of praceps. (Sidon. 
 Apollinar, Carmen, ix. 181.) His adventures at Constantinople, in 
 Sicilv, Oaul, Spain, and Africa, are faintly marked in the Chroni- 
 cles of Warcellinus and Idatius. In his distress, he was always fol- 
 lowed by a numerous train ; since he could ravage the Hellespont, 
 and Propontis. and seize the city of Barcelona. 
 
 e Reipul.licsB Romanse singulariter natus, qui superbiam Suevo- 
 rum, Franrorumqiie barbariem inimcnsisciedibusservire imperio Ro 
 inano coegisset. Jornaiides d« Rebus Geticis, c. 34, p. 660. 
 
 f This portrait is drawn by Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, a con- 
 temporarv historian, known only by some extracts, which are pre- 
 served by Gregory of Tours, (I. ii. c. 8. in torn. 2. p. 163.) It was 
 probably the duty, or at least the Interest, of Renatus. to magnify 
 the virtues of Mima ; but he would have shown more dexterity, if 
 he had not insisted on his p-dWcni, forgiving disposition. 
 
 The barbarians, who had seated themselves in the 
 western provinces, were insensibly taught to respect 
 the faith and valour of the patrician iEtius. He 
 soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, ba- 
 lanced their interests, and checked their ambition. 
 A seasonable treaty, which he concluded with Gen- 
 seric, protected Italy from the depredations of the 
 Vandals ; the independent Britons implored and ac- 
 knowledged his salutary aid ; the imperial authority 
 was restored and maintained in Gaul and Spain ; and 
 he compelled the Franks and the Suevi, whom he 
 had vanquished in the field, to become the useful con- 
 federates of the republic. 
 His cx>nnexion From a principle of interest, as well 
 with the Huns as gratitude, ^tius assiduously cultiva- 
 and Alani. ^gj jj^g alliance of the Huns. While he 
 
 resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had 
 familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew 
 of his benefactor ; and the two famous antagonists ap- 
 pear to have been connected by a personal and mili- 
 tary friendship, which they afterwards confirmed by 
 mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the education 
 of Carpilio, the son of iEtius, in the camp of Attila. 
 By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary 
 attachment, the patrician might disguise his appre- 
 hensions of the Scythian conqueror, who pressed the 
 two empires with his innumerable armies. His de- 
 mands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the 
 sj)oils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold, 
 which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and 
 military governors of Noricum were immediately de- 
 spatched to satisfy his complaints ; ^ and it is evident, 
 from their conversation with Maximin and Priscus, in 
 the royal village, that the valour and prudence of 
 iEtius had not saved the western Romans from the 
 common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous 
 policy prolonged the advantages of a salutary peace ; 
 and a numerous army of Huns and Alani, whom he 
 had attached to his person, was employed in the de- 
 fence of Gaul. Two colonies of these barbarians were 
 judiciously fixed in the territories of Valens and Or- 
 leans ; *• and their active cavalry secured the impor- 
 tant passages of the Rhone and of the Loire. These 
 savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the 
 subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their original 
 settlement was enforced with the licentious violence 
 of conquest; and the province through which they 
 marched was exposed to all the calamities of a hostile 
 invasion.' Strangers to the emperor or the republic, 
 the Alani of Gaul were devoted to the ambition of 
 iGtius; and though he might suspect, that, in a con- 
 test with Attila himself, they would revolt to the 
 standard of their national king, the patrician laboured 
 to restrain, rather than to excite, their zeal and resent- 
 ment against the Goths, the Burgundians, and the 
 Franks. 
 The Visigoths The kingdom established by the Visi- 
 in Gaul under goths in the Southern provinces of Gaul, 
 Thewloric?*^ had gradually acquired strength and 
 A. D. * maturity ; and the conduct of those am- 
 bitious barbarians, either in peace or 
 
 419—451. 
 
 K The embassy consisted of count Romulus ; of Promotus, presi- 
 dent of Noricum ; ami of Romanus. the military duke. They were 
 accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio, in the 
 same province, and father of Orestes, who had married the daugh- 
 ter of count Romulus. See Priscus. p. 57. 65. Caesiodorius (Variar. 
 i. 4.) mentions another embassy, which was executed by his father 
 and Carpilio, the fon of /£tius ; and, as Attila wns no more, he 
 could safely boast of their manly intrepid behaviour in his pre- 
 sence. 
 
 b Deserta Valentintc urhis rura Alanis partienda trnduntur. Pros 
 per Tyronis Chron. in Historiens de France, torn. p. 639. A few 
 lines afterwards. Prosper observps that lands in the ulterior Gaul 
 were as.'signed to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of 
 Dubos, (torn. i. p. 300.) the reasonable supposition of tico colonies or 
 garrisons of Alani, will confirm hia arguments, and remove his ob- 
 jections. 
 
 i See Prosper. Tyro, p. 6.^9. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246.) com- 
 plains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country, 
 Jjitorius Scythicos equites tunc forte subucto 
 Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen 
 Per terras, Arverne, tuas, qui proxima qiieque 
 Discursu, Haminis, iferro, feritaie, rapinis, 
 
 war, engaged the perpetual vigilance of >Etius. Af- 
 ter the death ofWallia, the Gothic sceptre devolved 
 to Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric ; * and his 
 prosperous reign, of more than thirty years, over a 
 turbulent people, may be allowed to prove, that his 
 prudence was supported by uncommon vigour, both 
 of mind and body. Impatient of his narrow limits. 
 Theodoric aspired to the possession of Aries, the 
 wealthy seat of government and commerce ; but the 
 city was saved by the timely approach of ^ tins ; and 
 the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some 
 loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate sub- 
 sidy, to divert the martial valour of his subjects in a 
 Spanish war. Yet Theodoric still watched, and 
 eagerly seized, the favourable moment of renewing 
 his hostile attempts. The Goths be- 
 sieged Narbonne, while the Belgic pro- A- O- "^^S— 439. 
 vinces were invaded by the Burgundians ; and the 
 public safety was threatened on every side by the 
 apparent union of the enemies of Rome. On every 
 side, the activity of ^tius, and his Scythian cavalry, 
 opposed a firm and successful resistance. Twenty 
 thousand Burgundians were slain in battle ; and the 
 remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent seat 
 in the mountains of Savoy.* The walls of Narbonne 
 had been shaken by the battering engines, and the in- 
 habitants had endured the last extremities of famine, 
 when count Litorius, approaching in silence, and di- 
 recting each horseman to carry behind him two sacks 
 of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the 
 besiegers. The siege was immediately raised ; and 
 the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the 
 personal conduct of ^tius himself, was marked with 
 the blood of eight thousand Goths. But in the ab- 
 sence of the patrician, who was hastily summoned to 
 Italy by some public or private interest, count Lito- 
 rius succeeded to the command ; and his presumption 
 soon discovered, that far different talents are required 
 to lead a wing of cavalry, or to direct the operations 
 of an important war. At the head of an army of Huns, 
 he rashly advanced to the gates of Thoulouse, full of 
 careless contrmpt for an enemy, whom his misfortunes 
 had rendered prudent, and his situation made des- 
 perate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired 
 Litorius with the profane confidence that ho should 
 enter the Gotliic capital in triumph ; and the trust 
 which he reposed in his pagan allies, encouraged him 
 to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were re- 
 peatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of The- 
 odoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his dis- 
 tress the edifying contrast of christian piety and mo- 
 deration ; nor did he lay aside his sackcloth and ashes 
 till he was prepared to arm for the combat. His 
 soldiers, animated with martial and religious enthusi- 
 asm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict 
 was obstinate ; the slaughter was mutual. The Ro- 
 man general, after a total defeat, which could be im- 
 puted only to his unskilful rashness, was actually led 
 through the streets of Thoulouse, not in his own, but 
 in a hostile, triumph ; and the misery which he ex- 
 perienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, ex- 
 cited the compassion of the barbarians themselves.'" 
 
 Dclebant ; pacis fallentes nomen inane. 
 Another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint : 
 Nam sociam vix ferre qucas, qui durior hoste, 
 
 See DuIk)s, torn. i. p. 330. 
 k Theodoric IT. the son of Theodoric I. declnres to Avitus his re- 
 solution of repairing, or expiating, the faults which his grandfather 
 had committed. 
 
 Qua* voster peccavit aims, quern fuscat id unum. 
 Quod te, Roma, capit — 
 
 Sidon. Panegyric. Avit. 505. 
 This character, applicable only to the great Alaric, est.Tblisbes the 
 genenology of the Gothic kings, which has hitherto been unnoticed. 
 1 1 he name of Sapaudia, the origin of Savoy, is first mentioned 
 by AmmJanus Marcellinus ; and two military posts are established, 
 by the Notitia, within the limits of that province : a cohort was sta- 
 tioned at Grenoble in Dauphin<^; and Ehreduiium, or Iverdun, shel- 
 tered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the lake of Neuf- 
 chatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D'Anville, Notice 
 de I' Ancienne Gaule, p. 284. 579. 
 
 m Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the 
 Deity ; a task which may be readily performed by supposing, that the 
 
 ',! 
 
470 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 471 
 
 Such a loss, in a country whose spirit and finances 
 were long since exhausted, could not easily be repair- 
 ed ; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the senti- 
 ments of ambition and revenge, would have planted 
 their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, 
 if the presence of ^Etius had not restored strength and 
 discipline to the Romans." The two armies expected 
 the signal of a decisive action ; but the generals, who 
 were conscious of each other's force, and doubtful of 
 their own superiority, prudently sheathed their swords 
 in the field of battle ; and their reconciliation was per- 
 manent and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, 
 appears to have deserved the love of his subjects, the 
 confidence of his allies, and the esteem of mankind. 
 His throne was surrounded by six valiant sons, who 
 were educated with equal care in the exercises of the 
 barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic schools : 
 from the study of the Roman jurisprudence, they ac- 
 quired the theory, at least, of law and justice ; and the 
 harmonious sense of Virgil contributed to soften the 
 asperity of their native manners.* The two daughters 
 of the Gothic king were given in marriage to the eldest 
 sons of the kings of the Suevi and of the Vandals, 
 who reigned in Spain and Africa ; but these illustri- 
 ous alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. 
 The queen of the Suevi bewailed the death of a hus- 
 band, inhumanly massacred by her brother. The 
 princess of the Vandals was the victim of a jealous 
 tyrant, whom she called her father. The cruel Gen- 
 seric suspected, that his son's wife had conspired to 
 poison him; the supposed crime was punished by the 
 amputation of her nose and ears : and the unhappy 
 daughter of Theodoric was ignominiously returned to 
 the court of Thoulouse in that deformed and mutilated 
 condition. This horrid act, which must seem incre- 
 dible to a civilized age, drew tears from every spec- 
 tator ; but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a 
 parent and a king, to revenge such irreparable in- 
 juries. The imperial ministers, who always cherish- 
 ed the discord of the barbarians, would have supplied 
 the Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the 
 African war ; and the cruelty of Genseric might have 
 been fatal to himself, if the artful Vandal had not 
 armed, in his cause, the formidable power of the Huns. 
 His rich gifts and pressing solicitations inflamed the 
 ambition of Attila; and the designs of ^Uius and 
 Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of Gaul.P 
 TK« p,n«i,» :„ '^h® Franks, whose monarchy was 
 
 1 hoi" ranks in ,.,| - i^.i 'ii ii n 
 
 Gaul, und<;r tho Still conhneu to the neighbourhood of 
 Merovingian the Lower Rhine, had wisely established 
 *''"°*' the right of hereditary succession in the 
 
 noble family of the Merovingians.*! These princes 
 
 cainmities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the riglttcous, 
 trials. 
 
 m Capto terrarum damna patebant 
 
 Litorio, in Rhodanum proprios producere fines, 
 Theiidoridie tixum ; nee erat piignare necesse, 
 Sed Migrare Getis ; rahidam irux asperat irani 
 Victor; quod sensit Scythicum sut» inceriiJius liostem 
 Imputat, ct nihil est gravius. si t'orsitan unquam 
 
 Vincere contingat, trepido. 
 
 Panegyr. Avit. 300, &c. 
 Sidonius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist, to 
 transfer the whole merit from iEiius to his minister Avitus. 
 
 o Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the character of 
 bis preceptor. 
 
 Mihi Romula dudum 
 
 Per te jura plarent ; parvumque ediscere jussit 
 Ad tua verha pater, docili quo prisca Maronia 
 Carmine molliret Scythicos mihi pagina mores. 
 
 Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 495, &c. 
 p Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are, Jornandes de 
 Rehus Geticis, c. 34. 36. and the Chronicles of Idalius, and the two 
 Prospers, inserted in the Historians of France, toin. i. p. 612—640. 
 To these we may add Salvian de Gdhernatiune Dei, I. vii. p. 243— 
 S45. and the panegyric of Avitus. by Sidohius. 
 
 q Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, ei ut ita dicam nohiliori 
 Buorum famiiia. (Greg. Turon. I. ii. c. 9. p. 166. of the second vol- 
 ume of the Historians of France.) Gregory himself does not men- 
 lion the Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the 
 beginning of the seventh century, as the distinctive appellation of 
 the royal family, and even of the French monarchy. An ingen- 
 ious critic has deduced the Merovingians from the great Maroboduus. 
 and he has clearly proved that the prince, who gave his name to 
 the first race, was more ancient than the father of Childeric. See 
 the Memoires de ('Academic des Inscriptions, torn. xx. p. 52—90. 
 torn. XXX. 557— 5c.. *^ 
 
 were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military 
 command ;' and the royal fashion of long hair was the 
 ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, 
 which they combed and dressed with singular care, 
 hung down in flowing ringlets on their back and 
 shoulders ; while the rest of their nation were obliged, 
 either by law or custom, to shave the hinder part of 
 their head ; to comb their hair over the forehead, and 
 to content themselves with the ornament of two small 
 whiskers.* The lofty stature of the Franks, and their 
 blue eyes, denoted a Germanic origin ; their close 
 apparel accurately expressed the figure of their limbs ; 
 a weighty sword was suspended from a broad belt; 
 their bodies were protected by a large shield : and 
 these warlike barbarians were trained from their earli- 
 est youth, to run, to leap, to swim ; to dart the jave- 
 lin, or battle-axe, with unerring aim ; to advance, 
 without hesitation, against a superior enemy ; and to 
 maintain, either in life or death, the invincible reputa- 
 tion of their ancestors.* Clodion, the first of their 
 long-haired kings, whose name and actions are men- 
 tioned in authentic history, held his residence at Dis- 
 par^um," a village, or fortress, whose place may be 
 assigned between Louvain and Brussels. From the 
 report of his spies, the king of the Franks was inform- 
 ed, that the defenceless state of the second Belgic 
 must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valour of 
 his subjects. He boldly penetrated through the 
 thickets and morasses of the Carbonarian forest ; * 
 occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only cities which 
 existed in the fifth century, and extended his conquests 
 as far as the river Somme, over a desolate country, 
 whose cultivation and populousness are the effects 
 of more recent industry .y While Clodion lay encamp- 
 ed in the plains of Artois,* and celebrated, with vain 
 and ostentatious security, the marriage, perhaps, of his 
 son, the nuptial feast was interrupted by the unexpect- 
 ed and unwelcome presence of ^lius, who had pass- 
 ed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The 
 tables, which had been spread under the shelter of a 
 hill, along the banks of a pleasant stream, were 
 rudely overturned ; the Franks were oppressed before 
 they could recover their arms, or their ranks ; and 
 their unavailing valour was fatal only to themselves. 
 The loaded waggons, which had followed their march, 
 afforded a rich booty ; and the virgin bride, with her 
 female attendants, submitted to the new lovers, who 
 were imposed on them by the chance of war. This 
 advantage, which had been obtained by the skill and 
 activity of ^tius, might reflect some disgrace on the 
 military prudence of Clodion ; but the king of the 
 Franks soon regained his strength and reputation, and 
 
 ' '"' ■ !■ ■ » ■ —II .» — , ■■■»■■■■ ■ ■■■» „ , ^ 
 
 r This German custom, which may be traced from Tacitus to Gre- 
 gory of Tours, was at length adopted by the emperors of Constantino- 
 ple. From a MS. of the tenth century, Montfaucon has delineated 
 the representation of a similar ceremony, which the ignorance of 
 the age has applied to king David. See Monumcns de la Monarchic 
 Francoise, tom. i. Discours Prcliminaire. 
 
 • Cwsarics prolixa . . . crinium flagellis per tcrga dimissis, &.c. 
 See the Preface to the third volume of the Historians of France, 
 and the Abbe Le Bo'uf, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 47—79.) This pecu- 
 liar fashion of the Merovingians has been remarked by natives and 
 strangers; by Priscus, (tom. i. p. 008.) by Agalhias. (tom. ii. p. 49.) 
 and by Gregory of Tours, 1. iii. 18. vi. 24. viii. 10. loin. ii. p. 196. 
 278. 316. 
 
 t See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms, and temper of 
 the ancient Franks, in Sidonius Apollinaris; (Panegyr. Majorian. 
 238—254.) and such pictures, though coarsely drawn, have a real 
 and intrinsic value. Father Daniel (Hist, de la Milice Francoise, 
 tom. i. p. 2 — 7.) has illustrated the description. 
 
 a Duhos, Hist. Critique, «tc. tom. i. p. 271, 272. Some geographers 
 have placed Dispargum on the German side of the Rhine. See a 
 note of the Benedictine Editors to the Historians of France, tom. ii. 
 p. 166. 
 
 X The Carbonarian wood, was that part of the great forest of the 
 Ardennes, which lay between the Escaut, or Scheldt, and the Meuse. 
 Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 126. 
 
 y Gregor. Turon. I. ii. c. 9. in tom. ii. p. 160. 167. Fredegar. 
 Epilom. c. 9. p. 395. Gesta Reg. Francor. c. 5. in tom. ii. p. 544. Vit. 
 St. Remig. ad Hincmar. in tom. iii. p. 373. 
 
 1 Francus qua Clojo patentes 
 
 Atrebatum terras pervaserat. 
 
 Panegyr. Majorian. 212. 
 The precise spot was a town, or village, called Vicus Helena ; and 
 both the name and the place are discovered by modern geographers 
 at Lens. See Vales. Notit. Gail. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de 
 la France, tom. ii. p. 88. 
 
 still maintained the possession of his Gallic kingdom 
 from the Rhine to the Somme.* Under his reign, and 
 most probably from the enterprising spirit of his sub- 
 jects, the three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, 
 experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice. 
 The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpe- 
 tual dominion of the same barbarians, who evacuated 
 the ruins of Treves ; and Treves, which, in the space 
 of forty years, had been four times besieged and pil- 
 laged, was disposed to lose the memory of her afflic- 
 tions in the vain amusements of the Circus.^ The 
 death of Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, ex- 
 posed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his 
 two sons. Meroveus, the younger,*^ was persuaded 
 to implore the protection of Rome : he was received 
 at the imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian, and 
 the adopted son of the patrician ^Etius; and dismiss- 
 ed, to his native country, with splendid gifts, and the 
 strouj^est assurances of friendship and suppqrt. Dur- 
 ing his absence, his elder brother had solicited, with 
 equal ardour, the formidable aid of Attila ; and the 
 king of the Huns embraced an alliance, which facili- 
 tated the passage of the Rhine, and justified, by a 
 specious and honourable pretence, the invasion of 
 Gaul.«» 
 
 The adventures When Attila declared his resolution 
 of the princess of supporting the cause of his allies, the 
 Honoria. Vandals and the Franks, at the same 
 
 time, and almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the 
 savage monarch professed himself the lover and the 
 champion of the princess Honoria. The sister of Val- 
 entinian was educated in the palace of Ravenna ; and 
 as her marriage might be productive of some danger to 
 the state, she was raised, by the title of Augusta,^ 
 above the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. 
 But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained the six- 
 teenth year of her age, than she detested the importu- 
 nate greatness which must for ever exclude her from 
 the comforts of honourable love : in the midst of vain 
 and unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to 
 the impulse of nature, and threw herself into the arms 
 of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and shame 
 (such is the absurd language of imperious man) were 
 8oon betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy ; but 
 the disgrace of the royal family was published to the 
 world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia, who 
 dismissed her daughter, after a strict and shaipeful 
 confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The 
 unhappy princess passed twelve or fourteen years in 
 the irksome society of the sisters of Theodosius, and 
 their chosen virgins ; to whose crown Honoria could 
 no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of 
 prayer, fasting, and vigils, she reluctantly imitated. 
 Her impatience of long and hopeless celibacy, urged 
 her to embrace a strange and desperate resolution. 
 The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at 
 Constantinople ; and his frequent embassies enter- 
 
 a See a vaeue account of the action in .Sidonius. Panegyr. Majo- 
 rian. 212— 23(). The French critics, impatient to establish their mon- 
 archy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument from the silence of Si- 
 donius, who dares not insinuate, that the vanquished Franks were 
 compeilfd to repass the Rhine. Dubos, tom. i. p. 322. 
 
 b Salvian (de Gubernal. Dei. 1. vi.) has expressed, in vague and 
 declamatory language, the misfortunes of these three cities, which 
 are distinctly ascertained by the learned Mascou, Hist, of the An- 
 cient Germans, ix. 21. 
 
 c Priscus, in relating the contest, dops not name the two brothers ; 
 the second of whom he had seen at Rome, a beardless youth, with 
 long flowing hair. (Historians of France, tom. i, p. 607, 608.) The 
 Benedictine Editors are inclined to beli(?ve, that they were the sons 
 of some unknown king of the Franks, who reigned on the banks of 
 the Necker; but the arguments of M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de 
 f'Academie, tom. viii. p. 461.) seem to prove, that the succession of 
 Clodion was disputed by his two sous, and that the younger was Me- 
 roveus, the father of Childeric. 
 
 d Under the Merovingian race, the throne was hereditary ; but all 
 the sons of the deceased monarch were equally entitled to their share 
 of his treasures and territories. See the Dissertations of M. de Fon- 
 cemagne, in the sixth and eighth volumes of the Memoires de I'Aca- 
 demie. 
 
 A medal is still extant, which exhibits the pleasing countenance 
 of Honoria, with the title of Augusta ; and on the reverse, the impro- 
 
 Eer legend of Sahts Reipuhlicct round tho monogram of Christ. See 
 ucange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 67. 73. 
 
 tained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and 
 the imperial palace. In the pursuit of love, or rather 
 of revenge, the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every 
 duty and every prejudice; and offered to deliver her 
 person into the arms of a barbarian, of whose language 
 she was ignorant, whose figure was scarcely human, 
 and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By 
 the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she transmitted to 
 Attila a ring, the pledge of her affection ; and earnestly 
 conjured him to claim her as a lawful spouse, to whom 
 he had been secretly betrothed. These indecent ad- 
 vances were received, however, with coldness and dis- 
 dain ; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply 
 the number of his wives, till his love was awakened 
 by the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. 
 The invasion of Gaul was preceded, and justified, by a 
 formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just 
 and equal share of the imperial patrimony. His pre- 
 decessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in 
 the same hostile and peremptory manner, the daugh- 
 ters of China ; and the pretensions of Attila were not 
 less oflfensive to the majesty of Rome. A firm but tem- 
 perate refusal was communicated to his ambassadors. 
 The right of fen^ale succession, though it might derive 
 a specious argument from the recent examples of Pla- 
 cidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously denied; and the 
 indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to 
 the claims of her Scythian lover.' On the discovery 
 of her connexion with the king of the Huns, the guilty 
 princess had been sent away, as an object of horror, 
 from Constantinople to Italy : her life was spared ; 
 but the ceremony of her marriage was performed with 
 some obscure and nominal husband, before she was 
 immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes 
 and misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, 
 had she not been born the daughter of an emperor.^ 
 
 A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, . 
 the learned and eloquent Sidonius, who caui.'^a'nd bo^' 
 was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had sieges Orleans, 
 made a promise to one of his friends, A. D. 451. 
 that he would compose a regular history of the war of 
 Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged 
 him from the prosecution of this interesting work,** 
 the historian would have related, with the simplicity 
 of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in 
 vague and doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded.' 
 The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from 
 the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike 
 summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the 
 plains of Hungary, his standard moved towards the 
 west; and, after a march of seven or eight hundred 
 miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Neck- 
 er; where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to 
 his ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of 
 light barbarians, who roamed in quest of plunder, 
 might choose the winter for the convenience of passing 
 the river on the ice : but the innumerable cavalry of 
 the Huns required such plenty of forage and provi- 
 sions, as could be procured only in a milder season ; 
 the Hercynean forest supplied materials for a bridge of 
 
 f See Priscus, p. 39, 40. It might be fairly alleged, that if females 
 could succeed to the throne, Valentinian himself who had married the 
 daughter and heiress of the younger Theodosius, would have asserted 
 her right to ihe eastern empire. 
 
 g The adventures of Honoria are imperfectly related by Jornandes, 
 de Successione Regn. c. 97. and de Reb. Get. c. 42. p. 674 ; and in 
 the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus ; but they cannot be made 
 consistent, or probable, unless we separate, by an interval of time 
 and place, her intrigue with Eugenius, and her invitation of Attila. 
 h Exegeras mihi, iit promitterem tibi, Attilae bellum stylo me pos- 
 
 teris intimatunim cceperam scribere, sed opcris arrepii fasce 
 
 perspecto, taeduit inchoasse. Sidou ApoU. viii. epist. 15. p. 246. 
 
 i Subito cum rupta tumultu 
 
 Barbaries totas in te transfuderat Arctos, 
 Gallia. PugnacemRegum comitante Gelono 
 Gepida trux sequitur; Scyrum Burgundio copit : 
 Chunus, Bellonotus, Neurus, Basterna, Toringus 
 Bruclerus, ulvosa vel quern Nicer abluit unda 
 Prorumpit Francus. (jecidit cito secta bipenni 
 Hercynia in lintres, et Rhenum texuit alno. 
 Et jam terrificis diffuderat Attila turmis 
 
 In campo6 ae Belga tuos. 
 
 Panegyr. Avil. 319, &c. 
 
472 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 473 
 
 boats ; and the hostile myriads were poured, with re- 
 sistless violence, into the Belgic provinces.^ The con- 
 sternation of Gaul was universal ; and the various for- 
 tunes of its cities have been adorned by tradition with 
 martyrdoms and miracles.^ Troyes was saved by the 
 merits of St. Lupus; St. Servatius was removed from 
 the world, that he might not behold the ruin of Ton- 
 gres ; and the prayers of St. Genevieve diverted the 
 march of Attila from the neiffhbourhood of Paris. But 
 as the greater part of the Gallic cities were alike des- 
 titute of saints and soldiers, they were besieged and 
 stormed by the Huns; who practised, in the example 
 of Metz," their customary maxims of war. They in- 
 volved, in a promiscuous massacre, the priests, who 
 served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour of 
 danger, had been providently baptized by the bishop; 
 the flourishing city was delivered to the flames, and a 
 solitary chapel of St. Stephen marked the place where 
 it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, 
 Attila marched into the heart of Gaul; crossed the 
 Seine at Auxerre ; and, after a long and laborious 
 march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. 
 He was desirous of securing his conquests by the pos- 
 session of an advantageous post, which commanded 
 the passajre of the Loire ; and he depended on the se- 
 cret invitation of Sangiban, king of the Alani, who 
 had promised to betray the city, and to revolt from 
 the service of the empire. But this treacherous con- 
 spiracy was detected and disappointed : Orleans had 
 been strengthened with recent fortifications ; and the 
 assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the 
 faithful valour of the soldiers, or citizens, who defend- 
 ed the place. The pastoral diligence of Anianus, a 
 bishop of primitive sanctity and consummate prudence, 
 exhausted every art of religious policy to support their 
 courage, till the arrival of the expected succours. 
 After an obstinate sieore, the walls were shaken by the 
 battering-rams ; the Huns had already occupied the 
 suburbs ; and the people, who were incapable of bearing 
 arms, lay prostrate in prayer. Anianus, who anxiously 
 counted the days and hours, despatched a trusty mes- 
 senger to observe, from the rampart, the face of the 
 distant country. He returned twice, without any in- 
 telliafence that could inspire hope or comfort; but, in 
 his third report, he mentioned a small cloud, which he 
 had faintly descried at the extremity of the horizon. 
 "It is the aid of God!" exclaimed the bishop, in 
 a tone of pious confidence ; and the whole multi- 
 titude repeated after him, " It is the aid of God." 
 The remote object, on which every eye was fixed, be- 
 came each moment larger and more distinct; the 
 Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived ; 
 and a favourable wind blowing aside the dust, discov- 
 ered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of ^Elius 
 and Theodoric, who pressed forwards to the relief of 
 Orleans. 
 
 k Thft most authentic and circumstantial account of this war, is 
 contained in Jorimtides, (dc Reb. Geticia, c. 36 — ^11. p. 662—672.) who 
 has sometimes abridged, and soinetimes transcribed, the larger his- 
 tory of Cassiodorius. '^Jornandes, a quoUition which it would be super- 
 fluous to repeat, may be corrected and illustrated by Gregory of 
 Tours, 1. 2. c. 5, 6, 7. and the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, and the 
 two Prospers. All the ancient testimonies are collected and inserted 
 in the Historians of France: but the reader should be cautioned 
 against a supnosr-d extract from the Chronicle of Idatius, (among the 
 fru^menis of Fredegarius, tom. ii. p. 462.) which often contradicts the 
 genuine text of the Gallician bishop. 
 
 1 The anvient legendaries deserve some regard, as they are obliged 
 to connect ihfir fables with the real history of their own times. See 
 the lives of St. Lupus, St. Anianus, the bishop of Metz, Sle. Gene- 
 vieve, &c. in the Historians of France, tom. i. p. 6-14, 6-15, 649. tom. 
 iii. p. 369. 
 
 m The scepticism of the count de BuatCHist. desPeuples, tom.vii. 
 p. 539, 540.) cannot be reconciled with any principles of reason or 
 criticism. Is not Gregory of Tours precise and positive in his ac- 
 count of the drsiructioh of Metz 1 At the distance of no more than a 
 hundred years, could he be ignorant, could the people be ignorant, of 
 the fate of a city, the actual residence of his sovereigns, the kings of 
 Austrasia 1 Tlie learned count, who seems to have undertaken the 
 apology of Attila, and the barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, 
 parcens civitatibus Germanise et Galliae, and forgets, that the true 
 Idatius had explicitly affirmed plurims civitates effracta, among 
 which he enumerates Men 
 
 The facility with which Attila had yviiiance of the 
 penetrated into the heart of Gaul, may be Romans and vi- 
 ascribed to his insidious policy, as well ^^s^^^^- 
 as to the terror of his arms. His public declarations 
 were skilfully mitigated by his private assurances; 
 he alternately soothed and threatened the Romans and 
 the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna and Thoulouse, 
 mutually suspicious of each other's intentions, beheld, 
 with supine indifference, the approach of their common 
 enemy. ^Etius was the sole guardian of the public 
 safety; but his wisest measures were embarrassed by 
 a faction, which, since the death of Placidia, infested 
 the imperial palace : the youth of Italy trembled at 
 the sound of the trumpet ; and the barbarians, who, 
 from fear or aflfection, were inclined to the cause of 
 Attila, awaited, with doubtful and venal faith, the 
 event of the war. The patrician passed the Alps at 
 the head of some troops, whose strength and numbers 
 scarcely deserved the name of an army." But on his 
 arrival at Aries, or Lyons, he was confounded by the 
 intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace 
 the defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within 
 their own territories, the formidable invader, whom 
 they professed to despise. The senator Avitus, who, 
 after the honourable exercise of the praetorian praefec- 
 ture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was per- 
 suaded to accept the important embassy, which he 
 executed with ability and success. He represented 
 to Theodoric, that an ambitious conqueror, who aspir- 
 ed to the dominion of the earth, could be resisted only 
 by the firm and unanimous alliance of the powers 
 whom he laboured to oppress. The lively eloquence 
 of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the descrip- 
 tion of the injuries which their ancestors had suffered 
 from the Huns; whose implacable fury still pursued 
 them from the Danube to the foot of the Pyrenees, 
 He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of every 
 christian to save, from sacrilegious violation, the 
 churches of God, and the relics of the saints : that it 
 was the interest of every barbarian who had acquired 
 a settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and vine- 
 yards, which were cultivated for his use, against the 
 desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric 
 yielded to the evidence of truth ; adopted the measure 
 at once the most prudent and the most honourable ; 
 and declared, that, as the faithful ally of ^tius and 
 the Romans, he was ready to expose his life and king- 
 dom for the common safety of Gaul.° The Visigoths, 
 who, at that time, were in the mature vigour of their 
 fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war ; 
 prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under 
 the standard 'of their aged king, who was resolved, with 
 his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric, to com- 
 mand in person his numerous and valiant people. The 
 example of the Goths determined several tribes or 
 nations, that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns 
 and the Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the 
 patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul and 
 Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves 
 the subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who now 
 claimed the rewards of voluntary service, and the rank 
 of independent allies ; the Laeti, the Armoricans, the 
 Breones, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Sarma- 
 tians, or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks who 
 followed Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was 
 the various army, which, under the conduct of iEtius 
 and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches, to relieve 
 
 Vix liquerat Alpes 
 
 ^tius, tenue, et ranun sine milite ducens 
 Kobur, in auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen 
 Incassum propriis praesumens adfore castris. 
 
 Panegyr. Avit. 328, Sec. 
 o The policy of Attila, of Otitis, and of the Visigoths, is imperfectly 
 described in the Panegyric of Avitus, and the thirty-sixth chapter of 
 Jornundes. Thp poet and the historian were both biassed by personal 
 or national prejudices. The former exalts the merit and importance 
 of Avitus ; orbis, Avite, salus, &c ! The latter is anxious to show the 
 Goths in the most favourable li^ht. Yet their agreement, when they 
 are fairly interpreted, is a prooiTof their veracity. 
 
 Orleans, and to give battle to the innumerable host of 
 Aitila.P 
 
 Attila retires to ^^ t^^ir approach, the king of the 
 the plains of Huns immediately raised the ssege, and 
 Champagne. sounded a retreat to recall the foremost 
 of his troops from the pillage of a city which they 
 had already entered.** The valour of Attila was al- 
 ways guided by his prudence : and as he foresaw the 
 fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he 
 repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the 
 plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface 
 was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. 
 But in this tumultuary retreat, the vanguard of the 
 Romans and their allies continually pressed, and 
 sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had 
 posted in the rear; the hostile columns, in the dark- 
 ness of the night, and the perplexity of the roads, 
 might encounter each other without design; and the 
 bloody conflict of the Franks and Gepidae, in which 
 fifteen thousand' barbarians were slain, was a pre- 
 lude to a more general and decisive action. The Cata- 
 launian fields* spread themselves round Chalons, and 
 extend, according to the vague meas_urement of Jor- 
 nandes, to the length of one hundred and fifty, and the 
 breadth of one hundred, miles, over the whole pro- 
 vince, which is entitled to the appellation of acAam- 
 pais^n country.' Tliis spacious plain was distin- 
 guished, however, by some inequalities of g^round ; 
 and the importance of a height, which commanded 
 the camp of Attila, was understood, and disputed, by 
 the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond 
 first occupied the summit ; the Goths rushed with 
 irresistible weight on the Huns, who laboured to as- 
 cend from the opposite side ; and the possession of 
 this advantageous post inspired both the troops and 
 their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The 
 anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests 
 and haruspices. It was reported, that, after scruti- 
 nizing the entrails of victims, and scraping their 
 bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own 
 defeat, with the death of his principal adversary; and 
 that the barbarian, by accepting the equivalent, ex- 
 pressed his involuntary esteem for the superior merit 
 of iEtius. But the unusual despondency, which 
 seemed to prevail among the Huns, engaged Attila to 
 use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of anti- 
 quity, of animating his troops by a military oration ; 
 and hislanjTuage was that of a king, who had often 
 fought and conquered at their head." He pressed 
 them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, 
 and their future hopes. The same fortune, which 
 opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their 
 unarmed valour, which had laid so many warlike na- 
 tions prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of 
 this memorable field for the consummation of their 
 
 p The review of the army of ^tf us is made by Jornandes, c. 3G. p. 
 664. edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23. of the Historians of France, with the 
 notes of the Benedictine editor. The L(rti were a promiscuous race 
 of barbarians, born or naturalized in Gaul ; and theRiparii, or Ripu- 
 arii, derived their name from their posts on the three rivers, the 
 Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle ; the Armoricans possessed the 
 independent cities between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of 
 Saxons had been planted in the diocese of Bayeux ; the Burgun- 
 dians were settled in Savoy ; and the Breones were a warlike tribe 
 of Rhaeiians, to the east of the lake of Constance. 
 
 q Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnaiio, irruptio, nee direptio, 
 I. V. Sidon. Apollin. 1. viii. Epist. 15. p. 246. The preservation of 
 Orleans might oe easily turned into a miracle, obtained, and foretold, 
 by the holy bishop. 
 
 r The common editions read xcm; but there is some authority of 
 manuscripts (and almost any authority is sufficient) for the more rea- 
 sonable number of xvm. 
 
 t Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Ca/a/a«wi, had former- 
 ly made a part of the territory of Kheims, from whence it is distant 
 only twenty-seven miles. See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 136. D'Anville, 
 Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 212. 279. 
 
 t The name of Campania, or Champ.igne, is frequently mentioned 
 by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which Rheims was 
 the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales. Notit. p. 120— 123. 
 
 u I am sensible that these military orations are usually composed 
 by the historian ; yet the old Ostrogoths, who had served under At- 
 tila, might repeat his discourse to Cassiodorius : the ideas, and even 
 liie expressions, have an original Scythian cast ; and I doubt, whether 
 an Italian of the sixth century would have thought of the hujus ceria- 
 minia gaudia. 
 
 Vol. I 3 K 
 
 victories. The cautious steps of their enemies, their 
 strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he art- 
 fully represented as the eflft cts, not of prudence, but 
 of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and 
 nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns might 
 securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose 
 close and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, 
 and who were equally incapable of supporting the 
 dangers, or the fatigues, of a day of battle. The doc- 
 trine of predestination, so favourable to martial virtue, 
 was carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns; 
 who assured his subjects, that the warriors, protected 
 by heaven, were safe and invulnerable amidst the 
 darts of the enemy ; but that the unerring Fates would 
 strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. 
 " I myself," continued Attila, " will throw tlie first 
 javelin, and the wretch who refuses to in»itate the 
 example of his sovereign, is devoted to inevitable 
 death." The spirit of the barbarians was rekindled 
 by the presence, the voice, and the example, of their 
 intrepid leader ; and Attila, yielding to their impa- 
 tience, immediately formed his order of battle. At 
 the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied 
 in person the centre of the line. The nations subject 
 to his empire, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thurin- 
 gians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were extended, 
 on either hand, over the ample space of the Cata- 
 launian fields; the right wing was commanded by 
 Ardaric, king of the Gepidae ; and the three valiant 
 brothers, who reigned over the Ostrogoths, were post- 
 ed on the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visi- 
 goths. The disposition of the allies was regulated 
 by a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king 
 of the Alani, was placed in the centre : where his mo- 
 tions might be strictly watched, and his treachery 
 might be instantly punished, ^tius assumed the 
 command of the left, and Theodoric of the right, 
 wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the 
 heights which appear to have stretched on the flank, 
 and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army. The na- 
 tions from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled 
 on the plain of Chalons; but many of these nations 
 had been divided by faction, or conquest, or emigra- 
 tion ; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns, 
 which threatened each other, presented the image of 
 a civil war. 
 
 The discipline and tactics of the 3^^^,^^^^,^^,^^^ 
 Greeks and Romans lorm an mteresting 
 part of their national manners. The attentive study 
 of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caisar, or 
 Frederic, when they are described by the same genius 
 which conceived and executed them, may tend to im- 
 prove (if such improvement can be wished) the art of 
 destroying the human species. But the battle of 
 Chalons can only excite our curiosity by the magni- 
 tude of the object ; since it was decided by the blind 
 impetuosity of barbarians, and has been related by 
 partial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession 
 secluded them from the knowledge of military affairs. 
 Cassiodorius, however, had familiarly conversed with 
 many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable 
 engagement ; " a conflict," as they informed him, 
 " fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody ; such as could 
 not be paralleled, either in the present, or in past 
 ages." The number of the slain amounted to one 
 hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to 
 another account, three hundred thousand persons;* 
 and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real and 
 effective loss, suflicient to justify the historian's re- 
 mark, that whole generations may be swept away, by 
 
 X The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of Cassiodorius, are ex- 
 tremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, perlinax, cui 
 simili nulla usquam narrat antiquitas: ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut 
 nihil esset quod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus 
 miraculi privaretur aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392, 
 393.) attempts to reconcile the 162,000 of Jornandes with the 300,(100 
 of Idatius and Isidore ; by supposing, that the larger number included 
 the total destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the slaughter 
 of the unarmed people, &c. 
 
474 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 the madness of kings, in the space of a sinjrle hour. 
 After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile 
 weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might sig- 
 nalize their superior dexterity, the cavalry and infan- 
 try of the two armies were furiously mingled in closer 
 comhat. The Huns, w ho fought under the eyes of 
 their king, pierced through the feeble and doubtful 
 centre of The allies, separated their wings from each 
 other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, 
 directed their whole force against the Visigoths. As 
 Theodoric rode along the ranks to animate his troops, 
 he received a mortal stroke from the javelin of Anda- 
 ges, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his 
 horse. The wounded king was oppressed in the gen- 
 eral disorder, and trampled underihe feet of his own 
 cavalry ; and this important death served to explain 
 the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila 
 already exulted in tiie confidence of victory, when the 
 valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and veri- 
 fied the remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, 
 who had been thrown into confusion by the flight, or 
 defection, of the Alani, gradually restored their order 
 of battle; and the Huns were undoubtedly vanquish- 
 ed, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He had ex- 
 posed his person with the rashness of a private soldier ; 
 but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed for- 
 wards beyond the rest of the line ; their attack was 
 faintly supported ; their flanks were unguarded; and 
 the conquerors of Seythia and Germany were saved 
 by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They 
 retired within the circle of waggons that fortified their 
 camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared them- 
 selves for a defence, to which neither their arms, nor 
 their temper, were adapted. The event was doubtful : 
 but Attila had secured a last and honourable resource. 
 The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were 
 collected, by his order, into a funeral pile ; and the 
 magnanimous barbarian had resolved, if his intrench- 
 ments should be forced, to rush headlong into the 
 flames, and to deprive his enemies of the glory which 
 they might have acquired, by the death or captivity 
 of Attila.y 
 
 But his enemies had passed the nigtit 
 Retreat of Attila. j^ ^^^j^| jj^yrder and anxiety The in- 
 considerate courage of Torismond was tempted to urge 
 the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a 
 few followers, in the midst of the Scythian waggons. 
 In the confusion of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown 
 from his horse; and the Gothic prince must have per- 
 ished like his father, if his youthful strength, and the 
 intrepid zeal of his companions, had not rescued him 
 from this dangerous situation. In the same manner, 
 but on the left of the line, ^tius himself, separated 
 from his allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious 
 for their fate, encountered and escaped the hostile 
 troops, that were scattered over the plains of Chalons ; 
 and at length reached the camp of the Goths, which 
 he could only fortify with a slight rampart of shields, 
 till the dawn of day. The imperial general was soon 
 satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained in- 
 active within his intrenchments : and when he contem- 
 plated the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satis- 
 faction, that the loss had principally fallen on the 
 barbarians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with 
 honourable wounds, was discovered under a heap of 
 the slain : his subjects bewailed the death of their 
 king and father; but their tears were mingled with 
 songs and acclamations, and his funeral rites were 
 performed in the face of a vanquished enemy. The 
 Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his 
 eldest son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed 
 the glory of their success; and the new king accepted 
 the obligation of revenge, as a sacred portion of his 
 
 J The count de Buat, (Hist, dos Penples, &;c. torn. vii. p. 554—573.) 
 still depending on the false, and again rejeciing the true, Idatius, 
 has divided the defeat of Attila into two great battles; the former 
 near Orleans, the latter in Champagne: in the ono Theodoric was 
 •lain } in the otlier he was revenged. 
 
 paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths themselves were 
 astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of their 
 formidable antagonist ; and their historian has com- 
 pared Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and 
 threatening; his hunters with redoubled fury. The 
 kings and nations, who might have deserted his stan- 
 dard in the hour of distress, were made sensible, that 
 the displeasure of their monarch was the most immi- 
 nent and inevitable danger. All his instruments of 
 martial music incessantly sounded a loud and animat- 
 ing strain of defiance; and the foremost troops who 
 advanced to the assault, were checked, or destroyed, 
 by showers of arrows from every side of the intrench- 
 ments. It was determined, in a general council of 
 war, to besiege the king of the Huiis in his camp, to 
 intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alter- 
 native of a disgraceful treaty, or an unequal combat. 
 But the impatience of the barbarians soon disdained 
 these cautious and dilatory measures : and the mature 
 policy of ^^lius was apprehensive, that, after the ex- 
 tirpation of the Huns, the republic would be oppressed 
 by the pride and power of the Gothic nation. The 
 patrician exerted the superior ascendant of authority 
 and reason, to calm tlie passions, which the son of 
 Theodoric considered as a duty; represented, with 
 seeming affection and real truth, the dangers of ab- 
 sence and delay ; and persuaded Torismond to disap- 
 point, by his speedy return, the ambitious designs of 
 ins brothers, who might occupy the throne and treas- 
 ures of Thoulouse.' After the departure of the Goths, 
 and the separation of the allied army, Attila was sur- 
 prised at the vast silence that reigned over the plains 
 of Chalons : the suspicion of some hostile stratagem 
 detained him several days within the circle of his 
 waggons; and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed 
 the last victory which was achieved in the name of the 
 western empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing 
 a prudent distance, and magnifying the opinion of their 
 strength, by the numerous fires which they kindled 
 every night, continued to follow the rear of the Huns, 
 till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The Thu- 
 ringians served in the army of Attila: they traversed, 
 both in their march and in their return, the territories 
 of the Franks; and it was perhaps in this war that they 
 exercised the cruelties, which, about fourscore years 
 afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis. They 
 massacred their hostages, as well as their captives : 
 two hundred young maidens were tortured with exqui- 
 site and unrelenting rage ; their bodies were torn asun- 
 der by wild horses, or their bones were crushed under 
 the weight of rolling waggons ; and their unburied 
 limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey 
 to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage ances- 
 tors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited 
 the praise and envy of civilized ages !* 
 
 Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor invasion of Italy 
 the reputation, of Attila, were impaired by Attila, 
 by the failure of the Gallic expedition. ^- ^ '*^-- 
 In the ensuing spring, he repeated his demand of the 
 princess Hcnoria, and her patrimonial treasures. The 
 demand was again rejected, or eluded ; and the indig- 
 nant lover immediately took the field, passed the Alps, 
 invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumer- 
 able host of barbarians. Those barbarians were un- 
 skilled ill the methods of conducting a regular siege, 
 
 z Jornandps de Rebus Geticis, c. 41. p. 671. The policy of ^lius, 
 and the bohaviour of Torismond, are extremrly natural ; and the pa- 
 trician, according to Grfgory of Tours, (1. ii. c. 7. p. 163.) dismiss* d 
 the prince of the Franks, by sug-resling to him a similar apprehen- 
 sion. The false Idatius ridiculously pretends, that ^lius paid a clan- 
 destine nocturnal visit to the kings of the Huns and of the Visigoths; 
 from each of whom he obtained a bribe of ten thousand pieces of 
 gold, as the price of an undisturbed retreat. 
 
 a These cruellies, which are passionately deplored by Theodoric, 
 the son of Clovis, (Gregory of Tours, l.iii. c. 10. p. 190.) suit the time 
 and circumstances of the invasion of Attila. His residence in Thu- 
 ringia was long attested by piopular tradition: and he is supposed to 
 have assembled a f ouroi///ai, or diet, in the territory of Eisenach 
 See Mascou, ix. .10. who settles, with nice accuracy, the extent of 
 ancient Thuringia, and derives its name Irom the Gothic tribe of the 
 Thervingi. 
 
 475 
 
 which, even among the ancients, required some know- 
 ledge, or at least some practice, of the mechanic arts. 
 But the labour of many thousand provincials and cap- 
 tives, whose lives were sacrificed without pity, might 
 execute the most painful and dangerous work. The 
 skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the 
 destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia 
 were assaulted by a formidable train of battering-rams, 
 movable turrets, and engines that threw stones, darts, 
 and fire;*" and the monarch of the Huns employed the 
 forcible impulse of hope, fear, emulation, and interest, 
 to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest 
 of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of the rich- 
 est, the most populous, and the strongest of the mari- 
 time cities of the Hadriatic coast. The Gothic auxilia- 
 ries, who appear to have served under their native 
 princes Alaric and Antala, communicated their intre- 
 pid spirit ; and the citizens still remembered the glo- 
 rious and successful resistance, which their ancestors 
 had opposed to a fierce, inexorable barbarian, who dis- 
 graced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three 
 months were consumed without effect in the siege of 
 Aquileia; till the want of provisions, and the clamours 
 of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish the enter- 
 prise; and reluctantly to issue his orders, that the 
 troops should strike their tents the next morning, and 
 begin their retreat. But as he rode round the walls, 
 pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork, 
 preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and 
 to fly with her infant family towards the country. He 
 seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman, this 
 trifling incident, which chance had offered to supersti- 
 tion ; and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone, that 
 such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human 
 society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats, 
 unless those towers had been devoted to impending 
 ruin and solitude.*^ The favourable omen inspired an 
 assurance of victory; the siege was renewed, and pro- 
 secuted with fresh vigour ; a large breach was made 
 in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken 
 her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irre- 
 sistible fury, and the succeeding generation could 
 scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia."* After this 
 dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march ; and as 
 he passed, the cities of Altinum, Corcordia, and Padua, 
 were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The in- 
 land towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were ex- 
 posed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan 
 and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of 
 their wealth ; and applauded the unusual clemency, 
 which preserved from the flames the public, as well as 
 private, buildings; and spared the lives of the captive 
 multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin, 
 or Modena, may justly be suspected ; yet they concur 
 with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila 
 spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern 
 Lombardy ; which are divided by the Po, and bounded 
 by the Alps and Apennine.* When he took possession 
 of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised, and 
 
 b Machinls constnictis, omnibusque tormentorum generibus adhi- 
 bilis. Jornandes, c. A'l. p. 6;3. In the thirteenth century, the Mo- 
 guls battered the cities of China with large engines, constructed by 
 the Mahometans or christians in their service, which tiirew stones 
 from 150 to 300 pounds' weight. In the defence of their country, the 
 Chinese used gunpowder, and even bombs, above a hundred years 
 before ihey were known in Europe ; yet even those celestial, or infer- 
 nal, arms were insutficiont to protect a ptisillanimous nation. See 
 Gaubil. Hist, des Mongous, p. 70, 71. 155. 157, &;c. 
 
 c The same story is toM by Jornandes, and by Procopius, (de Bell. 
 Vandal. I. i. c. 4. p. 187, 188.) nor is it easy to decide which is the 
 original. But the Gre»'k historian is guilty of an inexcusable mis- 
 take, in placing the siege of Aciuileia after the deatnof JElius. 
 
 d Jornandes, about a hundred yeare afterwards, affirms, that Aqui- 
 leia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus vestigia, ut appareant, 
 reliquerint. See Jornandes de Keb. Geticis, c. 42. p. 673. Paul. Dia- 
 con. I. ii. c. 14. p. 785. Liutpnind. Hist. 1. iii. c. 2. The name of 
 Aquileia was Stuuetimes aoulied to Forum Julii, (Cividad del Friuli,) 
 the more recent capital of the Venetian province. 
 
 e In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous, but so imper- 
 fectly known, I have taken for my guides, two learned Italians, who 
 considered the subject with some peculiar advantages; Sigoniiis, de 
 Imperio Occidentali, 1. xiii. in his works, tom. i. p. 495 -502. and 
 Muratori, Annali d'lialia, tom. iv. p. 229—236. Svo edition. 
 
 offended, at the sight of a picture, which represented 
 the Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of 
 Scythia prostrate at their feet. The revenge which 
 Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman vanity, 
 was harmless and ingenious. He commanded a pain- 
 ter to reverse the figures, and the attitudes ; and the 
 emperors were delineated on the same canvass, ap- 
 proaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags 
 of tributary gold before the throne of the Scythian 
 monarch.' The spectators must have confessed the 
 truth and propriety of the alteration : and were per- 
 haps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the 
 well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and 
 the man.s 
 
 It is a saying worthy of the ferocious Foundation of 
 pride of Attila that the grass never grew t'^e republic of 
 on the spot where his ^horse had trod. ^'<^"""«- 
 Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foun- 
 dations of a republic, which revived, in the feudal state 
 of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. 
 The celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia,** was for- 
 merly diffused over a large and fertile province of 
 Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the river Ad- 
 dua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps; 
 Before the irruption of the barbarians, fifty Venetian 
 cities flourished in peace and prosperity : Aquileia was 
 placed in the most conspicuous station : but the an- 
 cient dignity of Padua was supported by agriculture 
 and manufactures; and the property of five hundred 
 citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank, 
 must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to 
 one million seven hundred thousand pounds. Many 
 families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, 
 who fled from the sword of the Huns, found a safe, 
 though obscure, refuge in the neighbouring islands.' At 
 the extremity of the gulf, where the Hadriatic feebly 
 imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small 
 islands are separated by shallow water from the conti- 
 nent, and protected from the waves by several long 
 slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels 
 through some secret and narrow channels.'^ Till the 
 middle of the fifth century, these remote and seques- 
 tered spots remained without cultivation, with few in- 
 habitants, and almost without a name.' But the man- 
 
 f This anecdote maybe found under two different articles («5J*5^«- 
 vov and K^pux';^) of the miscellaneous compilation of Suidas. 
 g Leo respondit, humana hoc pictutn nianu ; 
 Videres hominem dejectum,si pingere 
 Leones scirent. 
 
 Appendix ad Phaedrum, Fab. xxv. 
 The lion in Phaedrus very fodlishly appeals from pictures to the am- 
 phitheatre : and I am glad to observe, that the native taste of La 
 Fontaine (1. iii. fable x.) has omitted this most lame and impotent 
 conclusion. 
 
 h Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Lanaubard. 1. ii. c. 14. p. 7&4.) de- 
 scribes the provinces of Italy about tiie end of the eighth century. 
 Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc Venetias dicimus, 
 constat; sod ejus terminus a Pannoni-de finibus usque Adduam flu- 
 vium prottlatur. The history of that province tdl the ace of Charle- 
 magne forms the first and most interesting part of the Verona Illus- 
 trata, (p. 1—388.) in which the marquis Scipio Maffei has shown 
 himself equally caj)able of enlarged views and minute disquisitions. 
 
 i This emigration is not attested by any conten)porary evidence; 
 but the fact is proved by the event, and the circumstances might be 
 preserved by tradition. The citizens of Aquileia retired to the Isle 
 of Gradus, those of Padua to Kivus Altus, or Rialto, where the city of 
 Venice was afterwards built, itc. 
 
 k The topography and antiquities of the Venetian islands, from 
 Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately stated in the Dissertaiio 
 Chorographica de Italia IVfcdii jEvi, p. l."»l— lo.5. 
 
 1 [The learned Count Figliari in his Memoirs of the Venetians, 
 (Memorie de Veneti primi e secondi del Conte Figliari, vol. vi. Vene- 
 zia, 1796,) has proved that from ihe earliest times the nation which 
 occupied the country which has since b^en named the Continental 
 Venetian States, also inhabited the islands upon its coast, and hence 
 arose the names of Venetia Prima and Secunda, the first of which 
 was given to the territory upon the continent, the second to the 
 islands and lagunes. In the time of the Pelasgi and Etrusci, thejfrsi 
 Venetians inhabited a fertile and delightful country, and were devo- 
 ted to agriculture; the second being situated in the midst of canals, 
 at the entrance of several rivers, and within reach of the islands of 
 Greece as well as of the fruitful lands of Italy, applied themselves to 
 navigatiitn and connnerce. Both were subdued l)y ilie Komans a 
 little before the second Punic war. It was not, however, until after 
 the victory gained by Marius over the Cimbri, that their country be- 
 came a Roman province. Under the reign of the emperors the first 
 Venetia more than once merited, on account of its misfortunes, a 
 place in history. But the maritime province was engaged in fisher- 
 ies, in the manufacture of salt, and in commerce. The Romans re- 
 garded the people who inhabited it as beneath the dignity of historj, 
 
476 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 477 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 i 
 
 ners of the Venetian fuoritives, their arts and their 
 government, were gradually formed by their new situ- 
 ation ; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorius," which 
 describes their condition about seventy years after- 
 wards, may be considered as the primitive monument 
 of the republic. The minister of Theodoric compares 
 them, in his quaint declamatory style, to water-fowl, 
 who had fixed their nests on the bosom of the waves ; 
 and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had 
 formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, 
 that they were now reduced by misfortune to the same 
 level of humble poverty. Fish was the common, and 
 almost the universal, food of every rank : their only 
 treasure consisted in the plenty of salt, which they ex- 
 tracted from the sea : and the exchange of that com- 
 modity, so essential to human life, was substituted in 
 the neicrhbouring markets to the currency of gold and 
 silver. A people, whose habitations might be doubt- 
 fully assigned to the earth or water, soon became alike 
 familiar with the two elements; and the demands of 
 avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The island- 
 ers, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately con- 
 nected with each other, penetrated into the heart of 
 Italy, by the secure, though laborious, navijration of 
 the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels, which 
 were continually increasing in size and number, visit- 
 ed all the harbours of the gulf; and the marriage, 
 which Venice annually celebrates with the Iladriatic, 
 was contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of 
 Casslodorius, the prcetorian prefect, is addressed to the 
 maritime tribunes r and he exhorts them, in a mild tone 
 of authority, to animate the zeal of their countrymen 
 for the public service, which required their assistance 
 to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the 
 province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The 
 ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by 
 the tradition, that, in the twelve principal islands, 
 twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual 
 and popular election. The existence of the Venetian 
 republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attest- 
 ed by the same authentic record, which annihilates 
 their lofty claim of original and perpetual indepen- 
 dence." 
 
 Attila givos peace The Italians, who had long since re- 
 lo the Homaiia. pounccd the cxercise of arms, were sur- 
 prised, after forty years* peace, by the approach of a 
 formidable barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the ene- 
 my of their religion, as well as of their republic. 
 Amidst the general consternation, JEtius alone was in- 
 capable of fear; but it was impossible that he should 
 achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits 
 worthy of his former renown. Tlie barbarians, who 
 had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of 
 Italy ; and the succours promised by the eastern em- 
 peror were distant and doubtful. Since ^TJtius, at the 
 head of his domestic troops, still maintained the field, 
 and harassed or retarded the march of Attila, he never 
 showed himself more truly great, than at the time 
 when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and un- 
 grateful people." If the mind of V^alcntinian had been 
 
 and have left them in obscurity." They remained there imtil the 
 lime when their islands afforded a refime to their mined and flyini» 
 countrymen. (Hist, dr-s Republiqups ital. du Moyen age, by Simonde- 
 Sismondi, vol, i. p. 313.' — G.'] 
 m Cassiodor. Variar. I. xii. epist. 24. Mafft'i (Verona TUiistrata, 
 
 f»art i. p. 210— 2.'>1.) has translated and explained this curious letter, 
 n the spirit of a learned anii()iiarian and a faithful subject, who con- 
 sidered Venice as the only legitimate offsprinc; of the Roman republic. 
 He fixes the date of the epistle, and cons«"q\ient1y ihe prseferture, of 
 Cassiodorius, A, P. 523. ; and the marquis's a\ithoriiy has the more 
 weight, as he had prepared an edition of his works, and actually pub- 
 lished a dissertation on the true orlhosraphy of his name. See Os- 
 •ervazioni Letierarie, tom, ii, p. 290— {}39. 
 
 n See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie Histoire du 
 Gouvernement de Veniae, a translation of the famous S(juiltinio. 
 This book, which has been exalted far above its merits, is stained, in 
 every line, with the disingenuous malevolence of parly: but the 
 principal evidence, genuine and apocryphal, is brought together, and 
 the reader will easily choose the fair medium. 
 
 o Sinnond (Not. ad Sidon. ApoUin. p. 19.) has published a curious 
 passage from the Chronicle of Prosper. Altila redinlegralis viribus, 
 quaa in Gallia amiserai, Iialiam ingredi per Pannonias intendit ; ni- 
 oil duce nostro i£iiu socuadum prioria belli opera prospicieaie, &c. 
 
 susceptible of any generous sentiments, he would have 
 chosen such a general for his example and his guide. 
 But the timid grandson of Theodosius, instead of 
 sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound, of war; 
 and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an 
 impregnable fortress to an open capital, betrayed his 
 secret intention of abandoning Italy, as soon as the 
 danger should approach his imperial person. This 
 shameful abdication was suspended, however, by the 
 spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to 
 pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their 
 pernicious tendency. The western emperor, with the 
 senate and people of Rome, embraced the more salu- 
 tary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and sup- 
 pliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important 
 commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his 
 birth and riches, his consular dignity, the numerous 
 train of his clients, and his personal abilities, held the 
 first rank in the Ro.man senate. The specious and 
 artful character of Avienus,? was admirably qualified 
 to conduct a negociation either of public or private in- 
 terest : his colleague Trigetius had exercised the prae- 
 torian praefecture of Italy ; and Leo, bishop of Rome, 
 consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. 
 The genius of Leo*> was exercised and displayed in 
 the public misfortunes ; and he has deserved the ap- 
 pellation of Great, by the successful zeal with which 
 he laboured to establish his opinions and his authority, 
 under the venerable names of orthodox faith and eccle- 
 siastical'discipline. The Roman ambassadors were 
 introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped 
 at the place where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in 
 the foaming waves of the lake Benacus,' and trampled, 
 with his Scythian cavalry, the farms of Catullus and 
 Virgil.* The barbarian monarch listened with favour- 
 able, and even respectful attention; and the deliver- 
 ance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, 
 or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his 
 army might facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. 
 Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth and in- 
 dolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the north, 
 whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, in- 
 dulged themselvestoofreely intheuseof bread,of wine, 
 win'e, and of meat, prepared and seasoned by the arts of 
 cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some 
 measure the injuries of the Italians.* When Attila de- 
 clared his resolution of carrying his victorious arms to 
 the sates of Rome, he was admonished by his friends, 
 as nell as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long 
 survived the conquest of the eternal city. His mind, 
 superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary 
 terrors ; nor could he escape the influence of supersti- 
 tion, which had so often been subservient to his de- 
 
 He reproaches .T.lius with neglecting to guard the Alps, and with a 
 desisn to abandon Italy : but this rash censure may at least be coun- 
 terbalanced by the favourable testimonies of Idalius and Isidore. 
 
 p See the original portraits of Avienus, and his rival Basilius, de- 
 lineated and contrasted in the epistles (i. 9. p. 22 ) of Sidonius. He 
 iiad studied the characters of the two chiefs of the senate; but he 
 attached himself to Basilius, aa the more solid and disinterested 
 
 friend. 
 
 q The character and principles of Leo may be traced In one hund- 
 red and forty-one original epistles, which illustrate the ecclesiastical 
 liistory of his long and busy pontificate, from A. D. 440—461. See 
 Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastitpie, tom. iii. part ii. p. 120—165. 
 
 r lard is ingens ubi flexibus errat 
 
 Mincius, el lenera proDtexil arundine ripas 
 
 Anne lacus lantos, te Larl maxime, teque 
 Fluclibus, et t^remitu assurgens Benace marine. 
 
 ■ The Marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. 95. 129. 221. part 
 ii. p. 2. 6.) has illustrated with taste and learning this interesting topo- 
 graphy. He places the interview of Attila and St. Leo near Ariolica, 
 or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at the conflux of the lake and river; as- 
 certains the villa of Catullus, In the delightful peninsula of Sarmlo, 
 and discovers the Andes of Virgil, in the village of Bandes, precisely 
 situate qua Be subducere colles incipiunt, where the Veronese hills 
 imperceptibly slope down into the plain of Mantua. 
 
 t Si statlm infestoagmine urbem petiissenl. grandediscrimen esset: 
 sed in Venetiaquo fere traclu Italia molliseima est, ipsa soli calique 
 dementia robur elangiiit. Ad hoc panis usu carnisque coctae, et dul- 
 cedine vini mitigatos, k,c. This passage of Florus (iii. 3.) is still 
 more applicable to the Huns than to the Cimbri, and it may serve as 
 a commentary on the celestial plague, with which Idaliua and Isi- 
 dore have amicied the troops of Attila, 
 
 signs.^ The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic 
 aspect, and sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of 
 Attila for the spiritual father of the christians. The 
 apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 who menaced the barbarian with instant death, if he 
 rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the 
 noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety 
 of Rome might deserve the interposition of celestial 
 beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable, which 
 has been represented by the pencil of Raphael, and the 
 chisel of Algardi.^ 
 The death of Before the king of the Huns evacuated 
 Attila, Italy, he threatened to return more dread- 
 A. D. 453. fy)^ j^j^jj more implacable, if his bride, the 
 princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassa- 
 dors within the time stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in 
 the meanwhile, Attila relieved his tender anxiety, by 
 adding a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico, to 
 the list of his innumerable wives.* Their marriage 
 was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at 
 his wooden palace beyond the Danube ; and the mon- 
 arch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired, at a late 
 hour, from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His atten- 
 dants continued to respect his pleasures, or his repose, 
 the greatest part of the ensuing day, till the unusual 
 silence alarmed their fears and suspicions ; and, after 
 attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, 
 they at length broke into the royal apartment. They 
 found the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding 
 her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger, 
 as well as the death of the king, who had expired 
 during the night.y An artery suddenly burst ; and as 
 Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suflTocated by a 
 torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage 
 through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and 
 stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the 
 midst of the plain, under a silken pavilion; and the 
 chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in 
 measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the 
 memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in 
 his death, the father of his people, the scourge of his 
 enemies, and the terror of the world. According to 
 their national custom, the barbarians cut off a part of 
 their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, 
 and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not 
 with tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. 
 The remains of Attila were inclosed within three cof- 
 fins, of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried 
 in the night : the spoils of nations were thrown into 
 his grave ; the captives who had opened the ground 
 were inhumanly massacred ; and the same Huns, who 
 had indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dis- 
 solute and intemperate mirth, about the recent sepul- 
 chre of their king. It was reported at Constantinople, 
 that on the fortunate night in which he expired, Mar- 
 cian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila broken asun- 
 der : and the report may be allowed to prove, how sel- 
 
 u The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the effect which 
 this example pnxluced on the mind of Attila. Jornandes, c.42. p. 673. 
 
 w The picture of Raphael is in the Vatican ; the basso (or perhaps 
 the alto) relievo of Algardi,on one of the altars of St. Peter. (SeeDu- 
 bos, Rellexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i. p. 519, 520. 
 Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 452. No. 57, 58.) bravely sustains the 
 truth of the apparition; which is rejected, however, by the most 
 learned and pious catholics. 
 
 X Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suae tempore, 
 puellam Ildico nomine, decoram valde, sibi matrimonium post innu- 
 merabiles uxores . . . socians. Jornandes, c. 49. p. 633, 634. Ho 
 afterwards adds (c. 50. p. 686.) Filii Attilae, quorum per licenliam 
 libidinis poene populus fuit. Polygamy has been established among 
 the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian wives is regulated 
 only by their personal charms ; and the fadrd matron prepares, 
 without a murmur, the bed which is destined for her blooming rival. 
 But in royal families the daughters of Khans communicate to their sons 
 a prior right of inheritance. See Genealogical History, p. 406—408. 
 
 y The report of her guilt reached Constantinople, where it obtain- 
 ed a very different name ; and Marcellinus observes, that the tyrant 
 of Europe was slain in the night by the hand, and the knife, of a wo- 
 man, (iorneille, who has adapted the genuine account to his tragedy, 
 describes the irruption of blood in forty bombast lines, and Atlila ex- 
 claims with ridiculous fury, 
 
 S'il ne veut s'arreter {his blood) 
 
 (Dit-il) on me payera ce qui m'en va couter. 
 
 dom the imaofe of that formidable barbarian was absent 
 from the mind of a Roman emperor.' 
 
 The revolution which subverted the Destruction of 
 empire of the Huns, established the ••'« empire, 
 fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained the 
 huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the bold- 
 est chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; and the 
 most powerful kings refused to acknowledge a supe- 
 rior; and the numerous sons, whom so many various 
 mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and 
 disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign 
 command of the nations of Germany and Scythia. 
 The bold Ardaric felt and represented the disgrace of 
 this servile partition ; and his subjects, the w^arlike 
 Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the conduct of 
 three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to vin- 
 dicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody 
 and decisive conflict on the banks of the river Netad, 
 in Pannonia, the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of 
 the Goths, the arrows of the Huns, the Suevic in- 
 fantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and the heavy 
 weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each 
 other ; and the victory of Ardaric was accompanied 
 with the slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. 
 Ellac, the eldest son of Attila, lost his life and crown 
 in the memorable battle of Netad : his early valour 
 had raised him to the throne of the Acatzires, a Scy- 
 thian people, whom he subdued ; and his father, who 
 loved the superior merit, would have envied the death, 
 of Ellac* His brother Dengisich, with an army of 
 Huns, still formidable in their flight and ruin, main- 
 tained his ground above fifteen years on the batiks of 
 the Danube. The palace of Attila, with the old coun- 
 try of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the Euxine, 
 became the seat of a new power, which was erected 
 by Ardaric, king of the Grpida?. The Pannonian con- 
 quest!;, from Vienna to Sirmiiim, were occupied by 
 the Ostrogoths ; and the settlements of the tribes, 
 who had so bravely asserted their native freedom, 
 were irregularly distributed, according to the measure 
 of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppress- 
 ed by the multitude of his father's slaves, the king- 
 dom of Dentjisich was confined to the circle of his 
 waggons; his desperate courage urged him to invade 
 the eastern empire ; befell in battle; and his head, 
 ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited 
 a grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. 
 Attila had fondly or superstitiously believed, that Ir- 
 nac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to perpe- 
 tuate the glories of his race. The character of that 
 prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness of his 
 brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining 
 condition of the Huns ; and Irnac, with his subject 
 hordes, retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. 
 They were soon overwhelmed by a torrent of new bar- 
 barians, w ho followed the same road which their own 
 ancestors had formerly discovered. The Gcougen, or 
 Avares, whose residence is assigned by the Greek 
 writers to the shores of the ocean, impelled the adja- 
 cent tribes ; till at length the Igours of the North, 
 issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce 
 the most valuable furs, spread themselves over the 
 desert, as far as the Boristhenes and the Caspian 
 gates ; and finally extinguished the empire of the 
 Huns.'' 
 
 I The curious circumstances of the death and funeral of Attila, are 
 related by Jornandes, (c. 49. p. 683—685.) and were probably trans- 
 cribed fnrni Priscus. 
 
 a See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50. p. 635— €88. His dis- 
 tinction of t\\e national arms is curious antl important. Nam ibi ad- 
 mi rand um reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi cernere eral cunctis, pug- 
 nantem Gothum ense furentem. Gepidam in vulnere suorum cuncta 
 tela frangentem, Suevum pede, Hunnumsagitta praesumere, Alanum 
 gravi, Herulum levi armatura aciem instruere. 1 am not precisely 
 informed of the situation of the river Netad. 
 
 b Two modern historians have thrown much new light on the ruin 
 and division of the empire of Attila. M. de Buai by his laborious and 
 minute diligence (tom. viii. p. 3-31.68-94.); and M.de Guignes, by 
 his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese language and writers. 
 See Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. p. 315—319. 
 
478 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXV. 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Such an event might contribute to the 
 d.^r8Til';")atririaa Safety of the eastern empire, under the 
 iEiius. reiffn of a prince who conciliated the 
 
 A. u. 104 , friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, 
 of the barbarians. But the emperor of the west, the 
 feeble and dissolute Valentinian, who had reached his 
 thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or 
 courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine 
 the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of 
 the patrician iEtius. From the instinct of a base and 
 jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally 
 celebrated as the terror of the barbarians, and the 
 support of the republic ; and his new favourite, the 
 eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the 
 supine letharjry, which might be disguised, during the 
 life of Piacidia,* by the excuse of filial piety. The 
 fame of .^tius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous 
 and martial train of barbarian followers, his powerful 
 dependents, who filled the civil offices of the state, 
 and the hopes of his son Gaudentius, who was already 
 contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter, had 
 raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambi- 
 tious designs, of which he was secretly accused, ex- 
 cited the fears, as well as the resentment, of Valen- 
 tinian. jEtius himself, supported by the conscious- 
 ness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his inno- 
 cence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indis- 
 creet behaviour. The patrician offended his sovereign 
 by a hostile declaration ; he aggravated the oflfence, by 
 compelling him to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty 
 of reconciliation and alliance ; he proclaimed his sus- 
 picions, he neglected his safety : and from a vain con- 
 fidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was in- 
 capable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his 
 person in the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, per- 
 haps with intemperate vehemence, the marriage of his 
 son, Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword 
 he had ever drawn, plunged it in the breast of a gen- 
 eral who had saved his empire : his courtiers and 
 eunuchs ambitiously strugorled to imitate their mas- 
 ter; and jl^tius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell 
 dead in the royal presence. Boethius, the praetorian 
 prefect, was killed at the same moment; and before 
 the event could be divulged, the principal friends of 
 the patrician were summoned to the palace, and se- 
 parately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the 
 specious names of justice and necessity, was imme- 
 diately communicated by the emperor to his soldiers, 
 his subjects, and his allies. The nations, who were 
 strangers or enemies to ^tius, generously deplored 
 the unworthy fate of a hero : the barbarians, who had 
 been attached to his service, dissembled their grief 
 and resentment: and the public contempt, which had 
 been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at once 
 converted into deep and universal abhorrence. Such 
 sentiments seldom pervade the walls of a palace ; yet 
 the emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a 
 Roman, whose approbation he had not disdained to 
 solicit : " I am ignorant. Sir, of your motives and pro- 
 vocations; I only know, that you have acted like a 
 man who cuts off his right hand with his left."'' 
 and ravisiu's tlio The luxury of Rome seems to have 
 wife of Maximum, attracted the long and frequent visits of 
 Valentinian ; who was consequently more despised 
 at Rome than in any other part of his dominions. A 
 republican spirit was insensibly revived in the senate, 
 as their authority, and even their supplies, became 
 necessary for the support of his feeble government. 
 
 c Placidia died at Roino, Noveinbor 27, A. D. 450. She was buried 
 at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, anil even her corpse, seated in a 
 chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The empress re- 
 ceived many compliments from the orthodox clerey ; and St. Peter 
 Chrysolotius assured her, that her zeal for the Trinity had been re- 
 compensed by an august Trinity of children. See Tillemont, Hist, 
 des Empereurs, torn. vi. p. 2i0. 
 
 d ^tium Placidus mactavit semivit amens, is the expression of Si- 
 douius. (Panegyr. Avit. 359.) The poet knew the world, and was 
 not inclined to flatter a minister who had injured or disgraced Avilus 
 and Majorian, the successive heroes of his song. 
 
 The stately demeanour of an hereditary monarch of- 
 fended their pride ; and the pleasures of Valentinian 
 were injurious to the peace and honour of noble fa- 
 milies. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal 
 to his own, and her charms and tender affection de- 
 served those testimonies of love, which her inconstant 
 husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours. 
 Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician 
 family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of 
 a chaste and beautiful wife : her obstinate resistance 
 served only to irritate the desires of Valentinian : and 
 he resolved to accomplish them, either by stratagem 
 or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the 
 court: the emperor, who, by chance or contrivance, 
 had grained from Maximus a considerable sum, un- 
 courteously exacted his ring as a security for the 
 debt ; and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, 
 with an order, in her husband's name, that she should 
 immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The un- 
 suspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her lit- 
 ter to the imperial palace ; the emissaries of her im- 
 patient lover conducted her to a remote and silent bed- 
 chamber ; and Valentinian violated, without remorse, 
 the laws of hospitality. Her tears, when she returned 
 home ; her deep affliction ; and her bitter reproaches 
 against a husband, whom she considered as the ac- 
 complice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a 
 just revenge ; the desire of revenge was stimulated 
 by ambition ; and he might reasonably aspire, by the 
 free suffrajje of the Roman senate, to the throne of a 
 detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who sup- 
 posed that every human breast was devoid, like his 
 own, of friendship and gratitude, had imprudently 
 admitted among his guards several domestics and fol- 
 lowers of ^]tius. Two of these, of barbarian race, 
 were persuaded to execute a sacred and honourable 
 duty, by punishing with death the assassin of their 
 patron ; and their intrepid courage did not long expect 
 a favourable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused 
 himself in the field of Mars, with the spectacle of 
 some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon him 
 with drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, 
 and stabbed the emperor to the heart, ^ . ^,, . 
 
 • ,i i. ..I 1 .. 'x- r !• Death of Valen- 
 
 without the least opposition from his tinian, 
 
 numerous train, who seemed to rejoice A.D.455. 
 in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate ^"'""^ ^^' 
 of Valentinian the third,* the last Roman emperor of 
 the family of Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the 
 hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, 
 without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the in- 
 nocence, which allieviate, in their characters, the want 
 of spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable, 
 since he had passions, without virtues ; even his re- 
 ligion was questionable ; and though he never deviat- 
 ed into the paths of heresy, he scandalized the pious 
 christians uy his attachment to the profane arts of 
 magic and divination. 
 
 As early as the time of Cicero and Pympioms of 
 Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman •'^'cay and ruin, 
 augurs, that the twelve vultures^ which Romulus had 
 seen, represented the tweh'c centuries, assigned for the 
 fatal period of his city.' This prophecy, disregarded 
 perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, in- 
 spired the people with gloomy apprehensions, when 
 the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and mis- 
 fortune, was almost elapsed;* and even posterity 
 
 e With regard to the cause and circiimstancesof thedealhs of ^tius 
 and Valentinian, our information is dark and imperfect. Procopius 
 (de Rell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4. p. 186—188.) is a fabulous writer for the 
 events which precede his own memory. His narrative must there- 
 fore be supplied.and corrected by fiveor six Chronicles, none of 
 which were composed in Rome or Italy ; and wliich can only express, 
 in broken sentences, the popular rumours, as they were conveyed to 
 Gaul, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, or Alexandria. 
 
 ( This interpretation of Vetiius, a celebrated augur, was quoted by 
 Varro, in the xviiith bfiok of his anticiuities. Censorinus, de Die Na- 
 tali, r. 17. p. 90, 91. edit. Havercamp. 
 
 g According to Varro, the twelfih century would expire, A. D. 447. 
 but the uncertainty of the true aera of Rome might allow some lati- 
 tude of anticipation or delay. The poets of the age, Claudian (de 
 
 must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbi- 
 trary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous cir- 
 cumstance, has been seriously verified in the downfall 
 of the western empire. But its fall was announced by 
 a clearer omen than the flight of vultures : the Roman 
 government appeared every day less formidable to its 
 enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.*' 
 The taxes were multiplied with the public distress ; 
 economy was neglected in proportion as it became 
 necessary; and the injustice of the rich shifted the 
 unequal burthen from themselves to the people, whom 
 they defrauded of the indulgences that might some- 
 times have alleviated their misery. The severe in- 
 quisition, which confiscated their goods, and tortured 
 their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian 
 to prefer the more simple tyranny of the barbarians, 
 to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the 
 vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They 
 abjured and abhorred the name of "Roman citizens, 
 which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. 
 The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest 
 part of Spain, were thrown into a state of disorderly 
 independence, by the confederations of the Baguadae ; 
 and the imperial ministers pursued with prescriptive 
 laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had 
 made.* If all the barbarian conquerors had been an- 
 nihilated in the same hour, their total destruction 
 would not have restored the empire of the west: and 
 if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of free- 
 dom, of virtue, and of honour. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVr. 
 
 Sack of Rome by Genseric, king of the Vanduh.—His naval 
 dcmedutiom.— Succession of the last emperws of the west, 
 Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Athemius, Oli/brius, 
 Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus.—Total extinct iim of the 
 western empire.— Reign of Odoaccr, the first barbarian 
 king of Italy, 
 
 Naval power of The loss or desolation of the provin- 
 
 A*'n'"i''Si!l!;j'i ^^^' ^""^"^ ^^® °*^^^" ^^ *^^® ^^PS' impair- 
 4JU-I45. p^ tjjg gj^jj.y ^^^ greatness of Rome : 
 
 her internal prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by 
 the separation of Africa. The rapacious Vandals 
 confiscated the patrimonial estates of the emperors, 
 and intercepted the regular subsidies, which relieved 
 the poverty, and encouraged the idleness, of the ple- 
 beians. The distress of the Romans was soon aggra- 
 vated by an unexpected attack ; and the provinc'et so 
 long cultivated for their use by industrious and obe- 
 dient subjects, was armed against them by an ambi- 
 tious barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who follow- 
 ed the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired 
 a rich and fertile territory, which stretched along the 
 coast above ninety days' journey from Tangier to 
 Tripoli ; but their narrow limits were pressed and 
 confined, on either side, by the sandy desert and the 
 
 Bell. Getico, 265.) and Sidonius, (in Panegyr. Avit. may be admitted 
 as fair witnesses of the popular opinion. 
 
 Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volntu 
 
 Vulluris, incidunt properatis sxcula metis. 
 
 Jam prope fata tui bisscnas Vulturis nias 
 Implchant ; sris namque tuos, scis, Roma, lahores. 
 
 See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 340—346. 
 h The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic lamentations, 
 and vehement invectives. His immoderate freedom serves to prove 
 the weakness, as well as tlic corruption, of the Roman povernment. 
 His book was published after the loss of Africa, (A. D. 439.) and 
 after Attala's war, (A. D. 451.) 
 
 i Tlie Bagauda; of Spain, who fought pitched battles with tlie Ro- 
 man troops, are repeatedly mentioned in the Chronicle of Idaiius. 
 Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in very forcible 
 language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum .... nunc ultro re- 
 pudiatur ac fngitur, nee vile tamen scd eiiam alwminabile pa^nc ha- 
 betur .... Et hinc est ut etiam hi qui ad barbarosnon confugiunt, 
 barbari tamcn esse coguntur ; scilicet ut est pars magna Hispano- 
 
 rum.et non minima Gallorum De Bngaudis nunc mibi ser- 
 
 mo est, qui per malos judicea et cruentes spoliati, afflicti, necati, post- 
 quam jus Romans libertatis amiserant, etiam honorem Romani 
 nominis perdiderunt .... Vocamus rebelles. vocamus perditos 
 quose8»ecompulimu8crimino60s. De GuberDat.Dci I. v. p. 158, 159 
 
 479 
 
 Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the 
 black nations, that might dwell beneath the torrid 
 zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Gense- 
 ric ; but he cast his eyes towards the sea ; he resolved 
 to create a naval power, and his bold resolution was 
 executed with steady and active perseverance. The 
 woods of mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nur- 
 sery of timber ; his new subjects^ were skilled in the 
 arts of navigation and ship-building; he animated his 
 daring Vandals to embrace a mode of warfare which 
 would render every maritime country accessible to 
 their arms; the Moors and Africans were allured by 
 the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six 
 centuries, the fleets that issued from the port of Car- 
 thage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. 
 The success of the Vandals, the conquest of Sicily, 
 the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the 
 coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother 
 of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alli- 
 ances were formed ; and armaments, expensive and in- 
 effectual, were prepared, for the destruction of the 
 common enemy ; who reserved his courage to encoun- 
 ter those danrrers which his policy could not prevent 
 or elude. The designs of the Roman government 
 were repeatedly baflled by his artful delays, ambigu- 
 ous promises, and apparent concessions ; and tlieln- 
 terposition of his formidable confederate the king of 
 the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conques't of 
 Africa to the care of their domestic safety. The revo- 
 lutions of the palace, which left the western empire 
 without a defender, and without a lawful prince, dis- 
 pelled the apprehensions, and stimulated the avarice, 
 of Genseric. He immediately equipped a numerous 
 fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the 
 mouth of the Tiber, about three months after the death 
 of Valentinian, and the elevation of Maximus to the 
 imperial throne. 
 
 The private life of the senator Petro- 
 nius Maximus » was often alleged as a anc^eignTt'he 
 rare example of human felicity. His fmpt'ror Maxi- 
 birth was noble and illustrious, since he "'"^' n 455 
 descended from the Anician family ; his March I?, 
 dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in 
 land and money ; and these advantages of fortune 
 were accompanied with liberal arts and decent man- 
 ners which adorn or imitate the inestimable gifts of 
 genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace and ta- 
 ble was hospitable and elegant." Whenever Maximus 
 appeared in public, he was surrounded by a train of 
 grateful and obsequious clients ;'' and it is possible that 
 among these clients, he might deserve and possess 
 some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the fa- 
 vour of the prince and senate : he thrice exercised 
 the office of praetorian prefect of Italy ; he was twice 
 invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank 
 of patrician. These civil honours were not incompati- 
 ble with the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity; his 
 hours, according to the demands of pleasure or reason, 
 were accurately distributed by a water-clock ; and 
 this avarice of time may be allowed to prove the 
 sense which Maximus entertained of his own happi- 
 ness. The injury which he received from the emj)e- 
 ror Valentinian, appears to excuse the most bloody re- 
 venge. Yet a philosopher might have reflected, that 
 if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her 
 chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be 
 restored if she had consented to the will of the adul- 
 terer. A patriot would have hesitated, before he plun- 
 ged himself and his country into those inevitable ca- 
 lamities, which must follow the extinction of the roy- 
 
 a Sidonius Apoliinaris composed the thirteenth epistle of the se- 
 cond book, to refute the paradox of his friend Serranus, who enter- 
 tained a singular, though generous, enthusiasm for the deceased em- 
 peror. This epistle, with some indulgence, may claim the praise of 
 an elegant composition ; and it throws much light on the character 
 of Maximus. 
 
 b Clientum prjEvia, pedisequa, circumfusa populositas. is the train 
 which Sidonius himself (I. i. epist. 9.) assigns to another senator of 
 congular rank. 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 4 
 
 / 
 
480 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 al house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maxinius 
 disregarded these salutary considerations : he trratifud 
 his resentment and ambition ; he saw ihe bleeding 
 corpse of Valentinian at his feet ; and he heard him- 
 self saluted emperor by the unanimous voice of the 
 senate and people. But the day of his inauguration 
 was the last day of his happiness. He was imprison- 
 ed (such is the lively expression of Sidonius) in the 
 palace; and after passing a sleepless night, he sighed 
 that he had attained the summit of his wishes, and 
 aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation. 
 Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he communi- 
 cated his anxious thoughts to his friend and quaestor 
 Fulgenlius ; and when he looked back with unavail- 
 ing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, 
 the emperor exclaimed, " O fortunate Damocles,' thy 
 reiijn began and ended with the same dinner :" a well 
 known allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards repeated 
 as an instructive lesson for princes and subjects. 
 
 ,,. , .. The reijrn of Maximus continued about 
 
 Ilig (loath, '^ -. i* I • 1 1 
 
 A. n. 455. three months. His hours, ot which he 
 June 12. jjad lost the command, were disturbed 
 by remorse, or guilt, qt terror, and his throne was sha- 
 ken by the seditions of the soldiers, the people, and 
 the confederate barbarians. The marriage of his son 
 Palladius with the eldest daughter of the late emperor, 
 might tend to establish the hereditary succession of 
 his family ; but the violence which he offered to the 
 empress Eudoxia, could proceed only from the blind 
 impulse of lust or revenge. His own wife, the cause 
 of these tragic events, had been seasonably removed 
 by death ; and the widow of Valentinian was compel- 
 led 10 violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real 
 grief, and to submit to the embraces of a presump- 
 tuous usurper, whom she suspected as the assassin of 
 her deceased husband. These suspicions were soon 
 justified by the indiscreet confession of Maximus 
 hinjself ; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his 
 reluctant bride, who was still conscious that she de- 
 scended from a line of emperors. From the east, 
 however, Eudoxia could not hope to obtain any effec- 
 tual assistance ; her father and her aunt Pulcheria 
 were dead ; her mother languished at Jerusalem in dis- 
 grace and exile ; and the sceptre of Constantinople 
 was in the hands of a stranger. She directed her 
 eyes towards Carthage; secretly implored the aid of 
 the king of the Vandals ; and persuaded Genseric to 
 improve the fair opportunity of disguising his rapacious 
 designs by the specious names of honour, justice, and 
 compassion. •* Whatever abilities Maximus might 
 have shown in a subordinate station, he was found 
 incapable of administering an empire; and though he 
 might easily have been informed of the naval prepara- 
 tions which were made on the opposite shores of Africa, 
 he expected with supine inditference the approach 
 of the enemy, without adopting any measures of de- 
 fence, of negociation, or of a timely retreat. When 
 the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of the Tiber, the 
 emperor was suddenly roused from his lethargy by the 
 clamours of a trembling and exasperated multitude. 
 The only hope which presented itself to his astonish- 
 ed mind was that of a precipitate flight, and he ex- 
 horted the senators to imitate the example of their 
 prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the 
 streets, than he was assaulted by a shower of stones : 
 a Roman, or a Burgundian, soldier, claimed the hon- 
 
 c DJstrirtus ensis rui super impi.i 
 
 Cervice peiidct, non Sicultr dapes 
 
 Dulceiii ctahornlMint snporcni : 
 
 Non avium cithara'quc caiitus. 
 
 Suinnuni rcdurcnt. Ilorat. Carm. iii. 1. 
 
 Sidoiihis concludes his letter with the Htory of Daiiiocles, which Ci- 
 cero (Tusculan. v. 20. 21.) liad so inimitahly told. 
 
 d Notwilhstandiag the cvidenre of rrocopiua, EvapriuB, Idatius, 
 Mnrcelliiius, &.c. the learned Muralori (Annali d'ltali.T, lorn. iv. p. 
 249.) doubts tlie reality of this invitation, and observes, with preat 
 truth, '* Non si puo dir quanto sia facile il popolo a eognare e spac- 
 riar voci false." But his argument, from the interval of time and 
 space, is extremely feeble. The figs which crew near Carthage 
 were produced to the senate of Rome on the third day. 
 
 our of the first wound ; his mangled body was igno- 
 miniously cast into the Tiber; the Roman people re- 
 joiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the 
 author of i-he public calamities ; and the domestics of 
 Eudoxia signalized their zeal in the service of their 
 mistress.' 
 
 On the third day after the tumult, g^^j^ ^j- p^^^ 
 Genseric boldly advanced from the port by the Vandais, 
 of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless ^^^^^' "'""* 
 city. Instead of a sally of the Roman 
 youth, there issued from the gates an unarmed and ven- 
 erable procession of the bishop at the head of his cler- 
 gy.^ The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and elo- 
 quence, again mitigated the fierceness of a barbarian 
 conqueror: the king of the Vandals promised to spare the 
 unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, 
 and to exempt the captives from torture; and although 
 such orders were neither seriously given nor strictly 
 obeyed, the mediation of Leo was glorious to himself, 
 and in some degree beneficial to his country. But Rome 
 and its inhabitants were delivered to the licentiousness 
 of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions reven- 
 ged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted four- 
 teen days and nights ; and all that yet remained of pub- 
 lic or private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, 
 was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric. 
 Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two temples, 
 or rather of two religions, exhibited a memorable ex- 
 ample of the vicissitude of human and divine things. 
 Since the abolition of paganism, the capitol had been 
 violated and abandoned ; yet the statues of the gods 
 and heroes were still respected, and the curious roof 
 of gilt bronze was reserved for the rapacious hands of 
 Genseric.K The holy instruments of the Jewish wor- 
 ship,** the gold table, and the gold candlestick with se- 
 ven branches, originally framed according to the partic- 
 ular instructions of God himself, and which were plac- 
 ed in the sanctuary of his temple, had been ostenta- 
 tiously displayed to the Roman people in the triumph of 
 Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the temple 
 of Peace; and at the end of four hundred years, the 
 spoils of .Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to 
 Carthage by a barbarian who derived his origin from 
 the shores of the Baltic. These ancient monuments 
 might attract the notice of curiosity, as well as of ava- 
 rice. But the christian churches, enriched and adorn- 
 ed by the prevailing superstition of the times, afford- 
 ed more plentiful materials for sacrilege ; and the pi- 
 ous liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six silver vas- 
 es, the gift of Constantine, each of a hundred pounds' 
 weight, is an evidence of the damage which he at- 
 tempted to repair. In the forty-five years, that had 
 elapsed since the Gothic invasion, the pomp and luxu- 
 ry of Rome were in some measure restored ; and it 
 was difficult either to escape, or to satisfy, the avarice 
 of a conqueror, who possessed leisure to collect, and 
 ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The 
 imperial ornaments of the palace, the magnificent fur- 
 niture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy plate, 
 were accumulated with disorderly rapine : the gold 
 
 e ... Infidoque tibi Rurjiundio ductu 
 
 Extorquet trepidas mactandi principis iras. 
 
 Sidon. in Paneeyr. Avit. 442. 
 A remarkable line, which insinuates tliat Rome and Maximus were 
 betrayed by their Burgundian mercenaries. 
 
 f The apparent success of Pope Leo may be justified by Prosper, 
 and the Historia Miseellan.; but the improbable notion of Baro- 
 nius, (A. D. 455. No. 13.) thai Genseric spared the three apostolical 
 churches, is not countenanced even by the doubtful testimony of the 
 Liber Pontificalis. 
 
 g The profusion of Catullus, the first who RJIt the roof of the ca- 
 pitol, was not universally approved, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 18.) 
 but it was far exceeded by the emperors, and the external pildinp of 
 the temple cost Domitian 12,(100 talents (2,400,000/.) The expressions 
 of Claiidiusand Kutilius (lucemetalli tpmula .. . fastiffia atitris, :ind 
 ronfundunf^ue vagos delubra micantia visvs) manifestly prove, 
 tliat this splendid covering was not removed either by the christians 
 or the Goths. (Sec Donatus, Roma Antiqua, I. ii. c. 6. p. 125.) It 
 should seem that the roof of the capital was decorated with gilt 
 statues, and chariots drawn by four horstis. 
 
 h The curious reader may consult the learned and accurate trea- 
 tise of Hadrian Reland, de Spoliis Templi Hierosulymitani in Arcu 
 Titiano Roinee conspicuis, in ISuio. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1716. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 481 
 
 and silver amounted to several thousand talents ; yet 
 even the brass and copper were laboriously removed. 
 Eudoxia herself, who advanced to meet her friend and 
 deliverer, soon bewailed the imprudence of her own 
 conduct. She was rudely stripped of her jewels ; and 
 the unfortunate empress, with her two daughters, the 
 only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was 
 compelled, as a captive, to follow the haughty Van- 
 dal ; who immediately hoisted sail, and returned with 
 a prosperous navigation to the port of Carthage.' 
 Many thousand Romans, of both sexes, chosen Ifor 
 some useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly 
 embarked on board the fleet of Genseric; and their 
 distress was aggravated by the unfeeling barbarians, 
 who, in the division of the booty, separated the wives 
 from their husbands, and the children from their pa- 
 rents. The charity of Deogralias, bishop of Car- 
 thage,'^ was their only consolation and support. He 
 generously sold the gold and silver plate of the church 
 to purchase the freedom of some, to alleviate the 
 slavery of others, and to assist the wants and infir- 
 mities of a captive multitude, whose health was 
 impaired by the hardships which they had sufiered 
 m their passage from Italy to Africa. By his order, 
 two spacious churches were converted into hospitals : 
 the sick were distributed in convenient beds, and 
 liberally supplied WMth food and medicines ; and the 
 aged prelate repeated his visits both in the day and 
 night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength, 
 and a tender sympathy which enhanced the value of 
 his services. Compare this scene with the field of 
 Cannae ; and judge between Hannibal and the succes- 
 sor of St. Cyprian.' 
 
 The emperor , The deaths of ^tius and Valentinian 
 A Vitus, had relaxed the ties which held the bar- 
 Jul^'lO*^" Marians of Gaul in peace and subordina- 
 " ^ ■ tion. The sea-coast was infested by the 
 Saxons ; the Alemanni and the Franks advanced from 
 the Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of the Goths 
 seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent 
 conquests. The emperor Maximus relieved himself, 
 by a judicious choice, from the weight of these dis- 
 tant cares ; he silenced the solicitations of his friends, 
 listened to the voice of fime, and promoted a stranger 
 to the general command of the forces in Gaul. Avitus,"" 
 the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded, de- 
 scended from a wealthy and honourable family in the 
 diocese of Auvergne. The convulsions of the times 
 urged him to embrace, with the same ardour, the civil 
 and military professions ; and the indefatigable youth 
 blended the studies of literature and jurisprudence 
 with the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty years 
 of his life were laudably spent in the public service; 
 he alternately displayed his talents in war and nego- 
 ciation ; and the soldier of jEtius, after executing the 
 most important embassies, was raised to the station 
 of praetorian praefect of Gaul. Either the merit of 
 Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous 
 of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate, which 
 he possessed in the neighbourhood of Clermont. A 
 copious stream, issuing from the mountain, and falling 
 headlong in many a loud and foaming cascade, dis° 
 charged its waters into a lake about two miles in 
 length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the mar- 
 gifl of the lake. The baths, the porticoes, the summer 
 
 and winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes 
 of luxury and use ; and the adjacent country afforded 
 the various prospects of woods, pastures, and mead- 
 ows." In this retreat, where Avitus amused his leisure 
 with books, rural sports, the practice of husbandry, 
 and the society of his friends,^ he received the imperial 
 diploma, which constituted him master-o-eneral of the 
 cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the mili- 
 tary command ; the barbarians suspended their fury ; 
 and w^hatever means he might employ, whatever con- 
 cessions he might be forced to make, the people en- 
 joyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate 
 of Gaul depended on the Visigoths ; and the Roman 
 general, less attentive to his dignity than to the public 
 interest, did not disdain to visit Thouloiise in the cha- 
 racter of an ambassador. He was received with cour- 
 teous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of the Goths ; 
 but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid alli- 
 ance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by 
 the intelligence, that the emperor IMaximus was slain, 
 and that Rome had been pillaged by the Vandals. A 
 vacant throne, which he might ascend without guilt or 
 danger, tempted his ambition ;p and tlie Visigoths were 
 easily persuaded to support his claim by their irresist-. 
 ible sufl^'rage. They loved the person of Avitus ; they 
 respected his virtues ; and they were not a. D.45.J. 
 insensible of the advantage, as well as August 15. 
 honour, of giving an emperor to the west. The sea- 
 son was now approaching in which the annual assem- 
 bly of the seven provinces was held at Aries ; their 
 deliberations mi^ht perhaps be influenced by the pre- 
 sence of Theodoric, and his martial brothers; but their 
 choice would naturally incline to the most illustrious 
 of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent resistance, 
 accepted the imperial diadem from the representatives 
 of Gaul ; and his election was ratified by the acclama- 
 tions of the barbarians and provincials. The formal 
 consent of Marcian, emperor of the east, was solicited 
 and obtained : but the senate, Rome, and Ital}-, though 
 humbled by their recent calamities, submitted with a 
 secret murmur to the presumption of the Gallic usurper. 
 Theodoric, to whom Avitus was in- ^-i .en,, 
 
 1 I , J /• ., Ill . ^ , Character of Tbo- 
 
 debted tor the purple, had acquired the odorickingoftiie 
 Gothic sceptre by the murder of his Visigoths, 
 elder brother Torismond ; and he justi- ^'^- '*^^^-^^'<5- 
 fied this atrocious deed by the design which his pre- 
 decessor had formed of violating his' alliance with the 
 empire.i Such a crime might not be incompatible 
 with the virtues of a barbarian ; but the manners of 
 Theodoric were gentle and humane ; and posterity may 
 contemplate without terror the original picture of a 
 Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately observed, 
 in the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an 
 epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator 
 satisfies the curiosity of one of his friends, in the fol- 
 lowing description : "■ "By the majesty of his appear- 
 ance, Theodoric would command the respect of those 
 
 1 The vessel which transported the relics of the capitol, was the 
 only one of the whole fleet that suffered shipwreck. If a bigoted 
 sophist, a pagan bigot, had mentioned the accident, he might have 
 rejoiced, that this cargo of sacrilege was lost in the sea. 
 
 k See Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. I. i.e. 8. p. 11. 12. 
 edit. Ruinart. Deogratias governed the church of Cartha'^e only 
 three years. If he liad not been privately buried, his corpse would 
 have been torn piecemeal by the mad devotion of the people, 
 
 1 The general evidence for the death of Maximus. and the sack 
 of Rome by the Vandals, is comprised in Sidonius, (Panegyr Avit 
 441—450.) Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 4, 5, p. 188. 189. and \ 
 n. c. 9. p. 255.) Evagrius, (I. ii. c. 7.) Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 
 4."». p. 677.) and the Chronicles of Idatius, Prosper, Marcellinus, and 
 Theophanes, under the pro|>er year. 
 
 m The private life and elevation of Avitus must be deduced, with 
 l>ecoming suspicion, from the panegyric pronounced by Sidonius 
 Apollinarls, his subject, aud his son-in-law. 
 
 Vol. I.— 3 L 31 
 
 n After the example of the younger Pliny, Sidonius, (!. il. c. 2.) 
 has laboured the florid, prolix, and obscure description of his villa, 
 which bore the name {Aoitacum,) and had been tlie properly of 
 Avitus. The precise situation is not ascertained. Consult however 
 tlie notes of Savaron and Sirmoiid. 
 
 o Sidonius, (I. ii. epist. 9.) has described the country life of the 
 Gallic nobles, in a visit which he made to his friends, whose estates 
 were in the neighbourhood of Nisnies. Tiie morning-hours were 
 spent in the spheBristen'um, or tennis court; or in the library, which 
 was furnished with Latin authors, profane and religious :' the for- 
 mer for the men, the laUer for the ladies. The table was twice ser- 
 ved, at dinner, and supper, with hot meat (boiled and roast) and 
 wine. During the intermediate time, the company slept, took the 
 air on horseback, and used the warm bath. 
 
 P Seventy lines of panegyric, (505—575.) which describes the im- 
 portunity of Theodoric and of Gaul, struggling to overcome the 
 modest reluctance of Avitus, are blown away by three words of an 
 honest historian. Romanuin ambisset imperium. (Greg. Turon. I. ii. 
 c. 11. in tom. ii. p. 168.) 
 
 q Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who was himself of the blood- 
 royal of the Goths, acknowledges, and almost justifies, (Hist. Goth, 
 p. 718.) the crime which their slave Jornandes had basely dissembled. 
 (c, 43. p. 673.) ' ' 
 
 r This elaborate description (I. i. ep. ii. p. 2—7,) was dictated by 
 some poHtical motive. It was designed for the public eye, and had 
 been shown by the friends of Sidonius, before it was inserted in the 
 collection of his epistles, 'i'lie first book was published separately. 
 See Tilleniont, Menioires Eccles. torn. xvi. p. 264. 
 
 f 
 
 /» 
 
 % 
 
/ 
 
 482 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVI. 
 
 who are ignorant of his merit; and although he is 
 born a prince, his merit would dignify a private sta- 
 tion. He is of a middle stature, his body appears 
 rather plump than fat, and in his well-proportioned 
 limbs agility is united with muscular streniith.* If 
 you examine his countenance, you will distinguish a 
 high forehead, large shaggy eyebrows, an aquiline 
 rose, thin lips, a regular set of white teeth, and a fair 
 complexion, that blushes more frequently from modesty 
 than from anger. The ordinary distribution of his time, 
 as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be con- 
 cisely represented. Before day-break, he repairs, with 
 a small train, to his domestic chapel, where the ser- 
 vice is performed by the Arian clergy ; but those who 
 presume to interpret his secret sentiment*!, consider 
 this assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and poli- 
 cy. The rest of the morning is employed in the ad- 
 ministration of his kingdom. His chair is surrounded 
 by some military otficers of decent aspect and behav- 
 iour : the noisy crowd of his barbarian guards occupies 
 the hall of audience ; but they arc not permitted to 
 stand within the veils or curtains, that conceal the 
 council-chamber from vulvar eyes. The ambassadors 
 of the nations are successively introduced : Theodoric 
 listens with attention, answers them with discreet 
 brevity, and either announces or delays, according to 
 the nature of their business, his final resolution. About 
 eight (the second hour) he rises from his throne, and 
 visits either his treasury or his stables. If he chooses 
 to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on horseback, 
 his bow is carried by a favourite youth ; but when the 
 game is marked, he bends it with his own hand, and 
 seldom misses the object of his aim : as a king, he 
 disdains to bear arms in such ignoble warfare ; but as 
 a soldier, he would blush to accept any military ser- 
 vice which he could perform himself. On common 
 days, his dinner is not diiferent from the repast of a 
 private citizen ; but every Saturday, many honourable 
 guests are invited to the royal table, which, on these 
 occasions, is served with the elegance of Greece, the 
 plenty of Gaul, and the order and diligence of Italy.* 
 The gold or silver plate is less remarkable for its 
 weight, than for the brightness and curious workman- 
 ship : the taste is gratified without the help of foreign 
 and costly luxury ; the size and number of the cups of 
 wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of 
 temperance; and the respectful silence that prevails is 
 interrupted only by grave and instructive conversation. 
 After dinner, Theodoric sometimes indulges himself in 
 a short slumber; and as soon as he wakes, he calls 
 for the dice and tables, encourages his friends to for- 
 get the royal majesty, and is delighted when ihey 
 freely express the passions which are excited by the 
 incidents of play. At this game, which he loves as 
 the image of war, he alternately displays his eager- 
 ness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper. 
 If he loses, he laughs : he is modest and silent if he 
 wins. Yet, notwithstanding this seeming indifference, 
 his courtiers choose to solicit any favour in the mo- 
 ments of victory; and I myself, in my applications to 
 the king, have derived some benefit from my losses." 
 About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of busi- 
 ness again returns, and flows incessantly till after sun- 
 set, when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the 
 weary crowd of applicants and pleaders. At the sup- 
 per, a more familiar repast, buffoons and pantomimes 
 are sometimes introduced, to divert, not to offend, the 
 company, by their ridiculous wit : but female singers. 
 
 • I have suppressed, in this portrait of Theodoric, several minute 
 circuuistances, and technical phrases, whicli could be tolerable, 
 or indeed intelliKihle, to those only who, like the ronteinpornrics of' 
 Sidonins, had frequented the markets where naked slaves were ex- 
 posed to sale. (Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn. i. p. 404. 
 
 t Videassibi elegantiam Grtecaui, abundantiam Gallicanam, celer- 
 itatem Italam ; publicam pompam, privatum diligentiam, regiam dis- 
 ciplinam. 
 
 u Tunc ctiam ego aliquid obsecraturus feliciter vincor, et mihi ta- 
 bula perit ut causa salvetur. Sidonius of Auvcrgnc was not a sub- 
 ject of Theodoric ; but he miffht be compelled to solicit either jus- 
 tice or favour at the court of Thoulouse 
 
 and the soft effeminate modes of music, are severely 
 banished, and such martial. tunes as animate the soul 
 to deeds of valour are alone grateful to the ear of The- 
 odoric. He retires from the table ; and the nocturnal 
 guards are immediately posted at the entrance of the 
 treasury, the palace, and the private apartments." 
 
 When the king of the Visigoths en- uis expedition 
 couraijed Avitus to assume the purple, •"»» Spain, 
 he offered his person and his forces, as " 
 
 a faithful soldier of the republic* The exploits of 
 Theodoric soon convinced the world, that he had not 
 deo^pnerated from the warlike virtues of his ancestors. 
 After the establishment of the Goths in Aquitain, and 
 the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi, who 
 had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the 
 conquest of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the 
 feeble remains of the Roman dominion. The provin- 
 cials of Carthagena and Tarragona, aflflicted by a hos- 
 tile invasion, represented their injuries and their ap- 
 prehensions. Count Fronlo was despatched, in the 
 name of the emperor Avitus, with advantageous oflfers 
 of peace and alliance; and Theodoric interposed his 
 weighty mediation, to declare, that unless his brother- 
 in-law, the king of the Suevi, immediately retired, he 
 should be obliged to arm in the cause of justice and 
 of Rome. "Tell him," replied the haughty Rechia- 
 rius, " that I despise his friendship and his arms ; but 
 that I shall soon try, whether he will dare to expect 
 my arrival under the walls of Thoulouse." Such a 
 challenge urged Theodoric to prevent the bold designs 
 of his enemy : he passed the Pyrenees at the head of 
 the Visigoths : the Franks and Burjrundians served 
 under his standard ; and thoughhe professed himself 
 tiie dutiful servant of Avitus, he privately stipulated, 
 for himself and his successors, the absolute possession 
 of the Spanish conquests. The two armies, or rather 
 the two nations, encountered each other on the banks 
 of the river Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga ; 
 and the decisive victory of the Goths appeared for a 
 while to have extirpated the name and kingdom of the 
 Suevi. From the field of battle Theodoric advanced 
 to Braga, their metropolis, which still retained the 
 splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and dignity .' 
 His entrance was not polluted WMth blood ; and the 
 Goths respected the chastity of their female captives, 
 more especially of the consecrated virgins; but the 
 greatest part of the clergy and people were made 
 slaves, and even the churches and altars were con- 
 founded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate 
 king of the Suevi had escaped to one of the ports of 
 the ocean ; but the obstinacy of the winds opposed 
 his flight; he was delivered to his implacable rival ; 
 and Rechiarius, who neither desired nor expected 
 mercy, received, with manly constancy, the death 
 which he would probably have inflicted. After this 
 bloody sacrifice to policy or resentment, Theodoric 
 carried his victorious arms as far as Merida, the prin- 
 cipal town of Lusitania, without meeting any resis- 
 tance, except from the miraculous powers of St. Eula- 
 lia ; but he was stopped in the full career of success, 
 and recalled from Spain, before he could provide for 
 the security of his conquests. In his retreat towards 
 the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the 
 country through which he passed ; and, in the sack 
 of Pollentia and Astorga, he showed himself a faith- 
 less ally, as well as a cruel enemy. Whilst the king 
 of the Visigoths fought and vanquished in the name 
 of Avitus, the reign of Avitus had expired ; and both 
 the honour and the interest of Theodoric were deeply 
 
 X Theodoric himself had piven a solemn and voluntary promise 
 of lidelily, which was understood boili in Gaul and Spain. 
 
 Roma; sum, te duce, Amicus, 
 
 Principe te, Miles. 
 
 Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 511. 
 7 Quceque sinu pelagi jactat se Rrarara dives. 
 
 Aufcon. de Claris T'rhibus, p. 245. 
 From the design of the king of the Suevi, it is evident that the na- 
 vif^ation from the ports of Gallicia to the Mediterranean was known 
 and practised. The ships of Bracara, or Braea, cautiously steered 
 along the coast, without daring to lose themselves in the Atlantic. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 483 
 
 hand of the executioner, arrested him on the road ; vet 
 his remains vyere decently transported to Brivas, or 
 Brioude, in his native province, and he reposed at the 
 feet of his holy patron.K Avitus left only one daughter, 
 the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the 
 patrimony of his father-in-law; lamentinor, at the 
 same time, the disappointment of his public and pri- 
 vate expectations. His resentment prompted him to 
 join, or at least to countenance, the measures of a 
 rebellious taction m Gaul ; and the poet had contract- 
 ed some guilt, which it was incumbent on him to ex- 
 piate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding 
 emperor.** ^u*"s 
 
 tradicted by the event." Yv\u^\VT t^Z ^Z' T" T^"" successor of Avitus presents the ... ^ 
 
 imperial dignity war/educed t o ; pre-em^nen^e o^ T 'T' ^'"""T'^ '^^ ^'^^' ""^ ^'''^^ ^^^T 
 
 and danae? indulo-ed Tmllf L^ f^^^^ as sometimes arise in a Maj«rian, 
 
 inclinations; and he is accused of insultinrr, with in- dp«..v J .k!^!^:!!'^^:. /'^^ ^"'P^^^^ Majorian has 
 
 discreet and ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose 
 
 wives he had seduced or violated.^ But the Romans 
 
 were not inclined, either to excuse his faults, or to 
 
 acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the 
 
 empire became every day more alienated from each 
 
 other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of po- 
 
 pular hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their 
 
 legitimate claim in the election of an emperor; and 
 
 their authority, which had been originally derived 
 
 from the old constitution, was again fortified bv the 
 
 wounded by the disgrace of a friend, whom he had 
 seated on the throne of the western empire.' 
 Avitus is deposed, The pressing solicitations of the sen- 
 "oc^ib^ ^}^- ^"^ P^^P^^' persuaded the emperor 
 ««^ ♦ * I*"^ ^° ^^ *^^^ residence at Rome, 
 
 and to accept the consulship for the ensuing year. 
 On the first day of January his son-in-law, Sidonius 
 Apollinaris celebrated his praises in a panegyric of 
 six hundred verses; but this composition, thoujrh it 
 was rewarded with a brass statue,- seems to contlin a 
 very moderate proportion either of genius or of truth. 
 Ihe poet If we may degrade that sacred name, exag- 
 gerates the merit of a sovereign and a father; and his 
 prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon con 
 
 deserved the praises of his contemporaries, and of 
 posterity ; and the^se praises may be strongly express- 
 ed in the words of a judicious and disinterested his- 
 torian ; ; I hat he was gentle to Iris subjects ; that he 
 was terrible to his enemies ; and that he excelled in 
 every virtue, all his predecessors who had reianed 
 over the Romans." ^ Such a testimony may justify 
 at least the panegyric of Sidonius ; and we may ac- 
 quiesce in the assurance, that, although the obsequious 
 orator would have flattered, with equal zeal, the most 
 actual weakness of a decYinin;; m1^naVchT"'^^v7ovL'n nu' . ? ^/'"J^-^"' ^^^ extraordinary merit of his 
 such a monarchy might hav^re^tTthe^olo^^^^^^^ tC^.'lful^''^^^^ ^'''^ ^»^« 
 
 great Theodosius, had commanded the troops of the 
 Illyrian frontier. He gave his daughter in marriage 
 
 ported, or perhaps inflamed, by the count Ricimer, 
 one of the principal commanders of the barbarian 
 troops, who formed the military defence of Italy. The 
 daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the 
 mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the 
 lather s side, from the nation of the Suevi :«= his pride 
 or patnotir.m, might be exasperated by the misfortunes 
 ot his countrymen; and he obeyed, with reluctance, 
 an ernperor in whose elevation he had not been coti- 
 sulted. His faithful and important services against 
 the common enemy rendered him still more formi- 
 dable ; -» and after destroying, on the coast of Corsica, 
 a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, 
 Kicimer returned in triumph with the appellation of 
 the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to 
 signify to Avitus, that his reign was at an end; and 
 the feeble emperor, at a distance from his Gothic 
 allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing 
 struggle, to abdicate the purple. By the clemencv", 
 however, or the contempt, of Ricimer,' he was per- 
 initted to descend from the throne, to the more desir- 
 able station of bishop of Placentia; but the resent- 
 ment of the senate was still unsatisfied ; and their in- 
 flexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death. 
 He fled towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not 
 of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of securing 
 his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian 
 one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne.' Disease or the 
 
 to the father of Majorian, a respectable ofiicer, who 
 administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and in- 
 tegrity; and generously preferred the friendship of 
 ^tius, to the tempting oflTers of an insidious court. 
 His son, the future emperor, who was educated in the 
 profession of arms, displayed, from his early youth, 
 intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and unbounded 
 liberality m a scanty fortune. He followed the stand- 
 ard ot Atius, contributed to his success, shared, and 
 sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the 
 jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who 
 torced him to retire from the service.' Majorian, af- 
 ter the death of ^tius, was recalled, and promoted; 
 and his intimate connexion with count Ricimer was 
 the immediate step by which he ascended the throne 
 of the western empire. During the vacancy that suc- 
 ceeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious bar- 
 
 « Thi« Suevic war is the most autlientic part of the Chronicle of 
 IT^VJ^''\''^ l.'shop of Iria Flavia, was himself a spectator and 
 a sufferer. Jornandes (c. 44. p. 675. 676, 077.) has expiated with 
 pleasure, on the Gothic victory. c*i"aica, wiin 
 
 a In one of the porticoes or galleries helongingto Trniana lihrarv 
 
 rrSt^'lr. ?oH? ^J,'"»'"-"^..«nters and o'ratLs. SiJon. Apoll7i: 
 IX. cpisi. U). p. i.'y4, Carrn. vni. p. :i50. 
 
 b Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est. is the con 
 ATn^Trn'"", °r Gregory of Tours. (1. ii. c. xi. in torn ii p 168 ) 
 An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649.) mentions an indecent jest of 
 Avitus, which seems more applicable to Rome than to T^ev e. 
 
 c bidonms (Panejryr. Anthem. .'^02, &c.) praises the rovaV birth 
 
 Sot?.'ir"«"nV4':« '"^'l'"' 'f' "^ i'e chooses tS insinuate, bo'h of tie 
 uotliic and Suevic kmgdonis. « n "i mc 
 
 d See the Clironicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv. p. 67fi ) stvles 
 iSum 'sin^Xim!'' """' '''"^"'"' '' ''"'^ ^""*^ in'ltalia^ad'ex' 
 
 e Parcens innorentia; Aviti, is the compassionate, but contemptu- 
 ous, angua^e of Victor Tunnunensis, (in Chron. apud ScaliDer 
 Euseb.) In another place, he calls him, vir totiussimplicitatis This 
 
 fSeTal^es o? S.l';;f,i7.''"'"''^' '"^ '' '' """ »°''^ *"^ ^■"--' ^'-n 
 t He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution of Diocletian. 
 
 (Tillcmont, Mem. Eccles tom. v. p. 270. 696 ) Gregory of Tours hi« 
 peculiar votary, l.as dedicated to the glory of J..linn the Martyr' an 
 
 Ibnlied hy'hi's ihcs"' ' '""'"' ^'°"' ^'"^ ^°°'*^'' ""^^«='*^» P^'" 
 
 g Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. xi. p. 168.) is concise, but correct, in 
 the reign of Ins countryman. The words of Idatius, " caret imperio 
 caret et via" seem to imply, that the death of Avitus was vXii t • 
 but It must have been secret, since Evagrius (I. ii. c. 7.) could si^n- 
 pose, that he died of the plague. '> ^ ' ) »-""'" sup 
 
 h After a modest appeal to the examples of his brethren, Virgil 
 'meat ^'''''^' ^'*^°"'"^ honestly confesses the debt, and promises luTy' 
 
 Sic mihi diverso ntiper suh Atarte cadenli 
 Jupsisti placido Victor ut essem animo. 
 
 Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poct.-e, 
 Atque mea; vita? laus tua sit pretium. 
 
 a T. I, V,- . r. • . ^i'lu". A poll. Carm. iv. p. 308. 
 
 See Diihos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, &c. 
 
 i The words of I'rocopius deserve to be transcribed; c^toj yu.. j 
 
 p*-v eepjTM a-aory ; and afterwards, av.,? t» fxi^ £,« th; vrrH)co»i,-^iT*.oc 
 
 ^5>^ov.«s,co^.£poi J. Tx IS TKj ;7oxi/..5o,-.(,ie Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 7. p. 
 iy4.) a concise but comprehensive definition of royal virtue. 
 
 ^ Irl P^P^-yic was pronounced at Lyons Iwfore the cud of the 
 year 4.58, while the emperor was still coii.sul. It has more art thnn 
 genius, and more labour than art. The ornaments are false or triv- 
 ial ; the expression is feeble and prolix: and Sidonius wants the 
 skill to exiii .It the principal figure in a strong and distinct light. 
 1 he private life of Majorian occupies about two hundred lines, 107 
 
 I She pressed his Immediate death, and was .scarcely satisfied with 
 his di-sgrace. It should seem that .^tiiis, like Belisarius and Marl- 
 borough, was governed by his wife; whose fervent piety, though it 
 might work miracles, (Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 7. p. 162) was noi in- 
 compatible with base and sanguinary counsels. 
 
 r 
 r 
 
 9 
 
 % 
 
484 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 485 
 
 barian, whose birth excluded him from the imperial 
 dignity, governed Italy, with the title of Patrician ; 
 resigned, to his friend, the conspicuous station of 
 master-general of the cavalry and infantry ; and, after 
 an interval of some months, consented to the unani- 
 mous wish of the Romans, whose favour Majorian had 
 solicited by a recent victory over the Alemanni."" He 
 was invested with the purple at Ravenna; and the 
 epistle which he addressed to the senate will best de- 
 scribe his situation and his sentiments. *' Your elec- 
 tion, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the 
 most valiant army, have made me your emperor." 
 May the propitious Deity direct and prosper the coun- 
 sels and events of my administration, to your advan- 
 tage, and to the public welfare ! For my own part, I 
 did not aspire, I have submitted, to reign ; nor should 
 I have discharged the obligations of a citizen, if I had 
 refused, with base and selfish incratitude, to support 
 the weight of those labours, which were imposed by 
 the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince wiiom you 
 have made; partake the duties which you have en- 
 joined ; and may our common endeavours promote 
 the happiness of an empire, which I have accepted 
 from your hands. Be assured, that, in our times, jus- 
 tice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue 
 shall become not only innocent but meritorious. Let 
 none, except the authors themselves, be apprehensive 
 of f/e/a/io7i.s,° which, as a subject, I have condemned, 
 and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own vigi- 
 lance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, 
 shall regulate all military alTairs, and provide for the 
 safety of the Roman world, which we have saved 
 from foreign and domestic enemies. p You now un- 
 derstand the maxims of my government: you may 
 confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a 
 prince, who has formerly been the companion of your 
 life and dangers; who still glories in the name of 
 senator; and who is anxious, that you should never 
 repent of the judgment which you have pronounced in 
 his favour." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of 
 the Roman world, revived the ancient language of 
 law and liberty, which Trajan would not have dis- 
 claimed, must have derived those generous sentiments 
 from his own heart ; since they were not suggested 
 to his imitation by the customs of his age, or the ex- 
 ample of his predecessors.*! 
 
 His salutary '^^^ private and public actions of Ma- 
 laws, jorian are very imperfectly known : but 
 A. D. 457— 4G1. j^jg \^^xs. remarkable for an orijiinal cast 
 of thought and expression, faithfully represent the 
 character of a sovereign, who loved his people, who 
 sympathized ir. their distress, who had studied the 
 causes of the decline of the empire, and who was ca- 
 pable of applying (as far as such reformation was 
 practicable) judicious and eftectual remedies to the 
 public disorders.' His regulations concerning the 
 
 m The Aletnnnni had passpil the Rlirrtian Alps, and wore dcfo.nt- 
 ed in the Campi C<inini, or Valit-v of Rolliiizonc, thronph whicli the 
 Tesin flows, in its descent from iMount Adula, to the Lngo Maggiore, 
 (Cluver. Italia Antiq.toni. i. p. 100, 101.) Tliis hoasted victory over 
 nine hundred harharians (Fanegyr. Majorian. 373, &.C.) helrays tiie 
 extreme weakness of Italy. 
 
 n Imperatorcm me fartum, P, C. elcctionis vesirae arhitrio, et for- 
 tissimi exercitus ordinatione agnosritc. (Xovell. Majorian. tit. iii. p. 
 34. ad calrem Cod. Thcodos.) Sidonius proclaims the unanimous 
 voice of tlic empire : 
 
 Postquam ordine vohis 
 
 Ordo omnis regniim dedcral ; plcbs, curia, mile!>, 
 
 Et collega simul. 380. 
 
 This langtiage is ancient and conRtilutional ; and we may observe, 
 that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the 
 state. 
 
 o Either ddationes. or delationea, would afford a tolerable reading ; 
 but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I 
 have therefore given the preference. 
 
 P Ab exteriio hosle et a domestica clade liheravimus : by the latter, 
 Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus; whose death he 
 consequently vowed as a meritorious act. On this occasion, Sidonius 
 is fearful and ol-scure; he describes the twelve Ciesars, the nations of 
 Africa, &.c. that he may escape the dangerous name of Avitus, (303 
 —369.) 
 
 q See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the senate. (No- 
 vell, tit. 4. p. 34.) Yet the expression, regnum nostrum, bears some 
 taint of the age, and does not mix kindly with the word respublica, 
 which he frequently repeats. 
 
 r See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number, but 
 
 finances manifestly tended to remove, or at least to 
 mitigate, the most intolerable grievances. I. From 
 the first hour of his reign, he was solicitous (I trans- 
 late his own words) to relieve the weary fortunes of 
 the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight 
 of indictions and superindictions.' With this view, 
 he granted an universal amnesty, a final and absolute 
 discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, 
 under any pretence, the fiscal oflTicers might demand 
 from the people. This wise dereliction of obsolete, 
 vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and puri- 
 fied the sources of the public revenue ; and the subject 
 who could now look back without despair, might 
 labour with hope and gratitude for himself and for his 
 country. II. In the assessment and collection of taxes, 
 Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the pro- 
 vincial mai^istrates ; and suppressed the extraordinary 
 commissions which had been introduced, in the name 
 of the emperor himself, or of the praetorian praefects. 
 The favourite servants, who obtained such irregular 
 powers, were insolent in their behaviour, and arbitrary 
 in their demands : they affected to despise the subordi- 
 nate tribunals, and they were discontented, if their 
 fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum which 
 they condescended to pay into the treasury. One in- 
 stance of their extortion would appear incredible, were 
 it not authenticated by the legislator himself. They 
 exacted the whole payment in gold : but they refused 
 the current coin of the empire, and would accept only 
 such ancient pieces as were stamped with the names 
 of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject, who wa.s 
 unprovided with these curious medals, had recourse to 
 the expedient of compounding with their rapacious 
 demands ; or, if he succeeded in the research, his 
 imposition was doubled, according to the weight and 
 value of the money of former times.* III. "The mu- 
 nicipal corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser 
 senators, (so antiquity has justly styled them,) deserve 
 to be considered as the heart of the cities, and the 
 sinews of the republic. And yet so. low are they now 
 reduced, by the injustice of magistrates, and the ve- 
 nality of collectors, that many of their members, re- 
 nouncing their dignity and their country, have taken 
 refuge in distant and obscure exile." He urges, and 
 even compels, their return to their respective cities; 
 but he removes the grievance which had forced them 
 to desert the exercise of their municipal functions. 
 They are directed, under the authority of the provin- 
 cial magistrates, to resume their otfice of levying the 
 tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the 
 whole sum assessed on their district, they are only re- 
 quired to produce a rejiular account of the payments 
 which they have actually received, and of the default- 
 ers who are still indebted to the public. IV. But 
 Majorian was not isfnorant, that these corporate bodies 
 were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and 
 oppression which they had suffered ; and he there- 
 fore revives the useful office of the defenders of cities. 
 He exhorts the people to elect, in a full and free as- 
 sembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who 
 would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their 
 grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the 
 rich, and to inform the emperor of the abuses that 
 were committed under the sanction of his name and 
 authority. 
 
 The spectator who casts a mournful The edifices of 
 view over the ruins of ancient Rome, Itome. 
 is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and 
 
 very long and various) at the end of the Theodosian Code, Novell. 
 I. iv. p. 311— 37. Godefroy has not given any conuncntary on these 
 additional pieces. 
 
 I Fessas provincialium varia ntque multipliri tributorum exactio- 
 ne fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscaiium solutionum oneribus attritas, 
 &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. iv. p 34. 
 
 t The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331.) has found, by a 
 diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed one hundred 
 and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only sixty eight, English 
 grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold coin, excepting only 
 the Oallic solidus, from iti deticicncy, not in the weight, but in the 
 standard. 
 
 Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither 
 leisure, nor power, nor perhaps inclination, to perpe- 
 trate. The tempest of war might strike some lofty 
 turrets to the ground ; but the destruction which under- 
 mined the foundations of those massy fabrics, was 
 prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period often 
 centuries ; and the motives of interest, that afterwards 
 operated without shame or control, were severely 
 checked by the taste and spirit of the emperor Majo- 
 rian. The decay of the city had gradually impaired 
 the value of the public works. The circus and thea- 
 tres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the 
 desires of the people : the temples, which had escaped 
 the zeal of the christians, were no longer inhabited 
 either by gods or men ; the diminished crowds of the 
 Romans were lost in the immense space of their baths 
 and porticoes ; and the stately libraries and halls of 
 justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose 
 repose was seldom disturbed, either by study or busi- 
 ness. The monuments of consular, or imperial, great- 
 ness were no longer revered, as the immortal glory of 
 the capital : they were only esteemed as an inexhaus- 
 tible mine of materials, cheaper, and more convenient, 
 than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were con- 
 tinually addressed to the easy majjistrates of Rome, 
 which stated the want of stones or bricks for some 
 necessary service: the fairest forms of architecture 
 were rudely defaced for the sake of some paltry, or pre- 
 tended, repairs; and the degenerate Romans, who con- 
 verted the spoil to their own emolument, demolished, 
 with sacrilegious hands, the labours of their ancestors. 
 Majorian, who bad often sighed over the desolation of 
 the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil." 
 He reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance 
 ofthe extreme cases which might justify the destruction 
 of an ancient edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of 
 gold (two thousand pounds sterling,) on every mao-is- 
 trate who should presume to grant such illegal and 
 scandalous licence; and threatened to chastise the 
 criminal obedience of their subordinate oflicers, by a 
 severe whipping, and the amputation of both their 
 hands. In the last instance, the legislator might seem 
 to forget the proportion of guilt and punishment ; but 
 his zeal arose from a generous principle, and Majorian 
 was anxious to protect the monuments of those ages, 
 in which he would have desired and deserved to live. 
 The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to in- 
 crease the number of his subjects; that it was his duty 
 to guard the purity ofthe marriage-bed : but the means 
 which he employed to accomplish these salutary pur- 
 poses, are of an ambiguous, and perhaps exceptiona- 
 ble, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated their 
 virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the 
 veil, till they had reached their fortieth year. "Wid- 
 ows under that age were compelled to form a second 
 alliance within the term of five years, by the forfeiture 
 of half their wealth to their nearest relations, or to the 
 state. Unequal marriages were condemned or annul- 
 led. The punishment of confiscation and exile was 
 deemed so inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if 
 the criminal returned to Italy, he might, by the ex- 
 press declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity.^ 
 
 Majorian pre- ^'^^'^ ^^^^ emperor Majorian assidu- 
 
 pares to invade ously laboured to restore the happiness 
 Africa. gnj virtue of the Romans, he encoun- 
 
 tered the arms of Genseric, from his 
 
 A. D. 457. 
 
 n The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. lit. vi. p. 35.) is curious. 
 "Antiquarum a>dium dissipatur speciosa constructio ; et ut aliquid 
 reparetur, magna diruiintur. Hinc jam occasio nascitur, ut etiam 
 unusquisque privatum a>dificium construens, per eratiatn judicum. . . 
 prssumere de puhjicis locis necessaria, et iransferre non dubitot " 
 &c. With equal zeal but with less power. Petrarch, in the fourteenth 
 century, repealed the same comi'Iaints, (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. 
 p. 326. 3*27.) If 1 p;-osecute this history. I shall not he unmindful of 
 the decline and fall of the city of Rome ; an interesting object, to 
 which my plan was originally confined. 
 
 X The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular of Tusca- 
 ny, in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost like per- 
 sonal resentment. (Novell, tit. ix. p. 47.) The law of Majorian, 
 which punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards repealed by 
 his successor Scverus. (Novel. Sever, tit. i. p. 37.) 
 
 character and situation, their most formidable enemy. 
 A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of 
 the Liris, or Garigliano; but the imperial troops sur- 
 prised and attacked the disorderly barbarians, who 
 were encumbered with the spoils of Campania; they 
 were chased with slaughter to their ships, and their 
 leader, the king's brother-in-law, was found in the 
 number ofthe slain.^ Such vigilance might announce 
 the character of the new reign ; hut the strictest vigi- 
 lance, and the most numerous forces, were insufficient 
 to protect the long-extended coast of Italy from the 
 depredations of a naval war. The public opinion had 
 imposed a nobler and more arduous task on the genius 
 of Majorian. Rome expected from him alone the res- 
 titution of Africa; and the design, which he formed, 
 of attacking the Vandals in their new settlements, was 
 the result of bold and judicious policy. If the intrepid 
 emperor could have infused his own spirit into the 
 youth of Italy ; if he could have revived, in the field of 
 Mars, the manly exercises in which he had always 
 surpassed his equals; he might have marched against 
 Genseric at the head of a Roman army. Such a refor- 
 nriation of national manners might be embraced by the 
 rising generation ; but it is the misfortune of those 
 princes who laboriously sustain a declining monarchy, 
 that, to obtain some immediate advantage, or to avert 
 some impending danger, they are forced to counte- 
 nance, and even to multiply, the most pernicious 
 abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predeces- 
 sors, was reduced to the disgraceful expedient of sub- 
 stituting barbarian auxiliaries in the place of his un- 
 warlike subjects : and his superior abilities could only 
 be displayed in the vigour and dexterity with which 
 he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to recoil on 
 the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who 
 were already engaged in the service of the empire, the 
 fame of his liberality and valour attracted the nations 
 of the Danube, the Borysthenes, and perhaps of the 
 Tanais. Many thousands of the bravest subjects of 
 Attila, the Gepida?, the Ostrogoths, the Rugians, the 
 Burgundians, the Snevi, the Alani, assembled in the 
 plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was 
 balanced by their mutual animosities.* They passed 
 the Alps in a severe winter. The emperor led the 
 waj% on foot, and in complete armour; sounding, with 
 his long long staff, the depth of the ice, or snow, and 
 encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the ex- 
 treme cold, by the cheerful assurance, that they should 
 be satisfied with the heat of Africa. The citizens of 
 Lyons had presumed to shut their gates : they soon 
 implored, and experienced, the clemency of Majorian. 
 He vanquished Theodoric in the field ; and admitted to 
 his friendship and alliance, a king whom he had found 
 not unworthy of his arms. The beneficial, though 
 precarious, reunion of the greatest part of Gaul and 
 Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as well as of 
 force;* and the independent Bagauda?, who had es- 
 caped, or resisted, the oppression of former reigns, 
 were disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. 
 His camp was filled with barbarian allies ; his throne 
 was supported by the zeal of an affectionate people; 
 but the emperor had foreseen, that it was impossible, 
 without a maritime power, to achieve the conquest of 
 Africa. In the first Punic war, the republic had ex- 
 erted such incredible diligence, that, within sixty 
 days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in 
 the forest, a fl-eet of one hundred and sixty galleys 
 proudly rode at anchor in the sea.*" Under circum- 
 
 y Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 385— 4 10, 
 
 z The review of the army, and passage of the Alps, contain the 
 most tolerable passages of the Panegyric, (470— ."iaS.) M. de Buat 
 (Hist, des Peu pies, &c. tom. viii. p. 49—55.) is a more satisfactory 
 commentator than either Savaron or Sirinond. 
 
 a T^ /<£v hnxoiq, tx Si xc^c<;, js the just and forcible distinction 
 of Priscus, (Excerp. Legal, p. 42.) in a short fragment, which throws 
 much light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed 
 the defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly pro- 
 claimed in Gallicia ; and are marked in the Chronicle of Idatius. 
 
 b Florus, I. ii. c. 2. He amuses himself with the poetical fancy, 
 that the treeu had been transformed into ships : and indeed the 
 
 J- • 
 
 i.i#- 
 
 \' 
 
 % 
 
486 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 The lo8g of hid 
 fleet. 
 
 Stances much less favourable, Majorian equalled the 
 spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The 
 •woods of the Apennine were felled ; the arsenals and 
 manufactures of Ravenna and Misenum were restored ; 
 Italy and Gaul vied with each other in liberal contri- 
 butions to the public service ; and the imperial navy 
 of three hundred large galleys, with an adequate pro- 
 portion of transports and smaller vessels, was collect- 
 ed in the secure and capacious harbour of Carthagena 
 in Spain.' The intrepid countenance of Majorian ani- 
 mated his troops with a confidence of victory ; and if 
 we might credit the historian Procopius, his courage 
 sometimes hurried him beyond the bounds of pru- 
 dence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the 
 state of the Vandals, he ventured, after disgruising the 
 colour of his hair, to visit Carthage, in the character 
 of his own ambassador : and Genseric was afterwards 
 mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and 
 dismissed the emperor of the Romans. Such an anec- 
 dote may be rejected as an improbable fiction ; but it 
 is a fiction which would not have been imagined, un- 
 less in the life of a hero."' 
 
 Without the help of a personal inter- 
 view, Genseric was sufficiently acquaint- 
 ed with the genius and designs of his adversary. He 
 practised his customary arts of fraud and delay, but he 
 practised them without success. His applications for 
 peace became each hour more submissive, and peihaps 
 more sincere; but the inflexible Majorian had adopted 
 the ancient maxim, that Rome could not be safe, as 
 long as Carthage existed in a hostile state. The king 
 of the Vandals distrusted the valour of his native sub- 
 jects, who were enervated by the luxury of the south ;" 
 he suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, 
 who abhorred him as an Arian tyrant; and the despe- 
 rate measure which he executed, of reducing Maurita- 
 nia into a desert,' could not defeat the operations of the 
 Roman emperor, who was at liberty to land his troops 
 on any part of the African coast. But Genseric was 
 saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the 
 treachery of some powerful subjects ; envious, or ap- 
 prehensive, of their master's success. Guided by 
 their secret intelligence, he surprised the unguarded 
 fleet in the bay of Carthagena : many of the ships 
 were sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the preparations of 
 three years were destroyed in a single day.« After 
 this event, the behaviour of the two antagonists show- 
 ed them superior to their fortune. The Vandal, in- 
 stead of being elated by this accidental victory, imme- 
 diately renewed his solicitations for peace. The em- 
 peror of the west, who was capable of forming great 
 designs, and of supporting heavy disappointments, 
 consented to a treaty, or rather to a suspension, of 
 arms ; in the full assurance that, before he could re- 
 store his navy, he should be supplied with provoca- 
 tions to justify a second war. Majorian returned to 
 Italy, to prosecute his labours for the public happi- 
 
 whole transaction, as it is related in the first book of Polybius, devi- 
 ates too much from the probable course of human events, 
 c Interea duplici texis dum liltore classein 
 
 Inferno superoque niari, cedil omnis in aequor 
 
 Sylva tibi, &c. 
 
 Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 441—461. 
 The mmiber of ships, which Priscus fixed at 300, is magnified, by an 
 indefinite comparison wiih the fleets of Acamemnon, Xerxes, and 
 Augustus. 
 
 d Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 8. p. 194. When Genseric con- 
 ducted his unknown guest into the arsenal of Carthaire, the arms 
 clashed of their own accord. Majorian had tinged his yellow locks 
 with a black colour. 
 
 e Spoliisqtie potitus 
 
 Immensis, robur luxu jam perdidit omne, 
 Quo valuit dum pauper eral. 
 
 ,, , , ,. ^ Pa negyr. Majorian. 330. 
 
 He afterwards applies to Genseric, unjustly, as it should seem, the 
 vices of his subjects. 
 
 f He burnt the villages, and poisoned the springs, (Priscus, p. 42.) 
 Dubos, (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 475.) observes, that the maiiazines 
 which the M(X)rs buried in the earth, might escape his destructive 
 search. Two or three hundred pits are sometimes due in the same 
 
 glace ; and each pit contains at least four hundred bushels of corn, 
 haw's Travels, p. 139. 
 
 g Idalius, who was safe in Gallicia, from the power of Ricimer, 
 boldly and honestly declares, Vandali per proditores admoniti, &c. 
 he dissembles, however, the name of the traitor. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ness ; and as he was conscious of his own integrity, 
 he might long remain ignorant of the dark conspiracy 
 which threatened his throne and his life. The recent 
 misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had 
 dazzled the eyes of the multitude: almost every des- 
 cription of civil and military oflficers were exasperated 
 against the reformer, since they all derived some ad- 
 vantage from the abuses which he endeavoured to sup- 
 press ; and the patrician Ricimer impelled the incon- 
 stant passions of the barbarians against a prince whom 
 he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could 
 not protect him from the impetuous sedition, which 
 broke out in the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the 
 Alps. He was compelled to abdicate the imperial 
 purple : five days after his abdication, it was reported 
 that he died of a dysentery ;•• and the hjs death 
 humble tomb, which covered his re- A.D.iai, 
 mains, was consecrated by the respect August?, 
 and gratitude of succeeding generations.* The private 
 character of Majorian inspired love and respect. Ma- 
 licious calumny and satire excited his indignation, or, 
 if he himself were the object, his contempt; but he 
 protected the freedom of wit, and, in the hours which 
 the emperor gave to the familiar society of his friends, 
 he could indulge his taste for pleasantry, without de- 
 grading the majesty of his rank.*' 
 
 It was not perhaps without some re- 
 gret, that Ricimer sacrificed his friend 
 to the interest of his ambition : but he 
 resolved, in a second choice, to avoid 
 the imprudent preference of superior vir- 
 tue and merit. At his command, the obsequious sen- 
 ate of Rome bestowed the imperial title on Libius Se- 
 verus, who ascended the throne of the west without 
 emerging from the obscurity of a private condition. 
 History has scarcely deigned to notice his birth, his 
 elevation, his character, or his death. Severus ex- 
 pired, as soon as his life became inconvenient to his 
 patron;' and it would be useless to discriminate his 
 nominal reign in the vacant interval of six years, be- 
 tween the death of Majorian, and the elevation of An- 
 themius. During that period, the government was in 
 the hands of Ricimer alone; and although the modest 
 barbarian disclaimed the name of king, he accumulated 
 treasures, formed a separate army, negociated private 
 alliances, and ruled Italy with the same independent 
 and despotic authority, which was afterwards exer- 
 cised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his dominions 
 were bounded by the Alps ; and two Roman generals, 
 Marcellinus and ^gidius, maintained their allegiance 
 to the republic) by rejecting, with disdain, the phan- 
 tom which he styled an emperor. Mar- Revolt of Mar- 
 cellinus still adhered to the old religion ; cellinus in Dal- 
 and the devout pagans, w^ho secretly dis- "'*"*♦ 
 obeyed the laws of the church and state, applauded his 
 profound skill in the science of divination. But he 
 possessed the more valuable qualifications of learnintr, 
 virtue, and courage;"" the study of the Latin literature 
 
 Ricimer reigns 
 under the name 
 of Severus, 
 A. D. 
 461—407. 
 
 h Procop. de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 8. p. 194. The testimony of Ida- 
 tius is fair and impartial; *' Majorianum de Galliis Romam redeun- 
 tein, et Romano imperio vel nomini res neces-sarias ordinantem ; 
 Richimer livore percitus, et inridorvm consilio fultus, fraude inter- 
 ficit circumventum." Some read Suerorum, and I am unwilling to 
 efTace either t>f the words, as they express the different accomplices 
 who united in the conspiracy acainst Majorian. 
 
 i See the Epigrams of Eunotlius, No. cxxxv. inter Sirinond Opera, 
 tom. i. p. 1903. It is flat and obscure ; but Eunodius was made bisliop 
 of Pavia fifty years after the death of 31ajorian, and his praise deserves 
 credit and regard. 
 
 k Sidonius cives a tedious account (1. i. epist. xi. p. 25—31.) of a 
 supper at Aries, to which he was invited by Majorian, a short time 
 before his death. He had no intention of praising a deceased empe- 
 ror ; but a casual disinterested remark, " Subrisit Augustus ; ut erat 
 auctoritate servata, cum se communioni dedisset, joci plenus," out- 
 weiahs the six hundred lines of his venal panegyric. 
 
 1 Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 317,) dismisses him to heaven ; 
 Auxerat Augustus naturae lege Severus 
 
 Divorum numerum. 
 
 And an old list of the emperors, composed about the time of Justinian, 
 praises his piety, and fixes his residence at Rome. (Sirmond Not. 
 ad Sidon. p. Ill, 112.) 
 
 m Tillemont, who is always scandalized by the virtues of infidels, 
 attributes this advantageous portrait of MarceUinus (which Suidag 
 has preserved) to the partial zeal of some Pagaa historian. (Hist, des 
 Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 330.) 
 
 had improved h,8 taste; and his military talents had 
 recomiijended him to the esteem and confidence of the 
 great ^tius, in whose ruin he was involved. By a 
 timely flijrht, Marcellinus escaped the racre of Valen- 
 tinian, and boldly asserted his liberty amidst the con- 
 vulsions of the western empire. Uii voluntary, or re- 
 luctant, submission to the authority of Majorian, was 
 rewarded by the government of Sicily, and the com! 
 mand of an army, stationed in that island to oppose, or 
 to a tack, the Vandals ; but his barbarian mercenaries 
 thP L r 1 n^'T ' ^^^^^' ^"^^ ^^"^P^^d to revolt by 
 If f.i hf 1 f T'^"^ of Ricimer. At the head of a band 
 of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus occupied 
 the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of patri- 
 Clan of t^he west, secured the love of his subjects by a 
 inild and equitable reign, built a fleet, which clainied 
 the dominion of the Hadriatic, and alternately alarmed 
 .ndof^gidius i^!« ^«ff ts of Italy and of Africa." ^gi- 
 in Gaul. ^'"s, the master-general of Gaul, who 
 equalled, or at least who imitated, the 
 heroes of ancient Rome," proclaimed his immortal re- 
 sentment aaainst the assassins of his beloved master. 
 A brave and numerous army was attached to his stand- 
 ard ; and, though he was prevented by the arts of Rici- 
 
 t"^p''rt ^rT' °^ '^^ Visigoths, from marching to 
 the gates of Rome, he maintained his independent 
 
 n?TJdi ^ ^'^""^ '^? ^'P^' ^"^ ^«"^«^«d the name 
 of Agidius respectable both in peace and war. The 
 
 pranks, who had punished with exile the youthful fol 
 
 487 
 
 w^c ^f ><L-i 1 • '^ V "*«ii cAiic uie _yuuiniui loi- 
 
 les of Childeric, elected the Roman general for their 
 king ; h,s vanity, rather than his ambition, was grati- 
 fied by that singular honour; and when the nation, at 
 the end of four years, repented of the injury which 
 they had offered to the Merovingian family, he pa- 
 tiently acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful 
 prince. The authority of .Egidius ended only with 
 his life; and the suspicions of poison and secret vio- 
 lence, which derived some countenance from the char- 
 acter 01 Kicimer, were eagerly entertained by the pas- 
 sionate credulity of the Gauls.P ^ 
 
 .t VaS,°' ^hTch thi"°^"? "^ ^''!^' " "^"^^ ^^ 
 A.D. 4G1-4C7. „ ^" i"® western empire was gradu- 
 
 r T3- . ^"y /educed, was afflicted, under the 
 
 reign of Ricimer, by the incessant depredations of the 
 
 Vandal pirates.-^ In the spring of each year they 
 
 equipped a formidable navy in tlfe port of Cartha'e^ 
 
 and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age 
 
 ttn. "l?^"^"^^- '" P^''^" ^^^ "^««t important expedi- 
 tions His designs were concealed with impenetra- 
 ble secrecy, till the moment that he hoisted sail. 
 VVhen he was asked by his pilot, what course he 
 
 rren^lii tTv"^'^'' ^^" determination to the winds 
 (replied the barbarian, with pious arrogance;) iJicy 
 Will transport us to the guilty coast whos^ inhabitant's 
 
 n Procopius de Bell. Vandal 1 i c f> n lOi in , • 
 
 stances o/lhe 1 i fe.^ Marcel li mis i't* is not^ealyVo rlUd Se See'k 
 hisU.rian with the Latin Chronicles of the times '■*''"''"^^^® ^^^^^ 
 i,r"/.,\""^''4.PP'y ^" ^c'dius the praises which Sidonius (Panecyr 
 JI .jorian. o33.) bestows on a nameless master-rreneral, who corn,n-,n' 
 ded the rear-guard of Majorian. Idatius, from public reporS" 
 mends his christian piety; and Priscus mentions (p. 42.)rxfs military 
 
 P Grej. Turon. 1. ii. c. 12. in tom. ii. p. 168. The Pere Daniel 
 whose Ideas were superficial and modern, has started luneobiectTns 
 against the story of thilderic, (Hist, de France, tom. i P??fS H st" 
 rmue, p. Ixxviii. &c.) ; but they have been faidy satisfi^ed by Dubis 
 [ult-Tt' ^""'- '-P- 460 -510.) and by two authors who disputed 
 the prize of the Academy of Soissoris, (p. 131-177.310-^99 )\Vi^h 
 ElJP.lf " V"'^ ^.V^hilderic's exiieTit is necessa,; efthVr to pro 
 lung the life of iEgidius beyond the date assigned by the ChronicTe 
 
 SUeSo^f oXr "' '''' '"''' ^' ^^^°^^^' '^^ -^^'"» JKar/rnno! 
 
 LA:f!:^:^.)1R^4^S';^;:'s^?l:^^s^Y<f^ 
 
 C.22.P. 2^28 ) Victor Vitensis, (de Persecm VandaL f. /I' ^T' "Sd 
 Ru.nart, p. 467-481.) and in the three panegyrics of Sidonius v^h^^se 
 chronological order is absurdly transposed in the e.litions both of sf 
 
 ^7-300.38^—140.) Anthem. Carm. ii. 313-386.) In one Dassa-e 
 byVlivef; iSag'fP'"' '^ '" ^"'j^"' ^"^ '^P'^'^' a s^ronTidea! 
 
 Hinc Vandalushostis 
 
 Urget ; et in nostrum numerosa classe quotannis 
 
 Miliut excidium ; conversoque ordine Fati 
 
 Tomda Caucaseos infert mihi Byrsa furores. 
 
 have provoked the divme justice :" but if Genseric 
 himself deigned to issue more precise orders, he judg- 
 ed the most wealthy to he the most criminal. The 
 Vandals repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Lijru. 
 r^l J"""" v^' Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, 
 Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sic^ 
 ily: they were tempted to subdue the island of Sar- 
 dinia so advantageously placed in the centre of the 
 Mediterranean ; and their arms spread desolation or 
 terror, from the columns of Hercules to the mouth of 
 the JNUe. As they were more ambitious of spoil than 
 ol glory, they seldom attacked any fortified cities or 
 engaged any regular troops in the open field. But'the 
 celerity of their motions enabled them, almost at the 
 same time, to threaten and to attack the most distant 
 objects, which attracted their desires; and as thcv al 
 ways embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had 
 
 try with a body of light cavalry. Yet, notwithstand- 
 ing the example of their king, the native Vandals and 
 Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and perilous 
 warfare; the hardy generation of the first conquerors 
 was almost extinguished, and their sons, who were 
 born in Africa, enjoyed the delicious baths and crar- 
 dens which had been acquired by the valour of their 
 lathers. Iheir place w^as readily supplied by a vari- 
 ous multitude of Moors and Romans, of captives and 
 outlaws ; and those desperate wretches, who had al- 
 ready violated the laws of their country, were the most 
 eager to promote the atrocious acts which disgrace the 
 victories of Genseric. In the treatment of histinhappy 
 prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice and 
 sometimes indulged his cruelty; and the massacre of 
 hve hundred noble citizens of Zant or Zacynthus 
 whose mangled bodies he cast into the Ionian sea, was 
 imputed, by the public indignation, to his latest pos- 
 terity. ^ 
 
 Such crimes could not be excused by ,,, 
 any provocations ; but the war, which wuliTJrtern 
 the king of the Vandals prosecuted empire, 
 against the Roman empire, was justified ^ ^^- ■*^-' *^''- 
 by a specious and reasonable motive. The widow of 
 Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from 
 Rome to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the Theo- 
 dosian house; her elder daughter, Eudocia, became 
 the reluctant wife of Hunneric, his eldest son ; and the 
 stern father, asserting a legal claim, which could not 
 easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a just propor- 
 tion of the imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at 
 least a valuable, compensation, was ofl'ered by the 
 eastern emperor, to purchase a necessary peace. Eu- 
 doxia and her younger daughter, Placidia, were hon- 
 ourably restored, and the fury of the Vandals was con- 
 fined to the limits of the western empire. The Ital- 
 ians, destitute of a naval force, which alone was capa- 
 ble of protecting their coasts, implored the aid of the 
 more fortunate nations of the east; who had formerly 
 acknowledged, in peace and war, the supremacy of 
 Rome. But the perpetual division of the two empires 
 had alienated their interest and their inclinations; the 
 jaith of a recent treaty was alleged ; and the western 
 Romans, instead of arms and ships, could only obtain 
 the assistance of a cold and ineffectual mediation. 
 The haughty Ricimer, who had long struggled with 
 the difficulties of his situation, was at length reduced 
 to address the throne of Constantinople, in the humble 
 language of a subject; and Italy submitted, as the 
 price and security of the alliance, to accrpt a master 
 from the choice of the emperor of the east.' It is not 
 
 r The poet himself is compelled to acknowledge the distress of 
 Kicimer: 
 
 Praeterea invictus Ricimer, quern publica fata 
 
 Respiciunt, propria solus vix Marte repellit 
 
 Piratam per rura vagum 
 
 Italy addresses her complaint to the Tiber, and Rome, at the solicita- 
 tion of the river-god, transports herself to Constantinople, renounces 
 her ancient claims, and implores the friendship of Aurora, the god- 
 dess of the east. This fabulous machinery, which the genius of Clau- 
 dian had used and abused, is the constant and miserable resource of 
 the muse of Sidonius. 
 
 r 
 
 IMP* 
 
 4^r 
 
 « 
 
 / 
 
488 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 489 
 
 the purpose of the present chapter, or even of the pre- 
 sent volume, to continue the distinct series of the By- 
 zantine history ; but a concise view of the reijrn and 
 character of the emperor Leo, may explain the last ef- 
 forts that were attempted to save the falling empire of 
 the west.' 
 
 I^o, emperor of Since the death of the younger Theo- 
 therast, ^ dosius, the domcstic repose of Constan- 
 ** ' ■ tinople had never been interrupted by 
 war or faction. Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, 
 and the sceptre of the east, on the modest virtue of 
 Marcian : he gratefully reverenced her august rank and 
 virgin chastity ; and, after her death, he gave his peo- 
 ple the example of the religious worship, that was due 
 to the memory of the imperial saint.' Attentive to the 
 prosperity of his own dominions, Marcian seemed to 
 behold with indifference the misfortunes of Rome ; and 
 the obstinate refusal of a brave and active prince, to 
 draw his sword against the Vandals, was ascribed to a 
 secret promise, which had formerly been exacted from 
 him wiien he was a captive in the power of Genseric.'' 
 The death of Marcian, after a reign of seven years, 
 would have exposed the east to the danger of a popu- 
 lar election, if the superior weight of a single family 
 had not been able to. incline the balance in favour of 
 the candidate whose interest they supported. The 
 patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on his 
 own head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene 
 creed.* During three generations, the armies of the 
 east were successively commanded by his father, by 
 himself, and by his son Ardaburins : his barbarian 
 guards formed a military force that overawed the pal- 
 ace and the capital ; and the liberal distribution of his 
 immense treasures, rendered Aspar as popular as he 
 was powerful. He recommended the obscure name 
 of Leo of Thrace, a military tribune, and the principal 
 steward of his household. His nomination was unan- 
 imously ratified by the senate ; and the servant of As- 
 par received the imperial crown from the hands of the 
 patriarch or bishop, who was permitted to express, by 
 this unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity. ^ 
 This emperor, the first of the name of Leo, has been 
 distinguij^hed by the title of the Great ^ from a succes- 
 sion of princes, who gradually fixed in the opinion of 
 the Greeks a very humble standard of heroic, or at 
 least of royal, perfection. Yet the temperate firmness 
 with which Leo resisted the oppression of his bene- 
 factor, showed that he was conscious of his duty and 
 of his prerogative. Aspar was astonished to find that 
 his influence could no longer appoint a praefect of Con- 
 stantinople : he presumed to reproach his sovereign 
 with a breach of promise, and insolently shaking his 
 purple, *' It is not proper (said he) that the man who 
 is invested with this garment, should be guilty of ly- 
 ing." '* Nor is it proper (replied Leo) that a prince 
 should be compelled to resign his own judgment, and 
 the public interest, to the will of a subject."' After 
 this extraordinary scene, it was impossible that the re- 
 conciliation of the emperor and the patrician could be 
 sincere; or, at least, that it could be solid and perma- 
 nent. An army oflsaurians* was secretly levied, and 
 
 8 The originiil authors of the reigns of Marcian, Leo, and Zeno, arc 
 revUiccil to some imperfect fragments, whose deficiencies must be 
 su|>plied from the more recent compilations of Theophanes, Zonaras, 
 and Cedreniis. 
 
 t St. Pulf-heria died A. D. 453, four years before her nominal hus- 
 band ; and her festival is celebrated on the 10th of September, by the 
 modern Greeks : slie beriueathed an iiinnense patrimony to pious, or at 
 least to ecclesiastical, uses. See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. lorn. 
 XV. p. 181—18^1. 
 
 u See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4. p. 185. 
 
 X From this disability of Aspar to ascend the throne, it may be in- 
 ferred tliat the stain of heresy was perpetual and indelible, while 
 that oi barbarism disappeared in the second generation. 
 
 y Theophanes, p. 95. This appears to be the first origin of a cere- 
 mony, which all the christian princes of the world have since adop- 
 ted ; and from which the clergy have deduced the most formid«ble 
 consequences. 
 
 z Cedrenus (p. 3 15, 316.) who was conversant with the writers of 
 better days, has preserved the remarkable words of Aspar, B*o-.\iu 
 
 TOV UUTIJV Tlfl' HKKfiytS* TTlftOi&Kf.UtVOV 8 Xpl ^< •< yiU'^iir 3 X I , 
 
 * The power of the Isaurians agitated the eastern empire in the two 
 succeeding reigns of Zeno and Anaalalius ; but it ended in the de- 
 
 introduced into Constantinople ; and while Leo under- 
 mined the authority, and prepared the disgrace, of the 
 family of Aspar, his mild and cautious behaviour re- 
 strained them from any rash and desperate attempts, 
 which might have been fatal to themselves, or their 
 enemies. The measures of peace and war were af- 
 fected by this internal revolution. As long as Aspar 
 degraded the majesty of the throne, the secret corres- 
 pondence of religion and interest engaged him to fa- 
 vour the cause of Genseric. When Leo had delivered 
 himself froiii that ignominious servitude, he listened to 
 the complaints of the Italians; resolved to extirpate 
 the tyranny of the Vandals ; and declared his alliance 
 with his colleague, Anthemius, whom he solemnly in- 
 vested with the diadem and purple of the west. 
 
 The virtues of Anthemius have per- Anthemius em- 
 haps been magnified, since the imperial iwrorof the west, 
 descent, which he could only deduce A. D. 407-472. 
 from the usurper Procopius, has been swelled into a 
 line of emperors.** But the merit of his immediate 
 parents, their honours, and their riches, rendered An- 
 themius one of the most illustrious subjects of the 
 east. His father, Procopius, obtained, after his Per- 
 sian embassy, the rank of general and patrician ; and 
 the name of Anthemius was derived from his maternal 
 grandfather, the celebrated prefect, who protected, 
 with so much ability and success, the infant reign of 
 Theodosius. The grandson of the praefect was raised 
 above the condition of a private subject, by his marriage 
 with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor Marcian. 
 This splendid alliance, which might supersede the ne- 
 cessity of merit, hastened the promotion of Anthemius 
 to the successive dignities of count, of master general, 
 of consul, and of patrician ; and his merit or fortune 
 claimed the honours of a victory, which was obtained 
 on the banks of the Danube, over the Huns. With- 
 out indulging an extravagant ambition, the son-in-law 
 of Marcian might hope to be his successor ; but An- 
 themius supported the disappointment with courage 
 and patience ; and his subsequent elevation was uni- 
 versally approved by the public, who esteemed him 
 worthy to reign, till he ascended the throne.*^ The 
 emperor of the west marched from Constantinople, at- 
 tended by several counts of high distinction, and a 
 body of guards almost equal to the strength and num- 
 bers of a regular army ; he entered a. d. 467, 
 Rome in triumph, and the choice of April V2. 
 Leo was confirmed by the senate, the people, and the 
 barbarian confederates of Italy.** The solemn inaugu- 
 ration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of 
 his daughter and the patrician Ricimer ; a fortunate 
 event, which was considered as the firmest security of 
 the* union and happiness of the state. The wealth of 
 two empires was ostentatiously displayed ; and many 
 senators completed their ruin, by an expensive effort 
 to disguise their poverty. All serious business was 
 suspended during this festival ; the courts of justice 
 were shut; the streets of Rome, the theatres, the 
 places of public and private resort, resounded with 
 hymenaial songs and dances; and the royal bride, 
 clothed in silken robes, with a crown on her head, was 
 conducted to the palace of Ricimer, who had changed 
 his military dress for the habit of a consul and a sena- 
 tor. On this memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose 
 early ambition had been so fatally blasted, appeared as 
 the orator of Auvergne, among the provincial depu- 
 
 struction of those barbarians, who maintained their fierce independ- 
 ence about two hundred and thirty years. 
 
 b ■ Tali tu civis ab urbe 
 
 Procopio genitore micas ; cui prisca propago 
 Au^ustis venit a,proaris. 
 The poet (Sidon. Panegyr. Anthem. 67— 30C.) then proceeds to relate 
 the private life and fortunes of the future emperor, with which he 
 must have been very imperfectly acquainted. 
 
 c Sidonius discovers, with tolerable incenuity, that this disappoint- 
 ment added new lustre to the virtues of Anthemius, (210, &,c.) who 
 declined one sceptre, and reluctantly accepted another, (22, &c.) 
 
 d The poet again celebrates the unanimity of all orders of the 
 state : (15- 22.) and the Chrunicle of Idatius mentions the forces 
 which attended his march. 
 
 A. D. 4G8. ties who addressed the throne with con- 
 January 1. gratulations or complaints.' The cal- 
 ends of January were now approaching, and the venal 
 poet, who had loved Avilus, and esteemed Majorian, 
 was persuaded by his friends, to celebrate, in heroic 
 verse, the merit, the felicity, the second consulship, 
 and the future triumphs, of the emperor Anthemius. 
 Sidonius pronounced, with assurance and success, a 
 panegyric which is still extant ; and whatever might 
 be the imperfections, either of the subject or of the 
 composition, the welcome flatterer was immediately re- 
 warded with the prefecture of Rome; a dignity 
 which placed him among the most illustrious person- 
 ages of the empire, till he wisely preferred the more 
 respectable character of a bishop and a saint.' 
 The festival of The Greeks ambitiously commend 
 the Luperodiia. the piety and catholic faith of the em- 
 peror whom they gave to the west; nor do they forget 
 to observe, that when he left Constantinople, he con- 
 verted his palace into the pious foundation of a public 
 bath, a church, and an hospital for old men.* Yet 
 some suspicious appearances are found to sully the 
 theological fame of Anthemius. From the conversa- 
 tion of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he had im- 
 bibed the spirit of religious toleration ; and the heretics 
 of Rome would have assembled with impunity, if the 
 bold and vehement censure which pope Hilary pro- 
 nounced in the church of St. Peter, had not obliged 
 him to abjure the unpopular indulgence.'' Even the 
 pagans, a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some 
 vain hopes from the indiflference, or partiality, of An- 
 themius ; and his singular friendship for the philoso- 
 pher Severus, whom he promoted to the consulship, 
 was ascribed to a secret project of reviving the ancient 
 worship of the gods.' These idols were crumbled into 
 dust ; and the mythology which had once been the creed 
 of nations, was so universally disbelieved, that it might 
 be employed without scandal, or at least without sus- 
 picion, by christian poets.'' Yet the vestiges of su- 
 perstition were not absolutely obliterated, and the fes- 
 tival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had preceded the 
 foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the 
 reign of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites 
 were expressive of an early state of society before the 
 invention of arts and agriculture. The rustic deities 
 who presided over the toils and pleasures of the pas- 
 toral life. Pan, Faunus, and their train of satyrs, were 
 such as the fancy of shepherds might create, sportive, 
 petulant, and lascivious ; whose power was limited, 
 and whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the 
 offering the best adapted to their character and attri- 
 butes ; the flesh of the victim was roasted on willow 
 spits; and the riotous youths, who crowded to the 
 feast, ran naked about the fields, with leather thongs 
 in their hands, communicating, as it was supposed, 
 the blessings of fecundity to the women whom they 
 
 p Inlerveni autem nupliispatricii Ricimeria, cui filiaperennis Au- 
 gusti in spem publicae securitatis copulabatur. The journey of Sido- 
 nius from Lyons, and the festival of Rome, are described with some 
 spirit. L. i. epist. 5. p. 9—13. Epist. 9. p. 21. 
 
 f Sidonius (1. i. epist. 9. p. 23^24.) very fairly states his motive, his 
 labour, and his reward. "Hie ipse panegyricus, si non judicium, 
 " certe eventum, boni operis, accepit." He was made bishop of Cler- 
 mont, A. P. 471. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 750. 
 
 g The palace of Anthemius stood on the banks of the Propontis. In 
 the ninth century, Alexius, the 8on-in>law of the emperor Theophi- 
 lus, obtained permission to purchase the ground ; and ended his days 
 in a monastery, which he founded on that delightful spot. Ducange, 
 Consiantinupolis Christiana, p. 117. 152. 
 
 h Papa Hilarus . . . apud beatum Peirum Apostolum, palam ne id 
 fieret clara voce constrinxit, in tantum ut non eafaciendacum inter- 
 positione juramenti idem promitterit imperator. Gelasius Epistol. ad 
 Andronicum, apud Baron. A. D. 467. No. 3. The cardinal observes, 
 with some complacency, that it was much easier to plant heresies at 
 Constantinople than at Rome. 
 
 i Damaiscius, in the life of the philosopher Isidore, apud Photium, p. 
 1049. Damascius,who lived under Justinian, composed another work, 
 consisting of 570 preternatural stories of souls, daemons, apparitions, 
 the dotage of Platonic paganism. 
 
 k In the poetical works of Sidonius, which he aflerwanls con- 
 demned, (I. ix. epist. 16. p. 285.) the fabulous deities are the princi- 
 pal actors. If Jerom was scour<ied by the ansels for only reading 
 Virgil ; the bishop of Clermont, for such a vile imitalion,deservod an 
 additional whipping from tlic Muses. 
 
 Vol. I 3 M 
 
 touched.' The altar of Pan was erected, perhaps by 
 Evander the Arcadian, in a dark recess in the side of 
 the Palatine hill, watered by a perpetual fountain, and 
 shaded by a hanging grove. A tradition, that, in the 
 same place, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the 
 wolf, rendered it still more sacred and venerable in the 
 eyes of the Romans ; and this sylvan spot was grad- 
 ually surrounded by the stately edifices of the Fo- 
 rum."* After the conversion of the imperial city, the 
 christians still continued, in the month of February, 
 the annual celebration of the Lupercalia ; to which 
 they ascribed a secret and mysterious influence en the 
 genial powers of the animal and vegetable world. 
 The bishops of Rome were solicitous to abolish a pro- 
 fane custom, so repugnant to the spirit of Christianity ; 
 but their zeal was not supported by the authority of 
 the civil magistrate: the inveterate abuse suhsi.sted 
 till the end of the fifth century, and pope Gelasius, 
 who purified the capital from the last stain of idolatry, 
 appeased, by a formal apology, the murmurs of the 
 senate and people." 
 
 In all his public declarations, the em- „ „„„ 
 
 peror Leo assumes the authority, and pro- a-rainst the Van- 
 fesses the affection, of a father, for his '^"Jj"^^^^'*' 
 son Anthemius, with whom he had divi- * ' * • 
 ded the administration of the universe." The situation, 
 and perhaps the character, of Leo, dissuaded him from 
 exposing his person to the toils and dangers of an Afri- 
 can war. But the powers of the eastern empire were 
 strenuously exerted to deliver Italy and the Mediterra- 
 nean from the Vandals ; and Genseric, who had so 
 long oppressed both the land and sea, was threatened 
 from every side with a formidable invasion. The 
 campaign was opened by a bold and successful enter- 
 prise of the praefect Heraclius.P The troops of Egypt, 
 Thebais, and Libya, were embarked under his com- 
 mand : and the Arabs, with a train of horses and cam- 
 els, opened the roads of the desert. Heraclius landed 
 on the coast of Tripoli, surprised and subdued the cities 
 of that province, and prepared, by a laborious march, 
 which Cato had formerly executed,*! to join the impe- 
 rial army under the walls of Carthage. The intelli- 
 gence of this loss extorted from Genseric some insidi- 
 ous and ineffectual propositions of peace : but he was 
 much more seriously alarmed by the reconciliation of 
 Marcellinus with the two empires. The independent 
 patrician had been persuaded to acknowledge the legit- 
 imate title of Anthemius, whom he accompanied in 
 his journey to Rome ; the Dalmatian fleet was received 
 into the harbours of Italy ; the active valour of Mar- 
 cellinus expelled the Vandals from the island of Sar- 
 dinia; and the languid efforts of the west added some 
 weight to the immense preparations of the eastern 
 
 1 Ovid. (Fast. 1. ii. 267 — 452 ) has given an amusing description oi 
 the fiillies of antiquity, which still inspired so much respect, that a 
 grave magistrate, running naked through the streets, was not an ob- 
 ject of astonishment or laugliter. 
 
 m See Dionys. Halicarn. 1. i. p. 25. 65. edit. Hudson. The Roman 
 antiquaries, Donatus (1. ii. c. 18. p. 173, 174.) and Nardini (p. 386, 3S7.) 
 have laboured to ascertain the true situation of the Lupercal. 
 
 n Baronius published, from the MSS. of the Vatican, this epistleof 
 pope Geliisius, (A. D. 496. No. 28—45.) which is entitled Adversus 
 Andromachum senatorem, cseterosque Romanos, qui Lupercalia se- 
 cundum morem pristinum colenda constituebanl. Gelasius always 
 supposes that his adversaries are nominal christians, and that he may 
 not yield to them in absurd prejudice, he imputes to this harmless 
 festival all the calamities of the age. 
 
 o Itaque nos quibus totius mundi regimen commisit superna provi- 
 sio .... Pius et triumphator semper Augustus filius noster Anthe- 
 mius, licet Divina Majestas et nostra creatio pietati ejus plenam im- 
 perii comraiserit potestatem, &c. . . . . Such is the dignified style of 
 Leo, whom Anthemius respectfully "names, Dominus et Pater meus 
 Princeps sacratissimus Leo. See Novell. Anthem, lit. ii. iii. p. 38. ad 
 calcem Cod. Theod. 
 
 p The expedition of Heraclius is clouded with difficulties, (Tille- 
 mont, Hist, des Empereurs, lorn. vi. p. 649.) and it requires some dex- 
 terity to use the circimistances afforded by Theophanes, without in- 
 jury to the more respectable evidence of Procopius. 
 
 q The march of Cato from Berenice, in the province of Cyrene, was 
 much longer than that of Heraclius from Tripoli. He passed the 
 deep sandy desert in thirty days, and it was found necessary to pro- 
 vide, besides the ordinary supplies, a great number of skins filled 
 with water, and several Psylli, who were supposed to possess the art 
 of sucking the wounds which had been made by the serpents of their 
 native country. See Plutarch in Catou. Uticens. tom. iv. p. 17b, 
 Strabon. Geograph. I. xvii. p. 1193. 
 
 
 y* 
 
 
 ■if" 
 
 \ 
 
490 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Romans. The expense of the naval armament, 
 which Leo sent aorainst the Vandals, has been dis- 
 tinctly ascertained ; and the curious and instructive 
 account displays the wealth of the declining- empire. 
 The royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the 
 prince, supplied seventeen thousand pounds of wold ; 
 forty-seven thousand pounds of gold, and seven hun- 
 dred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into the 
 treasury by the prajtorian prefects. But the cities 
 were reduced to extreme poverty ; and the diligent 
 calculation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable ob- 
 ject of the revenue, does not suqfgest the idea of a just 
 or merciful administration. The whole expense, by 
 whatsoever means it was defrayed, of the African 
 campaign, amounted to the sum of one hundred and 
 thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions 
 two hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when 
 the value of money appears, from the comparative 
 price of corn, to have been somewhat higher than in 
 the present age.' The fleet that sailed from Constan- 
 tinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and 
 thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mari- 
 ners exceeded one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, 
 the brother of the empress V^orina, was intrusted with 
 this important command. His sister, the wife of Leo, 
 had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against 
 the Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, "or in- 
 capacity, was reserved for the African war; and his 
 friends could only save his military reputation, by as- 
 serting, that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Gen- 
 seric, and to betray the last hope of the western empire. 
 Fjiiuro of file Experience has shown, that the suc- 
 expcdition. cess of an invader most commonly de- 
 pends on the vigour and celerity of his operations. 
 The strength and sharpness of the first impression are 
 blunted by delay ; the health and spirit of the troops 
 insensibly languish in a distant climate ; the naval and 
 military force, a mighty effort which perhaps can 
 never be repeated, is silently consumed; and every 
 hour that is wasted in negociation, accustoms the 
 enemy to contemplate and examine those hostile ter- 
 rors, which on their first appearance he deemed irre- 
 sistible. The formidable navy of Basiliscus pursued 
 its prosperous navigation from the Thracian Bospho- 
 rus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops at 
 Cape Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about 
 forty miles from Carthage.* The army of Heraclius, 
 and the fleet of Marcellinus, either joined or seconded 
 the imperial lieutenant; and the Vandals who op- 
 posed his progress by sea or land, were successively 
 vanquished.' If Basiliscus had seized the moment 
 of consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital, 
 Carthage must have surrendered, and the kingdom of 
 the Vandals was extinguished. Genseric beheld the 
 danger with firmness, and eluded it with his veteran 
 dexterity. He protested, in the most respectful lan- 
 guage, that he was ready to submit his person, and 
 his dominions, to the will of the emperor; but he re- 
 quested a truce of five days to regulate the terms of 
 his submission ; and it was universally believed, that 
 his secret liberality contributed to the success of this 
 public negociation. Instead of obstinately refusing 
 whatever indulgence his enemy so earnestly solicited'', 
 the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus consented to 
 the fatal truce ; and his imprudent security seemed to 
 
 Chap. XXXVI. 
 
 XT T , r . ^'^ ",«.'! *'^*'''y expresserl l.y Procopius ; (dc RpII. 
 Vanda . I. I r. G. p. 191.) the smaller constituent parta, which Tille- 
 mont (Mi8t. dps Kmperrurs. torn. vi. p. 396.) has lahorionsly rollortrd 
 from the Byzantine writers, are less certain and less important 
 The historian Malchus laments the puhlic misery ; (Excerpt ex Sui' 
 da in Corp. Hii^t. Byzant. p. 58.) hut he is surely unjust when he 
 charRes Leo with hoarding the treasures which he extorted from the 
 people. 
 
 'X**!* promontory is forty miles from Carthage, (Procop. I. i. c. 0. 
 p. 192.) and twenty leagues from Sicily. (Shaw's Travels, p. 89.^ 
 Scipio landed farther in the bay, at the fair promontory : see the 
 animated description of Livy, xxix. 26, 27. 
 
 t Theophanes (p. loo.) alfirms that many ships of the Vandals 
 were sunk. The assertion of Jornandes, (de Successione Recn.) 
 that Basiliscus attacked Carthage, must be understood in a vcrv 
 qualined sense. 
 
 proclaim, that he already considered himself as the 
 conqueror of Africa. During this short interval, the 
 wind became favourable to the designs of Genseric. 
 Ho manned his largest ships of war with the bravest 
 of the Moors and Vandals ; and they towed after them 
 many large barks, filled with combustible materials. 
 In the obscurity of the night, these destructive vessels 
 were impelled against the unguarded and unsuspect- 
 ing fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by the 
 sense of their instant danger. Their close and crowd- 
 ed order assisted the progress of the fire, which was 
 communicated with rapid and irresistible violence ; 
 and the noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, 
 the dissonant cries of the soldiers and mariners, who 
 could neither command, nor obey, increased the hor- 
 ror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they laboured to 
 extricate themselves from the fire-ships, and to save 
 at least a part of the navy, the galleys of Genseric 
 assaulted them with temperate and disciplined valour; 
 and many of the Romans, who escaped the fury of the 
 flames, were destroyed or taken by the victorious 
 Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous night, 
 the heroic, or rather desperate, courage of John, one 
 of the principal officers of Basiliscus, has rescued his 
 name from oblivion. When the ship, which he had 
 bravely defended was almost consumed, he threw 
 himself in his armour into the sea, disdainfully reject- 
 ed the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of Genseric, 
 who pressed him to accept honourable quarter, and 
 sunk under the waves ; exclaiming, with his last 
 breath, that he would never fall alive into the hands 
 of those impious dogs. Actuated by a far different 
 spirit, Basiliscus, whose station was the most remote 
 from danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the 
 engagement, returned to Constantinople* with the loss 
 of more than half of his fleet and army, and sheltered 
 his guilty head in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his 
 sister, by her tears and entreaties, could obtain his 
 pardon from the indignant emperor. Heraclius ef- 
 fected his retreat through the desert; Marcellinus re- 
 tired to Sicily, where he was assassinated, perhaps at 
 the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own cap- 
 tains ; and the king of the Vandals expressed his 
 surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves 
 should remove from the world his most formidable 
 antagonists." After the failure of this great expedi- 
 tion, Genseric again became the tyrant of the sea ; the 
 coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were again exposed 
 to his revenge and avarice; Tripoli and Sardinia re- 
 turned to his obedience; he added Sicily to the num- 
 ber of his provinces; and, before he . 
 died, in the fulness of years and of A. U. 477. 
 glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire of 
 the west.* 
 
 During his long and active reign, the „ 
 African monarch had studiously cultivat- vIsTothlYn 
 ed the friendship of the barbarians of Spain and Gaul, 
 Europe, whose arms he might employ A. D. 462-472. 
 in a seasonable and effectual diversion against the 
 t\yo empires. After the death of Attila, he renewed 
 his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul ; and the sons 
 of the elder Theodoric, who successively reigned over 
 that warlike nation, were easily persuaded, by the 
 sense of interest, to forget the cruel affront which 
 Genseric had inflicted on their sister.> The death of 
 the emperor Majorian delivered Theodoric the second 
 from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honour; he 
 
 u Damascius in Vit. Isidor. apud Phot. p. 1048. It will appear, hy 
 comparui!,' the three short chronirlos of the times, that Marcellinus 
 had fouRht near Carthape, and was killed in Sicily. 
 
 '^n^^^l^i'® African war, see Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 6. 
 P^19], 192,19:i.) Throphancs, (r. 99. KM), 101.) Cedrenus, (p. 349, 
 .laO.) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. I. xiv. p. 50, 51.) Montesquieu, (Consid- 
 erations sur la Grandeur, &r. c. xx. tom. iii. p. 497.) has made a ju- 
 dicious observation on the failure of these great naval armaments 
 
 y Jornandes is our best guide throuijh the reigns of Theodoric II. 
 and tunc, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 44, 4.'5, 46, 47. p. 675— 681.) Idatiug 
 ends too soon, and Isidore is too sparing of the information which 
 he might have given on the atfairs of Spain. The events that re- 
 late to Gaul are lalKiriously illustrated in the third book of the Ab- 
 be Dubos, Hist. Critique, toiii. i. p. 424— C20. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 violated his recent treaty with the Romans ; and the 
 ample territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united 
 to his dominions, became the immediate reward of his 
 perfidy. The selfish policy of Ricimer encourao-ed 
 him to invade the provinces which were in the p'os- 
 session of .i-^gidius, his rival; but the active count, 
 by the defence of Aries, and the victory of Orleans, 
 saved Gaul, and checked during his lifetime the pro- 
 gress of the Visigoths. Their ambition was soon re- 
 kindled ; and the design of extinguishing the Roman 
 empire m Spain and Gaul, was conceived, and almost 
 completed, in the reign of Euric, who assassinated his 
 brother Theodoric, and displayed, with a more savao-e 
 temper, superior abilities both in peace and war. He 
 passed the Pyrenees at the head of a numerous army, 
 subdued the cities of Saragossa and Pampeluna, van- 
 quished in battle the martial nobles of the Tarra^onese 
 province, carried his victorious arms into the heart of 
 Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kinrrdom 
 of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain. 'The 
 efforts of Euric were not less vigorous, or less success- 
 ful in Gaul ; and throughout the country that extends 
 from the Pyrenees to the Rhone and the Loire, Berry 
 and Aiivergne were the only cities, or dioceses, which 
 reftised to acknowledge him as their master.* In the 
 defence of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabi- 
 tants of Auvergne sustained, with inflexible resolu- 
 tion, the miseries of war, pestilence, and famine ; and 
 the Visigoths, relinquishing the fruitless siege, sus- 
 pended the hopes of that important conquest^ The 
 youth of the province were animated by the heroic 
 and almost incredible valour of Ecdicius, the son of 
 the emperor Avitus,** who made a desperate sally with 
 only eighteen horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic 
 army, and, after maintaining a flying skirmish, retired 
 safe and victorious within the walls of Clermont. 
 His charity was equal to his courage : in a time of 
 extreme scarcity, four thousand poor were fed at his 
 expense ; and his private influence levied an army of 
 Burgundians for the deliverance of Auvergne. From 
 his virtues alone the faithful citizens of Gaul derived 
 any hopes of safety or freedom ; and even such virtues 
 were insuflicient to avert the impending ruin of their 
 country, since they were anxious to learn from his 
 authority and example, whether they should ])refer 
 the alternative of exile or servitude.<= The public con- 
 fidence was lost ; the resources of the state were ex- 
 hausted ; and the Gauls had too much reason to be- 
 lieve, that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy, was in- 
 capable of protecting his distressed subjects beyond 
 the Alps. The feeble emperor could only procure for 
 their defence the service of twelve thousand British 
 auxiliaries. Riothamus, one of the independent kings, 
 or chieftains, of the island, was persuaded to transport 
 his troops to the continent of Gaul ; he sailed up the 
 Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where 
 the people complained of these oppressive allies, till 
 they were destroyed, or dispersed, by the arms of the 
 Visigoths.'' 
 
 One of the last acts of jurisdiction, 
 which the Roman senate exercised over 
 their subjects of Gaul, was the trial and 
 condemnation of Arvandus the praetorian pra^fect. 
 
 491 
 
 Trial of Arvan 
 
 dus. 
 
 A. D 468. 
 
 X See Mariana. Hist. Hispan. tom. i. I. v. c. 5. p. 162. 
 
 a An imperfect, but orijiiurtl. picture of Gaul, more especially of 
 Auvergne, is shown by Sidoniiis ; who, as a senator, and after- 
 wards as a bishop, w.is deeply interested in the fate of his country, 
 tece I. V. epist. 1. 5. 9. &.c. 
 
 b Sidonius, I. iii. epist, 3. p. 6.>— 63. Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 24. in 
 tom. ii. p. 174. Jornandes, c. 45. p. 675. Perhaps Ecdicius was 
 only the son in law of Avitus, his wife's son by another husband. 
 
 c Si null* a repul.Iica vires, nulla pra-^idia, si nulla', quantum 
 rumor est, Antheinii principis opes, statuit, te auctorc. nobiliias sru 
 patriam dimittere seu capillos. (Sidon. 1, ii. episl. 1, p. 33.) The 
 last words (Sirmond. Not. p. 25.) may likewise denote the clerical 
 tonsure, which was indeed the choice of Sidonius himself 
 
 d The history of these Britons may be traced in Jornandes, (c. 45. 
 p. 668.) Sidonius, (I. iii. epistol. 9. p. 711 , 74.) and Gregory of Toursi 
 (I. ii. c, 18. in tom. ii. p. 170.) Sidonius, (who styles these mercena- 
 ry troops argutos, armatos, tumultuosos, virtute, numero, contuber 
 nio, contuinaces,) addresses tlieir general in a lone of friendship and 
 laoiiliarity. 
 
 Sidonius, who rejoices that he lived under a reign in 
 which he might pity and assist a state-criminal, has 
 expressed, with tenderness and freedom, the faults of 
 his indiscreet and unfortunate friend.' From the 
 perils which he had escaped, Arvandus imbibed con- 
 fidence rather than wisdom ; and such was the various, 
 though uniform, imprudence of his behaviour, that his 
 prosperity must appear much more surprising than 
 his downfiill. The second prefecture, which" he ob- 
 tained within the term of five years, abolished the 
 merit and popularity of his preceding administration. 
 His easy temper was corrupted by flattery, and ex- 
 asperated by opposition ; he was forced to satisfy his 
 iinportunate creditors with the spoils of the province ; 
 his capricious insolence offended the nobles of Gaulj 
 and he sunk under the weight of the public hatred! 
 The mandate of his disgrace summoned him to justify 
 his conduct before the senate ; and he passed the sea 
 of Tuscany with a favourable wind, the presage, as 
 he vainly imagined, of his future fortunes. A decent 
 respect was still observed for the prafccforian rank ; 
 and on his arrival at Rome, Arvandus was committed 
 to the hospitality, rather than to the custody, of Fla- 
 vins Asellus, the count of the sacred largesses, who- 
 resided in the capitol.^ He was eagerly°pursued by 
 his accusers, the four deputies of Gaul, who were all 
 distinguished by their birth, their dignities, or their 
 eloquence. In the name of a great province, and ac- 
 cording to the forms of Roman jurisprudence, they in- 
 stituted a civil and criminal action, requiring such a 
 restitution as might compensate the losses of indivi- 
 duals, and such punishment as might satisfy the 
 justice of the state. Their charges of'corrupt oppres- 
 sion were numerous and weighty ; but they placed 
 their secret dependence on a letter, which they had 
 intercepted, and which they could prove, by the evi- 
 dence of his secretary, to have been dictated by Arvan- 
 dus himself. The author of this letter seemed to dis- 
 suade the king of the Goths from a peace w ith the 
 Greek emperor : he suggested the attack of the Britons 
 on the Loire ; and he recommended a division of Gaul, 
 according to the law of nations, between the Visigoths 
 and the Burgundians.s These pernicious schemes, 
 w^hich a friend could only palliate by the reproaches 
 of vanity and indiscretion, were su.sceptible of a trea- 
 sonable interpretation ; and the deputies had artfully 
 resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons 
 till the decisive moment of the contest. But their in- 
 tentions were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He 
 immediately apprised the unsuspecting criminal of his 
 danger ; and sincerely lamented, witlfout any mixture 
 of anger, the haughty presumption of Arvandus, who 
 rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of his 
 friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus 
 showed himself in the capitol in the white robe of a 
 candidate, accepted indiscriminate salutations and of- 
 fers of service, examined the shops of the merchants, 
 the silks and gems, sometimes with the indifference 
 of a spectator, and sometimes with the attention of a 
 purchaser; and complained of the times, of the senate, 
 of the prince, and of the delays of justice. His com- 
 plaints were soon removed. An early day was fixed 
 for his trial ; and Arvandus appeared, with his accus- 
 ers, before a numerous assembly of the Roman senate. 
 The mournful garb, which they affected, excited the 
 compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by 
 the gay and splendid dress of their adversary: and 
 when the praefect Arvandus, with the first of the Gal- 
 
 e See Sidonius, 1, i. epist. 7, p. 1.5—20. with Sirmond's notes. This 
 letter does honour to his heart, as well as to his understanding. The 
 prose of Sidonius, however vitiated by a false and atl'ected taste, is 
 much superior to his insipid verses. 
 
 f When the capito! ceased to be a temple, it was appropriated to 
 the use of the civil magistrate; and it is still the residence of the 
 Roman senator. The jewellers, &c, might be allowed to expose their 
 precious wares in the porticoes. 
 
 e Ua-c ad rcjjem Gothorum, charta videbntur emitti, pacein cum 
 Grajco imperatore dissuadens, Britannos super Ligerim sitosimpupna- 
 ri oportere dcmonstrans, cum Burgundionibus jure gentium Gailiaa 
 dividi debere confirmans. 
 
 f4 
 
 ^¥ 
 
 
 * 
 
 I 
 
 ^' 
 
492 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 493 
 
 lie deputies, were directed to take their places on the 
 senatorial benches, the same contrast of pride and 
 modesty was observed in their behaviour. In this 
 memorable judjrment, which presented a lively image 
 of the old republic, the Gauls exposed, with force and 
 freedom, the fjrievances of the province ; and as soon 
 as the minds of the audience were sufficiently inflamed, 
 they recited the fatal epistle. The obstinacy of Arvan- 
 dus was founded on the strange supposition, that a 
 subject could not be convicted of treason, unless he 
 had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the 
 paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice, 
 acknowledged it for his genuine composition ; and his 
 astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the 
 unanimous voice of the senate declared him guilty of 
 a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded 
 from the rank of a preefect to the obscure condition of 
 a plebeian, and ig^nominiously dragged by servile 
 hands to the public prison. After a fortnight's ad- 
 journment, the senate was again conv^ened to pro- 
 nounce the sentence of his death : but while he ex- 
 pected, in the island of ^Esculapius, the expiration of 
 the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the 
 vilest malefactors,** his friends interjiosed, the emper- 
 or Anthemius relented, and the praefect of Gaul ob- 
 tained the milder punishment of exile and confisca- 
 tion. The faults of Arvandus might deserve compas- 
 sion ; but the impunity of Seronatus accused the jus- 
 tice of the republic, till he was condemned, and exe- 
 cuted, on the complaint of the people of Auvcrgne. 
 That flagitious minister, the Catiline of his age and 
 country, held a secret correspondence with the Visi- 
 gfoths, to betray the province which ho oppressed : 
 his industry was continually exercised in the discov- 
 ery of new taxes and obsolete ofiences ; and his ex- 
 travagant vices would have inspired contempt, if they 
 had not excited fear and abhorrence.*' 
 •n:,.^,A ^f A» Such criminals were not be3^ond the 
 
 DiAuord of An- , r- • i • i 
 
 themius and roach ot justice; but whatever might 
 
 J^'<=''7'"- ,^, be the 2uilt of Ricimer, that powerful 
 A. D, 471. ii" 11. 4j* 
 
 barbarian was able to contend or to ne- 
 
 gociate with the prince, whose alliance he had con- 
 descended to accept. The peaceful and prosperous 
 Teign which Anthemius had promised to the west, 
 was soon clouded by misfortune and discord. Rici- 
 mer, apprehensive, or impatient, of a superior, retired 
 from Rome and fixed his residence at Milan; an ad- 
 vantageous situation, either to invite, or to repel, the 
 warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and 
 the Danube.'' Italy was gradually divided into two 
 independent and hostile kingdoms : and the uobles of 
 Liouria, who trembled at the near approach of a civil 
 war, fell prostrate at the feet of the patrician, and con- 
 jured him to spare their unhappy country. *' For my 
 own part," replied Ricimer, in a tone of insolent mod- 
 eration, '* I am still inclined to embrace the friendship 
 of the Galatian ;' but who will undertake to appease 
 his anger, or to mitigate the pride which always rises 
 in proportion to our submission 1" They informed 
 him, that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia,*^^ united the 
 
 h Senatu.iconsuitutn Tiberianum ; (Sirmond, Not. p. 17.) but that 
 law nllowed only ten days between the sentcnro and cxeculion ; tlie 
 rcMiainini; twenty were added in the rei|rn of Tlieodosius. 
 
 i Cntilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, i. li. cpist. 1. p. 'X.\.; I. v. epist. 
 y.\. p. 143.; I. vii. epist. 7, p. 185. He execrates the crimes, and ap- 
 plauds the punialimcnt, of Seronatus, perliaps with tlie indignation 
 of a virtuous citi;<ccn, perhaps witli the resentment of a personal 
 enemy. 
 
 k Kicimer, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated and slew in Itat- 
 lie Beorgor, king of the .\lani. (Jornandes, c. 4.>. p. 078.) His sis- 
 ter had married the kins of the Burgiindinns, and he maintained an 
 intimate connexion with the Sucvic colony established in I'annonia 
 and Noricum, 
 
 1 Galatnm coiicitatum. Sirmond (in his notea to Ennodius) applies 
 this appellation to Anthemius himself. The emperor was probably 
 born in the. province of Galatia, whose inhabitants, the Gallo Gre- 
 cians, were supposed to unite the vices of a savage and a corrupted 
 people. 
 
 m Epiphanius was thirty years bishop of Pavia. (A. D. 467 — 
 497 ; see Tillemont, Mem, Ercles, lorn. xvi. p. 788.) His name and 
 actions would have been unknown to posterity, if Ennodius, one of 
 liis successors, had not written his life ; (Sirmond. Opera', torn. i. p. 
 1647 — 1692.) in which he represents him as one of the greatest cha- 
 racters of the age. 
 
 wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the 
 dove ; and appeared confident, that the eloquence of 
 such an ambassador must prevail against the strong- 
 est opposition, either of interest or passion. Their 
 recommendation was approved; and Epiphanius, as- 
 suming the benevolent office of mediation, proceeded 
 without delay to Rome, where he was received with 
 the honours due to his merit and reputation. The ora- 
 tion of a bishop in favour of peace, may be easily 
 supposed : he argued, that, in all possible circumstan- 
 ces, the forgiveness of injuries must be an act of mer- 
 cy, or magnanimity, or prudence ; and he seriously 
 admonished the emperor to avoid a contest with a fierce 
 barbarian, which might be fatal to himself, and must 
 be ruinous tohis dominions. Anthemius acknowledged 
 the truth of his maxims ; but he deeply felt, with 
 grief and indignation, the behaviour of Ricimer ; and 
 his passion gave eloquence and energy to his dis- 
 course. " What favours," he warmly exclaimed, 
 " have we refused to this ungrateful man 1 What pro- 
 vocations have we not endured ? Regardless of the 
 majesty of the purple, I gave my daughter to a Goth ; 
 I sacrificed my own blood to the safety of the repub- 
 lic. The liberality which ought to have secured the 
 eternal attachment of Ricimer has exasperated him 
 against his benefactor. What wars has he not excit- 
 ed against the empire! How often has he instigated, 
 and assisted, the fury of hostile nations ! Shall I now 
 accept his perfidious friendship 1 Can I hope that he 
 will respect the engagements of a treaty, who has al- 
 ready violated the duties of a son ?'* But the anger 
 of Anthemius evaporated in these passionate exclam- 
 ations : he insensibly yielded to the proposals of 
 Epiphanius; and the bishop returned to his diocese 
 with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of Italy, 
 by a reconciliation," of which the sincerity and con- 
 tinuance might be reasonably suspected. The clem- 
 ency of the emperor was extorted from his weakness; 
 and Ricimer suspended his ambitious designs, till he 
 had secretly prepared the engines with which he re- 
 solved to subvert the throne of Anthemius. The 
 mask of peace and moderation was then thrown aside. 
 The army of Ricimer was fortified by a numerous 
 reinforcement of Burgundians and oriental Suevi : he 
 disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek emperor, march- 
 ed from Milan to the gates of Rome, and fixing his camp 
 on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arri- 
 val of Olybrius, his imperial candidate. 
 
 The senator Olybrius, of the Anician oiybriu.^ empe- 
 family, mitrht esteem himself the law- rorof the west, 
 ful heir of the western empire. lie had March S. 
 married Placidia, the younger daughter 
 of Valentinian, after she was restored by Genseric ; 
 who still detained her sister Eudoxia, as the wife, or 
 rather as the captive, of his son. The king of the 
 Vandals supported, by threats and solicitations, the 
 fair pretensions of his Roman ally ; and assigned, as 
 one of the motives of the war, the refusal of the sen- 
 ate and people to acknowledge their lawful prince, and 
 the unworthy preference which they had given to a 
 stranger." The friendship of the public enemy might 
 render Olybrius still more unpopular to the Italians ; 
 but when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor 
 Anthemius, he tempted, with the offer of .a diadein, 
 the candidate who could justify his rebellion by an il- 
 lustrious name, and a royal alliance. The husband of 
 Placentia, who, like most of his ancestors, had been 
 invested with the consular dignity, might have contin- 
 ued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune in the 
 peaceful residence of Constantinople; nor does he ap- 
 pear to have been tormented by such a genius, as can- 
 not be amused or occupied, unless by the administra- 
 
 n Ennodius (p. 1659 — 1664.) has related this embassy of Epipha- 
 nius, and his narrative, verbose and turtrid as it must appear, illus- 
 trates some curious passnpcs in the fall of the western empire. 
 
 o Prisons E.xcerpi. Legation, p. 74. Procopius de Bell. Vandal. I. i. 
 r. 6. p. 191. Eudoxia and her dauslitcr were restored after the 
 death of Majorian. Perhaps the consulship of Olybrius (A. D. 404.) 
 was bestowed as a nuptial present 
 
 lion of an empire. Yet Olybrius yielded to the impor- 
 tunities of his friends, perhaps of his wife; rashly 
 plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil 
 war; and, with the secret connivance of the emperor 
 Leo, accepted the Italian purple, which was bestowed, 
 and resumed, at the capricious will of a barbarian. 
 He had landed without obstacle (for Genseric was 
 master of the sea) either at Ravenna or the port of 
 Ostia, and immediately proceeded to the camp of Ri- 
 cimer, where he was received as the sovereign of the 
 western world.? 
 
 The patrician who had extended his 
 fnd''death"oT'- P^^^^ from the Anio to the Milvian 
 Anthemius, bridge, already possessed two quarters 
 
 A. J^.-ij-. of Rome, the Vatican and the Janiculum, 
 " ^ * which are separated by the Tiber from 
 the rest of the city ;i and it may be conjectured, that 
 an assembly of seceding senators imitated, in the 
 choice of Olybrius, the forms of a legal election. But 
 the body of the senate and people firmly adhered 
 to the cause of Anthemius ; and the more effectual 
 support of a Gothic army enabled him to prolong his 
 reiorn, and the public distress, by a resistance of three 
 months, which produced the concomitant evils of fam- 
 ine and pestilence. At length, Ricimer made a fu- 
 rious assault on the bridge of Hadrian, or St. Angelo; 
 and the narrow pass was defended with equal valour 
 by the Goths, till the death of Gilimer their leader. 
 The victorious troops, breaking down every barrier, 
 rushed with irresistible violence into the heart of the 
 city, and Rome (if we may use the language of aeon- 
 temporary pope) was subverted by the civil fury of 
 Anthemius and Ricimer.' The unfortunate Anthe- 
 mius was dragged from his concealment, and inhuman- 
 ly massacred by the command of his son-in-law ; who 
 thus added a third, or perhaps a fourth, emperor to 
 the number of his victims. The soldiers, who united 
 the rage of factious citizens with the savage manners 
 of barbarians, were indulged, without control, in the 
 licence of rapine and murder : the crowd of slaves 
 and plebeians, who were unconcerned in the event, 
 could only gain by the indiscriminate pillage ; and the 
 face of the city exhibited the strange contrast of 
 Death of Rici- s^cm criielty and dissolute intempe- 
 mer, raucc.* Forty days after this calami- 
 
 Aug. 20. tons event, the subject, not of glory, but 
 of guilt, Italy was delivered, by a painful disease, 
 from the tyrant Ricimer, who bequeathed the com- 
 mand of his army to his nephew Gundobald, one of 
 the princes of the Burgundians. In the same year, 
 all the principal actors in this great revolution were 
 
 removed from the stage ; and the 
 *""' Oc?!'23.'"'' whole reign of Olybrius, whose death 
 
 does not betray any symptoms of vio- 
 lence, is included within the term of seven months. 
 He left one daughter, the oflTspring of his marriage 
 with Placidia ; and the fiimily of the great Theodo- 
 
 p The hostile appearance of Olybrius is fixed (notwithstanding 
 the opinion of Pagi) by the duration of his rcisn. The secret con- 
 nivance of Leo is acknowlodircd by Theophaiies, and the Pasrhal 
 Ctironiclft. We are ignorant of his motives : but, in this obscure 
 period, our ignorance extends to tlie most public and important 
 
 q Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which Rome was divi- 
 ded by Aususlus, only owe, the Jiiniculum, lav on the Tuscan side 
 of the Tiber. But, in the fifth century, the Vatican suburb formed 
 a considerable citv ; and ill the ecclesiastical distribution, which 
 had been recenUy made t>y Simplicius, the reigning pope. Uco of the 
 sepen regions, or parishes, of Rome, depended on the church of St. 
 Peter. See Nardini Roma Aniica, p. 67. It would require a te- 
 dious dissertation to mark the circumstances, in which I am inclin- 
 ed to depart from the topoirraphy of that learned Roman. 
 
 r Nuper Antbemii et Ricimeris civili furore subvcrsa est. Gela- 
 gius in Epist. ad Andromach. apud Baron. A. D. 490. >Jo. 52. Sigo- 
 nius 'torn. i. 1. xiv. de Occidental! Imperio, p. 542, 543.) and Mura- 
 tori, (Annali d'ltalia, tom. iv. p. .108, 309.) with the aid of a less im- 
 perfect .MS. of the Hisioria Miscella, have illustrated this dark and 
 bloody transaction. ... , . ,. t> 
 
 s Such had been the ssva ac deformis urbe tota facies, when Rome 
 was assaulted and 'stormed by the troops of Vespasian ; (see Tacit. 
 Hist iii. 82, 83.) and every cause of mischief bad since acquired 
 much additional energy. The revolution of ages may bring round 
 the same calamities; but ages may revolve, without producing a 
 Tacitus to describe them. 
 
 sius, transplanted from Spain to Constantinople, was 
 propagated in the female line as far as the eighth gen- 
 eration.* 
 
 Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was Julius Ncpos 
 abandoned to lawless barbarians," the ""^ CJiyccrius 
 
 , . ^ ,, . emperors oi 
 
 election of a new colleague was serious- the west, 
 ly agitated in the council of Leo. The A. D. 472—475. 
 empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness of 
 her own family, had married otie of her nieces to Juli- 
 us Nepos, who succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in the 
 sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more solid possession than 
 the title which he was persuaded to accept, of empe- 
 ror of the west. But the measures of the Byzantine 
 court were so languid and irresolute, that many months 
 elapsed after the death of Anthemius, and even of Olyb- 
 rius, before their destined successor could show him- 
 self, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects. 
 During that interval. Glycerins, an obscure soldier, was 
 invested with the purple by his patron Gundobald ; 
 but the Burgundian prince was unable^ or unwilling, 
 to support his nomination by a civil war : the pursuits 
 of domestic ambition recalled him beyond the Alps,* 
 and his client was permitted to exchange the Roman 
 sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After extinguish- 
 ing such a competitor, the emperor Nepos was ac- 
 knowledged by the senate, by the Italians, and by the 
 provincials of Gaul : his moral virtues, and military 
 talents, were loudly celebrated ; and those who derived 
 any private benefit from his government, announced, in 
 prophetic strains, the restoration of the public felicity .y 
 The hopes (if such hopes had been entertained) were 
 confounded within the term of a single year ; and the 
 treaty of peace, which ceded Auvergne to the Visi- 
 goths, is the only event of his short and inglorious 
 reign. The most faithful subjects of Gaul were sacri- 
 ficed by the Italian emperor, to the hope of domestic 
 security ;* but his repose was soon invaded by a furi- 
 ous sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under 
 the command of Orestes, their general, were in full 
 march from Rome to Ravenna. Nepos trembled at 
 their approach ; and, instead of placing a just confidence 
 in the strength of Ravenna, he hastily escaped to his 
 ships, and retired tohis Dalmatian principality, on the 
 opposite coast of the Hadriatic. By this shameful ab- 
 dication, he protracted his life about five years, in a 
 very ambiguous state, between an emperor and an ex- 
 ile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the ungrateful 
 Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps as the reward 
 of his crime, to the archbishopric of Milan.' 
 
 The nations, who had asserted their in- The patrician 
 dependence after the death of Attila, were ^'^^[^/^ 
 established, by the right of possession or 
 conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the 
 Danube ; or in the Roman provinces between the river 
 and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted 
 in the army of confederates^ who formed the defence 
 and the terror of Italy;*" and in this promiscuous mul- 
 
 t See Ducange, Famib-e Byzantin. p. 74, 75. Areobindiis, who ap- 
 pears to have married the niece of the emperor Justinian, was the 
 eighth descendant of the elder 'J'heodosius. ♦ 
 
 u The last revolutions of the western empire arc faintly marked 
 in Theophanes. (p. 102.) Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 079.) the Chronicle of 
 Marcellinus. and the frajimcuts of an anonymous writer, published 
 by Valesius at the end of Ammianus, (p. 716, 717.) If Photius bad 
 not been so wretchedly concise, we should derive much information 
 from the contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus. See 
 his Extracts, p. 172—179. . 
 
 X See Greg. Turon. I. ii. c. 28. in tom. ii. p. 175. Dubos Hist. Cri- 
 tique, tom. i. p. 013. By the murder or death of his two brothers, 
 Gundobald acquired the sole possession of the kingdom of Burgun- 
 dy, whose ruin was hastened by their discord. 
 
 y Julius Nepos armis pariler sumnius Augustus ac moribus. Sido- 
 nius, 1. v. ep. 16. p. 146. Nepos had given to Ecdicius the tith; ot 
 patrician, whicji Antiiemiiis had promised, decessoris Antbemii fi- 
 dem absolvit. See I. viii. ep. 7. p. 224. . 
 
 I Epiphanius was sent ambassador from Nepos to the \ isigotns, 
 for the purpose of ascertaining the fines Imperii ItaUci. Ennodius 
 in Sirmond. torn. i. p. 1G65— 1669.) His pathetic discourse conceal- 
 ed the disgraceful secret, which soon excited the just and bitter 
 complaints of the bishop of Clermont. .. , 
 
 a Malchus. apud Phot. p. 172. Ennod. Epigram. 1. xxxn. in Sir- 
 mond Oper. tom. i. p. 1879. Some doubt may however be raised on 
 the identity of the emperor and the archbishop. 
 
 b Our knowledge of t' e.se mercenaries, who subverted the west- 
 Icrn empire, is derived f.oui Procopius, (de Bell. Gothico, I. i. c. i. p. 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 r 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
494 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 
 OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tated by Orestes,<= the son of Tatullus, and the father 
 of the last Roman emperor of the west. Orestes, who 
 has been already mentioned in this history, had never 
 deserted his country. His birth and fortunes rendered 
 him one of the most illustrious subjects of Panno- 
 nia. When that province was ceded to the Huns, he 
 entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign, 
 obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly 
 sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the 
 person, and signify the commands, of the imperious 
 monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him 
 to his freedom ; and Orestes might honourably refuse 
 either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian 
 desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped 
 the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service 
 of the Italian princes, the successors of Valentinian ; 
 and, as he possessed the qualifications of courage, in- 
 dustry, and experience, he advanced with rapid'' steps 
 m the military profession, till he was elevated, by the 
 favour of Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician, 
 and master-general of the troops. These troops had 
 been long accustomed to reverence the character and 
 authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, con- 
 versed with them in their own language, and was inti- 
 mately connected with their national chieftains, by 
 long habits of familiarity and friendship. At his soli- 
 citation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, 
 who presumed to claim their obedience; and when 
 Orestes, from some secret motive, declined the purple, 
 flw son Augus- they consented with the same facility, to 
 rJH^'J'or So '"'knowledge his son Augus.ulus. as the 
 went, emperor ot the west. By the abdication 
 
 A. p 476. of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the 
 summit of his ambitious hopes ; but he soon discover- 
 ed, before the end of the first year, that the lessons of 
 perjury and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, 
 will be retorted against himself; and that the precari- 
 ous sovereign of Italy was only permitted to choose, 
 whether he would be the slave, or the victim, of his 
 barbarian mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of 
 these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last re- 
 mains of Roman freedom and dignity. At each revo- 
 lution, their pay and privileges were augmented ; but 
 
 who could no longer command the respect, was re- 
 duced to implore the clemency, of Odoacer. 
 That successful barbarian was the son ^ , 
 of Edecon; who, in some remarkable O'^^Xiy.'"^"^ 
 transactions, particularly described in a A- ^- 47t^-490. 
 preceding chapter, had been the colleague of Orestes 
 himself. The honour of an ambassador should be 
 exempt from suspicion ; and Edecon had listened to a 
 conspiracy against the life of his sovereign. But this 
 apparent guilt was expiated by his merit or repent- 
 ance : his rank was eminent and conspicuous ; he en- 
 joyed the favour of Attila; and the troops under his 
 command, w'ho guarded in their turn the royal village, 
 consisted in a tribe of Scyrri, his immediate and heTe- 
 ditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they still 
 adhered to the Huns; and, more than twelve years 
 afterwards, the name of Edecon is honourably men- 
 tioned, in their unequal contest with the Ostrogoths; 
 which was terminated, ofter two bloody battles, by the 
 defeat and dispersion of the Scyrri.' Their gallant 
 leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left 
 two sons, Onulf and Odoacer, to struggle with adver- 
 sity, and to maintain as they might, by rapine or ser- 
 vice, the faithful followers of their exile. Onulf di- 
 rected his steps towards Constantinople, where he 
 sullied, by the assassination of a generous benefactor, 
 the fame which he had acquired in arms. His brother 
 Odoacer led a wandering life among the barbarians of 
 Noricum, with a mind and a fortune suited to the most 
 desperate adventures; and when he had fixed his 
 choice, he piously visited the cell of Severinus, the 
 popular saint of the country, to solicit his approbation 
 and blessing. The lowness of the door would not 
 admit the lofty stature of Odoacer : he was obliged to 
 stoop ; but in that humble attitude the saint could dis^ 
 cern the symptoms of his future greatness; and ad- 
 dressing him in a prophetic tone, *' Pursue" (said he) 
 "your design; proceed to Italy; you will soon cast 
 away this coarse garment of skins; and your wealth 
 will be adequate to the liberality of your mind."' The 
 barbarian, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified 
 the prediction, was admitted into the service of the 
 western empire, and soon obtained an honourable rank 
 
 their insolence increased in a still more ex ravaVan .^f;^'"' ^'"P"^*^'^".^ «««" ^^^^^^^^ ^n honourable rank 
 degree; they envied the fortune of Z? iTZT'l !";li«..^"ards His manners were gradually polished. 
 
 degree; they envied the fortune of their brethren in 
 Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had 
 acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; 
 and they insisted on their peremptory demand, that 
 a third part of the lands of Italy should be imme- 
 diately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit 
 which, in another situation, might be entitled to our 
 esteem, chose rather to encounter the rage of an 
 armed multitude, than to subscribe the ruin^f an in- 
 nocent people. He rejected the audacious demand ; 
 and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odo- 
 acer; a bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers, 
 that, if they dared to associate under his command, they 
 might soon extort the justice which had been denied 
 to their dutiful petitions. From all the camps and 
 garrisons of Italy, the confederates, actuated by the 
 same resentment and the sqme hopes, impatiently 
 flocked to the standard of this popular leader; and the 
 unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent 
 hastily retreated to the strong city of Pavia, the epis- 
 copal seat of the holy Epiphanites. Pavia was im- 
 mediately besieged, the fortifications were stormed, the 
 town was pillaged; and although the bishop micrht 
 labour, with much zeal and some success, to save the 
 property of the church, and the chastity of female cap- 
 
 30a) The popular opinion, nnd the rercnl historians, represent 
 Odoacer u. the false l.^ht of a stranfrer, and a kin., who invaded 
 Italy with an army of foreigners, his native subjects 
 
 i.,n«?t'M^^i;.^"n?^^'"'*?'''' •^"')."'^° ^"*'« ^'' ^''^"'»'" vcnit, se illi 
 junxit.elejt^a notaruis factus fuerat. Anonym. Vales, p. 716 He 
 1- n.istaken u, the dale : but we may credit his assertion, hal the 
 ■ecreiaryofAii.Ia was the father of AugustuJus. "■"!""' "''^^ "'^^ j 
 
 his military skill was improved, and the confederates 
 of Italy would not have elected him for their general, 
 unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high 
 opinion of his courage and capacity.* Their military 
 acclamations saluted him with the title of kina; but 
 he abstained, during his whole reicrn, from the use of 
 the purple and diadem,»» lest he should offend those 
 princes, whose subjects, by their accidental mixture, 
 hjwf formed the victorious army, which lime and policy 
 nilffht insensibly unite into a great nation. 
 / lioyalty was familiar to the barbari- Extinction of the 
 ans, and the submissive people of Ita- western empire, 
 ly was prepared to obey, without a ^- ^J"^^- 
 murmur, the authority which he should A.D. 470. 
 
 d See Ennodius, (in Vit. Eplphan. Sirmond, torn. i. p. Ifi69, 1070 ) 
 He adds weight to the narrative of Procopiiis, thnuj^h we may doubt 
 whether the devil actuallv contrived the siege of Pavia, to distress 
 the bishop and his flock. 
 
 e Jornandes, c. 5\\. 54. p. C92-rn5. M. de Puat (Hist, de.s Peupfea 
 de Kiiropp, torn. viii. p. i.n>l— 22d.) has clearly explained the origin 
 and adventures of Odoacer. I am almost inclined to believe that he 
 was the same who pilLigcd Angers, and commanded a fleet of Sax 
 on pirates on the ocean. Greg. Turon. I. ii. c. 18. in tom. ii p. 170 
 
 f Vadead Italiam. vade vilissimis nunc |)ellibu8 roopertus- sed 
 multis cito plurima largiturus. Anonvm. Vales, p. 717. He quotes 
 the lite of St. Severinu.<s. which is extant, and contains much un- 
 known and valuable history: it was composed by his disciple Eu- 
 gippiua.(.\. I). r>ll.) thirty years after his death. See Tillemont. 
 Mem. Eccles. torn xvi. p. 1(58—181. 
 
 K Theophanes, who calls him a Gotli. affirms, that he was educa- 
 ted, nursed, (tp^^.^to,-.) in Italy ; (p. 102.) and as this strong expres- 
 sion will not bear a literal interpretation, it must be explained by a 
 long service in the imperial guards. 
 
 h Nomen regis Odoacer assumpsit, cum tainen neque purpura nee 
 regahbus uteretur Insignibus. .Cassiodor. in Chron. A. D. 416. He 
 
 condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the empe- 
 ror of the west. But Odoacer had resolved to abolish 
 that useless and expensive office ; and such is the 
 weight of antique prejudice, that it required some bold- 
 ness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of 
 the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus was 
 made the instrument of his own disgrace; he sifrnifi- 
 ed his resignation to the senate ; and^hat assembFy, in 
 their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still af- 
 fected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the con- 
 stitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unani- 
 mous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and 
 successor of Leo; who had lately been restored, after 
 a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They so- 
 lemnly *' disclaim the necessity, or even the wish, of 
 continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy; 
 since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch 
 is sufficient to pervade and protect, at the same time, 
 both the east and the west. In their own name, and in 
 the name of the people, they consent that the seat of 
 universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Con- 
 stantinople; and they basely renounce the right of 
 choosing their master, the only vestige that yet re- 
 mained ol the authority which had given laws to the 
 ^'u, Vx .® ^^P"^'ic (they repeat that name without 
 a blush) might safely confide in the civil and military 
 virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request, that the 
 emperor would invest him with the title of patrician, 
 and the administration of the diocese of Italy." The 
 deputies of the senate were received at Constantinople 
 with some marks of displeasure and indignation; and 
 when they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he 
 sternly reproached them with their treatment of the 
 two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the east 
 had successively granted to the prayers of Italy. " The 
 first" (continued he) " you have murdered; the second 
 you have expelled ; but the second is still alive, and 
 whilst he lives he is your lawful sovereign." But the 
 prudent Zeno soon deserted the hopeless cause of his 
 abdicated colleague. His vanity was gratified by the 
 title of sole emperor, and by the statues erected to his 
 honour m the several quarters of Rome ; he entertain- 
 ed a friendly, though ambiguous, correspondence with 
 the patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully accepted the 
 imperial ensigns, the sacred ornaments of the throne 
 and palace, which the barbarian was not unwillin<r to 
 remove from the sight of the people.' ° 
 
 Augustus is ba- I'* the space of twenty years since 
 
 LuJXn'viui:" ttJu'^A' "^ V'^^-'jtinian, nine empe- 
 rors had successively disappeared ; and 
 the son of Orestes, a youth recommended only by 
 his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of 
 posterity, if his rejorn, w-hich was marked by the ex- 
 ti nctioii_i)t^iJie Koman" empire in the west, did not 
 lea ve a me morable aVa jn the history of mankind."^ 
 The patrician Orestes "had: nTarrred tbe daughter of 
 count Rumulus, of Petovio in Noricum : the name of 
 Augustus, notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was 
 known at Aquileia as a familiar surname : and the ap- 
 pellations of the two great founders, of the city, and 
 of the rhonarchy, were thus strangely united in the last 
 of their successors.' The son of Orestes assumed and 
 disgraced the names of Romulus Augustus ; but the 
 
 495 
 
 first was corrupted into Momyllus, by the Greeks, and 
 the second has been changed by the Latins into the 
 contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life of this 
 inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemen- 
 cy of Odoacer; who dismissed him, with his whole 
 family, from the imperial palace, fixed his annual al- 
 lowance at six thousand pieces of gold, and assigned 
 the castle of Lncullus, in Campania, for the place of 
 his exile or retirement."" As soon as the 'Romans 
 breathed from the toils of the Punic war, they were at- 
 tracted by the beauties and the pleasures of Campa- 
 nia; and the country-house of the elder Scipio at Li- 
 ternum exhibited a lasting model of their rustic sim- 
 plicity." The delicious shores of the bay of Naples 
 were crowded with villas; and Sylla applauded the 
 masterly skill of his rival, who had seated himself on 
 the lofiy promontory of Misenum, that commands, on 
 every side, the sea and land, as far as the boundaries of 
 the horizon." The villa of Marius was purchased, 
 within a few years, by Lucullus, and the price had in- 
 creased from two thousand five hundred, to more than 
 four score thousand, pounds sterling.P It was adorned 
 by the new proprietor with Grecian arts, and Asiatic 
 treasures; and the houses and gardens of Lucullus 
 obtained a distinguished rank in the list of imperial 
 palaces.i When the Vandals became formidable to 
 the sea-coast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory of 
 Misenum, gradually assumed the strength and appel- 
 lation of a strong castle, the obscure retreat of the last 
 emperor of the west. About twenty years after that 
 great revolution, it was converted into a church and 
 monastery to receive the bones of St. Severinus. They 
 securely reposed amidst the broken trophies of Cim- 
 I brie and Armenian victories, till the beginning of the 
 I tenth century; when the fortifications, which might 
 j afford a dangerous shelter to the Saracens, were de- 
 molished by the people of Naples.' 
 
 Odoacer was the first barbarian who Decay of tbo 
 reigned in Italy, over a people who Koman si)irit. 
 had once asserted their just superiority above the rest 
 of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans still ex- 
 cites our respectful compassion, and we fondly sym- 
 pathise with the imaginary grief and indignation t)f 
 their degenerate posterity. But the calamitFes of Italy 
 had gradually subdued the proud consciousness of 
 freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue, the 
 provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens 
 to the laws, of the republic; till those laws were 
 subverted by civil discord, and both the city and the 
 provinces became the servile property of a tyrant. 
 The forms of the constitution, which alleviated or dis- 
 guised their abject slavery, were abolished by time 
 
 seems to have assumed the abstract title of a king, without applying 
 It to any particular nation or country. nj fe 
 
 i Malchus, whose loss excites our regret, has preserved, (in Ev- 
 rerpt.Legat. p. 9.1.) this extraordinary embassy from the senate to 
 rJe^ ? «"?">''"0"3 fragment, (p. 717.) and the e.vtract from 
 U^idus, (apud Phot. p. 1 .6.) are likewise of some use. 
 
 k 1 he precise year in which the western empire was extinguished 
 8 not positively ascertained. The vulgar sera of A. D. 476. appears 
 10 have the sanction of authentic chronicles. But the two dales as 
 signed by Jornandes, (c. 46. p. 680.) would delay that great event to 
 i"e year 4/9: and althoush M. de Buat has overlooked his evi- 
 d* nee, he produces (lorn. viii. p. 261—288.) many collateral circum- 
 stances m support of the same opinion. 
 
 1 Sec his medals in Ducange, (Fain. Bvzantin. p. 81.) Priscus. Ex 
 fprpt. Legat. p. 56. .Maffei, (Osservazioni Letterarie, tom..ii. p. 314 ) 
 He may allege a famous and similar case. The meanest subjects of 
 tne Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of />a«rjciM*, which 
 oy the conversion of Ireland, has been communicated to a whole 
 
 m Ingrediens autcm Ravennam depo.suit Augustulum de regno 
 cujHS mfantiam misertus concessit ei sanguinem ; el quia pulcher 
 crat, tainen donavit ei rediuim sex niillia solidos, ct misit cum intra 
 Campaniam cum parenlibus suis libere vivere. Anonym Vales p 
 716. Jornandes says, (c. 46. p. 680.) in Lucullano Campaniaj casiel- 
 lo exilii po»na damiiavit. 
 
 n See the eloquent Declamation of Seneca, (Episf. Ixxxvi ) The 
 philosopher might have recollected, that all luxury is relative ; and 
 that the elder Scipio, whose manners were polisiied by sludy and 
 conversation, was Jiimself accused of that vice by his ruder contem- 
 poraries. (Livy xxix. 29.) 
 
 o Sylla, in the language of a soldier, praised his peritia ca.sframe- 
 tanth. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.) Phndrus, who makes its shady 
 walks (Imta vtrtdia) the scene of an insipid fable, (ii. 5.) has thus de- 
 scribed the situation : 
 
 Caspar Tiberius quam petens Neapolim, 
 
 In Mesenensem villani venissei suam ; 
 
 Qua' monte siimnio posita Luculli manu 
 
 Prospectat Siculum et prospicit Tuscuin mare. 
 P From seven myriads and a half to two hundred and fifty myr- 
 iads of drachma-. Yet even in the possession of Marius. it "was a 
 luxurious retirement. The Romans derided his indolence, they 
 soon !»ewailed his activity. See Plutarch, in Mario, tom. ii. p. 524. 
 q Lucullus had other villas of equal, though various, inagnilicrnre, 
 at Baije, Nnples, Tusculum, &.C. He boasted that he cJianged big 
 climate with the storks and cranes. Plutarch, in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 
 
 r Severinus diod in Noricum, A. D. 482. Six years afterwards, his 
 body, which scattered miracles as it passed, was transported by his 
 disciples into Italy. The devotion of a Neopolitan ladv invited the 
 saint to the Lucullan villa, in the place of Augu.«!tulus, who was 
 probably no more. See Baronius (Annal. Ecclcs. A. D. 480. No 50, 
 51.) and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 178— 181.) from the 
 original life by Eugippius. The narrative of the last migration of 
 Severinus lo Naples, is likewise an authentic piece. 
 
 f 
 
 IT' 
 
 I'' 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
496 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 and violence ; the Italians alternately lamented the pre- 
 sence or the absence of the sovereijrns, whom they de- 
 tested or despised ; and the succession of five centu- 
 ries inflicted the various evils of military licence, ca- 
 pricious despotism, and elaborate oppression. Du- 
 ring the same period, the barbarians had emerjred from 
 obs'curity and contempt, and the warriors of Germany 
 and Scythia were introduced into the provinces, as the 
 servants, the allies, and at lenirih the masters, of the 
 Romans, whom they insulted or protected. The ha- 
 tred of the people was suppressed by fear; they re- 
 spected the spirit and splendour of the martial chiefs 
 who were invested with the honours of the empire ; ' 
 and the fate of Rome had long depended on the sword | 
 of those formidable strangers. The stern Ricimer, 
 who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had exercised the 
 power, without assuming the title, of a king; and the 
 patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknowl- 
 edge the royalty of Odoacer and his barbaric succes- 
 sors. 
 ni, *., on,i The king of Italy was not unworthy 
 
 Cnaracfor ann „. . . T • i-ii- i 
 
 reignof Oloarnr, of the high statioH to which his valour 
 A. D. 47G-41U. gj^j fortune had exalted him: his sa- 
 vage manners were polislied by the habits of conversa- 
 tion ; and he respected, though a conqueror and a bar- 
 barian, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his 
 subjects. After an interval of seven years, Odoacer 
 restored the consulship of the west. For himself, he 
 modestly, or proudly, declined an honour which was 
 still accepted by the emperors of the east; but the cu- 
 rule chair was successively filled by eleven of the 
 most illustrious senators;" and the list is adorned by 
 the respectable name of Basil ius, whose virtues claim- 
 ed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, 
 his client.* The laws of the emperors were strictly 
 enforced, and the civil administration of Italy was still 
 exercised by the praetorian praefect, and his subordin- 
 ate oflTicers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magis- 
 trates the odious and oppressive task of collecting the 
 public revenue ; but he reserved for himself the merit 
 of seasonable and popular indulgence." Like the rest 
 of the barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian 
 heresy ; but he revered the monastic and episcopal 
 characters ; and the silence of the catholics attests the 
 toleration which they enjoyed. The peace of the city 
 required the interposition of his praefect Basilius in 
 the choice of a Roman pontiff : the decree which re- 
 strained the clergy from alienating their lands, was 
 ultimately designed for the benefit of the people, whose 
 devotions would have been taxed to repair the dilapi- 
 dations of the church.* Italy was protected by the 
 arms of its conqueror ; and its frontiers were respected 
 by the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who had so 
 long insulted the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer 
 passed the Hadriatic, to chastise the assassins of the 
 emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province 
 of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the re- 
 mains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the 
 Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. 
 The king was vanquished in battle, and led away pris- 
 oner; a'numerous colony of captives and subjects was 
 transplanted into Italy : and Rome, after a long period 
 of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her 
 barbarian master.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the prudence and sue- ^. ,, ^. 
 
 - ^, ?• 1 • J LM'. J Miserable State 
 
 cess of Odoacer, his kingdom exhibited „f ii^iy. 
 
 the sad prospect of misery and desolation. 
 Since the age of Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had 
 been felt in Italy; and it was a just subject of com- 
 plaint, that the life of the Roman people depended on 
 the accidents of the winds and waves.' In the divi- 
 sion and decline of the empire, the tributary harvests 
 of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn ; the numbers of 
 the inhabitants continually diminished with the means 
 of subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the 
 irretrievable losses of war, famine,* and pestilence. 
 St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin of a populous dis- 
 trict, which had been once adorned with the flourish- 
 ing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium, and Placen- 
 tial** Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer; and 
 he aflirms, with strong exaggeration, that in iEmilia, 
 Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces, the human spe- 
 cies was almost extirpated.'^ The plebeians of Rome, 
 who were fed by the hand of their master, perished or 
 disappeared, as soon as his liberality was suppressed ; 
 the decline of the arts reduced the industrious me- 
 chanic to idleness and want ; and the senators, who 
 might support with patience the ruin of their country, 
 bewailed their private loss of wealth and luxury. One 
 third of those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy 
 is originally imputed,"* was extorted for the use of the 
 conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by insults ; the 
 sense of actual sufferings was imbittered by the fear 
 of more dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted 
 to new swarms of barbarians, each senator was appre- 
 hensive lest the arbitrary surveyors should approach 
 his favourite villa, or his most profitable farm. The 
 least unfortunate were those who submitted without a 
 murmur to the power whicli it was impossible to re- 
 sist. Since they desired to live, they owed some grat- 
 itude to the tyrant who had spared their lives ; and 
 since he was the absolute master of their fortunes, the 
 portion which he left must be accepted as his pure 
 and voluntary gift.* The distress of Italy was mitiga- 
 ted by the prudence and humanity of Odoacer, who 
 had bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to sat- 
 isfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent multi- 
 tude. The kings of the barbarians were frequently re- 
 sisted, deposed, or murdered, by \\\eirnative subjects; 
 and the various bands of Italian mercenaries, who as- 
 sociated under the standard of an elective general, 
 claimed a larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A 
 monarchy destitute of national union, and hereditary 
 right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign of 
 fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by the superior 
 genius of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, a hero 
 alike excellent in the arts of war and of government, 
 who restored an age of peace and prosperity, and 
 whose name still excites and deserves the attention of 
 mankind. 
 
 497 
 
 ■ The consular Fasti may Im found in Pagi or Muratori. The con- 
 snld named hy odoacer, or perhaps I'y the Roman senate, appear 
 to liavp been acknowled:;ed in the eastern empire. 
 
 t Sidonius Apo'linaris(l. i.opist.O. p. 22. edit. Sirmond.)ha8 compar- 
 ed tlie two Ic;idinir senators of Ills lime, (A. D. 4GH.) Gennadius .\vi- 
 cniisand C:rcina Basilius, 'J'otlie former he assigns the specious, to 
 the latter the solid, virtues of public and private life. A Basilius, 
 junior, possihiy his son, was consul in the year "180. 
 
 w Fpiphanius intcrredfd for the people of Pavia ; and the kinir 
 first granted an indiiiijence of five years, and afterwards relieved 
 Ihem from the oppression of I'elasius, the pruMotian pra'fect. (Euho- 
 dius in Vit. St. Epiphan. in Sirmond, Oper. torn. i. p. 1G70. IGT'J.) 
 
 X See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 483. No. 10—15. Sixteen 
 years afterwards, the irregular prorecdin«r8 of Basilius were con- 
 demned by pope Symmachus in a Roman synod. 
 
 y The wars of Odoacer are concisely mentioned by Paul the Dea- 
 
 con, (de Gest. Lanpobard. I. i. c. 19. p. 757. edit. Grot.) and in the 
 two Chronicles of Cassiodorius and Cuspinian. The life of St. Sc- 
 verinus, by Eugippiu?. which the count de Buat, (Hist, des Peuples, 
 &c. torn. viii. c. 1. -1. H, 9.) has diligently studied, illustrates the rum 
 of Noricum and the Bavarian antiquities. 
 
 z Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. The Recherches sur I'Administration des 
 Terres chez les Romains. (p. 351—361.) clearly state the progress of 
 internal decay. . , . . /. 
 
 a A famine, which afflicted Italy at the lime of the irruption of 
 Odoacer, king of Ihe Heruli, is eloquently described in prose and 
 verse, by a French Poet. (Les Mois. loin. ii. p. 174. 206. edit, in 
 12mo.) I am ignorant from whence he derives his information ; but I 
 am well assured, that he relates some facts incompatible with the 
 truth of history. 
 
 b See the thirty-ninth epistle of St. Ambrose, as it is quoted by 
 Muratori, sopra le Antichita Italianc, torn. i. Dissert, xxi. p. 354. 
 
 c ^Emilia. Tuscia. cetera-que provincial inqnibus hominum prope 
 nullus exsistit, Gelasius, Epist. ad Andromachum, ap. Baroniuui, 
 Annal. Eccles. A. D 469. No. 36. 
 
 d Verumque confideiitibus, lalifundia perdidere Italiara. PMn. 
 Hist. Nalur. xviii.8. , 
 
 e Such are the topics of consolation, or rather of patience, whicn 
 Cicero (ad Familiares, lib. ix. Epist. 17.) suggests to his friend Pa- 
 pirius Pa?tus, under the military despotism of Caesar. The argu- 
 ment, however, of " vivere pulcherrimum duxi," is more forcibly 
 addressed to a Roman philosopher, who possessed the free alterna- 
 tive of life or death. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX VII. 
 
 Origin, progress, and effects of the monastic life. — Conver- 
 sion of the barbarians to Christianity and Arianism. — Per- 
 secution of the Vandals in Africa, — Extinction of Arian- 
 ism among tJie barbarians. 
 
 The indissoluble connexion of civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal affairs, has compelled, and encouraged, me to re- 
 late the progress, the persecutions, the establishment, 
 the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual cor- 
 ruption, of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the 
 consideration of two religious events, interesting in the 
 study of human nature, and important in the decline 
 and fall of the Roman empire. I. The institution of 
 the monastic life;* and, II. The conversion of the 
 northern barbarians. 
 
 _ _ I. Prosperity and peace introduced the 
 
 1. The monas- i-„.- x- /• .l i j ..i 
 
 TIC LIFE. Ori- distinction 01 Xhe vulgar and the ascetic 
 
 gin of the monks, christians.^ The loose and imperfect 
 practice of religion satisfied the con- 
 science of the multitude. The prince or magistrate, 
 the soldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent zeal, 
 and implicit faith, with the exercise of their profes- 
 sion, the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence 
 of their passions ; but the ascetics, who obeyed and 
 abused the rigid precepts of the gospel, were inspired 
 by the savage enthusiasm, which represents man as a 
 criminal, and God as a tyrant. They seriously re- 
 nounced the business, and the pleasures, of the age ; 
 abjured the use of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; 
 chastised their body, mortified their affections, and em- 
 braced a life of misery, as the price of eternal happi- 
 ness. In the reign of Constantine, the ascetics fled 
 from a profane and degenerate world, to perpetual sol- 
 itude, or religious society. Like the first christians 
 of Jerusalem,*^ they resigned the use, or the property, 
 of their temporal possessions ; established regular com- 
 munities of the same sex, and a similar disposition ; 
 and assumed the names o( Hermits^ Monks, and .^nacho- 
 rets, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or 
 artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of 
 the world, which they despised ; and the loudest ap- 
 plause was bestowed on this Divine Philosophy,'' 
 which surpassed, without the aid of science or reason, 
 the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The 
 monks might indeed contend with the stoics, in the 
 contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death : the Pytha- 
 gorean silence and submission were revived in their 
 servile discipline ; and they disdained, as firmly as the 
 cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil 
 society. But the votaries of this divine philosophy 
 aspired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. 
 They trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had re- 
 tired to the desert ;' and they restored the devout and 
 
 a The orisin of the monastic institution has been laboriously dis- 
 cussed by Thomasin (Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. i. p. 1419—1426.) 
 and Helyot, (Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, torn. i. p. 1—66.) These 
 authors are very learned and tolerably honest, and their difference of 
 opinion shows the subject in its full extent. Yet the cautious protes- 
 tant, who distrusts ani/ popish guides, may consult the seventh book 
 of Bingham's Christian Antiquities. 
 
 b See Euseb. Demonslrat. Evangel. (1. i. p. 20,21. edit. Grace. Rob. 
 Stephani, Paris, 1545.) In his Ecclesiastical History, published 
 twelve years after the Demonstration, Eusebius, (1. ii. c. 17.) asserts 
 the Christianity of the Theraputae ; but he appears ignorant, that a 
 eimilar institution was revived in Egypt. 
 
 c Cassian (Collat. xviii. 5.) claims this origin for the institution of 
 the Canobiles, which gradually decayed till it was restored by An- 
 thony and his disciples. 
 
 d il^iA-i/uouTetTSK yap ti xp'tf** "f «v8p«5r»5 tX6vi(r» rrxpm ©£« ») toi- 
 
 «uT)i (f iA.oToo«x. These are the expressive words of Sozomen, who 
 copiously and agreeably describes (I. i. c. 12, 13, 14.) the origin and 
 progress of this monkish philosophy. (See Suicer. Thesaur. Eccles. 
 torn. ii. p. 1441.) Some modern writers, Lipsius (tom. iv. p. 448. 
 Manuduct. ad Philosoph. Stoic, iii. 13.) and la Mothe le Vayer (torn. 
 ix. de la Vertu der Payens, p. 2-28—262.) have compared the Carmel- 
 ites to the Pythagoreans, and the Cynics to the Capuchins. 
 
 e The Carmelites derive their pedigree, in regular succession, from 
 the prophet Elijah. (Seethe Theses of Beziers, A. D. 1682. inBayle's 
 Nouvelles de la Kepublique des Letires, (Euvres, tom. i. p. 82, &c. 
 and the prolix irony of the Ordres Monastiques, an anonymous work, 
 lom.i.p. 1 — 433. Berlin, 1751.) Rome, and the inquisition of Spain, 
 silenced the profane criticism of the Jesuits of Flanders, (Helyot, 
 Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, tom. i. p. 282 -300.) and ihe statue of 
 Elijah, the Carmelite, has been erected in the church of St. Peter. 
 (Voyages du P. Labat, tom. iii. p. 87.) 
 
 Vol. I.— 3 N 32 
 
 contemplative life, which had been instituted by the 
 Essenians, in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic 
 eye of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a soli- 
 tary people, who dwelt among the palm-trees near the 
 Dead sea ; who subsisted without money, who were 
 propagated without w^omen, and who derived from the 
 disgust and repentance of mankind, a perpetual supply 
 of voluntary associates.' 
 
 Egypt, the fruitful parent of supersti- Antony and the 
 tion, afforded the first example of the monks of Egypt, 
 monastic life. Antony,B an illiterate^ A. D. 305. 
 youth of the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his 
 patrimony,' deserted his family and native home, and 
 executed his monastic penance with original and in- 
 trepid fanaticism. After a long and painful noviciate, 
 among the tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly ad- 
 vanced into the desert three days' journey to the east- 
 ward of the Nile ; discovered a lonely spot, which pos- 
 sessed the advantages of shade and water, and fixed 
 his last residence on mount Colzim, near the Red sea; 
 where an ancient monastery still preserves the name 
 and memory of the saint.-* The curious devotion of 
 the christians pursued him to the desert;'' and when 
 he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of- 
 mankind, he supported his fame with discretion and 
 dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, 
 whose doctrine he approved ; and the Egyptian peas- 
 ant respectively declined a respectful invitation from 
 the emperor Constantine. The venera- •>5i_^'i6 
 
 ble patriarch (for Antony attained the 
 age of one hundred and five years) beheld the numer- 
 ous progeny which had been formed by his example 
 and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks mul- 
 tiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon 
 the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To 
 the south of Alexandria, the mountain, and adjacent 
 desert, of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand ana- 
 chorets; and the traveller may still investigate the 
 ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that 
 barren soil by the disciples of Antony.' In the Upper 
 Thebais, the vacant island of Tabenne'"was occupied 
 by Pachomius and fourteen hundred of his brethren. 
 That holy abbot successively founded nine monaste- 
 ries of men, and one of women ; and the festival of 
 
 f Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe praeter ceteraa 
 mira, sine ulla femina, onmi venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia 
 palmarum. Iia per seculonun millia (incredible dictu) gens aeterna 
 est in qufi nemo nascilur. Tarn fucunda ill is aliorum vitae poeniten- 
 tia est. He places them just beyond the noxious influence of the 
 lake, and names Engaddi and Masada as the nearest towns. The 
 Laura, and monastery of St. Sabas, could not be far distant fn>m this 
 place. See Reland. Palcstin. torn. i. p. 295. tom. ii. p. 763. 874. 830. 
 890. 
 
 K See Athanas. Op. tonv ii. p. 450 — 305. and the Vit. Patrum, p. 26 
 — 71. with Rosweyde's Annotations. The former is the Greek origi- 
 nal ; the latter a very ancient Latin version by Evagrius, the friend 
 ofSt.Jerom. 
 
 h rpx/ifixrx fjiiv fixSnv tjx v,viv'/,ira, Athanas. tom. ii. in Vit. St. 
 Anton, p. 452. and the assertion of his total ignorance has been re- 
 ceived by many of the ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Mem. 
 Eccles. lorn. vii. p. 666.) shows, by some probable arguments, that 
 Antony could read and write in the Coptic, his native tongue; and 
 that he was only a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher 
 Synesius (p. 51.) acknowledges, that the natural genius of Antony did 
 not require the aid of learning. 
 
 i Ariira autem erant ei trccentae ubcres, et valde optimae. (Vit. 
 Patr. 1. i. p. 36.) If the Arura be a square measure of an humlred 
 Egyptian cubits, (Roswoyde, Onoinasiicon ad Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 
 1015.) and the Egyptian cubit of all ages be equal to twenty-two Eng- 
 lish inches, (Graves, vol. i. p. 233.) ihe arura will consist of about 
 three quarters of an English acre. 
 
 j The description of the monastery is given by Jerom, (tom. i. p. 
 248,249. in Vit. Hilarion.) and the P. Sicard, (Missions du Levant, 
 tom. v. p. 122—200.) Their accounts cannot always be reconciled ; 
 the flither painted from his fancy, and the Jesuit from his experience. 
 
 k [The persecutions of Diocletian* were one cause of peopling the 
 desert with christians who chose to lead the life of the anchoriie ra- 
 ther than remain candidates for the crown of martyrdom. (Planck. 
 Hist, de la Consiit. de I'Eglise Chretien, vol. i. chap. 14. § 3.)— G.l 
 
 1 Jerom. tom. i.p. 146. a"d Eustochium. Hist. Lausiac. c. 7. in Vit. 
 Patrum, p. 712. The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, tom. ii. p. 29— 
 79.) visited, and has described, this desert, which now contains four 
 monasteries, and twenty or thirty monks. See D'Anville, Descrip- 
 tion de I'Egypte, p. 74. 
 
 m Tabenne is a small island in the Nile, in the diocese of Tentyra 
 or Dendera, between the modern town of Girge, and the ruins of an- 
 cient Thebes. (D'Anville, p. 194.) M. de Tillemont doubts whether 
 it was an isle; but I may conclude, from his own facts, that the pri- 
 mitive name was afterwards transferred to the great monastery of 
 Bau or Pabau. (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 678. 633.) 
 
 M 
 
 •( 
 
 w 
 
 r 
 
 4^ 
 
 I 
 
 /■ 
 
498 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 499 
 
 Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand religious 
 persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline." 
 The stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat 
 of christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the 
 public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and 
 charitable uses ; and the bishop, who might preach in 
 twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and 
 twenty thousand males of the monastic profession." 
 The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous revo- 
 lution, were disposed to hope, and to believe, that the 
 number of monks was equal to the remainder of the 
 peoplo;P and posterity might repeat the saying, which 
 had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the 
 same country, that, in Egypt, it was less difficult to 
 find a god, than a man. 
 
 Propagation of Athanasius introduced into Rome the 
 the monastic life knowledge and practice of the monastic 
 '^ a*"d'341 ^'^® ' ^"^ ^ school of this new philosophy 
 was opened by the disciples of Antony, 
 who had accompanied their primate to the holy thresh- 
 old of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance 
 of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and con- 
 tempt, and, at length, applause and zealous imitation. 
 The senators, and more especially the matrons, trans- 
 formed their palaces and villas into religious houses ; 
 and the narrow institution ofs/.r vestals,°was eclipsed 
 by the frequent monasteries, which were seated on the 
 ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Ro- 
 mon forum.'i Inflamed by the example of Antony, a 
 Hilarion in Pa- Syrian youth, whose name was Hila- 
 
 a*^d''^ rion,' fixed his dreary abode on a sandy 
 beach, between the sea and a morass, 
 about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance 
 in which ho persisted forty-eight years, diffused a 
 similar enthusiasm ; and the holy man was followed 
 by a train of two or three thousand anachorcts, when- 
 ever he visited the innumerable monasteries in Pales- 
 Basil in Pontus, tine. The fame of Basil' is immortal in 
 
 A. IJ. 3G0. the monastic history of the east. With 
 a mind, that had tasted the learning and eloquence of 
 Athens ; with an ambition, scarcely to be satisfied 
 by the archbishopric of Caesarea, Basil retired to a 
 savage solitude in Pontus ; and deigned, for a while, 
 to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he pro- 
 fusely scattered along the coast of the Black sea. In 
 Martin in Gaul, the west, Martin of Tours,* a soldier, a 
 
 A. D.37(). hermit, a bishop, and a saint, establish- 
 ed the monasteries of Gaul ; two thousand of his dis- 
 ciples followed him to the grave ; and his eloquent 
 historian challenges the deserts of Thebais, to pro- 
 duce, in a more favourable climate, a champion of equal 
 virtue. The progress of the monks was not less 
 rapid, or universal, than that of Christianity itself. 
 Every province, and, at last, every city, of the em- 
 pire, was filled with their increasing multitudes ; and 
 the bleak and barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that 
 arise out of the Tuscan sea, were chosen by the ana- 
 
 n See in the Codex Regulanim (published by Lucas Holateniug, 
 Kome, 1661.) a preface of St. Jerom to hia Latin version of the Rule 
 of Fachomius, torn. i. p. 61. 
 
 o Rufin. c. 5. in Vil. Patrum. p. 459. He calls it clvilas ampla 
 yaldo et ponulosa, and reckons twelve churches. Sirabo (1. xvii i> 
 1166.) and Ammianus (xxii. 16.) have made honourable mention of" 
 Oxyrinchus, whose inhabitants adored a small fish in a magnificent 
 temple. ° 
 
 P Quanii populi habentur in urbibus, tanta psena habentur in de- 
 aenis multitudines monachorum. Rufin. c. 7. in Vit. Patrum, u 461 
 He congratulalna the fortunate chanjre. 
 
 q The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and Italy, is oc- 
 casionally mentioned by Jerom, (tom. i. p. liy, 120. 199.) 
 
 r See the Life of Hilarion, by St. Jerom, (tom. i. p. 2^11. 252.) The 
 stories of Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by the same author, are admi- 
 rably told ; and the only defect of these pleasing compositions is the 
 want of truth and common sense. 
 
 • His original retreat was in a small village on the banks of the 
 Ins, not far from Neo-Caesarea. The ten or twelve years of his mon- 
 astic life were disturbed by long and frequent avocations. Some 
 critics have disputed the authenticity of his ascetic rules ; but the 
 external evidence is weighty, and they can only prove that it is the 
 work of a real or affected enthusiast. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. 
 175^181^* 636—641. Helyot, Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, tom. i. p. 
 
 t See his Life, and the Three Dialogues by Sulpicius Severus, who 
 Msens (Dialoe. i 16.) that the booksellers of Rome were deli-hted 
 wuh the quick and ready sale of his popular work. 
 
 chorets, for the place of their voluntary exile. An 
 easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and land con- 
 nected the provinces of the Roman world ; and the 
 life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an 
 indigent hermit of Palestine might traverse Egypt, 
 embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle 
 in the island of Cyprus." The Latin christians em- 
 braced the religious institutions of Rome. The pil- 
 grims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly copied, in the 
 most distant climates of the earth, the faithful model 
 of the monastic life. Tiie disciples of Antony spread 
 themselves beyond the tropic, over the christian em- 
 pire of iEthiopia.* The monastery of Banchor,^ in 
 Flintshire, which contained above two thousand 
 brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the bar- 
 barians of Ireland : ' and lona, one of the Hebrides, 
 which was planted by the Irish monks, diffused over 
 the northern regions a doubtful ray of science and 
 superstition.-* 
 
 These unhappy exiles from social life Causes of its 
 were impelled by the dark and impla- rapid progress, 
 cable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution 
 was supported by the example of millions, of either 
 sex, of every age, and of every rank ; and each pro- 
 selyte, who entered the gates of a monastery, was 
 persuaded, that he trod the steep and thorny path of 
 eternal happiness.** But the operation of these reli- 
 gious motives was variously determined by the tem- 
 per and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue, 
 or passion might suspend, their influence : but they 
 acted most forcibly on the infirm minds of children 
 and females ; they were strengthened by secret re- 
 morse, or accidental misfortune ; and they might de- 
 rive some aid from the temporal considerations of 
 vanity or interest. It was naturally supposed, that 
 the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the 
 world, to accomplish the work of their salvation, were 
 the best qualified for the spiritual government of the 
 christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his 
 cell, and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people, 
 on the episcopal throne: the monasteries of Egypt, 
 of Gaul, and of the east, supplied a regular succes- 
 sion of saints and bishops ; and ambition soon dis- 
 covered the secret road which led to the possession 
 of wealth and honours.*^ The popular monks, whose 
 reputation was connected with the fame and success 
 of the order, assiduously laboured to multiply the 
 number of their fellow-captives. They insinuated 
 themselves into noble and opulent families; and the 
 specious arts of flattery and seduction were employed 
 to secure those proselytes, who might bestow wealth 
 
 n When Hilarion sailed from Paraetoniuni to Cape Pachynua, he 
 offered to pay his passage with a book of the Gospels. Poethuniian, a 
 Gallic monk who had visited Egypt, found a merchant-ship bound 
 from Alexandria to Marseilles, and performed the voyage in thirty 
 days. (Sulp. Sever. Dialog, i. 1.) Athanasius, who addressed his life 
 of St. Antony to the foreign monks, was obliged to hasten the compo* 
 sition, that it might be ready for the sailing of the fleets, (tom. ii. p. 
 451.) *^ 
 
 ■X See Jerom, (tom. I. p. 126.) Assemanni. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. it, 
 p. 92. p. P57. 919.) and Geddes, (Church History of Ethiopia, p. 29— 
 31.) The Abyssinian monks adhere very strictly to the primitive in- 
 stitutio 1. 
 
 y Camden's Britannia, vol. i. p. 666, 667. 
 
 z All that learning can extract from the rubbish of the dark ages i» 
 copiously staieil by archbishop Usher, in his Britannicarum Ecclesi- 
 arum Antiquitafs, cap. xvi. p. 425—503. 
 
 a This small, though not barren, spot, lona, Hy, or Columbkill, 
 only two miles in length, and one mile in breadth, has been distiu- 
 gtiished, 1. by the monastery of St. Columba, founded A. D. 666; 
 whoso abbot exercised an extraordinary jurisdiction over the bishops 
 of Caledonia; 2. by a classic librarv, which afforded s«.)me hopes of 
 an entire Livy; and, 3. By the tombs of sixty kings, Scots, Irish, and 
 Norwegians ; who reposed in holy ground. See Usher, (p. 311. 360 
 —370.) and Buchanan. (Rer. Scot.l. ii.p. 15. edit. Ruddiman.) 
 
 b Chrysostom (in the first tome of the Benedictine edition) has 
 consecrated three books to the praise and defence of the monastic life. 
 He is encouraged, by the example of the ark, to presume, that none 
 but the elect (the monks) can possibly be saved, (1. i. p. 55, 56.) 
 Elsewhere, indeed, he becomes more merciful, (1. iii. p. 83, 84.) and 
 allows different degrees of glory, like the sun, moon, and star^i. In 
 his lively comparison of a kinj' and a monk, (1. iii. p. 116—121.) he 
 supposes (what is hardly fair) that tho king will be more sparingly 
 rewarded, and more rigorously punished. 
 
 c Thomassin (Discipline de UEglise, tom. i. p. 1426. 1469.) and Ma- 
 billon. ((Euvres Poslhumes, tom. ii. p. 115—156.) The monks were 
 gradually adopted aspartof iheeccleeiaatical hierarchy. 
 
 or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant 
 father bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son ; •* 
 the credulous maid was betrayed by vanity to violate 
 the laws of nature ; and the matron aspired to ima- 
 ginary perfection, by renouncing the virtues of domes- 
 tic life.' Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence 
 of Jerom ; ' and the profane title of mother-in-law of 
 God,K tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate the 
 virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the ad- 
 vice, and in the company, of her spiritual guide, 
 Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son ; retired 
 to the holy village of Bethlem; founded an hospital 
 and four monasteries ; and acquired, by her alms and 
 penance, an eminent and conspicuous station in the 
 catholic church. Such rare and illustrious penitents 
 were celebrated as the glory and example of their 
 age; but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of 
 obscure and abject plebeians,** who gained in the clois- 
 ter much more than they had sacrificed in the world. 
 Peasants, slaves, and mechanics, might escape from 
 poverty and contempt, to a safe and honourable pro- 
 fession ; whose apparent hardships were mitigated 
 by custom, by popular applause, and by the secret re- 
 laxation of discipline.' The subjects of Rome, whose 
 persons and fortunes were made responsible for un- 
 equal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the oppres- 
 sion of the imperial government ; and the pusillani- 
 mous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to 
 the dangers of a military, life. The affrighted pro- 
 vincials of every rank, who fled before the barbarians, 
 found shelter and subsistence; whole legions were 
 buried in these religious sanctuaries; and the same 
 cause, which relieved the distress of individuals, im- 
 paired the strength and fortitude of the empire.^ 
 Obedience of the The monastic profession of the an- 
 monks. cients '^ was an act of voluntary devo- 
 tion. The inconstant fanatic w^as threatened with the 
 eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted ; but 
 the doors of the monastery were still open for repen- 
 tance. Those monks, whose conscience was fortified 
 
 d Dr. Middleton (vol. i. p. 110.) liberally censures the conduct and 
 writings of Chrysostom, one of the most eloquent and successful ad- 
 vocates for the monastic life. 
 
 e [Ttie first statutes relative to the organization of monasteries 
 forbad these abuses. The wife could not devote herself to the clois 
 ter without the consent of her husband, nor the husband without 
 the consent of the wife, (St. Basil, reff. maj. qu. xW.y. a child who 
 was a minor without the consent of the parents, {lb. gu. xv. cone. 
 Oangr. ch. 16.): a slave .ncninst the will of liis master, (cone. Chalced. 
 cli, 4.) But the emperor Justinian removed these prohibitions and 
 permitted slaves, children and wives to enter the cloister without 
 tlie consent of their masters, their parents or their husbands, (JV<;- 
 nell. V. ch. 2. cod. Just. I. i. vol. 3. leg. 53— 55.)— G.] 
 
 f Jerom's devout ladies form a very considerable portion of his 
 works ; the particular treatise, which he styles the epitaph of Pnula, 
 (tom . i. p. 169—192.) is an elaborate and extravagant panegyric. 
 The exordium is ridiculously turgid. *' If all the members of my bo- 
 dy were changed into tongues, and if all my limbs resounded with a 
 human voice, yet should I be incapable," &.c. 
 
 g Socrus Dei esse ca»pisti, (Jerom, tom. i. p. 140. ad Eustochium.) 
 Rufinus (in Hieronym. Op. tom. iv. p. 22:i.) who was justly scan- 
 dalized, asks his adversary, From what pagan poet he had stolen an 
 expression so impious and absurd ? 
 
 h Nunc autem veniunl plerumgue ad banc professionem scrvitutis 
 Dei, et ex ronditione servili, vel etiam liberati, vel propter hoc a Do- 
 minis liberati sive liberandi ; el ex vita rusticana, et ex opificum ex- 
 ercitatione, ct plebeio labore. Augiistin. de Oper. Monarh. c. 22. 
 ap. Thomasin. Discipline de I'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 1094. The Egyptian, 
 who blamed Arsenius, owned that he led a more comfortable life as 
 a monk, than as a shepherd. See Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. 
 p. 079. 
 
 i A Dominican friar, (Voyages du P. Labat, torn. I. p. 10.) who 
 lodeed at Cadiz in a convent of his brethren, soon understood that 
 their repose was never interrupted by nocturnal devotion ; " quoiqu* 
 on ne laisse pas de sonner pour Tedification du peuple." 
 
 j See a very sensible preface of Luras HoKstenius to the Codex Re- 
 gularum. The emperors attempted to support the ohiigalion of 
 public and private duties,* but the feeble dykes were swept away 
 by the torrent of sui>crstition; and Justinian surpassed the most 
 sanguine wishes of the monks. (Thomasin, lorn. i. p. 1782—1799. and 
 Bingham, I. vii, c. 3. p 2.">:<.) 
 
 k The monastic institutions, particularly tho.se of Egypt, about the 
 year 400, are described by four curious and devout travellers ; Rufi 
 nus, (Vit. Patrum. I. ii. iii. p. 424-5:16.) Postliumian, (Sulp. Sever. 
 Dialoer. i.) Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac. in Vit. Patrum, p. 709—863.) 
 and Cassian, (see in torn. vii. Bibliothec. Max. Patrum, his first 
 books of Institutes, and the twenty-four Collations or Conferen- 
 ces. 
 
 • [The MfnpCTor Valeni in particular enncted a law : Contra i^nariat quosdam lectatorec qui 
 deterth civitatum inuuenbus captaut solituJii)(*9 ac secreta et specie rcligioui* cum ca:tibua 
 moDocboruni coiigreguitiu-. (Cod. Tbcod. I. lili. tit. 1, lei;. 63.)— C] 
 
 by reason or passion, were at liberty to resume the 
 character of men and citizens ; and even the spouses 
 of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earth- 
 ly lover.' The examples of scandal, and the progress 
 of superstition, suggested the propriety of more for- 
 cible restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of 
 the novice was secured by a solemn and perpetual 
 vow ; and his irrevocable engagement was ratified by 
 the laws of the church and state. A guilty fugitive 
 was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual 
 prison ; and the interposition of the magistrate op- 
 pressed the freedom and merit, which had alleviated, 
 in some degree, the abject slavery of the monastic 
 discipline."* The actions of a monk, his words, and 
 even his thoughts, were determined by an inflexible 
 rule," or a capricious superior : the slightest offences 
 were corrected by disgrace or confinement, extraordi- 
 nary fasts or bloody flagellation; and disobedience, 
 murmur, or delay, wore ranked in the catalogue of 
 the most heinous sins.** A blind submission to the 
 commands of the abbot, however absurd, or even 
 criminal, they might seem, was the ruling principle, 
 the first virtue, of the Egyptian monks; and their 
 patience w^as frequently exercised by the most extra- 
 vagant trials. They were directed to remove an enor- 
 mous rock ; assiduously to water a barren staff, that 
 was planted in the ground, till, at the end of three 
 years, it should vegetate and blossom like a tree ; to 
 walk into a fiery furnace ; or to cast their infant into 
 a deep pond : and several saints, or madmen, have 
 been immortalized in monastic story, by their thought- 
 less and fearless obedience.P The freedom of the 
 mind, the source of every generous and rational senti- 
 ment, was destroyed by the habits of credulity and 
 submission; and the monk, contracting the vices of a 
 slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of his 
 ecclesiastical t3'^rant. The peace of the eastern church 
 was invaded by a swarm of fanatics, incapable of 
 fear, or reason, or humanity ; and the imperial troops 
 acknowledged, without shame, that they were much 
 less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest 
 barbarians.'^ 
 
 Superstition has often framed and Their dress and 
 consecrated the fantastic garments of habitations, 
 the monks :■" but their apparent singularity sometimes 
 proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple 
 and primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion 
 have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind. The 
 father of the Benedictines expressly disclaims all idea 
 of choice or merit; and soberly exhorts his disciples to 
 
 1 The example of Malchus. (Jerom, tom, i. p. 256.) and the desicn 
 ofCassianand his friend, (Collation xxiv. 1.) are inconle.slable proofs 
 of their freedom ; which is elegantly described by Erasmus in bis Life 
 of St. Jerom. SeeChnrdon. Hist, des Sacremens, tom. vi. p. 279— 1^00. 
 
 m See tiie laws of Justinian, (Novel, cxxiii. No. 42.) and of Lewis 
 the Pious, (in the Historians of France, torn. vi. p. 427.) and the ac- 
 tual jurisprudence of France, in Dcnissart. Decisions, &.c. tom. iv. p. 
 855, &.C. 
 
 n The ancient Code.v Regnlarnm collected by Benedict Anianinns, 
 the reformer of the monks in the beginnine of the ninth century, 
 and published in the seventeenth, by Lucas Holstenius, contains 
 thirty dltferent rules for men and women. Of these seven were 
 composed in Egypt, one in tlie east, one in Cappadocia, one in Italy, 
 one in Africa, four in Spain, eight in Gaul, or France, and one in 
 England. 
 
 o The rules of Columbanus, so prevalent in the west, inflicts one 
 hundred lashes for very slight offences. (Cod. Reg. part ii. p. 174.) 
 Before the time of Charlemagne, the abbots indulged themselves in 
 mutilating their monks, or putting out their eyes ; a punisliment 
 much less cruel, than the tremendous vade in pace, (the subterra- 
 neous dungeon, or sepulchre.) which was afterwards invented. See 
 an admirable discourse of the learned Mabillon, (CEuvres Posthu- 
 mes, tom. ii. p. H21 — 3:^6.) who, on this occasion, seems to be in- 
 spired by the genius of humanity. For such an effort, I can forgive 
 his defence of the Iroly tear of Vendome. (p. :^6I— 299.) 
 
 p Sulp. Sever. Dialog, i. 12. 13. p. 5;<2, &.c. Cassian. Inslitut. I. iv. 
 c. 26, 27. " Prircipua ibi virtus et prima est obedientin." Among 
 the Verba seniorum (in Vit. Patrum, I. v. p. 617.) the fourteenth li- 
 bel or discourse is on the subject of obedience ; and the Jesuit Ros- 
 weyde, who published that huge volume for the use of convents, has 
 collected all the .<!cattered passnges in his two copious indexes. 
 
 q Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 161.) 
 has olserved the scandalous valour of the Cnppadocian monks, 
 which was exemplified in the banishment of Chrysostom. 
 
 r Cassian has simply, though copiously, described the monastic 
 habit of Egypt, (Institut. I. i.) to which sbzonicn (I. iii. v. 1-1.) attri- 
 butes such allegorical meaning and virtue. 
 
 m 
 
 If 
 
 I 
 
 :'r 
 
 /-■ 
 
500 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 501 
 
 > 
 
 adopt the coarse and convenient dress of the countries 
 which they may inhabit/ The monastic habits of the 
 ancients varied with the climate, and their mode of 
 life ; and they assumed, with the same indifference, 
 the sheep-skin of the Egyptian peasants, or the cloak 
 of the Grecian philosophers. They allowed them- 
 selves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a cheap 
 and domestic manufacture ; but in the west, they re- 
 jected such an expensive article of foreign luxury.* 
 It was the practice of the monks either to cut or shave 
 their hair; they wrapped their heads in a cowl, to es- 
 cape the sight of profane objects ; their legs and feet 
 were naked, except in the extreme cold of winter ; and 
 their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long 
 staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was horrid 
 and disgusting : every sensation that is offensive to 
 man, was thought acceptable to God ; and the angelic 
 rule of Tabenne condemned the salutary custom of 
 bathing the limbs in water, and of anointing them with 
 oil." The austere monks slept on the ground, on a 
 hard mat, or a rough blanket ; and the same bundle of 
 palm-leaves served them as a seat in the day, and a 
 pillow in the night. Their original cells were low 
 narrow huts, built of the slightest materials ; which 
 formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a 
 large and populous village, enclosing, within the com- 
 mon wall, a church, an hospital, perhaps a library, 
 some necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or re- 
 servoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren com- 
 posed a family of separate discipline and diet; and the 
 great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty 
 families. 
 
 Their diet. Pleasure and guilt are synonymous 
 
 terms in the language of the monks ; 
 and they had discovered, by experience, that rigid 
 fasts and abstemious diet, are the most effectual pre- 
 servatives against the impure desires of the flesh." 
 The rules of abstinence, which they imposed, or prac- 
 tised, were not uniform or perpetual : the cheerful fes- 
 tival of the Pentecost was balanced by the extraordi- 
 nary mortification of Lent ; the fervour of new monas- 
 teries was insensibly relaxed ; and the voracious appe- 
 tite of the Gauls could not imitate the patient and tem- 
 perate virtue of the Egyptians^ The disciples of An- 
 tony and Pachomius were satisfied with their daily 
 pittance,' of twelve ounces of bread, or rather biscuit,* 
 which they divided into two frugal repasts, of the af- 
 ternoon, and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, 
 and almost a duty, to abstain from the boiled vegeta- 
 bles which were provided for the refectory ; but the ex- 
 traordinary bounty of the abbot sometimes indulged 
 them with the luxury of cheese, fruit, sallad, and the 
 small dried fish of the Nile.*' A more ample latitude 
 
 s Repul. Benedict. No, 55. part. ii. p. 51. 
 
 t Seethe Rule ofFerreolus, hishopof IJfez. (No. 31. in Cod. Pecul. 
 part ii. p. 136.) and of Isidore, bishop of Seville, (No. 13. IMil. p. yn.) 
 
 u Some partial indulgences were granted for the hands and feet. 
 "Toiuni autem corpus nemo unguct nisi causa infirmitatis, ncc lava- 
 hitur aqua nndo corpore, nisi languor perspicuus sit." (Regul. I'a- 
 chom. xrii. part i. p. 78.) 
 
 X St. Jerom, ia strong but indiscreet language, expresses the most 
 important use of fasting and abstinence : " Non quod Dens universi- 
 tatis Creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostroruip rugitn, et inanita- 
 te venlris, pulmnnisque ardore delectetur, sed quod nliter pndiritia 
 tuta fsse non possit." (Op. tom. i. p. 137. ad Eustochium.) See the 
 twelfth and twenty-second Collations of Cassian, de Castitate, and 
 de Jllusionibus J^octurnis. 
 
 J Edaciias in Griecis gula est, in Oallis naturn. (Dialog, i. c. 4. p. 
 421.) Cassian fairly owns, that the perfect model of abstinence can- 
 not be imitated in Gaul, on account of the aercni tcmperies, and the 
 qualitas nostra; fragilitiUis. (Institut. iv. 11.). Among the western 
 rules, that of Columbanus is the most austere; he had been educated 
 amidst the poverty of Ireland, as rijid perhaps, and inflexible, as 
 the abstemious virtue of Egypt. The rule of Isidore of Seville is 
 the mildest ; on holydays he allows the use of flesh. 
 
 s " Those who drink only water, and have no nutritious liquor, 
 ought at least to have a pound and a half {twenty four ounces) of 
 bread every day." State of Prisons, p. 40. by Mr. Howard. 
 
 a See Cassian. Collat. 1. ii. 19, 20, 21. The small loaves, or biscuit, 
 of six ounces each, had obtained the name of Paiimacia. (Rosweyde. 
 Onomasticon, p. 1045,) Pachomius, however, allo\yed his monks 
 some latitude in the quantity of their food : but he made tl =;m work 
 in proportion as they ate. (Pallad. in Hist. Lausiac. c. 38. 39. in 
 Vil. Palrum. I. viii. p. 736. 737.) 
 
 b See the banquet to which Cassian (Collation, viil. 1.) was invit- 
 ed by Serenus, an Egyptian abbot. 
 
 of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or as- 
 sumed ; but the use of flesh was longr confined to the 
 sick or travellers; and when it gradually prevailed in 
 the less rigid monasteries of Europe, a singular dis- 
 tinction was introduced ; as if birds, whether wild or 
 domestic, had been less profane than the grosser ani- 
 mals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent 
 beverage of the primitive monks ; and the founder of 
 the Benedictines regrets the daily portion of half a 
 pint of wine, which had been extorted from him by 
 the intemperance of the age.' Such an allowance 
 might be easily supplied by the vineyards of Italy ; 
 and his victorious disciples, who passed the Alps, the 
 Rhine, and the Baltic, required, in the place of wine, 
 an adequate compensation of strong beer or cyder. 
 
 The candidate who aspired to the vir- Their manual 
 tue of evangelical poverty, abjured, at labour, 
 
 his first entrance into a regular community, the idea, 
 and even the name, of all separate or exclusive pos- 
 session.** The brethren were supported by their man- 
 ual labour ; and the duty of labour was strenuously 
 recommended as a penance, as an exercise, and as the 
 most laudable means of securing their daily subsist- 
 ence.* The garden, and fields, which the industry of 
 the monks had often rescued from the forest or the mo- 
 rass, were diligently cultivated by their hands. They 
 performed, without reluctance, the menial ofl!ices of 
 slaves and domestics; and the several trades that were 
 necessary to provide their habits, their utensils, and 
 their lodging, were exercised within the precincts of 
 the great monasteries. The monastic studies have 
 tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dis- 
 pel, the cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or 
 zeal of some learned solitaries has cultivated the eccle- 
 siastical, and even the profane, sciences : and posterity- 
 must gratefully acknowledge, that the monuments of 
 Greek and Roman literature have been preserved and 
 multi|)lied by their indefatigable pens.' But the more 
 humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, 
 was contented with the silent, sedentary occupation, 
 of making wooden sandals, or of twisting the leaves 
 of the palm-tree into mats and baskets. The superflu- 
 ous stock, which was not consumed in domestic use, 
 supplied, by trade, the wants of the community : the 
 boats of Tabenne, and the other monasteries of The- 
 bais, descended the Nile as far as Alexandria ; and, in 
 a christian market, the sanctity of the workmen might 
 enhance the intrinsic value of the work. 
 
 But the necessity of manual labour ^.. ,. . „. 
 . J . Iheir riches. 
 
 was insensibly superseded. 1 he novice 
 was tempted to bestow his fortune on the saints, in 
 whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder 
 of his life; and the pernicious indulgence of the laws 
 permitted him to receive, for their use, any future ac- 
 cessions of legacy or inheritance.* Melania contribu- 
 ted her plate, three hundred pounds' weight of silver; 
 
 c See the Rule of St. Renedict, No. 39, 40. (in Cod. Reg. part ii. p; 
 41,42.) Licet legamus vinum omnino monachorum non psse : sed 
 quia nostris temporibus id monachis persuaderi non potest ; he al- 
 lows them a Roman hemina, a measure whicli may be ascertained 
 from Arbulhnot's Tables. 
 
 d Such expressions as my book, my clonk, my shoes. (Cassian. In- 
 stitut. I. i. V. c. 13.) were not less severely prohibited among the 
 western monks ; (Cod. Kegul. part. ii. p. 174.235. 2^8.) and the Rule of 
 Columbnnus punished them with six iashes. The ironical author of 
 the Ordres Monastiques, who laughs at the foolish nicety of mo- 
 dern convents, seems ignorant that the ancients were equally absurd. 
 
 e Two great masters of Ecclesiastical science, the P. Thomasin, 
 (Discipline do I'Eglise, lom. iii. p. 1(>*.M>— 1139.) and the P. Mabillon. 
 (Etudes Monastiques, tom. i. p. 116 — 155.) have seriously examined 
 the manual labour of the monks, which the former considers as a 
 merit, and the latter as a duty. 
 
 f iMabillon (Etu<ie-i Monastiques, tom. i. p. 47 — 55 ) has collected 
 many curious facts to justity the literary labours of his predeces- 
 sors, both in the east and west. Rooks were copied in the ancient 
 monasteries of Egypt, Cassian. Institut. 1. iv. c. 12. and by the dis- 
 ciples of St. Martin. Sulp. Sever, in Vit. Martin, c. 7. p. 473. Cassi- 
 odorus has allowed an ample scope for the studies of the monks ; 
 and toe shall not be scandalized if their pen sometimes wandered 
 from Chrysostom and .Augustin, to Homer and Virgil. 
 
 t Thoinas.'tin (Discipline de TEgiise, tom. hi. p. 118. 145, 146. 171 — 
 179.) has examined the revolution of the civil, canon, and common 
 law. Modern France con^rms the death which the monks have in< 
 flicted on themselves, and jusUy deprives them of all right of inheri* 
 tance. 
 
 and Paula contracted an immense debt, for the relief 
 of their favourite monks ; who kindly imparted the 
 merits of their prayers and penance to a rich and libe- 
 ral sinner.** Time continually increased, and accidents 
 could seldom diminish, the estates of the popular mon- 
 asteries, which spread over the adjacent country and 
 cities : and, in the first century of their institution, the 
 infidel Zosimus has maliciously observed, that, for the 
 benefit of the poor, the christian monks had reduced a 
 great part of mankind to a state of beggary.* As long 
 as they maintained their original fervour, they approv- 
 ed themselves, however, the faithful and benevolent 
 stewards of the charity which was intrusted to their 
 care. But their discipline was corrupted by prosper- 
 ity : they gradually assumed the pride of wealth, and 
 at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public 
 liixury might be excused by the magnificence of reli- 
 gious worship, and the decent motive of erecting dura- 
 ble habitations for an immortal society. But every 
 age of the church has accused the licentiousness of 
 the degenerate monks ; who no longer remembered the 
 object of their institution, embraced the vain and sen- 
 sual pleasures of the world, which tliey had renoun- 
 ced,^ and scandalously abused the riches which had 
 been acquired by the austere virtues af their founders.' 
 Their natural descent, from such painful and danger- 
 ous virtue, to the common vices of humanity, will not, 
 perhaps, excite much grief or indignation in the mind 
 of a philosopher. 
 ,p, . ... , Thelivesof the primitive monks were 
 
 1 heir solitude. ■, . ' i i- , 
 
 consumed m penance and solitude ; un- 
 disturbed by the various occupations which fill the 
 time, and exercise the faculties, of reasonable, active, 
 and social beings. Whenever they were permitted to 
 step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jeal- 
 ous companions were the mutual guards and spies of 
 each other's actions; and, after their return, they were 
 condemned to forget, or, at least, to suppress, w hatever 
 they had seen or heard in the world. Strangers, who 
 professed the orthodox faith, were hospitably enter- 
 tained in a separate apartment ; but their dangerous 
 conversation was restricted to some chosen elders of 
 approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their pre- 
 sence, the monastic slave might not receive the visits 
 of his friends or kindred ; and it was deemed highly 
 meritorious, if he aflflicted a tender sister, or an aged 
 parent, by the obstinate refusal of a word or look.™ 
 The monks themselves passed their lives, without per- 
 sonal attachments, among a crowd, which had been 
 formed by accident, and was detained, in the same pri- 
 son, by force or prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few 
 ideas or sentiments to communicate; a special licence 
 of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their 
 familiar visits ; and, at their silent meals, they were 
 enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible, and almost in- 
 visible, to each other." Study is the resource of soli- 
 
 h See Jerom, (tom. i. p. 176. 183.) The monk Pambo made a sub- 
 lime answer to Melania, who wislied to specify the value of her gift. 
 ♦'Do you offer it to me, or to God? If to God. he wiio suspends the 
 mountains in a balance, need not be informed of the weight of your 
 plate." (Pallad. Hist. Lausiac. c. 10. in the Vit. Patrum, I. viii. p. 
 715.) 
 
 i To woXu fit^Of TIJ5 ym coxuwtmvto, jrpa^sKrti t« fisra^iSovxi irttvrot 
 wrwxaii jravTot,- (».•{ lirrMi/) jrToi%K? %*Ttt(rTy,(rxvTti. Zosim. 1. V. p. 
 
 325. Yet the wealth of the eastern monks was far surpassed by tlio 
 princely greatness of the Benedictines. 
 
 k The sixth general council (the Uuinisext, in Trullo. Canon xlvii. 
 in Beveridge, tom. i. p. 213.) restrains women from passing the night 
 in a male, or men in a female, monastery. The seventh general 
 council (the second Nicene, Canon xx. in Beveridge, torn. i. p. :^25.) 
 prohibits the erection of doul.le or promiscuous monasteries of both 
 sexes: but it appears from Balsamon, that the prohibition was not 
 effectual. On the irregular pleasures and expenses of the clergy and 
 monks, see Thomasin, totn. iii. p. 1.334 — 13(38. 
 
 I I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Bene- 
 dictine abbot : " My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thou- 
 sand crotvns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the 
 rank of a sovereign prince."— I forget the consequences of his vow 
 of chastity. 
 
 m Pior, an Egyptian monk, allowed his sister to pee him ; but he 
 ■hut his eyes during the whole visit. See Vit. Patrum, 1. iii. p. 504. 
 Many such examples might he added. 
 
 n The 7ih, 8th, 29lh. 30th, 31st, 34th, 57th, 60th, 86th and 9.5th, 
 articles of the Rule of Pachomius, impose most intolerable lawa of 
 alienee and mortification. 
 
 tude : but education had not prepared and qualified for 
 any liberal studies the mechanics and peasants, who 
 filled the monastic communities. They might work ; 
 but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to 
 disdain the exercise of manual labour; and the indus- 
 try must be faint and languid, which is not excited by 
 the sense of personal interest. 
 
 According to their faith and zeal, they Their devotion 
 might employ the day, which they passed a"d visions. 
 in their cells, either in vocal or mental prayer : they 
 assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in 
 the night, for the public worship of the monastery. 
 The precise moment was determined by the stars, 
 which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt; 
 and a rustic horn, or trumpet, the signal of devotion, 
 twice interrupted the vast silence of the desert.** Even 
 sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously 
 measured : the vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled 
 along, without business or pleasure ; and, before the 
 close of each day, he had repeatedly accused the tedi- 
 ous progress of the sun.P In this comfortless state, 
 superstition still pursued and tormented her wretched 
 votaries.1 The repose which they had sought in the 
 cloister was disturbed by tardy repentance, profane 
 doubts, and guilty desires ; and while they considered 
 each natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they per- 
 petually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottom- 
 less abyss. From the painful struggles of disease and 
 despair, these unhappy victims were sometimes re- 
 lieved by madness or death; and in the sixth century, 
 an hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small por- 
 tion of the austere penitents, who were deprived of 
 their senses.' Their visions, before they attained this 
 extreme and acknowledged term of frenzy, have afford- 
 ed ample materials of supernatural history. It was 
 their firm persuasion, that the air, which they breathed, 
 was peopled with invisible enemies ; with innumera- 
 ble daemons, who watched every occasion, and assum- 
 ed every form, to terrify, and above all to tempt, their 
 unguarded virtue. The imaaination, and even the 
 senses, were deceived by the illusions of distempered 
 fanaticism ; and the hermit, whose midnight prayer 
 w^as oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily 
 confound the phantoms of horror or delight, which had 
 occupied his sleeping and his waking dreams.* 
 
 The monks were divided into two clas- The Coenobites 
 ses : the Camobifesj who lived under a a"d Anachorets. 
 common and regular discipline; and i\\e AimchoretSy 
 who indulged their unsocial, independent fanaticism,* 
 The most devout, or the most ambitious, of the spirit- 
 ual brethren, renounced the convent, as they had re- 
 nounced the world. The fervent monasteries of Egypt, 
 Palestine, and Syria, were surrounded by a Laura^ a 
 
 o The diurnal and nocturnal prayers of the monks arc copiously 
 discussed by Cassian, in the third and fourth books of his Institu- 
 tions ; and he constantly prefers the liturgy, which an angel had dic- 
 tated to the monasteries of Talienne. 
 
 P Cassian, from his own experience, describes the aredia, or list- 
 lesstiess of miml and body, to which a monk was exposed, when ho 
 sighed to find liimself alone. Sa*piusque cgreditur et inirreditur cel- 
 lam, et solem velut ad occasum tardius properantem crebrius iniue- 
 tur. (Institut. x. 1.) 
 
 q Tlie temptations and sufferings of Stagirius were commtmicated 
 by that unfortunate yotilh to his friend St. (Chrysostom. ?ee Middle- 
 ton's Works, vol. i. p. 107 — 110. Something similar introdures the 
 life of every saint ; and the famous Inigo, or Ignatius, the founder 
 of the Jesuits, (Vide d'Inigo de Guiposcoa, tom. i. p. 29 — 38.) may 
 serve as a memorable example. 
 
 r Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, tom. vii. p. 46. .1 have read some- 
 where, in the Vita» Patrum, but I cannot recover the plare, that sev- 
 eral, I believe many, of the monks, who did not reveal their tempta- 
 tions to the abbot, became guilty of suicide. 
 
 s See the seventh and eighth Collations of Cassian. who gravely ex- 
 amines, why the daemons were grown less active and nunterous 
 since the time of St. Antony. Rosweyde's copious index to tlie Vi- 
 ta; Patrum will point out a variety of infernal scenes. The dcvila 
 were most formidable in a female shape. 
 
 t For the distinction of the Cienobitc^ and the Hermits, especially 
 in Esypl, see Jerom, (tom. i. p. 45. ad llusiicum.) the first Dialogue 
 of Sulpiciua Severus, Rufinus, (c. 22. in Vil. Patrum. I. ii. p. 478.) 
 Palladius, (c. 7.69. in Vit. Patrum. 1. viii. p. 712. 758.) and above 
 all, the eighteenth and nineteenth Collations of Cassian. These wri- 
 ters, who compare the comtnon, and so'itary, life, reveal the abuse 
 and danger of the latter. 
 
 n Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 205. 218. Thomassin 
 (Discipline de TEglise, torn. i. p. 1501, 1502.) gives a good account of 
 
 f 
 W 
 
 S; 
 
 i 
 
 ,'t» 
 
 /• 
 
502 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 distant circle of solitary cells ; and the extravagant 
 penance of the hermits was stimulated by applause 
 and emulation.* They sunk under the painful weight 
 of crosses and chains ; and their emaciated limbs 
 were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and 
 greaves, of massy and rigid iron. All superfluous en- 
 cumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away; 
 and some savage saints of both sexes have been ad- 
 mired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their 
 long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the 
 rude and miserable state in which the human brute 
 is scarcely distinguished above his kindred animals : 
 and a numerous sect of anachorets derived their name 
 from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of 
 Mesopotamia with the common herd.' They often 
 usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affect- 
 ed to resemble; they buried themselves in some srloo- 
 my cavern, which art or nature had scooped out of the 
 rock; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still in- 
 scribed with the monuments of their penance.' The 
 most perfect hermits are supposed to have passed many 
 days without food, many nights without sleep, and 
 many years without speaking; and glorious was the 
 man (I abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or 
 seat, of a peculiar construction, which might expose 
 him, in the most inconvenient posture, to the inclem- 
 ency of the seasons. 
 
 Simeon Styiitps, Among these heroes of the monastic 
 A. D, 31)5 — 151. ]ifp^ t[ie name and genius of Simeon 
 
 Stylites* have been immortalized by the singular in- 
 vention of an aerial penance. At the age of thirteen, the 
 young Syrian deserted the profession of a shepherd, 
 and threw himself into an austere monastery. After 
 a long and painful noviciate, in which Simeon was re- 
 peatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his 
 residence on a mountain, about thirty or forty miles to 
 the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandara^ 
 or circle of stones, to which he had attached himself 
 by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which 
 was successively raised from the height of nine, to 
 that of sixty, feet from the ground.*' In this last, and 
 lofty, station, the Syrian anachoret resisted the heat 
 of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. 
 Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his 
 dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and suc- 
 cessively to assume the difl'ercnt postures of devotion. 
 He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his 
 out-stretched arms, in the figure of a cross ; but his 
 most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre 
 skeleton from the forehead to the feet ; and a curious 
 spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty- 
 four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless 
 account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh *= might 
 shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life ; and 
 the patient hermit expired, without descending from 
 his column. A prince, who should capriciously inflict 
 such tortures, would be deemed a tyrant ; but it would 
 surpass the power of a tyrant, to impose a long and 
 
 these cells. When Gerasimus founded his monasipry in the wilder- 
 ness of Jonlin, it was accompanied by a liaura of seventy crlls. 
 
 X Theodoret, in a larce volume, (the Philoiheus in Vit. Palnmi, I. 
 ix. p. 793—863.) has collected the lives and miracles of thirty Ana- 
 chorets. Evasirius (1. i. c. 12,) more briefly celebrates the monks and 
 hemnits of Palestine. 
 
 y Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 33. The great St. Ephrem composed a pane- 
 gyric on these Sjo-xo », or grazing monks. (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. 
 lorn. viii. p. 292.) 
 
 z The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, torn. ii. p. 217—233.) exam- 
 ined the caverns of the Iii>wer Thebais with wonder and devotion. 
 The inscriptions are in the old Syriac character, which was used by 
 the christians of Habyssinia. 
 
 a See Theoiloret, (in Vit. Patrum, 1. ix. p. S^IS— Sol.) Antony, (in 
 Vit. Patrum, 1. i. p. 170—177.) Cosmas, (in Asseman. Bibliot. drien- 
 tal. tom. i. p. 23^—253.) Evapriiis, (1. i. c. 13, 14.) and XiHemoiit. 
 Mem. Eccles. tom. xv. p. 347— 392 ) 
 
 b The narrow circumference of two cubits, or three feet, whirh 
 Evagrius assigns for the summit of the column, is inconsistent wiili 
 reason, with facts, and with the rules of architecture. The people 
 who saw it from below might be easily deceived. 
 
 c I must not conceal a pie-^e of ancient scandal concerning the ori- 
 gin of this ulcer. It has beei^ reported, that the devil, assuming an 
 angelic form, invited him to ascend, like Elijah, Into a fiery chariot. 
 The saint too hastily raised his foot, and Satan seized the moment of 
 inflicting this chastisement on his vanity. 
 
 miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cru- 
 elty. This voluntary martyrdom must have gradually 
 destroyed the sensibility both of the mind and the 
 body ; nor can it be presumed that the fanatics, who 
 torment themselves, are susceptible of any lively affec- 
 tion for the rest of mankind. A cruel unfeeling tem- 
 per has distinguished the monks of every age and 
 country: their stern indifference, which is seldom mol- 
 lified by personal friendship, is inflamed by religious 
 hatred ; and their merciless zeal has strenuously ad- 
 ministered the holy, office of the Inquisition. 
 
 The monastic saints, who excite only Miracles and 
 the contempt and pity of a philosopher, worship of the 
 were respected, and almost adored, by •"*'"'**• 
 the prince and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims 
 from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Si- 
 meon : the tribes of Saracens disputed in arms the 
 honour of his benediction; the queens of Arabia and 
 Persia gratefully confessed his supernatural virtue; 
 and the angelic hermit was consulted by the younger 
 Theodosius, in the most important concerns of church 
 and state. His remains were transported from the 
 mountain of Telenissa, by a solemn procession of the 
 patriarch, the master-general of the east, six bishops, 
 twenty-one counts or tribunes, and six thousand sol- 
 diers; and Antioch revered his bones, as her glorious 
 ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the 
 apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these 
 recent and popular anachorets ; the christian world fell 
 prostrate before their shrines ; and the miracles as- 
 cribed to their relics, exceeded, at least in number and 
 duration, the spiritual exploits of their lives. But the 
 golden legend of their lives'* was embellished by the 
 artful credulity of their interested brethren ; and a be- 
 lieving age was easily persuaded, that the slightest 
 caprice of an Egyptian or a Syrian monk, had been 
 sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. 
 The favourites of heaven were accustomed to cure in- 
 veterate diseases with a touch, or a word, or a distant 
 message; and to expel the most obstinate daemons 
 from the souls or bodies which they possessed. They 
 familiarly accosted, or imperiously commanded, the 
 lions and serponts of the desert ; infused vegetation 
 into a sapless trunk ; suspended iron on the sur- 
 face of the water ; passed the Nile on the back of a 
 crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. 
 These extravagant tales, which display the fiction, 
 without the genius, of poetry, have seriously affected 
 the reason, the faith, and the morals, of the christians. 
 Their credulity debased and vitiated the Superstition of 
 faculties of the mind; they corrupted the age. 
 the evidence of history ; and superstition gradually 
 extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and sci- 
 ence. Every mode of religious worship which had 
 been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine 
 which they believed, was fortified by the sanction of 
 divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were op- 
 pressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the 
 monks. If it be possible to measure the interval 
 between the philosophic writings of Cicero and the 
 sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of 
 Cato and that of Simeon, we may appreciate the me- 
 morable revolution which was accomplished in the 
 Roman empire within a period of five hundred years. 
 
 II. The progress of Christianity has „. convers.om 
 been marked by two glorious and deci- of thk barda 
 sive victories: over the learned and lux- R«an3. 
 urious citizens of the Roman empire ; and over the 
 warlike barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who sub- 
 verted the empire, and embraced the religion, of the 
 Romans. The Goths were the foremost of these sav- 
 age proselytes ; and the nation was indebted for its 
 
 d I know not how to s*»lect or specify the miracles contained in the 
 Vitct Patrum of Rosweyde, as the number very much exceeds the 
 thousand pages of that voluminous work. An elegant specimen may 
 be found in the Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, and his Life of St. 
 Martin. He reveres tne monks of Egynt ; yet he insults them with 
 the remark, that they never raised the dead ; whereas the bishop of 
 Tours had restored three dead men to life. 
 
 Chap. XXX VH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 503 
 
 conversion to a countryman, or at least to a subject, 
 worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful 
 arts, who have deserved the remembrance and grati- 
 tude of posterity. A great number of Roman provin- 
 cials had been led away into captivity by the Gothic 
 bands, who ravaged Asia in the time of Gallienus : 
 and of these captives, many were christians, and sev- 
 eral belonged to the ecclesiastical order. Those invol- 
 untary missionaries, dispersed as slaves in the vil- 
 lages of Dacia, successively laboured for the salvation 
 of their masters. The seeds, which they planted, of 
 the evangelic doctrine, were gradually propagated ; 
 and before the end of a century, the pious work was 
 achieved by the labours of Ulphilas, whose ancestors 
 had been transported beyond the Danube from a small 
 town of Cappadocia. 
 
 Ulphilas. ap«.s- Ulphilas, the bishop and apostle of the 
 A^d'^SOO^c''^' ^°^^^»* acquired their love and rever- 
 ' *^" ence by his blameless life and indefati- 
 gable zeal ; and they received, with implicit confi- 
 dence, the doctrines of truth and virtue which he 
 preached and practised. He executed the arduous 
 task of translating the Scriptures into their native 
 tongue, a dialect of the German, or Teutonic, lan- 
 guage; but he prudently suppressed the four books of 
 Kings, as they might tend to irritate the fierce and 
 sanguinary spirit of the barbarians. The rude, imper- 
 fect idiom of soldiers and shepherds, so ill qualified to 
 communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and 
 modulated by his genius; and Ulphilas, before he 
 could frame his version, was obliged to compose a 
 new alphabet of twenty-four letters; four of which he 
 invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were un- 
 known to the Greek and Latin pronunciation.' But 
 the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon 
 afidicted by war and intestine discord, and the chief- 
 tains were divided by religion as well as by interest. 
 Fritigern, the friend of the Romans, became the pros- 
 elyte of Ulphilas; while the haughty soul of Athana- 
 ric disdained the yoke of the empire, and of the gospel. 
 The faith of the new converts was tried by the perse- 
 cution which he excited. A waggon, bearing aloft the 
 shapeless image of Thor, perhaps, or of Woden, was 
 conducted in solemn procession through the streets of 
 the camp ; and the rebels, who refused to worship the 
 god of their fathers, were immediately burnt, with 
 theit tents and families. The character of Ulphilas 
 recommended him to the esteem of the eastern court, 
 where he twice appeared as the minister of peace ; he 
 pleaded the cause of the distressed Goths, who im- 
 plored the protection of Valens ; and the name of 
 Moses was applied to this spiritual guide, who con- 
 ducted his people through the deep waters of the Dan- 
 ube, to the Land of Promise.^ The devout shepherds, 
 who were attached to his person, and tractable to his 
 voice, acquiesced in their settlement, at the foot of the 
 Maesian mountains, in a country of woodlands and pas- 
 tures, which supported their flocks and herds, and en- 
 abled them to purchase the corn and wine of the more 
 pleiUiful provinces. These harmless barbarians mul- 
 tiplied in obscure peace, and the profession of Christi- 
 anity.'' 
 
 e On the subject of Ulphilas, and the conversion of the Goths, see 
 Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 37. Socrates, 1. iv. c. 33. Theodoret, 1. iv. c. 37. 
 Philostorg. 1. ii. c. 5. The heresy of Philoslorgius appears to have 
 given him superior means of information. 
 
 f A mutilated copy of the four gospels, in the Gothic version, was 
 published A. D. 1665, and is esteemed the most ancient monument of 
 the Teutonic language, though Wetsiein attempts, by some frivolous 
 conjectures, to deprive Ulphilas of the honour of the work. Two of 
 the four additional letters express the W., and our own Th. See 
 Simon, Hist. Criii(iue du Nouveau Testament, tom. ii. p. 219—223. 
 Mill. Prolegom. p. 151. edit. Kuster. Wetstein, Prolegom. tom. i. p. 114. 
 
 g Philoslorgius erroneously places this passage under the reign of 
 Constantine ; but I am much inclined to believe that it preceded the 
 great emigration. 
 
 h We are obliged to Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 51. p. 688.) for a 
 short and lively picture of these lesser Goths. Gothi minores, popu- 
 lus immensus, cum suo pontifice ipsoque primate Wulfila. The 
 last words, if they are not mere tautology, imply some temporal ju- 
 risdiction. 
 
 Their fiercer brethren, the formidable 
 Visigoths universally adopted the reli- It'^Bu'g'uT.di: 
 gion of the Romans, with whom they ans.&r.embraco 
 maintained a perpetual intercourse, of ^.'^n '^/i','^; 
 war, of friendship, or of conquest. In ^ ' ^*^ 
 
 their long and victorious march from the Danube to 
 the Atlantic ocean, they converted their allies ; they 
 educated the rising generation; and the devotion 
 which reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of 
 Thoulouse, might edify, or disgrace, the palaces of 
 Rome and Constantinople."' During the same period, 
 Christianity was embraced by almost all the barba- 
 rians, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of 
 the western empire; the Burgundians in Gaul, the 
 Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths 
 in Pannonia, and the various hands of mercenaries, 
 that raised Odoacer to the throne of Italy. The 
 Franks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors 
 of paganism ; but the Franks obtained the monarchy 
 of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis; 
 and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed 
 from their savage superstition by the missionaries of 
 Rome. ■ These barbarian proselytes displayed an ar- 
 dent and successful zeal in the propagation of the 
 faith. The Merovingian kings, and their successors, 
 Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws 
 and victories, the dominion of the cross. England 
 produced the apostle of Germany ; and the evangelic 
 light was gradually diffused from the neighbourhood 
 of the Rhine, to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, 
 and the Baltic.'' 
 
 The different motives which influ- Motivos of their 
 enced the reason, or the passions, of ^*'**'' 
 
 the barbarian converts, cannot easily be ascertained. 
 They were often capricious and accidental ; a dream, 
 an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some 
 priest or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, 
 above all, the fortunate event of a prayer, or vow, 
 which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to 
 the God of the christians.' The early prejudices of 
 education were insensibly erased by the habits of fre- 
 quent and familiar society ; the moral precepts of the 
 gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of 
 the monks; and a spiritual theology was supported by 
 the visible power of relics, and the pomp of religious 
 worship. But the rational and ingenious mode of per- 
 suasion, which a Saxon bishop" suggested to a popu- 
 lar saint, might sometimes be employed by the mis- 
 sionaries, who laboured for the conversion of infidels. 
 "Admit," says the sagacious disputant, "whatever 
 they are pleased to assert of the fabulous and carnal 
 genealogy of their gods and goddesses, who are prop- 
 agated from each other. From this principle deduce 
 their imperfect nature, and human infirmities, the as- 
 surance they were born, and the probability that they 
 will die. At what time, by what means, from what 
 cause, were the eldest of the gods or goddesses pro- 
 duced ? Do they still continue, or have they ceased 
 to propagate ? If they have ceased, summon your an- 
 tagonists to declare the reason of this stranore altera- 
 tion. If they still continue, the number of the gods 
 must become infinite; and shall we not risk, by the 
 indiscreet worship of some impotent deity, to excite 
 the resentment of his jealous superior 1 The visible 
 heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe, 
 
 i At non ita Gothi non ita Vandali ; malis licet doctnribiis insiituti, 
 meliores lamen eiiam in hac parte quani nostri. Salvian de Gubern. 
 Dei, 1. vii. p. 213. 
 
 k Moshei'.Ti has slightly sketched the progress of Christianity in 
 the north, from the fourth to the fourteenth"century. The subject 
 would afford materials for an ecclesiastical, and even philosophical, 
 history. 
 
 1 To such a cause has Socrates (1. vii. c. 30.) ascribpd the conver- 
 sion of the Burgundians, whose christian piety is celebrated by Oro- 
 sius, 1. vii. c. 19. 
 
 m See an original and curious epistle from Daniel, the first bishop 
 of Winchester, (Beda, Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, l.v. c. 18. p. 203. edit. 
 Smith,) to St. Boniface, who preached the gospel among the savages 
 of Hesse and Thuringia. Epistol. Bonifacii, Ixvii. in' the Maxima 
 Bibliotheca Patnim. tom. xiii. p. 93. 
 
 
 * 
 
 T' 
 
 r' 
 
 t 
 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 p 
 
504 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 505 
 
 which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or 
 eternal ? If created, how, or where, could the gods 
 themselves exist before the creation 1 If eternal, how 
 could they assume the empire of an independent and 
 pre-existing world? Urge these arguments with tem- 
 per and moderation, insinuate, at seasonable intervals, 
 the truth and beauty of the christian revelation ; and 
 endeavour to make the unbelievers ashamed, without 
 making them angry." This metaphysical reasoning, 
 too refined perhaps for the barbarians of Germany, was 
 fortified by the grosser weight of authority and popu- 
 lar consent. The advantage of temporal prosperity 
 had deserted the pagan cause, and passed over to the 
 service of Christianity. The Romans themselves, the 
 most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, 
 had renounced their ancient superstition ; and, if the 
 ruin of their empire seemed to accuse the efficacy of 
 the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved by 
 the conversion of the victorious Goths. The valiant 
 and fortunate barbarians, who subdued the provinces 
 of the west, successively received, and reflected, the 
 same edifying example. Before the age of Charle- 
 magne, the christian nations of Europe might exult in 
 the exclusive possession of the temperate climates, of 
 the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and oil ; 
 while the savage idolaters, and their helpless idols, 
 were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark 
 and frozen regions of the north." 
 
 Effects of tiicir Christianity, which opened the gates 
 conversion. ^f heaven to the barbarians, introduced 
 an important change in their moral and political condi- 
 tion. 'J'hey received, at the same time, the use of let- 
 ters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are con- 
 tained in a sacred book, and while they studied the di- 
 vine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by 
 the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and 
 of society. The version of the Scriptures into their 
 native tongue, which had facilitated their conversio.i, 
 must excite, among their clergy, some curiosity to 
 read the original text, to understand the sacred lilurrry 
 of the church, and to examine, in the writings of the 
 fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These 
 spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin 
 languages, which concealed the inestimable monu- 
 ments of ancient learning. The immortal productions 
 of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to 
 the christian barbarians, maintained a silent inter- 
 course between the reign of Augustus, and the times 
 of Clovisand Charlemagne. The emulation of man- 
 kind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more 
 jierfect state ; and the flame of science was secretly 
 kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of 
 the western world. In the most corrupt state of Chris- 
 tianity, the barbarians might learn justice from the 
 law^ and mercy from the f^ospcl .- and if the knowledge 
 of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or 
 to regulate their passions, they were sometimes re- 
 strained by conscience, and, frequently punished by re- 
 morse. But the direct authority of religion was less 
 effectual, than the holy communion which united them 
 with their christian brethren in spiritual friendship. 
 The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure 
 their fidelity in the service or the alliance of the Ro- 
 mans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the 
 insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the downfall 
 of the empire, a permanent respect for the name and 
 institutions of Rome. In the days of paganism, the 
 priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, 
 and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrates; and 
 the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more 
 ample, measure of devout obedience, to the pontiffs of 
 the christian faith. The sacred character of the bish- 
 ops was supported by their temporal possessions ; they 
 obtained an honourable seat in the legislative assem- 
 
 n Ttie sword of Charlemagne added weicht to the argument ; but 
 -whou Daniel wrote this epistle, (A. D. 723.) the Mahometans, who 
 reigned from India to Spain, might have retorted it against the chris- 
 tians. 
 
 blies of soldiers and freemen ; and it was their interest, 
 as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, 
 the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The perpetual cor- 
 respondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrim- 
 ages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing author- 
 ity of the popes, cemented the union of the christian 
 republic; and gradually produced the similar manners, 
 and common jurisprudence, which have distinguished, 
 from the rest of mankind, the independent, and even 
 hostile, nations of modern Europe. 
 
 But the operation of these causes was Thpy arc invoiv- 
 checked and retarded by the unfortunate ed in tiie Arian 
 accident, which infused a deadly poison ^^^^^y- 
 into the cup of salvation. Whatever might be the 
 early sentiments of Ulphilas, his connections with the 
 empire and the church were formed during the reign of 
 Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the 
 creed of Rimini ; professed with freedom, and perhaps 
 with sincerity, that the Son was not equal, or consub- 
 stantial, to the Father ;° communicated these errors 
 to the clergy and people ; and infected the barbaric 
 world with a heresy,? which the grOat Theodosius 
 proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The 
 temper and understanding of the proselytes were not 
 adapted to metaphysical subtilties ; but they strenu- 
 ously maintained what they had piously received, as 
 the pure and genuine doctrines of Christianity. The 
 advantage of preaching and expounding the Scrip- 
 tures in the Teutonic language, promoted the aposto- 
 lic labours of Ulphilas and his successors; and they 
 ordained a competent number of bishops and presby- 
 ters for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The 
 Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Van- 
 dals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin 
 clergy ,1 preferred the more intelligible lessons of their 
 domestic teachers ; and Arianism was adopted as the 
 national faith of the warlike converts, who were seat- 
 ed on the ruins of the western empire. This irrecon- 
 cilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of 
 jealousy and hatred ; and the reproach of barbarian 
 was imbittered by the more odious epithet of heretic. 
 The heroes of the north, who had submitted, with 
 some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors 
 were in hell,' were astonished and exasperated to 
 learn, that they themselves had only changed the 
 mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of the 
 smooth applause, which christian kings are accustom- 
 ed to expect from their loyal prelates, the orthodox 
 bishops and their clergy were in a state of opposition 
 to the Arian courts; and their indiscreet opposition 
 frequently became criminal, and might sometimes be 
 dangerous." The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ 
 of sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and 
 Holofernes ; * the public discontent was inflamed by 
 the hope or promise of a glorious deliverance : and the 
 seditious saints were tempted to promote the accom- 
 plishment of their own predictions. Notwithstand- 
 
 o The opinions of Ulphilas and the Goths inclined to Semi-Arian- 
 ism, since they would not say that the Son was a creature, though 
 they held communion with those who maintained that heresy. Their 
 apostle represented the whole controversy as a question of trifling 
 moment, which had been raised by the passions of the clergy, Theo- 
 doret, 1. iv. c.37. 
 
 P Tlie Arianism of the Goths has been imputed to the emperor Va- 
 lens ; *' Itaque justo Dei judicio ipsi eum vivum incenderunt, qui 
 propter eum etiam mortui, viiio erroris arsuri sunt." Orosius, 1. vii. 
 c. 3."?. p. 551. This cruel sentence is confirmed by Tillemoni, (Mem. 
 Eccles. tom. vi. p. 60-4—610.) who coolly observes, " un seul homme 
 eniniina dans I'enfer un nombre infini de Septentrionaux, &c." 
 Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, I. v. p. 150, 151.) pities and excuses their 
 involuntary error. 
 
 q Orosius afliruis, in the year 416, (1. vil. c. 41. p. 580.) that the 
 churches of Christ (of the catholics) were filled with Huns, Suevi, 
 Vandals, Burcundians. 
 
 r Radbod, king of the Prisons, was so much scandalized by this 
 rash declaration of a missionary, that he drew back his foot after ho 
 had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix. 
 p. 1C7. 
 
 » The Epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the Visi- 
 goths, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the Burgundians, ex- 
 plain, sometimes in dark hml8,the general dispositions of the catho- 
 lics. The history of Clovis and Theodoric will suggest some particu- 
 lar facts. 
 
 t Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with which 
 he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor Vitensis, I. 7. p. 10. 
 
 General tolcra- ing these provocations, the catholics of 
 aiion. Gaul, Spain, and Italy, enjoyed under 
 
 the reign of the Arians, the free and peacefiil exercise 
 of their religion. Their haughty masters respected 
 the zeal of a numerous people, resolved to die at the 
 foot of their altars ; and the example of their devout 
 constancy was admired and imitated by the barbarians 
 themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the 
 disgraceful reproach, or confession, of fear, by attri- 
 buting their toleration to the liberal motives of reason 
 and humanity ; and while they affected the language, 
 they imperceptibly imbibed the spirit, of genuine Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Arian ixTsecution The peace of the church was some- 
 of the Vandal., times interrupted. The catholics were 
 indiscreet, the barbarians were impatient; and the 
 partial acts of severity or injustice which had been re- 
 commended by the Arian clergy, were exaggerated by 
 the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may 
 be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths ; who sus- 
 pended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or at least of 
 episcopal, functions; and punished the popular bish- 
 ops of Aquitain with imprisonment, exile, and con- 
 fiscation." But the cruel and absurd enterprise of 
 subduing the minds of a whole people, was under- 
 Gcnscric, taken by the Vandals alone. Genseric 
 A.D.429— 4.77 himself, in his early youth, had re- 
 nounced the orthodox communion j and the apostate 
 could neither grant, nor expect, a sincere forgiveness. 
 He was exasperated to find, that the Africans, who 
 had fled before him in the field, still presumed to dis- 
 pute his will in synods and churches ; and his fero- 
 cious mind was incapable of fear or of compassion. 
 His catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant 
 laws and arbitrary punishments. The language of 
 Genseric was furious and formidable ; the knowledge 
 of his intentions might justify the most unfavourable 
 interpretation of his actions ; and the Arians were re- 
 proached with the frequent executions, which stained 
 the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms 
 and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of 
 
 llunncrir, the monarch of the sea. But Hunneric, 
 
 A. D. 477. hig inglorious son, who seemed to in- 
 herit only his vices, tormented the catholics with the 
 same unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his 
 brother, his nephews, and the friends and favourites 
 of his father ; and even to the Arian patriarch, who 
 was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage. 
 The religious war was preceded and prepared by°an 
 insidious truce; persecution was made the serious and 
 important business of the Vandal court; and the 
 loathsome disease, which hastened the death of Hun- 
 neric, revenged the injuries, without contributing to 
 the deliverance, of the church. The throne of Africa 
 was successively filled by the two nephews of Hun- 
 Gundamund, ncric ; by Gundamund, who reigned 
 
 A. D. 484. about twelve, and by Thrasimund, who 
 governed the nation above twenty-seven, years. Their 
 administration was hostile and oppressive to the or- 
 thodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate, or 
 even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle ; and, if at 
 length he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and re- 
 stored the freedom of Athanasian worship, a prema- 
 ture death intercepted the benefits of his tardy clem- 
 Thrasimund, cucy. His brother, Thrasimund, was 
 
 A. D. 4%. the greatest and most accomplished of 
 the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, pru- 
 dence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magna- 
 nimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal 
 and deceitful clemency. Instead of threats and tor- 
 tures, he employed the gentle but efficacious powers 
 of seduction. Wealth, dignity, and the royal favour, 
 were the liberal rewards of apostasy ; the catholics, 
 
 u Such are the contemporary complaints of Sidonius, bishop of 
 Clermont. (1. vii. c. 9. p. 182. &,c. edit. Sirmond.) Gregory of Tours, 
 who quotes this Epistle, (1. ii. c. 25. in tom. ii. p. 174.) extorts an un- 
 warrantable a.sseriion, that of the nine vacancies in Aquitain, some 
 had been produced by episcopal martyrdoms. 
 
 Vol. I.— 3 O 
 
 who had violated the laws, might purchase their par- 
 don by the renunciation of their faith ; and whenever 
 Thrasimund meditated any rigorous measure, he 
 patiently waited till the indiscretion of his adver- 
 saries furnished him with a specious opportunity. 
 Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death ; 
 and he exacted from his successor a solemn oath that 
 he would never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. 
 But his successor, Hilderic, the gentle Hiideric, 
 son of the savage Hunneric, preferred A. D. 523. 
 the duties of humanity and justice, to the vain obliga- 
 tion of an impious oath ; and his accession was glo- 
 riously marked by the restoration of peace and uni- 
 versal freedom. The throne of that virtuous, though 
 feeble monarch, was usurped by his Gciimer, 
 cousin Gelimer, a zealous Arian: but A. D.530. 
 the Vandal kingdom, before he could enjoy or abuse 
 his power, was subverted by the arms of Belisarius ; 
 and the orthodox party retaliated the injuries which 
 they had endured.^ 
 
 The passionate declamations of the a "enerai view 
 catholics, the sole historians of this per- of "the ptrseca- 
 secution, cannot afford any distinct series *'"" '" ^f"<^*- 
 of causes and events, any impartial view of characters 
 or counsels ; but the most remarkable circumstances; 
 that deserve either credit or notice, may be referred to 
 the following heads : I. In the original law, which is 
 still extant,y Hunneric expressly declares, and the 
 declaration appears to be correct, that he had faithfully 
 transcribed the regulations and penalties of the im- 
 perial edicts, against the heretical congregations, the 
 clergy, and the people, who dissented from the estab- 
 lished religion. If the rights of conscience had been 
 understood, the catholics must have condemned their 
 past conduct, or acquiesced in their actual sufferings. 
 But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence 
 which they claimed. While they trembled under the 
 lash of persecution, they praised the laudable severity 
 of Hunneric himself, who burnt or banished great 
 numbers of Manichaians ; * and they rejected, with 
 horror, the ignominious compromise, that the dis- 
 ciples of Arius, and of Athanasius, should enjoy a re- 
 ciprocal and similar toleration in the territories of the 
 Romans and in those of the Vandals.* II. The prac- 
 tice of a conference, which the catholics had so fre- 
 quently used to insult and punish their obstinate anta- 
 gonists, was retorted against themselves.*' At the 
 command of Hunneric, four hundred and sixty-six 
 orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage ; but when 
 they were admitted into the hall of audience, they 
 had the mortification of beholding the Arian Cirila 
 exalted on the patriarchal throne. The disputants 
 were separated, after the mutual and ordinary re- 
 proaches of noise and silence, of delay and precipita- 
 tion, of military force and of popular clamour. One 
 martyr and one confessor were selected among the 
 catholic bishops ; twenty-eight escaped by flight, and 
 eighty-eight by conformity ; forty-six were sent into 
 Corsica to cut timber for the royal navy; and three 
 hundred and two were banished to the different parts 
 
 X The original monuments of the Vandal persecution are preserved 
 in the five books of the History of Victor Vitensis, (de Persecutione 
 Vandalica.) a bishop who was exiled by Hunneric ; in the Life of St. 
 Fulcentius, who was distinguished in the persecution of Thrasimund, 
 (in Biblioth. Max. Patrun>, tom. ix. p. 4— 10.) and in the first book of 
 the Vandalic War, by the impartial Procopius, (c. 7, 8. p. 196, 197, 
 198, 199.) Dom. Ruinart, the last editor of Victor, "has illustrated the 
 whole subject with a copious and learned apparatus of notes and sup- 
 plement. (Paris. 1694.) 
 
 J Victor, iv. 2. p. 65. Hunneric refuses the name of catholics to 
 the Homoousians. He describes, as the vcri Divinae Majpstaiis cul- 
 tores, his own party, who professed the faith, confirmed by morethaa 
 a thousand bisnops, in the synods of Kiinini and Seleucia. 
 
 T Victor, ii. 1. p. 21,22. Laudabilior . . videbatur. In the M^S. 
 which omit this word, the passiige is unintelligible. See Kuinart, 
 Not p. 161. 
 
 a Victor, ii. 2. p. 22, 23. The cler^ry of Carthape called these con- 
 ditions ^je/iV-u/ostc; and they seem, indeed, to have been proposed aa 
 a snare to entrap the catholic bishops. 
 
 b See the narrative of this conference and the treatment of the 
 bishops, in Victor, ii. 13—18. p. 35 — 42. and the whole fourth book, p. 
 63—171. The third book, p. 43—62. is entirely filled by their apolo- 
 gy or confcssiou of faith. 
 
 »' 
 
 f 
 «» 
 
 ■»■• 
 t 
 
 
 / 
 
50G 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVH. 
 
 u 
 
 of Africa, exposed to the insults of their enemies, and ' persecution previously to reflect, whether they are de- 
 carefuliy deprived of all the temporal and spiritual j termined to support it in the last extreme. They excite 
 comforts of life.* The hardships of ten years' exile the flame which they strive to extinjruish ; and it soon 
 must have reduced their numhers ; and if they had , becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy, as well 
 complied with the law of Thrzisimund, which p-ro- i as the crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is 
 hibited any episcopal consecrations, the orthodox i unable or unwillinir to discharge, exposes his person 
 church of Africa must have expired with the lives of to the severity of the law ; and his contempt of licrht- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE. 
 
 507 
 
 its actual members. They disobeyed ; and their dis- 
 
 cr penalties suorgrests the use and propriety of capital 
 
 obedience was punished by a second exile of two punishment. Tlironjih the veil of fiction and decla- 
 hundred and twenty bishops into Sardinia ; where they i mation, we may clearly perceive, that the catholics, 
 languished fifteen years, till the accession of the more especially under the reign of Hunneric, endured 
 gracious HilderiC* The two islands were judiciously | the most cruel and ignominious treatment.^ Respec- 
 chosen by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca ! table citizens, noble matrons, and consecrated virgins, 
 from his own experience has deplored and exaggerat- ' were stripped naked, and raised in the air by pulleys, 
 ed the miserable state of Corsica,* and the plenty of { with a weight suspended at their feet. In this pain- 
 Sardinia was overbalanced by the unwholesome qual- j ful attitude their naked bodies were torr\with scourges, 
 ity of the air.' III. The zeal of Genseric, and his or burnt in the most tender parts with red-hot plates 
 
 successors, for the conversion of the catholics, must 
 have rendered them still more jealous to guard the 
 purity of the Vandal faith. Before the churches were 
 finally shut, it was a crime to appear in a barbarian 
 
 of iron. The amputation of the ears, the nose, the 
 tongue, and the right hand, was inflicted by the 
 Arians ; and although the precise number cannot be 
 defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom 
 
 dress ; and those who presumed to neglect the royal | a bishop' and a proconsul" may be named, were en- 
 mandate, were rudely dragged backwarks by their , titled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honour 
 long hair.5 The palatine officers, who refused to pro- has been ascribed to the memory of count Sebastian, 
 fcss the religion of their prince, were ignominiously who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken con- 
 stripped of their honours and employments; banished stancy ; and Genseric might detest, as an heretic, the 
 to Sardinia and Sicily ; or condemned to the servile brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a 
 labours of slaves and peasants in the fields of Utica. rival." VI. A new mode of conversion, which miglit 
 In the districts which had been peculiarly allotted to j subdue the feeble, and alarm the timorous, was em- 
 the Vandals, the exercise of the catholic worship was j ployed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by 
 more strictly prohibited ; and severe penalties were i fraud or violence, the rites of baptism ; and punish- 
 denounced against the guilt both of the missionary ed the apostasy of the catholics, if they disclaimed 
 and the proselyte* I3y these arts, the faith of the bar-; this odious and profane ceremony, which scandalous- 
 barians was preserved, and their zeal was inflamed ; i ly violated the freedom of the will, and the unity of 
 they discharged, with devout fury, the office of spies, j the sacrament." The hostile sects had formerly al- 
 informers, or executioners ; and whenever their caval- lowed the validity of each other's baptism; and the 
 ry took the field it was the favourite amusement of the innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can 
 march, to defile the churches, and to insult the clergy bo imputed only to the example and advice of the 
 of the adverse faction.'' IV. The citizens who had Donatists. VII. The Arian clergy surpassed, in re- 
 been educated in the luxury of the Roman province, ligious cruelty, the king and his Vandals ; but they 
 were delivered, with exquisite cruelty, to the Moors were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard, 
 of the desert. A venerable train of bishops, presby- : which they were so desirous to possess. A patri- 
 ters, and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four thou- arch? might seat himself on the throne of Carthage; 
 sand and ninety-six persons, whose guilt is not pre- I some bishops, in the principal cities, might usurp the 
 cisely ascertained, were torn from their native homes, I place of their rivals ; but the smallness of their, num- 
 by the command of Hunneric. During the night they I bers, and their ignorance of the Latin language,'' dis- 
 were confined, like a herd of cattle, amidst their own ' qualified the barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry 
 ordure: during the- day they pursued their march over | of a great church ; and the Africans, after the loss of 
 the burning sands ; and if they fainted under the heat their orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public 
 and fatigue, they were goaded or dragged along, till ' exercise of Christianity. VIII. The emperors were 
 thoy expired in the hands of their tormentors.' These the natural protectors of the Homoousian doctrine : and 
 unhappy exiles, when they reached the Moorish huts, j the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and as 
 might excite the compassion of a people, whose na- catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the 
 tive humanity was neither improved by reason, nor usurprition of the barbarous heretics. Diiring an in- 
 corrupted by fanaticism : but if they escaped the dan- , terval of peace and friendship, Hunneric restored the 
 gers, they were condemned to share the distress, of a | cathedral of Carthage; at the intercession of Zeno, 
 
 who reigned in the east, and of Placidia, the daughter 
 and relic of emperors, and the sister of the queen of 
 the Vandals.' Hut this decent regard was but of 
 short duration ; and the haughty tyrant displayed his 
 
 savage life. V. It is incumbent on the authors of 
 
 c See the list of the African hisliops, in Victor, p. 117 — 140. and 
 Ruinart's notes, p.-2l.") — 397. The schismatic name of Donatus fre- 
 quently occurs, and they appear to have adopted (like our fanatics 
 of the last age) the pious appellatiou of JJeodatus, Deogratias, 
 Qitidvultdeus, flabetdeum, S(e. 
 
 d Fulgent. Vit. c. IC— 29. Thrnsimnnd aflTected the praise of mo- 
 deration and learning; and Fulgciitius addressed three hooks of 
 controversy to the Arian tyrant, whom he styles piissime Rex. Bib- 
 lioth. Maxim. Patrum. torn. \x. p. 41. Only sixty three bishops are 
 mentioned as exiles in the life of Fulgentius: and they are increas- 
 ed to one hundred and twenty by Victor Tunnunensis, and Isidore ; 
 but the number of two hundred and twenty is specified in the Ilisto- 
 ria Miscetta, and a short authentic chronicle of the times. See Rui- 
 nart, p. 570, 574. 
 
 e See the base and insipid epigrams of the Stoic, who could not 
 Bupport exile with more fortitude than Ovid. Corsica might not 
 produce corn, wine, or oil ; but it could not be desUtutc of grass, 
 water, and even fire. 
 
 f Si ob gravitatem ca'li interissent vile damnum. Tacit. Annal. ii. 
 8.). In this application, Thrasiinund would have adopted the read- 
 ing of some critics, utile damnum. 
 
 g See these preludes of a ireneml persecution, in Victor, ii. 3, 4. 7. 
 and the two edicts of Hunneric, I. ii. p. 35. I. iv. p. (\4. 
 
 h See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. I. i. e. 7. p. 197, 198. A Moorish 
 prince endeavored to propitiate the gods of the christians by his 
 diligence to erase the marks of the Vandal sacrilege. 
 
 I See this story in Victor, ii. 8—12. p. 30 — 34. Victor describes 
 the distress of these confessorti us an eye-witness. 
 
 k See the fifUi book of Victor. Ilis passionate complaints are 
 confirmed by the sober testimony of Procopius, and the public decla- 
 ration of the emperor Justinian. (Cod. I. i. tit. xxvii.) 
 
 1 Victor, ii. 18. p. 41. 
 
 m Victor. V. 4. p. 74, 75. Ilis name was Victorianus, and he was 
 a wealthy citizen of Adrumetum, who enjoyed the confidrnre of 
 the king ; by wiiusc favour he had obtained the oiiice, or at least the 
 title, of proconsul of Africa. 
 
 n Victor, i. 6. p. 8, 9. After relating the firm resistance and dex- 
 terous re|)ly of count Sebastian, he adds, quare alio generis argu- 
 mento postca bellicosum virum occidit. 
 
 o Victor. V. 12, 13. Tillniiont. Mem. Erclcs. torn. vi. p. 009. 
 
 p Primate was more properly the title of the bishop of Carthage ; 
 but the name of />a/riarr A was given by the sects and nations to their 
 Itrincipal ecclesiastic. See Tliouiasin, Discipline dc TEglise, torn. i. 
 p. l.)5. 1.58. 
 
 q The patriarch Cyrila himself publicly declared, that he did not 
 understand Latin, (Victor, ii. 18. p. 42.) Nescio Latine ; and he 
 might converse with tolerable ease, without being ca|iable of dispu- 
 ting or preaching in that lancnage. Ilis Vandal clergy were still 
 more ignorant ; and small cuutidcncc could be placed in the Afri* 
 cans who had conformed. 
 
 r Victor, ii, 1, 2. p. 22. 
 
 « Victor. V. 7. p. 77. He appeals to the ambassador himself, whose 
 name was Urannis. 
 
 t Astutiores, Victor, iv. 4. p. 70. He plainly intimates that their 
 qnolalion of thn cosppl " Non jurabiiig in loU)," was only meant to 
 elude the oblisation of an inconvonicnt oath. The forty-six bishops 
 who refused, were banished to Corsica; the three hundred and two 
 who swore, were disiribuiod through the provinces of Africa. 
 
 u Fuljrontius, bishop of Ruspae, in the Byzaccne proviuco, was of 
 a senatorial family, and had received a liberal education. He could 
 repeat all Homer and Menander before he was allowed to s;udy 
 Latin, his native tiMigue. (Vit. Fulsent. c. 1.) Many African bishops 
 might understand Greek, and many Ureelt theologians were trans- 
 lated into Latin. 
 
 X Compare the two prefaces to the Dialogue of Vigilius of Thapsns. 
 (p. lis, 119. edit. Chitlet.) He might amuse his learned reader with 
 an innocent fiction ; but the subject was too grave, and the Africans 
 were too ienorant. 
 
 y The P. Quesnel started this opinion, which has been favourably 
 received. But the three fidlowins truths, however surprising they 
 may seem, are 7tow universally acknowledged, (Gerard Vossius, loin. 
 vi. p. 516—522. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. Unn. viii. p. 667— t»7I.) 1. 
 St. Athanjisiiis is not the author of the creed which is so frequently 
 read in our churches. 2. It does not appear to have existed within a 
 century after his death. 3. It was originally composed in the J^i'in 
 tongue, and, consequently, in the western provinces. Gennadius, 
 patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by this extraordi- 
 nary composition, that he frankly pronounced it to be the work of a 
 drunken man. Petav. Dogmat. Theologica, torn. ii. 1. vii. c, 8. p. 68. 
 
 K 1 John V. 7. See Simon, Hist. Criticiue du Nouveau Testament, 
 part. i. c. xviil. p. 203-213; and part. ii. c. ix. n. 99—121 ; and the 
 elaborate Prolegomena and Annotations of Dr. INIill and Welslein to 
 their editions of the Greek Testament. In 16S9, the papist Simon 
 Strove to be free ; in 1707, the protestant Mill wished to be a slave ; 
 in 1751, the Arminian Wetstcin used the liberty of his times, and of 
 his sect, 
 
 % 0( all the MSS now extant, above fourscore in number, some of 
 which are more than 1200 years old, (Wetstein ad loc.) the orthodox 
 copies of the Vatican, of the Complutensian editors of Ilubert Ste- 
 phens, are become invisible ; and the ttco MSS. «>f Dublin and Berlin 
 are unworlhv to form an exception. Seo Kmlyn's Works, vol. ii. p. 
 227—255. 269-299 ; and i\l. de Missy's four ingenious letters, in toin! 
 viii. and ix. of the Journal Britaiinique. 
 
 [ b Or, more properly, by the four bishops who composed and pub- 
 lished the profession of faith in the name of their brethren. They 
 style this text, luce clarius. (Victor Vitensis de Persecut. Vandal. 1. 
 iii. c. 11. p. 54.) It is quoted soon afterwards by the African pole- 
 mics, Viij'ilius and Fulgemius. 
 
 conteinpt for the religion of the empire, by studiously 
 arranoriiig the bloody imagres of persecution, in all the 
 principal streets through wliich the Roman ambassa- 
 dor must pass, in his way to the palace.' An oath 
 was requested from the bishops, who were assembled 
 at Carthage, that they should support the succession 
 of his son Hilderic, and that they would renounce all 
 foreign or fransmartne correspondence. This engage- 
 ment, coiisistent, as it would seem, with their moml 
 and religious duties, was refused by the more sacra- 
 cious members* of the assembly. Their refusal, 
 faintly coloured by the pretence that it is unlawful for 
 a christian to swear, must provoke the suspicions of 
 a jealous tyrant. 
 
 Catholic frauds. J.^^ Catholics, oppressed by royal and 
 military force, were tar superior to their 
 adversaries in numbers and learning. With the same 
 weapons which the Greek" and Latin fathers had al- 
 ready provided for the Arian controversy, they repeat- 
 edly silenced, or vanquished, the fierce and illiterate 
 successors of Ulphilas. The consciousness of their 
 own superiority might have raised them above the arts 
 and passions of religious warfare. Yet, instead of 
 assuming such honourable pride, the orthodox theolo- 
 gians were tempted, by the assurance of impunity, to 
 compose fictions, which must be stigmatised W4th the 
 epithets of fraud and forgery. They ascribed their 
 own polemieal works to the most venerable names of 
 christian antiquity; the characters of Athanasius and 
 Augiistin were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and 
 his disciples ;* and the famous creed, which so clearly 
 expounds the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incar- 
 nation, is deduced, with strong probability, from this 
 African school. y Even the Scriptures themselves 
 were profaned by their rash and sacrilegious hands. 
 The memorable text, which asserts the unity of the 
 Three who bear witness in heaven,^ is condemned by 
 the universal silence of the orthodox fathers, ancient 
 versions, and authentic manuscripts.* It was first al- 
 leged by the catholic bishops whom Hunneric sum- 
 moned to the conference of Carthage.'' An allegorical 
 interpretation, in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, 
 invaded the text of the Latin Bibles, which were re- 
 
 newed and corrected in a dark period of ten centuries.* 
 After the invention of printing,** the editors of the 
 Greek Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or to 
 those of the times ; « and the pious fraud, which was 
 embraced with equal zeal at Rome and Geneva, has 
 been infinitely multiplied in every country and every 
 language of modern Europe. 
 
 The example of fraud must excite sus- , . 
 picion; and the specious miracles by *"'^ •""'*'''««• 
 which the African catholics have defended the truth 
 and justice of their cause, may be ascribed, with more 
 reason, to their own industry, than to the visible pro- 
 tection of heaven. Yet the historian, who views this 
 religious conflict with an impartial eye, may conde- 
 scend to mention one preternatural event, which will 
 edify the devout, and surprise the incredulous. Tipa- 
 sa,^ a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to 
 the east of Csesarea, had been distinguished, in every 
 age, by the orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They 
 had braved the fury of the Donatists ; e they resisted, 
 or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians. The town was 
 deserted on the approach of an heretical bishop : most 
 of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed 
 over to the coast of Spain; and the unhappy remnant; 
 refusing all communion with the usurper, still pre- 
 sumed to hold their pious, but illegal, as.semblies. 
 Their disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunne- 
 ric. A military count was despatched from Carthage 
 to Tipasa : he collected the catholics in the forum, 
 and in the presence of the whole province, deprived 
 the guilty of their right hands and their tongues. 
 But the holy confessors continued to speak without 
 tongues : and this miracle is attested by Victor, an 
 African bishop, who published a history of the perse- 
 cution within two years after the event.** "If any 
 one," says Victor, " should doubt of the truth, let him 
 repair to Constantinople, and listen to the clear and 
 perfect lariguage of Restitutus, the subdeacon, one of 
 these glorious sufferers, who is now lodged in the pal- 
 ace of the emperor Zeno, and is respected by the de- 
 vout empress." At Constantinople we are astonished 
 to find a cool, a learned, and unexceptionable witness, 
 without interest, and without passion, ^neas of 
 Gaza, a Platonic philosopher, has accurately described 
 his own observations on these African sufferers. "I 
 saw them myself: I heard them speak: I diligently 
 inquired by vyhat means such an articulate voice could 
 be formed without any organ of speech : I used my 
 eyes to examine the report of my ears : I opened their 
 mouth, and saw that the whole tongue had been com- 
 pletely torn away by the roots ; an operation which the 
 physicians generally suppose to be mortal."' The 
 testimony of ^Eneas of Gaza might be confirmed by 
 the superfluous evidence of the emperor .Justinian, in 
 a perpetual edict; of count Marcellinus, in his Chroui- 
 
 c In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Bibles were corrected 
 ^1 i-u "*^' archbishop of Canterbury, and by .Nicolas, cardinal 
 and librarian of the Roman church, secundum ofthodoxam fidem. 
 (Wetstein, Prolejrom. p. 84, &5.) Notwithstandin? these corrections, 
 the passage is still wantins in twenty-five Latin MSS. (Wetstein. ad 
 loc.) the oldest and the fairest ; two qualities seldom united, except 
 in manuscripts. 
 
 d The art which the Germans had invented was applied in Italy to 
 the profane writers of Rome and Greece. The original Greek of the 
 Nbw Testament was published about the same time. (A. D. 1514. 
 ir)16. 1.^20.) by the industry of Erasmus, and the munificence of Car- 
 dinal Aimenes. The Complutensian Ptdyslot cost the cardinal 
 5n,0(X) ducats. See Mattaire Annal. Tvpograph. torn. ii. p. 2— S. 125 
 — K«; and Wetstein, Pndegomena, p. il6 -127. 
 
 e The three witnesses have been established in our Greek Testa- 
 ments by the prudence of Erasmus ; the honest bigotry of the Conv- 
 plutensian editors ; the typonrraphical fraud, or error, of Robert Ste- 
 phens in the placing a crotchet; and the deliberate falsehood, or 
 strange mi3apj)rehension, of Theodore Beza. 
 
 f Plin.Hist. Natural, v. 1. Iiinerar. Wes.seling, p. In. Cellarius, 
 Geograph. Anticj. torn. ii. part ii, p. 127. This Tipasa (which must 
 not be confounded with another in Numidia) was a town of some 
 note, since Vespasian endowed it with the right of Latium. 
 
 g Optatus Milovilanus de Schism. Dunatisl. 1. ii. p. 38. 
 
 h Victor Vitensis, v. 6. p. 76. Ruinart, p. 4S3-487. 
 
 i jF.neas Gazapiis in Theophrasto, in Biblioth. Patrum. torn. viii. p. 
 664, 665. He was a christian, and composed this dialogue (the Theo- 
 phrastiis) on the' immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the 
 body; besides twenty-five epistles still extant. See Cave, (Hist. 
 Litteraria, p. 297.) and Fabrjcius. (Biblioth. Grsec. torn. i. p. 422.) 
 
 
 
 0- 
 
508 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 509 
 
 Sevolt and mar- 
 tyrdom of Her* 
 menogild ia 
 Bpain, 
 A. D. 577—584. 
 
 cle of the times ; and of pope Gregory the first, who 
 had resided at Constantinople, as the minister of the 
 Roman pontiff.'' They all lived within the compass 
 of a century ; and they all appeal to their persona! 
 knowledge, or the public notoriety, for the truth of a 
 miracle, which was repeated in several instances, dis- 
 played on the greatest theatre of the world, and sub- 
 mitted, during a series of years, to the calm examina- 
 tion of the senses. This supernatural gift of the Afri- 
 can confessors, who spoke without tongues, will com- 
 mand the assent of those, and of those only, who 
 already believe, that their language was pure and 
 orthodox. But the stubborn mmd of an infidel is 
 guarded by secret, incurable suspicion ; and the Arian, 
 or Socinian, who has seriously rejected the doctrine of 
 the Trinity, will not be shaken by the most plausible 
 evidence of an Athanasian miracle, 
 —^ r » • The Vandals and the Ostrogoths per- 
 
 TheruinofAn- i • i f • c k • • 
 
 anism among the Severed m the profession ot Arianism 
 barbarians, till the final ruin of the kingdoms which 
 
 A. D. 500-700. jj^gy j^^j founded in Africa and Italy. 
 
 The barbarians of Gaul submitted to the orthodox do- 
 minion of the Franks ; and Spain was restored to the 
 catholic church by the voluntary conversion of the 
 Visigoths, 
 
 This salutary revolution ^ was hasten- 
 ed by the example of a royal martyr, 
 whom our calmer reason may style an 
 ungrateful rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic 
 monarch of Spain, deserved the respect 
 of his enemies, and the love of his subjects : the catho- 
 lics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods at- 
 tempted, without much success, to reconcile their 
 scruples by abolishing the unpopular rite of a second 
 baptism. His eldest son Hermenegild, who was in- 
 vested by his father with the royal diadem, and the 
 fair principality of Bcetica, contracted an honourable 
 and orthodox alliance with a Merovingian princess, 
 the daughter of Sisibert, king of Austrasia, and of the 
 famous Brunechild. The beauteous Ingundis, who 
 was no more than thirteen years of age, was received, 
 beloved, and persecuted, in the Arian court of Toledo; 
 and her religious constancy was alternately assaulted 
 with blandishments and violence by Goisvintha, the 
 Gothic queen, who abused the double claim of mater- 
 nal authority." Incensed by her resistance, Goisvintha 
 seized the catholic princess by her long hair, inhuman- 
 ly dashed her against the ground, kicked her till she 
 "was covered with blood, and at last gave orders that 
 she should be stripped, and thrown into a bason, or 
 fish-pond." Love and honour might excite Hermene- 
 gild to resent this injurious treatment of his bride; and 
 he was gradually persuaded that Ingundis suffered for 
 the cause of divine truth. Her tender complaints, and 
 the weighty arguments of Leauder, archbishop of Se- 
 ville, accomplished his conversion ; and the heir of 
 the Gothic monarchy was initiated in the Nicene faith 
 by the solemn rites of confirmation.** The rash youth, 
 inflamed by s^pal, and perhaps by ambition, was tempt- 
 
 I 
 
 k Justinian. Codex, 1. i. tit. xxvii, Marr.ellin. in Chron. p. 45. in 
 Thesaur. Temporum Scalit^er. Procopivis, de Boll. Vandal. 1. i. c. 7. p. 
 196. Gregor. Magnus, Dialog, iii. 32. None of thrsp wilnrsses have 
 specified the number of the confessors, which is fixed at sixty in an 
 old menology, (apud Ruinart, p. 436.) Two of them lost their speech 
 by fornication; but the miracle is enhanced by tiie singular instance 
 of a boy who had never spoken before his tonsue was cut out. 
 
 1 See the two general historians of Spain, Mariana, (Hist, de Rebus 
 Hispaniae, torn. i. 1. v. c. 1'2--15. p. 1S2— 194.) and Frrrerag, (French 
 translation, t(»m. ii. p. 206-247.) Mariana almost forgets that ho is 
 a Jesuit, to assume the style and spirit of a [Ionian classic. Fcrreras, 
 an indusirioua compiler, reviews his facts, and rectifies his chro- 
 nology. 
 
 m (joisvlntha successively married two kings of the Visigoths: 
 Athanigild, to whom she bore Brunechild, the mother of Ingundis; 
 and Lebvi2;ild, whose two sons, Hermenegild and Kecared, were the 
 issue of a former marriage. 
 
 n Iracundiaj furore succensa,adprehensam per comam capitis puel- 
 1am in terram conlidit, et diu calcibus verberatam, ac sanguine cru- 
 enutam, jussit exspoliari, et piscinae immergi. Greg. Turon. 1. v. c. 
 39. in torn. ii. p. 255. Gregory is one of our best originals for this por- 
 tion of history. 
 
 o The catholics who admitted the baptism of heretics, repeated 
 the rile, or, as it was afterwards styled, the sacrament, of confirmation, 
 (0 which ihcy ascribed many mystic and marvellous prerogative*, 
 
 ed to violate the duties of a son, and a subject ; and 
 the catholics of Spain, although they could not com- 
 plain of persecution, applauded his pious rebellion 
 against an heretical father. The civil war was pro- 
 tracted by the lonor and obstinate sieges of Merida, 
 Cordova, and Seville, which had strenuously espoused 
 the party of Hermenegild. He invited the orthodox 
 barbarians, the Suevi, and the Franks, to the destruc- 
 tion of his native land ; he solicited the dangerous aid 
 of the Romans, who possessed Africa, and a part of 
 the Spanish coast; and his holy ambassador, the arch- 
 bishop Leander, effectually negociated in person with 
 the Byzantine court. But the hopes of the catholics 
 were crushed by the active diligence of a monarch 
 who commanded the troops and treasures of Spain ; 
 and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain attempts to 
 resist or to escape, was compelled to surrender himself 
 into the hands of an incensed father. Leovigild was 
 still mindful of that sacred character; and the rebel, 
 despoiled of his regal ornaments, was still permitted, 
 in a decent exile, to profess the catholic religion. His 
 repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length provoked 
 the indignation of the Gothic king; and the sentence 
 of death, which he pronounced with apparent reluc- 
 tance, was privately executed in the tower of Seville. 
 The inflexible constancy with which he refused to ac- 
 cept the Arian communion, as the price of his safety, 
 may excuse the honours that have been paid to the 
 memory of St. Hermenegild. His wife and infant son 
 were detained by the Romans in ignominious captivity : 
 and this domestic misfortune tarnished the glories of 
 Leovigild, and imbittered the last moments of his life. 
 
 His son and successor, Recared, the Conversion of 
 first catholic king of Spain, had imbibed fheTisi^roThg 
 the faith of his unfortunate brother, which of Spnint 
 he supported with more prudence and A.D.58G— 589. 
 success. Instead of revolting against his father. Re- 
 cared patiently expected the hour of his death. Instead 
 of condemning his memory, he piously supposed, that 
 the dying monarch had abjured the errors of Arianism, 
 and recomii. ended to his son the conversion of the 
 Gothic nation. To accomplish that salutary end, Re- 
 cared convened an assembly of the Arian clergy and 
 nobles, declared himself a catholic, and exhorted them 
 to imitate the example of their prince. The laborious 
 interpretation of doubtful texts, or the curious pursuit 
 of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an 
 endless controversy ; and the monarch discreetly pro- 
 posed to his illiterate audience two substantial and 
 visible arguments, the testimony of earth and of hea- 
 ven. The earth had submitted to the Nicene synod : 
 the Romans, the barbarians, and the inhabitants of 
 Spain, unanimously professed the same orthodox 
 creed ; and the Visigoths resisted, almost alone, the 
 consent of the christian world. A superstitious age 
 was prepared to reverence, as the testimony of heaven, 
 the preternatural cures, which were performed by the 
 skill or virtue of the catholic clergy ; the baptismal 
 fonts of Osset in Bcetica,P which were spontaneously 
 replenished each year, on the vigil of Easter;** and 
 the miraculous shrine of St. Martin of Tours, which 
 had already converted the Suevic prince and people of 
 Gallicia.' The catholic king encountered some diflS- 
 culties on this important change of the national reli- 
 gion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the queen- 
 dowager, was formed against his life; and two counts 
 
 both visible and invisible. See Chardon, Hist, des Sacremens, torn, 
 i. p. 405-552. 
 
 P Osspt, or Julia Constantia, was opposite to Seville, on the nor- 
 thern side of the Birtis : (IMin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3.) and the authentic 
 reference of Gre-jury of Tours, (Hist. Francor. 1. vi. c. 43. p. 2SS.) de- 
 serves more credit than the name t)f Lusitania, (de Gloria Martyr, c. 
 24.) which has been eagerly embraced by the vain and superstitious 
 Portuguese. (Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, torn. ii. p. 166.) 
 
 q This miracle was skilfully performed. An Arian king sealed the 
 doors, and dug a deep trench round the church, without being able 
 to intercept the Easier supply of baptismal water. 
 
 r Ferreras (tom. ii. p. 168—175. A. D. 550.) has illustrated the dif- 
 ficulties whicli regard the time and circunistances of the conversion 
 of the Suevi. They had been recently united by Leovigild to tho 
 Gothic monarchy ol Spain. 
 
 excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonnese Gaul. 
 But Recared disarmed the conspirators, defeated the 
 rebels, and executed severe justice ; which the Arians, 
 in their turn, mijrht brand with the reproach of perse- 
 cution. Eight bishops, whose names betray their bar- 
 baric origin, abjured their errors; and all the books of 
 Arian theology were reduced to ashes, with the house 
 in which they had been purposely collected. The 
 whole body of the Visigoths and Suevi were allured 
 or driven into the pale of the catholic communion ; the 
 faith, at least of the rising generation, was fervent and 
 sincere; and the devout liberality of the barbarians 
 enriched the churches and monasteries of Spain. Sev- 
 enty bishops, assembled in the council of Toledo, re- 
 ceived tho submission of their conquerors ; and the 
 zeal of the Spaniards improved the Nicene creed, by 
 declaring the procession of the Holy Ghost, from the 
 Son, as well as from the Father; a weighty point of 
 doctrine, which produced, long afterwards, the schism 
 of the Greek and Latin churches.' The royal prose- 
 lyte immediately saluted and consulted pope Gregory, 
 surnamed the Great, a learned and holy prelate, whose 
 reign was distintruished by the conversion of heretics 
 and infidels. The ambassadors of Recared respect- 
 fully offered on the threshold of the Vatican his rich 
 presents of gold and gems : they accepted, as a lucra- 
 tive exchange, the hairs of St. John the Baptist ; a 
 cross, which enclosed a small piece of the true wood ; 
 and a key, that contained some particles of iron which 
 had been scraped from the chains of St. Peter.* 
 Conversion of The Same Gregory, the spiritual conque- 
 the Lombards Tor ot Uritain, encouraged the pious Theo- 
 
 A 'd 'coo &.C. ^^^'"^'^' ^"^^" 0^ ^he Lombards, to propa- 
 ' ''' gate the Nicene faith among the victorious 
 savages, whose recent Christianity was polluted by the 
 Arian heresy. Her devout labours still left room for 
 the industry and success of future missionaries ; and 
 many cities of Italy were still disputed by hostile 
 bishops. But the cause of Arianism was gradually 
 suppressed by the weight of truth, of interest, and 
 of example; and the controversy, which Egypt had 
 derived from the Platonic school, was terminated, after 
 a war of three hundred years, by the final conver- 
 sion of the Lombards of Italy." 
 Persecution of ^^e first missionaries who preached the 
 the Jewa iu gospel to the barbarians, appealed to the 
 A.' d"'gi2— 71^ evidence of reason, and claimed the bene- 
 fit of toleration.* But no sooner had they 
 established their spiritual dominion, than they ex- 
 horted the christian kings to extirpate, without mercy, 
 the remains of Roman or barbaric superstition. The 
 successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred lashes on the 
 peasants who refused to destroy their idols ; the crime 
 of sacrificing to the daemons was punished by the Ano-lo- 
 Saxon laws, with the heavier penalties of imprison- 
 ment and confiscation ; and even the wise Alfred 
 adopted, as an indispensable duty, the extreme rigour 
 of the Mosaic institutions.y But the punishment''and 
 the crime were gradually abolished amoi]g a chris- 
 tian people : the theological disputes of the schools I 
 were suspended by propitious ignorance ; and the in- 
 tolerant spirit, which could find neither idolaters nor 
 heretics, was reduced to the persecution of the Jews. 
 
 • This addition to the Nicene, or rather Conslantinopolitan. creed, 
 was first made in the eighth council of Toledo, A. D. 655; but it was 
 expressive of the popular doctrine. (Gerard Vossius, tom. vi. p. 527. 
 de tribus Symbolis.) 
 
 t See Gregor Magn. 1. vii. epist. 12G. apud Baronium, Annal. 
 Eccles. A. I). 599. No. 25, 26. ' 
 
 u Paul Warnefrid (de Gestis Langohard. 1. iv. c. 44. p. STtS. edit. 
 (3rol.) allows that Arianism still prevailed under tlie reign of Rotha- 
 ris, (A. D. 6.36—652.) The pious deacon does not attempt to mark the 
 precise sera of the national conversion, which was accomplished, how- 
 ever, before the end of the seventh century. 
 
 X Quorum fidei et conversion! ita concraiulatus esse rex perhibe- 
 tur, ut nullum tamen cogerct ad chrisiianismum. . . . Didiceratenim 
 a doctoribus auctoribusque suic salutis, serviiium Christi volunta- 
 rium non coactitium esse dcbere. Bedse Hist. Ecclesiastic. 1. i. c. i>G 
 p. 62. edit. Smith. 
 
 y See the Historians of France, tom. iv. p. 114 ; and Wilkins, Leges 
 Anglo-Saxonicae, p. 11.31, Siquia sacrificium iaunolaverit, praeter 
 deo soli, murte moriatur 
 
 The exiled nation had founded some synagogues in the 
 cities of Gaul ; but Spain, since the time of Hadrian, 
 was filled with their numerous colonies.' The wealth 
 which they accumulated by trade, and the manage- 
 ment of the finances, invited the pious avarice of 
 their masters ; and they might be oppressed without 
 danger, as they had lost the use, and even the re- 
 membrance of arms. Sisebut, a Gothic king, who 
 reigned in the beginning of the seventh century, pro- 
 ceeded at once to the last extremes of persecution.» 
 Ninety thousand Jews were compelled to receive the 
 sacrament of baptism ; the fortunes of the obstinate 
 infidels were confiscated, their bodies were tortured ; 
 and it seems doubtful whether they were permitted 
 to abandon their native country. The excessive zeal 
 of the catholic king was moderated, even by the 
 clergy of Spain, who solemnly pronounced an incon- 
 sistent sentence : that the sacrament should not be 
 forcibly imposed ; but that the Jews who had been 
 baptized should be constrained, for the honour of the 
 church, to persevere in the external practice of a religion 
 which they disbelieved and detested. Their frequent 
 relapses provoked one of the successors of Sisebut to 
 banish the whole nation from his dominions ; and a 
 council of Toledo published a decree, that every Goth- 
 ic king should swear to maintain this salutary edict. 
 But the tyrants were unwilling to dismiss the victims, 
 whom they delighted to torture, or to deprive them- 
 selves of the industrious slaves, over whom they might 
 exercise a lucrative oppression. The Jews still con- 
 tinued in Spain, under the weight of the civil and ec- 
 clesiastical laws, which in the same country have been 
 faithfully transcribed in the code of the inquisition. 
 The Gothic kings and bishops at length discovered, 
 that injuries will produce hatred, and That hatred will 
 find the opportunity of revenge. A nation, the secret 
 or professed enemies of Christianity, still multiplied in 
 servitude and distress; and the intrigues of the Jews 
 promoted the rapid success of the Arabian conquerors.'* 
 
 As soon as the barbarians withdrew 
 their powerful support, the unpopular ^°"«'"^'«"- ' 
 heresy of Arius sunk'into contempt and oblivion. But 
 the Greeks still retained their subtle and loquacious dis- 
 position: the establishment of an obscure doctrine sug- 
 gested new questions, and new disputes ; and it was 
 always iu the power of an ambitious prelate, or a fanatic 
 monk, to violate the peace of the church, and, perhaps, 
 of the empire. The historian of the empire may overlook 
 those disputes which were confined to the obscurity of 
 schools and synods. The Manicha^ans, who laboured 
 to reconcile the religions of Christ and of Zoroaster, had 
 secretly introduced themselves into the provinces : but 
 these foreign sectaries were involved in the common 
 disgrace of the Gnostics, and the imperial laws were 
 executed by the public hatred. The rational opinions 
 of the Pelagians were propagated from Britain to 
 Rome, Africa, and Palestine, and silently expired in a 
 superstitious age. But the east was distracted by the 
 Nestorian and Eutychian controversies; which at- 
 tempted to explain the mystery of the incarnation, and 
 hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native land. 
 These controversies were first agitated under the reign 
 of the younger Theodosius ; but their important conse- 
 quences extend far beyond the limits of the present 
 volume. The metaphysical chain of arnrument, the 
 contest of ecclesiastical ambition, and their political 
 influence on the decline of the Byzantine empire, may 
 
 z The Jews pretend that they were introduced into Spain by the 
 fleets of Solomon, and the arms of Nebiichudnr-zzar ; that Hadrian 
 transported fdily thousand families of llie tribe of Jiidah, and ten 
 thousand of tlie tribe of Benjamin, &c. Basnage, Hist, des Juif3,tom. 
 vii. c. 9. p. 210-256. 
 
 a Isidore, at that time archbishop of Seville, mentions, disapproves, 
 and congratulates, the zeal of Sisebut, (Ciimn. Goth. p. 72,?.) Baru- 
 nius, (A. I). 614. No. 41.) assigns the number on the evidence of 
 Aimoin : (I. iv. c. 22.) but the evidence is weak, and I have not been 
 able to verify the quotation. (HisU^rians of France, tom. iii. p. 127.) 
 
 b Basnage (tom. viii. c. 13. p. 38S— 4(».) faithfully represents the 
 state of the Jews : but he might have added from the canons of the 
 Spanish councils, and the laws of the Visigoths, many curious cir- 
 cumstances, essential to his subject, though tliey are foreign to mine. 
 
 
 V' 
 
 V>»" 
 
 if 
 
 / 
 
510 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 . ^ 
 
 * ■ 
 
 I I 
 
 afford an interestingr and instmctive series of history, 
 from the general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, 
 to the conquest of the east by tiie successors of Ma- 
 homet. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIIL 
 
 Rei^n and conversion of Clovis. — His victories over the 
 Atemanni, Burgundiatis, and Visigoths, — Ef>tabl!shment 
 of the French monarchy in Gaul. — Laws of the barbari- 
 ans. — State of the Romans. — The Visigoths of Spain. — 
 Conquefft of Britain by the Saxons, 
 
 The revolution The Gauls,* who impatiently support- 
 of Raul. Q^\ the Roman yoke, received a memora- 
 ble lesson from one of the lieutenants of Vespasian, 
 whose weiorhty sense has been refined and expressed 
 by the genius of Tacitus.*' " Tlie protection of the 
 republic has delivered Gaul from internal discord and 
 foreign invasions. By the loss of national indepen- 
 dence, you have acquired the name and pjivileores of 
 Roman citizens. You enjo}', in common with our- 
 selves, the permanent benefits of civil government; 
 and your remote situation is less exposed to the acci- 
 dental mischiefs of tyranny. Instead of exercising 
 the rights of conquest, we have been contented to im- 
 pose such tributes as are requisite for your own pre- 
 servation. Peace cannot be secured without armies ; 
 and armies must be supported at the expense of the 
 people. It is for your sake, not for our own, that we 
 guard the barrier of the Rhine against the ferocious 
 Germans, who have so often attempted, and who will 
 always desire, to exchange the solitude of their woods 
 and morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul. The 
 fall of Rome would be fatal to the provinces ; and you 
 would be buried in the ruins of that mighty fabric, 
 which has been raised by the valour and wisdom of 
 eight hundred years. Your imaginary freedom would 
 be insulted and oppressed by a savage master; and 
 the expulsion of the Romans would be succeeded by 
 the eternal hostilities of the barbarian conquerors." ^ 
 This salutary advice was accepted, and this strange 
 prediction was accomplished. In the space of four 
 hundred years, the hardy Gauls, who had encountered 
 the arms of Ccesar, were imperceptibly melted into the 
 general mass of citizens and subjects : the western em- 
 pire was dissolved ; and the Germans, who had passed 
 the Rhine, fiercely contended for the possession of 
 Gaul, and excited the contempt, or abhorrence, of its 
 peaceful and polished inhabitants. With that consci- 
 ous pride which the pre-eminence of knowledge and 
 luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy 
 and gigantic savages of the north ; their rustic man- 
 ners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their hor- 
 rid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to 
 the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated 
 in the schools of Autun and Bordeaux; and the lan- 
 guage of Cicero and Virgil was familiar to the Gallic 
 youth. Their ears were astonished by the harsh and 
 unknown sounds of the Germanic dialect, and they 
 ingeniously lamented that the trembling muses fled 
 from the harmony of a Burgundian lyre. The Gauls 
 were endowed with all the advantages of art and na- 
 ture ; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they 
 were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the 
 
 » In this chapter I shall draw my qiiolaiiong fmm the "Recucil drs 
 HistdfiPiis des Gaulea ct de la France, Paris, 17;5S— 1767, in eleven 
 volumes in f<tlio. By the labour of Dom. Bouquet, and the other l^e- 
 nediclines, all the original lesliuuinios, as far as A. D. lUGO, are dis- 
 posed in chronological order, and illustrated with learned notes. 
 Such a national work, which will be continued to the year 1500, 
 might provoke our enuilation. 
 
 b Tacit. Hist. iv. 73, 74. in lom. i. p. 445. To abridge Tacitus 
 would, indeed, be presumptuous : but I may select the general ideas 
 which he applies to the present state and future revolutions of Gaul. 
 
 c Eadem semper causa Germanis transcendendi in Gallias libido 
 altjue avaritiae et mutandae sedis amor ; ut relictis paludibus et soli- 
 tudinibus suis, fecundissimum hoc solum vosque ipsos pussiderent 
 . . . Nam pulsis Romanis quid aliud quam bella omnium inter se 
 gentium exsisteni / 
 
 victorious barbarians, by whose clemency they held 
 their precarious fortunes and their lives.^ 
 
 As soon as Odoacer had extinguished E^^lr kin<rof 
 the western empire, he sought the friend- th.- visi<»orh8. 
 ship of the most powerful of the barbari- ^- ^' ^^ti— 4^5. 
 ans. The new sovereign of Italy resigned to Euric, 
 king of the Visigoths, all the Roman conquests beyond 
 the Alps, as far as the Rhine and the ocean : * and the 
 senate might confirm this liberal gift with some osten- 
 tation of power, and without any real loss of revenue 
 or dominion. The lawful pretensions of Euric were 
 justified by ambition and success ; and the Gothic na- 
 tion might aspire, under his command, to the monarchy 
 of Spain and Gaul. Aries and Marseilles surrendered 
 to his arms; he oppressed the freedom of Auvergne; 
 and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall 
 from exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant, praise. 
 Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace among 
 a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants ; and their va- 
 rious business at the court of Bordeaux attested the 
 power, and the renown, of the king of the Visigoths. 
 The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their 
 naked bodies with its cajrulean colour, implored his 
 protection ; and the Saxons respected the maritime 
 provinces of a prince, who was destitute of any naval 
 force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his author- 
 ity; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till he had 
 imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal 
 peace. The Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful 
 friendship ; and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were sup- 
 ported by his powerful aid against the oppression of 
 the neighbouring Huns. The north (such are the lofty 
 strains of the poet) was agitated, or appeased, by the 
 nod of Euric; the great king of Persia consulted the 
 oracle of the west; and the aged god of the Tiber was 
 protected by the swelling genius of the Garonne.' The 
 fortune of nations has often depended on accidents; 
 and France may ascribe her greatness to the premature 
 death of the Gothic king, at a time when his son Ala- 
 ric was a helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis s an 
 ambitious and valiant youth. 
 
 While Childeric, the fiither of Clo- ciovis kin- of 
 vis, lived in exile in Germany, he was the Franks, 
 hospitably entertained by the queen, as ^- ^- 4^1—511. 
 well as by the king, of the Thuringians. After his 
 restoration, Basina escaped from her husband's bed to 
 the arms of her lover; freely declaring, that if she 
 had known a man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful, 
 than Ciiilderic, that man should have been the object 
 of her preference.*' Clovis was the oflfspring of this 
 voluntary union; and when he was no more than fif- 
 teen years of age, he succeeded, by his father's death, 
 to the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow lim- 
 its of his kingdom » were confined to the island of the 
 Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and 
 Arras ;^ and at the baptism of Clovis, the number of 
 his warriors could not exceed five thousand. The kin- 
 dred tribes of the Franks, who had seated themselves 
 along the Belgic rivers, the Scheld, the Mouse, the 
 
 d Sidonius Apollinaris ridicules, with affected wit and pleasantry, 
 the hardships of his situation. (Carm. xii. in tom. i. p. 811.) 
 
 e See Procopius de Bell. Gothico, 1. i. c. 12. in torn. ii. p. 31. The 
 character of Grotius inclines me to believe, that he has not substitu- 
 ted the Jifiine for the lihotie (Hist. Golhorum, p. 175.) without the 
 authi^rity of some MS. 
 
 f Sidonius, 1. viii. epist. X 9. in lom. i. p. 800. Jornandes (de Rebus 
 Geticis, c. 47. p. 680.) justifies, in some measure, this portrait of the 
 Gothic hero. 
 
 r I use the familiar appellation of Cloris, from the Latin Chlodo- 
 revhua, or Chlodorcfua.. But the Ch expresses only the German 
 aspiration; and the true name is not ditTerent from Luduin, or 
 Leicis. (Mem. de TAcademie des Inscriptions, lom. xx. p. G8.) 
 
 h Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 12. in tom, i. p. 168. Basina speaks the 
 lansruage of nature : the Franks, who had seen her in their youth, 
 miirht converse with Gregory in their old age; and the bishop of 
 Tours could not wish to dcfaniethe mother of the firsichrisiian king. 
 
 i The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Criti(iue de rEtablissenient de la Monar- 
 chie P'rancoise dans les Gaules, tom. i. p. 636—650.) has the merit of 
 defining the primitive kingdom of Clovis, and of ascertaining the 
 genuine number of his subjects. 
 
 k Ecclesiam inculiam ac negligeniia civlum paganorum praeter- 
 missam, veprium densitato oppleiam. Sec. Yit. St. Wdasli, in tuni, 
 iii. p. 372. This description supposes that Arras was possessed by Iho 
 pagans, many years before the baptism of Clovis, - 
 
 Moselle, and the Rhine, were governed by their inde- 
 pendent kings, of the Merovingian race ; the equals, 
 the allies, and sometimes the enemies, of the Salic 
 prince. But the Germans, who obpycd in peace the 
 •hereditary jurisdiction of their chiefs, were free to fol- 
 low the standard of a popular and victorious general ; 
 and the superior merit of Clovis attracted the respect 
 and allegiance of the national confederacy. When 
 he first took the field ; he had neither gold and silver 
 m his coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazines:' 
 but he imitated the example of Caesar, who, in the 
 same country, had acquired wealth by the sword, and 
 purchased soldiers Avith the fruits of conquest. After 
 each successful battle or expedition, the spoils were 
 accumulated in one common mass ; every warrior re- 
 ceived his proportionable share ; and the royal preroga- 
 tive submitted to the equal regulations of military law. 
 The untamed spirit of the barbarians was taught to 
 acknowledge the advantages of regular discipline.'"' 
 At the annual review of the month of March, their 
 arms were diligently inspected ; and when they trav- 
 ersed a peaceful territory, they were prohibited from 
 touching a blade of grass. The justice of Clovis was : 
 inexorable; and his careless or disobedient soldiers' 
 were punished with instant death. It would be super- 
 fluous to praise the valour of a Frank; but the valour 
 ot Clovis was directed by cool and consummate pru- 
 dence." In all his transactions with mankind, he cal- 
 culated the weight of interest, of passion, and of opin- 
 ion ; and his measures were sometimes adapted to the 
 sanguinary manners of the Germans, and sometimes 
 moderated by the milder genius of Rome, and Chris- 
 tianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory, 
 since he died in the forty-fifth year of his age : but he 
 had already accomplished, in a reign of thirty years, 
 the establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul. 
 His victory over '^^^^ fi^st exploit of Clovis was the 
 A^v'tm ^^^^^^ ^^ Syagrius, the son of ^Egidius ; 
 and the public quarrel might, on this 
 occasion, be inflamed by private resentment. The 
 glory of the father still insulted the Merovingian race ; 
 the power of the son might excite the jealous ambition 
 of the king of the Franks. Syagrius inherited, as a 
 patrimonial estate, the city and diocese of Soissons : ! 
 the desolate* remnant of the second Belgic, Rhcims ! 
 and Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally 
 submit to the count or patrician ; ° and after the dis- ' 
 solution of the western empire, he might reign with 
 the title, or at least with the authority,l)f kinffof the 
 Romans, p As a Roman, he had been educated in the 
 liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence; but he 
 was engaged by accident and policy in the familiar use 
 of the Germanic idiom. The independent barbarians 
 resorted to the tribunal of a stranger, who possessed 
 the singular talent of explaining, in their native tongue, 
 the dictates of reason and equity. The diligence and 
 affability of their judge rendered him popular the im- 
 partial wisdom of his decrees obtained their voluntary 
 obedience, and the reign of Syagrius over the Franks 
 and Burgundians, seemed to revive the original insti- 
 tution of civil society .1 In the midst of these peace- 
 
 511 
 
 ful occupations, Syagrius received, and boldly accept- 
 ed, the hostile defiance of Clovis ; who challenged his 
 rival, in the spirit, and almost in the language, of 
 chivalry, to appoint the day, and the field,' of battle. 
 In the time of Ca-sar, Soissons would have poured 
 forth a body of fifty thousand horse; and such an ar- 
 my might have been plentifully supplied with shields, 
 cuirasses, and military engines, from the three arse- 
 nals, or manufactures, of the city.' But the courage 
 and numbers of the Gallic youth were long since ex- 
 hausted ; and the loose bands of volunteers, or mer- 
 cenaries, who marched under the standard of Syao-ri- 
 us, were incapable of contending with the natio'nal 
 valour of the Franks. It would be ungenerous, with- 
 out some more accurate knowledffe of his strenoth and 
 resources, to condemn the rapid fliaht of Syaorius 
 who escaped, after the loss of a batUe, to the distant 
 court of Thoulquse. The feeble minority of Alaric 
 could not assist, or protect, an unf)rtunate fuaitive; 
 I the pusillanimous' Goths were intimidated by the men- 
 aces of Clovis ; and the Roman king, after a short 
 confinement, was delivered into the hands of the exe- 
 cutioner. The Belgic cities surrendered to the king 
 of the Franks ; and his dominions were enlarged to- 
 wards the east by the ample diocese of Ton ares, «^w^hich 
 Clovis subdued in the tenth year of his reign. 
 
 The name of Alemanni has been ab- 
 surdly derived from their imaginary set- ^^rtc'lL 
 tlernent on the banks of the Leman lake.* Alenmnnj, 
 That fortunate district, from the lake to ^^ ^- '*^- 
 Avenche, and mount .Tura, was occupied by the Bur- 
 gundians. y The northern parts of Helvetia had in- 
 deed been subdued by the ferocious Alemanni, who 
 destroyed with their own hands the fruits of their con- 
 quest. A province, improved and adorned by the arts 
 ot Rome, was again reduced to a savage wilderness; 
 and some vestige of the stately Vindonissa may still 
 be discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the 
 Aar.' From the source of the Rhine, to its conflux 
 with the Mien and the Moselle, the formidable swarms 
 of the Alemanni commanded either side of the river, 
 by the right of ancient possession or recent victory! 
 rhey had spread themselves into Gaul, over the mod- 
 ern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine ; and their bold in- 
 vasion of the kingdom of Colojrne summoned the Sal- 
 ic prince to the defence of his Ripuarian allies. Clovis 
 encountered the invaders of Gaul in the plain of Tol- 
 biac, about twenty-four miles from Cologne ; and the 
 
 ..r V ,f ?M^ ^ ?k'1^^' ""' '\'}' I" *''"'•''• P- 232.) contrasts the pov- 
 ,T,^ [ <^1"V!S With the wealth of his grandsons. Yet Remigius, (in 
 torn. ly. p. 52.) mentions his paternas opes, as sufficient for the re- 
 uemplKtn of captives. 
 
 n, See Gregory, (I. ii. c. 27.37. in tom. ii. p. 175. Ifil, 182.) The 
 famous story of the vase of Soissjns explains both the power and the 
 character of Clovis. As a point of controversy, it has been stran-ely 
 tortured by BoulajnviUiers, Dubos, and the other political antiqua- 
 
 n The duke of Nlvernois, a noble statesman, who has manaced 
 weighty and delicate negociations, ingeniously illustrates (Mem.^de 
 ctoy^' I°8'^'"'l't'o"s, tom. xx.p. 147-lt^l.) the political system of 
 
 o M. Biet (in a Dissertation which deserved the prize of the Aca- ' 
 demy of Soissons, p. 178-220.) has accurately defined the nature and 
 extent of the kingd.»m of Syagrius, and his father; but he too readily 
 allows the slight evidence of Dubos (tom. ii. p. 51-57.) to deprive 
 himof Beauvais and Amiens. F"ve 
 
 P I may observe that Frcdegarius, in his Epitome of Gregory of 
 lours, (torn. u. p. 398.) has prudently substituted the name of Pa/,/. 
 CIM6- for the incredible title of Hex Komanonim. \ 
 
 q Sidonius (I. v. Epist. 5. in tom. i. p. 794.) who styles him the So- , 
 
 Ion, the Amphion of the barbarians, addresses this ima'^inarv kin«' in 
 the tone of friendship and equality. From such offices of arbitrati'on. 
 
 (l£rS&.^.T''9l-^0t)J''''^^ ^'""^^^^ ^""^^^ ^"^^""^^ ""^ iheMedes. 
 
 r (^ampumsibi praeparari jussit. M. Biet (p. 220— 251 ) has dili- 
 gently ascertained this field of battle, at Nogent, a benedicline abbey 
 about ten miles to the north of Soissons. The ground was marked 
 by a circle of pagan sepulchres; and Clovis bestowed the adjacejit 
 lands of Leuilly and Coucy on the church of Kheims ^ 
 
 s See Caesar. Comment, de Bell. Gallic, ii. 4. in torn. i. p. 220. and 
 the NotitijE, torn i. p. 126 The three F\ibric<z of Soissons were, 
 i>rutarta, Bahstarta, and Clmabaria. The last supplied the com- 
 plete armour of the heavy cuirassiers. 
 
 t The epithet must be confined to the circumstances ; and history 
 cannot justify the French prejudice of Gregory, (1. ii. c. 27. in tom. if. 
 p. I/O.) ut Golhorum navere mos est. 
 
 u Dubos has satisfied me <tom. i. p. 277—286.) that Gregory of Tours, 
 hia transcribers or his readers, have repeatedly confounded the Ger- 
 , nian kingdom of Thvringia, beyond the Rhine, and the Gallic citu 
 ol JoNffna, on the Meuse, w hich was more anciently the country of 
 the f.burones, and more recently the diocese of Liege. 
 I X Populi habitantes juxla. Letnannitjulacum, Aremantii dlcuntur 
 Servius, ad \ irgil. Georgic. iv. 27S. Dom. Bouquet (tom. i. p. 817.) 
 has only alleged the more recent and corrupt text of Isidore of 
 Seville. ^ 
 
 I y Gregory of Tours sends St. Lupicinus inter ilia Jurensis descrti 
 I secreta quae, inter Burgundiam Alemanniamque sita, Aveniicac ad- 
 : jacent civitati, in torn. i. p. 648. 31. de Walteville (Hist, de la Con- 
 federation Helveticiue, torn. i. p. 9, 10.) has accurately defined the 
 Helvetian limits of the duchy of Aleinannia, and the Tranjurane 
 Burgundy. They were commensurate with the dioceses of Constance 
 and Avenche, or Lausanne, and are still discriminated, in modern 
 Switzerland, by the use of the German, or French, lanruage. 
 
 z See Guillinian. de Rebus Helveticis, 1. i. c. 3. p. J l. 12. Within 
 the ancient walls of Vindonissa, the castle of Habsburgh, the abbey 
 of Konigsfield, and the town of Bruck, have successively arisen 
 The philosophic traveller may compare the monuments of Roman 
 conquest, of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of monkish superstition, and 
 of industnoius freedom. If he be truly a philosopher, he will applaud 
 the merit and happiness of his own times. 
 
512 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 513 
 
 iA 
 
 two fiercest nations of Germany were mutually ani-' 
 mated by the memory of past exploits, and the pros- 
 pect of future greatness. The Franks, after an obsti- 
 nate struggle, gave way ; and the Alemanni, raising a 
 shout of victory, impetuously pressed their retreat. 
 But the battle was restored by the valour, the conduct, 
 and perhaps by the piety, of Clovis ; and the event of 
 the bloody day decidedfor ever the alternative of em- 
 pire or servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was 
 slain in the field, and his people were slaughtered and 
 pursued, till they threw down their arms, and yielded 
 to the mercy of the conqueror. Without discipline it 
 was impossible for them to rally : they had contempt- 
 uously demolished the walls and fortifications which 
 might have protected their distress; and they were 
 folfowed into the heart of their forests, by an enemy 
 not less active, or intrepid, than themselves. The 
 great Theodoric congratulated the victory of Clovis, 
 whose sister Aibofleda the king of Italyhad lately 
 married ; but he mildly interceded with his brother in 
 favour of the suppliants and fugitives, who had im- 
 plored his protection. The Gallic territories, which 
 were possessed by the Alemanni, became the prize of 
 their conriucror ; and the haughty nation, invincible, 
 or rebellious, to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the 
 sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who graciously 
 permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and in- 
 stitutions, under the government of official, and at 
 length of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest of 
 the western provinces, the Franks alone maintained 
 their ancient habitations beyond the Rhine. They 
 gradually subdued, and civilized, the exhausted coun- 
 tries, as far as the Elbe, and the mountains of Bohe- 
 mia; and the peace of Europe was secured by the 
 obedience of Germany.* 
 
 Conversion of Till the thirteenth year of his age, 
 ciovifi. Clovis contmued to worship the gods ot 
 A.D. 49C. his ancestors.*' His disbelief, or rather 
 disregard, of Christianity, might encourage hirn to pil- 
 lao-e with less remorse the churches of a hostile terri- 
 tory : but his subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exer- 
 cise of religious worship; and the bishops entertained 
 a more favourable hope of the idolater, than of the her- 
 etics. The Merovingian prince had contracted" a for- 
 tunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the 
 king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, 
 was educated in the profession of the catholic faith. 
 It was her interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the 
 conversion <= of a pagan husband; and Clovis insensi- 
 bly listened to the voice of love and religion. He con- 
 sented (perhaps such terms had been previously stipu- 
 lated) to the baptism of his eldest son ; and though 
 the sudden death of the infant excited some supersti- 
 tious fears, he was persuaded, a second time, to repeat 
 the dangerous experiment. In the distress of the bat- 
 iie of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the God of Clo- 
 tilda and the christians ; and victory disposed him to 
 hear, with respectful gratitude, the eloquent'' Remi- 
 
 a Gresory of Tours. (I. ii. 30. 37. in torn. ii. p. 176, 177. 182.) tlie 
 G»'sta Franroruin, (in torn. ii. p. 551.) and the epistle of Theodoric, 
 (Cassiodor. Variar. I. ii. c. 41. in torn. iv. p. 4.) represent the deleal 
 of the Alemanni. Some of their tribes settled in Rha?tia, under the 
 protection of Theodoric ; whose successors ceded the colony and their 
 country to the grandson of Clovis. The state of the Alemanni un 
 der the Merovingian kings, maybe seen In Mascou, (Hist, of the 
 Ancient Germans, xi. 8, &c. Annotation x.\xvi.) and Guillinian, (de 
 Reb. Helvet. 1. ii. c. 10—12. p. 72—80.) 
 
 b Clotilda, or rather Gregory, supposes that Clovis worshipped the 
 gods of Greece and Rome. The fact is incredible, and the mistake 
 only shows how completely, in less than a century, the national reli- 
 gion of the Franks had been abolished, and even forgotten. 
 
 c Gregory of Tours relates the marriage and conversion of Clovis, 
 (I. ii. c. 28 — 31. in torn. ii. p. 175 — 178. Even Fredegarins, or the 
 nameless Epitomizer, in toin. ii. p. 398—400.) ihe author of theGcsta 
 Francorum, (in tom ii. p. 518— 552.) and Aimoin himself,( 1. i. c. 13. 
 in tom. iii. p. 37 — 40. may l>e heard without disdain. Tradirion 
 iniglit long preserve some curious circumstances of these important 
 circumstances. 
 
 d A traveller who returned from Rheims to Auvergne, had stolen 
 a copy of his Dcclamaliona from the secretary or bookseller of the 
 modest archbishop, (Sidonius Apollinar. I. ix. epist. 7.) Four epis- 
 tles of Remigius, which are still extant, (in tom. iv. p. 51—53.) do not 
 correspond with the splendid praise of Sidoiiius. 
 
 gius,* bishop of Rheims, who forcibly displayed the 
 temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. 
 The king declared himself satisfied of the truth of the 
 catholic faith ; and the political reasons which might 
 have suspended his public profession, were removed 
 by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks, 
 who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their 
 heroic leader, to the field of battle, or to the baptismal 
 font. The important ceremony was performed in the 
 cathedral of Rheims, with every circumstance of mag- 
 nificence and solemnity, that could impress an awful 
 sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytes.' 
 The new Constantine was immediately baptized, with 
 three thousand of his warlike subjects ; and their ex- 
 ample was imitated by the remainder of the gentle bar- 
 barians, who, in obedience to the victorious prelate, 
 adored the cross which they had burnt, and burnt the 
 idols which they had formerly adored.^ The mind of 
 Clovis was susceptible of transient fervour : he was 
 exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and 
 death of Christ ; and, instead of weighing the salutary 
 consequences of that mysterious sacrifice, he exclaim- 
 ed, with indiscreet fury, " Had I been present at the 
 head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged his 
 injuries."** But the savage conqueror of Gaul was in- 
 capable of examining the proofs of a religion, which 
 depends on the laborious investigation of historic evi- 
 dence, and speculative theology. He was still more 
 incapable of feeling the mild influence of the gospel, 
 which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine 
 convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual viola- 
 tion of moral and christian duties; his hands were 
 stained with blood, in peace as well as in war; and, 
 as soon as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Galli- 
 can church, he calmly assassinated ail the princes of 
 the Merovingian race.' Yet the king of the Franks 
 might sincerely worship the christian God, as a being 
 more excellent and powerful than his national deities ; 
 and the signal deliverance and victory of Tolbiac en- 
 couraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of 
 the Lora of hosts. Martin, the most popular of the 
 saints, had filled the western world with the fame of 
 those miracles which were incessantly performed at 
 his holy sepulchre of Tours. His visible or invisible 
 aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox 
 prince ; and the profane remark of Clovis himself, that 
 St. Martin was an expensive friend,*^ need not be inter- 
 preted as the symptom of any permanent or rational 
 scepticism. But earth, as well as heaven, rejoiced in 
 the conversion of the Franks. On the niemorable day, 
 when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he 
 
 e Ilincmar, one of the successors of Remigius, (.\. D. 845—882.) 
 has composed his life, (in tom. iii. p. 373—380.) The authority of 
 ancient MSS, of the church of Rheims might inspire some confi- 
 dence, which is destroyed, however, by the selfish and audacious fic- 
 tions of Hincmar. It is remarkable enough, that Remigius, who 
 was consecrated at the age of twenty-two, (A. D. 457.) filled the 
 episcopal chair seventy-four years, (Pagi Critica, in Baron, torn, ii. 
 p. 384. 572.) 
 
 f A phial (the Sainte Ampoulle) of holy, or rather celestial, oil. 
 was brought down by a white dove, for the baptism of Clovis ; and 
 it is still used, and renewed, in the coronation of the kings of France. 
 Hincmar (he aspired to the primacy of Gaul) is the first author of 
 this fable, (in tom. iii. p. 377.) whose slight foundations the Abb6 de 
 Vertot (Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, lom. ii. p. 619 — 
 033.) has undermined, with profound respect and consummate dex- 
 terity. 
 
 R Mitis depone colla. Sicamber ; adora quod incendisti, mccnde 
 quod adorasti. Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 31. in tom. ii. p. 127. 
 
 h Si ego ibidem cum Francis meis fuissem, injurias ejus vindicas- 
 sem. This rash expression, which Gregory has prudently conceal- 
 ed, is celebrated by Fredegarius. (Epitom. c. 21. in tom. ii. p. 400.) 
 Aimoin. (I. i. c. 16. in. torn. iii. p. 40.) and the Chroniques de St. 
 Denys, (I. i. c.20. in tom. iii. p. 171.) as an admirable effusion of chris- 
 tian zeal. 
 
 i Gregory, (1. ii. c. 40—43. in tom. ii. p. 183—185.) after coolly re- 
 lating the repeated crimes, and- afTncted remorse, of Clovis, con- 
 cludes, perhaps undesignedly, with a lesson, which ambition will 
 never hear ; " Mis ita transactia . . . obiit. 
 
 k After the Gothic victory, Clovis made rich offerings to St. Mar- 
 tin of Tours. He wished to redeem his war-horse by the gift of 
 one hundred pieces of gold, but the enchanted steed could not niove 
 from the stable till the price of his redemption had been doubled. 
 This mirac/c provoked the king to exclaim, Vere B. Martinus est 
 lK)nns in auxilia, sed caru8 in negotio. (Gesia FraDcorum, in loin. ii. 
 p. 554, 555.) 
 
 alone, in the christian world, deserved the name and 
 prerogatives of a catholic king. The emperor Anasla- 
 sius entertained some dangerous errors concerning the 
 nature of the divine incarnation; and the barbarians of 
 Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul, were involved in the 
 Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only, son of 
 tiie church, was acknowledged by the clergy as their 
 lawful sovereign, or glorious deliverer; and the arms 
 of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and 
 favour of the catholic faction.' 
 
 „ . . . „ Under the Roman empire, the wcatlh 
 
 the Armoricans ^^^ jurisdiction ot the bishops, their sa- 
 and the Kimiau cred character, and perpetual oflRce, their 
 a'^^P" ice. numerous dependents, popular eloquence, 
 
 and provincial assemblies, had rendered 
 them always respectable, and sometimes dangerous. 
 Their influence was augmented with the progress of 
 superstition, and the establishment of the French mon- 
 archy may, in some deoree, be ascribed to the firm al- 
 liance of a hundred prelates, who reigned in the dis- 
 contented, or independent, cities of Gaul. The slight 
 foundations o^ {\\q Armor i can republic had been repeat- 
 edly shaken, or overthrown ; but the same people still 
 guarded their domestic freedom ; asserted the dignity 
 of the Roman name ; and bravely resisted the preda- 
 tory inroads, and regular attacks, of Clovis, who la- 
 boured to extend his conquests from the Seine to the 
 Loire. Their successful opposition introduced an 
 equal and honourable union. The Franks esteemed 
 the valour of the Armoricans," and the Armoricans 
 were reconciled by the religion of the Franks. The 
 military force, which had been stationed for the de- 
 fence of Gaul, consisted of one hundred diflercnt bands 
 of cavalry or infantry ; and these troops, while they 
 assumed the title and privileges of Roman soldiers, 
 were renewed b}' an incessant supply of the barbarian 
 youth. The extreme fortifications, and scattered frag- 
 ments, of the empire, were still defended by their 
 hopeless courage. But their retreat was intercepted, 
 and their communication was impracticable : they 
 were abandoned by the Greek princes of Constanti- 
 nople, and they piously disclaimed all connexion with 
 the Arian usurpers of Gaul. They accepted, without 
 shame or reluctance, the generous capitulation, which 
 was proposed by a catholic hero; and this spurious, or 
 legitimate, progeny of the Roman legions, was distin- 
 guished in the succeeding age by their arms, their en- 
 signs, and their peculiar dress and institutions. But 
 the national strength was increased by these powerful 
 and voluntary accessions ; and the neighbouring kinn-- 
 doms dreaded the numbers, as well as the spirit, of the 
 Franks. The reduction of the northern provinces of 
 Gaul, instead of being decided by the chance of a sin- 
 gle battle, appears to have been slowly etfected by the 
 gradual operation of war and treaty; and Clovis ac- 
 quired each object of his ambition, by such efforts, or 
 such concessions, as were adequate to its real value. 
 His savage character, and the virtues of Henry IV. 
 Suor(rcst the most opposite ideas of human nature; yet 
 some resemblance maybe found in the situation of two 
 princes, who conquered France by their valour, their 
 policy, and the merits of a seasonable conversion." 
 TheBur'^Hnilian The kingdom of the Burgufidians, 
 w.ir. which was defined by the course of two 
 
 Gallic rivers, the Saone and the Rhone, 
 
 A. I). 4'J9. 
 
 1 See the epistle from pope Anastasins to tiie royal convert, (in 
 tom. iv. p. 50, ."jl.) Avilus, bishop of Vienna, addressed Clovis on 
 the sanjc suliject, (p. 4!».) and many of the Latin bishops would as- 
 sure him of their joy and attachment. 
 
 ni Instead of the A^ iop-j^oi, an unknown people, who nowappc.ir 
 in the text of Procopins, Hadrian de Valois has restored the proper 
 name of the Af.ucpux" ; and this easy correction has been almost 
 universally approved. Yet an unprejudiced reader would naturally 
 suppose, iliiit Trocopins means to dfsorilie a trihn of Geruinns in the 
 alliance of Rome; and not a confederacy of Gallic cities, which had 
 revolted from the em|iirc. 
 
 n This important digres.sion of Procopins (de Bell. Gothic. I. i. c. 
 12. in tom. ii. p. 29 — ?6.) illustrates the origin of the French monar- 
 chy. Yet I must observe, 1. That the Greek historian betrays an 
 iiie.xcusable ignorance of tlie geography of the west. 2. That 
 tlicse treaties and privileges, whic;h should leave some lasting traces, 
 are totally invisible in Gregory of Tours, the Salic lawsi &c. 
 Vol. I.— 3 P 33 
 
 extended from the forest of Vosges to the Alps and the 
 sea of Marseilles." The sceptre was in the hands of 
 Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince had 
 reduced the numher of royal candidates by the death 
 of two brothers, one of whom was the father of Clo- 
 tilda;!' but his imperfect prudence still permitted God- 
 egesil, the youngest of his brothers, to pos.sess the de- 
 pendent principality of Geneva. The Arian monarch 
 was justly alarmed by the satisfaction, and the hopes, 
 which seemed to animate his clergy and people, after 
 the conversion of Clovis; and Gundobald convened at 
 Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it 
 were possible, their religious and political discontents. 
 A vain conference was agitated between the two fac- 
 tions. The Arians upbraided the catholics w ith the 
 worship of three gods: the catholics defended their 
 cause by theological distinctions; and the usual argu- 
 ments, objections, and replies were reverberated with 
 obstinate clamour; till the king revealed his secret ap- 
 prehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which 
 he addressed to the orthodox bishops. *' If you truly 
 profess the chri.slian religion, why do you not restrain 
 the king of the Franks ? He has declared war auainst 
 me, and forms alliances with my enemies for my des- 
 truction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the 
 symptom of a sincere conversion: let him show his 
 faith by his works." 'J'he answer of Avitus, bishop 
 of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, 
 was delivered with the voice and countenance of an 
 ansfel. " We are isfnorant of the motives and inten- 
 tions of the king of the Franks : but we are taught by 
 Scripture, that the kingdoms which abandon the di- 
 vine law, are frequently subvertt d ; and that enemies 
 will arise on every side against those who have made 
 God their enemy, l^eturn, with thy people, to the 
 law of God, and he will give peace and security^ to thy 
 dominions." The king of Burgundy, who was not 
 prepared to accept the condition, which the catholics 
 considered as essential to the treaty, delayed and dis- 
 missed the ecclesiastical conference ; after reproaching 
 his bishops, that Clovis, thf ir friend and pmselyte, 
 had privately tempted the allegiance of his brolher.*i 
 
 The allegiance of his brother was Viciory.f Clovis, 
 already seduced; and the obedience of A/u.-'ioo. 
 Godegesil, who joined the royal standard with the 
 troops of Geneva, more eflectnally promoted the suc- 
 cess of the conspirac}'. While the Franks and Bur- 
 gundians contended with equal valour, his seasonable 
 desertion decided the event of the battle; and as 
 Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected 
 Gauls, he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily 
 retreated from the field, which appears to have been 
 situate between Langres and Dijon. He distrusted 
 the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular fortress, encom- 
 passed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet high, 
 and fifleen thick, with four gates, and thirty-three 
 towers :•■ he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the 
 important cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundo- 
 bald still fled with precipitation, till he had reached 
 
 Regnnnj circa Rhodanum ant Apaiim cum piovinoia Massiiien- 
 si retitieltant. Greg. 'J'nron. 1. ii. c. :;2. in tom. ii. p. 178. The pro- 
 vince of Marseilles, as far as the Diirame, w.is afterwards ceded lo 
 the Ostrosoths; and the siu'uatures of tweniy-five Itisliops ar*' sup- 
 posed to represent the kinijdom of Rurjrundy, A. D. 519. (Concil. 
 Epaon. in tom. iv. p. 104, Id.").) Yet I would e.vcept ViiifUinis.sa. 
 'i'he bishop, who lived under the pasan Ah'manni. would n;!»urally 
 rcsorttothesynods oflhenextchristiankingdnm. Masf-ou (in his four 
 first annotations.) has explained many circumstances relative lo the 
 Bur<rutulinn monarchy. 
 
 P Mascou, (Ilisr. of the Germans, xi. 10.) who very reasonably 
 distru.sts the testimony of Grejrory of Tours, has produced a ftassage 
 from AvitUR, (episf. v.) to prove that Gundobald affected to deplore 
 the tragic event, wiiirh his subjects affected to applaud. 
 
 q See the original conference, (in torn. iv. p. 9i)— 102.) Avitus the 
 principal actor, and probably the secretary of the meeiinir. was bish- 
 op of Vienna. A short account of hi.i person and works maybe 
 found in Dupin. (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, toni. v p. .5—10.) 
 
 r GrPi,'ory of Tours (I. iii. c. 19. in tom. ii. p. 197.) indulges his pe- 
 nius. or"rather transcribes some more eloquent writer, in the de- 
 scription of Dijon ; a castle, which already deserved the title of a 
 city. It depended on the bishops of Lonpres till the twelfth centu- 
 ry, and aft.irwards became the capital of the dukes of Burgundy, 
 Longuerue, Description de la France, part i. p. 2cJ0. 
 
512 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 513 
 
 ^t 
 
 two fiercest nations of Germany were mutually ani- 
 mated by the memory of past exploits, and the pros- 
 pect of future greatness. The Franks, after an obsti- 
 nate struggle, gave way ; and the Alemanni, raising a 
 shout of'^victo'ry, impetuously pressed their retreat. 
 But the battle was restored by the valour, the conduct, 
 and perhaps by the piety, of Clovis ; and the event of 
 the bloody day decided for ever the alternative of em- 
 pire or servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was 
 slain in the field, and his people were slaughtered and 
 pursued, till they threw down their arms, and yielded 
 to the mercy of the conqueror. Without discipline it 
 was impossible for them to rally ; they had contempt- 
 uoiisly demolished the walls and fortifications which 
 might have protected their distress; and they were 
 folfowed into the heart of their forests, by an enemy 
 not less active, or intrepid, than themselves. The 
 great Theodoric congratulated the victory of Clovis^ 
 whose sister Aibofleda the king of Italyhad lately 
 married ; but he mildly interceded with his brother in 
 favour of the suppliants and fugitives, who had im- 
 plored his protection. The Gallic territories, which 
 were possessed by the Alemanni, became the prize of 
 their conqueror ; and the haughty nation, invincible, 
 or rebellious, to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the 
 sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who graciously 
 permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and in- 
 stitutions, under the government of official, and at 
 length of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest of 
 the°western provinces, the Franks alone maintained 
 their ancient habitations beyond the Rhine. They 
 gradually subdued, and civilized, the exhausted coun- 
 tries, as far as the Elbe, and the mountains of Bohe- 
 mia; and the peace of Europe was secured by the 
 obedience of Germany.* 
 
 Conversion of ^ Till the thirteenth year of his age, 
 Clovis. Clovis contmued to worship the gods ot 
 
 A.D. 496. his ancestors.** His disbelief, or rather 
 disregard, of Christianity, might encourage hinri to pil- 
 lage with less remorse the churches of a hostile terri- 
 tory : but his subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exer- 
 cise of religious worship; and the bishops entertained 
 a more favourable hope of the idolater, than of the her- 
 etics. The Merovingian prince had contracted" a for- 
 tunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the 
 king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, 
 was educated in the profession of the catholic faith. 
 It was her interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the 
 conversion'' of a pagan husband; and Clovis insensi- 
 bly listened to the voice of love and religion. He con- 
 sented (perhaps such terms had been previously stipu- 
 lated) to the baptism of his eldest son ; and though 
 the sudden death of the infant excited some supersti- 
 tious fears, he was persuaded, a second time, to repeat 
 the dangerous experiment. In the distress of the bat- 
 ile of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the God of Clo- 
 tilda and the christians ; and victory disposed him to 
 hear, with respectful gratitude, the eloquent'' Remi- 
 
 a Gresory of Tours. (1. ii. 30. 37. in torn. ii. p. 176, 177. 182.) the 
 Cfsta Francorum, (in torn. ii. p. 551.) and the epistle of Theodoric, 
 (Crtssiodor. Variar. I. ii. c. 41. in torn. iv. p. 4.) represent the defeat 
 of the Alemanni. Some of their tribes settled in Rha;tia, under the 
 protection of Theodoric ; whose successors ceded the colony and their 
 country to the grandson of Clovis. Tlie state of the Alemanni un- 
 der the Merovingian kings, may be seen In Mascou, (Hist, of the 
 Ancient Germans, xi. 8, &c. Annotation xxxvi.) and Guilliman, (de 
 Reb. Helvet. I. ii. c. 10—12. p. 72—80.) 
 
 b Clotilda, or rathor Gregory, supposes that Clovi;? worshipped the 
 gods of Greece and Rome. The fact is incredible, and the mistake 
 only shown how completely, in less than a century, the national reli- 
 gion of the Franks had been abolished, and even forgotten. 
 
 c Gregory of Tours relates the marriage and conversion of Clovis, 
 (I. ii. c. 28— 31. in torn. ii. p. 175—178. Even Frcdegarins, or the 
 nameless Epitomi/.er, in tom. ii. p. 398—400.) the author of the Gesta 
 Francorum, (in tom. ii. p. 518— 552.) and Almoin liimself,( I. i. c. 13. 
 in tom. iil. p. 37 — 40. may be heard witliout disdain. Tradition 
 inigiit long preserve some curious circumstances of these important 
 circumstances. 
 
 d A traveller who returned from Rheims to Auvergne, had stolen 
 a copy of his Declamations from the secretary or bookseller of the 
 modest archbishop, (Sidonius Apollinar. I. ix. epist. 7.) Four epis- 
 tles of Remigius, which are still extant, fin lorn. iv. p. 51 — 53.) do not 
 correspond with the splendid praise of Sidonius. 
 
 gius,* bishop of Rheims, who forcibly displayed the 
 temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. 
 The king declared himself satisfied of the truth of the 
 catholic faith ; and the political reasons which might 
 have suspended his public profession, were removed 
 by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks, 
 who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their 
 heroic leader, to the field of battle, or to the baptismal 
 font. The important ceremony was performed in the 
 cathedral of Rheims, with every circumstance of mag- 
 nificence and solemnity, that could impress an awful 
 sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytes.' 
 The new Constantine was immediately baptized, with 
 three thousand of his warlike subjects ; and their ex- 
 ample was imitated by the remainder of the gentle bar- 
 bariatis, who, in obedience to the victorious prelate, 
 adored the cross which they had burnt, and burnt the 
 idols which they had formerly adored.«f The mind of 
 Clovis was susceptible of transient fervour : he was 
 exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and 
 death of Christ ; and, instead of weighing the salutary 
 consequences of that mysterious sacrifice, he exclaim- 
 ed, with indiscreet fury, " Had I been present at the 
 head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged his 
 injuries."'' But the savage conqueror of Gaul was in- 
 capable of examining the proofs of a religion, which 
 depends on the laborious investigation of historic evi- 
 dence, and speculative theology. He was still more 
 incapable of feeling the mild influence of the gospel, 
 which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine 
 convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual viola- 
 tion of moral and christian duties ; his hands were 
 stained with blood, in peace as well as in war; and, 
 as soon as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Galil- 
 ean church, he calmly assassinated all the princes of 
 the Merovingian race.' Yet the king of the Franks 
 might sincerely worship the christian God, as a being 
 more excellent and powerful than his national deities ; 
 and the signal deliverance and victory of Tolbiac en- 
 couraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of 
 the Lord of hosts. Martin, the most popular of the 
 saints, had filled the western world with the fame of 
 those miracles which were incessantly performed at 
 his holy sepulchre of Tours. His visible or invisible 
 aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox 
 prince ; and the profane remark of Clovis himself, that 
 St. Martin was an expensive friend,^ need not be inter- 
 preted as the symptom of any permanent or rational 
 scepticism. But earth, as well as heaven, rejoiced in 
 the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day, 
 when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he 
 
 e Hincmar, one of the successors of Remigius, (A. D. 845—882.) 
 has composed his life, (in tom. iii. p. 373—380.) The authority of 
 ancient MSS. of the cliurch of Rheims might inspire some confi- 
 dence, which is dealroyed, however, by the selfish and audacious fic- 
 tions of Hincmar. It is remarkable enough, that Reniigius, who 
 was consecrated at the age of twenty-two, (A. D. 4.57.) filled the 
 episcopal chair seventy-four years, (Pagi Critica, in Baron, tom. ii. 
 p. 384. 572.) 
 
 f A phial (the Sainte Ampoulle) of holy, or rather celestial, oil, 
 was brought down by a white dove, for the baptism of Clovis ; and 
 it is still used, and renewed, in the coronation of the kings of France. 
 Hincmar (he aspired to the primacy of Gaul) is the first author of 
 this fable, (in tom. iii. p. 377.) whose slight foundations the Abb6 de 
 Vertot (Memoircs de rAcad»;mie des Inscriptions, tom. ii. p. 619— 
 033.) has undermined, with profound respect and consummate dex- 
 terity. 
 
 g Mitis depone colla. Sicamber ; adora quod incendisti, inccnde 
 quod adorasti. Greg. Turon. I. ii. c. 31. in tom. ii. p. 127. 
 
 h Si ego ibidem cum Francis meis fuissem, injjirias pjus vindicas- 
 sem. This rash expression, which Gregory has prudently conceal- 
 ed, is celebrated by Fredegarius. (Epitom. c. 21. in tom. ii. p. 400.) 
 Aimoin, (I. i. c. 16. in. lorn. iii. p. 40.) and the Chroniques de St. 
 Denys, (I. i. c.20. in tom. iii. p. 171.) as an admirable efl'usion of chris- 
 tian zeal. 
 
 i Gregory, (1. ii. c, 40—43. in tom. ii. p. 183—185.) after coolly re- 
 lating the repeated crimes, and- alfectcd remorse, of Clovis, con- 
 cludes, perhaps undesignedly, with a lesson, which ambition will 
 never hear ; " His ita transactis . . . obiit. 
 
 k After the Gothic victory, Clovis made rich oflferings to St. Mar- 
 tin of Tours. He wished to redeem his war-horse by the gift of 
 one hundred pieces of gold, but the enchanted steed could not move 
 from the stable till the price of his redemption had been doubled. 
 This TOtrac/c provoked the kin«j to exclaim, Vere B. Martinus est 
 bonns in auxilia, sed carus in negotio. (Gesta Francoruni, in torn. ii. 
 p. 554, 555.) 
 
 alone, in the christian world, deserved the name and 
 prerogatives of a catholic king. The emperor Anasta- 
 sius entertained some danuerous errors concerning the 
 nature of the divine incarnation; and the barbarians of 
 Italy, Africa, Spain, and- Gaul, were involved in the 
 Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only, son of 
 the church, was acknowledged by the clergy as their 
 lawful sovereign, or glorious deliverer; and the arms 
 of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and 
 favour of the catholic faction.* 
 „ , . . „ Under the Roman empire, the wcatlh 
 
 Submission of „„ i ;;]•.• c .\ i_ • i- ^i • 
 
 the Armoricans ^"^ jurisdiction ot the bishops, their sa- 
 aiid the Roman cred character, and perpetual office, their 
 A^D^O" &c numerous dependents, popular eloquence, 
 and provincial assemblies, had rendered 
 them always respectable, and sometimes dangerous. 
 Their influence was augmented with the progress of 
 superstition, and the establishment of the French mon- 
 archy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm al- 
 liance of a hundred prelates, who reigned in the dis- 
 contented, or independent, cities of Gaul. The slight 
 foundations of the Annorican republic had been repeat- 
 edly sliaken, or overthrown ; but the same people still 
 guarded their domestic freedom ; asserted the dignity 
 of the Roman name ; and bravely resisted the preda- 
 tory inroads, and regular attacks, of Clovis, who la- 
 boured to extend his conquests from the Seine to the 
 Loire. Their successful opposition introduced an 
 equal and honourable union. The Franks esteemed 
 the valour of the Armoricans," and the Armoricans 
 were reconciled by the religion of the Franks. The 
 military force, which had been stationed for the de- 
 fence of Gaul, consisted of one hundred different bands 
 of cavalry or infantry ; and these troops, while they 
 assumed the title and privileges of Roman soldiers, 
 were renewed by an incessant supply of the barbarian 
 youth. The extreme fortifications, and scattered frag- 
 ments, of the empire, were still defended by their 
 hopeless courage. But their retreat was intercepted, 
 and their communication was impracticable : they 
 were abandoned by the Greek princes of Constanti- 
 nople, and they piously disclaimed all connexion with 
 the Arian usurpers of Gaul. They accepted, without 
 shame or reluctance, the generous capitulation, which 
 was proposed by a catholic hero; and this spurious, or 
 legitimate, progeny of the Roman legions, was distin- 
 guished in the succeeding age by their arms, their en- 
 signs, and their peculiar dress and institutions. But 
 the national strength was increased by these powerful 
 and voluntary accessions ; and the neighbouring king- 
 doms dreaded the numbers, as well as the spirit, of tlie 
 Franks. The reduction of the northern provinces of 
 Gaul, instead of being decided by the chance of a sin- 
 gle battle, appears to have been slowly effected by the 
 gradual operation of war and treaty; and Clovis ac- 
 quired each object of his ambition, by such efforts, or 
 such concessions, as were adequate to its real value. 
 His savage character, and the virtues of Henry IV. 
 suggest the most opposite ideas of human nature ; yet 
 some resemblance maybe found in the situation of two 
 princes, who conquered France by their valour, their 
 policy, and the merits of a seasonable conversion." 
 TheBurgunilian The kingdom of the Burgundians, 
 which was defined by the course of two 
 Gallic rivers, the Saone and the Rhone, 
 
 war. 
 A. D. 499. 
 
 1 See the epistle from pope Anasfasiii.s to the royal convert, (in 
 tom. iv. p. 50, 51.) Avitus, bishop of Vienna, addressed Clovis on 
 the same subject, (p. 4J».) and many of the Latin bishops would as- 
 sure him of their joy and atlachiiiciit. 
 
 m Instead of the Apiopuxo*, an unknown people, who now appear 
 in the text of Procopius, Hadrian de Valois iias restored the proper 
 name of the ApA^p^xs' ; and this easy corrertion has been almost 
 universally approved. Yet an unprfjudiced reader would naturally 
 suppose, iliat Trocopius means to dt'sorihe a tribo of Gennnns in the 
 alliance of Rome ; and not a coiifederacy of Gallic cities, which liad 
 revolted from the empire. 
 
 n This important digres.sion of rroropiiis (de Bell. Gothic. 1. i. c. 
 12. in torn. ii. p. 29 — ^6.) illustrates the origin of the French monar- 
 chy. Yet I must oliserve, 1. That the Greek historian betrays an 
 ine.Kcusable ignorance of tlie geography of the west. 2. That 
 these treaties and privileges, which should leave some lasting traces, 
 are totally invisible in Gregory of Tours, the Salic laws, &c. 
 Vol. T.— 3 P 33 
 
 extended from the forest of Vosges to the Alps and the 
 sea of Marseilles." The sceptre was in the hands of 
 Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince had 
 reduced the number of royal candidates by the death 
 of two [)rothers, one of whom was the father of Clo- 
 tilda ;!* but his imperfect prudence still permitted God- 
 egesil, the youngest of his brothers, to pos.sess the de- 
 pendent principality of Geneva. The Arian monarch 
 was justly alarmed by the satisfaction, and the hopes, 
 which seemed to animate his clergy and people, after 
 the conversion of Clovis; and Gundobald convened at 
 Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it 
 were possible, their religious and political discontents. 
 A vain conference was agitated between the two fac- 
 tions. The Arians upbraided the catholics with the 
 worship of three gods : the catholics defended their 
 cause by theological distinctions; and the usual argu- 
 ments, objections, and replies were reverberated with 
 obstinate clamour; till the king revealed his secret ap- 
 prehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which 
 he addressed to the orthodox bishops. *' If you truly 
 profess the christian religion, why do you not restrain 
 the king of the Franks ? He has declared war against 
 me, and forms alliances with my enemies for my des- 
 truction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the 
 symptom of a sincere conversion: let him show his 
 faith by his works." The answer of Avitus, bishop 
 of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, 
 was delivered with the voice and countenance of an 
 angel. " We are ignorant of the motives and inten- 
 tions of the king of the Franks : but we are taught by 
 Scripture, that the kingdoms which abandon the di- 
 vine law, are frequently subvert( d ; and that enemies 
 will arise on every side against those who have made 
 God their enemy. Return, with thy people, to the 
 law of God, and he will give peace and security to thy 
 dominions." The king of Burgund}^ who was not 
 prepared to accept the condition, which the catholics 
 considered as essential to the treaty, delayed and dis- 
 missed the ecclesiastical conference ; after reproaching 
 his bishops, that Clovis, their friend and proselyte, 
 had privately tempted the allegiance of his brother.** 
 
 The allegiance of his brother was Viciorv of Clovis, 
 already seduced; and the obedience of A.b.500. 
 Godegesil, who joined the royal standard with the 
 troops of Geneva, more effectually promoted the suc- 
 cess of the conspirac}'. Wliile the Franks and Bur- 
 gundians contended with equal valour, his seasonable 
 desertion decided the event of the battle; and as 
 Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected 
 Gauls, he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily 
 retreated from the field, which appears to have been 
 situate between Langres and Dijon. He distrusted 
 the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular fortress, encom- 
 passed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet high, 
 and fifteen thick, with four gates, and thirty-three 
 towers:' he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the 
 important cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundo- 
 bald still fled with precipitation, till he had reached 
 
 o Regnmn circa Rhodanum ant Apnrim cum provinr ia Ma?si!inn- 
 si retiiieltanl. Grng. Turon. 1. ii. c. :i2. in torn. ii. p. 178. The pro- 
 vince of Marseilles, as far as tiie Diirame, wtis .nfterwards ceded to 
 the Ostrogoths; and the si^'notures of twenty-live bishops arc sup- 
 posed to represent the kingdom of Burguntly, A. D. 510. (ConriJ. 
 Epaon. in tom. iv. p. 104, UK").) Ynt I would e.xrept Viitdoni«?a. 
 'I'he bisiiop, who lived under the pagan Alemanni, would n.M.urally 
 rcsortto the synods ofthe next christian kingdom. Mascou ^in his four 
 first annotations.) has explained many circumstances relative to the 
 Burgundian monarchy. 
 
 P Mascou, (Mist, of the Germans, xi. 10.) who vrry rensonably 
 distrusts the teslimony of Grejrory of Tours, has produced a [tassaga 
 from Avitus, (epist. v.) to prove that GundobabI affected to deplore 
 the tragic event, which his subjects affected to applaud. 
 
 q See the original conference, (in torn. iv. p. 99—10:2.) Avitus the 
 principal actor, and probably the secretary of the meetincr. was bish- 
 op of Vienna. A short account of his person and works maybe 
 found in Dupin. (Bibliotheque Ecclesiaslique, tom. v p. .5—10.) 
 
 r Gregory of Tours (I. iii. c. 19. in tom. ii. p. 197.) indulges his ge- 
 nius, or rather transcribes some more eloquent writer, in the de- 
 scription of Dijon ; a castle, which already deserved the title of a 
 city. It depended on the bishops of Longres till the twelfth centu- 
 ry, and aft.^rwards became the capital of the dukes of Burgundyi 
 Longuerue, Description de la France, pari i. p. 2c50. 
 
 w 
 
514 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 515 
 
 Avignon, at the distance of two hundred and fifty 
 miles from the field of battle. A long siege, and an 
 artful negociation, admonished the king of the Franks 
 of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He im- 
 posed a tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled 
 him to pardon and reward his brother's treachery, 
 and proudly returned to his own dominions, with the 
 spoils and captives of the southern provinces. This 
 splendid triumph was soon clouded by the intelli- 
 gence, that Gundobald had violated his recent obliga- 
 tions, and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was 
 left at Vienna with a garrison of five thousand Franks,' 
 had been besieged, surprised, and massacred by his 
 inhuman brother. Such an outrage might have ex- 
 asperated the patience of the most peaceful sovereign ; 
 yet the conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury, re- 
 leased the tribute, and accepted the alliance, and 
 military service, of the king of Burgundy. Clovis no 
 longer possessed those advantages which had assured 
 the success of the preceding war ; and his rival, in- 
 structed by adversity, had found new resources in the 
 affections of his people. The Gauls or Romans ap- 
 plauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, 
 which almost raised them to the same level with their 
 conquerors. The bishops were reconciled, and flat- 
 tered, by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of 
 his approaching conversion ; and though he eluded 
 their accomplishment to the last moment of his life, 
 his moderation secured the peace, and suspended the 
 ruin, of the kingdom of Burgundy.' 
 
 Final conquest } ^^ impatient to pursue the final 
 of Burgundy by Tuiu of that kingdom, which was accom- 
 ^''a^D 53« plished under the reign of Sigismond, 
 the son of Gundobald. The catholic 
 Sigismond has acquired the honours of a saint and 
 martyr ;" but the hands of the royal saint were stain- 
 ed with the blood of his innocent son, whom he in- 
 humanly sacrificed to the pride and resentment of a 
 stepmother. He soon discovered his error, and be- 
 wailed the irreparable loss. While Sigismond cm- 
 braced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he receiv- 
 ed a severe admonition from one of his attendants : 
 ** It is not his situation, O king ! it is thine, which 
 deserves pity and lamentation." The reproaches of 
 a guilty conscience were alleviated, however, by his 
 liberal donations to the monastery of Agaunum, or St. 
 Maurice, in Vallais ; which he himself had founded 
 in honour of the imaginary martyrs of the Thebsean 
 legion.* A full chorus of perpetual psalmody was in- 
 stituted by the pious king ; he assiduously practised the 
 austere devotion of the monks ; and it was his humble 
 prayer, that Heaven would inflict in this world the 
 punishment of his sins. His prayer was heard : the 
 avengers were at hand ; and the provinces of Bur- 
 gundy were overwhelmed by an army of victorious 
 Franks. After the event of an unsuccessful battle, 
 Sigismond, who wished to protract his life that he 
 might prolong his penance, concealed himself in the 
 desert in a religious habit, till he w^as discovered and 
 betrayed by his subjects, who solicited the favour of 
 their new masters. The captive monarch, with his 
 
 • The Epitomizer Grepory of Tours (in torn, H. p. 401.) has sup- 
 plied the number of Franks ; but he rashly supposes that they were 
 cut in pieces by Gundobald. The prudent Burgundian spared llie 
 Koldiers of Clovis, and sent these raptives to the king of the Visi- 
 goths, whoseuied tiiem in the territory of Thoulouse. 
 
 t In this Burgundian war I have followed Gregory of Tours, (!. i. 
 c. 32, 33. in toiii. ii. p. 178, 179.) wliose narrative appears so incom- 
 patible with that of Proropius, (de Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 12. in torn. ii. 
 p. 31, 32.) that some critics have supposed two diff»?rent wars. The 
 Abb6 Dubos (Hist. Critique, Sec. torn. ii. p. 12G— 1()2.) has distinctly 
 represented the causes and the events. 
 
 u See his life or legend, (in torn. iii. p. 402.) A martyr! how strange- 
 ly has that word been distorted from its original sense of a com- 
 mon witness. St, Sigismond was remarkable for the cure of fevers. 
 
 X Before the end of the fifth century, the church of St. Maurice, 
 and his ThebKan legion, had rendered Agaunum a place of devout 
 pilgrimage. A promiscuous community of both sexes had introdu- 
 ced some deeds of darkness, which were abolished, (A. D. 515.) by 
 the regular monastery of Sigismond. Within fifty years, his anaets 
 of light made a nocturnal sally to murder their bishop, and his cler- 
 gy. See in the Bibliothcque Raisonn6e, (torn. ,\x.\vi. p. 435—438.) 
 ilJC curious remark of a learned librariau of Geneva. 
 
 wife and two children, were transported to Orleans, 
 and buried alive in a deep well, by the stern com- 
 mand of the sons of Clovis : whose cruelty might de- 
 rive some excuse from the maxims, and examples, of 
 their barbarous age. Their ambition, which ur<yed 
 them to achieve the conquest of Burgundy, was in- 
 flamed, or disguised, by filial piety : and Clotilda, 
 whose sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of 
 injuries, pressed them to revenge her father's death 
 on the family of his assassin. The rebellious Bur- 
 gundians, for they attempted to break their chains, 
 were still permitted to enjoy their national laws under 
 the oblig-ation of tribute and military service; and the 
 Merovingian princes peaceably reigned over a king- 
 dom, whose glory and greatness had been first over- 
 thrown by the arms of Clovis.^ 
 
 The first victory of Clovis had in- The Gothic war, 
 suited the honour of the Goths. They A. D.507. 
 viewed his rapid progress with jealousy and terror ; 
 and the youthful fame of Alaric was oppressed by the 
 more potent genius of his rival. Some disputes in- 
 evitably arose on the edge of their contiguous do- 
 minions; and after the delays of fruitless negociation, 
 a personal interview of the two kings was proposed 
 and accepted. This conference of Clovis and Alaric 
 was held in a small island of the Loire, near Amboise. 
 They embraced, familiarly conversed, and feasted to- 
 gether; and separated with the warmest professions 
 of peace and brotherly love. But their apparent con- 
 fidence concealed a dark suspicion of hostile and 
 treacherous designs; and their mutual complaints 
 solicited, eluded, and disclaimed, a final arbitration. 
 At Paris, which he already considered as his royal 
 seat, Clovis declared to an assembly of the princes 
 and warriors, the pretence, and the motive, of a Gothic 
 war. *' It grieves me to see that the Arians still pos- 
 sess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against 
 them with the aid of God ; and having vanquished 
 the heretics, we will possess, and divide, their fertile 
 provinces."' The Franks, who were inspired by 
 hereditary valour and recent zeal, applauded the gene- 
 rous design of their monarch ; expressed their reso- 
 lution to conquer or die, since death and conquest 
 would be equally profitable ; and solemnly protested 
 that they would never shave their beards, till vie ory 
 should absolve them from that inconvenient vow. The 
 enterprise was promoted by the public or private ex- 
 hortations of Clotilda. She reminded her husband, 
 how eflectually some pious foundation would propi- 
 tiate the Deity, and his servants : and the christian 
 hero, darting his battle-axe with a skilful and nervous 
 hand, *' There, (said he,) on that spot where my Fran- 
 cisca » shall fall, will I erect a church in honour of the 
 holy apostles." This ostentatious piety confirmed 
 and justified the attachment of the catholics, with 
 whom he secretly corresponded ; and their devout 
 wishes were gradually ripened into a formidable con- 
 spiracy. The people of Aquitain were alarmed by 
 the indiscreet reproaches of their Gothic tyrants, who 
 justly accused them of preferring the dominion of the 
 Franks ; and their zealous adherent Quintianus, bish- 
 op of Rodez,'' preached more forcibly in his exile 
 
 y Marius, bishop of Avcnche, (Chron. in torn. ii. p. 15.) has mar- 
 ked the authentic d.iies, and Gregory of Tours (I. iii.c. 5. 6. in torn, 
 li. p. 188, 189.) has expressed the principal facts, of the life of Sigis- 
 mond, and the conquest of Burgundy. Procopius (in torn. ii. p. 34.) 
 and Agathias (in tom, ii. p. 49) show their remote and imperfect 
 knowledge. 
 
 z Gregory of Tours (I. ii. r. 37. in tom. ii. p. 181.) inserts tlie short 
 but persuasive speech of Clovis. Valde moleste fero, quod hi Art- 
 ani partem teneant Galliarum, (the author of the Gesta Francorum, 
 in tom. ii. p. 553. adds the precious epithet of optimam,) eamus cum 
 Dei adjutorio, et, superalis eis, redigamus terrain in dttionem nos- 
 tram. 
 
 a Tunc rex projecit a se in directum Bipennem suam quod est 
 Francisca, &c. (Gesta Franc, in tom. ii. p. 554.) The form and use 
 of this weapon, are clearly de8rril>ed by Trocopius, (in tom. ii. p. 37.) 
 Examples of its national appellation in Latin and Froncli, may be 
 found in the Glossary of Oucaiige, and the large Dictionnairc de Tre- 
 vou.x. 
 
 b It is singular enough that some important and authentic facts 
 should be found in a Life of Quintianus, composed in rhyme in 
 
 than in his diocese. To resist these foreign and do- 
 mestic enemies, who were fortified by the alliance of 
 the Burgundians, Alaric collected his troops, far more 
 numerous than the military powers of Clovis. The 
 Visigoths resumed the exercise of arms, which they 
 had neglected in a long and luxurious peace : *^ a se- 
 lect band of valiant and robust slaves attended their 
 masters to the field ; ^ and the cities of Gaul were 
 compelled to furnish their doubtful and reluctant aid. 
 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who reicrned in 
 Italy, had laboured to maintain the tranquillity of 
 Gaul ; and he assumed, or aflfecled for that purpose, 
 the impartial character of a mediator. But the saga- 
 cious monarch dreaded the rising empire of Clovis, 
 and he was firmly engaged to support the national and 
 religious cause of the Goths. 
 
 Victory of Clovis, The accidental, or artificial, prodigies, 
 A. D.507. which adorned the expedition of Clovis, 
 were accepted, by a superstitious age, as the manifest 
 declaration of the divine favour. He marched from Pa- 
 ris ; and as he proceeded with decent reverence through 
 the holy diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him 
 to consult the .shrine of St. Martin, the sanctuary, and 
 the oracle of Gaul. His messengers were instructed 
 to remark the words of the Psalm, which should hap- 
 pen to be chanted at the precise moment when they 
 entered the church. Those words most fortunately 
 expressed the valour and victory of the champions of 
 heaven, and the application was easily transferred to 
 the new Joshua, the new Gideon, who went forth to 
 battle against the enemies of the Lord." Orleans se- 
 cured to the Franks a bridge on the Loire; but, at the 
 distance of forty miles from Poitiers, their progress 
 was intercepted by an extraordinary swell of the 
 river Vigenna, orVienne; and the opposite banks 
 were covered by the encampment of the Visigoths. 
 Delay must be always dangerous to barbarians, who 
 consume the country through which they march ; and 
 had Clovis possessed leisure and materials, it might 
 have been impracticable to construct a bridge, or to 
 force a passage, in the face of a superior enemy. But 
 the aflectionate peasants, who were impatient to wel- 
 come their deliverer, could easily betray some un- 
 known, or unguarded, ford : the merit of the discovery 
 was enhanced by the useful interposition of fraud or 
 fiction ; and a white hart of singular size and beauty, 
 appeared to guide and animate the march of the ca- 
 tholic army. The counsels of the Visigoths were 
 irresolute and distracted. A crowd of impatient war- 
 riors, presumptuous in their strength, and disdaining 
 to fly. before the robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to 
 assert in arms the name and blood of the conqueror 
 of Rome. The advice of the graver chieftains pressed 
 him to elude the first ardour of the Franks ; and to 
 expect in the southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran 
 and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the king of Italy 
 had already sent to his assistance. The decisive mo- 
 ments were wasted in idle deliberation ; the Goths too 
 hastily abandoned, perhaps, an advantageous post ; 
 and the opportunity of a secure retreat was lost by 
 their slow and disorderly motions. After Clovis had 
 
 theold Pa^o/^of Rouergue, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, fcc. tom. ii. p. 
 
 179.) 
 
 c duamvis fortitiidini vestrte confidenlinm tribuat pnrentum ves- 
 trorum innumerabilis multitude ; quamvis Attilam polentem remi- 
 niscamini Visigotharum viribus inclinatuin ; tamcn quia populorum 
 ferocia corda longa pace mollescunt, cavete subito in aleain niitterc, 
 quos constat tantis temporibus excrcilia non habere. Such was the 
 ■alutary, but fruitless, advice of peace, of reason, and of Theodoric. 
 (Cassiodor. 1. iii. ep. 2 ) 
 
 d Montesquieu (Ksprit des Loix, I. xv. c. 14.) mentions and approves 
 the law of the Visigoths, (I. ix. tit. 2. in tom. iv. p. 424.) which obli- 
 ged all masters to arm, and send or lead into the field, a tenth of 
 their slaves. 
 
 e This mode of divination, by accepting as an omen the first sa- 
 cred words, which in particular circumstances should be presented 
 to the eye or ear, was derived from the pagans, and the Psalter, 
 or Bible, was substituted to the poems of Homer, and Virgil. From 
 the fourth to the fourteenth century, these sortes sanctorum, as tlicy 
 are styled, were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, 
 and repeatedly practised by kings, bishops, and saints. See a cu- 
 rious dissertation of the Abbe du Resnel, in the Meinoircs de I'Acad- 
 emie, toui. xix. p. 2B7— 31U 
 
 passed the ford, as it is still named, of the Hart, he 
 advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the 
 escape of the enemy. His nocturnal march was di- 
 rected by a flaming meteor, suspended in the air 
 above the cathedral of Poitiers ; and this signal, 
 which might be previously concerted with the ortho- 
 dox successor of St. Hilary, was compared to the 
 column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert. 
 At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond 
 Poitiers, Clovis overtook, and instantly attacked, the 
 Gothic army ; whose defeat was already prepared by 
 terror and confusion. Yet they rallied in their ex- 
 treme distress, and the martial youihs, who had 
 clamorously demanded the battle, refused to survive 
 the ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered 
 each other in single combat. Alaric fell by the hand 
 of his rival ; and the victorious Frank was saved by 
 the goodness of his cuirass, and the vigour of his 
 horse, from the spears of two desperate Goths, who 
 furiously rode against him, to revenge the death of 
 their sovereign. The vague expression of a moun- 
 tain of the slain, serves to indicate a cruel, though in- 
 definite, slaughter ; but Gregory has carefully observ- 
 ed, that his valiant countryman Apollinaris, the son 
 of Sidonius, lost his life at the head of the nobles o'f 
 Auvergne. Perhaps these suspected catholics had 
 been maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the 
 enemy : and perhaps the influence of religion was 
 superseded by personal attachment, or military hon- 
 our.' 
 
 Such is the empire of Fortune, (if we ^ . - 
 may still disguise our ignorance under Acmitain by the 
 that popular name,) that it is almost Franks^ 
 equally difficult to foresee the events of ' " - 
 
 war, or to explain their various consequences. A 
 bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no 
 more than the possession of the field ; and the loss of 
 ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to de- 
 stroy, in a single day, the work of ages. The deci- 
 sive battle of Poitiers was followed by the conquest of 
 x\quitain. Alaric had left behind him an infant son, a 
 bastard competitor, factious nobles, and a disloyal peo- 
 ple ; and the remaining forces of the Goths were op- 
 pressed by the general consternation, or opposed to 
 each other in civil discord. The victorious king of 
 the Franks proceeded without delay to the siege of 
 Angouleme. At the sound of his trumpets the walls 
 of the city imitated the example of Jericho, and in- 
 stantly fell to the ground ; a splendid miracle, which 
 may be reduced to the supposition, that some clerical 
 engineers had secretly undermined the foundations of 
 the rampart.6 At Bordeaux, which had submitted 
 without resistance, Clovis established his winter-quar- 
 ters; and his prudent economy transported from Thou - 
 louse the royal treasures, which were deposited in the 
 capital of the monarchy. The conqueror penetrated as 
 far as the confines of Spain \^ restored the honours of 
 the catholic church ; fixed in Aquitain a colony of 
 Franks ;' and delegated to his lieutenants the easy task 
 
 f After correcting the text or excusing the mistake, of Procopius, 
 who places the defeat of Alaric near Carcassone, we may conclude, 
 from the evidence of Gregory, Fortunatus, and the author of the 
 Gesta Francorum, that the battle was fought in canipo Vocladensi, 
 on tlie banks of the Clain, about ten miles to the south of PoitierB. 
 Clovis overtook and attacked the Visigoths near Vivonne, and the 
 victory was decided near a village still named Champagne St. Hilaire. 
 See the Dissertations of the Abbe le Bwuf, tom. i. p. 304—331. 
 
 g Angouleme is in the road from Poitiers to Bordeaux, and although 
 Gregorv delays the siege, I can more readily believe that he con- 
 founded the order of history, than that Clovis neglected the rules of 
 
 war. 
 h Pyrenffios montes usque Perpinianum suijccit ; is the expression 
 
 of Rorico, which betrays his recent date, since Perpignan did not 
 exist before the tenth century, (Marca Hispanica, p. 458.) This 
 florid and fabulous writer, (perhaps a monk of Amiens, see the Ah- 
 lie le BcDuf, Mem. de TAcademio. tom. xvii. p. 228—215.) relates, in 
 the a/Zs^'o'-ica/ character of a shepherd, the general history of hia 
 countrymen the Franks ; but his narrative ends with the death of 
 Clovis. 
 
 i The author of the Gesta Francorum positively affirms, that Cle- 
 vis fixed a body of Franks in theSaintonge and liourdelois: and he 
 is not injudiciously followed by Rorico, electos milites. atque fortissi- 
 mos, cum parvulis atque mulieribus. Yd it should seem that they 
 were soon mingled with the Romans of Aquitain, till Charlemagne 
 
516 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of subduinor, or extirpatinnf, the nation of the Visi- 
 goths. Cut the Visigoths were protected by the wise 
 and powerful monarch of Italy. Wliile tlie balance 
 was still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the 
 march of the Ostrogoths; but their strenuous efforts 
 successfully resisted the ambition oT Clovis; and the 
 army of the Franks, and their Burgundian allies, was 
 compelled to raise the siege of Aries, with the loss, as 
 it is said, of tliirty thousand men. These vicissitudes 
 inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to acquiesce in an 
 
 more lawful, though not more solid, foundation, the 
 throne of the Merovingians." From that ajra they en- 
 joyed the right of celebrating at Aries the games of 
 the circus ; and by a singular privilege, which was 
 denied even to the Persian monarch, the u;ohl coin im- 
 pressed with their name and image, obtained a legal 
 currency in the empire." A Greek liistorian of that 
 age has praised the private and public virtues of the 
 Franks, with a partial enthusiasm, which cannot be 
 sufficiently justified by their domestic annals.P He 
 
 517 
 
 advantageous treaty of peace. Tlie Visigoths were | celebrates' their politeness and urbanity, their regular 
 suffered to retain tlie possession of J^Jeptimania, a nar- j government, and orthodox religion ; and boldly asserts, 
 row tract of sea-coast, from the Rhone to the Pyre- | that these barbarians could be distinguished only by 
 nees ; but the ample province of Aquitain, from those j their dress and language from the subjects of Rome. 
 mountains to the Loire, was indissolubly united to the Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social dis- 
 UinrrHnm rS v..,..^ k posltlon aud Hvcly graces, which in every age have 
 
 Con.sulsliip ut' 
 Clovis, 
 A. D. 510. 
 
 kingdom of France. 
 
 After the success of the Gothic war, 
 Clovis accepted the honours of tlie Ro- 
 man consulship. The emperor Anasta- 
 sius ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival 
 of Theodoric, the title and ensigns of that eminent 
 dignity ; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of 
 Clovis has not heen inscribed in the Faa/i either of the 
 east or west.* On the solemn day, the monarch of 
 Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested, in 
 
 disfjuised their vices, and sometimes concealed their 
 intrinsic merit. Perhaps Agathias, and the Greeks, 
 were dazzlrd by the rapid progress of their arms, and 
 the splendour of their empire. Since the conquest of 
 Burgundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province of Sep- 
 timania, was subject, in its whole extent, to the sons 
 of Clovis. They had extinguished the German king- 
 dom of Thuringia, and tiicir vague dominion penetrated 
 beyond the Rhine, into the heart of their native forests. 
 
 the church of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and i The Alemanni, and Bavarians, who had occupied the 
 mantle. From thence he proceeded on horseback to ^ Roman provinces of Rhania and Noricum, to the south 
 the cathedral of Tours ; and, as he passed through of the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vas- 
 the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a j sals of the Franks ; and the feeble barrier of the Alps 
 donative of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, was incapable of resisting their ambition. When the 
 who incessantly repeated their acclamations of CWsw/'last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the inheri- 
 and Auirustus. The actual or legal authority of Clovis tance and conquests of the Merovingians, his kino-dom 
 could not receive any new accessions from the consu- j extended far beyond the limits oT* modern France. 
 Jar dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pa- Yet modern France, such has been the prnrrress of arts 
 
 gfeant ; and if the conqueror had been instructt d to 
 claim the ancient prerogatives of that high office, they 
 must have expired with the period of its annual dura- 
 tion. But the Romans were disposed to revere in the 
 person of their master, that antique title which the 
 em|)erors condescended to assume : the barbarian him- 
 eelf seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect 
 the majesty of the republic ; and the successors of 
 Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship, tacitly for- 
 gave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul. 
 Final establish- Twenty-fivo years after the death of 
 FrmiVh' mon- Clovis, this important concession was 
 arcliy ill (iaui. more formally declared, in a treaty be- 
 A. D. 530. tvveen his sons and the Emperor Justini- 
 an. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their 
 distant acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks the 
 cities of Aries and Marseilles: of Aries, still adorned 
 with the seat of a prittorian prefect, and of Marseilles, 
 enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation.*" 
 This transaction was confirmed by the imperial au- 
 thority ; and Justinian, generously yielding to the 
 Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the 
 Alps, which they already possessed, absolved the pro- 
 vincials from their allegiance ; and established on a 
 
 introduced a more numerous and powerful colony. (Dubos Hist 
 Critique, lorn, ii. p.215.) ' 
 
 k In the composition of tlic Gothic war, I have used tl»e follow- 
 Ing materials, with due regard to their unequal value. Tour eii's 
 lies from Tlieodoric king of Italy, (Cassiodor. I. iii. epist. 1—4. in 
 torn. iv. p. 3— .5.) Procopius, (de Hell. Goth. I. i. c. 12. in toni. ii. n 
 32, 33.) Gregory of Tours, (I. ii. c. 35—37. in torn. ii. p. 181 — 1^3 ) 
 Jornandes. (de Reb. Geticis, c. 58. in loni. ii. p. i;8.) Fortunatus (in 
 Vit. St. Ililarii, in loni. ii. p. 380.) Isidore, (in Chron. Goth, in t'oni 
 II. p. 702.) the ppitome of Gregory of Tours, (in torn. ii. p. 401 ) the 
 author ofjhe Gesta Francorum, (in toni. ii. p. .')53— 5.)5.) the Frag- 
 
 toni. 
 
 and policy, far surpasses in wealth, pfq)ulousness, and 
 power, the spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or 
 DafTobert.i 
 
 The Franks, or French, are the only Political contro- 
 people of Europe who can deduce a ^•^''sy- 
 
 perpetual succession from the conquerors of the west- 
 ern empire. But their conquest of Gaul was followed 
 by ten centuries of anarchy and ignorance. On the re- 
 vival of learning, the students who had been formed in 
 the schools of Athens and Rome, disdained their bar- 
 barian ancestors ; and a long period elapsed before pa- 
 tient labour could provide the requisite materials to 
 satisfy, or rather to excite, the curiosity of more en- 
 lightened times.' At length the eye of criticism and 
 philosophy was directed to the antiquities of France: 
 but even philosophers have been tainted by the con- 
 tagion of prejudice and passion. The most extreme 
 and exclusive systems, of the personal servitude of the 
 Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with 
 the Franks, have been rashly conceived, and obsti- 
 
 enemy 
 
 ments of Fredegarius, (in torn. ii. p. 403.) Almoin, (I. i. c. 20 in 
 Iii. p. 41, 42.) and Rorico, (I. iv. in torn. iii. p. J4_i<j ) ' 
 
 1 The Fasti oi Italy would naturally reject a consul, the eu^... 
 Of their sovereign; but any ingenious hypothesis that m'i"lit explain 
 the silence of Constantinople and Egypt, (the ChronicIes''of Marcel- 
 linus, and the Paschal,) is overturned by the similar silence of Ma- 
 nun, bishop of Avenche, who composed iiis Fasti in the \C\n"t\on\ of 
 Burgundy. If the evidence of Gregory of Tours were less weighty 
 and positive, (I. li. c. 38. in torn. ii. p. 183.) I could believe that c:io- 
 VIS, like Odoacer, received the lasting title and honours of Patrician 
 (Pagi Crilica. torn. ii. p. 474. 492.) 
 
 in Under the Merovingian kings, Marseilles still imported from 
 
 n Ou yu( Trart cuOvrs Tut.Kixi ^-jv -r si aeo-^»Xii XiXT»;o-3ai <fpx»^-oi 
 
 |l£l) T8 »yTCXpaT5fS> TO ipJ'O K Im ff-~ p 5« ^ I TXVTOf TS T J S . TlltS StrOn' 
 
 declaration of Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. I. iii. cap. 33. in torn. ii. p' 
 41.) would almost sulfn e to justify the Abl>c Dubos. 
 
 The Franks, who probably used the mints of Treves, Lyons, and 
 Aries, imitated the coinage of the Roman emperors of seventv-two 
 solidi, or pieces, to the pound of gold. But as the Franks esta'blish- 
 ed only a decuple proportion of gold and silver, ten shillings will be 
 a snificient valuation of their solidiis of gold. It was the common 
 standard of tlic barbaric lines, and contained forty denarii, or silver 
 threepences. Twelve of these denarii made a «o/j</u*, or shilling, 
 the twentieth part of the ponderal and numeral livre, or pound of 
 silver, which has been so strangely reduced in modern France. 
 See Le Blanc Traile llistorique dcs Monnoyes de France, p. 37— 
 43, &.C. 
 
 p Agathias, in torn. ii. p. 47. Gregory of Tours exhibits a very 
 ditferent picture. Porhaps it would not he easy, within the samo 
 historical spare, to find more vice and less virtue. We are continu- 
 ally shocked by the union of savage and corrupt manners. 
 
 q M. de Foncemagne has traced, in a correct and elegant disserta- 
 tion, (.Mem. de I'Acadcmie, tom. viii. p. 505— 528.) the extent arut 
 limits of the Frcnrh monarchy. 
 
 r The Abbe Dubos (Histoire Critique, tom. i. p. 29—36.) has truly 
 and agreeably represented the slow progress of these studios ; and he 
 observes, that Gregory of Tours was only once printed before the 
 year 15(30. According to the complaint of Ileineccius, (Opera, loin, 
 iii. Sylloge iii. p. 24H, &.c.) Germany received with indifference and 
 contempt the codes of barbaric laws, which were published by He- 
 roldus, Lindenbrogius, &.c. At present those laws, (as far as they 
 relate to Gaul,) the liistory of Gregory of Tours, and all the monu- 
 ments of the Merovingian race, appear in a pure and perfect state, 
 in the lirsl Igur volumes of the iJistoricns of France. 
 
 nately defended : and the intemperate disputants have 
 accused each other of conspiring against the preroga- 
 tive of the crown, the dignity of "the nobles, or the 
 freedom of the people. Vet the sharp conllict has 
 usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and 
 genius; and each antagonist, alternately vanquTshed 
 and victorious, has extirpated some ancient errors, and 
 established some interesting truths. An impartial 
 stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, 
 and even their faults, may describe, from the same 
 original materials, the state of the Roman provincials, 
 after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the 
 Merovingian kinas.' 
 
 Laws of the bar- The rudest, or the most servile, condi- 
 barians. lion of human society, is regulated how- 
 ever by some fixed and general rules. When Tacitus 
 surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he 
 discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of 
 public and private life, which were preserved by faith- 
 ful tradition, till the introduction of the art of writing, 
 and of the Latin tongue.* Before the election of the 
 Merovingian kings, the most powerful tribe, or nation, 
 of the Franks, appoiiited four venerable chieftains to 
 compose the Salic laws ;" and their labours were exam- 
 ined and approved in three successive assemblies of 
 the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed 
 several articles that appeared incompatible with Chris- 
 tianity : the Salic law was again amended by his sons ; 
 and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code 
 was revised and promulgated in its ^actual form, one 
 hundred years after the establishment of the French 
 
 will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, 
 not only of science and reason, but of humanity and 
 justice. Yet the laws of the barbarians were adapted 
 to their wants and desires, their occupations and their 
 capacity; and they all contributed to preserve the 
 peace, and promote the improvements, of the society 
 for whose use they were originally established. The 
 Merovingians, instead of imposing an uniform rule of 
 conduct on their various subjects, permitted each peo- 
 ple, and each family, of their empire, freely to enjoy 
 their domestic institutions;* nor were the Romans ex- 
 cluded from the common benefits of this legal tolera- 
 tion.* The children embraced the !nu of theFr parents, 
 the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his 
 patron ; and, in all cases where the parties were of dif- 
 ferent nations, the plaintiff, or accuser, was oblijred to 
 follow the tribunal of the deft'udant, who may always 
 plead a judicial presumption of right, or innocence. A 
 more ample latitude was allowed, if every citizen, in 
 the presence of the judge, might declare the law under 
 which he desired to live, and the national society to 
 which he chose to belong. Such an indulijence would 
 abolish the partial distinctions of victory ; and the Ro- 
 man provincials might patiently acquiesce in the hard-, 
 ships of their condition ; since it depended on them- 
 selves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert 
 the character, of free and warlike barbarians.** 
 
 When justice inexorably requires the Pecuniary finen 
 death of a murderer, each private citizen for homicide, 
 is fortified by the assurance, that the laws, the magis- 
 trate, and the whole community, are tlie guardians of 
 
 monarchy. Within the same period, the customs of I his personal safety. Ijut in the loose society of the 
 the Ripiiarians were transcribed and published ; and Germans, revenge was always honourable, and often 
 Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and ' meritorious; the independent warrior chastised, or vin- 
 country, had accurately studied the two national laws, i dicated, with his own hand, the injuries which he had 
 which still prevailed among the Franks.^ The same offered, or received; and he had only to dread the re- 
 r.arfiu-asPvtPiiHp.l tn tl,..;r ^^conic • n,,,! ♦!.« ,...i^ :„..: sentment of the sons, and kinsmen, of the enemy, 
 
 \vhom he had sacrificed to his selfish or angry pas- 
 sions. The magistrate, conscious of his weakness, in- 
 terposed, not to punish, but to reconcile ; and he was 
 satisfied if he could persuade, or compel, the contend- 
 ing parties to pay, and to accept, the moderate fine 
 which had been ascertained as the price of blood.' 
 The fierce spirit of the Franks would have opposed a 
 more rigorous sentence ; the same fierceness despised 
 these ineffectual restraints; and, when their simple 
 manners had been corrupted by the wealth of Gaul, 
 the public peace was continually violated by acts of 
 hasty or deliberate guilt. In every just government 
 the same penalty is inflicted, or at least is imposed, 
 for the murder of a peasant, or a prince. But the na- 
 tional inequality established by the Franks, in their 
 criminal proceedings, was the last insult and abuse of 
 
 care was extended to their vassals ; and the rude insti 
 tutions of the dkmaimi and Bavarians were diligently 
 compiled, and ratified by the supreme authority of the 
 Merovingian kings. The Visis;oths and Buru;undians, 
 whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, 
 showed less impatience to attain one of the principal 
 benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of 
 the Gothic princes who expressed in writing the man- 
 ners and customs of his people; and the composition 
 of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather 
 that} of justice ; to alleviate the yoke, and regain the 
 affections, of their Gallic subjects.y Thus, by a sin- 
 giilar coincidence, the Germans framed their artless in- 
 stitutions, at a time when the elaborate system of Ro- 
 man jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the 
 Salic laws, and the Pandects of .Justinian, we may 
 compare the first rudiments, and the full maturity, of 
 civil wisdom; and whatever prejudices may be sug- 
 gested in favour of barbarism, our calmer reflections 
 
 s In the space of thirty years, (1728-1765.) this interestinir subject 
 has been acilated by the free spirit of the count de Boulaiinilliers; 
 (Memoires Historifpies sur I'Etat de la France, particularly loin. i. p. 
 15—49.) the learned ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos; (Hisloire Critique 
 de I'Etablissonjont de la Monarchie Francoise dans les Gaulcs, 2 
 vols, in 4io.) the comprehensive genius of the president de Montes- 
 quieu : (Esprit dos Loix, particularly 1. xxviii. xxx. xxxi.) and the 
 good sense and diligence of tlie Abbe de Mably. (Observations sur 
 I'Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12mo.) 
 
 t I have derived much instruction from two learned works of Hei- 
 neccius, the History, and the Elements, of the Germanic law. In 
 a judicious prt'face to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse. 
 the defects of that barbarous jurisprudence. 
 
 u Latin appears to have been theoriirinal lan«*uageof the Salic law. 
 It was probably cumpo.sed in the beginning of the^ fifth century, be- 
 fore the a;ra (.4. 1). 421.) of the roal or fabulous Pharaniond. The 
 preface mentions the four cantons which produced the four legislators ; 
 and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant, ice. 
 have claimed them as thrir own. See an excellent Dissertation of 
 Heineccius, de Lejre Salioa, tom. iii. Syllocre iii. p. 217—267. 
 
 X Eginhard, in Vit. Candi Magni, c.2'.>. in tom. v, j) KX). By those 
 two laws, most critics understand the Salic and the Ri[)uarian. The 
 former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire, (torn. iv. p. 
 151.) and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rliine, 
 (tom. iv. p. 222.) 
 
 y Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several Codes, in 
 the fourth volume of the Historians of France. The original pro- 
 logue of the Salic law expresses (though in a foreign dialect) the ge- 
 nuine spirit of the Franks more forcibly than the ten books of Gre- 
 gory of Tours. 
 
 2 The Ripuarian law declares, and definrs, this induli^ence in fa- 
 vour of the plainiift"; (tit. xxxi. in tom. iv. p. 210.) and the same tole- 
 ration is understood, or expressed, in all the codes, except thai of the 
 Visigoths, of Spain. Tanta diversitas locum (says A'-'obard in the 
 ninth century) quanta non solum in regionibus, aut civitatibu.s, scd 
 cliam in niuliis domibus habetur. Nam plerumque conlingit ut 
 siinul eanl aut sedeant quinque homines, et nullus eorum cnmmu 
 nem legem cum altero habeat, (in lorn. vi. p. 356.) Ho f >olishly pro- 
 poses to introduce a uniformity of law, as well as of faith. 
 
 a Inter Romanes negotia causarum Romanis lesibus praecipiniug 
 terminari. Such are the words of a general constitution promuliratod 
 by (Jlolair, the son of Clovis, and sole monarch of the Franks, (in 
 tom. iv. p. IIG.) about the year 560. 
 
 b This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced (Esprit des Loix, 
 1. xxviii. 2.) from a constitution of Lolhaire I. (Leg. Lanirobard. 1. ii. 
 til. Ivii. in Codex Lindeborg. p. 661.) though the example is loo re- 
 conl and parlinl. From a various reading in the Sulic Law, (tit. 
 xliv. not. xlv.) the Abbe de Mably (torn, i. p. 290—29.3.) has conjee- 
 tured, that, at first, a barbarian only, and afterwards any mail, (con- 
 sequently a Roman.) miL'hl live according to the law of the Franks. 
 I am sorry to offend this ingenious conj- tture by observing, that the 
 stricter sense (barbainm) is expressed in the reformed copy of Charie- 
 maifne; which is confirmed by the rayal and Wolfenbultle MSS. 
 The looser interpretation Oioiniyievi) is authorized oyly by the MS. 
 of Fulda, from whence Heroldiis published his otlition. Soe the four 
 original lexis of the Salic law, in lorn. iv. p. 1-17. 173. 106. 220. 
 
 c In the heroic limes of Greece, iho guili of nuirder was expiated 
 by a pecuniary satisfaclinn to llu; fiinily of the decoas.'d. (Feithiua 
 Anliquitat. Homeric. 1. ii. c. S ) Heineccius, in his preface to the 
 Elements of the Germanic Law, favourably suggests, iViat at Rome 
 and Athens homicide was only punished with exile. It is true : but 
 exile was a capital punishmeul for a citizen of Rome or Athens. 
 
 ;/ 
 
518 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 519 
 
 'I' 
 
 conquest.^ In the calm moments of legislation they 
 solemnly pronounced, that the life of a Roman was of 
 smaller value than that of a barbarian. The Antrus- 
 iion' a name expressive of the most illustrious birth or 
 dig-idty, among the Franks, was appreciated at the 
 sum of six hundred pieces of gold ; while the noble 
 provincial, who was admitted to the king's table, 
 might be legally murdered at the expense of three 
 hundred pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient 
 for a Frank of ordinary condition ; but the meaner Ro- 
 mans were exposed to disgrace and danger by a trifling 
 compensation of one hundred, or even fifty, pieces of 
 gold. Had these laws been regulated by any princi- 
 ple of equity or reason, the public protection should 
 have supplied in just proportion the want of personal 
 strenffih. But the legislator had weighed in the scale, 
 not of justice, but of policy, the loss of a soldier 
 against that of a slave ; the head of an insolent and ra- 
 pacious barbarian was guarded by a heavy fine ; and 
 the slightest aid was afforded to the most defenceless 
 subjects. Time insensibly abated the pride of the con- 
 querors, and the patience of the vanquished ; and the 
 boldest citizen was taught by experience, that he might 
 suffer more injuries than he could inflict. As the man- 
 ners of the Franks became less ferocious, their laws 
 were rendered more severe; and the Merovingian 
 kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigour of the 
 Visigoths and Burgundians.^ Under the empire of 
 Charlemagne murder was universally punished with 
 death ; and the use of capital punishments has been 
 liberally multiplied in the jurisprudence of modern 
 Europe.^ 
 Judgmonts of The civil and military professions, 
 God. which had been separated by Constan- 
 tine, were again united by the barbarians. The harsh 
 sound of the Teutonic appellations was mollified into 
 the Latin titles of duke, of count, or of praefect; and the 
 same officer assumed, within his district, the command 
 of the troops, and the administration of justice.'' But 
 the fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified 
 to discharge the duties of a judge, which require all 
 the faculties of a philosophic mind, laboriously culti- 
 vated by experience and study; and his rude ignorance 
 was compelled to embrace some simple, and visible, 
 methods of ascertaining the cause of justice. In every 
 religion, the Deity has been invoked to confirm the 
 truth, or to punish thn falsehood, of human testimony; 
 but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abu- 
 sed, by the simplicity of the German legislators. The 
 party accused might justify his innocence, by produ- 
 cing before their tribunal a number of friendly wit- 
 nesses, who solemnly declared their belief, or assu- 
 rance, that he was not guilty. According to the 
 weight of the charge, this legal number of comptirs^a- 
 tors was multiplied ; seventy-two voices were required 
 
 d This proportion ia fixed by the Salic (lit. xliv. in torn. iv. p. 147) 
 and the Ripuarian (lit. vii. xi. xxxvi. in torn. iv. p. 237. 241.) laws; 
 but the latter does not distinguish any ditTt'rence of Romans. Yet 
 the orders of the clereyare placed above the Franks themselvea, and 
 the Burgundians and Alemanni between the Franks and the Ro- 
 mans. 
 
 e The Antrtistiones, qui in tritste Dominica stmt, leiidi, JiJeles, 
 undoubtetUy represent the first order of Franks; but it is a (jurstion 
 whether their rank was personal or lierediiary. The Abbe de Mably 
 (torn. i. p. 334— 347.) is not displeased to mortify the pride of birtli 
 (Esprit. 1. XXX. c. 2.').) by dating the origin of Irench nobility from 
 the reign of Clotaire II. (A. D. 615.) 
 
 f See the Burgundian laws, (tit. ii. in torn, iv, p. 257.) the Code of 
 the Visigoths, (1. vi. tit. v. in torn. iv. p. 3Sl.) and the constitution of 
 Childebert, not of Paris, but most evidently of Anstrasia, (in torn. iv. 
 p. 112.) Their premature severity was sotnetimcs rash, and exces- 
 sive. Childebert condemned not only murderers but robbers : quo- 
 modo sine lego invi)lavit,8ine lege moriatur; and even the neglisent 
 judge was involved in the same sentence. The Visigoths abandoned 
 an un.successful surgeon to the family of his deceased patient, utquod 
 de eo facere volueriht habeaut potestatem, (1. xi. til. i. in torn. iv. p. 
 435.) 
 
 f See in the sixth volume of the works of Heineccius,the Elemen- 
 ta Juris Germanici, 1. ii. p. ii. No. 2G1; 262. 280—283. Yet some ves- 
 tiges of these pecuniary compositions for murder have been traced in 
 Germany, as late as the sixteenth century. 
 
 h The whole subject of the Germanic judges, and their jurisdic- 
 tion, is copiously treated by Heineccius. (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. iii. 
 No. 1—72.) I cannot find any proof, that, under the Merovingian 
 race, the scabini, or assessors, were chosen by iho people. 
 
 to absolve an incendiary, or assassin ; and when the 
 chastity of a queen of France was suspected, three 
 hundred gallant nobles swore, without hesitation, that 
 the infant prince had been actually begotten by her 
 deceased husband.* The sin and scandal of manifest 
 and frequent perjuries engaged the magistrates to re- 
 move these dangerous temptations; and to supply the 
 defects of human testimony, by the famous experi- 
 ments of fire and water. These extraordinary trials 
 were so capriciously contrived, that in some cases 
 guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved 
 without the interposition of a miracle. Such miracles 
 were readily provided by fraud and credulity ; the most 
 intricate causes were determined by this easy and in- 
 fallible method ; and the turbulent barbarians, who 
 might have disdained the sentence of the magistrate, 
 submissively acquiesced in the judgment of God.'' 
 
 But the trials by single combat gra- j^^.^.^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
 dually obtained superior credit and au- 
 thority, among a warlike people, who could not be- 
 lieve, that a brave man deserved to suffer, or that a 
 coward deserved to live.' Both in civil and criminal 
 proceedings, the plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or 
 even the witness, were exposed to mortal challenge 
 from the antagonist who was destitute of legal proofs ; 
 and it was incumbent on them either to desert their 
 cause, or publicly to maintain their honour, in the lists 
 of battle. They fought either on foot or on horseback, 
 according to the custom of their nation ; ^ and the de- 
 cision of the sword, or lance, was ratified by the sanc- 
 tion of Heaven, of the judge, and of the people. This 
 sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by the Bur- 
 gundians ; and their legislator Gundobald ° conde- 
 scended to answer the complaints and objections of his 
 subject Avitus. ** Is it not true," said the king of 
 Burgundy to the bishop, " that the event of national 
 wars, and private combats, is directed by the judgment 
 of God, and that his providence awards the victory to 
 the jus^er cause 1" By such prevailing arguments, the 
 absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had 
 been peculiar to some tribes of Germany, was propa- 
 gated and established in all the monarchies of Europe, 
 from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end often centuries, 
 the reign of legal violence was not totally extinguished; 
 and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes, and of 
 synods, may seem to prove, that the influence of super- 
 stition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with rea- 
 son and humanity. The tribunals were stained with 
 the blood, perhaps of innocent and respectable citizens ; 
 the law, which now favours the rich, then yielded to 
 the strong ; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm, 
 were condemned to renounce either their fairest claims 
 and possessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal 
 conflict," or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary 
 
 i Gregor. Turon. 1. viii. c. 9. in lorn. ii. p. 316. Montesquieu ob- 
 serves, (Esprit des Loix, I. xxviii. c. 13.) that the Salic law did 
 not admit these negative proofs so universally established in the 
 barbaric ccnles. Yet this obscure concubine, (Fredeeundis) who be- 
 came the wife of the grandson of Clovis, must have followed the Salic 
 law. 
 
 k Muratori, in the antiquities of Italy, has given two Dissertations 
 (xxxviii. xxxix.) on the Judgments of God. It was expected, that 
 fre would not burn the innocent ; ami that the pure element of tca- 
 ter would not allow the guilty to sink into its bi>som. 
 
 1 Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c. 17.) has condescended 
 to explain and excuse " la maniere de penser de nos peres," on the 
 subject of judicial combats. He follows this strange institution from 
 the age of Gundobald to that of St. Lewis; and the philosopher is 
 sometimes lost in the legal antiquarian. 
 
 m In a memorable duel at Aix-la-Chapelle, (A. D. 820.) before tho 
 emperor Lewis tho Pious, his biographer observes, secundum legem 
 propriam, utpote quia utenpie Gothus eral, equestri pugna congressus 
 est. (Vit. Lud. Pii, c. 33. in tom. vi. p. 103.) Ermoldus Nigeldus, (I. 
 iii. 543—628. in tom. vi. p. 4!J— 50.) who describes the duel, admires 
 the errs nova of fighting on horseback, which was unknown to the 
 Franks. 
 
 n In his original edict, published at Lyons (A. D. 501.) Gundobald 
 establishes and justifies the use of judicial combat. (Leg. Burgund. 
 tit. xlv. in tom. if. p. 267, 26.S.) Three hundred years afterwards, 
 Agobard, bishop of Lyons, solicited I^ewis the Pious to abolish tho 
 law of an Arian tyrant, (in tonu vi. p. 356—358.) He relates the con- 
 versation of Gundobald and Avitus. 
 
 o ** Accidit, (says Agobard) ut non solum valentes viribus, sed 
 eiiam infirmi et senes lacessantur ad pugnam, ctiam pro vilissimis 
 rebus. Quibus foralibus certaminibus contingunt homicidia injusu ; 
 
 champion. This oppressive jurisprudence was im- 
 posed on the provincials of Gaul, who complained of 
 any injuries in their persons and property. Whatever 
 might be the strength, or courage, of individuals, the 
 victorious barbarians exceHed in the love and exercise 
 of arms ; and the vanquished Roman was unjustly sum- 
 moned to repeat, in his own person, the bloody contest, 
 which had been already decided against his country, p 
 Division of lands A devouring host of one hundred and 
 by the barbarians, twenty thousand Germans had formerly 
 passed the Rhine under the command of Ariovistus. 
 One third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was 
 appropriated to their use; and the conqueror soon re- 
 peated his oppressive demand of another third, for the 
 accommodation of a new colony of twenty-four thou- 
 sand barbarians, whom he had invited to share the rich 
 harvest of Gaul.i At the distance of five hundred 
 years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged 
 the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same uneqiial 
 proportion of two thirds of the subject lands. But this 
 distribution, instead of spreading over the province, 
 may be reasonably confined to the peculiar districts 
 where the victorious people had been planted by their 
 own choice, or by the policy of their leader. In these 
 districts, each barbarian was connected by the ties of 
 hospitality with some Roman provincial. To this un- 
 welcome guest, the proprietor was compelled to aban- 
 don two thirds of his patrimony; but the German, a 
 shepherd, and a hunter, might sometimes content him- 
 self with a spacious range of wood and pasture, and 
 resign the smalkst, though most valuable, portion, 
 to the toil of the industrious husbandman.' The si- 
 lence of ancient and authentic testimony has encour- 
 aged an opinion, that the rapine of the Franks was not 
 nioderated, or disguised, by the forms of a legal divi- 
 sion ; that they dispersed themselves over the provin- 
 ces of Gaul, without order or control ; and that each 
 victorious robber, according to his wants, his avarice, 
 and his strength, measured with his sword the extent 
 of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sov- 
 ereign, the barbarians might indeed be tempted to ex- 
 ercise such arbitrary depredation ; but the firm and 
 artful policy of Clovis must curb a licentious spirit, 
 which would aggravate the misery of the vanquished, 
 whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the con- 
 querors. The memorable vase of Soissons is a monu- 
 ment, and a pledge, of the regular distribution of the 
 Gallic spoils. It was the duty, and the interest, of 
 Clovis, to provide rewards for a successful army, and 
 settlements for a numerous people; without inflicting 
 any wanton or superfluous injuries on the loyal catho'^ 
 lies of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might law- 
 fully acquire, of the imperial patrimony, vacant lands, 
 and Gothic usurpations, would diminish the cruel ne- 
 cessity of seizure and confiscation ; and the humble 
 provincials would more patiently acquiesce in the equal 
 and regular distribution of their loss.' 
 
 et crudeles ac perversi eventus judiciorum." Like a prudent rheto- 
 torician, he supposes the legal privilese of hiring champions. 
 
 P Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, xxviii. c. 14.) who understands 
 tthy the judicial combat was admitted bv the Burgundians, Ripua- 
 rians, Alemanni, Bavarians, Lombards, Thuringians, Frisons, and 
 Saxons, is satisfied, (and Agobard seems to countenance the asser- 
 tion,) that it was not allowed by the Salic law. Yet the same cus- 
 loni, at least in cases of treason, is mentioned by Ermoldus Niirellus 
 (I. iii. 543. in lorn. vi. p. 48.) and the anonymous biographer of Lewis 
 the Pious, (c. 4G. in tom. vi. p. 112.) as the " mos antiquus Franco- 
 rum, more Francis solito," &c. expressions too general to exclude the 
 noblest of their tribes. ^ 
 
 q Caesar de Bell. Gall. 1. i. c. 31. in tom. i. p. 21.3. 
 
 r The obscure lunls of a division of lands occasionally scattered in 
 the laws of the Burgundians, (tit. liv. No. 1, 2. in tom. i v. p. 271, 272.) 
 and Visigoths, (I. x. tit. i. No. 8, 9, 16. in tom. iv. p. 428-430.) are 
 skilfully explained by the president Montesquieu. (Esprit des 
 Loix, I. XXX. c. 7—9.) I shall only add, that, among the Goths, the 
 division seems to have been ascertained by the jud"^ment of the 
 neighbourhood ; that the barbarians frequently usurped the remain- 
 ing third; and, that the Romans might recover their right, unless 
 they were barred by a prescription of fifty years. 
 
 • It is singular enough, that the president de Montesquieu, (Esprit 
 des Loix, 1. xxx. c. 7.) and the Abbe de Mably, (Observations 
 torn. i. p. 21,22.) agree in this strange supposition of arbitrary and' 
 private rapine. The count de Boulainvilliers (Etat de la France, 
 tom. i. p. 22, 23.) shows a strong understanding, through a cloud of 
 igaorancc and prejudice. I 
 
 The wealth of the Merovingian prin- n«.«5,;n «nH k. 
 
 . J . , . . o r _ JJomam and bon- 
 
 ces consisted in their extensive domain, cfices of the Mc- 
 After the conquest of Gaul, they still rovingrans. 
 delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors ; 
 the cities were abandoned to solitude and decay ; and 
 their coins, their charters, and their synods, are still 
 inscribed with the names of the villas, or rural palaces, 
 in which they successively resided. One hundred and 
 sixty of these ^a/ace*, a title which need not excite any 
 unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, w^ere scattered 
 through the provinces of their kingdom ; and if some 
 might claim the honours of a fortress, the far greater 
 part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable 
 farms. The mansion of the long-haired kings was 
 surrounded with convenient yards, and stabFes, for 
 the cattle and the poultry; the garden was planted 
 with useful vegetables ; the various trades, the labours 
 of agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fish- 
 ing, were exercised by servile hands for the emolument 
 of the sovereign ; his magazines were filled with corn 
 and wine, either for sale or consumption ; and the 
 whole administration was conducted by the strictest 
 maxims of private economy.* This ample patrimony 
 was appropriated to supply the hospitable plenty of . 
 Clovis, and his successors; and to reward the fidelity 
 of their brave companions, who, both in peace and 
 war, were devoted to their personal service. Instead 
 of a horse, or a suit of armour, each companion, ac- 
 cording to his rank, or merit, or favour, was invested 
 with a benefice, the primitive name, and most simple 
 form, of the feudal possessions. These gifts might 
 be resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign ; and his 
 feeble prerooative derived some support I'rom the in- 
 fluence of his liberality. But this dependent tenure 
 was gradually abolished" by the independent and ra- 
 pacious nobles of France, who established the perpe- 
 tual property, and hereditary succession, of their bene- 
 fices ; a revolution salutary to the earth, which had 
 been injured, or neglected, by its precarious masters.* 
 Besides these royal and beneficiary estates, a large 
 proportion had been assigned, in the division of Gaul, 
 of allodial and Salic lands : they were exempt from 
 tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among 
 the male descendants of the Franks.y 
 
 In the bloody discord and silent decay Private usurpa- 
 of the Merovingian line, a new order of tions. 
 
 tyrants arose in the provinces, who, under the appella- 
 tion of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right to govern, and 
 a licence to oppress, the subjects of their peculiar terri- 
 tory. Their ambition might be checked by the hostile 
 resistance of an equal ; but the laws were extinguished ; 
 and the sacrilegious barbarians, who dared to provoke 
 the vengeance of a saint or bishop,' would seldom 
 respect the landmarks of a profane and defenceless 
 neighbour. The common, or public, rights of nature, 
 such as they had always been deemed by the Roman 
 jurisprudence,* were severely restrained by the German 
 conquerors, whose amusement, or rather passion, was 
 the exercise of hunting. The vague dominion, which 
 
 t See the rustic edict, or rather code, of Charlemagne, which con- 
 tains seventy distinct and minute regulations of that great monarch, 
 (in tom. v. p. 652—657.) He requires an account of the horns and 
 skins of the goats, allows liis fish to be sold, and carefully directs, 
 that the larger villas (jSapitanea) shall maintain one hundred hens 
 and thirty geese; and the smaller iMansionales) fifty hens and 
 twelve geese. Mabillon (do Re Diplomatics) has investigated the 
 names, the number, and the situation, of the Merovinjrian villas. 
 
 u From a passage of the Burgundian law (til. i. No. 4. in torn. ir. 
 p. 257.) it is evident, that a deserving son miglu expect to hold tho 
 lands which his father had received from the royal bounty of Gundo- 
 bald. The Burgundians would firmly maintain their privilege, and 
 their example might encourage the beneficiaries of France. 
 
 X The revolutions of the benefices and fiefs are clearly fixed by the 
 Abbe de Mably. His accurate distinction oi times gives him a merit 
 to which even Montesquieu is a stranger. 
 
 y .See tho Salic law, (tit. Ixii. in tom. iv. p. 156.) The origin and 
 nature of these Salic lands, which in times of ignorance were per- 
 fectly understood, now perplex our most learned and sagacious critics. 
 
 z Many of the two hundred and six miracles of St. Martin (Greg. 
 Turon. in Maxima Bibliotheca Palrum, tom. xi. p. 896—932.) were 
 repeatedly performed to punish sacrilege. Audite haec omnes, (ex- 
 claims the bishop of Tours,) potestatem habentes, after relating, how 
 some horses run mad, that had been turned into a sacred ine.adow. 
 
 a Heiuec.Elem'ut. Jur. German. I. ii.p. \. No. 8. 
 
520 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 521 
 
 
 MAN has assumed over the wild inhabitants of the 
 earth, the air, and the waters, was confined to some 
 fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was 
 aijain overspread with woods ; and the animals, who 
 were reserved for the use, or pleasure, of the lord, 
 might ravage, with impunity, the fields of his indus- 
 trious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege 
 of the nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian 
 transgressors were legally chastised with stripes and 
 imprisonment ; ^ but in an age which admitted a slight 
 composition for the life of a citizen, it was a capital 
 crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the pre- 
 cincts of the royal forests.'^ 
 Personal scrvi- According to the maxims of ancient 
 tude. "War, the conqueror became the lawful 
 
 master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spar- 
 ed : ■* and the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which 
 had been almost suppressed by the peaceful sovereign- 
 ty of Rome, was again revived and multiplied by the 
 perpetual hostilitit^s of the independent barbarians. 
 The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who return- 
 ed from a successful expedition, dragged after him a 
 long train of sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, 
 whom he treated with the same brutal contempt. The 
 youths of an elegant form and ingenuous aspect, were 
 set apart for the domestic service ; a doubtful situation, 
 which alternately exposed them to the favourable, or 
 cruel, impulse of passion. The useful mechanics 
 and servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, 
 cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and sil- 
 ver, &c.) employed their skill for the use, or profit, of 
 their master. IJut the Roman captives who were des- 
 titute of art, but capable of labour, were condemned, 
 without regard to their former rank, to tend the cattle 
 and cultivate the lands of the barbarians. The num- 
 ber of the hereditary bondsmen, who were attached to 
 the Gallic estates, was continually increased by new 
 supplies ; and the servile people, according to the situ- 
 ation and temper of their lords, were sometimes raised 
 by precarious indulgence, and more frequently de- 
 pressed by capricious despotism.'' An absolute power 
 of life and death was exercised by these lords; and 
 when they married their daughters, a train of useful 
 servants, chained on the waggons to prevent their es- 
 cape, was sent as a nuptial present into a distant coun- 
 try.' The majesty of the Roman laws protected the 
 liberty of each citizen, against the rash effects of his 
 own distress, or despair. But the subjects of the Me- 
 rovingian kings might alienate their persona! freedom; 
 and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly 
 practised, is expressed in terms most disgraceful and 
 afflicting to the dignity of human nature. s The exam- 
 
 b Jonas, bishop of Orleans, (A. D. 821 — 926. Cavr, Hist. Littoraria, 
 (p. 41'!.) censures the leirnl tyranny of the nobles. Pro feris, qnas 
 rura honiinuin non aliiit, sed TViis in commune mortalibus ail iiten- 
 tlum conct'ssit, pauperes a potentioribus spoliuntur, flaijellantur, er- 
 gastulis (leirmluntur, et mulla alia patiuntur. Hoc enim (jui farjunt, 
 lege mitndi se facere juste posse contendanl. De Institutione I.aico- 
 rmn, 1. ii. c. 23. apud Thoniasin, Discipline de I'Eglise, toni. iii. p. 
 1318. 
 
 c On a mere suspicion, Chnndo, a rhamberlain of Gontran, kinpr of 
 Burirundy, was stoned to death. (Grejr. Turun. 1. x. c. i(». in loni. ii. 
 p. 3tj0.) John of Salisbury (Policrat. 1. i. c. 4.) a.sserts the rights of 
 nature, and exposes the cruel practice of thr> twelfth century. See 
 Heineccius, Kb-m. Jur. (ierui. i. ii. p. 1. No. 51—57. 
 
 d The custom of enslavin;^ prisoners of war was totally extin- 
 puishoil in the tiiirteenlh century, by the prevailing inHuence of 
 Chrisiianiiy ; but it mi^iht bo proved, from freijuent passaires of Ure- 
 eory of Tours, &c. that it was practised, without censure, under tiie 
 iVIt-rovincian race; and even Grotius himself, (de Jure Helli et Pacis, 
 1. iii. r. 7.) as well as his commentator Barbeyrac, have laboured to 
 reciuicile it with the laws of nature and reason. 
 
 e Tlie Slate, professions. &c. of the German, Italian, and Gallic 
 slaves, durins the middle ases, are explaine«l by Heineccius, (Ele- 
 ment. Jur. Germ. 1. i. No. 28—47.) Muratori. (Dissertat. xiv. xv.) Du- 
 ( anL't^. ((jIoss. sub voce Serri,) and the Abbe de Mably, (Observa- 
 tions, lom. ii j). 3, &c. p. 237, ifcc.) 
 
 f Gresrory ol Tours (1. vi. c. 4.j. in torn. ii. p. 289.) relates a memo- 
 rublH example, in wiiich Chilperic only abused the private rights of 
 a master. Many families, wiiich belonged to liis ttoinns fiscales in 
 the neigh bourh(K)d of Paris, were forcibly sent away into Spain. 
 
 K Liceniiam habealis nulii qiialemcumiue voluerilis disciplinain 
 pon»Te ; vel venmudare, aut quod vobis placuerit de me facere. Mar- 
 culf. Formul. 1. ii. 28. in tom. iv, p. 497. The Ponnida of Linden 
 brogius (p. 559.) and that of Anjou (p. 565.) are to the same etVect 
 Gregory of Tours (1. vii. c. 45. in tom. ii. p. 311.) speaks of many per- 
 sons, who sold themselves for bread, in a great famine. 
 
 pie of the poor, who purchased life by the sacrifice of 
 all that can render life desirable, was gradually imi- 
 tated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of 
 public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter 
 themselves under the battlements of a powerful chief, 
 and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their sub- 
 mission was accepted by these temporal, or spiritual, 
 patrons; and the hasty transaction irrecoverably fixed 
 their own condition, and that of their latest posterity. 
 From the reinrn of Clovis, durinof five successive cen- 
 turies, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended 
 to promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of 
 personal servitude. Time and violence almost oblit- 
 erated the intermediate ranks of society ; and left an 
 obscure and narrow interval between the noble and the 
 slave. This arbitrary and recent division has been 
 transformed by pride and prejudice into a national dis- 
 tinction, universally established by the arms and the 
 laws of the Merovingians. The nobles, who claimed 
 their genuine, or fabulous, descent from the indepen- 
 dent and victorious Franks, have asserted, and abused, 
 the indefeasible right of conquest, over a prostrate 
 crowd of slaves and plebeians, to whom they imputed 
 the imaginary disgrace of a Gallic, or Roman, extrac- 
 tion. 
 
 The general state and revolutions of Example of Au- 
 France, a name which was imposed by vergne. 
 
 the conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular 
 example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial fa- 
 mily. Auvergne had formerly maintained a just pre- 
 eminence among the independent stales and cities of 
 Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants displayed 
 a singular trophy ; the sword of Ca3sar himself, which 
 he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls of 
 Gergovia.'' As the common offspring of Troy, they 
 claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans ; ' and 
 if each province had imitated the courage and loyalty 
 of Auvergne, the fall of the western empire might 
 have been prevented or delayed. They firmly main- 
 tained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn 
 to the VisijToths ; but when their bravest nobles had 
 fallen in the battle of Poitiers, they accepted, without 
 resistance, a victorious and catholic sovereign. This 
 easy and valuable conquest was achieved, and pos- 
 sessed, by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis: but 
 the remote province was separated from his Austra- 
 sian dominions, by the intermediate kinjjdoms of Sois- 
 sons, Paris, and Orleans, whicl^ formed, after their 
 father's death, the inheritance of • his three brothers. 
 The king of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the 
 neighbourhood and beauty of Auvergne.^ The upper 
 country, which rises towards the south into the 
 mountains of the Cevennes, presented a rich and vari- 
 ous prospect of woods and pastures; the sides of the 
 hills were clothed with vines ; and each eminence 
 was crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower 
 Auvergne, the river Allier flows throufrh the fair and 
 spacious plain of Limagne ; and the inexhaustible 
 fertility of the soil supplied, and still supplies, with- 
 out any interval of repose, the constant repetition of 
 the same harvests.' On the false report, that their 
 lawful sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city 
 
 h WMien Caesar saw it, he laurhed : (Plutarch, in Cae.sar. in torn. i. 
 p. 409.) yet he relates his unsuccessfui sifi'e of Gerirovia, with les? 
 frankness than we might expect fn)m a great man to whom victory 
 was familiar. He acknowledges, however, that in one attack he lost 
 fort^-six centurions, and seven hundred men,(de Bell. Gallico, 1. vi. 
 c. 44-53. in tom. i. p. 27(»-272.) 
 
 j Audebant so quondam fnitres Latio dicere, el sanguine ab Iliaco 
 populos compulare. (Sidon. Apollinar. I. vii.episl.7. in tom. i. p. 799.) 
 I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this fabulous 
 pediiiree. 
 
 k Kiiherthe first, or second, partition among the sons of Clovis, 
 had triven Berry to Cliildebert. (Greg. Turon. 1. iii. c. 12. in tom. ii. 
 p. 192.) Velitn (said hf) Arvernam Lenuinem, (piae tanla jocundita- 
 tis gratia refulnere dicitur oculis cernere, (1. iii. c. 9. p. 191.) The 
 face of the ct)uniry was concealed by a thick fog, when the king of 
 Paris made his entry into Clermont. 
 
 1 For the description of Auvergne, see Sidonlus, (1. iv. epist. 21. in 
 tom. i. p. 793.) with the notes of Savaron and Sirmond, (u. 279 and 
 51. of their respective editions.) Boulainvilliers, (Etat de la France, 
 tom. ii. p. 242—268.) and the Abbe de la Longuerue (Description de 
 la France, part i. 132- 139.) 
 
 and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed by the grand- 
 son of Sidonius Apollinaris. Childebert enjoyed this 
 clandestine victory ; and the free subjects of Theodo- 
 ric threatened to desert his standard, if he indulged 
 his private resentment, while the nation was engaged 
 in the Buro-undian war. But the Franks of Austrasia 
 soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of their king. 
 ** Follow me,'* said Theodoric, " into Auvergne : I 
 will lead you into a province, where you may acquire 
 gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious apparel, to 
 the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise ; 
 I give you the people, and their wealth, as your prey ; 
 and you may transport them at pleasure into your 
 own country." By the execution of this promise, 
 Theodoric justly forfeited the allegiance of a people, 
 whom he devoted to destruction. His troops, rein- 
 forced by the fiercest barbarians of Germany,"* spread 
 desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne ; and two 
 places only, a strong castle, and a holy shrine, were 
 saved, or redeemed, from their licentious fury. The 
 castle of Meroliac" was seated on a lofty rock, which 
 rose a hundred feet above the surface of the plain ; 
 and a large reservoir of fresh water was enclosed, 
 with some arable lands, within the circle of its forti- 
 fications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair 
 this impregnable fortress : but they surprised a party 
 of fifty stragglers ; and, as they were oppressed by the 
 number of their captives, they fixed, at a trifling ran- 
 som, the alternative of life or death for these wretched 
 victims, whom the cruel barbarians were prepared to 
 massacre on the refusal of the garrison. Another de- 
 tachment penetrated as far as Brivas, or Brioude, 
 where the inhabitants, \\\\\\ their valuable effects, had 
 taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Julian. The 
 doors of the church resisted the assault ; but a daring 
 soldier entered through a window of the choir, and 
 opened a passage to his companions. The clergy and 
 people, the sacred and the profane spoils, were rudely 
 torn from the altar ; and the sacrilegious division was 
 made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. 
 But this act of impiety was severely chastised by the 
 devout son of Clovis. He punished with death the 
 most atrocious offenders ; left their secret accomplices 
 to the vengeance of St. Julian ; released the captives ; 
 restored the plunder; and extended the rights of sanc- 
 tuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy 
 martyr." 
 
 , . . Before the Austrasian army retreated 
 
 Story of Attalus. - . mL j • . j 
 
 ' from Auvergne, i heodoric exacted some 
 
 pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose just 
 hatred could be restrained only l3y their fear. A 
 select band of noble youths, the sons of the principal 
 senators, was delivered to the conqueror, as the hos- 
 tages of the faith of Childebert, and of their country- 
 men. On the first rumour of war, or conspiracy, these 
 guiltless youths were reduced to a state of servitude ; 
 and one of them, Attalus,P whose adventures are more 
 particularly related, kept his master's horses in the 
 diocese of Treves. After a painful search he was 
 discovered, in this unworthy occupation, by the emis- 
 saries of his grandfather, Gregory bishop of Langres ; 
 but his offers of ransom w^ere sternly rejected by the 
 
 in Furorem gentium, ciuae de ulterioreRheni amnis parte venerant, 
 fluperare non poterat, (Greg. Turon. 1. iv. c. 50. in tom. ii. 229.) was 
 the excuse of another king of Austrasia. (A. D. 574.) for the ravages 
 which his tnwps committed in the neighbourhood of Paris. 
 
 n From the name and situation, the Benedictine editors of Gregory 
 of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 192.) have fixed this fortress at a place named 
 Castel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac, in the Upper Auvergne. 
 In this description, I translate infra as if I read intra; the two pre- 
 positions are perpetually confounded by Gregory, or his transcribers ; 
 and the sense must always deci«le. 
 
 o See these revolutions, and wars, of Auvergne in Gregory of Tours, 
 (1. ii. c. 37. in lom. ii. p. 1S3. and 1. iii. c. 9. 12, 1.3. p. 191, 192. de Mi- 
 niculis St. Julian, c. 13. in lom. ii. p. 466.) He frequently betrays 
 his extraortlinarv attention to his native country. 
 
 p The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of Tours. (I. iii. c. 16. 
 in lom. ii. p. 193—195.) His editor, the P. Kuinart, confounds this 
 Allalus,'who was a youth (puer) in the year 5:i2 with a friend of Sido- 
 nius of the same name, who was count of Autun, fifty or sixty years 
 before. Such an error, which cannot be imputed to ignorance, is 
 ejfcused, in some degree, by its own magnitude. 
 Vol. I— 3 Q 
 
 avarice of the barbarian, who required an exorbitant 
 sum often pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble 
 captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy 
 stratagem of Leo, a slave belonging to the kitchens 
 of the bishop of Langres.*! An unknown agent easily 
 introduced him into the same family. The barbarian 
 purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of gold ; 
 and was pleased to learn, that he was deeply skilled 
 in the luxury of an episcopal table. " Next Sunday," 
 said the Frank, *' I shall invite my neighbours and 
 kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force them to confess, 
 that they have never seen, or tasted, such an enter- 
 tainment, even in the king's house." Leo assured him, 
 that, if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poul- 
 try, his wishes should be satisfied. The master, who 
 already aspired to the merit of elegant hospitality, as- 
 sumed, as his own, the praise which the voracious 
 guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the 
 dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and 
 management of his household. After the patient ex- 
 pectation of a whole year, he cautiously whispered his 
 design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare for 
 flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight, 
 the intemperate guests retired from table ; and the 
 Frank's son-in-law, whom Leo attended to his apart- 
 ment with a nocturnal potation, condescended to jest 
 on the facility with which he might betray his trust. 
 The intrepid slave, after sustaining this dangerous 
 raillery, entered his master's bed-chamber ; removed 
 his spear and shield ; silently drew the fleetest horses 
 from the stable ; unbarred the ponderous gates ; and 
 excited Attalus to save his life and liberty by inces- 
 sant diliorence. Their apprehensions urged them to 
 leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse ; ' they 
 swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent 
 forest, and subsisted only by the accidental discovery 
 of a wild plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark 
 thicket, they heard the noise of horses ; they were 
 terrified by the angry countenance of their master, and 
 they anxiously listened to his declaration, that, if he 
 could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would 
 cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the 
 other on a gibbet. At length. Attains, and his faith- 
 ful Leo, reached the friendly habitation of a presbyter 
 of Rheims, who recruited their fainting strength with 
 bread and wine, concealed them from the search of 
 their enemy, and safely conducted them, beyond the 
 limits of the Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal 
 palace of Langres. Gregory embraced his grandson 
 with tears of joy, gratefully delivered Leo, with his 
 whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and be- 
 stowed on him ihe property of a farm, where he might 
 end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this 
 singular adventure, which is marked with so many 
 circumstances of truth and nature, was related by At- 
 talus himself, to his cousin, or nephew, the first his- 
 torian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours* was born 
 about sixty years after the death of Sidonius Apolli- 
 naris ; and their situation was almost similar, since 
 each of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and 
 a bishop. The difference of their style and sentiments 
 may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul ; and clear- 
 
 q This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of Tours, (in tom. 
 ii. p. 197. 490.) lived uinety-two years ; of which he passed forty as 
 count of Autun, and thirty-two as bishop of Langres. According to 
 the poet Fortunatus, he displayed nqual merit in these different sta- 
 tions. 
 
 Nobilis antiqua decurrens prole parentum, 
 Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. 
 Arbiter ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos, 
 Quos domuit judex, fovet amore patris. 
 
 r As M. de Valois, and the P. Kuinart, are determined to change 
 the Mosella of the text into Mosa, it becomes me to acquiesce m the 
 alteration. Yet, after some examination of the topography, I could 
 defend the common reading. . ^ . , , 
 
 ( The parents of Gregory (Gregorius FlorentnJS Georgnis) were of 
 noble extraction, (natalibus . . . illustres,^ and they possessed large 
 estates ilatifundia) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born 
 in the year 539, was consecrated bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 
 593, or 595, soon after he had terminated his history. See his Life, 
 by Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in tom. ii. p. 129-135.) and a new Life in 
 the Memoires de I'Academie, &c. tom. xxvi. p. 598—637. 
 
 '/■ 
 
5'Z2 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 523 
 
 ly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mation; and the life of a bishop was appreciated far 
 
 'iiir 
 
 mind had lost of its energy and refinement.* 
 Priviiegeiofthe We are now qualified to despise the 
 RoinansofGaui. opposite, and, perhaps, artful, misrepre- 
 sentations, which have softened, or exaggerated, the 
 oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of 
 the Merovingians. The conquerors never promulqfat- 
 ed any universal edict of servitude, or confiscation : 
 but a degenerate people, who excused their weakness 
 by the specious names of politeness and peace, was 
 exposed to the arms and laws of the ferocious barba- 
 rians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, 
 their freedom, and their safety. Their personal in- 
 juries were partial and irregular ; but the great body 
 of the Romans survived the revolution, and still pre- 
 served the property, and privileges, of citizens. A 
 large portion of their lands was exacted for the use 
 
 above the common standard, at the price of nine hun- 
 dred pieces of gold.'' The Romans communicated to 
 their conquerors the use of the christian religion and 
 Latin language:*^ but their language and their reli- 
 gion had alike degenerated from the simple purity of 
 the Augustan, and apostolic, age. The progress of 
 superstition and barbarism was rapid and universal: 
 the worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes 
 the God of the christians ; and the rustic dialect of 
 peasants and soldiers was corrupted by a Teutonic 
 idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of 
 sacred and social communion eradicated the distinc- 
 tions of birth and victory ; and the nations of Gaul 
 were gradually confounded under the name and gov- 
 ernment of the Franks. 
 
 The Franks, after they mingled with Anarchy of the 
 
 of the Franks; but they enjoyed the remainder, ex- their Gallic subjects, might have im- Franks 
 empt from tribute; *■ and the same irresistible violence ; parted the most valuable of human jjifls, a spirit, and 
 which swept away the arts and manufactures of Gaul, ' system, of constitutional liberty. Under a king, he- 
 destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of im- : reditary but limited, the chiefs and counsellors might 
 perial despotism. The provincials must frequently | have debated, at Paris, in the palace of the Csesars: 
 deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or Ri- : the adjacent field, where the emperors reviewed their 
 puarian laws ; but-their private life, in the important mercenary legions, would have admitted the Icgisla- 
 concerns of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was ' tive assembly of freemen and warriors ; and the rude 
 still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a dis- model, which had been sketched in the woods of 
 contented Roman might freely aspire, or descend, to Germany,^ might have been polished and improved 
 the title and character of a barbarian. The honours by the civil wisdom of the Romans. But the care- 
 of the state were accessible to his ambition ; the edu- less barbarians, secure of their personal independ- 
 cation and temper of the Romans more peculiarly I cnce, disdained the labour of government; the annual 
 qualified them for the offices of civil government ; and, I assemblies of the month of March were silently 
 as soon as emulation had rekindled their military ar- | abolished ; and the nation was separated, and almost 
 dour, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or 
 even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I shall 
 not attempt to eimmerate the generals and magistrates, 
 whose names* attest the liberal policy of the Mero- 
 vingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with 
 
 the title of Patrician, was successively intrusted to the the people had abdicated : the royal prerogative was 
 three Romans; and the last, and m<>st powerful, 
 Mummolus,y who alternately saved and disturbed the 
 monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of 
 count of Autun, and left a treasure of thirty talents of 
 gold, and two hundred and fifty talents of silver. 
 
 dissolved, by the conquest of Gaul.® The monarchy 
 was left without any regular establishment of jus- 
 tice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Cle- 
 vis wanted resolution to assume, or strength to ex- 
 ercise, the legislative and executive powers, which 
 
 distinj;uished only by a more ample privilege of 
 rapine and murder; and the love of freedom, so of- 
 ten invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, 
 was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the 
 contempt of order, and the desire of impunity. Sev- 
 The fierce and illiterate barbarians were excluded, | enty-five years after the death of Clovis, his grand- 
 during several irenerations, from the dignities, and , son, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to in- 
 even from the orders, of the church.* The clergy of j vadc the Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Lan- 
 Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provincials ; ' gucdoc. The troops of Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, 
 the haughty Franks fell prostrate at the feet of their I and the adjacent territories, were excited by the hopes 
 subjects, who were dignified with the episcopal ] of spoil. They marched, without discipline, under 
 character; and the power and riches which had been the banners of German, or Gallic, counts; their at- 
 lost in war, were insensibly recovered by superstition.* tack was feeble and unsuccessful ; hut the friendly 
 In all temporal affairs, the Theodosian Code was the | and the hostile provinces were desolated with indis- 
 universal law of the clergy; but the barbaric juris- criminate rage. The cornfields, the villages, the 
 prudence had liberally provided for their personal ^ churches themselves, were consumed by fire ; the in- 
 safety : a sub-deacon was equivalent to two Franks ; ■ habitants were massacred, or dragged into captivity ; 
 
 the antrustion^ and priest, were held in similar esti- 
 
 t Decedente atqiie immo potius pereunle ab urbibus Gallicanis 
 liberalium cuUura liieranim, &c. (in praefai. in lom. ii. p. 137.) is the 
 complaint of Gregory himsplf, whifh he fully verifips by his own 
 work. His style is equally devoid of elegance and simplicity. In a 
 conspicuous station he still remained a stranjrer to liis own age and 
 country; and in a prolix work (the five lastbcx)ks contain ten years) 
 he has omitted almost every thing that posterity desires to learn. I 
 have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of pronounc- 
 ing this unfavourable sentence. 
 
 u The Abbe de Mably (torn. i. p. 247—267.) has diligently con- 
 firmed this opinion of the president de Montesquieu. (Esprit des 
 Loix, 1. XXX. c. 13.) 
 
 X See Dubos, Hist. Critique do la Monarchie Francoi.ie, torn. ii. 1. 
 vi. c. 9, 10. The French antiquarians establish as a principle, that 
 the Romans and barbarians may be distinguisheil by their names. 
 Their names undoubtedly form a reasonable presumption ; yet in 
 readingGregory of Tours, I have observed Gondulphu8,of senatorian, 
 or Roman, extraction ; (I. vi. c. 11. in torn. ii. p. 273.) and Claudius, a 
 barbarian, (1. vii. c. 29. p. 303.) 
 
 y Eunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory of Tours, 
 from the fourth (c. 42. p. 224.) to the seventh (c. 40. p. 310.) book. 
 The compulation by talents is singular enough ; but if Gregory at- 
 tached any meaning to that obsolete word, the treasures of Mummolus 
 must have exceeded 100,000/. sterling. 
 
 z See Fleury, Discours iii. sur I'Histoire Eccleslastiquc. 
 
 a The bishop of Tours himself has recorded the complaint of Chil- 
 peric, the grandson of Clovis. Ecce pauper remansit r iscus noster ; 
 ecce divitix nostrae ad ecclesias sunt translatae : nulli penitus nisi 
 soli Episcopi regnant, (I. vi. c. 46. in torn. Ii. p. 291.) 
 
 and, in the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these 
 inhuman savages were destroyed by hunger or intes- 
 tine discord. When the pious Gontran reproached 
 the guilt, or neglect, of their leaders ; and threatened 
 to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and arbi- 
 trary execution ; they accused the universal and in- 
 curable corruption of the people. ** No one,'* they 
 said, " any longer fears or respects his king, his duke, 
 
 b See the Ripuarian Code, (tit. xxxvi. in tom. iv. p. 241.) The 
 Salic law does not provide for the safety of the clergy ; and we mijfht 
 supnose, on the behalf of the more civilized tribe, that they had not 
 foreseen such an impious act as the munler of a priest. Yet Praetex- 
 tatus, archbishop of Kouen, was a.ssassinated by the order of queen 
 Fredesrundis before the altar. (Greir. Turou. 1. viii. c. 31. in tom. ii. 
 p. 326.) 
 
 c M. Bonamy (Mem. do I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxiv. p. 
 582 — 670.) has ascertained the Lingua Timntind Jtustica, whicfi, 
 ihrouErh the medium of ihe Romwire, has gradually been polished 
 into the actual form of the French language. Under the Carlovin- 
 gian race, the kings and nobles of.France still understood the dialect 
 of their German ancestors. 
 
 d Ce beau systeme a 6te trouvi; dans les bois. Montesquieu, Esprit 
 des Loix, 1. xi. c. 6. 
 
 e See the Abbe de Mably. Observations, &c. tom. i. p. 34 — 36. It 
 should seem that the institution of national assemblies, which are 
 coeval with the French nation, have never been congenial to its 
 temper. 
 
 or his count. Every man loves to do evil, and free- 
 ly indulges his criminal inclinations. The most gentle 
 correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the 
 rash magistrate, who presumes to censure or restrain 
 his seditious subjects, seldom escapes alive from their 
 revenge."^ It has been reserved for the same nation to 
 expose, by their intemperate vices, the most odious 
 abuse of freedom ; and to supply its loss by the spirt 
 of honour and humanity, which now alleviates and dig- 
 nifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign. 
 The Visigoths The Visigoths had resigned to Clo- 
 
 of Spain. vis the greatest part of their Gallic 
 possessions ; but their loss was amply compensa- 
 ted by the easy conquest, and secure enjoyment, of 
 the provinces of Spain. From the monarchy of 
 the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic king- 
 dom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive 
 some national vanity : but the historian of the Roman 
 empire is neither invited nor compelled to pursue the 
 obscure and barren series of their annals.^ The Goths 
 of Spain were separated from the rest of mankind, by 
 the lofty rid^e of the Pyrenaean mountains : their 
 manners and institutions, as far as they were common 
 to the Germanic tribes, have been already explained. 
 I have anticipated, in the preceding chapter, the most 
 important of their ecclesiastical events, the fall of Ari- 
 anism, and the persecution of the Jews : and it only 
 remains to observe some interesting circumstances, 
 which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical constitu- 
 tion of the Spanish kingdom. 
 
 Legislative as- After their conversion from idolatry, 
 Bombiics of Spain, or heresy, the Franks and the Visigoths 
 were disposed to embrace, with equal submission, the in- 
 herent evils, and the accidental benefits, of superstition. 
 But the prelates of France, long before the extinction 
 of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting 
 and hunting barbarians. They disdained the use of 
 synods ; forgot the laws of temperance and chastity ; 
 and preferred the indulgence of private ambition and 
 luxury, to the general interest of the sacerdotal pro- 
 fession.'' The bishops of Spain respected themselves, 
 and were respected by the public : their indissoluble 
 union disguised their vices, and confirmed their autho- 
 rity : and the regular discipline of the church intro- 
 duced peace, order, and stability, into the govern- 
 ment of the state. From the reign of Recared, the 
 first catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate 
 predecessor of the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen na- 
 tional councils were successively convened. The six 
 metropolitans, Toledo, Seville, Meiida, Braga, Tarra- 
 gona, and Narbonne, presided according to their re- 
 spective seniority ; the assembly was composed of 
 their suffragan bishops, who appeared in person, or by 
 their proxies; and a place was assigned to the most 
 holy or opulent of the Spanish abbots. During the 
 first three days of the convocation, as long as they 
 agitated the ecclesiastical questions of doctrine and 
 discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their 
 debates ; which were conducted however with decent 
 solemnity. But on the morning of the fourth day, the 
 doors were thrown open for the entrance of the great 
 oflScers of the palace, the dukes and counts of the pro- 
 vinces, the judges of the cities, and the Gothic nobles : ! 
 and the decrees of heaven were ratified by the consent 
 of the people. The same rules were observed in the 
 
 f Gregory of Tours (I. viii. c. 30. in lom. ii. p. 325, 326.) relates, 
 with much indifference, the crimes, the reproof, and the apology, 
 NulUia regem metuit, nullus ducem, nullus comitem rcveretur ; et 
 si fortassis alicui ista displicent, et ea, pro loii£;a;vitatc vit:c vestrx, 
 cmendare conatur, statini seditio in populo, stulim tumultus exoritur, 
 et in tantum uiiusciuis^que contra seniorem.sajva inienlione grassatur, 
 ut vix se credat evadere. si tandem silere nequiverit. 
 
 g Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly unfortunate. The 
 Franks had a Gregory of 'i'ours ; the Saxons, or Angles, a Bcde ; the 
 Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, &c. But the liistory of the Visigoths 
 is contained in the short and imperfect Chronicles of Isidore of Se- 
 ville, and John of Biclar. 
 
 h Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the apogtie of Germany, 
 and the reformer of Gaul, (in tom. iv. p. 94.) The fourscore years, 
 which he deplores, of licence and rorruption, would seem to insinuate, 
 that Hie barhariaiis were admitted into the clergy about the year 660. 
 
 provincial assemblies, the annual synods which were 
 empowered to hear complaints and to redress grievan- 
 ces ; and a legal government was supported by the 
 prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The 
 bishops, who, in each revolution, were prepared to 
 flatter the victorious, and to insult the prostrate, la- 
 boured, witli diligence and success, to kindle th» 
 flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above the 
 crown. Yet the national councils of Toledo, in 
 which the free spirit of the barbarians was temper- 
 ed and guided by episcopal policy, have established 
 some prudent laws for the common benefit of the king 
 and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied 
 by the choice of the bishops and palatines; and, after 
 the failure of the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was 
 still limited to the pure and noble blood of the Goths. 
 The clergy, who anointed their lawful prince, always 
 recommended, and sometimes practised, the duty of 
 allegiance ; and the spiritual censures were denounced 
 on the heads of the impious subjects, who should re- 
 sist his authority, conspire against his life, or violate, 
 by an indecent union, the chastity even of his widow. 
 But the monarch himself, when he ascended the 
 throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to God and his 
 people, that he would faithfully execute his important 
 trust. The real or imaginary faults of his adminis- 
 tration were subject to the control of a powerful aris- 
 tocracy ; and the bishops and palatines were guarded 
 by a fundamental privilege, that they should not be 
 degraded, imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with 
 death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the free and 
 public judgment of their peers.* 
 
 One of the legislative councils of Code of the Visi- 
 Toledo examined and ratified the code goths. 
 
 of laws which had been compiled by a succession of 
 Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric to the devout Egica. 
 As long as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied 
 with the rude customs of their ancestors, they indulged 
 their subjects of Aquitain and Spain in the enjo3'^ment 
 of the Roman law. Their gradual improvement in 
 arts, in policy, and at length in religion, encouraged 
 them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign insti- 
 tutions ; and to compose a code of civil and criminal 
 jurisprudence, for the use of a great and united peo- 
 ple. The same obligations, and the same privileges, 
 were communicated to the nations of the Spanish mon- 
 archy ; and the conquerors, insensibly renouncing the 
 Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of equity, 
 and exalted the Romans to the participation of free- 
 dom. The merit of this impartial policy was en- 
 hanced by the situation of Spain, under the reign of 
 the Visigoths. The provincials were long separated 
 from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable differ- 
 ence of relijjion. After the conversion of Recared 
 had removed the prejudices of the catholics, the coasts, 
 both of the ocean and Mediterranean, were still pos- 
 sessed by the eastern emperors ; who secretly excited 
 a discontented people to reject the yoke of the barbari- 
 ans, and to assert the name and dignity of Roman citi- 
 zens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed 
 most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that 
 they hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to ob- 
 tain by a revolution ; but it has appeared so natural to 
 oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary 
 system well deserves the praise of wisdom and mode- 
 ration.^ 
 
 i The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the most authentic 
 records of the church and constitution of Spain. The following pas- 
 sages are particularly import;inf. (lii. 17. 18. iv. T.j. v. 2— .'». 8. vi. 11 
 —14. 17, ly. vii. 1. xiii. 2, 3. 6.; I have found Mascou (Hist, of the 
 ancient Germans, xv. 29. and Annotations, xxvi and xxxiii.) and 
 Ferreras (Hist. Generate de I'Espagne, tom. ii ) very useful and ac- 
 curate guides. 
 
 k The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into twelve hooki 
 has been correctly published by Dom Bouqiiet, (in tom. iv. p. 273 — 
 4G0.) It has been treated by the president De Montesquieu (TEsprit 
 des Loix, xxviii. c. I.) with excessive severity. I dislike the style ; 
 I detest the superstition : but I siiall presume to tiiink, that the civil 
 jurisprudence displays a more civilized and enlightened state of w- 
 j ciety, than that oithc Burgundians, or even of the TiOmburds. 
 
 ,./ 
 
 /; 
 
 ^^■■' -- - -^ — 
 
524 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 525 
 
 '^ 
 
 t' 
 
 Revolution of While the kingdoms of the Franks 
 Britain. and Visigoths were established in Gaul 
 and Spain, the Saxons achieved the conquest of Britain, 
 the third great diocese of the praefecture of the west. 
 Since Britain was already separated from the Roman 
 empire, I might, without reproach, decline a story, fa- 
 miliar to the most illiterate, and obscure to the most 
 learned, of my readers. The Saxons, who excelled in 
 the use of the oar or the battle-axe, were ignorant of the 
 art which could alone perpetuate the fame of their ex- 
 ploits; the provincials, relapsinor into barbarism, neg- 
 lected to describe the ruin of their country; and the 
 doubtful tradition was almost extinguished, before the 
 missionaries of Rome restored the light of science and 
 Christianity. The declamations of Gildas, the frag- 
 ments, or fables, of Nennius, the obscure hints of the 
 Saxon laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical tales 
 of the venerable Bedo,' have been illustrated by the 
 diligence, and sometimes embellished by the fancy, of 
 succeeding writers, whose works I am not ambitious 
 either to censure or to transcribe."" Yet the historian 
 of the empire maybe tempted to pursue the revolutions 
 of a Roman province, till it vanishes from his sight ; 
 and an Englishman may curiously trace the establish- 
 ment of the barbarians, from whom he derives his 
 name, his laws, and perhaps his origin. 
 Descent of the About forty years after the dissolution 
 A^ D°44'9 ^^ *'^® Roman government, Vortigern ap- 
 pears to have obtained the supreme, 
 though precarious, command of the princes and cities 
 of Britain. That unfortunate monarch has been almost 
 unanimously condemned for the weak and mischiev- 
 ous policy of inviting" a formidable stranger, to repel 
 the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambassa- 
 dors are despatched, by the gravest historians, to the 
 coast of Germany ; they address a pathetic oration to 
 the general assembly of the Saxons, and those war- 
 like barbarians resolve to assist with a fleet and army 
 the suppliants of a distant and unknown island. If 
 Britain had indeed been unknown to the Saxons, the 
 measure of its calamities would have been less com- 
 plete. But the strength of the Roman government 
 could not always guard the maritime province against 
 the pirates of Germany ; the independent and divided 
 states were exposed to their attacks ; and the Saxons 
 might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts, in a 
 tacit, or express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. 
 Vortigern could only balance the various perils, which 
 assaulted on every side his throne and his people ; and 
 his policy may deserve either praise or excuse, if he 
 preferred the alliance of those barbarians, whose naval 
 power rendered them the most dangerous enemies, and 
 the most serviceable allies. Hengist and Horsa, as 
 they ranged along the eastern coast with three ships, 
 were engaged, by the promise of an ample stipend, to 
 embrace the defence of Britain ; and their intrepid 
 valour soon delivered the country from the Caledonian 
 invaders. The isle of Thanet, a secure and fertile 
 district, was allotted for the residence of these Ger- 
 man auxiliaries, and they were supplied, according to 
 the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and 
 provisions. This favourable reception encouraged five 
 thousand warriors to embark with their families in sev- 
 
 1 See Gildas dc Excidio Britanniic, c. 1 1— 25. p. 4— 0. edit. Gale. 
 Nennius Hist. Britonuin. c. 28. 35— G5. p. 105—1 15. edit. Gale. Bede 
 Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentia An{;loruni, I. i. c. 12—16. p. 49— 5!1. c. 22. p. 
 58. edit. Smith. Chron. Sa.xonicuni, p. 11—23, &c. edit Gilison. The 
 Anglo Saxon laws were published by Wilkins, London, 1731, in fo- 
 lio : and the Leges WalliciB, by VVotton and Clarke, London, 1730. 
 in folio. 
 
 m The laborious Mr. Carte, and the in^renious Mr. VVhitakcr, are 
 the two modem writers to whom I am principally indebted. The 
 particular historian of Manchester embraces, under that obscure ti- 
 tle, subject almost as extensive as tiie general history of England. 
 
 n Tliis invitation, which may derive some countenance from the 
 loose expressions of Gildas and Bede, is framed into a regular story 
 by WiUkind, a Saxon monk of the tenth century. (See Cousin. 
 Hist, de TEmpire d'Occident, torn. ii. p. 356.) Rapin, and even 
 Hume, have too freely used this suspicious evidence, without regard- 
 ing the precise and probable testimony of Nennius : Interea vene- 
 runt tres ChiulK aGermania in exilio pulste in quibus erant Hors et 
 Hengist. 
 
 enteen vessels, and the infant power of Hengist was 
 fortified by this strong and seasonable reinforcement. 
 The crafty barbarian suggested to Vortigern the obvi- 
 ous advantage of fixing, in the neighbourhood of the 
 Picts, a colony of faithful allies : a third fleet of forty 
 ships, under the command of his son and nephew, 
 sailed from Germany, ravaged the Orkneys, and dis- 
 embarked a new army on the coast of Northumberland, 
 or Lothian, at the opposite extremity of the devoted 
 land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible to 
 prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were 
 soon divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. 
 The Saxons magnified all that they had done and suf- 
 fered in the cause of an ungrateful people; while the 
 Britons regretted the liberal rewards which could not 
 satisfy the avarice of those haught}' mercenaries. The 
 causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an irre- 
 concilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms ; and, if 
 they perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the se- 
 curity of a feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confi- 
 dence which sustains the intercourse of peace and 
 war.** 
 
 Hengist, who boldly aspired to the Establishment 
 conquest of Britain, exhorted his country- Sept'Trc^hT" 
 men to embrace the glorious opportunity ; A. D. 455^582. 
 he painted in lively colours the fertility of the soil, the 
 wealth of the cities, the pusillanimous temper of the 
 natives, and the convenient situation of a spacious soli- 
 tary island, accessible on all sides to the Saxon fleets. 
 The successive colonies which issued, in the period of 
 a century, from the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, 
 and the Rhine, were principally composed of three 
 valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the Jutes, the 
 old Saxons, and the Angles. The Jutes, who fought 
 under the peculiar banner of Hengist, assumed the 
 merit of leading their countrymen in the paths of glo- 
 ry, and of erecting, in Kent, the first independent 
 kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed 
 to the primitive Saxons ; and the common laws and 
 language of the conquerors are described by the na- 
 tional appellation of a people, which, at the end of 
 four hundred years, produced the first monarchs of 
 South Britain. The Angles were distinguished by 
 their numbers dpd their success ; and they claimed the 
 honour of fixing a perpetual name on the country, of 
 which they occupied the most ample portion. The 
 barbarians, who followed the hopes of rapine either 
 on the land or sea, were insensibly blended with this 
 triple confederacy ; the jP/-/Vi«7}s, who had been tempted 
 by their vicinity to the British shores, might balance, 
 during a short space, the strength and reputation of 
 the native Saxons; the Danes, the Prussians, the Bu- 
 gians are faintly described ; and some adventurous 
 Huns, who had wandered as far as the Baltic, might 
 embark on board the German vessels, for the conquest 
 of a new world.P But this arduous achievement was 
 not prepared or executed by the union of national pow- 
 ers. Kach intrepid chieftain, according to the meas- 
 ure of his fame and fortunes, assembled his followers ; 
 equipped a fleet of three, or perhaps of sixty, vessels ; 
 chose the place of the attack ; and conducted his sub- 
 sequent operations according to the events of the war, 
 and the dictates of his private interest. In the inva- 
 sion of Britain many heroes vanquished and fell ; but 
 only seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least main- 
 tained, the title of kings. Seven independent thrones, 
 the Saxon Heptarchy, were founded by the conquerors, 
 and seven families, one of which has been continued, 
 by female succession, to our present sovereio-n, de- 
 
 o Nennius imputes to the Saxons the murder of three hundred Bri- 
 tish chiefs ; a crime not unsuitable to their savage manners. But we 
 are not obli<;ed to believe (see Jeffrey of Monmouth, I. viii. c. 9—12.) 
 that Stonehenge is their monument, which the giants had formerly 
 transported from Africa to Ireland, and which was removed to Bri- 
 tain by the order of Ambrosius, and the art of Merlin. 
 
 p All those triboa are expressly enumerated by Bede, (1. i. c. 15. p. 
 52. I. V. c. 9. p. 190.) and though I have considered Mr. Whitaker'a 
 remarks, (Hist, of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 538—513.) I do not perceive 
 the absurdity of supposing that the Frisians, to. were mingled witli 
 the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 rived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the 
 god of war. It has been pretended, that this republic 
 of kings was moderated by a general council and a su- 
 preme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of 
 policy is repugnant to the rude and turbulent spirit of 
 the Saxons : their laws are silent; and their imperfect 
 annals aflford only a dark and bloody prospect of intes- 
 tine discord.i 
 
 State of the A monk, who, in the profound igno- 
 
 BntouB, ranee of human life, has presumed to 
 exercise the oflice of historian, strangely disfigures the 
 state of Britain, at the time of its separation from the 
 western empire. Gildas' describes in florid language 
 the improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade 
 which flowed with every tide into the Thames and the 
 Severn, the solid and lofty construction of public and 
 private edifices : he accuses the sinful luxury of the 
 British people ; of a people, according to the same wri- 
 ter, ignorant of the most simple arts, and incapable, 
 without the aid of the Romans, of providing walls of 
 stone, or weapons of iron, for the defence of their na- 
 tive land.* Under the long dominion of the emperors, 
 Britain had been insensibly moulded into the elegant 
 and servile form of a Roman province, whose safety 
 was intrusted to a foreign power. The subjects of 
 Honorius contemplated their new freedom with sur- 
 prise and terror; they were left destitute of any civil 
 or military constitution ; and their uncertain rulers 
 wanted either skill, or courage, or authority, to direct 
 the public force ajjainst the common enemy. The in- 
 troduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weak- 
 ness, and degraded the character both of the prince and 
 people. Their consternation magnified the danger; 
 the want of union diminished their resources ; and the 
 madness of civil factions was more solicitous to ac- 
 cuse, than to remedy, the evils, which they imputed to 
 the misconduct of their adversaries. Yet the Britons 
 were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of the 
 manufacture or the use of arms : the successive and 
 disorderly attacks of the Saxons allowed them to re- 
 cover from their amazement, and the prosperous or ad- 
 verse events of the war added discipline and experi- 
 ence to their native valour. 
 
 Tlicir resistance. While the Continent of Europe and 
 Africa yielded, without resistance, to 
 the barbarians, the British island, alone and unaided, 
 maintained a long, a vigorous, though an unsuccess- 
 ful, struggle, against the formidable pirates, who, al- 
 most at the same instant, assaulted the northern, the 
 eastern, and the southern coasts. The cities which 
 had been fortified with skill, were defended with reso- 
 lution ; the advantages of ground, hills, forests, and 
 morasses, were diligently improved by the inhabi- 
 tants; the conquest of each district was purchased 
 with blood ; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly 
 attested by the discreet silence of their annalist. Hen- 
 gist might hope to achieve the conquest of Britain ; 
 but his ambition, in an active reign of thirty-five years, 
 was confined to the possession of Kent; and the nu- 
 merous colony which he had planted in the north, was 
 extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The mon- 
 archy of the West Saxons was laboriously founded by 
 the persevering eflTorts of three martial generations. 
 The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest of the children 
 of Woden, was consumed in. the conquest of Hamp- 
 shire and the Isle of Wight ; and the loss which he 
 sustained in the battle of Mount Badon, reduced him 
 to a state of inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant 
 son, advanced into Wiltshire ; besieged Salisbury, at 
 
 q Bede has enumerated seven kings, two Saxons, a Jute, and four 
 Angles, who successively acquired in the heptarchy an indefinite 
 supremacy of power and renown. But their reign was the effect, 
 not of law, but of conquest : and he observes in similar terms, that one 
 of them subdued the Isles of Man and Anglesey ; and that another 
 imposed a tribute on the Scots and Picts. (Hist. Eccles. I. ii. c. 5. p. 83.) 
 
 r See Gildas de Excidio Britannix, c. i. p. I. edit. Gale. 
 
 • Mr. Whitaker (History of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 503. 516.) has 
 imartly exposed this glaring absurdity, which had passed unnoticed 
 by the general historians, as they were hastening to more interest- 
 ing and important events. 
 
 that time seated on a commanding eminence ; and van- 
 quished an army which advanced to the relief of the 
 city. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough,* his 
 British enemies displayed their military science. Their 
 troops were formed in three lines; each line consisted 
 of three distinct bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, 
 and the pikemen, were distributed according to the 
 principles of Roman tactics. The Saxons charged in 
 one weighty column, boldly encountered with their 
 short swords the long lances of the Britons, and main- 
 tained an equal conflict till the approach of nijTht. 
 Two decisive victories, the death of three British 
 kings, and the reduction of Cirencester, Bath, and 
 Gloucester, established the fame and power of Ceau- 
 lin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious 
 arms to the banks of the Severn. 
 
 After a war of a hundred years, the , „. , 
 independent Britons still occupied the '' 
 
 whole extent of the western coast, from the wall of 
 Antoninus to the extreme promontory of Cornwall ; 
 and the principal cities of the inland country still op- 
 posed the arms of the barbarians. Resistance became 
 more languid, as the number and boldness of the as- 
 sailants continually increased. Winning their way by 
 slow and painful eflforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and 
 their various confederates, advanced from the north, 
 from the east, and from the south, till their victorious 
 banners were united in the centre of the island. Be- 
 yond the Severn the Britons still asserted their national 
 freedom, which survived the heptarchy, and even the 
 monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest warriors, who 
 preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the 
 mountains of Wales : the reluctant submission of 
 Cornwall was delayed for some ages ;" and a band of 
 fugitives acquired a settlement in Gaul, by their own 
 valour, or the liberality of the Merovingian kings.* 
 The western angle of Armorica acquired the new ap- 
 pellations of Cornwall, and \\\e Lesser Britain; and the 
 vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange 
 people, who, under the authority of their counts and 
 bishops, preserved the laws and language of their an- 
 cestors. To the feeble descendants of Clovis and 
 Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the cus- 
 tomary tribute, subdued the neighbouring dioceses of 
 Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes, and formed a powerful 
 though vassal stale, w^iich has been united to the 
 crown of France.^ 
 
 In a century of perpetual, or at least Tho fame of 
 implacable, war, much courage, and Arthur, 
 
 some skill, must have been exerted for the defence of 
 Britain. Yet if the memory of its champions is al- 
 most buried in oblivion, we need not rejiine ; since ev- 
 ery age, however destitute of science or virtue, suffi- 
 
 t At Beran-birig, or Barbury-castle, near Marlliorougli. The Sax- 
 on chronicle assigns the name and date. Canidon (Britannia, vol. i. 
 p. 128.) ascertains the place ; and Henry of lluntiii<rdon (Scriptorea 
 post Bedam, p. 314.) relates the circumstances of this battle. They 
 are probable and characteristic ; and the historians of the twelfth 
 century might consult some materials that no longer exist. 
 
 u Cornwall was finally subdued by Athelstan, (A. D. 927— 941.) 
 who planted an English colony at Exeter, and confined the Britons 
 beyond the river Tamar. See William of Malmsbury, 1. ii. in the 
 Scriptores post Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the Cornish knights 
 was degraded by servitude ; and it should seem, from the romance 
 of Sir Tristram, that their cowardice was almost proverbial. 
 
 X The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved in the sixth 
 century, by Trocopius, Gregory of Tours, the second council of 
 Tours, (A. D. 5G7.) and tlie least suspicious of their chronicles and 
 lives of saints. The subscription of a bishop of the Britons to the 
 first council of Tours, (A. D. 461. or rather 481.) the army of Riotha- 
 mils, and the loose declamation of Gildas, (alii transniarinas pete- 
 bant regiones, c. 25. p. 8.) may countenance an emigration as early 
 as the middle of the fifth century. Beyond that ara, the Britons of 
 Armorica can he found only in romance ; and I am surprised that Mr. 
 Whitaker (Genuine History of the Britons, p. 214— 221.) should so 
 faithfully transcrilie the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial er- 
 rors he has so rigorously chastised. 
 
 y The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the subject 
 even of political controversy, are illustrated by liadrian Valesius, 
 (Notilia Galliarum, sub voce Britannia Cismarina, p. 98—100.) M. 
 d'Anville, (Notice de Ancienne Gauie, Corisopifi, Curiosolites, Osis- 
 mii, Vorganivm, p. 248. 258.508. 720. and Elats de I'Europe, p. 7G— 
 80.) I-.onguerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 84 — 94.) and 
 the Abbe de Vertot. (Hist. Critique de I'Etablissement des Bretons 
 dans lea Gaules, 2 vol. in 12mo. Paris, 1720.) I may assume the me- 
 rit of examining the original evidence which they have produced. 
 
\ 
 
 526 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Cuap. XXXV III. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 527 
 
 
 ciently abounds with acts of blood and military re- 
 nown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, 
 was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a land- 
 mark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice 
 vanquished in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aure- 
 lian was descended from a noble family of Romans;^ 
 his modesty was equal to his valour, and his valour, 
 till the last fatal action,* was crowned with splendid 
 success. But every British name is effaced by the 
 illustrious name of Arthur,*' the hereditary prince of 
 the Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or 
 general of the nation. According to the most rational 
 account, he defeated, in twelve successive battles, the 
 Angles of the north, and the Saxons of the west; but 
 the declining age of the hero was imbittered by popu- 
 lar ingratitude, and domestic misfortunes. The events 
 of his life are less interesting than the singular revolu- 
 tions of his fame. During a period of five hundred 
 years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and 
 rudely embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales 
 and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons, and un- 
 known to the rest of mankind. The pride and curios- 
 ity of the Norman conquerors, prompted them to in- 
 quire into the ancient history of Britain : they listened 
 with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly 
 applauded the merit of a prince, who had triumphed 
 over the Saxons, their common enemies. His ro- 
 mance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of Mon- 
 mouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable 
 idiom of the times, was enriched with the various, 
 though incoherent, ornaments, which were familiar to 
 the experience, the learning, or the fancy, of the 
 twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian colony, 
 from the Tiber to the Thames, was easily ingrafted on 
 the fable of the ^Eneid ; and the royal ancestors of Ar- 
 thur derived their origin from Troy, and claimed their 
 alliance with the Ca?sars. His trophies were decora- 
 ted with captive provinces, and imperial titles ; and his 
 Danish victories avenged the recent injuries of his 
 country. The gallantry and superstition of the Brit- 
 ish hero, his feasts and tournaments, and the memora- 
 ble institution of his Knights of the Round Tahle^ were 
 faithfully copied from the reigning manners of chiv- 
 alry ; and the fiibulous exploits of Uther's son, appear 
 less incredible, than the adventures which were achiev- 
 ed by the enterprising valour of the Normans. Pil- 
 grimage, and the holy wars, introduced into Europe 
 the specious miracles of Arabian magic. Fairies and 
 giants, flying dragons and enchanted palaces, were 
 blended with the more simple fictions of the west; and 
 the fate of Britain depended on the art, or the predic- 
 tions, of Merlin. Every nation embraced and adorned 
 the popular romance of Arthur, and the Knights of the 
 Round Table: their names v.ere celebrated in Greece 
 and Italy ; and the voluminous tales of Sir Lancelot 
 and Sir Tristram were devoutly studied by the princes 
 and nobles, who disregarded the genuine heroes and 
 historians of antiquity. At length the light of science 
 and reason was rekindled ; the talisman was broken ; 
 the visionary fabric melted into air; and by a natural, 
 though unjust, reverse of the public opinion, the sever- 
 ity of the present age is inclined to question the exist- 
 ence of Arthur.*^ 
 
 z Bede. who in iiis clironicle (p. 28.) placci Ambrosius under tlie 
 reign of Zeno, (A. 1). 474 — 491.) observes, that his parents had been 
 "purpura induti ;" wiiich lie explains, in his ecclesiastical history, 
 by " regium nornen et insigne fercntibus.'' (I. i. c. 16. p. 53.) The ex- 
 pression of Nenniua, (c. 44. p. 110, edit. Gale.) is still more singular, 
 •' Unus de consnlibus gentis Komanicic est pater meus." 
 
 at By the unanimous, titou<!li doubtful, cor.jocture of our antiqua- 
 rians, Ambrosius is confounded with Natanleod, who (.\. D. o(J8.) 
 lost his own life, and five thousand of his subjects, in a buttle againut 
 Cerdic, the Wetst Saxon. (Chion. Saxon, p. 17, 18 ) 
 
 b As I am a stranger to the Welsh bards, Myrdliin. Llomarch, 
 and Taliessin, my faitli in tlie existence and exploits of Arthur, 
 principally rests on the simple and circumstantial testimony of Nen- 
 riius. (Hist. Brit. c. 62,63. p. 114.) Mr. VVIiitaker (Hist, of iVlanches 
 ler, vol. ii. p. 31 — 71.) has framed an interesting, and even probaMe, 
 narrative of the wars of Arthur; though it ig impossible to allow 
 the reality of the round table. 
 
 c The progress of romance, and the state of learning, in the mid- 
 dle ages, are illustrated by Mr. Thomas VV'arton, with the taste of a 
 poet, and the minute diligence of an antiquarian. I have derived 
 
 Resistance, if it cannot avert, must in- Desolation of 
 crease, the miseries of conquest ; and Britain, 
 conquest has never appeared more dreadful and des- 
 tructive than in the hands of the Saxons ; who hated 
 the valour of their enemies, disdained the faith of 
 treaties, and violated, without remorse, the most sa- 
 cred objects of the christian worship. The fields of 
 battle might be traced, almost in every district, by 
 monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers 
 were stained with blood ; the last of the Britons, with- 
 out distinction of age or sex, was massacred,** in the 
 ruins of Anderida;* and the repetition of such calami- 
 ties was frequent and familiar under the Saxon hep- 
 tarchy. The arts and religion, the laws and language, 
 which the Romans had so carefully planted in Britain, 
 were extirpated by their barbarous successors. After 
 the destruction of the principal churches, ihe bishops, 
 who had declined the crown of martyrdom, retired 
 with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica; the re- 
 mains of their flocks were left destitute of any spiritual 
 food; the practice, and even the remembrance, of Chris- 
 tianity were abolished; and the British clergy might 
 obtain some comfort from the damnation of the idola- 
 trous strangers. The kings of France maintained the 
 privileges of their Roman subjects; but the ferocious 
 Saxons trampled on the laws of Rome, and of the em- 
 perors. The proceedings of civil and criminal juris- 
 diction, the titles of honour, the forms of oflJlce, the 
 ranks of society, and even the domestic rights of mar- 
 riage, testament, and inheritance, were finally sup- 
 pressed ; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and 
 plebeian slaves was governed by the traditionary cus- 
 toms, which had been coarsely framed for the shep- 
 herds and pirates of Germany. The language of sci- 
 ence, of business, and of conversation, vi'hich had been 
 introduced by the Romans, was lost in the general des- 
 olation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic words 
 migiit be assumed by the Germans, to express their 
 new wants and ideas ;' but those illiterate pagans pre- 
 served and established the use of their national dia- 
 lect.K Almost every name, conspicuous either in the 
 church or state, reveals its Teutonic origin ;•» and the 
 geography oi Enirland was universally inscribed with 
 foreign characters and appellations. The example of 
 a revolution, so rapid and so complete, may not easily 
 be found ; but it will excite a probable suspicion, that 
 the arts of Rome were less deeply rooted in Britain 
 than in Gaul or Spain ; and that the native rudeness of 
 the country and its inhabitants, was covered by a thin 
 varnish of Italian manners. 
 
 This strange alteration has persuaded 
 historians, and even philosophers, that St'vitudo. 
 the provincials of Britain were totally exterminated; 
 and that the vacant land was again peopled by the 
 perpetual influx and rapid increase of the German 
 colonies. Three hundred thousand Saxons are said 
 to have obeyed the summons of Hengist;' the entire 
 emigration of the Angles was attested, in the age of 
 
 much instruction from the two learned dissertations preflzed to the 
 first volume of his History of English Poetry. 
 
 d Hoc anno (190.) iElia et Cis.«a ohsedcrunt AndrcdesCeaster ; ct 
 interfccerunt omnes qui id incoluerunt ; adeo ut ne unus Crito ibi 
 supcrstes fuerit, (Chron. Saxon, p. 15.) an expression more dreadful 
 in its simplicity, than all the vague and tedious lamentations of the 
 British Jeremiah. 
 
 e Andredes-Ceaster, or Andcrida,is placed l>y Camden (Britannia, 
 vol. i. p. 258.) at Newenden, in the marshy grounds of Kent, which 
 might b»f formerly covered by the sea, and on the edge of the great 
 forest (Anderida) which overspread so large a portion of Hampshire 
 and Sussex. 
 
 f Dr. Johnson affirms that fete English words arc of British ex- 
 traction. Mr. Whitaker, wiio understands the British language, has 
 discovered more than three thousavd, and actually produces a lorij 
 and various catalogue, (vol. ii. p. 235—329.) It is possible, indeed, 
 ibiit many of these words may have been imported from the Latin 
 or Saxon into the native idiom of Britain. 
 
 f In the l)eginning of the seventh century, the Franks and the 
 Anglo-Saxons mutually understood each other's language, whicll 
 was derived from the same Teutonic root. (Bedo, I. i. c. 25. p. 60.) 
 
 h After the first generation of Italian, or Scottish, missionaries, the 
 dignities of the church were filled with Saxon proselytes. 
 
 i Carte's History of England, vol. i. p. 195. He quotes the British 
 historians ; hut I much fear, that Jeffrey of Monmouth (I. vi. c. 15.) 
 is his only witness. 
 
 Bede, by the solitude of their native <5ountry ; '^ and 
 our experience has shown the free propo.p~^tion of 
 the human race, if they are cast on a fruitful v;ider- 
 ness, where their steps are unconfined, and their suVi, 
 sistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms displayed 
 the face of recent discovery and cultivation : the 
 towns were small, the villages were distant; the 
 husbandry was languid and unskilful; four sheep 
 were equivalent to an acre of the best land ;* an ample 
 space of wood and morass was resigned to the vague 
 dominion of nature; and the modern bishopric of 
 Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to the Tees, 
 had returned to its primitive state of a savage and so- 
 litary forest." Such imperfect population might have 
 been supplied, in some generations, by the English 
 colonies: but neither reason nor facts can justify the 
 unnatural supposition, that the Saxons of Britain re- 
 mained alone in the desert which they had subdued. 
 After the sanguinary barbarians had secured their 
 dominion, and gratified their revenge, it was their in- 
 terest to preserve the peasants, as well as the cattle, 
 of the unresisting country. Li each successive re- 
 volution, the patient herd hecomes the property of its 
 new masters; and the salutary compact of food and 
 labour is silently ratified by their mutual necessities. 
 Wilfrid, the apostle of Sussex," accepted from his royal 
 convert the gift of the peninsula of Selsey, near 
 Chichester, with the persons and property of its in- 
 habitants, who then amounted to eighty-seven families. 
 He released them at once from spiritual and temporal 
 bondage : and two hundred and fifty slaves of both 
 sexes were baptized by their indulgent master. The 
 kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the 
 Thames, contained seven thousand families : twelve 
 hundred were ascribed to the Isle of Wight; and, if 
 we multiply this vague computation, it may seem 
 probable that ?]ngland was cultivated by a million of 
 servants, or villains j who were attached to the estates 
 of their arbitrary landlords. The indigent barbarians 
 were often tempted to sell their children or themselves 
 into perpetual, and even foreign, bondage;" yet the 
 special exemptions, which were granted to nation- 
 al slaves,P sufliciently declare that they were much 
 less numerous than the strangers and captives, who 
 had lost their liberty, or changed their masters, by 
 the accidents of war. When time and religion had 
 mitigated the fierce spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, the 
 laws encouraged the frequent practice of manumission ; 
 and their subjects, of Welch or Cambrian extraction, 
 assume the respectable station of inferior freemen, 
 possessed of lands, and entitled to the rights of civil 
 society .1 Such gentle treatment might secure the al- 
 legiance of a fierce people, who had been recently 
 suhdued on the confines of Wales and Cornwall. 
 The sao-e Ina, the legislator of Wessex, united the 
 two nations in the bands of domestic alliance; and 
 
 k Bede, Hist. Ecclcsiasl. 1. i. c. 15. p. 52. The fact is probable and 
 well attested : yet such was the loose intermixture of the German 
 tribes, that we find, in a subsequent period, the law of the Angli and 
 WarinI of Germany. (Lindenbrog. Condex, p. 479—486.) 
 
 1 See Dr. Henry's useful and laborious History of Great Britain, vol. 
 ii. p. 333. 
 
 m Quicquld (says John of Tinemouth) inter Tynam et Tesam flu- 
 vios exlitit sola eremi vaslitudo tunc lemporis fuil, et idcirco nullius 
 ditinui servivit, eo quod sola indoniitorum et sylvestrium animalium 
 spelunca et haijitalio fuit, (apud Carte, vol. i. p. 195.) From bishop 
 Nicholson (Enjzlish Historical Library, p. 65. 98.) I understand, that 
 fair copies of Johnof Tinemouth's ample collections are preserved in 
 the libraries of Oxford, Lambeth, &c. 
 
 n See the mission of Wilfrid, &c. in Bede, Hist. Eccles. I. iv. c. 13. 
 16. p. 155, 156. 159. 
 
 o From the concurrent testimony of Bede, (I. ii. c. 1. p. 78.) and 
 William of IVIalnisburj', (I. iii. p. I(jr2.) it appears that the Anjrlo-Sax- 
 ons, from the first, to the last, agp, persisted in this unnatural practice. 
 Their youths were publicly sold in the market of Rome. 
 
 p According to the laws of Ina, they could not be lawfully sold be- 
 yond the seas. 
 
 q The life of a Wallus, or Cambrici/s^hottto, who possessed a hyde 
 of land, is fixed at 120 shillings, by the same laws, (of Ina, tit. xxxii. 
 in Leg. Anglo-Saxon, p. 20.) which allowed 200 shillings for a free 
 Saxon, 1200 for a Thane, (see likewise Lee. Anglo-Saxon,~p. 71.) We 
 may observe, that these legislators, the West-Saxons and Mercians, 
 continued their British conquests after they became christians. The 
 laws of the four kings of Kent do not condescend to notice the exist- 
 ence of any subject Britons. 
 
 four British lords of Somersetshire may be honourably 
 distinguished in the cdurt of a Saxon monarch.' 
 
 The independent Britons appear to Manners of the 
 have relapsed into the state of original Britons, 
 ^'■arbarism, from whence they had been imperfectly 
 reclaimed. Separated by their enemies from the rest 
 of manVind, they soon became an object of scandal 
 and abhorrtsqce to the catholic world." Christian- 
 ity was still professed in the mountains of Wales ; 
 but the rude sclAsmatics in the form of the cleri- 
 cal tonsure, and in the day of the celebration of 
 Easter, obstinately resisted the iinperious mandates of 
 the Roman potitifTs. The use of the Latin language 
 was insensibly abolished, and the Britons were de- 
 prived of the arts and learning which Italy communi- 
 cated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armor- 
 ica, the Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the west, 
 was preserved and propagated ; and the Bards^ who 
 had been the companions of the Druids, were still 
 protected, in the sixteenth century, by the laws of 
 Elizabeth. Their chief, a respectable officer of the 
 courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermarthaen, 
 accompanied the king's servants to war ; the mo- 
 narchy of the Britains, which he sung in the front 
 of battle, excited their courage, and justified their def- 
 predations ; and the songster claimed for his legiti- 
 mate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His subor- 
 dinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal 
 and instrumental music, visited, in their res^pective 
 circuits, the royal, the noble, and the plebeian 
 houses ; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by 
 the clergy, was oppressed by the importunate demands 
 of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained 
 by solemn trials, and the strong belief of supernatural 
 inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet, and of his 
 audience.* The last retreats of Celtic freedom, the 
 extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were less 
 adapted to agriculture than to pasturage : the wealth of 
 the Britons consisted in their flocks and herds ; milk 
 and flesh were their ordinary food ; and bread was 
 sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. 
 Liberty had peopled the mountains of Wales and the 
 morasses of Armorica ; but their populousness has 
 been maliciously ascribed to the loose practice of 
 polygamy ; and the houses of these licentious barbari- 
 ans have been supposed to contain ten wives, and per- 
 haps fifty children." Their disposition was rash and 
 choleric : they were bold in action and in speech ;* and 
 as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alter- 
 nately indulged their passions in foreign and domestic 
 war. The cavalry of Armorica, the spearmen of 
 Gwent, and the archers of Merioneth, were equally for- 
 midable; but their poverty could seldom procure ei- 
 ther shields or helmets ; and the inconvenient weight 
 would have retarded the speed and agility of their 
 desultory operations. One of the greatest of the Eng- 
 lish monarchs was requested to satisfy the curiosity 
 of a Greek emperor concerning the state of Britain ; 
 and Henry IL could assert, from his personal experi- 
 ence, that Wales was inhabited by a race of naked war- 
 riors, who encountered, without fear, the defensive ar- 
 mour of their enemies.*' 
 
 r See Carte's Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 278. 
 
 s At the conclusion of his history, (A. D. 731.) Bede describes the 
 ecclesiastical state of the island, and censuresihe iniplacable, though 
 impotent, hatred of the Britons asainsl the English nation, and the 
 catholic church, (1. v. c. 23. p. 219.) 
 
 t Mr. Pennant's Tour in Wales, (p. 42G— 410.) has furnished me 
 with a curious and interesting account of the W^elch bards. In the 
 year 1508, a session was held at Caerwys by the especial command of 
 queen Elizabeth, and rp£rular degrees in vor;il and instrumental mu- 
 sic were conferred on fifty -five minstrels. The prize (a silver harp) 
 was adjudged by the 3Io6tyn Family. 
 
 u Regio longe laieque diffusa, rnilite, magis qiiam credibile sit, re- 
 ferta. Panibus equidem in illis miles unus quin<)uaginia general, 
 fortitus more barbaro denas aut amplius iixorcs. This reproach of 
 William of Poitiers (in the Historians of France, torn. xi. p. 88.) is 
 disclaimed by the Benedictine editors. 
 
 X Giraldus Cambreusis confines this gift of bold and ready elo- 
 quence to the Romans, the French, and the Britons. The malicioua 
 Welchman insinuates, that the English taciturnity might possibly be 
 the effect of their servitude under the Normans. 
 
 y The picture of Welch and Armorican manners is drawn from Gi- 
 
 j 
 
 
/ 
 
 528 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CrtAP. XXX vin 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 529 
 
 By the revolution of Britain, the lim- obscure or fabu- 
 its of science, as well as of empire, Jous state of Jiri- 
 were contracted. The dark cloud, ^'^'"* 
 which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, 
 and finally dispelled by the arms of Ca'sar, again s*-*:- 
 tled on the shores of the Atlantic, and a Roman i^rov- 
 ince was aijain lost amonor the fabulous islan<?^ of the 
 ocean. One hundred and fifty years after the reign 
 of Honorius, the gravest historian of the times ' de- 
 scribes the wonders of a remote i.'^e, whose eastern 
 and western parts are divided by an antique wall, 
 the boundary of life and dea^h, or more properly of 
 truth and fiction. The east is a fair country, inhab- 
 ited by a civilized people : the air is healthy, the wa- 
 ters are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her 
 regular and fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the 
 wall, the air is infectious and mortal ; the ground is 
 covered witli serpents; and this dreary solitude is the 
 region of departed spirits, who are transported from 
 the opposite shores in substantial boats, and by living 
 rowers. Some families of fishermen, the subjects of 
 the Franks, are excused from tribute, in consideration 
 of the mysterious office which is performed by these 
 Charons of the ocean. Each in his turn is sum- 
 moned, at the hour of midnight, to hear the voices, 
 and even the names, of the ghosts; he is sensible of 
 their weight, and he feels himself impelled byan un- 
 known, but an irresistible, power. After this dream 
 of fancy, we read with astonishment, that the name 
 of this island is Brittia ,- that it lies in the ocean, 
 against the mouth of the Rhine, and less than thirty 
 miles from the continent; and that it is possessed by 
 three nations, the Frisians, the Angles, and the Brit- 
 ons ; and that some Angles had appeared at Constan- 
 tinople, in 'the train of the French ambassadors. 
 From these ambassadors Procopius might be infor- 
 med of a singular, though not an improbable, adven- 
 ture, which announces the spirit, rather than the deli- 
 cacy, of an English heroine. She had been betrothed 
 to Raditrer kingf of the Varni, a tribe of Germans who 
 touched the ocean and the Rhine; but the perfidious 
 Iovr?r was tempted, by motives of policy, to prefer his 
 father's widow, the sister of Theodobert king of the 
 Franks.* The forsaken princess of the Angles, in- 
 stead of bewailing, revenged her disgrace. Her war- 
 like subjects are said to have been ignorant of the use, 
 and even of the form, of a horse : but she boldly 
 sailed from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a 
 fleet of four hundred ships and an army of one hun- 
 dred thousand men. After the loss of a battle, the 
 captive Radiger implored the mercy of his victorious 
 bride, who generously pardoned his offence, dismissed 
 her rival, and compelled the king of the Varni to dis- 
 charge with honour and fidelity the duties of a hus- 
 band.'' This gallant exploit appears to be the last na- 
 val enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons. The arts of nav- 
 itration by which they had acquired the empire of Brit- 
 ain and of the sea, were soon neglected by the indolent 
 barbarians, who supinely renounced all the commer- 
 cial advantaorcs of their insular situation. Seven in- 
 
 raUlus, (Dpscript. Cambrlae, c. 6 — 15. inter Script. Camden, p. 886 — 
 —891.) and the authors quoted by the Abbe de Vertot. (Hist. Cri- 
 tique, torn. ii. p. 2r>9— SGrt.) 
 
 z See Procopius de B»>ll. Gothic. I. iv. c. 20. p. 620—625. The 
 Greek historian is himself so confounded by iho wonders which he 
 relatps, that he weakly attempts to distinguish the islands of Brittia 
 and Britain, which he has identified by so many inseparable circum- 
 Btanres. 
 
 a Theodebert, grandson of Clovis, and king of Austrasia, was the 
 most powerful and warlike prince of the age; and this remarkable 
 adventure may be placed between the years 534 and 547, the extreme 
 terms of his reign. His sister Theudechildis retired to Sens, where 
 she founded monasteries, and distributed alms, (see the notes of the 
 Benedictine editors, in torn. ii. p. 216.) If we may credit the praisi^s 
 of Foriunatus, (1. vi. carm. 5. in torn. ii. p. 507) Radiger was deprived 
 of a most valuable wife. 
 
 b Perhaps she was the sister of one of the princes or chiefs of the 
 Angles, who landed in 527, and the following years, between the 
 Hinnber and the Thames, and jrradually founded the kingdoms of 
 East Anglia and Mercia. The fenglish writers are ignorant of her 
 name and existence : but Procopius may have sugtrested to Mr. Rowe 
 the character and situation of Rodogune in the tragedy of the Jltiyal 
 Convert. 
 
 dependent ki'gdoms were agitated by perpetual dis- 
 cord ; a^-^ the British world was seldom connected, 
 eith'^i 'n peace or war, with the nations of the conti- 
 .•ient.« 
 
 I have now accomplished the labori- p.,i| ,,f ,,jp jj^ 
 ous narrative of the decline and fall of mau empire in 
 the Roman empire, from the fortunate ^''^ **^""' 
 age of Trajan and tlie Antonines, to its total extinction 
 in the west, about five centuries after the christian 
 aera. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely 
 struggled with the natives for the possession of Brit- 
 ain : Gaul and Spain were divided between the pow- 
 erful monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and the 
 dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians: 
 Africa was exposed to the cruel persecution of the 
 Vandals, and the savajje insults of the Moors : Rome 
 and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were af- 
 flicted by an army of barbarian mercenaries, whose 
 lawless tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theo- 
 doric the Ostrogoth. All the subjects of the empire, 
 who, by the use of the Latin language, more particu- 
 larly deserved the name and privileges of Romans, 
 were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of for- 
 eign conquest ; and the victorious nations of Germany 
 established a new system of manners and government 
 in the western countries of Europe. The majesty of 
 Rome was faintly represented by the princes of Con- 
 stantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of Au- 
 gustus. Yet they continued to reign over the east, 
 from the Danube to the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic 
 and Vandal kingdoms of Italy and Africa were sub- 
 verted by the arms of Justinian; and the history of the 
 Greek emperors may still aflford a long series of in- 
 structive lessons, and interesting revolutions. 
 
 General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in 
 
 the West. 
 
 The Greeks, after their country had been reduced 
 into a province, imputed the triumphs of»Rome, not to 
 the merit, but to the fortune, of the republic. The 
 inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and re- 
 sumes her favours, had noiu consented (such was the 
 lancTuage of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to 
 descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immu- 
 table throne on the banks of the Tiber.* A wiser 
 Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, 
 the memorable history of his own times, deprived his 
 countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by open- 
 ing to their view the deep foundations of the greatness 
 of Rome.** The fideli ty of the citizens to each other, 
 and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of educa- 
 tion, and the prejudices of religion. I ^opou r. as well 
 as virtue, was the principle of the republic : the ambi- 
 tious citizens laboured to deserve the solemn glories 
 of a triumph ; and the ardour of the Roman youth was 
 kindled into active emulation, as often as they beheld 
 the domestic images of their ancestors.'^ The temper- 
 ate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally 
 established the firm and equal balance of the constitu- 
 tion ; which united the freedom of popular assemblies, 
 
 c In the copious history of Gregory of Tours, we cannot find any 
 traces of hostile or friendly intercourse between France and Eng- 
 land, except in the marriage of the daughter of Caribert, king of 
 Paris, quam regis cujusdam in Cantiafilius niatrimoniocopulavit, (I, 
 ix. c. 26. in torn. ii. p. 348.) The bishop of Tours ended his history 
 and iiis life almost immediately before the conversion of Kent. 
 
 a Sucii are the figurative expressions of Plutarch, (Opera, torn. ii. 
 p.3ia. edit. Wechel.)to whom, on the faith of his son Lamprias,(Fab- 
 ricius, Bibliot. Grace, toni. iii. p. 341.) I shall boldly impute the ma- 
 licious declamation, »rsp» t>); ra>fi*i'j>¥ rvxtfi:. The same opinions had _ 
 prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty years before Plu- 
 tarch ; and to confute them is the professed intention of Polybiua, 
 (Hist. I. i. p. 90. edit.Gronov. Amstel. 1670.) 
 
 b See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of Polybiua, and 
 many other parts of his general history, particularly a digression in 
 the seventeenth book, in which he compares the phalanx and the le- 
 gion. 
 
 c Sallust, deBell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the generous profea- 
 flions of P. Scipioand (4. Maximus. The Latin historian had read, and 
 most probably transcribes, Polybius, their contemporary and friend. 
 
 with the authority and wisdom of a senate, and the ex- 
 ecutive powers of a regal magistrate. When the con- 
 sul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen 
 bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw 
 his sword in the cause of his country, till he had dis- 
 charged the sacred duty by a military service of ten 
 years. This wise institution continually poured into 
 the field the rising generations of freemen and soldiers; 
 and their numbers were reinforced by the warlike and 
 populous states of Italy, who, after a brave resistance, 
 liad yielded to the valour, and embraced the alliance, 
 of the Romans. The sage historian, who excited the 
 virtue of the younger Scipio, and beheld the ruin of 
 Carthage,^ has accurately described their military sys- 
 tem; their levies, arms, exercises, subordination, 
 marches, encampments ; and the invincible legion, 
 superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx 
 of Philip -and Alexander. From these institutions of 
 peace and war, Polybius has deduced the spirit and 
 success of a people, incapable of fear, and impatient 
 of repose. The ambitious /lesign of conquest, which 
 might have been defeated by the seasonable conspiracy 
 of mankind, was attempted and achieved ; and the per- 
 petual violation of justice was maintained by the polit- 
 ical virtues of prudence and courage. The arms of the 
 republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always vic- 
 torious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Eu- 
 phrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean ; and 
 the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve 
 to represent the nations and their kings, were succes- 
 sively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.* 
 
 The rise of a cit^, whjch swelled into an empire, 
 may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a 
 philosophic mind. But the decline of Rome was the 
 natural and inevitable effect of in^mode rate j rfeatness . 
 Prosperity ripened the principle of decay ; the causes 
 of destr uction multiplied with the extent of conquq git ; 
 and as soon as time or accident had removed the artifi- 
 cial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the 
 pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is 
 simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring wht/ the 
 Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be sur- 
 prised that it had subsisted so long. The victor ious 
 legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the^vices of. 
 st^^^^^ers3rJd ineic^arjes,irrst oppressed the Ireedom 
 orthe republic, and aTterwards violated the majesty of 
 the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal 
 safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base 
 expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered 
 them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the 
 enemy; the vigour of the military government was re- 
 laxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions 
 of Constantine ; and the Roman world was overwhelm- 
 ed by a deluge of barbarians. 
 
 The decay of Rome has been frequently ascribed to 
 the translation of^ the seat of^nipire ; but this history 
 has aTreacfy shown, that the powers of government 
 were divided, rather than removed. The throne of 
 Constantinople was erected in the east; while the 
 west was still possessed by a series of emperors who 
 held their residence in Italy, and claimed their equal 
 inheritance of the legions and provinces. This dan- 
 gerous novelty impaired the strength, and fomented 
 the vices, of a double reign : the instruments of an op- 
 pressive and arbitrary system were multiplied ; and a 
 vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was introduced 
 and supported between the degenerate successors of 
 
 d While Carthago was in flames, Scipio repeated two lines of the 
 Iliad, which express the destruction of Troy, and acknowledged to 
 Polybius, his friend and preceptor, (Polyb. in Excerpt, de Virtut. et 
 Vit. torn. ii. p. 1455—1465.) that while he recollected the vicissitudes 
 of human affairs, he inwardly applied them to the future calamities 
 of Rome. (Appian. in Libycis, }). 136. edit. Toll.) 
 
 e See Daniel ii. 31—10. " And the fourth kingdom shall be strong 
 as iron : forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces, and subdueth all 
 things." The remainder of the prophecy (the mixture of iron and 
 clai/) was accomplished, according to St. Jerom, in his own time. 
 Sicut enim in principio nihil Romano imperio fortius et durius, ita 
 in fine rerum nihil imbecillius: quam et in bellig civilibus et adver- 
 8us diversas nationes aliarum gentium barbararum auxilio indige- 
 tvu9. (Opera, tom. v. p. 572.) 
 
 Vol. 1.— 3 R 31 
 
 Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the vir- 
 tue of a free people, imbitters the factions of a decli- 
 ning monarchy. The h ostile favou rites of Arcadiua 
 and Honorius betrayed the republicto its common ene- 
 mies ; and the Byzantine court beheld with indiflfer- 
 ence, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of Rome, the 
 misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the west. Under 
 the succeeding reigns, the alliance of the two empires 
 was restored ; but the aid of the oriental Romans was 
 tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual ; and the national 
 schism of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the 
 perpetual difference of language and manners, of in- 
 terest, and even of religion. Yet the salutary event 
 approved in some measure the judgment of Constan- 
 tine. During a long period of decay, his impregnable 
 city repelled the victorious armies of barbarians, pro- 
 tected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in 
 peace and war, the important straits which connect 
 the Euxine and Mediterranean seas. The foundation 
 of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the 
 preservation of the east, than to the ruin of the west. 
 I As the happiness o£ a future life is the great object 
 of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal, 
 that the introduction, or at lea^Mhe abi^s e . of chr i sti- 
 anit}'^, had some influen ce on t he aecline ^ ^^ f;>l[_n t th^ 
 Roman empire. The clergy successfulTy^preached the 
 doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active vir- 
 tues of society were discouraored ; and the last remains 
 of military spirit were buried in the cloister : a large 
 portion of public and private wealth was consecrated 
 to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and 
 the soldiers' pay was lavished on the useless multi- 
 tudes of both sexes, who could only plead the merits 
 of abstinence and chastity. Faith, zeal, curiosity, and 
 the more earthly passions of malice and ambition, kin- 
 dled the flame of theological discord ; the church, and 
 even the state, were distracted by religifluaJiuJtions, 
 whose conflicts were sometimes bloody, and always 
 implacable ; the attention of the emperors was divert- 
 ed from camps to synods; the Roman world was op- 
 pressed by a new species of tyranny ; and the persecu- 
 ted sects became^Jj ie sec ret_e n_er^ies of their c ountry . 
 Yei TOrty-soirit . however pernicious or absurd, is a 
 princtpr^TT^mon as well as of dissension. The bish- 
 ops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the 
 duty of passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox 
 sovereign ; their frequent assemblies, and perpetual 
 correspondence, maintained the communion of distant 
 churches ; and the benevolent temper of the gospel 
 was strengthened, though confined, by the spiritual al- 
 liance of the catholics. The sacred indolence of the 
 monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and eflfem- 
 inate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent 
 retreat, the same vices would have tempted the un- 
 worthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the 
 standard of the republic. Religious precepts are easily 
 obeyed, which indulge and sanctify the natural incli- 
 nations of their votaries ; but the pure and p^enuine in - 
 fluence of Christianity may be traced in its benetici dl. 
 th ough imperiect, etlects on the barbarian proselyte s 
 orClie north. It the decline of the Roman empire was 
 hastened by the conversion of Constantine, his victo- 
 rious religion broke the violence of the fall, and molli- 
 fied the ferocious temper of the conquerors. 
 
 The awful revolution maybe usefully applied to the 
 instruction of the present age. It is the duty of a pa- 
 triot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and 
 glory of his native country ; but a philosopher may 
 be permitted to enlarge his views, and to consider Eu- 
 rope as one great republic, whose various inhabitants 
 have attained almost the same level of politeness and 
 cultivation. The balance of power will continue to 
 fluctuate, and the prosperity of our own, or the neigh- 
 bouring kingdoms, may be alternately exalted or de- 
 pressed ; but these partial events cannot essentially 
 injure our general state of happiness, the system of 
 arts, and laws, and manners, which so advantageously 
 distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans 
 
 #' 
 
 \> 
 
 / 
 
 /■^■f 
 
J 
 
 530 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXVIIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 •^J 
 
 and their colonies. The- savage nations of the globe 
 are the common enemies of civilized society ; and we 
 may inquire with anxious curiosity whether Europe 
 is still threatened*with a repetition of those calamities, 
 which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of 
 Rome. Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate 
 the fall of that mighty empire, and explain the proba- 
 bL(< causes of our actual security. 
 •^I. The Romans were ignorant of the extent of their 
 danger, and the number of their enemies. Beyond 
 the Kliine and Danube, the northern countries of Eu- 
 rope and Asia were filled with innumerable tribes of 
 hunters and shepherds, poor, voracious, and turbulent ; 
 bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of in- 
 dustry. The barbarian world was agitated by the 
 rapid impulse of war; and the pence of Gaul or Italy 
 was shaken by the distant revolutions of China. The 
 Huns, who fled before a victorious enemy, directed 
 their march towards the west ; and the torrent was 
 swelled by the gradual accession of captives and al- 
 lies. The flying tribes who yielded to the Huns, as- 
 sumed in their turn the spirit of conquest ; the endless 
 column of barbarians pressed on the Roman empire 
 with accumula ted we ight ; and if the foremost were 
 destroyed", "the vacant space was instantly replenished 
 by new assailants. Such formidable cmigratidris*can 
 no longer issue from the north ; and the long repose, 
 which has been imputed to the decrease of population, 
 is the happy consequence of the progress of arts and 
 agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly 
 scattered among its woods and morasses" Germany 
 now produces a list of two thousand three hundred 
 walled towns : the christian kingdoms of Denmark, 
 Sweden, and Polar\d . have been sufcessively estab- 
 lished ; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic 
 knights, have extended their colonies along the coast 
 of the Baltic, as far as the Gulf of Finland. From 
 the Gulf of Finland to the eastern ocean, Russia now 
 assumes the form of a powerful and civilized empire. 
 The plough, the loom, and the forge, are introduced on 
 the banks of the Volga, the Oby, and the Lena ; and 
 the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to 
 tremble and obey. The reign of independent barba- 
 rism is now contracted to a narrow span; and the rem- 
 nant of Calmucks or Uzbccks, whose forces may be 
 almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the appre- 
 hensions of the great republic of Europe.' Yet this 
 apparent security should not tempt us to forget that 
 new enemies, and unknown dangers, may possibly arise 
 from some obscure people, scarcely visible in the map 
 of the world. The Arabs or Saracens, who spread 
 their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in 
 poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into 
 those savage bodies the soul of enthusiasm. 
 
 II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by 
 the singular and perfect coalition of its members. The 
 subject nations, resigning the hope, and even the wish, 
 of independence, embraced the character of Roman 
 citizens; and the provinces of the west were reluct- 
 antly torn by the barbarians from the bosom of their 
 mother country.^ But this union was purchased by the 
 loss of national freedom and military spirit ; and the 
 servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, ex- 
 pected their safety from the mercenary troops and gov- 
 ernors, who were directed by the orders of a distant 
 court. The happiness of a hundred millions depended 
 on the personal merit of one or two men, perhaps chil- 
 
 f The French and English editors of the Genealogical History of 
 the Tartars have subjoined a curious, though imperfect, description of 
 their present state. We might question the independence of the Cal- 
 mucks, or Eluths, since they have been recently vanquished by the 
 Chinese, who, in the year 1759, subdued the lesser Bucharia, and ad- 
 vanced into the country of Badakshan, near the sources of the Oxus. 
 (Memoires sur les Chinois, torn. i. p. 325— 400.) But these conquests 
 are precarious, nor will I venture to insure the safety of the Chinese 
 empire. ' 
 
 g The prudent reader will determine how far this general pro- 
 position IS weakened by the revolt of the Isaurians, the independence 
 of Britain and Armorica, the Moorish tribes, or the Baeaud® of Gaul 
 andSpam.p. 112. 141, 112, 527, 528. ^ 
 
 dren, whose minds were corrupted by education, luxury, 
 and despotic power. The deepest wounds were inflicted 
 on the empire during the minorities to the sons and 
 grandsons of Theodosius ; and, after those incapable 
 princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they aban- 
 doned the church to the bishops, the state to the eu- 
 nuchs, and the provinces to the barbarians. Europe 
 is now divided into twelve powerful, though une- 
 qual, kingdoms, three respectable commonwealths, 
 and a variety of smaller, though independent, states : 
 the chances of royal and ministerial talents are multi- 
 plied, at least, with the number of its rulers ; and a 
 Julian, or Semiramis, may reign in the north, while 
 Arcadius and Honorius again slumber on the thrones 
 of the south. The abuses of tyranny are restrained 
 by the mutual influence of fear and shame ; republics 
 have acquired order and stability; monarchies have 
 imbibed the principles of freedom, or, at least, of mode- 
 ration ; and some sense of honour and justice is intro- 
 duced into the most defective constitutions by the gen- 
 eral manners of the times. In peace, the progress of 
 knowledge and industry is accelerated by the emula- 
 tion of so many active rivals : in war, the European 
 forces are exercised by temperate and indecisive con- 
 tests. If a savage conqueror should issue from the 
 deserts of Tartary, he must repeatedly vanquish the 
 robust peasants of Russia, the numerous armies of 
 Germany, the gallant nobles of France, and the intre- 
 pid freemen of Britain ; who, perhaps, might confede- 
 rate for their common defence. Should the victorious 
 barbarians carry slavery and desolation as far as the 
 Atlantic ocean, ten thousand vessels would transport 
 beyond their pursuit the remains of civilized society; 
 and Europe would revive and flourish in the Ameri- 
 can world, which is already filled with her colonies 
 and institutions.*" 
 
 III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue, 
 foi*ify the strength and courage of barbarians. In 
 every age they have oppressed the polite and peaceful 
 nations of China, India, and Persia, who neglected, 
 and still neglect to counterbalance these natural pow- 
 ers by the resources of military art. The warlike 
 states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, 
 educated a race of soldiers ; exercised their bodies, dis- 
 ciplined their courage, multiplied their forces by regu- 
 lar evolutions, and converted the iron, which they 
 possessed, into strong and serviceable weapons. But 
 this superiority insensibly declined with their laws aud 
 manners ; and the feeble policy of Constantine and his 
 successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the em- 
 pire, the rude valour of the barbarian mercenaries. The 
 military art has been changed by the invention of gun- 
 powder; which enables men to command the two most 
 powerful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics, 
 chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied 
 to the service of war ; and the adverse parties oppose 
 to each other the most elaborate modes of attack and 
 of defence. Historians may indignantly observe, that 
 the preparations of a siege would found and maintain 
 a flourishing colony;' yet we cannot be displeased, 
 that the subversion of a city should be a work of cost 
 and difficulty ; or that an industrious people should be 
 protected by those arts, which survive and supply the 
 decay of military virtue. Cannon and fortifications 
 now form an impregnable barrier against the Tartar 
 
 h America now contains about six millions of European blood and 
 descent; and their numbers, at least in the north, are continually 
 increasing. Whatever may be the chanjres of their political situ.-i- 
 tion, they must preserve the manners of Europe ; and we may rpflpct 
 with some pleasure, that the Eniilish language will probably be dif- 
 fused over an immense and populous coiuinent. 
 
 i On ayoit fait venir (for the siope of Turin) 1 10 pieces de canon • 
 ^LlA^^^ ^ remarquerque chaque cros canon monl6 revientd environ 
 ^Sw?^ •■ ,'! y *^°'^ ^^0'^^ ^^'"'^^^ ; 106,aiO cartouches d'une facon, 
 et 300,000 dMjne autre; 21,000 bombes; 27,700 prenades, 15,000 sacs 
 a terre, 30,000 instrumens pour le pionnage; 1,200,000 livres de pou- 
 dre. Ajoutez a ces munitions, le plomb, le fer, et le fer-blanc, les 
 cordages, tout ce qui scrt aux mineurs, le souphre, le salpetre, les 
 outils de toute espece. II est certain que les frais de tous ces prcpa- 
 ratifs de destruction sufliroient pour fonder etpour faire flpurir la plus 
 nombreuse colonie. Voluire, Sitcle de Louis XIV. c. xx. in his 
 Works, torn. x\. p. 391. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 531 
 
 horse ; and Europe is secure from any future irruption 
 of barbarians ; since, before they can conquer, they 
 must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual advances 
 in the science of war would always be accompanied, 
 as we may learn from the example of Russia, with a 
 proportionable improvement in the arts of peace and 
 civil policy ; and they themselves must deserve a place 
 among the polished nations whom they subdue. 
 
 Should these speculations be found doubtful or fal- 
 lacious, there still remains a more humble source of 
 comfort and hope. The discoveries of ancient and 
 inodern navigators, and the domestic history, or tradi- 
 tion, of the most enlightened nations, represent the 
 human savage, naked both in mind and body, and des- 
 titute of laws, of arts, of ideas, and almost of lan- 
 guage.^ From this abject condition, perhaps the 
 primitive and universal state of man, he has gradually 
 arisen to command the animals, to fertilize the earth, 
 to traverse the ocean, and to measure the heavens. 
 His progress in the improvement and exercise of his 
 mental and corporeal faculties ' has been irregular and 
 various ; infinitely slow in the beginning, and increas- 
 ing by degrees with redoubled velocity ; ages of labo- 
 rious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid 
 downfall ; and the several climates of the globe have 
 felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the 
 experience of four thousand years should enlarge our 
 hopes, and diminish our apprehensions : we cannot 
 determine to what height the human species may as- 
 pire in their advances towards perfection; but it may 
 safely be presumed, that no people, unless the face of 
 nature is changed, will relapse into their original bar- 
 barism. The improvements of society may be viewed 
 under a threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philosopher 
 illustrates his age and country by the efforts of a sin- 
 gle mind ; but these superior powers of reason or fancy 
 are rare and spontaneous productions ; and the genius 
 of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less 
 admiration, if they could be created by the will of a 
 prince, or the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The bene- 
 fits of law and policy, of trade and manufactures, of 
 arts and sciences, are more solid and permanent; and 
 many individuals may be qualified, by education and 
 discipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the 
 interest of the community. But this general order is 
 the effect of skill and labour ; and the complex ma- 
 chinery may be decayed by time, or injured by vio- 
 lence. 3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, 
 or, at least, more necessary, arts, can be performed 
 without superior talents, or national subordination ; 
 without the powers of one, or the union of many. 
 Each village, each family, each individual, must al- 
 ways possess both ability and inclination, to perpetu- 
 ate the use of fire ■ and of metals ; the propagation 
 and service of domestic animals; the methods of 
 hunting and fishing; the rudiments of navigation ; 
 the imperfect cultivation of corn, or other nutritive 
 grain ; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. 
 Private genius and public industry may be extirpated ; 
 but these hardy plants survive the tempest, and strike 
 an everlasting root into the most unfavourable soil. 
 The splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were 
 eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance ; and the barbarians 
 
 k It would be an easy, though tedious, task, to produce the authori- 
 ties of poets, philosophers, and historians. I shall therefore content 
 myself with appealing to the decisive and authentic testimony of 
 Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. 1. i. p. 11, 12; 1. iii. p. 184, &c. edit.Wesse- 
 ling.) The Icthyopha'jci, who in his time wandered along the 6ht)res 
 of the Red sea, can only be compared to the natives of New Holland. 
 (Dampier's Voyages, vol. i. p. 464—469.) Fancy, or perhaps reason, 
 may still suppose an extreme ami absolute stale of nature far below 
 the' level of these savages, who had acquired some arts and instru- 
 ments. 
 
 1 See the learned and rational work of the president Gocruet, do 
 I'Origine des Loi.v, dns Arts, et des Sciences. He traces from facts, 
 or conjectures, (loin. i. p. 147— 337. edit. 12mo.) the first and most dif- 
 ficult steps of human invention. 
 
 m It is certain, however sirartge, that many nations have been ieno- 
 rant of the use of fire. Even the ingenious natives of Otaheite, who 
 are destitute of metals, have not invented any earthen vessels capable 
 of sustaining the action of fire, and of communicating the heat to the 
 liquids which they contain. 
 
 subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the 
 scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn," still con- 
 tinued annually to mow the harvests of Italy ; and the 
 human feasts of the Laestrigons," have never been re- 
 newed on the coast of Campania. 
 
 Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, 
 and religious zeal, have diflfused, among the savages 
 of the old and new world, these inestimable gifts : 
 they have been successively propagated ; they can 
 never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in the 
 pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has 
 increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the hap- 
 piness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the 
 human race.P 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Zeno and Anastasius, emperors of the east.— Birth, educa- 
 tion, and first exphits of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, — i/w 
 invasion and cmgtiest of Italy.— The Gothic fdngdmn of 
 Italy, — State of the ivest. — Military and civil government. 
 — The senator Boethius. — Last acts and death of Theo- 
 doric, 
 
 m 
 
 After the fall of the Roman empire . ^ 4-r_w- 
 in the west, an interval of fifty years, till '' 
 
 the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by 
 the obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, An- 
 astasius, and Justin, who suscessively ascended the 
 throne of Constantinople. During the same period, 
 Italy revived and flourished under the government of 
 a Gothic king, who might have deserved a statue 
 among the best and bravest of the ancient Romans. 
 
 Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the four- Bi h d h 
 teenth in lineal descent of the royal line cation^of The" 
 of the Amali,* was born in the neigh- odoric, 
 bourhood of Vienna,'' two years after the ^ ^' '*^^~^~^- 
 death of Attila. A recent victory had restored the in- 
 dependence of the Ostrogoths ; and the three brothers, 
 Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that 
 warlike nation with united counsels, had separately 
 pitched their habitations in the fertile though desolate 
 province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened 
 their revolted subjects, but their hasty attack was re- 
 pelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news 
 of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother 
 in the same auspicious moment that the favourite con- 
 cubine of Theodemir was delivered of a son and heir. 
 In the eighth year of his age, Theodoric was reluc- 
 tantly yielded by his father to the public interest, as 
 the pledge of an alliance which Leo, emperor of the 
 east, had consented to purchase by an annual subsidy 
 of three hundred pounds of gold. The royal hostage 
 was educated at Constantinople with care and tender- 
 ness. His I'ody was formed to all the exercises of 
 war, his mind was expanded by the habits of liberal 
 
 n Plutarch. Quaest. Rom. in tom. ii. p. 275. Macrob. Saturnal. 1. i. 
 c. 8. p. 152. edit. London. The arrival of Saturn (of his religious wor- 
 ship) in a ship, may indicate, that the savage coast of Laiiuin was 
 first discovered and civilized by the Pho-nicians. 
 
 o In the ninth and tenth bool^s of the Odyssey, Homer has embel- 
 lished the tales of fearful and credulous sailors, who transformed the 
 cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous giants. 
 
 P The inr^rit of discovery has too oflen been-stained with avarice, 
 cruelty, and fanaticism ; and llie intercourse of nations lias produced 
 the communication of diseane and prejudice. A singular exception 
 is due to the virtue of our own limes and country. The five great 
 voyages, successively undertaken by the command of his present 
 majesty, were inspired by the pure and generous love of science and 
 of mankind. The same prince, adapting his benefactions to the dif- 
 ferent stages of society, has founded a school of painting in his capi- 
 tal ; and has introduced into the islands of the South Sea, the vegt- 
 tables and animals must useful to human life. 
 
 a Jornandps (de Rfbtis Geiicis, c. 13, 14. p. 629, 630. edit. Grot.) 
 has drawn the pedigree of Tlieodoric from Gapt, one of the Anses, or 
 demi-gods, who lived about tlie time of Domitian. Cassiodorius, the 
 first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali, (Variar. viii.5. ix. 25. 
 X. 2. xi. 1.) reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the seventeenth in 
 descent. Perin«rsciold (the Swedish commentator of Cochloeus, Vit. 
 Theodoric, p. 271, &;c. Stockholm, 1G99.) labours to connect this ge- 
 nealogy with the legends or traditions of his native country. 
 
 b More correctly on the banks of the lake Pelso (Nieusiedler-see) 
 near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where Marcus Antoninus 
 composed his meditations. (Jornandcs, c. 52. p. 659. Severiu. Panno- 
 nia Illustrala, p. 2-2, Cellarius, Geograph. lorn. i. p. 350.) 
 
 / ''1 
 
532 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 533 
 
 ^^W i' 
 
 4* 
 
 «< 
 
 conversation ; he fre«|uented the schools of the most 
 skilful masters ; but he disdained or neglected the arts 
 of Greece, and so ignorant did he always remain of 
 the first elements of science, that a rude mark was 
 contrived to represent the signature of the illiterate 
 king of Italy .« As soon as he had attained the age of 
 eighteen, he was restored to the wishes of the Ostro- 
 goths, whom the emperor aspired to gain by liberality 
 and confidence. Walamir had fallen in battle ; the 
 youngest of the brothers, Widimir, had led away into 
 Italy and Gaul an army of barbarians, and the whole 
 nation acknowledged for their king the father of Theo- 
 doric. His ferocious subjects admired the strength 
 and stature of their young prince ; ^ and he soon con- 
 vinced them that he had not degenerated from the 
 valour of his ancestors. At the head of six thousand 
 volunteers, he secretly left the camp in quest of adven- 
 tures, descended the Danube as far as Singidunum or 
 Belgrade, and soon returned to his father with the 
 spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished 
 and slain. Such triumphs, however, were produc- 
 tive only of fame, and the invincible Ostrogoths were 
 reduced to extreme distress by the want of cloth- 
 ing and food. They unanimously resolved to desert 
 their Pannonian encampments, and boldly to advance 
 into the warm and wealthy neighbourhood of the By- 
 zantine court, which already maintained in pride and 
 luxury so many bands of confederate Goths. After 
 proving by some acts of hostility that they could be 
 danfrerous, or at least troublesome, enemies, the Ostro- 
 goths sold at a high price their reconciliation and 
 fidelity, accepted a donative of lands and money, and 
 were intrusted with the defence of the lower Danube, 
 under the command of Theodoric, who succeeded after 
 his father's death to the hereditary throne of the Amali.* 
 . J. A hero, descended from a race of 
 *^Zeno" ** kings, must have despised the base Isau- 
 A.D. 474— 491. T[\'&n who was invested with the Roman 
 Febr. Apr. 9. py ^p|g^ without any endowments of mind 
 or body, without any advantages of royal birth, or 
 superior qualifications. After the failure of the Theo- 
 dosian line, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate 
 might be justified in some measure by the characters 
 of Martian and Leo, but the latter of these princes 
 confirmed and dishonoured his reign by the perfidious 
 murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously ex- 
 acted the debt of gratitude and obedience. The inhe- 
 ritance of Leo and of the east was peaceably devolved 
 on his infant grandson, the eon of his daughter Ariad- 
 ne : and her Tsaurian husband, the fortunate Trascalis- 
 seus, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian 
 appellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder 
 Leo, he approached with unnatural respect the throne 
 of his son, humbly received, as a gift, the second rank 
 in the empire, and soon excited the public suspicion 
 on the sudden and premature death of his young col- 
 league, whose life could no longer promote the success 
 of his ambition. But the palace of Constantinople was 
 ruled by female influence, and agitated by female pas- 
 sions : and Verina, the widow of Leo, claiming his 
 empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of deposi- 
 tion against the worthless and ungrateful servant on 
 whom she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the east.^ 
 
 e The four first letters of his name (fc)EiiA)were inscribed on a 
 gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the kins; drew his 
 
 Sen through the intervals. (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm. 
 larcellin. p. 722 ) This authentic fact, with the testimony of Pro- 
 copius, or at least of the contemporary Goths, (Gothic. 1. i. c, 2. p. 
 311.) far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius. (Sirmond. Opera, 
 torn. i. p. 15%.) and Thcophanes (Chronostraph, p. 112.) 
 
 d Slatura est quae resignet proceritate rei^nantem. (Ennodius, p. 
 1614.) The bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic who wished to 
 be a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the complexion, eyes, hands, 
 tec. of his sovereign. 
 
 e The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of Theodoric, are 
 founded in Jornandes (c. 52 — 56. p. 689—696.) and Malchus, (Excerpt. 
 Legal, p. 73—80) who erroneously styles him the son of Walamir. 
 
 t Theophanes (p. 111.) inserts a copy of her sacred letters to the 
 
 provinces: «9"t» sti /3»<r«A.i«ov {)/«sTip9v lo-n . , . xjit on »-poxiip>i(rot. 
 
 ^«6« 3»(r»x.i»» Tp»<rx«\>.»<r«»ov, fcc. Such female pretensiong would 
 hi^ve astonished the slaves of \\\e first Cssars. 
 
 As soon as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, 
 he fled with precipitation into the mountains of Isauria, 
 and her brother Basiliscus, already infamous by his 
 African expedition,* was unanimously proclaimed by 
 the servile senate. But the reign of the usurper was 
 short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassi- 
 nate the lover of his sister ; he dared to offt nd the 
 lover of his wife, the vain and insolent Harmatius, 
 who, in the midst of Asiatic luxury, affected the dress, 
 the demeanour, and the surname of Achilles.'* By the 
 conspiracy of the malcontents, Zeno was recalled from 
 exile ; the armies, the capital, the person of Basilis- 
 cus, were betrayed ; and his whole family was con- 
 denmed to the long agony of cold and hunger by the 
 inhuman conqueror, who wanted courage to encounter 
 or to forgive his enemies. The haughty spirit of Ve- 
 rina was still incapable of submission or repose. She 
 provoked the enmity of a favourite general, embraced 
 his cause as soon as he was disgraced, created a new 
 emperor in Syria and Egypt, raised an army of seventy 
 thousand men, and persisted to the last moment of her 
 life in a fruitless rebellion, which, according to the 
 fashion of the age, had been predicted by christian 
 hermits and pagan magicians. While the east was 
 afflicted by the passions of Verina, her daughter Ari- 
 adne was distinguished by the female virtues of mild- 
 ness and fidelity ; she followed her husband in his 
 exile, and after his restoration she implored his clem- 
 ency in favour of her mother. On the or Anastasius, 
 decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, a.d. 4'.u— 5it<. 
 the mother, and the widow of an empe- ^P^'' "• •^"'y*'- 
 ror, gave her hand and the imperial title to Anastasius, 
 an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his ele- 
 vation above- twenty-seven years, and whose character 
 is attested by the acclamation of the people, " Reign 
 as you have lived !" ' 
 
 Whatever fear or aff*ection could be- service and re- 
 stow, was profusely lavished by Zeno volt of Thcodo- 
 on the king of the Ostrogoths ; the rank ^j^^^ 4-'5_488 
 of patrician and consul, the command of ' ' 
 the Palatine troops, an equestrian statue, a treasure 
 in gold and silver of many thousand pounds, the name 
 of son, and the promise of a rich and honourable wife. 
 As long as Theodoric condescended to serve, he sup- 
 ported with courage and fidelity the cause of his 
 benefactor : his rapid march contributed to the resto- 
 ration of Zeno ; and in the second revolt, the Wala- 
 mirSf as they were called, pursued and pressed the 
 Asiatic rebels, till they left an easy victory to the 
 imperial troops.* But the faithful servant was sud- 
 denly converted into a formidable enemy, who spread 
 the flames of war from Constantinople to the Adriatic; 
 many flourishing cities were reduced to ashes, and the 
 agriculture of Thrace was almost extirpated by the 
 wanton cruelty of the Goths, who deprived their cap- 
 tive peasants of the right hand that guided the plough.' 
 On such occasions, Theodoric sustained the loud and 
 specious reproach of disloyalty, of ingratitude, and of 
 insatiate avarice, which could be only excused by the 
 hard necessity of his situation. He reigned, not as 
 the monarch, but as the minister, of a ferocious people, 
 
 g See p. 593. 
 
 h Suidas, torn. i. p. 332, 333. edit. Kuster. 
 
 i The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus are lost; 
 but some extracts or fragments have been saved by Photius, (Ixxviii. 
 Ixxix. p. 100—102.) Conslanline Porphyrogenitus, (Excerpt. Leg. p. 
 73 —97.) and in various articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The Chro- 
 nicle of Marcelliuus (Imago Historise) are originals for the reigns of 
 Zeno and Anastasius; and 1 must acknowledge, almost for the last 
 time, my obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tille- 
 mont. (Hist, des Emp. tom. vi. p. 472— 652 ) 
 
 k In ipsis consressionis tuae foribus cessit invasor, cum profugo 
 pertesceptra redderenlur de salute dubitanti. Ennodius then pro- 
 ceeds (p. 1596, 1597. tom. i. Sirmond.) to transport his hero (on a 
 flying dragon) into Ethiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer. The 
 evidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 717.) Liberatus, (Brev. Eu- 
 tych. c.25. p. 118.) and Theophanes (p. 12.) is more soberand rational. 
 
 1 This cruel practice is specially imputed to the Triarian Goths, 
 less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs; but the son of 
 Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities. (Malchus, 
 Excerpt. Leg. p. 95.) 
 
 whose spirit was unbroken by slavery, and impatient 
 of real or imaginary insults. Their poverty was incur- 
 able ; since the most liberal donatives were soon dis- 
 sipated in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates 
 became barren in their hands ; they despised, but they 
 envied, the laborious provincials ; and when their sub- 
 sistence had failed, the Ostrogoths embraced the fa- 
 miliar resources of war and rapine. It had been the 
 wish of Theodoric, (such at least was his declaration,) 
 to lead a peaceable, obscure, obedient life, on the con- 
 fines of Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid 
 and fallacious promi-ses, seduced him to attack a con- 
 federate tribe of Goths, who had been engaged in the 
 party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station in 
 Maesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached 
 Adrianople, he should meet a plentiful convoy of 
 provisions, and a reinforcement of eight thousand 
 horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of 
 Asia were encamped at Heraclea to second his opera- 
 tions. These measures were disappointed by mutual 
 jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the son of 
 Theodemir found an inhospitable solitude, and his 
 Gothic followers, with a heavy train of horses, of 
 raules, and of waggons, were betrayed by their guides 
 among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, 
 where he was assaulted by the arms and invectives of 
 Theodoric the son of Triarius. From a neighbouring 
 height, his artful rival harangued the camp of the 
 Walamirs, and branded their leader with the oppro- 
 brious names of child, of madman, of perjured traitor, 
 the enemy of his blood and nation. '* Are you igno- 
 rant," exclaimed the son of Triarius, " that it is the 
 constant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths 
 by each other's swords 1 Are you insensible that the 
 victor in this unnatural conquest will be exposed, and 
 justly exposed, to their implacable revenge 1 Where 
 are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy own, whose 
 widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to 
 thy rash ambition ? Where is the wealth which thy 
 soldiers possessed when they were first allured from 
 their native homes to enlist under thy standard ? Each 
 of them was then master of three or four horses ; they 
 now follow thee on foot like slaves, through the de- 
 serts of Thrace ; those men who were tempted by the 
 hope of measuring gold with a bushel, those brave 
 men who are as free and as noble as thyself." A 
 language so well suited to the temper of the Goths, 
 excited clamour and discontent; and the son of Theo- 
 demir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compel- 
 led to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example 
 of Roman perfidy.™ 
 
 „ , . , In every state of his fortune, the pru- 
 
 ne undertakes , Y ^ ^ ^^, y . r 
 
 the conquest of dence and firmness of Ineodoric were 
 Italy. equally conspicuous ; whether he threat- 
 
 A. D. 489. ^^^j Constantinople at the head of the 
 confederate Goths, or retreated with a faithful band 
 to the mountains and sea-coast of Epirus. At length 
 the accidental death of the son of Triarius ° destroyed 
 the balance which the Romans had been so anxious 
 to preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the su- 
 premacy of the Amali, and the Byzantine court sub- 
 scribed an ignominious and oppressive treaty." The 
 senate had already declared, that it was necessary to 
 choose a party among the Goths, since the public was 
 unequalto the support of their united forces; a sub- 
 sidy of two thousand pounds of gold, with the ample 
 pay of thirteen thousand men, were required for the 
 
 m Jornandes (c. 56, 57. p. 696.) displays the services of Theodoric, 
 confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt, of which such CU' 
 rious details have been preserved by Malchus. (Excerpt. Legat. p. 
 78—97.) Marcel I inus, a domestic of Justinian, under whose fourth 
 consulship, (A. P. 534.) he composed his Chronicle, (Scaliger, Thesau- 
 rus Temporum, P. ii. p. 34—57.) betrays his prejudice and passion : 
 in Graeciiim debacchantem . . . Zenonis munificentia pene pacatus 
 . . . beneficiis nunquam satiatus, &c. 
 
 n As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse threw him 
 against the point of a spear which hung before a tent, or was fixed on 
 a waggon. (Marcellin. in Chron. Evagrius, I. iii. c. 25.) 
 
 o See Malchus (p. 91.) and Evagrius, (1. iii. c 35.) 
 
 least considerable of their armies ;p and the Isaurians, 
 who guarded not the empire but the emperor, enjoyed, 
 besides the privilege of rapine, an annual pension of 
 five thousand pounds. The sagacious mind of Theo- 
 doric soon perceived that he was odious to the Ro- 
 mans, and suspected by the barbarians ; he under- 
 stood the popular murmur, that his subjects were ex- 
 posed in their frozen huts to intolerable hardships, 
 while their king was dissolved in the luxury of 
 Greece, and he prevented the painful alternative of 
 encountering the Goths, as the champion, or of lead- 
 ing them to the field as the enemy, of Zeno. Embrac- 
 ing an enterprise worthy of his courage and ambition, 
 Theodoric addressed the emperor in the following 
 words : " Although your servant is maintained in af- 
 fluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the 
 wishes of my heart ! Italy, the inheritance of your 
 predecessors, and Rome itself, the head and mistress 
 of the world, now fluctuate under the violence and op- 
 pression of Odoaccr the mercenary. Direct me, with 
 my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I 
 fall, you will be relieved from an expensive and 
 troublesome friend : if, with the divine permission, I 
 succeed, I shall govern in your name, and to your 
 glory, the Roman senate, and the part of the republic 
 delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." The 
 proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had 
 been suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the 
 forms of the commission or grant, appear to have been 
 expressed with a prudent ambiguity, which might be 
 explained by the event; and it was left doubtful, 
 whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as the 
 lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally of the emperor of 
 the east.*! 
 
 The reputation both of the leader and „. 
 of the war diff'used a universal ardour; 
 the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic swarms 
 already engaged in the service, or seated in the pro- 
 vinces, of the empire ; and each bold barbarian, who 
 had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy, was im- 
 patient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, 
 the possession of such enchanting objects. The march 
 of Theodoric must be considered as the emigration of 
 an entire people : the wives and children of the Goths, 
 their aged parents, and most precious effects, were 
 carefully transported ; and some idea may be formed 
 of the heavy baggage that now followed the camp, 
 by the loss of two thousand waggons, which had been 
 sustained in a single action in the war of Epirus. 
 For their subsistence, the Goths depended on the 
 magazines of corn, which was ground in portable mills 
 by the hands of their women ; on the milk and flesh 
 of their flocks and herds ; on the casual produce of the 
 chace ; and upon the contributions which they might 
 impose on all who should presume to dispute the pas- 
 sage, or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwith- 
 standing these precautions, they were exposed to the 
 danger, and almost to the distress, of famine, in a 
 march of seven hundred miles, which had been under- 
 taken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since the fall 
 of the Roman power, Daeia and Pannonia no longer 
 exhibited the rich prospect of populous cities, well 
 cultivated fields, and convenient highways: the reign 
 of barbarism and desolation was restored, and the 
 tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidae, and Sarraatians, who >/ 
 had occupied the vacant province, were prompted by 
 their native fierceness, or the solicitations of Odoacer, 
 to resist the progress of his enemy. In many obscure 
 though bloody battles Theodoric fought and vanquish- 
 ed ; till at length, surmounting every obstacle by skil- 
 ful conduct and persevering courage, he descended 
 
 P Malchus, p. 85. In a single action, which was decided by the 
 skill and discipline of Sabinian, Theodoric could lose 5000 men. 
 
 q Jornandes (c. 57. p. 696, 697.) has abridged the great history of 
 Cassiodorius. See, compare, and reconcile, Procopius, (Gothic, 1. 1. 
 c. i.) the Valesian Fragment, (p. 7155.) Theophanes, (p. 113.) and 
 Marcellinus, (in Chron.) 
 
 1*^ 
 
n 
 
 534 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 »■ 
 
 from the Julian Alps, and displayed his invincible 
 banners on the confines of Italy.' 
 The three de- Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his 
 feauofodoaccr, arms, had already occupied the advanta- 
 A. D. 489. greous and well-known post of the river 
 
 Aug. 28. CI i- Ai- • '^ r k -I • 
 
 Sept. 27; tSoutius near the ruins of Aquiieia, at 
 A, D. 490. the head of a powerful host, whose in- 
 "^"■*' dependent kings* or leaders disdained 
 the duties of subordination and the prudence of delays. 
 No sooner had Theodoric granted a short repose and 
 refreshment to his wearied cavalry, than he boldly 
 attacked the fortifications of the enemy ; the Ostrogoths 
 showed more ardour to acquire, than the mercenaries 
 to defend, the lands of Italy ; and the reward of the 
 first victory was the possession of the Venetian prov- 
 ince as far as the walls of Verona. In the neighbour- 
 hood of that city, on the steep banks of the rapid 
 Adige, he was opposed by a new army, reinforced in 
 its numbers, and not impaired in its courage : the con- 
 test was more obstinate, but the event was still more 
 decisive ; Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advan- 
 ced to Milan, and the vanquished troops saluted their 
 conqueror with loud acclamations of respect and fidel- 
 ity. But their want either of constancy or of faith, 
 soon exposed hirn to the most imminent danger ; his 
 vanguard, with several Gothic counts, which had been 
 rashly entrusted to a deserter, was betrayed and des- 
 troyed near Faenza by his double treachery ; Odoacer 
 again appeared master of the field, and the invader, 
 strongly intrenched in his camp of Pavia, was reduced 
 to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of 
 Gaul. In the course of this history, the most voraci- 
 ous appetite for war will be abundantly satiated ; nor 
 can I much lament that our dark and imperfect materi- 
 als do not afford a more ample narrative of the distress 
 of Italy, and of the fierce conflict, which was finally 
 decided by the abilities, experience, and valour of the 
 Gothic king. Immediately before the battle of 
 Verona, he visited the tent of his mother* and sister, 
 and requested, that on a day the most illustrious festi- 
 val of his life, they would adorn him with the rich 
 garments which they had worked with their own 
 hands. " Our glory," said he, " is mutual and in- 
 separable. You are known to the world as the mother 
 of Theodoric ; and it becomes me to prove, that I am 
 the genuine ofl^spring of those heroes from whom I 
 claim my descent." The wife or concubine of Theod- 
 emir was inspired with the spirit of German matrons, 
 who esteem their sons' honour far above their safety ; 
 and it is reported, that in a desperate action, when 
 Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent 
 of a flying crowd, she boldly met them at the en- 
 trance of the camp, and, by her generous reproaches, 
 drove them back on the swords of the enemy." 
 
 H« capitulation , j!^^^^ ^Ips to the extremity of Ca- 
 and death, labria, Theodoric reigned by the right 
 ^^ch'?' ^^ conquest: the Vandal ambassadors 
 surrendered the island of Sicily, as a 
 lawful appendage of his kingdom; and he was accept- 
 ed as the deliverer of Rome by the senate and people, 
 who had shut their gates against the flying usurper.* 
 Ravenna alone, secure in the fortifications of art and 
 nature, still sustained a siege of almost three years; 
 and the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter and 
 
 r Theodonc's march is supplied and illustrated by Ennodius, (p. 
 1598—1602.) when the bombast of the oration is translated into the 
 language of common sense. 
 
 • Tot reges,&c. (Ennodius, p. 1602.) We must recollect how much 
 the roval title was multiplied and degraded, and that the mercena- 
 ries of Italy were the franments of many tribes and nations. 
 
 t See Ennodius, p. 1603, 1604. Since the orator, in the king's pre- 
 sence, could mention and praise his mother, we may conclude that 
 the magnanimity of Tiieodoric was not hurt by the vulgar reproaches 
 of concubine and bastard. 
 
 u This anecdote is related on the modern but resoectable authority 
 of Sigonius : (Op. lorn. i. p. 580. Pe Occident. Imp. 1. xv.) his words 
 are curious—" Would you return 7" &c. She presented, and almost 
 displayed, the original recess. 
 
 X Hist. Miscell. 1, xv. a Roman history from Janus to the ninth 
 century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus, and Theophanes, 
 which iVIuratori has published from a MS. in the Ambrosian library. 
 (Script. Rerum Ilalicarum, lorn. i. p. 100.) 
 
 dismay into the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of 
 provisions, and hopeless of relief, that unfortunate 
 monarch yielded to the groans of his subjects and the 
 clamours of his soldiers. A treaty of peace was ne- 
 gociated by the bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths 
 were admitted into the city, and the hostile kings con- 
 sented, under the sanction of an oath, to rule with 
 equal and undivided authority the provinces of Italy. 
 The event of such an agreement may be easily fore- 
 seen. After some days had been devoted to the sem- 
 blance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in the midst of 
 a solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least 
 by the command, of his rival. Secret and eflfectual 
 orders had been previously despatched ; the faithless 
 and rapacious mercenaries, at the same moment, and 
 without resistance, were universally massacred ; and 
 the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, 
 with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the 
 emperor of the east. The design of a conspiracy was 
 imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate 
 tyrant ; but his innocence, and the guilt of his con- 
 queror,y are sufliciently proved by the advantageous 
 treaty which force would not sincerely have granted, 
 nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of 
 power, and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a 
 more decent apology, and a sentence less rigorous may 
 be pronounced against a crime which was necessary to 
 introduce into Italy a generation of public felicity. 
 The living author of this felicity was au- « • r m, 
 
 1 • 1 ** . J . , . •' Reign of Thoo- 
 
 daciously praised m his own presence dorickingof 
 by sacred and profane orators ;* but his- ''"Jy* 
 tory (in his time she was mute and in- Ma?ch s^' 
 glorious) has not left any just represen- A. D.5'26. 
 tation of the events which displayed, or August 30. 
 of the defects which clouded, the virtues of Theodo- 
 ric* One record of his fame, the volume of public 
 epistles composed by Cassiodorius in the royal name, 
 is still extant, and has obtained more implicit credit 
 than it seems to deserve.'' They exhibit the forms, 
 rather than the substance, of his government ; and we 
 should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sen- 
 timents of the barbarian amidst the declamation and 
 learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman senator, 
 the precedents of office, and the vague professions, 
 which, in every court and on every occasion, compose 
 the language of discreet ministers. The reputation 
 of Theodoric may repose with more confidence on the 
 visible peace and prosperity of a reign of thirty-three 
 years; the unanimous esteem of his own times; and 
 the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice 
 and humanity, which was deeply impressed on the 
 minds of the Goths and Italians. 
 
 The partition of the lands of Italy, of Partition of 
 which Theodoric assigned the third part lands, 
 
 to his soldiers, is honourably arraigned as the sole in- 
 justice of his life. And even this act may be fairly 
 justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of con- 
 quest, the true interest of the Italians, andfthe sacred 
 duty of subsisting a whole people, who, on the faith 
 
 y Procopius (Gothic, 1. i. c. i.) approves himself an impartial scep- 
 tic ; i?a(r« .... 5o\«pa) rporruo txTuvt. Cassiodorius (in Chron.) and 
 Ennodius (p. 1604.) are loyal and credulous, and the testimony of the 
 Valesian Fragment (p. 718.) may justify their belief. Marcelliniis 
 spits the venom of a Greek subject— perjurijs illectus, interfectusque 
 est, (in Chron.) 
 
 7. The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was pronounced at 
 Milan or Ravenna in tlie years 507 or 508. (Sirmond, torn. i. p. 1615.) 
 Two or three years afterwards, the orator was rewarded with the 
 bishoprick of Pavia, which he held till his death, in the year 521. 
 (Dupin. Bibliot. Eccles. toni. v. p. 11—14. See Saxii Onomasticon, 
 torn. ii. p. 12.) 
 
 a Our best materials are occasional hints from Procopius and the 
 Valesian Fragments, which was discovered by Sirmond, and is pub- 
 lished at the end of Ammianus Marcellinus. The author's name is 
 unknown, and his style is barbarous ; but in his various facts he ex- 
 hibits the knowledge, without the passions, of a contemporary. ,The 
 president Montesquieu had formed the plan of a history of Theodoric, 
 which at a distance might appear a rich and interesting subject. 
 
 b The best edition of Variarxim Libri xii. is that of Joh. Garretius; 
 (Rotomagi, 1679. in 0pp. Cassiodor. 2 vol. in fol.) but they deserved 
 and required such an editor as the marcjuis Scipio Maffei, who 
 thought of publishing them at Verona. The Barbara Eleganza (as 
 it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi) is never simple, and seldom 
 perspicuous. 
 
 of his promises, had transported themselves into a dis- 
 tant land.«= Under the reign of Theodoric, and in the 
 happy climate of Italy, the Goths soon multiplied to a 
 formidable host of two hundred thousand men,^ and the 
 whole amount of their families may be computed by 
 the ordinary addition of women and children. Their 
 invasion of property, a part of which must have been 
 already vacant, was disguised by the generous but im- 
 proper name of hospitality ,• these unwelcome guests 
 were irregularly dispersed over the face of Italy, and 
 the lot of each barbarian was adequate to his birth and 
 office, the number of his followers, and the rustic 
 wealth which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The 
 distinctions of noble and plebeian were acknowledged •« 
 but the lands of every freeman were exempt from taxes 
 and he enjoyed the inestimable privilege of being sub- 
 ject only to the laws of his country.' Fashion, and 
 even convenience, soon persuaded the conquerors to 
 assume the more elegant dress of the natives, but they 
 still persisted in the use of their mother-tono-ue ; and 
 their contempt for the Latin schools was applauded by 
 Theodoric himself, who gratified their prejudices, or 
 his own, by declaring, that the child who had trem- 
 bled at a rod, would never dare to look upon a sword.e 
 Distress might sometimes provoke the indigent Roman 
 to assume the ferocious manners which were insensi- 
 bly relinquished by the rich and luxurious barbarian :»> 
 but these mutual conversions were not encouratred by 
 the policy of a monarch who perpetuated the separa- 
 Separatiop of ^ion of the Italians and Goths ; reserviu'r 
 the Goths and the former for the arts of peace, and the 
 »»^"«"«- latter for the service of war. To accom- 
 
 plish this design, he studied to protect his industrious 
 subjects, and to moderate the violence without enerva- 
 ting the valour of his soldiers, who were maintained 
 for the public defence. They held their lands and 
 benefices as a military stipend ; at the sound of the 
 trumpet, they were prepared to march under the con- 
 duct of their provincial officers ; and the whole extent 
 of Italy was distributed into the several quarters of a 
 well-regulated camp. The service of the palace and 
 of the frontiers was performed by choice or by rota- 
 tion ; and each extraordinary fatigue was recompensed 
 by an increase of pay and occasional donatives. Theo- 
 doric had convinced his brave companions, that empire 
 must be acquired and defended by the same arts. Af- 
 ter his example, they strove to excel in the use, not 
 only of the lance and sword, the instruments of their 
 victories, but of the missile weapons, which they were 
 too much inclined to neglect; and the lively imaae of 
 war was displayed in the daily exercise and annual re- 
 views of the Gothic cavalry. A firm thouo-h gentle 
 discipline imposed the habits of modesty, obedience 
 and temperance; and the Goths were instructed to 
 spare the people, to reverence the laws, to understand 
 the duties of civil society, and to disclaim the barbar- 
 ous licence of judicial combat and private revenge.' 
 Foreign policy Among the barbarians of the west, the 
 ofTheo<ioric. victory of Theodoric had spread a gene- 
 ral alarm. But as soon as it appeared that he was sat- 
 
 535 
 
 isfied with conquest and desirous of peace, terror was 
 changed into respect, and they submitted to a power- 
 ul mediation, which was uniformly employed for the 
 best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civili- 
 zing their njanners.^ The ambassadors who resorted 
 to Ravenna from the most distant countries of Europe, 
 admired his wisdom, magnificence,' and courtesy; and 
 If he sometimes accepted either slaves or arms, white 
 horses or strange animals, the gift of a sun-dial, a wa- 
 ter-clock, or a musician, admonished even the prince 
 01 Gaul, of the superior art and industry of his Italian 
 subjects. His domestic alliances," a wife, two daugh- 
 ters, a sister, and a niece, united the family of Theo- 
 doric with the kings of the Franks, the Burgundians, 
 the Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Thuringlns and 
 contributed to maintain the harmony, or at leasl the 
 ba ance, of the great republic of the west." It is diffi- 
 cult in the dark forests of Germany and Poland to pur- 
 TJ'^ 7;g^ations of the Heruli, a fierce people, who 
 disdained the use of armour, and who condemned their 
 widows and aged parents not to survive the loss of 
 their husbands, or the decay of their strength.- The 
 
 %u'' i ^^^ ^"^^^^ warriors solicited the friendship 
 of 1 heodonc, and was elevated to the rank of his son. 
 according to the barbaric rites of a military adoption.? 
 From the shores of the Baltic, the ^stians, or Livoni- 
 ans, laid their offerings of native amber «> at the feet of 
 a prince, whose lame had excited them to undertake 
 
 ^""il!!" w^.u ?u ^^"^^""o^s journey of fifteen hundred 
 mile. \\ ith the country ' from whence the Gothic na- 
 tion derived their ongm, he maintained a frequent and 
 friendly correspondence; the Italians were clothed in 
 the rich sables' of Sweden ; and one of its sovereigns 
 ^^\Zt TV^' or reluctant abdication, found a hos- 
 pitable retreat in the palace of Ravenna. He had 
 reigned over one of the thirteen populous. tribes who 
 cultivated a small portion of the gfeat island or penin! 
 siila of Scandinavia, to which the\ague appellation of 
 Ihule has been sometimes applied. That northern re- 
 g_ion was peopled, or had been explored, as high as the 
 sixty-eighth degree of latitude, where the uStives of 
 the polar circle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun 
 at each summer and winter solstice durincr an eaual 
 period of forty days.t The long night of his absence 
 
 So^pre^sit!"" ""''^- ^•^^ P^^^^'- ^'"-^- crouch:s'Zd'e? 
 
 irJ-i^/I^^P'^f'. ^''^^- ^' "l- <^- 4- 21. Ennodius describes (p. 1612 
 i Whpn Ti"''7 -"^^ and increasing numbers of the Golhs.^ ' 
 
 *. 7 J'^" Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the Vandals she 
 ^nln ilTh^^«^^ '^"'^ ^P;'?''^ ""^^^ ""•'lo Goths, each of whom wal 
 rS Ih^i^.'*' ^""k^ followers. (Procop. Vandal. 1. i. c 8) ThI 
 Gothic nobility must have been as numerous aa brave. 
 
 f See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty Var v Tn 
 
 troyed by the exceptions oi Kr^^^JL^^ZtST^^^ r^^.^^^X 
 without shame, or of Theodatus, whose learnin- p^vXd .hp im / 
 nation and contempt of his countrymen. Pro^oifea the indig- 
 
 h A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience: « Roman us 
 (See the Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719 ) manum. 
 
 '., ^^j^'l-^^ ^K ^^^ military establishment of the Goths in It^lv u 
 collected from the Epistles of Cassiodorius. (Var i S 40 i j Tbi 
 
 1 bv en of his table (Var. vi. 9.) and palace, (vii 5 ) Th c -idniira 
 ion of strangers is represented as the niost ralional motive to iusiT^ 
 these vain expenses, and to stimulate the diligence of tie officers to 
 whom those provinces were intrusted "'b^nce oi me omcers to 
 
 «,!?!, ,u® « "^ P"^,''*^ ^"'^ private alliances of the Gothic monarch 
 
 . » H's political system may be observed in Cassioilorii.^ rv^r u. i 
 
 d^ic ^^ ^ ^'^' honourable peace, was the constant ain? of TheS-' 
 
 rG^oth'T n"?l'I ^^^'''!,^^"'*y contemplate the Hen.li of Procopius 
 in?'ii;iVi^;e^re^s1:lr^r^^^^^^ TriiS' (SVeL"r T ^^ 
 torn. ix. P.34S-396 ) ^"'^^- ""^^ r*^"Plcs Auciens, 
 
 r Scanzia, or Thule, is described by Jornandes (c 3 d CiO-fin^ 
 Sad !SZ SIVv'- i,'-,?- i'} ^"'*'". * '^S nJ'r-.he'^S 
 
 » Saphentuis pelles. In the time of Jornandes, thev inhabitpd 
 
 *SuX'ht'.f r?"' ^^^■''^"? ' ^'"^ '^"^^ b^*»^if"l race of L mat h?as 
 
 (hIsi N« ton xi'i? n"4lO '''f, •1^'"'"" P*1« of Siboria. See ButTon' 
 
 fff' I . '."•• P- '^19—313. quarto edition.) Pennant, f.Svsiem 
 
 to,?"x\iii''o'S;ols-^.'fr'''-^ ^"^-a'"' ("'«^- Gen. 3es'Vo^:ies 
 Tel' 51 i, 515.) -^ i-evcsque, (Hist, de Kussie, torn. v. p. 165, 
 
 t In the system or romance of M. Bailly, (Lettres sur Ips «?ripnro- 
 et sur I'Atlantide, torn. i. p. 249-256 torn ii d Tl i f-w ^fh . " 
 nix of the Edda,'a„d the^nnual de^Jrand^'lv iafof^^^^^^^^^ 
 ?,!!?^ T T f »^-^^'^«» synbols of the absence and return if the 
 sun in the ArcU,^es.ons. The ingenious writer is a worthy di^cipll 
 
536 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 637 
 
 # 
 
 or death was the mournful season of distress and anx- 
 iety, till the messengers who had been sent to the 
 mountain tops, descried the first rays of returning^ 
 lijrht, and proclaimed to the plain below the festival 
 of his resurrection." 
 
 iiu defensive The life of Theodorlc represents the 
 wars. rare and meritorious example of a bar- 
 
 barian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of vic- 
 tory and the vigour of his age. A reign of three 
 and thirty years was consecrated to the duties of civil 
 government, and the hostilities in which he was some- 
 times involved, were speedily terminated by the con- 
 duct of his lieutenants, the discipline of his troops, the 
 arms of his allies, and even by the terror of his name. 
 He reduced, under a strong and regular government, 
 the unprofitable countries of Rha^tia, Noricum, Dal- 
 matia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube 
 and the territory of the Bavarians,'^ to the petty king- 
 dom erected by the Gcpidae on the ruins of Sirmium. 
 His prudence could not safely intrust the bulwark of 
 Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbours ; and his 
 justice might claim the lands which they oppressed, 
 either as a part of his kingdom, or as the inheritance 
 of his father. The greatness of a servant, who was 
 named perfidious because he was successful, awaken- 
 ed the jealousy of the emperor Anastasius ; and a war 
 was kindled on the Dacian frontier, by the protection 
 which the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human 
 affairs, had granted to one of the descendants of At- 
 tila. Sabinian, a general illustrious by his own and 
 fiither's merit, advanced at the head of ten thousand 
 Romans ; and the provisions and arms, which filled a 
 long train of waggons, were distributed to the fiercest 
 of the Bulgarian tribes. But, in the fields of Margus, 
 the casterir powers were defeated by the inferior forces 
 of the Goths and Huns ; the flower and even the hope 
 of the Roman armies was irretrievably destroyed : and 
 such was the temperance with which Theodoric had 
 inspired his victorious troops, that, as their leader had 
 not given the signal of pillage, the rich spoils of the 
 His .mval arma- enemy lay untouched at their feet J Ex- 
 mcnt. asperated by this disgrace, the Byzan- 
 
 A. I). 509. ^jne court despatched two hundred ships 
 and eight thousand men to plunder the sea-coast of 
 Calabria and Apulia; they assaulted the ancient city 
 of Tarontum, interrupted the trade and agriculture of a 
 happy country, and sailed back to the Hellespont, 
 proud of their piratical victory over a people whom 
 they still presumed to consider as their Roman breth- 
 ren.' Their retreat was possibly hastened by the ac- 
 tivity of Theodoric ; Italy was covered by a fleet of a 
 thousand light vessels,* which he constructed with in- 
 credible despatch ; and liis firm moderation was soon 
 rewarded by a solid and honourable peace. He main- 
 tained with a powerful hand the balance of the west, 
 till it was at length overthrown by the ambition of 
 
 of the great RufTuii : nor is it e;isy for the coldest reason to withstand 
 the magic of their philosophy. . 
 
 u AuTii TJ fc)uX.«T»«; >) /jtiytTry\ rwv itfxiuv itti, sayS FroCOpiUS. At 
 
 g resent a rude M:micheism (j^enerous enough) prevails among the 
 amoyedrs, in Greenland and in Lapland ; (Hist, des Voyages, tom. 
 xviii. p. 508, 509. tom. xix. p. 105, 106. 527, 528.) yet, according to 
 Grotiiis, SamojiittB cnlum atque astra adorant, numina hand aliis ini- 
 ([ui-ira; (de llebiig Belgicis, I. iv. p. 338. folio edition ;) a sentence 
 which Tariuis would not have disowned. 
 
 X See the Hist. des Peu[)le8 Anciens. &.c. tom. iv. p. 255- 273. 396— 
 501. The count de Buut was Trench niinister at the court of Bava- 
 ria: a libnnil curiosity prompted his inquiries into the anlitiuilies of 
 the coimtry, and tluil curiosity was the germ of twelve respectable 
 
 volumes. 
 
 y See the Gothic transactions on the Danube, and in Illyricum, in 
 Jornandes (c. 58. p. 699.) Knnodius, (p. 1607—1610.) Marcellinus, (in 
 Ciiron p. 41. 17, 4'^.) and Cas.si(Hloriuf5, (in Chron. and Var. iii. 23. 50. 
 iv. 13. vii.4.21. viii.9, l(hll.21.ix. 8, 9.) . , , 
 
 z I cannot forbt ar transcribing the liberal and classic style of 
 Count IMarcelliiius: Uomanus comes domesticorum, et Kuslicus 
 comt'S 8ilu>larionun cuni centum armulis navibus, t«>tidemi|ue dro- 
 luouibus, oclo niiUia militum armatorum secum ferentibus,ad deviis- 
 landa Ilaliae lilli>ra procrsserunt, et usque ad Tarentum antuiuifsi- 
 mam civiiaieuj atr'.iressi suiU; reniensixiuc mari inhonesUim vicloriam 
 quam piratico ausu Komani ex Romunis rapuerunl, Anaslasio Caeaari 
 leporurunl, (in Chron. p. 48. See Variar. i. 16. ii.38.) 
 
 a See the royal orders and instructions. (Var. iv. 15. v. 16-20.) 
 Th^se armed boats should be still smaller than the thousand vessels 
 of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy. 
 
 Clovis; and although unable to assist his rash and 
 unfortunate kinsman, the king of the Visigoths, he 
 saved the remains of his family and people, and check- 
 ed the Franks in the midst of their victorious career. 
 I am not desirous to prolong or repeat** this narrative 
 of military events, the least interesting of the reign 
 of Theodoric; and shall be content to add, that the 
 Alemanni were protected,*^ that an inroad of the Bur- 
 gundians was severely chastised, and that the conquest 
 of Aries and Marseilles opened a free communication 
 with the Visigoths, who revered him both as a national 
 protector, and as the guardian of his grand-child, the 
 infant son of Alaric. Under this respectable character, 
 the king of Italy restored the praitorian praefecture of 
 the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil govern- 
 ment of Spain, and accepted the aimual tribute and 
 apparent submission of its military governor, who 
 wisely refused to trust his person in the palace of Ra- 
 venna.** The Gothic sovereignty was established from 
 Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to 
 the Atlantic ocean ; and the Greeks themselves have 
 acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest 
 portion of the western empire.* 
 
 The union of the Goths and Romans civii government 
 might have fixed tor ages the transient of Italy according 
 happiness of Italy ; and the first of na- [« <he Roman 
 tions, a new people of free subjects and *^'' 
 enlightened soldiers, might have gradually arisen from 
 the mutual emulation of their respective virtues. But 
 the sublime merit of guiding or seconding such a re- 
 volution, was not reserved for the reign of Theodoric: 
 he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a 
 legislator ; ' and while he indulged the Goths in the 
 enjoyment of rude liberty, he servilely copied the in- 
 stitutions, and even the abuses, of the political system 
 which had been framed by Constantino and his suc- 
 cessors. From a tender regard to the expiring pre- 
 judices of Rome, the barbarian declined the name, the 
 purple, and the diadem of the emperors ; but he as- 
 sumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole 
 substance and plenitude of imperial prerogative.^ His 
 addresses to the eastern throne were respectful and 
 ambiguous ; he celebrated in pompous style the har- 
 mony of the two republics, applauded his own govern- 
 ment as the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided 
 empire, and claimed above the kings of the earth the 
 same pre-eminence which he modestly allowed to the 
 person or rank of Anastasius. The alliance of the 
 east and west was annually declared by the unanimous 
 choice of two consuls ; but it should seem, that the 
 Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric, ac- 
 cepted a formal confirmation from the sovereign of 
 Constantinople.'' The Gothic palace of Ravenna re- 
 flected the image of the court of Theodosius or Valen- 
 tinian. The praetorian prsefect, the praefect of Rome, 
 the qujestor, the master of the offices, with the public 
 and patrimonial treasurers, whose functions are painted 
 in gaudy colours by the rhetoric of Cassiodorius, still 
 continued to act as the ministers of state. And the 
 
 b Supra, p. 62^4, 625. 
 
 c Ennodius (p. 1610.) and Cassiodorius, In the royal name, (Var. ii. 
 41.) record his salutary protection of the Alemanni. 
 
 d The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are represented with 
 some peri>lPxity in Cassiotlorus, (Var. iii. 32. 38. 41. 43, 44. v. 39.) 
 Jornandes, (c. 58. p. 698, 699.) and Procopius, (Goth. 1. i. c. 12.) 1 
 will neither hear nor reconcile the long and contradictory arguments 
 of the Abbe Dubos and the Count de Buat, about the wars of Bur- 
 gundy. 
 
 e Theophanes. p. 113. 
 
 f Procopius alhrms, that no laws whatsoever were promulgated by 
 Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy. (Goth. 1. ii. c. 6.) He 
 must mean in the Gothic language. A Latin edict of Theodoric is 
 still extant, in one hundred and fifty-four articles. 
 
 g The image of Theodoric is engraved on his coins; his motlest 
 successors were satisfied with adding their own name to the head of 
 the reigning emperor. (Muratori Antiquitat. Ilaliae Medii iEvi, tom. 
 ii. dissert, xxvii. p. 577—579. Giannone Istoria Civile di Napoli, 
 tom. i. p. 166.) 
 
 h The alliance of the emperor and the king of Italy are represented 
 by Cassiodorius (Var. i. 1. ii. 2, 3. vi. 1 .) and Procopius, (Goth. 1. ii. c. 6. 1. 
 iii. C.21.) who celebrate the friendship of Anasusius and Theodoric: 
 but the figurative style of compliment was interpreted in a very dif- 
 ferent sense at Constantinople and Ravenna. 
 
 subordinate care of justice and the revenue was dele- 
 gated to seven consulars, three correctors, and five pre- 
 sidents, who governed the fifteen regions of Italy, ac- 
 cording to the principles and even the forms of Roman 
 jurisprudence.' The violence of the conquerors was 
 abated or eluded by the slow artifice of judicial pro- 
 ceedings; the civil administration, with its honours 
 and emoluments, was confined to the Italians ; and the 
 people still preserved their dress and language, their 
 laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two 
 thirds of their landed property. It had been the object 
 of Augustus to conceal the introduction of monarchy ; 
 it was the policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of 
 a barbarian.'^ If his subjects were sometimes awaketi- 
 ed from this pleasing vision of a Roman government, 
 they derived more substantial comfort from the charac- 
 ter of a Gothic prince, who had penetration to discern, 
 and firmness to pursue, his own and the public inter- 
 est. Theodoric loved the virtues which he possessed, 
 and the talents of which he was destitute. Liberius 
 was promoted to the office of praetorian praefect for his 
 unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer. 
 The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorius • and Boe- 
 thius, have reflected on his reign the lustre of their 
 genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate 
 than his colleague, Cassiodorius preserved his own 
 esteem without forfeiting the royal favour ; and after 
 passing thirty years in the honours of the world, he 
 was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout 
 and studious solitude of Squillace. 
 Prosperity of As the patron of the republic, it was 
 Rome. the interest and duty of the Gothic king 
 to cultivate the affections of the senate" and people. 
 The nobles of Rome were flattered by sonorous epi- 
 thets and formal professions of respect, which had 
 been more justly applied to the merit and authority of 
 their ancestors. The people enjoyed, without fear or 
 danger, the three blessings of a capital, order, plenty, 
 and public amusements. A visible diminution of their 
 numbers may be found even in the measure of liberal- 
 ity ;° yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, poured their 
 tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome ; an allow- 
 ance of bread and meat was distributed to the indigent 
 citizens ; and every office was deemed honourable 
 which was consecrated to the care of their health and 
 happiness. The public games, such as a Greek ambas- 
 sador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and 
 feeble copy of the magnificence of the Caesars ; yet 
 the musical, the gymnastic, and the pantomime arts, 
 had not totally sunk in oblivion ; the wild beasts of 
 Africa still exercised in the amphitheatre the courage 
 and dexterity of the hunters ; and the indulgent Goth 
 either patiently tolerated or gently restrained the blue 
 and green factions, whose contests so often filled the 
 circus with clamour and even with blood." In the 
 
 i To the seventeen provinces of the Notitia, Paul Warnefrid the dea- 
 con (de Reb. Longobard. 1. ii. c. 14— 22.) has subjoined an eighteenth, 
 the Apennine. (Muratori Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. i. p. 431— 
 433.) But of these Sardinia and Corsica were possessed by the Van- 
 dals, and the two Rhaetiaa, as well as the Cottian Alps, seem to have 
 been abandoned to a military government. The state of the four 
 provinces that now form the kingdom of I^aples, is laboured by Gi- 
 annone (tom. i. p. 172. 178.) with patriotic diligence. 
 
 k See the (Jothic history of Procopius, (1. i. c. 1. 1. ii. c. 6.) the 
 Epistles of Cassiodorius, (passim, but especially the fifth and sixth 
 books, which contain the formula, or patents of oflices,) and the 
 Civil History of Giannone, (tom. i. I. ii. iii.) The Gothic counts, 
 which he places in every Italian city, are annihilated, however, by 
 Maffei, (Verona Illuslrata, P. i. 1. viii. p. 227.) for those of Syracuse 
 and Naples (Var. vi. 22, 23.) were special and temporary commissions. 
 
 1 Two Italians of the name of Cassiodorius, the father (Var. i. 24. 
 40.) and the son, (ix. 24, 25.) were successively employed in the ad- 
 ministration of Theodoric. The son was born in the year 479: his 
 various epistles as quaestor, master of the offices, and praetorian prae- 
 fect, extend from 509—539, and he lived as a monk about thirty years. 
 (Tiraboschi Storia della Letteratura Italiana, tom. iii. p. 7— 24. Fab- 
 ricius, Bibliot. Let. Med. M\\, tom. i. p. 357, 358. edit. Mansi.) 
 
 ni See his regard for the senate in Cochlaeus. (Vit. Theod. viii. p. 
 72-80.) 
 
 n No more than 120,000 Miodu, or four thousand quarters. (Anonym. 
 Valesian. p. 721. and Var. i. 35. vi. 18. xi. 5. 39.) 
 
 o See his regard and indulgence for the spectacles of the circus, 
 the amphitheatre, and the theatre, in the Chronicle and Epistles of 
 Caasiodoriufi, (Var. i. 'JO .27.30, 31,32. iii. 51. iv. 51. illustrated by the 
 fourteenth Annotation of Maacou's History,) who has contrived to 
 sprinkle the subject with ostentatious though agreeable learning. 
 Vol. I— 3 S 
 
 seventh year of his peaceful reign. The- yi^j^ ^f Thw- 
 odoric visited the old capital of the dnric, 
 world ; the senate and people advanced ^' ^* ^^' 
 in solemn procession to salute a second Trajan, a 
 new Valentinian ; and he nobly supported that cha- 
 racter by the asurance of a just and Icijal government,'' 
 in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in 
 public, and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, in 
 this august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining 
 glory ; and a saint, the spectator of this pompous 
 scene, could only hope in his pious fancy, that it was 
 excelled by the celestial splendour of the New Jeru- 
 salem.*! During a residence of six months, the fame, 
 the person, and the courteous demeanour of the Gothic 
 king, excited the admiration of the Romans, and he 
 contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, the 
 monuments that remained of their ancient greatness. 
 He imprinted the footsteps of a conqueror on the 
 Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed that each day 
 he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and 
 his lofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, 
 even in its deca}', as a huge mountain artificially hol- 
 lowed and polished, and adorned by human industry ; 
 and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must 
 have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre 
 of Titus.*" From the mouths of fourteen aqueducts, a 
 pure and copious stream was diff*used into every part 
 of the city ; among these the Claudian water, which 
 arose at the distance of thirty-eight miles in the Sa- 
 bine mountains, was conveyed along a gentle though 
 constant declivity of solid arches, till it descended on 
 the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and spa- 
 cious vaults which had been constructed for the pur- 
 pose of common sewers, subsisted, after twelve centu- 
 ries, in their pristine strength ; and these subterraneous 
 channels have been preferred to all the visible wonders 
 of Rome.* The Gothic kings, so injuriously accused 
 of the ruin of antiquity, were anxious to preserve the 
 monuments of the nation whom they had subdued.' The 
 royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, the 
 neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves; 
 and a professed architect, the annual sum of two hun- 
 dred pounds of gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and 
 the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port, were as- 
 signed for the ordinary repairs of the walls and public 
 edifices, A similar care was extended to the statues 
 of metal or marble of men or animals. The spirit of 
 the horses, which have given a modern name to the 
 Quirinal, was ajiplauded by the barbarians ;** the bra- 
 zen elephants of the Via sacra were diligently re- 
 stored ;'' the famous heifer of Myron deceived the 
 cattle, as they were driven through the forum of 
 peace ;^ and an officer was created to protect those 
 works of art, which Theodoric considered as the no- 
 blest ornament of his kingdom. 
 
 P Anonym. Vales, p. 721. Marius Aventicensis in Chron. In the 
 scale of public and personal merit, the Gothic concjueror is as least 
 as much above Valentinian, as he may seem inferior to Trajan. 
 
 q Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.l). 500. No. 10. 
 
 r (Cassiodorius describes in his pompous style the forum of Trajan, 
 (Var. vii. 6.) the theatre of Marcellus, (iv. 51.) and the amphitheatre 
 of Titus, (v. 42.) and his descriptions are not unworthy of the read- 
 er's perusal. According to the modern prices, the Abbe Barthelemy 
 computes that the brick work and masonry of tiie Coliseum would 
 now cost twenty millions of French livrcs. (Mem. de I'Academie 
 des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 585, 586.) How small a part of that 
 stupendous fabric ! 
 
 8 For the aqueducts and cloacae, see Strabo, (1. v. p. 360.) Pliny, 
 (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 34.) Cassiodorius, (Var. iii. 30, 31. vi. 6.) Proco- 
 
 gius, ((joth. 1. i. c. 19.) and Nardini, (Roma Antica, p. 514—552.) 
 [ow such works could be executed bya king of Rome, is yet a problem. 
 
 t For the Gothic care of the buildingsand statues, see Cassiodorius, 
 (Var. i. 21.25. ii.a4.iv. 30. vii. 6. 13. 15.) and the Valesian Frag- 
 inent, (p. 721.) 
 
 u Var. vii. 15. These horses of Monte Cavallo had been trans- 
 ported from Alexandria to the baths of Consiantine. (Nardini, p. 
 188.) Their sculpture is disdained by the Abbe Dubos, (Reflexions 
 sur la Poesie et sur la Peiuture, tom. i. section 39.) and admired by 
 Winkleman. (Hist, de I'Art, tom. ii. p. 159.) 
 
 X Var. X. 10, They were probably a fragment of some triumphal 
 car. (Cuper de Elephantis, ii. 10.) 
 
 y Procopius (Goth. I. iv. c. 21.) relates a foolish story of Myron's 
 cow, which is celebrated by the false wit of thirty-six Greek epi- 
 grams. (Antholog. 1. iv. p. 302-306. edit. Hen. Steph. Auaon. Epi- 
 gram. Iviii— Ixviii.) 
 
 \, 
 
538 
 
 THE DECLINE AM) FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 539 
 
 Fluurishin^ 
 
 /> 
 
 
 After the example of the last empe- 
 »intc of Italy. rors, Theodoric preferred the residence 
 of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his 
 own hands.' As often as the peace of his kingdom 
 was threatened (for it was never invaded) by the bar- 
 barians, he removed his court to Verona,* on the north- 
 ern frontier, and the imago of his palace, still extant, 
 on a coin, represents the oldest and most authentic 
 model of Gothic architecture. These two capitals, as 
 well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of the 
 Italian cities, acquired under his reign the useful or 
 splendid decorations of cliurches, aqueducts, baths, 
 porticoes, and palaces.'' But the happiness of the 
 subject was more truly conspicuous in the busy scene 
 of labour and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold 
 enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of 
 Tibur and Praeneste, the Roman senators still retired 
 in the winter season to the warm sun, and salubrious 
 springs, of Baias ; and their villas, which advanced on 
 solid moles into the bay of Naples, commanded the 
 various prospect of the sky, the earth, and the water. 
 On the eastern side of the Hadriatic, a new Campa- 
 nia was formed in the fair and fruitful province of Is- 
 tria, which communicated with the palace of Raven- 
 na by an easy navigation of one hundred miles. The 
 rich productions of Lucania and the adjacent provirices 
 were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a popu- 
 lous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, 
 and superstition. In the solitude of Comum, which 
 had once been animated by the mild genius of Pliny, 
 a transparent bason above sixty miles in length siill 
 reflected the rural seats which encompassed the mar- 
 gin of the Larian lake; and the gradual ascent of the 
 hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of 
 vines, and of chesnut trees.*= Agriculture revived un- 
 der the shadow of peace, and the number of husband- 
 men was multiplied by the redemption of captives.*' 
 The iron mines of Dalmatia, a gold mine in Bruttium, 
 were carefully explored, and the Pompline marshes, 
 as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and culti- 
 vated by private undertakers, whose distant reward 
 must depend on the continuance of the public pros- 
 perity .• Whenever the seasons were less propitious, 
 the doubtful precautions of forming magazines of corn, 
 fixing the price, and prohibiting the exportation, at- 
 tested at least the benevolence of the state ; but such 
 was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious 
 people produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of 
 wine was sometimes sold in Italy for less than three 
 farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shil- 
 lings and sixpence.' A country possessed of so many 
 valuable objects of exchange soon attracted the mer- 
 chants of the world, whose beneficial traffic was en- 
 couraged and protected by the liberal spirit of Theo- 
 doric. The free intercourse of the provinces by land 
 and water was restored and extended ; the city gates 
 
 X See an epigram of Ennodius (ii. 3. p. 1893, 1894.) on this garden 
 and the royal gardener. 
 
 a His affeclion for that city is proved by the epithet of " Verona 
 tua," and the legend of the hero; under the barbarous name of Die- 
 trich of Bern (Peringsciold ad Cochlaeum, p. 240.) Mafifei traces him 
 with knowledge and pleasure in his native country, (1. ix. p. 230—236.) 
 
 b See Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 231, 232. 308, &c.) He 
 imputes Gothic architecture, like the corruption of language, writing, 
 &c. not to the barbarians, but to the Italians themselves. Compare 
 his sentiments with those of Tiraboschi (torn. iii. p. 61.) 
 
 c The villas, climate, and landskip of Baiae, (Viir. ix. 6. See Clu- 
 rer. Italia Amiq. I. iv. c. 2. p. 1119, &c.) Islria, (Var. xii. 22. 26.) and 
 Comum, (Var. xi. 14. compare with Pliny's two villas, ix. 7.) are 
 agreeably painted in the Epistles of Cassiodorius. 
 
 d In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies. (Ennodius, p. 1078, 
 1679,1680.) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom 
 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds 
 are the best of miracles. 
 
 c The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales, p. 721. 
 and Cassiodorius, in Chron.) may be distinctly traced under the fol- 
 lowing heads : iron mine, (Var. iii. 23.) gold nune, (ix. 3.) Pomptine 
 marshes, (ii. 32, 33.) Spoleto, (ii. 21.) corn, (i. 34. x. 27,23. xi. 11, 12.) 
 trade, (vi. 7. 9. 23.) fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in Lucania, (viii. 
 33.) plenty, (xii. 4.) the cursus, or public post, (i.29.ii. 31. iv.47. v. 5. 
 vi. 6. yii. 33.) the Flaminian way, (xii. 18.) 
 
 f LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, et vinum xxx 
 amphoras in solidum. (Fragment. Vales.) Corn was distributed from 
 the granaries at fifteen or twenty-five modil for a piece of gold, and 
 the price wan siiU moderate 
 
 were never shut either by day or by night ; and the 
 common saying, that a purse of gold might be safely 
 left in the fields, was expressive of the conscious se- 
 curity of the inhabitants.8 
 
 A difference of religion is always per- Theodoric an 
 nicious and often fatal to the harmony Arian. 
 of the prince and people ; the Gothic conqueror had 
 been educated in the profession of Arianism, and Italy 
 was devoutly attached to the Nicene faith. But the 
 persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by zeal ; and 
 he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, with- 
 out condescending to balance the subtle arguments of 
 theological metaphysics. Satisfied with the private 
 toleration of his Arian sectaries, he justly conceived 
 himself to be the guardian of the public worship, and 
 his external reverence for a superstition which he des- 
 pised may have nourished in his mind His toleration of 
 the salutary indifference of a statesman the catholics, 
 or philosopher. The catholics of his dominions ac- 
 knowledged, perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the 
 church ; their clergy, according to the degrees of rank 
 or merit, were honourably entertained in the palace of 
 Theodoric ; he esteemed the living sanctity of Cacsa- 
 rius^ and Epiphanius,' the orthodox bishops of Aries 
 and Pavia ; and presented a decent offering on the 
 tomb of St. Peter, without any scrupulous inquiry into 
 the creed of the apostle.'' His favourite Goths, and 
 even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace 
 the Athanasian faith, and his long reign could not af- 
 ford the example of an Italian catholic, who, either 
 from choice or compulsion, had deviated into the reli- 
 gion of the conqueror.' The people, and the barbarians 
 themselves, were edified by the pomp and order of re- 
 ligious worship ; the magistrates were instructed to 
 defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical persons 
 •\nd possessions ; the bishops held their synods, the 
 metropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the pri- 
 vileges of sanctuary were maintained or moderated 
 according to the spirit of the Roman iurisprudence. 
 With the protection, Theodoric assumed the legal su- 
 premacy, of the church ; and his firm administration 
 restored or extended some useful prerogatives which 
 had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the west. 
 He was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of 
 the Roman pontiff, to whom the venerable name of 
 Pope was now appropriated. The peace or the revolt 
 of Italy might depend on the character of a wealthy 
 and popular bishop, who claimed such ample dominion 
 both in heaven and earth ; who had been declared in a 
 numerous synod to be pure from all sin, and exempt 
 from all judgment." When the chair of St. Peter was 
 disputed by Symmachus and Laurence, they appeared 
 at his summons before the tribunal of an Arian mon- 
 arch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy 
 or the most obsequious candidate. At the end of his 
 life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he pre- 
 vented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope 
 in the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious 
 contests of a schism were mildly restrained, and the 
 last decree of the senate was enacted to extinguish, if 
 
 K See the life of St. Casarius in Baronius. (A. D. 508. No. 12, 13, 14 ) 
 The king presented him with 300 gold solidi, and a discus of silver 
 of the weight of sixty pounds. 
 
 iPQA^^i?."*^'"^ '" ^ ''" ^'* J^P>P'»an''> «» Sirmond Op. torn. i. p. 1672— 
 1690. Theodoric bestowed some important favours on this bishop, 
 whom he used as a counsellor in peace and war. 
 
 i Devotissimus ac si catholicus; (Anonym. Vales, p. 720.) yet his 
 offering was no more than two silver candlesticks (cerostrata) of the 
 weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the gold and gems of Con- 
 stantinople and France. (Anasiasius in Vit. Pont, in Hormisda, p.3i. 
 edit. Paris.) ^ 
 
 k The tolerating system of his reign (Ennotlius, p. 1612. Anonym. 
 Vales, p. 719. Procop. Goth. 1. i.e. 1. 1. ii. c. 6.) may be studied in the 
 Epistles of Cassiodorius, under the following heads: bishops, (Var.i 
 9. VIII. 15. 24. xi. 23.) im7nunities, (i. 26. ii. 29, 30.) church latids, (iv. 
 17. 2t).) sanctuaries, (ii. 11. iii. 47.) churchplate, (xii. ^.) discipline, 
 (IV. 44.) which prove at the same time that he was the head of the 
 church as well as of the state. 
 
 1 We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a catholic deacon 
 who turned Arian. (Theodor. Lector. No. 17.) Why is Theodoric 
 surnamedyl/f/-? From Ffl/er? (Vales, ad loc.) A light conjecture. 
 
 m Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622. 1636. 1638. His libel was approved and 
 registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council. (Baronius, A. D. 503. 
 No. 6. franc iscufi Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. lopi. i. p. 242.) 
 
 it were possible, the scandalous venality of the papal 
 elections." 
 Vices of ilia I have descanted with pleasure on the 
 government, fortunate Condition of Italy; but our 
 fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of 
 the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was 
 realized under the Gothic conquest. The fair pros- 
 pect was sometimes overcast with clouds ; the wisdom 
 of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be 
 resisted, and the declining age of the monarch was sul- 
 lied with popular hatred and patrician blood. In the 
 first insolence of victory, he had been tempted to de- 
 prive the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even 
 the natural rights of society;® a tax unseasonably im- 
 posed after the calamities of war, would have crushed 
 the rising agriculture of Liguria ; a rigid pre-emption 
 of corn, which was intended for the public relief, must 
 have aggravated the distress of Campania. These 
 dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue and elo- 
 quence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the pre- 
 sence of Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the 
 cause of the people :p but if the royal ear was open to 
 the voice of truth, a saint and a philosopher are not al- 
 ways to be found at the ear of kings. The privileges 
 of rank, or office, or favour, were too frequently abused 
 by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice 
 of the king's nephew was publicly exposed, at first by 
 the usurpation, and afterwards by the restitution, of the 
 estates which he had unjustly extorted from his Tus- 
 can neighbours. Two hundred thousand barbarians, 
 formidable even to their master, were seated in the 
 heart of Italy ; they indignantly supported the restraints 
 of peace and discipline; the disorders of their march 
 were always felt and sometimes compensated ; and 
 where it was dangerous to punish, it might be prudent 
 to dissemble, the sallies of their native fierceness. 
 When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted two- 
 thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to ex- 
 plain the difficulties of his situation, and to lament the 
 heavy though inevitable burthens which he imposed 
 on his subjects for their own defence.^ These ungrate- 
 ful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the 
 origin, the religion, or even the virtues, of the Gothic 
 conqueror ; past calamities were forgotten, and the 
 sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered still more 
 exquisite by the present felicity of the times. 
 He is provolicd Even the religious toleration which 
 
 to persecuteihe Thcodoric had the glory of introducing 
 catholics. jji^Q ^j^g christian world, was painful and 
 
 offensive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They 
 respected the armed heresy of the Goths ; but their 
 pious rage was safely pointed against the rich and de- 
 fenceless Jews, who had formed their establishments 
 at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for the 
 benefit of trade, and under the sanction of the laws.' 
 Their persons were insulted, their effects were pil- 
 laged, and their synagogues were burnt, by the mad 
 populace of Ravenna and Rome, inflamed, as it should 
 seem, by the most frivolous or extravagant pretences. 
 The government wiiich could neglect would have de 
 
 who refused their contributions, were whipped through 
 the streets by the hand of the executioner. This sim- 
 ple act of justice exasperated the discontent of the 
 catholics, who applauded the merit and patience of 
 these holy confessors ; three hundred pulpits deplored 
 the persecution of the church, and if the chapel of St. 
 Stephen at Verona was demolished by the command 
 of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hostile 
 to his name and dignity had been performed on that 
 sacred theatre. At the close of a glorious life, the 
 king of Italy discovered that he had excited the hatred 
 of a people whose happiness he had so assiduously 
 laboured to promote ; and his mind was soured by in- 
 dignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of unrequited 
 love. The Gothic conqueror condescended to disarm 
 the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons 
 of offence, and excepting only a small knife for do- 
 mestic use. The deliverer of Rome was accused of 
 conspiring with the vilest informers against the lives 
 of senators whom he suspected of a secret and treason- 
 able correspondence with the Byzantine court.* After 
 the death of Anasiasius, the diadem had been placed 
 on the head of a feeble old man ; but the powers of 
 government w^ere assumed by his nephew Justinian, 
 w^ho already meditated the extirpation of heresy, arid 
 the conquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law 
 which was published at Constantinople, to reduce the 
 Arians by the dread of punishment within the pale of 
 the church, awakened the just resentment of Theodoric, 
 who claimed for his distressed brethren of the east, the 
 same indulgence which he had so long granted to the 
 catholics of his dominions. At his stern command, 
 the Roman pontiff, with four illustrious senators, em- 
 barked on an embassy, of which he must have alike 
 dreaded the failure or the success. The singular ven- 
 eration shown to the first pope who had visited Con- 
 stantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous 
 monarch ; the artful or peremptory refusal of the By- 
 zantine court might excuse an equal, and would pro- 
 voke a larger, measure of retaliation ; and a mandate 
 was prepared in Italy, to prohibit, after a stated day, 
 the exercise of the catholic worship. By the bigotry 
 of his subjects and enemies, the most tolerant of princes 
 was driven to the brink of persecution ; and the life 
 of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn 
 the virtue of Boethius and Symmachus.' 
 
 The senator Boethius" is the last of the character, stu- 
 Romans whom Cato or Tully could have dies, and honouri 
 acknowledged for their countryman. As °^ "o'^'hius. 
 a wealthy orphan, he inherited the patrimony and hon- 
 ours of the Anician family, a name ambitiously as- 
 sumed by the kings and emperors of the age; and the 
 appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous 
 descent from a race of consuls and dictators, who had 
 repulsed the Gauls from the C;ipitol, and sacrificed 
 their sons to the discipline of the republic. In the 
 youth of Boethius, the studies of Rome were not to- 
 tally abandoned ; a Virgil ' is now extant, corrected by 
 the hand of a consul ; and the professors of rrmmmar, 
 rhetoric, and jurisprudence, were maintained in their 
 
 served such an outrage. A legal inquiry was ir>stant- : privileges and pensions by^the liberality of the Gotlis. 
 ly directed ; and as the authors of the tumult had es- 
 caped in the crowd, the whole community was con- 
 demned to repair the damage ; and the obstinate bigots 
 
 n See Cassiodorius, (Var. viii. 15. ix. 15, 16.) Anasiasius, (in Sym- 
 macho, p. 31.) and the cightpenlh Annotation of Mascou. Bitronius, 
 Pagi, and most of the catholic doctors, confess, with an angry growl, 
 this Gothic ueurpalion. 
 
 o He disabled tliem -a licenliii testandi ; and all Italy mourned — 
 lamentabili juslilio. I wish to believe, that these penalties were en- 
 acted against the rebels who had violated their oath of alleeiance : 
 but thelestimony of Ennodius (p. 1675—1678.) is tlie more weighty, 
 as he lived and died under the reign of Theodoric. 
 
 P Ennodius, in Vit. Epiphan. p. 1689, 1690. Boethius de Consola- 
 tione Philosophiae, 1. 1. pros. iv. p. 45—47. Respect but wti-h ihp 
 paPsion.s of tlie saint and the senator; and fortify or rlleviate their 
 complaints by the various liints of (llapsiodorius, (ii. 8. iv. 36. viii. 5.) 
 
 q fminanium expensaium pondus . . . pro ipsorum salute, &c. ; yet 
 these are no more than words. 
 
 r The Jews were settled at Naples, (Proropius, Goth.l. i. c. 8.) at 
 Genoa, (Var. ii. 'i''. iv. .'«.) 31iian. (v. 37.) Koine, (iv, 43 ) <oo like- 
 wiw Bi«sn:iire, Hist. d«« Juifp, lom viii. c. 7.p,?51. 
 
 But the erudition of the Latin languafre was insuffi- 
 cient to satiate his ardent curiosity ; and Boethius is 
 
 i Rex avidiis communis exiiii, &c. (Boethius, 1. i. p. .59.) rex dolum 
 Romanis tendebat. (Anonym. Vales. ]). 72;j.) These are hard words : 
 they speak the passions of tlie luilians, and those (I fear) of Theodo- 
 ric himself. 
 
 t I have laboured to extract a rational narrative from the dark, 
 concise, and various hints of the ValosiaiiFraL'inent. (p. 722, 723,724.) 
 Theophancs, (p. 1 15.) Anasiasius, (in Joiianiie, p. 35.) and the Hist. 
 Rliscella, p. lUS. edit. :\Iurat<»ri.) A {.''''"'.<* pressure and paraphrase 
 of their words is no violeiicc. C(Ui.'J1iU liki;\vi.se Muratori, (.\nnaU 
 I d'llalia, torn. iv. p. 471—478.) with the Annals and Breviary (torn. i. 
 259— 2o3.) of the two Pai^'is, llie uncle and the nephew. 
 
 u 1,0 Clerc has composed a criiirnl and philos iphical life of Ani- 
 
 c.ius jManlius Soverinus Boetbiius; (Bibli >l. Chiiisie, t<»m. xvi. p. Itid 
 
 —•275.) and both Tirabosciii (torn, iii.) and Fabricius (Bibliut. Latin.) 
 
 iniy be usefullv consulted. The ilaie of his birlh maybe placed 
 
 I abouttheyear 170, and his death in524, in apremalure uldage. (Con- 
 
 SmI. Phil. iNIetrica, i. p. 6.) 
 
 X Fertile ;i£;e and value (»f this IMS, How in tho ^MediceHU llb'-'^' y, al 
 
 i riorenie, jirp theCenKaphiit Pis-iiiii (p. 41^0 41/".) ot Cyiditm! No«i« 
 
 \ 
 
540 
 
 THK DKCI.INK AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXLX. 
 
 Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAxN EMPIRE. 
 
 541 
 
 said to have employed eighteen laborious years in the 
 schools of Athens,y which were supported by the zeal, 
 the learning, and the diligence, of Proclus and his dis- 
 ciples. The reason and piety of their Roman pupil 
 were fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery 
 and magic, which polluted the groves of the academy ; 
 but he imbibed the spirit, and imitated the method, of 
 his dead and living masters, who attempted to recon- 
 cile the strong and subtle sense of Aristotle with the 
 devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. Af- 
 ter his return to Rome, and his marriage with the 
 daughter of his friend, the patrician Symmachus, Boe- 
 thius still continued, in a palace of ivory and marble, 
 to prosecute the same studies.* The church was edi- 
 fied by his profound defence of the orthodox creed 
 against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian 
 heresies; and the catholic unity was f'Xj)lained or ex- 
 posed in a formal treatise by the imlijfcrence of tiiree 
 distinct though consubstantial persons. For the bene- 
 fit of his Latin readers, his genius submitted to teach 
 the first elements of the arts and sciences of Greece. 
 The geometry of Euclid, tlie miisic of Pythagoras, 
 the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Ar- 
 chimedes, the astronomy of Ptolemy, the theology 
 of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle, with the commen- 
 tary of Porphyry, were translated and illustrated by 
 the indefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he 
 alone was esteemed capable of describing the wonders 
 of art, a sun-dial, a water-clock, or a sphere which 
 represented the motions of the planets. From these 
 abstruse speculations, Boelhius stooped, or, to speak 
 more truly, he rose, to the social duties of public and 
 private life: the indigent were relieved by his liber- 
 ality; and his eloquence, which flattery might com- 
 pare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uni- 
 formly exerted in the cause of innocence and human- 
 ity. Such conspicuous merit was felt and rewarded 
 by a discerning prince ; the dignity of Boethius was 
 adorned by the titles of consul and patrician, and his 
 talents were usefully employed in the important station 
 of master of the offices. Notwithstanding the equal 
 claims of the east and west, his two sons were created, 
 in their tender youth, the consuls of the same year."* 
 On the memorable day of their inauguration, they 
 proceeded in solemn pomp from their palace to the 
 forum, amidst the applause of the senate and people; 
 and their joyful father, the true consul of Rome, after 
 pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal bene- 
 factor, distributed a triumphal largess in the games 
 of the circus. Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, 
 in his public honours and private alliances, in the cul*- 
 tivation of science and the consciousness of virtur, 
 Boethius might have been styled haj)py, if that preca- 
 rious epithet could be safely applied before the last 
 term of the life of man. 
 
 . . A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and 
 
 His imtriotism. '. . ^ f i • ^- • i ^ i • 
 
 parsimonious of his time, miglit be insen- 
 sible to the common allurements of ambition, the thirst 
 of gold and employment. And some credit may be due 
 to the asseveration of Boethius, that he had reluctantly 
 obeyed the divine Plato, who enjoins every virtuous 
 citizen to rescue the state from tiie usurpation of vice 
 and ignorance. For the integrity of his public con- 
 
 T The Athonicin stiulics of Boetliiiis are doubtful (Baroniiis, A. D. 
 510. No. 3. from a spurious tract, De Disciplina Scholaruni,) ami the 
 tprm of eishtppn yoars is doubtloss too hnvj/. but the simple fact of a 
 \isil to Athens is justified by uiucli internal evidence, (Brucker, Hisl. 
 Crit. Philosoph. torn. lii. p. r)"24— .">27.) and by an expression (thoujih 
 vague and ambiguous) of Jiis friend Cassiodorius, (Var. i. ir>.) " longe 
 positas Athenas introisti." 
 
 % Bibliothecas complos eboro ar, vitro parietes, <Sl('. (Coiis-d. Phil. 
 1. I. pros. V. p. 71.) Tl»e Kpistlcs of Emu»dius (vi. »'>. vii. l;i. viii. I. 
 31. 37. 40.) and Cassioilorius (V^ar. i. 39. iv. (>. i.\. 21.) arti>rd many 
 proofs of the hiiili reputation wliicli he enjoyed in his own times. It 
 13 true, that thp bisliop of Pavia wanted u> purchase of liim an old 
 house at Milan, and praise migiit be tcndirrd and accepted in part of 
 payment. 
 
 « Pagi, Muratori, &c. are airrced that Boethius himself was consul 
 In the yar 310, his two sons in*.V2-2, and in 487, perhaps, liis fatiier. 
 A desire of a.scribin!i the last of these consulships to tin* philosopiier, 
 had perplp.xetl the chronolotry of Itis life. In his honours, allianros, 
 ^U^ln^■cn. ho relebrateairw own felicity his past felicity, (p. 109, HO.) 
 
 duct he appeals to the memory of his country. His 
 authority had restrained the pride and oppression of the 
 royal officers, and his eloquence had delivered Paulia- 
 nus from the dogs of the palace. He had always 
 pitied, and often relieved, the distress of the provin- 
 cials, whose fortunes were exhausted by public and 
 private rapine ; and Boethius alone had courage to op- 
 pose the tyranny of the barbarians, elated by conquest, 
 excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged 
 by impunity. In these honourable contests, his spirit 
 soared above the consideration of danger, and perhaps 
 of prudence; and we may learn from the example of 
 Cato, that a character of pure and inflexible virtue is 
 the most apt to be misled by prejudice, to be heated 
 by enthusiasm, and to confound private enmities with 
 public justice. The disciple of Plato might exagger- 
 ate the infirmities of nature, and the imperfections of 
 society ; and the mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, 
 even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be 
 insupportable to the free spirft of a Roman patriot. 
 But the favour and fidelity of Boethius declined in 
 just proportion with the public happiness; and an un- 
 worthy colleague was imposed, to divide and control 
 the power of the master of the offices. In the last 
 gloomy season of Theodoric, he indignantly felt that 
 he was a slave; but as his master had only power 
 over his life, he stood without arms and without fear 
 against the face of an angry barbarian, who had been 
 provoked to believe that the safety of the senate was 
 incompatible with his own. The sena- iie isaccu.scdof 
 tor Albinus was accused and already iroa.son. 
 
 convicted on the presumption of hopinir, as it was said, 
 the liberty of Rome. " If Albinus be criminal," ex- 
 claimed the orator, '* the senate and myself are all guil- 
 ty of the same crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is 
 equally entitled to the protection of the laws." These 
 laws might not have punished the simple and barren 
 wish of an unattainable blessing; but they would 
 have shown less indulgence to the rash confession of 
 Boethius, that had he known of a conspiracy, the ty- 
 rant never should.'' The advocate of Albinus was 
 soon involved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of 
 his client; their signature (which they denied as a 
 forgery) was affixed to the original address, inviting 
 the emperor to deliver Italy from the Goths; and three 
 witnesses of honourable rank, perhaps of infamous 
 reputation, attested the treasonable designs of the Ro- 
 man patrician.' Yet his innocence must be presumed, 
 since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means of 
 justification, and rigorously confined in the tower of 
 Pavia, while the senate, at the distance of five hun- 
 dred miles, pronounced a sentence of confiscation and 
 death against the most illustrious of its members. 
 At the command of the barbarians, the occult science 
 of a philosopher was stigmatized with the names of 
 sacrilege and magic.^ A devout and dutiful attach- 
 ment to the senate was condemned as criminal by 
 the trembling voices of the senators themselves ; and 
 their ingratitude deserved the wish or prediction of 
 Boethius, that, after him, none should be found guilty 
 of the same offence.* 
 
 While Boethius, oppressed with fet- nj, imprison- 
 ters, expected each moment the sentence mcnt and death, 
 or the stroke of death, he composed in A. D. 524. 
 the tower of Pavia the Consolation of Philosophy ; a 
 
 b Si ego scissem tu nescisscs, Boethius adopts this answer (1- i. 
 pros. 4. p. 53.) of Julius Canus, whose j)hilo8»iphic death is described 
 by Seneca, (De Tranquillilate Animi, c. 14.) 
 
 c The charactersof his twodt'lators, Basilius(Var. ii. 10,11. iv.22.) 
 and Opilio, (v. 11. viii. 16.) are illustrated, not nmch to their honour, 
 in the Epistles of Cassiodorius, which likewise mention Dccoratu?, (v. 
 31.) the worthless colleajrue of Boethius, (I. iii. pros. 4. p. 193.) 
 
 (1 A severe inquiry was instituted into the crime of inagic : (Var. iv. 
 22.2,3. ix. IS) aiul it was believed that n»any necmmaricers had es- 
 caped by niakinii their jraolers mad : for mad, 1 should read drunk. 
 
 e Boethius iiad composed his own Apology, (p. 53.) perhaps more 
 interesting than his Consolation. We must be content with the ge- 
 neral view of his lionours, principles, persecution, &c. (I. i. pros. iv. 
 p. 42— G2.) wliich may be compared with the short and weighty words 
 of liie V'iilesian Frair'ment, (p. 7-2.3.) An anonymous writer (Sinner, 
 Catalog. "ATSS. Bibliot. Bern, lorn, i. p. ^^7.) chargts him home with 
 hoiKvurable and patritKic treason. 
 
 golden volume, not unworthy of the leisure of Plato 
 or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from 
 the barbarism of the times and the situation of the au- 
 thor. The celestial guide, whom he had so long in- 
 voked at Rome and Athens, now condescended to 
 illumine his dungeon, to revive his courage, and to 
 pour into his wounds her salutary balm. She taught 
 him to compare his long prosperity and his recent 
 distress, and to conceive new hopes from the incon- 
 stancy of fortune. Reason had informed him of the 
 precarious condition of her gifts ; experience had 
 satisfied him of their real value; he had enjoyed 
 them without guilt; he might resign them without a 
 sigh, and calmly disdain the impotent malice of his 
 enemies, who had left him happiness, since they had 
 left him virtue. From the earth, Boelhius ascended 
 to heaven in search of the supreme good ; explored 
 the metaphysical labyrinth of chance and destiny, of 
 prescience and free-will, of time and eternity ; and 
 generously attempted to reconcile the perfect attributes 
 of the Deity with the apparent disorders of his moral 
 and physical government. Such topics of consola- 
 tion, so obvious, so vague, or so abstruse, are ineflfec- 
 tual to subdue the feelings of human nature. Yet the 
 sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labour of 
 thought; and the sage who could artfully combine in 
 the same work the various riches of philosophy, 
 poetry, and eloquence, must already have possessed 
 the intrepid calmness which he affected to seek. Sus- 
 ,pense, the worst of evils, was at length determined by 
 the ministers of death, who executed, and perhaps ex- 
 ceeded, the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong 
 cord was fastened round the head of Boethius, and 
 forcibly tightened, till his eyes almost started from 
 their sockets; and some mercy may be discovered in 
 the milder torture of beating him with clubs till he 
 expired.' But his genius survived to diffuse a ray of 
 knowledge over the darkest ages of the Latin world ; 
 the writings of the philosopher were translated by 
 the most glorious of the English kings,* and the third 
 emperor of the name of Otho removed to a more hon- 
 ourable tomb the bones of a catholic saint, who, 
 from his Arian persecutors, had acquired the honours 
 of martyrdom, and the fame of miracles.** In the 
 last hours of Boethius, he derived some comfort 
 from the saff-ty of his two sons, of his wife, and of 
 his father-in-law the venerable Symmachus. But the 
 grief of Symmachus was indiscreet and perhaps disre- 
 specful : he had presumed to lament, he might dare 
 
 n^^^u ^1- a. .« to revenge, the death of an iniured friend. 
 Death of Sym- e ' i • r • ^ r» 
 
 ina<rhuB, He was dragged in chains from Rome 
 
 A. D. 525. to the palace of Ravenna; and the sus- 
 picions of Theodoric could only be appeased by the 
 blood of an innocent and aged senator.' 
 
 Humanity will be disposed to encou- 
 Remor.sc and ^^^^^ ^^^ report which testifies the ju- 
 
 Hcath of 1 hcod- . *^.. . -^ \ . •' 
 
 oric, risdiction ot conscience and the remorse 
 
 A. D. 32G. of liings ; and philosophy is not igno- 
 
 """" ' rant that the most horrid spectres are 
 
 f He was executed in Agro Calveniiano, (Calvenzano, between 
 Marignano and Pavia,) Anonym. Vales, p. 723. by order of Eusebius, 
 count of Ticinum or Pavia. The place of his confinement is styled 
 the bapti'itery, an edifice and name peculiar to cathedrals. U is 
 claimed by the perpetual tradition ot the church of Pavia. The 
 tower of Boethius subsisted till the year 1581, and the draught is yet 
 preserved. (Tiraboschi, tom. iii. p. 47, 4S.) 
 
 g See tlie Biographica Britannica, Alfred, tom. i. p. 80. 2il edit. 
 The work is still more honourable if performed under the learned 
 «yc of Alfred by his foreign and domestic doctors. For tlie reputa- 
 tion of Boetliius in the miildlc ages, consult Brucker. (Hist. Crit. Plii- 
 losoph. t<»m. iii. p. 565, 566.) 
 
 h Tlie inscription on his new tomb was composed by the preceptor 
 of Otho the third, the learned Pope Silvester II. who, like Boethius 
 himself, was styled a magician by the ignorance of the times. The 
 catholic martyr liad carried his head in liis liands a considerable way; 
 (Baronius, A. D. 526. No. 17, IS.) yet, on a siiviilar tale, a lady of my 
 acquaintance once obserred, '' La distance n'y fail rien ; il n'y a tjun 
 le premier pas (pii Ct>ute.'"* 
 
 i Boethius applauds the virtues of his father-in-law, (1. i. pros. 4. p. 
 59. 1. ii. pros. 4. p. US.) Procopius, (Goth. 1. i. c. i.) the Valcsian 
 Friurmenl, (p. 721.) and the Hisioria Miscella, (1. x\. p. 105.) a^ree in 
 
 sometimes created by the powers of a disordered 
 fancy, and the weakness of a distempered body. 
 After a life of virtue and glory, Theodoric was now 
 descending with shame and guilt into the grave : 
 his mind was humbled by the contrast of the past, 
 and justly alarmed by the invisible terrors of fuiu- 
 rity. One evening, as it is related, when the head of a 
 large fish was served on the royal table,^ he suddenly 
 exclaimed that he beheld the angry countenance of Sj'm- 
 machus, his eyes glaring fury and revenge, and his 
 mouth armed with long sharp teeth, which threatened 
 to devour him. The monarch instantly retired to his 
 chamber, and as he lay, trembling with aguish cold, 
 under a weight of bed-clothes, he expressed in bro- 
 ken murmurs to his physician Elpidius, his deep 
 repentance for the murders of Boethius and Symma- 
 chus.' His malady increased, and after a dysen- 
 tery which continued three days, he expired in the 
 palace of Ravenna, in the thirty-third or, if we com- 
 pute from the invasion of Italy, in the thirty-seventh 
 year of his reign. Conscious of his approaching 
 end, he divided his treasures and provinces between, 
 his two grandsons, and fixed the Rhone as their 
 common boundary.'" Anialaric was restored to the 
 throne of Spain. Italy, with all the conquests of 
 the Ostrogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric; whose 
 age did not exceed ten years, but who was cher- 
 ished as the last male offsj)ring of the line of Amali, 
 by the short-lived marriage of his mother Amala- 
 suntha wilh a royal fugitive of the same blood."* In 
 the presence of the dying monarch, the Gothic chiefs 
 and Italian magistrates mutually engaged their faith 
 and loyalty to the young prince, and to his guardian 
 mother; and received, in the same awful moment, his 
 last salutary advice, to maintain the laws, to love the 
 senate and people of Rome, and to cultivate Vith de- 
 cent reverence the friendship of the emperor." The 
 monument of Theodoric was erected by his daughter 
 Amalasunlha, in a conspicuous situation, which com- 
 manded the city of Ravenna, the harbour, and the ad- 
 jacent coast. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet 
 in diameter, is crowned by a dome of one entire piece 
 of granite : from the centre of the dome, four columns 
 arose, which supported, in a vase of porphyry, the re- 
 mains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the brazen 
 statues of the twelve apostles.i" His spirit, after some 
 previous expiation, might have been permitted to min- 
 gle with the benefactors of mankind, if an Italian her- 
 mit had not been witness in a vision to the damnation 
 of Theodoric,i whose soul was plunged, by the minis- 
 ters of divine vengeance, into the volcano of Lipari, 
 one of the flaming moi4hs of the infernal world.' 
 
 • [.Mt.lin'f ^^ IVflTind. H nai \\\r>n th« om^hn of ih* Tnhrwtc of St. Dm;*.— C] i 
 
 THE K N D OF T I. . I 
 
 praisine the superior innocence or sanctity of Symmachus; and in 
 the estimation of the legend, tlie guilt of his murder is ecjual to the 
 imprisonment of a pope. 
 
 k In the fanciful eloquence of Cassiodoritis. the variety of sea and 
 river fish are an evidence of extensive dominion ; and "those of the 
 Kliine,ofSicily,and of tlie Danube, were served on theiabieof Theo- 
 doric. (Var. xii. 14.) The monstrous turboi of D.imiiian (Juvenal. 
 Salir. iii. 39.) had been caught on the shores of the Adriatic. 
 
 I Procoi)ius, Goth.l. i. c. 1. But he might liave iiifurmed us whe- 
 ther lie liad received this curious anecdote from common report, or 
 from the mouth of tlie royal pliysiciaii. 
 
 ni Procopius, Goth. 1. i. c. i, 2. 12, 13. This partition had been di- 
 rected by Tlieodoric, thougli it was not executed till after his death. 
 Kegni hereditatem sujiersies relitiuit. (Isidor.Chnm. p. 721. ed. Grot.) 
 
 n Berimund, the third in descent from Herinanric, king of tlie (")s- 
 trogolhs, liad retired into Spain, wliere he lived and died in obscurity, 
 (Jornandes, c. 33. p. 202, edit, INluratori.) 8ee ilie discovery, nup- 
 tials, and death of his grandson Euthario, (c. 58. p. 220,) His Koman 
 games might render him pojiular, (Cassiodor. in (Jhnui.) but Kutharic 
 was asper in religione. (Anonym. Vales, p. 722, 72-'?.) 
 
 o See the counsels of Theoiioric, and tiie professions of his succes- 
 sor, in Procopius, (Goth. 1. i. c. 1, 2.) Jurnandes, (c. 50. p. 220, 221.) 
 and Cassiodorius. (Var. viii. 1—7.) Tiiese epistles are the triumpii 
 of his ministerial chxiuence. 
 
 P Anonym. Vales, p. 712. Agnellus de Vitis. Pont. Raven, in Mu- 
 ratori Script. Kerum Ital. torn ii. P. i. p. G7. Alberti Descritiono 
 d'ltalia, p. 311. ' 
 
 q This legend is related by Gregory I. (Dialog, iv. 3G.)aii(l approved 
 by Baronius ; (A. D. 526. No. 28.) and both liie pope and cardinal are 
 jrrave tloctors, sullicir-nt to establish aprvbuble opinion. 
 
 r Theodoric. himself, or rather Oassiodorius, had described in tragic 
 strains the volcanocji of Lipari, (("luver. Sicilia, [>. JOti -i|n.) ami 
 A'ePQvius, (iv. 50.) 
 
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 in tije Citp of ifjeto gorb 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
 
 \ 'I 
 
GUIZOT'S GIBBON. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL. 
 
 OP THE 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 BY EDWARD GIBBOIV, ESCI, 
 
 A NEW EDITION REVISED AND CORRECTED THROUGHOUT, PRECEDED BY A PREFACE, AND ACCOMPA- 
 NIED BY NOTES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, RELATING PRINCIPALLY 
 TO THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY: 
 
 Br M. F. GUIZOT, 
 
 MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE. 
 
 THE PREFACE, NOTES AND CORRECTIONS, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH EXPRESSLY FOR THIS EDITIOlt 
 
 ■WITO. 
 
 A NOTICE OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GIBBON, 
 
 A7VD 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 J. A. & 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 U. P. JAMES, WALNUT STREET 
 
 BETWEEN FOURTH AND FIFTH 
 
 1848. 
 
 ir 
 
 ' ffi 
 
 m 
 
) 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 YOL II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SSfrad&n tfJustin the eJder.-Rei^ of Justi- 
 nian.— I. The empress Tkeodora.-ll. fheUons 
 of the etreus, arul sedition of Constantivopler- 
 nr 7Vade and manufacture afstlk.—lW. Ft- 
 nmtees and lazes.— V. Edifiee.i of Justtntan.— 
 . Church of St. Sophia.-Fort^attonsandfron' 
 * tiers of the eastern emptre.—yl. JtboltUan of 
 the schools of Athens, and the conaulshtp of 
 Rome. 
 
 V 
 
 D. 
 
 P&CS 
 
 fJutered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 
 
 J. A. JAMES, 
 In the Clerk's office, for the District Court of Ohio. 
 
 \ 
 
 ()l 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 17 
 
 18 
 19 
 
 SO 
 
 S3 
 
 / 
 
 trJor 483 Birth of the nmperor Jojitinian 
 518— 5?7 Elevation and reign of hu uncle 
 530—327 Justin I. Adoption and succea- 
 SS7—S65 sion of Jastinian. The re.en.of 
 JuMtiniiiii. Character and hutoriet 
 ^ofProcopiui. /. T •• • 
 
 Division of the reien of Justinian. 
 Birth aad jjcea of the eoipress Tbeo> 
 dora 
 Her marriage with Justinian 
 148 Hpr tyranny. Her virtues ;andd«a1n. 
 Tlie factions of the circu?. At Rome 
 They distract Constantinople and the 
 east. Justinian ftivoura the blues. 
 S33 Sedition of Constantinople, surnam- 
 ed Jfika . , _. 
 
 The distress of Jnstmiun. Firmness 
 of Theodora. The sedition is sup- 
 pressed . _ - . 
 Agriculture and mnnufactures pr the 
 eastern empire. The use of sua or 
 the RcMnans ^ . . . . , 
 Importation from China by land and 
 spa. Introdnctidn of silk worms into 
 
 State of the revenue. Avarice and 
 profusion of Justi.iian 
 
 Pernicious savings. Remittances. 
 Taxes. MonnpoRes. Venality 
 
 l>e8tamenti«. The ministers of Justi- 
 nian. JohnofCappadocia. His edi- 
 fices and architects , - „ a 
 
 Foundation of ihe church of St. Bo- 
 
 Description. Marbles. Riches. Chur- 
 ches and palaces 
 
 Furtifications of Europe . 
 
 Security of Asia afler the conquest of 
 Isauria. Fortifications of the em- 
 pire-, from the Euzioe to the Persian 
 frontier _ . . , « . 
 
 Death of Perozes. king of Persia, 
 
 -505 The Persian war ^ ^ 
 
 Fortifications of Dara. , The Caspian 
 or Iberian gates. The schoola of 
 Athens . . , 
 
 They are suppmned by Justmrnn. 
 ;— S20 Proelus. His successors. The 
 last of the philosophers. The Ro- 
 man conauUhipextiaguiihea by Jiu- 
 tinian 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Oni(iu9sU of Justinian in the west.-^raeter 
 anditst campaigns of Beluartus.—HeiAvades 
 mini subdues- the Vandal kingdom of ^Africa.— 
 mi triumph.-The Gothic war. -He recovers 
 Siei/v. J^aples, and Rome.-Stege of Jiome by 
 the Goths.- Their retreat and Ipeses.-Surren- 
 der of Ravenna.— Glory of Beltsartus.—IGs 
 dMteetie Shane and nivortmnes. 
 
 V 
 
 I Juftinian resolvesto invade Africa. 
 3-5$) State of the Vandals. Hilderic. 
 
 «Mu— t».>-i Gelimer. , . , _. 
 
 Debates on the African war. . Charae- 
 JB^oSi ter and choice of BehsarHii. Hia 
 services in the Penian war 
 
 533 Preparittion* for the African war. De< 
 
 pan ure of the fleet 
 Betuariov lands on the coast of Afnc» 
 Defeats the Vandals in a first battle. 
 
 Redeetion ofOirthafle . ^ .. 
 Piiid defeat of Gelimer and tte Van- 
 
 JH Conquest of Africa by Belisiirins 
 Dnitieas and captivity ot uel.imer. 
 ^ Return and triumph of BelisHnus 
 535 Hia Hole cnMulship. .End of Gelimer 
 and the Vandals. Manners and de- 
 ^ fratof the Moors. ., . , « 
 5$»-€30 Neutrality of ihe Vlsifoths. Ccn- 
 
 534 flueataof the Romans in Spam. Be- 
 Fiearius threatens the Oitrogotfas in 
 I'aly . - , 
 
 53S— 334 Government and death of Ama- 
 lasontha. queen of Italy .. 
 
 535 Her exile and death. Belisarins in- 
 S4-536 vades and soMuesTtaly. Rejcn 
 
 and weaknenof Tbeodattts. the Go- 
 Ikk king of luly 
 
 S3 
 34 
 
 27 
 
 38 
 29 
 
 30 
 31 
 
 32 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 537 Belisarius invades Italy, and reduces 
 
 536-540.^ Vilifps. king of Italy. Bell- 
 
 537 sariuB enters Rome. Siege of Rome 
 by the Goths , ^ 
 
 Valour of Belisarius. His defence cS 
 Rome , - 1 
 
 Repulses a general assault of the 
 Goths. His sallies ^ „ . 
 
 Distrtfsaoftheciiy. Exile of pope Syl> 
 v^rius. Deliverance of the city 
 
 Belisarius recovers many cities of It- 
 
 538 aly. The Goths raise the siege of 
 Rome 
 
 Lose Rimini. Retire to Ravenna. 
 Jealousy of the Roman generals. 
 Death of Constantine. The eunuch 
 Narses. Firmness and authority of 
 
 539 538. l^lisarius. Invasion of Italy by 
 
 the Franks 
 Destruction of Milan ^ _ ^ 
 
 539 Belisarius besieges Ravenna. Sub- 
 
 dues the Gothic kingdom ot Italy. 
 
 540 Captiviiv of Vitiges. Return and 
 glory of Belisarins 
 
 Secret history of his wife Antonina. 
 Her lover Theodosius. Resentment 
 of Belisarius and her son Fhntius 
 Persecution ot her son. Disgrace 
 and submission of Belisaritu 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 
 State of the barbaric itorld.— Establishment of the 
 Lombards on the Danube.— TYibes and inroads 
 of the Sclavonians.— Origin , empire, and em- 
 bassies of the Turks.— The Hight of the Avars. 
 —Chosroes I. or J^skirvan king of /*<f«'»i~ 
 His prosperous reign and tears vnth the Ro- 
 mans.— The Qtlchian or Lazic. toar.— The 
 tXthioptans, 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 37 
 38 
 39 
 
 40 
 
 41 
 42 
 
 43 
 
 44 
 45 
 
 527—565 Weakness of the empire of Justi- 
 
 Stateof the barbarians. Tlie Gepida. 
 
 The Lombards 
 
 The Sclavonians^ . , , , 
 
 545 Their inroads. Origin and monarchy 
 
 ofthe Turks in Asia . „ , . 
 
 The Avars fly before the Turks, and 
 
 558 approach the empire. Their embassy 
 
 to Constantinople „ . ,_ 
 569-562 Embassies of the Turks and Ro* 
 
 mans ^_ __ _ . 
 
 500-530, 531-579 State of Persia. Reign 
 of Nushirvan', or Chosroea 
 His love of learning .. , _ 
 533—539 Peace and wnr with the Romans. 
 
 540 He invades Syria ^ , . . 
 
 541 And ruins Antioch. Defence of the 
 
 east by Beliaanus. , _ . 
 Dewription of Colchos. Lazica. or 
 
 Mingrelia. Manners ofthe natives. 
 
 Revolutions of Cnlchos. Under the 
 
 Persians, before Christ 500 . 
 Under the Romans, before Christ 60. 
 Visit of Ar 
 
 542-B45 the'La'zi. ---i-v- — 
 549—551 tance of the Colchians. 
 
 ran. Conversion of 
 Revolt and 
 
 re pen- 
 Siege of 
 
 549— 556 The Colchian or Lazic war ^ 
 540-561 Neaociations and, treaties be- 
 5SS tween Justinian and Chosroes. Coa- 
 
 quesu ofthe Abyssinmns 
 533 Their alliance with Jostioian 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 47 
 
 48 
 
 49 
 50 
 
 53 
 54 
 
 56 
 
 57 
 
 58 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ^S 
 
 JUbeOioHs of Africa.- Restoration of tkeCMMe 
 khigdom h T\iiila.-IjmandroMmeniofRamo. 
 ~M«9/ eimqiuat ofltakbmJipiiyes.-^im:'- 
 tion if the OstroKoths.-tweat of, the fi^nks^ 
 and Ai*mitmLrlMtinctprp^d»MrMe^mnd 
 death <^iSfi#«rnw.~Z)eo<* «md eharatfer tf 
 JiuSi^ttn.-Omets, earthquakes, a»4ptAgue. 
 
 60 
 61 
 
 S— 545 The troubtes of Afr 
 3— 55e Rebellion of the. Moi 
 
 iea 
 foors 
 
 544 
 546 
 
 54 
 
 Defeat and death of Totila 
 
 553 Conquest of Rome by NarM;s. Defeat 
 
 and death of Teias. the last king of 
 the Goths ...... 
 
 Invasion of Itnly by the Franks and 
 
 554 Alemanni. Defeat of the Franki 
 and Alemanni by Norses 
 
 554—568. 559 SettSenient of Italy. Inva- 
 sion ofthe Bulgarians . 
 561 Last victory of Belisarius. His dis- 
 grace and death 
 565 Dpath and character of Justinian. 
 531-539 Comets 
 
 Earthquakes ... _ 
 
 542 plague— its origin and nature. Extent 
 5^-594 and duration 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. -^ - 
 
 Idea «f the Roman jurisprvdenee.—The lews of 
 the kings.— TVieUc^e tables of the decemvirs. 
 —The Jaws of the people.— The 
 
 [—548 Second command of Beliaarioa in 
 Reme bewgged by the Goths. At- 
 
 tempt of Belisarius. Rome taken by 
 the Goths^ Belisari s 
 
 1, 5S*??nal r^ll of Bftlisariui. Rome 
 acatn taken by ihe Goths . 
 
 1—551 Preparations of Justinian for the 
 Gothic war. Characer and expedi- 
 tion of the eonuch Naraaa 
 
 03 
 63 
 
 64 
 65 
 
 66 
 
 67 
 
 e9 
 
 70 
 71 
 
 72 
 
 senate.- The edicts of tho 
 
 _ decrees of the 
 moi^trates and 
 
 Laws ofthe 
 
 emperors.— Auihoritv of the civilians.— Cide, 
 Pandects. Mwels, and Institutes ofJustiman, 
 —I. Rights of persons.— \V. Rights ofthtngs.^ 
 III. Private injuries and actions.— iV . Crimog 
 and punishments. 
 
 The civil or Roman law. 
 
 kings of Rome. » , -> 
 The twelve tables of the Decemvin. 
 
 Their character and influence 
 Laws of the people. Decrees of the 
 
 senate. Edicts ofthe pr»tors. 
 The perpetual edict.. Constitutions of 
 the emperors. Their legislative pow- 
 er. Their rescripts 
 Forms ofthe Roman law. Sowjesaion 
 303-648 of the civil lawjers.^ The first 
 648-988 period. Second Oeriod 
 988-1230 Third period. Their phikwophy. 
 
 Authority* Sects 
 A D 
 
 ^ Reformation of the Roman law by 
 527— 546 Justinian. ^Tribonian 
 528. 529 The code of Justinian. The Pan- 
 530-533 dects or Digest. Praise and cen- 
 sure of the Code i^nd. Pandect* 
 Loss of the ancient jurisprudence. L«- 
 gal inconstancy of Justinian 
 534 Second edition ,of the code.. The 
 534-565. 533 Novels. The Institutes. 
 1. Of Pekbons. Freemen and 
 
 Fathers and children. Limitations of 
 the paternal authority,^ ,. . 
 
 Husbands and }vive8.„The religienii 
 rights of marriage. Freedom or toe 
 inatrimonial contract . . 
 
 Liberty and abuse of divorce. Limi- 
 tations ofthe liberty of divorce 
 
 Incest, concubines & bastards^ Gnar- 
 
 76 
 77 
 78 
 
 79 
 
 80 
 81 
 
 8B 
 
 liani and wards. iT Of Thzmob. 
 
 Right of property x „. ., 
 
 Oftnheritance and socceation. Civil 
 
 degrees of kindred... ^ _ ^ 
 
 Introdaetion and liberty of TeiU- 
 
 ments. Legacies ,,. ^ . 
 Codicils and trusts. III. Of AcnoKi. 
 , Promises. Benefits . . ^r r*- 
 Intereau of money. Injuries.. iV. Of 
 
 CRiKxa ^Mp PumsHMXirn 
 Severity of the twelve tables. Aboli- 
 tion or oUi vion of penal laws 
 Revival of capital punishments. Mea- 
 
 fvreofgvilt. Unnatural vice 
 Rlfeur of the, christian em^rprs. 
 
 jfaiqpneDta of the people. Select 
 
 jSa^n. Voluntary exile and deftth. 
 Ab«ae« of civil jarisprttdenoe 
 
 8i 
 
 85 
 86 
 
 87 
 88 
 
 89 
 
 00 
 91 
 93 
 93 
 94 
 95 
 
 96 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER VL U- 
 
 Reign of tkenounftr J*^**T^}f^^fQ* 
 Avars.- Their sdtlement on the ^25225^^2* 
 quest of Jtaht by thel^nAards.-AdepUmjos^ 
 t^ipiqf,Tiberiusr-Ofmjtpce^-g^%^^ 
 undo- the Lombards «»'*«*« ^S^f^tfiS™^ 
 na.-Distress of Rome.- Character andporU^^ 
 eate of Gregory the first. 
 
 585, 565-574. Death of Justinian. 
 
 Rejin 
 
 'of Jmtin II. or the yoenger. Hia 
 
 566 consulship. Embaaay of the Avar* 
 
 Albotrt. king of the ^^^""Vw! 
 
 valour, love, and revenge, rne 
 
 IxHDbards and A van ^^X^ '™ 
 
 kinfandWntdcim ofthe Gepid* 
 
 96 
 
 99 
 
 J I vJ J o 
 
 y 
 
/ 
 
 » 
 
 D. Pa£e 
 
 570 Nartei. Conqa«tt of ft peftt part 
 ofluVbylheLombardt 100 
 
 Alboin la murdered by his wife Roia- 
 mofid. Her flicht and death 
 
 Clepho. kin( ol tTie Lombards. Weak 
 4«4 nees of the emperor Justin. Associa- 
 
 X?S_<oS"i?*^^''^y«!. I>Balh of Justin II. 
 578-5^ Reign of Tiberiu* II. His vir- 
 ^~^<S l^^'- The reign of Maurice 
 584-590 Distress of Italy. Autharis.king 
 of the Lorn bants. The exarchate of 
 Kavenna 
 The kingdom of the Lombards. Lan- 
 - ._ ^«uago and manners of the Lombards 
 04J Dress and marriage. Government. 
 Laws 
 Misery of Rome. The tombs and re- 
 lics or the apostles 
 __- Birth and profession of Gregory fho 
 590— {)04 Roman. Pontificate of Gregory 
 the great, or first, ilis spiriiual of- 
 fice 
 And temporal government. His es- 
 tates. And aims. The Saviour of 
 Kume 
 
 101 
 
 102 
 103 
 
 104 
 105 
 106 
 107 
 
 108 
 
 109 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 553 feri. Vth leneral oooncil : [Id of 
 «ea a'r**"ti?"**"PP.'«- Heresyof Justinian 
 2^ TiJ? Mpnolhehte conjroveriv. The 
 ^' «ti «5UJ«"'» ^ f Hcraciiog. i«„e type 
 bbO, WJl of Cpnstans. Vlth general coun- 
 cil : lid of Constantinople 
 Union of the Greek and Latin chur- 
 ches. Perpetual srparat ion of the 
 500 oriental sects. ^ I. Thk Nestorians 
 «vi ^Sn'"^^**"'^ of Pernia. Their mis- 
 300— J-flJO sions in Tartary, India. Chi- 
 
 883 The christians of St. Thomas in India 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 vu 
 
 11. TlIE J,ACO BITES 
 
 CHAPTER VU. 
 
 'J'(. 
 
 Beroluttons of Persia after the death of Choaroes 
 . or J\rusAirvan.~I/iiS son Hormouz, a tyrant, ia 
 deposed.— U^surpalion of Bahram.— Flight and 
 restoratioii of Ckosroes U.—Ilis grafitudeAo 
 the Romans- The chagan of the Jivars.-tie- 
 voOot the army against Maurice.— His death. 
 -rTyrainty of Phocas.- Elevation of Heme- 
 Itu3.— Jke Persian war.—Chosrors subdues Si/- 
 rta. Egypt, and j9sia Minor.- Hiege of Con- 
 stantinople by the Persians and Jivars.—Per- 
 nan expedittons.- Victories and triumph, of 
 xieractius. 
 
 a III. The Maronites. IV. ThkAr- 
 
 S MENIANS 
 
 K-r, Xl'2\^S^^'^^' °F EoTPTiANS. The 
 rJj~r*J?-.i^u*r' pair.'^'*^''.^ '" f»<'"8ius. Paul 
 551,oM).b0y Apollinaris. Eulogius. John. 
 Ro^_«2 i^n" ""I'l. rai hm and decay . 
 6','5-6hI Bf-njamin. the Jacobite patriarch. 
 „rt ^*- -^M? Abyssinians and Nubi- 
 i^o9 ,4?5„,V*'"r.<^*>°* Abyssinia 
 ifl^*".l^? Ti'® Portuguese in Abyssinia. 
 lo57. lb'20 Misyon ol the Jesuits. Con- 
 ic^ version of the emiwror 
 16J2 Fmal expulsion ol the Jesaits 
 
 Page 
 140 
 
 141 
 142 
 
 143 
 114 
 145 
 
 146 
 
 14' 
 
 148 
 
 J 49 
 150 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ^r 
 
 IS 
 
 570 Contest of Rome and Persia 
 
 ipw V^ffSy-^'i^ o** Yemen by JVufblrvan 
 
 STi, 37p His last war with the Romans. Hii 
 
 nea'h 
 
 579-590 Tyranny and vices of his son Hor- 
 5y0 mouz. Exploits of Bahram 
 
 «i8 re|iellion. Hormouz is denoted 
 and >,m prisoned. Elevution of his 
 son Chosroes. Death of Hormouz 
 Chosroes flies to the Romand. His re- 
 • «ii rnh^'l, ^"*' ^"^L v'<:'ory. Death of 
 5yi-bO.{ Banram. Restoration and policy 
 />! I hosroes ' 
 
 570-600 Pride, policy, and power of the 
 mc eSii^P.1" ^^ ^'ie Avars 
 oya- eo-J Wars of Maurice against the 
 Avars 
 Stale of the Roman armies. Their 
 WK digcontrnt. And rebellion. Elec- 
 tion of Phocas. Revolt of Constan- 
 tinople 
 
 wvn^in* Di?*^ Maurice and^his children. 
 R02-^iq Phocas emperor. His character 
 fiinJ^lio J^!.a""Jr- Hi« fall and d.ath. 
 eiO-642. bOJ Rcjgn of Heracliu.<». Chos- 
 en cr9*?,'."vadcs the Roman empire 
 en, 614 His conquesi of Svria. Of Pales- 
 
 t\^ i^-T.i <^^'^^^«yP»-. of Asia Minor 
 t»JO-602 His reign and magnificence. Dis- 
 __ tres3 of Heraclius 
 B2I He solicits peace. His preparations 
 for war 
 
 ^ fioy^o^Pfi^'^'^^of Weraclius against 
 623,624,625 the Persians. His ^cond 
 _-^ expedition 
 626 lleliiernnco of Constantinople from 
 
 the Persians and Avars 
 Alliances and corquestsof Hcraclius. 
 fSSFJ His third expedi! ion 
 «oQ il"'' '''cfories. Flight of Chosrocs 
 «5W He IS deposed. And murdered by his 
 
 •on Siroes. Treaty of peace between 
 
 the two empires 
 
 109 
 
 110 
 111 
 
 112 
 
 113 
 1J4 
 115 
 
 116 
 117 
 
 118 
 119 
 120 
 121 
 
 122 
 
 123 
 
 124 
 125 
 
 126 
 
 Plan of the four last rolumea.—Sueeession and 
 characters of the Greek emperors of Constanti- 
 nople, from the time of hcraclina to the Latin 
 conguest. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Germanr. Hancary. Hie cekhboara 
 
 „. ^ and enemies 
 
 ajAlwy-.^^ Germany. In France. Lewit 
 gix~f^5t' ^"^ ?JO"?- Lothaire 1. Lewis 
 c^^^^A^L^^ "• i^vision of the eSpiri" 
 V\Ki Utho, king of Germany, restores and 
 
 appropriates the western empire, 
 
 iransactions of the western ana 
 ^^^ eastern empires 
 cOO— JOtO Authority of the emperors in 
 
 the elections of the popes. Dicor* 
 
 ders 
 1073 Reformation andclaimsof the church. 
 o«x> nA^D *"■".>' "/ 1^« emperors in Rome. 
 932, 9«>7 Revolt of Alberic. Of pope John 
 
 22? ^Ort'e consul Orescentius.. The king. 
 7/4-1250, ]152-Ili;0 dom of Italy. Fre- 
 
 1198-l'm814-1250 Frederic II. Inde- 
 lOKn V!^u°*JV*^^ *** '''® princes of Germany. 
 io9i? ,Xf'J'};?'"?a"'c constitution 
 .ol. M'" Weakness and poverty of the 
 JJ50 German emperor Charles IV. His 
 
 ostentation. Contrast of the power 
 
 and luoilcsly of Augustus 
 
 Pac» 
 
 lae 
 
 187 
 168 
 
 180 
 190 
 191 
 
 193 
 
 CHAPTER XI. ^ 
 
 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 W-*) 
 
 ^i^/f,.V^'U.*^H^ "^ ^^ doetnne of the incar- 
 
 Jnaitpn—The human and dirine nature of 
 hrist.-Enmiiy of the patriarchs of Meian- 
 
 M^^rJ^pi ei"'ralfouneil of Ephesus.- 
 f?rv£?/r:Lf "^*fi.^'^"^5"^*? f«»«ra/ council 
 . r- wli***" ~^*^;' avdeeclestastieal discord. 
 ±J^-rJ^J^^ of ■/u'^ftman.-The three chap- 
 zers.— /Ae Monothehte controrer.-^y.-State of 
 *a2 T,%' '^ili-Jii ^''^ '>^c^^torian.^.-li 
 tkt Jaepbttes.-lU. The Maronite.o.-lV. The 
 
 ^iSa^*"""'^- ^'** Cbpts.-VI. TheAbysst- 
 
 The incarnation of Christ. 1. A pnr« 
 man to the Lbionitei. His birth and 
 elevation 
 
 II. A pore. God to the Docetea. His 
 
 -.♦ncorrupfible body 
 
 II I.. IXiuMe nature of Ceriothus. IV. 
 Uivine Incarnation of Apollinaris 
 
 JioJi:«« .**°"'^^*'°''?<'"* and verbal dis- 
 n'4*M ^"^K^l .r-yril. patriarch of Alex- 
 ^4a'<T^*^^.^ andria. Histvranny 
 «» Nestonus, patriarch of Constantino- 
 
 ^^^^^^•.^^ His heresy. First council of 
 l!<phesus 
 
 ^•Ji_^« ^'""••A" o/lNestoriuB. Opposi- 
 C^riP Orientals. VictorTof 
 
 i2§ %ile P/" Nestorius 
 W. 449 Heresv of Eutvchcs. 8«<-ond 
 ^U^cilofEphesus. Council of Chal- 
 
 "^HpnlT^ ^'"^l^ o*" the east. The 
 
 war tm ?h«*¥Ti* *r"«L religious 
 514 1iq~^V p- ? "^?"*» ^^ AnasfHv us. 
 ' in^r^i^u'"^ religious war. Theo- 
 Justmian*'**^^' aod government of 
 
 ^it J^' n.r°i'°" "''^Z'^tics. Of pa- 
 ^■"lii-^r.^^"- oC^maritans*^ 
 ills orthodoxy. The three chap- 
 
 Defects of th*? Bj zantine history. Its 
 connexion with the revolutions of 
 1 he world. Plan ol the four last vol- 
 umes 
 Second niarriage and death of Hera- 
 «1i ,,cl»u-. Conslantine III. 
 Ml Heracleonas. Puni^^hment of Marti- 
 na and Herarleonas. Consians II. 
 2ll- ^V<2"''iJlPt'f*' ^V. Pogonatus 
 5S^' SV^T/*^^ Justinian II. His exile. 
 4vV~J.V IJ'8 restoration and death 
 Wi'VA'^r^V^K^'i- Anastasiusll. The- 
 bJb, 718 odosius 111. Leo HI. the Isaa- 
 m,A "a" 
 '«!• 775 Constantino V. Copronymus. Leo 
 
 «no' ?!*? w^"'*!"*'"^ y •^"'' Irene. Irene. 
 
 HI I «/•» M'^^u^'^^Vf"?. • ^'auracius 
 
 81I.8J3 Michael I. Rhangabe. Leo V. the 
 
 8^0 Armenian. Michael II. the Stam- 
 
 ,„.^ ^merer 
 
 829. 842 Theophifns. Michael IIL 
 
 So/, r"^''.,'.- ^^^e Macedonian 
 
 881) Leo VI. the Philosopher 
 
 911 Alexander, C«instantiiie VII. Porphy- 
 
 aiy rogenitufl. R«)rnanu8 1. Lerapenus. 
 
 nAK vim''^';!""''. Stephen. Conslantine 
 vA5 VIM. Constantine VII. 
 959, wa Romanus II. junior. Nicephorus 
 tu-n it i,""ca8. John Zimisces. Basil 
 ^•? „ H-, Cons ta n 1 1 ne I X . 
 
 in'.^ M V- *"'* V>«'»?"tine IX. Con- 
 10:5'5, 1028 stantire IX. R«manu«. HI Ar- 
 1034 gyrus. Michael IV. the Paphlago- 
 nian " 
 
 ini.l* ^^'^^'AJ[''=')i*«' V. Calaphates. Zoe 
 loii inrHfl Theodora. C^onstanline X. Mo- 
 
 nS' ^ vV «"«"'"''•''"«• !*'''«<'.""• Michael 
 
 K' \^-l ' ""SJaf'tinc XI Ouras. Eudo- 
 lUb7, 10/1 cia. Romanus III. Diogenes. Mi- 
 in-a - *®f YrV- i^'-apinHres, Androni- 
 1078 eu.s I. Constantine XII. Nicepho- 
 infli .^"''."'•,B«,»taniates 
 iiiQ ^'''*'U'' IComiienuH 
 1118,114.3 John, or Calo-Johannes. Man- 
 uel 
 
 1180 Alexius II. Character and first ad- 
 nao .v«"'"f:«8of Andronicus 
 lib? Andronicos I. Comnenus 
 1185 Isaac II. Angelus 
 
 150 
 151 
 
 152 
 153 
 
 154 
 155 
 156 
 
 157 
 158 
 159 
 ICO 
 
 161 
 162 
 
 163 
 
 164 
 
 165 
 166 
 
 167 
 
 168 
 170 
 171 
 
 Defcrtption of J9raha^ and its inhabitants.^ 
 Birth, character, and doctrine of MahomeL— 
 Jle preaches at Mecca— Flies to Medina.— Pro- 
 pagates his religion by the ."v or d.— Voluntary 
 or reluctant submission of the .^rabs.—Bu 
 death and successors.- The claims and for- 
 tunes of JIU and his descendant*. """ -""^ 
 
 Description of Arabia. The soil and 
 climate. 01 vision of the nandy* the 
 stony, and ttie happy, Arabia 
 
 Manners of the Bedoweeni,or pasto- 
 ral Arabs. The horse. The camel. 
 Citiesof Arabia. Mecca 
 
 Her trade. National independence of 
 the Arabs 
 
 Their domesiic freedom and charac- 
 ter 
 
 Civil wars and private revenge. An- 
 nual truce. Their Focial qualifica- 
 tions and virtues. Love ol poetry. 
 Lxamples of generosity 
 
 Ancient idolatry. The Cnaba, or 
 Jemple of Mecca. Sacrifices and 
 rites 
 
 Introduction of the Sahians. The 
 vo_rS?*'""*- T'.'e Jfws. The chris- 
 369— 6051 nans. Birth and education of 
 Mahomet 
 
 Deliverance of Mecca. Qualifications 
 
 ^of.^ejrophet 
 
 Mahomet . the apostle of God, and the 
 jastoftho proph.ta Moses. Jesus. 
 1 he Koran 
 
 Miracles. Precepts of Mahomet^ 
 prayer, fasting, and alms 
 enn {>*'?." "**?""" 
 
 toy Hell and paradise. Mahomet preach- 
 
 _,_ "PS at Mecca 
 
 fioo~°J- '" "I'l'osed by the Koreish. And 
 
 c^ „or'ypn from Mecca 
 
 \iZi Received as prince of Medina. His 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 H 
 
 127 
 128 
 129 
 
 130 
 131 
 132 
 
 1.33 
 134 
 
 135 
 136 
 
 137 
 
 li38 
 i39 
 
 Introduction, vorshtp, and persecution ofima- 
 ge.s.-/ieroh of Italy and Rome.-Temp,^aldo- 
 sv^lT "-^r'^f Vopes.-Conquest of Italu by the 
 frank-s.-tstahlishment cj images.- Charac- 
 ter and coronation of Charlemagne.-Restora- 
 tton ana duayofthe Roman empire in the vest 
 --Independence of Italy.- Constitution cf the 
 viertnantc ooay. 
 
 Introduction of imafes into the chris- 
 tian church. Their worship 
 
 ihe imageof Edessa. Itscopies. Op- 
 ■-<w o^n"'» '"" *° image worship 
 /iO— B40 Leo the Iconoclast , and hissuc- 
 754 cessora. Their synod ofConstantino- 
 
 7V1>—//5 Their persecution of the images 
 and monks. Slate of Italy 
 
 727 Epistles of Gregory II. to the empe- 
 
 ror 
 
 728 Revolt of Italy. Republic of Rome 
 ZS~^7 Rome attacked by the I^ombards 
 754,774 Her deliverance by Pepin. Con- 
 Ik\ -r^a^P* o.f l^nibardy by Charlemagne. 
 75J, 768 Pepin and Charlemagne kings of 
 
 France 
 Patrician«iof Rome. Donations of Pe- 
 
 pin and ( harlemagne to the popes 
 forgery of the donation of Constan- 
 
 'ran n*'"® 
 
 7M) Restoration of imngei" in the oast by 
 
 757 the empress Irene. Seventh general 
 
 843 councif, ser.ond of Nice. Final es- 
 
 ^blj»J>nient of images by the empress 
 
 rSl RS'u'itanceof the Franks and ofChar- 
 774— WW lemsgne. Final separation of 
 the poi>./« from the eastern empire. 
 cuu Coronation oft harlemagne as empe- 
 •wiQ aPI r? ^'"" ""d of the west 
 768-814 Reign and character of Charle- 
 magne 
 
 a,f.":l °^f.K'* •"Piw- In France. 
 Spain. Italy 
 
 172 
 173 
 
 174 
 
 175 
 
 176 
 177 
 178 
 
 179 
 180 
 
 181 
 
 - r»»g«l dignity 
 
 622-632 He d. Clares war against the infi- 
 
 oels. His defensive wars against the 
 
 r^o'?^t^l^'""«o*'B<'''er. OfOhud. The 
 IkW-027 nations, or the ditch. Mahomet 
 fioo a*{?'**?"<?« the Jews of Arabia 
 «™l ^A'ilT'Jf^'o" of Mecca 
 fi^ «^ S**^9"*"fl ''S Arabia. First war 
 t«y— tsfl) of the Mahometans against the 
 /.«„ _Koman empire 
 632 Death of Mahomet 
 
 His character. Private lifeof Maho- 
 
 tfK, Jll' wives. And children 
 
 r^ ri'J*^o''^^'""fi^''- ilf'Pnof Abobeker. 
 634.644 ReienofOmar. OfOthman. Dis- 
 fiji-i r«!i^vtv''^>^''",»;i*^ Persians 
 
 ^"ai Oihman. Reign 
 
 gggof 661^-€*p^RcignofMoawiyah. Death 
 
 Posterity of Mahomet and Ali 
 680 Buccepsof, Mahomet. Permanency of 
 nis religion. His merit towards his 
 country 
 
 193 
 
 194 
 195 
 
 196 
 
 197 
 198 
 
 199 
 
 SOO 
 901 
 
 SOS 
 
 203 
 S04 
 
 905 
 
 206 
 
 307 
 
 208 
 
 ill 
 
 iii 
 
 215 
 216 
 
 lis 
 
 S19 
 
 CHAPTER XIL O / 
 
 The e(m quest of Persia, Syria. Egypt, Jtfrita 
 
 nfAt Vi'*^^'^' '^ "'"fssors of Mahomet.-itatt 
 oftheehrtsttans. ^c. under their government! 
 
 182 
 
 183 
 184 
 185 
 
 632 Union of the Arabs 
 
 «oo Jr.para<*ter of their caliphs 
 
 fi?fi RonVr'i'J^i''?- ^^ivasion of Persia. 
 
 6?7 cnrl^°fi„*'J''r£. foundation of Has- 
 
 ro^_cr/'V. ^^i"*^ of Madajn 
 
 of Pe°"" °° °^ ^^^- Conquest 
 Oja ouest of Transoxiana. Invasion of 
 
 _^ 1 R I A 
 
 Sjpge of Bosra 
 633,6XrSiepR of Damascus. Battle of 
 ctt n,A'Z"8din 
 
 634 The Arabs return to Damascus. The 
 
 city IS taken by storm and capitula- 
 tion 
 
 «oe S".""'lof Jh? Damascenes 
 
 635 Fair of A by la. Sieges of Heliopolis 
 ««,- .^and Emesa 
 
 r5$ P5i'^ "'' ^'ermuk 
 
 ^^' "**i VV"''"*'** of Jerusalem. Conquest 
 
 638 Fhjght of Heraclius. End of the Sy- 
 
 coo "*" ^"' 
 
 «SZ?« '^^^ conquerors of Syria. Pro- 
 639-655 gress of the Syrian conquerors. 
 
 219 
 220 
 1221 
 
 223 
 
 223 
 
 226 
 
 229 
 230 
 
 261 
 
 838 
 
 647 
 
 invasion bv Abdnllah. 
 indhis daugh- 
 
 Earrr. Character and life of Am- 
 rou 
 636 Invasion of Egypt. The cities of Mem- 
 
 Vphis, Babylon, and Cai,ro 
 oluntary submission of the Copts or 
 Jacobites. Siege and conquest of 
 Alexandria 
 
 Ihe Alexandrian library 
 dminisiratiun of Egypt. Richesand 
 populousness 
 AfRiCA. Firjit 
 Ttie praei'eci Gregory a 
 ler 
 665-6^9 Victory of the Arabs. Progress 
 
 of ihe Saracens in Africa 
 670—075 Foui.dation olCaifoan 
 692— (W»8 Conquest of Carthago. Final con- 
 698—709 quest of Africa 
 
 709 Adupi ion of the Moors Spain. First 
 
 temutaiioiis and designs of the 
 Arab..'. State of the Goi hie monar- 
 
 710 chy. The first descent of the Arabs 
 
 711 Their second descent, and victory. 
 
 Ruin of the Gothic ' onarrhy 
 
 ? 12. 713 ConqueHt of Spain by Musa 
 14 Disgrace of Musa 
 
 Prosperity or Spain under the Arabs. 
 ReliKious tolera* ion. Propagation of 
 Mahometism. Fall of the Magians 
 of Persia 
 749 Decline and fall of Christianity in Af- 
 rica 
 1149 And Spain. Toleration of the chris- 
 718 tians. Their hardships. The em- 
 pire of the caliphs 
 
 Page 
 
 233 
 234 
 
 235 
 
 236 
 
 237 
 
 238 
 
 240 
 241 
 
 242 
 
 243 
 244 
 245 
 
 246 
 247 
 
 S48 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ./^ 
 
 Tlu ivo sieges of Constantinople by the .Arabs.— 
 Their invasionof tVance, and defeat byCharles 
 Marfel.— Civil tear of the Onimiades and Jib- 
 bassides.— Learning of the Jirabs.-LuTury of 
 the caliphs.— Jf at al enterprises on Crete, Sici- 
 ly, and Rome.— Decay and division of the empire 
 of the culiphs.-Btjeats and victories of the 
 Greek emperors. 
 
 The limits of the Arabian conquests. 
 668—675 First siege of Constantinople by 
 
 the Arabs 
 677, 716—718 Peace and tribute. Second 
 siege of Constantinople 
 Failure and retreat of the Saracens. 
 Invention and use of the Greek fire 
 721 Invasion of France by the Arabs 
 
 731 Expedition and victories of Abderame. 
 
 732 IVfeat of the Saracens by Charles 
 Martel 
 
 Th"y retreat before the Franks. Ele- 
 746—750 vation of the Abbassides 
 750, 755 Fall of t he Ommiades. Revolt of 
 Spain. Triple division of the cali- 
 750—960 phate. Magnificence uf the ca- 
 liphs 
 Its consequences on private and pub- 
 754. &c. 813, &c. lie happiness. Introduc- 
 tion of learning among the Arabians 
 T leir real progress in the sciences 
 Want of erudition, taste, and freedom 
 781—805 Wars of Harun al Ra<<hid against 
 823 the Romans. The Arabs subdue 
 
 the Isle of Crete 
 827-878.846 And of Sicily. Invasion of 
 
 Rome by ihe Saracens 
 849 Victory and reign of Leo IV. Foun- 
 852 dation of the Leonine city 
 KW The Amorian war between Theophi- 
 841-870 Ins and Moiassem. Disorders of 
 
 ihe Turkish guards 
 890-951 Ri.<e and progress of the Carma- 
 900 thiaf's. Their military exploits _ 
 92?). 800-936 They pillage Mecca. Re- 
 F(KI-94I volt of the provinces. The inde- 
 800-841 pendent dynasties. Th*;;. Aela- 
 829-907 f.ite.«. The Edrisites. The Ta- 
 813-872, 87-2-902 herites. The ajTa- 
 874-9*>'i riiles. The Samanides. The 
 868-9O0, 934-968 Toulonides. The Ik- 
 
 892-1001. The Hamadnnites. The Bo- 
 »:W-1055. 936 wides. Fallen state of the 
 960 caliphs of Bngdad. Enterprises of 
 
 the Greeks. Reduction of Crete 
 9t)3— 975 The eastern cx)nquest8 ot Nice- 
 phitrus Phocas, and John Zimisces. 
 Conquest of Cilicia. Invasion of 
 Svria. Recovery of Antioch. Pas- 
 sage of the Euphrates. Danger of 
 Bagdad 
 
 249 
 
 250 
 
 251 
 252 
 
 253 
 254 
 
 255 
 
 256 
 257 
 258 
 
 259 
 260 
 261 
 
 262 
 263 
 
 264 
 
 265 
 
 266 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 5-2 
 
 state of the eastern empirein the tenth century.— 
 Ertent and division— Wealth and revenue.— 
 Palace of Constantinople.- Titles and offices.— 
 Pride and power of the emperors. -r Tactics of 
 the Greeks, .Arabs, and Franks.— Lo.^s of the 
 Latin tongue. — Studies and solitude of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Memorials of the Greek empire. 
 Works of Constantine Porphyroge- 
 niius. Their imperfections 
 
 Embamy of Liutprand. The themes, 
 «»r provinces of the empire, and its 
 limits in every age. General wealth 
 and pqimlousness 
 
 State of PelopnnnesDi. Sclavoniani. 
 Freemen of Laconia 
 
 Cities and revenue of Peloponnesus. 
 Manufactures — estH«cially of .silk. 
 Tran.'^ported from Greece to Sicily. 
 Reveni-e of the Greek empire 
 
 Ponnp and luxury of the emperors. 
 The palace of Constantinople. Fur- 
 niture and attendants 
 
 Honours n< d titles of the imperial fa- 
 mily. Offices of the palace, the state* 
 and the army 
 
 Adoration of the emperor. Reception 
 of Ambassadors. Processions and 
 acclamations 
 
 Marriaf* of the Cvsari with roreiga 
 
 nations. Imsginary law of Constan- 
 733, 941 tine. The first exception. The 
 943,972 second. The third. OthoofGer- 
 988 many. Wolodomir of Russia 
 
 Despotic power. Coronation oath. 
 Military force of the Greeks, the Sa- 
 racens, and the Franks. Navy of 
 the Greeks 
 Tactics and character of the Greeks 
 Character and tactics of the Saracens. 
 
 The Pranks or Latins 
 Their character and tactics. Oblivion 
 
 of the Latin language 
 The Greek emperors and their eub- 
 
 ects retain and assert the name of 
 omans. Period of ignorance. Re- 
 vival ot Greek learning 
 Decay of taste and genius. Want of 
 national emulation 
 
 267 
 
 268 
 269 
 
 270 
 271 
 272 
 273 
 
 274 
 
 275 
 276 
 
 277 
 
 278 
 
 279 
 280 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 S'W 
 
 Origin and doctrine of the PauUeians.— Their 
 persecution by the Greek emperors.— Revolt in 
 Jlrmenia, &c.— Transplantation into Thrace.— 
 Propagation in the west.— The seeds, character, 
 and consequences of the reformation. 
 
 660 
 
 Supine 
 ;nu 
 
 superstition of the Greek 
 
 church. Unginot thcraulicians.or 
 discjples.orSi. Paul. Their Bible 281 
 
 The simplicity of their belief and wor- 
 ship. They hold the two principles 
 of the Magians and Manichseans. 
 The establishment of the Paulicians ^^ 
 in Armenia, Pontus. &c. 282 
 
 Persecution of the Greek emperors. 
 845-880 Revnitof the Paulicians. They 
 fortify Tephrice. And pillage Asia 
 Minor 283 
 
 Their decline. Their transplantation 
 from Armenia to Thrace. Their in- 
 troduction into Italy and France 284 
 
 1200 Persecution « f the Albigeois. Cha- 
 racter and consequences of the Re- 
 formation 285 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Bulgarians.— Origin, migrations, and set- 
 tlement of the Hungarians.— Their inroads in 
 the east and icest.— The monarchy of Russia.— 
 Geography and trade.— Wars cf the Russians 
 against the Greek empire.— Conversion of the 
 barbarians. 
 
 680 Emigration of the Bulgarians. Croats 
 900 or Sclavonians of Dalmatia. First ^^^.^ 
 640-1017 kingdom of the Bulgarians 287 
 
 884 Emigration of the Turk* or Hunga- 
 
 rians 288 
 
 900 Their Fennic origin. Tactics and 
 
 manners of the Hungarians and Bui- ^^ 
 
 garians 289 
 
 889 Establishment and inrondsof the Hon- 
 934 garians. Victoryof Henry the Fow- ^^ 
 
 fer ^ 290 
 
 955,8^ Of Ot ho the Great. Originofthe 
 
 Russian monarchy 291 
 
 The Varangians of Constantinople. 
 950 Geography and trade of Russia . 292 
 
 Naval expeditions of the Russians 
 865 REainst Constantinople. The first. 
 904 The second „ , . „ 293 
 
 941. 104a The third. The fourth.^ Nego- 
 955—973 ciations and prophecv. Reien of 
 970-973 Swatoslaus. His defeat by John ^ 
 
 Zimisces „ . „ . 294 
 
 864, 955 Conversion of Russia. Baptism 
 
 ofOlga 295 
 
 988 Baptism <S Wolodomir. Christianity 
 800-1100 of the north 296 
 
 ■s'C 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Saracens, Franks, and Greeks, in Italy.— 
 Ji\rst adventures and settlement of the JVor- 
 nans.— Character and conquests of Robert 
 Guifcard. duke of Jipulia.—Delirerante cf 
 Sicily by his brother Roger.— Victories oS Ro- 
 bert over the emperors of the east and west.— 
 Roger, king of Sicily, invades .Africa and 
 Greece. — The emperor Manuel Comnenus.— 
 Wars of the Greeks and J^'ormans.- Extinction 
 cf thejformans 
 
 840—1017 Conflict of the Saracens, Latins 
 
 and Greeks in Italy 
 871 , 890 Conquest of Bari. New province 
 983 of the Greeks in Italy. Defeat of 
 6tho III. _..„.„ 
 
 1016 Anecdotes. Originofthe Normans in 
 Italy 
 
 1029, 1038 Foundation of Aversa. The 
 Normans serve in Sicily „ . ,. 
 
 1040-1043 TTieir conquest of Apulia. 
 
 1046 Character of the Normans. Oppres- 
 
 1049—1054 sion of Apulia. League of the 
 pope and the two empires 
 
 1053 Expedition of pope Leo IX. against 
 the Normans. His defeat and cap- 
 tivity. Origin of the pajwil investi- 
 
 1020—1085 tures to the Normans. Birth and 
 character of Robert Guiscard 
 
 1054— 1080 His ambition and success. Duke 
 of Apulia _ , . ,„ 
 
 1060 His Italian conquests. School of Sa- 
 
 1060—1090 lerno. Trade of Amalphi. Con- 
 quest of Sicily by Count Roger. 
 
 1081 Robert invades the eastern empire 
 Siege of Durazza The army and 
 
 march of the emperor Alexius 
 
 1082 Battle of Durazzo „ , ~ . 
 Durazzo taken. Return of Robert, 
 
 1081 and actions of Bohemoqd. The em- 
 peror Henry III. invited by the 
 Greeks . _^ — . . ,. 
 
 1061—1084 Besieaes Rome. Fliee before 
 
 1084 Robert. Second expedition of Ro- 
 
 1085 bert into Greece. His death ^ 
 
 1101—1154 Reign and ambition.of Racer. 
 W greftt count of Sicily. DukeofApu- 
 
 First king nf Sicily. 
 Vfr 
 
 Hi* 
 
 AD. _ . . 
 
 1130-1139 Ha; ^ 
 
 112-^—1152 conquest 8 in Africa 
 
 1146 His invasion of Greece. His admiral 
 delivers Lewis VII. of France. In- 
 
 1148, 1149 suits Constantinople. The em- 
 peror Manuel repulses the Normans 
 
 I ].'>5 He reduces Apulia and Calabria. His 
 
 1155—1174 design of acquiring Italy and 
 the western empire. Failure uf his 
 designs 
 
 1156, 1 185 Peace with the Normans. Last 
 war uf the Greeks and Normans. 
 
 1154-11(56 William I. the Bad, king of 
 
 1166-ll«> Sicily. William II. the Good. 
 Lamentation of the historian Fal- 
 candus 
 
 1194 Conquest of the kingdom of Sicily by 
 
 1204 the emperor Henry VI. Final ex- 
 tinction of the Normans 
 
 296 
 
 297 
 298 
 299 
 
 300 
 
 301 
 302 
 
 303 
 304 
 
 305 
 306 
 
 307 
 
 306 
 
 3» 
 
 310 
 
 311 
 
 313 
 
 313 
 
 CHAPTER XVm. >b 
 
 7 
 
 TTie TStrks of the house of Seljuk.-T^eir reroU 
 against Mahmvd con<iueror of Hindostan.— 
 Tognil subdues Persia, and protects the ca- 
 liphs. — Defeat and captivity of the emperor 
 Romanus Diogenes by .Alp JJrslan.— Power 
 and magnificence of Malek Shah.— Conquest ojf 
 .Asia Minor and Syria.— State and oppression 
 of Jerusalem.— Pilgrimages to the holysepulr 
 chre. 
 
 TbeTnrks. , , „ ., «. 
 
 997—1028 Mahmud. the Gaznevide. His 
 
 twelve expeditions into Hisdostan. 
 
 His character _ , 
 
 980—1028 Manners and emigrations of the 
 
 Turks, or Turkmans 
 1038 They defeat the Gaznevides, and sub- 
 1038-1152 due Persia. Dynasty of the 
 10:«-10t)3 Seliukianc. Reien and charac- 
 1055 terof Togrul Beg. He delivers the 
 
 caliph of Bagdad ..,.„„ 
 1063 His investiture. And death. The 
 1050 Turks invade the Roman empire. 
 106.3—1072 Reign of Alp ArsU^n. Conquest 
 1065— I0ti8 of Armenia and Georgia 
 I0f>8— 1071 The emperor Romanus Dioge- 
 
 1071 nes. Defeat of the Romans. Cap- 
 tivity and deliverance of the empe- 
 ror . » . J 
 
 1072 Death of Alp Arslan. Reian and proe- 
 1072-1092 perity of Malek Shah „ ,. ^, 
 1092 His death. Division of the SeUukian 
 
 1074— 1084 Connncst of Asia Minor by the 
 Turks. The Seljukian kingdom of 
 Roum .... , T 
 
 938—1099 Stale and pilgrimage of Jerosa- 
 
 '•"tn ^ . . ... 
 
 9R9— 1076 Und'^r the Fatimito .caliphs. 
 1009, 1024 Sacrilege of Hakem. Increase 
 1076-1096 of pilgrimages. Conquest of 
 
 Jerusalem By the Turks 
 
 313 
 
 314 
 315 
 
 316 
 
 317 
 
 318 
 319 
 390 
 
 321 
 39B 
 
 323 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 S^ 
 
 Origin and vumhers of the first ervsade.—(jM' 
 racters of the Latin princes.— Their march (0 
 Constantinople —Policy of the Greek emperor 
 .Alerius.— Conquest of Jfice. .Antioch, and Je- 
 rusalem, by the Franks —Deliverance of the 
 holy sepulchre.— Godfrey oj Bouillon ,nrst fang 
 of Jerusalem.— Institutions cf the trench or 
 Latin kingdom. 
 
 995-1099 The first crusade. Peter the 
 
 1095 hermit. Urban II. in the council of 
 Placentia 
 
 Council pf Clermont 
 Justice of the crusaders 
 Spiritual motives and indulgences. 
 Temporal and carnal motives 
 
 1096 Influence of exnmrle. Departure of 
 
 the first crusaders 
 Their destruction in Hungary and 
 
 The chiefs of the first crusade. I.God- 
 frey of Bouillon. 11. Hugh of Ver 
 mandois. Robert of Normandy. Ro- 
 bert of Flanders. Stephen of Char- 
 tres, ice. III. Raymond of Thou- 
 louse 
 
 IV. Bofaemond and Tancred. Chival- 
 
 1096, 1097 March of the princes toConstan- 
 tinople. Policy ofthc emperor Alex- 
 ius Comnenus 
 He obtains the homage of the crusa- 
 ders „ „„ . . 
 1007 Insolence of the Franks. Their review 
 and numbers \ 
 Siege of Nice. Battle of DorylsBum 
 March through the Lesser . Asia. 
 1097—1151 Baldwin founds the principality 
 1097, 1(»8 of Edessa. Siege of Antioch ^ 
 
 1098 Victory of the crusaders.. Their fa- 
 
 mine and distress at Aniioch 
 Legend of the holy lance. Celestial 
 
 w&.rrior0 
 TTie staie of the Turks and caliphs of 
 
 1098. 1099 Egypt. Delay of the Franks. 
 
 1099 Their march to Jerusalem. Siege 
 and conquest of Jerusalem 
 
 1099. 1100 Election and reign of GodfVey of 
 Bouillon _, 
 
 1999, 1099-1187 Battle of Ascalcn. The 
 kingdom of Jerusalem _ ^ _ 
 
 1099-1369 Assise of Jerusalem. Court of 
 peers. Law of judicial combats 
 Court of burgesses. Syrians. Vil- 
 lains and slaves 
 
 / 
 
 324 
 325 
 326 
 
 327 
 
 328 
 
 396 
 
 ^0 
 331 
 
 333 
 
 333 
 
 334 
 335 
 
 336 
 337 
 338 
 
 330 
 340 
 341 
 343 
 343 
 
 rf 
 
 CHAPTER XX^ 
 
 PreMTVaUon of the Greek empire.-Mimhert, 
 vankee, and event, ttf the second and iMrm 
 emstms.-St. Bernard.— Reign of Saiadin m 
 Egypt and Syria.— JSa conquest <a Jenuatem, 
 --jfitval erusadea.—Riehard tkejirsit of Eng- 
 land.— Pope Innoeent the third: and the fourth 
 end/ftk CTMOifM.— 21U tpiptror Frtdgtrw im 
 
! 
 
 iacMitf.— ZMtit tke niutk <f #V«ne« • aii4< tju 
 
 1 1 18 ,SocceM or Alexius 
 ilxpeditiorw by land. The firtt ern- 
 
 ■ade. The^jecofid, of Conrad III. 
 
 andLoainVIl. The third, of Pre- 
 
 ie97-;l 1 18 ,SacceM of Alexiui 
 JlOl Expeditii - 
 
 1147 ^^ 
 
 1189 -J 
 
 deric L Their numbers 
 Pattage through the Greek empire. 
 Turkwh warfare 
 ■mnn, OMiinacy of the enthusiaim of the 
 1091— lio3 crusades. Character and mil* 
 ■ion of St. Bernard 
 
 Progresa of the Mahometanii. The 
 
 127- 1145 Atabcks of Syria. Zenghi. 
 145-1174 Noureddin 
 llKl— llfi9 Conque«t of Egypt by the Turkf . 
 1171 Endot the Fatimitecalipbg. lUica 
 
 1171-1 193 and character of SaJadin 
 187 Hifl conquent of the kingdom 
 
 1 And city of Jerusalem 
 i^ 7hP. ^i^'"^ crujjade, by lea. Siege of 
 lo9— 1191 Acre 
 1101. ll.yy RicJ^ard of England, in Palea- 
 II-'* ,tinn. His I reatjr and departure 
 im 1198-1216 Deaih of Saladin. Inno- 
 180.1 cent ill. The fourth crusade. The 
 izlo niih 
 1228 The emperor Frederic fl. in Palestine. 
 
 isis .LlW"". ^f .'f»« Carizmians. St. 
 1*48— l-iM Louis and the sixth crusade 
 1249. 1-250 He tukes Damietta. His cap- 
 770 tivit^ in Egypt. His death before 
 
 J. Th 
 
 343 
 
 344 
 345 
 
 346 
 
 347 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D,„ ^ Page 
 
 111. The Con rtenays of England. The 
 earls of Oevoashire 382 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 IX 
 
 •^ 
 
 rhe 
 
 ^...^ in _„.. _ ^ 
 
 io«» ,T?J*mi '" ^'l® ."^^ci'i! crusade. 
 J^SQ-1517 MamalukeB of Egypt 
 1208. mi Loss of Antioch: llie Ion of 
 Acre and the Holy Land 
 
 355 
 356 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 .(/<) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 T%t Greek •mptrort qfJAee and Ccmttantinople. 
 — -Etecofion and reign cfMUkaet Pataologus. 
 —Hin false untmicitk the jwpe and tke Latin 
 
 **%*■**, r^f?/* .''**«'»* «/ Q^rles of Jinjou. 
 —Revolt of Stctly. - War of He Catalans in 
 JItta and Greece. — Revolutions and present 
 state ej Jitkens 
 
 .««. ^.?Si?yi!'<»". of i^ Greek, empire. 
 1204-1222 Theodore Lascaris. John Du- 
 1222-1255 cag Vatan(>8 
 1255-1259 Theodore Lascaris II. Minori- 
 125y ty of John LascatM 
 
 Family and character of Michael Pa- 
 tcu-n. »J^'***^m!- Hiselevation to the throne 
 ?sS" M'chael PalsBologus emperor. Recove- 
 ISbl ry of Constantinople. Return of the 
 
 Greek emperor 
 »ft*.a S'ii^'""'" blinds and banishes the 
 12U2— iab8 young emperor. Is excomma* 
 
 io«5 A*-xA$^s^u^^ the oatriarch Arseni.us. 
 I«VS~1'»1? °'^""'«nof the Arsenitcs. Rogo 
 S-J^ ^ Michael Palcc»logus ' 
 
 IsZv J4S.?^'»".o** Andronicus the elder. 
 1274— 1277 His union with the Latin church. 
 
 is2A~;lS2* ii'* persecution of the Greeks 
 1283. 1266 Th" •••<•'»'' ^:— »i..>.j /'•1...1. 
 
 A. D. Paaa' 
 
 fiajazet I. Ilderim. His mnqucsts 
 .««« ,JMroni the Euphrates to 1 lie Dauulie 410 
 1396. 139()-i;Wb Battle of Nicoi oils. Iro- 
 
 sade and captivity of the French 
 
 princes 
 I2^~J-^!I Ti**® enripcror John Palseolofus. 
 I22IZ?1H.^ liisrord of the Grr^hs. Tho 
 135*5—1402 emperor Manuel. Distress of 
 
 Coostaotiuopltt 
 
 411 
 
 9 
 41S 
 
 CHAPTER XX Vl^ 
 
 383 
 384 
 385 
 
 366 
 
 1270 
 
 Schism of the Gre^a and Latins.-Slaie of Cb«- 
 stanUnople.—RevoU of the Bulgarians. -Issac 
 Jlngelus dethroned ^bp his brother jSlexius.- 
 Qrtgtn of the fourth crusade. -jSllianee of the 
 .French and Fenettans letth the son of Isaac— 
 Their naval expedition to Constantinople. — 
 Tjtetwosteges and final ccnguest of the city bu 
 the Latins. 
 
 Schism of the Greeks. Their aversion 
 
 to the Latins 
 Procession of the H0I7 Ghost. Varie- 
 er>f QUL**'^^®*^'^'^*'*"^'cal discipline. Ambi- 
 857-886 tious ouarrels of PhotiuF, patri- 
 arch or Constantinople, with the 
 
 356 
 
 — ,- Jrie union dissolved. Charles 
 of Anjou subdues Naples and Sicily. 
 5oi« -Threatens (he Greek empire 
 
 loo2 '^l,'*?,'<'»H!,.^*"'Jil«?^fe" l*»e revolt of 
 1282 Sicily. The Sicilian Vespers. De- 
 ,~v- -l^t of Charles 
 
 1303—1307 The service and war of the Ca- 
 i<wvj ,*?J5"JI '" **•* Greek empire 
 1204'-1-I56 Revolution! of Athens. Preaent 
 state of Athens 
 
 387 
 
 388 
 
 289 
 
 390 
 391 
 392 
 
 Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane to the throni 
 ft/ bam arc and.— J ft s conovests iv Persia, Geor. 
 '•/?' '"/^'^Vk' l<vssia. India. Sinn, and jSva. 
 totia-Ht3 Turkii^h war.- Defeat and capfititt 
 of Ba^azet- Death of Tiwoitr.-Citil var of 
 the sons of Bajazet -Hcsforatiov of the IVrk. 
 uh monarchy bv Mahomet the first.— Siege of 
 Constantinople by .Amurath the second. 
 
 iirt ^VfJ,9V^^J^rT\novvi,aT Tamerlane, 
 1^1— I'WO His first adventures 413 
 
 Jilix He ascends the ilir no of Zaralai. 
 
 13/Q-J3K} Of. PersiH. JI. Of Turkestan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. «>>$ 
 
 1054 The Dope 
 
 Tea excommunicate the 
 of Constantinople am 
 • reeks. Enmity of the C 
 
 patri- 
 
 , - and the 
 
 ^-.nmity of the Greeks 
 
 The Latins at Consun- 
 
 ,.,^ arch w, v^> 
 1100-1200 Greeks 
 and Latins 
 --/»-> tirK»ple 
 rm. 1185-1 195 Their, massacre. Reign 
 iir.i ang character of Isaac Angelos. Re- 
 1195-1203 volt of the Bulgarians Usurpa- 
 tion and character of Alexius Ange- 
 lus 
 1198 The fourth crusade. Embraced by the 
 »«- ,SSJ[ons of Prance 
 _g|7-1200 State of the Venetians. Alli- 
 4*01 .ance of the French and Venetians 
 1202 As«em!>ly and departure of the cru- 
 sade from Venice. Siege of Zara 
 Alliance of the crusaders with the 
 inAo V/*«» prince, the young Alexius. 
 J803 Voyage from Zara to Constantino- 
 _plo 
 Fruitless negociation of the emperor. 
 
 Passage of the Bosphorus 
 X irst siege and conquest of Constan- 
 tinople by the Latins 
 Kestoraiion of the emperor Isaac An- 
 gelus. and his son Alexius. Quar- 
 •tat^t ni?'* of the Greeks and Latins 
 1204 iTin war renewed. Alexius and hig 
 father deposed by Mourzouflle. 
 Hecond sie^e 
 Pillago of Constantinople 
 liiviBi.»n of the. spoil. Misery of the 
 
 v» reeks.. Sacrilege and mockery 
 Destruction of the statues 
 
 357 
 
 358 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 .H 
 
 359 
 360 
 361 
 362 
 
 363 
 364 
 365 
 
 366 
 
 367 
 366 
 
 3(i9 
 370 
 
 Ctvtl vara, and mm of the Greek empire.— 
 Heigng of Andronicus, the elder and younger, 
 and John Pqlaologus.- Regency, revolt, reign, 
 and abdication of John Cantacutene.—Kstab- 
 «**"»«»»'.<'/ a Genoese colony at Pera or Gala- 
 ta.- Their ware with the empire and citjt of 
 Constantinople. 
 
 1282-1S80 Superstition of Andronicus and 
 ,--- the times 393 
 
 ioSY F'JKJ, deputes between the elder and 
 ld21— l.fi8 younger Andronicus. Three ci> 
 lonr f,'' wa". between the two emperors. 
 IJsio Coronation of the younger Androni- 
 cus 304 
 12^ The elder Andrnnicas abdicates the 
 i^ iKX".""!®"'-. His death. Reign of 
 ioTV ?«{l Andronicug the. younger. His 
 1341—1391 two wives. Reign of John Pa- 
 Jieologus. k or tune of John Cantacu- 
 
 JX'^J-l?'^ Of Kirxik. Russia. Ac. 
 
 1398. 1399,1400 1 fl. Of Hindoetan? His war 
 
 , .-^ against Sultan Bajazet 
 
 tl9R ?llE*V»" "ivades S>ri». Sacks Aleppo 
 
 1400,1402 Damascus. And Bngdad. Invades 
 Anatolia. Battleof Ai-gora 
 Defeat and captivity of Ba;azet. The 
 'tory of his iron cage dioproved by 
 the Persian histt)rian of Timour 
 
 414 
 
 415 
 
 416 
 
 417 
 
 418 
 
 1403 
 
 il Andronicus Ihe younger. His 
 il U ~ . * . 
 
 olog 
 zenus 
 
 1341 He IS Ic A. regent of the empire. His 
 regency is attacked. Bv Apocaucus. 
 the empress Anne of Savoy, and by 
 
 Cantacuzene assumes 
 
 Partition of the empire by the French and Fene- 
 liana.— five Latin emperors of the houses of 
 JV*a"rf«*» and Courtenay.— Their wars against 
 the Bulgarians and Greeks.— Weakness and 
 poverty of the Latin empire.— Recovery of Con- 
 stantinople by the Greeks.— Oeneralconseiiuen- 
 eesofthe crusades. 
 
 iSSi ElefUon of.the «mperor Baldwin 1. 371 
 
 1204 Division of the Greek empire. Revolt 
 
 of the Greeks 372 
 
 1204-1222 Theodore Lascaris. emperor of 
 Nice.. The dukes and emperors of 
 
 latiK X,^'"SO'?^- -The despoUofEpiros. 
 
 1205 __ Tlie Bulgarian war 373 
 
 Defeat and captivity of Bald win. Re- 
 
 lOOft-ioTI' **^ *•** Latfos. Death of the 
 1»I©—J2 16 emperor. Reign and character 
 -tniP. _of Henry 374 
 
 1317 Peter qX Coortenay. emperor of Con- 
 ,«,._ sfantinople 375 
 
 ioAT~l^ fiK captivity and death- Ro- ' 
 1<*1— 4228 hert eipperor of Constantinnj 
 
 the patriarch, 
 the j>urple 
 1341-1347 The civil war. Victory of Can- 
 
 1347 tacuzene. He reenters Constanti- 
 nople 
 
 \W,~^^ *&?«." 9^ John CanUcnzane. 
 ix^2 ■'°"" Palaeologus takes up arms 
 1355 asainst him. Abdication of Can- 
 1341— 1,?4I. tacuzene. Dispute concerning 
 ,rt^, .U"® •'J5''* of .mount Thabor 
 1261— 1347 Establishment of tiie Genoese 
 at Pera or Galata 
 
 1348 Their trade and insolence. Their war 
 
 1349 with the emperor Cant aruzene. Des- 
 1353 truction of his fleet. Victory of the 
 
 Genoese over the Venetians and 
 Greeks 
 Their treaty with the empire 
 
 395 
 
 396 
 397 
 
 396 
 399 
 
 400 
 401 
 
 nested. 1. byihePrench.-2 by the 
 Italians., Attested. 3. by the Arabs. 
 -4 by the Gr ek!..-5. hj the Turks. 
 Probable conclusion. Death of R»- 
 jazct. Term of the conquests of Ti- 
 mour 
 1404. 1405 Hig triumph at Samnrcand. His 
 1405 death on the road to China 
 i^M ^.liJ?^^^ ^"<* merits of Timour 
 11S~i1?A ^""' wfl" of the sons of Bajo- 
 1403-14 10 zet. 1. Mustaphn. 2. Isa^. 
 1410. 1413-1421 Soiiman. I Mouse. 5. Ma- 
 1421-14.'S1 hornet I. Reign of Amurath 11. 
 i;«A ,?J?;".5'on of the Ottoman emi)ire 
 ?12s~"^i^ State of thft Greek empire. 
 Jls? Si^ff of rpnstanlinople by Amurath 
 1425-144(ri I. The emperor John PalsDolo- 
 gus II. 
 Hereditary succession and merit of the 
 OttpmRns. Education and discipline 
 of the Turkg. Invention and use of 
 gunpowder 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 '^PPKeation of tke eastern emperors to the pmea. 
 — ^««/« to the wnst. of .fokn the first, Mawuel. 
 and John the second, Paltrologus—Vniou of 
 the Greek and Latin churche.i, promoted by tke 
 council of Basil, and concluded at Ferrara nnd 
 Jijorenee.- State of Literature at Constantino- 
 Pl^:— Its revival in Italy by the Greek fugitives. 
 —CuriosUy and emulation of the Latins. 
 
 1339 Embassy of the younger Andronicus 
 to pope Benedict. XII, The argu- 
 
 410 
 
 420 
 421 
 
 423 
 
 423 
 
 424 
 
 {CHAPTER XXV. '^ 
 
 If 
 
 Congueata of Zingis man and the Moguls from 
 China to Poland.— Kxcape of Constantinople 
 and the Greeks.— Origin of the Ottoman Turks 
 in Btthynta.— Reigns avdvictories of Qthman , 
 Orchan. .Amurath the first, and Bajaiet the 
 first.— Foundation and progress of the l^rkish 
 monarchy in Jlsia and Europe.— Danger of 
 Constantinople and the Greek empire. 
 
 120G— 1227 Zingis Khan, first emperor of 
 ,«.« IP® Moguls and Tartars 
 1210-1214 His laws. His invasion of China 
 1224 Of Carisme. Transoxiana. ana 
 
 1218-lS 
 
 402 
 
 1227. 1227-129> PeLsja. Hisdi^tTir'Con 
 
 th u 
 
 }f the 
 of Zi 
 
 quests of^the M.ogur<i under the sue- 
 
 1234 
 
 1279.'1258"6f thVsouthern. Of Persia, and 
 
 of the caliphs. Of 
 
 cessors of Zingis.' Of the northern 
 enopire of China 
 
 K., Russia, Poland. 
 Of Siberia 
 of Zini 
 
 ... .^ ^.w.,jof thorns. Pro- 
 gress of the Greeks. Michael PalKo- 
 
 teuit r^*^*^" ^O® Greek emperor 
 
 X»l Constantinople recovered by the 
 ureeks. General consequences of 
 the crusades 
 
 Digression on the family of Qmrtenav. 
 
 ^7 
 578 
 379 
 
 JLLSO Courtenays of France. Their alii 
 ^_ ance with the royal family 
 
 y. 
 
 le 
 
 1242-1272 the empire 
 
 Anatolia 
 
 1235-1SM5 Of Kipzak 
 1242 Hi 
 
 I2OT-1^ dopt' thTjrnaniii^Vs , 
 isix tvSS Qivision of the Mbgb. ^,..»...«. 
 1»40— I.1O4 Elscape of Constantinople and 
 ,-_ . the Greek empire from the Mocols 
 1304 Decl|nf of the Mogul khans of Persia, 
 islx S^*i^ .*•' ^''6 Ottonoans. Reign of 
 iSs~l«5x Othman 
 
 
 381 
 
 tinglsi. . A- 
 
 of China. 
 
 rul empire. 
 
 12^1360.1.326-132» Reign of Orchan. His 
 IJOO conquest of Bitbynia. Division of 
 --,_ Anatolia amonji the Turkish emirs. 
 iilx ,ifi5«of the Asiiric provinces. The 
 ]^]T'1S^ knights of Rhodes. First pa». 
 1241-1347. sago of the Turks into Europe 
 1340 Marriage of Orchan with a Greek 
 1353 princess. Establishment of Jhe Ot- 
 ,«/./» t^ans in Europe. Death of Orchan 
 1360—1389 and his son Soiiman. The reign 
 anil European conquests of Amu> 
 
 1389-1403 The Janizaries. The reifn of 
 
 403 
 
 404 
 495 
 
 406 
 407 
 
 408 
 
 409 
 
 %-tia ^T™*"*" f'?'" ■ ffHfide and onion 
 42i2 "e«"cis'ion of Cantacuzene with Cle- 
 1355 ment VI. . Treaty of J..hn Talcolo- 
 ---- , «u.s 1. with Innocent Vl. 
 13^ Visit of John Palcologus to Urban V. 
 1J70 at Rome His return to Conmanli- 
 i^ftA r*,"**?'^- Visit of the emperor Manuel 
 ?1oS ^?,tnp Pourt of Frapce. Of England. 
 1402 His return to Greece. Greek know* 
 ledge and descriptions. Of Gemia- 
 -^ ny 
 1402-1417 OfFrance. Of England. Indif- 
 ^j^m /f^^"*^*? of Manuel townrds the Ta- 
 1417— J4S» tins. His negociations. Ilia 
 ,,^_ private motives 
 1425-1437 Hisdeath. Zeal of John Pnlanv 
 ..»n^ vrX?" J.L.C'orruption of the Iwitin 
 
 ?1i1~HiS *'ii' °C '^'"o- Of Constance. Of 
 1431--144,3 Basil 
 
 t^o^ I'lWupP'^'"-'''^" to.Eureniiis IV. 
 i1oi~^fV Nogocintions with the Greeks. 
 1437 John Pa lapoiogus embarks in the 
 , .-_ twpe's galleys 
 
 I1:l2 V'" .♦'^umphal pnfryal Venire. Into 
 14JO. 14j?» rerrara. < ouncils of ihf Greeks 
 
 and Latins at Ferrarn and Fli rence 
 - .__ Negociations with the Greeks 
 \V^ Eugenins deposed at Basil. Re-nnion 
 1440 of Jhe Greeks at Florence. Their 
 , . ... return to Constantinople 
 I^on/.TA] »>«a<;rof the church. State of 
 <1«»00— J-*3.i the Greek language af Conslan- 
 
 tinoplo . Comparison of the Greeks 
 
 and Latins 
 
 loan ?5J[A*''^'.C.0l'^G"'«'' Wrringin Italy. 
 1^. 1^-1^4 Lessons ofRarlaam. Stu- 
 l.-i'X ,lir«" ?f^'Ur?^<^h. Of^Boocnre 
 IJbO— 1363 LcoPilatuB. first Greek profes- 
 iinA /P^rV^ Florence, and in the west. 
 1300—1415 Foundation of the Gr'^k lan- 
 
 i.«w» ,^^«® '" li^y):^ Manuel Chr J 80I0- 
 1400-1500 ras. Tli Greeks in Italy 
 
 Cardinal BegBarinn. &r. Their fn ults 
 and merits. The Platonic phiioso- 
 
 —Phy 
 
 lAAf 'iTil'A*!,'^'"l<!jJr'y{T*'" pf l^e Latins. 
 1447-1455. 1428-1402 Nicholas V. Cosmo 
 
 and Lorenzo of Mcdicis. Use and 
 
 abuse of ancient learning 
 
 f 
 
 425 
 426 
 
 427 
 
 428 
 429 
 
 4.10 
 
 4:;i 
 
 4?2 
 
 433 
 434 
 
 43S 
 436 
 
 437 
 438 
 
 439 
 
 A. D- Page 
 
 1440-1448 The Greek schism after the 
 council of Florence. Zeal of the Ori- 
 entals and Russians 441 
 
 1421—1451 Reign and character of Amurath 
 
 1442-1444 II. '■ 
 
 1443 
 
 His double at)dicatioD. Eu- 
 forms a league against the 
 
 1444 
 
 Cfnius 
 
 Turks 
 Ladislaus. king of Poland and Hun- 
 
 nry. marches against them. l*he 
 
 Turkish peace. Violation of the 
 
 peace 
 Bat t le of Warna. Death of Ladislaos. 
 
 The cardinal Julian 
 1456 John Corvinus Huniades. His defence 
 1404-1413 of Belf rade. and death. Birth 
 
 and education of Scanderbeg, prince 
 
 of Albania 
 1443 His revolt from the Turks. Hisvaloor. 
 1467 And death 
 
 1448—1453 Coostantine. the last of the Ro- 
 1450— 1452 man or Greek emperors. Em- 
 bassies of Phranza. State of the By- 
 
 zanttne court 
 
 442 
 
 443 
 
 444 
 
 445 
 
 446 
 
 447 
 
 A. D. 
 
 I1§? T^**"V^' Grief and terror of Europe 
 1481 Death of Mahomet 11. 
 
 PagL 
 461 
 
 -je 
 4^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 6f 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 t0» 
 
 Reign and character of Mahomet the second.- 
 Siege, assault, and final conquest of Constanti- 
 nople by the Turks.-Death of Constantino Pa- 
 taologus.— Servitude of tke Greeks.— Extinc- 
 tion of the Roman empire in tke east.— Conster- 
 nation of Europe.— Conquests anddeathof Ma- 
 homet the second. 
 
 1451-1481 Character of Mahomet IL His 
 rei^n 
 
 1451 Hostile intentions of Mahomet 
 
 1452 He builds a fortress on the Bospho- 
 1452, 1453 rus. The Turkish war. Prepa- 
 rations for the siege of Constantino- 
 
 1453 The great cannon of Mahomet. Ma- 
 
 homet IL forms the siege of Constan- 
 ^tinople 
 Forces of the Turks— of the Greeks. 
 
 1452 False union of the two churches 
 Ohgtinacy and fanaticism of the 
 
 1453 Greeks. Siege of Constantinople by 
 Mahomet IL 
 
 Attack and defence. Succour and vic- 
 tory of four ships 
 
 Mahomet .transports his nary over 
 land. Distress of the city 
 
 Preparations of the Turks for the gen- 
 eral assault. Last farewell of the 
 emperor and the Greeks. The gen- 
 eral assault 
 
 Death of the emperor Constantino 
 Paleologus. Loss of the city and 
 
 448 
 449 
 
 empire 
 
 The Turks enter and pillaee Constan- 
 tinople. Captivity of the Greeks. 
 Amount of the 8{>oil 
 
 Mahomet II. visits the 
 phia. the palace, Jcc. 
 to the Greeks 
 
 He repeoples and adorns Constanti- 
 nople. Extinction of the imperial 
 families of Comoenus and Palseolo- 
 
 1460, lie! Loss of the Morea-of T ebi- 
 
 city, St. So- 
 His behaviour 
 
 450 
 
 451 
 452 
 
 453 
 454 
 
 455 
 
 456 
 457 
 458 
 459 
 
 460 
 
 State 1^ Rome from the twelfth century.- Tempo- 
 ral dominion of the popes.— Seditions of the ci- 
 ty.- Pghtical keresy of Arnold of Brescia.— Re- 
 storation of the republic— The senators.— Pride 
 of the Romans. — Their wars.— They are depri- 
 ved of the election and presence of the popes, 
 who retire toAvigvon.— The jubilee.— JVohle fa- 
 milies of Rome.— Feud of the Colonna and Ur- 
 stni. 
 
 1I95~'500 State and revolutions of Rome. 
 eOO-1100 The French and the German ~ 
 emperors of Rome 
 Aui hority of the popes in Rome. From 
 afltection.— ifrom right— virtue— be- 
 nefits 
 Inronstancy of superstition. Seditions 
 Iwo— 1305 of Rome against the pones. Suc- 
 '~^ "•" "" Vll. ~ 
 
 4G2 
 
 463 
 
 Pas- 
 
 1099—1118 cessors of Gregory 
 
 1118. 1119 chal II. Gelasius 11 
 
 1144. 1145 1181-1185 Lucius 11. Lucius IIL 
 
 1119-1124, 1130-1143 Calistus 11- Inno- 
 
 .,-./» cent 11. Character of the Romans 
 
 1140 by St. Bernard. Political heresy of 
 
 A rnol d of Brescia 
 1144—1154 He exhorts the Romans to re- 
 1155 store the republic. His execution. 
 1144 Restoration of the senate 
 The capitol. The coin 
 The prsefect of the city. Number and 
 
 choice of the nenate. The office of 
 1252— 1258 senator. Brancaleone. Charles 
 1265-1278 of Anjou 
 1281, 1328 Pope Martin IV. The emperor 
 
 Lewis of Bavaria. Addresses of 
 1144 Rome to the emperors. Conrad IIL 
 1155 „Frederic I. 
 
 ,^„ Wars of the Romans against the 
 1167 neighbouring cities. Battle of Tus- 
 .,-.. culum 
 1234, 1179 of Viterbo The election of the 
 
 popes. Right of the cardinals estab- 
 1247 lished by Alexander 111. InMitution 
 
 of the conclave by Gregory X. 
 „^, Absence of the popes from Rome. 
 1294-1303. 1309 Boniface VIII. Transla- 
 
 tion of the holy see to Avignon 
 1300 Institution of the jubilee or nolv year. 
 1350 The second jubilee. The nobles or 
 
 barons of Rome 
 Family of Leo the Jew. The Colonna 
 And Ursini. Their hereditary feuds 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL ^7 ^5 
 
 Character and coronation of Petrarch.— Resto- 
 ration of the freedom and government of Rome 
 by the tribune Riemi.—His virtues ana vices, 
 his expulsion and deaik.-ARetum of the popes 
 from Avignon .-Great- schism of tke west.— 
 Re-unton of the Latin church.— Dast struggles 
 OS Rmnan liberty.— Statutes of Rome.— Final 
 settlement of the uclesiastical state. 
 
 464 
 
 465 
 
 466 
 467 
 
 468 
 
 469 
 
 470 
 
 471 
 
 472 
 
 473 
 474 
 475 
 
 r A. D. PtM 
 
 ,„ .„ Birth, character, and patriotic designs 
 1347 ot Kienzi. He assumes the govern- 
 ment of Rome 
 With the title and office of Tribune. 
 Laws of the good estate. Freedom 
 and prosperity of the Roman repub- 
 lic 
 The tribune is regpected in Italy, See. 
 And celebrated by Petrarch. His 
 vices and follies 
 The pomp ol his knighthood. And co- 
 ronation. Fear and hatred of the 
 nobles of Rome 
 They oppose Rienzi in arma. Defeat 
 and death of the Colonna. Fall and 
 ,nAw ,V,'A°Uo» the tribune Rienzi 
 1347—1354 Revolutions of Rome. Adven- 
 1.451 tures of Rienzi. A prisoner at A vig- 
 l-w4 non. Rienzi senator of Rome 
 1355 His death, Petrarch invites and op- 
 braids the emperor Charles IV. lie 
 solicits the popes of Avignon to fix 
 ,««-. \bS}^ residence at Rome 
 1367-1370. 1377 Return of Urban V. Final 
 1378 return of Gregory XI. His death. 
 Election of Urban VI. Election of 
 „_„ Clement VII. 
 
 1^;8— 1418 Great schism of the west. Ca- 
 1392—1407 lamities of Rome. Negociations 
 . ,^^ for peace and union 
 1409 1414-1418 Council of Pisa. Council 
 ,,.,-. .ofConstance., Election of Martin V. 
 1417. 1431 Martin V. Eugenius IV. Ni- 
 1447, 1434 cholas V. Last revolt of Rome. 
 
 1452 Last coronation of a German empe- 
 ror, Frederic IIL 
 
 . i «, T^® statutes and government of Rome. 
 
 1453 Conspiracy of Porcaro 
 Last disorders of the nobles of Rome. 
 
 1500 The popes acquire the absolute do- 
 ininion of Rome 
 The ecclesiastical goyemment. Six- 
 1585-1^0 toa V. 
 
 477 
 
 478 
 479 
 480 
 481 
 48S 
 
 4B3 
 
 484 
 48S 
 
 486 
 
 487 
 
 488 
 
 489 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII, 
 
 7/ 
 
 Prospect of the ruins of Rome in the fifieenii 
 
 eentury.—Fbur causes gf decay and aestruc' 
 tion.— Example of the Coliseum.— Renovation 
 of the city.— Conclusion of the whole work. 
 
 
 1304-1374 Petrarch 
 
 1341 His poetic coronation at Rome 
 
 475 
 
 476 
 
 1430 View and discourse of Poggios from 
 the Capitol ine hill 
 
 His description of the ruins. Gradual 
 decay of Rome. Four causes of de- 
 struction 
 
 1. The injuries of nature. Hurricanes 
 and earthquakes. Fires. Inunda- 
 tions. 11. The hostile attacks of the 
 barbarians and chrigtians 
 
 III. The use and abuse of the mate- 
 rials 
 
 IV. The domestic quarrels of the Ro- 
 mans 
 
 The Coliseum, or amphitheatre of Ti- 
 tus. Games of Rome. A bull-feast 
 i.n the Coliseum 
 
 Injuries. And consecration of the Co- 
 liseum. Ignorance and barbarism of 
 the Romans 
 1420 Restoration and ornaments of the city. 
 
 Final conclusion 
 
 1332 
 
 489 
 490 
 
 491 
 493 
 493 
 
 494 
 
 496 
 487 
 
 Vol. il— a 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI1l(^ / 
 
 Schism of the Greeks and Lafing.—Peign and 
 character ofAmvrafk tke second— Crv.iade of 
 Ladtslavs king of Hungarp.-His defeat and 
 death.— Iluntades.-Seanderbeg. — Constanting 
 Palaologus, last emperor ef the east. 
 
 Comparison of Rome and Constanti- 
 nople 440 
 
1^ 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 OF THB 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Elevation of Justin the elder.^Reign of Justtnian.—J. 
 The empress Theodora.— U. Factions of the circus, and 
 sedition of Constantinople.— III. Trade and manufae- 
 ture of silk.—W. Finances and taxes.— V. Edifices of 
 Justinian.— Church of St. Sophia.— Fortifications and 
 frontiers oftht eastern empire.— Abolition of the schools of 
 Athens, and the consulship of Home. 
 
 S'li °//l'® *"' The emperor Justinian was born» 
 
 peror Justinian, _^ .■% •' ^ c^ ■%- ri . 
 
 A. D. 482. May ^^^^ }'^e Hiins of Sardica, (the modern 
 5. or A. D. m. Sophia,) of an obscure race'' of barba- 
 "'^ ^* rians,« the inhabitants of a wild and des- 
 
 olate country, to which the names of Dardania, of 
 Dacia, and of Bulgaria, have been successively ap- 
 plied. His elevation was prepared by the adventur- 
 ous spirit of his uncle Justin, who, with two other 
 peasants of the same village, deserted, for the profes- 
 sion of arms, the more useful employment of hus- 
 bandmen or shepherds.'* On foot, with a scanty 
 provision of biscuit in their knapsacks, the three 
 youths followed the high road of Constantinople, and 
 were soon enrolled, for their strength and stature, 
 among the guards of the emperor Leo. Under the two 
 succeeding reigns, the fortunate peasant emerged to 
 wealth and honours ; and his escape from some dan- 
 gers which threatened his life, was afterwards ascrib- 
 ed to the guardian angel who watches over the fate of 
 kings. His long and laudable service in the Isaurian 
 and Persian wars would not have preserved from 
 oblivion the name of Justin ; yet they might warrant 
 the military promotion, which in the course of fifty 
 years he gradually obtained ; the rank of tribune, 
 of count, and of general, the dignity of senator, and 
 the command of the guards, who obeyed him as their 
 chief, at the important crisis when the emperor Anas- 
 tasius was removed from the world. The powerful 
 kinsmen whom he had raised and enriched were 
 excluded froni the throne ; and the eunuch Amantius, 
 who reigned in the palace, had secretly resolved to 
 fix the diadem on the head of the most obsequious of 
 
 I 
 
 a There is flome difficulty in the dale of his birth ; (Ludewig in Vit. 
 Jastiniani, p. 125.) none in the place— the dietrict Bederiana— the 
 village Tauresium, which he afterwards decorated with his name 
 and splendour. (D'Anville, Hist, de I'Acad. &;c. torn. xxxi. p. 287— 
 292.) *^ 
 
 b The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic, and almost 
 tnglish : Justtntan is a translation of uprauda {upnght) ; his father 
 bebattus, (in Graeco-barbarous language stipes,) was styled in his 
 village Istock iStock); his mother Bigleniza was softened into Vigi- 
 lantia. ° 
 
 c Ludewig (p 127-135.) attempts to justify the Anician name of 
 Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family from 
 which the house of Austria has been derived. 
 
 d See the Anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 6.) with the notes of N. Ale- 
 mannus. 1 he satirist would not have sunk, in the vague and decent 
 appellation of >'«*p>'Of. the 5e«>c6\ef and <rw-.epcoc ofZonaras. Yet 
 why are those names disgraceful?— and what German baron would 
 aoi D« proud to descend from the Eumteuf of the Odyissy I ] 
 
 his creatures. A liberal donative, to conciliate the 
 suffrage of the guards, was intrusted for that purpose 
 in the hands of their commander. But these weighty 
 arguments were treacherously employed by Justin ia 
 his own favour; and as no competitor 
 presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant f^iT^i^^t 
 was invested with the purple, by the Justin I. 
 unanimous consent of the soldiers, who ^- ^' *^^- 
 knew him to be brave and gentle, of the a"iJ.527. 
 clergy and people, who believed him to April i. or Auf^ 
 be orthodox, and of the provincials, ^' 
 who yielded a blind and implicit submission to the 
 will of the capital. The elder Justin, as he is distin- 
 guished from another emperor of the same family and 
 name, ascended the Byzantine throne at the age of 
 sixty-eight years : and, had he been left to his own 
 guidance, every moment of a nine years' reign must 
 have exposed to his subjects the impropriety of their 
 choice. His ignorance was similar to that of Theodo- 
 ric ; and it is remarkable, that in an age not destitute 
 of learning, two contemporary monarch s had never 
 been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. 
 But the genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the 
 Gothic king : the experience of a soldier had not 
 qualified him for the government of an empire ; and, 
 though personally brave, the consciousness of his own 
 weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, 
 and political apprehension. But the official business 
 of the state was diligently and faithfully transacted 
 by the quaestor Proclus ; • and the aged emperor adop- 
 ted the talents and ambition of his nephew Justinian, 
 an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn from 
 the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at Constan- 
 tinople, as the heir of his private fortune, and at 
 length of the eastern empire. 
 
 Since the eunuch Amantius had been Adoption and 
 defrauded of his money, it became neces- ■"<=^?«?'«n of 
 
 - A. 1 • 1 • /. 1 . »./. WW,, . JUBtinian. 
 
 sary to deprive him of his life. The task A. D. 520-527. 
 was easily accomplished by the charge of a real or ficti- 
 tious conspiracy ; and the judges were informed, as 
 an accumulation of guilt, that he was secretly addicted 
 to the Manichaean heresy.' Amantius lost his head ; 
 three of his companions, the first domestics of the 
 palace, were punished either with death or exile; 
 and their unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast 
 into a deep dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and 
 ignominiously thrown, without burial, into the sea. 
 The ruin of Vitalian was a work of more difficulty 
 and danger. That Gothic chief had rendered himself 
 
 e His virtues 
 quaestor Proclus 
 other adoption. 
 
 t Manichaean 
 of Constantinop 
 the decease of A 
 eunuch's death, 
 cles. tem. vii. p. 
 
 are praised by Procopius. (Persic. 1. i. c. U.) Tho 
 was the friend of Justinian, and the enemy of every 
 
 signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious acclamations 
 le and Tyre, the former no more than six days after 
 nastasius. TTiet/ produc«^d, the latter applauded, the 
 (Baronius, A. D. 518. P. ii. No. 15. Fleury. Hist. Eo. 
 200. 205. from the Councilf, torn. v. p. 182. 207.) - 
 

 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1; 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 popular by the civil war which he boldly waged 
 against Anastasius for the defence of the orthodox 
 faith, and after the conclusion of an advantageous 
 treaty, he still remained in the neighbourhood of Con- 
 stantinople at the head of a forn-.iaable and victorious 
 army of barbarians. By the frail security of oaths, 
 he was templed to relinquish this advantageous situa- 
 tion, and to trust his person within the walls of a city, 
 whose inhabitants, particularly the blue faction, were 
 artfully incensed against him by the remembrance even 
 of his pious hostilities. The emperor and his nephew 
 embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of 
 the church and state ; and gratefully adorned their 
 favourite with the titles of consul and general : but in 
 the seventh month of his consulship, Vitalian was 
 stabbed with seventeen wounds at the royal banquet ; « 
 and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was accused as 
 the assassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had 
 recently pledged his faith in the participation of the 
 christian mysteries.*" After the fall of his rival, he 
 was promoted, without any claim of military service, 
 to the office of master-general of the eastern armies, 
 whom it was his duty to lead into the field against the 
 public enemy. But, in the pursuit of fame, Justinian 
 might have lost his present dominion over the age and 
 weakness of his uncle; and, instead of acquiring by 
 Scythian or Persian trophies the applause of his coun- 
 trymen," the prudent warrior solicited their favour in 
 the churches, the circus, and the senate, of Constanti- 
 nople. The catholics were attached to the nephew 
 of Justin, who, between the Nestorian and Eutyohian 
 heresies, trod the narrow path of inflexible and intol- 
 erant orthodoxy.^ In the first days of the new reign, 
 he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm 
 against the memory of the deceased emperor. After 
 a schism of thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud 
 and angry spirit of the Roman pontiff, and spread 
 among the Latins a favourable report of his pious 
 respect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the east 
 were filled with catholic bishops devoted to his inter- 
 est, the clergy and the monks were gained by his 
 liberality, and the people were taught to pray for their 
 future sovereign, the hope and pillar of the true 
 religion. The magnficence of Justinian was display- 
 ed in the superior pomp of his public spectacles, an 
 object not less sacred and important in the eyes of the 
 multitude than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon ; the 
 expense of his consulship was esteemed at two hun- 
 dred and eighty-eight thousand pieces of gold ; twen- 
 ty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced at the 
 same time in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train 
 of horses, with their rich trappings, was bestowed as 
 an extraordinary gift on the victorious charioteers of 
 the circus. While he indulged the people of Constan- 
 tinople, and received the addresses of foreign kings, 
 the nephew of Justin assiduously cultivated the friend- 
 ship of the senate. That venerable name seemed to 
 qualify its members to declare the sense of the nation, 
 and to regulate the succession of the imperial throne : 
 the feeble Anastasius had permitted the vigour of 
 government to degenerate into the form or substance 
 of an aristocracy ; and the military officers who had 
 obtained the senatorial rank, were followed by their 
 domestic guards, a band of veterans, whose arms or 
 
 acclamations mi^ht fix in a tumultuous moment the 
 diadem of the east. The treasures of the state were 
 lavished to procure the voices of the senators, and 
 their unanimous wish, that he would be pleased to 
 adopt Justinian for his colleague, was communicated 
 to the emperor. But this request, which too clearly 
 admonished him of his approaching end, was unwel- 
 come to the jealous temper of an aged monarch, desir- 
 ous to retain the power which he was incapable of 
 exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both 
 his hands, advised them to prefer, since an election 
 was so profitable, some older candidate. Notwith- 
 standing this reproach, the senate proceeded to deco- 
 rate Justinian with the royal epithet of noW/iWwius ; 
 and their decree was ratified by the affection or the fears 
 of his uncle. After some time the languor of mind 
 and body, to which he was reduced by an incurable 
 wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid 
 of a guardian. He summoned the patriarch and sen- 
 ators ; and in their presence solemnly placed the dia- 
 dem on the head of his nephew, who was conducted 
 from the palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud 
 and joyful applause of the people. The life of Justin 
 was prolonged about four months, but from the instant 
 of this ceremony, he was considered as dead to the 
 empire, which acknowledged Justinian, in the forty- 
 fifth year of his age, for the lawful sovereign of the 
 east.' 
 
 From his elevation to his death, Jus- 
 tinian governed the Roman empire thir- 
 ty-eight years, seven months and thir- 
 teen days. The events of his reign, 
 which excite our curious attention by 
 their number, variety, and importance, are diligent- 
 ly related by the secretary Belisarius, a rhetorician, 
 whom eloquence had promoted to the rank of senator 
 and praefect of Constantinople. According to the 
 vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favour or 
 disgrace, Procopius °» successively com- 
 posed the history^ the panegyric^ and the Character and 
 satire of his own times. The books of ^oX"^^""^ ^'°* 
 the Persian, Vandal ic, and Gothic wars," 
 which are continued in the five books of Agathias. 
 deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imi- 
 tation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic, writers 
 of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from 
 the personal experience and free conversation of a 
 soldier, a statesman, and a traveller; his style con- 
 tinually aspires, and often attains, to the merit of 
 strength and elegance; his reflections, more espe- 
 cially in the speeches, which he too frequently inserts, 
 contain a rich fund of political knowledge; and the 
 historian, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing 
 and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the pre- 
 judices of the people and the flattery of courts. The 
 writings of Procopius <> were read and applauded by 
 
 Tho reign of 
 JuPtiiiian. 
 A. D. 527. 
 April 1— A. D. 
 5t>5. Nov. 14. 
 
 % His power, character, and intentions, are perfectly explained by 
 U»e Count de Buat, (torn. ix. p. 54—81.) He was great-prandson of 
 Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scyihia, and count of the Go- 
 lhic/((Ed«ra/i of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he could influence, are 
 the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51.) 
 
 h Jusiiniani patricii factione diciiur interfectus fuisse. (Victor 
 Tunnunensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger, P. ii. p. 7.) Pro- 
 copius (Anecdot. c. 7.) styles him a tyrant, but acknowledges the 
 mStK9ow,TTt»^ which is well explained by Alemannug. 
 
 1 In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had passed some time 
 M a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious fact, Alemannus (ad 
 f rocop. Anecdot. c. 9. p. 34. of the first edition) quotes a MS. history 
 oi Justinian, by his preceptor Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143.) wishes 
 to make hini a soldier. a r ^ 
 
 k The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be shown hereafter. 
 a>ee Baronius A. D. 5IS-52I. and the copious article Juttinianut in 
 tbe mdex u* the seventh volum« of his Aaiutls. 
 
 ,' "^U^'?".?^ ^^® T^^^"^ ^"'^''^ ^^y ^« <o""d in the three Chroni- 
 cles of Marcellinus, Victor, and John Malala, (torn. ii. p. 130-150) 
 the last of whom (in spile of Hody, Prolegom. No. 14. 39. edit. Oxon!) 
 lived soon after Justinian : (Jortin's Remarks, &c. vol. iv. p. 383 ) in 
 the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius, (1. iv. c. 1, 2, 3. 9.) and* the 
 ExcerptaofTheodorus Lector, (No. 37.) and in Cedrenus (p. 3e!&— 
 366.) and Zonaras, (1. xiv. p. 58—61.) who may pass for an ori«'inal. 
 
 m See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La ivfothe la 
 Vayer, (torn. yiii. p. 144-174.) Vossi us, (de Historicis Gnecis, !. ii. c. 
 ^.) and Fabncius. (Bibliot. Grac. 1. v. c. 5. lorn. vi. p. 24^-278) 
 Their religion, an honourable problem, betrays occasional conformi- 
 ty, with a secret attachment to paganism and philosophy 
 
 .V? ^^^ "^^^^l? ^^} ^"^*' ^^° Pprsic, two Vandalic, and three Go- 
 thic, I^copius has borrowed from Appian the division of provinces 
 and ware: the eighth book, though it bears the name of Gothic, is a 
 miscellaneous and general supplement down to the spring of the year 
 
 4 f» r^ ^^^^^^ '' •* continued by Agathias till 55§. (Pagi, Criiica. 
 A. l), 579. No. 5.) Off 
 
 o The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat unlucky. L 
 His books de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin, and pub- 
 lished (Fulginii, 1470. Venet. 1471. apud Janson ; Mattaire, Annal 
 Typograph. lorn. i. edit, posterior, p. 290. 304. 279. 299.) in his own 
 name (See Vossius de Hist. Lau 1. iii. c.o.and the feeble defence of 
 the Venice Giornale de Letterati, torn. xix. p. 207.) 2. His works 
 were mutilated by the first Latin translators, Christopher Persona 
 (^Giornale.tom. xix. p. 340-348.) and Raphael de Vulaterra, (Huet. 
 de Claris Interpretibus, p. 166.) who did not even consult the MS. of 
 tno Vatican library, of which they wera prefects. CAleman. in Prwfau 
 
 his contemporaries ; p but, although he respectfully 
 laid them at the foot of the throne, the pride of Justi- 
 nian must have been wounded by the praise of a hero, 
 who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive 
 sovereign. The conscious dignity of independence 
 was subdued by the hopes and fears of a slave ; and 
 the secretary of Belisarius laboured for pardon and 
 j reward in the six books of the imperial edifices. He 
 , had dexterously chosen a subject of apparent splen- 
 dour, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, 
 the magnificence, and the piety of a prince, who, both 
 as a conqueror and a legislator, had surpassed the 
 puerile virtues of Themistocles and Cyrus.i Disap- 
 pointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge ; 
 and the first glance of favour might again tempt him 
 to suspend and suppress a libel,' in which the Roman 
 Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible 
 j tyrant, in which both the emperor and his consort 
 I Theodora are seriously represented as two daemons, 
 I who had assumed a human form for the destruction of 
 j mankind." Such base inconsistency must doubtless 
 j sully the reputation, and detract from the credit, of 
 ] Procopius : yet, after the venom of his malignity had 
 been saflTered to exhale, the residue of the anecdotes, 
 even the most disgraceful facts, some of which had 
 been tenderly hinted in his public history, are estab- 
 I lished by their internal evidence, or the authentic 
 ' monuments of the times.* From these various ma- 
 
 Jterials, I shall now proceed to describe the reign 
 of Justinian, which will deserve and occupy an 
 ample space The present chapter will explain the 
 j Diviiion of the ©levation and character of Theodora, the 
 reign of Justi- factions of the circus, and the peace- 
 "'*"• ful administration of the sovereign of 
 
 the east. In the three succeeding chapters, 1 shall 
 relate the wars of Justinian which achieved the 
 conquest of Africa and Italy ; and I shall follow 
 the victories of Belisarius and Narses, without dis- 
 guising the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile 
 virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series 
 of this and the following volume will embrace the 
 jurisprudence and theology of the emperor; the con- 
 troversies and sects which still divide the oriental 
 church ; the reformation of the Roman law, which 
 is obeyed or respected by the nations of modern Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 I. In the exercise of supreme power, 
 
 S'uie'el^'JeM ^^^® ^^^^ ^^' ^^ Justinian was to divide 
 
 Theodora. ^** it with the woman whom he loved, the 
 
 famous Theodora," whose strange eleva 
 
 Anecdot.) 3. The Greek text was not printed till 1607, by Hoesche- 
 lius of Augsburg. (Dictionnaire de Bayle, torn. ii. p. 782.) 4. The Pa- 
 ris ediiion was imuerfectly executed by Claude Maltret, a Jesuit of 
 Thoulouse, (in 16b3,) far distant from the Louvre press and the Vati- 
 can MS. from which, however, he obtained some supplements. His 
 promised commentaries, &c. have never appeared. The Agathias of 
 Leyden (1594) has been wisely reprinted by the Paris editor, with the 
 Latin version ofBonaventuraVulcani us, a learned interpreter. (Huet. 
 p. 176.) 
 
 p A|?athias in Praefat. p. 7. 8. 1. iv. p. 137. Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 12. See 
 likewise Photius, cud. Ixiii. p. 63. 
 
 q Kupw x-xtoiiM (says he, Praefat. ad. 1. de Edificiis, ^tft >tT«Br^«.T«u) 
 is no more than Ku^k ir»iSi% — a pun ! In these five books, Procopius 
 affects a christian as well as a courtly style. 
 
 r Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. ad Anecdot. c. 1, 2. 5.) and 
 the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth book by Suidas. torn. iii. p. 
 186. edit. Kuster.) The silence of Evagrius is a poor objection. Ba- 
 ronius (A. D. 543, No. 24.) regrets the loss of ihis secret history : it was 
 then in the Vatican library, in his own custody, and was first publish- 
 ed sixteen years after his death, with the learned, but partial, notes 
 of Nicholas Alemannus. (Lued. 1623.) 
 
 ■ Justinian ao ass— the perfect likenessofDomitian— Anecdot, c.8. 
 —Theodora's lovers driven from her bed by rival daemons— her mar- 
 riage foretold with a great daemon— a monk saw the prince yrf the 
 daemons, insteatl of Justinian, on the throne — the servants whyvatch- 
 ed beheld a face without features, a body walking without A head, 
 k.c. Ice. Procopius declares his own and his friends' belief in these 
 diabolical stories, (c. 12.) ^t^T^ i j' 
 
 t Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadencecies 
 Romaius, c. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes, as connected, 1. 
 with the weakness of the empire, and, 2. with the insubility of Jus- 
 tinian's laws. 
 
 u For the life and manners of the empress Theodora, see the 
 Anecdotes ; more especially c. 1—5. 9, 10—15. 16, 17. with the 
 learned notes of Aieiuanuua— a reference to which is alwaya im- 
 plied. 
 
 tion cannot be applauded as the triumph of female 
 virtue. Under the reig^ of Anastasius, the care of 
 the wild beasts maintained by the green faction of 
 Constantinople, was intrusted to Acacius, a native of 
 the isle of Cyprus, who, from his employment, was 
 surnamed the master of the bears. This honourable 
 office was given after his death to another candidate, 
 notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had 
 already provided a husband and a successor. Acacius 
 had left three daughters, Comito,* Theodora, and Ana- 
 stasia, the eldest of whom did not then exceed the age 
 of seven years. On a solemn festival, these helpless 
 orphans were sent by their distressed and indignant 
 mother, in the garb of. suppliants, into the midst of 
 the theatre : the green faction received them with con- 
 tempt, the blues with compassion ; and this differ- 
 ence, which sunk deep into the mind of Theodora, 
 was felt long afterwards in the administration of 
 the empire. As they improved in age and beauty, 
 the three sisters were successively devoted to the 
 public and private pleasures of the Byzantine people: 
 and Theodora, after following Comito on the stage, in 
 the dress of a slave, with a stool on her head, was at 
 length permitted to exercise her independent talents. 
 She neither danced, nor sung, nor played on the flute ; 
 her skill was confined to the pantomime arts ; she 
 excelled in buffoon characters, and as often as the 
 comedian swelled her cheeks, and complained with a 
 ridiculous tone and gesture of the blows that were 
 inflicted, the whole theatre of Constantinople resoun- 
 ded with laughter and applause. The beauty of The- 
 odora ^ was the subject of more flattering praise, 
 and the source of more exquisite delight. Her fea- 
 tures were delicate and regular ; her complexion, 
 though somewhat pale, was tinged with a natural 
 colour; every sensation was instantly expressed by 
 the vivacity of her eyes ; her easy motions displayed 
 the graces of a small but elegant figure; and either 
 love or adulation might proclaim, that painting and 
 poetry were incapable of delineating the matchless 
 excellence of her form. But this form was degra- 
 ded by the facility with which it was exposed to 
 the public eye, and prostituted to licentious desire. 
 Her venal charms were abandoned to a promiscuous 
 crowd of citizens and strangers, of every rank, and 
 of every profession : the fortunate lover who had been 
 promised a night of enjoyment, was often driven from 
 her bed by a stronger or more wealthy favourite ; and 
 when she passed through the streets, her presence was 
 avoided by all who wished to escape either the scan- 
 dal or the temptation. The satirical historian has not 
 blushed * to describe the naked scenes which Theodo- 
 ra was not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre.* After 
 exhaustingr the arts of sensual pleasure,** she most 
 ungratefully murmured against the parsimony of 
 
 X Connllo was afterwards married to Sittas duke of Armenia, th« 
 father, perhaps, at least she might be the mother, of the empress So- 
 phia. Two nephews of Theodora may be the sons of Anastasia. (Ale- 
 man, p. 90, 31.) 
 
 y Her statue was raised at Constantinople, on a porphyry column. 
 See Procopius, (de Edif. 1. i. c. 11.) who gives her portrait ii> 
 the Anecdotes, (c. 10.) Aleman. (p. 47.) produces one from a Mo- 
 saic at Ravenixa, loaded with pearls and jewels, and yet hand- 
 some. 
 
 t A fragment of the Anecdotes, (c. 9.) somewhat too naked, was 
 suppressed by Alemannus, though extant in the Vatican MS. nor has 
 the defect been supplied in the Paris or Venice editions. La Mothe 
 le Vayer (tom. viii. p. 155.) gave the first hintof this curiousand gen- 
 uine passage, (Jortin's Remarks, vol. iv. p. 366.) which ne had re- 
 ceived from Rome, and it has been since published in the Menagia- 
 na, (tom. iii. p. 254—259.) with a Latin version. 
 
 a After the mention of a narrow girdle, (as none could appear stark 
 naked in the theatre,) Procopius thus proceeds : •n»irt*-sf>*.vt» ti ir 
 
 T^ fi'M^lt V7T<» IKKTO. eifTIf ^1 T<Vf( . . . • »f'i»S ■W'TI) IwlfStV 
 
 Txv Mt^ciwv ifftfrrcv, kg Si It Xnv$(, o« «5 tkto waftrxtvxrfitpei^ <». 
 Ti)y%«vov T0«5 o-T0ft*9-iv $v8ivif KMTct /ti»v mviKtfttvsi n«-StO¥. I haVO 
 
 heard that a learned prelate, now deceased, was fond of quoting this 
 passage in conversation. 
 
 b Theodora surpassed the Crispa of Ausonius, (Epigram Ixxi.) who 
 imiuted the capital is luxus of the females of Nola. See Quintilian 
 Institut. viii. 6. and Torentius ad Horat. Sermon. 1. i. sat. 2. v. 101. — 
 At a memorable supper, thirty slaves waited round the table; tea 
 young men feasted with Theodora. Her charity was ttnivtrsal. 
 £t lassata viris, uecdum satiata, recessiU 
 
6 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 sature :* but her murmurs, her pleasures, and her arts, 
 must be veiled in the obscurity of a learned language. 
 After reigning for some time the delight and contempt 
 of the capital, she condescended to accompany Ece- 
 bolus, a native of Tyre, who had obtained the govern- 
 ment of the African Pentapolis. But this union was 
 frail and transient : Ecebolus soon rejected an expen- 
 sive or faithless concubine; she was reduced at Alex- 
 andria to extreme distress; and in her laborious re- 
 turn to Constantinople, every city of the east admired 
 and enjoyed the fair Cyprian, whose merit appeared 
 to justify her descent from the peculiar island of 
 Venus. The vague commerce of Theodora, and the 
 detestable precautions, preserved her from the danger 
 which she feared ; yet once, and once only, she be- 
 came a mother. The infant was saved and educated 
 in Arabia, by his father, who imparted to him on his 
 death-bed, that he was the son of an empress. Filled 
 "with ambitious hopes, the unsuspecting youth imme- 
 diately hastened to the palace of Constantinople, and 
 was admitted to the presence of his mother. As he 
 was never more seen, even after the decease of 
 Theodora, she deserves the foul imputation of extin- 
 guishing with his life a secret so offensive to her im- 
 perial virtue. 
 „ In the most abject state of her for- 
 
 Her marriage . j * *• ... 
 
 with Jusiiiiian. *""® ^"d reputation, some vision, ei- 
 ther of sleep or of fancy, had whis- 
 pered to Theodora the pleasing assurance that she 
 was destined to become the spouse of a potent mon- 
 arch. Conscious of her approaching greatness, she 
 returned from Paphlagonia to Constantinople ; assum- 
 ed, like a skilful actress, a more decent character; 
 lelieved her poverty by the laudable industry of spin- 
 ning wool ; and affected a life of chastity and soli- 
 tude in a small house, which she afterwards changed 
 into a magnificent temple.** Her beauty, assisted by 
 art or accident, soon attracted, captivated, and fixed 
 the patrician Justinian, who already reigned with ab- 
 solute sway under the name of his uncle. Perhaps 
 she contrived to enhance the value of a gift which she 
 had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind : 
 perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest delays, and 
 At last by sensual allurements, the desires of a lover, 
 who from nature or devotion was addicted to long 
 vigils and abstemious diet. When his first trans- 
 ports had subsided, she still maintained the same as- 
 cendant over his mind, by the more solid merit of 
 temper and understanding. Justinian delighted to 
 ennoble and enrich the object of his affection ; the 
 treasures of the east were poured at her feet, and the 
 nephew of Justin was determined, perhaps by reli- 
 gious scruples, to bestow on his concubine the sacred 
 and legal character of a wife. But the laws of Rome 
 expressly prohibited the marriage of a senator with 
 any female who had been dishonoured by a servile 
 origin or theatrical profession : the empress Lupicina, 
 or Euphemia, a barbarian of rustic manners, but of 
 irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a prostitute 
 for her niece ; and even Vigilantia, the superstitious 
 mother of Justinian, though she acknowledged the 
 wit and beauty of Theodora, was seriously apprehen- 
 sive, lest the levity and arrogance of that artful para- 
 mour might corrupt the piety and happiness of her 
 son. These obstacles were removed by the inflexible 
 constancy of Justinian. He patiently expected the 
 death of the empress ; he despised the tears of his 
 mother, who sunk under the weight of her affliction ; 
 and a law was promulgated in the name of the empe- 
 ror Justin, which abolished the rigid jurisprudence of 
 antiquity. A glorious repentance (the words of the 
 
 M!Vt| 0T» Si ftH K«t TtTTtlJ t«UTI( IvpuTtpSV t| VW l«(rl TpuJToan, iJTWf i\IV*rt[ 
 
 (», %*k ixKvti tpy%ttTJ»i. She wished ior & fourth altar, on which 
 ahe miehl pour libations lo the god of love. 
 
 d Anonym, de Antiquitat. C. P. I. iii. 132. in Banduri Tmperium 
 Onent. torn. i. p. 48. Ludewig (p. 154.) argues sensibly that Theo- 
 dora would not have immorulized a brothel ; but I apply this fact to 
 ber lecond and chaater residence at Constantinople. 
 
 edict) was left open for the unhappy females who had 
 prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they 
 were permitted to contract a legal union with the most 
 illustrious of the Romans.* This indulgence was 
 speedily followed by the solemn nuptials of Justinian 
 and Theodora ; her dignity was gradually exalted with 
 that of her lover ; and, as soon as Justin had invested 
 his nephew with the purple, the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the 
 emperor and empress of the east. But tlie usual hon- 
 ours which the severity of Roman manners had 
 allowed to the wives of princes, could not satisfy 
 either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of 
 Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal 
 and independent colleague in the sovereignty of the 
 empire, and an oath of allegiance was imposed on 
 the governors of the provinces in the joint names of 
 Justinian and Theodora.' The eastern world fell pros- 
 trate before the genius and fortune of the daughter of 
 Acacius. The prostitute who, in the presence of in- 
 numerable spectators, had polluted the theatre of Con- 
 stantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, 
 by grave magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious 
 generals, and captive monarchs.' 
 
 Those who believe that the female mind is totally 
 depraved by the loss of chastity, will eagerly listen to 
 all the invectives of private envy or popular resent- 
 ment, which have dissembled the virtues of Theodo- 
 ra, exaggerated her vices, and condemned with rigour 
 the venal or voluntary sins of the youthful harlot. 
 From a motive of shame, or contempt, she often de- 
 clined the servile homage of the multitude, escaped 
 from the odious light of the capital, and passed the 
 greatest part of the year in the palaces and gardens 
 which were pleasantly seated on the sea-coast of the 
 Propontis and the Bosphorus. Her private hours 
 were devoted to the prudent as well as grateful care 
 of her beauty, the luxury of the bath and table, and 
 the long slumber of the evening and the morning. Her 
 secret apartments were occupied by the favourite 
 women and eunuchs, whose interests and passions she 
 indulged at the expense of justice; the most illus- 
 trious personages of the state were crowded into a 
 dark and sultry antichamber, and when at last, after a 
 tedious attendance, they were admitted to kiss the 
 feet of Theodora, they experienced, as her humour 
 might suggest, the silent arrogance of an empress, or 
 the capricious levity of a comedian. Her rapacious 
 avarice to accumulate an immense treasury, may be 
 excused by the apprehension of her husband's death, 
 which could leave no alternative between ruin and the 
 throne ; and fear as well as ambition might exasper- 
 ate Theodora against two generals, who, during a 
 malady of the emperor, had rashly declared that they 
 were not disposed to acquiesce in the choice of the 
 capital. But the reproach of cruelty, so repugnant even 
 to her softest vices, has left an indelible stain on the 
 memory of Theodora. Her numerous spies observed, 
 and zealously reported, every action, or word, or look, 
 injurious to their royal mistress. Whomsoever they 
 accused were cast into her peculiar prisons,'' inaccessi- 
 ble to the inquiries of justice ; and it was rumoured, 
 that the torture of the rack, or scourge, had been 
 
 e See the old law in Jtislinian's Codp, (1. r tit v leg. 7. lit. xxvii. 
 leg. 1.) under the years 336 and 454. The new edict (about the year 
 521 or 522. Aleman. p. 38. 96.) very awkwardly repeals no more than 
 the clause of mulieres scenica, libertinae, tabernarisB. See the nov- 
 els 89 and 117. and a Greek rescript from Justinian to the bishopn 
 (Aleman. p. 41.) 
 
 f I svijpar by the Father, kc. by the Virgin Mary, by the four Gos- 
 pels, quae in manibus leneo, and by the holy archangels, Michael and 
 Gabriel, purani conscienliam germanumque servitium me servatu- 
 rum, sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et Theodora conju^i ejus. (No- 
 vell. viii.iit.3.) Would the oath have been binding in favour of iho 
 widow 1 Communes tituli et triumph i, Sec. (Aleman. p. 47, 48.) 
 
 J " Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more," ic. 
 Without Warbunon's critical telescope, I should never have seen, 
 '•J ihe general picture of triumphant vice, any personal allusion to 
 Theodora. 
 
 h Her prisons, a lab)rrinth, a TarUrus, (Anecdot. c. 4.) were under 
 the palace. Darkness is propitious to cruelty, but it i« likewifo f««> 
 Tourablo to calumny anU fiction. 
 
 
 \ 
 
 inflicted in the presence of a female tyrant, insensible 
 to the voice of prayer or of pity.* Some of these 
 unhappy victims perished in deep unwholesome dun- 
 geons, while others were permitted, after the loss of 
 their limbs, their reason, or their fortune, to appear in 
 the world the living monuments of her vengeance, 
 which was commonly extended to the children of 
 those whom she had suspected or injured. The sen- 
 ator or bishop, whose death or exile Theodora had 
 pronounced, was delivered to a trusty messenger, 
 and his diligence was quickened by a menace from 
 her own mouth. " If you fail in the execution of my 
 commands, I swear by him who liveth forever, that 
 your skin shall be flayed from your body.""^ 
 
 Her virtues ^^ . creed of Theodora had not 
 been tainted with heresy, her exemplary 
 devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her con- 
 temporaries, for pride, avarice, and cruelty. But. if , ^, ^._ 
 
 she employed her influence to assuage the intolerani ses in the rapid career." Ten, twenty, forty chariots, 
 fury of the emperor, the present age will allow somr were allowed to start at the same instant; a crown of 
 
 7 
 I 
 
 and as she passed through Bithynia, she distributed 
 liberal alms to the churches, the monasteries, and the 
 hospitals, that they might impure heaven for the res- 
 toration of her health.P At length, in the twenty* 
 fourth year of her marriage, and the ^^^ ^ ^ 
 twenty-second of her reign, she was a. d.^'ms!' 
 consumed by a cancer ;•> and the irrepa- Jum ii- 
 rable loss was deplored by her husband, who, in the 
 room of a theatrical prostitute, might have selected 
 the purest and most noble virgin of the east.' . j 
 
 II. A material difference may be 
 observed in the games of antiquity : the 3ile°circu*°°* °^ 
 most eminent of the Greeks were actors, ' 
 
 the Romans were merely spectators. The Olympic 
 stadium was open to wealth, merit, and ambition; 
 and if the candidates could depend on their personal 
 skill and activity, they might pursue the footsteps of 
 Diomede and Menelaus, and conduct their own hor* 
 
 1 
 
 merit to her religion, and much indulgence to her specu- 
 lative errors.' The name of Theodora was introduced, 
 with equal honour, in all the pious and charitable 
 foundations of Justinian; and the most benevolent 
 institutions of his reign may be ascribed to the sym- 
 pathy of the empress for her less fortunate sisters, 
 who had been seduced or compelled to embrace the 
 trade of prostitution. A palace, on the Asiatic side 
 of the Bosphorus, was converted into a stately and 
 spacious monastery, and a liberal maintenance was 
 assigned to five hundred women, who had been col- 
 lected from the streets and brothels of Constantinople. 
 In this safe and holy retreat,they were devoted to perpet- 
 ual confinement ; and the despair of some, who threw 
 themselves headlong into the sea, was lost in the gra- 
 titude of the penitents, who had been delivered from 
 sin and misery by their generous benefactress." The 
 prudence of Theodora is celebrated by Justinian him- 
 self; and his laws are attributed to the sage counsels 
 of his most revered wife, whom he had received as 
 the gift of the deity .■ Her courage was displayed 
 amidst the tumult of the people and the terrors of the 
 court. Her chastity, from the moment of her union- 
 with Justinian, is founded on the silence of her impla- 
 cable enemies ; and, although the daughter of Aca- 
 cius might be satiated with love, yet some applause 
 Is due to the firmness of a mind which could sacrifice 
 pleasure and habit to the stronger sense either of duty 
 or of interest. The wishes and prayers of Theodora 
 could never obtain the blessing of a lawful son, and 
 £he buried an infant daughter, the sole offspring of 
 her marriage." Notwithstanding this disappointment, 
 her dominion was permanent and absolute ; she pre- 
 served, by art or merit, the affections of Justinian ; and 
 their seeming dissensions were always fatal to the 
 courtiers who believed them to be sincere. Perhaps 
 her health had been impaired by the licentiousness of 
 her youth ; but it was always delicate, and she was 
 directed by her physicians to use the Pythian warm 
 baths. In this journey, the empress was ToUowed by 
 the Prajtorian praefect, the great treasurer, several 
 counts and patricians, and a splendid train of four 
 thousand attendants ; the highways were repaired at 
 her approach ; a palace was erected for her reception ; 
 
 i A more jocular whipping was inflicted on Saturninus, for presum- 
 ing to say that his wife, a favourite of the empress, had not been 
 found MTpnTB?. (Anecdot. c. 17.) 
 
 k Per viventem in saecula excoriari te faciam. Anastasiusde Vilis 
 Pont. Roman, in Vigilio, p. 40. 
 
 1 Ludewig, p. 161—166. I give him credit for the charitable at- 
 tempt, although he hath not much charity in his temper. 
 
 m Compare the Anecdotes (c. 17.) with the Edifices. (I. i. c. 9.) How 
 difTerenily may the same fact be stated ! John Malala (torn. ii. p. 174, 
 175.) observes, that on this or a similar occasion, she released and 
 clothed the girls whom she had purchased from the stews at five au- 
 rei a-piece. 
 
 D Novel, viii. 1. An allusion to Theodora. Her enemies read the 
 name Dremonodora. (Aleman. p. 66.) 
 
 o St. Sabas refused to pray for a son of Theodora, lest he should 
 prove an heretic worse than Anaatasius himself. (Cyril in ViU St. Sa- 
 b». apud Aleman. p. 70. 109.) 
 
 leaves was the reward of the victor ; and his fame, 
 with that of his family and country, was chanted in 
 lyric strains more durable than monuments of brass 
 and marble. But a senator, or even a citizen, con- 
 scious of his dignity, would have blushed to expose 
 his person or his horses in the circus of Rome. The 
 games were exhibited at the expense of the republic, 
 the magistrates, or the emperors : but the reins were 
 abandoned to servile hands ; and if the profits of a fa- 
 vourite charioteer sometimes exceeded those of an 
 advocate, they must be considered as the effects of 
 popular extravagance, and the high wages of a dis- 
 graceful profession. The race, in its first institution, 
 was a simple contest of two chariots, whose drivers 
 were distinguished by white and red liveries ; two ad- 
 ditional colours, a light ^«cn, and acserulean blue, were 
 afterwards introduced ; and, as the races were repeated 
 twenty-five times, one hundred chariots contributed in 
 the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four/oo 
 ^t'ofM soon acquired a legal establishment, and a mysteri- 
 ous origin, and their fanwful colours were derived from 
 the various appearances of nature in the four seasons 
 of the year ; the red dog-star of summer, the snows of 
 winter, the deep shades of autumn, and the cheerful 
 verdure of the spring.* Another interpretation prefer- 
 red the elements to the seasons, and the struggle of 
 the green and blue was supposed to represent the con- 
 flict of the earth and sea. Their respective victories 
 announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous 
 navigation, and the hostility of the husbandmen and 
 mariners was somewhat less absurd than the blind 
 ardour of the Roman people, who devoted their 
 lives and fortunes to the colour which they had es- 
 poused. Such folly was disdained and indulged by 
 the wisest princes ; but the names of Caligula, Nero, 
 Vitellius, Verus, Commodus, Carao^Ha, and Elaga- 
 balus, were enrolled in the b'»ie or 
 green factions of the circus : ihey fre- 
 
 at Rome. 
 
 P See John Malala, torn. ii. p. |M. Theophanes, p. 158. Procopi- 
 us de Edific. 1. v. c, 3. 
 
 q Theodora Chalcedonensw synodi inimica canceris plagatoto cor- 
 pore perfusa vitam prodigicde finivit. (Victor Tunnunensis in Chron.) 
 On such occasions, an orthodox mind is steeled against pity. Ale- 
 mannus (p. 12, 13.) understands the luo-i^ce? iKot/inSn of Theophanes 
 as civil language, which does not imply either piety or repentance ; 
 yet two years after her death, St. Theodora is celebrated by Paul Si- 
 lenliarius, (in Proem, t. 58—62.) 
 
 r As she persecuted the popes, and rejected a council, Baroniutf 
 exhausts the names of Eve, Dalila, Herodias, &c.: after which he has 
 recourse to his infernal dictionary : civis inferni— alumna daemonura 
 — satanico eigitata spiritu — cestro percita diabolico,&c.&c. (A. D.548, 
 No. 24.) 
 
 • Read and feel the 23d book of the Iliad, a living picture of man. 
 ners, passions, and the whole form and spirit of the chariot-race.— 
 West's Dissertation on the Olympic games, (sect, xii.— xvii.) aflfords 
 much curious and authentic information. 
 
 t The four colours, albati, russati, prasini, venett, represent the 
 four seasons, according to Cassiodorius, (Var. iii. 51.) who lavishes 
 much wit and eloquence on this theatrical mystery. Of these colours, 
 the three first may be fairly translated tchite, red, and green, Vene- 
 tus is explained by caruleus, a word various and vague : it is properiy 
 the sky reflected in the sea ; but custom and convenience may allow 
 blue as an equivalent. (Robert. Stephan. sub voce. Spence'fl Folj- 
 melis, p. 328.) * 
 
^* 
 
 8 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. I 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ii' 
 
 ^uented their stables, applauded their favourites, chas- 
 tised their antagonists, and deserved the esteem of the 
 populace, by the natural or affected imitation of their 
 manners. The bloody and tumultuous contest contin- 
 ued to disturb the public festivity, till the last age of 
 the spectacles of Rome ; and Theodoric, from a mo- 
 tive of justice or affection, interposed his authority to 
 protect the greens against the violence of a consul 
 and a patrician, who were passionately addicted to the 
 blue faction of the circus." 
 
 Constantinople adopted the follies, 
 Tliey jlistract though not the virtues, of ancient Rome; 
 
 Consiantinuple , ^ /• .• i • i i • • 
 
 ar.d the eaat. ai'd the Same factions which had agita- 
 ted the circus, raged with redoubled fury 
 in the hippodrome. Under the reign of Anastasius, 
 this popular frenzy was inflamed by religious zeal ; 
 and the greens, who had treacherously concealed 
 stones and daggers under baskets of fruit, massacred, 
 at a solemn festival, three thousand of their blue ad- 
 versaries." From the capital, this pestilence was dif-^ 
 fused into the provinces and cities of the east, and 
 the sportive distinction of two colours produced two 
 strong and irreconcilable factions, which shook the 
 foundations of a feeble government." The popular 
 dissensions, founded on the most serious interest, or 
 holy pretence, have scarcely equalled the obstinacy 
 of this wanton discord, which invaded the peace of 
 families, divided friends and brothers, and tempted 
 the female sex, though seldom seen in the circus, to 
 espouse the inclinations of their lovers, or to contra- 
 dict the wishes of their husbands. Every law, either 
 human or divine, was trampled under foot, and as 
 long as the party was successful, its deluded followers 
 appeared careless of private distress or public calami- 
 . ty. The license, without the freedom, of democracy, 
 was revived at Antioch and Constantinople, and the 
 support of a faction became necessary to every candi- 
 date for civil or ecclesiastical honours. A secret attach- 
 ment to the family or sect of Anastasius was imputed 
 to the greens ; the blues were zealously devoted to 
 , . . , the cause of orthodoxy and Justinian,* 
 
 fheZ. ''""" and their grateful patron protected, above 
 five years, the disorders of a faction,- 
 whose seasonable tumults overawed the palace, the 
 senate, and the capitals of the east. Insolent with 
 royal favour, the blues affected to strike terror by a 
 peculiar and barbaric dress, the long hair of the 
 Huns, their loose sleeves and ample garments, a lofty 
 step, and a sonorous voice. In the day they con- 
 cealed their two-edged poniards, bui^in the night they 
 boldly assembled in arms, and in ftumerous hands, 
 prepared for every act of violence and rapine. Their 
 adyersaties of the green faction, or even inoffensive 
 Citizens, were stripped and often murdered by these 
 nocturnal robbers, and it became dangerous to wear 
 any gold buttov»s or girdles, or to appear at a late 
 hour m the streets of a peaceful capital. A darina 
 spirit, rising with immunity, proceeded to violate the 
 safeguard of private houses ; and fire was employed 
 to facilitate the attack, or to conceal the crimes, of 
 . these factious rioters. No place was safe or sacred 
 .from their depredations ; to gratify either avarice or 
 revenge, they profusely spilt the blood of the inno- 
 cent; churches and altars were polluted by atrocious 
 murders ; and it was the boast of the assassins, that 
 
 n See Onuphriua Panvinius de Ludi? Circenaibua,! L c 10 II • th* 
 
 « J-^?^^®"'"* *" ^^^^' P- '*''• Inrtead of the vulgar word veneta he 
 ?f n *l^,™^r ?^fl">»'^ terma of caruUa and cttrealii Baronin. 
 ^iw^V ^°-^' 5- ^^ •» '^"fi®^ ^hat the blues wTre orthoSfx^ buJ 
 Tillemoni ,8 angry at the 8uppc«iUon, and will not allow mJ maJ 
 lyni in a play-house. (Hist, des^p. u.m. vi. 554.) ^ """' 
 
 <JitH ^^'P'""* Peraic. 1. i. c. 24. In deflcribing the vices of tho 
 t h« ™ *,°K • . ^*?® eovernment, the tmW.c is not more favourable than 
 
 V^hi ^.i' if®"v^^"*^^ proves the inveteracy of the eTil7 
 tJ J'h^P^'^ial'iy of Justinian for the blues (Anecdot. c.7Ua attes 
 
 iai li^^if^'i^' ,"'f • ^*"^.«"- 1- i^- ^- 32.) John Ma klV(u,m U d* 
 138, 139.) eepecially for Antioch ; and Theophanet, (p. 142.; ^' 
 
 their dexterity could always inflict a mortal wound 
 with a single stroke of their dagger. The dissolute 
 youth of Constantinople adopted the blue livery of 
 disorder; the laws were silent, and the bonds of so- 
 ciety were relaxed ; creditors were compelled to re- 
 sign their obligations; judges to reverse their sen- 
 tence ; masters to enfranchise their slaves ; fathers 
 to supply the extravagance of their children ; noble 
 matrons were prostituted to the lust of their servants ; 
 beautiful boys were torn from the arms of their pa- 
 rents ; and wives, unless they preferred a voluntary 
 death, were ravished in the presence of their husbands. 
 The despair of the greens, who were persecuted by 
 their enemies, and deserted by the magistrate, assum- 
 ed the privilege of defence, perhaps of retaliation ; 
 but those who survived the combat were dragged to 
 execution, and the unhappy fugitives, escaping to 
 woods and caverns, preyed without mercy on the 
 society from whence they were expelled. Those min- j 
 isters of justice, who had courage to punish the 
 crimes, and to brave the resentment, of the blues, • 
 became the victims of their indiscreet zeal : a pra;- j 
 feet of Constantinople fled for refuge to the holy sep- \ 
 ulchre, a count of the east was ignominiously whip- ■ 
 ped, and a governor of Cilicia was hanged, by the 
 order of Theodora, on the tomb of two assassins whom 
 he had condemned for the murder of his groom, and a 
 daring attack upon his own life.'' An aspiring candid- ' 
 ate may be tempted to build his greatness on the public 
 confusion, but it is the interest as well as duty of a 
 sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws. The 
 first edict of Justinian, which was often repeated, and i 
 sometimes executed, announced his firm resolution to ' 
 support the innocent, and to chastise the guilty, of 
 every denomination and colour. Yet the balance of 
 justice was still inclined in favour of the blue faction, § 
 by the secret aflfection, the habits, and the fears of the 
 enriperor; his equity, after an apparent slrugale, sub- I 
 mitted, without reluctance, to the implacable pas- ' 
 sions of Theodora, and the empress never forgot, or 
 forgave, the injuries of the comedian. At the acces- 
 sion of the younger Justin, the proclamation of equal 
 and rigorous justice indirectly condemned the partiality 
 of the former reigns. " Ye blues, Justinian is no 
 more ! ye greens, he is still alive !"« 
 
 A sedition, which almost laid Con- Sedition of Con- 
 stantinople in ashes, was excited by the namld &'"'* 
 mutual hatred and momentary reconcilia- a. d. 522.' 
 tion of the two factions. In the fifth •»»"««'/• 
 year of his reign, Justinian celebrated the festival of the 
 ides of January : the games were incessantly disturbed 
 by the clamorous discontent of the greens : till the twen- 
 ty-second race, the emperor maintained his silent 
 gravity; at length, yielding to his impatience, he 
 condescended to hold, in abrupt sentences, and by 1 
 the voice of a crier, the most singular dialogue •• that 
 ever passed between a prince and his subject's. Their 
 first complaints were respectful and modest; they 
 accused the subordinate ministers of oppression, and 
 proclaimed their wishes for the long life and victory 
 of the emperor. " Be patient and attentive, ye inso- 
 lent railers !" exclaimed Justinian ; " be mute, ye 
 Jews, Samaritans, and Manichaeans !" The greens 
 still attempted to awaken his compassion. " Wo 
 
 • A wife (says Procopius) who was seized and almost ravished br 
 a blae^oat, threw herself into the Bosphorus. The bishops of the al 
 cond Syria (Aleman. p. 26.) deplore a similar suicide, the guilt or 
 glory of female chastity, and name the heroine. 
 
 b The doubtful credit of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 17.) is supported by 
 the less partial tyagrius, who confirms the fact, and specifips the 
 
 ut"i^t J , }^^^ ^*^® °^^^^ prwfect of Constantinople is related 
 by John Malala, (torn. li. p. 139.) *^ 
 
 ,.f-^r,^?^°u^uf*^*' ^^?^' *'• P- *•*''•> 7^^ ^« o>^n« tJ^at Justinian was 
 attached to the blues. The seeming discord of the empen>r and The- 
 aiora, is perhaps viewed with too much jealousy and refinement by 
 ProcoDius. (Anecdot. c. 10.) See Aleman. Prafat. p. 6. ^ 
 
 d This dialogue, which Theophanes has preserved, exhibits th» 
 ^^L,l language, as well as the manners, of Constantinople in the 
 i!rh.i^ century. Their Greek is mingled with many strange and 
 Jr fetymolcj^y ' ^***^^ Ducange cannot always find a mlaiiing 
 
 arc poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we dare' 
 not pass through the streets : a general persecution 
 is exercised against our name and colour. Let us 
 die, O emperor ! but let us die by your command, 
 and for your service !" But the repetition of partial 
 and passionate invectives degraded, in their eyes, 
 the majesty of the purple ; they renounced allegiance 
 to the prince who refused justice to his people; 
 lamented that the father of Justinian had been born : 
 and branded his son with the opprobrious names of 
 a homicide, an ass, and a perjured tyrant, *' Do you 
 despise your lives ?" cried the indignant monarch ; 
 the blues rose with fury from their seats ; their hos- 
 tile clamours thundered in the hippodrome; and their 
 adversaries, deserting the unequal contest, spread 
 terror and despair through the streets of Constantino- 
 ple. At this dangerous moment, seven notorious as- 
 sassins of both factions, who had been condemned by 
 the praefect, were carried round the city, and afterwards 
 transported to the place of execution in the suburb ef 
 Pera. Four were immediately beheaded ; a fifth was 
 hantred ; but when the same punishment was inflicted 
 on the remaining two, the rope broke, they fell alive to 
 the ground, the populace applauded their escape, and 
 the monks of St. Conon, issuing from the neighbour- 
 ing convent, conveyed them in a boat to the sanctuary 
 of the church.* As one of these criminals was of the 
 blue and the other of the green livery, the two factions 
 were equally provoked by the cruelty of their oppres- 
 sor, or the ingratitude of their patron ; and a short truce 
 was concluded till they had delivered their prisoners, 
 and satisfied their revenge. The palace of the praefect, 
 who withstood the seditious torrent, was instantly 
 burnt, his oflicers and guards were massacred, the pris- 
 ons were forced open, and freedom was restored to 
 those who could only use it for the public destruction. 
 A military force, which had been despatched to the aid 
 of the civil magistrate, was fiercely encountered by an 
 armed multitude, whose numbers and boldness continu- 
 ally increased; and the Heruli, the wildest barbarians 
 in the service of the empire, overturned the priests and 
 their relics, which, from a pious motive, had been rash- 
 ly interposed to separate the bloody conflict. The tu- 
 mult was exasperated by this sacrilege, the people 
 fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God ; the wo- 
 men, from the roofs and windows, showered stones 
 on the heads of the soldiers, who darted fire-brands 
 against the houses ; and the various flames, which had 
 been kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers, 
 spread without control over the face of the city. The 
 conflagration involved the cathedral of St. Sophia, the 
 baths of Zeuxippus, a part of the palace, from the first 
 entrance to the attar of Mars, and the long portico from 
 the palace to the forum of Constantine: a largo hos- 
 pital, with the sick patients, was consumed ; many 
 churches and stately edifices were destroyed, and an 
 immense treasure of gold and silver was either melted 
 or lost. From such scenes of horror and distress, the 
 wise and wealthy citizens escaped over Uie Bosphorus 
 to the Asiatic side; and during five days Constantiao- 
 ple was abandoned to the factions, whose watch-word, 
 Nik A, vanquish ! has given a name to this memorable 
 sedition.' 
 
 The diiitreu of As long as the factions were divided, 
 Justinian. the triumphant blues, and desponding 
 greens, appeared to behold with the same indiflferenco 
 the disorders of the state. They agreed to censure 
 the corrupt management of justice and the finance ; and 
 the two responsible ministers, the artful Tribonian, and 
 the rapacious John of Cappadocia were loudly arraign- 
 ed as the authors of the public misery. The peaceful 
 murmurs of the people would have been disregarded : 
 
 e See this church and monastery in Ducange, C. P. Christiana, 1. 
 IV. p. 1S2. 
 
 f The history of the Nika sedition is extracted from Marcellinus, 
 (in Chron.) Procopius, (Persic. 1. i. c. 26.) John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 
 213—218.) Chron. Paschal, (p. 336—340.) Theophanee, (Chronograph, 
 p. 154 -159 ) and Zonaras, (I. xiv. p. 61-«3.) 
 
 Vol. II.— B 
 
 they were heard with respect when the city was in 
 flames ; the quaestor, and the praefect, were instantly 
 removed, and their oflices were filled by two senators 
 of blameless integrity. After this popular concession, 
 Justinian proceeded to the hippodrome tp confess his 
 own errors, and to accept the repentance of his grate- 
 ful subjects ; but they distrusted his assurances, though 
 solemnly pronounced in the presence of the holy gos- 
 pels ; and the emperor, alarmed by their distrust, re- 
 treated with precipitation to the strong fortress of the 
 palace. The obstinacy of the tumult was now imputed 
 to a secret and ambitious conspiracy, and a suspicion 
 was entertained that the insurgents, more especially 
 the green faction, had been supplied with arms and 
 money by Hypatius and Pompey, two patricians, who- 
 could neither forget with honour, nor remember with 
 safety, that they were the nephews of the emperor 
 Anastasius. Capriciously trusted, disgraced, and par- 
 doned, by the jealous levity of the monarch, they had 
 appeared as loyal servants before the throne; and, du- 
 ring five days of the tumult, they were detained as im- 
 portant hostages ; till at length, the fears of Justinian 
 prevailing over his prudence, he viewed the two broth- 
 ers in the light of spies, perhaps of assassins, and 
 sternly commanded them to depart from the palace. 
 After a fruitless represenation, that obedience might 
 lead to involuntary treason, they retired to their houses, 
 and in the morning of the sixth day Hypatius was sur- 
 rounded and seized by the people, who, regardless of 
 his virtuous resistance, and the tears of his wife, 
 transported their favourite to the forum of Constantine, 
 and instead of a diadem, placed a rich collar on his 
 head. If the usurper, who afterwards pleaded the merit 
 of his delay, had complied with the advice of the sen- 
 ate, and urged the fury of the multitude, their first ir- 
 resistible eflNort might have oppressed or expelled his 
 trembling competitor. The Byzantine palace enjoyed 
 a free communication with the sea; vessels lay ready 
 at the garden stairs ; and a secret resolution was al- 
 ready formed, to convey the emperor with his family 
 and treasures to a safe retreat, at some distance from 
 the capital. 
 
 Justinian was lost, if the prostitute Firmness of 
 whom he raised from the theatre had not Theodora, 
 renounced the timidity, as well as the virtues, of her 
 sex. In the midst of a council v.here Belisarius was 
 present, Theodora alone displayed the spirit of a hero; 
 and she alone, without apprehending his future hatred, 
 could save the emperor from the imminent danger, and 
 his unworthy fears. " If flight," said the consort of 
 Justinian, ** were the only means of safety, yet I should 
 disdain to fly. Death is the condition of our birth ; but 
 they who have reigned should never survive the loss 
 of dignity and dominion. I implore Heaven, that I 
 may never be seen, not a day, without my diadem and 
 purple ; that I may no longer behold the light, when 
 I cease to be saluted with the name of queen. If you 
 resolve, O Casar! to fly, you have treasures ; behold 
 the sea, you have ships ; but tremble lest the desire of 
 life should expose you to wretched exile and ignomin- 
 ious death. For my own part, I adhere to the maxim 
 of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre."" 
 The firmness of a woman restored the courage to delib- 
 erate and act, and courage soon discovers the resources- 
 of the most desperate situation. It was an easy and 
 decisive measure to revive the animosity of the fac- 
 tions; the blues were astonished at their own guilt 
 and folly, that a trifling injury should provoke them to 
 conspire with their implacable enemies against a gra- 
 cious and liberal benefactor; they again The sedition is 
 proclaimed the majestyof Justinian, and poppressed. 
 the greens with their upstart emperor, were left alone 
 in the hippodrome. The fidelity of the guards was 
 doubtful ; but the military force of Justinian consisted 
 in three thousand veterans, who had been trained to 
 valour and discipline in the Persian and Illyrian wars. 
 Under the command of Belisarius and Mundus, they 
 
 il 
 
 I! 
 
10 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CuAP. L 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 11 
 
 '^1 
 
 silently marched in two divisions from the palace, for- 
 ced their obscure way through narrow passages, expi- 
 ring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at the 
 same moment the two opposite gates of the hippo- 
 drome. In ttiis narrow space, the disorderly and af- 
 frighted crowd was incapable of resisting on either 
 side a firm and regular attack; the blues signalized 
 the fury of their repentance ; and it is computed, that 
 above thirty thousand persons were slain in the merci- 
 less and promiscuous carnage of the day. Hypatius was 
 dragged from his throne, and conducted with his brother 
 Pompey to the feet of the emperor ; they implored his cle- 
 mency ; but their crime was manifest, their innocence un- 
 certain, and Justinian had been too much terrified to for- 
 give. The next morning the two nephews of Anastasius, 
 with eighteen illustrious accomplices, of patrician or 
 consular rank, were privately executed by the soldiers; 
 their bodies were thrown into the sea, their palaces ra- 
 zed, and their fortunes confiscated. The hippodrome 
 itself was condemned, during several years, to a 
 mournful silence ; with the restoration of the games, 
 the same disorders revived ; and the blue and green 
 factions continued to afflict the reign of Justinian, and 
 to disturb the tranquillity of the eastern empire.^ 
 A ricuhure and ^"^* That empire, after Rome was bar- 
 man ufac"u re* of barous, still embraced the nations whom 
 the eaitern em- ghe had conquered beyond the Hadriatic, 
 ^"^' and as far as the frontiers of -/Ethiopia and 
 
 Persia. Justinian reigned over sixty-four provinces, 
 and nine hundred and thirty-five cities '^ his dominions 
 were blessed by nature with the advantages of soil, 
 situation, and climate ; and the improvements of hu- 
 man art had been perpetually diffused along the coast 
 of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Nile, from 
 ancient Troy to the Egyptian Thebes. Abraham,' had 
 been relieved by the well known plenty of Egypt; the 
 same country, a small and populous tract, was still ca- 
 pable of exporting, each year, two hundred and sixty 
 thousand quarters of wheat for the use of Constantino- 
 ple '^ and the capital of Justinian was supplied with 
 the manufactures of Sidon, fifteen centuries after they 
 had been celebrated in the poems of Homer.' The an- 
 nual powers of vegetation, instead of being exhausted 
 by two thousand harvests, were renewed and invigo- 
 rated by skilful husbandry, rich manure, and seasona- 
 ble repose. The breed of domestic animals was infi- 
 nitely multiplied. Plantations, buildings, and the in- 
 struments of labour and luxury, which are more dura- 
 ble than the term of human life»were accumulated by 
 the care of successive generations. Tradition preserv- 
 ed, and experience simplified, the humble practice of 
 the arts : society was enriched by the divison of la- 
 bour and the facility of exchange ; and every Roman 
 was lodged, clothed, and subsisted, by the industry of 
 a thousand hands. The invention of the loom and dis- 
 taff has been piously ascribed to the gods. In every 
 age a variety of animal and vegetable productions, hair, 
 skins, wool, flax, cotton, and at length silk^ have been 
 skilfully manufactured to hide or adorn the human bo- 
 dy ; they were stained with an infusion of permanent 
 colours; and the pencil was successfully employed to 
 
 % Marcellinuasays in general terms, innumerispopulis in circotru- 
 cidatifi. Procopius numbers 30,000 Tictims: and the 35,000 of Theo- 
 phanes are swelled to 40,000 by the more recent Zuuaraa. Such is 
 the usual progress of exaggeration. 
 
 h Hierocles, a contemporary of Justinian, composed his Twitxr^^i, 
 <Ttineraria, p. 631.) or review of the eastern provinces and cities, be- 
 fore the year 536. (Wesseling. in Prscfat. and Not. ad. p. 623, &c.) 
 
 i See the Book of Genesis (xii. 10.) and the administration of Jo- 
 seph. The annals of the Greeks and Hebrews agree in the early 
 arts and plenty of Egypt : but this antiquity supposes a long series 
 of improvements : and Warburton, who is almost stifled by the He- 
 brew, calls aloud for the Samaritan chronology. (Divine Legation, 
 ▼ol. iii. p. 29, &c.) 
 
 k Eight millions of Roman modii, besides a contribution of 80,000 
 »urei lor the expenses of water-carriage, from which the subject was 
 
 Eraciously excused. See the thirteenth Edict of Justinian : the num- 
 ers are checked and verified by the agreement of the Greek and 
 Latin texts. 
 
 1 Homer's Iliad, vi. 289. These veils, ntwxat trmunetxtKoi, were 
 the work of the Sidonian women. But this passage is more honour- 
 able to the manufactures than to the navigation of Phoenicia, from 
 whence thej had been imported to Troy in Phrygian bottonw. 
 
 improve the labours of the loom. In the choice of 
 those colours ■ which imitate the beauties of nature, 
 the freedom of taste and fashion was indulged ; but the 
 deep purple ■ which the Phoenicians extracted from a 
 shell-fish, was restrained to the sacred person and pal- 
 ace of the emperor ; and the penalties of treason were 
 denounced against the ambitious subjects, who dared 
 to usurp the prerogative of the throne." 
 
 I need not explain that silk^ is originally spun from 
 the bowels of a caterpillar, and that it The use of silk 
 composes the golden tomb from whence ^y ^^^ Romant. 
 a worm emerges in the form of a butterfly. Till the reign 
 of Justinian, the silk-worms who feed on the leaves of 
 the white mulberry-tree, were confined to China ; tho«e 
 of the pine, the oak, and the ash, were common in the 
 forests both of Asia and £urope ; but as their educa- 
 tion is more difiUcult, and their produce more uncertain, 
 they were generally neglected, except in the little 
 island of Ceos, near the coast of Attica. A thin gauze 
 was procured from their webs, and this Cean manufao 
 ture, the invention of a woman, for female use, was 
 long admired both in the east and at Rome. "What- 
 ever suspicions may be raised by the garments of the 
 Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most ancient wri- 
 ter, who expressly mentions the soft wool which was 
 combed from the trees of the Seres or Chinese ;•» and 
 this natural error, less marvellous than the truth, was 
 slowly corrected by the knowledge of a valuable insect, 
 the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare 
 and elegant luxury was censured, in the reigrn of Tibe- 
 rius, by the gravest of the Romans ; and Pliny in af- 
 fected though forcible language, has condemned the 
 thirst of gain, which explored the last confines of the 
 earth, for the pernicious purpose of exposing to the 
 public eye naked draperies and transparent matrons.' 
 A dress which showed the turn of the limbs, and col- 
 our of the skin, might gratify vanity, or provoke desire; 
 the silks which had been closely woven in China, were 
 sometimes unravelled by the Phoenician women, and 
 the precious materials were multiplied by a looser tex- 
 ture, and the intermixture of linen threads.' Two 
 hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure 
 or even of mixed silks was confined to the female sex, 
 till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces 
 were insensibly familiarized with the example of Ela- 
 gabalus, the first who, by this eflfeminate habit, had 
 sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aureli- 
 an complained, that a pound of silk was sold at Rome 
 
 m See in Ovid (de Arte Amandi, iii. 269, &c.) a poetical list of 
 twelve colours borrowed from flowers, the elements, &c. But it i» 
 almost impossible to discriminate by words all the nice and variouf 
 shades both of art and nature. 
 
 n By the discovery of cochineal, kc. we far surpass the colours of 
 antiquity. Their royal purple had a strong smell, and a dark cast as 
 deep as bull's blood. — Otwcuritas rubens,(say8 Caasio<lorus, Var. 1,2.) 
 nigredosanguinea. The president Goguet (Origine des Loix et dec 
 Arts, part 1. ii. c. 2. p. 184— 215 ) will amuse and satisfy the reader. 
 I doubt whether this book, especially in England, is as well l^nowa 
 as it deserves to be. 
 
 o Historical proofs of this jealousy have been occasionally intro- 
 duced, and many more might have been added : but the arbitrary acta 
 of despotism were justified by the sober and general declaration* 
 of law. (Codex Theodosian. 1. x. tit. 21. leg. 3. Codex Justinian, 1. xi, 
 tit. 8. leg. 5.) An inglorious permission, and necessary restriction, 
 was applied to the mima, the female dancers. (Cod. Theodos. l.xr. 
 lit. 7. lee. 11.) 
 
 p In the history of insects, (far more wonderful than Ovid's Meta- 
 morphoses,) the silk-worm holds a conspicuous place. The bombyx 
 of the isle of Ceos, as described by Pliny, (Hist. Nalur.xi. 26, 27, with 
 the notes of the two learned Jesuits, Hardouin and Brotier,) may be 
 illustrated by a similar species in China: (Memoiressur lesChinoia, 
 tom. ii. p. 575—598.) but our silk-worm, as well as the white mulber- 
 ry-tree, were unknown to Theophraatus and Pliny. 
 
 q Georgic. ii. 121. Serica quando venerint in usum planissime non 
 scio: suspicor lamen in Julii CKsaris aevo, nam ante non invenio, 
 says Justus Lipsius. (Excursus i. ad Tacit. Annal. ii. 32.) See Dion 
 Cassius, (1. xliii. p. 358. edit. Keimar,) and Pausanias, (1. vi, p. 519.) 
 the first who describes, however strangely, the Seric insect. 
 
 r Tam longinquo orbe petitur, ut in publico malrona transluceat 
 . . . . ut denudet fttniinas veslis, (Plin. vi. 20. xi. 21.) Varro and 
 Publius Syrus had already played on the Toga ventrea, ventus texi- 
 lis, and nebula linea. (Horat. Sermon, i. 2. 101. with the notes of Tor- 
 rentius and Dacier.) 
 
 • On the texture, colours, names, and use of the silk, half silk, and 
 linen garments of antiquity, see the profound, diffuse, and obscure 
 researches of the great Salmasius, (in Hist. August, p. 127. 309, 310. 
 339. 341, 342. 344. 383-391. 395. 513.) who waa ignorant of the moM 
 common trades of Dijon or Leyden. 
 
 ( 
 
 for twelve ounces of gold : but the supply increased 
 with the demand, and the price diminished with the 
 supply. If accident or monopoly sometimes raised 
 the value even above the standard of Aurelian, the 
 manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus were sometimes 
 compelled, by the operation of the same causes, to 
 content themselves with a ninth part of that extrava- 
 gant rate.* A law was thought necessary to discrimi- 
 nate the dress of comedians from that of senators ; 
 and of the silk exported from its native country the far 
 greater part was consumed by the subjects of Justinian. 
 They were still more intimately acquainted with a shell- 
 fish of the Mediterranean, surnamed the silk-worm of 
 the sea : the fine wool or hair by which the mother- 
 of-pearl affixes itself to the rock, is now manufactured 
 for curiosity rather than use ; and a robe obtained from 
 llie same singular materials, was the gift of the Roman 
 emperor to the satraps of Armenia." 
 
 Importation ^ valuable merchandise of small bulk 
 
 from China by is Capable of defraying the expence of 
 land and sea. land-carriage ; and the caravans travers- 
 ed the whole latitude of Asia in two hundred and forty- 
 three days from the Chinese ocean to the sea coast of 
 Syria. Silk was immediately delivered to the Romans 
 by the Persian merchants,* who frequented the fairs of 
 Armenia and Nisibis ; but this trade, which in the in- 
 tervals of truce was oppressed by avarice and jealousy, 
 was totally interrupted by the long wars of the rival 
 monarchies. The great king might proudly number 
 Sogdiana, and even Serica^ among the provinces of 
 his empire ; but his real dominion was bounded by the 
 Oxus, and his useful intercourse with the Sogdoites, 
 beyond the river, depended on the pleasure of their 
 conquerors, the white Huns and the Turks, who suc- 
 cessively reigned over that industrious people. Yet 
 the most savage dominion has not extirpated the seeds 
 of agriculture and commerce, in a region which is cel- 
 ebrated as one of the four gardens of Asia ; the cities 
 of Samarcand and Bochara are advantageously seated 
 lor the exchange of its various productions ; and their 
 merchants purchased from the Chinese^ the raw or 
 manufactured silk which they transported into Persia 
 for the use of the Roman empire. In the vain capital 
 of China, the Sogdian caravans were entertained as 
 the suppliant embassies of tributary kingdoms, and if 
 they returned in safety the bold adventure was reward- 
 ed with exorbitant gain. But the diflicult and perilous 
 march from Samarcand to the first town of Shensi, 
 «ould not be performed in less than sixty, eighty, or one 
 hundred days : as soon as they had passed the Jazartes 
 they entered the desert; and the wandering hordes, un- 
 less they are restrained by armies and garrisons, have al- 
 ways considered the citizen and the traveller as the ob- 
 jects of lawful rapine. To escape the Tartar robbers, 
 and the tyrants of Persia, the silk caravans explored a 
 more southern road ; they traversed the mountains of 
 Thibet, descended the streams of the Ganges or the 
 Indus, and patiently expected in the port of Guzerat 
 and Malabar, the annual fleets of the west." But the 
 
 t Flavius Vopiscus in Aurelian. c. 45. in Hist. August, p. 224. See 
 Salmasius ad Hist Aug. p. 392. and Plinian. Exercitat. in Solinum, 
 p. 694, 695. The Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 25.) state a partial and 
 imperfect rate of the price of silk in the time of Justinian. 
 
 u Procopius de Edif. 1. iii. c. 1. These pinnes de mer are found 
 near Smyrna, Sicily, Corsica, and Minorca; and a pair of gloves of 
 Iheir silk was presented to pope Benedict XIV. 
 
 x Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 20. 1. ii. c. 25. Gothic. 1. i v. c. 17. Me- 
 nander in Excerpt. Legat. p. 107. Of the Parthian or Persian empire, 
 Isidoro of Charax (in Slathmis Parthicis, p. 7, 8. in Hudson. Geo- 
 graph. Minor, tom. ii.) has marked the roads, and Ammianus Mar- 
 cellinus (1. xxiii. c. 6. p. 400.) has enumerated the provinces. 
 
 y The blind admiration of the Jesuists confounds the different pe- 
 riods of the Chinese history. They are more critically distinguished 
 by M. de Guignes, (Hist, des Huns, tom. i. part i.in the Tables, part 
 ii XXXII. xxxvi. xlii. xliii.) who discovers the gradual proerress ofthe 
 truth ofthe annals and the extent ofthe monarchy, till the christian 
 aera. He has searched, with a curious eye, the connexions of the 
 Chinese with the nations of the west: but these connexions are 
 Blight, casual and obscure ; nor did the Romans entertain a suspicion 
 that the Seres or Sinae possessed an empire not inferior to their own. 
 
 » The roads from China to Persia and Hindostan may be investi- 
 gated in the relations of Hackluyt and Thevenot, (the ambassadors 
 of Sharokh,) Anthony Jenkioson, the Pere Greuber, &c. See like- 
 
 dangers of the desert were found less intolerable than 
 toil, hunger, and the loss of time ; the attempt was sel- 
 dom renewed, and the only European who has passed 
 that unfrequented way, applauds his own diligence, 
 that, in nine months after his departure from Pekin, he 
 reached the mouth of the Indus. The ocean, however, 
 was open to the free communication of mankind. From 
 the great river to the tropic of Cancer, the provinces of 
 China were subdued and civilized by the emperors of 
 the north ; they were filled about the time of the chris- 
 tian aera with cities and men, mulberry trees and their 
 precious inhabitants; and if the Chinese, with the 
 knowledge of the compass, had possessed the genius of 
 the Greeks or Phoenicians^ they might have spread their 
 discoveries over the southern hemisphere. I am not 
 qualified to examine, and I am not disposed to believe, 
 their distant voyages to the Persian gulf, or the Cape 
 of Good Hope : but their ancestors might equal the 
 labours and success ofthe present race, and the sphere 
 of their navigation might extend from the isles of Ja- 
 pan to the straits of Malacca, the pillars, if we may 
 apply that name, of an Oriental Hercules.* Without 
 losing sight of land, they might sail along the coast to 
 the extreme promontory of Achin, which is annually 
 visited by ten or twelve ships laden with the produc- 
 tions, the manufactures, and even the artificers, of Chi- 
 na; the island of Sumatra and the opposite peninsula, 
 are faintly delineated'' as the regions of gold and sil- 
 ver ; and the trading cities named in the geography 
 of Ptolemy, may indicate, that this wealth was not 
 solely derived from the mines. The direct interval 
 between Sumatra and Ceylon is about three hundred 
 leagues ; the Chinese and Indian navigators were con- 
 ducted by the flight of birds and periodical winds, and 
 the ocean might be securely traversed in square built 
 ships, which, instead of iron, were sewed together 
 with the strong thread of the cocoa-nut. Ceylon, Se- 
 rendib, or Taprobana, was divided between vwo hos- 
 tile princes ; one of whom possessed the mountains, 
 the elephants, and the luminous carbuncle, and the 
 other enjoyed the more solid riches of domestic indus- 
 try, foreign trade and the capacious harbour of Trin- 
 quemale, which received and dismissed the fleets ofthe 
 east and west. In this hospitable isle, at an equal 
 distance (as it was computed) from their respective 
 countries, the silk merchants of China, who had col- 
 lected in their voyages aloes, cloves, nutmeg, and san- 
 dal wood, maintained a free and beneficial commerce 
 with the inhabitants of the Persian gulf. The subjects 
 of the great king exalted, without a rival, his power 
 and magnificence ; and the Roman, who confounded 
 their vanity by comparing his paltry coin with a gold 
 medal of the emperor Anastasius, had sailed to Cey- 
 lon, in an ^Ethiopian ship, as a simple passenger.* 
 
 As silk became of indispensable use, introduction of 
 the emperor Justinian saw, with concern, silkworms into 
 that the Persians had occupied by land ^'^ece. 
 and sea the mono^io;/ of this important supply, and 
 that the wealth of his subjects was continually drained 
 by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An active gov- 
 
 wise Hanway's Travels, (vol. i. p. 343—357.) A communication 
 through Thibet has been lately explored by the English sovereign* 
 of Bengal. 
 
 a For the Chinese navigation to Malacca and Achin, perhaps to 
 Ceylon, see Renaudot, (on the two Mahometan Travellers, p. 8—11. 
 13—17. 141—157.) Dampier, (vol. ii. p. 136.) the Hist. Philosophiquo 
 des deux Indes, (tom. i. p. 98.) and the Hist. Generates des Voyageg. 
 (tom. vi. p. 201.) * 
 
 b The knowledge, or rather ignorance, of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, 
 Arrian, Marcian, «c. of the countries eastward of Cape Comorin, 10 
 finely illustrated by D'Anville. (Antiquitt; Geographique de I'lnde, 
 especially p. 161 — 198.) Our geography of India is improved by com- 
 merce and conquest, and has been illustrated by the excellent maps 
 and memoirs of Major Rennel. If he extends the sphere of his in- 
 quiries with the same critical knowledge and sagacity, he will suc- 
 ceed, and may surpass, the first of modern geographers. 
 
 c The Taprobane of Pliny, (vi. 24.) Solinus, (c. 53.) and Salmas, 
 Plinianae Exercitat. (p. 781, 782.) and most ofthe ancients, who often 
 confound the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra, is more clearly describ- 
 ed by Cosmas Indicopleustes ; yet even the christian topographer has 
 exaggerated its dimensions. His information on the Indian and Chi- 
 nese trade is rare ac! curious, (1, ii. p. 138. 1. xi. p. 337, 338. ediu 
 Montfauson.) 
 
 i 
 
12 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chaf. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 13 
 
 i 
 
 *\ 
 
 crnment would have restored the trade of Egypt and 
 the navigation of the Red sea, which had decayed 
 with the prosperity of the empire ; and the Roman ves- 
 sels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to the 
 ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Jus- 
 tinian embraced a more humble expedient, and solicit- 
 ed the aid of his christian allies, the ./Ethiopians of 
 Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of navi- 
 gation, the spirit of trade, and the sea-port of Adulis,^ 
 still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conquer- 
 or. Along the African coast, they penetrated to the 
 equator in search of gold, emeralds, and aromatics ; 
 but tliey wisely declined an unequal competition, in 
 which they must be always prevented by the vicinity 
 of the Persians to the markets of India ; and the em- 
 peror submitted to the disappointment, till his wishes 
 were gratified by an unexpected event. The Gospel 
 had been preached to the Indians : a bishop already 
 governed the christians of St. Thomas on the pepper 
 coast of Malabar ; a church was planted in Ceylon, 
 and the missionaries pursued the footsteps of com- 
 merce to the extremities of Asia.* Two Persian monks 
 had long resided in China, perhaps in the royal city of 
 Nankin, the seat of a monarch addicted to foreign su- 
 perstitions, and who actually received an embassy 
 from the isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occupa- 
 tions, they viewed with a curious eye the common dress 
 of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the my- 
 riads of silk-worms, whose education (either on trees 
 or in houses) had once been considered as the labour 
 of queens.' They soon discovered that it was imprac- 
 ticable to transport the short-lived insect, but that in 
 the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved and 
 multiplied in a distant climate. Religion or interest 
 had more power over the Persian monks than the love 
 of their country : after a lon^ journey, they arrived at 
 Constantinople, imparted their project to the emperor, 
 and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promis- 
 es of Justinian. To the historians of that prince, a 
 campaign at the foot of mount Caucasus has seemed 
 more deserving of a minute relation than the labours 
 of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered 
 China, deceived a jealous people by concealing the 
 eggs of the silk-worm in a hollow cane, and returned 
 in triumph with the spoils of the east. Under their 
 direction, the eggs were hatched at the proper season 
 by the artificial heat of dung ; the worms were fed 
 with mulberry leaves; they lived and laboured in a 
 foreign climate ; a sufficient number of butterflies was 
 saved to propagate the race, and trees were planted to 
 supply the nourishment of the rising generations. Ex- 
 perience and reflection corrected the errors of a new 
 attempt, and the So^doite ambassadors acknowledged, 
 in the succeeding reign, that the Romans were not in- 
 ferior to the natives of China in the education of the 
 insects, and the manufactures of silk,' in which both 
 China and Constantinople have been surpassed by the 
 industry of modern Europe. I am not insensible of the 
 benefits of elegant luxury ; yet I reflect with some pain, 
 that if the importers of silk had introduced the art of 
 printing, already practised by the Chinese, the come- 
 dies of Menander and the entire decads of Livy would 
 have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth cen- 
 
 d See Procopiu& Persic. (1* "• c< 20.) Cosmas aflc^rds some interest- 
 ing knowledge of the port and inscription of Adulis, (Topograph. 
 Clirisl. 1. ii. p. 138. 140—143.) and of the trade of ihe Axumiies along 
 the African coast of Barbaria or Zingi, (p. 138, 139.) and as far as Ta- 
 probane, (1. xi. p. 339.) 
 
 e See the christian missions in India, in Cosmas, (!• iii« p- ITS' 179. 
 
 I. xi. p. 337.) and consult Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, (torn. iv. p. 413— 
 648.) 
 
 f The invention, manufacture, and general use of silk in China, 
 may be seen in Duhalde. (Description Generate de la Chine, tom. 
 
 II. p. 165.205—223.) The province of Chekian is the most renowned 
 botn for quantity and quality. 
 
 K Procopius, I. viii. Gothic, iv. c. 17. Theophanes Byzant. apud 
 Phot. Cod. Ixxxiv. p. 38. Zonaras, tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 69. Pagi, (lom. 
 ii. 602.) assigns to the year 552 this memorable importation. Menan- 
 der (in Excarpi. Legat. p. 107.) mentions the admiration of the Sog- 
 doites; and Theophylact Simocaiia, (I. vii. c. 9.)darkly represems I 
 *^- *mm rival kingdom* in iChiK*4 itov •mM^f oC silk. 1 
 
 tury. A larger view of the globe might at least have 
 promoted the improvement of speculative science, but 
 the christian geography was forcibly extracted from 
 texts of Scripture, and the study of nature was the 
 surest symptom of an unbelieving mind. The ortho- 
 dox faith confined the habitable world to one temperate 
 zone, and represented the earth as an oblong surface, 
 four hundred days' journey in length, two hundred in 
 breadth, encompassed by the ocean, and covered by the 
 solid crystal of the firmament.'' 
 
 IV. The subjects of Justinian were State of tti« 
 dissatisfied with the times, and with the revenue, 
 government. Europe was over-run by the barbarians, 
 and Asia by the monks : the poverty of the west dis- 
 couraged the trade and manufactures of the east : the 
 produce of labour was consumed by the unprofitable 
 servants of the church, the state and the army ; and a 
 rapid decrease was felt in the fixed and circulating cap- 
 itals which constitute the national wealth. The pub- 
 lic distress had been alleviated by the economy of An- 
 astasius, and that prudent emperor accumulated an 
 immense treasure, while he delivered his people from 
 the most odious or oppressive taxes. Their gratitude 
 universally applauded the abolition of ihe gold of affiic- 
 tiofiy a personal tribute on the industry of the poor,* 
 but more tolerable, as it should seem, in the form than 
 in the substance, since the flourishing city of Edessa 
 paid only one hundred aud forty pounds of gold, which 
 was collected in four years tVom ten thousand artifi- 
 cers.*' Yet such was the parsimony which supported 
 this liberal disposition, that, in a reign of twenty-seven 
 years, Anastasius saved, from his annual revenue, the 
 enormous sum of thirteen millions sterling, or three 
 hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold.' His 
 example was neglected, and his treasure was abused, 
 by the nephew of Justin. The riches of Justinian 
 were speedily exhausted by alms and buildings, by 
 ambitious wars, and ignominious treaties. His reve- 
 nues were found inadequate to his expenses. Every 
 art was tried to extort from the people a. -,:--. „^„-^ 
 
 11 i-i 1-11 '^*^. Avarice and pro- 
 
 the gold and silver which he scattered fusion of Justi* 
 with a lavish hand from Persia to "'*"• 
 France : " his reign was marked by the vicissitudes, 
 or rather by the combat, of rapaciousness and avarice, 
 of splendour and poverty; he lived with the reputa- 
 tion of hidden treasures," and bequeathed to his suc- 
 cessor the payment of his debts." Such a character 
 
 h Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, per- 
 formed his voyage at)out the year 522, and composed at Alexanaria, 
 between 535 and 547, Christian Topography, (Monlfaucon, Prtefat. 
 c. i.) in which he refutes the impious opinion, that the earth is a 
 
 Slobe ; and Photius had read this work, (Cod. xzxvi. p. 9, 10.) which 
 isplays the prejudices of a monk, with the knowledge of a merchant : 
 the most valuable part has been given in French and in Greek by 
 Melchisedec Thevenot, (Relations Curienses, part i.) and the whole 
 is since published in a splendid edition by the Fere Monifaugon. 
 (Nova Collectio Patrum, Paris, 1707, 2 vols, in fol. tom. ii. p. 113—- 
 346.) But the editor, a theologian, might blush at not discovering iho 
 Nestorian heresy of Cosmas, which has been detected by La Croxe, 
 Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 40—56. 
 
 i Evagrius (1. iii. c. 39, 40.) is minute and grateful, but angry with 
 Z(wimus for calumniating; the great Consiantine. In collecting all 
 the bonds and records otthe tax, the humanity of Anastasius was di- 
 ligent and artful : fathers were sometimes compelled to prostitute 
 their daughters. (Zosim. Hist. 1. ii. c. 3& p. 165, 166. Lipsiae, 1784.> 
 Timolheus of Gaza chose such an event for the subject of a tragedy, 
 (Suidas, lom. iii. p. 475.) which contributed to the abolition of the lax, 
 (Cedrenus, p. 35.)— a happy instance (if it be true) of the use of the 
 theatre. 
 
 k See Josua Stylites, in the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Asseman, 
 (tom. i. p. 268.) This capitation tax is slightly mentioned in the 
 Chronicle of Edessa. 
 
 1 Procopius (Anecdot. c. 19.) fixes this sum from the report of the 
 treasurers themselves. Tiberius had victts ter milUs ; but far dif- 
 ferent wsLshis empire from that of Anastasius. 
 
 m Evagrius (X. iv. c. 30.) in the next generation, was moderate and 
 well informed ; and Zonaras, (1. xiv. c. 61.) in the twelfth century, 
 had read with care, and thought without prejudice : yet their coleun 
 are almost as black as those of the Anecdotes. 
 
 n Procopius (Anecdot. c. 30.) relates the idle conjectures of the 
 limes. Tne death of Justinian, says the secret historian, will expose 
 his wealth or poverty. 
 
 See Corippus de Laudibus Justini Aug. 1. ii. 260, kc. 384, &c. 
 " Plurima sunt vivo uimium neclecta parenti, 
 " Unde tot exhaust us coniraxit debita fiscus." 
 Centenariei of gold were brought by strong arms into the hipp<v 
 drome: 
 
 *' Debita genitoris persolvit, cauta recepit." 
 
 has been justly accused by the voice of the people and 
 of posterity : but public discontent is credulous; pri- 
 vate malice is bold ; and a lover of truth will peruse 
 with a suspicious eye the instructive anecdotes of Pro- 
 copius. The secret historian represents only the vices 
 of Justinian, and those vices are darkened by his ma- 
 Tevolent pencil. Ambiguous actions are imputed to 
 the worst motives : error is confounded with guilt, ac- 
 cident with design, and laws with abuses : the partial 
 injustice of a moment is dexterously applied as the 
 general maxim of a reign of thirty-two years : the em- 
 peror alone is made responsible for the faults of his of- 
 ficers, the disorders of the times, and the corruption of 
 \ bis subjects ; and even the calamities of nature, plagues, 
 } earthquakes and inundations, nre imputed to the prince 
 of the daemons, who had mischievously assuhied the 
 j form of Justinian.P 
 
 After this precaution, I shall briefly relate the anec- 
 I dotes of avarice and rapine, under the following heads. 
 ^ Pernicious — !• Justinian was so profuse that he 
 m savings. could not be liberal. The civil and mil- 
 m itary officers, when they were admitted into the service 
 1 of the palace, obtained an humble station and a mode- 
 rate stipend ; they ascended by seniority to a station 
 of affluence and repose ; the annual pensions, of which 
 the most honourable class was abolished by Justinian, 
 amounted to four hundred thousand pounds : and th;s 
 domestic economy was dej>lored by the venal or indi- 
 gent courtiers as the last outrage on the majesty of the 
 empire. The posts, the salaries of physicians, and 
 the nocturnal illuminations, were objects of more gen- 
 eral concern ; and the cities might justly complain, 
 that he usurped the municipal revenues which had 
 been appropriated to these useful institutions. Even 
 the soldiers were injured ; and such was the decay of 
 military spirit, that they were injured with impunity. 
 The emperor refused, at the return of each fifth year, 
 the customary donative of five pieces of gold, reduced 
 his veterans to beg their bread, and suffered unpaid ar- 
 mies to melt away in the wars of Italy and Persia. 
 Eemittaiiccs. ^^' ^^^ humanity of his predecessors 
 had always remitted, in some auspicious 
 circumstance of their reign, the arrears of the public 
 tribute ; and they dexterously assumed the merit of re- 
 signing those claims which it was impracticable to 
 enforce. " Justinian, in the space of thirty-two years, 
 has never granted a similar indulgence; and many of 
 his subjects have renounced the possession of those 
 lands whose value is insufficient to satisfy the demands 
 of the treasury. To the cities which had suffered by 
 hostile inroads, Anastasius promised a general exemp- 
 tion of seven years : the provinces of Justinian have 
 been ravaged by the Persians and Arabs, the Huns 
 and Sclavonians ; but his vain and ridiculous dispen- 
 sation of a single year has been confined to those pla- 
 ces which were actually taken by the enemy." Such 
 is the language of the secret historian, who expressly 
 denies that crny indulgence was granted to Palestine 
 after the revolt of the Samaritans ; a false and odious 
 charge, confuted by the authentic record, which attests 
 a relief of thirteen centenaries of gold (fifty-two thou- 
 sand pounds) obtained for that desolate province by the 
 intercession of St. Sabas.'* III. Procopius has not 
 condescended to explain the system of taxation, which 
 fell like a hail-storm upon the land, like a devouring 
 pestilence on its inhabitants : but we should become 
 the accomplices of his malignity, if we imputed to 
 Justinian alone the ancient though rigorous principle, 
 ' that a whole district should be condemned to sustain 
 the partial loss of the persons or property of individu- 
 I Taxes. ^^^' '^^® Anona^ or supply of corn for 
 r the use of the army and capital, was a 
 
 4 
 
 P The Anecdotes (c. 11—14. 18. 20-30.) supply many facts and 
 more complaints. 
 
 q One to Scythopolis, capital of the second Palestine, and twelve 
 for the rest of the province. Aleman. (p. 59.) honestly produces this 
 fact from a MS. life of St. Sabas, by his disciple Cyril, in the Vatican 
 library, and since published by Cotelerius. 
 
 grievous and arbitrary exaction, which exceeded, per- 
 haps in a tenfold proportion, the ability of the farmer; 
 and his distress was aggravated by the partial injus- 
 tice of weights and measures, and the expense and 
 labour of distant carriage. In a time of scarcity, an 
 extraordinary requisition was made to the adjacent 
 provinces of Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia ; but the 
 proprietors, after a wearisome journey and a perilous 
 navigation, received so inadequate a compensation, that 
 they would have chosen the alternative of delivering 
 both the corn and price at the doors of their granaries. 
 These precautions might indicate a tender solicitude for 
 the welfare of the capital ; yet Constantinople did not 
 escape the rapacious despotism of Justinian. Till his 
 reign, the straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespont were 
 open to the freedom of trade, and nothing was pro- 
 hibited except the exportation of arms for the service 
 of the barbarians. At each of these gates of the city, 
 a praetor was stationed, the minister of imperial avarice; 
 heavy customs were imposed on the vessels and their 
 merchandise; the oppression was retaliated on the 
 helpless consumer; the poor were afflicted by the arti- 
 ficial scarcity, and exorbitant price, of the market; 
 and a people accustomed to depend on the liberality 
 of their prince, might sometimes complain of the de- 
 ficiency of water and bread.' The aerial tribute, with- 
 out a name, a law, or a definite object, was an annual 
 gift of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, which 
 the emperor accepted from his praetorian praefect; and 
 the means of payment were abandoned to the discretion 
 of that powerful magistrate. IV. Even -, 
 such a tax was less intolerable than the ^^"^'P^''®* 
 privilege of monopolies, which checked the fair com- 
 petition of industry, and, for the sake of a small and 
 dishonest gain, imposed an arbitrary burthen on the 
 wants and luxury of the subject. " As soon (I tran- 
 scribe the anecdotes) as the exclusive sale of silk was 
 usurped by the imperial treasurer, a whole people, the 
 manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus, was reduced to 
 extreme misery, and either perished with hunger, or 
 fled to the hostile dominions of Persia." A province 
 might sufl!er by the decay of its manufactures, but in 
 this example of silk, Procopius has partially over- 
 looked the inestimable and lasting benefit which the 
 empire received from the curiosity of Justinian. His 
 addition of one seventh to the ordinary price of copper- 
 money may be interpreted with the same candour ; and 
 the alteration, which might be wise, appears to have 
 been innocent; since he neither alloyed the purity, nor 
 enhanced the value, of the gold coin,* the legal measure 
 of public and private payments. V. The 
 amplejurisdiction required by the farmers enahty. 
 of the revenue to accomplish their engagements, might 
 be placed in an odious light, as if they had purchased 
 from the emperor the lives and fortunes of their fellow- 
 citizens. And a more direct sale of honours and offi- 
 ces was transacted in the palace, with the permission, 
 or at least with the connivance of Justinian and Theo- 
 dora. The claims of merit, even those of favoi>f, were 
 disregarded, and it was almost reasonable to expect, 
 that the bold adventurer, who had undertaken the trade 
 of a magistrate, should find a rich compensation for 
 infamy, labour, danger, the debts which he had con- 
 tracted, and the heavy interest which he paid. A 
 sense of the disgrace and mischief of this venal prac- 
 tice, at length awakened the slumbering virtue of 
 Justinian ; and he attempted, by the sanction of oaths * 
 
 r John Malala (tom. ii. p. 232.) mentions the want of bread, and 
 Zonaras (1. xiv. p. 63.) the leaden pipes, which Justinian, or his ser- 
 vants, stole from the aqiieducts. 
 
 • For an aureus, one sixth of an ounce of gold, instead of 210, he 
 gave no more than 180 folles, or ounces of copper. A disproportion 
 of the mint, below the market price, must have soon produced a scar- 
 city of small money. In England, twelve pence in copperwould sell 
 for no more than s«r«n pence. (Smith's Inquiry into the wealth of 
 Nations, vol. i. p. 49.) For Justinian's gold coin, see Evagrius, (1. ir, 
 c. 30.) 
 
 t The oath is conceived in the most formidable words. (Novell. 
 Tiii. tit. 3.) The defaulters imprecate on themselves, quicquid, h»> 
 
 SM 
 
14 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 15 
 
 and penalties, to guard the integrity of his government : 
 
 bat at the end of a year of perjury, his rigorous edict 
 
 was suspended, and corruption licentiously abused her 
 
 triumph over the impotence of the laws. 
 
 Testaroenti. yj^ ^j^^ testament of Eulalius, count 
 
 of the domestics, declared the emperor his sole heir, 
 on condition, however, that he should discharge his 
 debts and legacies, allow to his three daughters a de- 
 cent maintenance, and bestow each of them in marriage, 
 with a portion of ten pounds of gold. But the splendid 
 fortune of Eulalius had been consumed by fire ; and 
 the inventory of his goods did not exceed the trifling 
 sum of five hundred and sixty-four pieces of gold. A 
 similar instance, in Grecian history, admonished the 
 emperor of the honourable part prescribed for his 
 imitation. He checked the selfish murmurs of the 
 treasury, applauded the confidence of bis friend, dis- 
 charged the legacies and debts, educated the three 
 virgins under the eye of the empress Theodora, and 
 doubled the marriage portion which had satisfied the 
 tenderness of their father." The humanity of a prince 
 (for princes cannot be generous) is entitled to some 
 praise ; yet even in this act of virtue we may discover 
 the inveterate custom of supplanting the legal or natu- 
 ral heirs, which Procopius imputes to the reign of Jus- 
 tinian. His charge is supported by eminent names 
 and scandalous examples ; neither widows nor orphans 
 were spared ; and the art of soliciting, or extorting, or 
 supposing, testaments, was beneficially practised by 
 the agents of the palace. This base and mischievous 
 tyranny invades the security of private life ; and the 
 monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain will 
 soon be tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, 
 to interpret wealth an evidence of guilt, and to proceed, 
 from the claim of inheritance, to the power of confisca- 
 tion. VII. Among the forms of rapine, a philosopher 
 may be permitted to name the conversion of pagan or 
 heretical riches to the use of the faithful ; but in the 
 time of Justinian this holy plunder was condemned by 
 the sectaries alone, who became the victims of his or- 
 thodox avarice.* 
 
 The ministers of Dishonour might be ultimately reflec- 
 Justinian. ted ou the character of Justinian ; but 
 much of the guilt, and still more of the profit, was in- 
 tercepted by the ministers, who were seldom promoted 
 for their virtues, and not always selected for their 
 talents.^ The merits of Tribonian the quaestor will 
 hereafter be weighed in the reformation of the Roman 
 law; but the economy of the east was subordinate to 
 the praetorian praefect, and Procopius has justified his 
 anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes in his pub- 
 lic history, of the notorious vices of John of Cappado- 
 John of Cappa- cia." His knowledge was not borrowed 
 docia. from the schools,* and his style was 
 
 scarcely legible ; but he excelled in the powers of na- 
 tive genius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find 
 expedients in the most desperate situations. The cor- 
 ruption of his heart was equal to the vigour of his un- 
 derstanding. Although he was suspected of magic 
 and pagan superstition, he appeared insensible to the 
 fear of God or the reproaches of man ; and his aspiring 
 fortune was raised on the death of thousands, the 
 poverty of millions, the ruin of cities, and the desola- 
 
 bent telorum armampntaria coeli: the part of Judas, the leprosy of 
 Giezi, the tremor of Cain, k,c. besides all temporal pains. 
 
 n A similar or more generous act of friendship is related by Lucian 
 of Eudamidas of Corinth, (in Toxare, c. 22, 23. torn. ii. p. 590.) and 
 the story has produced an ingenious, though feeble, comedy of Fon- 
 lenelle. 
 
 X John Malala, torn. ii. p. 101—103. 
 
 y One of these, Anatolius, perished in an earthquake — doubtless a 
 judgment! The complaints and clamours of the people in Agathias 
 (1. V p. 146, 147.) are almost an echo of the anecdote. The aliena 
 pecunia reddenda of Corippus (1. ii. 381, &c.) is not very honourable 
 lo Jusiinian's momory. 
 
 z See the history and character of John of Cappadocia In Procopi- 
 us. (Persic. 1. i. c. 24, 25. 1. ii. c. 30. Vandal. 1. i. c. 13. Anecdol. 
 c. 2. 17. 22.) The agreement of the history and anecdotes is a mortal 
 wound to the reputation of the prsefect. 
 
 a Ov y»f MX.Xt eujiv n yf*fifi»TirTeu( ftrmv i/<«5iv Sri ^i| yt*ff 
 ftmrm, »«« t«vtn %»%m nmnuf yf»^mt^-tk forcibU expr«Mion. 
 
 tion of provinces. From the dawn of light to the mo- 
 ment of dinner, he assiduously laboured to enrich his 
 master and himself at the expense of the Roman world ; 
 the remainder of the day was spent in sensual and ob- 
 scene pleasures, and the silent hours of the night were 
 interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of an 
 assassin. His abilities, perhaps his vices, recommen- 
 ded him to the lasting friendship of Justinian : the 
 emperor yielded with reluctance to the fury of the 
 people; his victory was displayed by the immediate 
 restoration of their enemy ; and they felt above ten 
 years, under his oppressive administration, that he was 
 stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by mis- 
 fortune. Their murmurs served only to fortify the 
 resolution of Justinian ; but the praefect, in the inso- 
 lence of -favour, provoked the resentment of Theodora, 
 disdained a power before which every knee was bent, 
 and attempted to sow the seeds of discord between the 
 emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora 
 herself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favour- 
 able moment, and by an artful conspiracy to render 
 John of Cappadocia the accomplice of his own destruc- 
 tion. At a time when Belisarius, unless he had been 
 a hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife 
 Antonina, who enjoyed the secret confidence of the 
 empress, communicated his feigned discontent to 
 Euphemia, the daughter of the praefect ; the credulous 
 virgin imparted to her father the dangerous project,, 
 and John, who might have known the value of oaths 
 and promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and 
 almost treasonable, interview with the wife of Belisa- 
 rius. An ambuscade of guards and eunuchs had been 
 posted by the command of Theodora ; they rushed with 
 drawn swords to seize or punish the guilty minister: 
 he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; but in- 
 stead of appealing to a gracious sovereign, who had 
 privately warned him of his danger, he pusillanimously 
 fled to the sanctuary of the church. The favourite of 
 Justinian was sacrificed to conjugal tenderness or do- 
 mestic tranquillity : the conversion of a praefect into a 
 priest extinguished his ambitious hopes, but the 
 friendship of the emperor alleviated his disgrace, and 
 he retained in the mild exile of Cyzicus an ample por- 
 tion of his riches. Such imperfect revenge could not 
 satisfy the unrelenting hatred of Theodora; the murder 
 of his old enemy, the bishop of Cyzicus, aflbrded a 
 decent pretence ; and John of Cappadocia, whose ac- 
 tions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last con- 
 demned for a crime of which he was innocent. A 
 great minister, who had been invested with the hon- 
 ours of consul and patrician, was ignominiously 
 sccuTffed like the vilest of malefactors ; a tattered 
 cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes ; he was 
 transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at 
 Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the praefect of the 
 east hedged his bread through the cities which had 
 trembled at his name. During an exile of seven years, 
 his life was protracted and threatened by the ingenious 
 cruelty of Theodora; and when her death permitted 
 the emperor to recall a servant whom he had aban- 
 doned with regret, the ambition of John of Cappado- 
 cia was reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdotal 
 profession. His successors convinced the subjects of 
 Justinian, that the arts of oppression might still be 
 improved by experience and industry ; the frauds of 
 a Syrian banker were introduced into the administra- 
 tion of the finances ; and the example of the praefect 
 was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and 
 private treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the 
 principal magistrates of the eastern empire.** 
 
 V. The edifices of Justinian were ce- Hi* edificen and 
 mented with the blood and treasure of architect«. 
 
 b The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure ; but with the 
 aid of Pagi I can a'> cirn that John was appointed praetorian praefect 
 of the east in the yehi 530; that he was removed in January 532 — re- 
 stored before June 533— banished in 541— and recalled between Juno 
 5^18 and April 1, 549. Aleman. (p. 96, 97.) gives the list of hi« tea 
 1 luccflBior*— a rapid s«riM in a pan of a singU reign. 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 his people ; but those stately structures appeared to 
 announce the prosperity of the empire, and actually 
 displayed the skill of their architects. Both the theory 
 and practice of the arts which depend on mathematical 
 science and mechanical power were cultivated under 
 the patronage of the emperors ; the fame of Archimedes 
 was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius ; and if their 
 miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they 
 might now enlarge the speculations, instead of exciting 
 the distrust of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed, 
 that the Roman fleet was reduced to ashes in the port 
 of Syracuse by the burning-glasses of Archimedes ; « 
 and it is asserted that a similar expedient was em- 
 ployed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic vessels in the 
 harbour of Constantinople, and to protect his benefac- 
 tor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian.'* 
 A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consist- 
 ing of an hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many 
 smaller and movable polygons to receive and reflect 
 the rays of the meridian sun; and a consuming flame 
 was darted, to the distance, perhaps, of two hundred 
 feet.« The truth of these two extraordinary facts is 
 invalidated by the silence of the most authentic histo- 
 rians ; and the use of burning-glasses was never adopted 
 in the attack or defence of places.' Yet the admirable 
 experiments of a French philosopher « have demon- 
 strated the possibility of such a mirror ; and, since it is 
 possible, I am more disposed to attribute the art to the 
 greatest mathematicians of antiquity, than to give the 
 merit of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk or a 
 sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied 
 sulphur to the destruction of the Gothic fleet ; * in a 
 modern imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly 
 connected with the suspicion of gunpowder, and that 
 suspicion is propagated by the secret arts of his disci- 
 ple Anthemius.' A citizen of Trallas in Asia had five 
 sons, who were all distinguished in their respective 
 professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled 
 m the knowledge and practice of the Roman jurispru- 
 dence. Dioscorus and Alexander became learned 
 physicians ; but the skill of the former was exercised 
 for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, while his more 
 ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation at 
 Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and 
 of Anthemius the mathematician and architect, reached 
 the ears of the emperor Justinian, who invited them to 
 Constantinople ; and while the one instructed the rising 
 generation in the schools of eloquence, the other filled 
 the capital and provinces with more lasting monuments 
 of his art. In a trifling dispute relative to the walls 
 or windows of their contiguous houses, he had been 
 vanquished by the eloquence of his neighbour Zeno ; 
 but the orator was defeated in his turn by the mas- 
 ter of mechanics, whose malicious, though harmless 
 
 e This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in HIppla, c. 2.) and Galen 
 (I. iii. de Temperamentis, tom. i. p. 81. edit. Basil.) in the second 
 century. A thousand years afterwards, it is positively affirmed by 
 Zonaras (I. ix. p. 424.) on the faith of Dion Cassius, by Tzetzes, (Chi- 
 liad ii. 119, &c.) Eustathius, (ad Iliad. E. 338.) and the scholiast of 
 Lucian. See Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. I. iii. c. 22. tom. ii. p. 551, 
 552.) to whom I am more or less indebted for several of these quota- 
 tions. 
 
 d Zonaras (1. xiv. p. 55.) affirms the fact, without quoting any 
 evidence. 
 
 • Tzetzes describes the artifice of these burning-glasses, which he 
 had read, perhaps with no learned eyes, in a inathematical treatise 
 of Anthemius. That treatise, »r«p* n-otp« Jeg ww n*ix»i^nf**f<»*f has been 
 lately published, translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys, a scholar 
 and a mathematician. (Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, 
 tom. xlii. p. 392— 451.) 
 
 f In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of Polybius, Plutarch, 
 Livy ; in the siege of Constantinople, by that of Marcellinus and all 
 the contemporaries of the sixth century. 
 
 K Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or Anthemius, the 
 Immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of burning-glasses, with 
 which he could inflame planks at the distance of 200 feel. (Suople- 
 ment d I'Hist. Naiurelle, tom. i. p. 399—483. quarto edition.) What 
 iniracleg would not his genius have performed for the public ser- 
 vice, with royal expense, and in the strong sun of Constantinople or 
 Syracuse 7 
 
 h John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120—124.) relates the fact ; but he seems 
 to confound the names or persons of Proclus and Marinus. 
 
 i Agathias, 1. v. p. 149—152. The merit of Anthemius as an archi- 
 tect IS loudly praised by Procopius (de Edif. 1. i. c. 1.) and Paul us 
 Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.) 
 
 Stratagems are darkly represented by the ignorance of 
 Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged 
 several vessels or caldrons of water, each of them co- 
 vered by the wide bottom of a leathern tube, which 
 rose to a narrow top, and was artificially conveyed 
 among the joists and rafters of the adjacent buildings 
 A fire was kindled beneath the caldron ; the steam of 
 the boiling water ascended through the tubes ; the 
 house was shaken by the eflTorts of imprisoned air, and 
 its trembling inhabitants might wonder that the city 
 was unconscious of the earthquake which they had 
 felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as they sat 
 at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which 
 flashed in their eyes from the reflecting niirrors of An- 
 themius ; they were astonished by the noise which he 
 produced from a collision of certain minute and sono- 
 rous particles ; and the orator declared in tragic style 
 to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the 
 power of an antagonist, who shook the earth with the 
 trident of Neptune, and imitated the thunder and 
 lightning of Jove himself. The genius of Anthemius 
 and his colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited 
 and employed by a prince, whose taste for architecture 
 had degenerated into a mischievous and costly passion* 
 His favourite architects submitted their designs and 
 difliculties to Justinian, and discreetly confessed how 
 much their laborious meditations were surpassed by^ 
 the intuitive knowledge or celestial inspiration of an 
 emperor, whose views were always directed to the 
 benefit of his people, the glory of his reign, and the 
 salvation of his soul.* 
 
 A T*'^ VT^'^''} 5^"'^^' ^^i^^ ^""^ Foundation of 
 aedicated by tho founder of Constan- the church of 
 
 tinople to Saint Sophia, or the eternal ^^' Sophia 
 wisdom, had been twice destroyed by fire ; after the 
 exile of John Chrysostom, and during the Nika of the 
 blue and green factions. No sooner did the tumult 
 subside, than the christian populace deplored their 
 sacrilegious rashness ; but they might have rejoiced in 
 the calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new 
 temple, which at the end of forty days was strenuously 
 undertaken by the piety of Justinian.' The ruins were 
 cleared away, a more spacious plan was described, and 
 as it required the consent of some proprietors of ground,, 
 they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the 
 eager desires and timorous conscience of the monarch- 
 Anthemius formed the design, and his genius directed 
 the hands, of ten thousand workmen, whose payment 
 in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyond the 
 evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic, 
 surveyed each day their rapid progress, and encouraged 
 their diligence by his familiarity, his zeal, and his re- 
 wards. The new cathedral of St. Sophia was conse- 
 crated by the patriarch, five years, eleven months, and 
 ten days from the first foundation ; and in the midst of 
 the solemn festival, Justinian exclaimed with devout 
 vanity, " Glory be to God, who hath thought me wor- 
 thy to accomplish so great a work ; I have vanquished 
 thee, Solomon!"" But the pride of the Roman 
 
 k See Procopius, (de Edificiis, 1. i. c. 1, 2. 1. ii. c. 3.) He relates » 
 coincidence of dreams which supposes some fraud in Justinian or his- 
 architect. They both saw, in a vision, the same plan for stopping an 
 inundation at Dara. A stone-quarry near Jerusalem was revealed to 
 the emperor: (I. v. c. 6.) an angel was tricked into the perpetual 
 custody of St. Sophia. (Anonym, de Antiq. C. P. I. iv. p. 70.) 
 
 1 Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have celebrated 
 the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and follow, 1. Fourorigi- 
 nal spectators and historians : Procopius, (de Edific. 1. i. c. 1.) Aga- 
 thias, (1. V. p. 152, 153.) Paul Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexame- 
 ters, ad calcem Annae Comnem. Alexiad.) and Evagrius (1. iv. c. 31.) 
 2. Two legendary Greeks of a later period : George Codinus, (de Ori. 
 gin. C. P. p. 64—74.) and the anonymous writer of Banduri. (Imp. 
 Orient, tom. i. I. iv. p. 65 — 80.) 3. The great Byzantine antiquarian, 
 Ducange. (Comment, ad Paul Silentiar. p. 525—598. and C.P. Christ. 
 I. iii. p. 5—78.) 4. Two French travellers- the one Peter Gyllius, (de 
 Topograph. C. P. 1. ii. c. 3, 4.) in the sixteenth ; the other, Grelot : 
 (Voyage de C. P. p. 95—164. Paris, 1680, in 4to.) he has given plansj 
 prospects, and inside-views of St. Sophia; and his plans, though on a 
 smaller scale, appear more correct than those of Ducange. I have 
 adopted and reduced the measures of Grelot : but as no christian can 
 now ascend the dome, the height is borrowed from Evagrius, compared 
 with Gyllius, Greaves, and the oriental Geographer. 
 
 B Solomon's temple was surrounded with courts, porticoes, &c.; ^a^ 
 
IG 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ( ; 
 
 Solomon, before twenty years had elapsed, was hum- 
 bled by an earthquake, which overthrew the eastern 
 part (f the dome. Its splendour was again restored by 
 the perseverance of the same prince ; and in the thirty- 
 sixth year of his reign, Justinian celebrated the second 
 dedication of a temple, which remains, after twelve 
 <;enturies, a stately monument of his fame. The archi- 
 tecture of St. Sophia, which is now converted into the 
 principal mosch, has been imitated by the Turkish 
 sultans, and that venerable pile continues to excite the 
 fond admiration of the Greeks, and the more rational 
 J, . . curiosity of European Travellers. The 
 Description. ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ spectator is disappointed by 
 
 •an irregular prospect of hal f-d omes, and shelving roofs : 
 the western front, the principal approach, is destitute 
 of simplicity and magnificence; and the scale of di- 
 mensions has been much surpassed by several of the 
 Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first erected 
 an acrf«/ cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold design 
 an3 skilful execution. The dome of St. Sophia, illu- 
 minated by four and twenty windows, is formed with 
 80 small a curve, that the depth is equal only to one- 
 sixth of its diameter; the measure of that diameter is 
 one hundred and fifteen feet, and the lofty centre, where 
 a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the per- 
 pendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above 
 the pavement. The circle which encompasses the 
 dome lightly reposes on four strong arches, and their 
 weight is firmly supported by four massy piles, whose 
 strength is assisted on the northern and southern sides 
 by four columns of Egyptian granite. A Greek cross, 
 inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of the 
 edifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty- 
 three feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be as- 
 signed for the extreme lenjrth from the sanctuary in 
 the cast to the nine western doors, which open into the 
 vestibule, and from thence into the narthex or exterior 
 portico. That portico was the humble station of the 
 penitents. The nave or body of the church was filled 
 by the congregation of the faithful ; but the two sexes 
 were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower 
 palleries w^ere allotted for the more private devotion of 
 the women. Beyond the northern and southern piles, 
 a balustrade, terminated on either side by the thrones 
 of the emperor and the patriarch, divided the nave from 
 the choir : and the space, as far as the steps of the 
 altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The 
 altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to 
 christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, arti- 
 ficially built in the form of a demi-cylinder ; and this 
 sanctuary communicated by several doors with the 
 sacristy, the vestry, the babtistery, and the contiguous 
 buildings, subservient either to the pomp of worship, 
 or the private use of the ecclesiastical ministers. The 
 memory of past calamities inspired .Justinian with a 
 wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, 
 should be admitted into the new edifice; and the 
 choice of the materials was applied to the strength, 
 the lightness, or the splendour of the respective parts. 
 The solid piles which sustained the cupola were com- 
 posed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares 
 and triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly 
 cemented by the infusion of lead and quicklime : but 
 the weight of the cupola was diminished by the levity 
 of its substance, which consists either of pumice-stone 
 that floats in the water, or of bricks from the isle of 
 Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the ordinary 
 «ort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed 
 of brick ; but those base materials were concealed by a 
 crust of marble ; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cu- 
 pola, the two larger and the six smaller semi-domes, 
 the walls, the hundred columns, and the pavement, 
 delight even the eyes of barbarians, with a rich and 
 
 the proper siruciure of the house of God was no more (if we lake the 
 Egyptian or Hebrew cubit at 22 inches) than 55 feet in height, 36} 
 in breadth, and 110 in leneth— asmall parish church, says Prideaux : 
 ^Connexion, vol. i. p. 144. folio;) but few Muctuaries could be valued 
 at four or five millions sterling. 
 
 variegated picture. Apoet," who beheld Marble* 
 the primitive lustre of St. Sophia, enu- 
 merates the colours, the shades, and the spots of ten 
 or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which na- 
 ture had profusely diversified, and which were blended 
 and contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The 
 triumph of Christ was adorned with the last spoils of 
 paganism, but the greater part of these costly stones 
 was extracted from the quarries of Asia Minor, the 
 isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Gaul, 
 Eight columns of porphyry, which Aurelian had placed 
 in the temple of the sun, were offered by the piety of 
 a Roman matron ; eight others of green marble were 
 presented by the ambitious zeal of the magistrates of 
 Ephesus : both are admirable by their size and beauty, 
 but every order of architecture disclaims their fantastic 
 capitals. A variety of ornaments and figures was cu- 
 riously expressed in mosaic ; and the images of Christ, 
 of the Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have 
 been defaced by Turkish fanaticism, were dangerously 
 exposed to the superstition of the Greeks. According 
 to the sanctity of each object, the precious metals were 
 distributed in thin leaves or in solid masses. The 
 balustrade of the choir, the capitals of the pillars, the 
 ornaments of the doors and galleries were of gilt 
 bronze; the spectator was dazzled by the glittering 
 aspect of the cupola; the sanctuary contained forty 
 thousand pound weight of silver ; and the holy vases 
 and vestments of the altar were of the purest gold, en- 
 riched with inestimable gems. Before the structure 
 of the church had risen two cubits above 
 the ground, forty-five thousand two bun- ^^ ^"* 
 
 dred pounds were already consumed : and the whole 
 expense amounted to three hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand : each reader, according to the measure of his 
 belief, may estimate their value either in gold or silver ; 
 but the sum of one million sterlinor is the result of the 
 lowest computation. A magnificent temple is a 
 laudable monument of national taste and religion, and 
 the enthusiast who entered the dome of St. Sophia, 
 might be tempted to suppose that it was the residence, 
 or even the workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull 
 is the artifice, how insignificant is the labour, if it be 
 compared with the formation of the vilest insect that 
 crawls upon the surface of the temple ! 
 
 So minute a description of an edifice churches and 
 which time has respected, may attest palaces, 
 the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable 
 works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justi- 
 nian constructed on a smaller scale and less durable 
 foundations." In Constantinople alone, and the adja- 
 cent suburbs, he dedicated twenty-five churches to the 
 honour of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints : most of 
 these churches were decorated with marble and gold ; 
 and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a 
 populous square, or a pleasant grove ; on the marcnn 
 of the sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which 
 overlooked the continents of Europe and Asia. The 
 church of the holy apostles at Constantinople, and that 
 of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have been framed 
 on the same model : their domes aspired to imitate the 
 cupolas of St. Sophia; but the altar was more judi- 
 ciously placed under the centre of the dome, at the 
 
 n Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language, describes the Ta< 
 rious stones and marbles that were employed in the edifice of St. 
 Sophia: (P. ii. p. 129. 133, fcc. *c.) 1. The Carys/ian— pale, with 
 iron veins. 2. The Phrygian— oi two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the 
 one with a while shade, the other purple, with silver flowers. 3. The 
 Porphyry of Egypt— vihh small stars. 4. The green marble of Zm- 
 conta. 6. The Canon— from Mount lassis, with oblique veins, white 
 and red. 6. The Xyrfmn— pale, with a red flower. 7. The African 
 or Mauritantan — ot a gold or saffVon hue. 8. The Ce//»c— black, with 
 white veins. 9. The J&osp/ionc— white, with black edges. Besides 
 the Proconnesiant which formed the pavement ; the Thessalian^ 
 Molossian, &c. which are less distinctly painted. 
 
 o The six books of the edifices of Procopiiin are thus distributed: 
 ihejirst is confined to Constantinople : the second includes IVIesopo* 
 tamia and Syria ; the f/itrdf, Armenia and the Euxine; the fourth. 
 Europe ; lUBj^th, Asia Minor and Palestine ; the sixth, Egypt andf 
 Africa. Italy is forgot by the emperor or the historian, who published 
 this work of adulation before the date (A. D. 655.) of its final con- 
 quest. 
 
 17 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 junction of four stately porticoes, which more accu- 
 rately expressed the figure of the Greek cross. The 
 Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected 
 by her imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, 
 which afforded neither ground nor materials to the ar- 
 chitect. A level was formed, by raising part of a deep 
 valley to the height of the mountain. The stones of a 
 neighbouring quarry were hewn into regular forms ; 
 each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage drawn by 
 forty of the strongest oxen, and the roads were 
 widened for the passage of such enormous weights. 
 Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers 
 of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein 
 of red marble, supplied its beautiful columns, two of 
 which, the supporters of the exterior portico, were es- 
 teemed the largest in the world. The pious munifi- 
 cence of the emperor was diffused over the Holy Land ; 
 and if reason should condemn the monasteries of both 
 sexes which were built or restored by Justinian, yet 
 charity must applaud the wells which he sunk, and 
 the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the 
 weary pilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt 
 was ill entitled to the royal bounty; but in Syria and 
 Africa some remedies were applied to the disasters of 
 wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, 
 emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of 
 their gracious benefactor.^' Almost every saint in the 
 calendar acquired the honours of a temple; almost 
 every city of the empire obtained the solid advantages 
 of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts ; but the severe 
 •liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his 
 subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. 
 While Justinian laboured for the public service, he 
 was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The 
 Byzantine palace, which had been damaged by the 
 conflagration, was restored with new magnificence; 
 and some notion may be conceived of the whole edi- 
 fice, by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors 
 perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed chalcCy or the brazen. 
 The dome of a spacious quadrangle was supported by 
 massy pillars ; the pavement and walls were incrusted 
 with many-coloured marbles — the emerald green of La- 
 conia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone in- 
 tersected with veins of a sea green hue : the mosaic 
 paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories 
 of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic 
 shore of the Propontis, at a small distance to the east 
 of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens of He- 
 raeum<> were prepared for the summer residence of Jus- 
 tinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets 
 of the ajie have celebrated the rare alliance of nature 
 and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the 
 fountains, and the waves; yet the crowd of attendants 
 who followed the court complained of their inconve- 
 nient lodgings,' and the nymphs were too often alarmed 
 by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in 
 breadth, and thirty in length, who was stranded at the 
 mouth of the river Sangaris, after he had infested more 
 than half a century the seas of Constantinople.^ 
 Fortifications of The fortifications of Europe and Asia 
 Europe. were multiplied by Justinian; but the 
 repetition of those timid and fruitless precautions ex- 
 poses to a philosophic eye the debility of the empire.* 
 
 P Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold (180,000/.) for 
 the repairs of Antioch after the earthquake. (John Malala, torn. ii. 
 9. 146-149.) 
 
 q For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see Gyllius, (de Bos- 
 phoro Thracio, I. iil. c. xi.) Aleman. (Not. ad. Anec. p. 80, 81. who 
 quotes several epigrams of the Anthology,) and Ducange. (C. P. Christ. 
 1. iv. c. 13. p. 175, 176.) 
 
 r Compare, in the Edifices, 0. I. c 11.) and in the Anecdotes, (c. 8. 
 la.) the different stvles of adulation and malevolence : stript of the 
 paint, or cleansed from the dirt, the object appears to be the same. 
 
 • Procopius. 1. viil. 29. most probably a stranser and wanderer, as 
 the Mediterranean does not breed whales. Balsenx quoque in nostra 
 maria penetrant. (Plin. Hist. Natur. ix. 2.) Between the polar circle 
 and the tropic, the cetaceous animals of the ocean grow to the length 
 of 50, 80, or 100 feet. (H«st. des Voyages, torn. xv. p. 289. Pennant's 
 British Zoology, vol. iii. p. 35.) 
 
 t Montesquie observes (torn, iii, p. 503. Considerations sur la Gran- 
 aeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. xx) that Justinian's empire 
 
 Vol. II. — C 2 
 
 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the 
 Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above 
 fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks 
 of the great river. Single watch-towers were changed 
 into spacious citadels ; vacant walls, which the engi- 
 neers contracted or enlarged according to the nature 
 of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons ; 
 a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge," 
 and several military stations affected to spread beyond 
 the Danube the pride of the Roman name. But that 
 nanrie was divested of its terrors ; the barbarians, in 
 their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously re- 
 passed, before these useless bulwarks ; and the inhab- 
 itants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the 
 shadow of the general defence, were compelled to 
 guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habita- 
 tions. The solitude of ancient cities was replenished ; 
 the new foundations of Justinian acquired, perhaps too 
 hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous ; and 
 the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the 
 grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under 
 the name of Justimana prima, the obscure village of 
 Tauresium became the seat of an archbishop and a 
 praefect, whose jurisdiction extended over seven war- 
 like provinces of Illyricum ;* and the corrupt appella- 
 tion of Guistendil still indicates, about twenty miles 
 to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish san- 
 jak.y For the use of the emperor's countrymen, a 
 cathedral, a palace, and an aqueduct, were speedily 
 constructed ; the public and private edifices were 
 adapted to the greatness of a royal city; and the 
 strength of the walls resisted, during the life-time of 
 Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns and Scla- 
 vonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and 
 their hopes of rapine were disappointed, by the innu- 
 merable castles, which in the provinces of Dacia, 
 Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared 
 to cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred 
 of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; 
 but it seems reasonable to believe, that the far greater 
 part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, in the 
 midst of a square or circular area, which was sur- 
 rounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment 
 of danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of 
 the neighbouring villages.' Yet these military works, 
 which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove 
 the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European 
 subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus in Thrace 
 were rendered as safe as they were salutary; but the 
 rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the 
 Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three 
 hundred miles from the Danube, was continually 
 alarmed by the sound of war;* and no unfortified spot, 
 however distant or solitary, could securely enjoy the 
 blessings of peace. The straits of Thermopylae, which 
 seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, 
 the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by 
 the labours of Justinian. From the edge of the sea- 
 was like France in the time of the Norman inroads— never so weak 
 as when every village was fortified. 
 
 u Procopius affirnis (1. iv. c. 6.) that the Danube was stopped by 
 the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the architect, left a de- 
 scription of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius (1. 
 Ixviii. p. 1129.) would have been corrected by the genuine picture. 
 Trajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with 
 wooden arches ; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the whole 
 interval no more than 443 (Reimar ad Dion, from Marsigli) or 515 
 toises. (D'Anville, Geographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.) 
 
 I Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis, Dardania, PraB- 
 valitana, the second Maesia, and the second Macedonia. See Justi- 
 nian, (Novell, xi.) who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and 
 of homines semper bellicis sudoribus inhaerentes. 
 
 y See D'Anville, (Memoires de I'Academie, &c. tom. xxxi. p. 2S9, 
 290.) Rycaut, (Present state of the Turkish empire, p. 97. 316.) Mar- 
 sigli. (Suto Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 130.) The sanjak of 
 Guistendil is one of the twenty under the beplerbeg of Rumelia, and 
 his district maintains 48 zaims and 583 timariots. 
 
 T These fortifications may be compared to the castles in Mingrelia 
 (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60. 131.)— a natural picture. 
 
 M. The valley of Tempe is situate along the river Peneus, between 
 the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five miles long, and in soma 
 places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beauties ar» 
 elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. 1. iv. 15.) and more dif- 
 fusely by .£lian. (Hist. Yar. 1. iii. c. i.) 
 
 \ 
 

 18 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. I» 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 shore, through the forests and valleys, and as far as 
 the summit of the Thessalian mountains, a strong wall 
 was continued, which occupied every practicable en- 
 trance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peasants, a gar- 
 rison of two thousand soldiers was ^stationed along the 
 rampart; granaries of corn, and reservoirs of water, 
 ■were provided for their use; and hy a precaution that 
 inspired the cowardice which it foresaw, convenient 
 fortresses were erected for their retreat. The walls of 
 Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the moul- 
 dering bulwarks of Athens and Platsca, were carefully 
 restored ; the barbarians were discouraged by the pros- 
 pect of successive and painful sieges; and the naked 
 cities of Peloponnesus were covered hy the fortifica- 
 tions of the isthmus of Corinth. At the extremity of 
 Europe, another peninsula, the Thracian Chersonesus, 
 luns three days' jfmrney into the sea, to form, with the 
 adjacent shores of Asia, the straits of the Hellespont. 
 The intervals between eleven populous towns were 
 filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arrable lands; 
 and the isthmus, of thirty-seven stadia or furlongs, had 
 been fortified by a Spartan general nijie hundred years 
 before the reign of Justinian.** In an age of freedom 
 and valour, the slightest rampart may prevent a sur- 
 prise ; and Procopius appears insensible of the superi- 
 ority of ancient times, while he praises the solid con- 
 struction and double parapet of a wall, whose long 
 arms stretched on either side into the sea; but whose 
 strength was deemed insufficient to guard the Cherso- 
 nesus, if each city, and particularly Gallipoli and 
 Sestus, had not been secured by their peculiar f )rtifi- 
 cations. The lonp; wall, as it was emphatically styled, 
 was a work as disgraceful in the object, as it was 
 respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital 
 diffuse themselves over the neighbouring country, and 
 the territory of Constantinople, a paradise of nature, 
 was adorned with the luxurious gardens and villas of 
 the senators and opulent citizens. But their wealth 
 served only to attract the bold and rapacious barbarians ; 
 the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of peaceful 
 indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity, and 
 their sovereign might view, from his palace, the hostile 
 flames which were insolently spread to the gates of the 
 imperial city. At the distance only of forty miles, 
 Anastasius was constrained to establish a last frontier; 
 his long wall,of sixty miles from the Propontis to the 
 Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his arms; and 
 as the danger becaine more imminent, new fortifi- 
 cations were added by the indefatigable prudence of 
 Justinian.*' 
 
 Security of Asia Asia Minor, after the submission of 
 ■per I lie conquest the Isaurians,** remained without ene- 
 mies and without fortifications. Those 
 bold savages, who had disdained to be the subjects of 
 Gallieriu«, persisted two hundred and thirty years in a 
 life of independence and rapine. The most sut'cessful 
 princes respected the strength of the mountains and 
 the despair of the natives ; their fierce spirit was some- 
 times soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by 
 terror; and a military count, with three legions, fixed 
 his permanent and ignominious station in the heart of 
 the Roman provinces." But no sooner was the vigi- 
 lance of power relaxed or diverted, than the light-armed 
 squadrons descended from the hills, and invaded the 
 peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians were 
 not remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered 
 them bold, and experience made them skilful in the 
 
 b Xennphon Hpllenic. 1. iii. c. 2. Aflrr a lon!» and tedious convrr- 
 Baiiun with the Byzantine doclaimers, how refreshing is the truth, 
 the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer! 
 
 e See the long wall in Evasrius, (1. iv. c. 38.) This whole article 
 18 drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices, except Anchialus. (I. 
 iii. c. 7.) r > \ 
 
 d Turn back to vol i. p. 106. In the course of this history, 1 have 
 sometimes mentioned, and much oftener sli;:hted, rhe hasty inroads 
 of the Isaurians, which were not attended with any consequences. 
 
 e Trebelhus Pollio in Hist. Aupust. p. 107. who lived under Diocle- 
 tian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus ad Notil. Imp. Orient. 
 C. 115. 141. See Cod. Theodos. 1. ix. tit. 35. leg. 37. with a copious 
 collective Annouiion of Godefroy, toin. iii. p. 266, 267. 
 
 f See the full and wide extent of their inroads in Philostoreius, 
 (Hist, fcccles. 1. xi. c. 8.) with Godofroy's learned Dissertations. 
 
 g Cod. Justinian. 1. ix. tit. 12. leg. 10. The punishments are severe 
 —a fine of a hundred pounds of gold, degradation, and even death.. 
 The public peace mi?ht afford a pretence, but Zeno was desirous of 
 monopolizing the valnur and servico of the Isaurians. 
 
 h The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are briefly and 
 darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 106, 107.) Evafrius, 
 
 (1. 111. c. 35.) Theophanes, (p. 118-120.) and the Chronicle of Marcel- 
 linus. 
 
 i Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nee in ullo differt ab 
 Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 13.) marks an essential dif- 
 ference between their military character ; yet in former times the 
 l.ycaonians and Pisidians had defended their liberty against the great 
 king. (Xenophon. Anabasis, 1. iii. c. 2.) Justinian iniroduces some 
 false and ridiculous erudition of the ancient empire of the Pisidians. 
 and of Lycaon, who, after visiting Rome, (long before JEneaa.) cave 
 a name and people to L^caonia. (Novell. 24, 25, 27 30 ) 
 
 k Seo Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 19 The aliar of national concord^ 
 
 exercise of predatory war. They advanced with se- 
 crecy and speed to the attack of villages and defence- 
 less towns ; their flying parties have sometimes touched 
 the Hellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus, 
 Antioch, or Damascus ; ' and the spoil was lodged in 
 their inaccessible mountains, before the Roman troops 
 had received their orders, or the distant province had 
 computed its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery 
 excluded them from the rights of national enemies ; and 
 the magistrates were instructed by an edict, that the 
 trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on the festival 
 of Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety.* 
 If the captives were condemned to domestic slavery, 
 they maintained with their sword or dagger, the private 
 quarrel of their masters; and it was found expedient 
 for the public tranquillity, to prohibit the service of 
 such dangerous retainers. When their countryman 
 Tarcalissaeus or Zeno ascended the throne, he invited 
 a faithful and formidable band of Isaurians, who in- 
 sulted the court and city, and were rewarded by an 
 annual tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But 
 the hopes of fortune depopulated the mountains, luxury 
 enervated the hardiness of their minds and bodies, and 
 in proportion as they mixed with mankind, they became 
 less qualified for the enjoyment of poor and solitary 
 freedom. After the death of Zeno, his successor Anas- 
 tasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their persons 
 to the revenge of the people, banislied them from Con- 
 stantinople, and prepared to sustain a war, which left 
 only the alternative of victory or servitude. A brother 
 of the last emperor usurped the title of Augustus, his 
 cause was powerfully supported by the arms, the 
 treasures, and the magazines, collected by Zeno; and 
 the native Isaurians must have formed the smallest 
 portion of the hundred and fifty thousand barbarians 
 under his standard, which was sanctified, for the first 
 time, by the presence of a fighting bishop. Their 
 disorderly numbers were vanqui.shed in the plains of 
 Phrygia by the valour and discipline of the Goths; 
 but a war of six years almost exhausted the courage 
 of the emperor.'* The Isaurians retired . r^ Aon >.no 
 to their mountains ; their fortresses were 
 successively besieged and ruined ; their communica- 
 tion with the sea was intercepted ; the bravest of their 
 leaders died in arms; the surviving chiefs, before their 
 execution were dragged in chains through the hippo- 
 drome; a colony of their youth was transplanted into 
 Thrace, and the remnant of the people submitted to 
 th»^ Roman government. Yet some generations elapsed 
 before their minds were reduced to the level of slavery. 
 The populous villages of Mount Taurus were filled 
 with horsemen and archers ; they resisted the impo- 
 sition of tributes, but they recruited the armies of Jus- 
 tinian ; and his civil maijistrates, the proconsul of 
 Cappadocia, the count of Isauria, and the praetors of 
 Lycaonia and Pisidia, were invested with military 
 power to restrain the licentious practice of rapes and 
 assassinations.' 
 
 If we extend our view from the tropic Fortifications of 
 to the mouth of the Tanais, we may ob- thrESi'ine'^°S 
 serve, on one hand, the precautions of ihePcrsianfroo- 
 Justinian to curb the savages of ^Ethio- ''^'■• 
 pia,^ and on the other, the long walls which he con- 
 
 structed in Crimaea for tne protection of the friendly 
 Goths, a colony of three thousand shepherds and war- 
 riors.' From that peninsula to Trebizond, the eastern 
 curve of the Euxine was secured by forts, by alliance, 
 or by religion : and the possession of Lazica, the Col- 
 chos of ancient, the Mingrelia, of modern geography, 
 soon became the object of an important war. Trebi- 
 zond, in after-times the seat of a romantic empire, was 
 indebted to the liberality of Justinian for a church, an 
 aqiieduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the 
 solid rock. From that maritime city, a frontier-line 
 of five hundred miles may be drawn to the fortress of 
 Circesium, the last Roman station on the Euphrates." 
 Above Trebizond immediately, and five days' journey 
 to the south, the country rises into dark forests and 
 craggy mountains, as savage though not so lofty as 
 the Alps and the Pyrenees. ~ In this rigorous climate," 
 i where the snows seldom melt, the fruits are tardy and 
 tasteless, even honey is poisonous; the most industri- 
 ^ ons tillage would be confined to some pleasant valleys; 
 and the pastoral tribes obtained a scanty sustenance 
 from the flesh and milk of their cattle. The Chalyhi- 
 ans" derived their name and temper from the iron 
 quality of the soil ; and, since the days of Cyrus, they 
 might produce, under the various appellations of Chal- 
 daeans and Zanians, an uninterrupted prescription of 
 . war and rapine. Under the reign of Justinian, they 
 acknowledged the God and the emperor of the Romans, 
 and seven fortresses were built in the most accessible 
 passes, to exclude the ambition of the Persian mon- 
 arch.P The principal source of the Euphrates descends 
 from the Chalybian mountains, and seems to flow 
 towards the west and the Euxine; bending to the 
 south-west, the river passes under the walls of Satala 
 and Melitene, (which were restored by Justinian as 
 the bulwarks of the lesser Armenia,) and gradually 
 approaches the Mediterranean sea ; till at length, re- 
 pelled by mount Taurus,*! the Euphrates inclines his 
 Jong and flexible course to the south-east and the gulf 
 of Persia. Among the Roman cities beyond the Eu- 
 phrates, we distinguish two recent foundations, which 
 were named from Theodosius, and the relics of the 
 martyrs ; and two capitals, Amida and Edessa, which 
 are celebrated in the history of every age. Their 
 strength was proportioned by Justinian to the danger 
 of their situation. A ditch and palisade might be suf- 
 ficient to resist the artless force of the cavalry of Scy- 
 , thia ; but more elaborate works were required to sustain 
 
 19 
 
 a regular siege against the arms and treasures of the 
 
 of annu.ll sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian had erected in the 
 Isle of Elaphantine, was demolished by Justinian with less policy 
 than zeal. 
 
 I Procopius de Edificiis, 1. iii. c. 7. Hist. 1. viii. c. 3, 4. These un- 
 ambitious Goths had refused to foll)wthe standard of Theodoric. As 
 lute as the fifioenth and sixteenth century, the name and nation might 
 be discovered between Caffa and the Straits of Azoph. (D'Anville, 
 Memoires de I'Academie, torn. xxx. p. 240.) They well deserved the 
 curiosity of Busbequius, (p. 321—326.) but seem to have vanished in 
 the m ire recent account of the Missions du Levant, (tom. i.) Toll, 
 Peyss >nel, &c. 
 
 m For the geography and architecture of this Armenian border, 
 see the Persian Wars and Edifices;^!, ii. c. 4— 7. 1. iii. c. 2— 7.) of Pro- 
 copius. 
 
 n The country is described by Tournefort. (Voyage au Levant, tom. 
 111. letire xvii. xviii.) Thatskiiful botanist soon discovered the plant 
 that infects the honey, (Plin. xxi. 44, 45.) he observes, that the soldiers 
 of Lucullus might indeed be astonished at the cold, since, even in the 
 plain of Erzerum, snow sometimes falls in June, and the harvest is 
 seldom finished before September. The hills of Armenia are below 
 the fortieth degree of latitude ; but in Uia mountainous country which 
 I inhabit, it is well known that an ascent of some hours carries 
 the traveller from the climate of Languedoc to that of Norway ; and 
 a general theory has been introduced, that under the line, an ele- 
 vation of 2400 toises is equivalent to the cold of the polar circle. 
 (Romond, Observations sur les Voyages de Coxe dans la Suisse, torn, 
 n. p. 104.) 
 
 o The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, or Chaldaeans, may 
 be investigated in Strabo, (1. xW.p. 825, 826.) Cellariu!«, (Geograph. 
 Antiq.tom. ii. p. 202-204.) and Freret. (Mem. de I'Academie, tom. 
 • V. p. 594.) Xpn)phon supptnes, in his romance, (Cyropaed. 1. iii.) the 
 ■ line barbarians against whom he had fought in his retreat. (Auaba- 
 ■is, 1. iv.) 
 
 P Cr^'^P"'"'' Pprsic. 1. i. c. 15'. De Edific. 1. iii. c. 6. 
 
 q Ni Taurus obsiei in nostra maria venturus. (Pomponius Mela, 
 III. 8.) Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist, (v 20.) personifies the 
 river and mountain, and describes their combat. See the course of 
 ihe Tigris and Euphrates, in the excellent treatise of D'Aaville. 
 
 great king. His skilful engineers understood the 
 methods of conducting deep mines, and of raisinff plat- 
 forms to the level of the rampart; he shook thestronff- 
 est battlements with his military engines, and some- 
 times advanced to the assault with a line of moveable 
 turrets on the backs of elephants. In the great cities 
 of the east, the disadvantage of space, perhaps of po- 
 sition, was compensated by the zeal of the people, who 
 seconded the garrison in the defence of their country 
 and religion ; and the fabulous promise of the Son of 
 God, that Edessa should never be taken, filled the 
 citizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the be- 
 siegers with doubt and dismay.' The subordinate 
 towns of Armenia and Messopotamia were diligently 
 strengthened, and the posts which appeared to have 
 any command of ground or water, were occupied by 
 numerous forts, substantially built of stone, or more 
 ha'stily erected with the obvious materials of earth and 
 brick. The eye of Justinian investigated every spot; 
 and his cruel precautions might attract the war into 
 some lonely vale, whose peaceful natives, connected 
 by trade and marriage, were ignorant of national dis- 
 cord and the quarrels of princes. Westward of the 
 Euphrates, a sandy desert extends above six hundred 
 miles to the Red sea. Nature had interposed a vacant 
 solitude between the ambition of two rival empires : 
 the Arabians, till Mahomet arose, were formidable only 
 as robbers : and in the proud security of peace, the 
 fortifications of Syria were neglected on the most vul- 
 nerable side. 
 
 But the national enmity, at least the ^ 
 em^cts of that enmity, had been suspen- ^eTkingof^pJ^ 
 ded by a truce which continued above sia, 
 fourscore years. An ambassador from A. D.488. 
 the emperor Zeno accompanied the rash and unfortu- 
 nate Perezes, in his expedition against the Nepthalites 
 or White Huns, whose conquests had been stretched 
 from the Caspian to the heart of India, whose throne 
 was enriched with emeralds/ and whose cavalry was 
 supported by a line of two thousand elephants.* The 
 Persians were twice circumvented, in a situation which 
 made valour useless and flight impossible; and the 
 double victory of the Huns, was achieved by military 
 stratagem. They dismissed their royal captive after 
 he had submitted to adore the majesty of a barbarian; 
 and the humiliation was poorly evaded by the casuis- 
 tical subtilty of the Magi, who instructed Perezes to 
 direct his attention to the rising sun. The indignant 
 successor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude ; 
 he renewed the attack with head-strong fury, and lost 
 both his army and his life." The death of Perozes 
 abandoned Persia to her foreign and domestic enemies; 
 and twelve years of confusion elapsed before his son 
 Cabades or Kobad could embrace any designs of am- 
 bition or revenge. The unkind parsi- ThePereianwar,. 
 mony of Anastasius was the motive or A. D. 502—505. 
 
 r Procopius (Persic. 1. n. c. 12.) tells the story with the tone, half 
 sceptical, half superstitious, of Herodotus. The promise was not in 
 the primitive lieofEusebius, but dates at least from the year 400- and 
 a third lie, the Veronica, was soon raised on the two former. (Evagri 
 us, 1. iv. c. 27.) As Edessa has been taken, Tillemont must disclaim 
 the promise. (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 362. 383. 617.) 
 T \ / ^'^''^ purchased from the merchants of Adulis who traded to 
 India, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. 1. xi. p. 339.) yet, in the estimate 
 of precious stones, the Scythian emerald was the first, the Bactrian 
 the second, the iEthiopian only the third. (Hill's Theophrastus, p. 
 61, Jfcc. 92.) The production, mines, &c. of emeralds, are involved 
 in darkness ; and it is doubtful whether we possess any of the twelve 
 sorts known to the ancients. (Goguet, Origine des lA)ix, kc. part. ii. 
 1. ii. c. 2. art. 3.) In this war the Huns got, or at least Perozes lost, 
 the finest pearl in the world, of which Procopius relates a ridiculous 
 fable. 
 
 t The Indo-Scythae continued to reign from the time of Augustus 
 (Dionys. Perieget. 1083. with the commentary of Eustathius, in Hud- 
 son, Geograph. Minor, tom. iv.) to that of the elder Justin. (Cosmas, 
 Topograph. Christ. 1. xi. p. 338, 339.) On their origin and conquests, 
 see D'Anville, (sur I'lnde, p. 1^45. &c. 69.85. 89.) In the second cen- 
 tury they were masters of Larice or Guzerat. 
 
 u See the fate of Phirouz or Perozes, and its consequences, in Pro- 
 copius, (Persic. 1. i. c. 3-6.) who may be compared with the fragment* 
 of oriental history. (D'Herbelol, Bibliot. Orient, p. 351. and Texeira 
 History of Persia, translated or abridged by Stephens, 1. i. c. 32. p\ 
 132—138.) The chronology is ably ascertained by Asseman. (Bibliot*. 
 Orient, tom. iii. p. 396—427. 
 
so 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ( :; 
 
 21 
 
 pretence of a Roman war;' the Huns and Arabs 
 inarched under the Persian standard, and the fortifica- 
 tions of Armenia and Messopotamia were, at that time, 
 in a ruinous or imperfect condition. The emperor re- 
 turned his thanks to the governor and people of Mar- 
 tyn^polis, for the prompt surrender of a city which 
 could not be snccessfully defended, and the conflagra- 
 tion of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of 
 their prudent neighbours. Amida sustained a long 
 and destructive siege : at the end of three months the 
 loss of fifty thousand of the soldiers of Cabades was 
 not balanced by any prospect of success, and it was in 
 vain that the Mas^i deduced a flattering prediction from 
 the indecency of the women on the ramparts, who had 
 revealed their most secret charms to the eyes of the 
 assailants. At length, in a silent night, they ascended 
 the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by 
 some monks, oppressed, after the duties of a festival, 
 with sleep and wine. Scaling ladders were applied 
 at the dawn of day ; the presence of Cabades, his stern 
 command, and his drawn sword, compelled the Per- 
 sians to vanquish ; and before it was sheathed, four- 
 score thousand of the inhabitants had expiated the 
 blood of their companions. After the siege of Amida, 
 the war continued three years, and the unhappy fron- 
 tier tasted the full measure of its calamities. The 
 gold of Anastasius was offered too late, the number of 
 his troops was defeated by the number of their gene- 
 rals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants, and 
 both the living and the dead were abandoned to the 
 wild beasts of the desert. The resistance of Edessa, 
 and the deficiency of spoil, inclined the mind of Caba- 
 des to peace; he sold his conquests for an exorbitant 
 price : and the same line, though marked with slaugh- 
 ter and devastation, still separated the two empires. 
 To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius 
 resolved to found a new colony, so strong, that it 
 should defy the power of the Persian, so far advanced 
 towards Assyria, that its stationary troops might de- 
 fend the province by the menace or operation of offen- 
 Foriificaiions of sive war. For this purpose, the town of 
 Dara. Dara,' fourteen miles from Nisibis, and 
 
 four days' journey from the Tigris, was peopled and 
 adorned ; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved 
 by the perseverance of Justinian ; and without insisting 
 on places less important, the fortifications of Dara may 
 represent the military architecture of the age. The 
 <jity was surrounded with two walls, and the interval 
 between them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the 
 cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monu- 
 ment of strength and beauty ; it measured sixty feet 
 from the ground, and the height of the towers was one 
 hundred feet; the loop-holes, from whence an enemy 
 might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, 
 but numerous : the soldiers were planted along the 
 rampart, under the shelter of double galleries, and a 
 third platf irm, spacious and secure, was raised on the 
 summit of the towers. The exterior wall appears to 
 have been less lofty but more solid ; and each tower 
 wa-^ protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard 
 r^'cky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the 
 S'uth-east, where the ground was more tractable, their 
 approach was retarded by a new work, which advanced 
 in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble 
 ditchns were fiUfd with a stream of water; and in the 
 management of the river, the most skilful labour was 
 e'M ployed to supply the inhabitants, to distress the 
 bes-egprs, and to prevent the mischiefs of a natural or 
 a tificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty 
 y«ars to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and to provoke 
 
 X The Persian war, under the reiens of Anastasius and Justin, may 
 bf co'leupil from PtDConius. (Persic. 1. i. c. 7, 8, 9.) Theophanes, 
 <in (Chronograph, p. 124—127.) Evairrius, (1. iii. c. 37.) Marcelli- 
 iiiis, (ii rhrun. p. 47.) and Josue Slyliles. (apud Asseman. lorn. i. p. 
 27-.'- 281.) J f 
 
 y The ilescripiion of Dara is amply and correctly given by Proco- 
 phia. (Pf rsic. 1. i. c. 10. I. ii. c. 13. De Edific. 1. ii. c. 1, 2, 3. 1. iii. c. 
 61.) See the si nation in D'Anville, (I'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 53,54, 
 55.) though he seems to double the interval between Dara and Niaibis. 
 
 the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly com 
 plained, that this impregnable fortress had been con- 
 structed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace 
 between the two empires. 
 
 Between the Euxine and the Caspian, The Caspian m 
 the countries of Colchos, Iberia, and Al- Iberian gatea. 
 bania, are intersected in every direction by the branch- 
 es of mount Caucasus ; and the two principal gates, or 
 passes, from north to south, have been frequently con 
 founded in the geography both of the ancients and 
 moderns. The name of Caspian or Albanian gates i^ 
 properly applied to Derbend," which occupies a short 
 declivity between the mountains and the sea : the city, 
 if we give credit to local tradition, had been founded 
 by the Greeks ; and this dangerous entrance was for- 
 tified by the kings of Persia, with a mole, double walls, 
 and doors of iron. The Iberian gates* are formed by 
 a narrow passage of six miles in mount Caucasus, 
 which opens from the northern side of Iberia or Geor- 
 gia, into the plain that reaches to the Tanais and the 
 Volga. A fortress, designed by Alexander perhaps, 
 or one of his successors, to command that important 
 pass, had descended by right of conquest or inheritance 
 to a prince of the Huns, who offered it for a moderate 
 price to the emperor : but while Anastasius paused, 
 while he timorously computed the cost and the dis- 
 tance, a more vigilant rival interposed, and Cabades 
 forcibly occupied the straits of Caucasus. The Alba- 
 nian and Iberian gates excluded the horsemen of Scy- 
 thia from the shortest and most practicable roads, and 
 the whole front of the mountains was covered by the 
 rampart of Gog and Magog, the long wall which has 
 excited the curiosity of an Arabian caliph ^ and a Rus- 
 sian conqueror.* According to a recent description, 
 huge stones-seven feet thick, twenty-one feet in length 
 or height, are artificially joined without iron or cement, 
 to compose a wall, which runs above three hundred 
 miles from the shores of Derbend, over the hills and 
 through the valleys of Daghestan and Georgia. With- 
 out a vision, such a work might be undertaken by the 
 policy of Cabades; without a miracle, it might be 
 accomplished by his son, so formidable to the Romans 
 under the name of Chosroes : so dear to the orientals, 
 under the appellation of Nushirwan. The Persian 
 monarch held in his hand the keys both of peace and 
 war; but he stipulated, in every treaty, that Justinian 
 should contribute to the expense of a common barrier, 
 which equally protected the two empires from the in- 
 roads of the Scythians.** 
 
 VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens and 
 the consulship of Rome, which had given so many 
 sages and heroes to mankind. Both these institutions 
 had long since degenerated from their primitive glory; 
 yet some reproach may be justly inflicted on the ava- 
 rice and jealousy of a prince, by whose hand such 
 venerable ruins \Cere destroyed. 
 
 Athens, after her Persian triumphs, Thesrhoolaof 
 adopted the philosophy of Ionia and the Athen*. 
 rhetoric of Sicily ; and these studies became the pa- 
 timony of a city, whose inhabitants, about thirty thou- 
 sand males, condensed, within the period of a single 
 
 X For the r ity and pass of Derbend, see D'Herbelot, (BiblloU Orient, 
 p. 157. 291. 807.) Petit de la Croix, (Hist, de Genpiscan, 1. iv. c. 9.) 
 Histoire Genealogiijue des Tatars, (torn. i. p. 120.) Olearius, (Voyage 
 en Perse, p. 1039— KVll.) and Corneille le Brune, (Voyapos, torn. i. p. 
 146, 147.) his view may be compared wiih the plan of Olearius, who 
 judges the wall to be of shells and pravel hardened by time. 
 
 a Procopius, though with some confusion, always denominates them 
 Caspian. (Persic 1. i. c. 10.) The pass is now styled Tatartopa, the 
 Tartar-gates. (D'Anville, Geopraphie Ancienne, torn. ii. p. 119, 120.) 
 
 b The imapinary rampart of Gop and INIacup, which was seriously 
 explored and believed by the caliph of the ninth century, appears to 
 be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a vapue report of 
 the wall of China. (Geopraph. Nnbiensis, p. 267—270. Memoires 
 do I'Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 210—219.) 
 
 c See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro Caucaseo, in Com- 
 ment. Acad. Pelropol. ann. 1726. lom. i. p. 425—463: but it is desti- 
 tute of a map or plan. When the czar Peter I. became master of 
 Derbend in the year 1722, the measure of the wall was found to be 
 3285 Russian orgyga, or fathom, each of seven feet English ; in tha 
 whole somewhat more than four miles in length. 
 
 d See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes or Nushirwan, in 
 Procopius, (Persic. 1. i. c. 16. 22. 1. ii.) and D'Herbelot, (p. 682.) 
 
 V 
 
 life, the genius of ages and millions. Our sense of 
 the dignity of human nature is exalted by the simple 
 recollection, that Isocrates' was the companion of Pla- 
 to and Xenophon ; that he assisted, perhaps with the 
 historian Thucydides, at the first representations of 
 the (Edipus of Sophocles and the Iphigenia of Eurip- 
 ides ; and that his pupils iEschines and Demosthenes 
 contended for the crown of patriotism in the presence 
 of Aristotle, the master of Theophrastus, who taught 
 at Athens with the founders of the Stoic and Epicure- 
 an sects.' The ingenious youth of Attica enjoyed the 
 benefits of their domestic education, which was com- 
 municated without envy to the rival cities. Two 
 thousand disciples heard the lessons of Theophras- 
 tus ;K the schools of rhetoric must have been still more 
 popiilous than those of philosophy ; and a rapid suc- 
 cession of students diflTused the fame of their teachers 
 as far as the utmost limits of the Grecian language 
 and name. Those limits were enlarged by the victo- 
 ries of Alexander ; the arts of Athens survived her 
 freedom and dominion ; and the Greek colonies which 
 the Macedonians planted in Egypt, and scattered over 
 Asia, undertook long and frequent pilgrimages to wor- 
 ship the Muses in their favourite temple on'^the banks 
 of the Ilissus. The Latin conquerors respectfully 
 listened to the instructions of their subjects and cap- 
 tives ; the names of Cicero and Horace were enrolled 
 in the schools of Athens ; and after the perfect settle- 
 ment of the Roman empire, the natives of Italy, of 
 Africa, and of Britain, conversed in the groves of the 
 academy with their fellow-students of the east. The 
 Studies of philosophy and eloquence are congenial to a 
 popular state, which encourages the freedom of inqui- 
 ry, and submits only to the force of persuasion. In 
 the republics of Greece and Rome, the art of speaking 
 was the powerful engine of patriotism or ambition; 
 and the schools of rhetoric poured forth a colony of 
 statesmen and legislators. When the liberty of pub- 
 lic debate was suppressed, the orator in the honoura- 
 ble profession of an advocate, might plead the cause 
 of innocence and justice ; he might abuse his talents 
 in the more profitable trade of panegyric; and the 
 same precepts continued to dictate the fanciful decla- 
 mations of the sophist, and the chaster beauties of his- 
 torical composition. The systems which professed to 
 unfold the nature of God, of man, and of the universe, 
 entertained the curiosity of the philosophic student ; 
 and according to the temper of his mind, he might 
 doubt with the sceptics, or decide with the stoics, sub- 
 linriely speculate with Plato, or severely argue with 
 Aristotle. The pride of the adverse sects had fixed 
 an unattainable term of moral happiness and perfec- 
 tion; but the race was glorious and salutary; the dis- 
 ciples of Zeno, and even those of Epicurus, were 
 taught both to act and to suffer ; and the death of Pe- 
 tronius was not less eflfectual than that of Seneca, to 
 humble a tyrant by the discovery of his impotence. 
 The light of science could not indeed be confined 
 within the walls of Athens. Her incomparable wri- 
 ters address themselves to the human race ; the living 
 Blasters emigrated to Italy and Asia ; Berytus in later 
 times, was devoted to the study of the law ; astronomy 
 and physic were cultivated in the musaeum of Alexan- 
 dria; but the Attic schools of rhetoric and philosophy 
 maintained their superior reputation from the Pelopon- 
 nesian war to the reign of Justinian. Athens, though 
 situate in a barren soil, possessed a pure air, a free 
 navigation, and the monuments of ancient art. That 
 sacred retirement was seldom disturbed by the busi- 
 
 e The life of Isoc rates extends from Olvmp. Ixxxvi. 1. to ex. 3. 
 (ante Christ. 436—438.) See Dionys. Halicarn. tom. ii. p. 149, 150. 
 edit. Hudson; Plutarch (sive anonymous) in Vit. X. Oralorum, p. 
 153S-1543. edit. H. Steph.; Phot. cod. cclix. p. 1453. 
 ^ f The schools of Athens are copiously though concisely represented 
 m the Foriuua Attica of Meursius, (c. viii. p. 59—73. in tom. i. Opp.) 
 For the slate and arts of the city, see the first book of Pausanias, and 
 a small tract of Dieaarchus, (in the second volume of Hudson's 
 Geographers,) who wrote about Olymp. cxvii. Dodwell's Dissertat. 
 sect. 4.) 
 
 c Diogen. Laen. de Vit. Philo»oph. 1. v. aegm. 37. p. 289. 
 
 ness of trade or government; and the last of the Athe- 
 nians were distinguished by their lively wit, the puri- 
 ty of their taste and language, their social manners, 
 and some traces, at least in discourse, of the magna- 
 nimity of their fathers. In the suburbs of the city, 
 the academy of the Platonists, the lycseum of the Peri- 
 patetics, the portico of the Stoics, and the garden of 
 the Epicureans, were planted with' trees and decoratea 
 with statues ; and the philosophers, instead of being 
 immured in a cloister, delivered their instructions in 
 spacious and pleasant walks, which, at different hours, 
 were consecrated to the exercises of the mind and 
 body. The genius of the founders still lived in those 
 venerable seats ; the ambition of succeeding to the mas- 
 ters of human reason, excited a generous emulation; 
 and the merit of the candidates was determined, on 
 each vacancy, by the free voices of an enlightened peo- 
 ple. The Athenian professors were paid by their dis- 
 ciples : according to their mutual wants and abilities, 
 the price appears to have varied from a minae to a tal- 
 ent; and Isocrates himself, who derides the avarice of 
 the sophists, required, in his school of rhetoric, about 
 thirty pounds from each of his hundred pupils. The 
 wages of industry are just and honourable, yet the 
 same Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a sti- 
 pend ; the Stoic might blush when he was hired to 
 preach the contempt of money : and I should be sorry 
 to discover, that Aristotle or Plato so far degenerated 
 from the example of Socrates, as to exchange knowl- 
 edge for gold. But some property of lands and houses 
 was settled by the permission of the laws, and the 
 legacies of deceased friends, on the philosophic chairs 
 of Athens. Epicurus bequeathed to his disciples the 
 gardens which he had purchased for eighty minae or 
 two hundred and fifty pounds, with a fund" sufficient 
 for their frugal subsistence and monthly festivals;* 
 and the patrimony of Plato afl^orded an annual rent, 
 which, in eight centuries, was gradually increased 
 from three to one thousand pieces of gold.' The 
 schools of Athens were protected by the wisest and 
 most virtuous of the Roman princes. The library 
 which Hadrian founded was placed in a portico adorn- 
 ed with pictures, statues, and a roof of alabaster, and 
 supported by one hundred columns of Phrygian mar- 
 ble. The public salaries were assigned by the gene- 
 rous spirit of the Antonines ; and each professor, of 
 politics, of rhetoric, of the Platonic, the Peripatetic, 
 the Stoic, and the Epicurean philosophy, received an 
 annual stipend often thousand drachmae, or more than 
 three hundred pounds sterling."' After the death of 
 Marcus, these liberal donations, and the privileges 
 attached to the thrones of science, were abolished and 
 revived, diminished and enlarged : but some vestige 
 of royal bounty may be found under the successors of 
 Constantine ; and their arbitrary choice of an unwor- 
 thy candidate might tempt the philosophers of Athens 
 to regret the days of independence and poverty.' It is 
 remarkable, that the impartial favour of the Antonines 
 was bestowed on the four adverse sects of philosophy, 
 which they considered as equally useful, or at least 
 as equally innocent. Socrates had formerly been the 
 glory and the reproach of his country; and the first 
 lessons of Epicurus so strangely scandalized the pious 
 ears of the Athenians, that by his exile and that of his 
 antagonists, they silenced all vain disputes concerning 
 the nature of the gods. But in the ensuing year they re- 
 fa See the Testament of Epicurus in Diogen. Laert. 1. x. segm. 16 
 — 20. p. 611, 612. A single epistle (ad Familiares, xiii. 1.) displays 
 the injusticeof the Areopagus, the fidelilyof the Epicureans, the dex> 
 terous politeness of Cicero, and the mixture of contempt and esteem 
 with which the Roman senators considered the philosophy and phi- 
 losophers of Greece, 
 i Damascius, in Vit. Isidor. apud Photium, cod. ccxlii. p. 1054. 
 k See Lucian, (in Eunech. tom. ii. p- 350 — 359. edit. Reitz,) Phi- 
 losiratus, (in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. c. 2.) and Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, 
 1. Ixxi. p. 1195.) with their editors Du Soul, Olearius, and Reimar, 
 and, above all, Salmasius, (ad Hist. August, p. 72.) A judicious phi- 
 losopher (Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 340 — 374.) prefers the 
 free contributions of the students to a fixed stipend for the professor 
 1 Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phiiosoph. tom. ii. p. 310, &c. 
 
22 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 23 
 
 ♦• 
 
 Proclus. 
 
 called the hasty decree, restored the, liberty of the 
 schools, and were convinced, by the experience of 
 ages, that the moral character of philosophers is not 
 affected by the diversity of their theological specu- 
 lations." 
 TK-- — -.,«. The Gothic arms were less fatal to 
 
 Iney are sup- /..i ■ i_ ii'i_ 
 
 preswd by Jus- the schools of Athens than the estabiisn- 
 
 tinian. ment of a new reliorion, whose ministers 
 
 superseded the exercise of reason, resolved every ques- 
 tion by an article of faitli, and condemned the infidel 
 or sceptic to eternal flames. In many a volume of la- 
 borious controversy, they exposed the weakness of the 
 understanding and the corruption of the heart, insulted 
 human nature in the sages of antiquity, and proscribed 
 the spirit of philosophical inquiry, so repugnant to 
 the doctrine, or at least to the temper, of an humble 
 believer. The surviving sect of the Platonists, whom 
 PJato would have blushed to acknowledge, extrava- 
 gantly mingled a sublime theory with the practice of 
 superstition and magic ; and as they remained alone 
 in the midst of a christian world, they indulged a se- 
 ■cret rancour against the government of the church and 
 state, whose severity was still suspended over their 
 heads. About a century after the reign of Julian," 
 Proclus" was permitted to teach in the 
 philosophic chair of the academy ; and 
 such was his industry, that he frequently, in the 
 same day, pronounced five lessons and composed sev- 
 en hundred lines. His sagacious mind explored the 
 deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and he 
 ventured to urge eighteen arguments against the chris- 
 tian doctrine of the creation of the world. But in the 
 intervals of study, he personally conversed with Pan, 
 ifisculapius, and Minerva, in whose mysteries he was 
 secretly initiated, and whose prostrate statues he ador- 
 ed, in the devout persuasion that the philosopher, who 
 is a citizen of the universe, should be the priest of its 
 Tarious deities. An eclipse of the sun announced his 
 approaching end ; and his life, with that of his schol- 
 ar Isidore,P compiled by two of their most learned 
 disciples, exhibits a deplorable picture of the second 
 His successors, childhood of human reason. Yet the 
 A. D. 485—529. golden chain, as it was fondly styled, 
 of the Platonic succession, continued forty-four years 
 from the death of Proclus to the edict of Justinian,*i 
 which imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of 
 Athens, and excited the grief and indignation of the 
 few remaining votaries of Grecian science and super- 
 stition. Seven friends and philosophers, Diogenes 
 and Hermias, Eulalius and Priscian, Damascius, Isi- 
 dore and Simplicius, who dissented from the relig- 
 ion of their sovereign, embraced the resolution of seek- 
 ing in a foreign land the freedom which was denied in 
 their native country. They had heard, and they cred- 
 ulously believed, that the republic of Plato was real- 
 ized in the despotic government of Persia, and that a 
 patriot king reigned over the happiest and most vir- 
 tuous of nations. They were soon astonisiied by the 
 natural discovery, that Persia resembled the other 
 countries of the globe ; that Chosroes, who affeoted 
 the name of a philosopher, was vain, cruel, and ambi- 
 
 m The birth of Epicurus is fixed to tho year 342 before Christ, 
 (Bayle,) Olympiad cix. 3. and he opened his schotd at Athens, Olymp. 
 czviii. c. 306 years before the same jera. This intolerant law (Athe- 
 naeus, 1. xiii. p. 610. Diotyen. Laerlius, 1. v. s. 38. p. 290. Julius Pof- 
 lui, ix. 5.) was enacted in the same or tho succeeaing year. (Siinmi- 
 118, Opp. tom. V. p. 62. Menasjius, ad Dio^en. Laerl. p. 201. Coisini 
 Fasti Attici, tom. iv. p. 67, 68.) Theophrasliis, chief of the Toripa- 
 tetics, and disciple of Aristotle, was involved in the same exile. 
 
 B This is no fanciful aera ; the pagans reckoned their calamities 
 from the reign of their hero. Proclus, whose nativity is marked by his 
 iioroscope, (A. D. 412, February 8, at C. P ) died 12-1 years xto Iov\i- 
 «i>ov 6»<r.A.i oc, A. D. 485. (Marin, in Vila Procli, c. 3b.) 
 
 o The life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published by Fabricins. 
 (Hamburgh, 1700 et ad calcem Bibliot. Latin. Ix)nd. 1703.) See Sui- 
 das, (tom iii. p. 185, 186) Fabricius, (Bibliot. Grace. I. v. c. 26. p. 449 
 —552.) and Brucker. (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 319-326.) 
 
 p Tho life of Isidore was composed by Damascius, (apud Photium, 
 cod. ccxlii. p. 1028—1076.) See the last age of the pagan philosophers 
 in Brucker. toni.ii. p. 341—351.) 
 
 q The suppression of the schools of Athens is recorded by John 
 Malala, (torn. ii. p. 187. sur Decio Cos. Sol.) and an anonyraouB 
 Chronicle in the Vatican library, (apud Aleman. p. 106.) 
 
 tious ; that bicrotry, and a spirit of intolerance, prevaiN 
 ed amon^ the Magi; that the nobles were haujrhty, 
 the courtiers servile, and the magistratrs unjust; that 
 the guilty sometimes escaped, and that the innocent 
 were often oppressed. The disappointment of the 
 philosophers provoked theuj to overlook the real vir- 
 tues of the Persians : and they were scandalized, more 
 deeply perhaps than became their profession, with the 
 plurality of wives and concubines, the incestuous mar- 
 riages, and the custom of exposing dead bodies to the 
 doers and vultures, instead of hidinor them in the earth, 
 or consuming them with fire. Their repentance was 
 expressed by a precipitate return, and they loudly de- 
 clared that they had rather die on the borders of the 
 empire than enjoy the wealth and favour of the barba- 
 rian. From this journey, however, they derived a ben- 
 efit which reflects the purest lustre on the character of 
 Chosroes. He required that the seven saores who had 
 visited the court of Persia, should he exempted from 
 the penal laws which Justinian enacted against his 
 pagan subjects ; and this privilege, expressly stipula- 
 ted in a treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilance 
 of a powerful mediator.' Simplicius and The last of the 
 his companions ended their lives in philosophers, 
 peace and obscurity ; and as they left no disciplfes, 
 they terminate the long list of Grecian philosophers, 
 who may be justly praised, notwithstandinrr their de- 
 fects, as the wisest and most virtuous of their contem- 
 poraries. The writings of Simplicius are now extant. 
 His physical and metaphysical commentaries on Aris- 
 totle have passed away with the fashion of the times ; 
 but his moral interpretation of Epictetus is preserved 
 in tiie library of nations, as a classic book, most ex- 
 cellently adapted to direct the will, to purify the heart, 
 and to confirm the understanding, by a just confidence 
 in the nature both of God and man. 
 
 About the same time that Pythagoras The Roman 
 
 first invented the appellation of phHoso- consulship ex- 
 I I'L .. 1 ..L I L- tinsuished br 
 
 pher, liberty and the consulship were jusiinian. 
 
 founded at Rome by the elder I3rutus. A. D. 541. 
 The revolutions of the consular office, which may be 
 viewed in the successive lijjhts of a substance, a shad- 
 ow, and a name, have been occasionally mentioned in. 
 the present history. The first magistrates of the re- 
 public had been chosen by the people, to exercise, in 
 the senate and in the camp, the powers of peace and 
 war, which were afterwards translated to the empe- 
 rors. But the tradition of ancient dignity was long 
 revered by the Romans and barbarians. A Gothic 
 historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the 
 height of all temporal glory and greatness ;• the king 
 of Italy himself congratulates those annual favourites 
 of fortune, who, without the cares, enjoyed the splen- 
 dour, of the throne ; and at the end of a thousand 
 years, two consuls were created by the sovereigns of 
 Rome and Constantinople, for the sole purpose of giv- 
 ing a date to the year, and a festival to the people. 
 Hut the expen.ses of this festival, in which the weal- 
 thy and the vain aspired to surpass their predecessors, 
 insensibly arose to the enormous sum of fourscore 
 thousand pounds ; the wisest senators declined a use- 
 less honour, which involved the certain ruin of their 
 families: and to this reluctance I should impute the 
 frequent chasms in the last age of the consular Fasti. 
 The predecessors of Justinian had assisted from the 
 public treasures the dignity of the less opulent candi- 
 dates ; the avarice of that prince preferred the cheap- 
 er and more convenient method of advice and regula- 
 tion.* f^Gv en processions or spectacles were the number 
 to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races. 
 
 r Agathius (I. ii. p. 69—71.) relates this curious story. Chosroes as- 
 cended the throne in the year 531, and made his first peace with tho 
 Romans in the beginninsr oi 533, a date most compatible with his 
 Uoun^ fame and the old. age of Isidore. (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, tom. 
 iii. p. 404. Pagi, tom. ii. p. 543. 550.) 
 
 8 Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. vi. 1. Jornandes, c. 57. p, 696. ed't. 
 Grot. Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus edicitur. 
 
 t See the regulations of Jusiinian, (Novell, cv.) dated at Constan- 
 tinople, Jul/ 9, and addressed lo Slralegius, treasurer of the empire. 
 
 M 
 
 •the athletic sports, the music, and pantomimes of the 
 theatre, and the hunting of wild beasts ; and small 
 pieces of silver were discreetly substituted to the gold 
 medals, which had always excited tumult and drunk- 
 enness, when they were scattered with a profuse hand 
 among the populace. Notwithstanding these precau- 
 tions, and his own example, the succession of consuls 
 finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose 
 despotic temper might be gratified by the silent ex- 
 tinction of a title which admonished the Romans of 
 thoir ancient freedom." Yet the annual consulship 
 still lived in the minds of the people : they fondly ex- 
 pected its speedy restoration ; they applauded the gra- 
 cious conde.sicension of successive princes, by whom 
 it was assumed in the first year of their reign : and 
 three centuries elapsed, after the death of Justinian, 
 before that obsolete dignity, which had been sup- 
 pressed by custom, could be abolished by law." The 
 imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by the 
 name of a magistrate, was usually supplied by the 
 date of a permanent aera : the creation of the world, 
 according to the septuagint version, was adopted by 
 the Greeks \f and the Latins, since the age of Charle- 
 magne, have computed their time from the birth of 
 €hrist.» 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 VonquesU of Justinian in the west. — Character and first 
 campaign.'} of Belisarius. — He invades and subdues the 
 Vandal kini^dom of Africa. — His triumph. — The Gothic 
 war. — He recovers Slcib/, Naples, and Home. — Siege of 
 Rome b}/ the Goths. — Their retreat and losses. — Surrender 
 of Ravenna. — Glory of Belisarius. — His domestic sfuime 
 and misfortunes. 
 
 Justinian re- 
 
 When Justinian ascended the throne, 
 .^oiVes To' invade about fifty years after the fall of the wes- 
 Africa. A. D. 533- tern empire, the kingdoms of the Goths 
 and Vandals had obtained a solid, and, as it might 
 seem, a legal establishment both in Europe and Africa. 
 The titles which Roman victory had inscribed, were 
 erased with equal justice by the sword of the barbari- 
 ans ; and their successful rapine derived a more vene- 
 rable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the 
 oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or 
 third generation of obedient subjects. Experience and 
 Christianity had refuted the superstitious hope, that 
 Rome was founded by the gods to reign for ever over 
 the nations of the earth. But the proud claim of per- 
 petual and indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers 
 could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her 
 statesmen and lawyers, whose opinions have been 
 sometimes revived and propagated in the modern 
 
 n Procopius, in Anecdot. c.26. Aleman. p. 106. In the eighteenth 
 yar after tho consulship of Basilius, according to the reckoning of 
 Marcellinus, Victor, Marius, &c. tho secret history was composed, 
 and, in the eyes of Procopius, the considship was finally abolished. 
 
 X By Leo, the philosopher, (Novell, xciv. A. D. S86— 911.)See Pagi 
 (Disseriat. Hypatica, p. 325 —362.) and Ducance, (Gloss. Graec. p. 1635, 
 
 i636.) Even the title was vilified : consulaius codicili vilescunt, 
 
 says the emperor himself. 
 
 y According to Julius Africanus, &c. the world was created the first 
 cf September, 5508 years, three months, and twenty-five days before 
 the birth of Christ ;"(see Pezron, Antiquit6 dea Terns defendiie, p. 20 
 —28.) and this sera has been used by the Greeks, the Oriental chris- 
 tians, and even hy the Russians, till the reign of Peter I. The peri- 
 od, however arbitrary, is clear and convenient. Of the 7296 years 
 which are supposed to elapse since the creation, we shall find 3000 of 
 rgnorance and darkness ; 2000 either fabulous or doubtful ; 1000 of an- 
 cient history, commencing with the Persian empire, and the repub- 
 lics of Rome and Athens ;" 1000 from the fall of the Roman empire in 
 (he west to the di.scovery of America ; and the remaining 296 will 
 almost complete three centuries of the modern state of Europe and 
 mankind. I regret this chronology, so far preferable to our double 
 and perplexed method of counting backwards and forwards the years 
 before and after the christian aera. 
 
 I The sera of the world has prevailed in the east since the sixth 
 general council. (A. D. 681.) In the west the christian aera was first 
 invented in the sixth centufy : it was propagated in the eighth by 
 the authority and writings of venerable Bede ; but it was not till the 
 tenth that the use became legal and popular. See I'Art de verifier 
 les Dates, Dissert. Preliminare, p. iii. xii. Dictionnaire Diplomatique, 
 tom. i. p. 329 — 337. the works of a laborious society of cenedictine 
 monks 
 
 schools of jurisprudence. After Rome herself had 
 been stripped of the imperial purple, the princes of 
 Constantinople assumed the sole and sacred sceptre of 
 the monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, 
 the provinces which had been subdued by the consuls, 
 or possessed by the Caesars ; and feebly aspired to de- 
 liver their faithful subjects of the west from the usur- 
 pation of heretics and barbarians. The execution of 
 this splendid design was in some degree reserved for 
 Justinian. During the five first years of his reign, he 
 reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against 
 the Persians ; till his pride submitted to his ambition, 
 and he purchased, at the price of four hundred and for- 
 ty thousand pounds sterling, the benefit of a precari- 
 ous truce, which, in the language of both nations, was 
 dignified with the appellation of the endless peace. 
 The safety of the east enabled the emperor to employ 
 his forces against the Vandals ; and the internal state 
 of Africa afforded an honourable motive, and promised 
 a powerful support to the Roman arms.* 
 
 According to the testament of the foun- stateof tho Van- 
 der, the African kinadom had lineally dais. Hiideric, 
 descended to Hiideric the eldest of the ^- ^- 523—530. 
 Vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the son 
 of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror, lo prefer the 
 councils of clemency and peace ; and his accession 
 was marked by the salutary edict, which restored two 
 hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed the 
 free profession of the Athanasian creed.'' But the ca- 
 tholics accepted with cold and transient gratitude, a 
 favour so inadequate to their pretensions, and the vir- 
 tues of Hiideric offended the prejudices of his coun- 
 trymen. The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate that 
 he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more 
 loudly complained that he had degenerated from the 
 courage, of his ancestors. His ambassadors were 
 suspected of a secret and disgraceful negociation in 
 the Byzantine court; and his general, the Achilles,* 
 as he was named, of the Vandals, lost a battle against 
 the naked and disorderly Moors. The public discon- 
 tent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose Geiimer, ,i 
 age, descent, and military fame, gave A. D. 530— 534. 
 him an apparent title to the succession : he assumed, 
 with the consent of the nation, the reins of govern- 
 ment; and his unfortunate sovereign sunk without a 
 struggle from the throne to a dungeon, where he was 
 strictly guarded with a faithful counsellor, and his un- 
 popular nephew the Achilles of the Vandals. But the 
 indulgence which Hiideric had shown to his catholic 
 subjects had powerfully recommended him to the fa- 
 vour of Justinian, who, for the benefit of his own sect, 
 could acknowledge the use and justice of religious tol- 
 eration : their alliance, while the nephew of Justin re- 
 mained in a private station, was cemented by the mu- 
 tual exchange of gifts and letters : and the emperor 
 Justinian asserted the cause of royalty and friendship* 
 In two successive embassies, he admonished the usur- 
 per to repent of his treason, or to abstain, at least, 
 from any further violence, which might provoke the 
 displeasure of God and the Romans : to reverence the 
 laws of kindred and succession, and to suffer an infirm 
 old man peaceably to end his days, either on the 
 
 ^■■— ■ — - ■— II.. I— ■■-.. ■ ,-. I ■ I. ■ .^^^i^^^ 
 
 a The complete series of the Vandal war is related by Procopius in 
 a regular and elegant narrative, (1. i. c. 9—25. 1. ii. c. 1—13.) and hap- 
 py would be my lot, could I always tread in the footsteps of such a 
 guide. From the entire and diligent perusal of the Greek text, I 
 have a risht to pronounce that the Latin and French versions of Gn>» 
 tius and Cousin may not be implicitly trusted : yet the president Cou- 
 sin has been often praised ; and Hugo Groiius was the first scholar oC 
 a learned age. 
 
 b See Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal, c. xii. p. 5S9. His best evi- 
 dence is drawn from the life of St. Fulgentius, composed by one of 
 his disciples, transcribed in a great measure in the annals of Baroni- 
 us, and printed in several great collections. (Catalog. Bibliot. Buna* 
 vianae, tom. i. vol. ii. p. 1258.) 
 
 c For what quality of the mind or body 1 For speed, or beauty, or 
 valour? — In what language did the Vandals read Homer 1— Did ho 
 speak German 1—TheLatins had four versions, (Fabric, tom. i. 1. ii.c 
 3. p. 297.) yet in spite of the praises of Seneca, (Consol. c. 26.) they 
 appear to have been more successful in imitating than in translatiuf 
 the Greek poets. But the name of Achilles might be famous and 
 popular even ainoug the illiterate barbarians. 
 
 / 
 
.1 : 
 
 24 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 1' 
 1? 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 3i I 
 
 'fi 
 
 throne of Carthage, or in the palace of Constantinople. 
 The passions or even the prudence of Gclimer com- 
 pelled him to reject these requests, which were urged 
 m the haughty tone of menace and command ; and he 
 justified his ambition in a language rarely spoken in 
 the Byzantine court, by alleging the right of a free 
 people to remove or punish their chief magistrate, who 
 had failed in the execution of the kingly office. After 
 this fruitless expostulation, the captive monarch was 
 more rigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of 
 his eyes, and the cruel Vandal, confident in his strength 
 and distance, derided the vain threats and slow prepa- 
 rations of the emperor of the east. Justinian resolved 
 to deliver or revenge his friend; Gelimer to maintain 
 his usurpation ; and the war was preceded, according 
 to the practice of civilized nations, by the most solemn 
 protestations, that each party was sincerely desirous 
 of peace. 
 
 Debates on the The report of an African war was 
 African war. grateful only to the vain and idle popu- 
 lace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them 
 from tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed 
 to military service. But the wiser citizens, who judged 
 of the future by the past, revolved in their memory 
 the immense loss, both of men and money, which the 
 empire had sustained in the expedition of Basiliscus. 
 The troops, which after five laborious campaigns, had 
 been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the 
 sea, the climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy. 
 The ministers of the finances computed, as far as they 
 might compute, the demands of an African war ; the 
 taxes which must be found and levied to supply those 
 insatiate demands ; and the danger lest their own lives, 
 or at least their lucrative employments, should be made 
 responsible for the deficiency of the supply. Inspired 
 by such selfish motives, (for we may not suspect him 
 of any zeal for the public good,) John of Cappadocia 
 ventured to oppose in full council the inclinations of* 
 his master. He confessed that a victory of such im- 
 portance could not be too dearly purchased ; but he 
 represented in a grave discourse the certain difliculties 
 and the uncertain event. " Y(iu undertake," said the 
 praefect, "to besiege Carthage by land, the distance is 
 not less than one hundred and forty days' journey ; on 
 the sea, a whole year ^ must elapse before you can re- 
 ceive any intelligence from your fleet. If Africa should 
 be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the addi- 
 tional conquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will im- 
 pose the obligation of new labours ; a single misfortune 
 will attract the barbarians into the heart of your ex- 
 hausted empire." Justinian felt the weight of this 
 salutary advice ; he was confounded by the unwonted 
 freedom of an obsequious servant ; and the design of 
 the war would perhaps have been relinquished, if his 
 courage had not been revived by a voice which silenced 
 the doubts of profane reason. " I have seen a vision," 
 cried an artful or fanatic bishop of the east. ** It is 
 the will of heaven, O emperor I that you should not 
 abandon your holy enterprise for the deliverance of the 
 African church. The God of battles will march before 
 your standard, and disperse your enemies, who are the 
 enemies of his Son." The emperor might be tempted, 
 and his counsellors were constrained, to give credit to 
 this seasonable revelation : but they derived more ra- 
 tional hope from the revolt, which the adherents of 
 Hilderic or Athanasius had already excited on the bor- 
 ders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudeniius, an African 
 subject, had privately signified his loyal intentions, 
 and a small military aid restored the province of Tri- 
 poli to the obedience of the Romans. The government 
 of Sardinia had been intrusted to Godas, a valiant bar- 
 barian : he suspended the payment of tribute, disclaimed 
 
 u 
 
 Character and 
 choico of Bcli- 
 surius. 
 
 :t i i^'^^Too ""^ exapgpraiion ! The conquest of Africa may be 
 dated A. I). o33. Sepiember 14. It is celebrated by Justinian in the 
 preface to his Institutes, which were published November 21. of the 
 •ame year. Including the voyaee and return, such a comuulation 
 might be truly applied to aur Indiaii empire. 
 
 his allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to the 
 emissaries of Justinian, who found him master of that 
 fruitful island, at the head of his guards, and proudly 
 invested with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of 
 the Vandals were diminished by discord and suspicion ; 
 the Roman armies were animated by the spirit of Be- 
 lisarius ; one of those heroic names which are familiar 
 to every age and to every nation. 
 
 The Africanus of new Rome was born, 
 and perhaps educated, among the Thra- 
 cian peasants" without any of those ad- 
 vantages which had formed the virtues of the elder and 
 the younger Scipio : a noble origin, liberal studies, and 
 the emulation ofa free state. The silence of a loquacious 
 secretary may be admitted, to prove that the youth of 
 Belisarius could not afford any subject of praise: he 
 served, most assuredly with valour and reputation, 
 among the private guards of Justinian ; and when his 
 patron became emperor, the domestic was promoted to 
 military command. After a bold inroad into Persar- 
 menia, in which his glory was siiared by a colleague, 
 and his progress was checked by an enemy, Belisarius 
 repaired to the important station of Dara, where he first 
 accepted the service of Procopius, the faithful com- 
 panion, and diligent historian, of his exploits.' The 
 Mirranes of Persia advanced, with forty ^jg services in 
 thousand of her best troops, to raze the the Persian war, 
 fortifications of Dara ; and signified the ^- ^- 529—532. 
 day and the hour on which the citizens should prepare 
 a bath for his refreshment after the toils of victory. He 
 encountered an adversary equal to himself, by the new 
 title of general of the east; his superior in the science 
 of war, but much inferior in the number and quality of 
 his troops, which amounted only to twenty-five thou- 
 sand Romans and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, 
 and humbled by recent disasters. As the level plain 
 of Dara refused all shelter to stratagem and ambush, 
 Belisarius protected his front with a deep trench, which 
 was prolonged at first in perpendicular, and afterwards 
 in parallel lines, to cover tlie wings of cavalry advan- 
 tageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the 
 enemy. When the Roman centre was shaken, their 
 well-timed and rapid charge decided the conflict; the 
 standard of Persia fell ; the immortals fled ; the infantry 
 threw away their bucklers, and eight thousand of the 
 vanquished were left on the field of battle. In the 
 next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of the 
 desert; and Belisarius, with twenty thousand men, 
 hastened from Dara to the relief of the province. 
 During the whole summer, the designs of the enemy 
 were baflled by his skilful dispositions; he pressed 
 their retreat, occupied each night their camp of the 
 preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless 
 victory, if he could have resisted the impatience of 
 his own troops. Their valiant promise was faintly 
 supported in the hour of battle ; the right wing was 
 exposed by the treacherous or cowardly desertion of 
 the christian Arabs ; the Huns, a veteran band of eight 
 hundred warriors, were oppressed by su'perior num- 
 bers ; the flif/ht of the Isaurians was intercepted ; but 
 the Roman infantry stood firm on the left ; for Belisa- 
 rius himself, dismounting from his horse, showed them 
 that intrepid despair was their only safety. They 
 turned their backs to the Euphrates, and their faces to 
 the enemy; innumerable arrows glanced without effect 
 from the compact and shelving order of their bucklers; 
 an impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the re- 
 peated assaults of the Persian cavalry ; and after a re- 
 sistance of many hours, the remaining troops were 
 skilfully embarked under the shadow of the night. 
 
 ^.r«5„ x..Ta...(Procop Vandal. 1. i. c. 11.) Aleinan, (Not. ad Anecdol. 
 p. 5.) an Italian, could easily reject the German vanity of GiphaniuS 
 and Vclserus, who wished to claim the hero; but his German ia, a 
 metropolis of Thrace, I cannot find in any civil or ecclesiastical list« 
 of the provinces and cities. 
 
 f The two first Persian campaicns of Belisarius are fairly and c<V 
 piously related by hig M-creiary. (Persic. 1. i. c. 13—18.) 
 
 The Persian commander retired with disorder and dis- 
 grace, to answer a strict account of the lives of so 
 many soldiers which he had consumed in a barren 
 victory. But the fame of Belisarius was not sullied 
 by a defeat, in which he alone had saved his army 
 from the consequences of their own rashness ; the ap- 
 proach of peace relieved him from the guard of the 
 eastern frontier, and his conduct in the sedition of 
 Constantinople amply discharged his obligations to 
 the emperor. When the African war became the topic 
 of popular discourse and secret deliberation, each of 
 the Roman generals was apprehensive, rather than am- 
 bitious, of the dangerous honour ; but as soon as Jus- 
 tinian had declared his preference of superior merit, 
 their envy was rekindled by the unanimous applause 
 which was given to the choice of Belisarius. The 
 temper of the Byzantine court may encourage a suspi- 
 cion, that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues 
 of his wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alter- 
 nately enjoyed the confidence, and incurred the hatred, 
 of the empress Theodora. The birth of Antonina was 
 ignoble, she descended from a family of charioteers ; and 
 her chastity has been stained with the foulest reproach. 
 Yet she reigned with long and absolute power over 
 the mind of her illustrious husband ; and if Antonina 
 disdained the merit of conjugal fidelity, she expressed 
 a manly friendship to Belisarius, whom she accom- 
 panied with undaunted resolution in all the hardships 
 and dangers of a military life.« 
 
 Preparations for The preparations for the African war 
 the African war, were not unworthy of the last contest 
 A. D. 533. between Rome and Carthage. The pride 
 and flower of the army consisted of the guards of Be- 
 lisarius, who, according to the pernicious indulgence 
 of the times, devoted themselves by a particular oath 
 of fidel ity to the service of their patron. Their strength 
 and stature, for which they had been curiously selec- 
 ted, the goodness of their horses and armour, and the 
 assiduous practice of all the exercises of war, enabled 
 them to act whatever their courage might prompt ; and 
 their courajre w^as exalted by the social honour of their 
 rank, and the personal ambition of favour and fortune. 
 Four hundred of the bravest of the Heruli marched 
 under the banner of the faithful and active Pharas ; 
 their untractable valour was more highly prized than 
 the tame submission of the Greeks and Syrians; and 
 of such importance was it deemed to procure a rein- 
 forcement of six hundred Massagetae, or Huns, that 
 they were allured by fraud and deceit to engage in a 
 naval expedition. Five thousand horse and ten thou- 
 sand foot were embarked at Constantinople for the con- 
 quest of Africa, but the infantry, for the most part 
 levied in Thrace and Isauria, yielded to the more pre- 
 vailing use and reputation of the cavalry ; and the 
 Scythian bow was the weapon on which the armies of 
 Rome were now reduced to place their principal de- 
 pendence. From a laudable desire to assert the dignity 
 of his theme, Procopius defends the soldiers of his 
 own time against the morose critics, who confined that 
 respectable name to the heavy-armed warriors of an- 
 tiquity, and maliciously observed, that the word archer 
 is introduced by Homer •• as a term of contempt. "Such 
 contempt might perhaps be due to the naked youths 
 who appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and, lurk- 
 ing behind a tomb-stone, or the shield of a friend, drew 
 the bow-string to their breast,' and dismissed a feeble 
 and lifeless arrow. But our archers (pursues the his- 
 
 r See the birth and character of Antonina, in the Anecdotes, c. 1. 
 and the notes of Alemannus, p. 3. 
 
 h See the preface of Procopius. The enemies of archery might 
 quote the reproaches of Diomede, (Iliad, A. 335, &c.) and the pemiit- 
 lere yulnera ventls of Lucan ; (viii. 384.) yet the Romans could not 
 despise the arrows of the Parthians ; and in the siege of Troy, Panda- 
 rufl, Paris, and Teucer, pierced those haughty warriors who insulted 
 them as women or children. 
 
 i Nivfnv fiiv ftx^tf, )ri^»<riv, Togw Js o-iJupov, (Iliad A 123.) How con- 
 cise— how just— how beautiful is the whole picture ! I see the atti- 
 tudes of the archer— I hear the iwa.nging of the bow : 
 
 A.y^i Bios, nvfn it /t*y* «»X»»'» ">■▼• i' oifCf. 
 
 Vol. II.— D 
 
 torian) are mounted on horses, which they manage with 
 admirable skill ; their head and shoulders are protected 
 by a cask or buckler ; they wear greaves of iron on 
 their legs, and their bodies are guarded by a coat of 
 mail. On their right side hangs a quiver, a sword on 
 their left, and their hand is accustomed to wield a lance 
 or javelin in closer combat. Their bows are strong 
 and weighty ; they shoot in every possible direction, 
 advancing, retreating, to the front, to the rear, or to 
 either flank ; and as they are taught to draw the bow- 
 string not to the breast, but to the right ear, firm in- 
 deed must be the armour that can resist the rapid vio- 
 lence of their shaft." Five hundred transports, naviga- 
 ted by twenty thousand mariners of Egypt, Cilicia, and 
 Ionia, were collected in the harbour of Constantinople. 
 The smallest of these vessels may be computed at 
 thirty, the largest at five hundred, tons ; and the fair 
 average will supply an allowance, liberal, but not pro- 
 fuse, of about one hundred thousand tons,^ for the re- 
 ception of thirty-five thousand soldiers and sailors, of 
 five thousand horses, of arms, engines, and military 
 stores, and of a sufficient stock of water and provisions 
 for a voyage, perhaps of three months. The proud 
 galleys, which in former ages swept the Mediterranean 
 with so many hundred oars, had long since disappeared; 
 and the fleet of Justinian was escorted only by ninety- 
 two light brigantines, covered from the missile weapons 
 of the enemy, and rowed by two thousand of the brave 
 and robust youth of Constantinople. Tw^enty-two 
 generals are named, most of whom were afterwards 
 distinguished in the wars of Africa and Italy : but the 
 supreme command, both by land and sea, was delega- 
 ted to Belisarius alone, with a boundless power of 
 acting according to his discretion, as if the emperor 
 himself were present. The separation of the naval 
 and military professions is at once the effect and the 
 cause of modern improvements in the science of navi- 
 gation and maritime war. 
 
 In the seventh year of the reign of Jus- Departure ofthe 
 tinian, and about the time of the summer fleet, 
 
 solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred ^•^•^' J"^«» 
 ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens 
 of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benedic- 
 tion, the emperor signified his last commands, the 
 general's trumpet gave the signal of departure, and 
 every heart, according to its fears or wishes, explored 
 with anxious curiosity the omens of misfortune and 
 success. The first halt was made at Perinthus or 
 Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days to receive 
 some Thracian horses, a military gift of his sovereign. 
 From thence the fleet pursued their course throuah the 
 midst of the Propontis ; but as they struggled to pass 
 the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind 
 detained them four days at Abydus, where the general 
 exhibited a memorable lesson of firmness and severity- 
 Two of the Huns, who in a drunken quarrel had slain 
 one of their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to 
 the army suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national 
 indignity was resented by their countrymen, who dis» 
 claimed the servile laws of the empire, and asserted 
 the free privilege of Scythia, where a small fine was 
 allowed to expiate the hasty sallies of intemperance 
 and anger. Their complaints were specious, their 
 clamours were loud, and the Romans were not averse 
 to the example of disorder and impunity. But the 
 rising sedition was appeased by the authority and 
 eloquence of the general : and he represented to the 
 assembled troops the obligation of justice, the impor- 
 
 k The text appears to allow for the largest vessels 50,000 medimni, 
 or 30(X) tons, (since the medimnus weighed 160 Roman, or 120 avoir* 
 dupois, pounds.) I have given a more rational interpretation, by sup- 
 posing thatlhe Attic style of Procopius conceals the legal and popular 
 modius, a sixth part of the medimnus. (Hooper's ancient measures, 
 p. 152, &c.) A contrary and indeed a stranger mistake has crept into 
 an oration of Dinarchus, (contra Demosthenem, in Reiske Orator. 
 Grac. torn. iv. P. ii. p, 34.) By reducing the number of ships from 
 500 to 50, and translating jui5'«^ve« by mines, or pounds, Cousin has 
 generously allowed 500 tons for the whole ofthe imperial fleet ! — ^Did. 
 he never think ? 
 
 
<l • 
 
 'ft 
 
 26 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. 1L 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 27 
 
 . t 
 
 lance of discipline, the rewards of piety and virtue, 
 and the unpardonable guilt of murder, which, in his 
 apprehension, was agj^ravated ralher than excused by 
 the vice of intoxication.* In the navigation from the 
 Hellespont to Peloponnesus, which the Greeks, after 
 ^he sieoe of Troy, had performed in four days," the 
 fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his 
 masler-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness 
 of the sails, and in the night by the torches blazing 
 from the mast-head. It was the duty of the pilots, as 
 they steered between the islands, and turned the capes 
 of Malea and Taenarium, to preserve the just order and 
 -regular intervals of such a multitude of ships ; as the 
 wind was fair and moderate their labours were not un- 
 successful, and the troops were safely disembarked at 
 Methone on the Messenian coast, to repose themselves 
 for a while after the fatigues of the sea. In this place 
 they experienced how avarice, invested with authority, 
 may sport with the lives of thousands which are 
 bravely exposed f'>r the public service. According to 
 military practice, the bread or biscuit of the Romans 
 was twice prepared in the oven, and a diminution of 
 one-fourth was cheerfully allowed for the loss of weight. 
 To gain this miserable profit, and to save the expense 
 of wood, the praefect John of Cappadocia had given 
 orders that the flour should be slightly baked by the 
 same fire which warmed the baths of Constantinople ; 
 and when the sacks were opened, a soft and mouldy 
 paste was distributed to the army. Such unwholesome 
 foodj assisted by the heat of the climate and season, 
 soon produced an epidemical disease, which swept 
 away five hundred soldiers. Their health was restored 
 by the diligence of Belisarius, who provided fresh 
 bread at Methone, and boldly expressed his just and 
 humane indignation: the emperor heard his complaint; 
 the general was praised ; but the minister was not pun- 
 ished. From the port of Methone, the pilots steered 
 along the western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the 
 isle of Zacynthus, or Zant, before they undertook the 
 voyage (in their eyes a most arduous voyage) of one 
 hundred leagues over the Ionian sea. As the fleet was 
 surprised by a calm, sixteen days were consumed in 
 the slow naviijation; and even the general would have 
 sufiered the intolerable hardship of thirst, if the ingen- 
 uity of Antonina had not preserved the water in glass 
 bottles, which she buried deep in tlie sand in a part of 
 the ship impervious to the rays of the sun. At length 
 the harbour of Caucana," on the southern side of Sicily, 
 afforded a secure and hospitable shelter. The Gothic 
 oflficers who governed the island in the name of the 
 daughter and grandson of 'i'heodoric obeyed their im- 
 prudent orders, to receive the troops of Justinian like 
 friends and allies: provisions were liberally supplied, 
 the cavalry was remounted,** and Procopius soon re- 
 turned from Syracuse with correct information of the 
 state and designs of the Vandal^. His intelligence 
 determined Belisarius to hasten his operations, and his 
 wise impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet 
 lost sight of Sicily, passed before the isle of Malta, dis- 
 covered the capes of Africa, ran along the coast with 
 a stron«T gale from the north-east, and finally cast an- 
 chor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five days' 
 journey to the south of Carthage.'' 
 
 1 I have read of a Grrek leclslaior, who inflicted a double penalty 
 on the crinips Cdmmiilod in a stale of intoxication; but it seems 
 agreed that this was raiher a political than a moral law. 
 
 m Or even in three days, since they anchored the first evoninE; in 
 the neighbouring isle of Tenedos; the second day they sailed to Les- 
 bos, the third to the promontory of Eiiba'a, ancf on {he fourth they 
 reached Ariros. (Homer, Odyss. r. 130—183. Wood's Essay on Homer, 
 p.40^ -KJ.) A pirate sailed frum the Hellcsponttotheseaport of Sparta 
 in three days. (Xenophon, Hellen. 1. ii. c. 1.) 
 
 n Caucaiia, near Camarina, is at l^ast 50 miles (350 or 400 stadia) 
 from Syracuse. (Cluvcr. Sicilia Antiqua, p. 191.) 
 
 o Procopius, Gothic. 1. i. c. 3. Tibi tollit hinnitum apta quadri'iis 
 equa, in the Sicilian pastures of Grosphus. (Horat. Carm. ii. 16.) 
 
 Acragas magnanimum quondam generator equorum. (Virg. 
 
 ^neid. iii. 704.) Thero's horses, whoso victories are immortalized 
 by Pindar, were bred in this country. 
 
 pThe Caput Vadaof Procopius (where Justinian afterwards founded 
 a city de Edific. 1. vi. c. 6.) is the promontory of Ammon in Sira- 
 
 If Gelimer had been informed of the Belisarius lands 
 
 approach of the enemy, he must have on the coast of 
 
 delayed the conquest of Sardinia, for the 5^"5*~r7, 
 •' ,. , /. ' /• I • J September. 
 
 immediate defence of his person and 
 
 kingdom. A detachment of five thousand soldiers, and 
 one^ hundred and twenty galleys, would have joined 
 the remaining forces of the Vandals; and ihe descend- 
 ant of Genseric might have surprised and oppressed a 
 fleet of deep-laden transports incapable of action, and 
 of light brigantines that seemed only qualified for 
 flight. Belisarius had secretly trembled when he over- 
 heard his soldiers, in the passage, imboldening each 
 other to confess their apprehensions; if they were once 
 on shore, they hoped to maintain the honour of their 
 arms ; but if they should be attacked at sea, they di«* 
 not blush to acknowledge that they wanted courage to 
 contend at the same time with the winds, the waves, 
 and the barbarians.** The knowledge of their senti- 
 ments decided Belisarius to seize the first opportunity 
 of landing them on the coast of Africa; and he pru- 
 dently rejected, in a council of war, the proposal of 
 sailing with the fleet and army into the port of Car- 
 thage. Three months after their departure from Con- 
 stantinople, the men and horses, the arms and military 
 stores, were safely disembarked, and five soldiers were 
 left as a guard on board each of the ships, which were 
 disposed in the form of a semicircle. The remainder 
 of the troops occupied a camp on the sea-shore, which 
 they fortified, according to ancient discipline, with a 
 ditch and rampart; and the discovery of a source of 
 fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited the 
 superstitious confidence, of the Romans. The next 
 morning, some of the neiahbouring gardens were pil- 
 laged ; and Belisarius, after chastising the offenders, 
 embraced the slight occasion, but the decisive moment, 
 of inculcating the maxims of justice, moderation, and 
 genuine policy. " When I first accepted the commis- 
 sion of subduing Africa, I depended much less," said 
 the general, " on the numbers, or even the bravery, of 
 my troops, than upon the friendly disposition of the 
 natives, and their immortal hatred to the Vandals. 
 You alone can deprive me of this hope ; if you continue 
 to extort by rapine what might be purchased for a little 
 money, such acts of violence will reconcile these im- 
 placable enemies, and unite them in a just and holy 
 league against the invaders of their country." These 
 exhortations were enforced by a rigid discipline, of 
 which the soldiers themselves soon felt and praised 
 the salutary effects. The inhabitants, instead of de- 
 serting their houses, or hiding their corn, supplied the 
 Romans with a fair and liberal market : the civil ofllicers 
 of the province continued to exercise their functions in 
 the name of Justinian ; and the clergy, from motives 
 of conscience and interest, assiduously laboured to 
 promote the cause of a catholic emperor. The small 
 town of Sullecte,' one day's journey from the camp, 
 had the honour of being foremost to open her gates, 
 and to resume her ancient allegiance : the larger cities 
 of Leptis and Adrumetum imitated the example of 
 loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared ; and he ad- 
 vanced without opposition as far as Grasse, a palace 
 of the Vandal kings, at the distance of fifty miles from 
 Carthage. The weary Romans indulged themselves 
 in the refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains, and 
 delicious fruits; and the preference which Procopius 
 allows to these gardens over any that he had seen, 
 either in the east or west, may be ascribed either to the 
 taste or the fatigue of the historian. In three genera- 
 tions, prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the 
 
 bo, the Brachodes of Ptolemy, the Capaudia of the moderns, a long 
 narrow slip that runs into the sea, (Shaw's Travels, p. Ill ) 
 
 q A centurion of Mark Antony expressed, though \n a more manly 
 strain, the same dislike to the sea and to naval combats. (Plutarch in 
 Antonio, p. 1730. edit. Hen. Steph.) 
 
 r Sullecie is perhaps the Turris Hannibalis, an old building, now 
 as large as the tower i»f I^ondon. The march of Belisarius to Lepti?, 
 Adrumetum, &c. is illustrated by the campaign of Caesar, (Hirtius, 
 de Bello Africano, with the Analyse of Guichardt,) and Shaw a Trav- 
 els, (p. iO^— 113.) in the same country. 
 
 lardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly became 
 Ithe most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and 
 hardens, which might deserve the Persian name of 
 paradise,* they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose; and 
 fter the daily use of the bath, the barbarians were 
 eated at a table profusely spread with the delicacies 
 of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely flow- 
 ing after the fashion of the Modes, were embroidered 
 with gold ; love and hunting w^ere the labours of their 
 life, and their vacant hours were amused by panto- 
 mimes, chariot-races, and the music and dances of the 
 theatre. 
 
 Defeats the I" » march of ten or twelve days, the 
 I Vandals in a vigilance of Belisarius was constantly 
 1 ^"^ battle. awake and active against his unseen 
 jenemies, by whom in every place, and at every hour, 
 he might be suddenly attacked. An officer of confi- 
 dence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguard 
 of three hundred horse; six hundred Massagetae co- 
 vered at a certain distance the left flank ; and th"e whole 
 fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the 
 army, which moved each day about twelve miles, and 
 lodged in the evening in strong camps, or in friendly 
 towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage 
 filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He 
 prudently wished to protract the war till his brother, 
 with his veteran troops, should return from the con- 
 quest of Sardinia ; and he now lamented the rash policy 
 of his ancestors, who by destroying the fortifications 
 of Africa, had left him only the dangerous resource of 
 risking a battle in the neighbourhood of his capital. 
 Tlie Vandal conquerors, from their original number of 
 I fifty thousand, were multiplied, without including 
 their women and children, to one hundred and sixty 
 L thousand fighting men ; and such forces, animated 
 kawith valour and union, might have crushed, at their 
 Hfirst landing, the feeble and exhausted bands of the 
 rlRoman general. But the friends of the captive king 
 r j were more inclined to accept the invitations, than to 
 ' .resist the progress, of Belisarius ; and many a proud 
 Ibarbarian disguised his aversion to war under the more 
 j-specious name of his hatred to the usurper. Yet the 
 authority and promises of Gelimer collected a formi- 
 dable army, and his plans were concerted with some 
 degree of military skill. An order was despatched to 
 jhis brother Ammatas, to collect all the forces of Car- 
 jthage, and to encounter the van of the Roman army at 
 jthe distance of ten miles from the city; his nephew 
 'Gibamund, with two thousand horse, was destined to 
 
 • attack their left, when the monarch himself, who si- 
 jlenlly followed, should charge their rear, in a situation 
 
 which excluded them from the aid or even the view of 
 (their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to 
 
 himself and his country. He anticipated the hour of 
 lattack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced 
 jwith a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own 
 jhand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals 
 I fled to Carthage ; the highway, almost ten miles, was 
 (Strewed with dead bodies; and it seemed incredible 
 }that such multitudes could be slaughtered by the 
 I swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of 
 
 Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by the six 
 
 hundred Massagetae; they did not equal the third part 
 
 • of his numbers; but each Scythian was fired by the 
 example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the 
 privilege of his family, by riding foremost and alone to 
 shoot the first arrow against the enemy. In the mean 
 ^vhile, Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and 
 
 ; misguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently 
 ; passed the Roman army, and reached the scene of 
 , action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate 
 i of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresisti- 
 
 • nxgxStKrof xaKXtfos iA-xvTaiv iv >;.aiij iTfitv, The paradises, a 
 • name and fashion adapted from Persia, may be represented by the 
 I [^'yal garden of Ispahan. (Voyage d'Olearius, p. 774.) See, in the 
 ■ '"^'^ romances, their most perfect model. (Longua, Pastoral. 1. iv. 
 . p. W-*101. Achillea Tatius, 1. i. p. 22, 23.) 
 
 Me fury the advancing squadrons, and might have pur- 
 sued, and perhaps decided the victory, if he had not 
 wasted those inestimable moments in the discharcre of 
 a vain, though pious, duty to the dead. While his 
 spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the 
 trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina and his 
 infantry in the camp, pressed forwards with his guards 
 and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying 
 troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much 
 room could not be found in this disorderly battle for 
 the talents of a general ; but the king fled before the 
 hero ; and the Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish 
 enetriy, were incapable of withstanding the arms and 
 discipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with has- 
 ty steps towards the desert of Numidia; but he had 
 soon the consolation of learning that his private orders 
 for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends 
 had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was 
 useful only to his enemies. The death of a Tawful 
 prince excited the compassion of his people; his life 
 nriight have perplexed the victorious Romans ; and the 
 lieutenant of Justinian, by a crime of which he was in- 
 nocent, was relieved from the painful alternative of 
 forfeiting his honour or relinquishing his conquests. 
 As soon as the tumult had subsided. Reduction of 
 the several parts of the army informed Carthage, * 
 each other of the accidents of the day ; •^- ^- ^- "* 
 and Belisarius pitched his camp on the ^^^" ^' 
 field of victory, to which the tenth mile-stone from 
 Carthage had applied the Latin appellation of decimus. 
 From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources 
 of the Vandals, he marched the next day in order of 
 battle, halted in the evening before the gates of Car- 
 thage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might 
 not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the li- 
 cence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the 
 secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Beli- 
 sarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he 
 was soon satisfied that he might confide, without dan- 
 ger, in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. 
 Carthage blazed with innumerable torches, the signals 
 of the public joy ; the chain was removed that guarded 
 the entrance of the port ; the gates were thrown open, 
 and the people, with acclamations of gratitude, hailed 
 and invited their Roman deliverers. The defeat of 
 the Vandals, and the freedom of Africa, were announ- 
 ced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the 
 churches w^ere already adorned and illuminated for the 
 festival of the martyr, whom three centuries of super- 
 stition had almost raised to a local deity. The Arians, 
 conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the 
 temple to the Catholics, who rescued their saint from 
 profane hands, performed the holy rites, and loudly 
 proclaimed the creed of Athanasius and Justinian. 
 One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending 
 parties. The suppliant Vandals, who had so lately 
 indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an humble 
 refuge in the sanctuary of the church; while the mer- 
 chants of the east were delivered from the deepest 
 dungeon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, 
 who implored the protection of his captives, and show- 
 ed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of 
 the Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, 
 the naval commanders had proceeded with slow caution 
 along the coast, till they reached the Herma?an prom- 
 ontory, and obtained the first intelligence of the victo- 
 ry of Belisarius. Faithful to his instructions, they 
 W'Ould have cast anchor about tw^enty miles from Car- 
 thage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented 
 the perils of the shore, and the signs of an impending 
 tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they de- 
 clined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the chain 
 of the port; and the adjacent harbour and suburb of 
 Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine of a pri* 
 vate oflScer who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. 
 But the imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, 
 steered through the narrow entrance of the Goletta, and 
 
 i\ 
 
28 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 
 1: 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 occupied in the deep and capacious lake of Tunis a se- 
 cure station about five miles from the capital.* No 
 sooner was Belisarius informed of their arrival, than 
 he despatched orders that the greatest part of the mar- 
 iners should be immediately landed to join the triumph, 
 and to swell the apparent numbers, of the Romans. 
 Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage, 
 he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself 
 and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of their 
 arms; and to remember that the Vandals had been the 
 tyrants, but that thei/ were the deliverers, of the Afri- 
 cans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and 
 affectionate subjects of their common sovereign. The 
 Romans marched through the streets in close ranks, 
 prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared ; the 
 strict order maintained by the general imprinted on 
 their minds the duty of obedience; and in an age in 
 which custom and impunity almost sanctified the abuse 
 of conquest, the genius of one man repressed the pas- 
 sions of a victorious army. The voice of menace and 
 complaint was silent; the trade of Carthage was not 
 interrupted; while Africa changed her master and her 
 government, the shops continued open and busy; and 
 the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted, 
 modestly departed to the houses which were allotted , 
 for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence in I 
 the palace ; seated himself on the throne of Genseric ; ! 
 accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil ; granted \ 
 their lives to the suppliant Vandals; and laboured to i 
 repair the damage which the suburb of Mandracium I 
 had sustained in the preceding night. At supper he 
 entertained his principal officers with the form and 
 magnificence of a royal banquet." The victor was res- 
 pectfully served by the captive officers of the house- 
 hold ; and in the moments of festivity, when the im- 
 partial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of 
 Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their 
 venom on every word and gesture which might alarm 
 the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day was 
 given to these pompous scenes, which may not be des- 
 pised as useless, if they attracted the popular venera- 
 tion ; but the active mind of Belisarius, which in the 
 pride of victory could suppose a defeat, had already 
 resolved, that the Roman empire in Africa should not 
 depend on the chance of arms, or the favour of the peo- 
 ple. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been 
 exempted from the general proscription; but in the 
 reign of ninety-five years they were suffered to decay 
 by the thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser 
 conqueror restored with incredible despatch the walls 
 and ditches of the city. His liberality encouraged the 
 workmen ; the soldiers, the mariners, and the citizens 
 vied with each other in the salutary labour; and Gel- 
 imer, who had feared to trust his person in an open 
 town, beheld with astonishment and despair the rising 
 strength of an impregnable fortress. 
 
 Final defeat of ^^^^ unfortunate monarch, after the 
 Geiimerandihe ^<^ss of his capital, applied himself to 
 ^^"a*'i) ^13 ^^^^^^^ ^^^ remains of an army scattered, 
 November, ^^^^^er than destroyed, by the preceding 
 battle ; and the hopes of pillage attracted 
 some Moorish bands to the standard of Gelimer. He 
 encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days' journey 
 from Carthage ; insulted the capital, which he de- 
 prived of the use of an aqueduct; proposed a high re- 
 ward for the head of every Roman ; affected to "spare 
 the persons and property of his African subjects, and 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 t The nei!?hb<.nirhooU of Carihago, the sea, the laml.and the rivers* 
 are chanjied almost as much as iho w.irks of man. The isthuuis, or 
 neck, of the city is now confounded with the continent; the harb.uir 
 IS a dry plain ; and the lake, or stagnum, no more than a morass, with 
 SIX or seven feet water in the mid-channel. See D'Anville, (Geo- 
 graphiP Ancienne, torn. iii. p. 82.) Shaw, (Travels, p. 77-84.) Mannol. 
 (Uescripiion de TAfrique, torn. ii. p. 465.) and Thuanus, (Iviii. li>. 
 lorn. in. p.aat.) 
 
 u From Delphi, the name of Delphicum was given, both in Greek 
 and Latm, to a tripod ; and, by an easy analosy, the same appellation 
 was extended at Rome, Constantinople, and Carthage, to the royal 
 banqueting-room. (Procopius, Vandal. 1. J. c 21. Ducauge, Glosi. 
 Graecp. 277. Aix^.xev, ad Alexiad, p. 412.) 
 
 secretly negociated with the Arian sectaries and the 
 confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the 
 conquest of Sardinia served only to aggravate his dis- 
 tress ; he reflected with the deepest anguish, that he 
 had wasted, in that useless enterprise, five thoi'sand 
 of his bravest troops ; and he read, with grief and 
 shame, the victorious letters of his brother Zano, who 
 expressed a sanguine confidence that the king, after 
 the example of their ancestors, had already chastised 
 the rashness of the Roman invader. ** Alas ! my 
 brother," replied Gelimer, " Heaven has declared 
 against our unhappy nation. While you have subdued 
 Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Beli- 
 sarius appear with a handful of soldiers, than courage 
 and prosperity deserted the cause of the Vandafs. 
 Your nephew Gibamund, your brother Ammatas, have 
 been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their fol- 
 lowers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, and 
 all Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet the 
 Vandals still prefer an ignominious repose, at the ex- 
 pense of their wives and children', their wealth and lib- 
 erty. Nothing now remains, except the field of Bulla, 
 and the hope of your valour. Abandon Sardinia; fly 
 to our relief; restore our empire, or perish by our side.'* 
 On the receipt of this epistle, Zano imparted his grief 
 to the principal Vandals; but the intelligence was 
 prudently concealed from the natives of the island. 
 The troops embarked in one hundred and twenty gal- 
 leys at the port of Cagliari, cast anchor the third day 
 on the confines of Mauritania, and hastily pursued their 
 march to join the royal standard in the camp of Bulla. 
 Mournful was the interview ; the two brothers embra- 
 ced ; they wept in silence : no questions were asked 
 of the Sardinian victory; no inquiries were made of 
 the African misfortunes : they saw before their eyes 
 the w' ole extent of their calamities; and the absence 
 of their wives and children aflTorded a melancholy proof, 
 that either death or captivity had been their lot. The 
 languid spirit of the Vandals was at length awakened 
 and united by the entreaties of their king, the example 
 of Zano, and the instant danger which threatened their 
 monarchy and religion. The military strength of the 
 nation advanced to battle ; and such was the rapid in- 
 crease, that, before their army reached Tricameron, 
 about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, 
 perhaps with some exaggeration, that they surpassed, 
 in a tenfold proportion, the diminutive powers of the 
 Romans. But these powers were under the command 
 of Belisarius ; and, as he was conscious of their supe- 
 rior merit, he permitted the barbarians to surprise him 
 at an unseasonable hour. The Romans were instant- 
 ly under arms : a rivulet covered their front ; the cav- 
 alry formed the first line, which Belisarius supported 
 in the centre, at the head of five hundred guards ; the 
 infantry, at some distance, was posted in the second 
 line ; and the vigilance of the general watched the 
 separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massageta;, 
 who secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. 
 The historian has inserted, and the reader may easily 
 supply, the speeches » of the commanders, who, by ar- 
 guments the most opposite to their situation, inculca- 
 ted the importance of victory, and the contempt of life. 
 Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the 
 conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the centre ; and 
 the throne of Genseric might have stood, if the multi- 
 tude of Vandals had imitated their intrepid resolution. 
 Casting away their lances and missile weapons, they 
 drew their swords, and expected the charge : the Ro- 
 man cavalry thrice passed the rivulet ; they^'were thrice 
 repulsed ; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till 
 Zano fell, and the standard of Belisarius was displayed. 
 Gelimer retreated to his camp; the Huns joined the 
 pursuit ; and the victors despoiled the bodies of the 
 slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans, and eight hun* 
 
 r These orations always express the sense of the times, and some- 
 limes of the actors. I have condensed that sense, and thrown away 
 aecumation. 
 
 29 
 
 dred Vancjals, were found on the field of battle ; so in- 
 considerable was the carnage of a day, which extin- 
 (Tiiished a nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. 
 In the evening, Belisarius led his infantry to the attack 
 of the camp ; and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer 
 exposed the vanity of his recent declarations, that, to 
 the vanquished, death was a relief, life a burthen, and 
 inf\imy the only object of terror. His departure was 
 secret ; but as soon as the Vandals discovered that 
 their king had deserted them, they hastily dispersed, 
 anxious only for their personal safety, and careless of 
 every object that is dear or valuable to mankind. The 
 Romans entered the camp without resistance; and the 
 wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the darkness 
 and confusion of the night. Every barbarian who met 
 th«^ir swords was inhumanly massacred ; their widows 
 and daughters, as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, 
 were embraced by the licentious soldiers ; and avarice 
 itself was almost satiated with the treasures of gold 
 and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or econ- 
 omy in a long period of prosperity and p.^ace. In this 
 frantic search, the troops even of Belisarius forgot 
 their caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and 
 rapine, they explored in small parties, or alone, the ad- 
 jacent fields, the woods, the rocks, and the caverns, 
 that might possibly conceal any desirable prize : laden 
 with booty, they deserted their ranks, and wandered 
 without a guide, on the hioh road to Carthage ; and if 
 the flying enemies had dared to return, vtTy few of 
 the conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible 
 of the disgrace and danger, Belisarius passed an ap- 
 prehensive night in the field of victory ; at the dawn 
 of day, he planted his standard on a hill, recalled his 
 guards and veterans, and gradually restored the modes- 
 ty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the 
 concern of the Roman general to subdue the hostile, 
 and to save the prostrate, barbarians : and the suppli- 
 ant Vandals, who could be found only in churches, 
 were protected by his authority, disarmed, and sepa- 
 rately confined, that they might neither disturb the 
 public peace, nor become the victims of popular re- 
 vrnire. After despatching a light detachment to tread 
 the footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced with his whole 
 army, about ten days' march, as far as Hippo Regius, 
 which no longer possessed the relics of St. Augustin.>' 
 The season, and the certain intelligence that the Van- 
 dal had fled to the inaccessible country of the Moors, 
 determined Belisarius to relinquish the vain pursuit, 
 and to fix his winter-quarters at Carthage. From 
 thence he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform 
 the emperor, that in the space of three months, he had 
 achieved the conquest of Africa. 
 
 Conquest of Afri- Belisarius spoke the language of 
 f* by Belisarius, truth. The surviving Vandals yielded, 
 . . 534. yvithout resistance, their arms and their 
 freedom: the neighbourhood of Carthage submitted 
 to his presence; and the more distant provinces were 
 successively subdued by the report of his victory. 
 Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary allegiance; 
 Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an oflicer, who car- 
 rif^d, instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Za- 
 no; and the isles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica, 
 consented to remain an humble appendage of the Af- 
 rican kingdom. Caesarea, a royal ciiy, which in looser 
 geography may be confounded with the modern Al- 
 giers, was situate thirty days' march to the westward 
 of Carthage : by land, the road was infested by the 
 
 , y The relics of Su Augustin were carried by the African bishops 
 w their Sardinian exile ; (A. D. 500.) and it was believed in the eighth 
 century, that Liulprand, king of the Lombards, transported them 
 (A. D. 721.) from Sardinia to Pavia. In the year 1695, the Augustin 
 irure of that c\ty found a brick arch, marble coffin, silver case, silk 
 wrapper, bones, blood, &c. and perhaps an inscription of Asostinoin 
 Gothic letters. But this useful discovery has been disputed by rea- 
 ^m and jealousy. (Baronius, Annal. A. D. 725. No. 2-9. Tille- 
 ro"> ^^1?; Eccles. lorn. xiii. p. 944. Montfauoon, Diarium Ital. 
 Sk V . Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medii JEvl. tom. v. dissert. Iviii. p. St. 
 » n-j had composed a separate treatise before the decree of the biahoo 
 *>> lavia, and pope Benedict XIII.) "^ 
 
 Moors ; but the sea was open, and the Romans were 
 now masters of the sea. An active and discreet tri- 
 bune sailed as far as the Straits, where he occupied 
 vSeptem or Ceuta,' which rises opposite to Gibraltar on 
 the African coast : that remote place was afterwards 
 adorned and fortified by Justinian ; and he seems to 
 have indulged the vain ambition of extending his em- 
 pire to the columns of Hercules. He received the 
 messengers of victory at the time when he was pre- 
 paring to publish the pandects of the Roman law; 
 and the devout or jealous emperor celebrated the di- 
 vine goodness, and confessed, in silence, the merit of 
 his successful general.* Impatient to abolish the 
 temporal and spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he pro- 
 ceeded, without delay, to the full establishment of the 
 catholic church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immu- 
 nities, perhaps the most essential part of episcopal re- 
 ligion, were restored and amplified with a liberal 
 hand ; the Arian worship was suppressed ; the Dona- 
 tist meetings were proscribed ;^ and the synod of Car- 
 thage, by the voice of two hundred and seventeen 
 bishops,'^ applauded the just measure of pious retalia- 
 tion. On such an occasion, it may not be presumed 
 that many orthodox prelates were absent ; but the 
 comparative smallness of their number, which in an- 
 cient councils had been twice or even thrice multiplied, 
 most clearly indicates the decay both of the church 
 and .state. While Justinian approved himself the de- 
 fender of the faith, he entertained an ambitious hope, 
 that his victorious lieutenant would speedily enlarge 
 the narrow limits of his dominion to the space which 
 they occupied before the invasion of the Moors and 
 Vandals ; and Belisarius was instructed to establish 
 five dukes or commanders in the convenient stations of 
 Tripoli, Leptis, Cirta, Cajsarea, and Sardinia, and to 
 compute the military force of pulatines or borderers 
 that might be suflicient for the defence of Africa. The 
 kingdom of the Vandals was not unworthy of the pres- 
 ence of a praetorian prefect ; and four consulars, three 
 presidents, were appointed to administer the seven 
 provinces under his civil jurisdiction. The number 
 of their subordinate oflicers, clerks, messengers, or as- 
 sistants, was minutely expressed ; three hundred and 
 ninety-six for the pra3fect himself, fifty for each of his 
 vicegerents; and the rigid definition of their fees and 
 salaries was more eflTectual to confirm the right than 
 to prevent the abuse. These magistrates might be op- 
 pressive, but they were not idle ; and the subtle ques- 
 tions of justice and revenue were infinitely propagated 
 under the new government, which professed to revive 
 the freedom and equity of the Roman republic. The 
 conqueror was solicitous to exact a prompt and plentiful 
 supply from his African subjects; and he allowed them 
 to claim, even in the third degree, and from the collat- 
 eral line, the houses and lands of which their families 
 had been unjustly despoiled by the Vandals. After 
 the departure of Belisarius, who acted by a high and 
 special commission, no ordinary provision was made 
 for a master-general of the forces ; but the ofl[ice of 
 praetorian prefect was intrusted to a soldier; the civil 
 and military powers were united, according to the 
 practice of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the 
 representative of the emperor in Africa, as well as in 
 
 X T» TUf TTdXtrtiUi ir^8eiM<«, is the expression of Procopius. (de 
 Edific. 1. vi. c. 7.) Ceuta, which has been defaced by the Ponuguese, 
 flourished in nobles and palaces, in agriculture and manufactures, 
 under the more prosperous reign of the Arabs. (I'Afrique de 3IarmoI. 
 tom.ii. p. 236.) 
 
 a See the second and third preambles to the Digest, or Pandects, 
 promuleated A. D. 533, December 16. To the titles of Vandalicus 
 and Africanus, Justinian, or rather Belisarius, liad acquired a just 
 claim : Gothicua was premature, and Franciscus false, and oflensive 
 lo a preat nation. 
 
 b See the original acts in Baronius. (A. D. 535, No. 21—54.) The 
 enfperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics, cum sufficiat eis 
 vivere. 
 
 c Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. lix. ad Optat. Milev.) ob- 
 serves and bewails this episcopal decay. In the more prosperous age 
 of the church, he had noticed 690 bishoprics ; but however minute 
 were the dioceses, it is not probable that they all existed at the «un« 
 time. 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 '1 
 
 h 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
90 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. 11. 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Italy, was soon distinguished by the appellation of 
 Exarch.'* 
 
 DistrPM and cap. ^^^ ^^® COnquest of Africa vvas imper- 
 ii viiyofGelimer, feet, till her former sovereign was deliver- 
 ihe^prin^c'' ed, either alive or dead, into the hands 
 °' of the Romans. Doubtful of the event, 
 Gelimer had given secret orders that a part of his trea- 
 sure should be transported to Spain, where he hoped to 
 find a secure refuore at the court of the kin^ of the Visi- 
 
 31 
 
 goths. But those intentions were disappointed by ac 
 cident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuit of his 
 enemies, who intercepted his flight from the sea-shore, 
 and chased the unfortunate monarch, with some faith- 
 ful followers, to the inaccessible mountain of Papua,* in 
 the inland country of Numidia. He was immediately 
 besieged by Pharas, an officer whose truth and sobriety 
 were the more applauded, as such qualities could sel- 
 dom be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of 
 the barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius had 
 intrusted this important charge ; and, after a bold at- 
 tempt to scale the mountain, in which he lost a hun- 
 dred and ten soldiers, Pharas expected, during a win- 
 ter siege, the operation of distress and famine on the 
 mind of the Vandal king. From the softest habits of 
 pleasure, from the unbounded command of industry and 
 wealth, he was reduced to share the poverty of the 
 Moors,' supportable only to themselves by their igno- 
 rance of a happier condition. In their rude hovels', of 
 mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke and exclu- 
 ded the light, they promiscuously slept on the ground, 
 perhaps on a sheep-skin, with their wives, their chil- 
 dren, and their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their 
 garments ; the use of bread and wine was unknown ; 
 and their oaten or barley cakes, imperfectly baked in 
 the ashes, were devoured almost in a crude state by the 
 hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have 
 sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, from 
 whatsoever cause they hvid been endured ; but his ac- 
 tual misery was imbittered by the recollection of past 
 greatness, the daily insolence of his protectors, and the 
 just apprehension, that the light and venal Moors misht 
 be tempted to betray the rights of hospitality. The 
 knowledge of his situation dictated the humane and 
 friendly epistle of Pharas. " Like yourself," said the 
 chief of the Heruli, *' I am an illiterate barbarian, but 
 I speak the language of plain sense and an honest 
 heart. Why will you persist in hopeless obstinacy ? 
 Why will you ruin yourself, your family, and na- 
 tion ] The love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery 1 
 Alas ! my dearest Gelimer, are you not already the 
 worst of slaves, the slave of the vile nation of the 
 Moors ? Would it not be preferable to sustain at Con- 
 stantinople a life of poverty and servitude, rather than 
 to reign the undoubted monarch of the mountain of 
 Papua 1 Do you think it a disgrace to be the subject 
 of Justinian? Celisarius is his subject; and we our- 
 selves, whose birth is not inferior to your own, are not 
 ashamed of our obedience to the Roman emperor. That 
 generous prince will grant you a rich inheritence of 
 lands, a place in the senate, and the dignity of pa- 
 trician : such are his gracious intentions, and you may 
 depend with full assurance on the word of Belisarius. 
 So long as Heaven has condemned us to suffer, pa- 
 tience is a virtue ; but if we reject the proffered deliv- 
 erence, it degenerates into blind and stupid despair." 
 " I am not insensible," replied the king of the Vandals, 
 »' how kind and rational is your advice. But I cannot 
 
 d The African laws of Justinian are illustrated by his German bio- 
 prapher. (Cod, 1. i. lit. 27. Novell. 36, 37. 131. Vit. Justinian, p. 349— 
 
 e Mount Papua is placed by D'Anville (torn. iii. p. 92. and Tabul. 
 Imp. Kom. Occident.) near Hippo Regius and the sea ; yet this situa- 
 tion 111 agrees with the long pursuit beyond Hippo, and the words of 
 
 PrOCOpiUS, (1. II. C. 4.)«v TO.i NxM'S>x<;,TX»ro,i. 
 
 { Shaw (Travels, p. 220.) most accurately represents the manners of 
 the Bedoweensand Kabyles, the last of whom, by their lansua'^e, are 
 the remnant of the Moors : yet how changed— how civilized are these 
 modern savages!- proviiious are plenty among iheni, and bread is 
 common. » j 
 
 persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust ene- 
 my, who has deserved my implacable hatred. Htm I 
 had never injured either by word or deed : yet he has 
 sent against me, I know not from whence, a certain 
 Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from the throne 
 into this abyss of misery. Justinian is a man ; he is 
 a prince; does he not dread for himself a similar re- 
 verse of fortune? I can write no more : my grief op- 
 presses me. Send me, I beseech you, my dear Pharas, 
 send me a lyre,* a spunge, and a loaf of bread." From 
 the Vandal messenger, Pharas was informed of the mo- 
 tives of this singular request. It was long since the 
 king of Africa had tasted bread ; a defluction had fal- 
 len on his eyes, the effect of fatigue or incessant weep- 
 ing; and he wished to solace the melancholy hours, 
 by singing to the lyre the sad story of his own misfor- 
 tunes. The humanity of Pharas was moved ; he sent the 
 three extraordinary gifts; but even his humanity promp- 
 ted him to redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he 
 niight sooner compel his prisoner to embrace a resolu- 
 tion advantageous to the Romans, but salutary to him- 
 self. The obstinacy of Gelimer at length yielded to 
 reason and necessity ; the solemn assurances of safety 
 and honourable treatment were ratified in the emperor's 
 name, by the embassador of Belisarius; and the king 
 of the Vandals descended from the mountain. The 
 first public interview was in one of the suburbs of Car- 
 thage ; and when the royal captive accosted his conquer- 
 or, he burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might 
 naturally believe, that extreme grief had deprived Gel- 
 imer of his senses ; but in this mournful state, unsea- 
 sonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers, 
 that the vain and transitory scenes of human greatness 
 are unworthy of a serious thought.'* 
 
 Their contempt was soon justified by Return and tri- 
 a new example of a vulgar truth ; that ".'"f'*' ^^ Belisa- 
 flattery adheres to power, and envy to su- "^'a ' D 534 
 perior merit. The chiefs of the Roman autumn.' 
 army presumed to think themselves the rivals of a he- 
 ro. Their private despatches maliciously affirmed, 
 that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his reputation 
 and the public love, conspired to seat himself on the 
 throne of the Vandals. Justinian listened with too pa- 
 tient an ear; and his silence was the result of jealousy 
 rather than of confidence. An honourable alternative, 
 of remaining in the province, or of returning to the 
 capital, was indeed submitted to the discretion of Bel- 
 isarius ; but he wisely concluded, from intercepted let- 
 ters, and the knowledge of his sovereign's temper, 
 that he must either resign his head, erect his standard, 
 or confound his enemies by his presence and submis- 
 sion. Innocence and courage decided his choice ; his 
 guards, captives, and treasures were diligently em- 
 barked; and so prosperous was the navigation, that 
 his arrival at Constantinople preceded any certain 
 account of his departure from the port of Carthacre. 
 Such unsuspecting loyalty removed the apprehen- 
 sions of Justinian; envy was silenced and inflamed by 
 the public gratitude ; and the third Africanus obtained 
 the honours of a triumph, a ceremony which the city 
 of Constantinople had never seen, and which ancient 
 Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for 
 the auspicious arms of the Cjesars.* From the palace 
 of Belisarius, the procession was conducted through 
 the principal streets to the hippodrome; and this mem- 
 orable day seemed to avenge the injuries of Genseric, 
 
 s By Procopius it is styled a It/re ; perhaps harp would have been 
 more national. The instruments of music are thus distinguished by 
 V enantius Fortunatus : ' 
 
 Romaiiusque It/rS tibi plaudal, Barbarus harpu. 
 
 and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth 
 of nations was displayed, the trophies of martial or ef- 
 feminate luxury; rich armour, golden thrones, and the 
 chariots of state which had been used by the Vandal 
 queen: the massy furniture of the royal banquet, the 
 splendour of precious stones, the elegant forms of sta- 
 tues and vases, the more substantial treasure of wold, 
 and the holy vessels of the Jewish temple, which'afier 
 their long peregrination were respectfully deposited in 
 the christian church of Jerusalem. A long train of the 
 noblest Vandals reluctantly exposed theirlofty stature 
 and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly advanced ; 
 he was clad in a purple robe, and still maintained the 
 majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped from his eyes, 
 not a sigh was heard ; bnt his pride or piety derived 
 some secret consolation from the words of Solomon,^' 
 which he repeatedly pronounced, vanitv ! vanitv ! all 
 IS VAMTv! Instead of ascending a triumphal car 
 drawn by four horses or elephants, the modest conquer- 
 or marched on foot at the head of his brave compan- 
 ions; his prudence might decline an honour too con- 
 spicuous for a subject; and his magnanimity might 
 justly disdain what had been so often sullied by the vi- 
 lest of tyrants. The glorious procession entered the 
 gate of the hippodrome ; was saluted by the acclama- 
 tions of the senate and people; and halted before the 
 throne wJiere Justinian and Theodora were sealed to re- 
 ceive the homage of the captive monarch and the vic- 
 torious hero. They both performed the customary ad- 
 oration ; and falling prostrate on the ground, respect- 
 fully touched the footstool of a prince who had not un- 
 sheathed his sword, and of a prostitute who had dan- 
 ced on the theatre: some gentle violence was used to 
 bend the stubborn spirit of the grandson of Genseric; 
 and however trained, to servitude, the genius of Belisa- 
 rius must have secretly rebelled. He vvas immediate- 
 His sole consul- ^^ declared consul for the ensuing year, 
 ship, _ and the day of his inauguration resem- 
 
 Jan^ii/?!*. ^^^^ ^'^^ P°"™P °^ ^ second triumph ; his 
 curule chair was borne aloft on the shoul- 
 ders of captive Vandals; and the spoils of war, gold 
 Clips and rich girdles, were profusely scattered among 
 the populace. 
 
 End of Gelimer But the purest reward of Belisarius 
 aad the Vandals, was in the faithful execution of a treaty 
 for which his honour had been pledged to the king of 
 the Vandals. The religious scruples of Gelimer, who 
 adhered to the Arian heresy, were incompatible with 
 the dignity of senator or patrician : but he received 
 from the emperor an ample estate in the province of 
 Galatia, where the abdicated monarch retired with his 
 family and friends, to a life of peace, of afilnence, 
 and perhaps of content.' The daughters of Hilderic 
 were entertained with the respectfultenderness due to 
 their age and misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora 
 accepted the honour of educating and enriching the fe- 
 male descendants of the great Theodosius. The 
 bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into five 
 squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their 
 benefactor, and supported in the Persian wars, the glory 
 of their ancestors. But these rare exceptions, tl^e re- 
 ward of birth or valour, are insufficient to explain the 
 fate of a nation, whose numbers, before a short and 
 bloodless war, amounted to more than six hundred 
 thousand persons. After the exile of their king and 
 nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their s'afely, 
 by abjuring their character, religion, and language; 
 and their degenerate posterity would be insensibly 
 
 mmgled with the common herd of African subjects^ 
 Yet even in the present age, and in the heart of the" 
 Moorish tribes, a curious traveller has discovered the 
 white complexion and long flaxen hair of a northern 
 race;" and jt was formerly believed, that the boldest 
 of the Vandals fled beyond the power, or even the 
 knowledge, of the Romans, to eijoy their solitary fiee- 
 dorn on the shores of the Atlantic ocean." Africa had 
 been their empire, it became their prison ; nor could 
 they entertain a hope, or even a wish, of returning to 
 the banks tf the Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit 
 less adventurous, still wandered in their native forests. 
 It was impossible for cowards to surmount the barriers 
 of unknown seas and hostile barbarians: it was im- 
 possible for brave men to expose tl.eir nakedness and 
 defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to describe 
 the kingdoms which they had hst, and to claim a 
 share of the humble inheritance, which, in a happier 
 hour, they had almost unanimously renounced.° In 
 the country between the Elbe and the Od. r, several 
 populous villages of Lusntia are inhabited by t.'ie Van- 
 dals; they still preserve their language, their customs* 
 and the purity of their blood ; support, with some iju- 
 patience, the Saxon or Prussian yoke; and serve, 
 with secret and voluntary allegiance, ihe descendant 
 fif their ancient kings, who in his garb and present, 
 fortune is confounded with the meanest of his vassals.^ 
 The name and situation of this unhappy people might 
 indicate their descent from one common stock with 
 the conquerors of Africa. Bnt the use of a Sclavonian 
 dialect more clearly represents them as the last rem- 
 nant of the new colonies, who succeeded to the genu- 
 ine Vandals, already scattered or destroyed in the age 
 of Procopius.*! 
 
 If Belisarius had been tempted to he- Mannei^andde- 
 aitate in his allegiance, he might have feat of the Moors,, 
 urged, even against the emperor himself, A.D. 535. 
 the indispensable duty of saving Africa from an enemy 
 more barbarous than the Vandals. The origin of the 
 Moors is involved in darkness: they were ignorant of 
 the use of letters.' Their limits cannot be' precisely 
 defined : a boundless continent was open to the Libyan 
 shepherds; the change of seasons and pastures regula- 
 ted their motions ; and their rude huts and slender fur- 
 niture were transported with the same ease as their 
 arms, their families, and their cattle, which consisted 
 of sheep, oxen, and camels.' During the vigour of tha 
 Roman power, they observed a respectful disTance from 
 Carthage and the sea-shore; under the feeble reign of 
 the Vandals, they invaded the cities of Numidia, oc- 
 cupied the sea-coast from Tangier to Ca3sarca, and 
 pitched their camps, with impunity, in the fertile prov- 
 ince of Byzacium. The formidable strength and artful 
 conductof Belisarius secured the neutrality of the Moor- 
 
 pan: but it is probable that he never read either Livy'or Plutarch, 
 and It 18 certain that his generosity did not need a tutor 
 th« k™*"® ^"^^ "^ i'^'perator had lost the old military sense, and 
 the Rom&n auspices were abolished by christianiiv.Csee La Bleierie, 
 Mem de'Academie, lorn, xxi p.302-332.) a triumph might be giveu 
 with less mconsiBtency to a private general. uegivtu 
 
 k If the Ecclesiasies be truly a work of Solomon, and not, like 
 rrior s poem, a pioue and moral composition of more recent times, in 
 nis name, and on the subject of his repentance. The latter is the 
 opinmn of the learned and free-spJriied Grotius; (Op. Theolog. lorn. 
 '• P- z-y'i.) and indeed the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs display a larger 
 r'mipusd of thought and experience than seem to belong either to a 
 Jew or a kine. 
 
 « In the Belisaire of Marmonlel, the king and the conqueror of 
 Airica meet, sup, and converse, without recollecting each other. It is 
 Ko K ^i*w '^^ romance, that not only the hero, but all to whom 
 
 ne had been so conapicuoualy known, appear to have lost their eyes 
 «r their memorjr. ^ 
 
 m Shaw, p. o9. Yet since Procopius (1. ii. c. 13.) speaks of a people 
 of mount Alias, as already distinguished by white bodies and yellow- 
 hair, the Dhasnomenon (which is likewise visible in tiie Andes of 
 reru, Buffun, tom. in. p. 504.) may naturally be ascribed to the ele- 
 vation of the ground and the leinperatiire of the air. 
 ^^%i^? geographer of Ravenna (1. iii. c. xi. p. 129, 130, 131. Paris, 
 1688.) describes the Mauritania Gaditana, (opposite to Cadiz,) ubl 
 gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicia in Africa, fugit et nunnuam 
 comparuit. 'w"*'" 
 
 o A single voice had protested, and Genseric dismissed, without a 
 formal answer, the Vandals of Germany : but those of Africa derideiT 
 his prudence, and affected to despise the poverty of their forests. 
 (Procopius, Vandal. I. i c. 22.) 
 
 P From the mouth of the great elector (in 1687) Tollus doscribea 
 the secret royally and rebellious spirit of the Vandals of Branden- 
 burgh, who could muster five or six thousand soldiers who had nro- 
 cured some cannon, &c. (Itinerar. Hungar. p. 42. apud Dubos, Hist, 
 de la Monarchie I raneuise, torn. i. p. 1S2, 183.) The veracity, not of 
 the elector, but of Tollins himself, may jusily be suspected. 
 
 q Procopius (1. i. c. 22.) was in total darkness— euit /u.;.;u^ t.? 6„y, 
 ovcux tiif^i (r,.->iT«,. Under the reign of Dagobert, (4. \). 630.) tho- 
 bclavonian tribes of the Sorbi and Venedi already bordered on Thu- 
 ringia. (Mascou, Hist, of the Germans, xv. 3, 4, 5.) 
 
 r Sallust represents the Moors as a remnant of the army of Heracles, 
 (de bell. Jugurih. c. 21.) and Procopius (Vandal. I. ii. c. 10.) as the 
 
 Eosteriiy of the Cananaeans who fled from the robber Joshua, (v*',^, > 
 le (juotes two columns, with a Phoenician inscription. I believe in 
 the columns— I doubt the inscription— and I reject the pedi'^ree. 
 
 • Virgil (Georeic. iii. 339.) and Poinponius Mela (i. 8.) describe th& 
 wandering life of the African shepherds, similar to that of the Araba 
 and Tartars ; and Shaw (p. 222.) is the best cor meniator on the do«. 
 and the geographer. *^ 
 
 J 
 
 H 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
32 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 II t 
 
 iff 
 
 
 i 
 
 ish princes, whose vanity aspired to receive, in the em- 
 peror's name, the ensigns of their regal dignity.* They 
 were astonished by the rapid event, and trembled in 
 the presence of their conqueror. But his approaching 
 departure soon relieved the apprehensions vf a savage 
 and superstitious people ; the number of their wives al- 
 lowed them to disregard the safety of their infant hos- 
 tages ; and when the Roman general hoisted sail in the 
 port of Carthage, he heard the cries, and almost beheld 
 the flames, of the desolated province. Yet he persis- 
 ted in his resolution ; and leaving only a part of his 
 guards to reinforce the feeble garrisons, he intrusted 
 the command of Africa to the eunuch Solomon," who 
 proved himself not unworthy to be the successor of 
 Belisarius. In the first invasion, some detachments, 
 with two officers of merit, were surprised and intercep- 
 ted; but Solomon speedily assembled bis troops, 
 marched from Carthage into the heart of the country, 
 and in two great battles destroyed sixty thousand of 
 the barbarians. The Moors depended on their multi- 
 tude, their swiftness, and their inaccessible mountains; 
 and the aspect and smell of their camels are said to 
 have produced some confusion in the Roman cavalry.* 
 But as soon as they were commanded to dismount, they 
 derided this contemptible obstacle ; as soon as the co- 
 lumns ascended the hills, the naked and disorderly 
 crowd was dazzled by glittering arms and regular ev- 
 olutions ; and the menace of their female prophets was 
 repeatedly fulfilled, that the Moors should be discom- 
 fited by a beardless antagonist. The victorious eunuch 
 advanced thirteen days' journey from Carthage, to be- 
 siege mount Aurasius,y the citadel and at the same time 
 the garden of Numidia. That range of hills, a branch 
 of the great Atlas, contains, within a circumference of 
 one hundred and twenty miles, a rare variety of soil 
 and climate; the intermediate valleys and elevated 
 plains abound with rich pastures, perpetual streams, 
 and fruits of a delicious taste and uncommon magni- 
 tude. This fair solitude is decorated with the ruins of 
 Lambesa, a Roman city, once the seat of a legion, and 
 the residence of forty thousand inhabitants. The Ionic 
 temple of ./Esculapius is encompassed with Moorish 
 huts ; and the cattle now graze in the midst of an am- 
 phitheatre, under the shade of Corinthian columns. A 
 sharp perpendicular rock rises above the level of 
 the mountain, where the African princes deposited 
 their wives and treasure ; and a proverb is familiar to 
 the Arabs, that the man may eat fire, who dares to at- 
 tack the craggy clifl[s and inhospitable natives of mount 
 Aurasius. This hardy enterprise was twice attempted 
 by the eunuch Solomon : from the first, he retreated 
 with some disgrace; and in the second, his patience 
 and provisions were almost exhausted ; and he must 
 again have retired, if he had not yielded to the impet- 
 uous courage of his troops, who audaciously scaled, to 
 the astonishment of the Moors, the mountain, the hos- 
 tile camp, and the summit of the Geminian rock. A 
 citadel was erected to secure this important conquest, 
 and to remind the barbarians of their defeat : and as 
 Solomon pursued his march to the west, the long-lost 
 province of Mauritanian Sitifi was again annexed to the 
 Roman empire. The Moorish war continued several 
 
 t The customary gifts were a sceptre, a crown or cap, a white cloak, 
 a figured tunic and shoes, all adorned with pold and silver, nor were 
 these precious metals less acceptable in the shape of coin. (Procop. 
 Vandal. 1. i. c. 25.) 
 
 n See the African government »nd warfare of Solomon, in Proco- 
 pius. (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 10, 11, 12, 13. 19, 20.) He was recalled, and 
 again restored ; and his last victory dates in the thirteenth year of 
 Justinian. (A. D, 539.) An accident in his childhixxi had rendered 
 him a eunuch : (1. i. c. 11 ) the other Roman generals were amply fur- 
 nished with beards, i-"j> svo*- i^twAMuifsi. (1. ii. c. 8.) 
 
 X This natural antipathy of the horse for the camel, is affirmed by 
 the ancients; (Xenophon. Cyropsed. 1. vi. p. 438. 1, vii. p. 483.492. 
 edit. Hutchinson. Poly»n. Stratagem, vii.6. Plin. Hist. Jilat. viii. 26. 
 JElian de Naiur. Animal. 1. iii. c. 7.) but it is disproved by daily ex- 
 
 Serience, and derided by the best judges, the orientals. (Voyage 
 'Olearius, p. 553.) 
 
 7 Prucopiii.s is the first who describes mount Aurasius. (Vandal. 1. ii. 
 c. 13. De Edific. 1. vi. c. 7.) He may be compared with Leo Africa- 
 BUS, (dell Africa, parte v. in Ramusio, lorn. i. lol. 77 recto.) Marmol. 
 (torn ii. p. 430.) and Shaw, (p. 56—59.) 
 
 years after the departure of Belisarius ; but the laurels 
 which he resigned to a faithful lieutenant, may be justlj 
 ascribed to his own triumph. 
 
 The experience of past faults, which Neutrality of 
 may sometimes correct the mature age the Vijigotha. 
 of an individual, is seldom profitable to the successive 
 generations of mankind. The nations of antiquity, 
 careless of each other's safety, were separately van- 
 quished and enslaved by the Romans. This awtul les- 
 son might have instructed the barbarians of the west to 
 oppose, with timely counsels and confederate arms, 
 the unbounded ambition of Justinian. Yet the same 
 error was repeated, the same consequences were felt, 
 and the Goths, both of Italy and Spain, insensible of 
 their approaching danger, beheld with indifference, and 
 even with joy, the rapid downfall of the Vandals. After 
 the failure of the royal line, Theudes, a valiant and 
 powerful chief, ascended the throne of Spain, which 
 he had formerly administered in the name of Tlieodo- 
 ric and his infant grandson. Under his command, the 
 Visigoths besieged the fortress of Ceuta on the African 
 coast: but, while they spent the sahbath-day in peace 
 and devotion, the pious security of their camp was in- 
 vaded by a sally from the town; and the king himself, 
 with some difficulty and danger, escaped from the 
 hands of a sacrilegicjus enemy.* It was not long be- 
 fore his pride and resentment were gratified by a sup- 
 pliant embassy from the unfortunate Gelimer, who im- 
 plored, in his distress, the aid of the Spanish monarch. 
 but instead of sacrificing these unworthy passions to 
 the dictates of generosity and prudence, Theudes 
 amused the ambassadors, till he was secretly informed 
 of the loss of Carthage, and then dismissed them with 
 obscure and contemptuous advice, to seek in their native 
 country a true knowledue of the state of the Vandals.* 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The long continuance of the Italian war 
 
 Conquest of the 
 
 delayed the punishment of the Visigoths; Romans inSpain, 
 and the eyes of Theudes were closed be- ^' ^- 550—620. 
 fore they tasted the fruits of his mistaken policy. After 
 his death, the sceptre of Spain was disputed by a civil 
 war. The weaker candidate solicited the protection 
 of Justinian, and ambitiously subscribed a treaty of al- 
 liance, which deeply wounded the independence and 
 happiness of his country. Several cities, both on the 
 ocean and the Mediterranean, were ceded to the Roman 
 troops, who afterwards refused to evacuate those pled- 
 ges, as it should seem, either of safety or payn»ent ; and 
 as they were fortified by perpetual supplies from Afri- 
 ca, they maintained their impregnable stations, for the 
 mischievous purpose of inflaming the civil and reli- 
 gious factions of the barbarians. Seventy years elapsed 
 before this painful thorn could be extirpated from the 
 bosom of the monarchy ; and as long as the emperors re- 
 tained any share of these remote and useless posses- 
 sions, their vanity might number Spain in the list of 
 their provinces, and the successors of Alaric in the 
 rank of their vassals."* 
 
 The error of the Goths who reigned in p . 
 Italy was less excusable than that of tens thS" oLu^i 
 their Spanish brethrerf, and their punish- goihs of Italy, 
 ment was still more immediate and ter- ^' ^' ^^' 
 rible. From a motive of private revenge, they enabled 
 their most dangerous enemy to destroy their most val- 
 uable ally. A sister of the great Theodoric had been 
 given in marriage to Thrasimond the African king:« 
 on this occasion, the fortress of Lilybaeum'' in Sicily 
 
 1 Isidor. Chron. p. 722. edit. Grot. Mariana, Hist. Hispan. 1. ▼. r. 
 8. p. 173. Yet according to Isidore, the sieee of Ceuta, and the death 
 of Theudes, happened A. JE. H. 586: A. 0^548; and the place was 
 defended, not by the Vandals, but by the Romans. 
 
 * Procopius, Vandal. 1. i. c. 24. 
 
 b See the original Chronicle of Isidore, and the fifth and sixth books 
 of the History of Spain by Mariana. The Romans were finally ex- 
 pelled by Suintila king of the Visigoths. (A. D. 621—626.) after their 
 reunion to the catholic church. 
 
 c See the marriajre and fa!e of Amalafrida In Procop:us, (Vandal. 
 1. i. c. 8, 9.) and in Cassiodorius, (Var. ix. 1.) the expostulation of her 
 royal brother. Compare likewise theChronicleof Victor Tunnunensis. 
 
 d Lilybaeum was built by the Carthaginians, Olymp. xcv. 4. and in 
 the first Punic war; a strong situation, and excellent harbour, render- 
 ed that place an important object to both nations. 
 
 was resigned^© the Vandals: and the princess Ama- 
 lafrida was attended by a martial train of one thousand 
 nobles, and five thousand Gothic soldiers, who sio-na- 
 lized their valour in the Moorish wars. Their rnerit 
 was over-rated by themselves, and perhaps neglected 
 by the Vandals ; they viewed the country with envy, 
 and the conquerors with disdain ; but their real or fic- 
 titious conspiracy was prevented by a massacre; the 
 Goths were oppressed, and the captivity of Amalafrida 
 was soon followed by her secret and suspicious death. 
 The eloquent pen of Cassiodorius was employed to re- 
 proach the Vandal court with the cruel violation of 
 every social and public duty ; but the vengeance which 
 he threatened in the name of his sovereign%iight be de- 
 rided with impunity, as long as Africa was protected 
 by the sea, and the Goths were destitute of a navy. 
 In the blind impotence of grief and indicrnation, they 
 joyfully saluted the approach of the Romans, enter- 
 tained the fleet of Belisarius in the ports of Sicily, and 
 were speedily delighted or alarmed by the surprising 
 intelligence, that their revenge was executed beyond 
 the measure of their hopes, or perhaps of their wishes. 
 To their friendship the emperor was indebted for the 
 kingdom of Africa, and the Goths might reasonably 
 think, that they were entitled to resume the posses- 
 sion of a barren rock, so recently separated as a nuptial 
 gift from the island of Sicily. They were soon unde- 
 ceived by the haughty mandate of Belisarius, which 
 excited their tardy and unavailing repentance. "The 
 city and promontory of Lilybanm," said the Roman 
 general, » belonged to the Vandals, and I claim them 
 by the right of conquest. Your submission may de- 
 serve the favour of the emperor; your obstinacy will 
 provoke his displeasure, and must kindle a war, that 
 can terminate only in your utter ruin. If you compel 
 us to take up arms, we shall contend, not to reaain the 
 possession of a single city, but to deprive you of all the 
 provinces which you unjustly withhold from their 
 lawful sovereign," A nation of two hundred thousand 
 soldiers might have smiled at the vain menace of Jus- 
 tinian and his lieutenant : but a spirit of discord and dis- 
 affection prevailed in Italy, and the Goths supported, 
 with reluctance, the indignity of a female reign.* 
 Government and J^^ birth of Amalasontha, the regent 
 death of Amaia- ^"^ queen ol Italy,^ united the two most 
 j.int^ha,(iueen of illustrious families of the barbarians. 
 A. D. 522-5^1. ^^^ mother, the sister of Clovis, was 
 descended from the long-haired kings of 
 the Merovinsrtan race ;« and the regal succession o?the 
 Jmali was illustrated in the eleventh generation, by 
 her father, the great Thodoric, whose merit might have 
 ennobled a plebeian origin. The sex of his daughter 
 excluded her from the Gothic throne; but his vigilant 
 tenderness for his family and his people discovered 
 the last heir of the royal line, whose ancestors had ta- 
 ken refuge in Spain; and the fortunate Eutharic was 
 suddenly exalted to the rank of a consul and a prince. 
 He enjoyed only a short time the charms of Amala- 
 sontha, and the hopes of the succession ; and his wid- 
 ow, after the death of her husband and father, was left 
 the guardian of her son Athalaric, and the kingdom of 
 Italy. At the age of about twenty-eight years^ the en- 
 dowments of her mind and person had attained their 
 perfect maturity. Her beauty, which, in the apprehen- 
 sion of Theodora herself, might have disputed the con- 
 quest of an emperor, was animated by manly sense, 
 activity, and resolution. Education and experience 
 nad cultivated her talents; her philosophic studies 
 
 33 
 
 r«!.?"'".P^'"® ^li® different passages of Procopius. (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 5. 
 "othic. 1. 1. c. 3.) 
 
 (cFu^^ \^? reign and character of Amalasontha, see Procopius, 
 
 uuthic. 1. 1. c. 2--A. and Anecdot. c. 16. with the notes of Alemannus,) 
 
 ^assiodorius, (Var. viii. ix. x. and xi. 1.) and Jornandes, (de Rebus 
 
 p. 24l') ^' Successione Regnorum, in Muratori. torn. i. 
 
 mfuT.^® marriage of Theodoric with Audefleda, the sister of Clovis, 
 SZ °® .placed in the year 495, soon after the conquest of Italy. (De 
 •ma'' ^^^ Peuples, torn. ix. p. 213.) The nuptials of Eutharic 
 ^«^ Amalasontha were celebrated in 516. (Cassiydor. in Chron. p. 
 
 Vol. II.-.E s 
 
 were exempt from vanity; and, though she expressed 
 herself with equal elegance and ease in the Greek, the 
 Latin, and the Gothic tongue, the daughter of Theodo- 
 nc maintained m her counsels a discreet and impene- 
 trable silence. By a faithful imitation of the virtues 
 she revived the prosperity of his reign : while she 
 strove with pious care to expiate the faults, and to ob- 
 literate the darker memory, of his declining age. The 
 children ot Boethius and Symmachus were restored 
 to their paternal inheritance: her extreme lenity never 
 consented to inflict any corporal or pecuniary penal- 
 ties on her Roman subjects; and she generously des- 
 pised the clamours of the Goths, who, at the end 
 of forty years, still considered the people of Italy 
 as their slaves or their enemies. Her salutary mea- 
 sures were directed by the wisdom, and celebrated 
 by the eloquenceof Cassiodorius ; she solicited and de- 
 served the friendship of the emperor ; and the kincrdoms 
 of hurope respected, both in peace and war, the majesty 
 of the Gothic throne. But the future happiness of the 
 queen and of Italy depended on the education of her 
 son, who was destined, by his birth, to support the 
 different and almost incompatible characters of the 
 chief of a barbarian camp, and the first magistrate of a 
 civilized nation. From the age of ten years,** Athal* 
 aric was diligently instructed in the arts and sciences, 
 either useful or ornamental for a Roman prince: and 
 three venerable Goths were chosen to in.stil the prin- 
 ciples of honour and virtue into the mind of their young 
 king. But the pupil who is insensible of the benefits, 
 must abhor the restraints, of education ; and the solici- 
 tude of the queen, which affection rendered anxious 
 and severe, offended the untractable nature of her son 
 and his subjects. On a solemn festival, when the 
 Goths were assembled in the palace of Ravenna, 
 the royal youth escaped from his mother's apart- 
 ment, and, with tears of pride and anger, complained 
 of a blow which his stubborn disobedience had pro- 
 voked her to inflict. The barbarians resented the in- 
 dignity which had been offered to their king; accused 
 the regent of conspiring against his life and crown ; 
 and imperiously demanded, that the grandson of The- 
 odoric should be rescued from the dastardly discipline 
 of women and pedants, and educated, like a valiant 
 Goth, in the society of his equals, and the glorious ig- 
 norance of his ancestors. To this rude clamour, im- 
 portunately urged as the voice of the nation, Amalason- 
 tha was compelled to yield her reason and the dearest 
 wishes of her heart. The king of Italy was abandoned 
 to wine, to women, and to rustic sports : and the indis- 
 creet contempt of the ungrateful youth, betrayed the 
 mischievous designs of his favourites and her enemies. 
 Encompassed with' domestic foes, she entered into a 
 secret negociation with the emperor Justinian; ob- 
 tained the assurance of a friendly reception, and had 
 actually deposited at Dyrrachium in Epirus, a treasure 
 of forty thousand pounds of gold. Happy would it 
 have been for her fame and safety, if she had calmly 
 retired from barbarous faction, to the peace and splen- 
 dour of Constantinople. But the mind of Amalasontha 
 was inflamed by ambition and revenge; and while 
 her ships lay at anchor in the port, she waited for the 
 success of a crime which her passions excused or ap- 
 plauded as an act of justice. Three of the most dan- 
 ferous malcontents had been separately removed, un- 
 er the pretence of trust and command, to the frontiers 
 of Italy : they were assassinated by her private emis- 
 saries ; and the blood of these noble Goths rendered 
 the queen-mother absolute in the court of Ravenna, 
 and justly odious to a free people. But if she had la- 
 mented the disorders of her son, she soon wept his ir- 
 reparable loss; and the death of Athalaric, who, at the 
 age of sixteen, was consumed by premature intemper- 
 
 h At the death of Theodoric, his grandson Athalaric is described by 
 Procopius as a boy about eight years old, — axTuiyf^tove? iti). Cassiodo- 
 rius, with authority and reason, adds two years to hia age* — Infantur 
 lum adhuc vix decennem. 
 
 i 
 
 .y * 
 
 V, 
 
 !J 
 
 
 « • s 
 
 J 
 
94 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX» 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 35 
 
 "vades and sub- 
 dues Sicily, 
 A. D. 525. 
 Dec. 31. 
 
 ance, left her destitute of any firm support or legal au- 
 thority. Instead of submitting to the laws of her 
 country, which held as a fundamental maxim, that the 
 succession could never pass from the lance to the dis- 
 taff, the daughter of Tlieodoric conceived the imprac- 
 ticable design of sharing, with one of her cousins, the 
 regal title, and of reserving in her own hands the sub- 
 stance of supreme power. He received the proposal 
 with profound respect and affected gratitude; and the 
 eloquent Cassiodorius announced to the senate and the 
 emperor, that Amalasontha and Theodatus had ascend- 
 ed the throne of Italy. His birth (for his mother was 
 the sister of Theodoric) might be considered as an 
 imperfect title ; and the choice of Amalasontha was 
 more strongly directed by her contempt of his avarice 
 and pusillanimity, which had deprived him of the 
 love of the Italians, and the esteem of the barbarians. 
 But Theodatus was exasperated by the contempt which 
 he deserved : her justice had repressed and reproached 
 the oppression which he exercised against his Tuscan 
 neighbours ; and the principal Goths, united by com- 
 mon guilt and resentment, conspired to instigate his 
 
 „ ., , slow and timid disposition. The letters 
 Her exile and ^ , . ^ i i * l 
 
 death, of congratulation were scarcely despatch- 
 
 A. D. 535. ed, before the queen of Italy was impris- 
 
 sena,' where, after a short confinement, she was stran- 
 gled in the hath, by the order, or with the connivance, 
 of the new king, who instructed his turbulent subjects 
 to shed the blood of their sovereigns. 
 Belisarius in- Juslinian beheld with joy the dissen- 
 sions of the Goths; and the media- 
 tion of an ally concealed and promoted 
 the ambitious views of the conqueror. 
 His ambassadors, in their public audience, demanded 
 the fortress of Lilybseum, ten barbarian fugitives, and 
 a just compensation for the pillage of a small town 
 on the Illyrian borders ; but they secretly negociated 
 "with Theodatus to betray the province of Tuscany, 
 and tempted Amalasontha to extricate herself from 
 danger and perplexity, by a free surrender of the king- 
 dom of Italy. A false and servile epistle was sub- 
 scribed by the reluctant hand of the captive queen: 
 but the confession of the Roman senators, who were 
 sent to Constantinople, revealed the truth of her de- 
 plorable situation; and Justinian, by the voice of a 
 new ambassador, most powerfully interceded for her 
 life and liberty. Yet the secret instructions of the same 
 minister were adapted to serve the cruel jealousy of 
 Theodora, who dreaded the presence and superior 
 charms of a rival ;* he prompted, with artful and am- 
 biguous hints, the execution of a crime so useful to 
 the Romans;' received the intelligence of her death 
 "with grief and indignation, and denounced, in his mas- 
 ter's name, immortal war against the perfidious assas- 
 sin. In Italy, as well as in Africa, the guilt of a 
 usurper appeared to justify the arms of Justinian ; but 
 the forces which he prepared were insufficient for the 
 subversion of a mighty kingdom, if their feeble num- 
 bers had not been multiplied by the name, the spirit, 
 
 I The lake, from the npii?hbouring towns of Elniria, was styled 
 either Vulsiniensis (now of Bolsena)orTarquinien8isi. It is surround- 
 ed with white rocks, and stored with fish and wild-fowl. The youn- 
 ger Pliny (Epist. ii. 96.) celebrates two woody islands that floated on 
 Its waters : if a fable, how credulous the ancients !— if a fact, how care- 
 leFS the modems ! Yet, since Pliny, the island may have been fixed 
 by new and gradual successions. 
 
 [k Amalasontha was dead before this new ambassador, Peter of 
 Thessalonica, arrived in Italy. He could not then have secretly pro- 
 cured her death. " But," says M. de St. Croix, " it is not improbable 
 but that Theodora might have been fngaged in some criminal 
 intrigue with Gudeline, for this wife of, Theodatus had written to her 
 imploring her protection, asserting the entire confidence which her- 
 self and her husband had always placed in her former promises." 
 (Cassiod. Variar. book x. eh. 2U, 21.) See an excellent dissertation 
 upon Amalasontha and the cause of her death, by M. de St. Croix, in 
 Ihe Archives Litierajres, revised by M. Vanderbourg, No. 50. vol. 
 xvii. P.216.-G.] 
 
 1 Yet Procopius discredits his own evidence, (Anecdot. c. 16.) by 
 Confessing that in his public history ho had not spoken the truth. 
 See the epistles from queen Gundelina to the empress Theodora. 
 CVar. z.20,21. 23. and observe a suspicious word, de ilia persona, &c.) 
 with the elaborate Commeiiiar/ of Buai, CU)m. x, p. 177—185.) 
 
 and the conduct of an hero. A chosen troop of guards^ 
 who serveTl on horseback, and were armed with lances 
 and bucklers, attended the person of Belisarius; his 
 cavalry was composed of two hundred Huns, three 
 hunderd Moors, and four thousand confederates^ and the 
 infantry consisted only of three thousand Is;iurians. 
 Steering the same course as in his former expedition, 
 the Roman consul cast anchor before Catana in Sicily, 
 to survey the strength of the island, and to decide 
 whether he should attempt the conquest, or peaceably 
 pursue his voyage for the African coast. He found 
 a fruitful land and a friendly people. Notwithstanding 
 the decay of agriculture, Sicily still supplied the gran- 
 aries of Rome : the farmers were graciously exempted 
 from the oppression of military quarters ; and the 
 Goths, who trusted the defence of the island to the in- 
 habitants, had some reason to complain, that their con- 
 fidence was ungratefully betrayed. Instead of solicit- 
 ing and expecting the aid of the king of Italy, they 
 yielded to the first summons a cheerful obedience : and 
 this province, the first-fruits of the Puiiic wars, was 
 again, after a long separation, united to the Roman 
 empire." The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which 
 alone attempted to resist, was reduced, after a short 
 siege, by a singular stratagem. Belisarius introduced 
 his ships into the deepest recess of the harbour; their 
 boats were laboriously hoisted with ropes and pulleys 
 to the top-mast head, and he filled them with archers, 
 who, from that superior station, commanded the ram- 
 parts of the city. After this easy, though successful 
 campaign, the conqueror entered Syracuse in triumph, 
 at the head of his victorious bands, distributing gold 
 medals to the people, on the day which so gloriously 
 terminated the year of the consulship. He passed the 
 winter season in the palace of ancient kings, amidst the 
 ruins of a Grecian colony, which once extended to a cir- 
 cumference of two and twenty miles :° but in the spring, 
 about the festival of Easter, the prosecution of his 
 designs was interrupted by a dangerous revolt of the 
 African forces. Carthage was saved by the presence 
 of Belisarius, who suddenly landed with a thousand 
 guards. Two thousand soldiers of doubtful faith re- 
 turned t.) the standard of their old commander; and he 
 marched, without hesitation, above fifty miles, to seik 
 an enemy whom he affected to pity and despise. Eight 
 thousand rebels trembled at his approach : they were 
 routed at the first onset, by the dexterity of their mas- 
 ter; and this ignoble victory would have restored the 
 peace of Africa, if the conqueror had not been hastily 
 recalled to Sicily, to appease a sedition which was 
 kindled during his absence in his own camp.** Disor- 
 der and disobedience were the common n)alady of the 
 times : the genius to command, and the virtue to obey, 
 resided only in the mind of Belisarius. 
 
 Althoufih Theodatus descended from Keign and weak- 
 a race of heroes, he was ignorant of the "f/^^ rhe^GoUUc 
 art, and averse to the dangers, of war. king of Italy, 
 Although he had studied the writings q}\''^^ 
 of Plato and Tully, philosophy was in- a. d. 536. ' 
 capable of purifying his mind from the August, 
 basest passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased 
 a sceptre by ingratitude and murder : at the first men- 
 ace of an enemy, he degraded his own majesty, and 
 that of a nation, which already disdained their unwor- 
 thy sovereign. Astonished by the recent example of 
 Gelimer, he saw himself dragged in chains through 
 the streets of Constantinople: the terrors which Beli- 
 sarius inspired, were heightened by the eloquence of 
 
 m For the conquest of Sicily, compare the narrative of Procopius 
 with the complaints of Totila. (Gothic. 1. i. c. 5. 1. iii. c. 16.) The 
 Gothic queen had lately relieved that thankless island. (Var. ix« 
 10,11.) 
 
 n The ancient magnitude and splendour of the five quarters of Sy- 
 racuse, are delineated by Cicero, (in Verrem, actio ii. 1. iv. c. .52, 53.) 
 Strabo,(l. vi.;p. 415.) and D'Orville Sicula,(tom. ii. p. 174—202.) TUe 
 new city, restored by Augustus, shrunk towards the island. 
 
 o Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 14, 15.) so clearly relates the return of 
 Belisarius into Sicily. ( p. 146. edit. Hoeschelii,) that I am astonished 
 at the sir.ini:« misapprehension and reproaches cf a learned critic 
 (CEuvres de la Woihe le Ya^fer, lom. viii. p. 162, 163 ) • 
 
 Peter, the Byzantine ambassador : and that bold and 
 subtle advocate persuaded him to sign a treaty, too ig- 
 nominious to become the foundation of a lasting peace. 
 It was stipulated, that in the acclamations of the Ro- 
 man people, the name of the emperor should be always 
 proclaimed before that of the Gothic king; and that as 
 often as the statue of Theodatus was erected in brass 
 or marble, the divine image of .lustinian should be 
 placed on its right hand. Instead of conferring, the 
 king of Italy was reduced to solicit, the honours of 
 the senate; and the consent of the emperor was made 
 indispensable before he could execute, against a priest 
 or senator, the sentence either of death or confiscation. 
 The feeble monarch resigned the post-ession of Sicily ; 
 offered, as the annual mark of his dependence, a crown 
 of gold, of the weight of three hundred pounds ; and 
 promised to supply, at the requisition of his sovereign, 
 three thousand Gothic auxiliaries for the service of the 
 empire. Satisfied with these extraordinary conces- 
 sions, the successful agent of Justinian hastened his 
 journey to Constantinople : but no sooner had he reach- 
 ed the Alban villa,P than he was recalled by the anx- 
 iety of Theodatus; and the dialogue which passed be- 
 tween the king and the ambassador deserves to be rep- 
 resented in its original simplicity. "Are you of opin- 
 ion that the emperor will ratify this treaty ? Perhaps. 
 If he refuses, what consequence will ensue? War. 
 Will such a war be just or reasonable 1 Must assuredly .• 
 every one should act according to his character. What 
 is your meaning ? You are a philosopher — Justinian is 
 emperor of the Romans .• it would ill become the disciple 
 of Plato to sited the blood of thousands in his private 
 quarrel: the successor of Augustus should vindicate his 
 rights, and recover by arms the ancient provinces of his 
 empire.''^ This reasoning might not convince, but it 
 was sufficient to alarm and subdue, the weakness of 
 Theodatus ; and he soon descended to his last ofl^er, 
 that for the poor equivalent of a pension of forty-eight 
 thousand pounds sterling, he would resign the kingr- 
 dom of the Goths and Italians, and spend the remain- 
 der of his days in the innocent pleasures of philosophy 
 and agriculture. Both treaties were intrusted to the 
 hands of the ambassador, on the frail security of an 
 oath not to produce the second till the first had been 
 positively rejected. The event may be easily foreseen : 
 Justinian required and accepted the abdication of the 
 Gothic king. His indefatigable agent returned from 
 Constantinople to Ravenna, with ample instructions; 
 and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom and gene- 
 rosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension, 
 with the assurance of such honours, as a subject and a 
 catholic miffht enjoy; and wisely referred the final 
 execution of the treaty, to the presence and authority 
 of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense, two 
 Roman generals, who had entered the province of Dal- 
 matia, were defeated and slain by the Gothic troops. 
 From blind and abject despair, Theodatus capriciously 
 rose to groundless and fatal presumption,** and dared 
 to receive, w ith menace and contempt, the ambassador 
 of Justinian ; who claimed his promise, solicited the 
 allegiance of his subjects, and boldly asserted the 
 inviolable privilege of his own character. The march 
 of Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride; and as the 
 first campaign' was employed in the reduction of Sici 
 
 p The ancient Alba was ruined In the first age of Rome. On the 
 same spot, oral least in the neighbourhood, successively arose, 1. The 
 Tilla (tf Pompey, &c. 2. A camp of the praetorian cohorts. 3. The 
 niodern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano. (Procop. Goth. 1. ii. c. 
 4. Cluver. Ital. Antiq. torn. il. p. 914.) 
 
 • q A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce — Afriracapta»i»/n<fMs 
 cum nato peribit ;*a sentence of portentous ambiguity, (Gothic. 1. i. 
 c. 7.) which has been published in unknown characters by Opsopae- 
 S"9, an editor of iheonicles. The Pere Maltret has promised a coni- 
 inemary ; but all his promises have been vain and fruitless. 
 
 ' In his chronology, imitated in some degree from Thucydides, Pro- 
 copius begins each spring the years of Justinian and of the Gothic 
 J^ar ; and his first aera coincides with the first of April 535. and not 
 536, according to the Annals of Barf)nius. (Pagi. Crit. torn. ii. p. 555. 
 vrho is f jllowed by Muratori and the editors of Sigonius.) Yet in 
 •ome passages we are at a loss to reconcile the dales of Procopius with 
 Ainisolf, and with the Chronicle of Marcellinua. 
 
 ly, the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the 
 second year of the Gothic war.» 
 
 After Belisarius had left sufficient gar- b r • • 
 risons in Palermo and Syracuse, he em- vade?ilafy!and 
 barked his troops at Messina, and landed reduces Naples, 
 them, without resistance, on the oppo- •^•^•^^• 
 site shores of Rhegium. A Gothic prince, who had 
 married the daughter of Theodatus, was stationed 
 with an army to guard the entrance of Italy ; but he 
 imitated, without scruple, the example of a sovereign, 
 faithless to his public and private duties. The perfi- 
 dious Ebermor deserted with his followers to the Ro- 
 man camp, and was dismissed to enjoy the servile 
 honours of the Byzantine court.* From Rhegium to 
 Naples, the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost 
 always in view of each other, advanced near three 
 hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people of 
 Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the 
 name and religrion of the Goths, embraced the specious 
 excuse, that their ruined walls were incapable of de- 
 fence; the soldiers paid a just equivalent for a plentiful 
 market ; and curiosity alone interrupted the peaceful 
 occupations of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, 
 which has swelled to a great and populous capital, 
 long cherished the language and manners of a Grecian 
 colony ;^ and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this 
 elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose 
 and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious 
 opulence of Rome.' As soon as the place was inves- 
 ted by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the 
 deputies of the people, w ho exhorted him to disregard 
 a conquest unworthy of his arms, to seek the Go^thic 
 king in a field of battle, and, after his victory, to claim, 
 as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the depen- 
 dent cities. *'When I treat with my enemies,'- replied 
 the Roman chief, with a haughty smile, " I am more 
 accustomed to give than to receive counsel: but I hold 
 in one hand inevitable ruin, and in the other, peace and 
 freedom, such as Sicily now enjoys." The impatience 
 of delay urged him to grant the most liberal terms; his 
 honour secured their performance : but Naples was 
 divided into two factions ; and the Greek democracy 
 was inflamed by their orators, who, with much spirit 
 and some truth, represented to the multitude, that the 
 Goths would punish their defection, and that Belisari- 
 us himself must esteem their loyalty and valour. ThMr 
 deliberations, however, were not perfectly free : the city 
 was commanded by eight hundred barbarians, whose 
 wives and children were detained at Ravenna, as the 
 pledge of their fidelity ; and even the Jews, who were 
 rich and numerous, resisted, with desperate enthusi- 
 asm, the intolerant laws of Justinian. In a much 
 later period, the circumference of Naples* measured 
 only two thousand three hundred and sixty-three 
 paces 'J the fortifications were defended by precipices 
 or the sea; when the acqueducts were intercepted, a 
 supply of water might be drawn from wells and foun- 
 
 I The series of the first Gothic war is represented by Procopius (1. 
 i. c. 5—29. 1. ii. c. 1— 30. 1. iii. c. 1.) till the captivity of Vitiges. With 
 the aiil of Sigonius (0pp. torn. i. de. Imp. Occident. I. xvii. xviii.) and 
 Muratori. (Annali d'llalia, torn, v.) I have gleaned some few addition- 
 al facts. 
 
 t Jornandes, de Rebus Gelicis, c. GO. p. 702. edit. Grot, and torn. i. 
 p. 221. Muratori, de Success. Regn. p. 241. 
 
 u Nero (says Tacitus, Annal. xv. 35.) Neapolim quasi Graecam 
 urbem deligit. One hundred and fifty years afterwards, in the lime 
 of Seplimius Severus, the Hellejiism of the Neapolitans is praised by 
 
 PhiloSlratUS : ytvoi 'EKKtfvtq xxi a.-uxe< cSiv *a. t xf rfro\jA»i tww Kt- 
 
 yui* 'EK/.f.vtxot ttiri. (Icon. 1. i. p. 763. edit. Olear.) 
 
 V The otium of Naples is praised by the Roman poets, by Virgil, 
 Horace, Silius Italicus, and Statins. (Cluver. Ilal. Ant. 1. iv. p. 
 1149, 1150.) In an elegant epistle, CSylv. 1. iii. 5. p. 14—98. edit. 
 Markland.) Statins undertakes the difficult task of drawing his wife 
 from the pleasures of Rome to that calm retreat. 
 
 X This measure was taken by Roger I. after the conquest of Na- 
 ples, (A. D. 1139.) which he made the capital oftiis new kingdom. 
 (Giannone, Istoria Civile, torn. ii. p. 169.) That city, the third in 
 christian Europe, is now at least twelve miles in circumference, (Jul. 
 Caesar. Capaccii. Hist. Neapol. 1. i. p. 47.) and contains more inhabi- 
 tants (350,000) in a given space, than any other spot in the known 
 world. 
 
 y Not geometrical, but common, paces or steps, of 22 French 
 inches : (D'Anville, Mesures Itineraries, p. 7, 8.) the 2363 do not 
 make an English mile. 
 
 M'i 
 
 I 
 
 !! 
 
 ir 
 
36 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 tains ; and the stock of provisions was sufficient to con- 
 sume the patience of the besiegers. At the end of 
 twenty days, that of Belisarius was almost exhausted, 
 and he had reconciled himself to the diagrace of aban- 
 doning the siege, that he might march, before the win- 
 ter season, against Rome and the Gothic king. But 
 his anxiety was relieved by the bold curiosity of an 
 Isaurian, who explored the dry channel of an aqueduct, 
 and secretly reported, that a passage might he perfora- 
 ted to introduce a file of armed soldiers into the heart of 
 the city. When the work had been silently executed, the 
 humane general risked the discovery of his secret, by a 
 last and fruitless admonition of the impending danger. 
 In the darkness of the night, four hundred Romans en- 
 tered the aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which 
 they fastened to an olive tree, into the house or garden 
 of a solitary matron, sounded their trumpets, surprised 
 the sentinels, and gave admittance to their companions, 
 who on all sides scaled the walls, and burst open the 
 |rates of the city. Every crime which is punished by 
 social justice, was practised as the rights of war ; the 
 Huns were distinguished by cruelty and sacrilege, and 
 Belisarius alone appeared in the streets and churches of 
 Naples to moderate the calamities which he predicted. 
 "The gold and silver," he repeatedly exclaimed, "are 
 the just rewards of your valour .But spare the inhabi- 
 tants, they are christians, they are suppliants, they are 
 now your fellow-subjects. Restore the children to 
 their parents, the wives to their husbands; and show 
 them by your generosity, of what friends they have 
 obstinately deprived themselves." The city was saved 
 by the virtue and authority of its conqueror;' and when 
 the Neapolitans returned to their houses, they found 
 some consolation in the secret enjoyment of their hid- 
 den treasures. The barbarian garrison enlisted in the 
 service of the emperor; Apulia and Calabria, deliver- 
 ed from the odious presence of the Goths, acknow- 
 ledged his dominion; and the tusks of the Calydonian 
 boar, which were still shown at Beneventum, are cu- 
 riously described by the historian of Belisarius.* 
 
 The faithful soldiers and citizens of 
 ^^'°luiy°" Naples had expected their deliverance 
 from a prince, who remained the inactive 
 and almost indifferent spectator of their 
 ruin. Theodatus secured his person 
 within the walls of Rome, while his cavalry advanced 
 forty miles on the Appian way, and encamped in the 
 Pomptine marshes; which, by a canal of nineteen 
 miles in length, had been recently drained, and con- 
 verted into excellent pastures.'' But the principal 
 forces of the Goths were dispersed in Dalmatia, Ve- 
 netia and Gaul ; and the feeble mind of their king 
 was confounded by the unsuccessful event of a divi- 
 nation, which seemed to presage the downfall of his 
 empire.* The most abject slaves have arraigned the 
 guilt or weakness of an unfortunate master. The 
 character of Theodatus was rigorously scrutinized by 
 a free and idle camp of barbarians, conscious of their 
 privilege and power: he was declared unworthy of his 
 race, his nation and his throne ; and their general Vi- 
 tiges, whose valour had been signalized in the lilyrian 
 
 » Belisarius was reproved by pope Silverius for the massacre. He 
 repfopled Naples, and imporied colonies of African captives into Sici- 
 ly, Calabria, and Apulia. (Hiat. Miscell. 1. xvi. in Muratori, totn. i. 
 p. 106, 107.) 
 
 ^ X Beneventum was built by Dioniede, the nephew of Meleager, 
 <Cluver. torn. ii. p. 1195, 1196.) The Calydonian hunt is a picture of 
 savage life. (Ovid, Metamorph. I. viii.) Thirty or forty hertzes were 
 Ipacued against a hog : the brutes (not the hog) quarreled with a 
 lady fir the head. 
 
 b The Decennovium is strangely confounded by Cluverius (torn. ii. 
 p. 1007.) with the river Ufens. It was in truth a canal of nineteen 
 mUes, from Forum Appii to Terracina, on which Horace embarked in 
 the ni'jht. The Decennovium which is mentioned by Lucan, Dion 
 Cassius, and Cassiodorius, has bepn sufliciently ruined, restored, and 
 obliterated. (D'Anville, Analyse de I'lialie, p. 1S5, <5tc.) 
 
 c A Jew praiifipd his contempt and hatred for all the christians, by 
 enclosins three bands, each of ten hogs, and discriminated by the 
 names of Goths, Greeks, and Romans. Of the first, almost all were 
 found dead— almost all the second were alive— of the third, half 
 died, and the rest lost their bristles. No unsuiuble emblem of the 
 event. 
 
 A. D. 536. 
 
 August — 
 A. D. 540. 
 
 war, was raised with unanimous applause, on the buck* 
 lers of his companions. On the first rumour, the abdi- 
 cated monarch fled from the justice of his country ; but 
 he was pursued by private revenge. A Goth whom 
 he had injured in his love, overtook Theodatus on the 
 Flaminian way, and, regardless of his unmanly cries, 
 slaughtered him, as he lay prostrate on the ground, 
 like a victim (says the historian) at the foot of the al- 
 tar. The choice of the people is the best and purest 
 title to reign over them; yet such is the prejudice of 
 every age, that Vitiges impatiently wished to return 
 to Ravenna, where he might seize, w^ith the reluctant 
 hand of the daughter of Amalasontha, some faint shad* 
 ow of hereditary right. A national council was im- 
 mediately held, and the new monarch reconciled the 
 impatient spirit of the barbarians to a measure of dis- 
 grace, which the misconduct of his predecessor ren- 
 dered wise and indispensable. The Goths consented 
 to retreat in the presence of a victorious enemy ; to de- 
 lay till the next spring the operations of offensive war; 
 to summon their scattered forces ; to relinquish their 
 distant possessions, and to trust even Rome itself to 
 the faith of its inhabitants. Leuderis, an aged war- 
 rior, was left in the capital, with four thousand sol- 
 diers ; a feeble garrison, which might have seconded 
 the zeal, though it was incapable of opposing the 
 wishes, of the Romans. But a momentary enthu- 
 siasm of religion and patriotism was kindled in their 
 minds. They furiously exclaimed, that the apostolic 
 throne should no longer be profaned by the triumph or 
 toleration of Arianism ; that the tombs of the Csesars 
 should no longer be trampled by the savages of the 
 north ; and, without reflecting, that Italy must sink in- 
 to a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the 
 restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of free- 
 dom and prosperity. The deputies of the pope and 
 clergy, of the senate and people, invited the lieutenant 
 of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and 
 to enter the city, whose gates would be thrown open 
 for his reception. As soon as Belisarius had fortified 
 his new conquests, Naples and Cumae, he advanced 
 about twenty miles to the banks of the Vulturnus, con- 
 templated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and halted at 
 the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The 
 work of the censor, after the incessant use of nine cen- 
 turies, still preserved its primaeval beauty, and not a 
 flaw could be discovered in the large polished stones, 
 of which that solid though narrow road was so firmly 
 compacted.'' Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin 
 way, which, at a distance from the sea and the marshes, 
 skirted in a space of one hundred and twenty miles along 
 the foot of the mountains. His enemies 
 had disappeared : when he made his en- *^^^'Rome,®°^'" 
 trance through the Asinarian gate, the A. D.536. 
 garrison departed without molestation ^^' *^" 
 along the Flaminian way ; and the city, after sixty 
 years' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the 
 barbarians. Leuderis alone, from a motive of pride or 
 discontent, refused to accompany the fugitives ; and 
 the Gothic chief, himself a trophy of victory, was sent 
 with the keys of Rome to the throne of the emperor 
 Justinian.* 
 
 The first days, which coincided with sieeeofRome 
 the old Saturnalia, were devoted to mu- by the Goths, 
 tual congratulation and the public joy; \P'^' 
 and the catholics prepared to celebrate, "*^ * 
 
 without a rival, the approaching festival of the nativi- 
 ty of Christ. In the familiar conversation of a hero, 
 the Romans acquired some notion of the virtues which 
 
 d Bergier (Hist, des Grands Chemins des Remains, torn. i.p. 221- 
 228. 440—444.) examines the structure and materials, while D'Anville 
 (Analyse d'lialie, p. 200—213.) defines the geocraphical line. 
 
 e Of the first recovery of Komo, the year (536) is certain, from the 
 series of events, rather than from the corrupt or interpolated text of 
 Procopius : the mo?Uh (December) is ascertained by Lvagrius ; (1. '^ 
 c. 19.) and the day (the tenth) may be admitted on the slight evidence 
 of Nicephorus Callistus, (I. xvii.c. 13.) For this accurate chronologT 
 we are indebted to the diligence and judgmeai uf Faei, (torn, ii- P* 
 .-iiS, 560.) 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 history ascribed to their ancestors ; they were edified 
 by the apparent respect of Belisarius for the successor 
 of St. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured in the 
 midst of war, the blessings of tranquillity and justice. 
 They applauded the rapid success of his arms, which 
 overran the adjacent country as far as Narni, Perusia, 
 and Spoleto; but they trembled, the senate, the clergy] 
 and the unwarlike people, as soon as they understood 
 that he had resolved, and would speedily be reduced, 
 to sustain a siege against the powers of the Gothic 
 monarchy. The designs of Vitiges were executed, du- 
 ring the winter season, with diligence and eflTect. 
 From their rustic habitations, from their distant gar- 
 risons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the ^de- 
 fence of their country; and such were their numbers, 
 that after an army had been detatched for the relief of 
 Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men 
 marched under the royal standard. According to the 
 degrees of rank or merit, the Gothic king distributed 
 arms and horses, rich gifts and liberal promises : he 
 moved along the Flaminian way, declined the useless 
 sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected the impreg- 
 nable rock of Narni, and arrived within two miles of 
 Rome at the foot of the Milvian bridge. The narrow 
 passage was fortified with a tower, and Belisarius had 
 computed the value of the twenty days which must 
 be lost in the construction of another bridge. But the 
 consternation of the soldiers of the tower, who either 
 fled or deserted, disappointed his hopes, and betrayed 
 his person into the most imminent danger. At the 
 head of one thousand horse, the Roman general sallied 
 from the Flaminian gate to mark the ground of an ad- 
 vantageous position, and to survey the camp of the 
 barbarians ; but while he still believed them on the other 
 side of the Tiber, he was suddenly encompassed and 
 assaulted by their innumerable squadrons. The fate of 
 haly depended on his life: and the deserters pointed to 
 the conspicuous horse, a bay' with a white face, which 
 he rode on that memorable day. "Aim at the bay horse," 
 was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, every 
 javelin was directed, against that fatal object, and the 
 command was repeated and obeyed by thousands who 
 were ignorant of its real motive. The bolder barba- 
 rians advanced to the more honourable combat of swords 
 and spears ; and the praise of an enemy has graced 
 the fall of Visandus, the standard-bearer,* who main- 
 tained his foremost station, till he was pierced with 
 thirteen wounds, perhaps by the hand of Belisarius 
 himself. The Roman general was stronor, active, and 
 dexterous : on every side he discharged his weighty 
 and mortal strokes : his faithful guards imitated his 
 valour and defended his person ; and the Goths, after 
 the loss of a thousand men, fled before the arms of a 
 hero. They were rashly pursued to their camp ; and 
 the Romans, oppressed by multitudes, made a gradual 
 and at length a precipitate retreat to the gates of the 
 city : the gates were shut against the fugitives ; and 
 the public terror was increased by the report, that Beli- 
 sarius was slain. His countenance was indeed disfig- 
 ured by sweat, dust, and blood ; his voice was hoarse, 
 his strength was almost exhausted ; but his unconquer- 
 able spirit still remained : he imparted that spirit to his 
 desponding companions, and their last desperate charge 
 was felt by the flying barbarians, as if a new army, 
 vigorous and entire, had been poured from the city. The 
 Flaminian gate was thrown open to a real 
 BeHs"ar?Js. <"""»ph ; but it was not before Beliarius 
 had visited every post, and provided for 
 the public safety, that he could be persuaded by his wife 
 
 37 
 
 and friends, to taste the needful refreshments of food 
 and sleep. In the more improved state of the art 
 of war, a general is seldom required or even permitted 
 to display the personal prowess of a soldier ; and the 
 example of Belisarius may be added to the rare ex- 
 amples of Henry IV. of Pyrrhus, and of Alexander. 
 
 After this first and unsuccessful trial 
 of their enemies, the whole army of the ^'^ (lefence 
 Goths passed the Tiber, and formed the ""^ ^**"'^- 
 siege of the city, which continued above a year, till 
 their final departure. Whatever fancy may conceive, 
 the severe compass of the geographer defines the cir- 
 cumference of Rome within a line of twelve miles and 
 three hundred and forty-five paces : and that circum- 
 ference, except in the Vatican has invariably been the 
 same from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but 
 obscure reign of the modern popes."^ But in the day of 
 her greatness, the space within her walls was crowded 
 with habitations and inhabitants; and the populous 
 suburbs, that stretched along the public roads, were 
 darted like so many rays from one common centre. 
 Adversity swept away these extraneous ornaments, 
 and left naked and desolate a considerable part even of 
 the seven hills. Yet Rome in its present state could 
 send into the field above thirty thousand males of a 
 niilitary age;' and, notwithstanding the want of dis- 
 cipline and exercise, the far greater part, inured to the 
 hardships of poverty, might be capable of bearing 
 arms for the defence of their country and religion* 
 The prudence of Belisarius did not neglect this impor- 
 tant resource. His soldiers were relieved by the zeal 
 and diligence of the people, who watched while ihei/ 
 slept, and laboured while they reposed : he accepted 
 the voluntary service of the bravest and most indigent 
 of the Roman youth ; and the companies of townsmen 
 sometimes represented, in a vacant post, the presence 
 of the troops which had been drawn away to more es- 
 sential duties. But his just confidence was placed in 
 the veterans who had fought under his banner in the 
 Persian and African wars ; and although that gallant 
 band was reduced to five thousand men, he undertook, 
 with such contemptible number.*?, to defend a circle of 
 twelve miles, against an army of one hundred and fifty- 
 thousand barbarians. In the walls of Rome, which 
 Belisarius constructed or restored, the materials of an- 
 cierit architecture may be discerned ;^ and the whole 
 fortification was completed, except in a chasm still ex- 
 tant between the Pincian and Flaminian gates, which 
 the prejudices of the Goths and Romans left under the 
 efl^ectual guard of St. Peter the apostle.' The battle- 
 ments or bastions were shaped in sharp angles : a ditch, 
 broad and deep, protected the foot of the rampart ; and 
 the archers on the rampart were assisted by military en- 
 gines ; the balista, a powerful cross-bow, which darted 
 short but massy arrows; the onagri, or wild asses, 
 which, on the principle of a sling, threw stones and bul- 
 lets of an enormous size." A chain was drawn across 
 the Tiber ; the arches of the acqueducts were made im- 
 pervious, and the mole or sepulchre of Hadrian" was 
 
 ' A horse of a bay or red colour was styled r«\iB? by the Greeks, 
 Dalain by thp barbarians, and spadix bv the Romans. Honesti spa- 
 ".ICC3, says Virgil. (Georgic. 1. iii. 72. wi'lh the Observations of Mar- 
 I'n and Heyne.) >:.r»Sil or £»*ou, signifies a branch of the palm- 
 ^pp, whose name, 9o«n$, is 'synonymous to red. (Aulas Gellius, ii. 
 
 1 1 interpret /3*vJ«>.*eioe, not as a proper name, but an office, stand- 
 ara-bearer, from bandum, (vexillum,) a barbaric word adopted by the 
 Jjfpeks and Romans. (Paul Diacon. I. i. c. 20. p. 760. Grot. Nomina 
 wihica, p. 575. Ducange, Gloss. Latin, torn. \. p. 539, 540.) 
 
 b M. D'Anville has given, in the Memoirs of the Academy for the 
 year 1756, (torn. xxx. p. 198-236.) a planof Rome on a smaller scale 
 but far more accurate than that which he had delineated in 1738 for 
 Rollin's History. Experience had improved his knowledge • and 
 instead of Rossi's topography, he used the new and excellent' map 
 of Nolli. Pliny's old measure of thirteen must be reduced to eigM 
 miles. It is easier to alter a text, than to remove hills or buildings 
 
 i In the year 1709, Labal (Voyages en Italie, tom. iii. p. 218.) leck- 
 oned 138,568 christian souls, besides 8 or 10,000 Jews— without souls t 
 —in the year 1763, the numbers exceeded 160,(»00. 
 
 k The accurate eye of Nardini (Roma Antica, 1. i. c. viii. p. 31.) 
 could distinguish the tumultuarie opera di Balisario. 
 
 1 The fissure and leaningin the upper part of the wall, which Pro- 
 copius observed, (Goth. 1. i. c. 13.) is visible to the present hour. 
 (Donat. Roma Vctus, I. i. c. 17. p. 53, 54.) • 
 
 m Lipsius (0pp. torn. iii. Puliorcet. 1. iii.) was ignorant of this 
 clear and conspicuous passage of Procopius. (Goih. 1. i. c. 21.) The 
 engine was named onx^fo.-, the wild ass, a calciirando. (Hen. Steph. 
 Thcsaur. Linguae Graec. tom. ii. p. 1340, 1341. tom. iii. p. 877.) f 
 have seen an ingenious model, contrived and executed by general 
 Melville, which imitates or surpasses the art of antjquiiy. 
 
 n The description of this mausoleum, or mole in Procopius, (1. i. c. 
 25.) is the first and best. The height above the walls T%i^ty ir >.j*SeJ 
 »e/.i,v. On Nolli's great plan, the sides meaaure 260 Eoelish feet. 
 
 
 
 tii 
 
 t'l 
 
 ! 
 
 il 
 
 it 
 
 -ji 
 
 4 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 »■' 
 
 38 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 89 
 
 r: 
 
 ,.r,.l. 
 
 I*-'. I \ 
 
 converted, for the first time, to the uses of a citadel. 
 That venerable structure, which contained the ashes of 
 the Antonines, was a circular turret rising from a 
 quadrangular basis: it was covered with the white 
 marble of Paros, and decorated by the statues of gods 
 and heroes ; and the lover of the arts must read with a 
 sigh, that the works of Praxiteles or Lysippus were 
 torn from their lofty pedestals, and hurled into the 
 ditch on the heads of the besiegers." To each of his 
 lieutenants, Belisarius assij^ned the defence of a gate, 
 with the wise and perernptory instruction, that, whatev- 
 er might be the alarm, they should steadily adhere to 
 their respective posts, and trust their general for the 
 safety of Rome. The formidable host of the Goths 
 was insufficient to embrace the ample measure of the 
 city ; of the fourteen gates, seven only were invested 
 from the Praenestine to the Flaminian way ; and Viii- 
 ges divided his troops into six camps, each of which 
 was fortified with a ditch and rampart. On the Tus- 
 can side of the river, a seventh encampnicnt was 
 formed in the field or circus of the Vatican, for the im- 
 portant purpose of commanding the Milvian bridge 
 and the course of the Tiber; but they approached with 
 devotion the adjacent church of St. Peter ; and the 
 threshold of the holy apostles was respected during 
 the siege by a christian enemy. In the ages of victo- 
 ry, as often as the senate decreed some distant con- 
 quest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, 
 in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus.P 
 Domestic war now rendered the admonition superflu- 
 ous, and the ceremony was superseded by the estab- 
 lishment of a new religion. But the brazen temple of 
 Janus was left standing in the forum ; of a size suffi- 
 cient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits 
 in height, of a human form, but with two faces, direc- 
 ted to the east and west. The double gates were like- 
 wise of brass; and a fruitless effort to turn them on 
 their rusty hinges, revealed the scandalous secret, that 
 some Romans were still attached to the superstition of 
 their ancestors. 
 
 Kepuises a gene- Eighteen days were employed by the 
 rai assault of the besiegers, to provide all the instruments 
 Gotha. Qf attack which antiquity had invented. 
 
 Fascines were prepared to fill the ditches, scaling-lad- 
 ders to ascend the walls. The largest trees of the 
 forest supplied the timbers of four battering-ram«; 
 their heads were armed with iron ; they were suspen- 
 ded by ropes, and each of them was worked by the 
 labour of fiftj men. The lofty wooden turrets moved 
 on wheels oT" rollers, and formed a spacious platform of 
 the level of the rampart. On the morning of the nine- 
 teenth day, a general attack was made from the 
 Praenestine gate to the Vatican : seven Gothic columns, 
 with their military engines, advanced to the assault; 
 and the Romans who lined the ramparts, listened with 
 doubt and anxiety to the cheerful assurances of their 
 commander. As soon as the enemy approached the 
 ditch, Belisarius himself drew the first arrow ; and 
 such was his strength and dexterity, that he transfixed 
 the foremost of the barbarian leaders. A shout of ap- 
 plause and victory was re-echoed along the wall. He 
 drew a second arrow, and the stroke was followed with 
 the same success and the same acclamation. The Ro- 
 man general then gave the word, that the archers 
 should aim at the teams of oxen ; they were instantly 
 covered with mortal wounds ; the towers which they 
 drew remained useless and immovable, and a sintjle 
 moment disconcerted the laborious projects of the king 
 
 o Praxiteles excelled in Fauns, and that of Athens was his own 
 masterpiece. Rome now contains above thirty of the same character. 
 When the ditch of St. Angelo was cleansed under Urban VIII. the 
 workmen found the sleeping Faun of the Barberini palace ; but a leg, 
 a thigh, and the right arm, had been broken from that beautiful statue. 
 (Winkelman, Hist, de I'Art, lom. ii. p. 52, 53. torn. iii. p. 265) 
 
 P Procopius has given the best description of the tomple of Janus, a 
 national deity of Latium. (Heyne. Excurs. v. ad 1. vii. ^neid.) It 
 was once a gate in the primitive city of Romulus and Numa. (NardinI, 
 p. 13. 256. 329.) Virgil ha« describwd the ancient rile, like a poet and 
 aa antiquarian. 
 
 of the Goths. After this disappointment, Vitiges still 
 continued, or feigned to continue, the assault of the 
 Salarian gate, that he might divert the attention of his 
 adversary, while his principal forces more strenuously 
 attacked the Praenestine gate and the sepulchre of 
 Hadrian, at the distance of three miles from each other. 
 Near the former, the double walls of the Vivarium'' 
 were low or broken; the fortifications of the latter were 
 feebly guarded : the vigour of the Goths was excited 
 by the hope of victory and spoil : and if a single post 
 had given way, the Romans, and Rome itself, were ir- 
 recoverably lost. This perilous day was the most glo- 
 rious in the life of Belisarius. Amidst tumult and dis- 
 may, the whole plan of the attack and defence was 
 distinctly present to his mind ; he observed the changes 
 of each instant, weighed every possible advantage, 
 transported his person to the scenes of danger, and 
 rommunicated his spirit in calm and decisive orders. 
 The contest was fiercely maintained from the morninor 
 to the evening; the Goths were repulsed on all sides, 
 and each Roman might boast, that he had vanquished 
 thirty barbarians, if the strange disproportion of num- 
 bers were not counterbalanced by the merit of one 
 man. Thirty thousand Goths, according to the con- 
 fession of their own chiefs, perished in this bloody ac- 
 tion ; and the multitude of the wounded was equal to 
 that of the slain. When they advanced to the assault, 
 their close disorder suflfered not a javelin to fall with- 
 out effect ; and as they retired, the populace of the 
 city joined the pursuit, and slaughtered, with impu- 
 nity, the backs of their flying enemies. „. ... 
 Belisarius instantly sallied from the 
 gates ; and while the soldiers chanted his name and 
 victory, the hostile engines of war were reduced to 
 ashes. Such was the loss and consternation of the 
 Goths, that, from this day, the siege of Rome degene- 
 rated into a tedious and indolent blockade; and they 
 were incessantly harassed by the Roman general, who, 
 in frequent skirmishes, destroyed above five thousand 
 of their bravest troops. Their cavalry was unpractised 
 in the use of the bow; their archers served on foot; 
 and this divided force was incapable of contending 
 with their adversaries, whose lances and arrows, at a 
 distance, or at hand, were alike formidable. The con- 
 summate skill of Belisarius embraced the favourable 
 opportunities : and as he chose the ground and the 
 moment, as he pressed the charge or sounded the re- 
 treat,*" the squadrons which he detached were seldom 
 unsuccessful. These partial advantages diffused an 
 impatient ardour among the soldiers and people, who 
 began to feel the hardships of a siege, and to disregard 
 the dangers of a general engagement. Each plebeian 
 conceived himself to be a hero, and the infantry, who, 
 since the decay of discipline, were rejected from the 
 line of battle, aspired to the ancient honours of the 
 Roman legion. Belisarius praised the spirit of his 
 troops, condemned their presumption, yielded to their 
 clamours, and prepared the remedies of a defeat, the 
 possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. 
 In the quarter of the Vatican, the Romans prevailed; 
 and if the irreparable moments had not been wasted in 
 the pillage of the camp, they might have occupied the 
 Milvian bridge, and charged in the rear of the Gothic 
 host. On the other side of the Tiber, Belisarius ad- 
 vanced from the Pincian and Salarian gates. But his 
 army, four thousand soldiers perhaps, was lost in a spa- 
 cious plain ; they were encompassed and oppressed by 
 fresh multitudes, who continually relieved the broken 
 ranks of the barbarians. The valiant leaders of the in- 
 fantry were unskilled to conquer; they died : the re- 
 
 q rircrrium was an angle in the new wall enclosed for wild bea.sts. 
 (Procopius, Goth. I. i. c. 23.) The spot is still visible in Nardini, (!• 
 iv. c. 5. p. 159 160.) and" NoUi's great plan of Rome. 
 
 r For the Roman trumpet and its various notes, consult Lirsius, J" 
 Militia Romana. (Opp.tom. iii. 1. iv. Dialog, x. p. 125-129.) A nwJe 
 of distinguishing the charge by the horse-trumpet of solid brass, aiiJ 
 the retreat bv the foot-trumpet of leather and light wood, was recom- 
 mended by Procopiuj, and adopted by Belisarius, (Go:h. 1. ii.c.'23.) 
 
 treat (a hasty retreat) was covered by the prudence of 
 the general, and the victors started back with affright 
 from the formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The 
 reputation of Belisarius was unsullied by a defeat ; and 
 the vain confidence of the Goths was not less service- 
 able to his designs, than the repentance and modesty 
 of the Roman troops. 
 
 From the moment that Belisarius had 
 '^"^diiy. * ^ determined to sustain a siege, his assid- 
 uous care provided Rome against the 
 danger of famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms. 
 An extraordinary supply of corn was imported from 
 Sicily ; the harvests of Campania and Tuscany were 
 forcibly swept for the use of the city ; and the rights 
 of private property were infringed by the strong plea 
 of the public safety. It might easily be foreseen 
 that the enemy would intercept the acqueducts ; and 
 the cessation of the water-mills was the first incon- 
 venience, which was speedily removed by mooring 
 large vessels, and fixing mill-stones in the current of 
 the river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the 
 trunks of trees, and polluted with dead bodies : yet so 
 effectual were the precautions of the Roman general, 
 that the waters of the Tiber still continued to give 
 motion to the mills and drink to the inhabitants : the 
 more distant quarters were supplied from domestic 
 wells ; and a besieged city might support, without im- 
 patience, the privation of her public baths. A large 
 portion of Rome, from the Praenestine gate to the 
 church of St. Paul, was never invested by the Goths; 
 their excursions were restrained by the activity of the 
 Moorish troops : the navigation of the Tiber, and the 
 Latin, Appian, and Ostian ways, were left free and 
 unmolested for the introduction of corn and cattle, or 
 the retreat of the inhabitants, who sought a refnge in 
 Campania or Sicily. Anxious to relieve himself from 
 a useless and devourinor multitude, Belisarius issued 
 his peremptory orders for the instant departure of the 
 women, the children, and slaves ; required his soldiers 
 to dismiss their male and female attendants, and regu- 
 lated their allowance, that one moiety should he given 
 in provisions, and the other in money. His foresight 
 was justified by the increase of the public distress, as 
 soon as the Goths had occupied two important posts in 
 the neighbourhood of Rome. By the loss of the port, 
 or, as it is now called, the city of Porto, he was de- 
 prived of the country on the right of the Tiber, and the 
 best communication w ith the sea : and he reflected 
 with grief and anger, that three hundred men, could he 
 have spared such a feeble band, mijjht have defended 
 its impregnable w^orks. Seven miles from the capi- 
 tal, between the Appian and the Latin ways, two 
 principal acqueducts crossing, and again crossing 
 each other, enclosed within their solid and lofty 
 arches a fortified space,* where Vitiges established a 
 camp of seven thousand Goths to intercept the convoys 
 of Sicily and Campania. The granaries of Rome were 
 insensibly exhausted, the adjacent country had been 
 wasted with fire and sword ; such scanty supplies as 
 might yet be obtained by hasty excursions, were the 
 reward of valour, and the purchase of wealth : the for- 
 age of the horses, and the bread of the soldiers, never 
 failed ; but in the last months of the siege, the people 
 were exposed to the miseries of scarcity, unwholesome 
 food,* and contaffious disorders. Belisarius saw and 
 pitied their sufferings; but he had foreseen, and he 
 watched, the decay of their loyalty, and the progress 
 of their discontent. Adversity had awakened the Ro- 
 
 » Procopius (G«th. 1. ii. c. 3.) has forgot to name these acqueducts : 
 nor can such a double intersection, at such a distance from Rome, be 
 clearly ascertained from the writings of FrontinusFabretli andEschi- 
 nard, de Aquisand de Agro Romano, or from the local mapsof Lameti 
 and Cingolani, Seven or eight miles from the city, (50 stadia,) on the 
 road to Albano, between the Latin and Appian ways, 1 discern the 
 remains of an acqueduct, (probably the Septimian) a series (630 paces) 
 of arches twenty-five feet high, (jv»!^<" la-xyan.) 
 
 t They made sausages, xK/^xzitg, of mule's flesh : unwholesome, if 
 the ani^nals had died of the plague. Otherwise the famous Bologna 
 sausages are said to be made of ass flesh. (Voyages de Labat, toni. ii. 
 p. 218.) 
 
 mans from the dreams of grandeur and freedom, and 
 taught ihem the humiliating lesson, that it was of small 
 moment to their real happiness, whether the name of 
 their master was derived from the Gothic or the Latin 
 language. The lieutenant of Justinian listened to their 
 just complaints, but he rejected with disdain the idea of 
 flight or capitulation ; repressed their clamorous impa- 
 tience for battle ; amused them with the prospect of sure 
 and speedy relief; and secured himself and the city from 
 the effects of their despair or treachery. Twice in each 
 month he changed the station of the ofl^cers to whom 
 the custody of the gates was committed : the various 
 precautions, of patroles, watch-words, lights, and mu- 
 sic, were repeatedly employed to discover whatever 
 passed on the ramparts ; outguards were posted beyond 
 the ditch, and the trusty vigilance of dogs supplied the 
 more doubtful fidelity of mankind. A letter was inter- 
 cepted, which assured the king of the Goths, that the 
 Asinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should 
 be secretly opened to his troops. On the Exile of popeSyl- 
 prool orsuspicionof treason, several sen- verius, A. D.KJZ, 
 alors were banished, and the pope Syl- Nov. 17. 
 verius was summoned to attend the representative of 
 his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the Pincian pal- 
 ace." The ecclesiastics whofollow^ed their bishop, were 
 detained in the first or second apartment,* and he alone 
 was admitted to the presence of Belisarius. The con- 
 queror of Rome and Carthage was modestly seated at 
 the feet of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch : 
 the general was silent, but the voice of reproach and 
 menace issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. 
 Accused by credible witnesses, and the evidence of his 
 own subscription, the successor of St. Peter was des- 
 poiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean 
 habit of a monk, and embarked, without delay, for a 
 distant exile in the east. At the emperor's command, 
 the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of a new 
 bishop ; and after a solemn invocation of the Holy 
 Ghost, elected the deacon Vigilius, who had purchased 
 the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of 
 gold. The profit, and consequently the guilt, of this 
 simony, was imputed to Belisarius : but the hero obey- 
 ed the orders of his wife ; Antonina served the passions 
 of the empress; and Theodora lavished her treasures, 
 in the vain hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile orin- 
 different to the council of Chalcedon.>' 
 
 The epistle of Belisarius to the emper- Deliverance of 
 or announced his victory, his danger, and ^ e city, i 
 his resolution. ''According to your commands, we 
 have entered the dominions of the Goths, and reduced 
 to your obedience, Sicily, Campania, and the city of 
 Rome ; but loss of these conquests will be more dis- 
 graceful than their acquisition was glorious. Hitherto 
 we have successfully fought against the multitudes of 
 the barbarians, but their multitudes may finally prevail. 
 Victory is the gift of Providence, but the reputation of 
 kings and generals depends on the success or the failure 
 of their designs. Permit me to speak with freedom : 
 if you wish that we should live, send us subsistence; 
 if you desire that we should conquer, send us arms, 
 horses, and men. The Romans have received us as 
 friends and deliverers; but in our present distress, they 
 will be either betrayed by their confidence, or we shall 
 be oppressed by f/ietr treachery and hatred. For my- 
 self, my life is consecrated to your service: it is yours 
 to reflect, whether my death in this situation will con- 
 
 u The name of the place, the hill, and the adjoining gate, were all 
 derived from the senator Pincius. Some recent vestiges of temples 
 and churches are now smoothed in the garden of the Minims of the 
 Trinita del Monte. (Nardini, 1. iv. c.7. p. 196. Eschinard, p. 209,210. 
 the old plan of Butfalino, and the great plan of Nolli.) Behsarms had 
 fixed his station between the Pincian and Salarian gates. (Procop. 
 Golh.l. i. c. 15.) 
 
 X From the mention of the primum et secundum velum, it should 
 seem that Belisarius, even in a siege, represented the emperor, and 
 maintained the proud ceremonial of the Byzantine palace. 
 
 y Of this act of sacrilege, Procopius tGoth. 1. i. c. 25) is a dry and 
 reluctant witness. The narratives of Liberalus (Breviarium. c. 22.) 
 and Anastasius (de Vit. Pont. p. 39.) are characteristic, but passionate. 
 Hear the execrations of cardinal Baronius : (A. D. 536, No. 123. A. D. 
 53S, ^o. 4 — 20.) portentum, facinus omni execratioue dignum. 
 
 (I 
 
 t i) 
 
 ( 
 
 { 
 
 t(' 
 
 
 
 »i 
 
40 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 yr 
 
 I i 
 
 tribute to the glory and prosperity of your reign." 
 Perhaps that reign would have been equally prosper- 
 ous, if the peaceful master of the east had abstained 
 from the conquest of Africa and Italy; but as Justin- 
 ian was ambitious of fame, he made some efforts, they 
 were feeble and languid, to support and rescue his vic- 
 torious general. A reinforcement of sixteen hundred 
 Sclavonians and Huns was led by Martin and Valeri- 
 an ; and as they had reposed during the winter season 
 in the harbours of Greece, the strength of the men and 
 horses was not impaired by the fatigues of a sea-voy- 
 age; and they distinguished their valour in the first 
 sally against the besiegers. About the time of the 
 summer solstice, Euthalius landed at Terracina with 
 large sums of money for the payment of the troops : he 
 cautiously proceeded along the Appian way, and this 
 convoy entered Rome through the gate Capena,« while 
 iJehsarius, on the other side, diverted the attention 
 of the Goths by a vigorous and successful skirmish. 
 Ihese seasonable aids, the use and reputation of which 
 were dexterously managed by the Roman general, re- 
 vived the courage, or at least the hopes, of the soldiers 
 and people. The historian Procopius was despatched 
 with an important commission, to collect the troops 
 and provisions which Campania could furnish, or Con- 
 stantinople had sent; and the secretary of Belisarius 
 was soon followed by Antonina herself,* who boldly 
 traversed the posts of the enemy, and returned with the 
 oriental succours to the relief of her husband and the 
 besieged city. A fleet of three thousand Isaurians 
 cast anchor in the bay of Naples, and afterwards at 
 Ustia. Above two thousand horse, of whom a part 
 were Thracians, landed at Tarentum ; and, after the 
 junction of five hundred soldiers of Campania, and a 
 tram of waggons laden with wine and flour, they di- 
 rected their march on the Appian way from Capua to 
 the neighbourhood of Rome. The forces that arrived 
 by land and sea, were united at the mouth of the Tiber 
 Antonina convened a council of war ; it was resolved 
 to surmount with sails and oars the adverse stream of 
 the river; and the Goths were apprehensive of disturb- 
 ing, by any rash hostilities, the negociation to which 
 Belisarius had craftily listened. They credulously 
 believed that they Faw no more than the vanguard of a 
 fleet and army, which already covered the Ionian sea 
 and the plains of Campania ; and the illusion was sup- 
 ^>fl K^ ^^^ haughty language of the Roman general, I 
 when he gave audience to the ambassadors of Viticres. 
 Alter a specious discourse to vindicate the justice of 
 his cause, they declared, that, for the sake of peace, 
 they were disposed to renounce the possession of Sicily. 
 
 fpnVn! ^"'•^r''' f- 7! 'r^ generous," replied his lieu- 
 tenant, with a disdainful smile, "in return for a gift 
 which you no longer possess, he presents you with an 
 
 Goths the sovereignty of the British Islandf" Belisa- 
 lius rejected with equal firmness and contempt the offer 
 
 llth^i^r^V^" '"r^^ '^' ^^'^^^ amba'ssadors to 
 seek their fate from the mouth of Justinian himself; 
 
 and consented, with seeming reluctance, to a truce of 
 
 ?f sori^ P T '^^''T^' solstice to the equinox 
 ^[♦l'^ ^l Prudence might not safely trust either the I 
 oaths or hostages of the barbarians, but the conscious 
 superiority of the Roman chief wa's expressed In the 
 Belisarius re- distribution of his troops. As soon as 
 lu^e?ofZll «' hunger compelled the Goths to 
 
 ^taiy. evacuate Alba, Porto, and Centumcella? 
 N^ini^Snoir' ^"r^-^^y.«"PPli^d; the garrisons of 
 J^arni, Spoleto, and Perusia, were reinforced, and the 
 seven camps of the besiegers were gradually encom! 
 passed with the calamities of a siege. The^raye^s 
 
 Chap. IT. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 been consecrated by th« F<r«r^;l^ !J? ?u ^^*' n»emorable spot has 
 he is speaking of a woman. ""' x-^, Jcx.... (Goth. 1. ii. c. 4.) Yet 
 
 and pilgrimage of Datius, bishop of Milan, were not 
 without effect; and he obtained one thousand Thraci- 
 ans and Isaurians, to assist the revolt of Liguria against 
 her Arian tyrant. At the same time, John the Sangui- 
 nary, the nephew of Vitalian, was detached with two 
 thousand chosen horse, first to Alba on the Facino 
 Jake, and afterwards to the frontiers of Picenum on the 
 Hadriatic sea. »'In that province," said Belisarius, 
 the Goths have deposited their families and treas' 
 ures, without a guard or the suspicion of danger. 
 Doubtless ihey will violate the truce; let them feel 
 your presence, before they hear of your motions. Spare 
 the Italians; suffer not any fortified places to remain 
 hostile in your rear ; and faithfully reserve the spoil of 
 an equal and common partition. It would not be rea- 
 sonable," he added with a laugh, » that whilst we are 
 toiling to the destruction of the drones, our more fortu- 
 nate brethren should rifle and enjoy the honey." 
 
 The whole nation of the Ostroo-oths 
 had been assembled for the attack? and TheGothsraiso 
 was almost entirely consumed in the Rome;^' '^ 
 siege of Rome. If any credit be due to ^- ^' 538. 
 an intelligent spectator, one-third at least ^^^'"'^ ' 
 of their enormous host was destroyed, in frequent and 
 bloody combats under the walls of the city. The bad 
 tame and pernicious qualities of the summer air, miffht 
 already be imputed to the decay of agriculture Ind 
 population; and the evils of famine and pestilence 
 were aggravated by their own licentiousness, and the 
 untriendly disposition of the country. While Vititres 
 struggled with his fortune, while he hesitated between 
 shame and ruin, his retreat was hastened by domestic 
 alarrns. The king of the Goths was informed by 
 rembling messengers, that John the Sanguinary spread 
 the devastations of war from the Apennine to the Ha- 
 driatic ; that the rich spoils and innumerable captives 
 of Picenum were lodged in the fortifications of Rimini • 
 and that this formidable chief had defeated his uncle' 
 insulted his capital, and seduced, by secret correspond 
 dence, the fidelity of his wife, the imperious daughter 
 of Amalasontha Yet, before he retired, Vitiges made 
 a last effort, either to storm or to surprise the city A 
 secret passage was discovered in oneof the acqueducts ; 
 two citizens of the Vatican were tempted by bribes to 
 intoxicate the guards of the Aurelian ^ate ; an attack 
 , was meditated on the walls beyond the Tiber, in a 
 place which was not fortified with towers ; and the bar- 
 barians advanced, with torches and scaling-ladders, to 
 w:sT^tfK^^^^'"'^" ^^^^- B"t eLy attempt 
 
 r^ hi hn'^ ^? '^'^ ^"'^'P'^ "'^'^^"^^ °^ Belisarius 
 and his band of veterans, who, in the most perilous 
 
 moments did not regret the absence of their compan- 
 ions ; and the Goths, alike destitute of hope and sub- 
 sistence, clamorously urged their departure, before 
 the truce should expire, and the Roman cavalry should 
 again be united. One year and nine days after the 
 commencement of the siege, an army, so lately strong 
 
 n^l iTP\7!' ^"'^"^ '^"^^ ^^"^« «"d tumultuously re? 
 passed the Milvian bridge. They repassed not wkh 
 
 impunity: their thronging multitudes, oppressed in a 
 narrow passage, were driven headlong i^to the Tiber 
 by their own fears and the pursuit of The enenV; and 
 
 flict^HTr ff^'"^^^''f "yi"? f^om the Pincian ga te,T- 
 flicted a severe and disgraceful wound on their retreat 
 The slow length of a sickly and despond/ng hosj 
 
 whL '?K ' V'k^^-'^ '^^"^ '^' F'^"""i-" ^'-yf from 
 whence he barbarians were sometimes compd ed to 
 
 deviate, lest they should encounter the hostile Sns 
 
 tha guarded the high road to Rimini and Ravenna! 
 
 \et so powerful was this flying army, that Vitirres 
 
 spared ten thousand men for the defence of the cities 
 
 which he was most solicitous to preserve, and detached 
 
 h.s nephew Uraias, with an adequate force, fbr the 
 
 chastisement of rebellious Milan. At the head of his 
 
 principal army, he besieged Rimini, only tMr'y^three 
 
 wh^c1;r|;i^tfou^^?a^^?er^ ^^'^^^' of ^an^.>.anw. 
 
 41 
 
 miles distant from the Gothic capital. A feeble ram- 
 part, and a shallow ditch were maintained by the skill 
 and valour of John the Sanguinary, who shared the 
 danger and fatigue of the meanest soldier, and emula- 
 ted, on a theatre less illustrious, the military virtues 
 lose Rimini; °^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ commander. The towers 
 and battering engines of the barbarians 
 were reodered useless ; their attacks were repulsed ; 
 and the tedious blockade, which reduced the garrison 
 to the last extremity of hunger, afforded time for the 
 union and march of the Roman forces. A fleet which 
 had surprised Ancona, sailed along the coast of the Ha- 
 diiatic to the relief of the besieged city. The eunuch 
 Nars'es landed in Picenum with two thousand Heruli 
 and five thousand of the bravest troops of the east. The 
 rock of the Apennine was forced ; ten thousand veterans 
 moved round the foot of the mountains, under the com- 
 mand of Belisarius himself; and a new army, whose 
 encampment blazed with innumerable lights, appeared 
 to advance along the Flaminian way. Overwhelmed 
 with astonishment and despair, the Goths abandoned 
 the siege of Riniini, their tents, their standards, and 
 their leaders ; and Vitiges, who grave or 
 retire to^Raven- f^Howed the example of flightr never 
 halted till he found a shelter within 
 the walls and morasses of Ravenna. 
 Jealousy of the To these walls, and to some fortresses 
 Roman generals, destitue of any mutual support, the Goth- 
 • ic monarchy was now reduced. The 
 provinces of Italy had embraced the party of the em- 
 peror; and his army, gradually recruited to the number 
 of twenty thousand men, must have achieved an easy 
 and rapid conquest, if their invincible powers had not 
 been weakened by the discord of the Roman chiefs. 
 Before the end of the siege, an act of blood, ambigu- 
 ous and indiscreet, sullied the fair fame of Belisarius. 
 Presidius, a loyal Italian, as he fled from Ravenna to 
 Rome, was rudely stopped by Constantino, the military 
 governor of Spoleto, and despoiled, even in a church, 
 of two daggers richly inlaid with gold and precious 
 stones. As soon as the public danger had subsided, 
 Presidius complained of the loss and injury : his com- 
 plaint was heard, but the order of restitution was diso- 
 beyed by the pride and avarice of the offender. Exas- 
 perated by the delay, Presidius boldly arrested the 
 general's horse as he passed through the forum ; and 
 with the spirit of a citizen, demanded the common 
 benefit of the Roman laws. The honour of Belisarius 
 was engaged ; he summoned a council ; claimed the 
 obedience of his subordinate oflicer; and was provoked, 
 by an insolent reply, to call hastily for the presence 
 of his guards. Constantino, viewing their entrance 
 as the signal of death, drew his sword, and rushed 
 on the general, who nimbly eluded the stroke, and was 
 protected by his friends; while the desperate assassin 
 was disarmed, dragged into a neighbouring chamber, 
 and executed, or rather murdered, by the guards, at 
 Death of Con *^® arbitrary command of Belisarius.^ 
 sianiine!"^ In this hasty act of violence, the guilt of 
 Constantino was no longer remembered ; 
 the despair and death of that valiant oflicer were se- 
 cretly imputed to the revenge of Antonina ; and each 
 of his colleagues, conscious of the same rapine, was 
 apprehensive of the same fate. The fear of a common 
 enemy suspended the effects of their envy and discon- 
 tent; but in the confidence of approaching victory, 
 they instigated a powerful rival to oppose the con- 
 queror of Rome and Africa. From the domestic ser- 
 vice of the palace, and the administration of the pri- 
 The eunuch ^ate revenue, Narses the eunuch was 
 Narses. Suddenly exalted to the head of an ar- 
 
 f This transaction is related in the public history (Goth. 1. ii. c. 8.) 
 Jf ith candour or caution ; in the Anecdotes (c. 7.) with malevolence or 
 irepdnm ; but Marcellinus, or rather his continuator, (in Chron.) casts 
 a shade of premeditated assassination over the death of Constantine. 
 He had performed pood service to Rome and Spoleto, (Procop. Goth. 
 '• i. c. 7. 14.) but Alemannufl confoundi him with a Constantianus 
 comes stabuli. 
 
 Vol. II.— F 
 
 my; and the spirit of a hero, who afterwards equalled 
 the merit and glory of Belisarius, served only to per- 
 plex the operations of the Gothic war. To his prudent 
 counsels, the relief of Rimini was ascribed by the 
 leaders of the discontented faction, who exhorted Nar- 
 ses to assume an independent and separate command. 
 The epistle of Justinian had indeed enjoined his obe- 
 dience to the general ; but the dangerous exception, 
 "as far as may be advantageous to the public service," 
 reserved some freedom of judgment to the discreet fa- 
 vourite, who had so lately departed from the sacred 
 and familiar conversation of his sovereign. In the ex- 
 ercise of this doubtful right, the eunuch perpetually 
 dissented from the opinions of Belisarius; and, after 
 yielding with reluctance to the siege of Urbino, he de- 
 serted his colleague in the night, and marched away 
 to the conquest of the ^milian province. The fierce 
 and formidable bands of the Heruli were attached to 
 the person of Narses ;«> ten thousand Romans and con- 
 federates were persuaded to march under his banners ; 
 every malcontent embraced the fair opportunity of re- 
 venging his private or imaginary wrongs; and the 
 remaining troops of Belisarius were divided and dis- 
 persed from the garrisons of Sicily to the shores of the 
 Hadriatic. His skill and perseverance Firmness and 
 overcame every obstacle: Urbino was authority of 
 taken, the sieges of Faesulaj, Orvieto, Bei'sarius. 
 and Auximum were undertaken and vigorously prose- 
 cuted ; and the eunuch Narses was at length recalled 
 to the domestic cares of the palace. All dissension* 
 were healed, and all opposition was subdued, by the 
 temperate authority of the Roman general, to whom 
 his enemies could not refuse their esteem ; and Beli^ 
 sarins inculcated the salutary lesson, that the forces of 
 the state should compose one body, and be animated 
 by one soul. But in the interval of discord, the Gotha 
 were permitted to breathe ; an important season was 
 lost, Milan was destroyed, and the northern provinces 
 of Italy were afllicted by an inundation of the Franks. 
 When Justinian first meditated the invasion of luiy 
 conquest of Italy, he sent ambassadors by the Franks, 
 to the kings of the Franks, and adjured A. 0,538, 539. 
 them, by the common lies of alliance and religion, to 
 join in the holy enterprise against the Arians. The 
 Goths, as their wants were more urgent, employed a 
 more effectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, 
 by the gift of lands and money, to purchase the friend- 
 ship, or at least the neutrality, of a light and perfidi- 
 ous nation." But the arms of Belisarius, and the re- 
 volt of the Italians, had no sooner shaken the Gothic 
 monarchy, than Theodebert of Austrasia, the most pow- 
 erful and warlike of the Merovingian kings, was per- 
 suaded to succour their distress by an indirect and 
 seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of 
 their sovereign, ten thousand Burgundians, his recent 
 subjects, descended from the Alps, and joined the 
 troops which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt 
 of Milan. After an obstinate siege, the capital of Li- 
 guria was reduced by famine, but no capitulation 
 could be obtained, except for the safe retreat of the 
 Roman garrison. Datius, the orthodox bishop, who 
 had seduced his countrymen to rebellion ' and ruin, es- 
 caped to the luxury and honours of the Byzantine 
 court ;K but the clergy, perhaps the Arian clergy, were 
 slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by the de» 
 
 d They refused to serve after his departure ; sold their captives and 
 cattle to the Goths ; and swore never to fight against them. Procopius 
 introduces a curious digression on the manners and adventures of ihi« 
 wandering nation, a part of whom finally emigrated to Thule or 
 Scandinavia. (Goth.l. ii. c. 14, 15.) 
 
 c This national reproach of perfidy (Procop. Goth. 1. ii. c. 25.) of- 
 fends the ear of La Molhe le Vayer, (torn. viii. p. 163-165) who cri- 
 ticises, as if he had not read, ihe Greek liistorian. 
 
 t Baronius applauds his treason, and justities the catholic bishops— 
 qui ne sub hereiico principe degant omnem lapidem movent — a useful 
 caution. The more rational Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, i. v. p. 54.) 
 hints at the guilt of perjury, and blames at least the imprudence of 
 Datius. 
 
 g St. Datius was more successful against devils than against barba- 
 rians. He travelled with a numerous retinue, and occupied at Corinth 
 a large house, (Baronius, A. D. 538. No. 89. A. D. 539. No. 20.) 
 
 h 
 
 i 
 
/ 
 
 
 42 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. II 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 >.'! 
 
 fenders of the catholc faith. Three hundred thousand 
 males were reported to be slain ;•* the female sex, and 
 the more precious spoil, was resigned to the Burgnn- 
 
 dians ; and the houses, or at least the 
 ^"^liVan'* 0^ walls, of Milan, were levelled with the 
 
 ground. The Goths, in their last mo- 
 ments, were revenged by the destruction of a city, 
 second only to Rome in size and opulence, in the splen- 
 dour of its buildings, or the number of its inhabitants ; 
 and Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate of his 
 deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this 
 successful inroad, Theodebert himself, in the ensuinij 
 spring, invaded the plains of Italy with an army of 
 one hundred thousand barbarians.' The king, and 
 some chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, 
 and armed with lances; the infantry, without bows or 
 spears, were satisfied with a shield, a sword, and a 
 double-edged battle-axe, which, in their hands, be- 
 came a deadly and unerringf weapon. Italy trembled 
 at the march of the Franks ; and both the Gothic prince 
 and the Roman general, alike ignorant of their de- 
 signs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship 
 of these danjjerous allies. Till he had secured the 
 passage of the Po on the bridge of Pavia, the grandson 
 of Clovis dissembled his intentions, which he at length 
 declared by assaulting, almost at the same instant, the 
 hostile camps of the Romans and Goths. Instead of 
 uniting their arms, they fled with equal precipitation; 
 and the fertile, though desolate, provinces of Liguria 
 and iEmilia were abandoned to a licentious host of 
 barbarians, whose rage was not mitigated by any 
 thoughts of settlement or conquest. Among the cities 
 which they ruined, Genoa, not yet constructed of mar- 
 ble, is particularly enumerated ; and the deaths of thou- 
 sands, according to the regular practice of war, appear 
 to have excited less horror than some idolatrous sacri- 
 fices of women and children, which were performed 
 with impunity in the camp of the most christian king. 
 If it were not a melancholy truth, that the first and 
 most cruel sufferings must be the lot of the innocent 
 tind helpless, history might exult in the misery of the 
 conquerors, who, in the midst of riches, were left des- 
 titute of bread or wine, reduced to drink the waters 
 of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of distempered cat- 
 tle. The dysentery swept away one-third of their ar- 
 my : and the clamours of his subjects, who were im- 
 patient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert to listen 
 with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius. 
 The memory of this inglorious and destructive warfare 
 was perpetuated on the medals of Gaul ; and Justini- 
 an, without unsheathing his sword, assumed the title 
 of conqueror of the Franks. The Merovingian prince 
 was oflfended by the vanity of the emperor ; ho aflTected 
 to pity the fallen fortunes of the Goths; and his insi- 
 dious offVir of a fcederal union was fortified by the 
 promise or menace of descending from the Alps at the 
 head of five hundred thousand men. His plans of 
 conquest were boundless and perhaps chimerical. 
 The king of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justini- 
 an, and to march to the gates of Constantinople;'' he 
 was overthrown and slain ' by a wild bull" as he hun- 
 ted in the Belgic or German forests. 
 
 h M^Jf^uS,( Tp.««9vTa, (compare Procopius, Goth. 1. ii. c. 7. 21.) 
 Yf;t such population ig incrediblp ; and the socond or ihiril ciiy of 
 Italy need not repine if we only decimate the numbers of the present 
 text. Both JMilriD and Genoa revived in less than thirty years. (Paul 
 Diacon. de Gestis Lanijobard. 1. ii. c. 38.) 
 
 i Resides Procopius, perhaps Iik) Komnn, see the Chronicles of 
 Marius and Marcellinus, Jornandes, (in Success. Rej:n. in Muraiori, 
 loni. i. p. 241.) and Gregory of Tours, (1. iii. c. 32. in loni. ii. of the 
 Historians of France.) Grej^ory 8upi)os» s a defeat of Holisarius, who, 
 in Almoin, (de Gestis Franc. 1. ii. c. 23. in tom. iii. p. 59.) is slain by 
 the Franks. 
 
 k A,rathias, I. i. p. 14, 1,'. Could he have seduced or subdued the 
 Gepit'.ae or Lombards of Pannonia, the Greek historian is confident 
 that he must have been destroyed in Thrace. 
 
 I The king pointed his spear— the bull overturned a tree on his 
 head -he expired the same day. Such is the si«>ry of Ajrathias ; but 
 the original historians of France (torn. ii. p. 202. 4U3. &5rf. 667.) impute 
 his death to a fev<T. 
 
 m Without losing myself in a labyrinth of species and names— the 
 •urochs, urus, bisons, babulw, bonasus, buffalo, Sec. (Buffon. Hist. Nat. 
 
 As soon as Belisarius was delivered Belisarius be. 
 from his foreign and domestic enemies, sieges Kaven- 
 he seriously applied his forces to the "*' 
 final reduction of Italy. In the siege of Osimo, the 
 general was nearly transpierced with an arrow, if the 
 mortal stroke had not been intercepted by one of his 
 guards, who lost, in that pious oflice, the use of his 
 hand. The Goths of Osimo, four thousand warriors, 
 with those of Faesulae and the Cottian Alps, were 
 among the last who maintained their independence; 
 and their gallant resistance, which almost tired the 
 patience, deserved the esteem, of the conqueror. His 
 prudence refused to subscribe the safe conduct which 
 they asked, to join their brethren of Ravenna; but 
 they saved, by an honourable capitulation, one moiety 
 at least of their wealth, with the free alternative of re- 
 tiring peaceably to their estates, or enlisting to serve 
 the emperor in his Persian wars. The multitudes 
 which yet adhered to the standard of Vitiges, far sur- 
 passed the number of the Roman troops; but neither 
 prayers, nor defiance, nor the extreme danger of his 
 most faithful subjects, could tempt the Gothic king 
 beyond the fortifications of Ravenna. These fortifica- 
 tions were, indeed, impregnable to the assaults of art 
 or violence ; and when Belisarius invested the capital, 
 he was soon convinced that famine only could tame 
 the stubborn spirit of the barbarians. The sea, the 
 land, and the channels of the Po, were guarded by the 
 vigilance of the Roman general; and his morality ex- 
 tended the rights of war to the practice of poisoning 
 the waters," and secretlj' firing the granaries," of a be- 
 sieged city.P While he pressed the blockade of Ra- 
 venna, he was surprised by the arrival of two ambas- 
 sadors from Constantinople, with a treaty of peace, 
 which Justinian had imprudently signed, without 
 deigning to consult the author of his victory. By this 
 disgraceful and precarious agreement, Italy and the 
 Gothic treasure were divided, and the provinces be- 
 yond the Po were left with the regal title to the suc- 
 cessor of Theodoric. The ambassadors were ea^rer 
 to accomplish their salutary commission ; the captive 
 Vitiges accepted, with transport, the unexpected off*er 
 of a crown; honour was less prevalent among the 
 Goths, than the want and appetite of fond ; and the 
 Roman chiefs, who murmured at the continuance of 
 the war, professed implicit submission to the com- 
 mands of the emperor. If Belisarius had possessed 
 only the courage of a soldier, the laurel would have 
 been snatched from his hand by timid and envious 
 counsels; but in this decisive moment, he resolved, 
 with the magnanimity of a statesman, to sustain alone 
 the danger and merit of generous disobedience. Each 
 of his officers gave a written opinion, that the siege of 
 Ravenna was impracticable and hopeless: the general 
 then rejected the treaty of partition, and declared his 
 own resolution of leading Vitiges in chains to the feet 
 of Justinian. The Goths retired wiih doubt and dis- 
 may : this peremptory refusal deprived them of the 
 only signature which they could trust, and filled their 
 minds with the just apprehension, that a saoracious 
 
 43 
 
 tom. xi. and Supplement, tom. iii. vi.) it is certain, that in the 
 sixth century a large wild species of horned cattle was hunted in the 
 preat forests of the Vosges in Lorraine, and the Ardennes. (Greg. 
 Turon. tom. ii. 1. x. c. 10. p. 3o9.) 
 
 n In the siege of Auximum, he first laboured to demolish an old 
 acqueduct, and then cast into llie stream, 1. dead bmlies; 2. mis- 
 chievous herbs; 3. quick lime, which is named (says Procopius, 1. ii. 
 C.29.) t.Tav:; by the ancients; by the moderns a<rii,-oj. Yet both 
 words are used as synonymous in Galen, Dioscorides, and Lucian. 
 (Hen. Steph. Thrsaur. Ling. Grsec torn. iii. p. 748.) 
 
 o The Goths suspected I\laihasi:in'.ha as an accomplice in the mis- 
 chief, which perhaps was occasioned by accidental lishinin". 
 
 P In strict jihilosophy, a limitation of the rights of war seems to im- 
 jdy nonsense and contradiction. Grotius himself is lost in an idledis- 
 
 great work De Jure Belli et Pacis,(l. iii. c. 4. s. 15, 16, 17. and in Bar- 
 beyrac's version, tom. ii. p. 2o7, &c.) Yet I can understand the bene- 
 hi and validity of an agreement, tacit or express, mutually to abstain 
 from ccrtai.i modes of hostility. See the Amphictyonic oath ia i> 
 chines, de Falsa Legatione. 
 
 enemy had discovered the full extent of their deplora- 
 ble state. They compared the fame and fortune of 
 Belisarius with the weakness of their ill-fated king; 
 and the comparison suggested an extraordinary pro- 
 ject, to which Vitiges, with apparent resignation, was 
 compelled to acquiesce. Partition would ruin the 
 strength, exile would disgrace the honour, of the nation ; 
 but they offered their arms, their treasures, and the 
 fortifications of Ravenna, if 13elisarius would disclaim 
 the authority of a master, accept the choice of the 
 Goths, and assume, as he had deserved, the kingdom 
 of Italy. If the false lustre of a diadem could have 
 tempted the loyalty of a faithful subject, his prudence 
 must have foreseen the inconstancy of the barbarians, 
 and his rational ambition would prefer the safe and hon- 
 ourable station of a Roman general. E ven the patience 
 and seeminor satisfaction with which he entertained 
 a proposal of treason, might be susceptible of a malig- 
 nant interpretation. But the lieutenant of Justinian 
 was conscious of his own rectitude ; he entered into a 
 dark and crooked path, as it might lead to the volunta- 
 ry submission of the Goths: and his dexterous policy 
 persuaded them that he was disposed to comply with 
 their wishes, without engaging an oath or a promise 
 for the performance of a treaty which he secretly ab- 
 horred. The day of the surrender of Ravenna was 
 stipulated by the Gothic ambassadors : a fleet, laden 
 with provisions, sailed as a welcome guest into the 
 deepest recess of the harbour; the gates 
 thk kfSgSomof were opened to the fancied king of Italy ; 
 Italy, and Belisarius, without meeting an ene- 
 
 A. D. 539. my, triumphantly marched through the 
 street? of an impregnable city.i The 
 Romans were astonished by their success; the multi- 
 tude of tall and robust barbarians were confounded 
 by the image of their own patience ; and the mascu- 
 line females, spitting in the faces of their sons and 
 husbands, most bitterly reproached them for betraying 
 their dominion and freedom to these pygmies of the 
 south, contemptible in their numbers, diminutive in 
 their stature. Before the Goths could recover from 
 the first surprise, and claim the accomplishment of 
 their doubtful hopes, the victor established his power 
 in Ravenna, beyond the danger of repentance and re- 
 volt. Vitiges, who perhaps had attemp- 
 > ^*^iiigeB. ^^^ ^^ escape, was honourably guarded 
 in his palace ; ' the flower of the Gothic 
 youth was selected for the service of the emperor; the 
 remainder of the people was dismissed to their peace- 
 ful habitations in the southern provinces; and a colo- 
 ny of Italians was invited to replenish the depopulated 
 city. The submission of the capital was imitated in 
 the towns and villages of Italy, which had not been 
 subdued, or even visited, by the Romans; and the in- 
 dependent Goths, who remained in arms at Pavia and 
 Verona, were ambitious only to become the subjects 
 of Belisarius. But his inflexible loyalty rejected, ex- 
 cept as the substitute of Justinian, their oaths of alle- 
 giance : and he was not offended by the reproach of 
 their deputies, that he rather chose to be a slave than 
 a king. 
 
 Return and gio- After the second victory of Belisarius, 
 ry of Belisa- envy again whispered, Justinian listen- 
 '^'"'- ed, and the hero was recalled. "The 
 
 remnant of the Gothic war was no longer worthy of 
 his presence : a gracious sovereign was impatient to 
 reward his services, and to consult his wisdom ; and 
 
 q Bavenna wa8 taken, not in the year 540, but in the latter end of 
 539 ; and Pagi (lorn. ii. p. 569.) is ri^ctified by Muratori, (Annali d'lta- 
 lia, lorn. v. p. 62.) who proves from an original act on papyrus, (Anti- 
 quit. Italiae Medii jEvi,tom. ii. dissert, xxxii. p. 999— ltK)7. Maffei, 
 Istoria Diplomat, p. 155— 160.) that before the third of January 540, 
 
 feace and free correspondence were restored between Kavenna and 
 aenza. 
 
 r He was seized by John the Sanguinary, but an oath or sacrament 
 ■was pledged for his safety in the Basilica Julii. (Hist. Miscell. 1. xvii. 
 in Muratori, tom. i. p. 107.) Anastasius (in Vit. Pont. p. 40 ) gives a 
 dark but probable account. Montfaugon is quoted by Mascou (Hist, 
 of the Germans, xii. 21.) for a votive shield representing the captivity 
 of Vitiges, and now in the collection of Signor Landi at Rome. 
 
 he alone was capable of defending the east against 
 the innumerable armies of Persia.'' Btlisarins un- 
 derstood the suspicion, accepted the excuse, embarked 
 at Ravenna his spoils and tro|)hios ; and proved, by 
 his ready obedience, that such an abrupt removal Uvm 
 the government of Italy was not less unjust than it 
 mipht have been indiscreet. The emperor received 
 with honourable courtesy both Vitiges and his more no- 
 ble consort : and as the king of the Goths conforiiicd to 
 the Alhanasian faith, he obtained, with a rich inhf^ritance 
 of lands in As^ia, the rank of senator and patrician.* 
 Every spectator admired, without peril, the strength and 
 stature of the young barbarians: they adored the ma- 
 jesty of the throne, and promised to shed their blood 
 in the service of their benefactor. Justinian deposited 
 in the Byzantine palace the treasures of the Gothic 
 monarchy. A flattering senate was sometimes admit- 
 ted to gaze on the magnificent spectacle; but it was 
 enviously secluded from the public view; and the 
 conqueror of Italy renounced, without a murmur, per- 
 haps without a sicrh, the well-earned honours of a 
 second triumph. His glory was indeed exalted above 
 all external pomp; and the faint and hollow praises 
 of the court were supplied, even in a servile age, by 
 the respect and admiration of his country. Whenever 
 he appeared in the streets and public places vf Con- 
 stantinople, Belisarius attracted and satisfied the eyes 
 of the people. His lofty stature and majestic counte- 
 nance fulfilled their expectations of a hero; the mean- 
 est of his fellow-citizens were imboldened by his 
 gentle and gracious demeanour; and the martial train 
 which attended his footsteps, left his person more ac- 
 cessible than in a day of battle. Seven thousand 
 horsemen, matchless for beauty and valour, were main- 
 tained in the service, and at the private expense, of 
 tl;e general.* Their prowess was always conspicuous 
 in single combats, or in the foremost ranks ; and both 
 parlies confessed, that in the siege of Rome, the guards 
 of Belisarius had alone vanquished the barbarian host. 
 Their numbers were continually augmented by the 
 bravest and most faithful of the enemy ; and his fortu- 
 nate captives, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Goths, 
 emulated the attachment of his d<-mestic followers. 
 By the union of liberality and justice, he acquired the 
 love of the soldiers, without alienating the affections 
 of the people. The sick and woundt^l were relieYed 
 with medicines and money ; and still ii-ore efl[icaci««ttft- 
 ly, by the healing visits and smiles of their comnHM* 
 der. The loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly 
 repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the 
 rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a colinr, 
 which were rendered more precious by the jud|nBeiit 
 of Belisarius. He was endeared to the hu^ibmnam^n, 
 by the peace and plenty w hich they enjoyed under ihe 
 shadow of his standard. Instead of b«ing iijun-d, the 
 country was enriched, by the march of th** Roroaa 
 armies; and such was the rigid discipline if iht^ir 
 camp, that not an apple was tjathend from the tr«^, 
 not a path could be traced in the fields of corn, llrli- 
 sarius was chaste and sober. In the licence of a mill* 
 tary life, none could boast that they had te^n hiiu in- 
 toxicated with wine: the most beautiful captires of 
 Gothic or Vandal race were offered to his embraces; 
 but he turned aside from their charms, and the hu t b — 4 
 of Antonina was never suspected of violating the lavs 
 of conjugal fidelity. The spectator atid historian of 
 his exploits has observed, that amid:>l the perils of 
 war, he was daring without rashness, prudent without 
 fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of 
 
 r 
 
 • Vitises lived two years at Constantinople, ami impenttiris ia af> 
 fectu conrtctus (or conjunctus) rebus exctssii huuianis. His mid 
 Malhasuenta, the wife and mother of the pairKiaiM, the t>M«ri 
 younser Gernianus, united the streams <.'l Auictan and Aaal 
 (Jornandes, c. 60. p. 221. in Muratori, umu. L) 
 
 t Procopius, Go'h. 1. iii. c. 1. Almoin, a French monk of ib« rt». 
 veuth century, who had obuined, and has disfigured ft>ai« auUieaiic 
 information of Belisarius, mentions, in his uam«», 12,<X<» pmeri or 
 slaves— quos propriisaliinus siipendiis — besides 1>,0IJU soldier*. (Ui^ 
 lorians of France, torn. iii. De Gestis Franc. I. ii. c.6. p. 4S-) 
 
 -A 
 
42 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. II 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 43 
 
 i 
 
 fenders of the catholc faith. Three hundred thousand 
 males were rfported to be slain ;'' the female sex, and 
 the more precious spoil, was resigne<l to the Burgun- 
 dians; and the houses, or at least the 
 Destruction of walls, of Milan, were levelled with the 
 °' ground. The Goths, in their last mo- 
 
 ments, were revenged by the destruction of a city, 
 second only to Rome in size and opulence, in the splen- 
 dour of its buildings, or the number of its inhabitants ; 
 and Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate of his 
 deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this 
 successful inroad, Theodebert hinjself, in the ensuing 
 spring, invaded the plains of Italy with an army of 
 one liundred thousand barbarians.' The king, and 
 some chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, 
 and armed with lances; the infantry, without bows or 
 spears, were satisfied with a shield, a sword, and a 
 double-edged battle-axe, which, in their hands, be- 
 came a deadly and unerringr weapon. Italy trembled 
 at the march of the Franks ; and both the Gothic prince 
 and the Roman genera!, alike ignorant of their de- 
 signs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship 
 of these dangerous allies. Till he had secured the 
 passage of the Po on the bridge of Pavia, the grandson 
 of Clovis dissembled his intentions, which he at length 
 declared by assaulting, almost at the same instant, the 
 hostile camps of the Romans and Goths. Instead of 
 uniting their arms, they fled with equal precipitation; 
 and the fertile, though desolate, provinces of Liguria 
 and jEmilia were abandoned to a licentious host of 
 barbarians, whose rage was not mitigated by any 
 thoughts of settlement or conquest. Among the cities 
 which they ruined, Genoa, not yet constructed of mar- 
 ble, is particularly enumerated ; and the deaths of thou- 
 sands, according to the regular practice of war, appear 
 to have excited less horror than some idolatrous sacri- 
 fices of women and children, which were performed 
 with impunity in the camp of the most christian king. 
 If it were not a melancholy truth, that the first and 
 most cruel sufferings must be the lot of the innocent 
 and helpless, history might exult in the misery of the 
 conquerors, who, in the midst of riches, were left des- 
 titute of bread or wine, reduced to drink the waters 
 of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of distempered cat- 
 tle. The dysentery swept away one-third of their ar- 
 my : and the clamours of his subjects, who were im- 
 patient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert to listen 
 with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius. 
 The memory of this inglorious and destructive warfare 
 was perpetuated on the medals of Gaul ; and Justini- 
 an, without unsheathing his sword, assumed the title 
 of conqueror of the Franks. The Merovingian prince 
 was offended by the vanity of the emperor ; he affected 
 to pity the fallen fortunes of the Goths; and his insi- 
 dious offer of a fcederal union was fortified by the 
 promise or menace of descending from the Alps at the 
 head of five hundred thousand men. His plans of 
 conquest were boundless and perhaps chimerical. 
 The king of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justini- 
 an, and to march to the gates of Constantinople;'' he 
 was overthrown and slain' by a wild bull™ as he hun- 
 ted in the Beljjic or German forests. 
 
 h MvpixSif Tpi=t)covTa, (compare Procopius, Goth. 1. ii. c. 7. 21.) 
 Yet such population is incrpilible ; and the second or third ciiy of 
 Italy need not repine if we only decimate the numbers of the present 
 text. Both INIiPiD and Genoa revived in less than thirty years. (Paul 
 Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. 1. ii. c. 38.) 
 
 i Besides Procopius, perhaps too Roman, see the Chronicles of 
 Marius and Marcellinus, Jornandes, (in Success. Regn. in !\luratori, 
 torn. i. p. 241.) and Gregory of Tours, (1. iii. c. 32. in tom. ii. of ihe 
 Historians of France.) Grej^ory supjKtst s a defeat of Belisarius, w ho, 
 in Almoin, (de Gcstis Franc. I. ii. c. 23. in tom. iii. p. 59.) is slain by 
 the Franks. 
 
 k A^'aihias, 1. i. p. 14, l."5. Could he have seduced or subdued the 
 Gepiilae or Lombards of Pannonia, the Greek historian is confident 
 that he must have been destroyed in Thrace. 
 
 I The king pointed his spear — the bull overturned a tree on his 
 head— he expired the same day. Such is the story of Apathias; but 
 the original historians of France (torn. ii. p. 202. 4U3. 55d. 667.) impute 
 his death to a fever. 
 
 B Without losing mysplf in a labyrinth of species and names— the 
 aurochs, urus, bisons, babulis, bonasus, buffalo, kc. (Buffon. Hisl. Nat. 
 
 As soon as Belisarius was delivered Belisarius be- 
 from his foreign and domestic enemies, sieges Kaven- 
 he seriously applied his forces to the *' 
 final reduction of Italy. In the siege of Osimo, the 
 general was nearly transpierced with an arrow, if the 
 mortal stroke had not been intercepted by one of his 
 guards, who lost, in that pious office, the use of his 
 hand. The Goths of Osimo, four thousand warriors, 
 with those of Faesulae and the Cottian Alps, were 
 among the last who maintained their independence; 
 and their gallant resistance, which almost tired the 
 patience, deserved the esteem, of the conqueror. His 
 prudence refused to subscribe the safe conduct which 
 they asked, to join their brethren of Ravenna; but 
 they saved, by an honourable capitulation, one moiety 
 at least of their wealth, with the free alternative of re- 
 tiring peaceably to their estates, or enlisting to serve 
 the emperor in his Persian wars. The multitudes 
 which yet adhered to the standard of Vitiges, far sur- 
 passed the number of the Roman troops; but neither 
 prayers, nor defiance, nor the extreme danger of his 
 most faithful subjects, could tempt the Gothic king 
 heyond the fortifications of Ravenna. These fortifica- 
 tions were, indeed, impregnable to the assaults of art 
 or violence ; and when Belisarius invested the capital, 
 he was soon convinced that famine only could tame 
 the stubborn spirit of the barbarians. The sea, the 
 land, and the channels of the Po, were guarded by the 
 vigilance of the Roman general ; and his morality ex- 
 tended the rights of war to the practice of poisoning 
 the waters," and secretly firing the granaries," of a be- 
 sieged city.P While he pressed the blockade of Ra- 
 venna, he was surprised by the arrival of two ambas- 
 sadors from Constantinople, with a treaty of peace, 
 which Justinian had imprudently signed, without 
 deigning to consult the author of his victory. By this 
 disgraceful and precarious agreement, Italy and the 
 Gothic treasure were divided, and the provinces be- 
 yond the Po were left with the regal- title to the suc- 
 cessor of Theodoric. The ambassadors were eager 
 to accomplish their salutary commission ; the captive 
 Vitiges accepted, with transport, the unexpected offer 
 of a crown ; honour was less prevalent among the 
 Goths, than the want and appetite of food ; and the 
 Roman chiefs, who murmured at the continuance of 
 the war, professed implicit submission to the com 
 mands of the emperor. If Belisarius had possessed 
 only the courage of a soldier, the laurel would have 
 been snatched from his hand by^ timid and envious 
 counsels; but in this decisive moment, he resolved, 
 with the magnanimity of a statesman, to sustain alone 
 the danger and merit of generous disobedience. Each 
 of his officers gave a written opinion, that the siege of 
 Ravenna was impracticable and hopeless: the general 
 then rejected the treaty of partition, and declared his 
 own resolution of leadinjr Viticjes in chains to the feet 
 of Justinian. The Goths retired with doubt and dis- 
 may : this peremptory refusal deprived them of the 
 only signature which they could trust, and filled their 
 minds with the just apprehension, that a sagacious 
 
 torn. xi. and Supplement, torn. iii. vi.) it is certain, that in tha 
 sixth century a large wild species of horned rattle was hunted in the 
 preat forests of the Vosges in lAjrraine, and the Ardennes. (Greg. 
 Turon. tom. ii. 1, x. c. 10. p. 369.) 
 
 n In the siege of Auximum, he first laboured to demolish an old 
 acqueduct, and then cast into the stream, 1. dead bodies; 2. mis- 
 chievous herbs; 3. quick lime, which is named (saya Procopius, 1. ii. 
 c.20.) urav:; by the ancients; by the moderns ao-ij.-of. Yet both 
 words are used as synonymous in Galen, Dioscorides, and Lucian. 
 (Hen. Sieph. Thrsaiir. Ling. Grsec. tom. iii. p. 748.) 
 
 o The Goths suHpecled IMathasuintha as an accomplice in the mis- 
 chief, which perhaps was occasioned by accitlenlal li;zhtning. 
 
 P In strict philosop!»y,a limitation of the rights of war seems to im- 
 ply nonsense and contradiction. Grotius himself is lost in an idledis- 
 linction between ll»e jus naturae and the jus gentium, between poison 
 and infection. He balances in one scale the passages of Homer, (Odys3. 
 A. 259, &c.) and Floru<« ; (1. ii. c. 20. No. 7. ull.) and in the other, the 
 examples of Solon, (Pausanias, 1. x. c. 37.) and Belisarius. See his 
 preat work De Jure Belli et Pacis, (1. iii.c. 4. s. 15, 16, 17. and in Bar- 
 beyrac's version, tom. ii. p. 257, &c.) Yet I can understand the bene- 
 fit and validity of an agreement, tacit or express, mutually to abstain 
 from certain modes of hostility. See the Amphictyonic oath in £»• 
 chiuea, dc Falsa Legatione. 
 
 enemy had discovered the full extent of their deplora- 
 ble state. They compared the fame and fortune of 
 Belisarius with the weakness of their ill-fated king; 
 and the comparison suggested an extraordinary pro- 
 ject, to which Vitiges, w ith apparent resignation, was 
 compelled to acquiesce. Partition would ruin the 
 strength, exile would disgrace the honour, of the nation ; 
 but they oflfered their arms, their treasures, and the 
 fortifications of Ravenna, if 13elisarius would disclaim 
 the authority of a master, accept the choice of the 
 Goths, and assume, as he had deserved, the kingdom 
 of Italy. If the false lustre of a diadem could have 
 tempted the loyalty of a fiiithful subject, his prudence 
 must have foreseen the inconstancy of the barbarians, 
 and his rational ambition would prefer the safe and hon- 
 ourable station of a Roman general. E ven the patience 
 and seeming satisfaction with which he entertained 
 a proposal ol* treason, might be susceptible of a malig- 
 nant interpretation. But the lieutenant of Justinian 
 was conscious of his own rectitude ; he entered into a 
 dark and crooked path, as it might lead to the volunta- 
 ry submission of the Goths : and his dexterous policy 
 persuaded them that he was disposed to comply with 
 their wishes, without engaging an oath or a promise 
 for the performance of a treaty which he secretly ab- 
 horred. The day of the surrender of Ravenna was 
 stipulated by the Gothic ambassadors : a fleet, laden 
 with provisions, sailed as a welcome guest into the 
 deepest recess of the harbour ; the gates 
 subdues theGo- opened to the fancied king of Italy ; 
 ihic kingdom ot , x» i- • -.^l * *: w^ «.^.,^ 
 
 Italy, and Belisarius, without meeting an ene- 
 
 A.D. 539. iTiv, triumphantly marched through the 
 December. ^^^^^^^^ ^j.^^^ impregnable city.i The 
 
 Romans were astonished by their success; the multi- 
 tude of tall and robust barbarians were confounded 
 by the image of their own patience ; and the mascu- 
 line females, spitting in the faces of their sons and 
 husbands, most bitterly reproached them for betraying 
 their dominion and freedom to these pygmies of the 
 south, contemptible in their numbers, diminutive in 
 their stature. Before the Goths could recover from 
 the first surprise, and claim the accomplishment of 
 their doubtful hopes, the victor established his power 
 in Ravenna,' beyond the danger of repentance and re- 
 volt. Vitiges, who perhaps had attemp- 
 Captivity of j^j jq escape, was honourably guarded 
 r Vitiges. .^ j^.^ palace ; ' the flower of the Gothic 
 youth was selected for the service of the emperor; the 
 remainder of the people was dismissed to their peace- 
 ful habitations in the southern provinces; and a colo- 
 ny of Italians was invited to replenish the depopulated 
 city. The submission of the capital was imitated in 
 the towns and villages of Italy, which had not been 
 subdued, or even visited, by the Romans; and the in- 
 dependent Goths, who remained in arms at Pavia and 
 Verona, were ambitious only to become the subjects 
 of Belisarius. But his inflexible loyalty rejected, ex- 
 cept as the substitute of Justinian, their oaths of alle- 
 giance : and he was not offended by the reproach of 
 their deputies, that he rather chose to be a slave than 
 
 a kins. 
 
 ^ . ^ , , After the second victory of Belisarius, 
 
 Keturn and pio- . , . j i »• • i* * 
 
 ry of Belisa- envy again whispered, Justinian listen- 
 
 rlus. ed^ and the hero was recalled. "The 
 
 remnant of the Gothic war was no longer worthy of 
 
 his presence : a gracious sovereign was" impatient to 
 
 reward his services, and to consult his wisdom ; and 
 
 q ELavenna was taken, not in the year 540, but in the latter end of 
 B39 ; and Pagi (tom. ii. p. 569.) is rectified by Muratori, (Annali d Ita- 
 lia, torn. v. p. 62.) who proves from an original act on papyrus, (Anti- 
 quit. Italiae Medii iEvi,tom. ii. dissert, xxxii. p 999-1007. Maffei, 
 Istoria Diplomat, p. 155-160.) that before the third of January 540, 
 peace and free correspondence were restored between Kavenna and 
 
 *r^H?*wa9 seized by John the Sanguinary, but an oath or sacrament 
 was pledged for his safety in the Basilica Julii. (Hist. Miscell 1. xvii. 
 in Muratori, tom. i. p. 107.) Anastasius (in Vit. Pont. P- 40 > gives a 
 dark but probable account. Monlfaugon is quoted by Mascou (Hist, 
 of the Germans, xii. 21.) for a votive shield representing the captivity 
 of Vitiges, and now in the collection of Siguor Laudi at Kome. 
 
 he alone was capable of defending the east against 
 the innumerable armies of Persia." Belisarius un- 
 derstood the suspicion, accepted the excuse, embarked 
 at Ravenna his spoils and troi)hies ; and proved, by 
 his ready obedience, that such an abrupt removal froin 
 the government of Italy was not less unjust than it 
 might have been indiscreet. The emperor received 
 wifh honourable courtesy both Vitiges and his more no- 
 ble consort : and as the king of the Goths conformed to 
 the Alhanasian faith, he obtained, with a rich inheritance 
 of lands in Asia, the rank of senator and patrician.* 
 Every spectator admired, without peril, the strength and 
 stature of the young barbarians: they adored the ma- 
 jesty of the throne, and promised to shed their blood 
 in the service of their benefactor. Justinian deposited 
 in the Byzantine palace the treasures of the Gothic 
 monarchy. A flattering senate was sometimes admit- 
 ted to gaze on the magnificent spectacle ; but it was 
 enviously secluded from the public view; and the 
 conqueror of Italy renounced, without a murmur, per- 
 haps without a sigh, the well-earned honours of a 
 second triumph. His glory was indeed exalted above 
 all external pomp; and the faint and hollow^ praises 
 of the court were supplied, even in a servile age, by 
 the respect and admiration of his country. Whenever 
 he appeared in the streets and public places of Con- 
 stantinople, Belisarius attracted and satisfied the eyes 
 of the people. His lofty stature and majestic counte- 
 nance fulfilled their expectations of a hero; the mean- 
 est of his fellovi'-citizens were imboldened by his 
 gentle and gracious demeanour; and the martial train 
 which attended his footsteps, left his person more ac- 
 cessible than in a day of battle. Seven thousand 
 horsemen, matchless for beauty and valour, were main- 
 tained in the service, and at the private expense, of 
 the general.* Their prowess was always conspicuous 
 in single combats, or in the foremost ranks ; and both 
 parties confessed, that in the siege of Rome, the guards 
 (.f Belisarius had alone vanquished the barbarian host. 
 Their numbers were continually augmented by the 
 bravest and most faithful of the enemy ; and his fortu- 
 nate captives, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Goths, 
 emulated the attachment of his domestic followers. 
 By the union of liberality and justice, he acquired the 
 love of the soldiers, without alienating the affections 
 of the people. The sick and wounded were relieved 
 wMth medicines and money ; and still n)ore efficacious- 
 ly, by the healing visits and smiles of their comman- 
 der. The loss oT a weapon or a horse was instantly 
 repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the 
 rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a collar, 
 which were rendered more precious by the judgment 
 of Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen, 
 by the peace and plenty which they enjoyed under the 
 shadow of his standard. Instead of being injured, the 
 country was enriched, by the march of the Roman 
 armies; and such was the rigid discipline of their 
 camp, that not an apple was gathered from the tree, 
 not a path could be traced in the fields of corn. Beli- 
 sarius was chaste and sober. In the licence of a mili- 
 tary life, none could boast that they had seen him in- 
 toxicated with wine: the most beautiful captives of 
 Gothic or Vandal race were offered to his embraces; 
 but he turned aside from their charms, and the husband 
 of Antonina was never suspected of violating the laws 
 of conjugal fidelity. The spectator and historian of 
 his exploits has observed, that amidst the perils of 
 war, he was daring without rashness, prudent without 
 fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of the 
 
 . Vitiges lived two years at Constantinople, and imperatoris in ^f- 
 fecta c<;nSc/«. (or co^ijunctus) rebus -^-f ' ^tdcians'-the^^Id^e'r aTd 
 Malhasuenta,ihey.\{e and mother ^f/li'^.^VaTrnd Amali blS^ 
 youn-er Germanus, united the streams of Anician and Amali blooa. 
 
 ^YS.l;^u^s g;.tf iii'"c''l""ATSa-Vrench monl. of the ele- 
 veufhTnC;/who ha 1 obtained, and has disfigured some authentic 
 rnformaUon of Belisarius, mentions, in his name, \2,m pveri pv 
 ?aveT^uos propriis alimus stipendiis-besides 18,000 soldiers. (Hm- 
 lorians of France, tom. iii. De Geslis Franc. 1. n. c. 6. p. 48.) 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 Ii 
 
44 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 45 
 
 moment; that in the deepest distress, he was animated 
 by real or apparent hope, but that he was modest and 
 humble in llie most prosperous fortune. By these 
 virtues, he equalled or excelled the ancient masters of 
 the military art. Victory, by sea and land, attended 
 his arms. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent 
 islands, led away captives the successors of Genseric 
 and Theodoric ; filled Constantinople with the spoils 
 of their palaces, and in the space of six years reco- 
 vered half the provinces of the western empire. In 
 his fame and merit, in wealth and power, he remained, 
 without a rival, the first of the Roman subjects : the 
 voice of envy could only magnify his dangerous im- 
 portance; and the emperor might applaud his own dis- 
 cerning spirit, which had discovered and raised the 
 genius of Belisarius. 
 
 Secret history of ^^ was the custom of the Roman tri- 
 his wife Anioni- umphs, that a slave should be placed 
 "** behind the chariot to remind the con- 
 
 queror of the instability of fortune, and the infirmities 
 of human nature. Procopius, in his Anecdotes, has 
 assumed that servile and ungrateful ofl^ce. The gen- 
 erous reader may cast away the libel, but the evidence 
 of facts will adhere to his memory ; and he will reluc- 
 tantly confess, that the fame, and even the virtue, of Be- 
 lisarius were polluted by the lust and cruelty of his 
 wife; and that the hero deserved an appellation which 
 may not drop from the pen of the decent historian. 
 The mother of Antonina" was a theatrical prostitute, 
 and both her father and grandfather exercised at Thes- 
 salonica and Constantinople, the vile, though lucrative, 
 profession of charioteers. In the various situations of 
 their fortune, she became the companion, the enemy, 
 the servant, and the favourite of the empress Theodora : 
 these loose and ambitious females had been connected 
 by similar pleasures; they were separated by the jeal- 
 ousy of vice, and at length reconciled by the partner- 
 ship of guilt. Before her marriage with Belisarius, 
 Antonina had one husband and many lovers ; Photius, 
 the son of her former nuptials, was of an age to dis- 
 tinguish himself at the siege of Naples : and it was not 
 till the autumn of her age and beauty « that she indul- 
 ged a scandalous attachment to a Thracian youth. 
 Her lover Theo- Theodosius had been educated in the 
 dosius. Eumonian heresy : the African voyage 
 
 was consecrated by the baptism and auspicious name 
 of the first soldier who embarked; and the proselyte 
 was adopted into the family of his spiritual parents, ^ 
 Belisarius and Antonina. Before they touched the 
 shores of Africa, this holy kindred degenerated into 
 sensual love ; and as Antonina soon overleaped the 
 bounds of modesty and caution, the Roman general was 
 alone ignorant of his own dishonour. During their 
 lesidence at Carthage, he surprised the two lovers in a 
 subterraneous chamber, solitary, warm, and almost 
 naked. Anger flashed from his eyes. "With the help 
 of this young man," said the unblushing Antonina, 
 »* I was secreting our most precious eflTects from the 
 knowledge of Justinian." The youth resumed his gar- 
 ments, and the pious husband consented to disbelieve 
 the evidence of his own senses. From this pleasing 
 and perhaps voluntary delusion, Belisarius was awa- 
 kened at Syracuse, by the officious information of Ma- 
 cedonia; and that female attendant, after requiring an 
 oath for her security, produced two chamberlains, who, 
 like herself, had often beheld the adulteries of Anto- 
 nina. A hasty flight into Asia saved Theodosius from 
 
 u The diligence of Alemannus could add but little to the four first 
 and most curious chapters of the AnecdDipg. Of these strange Anec- 
 dotes, a part may be true, because probable— and a part true, because 
 improbable. Procopius must have knoicn iho former, and the latter 
 he could scarcely invent. 
 
 X Procopius insinuates (Anecdot.c. 4.) that, when Belisarius return- 
 ed to Italy, (A. D. 543.) Antonina was sixty years of age. A forced, 
 but more polite construction, which refers that date to the moment 
 when he was writing, (A. D. 559.) would be compatible with the man- 
 hood of Photius, (Gothic. 1. i. c. 10.) in 536. 
 
 y Compare the Vandalic War (I. i. c. 12.) with the Anecdotes (c. i.) 
 and Alemannus (p. 2, 3.) This mode of baptismal adoption was revi- 
 ved by Leo the philosopher. 
 
 the justice of an injured husband, who had signified to 
 one of his guards the order of his death ; but the tears 
 of Antonina, and her artful seductions, assured the cre- 
 dulous hero of her innocence; and he stooped, against 
 his faith and judgment, to abandon those imprudent 
 friends who had presumed to accuse or doubt the chas- 
 tity of his wife. The revenjre of a guilty woman is 
 implacable and bloody; the unfortunate Macedonia, with 
 the two witnesses, were secretly arrested by the minis- 
 ter of her cruelty; their tongues were cut out, their 
 bodies were hacked into small pieces, and their remains 
 were cast into the sea of Syracuse. A rash though 
 judicious saying of Constantine, *' I would sooner have 
 punished the adulteress than the boy," was deeply 
 remembered by Antonina : and two years afterwards, 
 when despair had armed that officer against his general, 
 her sanguinary advice decided and hastened his ex- 
 ecution. Even the indignation of Photius was not for- 
 given by his mother; the exile of her son prepared the 
 recall of her lover ; and Theodosius condescended to 
 accept the pressing and humble invitation of the con- 
 queror of Italy. In the absolute direction of his house- 
 hold, and in the important commissions of peace and 
 war,' the favourite youth most rapidly acquired a fortune 
 of four hundred thousand pounds sterling, and after 
 their return to Constantinople, the passion of Antonina, 
 at least, continued ardent and unabated. But fear, 
 devotion, and lassitude perhaps, inspired Theodosius 
 with more serious thoughts. He dreaded the busy 
 scandal of the capital, and the indiscreet fondness of the 
 wife of Belisarius; escaped from her embraces, and retir- 
 ing to Ephesus, shaved his head, and took refuge in the 
 sanctuary of a monastic life. The despair of the new 
 Ariadne could scarcely have been excused by the death 
 of her husband. She wept, she tore her hair, she filled 
 the palace with her cries ; " She had lost the dearest of 
 friends, a tender, a faithful, a laborious friend ! " IBut 
 her warm entreaties, fortified by the prayers of Beli- 
 sarius, were insufficient to draw the holy-monk from the 
 solitude of Ephesus. It was not till the general moved 
 forward for the Persian war, that Theodosius could be 
 tempted to return to Constantinople; and the short 
 interval before the departure of Antonina herself was 
 boldly devoted to love and pleasure. 
 
 A philosopher may pity and forgive the Kesentment of 
 mfirmities of female nature, from which Belisarius and 
 he receives no real injury ; but contemp- her son Photius. 
 tible is the husband who feels, and yet endures, his own 
 infamy in that of his wife. Antonina pursued her son 
 with implacable hatred ; and the gallant Photius* was 
 exposed to her secret persecutions in the camp beyond 
 the Tigris. Enraged by his own wrongs, and by the 
 dishonour of his blood, he cast away in his turn the 
 sentiments of nature, and revealed to Belisarius the 
 turpitude of a woman who had violated all the duties 
 of a mother and a wife. From the surprise and indig- 
 nation of the Roman general, his former credulity 
 appears to have been sincere ; he embraced the knees of 
 the son of Antonina, adjured him to remember his obli- 
 gations rather than his birth, and confirmed at the altar 
 their holy vows of revenge and mutual defence. The 
 dominion of Antonina was impaired by absence; and 
 when she met her husband, on his return from the Per- 
 sian confines, Belisarius, in his first and transient emo- 
 tions, confined her person, and threatened her life. 
 Photius was more resolved to punish, and less prompt 
 to pardon ; he flew to Ephesus; extorted from a trusty 
 eunuch of his mother the full confession of her guilt; 
 arrested Theodosius and his treasures in the church of 
 St. John the apostle, and concealed his captives, whose 
 execution was only delayed, in a secure and sequestered 
 
 t Tn November 537, Photius arrested the pope. (Liberal. Brev c* 
 'J2. Piigi, torn. ii. p. 562.) About the end of 539, Belisarius sent Theo- 
 dosius— t3» T,| oiitix T») jtoTou i;i$wTx — on an importantand lucrative 
 commission to Ravenna. (Goth. 1. ii. c. 18.) 
 
 » Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 2(M.) styles him Photinua,\he oon- 
 in-law of Belisarius; and he is copied by the Historia Miscella and 
 Anasiasiua. 
 
 fortress of Cilicia. Such a daring outrage against 
 public justice could not pass with impunity; and the 
 cause of Antonina was espoused by the empress, whose 
 favour she had deserved by the recent services of the 
 disgrace of a prasfect, and the exile and murder of a 
 pope. At the end of the campaign, Belisarius was 
 recalled ; he complied, as usual, with the imperial man- 
 date. His mind was not prepared for rebellion: his 
 obedience, however adverse to the dictates of honour, 
 was consonant to the wishes of his heart ; and when he 
 embraced his wife, at the command, and perhaps in 
 the presence, of t!ie empress, the tender husband was 
 disposed to forgive or to be forgiven. The bounty of 
 Theodora reserved for her companion a more precious 
 favour. " I have found," she said, *'my dearest patri- 
 cian, a pearl cf ine.'^timable value ; it has not yet been 
 viewed by any mortal eye ; but the sight and the pos- 
 session of this jewel are destined for my friend." As 
 soon as the curiosity and impatience of Antonina were 
 kindled, the door of a bedchamber was thrown open, 
 and she beheld her lover, whom the diliifpnce of the 
 eunuchs had discovered in his secret prison. Her 
 silent wonder burst into passionate exclamations of 
 gratitude and joy, and she named Theodora her queen, 
 her benefactress, and her saviour. The monk of E phe- 
 sus was nourished in the palace with luxury and am- 
 bition; but instead of assuming, as he was promised, 
 the command of the Roman armies, Theodosius expired 
 in the first fatigues of an amorous inter- 
 Pereecution of ^jg^^^ '^^^ g^ief of Antonina could only 
 
 be assuaged by the sufferings of her son. 
 A youth of consular rank, and a sickly constitution, 
 was punished, without a trial, like a malefactor and a 
 slave : yet such was the constancy of his mind, that 
 Photius sustained the tortures of the scourge and the 
 rack without violating the faith which he had sworn to 
 Belisarius, After this fruitless cruelty, the son of 
 Antonina, while his mother feasted with the empress, 
 was buried in her subterraneous prisons, which admit- 
 ted not the distinction of night and day. He twice 
 escaped to the most venerable sanctuaries of Constanti- 
 nople, the churches of St. Sophia and of the Virgin ; 
 but his tyrants were insensible of religion as of pity; 
 and the helpless youth, amidst the clamours of the 
 clergy and people, was twice dragged from the altar to 
 the dungeon. His third attempt was more successful. 
 At the end of three years, the prophet Zachariah, or 
 some mortal friend, indicated the means of an escape : 
 he eluded the spies and guards of the empress, reached 
 the holy sepulchre of Jeru^lem, embraced the profes- 
 sion of a monk: and the abbot Photius was employed, 
 after the death of Justinian, to reconcile and regulate 
 the churches of Egypt. The son of Antonina suffered 
 all that an enemy can inflict ; her patient husband im- 
 posed on himself the more exquisite misery of viola- 
 ling his promise and deserting his friend. 
 DUK^race and ^" ^^® succeeding campaign, Belisari- 
 Bubmission of US was again sent against the Persians : 
 Belisarius. he Saved the east, but he off'ended Theo- 
 dora, and perhaps the emperor himself. The malady 
 of Justinian had countenanced the rumour of his death; 
 and the Roman general, on the supposition of that prob- 
 able event, spoke the free langtiage of a citizen and a 
 soldier; his colleague Buzes, who concurred in the 
 same sentiments, lost his rank, his liberty, and his 
 health, by the persecution of the empress : but the dis- 
 grace of Belisarius was alleviated by the dignity of his 
 own character, and the influence of his wife, who might 
 wish to humble, but could not desire to ruin, the partner 
 of her fortunes. Even his removal was coloured by 
 the assurance, that the sinking state of Italy would be 
 retrieved by the single presence of its conqueror. 
 But no sooner had he returned, alone and defenceless, 
 than a hostile commission was sent to the east, to seize 
 his treasures and criminate his actions ; the guards and 
 Veterans who followed his private banner, were distri- 
 buted among the chiefs of the army, and even the eu- 
 
 nuchs presumed to cast lots for the partition of his 
 martial domestics. When he passed with a small and 
 sordid retinue through the streets of Constantinople, 
 his forlorn appearance excited the amazement and com- 
 passion of the people. Justinian and Theodora recei- 
 ved him with cold ingratitude ; the servile crowd, with 
 insolence and contempt; and in the evening he retired 
 with trembling steps to his deserted palace. An indis- 
 position, feigned or real, had confined Antonina to her 
 apartment : and she walked disdainfully silent in the 
 adjacent portico, while Belisarius threw himself on his 
 bed, and expected, in an agony of grief and terror, the 
 death which he had so often braved under the walls of 
 Rome. Long after sunset a messenger was announced 
 from the empress; he opened, with anxious curiosity, 
 the letter which contained the sentence of his fate. 
 " You cannot be ignorant how much you have deser- 
 ved my displeasure. I am not insensible of the services 
 of Antonina. To her merits and intercession I have 
 granted your life, and permit you to retain a part of 
 your treasures, which might be justly forfeited to the 
 state. Let your gratitude, w^here it is due, be displayed, 
 not in words, but in your future behaviour." I know 
 not how to believe or to relate the transports with 
 which the hero is said to have received this ignominious 
 pardon. He fell prostrate before his wife, he kissed 
 the feet of his saviour, and he devoutly promised to 
 live the grateful and submissive slave of Antonina. 
 A fine of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds 
 sterling was levied on the fortunes af Belisarius; and 
 with the office of count, or master of the royal stables, 
 he accepted the conduct of the Italian war. At his de- 
 parture from Constantinople, his friends, and even the 
 public, were persuaded, that as soon as he regained 
 his freedom, he would renounce his dissimulation, and 
 that his wife, Theodora, and perhaps the emperor him- 
 self, would be sacrificed to the just revenge of a virtu- 
 ous rebel. Their hopes were deceived : and the uncon- 
 querable patience and loyalty of Belisarius appear 
 either helow or above the character of a man.** 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 Stdte of the barbaric world. — Establishment of the Lombards 
 on the Danube. — Tribes and inroads of the Sclavonians. 
 — Orii(in, empire, and embassies of the Turks. — The 
 flight of the Avars. — Chosroes I. or Nushirvan king of 
 Persia. — His prosperous reign and wars with the Ro- 
 mans. — The Colchian or Lazic war. — Tli£ Ethiopians. 
 
 Our estimate of personal merit is re- weakness ofth» 
 lative to the common faculties of man- empire of jus- 
 kind. The aspiring eff*orts of genius or ^ D^'527— 565 
 virtue, either in active or speculative life, 
 are measured, not so much by their real elevation, as by 
 the height to which they ascend above the level of their 
 age or country : and the same stature, which in a people 
 of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspi- 
 cuous in a race of pigmies. Leonidas, and his three 
 hundred companions, devoted their lives at Thermopy- 
 lae; but the education of the infant, the boy, and the 
 man, had prepared, and almost ensured, this memorable 
 sacrifice ; and each Spartan would approve, rather than 
 admire, an act of duty, of which himsel f and ei^ht thou- 
 sand of his fellow-citizens were equally capable.* The 
 great Pompey might inscribe on his trophies, that he 
 had defeated in battle two millions of enemies, and redu 
 
 b The contlnualor of the Chronicle of Marcellinus pives, in a fevr 
 decent words, the substance of the Anecdotes : Belisarius de Oriente 
 evocatus, in offensam periculumque incurrens grave, et invidiae sub- 
 jaccns, rursus remittitur in Italiam, (p- 54.) 
 
 a It will be a pleasure, not a task, to read Herodotus, (I. vii. c. 104. 
 134. p. 550. 615.) The conversation of Xerxes and Demaratus at Ther- 
 mopylap is one of the most interesting and moral scenes in history. 
 It was the torture of the royal Spartan to behold, with anguish and 
 remorse, the virtue of his country. 
 
 r 
 
 f 
 
46 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 « 
 
 >t 
 
 ced fifteen hundred cities from the lake Maeotis to the 
 Red sea ; * but the fortune of Rome flew before his 
 eagles ; the nations were oppressed by iheir own fears, 
 and the invincible legions which he commanded, had 
 been formed by the habits of conquest and the discipline 
 of ao^es. In this view, the character of Belisarius may 
 be deservedly placed above the heroes of the ancient 
 republics. His imperfections flowed from the con- 
 tagion of the times; his virtues were his own, the free 
 gift of nature or reflection ; he raised himself without a 
 master or a rival ; and so inadequate were the arms 
 committed to his hand, that his sole advantagre was 
 derived from the pride and presumption of his adver- 
 saries. Under his command, the subjects of Justinian 
 oft^^n deserved to be called Romans : but the unwarlike 
 appellation of Greeks was imposed as a term of re- 
 proach by the haughty Goths; who affected to blush, 
 that they must dispute the kingdom of Italy with a 
 nation of tragedians, pantomimes, and pirates."^ The 
 climate of Asia has indeed been found less congenial 
 than that of Europe to military spirit: those populous 
 countries were enervated by luxury, despotism, and 
 superstition ; and the monks were more expensive and 
 more numerous than the soldiers of the east. The 
 regular force of the empire had once amounted to six 
 hundred and forty-live thousand men : it was reduced, 
 in the time of Justinian, to one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand ; and tliis number, large as it may seem, was thin- 
 ly scattered over the sea and land ; in Spain and Italy, 
 in Africa and Egypt, on the banks of the Danube, the 
 coast of the Euxine, and the frontiers of Persia. The 
 citizen was exhausted, yet the soldier was unpaid ; his 
 poverty was mischievously soothed by the privilege of 
 rapine and indolence ; and the tardy payments were de- 
 tained and intercepted by the fraud of those agents who 
 usurp, without courage or danger, the emoluments of 
 war. Public and privt^te distress recruited the armies 
 of the state ; but in the field, and still more in the pre- 
 sence of the enemy, their numbers were always defec- 
 tive. The want of national spirit was supplied by the 
 precarious faith and disorderly service of barbarian mer- 
 cenaries. Even military honour, which has often sur- 
 vived the loss of virtue and freedom, was almost totally 
 extinct. The generals, who were multiplied beyond 
 the example of former times, laboured only to prevent 
 the success, or to sully the reputation, of their col- 
 leagues; and they had been taught by experience, that 
 if merit sometimes provoked the jealousy, error, or even 
 guilt, would obtain the indulgence, of a gracious em- 
 peror.** In such an age the triumphs of Belisarius, and 
 afterwards of Narses, shine with incomparable lustre; 
 but they are encompassed with the darkest shades of 
 disgrace and calamity. While the lieutenant of Jus- 
 tinian subdued the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals, 
 the emperor,* timid, though ambitious, balanced the 
 forces of the barbarians, fomented their divisions by 
 flattery and falsehood, and invited by his patience and 
 liberality the repetition of injuries.' The keys of Car- 
 thage, Rome, and Ravenna, were presented to their con- 
 queror, while Antioch was destroyed by the Persians, 
 and Justinian trembled for the safety of Constantinople. 
 Even the Gothic victories of Belisari- 
 bSs. "s ^^1*6 prejudicial to the state, since 
 they abolished the important barrier of 
 
 b See this proud inscription in Pliny. (Hist. Natur. vli. 27.) Few 
 men have more exquisitely lasted of glory and disgrace; nor could 
 Juvenal (Saiir. x.) produce a more sLrikiii!? example of the vicissitudea 
 of fortune, and the vanity of human wishes. 
 
 oT» ^M r(i»ya>oov;,Kxi v%\jt»(; KxToSuToif. This last epithet of'Proco- 
 pius is too nobly translated by pirates ; naval thieves is the proper 
 word : strippers of garments, either for injury or insult. (Demosthenes 
 contra Conon. in Reiske Orator. Graec. lom. ii. p. 1264.) 
 
 d See the third or fourth books of the Gothic war: the writer of the 
 Anecdotes cannot aggravate these abuses. 
 
 e Ac;aihias, I. 5. p. 157, 158. He confines this weakness of the em- 
 peror and the empire to the old age of Justinian : but alas ! he was 
 never young. 
 
 f This mischievous policy, which Procopius (Anecdot c. 19.) imputes 
 to the emperor, is revealed in his epistle to a Scythian prince, who 
 was capable of understanding it. Ayuv irfofmi^ «»* »yx***vi»T»f, 
 ■ays Ajaihiaa, (1. v. p. 170, 171.) 
 
 the Upper Danube, which had been so faithfully guard- 
 ed by Theodoric and his daughter. For the defence of 
 Italy, the Goths evacuated Pannonia and Noricum, 
 which they left in a peaceful and flourishing condition : 
 the sovereignty was claimed by the emperor of the Ro- 
 mans; the actual possession was abandoned to the bold- 
 ness of the first invader. On the opposite banks of the 
 Danube, the plains of Upper Hungary and the Transyl- 
 vanian hills were possessed, since the death of Attila, 
 by the tribes of the Gepidae, who respec- «,. f, ., 
 ted the Gothic arms, and despised, not ^^m^- 
 
 indeed the gold of the Romans, but the secret motive of 
 their annual subsidies. The vacant fortifications of the 
 river were instantly occupied by these barbarians : their 
 standards were planted on the walls of Sirmium and 
 Belgrade; and the ironical tone of their apology aggra- 
 vated this insult on the majesty of the empire. *' So 
 extensive, O Caesar, are your dominions; so numerous 
 are your cities; that you are continually seeking for 
 nations to whom, either in peace or war, you may re- 
 linquish these useless possessions. The Gepidae are 
 your brave and faithful allies; and if they have antici- 
 pated your gifts, they have shown a just confidence in 
 your bounty." Their presumption was excused by 
 the mode of revenge which Justinian embraced. In- 
 stead of asserting the rights of a sovereign for the pro- 
 tection of his subjects, the emperor invited a strange 
 people to invade and possess the Roman provinces be- 
 tween the Danube and the Alps ; and the ambition of the 
 Gepidae was checked by the rising power and fame of 
 the Lombards.* This corrupt appella- a,, , , , 
 tion has been diffused in the thirteenth ^^^ Lombards, 
 century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian pos- 
 terity of these savage warriors ; but the original name 
 o( Langobards is expressive only of the peculiar length 
 and fashion of their beards. I am not disposed either 
 to question or to justify their Scandinavian origin ; ** nor 
 to pursue the migrations of the Lombards through un- 
 known regions and marvellous adventures. About the 
 time of Augustus and Trajan, a ray of historic light 
 breaks on the darkness of their antiquities, and they 
 are discovered, for the first lime, between the Elbe and 
 the Oder. Fierce, beyond the example of the Germans, 
 they delighted to propagate the tremendous belief, that 
 their heads were formed like the heads of dogs, and that 
 they drank the blood of their enemies whom they van- 
 quished in battle. The small ness of their numbers was 
 recruited by the adoption of their bravest slaves; and 
 alone, amidst their powerful neighbours, they defen- 
 ded by arms their high-spirited independence. In the 
 tempests of the north, which overwhelmed so many 
 names and nations, this little bark of the Lombards still 
 floated on the surface: they gradually descended towards 
 the south and the Danube; and at the end of four hun- 
 dred years they again appear with their ancient valour 
 and renown. Their manners were not less ferocious. 
 The assassination of a royal guest was executed in the 
 presence, and by the command, of the king's daughter, 
 who had been provoked by some words of insult, and 
 disappointed by his diminutive stature; and a tribute* 
 the price of blood, was imposed on the Lombards by 
 his brother the king of the Heruli. Adversity revived 
 a sense of moderation and justice, and the insolence of 
 conquest was chastised by the signal defeat and irrepa- 
 rable dispersion of the Heruli, who were seated in the 
 
 i Gens Germana feritate ferocior, says Vellelus Paterculus of the 
 Lombards, (ii. 106.) Langobardos paucitaa nobilitat. Plurimis ac 
 valentissimis nationibus cincti non per obsequium, sed prseliis et 
 pericliiando, tuti sunt. (Tacit, de Moribus German, c. 40.) See like- 
 wise Strabo, (1. vii. p. 446.) The best geographers place them beyond 
 the Elbe, in the bishopric of Magdeburgh and the middle march of 
 Brandenburgh ; and their situation will agree with the patriotic re- 
 mark of the count de Hertzburg, that most of the barbarian conque- 
 rors issued from the same countries which still produce the armies of 
 Prussia. 
 
 h The Scandinavian origin of the Goths and Lombards, is staled by 
 Paul Warnefrid, surnamed the deacon, is attacked by Cluverius, 
 (Gcrmania Antiq. 1. iii. c. 26. p. 102, &c.) a native of Prussia, and de- 
 fended by Orotius, (Prolegum. ad Hist. Goth. p. 28, &c.} the Swedish 
 ambaMauor. 
 
 Bouthern provinces of Poland.' The victories of the 
 Lombards recommended them to the friendship of the 
 emperors ; and at the solicitation of Justinian, they pass- 
 ed the Danube to reduce, according to their treaty, the 
 citifS of Noricum and the fortresses of Pannonia. But 
 the spirit of rapine soon tempted them beyond these 
 ample limits ; they wandered along the coast of the Ha- 
 driaiic as far as Dyrrachium, and presumed, with fami- 
 liar rudeness, to enter the towns and houses of their 
 Roman allies, and to seize the captives who had esca- 
 ped from their audacious hands. These acts of hosti- 
 lity, the sallies, as itmigiitbe pretended, of some loose 
 adventurers, were disowned by the nation, and excused 
 by the emperor; but the arms of the Lombards were 
 more seriously engaged by a contest of thirty years, 
 which was terminat; d only by the extirpation of the 
 Gepidaj. The hostile nations often pleaded their cause 
 before the throne of Constantinople; and the crafty 
 Justinian, to whom the barbarians were almost equally 
 odious, pronounced a partial and ambiguous sentence, 
 and dexterously protracted the war by slow and ineflfec- 
 tual succours. Tiieir strength was formidable, since the 
 Lombards, who seitt into the fields several myriads of 
 soldiers, still claimed, as the weaker side, the protecti.-n 
 of the Romnns. Their spirit was intrepid ; yet such is 
 the uncertainty of courage, that the two armies were 
 suddenly struck with a panic ; they fled from each other, 
 and the rival kings remained with their guards in the 
 midst of an empty plain. A short truce was obtained ; 
 hut their mutual resentment again kindled ; and the 
 remembrance of their shame rendered the next en- 
 counter more desperate and bloody. Forty thousand 
 of the barbarians perished in the decisive battle, which 
 broke the power of the Gepidae, transferred the fears 
 and wishes of Justinian, and first displayed the char- 
 acter of Alboin, the youthful prince of the Lombards, 
 and the future conqueror of Italy. ^ 
 TheSclavoni- The wild people who dwelt or wan- 
 ans. dered in the plains of Russia, Lithuania, 
 
 ond Poland, might be reduced, in the age of Justinian, 
 under the two great families of the Bulgarians^ and 
 (he Sclavonia'ns. According to the Greek writers, 
 ihe former, who touched the Euxine and the lake 
 Ma?otis, derived from the Huns their name or descent,' 
 and it is needless to renew the simple and well-known 
 picture of Tartar manners. They were bold and dex- 
 terous archers, who drank the milk, and feasted on the 
 flesh, of their fleet and indefatigable horses; whose 
 flocks and herds followed, or rather guided the mo- 
 tions of their roving camps ; to whose inroads no 
 country was remote or impervious, and who were 
 practised in flight, though incapable of fear. The 
 
 i Two facts inlhenarrativeofPaulDiaconu3(l.i.c.20)are expres- 
 sive of national manners : 1. Dum ad tabidam luderet— while he play- 
 ed at draughts. 2. Camporum viridantia Una. The cultivation of flax 
 supposes property, commerce, asriculture, and manufactures. 
 
 j 1 have used, without undertaking to reconcile the facts in Proco- 
 pius, (Goth. 1. ii. c. 14. 1. iii. c. 33, 34. 1. iv. c. 13. 25.) Paul Diaconus, 
 (de Gesiis Langobard. 1. i. c. 1-23. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Itali- 
 carum.tom. i. p. 405— 410.) and Jornandes. (de Success. Regnorum, 
 p 242 ) The patient reader may draw some light from Mascou (Hist, 
 of the Germans, and Annotat. xxiii.)aud de Buat, (Hist, des Peuples, 
 &c. torn. ix. X. xi.) 
 
 k ludoptthe appellation of Bulgarians, from Lnnodius,(inPaneeyr. 
 Theodorici, 0pp. Sirmond, lom. i. p. 1598, 1599.) Jornandes, (de Re- 
 bus Gpticis,c.5. p. 194. ei.de Regn. Successione, p. 242.) Theophanes, 
 (p. 185.) and the Chronicles of Cassiodorius and MarccUinus. The 
 name of Huns is too vague ; the tribes of the Cutturgurians and Uttur- 
 gurians are too minute and too harsh. , 
 
 1 [The Bulgarians, who. according to the Byzantine authors were 
 a branch of the Ougres, (I'hunmann, Histoire des Peuples de V est 
 de V Europe, p. 36 ) but who bear a much stronger resemblance to 
 the Turks, (Engel, Hist Univers. Allem. xlix. 252. 298.) doubtless 
 derived their name from the river upon which they usually dwelt. 
 Their former country or Great Bulgaria was watered by the Volga; 
 some remains of their capital is still seen near the Kasan. They 
 afterwards lived upon the Kuban and finally upon the Danube, where 
 they subdued about the year 500 the Sclavonic Servians who were 
 settled upon the Lower Danube. They were subdued in their turn 
 by the Avars, but threw off the yoke in 635. Their empire com- 
 
 Srised at that time, the Cuturgores, who were the remnants of the 
 luns settled near the lake Maeotis. Bulgaria upon the Danube, a 
 part of this vast dominion, was for a long time formidable to the By- 
 zantine Empire. iPrecis. de la Geogr. Univers.) byM. Malte Brun, 
 vol i. p. 351.— Cr.] 
 
 nation was divided into two powerful and hostile 
 tribes, who pursued each other with fraternal hatred. 
 They eagerly disputed the friendship, or rather the 
 gifts, of the emperor; and the distinction which na- 
 ture had fixed between the faithful dog and the rapa- 
 cious wolf, was applied by an ambassador who re- 
 ceived only verbal instructions from the mouth of hi3 
 illiterate prince." The Bulgarians, of whatsoever spe- 
 cies, wore equally attracted by Roman wealth : they 
 assumed a va^ue dominion over the Sclavonian name, 
 and their rapid marches could only be stopped by the 
 Baltic sea, or the extreme cold and poverty of the 
 north. But the same race of Sclavonians appears to 
 have maintained, in every age, the possession of the 
 same countries. Their numerous tribes, however dis- 
 tant or adverse, used one common lanjiuage, (it was 
 harsh and irregular,) and were known by the resem- 
 blance of their form, which deviated from the swarthy 
 Tartar, and approached without attaining the lofty 
 stature and fair complexion of the German. Four 
 thousand six hundred villages" were scattered over 
 the provinces of Russia and Poland, and their huts 
 were hastily built of rough timber, in a country defi- 
 cient both in stone and iron. Erected, or rather con- 
 cealed, in the depth of forests, on the banks of rivers, 
 or the edge of morasses, we may not perhaps without 
 flattery, compare them to the architecture of the bea- 
 ver; which they resembled in a double issue, to the 
 land and water, for the escape of the savage inhabi- 
 tant, an animal less cleanly, less diligent, and less 
 social, than that marvellous quadruped. The fertility 
 of the soil rather than the labour of the natives, sup- 
 plied the rustic plenty of the Sclavonians. Their 
 sheep and horned cattle were large and numerous, and! 
 the fields which they sowed with millet and panic,* 
 aflforded, in the place of bread, a coarse and less nu- 
 tritive food. The incessant rapine of their neighbours 
 compelled them to bury this treasure in the earth ; but 
 on the appearance of a stranger, it was freely imparted 
 by a people, whose unfavourable character is qualified 
 by the epithets of chaste, patient, and hospitable. As 
 their supreme god, they adored an invisible master of 
 the thunder. The rivers and the nyn^.phs obtained 
 their subordinate honours, and the popular worship 
 was expressed in vows and sacrifice. The Sclavoni- 
 ans disdained to obey a despot, a prince, or even a 
 magistrate ; but their experience was too narrow, their 
 passions too headstrong, to compose a system of equal 
 law or general defence. Some voluntary respect was 
 yielded to age and valour ; but each tribe or village 
 existed as a separate republic, and all must be per- 
 suaded where none could be compelled. They fought 
 on foot, almost naked, and, except an unwieldy shield, 
 without any defensive armour: their w^eapons of of- 
 fence were a bow, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, 
 and a long rope, which they dexterously threw from a 
 distance, and entangled their enemy in a running- 
 noose. In the field the Sclavonian infantry was dan- 
 gerous by their speed, agility, and hardiness ; they 
 swam, they dived, they remained under water, drawing^ 
 their breath through a hollow cane ; and a river or 
 lake was often the scene of their unsuspected ambus- 
 cade. But these were the achievements of spies or 
 stragglers ; the military art was unknown to the Scla- 
 vonians ; their name was obscure, and their conquests 
 were inglorious.P 
 
 m Procopius. (Goth. 1. iv. c. 19.) His verbal message (he owns him- 
 self an illiterate barbarian) is delivered as an epistle. The style iB 
 savage, fieurative, and original. . 
 
 n This sum is the result of a particular list, m a curious Mb. frag- 
 ment of the year 550, found in the library of Milan. The obscure 
 geo'^raphy of the times provokes and exercises the patience of the 
 count De Buat. (tom. xi. p. 69-189.) The French minister often lose, 
 himsplf in a wilderness which requires a }!>axon and Polish guide. 
 
 o Panicum, milium. See Columella, 1. ii. c. 9. p. 430. edit. Gesnea 
 Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 24, 25. The Sarmatians made a pap of millet, 
 mingled with mare's milk or blood. In the wealth of modern hu». 
 bandry, our millet feeds poultry, and not heroes. See the dictionaries 
 of Bomare and Miller. ... , ,.. ^ -^. 
 
 P For the name and nation, the situation and manners, of the sci*.- 
 
 i 
 
 '1 
 
 il ^^ 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
48 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 49 
 
 Pffi 
 
 Their inroads. ^ have marked the faint and general 
 outline of the Sclavonians and Bulgari- 
 ans, without attempting to define their immediate 
 boundaries, which were not accurately known or 
 respected by the barbarians themselves. Their im- 
 portance w^as measured by their vicinity to the empire; 
 and the level country of Moldavia and Walachia was 
 occupied by the Antes,*i a Sclavonian tribe, which 
 swelled the titles of Justinian with an epithet of con- 
 quest.' Against the Antes he erected the fortifications 
 of the Lower Danube; and laboured to secure the alli- 
 ance of a people seated in the direct channel of northern 
 inundation, an interval of two hundred miles between 
 the mountains of Transylvania and the Euxine sea. 
 But the Antes wanted power and inclination to stem 
 the fury of the torrent : and the light-armed Sclavoni- 
 ans, from a hundred tribes, pursued with almost equal 
 speed the footsteps of the Bulgarian horse. The pay- 
 ment of one piece of gold for each soldier procured a 
 safe and easy retreat through the country of the Gcpi- 
 dse, who commanded the passage of the Upper Danube." 
 The hopes or fears of the barbarians ; their intestine 
 union or discord ; the accident of a frozen or shallow 
 stream ; the prospect of harvest or vintage ; the pros- 
 perity or distress of the Romans ; were the causes 
 which produced the uniform repetition of annual 
 "visits,* tedious in the narrative, and destructive in the 
 event. The same year, and possibly the same month, 
 in which Ravenna surrendered, was marked by an in- 
 Tasion of the Huns or Bulgarians, so dreadful, that it 
 almost effaced the memory of their past inroads. They 
 spread from the suburbs of Constantinople to the 
 Ionian gulf, destroyed thirty-two cities or castles, 
 erased Potidaea, which Athens had built and Philip 
 had besieged, and repassed the Danube, dragging at 
 their horses' heels one hundred and twenty tfiousand 
 of the subjects of Justinian. In a subsequent inroad 
 they pierced the wall of the Thracian Chersonesus, 
 extirpated the habitations and the inhabitants, boldly 
 traversed the Hellespont, and returned to their com- 
 panions, laden with the spoils of Asia. Another party, 
 ■which seemed a multitude in the eyes of the Romans, 
 penetrated, without opposition, from the straits of 
 Thermopylae to the isthmus of Corinth ; and the last 
 ruin of Greece has appeared an object too minute for 
 the attention of history. The works which the empe- 
 ror raised for the protection, but at the expense, of his 
 subjects, served only to disclose the weakness of some 
 neglected part ; and the walls, which by flattery had 
 been deemed impregnable, were either deserted by the 
 garrison, or scaled by the barbarians. Three thousand 
 Sclavonians, who insolently divided themselves into 
 two bands, discovered the weakness and misery of a 
 triumphant reign. They passed the Danube and the 
 Hebrus, vanquished the Roman generals who dared to 
 oppose their process, and plundered with impunity 
 the cities of lUyricum and Thrace, each of which had 
 arms and numbers to overwhelm their contemptible 
 assailants. Whatever praise the boldness of the Scla- 
 vonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wanton and 
 deliberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising 
 on their prisoners. Without distinction of rank, or 
 
 ▼onians, see the original evidence of the sixth century, in Procopius, 
 <Goih. 1. ii. c. 26. 1. iii. c. 14.) and the emperor Mauritius or Maurice. 
 (Stralacemat. 1. ii. c. 5. apud Mascou, Annotat. xxxi.) The Stratagems 
 of Maurice have been printed bnly, as I understand, at the end of 
 Scheffer's edition of Arrian's Tactics, at Upsal, 1664. (Fabric. Bibliol. 
 Grac. 1. iv. c. 8. torn. iii. p. 278.; a scarce, and hitherto, lo me, an in- 
 accessible book. 
 
 <l Antes eorum fortissimi .... Taysis qui rapidus et vorticosus in 
 riistri fluenla furensdevolvitur. (Jornandes, c. 5. p. 194. edit. Murator 
 Procopius, Goth. 1. iii. c. 14. et de Edific. 1. iv. c. 7.) Yet the same 
 Procopius mentions the Goths and Huns as neighbours, vi4to»owvt«, 
 to the Danube, (de Edific. 1. iv. c. i.) ' 
 
 r The national title of Anticus, in the laws and inscriptions of 
 Justinian, was adopted by his successors, and is justified by the pious 
 Ludewig, (in Vii. Justinian, p. 515.) It had strangely puzzled the 
 Civilians of the middle age. 
 
 a Procopius, Goth. 1. iv. c. 25. 
 
 t An inroad of the Huns is connected, by Procopius, with a comet; 
 perhaps that of 531. (Persic. 1. ii. c. 4.) Agathiaa (1. v. p. 154, 155.) 
 borrows from his predecessor some early facts. 
 
 age, or sex, the captives were impaled, or flayed alive 
 or suspended between four posts, and beaten with clubs 
 till they expired, or enclosed in some spacious buildina 
 and left to perish in the flames with the spoil and cat- 
 tle which might impede the march of these savage 
 victors." Perhaps a more impartial narrative would 
 reduce the number, and qualify the nature, of these 
 horrid acts ; and they might sometimes be excused by 
 the cruel laws of retaliation. In the siege of Topirus,« 
 whose obstinate defence had enraged the Sclavonians, 
 they massacred fifteen thousand males; but they 
 spared the women and children; the most valuable 
 captives were always reserved for labour or ransom ; the 
 servitude was not rigorous, and the terms of their de- 
 liverance were speedy and moderate. But the subject, 
 or the historian of Justinian, exhaled his just indirina- 
 tion in the language of complaint and reproach ; "and 
 Procopius has confidently affirmed, that in a reign of 
 thirty-two years, each annual inroad of the barbarians 
 consumed two hundred thousand of the inhabitatits of 
 the Roman empire. The entire population of Turkish 
 Europe, which nearly corresponds with the provinces 
 of Justinian, would perhaps be incapable of supplyino- 
 six millions of persons, the result of this incredible 
 estimate.^ 
 
 In the midst of these obscure calami- 
 ties, Europe felt the shock of a revolu- ?Ir?hVof "S^ 
 tion, which first revealed to the world Turks in Asia, 
 the name and nation of the Turks. Like A. D.545, ic. 
 Romulus, the founder of that martial people was suc- 
 kled by a she-wolf, who afterwards made him the 
 father of a numerous progeny ; and the representation 
 of that animal in the banners of the Turks preserved 
 the memory, or rather suggested the idea, of a fable, 
 which was invented, without any mutual intercourse, 
 by the shepherds of Latium and those of Scythia. At 
 the equal distance of two thousand miles from the 
 Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese, and the Bengal seas, a 
 ridge of mountains is conspicuous, the centre, and per- 
 haps the summit, of Asia; which, in the language of 
 different nations, has been styled Imaus, and Caf,«and 
 Altai, and the Golden Mountains, and the Girdle of 
 the Earth. The sides of the hills were productive of 
 minerals ; and the iron forges,* for the purpose of war, 
 were exercised by the Turks, the most despised por- 
 tion of the slaves of the great khan of the Geougen. 
 But their servitude could'only last till a leader, bold 
 and eloquent, should arise to persuade his countrymen 
 that the same arms which they forged for their masters, 
 might become, in their own hands, the instruments of 
 freedom and victory. They sallied from the mountain ;* 
 a sceptre was the reward of his advice ; and the annual 
 ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the 
 fire, and a smith's hammer was successively handled 
 
 n The cruelties of the Sclavonians are related or magnified by Pro- 
 copius. (Goth. 1. iii. c. 29. 38.) For thpir mild and liberal behaviour 
 to their orisoners, we may appeal to the authority, somewhat more 
 recent, of the emperor Maurfce. Stratagem. (1. ii. c. 5.) 
 
 I Topirus was situate near Philippi in Thrace.or Macedonia, oppo- 
 site to the isle of Thasos, twelve days' journey from Conslantiuoole. 
 (Cellarius, toin. i. p. 676. 840.) *^ 
 
 y According to the malevolent testimony of the Anecdotes, (c 18) 
 these inroads had reduced the provinces south of the Danube to the 
 state of a Scythian wilderness. 
 
 X From Caf to Caf; which a more rational geography would inter- 
 pret, from Imaus, perhaps, to mount Atlas. According to the rrljf jous 
 philosophy of the Mahometans, the basis of mount Caf is an emerald, 
 whose reflection produces the azure of the sky. The mountain is en- 
 dowed with a sensitive action in its roots or nerves ; and their vibra- 
 tion, at the command of God, is the cause of earthquakes. (De Herbe- 
 lot, p. 230, 231.) 
 
 » The Siberian iron is the best and most plentiful in the world ; and 
 in the southern parts, above sixty mines are now worked by the in- 
 dustry of the Russians. (Strahlenberg, Hist, of Siberia, p. 342. 387. 
 Voyage en Siberie, par I'Abbe Chappe d'Auieroche, p. 603-608. edit, 
 in 12mo, Amsterdam, 1770.) The Turks offered iron for sale ; yet the 
 Roman ambassadons, with strange obaiinacy, persisted in believing 
 that it was all a trick, and that their country produced none (Me- 
 nander in Excerpt. Leg. p. 152.) 
 
 b Of Irgana-kon. (Abulghazi Khan, Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, 
 P. 11. c. 6. p. 71.-77. c. 15. p. 155.) The tradition of the Moguls, of 
 the 4o0 years which they passed in the mountains, agreps with the 
 Chinese periods of the history of the Huns and Turks, (De Guignes, 
 tom. I. part 11. p. 376.) and the twenty generations, from their restora- 
 tion to Zingis. 
 
 hy the prince and his nobles, recorded for ages the 
 humhle profession and rational pride of the Turkish 
 nation. Bertezena, their first leader, signalized their 
 valour and his own in successful combats against the 
 neifrhbouring tribes ; but when he presumed to ask in 
 marriage the daughter of the great khan, the insolent 
 demand of a slave and a meclianic was contemptuously 
 rejected. The disgrace was expiated by a more noble 
 alliance with a princess of China; and the decisive 
 battle which almost extirpated the nation of the Geou- 
 gen, established in Tarlary the new and more power- 
 ful empire of the Turks. They reigned over the north ; 
 but they confessed the vanity of conquest, by their 
 faithful attachment to the mountain of their fathers. 
 The royal encampment seldom lost sigiit of Mount 
 Altai, from whence the river Irtish descends to water 
 the rich pastures of the Calmucks,<= which nourish the 
 largest sheep and oxen in the world. The soil is fruit- 
 ful, and the climate mild and temperate : the happy 
 region was ignorant of earthquake and pestilence ; the 
 emperor's throne was turned towards the east, and a 
 golden wolf on the top of a spear seemed to guard the 
 entrance of his lent. One of the successors of Berte- 
 zena was tempted by the luxury and superstition of 
 China; but his design of building cities and temples 
 was defeated by the simple wisdom of a barbarian coun- 
 sellor. *' The Turks," he said, *' are not equal in num- 
 ber to one hundredth part of the inhabitants of China. 
 If we balance their power, and elude their armies, it is 
 because we wander without any fixed habitations, in 
 the exercise of war and hunting. Are we strong? we 
 advance and conquer : are we feeble ? we retire and are 
 concealed. Should the Turks confine themselves with- 
 in the walls of cities, the loss of a battle would be the 
 destruction of their empire. The Bonzes preach only 
 patience, humility, and the renunciation of the world. 
 Such, O king! is not the religion of heroes." They 
 entertained, with less reluctance, the doctrines of Zo- 
 roaster ; but the greatest part of the nation acquiesced, 
 without inquiry, in the opinions, or rather in the prac- 
 tice, of their ancestors. The honours of sacrifice were 
 reserved for the supreme deity ; they acknowledged, 
 in rude hymns, their obligations to the air, the fire, the 
 water, and the earth ; and their priests derived some 
 profit from the art of divination. Their unwritten 
 laws were rigorous and impartial ; theft was punished 
 by a tenfold restitution ; adultery, treason, and murder, 
 with death ; and no chastisement could be inflicted too 
 severe for the rare and inexpiable guilt of cowardice. 
 As the subject nations marched under the standard of 
 the Turks, their cavalry, both men and horses, were 
 proudly computed by millions ; one of their effective 
 armies consisted of four hundred thousand soldiers, and 
 in less than fifty years they were connected in peace 
 and war with the Romans, the Persians, and the Chi- 
 nese. In their northern limits, some vestige may be 
 discovered of the form and situation of Kamtchatka, 
 of a people of hunters and fishermen, whose sledges 
 were drawn by dogs, and whose habitations were bu- 
 ried in the earth. The Turks were ignorant of astrono- 
 my ; but the observation taken by some learned Chi- 
 nese, with a gnomon of eight feet, fixes the royal camp 
 in the latitude of forty-nine degrees, and marks their 
 extreme progress within three, or at least ten, degrees, 
 of the polar circle.** Among their southern conquests, 
 the most splendid was that of the Nepthalites or White 
 Huns, a polite and warlike people, who possessed the 
 commercial cities of Bochara and Samarcand, who had 
 vanquished the Persian monarch, and carried their vic- 
 torious arms along the banks, and perhaps to the mouth, 
 of the Indus. On the side of the west, the Turkish 
 cavalry advanced to the lake Maeotis. They passed 
 
 c The country of the Turks, now of the Calmucks, is well described 
 in the Genealogical History, p. 521— 562 The curious notes of the 
 French translator are enlarged and digested in the second volume of 
 the Enslish version. 
 
 d Visdelou, p. 141. 151. The fact, though it strictly belongs to a 
 subordinate and successive tribe, may be introduced here. 
 
 Vol. II G 4 
 
 that lake on the ice. The khan whi^ dwelt at the foot 
 of mount Altai, issued his commands for the siege of 
 Bosphorus," a city, the voluntary subject of Rome, and 
 whose princes had formerly been the friends of Athens.' 
 To the east, the Turks invaded China, as often as the 
 vigour of the government was relaxed : and I am taught 
 to read in the history of the times, that they mowed 
 down their patient enemies like hemp or grass ; and 
 that the mandarins applauded the wisdom of an empe- 
 ror who repulsed these barbarians with sfolden lances. 
 This extent of savage empire compelled the Turkish 
 monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his 
 own blood, who soon forgot their gratitude and alle- 
 giance. The conquerors were enervated by luxury, 
 which is always fatal except to an industrious people; 
 the policy of China solicited the vanquished nations 
 to resume their independence ; and the power of the 
 Turks was limited to a period of two hundred years. 
 The revival of their name and dominion in the south- 
 ern countries of Asia, are the events of a later age ; 
 and the dynasties, which succeeded to their native 
 realms, may sleep in oblivion ; since their history bears 
 no relation to the decline and fall of the Roman em- 
 pire.K 
 
 In the rapid career of conquest, the rp, . 
 Turks attacked and subdued the nation forV the^Turks" 
 of the Ogors or Varchonites, on the and approach the 
 banks of the river Til, which derived the ^'"P''"^- 
 opithet of black from its dark w^ater or gloomy forests.'' 
 The khan of the Ogors was slain, with three hundred 
 thousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scat- 
 tered over the space of four days' journey : their sur- 
 viving countrymen acknowledged the strength and 
 mercy of the Turks ; and a small portion, about twenty 
 thousand warriors, preferred exile to servitude. They 
 followed the well-known road of the Volga, cherished 
 the error of the nations who confounded them with the 
 Avars, and spread the terror of that false though fa- 
 mouse appellation, which had not, however, saved its 
 lawful proprietors from the yoke of the Turks.* After 
 a long and victorious march, the new Avars arrived at 
 the foot of mount Caucasus, in the country of the Alaui^ 
 and Circassians, where they first heard of the splendour 
 and weakness of the Roman empire. They humbly 
 requested their confederate, the prince of the Alani, to 
 lead them to this source of riches ; and their ambassa- 
 dor, with the permission of the governor of Lazica, 
 was transported by the Euxine sea to Constantinople. 
 The whole city was poured forth to behold with curi- 
 osity and terror the aspect of a strange people ; their 
 long hair, which hung in tresses down their backs, was 
 gracefully bound with ribbons, but the rest of their 
 habit appeared to imitate the fashion of Their embassy t© 
 the Huns. When they were admitted Constantinople, 
 to the audience of Justinian, Candish, A. D. 558. 
 the first of the ambassadors, addressed the Roman em- 
 
 c Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 12. 1. ii. c. 3. Peyssonel (Observations 
 Pur les Peoples Barbares, p. 99, 100.) defines the distance betweea 
 Caffa and the old Bosphorus at sixteen Ion? Tartar leagues. 
 
 f See, in a Memoire of M. de Boze, (Mem. de I'Academie des In- 
 scriptions, tom. vi. p. 549—565.) the ancient kings and medals of the 
 Cimmerian Bosphorus; and the gnitiiude of Athens, in the Oration of 
 Demosthenes against Leptincs, (in Reiske, Orator. Graec. tom. i. p. 
 466, 467.) 
 
 g For the origin and revolutions of the first Turkish empire, the 
 Chinese details are borrowed from De Guignes (Hist. des. Huns, tom. 
 i. P. ii. p. 367— 462.) and Visdelou. (Supplement A la Bibliotheque 
 Orient. d'Herbelot, p. 82—114.) The Greek or Roman hims are 
 gathered in Mcnander (p. 108—164.) and Theophylact Simocaiia, (!. 
 
 vii. c. 7,8.) ^^ ^ ■ 
 
 h The river Til, or Tula, according to the geography of DeGuigne^ 
 (tom. i. part ii. p. 1 viii. and 352.) is a small, thouch grateful, stream of 
 the desert, that falls into the Orhon, Selinga, &c. See Bell, Journey 
 from Petersburg to Pekin ; (vol. ii. p. 124) yet his own description 
 of the Keat, down which he sailed into the Oby, represents the name 
 and attributes of the ft/acA rirer, (p. 139.) ..... 
 
 i Theophylact, 1. vii. c. 7, 8. And yet his true Avars are invisible 
 even to the eyes of M. de Guignes : and what can be more illustrious 
 than ihe false 7 The right of the fugitive Ogors to that national ap- 
 pellation is confessed by the Turks themselves. (Menander, p. 108.) 
 k The Alani are still found in the Genealogical History of the Tar- 
 tars, (p. 617.) and in D'Anville's maps. They opposed the inarch of 
 the generals of Zngis round the Caspian sea, and were overthrowa 
 in a great battle. (Ifist. de Gengiscan, 1. iv. c. 9. p. 447.^ 
 
 ^■i J] 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
50 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 pcTOT in these terms : " You see before you, mighty 
 prince, the representatives of the strongest and most 
 populous of nations, the invincible, the irresistible 
 Avars. We are willing to devote ourselves to your 
 service: we are able to vanquish and destroy all the 
 enemies who now disturb your repose. But we expect, 
 as the price of our alliance, as the reward of our valour, 
 precious gifis, annual subsidies, and fruitful posses- 
 sions." At the time of this embassy, Justinian had 
 leigned above thirty, he had lived above seventy-five 
 years : his mind as well as his body, was feeble and 
 languid ; and the conqueror of Africa and Italy, careless 
 of the permanent interest of his people, aspired only to 
 end his days in the bosom even of inglorious peace. 
 In a studied oration, he imparted to the senate his 
 resolution to dissemble the insult, and to purchase the 
 friendship of the Avars ; and the whole senate, like 
 the mandarins of China, applauded the incomparable 
 wisdom and foresight of their sovereign. The instru- 
 ments of luxury were immediately prepared to capti- 
 vate the barbarians; silken garments, soft and splendid 
 beds, and chains and collars incrusted with gold. The 
 ambassadors, content with such liberal reception, de- 
 parted from Constantinople, and Valentin, one of the 
 emperor's guards, was sent with a similar character to 
 their camp at the foot of mount Caucasus. As their 
 destruction or their success must be alike advantageous 
 to the empire, he persuaded them to invade the ene- 
 mies of Rome; and they were easily tempted, by gifts 
 and promises, to gratify their ruling inclinations. These 
 fugitives who fled before the Turkish arms, passed the 
 Tanais and Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the 
 heart of Poland and Germany, violating the law of 
 nations, and abusing the rights of victory. Before ten 
 years had elapsed, their camps were seated on the 
 Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavo- 
 nian names were obliterated from the earth, and the 
 remainder of their tribes are found, as tributaries 
 and vassals, under the standard of the Avars. The 
 chagan, the peculiar title of their king, still affected 
 to cultivate the friendship of the emperor; and Justin- 
 ian entertained some thoughts of fixing them in Panno- 
 nia, to balance the prevailing power of the Lombards. 
 But the virtue or treachery of an Avar betrayed the se- 
 cret enmity and ambitious designs of their countrymen ; 
 and they loudly complained of the timid though jealous 
 policy, of detaining their ambassadors, and denying 
 the arms which they had been allowed to purchase in 
 the capital of the empire.' 
 
 Embassies of the Perhaps the apparent change in the 
 Turks and Ko- dispositions of the emperors, may be 
 A *d'* 569— 582 ascribed to the embassy which was 
 received from the conquerors of the 
 Avars." The immense distance which eluded their 
 arms, could not extinguish their resentment: the Tur- 
 kish ambassadors pursued the footsteps of the van- 
 quished to the Jaik, the Volga, mount Caucasus, the 
 Euxine, and Constantinople, and at length appeared 
 before the successor of Constantine, to request that he 
 would not espouse the cause of rebels and fugitives. 
 Even commerce had some share in this remarkable 
 neaooiation : and the Sogdoites, who were now the 
 tributaries of the Turks, embraced the fair occasion 
 of opening, by the north of the Caspian, a new road 
 for the importation of Chinese silk into the Roman 
 empire. The Persian, who preferred the navigation 
 of Ceylon, had stopped the caravans of Bochara and 
 Samarcand : their silk was contemptuously burnt : 
 some Turkish ambassadors died in Persia, with a sus- 
 picion of poison ; and the great khan permitted his 
 
 1 The embassies and first conquests of the Avars may be read in 
 Menander, (Excerpt. Legal, p. 99, ICXI, 101. 154, 155.)Theophane8,(p. 
 l%.)the Hiaioria Miscella, (1. xvi. p. 109.) and Greirory ol Tours, (1. 
 Iv. c. 23. 2J>. in the Historians of France, lorn. ii. p. 214. 217.) 
 
 m Theophanes (Chron. p. 204.) and the Hist. Miscella, (1. xvi. p. 
 110.) as understood by De Guignes, (lorn. i. part ii. p. 354.) appear to 
 •peak of a Turkish embassy to Justinian himself; but that of Wa- 
 niach, in the fiurth year of his successor Justin, is positively the 
 first that reached Consuminople (Menander, p. 108.) 
 
 faithful vassal Maniach, the prince of the Sogdoites, 
 to propose, at the Byzantine court, a treaty of alliance 
 against their common enemies. Their splendid apparel 
 and rich presents, the fruii of oriental luxury, distin- 
 guished Maniach and his colleagues from the rude 
 savages of the north : their letters, in the Scythian 
 character and language, announced a people who had 
 attained the rudiments of science;" they enumerated 
 the conquests, they offered the friendship and military 
 aid of the Turks : and their sincerity was attested by 
 direful imprecations (if they were guilty of falsehood) 
 against their own head, and the head of Disabul their 
 master. The Greek prince entertained with hospita- 
 ble regard the ambassadors of a remote and powerful 
 monarch ; the sight of silk-worms and looms disap- 
 pointed the hopes of the Sogdoites; the emperor 
 renounced, or seemed to renounce, the fugitive Avars, 
 but he accepted the alliance of the Turks; and the 
 ratification of the treaty was carried by a Roman min- 
 ister to the foot of mount Altai. Under the successors 
 of Justinian, the friendship of the two nations was 
 cultivated by frequent and cordial intercourse; the 
 most favoured vassals were permitted to imitate the 
 example of the great khan, and one hundred and six 
 Turks, who, on various occasions, had visited Con- 
 stantinople, departed at the same time for their native 
 country. The duration and length of the journey 
 from the Byzantine court to mount Altai are not speci- 
 fied : it might have been difficult to mark a read 
 through the nameless deserts, the mountains, rivers, 
 and morasses of Tartary ; but a curious account has 
 been preserved of the reception of the Roman ambas- 
 sadors at the royal camp. After they had been purified 
 by fire and incense, according to a rite still practised 
 under the sons of Zingis, they were introduced to the 
 presence of Disabul. In a valley of the Golden 
 Mountain, they found the great khan in his tent, 
 seated in a chair with wheels, to which a horse might 
 be occasionally harnessed. As soon as they had de- 
 livered their presents, which were received by the 
 proper officers, they exposed, in a florid oration, the 
 wishes of the Roman empercr, that victory might 
 attend the arms of the Turks, that their reign micht be 
 long and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without 
 envy or deceit, might for ever be maintained between 
 the two most povveiful nations of the earth. The 
 answer of Disabul corresponded with these friendly 
 professions, and the ambassadors were seated by his 
 side, at a banquet which lasted the greatest part of the 
 day : the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and 
 a Tartar liquor was served on the table, which pos- 
 sessed at least the intoxicating qualities of wine. The 
 entertainment of the succeeding day was more sump- 
 tuous ; the silk hangings of the second tent were em- 
 broidered in various figures; and the royal seat, the 
 cups, and the vases, were of gold. A third pavilion 
 was supported by columns of gilt wood ; a bed of pure 
 and massy gold was raised on four peacocks of the 
 same metal ; and before the entrance of the tent, 
 dishes, basons, and statues of solid silver, and admi- 
 rable art, were ostentatiously piled in waggons, the 
 monuments of valour rather than of industry. When 
 Disabul led his armies against the frontiers of Persia, 
 his Roman allies followed many days the march of the 
 Turkish camp, nor were they dismissed till they had 
 enjoyed their precedency over the envoy of the great 
 king, whose loud and intemperate clamours interrup- 
 ted the silence of the royal banquet. The power and 
 ambition of Chosroes, cemented the union of the Turks 
 and Romans, who touched his dominions on either 
 side; but those distant nations, regardless of each 
 
 n The Russians have found characters, rude hieroglyphics, on the 
 Irtish and Yenisei, on medals, tombs, idols, rocks, obelisks, &.c. 
 (Slrahlenberg, Hist, of Siberia, p. 324. 3-lG. 406. 429.) Dr. Hyde (d» 
 Keligione Veterum Persarum, p. 521, &c.) has given two alphabetsof 
 Thibet and of the Eygours. I have long harboured a suspicion that 
 all the Scythian, and some, perhaps mucA, of the Indian science, was 
 derived from the Greeks of Baciriana. 
 
 other, consulted the dictates of interest without recol- 
 lecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While 
 the successor of Disabul celebrated his father's obse- 
 quies, he was saluted by the ambassadors of the em- 
 peror Tiberius, who proposed an invasion of Persia, 
 and sustained, with firmness, the angry, and perhaps 
 the just, reproaches of that haughty barbarian. " You 
 see my ten fingers," said the great khan, and he ap- 
 plied them to his mouth. ** You Romans speak with 
 as many tongues, but they are the tongues of deceit 
 and perjury. To me you hold one language, to my 
 subjects another ; and the nations are successively de- 
 luded by your perfidious eloquence. You precipitate 
 your allies into war and danger, you enjoy their 
 labours, and you neglect your benefactors. Hasten 
 your return, inform your master that a Turk is incapa- 
 ble of uttering or forgiving falsehood, and that he shall 
 speedily meet the punishment which he deserves. 
 While he solicits my friendship with flattering and 
 hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate of my fugi- 
 tive Varchonites. If I condescend to march against 
 those contemptible slaves, they will tremble at the 
 sound of our whips ; they will be trampled, like a nest 
 of ants, under the feet of my innumerable cavalry. I 
 am not ignorant of the road which they have followed 
 to invade your empire ; nor can I be deceived by the 
 vain pretence, that mount Caucasus is the impregna- 
 ble barrier of the Romans. I know the course of the 
 Niester, the Danube, and the Hebrus; the most war- 
 like nations have yielded to the arms of the Turks ; 
 and from the rising to the setting sun, the earth is my 
 inheritance." Notwithstanding this menace, a sense 
 of mutual advantage soon renewed the alliance of the 
 Turks and Romans ; but the pride of the great khan 
 survived his resentment ; and when he announced an 
 important conquest to his friend the emperor Maurice, 
 he styled himself the master of the seven races, and 
 lord of the seven climates of the world. ° 
 
 . Disputes have often arisen between 
 
 a!*D. soo-m ^*'.® sovereigns of Asia, for the title of 
 king of the world ; while the contest has 
 proved that it could not belong to either of the com- 
 petitors. The kingdom of the Turks was bounded by 
 the Oxus or Gihon ; and Touran was separated by that 
 great river from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia, 
 which in a smaller compass contained perhaps a 
 larger measure of power and population. The Per- 
 sians, who alternately invaded and repulsed the Turks 
 and the Romans, were still ruled by the house of Sas- 
 san, which ascended the throne three hundred years 
 before the accession of Justinian. His contemporary, 
 Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war against 
 the emperor Anastasius ; but the reign of that prince 
 was distracted by civil and religious troubles. A 
 prisoner in the hands of his subjects; an exile among 
 the enemies of Persia ; he recovered his liberty by 
 prostituting the honour of his wife, and regained his 
 kingdom with the dangerous and mercenary aid of the 
 barbarians, who had slain his father. His nobles were 
 suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his 
 expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The peo- 
 ple were deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of 
 Mazdak,!* who asserted the community of women,i 
 and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated 
 the richest lands and most beautiful females to the use 
 of his sectaries. The view of these disorders, which 
 had been fomented by his laws and example,' imbit- 
 
 o All the details of these Turkish and Roman embassies, so curious 
 in the history of human manners, are drawn from the Extracts of Me- 
 nander, (p. 106—110. 151—154. 161—164.) in which weoften regret the 
 want of order and connexion. 
 
 P See D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient, p. 568. 929.) Hyde, (de Religione 
 Vet. Persarum, c. 21. p. 290,291.) Pocock. (Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 70, 
 71.) Eutychius. (Annal. torn. ii. p. 176.) Tejteira.(in Steven?, Hist, of 
 Persia. 1. i. c. 3-1.) 
 
 q The fame of the new law for the community of women was soon 
 propagated in Syria (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn, iii.p. 402.) and 
 Greece. (Procnp. Persic. 1. i. c. 5.) 
 
 r He offered his own wife and sister to the prophet; but the prayeri 
 of Nuahirvan saved his mother, and the indignaiit monarch never 
 
 tered the declining age of the Persian monarch ; and 
 his fears were increased by the consciousness of his 
 design to reverse the natural and customary order of 
 succession, in favour of his third and most favoured 
 son, so famous under the name of Chosroes and Nu- 
 shirvan. To render the youth more illustrious in the 
 eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirous that he 
 should be adopted by the emperor Justin : the hope 
 of peace inclined the Byzantine court to accept this 
 singular proposal ; and Chosroes might have acquired 
 a specious claim to the inheritance of his Roman 
 parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the 
 advice of the quaestor Proclus : a difficulty was star- 
 ted, whether the adoption should be performed as a 
 civil or military rite;* the treaty was abnipily dis- 
 solved; and the sense of this indignity sunk deep into 
 the mind of Chosroes, who had already advanced to 
 the Tigris on his road to Constantinople. His father 
 did not long survive the disappointment of his wishes : 
 the testament of their deceased sovereign was read in 
 the assembly of the nobles ; and a powerful faction, 
 prepared for the event, and regardless of the priority 
 of age, exalted Chosroes to the throne of Persia. He 
 filled that throne during a prosperous period of forty- 
 eight years ;^ and the justice of Nushirvan is celebra- 
 ted as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of 
 the east. 
 
 But the justice of kings is understood „ .„„ .^r -v 
 1 ., I*" J ^ 1 1 • 1 Reign of Nnshir- 
 
 by themselves, and even by their sub- van, or Chosroes, 
 
 jects, with an ample indulgence for the ^' ^- 531—579. 
 gratification of passion and interest. The virtue of 
 Chosroes was that of a conqueror, who, in the mea- 
 sures of peace and war, is excited by ambition, and 
 restrained by prudence ; who confounds the greatness 
 with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes 
 the lives of thousands to the fame, or even the amuse- 
 ment, of a single man. In his domestic administra- 
 tion, the just Nushirvan would merit in our feelings 
 the appellation of a tyrant. His two elder brothers 
 had been deprived of their fair expectations of the dia- 
 dem : their future life, between the supreme rank and 
 the condition of subjects, was anxious to themselves 
 and formidable to their master : fear as well as revenge 
 might tempt '.hem to rebel ; the slightest evidence of 
 a conspiracy satisfied the author of their wrongs ; and 
 the repose of Chosroes was secured by the death of 
 these unhappy princes, with their families and adhe- 
 rents. One guiltless youth was saved and dismissed 
 by the compassion of a veteran general ; and this act 
 of humanity, which was revealed by his son, overbal- 
 anced the merit of reducing twelve nations to the obe- 
 dience of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes 
 had fixed the diadem on the head of Chosroes himself; 
 but he delayed to attend the royal summons, till he 
 had performed the duties of a military review: he was 
 instantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod, which 
 stood before the gate of the palace," where it was 
 death to relieve or approach the victim ; and Mebodes 
 languished several days before his sentence was pro- 
 nounced, by the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude 
 of the son of Kobad. But the people, more especially 
 
 forgave the humiliation to which his filial piety had stooped: pedes 
 tuos deosculalus, (said he to Mazdak,) ciijus foetor adhuc nares occu- 
 pat. (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 71.) 
 
 8 Procopius, Persic. 1. i.e. 11. Was not Proclus over-wise ? Was not 
 the danger imaci nary ?— The excuse, at least, was injurious to a nat ion 
 not ignorant of letters: oo ygx/nfixTi cl 03e<>6»(>c» reu,- 7TXiS*c jtsjovitu* 
 »\K^ onKuiv <rxi\if.. Whether any mode of adoption was practised ia 
 Persia, 1 much doubt. 
 
 t From Procopius and Agathias, Paci (torn. ii. p. f»43. 626.) has 
 proved that Chosroes Nushirvan ascended the throne in the fifth year 
 of Justinian. (A. D. 531, April 1.— A. D. 532, April 1) But the true 
 chronology which harmonizes with the Greeks and Orientals, is as- 
 certained by John Malala, (torn. ii. 211.) Cabades or Kobad, after a 
 reign of forty-three years and two months, sickened the 8lh, and died 
 the 13thof September, A. D. 531, aged eighty-two years. According to 
 the annals of Eutychius, Nushirvan reigned forty-seven years and six 
 months ; and his death must consequently be placed in March, A. D. 
 579. 
 
 u Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 23. Brisson de Regn. Pers. p. 494. The 
 gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the faul scene of disgrace or 
 death. (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, torn. iv. p. 312, 313.) 
 
 »i 
 
 ! 
 
 u 
 
 k 
 r 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 52 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 53 
 
 1 
 
 in the east, are disposed to forgive, and even to ap- 
 plaud, the cruelty which strikes at the loftiest heads ; 
 at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has 
 exposed them to live in the smiles, and to perish by 
 the frown, of a capricious monarch. In the execution 
 of the laws which he iiad no temptation to violate ; in 
 the punishment of crimes which attacked his own 
 dignity, as well as the happiness of individuals; Nu- 
 shTrvan, or Chosroes, deserved the appellation of Just, 
 His government was firm, rigorous, and impartial. It 
 was the first labour of his reign to abolish the dan- 
 gerous theory of common or equal possessions : the 
 lands and women which the sectaries of Mazdak had 
 usurped, were restored to their lawful owners ; and 
 the temperate chastisement of the fanatics or iinpos- 
 ters confirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead 
 of listening with blind confidence to a favourite minis- 
 ter, he esrablished fonr viziers over the four great 
 provinces of his empire, Assyria, Media, Persia, and 
 Bactriana. In the choice of judges, praifecls, and 
 counsellors, he strove to remove the mask which is 
 always worn in the presence of kings : he wished to 
 substitute the natural order of talents for the acciden- 
 tal distinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in 
 specious language, his intention to prefer those men 
 who carried the poor in their bosoms, and to banish 
 corruption from the seat of justice, as dogs were ex- 
 cluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of 
 Jaws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published 
 as the rule of the magistrates ; but the assurance of 
 speedy punishment was the best security of their vir- 
 tue. Their behaviour was inspected by a thousand 
 eyes, their words were overheard by a thousand ears, 
 the secret or public agents of the throne; and the pro- 
 vinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were 
 enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign, who 
 aflfected to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid 
 and salutary career. Education and agriculture he 
 viewed as the two objects most deserving of his care. 
 In every city of Persia, orphan'?, and the children of 
 the poor, wore maintained and instructed at the public 
 expense; the daugliters were given in marriage to the 
 richest citizens of their own rank, and the sons, ac- 
 cording to their ditforent talents, were employed in 
 mechanic trades, or promoted to more honourai)le 
 service. The deserted villagres were relieved by his 
 bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were found 
 incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cat- 
 tle, seed, and the instruments of husbandry; and the 
 rare and inestimable treasure of fresh water was par- 
 simoniously managed, and skilfully dispersed over the 
 arid territory of Persia." The prosperity of that king- 
 dom was the effect and the evidence of his virtues : 
 his vices are those of oriental despotism ; but in the 
 long competition between Chosroes and Justinian, the 
 advantage both of merit and fortune is almost always 
 on the side of the barbarian.'^ 
 
 His love of To tlie praise of justice Nushirvan 
 learning. ur»ited the reputation of knowledge ; and 
 the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his court, 
 were invited and deceived by the strange assurance, 
 that a disciple of Plato was seated on the Persian 
 throne. Did they expect that a prince, strenuously 
 exercised in the toils of war and government, should 
 agitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and 
 profound questions which amused the leisure of the 
 
 schools of Athens ? Could they hope that the pre- 
 cepts of philosophy should direct the life, and control 
 the passions, of a despot, whose infancy had been 
 taught to consider A/« absolute and fluctuating will as 
 the°only rule of moral obligation 1« The studies of 
 Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial : but his 
 example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious peo- 
 ple, and the light of science was diffused over the 
 dominions of Persia.* At Gondi Sapor, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the royal city of Susa, an academy of 
 physic was founded, which insensibly became a libe- 
 ral sch';ol of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric.'' The 
 annals of the monarchy* were composed ; and while 
 recent and authentic history might afford some useful 
 lessons both to the prince and people, the darkness of 
 the first ages was embellished by the giants, the dra- 
 gons, and the fabulous heroes of oriental romance."' 
 Every learned or confident stranger was enriched by 
 the bounty, and flattered by the conversation, of the 
 monarch : he nobly rewarded a Greek physician,*' by 
 the deliverance of three thousand captives : and the 
 sophists, who contended for his favour, were exaspe- 
 rated by the wealth and insolence of Uranius, their 
 more successful rival. Nushirvan believed, or at least 
 respected, the religion of the Magi; and some traces 
 of persecution may be discovered in his reign.' Yet 
 he allowed himself freely to compare the tenets of the 
 various sects : and the theological disputes, in which 
 he frequently presided, diminished the authority of 
 the priest, and enlightened the minds of the people. 
 At his command, the most celebrated writers of Greece 
 and India were translated into the Persian language; 
 a smooth and elegant idiom, recommended by Maho- 
 met to the use of paradise : though it is branded with 
 the epithets of savage and unmusical, by the igno- 
 rance and presumption of Agathias.* Yet the Greek 
 historian might reasonably wonder, that it should be 
 found possible to execute an entire version of Plato 
 and Aristotle in a foreign dialect, which had not been 
 framed to express the spirit of freedom and the subtil- 
 ties of philosophic disquisition. And, if the reason 
 of the Stagyrite might be equally dark, or equally in- 
 telligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal 
 argumentation of the disciple of Socrates,** appear to 
 he indissolubly mingled with the grace and perfection 
 of his Attic style. In the search of universal know- 
 ledge, Nushirvan was informed, that the moral and 
 political fables of Pilpay, an ancient Brachman, were 
 preserved with jealous reverence among the treasures 
 of the kings of India. The physician Perezes was 
 
 X In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officer of slate. Tlie num- 
 ber of wells ami subterraneous channels is much diminished, and with 
 it the fer.ilily of the soil : 4fX) wells have been recently lost near Tau- 
 ris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in iho province of Khorasan. 
 <Chardin, torn. iii. p. 99, 100. Tavornier, torn. i. p. 466.) 
 
 7 The character and government of Nushirvan are represented 
 sometimes in the words of D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient, p. 68(.», &c. 
 from Khondemir) Eutychius, (Annal. torn. ii. p. 179, 130— very rich) 
 Abulpharagius, (Dynast vii. p. 94, «>3— very pi»or) Turikh Schikard, 
 (p. 144 -l.Vl.) TexVira, (in Stevens, I. i. c. 35.) Asseman, (Bibliot. 
 Orient, torn. iii. p. 404 — 410.) and the Abbii Fourmont, (Hist, de I'Acad. 
 des Inscriptions, torn. vii. p. 323—334.) who has traaalaied a spurious 
 or genuine testament of Nushirvan. 
 
 X A thousand years before his biilh, the judges of Persia had given 
 a solemn opinion — tu. Bxc-ix-jvivt • iitpTiu^v ij^nvxt ^om* to «v 6»w- 
 Kitrxi. (Herodot. 1. iii. c. 31. p. 210. edit. Wesseling.) Nor had this 
 constitutional maxim been neelecled as a useless and barren theory. 
 
 a On the literary state of Persia, the Greek ver-ions, philosophers, 
 sophists, the learning or ignorance of Chosroes, Airathias (I. ii. c. 66— 
 71.) displays much information and strong prejudices. 
 
 b Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. iv. p. dccxlv. vi. vii. 
 
 c The Shah Nameh, or Book of Kint^s, is perhaps the original record 
 of history which was translated into Greek by the interpreter Sergius, 
 (Acaihias, I v. p. 1 11.) preserved after the Mahometan conquest, and 
 versified in the year 994, by the national poet Ferdoussi. See D'An- 
 quetil (Mem. de I'Academie, lorn. xxxi. p. 379.) and Sir William 
 Jones. (Hist, of Nader Shah, p. 161.) 
 
 d In the fifth century, the name of Restom or Kostam, a hero who 
 equalled the strength of twelve elephants, was familiar to the Arme- 
 nians. (Mos"s Choroncnsis, Hist. Armen. I. ii c. 7. p 96. edit. Whis- 
 ton.) In the beginning of the seventh, the P'-rsian Romance of Ros- 
 tamand Isfendiarwas applauded at Mecca. (Sale's Koran, c. xxxi.p. 
 335.) Yet this exposiiiim of ludicrum novjB hisloriae, is not given by 
 Maracci. (Refutat. Alcoran, p. 544— 54S.) 
 
 e Procop. (Goth. 1. iv. c. 10.) Kobaii had a favourite Greek physi- 
 cian, Stephen of Edessa. (Persic. 1. ii.c. 26.) The practice was ancient; 
 and Herodotus relates the adventures of Democedesof Crotona, (1. iii. 
 c. 125-137.) 
 
 f See Pagi, tom. ii. p. 626. In one of the treaties an honourable 
 article was inserted f )r the toleraiinn and burial of the catholics 
 (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 142.) Nushizad, a siui of Nushir- 
 van, was a christian, a rebel, and— a martyr? (D'Herbelot, p. 681.) 
 
 g On the Persian language, and its three dialects, consult D'Anque- 
 til (p. 339—343.) and Jones: (p. 153— 18.').) »>.«»i»v» yKj^rii xn 
 xf*i,(r9TxTu>, is the character which Agaihias (I. ii. p. 66.) ascribes to 
 an idiom renowned in the east for poetical snfmcss. 
 
 h Agaihias specifies the Gorgias, Phaedon, Parmenides, and TimaBUi 
 Rcnaudot (Fabricius, Bibliot. Grxc. torn. xii. p. 246 — 261.) dues no* 
 tuentiou this barbaric version uf Atistulle. 
 
 secretly despatched to the banks of the Ganges, with 
 instructions to procure, at any price, the communica- 
 tion of this valuable work. His dexterity obtained 
 a transcript, his learned diligence accomplished the 
 translation ; and the fables of Pilpa>' were read and 
 admired in the assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. 
 The Indian original, and the Persian copy, have long 
 since disappeared : but this venerable monument has 
 been saved by the curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revi- 
 ved in the modern Persic, the Turkish, the Syriac, the 
 Hebrew, and the Greek idioms, and transfused through 
 successive versions into the modern languages of Eu- 
 rope, in their present form, the peculiar character, 
 the manners and religion, of the Hindoos, are com- 
 pletely obliterated ; and the intrinsic merit of the fa- 
 bles of Pilpay is far inferior to the concise elegance 
 of Phgedrus, and the native graces of La Fontaine. 
 Fifteen moral and political sentences are illustrated in 
 a series of apologues : but the composition is intricate, 
 the narrative prolix, and the precept obvious and bar- 
 ren. Yet the Brachman may assume the merit of 
 inventing a pleasant fiction, which adorns the naked- 
 ness of truth, and alleviates, perhaps, to a royal ear, 
 the harshness of instruction. With a similar design, 
 to admonish kings that they are strong only in the 
 strength of their subjects, the same Indians invented 
 the game of chess, which was likewise introduced 
 into Persia under the reign of Nushirvan.^ 
 
 Peace and war . '^^® ^°" °^ Kobad found his kingdom 
 with the Ro- involved in a war with the successor of 
 A^D^''33— '39 Constantino; and the anxiety of his 
 domestic situation inclined him to grant 
 the suspension of arms, which Justinian was impatient 
 to purcliase. Chosroes saw the Roman ambassadors at 
 his feet. He accepted eleven thousand pounds of 
 gold, as the price of an endless or indefinite peace ; ' 
 some mutual exchange were regulated ; the Persian 
 assumed the guard of the gates of Caucasus, and the 
 demolition of Dara was suspended, on condition that 
 it should never be made the residence of the general 
 of the east. This interval of repose had been solicited, 
 and was diligently improved, by the ambition of the 
 emperor : his African conquests were the first fruits of 
 the Persian treaty ; and the avarice of Chosroes was 
 soothed by a large portion of the spoils of Carthage, 
 which his ambassadors required in atone of pleasantry, 
 and under the colour of friendship." But the trophies 
 of Belisarius disturbed the slumbers of the great king; 
 and he heard with astonishment, envy, and fear, that 
 Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself, had been reduced, in 
 three rapid campaigns, to the obedience of Justinian. 
 Unpractised in the art of violating treaties, he secretly 
 excited his bold and subtle vassal Almondar. That 
 prince of the Saracens, who resided at Hira," had not 
 been included in the general peace, and still waged an 
 obscure war against his rival Arethas, the chief of the 
 tribe of Gassan, and confederate of the empire. The 
 subject of their dispute was an extensive sheep-walk 
 in the desert to the south of Palmyra. An imme- 
 
 i Of these fables, I have seen three copies in three different lan- 
 puages : 1. In Greek, translated by Simeon Seth, (A. D. 1100.) from 
 the Arabic, and published by Starck at Berlin in 1697, in 12mo. 2. In 
 Latin, a version from the Greek, Sapientia Indorum, inserted by Pere 
 Poussin at the end of his edition of Pachymer, (p. 547 — 620. edit. 
 Roman.) 3. In J-Yench, from the Turkish, dedicated, in 1540, to 
 sultan Soliman. Contes et Fables Indiennesde Bidpai etde Lokman, 
 par M. M. Galland et Cardonne, Paris, 1778. 3 vols, in 12mo. Mr. 
 Warton (History of English poetry, vol. i. p. 129—131.) takes a larger 
 scope. 
 
 k See the Historia Shahiludii of Dr. Hyde. (Syntagm. Dissertat. 
 tom. ii. p. 61—69.) 
 
 I The endless peace (Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 21.) was concluded 
 or ratified in the sixth year, and third consulship, of Justinian, 
 (A. D. 533.) between January 1, and April 1. (Pa^i, tom. ii. p. 550.) 
 Marcellinus, in his Chronicle, uses the style of the Medes and Per- 
 sians. 
 
 m Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c.26. 
 
 n Almondar, king of Hira, was deposed by Kobad, and restored by 
 Nushirvan. His mother, from her beauty, was surnamed Celestial 
 Water, an appellation which became hereditary, and was extended 
 for a more noble cause (liberality in famine) to the Arab princes of 
 Syria. (Focock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 69, 70.) 
 
 morial tribute for the licence of pasture, appeared to 
 attest the rights of Almondar, while the Gassanite 
 appealed to the Latin name of strata, a paved road, as 
 an unquestionable evidence of the sovereignty and 
 labours of the Romans." The two monarchs supported 
 the cause of their respective vassals; and the Persian 
 Arab, without expecting the event of a slow and 
 doubtful arbitration, enriched his flying camp with 
 the spoil and captives of Syria. Instead of repelling 
 the arms, Justinian attempted to seduce the fidelity, 
 of Almondar, while he called from the extreiikities of 
 the earth the nations of Ethiopia and Scythia to invade 
 the dominions of his rival. But the aid of such allies 
 was distant and precarious, and the discovery of this 
 hostile correspondence justified the complaints of the 
 Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the 
 same time, the protection of Chosroes. The descen- 
 dants of Arsaces, who were still numerous in Armenia, 
 had been provoked to assert the last relics of national 
 freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambassadors of 
 Vitiges had secretly traversed the empire to expose 
 the instajit, and almost inevitable, danger of the king- 
 dom of Italy. Their representations were uniform, 
 weighty, and effectual. "We stand before your 
 throne, the advocates of your interest as well as of our 
 own. The ambitious and faithless Justinian aspires 
 to be the sole master of the world. Since the endless 
 peace, which betrayed the common freedom of man- 
 kind, that prince, your ally in words, your enemy in 
 actions, has alike insulted his friends and foes, and 
 has filled the earth with blood and confusion. Has 
 he not violated the privileges of Armenia, the indepen- 
 dence of Colchos, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian 
 mountains'? Has he not usurped, with equal avidity, 
 the city of Bosphorus on the frozen Ma^otis, and the 
 vale of palm-trees on the shores of the Red sea ? The 
 ■Moors, the Vandals, the Goths, have been successively 
 oppressed, and each nation has calmly remained the 
 spectator of their neighbour's ruin. Embrace, O 
 king ! the favourable moment ; the east is left without 
 defence, while the armies of Justinian and his renown- 
 ed general are detained in the distant regions of the 
 west. If you hesitate and delay, Belisarius and his 
 victorious troops will soon return from the Tiber to 
 the Tigris, and Persia may enjoy the wretched conso- 
 lation of being the last devoured." p By such argu- 
 ments, Chosroes was easily persuaded to imitate the- 
 example which he condemned : but the Persian, ambi- 
 tious of military fame, disdained the inactive warfare 
 of a rival, who issued his sanguinary commands from 
 the secure station of the Byzantine palace. 
 
 Whatever might be the provocation He invades 
 of Chosroes, he abused the confidence A^/'^if^rt 
 of treaties; and the just reproaches of • • • 
 dissimulation and falsehood could only be concealed 
 by the lustre of his victories.** The Persian army, 
 which had been assembled in the plains of Babylon, 
 prudently declined the strong cities of Mesopotamia, 
 and followed the western bank of the Euphrates, till 
 the small though populous town of Dura presumed 
 to arrest the progress of the great king. The gates of 
 Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burst open ; and 
 as soon as Chosroes had stained his scymitar wnth the 
 blood of the inhabitants, he dismissed the ambassador 
 to Justinian to inform his master in what place he had 
 
 o Procopius, Persic, 1. ii. c. 1. We are ignorant of the origin and 
 object of this strata, a paved road often days' journey from Auranitis 
 to Babylonia. (Sec a Latin note in Delisle's Map Imp. Orient.) 
 Wessf'ling and D'Anville are silent. 
 
 P I haveblended, in ashortspeech, the two orations of the Arsacides 
 of Artnenia and the Gothic ambassadors. Procopius, in his public 
 history, feels, and makes us feel, that Justinian was the true author 
 of the war. (Persic. 1. ii. c. 2, 3.) 
 
 q The invasion of Syria, the ruin of Antioch, &c. are related in a full 
 and rejrular series by Procopius. (Persic. 1. ii. c. 5 — 14.) Small colla- 
 teral aid can be drawn from the orientals: yet not they, but D'Herbe- 
 lot himself, (p. 630.) should blush, when he blames them for making 
 Justinian and Nushirvan contemporaries. On the geography of the 
 seat of war. D'Anville (I'Euphrate et le Tigre) is sufficient and satis- 
 factory. 
 
 fi 
 
 i 
 
 i»i 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 54 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. TIL 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 55 
 
 I* 
 
 •ad ruins Anti 
 och. 
 
 left the enemy of the Romans. The conqueror still 
 affected the praise of humanity and justice ; and as he 
 beheld a noble matron with her infant rudely dragged 
 along the ground, he sighed, he wept, and implored the 
 divine justice to punish the author of these calamities. 
 Yet the herd of twelve thousand captives was ransom- 
 ed for two hundred pounds of gold ; the neighbouring 
 bishop of Sergiopolis pledged his faith for the pay- 
 ment ; and in the subsequent year the unfeeling avarice 
 of Chosroes exacted the penalty of an obligation which 
 it was rrenerous to contract and impossible to discharge. 
 He advanced into the heart of Syria ; but a feeble enemy, 
 who vanished at his approach, disappointed him of the 
 honour of victory ; and as he could not hope to establish 
 his dominion, the Persian king displayed in this inroad 
 the mean and rapacious vices of a robber. Hierapolis, 
 Berrhae or Aleppo, Apamea and Chalcis, were succes- 
 sively besieged : they redeemed their safety by a ran- 
 som of gold or silver, proportioned to their respective 
 strength and opulence ; and their new master enforced, 
 without observing, the terms of capitulation. Educa- 
 ted in the religion of the Magi, he exercised, without 
 remorse, the lucrative trade of sacrilege; and, after 
 strippingr of its gold and gems a piece of ihc true cross, 
 he generously restored the naked relic to the devotion 
 of the christians of Apamea. No more than fourteen 
 years had elapsed since Antioch was 
 ruined by an earthquake ; but the queen 
 of the east, the new Theopolis, had been 
 raised from the ground by the liberality of Justinian ; 
 and the increasing greatness of the buildings and the 
 people already erased the memory of this recent disaster. 
 On one side, the city was defended by the mountain, 
 on the other by the river O routes ; but the most acces- 
 sible part was commanded by a superior eminence : the 
 proper remedies were rejected, from the despicable fear 
 of discovering its weakness to the enemy ; and Ger- 
 manus, the emperor's nephew, refused to trust his person 
 and dignity within the walls of a besieged city. The 
 people of Antioch had inherited the vain and satirical 
 genius of their ancestors : they were elated by a sudden 
 reinforcement of six thousand soldiers ; they disdained 
 the offers of an easy capitulation ; and their intemperate 
 clamours insulted from the ramparts the majesty of the 
 great king. Under his eye the Persian myriads mount- 
 ed with scalingf-ladders to the assault ; the Roman mer- 
 cenaries fled through the opposite gate of Daphne ; and 
 the generous assistance of the youth of Antioch served 
 only to aggravate the miseries of their country. As 
 Chosroes, attended by the ambassadors of Justinian, 
 was descending from the mountain, he affected, in a 
 plaintive voice, to deplore the obstinacy and ruin of that 
 unhappy people; but the slaughter still raged with 
 unrelenting fury ; and the city, at the command of a 
 barbarian, was delivered to the flames. The cathedral 
 of Antioch was indeed preserved by the avarice, not the 
 piety, of the conqueror : a more honourable exemption 
 was granted to the church of St. Julian, and the quarter 
 of the town where the ambassadors reside ; some distant 
 Streets were saved by the shifting of the wind, and the 
 walls still subsisted to protect, and soon to betray, their 
 new inhabitants. Fanaticism had defaced the orna- 
 ments of Daphne, but Chosroes breathed a purer air 
 amidst her groves and fountains ; and some idolaters in 
 his train might sacrifice with impunity to the nymphs 
 of that elegant retreat. Eighteen miles below Antioch, 
 the river Orontes falls into the Mediterranean. The 
 haughty Persian visited the term of his conquests ; and, 
 after bathing alone in the sea, he offered a solemn sacri- 
 fice of thanksgiving to the sun, or rather to the Creator 
 of the sun, whom the Magi adored. If this act of super- 
 stition offended the prejudices of the Syrians, they were 
 pleased by the courteous and even eager attention with 
 which he assisted at the games of the circus; and as 
 Chosroes had heard that the blue faction was espoused 
 by the emperor, his peremptory command secured the 
 victory of the green charioteer. From the discipline of 
 
 his camp the people derived more solid consolation; and 
 they interceded in vain for the life of a soldier who had 
 too faithfully copied the rapine of the just Nushirvan. 
 At length, fatigued, though unsatiated, with the spoil 
 of Syria, he slowly moved to the Euphrates, formed a 
 temporary bridge in the neighbourhood of Barbalissus, 
 and defined the space of three days for the entire pas- 
 sage of his numerous host. After his return, he founded, 
 at the distance of one day's journey from the palace of 
 Ctesiphon, a new city, which perpetuated the joint 
 names of Chosroes and of Antioch. The Syrian cap- 
 tives recocfnised the form and situation of their native 
 abodes ; baths and a stately circus were costructed for 
 their use; and a colony of musicians and charioteers 
 revived in Assyria the pleasures of a Greek capital. 
 By the munificence of the royal founder, a liberal allow- 
 ance was assigned to these fortunate exiles ; and they 
 enjoyed the singular privilege of bestowing freedom on 
 the slaves whom they acknowledged as their kinsmen. 
 Palestine, and the holy wealth of Jerusalem, were the 
 next objects that attracted the ambition, or rather the 
 avarice, of Chosroes. Constantinople, and the palace 
 of the Caesars, no longer appeared impregnable or 
 remote; and his aspiring fancy already covered Asia 
 Minor with the troops, and the Black sea with the 
 navies, of Persia. 
 
 These hopes might have been real- . . 
 
 ized, if the conqueror of Italy had not east by Belisa- 
 been seasonably recalled to the defence of riua, 
 the east.' While Chosroes pursued his A. D.541. 
 ambitious designs on the coast of the Euxine, Belisa- 
 rius, at the head of an army without pay or discipline, 
 encamped beyond the Euphrates, within six miles of 
 Nisihis. He meditated, by a skilful operation, to draw 
 the Persians from their impregnable citadel, and impro- 
 ving his advantage in the field, either to intercept 
 their retreat, or perhaps to enter the gates with flying 
 barbarians. He advanced one day's journey on the 
 territories of Persia, reduced the fortress of Sisaurane, 
 and sent the governor, with eight hundred chosen 
 horsemen, to serve the emperor in his Italian wars. 
 He detached Arethas and his Arabs, supported by 
 twelve hundred Romans, to pass the Tigris, and to 
 ravage the harvests of Assyria, a fruitful province, 
 long exempt from the calanjities of war. But the 
 plans of Belisarius were disconcerted by the untrac- 
 table spirit of Arethas, who neither returned to the 
 camp, nor sent any intelligence of his motions. The 
 Roman general was fixed in anxious expectation to the 
 same spot; the time of action elapsed, the ardent sun 
 of Mesopotamia inflamed with fevers the blood of his 
 European soldiers; and the stationary troops and 
 officers of Syria affected to tremble for the safety of 
 their defenceless cities. Yet this diversion had alrea- 
 dy succeeded in forcing Chosroes to return with loss 
 and precipitation; and if the skill of Belisarius had 
 been seconded by discipline and valour, his success 
 might have satisfied the sanguine wishes of the public, 
 who required at his hands the conquest of Ctesiphon, 
 and the deliverance of the captives of Antioch. At 
 the end of the campaign, he was re- a. D 542 
 called to Constantinople by an ungrate- 
 ful court; but the dangers of the ensuing spring re- 
 stored his confidence and command ; and the hero, 
 almost alone, was despatched, with the speed of post- 
 horses, to repel, by his name and presence, the inva- 
 sion of Syria. He found the Roman generals, among 
 whom was a nephew of Justinian, imprisoned by their 
 fears in the fortifications of Hierapolis. But instead 
 of listening to their timid counsels, Belisarius com- 
 manded them to follow him to Europus, where he had 
 resolved to collect his forces, and to execute whatever 
 God should inspire him to achieve against the enemy. 
 
 r In the public history of Procopius; (Persic. 1. ii. c. 16. 18, 19, 20, 
 21. 24, 25, 26, 27, 2S.) and, with some slijiht exceptions, we may rea- 
 sonably shut our ears against the malevolent whisperoflhe Anecdotei, 
 (c. 2, 3. with the Is'otea, u uxual, uf Aieinaanus.) 
 
 His firm attitude on the banks of the Euphrates, re- 
 strained Chosroes from advancing towards Palestine; 
 and he received, with art and dignity, the ambassadors, 
 or rather spies, of the Persian monarch. The plain 
 between Hierapolis and the river was covered with 
 the squadrons of cavalry, six thousand hunters, tall 
 and robust, who pursued their game without the ap- 
 prehension of an enemy. On the opposite bank the 
 ambassadors descried a thousand Armenian horse, who 
 appeared to guard the passage of the Euphrates. The 
 tent of Belisarius was of the coarsest linen, the simple 
 equipage of a warrior who disdained the luxury of the 
 east. Around his tent, the nations who marched un- 
 der his standard were arranged with skilful confusion. 
 The Thracians and Illyrians were posted in the front, 
 the Heruli and Goths in the centre ; the prospect was 
 closed by the Moors and Vandals, and their loose 
 array seemed to multiply their numbers. Their dress 
 was light and active; one soldier carried a whip, an- 
 other a sword, a third a bow, a fourth, perhaps, a bat- 
 tle-axe, and the whole picture exhibited the intrepidity 
 of the troops, and the vigilance of the general. Chos- 
 roes was deluded by the address, and awed by the 
 genius, of the lieutenant of Justinian. Conscious of 
 the merit, and ignorant of the force, of his antagonist, 
 he dreaded a decisive battle in a distant country, from 
 whence not a Persian might return to tell the melan- 
 choly tale. The great king hastened to repass the 
 Euphrates; and Belisarius pressed his retreat, by af- 
 fecting to oppose a measure so salutary to the empire, 
 and which could scarcely have been prevented by an 
 army of a hundred thousand men. Envy might sug- 
 gest to ignorance and pride, that the public enemy 
 had been suffered to escape : but the African and 
 Gothic triumphs are less glorious than this safe and 
 bloodless victory, in which neither fortune, nor the 
 valour of the soldiers, can subtract any part of the 
 general's renown. The second removal 
 A.D.543,&c. ^^ Belisarius from the Persian to the 
 Italian war, revealed the extent of his personal merit, 
 which had corrected or supplied the want of discip- 
 line and courage. Fifteen generals, without concert 
 or skill, led through the mountains of Armenia, an 
 army of thirty thousand Romans, inattentive to their 
 signals, their ranks, and their ensigns. Four thousand 
 Persians, entrenched in the camp of Dubis, vanquished, 
 almost without a combat, this disorderly multitude; 
 their useless arms were scattered along the road, and 
 their horses sunk under the fatigue of their rapid flight. 
 But the Arabs of the Roman party prevailed over their 
 brethren; the Armenians returned to their allegiance; 
 the cities of Dara and Edessa resisted a sudden assault 
 and a regular siege, and the calamities of war were 
 suspended by those of pestilence. A tacit or formal 
 agreement between the two sovereigns protected the 
 tranquillity of the eastern frontier; and the arms of 
 Chosroes were confined to the Colchian or Lazic war, 
 which has been too minutely described by the histori- 
 ans of the times.* 
 
 Description of The extreme length of the Euxine 
 €oichos,Lazica, sca,' from Constantinople to the mouth 
 orMingrelia. ^f ^^q Phasis, may be computed as a 
 voy^age of nine days, and a measure of seven hundred 
 
 • The Lazic war, the contest of Rome and Persia on the Phasis, is 
 tediously spun through many a page of Procopius, (Persic. 1. ii. c. 15. 
 17. 28, 29, 30. Gothic. 1. iv. c. 7—16.) and Agathias, (1. ii. iii. and iv. 
 p. 55-132. 141.) 
 
 t The Pen'plus, or circumnavigation of the Euxine sea, was de- 
 scribed in Latin by Sallust, and in Greek by Arrian: 1. The former 
 work, which no longer exists, has been restored by the singular dili- 
 pfnce of M. de Brosses, first president of the parliament of Dijon, 
 (Hist, de la Republique Romaine, tom. ii. 1. iii. p. 199—298.) who ven- 
 tures to assiime the character v-)f the Roman historian. His description 
 of the Euxine is inseniously formed of all the fragments of the origi- 
 nal, and of all the Greeks and Latins whom Sallust might copy, or by 
 whom he might be copied ; and the merit of the execution atones for 
 the whimsical design. 2. The Periplus of Arrian is addressed to the 
 emperor Adrian, (in Geograph. Minor. Hudson, tom. i.) and contains 
 whatever the governor of Pontus had seen from Trebizond to Dioscu- 
 rias; whatever he had heard from Dioscurias to the Danube; and 
 whatever he knew from the Danube to Trebizond. 
 
 miles. From the Iberian Caucasus, the most lofty 
 and craggy mountains of Asia, that river descends 
 with such oblique vehemence, that in a short space 
 it is traversed by one hundred and twenty bridges. 
 Nor does the stream become placid and navigable, 
 till it reaches the town of Sarapana, five days' journey 
 from the Cyrus, which flows from the same hills, but 
 in a contrary direction, to the Caspian lake. The 
 proximity of these rivers has suggested the practice, 
 or at least the idea, of wafting the precious merchan- 
 dize of India down the Oxus, over the Caspian up the 
 Cyrus, and with the current of the Phasis into the 
 Euxine and Mediterranean seas. As it successively 
 collects the streams of the plain of Colchos, the Pha- 
 sis moves with diminished speed, though accumulated 
 weight. At the mouth it is sixty fathoms deep, and 
 half a league broad, but a small woody island is inter- 
 posed in the midst of the channel : the water, so soon 
 as it has deposited an earthly or metallic sediment, 
 floats on the surface of the waves, and is no longer 
 susceptible of corruption. In a course of one hundred 
 miles, forty of which are navigable for large vessels, 
 the Phasis divides the celebrated region of Colchos,* 
 or Min^relia,' which, on three sides, is fortified by 
 the Iberian and Armenian mountains, and whose mari- 
 time coast extends about two hundred miles, from the 
 neighbourhood of Trebizond to Dioscurias, and the 
 confines of Circassia. Both the soil and climate are 
 relaxed by excessive moisture : twenty- eight rivers, 
 besides the Phasis and his dependent streams, convey 
 their waters to the sea; and the hollowness of the 
 ground appears to indicate the subterraneous channels 
 between the Euxine and the Caspian. In the fields 
 where wheat or barley is sown, the earth is too soft to 
 sustain the action of the plough ; but the gom, a small 
 grain, not unlike the millet or coriander seed, supplies 
 the ordinary food of the people ; and the use of bread 
 is confined to the prince and his nobles. Yet the vin- 
 tage is more plentiful than the harvest; and the bulk 
 of the stems, as well as the quality of the wine, dis- 
 play the unassisted powers of nature. The same pow- 
 ers continually tend to overshadow the face of the 
 country with thick forests; the timber of the hills, and 
 the flax of the plains contribute to the abundance of 
 naval stores ; the wild and tame animals, the horse, 
 the ox, and the hog, are remarkably prolific, and the 
 name of the pheasant is expressive of his native habi- 
 tation on the banks of the Phasis. The gold mines to 
 the south of Trebizond, which are still worked with 
 sufficient profit, were a subject of national dispute be- 
 tween Justinian and Chosroes; and it is not unreason- 
 able to believe, that a vein of precious metal may be 
 equally diffused through the circle of hills, although 
 these secret treasures are neglected by the laziness, or 
 concealed by the prudence, of the Mingrelians. The 
 waters, impregnated with particles of gold, are care- 
 fully strained through sheep-skins or fleeces ; but this 
 expedient, the ground-work perhaps of a marvellous 
 fable, affords a faint image of the wealth extracted 
 from a virgin earth by the power and industry of an- 
 cient kings. Their silver palaces and golden cham- 
 bers surpass our belief; but the fame of their riches is 
 said to have excited the enterprising avarice of the 
 Argonauts.^ Tradition has affirmed, with some colour 
 
 u Besides the many occasional hints from the poets, historians, Sec. of 
 antiquity, we may consult the geosraphical descriptions of Colchos, 
 by Slrabo, (1. xi.p. 760—765.) and Pliny. (Hist. Natur. vi. 5. 19, &c.) 
 
 X I shall quote, and have used, three modern descriptions of Mingre- 
 lia and the adjacent countries. 1. Of the Pere Archangeli Lamberti, 
 (Relations de Thevenot, part i. p. 31—52. with a map,) who has all the 
 knowledge and prejudices of a missionary. 2. Of Chardin ; (Voyag^ 
 en Perse, tom. i. p. 54—68—168.) his observations are judicious ; and 
 iiis own adventures in the country are still more instructive than his 
 observations. 3. Of Peyssonel : (Observations sur les Peuples Bar- 
 bares, p. 49— 51. 58. 62. 64, 65. 71, &.c. and a m.)re recent treatise, Sur 
 le Commerce de la Mer Noire, torn. ii. p. 1—53.) he had long resided 
 at Caffa, as consul of France : and his erudition is less valuable than 
 his experience. ^ . . 
 
 y Pliny, Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. If. The gold and silver mines of 
 Colchos attracted the Argonauts. (Strab. I. i. p. 77.) The sagacious 
 Chardin could find no gold in mines, rivers, or elsewhere. Yet » Mio^ 
 
 I 
 
 
 H 
 
 \ ' I 
 
 '» 
 
 ] 
 
 I 
 
 8-^ 
 
 )i 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
56 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. HI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 57 
 
 of reason, that Egypt planted on the Phasis a learned 
 and polite colony,' which manufactured linen, built 
 navies, and invented geographical maps. The inge- 
 nuity of the moderns has peopled, with flourishinsj 
 cities and nations, the isthmus between the Euxine 
 and the Caspian;* and a lively writer, observing th»; 
 resemblance of climate, and, in iiis apprehension, of 
 trade, has not hesitated to pronounce Colchos the Hol- 
 land of antiquity.'' 
 
 Manners of ihe But the riches of Colchos shine only 
 natives. through the darkness of conjecture or 
 tradition ; and its genuine history presents a uniform 
 scene of rudeness and poverty. If one hundred and 
 thirty languages were spoiien in the market of Dios- 
 curias,"= they were the imperfect idioms of so many 
 savage tribes or families, sequestered from each other 
 in the valleys of mount Caucasus; and their separa- 
 tion, which diminished the importance, must have 
 multiplied the number, of their rustic capitals. In the 
 present state of Mingrelia, a village is an assemblage 
 of huts within a wooden fence; the fortresses are 
 seated in the depths of forests ; the princely town of 
 Cyta, or Cotatis, consists of two hundred liouses, and 
 a stone edifice appertains only to the magnificence of 
 kings. Twelve ships from Constantinople, and about 
 sixty harks, laden with the fruits of industry, annually 
 cast anchor on the coast; and the li.st of Culchian ex- 
 ports is much increased, since the natives had only 
 slaves and hides to offer in exchange for the corn and 
 salt which they purchased from the subjects rf Jus- 
 tinian. Not a vestige can be found of the art, the 
 knowledge, or the navigation, of the ancient Colchi- 
 ans : few Greeks desired or dared to pursue the foot- 
 Steps of the Argonauts ; and even the marks of an 
 Egyptian colony are lost on a nearer approach. The 
 rite of circumcision is practised only by the Mahome- 
 tans of the Euxine; and the curled hair and swarthy 
 complexion of Africa no longer disfigure the most 
 perfect of the human race. It is in the adjacent cli- 
 mates of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circassia, that nature 
 has placed, at least to our eyes, the model of beauty, 
 in the shape of the limbs, the colour of the skin, the 
 symmetry of the features, and the expression of the 
 countenance."* According to the destination of the 
 two sexes, the men seem formed for action, the women 
 for love; and the perpetual supply of females from 
 mount Caucasus has purified the blood, and improved 
 the breed, of the southern nations of Asia. The proper 
 district of Mingrelia, a portion only of the ancient 
 Colchos, has long sustained an exportation of twelve 
 thousand slaves. The number of prisoners or crimi- 
 nals would be inadequate to the annual demand ; but 
 the common people are in a state of servitude to their 
 lords; the exercise of fraud or rapine is unpunished 
 in a lawless community ; and the market is continually 
 leplenished by the abuse of civil and paternal author- 
 ity. Such a trade," which reduces the human species 
 to the level of cattle, may tend to encourage marriage 
 and population, since the multitude of children enriches 
 
 grelian lost his hand and foot for showing some specimens at Con* 
 atantinople of native gold. 
 
 % Herodot. 1. ii. c. 104, 105. p. 150, 151. Diodor. Sicul. 1. i. p. 3R. 
 edit. Wesseling ; Dionys. PeriegPt. 680. and Eiisiath. ad loc. Scholiast. 
 ad Apollonium Arconanl. 1. iv. 28*2 -291. 
 
 ft Montesquim, t:spritdPsLoix,l.xxi.c.6. L'Islhme. . . . couvert 
 de villes et nations qui ne sunt plus. 
 
 b Bougainville, Memoires de I'Acadrmlc drs Inscriptions, torn. 
 3txvi. p. 33. on the African voyage of Hanno and the commerce of 
 antiquity. 
 
 c A Greek historian, Timosthenrs,had afllrmrd, in earn ccc nationrs 
 dissimilibus Unguis descendere ; and the modest Pliny is content to 
 add, et a postea a nostris cxxx interprelibus negoiia ibi ppsta ; (vi.5.) 
 but the words nunc deserta cover a multitude of past fictions. 
 
 i Buffon, (Hist. Nat. torn. iii. p. 433—437.) collects the unanimous 
 Buffrage of naturalists and travellers. If, in the time of Herodotus, 
 they were in truth .uiKxyxe^^i and ou\3rp.x»-;, (and he had observed 
 them with care,) this precious fact is an example of the influence of 
 climate on a foreign colony. 
 
 e The Mingrelian ambassador arrived at Constantinople with two 
 hundred persons ; but he ate (sold] them day by day, till his retinue 
 Vjaa diminished to a secretary and two valets. (Tavcrnier, tom. i. p. 
 366.) To purchase his mistress, a Mingrelian gentleman sold twelve 
 pneuts and his wife to the Turks. (Chardin, tom. i. p. 66.) 
 
 their sordid and inhuman parent. But this source of 
 impure wealth must inevitably poison the nationa! 
 manners, obliterate the sense of honour and virtue, and 
 almost extinguish the instincts of nature ; (he christians 
 of Georgia and Mingrelia are the most dissolute oi 
 mankind ; and their children, who, in a tender age, are 
 sold into foreign slavery, have already learned to imi- 
 tate the rapine of the father, and the prostitution of the 
 mother. Yet, amidst the rudest ignorance, the un- 
 taught natives discover a singular dexterity both of 
 mind and hand; and althoujxh the want of union and 
 discipline exposes them to their more powerful neigh- 
 bours, a bold and intrepid spirit has animated the 
 Colchians of every age. In the host of Xerxes they 
 served on foot; and their arms were a dagger or a 
 javelin, a wooden casque, and a buckler of raw hides. 
 liut in their own country the use of cavalry has more 
 giMierally prevailed : the meanest of the peasants dis- 
 dain to walk; the martial nobles arc possessed, per- 
 haps, of two hundred horses; and above five thousand 
 are numbered in the train of the prince ot Mingrelia. 
 The Colchian government has bern alwjiys a pure and 
 hereditary kingdom ; and the authority of'thc sovereirrn 
 is only restrained by the turbulence of his subjects. 
 Whenever they were obedient, he could lead a nume- 
 rous army into the field; but seme faith is requisite to 
 believe, that the single tribe of the Suanians was com- 
 posed of two hundred thousand soldiers, or that the 
 po[)ulalion of Mingrelia now amounts to four millions 
 of inhabitants.' 
 
 It was the boast of the Colchians, Revolutions of 
 that thfir ancestors had checked the Coichus; 
 victories of Sesostris; and the defeat of the Egyptian 
 is less incredible than his successful progress as far 
 as the foot of mount Caucasus. They sunk, without 
 any memorable effort, under the arms of under the Per- 
 Cyrus; followed in distant wars the sians before 
 standard of the great king, and present- ^^^''^^ -'OO- 
 ed him every fifth year with one hundred boys and as 
 many virgins, the fairest pn duce of the land.* Yet 
 he accepted this gift like the gold and ebony of India, 
 the frankincense of the Arabs, or the negroes and ivory 
 of jl^Jthiopia : the Colchians were not subject to the 
 doniinion of a satrap, and they continued to enjoy the 
 name as well as substance of national independence.'' 
 After the fall of the Persian empire, Mithridates, king 
 of Pontus, added Colchos to the wide circle of his 
 dominions on the Euxine; and when the natives pre- 
 sumed to request that his son might reign over them, 
 he bound the ambitious youth in chains of gold, and 
 delegated a servant in his place. In the underthoRo- 
 pursuit of Mithridates, the Romans ad- n)ans, before 
 vanced to the banks o^ the Phasis, and Christ, 60. 
 their galleys ascended the river till they reached the 
 camp of Potnpey and his legions.' But the senate, 
 and afterwards the emperors, disdained to reduce that 
 distant and useless conquest into the form of a province. 
 The family of a Greek rhetorician was permitted to 
 reign in Colchos and the adjacent kingdoms, from the 
 time of Mark Antony to that of Nero; and after the 
 race of Polemo^ was extinct, the eastern Pontus^ 
 
 f Sirabo, 1, xi. p. 765. Lambert i, Relation de la Mingreli. Yet we 
 must avoid the contrary extreme of Chardin, who allows no more than 
 20,000 inhabitants to supply an annual exportation of 12,000 slaves : 
 an absurdity unworthy of that judicious traveller. 
 
 r. Herodot. 1. iii. c. 97. See, in 1. vii. c. 79. their arms and service 
 in the expedition of Xerxes as^ainst Greece. 
 
 h Xrnophon, who had encountered the Colchians in his retreat, 
 (Anabasis, 1. iv. p. 320. 3-13. 34a edit. Hutchinson ; and Foster's Dis- 
 sertalion, p.53-5S. in Spelman's English version, vol. ii.)siyles them 
 *i.T)ic^:,. Before the conquest of Mithridatts, they are named by 
 Appian, -Jvs; ae..Ma»!s', (de Bell. Milhridalico, c. 15. tom. i. p. 661. 
 of the last and best edition, by John Schweighaeuscr, Lipsia?, 1785. 3 
 vols, large octavo.) 
 
 i The conquest of Colchos by Mithridates and Pompev, is marked 
 by Appian, (de Bell. Mithridal.) and Plutarch, (in Pit. Pomp ) 
 
 k We may trace the rise and fall of the family of Polemo, in Strabo. 
 IVn^'I; '^•I\"''']l" *'""P- S*'7.)Dion CassiiisorXiphilin, (P..588.593. 601. 
 719. 7j4. 91.1. 946. sdit. Keimar,) Suetonius, (in Neron. c. 18. in V'espa- 
 sian. c. 8.) Eutropius, (vii. 14.) Josephus, (Antiq. Judaic. 1. xx. cfz 
 p. 970. edit. Havercamp,) and Eusebiua, (Chron. witJi Scaliger. Anl. 
 madver. p. 196.) o » "*• 
 
 which preserved his name, extended no further than 
 the neighbourhood of Trebizond. Beyond these limits 
 the fortifications of Hyssus, of Apsarus, of the Phasis, 
 of Dioscurias or Sebastopolis, and of Pityus, were 
 (Tuarded by sufficient detachments of horse and foot ; 
 and six princes of Colchos received their diadems 
 from the lieutenants of Ca?sar. One of these lieuten- 
 ants, the eloquent and philosophic Arrian, surveyed. 
 Visit of Arrian, and has described, the Euxine coast, 
 A. D. 130. under the reign of Hadrian. The gar- 
 rison which he reviewed at the mouth of the Phasis, 
 consisted of four hundred chosen legionaries; the brick 
 walls and towers, the double ditch, and the military 
 enjjines on the rampart, rendered this place inaccessi- 
 ble to the barbarians ; but the new suburbs which had 
 been built by the merchants and veterans, required, in 
 the opinion of Arrian, some external defence.' As the 
 strength of the empire was gradually impaired, the 
 Romans stationed on the Phasis were either with- 
 drawn or expelled : and the tribe of the Lazi,"" whose 
 posterity speak a foreign dialect, and inhabit the sea- 
 coast of Trebizond, imposed their name and dominion 
 on the ancient kingdom of Colchos. Their indepen- 
 dence was soon invaded by a forniidable neighbour, 
 who had acquired, by arms and treaties, the soye- 
 rei^nty of Iberia. The dependent king of Lazica 
 received his sceptre at the hands of the Persian mon- 
 arch, and the successors of Constantino acquiesced in 
 this injurious claim, which was proudly urged as a 
 Conversion of "ght of immemorial prescription. In 
 iheLaza, the beginning of the sixth century, their 
 A. D. 522. influence was restored by the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity, which the Mingrelians still pro- 
 fess with becoming zeal, without understanding the 
 doctrines, or observing the precepts, of their religion. 
 After the decease of his fatlier, Zathus was exalted to 
 the regal dignity by the favour of the great king ; but 
 the pious youth abhorred the ceremonies of the Magi, 
 and sought, in the palace of Constantinople an ortho- 
 dox baptism, a noble wife, and the alliance of the 
 emperor Justin. The king of Lazica was solemnly 
 invested with the diadem, and his cloak and tunic of 
 white silk, with a gold border, displayed, in rich em- 
 broidery, the figure of his new patron; who soothed 
 the jealousy of the Persian court, and excused the 
 revolt of Colchos, by the venerable names of hos- 
 pitality and religion. The common interest of both 
 empires imposed on the Colchians the duty of guarding 
 the passes of mount Caucasus, where a wall of sixty 
 miles is now defended by the monthly service of the 
 musqueteers of Mingrelia." 
 
 But this honourable connexion was 
 pe^Jtaicrof t'ifo soon corrupted by the avarice and ambi- 
 Colchians, tion of the Romans. Degraded from the 
 
 A. D. 542-549. ^^^^^ of allies, the Lazi were incessantly 
 reminded, by words and actions, of their dependent 
 state. At the distance of a day's journey beyond the 
 Apsarus, they beheld the rising fortress of Petra," 
 which commanded the maritime country to the south 
 of the Phasis. Instead of being protected by the 
 valour, Colchos was insulted by the licentiousness, of 
 foreign mercenaries ; the benefits of commerce were 
 
 f 
 
 1 In the time of Procopius, there were no Roman forts on the Phasis. 
 Pityus and Sebastopolis were evacuated on the rumour of the Persians, 
 (Goth. 1. iv, c. 4.) »)ut the latter was afterwards restored by Justinian, 
 (dcEdif. I. iv. c.7.') ,_ , ^ ^ . 
 
 m In the time of Pliny, Arrian, and Ptolemy, the Lazi were a parti- 
 cular tribe on the northern skirts of Colchos. (Cellarius, Geograph. 
 Antiq. tom. ii. p. 222.) In the age of Justinian, they spread, or at least 
 reigned, over the whole country. At present, they have migrated 
 alon" the coast towards Trebizond, and compose a rude seafaring 
 people with a peculiar languace. (Chardin, p. 149. Peyssonel, p. 64.) 
 
 n John Malala, Chron. tom.^ii. p. 134—137. Theophanes, p. 144. 
 Hist Miscell. 1. xv. p. 103. The fact is authentic, but the date seems 
 too recent. In speaking of their Persian alliance, the Lazi contempo- 
 raries of Justinian employ the most obsolete words— sv vff."M«T. 
 /«v^ju««««, ^foj^ovoi. &c. Could they belong to a connexion which had 
 not been dissolved abov« twenty years? 
 
 o The sole vestige of Tetra subsiis in the writings of Procopius and 
 Agaihias. Most of the towns and castles of Lazica may be found by 
 comparing their names and position with the map of Mingrelia, in 
 Lamberti. 
 
 Vol. II.— H 
 
 converted into base and vexatious monopoly ; and 
 Gubazes, the native prince, was reduced to a pageant 
 of royalty, by the superior influence of the officers of 
 Justinian. Disappoitited in their expectations of chris- 
 tian virtue, the indignant Lazi reposed some confidence 
 in the justice of an unbeliever. After a private assu- 
 rance that their ambassadors should not be delivered to 
 the Romans, they publicly solicited the friendship and 
 aid of Chosroes. The sagacious monarch instantly 
 discerned the use and importance of Colchos; and 
 meditated a plan of conqtiest, vvhich was renewed at 
 the end of a thousand years by Shah Abbas, the wisest 
 and most powerful of his successors-^ His ambition 
 was fired by the hope of launching a Persian navy 
 from the Phasis, of commanding the trade and navi- 
 gation of the Euxine sea, of desolating the coast of 
 Pontus and Bithynia, of distressing, perhaps of at- 
 tackino- Constantinople, and of persuading the barbari- 
 ans of Europe, to second his arms and counsels against 
 the common enemy of mankind. Under the pretence 
 of a Scythian war, he silently led his troops to the 
 frontiers of Iberia ; the Colchian guides were prepared 
 to conduct them through the woods and along the pre- 
 cipices of Mount Caucasus ; and a nanow path was 
 laboriously formed into a safe and spacious highway, 
 for the march of cavalry, and even of elephants. Gu- 
 bazes laid his person and diadem at the feet of the king 
 of Persia; his Colchians imitated the submission of 
 their prince ; and after the walls of Petra had been 
 shaken, the Roman garrison prevented by a capitulation 
 the impending fury of the last assault. But the Lazi 
 soon discovered, that their impatience had urged them 
 to choose an evil more intolerable than the calamities 
 which they strove to escape. The monopoly of salt 
 and corn was effectually removed by the loss of those 
 valuable commodoties. The authority of a Roman 
 legislature was succeeded by the pride of an oriental 
 de'spot, who beheld, with equal disdain, the slaves 
 whom he had exalted, and the kings whom he had 
 humbled before the footstool of his throne. The ado- 
 ration of fire was introduced into Colchos by the zeal 
 of the Maoi : their intolerant spirit provoked the fervour 
 of a christian people; and the prejudice of nature or 
 education was wounded by the impious practice of 
 exposing the dead bodies of their parents, on the sum- 
 mit of a lofty tower, to the crows and vultures of the 
 air.i Conscious of the increasing hatred, which re- 
 tarded the execution of his great designs, the just 
 Nushirvan had secretly given orders to assassinate the 
 king of the Lazi, to transplant the people into some 
 distant land, and to fix a faithful and warlike colony 
 on the banks of the Phasis. The watchful jealousy of 
 the Colchians foresaw and averted the approaching 
 ruin. Their repentance was accepted at Constantino- 
 ple by the prudence, rather than the clemency, of Jus- 
 tinian ; and he commanded Dagisteus, with seven 
 thousand Romans, and one thousand of the Zani, to 
 expel the Persians from the coast of the Euxine. 
 
 The siege of Petra, which the Roman siege of Petra, 
 general with the aid of the Lazi imme- A. D. 549-551. 
 diately undertook, is one of the most remarkable ac- 
 tions of the age. The city was seated on a craggy 
 rock which hung over the sea, and communicated by 
 a steep and narrow path with the land. Since the 
 approach was difficult, the attack might be deemed 
 impossible : the Persian conqueror had strengthened 
 the fortifications of Justinian; and the places least 
 
 P See the amusinp letters of Pietro delta Vallo, the Roman traveller, 
 (Viagai, tom. ii. 207. 209. 213. 215. 266. 286. 300. torn. in. p. 54. 127.y 
 In the years 1618, 1619, and 1620, he conversed with Shah Abbas, and 
 strongly encouraged a design which mieht have united Persia and 
 Europe against their common enemy the Turk. 
 
 q ^ee Herodotus, (1. i. c. 140. p. 69.) who speaks with diffidence,. 
 Larcher, (tom. i. p. 399-401. Notes sur Herodote,) Procopius, (Per- 
 sic. I. i. c. 11.) and Agathia!.. (1. ii. p. 61, 62.) This practice, agreeable 
 to the Zendavesta, (Hyde, de. Relig. Pers. c. 34. p. 414-^21.) demon- 
 strates that the burial of the Persian kings, (Xenophon, Cyropaed. 1. 
 viii.p.658.) r« K»(> reuTou ^Kxscf iouTij ow tou Tti yt\ ^tx'f'^'i isaGrecK 
 fiction, and that their tombs could be no more than cenotaphs. 
 
 
 • ^ 
 
 I ^! 
 
 m 
 
 < i 
 
■f 
 *4 
 
 58 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 Chap. IIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 59 
 
 m 
 
 inaccessible were covered by additional bulwarks. In 
 this important fortress, the vigilance of Chosroes had 
 deposited a magazine of offensive and defensive arms, 
 sufficient for five times the number, not only of the 
 garrison, but of the besiegers themselves. The stock 
 of flour and salt provisions was adequate to the con- 
 sumption of five years ; the want of wine was supplied 
 by vinegar, and of grain from whence a strong liquor 
 was extracted ; and a triple aqueduct eluded the dili- 
 gence, and even the suspicions, of the enemy. But 
 the firmest defence of Petra was placed in the valour 
 of fifteen hundred Persians, who resisted the assaults 
 of the Romans, whilst, in a softer vein of earth, a mine 
 "Was secretly perforated. The wall, supported by slen- 
 der and temporary props, hung tottering in the air; but 
 Dagisteus delayed the attack till he had secured a spe- 
 cific recompence; and the town was relieved before the 
 return of his messenger from Constantinople. The 
 Persian garrison was reduced to four hundred men, of 
 whom no more than fifty were exempt from sickness 
 or wounds ; yet such had been their inflexible perse- 
 verance, that they concealed their losses from the ene- 
 my, by enduring, without a murmur, the sight, and 
 putrefying stench of the dead bodies of their eleven 
 hundred companions. After their deliverance, the 
 breaches were hastily stopped with sand-bags ; the 
 mine was replenished with earth ; a new wall was 
 erected on a frame of substantial timber ; and a fresh 
 garrison of three thousand men was stationed at Pelra 
 to sustain the labours of a second siege. The opera- 
 tions, both of the attack and defence, were conducted 
 with skilful obstinacy; and each party derived useful 
 lessons from the experience of their past faults. A 
 battering-ram was invented, of light construction and 
 powerful effect ; it was transported and worked by the 
 hands of forty soldiers ; and as the stones were loosened 
 by its repeated strokes, they were torn with long iron 
 hooks from the wall. From those walls, a shower of 
 darts was incessantly poured on the heads of the as- 
 sailants, but they were most dangerously annoyed by 
 a fiery composition of sulphur and bitumen, which in 
 Colchos might with some propriety be named the oil 
 of Medea. Of six thousand Romans who mounted the 
 scaling-ladders, their general Bessas was the first, a 
 gallant veteran of seventy years of age : the courage 
 of their leader, his fall, and extreme danger, animated 
 the irresistible effort of his troops ; and their prevailing 
 numbers oppressed the strength, without subduing the 
 spirit, of the Persian garrison. The fate of these va- 
 liant men deserves to be more distinctly noticed. Seven 
 hundred had perished in the siege, two thousand three 
 hundred survived to defend the breach. One thousand 
 and seventy were destroyed with fire and sword in the 
 last assault ; and if seven hundred and thirty were 
 made prisoners, only eighteen among them were found 
 without the marks of honourable wounds. The re- 
 maining five hundred escaped into the citadel, which 
 they maintained without any hopes of relief, rejecting 
 the fairest terms of capitulation and service, till they 
 ■were lost in the flames. They died in obedience to 
 the commands of their prince; and such examples of 
 loyalty and valour might excite their countrymen to 
 deeds of equal despair and more prosperous event, 
 the instant demolition of the works of Petra confessed 
 the astonishment and apprehension of the conqueror. 
 Tho Colchian . -^ Spartan would have prai&ed and 
 or l.azic war, pitied the virtue of these heroic slaves ; 
 A. D. 549-556. j^^j ^|,g tedious warfare and alternate 
 success of the Roman and Persian arms cannot detain 
 the attention of posterity at the foot of mount Cau- 
 casus. The advantages obtained by the troops of 
 .Tustinian were more frequent and splendid; but the 
 forces of the great king were continually supplied, till 
 they amounted to eight elephants and seventy tliou- 
 sand men, including twelve thousand Scythian allies, 
 and above three thousand Dilemites, who descended 
 by their free choice from the hills of Hyrcania, and 
 
 were equally formidable in close or in distant combat. 
 The siejje of Archa;op{)lis, a name imposed or corrupted 
 by the Greeks, was raised with some loss and preci- 
 pitation; but the Persians occupied the passrs of 
 Iberia ; Colchos was enslaved by their forts and jjar- 
 risons ; they devoured the scanty sustenance of the 
 people; and the prince of the Lazi flod into the moun- 
 tains. In the Roman camp, faith and discipline were 
 unknown; and the independent leaders, who were 
 invested with equal power, disputed with each other 
 the pre-eminence of vice and corruption. The Persians 
 followed, without a murmur, the commands of a single 
 chief, who implicitly obeyed the instructions of their 
 supreme lord. Their general was distinguished amoncr 
 the heroes of the east, by his wisdom in council, and 
 his valour in the field. The advanced age of Merme- 
 rose, and the lameness of both his feet, could not di- 
 minish the activity of his mind, or even of his body; 
 and, wljilst he was carried in a litter in the front of 
 battle, he inspired terror to the enemy, and a just con- 
 fidence to the troops, who, under his banners, were 
 always successful. After his death, the command 
 devolved to Nacoragan, a proud satrap, who, in a con- 
 ference with the imperial chiefs, had presumed to 
 declare that he disposed of victory as absolutely as of 
 the ring on his finger. Such presumption was the 
 natural cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat. 
 The Romans had been gradually repulsed to the edge 
 of the sea-shore ; and their last camp, on the ruins of 
 the Grecian colony of Phasis, was defended on all 
 sides by strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine, 
 and a fleet of galleys. Despair united their counsels 
 and invigorated their arms : they withstood the assault 
 of the Persians ; and the flight of Nacoragan preceded 
 or followed the slaughter of ten thousand of his 
 bravest soldiers. He escaped from the Romans to 
 fall into the hands of an unforgiving master, who 
 severely chastised the error of his own choice : the 
 unfortunate general was flayed alive, and liis skin, 
 stuffed into the human form, was exposed on a moun- 
 tain; a dreadful warning to those who might hereafter 
 be intrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia.' Yet 
 the prudence of Chosroes insensibly relinquished the 
 prosecution of the Colchian w ar, in the just persuasion, 
 liiat it is impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a 
 distant country against the wishes and efforts of its 
 inhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes sustained the 
 most rigorous trials. He patiently endured the hard- 
 ships of a savage life, and rejected, with disdain, the 
 specious temptatu ns of the Persian court. The kintr 
 of the Lazi had been educated in the christian reli- 
 gion ; his mother was the daughter of a senator ; durincr 
 his youth, he had served ten years a silentiary of the 
 Byzantine palace,' and the arrears of an unpaid salary 
 were a motive of attachment as well as of complaint. 
 But the long continuance of his suff'erings extorted 
 from him a naked representation of the truth; and 
 truth was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenants of 
 Justinian, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war, 
 had spared his enemies and trampled on his allies. 
 Their malicious information persuaded the emperor, 
 that his faithless vassal already meditated a second 
 defection: an order was issued to send him prisoner 
 to Constantinople; a treacherous clause was inserted, 
 that he might be lawfully killed in case of resistance ; 
 and Gubazes, without arms, or suspicion of danger, 
 was stabbed in the security of a friendly interview. 
 In the first moments of rage and despair the Colchians 
 would have sacrificed their country and religion to the 
 gratification of revenge. But the authority and elo- 
 
 r Thp punishmpnt of flaying alive could not bp introduced into 
 Persia by Sapor, (Brisson, de Resn. Pers. 1. ii. p. 578.) nor could it be 
 copied from the f(K)lish tale of Marsyas the Phrygian piper, most 
 foolishly quoted as a precedent by Acathias, (1. iv.'p. 1.32, 133.) 
 
 • In the palace of Constantinople there were thirty sileutiaries, 
 who are styled hastaii ante fores cubiculi, mc «ri>>!« is-ijarai, an 
 honourable title, which conferred the rank, without imposing the 
 duties, of a senator. (Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. lit. 23. (iolhofred. CommenU 
 torn. ii. p. 129.) 
 
 quence of the wiser few, obtained a salutary pause : the 
 victory of the Phasis restored the terror of the Roman 
 amis, atjd the emperor was solicitous to absolve his 
 own name from the imputation of so foul a murder. 
 A jndge of senatorial rank was commissioned to in- 
 quire into the conduct and death of the king of the 
 Lazi. He ascended a stately tribunal, encompassed 
 by the ministers of justice and punishment: in the 
 presence of both nations, this extraordinary cause was 
 pleaded, according to the forms of civil jurisprudence, 
 and some satisfaction was granted to an injured people, 
 by the sentence and execution of the meaner criminals.* 
 In the peace, the king of Persia con- 
 fnTSeatirbe- tinually sought the pretences of a rup- 
 iween Justinian ture ; but no sooner had he taken up 
 *"l^-^.??'^-''A' arms, than he expressed his desire of a 
 safe and honourable treaty. During the 
 fiercest hostilities, the two monarchs entertained a 
 deceitful negociation ; and such was the superiority of 
 Chosroes, that whilst he treated the Roman ministers 
 with insolence and contempt, he obtained the most 
 unprecedented honours for his own ambassadors at the 
 imperial court. The successor of Cyrus assumed the 
 majesty of the eastern sun, and graciously permitted 
 his younger brother Justinian to reign over the west, 
 with the pale and reflected splendour of the moon. 
 This gigantic style was supported by the pomp and 
 eloquence of Isdigune, one of the royal chamberlains. 
 His wife and daughters, with a train of eunuchs and 
 camels, attended the march of the ambassador: two 
 satraps with golden diadems were numbered among 
 his followers : he was guarded by five hundred horse, 
 the most valiant of the Persians; and the Roman 
 governor of Dara wisely refused to admit more than 
 twenty of this martial and hostile caravan. When 
 Isdigune had saluted the emperor, and delivered his 
 presents, he passed ten months at Constantinople with- 
 out discussinu any serious affairs. Instead of being 
 confined to his palace, and receiving food and water 
 from the hands of his keepers, the Persian ambassador, 
 without spies or guards, was allowed to visit the 
 capital ; and the freedom of conversation and trade 
 enjoyed by his domestics, off'ended the prejudice of an 
 age which rigorously practised the law of nations, 
 without confidence or courtesy." By an unexampled 
 indulgence, his interpreter, a servant below the notice 
 of a Roman magistrate, was seated at the table of Jus- 
 tinian by the side of his master; and one thousand 
 pounds of gold might be assigned for the expense of 
 his journey and entertainment. Yet the repeated 
 labours of Isdigune could procure only a partial and 
 imperfect truce, which was always purchased with the 
 treasures, and renewed at the solicitation, of the Byzan- 
 tine court. Many years of fruitless desolation elapsed 
 before Justinian and Chosroes were compelled, by 
 mutual lassitude, to consult the repose of their declin- 
 ing age. At a conference held on the frontier, each 
 party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the 
 power, the justice, and the pacific intentions, of their 
 respective sovereigns : but necessity and interest dicta- 
 ted the treaty of peace, which was concluded for a 
 term of fifty years, diligently composed in the Greek 
 and Persian languages, and attested by the seals of 
 twelve interpreters. The liberty of commerce and 
 religion was fixed and defined ; the allies of the em- 
 peror and the great king were included in the same 
 benefits and obligations ; and the most scrupulous 
 precautions were provided to prevent or determine the 
 accidental disputes that might arise on the confines of 
 two hostile nations. After twenty years of destructive 
 
 t On these judicial orations, Agathias, (1. iii. p. 81—89. 1. iv.p. lOS— 
 110.) lavishes eighteen or twenty pages of false and florid rhetoric. 
 His ignorance or carelessness overlooks the strongest arguuient 
 against the kins of Lazica— his <brmer revolt. 
 
 u Procopius represents the practice ofthe Gothic ccurt of Ravenna; 
 (Goth. 1. i. c. 7.) and foreign ambassadors have been treated with the 
 same jealousy and ri;our in Turkey, (Busbequius, episl. iii. p. 149. 
 242, &c.) Russia, (Voyage D'01eariuii,)aad China, (NarralivdofM.de 
 Lange, in Bell's Travels, vol ii. p. 169—311.) 
 
 though feeble war, the limits still remained without 
 alteration ; and Chosroes was persuaded to renounce 
 his dangerous claim to the possession or sovereio-niy 
 of Colchos and its dependent states. Rich in the 
 accumulated treasures of the east, he extorted from 
 the Ronjans an annual payment of thirty thousand 
 pieces of gold ; and the smallness of the sum revealed 
 the disgrace of a tribute in its naked deformity. In 
 a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris, and the 
 wheel of fortune, were applied by one of the ministers 
 of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of An- 
 tioch, and some Syrian cities, had elevated beyond 
 measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the barbarian. 
 " You are mistaken," replied the modest Persian : 
 "the king of kings, the lord of mankind, looks down 
 with contempt on such petty acquisitions ; and of the 
 ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms, he 
 esteems the Romans as the least formidable."* Ac- 
 cording to the orientals, the empire of Nushirvan ex- 
 tended from Ferganah, in Transoxiana, to Yemen or 
 Arabia Faelix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, 
 reduced the provinces of Cabul and Zablestan on the 
 banks of the Indus, broke the power of the Euthalites, 
 terminated by an honourable treaty the Turkish war, 
 and admitted the daughter of the great khan into the 
 number of his lawful wives. Victorious and respected 
 among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his 
 palace of Madain, or Ctesiphon, to the ambassadors 
 of the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich gar- 
 ments, gems, slaves, or aromatics, were humbly pre- 
 sented at the foot of his throne ; and he condescended 
 to accept from the king of India ten quintals of the 
 wood of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a 
 carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, 
 of an extraordinary serpent.- 
 
 Justinian had been reproached for his Conquests of the 
 alliance with the ^Ethiopians, as if he Abyssinians, 
 attempted to introduce a people of savage A.D.y22. 
 negroes into the system of civilized society. But the 
 friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites or Abys- 
 sinians, may be always distinguished from the original 
 natives of Africa.* The hand of nature has flattened 
 the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with 
 shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and 
 indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the 
 Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly 
 mark them as a colony of Arabs ; and this descent is 
 confirmed by the resemblance of language and man- 
 ners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the 
 narrow interval between the shores of the Red sea. 
 Christianity had raised that nation above the level of 
 African barbarism : • their intercourse with Egypt, and 
 the successors of Constantine,'' had communicated 
 the rudiments of the arts and sciences ; their vessels 
 traded to the isle of Ceylon ;*= and seven kingdoms 
 obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. 
 
 X Thenegocialions and treaties between Justinian and Cliosroesare 
 copiously explained by Procopius, (Persic. I. ii. c. 10. 13. 2G— 28. Goth. 
 1. ii. c. 11.15.)Agathias, (l.iv. p. 141,142.)and i\Ienander,(in E.vcerpl. 
 liegat. p. 132—147.) Consult Barbeyrac, Hist. des. Anciens Traitcs, 
 toiii. ii. p. 154. lSl-184. 193-2(K). 
 
 y D'Herbolot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 680. 681. 294, 29r>. 
 
 7. See Buffon, Hist. Nalurelle, toni. iii. p. 449. This Arab cast of 
 features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years, (Ludol ph. 
 Hist, et Comment. .Sthiopic. 1. i. c. 4.) in the colony of Abyssinia, 
 will justify the suspicion, that race, as well as climate, must have con- 
 tributed to lorm the negroes of the adjacent and similar regions. 
 
 a The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez. (Kamusio, torn. i. fol. 2W. 
 reel. 274 versO Bermudez, (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. 1. v. c. 7. p. 
 1149— IISS.) Lobo, (Relation, &c. par M. le Grand with xv Disser- 
 tations, Paris, 1728.) and Tellez, (Relations de Thevenot, part iv.) 
 could only relate of modern Abyssinia what they had seen or invent- 
 ed. The erudition of Ludolphus, (Hist. Ji^thiopica, Francofurt. 1681. 
 Commentarius, 1691. Appendix, 1G94.) in twenty-five languages, 
 couldadd little concerning its ancient history. Yetihe fameof Caled, 
 orEllisihaeus, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrated in national songs 
 and legends. 
 
 b The nesrociaj-ions of Justinian with the Axumites, or .Ethiopians, 
 are recorded by Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c 19, 20.) and John Malala, 
 (tom. ii. p. 163—16.3. 193—196.) The liisiorian of Antioch quotes the 
 orisrinal narrative of the ambassador Nonnosus, of which Pholius 
 (Bi"^bliol. cod. iii.) has pre.served a curious extract. 
 
 c The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India and Africa, and 
 the isleof (;ey Ion, is curiously represented by Cosmas Indicoplcustea. 
 (Topograph, (jhrisiiau. I. ii. p. 132. 138, 139, 140. 1. xi. p. 338, 339. ^ 
 
 |i 
 
 
 I '1 
 
 
 ■^ I 
 

 60 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 61 
 
 I 
 
 'ii 
 
 The independence of the Homerites, who reigned in 
 the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an 
 ^Ethiopian conqueror: he drew his hereditary claim 
 from the queen of Sheba,"* and his ambition was sanc- 
 tified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and 
 active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, 
 prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate 
 the persecution inflicted by the imperial laws on their 
 unfortunate brethren : some Roman Tncrchants were 
 injuriously treated; and several christians of Negra' 
 were honoured with the crown of martyrdom.' The 
 churches of Arabia implored the protection of the 
 Abyssinian monarch. The Negus passed the Red 
 sea with a fleet and army, deprived the Jewish prose- 
 lyte of his kingdom and life, and extinguished a race 
 of princes, who had ruled above two thousand years 
 the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincence. 
 The conqueror immediately announced the victory of 
 the gospel, requested an orthodox patriarch, and sn 
 warmly professed his friendship to the Roman empire, 
 that Justinian was flattered by the hope of divertinVj 
 the silk trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and 
 of exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian 
 Their alliance ^''1?' Nonnosus, descended from a fam- 
 wiih Jusiinian, ily of ambassadors, was named by the 
 A. D. 533. emperor to execute this important com- 
 mission. He wisely declined the shorter, but more 
 dangerous, road through the sandy deserts of Nubia ; 
 ascended tiie Nile, embarked on the Red sea, and 
 safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From 
 Adulis to the royal city of Axume is no more than fifty 
 leagues, in a direct line ; but the winding passes of the 
 mountains detained the ambassador fifteen days : and 
 as he traversed the forests, he saw, and vaguely com- 
 puted, about five thousand wild elephaiits. The capi- 
 tal, according to his report, was large and populous; 
 and the villa i>;e o£ Axume is still conspicuous by the 
 regal coronations, by the ruins of a christian temple, 
 and by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with 
 Grecian characters.* But the Negus gave audience 
 in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was 
 drawn by tour elephants superbly caparisoned, and 
 surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was 
 clad in a linen garmenf. and cap, holding in his hand 
 two javelins and a light shield ; and, although his 
 nakedness was imperfectly covered, he displayed the 
 barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets, 
 richly adorned wirii pearls and precious stones. The 
 ambassador of Justinian knelt; the Negus raised him 
 from the ground, embraced Nonnosus, kissed the seal, 
 perused the letter, accepted the Roman alliance, ai.d, 
 brandishing his weapons, denounced implacable war 
 against the worshippers of fire. But the proposal of 
 the silk trade was eluded ; and notwithstanding the 
 assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssini- 
 ans, these hostile menaces evaj>orated without eflfect. 
 The Homerites were unwilling to abandon their aro- 
 matic groves, to explore a sandy desert, and to encounter, 
 after all their fatigues, a formidable nation from whom 
 they had never received any personal injuries. Instead 
 of enlarging his conquests, the king of i^'^thiopia was 
 incapable of defending his possessions. Abrahah, the 
 slave of a Roman merchant of Adulis, assumed the 
 sceptre of the Homerites; the troops of Africa were 
 
 ■ ■ ■ ■ T ■ " ■-■.--_.. . '■'■'■■■■-—•'■ ■ ■ ■- I ■ , 
 
 d Ludolph. Hist, et Commont. JElhiop. 1. ii. c. 3. 
 
 e The city of No^ra, or Nap'ran, in Yemon, is siirrounJed with 
 palm-trees, and stands in the high-road between Saana, the capital, 
 and Mecca; from the furmer ten, from the latter twenty, days' journey 
 of a caravan of camels. (Abiilfoda, Drscript. Arahiae, p. 52.) 
 
 f The martyrdom of St. Arcthas. prince of Negra, and his three 
 hundred and forty companions, is embellished in the h gends of Meta- 
 phrastPsandNicephorusCallistus, copied by Baronius, (A.D.5'2*2, No. 
 522—66. A. P. 523, No. 16—20.) and refuted, with obscure diligence, by 
 Basnage, (Hisi. des Juifa, lorn. xii. 1. viii. c. ii. p. 333 — 318.) who in- 
 Testigates the state of the Jews in Arabia and ^Ethiopia. 
 
 g Alvarez (in Ramusio, lorn. i. fol. 219 vers. 221 vers.) saw the 
 flourishing siate of Axume in the year 1520— luogo molto buono e 
 crande. It was ruinell in the same century by the Turkish invasion. 
 No more than one hundred houses remain ; but the memory of its 
 past greatness is preserved by the regal coronation. (Ludolph. Hist. 
 et Comment. 1. ii. c. 11.) 
 
 seduced by the luxury of the climate ; and Justinian 
 solicited the friendship of the usurper, who honoured 
 with a slight tribute, the supremacy of his prince. 
 After a long series of prosperity, the power of Abraliah 
 was overthrown before the gates of Mecca; his chil- 
 dren were despoiled hy the Persian conqueror; and 
 the itithiopians were finally expelled from the conti- 
 nent of Asia. This narrative of obscure and remote 
 events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the 
 Roman empire. If a christian power had been main- 
 tained in Arabia, Mahomet wiusl have been cruslud iu 
 his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a 
 revolution which has changed the civil and religious 
 state of the world.** 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Rebellions of Africa. — Restoratio7i of the Gothic king' 
 dam of Totila. — Loss and recovery of Rome. — Final 
 conquest (f Italy hy JVarses. — Extinction of the Ostro- 
 goths, — Defeat of the Franks and Alemanni. — Last 
 victory, disgrace and death of Belisarius. — Death and 
 character of Justinian. — Comet, earthquakes, and 
 plague. 
 
 The review of the nations from the Danube to the 
 Nile has exposed, on every side, the weakness of the 
 Romans; and our wonder is reasonably excited that 
 they should presume to enlarge an empire, whose an- 
 cient limits they were incapable of defending. But 
 the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs of Justinian, 
 are the feeble and pernicious efforts of old age, which 
 exhaust the remains of strength, and accelerate the 
 decay of the powers of life. He exulted in the glori- 
 ous act of restoring Africa and Italy to the republic; 
 but the calamities which followed the departure of 
 Belisarius bctra3'ed the impotence of the conqueror, 
 and accomplished the ruin of those unf)rtunate coun- 
 tries. 
 
 From his new acquisitions, Justinian The troubles of 
 expected that his avarice, as well as Africa, 
 pride, should be richly gratified. A ra- ^' ^- 535—545. 
 pacious minister of the finances closely pursued the 
 footsteps of Belisarius ; and as the old registers of tri- 
 bute had been burnt by the Vandals, he indulged his 
 fancy in a liberal calculation and arbitrary assessment 
 of the wealth of Africa.* The increase of taxes, 
 which were drawn away by a distant sovereign, and a 
 general resumption of the patrimony of crow n lands, 
 soon dispelled the intoxication of the public joy : but 
 the emperor was insensible to the modest complaints 
 of the people, till he was awakened and alarmed by 
 the clamours of military discontent. Many cf the 
 Roman soldiers had married the widows and daug^h- 
 ters of the Vandals. As their own, by the double 
 right of conquest and inheritance, they claimed the 
 estates which Genseric had assigned to his victorious 
 troops. Tliey heard with disdain the cold and selfish 
 representations of their ofiicers, that the liberality of 
 Justinian had raised them from a savage or servile 
 condition; that they were already enriched by the 
 
 h The revolutions of Yemen in the sixth century must be collected 
 from Procopius, (Persic. 1. i. c. 19, 20.) Theophanes Byzant. (apud 
 Phot. cod. Ixiii. p. 80.) St. Theophanes, (m Chronosraph. p. 144, 145. 
 188, 189. 206, 207,) who is full of strange blunders, Pocock, (Specimen 
 Hist. Arab. p. 62. 65.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientate, p. 12. 477.) and 
 Sale's Preliminary Discourse and Koran, (c. 105.) The revolt of 
 Abrahah is mentioned by Procopius; and liis fall, though clouded 
 with miracles, is an historical fact 
 
 a For the troubles of Africa, 1 neither have nor desire another puid<*' 
 than Procopius, whose eye contemplated the image, and whose ear 
 collected the reports, of the memorable events of his own limes. In 
 the second book of the Vandal ic war, he relates the revolt nf Stozas, 
 (c. 14-2-J.) the return of Belisarius, (c. 15.) the victory of Germanus, 
 (c. 16, 17, 18.) the second administration of Solomon, (c. 19, 20, 21.) 
 the government of Sergius, (c. 22, 23.) of Areobindus, (c. 24.) the 
 tyranny and death of Goniharis; (c. 25, 26, 27, 28.) nor can I 
 discern any symptoms of flattery or malevolence in his various por- 
 traits. 
 
 •spoils of Africa, the treasure, the slaves, and the 
 inovables, of the vanquished barbarians ; and that the 
 ancient and lawful patrimony of the emperors would 
 be applied only to the support of that government on 
 which their own safety and reward must ultimately 
 depend. The mutiny was secretly inflamed by a 
 tlioiisand soldiers, fur the most part Heruli, who had 
 imbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the 
 cleriry, of the Arian sect; and the cause of perjury 
 and rebellion was sanctified by the dispensing powers 
 ol' fanatici?jm. The Arians deplored the ruin of their 
 church, triumphant above a century in Africa; and 
 they were justly provoked by the laws of the con- 
 qurror, which interdicted the baptism of their children, 
 and the exercise of all religious worship. Of the 
 Vandals chosen hy Belisarius, the far greater part, in 
 the honours of the eastern service, forgot their coun- 
 try and n^ligion. But a generous band of four hun- 
 dred obliged the mariners, when they were in sight of 
 the isle of Lesbos, to alter their course : they touched 
 on Peloponnesus, ran ashore on a desert coast of 
 Africa, and boldly erected, on mount Aurnsius, the 
 standard of independence and revolt. While the 
 troops of the province disclaimed the command cf 
 their superiors, a conspiracy was formed at Carthage 
 against the life of Solomon, who filled with honour 
 the place of Belisarius; and the Arians had piously 
 rosolved to sacrifice the tyrant at the foot of the altar, 
 during the awful mysteries of the festival of Easter. 
 Fear or remorse restrained the daggers of the assas- 
 sins, but the patience of Solomon imboldened their 
 discontent; and at the end often days, a furious sedi- 
 tion was kindled in the Circus, which desolated Africa 
 above ten years. The pillage of the city, and the 
 indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants, were pus- 
 pended only by darkness, sleep, and intoxication : the 
 governor, with seven companions, among whom was 
 the historian Procopius, escaped to Sicily : two-thirds 
 of the arnjy were involved in the guilt of treason ; 
 and eight thousand insurgents, assemblinor in the field 
 of Bulla, elected Stoza for their chief, a private sol- 
 dier, who possessed 'in a superior degree the virtues of 
 a rebel. Under the mask of freedom, his eloquence 
 could lead, or at least impel, the passions of his 
 equals. He raised himself to a level with Belisarius, 
 and the nephew of the emperor, by daring to encounter 
 them in the field ; and the victorious generals were 
 compelled to acknowledge, that Stoza deserved a 
 purer cause, and a more legitimate command. Van- 
 quished in battle, he dexterously employed the arts of 
 iipgociation; a Roman army was seduced from their 
 allegiance, and the chiefs who had trusted to his faith- 
 less promise were murdered by his order in a church 
 of Nnmidia. When every resource, either of force or 
 perfidy, was exhausted, Stoza, with some desperate 
 Vandals, retired to the wilds of Mauritania, obtained 
 the daughter of a barbarian prince, and eluded the 
 pursuit of his enemies, by the report of his death. 
 The personal w^eight of Belisarius, the rank, the spirit, 
 and the temper of Germanus, the emperor's nephew, 
 and the vigour and success of the second administra- 
 tion of the eunuch Solomon, restored the modesty of 
 the camp, and maintained for a while the tranquillity 
 of Africa. But the vices of the Byzantine court were 
 felt in that distant province; the troops complained 
 that they were neither paid nor relieved, and as soon 
 as the public disorders were sufficiently mature, Stoza 
 was asain alive, in arms, and at the gates of Carthage. 
 He fell in a single combat, but he smiled in the ago- 
 nies of death, when he was informed that his own 
 javelin had reached the heart of his antagonist. The 
 example of Stoza, and the assurance that a fortunate 
 soldier had been the first king, encouraged the ambi- 
 tion of Gontharis, and he promised, by a private treaty, 
 to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with their danger- 
 ous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage. 
 The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace 
 
 and war, was raised, by his marriage with the niece 
 of Justinian, to the office of exarch. He was suddenly 
 oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abject 
 supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not 
 move the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reiga 
 of thirty days, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a 
 banquet by the hand of Artaban ; and it is singular 
 enough, that an Armenian prince, of the royal family 
 of Arsaces, should re-establish at Carthage the autho- 
 rity of the Roman empire. In the conspiracy which 
 unsheathed the dagfjer of Brutus against the life of 
 Cjesar, every circumstance is curious and important 
 to the eyes of posterity : but the guilt or merit of these 
 loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the 
 contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and 
 fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally 
 engaged in the revolutions of Africa.** 
 
 That country was rapidly sinking into Rebellion of the 
 the state of barbarism, from whence it ^^P".'^'.. 
 
 has been raised by the Phoenician colo- ^' ^' '^^'^~^^- 
 nies and Roman laws : and every step of intestine dis- 
 cord was marked by some deplorable victory of savage 
 man over civilized society. The Moors,*^ though igno- 
 rant of justice, were impatient of oppression ; their 
 vagrant life and boundless wilderness disappointed the 
 arms and eluded the chains of a conqueror; and expe- 
 rience had shown, that neither oaths nor obligations 
 could secure the fidelity of their attachment. The 
 victory of mount Auras had awed them into momen- 
 tary submission ; but if they respected the character 
 of Solomotj, they hated and despised the pride and 
 luxury of his two nephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on 
 whom their uncle had imprudently bestowed the pro- 
 vincial government of Tripoli and Pentapolis. A 
 Moorish tribe encamped under the walls of Leptis, to 
 renew their alliance, and receive from the governor the 
 customary gifts. Fourscore of their deputies were 
 introduced as friends into the city ; but, on the dark 
 suspicion of a conspiracy, they were massacred at the 
 table of Sergius; and the clamour of arms and revenge 
 was re-echoed through the valleys of motmt Atla.s, 
 from both the Syrtes to the Atlantic Ocean. A per- 
 sonal injury, the unjust execution or nnirder of his 
 brother, rendered Antalus the enemy of the Romans. 
 The defeat of the Vandals had formerly signalized his 
 valour; the rudiments of justice and prudence were still 
 more conspicuous in a Moor; and while he laid Adru- 
 metum in ashes, he calmly admonished the emperor 
 that the peace of Africa might be secured by the recall 
 of Solomon and his unworthy nephews. The exarch led 
 forth his troops from Carthajje: but, at the distance of 
 six days' journey in the neifjhhourhood of Tebeste,* 
 he was astonished by the superior numbers and fierce 
 aspect of the barbarians. He proposed a treaty ; so- 
 licited reconciliation; and offered to bind himself by 
 the most solemn oaths. " By what oaths can he bind 
 himself r' interrupted the indignant Moors. " Will he 
 swear by the gospels, the divine book of the christians? 
 It was on those books that the faith of his nephew 
 Sergius was pledged to eighty of our itmoceat and 
 unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a second 
 time, let us try their eflScacy in the chastisement of 
 perjury and the vindication of their own honour." 
 
 b Yet T must not refuse him the merit of paintine, in lively colours, 
 the murder of Gontharis. One of the assassins uttered a sentiment 
 not unworthy of a Roman patriot : " If I fail," said Ariasires, " in the 
 first stroke, kill me on the spot, lest the rack should extort a disco- 
 very of my accomplices." 
 
 c The Moorish wars are occasionally introduced into the narrative 
 of Procopius: (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 19—23. 2.». 27, 28. Gothic. 1. iv. c. 17.) 
 and Theophanes adds some prosperous and adverse events in the last 
 years of Justinian. . u _, 
 
 d Now Tibesh, in the kingdom of Aleiers. It is watered by a river, 
 the Sujerass, which falls into the Mejerda, (Bagradas.) Tibesh is still 
 remarkable for its walls of large stones, (like the Coliseum of Rome,) 
 a fountain, and a grove of walnut-trees : the country is fruitful, and 
 the neighbouring Bereberes are warlike. It appears from an inscrip- 
 tion, that, under the reign of Adrian, the road from Carthage to 
 Tebeste waa constructed by the third legion. (Marmot, Descriptioa 
 de TAfrique. torn. ii. p. 442, 413. Shaw's Travel*, p. 64, 65, 66.) 
 
 I Ml 
 
 r^ 
 
 ! i 
 
 i' 
 
 i ^ 
 
62 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 e^ 
 
 I 
 
 »' 
 
 m 
 
 Their honour was vindicated in the field of Tebeste, 
 by the death of Solomon, and the total loss of his 
 army. The arrival of fresh troops, and more skilful 
 commanders, soon checked the insolence of the Moors ; 
 seventeen of their princes were slain in the same bat- 
 tle; and the doubtful and transient submission of their 
 . tribes was celebrated with lavish applause by the peo- 
 ple of Constantinople. Successive inroads had re- 
 duced the province of Africa to one-third of the mea- 
 sure of Italy ; yet the Roman emperors continued to 
 leifjn above a century over Carthage, and the fruitful 
 coast of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the 
 losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind ; 
 and such was the desolation of Africa, that in many 
 parts a stranger might wander whole days without 
 meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The 
 nation of the Vandals had disappeared ; they once 
 amounted to an hundred and sixty thousand warriors, 
 without including the children, the women, or the 
 slaves. 'I'heir numbers were infinitely surpassed by 
 the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a re- 
 lentless war; and the same destruction was retaliated 
 on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the 
 climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the bar- 
 barians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the 
 populousness of the cities and country, strenuously ex- 
 ercised in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In 
 less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted 
 into a silent solitude ; the wealthy citizens escaped to 
 Sicily and Constantinople; and the secret historian 
 has confidently affirmed, that five millions of Africans 
 were consumed by the wars and government of the 
 emperor Justinian." 
 
 Revolt of the 'I he jealousy of the Byzantine court 
 i Goths, had not permilttid Belisarius to achieve 
 A. D.540. jj^g conquest of Italy: and his abrupt 
 departure revived the courage of the Goths,' who re- 
 spected his genius, his virtue, and even the laudable 
 motive which had urged the servant of Justinian to 
 deceive and reject them. They had lost their king, 
 (an inconsiderable loss,) their capital, their treasures, 
 the provinces from Sicily to the Alps, and the military 
 force of two hundred thousand barbarians, magnifi- 
 cently equipped with horses and arms. Yet all was 
 not lost, as long as Pavia was defended by one thou- 
 sand Goths, inspired by a sense of honour, the love 
 of freedom, and the memory of their past greatness. 
 The supreme command was unanimously offered to the 
 brave Uraias ; and it was in his eyes alone that the 
 disgrace of his uncle Vitiges could appear as a reason 
 of exclusion. His voice inclined the election in 
 favour of Hildibald, whose personal merit was recom- 
 mended by the vain hope that his kinsman Theudes, 
 the Spanish monarch, would support the common in- 
 terest of the Gothic nation. The success of his arms 
 in Liguria and Venetia seemed to justify their choice; 
 but he soon declared to the world, that he was incapa- 
 ble of forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The 
 consort of Hildebald was deeply wounded by the 
 beauty, the riches, and the pride of the wife of Uraias ; 
 and the death of that virtuous patriot excited the in- 
 dignation of a free people. A bold assassin executed 
 their sentence by striking off the head of Hildibald in 
 the midst of a banquet: the Rugians, a foreign tribe, 
 assumed the privilege of election; and Totila, the 
 nephew of the late king, was tempted, by revenge, to 
 deliver himself and the garrison of Trevigo into the 
 hands of the Romans. But the gallant and accom- 
 plished youth was easily persuaded to prefer the 
 
 e Procopius, Anecdot. c. 18. The series of the African history at- 
 tests this melancholy (ruth. 
 
 f In the second (c. 30.) and third books, (c. I — 40.) Procopius con- 
 tinues the history of the Gothic war from the fifth lo the fifteenth 
 year of Justinian. As the events are less interesting than in the for- 
 mer period, he allots only half the space to double the lime. Jornan- 
 des, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus, afford some collateral hints. 
 Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori, Magcou, and De Buat, are useful, and have 
 been used. 
 
 Victories of 
 Toiila, king 
 of Italy, 
 A. D. 641-544. 
 
 Gothic throne before the service of Justinian ; and as 
 soon as the palace of Pavia had been purified from the 
 Rugian usurper, he reviewed the national force of five 
 thousand soldiers, and generously undertook the resto- 
 ration of the kingdom of Italy. 
 
 The successors of Belisarius, eleven 
 generals of equal rank, neglected to 
 crush the feeble and disunited Goths, 
 till they were roused to action by the 
 progress of Totila and the reproaches of Justinian. 
 The gates of Verona were secretly opened to Artaba- 
 zue, at the head of one hundred Persians in the ser- 
 vice of the empire. The Goths fled from the city. 
 At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals 
 halted to regulate the division of the spoil. While 
 they disputed, the enemy discovered the real number 
 of the victors : the Persians were instantly overpow- 
 ered, and it was by leaping from the wall that Artaba- 
 zus preserved a life which he lost in a few days by 
 the lance of a barbarian, who had defied him to single 
 combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered the 
 forces of Totila, near Faenza, and on the hills of 
 Mugello, of the Florentine territory. The ardour of 
 freedmen, who fought to regain their country, was op- 
 posed to the languid temper of mercenary troops, who 
 were even destitute of the merits of strong and well- 
 disciplined servitude. On the first attack they aban- 
 doned their ensigns, threw down their arms, and dis- 
 persed on all sides with an active speed, which abated 
 the loss, while it aggravated the shame, of their de- 
 feat. The king of the Goths, who blushed for the 
 baseness of his enemies, pursued with rapid steps the 
 path of honour and victory. Totila passed the Po, 
 traversed the Apenninc, suspended the important con- 
 quest of Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, and marched 
 through the heart of Italy, to form the siege, or rather 
 blockade, of Naples. The Roman chiefs, imprisoned 
 in their respective cities, and accusing each other of 
 the common disgrace, did not presume to disturb his 
 enterprise. But the emperor, alarmed by the distress 
 and danger of his Italian conquests, despatched to the 
 relief of Naples a fleet of galleys and a body of Thra- 
 cian and Armenian soldiers. They landed in Sicily, 
 which yielded its copious stores of provisions ; but the 
 delays of the new commander, an unwarlike magis- 
 trate, protracted the sufferings of the besieged ; and 
 the succours, which he dropt with a timid and tardy 
 hand, were successively intercepted by the armed ves- 
 sels stationed by Totila in the bay of Naples. The 
 principal officer of the Romans was dragged, with a 
 rope round his neck, to the foot of the wall, from 
 whence, with a trembling voice, he exhorted the citi- 
 zens to implore, like himself, the mercy of the con- 
 queror. They requested a truce, with a promise of 
 surrendering the city, if no effectual relief should ap- 
 pear at the end of thirty days. Instead of one month, 
 the audacious commander granted them ihree^ in the 
 just confidence that famine would anticipate the term 
 of their capitulation. After the reduction of Naples 
 and Cumae, the provinces of Lucania, Apulia, and 
 Calabria, submitted to the king of the Goths. Toiila 
 led his army to the gates of Rome, pitched his camp 
 at Tiber, or Tivoli, within twenty miles of the capital, 
 and calmly exhorted the senate and people to compare 
 the tyranny of the Greeks with the blessings of the 
 Gothic reign. 
 
 The rapid success of Totila may be Contrast of vice 
 partly ascribed to the revolution which ^^^ virtue, 
 three years' experience had produced in tho sentiments 
 of the Italians. At the command, or at least in the 
 name, of a catholic emperor, the pope,* their spiritual 
 
 g Sylverius, bishop of Rome, was first transported to Patara, In 
 Lycia, and at len£:lh starved (subeorum cuslodia inediS confpctus) in 
 the isle of Pahnaria, A. D. 538. June 20. (Libfrat. In Bnviar. c. 22 
 Anastasius, in Sylverio. Baronius, A. D. 340. No. 2, 3. Pagi, in Vit.- 
 Pont. tom. i. p. 285, 286.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 1.) accuses only 
 the empress and Anlonina. 
 
 father, had been torn from the Roman church, and 
 either starved or murdered on a desolate island.** The 
 virtues of Belisarius were replaced by the various 
 or uniform vices of eleven chiefs, at Rome, Ravenna, 
 Florence, Perugia, Spolelo, &c. who abused their au- 
 thority f 'r the indulgence of lust or avarice. The im- 
 provement of the revenue was committed to Alexander, 
 a subtle scribe, long practised in the fraud and oppres- 
 siorj of the Byzantine schools; and whose name of 
 PsaUictinn^ the scissors^* was drawn from the dexterous 
 artifice with which he reduced the size, without defa- 
 cing the figure, of the gold coin. Instead of expecting 
 the restoration of peace and industry, he imposed 
 a heavy assessment on the fortunes of the Italians. 
 Yet his present or future demands were less odious 
 than a prosecution of arbitrary rigour against the 
 persons and property of all those, who, under the 
 Gothic king, had been concerned in the receipt and 
 expenditure of the public money. The subjects of 
 Justinian, who escaped these partial vexations, were 
 oppressed by the irregular maintenance of the soldiers, 
 whom Alexander defrauded and despised ; and their 
 hasty sallies in quest of wealth, or subsistence, pro- 
 voked the inhabitants of the country to await or implore 
 their deliverance from the virtues of a barbarian. 
 Totila^ was chaste and temperate; and none were 
 deceived, who depended on his faith or his clemency. 
 To the husbandmen of Italy the Gothic king issued a 
 welcome proclamation, enjoining them to pursue their 
 important labours, and to rest assured, that, on the 
 payment of the ordinary taxes, they should be defended 
 by his valour and discipline from the injuries of war. 
 The strong towns he successively attacked : and as 
 soon as they had yielded to his arms he demolished 
 the fortifications ; to save the people from the calami- 
 ties of a future siege, to deprive the Romans of the arts 
 of defence, and to decide the tedious quarrel of the 
 two nations by an equal and honourable conflict in the 
 field of battle. The Roman captives and deserters 
 were tempted to enlist in the service of a liberal and 
 courteous adversary ; the slaves were attracted by the 
 firm and faithful promise, that they should never be 
 delivered to their masters ; and from the thousand 
 warriors of Pavia, a new people, under the same appel- 
 lation of Goths, was insensibly formed in the camp 
 of Totila. He sincerely accomplished the articles of 
 capitulation, without seeking or accepting any sinister 
 advantage from ambiguous expressions or unforeseen 
 events: the garrison of Naples had stipulated that they 
 should be transported by sea; the obstinacy of the 
 winds prevented their voyage, but they were gene- 
 rously supplied wMth horses, provisions, and a safe- 
 conduct to the gates of Rome. The wives of the sena- 
 tors, who had been surprised in the villas of Campania, 
 were restored, without a ransom, to their husbands ; 
 the violation of female chastity was inexorably chas- 
 tised with death; and in the salutary regulation of the 
 diet of the famished Neapolitans, the conqueror as- 
 sumed the office of a humane and attentive physician. 
 The virtues of Totila are equally laudable, whether 
 they proceeded from true policy, religious principle, 
 or the instinct of humanity: he often harangued his 
 troops ; and it was his constant theme, that national 
 vice and ruin are inseparably connected ; that victory 
 is the fruit of moral as well as military virtue; and 
 that the prince, and even the people, are responsible 
 for the crimes which they neglect to punish. 
 Second com- ^^^ return of Belisarius to save the 
 mandofBeiisa- Country which he had subdued was 
 rius in Italy, pressed with equal vehemence by his 
 
 A. D. 544—548. J- • i j '• i ,i ^ .i • 
 
 iriends and enemies; and the Gothic war 
 
 h Palmaria, a small island, opposite to Terracina and the coast of 
 the Volsci. (Cluver. Ital. Anlif|. 1. iii. c. 7. p. 1014.) 
 
 i As the Logothete Alexander, and most of his civil and military 
 coUeacuPS, were either disgraced or despised, the ink of the Anecdotes 
 (c. 4,5. 18 ) is scarcely blacker than that of the Gothic History, (1. iii. 
 s. 1.3, 4. 9.20 21, &c.) ' 
 
 k Pncopius (1. iii. c. 2. 8, &c.) does ample and willing justice to the 
 
 was imposed as a trust or an exile on the veteran 
 commander. A hero on the banks of the Euphrates, 
 a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted, 
 with reluctance, the painful task of supportino- his 
 own reputation, and retrieving the faults of his succes- 
 sors. The sea was open to the Romans; the ships 
 and soldiers were assembled at Salona, near the palace 
 of Diocletian : he refreshed and reviewed his troops 
 at Pola in Istria, coasted round the head of the Hadri- 
 atic, entered the port of Ravenna, and despatched or- 
 ders rather than supplies to the subordinate cities. 
 His first public oration was addressed to the Goths 
 and Romans, in the name of the emperor, who had 
 suspended (or a while the conquest of Persia, and 
 listened to the prayers of his Italian subjects. He 
 gently touched on the causes and the authors of the 
 recent disasters ; striving to remove the fear of pun- 
 ishment for the past, and the hope of impunity for the 
 future, and labouring with more zeal than success, to 
 ur»ite all the members of his government in a firm 
 leanriie of affection and obedience. Justinian, his 
 gracious master, was inclined tf> pardon and reward; 
 and it was their interest, as well as duty, to reclaim 
 their deluded brethren, who had been seduced by the 
 arts of the usurper. Not a man was tempted to desert 
 the standard of the Gothic king. Belisarius soon dis- 
 covered that he was sent to remain the idle and impo- 
 tent spectator of the glory of a young barbarian ; and 
 his own epistle exhibits a genuine and lively picture 
 of the distress of a noble mind. " Most excellent 
 prince, we are arrived in Italy, destitute of all the 
 necessary implements of war, men, horses, arms, and 
 money. In our late circuit through the villages of 
 Thrace and Illyricum, we have collected, with extreme 
 difficulty, about four thousand recruits, naked, and un- 
 skilled in the use of weapons and the exercises of the 
 camp. The soldiers already stationed in the province 
 are discontented, fearful, and dismayed; at the sound 
 of an enemy, they dismiss their horses, and cast their 
 arms on the ground. No taxes can be raised, since 
 Italy is in the hands of the barbarians ; the failure of 
 payment has deprived us of the right of command, or 
 even of admonition. Be assured, dread sir, that the 
 greater part of your troops have already deserted to the 
 Goths. If the war could be achieved by the presence 
 of Belisarius alone, your wishes are satisfied; Belisa-^ 
 rius is in the midst of Italy. But if you desire to con- 
 quer, far other preparations are requisite : without a 
 military force, the title of general is an empty name. 
 It would be expedient to restore to my service my own 
 veterans and domestic guards. Before I can take the 
 field, I must receive an adequate supply of light and 
 heavy armed troops ; and it is only with ready money 
 that you can procure the indispensable aid of a pow- 
 erful body of the cavalry of the Huns."' An officer in 
 whom Belisarius confided was sent from Ravenna to 
 hasten and conduct the succours; but the message 
 was neglected, and the messenger was detained at 
 Constantinople by an advantageous marriage. Af- 
 ter his patience had been exhausted by delay and 
 disappointment, the Roman general repassed the 
 Hadrialic, and expected at Dyrrachium the arrival 
 of the troops which were slowly assembled among the 
 subjects and allies of the empire. His powers were 
 still inadequate to the deliverance of Rome, which 
 was closely besieged by the Gothic king. The Ap- 
 pian way, a march of forty days, was covered by the 
 barbarians ; and as the prudence of Belisarius declined 
 a battle, he preferred the safe and speedy navigatioit. 
 of five days from the coast of Epirus to the mouth of 
 the Tiber. 
 
 merit of Totila. The Roman historians, from Sallust and Tacitus,, 
 vyere happy to for?et the vices of their countrymen in the contempla- 
 tion of barbaric virtue. 
 
 1 Procopius, 1. iii. c. 12. The soul of a hero is deeply impressed 
 on the letter; nor can we confjund such genuine and original act»- 
 with the elaborate and often empty speeches of the Byzaui^ine histo- 
 rians. 
 
 I 
 
Il 
 
 64 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV 
 
 (,*HAP. IV. 
 
 h 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 t 
 
 P 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 'it 
 
 It 
 
 Borne besieged After reducing, by force nr treaty, the 
 bv the Goths, towns of inferior note m the midland 
 A.'D. 546. May. provinces of Italy, Totila proceeded, not 
 to assJiult, but to encompass and starve, the ancient 
 capital. Rome was afflicted by the avarice, and 
 guarded by the valour, of Bessas, a veteran chief of 
 Gothic extraction, who filled, with a garrison of three 
 thousand soldiers, the spacious circle of her venerable 
 Avails. From the distress of the people he extracted 
 a profitable trade, and secretly rejoiced in the continu- 
 ance of the siege. It was for his use that the granaries 
 had been replenished : the charity of pope Viailius had 
 purchased and embarked an ample supply of Sicilian 
 corn ; but the vessels which escaped the barbarians 
 were seized by a rapacious jjovernor, who imparted a 
 scanty sustenance to the soldiers, and sold the remain- 
 der to the wealthy Romans. The medimnus, or fifth 
 part of the quarter of wheat, was exchanged for seven 
 pieces of gold; fifty pieces were given for an ox, a 
 rare and accidental prize; the progress of famine en- 
 hanced this exorbitant value, and the mercenaries were 
 tempted to deprive themselves of the allowance which 
 was scarcely sulficient for the support of life. A 
 tasteless and unwholesome mixture, in which the bran 
 thrico exceeded the quantity of flour, appeased the 
 hunger of the poor ; they were gradually reduced to 
 feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, and eagerly 
 to snatch the grass, and even the nettles, which grew 
 among the ruins of the city. A crowd of spectres, pale 
 and e'maciated, their bodies oppressed with disease, 
 and their minds with despair, surrounded the palace of 
 (he oovernor, urged with unavailing truth, that it was 
 the duty of a master to maintain his slaves, and 
 humbly requested, that he would provide for their 
 subsistence, permit their flight, or command their im- 
 mediate execution. Bessas replied, with unfeeling 
 tranquillity, that it w^s impossible to feed, unsafe to 
 dismiss, and unlawful to kill, the subjects of the em- 
 peror. Yet the example of a private citizen misht 
 have shown his countrymen that a tyrant cannot with- 
 hold the privileoe of death. Pierced by the cries of 
 five children, who vainly called on their father for 
 bread, he ordered them to follow his steps, advanced 
 with calm and silent despair to one of the bridges of 
 the Tiber, and, covering his face, threw himself head- 
 long into the stream, in the presence of his family and 
 the Roman people. To the rich and pusillanimous, 
 Bessas"* sold the permission of departure; but the 
 greatest part of the fugitives expired on the public 
 highways, or were intercepted by the flying parties of 
 barbarians. In the mean while, the artful govt^rnor 
 soothed the discontent, and revived the hopes, of the 
 Romans, by the vague reports of the fleets and armies 
 which were hastening to their relief from the extremi- 
 ties of the east. They derived more rational comfort 
 from the assurance that Belisarius had landed at the 
 port { and, without numbering his forces, they firmly 
 relied on the humanity, the courage, and the skill of 
 their great deliverer. 
 Auempi of The foresight of Totila had raised 
 
 Belisarius. obstacles worthy of such an antago- 
 nist. Ninety furlongs below the city, in the nar- 
 rowest part of the river, he joined the two banks by 
 strong and solid timbers in the form of a bridge; on 
 which he erected two lofty towers, manned by the 
 bravest of his Goths, and profusely stored with mis- 
 sile weapons and engines of offence. The approach 
 of the bridge and towers was covered by a strong and 
 massy chain of iron; and the chain, at either end, on 
 the opposite sides of the Tiber, was defended by a 
 numerous and chosen detachment of archers. But the 
 
 m The avarice of Bessas is not dissemblpd by Procopiiis, (l.iii.c. 17. 
 20.) Heexpialedlhelossdf Komeby the glorious conquesi of Tpirea; 
 <Goih. 1. iv. c. 12.) but the same vices followed him from the Tiber to 
 the Phasis ; (c. 13.) and the historian is equally true to the merits and 
 defects of his character. The chastisement which the author of the 
 romance of Belisaire has inflicted on the oppressors of Rome is more 
 agreeable to justice than to history. 
 
 enterprise of forcing these barriers, and relieving the 
 capital, displays a shining example of the boldness 
 and conduct of Belisarius. His cavalry advanced 
 from the port along the public road, to awe the 
 motions, and distract the attention, of the enemy. 
 His infantry and provisions were distributed in two 
 hundred large boats; and each boat was shielded by a 
 high rampart of thick planks, pierced with many small 
 holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In the 
 front, two large vessels were linked together to sustain 
 a floating castle, winch commanded the towers of the 
 bridge, and contained a magazine of fire, sulphur, and 
 bitumen. The whole fleet, which ihe general led in 
 person, was laboriously moved against the current of 
 the river. The chain yielded to the weight, and tho 
 enemies who guarded the banks were either flain or 
 scattered. As soon as they touched the principal 
 barrier, the fire-ship was instantly grappled to the 
 bridge ; one of the towers with two hundred Goths, 
 was consumed by the flames ; the assailants shouted 
 victorj^; and Rome was saved, if the wisdom of Beli- 
 sarius had not deen defeated by the misconduct of his 
 officers. He had previously sent orders to Bessas to 
 second his operations by a timely sally from the town; 
 and he had fixed his lieutenant, Isaac, by a peremp- 
 tory command, to the station of the port. But avarice 
 rendered Bessas immovable ; while the youthful ardour 
 of Isaac delivered him into the hands of a superior 
 enemy. The exaggerated rumour of his defeat was 
 hastily carried to the ears of Belisarius : he paused ; 
 betrayed in that single moment of his life some emo- 
 tions of surprise and perplexity ; and reliictantly 
 sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his trea- 
 sures, and the only harbour which he possessed on the 
 Tuscan coast. The vexation of his mind produced an 
 ardent and almost mortal fever; and Rome was left 
 without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila. 
 The continuance of hostilities had imbittered the 
 national hatred; the Arian clergy were ignominiously 
 driven from Rome ; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned 
 without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; 
 and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, 
 was deprived of both his hands, for daring to utter 
 falsehoods in the service of the church and state. 
 
 Famine had relaxed the strength and pome taken by 
 discipline of the garrison of Rome. iho Goths, 
 They could derive no effectual service A. D. 546. 
 from a dying people; and the inhuman 
 avarice of the merchant at length absorbed the vigi- 
 lance of the governor. Fourlsaurian sentinels, while 
 their companions slept, and their officers were absent, 
 descended by a rope from the wall, and secretly pro- 
 posed to the Gothic king to introduce his troops into 
 the city. The offer was entertained with ccddness and 
 suspicion ; they returned in safety ; they twice repeated 
 their visit; the place was twice examined ; the con- 
 spiracy was known and disregarded ; and no sooner 
 had Totila consented to the attempt, than they unbar- 
 red the Asinarian gate, and gave admittance to the 
 Goths. Till the dawn of day they halted in order of 
 battle, apprehensive of treachery or ambush ; but the 
 troops of Bessas, with their leader, had already esca- 
 ped ; and when the king was pressed to disturb their 
 retreat, he prudently replied, that no sight could be 
 more grateful than that of a flying enemy. The patri- 
 cians, who were still possessed of horses, Decius, 
 Basilius, &c. accompanied the governor; their breth- 
 ren, among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus, 
 are named by the historian, took refuge in the church 
 of St. Peter : but the assertion, that only five hundred 
 persons remained in the capital, inspires some doubt 
 of the fidelity either of his narrative or of his text. 
 As soon as day-light had displayed the entire victory 
 of the Goths, their monarch devoutly visited the tomb 
 of the prince of the apostles ; but while he prayed at 
 the altar, twenty-five soldiers, and sixty citizens, were 
 put to the sword in the vestibule of the temple. The 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 <» 
 
 archdeacon Pelagius" stood before him with the 
 gospels in his hand. "O Lord, be merciful to your 
 servant." " Pelagius," said Totila with an insulting 
 smile, "your pride now condescends to become a sup- 
 pliant." "I am a suppliant," replied the prudent arch- 
 deacon ; " God has now made us your subjects, and as 
 your subjects we are entitled to your clemency." At 
 his humble prayer, the lives of the Romans were 
 spared ; and the chastity of the maids and matrons 
 was preserved inviolate from the passions of the 
 hungry soldiers. But they were rewarded by the 
 freedom of pillage, after the most precious spoils had 
 been reserved for the royal treasury. The houses of 
 the senators were plentifully stored with gold and 
 silver; and the avarice of Bessas had laboured with 
 so much guilt and shame for the benefit of the con- 
 queror. In this revolution, the sons and daughters of 
 Roman consuls tasted the misery which they had 
 spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments 
 through the streets of the city, and begged their bread, 
 perhaps without success, before the gates of their 
 hereditary mansions. The riches of Rusticiana, the 
 daughter of Symmachus and widow of Boethius, had 
 been generously devoted to alleviate the calamities of 
 famine. But the barbarians were exasperated by the 
 report, that she had prompted the people to overthrow 
 the statues of the great Theodoric : and the life of that 
 venerable matron would have been sacrificed to his 
 memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, her 
 virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. 
 The next day he pronounced two orations, to conorra- 
 tulate and admonish his victorious Goths, and to 
 reproach the senate, as the vilest of slaves, with their 
 perjury, folly, and ingratitude; sternly declaring, that 
 their estates and honours were justly forfeited to the 
 companions of his arms. Yet he consented to forgive 
 their revolt, and the senators repaid his clemency by 
 despatching circular letters to their tenants and vassals 
 in the provinces of Italy, strictly to enjoin them to 
 desert the standard of the Greeks, to cultivate their 
 lands in peace, and to learn from their masters the 
 duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against 
 the city which had so long delayed the course of his 
 victories he appeared inexorable : one-third of the 
 walls, in different parts, were demolished by his com- 
 mand ; fire and engines prepared to consume or sub- 
 vert the most stately works of antiquity ; and the 
 world was astonished by the fatal decree, that Rome 
 should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm 
 and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended 
 the execution ; he warned the barbarian not to sully 
 his fame by the destruction of those monuments 
 which were the glory of the dead, and the delight of 
 the livifig; and Totila was persuaded, by the advice 
 of an enemy, to preserve Rome as the ornament of his 
 kingdom, or the fairest pledge of peace and reconcilia- 
 tion. When he had signified to the ambassadors of 
 Belisarius, his intention of sparing the city, he station- 
 ed an army at the distance of one hundred and twenty 
 furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman general. 
 With the remainder of his forces, he marched into 
 Lucania and Apulia, and occupied on the summit of 
 mount Garganus** one of the camps of Hannibal.P 
 
 B During the Ion* exile, and after the death of Viiilius, the Roman 
 church was governed, at first by the archdeacon, and at length (A. D. 
 555.) by the pope Pelagius, who was not thought guiltless of the suf- 
 ferings of his preilecewor. See the original lives of the popes under 
 llie name of Anastasius, (Muratori, Script. Ker. Italicarum, torn. iii. 
 P. i. p. 130, 131.) wIjo relates several curious incidents of the sieges 
 of Rome and the wars of haly, 
 
 o Mount Garganus, now ^Ionte St. Ansrelo, in the kinsdom of Na- 
 ples, runs three hundred stadia into the Adriatic sea, (Strab. 1. vi. p. 
 43C.) and in the darker ares was illustrated by tlie apparition, mira- 
 cles, and church, of St. Michael the archangel. Horace, a native of 
 Apulia or Lucania, had seen the elms and oaks of Garsranus labouring 
 and bellowing with the north wind that blew on Chat lofty coast. 
 (Carm. ii. 9. Epist. ii. i. 201.) 
 
 l» I cannot ascertain this particular camp of Hannibal ; but the Pu- 
 nic (juarters were long and often in the neighbourhtfod of Arpi. (T. 
 Liv. x.vii. 9. 12. xxiv *» •-- ^ • ^ ^ 
 
 Recovered by 
 Belisarius, 
 A. D. 547. ' 
 February. !| 
 
 The senators were dragged in his train, and afterwards 
 confined in the fortresses of Campania : the citizens, 
 with their wives and children, were dispersed in exile; 
 and during forty days Rome was abandoned to deso- 
 late and dreary solitude.^ 
 
 The loss of Rome was speedily retrie- 
 ved by an action to which, according to 
 the event, the public opinion would°ap- 
 ply the names of rashness or heroism. 
 After the departure of Totila, the Roman general 
 sallied from the port at the head of a thousand horse, 
 cut in pieces the enemy who opposed his progress, 
 and visited with pity and reverence the vacant space 
 of the eternal city. Resolved to maintain a station so 
 conspicuous in the eyes of mankind, he summoned 
 the greatest part of his troops to the standard which 
 he erected on the capitol : the old inhabitants were 
 recalled by the love of their country and the hopes of 
 food ; and the keys of Rome were sent a second time to 
 the emperor Justinian. The walls, as far as they had 
 been demolished by the Goths, were repaired with 
 rude and dissimilar materials ; the ditch was restored ; 
 iron spikes' were profusely scattered in the highways 
 to annoy the feet of the horses; and as new gates could 
 not suddenly be procured, the entrance was guarded 
 by a Spartan rampart of his bravest soldiers. At the 
 expiration of twenty-five days, Totila returned by 
 hasty marches from Apulia, to avenge the injury and 
 disgrace. Belisarius expected his approach. The 
 Goths were thrice repulsed in three general assaults; 
 they lost the flower of their troops ; the royal standard 
 had almost fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the 
 fame of Totila sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune 
 of his arms. Whatever skill and courage could 
 achieve, had been performed by the Roman general : it 
 remained only that Justinian should terminate, by a 
 strong and seasonable effort, the war which he had 
 ambitiously undertaken. The indolence, perhaps the 
 impotence, of a prince who despised his enemies, and 
 envied his servants, protracted the calamities of Italy. 
 After a long silence, Belisarius was commanded to 
 leave a sufficient garrison at Rome, and to transport 
 himself into the province of Lucania, who.se inhabi- 
 tants, inflamed by catholic zeal, had cast away the 
 yoke of their Arian conquerors. In this ignoble war- 
 fare, the hero, invincible against the power of the bar- 
 barians, was basely vanquished by the delay, the dis- 
 obedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He 
 reposed in his winter-quarters of Crotona, in the full 
 assurance, that the two passes of the Lucanian hills 
 were guarded by his cavalry. They were betrayed 
 by treachery or weakness ; and the rapid march of the 
 Goths scarcely allowed time for the escape of Belisa- 
 rius to the coast of Sicily. At length a fleet and army- 
 were assembled for the relief of Ruscianum, or Ros- 
 sano," a fortress sixty furlongs from the ruins of Sy- 
 baris, where the nobles of Lucania had taken refuire. 
 In the first attempt, the Roman forces were dissipatedi 
 by a storm. In the second, they approached the shore ; 
 but they saw the hills covered with archers, the 
 landing-place defended by a line of spears, and the 
 king of the Goths impatient for battle. The conqueror 
 of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to languish, 
 inglorious and inactive, till Antonina, who had been 
 
 Vol. II.— I 
 
 3, &c.) 
 
 q Totila ; . . . Romam Ingreditur . . . . ac evertit muros, domos 
 aliquantas igni comburens, ac omnes Romanorum res in praeJain acce- 
 pit, hos ipsos Romanos in Campaniam captivos abduxit. Post quain 
 lie vast ationem, xl aut amplius dies, Roma fuit iu desolata, ut nemo 
 ibi hnminum, nisi {nulla?) bestia morareniur. (Marcellin. in Chron. 
 p. 54.) 
 
 r The trlbuli are small engines with four spikes, one fixed in tho 
 ground, the three other erect or adverse. (Procopius, Gothic. I. iii. c. 
 24. Just. Lipsius, Poliorcet «»■, I. v. c. 3.) The metaphor was borrowed 
 from the tribuli, (land-caltrops,) an herb with a prickly fruit, com- 
 mon in Italy. (Martin, ad Virjril. Georgic. i. 153. vol. ii. p. 33.) 
 
 s Ruscia, the iiavale 77i«;/or«m, was .transferred to the distance 
 of sixty stadia to Ruscianun), Rossano, an arclibishopric without suf- 
 fragans. The republic of .Sybaris is now the esute of the duke of 
 Cori<;liano. (Riedesel, Travels into Magna Gracia and Sicily, p. IM 
 -171.) ''^ 
 
 
66 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 97 
 
 I 
 
 Bent to Constantinople to solicit succours, obtained, 
 after the death of the empress, the permission of his 
 
 return. 
 
 _. , ,. , The five last campaigns of Belisarius 
 
 Beimrius, might abate the envy of his competitors, 
 
 A'. D. 548. whose eyes had been dazzled and woun- 
 
 September. • ^^^j ^^ ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^f ^jg former glory. 
 
 Instead of delivering Italy from the Goths, he had 
 "wandered like a fugitive along the coast, without daring 
 to march into the country, or to accept the bold and 
 repeated challenge of Toiila. Yet in the judgment of 
 the few who could discriminate counsels from events, 
 and compare the instruments with the execution, he 
 appeared a more consummate master of the art of war, 
 than in the season of his prosperity, when he presented 
 two captive kings before the throne of Justinian. The 
 valour of Belisarius was not chilled by age ; his pru- 
 dence was matured by experience, but the moral virtues 
 of humanity and justice seem to have yielded to the 
 hard necessity of the times. The parsimony or pov- 
 erty of the emperor compelled him to deviate from the 
 rule of conduct which hid deserved the love and con- 
 fidence of the Italians. The war was maintained by 
 the oppression of Ravenna, Sicily, and all the faithful 
 subjects of the empire ; and the rigorous prosecution 
 of Herodian provoked that injured or guilty officer to 
 deliver Spoleto into the hands of the enemy. The 
 avarice of Antonina, which have been sometimes diver- 
 ted by love, now reigned without a rival in her breast. 
 Belisarius himself had always understood, that riches, 
 in a corrupt age, are the support and ornament of per- 
 sonal merit. And it cannot be presumed that he 
 should stain his honour for the public service, without 
 applying a part of the spoil to private emolument. 
 The hero had escaped the sword of the barbarians, but 
 the dagger of conspiracy * awaited his return. In the 
 midst of wealth and honours, Artaban, who had chas- 
 tised the African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude 
 of courts. He aspired to Praejecta, the emperor's 
 niece, who wished to reward her deliverer; but the 
 impediment of his previous marriage was asserted by 
 the piety of Theodora. The pride of royal descent 
 was irritated by flattery ; and the service in which he 
 gloried, had proved him capable of bold and san^rui- 
 rary deeds. The death of Justinian was resolved, but 
 the conspirators delayed the execution till they could 
 surprise Belisarius disarmed, and naked, in the palace 
 of Constantinople; Not a hope could be entertained 
 of shaking his long-tried fidelity; and they justly 
 dreaded the revenge, or rather justice, of the veteran 
 general, who might speedily assemble an army in 
 Thrace to punish the assassins, and perhaps to enjoy 
 the fruits of their crime. Delay afforded time for rash 
 communications and honest confessions : Artaban and 
 his accomplices were condemned by the senate, but 
 the extreme clemency of Justinian detained them in 
 the gentle confinement of the palace, till he pardoned 
 their flajjitious attempt against his throne and life. If 
 the emperor forgave his enemies, he must cordially 
 embrace a friend whose victories were alone remem- 
 bered, and who was endeared to his prince by the 
 recent circumstance of their common danger. Belisa- 
 rius reposed from his toils, in the high station of gen- 
 eral of the east and count of the domestics ; and the 
 older consuls and patricians respectfully yielded the 
 precedency of rank to the peerless merit of the first of 
 the Romans." The first of the Romans still submitted 
 to be the slave of his wife ; but the servitude of habit 
 and affection became less disgraceful when the death 
 of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear. 
 
 t This conspiracy is related by Procopius (Gothic. I. iii. c. 31, 32.) 
 with such freedom and candour, that the liberty of the Anecdotes gives 
 him nothing to add. 
 
 u Th« honours of Belisarius are gladly commemorated by his secre- 
 tary. (Procop. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35. 1. iv. c. 21.) The title of i:Tf»-t>,y«<; 
 is ill translated, at least in this instance, by praefectus prae^rin; af d 
 to a military character, ma^ister militum is more proper and appli- 
 cable. (Ducange, Gloss. Grasc. p. 1458, 1459.) 
 
 Joannina their daughter, and the sole heiress of their 
 fortunes, was betrothed to Anastasius, the grandson, or 
 rather the nephew, of the empress,* whose kind inter- 
 position forwarded the consummation of their youthful 
 loves. But the power of Theodora expired, the pa- 
 rents of Joannina returned, and her honour, perhaps her 
 happiness, were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeel- 
 ing mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptials be- 
 fore they had been ratified by the ceremonies of ihe 
 church.' 
 
 Before the departure of Belisarius, j^^^g acnin t& 
 Perusia was besieged, and few cities ken by the 
 were impregnable to the Gothic arms. Goths, A. D. 540 
 Ravenna, Ancona, and Crotona, still resisted the bar- 
 barians; and when Totila asked in marriage one of the 
 daughters of France, he was stung by the just reproach 
 that the king of Italy was unworthy of his title till 
 it was acknowledged by the Roman people. Thre» 
 thousand of the bravest soldiers had been left todefrnd 
 the capital. On the suspicion of a monopoly, they 
 massacred the governor, and announced to Justinian, 
 by a deputation of the clergy, that unless their offence 
 was pardoned, and their arrears were satisfi«^d, they 
 should instantly accept the tempting offers of Totila. 
 But the officer who succeeded to the command (his 
 name was Diogenes) deserved their esteem and confi- 
 dence ; and the Goths, instead of finding an easy con- 
 quest, encountered a vigorous resistance from the sol- 
 diers and people, who patiently endured the loss of 
 the port, and of all maritime supplies. The siege of 
 Rome would perhaps have been raised, if the liberality 
 of Totila to the Isaurians had not encouraged some of 
 their venal countrymen to copy the example of treason. 
 In a dark night, while the Gothic trumpets sounded 
 on another side, they silently opened the gate of St. 
 Paul : the barbarians rushed into the city ; and the 
 flying garrison was intercepted before they could reach 
 the harbour of Centumcellae. A soldier trained in the 
 school of Belisarius, Paul of Cilicia, retired with four 
 hundred men to the mole of Hadrian. They repelled 
 the Goths ; but they felt the approach of famine ; and 
 their aversion to the taste of horse-flesh confirmed their 
 resolution to risk the event of a desperate and decisive 
 sally. But their spirit insensibly stooped lo the offers 
 of capitulation: they retrieved their arrears of pay, 
 and preserved their arms and horses, by enlisting in 
 the service of Totila; their chiefs, who pleaded a lau- 
 dable attachment to their wives and children in the 
 east, were dismissed with honour ; and above four 
 hundred enemies, who had taken refuge in the sanctu- 
 aries, were saved by the clemency of the victor. He 
 no longer entertained a wish of destroying the edifices 
 of Rome," which he now respected as the seat of the 
 Gothic kingdom : the senate and people were restored 
 to their country ; the means of subsistence were liber- 
 ally provided; and Totila, in the robe of peace, exhi- 
 bited the equestrian games of the circus. Whilst ho 
 amused the eyes of the multitude, four hundred vessels 
 were prepared for the embarkation of his troops. The 
 cities of Rhegium and Tarcntum were reduced : he 
 
 X Alomann. (ad Hist. Arcanam, p. 68.) Ducange, (Familiae Byzant. 
 p. 98.) Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Civilis. p. 431) all three rrprrsenr. 
 Anastasius as the son of the daughter of Theodora; and their opinion 
 firmly reposes on the unambiguous testimony of J'rocopious. (Anecdot. 
 c. 4, 5.— 5u>.aT p. Ja, twice repeated.) And yet I will remarli, 1. That 
 in the year 547, Theodora could scarcely have a grandson of the age 
 of puberty ; 2. That we are totally ignorant of ihis daughter and her 
 husband ; and, 3. That Theodora concealed her bastards, and that her 
 grands m by Justinian would hnve been heir-apparent of thp empire. 
 
 r The ji/uafrr;u»T», or sins, of the heroin Italy and after his return, 
 are manifested «^apa«a/.wTTx„-, and most probably swelled, by the 
 author of the Anecdotes, (c. 4, 5.) The designs of Antonina were fa- 
 voured by the fluctuating jurisprudence of Justinian. On the law of 
 marriageand divorce, thatemperor was trocho versatilior. (Hcineccius, 
 Element. Juris Civil, ad Ordinem Pandect. P. iv. No. 233.) 
 
 1 The Romans were still attached to the monume its of their ances- 
 tors; and according to Procopius, (Goth. I. iv. c. 22.) the galley of 
 ./Eneas, of a single rank of oars, 2o feet in breadth, 120 in length, was 
 preserved entire in the navalia, near Monte Testaceo, at the fofjl 
 of the Avenliue. (Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. vii. c. 9. p. 466 Donatus. 
 Roma Antiqua, 1. iv. c. 13. p. 314.) But all antiquity is ignrrant of 
 thifl relic. 
 
 passed into Sicily, the object of his implacable resent- 
 ment ; and the island was stripped of its gold and sil- 
 ver, of the fruits of the earth, and of an infinite num- 
 ber of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia and Corsica 
 obeyed the fortune of Italy ; and the sea-coast of Greece 
 was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys.* The 
 Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient con- 
 tinent of Epirus ; they advanced as far as Nicopolis, 
 the trophy of Augustus, and Dodona,'' once famous 
 by the oracle of Jove. In every step of his victories, 
 the wise barbarian repeated to Justinian his desire of 
 peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and 
 offered to employ the Gothic arms in the service of the 
 empire. 
 
 Preparations of Justinian was deaf to the voice of 
 Justinian for the peace; but he neglected the prosecution 
 
 A."!)" M9*i5l ^!^ ^^'^'" '.^"^ *^® indolence of his temper 
 disappointed, in some degree, the obsti- 
 nacy of his passions. From this salutary slumber the 
 emperor was awakened by the pope Vigilius and the 
 patrician Cethegus, who appeared before his throne, 
 and adjured him in the name of God and the people, to 
 resiiine the conquest and deliverance of Italy. In the 
 choice of the generals, caprice, as well as judgment, 
 was shown. A fleet and army sailed for the relief of 
 Sicily, under the conduct of Liberius; but his youth 
 and want of experience were afterwards discovered, 
 and before he touched the shores of the island he was 
 overtaken by his successor. In the place of Liberius 
 the conspirator Artaban was raised from a prison to 
 military honours; in the pious presumption, that grati- 
 tude would animate his valour and fortify his alle- 
 giance. Belisarius reposed in the shade of his laurels, 
 but the command of the principal army was reserved 
 for Germanus,«= the emperor's nephew, whose rank and 
 merit had been long depressed by the jealousy of the 
 court. Theodora had injured him in the rights of a 
 private citizen, the marriage of his children, and the 
 testament of his brother; and although his conduct was 
 pure and blameless, Justinian was displeased that he 
 should be thought worthy of the confidence of the mal- 
 contents. The life of Germanus was a lesson of im- 
 plicit obedience ; he nobly refused to prostitute his 
 name and character in the factions of the circus : the 
 gravity of his manners was tempered by innocent 
 cheerfulness ; and his riches were lent without interest 
 to indigent or deserving friends. His valour had for- 
 merly triumphed over the Sclavonians of the Danube 
 and the rebels of Africa : the first report of his promo- 
 tion revived the hopes of the Italians ; and he was pri- 
 vately assured, that a crowd of Roman deserters would 
 abandon, on his approach, the standard of Totila. 
 His second marriage with Malasontha, the grand- 
 daughter of Theodoric, endeared Germanus to the Goths 
 themselves; and they marched with reluctance against 
 the father of a royal infant, the last oflfspring of th'e line 
 of Amali.** A splendid allowance was assigned by the 
 emperor : the general contributed his private fortune ; 
 his two sons were popular and active ; and he surpas- 
 sed, in the promptitude and success of his levies, the 
 expectation of mankind. He was permitted to select 
 some squadrons of Thracian cavalry: the veterans, as 
 well as the youth, of Constantinople and Europe, 
 
 a In these seas, PnKopius searched without success for the isle of 
 Calypso. He was shown, at Phseacia or Corcyra, the petrified ship of 
 Ulysses: (Odyss. xiii. 163.) but he found it a recent fabric of many 
 Biones, dedicated by a merchant to Jupiter Cassius. (I. iv. c. 22.) Eus- 
 laihius had supposed it to be the fanciful likeness of a rock. 
 
 b M. D'Anville (Memoires de I'Acad. torn, xxxii. p. 513— 52S.) illus- 
 trates the gulf of Ambracia; but he cannot ascertain the situation 
 of rXnlona. A country in sight of Italy is less known than the wilds 
 of America. 
 
 c See the acts of Germanus in the public (Vandal. I.ii.c.l6,17,18. 
 Goth. 1. iii. c. 31, 32.) and private history, (Anecdot. c. 5.) and those 
 of his son Justin, in Agathias.(l. iv. c. 130, 131.) Notwithstanding an 
 ambiguous expression of Jornandes, fralri suo, Alemanaus has proved 
 that he was the stin of th^ emperor's bn-ther. 
 
 d Conjuncta Aniciorum gens cum Amala stirpespem adhuc utriusque 
 generis promitiii. (Jornandes. r. 60. p. 703.) He wrote at Ravenna be- 
 fore the death of Totila. 
 
 engaged their voluntary service ; and as far as the heart 
 of Germany, his fame and liberality attracted the aid 
 of the barbarians. The Romans advanced to Sardica ; 
 an army of Sclavonians fled before their march ; but 
 within two days of their final departure, the designs of 
 Germanus were terminated by his malady and death. 
 Yet the impulse which he had given to the Italian 
 war still continued to act with energy and efl^ect. The 
 maritime towns, Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resis- 
 ted the assaults of Totila. Sicily was reduced by the 
 zeal of Artaban, and the Gothic navy was defeated 
 near the coast of the Hadriatic. The two fleets were 
 almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys : the victory- 
 was decided by the knowledge and dexterity of the 
 Greeks ; but the ships were so closely grappled, that 
 only twelve of the Goths escaped from this unfortunate 
 conflict. They aflfected to depreciate an element in 
 which they were unskilled, but their own experience 
 confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the master of the 
 sea will always acquire the dominion of the land." 
 
 After the loss of Germanus, the nations were pro- 
 voked to smile, by the strange intelligence, that the 
 command of the armies was given to 
 a eunuch. But the eunuch Narses' is ex*S?iion*"^ 
 ranked among the few who have rescued ihe^inuch ° 
 that unhappy name from the contempt Parses, ^ 
 and hatred of mankind. A feeble dimi- ^•^-^'^^ J 
 nutive body concealed the soul of a statesman and a 
 warrior. His youth had been employed in the man- 
 agement of the loom and distafl!*, in the cares of the 
 household, and the service of female luxury; but 
 while his hands were busy, he secretly exercised 
 the faculties of a vigorous and discerning rnind. A 
 stranger to the schools and the camp, he studied in the 
 palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to persuade ; and as 
 soon as he approached the person of the emperor, Jus- 
 tinian listened with surprise and pleasure to the manly 
 counsels of his chamberlain and private treasurer.* 
 The talents of Narses were tried and improved in fre- 
 quent embassies ; he led an army into Italy, acquired a 
 practical knowledge of the war and the country, and pre- 
 sumed to strive with the genius of Belisarius. Twelve 
 years after his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve 
 the conquest, which had been left imperfect by the first 
 of the Roman generals. Instead of being dazzled by 
 vanity or emulation, he seriously declared, that unless 
 he were armed with an adequate force, he would never 
 consent to risk his own glory, and that of his sove- 
 reign. Justinian granted to the favourite, what he 
 misrht have denied to the hero : the Gothic war was 
 rekindled from its ashes, and the preparations were not 
 unworthy of the ancient majrsty of the empire. The 
 key of the public treasure was put into his hand, to 
 collect magazines, to levy soldiers, to purchase arms^ 
 and horses, to discharge the arrears of pay, and to 
 tempt the fidelity of the fugitives and deserters. The 
 troops of Germanus were still in arms; they halted- 
 at Salona in the expectation of a new leader; and le- 
 gions of subjects and allies were created by the well- 
 known liberality of the eunuch Narses. The king of 
 the Lombards'* satisfied or surpassed the obligations 
 
 e The third book of Procopius is terminated by the death of Ger- 
 manus. (Add. I. i v. c. 23, 24, 25, i.'6.) 
 
 f Procopius relates the whole series of this second Gothic war and 
 the victory of Narses, (1. iv.c. 21. 26-31.) a splendid scene! Among 
 the six subjects of epic poetry which Tasso revolved in his mind, he 
 ht'sitated between the ctmquesis of Italy by Belisarius and bv Narsf s. 
 (Hay ley's Works, vol. iv. p. 70.) 
 
 g The country of Narses is unknown, since he must not be confound- 
 ed with the Persarmenian. Procopius styles him Goth. 1. ii c 13 ) 
 B*Ti\ix:«v xf»)«<f'*'»' T»/*..t; ; Paul Warnefrid, (I. ii. c. 3. p. 776.) 
 Chartularias ; Marcel linus adds the nameof Cubicularius. In an in- 
 scription on the Salarian bridge he is entitled Ex-consul, Ex-praepo- 
 situs, Cubiculi Pairiciu8.(Mascou, Hist, of the Germans, 1. xiij.c.iK.> 
 The law of The.idosius against eunuchs was obsnlete or ab..'.;onHd, 
 (Annotation xx.) but the foolish prophecy of the Romans subsisted ia 
 full vigour. (Procop 1. iv. c. 21.) 
 
 h Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard, records with complacency the suc- 
 cour, service, and honourable dismission of his countrymen-— reipub- 
 licae Romans adversus aemuhw adjuiores fuerant, (1. ii. c. i. p. 774. 
 edit. Grot.) I am surprised that Albuin, their martial king, did not 
 Itad bis subjects in person. 
 
 ■A 
 
 tj 
 
 I 
 
h 
 
 ^ 
 
 ¥ 
 
 ea 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Cbap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 t' 1 
 
 '0' 
 
 of a treaty, by lending two thousand two hundred of his 
 bravest warriors, who were followed by three thousand 
 of their martial attendants. Three thousand Heruli 
 fought on horseback under Philemuth, their native 
 chief; and the noble Aratus, who adopted the manners 
 and discipline of Rome, conducted a band of veterans of 
 the same nation. Dagistheus was released from prison 
 to command the Huns; and Kobad, the grandson and 
 nephew of the great king, was conspicuous by the re- 
 
 fal tiara at the head of iiis faithful Persians, who had 
 evoted themselves to the fortunes of their prince.' 
 Absolute in the exercise of his authority, more abso- 
 lute in the affection of his troops, Narses led a nume- 
 rous and gallant army from Philippolis to Salona, from 
 whence he coasted the eastern side of the Hadriatic as 
 far as the confines of Italy. His progress was checked. 
 The east could not supply vessels capable of transport- 
 innr such multitudes of men and horses. The Franks, 
 who, in the general confusion, had usurped the greater 
 part of the Venetian province, refused a free passage 
 to the friends of the Lombards. The station of Verona 
 was occupied by Teias, with the flower of the Gothic 
 forces ; and that skilful commander had overspread the 
 adjacent country with the fall of woods and the inun- 
 dation of waters.* In this perplexity, an officer of ex- 
 perience proposed a measure, secure by the appearance 
 of rashness ; that the Roman army should cautiously 
 advance along the sea-shore, while the fleet preceded 
 their march, and successively cast a bridge of boats over 
 the mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, the 
 Adiffe, and the Po, that fall into the Hadriatic to the 
 north of Ravenna. Nine days he reposed in the city, 
 collected the fragments of the Italian army, and march- 
 ed towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting 
 enemy. 
 
 Defeat and d'-aih ^^^ prudence of Narses impelled him 
 of Totiia, to speedy and decisive action. His pow- 
 A. D. 552. July. ^^^ -were the last eflfort of the state : the 
 cost of each day accumulated the enormous account; 
 and the nations, untrained to discipline or fatigue, 
 might be rashly provoked to turn their arms against 
 eaoh other, or against their benefactor. The same 
 considerations might have tempered the ardour of To- 
 tiia. But he was conscious, that the clergy and peo- 
 ple of Italy aspired to a second revolution : he felt or 
 suspected the rapid progress of treason ; and he re- 
 solved to risk the Gothic kinjrdom on the chance of a 
 day, in which the valiant would be animated by instant 
 danger, and the disaflfected might be awed by mutual 
 iunorance. In his march from Ravenna, the Roman 
 general chastised the garrison of Rimini, traversed in 
 -a direct line the hills of Urbino, and re-entered the 
 Flaminian way, nine miles beyond the perforated rock, 
 an obstacle of art and nature which miijht have stopped 
 or retarded his progress.' The Goths were assembled 
 in the neighbourhood of Rome, they advanced without 
 delay to seek a superior enemy, and the two armies 
 approached each other at the distance of one hundred 
 furlongs, between Tagina™ and the sepulchres of the 
 
 He wa?, if not an impostor, the son of the blind Zames, saved by 
 compassion, and educated in the Byzantine court by the various mo- 
 tives of policy, pride, and generosity (Procop. Persic. 1. i. c. 23.) 
 
 k In the lime of Augustus, and in the middle aees, the whole waste 
 from Aquileia to Ravenna was covered witli wixids, lakes, and moras- 
 ses. Man hassubtlurd nature, and the land has been cultivated, since 
 the waters are confined and embanked. See the learned researches 
 of Muratori. (Antiquitat. Italisc medii ^vi, torn. i. dissert, xxi. p. 253, 
 254.) from Vitruvius, Sirabo, Hcrodian, old charters, and local know- 
 ledge. 
 
 1 The Flaminian way, as it is corrected from theltinerarios, and the 
 best modern maps, by D'Anville, (Analyse de I'ltalie, p. 147-162.) may 
 be thus Slated : Kome to Nurni, 51 Koman miles ; Terni, 57; Spoieto, 
 75; Foligno, 88; Nocera, 103; Casrli, 142; Intercisa, 157; Fossom- 
 brone, 160; Fano, 176; Pesaro, 184; Uimini, 20S- about 189 English 
 miles. He takes no notice of the death of Toiila; but Wesseling, 
 (Ilinerar. p. 614.) exchanges, for the field of Taginas, the unknown 
 appellation of Ptanias, eight miles from Nocera. 
 
 m Taginae, or rather Tadinae, is mentioned by Pliny: but tlie 
 bishopric of that obscure town, a mile from Gualdo, in the plain, was 
 united, in the year 1007, with that of Nocera. The signs of antiquity 
 are preserved in the local appellations, Fbssato, the camp ; Capraia, 
 Caprea ; Bastia, Busta Gallorum. See Cluverius, (Italia Antiqua, 
 
 Gauls." The haughty message of Narses was an offer, 
 not of peace, but of pardon. The answer of the Gothic 
 king declared his resolution, to die or conquer. " What 
 day," said the messenger, *' will you fix for the com- 
 bat V* "The eighth day," replied Totiia: but early 
 the next morning he attempted to surprise a foe, sus- 
 picious of deceit, and prepared for battle. Ten thou- 
 sand Heruli and Lombards, of approved valour and 
 doubtful faith, were placed in the centre. Each of the 
 wings was composed of eight thousand Romans ; the 
 right was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns, the left 
 was covered by fifteen hundred chosen horse, destined, 
 according to the emergencies of action, to sustain the 
 retreat of their friends, or to encompass the flank of the 
 enemy. From his proper station at the head of the 
 right wing, the eunuch rode along the line, expressing 
 by his voice and countenance the assurance of victory; 
 exciting the soldiers of the emperor to punish the guilt 
 and madness of a band of robbers ; and exposing to 
 their view gold chains, collars, and bracelets, the re- 
 wards of military virtue. From the event of a single 
 combat, they drew an omen of success ; and they be- 
 held with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who 
 maintained a small eminence against three successive 
 attacks of the Gothic cavalry. At the distance only 
 of two bow-shots, the armies spent the morning in 
 dreadful suspense, and the Romans tasted some neces- 
 sary food, without unloosing the cuirass from their 
 breast, or the bridle from their horses. Narses awaited 
 the charge ; and it was delayed by Totiia till he had 
 received his last succours of two thousand Goths. 
 While he consumed the hours in fruitless treaty, the 
 king exhibited in a narrow space the strength and agi- 
 lity of a warrior. His armour was enchased with gold ; 
 his purple banner floated with the wind : he cast his 
 lance into the air; caught it with the right hand; 
 shifted it to the left; threw himself backwards ; re- 
 covered his seat ; and managed a fiery steed in all the 
 paces and evolutions of the equestrian school. As 
 soon as the succours had arrived, he retired to his tent, 
 assumed the dress and arms of a private soldier, and 
 gave the signal of battle. The first line of cavalry 
 advanced with more courage than discretion, and left 
 behind them the infantry of the second line. They 
 were soon engaged between the horns of a crescent, 
 into which the adverse wings had been insensibly 
 curved, and were saluted on either side by the volleys 
 of four thousand archers. Their ardour, and even thur 
 distress, drove them forwards to a close and unequal 
 conflict, in which they could only use their lances 
 against an enemy equally skilled in all the instrumerta 
 of war. A generous emulation inspired the Romans 
 and their barbarian allies; and Narses, who calmly 
 viewed and directed their efforts, doubted to whom he 
 should adjudge the prize of superior bravery. The 
 Gothic cavalry was astonished and disordered, pressed 
 and broken; and the line of infantry, instead of pre- 
 senting their spears, or opening their intervals, were 
 trampled under the feet of the flying horse. Six thou- 
 sand of the Goths were slaughtered without mercy in 
 the field of Tafjina. Thrir prince, with five attendants, 
 was overtaken by Asbad, of the race of the Gepidac; 
 "Spare the king of Italy," cried a loyal voice, awd 
 Asbad struck his lance through the body of Totiia. 
 The blow was instantly revenged by the faithful Goths; 
 they transported their dyinor monarch seven miles be- 
 yond the scene of his disgrace; and his last moments 
 were not imbittered by the presence of an enemy. 
 Compassion afforded him the shelter of an obscure 
 
 1. ii. c. 6. p. 615, 616, 617.) Lucas Holstenius, (Annolat. ad Cluver. p. 
 85, 86.) Guazzesi, (Pissertat. p. 177—217. a professed inquiry,) and iho 
 maps of the ecclesiastical state and the march of Ancona, by Le Maire 
 and Magini. 
 
 n The battle was fought in the year of Rome 4.'8; and the consul 
 Decius, by devoting his own life, assured the triumph of his country 
 and his colleague Fabius. (T. Liv. x. 28, 29.) Procopius ascribes to 
 Camillus the victory of the Busta Gallorum ; and his error is brand- 
 ed by Cluveriua with the aational reproach of Gnecorum nusainaiiUu 
 
 tomb ; but the Romans were not satisfied of their vic- 
 tory, till they beheld the corpse of the Gothic king. 
 His hat, enriched with gems, and his bloody rohe, 
 were presented to Justinian by the messenorers of 
 triumph." 
 Conquest of -^^ soon as Narses had paid his devo- 
 Rome by tions to the Author of victory, and the 
 Narses. blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness,? 
 he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. 
 The villages had been reduced to ashes by these va- 
 liant savages ; they ravished matrons and virgins on 
 the altar; their retreat was diligently watched by a 
 strong detachment of regular forces, who prevented a 
 repetition of the like disorders. The victorious eunuch 
 pursued his march through Tuscany, accepted the sub- 
 mission of the Goths, heard the acclamations, and often 
 the complaints, of the Italians, and encompassed the 
 walls of Rome with the remainder of his formidable 
 host. Round the wide circumference, Narses assigned 
 to himself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real or a 
 feigned attack, while he silently marked the place of 
 easy and unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifica- 
 tions of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long 
 delay the progress of the conqueror; and .Tustinian 
 once more received the keys of Rome, which, under 
 his reign, had been Jive times taken and recovered .*i 
 But the deliverance of Rome was the last calamity of 
 the Roman people. The barbarian allies of Narses 
 too frequently confounded the privileges of peace and 
 war : the despair of the flying Goths found some conso- 
 lation in sanguinary revenge: and three hundred youths 
 of the noblest families, who had been sent as hostages 
 beyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor 
 of Totiia. The fate of the senate suggests an awful les- 
 son of the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators 
 whom Totiia had banished from their country, some 
 were rescued by an ofliicer of Belisarius, and trans- 
 ported from Campania to Sicily ; while others were 
 too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian, or 
 too poor to provide horses for their escape to the sea- 
 shore. Their brethren languished five years in a state 
 of indigence and exile : the victory of Narses revived 
 their hopes; but their premature return to the metropo- 
 lis was prevented by the furious Goths ; and all the 
 fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician' 
 blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the insti- 
 tution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome 
 still assumed the titles of senators, few subsequent 
 traces can be discovered of a public council, or consti- 
 tutional order. Ascend six hundred years, and con- 
 template the kings of the earth soliciting an audience, 
 as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman senate ! • 
 Defeat and death The Gothic war was yet alive. The 
 Jf. Teias, the last bravest of the nation retired beyond the 
 Goths, ^ Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen 
 
 A. D. 553. to succeed and revenge their departed 
 March. Yi^xo, The new king immediately sent 
 ambassadors to implore, or rather to purchase, the aid 
 of the Franks, and nobly lavished, for the public 
 safety, the riches which had been deposited in the 
 palace of Pavia. The residue of the royal treasure 
 was guarded by his brother Aligern at Cumae in Cam- 
 pania ; but the strong castle which Totiia had fortified 
 was closely besieged by the arms of Narses. From 
 
 o Theophanes, Chron. p. 193. Hist. Miscell. 1. xvf. p. 103. 
 
 p Evagrius, 1. ir. c 24. The inspiration of the virgin revealed to 
 Narses the day, and the word, of battle. (Paul Diacon. 1. ii, c. 3. p. 
 776.) 
 
 q E?ri TovTou BxviKtJovTOi to wiftTritv l%\u!. In the year 536 by 
 Belisarius, in 546 by Totiia, in 5-17 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totiia, antl 
 in 552 by Narses. Maltretus had inadvertently translated sextum ; 
 a mistake which he afterwards retracts; but the mischief was done ; 
 and Cousin, with a train of French and Latin readers, have fallen into 
 Ihe snare. 
 
 r Compare two passages of Procopius, (1. iii. c. 26. 1. iv. c. 24.) 
 which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus and Jornandes, 
 illustrate the state of the expirinj senate. 
 
 • See, in the example of Prusias, as it is delivered in the fragments 
 of Polybius, (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927, 928.) a curious picture of a 
 Kyal slave. 
 
 I the Alps to the foot of mount Vesuvius, the Gothic 
 1 1^^",?' by rapid and secret marches, advanced to the 
 : relief of his brother, eluded the vigilance of the Ro- 
 ; man chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks of the 
 I Sarnus or I)raco,^ which flows from Nuceria into the 
 I bay of Naples. The river separated the two armies ; 
 sixty days were consumed in distant and fruitless com- 
 : bats, and Teias maintained this important post, till he 
 j was deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. 
 I With reluctant steps he ascended the Ladarian mount, 
 I where the physicians of Rome, since the time of 
 Galen, had sent their patients for the benefit of the air 
 and the milk." But the Goths soon embraced a more 
 generous resolution : to descend the hill, to dismiss 
 their horses, and to die in arms, and in the possession 
 of freedom. The king marched at their head, bearing 
 in his right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his 
 left : with the one he struck dead the foremost of the 
 assailants; with the other he received the weapons 
 which every hand was ambitious to aim against his 
 life. After a combat of many hours, his left arm was 
 fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins, which hung 
 from his shield. Without moving from his ground, 
 or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on his 
 attendants for a fresh buckler, but in the moment, 
 while his side was uncovered, it was pierced by a mor- 
 tal dart. He fell ; and his head, exalted on a spear, 
 proclaimed to the nations that the Gothic kingdom was 
 no more. But the example of his death served only to 
 animate the companions who had sworn to perish with 
 their leader. They fought till darkness descended on 
 the earth. They reposed on their arms. The combat 
 was renewed with llie return of light, and maintained 
 with unabated vigour till the evening of the second day. 
 The repose of a second night, the want of water, and 
 the loss of their bravest champions, determined the 
 surviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which 
 the prudence of Narses was inclined to propose* 
 They embraced the alternative of residing in Italy, as 
 the subjects and soldiers of Justinian, or departing 
 with a portion of their private wealth, in search of 
 some independent country.* Yet the oath of fidelity 
 or exile was alike rejected by one thousand Goths, 
 who broke away before the treaty was signed, and 
 boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia- 
 The spirit, as well as the situation, of Aligern, promp- 
 ted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother : 
 a strong and dexterous archer, he transpierced with a 
 single arrow the armour and breast of his antagonist; 
 and his military conduct defended Cumae ^ above a 
 year against the forces of the Romans. Their industry 
 had scooped the Sibyl's cave' into a prodigious mine; 
 combustible materials were introduced to consume the 
 temporary props : the wall and the gate of Cumae sunk 
 into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inac- 
 cessible precipice. On the fragment of a rock, Aligern 
 stood alone and unshaken, till he calmly surveyed the 
 
 t The Af^Ktiv of Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 35.) is evidently the 
 Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash violence of C'luve- 
 rius : (I. iv. c. 3. p. 1156.) but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi 
 sopra la Campania Felice, p. 33(), 331.) has proved from old recwds, 
 that as early as the year 822 that river was called the Dracontio, or 
 Draconcello. 
 
 u Galen (de Method. Medendi, 1. v. apud Cluver. 1. iv. c. 3. p. il59, 
 1160.) describes the lofty site, pure air, and rich milk, of mount Lacia- 
 rius, whose medicinal benefits were equally known and sought in the 
 time of Symmachus, (I. vi. epist. 18.) and Cassiodorius. (Var. xi. 10.) 
 Nothing is now left except the name of the town of Lettere. 
 
 I Buat (torn. xi. p. 2, &c.) conveys to his favourite Bavaria this rena- 
 nant of Goths, who by others are buried in the mountains of Uri, or 
 restored to their native isle of Gothland. (Mascou, Annoi. xxi.) 
 
 y I leave Scaliger (Animad vers, in Euseb. p. 51>.) and Salmasius (Ex- 
 ercitat. Plinian. p, 51, 52.) to quarrel about the origin of Cumse, the 
 oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy, (Strab. 1. v. p. 372^ Velleiui»Pa- 
 terculus, I. i. c. 4.) already vacant in Juvenars time, (Satir. iii.) and 
 now in ruins. 
 
 z Agathias (1. i. c. 21.) settles the Sibyl's cave under the walls of 
 Cumae ; he agrees with Servius ; (ad 1. vi. ^Eneid.) nor can I perceive 
 why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellent editor of 
 Virgil, (torn. ii. p. 650, 651.) In urbe media secreu religio! But 
 Cumae was not yet built ; and the lines (1. vi. 96, 97.) would becom* 
 ridiculous, if Jelacas were actually in a Greek city. 
 
 
 f/ 
 
70 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 71 
 
 11 •! 
 
 V 
 r 
 
 
 hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more 
 honourable to be the friend of Narses than the slave 
 of the Franks. After the death of Teias, the Roman 
 general separated his troops to reduce the cities of 
 Italy ; Lucca sustained a long and vigorous siege ; and 
 such was the humanity or the prudence of Narses, that 
 the repeated perfidy of the inhabitants could not pro- 
 voke him to exact the forfeit lives of their hostagres. 
 These hostages were dismissed in safety; and their 
 grateful zeal at length subdued the obstinacy of their 
 countrymen.* 
 
 Invasion of Italy Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy 
 by the Franks ^.^g overwhelmed by a new delucre of 
 
 and Aleinanni, ,i. 4ri-i .i*u j 
 
 A. D. 5."i3. barbarians. A feeble youth, the grand- 
 August, son of Clovis, reiiTned over the Austra- 
 sians or oriental Franks. The cruardians of Theode- 
 bald entertained with coldness and reluctance the mag- 
 nificent promises of the Gothic ambassadors. But the 
 spirit of a martial people outstripped the timid coun- 
 sels of the court: two brothers, Lothaire and Buc- 
 celin,'' the dukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the 
 leaders of the Italian war ; and seventy-five thousand 
 Oermans descended in the autumn from the Rhaetian 
 Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the 
 lloman army was stationed near the Po, under the 
 conduct of Fulcaris, a bold Herulian, who rashly con- 
 ceived that personal bravery was the sole duty and 
 merit of a commander. As he marched without order 
 or precaution along the ^Emilian way, an ambuscade 
 of Franks suddenly arose from the amphitheatre of 
 Parma: his troops were surprised and routed; but 
 their leader refused to fly ; declaring, to the last mo- 
 ment, that death was less terrible than the angry 
 countenance of Narses. The death of Fulcaris, and 
 the retreat of the surviving chiefs, decided the fluctu- 
 ating and rebellious temper of the Goths; they flew to 
 the standard of their deliverers, and admitted them 
 into the cities which still resisted the arms of the Ro- 
 man general. The conqueror of Italy opened a free 
 passage to the irresistible torrent of barbarians. They 
 passed under the walls of Cesena, and answered by 
 threats and reproaches the advice of Aligern, that the 
 Gothic treasures could no longer repay the labour of an 
 invasion. Two thousand Franks were destroyed by 
 the skill and valour of Narses himself, who sallied 
 from Rimini at the head of three hundred horse, to 
 chastise the licentious rapine of ihoir march. On the 
 confines of Samnium, the two brothers divided their 
 forces. With the riijht wing, Buccelin assumed the 
 spoil <){ Campania, Lucania, and Bruttium : with the 
 left, Lothaire accepted the plunder of Apulia and 
 Calabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterra- 
 nean and the Hndriatic, as far as Rhegium and Otran- 
 to, and the extreme lands of Italy were the term of 
 their destructive progress. The Franks, who were 
 christians and catholics, contented themselves with 
 simple pillage and occasional murder. But the chur- 
 'ches which their piety had spared, were stripped by 
 the sacrilegious hands of the Alemanni, who sacrificed 
 horses' heads to their native deities of the woods and 
 rivers : ' they melted or profaned the consecrated ves- 
 sels, and the ruins of shrines and altars were stained 
 with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was actuated 
 by ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former 
 aspired to restore the Gothic kingdom : the latter, after 
 
 a Thpro is some difTiculty in connpctinar the thirly-fifih chapter of 
 the f >urih b<H)k of the Gothic war of Pn>ci»piu3 with the first book of 
 Ihe history of Apathias. We must now relinquish a statesman and 
 soldier, to attend the footsteps of a poet and rhetorician, (l. i. p. 11. 1. 
 li. p. 51. edit. Louvre.) 
 
 b Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, he discomfited and slew 
 Belisarius, subdued Italy and Sicili/, ^c. See, in the historians of 
 France, Gregory of Tours, (lorn. ii. 1. iii. c. 32. p. 203.) and Almoin, 
 (torn, iii, 1. ii. de Gestis Francorum, c. 23. p. 59.) 
 
 c Agathias notices tiieir 8unerstitii>n in a philosophic tone, (1. i. p. 
 18.) At Zug, in Switzerland, idolatry still prevailed in the year 613; 
 Si. Columban and St. Gall were the apostles of that rude country ; 
 and the latter founded an hermitage, which has swelled into an eccle- 
 siastical principality and a populous city, the seal of freedom and 
 commcrcs. 
 
 a promise to his brother of speedy succours, returned 
 by the same road to deposit his treasure beyond the 
 Alps. The strength of their armies was already 
 wasted by the change of climate and contagion of dis^ 
 ease: the Germans revelled in the vintage of Italy; 
 and their own intemperance avenged, in some degree, 
 the miseries of a defenceless people. 
 
 At the entrance of the sprinff, the im- ., , . -., 
 ... L 1 J J 1^1 •.• Defeat of the 
 
 penal troops, who had guarded the cities, Franks and Ale- 
 assembled to the number of eighteen manni byNarses, 
 thousand men, in the neighbourhood of ^'^'^^' 
 Rome. Their winter hours had not been consumed in 
 idleness. By the command, and after the example, of 
 Narses, they repeated each day their military exercise 
 on foot and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey 
 the sound of the trumpet, and practised the steps and 
 evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance. From the straits of 
 Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand Franks and Ale- 
 manni, slowly moved towards Capua, occupied with a 
 wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his 
 right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the 
 rest of his encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, 
 and a circle of waggons, whose wheels were buried 
 in the earth. He impatiently expected the return of 
 Lothaire ; ignorant, alas ! that his brother could never 
 return, and that the chief and his army had been 
 swept away by a strange disease"* on the banks of the 
 lake Benacus, between Trent and Verona. The ban- 
 ners of Narses soon approached the Vulturnus, and 
 the eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the event of 
 this final contest. Perhaps the talents of the Roman 
 general were most conspicuous in the calm operations 
 which precede the tumult of a battle. His skilful 
 movements intercepted the subsistence of the barba- 
 rian, deprived him of the advantage of the bridge 
 and river, and in the choice of the ground and moment 
 of action reduced him to comply with the inclination 
 of his enemy. On the morning of the important day, 
 when the ranks were already formed, a servant, for 
 some trivial fault, was killed by his master, one of the 
 leaders of the HeruH. The justice or passion of Nar- 
 ses was awakened ; he summoned the offender to his 
 presence, and without listening to his excuses, gave the 
 signal to the minister of death. If the cruel master 
 had not infringed the laws of his nation, this arbitrary 
 execution was not less unjust than it appears to 
 have been imprudent. The Heruli felt the indignity ; 
 they halted : but the Roman general, without sooth- 
 ing their rage, or expecting their resolution, called 
 aloud, as the trumpets sounded, that unless they has- 
 tened to occupy their place, they would lose the hon- 
 our of the victory. His troops were disposed' in a 
 long front, the cavalry on the wings ; in the centre, the 
 heavy-armed foot ; t^^e archers and slingers in the rear. 
 The Germans advanced in a sharp pointed column, 
 of the form of a triangle or solid wedge. They pierced 
 the feeble centre of Narses, who received them with 
 a smile into the fatal snare, and directed his wings of 
 cavalry insensibly to wheel on their flanks and encom- 
 pass their rear. The host of the Franks and Ale- 
 manni consisted of infantry : a sword and a buckler 
 hung by their side; and they used, as their weapons 
 of offence, a weighty hatchet, and a hooked javelin, 
 which were only formidable in close combat, or at a 
 short distance. The flower of the Roman archers, on 
 horseback, and in complete armour, skirmished with- 
 out peril round this immovable phalanx; supplied by 
 active speed the deficiency of numbers ; and aimed 
 their arrows against a crowd of barbarians, who, in- 
 stead of a cuirass and a helmet, were covered by a 
 
 d See the death of Lothaire in Agathias (1. ii. p. 38.) and Paul War' 
 nefrid, surnamed Diaconus, (1. ii. c. 3. 775.) .The Greek makes him 
 rave and tear his flesh. He had plundered churches. 
 
 e Pere Daniel (Hist. de. la Milice Franooise, tom. i. p. 17—21.) has 
 exhibited a fanciful representation of this battle, somewhat in ihe 
 manner of the chevalier Folard, the once famous editor of Polybius, 
 who fashioned to his own habits and opinions all the military opers- 
 lious of aaiiquity. 
 
 I: 
 
 loose garment of fur and linen. They paused, they 
 trembled, their ranks were confounded, and in the 
 decisive moment the Heruli, preferring glory to re- 
 venire, charged with rapid violence the head of the 
 column. Their leader, Sindbal, and Aligern, the 
 Gothic prince, deserved the prize of superior valour; 
 and their example incited the victorious troops to 
 achieve with swords and spears the destruction of the 
 enemy. Buecelin, and the greatest part of his army, 
 neri-^lied on the field of battle, in the waters of the 
 Vuliurnus, or by the hands of the enraged peasants : 
 but it may seem incredible, that a victory,' which 
 no more than five of the Alemanni survived, could 
 be purchased with the loss of fourscore Romans. 
 Seven thousand Goths, the relics of the war, defended 
 the f Ttress of Campsa, till the ensuing spring : and 
 every messenger of Narses announced the reduction of 
 the Italian cities, whose names were corrupted by the 
 ignorance or vanity of the Greeks.* After the battle 
 of Casilinujn, Narses entered the capital ; the arms 
 and treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Ale- 
 manni, were displayed ; his soldiers, with garlands in 
 "their hands, chanted the praises of the conqueror ; and 
 Rome, for the last time, beheld the semblance of a 
 triumph. 
 
 Settlement of After a reign of sixty years, the throne 
 
 Italy. of the Gothic kinffs was filled by the 
 
 A. i;. oat- 000. exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives 
 in peace and war of the emperor of the Romans. 
 Their jurisdiction was soon reduced to the limits of a 
 narrow province : but Narses himself, the first and 
 most powerful of the exarchs, administered above fif- 
 teen years the entire kingdom of Italy. Like Belisa- 
 rius, he had deserved the honours of envy, calumny, 
 and disgrace : but the favourite eunuch still enjoyed 
 the ci-nlidence of Justinian, or the leader of a victo- 
 rious army awed and repressed the ingratitude of a 
 timid court. Yet it was not by weak and mischievous 
 indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his 
 troops. Fornreiful of the past, and regardless of the 
 future, they abused the present hour of prosperity and 
 peace. The cities of Italy resounded with the noise 
 of drinking and dancing : the spoils of victory were 
 wasted in sensual pleasures ; and nothing (says Aga- 
 thias) remained, unless to exchange their shields and 
 helmets for the soft lute and the capacious hogshead.** 
 In a manly oration, not unworthy of a Roman censor, 
 the eunuch reproved these disorderly vices, which sul- 
 lied their fame, and endangered their safety. The 
 soldiers blushed and obeyed : discipline w^as confirm- 
 ed : the fortifications were restored ; a duke was sta- 
 tioned for the defence and military command of each 
 of the principal cities ;' and the eye of Narses perva- 
 ded the ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. 
 The remains of the Gothic nation evacuated the coun- 
 try, or mingled with the people ; the Franks, instead 
 of revenging the death of Buccelin, abandoned, with- 
 out a struggle, their Italian conquests : and the rebel- 
 lious Sindbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken, 
 and hung on a lofty gallows, by the inflexible justice 
 of the exarch.^ The civil state of Italy, after the agi- 
 tation of a long tempest, was fixed by a pragmatic 
 
 f Ajaihiaa (1. ii. p. 47.) has produced a Greek epigram of six lines 
 on this victory of Narses, which is favourably compared to the battles 
 of Marathon and Plataea. Thechief difference is indeed in their con- 
 sequences— so trivial in the former instance— so permanent and glo- 
 rious in the latter. 
 
 g The BeroiaandBrincasofTheophanes or his transcriber (p. 201.) 
 must be road or understood Verona and Brixia. 
 
 h EKtrriTO yxp n/uxt, xutsi^vto xQiKTifixf rot? «0"5r«5'.<{ tu%8vxxi t» 
 
 xf*vi^ xn^ogt''( 9«t'Cu xxt 3xf£irou »-7roSo<Tixi. (Agathias, I. ii. p. 4S.) 
 In the first scene of Richard HI. our English poet has beautifully en- 
 larged on this idea, for which, however, he was not indebted to ihe 
 Byzantine historian. 
 
 I Maffei has proved, (Verona Tllustrata,P.i. 1.x. p. 257. 289.) against 
 the common opinion, that the dukes of Ilaly were instituted before 
 the conquest of the Lombards by Narses himself. In the Pragmatic 
 Sancti.m, (No. 23.) Justinian restrains the judices militares. 
 
 k See Paulus Diaconus, 1. iii. c. 2. p. 776. Menander (in Excerpt. 
 Legat. p. I33k) mentions some risings in Italy by the Franks, and The- 
 ophaues, (p. 201.) hinis al some Gothic rebellions. 
 
 sanction, which the emperor promulgated at the request 
 of the pope. Justinian introduced his own jurispru- 
 dence into the schools and tribunals of the west: 
 he ratified the acts of Theodoric and his immediate 
 successors, but every deed was rescinded and abolish- 
 ed, which force had extorted, or fear had subscribed, 
 under the usurpation of Toiila. A moderate theory 
 was framed to reconcile the rights of property with 
 the safety of prescription, the claims of the state with 
 the poverty of the people, and the pardon of offences 
 with the interest of virtue and order of society. Under 
 the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was degraded to the 
 second rank. Yet the senators were gratified by the 
 permission of visiting their estates in Italy, and of ap- 
 proaching, without obstacle, the throne of Constantino- 
 ple : the regulation of weights and measures was dele- 
 gated to the pope and senate ; and the salaries of law- 
 yers and physicians, of orators and grammarians, were 
 destined to preserve, or rekindle, the light of science 
 in the ancient capital. Justinian might dictate bene- 
 volent edicts,* and Narses might second his wishes by 
 the restoration of cities, and more especially of chur- 
 ches. But the power of kings is most effectual to 
 destroy : and the twenty years of the Gothic war had 
 consummated the distress and depopulation of Italy. 
 As early as the fourth campaign, under the discipline 
 of Belisarius himself, fifty thousand labourers died of 
 hunger" in the narrow region of Picenura;' and a 
 strict interpretation of the evidence of Procopius would 
 swell the loss of Italy above the total sum of her pre- 
 sent inhabitants." 
 
 I desire to believe, but I dare not invasion of the 
 aflSrm, that Belisarius sincerely rejoiced Bulgarians, 
 in the triumph of Narses. Yet the con- A. D. 559. 
 sciousness of his owm exploits might teach him to 
 esteem without jealousy the merit of a rival ; and the 
 repose of the aged warrior was crowned by a last vic- 
 tory which saved the emperor and the capital. The 
 barbarians, who annually visited the provinces of 
 Europe, were less discouraged by some accidental de- 
 feats, than they were excited by the double hope of 
 spoil and of subsidy. In the thirty-second winter of 
 Justinian's reign, the Danube was deeply frozen: 
 Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his 
 standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of 
 Sclavonians. The savage chief passed, without oppo- 
 sition, the river and the mountain, spread his troops 
 over Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced with no 
 more than seven thousand horse to the long wall, 
 which should have defended the territory of Constan- 
 tinople. But the works of man are impotent against 
 the assaults of nature : a recent earthquake had shaken 
 the foundations of the wall ; and the forces of the em- 
 pire were employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, 
 Africa, and Persia. The seven schools,^ or companies 
 of the guards or domestic troops, had been augmented 
 to the number of five thousand five hundred men, 
 whose ordinary station was in the peaceful cities of 
 Asia. But the places of the brave Armenians were 
 insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, who purchased 
 
 1 The Pragmatic Sanction of Justinian, which restores and regulatea 
 the civil state of Italy, consists of xxvii articles; it is dated August 15, 
 A. D. 554; is addressed to Narses, V. J. Praeposilus Sacri Cubiculi, 
 and to Antiochus, Praefectus Praetorio Italiae ; and has been preserved 
 by Julian Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis, after the novels 
 and edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius. 
 
 m A still greater number was consumed by famine in the southern 
 provinces, without (jxTe«) the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were used in the 
 place of bread. Procopius had seen a deserted orphan suckled by a 
 she-goal. Seventeen passengers were lodged, murdered, and eaten, 
 by two women, who were detected and slain by the eighteenth, &c. 
 
 n Quinta regio Piceni est; quondam uberrimae muliitudinis, ccclx 
 millia Picentium in fidem P. R. venere. (Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 18.) 
 In the time of Vespasian, ihis, ancient population was already di- 
 minished. 
 
 o Perhaps fifteen or sixteen millions. Procopius (Anecdot. c. 18.) 
 computes ihat Africa lost five millions, that Italy was thrice as exten- 
 sive, and thai the depopulation was in a larger proportion. But his 
 reckoning is inflamed by passion, and clouded with uncertainty. 
 
 p In the decay of these military schools, the satire of Procopius 
 (Anecdot. c. 24. Aleman. p. 102, 103.) is confirmed and illustrateoi by 
 Agaihias, (1. v. p. 159.) who cauuot be rejected a« a hostile wiineu. 
 
 * .1 
 
72 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 i 
 II? I 
 
 
 an exemption from the duties of civil life, without 
 being exposed to the dangrers of military service. Of 
 Buch soldiers, few could be tempted to sally from the 
 gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in the 
 field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape 
 from the Bulorarians. The report of the fugitives 
 exaggerated the numbers and fierceness of an enemy, 
 who had polluted holy virgins, and abandoned new- 
 born infants to the dogs and vultures ; a crowd of rus- 
 tics, imploring food and protection, increased the con- 
 sternation of the city, and the tents of Zabercran were 
 pitched at the distance of twenty miies,<i on the banks 
 of a small river, which encircles Mejanthias, and af- 
 terwards falls into the Propontis.' Justinian trem- 
 bled: and those who had only seen the emperor in his 
 old age, were pleased to suj^pose, that he had lost the 
 alacrity and vigour of his youth. By his command, 
 the vessels of gold and silver were removed from the 
 churches in the neighbourhood, and even the suburbs, 
 of Constantinople: the ramparts were lined with trem- 
 bling spectators : the golden gate was crowded with 
 useless generals and tribunes, and the senate shared 
 the fatigues and the apprehensions of the populace. 
 
 Last victory of ^"S^^® ^^f^ «^ ^^^ P^^^^ »"^ People 
 Belisarius. '^^d'CG directed to a feeble veteran, who 
 
 was compelled by the public danger to 
 resume the armour in which he had entered Carthage 
 and defended Rome. The horses of the royal stables, 
 of private citizens, and even of the circus, were hastily 
 collected ; the emulation of the old and young was 
 roused by the name of Belisarius, and his first encamp- 
 ment was in the presence of a victorious enemy. His 
 prudence, and the labour of the friendly peasants, 
 secured, with a ditch and rampart, the repose of the 
 niffht : innumerable fires, and clouds of dust, were art- 
 fully contrived to magnify the opinion of his strength : 
 his soldiers suddenly pa-ssed from despondency to pre- 
 sumption ; and, while ten thousand voices demanded 
 the battle, Belisarius dissembled his knowledge, that 
 in the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of 
 three hundred veterans. The next morning the Bulga- 
 rian cavalry advanced to the charge. But they heard 
 the shouts of multitudes, they beheld the arms and 
 discipline of the front; they were assaulted on the 
 flanks by two ambuscades which rose from the woods ; 
 their foremost warriors fell by the hand of the aged 
 hero and his guards ; and the swiftness of their evolu- 
 tions w^as rendered useless by the close attack and 
 rapid pursuit of the Romans. In this action (so speedy 
 was their flight) the Bulgarians lost only four hundred 
 horse ; but Constantinople was saved ; and Zabergan, 
 "Who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respect- 
 ful distance. But his friends were numerous in the 
 councils of the emperor, and Belisarius obeyed with 
 leluctance the commands of envy and Justinian, which 
 forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his country. 
 On his return to the city, the people, still conscious 
 Of their danger, accompanied his triumph with accla- 
 mations of joy and gratitude, which were imputed as a 
 crime to the victorious general. But when he entered 
 the palace, the courtiers were silent, and the emperor, 
 after a cold and thankless embrace, dismissed him to 
 mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the 
 impression of his glory on the minds of men, that Jus- 
 tinian, m the seventy-seventh year of his a^e, was 
 encouraged to advance near forty miles from the°capital, 
 and to inspect m person the restoration of the lono- wall. 
 The Bulgarians wasted the summer in the plains of 
 
 q The distance from Conrtantinople to Melanthias, Villa CiEsariana 
 (Ammian. Marcellm. xxx. 11.) ig variously fixed at 102 or 1^ sudla' 
 (Suidaa torn. ii. p. 522, 523. Agalhias, 1. v. p. 158.) or xviii or xiv 
 
 The fiiV'xl? mnt;P- 'f • '^'^- ^' ""' WeLeling% ObYervaUons'*) 
 i..,nt »^ ^ "^'^"' *^ ^*'' ^ l^hegium, were paved by Justinian, who 
 Rop^re^EVfTfvTT? " ^""^' betwUalaL and the^e'a! 
 rti Jl'mnn^^; f P^'"?**"' ^ela, 1. ii. c. 2. p. 169. edit. Vo«s.) At the 
 ul£n Scn'n T^A% 'i'"'^^ ^^'^* «ame name was fortified by Jus- 
 Uni*n. (Procop. de Edif. 1. iv. c. 2. hinerar. p. 670. and Weweiing.) 
 
 Thrace; but they were inclined to peace by the failure 
 of their rash attempts on Greece and the Chersonesus. 
 A menace of killing their prisoners quickened the pay- 
 ment of heavy ransoms ; and the departure of Zabergan 
 was hastened by the report, that double prowed vessels 
 were built on the Danube to intercept his passage. 
 The danger was soon forgotten ; and a vain question, 
 whether their sovereign had shown more wisdom or 
 weakness, amused the idleness of the city.' 
 
 About two years after the last victory hu Hi,,^r« 
 ot UeJisarius, the emperor returned from and Death, 
 aThracianjourney of health, or business, A. D.561. 
 or devotion. Justinian was afllicted by a pain in his 
 head ; and his private entry countenanced the rumour 
 of his death. Before the third hour of the day, the 
 bakers' shops were plundered of their bread, the houses 
 were shut, and every citizen, with hope or terror, pre- 
 pared for the impending tumult. The senators them- 
 selves, fearful and suspicious, were convened at the 
 ninth hour; and the prasfect received their commands 
 to visit every quarter of the city, and proclaim a gen- 
 eral illumination for the recovery of the emperor's 
 health. The ferment subsided ; but every accident 
 betrayed the impotence of the government, and the fac- 
 tious temper of the people : the guards were disposed 
 to mutiny as often as their quarters were chancred, or 
 their pay was withheld : the frequent calamines of 
 fires and earthquakes aflTurded the opportunities of dis- 
 order; the disputes of the blues and greens, of the 
 orthodox and heretics, degenerated into bloody battles ; 
 and, in the presence of the Persian ambassador, Jus- 
 tinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Ca- 
 pricious pardon and arbitrary punishment im'bittered the 
 irksomeness and discontent of a long reign : a conspi- 
 racy was formed in the palace; and, unless we are 
 deceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, the 
 most virtuous and the most profligate of the courtiers 
 were associated in the same designs. They had fixed 
 the time of the execution ; their rank gave them acces/i 
 to the royal banquet ; and their black slaves » were 
 stationed in the vestibule and porticoes, to announce 
 the death of the tyrant, and to excite a sedition in the 
 capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved 
 the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The con- 
 spirators were delected and seized, with dao-gers hidden 
 under their garments : Marcellus died by hTs own hand, 
 and Sergius was dragtjed from the sanctuary." Pressed 
 by remorse, or tempted bv the hopes of safety, he 
 accused two oflicers of the household of Belisarius; 
 and torture forced them to declare that they had acted 
 according to the secret instructions of their patron.* 
 Posterity will not hastily believe that a hero who, in 
 the vigour of life, had disdained the faitest off*ers of 
 ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder 
 of his prince, whom he could not long expect to 
 survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but 
 flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he 
 had lived enough for nature and for 
 glory. Belisarius appeared before the A.D.563. 
 council with less fear than indignation : * 
 
 after forty years' service, the emperor had prejudged 
 his guilt ; and injustice was sanctified by the presence 
 and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belisarius 
 was graciously spared ; but his fortunes were seques- 
 tered, and, from December to July he was guarded as a 
 
 • The Bukarian war, and the last victory of Belisarius, are iraper- 
 
 r-7 ^.-rfP'"'''^"!*''^'" ^^^ P"^''-^ declamation of Asathias. (1. 5. p. 
 lo4— 1/4.) and the dry Chronicle of Theophanes, (p.'l97, 198 ) 
 
 t lvi:v«. They could scarcely be real Indians; and the AiihioDi- 
 ans, sometimes known by that name, were never used by the an 
 c.ents as guards or followers: thev were the trillins, thouch costlv' 
 objects of female royal luxury. (Terent. Kunuch. "act. i sceSe i^' 
 c.^577' '" °"^^* *^' ^' "^'^^ '^ S"^'"* "''^'' "^ Casaubon. in Caliguiai 
 
 fGotI^^ n?'^;"'4T*"^''^- '• *'•• ^- 2}, 22. Anecdot. c. 5.) and Marcellus 
 p 197:201. •^ "^ nienlioned by Procopius. See Theophanes, 
 
 Drinfpd 7!f rh» I ^P- ^'^ "^""T^ *" P'*^ Byzantine MS. which has beea 
 primed in the Impenum Orieniale of Banduri. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 73 
 
 A. D. 564. 
 July 19. 
 
 f 
 
 prisoner in his own palace. At length 
 his innocence was acknowledged : his 
 freedom and honours were restored ; and death, which 
 A. D. 565. might be hastened by resentment and 
 March 13. grief, removed him from the world about 
 eight months after his deliverance. The name of Beli- 
 sarius can never die ; but instead of the funeral, the 
 monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, 
 I only read, that his treasures, the spoils of the Goths 
 and Vandals, were immediately confiscated by the em- 
 peror. Some decent portion was reserved, however, 
 for the use of his widow ; and as Antonina had much 
 to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and 
 fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the 
 simple and genuine narrative of the fall of Belisarius and 
 the ingratitude of Justinian.^ That he was deprived 
 of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, 
 " Give a penny to Belisarius the general !" is a fiction 
 of later times,' which obtained credit, or rather, as a 
 strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune.* 
 
 Death and char- ^^ *^^^ emperor could rejoice in the 
 acierof Justinian, death of Belisarius, he enjoyed the base 
 'Nov' 14^* satisfaction only eight months, the last 
 period of a /eign of thirty-eight, and a 
 life of eighty-three years. It would be difficult to 
 trace the character of a prince who is not the most con- 
 spicuous object of his own times : but the confessions 
 of an enemy may be received as the safest evidence of 
 his virtues. The resemblance of Justinian to the bust of 
 Domiiian, is maliciously urged ;** with the acknowledg- 
 ment, however, of a well-proportioned figure, a ruddy 
 complexion, and a pleasing countenance. The em- 
 peror was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous 
 and aflfable in discourse, and a master of the angry pas- 
 sions, which rage with such destructive violence in 
 the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper 
 to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty : but 
 in the conspiracies which attacked his authority and 
 person, a more candid judge will approve the justice, 
 or admire the clemency, of Justinian. He excelled 
 in the private virtues of chastity and temperance : but 
 the impartial love of beauty would have been less 
 mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora ; 
 and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the pru- 
 dence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. 
 His repasts were short and frugal : on solemn fasts, 
 he contented himself with water and vegetables; and 
 such was his strength, as well as fervour, that he fre- 
 quently passed two days, and as many nights, without 
 tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not 
 less rigorous : after the repose of a sinrrle hour, the 
 
 7 Of the disgrace and restorationof Belisarius, the genuine oriainal 
 record is preserved in the frasrment of John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 234— 
 243.) and the exact Chronicle' of Theophanes, (p. 194—204.) Cedre- 
 nus (Compend. p. 387, 388.) and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiv. p 69.) seem 
 to hesitate between the obsolete truth and the growing falsehood. 
 
 t The source of this idle fable may be derived from a miscellaneous 
 >»ork of the twelfth century, the Chiliads of John Tzeizes, a monk. 
 (Basil. 1546. ad calcem Lycophront. Colon. Allobrog. 1614. in. Corp. 
 Poet. Graec.) He relates the blindness and begpary of Belisarius in 
 ten vulvar or politicahvprsea. (Chiliad, iii. No. 88. 339—348. in Corp. 
 Poet. Graec. Ukti. ii. p. 311. 
 
 EKTruftx ^uA.ivov JtgxToiv i&i» rw finKtai 
 BtKiTXfKu o&^Kov Sort T^> f^»ry,KxTyi 
 
 This moral or romantic tale was imported into Italy with the lan- 
 guage and manuscripts of Greece ; repeated before the end of the fif- 
 teenth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus ; attacked by 
 Alciat, for the honour of the law ; and defended by Baronius, (A. D. 
 461. No. 2. &c.) for the honour of the church. Yet Tzetzes himself 
 had read in other chronicles, that Belisarius did not lose his flight, 
 and thai he recovered his fame and fortunes. 
 
 * The statue in the villa Borghese at Rome, in a sitting posture, 
 with an open hand, which is vulgarly given to Belisarius, may be 
 ascribed with more dignity to Augustus in the act of propitiating 
 Nemesis. (Winckelman. Hist, de I'Art, tom. iii. p. 266.) Ex nocturne 
 visii etiam stipem, quotannis,dieceno. emendicabata populo, cavam 
 manum asses porrigentibus praebens. (Sueton. in August, c. 91. with 
 an excellent note of Casaubon.) 
 
 b The rubor of Doinitian is stigmatized, quaintly enough, by the 
 pen of Tacitus ; (in Vit. Agricol. c. 45.) and has been likewise noticed 
 by the younger Pliny (Panegyr. c. 48.) and Suetonius, (in Domitian, 
 c. 18. and Casaubon ad locum.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 8.) foolishly 
 believes that only one bust of Domitian had reached the sixth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonish- 
 ment of his chamberlain, Justinian walked or studied 
 till the morning light. Such restless application pro- 
 longed his time for the acquisition of knowledge' and 
 the despatch of business ; and he might seriously de- 
 serve the reproach of confounding, by minute and pre- 
 posterous diligence, the general order of his adminis- 
 tration. The emperor professed himself a musician and 
 architect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theolo- 
 gian ; and if he failed in the enterprise of reconciling 
 the christian sects, the review of the Roman jurispru- 
 dence is a noble monument of his spirit and industry. 
 In the government of the empire, he was less wise or 
 less successful: the age was unfortunate; the people 
 were oppressed and discontented ; Theodora abused her 
 power; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his judg- 
 ment ; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life, nor 
 regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply im- 
 planted in his breast, but he condescended to the poor 
 ambition of titles, honours, and contemporary praise; 
 and while he laboured to fix the admiration, he forfeit- 
 ed the esteem and affection, of the Romans. The de- 
 sign of the African and Italian wars was boldly con- 
 ceived and executed : and his penetration discovered 
 the talents of Belisarius in the camp, and of Narses in 
 the palace. But the name of the emperor is eclipsed 
 by the names of his victorious generals ; and Belisarius 
 still lives, to upbraid the envy and ingratitude of his 
 sovereign. The partial favour of mankind applauds 
 the genius of a conqueror, who leads and directs his 
 subjects in the exercise of arms. The characters of 
 Philip the second and of Justinian are distinguished by 
 the cold ambition which delights in war, and declines 
 the dangers of the field. Vet a colossal statue of 
 bronze represented the emperor on horseback, preparing 
 to^ march against the Persians in the habit and armour 
 of Achilles. In the great square before the church of 
 St. Sophia, this monument was raised on a brass column 
 and a stone pedestal of seven steps ; and the pillar of 
 Theodosius, which weighed seven thousand four hun- 
 dred pounds of silver, was removed from the same 
 place by the avarice and vanity of Justinian. Future 
 princes were more just or indulgent to his memory ; 
 the elder Andronicus, in the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, repaired and beautified his equestrian statue : 
 since the fall of the empire, it has been melted into 
 cannon by the victorious Turks.** 
 
 I shall conclude this chapter with the comets, the 
 earthquakes, and the plague, which astonished or afflic- 
 ted the age of Justinian. 
 
 I. In the fifth year of his reign, and in Comets, 
 the month of September, a comet' was A.D.531— 539. 
 seen during twenty days in the western quarter of the 
 heavens, and which shot its rays into the north. Eight 
 years afterwards, while the sun was in Capricorn, 
 another appeared to follow in the Sagittary : the size 
 was gradually increasing; the head was in the east, 
 the tail in the west, and it remained visible about forty- 
 days. The nations, who gazed with astonishment, 
 expected wars and calamities from their baleful influ- 
 ence; and these expectations were abundantly fulfilled. 
 The astronomers dissembled their ignorance of the 
 nature of these blazing stars, which they affected to 
 represent as the floating meteors of the air; and few 
 amonor them embraced the simple notion of Seneca and 
 the Chaldeans, that they are only planets of a longer 
 
 c The studies and science of Justinian are attested by the confes- 
 sion, (Anecdot. c. 8. 13.) still more than by the praises (Gothic. 1. iii. 
 c. 31. de Edific. 1. i. Proem, c. 7.) of Procopius. Consult the copious 
 index of Alemannus, and read the life 01 Justinian by Ludewig, (p. 
 135-142.) 
 
 d See in the C. P. Christiana of Ducange, (1 i. c. 24. No. 1.) a chain 
 of original testimonies, from Procopius in the sixth, to Gyllius in the 
 sixteenth, century. 
 
 e The first comet is mentioned by John Malala (tom. ii. p. 190. 
 219.) and Theophanes ; (p. 154.) the second by Procopius. (Persic. 1. 
 ii. c. 4.) Yet I strongly suspect their identity. The paleness of tba 
 sun (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 140 is applie*^ t>7 Theophanes (p. 158.) to a dii^ 
 ferent year. 
 
 I 
 
 
 ■'I 
 
 M 
 
74 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 75 
 
 
 . f. 
 
 period, and more eccentric motion.' Time and science 
 have justified the conjectures and predictions of the 
 Roman sage; the telescope has opened new worlds 
 to the eyes of astronomers ;* and, in the narrow space of 
 history and fable, one and the same comet is already 
 found to have revisited the earth in seven equal revolu- 
 tions of five hundred and seventy-five years. The first^^ 
 which ascends beyond the christian a;ra one thousand 
 seven hundred and sixty-seven years, is coeval with 
 Ogyges the father of Grecian antiquity. And this 
 appearance explains the tradition which Varro has 
 preserved, that under his reign, the planet Venus 
 changed her colour, size, figure, and course ; a prodijiy 
 without example either in past or succeeding ages.' 
 The second visit, in the year eleven hundred and ninety- 
 three, is darkly implied in the fable of Electra the 
 seventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced to six 
 since the time of the Trojan war. That nymph, the 
 wife of Dardanus, was unable to support the ruin of 
 her country : she abandoned the dances of her sister 
 orbs, fled from the zodiac to the north pole, and ob- 
 tained, from her dishevelled locks, the name of the 
 comet. The third period expires in the year six hun- 
 dred and eighteen, a date that exactly agrees with the 
 tremendous comet of the Sibyl, and perhaps of Pliny, 
 which arose in the west two generations before the 
 reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition, forty-four 
 years before the birth of Christ, is of all others the 
 most splendid and important. After the death of Cae- 
 sar, a ions-haired star was conspicuous to Rome and 
 to the nations, during the games which were exhibited 
 by young Octavian, in honour of Venus and his uncle. 
 The vulgar opinion, that it conveyed to heaven the 
 divine soul of the dictator, was cherished and conse- 
 crated by the piety of a statesman : while his secret 
 superstition referred the comet to the glory of his own 
 times.* The Jif/h visit has been already ascribed to 
 the fifth year of Justinian, which coincides with the 
 five hundred and thirty-first of the christian aera. And 
 it may deserve notice, that in this, as in the preceding 
 instance, the comet was followed, thouch at a lonofer 
 interval, by a remarkable paleness of the sun. The 
 sixth return, in the year eleven hundred and six, is re- 
 corded by the chronicles of Europe and China; and 
 in the first fervour of the crusades, the christians and 
 the Mahometans might surmise, with equal reason, 
 that it portended the dtstruction of the infidels. The 
 seventh phenomenon, of one thousand six hundred and 
 eighty, was presented to t[ie eyes of an enlightened 
 age.' The philosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice 
 which Milton's muse had so recently adorned, that 
 the comet "from its horrid air shakes pestilence and 
 war."™ Its road in the heavens was observed with 
 
 f Seneca's snventh book of Natural Questions displays, in the theory 
 of comets, a philoso|)hic mind. Yet should we not too candidly con- 
 fnun«l a vague prediction, a veniet tempus, &,c. with the merilof real 
 discoveries. 
 
 K Astronomers may study Newton and Halley. I draw my humble 
 science from the article Comete, in the French Encyclopedic by M. 
 d'Alembert. 
 
 b Whision, the honest, pioiis, visionary Whiston, had fancied, for 
 Ihe aera of Noah's flix)d, (■2212 years before Christ,) a prior apparition 
 of the same comet which drowned the earth with its tail. 
 
 i A Dissertation of FreretcMeinoiresde I'Academiedes Inscriptions, 
 torn. X. p. 357 — 377.) affords a happy union of philostiphy and erudi- 
 tion. The phaenomenon inihe timeof Otjyges was preserved by Varro, 
 (apud Augustin. de Civiiate Dei, xxi. 8.) who quotes Castor, Dion of 
 Naples, and Adraslus of Cyzicus— nobilea mathematici. The two sub- 
 sequent periods are preserved by the Greek mythologists and the spu- 
 rious books of Sybilline verses. 
 
 k Pliny (Hist. Nat. ii. 23.) has transcribed the orisinal memorial of 
 Augustus. Mairan, in his most ingenious letters to'ihe P. Parennin, 
 missionary in China, removes the games and the comet of September, 
 from the year 4-i to the year 43, before the christian aera; but I am 
 not totally subdued by the criticism of the astronomer. (Opuscules, p. 
 ^75-351.) 
 
 1 This last comet was visible in the month of December, IGSO. Bayle, 
 ■who began his Pens-^'es stir la Comete in January IGSl. ((Euvres, U)m. 
 iii.) was forced to argue that a supernatural comet would have con- 
 firmed the ancients in their idolatry. Bernoulli (see his Eloge, in 
 Fontenelle lom. v. p. 99.) was forced to allow that the tail, though 
 not the head, waa a sign of the wrath of God. 
 
 m Paradise lost was published in the year 1667; and the famous 
 lines, (I ii. 708, &c.) which startled the licenser, may allude to the 
 recent comet of 1664, observed by Cassini at Rome in the presence of 
 
 exquisite skill by Fiamstend and Cassini ; and the 
 mathematical science of Bernoulli, Newton, and Hal- 
 ley, investigated the laws n{ its revolutions. At the 
 eii^lUh period, in the year two thousand two hundred 
 and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be veri- 
 fied by the astronomers of some future capital in the 
 Siberian or American wilderness. 
 
 II. The near approach of a comet may ^ , 
 
 1-'', ,, lu Earthquakes, 
 
 injure or destroy the globe which we 
 
 inhabit; but the changes on its surface have been 
 hitherto produced by the action of volcanoes and 
 earthquakes." The nature of the soil may indicate 
 the countries most exposed to these formidable con- 
 cussions, since they are caused by subterraneous fires, 
 and such fires are kindled by the union and fermenta- 
 tion of iron and sulphur. But their times and effects 
 appear to lie beyond the reach of human curiosity, and 
 the philosopher will discreetly abstain from the pre- 
 diction of earthquakes, till he has cf>unted the drops 
 of water that silently filtrate on the inflammable mine- 
 ral, and measured the caverns which increase by re- 
 sistance the explosion of the imprisoned air. Without 
 assigning the cau.se, history will distingruish the periods 
 in which these calamitous events have been rare or 
 frequent, and will observe, that this fever of the earth 
 raged with uncommon violence during the rrign of 
 Justinian." Each year is marked by the repetition of 
 earthquakes, of such duration, that Constantinople has 
 been shaken above forty days ; of such extent, that 
 the shock has been communicated to the whole surface 
 of the globe, or at least of the Roman empire. An 
 impulsive or vibratory motion was felt: enormous 
 chasms were opened, huoe and heavy bodies were 
 discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced 
 and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds, and a moun- 
 tain was torn from Libanus,P and cast into the waves, 
 where it protected, as a mole, the new harbour of Bo- 
 trys'iin Phoenicia. The stroke that agitates an ant- 
 hill, may crush the insect-myriads in the dust; yet 
 truth must extort a confession, that man has industri- 
 ously laboured for his own destruction. The institu- 
 tion of great cities, which include a nation within the 
 limits of a wall, almost realizes the wish of Caligula, 
 that the Roman people had but one neck. Two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand persons are said A. D. 5*26. 
 to have perished in the earthquake of May 20. 
 Antioch, whose domestic multitudes were swelled by 
 the conflux of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. 
 The loss of Berytus' was of smaller ac- AD. 551. 
 count, but of much greater value. That ^"ly ^^ 
 city, on the coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by the 
 study of the civil law, which opened the surest road 
 to wealth and dignity : the schools of Beryius were 
 filled with the rising spirits of the aije, and many a 
 youth was lost in the earthquake, who might have 
 lived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country. 
 In these disasters, the architect becomes the enemy of 
 
 nueen Christina. (Fontenelle, In his Eloge, torn. v. p. 33.S.) Had 
 Charles 11. betrayed any symptoms of curiosity or fear ? 
 
 n For the cause of earthquakes, see BufTon, .(torn. i. p. 502— 536. 
 Supplement a I'Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 382—390. edition in 4to.) 
 Valmonl de Bomare, (Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Tremble- 
 mens de Terre, Pyrites,) Watson. (Chemical Essays, tom. i. p. ISl— 
 209.) 
 
 o The earthquakes that shook the Roman world in the reijrn of Jus- 
 tinian, are described or mentioned by Procopius, (Goth. I. iv. c. 25. 
 Anecdot. c. 18.) Apathias, (I. ii. p. 52, '53, 54. 1. v. p. 145—152.) John 
 Malala, (Chron.tom. ii. p. 140-116. 176, 177. 1S3. 193. 220. 229. 231. 
 233, 2ai.) and Tlieophanes, (p. 1.51. 183. 189. 191—196.) 
 
 P An abrupt height, a perpendicular cape, between Aradus and 
 Botrys, named by the Greeks Jt^v ^fna-Anzv, and rjTT^ifr.-rr'.v or 
 \.So-#;tc»-;v by the scrupulous christians. (Polyb. I. v.^. 411. Pom- 
 
 Jon. Mela, 1. i. c. 12. p. 87. cum Isaac Voss. Observat. Maundrell, 
 ourney, p. 32, 33. Pocock's Description, vol. ii. p. 99.) 
 q Botrys was founded (ann. ante Christ. 935-903) by Ithobal,kin<' 
 of Tyre. (Marsham, Canon Chron. p. 3S7, 3S8.) Its poor represenlir- 
 tive, the village of Patrone, is now destitute oi"a harbour. 
 
 r The university, splendour, and ruin of Bery tus, are celebrated by 
 Heineccius (p. 351—356.) as an essential part of the history of the 
 Roman law. It was overthrown in the twenty-fifth year of Jus- 
 tinian, A. D. 551, July 9. (Theophanes, p. 192.) but Agathias (I. ii. 
 p. 51, 52.) suspends the earthquake till he has achieved the lulian 
 war. 
 
 mankind. The hut of a savage, or the tent of an Arab, 
 niay be thrown down without injury to the inhabitant; 
 and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly of 
 th«^ir Spanish conqueror*, who with so much cost and 
 labour erected their own sepulchres. The rich mar- 
 bles of a patrician are dashed on his own head : a 
 I whole people is buried under the ruins of public and 
 private edifices, and the conflaffration is kindled and 
 propagated by the innumerable fires which are neces- 
 sary for the subsistence and manufactures of a great 
 city. Instead of the mutual sympathy which might 
 comfort and assist the distressed, they dreadfully ex- 
 perience the vices and passions which are released 
 from the fear of punishment; the tottering houses are 
 pillaged by intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the 
 moment, and selects the victim ; and the earth often 
 swallows the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consum- 
 mation of their crimes. Superstition involves the pre- 
 sent danger with invisible terrors ; and if the image 
 of death may sometimes be subservient to the virtue 
 or repentance of individuals, an aflVighted people is 
 more forcibly moved to expect the end of the world, or 
 to deprecate with servile homage the wrath of an aven- 
 ging Deity. 
 
 Plague-its ori- m» -Ethiopia and Egypt have been 
 gin and nature, stigmatized in every age, as the original 
 A.D.042. «ource and seminary of the plague.* In 
 a damp, hot, stagnating air, this African fever" is gene- 
 rated from the putrefaction of animal substances, and 
 especially from the swarms of locusts, not less de- 
 structive to mankind in their death than in their lives. 
 The fatal disease which depopulated the earth in the 
 time of Justinian and his successors,' first appeared 
 in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, between the Ser- 
 bonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile. From 
 thence, tracing as it were a double path, it spread to the 
 I' east, over Syria, Persia, and the Indies, and penetrated 
 to the west, along the coast of Africa, and over the conti- 
 nent of Europe. In the spring of the second year, Con- 
 stantinople, during three or four months, was visited 
 by the pestilence ; and Procopius, who observed its 
 progress and symptoms with the eyes of a physician," 
 has emulated the skill and diligence of Thucydides in 
 the description of the plague of Athens.^ The infec- 
 tion was sometimes announced by the visions of a dis- 
 tempered fancy, and the victim despaired as soon as he 
 had heard the menace and felt the stroke of an invisi- 
 ble spectre. But the greater number, in their beds, in 
 the streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised 
 by a slight fever; so slight, indeed, that neither the 
 pulse nor the colour of the patient gave any signs of 
 the approaching danger. The same, the next, or the 
 succeeding day, it was declared by the swelling of the 
 glands, particularly those of the groin, of the ar^n-pits, 
 and under the ear; and when these buboes or tumours 
 were opened, they were found to contain a coal, or 
 black substance, of the size of a lentil. If they came 
 to a just swelling and suppuration, the patient was 
 saved by this kind and natural discharge of the mor- 
 bid humour. But if they continued hard and dry, a 
 mortification quickly ensued, and the fifth day was 
 commonly the term of his life. The fever was often 
 
 ^ 
 
 • I have read with pleasure Mead's short but elegant treatise con- 
 cerning Pestilential Disorders, the eighth edition, London. 1722. 
 
 t The great plague which ra£ed in 542 and the following vears, 
 (Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 518.) must be traced in Procopius, (Persic. I. 
 II. c. 22, 23.) Agathias, (1. v. p. 153, 154.) Evagrius, (1. iv. c. 29.) Paul 
 ^'aconus, (I. li. c. 4. p. 776, 777.) Gregory of Tours, (tom. ii. I. iv. c.5. 
 ^. 20j.) who styles it Lues Inguinariuy and the Chronicles of Victor 
 I unnunensis, p. 9. in Thesaur. Temporum) of Marccllinus, (p. 54.) 
 and of Theophanes, (p. 1J3.) 
 
 u Dr. Friend (Hist. Medicin. in 0pp. p. 416-420. Lond. 1733.) is 
 satisfied that Procopius nmst have studied physic, from his knowledge 
 and use of the technical words. Yet giany words that are now scien- 
 tific were common and p<)pular in the Greek idiom. 
 
 X See Thucydides, I. ji. c. 47—54. p. 127-133. edit. Duker,and the 
 poetical description of the same plague by Lucretius. (1. vi. J136~1284.) 
 I was indebted lo Dr. Hunter for an elaborate commenury on this part 
 of Thucy dides, a quarto of 600 pages, ( Venet. 1603, apud Juntas,) which 
 was prououuced in Si. Mark's library, by Fabiua Paullinus Ulineusis, 
 & physician and philofupher. 
 
 acconapani.'d with lethargy or delirium ; the bodies of 
 the sick were covered with black pustubs or carbun- 
 cles, the symptoms of immediate death ; and in the 
 constitutions too feeble to produce an eruption, the 
 vomiting of blood was followed by a mortification of 
 the bowels. To pregnant women tlie plague was 
 generally mortal : yet one infant was drawn alive from 
 his dead mother, and three mothers survived the loss 
 of their infected foetus. Youth was the most perilous 
 season ; and the female sex was less susceptible than 
 the male : but every rank and profession was attacked 
 with indiscriminate rage, and many of those who 
 escaped were deprived of the use of their speech, 
 without being secure from a return of the disorder.^ 
 The physicians of Constantinople were zealous and 
 skilful : but their art was baflled .by the various symp- 
 toms and pertinacious vehemence of the disease : the 
 same remedies were productive of contrary effects, and 
 the event capriciously disappointed their prognostics 
 of death or recovery. The order of funerals, and the 
 riaht of sepulchres, w^ere confounded ; those who were 
 left without friends or servants, lay unburied in the 
 streets, or in their desolate houses; and a magistrate 
 w^s authorized to collect the promiscuous h^aps of 
 dead bodies, to transport them by land or water, and 
 to inter them in deep pits beyond the precincts of the 
 city. Their own danger, and the prospect of public 
 distress, awakened some remorse in the minds of the 
 most vicious of mankind ; the confidence of health 
 again revived their passions and habits; but phiJoso- 
 phy must disdain the observation of Procopius, that 
 the lives of such men were guarded by the peculiar 
 favour of fortune or providence. He forgot, or perhaps 
 he secretly recollected, that the plague had touched 
 the person of Justinian himself; but the abstemious 
 diet of the emperor may suggest, as in the case of 
 Socrates, a more rational and honourable cause for his 
 recovery." During his sickness, the public consterna- 
 tiori was expressed in the habits (,f the citizens; and 
 their idleness and despondence occasioned a general 
 scarcity in the capital of the east. 
 
 Contagion is the inseparable symptom £,,,„, ^^^ ^^. 
 of the plague : which by mutual respira- ration, 
 
 tion, is transfused from the infected per- ■^- ^' 542— .594. 
 sons to the lungs and stomach of those who approach 
 them. While philosophers believe and tremble, it is 
 singular, that the existence of a real danger should 
 have been denied by a people most prone to vain 
 and immaginary terrors.* Yet the fellow-citizens of 
 Procopius were satisfied, by some short and partial 
 experience, that the infection could not be gained by 
 the closest conversation ;•' and this persuasion might 
 support the assiduity of friends or physicians in the 
 care of the sick, whom inhuman prudence would have 
 condemned to solitude and despair. But the fatal 
 security, like the predestination of the Turks, must 
 have aided the progress of the contagion ; and those 
 salutary precautions to which Europe is indebted for 
 her safety, were unknown to the government of Justi- 
 nian. No restraints were imposed on the free and fre- 
 
 r Thucydides (c. 51.) affirms, that the infection could only be once 
 taken ; but Evagrius, who had family experience of the plaeue, ob- 
 serves, that some persons, who had escaped the first, sunk under iho 
 second attack ; and this repetition is confirmed by Fabius Paullinus, 
 (p. 588.) I observe, that on this head physicians are divided ; and the 
 nature and operation of the disease may not always be similar. 
 
 X It was thus that Socrates had been saved by his temperance, in 
 the plague of Athens. (Aul. Gellius, Noct. Attic, ii. 1.) Dr. Mead ac- 
 counts for the peculiar salubrity of religious houses, by the two advan- 
 tages of seclusion and abstinence, (p. 18, 19.) 
 
 a Mead proves that the plague was contagious, from Thucydides, 
 Lucretius, Aristotle, Galen, and common experience, (p. 10—20.) and 
 he refutes (Preface, p. ii.— xiii.) the contrary opinion of the French 
 physicians who visited Marseilles in the year 1720. Yet these were 
 the recent and enlightened spectators of a plague, which, in a few 
 months, swept away 50,000 inhabitants (sur la Peste de Marseille, 
 Paris, 1786) of a city that, in the present hour of prosperity and trade, 
 contains no more than 90,000 souls. (Necker, sur les Finances, tom. i. 
 p. 231.) 
 
 b The strong assertions of Procopius eoTi y«p ixrft>> evrtymf <I^tiari| 
 — are overthrown by the subsoij^uent ezperteuco of Evagrius. 
 
 if 
 
 »• 
 
 
 ii\ 
 
75 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 77 
 
 r 
 
 
 quent intercourse of the Roman provinces : from Per- 
 sia to France, the nations were mingled and infected 
 by wars and eraigraiions ; and the pestilential odour 
 which lurks for years in a bale of cotton, was imported, 
 by the abuse of trade, into the most distant regions. 
 The mode of its propagation is explained by the re- 
 mark of Procopius himself, that it always spread from 
 the sea-coast to the inland country ; the most seques- 
 tered islands and mountains were successively visited; 
 the places which had escaped the fury of its first pas- 
 sage, were alone exposed to the contagion of the ensu- 
 innr year. The winds might diffuse that subtle venom : 
 but unless the atmosphere be previously disposed for 
 its reception, the plague would soon expire in the cold 
 or temperate climates of the earth. Such was the 
 universal corruption of the air, that the pestilence 
 which burst forth in the fifteenth year of Justinian was 
 not checked or alleviated by any difference of the 
 seasons. In time, its first malignity was abated and 
 dispersed ; the disease alternately languished and re- 
 vived ; but it was not till the end of a calamitous pe- 
 riod of fifty-two years, that mankind recovered their 
 health, or the air resumed its pure and salubrious 
 quality. No facts have been preserved to sustain an 
 account, or even a conjecture, of the numbers that 
 perished in this extraordinary mortality. I only find, 
 that during three months, five, and at length ten, thou- 
 sand persons died each day at Constantinople; that 
 many cities of the east were left vacant, and that in 
 several districts of Italy the harvest and the vintage 
 withered on the ground. The triple scourge of war, 
 pestilence, and famine, afflicted the subjects of Justi- 
 nian, and his reign is disgraced by a visible decrease 
 of the human species, which has never been repaired 
 in some of the fairest countries of the globe.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Idea of Roman Jurisprudence. — T7ie laivs of the kings. — 
 The twelve tribes of the decemvirs. — The laws of the 
 people. — T/te decrees of the senate. — The edicts of the 
 magistrates and emperors. — Authority of the cixnlians. 
 ^—Code, Pandects, J\/*ovels, and Institutes of Justinian : 
 —I. nights of persons. — II. Rights of things. — III. 
 Private injuries and actions. — IV. Crimes and punish- 
 merits. 
 
 The civil or Ro- The vain titles of the victories of 
 man law. Justinian are crumbled into dust : but 
 the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and 
 everlasting monument. Under his reign, and by his 
 care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the im- 
 mortal works of the Code, the Pandects, and the 
 Institutes : * the public reason of the Romans has 
 been silently or studiously transfused into the domes- 
 tic institutions of Europe,'* and the laws of Justinian 
 
 e After some fisrurps of rhetoric, the saiuls of the sea, &c. Procopius 
 (Anecdot. c. in.) atlempls a more definite account : that ,uof «a^ »< /"v- 
 (txSuv A*uf i»« had been exterminated under the rei<rnof the imperial 
 daemon. The expression is obscure in grammar and arithmetic ; and 
 a literal interpretation would protluce several millions of millions. 
 Alemannus (p. 80.) and Cousin (torn iii. p. 178.) translate this pas- 
 gage, "two huiUlred millions ;" but I am ignorant of their motives. If 
 we drop the a"--? <»^»-:, the remaining fi\.fix^jiv ^v^t»;, a myriad of 
 myriads, would furnish one hundred millions, a number not wholly 
 inadmissible. 
 
 a The civilians of the darker ages have established an absurd and 
 incomprehensible nuxle of quotation, which is supported by authority 
 and custom. In their rof^rences to the Code, the Pandects, and the 
 Institutes, they mention the number, not of the 600A:, but only of the 
 law ; and content themselves with reciting the first wonls of the fitU 
 to which it belongs ; and of these titles there are more than a thousand. 
 Ludewig (V\t. Justiniani, p. 268.) wishes to shake off this pedantic 
 yoke; and I have dared to adopt the simple and rational method of 
 numbering the book, the title, and the law. 
 
 b Germany, Bohemia,Hungary, Poland, and Scotland, have received 
 them as common law or reason ; in France, Italy, &c. they possess a 
 direct or indirect influence; and they were respected in Entrland, 
 from Stephen to Edward I. our national Justinian. (Duck, de Usu et 
 Auctoritafe Juris Civilis, I. ii. c. 1. 8—15. Heineccius, Hist. Juris Ger- 
 ■lanici, c. 3, 4. No. 35 —124. and the legal historians of each couniry.) 
 
 still command the respect or obedience of independent 
 nations. Wise or fortunate is the prince who connects 
 his own reputation with the honour and interest of a 
 perpetual order of men. The defence of their founder 
 is the first cause, which in every age has exercised the 
 zeal and industry of the civilians. They piously com- 
 memorate his virtues ; dissemble or deny his failings ; 
 and fiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels, 
 who presume to sully the majesty of the purple. The 
 idolatry of love has provokid, as it usually happens, 
 the rancour of opposition ; the character of Justinian 
 has been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery 
 and invective, and the injustice of a sect (the Anti' 
 Tribunians) has refused all praise and merit to the 
 prince, his ministers, and his laws.*= Attached to no 
 party, interested only for the truth and candour of his- 
 tory, and directtd by the most temperate and skilful 
 guides,'' I enter with just difiidence on the subject of 
 civil law, which has exhausted so many learned lives, 
 and clothed the walls of such spacious libraries. In 
 a single, if possible in a short, chapter, I shall trace 
 the Roman jurisprudence from Romulus to Justinian,* 
 appreciate the labours of that cmperctr, and pause to 
 conteniplate the principles of a science so important 
 to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a 
 nation form the most instructive portion of its history; 
 and, although I have devoted myself to write the an- 
 nals of a declining monarchy, I shall embrace the oc- 
 casion to breathe the pure and invigorating air of the 
 republic. 
 
 The primitive government of Rome' Laws of the 
 was composed, with some political skill, ^'"gs of Rome, 
 of an elective king, a council of nobles, and a general 
 assembly of the people. War and religion were ad- 
 ministered by the supreme magistrate ; and he alone 
 proposed the laws, which were debated in the senate, 
 and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of votes 
 in the thirty curiae or parishes of the city. Romulus, 
 Numa, and Servius Tullius, are celebrated as the 
 most ancient legislators ; and each of them claims his 
 peculiar part in the three-fold division of Jurispru- 
 dence.* The laws of marriage, the education of chil- 
 dren, and the authority of parents, which may seem 
 to draw their origin from nature itself, are ascribed to 
 the untutored wisdom of Romulus. The law of na- 
 tions and of religious worship, which Numa intro- 
 duced, was derived from his nocturnal converse with 
 the nymph Egeria. The civil law is attributed to the 
 experience of Servius : he balanced the rights and for- 
 tunes of the seven classes of citizens ; and guarded, 
 by fifty new regulations, the observance of contracts 
 and the punishment of crimes. The state, which he 
 had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by 
 the last Tarquin into lawless despotism ; and when 
 
 c Francis Hottoman, a learned and acute lawyer of the sixteenth 
 centurj', wished to mortify Cujacius, and to please the chancellor 
 de I'Hopital. His Anti-Tribonianus (which I have never been able 
 to procure) was published in French in 1G09; and his sect was pro- 
 
 f abated in Germany. (Heineccius, Opp. torn. iii. sylloge iii. p. 171 — 
 83.) 
 
 d At the head of these guides I shall respectfully place the learned 
 and perspicuous Hrineccius, a German professor, who died at Halle 
 in the year 1741. (See his Eloge in the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Ger- 
 man ique, tom. ii. p. 51—64.) His ample works have been collected 
 in eight volumes in 4ro. Geneva, 1743—1748. The treatises which I 
 have st'paratt ly used are, 1. Historia Juris Romani et Germanii i, l,ugd. 
 Batav. 1740, in 8vo. 2. Syntagma Antiquitalum Romanam Jurispru- 
 «lentiam ilhistrantium, 2 Vols, in 8vo. Traject. ad Rhennnu 3. Ele- 
 ni*>nta Juris Civilis secundum Ordinem Instiluiionum, Lugd. Bat. 
 1751,in8vo. 4. Elementa J. C. secundum Ordinem Pandeclarum, 
 Traject. 1772, in Svo. 2 vols. 
 
 e Our original text is a fragment de Orisrine Juris (Pandect. 1. i. tit. 
 ii.) of Pomponius. a Roman lawyer, who lived under the Anlonincs. 
 (Heinec. lorn. iii. syll. iii. p. 66—126.) It has been abridned, and pro- 
 bably corrupted, by Tribonian, and since restored by Bynkershoek. 
 (Opp. tom. 1. p. 279-304.) 
 
 f The constitiitional history of the kinisof Rome may be studied in 
 the first book of Livy, and more copiously in Dionysius Halicarnas- 
 sensis, (1. ii. p. 80—96. 1)9-130. I. iv. p. 198—220.) who sometime* 
 betrays the character of a rhetorician and a Greek. 
 
 E This three-fold division of the law wasapplied to the three Roman 
 kings by Justus Lipsius ; (Opp. tom. iv. p. 279.) ig adopted by Gravina: 
 (Origines Juris Civilis, p. 28. edit. Lipa. 1737.) aud is reluctantly ad 
 mitted by Mascou, his German editor. 
 
 ihe kingly office was abolished, the patricians en- 
 grossed the benefits of freedom. The royal laws be- 
 came odious or obsolete ; the mysterious deposit was 
 silently preserved by the priests and nobles ; and at 
 the end of sixty years, the citizens of Rome still com- 
 plained that they were ruled by the arbitrary sentence 
 of the magistrates. Yet the positive institutions of 
 the kings had blended themselves with the public and 
 private manners of the city; some fragments of that 
 venerable jurisprudence*' wrre compiled by the dili- 
 gence of antiquarians,' and above twenty texts still 
 speak the rudeness of the Pelasgic idiom of the 
 Latins.^ 
 The twelve ^ shall not repeat the well-known story 
 tables of the of the Deccmvirs,' who sullied by their 
 Decemvirs. actions the honour of inscribing on brass, 
 or wood, or ivory, the twelve tables of the Roman 
 laws." They were dictated by the rigid and jealous 
 spirit of an aristocracy, which had yielded with reluc- 
 tance to the just demands of the people. But tlie 
 substance of the twelve tables was adapted to the state 
 of the city ; and the Romans had emerged from bar- 
 barism, since they were capable of studying and em- 
 bracing the institutions of their more enlightened 
 neighbours. A wise Ephesian was driven by envy 
 from his native country: before be could reach the 
 shores of Latium, he had observed the various forms 
 of human nature and civil society ; he imparted his 
 knowledge to the legislaturos of Rome, and a statue 
 was erected in the forum to the perpetual memory of 
 Hermodorus." The names and divisions of the cop- 
 per money, the sole coin of the infant state, were of 
 Dorian origin : " the harvests of Campania and Sicily 
 relieved the wants of a people whose agriculture was 
 often interrupted by war and faction; and since the 
 trade was established, p the deputies who sailed from 
 the Tiber, might return from the same harbours with a 
 more precious carffo of political wisdom. The colo- 
 nies of Great Greece had transported and improved the 
 
 h The most ancient Code or Digest was styled Jus Papin'anum, 
 fri>m the first compiler, I'apirius, who fl.)urislied somewhat before or 
 after the 7?e^//i/^iMm. (Pandect. 1. i.tit. ii.) The best judicial critics, 
 even Bynkershoek (tom. i. p.284,2aj.) and Heineccius, (Hist. J. C. R. 
 1. i. c 16, 17. and Opp. tom. iii. sylloge iv. p. 1—8.) give credit to this 
 tale of Pomponius, without sufliciently adverting to the value and 
 rarity of such a monument of the third century of the illiterate city. 
 I much suspect that the Caius Papirius, the Ponlifex Maximus, who 
 revived the laws of Numa, (Dionys, Hal. 1. iii. p. 171.) left only an 
 oral tradition; and that the JusPapirianum of Granius Flaccus (Pan- 
 dect. 1. L. tit. xvi. leg. 144.) was not a commentary, but an original 
 work, compiled in the time of Caesar. (Censorin. de Die Natali, 1. iii. 
 p. 13. Duker de Latinitate J. C. p. 157.) 
 
 i A pompous, though feeble attempt, to restore the original, is made 
 in the Hisloire de la Jurisprudence Romaine of Terasson, p. 22—72. 
 Paris, 1750, in folio; a work of more promise than performance. 
 
 k In the year 1444, seven or eight tables of brass were dug up be- 
 tween Cortona and Gubio. A part of these, for the rest is Etruscan, 
 represents the primitive slate of the Pelasgic letters and language, 
 which are ascribed by Herodotus to that district of Italy; (1. i. c. 
 56—58.) though this difficult passage may be explained of a Crestona 
 in Thrace. (Notes de Larcher, tom. i. p. 256—261 .) The savage dialect 
 of the Eugubine tables has exercised, and may still elude, the divina- 
 tion of criticism ; but the root is undoubtedly Latin, of the same age 
 and character as the Saliare Carmen, which, in the time of Horace, 
 none could understand. The Roman idiom, by an infusion of Doric 
 and .Solic Greek, was gradually ripened into the style of the xii 
 tables, of the Duillian column, of Ennius, of Terence, and of Cicero. 
 (Gruter. Inscript. turn. i. p. cxlii. Scipion Maffei, Istoria Diplomatica, 
 p. 241—258. Biblioth. lul. tom. iii. p. 30—41. 171—205. tom. xlv. p. 
 1-52.) 
 
 • Compare Llvy (1. iii. c. 31—59.) whh Dionysius Halicamassensls, 
 (1. X. p. 644. xi. p. 691.) How concise and animated is the Roman — 
 how prolix and lifeless the Greek ! Yet he has admirably judged the 
 masters, and defined the rules, of historical composition. 
 
 m From the historians Heineccius (Hist. J. R. 1. i. No. 26.) main- 
 tains that the twelve tables were of brass— ffreas : inthe text of Pom- 
 ponius we read eboreas; for which Scaliger has substituted roboreas. 
 (Bynkershoek, p. 286.) Wood, brass, and ivory, might be successively 
 eniployed. 
 
 n His exile is mentioned by Cicero, (Tusculan. Quaestlon. v. 36.) 
 h\n statue by Pliny. (Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 11.) The letter, dream, and 
 prophecy of Heraclitus, are alike spurious. (Epistolae (jraec. Divers, 
 p. 337.) 
 
 o This intricate subject of the Sicilian and Roman money, is ably 
 discussed by Dr. Bentley, (Dissertation on the epistles of Phalaris, p. 
 427 — 479.) whose powers in this controversy were called forth by 
 nonour and resentment 
 
 P The Romans, or their allies, sailed as far as the fair promontory 
 of Africa. (Polyb. 1. iii. p. 1:7. edit.Casaubon, in folio.) Their Voyages 
 A Cumse, Slc. are noticed by Livy and Dlonysiitf. 
 
 arts of their mother-country. Cumae and Rhegium, 
 Crotona and Tarentum, Agrigentum and Syracuse, 
 were in the rank of the most flourishing cities. The 
 disciples of Pythagoras applied philosophy to the use 
 of government; the unwritten laws of Charondas ac- 
 ! cepted the aid of poetry and music,'' and Zaleucus 
 I framed the republic of the Locrians, which stood with- 
 I out alteration above two hundred years.' From a simi- 
 ^ lar motive of national pride, both Livy and Dionysius 
 ' are willing to believe, that the deputies of Rome visited 
 Athens under the wise and splendid administration of 
 Pericles ; and the laws of Solon were transfused into 
 the twelve tables. If such an embassy had indeed 
 been received from the barbarians of Hesperia, the 
 Roman name would have been fauiiliar to the Greeks 
 before the reign of Alexander ;• and the faintest evi- 
 dence would have been explored and celebrated by the 
 curiosity of succeeding times. But the Athenian mo- 
 numents are silent: nor will it seem credible that the 
 patricians should undertake a long and perilous navi- 
 gation to copy the purest model of a democracv. In 
 the comparison of the tables of Solon with those of 
 the decemvirs, some casual resemblance may be found : 
 some rules which nature and reason have revealed to 
 every society ; some proofs of a common descent from 
 Egypt or Phoenicia.* But in all the great lines of 
 public and private jurisprudence, the legislators of 
 Rome and Athens appear to be strangers or adverse to 
 each other. 
 
 Whatever might be the origin or the Their character 
 merit of the twelve tables," they obtained and influence, 
 among the Romans that blind and partial reverence 
 which the lawyers of every country delight to bestow- 
 on their municipal institutions. The study is recom- 
 mended by Cicero* as equally pleasant and instructive. 
 " They amuse the mind by remembrance of old words 
 and the portrait of ancient manners ; they inculcate 
 the soundest principles of government and morals; 
 and I am not afraid to affirm, that the brief composi- 
 tion of the decemvirs surpasses in genuine value the 
 libraries of Grecian philosophy. How admirable," 
 says Tully, with honest or affected prejudice, "is the 
 wisdom of our ancestors ! We alone are the masters 
 of civil prudence, and our superiority is the more con- 
 spicuous, if we deign to cast our eyes on the rude and 
 almost ridiculous juri.«?prudence of Draco, of Solon, 
 
 q This circumstance would alone prove the antiquity of Charondas, 
 the lejrislaior of Rhegium and Catana, who, by a strance error of Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, (tom. i. 1. xii. p. 4S5 — 492.) is celebrated long afterwards 
 as the author of the policy of Thurium. 
 
 r Zaleucus, whose existence has been rashly attacked, had the merit 
 and gloryof convertin2;aband of outlaws (the Locrians) into the most 
 virtuous and orderly of the Greek republics. (See twoMemoiresof the 
 Baron *'e St. Croix, sur la Legislation de la Grande Gn^ce ; Mem. de 
 I'Academie, torn. xlii. p. 276—333.) But the laws of Zaleucus and Cha- 
 rondas, which imposed on Diodorus and Stnbaeus, are the spurious 
 composition of a I'ylhagorean sophist, whose fraud has been detected 
 by the critical sagacity of Bentley, p. 335—377. 
 
 8 I seize the opportunity of tracing the progress of this national in 
 lercourse: 1. Herodotus and Thucydides, (A. U. C. 330—350.) appear 
 ignortinl of the name and existence of Rome. (Joseph, contra Apion. 
 tom. ii. 1. i. c. 12. p. 444. edit. Havercamp.) 2. Thcopompus,(A. U. C. 
 400. Plin. iii. 9.) mentions the invasion of the Gauls, which is noticed 
 in looser terms by HeraclidesPonticus. (Plutarch inCammillo, p.292. 
 edit. H. Stephan.) 3. The r».al or fabulous embassy of the Romans to 
 Alexander, (A. U. C. 430.) is attested by Cliiarchus, (Plin. iii. 9.) by 
 Aristus and Asclepiades, (Arrian, I. vii. p. 2:)4. 295.) and by Memnoa 
 of Hcraclea, (apuu Pholium, cod. ccxxiv. p. 725.) though tacitly de- 
 nied by Livy. 4. Theophrastus (A. U. C. 440.) primus externorum 
 aliqua de Romanis diligenlius scripsit. (Plin. iii. 9.) 5. Lycophron 
 (A. U. C. 480—500.) scattered the first seed of a Trojan colony and 
 the fable of the iEneid : (Cassandra, 1226—1280.) 
 
 AX/S0VT£J. 
 
 A bold prediction before the end of the first Punic war! 
 
 t The tenth table, de modo sepulturae, was borrowed from Solon, 
 (Cicero de Legibus, ii. 23—26.) the furtum per lancem et licium con- 
 ceptum, is derived by Heineccius from the manners of Athens. (Anti- 
 quitat. Rom. tom. ii. p. 167—175.) The right of killing a nocturnal 
 thief, was declared by Moses, Solon, and the decemvirs. (Exod. xxii. 
 3. Demosthenes contra 'limocratem, tom. i. p. 736. edit. Reiske. 
 Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. 1. c. 4. Collatio Legum Mosaicarum el Roman- 
 arum, tit. vii, Ho. 1. p. 218. edit. Cannegieier.) 
 
 u hgxxi'^i ««« xirietTTwi is the praise of Diodorus, (torn. i. 1. xii. p. 
 494.) w^hich jnay be fairly translated by the eleganti atque absoluta 
 brevitate v^rborum of Aulus Gellius. (Noct. Attic, xxi. 1.) 
 
 z Listen to Cicero (de Le^^ibus, ii. 23.) and bis representative Cras- 
 aus, (de Oratore, i. 43, 44.) 
 
 ^' 
 
 i 
 
78 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 subsrquent loss has been imperfectly restored by the 
 labours of modern critics.^ But although these vene- 
 rable monuments were consid« red as the rule of right, 
 and the fountain of justice,* they were overwhelmed 
 by the weight and variety of new laws, which, at the 
 end of five centuries, became a grievance more intole- 
 rable than the vices of the city.* Three thousand 
 brass plates, the acts of the senate and people, were 
 deposited in the capitol : •* and some of the acts, as the 
 Julian law against extortion, surpassed the number of 
 a hundred chapters.'' The decemvirs had neglected 
 to import the sanction of Zaleucus, which so long 
 maintained the integrity of his republic. A Locrian 
 who proposed any new law, stood forth in the assem- 
 bly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if 
 the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly 
 strangled. 
 Laws of the The decemvirs bad been named, and 
 people. their tables were approved, by an assem- 
 bly of the centuries, in which riches preponderated 
 against numbers. To the first class of Romans, the 
 proprietors of one hundred thousand pounds of copper,** 
 ninety-eight votes were assigned, and only ninety-five 
 ■were left for the six inf rior classes, distributed ac- 
 cording to their substance by the artful p(dicy of Ser- 
 vius. But the tribunes soon established a more spe- 
 cious and popular maxim, that every citizen has an 
 right to enact the laws which he is bound to 
 Instead of the centuries, they convened the 
 : and the patricians, after an impotent struggle, 
 submitted to the decrees of an assembly, in which 
 their votes were confounded with those of tlie meanest 
 plebeians. Yet as long as the tribes successively 
 passed over narrow bridges,^ and gave their voices 
 aloud, the conduct of each citizen was exposed to the 
 eyes and ears of his friends and countrymen. 'I'he 
 insolvent debtor consulted the wishes of his creditor; 
 the client would have blushed to oppose the views of 
 his patron; the general was followed by his veterans; 
 and the aspect of a grave magistrate was a living les- 
 son to the multitude. A new method of secret ballot 
 abolished the influence of fear and shame, of honour 
 and interest, and the abuse of freedom accelerated the 
 progress of anarchy and despotism.' The Romans 
 
 and of Lycurgus." The tv/elve tables were commit-! bad aspired to be equal; they were levelled by the 
 ted to 'he memory of the young and the meditation of j equality of servitude; and the dictates of Augustus 
 the old ; they were transcribed and illustrated with , were patiently ratified by the formal consent of the 
 learned diligence: they had escaped the flames of the tribes or centuries. Once, and once only, he experi- 
 Gauls, they subsisted in the age of Justinian, and their enced a sincere and strenuous opposition. His sub- 
 jects had resigned all political liberty ; they defended 
 the freedom of domestic life. A law which enforced 
 the obligation, and strengthened the bonds, of mar- 
 riage, was clamorously rejected ; Properiius, in the 
 arms of Delia, applauded the victory of licentious 
 love ; and the project of reform was" suspended till 
 a new and more tractable generation had arisen in 
 the world.* Such an example was not necessary to 
 instruct a prudent usurper of the mischief of popular 
 assemblies; and their abolition, which Augustus had 
 silently prepared, was accomplished withcjut resist- 
 ance, and almost without notice, on the accession of 
 his successor.'' Sixty thousand plebeian legislators, 
 whom numbers made formidable, and poverty secure, 
 were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held 
 their honours, their fortunes, and their lives, by the 
 clemency of the emperor. The loss of Decrees of the 
 executive power was alleviated by the smaie. 
 gift of legislative authority ; and Ulpian might assert, 
 after the practice of two hundred years, that the de- 
 crees of the senate obtained the force and validity of 
 laws. In the times of freedom, the resolves of the peo- 
 ple had often been dictated by the passion or error of 
 the moment: the Cornelian, Pompeian, and Julian 
 laws, were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing 
 disorders; but the senate, urjder the reign of the Cae- 
 sars, was composed of magistrates and lawyers, and 
 in questions of private jurisprudence, the integrity of 
 their judgment was seldom perverted by fear or in- 
 terest.' 
 
 The silence or ambiguity of the laws Edicts of the 
 was supplied by the occasional edicts praetors, 
 of those magistrates who were invested with the 
 honours of the state.*' This ancient prerogative of the 
 Roman kings was transferred, in their respective oflices, 
 to the consuls and dictators, the censors and praetors ; 
 and a similar right was assumed by the tribunes of 
 the people, the ediles, and the proconsuls. At Rome^ 
 and in the provinces, the duties of the subject, and the 
 intentions of the governor, were proclaimed ; and the 
 civil jurisprudence was reformed by the annual edicts 
 of the supreme judge, the praetor of'the city. As soon 
 as he ascended his tribunal, he announced by the voice 
 of the crier, and afterwards inscribed on a white wall, 
 the rules which he proposed to follow in the decision 
 of doubtful cases, and the relief which his equity 
 would afford from the precise rigour of ancient statutes. 
 A principle of discretion more congenial to monachy 
 was introduced into the republic : the art of respecting 
 the name, and eluding the eflficacy, of the laws, was 
 improved by successive praetors ; subtilties and fictions 
 were invented to defeat the plainest meaning of the 
 decemvirs, and where the end was salutary, the means 
 were frequently absurd. The secret or probable wish 
 of the dead was suffered to prevail over the order of 
 succession and the forms of testaments; and the clai* 
 mant, who was excluded from the character of heir, 
 accepted with equal pleasure from an indulgent praetor 
 the possession of the goods of his late kinsman or bene- 
 factor. In the redress of private wrongs, compensa- 
 tions and fines were substituted to the obsolete rigour 
 of the twelve tables; time and space were annihilated 
 
 equal 
 obey. 
 tribes . 
 
 7 See Heineccius. (Hist. J. R. No. 29—33.) I have foUowpil the 
 restoration of the xii tables by Gravina (Orisines J. C. p. 280—307.) 
 and Terasson. (Hist, de la Jurisprudence Romaine, p. 94—20.').) 
 
 X Finis sequi j)iris. (Tacit. Annal. iii. 27.) Fons omnis public! et 
 privati juris. (T. Liv. iii. 3-1.) 
 
 a De principiis juris, etquibus modis ad banc rrmlliludinem infini- 
 lam ac varielatem leaum perventum sit a/izus disseram. (Tacit. Ann. 
 iii. 2o.) This deep discjuisition fills only two pages, but they are the 
 pasres of Tacitus. With equal sense, hut with less energy, Livy (iii. 
 34.) had complained, in hoc iinmensoaliarurn super alias acervatarum 
 legum cumulo, &c. 
 
 b Suetonius in Vespasiano, c. 8. 
 
 e Cicero ad Familiares, viii. 8. 
 
 i Dionysius,wilh Arbuihnot, and most of the modems, (except Ei."?- 
 enschmidi de Ponderibus, &c. p. 137— 140.) represent the 100,000 asses 
 by 10,0()0 Attic drachma, or somewhat more than 300 pounds sterling. 
 But their calculation can apply only to the latter times, when the as 
 was diminished to 1 tMih of its ancient weight; nor can I believe that 
 in the first ages, however destitute of the precious metals, a single 
 ounce of silver could have been exchanged for seventy pounds of 
 copper or brass. A more simple and rational method is. to value the 
 copper itself according to the present rate, and, after comparing the 
 mint and the market price, the Roman and avoirdupoise weiglit, the 
 primitive as or Roman pound of copper may be appreciated' at one 
 English shilling, and the 100,000 asses of the first class amounted to 
 5000 pounds sterling. It will appear from the same reckoning, that 
 an ox was sold at Rome for five nounds, a sheepfurtenshiPings, and 
 a qu.-irter of wheat for one pound ten shillings : (Feslus. p. 30b. inlii. 
 Dacier. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 4.) nor do I see any reason to reject 
 these consequences, which moderate our ideas of the poverty of the 
 first Romans. 
 
 e Consult I'ue common writers on the Roman Comitia, especially Si- 
 gonius and Beaufort. Spanheim, (de Praestanlia et Usu Numismatum, 
 torn. ii. dissert, x. p. 192, 193.) shows, on a curious medal, the Cisla, 
 Pontes, Septa, Diribiior, Sec. 
 
 t Cicero (de Legibus, iii. IG. 17, 18.) debates this constitutional 
 question, and assigns to his brother Quiuius the must unpopular side. 
 
 g Prae lumultu recusantium preferre non potui. (Sueton in August, 
 c. 34.) See Propertius, 1. ii. eleg. 6. Heineccius, in a separate history, 
 has exhausted the whole subject of the Julian and Papian-Poppaean 
 laws. (Opp. lom. vii. P. i. p. 1-479.) 
 
 h Tacit. Annal. i. 15. Li^sius, Excursus E. in Taciturn. 
 
 i Non ambigiiur senalum jus facere posse, is the decision of Ulpian, 
 (1. XVI. ad Edict, in Pandect. 1. i. tit. log. 9.) Pomponius laxe? the 
 comi/ia of the peopleasa turba hominum. (Pandect. 1. i.iit. ii.li'^.9.) 
 
 k The jus honorarium of ihp praetors and (»iher magistrates is strictly 
 defined in the Latin text of the Institutes, (1. i. tit. ii. No. 7.) and more 
 l(x>sely explained in the Greek paraphrase of Theophilus, (p.33 -38- 
 eUii, Keitr) who drops the important word honorarium. 
 
 by fvinciful suppositions ; and the plea of youth, or 
 fraud, or violence, annulled the obligation, or excused 
 the p«^rformance, of an inconvenient contract. A juris- 
 diction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the 
 most dangerous abuse : the substance as well as the 
 form of justice, were often sacrificed to the prejudices 
 of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser 
 sedui'tinns of interest or resentment. But the errors or 
 vic'^s of each praetor expired with his annual office; 
 such maxims alone as had been approved by reason 
 and practice were copied by succeeding judges; the 
 rule of proceeding was defined by the solutioiTof new- 
 cases ; and the temptations of injustice were removed 
 hy the Cornelian law, which compelled the preetor of 
 the year to adhere to the letter and spirit of his first 
 proclamation.' It was reserved for the curiosity and 
 Ipiirning of Hatjrian, to accomplish the design which 
 had been conceived by the genius of Caesar; and the 
 praitorship of Salvius Julian, an eminent lawyer, was 
 immortalized by the composition of the perpetual 
 The perpe:ual EDICT. This well-dicjested code was 
 edict. ratified by the emperor and the senate ; 
 the long divorce of law and equity was at length 
 reconciled; and, instead of the twelve tables, the plr- 
 p^^tual edict was fixed as the invariable standard cf 
 civil jurisprudence." 
 
 Consti utionsof From Augustus to Trajan, the modern 
 the emperors. Caesars were content to promulgate their 
 edicts in the various characters of a Roman magistrate ; 
 and, in the decrees of the senate, the epistles and 
 orations of the prince were respectfully inserted. Ha- 
 drian" appears to have been the first who assumed, 
 withr-ut disguise, the plenitude of legislative power. 
 And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, 
 was countenanced by the patience of the times, and 
 his long absence from the seat of government. The 
 same policy was embraced by succeeding monarchs, 
 and, according to the harsh metaphor of Tertullian, 
 "the gloomy and intricate forest of ancient laws was 
 cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and Consti- 
 /m//W."° During four centuries, from Hadrian to 
 Justinian, the public and private jurisprudence was 
 moulded by the will of the sovereign ; and few institu- 
 tions, either human or divine, were permitted to stand 
 on their former basis. The origin of imperial legisla- 
 tion was concealed by the darkness of ages and the 
 terrors of armed despotism ; and a double^fiction was 
 pr -pagated by the servility, or perhaps the ignorance, 
 of the civilians, who basked in the sunshine of the 
 Hoinan and Byzantine courts. 1. To the prayer of the 
 ancient Cajsars, the people or the senate had sometimes 
 {irantcd a personal exemption from the obligation and 
 penalty of particular statutes; and each indulgence 
 was an act of jurisdiction exercised by the republic over 
 the first of her citizens. His humble privilege was at 
 length transformed into the prerogative of a tyrant ; 
 and the Latin expression of '* released from the laws,"P 
 
 1 Dion Cassuis (torn. i. 1. xxxvi. p. 100.) fixes the perpetual edicts in 
 l^.p ypar of Home 686. Their institution, however, is ascribed to the 
 V^aruSo in the Acta Diurna, which have been published from the 
 rariprs «.f T.udovicus Vives. Their authenticity is supported or al- 
 1 'WPd by Pizhms, (Annal. Roman, torn. ii. p. 377, 378.) Grsevius, (ad 
 S'lotnn. p. 778.) DiKlwell, (Praelection, Cambden, p. 665.) and Heinec 
 cms: but a single word. Scutum Cimhricum, detects the for«'erv 
 (M.yl<:.'8 Works, vol. i. p. 303.) ° '' 
 
 tn The history of edicts is composed, and the text of the perpetual 
 Hici is rpstorrd, by the master-hand of Heineccius, (Opp. lom. vii. 
 '• '' P- 1— 5fi4.) in whose resparches F might safely acquiesce.* In 
 i^i" Acadf-my of Inscriptions, IVI. Bouchaud has given a series of me- 
 n irs to this iniercstinc subject of law and literature. 
 
 n His laws are thp first in the Code. See Dodwell, (Prselect 
 
 ainbden, p. 319-340.) who wanders from the subject in confused 
 '".I ling and feeble paradox. 
 
 o Toiam illun veterem et squallentem sylvam legum novis prin- 
 cuilium resr.riptorum et edictorum securibus ruscatis et cadiiis. 
 (.\:) 'I >i.'et. c. 4. p. m. edit. Havercamp.) He proceeds to praise the 
 r-cpiit firmness of S«>verus, who reppaled the useless or pernicious 
 I tws, without any regard to ihpir age or authority. 
 
 ¥ The constitutional slyl» n{ Legibus Solutus is misinterpreted 
 t>y the art or ignorance of Dion Cassius, (lom. i. 1. liii.p. 713.) On 
 
 • [TJiii re*'>n»i'^n <rui oaly the Jierinninj of a work fcoad ajnonr the i«nen rf Hein- 
 
 79 
 
 was supposed to exalt the emperor above ali humaa 
 restraints, and to leave his conscience and reason as 
 the sacred measure of his conduct. 2. A similar 
 dependence was implied in the decrees of the senate 
 which, in every reign, defined the titles and powers of 
 an elective magistrate. But it was not before the 
 ideas, and even the language, of the Romans had been 
 corrupted, that a roya/ law,*J and an irrevocable gift of 
 the people, were created by the fancy of Ulpian, or 
 more probably of Tribonian himself:' and the nricrin 
 of imperial power, though false in fact, and slavisirin 
 Its consequence, was supported on a Their legislative 
 principle of freedom and justice. *' The power, 
 pleasure of the emperor has the vigour and eflJcet of 
 law, since the Roman people, by the royal law, have 
 transferred to their prince the full extent of their own 
 power and sovereignty." • The will of a single man, 
 of a child perhaps, was allowed to prevail over the 
 wisdom of ages and the inclinations of millions: and 
 the degenerate Greeks were proud to declare, that in his 
 hands alone the arbitrary exercise of legislation could 
 be safety deposited. "What interest or passion," 
 exclaims Theophilus in the court of Justinian, " can 
 reach the calm and sublime elevation of the monarch? 
 he is already master of the lives and fortunes of his 
 subjects: and those who have incurred his displeasure, 
 are already numbered with the dead."* Disdainincr 
 the language of flattery, the historian may confess, thai 
 in questions of private jurisprudence,.the absolute sove- 
 reign of a great empire can seldom be influenced by 
 any personal considerations. Virtue, or even reason, 
 will suggest to his impartial mind, that he is the guar- 
 dian of peace and equity, and that the interest of soci- 
 ety IS inseparably connected with his own. Under 
 the weakest and most vicious reign, the seat of justice 
 was filled by the wisdom and integrity of Papinian 
 and Ulpian ; « and the purest materials of the Code and 
 Pandects are inscribed with the names of Caracalla 
 and his ministers.* The tyrant of Rome was some- 
 times the benefactor of the provinces. A dagcrer 
 terminated the crimes of Domitian ; but the prudence 
 of Nerva confirmed his acts, which, in the joy of their 
 deliverance, had been rescinded by an indignant 
 senate.^ Yet in the rescripts,* replies to «,. . 
 the con.sultations of the magistrates, the T^^'"«««^"P"- 
 wisest of princes might be deceived by a partial 
 exposition of the case. And this abu.-^e, which placed 
 their hasty decisions on the same level with mature 
 and deliberate acts of legislation, was ineflfectually 
 condemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The 
 rescripts of the emperor, his grants and decrees, his edicts 
 and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed in purple 
 ink," and transmitted to the provinces as general or 
 
 U 
 
 this occasion his editor, Reimar, joins the universal censure which 
 freedom and criticism have pronounced against that slavish historian, 
 q ihe ttord (Lex Re ffia)w3i3 still more recent than the thinff. 
 Ihe slaves of Commodus or Caracalla would have started at tho 
 name of royalty. 
 
 r See Gravina (Opp. p. 501—512.) and Beauf .rt. (Republique Ro- 
 maine, lom. i p. 255-274.) He has made a proper use of two disser- 
 tations by John Frederic Gronovius and Noodt, both translated with, 
 vahiable notes, by Barbpyrac, 2 vols, in 12mo. 1731. 
 
 - Institut. 1. i. tit. ii. No. 6. Pandect. 1. i.tit. iv. lp<r. 1. Cod Jug. 
 tinian. 1. i. tit. xvii. leg. I. No. 7. In his Antiquities and Elem'enis. 
 Heineccius has amply treated de constitutionibus princir)um, which 
 are illustrated by Godefroy (Comment, ad Cod. Theodos. 1. i. tit i ii 
 III.) and Gravina. (p. 87—90.) 
 
 t Theophilus, in Paraphras. Graec. Institut. p. 33, M. edit. Reitz^ 
 Excura fii'"''"l'034-1073'^'"°^''' ^^^ ^^® Theophilus of J. H. Mylius,, 
 u There is more envy than reason in the complaint of Macrinus: 
 (Jul. Lapitolin. c. 13.) Nefas esse leges videri Commodi et Caracallaa 
 et hominum imperitorum voluniaips. Conmiodus was made a Divus 
 by Severus. (Dodwell, Praelect. viii. p. 324, 325.) Yet he occurs onlr 
 twicp in the Pandects. ' 
 
 X Of Antoninus- Caracalla alone 200 constitutions are extant in the 
 Code, and with his father 100. These two princes are quoted fifty 
 times in the Pandects, and eight in the Institutes. (Terasson, p.265.> 
 
 7 Plm. Secund. Epislol. x. 66. Sueton in Domitian. c. 23. 
 ,n 1 ^"^ * maxim of Consiantine, contra ji:s rescripta non valeant. 
 (Cod. Theodos. 1. i. tit. ii. leg. I.) The emperors reluctantly allovr 
 some scrutiny into the law and the fact, some delay, petition, Sec.- 
 but these insufficient remedies are too much in ihe discretion and at 
 the peril of the judge. 
 * A compound of vermilion and cinnabar, which marks the impe* 
 
 
80 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 f 
 
 [ 
 
 r 
 
 1! 
 
 
 •I 
 
 special laws, which the magistrates were bound to 
 execute, and the people to obey. But as their number 
 continually multiplied, the rule of obedience became 
 each day more doubtful and obscure, till the will of 
 the sovereien was fixed and ascertained in the Gre- 
 gorian, the Hermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. 
 The two first, of which some fragments have escaped, 
 were framed by two private lawyers, to preserve the 
 constitutions of the pagan emperors from Hadrian to 
 Constantine. The third, which is still extant, was 
 digested in sixteen books by the order of the younger 
 Theodosiiis, to consecrate the laws of the christian 
 princes from Constantine to his own reign. But the 
 three codes obtained an equal authority in the tri- 
 bunals ; and any act which was not included in the 
 sacred deposit might be disregarded by the judge as 
 spurious or obsolete.'' 
 
 Forms of the Among savage nations, the want of 
 Koman law. letters is imperfectly supplied by the use 
 of visible signs, which awaken attention, and perpetu- 
 ate the remembrance of any public or private transac- 
 tion. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited 
 the scenes of a pantomime ; the words were adapted 
 to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in 
 the /arms of proceeding was sufficient to annual the 
 substance of the fairest claim. The communion of the 
 marriage-life was denoted by the necessary elements 
 of fire and water; ' and the divorced wife resigned the 
 bunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been 
 invested with the government of the family. The 
 manumission of a son, or a slave, was performed by 
 turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek ; a 
 work was prohibited by the casting of a stone ; pre- 
 scription was interrupted by the breaking of a branch ; 
 the clenched fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposit ; 
 the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence. 
 The indenture of covenants was a broken straw; weights 
 and scales were introduced into every payment, and 
 the heir who accepted a testament, was sometimes 
 obliged to snap his fingers, to cast aways his garments, 
 and to leap and dance with real or affected transport.** 
 If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neigh- 
 bour's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen 
 towel, and hid his face with a masque or bason, lest 
 he should encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron.* 
 In a civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of his 
 witness, seized his reluctant adversary by the neck, 
 and implored, in solemn lamentation, the aid of his fel- 
 low-citizens. The two competitors grasped each oth- 
 er's hand as if they stood prepared for combat before the 
 tribunal of the praetor ; he commanded them to produce 
 the object of the dispute ; they went, they returned 
 with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at 
 his feet to represent the field for which they contended. 
 This occult science of the words and actions of law 
 was the inheritance of the pontiffs and the patricians. 
 Like the Chaldean astrologers, Ihey announced to their 
 clients the days of business and repose ; these impor- 
 tant trifles were interwoven with the religion of Numa ; 
 and, after the publication of the twelve tables, the Ro- 
 man people were still enslaved by the ignorance of 
 judicial proceedings. The treachery of some plebeian 
 
 rial (liplomag from Leo I. (A. D. 470.) to the fall of the Greek empire. 
 (Bibliolheque Raisonn6e de la Diplomatique, lorn. i. p. 509—514. 
 Lami, de Erudiiione Apostolorum, torn. ii. p. 720—726.) 
 
 b Schnltins, Jurisprudentia Anie-Juslinianea, p 681—718. Cujacius 
 assigned to Greeory the reigns from Hadrian to Gallienus, and the 
 continuation to nis fellow-labourer Hermopenes. This general divi- 
 sion may be just ; but they often trespapsed on each other's ground. 
 
 c Scaevola, most probably Q. Servidius Scaevola the master of 
 Papinian, considers this acceptance of fire and water as the essence 
 of marriace. (Pandect. 1. xxiv. til. l.leg. 66. See Heineccius, Hist. 
 J.R. No. 317.) 
 
 A Cicen> (de Officiis, iii. 19.) may stale an ideal case, but St. Am- 
 brose (de Otiiciis, iii. 2.) appeals to the practice of his own times, 
 which he understood as a lawyer and a magistrate. (Schulling ad 
 Ulpian. Fragment, lit. xxii. No. 28. p. 643, 644.) 
 
 e The furium lance licio<iue conceptum was no longer understood 
 in the time of the Antonines. (Aulas Gellius, xvi. 10.) The Attic 
 derivation of Heineccius (Antiquilat. Rom. 1. iv. lit. i. No. 13—21.) is 
 supported by the evidence of Aristophanes, hi4 scholiaat, and Pollux. 
 
 officers at length revealed the profitable mystery : in a 
 more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided 
 and observed ; and the same antiquity which sanctified 
 the practice, obliterated the use and meaning, of thip 
 primitive language.' 
 
 A more liberal art was cultivated. Succession of the 
 however, by the sages of Rome, who, civil lawyers. 
 in a stricter sense, may be considered as the authors 
 of the civil law. The alteration of the idiom and 
 manners of the Romans rendered the style of tho 
 twelve tables less familiar to each rising generation, 
 and the doubtful passages were imperfectly explained 
 by the study of legal antiquarians. To define the 
 ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the 
 principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile 
 the real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler 
 and more important task ; and the province of legisla- 
 tion was silently invaded by the expounders of ancient 
 statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurred with 
 the equity of the praetor, to reform the tyranny of the 
 darker ages : however strange or intricate the means, 
 it was the aim of artificial jurisprudence to restore the 
 simple dictates of nature and reason, and the skill of 
 private citizens was usefully employed to undermine 
 the public institutions of their country. The revolu- 
 tion of almost one thousand years, from the twelve 
 tables to the reign of Justinian, may be divided into 
 three periods almost equal in duration, and distinguish- 
 ed from each other by the mode of instruction and the 
 character of the civilians.* Pride and ignorance con- 
 tributed, during the first period, to con- The first period, 
 fine within narrow limits the science of A. U. c. 
 the Roman law. On the public days of 303—648. 
 market or assembly, the masters of the art were seen 
 walking in the forum ready to impart the needful 
 advice to the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from 
 whose voles, on a future occasion, they might solicit 
 a grateful return. As their years and honours increas- 
 ed, they seated themselves at home on a chair or 
 throne, to expect with patient gravity the visits of 
 their clients, who at the dawn of day, from the town 
 and country, began to thunder at their door. The 
 duties of social life, and the incidents of judicial pro- 
 ceeding, were the ordinary subject of these consulta- 
 tions, and the verbal or written opinion of the juris- 
 consults was framed according to the rules of prudence 
 and law. The youths of their own order and family 
 were permitted to listen ; their children enjoyed the 
 benefit of more private lessons, and the Mucian race 
 was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge of 
 the civil law. The second period, the learned and 
 splendid age of jurisprudence, may be second period, 
 extended from the birth of Cicero to the A.U. C. 
 reign of Severus Alexander. A system 6^18—988. 
 was formed, schools were instituted, books were com- 
 posed, and both the living and the dead became sub- 
 servient to the instruction of the student. The tripar- 
 ate of -/Elius Paetus, surnamed Catus, or the Cunning, 
 was preserved as the oldest work of jurisprudence. 
 Cato the censor derived some additional fame from 
 his legal studies, and those of his son : the kindred 
 appellation of Mucins Scaevola was illustrated by 
 
 f In his Oration for Murena, (c. 9—13.) Cicero turns into ridicule 
 the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are represented with 
 more candour by Aulus Gellius, (Noel. Attic, xx. 10.) Gravioa, (0pp. 
 p. 265, 266, 267.) and Heineccius. (Antiquilat. 1. iv. tit. vi.) 
 
 c The series of the civil lawyers is deduced from Pomponius, (de 
 Originc Juris Pandect 1. i. tit. ii.) The moderns have discussed, with 
 learning and criticism, this branch of literary history; and among 
 these I have chiefly been guided by Gravina, (p. 41— 79.) and Heinec- 
 cius, (Hist. J. R. No. 113— 351.) Cicero, more especially in his books 
 de Oratore, de Claris Oratoribus, de Legibus, and the Clavis Cicero- 
 niana of Ernesti, (under the names of Mucins, &c.) afford much 
 genuine and pleasing information. Horace often alludes to the 
 morning labours of ihe civilians, (Serm. I. i. 10. Epist. II. i. 103, &c.> 
 
 Agricolam laudal juris legumque peritua 
 Sub galli cautum, consultor ubi osiia pulsat. 
 
 Romae dulce din full el solemne, reclusa 
 Mane dome vigilare, clienii promere jura. 
 
 three sages of the law ; but the perfection of the 
 science was ascribed to Servius Sulpicius their disci- 
 ple, and the friend of Tully ; and the long succession, 
 which shone with equal lustre under the republic and' 
 under the Cajsars, is finally closed by the respectable 
 characters of Papinian, of Paul, and of Ulpian. Their 
 namfs, and the various titles of their productions, 
 have been minutely preserved, and the example of 
 Labeo may suggest some idea of their diligence and 
 fecundity. That eminent lawyer of the Augustan acre 
 divided the year between the city and country, between 
 business and composition ; and four hundred books 
 are enumerated as the fruit of his retirement. Of the 
 collections of his rival Capito, the two hundred and 
 fifty-ninth book is expressly quoted; and few teachers 
 could deliver their opinions in less than a century of 
 Third period, Volumes. In the third period, between 
 
 s&^iiSo 'u® ^*^^^"^ ^^ Alexander and Justinian, 
 • the oracles of jurisprudence were almost 
 mute. Ihe measure of curiosity had been filled ; the 
 throne was occupied by tyrants and barbarians ;' the 
 active spirits were diverted by religious disputes, and 
 the professors of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, 
 were humbly content to repeat the lessons of their 
 more enlightened predecessors. From the slow advan- 
 ces and rapid decay of these legal studies, it may be 
 inferred, that they require a state of peace and refine- 
 ment. From the multitude of voluminous civilians 
 who fill the intermediate space, it is evident, that such 
 studies may be pursued, and &uch works may be 
 performed, with a common share of judcrment, expe- 
 rience, and industry. The genius of Cicero and Virgil 
 was more sensibly felt, as each revolving acre had 
 been found incapable of producing a similar or a se- 
 cond : but the most eminent teachers of the law were 
 assured of leaving disciples equal or superior io them- 
 selves in merit and reputation. 
 Their phiio- The jurisprudence which had been 
 Bophy. grossly adapted to the wants of the first 
 Komans, w«s polished and itnproved in the seventh 
 century of the city, by the alliance of Grecian philo- 
 sophy. 1 he Scaevolas had been taught by use and 
 experience ; but Servius Sulpicius was the first civilian 
 who established his art on a certain and general theory .»> 
 lor the discernment of truth and falsehood he applied 
 as an infallible rule, the logic of Aristotle and the 
 stoics, reduced particular cases to general principles, 
 and diffused over the shapeless mass the light of order 
 and eloquence. Cicero, his contemporary and friend, 
 declined the reputation of a professed lawyer; but the 
 jurisprudence of his country was adorned by his 
 incomparable genius, which converts into gold every 
 object that it touches. After the example of Plato 
 he composed a republic ; and, for the use of his repub- 
 lic, a treatise of laws ; in which he labours to deduce 
 Uom a celestial origin, the wisdom and justice of the 
 Koman constitution. The whole universe, accordina 
 to his sublime hypothesis, forms one immense com° 
 monwealth : gods and men, who participate of the 
 same essence, are members of the same community • 
 reason prescribes the law of nature and nations; and 
 all positive institutions, however modified by accident 
 or custom, are drawn from the rule of right, which 
 "le Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind, 
 from these philosophical mysteries, he mildly ex- 
 cludes the sceptics who refuse to believe, and the 
 *ipicureans who are unwilling to act. The latter 
 disdain the care of the republic; he advises them to 
 Slumber in their shady gardens. But he humbly 
 entreats that the new academy would be silent, since 
 ner bold objections would too soon destroy the fair 
 and well-ordered structure of his lofty system.* Plato 
 
 81 
 
 Aristotle, and Zeno, he represents as the only teachers 
 who arm and instruct a citizen for the duties of social 
 ite. Of these, the armour of the stoics ^ was found to 
 be ot the firmest temper ; and it was chiefly worn, both 
 lor use and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence, 
 irom the portico, the Roman civilians learned to live 
 to reason, and to die : but they imbibed in some decree 
 the prejudices of the sect; the love of paradox,"the 
 pertinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attach- 
 ment to words and verbal distinctions. The superior- 
 ity of /orm to matter was introduced to ascertain the 
 right of property : and the equality of crimes is coun- 
 tenanced by an opinion of Trebatius,' that he who 
 touches the ear, touches the whole body ; and that he 
 who steals from a heap of corn, or a hogshead of 
 wine, is guilty of the entire theft."* 
 
 Arms, eloquence, and the study of the 
 civil law, promoted a citizen to the hon- -^"^^^^^y- 
 ours of the Roman state; and the three professions 
 were sometimes more conspicuous by their union in 
 the same character. In the composition of the edict 
 a learned prjetor gave a sanction and preference to his 
 private sentiments; the opinion of a censor, or a con- 
 sul, was entertained with respect; and a doubtful 
 interpretation of the laws might be supported by the 
 virtues or triumphs of the civilian. The patrician 
 arts were long protected by the veil of mystery ; and 
 in more enlightened times, the freedom of inquiry 
 established the general principles of jurisprudence. 
 Jiubtle and intricate cases were elucidated by the dis- 
 putes of the forum: rules, axioms, and definitions" 
 were admitted as the genuine dictates of reason ; and 
 the consent of the legal professors was interwoven 
 into the practice of the tribunals. But these interpre- 
 ters could neither enact nor execute the laws of the 
 republicj and the judges might disregard the authority 
 of the Scajvolas themselves, which was often over- 
 thrown by the eloquence or sophistry of an inoenious 
 pleader.- Augustus and Tiberius were the first to 
 adopt as a useful engine, the science of the civilians: 
 and their servile labours accommodated the old system 
 to the spirit and views of despotism. Under the fair 
 pretence of securing the dignity of the art, the privi- 
 lege of subscribing legal and valid opinions was con- 
 fined to the sages of senatorian or equestrian rank, 
 Vi . " previously approved by the judgment 
 
 of the prince; and this monopoly prevailed, till Ha- 
 drian restored the freedom of the profession to every 
 citizen conscious of his abilities and knowledge. The 
 discretion of the praitor was now governed by the 
 lessons of his teachers; the judges were enjoined 
 to obey the comment as well as the text of the law; 
 and the use of codicils was a memorable innovation^ 
 which Augustus ratified by the advice of the civilians.? 
 
 The most absolute mandate, could 
 only require that the judges should agree ^®*^"- 
 with the civilians, if the civilians agreed among them- 
 
 «n j£ f ^i, ^^^^ ^^^^^^ himself, propoees (de Oralore, i. 41, 42 ) 
 jn Idea of he art or science of jurisprudence, which the eloquent 
 but Illiterate, Anionius (i. 58.) affects to deride. It was naAl v exo 
 cuted by Serv.us Sulpicius, (in Bruto, c. 41.) wh,^e JSisL ari e^e-" 
 
 ^?pL''*'k^? • " '^^ *''"'**^ ^^'"'^y «f Ihe Roman Grav na, (p 60 ) 
 . Penurbair.cem autem omnium harum rerum academikm, han 
 
 ab Arcesila el Carneade recentem, exoremus ul sileat, nam si inva- 
 sent in haec, quae satis scite instrucia el composita videantur, nimis 
 edet rujnas, quam quidem ego placare cupio, submovere non audeo. 
 (de Leg»bus, i- 13.) From this passage alone, Bentley (Remarks oa 
 Free-thinking, p. 250.) might have learned how firmly Cicero be- 
 lieved in the specious doctrines which he has adorned. 
 
 k The stoic philosophy was first taught at Rome by Panaetius, the 
 friend of the younger Scipio, (see his Life in the Mem. de I'Academie 
 des Inscriptions, torn. x. p. 75—89.) 
 
 1 As he is quoted by Ulpian, (leg. 40, ad Sabinum in Pandect. I. 
 xlyii. tit. II. leg. 21.) Yet Trcbatius, after he was a leading civilian, 
 qui familiam duxit, became an epicurean. (Cicero ad Earn. vii. 6.) 
 Perhaps he was not constant or sincere in his new sect. 
 
 m See Gravina (p. 45— 51.) and the ineffectual cavils of Mascou. 
 Heineccius (Hist. J. R. No. 125.) quotes and approves a dissertaiioa 
 of Everard Otto, de Stoica Jurisconsultonim Fhilosophia. 
 
 n We have heard of the Catonian rule, the Aquilian stipulation, 
 and the Manilian forms, of 211 maxims, and of 247 definitions. 
 (Pandect. 1. l. lit. xvi. xvii.) 
 o Read Cicero, 1. i. de Oralore, Topica, pro Murena. 
 P See Fomponius, (de Origine Juris Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii. leg. 2. No. 
 47.) Heineccius, (ad Institut. 1. i. lit. ii. No. 8. 1. ii. tit. xxv. in Ele- 
 ment, el Antiquilat.) and Gravina, (p. 41—45.) Yet the raonopolr 
 of Augustus, a harsh measure, would appear with some softening in 
 the coiuemporary evidence ; and it was probably veiled by a decree 
 of the senate. 
 
82 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1 ' 
 
 selves. But positive institutions are often the result 
 of custom and prejudice; laws and language are am- 
 biguous and arbitrary ; where reason is incapable of 
 pronouncing, the love of argument is inflamed by the 
 envy of rivals, the vanity of masters, the blind attach- 
 ment of their disciples; and the Roman jurisprudence 
 was divided by the once famous sects of the Froculi- 
 ans and Sabinians.'i Two sages of the laws, Ateius 
 Capito and Antistius Labeo,' adorned the peace of the 
 Augustan age : the former distinguished by the favour 
 of his sovereign, the latter more illustrious by his 
 contempt of that favour, and his stern though harm- 
 less opposition to the tyrant of Rome. Their legal 
 studies were influenced by the various colours of their 
 temper and principles. Labeo was attached to the 
 form of the old republic ; his rival embraced the more 
 profitable substance of the rising monarchy. But the 
 disposition of a courtier is tame and submissive; and 
 Capito seldom presumed to deviate from the senti- 
 ments, or at least from the words, of his predecessors ; 
 while the bold republican pursued his independent 
 ideas without fear of paradox or innovations. The 
 freedom of Labeo was enslaved, however, by the 
 rigour of his own conclusions, and he decided, accor- 
 ding to the letter of the law, the same questions which 
 hislndulgent competitor resolved with a latitude of 
 equity more suitable to the common sense and feelings 
 of mankind. If a fair exchange had been substituted 
 to the payment of money, Capito still considered the 
 tranraction as a legal sale;* and he consulted nature 
 for the age of puberty, without confining his definition 
 to the precise period of twelve or fourteen years.* 
 This opposition of sentiments was propagated in the 
 writings and lessons of the two founders; the schools 
 of Capito and Labeo maintained their inveterate con- 
 flict from the age of Augustus to that of Hadrian ; " 
 and the two sects derived'their appellations from Sabi- 
 nus and Proculus their most celebrated teachers. The 
 names of Cassians and Fegasians were likewise applied 
 to the same parties ; but, by a strange reverse, the 
 popular cause was in the hands of Pegasus,* a timid 
 slave of Domitian, while the favourite of the Casars 
 was represented by Cassius,^ who gloried in his descent 
 from the patriot assassin. By the perpetual edict, the 
 controversies of the sects were in a great measure 
 determined. Vot that important work, the emperor 
 Hadrian preferred the chief of the Sabitiians : the 
 friends of monarchy prevailed ; but the moderation of 
 Salvius Julian insensibly reconciled the victors and 
 the vanquished. Like the contemporary philosophers, 
 the lawyers of the age of the Antonines disclaimed the 
 authority of a master, and adopted from every system 
 the most probable doctrines.' But their writings would 
 
 q I have peruarj iho Diatribe of Golfriilus Mascovius, Ihe leampcl 
 Mascou, de Sectis Jurisconsultorum, LipsisB, 1728, in 12mo. p. 276.) a 
 learnod treatise on a narrow and barren ground. 
 
 r See the character of Antistius Labeo in Tacitus, (Annal. iii. 75.) 
 and in an epi?ile of Ateius Capito, (Aul.Gellius, xiii. 12.) who accuses 
 his rival of libcrtas nimia el vecors. Yet Horace would not have 
 lashed a virtuous and respectable senator; and I must adopt the 
 emendation of Benlley, who reads Lahieno insanior. (Serm. I. iii. 
 82.) See Mascou, de Sectis, (c. 1. p. 1—24.) 
 
 • Justinian (Institui. I. iii. lit. xxiii. and Theophil. Vers. Graec. p. 
 677. 680.) has commemorated this weighty dispute, and the verses of 
 Homer that wore alleged on either side as legal authorities. It was 
 decided by Paul, (leg. 33. ad Edict, in Pandect. 1. xviii. lit. i. leg. 1.) 
 since, in a simple exchange, the buyer could not be discriminaled from 
 the seller. 
 
 t This controversy was likewise given for the Proculians, to super- 
 sede the indecency of a search, ana to comply with the aphorism of 
 Hippocrates, who was attached to the septenary numberof two weeks 
 of years, or 700 of days. (Insiitut. 1. i. tit. xxii.) Plutarch and the 
 stoics (de Placit. Philosoph. 1. v. c. 24.) assign a more natural reason. 
 Fourteen years is the age — »-i;« nv i r7tt(f*»tmoi xfiviTMi e^poi. See 
 the vestigia of the sects in Mascou, c. ix. p. 145—276. 
 
 n The series and conclusion of the sects are described by Mascou, 
 (c. ii — vii. p. 24 — 120.) and it would be almost ridiculous to praise his 
 equal justice to these obsolete sects. 
 
 X Ai the first summons he flies to the lurbot council ; yet Juvenal 
 (Satir. iv. 75—81.) styles the praefect or bailiff of Rome, sanctissimus 
 leguin interpres. From his science, says the old scholiast, he was 
 called, not a man, but a book. He derived the singular name of Pe- 
 gasus from the galley which his father commanded. 
 
 y Tacit. Annal. xvii. 7. Sueton. in Nerone. c. xxxvii. 
 
 s Mucou, de Sectis, c. viii. p. 120—144. de Heriscundis, a legal term 
 
 have been less voluminous, had their choice been more 
 unanimous. The conscience of the judge was per- 
 plexed by the number and weight of discordant testi- 
 monies, and every sentence that his passion or interest 
 might pronounce, was justified by the sanction of some 
 venerable name. An indulgent edict of the younger 
 Theodosius excused him from the labour of comparing 
 and weighing their arguments. Five civilians, Caius, 
 Papinian, Paul, Ulpian, and Modestinus, were esta- 
 blished as the oracles of jurisprudence : a majority was 
 decisive ; but if their opinions were equally divided, a 
 casting vote was ascribed to the superior wisdom of 
 Papinian.* 
 
 When Jnstinian ascended the throne, Rpf^^rmation of 
 the reformation of the Roman jurispru- the Roman law 
 dence was an arduous but indispensable ^^^^^5.57^*2.'^ 
 task. In the space of ten centuries, the •••'-> 
 infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filled 
 many thousand volumes, which no fortune could pur- 
 chase and no capacity could digest. Books could not 
 easily be found ; and the judges, poor in the midst of 
 riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate 
 discretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces were 
 ignorant of the language that disposed of their lives 
 and properties ; and the barbarous dialect of the Latins 
 was imperfectly studied in the academies of Berytus 
 and Constantinople. As an lUyrian soldier, that idiom 
 was familiar to the infancy of Justinian ; his youth had 
 been instructed by the lessons of jurisprudence, and his 
 imperial choice selected the most learned civilians of 
 the east, to labour with their sovereign in the work of 
 reformation.*' The theory of professors was assisted 
 by the practice of advocates, and the experience of 
 magistrates; and the whole undertaking was animated 
 by the spirit of Tribonian.' This extra- Tribonian, 
 ordinary man, the object of so much A. D. 527— 546. 
 praise and censure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia ;■ 
 and his genius, like that of Bacon, embraced, as his 
 own, all the business and knowledge of the age. Tri- 
 bonian composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange 
 diversity of curious and abstruse subjects:'' a double 
 panegyric of Justinian and the life of the philosopher 
 Theodotus ; the nature of happiness and the duties 
 of government ; Homer's catalogue and the fotir-and- 
 twenty sorts of metre ; the astronomical canon of Pto- 
 lemy ; the changes of the months ; the houses of the 
 planets ; and the harmonic system of the world. To 
 the literature of Greece he added the use of the Latin 
 tongue; the Roman civilians were deposited in his 
 library and in his mind ; and he most assiduously culti- 
 vated those arts which opened the road of wealth and 
 preferment. From the bar of the pra?torian praifects, 
 he raised himself to the honours of qua?stor, of con- 
 sul, and of master of the offices: the council of Justi* 
 nian listened to his eloquence and wisdom, and envy 
 was mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his 
 manners. The reproaches of impiety and avarice have 
 
 which was applied to these eclectic lawyers ; herciscere is synony- 
 mous to dividere. 
 
 a See the Theodosian Code, 1. i. lit. iv. with Godefroy's Com- 
 mentary, loin. i. p. 30—35. This decree might give occasion to 
 Jesuitical disputes like those in the Lettres Provinciales, whether a 
 judge was obliged to follow the opinion of Papinian, or of a majority, 
 against his judgment, against his conscience, &c. Yet a legislator 
 might give that opinion, however false, the validity, not of truth, but 
 of law. 
 
 b For the legal labours of Justinian, T have'sludied the Preface to 
 the Institutes; the 1st, 2d, and 3d Prefaces to the Pandects; the 1st 
 and 2d Preface lo the Code; and the Code itself, (I. i. tit. xvii. do 
 Veteri Jure enucleando.) After these original testimonies, I have con- 
 sulted, among the mo<lern3, Heineccius, (Hist. J. R. No. 383 — JO-l.) 
 Terasson, (Hist, de la Jurisprudence Romaine, p. 295—356.) Gravina, 
 (0pp. p. 93—100.) and Ludewig, in his life of Justinian, (p. 19 — 123. 
 318-321. for the Code and Novels, p. 209—261; for the Digest or 
 Pandects, p. 262-317.) 
 
 c For the character of Tribonian, see the testimonies of Procopius, 
 (Persic. 1. i. c. 23, 24. Anecdot. c. 13. 20.) and Suidas, (lorn. iii. p. 501. 
 edit. Kuster.) Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 175 — 209.) works hard, 
 very hard, lo white-wash— the black-a-moor. 
 
 d I apply the two passages of Suidas to the same man ; every circum- 
 stance so exactly tallies. Yet the lawyers appear ignorant ; and Fabri- 
 cius is inclined to separate the two characters. (Bibliol. Graec. torn, i 
 p. 341. ii. p. 618. iii. p. 418. zii. p. 346. 353. 474.) 
 
 The code of 
 
 Justinian, 
 
 A. D. 528. 
 
 Feb. 13. 
 
 A. D. 529. 
 
 April 7. 
 
 Stained the virtues or the reputation of Tribonian. In 
 a bigoted and persecuting court, the principal minister 
 was accused of a secret aversion to the christian faith, 
 and was supposed to entertain the sentiments of an 
 atheist and a pagan, which have been imputed, incon- 
 sistently enough, to the last philosophers of Greece. 
 His avarice was more clearly proved and more sensi- 
 bly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the adminis- 
 tration of justice, the example of Bacon will again 
 occur; nor can the merit of Tribonian atone for his 
 baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of his profession; 
 and if laws were every day enacted, modified, or re- 
 pealed, for the base consideration of his private emo- 
 lument. In the sedition of Constantinople, his remo- 
 val was granted to the clamours, perhaps to the just 
 indignation of the people: but the qua?stor was spee- 
 dily restored, and till the hour of his death, he pos- 
 sessed, above twenty years, the favour and confidence 
 of the emperor. His passive and dutiful submission 
 has been honoured with the praise of Justinian him- 
 self, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how 
 often that submission degenerated into the grossest 
 adulation. Tribonian adored the virtues of his gracious 
 master : the earth was unvvorthy of such a prince ; and 
 he afl^ected a pious fear, that Justinian, like Elijah or 
 Romulus, would be snatched into the air, and trans- 
 lated alive to the mansions of celestial glory." 
 
 If Caesar had achieved the reformation 
 of the Roman law, his creative genius, 
 enlightened by reflection and study, 
 would have given to the world a pure 
 and original system of jurisprudence. 
 Whatever flattery might suggest, the emperor of the 
 east was afraid to establish his private judgment as 
 the standard of equity: in the possession of legislative 
 power, he borrowed the aid of time and opinion ; and 
 his laborious compilations are guarded by the sa^es 
 and legislators of past times. Instead of a statue cast 
 in a simple mould by the hand of an artist, the works 
 of Justinian represent a tesselated pavement of antique 
 and costly, but too often of incoherent, fragments. In 
 the first year of his reign, he directed the faithful Tri- 
 bonian, and nine learned associates, to revise the ordi- 
 nances of his predecessors, as they were contained, 
 since the time of Hadrian, in the Gregorian, Hermo- 
 genian, and Theodosian codes; to purge the errors and 
 contradictions, to retrench whatever was obsolete or 
 superfluous, and to select the wise and salutary laws, 
 best adapted to the practice of the tribunals and the 
 use of his subjects. The work was accomplished in 
 fourteen months ; and the twelve books or tables, 
 which the new decemvirs produced, might be designed 
 to imitate the labours of their Roman predecessors. 
 The new Code of Justinian was honoured with his 
 name, and confirmed by his royal signature : authentic 
 transcripts were multiplied by the pens of notaries and 
 scribes ; they were transmitted to the magistrates of 
 the European, the Asiatic, and afterwards the African 
 provinces : and the law of the empire was proclaimed 
 on solemn festivals at the doors of churches. A more 
 The Pandects or ^^^^°"® operation was still behind: to 
 Digest, extract the spirit of jurisprudence from 
 
 a'm??o'{J'^'^Ic* ^he decisions and conjectures, the nues- 
 A.u.jiU, Dec. 16. .• ^^^^ 1 •• . - .•' Ti ' . .,! 
 
 tions and disputes of the Roman civilians. 
 
 Seventeen lawyers, with Tribonian at their head, were 
 appointed by the emperor to exercise an absolute ju- 
 risdiction over the works of their predecessors. If 
 they had obeyed his commands in ten years, Justinian 
 
 83 
 
 would have been satisfied with their diligence; and 
 the rapid composition of the Digest or PANOEcrs ' in 
 three years, will deserve praise or censure, according 
 ^ the merit of the execution. From the library of 
 1 ribonian they chose forty, the most eminent civilians 
 ot tormer times : s two thousand treatises w^ere com- 
 prised in an abridgment of fifty books ; and it has been 
 carefully recorded, that three millions of lines or sen- 
 tences" were reduced, in this abstract, to the moderate 
 number of one hundred and fifty thousand. The edi- 
 tion of this great work was delayed a month after that 
 ot the Institutes ; and it seemed reasonable that the 
 elements should precede the digest of the Roman law. 
 As soon as the emperor had approved their labours, he 
 ratihed, by his legislative power, the speculations of 
 these private citizens: their commentaries, on the 
 twelve tables, the perpetual edict, the laws of the peo- 
 ple, and the decrees of the senate, succeeded to the 
 authority of the text; and the text was abandoned, as 
 a useless, though venerable, relict of antiquity. The 
 Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, were declared to 
 be the legitimate system of civil jurisprudence; they 
 alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they alone 
 were taught in the academies of Rome, Constantino- 
 ple, and Berytus. Justinian addressed to the senate 
 and provinces his eternal oracles; and his pride, under 
 the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of thia 
 great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity. 
 Since the emperor declined the fame praise and cen- 
 and envy ot original composition, we can sure of the Code 
 only require at his hands, method, choice, '^"^ Pandecta. 
 and fidelity, the humble, though indispensable, vir- 
 tues of a compiler. Among the various combinations 
 of ideas, it is diflicult to assign any reasonable pre- 
 ference ; but as the order of Justinian is different in 
 his three works, it is possible that all may be wrong; 
 and it is certain that two cannot be right. In the 
 selection of ancient laws he seems to have viewed 
 his predecessors without jealousy, and with equal 
 regard : the series could not ascend above the reign of 
 Hadrian, and the narrow distinction of paganism and 
 Christianity, introduced by the superstition of Theo- 
 dosius, had been abolished by the consent of mankind. 
 But the jurisprudence of the Pandects is circumscribed 
 within a period of a hundred years, from the perpetual 
 edict to the death of Severus Alexander: the civilians 
 who lived under the first Caesars are seldom permitted 
 to speak, and only three names can be attributed to 
 the age of the republic. The favourite of Justinian 
 (it has been fiercely urged) was fearful of encounter- 
 ing the light of freedom and the gravity of Roman 
 sages. Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine 
 and native wisdom of Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpi- 
 cius; while he invoked spirits more congenial to hia 
 own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked 
 to the irnperial court to study Latin as a foreign tongue^ 
 and jurisprudence as a lucrative profession.* But the 
 ministers of Justinian ' were instructed to labour, not 
 for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the immediate 
 
 e This story is related by Hesychius, (de Viris Illustribus,) Proco- 
 pius, (Anecdot. c. 13.) and Suidas, (torn iii. p. 501.) Such flalterv is 
 incredible ! r , j 
 
 Nihil est quod credere de se 
 
 Non potest, cum laudaiur Diis aequa potestas. 
 ••ontenelle (torn. i. p. 32^-39.) has ridiculed the impudence of the 
 modest Virgil. But the .name Fontenelle places his king above the 
 uivine Augustus; and the sage Boileau has not blushed to say "Le 
 aesiin a ses yeux n'oseroit balancer." Yet neither Augustus nor 
 twuis XIV. were fools. 
 
 f nsevoixT*. (eeneral receivers) was a common title of the Gre^k 
 miscellanies. (Plin. Prefat. ad Hist. Natur.) The />i^«*/aof Scsevora, 
 Marcellinus, Celsus, were already familiar to the civilians : but Jus' 
 tinian was in the wronjr, when he used the two appellations as sy- 
 nonymous. Is the word Pandects Greek or Latin— masculine or 
 feminine ? The diligent Brenckman will not presume to decide these 
 momentous controversies. (Hist. Pandect. Floreniin. p. 300—304 ) 
 
 % Angelus Politianus (l. v. Epist. ult.) reckons thirty-seven (p 192 
 —200.) civilians quoted in the Pandects- a learned, and for his limei 
 an extraordinary, list. The Greek index to the Pandects enumerates 
 D u^'"'"^ *"d f^rty are produced by the indefatigable Fabricius. 
 (Bibliot. Graec. tom. iii. p. 488—502.) Antoninus Augustus (de 
 ^iT'i^ir '^ Propriis Pandect, apud Ludewig, p. 283.) is said to have 
 added fifty-four names ; but they must be vague or second-hand refer- 
 ences. 
 
 h The ^r,x6^ of the ancient MSS. may be strictly defined as sen- 
 tences or periods of a complete sense, which, on the breadth of the 
 ?archment rolls or volumes, composed as many lines of unequal length, 
 'he number of i^nx-n in each book served as a check on the errors 
 of the scribes, (Ludewig, p. 211—215. and his original author Suicer 
 Thesaur. Ecclesiast. tom. i. p. 1021—1036.) 
 
 i An ingenious and learned oration of Schultingius (Jurisprudentia 
 Ante-Jusiinianea, p. 883—907.) justifies the choice of Tribonian^ 
 against the passionate charges of Francis Hotiomaa aad his sectaries. 
 
 I 
 
 ; 
 
84 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 
 i^ 
 
 I 
 
 I' 
 
 I' 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 4' 
 
 A 
 
 benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select the 
 useful and practical parts of the Roman law; and the 
 writings of the old republicans, however curious or 
 excellent, were no longer suited to the new system of 
 manners, religion, and government. Perhaps, if the 
 preceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our 
 candour would acknowledge, that, except in purity of 
 lancruacre,'' their intrinsic merit was excelled by the 
 fichoorof Papinian and Ulpian. The science of the 
 laws is the slow growth of lime and experience, and 
 the advantage both of method and materials, is natu- 
 rally assumed by the most recent authors. The civi- 
 lians nf the rcign'of the Antonines had studied the works 
 of their predecessors: their philosophic spirit had 
 mitigated the rigour of antiquity, simplified the forms 
 of proceeding, and emerged from the jealousy and pre- 
 judice of the rival sects. Thechoice of the authorities 
 that compose the Pandects, depended on the judgment 
 of Tribonian ; but the power of his sovereign could 
 not absolve him from the sacred obligations of truth 
 and fidelity. As the legislator of the empire. Jus* 
 tinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines, or con- 
 demn, as" seditious, the free principles, which were 
 maintained by the last of the Roman lawyers." But 
 the existence of past facts is placed beyond the reach 
 of despotism ; and the emperor was guilty of fraud 
 and forgery, when he corrupted the integrity of their 
 text, inscribed with their venerable names the words 
 and ideas of his servile reign," and suppressed, by the 
 hand of power, the pure and authentic copies of their 
 sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribo- 
 nian and his colleagues, are excused by the pretence of 
 uniformity : but their cares have been insufficient, and 
 the antinomies^ or contradictions of the Code and Pan- 
 dects, still exercise the patience and subtil ty of modern 
 civilians." 
 
 L088 of the an- A rumoUr devoid of evidence has been 
 cient jurispru- propagated by the enemies of Justinian ; 
 dence. ^^^^ ^^ jurisprudence of ancient Rome 
 
 -was reduced to ashes by the author of the Pandects', 
 from the vain persuasion, that it was now either false 
 or superfluous. Without usurping an ofiice so invi- 
 dious, the emperor miglit safely commit to ignorance 
 and time the accomplishment of this destructive wish. 
 Before the invention of printing and paper, the labour 
 tind the materials of writing could be purchased only 
 by the rich ; and it may reasonably be computed, that 
 the price of books was a hundred-fold their present 
 value." Copies were slowly multiplied and cautiously 
 renewed ; the hopes of profit tempted the sacrilegious 
 scribes to erase the characters of antiquity, and So- 
 phocles or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment 
 to missals, homilies, and the golden legend.? If such 
 
 was the fate of the most beautiful compositions of 
 genius, what stability could be expected for the dull 
 and barren works of an obsolete science! The books 
 of jurisprudence were interesting to few, and entertain- 
 ing to none: their value was connected with present 
 use, and they sunk for ever as soon as that use was 
 superseded by the innovations of fashion, superior 
 merit, or public authority. In the age of peace and 
 learning, between Cicero and the last of the Antonines, 
 many losses had been already sustained, and some 
 luminaries of the school, or forum, were known only 
 to the curious by tradition and report. Three hundred 
 and sixty years of disorder and decay accelerated the 
 progress of oblivion : and it may fairly be presumed, 
 that of the writings, which Justinian is accused of 
 neglecting, many were no lunger to be found in the 
 libraries of the east.<» The copies of Papinian, or 
 Ulpian, which the reformer had proscribed, were 
 deemed unworthy of future notice : the twelve tables 
 and praetorian edicts insensibly vanished, and the 
 monuments of ancient Rome were neglected or des- 
 troyed by the envy and ignorance of the Greeks. 
 Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with dif- 
 ficulty and danger from the common shipwreck, and 
 criticism has pronounced, that nil the editions and 
 manuscripts of the west are derived from one original.' 
 It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning 
 of the seventh century,' was successively transported 
 by the accidents of war and commerce to Amalphi,* 
 Pisa," and Florence,' and is now deposited as a sacred 
 relic' in the ancient palace of the republic* 
 
 It is the first care of a reformer to Legal incon- 
 prevent any future reformation. To main- stancy of Jus- 
 tain the texts of the Pandects, the Insti- ^'""*"- 
 tutes, and the Code, the use of cyphers and abbrevia- 
 tions was rigorously proscribed ; and as Justinian had 
 recollected, that the perpetual edict had been buried 
 under the weight of commentators, he denounced the 
 punishment of forgery against the rash civilians who 
 
 q Pomponiiis (Pandect. 1. i.til. ii. leg. 2.) observes, ihatof the three 
 founders of the civil law. Mucins, Brutus, and Manilius, extant volu- 
 niina, scripla Manilii monumenia; that of some old repuMican law 
 yers, haec versantureoruniscripia inter nianushominuin. Eight of the 
 Augustan saces were reduced to a compendium : of Cascelliu8,scripta 
 non extant sed unus liber, &c. ; of Trebatius, minus frequentantur; 
 of Tubero, libri parum s:rati sunt. Many quotations in the Pandects 
 are derived from books which Tribonian never saw ; nnd, in the long 
 period from the seventh to the thirteenth century of Komo, the appa- 
 rent reading of the moderns successively depends on the knowledge 
 and veracity of their predecessors. 
 
 p All, in several instances, repeat the errors of the scribe and the 
 transpositions of some leaves in the Florentine Pandects. This fact, if 
 it be true, is decisive. Yet the Pandects are quoted by Ivo of Chartres, 
 (who died in 1117.) by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and by 
 Vacarius, our first professor, in the year 1140. (Selden and FU'tam. c. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 85 
 
 k Strip away the crust of Tribonian, and allow for the use of tech- 
 nical words, and the Latin of the Pandects will be found not unworthy 
 of the silver age. It has been vehemently attacked by Laurentius 
 Valla, a fastidious erammarian of the fifteenth century, and by his 
 apologist Floridus Sabinus. It has been defended by Alciat, and a 
 nameless advocate, (most probably James Capellus.) Their various 
 treatises are collected by Duker. (Opuscula de Latinitate veterum 
 Jurisconsultorum, Lugd. Bat. 1721, in 12mo.) 
 
 J Nomina quidem veteribus servavimus, legum autem veritatem 
 no«tram fecimus. Itaque siquid erat in illis sedittosum, multa aulem 
 talia erant ibi reposita, hoc decisum est el definilum, et in perspicuum 
 finem deducta est quaeque lex. (Cod. Justinian. I. i. lit. xvii. leg. 3. 
 J^To. 10.) A frank confession ! 
 
 m The number of these emhlemata (a polite name for forgeries) la 
 much reduced by Bynkcrshoek, (in the four last books of his Obser- 
 vations,) who poorly maintains the right of Justinian and ihe duty of 
 Tribonian. 
 
 B The antinomies, or opposite laws of the Code and Pandects, are 
 sometimes the cause, and often the excuse, of the glorious uncertainty 
 of the civil law, which so often affords what Montaigne calls " Ques- 
 tions pour I'Ami." See a fine passage of Franciscus Balduiuus in 
 Justinian, (1. ii. p. 259, &c. apud Ludewig, p. 305, 306.) 
 
 o When Fust or Faustus, sold at Paris his first printed bibles as 
 manuscripts, the price of a parchment copy was reduced from four or 
 five hundred to sixty, fifty, and forty crowns. The public was at 
 first pleased with the cheapness, and at length provoked by the dis- 
 covery of the fraud. (Matuire, Annal. Typograph. torn. i. p. 12. first 
 edition.) 
 
 P This execrable practice prevailed from the eighth, and more espe- 
 cially from the twelfth century, when it became almoet universal. 
 (MontfaucoQ, in the Memoires de I'Academie, torn. vi. p. 606, Jic. 
 Biblioiheque Raisouuio de la Diplomatique, torn. i. p. 176.) | 
 
 7. tern. ii. p. 1060-1065.) Have our British MSS. of the Pandects 
 been collated 1 , '« j 
 
 • See the description of this original in Brenckman. (Hist. Pandect. 
 Florent. I. i. c. 2, 3. p. 4— 17. and irii.) Polilian, an enthusiast, revered 
 it as the authentic standard of Justinian himself, (p 407, 408.) but this 
 
 Saradox is refuted by the abbreviations of the Florentine MS. (I. ii.c. 
 . p. 117—130.) It is composed of two quarto volumes, with large 
 margins, on a thin parchment, and the Latin characters betray the 
 hand of a Greek scribe. 
 
 t Brenckman, at the end of his history, has inserted two disserta- 
 tions on the republic of Amalphi, and tho Pisan war in the year 1135, 
 &c. 
 
 u The discovery of the Pandects at Amalphi (A. D. 1137.) is first 
 noticed (in 1501.) by Ludovicus Bologninus, (Brenckman, 1. i. c. 11. P 
 73,74.1. iv. C.2. p. 417— 425.) on the faith of a Pisan chronicle, (p. 409, 
 410.) without a name or a date. The whole story, though unknown to 
 the twelfth century, embellished by ignorant ages, and suspected by 
 rigid criticism, is not, however, destitute of much internal probability, 
 (I. i. c. 4—8, p. 17—50.) The Liber Pandectarum of Pisa was un- 
 doubtedly consulted in the fourteenth century by the great Bartolus, 
 (p. 406, 407. See 1. i. c. 9. p. 50-62.) 
 
 X Pisa was taken by the Florentines in the year 1106; and in 1411 
 the Pandects were traosporied to the capital. These events arc 
 authentic and famous. 
 
 y They were now bound in purple, deposited in a rich casket, and 
 shown to curious travellers by the monks and magistrates bare- 
 headed, and with lighted tapers. (Brenckman, 1. i. c. 10, 11, 12. p. 
 
 62-93.) 
 z After the collations ofPolitian, Bologninus, and Antoninus Angus- 
 
 tinus, and the splendid edition of the Pandects by Taurellus, (in 1551.) 
 
 Henry Brenckman, a Dutchman, undertook a pilgrimage to Florence, 
 
 where he employed several years in tho study of a single manuscript. 
 
 iiis Historia Pandectarum Florentinorum, (Utrecht, 1722, in 4io,) 
 
 though a mouumeut of industry, is a small portion of his original 
 
 design. 
 
 should presume to interpret or porvert the will of their 
 sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of 
 Cujacius, should blush for their accumulated guilt, 
 unless they dare to dispute his right of binding the 
 authority of his successors, and the native freedom of 
 the mind. But the emperor was unable to fix hio own 
 inconstancy; and, while he boasted of renewing the 
 exchange of Diomede, of transmuting brass into gold,* 
 he discovered the necessity of purifying his gold from 
 the mixture of baser aIlo5\ Six years had not elapsed 
 from the publication of the Code, before he condenmed 
 the imperfect attempt, by a new and more accurate 
 Second edition edition of the same work; which he 
 of the Code, enriched with two hundred of his own 
 
 ^No^'.^' ^^^'^' ^"^ ^^^y decisions of the darkest 
 and most intricate points of jurispru- 
 dence. Every year, or, according to Procopius, each 
 day, of his long reign, was marked by some legal 
 innovation. Many of his acts were rescinded by him- 
 self; many were rejected by his successors, many have 
 been obliterated by time ; but the number of sixteen 
 The Novel.«», Edicts, and one hundred and sixty-ciffht 
 A. D. 534-565. NovELs,^ has been admitted into the 
 authentic body of the civil jurisprudence. In the 
 opinion of a philosopher superior to the prejudices of 
 his profession, these incessant, and, for the most part, 
 trifling, alterations, can be only explained by the 
 venal spirit of a prince, who sold without shame his 
 jiidgments and his laws.^ The charge of the secret 
 historian is indeed explicit and vehement ; but the sole 
 instance, which he produces, may be ascribed to the 
 devotion as well as to the avarice of Justinian. A 
 wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to the 
 church of Emesa; and its value was enhanced by the 
 dexterity of an artist, who subscribed confessions of 
 debt atid promises of payment with the names of the 
 richest Syrians. They pleaded the established pre- 
 scription of thirty or forty years; but their defence 
 was overruled by a retrospective edict, which extended 
 the claims of the church to the term of a century ; an 
 edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder, that, 
 after serving this occasional purpose, it was prudently 
 abolished in the .same reign.'' If candour will acquit 
 the emperor himself, and transfer the corruption to his 
 wife and favourites, the suspicion of so foul a vice 
 must still degrade the majesty of his laws : and the 
 advocates of Justinian may acknowledge, that such 
 levity, whatsover be the motive, is unworthy of a 
 legislator and a man. 
 
 The Institutes, Monarchs seldom condescend to be- 
 A. D- 533. come the preceptors of their subjects; 
 Nov. 21. gj^j g^j^g praise is due to Justinian, by 
 whose command an ample system was reduced to a 
 short and elementary treatise. Among the various 
 institutes of the Roman law,« those of Caius' were 
 the most popular in the east and west ; and their use 
 
 a \(vTf» x%\t.ttj>y, ixxTcucei ivvistisixK, apud Homerum patrem 
 omnis virtutis. (Ist Praefat. ad Pandect.) A line of Milton or Tasso 
 would surprise us in an act of parliament. Quae omnia obiineresanci- 
 mus in omne sevuni. Of ihe first Code, he says, (2iid Praefat.) in aeter- 
 num valiturum. Man and for ever! 
 
 b Novella is a classic adjective, but a barbarous substantive. (Lu- 
 dewig, p. 24.'>.) Justinian never collected them himself; the nine 
 collations, the legal standard of modern tribunals, consists of ninety- 
 eight Novels ; but the number was increased by the dilicrence of Ju- 
 lian, Haloander, and Contius. (Ludewig, p. 249. 25S. Aleman. Not. in 
 Anecdot. p. 98.) 
 
 e Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence deg 
 Komaiiis, c. 20. tnm. iii. p. 501. in 4to. On this occasion he throws 
 asiile tlie gown and cap of a President a Moriier. 
 
 d Procopius, Anecdot. c. 28. A similar privilege was crranted to the 
 church of Rome, (Novel, ix.) For the general repealof these mis- 
 chievous indulgences, see Novel, cxi. and YA'xci. v. 
 
 e Lactantius, in his Institutes of Christianity, an elegant and speci- 
 ous work, prf^poses to imitate the title and method of the civilians. 
 Quidam prudenles elarbitri aeciuitatis Institutiones Civil is Juris com- 
 P(»8itaa ediderunt. (Inslitut. Divin. 1. i. c. 1.) Such as Ulpian, Paul, 
 Florentinus, Marcian. 
 
 f The emperor Justinian calls him smm>«, though he died before the 
 end of the second century. His Institutes are quoted by Servius, 
 Boethius, Priscian, &c. and the Epitome by Arrian is still extant. (See 
 the Prolegomena and Notea to the edition of Schulting, in the Juris- 
 PiudentiaAnte-Jusiinianea, Lugd. Bal.1717. Heineccius, Hi»t. J. R. 
 mo. 313. Ludewij, in Vit. Just. p. 199.) 
 
 [may be considered as an evidence of their merit, 
 j They were selected by the imperial delegates, Tribc- 
 |nian,TheophiIus, and Dorotheus : and the'^freedom and 
 j purity of the Antonines w^as incrusted with the coarser 
 j materials of a degenerate age. The same volume 
 j which introduced the youth of Rome, Constantinople, 
 I and Berytus, to the aradual study of the Code and 
 j Pandects, is still precious to the historian, the philo- 
 sopher, and the magistrate. The Institutes o.f Jus- 
 tinian are divided into four books ; they proceed, with 
 no contemptible method, from, I. Fersons, to, II. 
 Things, and from things to, HI. mictions; and the arti- 
 cle IV. of Private Wrongs, is terminated by the prin- 
 ciples of Criminal Law, 
 
 I. The distinction of ranks and persons, t n^ „„„cn«. 
 
 •x| i? .1 • /. . , ' . , '1. UF PERSONS. 
 
 IS ttie firmest basis of a mixed and lim- Freemen and 
 ited government. In France, the remains Slaves, 
 of liberty are kept alive by the spirit, the honours, 
 and even the prejudices, of fifty thousand nobles.* 
 Two hundred families supply, in lineal descent, the 
 second branch of the English legislature, which main- 
 tains between the king and commons the balance 
 of the constitution. A gradation of patricians and 
 plebeians, of strangers and subjects, has supported 
 the aristocracy of Genoa, Venice, and ancient Rome. 
 The perfect equality of men is the point in which the 
 extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded ; 
 since the majesty of the prince or people would be 
 offended, if any heads were exalted above the level of 
 their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline 
 of the Roman empire, the proud distinctions of the 
 republic were gradually abolished, and the reason or 
 instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an 
 absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate 
 the popular reverence which always waits on the 
 possession of hereditary wealth, or the memory of 
 famous ancestors. He delighted to honour, with title* 
 and emoluments, his generals, magistrates, and sena- 
 tors; and his precarious indulgence communicated 
 some rays of their glory to the persons of their wives 
 and children. But in the eye of the law, all Roman 
 citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire 
 were citizens of Rome. That inestimable character 
 was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The 
 voice of a Roman could no longer enact his laws, or 
 create the annual ministers of his power: his constitu- 
 tional rights might have checked the arbitrary will of 
 a master ; and the bold adventurer from Germany or 
 Arabia was admitted, with equal favour, to the civil 
 and military command, which the citizen alone had 
 been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his 
 fathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded 
 the distinction of ingenuous and servile birth, which 
 was decided by the condition of the mother ; and the 
 candour of the laws was satisfied, if her freedom 
 could be ascertained, during a single moment, between 
 the conception and the delivery. The slaves, who 
 were liberated by a generous master, immediately 
 entered into the middle class of libertines or freedmen ; 
 but they could never be enfranchised from the duties 
 of obedience and gratitude : whatever were the fruits 
 of their industry, their patron and his family inherited 
 the third part ; or even the whole of their fortune, if 
 they died without children and- without a testament. 
 Justinian respected the rights of patrons ; but his 
 indulgence removed the badge of disgrace from the 
 two inferior orders of freedmen : whoever ceased to be 
 a slave, obtained, without reserve or delay, the station 
 of a citizen ; and at length the dignity of an ingenuous 
 birth, which nature had refused, was created, or sup- 
 posed, by the omnipotence of the emperor. Whatever 
 
 % See the Annates Politiques de I'Abbi'; de St. Pierre, torn. i. p. 25 
 who dates in the year 1735. Tiie niost ancient families claim the im- 
 memorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the crusades, some, tho 
 most truly respectable, have been created by the king, for merit and 
 services. The recent and vulgar crowd ift derived from the multitude 
 of venal offices without trust or dignity, which continually ennoblo 
 the wealthy plebeians. 
 
 * 
 
86 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 87 
 
 
 
 *? 
 
 restraints of age, or forms, or numbers, had been for- 
 merly introduced to check the abuse of manumissions, 
 and the too rapid increase of vile and indigent Romans, 
 he finally abolished ; and the spirit of his laws promo- 
 ted the extinction of domestic servitude. Yet the 
 eastern provinces were filled in the time of Justinian 
 with multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased 
 for the use of their masters ; and the price, from ten 
 to seventy pieces of gold, was determined by their 
 age, their strength, and their education.'' But the 
 hardships of this dependent state were continually 
 diminished by the influence of government and reli- 
 gion : and the pride of a subject was no longer elated 
 by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness 
 of his bondsman."' 
 
 Fathers and The law of nature instructs most ani- 
 chiidren. mals to cherish and educate their infant 
 progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human 
 species the returns of filial piety. But the exclusive, 
 absolute, and perpetual dominion of the father over 
 his children, is peculiar to the Roman jurisprudence,* 
 •and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the 
 ■city.* The paternal power was instituted or confirmed 
 by Romulus himself: and after the practice of three 
 centuries, it was inscribed on the fourth table of the 
 decemvirs. In the forum, the senate, or the camp, 
 the adult son of a Roman citizen enjoyed the public 
 and private rights of a person: in his father's house he 
 was a mere ihimr ; confounded by the laws with the 
 movables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capri- 
 cious master mi^ht alienate or destroy, without beinor 
 responsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which 
 bestowed the daily sustenance might resume the vol- 
 untary gift, and whatever was acquired by the labour 
 or fortune of the son was immediately lost in the pro- 
 perty of the father. His stolen goods (his oxen or 
 his children) might be recovered by the same action 
 of theft ;"» and if either had been guilty of a trespass, 
 it was in his own option to compensate the damage, 
 or resign to the injured party the obnoxious animal. 
 At the call of indigence or avarice, the master of a 
 family could dispose of his children or his slaves. 
 But the condition of the slave was far more advanta- 
 geous, since he regained, by the first manumission, 
 his alienated freedom ; the son was again restored to 
 his unnatural father ; he might be condemned to servi- 
 tude a second and a third time, and it was not till after 
 the third sale and deliverance," that he was enfran- 
 chised from the domestic power, which had been so 
 repeatedly abused. According to his discretion, a 
 father might chastise the real or imaginary faults of 
 his children, by stripes, by imprisonment, by exile, 
 by sending them to the country to work in chains 
 
 h If the option of a slave was bequeathed to several lefjatee;*, they 
 drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their share of his value : ten 
 pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under ten years ; if above 
 Ihat age, twenty ; if they knew a trade, thirty; notaries or writers, 
 fifty ; midwives or phyaiciatis, sixty ; eunuchs under ten years, thirty 
 
 Sieces; above, fifty ; if tradesmen, seventy. (Co<l. 1. vi. lit. xliii. lej:. 
 .) These legal prices are generally below those of the market. 
 
 i For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, 1. i. tit. iii.— 
 Tiii. 1. ii. tit. ix. 1. iii. tit. viii. ix. Pandects or Digest, 1. i. til. v. vi. 
 1. xxxviii. tit. i.— iv. and the whole of the fortieth book. Code, 1. vi. 
 tit. iv. V. 1. vii.til. i.— xxiii. Be it henceforwards understood that, with 
 the original text of the Institutes and Pandects, the correspondent 
 articles in the Antiquities and Elements of Heineccius are implicitly 
 quoted ; and with the twenty-seven first books of the Pandects, the 
 learned and rational commentaries of Gerard Noodl. (Opera, torn. ii. 
 p. 1—590. the end. Lugd. Bat. 1724.) 
 
 k See the patri potestas in the Insiitutes, (1. i. tit. ix.) the Pandects, 
 (1. i. til. vi. vii.)and the Code, (I. viii. til. xlvii. xlviii. xlix.) Jus po- 
 testalis quod in liberos habenuis proprium est civium llomanorum. 
 NuUi enimalii sunt homines, qui lalem in liberos habeant polestaiem 
 qualein nos habemus. 
 
 1 Dionysius Hal. 1. ii. p. 94, 95. Gravina, (0pp. p. 286.) proiluces the 
 •words of the xii. tables. Papinian (in Collatione Legum Roman, et 
 Mosaicarum, tit. iv. p. 204.) styles his pairia potestas, ex regia : Ulpi- 
 an (ad Sabin. 1. xxvi. in Pandect. 1. i. lit. vi. log. 8.) says, jus poles- 
 talis moribus receptum ; and furiosus filiuni in poteslale habebil. How 
 »acred— or rather how absurd ! 
 
 m Pandect. 1. xlvii. tit. ii. lef. 14. No. 13. leg. 38. No. 1. Such was 
 the decision of Ulpian and Paul. 
 
 ■ The irina mancipatio is most clearly defined by Ulpian, (Frag- 
 ment. X. p. 591, 592. edit. Schultiog,) and best illusiratea in tb« An- 
 tiquities of Heineccius. 
 
 among the meanest of his servants. The majesty of 
 a parent was armed with the power of life and death ;<> 
 and the examples of such bloody execuiions, which 
 were sometimes praised, and never punished, may be 
 traced in the annals of Rome, beyond the limes of 
 Pompey and Augustus. Neither age, nor rank, noi 
 the consular office, nor the honours of a triumph, 
 could exempt the most illustrious citizen from the 
 bonds of filial subjection : p his own descendants were 
 included in the family of their common ancestor; and 
 the claims of adoption were not less sacred or less 
 rigorous than those of nature. "Without fear, though 
 not without danger of abuse, the Roman legislators 
 had reposed an unbounded confidence in the sentiments 
 of paternal love ; and the oppression was tempered by 
 the assurance that each generation must succeed in its 
 turn to the awful dignity of parent and master. 
 
 The first limitation of paternal power Limitations of 
 is ascribed to the justice and humanity the patenial au- 
 of Numa: and the maid who, with his ^*>^"iy- 
 father's consent, had espoused a freeman, was protec- 
 ted from the disgrace of becoming the wife of a slave. 
 In the first ages, when the city was pressed, and often 
 famished, by her Latin and Tuscan neighbours, the 
 sale of children might be a frequent practice ; but as 
 a Roman could not legally purchase the liberty of his 
 fellow-citizen, the market must gradually fail, and the 
 trade would be destroyed by the conquests of the re- 
 public. An imperfect right of property was at length 
 communicated to sons ; and the threefold distinction 
 of profectHtous, adventitious, and professional, was as- 
 certained by the jurisprudence of the Code and Pan- 
 dects.<> Of all that proceeded from the father, he 
 imparted only the use, and reserved the absolute do- 
 minion ; yet if his goods were sold, the filial portion 
 was excepted, by a favourable interpretation, from 
 the demands of the creditors. In whatever accrued 
 by marriage, gift, or collateral succession, the pre- 
 perty was secured to the son ; but the father, unless 
 he had been specially excluded, enjoyed the usufruct 
 during his life. As a just and prudent reward of mil- 
 itary virtue, the spoils of the enemy were acquired, 
 possessed, and bequeathed by the soldier alone; and 
 the fair analogy was extended to the emoluments of 
 any liberal profession, the salary of public service, 
 and the sacred liberality of the emperor or the em- 
 press. The life of a citizen was less exposed than 
 his fortune to the abuse of paternal power. Yet his 
 life might be adverse to the interest or passions of an 
 unworthy father ; the same crimes that flowed from 
 the corruption, were more sensibly felt by the human- 
 ity, of the Augustan age ; and the cruel Erixo, who 
 whipped his son till he expired, was saved by the 
 emperor from the just fury of the multitude.' The 
 Roman father, from the licence of servile dominion, 
 was reduced to the gravity and moderation of a judge. 
 The presence and opinion of Auorustus confirmed the 
 sentence of e.\ile pronounced against an intentional 
 parricide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Hadrian 
 transported to an island the jealous parent, who, like 
 a robber, had seized the opportunity of hunting, to 
 assassinate a youth, the incestuous lover of his step- 
 mother.* A private jurisdiction is repugnant to the 
 
 o By Justinian, the old law, the jus necis of the Roman father, (In- 
 stitut. 1. iv. lit. ix. No. 7.) is repwirted and reprobated. Some legal 
 vestiges are left in the Pandects, (1. xliii. tit. xxix. lejr. 3. No. 4) 
 and the CoUatio Legum Romanarumet Mosaicarum, (lit. ii. No. 3. p. 
 18H.) 
 
 P Except on public occasions, and in the actual exercise of his office. 
 In publicis locis atquemuneribus, aique actionibuspatrum, jura cum 
 filioruni qui in majistraiu sunt poipstatibus collata interquiescere 
 paullulum et connivere, ic.(.\ul. GelUus, Noctes Auicae, ii. 2.) The 
 lessons of the phihjeopher Taurus were juslifieil by the old and memo- 
 rable example of Fabius ; and we may contemplate the same story in 
 the style of Livy, (xxiv. 41.) and the homely idiom of Claudius Quad- 
 rigarius the annal.st. 
 
 q See the gradual enlargement and security of the filial peculivm 
 in the Institutes, (1. ii. tit. ix.) the Pandects, (1. xv. til. i. x\'\. til. i.) 
 and the Code, (1. iv. tit. xxvi. xxvii.) 
 
 r The examples of Erixo and Arius are related by Seneca, (de de- 
 mentia, i. 14, 15.) the former with horror, the latter wiv^i applause. 
 
 t Quod Uiroais uagis quam pairjs jure euoa )Dt«rfecit| nam pairia 
 
 spirit of monarchy ; the parent was again reduced 
 from a judge to an accuser; and the magistrates were 
 enjoined by Severus Alexander to hear his complaints 
 and execute his sentence. He could no longer take 
 the lite of a son without incurring the guilt and pun- 
 ishment of murder; and the pains of parricide, from 
 •which he had been exempted by the Pompeian law, 
 were finally inflicted by the justice of Constantine.* 
 The same protection was due to every period of exis- 
 tence; and reason must applaud the humanity of Pau- 
 lus, for imputing the crime of murder to the father, 
 who strangles, or starves, or abandons, his new-born 
 infant; or exposes him in a public place to find the 
 mercy which he himself had denied. But the exposi- 
 tion of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice 
 of antiquity : it was sometimes prescribed, often per- 
 mitted, almost always practised with impunity, by 
 the nations who never entertained the Roman ideas 
 of paternal power ; and the dramatic poets, who ap- 
 peal to the human heart, represent with indifference a 
 popular custom which was palliated by the motives 
 of economy and compassion." If the father could sub- 
 due his own feelings, he might escape, though not 
 the censure, at least the chastisement, of the laws ; 
 and the Roman empire was stained with the blood of 
 infants, till such murders were included, by Valenti- 
 nian, and his colleagues, in the letter and spirit of the 
 Cornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence* and 
 Christianity had been insuflicient to eradicate this in- 
 human practice, till their gentle influence was fortified 
 by the terrors of capital punishment.J^ 
 Husbands and Experience has proved, that savages 
 wives. are the tyrants of the female sex, and 
 that the condition of women is usually softened by 
 the refinements of social life. In the hope of a robust 
 progeny, Lycurgus had delayed the season of mar- 
 riage : it was fixed by Numa at the tender age of 
 twelve years, that the Roman husband might educate 
 to his will a pure and obedient virgin.* According 
 p The religious ^^ ^^^ custom of antiquity, he bought 
 I rites of mar- his bride of her parents, and she fulfilled 
 I nage. jj^g coemption, by purchasing with three 
 
 pieces of copper, a just introduction to his house and 
 household deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered 
 by the pontiffs in the presence of ten witnesses ; the 
 contracting parties were seated on the same sheep- 
 skin; they tasted a salt cake oi far or rice; and this 
 confarreation,* which denoted the ancient food of Italy, 
 served as an emblem of their mystic union of mind 
 and body. But this union on the side of the woman 
 was rigorous and unequal ; and she renounced the 
 
 potesus in pietate debet non in atrocitate consistere. (Marcian, In- 
 Blitut. 1. xiv. in Pandect. 1. xlviii. til. ix. leg. 5.) 
 
 t The Pompeian and Cornelian laws desicartis and parricidis, are 
 repeated, or rather abridged, with the last supplements of Alexander 
 Severus, Conslantine, and Valentinian, in the Pandects, (1. xlvii. lit. 
 viii. ix.) and Code. (1. ix. til. xvi. xvii.) See likewise the Theodosian 
 Code, (I. ix. tit. xiv. xv.) with Godefroy's Commentary, (torn. iii. p. 
 81— 113.) who pours a flood of ancient aiid modern learning over these 
 penal laws. 
 
 u When the Chremes of Terence reproacheshis wife for not obeying 
 his orders and exposing their infant, he speaks like a father and a 
 master, and silences the scruples of a foolish woman. See Apuleius. 
 (Metam.irph. 1. x. p. 337. edit. Delphin.) 
 
 X Tlie opinion of the lawyers,and the discretion of the magistrates, 
 had introduced in the time of Tacitus some legal restraints, which 
 jnight support his contrast of the boni mores of the Germans to the 
 bonae leges alibi— that is to say, at Rome, (de Moribus Germanorum, 
 c. 19.) Tertullian (ad Nationes, 1. i. c. 15.) refutes his own charges, 
 and those of his brethren, against the heathen jurisprudence. 
 
 y The wise and humane sentence of the civilian Paul, (l.ii. Senten- 
 liarum in Pandect. 1. xxv. tit. iii. leg. iv.) is represented as a mere 
 moral precept by Gerard Noodt, (0pp. torn. i. in Julius Paulus, p. 
 567-588. and Amica Responsio, p. 591—606.) who maintains the 
 opinion of Justus Lipsius, (0pp. tom. ii. p. 409. ad Belgas, cent. i. 
 epist. 85.) and as a positive binding law by Bynkershoek. (de Jure 
 Decidendi Liberos, 0pp. tom. i. p. 318—340. Curae Secundae, p. 391 — 
 427.) In a learned but angry controversy ihe two friends deviated 
 into the opposite extremes. 
 
 X Dionys. Hal. I. ii. p. 92, 93. Plutarch, in Numa, p. 140, 141. To 
 
 Vu.'/u« xj(« TO il'^i xxiof,iv xa< ajixiov (n't t cu yxfinvTi y ivirixt, 
 
 a Among the winier/rum«;j/a, the triticum or bearded wheal : the 
 tiligo, or the unbearded ; thenar, ailorea, oryzoy whose description 
 perfectly tallies with the rice of Spain and Italy. I adopt this identity 
 on the credit of M. Pauclon ia his useful and laborious IVIeirologie. 
 <p. 517—529.) 
 
 name and worship of her father's house, to embrace a 
 new servitude, decorated only by the title of adoption. 
 A fiction of the law, neither rational nor elegant, be- 
 stowed on the mother of a family »» (her proper appel- 
 lation) the strange characters of sister to her owa 
 children, and of daughter to her husband or master, 
 who was invested with the plenitude of paternal pow- 
 er. By his judgment or caprice her behaviour was 
 approved, or censured, or chastised ; he exercised the 
 jurisdiction of life and death ; and it was allowed, 
 that in the cases of adultery or drunkenness,*^ the sen- 
 tence might be properly inflicted. She acquired and 
 inherited for the sole profit of her lord ; and so clearly 
 was woman defined, not as a person, but as a thing, 
 that, if the original title were deficient, she might be 
 claimed, like other movables, by the use and posses- 
 sion of an entire year. The inclination of the Roman 
 husband discharged or withheld the conjugal debt, so 
 scrupulously exacted by the Athenian and Jewish 
 laws :•* but as polygamy w^as unknown, he could never 
 admit to his bed a fairer or more favoured partner. 
 
 After the Punic triumphs, the matrons Freedom of the 
 of Rome aspired to the common benefits matrimonial 
 of a free and opulent republic : their contract, 
 wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers and 
 lovers, and their ambition was unsuccessfully resisted 
 by the gravity of Cato the Censor.* They declined 
 the solemnities of the old nuptials, defeated the annual 
 prescription by an absence of three days, and without 
 losing their name or independence, subscribed the lib- 
 eral and definite terms of a marriage contract. Of 
 their private fortunes, they communicated the use, and 
 secured the property : the estates of a wife could nei- 
 ther be alienated nor mortgaged by a prodigal hus- 
 band ; their mutual gifts were prohibited by the jea- 
 lousy of the laws ; and the misconduct of either party 
 might afford, under another name, a future subject for 
 an action of theft. To this loose and voluntary com- 
 pact, religious and civil rites were no longer essential ; 
 and, between persons of a similar rank, the apparent 
 community of life was allowed as suflScient evidence 
 of their nuptials. The dignity of marriage was resto- 
 red by the Christians, w^ho derived all spiritual grace 
 from the prayers of the faithful and the benediction of 
 the priest or bishop. The origin, validity, and duties 
 of the holy institution, were regulated by the tradition 
 of the synagogue, the precepts of the gospel, and the 
 canons of general or provincial synods : ^ and the con- 
 science of the Christians was awed by the decrees and 
 censures of their ecclesiastical rulers. Yet the magis- 
 trates of Justinian were not subject to the authority 
 of the church : the emperor consulted the unbelieving 
 civilians of antiquity, and the choice of matrimonial 
 laws in the Code and Pandects, is directed by the 
 earthly motives of justice, policy, and the natural 
 freedom of both sexes.^ 
 
 b Aulus Gellius (Nodes Atticae, xviii. 6.) gives a ridiculous de- 
 finition of A-lius Melissus, Matrona, quae semel, materfamilias qua 
 saepius peperit, as porcetra and scropha in the sow kind. He thea 
 adds the genuine meaning, quae in mairimonium vel in manum con- 
 veneral. 
 
 c It was enough to have tasted wine, or to have stolen the key of the 
 cellar, (Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 14.) 
 
 d Solon requires three payments per month. By the Misna, a daily 
 debt was imposed on an idle, vigorous, young husband ; twice a week 
 on a citizen ; once on a peasant ; once in thirty days on a camel-driver; 
 once in six months on a seaman. But the student or doctor was free 
 from tribute ; and no wife, if she received a tfe«A:/y sustenance, could 
 sue for a divorce : for one week a vow of abstinence was allowed. 
 Polygamy divided, without multiplying, the duties of the husband, 
 (Selden.'Uxor. Ebraica, 1. iii. c. 6. in his works, vol. ii. p. 717—720.) 
 
 e On the Oppian law we may hear the mitigating speech of Valerius 
 Flaccus, and the severe censorial oration of the elder Cato. (Li v.xxxiv, 
 1—8.) But we shall rather hear the polished historian of the eighth, 
 than the rough orators of the sixth, century of Rome. The principles, 
 and even the style, of Cato are more accurately preserved by Aulus 
 Gellius, (X. 23.) 
 
 f For the system of Jewish and Catholic matrimony, see Selden, 
 (Uxor. Ebraica, Opp. vol. ii. p. 529—860) Bingham, (Christian Anti- 
 quities, 1. xxii.) and Chardon, (Hist, des Sacramens, tom. vi.) 
 
 g The civil laws of marriage are exposed in the Institutes, (I. i.tit. 
 X.) the Pandects, (1. xxiii. xxiv. xxv.) and the Code, (1. v.) but aaihft 
 title de ritu nuptiarum is yet imperfect, we are obliged to explore the 
 fragments of Ulpian, (lit. ix. p. 590, 591.) and the Collalio Legum 
 
 I 
 
88 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 ChaPi V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 89 
 
 f" 
 
 ■1 
 
 i 
 
 Liberty and Besides the agreement of the parties, 
 abuse of di- the essence of every rational contract, 
 the Roman marriage required the previ- 
 ous approbation of the parents. A father might be 
 forced by some recent laws to supply the wants of a 
 mature daughter; but even his insanity was not gene- 
 rally allowed to supersede the necessity of his consent. 
 The causes of the dissolution of matrimony have va- 
 ried among the Romans ; ^ but the most solemn sacra- 
 ment, the confarreation itself, might always be done 
 away by rites of a contrary tendency. In the first 
 ages, the father of a family might sell his children, 
 and his wife was reckoned in the number of his chil- 
 dren : the domestic judge might pronounce the death 
 of the offender, or his mercy might expel her from his 
 bed and house ; but the slavery of the wretched female 
 was hopeless and perpetual, unless he asserted for his 
 own convenience the manly prerogative of divorce. 
 The warmest applause has been lavished on the virtue 
 of the Romans, who abstained from the exercise of 
 this tempting privilege above five hundred years : ' but 
 the same fact evinces the unequal terms of a connex- 
 ion, in which the slave was unable to renounce her 
 tyrant, and the tyrant was unwilling to relinquish his 
 slave. When the Roman matrons became the equal 
 and voluntary companions of their lords, a new juris- 
 prudence was introduced, that marriage, like other 
 partnerships, might be dissolved by the abdication of 
 one of the associates. In three centuries of prosperity 
 and corruption, this principle was enlarged to frequent 
 practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, interest, or 
 caprice, suggested daily motives for the dissolution 
 of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the 
 mandate of a freedman, declared the separation ; the 
 most tender of human connexions was degraded to a 
 transient society of profit or pleasure. According to 
 the various conditions of life, both sexes alterna'tely 
 felt the disgrace and injury; an inconstant spouse 
 transferred her wealth to a new family, abandoning a 
 numerous, perhaps a spurious, progeny to the pater'nal 
 authority and care of her late husband; a beautiful 
 virgin might be dismissed to the world, old, indigent, 
 and friendless; but the reluctance of the Ronians, 
 when they were pressed to marriage by Augustus, 
 sufficiently marks, that the prevailing institutions were 
 least favourable to the males. A specious theory is 
 confuted by this free and perfect experiment, which 
 demonstrates, that the liberty of divorce does not con- 
 tribute to happiness and virtue. The facility of sepa- 
 ration would destroy all mutual confidence, and inflame 
 every trifling dispute : the minute difference between 
 a husband and a stranger, which might so easily be 
 removed, might still more easily be forgotten ; and 
 the matron, who in five years can submit to the em- 
 braces of eight husbands, must cease to reverence the 
 chastity of her own person.^ 
 
 Limitations of . Insufficient remedies followed with 
 the liberty of distant and tardy steps the rapid pro- 
 flivorce. g^ggg ^f jj^g g^jj^ rj.^^ ancient worship 
 
 Mosaicarum, (tit. xvi. p. 790, 791.) with the Notes of Pithaeiis and 
 Schulling. They find in the Commentary of Servius (on the first 
 Georgic and the fourth .^neid) two curious passasns. 
 . h Acconling to Plutarch, (p. 57.) Romulus allowed only three 
 grounds of a divorce— drunkenrjess, adultery, and false keys. Other- 
 wjse, the husband who abused his supremacy forfeited half his goods 
 cO his wife, and half to the goddess Ceres, and ofTered a sacrifice (with 
 the remainder?) to the terrestrial deities. This stran"e law was 
 either imaginary or transient. 
 
 i In the year of Rome 523, Spurius Carvilius Ruga repudiated a 
 fair, a gof)d, but a barren wife. (I)ionysius Hal. 1. ii. p. 93. Plutarch 
 in Numa, p. 141. Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 1. Aulus Gellius, iv. 3.) 
 He was questioned by the censors, and hated by the people ; but his 
 divorce stood unimpeached in law. 
 
 [Montesquieu relates and explains this fact in a different manner 
 iEsprit des lots, book xvi. ch. 16.)— (r.] 
 
 k Sic fiunt octo mariti 
 
 Quinque per autumnos. (Juvenal. Salir. vi. 20.) 
 
 A rapid succession, which may yet be credible, as well as the non con- 
 •uluni numero, sed maritorum annos suos computant, of Seneca, (de 
 Beneficiis, iii. 16.) Jerom saw at Rome a triumphant husband bury 
 1119 tweniy-first wife, who had interred twenty two of his less sturdy 
 predecessors. (Opp. torn. i. p. 90, ad Gerontiam.) But the ten husbands 
 
 of the Romans afforded a peculiar goddess to bear and 
 reconcile the complaints of a married life; but her 
 epithet of Feri/7/aca,Mhe appeaser of husbands, too 
 clearly indicates on which side submission and repen- 
 tance were always expected. Every act of a citizen 
 was subject to the judgment of the censors ,- the first 
 who used the privilege of divorce assigned, at their 
 command, the motives of his conduct;"" and a senator 
 was expelled for dismissinjj his virgin spouse without 
 the knowledge or advice of his friends. Whenever an 
 action was instituted for the recovery of a marriage- 
 portion, ihe praelor, as the guardian of equity, examin- 
 ed the cause and the characters, and gently inclined 
 the scale in favour of the guiltless and injured party. 
 Augustus, who united the powers of both magistrates, 
 adopted their different modes of repressino- or chas- 
 tising the licence of divorce." The presenc'e of seven 
 Roman w^itnesses was required for the validity of this 
 solemn and deliberate act: if any adequate provoca- 
 tion had been given by the husband, instead of the 
 delay of two years, he was compelled to refund imme- 
 diately, or in the space of six months: but if he could 
 arraign the manners of his wife, her guilt or levity was 
 expiated by the loss of the sixth or eighth part of her 
 marriage-portion. The christian princes were the first 
 who specified the just causes of a private divorce; 
 their institutions, from Constantino to Justinian, appear 
 to fluctuate between the custom of the empire and the 
 wishes of the church," and the author of the Novels 
 too frequently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code 
 and Pandects. In the most rigorous laws, a wife was 
 condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a 
 libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or 
 sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should 
 seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the 
 executioner. But the sacred right of the husband was 
 invariably maintained, to deliver his name and family 
 from the disgrace of adultery : the list of mortal sins, 
 either male or female, was curtailed and enlarged by 
 successive regulations, and the obstacles of incurable 
 impotence, long absence, and monastic profession, were 
 allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Who- 
 ever transgressed the permission of the law was sub- 
 ject to various and heavy penalties. The woman was 
 stript of her wealth and ornaments, without except- 
 ing the bodkin of her hair: if the man introduced a 
 new bride into his bed, her fortune might be lawfully 
 seized by the vengeance of his exiled wife. Forfeiture 
 \yas sometimes commuted to a fine ; the fine was some- 
 tirnes aggravated by transportation to an island, or im- 
 prisonment in a monastery ; the injured party was re- 
 leased from the bonds of marriage ; but the offender, 
 during life, or a term of years, was disabled from the 
 repetition of nuptials. The successor of Justinian 
 yielded to the prayers of his unhappy subjects, and 
 restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent : the 
 civilians were unanimous,? the theologians were divi- 
 ded,<» and the ambiguous word, which contains the 
 
 in a month of the poet Martial, is an extravagant hyperbole. (1. tI. 
 epigram 7.) 
 
 1 Sacellum Viriplacae, (Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 1.) in the Pala- 
 tine region, appears in the lime of Theodcsius, in the description of 
 Rome by Publius Victor. 
 
 m Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 9. With some propriety he judges 
 divorce more criminal than celibacy : illo namque conjugalia sacra 
 spreta tantum, hoc etiam injuriose tractata. 
 
 n See the lawsof Augustus and his successors, in Heineccius ad Le- 
 gem Papiam-PopptBam, c. 19. in Opp torn. vi. P. i. p. 323—333. 
 
 o Aliae sunt leges Caesarum, aliae Christ! ; aliud Papinianus, aliud 
 Paulus noster praecipit. (Jerom, torn. i. p. 198. Seldcn, Uxor Ebraica. 
 1. iii. c. 31. p. 817— 853.) ' 
 
 P The Institutes are silent, but we may consult the Codes of Theo- 
 dosius (1. iii. lit. xvi. with Cnxlefr«»v's Commentary, tom. i. p. 310 — 
 315.) and Justinian, (1. v. lit. xvii.) the Pandects (1. xxiv. tit. ii.) and 
 the Novels, (xxii. cxvii. cxxvii. cxxxiv. cxl.) Justinian fluctuated 
 to the last between civil and ecclesiastical law. 
 
 q In pure Greek, jrsf vi.« is not a common word ; nor can the proper 
 meaning, fornication, be strictly applied to matrimonial sin. In a 
 figurative sense, how far, and to what offences, may it be extended T 
 Did Christ speak the Rubinical or Syriac tonsue 1 Of what original 
 word isTTOfn.a the translation I How variously is that Greek word 
 translated in the versions ancient and nxxlorn! There are two ^Marlc 
 X. 11. Luke xvi. 18.) to one (Matthew xix. 9.) that such ground of di- 
 
 precept of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that 
 the wisdom of a legislator can demand. 
 Incest, concu- The freedom of love and marriage was 
 bine8,anibas- restrained among the Romans by natural 
 ^'^'' and civil impediments. An instinct, al- 
 
 most innate and universal, appears to prohibit the in- 
 cestuous commerce' of parents and children in the infi- 
 nite series of ascending and de.scending generations. 
 Concerning the oblique and collateral branches, nature 
 is indifferent, reason mute, and custom various and ar- 
 bitrary. In Egypt, the marriage of brothers and sis- 
 ters w^as admitted without scruple or exception : a 
 Spartan might espouse the daughter of his father, an 
 Athenian, that of his mother; and the nuptials of an 
 uncle with his niece were applauded at Athens as a 
 happy union of the dearest relations. The profane 
 lawgivers of Rome were never tempted by interest or 
 superstition to multiply the forbidden degrees ; but 
 they inflexibly condemned the marriage of sisters and 
 brothers, hesitated whether first cousins should be 
 touched by the same interdict; revered the parental 
 character of aunts and uncles, and treated aflinity and 
 adoption as a just imitation of the ties of blood. Ac- 
 cording to the proud maxims of the republic, a legal 
 marriage could only be contracted by free citizens ; an 
 honourable, at least an ingenuous birth, was required 
 for the spouse of a senator : but the blood of kinnrs 
 could never mingle in legitimate nuptials with the 
 blood of a Roman; and the name of Stranger degraded 
 Cleopatra and Berenice • to live the concubines of Mark 
 Antony and Titus.* This appellation, indeed, so inju- 
 rious to the majesty, cannot without indulgence be 
 applied to the manners, of these oriental queens, A 
 concubine, in the strict sense of the civilians, was a 
 woman of servile or plebeian extraction, the sole and 
 faithful companion of a Roman citizen, who continued 
 in a state of celibacy. Her modest station, below the 
 honours of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, 
 was acknowledged and approved by the laws : from 
 the age of Augustus to the tenth century, the use of 
 this secr^ndary marriage prevailed both in the west and 
 east, and the humble virtues of a concubine were often 
 preferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron. 
 In this connexion, the two Antonines, the best of prin- 
 ces and of men, enjoyed the co.mforts of domestic love : 
 the example was imitated by many citizens impatient 
 of celibacy, but regardful of their families. If at any 
 time they desired to legitimate their natural children, 
 the conversion was instantly performed by the celebra- 
 tion of their nuptials with a partner whose fruitfulness 
 and fidelity they had already tried." By this epithet 
 of natural^ the offspring of the concubine were distin- 
 guished from the spurious brood of adultery, prostitu- 
 tion, and incest, to whom Justinian reluctantly grants 
 the necessary aliments of life; and these natural chil- 
 dren alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part 
 of the inheritance of their reputed father. According- 
 to the rigour of law, bastards were entitled only to the 
 name and condition of their mother, from whom they 
 
 vorce was not excepted by Jesus. Some critics have presumed to 
 think, by an evasive answer, he avoided the giving offence either to 
 the school of Sammai or to that of Hillel. (Selden, Uxor Ebraica, 1. 
 iii. c. 18-22.23. 31.) 
 
 r The principles of the Roman jurisprudence are exposed by Justi- 
 nian ; (Institut. 1. i. tit. x.)and the laws and manners of the different 
 nations of antiquity concerning forbidden decrees, &c. are copiously 
 explained by Dr. Taylor in his Elements of Civil Law, (p. 108. 314 — 
 339.) a work of amusinc, though various, reading; but which cannot 
 be praised f )r philosophical precision. 
 
 I When her father Agrippa died, (A. P. 44.) Berenice was sixteen 
 years of agf . (Joseph, tom. i. Antiquit. Judaic, l'. xix."c.9. p. 952. edit. 
 Havercamp.) She was therefore above fifty years old when Titus 
 (.\. D. 79.) invitus invitain invisit. This date would not have adorned 
 the tragedy or pastoral of the tender Racine. 
 
 t The jEgt/ptia conjunx of Virgil (.^neid, viii. 688.) seems to be 
 numbered among the monsters who warred with Mark Antony against 
 Augustus, the senate, and the gods of Italy. 
 
 u [The ordinance of Constaniine first gave this right, for Augustus 
 had forbidden the taking a woman for a concubine, who could be es- 
 poused ; and if, under the ordinance of Constaniine, the espousal 
 look place afterwards, this marriage did not affect the rights of chil- 
 dren born before. There then remained the resource of adoption, 
 properly called arrogation. — GA 
 
 Vol. II.— M 
 
 might derive the character of a slave, a stranger, or a 
 citizen. The outcasts of every family were adopted 
 without reproach as the children of the state,^ 
 
 The relation of a guardian and ward. Guardians and 
 or in Roman words, of tutor and pupil, wards. 
 
 which covers so many titles of the Institutes and Pan- 
 dects,* is of a very simple and uniform nature. The 
 person and property of an orphan must always be 
 trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If the 
 deceased father had not signified his choice, the a^- 
 nais, or paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were 
 compelled to act as the natural guardians: the Athe- 
 nians were apprehensive of exposing the infant to the 
 power of those most interested in his death ; but an 
 axiom of Roman jurisprudence has pronounced, that 
 the charge of tutelage should constantly attend the 
 emolument of succession. If the choice of the father, 
 and the line of consanguinity, afforded no efficient 
 guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomination 
 of the praitor of the city, or the president of the pro- 
 vince. But the person whom they named to this pulh- 
 lie ofl^ce might be legally excused by insanity or blind- 
 ness, by ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or 
 adverse interest, by the number of children or guar- 
 dianships with which he was already burthened, and 
 by the immunities which were granted to the useful 
 labours of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and pro- 
 fessors. Till the infant could speak and think, he was 
 represented by the tutor, whose authority was finally 
 determined by the age of puberty. Without his con- 
 sent, no act of the pupil could bind himself to his 
 own prejudice, though it might oblige others for his 
 personal benefit. It is needless to observe, that the 
 tutor often gave security, and always rendered an ac- 
 count, and that the want of diliuence or integrity ex- 
 posed him to a civil and almost criminal action for the 
 violation of his sacred trust. The age of puberty had 
 been rashly fixed by the civilians at fourteen; but as 
 the faculties of the mind ripen more slowly than those 
 of the body, a curator was interposed to guard the for- 
 tunes of the Roman youth from his own inexperience 
 and headstrong passions. Such a trustee had been 
 first instituted by the praetor, to save a family from the 
 blind havoc of a prodigal or a madman : and the minor 
 was compelled, by the laws, to solicit the same pro- 
 tection, to give validity to his acts till he accomplished 
 the full period of twenty-five years. Women were 
 condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, hus- 
 bands, or guardians ; a sex created to please and obey 
 was never supposed to have attained the age of reason 
 and experience. Such at least was the stern and 
 haughty spirit of the ancient law, which had been in- 
 sensibly mollified before the time of Justinian. 
 
 II, The original right of property can „ qp Things. 
 only be justified by the accident or merit Right of proper- 
 of prior occupancy ; and on this founda- ^y- 
 tion it is wisely established by the philosophy of the 
 civilians,^ The savage w^ho hollows a tree, inserts a 
 sharp stone into a wooden handle, or applies a string 
 to an elastic branch, becomes in a state of nature the 
 just proprietor of the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. 
 The materials were common to all, the new form, the 
 produce of his time and simple industry, belongs solely 
 to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a 
 sense of their own injustice, extort from the hunter 
 the game of the forest overtaken or slain by his per- 
 sonal strength and dexterity. If his provident care 
 
 T The humble but legal rights of concubines and natural children, 
 are stated in the Institutes, (1. i. tit. x.) the Pandects, (I. i. tit. vii ) 
 the Code, (1. v. lit. xxv.) and the Novels. (1. Ixxiv. Ixxxix.) The re- 
 searches of Heineccius and Giannone (ad Legem Jiiliam et Papiam- 
 Poppaeam, c. iv. p. 164—175. Opere Posihume, p. 103—153.) illustrate 
 this interesting and domestic subject. 
 
 X See the article of guardians and wards in the Institutes, (1. i. tit. 
 xiii— xxvi.) the Pandects, (I. xxvi. xxvii) and the Code, (1, v. lit. 
 xxviii — Ixx.) 
 
 y Institut. 1. ii. tit. i. ii. Compare the pure and precise reasoning of 
 Caius and Heineccius (1. ii. tit. i. p. 69—91.) with the loose prolixity 
 of Theophilus, (p. 207—265.) The opinions of Ulpian are preserved 
 in the Pandects, (1. i. til. viii. leg. 41. No. 1.) 
 
90 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 91 
 
 1, 
 
 m 
 
 
 preserves and multiplies the tame animals, whose na- 
 ture is tractable to the arts of education, he acquires a 
 perpetual title to the use and service of their numerous 
 progeny, v.'hich derives its existence from him alone. 
 If he encloses and cultivates a field for their suste- 
 nance and his own, a barren waste is converted into a 
 lertile soil ; the seed, the marrure, the labour, create a 
 new value, and the rewards of harvest are painfully 
 earned by the fatigues of the revolving year. In the 
 successive states of society, the hunter, the shepherd, 
 the husbandman, may defend their possessions by two 
 reasons which forcibly appeal to the feelings of the 
 human mind : that whatever they enjoy is the fruit of 
 their own industry ; and that every man who envies 
 their felicity, may purchase similar acquisitions by 
 the exercise of similar diligence. Such, in truth, 
 may be the freedom and plenty of a small colony cast 
 on a fruitful island. But the colony multiplies, while 
 the space still continues the same : the common rights, 
 the equal inheritance of mankind, are engrossed by 
 the bold and crafty ; each field and forest is circum- 
 scribed by the land-marks of a jealous master; and it 
 is the peculiar praise of the Roman jurisprudence, 
 that it asserts the claim of the first occupant to the 
 wild animals of the earth, the air, and the waters. 
 In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, 
 the steps are silent, the shades are almost impercepti- 
 ble, and the absolute monopoly is guarded by positive 
 laws and artificial reason. The active insatiate prin- 
 ciple of self-love can alone supply the arts of life and 
 the wages of industry ; and as soon as civil govern- 
 ment and exclusive property have been introduced, 
 they become necessary to the existence of the human 
 race. Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, 
 the wisest legislators have disapproved an agrarian 
 law as a false and dangerous innovation. Among 
 the Romans, the enormous disproportion of wealth 
 surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubtful tradition 
 and an obsolete statute ; a tradition that the poorest 
 follower of Romulus had been endowed with the per- 
 petual inheritance o( two jus^era ^'^ a statute which 
 confined the richest citizen to a measure of five hun- 
 dred jugera, or three hundred and twelve acres of 
 land. The original territory of Rome consisted only 
 of some miles of wood and meadow along the banks 
 of the Tiber ; and domestic exchange could add noth- 
 ing to the national stock. IJut the goods of an alien 
 or enemy were lawfully exposed to the first hostile 
 occupier; the city was enriched by the profitable trade 
 of war ; and the blood of her sons was the only price 
 that was paid for the Volscian sheep, the slaves of 
 Britain, or the gems and gold of Asiatic kingdoms. 
 In the language of ancient jurisprudence, which was 
 corrupted and forgotten before the age of Justinian, 
 these spoils were distinguished by the name of man- 
 ceps or mancipium, taken with the hand ; and whenever 
 they were sold or emancipated., the purchaser required 
 some assurance that they had been the property of an 
 enemy, and not of a fellow-citizen.* A citizen could 
 only forfeit his rights by apparent dereliction, and 
 such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily 
 be presumed. Yet according to the twelve tables, a 
 prescription of one year for movables, and of two 
 years for immovables, abolished the claim of the an- 
 cient master, if the actual possessor had acquired 
 them by a fair transaction from the person whom he 
 believed to be the lawful proprietor.** Such conscien- 
 
 z The heredium of the first Romans is defined by Varro, (de Re 
 Rualica, I. i. c. ii. p. 141. c. x. p. 160, 161. edit. Gcsner,) and clouded 
 by Pliny's declamation. (Hist. Natur. xviii.2.) A just and learned 
 jcomment is given in the Administration des Torres chez les Romains, 
 (p. 12-66.) 
 
 a The res manc/^e is explained from faint and remote lights by 
 Ulpian (Fragment, til. xviii. p. 618, 619.) and Bynkershoek. (0pp. 
 tom. i. p. 300— 315.) The definition is somewhat arbitrary; and as 
 none except myself have assigned a reason, 1 am ditTident of my own. 
 
 b From this short prescription, Hume (Essays, vol. i. p 423.) infers, 
 that there could not then be more order and settlement in Italy than 
 note amongst the Tartars. By the civilian of his adversary Wallace, 
 
 tious injustice, without any mixture of fraud or force, 
 could seldom injure the members of a small republic ; 
 but the various periods of three, of ten, or of twenty 
 years, determined by Justinian, are more si:itable to the 
 latitude of a great empire. It is only in the term of 
 prescription that the distinction of real and personal 
 fortune has been remarked by the civilians, and their 
 general idea of property is that of simple, uniform, 
 and absolute dominion. The subordinate exceptions 
 of MStf, of usufruct.,^ of servitudes,^ imposed for the 
 benefit of a neighbour on lands and houses, are abun- 
 dantly explained by the professors of jurisprudence. 
 The claims of property, as far as they are altered by 
 the mixture, the division, or the transformation of 
 substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtii- 
 ty by the same civilians. 
 
 The personal title of the first proprie- of inheritance 
 tor must be determined by his death: and succession. 
 but the possession, without any appearance of change, 
 is peaceably continued in his children, the associates 
 of his toil, and the partners of his wealth. This na- 
 tural inheritance has been protected by the legislators 
 of every climate and age, and the father is encouraged 
 to persevere in slow and distant improvements, by the 
 tender hope, that a long posterity will enjoy the fruits 
 of his labour. 'Y\\c principle of hereditary succession 
 is universal, but X\\e order has been variously establish- 
 ed by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national 
 institutions, or by some partial example which was 
 originally decided by fraud or violence. The juris- 
 prudence of the Romans appears to have deviated from 
 the equality of nature, much less than the Jewish,* 
 the Athenian,' or the English institutions.^ On the 
 death of a citizen, all his descendants, unless they 
 were already freed from his paternal power, were call- 
 ed to the inheritance of his possessions. The insolent 
 prerogative of primogeniture was unknown; the two 
 sexes were placed on a just level ; all the sons and 
 daughters were entitled to an equal portion of the pa 
 trimonial estate ; and if any^ of the sons iiad been 
 intercepted by a premature death, his person was rep 
 resented, and his share was divided, by iiis surviving 
 children. On the failure of a direct line, the right of 
 succession must diverge to the collateral civil degrees of 
 branches. The degrees of kindred '^ are kindred, 
 numbered by the civilians, ascending from the last 
 possessor to a common parent, and descending from 
 the common par(^nt to the next heir : my father stands 
 in the first deorree, my brother in the second, his chil- 
 dren in the third, and the remainder of the series may 
 be conceived by fancy, or pictured in a genealogical 
 table. In this computation, a distinction was made, 
 essential to the laws and even the constitution of 
 Rome ; the aui^nats, or persons connected by a line of 
 males, were called, as they stood in the nearest degree, 
 to an equal partition; but a female was incapable of 
 
 he is reproached, and not without reason, for overlooking the condi- 
 tions. (Institut. I. ii. tit. vi.) 
 
 c See the Institutes, (1. i. tit. iv. v.) and the Pandects, (l.vii.)Noodl 
 has compos'^d a learned and distinct treatise deUsi{fructu. (Opp. tom. 
 i. p. 3S7-47S.) 
 
 d Theqtirstions de Serritutihus are discussed in the Institutes, (1. 
 ii. til. iii.)and Pandects, (1. viii.) Cicero (pro IVlurena, c.9.)and Lac- 
 tantins (Insiitut. Pivin. 1. i. c. i.) affect to laugh at the insif'nificanl 
 doctrine, de aqua pluvia arcendii, &c. Yet it might be of frequent 
 use among litigious neighbours, both in town and country. 
 
 c Anjong the patriarchs, the first-born enjoyed a mystic and spiritual 
 primogeniture. (Genesis xxv. 31.) In the land of Canaan he was en- 
 tilled to a double portion of inheritance. (Deuteronomy xxi. 17. with 
 Le Clerc's judicious Commentary.) 
 
 t At Athens the sons were equal, but the poor daughters were en- 
 dowed at the discretion of their brothers. See the «/>>-e«*o. pleadinirs 
 of Isaeus, (in the seventh volume of the Greek Orators,) illustrated by 
 the version and comment of Sir William Jones, a scholar, a lawyer, 
 and a man of genius. 
 
 g In England, the eldest son alone inherits all the land: a lawi 
 says tlie orthodox Judge Blackstone, (Commentaries on the laws of 
 England, vol. ii. p. 215.) unjust only in the opinion of younger broth- 
 ers. It may be of some political use in sharpening their ii^ciustry. 
 
 h Blackstone's Tables (vol. ii. p. 202.) repre.sent and compare the 
 degrees of the civil with those of the canon and common law. A 
 separate tract of Julius Paulus, de pradibus et affinibus, is inserted or 
 abridged in the Pandects. (1. xxxviii. tit. x.) In the seventh degree* 
 he computes, (No. 13.) 1021 persons. 
 
 -transmitting any legal claims ; and the cognafs of every 
 rank, without excepting the dear relation of a mother 
 and a son, were disinherited by the twelve tables, as 
 strangers and aliens. Among the Romans a gens or 
 lineage was united by a common name and domestic 
 rites ; tlie various cognomens or surnames of Scipio, or 
 Marcellus, distinguished from each other the subordi- 
 nate branches or families of the Cornelian or Claudian 
 race : the default of the agnats, of the same surname, 
 was supplied by the larger denomination of ^e/i/tVcs; 
 and the vigilance of the laws maintained, in the same 
 jiame, the perpetual descent of religion and property. 
 A sitnilar principle dictated the Voconian law,' which 
 abolished the right of female inheritance. As long as 
 virgins were given or sold in marriage, the adoption 
 of the wife extinguished the hopes of the daughter. 
 But the equal succession of independent matrons, sup- 
 ported their pride and luxury, and might transport into 
 a foreign house the riches of their fathers. While the 
 maxims of Cato^ were revered, they tended to perpet- 
 uate in each family a just and virtuous mediocrity : till 
 female blandishments insensibly triumphed ; and every 
 salutary restraint was lost in the dissolute greatness 
 of the republic. The rigour of the decemvirs was 
 tempered by the equity of the praetors. Their edicts 
 restored emancipated and posthumous children to the 
 rights of nature; and upon the failure of the agnats, 
 they preferred the blood of the cognats to the name of 
 the gentiles, whose title and character were insensibly 
 covered! with oblivion. The reciprocal inheritance of 
 mothers and sons was established in the Tertullian 
 and Orphitian decrees by the humanity of the senate. 
 A new and more impartial order was introduced by 
 the novels of Justinian, who affected to revive the 
 jurisprudence of the twelve tables. The lines of 
 masc'jline and female kindred were confounded : the 
 descending, ascending, and collateral series, was accu- 
 rately defined ; and each degree, according to the prox- 
 imity of blood and affection, succeeded to the vacant 
 possessions of a Roman citizen.' 
 
 Introduction and 'J^he order of succession is refjulated 
 liberty of testa- by nature, or at least by the general and 
 "^^"^'" permanent reason of the lawgiver: but 
 
 this order is frequently violated by the arbitrary and 
 partial wills, which prolong the dominion of the testa- 
 tor beyond the grave." In the simple state of society, 
 this last use or abuse of the right of property is sel- 
 dom indulged : it was introduced at Athens by the 
 laws of Solon; and the private testaments of the fa- 
 ther of a family are authorized by the twelve tables. 
 Before the time of the decemvirs," a Roman citizen 
 exposed his wishes and motives to the assembly of 
 the thirty curiae or parishes, and the general law of 
 inheritance was suspended by an occasional act of the 
 legislature. After the permission of the decemvirs, 
 each private lawgiver promulgated his verbal or writ- 
 ten testament in the presence of five citizens, who 
 represented the five classes of the Roman people ; a 
 sixth witness attested their concurrence ; a seventh 
 
 i The Voconian law was enacted in the year of Rome 584. The 
 younger Scipio, who was then 17 years of asre, (Frenshemius, Supple- 
 ment. Livian. 3clvi.40.)foundan occasion of exercising his generosity 
 to his mother, sisters, &c. (Polybius, tom, ii. 1. xxxi. p. 1453—1464. 
 edit. Gronov. a domestic witness.) 
 
 k Lecem Voconiam (Ernesti, Clavis Ciceroniana) magna voce 
 bonis lateribus (at sixty-five years of age) suasissem, says old Cato. 
 (de Senectute, c. 5.) Aulus Gellius (vii. 13. xvii. 6.) has saved some 
 passages. 
 
 1 See the law of succession in the Institutes of Caius. (1. ii. tit. viii. 
 P 130—144.) and Justinian, (1. iii. tit. i— vi. with the Greek version 
 of Theophilus, p. 515—575. 5SS— 600.) the Pandects, (1. xxxviii, tit. 
 vi— xvii.) the Code, (1. vi. tit. Iv— Ix.) and the Novels, (cxviii.) 
 
 m That succession was the rule, testament the exception, is proved 
 by Taylor, (Elements of Civil Law, p. ."JlQ- 527.) a learned, rambling, 
 spirited writer. In the second and third books the method of the In- 
 stitutes is doubtless preposterous; and the chancellor Duquesseau 
 ((Euvres, tom. i.p. 275.) wishes his countryman Domat in the place 
 of Tribonian. 'iet covenants before successions is not surely the 
 natural order of the civil laws. 
 
 n Prior examples of testaments are perhaps fabulous. At Athens 
 « childless father only could make a will. (Plutarch, in Solon, torn. 
 i. p. 164. See Isaeus and Joues.) 
 
 weighed the copper money, which was paid by an ima- 
 ginary purchaser ; and the estate was emancipated by 
 a fictitious sale and immediate release. This singular 
 ceremony," which excited the wonder of the Greeks, 
 was still practised in the age of Severus ; but the 
 praetors had already approved a more simple testament, 
 for which they required the seals and signatures of 
 seven witnesses, free from all legal exception, and 
 purposely summoned for the execution of that impor- 
 tant act. A domestic monarch, who reigned over the 
 lives and fortunes of his children, might distribute 
 their respective shares according to the degrees of 
 their merit or his affection : his arbitrary displeasure 
 chastised an unworthy son by the loss of his inheri- 
 tance, and the mortifying preference of a stranger. 
 But the experience of unnatural parents recommended 
 some limitations of their testamentary powers. A 
 son, or, by the laws of Justinian, even a daughter, 
 could no longer be disinherited by their silence "they 
 were compelled to name the criminal, and to specify 
 the offence ; and the justice of the emperor enumerated 
 the sole causes that could justify such a violation of 
 the first principles of nature and society.? Unless a 
 legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved for 
 the children, they were entitled to institute an action 
 or complaint of inofficious testament ; to suppose that 
 their father's understanding was impaired by sickness 
 or age ; and respectfully to appeal from his rigorous 
 sentence to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate. 
 In the Roman jurisprudence, an essen- 
 tial distinction was admitted between Legacies, 
 the inheritance and the legacies. The heirs who suc- 
 ceeded to the entire unity, or to any of the twelve 
 fractions of the substance of the testator, represented 
 his civil and religious character, asserted his rights, 
 fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of 
 friendship or liberality, which his last will had be- 
 queathed under the name of legacies. But as the 
 imprudence or prodigality of a dying man might ex- 
 haust the inheritance, and leave only risk and labour 
 to his successor, he was empowered to retain the Fal- 
 cidian portion; to deduct, before the payment of the 
 legacies, a clear fourth for his own emolument. A 
 reasonable time was allowed to examine the proportion 
 between the debts and the estate, to decide whether he 
 should accept or refuse the testament; and if he used 
 the benefit of an inventory, the demands of the credi- 
 tors could not exceed the valuation of the effects. 
 The last will of a citizen might be altered during his 
 life, or rescinded after his death : the persons whom 
 he named might die before him, or reject the inheri- 
 tance, or be exposed to some legal disqualification. 
 In the contemplation of these events, he was permitted 
 to substitute second and third heirs, to replace each 
 other according to the order of the testament; and the 
 incapacity of a madman or an infant to bequeath his 
 property, might be supplied by a similar substitution.** 
 But the power of the testator expired with the accep- 
 tance of the testament : each Roman of mature age 
 and discretion acquired the absolute dominion of his 
 inheritance, and the simplicity of the civil law was 
 never clouded by the long and intricate entails which 
 confine the happiness and freedom of unborn genera- 
 tions. 
 
 o The testament of Augustus ia specified by Suetonius, (in August. 
 c. 101. in Neron. c. 4.) who may be studied as a code of Roman 
 antiquities. Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. ii. p. 976.) is surprised ct»k St 
 
 irwxtva-i Toe; ovnx;. The language of Ulpian (Fragment, lit. xi. p. 
 627. edit. SchuUing.) is almost too~exclusive— solum in usu est. 
 
 P Justinian (Novell, cxv. No. 3, 4.) enumerates only the public 
 and private crimes, for which a son might likewise disinherit his 
 father. 
 
 q The substitutions fidei-commissaires of the modern civil law ia 
 a feudal idea grafted on the Roman jurisprudence, and bears scarcelj 
 any resemblance to the ancient fidei-commissa. (Institutions du Droit 
 Francois, tom. i. p. 347—383.) Denissart, Decisions de Jurisprudence, 
 tom. iv. p. 577— 604.) They were stretched to the fourth degree by 
 an abuse of the hundred and fifty -ninth Novel ; a partial, perplexed, 
 declamatory law. 
 
;■'» 
 
 % 
 
 92 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Chap. V 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 93 
 
 Codicils and 
 trusts. 
 
 M 
 
 '■fW 
 
 Ii4 
 
 Conquest and the formalities of law 
 established the use of codicils. If a Ro- 
 nian was surprised by death in a renmote province of 
 the empire, he addressed a short epistle to his legiti- 
 mate or testamentary heir ; who fulfilled with honour, 
 or neglected with impunity, this last request, which 
 the judges before the age of Augustus were not author- 
 ized to enforce. A codicil might be expressed in any 
 mode or in any language ; but the subscription of five 
 witnesses must declare that it was the genuine composi- 
 tion of the author. His intention, however laudable, 
 was sometimes illegal ; and the invention o{ jidei-com- 
 missa, or trusts, arose from the struggle between natu- 
 ral justice and positive jurisprudence. A stranger of 
 Greece or Africa might be the friend or benefactor of a 
 childless Roman, but none, except a fellow-citizen, 
 could act as his heir. The Voconian law, which abol- 
 ished female succession, restrained the legacy or inheri- 
 tance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousand 
 sesterces ;' and an only daughter was condemned almost 
 as an alien in her father's house. The zeal of friend- 
 ship, and parental affection, suggested a liberal artifice ; 
 a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with a 
 prayer or injunction that he would restore the inheritance 
 to the person for whom it was truly intended. Various 
 was the conduct of the trustees in this painful situation ; 
 they had sworn to observe the laws of their counlry, 
 but honour prompted them to violate their oath ; and 
 if they preferred their interest under the mask of pat- 
 riotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous 
 mind. The declaration of Augustus relieved their 
 doubts, gave a legal sanction to confidential testaments 
 and codicils, and gently unravelled the forms and re- 
 straints of the republican jurisprudence.* But as the 
 new practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, 
 the trustee was enabled, by the Tribellian and Pega- 
 sian decrees, to reserve one-fourth of the estate, or to 
 transfer on the head of tiie real heir all the debts and 
 actions of the succession. The interpretation of testa- 
 ments was strict and literal ; but the language of trusts 
 and codicils was delivered from the minute and tech- 
 nical accuracy of the civilians.* 
 
 HI. The general duties of mankind 
 III. Of Actions. ^^^ i.^posed by their public and private 
 
 relations : but their specific obligations to each other 
 can only be the effect of, 1. a promise, 2. a benefit, or, 
 3. an injury: and when these obligations are ratified 
 by law, the interested party may compel the perform- 
 ance by a judicial action. On this principle the civi- 
 lians of every country have erected a similar juris- 
 prudence, the fair conclusion of universal reason and 
 justice." 
 
 1. The goddess of faith (of human 
 romwes. ^^^ social faith) was worshipped, not 
 
 only in her temples, but in the lives of the Romans ; 
 and if that nation was deficient in the more amiable 
 qualities of benevolence and generosity, they astonish- 
 ed the Greeks by their smcere and simple performance 
 of the most burthensome engagements." Yet among 
 the same people, according to the rigid maxims of the 
 patricians and decemvirs, a naked pact^ a promise, or 
 even an oath, did not create any civil obligation, 
 unless it was confirmed by the legal form of a stipula- 
 tion. Whatever might be the etymology of the Latin 
 
 r Dion Cassius (lorn. ii. I. Ivi. p. 814. with Reimar's Notee) speci- 
 fies in Greek money tlie sum of 25,000 drachms. 
 
 s The revolutions of the Roman laws of inheritance are finely, 
 though sometimes fancifully, deduced by Montesquieu. (Esprit des 
 Loix, 1. xxvii.) 
 
 t Of the civil jurisprudence of successions, testaments, codicils, 
 leg.iries, and trusts, the principles are asceruined in the Institutes 
 Qf'Caiu.s, (1. ii. tit. ii— ix. p. 91—141.) Justinian, (I. ii. tit. x— xxv.) 
 and Theophilus; (p. 323—514.) and the immense detail occupies 
 twelve books (xxviii— xxxix.) of the Pandects. 
 
 u The Institutes of Caiu8,(l.ii. til. ix. x. p. 144-214.) of Justinian, 
 (1. iii. tit. xiv— XXX. I. iv. tit. i. vi.) and of Theophilus, (p. 616—837.) 
 distinguish four sorts of obligations--aut re, aut verbis, tut Uteris, 
 aut consensu : but I confess myself partial to my own division. 
 
 X How much is the cool, rational evidence of Polybius(l. vi.p. 693. 
 1. xxxi. p. 1439, 1460.) superior to vague, indisCTiniinate apphuse— 
 omnium maxime et prxcipuo fidem coluit. (A. Gellius, xx. I.) 
 
 word, it conveyed tbe idea of a firm and irrevocable 
 contract, which was always expressed in the mode of 
 a question and answer. Do you promise to pay me 
 one hundred pieces of gold ? was the solemn interro- 
 gation of Seius. I do promise — was the reply of 
 Sempronius. The friends of Sempronius, who an- 
 swered for his ability and inclination, might be sepa- 
 rately sued at the option of Seius; and the benefit of 
 partition, or order of reciprocal actions, insensibly 
 deviated from the strict theory of stipulation. The 
 most cautious and deliberate consent was justly requi- 
 red to sustain the validity of a gratuitous promise; 
 and the citizen who mi^rht have obtained a letjal secu- 
 rity, incurred the suspicion of fraud, and paid the for- 
 feit of his neglect. But the ingenuity of the civilians 
 successfully laboured to convert simple enoagements 
 into the form of solemn stipulations. The prcetors, as 
 the guardians of social faith, admitted every rational 
 evidence of a voluntary and deliberate act, which in 
 their tribunal produced an equitable obligalion, and for 
 which they gave an action and a remedy.^ 
 
 2. The obligations of the second class, „ _ 
 as they were contracted by the delivery 
 of a thing, are marked by the civilians with the epi- 
 thet of real.* A grateful return is due to the author of 
 a benefit ; and whoever is intrusted with the property 
 of another, has bound himself to the sacrod duty of 
 restitution. In the case of a friendly loan, the merit of 
 generosity is on the side of the lender only ; in a 
 deposit, on the side of the receiver ; but in a pledse^ 
 and the rest of the selfish commerce of ordinary life, 
 the benefit is compensated by an equivalent, and the 
 obligation to restore is variously modified by the 
 nature of the transaction. The Latin languaoe very 
 happily expresses the fundamental difference between 
 the commodaturn and the tnutuum, which our poverty 
 is reduced to confound under the vague and common 
 appellation of a loan. In the former, the borrower 
 was obliged to restore the same individual thing with 
 which he had been accommodated for the temporary 
 supply of his wants; in the latter, it was destined for 
 his use and consumption, and he discharged this 
 mutual engaacment, substituting the same specific 
 value, according to a just estimation of number, of 
 weight, and of measure. In the contract of sale, the 
 absolute dominion is transferred to the purchaser, and 
 he repays the benefit with an adequate sum of gold or 
 silver, the price and universal standard of all earthly 
 possessions. The obligation of another contract, that 
 of location, is of a more complicated kind. Lands or 
 houses, labour or talents, may be hired for a definite 
 term ; at the expiration of the time, the thing itself 
 must be restored to the owner with an additional reward 
 for the beneficial occupation and employment. In 
 these lucrative contracts, to which may be added those 
 of partnership and commissions, the civilians some- 
 times imagine the delivery of the object, and sometimes 
 presume the consent of the parties. The substantial 
 pledge has been refined into the invisible rights of a 
 mortgage or hypotheca; and the agreement of sale, for 
 a certain price, imputes, from that moment, the chances 
 of gain or loss to the account of the purchaser. It 
 may be fairly supposed, that every man will obey the 
 dictates of his interest: and if he accepts the benefit, 
 he is oblifjed to sustain the expense, of the transaction. 
 In this boundless subject, the historian will observe 
 the location of land and mone)', the rent of the one and 
 the interest of the other, as they materially affect the 
 prosperity of agriculture and commerce. The land- 
 lord was often obliged to advance the stock and instru- 
 
 y The Jus Praelorium de Pactis et Transaction ibus is a separate and 
 satisfactory treatise of Gerard N(x»dt (Opp. torn. i. p. 483— .'>64.) And 
 I will here observe that the universities of Holland and Branden- 
 burgh, in the beginning of the present century, appear to have studied 
 the civil law on the most just and liberal principles. 
 
 z The nice and various subject of contracts by consent is spread 
 over four books (xvii— xx.) of the Pandects, and is one of the partfl 
 best deserving of the attemioa of an English student. 
 
 ments of husbandry, and to content himself with a 
 partition of the fruits. If the feeble tenant was oppres- 
 sed by accident, contagion, or hostile violence, he 
 claimed a proportionable relief from the equity of the 
 laws: five years were the customary term, and no solid 
 or costly improvements could be expected from a 
 farmer, who, at each moment, might be ejected by the 
 Interest of sale of the estate.* Usury ,•» the invete- 
 money. rate grievance of the city, had been dis- 
 couraged by the twelve tables,«= and abolished by the 
 clamours of the people. It was revived by their 
 wants and idleness, tolerated by the discretion of the 
 praters, and finally determined by the Code of Justi- 
 nian. Persons of illustrious rank were confined to the 
 moderate profit of four percent. ; six was pronounced 
 to be the ordinary and legal standard of interest; 
 eight was allowed for the convenience of manufac- 
 turers and merchants ; twelve w^as granted to nautical 
 insurance, which the wiser ancients had not attempted 
 to define; but except in this perilous adventure, the 
 practice of exorbitant usury was severely restrained.** 
 The most simple interest was condemned by the clerp;y 
 of the east and west : * but th'^ sense of mutual benefit, 
 which had triumphed over the laws of the republic, 
 have resisted with equal firmness the de<?rees of the 
 church, and even the prejudices of mankind.' 
 ' Injuries. ?' Nature and society impose the 
 
 strict obligation of repairing an injury; 
 and the sufferer by private injustice, acquires a per- 
 sonal right and a legitimate action. If the property of 
 another be intrusted to our care, the requisite degree 
 of care may rise and fall according to the benefit wliich 
 we derive from such temporary possession; we are 
 seldom made responsible for inevitable accident, but 
 the consequences of a voluntary fault must always be 
 imputed to the author.^ A Roman pursued and re- 
 covered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; 
 they miijht pass through a succession of pure an J in- 
 nocent hands, but nothing less than a prescriptim of 
 thirty years could extinguish his original claim. They 
 were restored by the sentence of the praetor, and the 
 injury was compensated by double or three-fold, or 
 even quadruple, damages, as the deed had been perpe- 
 trated by secret fraud or open rapine, as the robber had 
 
 » The covenants of rent are defined in the Pandects, (1. xix.) and 
 the Code, (1. iv. lit. Ixv.) The quinquennium, or term of five years, 
 appears to have been a custom rather than a lav; but in France all 
 leases of land were determined in nine years. This limitation was 
 removed only in the year 1775, (Encyclopedic Meihodique, torn, i.de 
 la Jurisprudence, p. 668, 669.) and I am sorry to observe that it yet 
 prevails in the beauteous and happy country where I am permitted 
 to reside. 
 
 b I might implicitly acquiesce in the sense and learning of the 
 three b(Kiks of G. Noodt, de fuenore et usuris. (Opp. torn. i. p. 175— 
 2''>8.) The i nierpretalion of the asses or ceiitesima. usura at twelve, 
 the unciaria at one per cent, is maintained by the best critics and 
 civilians : Noodt, (1. ii. c. 2. p. 207.) Gravina, (Opp. p. 205, &c. 210.) 
 Heineccius, (Antiquitat. ad Institut. 1. iii. tit. xv.) Montesquieu, 
 (Lsprit des Loix, 1. xxii. c. 22. torn. ii. p. 36. Defense de I'Esprit 
 d^'s Loix, torn. iii. p. 478, &c.) and above all John Frederic Grono- 
 vius, (de Pecunia Veieri, 1. iii. c. 13. p. 213-272. and his three 
 Antexegeses, p. 455—6.55.) the founder, or at least the champion, of 
 this probable opinion; which is, however, perplexed with some dif- 
 ficulties. 
 
 c Primo xii tabulis sancitum est ne quis unciario foenore amplius 
 exerceret. (Tacit. Annal. vi. 16.) Pour peu (says Montes'^uieu, Esprit 
 des Loix, 1. xxii. c. 22.) qu'on soit vers6 dans I'histojre de Rome, on 
 verra qu'une pareille loi ne devoit pas etre I'ouvraije des decemvirs. 
 Was Tacitus ignorant— or stupid 1 But the wiser and more virtuous 
 patricians might sacrifice their avarice to their ambition, and might 
 attempt to check the odious practice by such interest as no lender 
 Would accept, and such penalties as no debtor would incur, 
 
 d Justinian has not condescended to give usury a place in his Insti- 
 tutes; but the necessary niles and restrictions are inserted in the 
 Pandects (1. xxii. til. i. ii.) and the Ctnle, (1. iv. tit. xxxii. xxxiii.) 
 
 e The fathers are unanimous : (Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres, p. 
 144, &;c.) Cyprian, Lactantius, Ba3il,.Chrysosiom, (see his frivolous 
 arguments h\ Noodt, 1. i. c. 7. p. 183.) (jregnry of Nyssa, Ambrose, 
 Jerom, Aupustin, and a host of councils and casuists. 
 
 ( Cato, Seneca, Plutarch, have loudly condemned the practice or 
 abuse of usury. According to the etymology oifxnus and tsxo,-, the 
 principal is supposed to generate the interest : a breed of barren 
 meul, exclaims Shakspeare— and the stage is the echo of the public 
 voice. 
 
 K Sir William Jones has given an ingenious and rational Essay on 
 the Law of Bailment. (London, 1781, p. 127. in 8vo.) He is perhaps the 
 only lawyer equally conversant with the year-books of m'slminster, 
 the Commentaries of Ulpian, the Attic pleadings of Isaus, and the 
 sentence* of Arabian and Persian cadhii. 
 
 been surprised in the fact, or detected by a subsequent 
 research. The Aquilian law*" defended the living pro- 
 perty of a citizen, his slaves and cattle, from the stroke 
 of malice or negligence ; the hitrhest price was allowed 
 that could be ascribed to the domestic animal at any 
 moment of the year preceding his death; a similar 
 latitude of thirty days was granted on the destruction 
 of any other valuable effecis. A personal injury is 
 blunted or sharpened by the manners of the times and 
 the sensibility of the individual : the pain or the dis- 
 grace of a word or blow cannot easily be appreciated 
 by a pecuniary equivalent. The rude jurisprudence 
 of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty insults, 
 which did not amount to the fracture of a limb, by 
 condemning the aggressor to the comiricn penalty of 
 twenty-five asses. But the same denomination of mo- 
 ney was reduced, in three centuries, from a pound to 
 the weight of half an oimce ; and the insolence of a 
 wealthy Roman indulged himself in the cheap amuse- 
 ment of breaking and satisfying the law of the twelve 
 tables. Veralius ran through the streets striking on 
 the face the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant 
 purse-bearer immediately silenced their clamours by 
 the legal tender of twenty-five pieces of copper, about 
 the value of one shilling.' The equity of the prsetors 
 examined and estimated the distinct merits of each par- 
 ticular complaint. In the adjudication of civil dam- 
 ages, the magistrate assumed a right to consider the 
 various circumstances of time and place, of age and 
 dignity, which may aggravate the shame and suffer- 
 ings of the injured person ; but if he admitted the idea 
 of a fine, a punishment, an example, he invaded the 
 province, though, perhaps, he supplied the defects, of 
 the criminal law. 
 
 The execution of the Alban dictator, 
 who was dismembered by eight horses, 
 is represented by Livy as the first and the last instance 
 of Roman cruelty in the punishment of the most atro- 
 cious crimes.^ But this act of justice, or revenge, was 
 inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat of victory, and 
 at the command of a single man. The Severity of the 
 twelve tables afford a more decisive twelve tables, 
 proof of the national spirit, since they were framed by 
 the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free 
 voices of the people : yet these laws, like the statutes 
 of Draco,' are written in characters of blood.™ They 
 approve the inhuman and unequal principle of retalia- 
 tion ; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for 
 a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless 
 the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three 
 hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs distributed 
 with much liberality the slighter chastisements of fla- 
 gellation and servitude; and nine crimes of a very 
 different complexion are adjudged worthy of death. 
 1. Any act of treason against the state, or of corres- 
 pondence with the public enemy. The mode of exe- 
 cution was painful and ignominious: the head of the 
 degenerate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands 
 were tied behind his back, and, after he had been 
 scourged by the lictor, he was suspended in the midst 
 of the forum en a cross, or inauspicious tree. 2. Noc- 
 turnal meetings in the city ; whatever might be the 
 pretence, of pleasure, or religion, or the puhlic good. 
 3. The murder of a citizen : for which the common 
 
 Punishments. 
 
 h Noodt (Opp. torn. I. p. 137— 172.) has composed a separate treatise 
 ad Legem Aquiliam. (Pandect. 1. ix. tit. ii.) 
 
 i Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic, xx. i.) borrowed his story from the 
 Commentaries of Q. Labeo on the xii tables. 
 
 k The narrative of Livy (i. 28) is weighty and solemn. At lu 
 dictis Albane maneres is a harsh reflection, unworthy of Virgil's hu- 
 manity. (j?2neid, viii. 643.) Heyne, with his usual cikkI tastp, observes 
 that the subject was too horrid for the shield of JEaeaa, (torn. iii. p. 
 229.) *^ 
 
 1 The age of Draco (Olympiad xxxix. 1.) is fixed by Sir John Mar- 
 sham (Canon Chronicus, p. 593— 5t»6.) and Corsini. (Fasti Attici, torn, 
 iii. p. 62.) Forhislaws, seethe writers on the government of Athens, 
 Sigonius, Meuraius, Potter, &c. 
 
 m The eighth, de doliciis, of the xii tables is delineated by Gravi- 
 na. (Opp. p. 292, 293. with a commentary, p. 214—230.) Aulus Gellius, 
 (xx. 1.) and the Collaiio Legum Mosaicarura et Romanarum afford 
 much original information. 
 
 ■•/ 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 94 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap, V. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 95 
 
 P 
 
 «i 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 
 't' 
 
 feelings of mankind demand the blood of the mur- 
 derer. Poison is still more odious than the sword or 
 dagger; and we are surprised to discover, in two fla- 
 gitious events, how early such subtle wickedness had 
 infected the simplicity of the republic, and tlie chaste 
 ■virtues of the Roman matrons." The parricide who 
 violated the duties of nature and gratitude, was cast 
 into the river or the sea, enclosed in a sack ; and a 
 cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkry, were successively 
 added as the most suitable companions." Italy pro- 
 duces no monkeys; but the want could never be felt, 
 till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the 
 guilt of a parricide.P 4. The malice of an incendiary. 
 After the previous ceremony of whipping, he himself 
 was delivered to the flames ; and in this example alone 
 our reason io tempted to approve the justice of retalia- 
 tion. 5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious 
 witness was thrown headlong from the Tarpeian rock 
 to expiate his falsehood, which was rendered still more 
 fatal by the severity of the penal laws, and the defi- 
 ciency of written evidence. 6. The corruption of a 
 judge, who accepted bribes, to pronounce an iniquitous 
 sentence. 7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains 
 sometimes disturbed the peace of an illiterate city. 
 The author was beaten with clubs, a worthy chastise- 
 ment, but it was not certain that he was left to expire 
 under the blows of the executioner.** 8. The nociurnal 
 mischief of damaging or destroying a neighbour's 
 corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful vic- 
 tim to Ceres. But the sylvan deities were less impla- 
 cable, and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was 
 compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds 
 of copper. 9. Magical incantations; which had power, 
 in the opinion of the Latin shepherds, to exhaust the 
 strength of an enemy, to extinguish his life, and re- 
 move from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. 
 The cruelty of the twelve tables against insolvent 
 debtors still remains to be told; and I shall dare to 
 prefer the literal sense of antiquity, to the specious 
 refinements of modern criticism.' After the judicial 
 proof or confession of the debt, thirty days of grace 
 •were allowed before a Roman was delivered into the 
 power of his fellow-citizen. In this private prison, 
 twelve ounces of rice was his daily food ; he might be 
 bound with a chain of fifteen pounds' weight; and his 
 misery was thrice exposed in the market-place, to soli- 
 cit the compassion of his friends and countrymen. At 
 the expiration of sixty days, the debt was discharged 
 by the loss of liberty or life ; the insolvent debtor was 
 eitlier put to death, or sold in foreign slavery beyond 
 the Tiber : but if several creditors were alike obstinate 
 and unrelenting, they might legally dismember his 
 body, and satiate their revenge by this horrid partition. 
 The advocates for this savage law have insisted, that 
 
 » Livy mentions two rrmarkable and flasitious aeras, of 3(XK) per- 
 sons accused, and of 190 noble matrons convicted, of the crime of 
 poisoning, (xl. 43. viii. 18.) Mr. Hume discriminates the ages of 
 private and public virtue. (Essays, vol. i. p. 22, 23.) I would rather 
 say that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France in the year 1680,) 
 are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the manners 
 of a nation. 
 
 o The xii Tables and Cicero (pro Roscio Amerlno, c. 25,26.) are con- 
 tent with the sack ; Seneca (Excerpt. Controvers. v. 4.) adorns it with 
 serpents ; Juvenal pities the guiltless monkey, (innoxia simia— Satir. 
 xiii. 156.) Hadrian, (apud Dosiiheum Magistrum, 1. iii. c. 16. p. 874 
 — 876. with Schulting's Note,) Modestinus, (Pandect, xlviii. tit. ix. 
 leg. 9.) Constantine, (Cod. 1. ix. tit. xvii.) and Justinian, (Instilut. 1. 
 iv. tit. xviii.) enumerate all the companions of the parricide. But 
 this fanciful execution was simplified in practice. Hodie tamen vivi 
 exuruntur vel ad bestias dantur. (Paul. Sentent. Kecept. 1. v. tit. xxiv. 
 p. 512. edit. Schulting.) 
 
 p The first parricide at Rome was L. Ostius, after the second Punic 
 war. (Plutarcn in Romulo, lom. i. p. 57.) During the Cimbric, V. 
 Malleolus was guilty of the first matricide. (Liv. Epitom. 1. Ixviii.) 
 
 q Horace talks of the formidinefustis, (I. ii.epist. ii. 154.) but Cicero 
 (de Republica, 1. iv. apud Auiiiistin. de Civitat. Dei, ix. 6. in Frag- 
 ment. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 393. edit. Olivet) alTirms that the decem- 
 virs made libels a capital offence; cum perpaucas res capite fauxis- 
 sent—pe rpawcas. 
 
 r Bynkershoek (Observat. Juris. Rom. 1. i. c. i. in 0pp. torn. i. p. 
 9—11.) labours to prove that the creditors divided not the body, but 
 the |)rir*, of the insolvent debtor. Yet his interpretation is one per- 
 petual harsh metaphor; nror can he surmount the Roman authorities 
 of Quintilian,CjBcilius,FaYoniiiS,and Terlullian. SeeAulusGellius, 
 Ifoct. Attic, xxi. 
 
 it must strongly operate in deterring idleness and fraud 
 from contracting debts which they were unable to dis- 
 charge ; but experience would dissipate this salutary 
 terror, by proving, that no creditor could be found to 
 exact this unprofitable penalty of life or limb. As the 
 manners of Rome were insensibly polished, the crimi- 
 nal code of the decemvirs was abolished by the hu- 
 manity of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and im- 
 punity became the consequence of immoderate rigour. 
 The Porcian and Valerian laws prohibited the maois- 
 tfates from inflicting on a free citizen any capital or 
 even corporal punishment; and the obsolete statutes 
 of blood were artfully, and perhaps truly, ascribed to 
 the spirit, not of patrician, but of regal, tyranny. 
 
 In the absence of penal laws, and the Abolition or 
 insufficiency of civil actions, the peace oblivion of 
 and justice of the city were imperfectly P^"*^ ^*^'- 
 maintained by the private jurisdiction of the citizens. 
 The malefactors who replenish our goals, are tlie out- 
 casts of society, and the crimes for which they suffer 
 may be commonly ascribed to ignorance, poverty, and 
 brutal appetite. For the perpetration of similar enor- 
 mities, a vile plebeian might claim and abuse the 
 sacred character of a member of the republic : but, on 
 the proof or suspicion of guilt, the slave, or the stran- 
 ger, was nailed to a cross, and this strict and summary 
 justice might be exercised without restraint over the 
 greatest part of the populace of Rome. Each family 
 contained a domestic tribunal, which was not confined, 
 like that of the pra^or, to the cognizance of external 
 actions : virtuous principles and habits were inculcated 
 by the discipline of education ; and the Roman father 
 was accountable to the state for the manners of his 
 children, since he disposed, without appeal, of their 
 life, their liberty, and their inheritance. In some 
 pressing emeriiencies, the citizen was authorized to 
 avenge his private or public wrongs. The consent of 
 the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Roman laws, ap- 
 proved the slaughter of the nocturnal thief; thouiih 
 in open day-light a robber could not be slain without 
 some previous evidence of danger and complaint. 
 Whoever surprised an adulterer in his nuptial bed 
 mi«;ht freely exercise his revenge;* the most bloody or 
 wanton outrage was excused by the provocation;* nor 
 was it before the reign of Augustus that the husband 
 was reduced to weigh the rank of the offender, or that 
 the parent was condemned to sacrifice his daughter 
 with her guilty seducer. After the expulsion of the 
 kings, the ambitious Roman who should dare to as- 
 sume their title or imitate their tyranny, was devoted 
 to the infernal gods : each of his fellow-citizens was 
 armed with a sword of justice; and the act of Brutus, 
 however repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been 
 already sanctified by the judgment of his country."- 
 The barbarous practice of wearing arms in the midst 
 of peace,* and the bloody maxims of honour, were 
 unknown to the Romans; and, during the two purest 
 ages, from the establishment of equal freedom to the 
 end of the Punic wars, the city was never disturbed 
 by sedition, and rarely polluted with atrocious crimes. 
 The failure of penal laws was more sensibly felt when 
 every vice was inflamed by faction at home and domi- 
 
 ( The first speechof Lysias(Reiske,Orator. Graec.lom. v. p.2— 4S.> 
 is in defence of a husband who had killed the adulterer. The right 
 of husbands and fathers at Rome and Athens is discussed with much 
 learnine by Dr. Taylor. (Lectiones Lysiac«, c xi. in Reiske, tom. vi. 
 p. 301—308.) 
 
 t See Casaubon ad Athenaeum, 1. i. c. 5. p. 19. Percurrent rapha- 
 nique musilesque. (Calull. p. 41, 42. edit. Vossian.) Hunc mugilis 
 intrat (Juvenal. Satir. x. 317.) Hunc perminxere calones. (Horat. 1. 
 i. Satir. ii. 44.) Familiae stuprandum dedit . . . fraudi non fuit. (Val. 
 Maxim. 1. vi. c. 1. No. 13.) 
 
 u This law is noticed by Livy (ii. 8.) and Plutarch, (in Publicola^ 
 tom. i. p. 1*J7.) and it fully justifies the public opinion on the death of 
 Caesar, which Suetonius could publish under the imperial govern- 
 ment. Jure caesus existimatur, (jn Julio, c. 76.) Read the letters that 
 
 assed between Cicero and Marius a few months after the ides of 
 larch, (ad Fain. xi. 27, 28.) 
 
 X lif JUT5I 01 A5»-v»io. Tov Ti 9-tJiifov xsTiSiVTo. Thucydld. 1. 1. c. 6. 
 The historian who considers this circumstance as the testof civiliza 
 tion, would disdain the barbarism of a European court. 
 
 nion abroad. In the time of Cicero, each private citi- | ment, were too often determined by the discretion of 
 zen enjoyed the privilege of anarchy; each minister the rulers, and the subject was left in ignorance of the 
 of the repiiblic was exalted to the temptations of regal legal danger which he might incur by every action of 
 power, and their virtues are entitled to the warmest his life. 
 
 pow 
 
 praise as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philoso- 
 phy. After a triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and 
 cruelty, Verres, the tyrant of Sicily, could only be 
 sued for the pecuniary restitution of three hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling; and such was the temper 
 ef the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser !iim- 
 self,'' that on refunding the thirteenth part of his plun- 
 der, Verres could retire to an easy and luxurious exile.' 
 Revival of capi- Tho first imperfect attempt to restore 
 tai punishments, the proportion of crimes and punish- 
 ments, was made by the dictator Sylla, who, in the 
 midst of his sanguinary triumph, aspired to restrain 
 the licence, rather tlian to oppress the liberty, of the 
 Romans. He gloried in the arbitrary proscription of 
 four thousand seven hundred citizens.* But in the 
 character of a legislator, he respected the prejudices 
 of the limes ; and instead of pronouncing a sentence 
 of death against the robber or assassin, the general 
 who betrayed an army, or the magistrate who ruined a 
 province, Sylla was content to aggravate the pecuninry 
 damages by the penalty of exile, or, in more constitu- 
 tional language, by the interdiction of fire and water. 
 The Cornelian, and afterwards the Pompeian, and 
 Julian, laws introduced a new system of criminal 
 jurisprudence;'' and the emperors, from Augustus to 
 Justinian, disguised their increasing rigour under the 
 names of the original authors. But the invention and 
 frequent use of extraordinary pains, proceeded from 
 the desire to extend and conceal the progress of des- 
 potism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans, 
 the senate was always prepared to confound, at the 
 will of their masters, the judicial and legislative 
 powers. It was the duty of the governors to maititain 
 the peace of their province, by the arbitrary and rigid 
 administration of justice; the freedom of tlie city eva- 
 porated in the extent of empire, and the Spanish male- 
 factor, who claimed the privilege of a Roman, was ele- 
 vated by the command of Galba on a fairer and more 
 lofty cross. '^ Occasional rescripts issued from the 
 throne to decide the questions which, by their novelty 
 or importance, appeared to surpass the authority and 
 discernment of a proconsul. Transportation and be- 
 heading were reserved for honourable persons ; meaner 
 criminals were either hanged or burnt, or buried in the 
 mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphithea- 
 tre. Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as 
 the enemies of society; the driving away horses or 
 cattle was made a capital offence ; ^ but simple theft 
 was uniformly considered as a mere civil and private 
 injury. The degrees of guilt, and the modes of punish- 
 
 6 
 
 y He first rated at millics (800,000/.) the damages of Sicily, (Divi- 
 natio in Caecilium, c. 5.) which he afterwards reduced to quadringen- 
 ties, (320,001)/.— 1. Actio in Verrem, c. IS.) and was finally content 
 with /7irtcs, (24,000/.) Plutarch (in Ciceron. tom. iii. p. 15i^l.) has 
 not dissembled the popular suspicion and report. 
 
 I Verres lived near thirty years after his trial, till the second trium- 
 Tirate, when he was proscribed by the taste of Mark Antony, for the 
 sake of his Corinthian plate. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 3.) 
 
 » Such is the number assigned by Valerius Maximus. (1. ix. c. 2. 
 X«\ 1.) Florus (iv. 21.) distinguishes 2(X)0 senators and knights. Ap- 
 pian, (de Bell. Civil. I. i. c. 95. tom. ii. p. 133. edit. Schweigaeuscr) 
 more accurately computes 40 victims of the senatorian rank, and 
 16(X) of the equestrian census or order. 
 
 b For the penal law, (Leges Corneliae, Pompeiae, Julia, of Sylla, 
 Pompey, and the Csesars) see the sentences of Paulus, (1. iv. tit. 
 iviii-xxx. p. 497—528. edit. Schulting,) the Gregorian Code, (Frag- 
 ment. 1. xix. p. 705, 706. in Schulting,) the Collatio Legum Mosaica- 
 nini et Komanarum, (tit. i. xv.) the Theodosian Code, (1. ix.) the 
 C(Kle of Justinian, (1. ix.) the Pandects, (xlviii.) the Institutes, (i. iv. 
 lit. xviii.) and the Greek version of Theophilus, (p. 917—926.) 
 
 c It was a guardian who had poisoned his ward. The crime was 
 itrocious: yet the punishment is reckoned by Suetonius, (c. 9.) among 
 the acts in which Galba showed himself acer, vehemens, et in delic- 
 iis coercendis immodicus. 
 
 d The abactores or abigealores, who drove one horse, or two mares 
 or oxen, or five hogs, or ten goats, were subject to capital punish- 
 nioms. (Paul. Sentent. Recept. 1. iv. tit. xviii. p. 497, 498.) Hadrian, 
 (ad. Concil. Bceticae,) most severe where the offence was most frequent, 
 Condemns the criminals ad gladium, ludi damnationem. (Ulpian, de 
 OOicio Pr.)consulis, 1. viii. in ColUiione Legum Mosaic, ei Kom. lit. 
 2i. p. 336.) 
 
 A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects 
 of theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. ■^^^^^"'■®°^e"iit. 
 
 Whenever their judgments agree, they corroborate 
 each other; but as often as they differ, a prudent legis- 
 lator appreciates the guilt and" punishment according 
 to the measure of social injury. On this principle, 
 the most daring attack on the life and property of a 
 private citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime 
 of treason or rebellion, which invades the majesty of the 
 republic : the obsequious civilians unanimously pro- 
 nounced, that the republic is contained in the person 
 of its chief: and the edge of the Julian law was 
 sharpened by the incessant diligence of the emperors. 
 The licentious commerce of the~ sexes may be tolerated 
 as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a source of 
 disorder and corrnption; but the fame, the fortunes, 
 the family of the husband, are seriously injured by the 
 adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after 
 curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domes- 
 tic offence the animadversion of the laws; and the 
 guilty parties, after the payment of heavy forfeitures 
 and fines, were condemned to long or pepetual exile in 
 two separate islands.* Religion pronounces an equal 
 censure against the infidelity of the husband : but as 
 it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the wife 
 was never permitted to vindicate her wrongs; 'and the 
 distinction of simple or double adultery, so?amiliarand 
 so important in the canon law, is unknown to the juris- 
 prudence of the Code and the Pandects. 
 I touch with reluctance, and despatch Unnatural vice.. 
 with impatience, a more odious vice, of which modesty- 
 rejects the name, and nature abominates the idea. The^ 
 primitive Romans were infected by the example of the 
 Etruscans 8 and Greeks:'' in the mad abuse of pros- 
 perity and power, every pleasure that is innocent was 
 deemed insipid ; and the Scatinian law,' which had. 
 been extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly 
 abolished by the lapse of lime and the multitude of 
 criminals. By this law, the rape, perhaps the seduc- 
 tion, of an ingenuous youth, was compensated, as a 
 personal injury, by the poor damages of ten thousand 
 sesterces, or fourscore pounds; the ravisher might be 
 slain by the resistance or revenge of chastity; and I 
 wish to believe, that at Rome, as in Athens, the volun- 
 tary and effeminate deserter of his sex was degraded 
 from the honours and the rights of a citizen."^ But the 
 practice of vice w^as not discouraged by the severity 
 of opinion : the indelible stain of manhood was con- 
 founded with the more venial trangressions of fornica- 
 tion and adultery, nor was the licentious lover exposed 
 to the same dishonour which he impressed on the male 
 
 e Till the publication of the Julius Paulus of Schulting (1. ii. tit. 
 xxvi. p. 3J7- 323.) it was affirmed and believed that the Julian lawa. 
 punished adultery with death ; and the mistake arose from the fraud 
 or error of Tribonian. Yet Lipsius had suspected the truth from the 
 narrative of Tacitus, (Annal. ii. 50. iii. 24. iv. 2.) and even from the 
 practice of Augustus, who distinguished the treasonable frailties of 
 his female kindred. 
 
 f In cases of adultery, Severus confined to the husband the right 
 of public accusation. (Cod. Justinian, 1. ix. tit. ix. leg. 1.) Nor is 
 this privilege unjust— so different are the effects of male or female 
 infidelity. 
 
 g Timon (1. i.) and Theopompus (1. xliii. apud Athenaeum, 1. xii. 
 p. 517.) describe the luxury ana lust of the Etruscans: ^o/.u niv in 
 
 yt X'-'fUO"' (rvvovTii TCii Trxiirt xxt tc«; /atigxntoi;. AboUt the SamO 
 
 period (A. U. C. 445.) th*? Roman youth studied in Etruria. (Liv. ix. 
 36.) 
 
 h The Persians had been corrupted in the same school : «!r' EKK^. 
 vrv fjixiovTif TTxia-i nia-yevrxi. (Herodot. 1. i. c. 135.) A curious dis- 
 sertation might be formed on the introduction of paederasty after the 
 time of Homer, its progress amongtheGreeksof Asia and Europe, the 
 vehemence of their passions, and the thin device of virtue and friend- 
 ship which amused the philosophers of Athens. But, scelera ostendL 
 oportet dum puniunlur, abscondi flagitia. 
 
 i The name, the date, and the provisions of ihis law, are equally 
 doubtful. (Gravina, 0pp. p. 432, 433. Heincccius, Hist. Jur. Rom. No. 
 108. Ernesti, Clav. Ciceron. in Indice Legum.) But I will observe 
 that the nefanda Venus of the honest German is styled aversa by 
 the more polite Italian. 
 
 k See the oration of jEschines against the catamite Timarchus, (io. 
 Reiske, Orator. Graec, tom, iii. p. 21—184.) 
 
 r? 
 
 «S1 
 
90 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 I • 
 
 1 1! 
 
 .. 5- 
 
 
 or female partner of his guilt. From Catullus to Ju- 
 venal,* the poets accuse and celebrate the degeneracy 
 of the times, and the reformation of manners was fee- 
 bly attempted by the reason and authority of the civi- 
 lians, till the most virtuous of the Cajsars proscribed 
 the sin against nature as a crime against society." 
 Rigour oAhe ^ ^^"^ ^'P'^*' °^ legislation, respectable 
 Christiau em- even in its error, arose in the empire with 
 perora. jj^^ religion of Conslantine." The laws of 
 
 Moses were received as the divine original of justice, 
 and the christian princes adapted their penal statutes 
 to the degrees of moral and religious turpitude. Adul- 
 tery was first declared to be a capital offence : the 
 frailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assas- 
 sination, to sorcery or parricide; the same penalties 
 were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of paede- 
 rasty ; and all criminals of free or servile condition 
 were either drowned or beheaded, or cast alive into the 
 avenging flames. The adulterers were spared by the 
 common sympathy of mankind ; but the lovers of their 
 own spx were pursued by general and pious indignar 
 tion ; the impure manners of Greece still prevailed in 
 the cities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the 
 celibacy of the monks and clergy. Justinian relaxed 
 the punishment at least of female infidelity; the guilty 
 spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance, 
 and at the end of two years she might be recalled to 
 the arms of a forgiving husband. But the same em- 
 peror declared himself the implacable enemy of un- 
 manly lust, and the cruelty of his persecution can 
 scarcely be excused by the purity of his motives." In 
 defiance of every principle of justice, he stretched to 
 the past as well as future offences the operations of his 
 edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite 
 for confession and pardon. A painful death was in- 
 flicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument, or 
 the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores and tubes 
 of most exquisite sensibility; and Justinian defen- 
 ded the propriety of the execution, since the crimi- 
 nals would have lost their hands, had they been con- 
 victed of sacrilege. In this state of disgrace and 
 agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes, and Alexander 
 of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets of 
 Constantinople, while their brethren were admonished 
 by the voice of a crier, to observe this awful lesson, 
 and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Per- 
 haps these prelates were innocent. A sentence of death 
 and infamy was often founded on the slight and sus- 
 picious evidence of a child or a servant: the guilt of 
 the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of 
 Theodora, was presumed by the judges, and paederasty 
 became the crime of those to whom no crime could be 
 imputed. A French philosopher p has dared to remark, 
 that whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our 
 natural horror of vice may be abused as an engine of 
 tyranny. But the favourable persuasion of the same 
 writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and 
 reason of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome 
 discovery of the antiquity and extent of the disease.'^ 
 
 1 A crowd of disgraceful passai^es will force themselves on the me- 
 mory of ihe classic reader: 1 will only remind him of the cool decla- 
 ration of Ovid : 
 
 Odi concubitus qui^ non ulrumque resolvunt. 
 Hoc est quod puerum tansrar amore mitws. 
 JEWxia Lampridius, in Vit. Heli(^abal. in Hist. Ausjust. p. 112. 
 Aurelius Victor, in Philippe, Codex Theodos. I. ix. til. vii. leg. 7. and 
 Godefroy's Commentary, torn. iii. p. 63. Theodosius abolished the 
 subterraneous brothels of Rome, in which the prostitution of both 
 sexes was acted with impunity. 
 
 n See the laws of Constaniine and his successors against adultery, 
 sodomy, &c. in the Theodosian (1. ix. tit. vii. leg. 7. 1. xi. tit. xxxvi. 
 leg. 1. 4.) and Justinian Cixles, (1. ix. lit. ix. leg. 30, 31.) These prin- 
 ces speak the language of passion as well as of justice, and fraudu- 
 lently ascribe their own severity to the first Caesars. 
 
 o Justinian, Novel. Ixxvii. cxxxiv. cxli. Procopius in Anecdot. c. 
 11. Ki. with the Notes of Alemannua. Theophaues, p. 151. Cedrenus, 
 p. 368. Zonaras, 1. xiv. p. 64. 
 
 P Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c. 6. That eloquent philo- 
 sopher conciliates the rights of liberty and of nature, which should 
 never be placed in opposition to each other. 
 
 q For the corruption of Palestine, 2000 years before the christian 
 •ra, see the history and laws of Moses. Ancient Gaul is stigmatized 
 by Diodorus Siculus, (torn. i. 1. t. p. 356.) China by the Mahomeun 
 
 The free citizens of Athens and Rome judgments of the 
 enjoyed in all criminal cases, the inva- people, 
 luable privilege of being tried by their country.*" 1. 
 The administration of justice is the most ancient office 
 of a prince : it was exercised by the Roman kings, 
 and abused by Tarquin ; who alone, without law or 
 council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The 
 first consuls succeeded to this regal prerogative ; but 
 the sacred right of appeal soon abolished the jurisdic- 
 tion of the magistrates, and all public causes were de- 
 cided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But a 
 wild democracy, superior to the forms, too often dis- 
 dains the essential principles, of justice: the pride of 
 despotism was envenomed by plebeian envy, and the 
 heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happi- 
 ness of the Persian, whose fate depended on the ca- 
 price of a single tyrant. Some salutary restraints, 
 imposed by the people on their own passions, were at 
 once the cause and effect of the gravity and temper 
 ance of the Romans. The right of accusation was 
 confined to the magistrates. A vote of the thirty-five 
 tribes could inflict a fine ; but the cognizance of all 
 capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to 
 the assembly of the centuries, in which the weight of 
 influence and property was sure to preponderate. Re- 
 peated proclamations and adjournments were interpo- 
 sed, to allow time for prejudice and resentment to sub- 
 side; the whole proceeding might be annulled by a 
 seasonable omen, or the opposition of a tribune ; and 
 such popular trials were commonly less formidable to 
 innocence than they were favourable to guilt. But 
 this union of the judicial and legislative powers left it 
 doubtful whether the accused party was pardoned or 
 acquitted; and in the defence of an illustrious client, 
 the orators of Rome and Athen^ address their argu- 
 ments to the policy and benevolence, as well as to the 
 justice, of their sovereign. 2. The task of convening 
 the citizens for the trial of each oflTender became more 
 difllicult, as the citizens and the ofl^Miders continually 
 multiplied ; and the ready expedient w'as adopted of 
 delegating the jurisdiction of the people to the ordinary 
 magistrates, or to extraordinary iiuiuisitors. In the 
 first ages these questions were rare and occasional. 
 In the beginning of the seventh century of Rome they 
 were made perpetual : four praetors were annually em- 
 powered to sit in judgment on the slate ofiences of 
 treason, extortion, peculation, and bribery ; and Sylla 
 added new praetors and new questions for those crimes 
 which more directly injure the safety of individuals. 
 By these inquisitors the trial was prepared and direc- 
 ted ; but they could only pronounce the sentence of 
 the majority of judges^ who with some truth and 
 more prejudice, have been compared to geiectjud-es 
 the English juries.' To discharge this ° 
 
 important though burthensome office, an annual list 
 of ancient and respectable citizens was formed by the 
 praetor. After many constitutional struggles, they 
 were chosen in equal numbers from the senate, the 
 equestrian order, and the people; four hundred and 
 fifty were appointed for the single questions ; and the 
 various rolls or decuries of judges must have contained 
 the names of some thousand Romans, who represented 
 
 and christian travellers, (Ancient Relationsof India and China, p. 3t 
 translatfd by Renaudot, and his bitter critic the P6re Premare, Let- 
 Ires Edifiantes, torn. xix. p. 435.) and native America by the Spanish 
 historians. (Garcillasso de la Vega, 1. iii. c. 13. Rycaut's translation ; 
 and Dictionnaire de Bayle, torn iii. p. 88.) I believe, and hoj)e, that 
 the negroes, in iheir own country, were exempt from this morai pes- 
 tilence. 
 
 r The important subject of the public questions and judgments at 
 Rome is explained with much learning, and in a classic style br 
 Charles Sig<>niu3; (1. iii.de Judiciis, in 0pp. torn. iii. 679 — 864.) anil 
 a good abridgment may be found in the Republique Romaine of 
 Beaufort, (toni. ii. 1. v. p. 1 — 121.) Those who wish for more abstruse 
 law, may study Noodt, (de Jurisdictione et Imperio Libri duo, torn. i. 
 p. 93—134.) Heineccius, (ad Pandect. 1. i. et ii. ad Institut. 1. iv. til. 
 xvii. Element, ad Anliquitat.) and Gravina. (0pp. 230— 251.) 
 
 • The office, both at Rome and in England, must be considered a» 
 an occasional duly, and not a magistracy or profession. But the obli- 
 gation of a unanimous verdict is peculiar to our laws, which condemn 
 the jurymen to undergo the torture from whence they have exempted 
 the criminal. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 97 
 
 the judicial authority of the state. In each particular ers of this world have indeed lost their domin 
 
 Assessors. 
 
 cause, a sufficient number was drawn from the urn ; 
 their integrity was guarded by an oath ; the mode of 
 ballot secured their independence ; the suspicion of 
 partiality was removed by the mutual challenges of 
 the accuser and defendant; and the judges of Milo, by 
 the retrenchment of fifteen on each side, were reduced 
 to fifty-one voices or tablets, of acquittal, of condem- 
 nation, or of favourable doubt.* 3. In the civil juris- 
 diction, the praetor of the city was truly a judge, and 
 almost a legislator; but as soon as he had prescribed 
 the action of law, he often referred to a delegate the 
 determination of the fact. With the increase of legal 
 proceedings, the tribunal of the centumvirs, in which 
 he presided, acquired more weight and reputation. 
 But whether he acted alone, or with the advice of his 
 council, the most absolute powers might be trusted to 
 a magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes 
 of the people. The rules and precautions of freedom 
 have required some explanation ; the order of despo- 
 tism is simple and inanimate. Before the age of Jus- 
 tinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman 
 judges had sunk to an empty title ; the humble advice 
 of the assessors might be accepted or 
 despised ; and in each tribunal tlie civil 
 and criminal jurisdiction was administered by a single 
 magistrate, who was raised and disgraced by the will 
 of the emperor. 
 
 Voluntary exile A Roman accused of any capital crime 
 : and death. might prevent the sentence of the law 
 by voluntary exile, or death. Till his guilt had been le- 
 gally proved, his innocence was presumed, and his per- 
 son was free : till the votes of the \?LSi century had been 
 counted and declared, he might peaceably secede to 
 any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia." 
 His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his 
 children, by this civil death ; and he might still be 
 happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment, if a 
 mind accustomed to the ambitious tumult of Rome 
 could support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or 
 Athens. A bolder effort was required to escape from 
 the tyranny of the Caesars ; but this effort was render- 
 ed familiar by the maxims of the stoics, the example 
 of the bravest Romans, and the legal encouragements 
 of suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were 
 exposed to public ignominy, and their children, a more 
 serious evil, were reduced to poverty by the confisca- 
 tion of their fortunes. But if the victims of Tiberius 
 and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince or senate, 
 their courage and despatch were recompensed by the 
 applause of the public, the decent honours of burial, 
 and the validity of their testaments.* The exquisite 
 avarice and cruelty of Domitian appear to have depri- 
 ved the unfortunate of this last consolation, and it was 
 still denied even by the clemency of the Antonines. 
 A voluntary death, which in the case of a capital of- 
 fence, intervened between the accusation and the sen- 
 tence, was admitted as a confession of guilt, and the 
 spoils of the deceased were seized by the inhuman 
 claims of the treasury .^ Yet the civilians have always 
 respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his 
 life; and the posthumous disgrace invented by Tar- 
 quin' to check the despair of his subjects, was never 
 revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The pow- 
 
 t We are indebted for this interesting fact to a fragment of Asconius 
 Pedianus, who flourished under the reign of Tiberius. The loss of his 
 Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero has deprived usof a valuable 
 fund of historical and legal knowledge. 
 
 u Polyb. 1. vi. p. 643. The extension of the empire and city of 
 Rome obliged the exile to seek a more distant place of retirement. 
 
 X Qui de se statuebant, humabantur corpora, manebant testamenta ; 
 pretium festinandi. Tacit. Annal. vi. 25. with the Notes of Lipsius. 
 
 7 Julius Paulus, (Sentent. Recept. 1. v. tit. xii. p. 476.) ihe Pan- 
 dects, (I. xlviii. tit. xxi.) the Code, (I. ix. tit. I.) Bynkershoek, (tom. 
 i. p. 59. Observat. J. C. R. iv. 4.) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, 
 !■ xxix. c. 9.) define the civil limitations of the liberty and privileges 
 of suicide. The criminal penalties are the production of a later and 
 darker age. 
 
 « Plin. Hist. Nalur. xxxvi. 24. When he fatigued his subjects in 
 building the capitol, many of the labourers were provoked to despatch 
 themselves; he nailed their dead bodies to crosses. 
 
 Vol. II.—N 7 
 
 lion over 
 
 him who IS resolved on death; and his artn can only 
 be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future 
 state. Suicides are enumerated by Virgil among the 
 unfortunate, rather than the guilty ;* and the poetical 
 fables of the infernal shades could not seriously influ- 
 ence the faith or practice of mankind. But the pre- 
 cepts of the gospel, or the church, have at length im- 
 posed a pious servitude on the minds of christians, and 
 condemn them to expect, without a murmur, the last 
 stroke of disease or the executioner. 
 
 The penal statutes form a very small Abuses of civil 
 proportion of the sixty-two books of the jurisprudence. 
 Code and Pandects ; and, in all judicial proceeding, 
 the life or death of a citizen is delerniined with less 
 caution and delay than the most ordinary question of 
 covenant or inheritance. This singular distinction, 
 thoujrh something may be allowed for the urgent ne- 
 cessity of defending the peace of society, is derived 
 from the nature of criminal and civil jurisprudence. 
 Our duties to the state are simple and uniform ; the 
 law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only 
 on brass or marble, but on the conscience of the oflTen- 
 der, and his guilt is commonly proved by the testimo- 
 ny of a single fact. But our relations to each other 
 are various and infinite : our obligations are created, 
 annulled, and modified, by injuries, benefits, and 
 promises ; and the interpretation of voluntary contracts 
 and testaments, which are often dictated by fraud or 
 ignorance, affords a long and laborious exercise to the 
 sagacity of the judge. The business of life is multi- 
 plied by the extent of commerce and dominion, and 
 the residence of the parties in the distant provinces of 
 an empire, is productive of doubt, delay, and inevita- 
 ble appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate. 
 Justinian, the Greek emperor of Constantinople and 
 the east, was the legal successor of the Latin shepherd 
 who had planted a colony on the banks of the Tiber. 
 In a period of thirteen hundred years, the laws had 
 reluctantly followed the changes of government and 
 nianners; and the laudable desire of conciliating an- 
 cient names with recent institutions, destroyed the 
 harmony, and swelled the magnitude, of the obscure 
 and irregular system, llie laws which excuse, on 
 any occasions, the ignorance of their subjects, confess 
 their own imperfections ; the civil jurisprudence, as it 
 was abridged by Justinian, still continued a mysteri- 
 ous science, and a profitable trade, and the innate per- 
 plexity of the study was involved in tenfold darkness 
 by the private industry of the practitioners. The ex- 
 pense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded the value of 
 the prize, and the fairest rights were abandoned by the 
 poverty or prudence of the claimants. Such costly 
 justice might tend to abate the spirit of litigation, but 
 the unequal pressure serves only to increase the influ- 
 ence of the rich, and to aggravate the misery of the 
 poor. By these dilatory and expensive proceedings, 
 the wealthy pleader obtains a more certain advantage 
 than he could hope from the accidental corruption of 
 his judge. The experience of an abuse, from which 
 our own age and country are not perfectly exempt, 
 may sometimes provoke a generous indignation, and 
 extort the hasty wish of exchanging our elaborate ju- 
 risprudence for the simple and summary decrees of a 
 Turkish cadhi. Our calmer reflection will suggest, 
 that such forms and delays are necessary to guard the 
 person and property of the citizen ; that the discretion 
 of the judge is the first engine of tyranny, and that 
 the laws of a free people should foresee and determine 
 every question that may probably arise in the exercise 
 of power and the transactions of industry. But the 
 government of Justinian united the evils of liberty and 
 
 a The sole resemblance of a violent and premature death has en- 
 gaged Virgil (.aSneid, vi. 434— 439.) to confound suicides with infant*, 
 lovers, and persons unjnstly condemned. Hejrne, the best of hit 
 editors, is at a loss to deduce the idea, or ascertain th« juri»pnidMice| 
 of the Roman poet. 
 
 « 
 
 
 / 
 
 ii 
 
98 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 '!»( 
 
 ^4 
 
 
 servitude; and the Romans were oppressed at the 
 same time by the multiplicity of their laws and the 
 arbitrary will of their master. 
 
 Death of Justi- 
 nian, 
 A. D. r,e5. 
 Xfov. 14. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Reign of the yovnger Justin. — Emhassy of the Avars. 
 
 — Their settlement on the Danube. — Conquest of 
 Italy by the Ijombards. — Adoption and reign of Tibe- 
 rius. — Of Jifaurice. — State of Italy under the Lom- 
 bards and the exarchs of liavejina. — Distress of Home. 
 
 — Character and pontificate of Gregory thejirst. 
 
 During the last years of Justinian, 
 his infirm mind was devoted to hea- 
 venly contemplation, and he neglected 
 the business of the lower world. His 
 subjects were impatient of the long continuance of his 
 life and reign ; yet all who were capable of reflection,, 
 apprehended the moment of his death, which might 
 involve the capital in tumult, and the empire in civil 
 war. Seven nephews* of the childless monarch, the 
 sons or grandsons of his brother and sister, had been 
 educated in the splendour of a princely fortune; they 
 had been shown in high commands to the provinces 
 and armies; their characters were known, their follow- 
 ers were zealous, and as the jealousy of age postpon- 
 ed the declaration of a successor, they might expect 
 ■with equal hopes the inheritance of their uncle. He 
 expired in his palace, after a reign of thirty-eight 
 years ; and the decisive opportunity was embraced by 
 the friends of Justin, the son of Vigilanlia.'* At the 
 hour of midnight, his domestics were awakened by an 
 importunate crowd, who thundered at his door, and 
 obtained admittance by re.vealing tiiemselves to be the 
 principal members of the senate. These welcome de- 
 puties announced the recent and momentous secret of 
 the emperor's decease: reported, or perhaps invented, 
 his dying choice of the best beloved and most deserv- 
 ing of his nephews, and cotijurrd Justin to prevent 
 the disorders of the multitude, if they should perceive, 
 with the return of light, that they were left without a 
 master. After composing his countenance to surprise, 
 sorro\y, and decent modesty, Justin, by the advice of 
 his wife Sophia, submitted to the authority of the sen- 
 ate. He was conducted wiili speed and silence to the 
 palace; the guards 'saluted their new sovereign, and 
 the martial and religious rites of his coronation were 
 diligently accomplished. By the hands of the proper 
 officers he was invested with the imperial garments, 
 the red buskins, white tunic, and purple robe. A for- 
 tunate soldier, whom he instantly promoted to the rank 
 of tribune, encircled his neck with a military collar; 
 four robust youths exalted him on a shield ; he stood 
 firm and erect to receive the adoration of his subjects; 
 and their choice was sanctified by the benediction of 
 the patriarch, who imposed ihe diadem on the head of 
 an orthodox prince. The hippodrome 
 was already filled with innumerable 
 multitudes ; and no sooner did the em- 
 peror appear on his throne, than the 
 voices of the blue and the green factions 
 were confounded in the same loyal accla- 
 mations. In the speeches which Justin addressed to 
 the senate and people, he promised to correct the abu- 
 ses which had disgraced jthe age of his predecessor, 
 displayed the maxims of a just and beneficent govern- 
 ment, and declared, that on the approaching calends 
 
 Keign of Justin 
 II. or the 
 Younper. 
 
 A. D. 565. 
 
 Nov. 15.— 
 
 A. D. 574. 
 
 December. 
 
 a See the family of Justin and Justinian intheFamiliae ByzanilnjB 
 of nucangp, p. 89—101. The devout civilians, Ludewig (in Vit. Jus- 
 tinian, p. 131.) andj Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Roman, p. 374.) have 
 since illustrated the genealogy of their fiivourile prince. 
 
 b In the story of Justin's elevation I have translated into simple 
 •nd concise prose the eight hundred verses of the two first books of 
 CorippusjDe Laudibus Juatini, Appendix Hiai. Byzani. p. 401—410 
 Aome, 1777. 
 
 of January,' he would revive in his own «,„ ^„„„..,„i.. 
 
 *u jiL 1-. c T% His consulship 
 
 person the name and liberality of a Ro- A. D. 566. 
 man consul. The immediate discharge January i. 
 of his uncle's debts exhibited a solid pledge of his 
 faith and generosity : a train of porters laden with, 
 bags of gold advanced into the midst of the hippo- 
 drome, and the hopeless creditors of Justinian accep- 
 ted this fe iuilable payment as a voluntary git't. Be- 
 fore the end of three years, his example was imitated 
 and surpassed by the empress Sophia, who delivered 
 many indigent citizens from the weight of debt and 
 usury : an act of benevolence the best entitled to gra- 
 titude, since it relieves the most intolerable distress ; 
 but in which the bounty of a prince is the most lia- 
 ble to be abused by the claims of prodigality and 
 fraud. "^ 
 
 On the seventh day of his reign. Jus- Embassy of the 
 tin gave audience to the ambassadors of Avare. 
 the Avars, and the scene was decorated ^* ^' ^^' ' 
 to impress the barbarians with astonishment, venera- 
 tion, and terror. From the palace gate, the spacious 
 courts and long porticoes were lined with the lofty 
 crests and gilt bucklers of the guards, who presented 
 their spears and axes with more confidence than they 
 would have shown in a field of battle. The officers 
 who exercised the power, or attended the person, of 
 the prince, were attired in their richest habits, and 
 arranoed according to the military and civil order of 
 the hierarchy. When the veil of the sanctuary was 
 withdrawn, the ambassadors beheld the emperor of the 
 east on his throne, beneath a canopy, or dome, which 
 was supported by four columns, and crowned with a 
 winged figure of Victory. In the first emotions of sur- 
 prise, they submitted to the servile adoration of the 
 Byzantine court ; but as soon as they arose from the 
 ground, Targetius, the chief of the embassy, expressed 
 the freedom and pride of a barbarian. He extolled, 
 by the tongue of his interpreter, the greatness of the 
 chagan, by whose clemency the kingdoms of the south 
 were permitted to exist, whose victorious subjects had 
 traversed the frozen rivers of Scythia, and who now co- 
 vered the banks of t!»e Danube with innumerable tents. 
 The late emperor had cultivated, with annual and cost- 
 ly gifts, the friendship of a grateful monarch, and the 
 enemies of Koine had respected the allies of the Avars. 
 The same prudence would instruct the nephew of Jus- 
 tinian to imitate the liberality of his uncle, and to pur- 
 chase the blessings of peace from an invincible peo- 
 ple, who delighted and excelled in the exercise of war. 
 The reply of the emperor was delivered in the same 
 strain of haughty defiance, and he derived his confi- 
 dence from the God of the christians, the ancient glo- 
 ry of Rome, and the recent triumphs of Justinian. 
 " The empire," said he, " abounds with men and hor- 
 ses, and arms sufficient to defend our frontiers, and to 
 chastise the barbarians. You offer aid, you threaten 
 hostilities ; we de.«pise your enmity and your aid. The 
 conquerors of the Avars solicit our alliance; shall we 
 dread their fugitives and exiles ?• The bounty of our 
 uncle was granted to your misery, to your humble 
 prayers. From us you shall receive a more important 
 obligation, the knowledge of your own weakness. Re- 
 tire from our presence; the lives of ambassadors are 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 c It IS surprising howPagl (Critica in Annal. Baron, tom. ii. p. 639.) 
 could be tempted by any chronicles to contradict the plain anddeci- 
 Blve text of Cnrippus, (vicina dona, 1. ii. 354. vicina dies, I. iv.i.)and 
 toposlpone,tillA.D. 567, the consulship of Justin. 
 
 Theophan. Chronograph, p. 205. Whenever Cedrenus or Zonaraa 
 are mere transcribers, it is superfluous to allege their testimony 
 
 e Corippus, 1. iii. 390. The unquestionable sense relates to* tho 
 lurks, the conquerors of the Avars; but the word scultor haa no an- 
 parent meaning, and the sole MS. of Corippus, from whence the fir^t 
 edition (loSI, apud Plantin) was printed, is no longer visible The 
 
 Lfcl&Ju^f.*"'°^^'''"r'n^ ""^"^r^ the conjectural emendation 
 oisoldan: but the proofs of Ducange (Joinville, Dissert, xvi. p. 238- 
 wn.l 1^', the early use of this title among the Turks and Persians, aro 
 W %rt?hr 'Vk '^""""o • -^"'^ ' '11^ "l^''"« ^» the authority of D'Herbe- 
 l^.H^rK» ,"^*'^'^r °"®"*- ^- ?^iwho ascribesthe word to the Arabic 
 and Chaldaan tongues, and the date to the boginnin-of the eleventh 
 century, when it was bestowed by the khalif of Bagdad on Mahmud 
 prince of Gazna, and conquer r of India. «*fc"*»" on iuanmua 
 
 n 
 
 ^ safe; and if you return to implore our pardon, perhaps 
 you will taste of our benevolence.'" On the report of 
 his ambassadors, the chagan was awed by the apparent 
 firmness of a Roman emperor, of whose character and 
 resources he was ignorant. Instead of executing his 
 threats against the eastern empire, he marched into 
 the poor and savage countries of Germany, which 
 were subject to the dominion of the Franks. After 
 two doubtful battles he consented to retire, and the 
 Austrasian king relieved the distress of his camp with 
 an immediate supply of corn and cattle.s Such re- 
 peated disappointments had chilled the spirit of the 
 Avars, and their power would have dissolved away in 
 the Sarmatian desert, if the alliance of Alboin, king 
 of the Lombards, had not jriven a new object to 
 their arms, and a lasting settlement to their wearied 
 fortunes. 
 
 Alboin, king of While Alboin served under his father's 
 hisv^oiMo^"" ^*^"^^''^» he encountered in battle, and 
 and^even'ge?^' transpierced with his lance, the rival 
 prince of the Gepidae. The Lombards, 
 who applauded such early prowess, requested his fa- 
 ther, with unanimous acclamations, that the heroic 
 youth, yvho had shared the dangers of the field, might 
 be admitted to the feast of victory. »* You are not un- 
 mindful," replied the inflexible Audoin, "of the wise 
 customs of our ancestors. Whatever may be his me- 
 rit, a prince is incapable of sitting at table with his 
 father till he has received his arms from a foreign and 
 royal hand." Alboin bowed with reverence to The in- 
 stitutions of his country ; selected forty companions, 
 and boldly visited the court of Turisund, king of 
 the Gepi(l«, who embraced and entertained, according 
 to the laws of hospitality, the murderer of his sonT 
 At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied the seat of the 
 youth whom he had slain, a tender remembrance arose 
 
 in the mind of Turisund. " How dear is that place 
 
 how hateful is that person—" were the words that es- 
 caped, with a sigh, from the indignant father. His 
 grief exasperated the national resentment of the Gepi- 
 dffi ; and Cunimund, his surviving son, was provoked 
 by wine, or fraternal affection, to the desire of ven- 
 geance. " The Lombards," said the rude barbarian, 
 " resemble, in figure and in smell, the mares of our 
 Sarmatian plains." And this insult was a coarse allu- 
 sion to the white bands which enveloped their legs. 
 »'Add another resemblance," replied an audacious 
 Lombard; "you have felt how strongly they kick. 
 Visit the plain of Asfield, and seek for the bones of 
 thy brother :^ they are mingled with those of the vilest 
 animals." The Gepidae, a nation of warriors, started 
 from their seats, and the fearless Alboin, with his for- 
 ty companions, laid their hands on their swords. The 
 t^imult was appeased by the venerable interposition of 
 Turisund. He saved his own honour, and the life of 
 his guest: and after the solemn rites of investiture, dis- 
 missed the stranger in the bloody arms of his son ; 
 the gift of a weeping parent. Alboin returned in tri- 
 Jimph ; and the Lombards, who celebrated his match- 
 less intrepidity, were compelled to praise the virtues 
 of an enemy .»• In this extraordinary visit he had pro- 
 bably seen the daughter of Cunimund, who soon after 
 ascended the throne of the Gepidae. Her name was 
 Rosamond, an appellation expressive of female beauty, 
 and which our own history or romance has consecra- 
 ted to amorous tales. The king of the Lombards, 
 (the father of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted 
 to the grand-daughter of Clovis ; but the restraints of 
 faith and policy soon yielded to the hope of possessing 
 
 f For these characteristic speer hos, compare the verse of Corippus 
 irkV'loo ^~4^^^ ^^'^'^ ^^^ prose of Menander. (Excerpt. Legation, p. 
 lift., 103.) Their diversity proves that they did not copy each other: 
 their resemblance, that they drew from a common original. 
 
 g Fi.r the Austrasian war, see Menander, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 110.) 
 Gregory of Tours, (Hist. Franc. 1. iv. c. 29.) and Paul the deacon, (de 
 Gest. Lanuobard. 1. ii. c. 10.) 
 
 c»o**o!'*"l,^""^*^'"'^' ^^^ deacon of Friuli, de Gest Langobard. 1. i. c. 
 -J, 34. His pictures of national manners, though rudely sketched, are 
 more lively and faithful than those of Bede, or Gregory of Touri 
 
 99 
 
 the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and na- 
 tion. 1 he arts of persuasion were tried without suc- 
 cess ; and the impatient lover, by force and strataaem. 
 obtained the object of his desires. War was the'con- 
 sequence which he foresaw and solicited ; but the 
 Lombards could not long withstand the furious assault 
 of the Gepida3, who were sustained by a Roman army. 
 And as the offer of marriage was rejected with contempt, 
 Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, and to 
 partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the 
 house of Cunimund.' 
 
 When a public quarrel is envenomed The Lombard, 
 by private injuries, a blow that is not and Avars de- 
 mortal or decisive can be productive f„Ti,-^*'®^ ^'"f 
 only of a short truce which allows the l^el'lf^^r 
 unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his ^- ^- ^^^' ' 
 arms for a new encounter. The strength of Alboin 
 had been found unequal to the gratification of his love, 
 ambition, and revenge : he condescended to implore 
 the formidable aid of the chagan ; and the arguments 
 that he employed are expressive of the art and policy 
 of the barbarians. In the attack of the Gepidae, he 
 had been prompted by the just desire of extirpating a 
 people whom their alliance with the Roman empire 
 had rendered the common enemies of the nations, and 
 the personal adversaries of the chagan. If the forces 
 of the Avars and the Lombards should unite in this 
 glorious quarrel, the victory was secure, and the 
 reward inestimable : the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, 
 and Constantinople would be exposed, without a bar- 
 rier, to their invincible arms. But if they hesitated 
 or delayed to prevent the malice of the Romans, the 
 same spirit which had insulted, would pursue the 
 Avars to the extremity of the earth. These specious 
 reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness and 
 disdain : he detained the Lombard ambassadors in his 
 camp, protracted the negociation, and by turns alleged 
 his want of inclination, or his want of ability, to under- 
 take this important enterprise. At length he signified 
 the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards 
 should immediately present him with the tithe of their 
 cattle : that the spoils and captives should be equally- 
 divided ; but that the lands of the Gepidae should 
 become the sole patrimony of the Avars. Such hard 
 conditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of 
 Alboin ; and as the Romans were dissatisfied with the 
 ingratitude and perfidy of the Gepidae, Justin aban- 
 doned that incorrigible people to their fate, and re- 
 mained the tranquil spectator of this unequal conflict. 
 The despair of Cunimund was active and dangerous. 
 He was informed that the Avars had entered his con- 
 fines ; but on the strong assurance that, after the defeat 
 of the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily 
 be repelled, he rushed fr wards to encounter the im- 
 placable enemy of his name and family. But the 
 courage of the Gepidae could secure them no more tha» 
 an honourable death. The bravest of the nation felb 
 in the field of battle ; the king of the Lombards con- 
 templated with delight the head of Cunimund, and 
 his skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred 
 of the conqueror, or, perhaps, to comply with the 
 savage custom of his country.'' After this victory, no 
 further obstacle could impede the progress of the con- 
 federates, and they faithfully executed the terms of 
 their agreement.' The fair countries of Walachia, 
 Moldavia, Transylvania, and the parts of Hungary 
 beyond the Danube, were occupied, without resistance, 
 by a new colony of Scythians ; and the Dacian empire 
 
 in T^^ ^^"""^ '* ^^^^ ^y *" impostor; (Theophylact. Simocat. 1. vi. c. 
 10.) but he had art enough to build his fictions on public and notorious 
 
 ISiCtS* 
 
 k It appears from Straljo, Pliny, and Ammianus Marcellinus, that 
 the same practice was common among the Scythian tribes. (Muratori 
 Scriptores Rer. Italic, tom. i. p. 424.) The scalps of North America 
 are likewise trophies of valour. The skull of Cunimund was preserved 
 above two hundred years among the Lombards ; and Paul himself was 
 one of the guests to whom duke Ratchis exhibited this cud on a hi^h 
 festival, (1. ii. c. 28.) *^ u « mga 
 
 I Paul i. c. 27. Menander, in Excerpt. Le g^^ tti UO, IIL 
 
 
i'4 
 
 100 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 Chap. VT. 
 
 
 r, ^ 
 
 
 AllK)in under- 
 takes the con- 
 quest of Italy, 
 A. D. 567. 
 
 of the chagans subsisted with splendour above two 
 hundred and thirty years. The nation of the Gepidae 
 was dissolved ; but in the distribution of the captives, 
 the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than the 
 companions of tlie Lombards, whose generosity adop- 
 ted a valiant foe, and whose freedom was incompa- 
 tible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One moiety 
 of the spoil introduced into the camp of Alboin more 
 wealth than a barbarian could readily compute. The 
 fair Rosamond was persuaded, or compelled, to ac- 
 knowledge the rights of her victorious lover; and 
 the daughter ofCuniraund appeared to forgive those 
 crimes which might be imputed to her own irresisti- 
 ble charms. 
 
 The destruction of a mighty kingdom 
 established the fame of Alboin. In the 
 days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the 
 Saxons, and the other tribes of the Teu- 
 tonic language, still repeated the songs which descri- 
 bed the heroic virtues, the valour, liberality, and for- 
 tune of the king of the Lombards."" But his ambition 
 was yet unsatisfied ; and the conqueror of the Gepidae 
 turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks 
 of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years had not elap- 
 sed, since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had 
 visited the pleasant climate of Italy; the mountains, 
 the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their me- 
 mory : the report of their success, perhaps the view 
 of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the 
 flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were 
 encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin; 
 and it is affirmed, that he spoke to their senses, by 
 producing, at the royal feast, the fairest and most 
 exquisite fruits that grew spontaneously in the garden 
 of the world. No sooner had he erected his standard, 
 than the native strength of the Lombards was multi- 
 plied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scy- 
 Ihia. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia 
 had resumed the manners of barbarians ; and the 
 names of the Gepidae, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Ba- 
 varians, may be distinctly traced in the provinces of 
 Italy." Of the Saxons, the old allies of the Lombards, 
 twenty thousand warriors, with their wives and chil- 
 dren, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery 
 contributed to his success; but the accession or the ab- 
 sence of their numbers was not sensibly felt in the mag- 
 nitude of his host. Every mode of religion was freely 
 practised by its respective votaries. The king of the 
 Lombards had been educated in the Arian heresy ; but 
 the catholics, in their public worship, were allowed 
 to pray for his conversion ; while the more stubborn bar- 
 barians sacrificed a she-goat, or perhaps a captive, to the 
 gods of their fathers." The Lombards, and their confe- 
 derates, were united by their common attachment to a 
 chief, who excelled in all the virtnes and vices of a sa- 
 vage hero ; and the viailatice of Alboin provided an am- 
 ple magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use 
 of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lom- 
 bards attended the march ; their lands they cheerfully 
 relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, 
 which was made and accepted without a smile, that 
 if they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary 
 exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions. 
 
 m Ut hactenus etiam lam apiiil Bajoariorum gentem, quam et SaxA- 
 num,seil el alios ejusilein linsruaeliomines . . . . ineonnn carininibus 
 celebretiir. Paul, 1. i. c. 27. He died A. I). 799. (IMuralori, in Proefal. 
 loin. i. p. 397.) Tiiese German sonss, st)me of which miphi be as old 
 as Taciiiis, (de Moribns Germ. c. 2.) were compiled and transcribed 
 by Charlemagne. Barbara el aiirKiiiissima cannina, qiiibus veterum 
 regum actus et bella canebanliir scripsit memoriaeque mandavit. 
 (Eginard, in Vil. Carol, Magn. c. 29. p. 131), 131.) The poems, which 
 Guldasl commends, (AnimaJvers. ad Eginard, p. 207.) appear to be 
 receni and coniemptiblo romances. 
 
 n The oilier nations are rehearsed by Paul. (1. ii. c. G. 2C.) Muralori 
 <Antichiia Italiane, tom. i. dissert, i. p. 4.) has discovered the village 
 of the Bavarians, three miles from Modena. 
 
 o Gregory the Koman (Dialog. 1. iii. c. 27, 28. apud Baron. Annal. 
 Eccles. A. D. 579. No. 10.) supposes that they likewise adored this 
 site-goal. 1 know but of one religion in "vhich the god and the viciim 
 are the same. 
 
 They might have failed, if Narses DisaflTeciiontnd 
 had been the antagonist of the Lorn- death of Nar»e« 
 bards ; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his 
 Gothic victory, would have encountered with reluc- 
 tance an enemy whom they dreaded and esteemed. 
 But the weakness of the Byzantine court was subser- 
 vient to the barbarian cause ; and it was for the ruin 
 of Italy, that the emperor once listened to the com- 
 plaints of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were 
 stained with avarice ; and in his provincial reign of 
 fifteen years. ho accumulated a treasure of gold and 
 silver which surpassed the modesty of a private for- 
 tune. His government was oppressive or unpopular, 
 and the general discontent was expressed with free- 
 dom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of 
 Justin they boldly declared, that their Gothic servi- 
 tude had been more tolerable than the despotism of a 
 Greek eunuch ; and that, unless their tyrant were in- 
 stantly removed, they would consult their own happi- 
 ness in the choice of a master. The apprehension of 
 a revolt was urged by the voice of envy and detrac- 
 tion, which had so recently triumphed over the merit 
 of Belisarius. A new e.xarch, Longinus, was ap- 
 pointed to supersede the conqueror of Italy, and the 
 base motives of his recall were revealed in the insul- 
 ting mandate of the empress Sophia, ** that he should 
 leave to men the e.\ercise of arms, and return to his 
 proper station among the maidens of the palace, where 
 a distaff should be again placed in the hand of the 
 eunuch.*' " I will spin her such a thread, as she shall 
 not easily unravel I " is said to have been the reply 
 which indignation and conscious virtue extorted from 
 the hero. Instead of attending, a slave and a victim, 
 at the gale of the Byzantine palace, he retired to 
 Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief 
 of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise 
 the ingratitude of the prince and people.P But the 
 passions of the people are furious and changeable, and 
 the Romans soon recollected the merits, or dreaded 
 the resentment, of their victorious general. By the 
 mediation of the pope, who undertook a special pilgri- 
 mage to Naples, their repentance was accepted ; and 
 Narses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful 
 language, consented to fix his residence in the capitol. 
 His death,** though in the extreme period of old age, 
 was unseasonable and premature, since his genius 
 alone could have repaired the last and fatal error of 
 his life. The reality, or the suspicion, of a conspiracy 
 disarmed and disunited the Italians. The soldiers 
 resented the disgrace, and bewailed the loss, of their 
 general. They were ignorant of their new exarch; 
 and Longinus was himself iunorant of the slate of the 
 army and the province. In the preceding years Italy 
 had been desolated by pestilence and famine, and a 
 disaffected people ascribed the calamities of nature to 
 the guilt or folly of their rulers.' 
 
 Whatever miffht be the grounds of his 
 security, Alboin neither expected nor en- 
 countered a Roman army in the field. 
 He ascended the Julian Alps, and looked 
 down with contempt and desire on the fruitful plains 
 to which his victory communicated the perpetual ap- 
 pellation of LoMRARDV. A faithful chieftain, and a 
 select band, were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern 
 
 P The charge of the deacon against Narses (1. Ii. c. 5.) may be 
 groundless; but the weak apology of the Cardinal (Baron. Anna), 
 Eccles. A. D. 567. No. 8—12.) is rejecled by the best critics— Paci, 
 (lorn. ii. p. 639, 640.) Muralori, (Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 160—163.) 
 and the last e<lilors, Horalius Blancus, (Script. KeruMi Italic, tom. i. p. 
 427, 428.) and Philip Arsplat us. (Sigon. Opera, lom. ii.p. II, 12.) Tlie 
 Narses who assisted at ihe cornnation of Juslin (Corippus, I. iii. 221.) 
 is clearly underslocnl to be a different person. 
 
 q The death of Narses is m»^nilone.i by Paul, 1. ii. c. 11. Anastaff. 
 in Vil. Johan. iii. p. 43. Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Raven, in Script. 
 Rer. Italicarum, lorn. ii. part i. p. 114. 124. Yet I cannol believe wiih 
 Aenellus ihal Narses was ninely-fivf» years of age. Is it probable that 
 all his exploits were performed al fiurscore ? 
 
 T The designs of Narses and of ihe li4imbards for the invasion of 
 Italy are expueeil in the last chapter of the first book, and the •even 
 finii chapters of the second book, of Paul the deacon. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 101 
 
 Conquest of a 
 
 freat part, of 
 laly by the 
 Lombards, 
 A. D. 568-570. 
 
 Friuli, to ^ard the passes of the mountains. The 
 Lombards respected the strength of Pavia, and listen- 
 ed to the prayers of the Trevisans : their slow and 
 heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the palace and 
 city of Verona ; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, 
 was invested by the powers of Alboin five months 
 after his departure from Pannonia. Terror preceded 
 his march; he found every where, or he left, a dreary 
 solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, 
 without a trial, that the stranger was invincible. Es- 
 caping to lakes, or rocks, or morasses, the affrighted 
 crowds concealed some fragments of their wealth", and 
 delayed the moment of their servitude. Paulinus, the 
 patriarch of Aquileia, removed his treasurtjs, sacred and 
 profane, to the Isle of Grado,' and his successors were 
 adopted by the infant republic of Venice, which was 
 continually enriched by the public calamities. Hono- 
 ratus, who filled the chair of St. Ambrose, had credu- 
 lously accepted the faithless offers of a capitulation; 
 and the archbishop, with the clergy and nobles of Mi- 
 lan, were driven by the perfidy of Alboin to seek a 
 refuge in the less accessible ramparts of Genoa. 
 Along the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabi- 
 tants was supported by the facility of supply, the' 
 hopes of relief, and the power of escape ; but from 
 the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome, 
 the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle 
 or a siege, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards. 
 The submission of the people invited the barbarian to 
 assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and the 
 helpless exarch was confined to the office'^of announ- 
 cing to the emperor Justin, the rapid and irretrievable 
 loss of his provinces and cities.* One city, which 
 had been diligently fortified by the Goths, resisted the 
 arms of a new invader; and while Italy was subdued 
 by the flying detachments of the Lombards, the royal 
 camp was fixed above three years before the western 
 gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same courage which 
 obtains the esteem of a civilized enemy, provokes the 
 fury of a savage, and the impatient besieger had bound 
 himself by a tremendous oath, that age, and sex, and 
 dignity, should be confounded in a general massacre. 
 The aid of famine at length enabled him to execute 
 his bloody vow; but as Alboin entered the gate, his 
 horse stumbled, fell, and could not be raised from the 
 ground. One of his attendants was prompted by com- 
 passion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of 
 the wrath of Heaven ; the conqueror paused and re- 
 lenteti ; he sheathed his sword, and, peacefully repos- 
 ing himself in the palace of Theodoric, proclaimed to 
 the trembling multitude, that they should live and 
 obey. Delighted with the situation of a city, which 
 was endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the 
 purchase, the prince of the Lombards disdained the 
 ancient glories of Milan ; and Pavia, during some 
 ages, was respected as the capital of the kinadom of 
 Italy.- 
 
 Alboin is mur- The reign of the founder was splendid 
 Snond,'''''^^ ^"^ transient; and before he could regu- 
 A. D. 573. late his new conquests, Alboin fell a 
 June 2S. sacrifice to domestic treason and female 
 revenge. In a palace near Verona, which had not 
 been erected for the barbarians, he feasted the compan- 
 ions of his arms ; intoxication v/as the reward of va- 
 
 *' 11 I '* 
 
 t Which from this translation was called New Aquileia. (Chron. 
 Venet. p. 3.) The patriarch of Grado soon became the first citizen 
 of the republic, (p. 9, &c.) but his seal was not removed to Venice 
 till the year 1450. He is now decorated with titles and honours ; but 
 the genius of the church has bowed to that of the state, and the 
 povernment of a catholic city is strictly presbyterian. Thomasin, 
 Discipline de I'Eplise, tom. i. p. 156, 157.161-165. Amelot de la 
 Houssaye, Gouvernemenl de Venise, torn. i. p. 256—261. 
 
 t Paul has given a description of Italy, as it was then divided, into 
 eiphleen regions. (I. ii. c. 14—24.) The DisserlalioChorographicade 
 Italia Medii ACvi, by Father Berelti, a Benedictine monk, and regius 
 professor al Pavia, has been usefully consulted. 
 
 u For the conquest of Italy, see the original materials of Paul, (1. ii. 
 *• 7—10. 12. 14. 25—27.) the eloquent narrative of Sigonius, (tom. ii. 
 ae Regno Italiae, I. i. p. 13—19.) and the correct and critical review 
 •f Muralori. (Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 164—180.) I 
 
 lour, and the king himself was tempted by appetite, 
 or vanity, to exceed the ordinary measure of his in- 
 temperance. After draining many capacious bowls 
 of Rhaetian or Falernian wine, he called for the skull 
 of Cunimund, the noblest and most precious ornament 
 of his sideboard. The cup of victory was accepted 
 with horrid applause by the circle of the Lombard 
 chiefs. "Fill it again with wine," exclaimed the 
 inhuman conqueror, *' fill it to the brim ; carry this 
 goblet to the queen, and request in my name that she 
 would rejoice with her father." In an agony of grief 
 and rage, Rosamond had strength to utter, *' Let the 
 \yill of my lord be obeyed !" and touching it with her 
 lips, pronounced a silent imprecation, that the insult 
 should be washed away in the blood of Alboin. 
 Some indulgence might be due to the resentment of a 
 daughter, if she had not already violated the duties of 
 a wife. Implacable in her enmity, or inconstant in 
 her love, the queen of Italy had"^ stooped from the 
 throne to the arms of a subject, and Helmichis, the 
 king's armour-bearer, was the secret minister of her 
 pleasure and revenge. Against the proposal of the 
 murder, he could no" longer urge the scruples of fidel- 
 ity or gratitude; but Helmichis trembled, when he 
 revolved the danger as well as the guilt, when he re- 
 collected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a 
 warrior, whom he had so often attended in the field 
 of battle. He pressed, and obtained, that one of the 
 bravest champions of the Lombards should be associ- 
 ated to the enterprise, but no more than a promise of 
 secrecy could be drawn from the gallant Peredeus ; 
 and the mode of seduction employed by Rosamond 
 betrays her shameless insensibility both to honour and 
 love. She supplied the place of one of her female 
 attendants who was beloved by Peredeus, and contri- 
 ved some excuse for darkness and silence, till she 
 could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the 
 queen of the Lombards, and that his own death, or 
 the death of Alboin, must be the consequence of such 
 treasonable adultery. In this alternative, he chose 
 rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosa- 
 mond,' whose undaunted spirit was incapable of fear 
 or remorse. She expected and soon found a favoura- 
 ble moment, when the king, oppressed with wine, had 
 retired from the table to his afternoon slumbers. His 
 faithless spouse was anxious for his health and repo.«?e; 
 the gates of the palace were shut, the arms removed, 
 the attendants dismissed, and Rosamond, after lulling 
 him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the cham- 
 ber-door, and urged the reluctant conspirators to the 
 instant execution of the deed. On the first alarm, the 
 warrior started from his couch : his sword, which he 
 attempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard 
 by the hand of Rosamond ; and a small stool, his only 
 weapon, could not long protect him from the spears of 
 the assassins. The daughter of Cunimund smiled in 
 his fall ; his body was buried under the staircase of 
 the palace, and the grateful posterity of the Lombards 
 revered the tomb and memory of their victorious 
 leader. 
 
 The ambitious Rosamond aspired to Her flight and 
 reign in the name of her lover; the city death. 
 and palace of Verona were awed by her powder, and a 
 faithful band of her native Gepidae was prepared to 
 applaud the revenge, and to second the wishes, of 
 their sovereign. But the Lombard chiefs, who fled in 
 the first moments of consternation and disorder, had 
 resumed their courage and collected their powers ; and 
 the nation, instead of submitting to her reign, demand- 
 ed, with unanimous cries, that justice should be exe- 
 cuted on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their 
 
 X The classical reader will recollect the wife and murder of Can- 
 daules, so agreeably told in the first book of Herodotus. The choice 
 of Gyges, »«pi«Ta. «utoj s-ifjufxi, may serve as the excuse of Pere- 
 deus ; and this soft insinuation of an odious idea has been imitated by 
 the best writers of antiquity. (Grsvius, ad Ciceron. Oral, pro Miloae, 
 c. 10.) 
 
 'i^;^ 
 
 "1 
 
 •tmftmatl^ 
 
102 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i.fl 
 
 *! 
 
 king-. She sought a refiiore among the enemies of her 
 country, and a criminal who deserved the abhorrence 
 of mankind was |»rotected by the selfish policy of the 
 exarch. With her daughter, the heiress of the Lom- 
 bard throne, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidap, and 
 the spoils of the palace of Verona, Rosamond descen- 
 ded the Adige and the Po, and was transported by a 
 Greek vessel to the safe harbour of Ravenna. Lon- 
 ginus beheld with delight the charms and the treasures 
 of the widow of Alboin : her situation and her past 
 conduct might justify the most licentious proposals; 
 and she readily listened to the passion of a minister, 
 who, even in the decline of the empire, was respected 
 as the equal of kings. The death of a jealrus lover 
 ■was an easy and grateful sacrifice, and as Helmichis 
 issued from the bath, he received the deadly potion 
 from the hand of his mistress. The taste of the 
 liquor, its speedy operation, and his experience of the 
 character of Rosamond, convinced him that he was 
 
 f)oivSoned : he pointed his dagger to her breast, compel- 
 ed her to drain the remainder of the cup, and expired 
 ■in a few minutes, with the consolation that she could 
 not survive to enjoy the fruits of her wickedness. 
 The daughter of Alboin and Rosamond, with the rich- 
 est spoils of the Lombards, was embarked for Con- 
 stantinople ; the surprising strength of Peredeus amu- 
 sed and terrified the imperial court: his blindness and 
 revenge exhibited an imperfect copy of the adventures 
 Clepho, king of of Samson. By the free suflTrage of the 
 the Lombards, nation, in the assembly of Pavia, Cle- 
 A. D. 573. Aug. pi^Q^ Q^g of their noblest chiefs, was 
 
 elected as the successor of Alboin. Before the end 
 of eighteen months, the throne was polluted by a se- 
 cond murder; Clepho was stabbed by the hand of a 
 domestic ; the regal office was suspended above ten 
 years, during the minority of his son Autharis ; and 
 Italy was divided and oppressed by a ducal aristocracy 
 of thirty tyrants.* 
 
 Weakness of the When the nephew of Justinian as- 
 emperor Justin, cended the throne, he proclaimed a new 
 jera of happiness and glory. The annals of tho se- 
 cond Justin' are marked with disgrace abroad and 
 misery at home. In the west, the Roman empire was 
 afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, 
 and the conquests of the Persians. Injustice prevailed 
 both in the capital and the provinces; the rich trem- 
 bled for their property, the poor for their safety, the 
 ordinary magistrates .were icjnorant or venal, the occa- 
 sional remedies appear to have been arbitrary and vio- 
 lent, and the complaints of the people could no longer 
 be silenced by the splendid names of a legislator and 
 a conqueror. The opinion which imputes to the prince 
 all the calamities of his times, may be countenanced 
 by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary preju- 
 dice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise, that the sen- 
 timents of Justin were pure and benevolent, and that 
 he might have filled his station without reproach, if 
 the faculties of his mind had not been impaired by 
 disease, which deprived the emperor of the use of his 
 feet, and confined him to the palace, a stranger to the 
 complaints of the people and the vices of the govern- 
 ment. The tardy knowledge of his own impotence 
 determined him to lay down the weight of tho diadem; 
 and in the choice of a worthy substitute, he showed 
 some symptoms of a discerninfj and even magnani- 
 mous spirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died 
 in his infancy : their daughter Arabia was the wife of 
 Baduarius,* superintendant of the palace, and after- 
 
 y See the history of Paul, 1. ii. c. 28-32. I have borrowod aome 
 interesting circumstances fiom the Liber Ponlificalis of Agnellus, in 
 Script. Rer. Ital.toin. ii. p. 124. Of all chronological guides, Mura- 
 tori is the safest. 
 
 X The original authors fur the reign of Justin the younger, are 
 Evasrius, Hi'st. Eccles. I. v. c. 1—12. Theophanes, in Chronograph. 
 p. 2JM— 210. Z maras, lorn. ii. 1. xiv. p. 70—72. Cedrenus, in Com- 
 pend. p. 388-392. 
 
 a Dispositorque novus sacrae Baduarius aul». 
 Successor soceri mox factus Cura palali. Corippus. 
 Baduarius ia enumerated among the deacendant« and allies of the 
 
 wards commander of the Italian armies, who vainly 
 aspired to confirm the rights of marriage by those of 
 adoption. While the empire appeared an object of 
 desire, Justin was accustomed to behold with jealousy 
 and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of his 
 hopes; nor could he depend on the gratitude of those 
 who would accept the purple as a restitution, rather 
 than a gift. Of these competitors, one had been re- 
 moved by exile, and afterwards by death ; and the em- 
 peror himself had inflicted such cruel insults on anoth- 
 er, that he must either dread his resentment or despise 
 his patience. This domestic animosity was refined 
 into a generous resolution of seeking a successor, not 
 in his family, but in the republic; and the artful So- 
 phia recommended Tiberius,*' his faithful ... , 
 '../.. J , . , Association of 
 
 captain of the guards, whose virtues and Tiberius, 
 
 fortune the emperor might cherish as the A. D. 574. 
 fruit of his judicious choice. The cere- l^ecember. 
 mony of his elevation to the rank of C8E?sar, or Augus- 
 tus, was performed in the portico of the palace, in the 
 presence of the patriarch and the senate. Justin col- 
 lected the remaining strength of his mind and body, 
 but the popular belief that his speech was inspired by 
 the Deity, betrays a very humble opinion both of the 
 man and the times.« " You behold," said the empe- 
 ror, *' the ensigns of supreme power. You are about 
 to receive them not from my hand, but from the hand 
 of God. Honour them, and from them you will de- 
 rive honour. Respect the empress your mother; you 
 are now her son ; before, you were her servant. De- 
 light not in blood, abstain from revenge, avoid those 
 actions by which I have incurred the public hatred, 
 and consult the experience, rather than the example, 
 of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned ; as a 
 sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished : 
 but these servants, (and he pointed to his minis- 
 ters,) who have abused my confidence, and inflamed 
 my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal 
 of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendour 
 of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember 
 what you have been, remember what you are. You 
 see around us your slaves and your children ; with 
 the authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. 
 Love your people like yourself; cultivate the aflfec- 
 tions, maintain the discipline, of the army ; protect 
 tho fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of 
 the poor."*' The assembly, in silence and in tears, 
 applauded the counsels, and sympathized with the 
 repentance, of their prince : the patriarch rehearsed 
 the prayers of the church ; Tiberius received the 
 diadem on his knees; and Justin, who in his abdi- 
 cation appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the 
 new monarch in the following words: " If you con- 
 sent, I live ; if you command, I die : may the God of 
 heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I 
 
 have neglected or forgotten." The last ^^ ^ , t . 
 r .,, ..^r.^ r .1 T .• Death of Justin 
 
 lour years of the emperor Justin were n. 
 
 passed in tranquil obscurity: his con- A. D.578. 
 
 science was no longer tormented by the Octobers. 
 
 remembrance of those duties which he was incapable 
 
 of discharging; and his choice was justified by the 
 
 filial reverence and gratitude of Tiberius. 
 
 house of Justinian. A family of noble Venetians (Casa Badoero) 
 built churches and cave dukes to the republic as early as tho ninth 
 century; and if their descent be admiiifd, no kings in Europe ran 
 produce a prdi^ree so ancipnt and illustrious. Ducange, Fam. liy- 
 zantin. p. 99. Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernementde Veuise, torn, 
 ii. p. 555. 
 
 b The praise bestowed on princes before their elevation, is the purest 
 and most weighty. Corippus has cplebrated Tiberius at the lime of 
 the accession of Justin, (I. i. 212-222.) Yet even a captain of the 
 guards might attract the flattery of an African exile. 
 
 c Evagrius (I. v. c. 13.)hasadded the reproach to his ministers. He 
 applies this speech toihe ceremony when Tiberius was invested with 
 the rank of Caesar. The loose expressiun, rather than the positive 
 error, of Theophanes, Sec. has delayed it to his Augustan investiture 
 immediately before the death of Justin. 
 
 d Theophylact Simocatta (1. iii. c. 11.) declares that he shall give 
 to posterity the speech of Justin as it was pronounced, without at- 
 tempting to correct the imperfections of language or rhetoric. Per- 
 haps the vain sophisi would have been incapable of pnxiuciug «uch 
 seniimentfl. 
 
 Reign of Tibe- 
 rius II. 
 A. D. 578. 
 Sept. 26.— 
 A.I). 582. 
 Aug. 14. 
 
 Among the virtues of Tiberius,' his 
 beauty (he was one of the tallest and 
 most comely of the Romans) might in- 
 troduce him to the favour of Sophia ; 
 and the widow of Justin was persuaded, 
 that she should preserve her station and influence under 
 the reign of a second and more youthful husband. 
 But if the ambitious candidate had been tempted to 
 flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in his power to 
 fulfil her expectations, or his own promise. The fac- 
 tions of the hippodrome demanded, with some impa- 
 tience, the name of their new empress; both the peo- 
 ple and Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of 
 Anastasia, the secret though lawful wife of the empe- 
 ror Tiberius. Whatever could alleviate the disap- 
 pointment of Sophia, imperial honours, a stately pal- 
 ace, a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by 
 the piety of her adopted son ; on solemn occasions he 
 attended and consulted the widow of his benefactor : 
 but her ambition disdained the vain semblance of roy- 
 alty, and the respectful appellation of mother served to 
 exasperate, rather than appease, the rage of an injured 
 woman. While she accepted, and repaid with a courtly 
 smile, the fair expressions of regard and confidence, 
 a secret alliance was concluded between the dowager 
 empress and her ancient enemies ; and Justinian, the 
 son of Germanus, was employed as the instrument of 
 her revenge. The pride of the reigning house suppor- 
 ted, with reluctance, the dominion of a stranger; the 
 youth was deservedly popular; his name, after the 
 death of Justin, had been mentioned by a tumultuous 
 faction ; and his own submissive offer of his head, 
 with a treasure of sixty thousand pounds, might be in- 
 terpreted as an evidence of guilt, or at least of fear. 
 Justinian received a free pardon, and the command of 
 the eastern army. The Persian monarch fled before 
 his arms ; and the acclamations which accompanied 
 his triumph declared him worthy of the purple. His 
 artful patroness had chosen the month of the vintage, 
 while the emperor, in a rural solitude, was permitfed 
 to enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first in- 
 telligence of her designs he returned to Constantino- 
 ple, and the conspiracy was suppressed by his pre- 
 sence and firmness. From the pomp and honours 
 which she had abused, Sophia was reduced to a mo- 
 dest allowance: Tiberius dismissed her train, inter- 
 cepted her correspondence, and committed to a faithful 
 guard the custody of her person. But the services of 
 Justinian were not considered by that excellent prince as 
 an aggravation of his oflTences : afier a mild reproof, his 
 treason and ingratitude were forgiven ; and it was 
 commonly believed, that the emperor entertained some 
 thoughts of contractinor a double alliance with the 
 rival of his throne. The voice of an angel (such a 
 fable was propagated) might reveal to the emperor, 
 that he should always triumph over his domestic foes; 
 but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the inno- 
 cence and generosity of his own mind. 
 Ilis virtues. ^^ i^h the odious name of Tiberius, he 
 assumed the more popular appellation of 
 Constantine, and imitated the purer virtues of the An- 
 tonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many 
 Roman princes, it is pleasing to repose, for a moment, 
 on a character conspicuous by the qualities of human- 
 ity, justice, temperance, and fortitude ; to contemplate 
 a sovereign afl^able in his palace, pious in the church, 
 impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious, at 
 least by his generals, in the Persian war. The most 
 glorious trophy of his victory consisted in a multitude 
 of captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, 
 and dismissed to their native homes with the charita- 
 ble spirit of a christian hero. The merit or misfor- 
 
 103 
 
 tunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his 
 beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much by 
 their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim 
 however dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth^ 
 was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice^ 
 which taught him to abhor, as of the basest alloy, the 
 gold that was extracted from the tears of the people. 
 For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural 
 or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the 
 arrears of the past, or the demands of future, taxes ; 
 he sternly rejected the servile offerinjrs of his minis- 
 ters, which were compensated by tenfold oppression; 
 and the wise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited 
 the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constanti- 
 nople believed that the emperor had discovered a trea- 
 sure : but his genuine treasure consisted in the prac- 
 tice of liberal economy, and the contempt of all vain 
 and superfluous expense. The Romans of the east 
 would have been happy, if the best gift of heaven, a 
 patriot king, had been confirmed as a proper and per- 
 manent blessing. But in less than four years after 
 the death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a 
 mortal disease, which left him only sufficient time to 
 restore the diadem, accordinor to the tenure by which 
 he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow-citizens. 
 He selected Maurice from the crowd, a judgment more 
 precious than the purple itself: the patriarch and sen- 
 ate were summoned to the bed of the dying prince ; 
 he bestowed his daughter and the empire ; and his last 
 advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the 
 quajstor. Tiberius expressed his hope, that the vir- 
 tues of his son and successor would erect the noblest 
 mausoleum to his memory. His memory was em- 
 balmed by the public afliiction ; but the most sincere 
 grief evaporates in the tumult of a new reign, and the 
 eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedily di- 
 rected to the rising sun. 
 
 The emperor Maurice derived his ori- The reign of ' 
 gin from ancient Kome;^ but his imme- Maurice, .' 
 diate parents were settled at Arabissus ^- ^'.o^ ^ 
 in Cappadocia, and their singular felici- a"d. W 5 
 ty preserved them alive to behold and Nov. 27.* •'- 
 ])artake of the fortune of their ausust son. The youth 
 of Maurice was spent in the profession of arms; Ti- 
 berius promoted him to the command of a new and fa- 
 vourite legion of twelve thousand confederates ; his va- 
 lour and conduct were signalized in the Persian war; 
 and he returned to Constantinople to accept, as his just 
 reward, the inheritance of the empire. Maurice ascen- 
 ded the throne at the mature age of forty-three years ; 
 and he reigned above twenty years over the east and 
 over himself; « expelling from his mind the wild de- 
 mocracy of passion, and establishing (according to 
 the quaint expression of Evagrius) a perfect aristocra- 
 cy of reason and virtue. Some suspicion will degrade 
 the testimony of a subject, though he protests that his 
 secret praise should never reach the ears of his sove- 
 reign,'» and some failings seem to place the character 
 of Maurice below the purer merit of his predecessor. 
 His cold and reserved demeanour might be imputed to 
 arrogance ; his justice was not always exempt from 
 cruelty, nor his clemency from weakness ; and his 
 rigid economy too often exposed him to the reproach 
 of avarice. But the rational wishes of an absolute 
 monarch must tend to the happiness of his people; 
 
 e For the character and reign of Tiberius, see Evagrius, I. v. 13. 
 Theophylact, 1. iii. c. 12, &c. Theophanes, in Chron. p. 210—213. 
 Zonaras, tom. ii. I. xiv. p. 72. Cedrenus, p. 392. Paul Warnefrid, de 
 Gesiis Langobard, 1. iii. c. 11, 12. The deacon of Foruro Julii appears 
 to have possessed some curious and authentic facts. 
 
 f It is therefore singular enough that Paul (I. iii. c. 15.) should dis- 
 tinguish him as the first Greek emperor — primus ex Graecorum genera 
 in imperioconstilutus. His immediate predecessors had indeed beea 
 born in the Latin provinces of Europe ; and a various reading, ia 
 Graecorum imperio, would apply tho expression to the empire rather 
 than the prince. 
 
 g Consult, for the character and reign of Maurice, the fifth and 
 sixth books of Evagrius, particularly 1. vi. c. 1. ; the eight books of hi« 
 prolix and florid history by Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, p. 
 213, Sec. Zonaras, tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 73. Cedrenus, p. 3J4. 
 
 b AvTBXfXTuif ovtud; yivofxtvOf ry,v ft*" oj(,KexfaTn»v twv iraSmv i% 
 T»)f XKii»i i^ivtiXxTUTi ;J/u%iif c«f ijexf »Tiixv Si iv T0«{ jxvTOu K^ytr- 
 
 yusjf xaT3irM«-»iUii/o«. Evagrius composed his history in the twelfth 
 year of Maurice ; and he had been so wisely indiscreet, that ttie em- 
 peror knew and rewarded his favourable opinion, (1. vi. c. 24.) 
 
 t 
 
 J 
 
I 
 
 i'^ 
 
 (♦• 
 
 104 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 "f >> 
 
 ( ■• 
 
 Si! 
 
 
 
 
 ! ii * 
 
 Maurice was endowed with sense and courage to pro- 
 mote that happiness, and his administration was direc- 
 ted by the principles and example of Tiberius. The 
 pusillanimity of the Greeks had introduced so com- 
 plete a separation between the offices of king and of 
 general, that a private soldier who had deserved and 
 obtained the purple, seldom or never appeared at the 
 head of his armies. Yet the emperor Maurice enjoy- 
 ed the glory of restoring the Persian monarch to his 
 throne; his lieutenants waged a doubtful war against 
 the Avars of the Danube, and he cast an eye of^pity, 
 of ineffectual pity, on the abject and distressful state of 
 his Italian provinces. 
 
 Distress of Italy, ^^om Italy the emperors were inces- 
 santly tormented by tales of misery and 
 demands of succour, which extorted the humiliating 
 confession of their own weakness. The expirintrdio-- 
 nity of Home was only marked by the freedom an°d 
 energy of her complaints : " If you are incapable," she 
 said, " of delivering us from the sword of the Lom- 
 bards, save us at least from the calamity of famine." 
 Tiberius forgave the reproach, and relieved the dis- 
 tress : a supply of corn was transported from Etrypt 
 to the Tiber; and the Roman people, invokino-'' the 
 nanrie, not of Camillus, but of St. Peter, repulsed the 
 barbarians from their walls. But the relief was acciden- 
 tal, the danger was perpetual and pressing : and the cler 
 gy and senate, collecting the remains of their ancient 
 opulence, a sum of three thousand pounds of gold, des- 
 patched the patrician Pamphronius to lay their gifts and 
 their complaints at the foot of the Byzantine throne. 
 Ihe attention of the court, and the forces of the east 
 were diverted by the Persian war; but the justice of 
 iiberius applied the subsidy to the defence of the 
 city : and he dismissed the patrician with his best ad- 
 vice, either to bribe the Lombard chiefs, or to purchase 
 the aid of the kings of France. Notwithstandino this 
 weak invention, Italy was still afflicted, Rome" was 
 a^in besieged, and the suburb of Classe, only three 
 miles from Ravenna, was pillaged and occupied by the 
 troops of a simple duke of gpoleto. Maurice ^ave 
 audience to a second deputation of priests and sena- 
 tors ; the duties and the menaces of religion were for- 
 cibly urged in the letters of the Roman pontiff; and 
 ills nuncio, the deacon Gregory, was alike qualified to 
 solicit the powers, either of heaven or of the earth. 
 Ihe emperor adopted, with stronger effect, the mea- 
 sures of his predecessor ; some formidable chiefs were 
 persuaded to embrace the friendship of the Romans; 
 and one of them, a mild and faithful barbarian, Hved 
 and died m the service of the exarch : the passes of 
 the Alps were delivered to the Franks ; and the pone 
 encouraged them to violate, without scruple, their 
 oaths and engagements to the misbelievers. Childe- 
 bert, the great-grandson of Clovis, was persuaded to 
 invade Italy by the payment of fifty thousand pieces ; 
 but as he had viewed with delight some Byzantine 
 coin of the weight of one pound of gold, the kinrr of 
 Austrasia might stipulate, that the gift should be ren- 
 dered more worthy of his acceptance, by a proper 
 mixture of these respectable medals. The dukes of 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 *k^ T 1- J . x^-'f^^'^""^^ lurudis. ineauKesol 
 the Lonribards had provoked by frequent inroads their 
 powerful neighbours of Gaul. As soon as they were 
 apprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced their 
 feeble and disorderly independence : the advantacres 
 of regal government, union, secrecy, and vicrour, were 
 Autharis, kin- of unanimously confessed; and'^Autharis, 
 a:d:'^5^\ III f [^" of Clepho, had already attained 
 TT J *!. . s^^"?"» and reputation of a warrior. 
 
 Under the standard of their new king, the conquerors 
 Of Italy withstood three successive invasions, one of 
 which was led by Childebert himself, the last of the 
 Merovingian race who descended from the Alps. The 
 first expedition was defeated by the jealous animosity 
 of the Franks and Alemanni. In the second they 
 
 r^J^l.-rr"^"''^!^ '" ^ ^^°«^y ^^^^^^ ^^i^^* ^nore loss 
 Md dishonour than they had sustained since the foun- 
 
 dation of their monarchy. Impatient for revenue 
 they returned a third time with accumulated force and 
 Autharis yielded to the fury of the torrent. The 
 troops and treasures of the Lombards were distributed 
 in the walled towns between the Alps and the Apen- 
 nine. A nation, less sensibleof danger, than of fatiaue 
 and delay, soon murmured again&t the folly of their 
 twenty commanders ; and the hot vapours of an Italian 
 sun infected with disease those tramontane bodies 
 which had already suffered the vicissitudes of intem- 
 perance and famine. The powers that were inade- 
 quate to the conquest, were more than sufficient for 
 the desolation, of the country; nor could the treinb- 
 linor natives distinguish between their enemies and 
 their deliverers. If the junction of the Merovingian 
 and imperial forces had been effected in the neio-hbour- 
 hood ot Milan, perhaps they might have subverted 
 the throne of the Lombards; but the Franks expected 
 SIX days the signal of a flaming village, and the arms 
 ot the Greeks were idly employed in the reduction of 
 Modena and Parma, which were torn from them after 
 the retreat of their transalpine allies. The victorious 
 Autharis asserted his claim to the dominion of Italy 
 At the foot of the Rhatian Alps, he subdued the resis- 
 tance, and nfled the hidden treasures, of a sequestered 
 
 ' r ^ , u^ .^''"^ ^^^^ ^^ Comum. At the extreme point 
 ot Calabria, he touched with his spear a colunm on 
 the sea-shore of Rhegium,' proclaiming that ancient 
 landmark to stand the immovable boundary of his kin«r- 
 dom.* *^ *=• 
 
 During a period of two hundred years, Tl.n e.xard.aie 
 Italy was unequally divided between the "f Kavenna. 
 kingdom of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ra- 
 venna. The offices and professions, which the jea- 
 lousy of Constantino had separated, were united by the 
 indulgence of .Justinian : and eighteen successive ex- 
 archs were invested, in the decline of the empire, with 
 the full remains of civil, of military, and even of 
 ecclesiastical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, 
 w-^hich was afterwards consecrated as the patrimony 
 of bt. Peter, extended over the modern Romao-na, the 
 marshes or valleys of Ferrara and Commachio,' five 
 maritime cities from Rimini to Ancona, and a second, 
 in and Pentapolis, between the Adriatic coast and the 
 hillsof the Apennine. Three subordinate provinces, 
 ot Kome, of Venice, and of Naples, which were divi- 
 ded by hostile lands from the palace of Ravenna, 
 acknowledged, both in peace and war, the supremacy 
 of the exarch. The duchy of Rome appears to have 
 included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latian conquests of 
 the first four hundred years of the city, and the limits 
 may be distinctly traced along the coast, from Civita 
 vecchia to lerracma, and with the course of the Ti- 
 ber from Ameria and Narni to the port of Ostia. The 
 numerous islands from Grade to Chiozza, composed 
 the infant dominion of Venice ; but the more accessi- 
 ble towns on the continent were overthrown by the 
 Lombards, who beheld with impotent fury a new capi- 
 tal rising from the waves. The power of the dukes 
 of Naples was circumscribed by the bay and the adja- 
 cent isles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by 
 the Roman colony of Amalphi,*" whose i ndustrious 
 
 cilo*^'*^ Coliimna Rhpgina, in the narrowpsi part of the Faro of Mp« 
 s na, one hundred stadia from Rhenium itself iVfrprn.onH 3 
 uoned in ancient geography. Cli'^r'uan \i" 'Z.Tl K" 
 laicas Holsien. Annolat. ad Cluver. p. 3i.l. WeLling, IlinW. p! 
 
 r\f« Jilf .^'■^•^\^'®^'*'■'^"w^ *^^'"^ "^''"'^ f'i'"t I'ints of the wars of Italv 
 
 Tie Cinl'Jr" ^'"'"■P'- H"^'' P- ^'^- ^-^- Theophy lacM iii c/'^ 
 M 13 ^Mh '";'^^,''^^'«(^ctory ; and especially Wul w'a ne rid*, (1 
 
 V,;irrT?^"^\^'r''*'^ ^"^'^ ^''^ '""'■« ancient li^^slories of Secu dis 
 and Gre-ory of Tours. Baronius produces some letters of t W ne? 
 
 .kL ^*n P^P*^ a^lvocates, Zacagni and Fonlanini, mi«'ht iusilv riaim 
 
 partiality and prejudice ^^^^' '^ "^^ ^'^« ^ron* 
 
 42:; J;:SS?feS^Kl:j^^ ^^^"^^'^^ Ainalphitana, p. 1- 
 
 CUAP. VI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 citizens, by the invention of the mariner's compass, 
 ^ have unveiled the face of the globe. The three is- 
 ] lands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, still adhered to 
 the empire ; and the acquisition of the further Calabria 
 removed the landmark of Autharis from the shore of 
 Rhegium to the isthmus of Consentia. In Sardinia, 
 the savage mountaineers preserved the liberty and reli- 
 I jrion of their ancestors ; but the husbandmen of Sicily 
 ' were chained to their rich and cultivated soil. Rome 
 was oppressed by the iron sceptre of the exarchs, and 
 a Greek, perhaps a eunuch, insulted with impunity 
 the ruins of the capitol. But Naples soon acquired 
 the privilege of electing her own dukes;" the indepen- 
 dence of Amalphi was the fruit of commerce ; and the 
 voluntary attachment of Venice was finally ennobled 
 by an equal alliance with the eastern empire. On the 
 map of Italy, the measure of the exarchate occupies a 
 very inadequate space, but it included an ample pro- 
 portion of wealth, industry, and population. The 
 most faithful and valuable subjects escaped from the 
 barbarian yoke ; and the banners of Pavia and Vero- 
 na, of Milan and Padua, were displayed in their re- 
 spective quarters by the new inhabitants of Ravenna. 
 The kinedom of The remainder of Italy was possessed 
 the Lombards, by the Lombards; and from Pavia, the 
 Toyal seat, their kingdom was extended to the east, the 
 north, and the west, as far as the confines of the Avars, 
 the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austrasia and Bur- 
 gundy. In the language of modern geography, it is 
 now represented by the Terra Firma of the Venetian 
 republic, Tyrol, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast of 
 Genoa, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, the grand duchy 
 of Tuscany, and a large portion of the ecclesiastical 
 state from Perugia to the Adriatic. The dukes, and 
 at length the princes, of Beneventum survived the 
 monarchy, and propagated the name of the Lombards. 
 From Capua to Tarentum, they reigned near five hun- 
 dred years over the greatest part of the present king- 
 dom of Naples.® 
 
 Languafe and I^ Comparing the proportion of the 
 manners of the victorious and the vanquished people, 
 ix,mbar(ifi. ^j^^ change of language will afford the 
 
 most probable inference. According to this standard 
 it will appear that the Lombards of Italy, and the Vi- 
 sigoths of Spain, were less numerous than the Franks 
 or Burgundians; and the conquerors of Gaul must 
 yield, in their turn, to the multitude of Saxons and An- 
 gles who almost eradicated the idioms of Britain. 
 The modern Italian has been insensibly formed by the 
 mixture of nations; the awkwardness of the barbarians 
 in the nice management of declensions and conjuira- 
 tions, reduced them to the use of articles and auxilia- 
 ry verbs ; and many new ideas have been expressed 
 by Teutonic appellations. Yet the principal stock of 
 technical and familiar words is found to be of Latin 
 derivation ;p and if we were sufl[iciently conversant 
 with the obsolete, the rustic, and the municipal dia- 
 lects of ancient Italy, we should trace the origin of 
 many terms which might, perhaps, be rejected by the 
 classic purity of Rome. A numerous army constitutes 
 but a small nation, and the powers of the Lombards 
 were soon diminished by the retreat of twenty thou- 
 sand Saxons, who scorned a dependent situation, and 
 returned, after many bold and perilous adventures, to 
 their native country.** The camp of Alboin was of 
 formidable extent, but the extent of a camp would be 
 
 106 
 
 easily circumscribed within the limits of a city; and 
 its martial inhabitants must be thinly scattered over 
 the face of a large country. When Alboin descended 
 from the Alps, he invested his nephew, the first duke 
 of Friuli, with the command of the province and the 
 people : but the prudent Gisuif would have declined 
 the dangerous office, unless he had been permitted to 
 choose, among the nobles of the Lombards, a sufficient 
 number of families' to form a perpetual colony of 
 soldiers and subjects. In the progress of conquest, 
 the same option could not be granted to the dukes of 
 Brescia or Bergamo, of Pavia or Turin, of Spoleto or 
 Beneventum ; but each of these, and each of their col- 
 leagues, settled in his appointed district with a band 
 of followers who resorted to his standard in war, and 
 his tribunal in peace. Their attachment was free and 
 honourable: resigning the gifts and benefits which 
 they had accepted, they might emigrate with their 
 laniilies into the jurisdiction of another duke; but 
 their absence from the kingdom was punished with 
 death, as a crime of military desertion.* The pos- 
 terity of the first conquerors struck a deeper root 
 into the soil, which by every motive of interest and 
 honour they were bound to defend. A Lombard was 
 born the soldier of his king and his duke; and the 
 civil assemblies of the nation displayed the banners, 
 and assumed the appellation, of a regular army. Of 
 this army, the pay and the rewards were drawn from 
 the conquered provinces ; and the distribution, w hich 
 was not effected till after the death of Alboin, is dis- 
 graced by the foul marks of injustice and rapine. 
 Many of the most wealthy Italians were slain or 
 banished; the remainder were divided among the 
 strangers, and a tributary obligation was imposed, 
 (under the name of hospitality,) of paying to the Lom- 
 bards a third part of the fruits of the earth. Within 
 less than seventy years, this artificial system was 
 abolished by a more simple and solid tenure.* Either 
 the Roman landlord was expelled by his strong and 
 insolent guest ; or the annual payment, a third of the 
 produce, was exchanged by a more equitable transac- 
 tion for an adequate proportion of landed property. 
 Under these foreign masters, the business of agricul- 
 ture, in the cultivation of corn, vines, and olives, was 
 exercised with degenerate skill and industry by the 
 labour of the slaves and natives. But the occupations 
 of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness 
 of the barbarians. In the rich meadows of Venetia, 
 they restored and improved the breed of horses, for 
 which that province had once been illustrious;* and 
 the Italians beheld with astonishment a foreign race 
 of oxen or buffaloes.' The depopulation of Lombardy, 
 and the increase of forests, afforded an ample range for 
 the pleasures of the chase.y That marvellous art which 
 teaches the birds of the air to acknowledge the voice, 
 
 n Gregor. Mag;n. 1. iil. epist. 23. 25—27. 
 
 o I have described the state of Italy from the excellent Dissertation 
 M Bereui. Giannone (Istoria Civile, torn. i. p. 374— 337.) has followed 
 the learned Camillo Pellegrini in the eeogniphy of the kingdom of 
 Naples. After the loss of the true Calabria, ihe vanity of the Greeks 
 substituted that name instead of the more ipnoble appellation of Brut- 
 lium ; and the change appears to have taken place before the time 
 of Charlemapne. (Eginard. p. 75.) 
 
 P Maffei, (Verona Illuslrata, part. i. p. 310—321.) and Muratori, 
 (Antlchita Italiane, tom. ii. Disseriazion. xxyii. xxxiii. p. 71— 365.) 
 nave asserted the native claims of the Italian idiom : the fi)rmer with 
 enthusiasm, the latter with discretion ; both with learning, ingenuity, 
 and truth. 07 <= ji 
 
 q Paul, de Gest. Langobard. 1. iii. c. 5 — 7 
 
 Vol. II O 
 
 r Paul. 1. ii, c. 9. He calls these families or generations by the 
 Teutonic name ofFhras, which is likewise used in the Lombard laws. 
 The humble deacon was not insensible of the nobility of his own race. 
 See 1. iv. c. 49. 
 
 « Compare No. 3. and 177". of the laws of Rotharis. 
 
 t Paul, 1. ii. c. 31, 32. 1. iii.c. 16. The laws of Rotharis promuljated 
 A. D. 643, do not contain the smallest vestige of this payment of thirds ; 
 but they preserve many curious circumstances of the state of Italy and 
 the manners of the Lombards. 
 
 u The studs of Dionysius of Syracuse, and bis frequent victories in 
 the Olympic games, had diffused among the Greeks the fame of the 
 Venetian horses ; but the breed was extinct in the time of Strabo, (1. 
 V. p. 325.) Gisuif obtained from his uncle generosarum equarum pre- 
 ges. Paul, 1. ii. c. 9. The I^mbards afterwards introduced caballi 
 sylvatici— wild horses. Paul, 1. iv. c. 11. 
 
 X Tunc, (A. D. 596.) primum, b7ibali in Italiam delati Italise popa. 
 lis miracula fuere. (Paul Wamefrid, 1. iv. c. 11.) The buffaloes, 
 whose native climate appears to be Africa and India, are unknown 
 to Europe, except in Italy, where they are numerous and useful. The 
 ancients were ignorant of these animals, unless Aristotle, (Hist. 
 Animal. I. ii. c. I. p. 58. Paris. 1783.) has described them as the wild 
 oxen of Arachosia. See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. xi. and Supple, 
 ment, tom. vi. Hist. Generate des Voyaees, tom. i. p. 7. 481. ii. 195 
 iii. 291. iv. 234. 461. v. 193. vi. 491. viii. 400. x. 666. Pennant's Quad, 
 rupedes, p. 24. Dictionnaire d'Hist. Naturelle, par Valmont de Romare^ 
 tom. ii. p. 74. Yet I must not conceal the suspicion that Paul, by t 
 vulgar error, may have applied the name of bubalus to the aurochib' 
 or wild bull, of ancient Germany. 
 
 y Consult the twcuty-Hrst Dissertation of Muratori 
 
 '•'ii 
 
 TV 
 
100 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 107 
 
 . 4 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 1l • 
 
 I 
 
 l1 - 
 
 \fy 
 
 and execute the commands, of their master, had been 
 unknown to the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans.' 
 Scandinavia and Scythia produce the boldest and most 
 tractable falcons:* they are tamed and educated by 
 the rovincT inhabitants, always on horseback and in the 
 field. This favourite amusement of our ancestors was 
 introduced by the barbarians into the Roman provinces ; 
 and the laws of Italy esteem the sword and the havik 
 as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a 
 noble Lombard.** 
 
 Drew and mar- So rapid was the influence of climate 
 riage. and example, that the Lombards of the 
 
 fourth generation surveyed with curiosity and affright 
 the portraits of their savage forefathers.'^ Their heads 
 were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over 
 their eyes and mouth, and a long beard represented the 
 name and character of the nation. Their dress con- 
 sisted of loose linen garments, after the fashion of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, which were decorated, in their opinion, 
 with broad stripes of variagated colours. The legs and 
 feet were clothed in long hose, and open sandals ; and 
 even in the security of peace a trusty sword was con- 
 stantly girt to their side. Yet this strange apparel, 
 and horrid aspect, often concealed a gentle and gene- 
 rous disposition ; and as soon as the rage of battle had 
 subsided, the captives and subjects were sometimes 
 surprised by the humanity of the victor. The vices 
 of the Lombards were the effect of passion, of igno- 
 rance, of intoxication; their virtues are the more laud- 
 able, as they were not affected by the hypocrisy of 
 social manners, nor imposed by the rigid constraint of 
 laws and education. I should not be apprehensive of 
 deviating from my subject, if it were in my power to 
 delineate the private life of the conquerors of Italy, 
 and I shall relate with pleasure the adventurous gal- 
 lantry of Autharis, which breathes the true spirit of 
 chivalry and romance.** After the loss of his promised 
 bride, a Merovingian princess, he sought in marriage 
 the daughter of the king of Bavaria; and Garibald 
 accepted the alliance of the Italian monarch. Impa- 
 tient of the slow progress of negociation, the ardent 
 lover escaped from his palace, and visited the court of 
 Bavaria in the train of his own embassy. At the pub- 
 lic audience, the unknown strangrer advanced to the 
 throne, and informed Garibald that the ambassador 
 was indeed the minister of state, but that he alone was 
 the friend of Autharis, who had trusted him with the 
 delicate commission t?f making a faithful report of the 
 charms of his spouse. Theudelinda was summoned to 
 undergo this important examination, and after a pause 
 of silent rapture, he hailed her as the queen of Italy, 
 and humbly requested, that according to the custom 
 of the nation, she would present a cup of wine to the 
 first of her new subjects. By the command of her 
 father, she obeyed : Autharis received the cup in his 
 
 Government. 
 
 t Their ignorance is proved by the silence even of those who pro- 
 fessedly treat of the arts of hunting and the history of animals. Aris- 
 totle, (Hist. Animal. 1. ix. c. 36. torn. i. p. 5S6. and the Notes of his 
 last editor, M. Camus, torn. ii. p. 314.) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. 1. x. c. 10.) 
 ^lian, (de Natur. Animal. 1. ii. c. 4"2.) and perhaps Homer, (Odyss, 
 xxii. 302— 306.) describe with astonishment a tacit league and com- 
 mon chace between the hawks and the Thracian fowlers. 
 
 a Particularly the gerfaut, or gyrfalcon, of the size of a small eagle. 
 See the animated description of M. de Buffbn, Hist. Nalurelle, lorn, 
 xvi. p. 239, &c. 
 
 b Script. Rerum. Italicarum, torn i. part ii. p. 129. This is the six- 
 teenth law of the emperor Lewis the pious. His father Charlemagne 
 had falconers in his household as well as huntsmen. (Memoirssur I'An- 
 cienne Chevaleire, par M. de St. Palaye, torn. iii. p. 175.) I observe 
 in the laws of Rotharis a more early mention of the art of hawking, 
 (No. 322.) and in Gaul, in the fifth century, it is celebrated by Sido- 
 Dius Apollinaris among the talents of Aviius, (202—207.) 
 
 c The epitaph of Drociulf (Paul, 1. iii. c. 19.) may be applied to 
 many of his countrymen : 
 
 Terribilis visu facies, sed corda benignus, 
 Longaque robusto peclore barba fuit. 
 The portraits of the old Lombards might still be seen in the palace of 
 Moiisa, twelve miles from Milan, which had been founded or restored 
 Jay Queen Theudelinda, (1. iv. 22, 23.) See Muratori, torn. i. disserlaz. 
 xxiii. p. 3(X). 
 
 d The story of Autharis and Theudelinda is related by Paul, 1. ii>. 
 e. 29. 34.; and any fragment of Bavarian antiquity excites the indefa- 
 tigable diligence of the Count de Buat, Hist, uea rcuplea de TEurope, 
 torn. xi. p. 595—635. torn. xii. p. 1—53. 
 
 turn, and, in restoring it to the princess, he secretly 
 touched her hand, and drew his own finger over his 
 face and lips. In the evening, Theudelinda imparted 
 to her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of the stranger, 
 and was comforted by the assurance, that such bold- 
 ness could proceed only from the king her husband, 
 who, by his beauty and courage, appeared worthy 
 of her love. The ambassadors were dismissed : no 
 sooner did they reach the confines of Italy, than 
 Autharis, raising himself on his horse, darted his bat- 
 tle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and 
 dexterity : *' Such," said he to the astonished Bava- 
 rians, " such are the strokes of the king of the Lom- 
 bards," On the approach of a French army, Garibald 
 and his daughter took refuge in the dominions of 
 their ally ; and the marriage was consummated in the 
 palace of Verona. At the end of one year, it was dis- 
 solved by the death of Autharis: but the virtues of 
 Theudelinda* had endeared her to the nation, and she 
 was permitted to bestow, with her hand, the sceptre of 
 the Italian kingdom. 
 
 From this fact, as well as from simi- 
 lar events,' it is certain that the Lom- 
 bards possessed freedom to elect their sovereign, and 
 sense to decline the frequent use of that dangerous 
 privilege. The public revenue arose from the produce 
 of land, and the profits of justice. When the inde- 
 pendent dukes agreed that Autharis should ascend 
 the throne of his father, they endowed the regal oflice 
 with a fair moiety of their respective domains. The 
 proudest nobles aspired to the honours of servitude 
 near the person of their prince : he rewarded the fide- 
 lity of his vassals by the precarious gift of pensions 
 and benefices ; and atoned for the injuries of war, by the 
 rich foundation of monasteries and churches. In peace 
 a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped the powers 
 of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy 
 convened the national assemblies in the palace, or 
 more probably in the fields, of Pavia: his .great council 
 was composed of the persons most eminent by their 
 birth and dignities; but the validity, as well as the 
 execution, of their decrees, depended on the appro- 
 bation of the faithful people, the fortunate army of 
 the Lombards. About fourscore years after the con- 
 quest of Italy, their traditional customs were trans- 
 cribed in Teutonic Latin,* and ratified by the consent 
 of the prince and people ; some new re- Laws, 
 
 gulations wore introduced, more suitable A. D. 643,&c. 
 to their present condition ; the example of Rotharis was 
 imitated by the wisest of his successors, and the laws 
 of the Lombards have been esteemed the least imperfect 
 of the barbaric codes.** Secure by their courage in the 
 possession of liberty, these rude and hasty legislators 
 were incapable of balancing the powers of the constitu- 
 tion, or of discussing the nice theory of political govern- 
 ment. Such crimes as threatened the life of the sove- 
 reign, or the safety of the state, were adjudged worthy 
 of death ; but their attention was principally confined to 
 the defence of the person and property of the subject. 
 According to the strange jurisprudence of the times, 
 the guilt of blood might be redeemed by a fine; yet 
 the high price of nine hundred pieces of gold declares 
 a just sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less 
 atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, an op- 
 probrious word, were measured with scrupulous and 
 almost ridiculous diligence ; and the prudence of the 
 
 e Giannone (Istoria Civile de Napoli, torn. i. p. 263.) has justly cen- 
 sured the impertinence of Boccaccio, (Gio. iii. Novel. 2.) who, without 
 right, or trutn, or pretence, has given the pious queen Theudelinda 
 to the arms of a muleteer. 
 
 f Paul, I. iii. c. 16. The first dissertations of Muratori, and the first 
 volume of Giannone's history, may be consulted for the state of the 
 kingdom of Italy. 
 
 g The most accurate edition of the laws of the Lombards is to be 
 found in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, torn. i. part ii. p. 1—181. 
 collated from the most ancient MSS., and illustrated by the critical 
 notes of Muratori. 
 
 h Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c. 1. Les loix des Bour- 
 guignonis sonl assez jiidicieuses ; cellea de Bolharia el des autre! 
 princes Lombards le sont encore plus. 
 
 legislator encouraged the ignoble practice of bartering 
 honour and revenge for a pecuniary compensation. 
 The ignorance of the Lombards, in the state of pagan- 
 ism or Christianity, gave implicit credit to the malice 
 and mischief of witchcraft; but the judges of the 
 seventeenth century might have been instructed and 
 confounded by the wisdom of Rotharis, who derides 
 the absurd superstition, and protects the wretched 
 victims of popular or judicial cruelty.* The same spirit 
 of a legislator, superior to his age and country, may be 
 ascribed to Luitprand, who condemns, while he tole- 
 rates, the impious and inveterate abuse of duels,* 
 observing from his own experience, that the juster 
 cause had often been oppressed by successful violence. 
 Whatever merit may be discovered in the laws of the 
 Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reason of 
 the barbarians, who never admitted the bishops of Italy 
 to a seat in their legislative councils. But the suc- 
 cession of their kings is marked with virtue and abili- 
 ty; the troubled series of their annals is adorned with 
 fair intervals of peace, order, and domestic happiness; 
 and the Italians enjoyed a milder and more equitable 
 government than any of the other kingdoms which had 
 been founded on the ruins of the western empire.' 
 
 Misery of Rome. ^"^'^f ^J^« f'""^ 9^ ^he Lombards, 
 and under the despotism of the Greeks, 
 we again inquire into the fate of Rome," which had 
 reached, about the close of the sixth century, the 
 lowest period of her depression. By the removal of 
 the seat of empire, and the successive loss of the pro- 
 vinces, the sources of public and private opulence 
 were exhausted ; the lofty tree, under whose shade 
 the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of 
 its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was 
 left to wither on the ground. The ministers of com- 
 mand, and the messengers of victory, no longer met 
 on the Appian or Flaminian way ; and the hostile ap- 
 proach of the Lombards was often felt, and contin- 
 ually feared. The inhabitants of a potent and peace- 
 ful capital, who visit without an anxious thought the 
 garden of the adjacent country, will faintly picture in 
 their frincy the distress of the Romans ; they shut or 
 opened their gates with a trembling hand, b»:held 
 from the walls the flames of their houses, and heard 
 the lamentations of their brethren, who were coupled 
 tofrether like dogs, and dragged away into distant 
 slavery beyond the sea and the mountains. Such 
 incessant alarms must annihilate the pleasures and 
 interrupt the labours of a rural life ; and the Campagna 
 of Rome was speedily reduced to the state of a dreary 
 wilderness, in which the land is barren, the waters arc 
 impure, and the air is infectious. Curiosity and ambi- 
 tion no longer attracted the nations to the capital of 
 the world : but if chance or necessity directed the 
 steps of a wandering stranger, he contemplated with 
 horror the vacancy and solitude of the city, and might 
 be tempted to ask, Where is the senate, and where 
 are the people? In a season of excessive rains, the 
 Tiber swelled above its banks, and rushed with irresis- 
 tible violence into the valleys of the seven hills. A 
 pestilential disease arose from the stagnation of the 
 deluge, and so rapid was the contagion, that fourscore 
 persons expired in an hour in the midst of a solemn 
 
 I See Leges Rotharis, No. 379. p. 47. Striga is used as the name of a 
 Witch. It is of the purest classic origin ; (Horat. epod. v. 20. Petron. 
 c. 131.) and, from the words of Petronius, (quae striges comederunt 
 nervos luos?) it maybe inferred that the prejudice was of Italian 
 rather than barbaric extraction. 
 
 k Quia incerti sumus de judicio Dei, et multos audivlmus per pug- 
 nain sine justa causa suam causam perdere. Sed propter consuetudi- 
 neiii genlem nostram Langobardorum legem impiam vetare non pos- 
 fumus. See p. 74. No. 65. of the Laws of Luitprand, promulgated 
 A. D. 724. 
 
 1 Read the history of Paul Warnefrid ; particularly 1. iii. c. 16. 
 oaronius rejects the praise, wljich appears to contradict the invectives, 
 of pope Gregory the Great; but Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 
 -1/.) presumes to insinuate that the saint may have magnified the 
 faults of Arians and enemies. 
 
 m The passages of the homilies of Gregory, which represent the 
 iniserable slaie of the city and country, are transcribed in the Annals 
 of Barenius, A. D. 590. No. 16. A. D. 595. No. 2. Xc. *c. 
 
 procession, which implored the mercy of heaven." A 
 society in which marriage is encouraged and industry- 
 prevails, soon repairs the accidental losses of pesti- 
 lence and war ; but as the far greater part of the Ro- 
 mans was condemned to hopeless indigence and celi- 
 bacy, the depopulation was constant and visible, and 
 the gloomy enthusiasts might expect the approaching 
 failure of the human race." Yet the number of citi- 
 zens still exceeded the measure of subsistence; their 
 precarious food was supplied from the harvests of 
 Sicily or Egypt; and the frequent repetition of famine 
 betrays the inattention of the emperor to a distant pro- 
 vince. The edifices of Rome were exposed to the 
 sanie ruin and decay; the mouldering fabrics were 
 easily overthrown by inundations, tempests and earth- 
 quakes ; and the monks, who had occupied the most 
 advantageous stations, exulted in their base triumph 
 over the ruins of antiquity.P It is commonly believed, 
 that pope Gregory the first attacked the temples and 
 mutilated the statues of the city ; that, by the com- 
 mand of the barbarian, the Palatine library was re- 
 duced to ashes, and that the history of Livy was the 
 peculiar mark of his absurd and mischievous fanati- 
 cism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal his im- 
 placable aversion to the monuments of classic genius ; 
 and he points his severest censure against the profane 
 learning of a bishop, who taught the art of grammar, 
 studied the Latin poets, and pronounced with the 
 same voice the praises of Jupiter and those of Christ. 
 But the evidence of his destructive rage is doubtful 
 and recent : the temple of Peace, or the theatre of Mar- 
 cellus, have been demolished by the slow operation 
 of ages, and a formal proscription would have multi- 
 plied the copies of Virgil and Livy in the countries 
 which were not subject to the ecclesiastical dictator.** 
 Like Thebes, or Babylon, or Car- The tombs and 
 thage, the name of Rome might have relics of the 
 been erased from the earth, if the city apostles, 
 had not been animated by a vital principle, which 
 again restored her to honour and dominion. A vague 
 tradition was embraced, that two Jewish teachers, a 
 tent-maker, and a fisherman, had formerly been exe- 
 cuted in the circus of Nero, and at the end of five hun- 
 dred yerrs their genuine or fictious relics were adored 
 as the Palladium of christian Rome. The pilgrims of 
 the east and west resorted to the holy threshold ; but 
 the shrines of the apostles were guarded by miracles 
 and invisible terrors; and it was not without fear that 
 the pious catholic approached the object of his wor- 
 ship. It was fatal to touch, it was dafigerous to be- 
 hold, the bodies of the saints ; and those who from the 
 purest motives presumed to disturb the repose of the 
 sanctuary, were affrighted by visions, or punished 
 M'ith sudden death. The unreasonable request of an 
 empress, who wished to deprive the Romans of their 
 sacred treasure, the head of St. Paul, was rejected with 
 the deepest abhorrence; and the pope asserted, most 
 probably with truth, that a linen which had been sancti- 
 fied in the neighbourhood of his body, or the filings of 
 his chain, which it was sometimes easy and sometimes 
 impossible to obtain, possessed an equal degree of 
 miraculous virtue.*" But the power as well as vir- 
 
 n The inundation and plague were reported by a deacon, whom his 
 bishop, Gregory of Tours, had despatched to Rome for some relics. 
 The ingenious messenger embellished his tale and the river with a 
 great dragon and a train of little serpents. (Greg. Turon. 1. x. c. 1.) 
 
 o Gregory of Rome (Dialog. 1. ii. c. 1.').) relates a memorable predic- 
 tion of St. Benedict. Roma a Gentilibus non exterminabitursed lem- 
 peslalibus, coruscis turbinibusac terrae motuin semetipsa nmrcescet. 
 Such a prophecy melts into true history, and becomes the evidence 
 of the fact after which it was invented. 
 
 P Quia in uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus, Christi laudes non capiunt, 
 et quam grave nefandumque sit episcopis canere quod nee laico reli- 
 gioso conveniat, ipse considera. (1. ix. ep. 4.) The writings of Gregory 
 himself attest his innocence of any classic taste or literature. 
 
 q Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, tom. ii. p. 598, 599.) in a very good 
 article of Gregoire I. has quoted for the buildings and statues, Plaiina 
 in Gregorio I., for the Palatine Library, John of Salisbury, (de Nugis 
 Curialium, 1. ii. c. 26 ;) and for Livy, Antoninus of Florence ; the old- 
 est of the three lived in the twelfth century. 
 
 r Gregor. 1. iii. epist. 24. indict. 12, &c. From the epistles of 
 Gregory, and the eis;hth volume of the Annal* of Baronius, the pious 
 
I 
 
 108 
 
 TRE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 109 
 
 ,4 
 
 {' 
 
 
 ^4 
 
 ! 
 
 
 tae of the apostles resided wilh living enerrry in the 
 breasts of their successors; and the chair of St. Peter 
 was filled under the reio^n of Maurice by the first and 
 Birth and pro. greatest of the name of Gregory.* His 
 fession of Gre- grandfather Felix had himself been pope, 
 gory ihe Roman, and as the bishops were already bound 
 by the law of celibacy, his consecration must have 
 been preceded by the death of his wife. The parents 
 of Gregory, Sylvia and Gordian, were the noblest of 
 the senate, and the most pious of the church of Rome ; 
 his female relations were numbered among the saints 
 and virgins; and his own figure with those cf his 
 father and mother were represented near three hun- 
 dred years in a family portrait,' which he offered to 
 the monastery of St. Andrew. The design and colour- 
 ing of this picture afford an honourable testimony, 
 that the art of painting was cultivated by the Italians 
 of the sixth century; but the most abject ideas must 
 be entertained of their taste and learning, since the 
 epistles of Gregory, his sermons, and his diahtgues, 
 are the work of a man who was second in erudition to 
 none of his contemporaries:" his birth and abilities 
 had raised him to the office of pra?fect of the city, and 
 he enjoyed the merit of renouncing the pomp and 
 vanities of this world. His ample patrimony was 
 dedicated to the foundation of seven monasteries,* one 
 in Rome,y and six in Sicily ; and it was the wish of 
 Gregory that he might be unknown in this life, and 
 glorious only in the next. Yet his devotion, and it 
 micrht be sincere, pursued the path which would have 
 been chosen by a crafty and ambitious statesman. 
 Tiie talents of Gregory, and the splendour which 
 accompanied his retreat, rendered him dear and useful 
 to the church : and implicit obedience has been always 
 inculcated as the first duty of a monk. As soon as he 
 had received the character of deacon, Gregory was 
 sent to reside at the Byzantine court, the nuncio or 
 minister of the apostolic see ; and he boldly assumed, 
 in the name of St. Peter, a tone of independent dig- 
 nity, which would have been criminal and dangerous 
 in the most illustrious layman of the empire. He 
 returned to Rome with a just increase of reputation, 
 and after a short exercise of the monastic virtues, he 
 was dragged from the cloister to the papal throne, by 
 the unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and the 
 people. He alone resisted, or seemed to resist, his 
 
 reader may collpct the pa'rticlea of hr>ly iron which were inserteil in 
 keys or crosses of goUl, and distributed in Britain, Gaul, Spain, Africa, 
 Constantinople, and Eu'ypt. The pontifical smith wlio handled the 
 file must have understood the miracles which il was in his own power 
 lo operate or withhold ; a circumstance which abates ihe supersliiiun 
 of Gregory at the expense of his veracity. 
 
 s Besidf-3 the Epistles of Gregory himself which are methodized by 
 Dupin, (Bibliotheque Eccles. torn. v. p. 103 -I2G.) we have three lives 
 of the pope; the two first written in the eishlh and ninth centuries, 
 (de Triplici Vita St. Gre^r. Preface to the sixth volume of the Bene- 
 dictine edition,) by the deacons Paul (p. 1 -IS.) and John,(p. 19 — 
 188.) and containing much original, though doubtful, evidence ; tlie 
 ihinl, a long and laboured coi'npilation by the Benedictine editors, 
 (p. 199— 3i 5.) The Annals of Baronius are a copious but partial his- 
 tory. His papal prejudices are tempered by the good sense nf Fleury, 
 (Hist. Eccles. loin, viii.) and his chronology has been rectified by the 
 criticism of Pagi and MuraU)ri. 
 
 t Jiihn the deacon has described them like an eye-witness; (I. iv. c. 
 83, 84.) ami his description is illustrated by Ancrelo Kocca, a Roman 
 antiquary, (St. Greg. Opera, lom. iv. p. 312—326,) who observes, that 
 some Mosaics of the popes of the eighth century are still preserved in 
 Ihe old churches of Koine, (p. 321—323.) The same walls which rep- 
 resented Gregory's family are now decoraU'd with the martyrdom of 
 St. Andrew, the noble contest of Dominichino and Guido. 
 
 u Disciplinis veroliberalibus, hoc est graminalica, rhetoricj"i,dialec- 
 tica, ila a puero est insUtulus, ut quamviseo tempore florerenl adhuc 
 Romae studia literaruoi, tamen nulli in urbe ipsa secundus putaretur. 
 Paul. Diacon. in Vit. S. Gregor. c. 2 
 
 X The Benedictines (Vit. Gre^. 1. i. p. 20.1—208.) labour to reduce 
 the nvmasleries of Gregory within the rule of their own order; but as 
 the question is conf'^'ssed to be doubtful, it is clear that these powerful 
 monks are in the wrong. See Butler's Lives of the Saints, vt.l. iii. p. 
 145 ; a work of merit ; the sense and learning belong to the author — 
 his prejudices are those of his profession. 
 
 y Monasteriuin Gregorianum in ejusdem Beati Gregorii tedibus ad 
 clivuin Scauri prope ecclesiam S. S. Johanniset Pauli inhonoremSt. 
 Andreae. (John, in Vit. Greg. 1. i. c. G. Greg. 1. vii. epist. 13.) This 
 house and monastery were situate on the side of the Caelian hill which 
 fronts the Palatine; they are now occupied by the (Jamoldoli ; San 
 Gregorio triumphs, and St. Andrew has retired to a small chapel. 
 Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. iii. c. 6. p. 100. Descrizzione di Koma, turn. 
 i. p. 445t-44G 
 
 Great, or First, 
 A. I). .-)90. 
 Feb. 8.— 
 A. I). G04. 
 March 12. 
 
 own elevation : and his humble petition, that Maurice 
 would be pleased to reject the choice of the Romans, 
 could only serve to exalt his character in the eyes of 
 the emperor and the public. When the fatal mandate 
 was pronounced, Gregory solicited the aid of some 
 friendly merchants to convc y him in a basket beyond 
 the gates of Rome, and modestly concealed himself 
 some days among the woods and mountains, till his 
 retreat was discovered, as it is said, by a celestial 
 light. 
 
 The pontificate of Gregory the Great, pontificaic of 
 which lasted thirteen years six months Gregory the 
 and ten days, is one of the most edify- 
 ing periods of the history of the church. 
 His virtues and even his faults, a singu- 
 lar mixture of simplicity and cunning, 
 of pride and humility, of sense and superstition, wore 
 happily suited to his station and to the temper of the 
 times. In his rival, the patriarch of Constantinople, 
 he condemned the antichristian title of universal bish- 
 op, which the successor of St. Peter was too hauohty 
 to concede, and too feeble to assume ; His spiritual 
 and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Gre- otiice. 
 gory was confined to the triple character of bishop of 
 Rome, primate of Italy, and apostle of the west. He 
 frequently ascended the pulpit, and kindled, by his 
 rude, though pathetic, eloquence, the conjrenial pas- 
 sions of his audience : the language of the .lewish pro- 
 phets was interpreted and applied, and the minds of 
 the people, depressed by their present calamities, 
 were directed to the hopes and fears of the invisible 
 world. His precepts and example defined the model 
 of the Roman liturgy ;' the distribution of the parish- 
 es, the calendar of festivals, the order of processions, 
 the service of the priests and deacons, the variety and 
 change of sacerdotal garments. Till the last days of 
 his life, he officiated in the canon of the mass, which 
 continued above three hours ; the Gregorian chant* 
 has preserved the vocal and instrumental- music of the 
 theatre, and the rough voices of the barbarians attemp- 
 ted to imitate the melody of the Roman school.** E.x- 
 perience had shown him the efficacy of these solemn 
 and pompous rites, to soothe the distress, to confirm 
 the faith, to mitigate the fierceness, and to dispel the 
 dark enthusiasm, of the vulgar, and he readily for- 
 gave their tendency to promote the reign of priesthood 
 and superstition. The bishops of Italy and the ad- 
 jacent islands acknowledged the Roman pontiff as 
 their special metropolitan. Even the existence, the 
 union, or the translation of episcopal seats, was deci- 
 ded by his absolute discretion : and his successful 
 inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of 
 Gaul, might countenance the more lofty pretensions 
 of succeeding popes. He interposed to prevent the 
 abuses of popular elections ; his jealous care maintained 
 the purity of faith and discipline, and the apostolic 
 shepherd assiduously watched over the faith and disci- 
 pline of the subordinate pastors. Under his reign, the 
 Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the 
 catholic church, and the conquest of Britain reflects 
 less fjlory on the name of Csesar, than on that of Gre- 
 gory the first. Instead of six legions, forty monks 
 
 T The Lord's prayer consists of half a dozen lines; the Sacranien- 
 tarius and Anliphonarius of Greeory fill 880 folio pages ; (lom. iii. P. 
 1. p. 1— 8S0.) yet these only constitute a part of the Orrfo Homanus 
 which Mabillon has illusinited and FJeury has abridged. (Hist. 
 Kccles. tom. viii. p. 1.39— 1.V2.) 
 
 1 1 learn from llie Abbt'* l)ubt»fl, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et la Pein- 
 ture, tom. iii. p. 174, 175.) that the simplicity of the Ambrosian chant 
 was confined to four 7/kk/*s, while the more perfect harmony of the 
 Greeorian comprised the eieht modes or fifteen chords «>f the ancient 
 music. He observes (p. 332.) that the connoisseurs admire the pre- 
 face and many pjissages of the Gregorian office. 
 
 b John the deacon (in Vit. Greg. I. ii. c. 7.) expresses the early con- 
 tempt of the Italians for Tramontane singing. Alpini scilicet corpora 
 vocum suarum tonitruisallisone perstrepentia, susceplae modulation!* 
 dulcedinem proprie non resultant: (j4jia bibuli gutturis barbara feri- 
 i.as dum inflexionibus et repercussionibus mltem niiitur edere canii- 
 lenam, natural! quodam fragore quasi plaustra per gradus coiifnso 
 sonantia rigidas voces jaclat, &c. In the lime of Charlemagne, the 
 Franks, though with some reluctance, admitted the justice of lb* 
 reproach. Munitori, Dissert, xxv. 
 
 w-ere embarked for that distant island, and the pontiff 
 lamented the austere duties which forbade him to 
 partake the perils of their spiritual warfare. In less 
 than two years he could announce to the archbishop 
 cf Alexandria, that they had baptized the king of 
 Kent wilh ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons, and" that 
 the Roman missionaries, like those of the primitive 
 church, were armed only with spiritual and superna- 
 tural powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gre- 
 er ory was always disposed to confirm the truths of 
 religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and resur- 
 rections;' and posterity has paid to his memory the 
 same tribute, which he freely granted to the virtue of 
 his own or the preceding generation. The celestial 
 honours have been liberally bestowed by the authority 
 of the popes, but Gregory is the last of their own 
 urder whom they have presumed to inscribe in the 
 calendar of saints, 
 and temporal Their temporal power insensibly arose 
 government; from the calamities of the times; and 
 the Roman bishops, who have deluged Europe and 
 Asia with blood, were compelled to reign as the minis- 
 ters of charity and peace. I. The church of Rome, 
 as it has been formerly observed, was endowed with 
 ample possessions in Italy, Sicily, and the more dis- 
 tant provinces ; and her agents, w ho were commonly 
 subdeacons, had acquired a civil, and even criminal, 
 jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen. The 
 Kia«„.o.^ successor of St. Peter administered his 
 
 nis csiaiefl. _.« • ^x ^\ . <. ... 
 
 patrimony with the temper of a vigilant 
 and moderate landlord ;«* and the epistles of Gregory 
 nre filled with salutary instructions to abstain from 
 doubtful or vexatious law-suits ; to preserve the integ- 
 rity of weights and measures ; to grant every reason- 
 able delay, and to reduce the capitation of the slaves 
 of the glebe, who purchased the right of marringe by 
 the payment of an arbitrary fine.* The rent or the 
 produce of these estates was transported to the mouth 
 of the Tiber, at the risk and expense of the pope; in 
 the use of wealth he acted like a faithful steward of 
 the church and the poor, and liberally applied to their 
 wants the inexhaustible resources of abstinence and 
 order. The voluminous account of his receipts and 
 disbursements was kept above three hundred years in 
 the Lateran, as the model of christian economy. On 
 the four great festivals, he divided their quarterly al- 
 lowance to the clergy, to his domestics, to the monas- 
 teries, the churches, the places of burial, the alms- 
 and alms houses, and the hospitals of Rome, and 
 the rest of the diocese. On the first 
 day of every month, he distributed to the poor, accor- 
 ding to the season, their stated portion of corn, wine, 
 cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provisions, clothes, 
 and money ; and his treasures were continually sum- 
 moned to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary de- 
 mands of indigence and merit. The instant distress 
 of the s1ck and helpless, of strangers and pilgrims, 
 was relieved by the bounty of each day, and of every 
 liour ; nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a fru- 
 gal repast, till he had sent the dishes from his own ta- 
 ble to some objects deserving of his compassion. The 
 misery of the times had reduced the nobles and ma- 
 trons of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevo- 
 lence of the church : three thousand virgins received 
 
 their food and raiment from the hand of their benefac- 
 tor ; and many bishops of Italy escaped from the bar- 
 barians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican. 
 Gregory might justly be styled the father cf his coun- 
 try ; and such was the extreme sensibility of his con- 
 science, that, for the death of a beggar who had perish- 
 ed in the streets, he interdicted himself during several 
 days from the exercise of sacerdotal functions. II. 
 The misfortunes of Rome involved the apostolical pas- 
 tor in the business of peace and war; and il might be 
 doubtful to himself, whether piety or ambition promp- 
 ted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign. 
 Gregory awakened the emperor from a long slumber, 
 exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his 
 inferior ministers, complained that the veterans were 
 withdrawn from Rome for the defence of Spoleto, 
 encouraged the Italians to guard their cities and altars ; 
 and condescended, in the crisis of danger, to name the 
 tribunes, and to direct the operations of the provincial 
 troops. But the martial spirit of the pope was checked 
 by the scruples of humanity and religion : the im- 
 position of tribute, though it was employed in the 
 Italian war, he freely condemned as odious and oppres- 
 sive ; W'hile he protected, against the imperial edicts, 
 the pious cowardice of the soldiers who deserted a 
 military for a monastic life. If we may credit his 
 own declarations, it would have been easy for Gregory 
 to exterminate the Lombards by their domestic fac- 
 tions, without leaving a king, a duke, or a count, to 
 save that unfortunate nation from the vengeance of 
 their foes. As a christian bishop, he preferred the sal- 
 utary oflices of peace; his mediation appeased the tu- 
 mult of arms ; but he was too conscious of the arts of 
 the Greeks, and the passions of the Lombards, to en- 
 gage his sacred promise for the observance of the 
 truce. Disappointed in the hope of a general and 
 lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country, with- 
 out the consent of the emperor or the ex- The saviour of 
 arch. The sword of the enemy was sus- Kome. 
 pended over Rome ; it was averted by the mild elo- 
 quence and seasonable gifts of the pontiff, who com- 
 manded the respect of heretics and barbarians. The 
 merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzanline court 
 with reproach and insult ; but in the attachment of a 
 grateful people, he found the purest reward of a citi- 
 zen, and the best right of a sovereign.' 
 
 e A French critic (Petrus Gassanvillus, Opera, tom. ii. p. 105—112.) 
 jiaa vindicated the right of Grecory lo the entire non.sense of the Dia- 
 ■'►jriies. Dupin (tom. v. p. 138.) does not think that any one will 
 vouch for the truth of all these miracles: I should like to know how 
 viany of them he believed himself. 
 
 <J Baronius is unwilling to expatiate on the care of the patrimo- 
 nies, lest he should betray that they consisted not of kingdoms but 
 /(inns. The French writers, the Benedictine editors, (tom. iv. 1. iij. 
 p. 272, &c.) and Fleury, (tom. viii. p. 29, &:c.) are not afraid of enter- 
 'n»into these humble though useful details; and the humanity of 
 Fleury dwells on the social virtues of Gregory. 
 
 e I much suspect that this pecuniary fine on the marriages of vil- 
 bins pr.>duced the famous, and often fibulous, risht de citissage, de 
 Marquette, &c. With the consent of her husband, a handsome bride 
 misht commute the payment in the arms of a youne landlord, and 
 tne mutual favour might afTord a precedent of local rather than legal 
 lyranny. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Revolution of Persia after the death of Chosroes or A'w 
 shirva?i. — His son Hoi^notiz, a tyrant, is deposed. — 
 Usurpation of Bahratn. — Flight and restoration of 
 Chosroes U. — His gratitude to the Hotnans. — The cha- 
 gan of the Avars. — Revolt of the army against Mau- 
 rice. — His death. — Tyranny of Phocas. — Elevation of 
 Heraclins. — The Persian war. — Chosroes subdues Sy- 
 ria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. — Siege of Constantinople 
 
 by the Persians and Avails. — Persian expeditions. 
 
 Victories and triutrphs of Heraclins. 
 
 The conflict of Rome and Persia was Contest of Rome 
 prolonged from the death of Crassus to anJ Persia. 
 the reign of Heraclius. An experience of seven hun- 
 dred years might convince the rival nations of the 
 impossibility of maintaining their conquests beyond 
 the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yet the 
 emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the 
 trophies of Alexander, and the sovereigns of Persia 
 indulged the ambitious hope of restoring the empire 
 of Cyrus.* Such extraordinary efforts of power and 
 
 f The temporal reign of Gregory I. is ably exposed by Sigonius in 
 the first book, de Regno Italiae. See his works, tom. ii. p 44-75. 
 
 a IMtssis qui . . . reposcerent . . . veieres Fersarum ac Macedonum 
 tenninoe, sequi invasunim possessa Cyro et post Alexandro, per vani- 
 luqueniiam ac minus jaciebat. Tacit. Auual. vi. 31. Such was Uxe 
 
 
t" 
 
 no 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
 courage will always command the attention of poste- 
 rity ; but the events by which the fate of nations is 
 not materially chaiio-ec\ leave a faint impression on the 
 paoTft of history, and the patience of the reader w^ould 
 be exhausted hy the repetition of the same hostilities, 
 undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, 
 and terminated without tffoct. Tlie arts of negocia- 
 tion, unknown to the simple frreatness of the senate 
 and the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the 
 Byzantine princes; and the memorials of their perpe- 
 tual embassies*' repeat, with the same uniform pro- 
 lixity, the laniTuai^e of falsehood and declamation, the 
 insolence of the barbarians, and the servile temper of 
 the trihutory Greeks. Lamentincr the barren super- 
 fluity of materials, I have studied to compress the 
 narrative of these uninterestinor transactions : but the 
 just Nushirvan is still applauded as the model of ori- 
 ental kinfjs, and the ambition of his grandson Chosroes 
 prepared the revolution of the east, which was speedily 
 accomplished by the arms and the religion of the suc- 
 cessors of Mahomet. 
 
 „ . r In the useless altercations that precede 
 
 Yemen by and justity the quarrels ot prmces, the 
 Niishirvaii, Greeks and the barbarians accused each 
 A.D.:.ro,&c. other of violating the peace which had 
 been concluded between the two empires about four 
 years before the death of Justinian. The sovereign of 
 Persia and India aspired to reduce under his obedience 
 the province of Yemen or Arabia*^ Felix; the distant 
 land of myrrh and frankincense, which had escaped, 
 rather than opposed, the conquerors of the east. After 
 the defeat of Abrahah under the walls of Mecca, the 
 discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance 
 to the Persians : they chased the strangers of Abys- 
 sinia beyond the Red sea; and a native prince of the 
 ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the 
 vassal or viceroy of the great Nushirvan.'' But the ne- 
 phew of Justinian declared his resolution to avenge the 
 injuries of his christian ally the prince of Abyssinia, as 
 they suggested a decent pretence to discontinue the an- 
 nual tribulcy which was poorly disguised by the name of 
 pension. The churches of iPersarmenia were oppres- 
 sed hy the intolerant spirit of the Magi ; they secretly 
 invoked the protector of the christians, and after the 
 pious murder of their satraps, the rebels were avowed 
 and supported as the brethren and subjects of the 
 Roman em.peror. The complaints of Nushirvan were 
 disregarded by the Byzantine court; Justin yielded to 
 the importunities of the Turks, who offered an alliance 
 against the common enemy; and the Persian monarchy 
 was threatened at the same instant by the united forces 
 of Europe, of ^Ethiopia, and of Scythia. At the age 
 of fourscore the sovereigrn of the east would perhaps 
 have chosen the peaceful enjoyment of his glory and 
 His last war wiih S'"^'^tness ; but as soon as war became 
 the R(mians, inevitable, he took the field with the 
 A. D. 572, &c. alacrity of youth, whilst the aggressor 
 trembled in the palace of Constantinople. Nushirvan, 
 or Chosroes, conducted in person the siege of Dara ; 
 and although that important fortress had been left des- 
 titute of troops and magazines, the valour of the inha- 
 bitants resisted above five months the archers, the ele- 
 phants, and the military engines of the great king. In 
 
 lan^uaire of the Arsacides : I have repeatedly marked the lofty claims 
 of the Siissanians. 
 
 b See the embassieg of Menander, extracted and preserved in the 
 tenth century by the order of Conslantine Porphyrogenitus. 
 
 c The general independence of the Arabs, which cannot be admit- 
 ted without many limitations, is blindly asserted in a separate disser- 
 tation of the author of the Universal History, vol. xx. p. 196—250. 
 A perp»^tual miracle is supposed to have guarded the prophecy in 
 favour uf the posterity of l?hmael ; ami these learned bigots are not 
 afraid to risk the truth of Christianity on this frail and slippery foun- 
 dation. 
 
 d D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, p. 477. Pocock, Specimen Hist. 
 Arabum, p. 64, 65. Father Paci (Critica, lorn. ii. p. 646.) has proved 
 that, after ten years' peace, the Persian war, which continued twenty 
 years, was renewed A. U. 571. Mahomet was born A. I). 569, in the 
 ypar of the elephant, or the defeat of Abrahah ; (Gagnier, Vie de 
 Mahomet, lorn. i. p. 80, 90. 98.) and this account allows two years for 
 the conquoet of Yemen. 
 
 the meanwhile his general Adarman advanced from 
 Babylon, traversed the desert, passed the Euphrates, 
 insulted the suburbs of Antioch, reduced to ashes the 
 city of Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the 
 feet of his master, whose perseverance in the midst of 
 winter at length subverted the bulwark of the east. 
 But these losses, which astonished the provinces and 
 the court, produced a salutary effect in the repentance 
 and abdication of the emperor Justin : a new spirit 
 arose in the Byzantine councils; and a truce of three 
 years was obtained by the prudence of Tiberius. 
 That seasonable interval was employed in the prepara- 
 tions of war; and the voice of rumour proclaimed to 
 the world, that from the distant countries of the Alps 
 and the Rhine, from Scythia, M«sia, Pannonia, Illyri- 
 cum, and Isauria, the strength of the imperial cavalry 
 was reinforced with one hundred and fifty thousand 
 soldiers. Yet the king of Persia, without fear, or 
 without faith, resolved to prevent the attack of the 
 enemy: again passed the Euphrates, and dismissing 
 the ambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly commanded 
 them to await his arrival at Csesarea, the metropolis 
 of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armies en- 
 countered each other in the battle of Melitene : the 
 barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud of ar- 
 rows, prolonged their line, and extended their wings 
 across the plain ; while the Romans, in deep and solid 
 bodies, expected to prevail in closer action, by the 
 weight of their swords and lances. A Scythian chief, 
 who commanded their right wing, suddenly turned the 
 flank of the enemy, attacked their rear-guard in the 
 presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the 
 camp, pillaged the royal tent, profaned the eternal fire, 
 loaded a train of camels with the spoils of Asia, cut 
 his way through the Persian host, and returned with 
 songs of victory to his friends, who had consumed the 
 day in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes. The 
 darkness of the night, and the separation of the Ro- 
 mans, afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of 
 revenge ; and one of their camps was swept away by 
 a rapid and impetuous assault. But the review of his 
 loss, and the consciousness of his danger, determined 
 Chosroes to a speedy retreat : he burnt, in his passage, 
 the vacant town of Melitene; and, without consulting 
 the safety of his troops, boldly swam the Euphrates 
 on the back of an elephant. After this unsuccessful 
 campaign, the want of magazines, and perhaps some 
 inroad of the Turks, obliged him to disband or divide 
 his forces : the Romans were left masters of the field, 
 and their general, Justinian, advancing to the relief of 
 the Persarmenian rebels, erected his standard on the 
 banks of the Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly 
 halted within three days' march of the Caspian :' that 
 inland sea was explored, for the first time, by a hostile 
 fleet,' and seventy thousand captives were transplanted 
 from Hyrcania to the isle of Cyprus. On the return 
 of spring, Justinian descended into the fertile plains 
 of Assyria, the flames of war approached the residence 
 of Nushirvan, the indignant monarch His death, ; 
 sunk into the grave, and his last edict A.D. 579. 
 restrained his successors from exposing their person in 
 a battle against the Romans. Yet the memory of this 
 transient affront was lost in the glories of a long reign ; 
 and his formidable enemies, after indulging their dream 
 of conquest, again solicited a short respite from the 
 calamities of war.« 
 
 e He had vanquished the Albanians, who brought into the field 
 12,000 horse and 60,000 f»)ot ; but he dreaded the multitude of venom- 
 ous reptiles, wht»se existence may admit of some doubt, as welt as 
 that of the neighbouring Amazons. Plutarch, in Pompeio, lom. ii. p» 
 1165,1166. 
 
 ( In the history of the world I can only perceive two navies on the 
 Caspian: 1. Of the Macedonians, when Patrocles, the admiral of ihe 
 kin?s of Syria, Seleucus and Antiochus, descended mt»sl probably 
 the river Oxus, from the confines of India. (Plin. Hist. Naiur. vi. 
 21.) 2. Of the Russians, when Peter the first conducted a fleet and 
 army from the neiirlibourhood of Moscow to the coast of Persia. 
 (Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 32.>— 352.) He justly observes, that such 
 martial pomp had never been displayed on the Volga. 
 I g For these Persian wars and treaties, see Monandcf; in Eicerpi. 
 
 Tyranny and '^^^ throne of Chosroes Nushirvan 
 
 vices of his son was filled by Hormouz, or Hormisdas, 
 
 aT'579-590 *^'® *''*^''^' ^^ ^^® ^^^^ favoured of his 
 sons. With the kingdoms of Persia and 
 India, he inherited the reputation and example of his 
 father, the service, in every rank, of his wise and 
 valiant officers, and a general system of administra- 
 tion, harmonized by time and political wisdom to pro- 
 mote ihe happiness of the prince and people. But the 
 royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the 
 friendship of a sage who had presided over his educa- 
 tion, and who always preferred the honour to the in- 
 terest of his pupil, his interest to his inclination. In 
 a dispute with the Greek and Indian philosophers, 
 Buzurg** had once maintained, that the most grievous 
 misfortune of life is old age without the remembrance 
 of virtue; and our candour will presume that the same 
 principle compelled him, during three years, to direct 
 the councils of the Persian empire. His zeal was re- 
 warded by the gratitude and docility of Hormouz, who 
 acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor 
 than to his parent: but when age and labour had im- 
 paired the strength, and perhaps the faculties, of this 
 prudent counsellor, he retired from court, and aban- 
 doned the youthful monarch to his own passions and 
 those of his favourites. By the fatal vicissitude of 
 human affairs, the same scenes were renewed at Cte- 
 siphon, which had been exhibited in Rome after the 
 death of Marcus Antoninus. The ministers of flattery 
 and corruption, who had been banished by the father, 
 were recalled and cherished by the son ; the disgrace 
 and exile of the friends of Nushirvan established their 
 tyranny; and virtue was driven by degrees from the 
 mind of Hormouz, from his palace, and from the gov- 
 ernment of the state. The faithful agents, the eyes 
 and ears of the king, informed him of the progress of 
 disorder, that the provincial governors flew to their 
 prey with the fierceness of lions and eagles, and that 
 their rapme and injustice would teach the most loyal 
 of his subjects to abhor the name and authority of their 
 sovereign. The sincerity of this advice was punished 
 with death, the murmurs of the cities were despised, 
 their tumults were quelled by military execution; the 
 intermediate powers between the throne and the people 
 were abolished; and the childish vanity of Hormouz, 
 who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond of 
 declaring, that he alone would be the judne as well as 
 the master of his kingdom. In every word, and in 
 every action, the son of Nushirvan degenerated from 
 the virtues of his father. His avarice defrauded the 
 troops ; his jealous caprice degraded the satraps : the 
 palace, the tribunals, the waters of the Tigris, were 
 stained \yith the blood of the innocent, and the tyrant 
 exulted in the sufferings and execution of thirteen 
 thousand victims. As the excuse of his cruelty, he 
 sometimes condescended to observe, that the fears of 
 the Persians would be productive of hatred, and that 
 their hatred must terminate in rebellion ; but he forgot 
 that his own guilt and folly had inspired the senti- 
 ments which he deplored, and prepared the event 
 which he so justly apprehended. Exasperated by 
 long and hopeless oppression, the provinces of Baby- 
 bn, Susa, and Carmania erected the standard of re- 
 volt; and the princes of Arabia, India, and Scythia, 
 refused the customary tribute to the unworthy succes- 
 sor of Nushirvan. The arms of the Romans, in slow 
 sieges and frequent inroads, aflflicted the frontiers of 
 
 111 
 
 Mesopotamia and Assyria ; one of their generals pro- 
 fessed himself the disciple of Scipio, and the soldiers 
 were animated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose 
 mild aspect should never have been displayed in the 
 front of battle.' At the same time, the eastern pro- 
 vinces of Persia were invaded by the great khan, who 
 passed the Oxus at the head of three or four hundred 
 thousand Turks. 'J'he imprudent Hormouz accepted 
 their perfidious and formidable aid; the cities of Kho- 
 rasan or Bactriana were commanded to open their 
 , gates ; the march of the barbarians towards the moun- 
 tains of Hyrcania revealed the correspondence of the 
 1 urkish and Roman arms ; and their union must have 
 subverted the throne of the house of Sai^san. 
 
 Persia had been lost by a kinnr; it was r - •. r 
 saved by a hero. After his revolt, Va- BaTram" 
 ranes or Bahrara is stigmatized by the ^- ^- °^- 
 son of Hormouz as an ungrateful slave: the proud and 
 ambiguous reproach of despotism, since he was truly 
 descended from the ancient princes of Rei,"^ one of the 
 seven families whose splendid as well as substantial 
 prerogatives exalted them above the heads of the Per- 
 sian nobility.» At the siege of Dara, the valour of 
 Bahram was signalized under the eyes of Nushirvan, 
 and both the father and son successively promoted him 
 to the command of armies, the government of Media, 
 and the superintendance of the palace. The popular 
 prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Per- 
 sia might be inspired by his past victories and extra- 
 ordinary figure : the epithet Giubin is expressive of 
 the quality of f/ry ivood ; he had the strength and sta- 
 ture of a giant, and his savage countenance was fanci- 
 fully compared to that of a wild cat. While the nation 
 trembled, while Hormouz disguised his terror by the 
 name of suspicion, and his servants concealed 'their 
 disloyalty under the mask of fear, Bahram alone dis- 
 played his undaunted courage and apparent fidelity: 
 and as soon as he found that no more than twelve 
 thousand soldiers would follow him against the enemy,, 
 he prudently declared, that to this fatal number heaven 
 had reserved the honours of the triumph. The steep 
 and narrow descent of the Pule Rudbnr" or Hyrca- 
 nian rock, is the only pass through which an army 
 can penetrate into the territory of Rei and the plains 
 of Media. From the commanding heights, a band of 
 resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts 
 the myriads of the Turkish host: their emperor and 
 his son were transpierced with arrows; and the fugi- 
 tives were left, without counsel or provisions, to the 
 revenge of an injured people. The patriotism of the 
 Persian general was stimulated by his affection for the 
 city of his forefathers ; in the hour of victory every 
 peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a hero; 
 and their ardour was kindled by the gorgeous specta- 
 cle of beds, and thrones, and tables of massy gold, the 
 spoils of Asia, and the luxury of the hostile camp. A 
 
 ^'''^'^2a^^^~^^' Theophanes Byzant. apud Photium, cod. Ixiv. 
 P- 77. 80, 81, Evasrrius, 1. v. c. 7—15. Theophylact, 1. iii. c. 9-16. 
 Ajathias, 1. iv. p. 140. f j > 
 
 h Buzurg Mihir maybe considered, in his character and station, 
 »sthe Seneca of the east; but his virtues, and perhaps his faults, 
 are less known than those of the Roman, who appears to have been 
 much more loauacious. The Persian sa?e was the person who im- 
 P<jried from India the game of chess, and the fables of Pilpay. Such 
 nas been the fame of his wisdom and virtues, that the christians 
 Claim him as a believer in the pospel ; and the Mahometans revere 
 Buzurg as a premature Mussulman. D'Herbelot, Bibliolheque Ori- 
 'aule, p. 218. 
 
 i See the imitation of Scipio in Theophylact, 1. i.e. 14.; the imago 
 01 Christ, 1. n. c. 3. Hereafter I shall speak more amply of the chris- 
 tian images— I had almost said idoh. This, if I am not mistaken, i» 
 the oldest «xt'eon-:i.,Tc? of divine manufacture; but in the next 
 thousand years, many others issued from the same workshop. 
 
 k Kagae, or Rei, is mentioned in the apocryphal book of Tobit a» 
 already flourishing, 700 years before Christ, under the Assyrian em- 
 pire. Under the foreign names of Europus and Arsacia, this city, 500 
 stadia to the south of the Caspian gates, was euccessivelv embellished 
 by the Macedonians and Parthians. (Strabo, 1. xi. p. 796.) Its gran- 
 deur andpopulousness in the ninth century is exaggerated bpyond iho 
 bounds of credibility ; but Rei has been since ruined by wars and th« 
 
 o^^'oSl^^'^^'lo"*'!^ ?^ ^^^. ^''^- Chardin, Voyage en Perse, torn. i. p. 
 279,280. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental, p. 714. 
 
 I Theophylact, 1. iii. c. 18. The story of tiie seven Persians is told 
 in the third book of Herodotus ; and their noble descendants are often 
 mentioned, especially in the fragments of Ctesias. Yet the inde- 
 pendence of Otanes (Herodot, 1. iii. c. 83, 84.) is hostile to ihfi spirit 
 of despotism, and it may not seem probable that the seven families 
 could survive the revolutions of eleven hundred years. They mi^^ht 
 however be represented by the seven ministers; (Brisson, de Regno 
 Persico, 1. i. p. 190.) and some Persian nobles, like the kings of 
 Pontus (Polyb. 1. v. p. 540.) and Cappadocia, (Diodor. Sicul. 1. xxxi. 
 torn. ii. p. .517.) might claim their descent from the bold companion* 
 of Darius. 
 
 n> See an accurate description of this mountain by Olearius, (Voy- 
 age en Perse, p. 997, 998.) who ascended it with much difficulty and 
 danger ia his return from Ispahan to the Caspian sea. 
 
ll: 
 
 112 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VH. 
 
 8^1 
 
 '$' 
 
 prince of a less malignant temper could not easily 
 have forgiven his benefactor, and the secret hatred of 
 Hormouz was envenomed by a malicious report, that 
 Bahram bad privately retained the most precious fruits 
 of his Turkish victory. But the approach of a Roman 
 army on the sido of the Araxes compelled the impla- 
 cable tyrant to smile and to applaud ; and the toils of 
 Bahram were rewarded with the permission of encoun- 
 tering a new enemy, hy their skill and discipline more 
 formidable than a Scythian multitude. Elated by his 
 lecent success, he despatched a herald with a bold de- 
 fiance to the camp of the Romans, requesting them to 
 fix a day of battle, and to choose whether they would 
 pass the river themselves, or allow a free passage to the 
 arms of the great king. The lieutenant of the emperor 
 Maurice preferred the safer alternative, and this local 
 circumstance, which would have enhanced the victory 
 of the Persians, rendered their defeat more hloody and 
 their escape more dilhcult. But the loss of his sub- 
 jects, and the danger of his kingdom, were overbal- 
 anced in the mind of Ilormouz by the disgrace of his 
 personal enemy; and no sooner had Bahram collected 
 and reviewed his forces, than he received from a royal 
 messenger the insulting gift of a distaff, a spinning- 
 wheel, and a complete suit of female apparel. Obe- 
 dient to the will of his sovereign, be showed himself 
 to the soldiers in this unworthy disguise ; they re- 
 sented his ignominy and their own ; a shout of rebel- 
 lion ran through the ranks, and the general accepted 
 their oaths of fidelity and vows of revenge. 
 Ti« K^ir A second messenger, who had been 
 
 Hii rebellion, p^j^^a^je^j ^^ bring the rebel in chains, 
 
 was trampled under the feet of an elephant, and mani- 
 festoes were diligently circulated, exhorting the Per- 
 sians to assert their freedom against an odious and 
 contemptible tyrant. The defection was rapid and 
 universal : his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the pub- 
 lic fury ; the troops deserted to the standard of Bah- 
 ram ; and the provinces again saluted the deliverer of 
 his country. 
 
 Hormouz is de- As thc passes were faithfully guaded, 
 posed and im- Hormouz could only compute the num- 
 prisoned. ^jg^ ^f j^jg enemies by the testimony of a 
 
 guilty conscience, and the daily defection of those who, 
 in the hour of his distress, avenged their wrorigs, or for- 
 got their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns 
 of royalty; but the city and palace of Modain had al- 
 ready escaped from the hand of the tyrant. Among the 
 victims of his cruelty, Bindoes, a Sassanian prince, had 
 been cast into a dungeon : his fetters were broken by 
 the zeal and courage of a brother; and he stood before 
 the king at the head of those trusty guards, who had 
 been chosen as the ministers of his confinement, and 
 perhaps of his death. Alarmed by the hasty intrusion 
 and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz looked 
 round, but in vain, for advice or assistance ; discovered 
 that his strength consisted in the obedience of others, 
 and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindoes, 
 who dragged him from the throne to the same dungeon 
 in which he himself had been so lately confined. At 
 the first tumult, Chosroes, the eldest of the sons of 
 Hormouz, escaped from the city; he was persuaded to 
 return by the pressing and friendly ivitation of Bin- 
 does, who promised to seat him on his father's throne, 
 and who expected to reign under the name of an inex- 
 perienced youth. In the just assurance that his ac- 
 complices could neither forgive nor hope to bo for- 
 given, and that every Persian might be trusted as the 
 judge and enemy of the tyrant, he instituted a public 
 trial without a precedent and without a copy in the 
 annals of the east. The son of Nushirvan, who had 
 requested to plead in his own defence, was introduced 
 as a criminal into the full assembly of the nobles and 
 satraps." He was heard with decent attention as long 
 
 B The orientals suppose that Bahram convened this assembly and 
 proclaimed Chosroes ; but Theoph/lact i«, in this iD»Uixc9, more dis- 
 tinct and credible. 
 
 as he expatiated on the advantages of order and obe- 
 dience, the danger of innovation, and the inevitable 
 discord of those who had encouraged each other to 
 trample on their lawful and hereditary sovereign. By 
 a pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that 
 pity which is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of 
 a king; and while they beheld the abject posture and 
 squalid appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his 
 chains, and the marks of ignominious stripes, it was 
 impossible to forget how recently they had adored tlio 
 divine splendour of his diadem and purple. But an 
 angry murmur arose in the assembly as soon as he 
 presumed to vindicate his conduct, and to applaud the 
 victories of his reign. He defined the duties of a king, 
 and the Persian nobles listened with a smile of con- 
 tempt ; they were fired with indignation when he dared 
 to vility the character of Chosroes; and by the indis- 
 creet offer of resigning the sceptre to the secnnd of his 
 sons, he subscribed his own condemnation, and sacri- 
 ficed the life of his innocent favourite. The mangled 
 bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed to the 
 people ; the eyes of Hormouz were pierced with a hot 
 needle ; and the punishment of the father was suc- 
 ceeded by the coronation of his eldest Elevation of his 
 son. Chosroes had ascended the throne b*^" Chosroes. 
 without guilt, and his piety strove to alleviate the 
 misery of the abdicated monarch ; from the dungeon 
 he removed Hormouz to an apartment of the palace, 
 supplied with liberality the consolations of sensual 
 enjoyment, and patiently endured the furious sallies 
 of his resentment and despair. He might despise 
 the resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but 
 the tiara was trembling on his head, till he could 
 subvert the power, or acquire the friendship, of the 
 great Bahram, who sternly denied the justice of a 
 revolution, in which himself and his soldiers, the tnie 
 representatives of Persia, had never been consulted. 
 The offer of a general amnesty, and of the second rank 
 in his kingdom, was answered by an epistle from 
 Bahram, friend of the gods, conqueror of men, and 
 enemy of tyrants, the satrap of satraps, general of the 
 Persian armies, and a prince adorned with the title of 
 eleven virtues." He commands Chosroes, the son of 
 Hormouz, to shun the example and fate of his father, 
 to confine the traitors who had been released from 
 their chains, to deposit in some holy place the diadem 
 which he had usurped, and to accept from his gracious 
 benefactor the pardon of his faults and the government 
 of a province. The rebel might not be proud, and the 
 king most assuredly was not humble ; but the one was 
 conscious of his strength, the other was sensible of his 
 weakness : and even the modest language of his reply 
 still left room for treaty and reconciliation. Chosroes 
 led into the field the slaves of the palace and the popu- 
 lace of the capital : they beheld with terror the ban- 
 ners of a veteran army; they were encompassed and 
 surprised by the evolutions of the general ; and the 
 satraps who had deposed Hormouz, received the pun- 
 ishment of their revolt, or expiated their first treason 
 by a second and more criminal act of disloyalty. Thc 
 life and liberty of Chosroes were saved, but he was 
 reduced to the necessity of imploring aid or refuge in 
 some foreign land ; and the implacable Bindoes, anx- 
 ious to secure an unquestionable title, Death of Hor 
 hastily returned to the palace, and end- 
 ed, with a bow-string, the wretched ex- 
 istence of the son of Nushirvan.^ 
 
 While Chosroes despatched the pre- 
 parations of his retreat, he deliberated 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 mouz, 
 A. D. 590. 
 
 Chosroes flics to 
 the Romans. 
 
 o See the worde of Theophylactjl. iv.c.7. z»e'f* <p«>.0{ t8i« in>u 
 
 <*«x»v Sv¥*fiiioi, &c. In his answer, Chosroes styles himself t)| vvkt< 
 %afij9/*i»9< aftn»T» .... Toui Aa-iuy«; (the genii) fnTiav/*i*e{- 
 This is genuine oriental bombast. 
 
 p Theophylact (1. iv. c. 7.) imputes the death of Hormouz to hi« 
 son, by whose command he was beaten to death with clubs. I have 
 followed the milder account of Khondemir and Eutychius, and shall 
 always be content with thc sligbt^t evidence to extenuate the crima 
 uf parricide. 
 
 with his remaining friends,*! whether he should lurk in 
 the valleys of mount Caucasus, or fly to the tents of 
 the Turks, or solicit the protection of the emperor. 
 The long enjulation of the successors of Artaxerxes 
 and Constantino increased his reluctance to appear as 
 a suppliant in a rival court ; but he weighed the forces 
 of the Ronaans, and prudently considered, that the 
 neighbourhood of Syria would render his escape more 
 easy, and their succours more effectual. Attended 
 only by his concubines, and a troop of thirty guards, 
 he secretly departed from the capital, followed the 
 banks of the Euphrates, traversed the desert, and 
 halted at the distance of ten miles from Circesium. 
 About the third watch of the night, the Roman preefect 
 was informed of his approach, and he introduced the 
 royal stranger to the fortress at the dawn of dny. 
 From thence the king of Persia was conducted to the 
 more honourable residence of Hierapolis ; and Maurice 
 dissembled his pride, and displayed his benevolence, 
 at the reception of the letters and ambassadors of the 
 grandson of Nushirvan. They humbly represented 
 the vicissitudes of fortune and the common interest of 
 princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram, the 
 agent of the evil principle, and urged with specious 
 argument, that it was for the advantage of the Ro- 
 mans themselves to support the two monarchies which 
 balance the world, thc two great luminaries by whose 
 salutary influence it is vivified and adorned. The anx- 
 iety of Chosroes was soon relieved by the assurance, 
 that the emperor had espoused the cause of justice and 
 royalty; but Maurice prudently declined the expense 
 and delay of his useless visit to Constantinople. In 
 the name of his generous benefactor, a rich diadem 
 was presented to the fugitive prince, with an inestima- 
 ble gift of jewels and gold ; a powerful army was 
 assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia, un- 
 der the command of the valiant and faithful Narses,' 
 and this general, of his own nation, and his own 
 choice, was directed to pass the Tigris, and never to 
 sheathe his sword till he had restored Chosroes to the 
 throne of his ancestors. The enterprise, however 
 splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. 
 His return Persia had already repented of her fatal 
 ' rashness, which betrayed the heir of the 
 house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious sub- 
 ject ; and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate 
 his usurpation, compelled Bahram to assume the scep- 
 tre, regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation. 
 The palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the 
 city with tumult, the provinces with insurrection ; and 
 the cruel execution of the guilty and the suspected 
 served to irritate rather than subdue the public dis- 
 content. No sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan 
 display his own and the Roman banners beyond the 
 Tigris, than he was joined, each day, by the increasing 
 multitudes of the nobility and people; and as he ad- 
 vanced, he received from every side the grateful oflfer- 
 ings of the keys of his cities and the heads of his 
 enemies. As soon as Modain was freed from the pre- 
 sence of the usurper, the loyal inhabitants obeyed the 
 first summons of Mebodes at the head of only two 
 thousand horse, and Chosroes accepted the sacred and 
 precious ornaments of the palace as the pledge of their 
 truth, and a presage of his approaching success. Af- 
 ter the junction of the imperial troops, which Bahram 
 
 113 
 
 A. D. 591-«)3. 
 
 q After the battle of Pharsalia, the Pompey of Lucan (1. viii. 256 
 tk '«^ holds a similar debate. He was himself desirous of seeking 
 the Parihians; but his companions abhorred the unnatural alliance; 
 *»d the adverse prejudices might operate as forcibly on Chosroes and 
 nis companions, who could describe, with the same vehemence, the 
 contrast of laws, religion, and manners, between the east and west. 
 
 r In this ape there were three warriors of the name of Narses, who 
 have been often confounded : (Pasi, Criiica, tom. ii. p. 640.) 1. A Per- 
 sarinenian, the brother of Isaac and Armatius, who, after a successful 
 action affainst Belisarius, deserted from his Persian sovereisn, and 
 afterwards served m the Italian war. 2. The eunuch who conquered 
 iialjr. 3. The restorer of Chosroes, who is celebrated in the poem of 
 torippus, (1. lii. 290— 227.) as eicelsus super omnia Venice agmina 
 • ■ . . habitu modestus .... morum probitate placens, virtuie veren- 
 <ius; fulmineus, cauius, vigilans, Jtc. 
 
 Vol. II.— P 8 
 
 ; vainly struggled to prevent, the contest was decided 
 I by two battles on the banks of the Zab, and the con- 
 fines of Media. Tlie Romans, with the 
 faithful subjects of Persia, amounted to *°*^ ^""^^ '''"='°n^- 
 , sixty thousand, while the whole force of the usurper 
 did not exceed forty thousand men : the two generals 
 I signalized their valour and ability, but the victory wag 
 j finally determined by the prevalence of numbers and 
 , discipline. With the remnant of a broken army, Bah- 
 I ram fled towards the eastern provinces of the Oxus : 
 ; the enmity of Persia reconciled him to Death of Bah- 
 i the 1 urks ; but his days were shortened ram. 
 
 by poison, perhaps the most incurable of poisons; the 
 stings of remorse and despair, and the bitter remem- 
 brance of lost glory. Yet the modern Persians still 
 commemorate the exploits of Bahram; and some ex- 
 cellent laws have prolonged the duration of his trou- 
 bled and transitory reign. 
 
 The restoration of Chosroes was cele- „ 
 brated ^yith feasts and executions ; and ^^^y^^i^ChJ^ 
 the music of the royal banquet was often ^'^^^s, 
 disturbed by the groans of dying or mu- 
 tilated criminals. A general pardon might have dif- 
 fused conifort and tranquillity through a country which 
 had been shaken by the late revolutions ; yet, before 
 the sanguinary temper of Chosroes is blamed, we 
 should learn whether the Persians had not been accus- 
 tomed either to dread the rigour, or to despise the 
 weakness, of their sovereign. The revolt of Bahram, 
 and the conspiracy of the satraps, were impartially- 
 punished by the revenge or justice of the conqueror; 
 the merits of Bindoes himself could not purify his 
 hand from the guilt of royal blood ; and the son of 
 Hormouz was desirous to assert his own innocence, and 
 to vindicate the sanctity of kings. During the vigour 
 of the Roman power, several princes were seated on the 
 throne of Persia by the arms and the authority of the 
 first Ctesars. But their new subjects were soon dis- 
 gusted with the vices or virtues which they had imbi- 
 bed in a foreign land ; the instability of their dominion 
 gave birth to a vulgar observation, that the choice of 
 Rome was solicited and rejected viith equal ardour by 
 the capricious levity of oriental slaves.' But the glo- 
 ry of Maurice was conspicuous in the long and fortu- 
 nate reign of his son and his ally. A band of a thou- 
 sand Romans, who continued to guard the person of 
 Chosroes, proclaimed his confidence in the fidelity of 
 the strangers; his growing strength enabled him to 
 dismiss this unpopular aid, but he steadily professed 
 the same gratitude and reverence to his adopted father; 
 and till the death of Maurice, the peace and alliance 
 of the two empires were faithfully maintained. Yet 
 the mercenary friendship of the Roman prince had 
 been purchased with costly and important gifts : the 
 strong cities of Martyropolis and Dara were restored, 
 and the Persarmenians became the willing subjects of 
 an empire, whose eastern limit was extended, beyond 
 the example of former time?, as far as the banks of 
 the Araxes and the neighbourhood of the Caspian. 
 A pious hope was indulged, that the church as well as 
 the state might triumph in this revolution : but if 
 Chosroes had sincerely listened to the christian bish- 
 ops, the impression was erased by the zeal and elo- 
 quence of the Magi: if he was armed with philosophic 
 indifference, he accommodated his belief, or rather his 
 professions, to the various circumstances of an exile 
 and a sovereign. The imaginary conversion of the 
 king of Persia was reduced to a local and superstitious 
 veneration for Sergius,* one of the saints of Aniioch, 
 
 • Experimentis cojnitum est barbaros malle Roma petere reges 
 quam habere. These experiments are admirably represented in the 
 inviution and expulsion of Vonones, (Annal. ii. 1—3.) Tiridates, 
 (Annal. vi. 32— 44.) and Meherdates, (Annal. xi. 10. xii. 10— 14.) The 
 eye of Tacitus seems to have transpierced the camp of the Parthiani 
 and the walls of the haram. 
 
 t Sergius and his companion Bacchus, who are said to have suffered 
 in the persecution of IWaximian, obtained divine honour in France, 
 Italy, Constantinople, and iht east. Their tomb at Kasaphe waa fa- 
 mous for miracles, and that Syrian town acquired the more honount* 
 
114 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 115 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 r .' i 
 
 i -A 
 
 * ' , 
 
 Tr 
 
 i \ n 
 
 lit 
 
 I 
 
 Pride, policy^ 
 and power of 
 the chajran of 
 the Avars, 
 A. D. 570-600, 
 &,c. 
 
 who heard his prayers and appeared to him in dreams ; 
 he enriched his shrine with offerings of gold and sil- 
 ver, and ascribed to his invisible patron the success 
 of his arms, and the pregnancy of Sira, a devout 
 christian and the best beloved of his wives." The 
 beauty of Sira, or Schirin,' her wit, her musical ta- 
 lents, are still famous in the history or rather in the 
 romances of the east : her own name is expressive, in 
 the Persian tongue, of sweetness and grace ; and the 
 epithet of Parriz alludes to the charms of her royal 
 lover. Yet Sira never shared the passion which she 
 inspired, and the bliss of Chosroes was tortured by a 
 jealous doubt, that while he possessed her person, she 
 had bestowed her affections on a meaner favourite.^ 
 
 While the majesty of the Roman 
 name was revived in the east, the pros- 
 pect of Europe is less pleasing and less 
 glorious. By the departure of the Lom- 
 bards, and the ruin of the Gepiiloe, the 
 balance of power was destroyed on the Danube; and 
 the Avars spread their permanent dominion from the 
 foot of the Alps to the sea-coast of the Euxine. The 
 reign of Baian is the brightest acra of their monarchy ; 
 their chagan, who occupied the rustic palace of Attila, 
 appears to have imitated his character and policy ;' 
 but as the same scenes were repeated in a smaller cir- 
 cle, a minute representation of the copy would be de- 
 void of the greatness and novelty of the original. 
 The pride of the second Justin, of Tiberius, and Mau- 
 rice, was humbled by a proud barbarian, more prompt 
 to inflict, than exposed to suffer, the injuries of war; 
 and as often as Asia was threatened by the Persian 
 arms, Europe was oppressed by the dangerous inroads, 
 or costly friendship, of the Avars. When the Roman 
 envoys approached the presence of the chagan, they 
 were commanded to wait at the door of his tent, till, 
 at the end perhaps of ten or twelve days, he conde- 
 scended to admit them. If the substance or the style 
 of their message was offensive to his ear, he insulted, 
 with a real or affected fury, their own dignity, and that 
 of their prince; their baggage was plundered, and 
 their lives were only saved by the promise of a richer 
 present and a more respectful address. But his sacred 
 ambassadors enjoyed and abused an unbounded licence 
 in the midst of Constantinople : they urged, with im- 
 portunate clamours, the increase of tribute, or the res- 
 titution of captives and deserters ; and the majesty of 
 the empire was alm6st equally degraded by a base 
 compliance, or by the false and fearful excuses, with 
 
 ble name of Sergiopolis. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclea. torn. t. p. 491 — 496. 
 Butler's Saints, vd. x. p. 155. 
 
 u Evairhis, (1. vi. c. 21.^ and Theophylact, (I. v. C. 13, 14.) have 
 prpflprved the orisinal liners of Chosroes, written In Greek, signed 
 with his own hand, and afterwards inscribed on crosses and tables of 
 gold, which were deposited in the church f)f ^erpiopolis. They had 
 been sent to the bishop of Antioch, as primate of Syria. 
 
 X The Greeksonly describe her as a Roman by birth, a christian by 
 religion : but she is represented as the daughter of the emperor Mau- 
 rice in the Persian and Turkish romances, which celebrate the 
 love of Khosrou fjr Schiria, of Schirin f)r Ferhad, the most beau- 
 tiful yviulh of the east. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, p. 7S9. •.!97, 
 998. 
 
 J The whole series of the tyranny of Hormouz, the revolt of Bahram, 
 and the flieht and restoration of Chosroes, is related by two contem- 
 porary Greeks — more concisely by Evagrius (1. vi. c. 16, 17, 18, 19.) — 
 and most diffusely by Theophylaci Simocatta, (1. iii. c. 6—18. 1. iv. 
 c. 1—16. I. V. c. 1—15.) succeeding compilers, Zonaraa and Cedrenus, 
 can only transcribe and abridge. The Christian Ai.abs, Eutychius 
 (Annal. torn. ii. p. 200-209.) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 96—98.) 
 appear to have consulted some particular memoirs. The great Per- 
 sian historians of the fifteenth century, Mirkhond and Khondemir, 
 are only known to me by the imperfect extracts of Shikard, (Tarikh, 
 p. 150—155.) Texeira, or rather Stephens, (Hist, of Persia, p. 182-^186.) 
 a Turkish MS. translated by the Abbe Fourmont, (Hist, de I'Academie 
 des Inscriptions, lom. vii. p. 325—334.) and D'Herbelot. (aux mots, 
 Hormouz, p. 457—459. Bahram, p. 174. Khosrou Parviz, p. 990.) 
 Were I perfectly satisfied of their authority, I could wish these ori- 
 ental materials had been more copious. 
 
 B A general idea of the pride and power of the chaiean may be taken 
 from Menander (Excerpt. Legat. p. 117, &c.) and Theophylaci, (I. j. 
 c. 3. 1. vii. c. 15.) whose eight bo*>ks are much more honourable to the 
 Avar than to the Roman prince. The predecessors of Baian had tasted 
 the liberality of Rome, and he survived the reign of Maurice. (Huat, 
 Hi*t. des Peuples Barbares, lom. xi. p. 545.) The chagan who invaded 
 luly A. D. 611. (Muratorj, Annali, torn. v. p. 305.) was then juvenili 
 •tate floreniem, (Paul Warnefrid, de Gest. Langobard. 1. v. C. 38.) 
 the 0on, perhapi, or the grandson, of Baian. 
 
 which they eluded such insolent demands. The cha- 
 gan had never seen an elephant; and his curiosity was 
 excited by the strange, and perhaps fabulous, portrait 
 of that wonderful animal. At his command, one of 
 the largest elephants of the imperial stables was 
 equipped with stately caparisons, and conducted by a 
 numerous train to the royal village in the plains of 
 Hungary. He surveyed the enormous beast with 
 surprise, with disgust, and possibly with terror; and 
 smiled at the vain industry of the Romans, who, in 
 search of such useless rarities, could explore the lim- 
 its of the land and sea. He wished, at the expense 
 of the emperor, to repose in a golden bed. The 
 wealth of Constantinople, and the skilful dilig^ence 
 of her artists, were instantly devoted to the gratifica- 
 tion of his caprice; but when the work was finished, 
 he rejected with scorn a present so unworthy the ma- 
 jesty of a great king.* These were the casual sallies 
 of his pride, but the avarice of the chagan was a more 
 steady and tractable passion : a rich an-J regular sup- 
 ply of silk apparel, furniture, and plate, introduced 
 the rudiments of art and luxury among the tents of 
 the Scythians; their appetite was stimulated by the 
 pepper and cinnamon of India ; *■ the annual subsidy 
 or tribute was raised from fourscore to one hundred 
 and twenty thousand pieces of gold ; and after each 
 hostile interruption, the payment of the arrears, with 
 exorbitant interest, was always made the first condU 
 tion of the new treaty. In the language of a barbarf* 
 an, without guile, the prince of the Avars aflTected to 
 complain of the insincerity of the Greeks,* yet he was 
 not inferior to the most civilized nations in the refine- 
 ments of dissimulation and perfidy. As the succes- 
 sor of the Lombards, the chagan asserted his claim to 
 the important city of Sirmium, the ancient bulwark 
 of the Illyrian provinces.** The plains of the Lower 
 Hunnrary were covered with the Avar horse, and a 
 fleet of large boats was built in the Hercynian wood^ 
 to descend the Danube, and to transport into the Save 
 the materials of a bridge. But as the strong garrison 
 of Singidunum, which commanded the conflux of the 
 two rivers, mijjht have stopped their passage and baf- 
 fled his designs, he dij^pelled their apprehensions by a 
 solemn oath, that his views were not hostile to the 
 empire. He sv/ore by his sword, the symbol of the 
 god of war, that he did not, as the enemy of Rome, 
 construct a bridge upon the Save. *' If 1 violate niy 
 oath," pursued the intrepid Baian, " may I myself, 
 and the last of my nation, perish by the sword ! May 
 the heavens, and fire, the deity of the heavens, fall 
 upon our heads ! May the forests and mountains bury 
 us in their ruins ! and the Save returning, against the 
 laws of nature, to his source, overwhelm us in his 
 angry waters ! " After this barbarous imprecation, he 
 calmly inquired, what oath was most sacred and venn- 
 rable among the christians, what guilt of perjury it 
 was most dangerous to incur. The bishop of Singi- 
 dunum presented the gospel, which the chagan recei- 
 ved with devout reverence. *' I swear," said he, " by 
 the God who has spoken in this holy book, that I have 
 neither falsehood on my tongue, nor treachery in my 
 heart." As soon as he rose from his knees, he accel- 
 erated the labour of the bridge, and despatched an en- 
 voy to proclaim what he no longer wished to conceal. 
 "Inform the emperor," said the perfidious Baian, 
 "that Sirmium is invested on every side. Advise his 
 prudence to withdraw the citizens and their eflfects, 
 
 X Theophylaci, 1. i. c. 5, 6. 
 
 b Even in the field, the chagan delighted in the use of these anv 
 matics. He solicited, as a gift, ivJ'Kaj Kj»ft-x<»j, and received Ttfrftft 
 xai ^u\x.ov i*^<uv. %»Ti»v Ti «»» TOf Ktyofiivnv xofoc. Theophylaci, I 
 vii. c. 13. The Europeans of the ruder aces consumed more spices 
 in their meat and drink, than is compatible with the delicacy of a 
 modern palate. Vie Privee des Francois, torn. ii. p. 162, 1G3. 
 
 c Theophylaci, I. vi. c. 6. 1. vii. c. 15. The Greek historian con- 
 fesses the truth and justice of his reproach. 
 
 d Menander, (inExcerpl. Legal, p. 126—132. 174, 175.) describes the 
 perjury of Baian and the surrender of Sirmium. We have lost his 
 account of the siege, which is commended by Theophylact, 1. i. c. 3.. 
 
 and to resign a city which it is now impossible to re- 
 lieve or defend." Without the hope of relief, the de- 
 fence o( Sirmium was prolonged above three years : 
 the walls were still untouched ; but famine was enclo- 
 sed within the walls, till a merciful capitulation allow- 
 ed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. 
 Singidunum, at the distance of fifty miles, experienced 
 a more cruel fate: the buildings were razed, and the 
 vanquished people were condemned to servitude and 
 exile. Yet the ruins of Sirmium are no longer visi- 
 ble; the advantageous situation of Singidunum soon 
 attracted a new colony of Sclavonians, and the conflux 
 of the Save and Danube is still guarded by the fortifi- 
 cations of Belgrade, or the White City, so often and 
 so obstinately disputed by the christian and Turkish 
 arms.* From Belgrade to the walls of Constantinople 
 a line may be measured of six hundred miles: that 
 line was marked with flames and with blood ; the 
 horses o^ the Avars were alternately bathed in the 
 Kuxine and the Adriatic; and the Roman pontiflT, 
 alarmed by the approach of a more savage enemy,^ 
 uas reduced to cherish the Lombards as the protec- 
 tors of Italy. The despair of a captive, whom his 
 country refused to ransom, disclosed to the Avars the 
 invention and practice of military engines,^ but in the 
 first attempts, they were rudely framed and awkward- 
 ly managed ; and the resistance of Dioclelianopolis 
 and Bera?a, of Philippopolis and Adrianople, soon ex- 
 hausted the skill and patience of the besiegers. The 
 warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar, yet his mind 
 was susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment: 
 he spared Anchialus, whose salutary waters had re- 
 stored the health of the best beloved of his wives; 
 and the Romans confess, that their starving army was 
 fed and dismissed by the liberality of a foe° His em- 
 pire extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, 
 from the mouth (.f the Danube to that of the Oder ; »• 
 and his new subjects were divided and transplanted 
 by the jealous policy of the conqueror.' The eastern 
 regions of Germany, which had been left vacant by 
 the emigration of the Vandals, were replenished with 
 Sclavonian colonists; the same tribes are discovered 
 in the neiirhhourhood of the Adriatic and of the Baltic, 
 and with the name of Baian himself, the Illyrian cities 
 of Neyss and Lissa are again found in the heart of 
 Silesia. In the disposition both of his troops and 
 provinces, the chagan exposed the vassals, whose lives 
 he disregarded,^ to the first assault; and the swords of 
 the enemy were blunted before they encountered the 
 native valour of the Avars. 
 
 Wars of Maurice The Persian alliance restored the 
 T'lT 595-S2^' ^"^^^V^ ^^ i^^e east to the defence of Eu- 
 rope; and Maurice, who had supported 
 for ten years the insolence of the chagrin, declared 
 his resolution to march in person against the barba- 
 rians. In the space of two centuries, none of the 
 successors of Theodosius had appeared in the field, 
 
 f See D Anvi Ip in the IMemoires de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. 
 nviii. p. 41-2 — 143. The Sclavonic name »»f BeUmile is mentioned 
 H): ic tenth century by Consiantine Porphyroieuitus ; the Latin ap- 
 ppllatinn of Alhn Gractt is used by tiie Franks in the becinnin" of 
 wf ninth, (p. 41-1.) '^ ° 
 
 f nan.n: Annal. Kccles. A. D. 600. No. I. Paul Warnefrid (I iv c 
 3> ) relates llieir irnipti<.n ini<» Friuli, an«l (c. 39.) the captivity of iiis 
 aii.e5t..rs. abciii A. I). 632. The Sclavi tniversed the Hadriatic cun- 
 iiiiiliitiidine navium, and made a descent in the territory of Sipontum. 
 (c. A7.y 
 
 f Kvpn the lielepolis, or movable turret. Theophylact, 1. Ii. 16 17 
 
 1' The arms and alliances of the cliajran reached to the nei^hbmir- 
 |iiK>.I of a western sea, fifteen mnmlis' j.urney from Ccuistantinople 
 J he emperor IMaurice conversetl with s^cine itinerant harpers from 
 lli.il rpiiiijle country, and only seems to have mistaken a trade for a 
 iiaU..ii. J heophylact, I. vi. c. 2. 
 
 i This i.s one of the mcst probable and luminous conjectures of the 
 
 l/piriLMl loimt ile Miiat. (Hist, des Peuples Barbares, tom. .\i. p. 546- 
 
 •'•'\) I he rzechi ami Serbi are found toirether near mount Caucasus. 
 
 II lllyricuiM, and on the f.ower Kibe. Even the wildest traditions of 
 
 I'll' I{..|i»im.iii«<, A:r. atf.ird some ddour to his hypothesis 
 
 k See Kredej.trius, in ihe Historians of France, tom. ii. p. 432. Baian 
 •ii.t not conro.il Ins pmiid insensibility. 'OmeiouTov; (nut tco-outov- 
 «'c.ifdin? to a f«Hdisli ememlation) iw»^i,r» t^i 'Pi^.^a.K^, ,ij ,i kxI 
 
 their lives were supinely spent in the palace of Con- 
 stantinople ; and the Greeks could no longer undet- 
 stand, that the name o{ emperor, in its primitive sense, 
 denoted the chief of the armies of the republic. The 
 martial ardour of Maurice was opposed by the grave 
 flattery of the senate, the timid superstition of the pa- 
 triarch, and the tears of the empress Constantina; and 
 they all conjured him to devolve on some meaner gea« 
 eral the fatigues and perils of a Scythian campaign. 
 Deaf to their advice and entreaty, the emperor boldly 
 advanced » seven miles from the capital ; the sacred 
 ensign of the cross was displayed in the front, and 
 Maurice reviewed, with conscious pride, the arms and 
 numbers of the veterans who had fought and conquer- 
 ed beyond the Tigris. Anchialus sawMhe last term of 
 his })rogress by sea and land ; he solicited, without 
 success, a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers; 
 his mind was confounded by the death of a favourite 
 horse, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind 
 and rain, and the birth of a monstrous child ; and he 
 forgot that the best of omens is to unsheathe our sword 
 in the defence of our country.*" Under the pretence 
 of receiving the ambassadors of Persia, the emperor 
 returned to Constantinople, exchanged the thoughts of 
 war for those of devotion, and disappointed the'public 
 hope, by his absence and the choice of bis lieutenants. 
 The blind partiality of fraternal love might excuse the 
 promotion of his brother Peter, who. fled with equal 
 disgrace from the barbarians, from his own soldiers, 
 and from the inhabitants of a Koman city. That city, 
 if we may credit the resemblance of name and charac- 
 ter, was the famous Azimuntium," which had alone 
 repelled the tempest of Attila. The example of her 
 \yarlike youth was propagated to succeeding genera- 
 tions; and they obtained, from the first or the "second 
 Justin, an honourable privilege, that their valour 
 should be always reserved for the defence of their na- 
 tive country. The brother of Maurice attempted to 
 violate this privilege, and to mingle a patriot band 
 with the mercenaries of his camp ; they retired to the 
 church, he was not awed by the sanctity of the place ; 
 the people rose in their cause, the gates were shut, the 
 ramparts were manned ; and the cowardice of Peter 
 was found equal to his arrogance and injustice. The 
 military fame of Commenlioius" is the object of satire 
 or comedy rather than of serious history, since he was 
 even deficient in the vile and vulgar qii^l'fication of 
 personal courage. His solemn councils, strange evo- 
 lutions, and secret orders, always supplied an apolocry 
 for flight or delay. If he marched against the enemy, 
 the pleasant valleys of IMouiit Ha^mus opposed an 
 insuperable barrier; in his retreat, he explored, with 
 fearless curiosity, the most difficult and obsolete 
 paths, w^hich had almost escaped the memory of the 
 oldest native. The only blood which he lost was 
 drawn, in a real or affected malady, by the lancet of a 
 surgeon ; and his health, which felt with exquisite 
 sensibility the approach of the barbarians, was uni- 
 formly restored by the repose and safety of the winter 
 season. A prince who could promote and support this, 
 unworthy favourite must derive no glory from the acci- 
 dental merit of his colleague Priscus> In five suc- 
 cessive battles, which seem to have been conducted 
 with skill and resolution, seventeen thousand tw^o hun- 
 dred barbarians were made prisoners : near sixty thou- 
 
 ' -ee [he march and return of Maurice, in Theophylact, 1. v. c. IG. 
 
 \:1\' I •■ ' 7 "® ^'.^'■^ * ^^■'''^^'" "<" '»s^^ f"" genius, we mishl sus- 
 
 pect hitn of an elegant irony : but Theophylact is surely hannless. 
 ni E.f o.xvoj «f .,-Oi »f^vvt(ixi :Tffi a-«Tf,f. Hjad, .vii. 243. 
 
 This noble verse, which unites the spirit of an hero with the reason 
 of a sage, may prove that Homer was in every light superior to his a'-e 
 ami country. ^ = 
 
 n Theophylact, 1. vii. c. 3. On the evidence of this fact, which 
 had not occurred to my memory, the candid reader will correct and 
 excuse a note in this history, (vol. i. p. 463.) which hastens the decay 
 01 Asimus, or Azimuntium : another century of patriotism and valour 
 IS cheaply purchased with sucli a confession. 
 
 o See the shameful conduct of Connnentiolus, in Theoohvlact 1 W 
 c. 10—15. 1. vii. c. 13, lA. 1. viii. c. 2. 4. ^''^'wti, i. \u 
 
 p See the ejtploii* of Priscus, J. viii. c. 2, 3. 
 
116 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 il 1 
 
 ,iN 
 
 u 
 
 
 €and, with four sons of the chagan, were slain: the 
 Roman general surprised a peaceful district of the 
 Gepidae, who slept under the protection of the Avars ; 
 and hia last trophies were erected on the banks of the 
 Danube and the Teyss. Since the death of Trajan, the 
 arms of the empire had not penetrated so deeply into 
 the old Dacia : yet the success of Priscus was transient 
 and barren • and he was soon recalled, by the appre- 
 hension, that Baian, with dauntless spirit and recrui- 
 ted forces, was preparing to avenge his defeat under 
 the walls of Constantinople.*! 
 
 State of the Ro- The theory of war was not more fa- 
 man armies ; miliar to the camps of Caesar and Tra- 
 jan, than to those of Justinian and Maurice.' The 
 iron of Tuscany or Pontus still received the keenest 
 temper from the skill of the Byzantine workmen. The 
 magazines were plentifully stored with every species of 
 offensive and defensive arms. In the construction and 
 use of ships, engines, and fortifications, the barbarians 
 admired the superior ingenuity of a people whom they 
 so often vanquished in the field. The science of tac- 
 tics, the order, evolutions, and stratagems of antiqui- 
 ty, was transcribed, and studied in the books of the 
 Greeks and Romans. But the solitude or degeneracy 
 of the provinces could no longer supply a race of men 
 to handle those weapons, to guard those walls, to na- 
 viorate those ships, and to reduce the theory of war in- 
 toT)old and successful practice. The genius of Beli- 
 sarius and Narses had been formed without a master, 
 and expired without a disciple. Neither honour, nor 
 patriotism, nor generous superstition, could animate 
 the lifeless bodies of slaves and strangers, who had 
 succeeded to the honours of the legions ; it was in 
 the camp alone that the emperor should have ex- 
 ercised a despotic command ; it was only in the 
 camp that his authority, was disobeyed and insul- 
 ted : he appeased and inflamed with gold the licen- 
 tiousness of the troops ; but their vices were inherent, 
 their victories were accidental, and their costly main- 
 tenance exhausted the substance of a state which they 
 were unable to defend. After a long and pernicious 
 indulgence, the cure of this inveterate evil was under- 
 taken by Maurice ; but the rash attempt, which drew 
 destruction on his own head, tended only to aggravate 
 the disease. A reformer should be exempt from the 
 suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confi- 
 dence and esteem of those whom he proposes to re- 
 claim. The troops of Maurice might listen to the 
 voice of a victorious leader ; they disdained the admo- 
 nitions of statesmen and sophists, and when they re- 
 
 ,. ceived an edict which deducted from 
 
 their discontent, ^^^.^ ^^^ ^j^^ ^^j^^ ^^ ^j^^j^ ^^^^ ^^ j 
 
 clothinn", they execrated the avarice of a prince insen- 
 sible of the dangers and fatigues from which he had 
 escaped. The camps both of Asia and Europe were 
 agitated with frequent and furious seditions ; • the en- 
 raged soldiers of Edessa pursued, with reproaches, 
 with threats, with wounds, their trembling generals ; 
 they overturned the statues of the emperor, cast stones 
 against the miraculous image of Christ, and either re- 
 jected the yoke of all civil and military laws, or insti- 
 tuted a dangerous model of voluntary subordination. 
 The monarch, always distant and often deceived, was 
 incapable of yielding or persisting, according to the ex- 
 igence of the moment. But the fear of a general re- 
 volt induced him too readily to accept any act of valour, 
 or any expression of loyalty, as an atonement for the 
 
 q The general detail of the war against the Avars, may be traced 
 in the first, second, sixth, seventh, and eii^hth books of the history 
 of the emperor Maurice, by Thet)phylact Simocaita. As he wrote in 
 the reign of Heraclius, he had no temptation to flatter ; but his want 
 of judgment renders him dilTuse in triiles, and concise in the most in- 
 teresting facts. 
 
 T Maurice himself composed twelve bookson the military art, which 
 are still extant, and have been published (Upsal, 1664.) by John Schef- 
 fer at the end of the Tactics of Arian, (Fabricius, Bibliot, Grseca, I. 
 iv. c, 8. torn. iii. p. 278.) who pr»>mi8efl to speak more fully of his work 
 in its proper place. 
 
 ■ See the mutinies under the reign of Maurice, in Theophylact, 1. 
 iii. c. 1—4. 1. vi. c. 7, 8. 10. 1. vii. c. 1. 1. viii. c. 6, itc. 
 
 popular offence; the new reform was abolished as 
 hastily as it had been announced, and the troops, in- 
 stead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably sur- 
 prised by a gracious proclamation of immunities and 
 rewards. But the soldiers accepted without gratitude 
 the lardy and reluctant gifts of the emperor; their in- 
 solence was elated by the discovery of his weakness 
 and their own strength; and their mutual hatred was 
 inflamed beyond the desire of forgiveness or the hope 
 of reconciliation. The historians of the times adopt 
 the vulgar suspicion, that Maurice conspired to des- 
 troy the troops whom he had laboured to reform ; the 
 misconduct and favour of Commentiolus are imputed 
 to this malevolent design ; and every age must con- 
 demn the inhumanity or avarice* of a prince, who, by 
 the trifling ransom of six thousand pieces of gold, 
 might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand 
 prisoners in the hands of the chagan. ^^ rebellion. 
 In the Just fervour of indignation, an or- 
 der was signified to the army of the Danube, that they 
 should spare the magazines of the province, and 
 establish their winter quarters in the hostile country 
 of the Avars. The measure of their grievances was 
 full : they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, ex- 
 pelled or slaughtered his faithful adherents, and under 
 the command of Phocas, a simple centurion, returned 
 by hasty marches to the neighbourhood of Constanti- 
 nople. After a long series of legal sue ^^^^^.^^ ^^^^^ 
 cession, the military disorders ot the cas, 
 
 third century were agrain revived; yet A. l).602. 
 such was the novelty of the enterprise, October, 
 that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. 
 They hesitated to invest their favourite with the va- 
 cant purple ; and while they rejected all treaty with 
 Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence 
 with his son Theodosius, and with Germanus the fa- 
 ther-in-law of the royal youth. So obscure had been 
 the former condition of Phocas, that the emperor was 
 ignorant of the name and character of his rival : but 
 as soon as he learned that the centurion, though bold 
 in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, *' Alas !" 
 cried the desponding prince, " if he is a coward, he 
 will surel be a murderer." 
 
 Yet if Constantinople had been firm Revolt of Con- 
 and faithful, the murderer might have stantinople. 
 spent his fury against the walls ; and the rebel army 
 would have been gradually consumed or reconciled by 
 the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the 
 circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Mau- 
 rice disguised, with smiles of confidence, the anxiety 
 of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of 
 the factions, and flattered their pride by accepting from 
 their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues 
 and fifteen hundred greens, y^hom he affected to rsteem 
 as the solid pillars of his throne. Their treacherous 
 or languid support betrayed his weakness and hastened 
 his fdli : the green faction were the secret accomplices 
 of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenity and 
 moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren. 
 The rigid and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had 
 long since alienated the hearts of his subjects : as he 
 walked barefoot in a religious procession, he was 
 rudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were 
 compelled to present their iron maces in the defence 
 of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets 
 with a drawn sword, denouncing against him the 
 wrath and the sentence of God, and a vile plebeian, 
 who represented his countenance and apparel, was 
 seated on an ass, and pursued by the imprecations of 
 the multitude." The emperor suspected the popularity 
 
 t TheophvlactandTheophanes seem ignorantof theconspiracyanc 
 avarice of Maurice. These charses, so unfavourable to the niPinory 
 of that einpenr, are first mentioned by the author of the Pascha' 
 Chronicle, (p. 379, 3S!).) from whence Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xiv. p. 77, 
 78.) ha« trAn8cribf?d them. Cedrenus (p. 399.) lias followed another 
 computation of the ransom. 
 
 u In their clamours arrainsl Maurice, the peoplp of Constantinople 
 branded him with the name of Marcionite or Marcionisl. a here*/ 
 (says Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 9.) m'^* T*»0t /*«(«» tvK»fin»(, i«ifi< 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 117 
 
 of Germanus with the soldiers and citizens ; he feared, 
 he threatened, but he delayed to strike; the patrician 
 fled to the sanctuary of the church; the people rose 
 in his defence, the walls were deserted by the guards 
 and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and 
 rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small hark, the 
 unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, 
 escaped to the Asiatic shore, but the violence of the 
 wind compelled him to land at the church of St. Au- 
 tonomus* near Chalcedon, from whence he despatched 
 Theodosius, his eldest son, to implore the gratitude 
 and friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself, 
 he refused to fly : his body was tortured with sciatic 
 pains, ^ his mind was enfeebled by superstition; he 
 patiently awaited the event of the revolution, and 
 addres.scd a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, 
 that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in 
 this world rather than in a future life. After the 
 abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the 
 choice of an emperor; but the favourile of the bines 
 was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and 
 Germanus himself was hurried along by ihe crowds, 
 who rushed to the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles 
 from the city, to adore the majesty of Phocas the 
 centurion. A modest wish of resigning the purple to 
 the raiik and merit of Gerrnanus was opposed by his 
 resolution, more obstinate and equally sincere : the 
 senate and clergy obeyed his summons, and as soon 
 as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he 
 consecrated the successful usurper in the church of 
 St. John the Baptist. On the third day, amidst the 
 acclamations of a thoughtless people, Phocas made 
 his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white 
 horses : the revolt of the troops was rewarded by a 
 lavish donative, and the new sovereign, after visting 
 the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the 
 hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the 
 two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favour 
 of the greens. " Remember that Maurice is still alive," 
 resounded from the opposite side; and the indiscreet 
 clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the 
 cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death were 
 despatched to Chalcedon : they dragged the emperor 
 from his sanctuary : and the five sons of Maurice were 
 successively murdered before the eyes of their agoni- 
 zing parent. At each stroke, which he felt in his 
 
 Death of Mau- ^^^^^' ^® ^"^""^ strencfth to rehearse a 
 rice and his chii. P'ous ejaculation: "Thou art just, O 
 dren, Lord ! and thy judgments are righteous." 
 
 And such, in the last moments, was his 
 rigid attachment to truth and justice, 
 that he revealed to the soldiers the pious falsehood of 
 a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a 
 royal infant.' The tragic scene was finally closed by 
 the execution of the emperor himself, in the twentieth 
 year of his reign, and the sixty- third of his age. The 
 bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into 
 the sea, their heads were exposed at Constantinople 
 to the insults or pity of the multitude, and it was not 
 till some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that 
 Phocas connived at the private burial of these vener- 
 able remains. In that grave, the faults and errors of 
 
 A. D. 602. 
 Nov. 27. 
 
 Ti Kxt x»T»ytKx.'9f. Did they only cast outavague reproach — or had 
 the emperor really listened to some obscure teacher of those ancient 
 Onofitics ? 
 
 X The church of St. Autonomus (whom T have not the honour to 
 Know) was 150 stadia from Couslaniinople. (Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 
 ^•) The port of Eutropius, whore Maurice and his children were mur- 
 dered, is described by Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, 1. iii. c. xi.) as 
 one of the two harbours of Chalcedon. 
 
 y The inhabitants of Constantinople wore generally subject to the 
 *:»■:. xeSenrthi:; and Theophylact insinuates, (i. viii. c. 9) that if 
 It wpre consistent with the rules of history, he could assign the 
 niedical cause. Yet such a digression would not have been more im- 
 pertinent than his inquiry (I. vii. c. 16, 17.) into the annual inunda- 
 lions of the Nile, and all the opinions of the Greek philosophers on 
 that subject. 
 
 X From this generous attempt, Corneille has deduced the intricate 
 web (if his tragedy of Heraclius, which requires more than one repre- 
 •^tation to be clearly und^retoo*!, (Corneille de Voltaire, torn. v. p. 
 *0.) jtnd which, after an interval of some years, is said to have puz- 
 zled ihe author himself. (Anecdotes Dramaiiqucs, torn. i. p. 422.> 
 
 Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was 
 remembered ; and at the end of twenty years, in the 
 recital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful 
 tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience.* 
 
 Such tears must have flowed in secret, 
 and such compassion would have been ^^aTSS^"*'* 
 criminal, under the reign of Phocas, n'ov.23-^ 
 who was peaceably acknowledged in the ^ ^: ^*^- 
 provinces of the east and west. The ""^^^'''c^^. 
 images of the emperor and his wife Leontia were 
 exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy 
 and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the 
 palace of the Caisars, between those of Constantine 
 and Theodosius. As a subject and a christian, it was 
 the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established 
 government, but the joyful applause with which he 
 salutes the fortune of tKe assassin, has sullied, with 
 indelible disgrace, the character of the saint. The 
 successor of the apostles might have inculcated with 
 decent firmness the guilt ofblood, and the necessity 
 of repentance : he is content to celebrate the deliver- 
 ance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to 
 rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have 
 been raised by Providence to the imperial throne ; to 
 pray that his hands may be strengthened against all 
 his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a pro- 
 phecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he 
 may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting 
 kingdom.'' I have already traced the steps of a revolu- 
 tion so pleasing, in Gregory's opinion, both to heaven 
 and earth; and Phocas does not appear less hateful in 
 the exercise than in the acquisition of power. The 
 pencil of an impartial historian has de- „. 
 lineated the portrait of a monster ;Miis character, 
 
 diminutive and deformed person, the closeness of his 
 shaggy eye-brows, his red hair, his beardless chin, 
 and his cheek disfigured and discoloured by a formi- 
 dable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of 
 arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample 
 privilege of lust and drunkenness, and his brutal plea- 
 sures were either injurious to his subjects or disgrace- 
 ful to himself. Without assuming the office of a 
 prince, he renounced the profession of a soldier; and 
 the reign of Phocas afflicted Europe with ignominious 
 peace, and Asia with desolating war. His savage 
 temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear» 
 exasperated by resistance or reproach. The flight of 
 Theodosius to the Persian court had been intercepted 
 by a rapid pursuit, or a deceitful message : he was be- 
 headed at Nice, and the last hours of the young prince 
 were soothed by the comforts of religion and the con- 
 sciousness of innocence. Yet his phantom disturbed 
 the repose of the usurper : a whisper was circulated 
 through the east, that the son of Maurice was still alive: 
 the people expected their avenger, and the widow and 
 daughters of the late emperor would have adopted as 
 their son and brother the vilest of mankind. In the 
 massacre of the imperial family,** the mercy, or rather 
 the discretion, of Phocas had spared these unhappy 
 females, and they were decently confined to a private 
 house. But the spirit of the empress Constanlina, 
 
 » The revolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told by Theophy- 
 lact Simocatta, (1. viii. c. 7—12.) the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 379, 380.) 
 Theophanes, (Chronograph, p. 238—244.) Zonaras, (torn. ii. 1. xiv. p. 
 77—80.) and Cedrenus, (p. 399-404.) 
 
 b Gregor. 1. xi. epist. 38. indict, vi. Benignitatem vestrae pietaiis 
 ad imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus. Laetentur coeli et exul- 
 tet terra, et de vestris beni^nis aciibus universae reipublicae populus 
 nunc usque vehementer afflictus hilarescal, &c. This base flattery, 
 the topic of protestant invective, is justly censured by the philosopher 
 Bayle. (Dictionnaire Critique Gregoire I. Not. H.tom. ii. p. 597, 598.) 
 Cardinal Baronius justifies the pope at the expense of the fallen em- 
 peror. 
 
 c The images of Phocas were destroyed ; but even the malice of 
 his enemies would suffer one copy of such a portrait or caricature 
 (Cedrenus, p. 404.) to escape the flames. 
 
 d The family of Maurice is represented by Ducange: (Familae By- 
 zantinae, p. 106—108.) his eldest son Theodosius had been crowned 
 
 daugl. , 
 
 find the pa^au name «f Cleo^ira.^ 
 
118 
 
 THE DECLINK AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 119 
 
 I- 
 
 
 m 
 
 ■m 
 
 J i! 
 
 i>*\: 
 
 still mindful of her father, her husband, and her sons, 
 aspired to freedom and revenire. At the dead of night, 
 she escaped to the sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her 
 tears, and the gold of her associate Germanus, were 
 insuriicient to provoke an insurrection. Her life was 
 forfeited to revenire, and even to justice ; but the patri- 
 arch obtained and pledfred an oath for her safety: a 
 monastery was allotted for her prison, and the widow of 
 Maurice accepted and abused the lenity of his assassin. 
 The discovery or the suspicion of a second conspiracy, 
 dissolved the ennranrements and rekindled the fury of 
 Phocas. A matron who commanded the respect and 
 pity of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of 
 emperors, was tortured like the vilest malel\\ctor, to 
 force a confession of her designs and associates ; and 
 the empress Constantina, with her three 
 and tyranny. j^nocent daughters, was beheaded at 
 Chalcedon, on the same ground which had been stain- 
 ed with the blood of her husband and five sons. 
 After such an example, it would be superfluous to 
 enumerate the names and sufferings of meane; victims. 
 Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the 
 forms of trial, and tlieir punishment was imbiltered 
 by the refinements of cruelty : their eyes were pierced, 
 their tongues were torn from the root, their hands and 
 feet were amputated ; some expired under the lash, 
 others in the flames, others again were transfixed 
 with arrows; and a simple speedy death was mercy 
 which they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, 
 the sacred asylum of the pleasures and the liberty of 
 the Romans, was polluted with heads and limbs, and 
 mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were 
 the most sensible, that neither his favour, nor their 
 services, could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy 
 rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age 
 
 of the empire.* 
 
 „. ^ „ , A daujrhter of Phocas, his only child, 
 
 His fall ana . "= . ! .1 . : : „ 
 
 ileaih, was given in marriage to the patrician 
 
 A.I>. 610. Crispus,' and the royw/ images of the 
 Ociober4. ^^-^^^^ ^^^^^ bridegroom Were indiscreetly 
 
 placed in the circus, by the side of the emperor. The 
 father must desire that his posterity should inherit the 
 fruit of his crimes, but the monarch was offeiided by 
 this premature and popular association : the tribunes 
 of the green faction, who accused the oflficious error 
 of their sculptors, were condemned to instant death ; 
 their lives were jrranted to the prayers of the people ; 
 but Crispus might reasonably doubt, whether a jealous 
 usurper could forget and pardon his involuntary com- 
 petition. The green faction was alienated by the in- 
 gratitude of Phocas and the loss of their privileges; 
 every province of the empire was ripe for rebellion; 
 and Heraclius, exarch of Africa, persisted above two 
 years in refusing all tribute and obedience to the cen- 
 turion who disgraced the throne of Conslaniinople. 
 By the secret emissaries of Crispus and the senate, the 
 independent exarch was solicited to save and to govern 
 bis country : but his ambition was ciiilled by age, and 
 be resigntMl the dangerous enterprise to his son Hera- 
 clius, and to Nicetas, the son of Gregory, his- friend 
 and lieutenant. The powers of Africa were armed by 
 the two adventurous youths ; they agreed that the one 
 should navigate the fleet from Carthage to Constanti- 
 nople, that the other should lead an army through 
 Egypt and Asia, and that the imperial purj)le should 
 be the reward of diligence and success. A faint ru- 
 mour of their undertaking was conveyed to the ears of 
 Phocas, and the wife and mother of the younger Hera- 
 clius were secured as the hostages of liis faith ; but 
 
 c Some of the crneUies of Piuvaa are markr<l by Theophylact, 1. 
 \ii5. c. 13, 14, 15. Geor?eof Pisiilia, llie poet of Heraclius, sly 1p.s him 
 iRell. Avaricuii), p. 46. Koine, 1777.) •< »f« ivgxwthiQ i Juo-«*3»xtoc «:<» 
 torjcfi, SgxKuv The laiierepiihetisjust— but the corrupter of life 
 yioa easiiy van«|nislieil. 
 
 f III itiB wriiers, ami in iho copies of those writers, there is such 
 hesitation between the names of Pr/scMS ami CV/sp»s, (Ducange, Fauj. 
 Bvzant. p. HI.) that I have been templed lo identify the son-in-law 
 01 Fhocas with the hero five timea victuriuus over th» Avars. 
 
 the treacherous art of Crispus extenuated the distant 
 peril, the means of defence were neglected or delayed, 
 and the tyrant supinely slept till the African navy cast 
 anchor in the Hellespont. Their standard was joined 
 at Abydus by the fugitives and exiles who thirsted for 
 revenge; the ships of Heraclius, whose lofty masts 
 were adorned with the holy symbols of religion,* 
 steered their triumphant course th.»-ough the Propontis; 
 and Phocas beheld from the windows of the palace 
 his approaching and inevitable fate. The green faction 
 was tempted, by gifts and promises, to oppose a feeble 
 and fruitless resistance to the landing of the Africans; 
 but the people, and even the guards, were determined 
 by the well-timed defection of Crispus; and the tyr&nt 
 was seized by a private enemy, who boldly invaded 
 the solitude of the palace. Stripped of the diadem 
 and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and loaded with 
 chains, he was transported in a small boat to the im- 
 perial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with 
 the crimes of his abominable reign. "Wilt thou 
 govern belter T' were the last words of the despair of 
 Phocas. After suflTering each variety of insult and 
 torture, his head was severed from his body, the 
 mangled trunk was cast into the flames, and the same 
 treatment was inflicted on the statues of the vain 
 usurper, and the seditious banner of the green faction. 
 The voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people, 
 invited Heraclius to ascend the throne which he had 
 purified from guilt and ignominy ; after some graceful 
 hesitation, he yielded to their entreaties. .^ 
 His coronation was accompanied by that ,'i^J]^"^^, D. Clo! 
 of his wife Eudoxia; and their posterity, Oct. 5 — 
 till the fourth generation, continued to "^'eb' n' 
 reign over the empire of the east. The 
 voyage of Heraclius had been easy and prosperous, 
 the tedious march of Nicetas was not accomplished 
 before the decision of the contest: but he submitted 
 without a murmur lo the fortune of his friend, and his 
 laudable intentions were rewarded with an equestrian 
 statue, and a daughter of the emperor. It was more 
 difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus, whose recent 
 services were recompensed by the command of the 
 Cappadocian army. His arrogance soon provoked, 
 and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sove 
 reign. In the presence of the senate, the son-in-law 
 of Phocas was condemned to embrace the monastic 
 life; and the sentence was justified by the weighty 
 observation of Heraclius, that the man wh'o had be- 
 trayed his father, could never be faithful lo his friend.* 
 Even after his death, ihe republic ^yas ^.,,^^^^,^3 j,^^.^,,^, 
 aflflicted by the crimes of Phocas, which the Roman em 
 armed with a pious cause the most for- P'[^' . .„„ , 
 midable of her enemies. According to 
 the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and 
 Persian courts, he announced his exaltation lo the 
 throne ; and his an^bassador Li I i us, who had presented 
 him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the 
 best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tra- 
 gic scene.' However it might be varnished by fiction 
 or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the 
 assassin, imprisoned tiie pretended envoy, disclaimed 
 the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his 
 father and benefactor. The sentiments of yfrief and 
 resentment which humanity would feel, and honour 
 
 ^ ArconUns: lo Theophanes, x«£ar«:« and uxsw* ?fo«^Tipoc. Ce- 
 drenus adil.s an xx'»?9rTo«iiTov imsv* rco x-ufiuv, which Heraclius borfl 
 as a banner in the first Persian expedition. See GtH)rc;e Pisitl. Acroas 
 1. 1 10. Tlie inaniiraciiire seems to have floiirislied ; but Koqgini, the 
 Koman editor, (p. 26.) is at a loss to determine whethef thispicturs 
 was an orisrinal or a copy. 
 
 »i See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in 
 Chron. Paschal. p.3b0— 3.S.3. Theophanes, p. 2 1*2— 250. Nicephorus, 
 p. 3—7. Cedrenus, p. 404—107. Zonaras, torn. ii. 1. .\iv. p. 80—82. 
 
 i Theophylacl, 1. viii. c. 15. The life of iManrico was composed 
 about the year 62.S, (I. viii. c. 13.) by Theophylact Siniocalia, ex-pra- 
 fecl. a native of Kgypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract of the 
 work, (cikI. Ixv. p. SI — 10t».) gently reproves the affeciation and alle- 
 gory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy and 
 His'.ory-, they seal themselves under a plane-tree, ami iho latter 
 luuohas her lyre. 
 
 which assumed the language of freedom, they pre- nate resistance and a more plentiful harvest. The 
 
 pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every 
 age with a royal city: her obscure felicity has hitherto 
 escaped the historian of the Roman empire : but Chos- 
 roes reposed his troops in the paradise of Damascus 
 before he ascended the hills of Libanus, or invaded the 
 cities of the Phoenician coast. The con- of Palestine, 
 quest of Jerusalem," which had been A. D. 614. ' 
 meditated by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and 
 avarice of his grandson ; the ruin of the proudest mon- 
 ument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the 
 intolerant spirit of the Magi ; and he could enlist, for 
 this holy warfare, an army of six and twenty thousand 
 Jews, whose furious bigotry might compensate, ia 
 some degree, for the want of valour and discipline. 
 After the reduction of Galilee, and the region beyond 
 the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have delayed 
 the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by 
 assault. The sepulchre of Christ, and the stately 
 churches of Helena and Constanline, were consumed, 
 or at least damaged, by the flames ; the devout oflfer- 
 ings of three hundred years were rifled in one sacri- 
 legious day; the patriarch Zachariah, and the true 
 crosSf were transported into Persia ; and the massacre 
 of ninety thousand christians is imputed to the Jews 
 and Arabs, who swelled the disorder of the Persian 
 march. The fugitives of Palestine w^ere entertained 
 at Alexandria by the charity of John the archbishop, 
 who is distinguished among a crowd of saints by the 
 epithet of almsgtver :^ and the revenues of the church, 
 with a treasure of three hundred thousand pounds, 
 were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every 
 country and every denomination. But Egypt itself, 
 the only province which had been exempt, since the 
 time of Diocletian, from foreign and do- of Egypt, .* 
 mestic war, was again subdued by the A. D. 616. ^ 
 successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key of that im- 
 pervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the 
 Persians : they passed, with impunity, the innumera- 
 ble channels of the Delta, and explored the long val- 
 ley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis to the 
 confines of iEthiopia. Alexandria might have been 
 relieved by a naval force, but the archbishop and the 
 praefect embarked for Cyprus ; and Chosroes entered 
 the second city of the empire, which still preserved 
 a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His 
 western trophy was erected, not on the walls of Car- 
 thage,*' hut in the neighbourhood of Tripoli : the Greek 
 colonies of Cyrene w^ere finally extirpated ; and the 
 conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, re- 
 turned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan 
 desert. In the first campaign, another of Asia Minor, 
 army advanced from the Euphrates to A. D. 616, &c. 
 the Thracian Bosphorus ; Chalcedon surrendered after 
 a long siege, and a Persian camp was maintained 
 above ten years in the presence of Constantinople. 
 The sea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra, the isle 
 of Rhodes, are enumerated among the last conquests 
 of the great king; and if Chosroes had possessed any 
 maritime power, his boundless ambition would have 
 spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of 
 Europe. < 
 
 sunied to censure the excess of his gratitude and 
 friendship for the Greeks ; a nation with whom it was 
 dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance; whose 
 supt r-stiiion was devoid of truth and justice, and who 
 must be incapable of any virtue, since they could 
 perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious 
 murder of thrir sovereign.^ For the crime of an am- 
 bitious centurion, the nation which he oppressed was 
 chastised with the calamities of war: and the same 
 calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated 
 and redoubled on the heads of the Persians.^ The 
 general who had restored Chosroes to the throne still 
 commanded in the east; and the name of Narses was 
 the ft^rmidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers 
 were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not im- 
 probable, that a native subject of Persia should encou- 
 rage his master and his friend to deliver and possess 
 the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable, that 
 Chosroes should animate his troops by the assurance 
 that the sword which they dreaded the most would re- 
 main in its scabbard, or be drawn in their favour. The 
 hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant; and the 
 tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obe- 
 dience of a hero: Narses was removed from his mili- 
 tary command ; he reared an independent standard at 
 Hierapolis in Syria; he was betrayed by fallacious 
 promises, and burnt alive in the market-place of Con- 
 stantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they 
 eould fear or esteem, the bands which he had led to 
 victory were twice broken by the cavalry, trampled by 
 the ( lephants, and pierced by the arrows of the barba- 
 rians ; and a great number of the captives were be- 
 headed on the field of battle by the sentence of the 
 victor, who might justly condemn these seditions mer- 
 cenaries as the authors or accomplices of the death of 
 Maurice. Under the reign of Phocas, the fortifications 
 of Merdin, Dara, Arnida, and Edessa, were succes- 
 Hie cnnquest of sively besieged, reduced, and destroyed 
 Syria, by the Persian monarch : he passed the 
 
 • ■*• Euphrates, occupied the Syrian cities, 
 Hierapolis, Chalchis, and Berrhaea or Aleppo, and soon 
 encompassed the walls of Antioch with his irresistible 
 arms. The rapid tide of success discloses the decay 
 of the empire, the incapacity of Phocas, and the dis- 
 affection of his subjects; and Chosroes provided a de- 
 cent apology for their submission or revolt, by an im- 
 postor who attended his camp as the son of Maurice" 
 and the lawful heir of the monarchy. 
 
 The first intelligence from the east which Heraclius 
 received," was that of the loss of Antioch ; but the 
 aged metropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes, 
 and pillaged by the enemy, could supply but a small 
 and lancruid stream of treasure and blood. The Per- 
 
 o 
 
 k Chriplianis nee panctum esse, nee fidem nee foedus .... quod si 
 uUa illis fides fuisset,regpm suum nonoccidissent. Eulych. Annates, 
 jam. ii. p. 211, vers. Pocock. 
 
 1 We must now, for some ages, take our leave of contemporary his- 
 torians, and descend, if it be a descent, from the affectation of rheto- 
 tIc to the rude simplicity of chronicles and abridgments. Those of 
 TlK»ophanes, (Chrononraph. p. 244—279.) and Nicephorus, (p. 3—16.) 
 supply a rejfular, but imperfectjseriesof the Persian war; and for any 
 additional facts I quote my special authorities. Theophanes, a cour- 
 tier who became a monk, was born A. D. 748; Nicephorus, patriarch 
 of Constantinople, who died A. D. 829, was somewhat younger: they 
 both suffered in the cause of imacea. Hankius, de Scriptoribus By- 
 zaniinis, p. 200— 246. 
 
 m The Persian historians have been themselves deceived ; but The- 
 ophanes, (p. 244.^ accuses Chosroes of the fraud and falsehood ; and 
 Eulychius believes (.Annal. tom. ii. p. 211.) that the son of Maurice, 
 who was saved from the assassins, lived and died a monk on mount 
 Sinai. 
 
 ■ Eulychius dates all the losses of the empire under the reign of 
 Phocas, an error which saves the honourof H^ra'^lius, whomhe brings 
 not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden with vegetables 
 for the relief of Constantinople. (.Annal. tom. ii. p. 223, 224.) The 
 other christians of the east, Barhebraeus, (apud Asseman, Bibliothec. 
 Oriental, tom. iii. p. 412, 413.) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 13—16.) 
 Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 28. 99.) are more sincere and accurate. 
 The years of the Persian war are disposed ia the chronology of Pagi. 
 
 o On the conquest of Jerusalem an event so interesting to th* 
 church, see the Annals of Eutychius, (tom. ii. p. 212—223.) and the 
 lamentations of the monk Antiochus, (apud Baronium, Annal. Eccle«. 
 A. D. 614. No. 16—26.) whose one hundred and twenty-nine homilieg 
 are still extant, if what no one reads may be said to be exunt. 
 
 P The life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius, a contem- 
 porary bishop ; and I find in Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 610. No, 
 10, &c.) and Fleury, (tom. viii. p. 235-242.) sufficient extracts of thi« 
 edifying work. . , . 
 
 q The error of Baronius and many others who have carried the 
 arms of Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded on the 
 near resemblance of the Greek words )^xkx*.^^v* and K«ex.)?ov« in the 
 text of Theophanes, &c. which have sometimes been confounded bf 
 transcribers, and sometimes by critics. 
 
no 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VH. 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i<t 
 
 *•! 
 
 * 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 
 His reign and From the long-disputed banks of the 
 magnificence. Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the 
 grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the 
 Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Per- 
 sian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been 
 fashioned by the habits of six hundred years to the 
 virtues and vices of the Roman government, suppor- 
 ted with reluctance the yoke of the barbarians. The 
 idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, 
 or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, 
 and the subjects of Heraclius had been educated to 
 pronounce the words of liberty and law. But it has 
 always been the pride and policy of oriental princes, 
 to display the titles and attributes of their omnipo- 
 tence ; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true 
 name and abject condition, and to enforce, by cruel 
 and insolent threats, the rigour of their absolute com- 
 mands. The christians of the cast were scandalized 
 by the worship of fire, and the impious doctrine of 
 the two principles : the Magi were not less intolerant 
 than the bishops, and the martyrdom of some native 
 Persians, who had deserted the religion of Zoroaster,"^ 
 was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and gen- 
 eral persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justi- 
 nian, the adversaries of the church were made the ene- 
 mies of the state ; the alliance of the Jews, Nesto- 
 rians, and Jacobites, had contributed to the success of 
 Chosroes, and his partial favour to the sectaries pro- 
 voked the hatred and fears of the catholic clergy. 
 Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Persian con- 
 queror governed his new subjects with an iron scep- 
 tre : and as if he suspected the stability of his domi- 
 nion, he exhausted their wealth by exorbitant tri- 
 butes and licentious rapine, despoiled or demolished 
 the temples of the east, and transported to his heredi- 
 tary realms the gold, the silver, the precious marbles, 
 the arts, and the artists, of the Asiatic cities. In the 
 obscure picture of the calamities of the empire,* it is 
 not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to 
 separate his actions from those of his lieutenants, or 
 to ascertain his personal merit in the general blaze of 
 glory and magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation 
 the fruits of victory, and frequently retired from the 
 hardships of war to the luxury of the palace. But in 
 the space of twenty-four years, he was deterred by 
 superstition or resentment from approaching the gates 
 of Ctesiphon : and his favourite residence of Artemita, 
 or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about 
 sixty miles to the north of the capital.' The adjacent 
 pastures were covered with flocks and herds: the pa- 
 radise or park was replenished with pheasants, pea- 
 cocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars, and the 
 noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned 
 loose for the holder pleasures of the chace. Nine 
 hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the 
 use or splendour of the great king : his tents and bacr. 
 gage were carried into the field by twelve thousan'd 
 great camels and eight thousand of a smaller size ; » 
 and the royal stables were filled with six thousand 
 mules and horses, among whom the names of Sheb- 
 diz and Band are renowned for their speed or beauty. 
 Six thousand guards successively mounted before the 
 palace gate ; the service of the interior apartments 
 ivas performed by twelve thousand slaves, and in the 
 
 121 
 
 T The genuine acts of St. Anastaslus am published in those of thn 
 
 StrSlS "GoTrinTR^Il' '■^"A"^h^",^\Baron'lus (Annal EccTrs- i D 
 614. 626 627.) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 242-'il8 ^ 
 have taken their accounts. The holy martyr deserted from the Per 
 Bian to the Roman army, became a monk at Jerusalem, and insulted 
 the worship of the Magi, which was then established at Caesarea in 
 
 . Abiilpharajrlus, Dynast, p. 99. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 14. 
 568-5n ^ ' ' I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xxxii. p. 
 
 fc.Ll^^.u'^T"^®,^^*^^^" ^^^ ^^0 '■^ces consists in one or two 
 Jiumps; the dromedary has only one ; the size of the proper camel 
 !iJ«^!^^' ■ <^o""^'"y he comes from, Turkestan or Baciriana : the 
 trST^f^^^oM*'''!!*"'^'!^"^'"*^'^^"'^ Africa. Buffon, Hist. Nuturelle, 
 lom^l. p. 211, &c. Ansiot. Hist. Animal, torn. i. 1. ii. c. 1. torn, ii 
 
 number of three thousand virgins, the fairest of Asia 
 some happy concubine might console her master for 
 the age or the indiflference of Sira. The various trea- 
 sures of gold, silver, gems, silk,' and aromatics, were 
 deposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults; and the 
 chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the 
 winds which had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into 
 one of the Syrian harbours of his rival, 'i'he voice 
 of flattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to 
 compute the thirty thousand rich hangings that adorn- 
 ed the walls ; the forty thousand columns of silver, 
 or more probably of marble, and plated wood, that 
 supported the roof; and the thousand globes of gold 
 suspended in the dome, to imitate the motions of the 
 planets and the constellations of the zodiac.' While 
 the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his 
 art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure 
 citizen of Mecca, inviting him to acknowledge Maho- 
 met as the apostle of God. He rejected the invitation, 
 and tore the epistle. " It is thus," exclaimed the 
 Arabian prophet, " that God will tear the iiingdom, 
 and reject the supplications, of Chosroes."y Placed on 
 the verge of the two great empires of the east, Maho- 
 met observed with secret joy the progress of their 
 mutual destruction; and in the midst of the Persian 
 triumphs, he ventured to foretell, that before many years 
 should elapse, victory would again return to the ban- 
 ners of the Romans.* 
 
 At the time when this prediction is Distress of He- 
 said to have been delivered, no prophecy radius, 
 
 could be more distant from its accom- A.D. Gio— 622. 
 plishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius 
 announced the approaching dissolution of the empire. 
 If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and hon- 
 ourable, he must have ended the quarrel with the 
 death of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his 
 best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously 
 avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The 
 prosecution of the war revealed the true cliaracter of 
 the barbarian ; and the suppliant embassies of Hera- 
 clius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the 
 innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, 
 were rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent 
 menace. Syria, Egypt, and the provinces of Asia, 
 were subdued by the Persian arms; while Europe, 
 from the confines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace^ 
 was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood 
 and rapine of the Italian war. They had coolly mas- 
 sacred their male captives in the sacred field of Pan- 
 noiia; the women and children were reduced to servi- 
 tude, and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the 
 promiscuous lust of the barbarians. The amorous 
 niatron who opened the gates of Friuli, passed a short 
 night in the arms of her royal lover ; the next even- 
 ing, Romilda was condemned to the embraces of 
 twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard princess 
 was impaled in the sight of the camp, while the cha- 
 gan observed with a cruel smile, that such a husband 
 was the fit recompence ofher lewdness and perfidy." 
 By these implacable enemies, Heraclius, on either 
 side, was insulted and besieged : and the Roman em- 
 pire was reduced to the walls of Constantinople, with 
 
 Or^ J. ?P oQr' ^J*^""";:^?^- P -^^' I>'Herbelot, Biliothequo 
 Onen ale, p 997. The Greeks describe the decay, the Persians the 
 splendour, of DasUgerd ; but the former speak from the modest wit- 
 ness of the eye, the latter from the vague report of the ear 
 o/x The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda, (in Vit. Mohammed, p. 92, 
 9J.) and Gagnier, (\ le de Mahomet, tom ii. p. 247.) date this embassy 
 in the seventh year of the Hegira, which commences A. D. 628 May 
 ir.i""^'^?"V"'"^y''^'"'^"^"^' *'"<"« Chosroes died in the month 
 of 1-ebruary of the same year. (Pasri, Critica, tom. ii. p. 779.) The 
 Count de BoulainviUiers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 3280 places this 
 embassy about A. D. 615. soon after the conquest of Pal'^stine Yet 
 Mahomet would scarcely have ventured so 8iK)n on so bold a step 
 
 I See the thirtipih chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks. Onr 
 ier?.?rp*;iV'''''"^'^ translator, Sale, (p. .m 331.) fairly slates this con- 
 jecture, guess, wager,of Mahomet; but BoulainviUiers, (p. 329-344 ) 
 with w.cked intentions, labours to establish this evident prophecy of 
 ?o"emic8^''^° ' '"""'' '" ^''' °P'"*°"' ^'"barrass the chr.slian 
 
 * Paul Warnefrid, de Gestis I^npobardorum. 1 iv c 3S 42. Mui* 
 ion, Annali d'lulia, tom. v. p. 306, 4c. ' 
 
 the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some 
 maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic 
 coast. After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflic- 
 ted by famine and pestilence ; and the emperor, inca- 
 pable of resistance, and hopeless of relief, had resol- 
 ved to transfer his person and government to the more 
 secure residence of Carthage. His ships were already 
 laden with the treasures of the palace, but his flight 
 was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers 
 of religion in the defence of his country, led Herac- 
 lius to the altar»of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn 
 oath, that he would live and die with the people whom 
 God had intrusted to his care. The chagan was en- 
 camped in the plains of Thrace, but he dissembled his 
 perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the 
 emperor near the town of Heraclea. Their reconcilia- 
 tion was celebrated with equestrian games, the senate 
 and people in their gayest apparel resorted to the fes- 
 tival of peace, and the Avars beheld, with envy and 
 desire, the spectacle of Reman luxury. On a sudden, 
 the hippodrome was encompassed by the Scythian 
 cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal 
 march : the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip 
 gave the signal of the assault ; and Heraclius, wrap- 
 ping his diadem round his arm, was saved, with ex- 
 treme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapid 
 was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the gol- 
 den gate of Constantinople with the flying crowds ;** 
 but the plunder of the suburbs rewarded their treason, 
 and they transported beyond the Danube two hundred 
 and seventy thousand captives. On ihe shore of Chal- 
 cedon, the emperor held a safer conference with a 
 more honourable foe, who, before Heraclius descended 
 from his galley, saluted with reverence and pity the 
 
 «esolidt8peace.";^J^^^y «^. ^he purple. The friendly 
 oner of Sam, the Persian general, to 
 conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, 
 was accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the 
 prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by 
 the praetorian praefect, the praefect of the city, and one 
 of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church.*^ 
 But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken 
 the intentions of his master. *' It was not an em- 
 bassy," said the tyrant of Asia, " it was the person of 
 Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have 
 brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give 
 peace to the emperor of Rome, till he has abjured his 
 crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun." 
 Sain was flayed alive according to the inhuman prac- 
 tice of his country; and the separate and rigorous 
 confinement of the ambassadors violated the law-s of 
 nations, and the faith of an express stipulation. Yet 
 the experience of six years at length persuaded the 
 Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of Constan- 
 tinople, and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of 
 the Roman empire; a thousand talents of gold, a 
 thousand talents of .silver, a thousand silk robes, a 
 thousand horses, and a thousand virgins. Heraclius 
 subscribed these ignominious terms, but the time and 
 space which he obtained to collect such treasures 
 from the poverty of the east was industriously em- 
 ployed in the preparations of a bold and desperate 
 attack; 
 
 His preparations ^^ ^^^^ characters conspicuous in his- 
 for war, tory, that of Heraclius is one of the 
 A. D. 621. most extraordinary and inconsistent. In 
 the first and last years of a long reign, the emperor 
 appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of su- 
 perstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the 
 public calamities. But the languid mists of the morn- 
 
 ing and evening are separated by the brightness of the 
 meridian sun : the Arcadius of the palace arose the 
 CjEsar of the camp; and the honour of Rome and 
 Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and 
 trophies of six adventurous campaigns. It was the 
 duty of the Byzantine historians to have revealed the 
 causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance 
 we can only conjecture, that he was endowed with 
 more personal courage than political resolution ; that 
 he was detained by the charms and perhaps the arts 
 of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of 
 Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous marriage;* and 
 that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors, 
 who urged as a fundamental law, that the life of the 
 emperor should never be exposed in the field.* Per- 
 haps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of 
 the Persian conqueror ; but at the moment when He- 
 raclius assumed the spirit of a hero, the only hopes 
 of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes of 
 fortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of 
 Chosroes, and must be favourable to those who had 
 attained the lowest period of depression.^ To provide 
 for the expenses of war, was the first care of the em- 
 peror ; and for the purpose of collecting the tribute, 
 he was allowed to solicit the benevolence of the east- 
 ern provinces. But the revenue no longer flowed in 
 the usual channels: the credit of an arbitrary prince 
 is annihilated by his power ; and the courage of Herac- 
 lius was first displayed in daring to borrow the con- 
 secrated wealth of churches under the solemn vow of 
 restoring, with usury, whatever he had been compelled 
 to employ in the service of religion and of the empire. 
 The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized 
 with the public distress, and the discreet patriarch of 
 Alexandria, without admitting the precedent of sacri- 
 lege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or sea- 
 sonable revelation of a secret treasure.^ Of the sol- 
 diers who had conspired with Phocas, only two were 
 found to have survived the stroke of tiuie and of the 
 barbarians;*" the loss, even of these seditious veterans, 
 was imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Herac- 
 lius, and the gold of the sanctuary united, in the 
 same camp, the names, and arms, and languages, of 
 the east and west. He would have been content with 
 the neutrality of the Avars; and his friendly entreaty, 
 that the chagan would act not as the enemy, but as 
 the guardian, of the empire, was accompanied with a 
 more persuasive donative of two hundred thousand 
 pieces of gold. Two days after the festival of Easter,, 
 the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple 
 garb of a penitent and warrior,' gave the signal of his 
 departure. To the faith of the people Heraclius re- 
 commended his children ; the civil and military pow- 
 ers were vested in the most deserving hands, and the 
 discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorized 
 
 b The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introduces fragments 
 of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives the best account 
 of the treas>)n of the Avars, p. 389, 390. The number of captives is 
 added by Nicephorus. 
 
 c Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of the Roman 
 ambassadors, (p. 386—388.) likewise constitute the merit of the Pas- 
 chal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps ai Alexandria, under 
 the reign of Heraclius. 
 
 Vol. II.— Q 
 
 d Nicephorus, (p. 10, 11.) who brands this marriage with the name* 
 of «s!a-/<oi', and x5»ju<Tcv, is happy to observe, that of two sons, its in- 
 cestuous fruit, the elder was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, 
 the younger with the loss of hearing. 
 
 e George of Pisidia,(Acroas. i. 112— 125. p. 5.) who states the opinions, 
 acquits the pusillanimous counsellors ofany sinister views. Would ha 
 have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition of Crispus 1 
 
 T015 ira^^w tTTt^'upix^nv SuvxfiTtv, 
 
 t E« T*( !»•' xy.gCV tfffitvXS «ut5««5 
 
 Er^xKfilvxg Kiyowtv cux urrtixorwc 
 Kiiriai TO Koirrov iv xstxoi; to Jlifo-iStg 
 
 AvT.cfO!?*? Si, &c. George Pisid. Acroas. i. 51, &;c. p.4» 
 The Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange vicissitude; 
 and I remember some story of Khosrow Parviz, not very unlike th© 
 ring of Polycrates of Samoj, 
 
 g Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather transmutation of 
 barrels, not of honey, but of gold. (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 620. No. 3, 
 Sec.) Yei the loan was arbitrary, since it was collected by soldiers, 
 who were ordered to leave the patriarch of Alexandria no more thaa 
 one hundred pounds of gold. Nicephorus, Cp- 11 ) two hundred years 
 afterwards, speaks with ill-humour of this contribuiion, which tho 
 church of CoMBtantinople might still feel. 
 
 h Theophylact Simocatta, 1. viii. c. 12. This circumstance need not 
 excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a regiment, even in lime of 
 peace, is renewed in less than twenty or twenty-five years. 
 
 i He changed his purp/e, for black, buskins, and dyed them red in 
 
 I the blood of the Persians. (Georg. Pisid. Acroas. iii. 118. 121, 122. See- 
 the Notes of Foggiui, p. 35.) 
 
ll 
 
 122 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VH. 
 
 ■!i 
 
 J' 
 
 to save or surrender the city, if they should be op- 
 pressed in his absence by the superior forces of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The neighbouring heights of Chalce- 
 F"«"f expedition ^^^ „,grg covered with tents and arms : 
 SffainsTVheW but if the new levies of Heraclius had 
 Biang, been rashly led to the attack, the victory 
 
 A. D. 622. ^^ jj^g Persians in the sight of Constan- 
 tinople might have been the last day of the Roman 
 empire. As imprudent would it have been to advance 
 into the provinces of Asia, leaving their innumerable 
 cavalry to intercept his convoys, and continually to 
 hang on the lassitude and disorder of his rear. But 
 the Greeks were still masters of the sea; a fleet of' 
 galleys, transports, and storeships, was assembled in 
 the harbour; the barbarians consented to embark: a 
 steady wind carried them through the Hellespont; the 
 western and southern coast of Asia iMinor lay on their 
 left hand; the spirit of their chief was first displayed 
 in a storm ; and even the eunuchs of his train were 
 excited to suffer and to work by the example of their 
 master. He landed his troops on the confines of Syria 
 and Cilicia, in the gulf of Scanderoon, where the 
 coast suddenly turns to the south ;^ and his discern- 
 ment was expressed in the choice of this important 
 post.' From all sides, the scattered garrisons of the 
 maritime cities and the mountains might repair with 
 speed and safety to his imperial standard. The natu- 
 ral fortifications of Cilicia protected, and even con- 
 cealed, the camp of Heraclius, which was pitched 
 near Issus, on the same ground where Alexander had 
 vanquished the host of Darius. The angle which the 
 emperor occupied, was deeply indented into a vast 
 semi-circle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian pro- 
 vinces ; and to whatsoever point of the circumference 
 he should direct his attack, it was easy for him to dis- 
 semble his own motions, and to prevent those of the 
 enemy. In the camp of Issus, the Roman general 
 reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and 
 educated the new recruits in the knowledge and prac- 
 tice of military virtue. Unfolding the miraculous 
 image of Christ, he urged them to revenge the holy 
 altars which had been profaned by the worshippers of 
 fire; addressing them by the endearing appellations of 
 sons and brethren, he deplored the public and private 
 wrongs of the republic. The subjects of a monarch 
 were persuaded that they fought in the cause of free- 
 dom; and a similar enthusiasm was communicated to 
 the foreign mercenaries, who must have viewed with 
 equal indifference the interest of Rome and of Persia. 
 Heraclius himself, with the skill and patience of a 
 centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tac- 
 tics, and the soldiers were assiduously trained in the 
 use of their weapons, and the exercises and evolutions 
 of the field. The cavalry and infantry in light or 
 heavy armour were divided into two parties; the trum- 
 pets were fixed in the centre, and their signals directed 
 the march, the charge, the retreat, or pursuit; the 
 direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx; 
 to represent in fictitious combat the operations of genu- 
 ine war. Whatever hardship the emperor imposed on 
 the troops, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; 
 their labour, their diet, their sleep, were measured by 
 
 k George of Pisidia (Arroas. ii. 10. p. 8.) has fixed this important 
 
 Eoiniof the Syrian and Cilic.ian gales. They are elegantly described 
 y Xenophon, who marched ihnmph Ihem a thousand years before. A 
 narrow pass of three stadia between sleep high rocks (-riTf XI p,x.tc*Txt) 
 and the Mediterranean, was closed at each end by strong gales, im- 
 pregnable to the land, (Taj>«x.S«»v ouk p,v S««,) accessible by sea. 
 <Anabasis, 1. i. p. 35, 36. with Hutchinson's Geographical Dissertation, 
 p. vi.) The gates were thirty-five parasangs, or leagues, from Tarsus, 
 <Anabasis, 1. i. p. 33, 34) and eight or ten from Anlioch. (Compare 
 
 ilinerar. VVesseiing, p. 580, 581. Scjiullens, Index Geography ad cal- 
 lom. i. p. 78, 79.) 
 
 cem Vii. Saladin. p. 9. Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, 
 
 1 Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest words of Cicero ; 
 " Caslra habuimus ea ipsa quse contra Uarium habuerat apud Issum 
 Alexander, imperator haud paulo melior quam aut tu aui ego." Ad 
 Atticum, V. 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing city in the time of 
 Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity of Alexandria or Scanderoon, 
 on the other aide of the bay. 
 
 the inflexible rules of discipline; and, without despi- 
 sing the enemy, they were taught to repose an implicit 
 confidence in their own valour and the wisdom ot' their 
 leader. Cilicia was soon encompassed with the Per- 
 sian arms ; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the de- 
 files of mount Taurus, till they were circumvented by 
 the evolutions of Heraclius, who insensibly gained 
 their rear, whilst he appeared to present his front in 
 order of battle. By a false motion, which seemed to 
 threaten Armenia, he drew them, against their wishes, 
 to a general action. They were tempted by the artful 
 disorder of his camp; but when they advanced to com- 
 bat, the ground, the sun, and the expectation of both 
 armies, were unpropitious to the barbarians; the Ro« 
 mans successfully repeated their tactics in a field of 
 battle," and the event of the day declared to the world, 
 that the Persians were not invincible, and that a hero 
 was invested with the purple. Strong in victory and 
 fame, Heraclius boldly ascended the heights of mount 
 Taurus, directed his march through the plain of Cap- 
 padocia, and established his troops for the winter sea- 
 son, in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of the 
 river Halys." His soul was superior to the vanity of 
 entertaining Constantinople with an imperfect triumph ; 
 but the presence of the emperor was indispensably 
 required to soothe the restless and rapacious spirit of 
 the Avars. 
 
 Since the days of Scipio and Hanni- His second ex 
 bal, no bolder enterprise has been attemp- P,*!*^^*^"' 4 co* 
 
 ,' , ^, ^ 1 • I Ti !• i* J A. U. 623, 624, 623 
 
 ted than that which Heraclius achieved ' ' 
 
 for the deliverance of the empire." He permitted the 
 Persians to oppress for a while the provinces, and to 
 insult with impunity the capital of the east; while the 
 Roman emperor explored his perilous way through the 
 Black sea,!* and the mountains of Armenia, penetrated 
 into the heart of Persia,*! and recalled the armies of 
 the great king to the defence of their bleeding country. 
 With a select band of five thousand soldiers, Hera- 
 clius sailed from Constantinople to Trebizond ; assem- 
 bled his forces which had wintered in the Pontic re- 
 gions ; and from the mouth of the Phasis to the Caspian 
 sea, encouraged his subject.^* and allies to march with 
 the successors of Constantino under the faithful and 
 victorious banner of the cross. When the legions of 
 liucullus and Pompey first passed the Euphrates, they 
 blushed at their easy victory over the natives of Ar- 
 menia. But the long experience of war had hardened 
 the minds and bodies of that effeminate people ; their 
 zeal and bravery were approved in the service of a 
 declining empire; they abhorred and feared the usur- 
 pation of the house of Sas?an, and the memory of per- 
 secution envenomed their pious hatred of the enemies 
 of Christ. The limits of Armenia, as it had been 
 ceded to the emperor Maurice, extended as far as the 
 Araxes : the river submitted to the indignity of a 
 
 m Foggini (Annotat. p. 31.) suspects that the Persians were deceived 
 by the ?*x.»vx 5ri>r>.n>/uii.:of^lian, (Taclic.c. 48.)an intricate spiral 
 motion of the army. He observed, (p. 2S.) that the military descrip- 
 tions of George of iPisidia are transcribed int« the Tactics of the em- 
 peror Lpo. 
 
 n George of Pisidia, an eye-witness, (Acroas. ii. 122, &c,) described, 
 in three acroaseis or cantos, the first expedition of Heraclius. The 
 poem has been lately (1777) published at Rome; but such vague and 
 declamatory praise is far from corresponding with the sanguine hopes 
 of Pasi, D'Anville, &c. 
 
 o Theophanes (p. 256.) carries Heraclius swiftly («itT« rxxec) into 
 Armenia. Nicephonis, (p. 11) though he confounds the two expedi- 
 tions, defines the province of Lazica. Eutychius (Annal. lorn. ii. p. 
 231.) has given the 5000 men, with the more probable station of Tre- 
 bizond. 
 
 p From Constantinople to Trebizond, with a fair wind, four or five 
 days; from thence to Erzerom, five; to Erivan. twelve ; to Tauris, 
 ten ; in all thirty-two. Such is the Itinerary of Tavernier, (Voyages, 
 torn. i. p. 12—56.) who was perfectly conversant with the nwds of Asia. 
 Tourneforl, who travellpd with a pasha, spent ten or twelve days be- 
 tween Trebizond and Krzerom ; (Voyage du Levant, lom. iii. lelire 
 xviii.) and Chardin (Voyages, torn. i. p. 249—254.) gives the more 
 correct distance of fifiy-ihreejaarasangs, each of 5000 paces, (what 
 pace)* 3) between Erivan and Tauris. 
 
 q The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finely illustrated by M. 
 D'Anville. (Memoiresde I'Academie desjnscriptions, tum. xxviii. p. 
 559—573.) He discovers the situation of Gandzaca, Thebarina, I)a.sta 
 genl, &,c.- with admirable skill and learning; but the obscure cam- 
 paign of 621 he pasbcs over iu silence. 
 
 Chap. VH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 123 
 
 bridge/ and Heraclius, in the footsteps of Mark An- 
 tony, advanced towards the city of Tauris or Gand- 
 zaca,* the ancient and modern capital of one of the 
 provinces of Media. At the head of forty thousand 
 men, Chosrocs himself had returned from some dis- 
 tant expedition to oppose the procrress of the Roman 
 arms ; but he retreated on the approach of Heraclius, 
 declining the generous alternative of peace or of bat- 
 tle. Instead of half a million of inhabitants, which 
 have been ascribed to Tauris under the reign of the 
 Sophys, the city contained no more than three thou- 
 sand houses; but the value of the royal treasures was 
 enhanced by a tradition, that they were the spoils of 
 Croesus, which had been transported by Cyrus from 
 the citadel of Sardes. The rapid conquests of Hera- 
 clius were suspended only by the winter season ; a 
 motive of prudence, or superstition,* determined his 
 retreat into the province of Albania, along the shores 
 of the Caspian ; and his tents were most probably 
 pitched in the plains of Mogan," the favourite encamp- 
 ment of oriental princes. In the course of this suc- 
 cessful inroad, he signalized the zeal and revenge of a 
 christian emperor: at his command, the soldiers ex- 
 tinguished the fire, and destroyed the temples, of the 
 Magi ; the statues of Chosroes, who aspired to divine 
 honours, were abandoned to the flames; and the ruins 
 of Thebarma or Ormia,* which had given birth to 
 Zoroaster himself, made some atonement for the inju- 
 ries of the holy sepulchre. A purer spirit of religion 
 was shown in the relief and deliverance of fifty thou- 
 sand captives. Heraclius was rewarded by their tears 
 and grateful acclamations ; but this wise measure, 
 which spread the fame of his benevolence, difl'u.sed 
 the murmurs of the Persians against the pride and 
 obstinacy of their own sovereign. 
 
 Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, 
 Heraclius is almost lost to our eyes, and to those of 
 the Byzantine historians.^ From the spacious and 
 fruitful plains of Albania, the emperor appears to fol- 
 low the chain of Hyrcanian mountains, to descend into 
 the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his victo- 
 rious arms as far as the royal cities of Casbin and 
 Ispahan, which had never been approached by a Ro- 
 man conqueror. Alarmed by the danger of his king- 
 dom, the powers of Chosroes were already called from 
 the Nile and the Bosphorus, and three formidable armies 
 surrounded, in a distant and hostile land, the camp of 
 the emperor. The Colchian allies prepared to desert 
 bis standard ; and the fears of the bravest veterans 
 were expressed, rather than concealed, by their des- 
 ponding silence. " Be not terrified," said the intrej)id 
 
 Heraclius, " by the multitude of your foes. With the 
 aid of Heaven, one Roman may triumph over a thou- 
 sand barbarians. But if we devote our lives for the 
 salvation of our brethren, we shall obtain the crown 
 of martyrdom, and our immortal reward will be libe- 
 rally paid by God and posterity." These magnani- 
 mous sentiments were supported by the vigour of his 
 actions. He repelled the three-fold attack of the Per- 
 sians, improved the divisions of their chiefs, and, by a 
 well-concerted train of marches, retreats, and success- 
 ful actions, finally chased them from the field into the 
 fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In the severity 
 of the winter season, Sabaraza deemed himself secure 
 in the v/alls of Salban ; he was surprised by the ac- 
 tivity of Heraclius, who divided his troops, and per- 
 
 r Et ptmtem indignalus Araxes. Vircil, ^neid. viii. 72S. 
 The river Araxps, is noisy, rapid, vehement, Wd, with the melting of 
 the snows, irresistible : ihestrongest and most massy bridges are sweot 
 away by the current ; and its itidi gnat ion is ailested by the ruins of 
 many arches near the old town of Zulfa. Voyages de Chardin, torn. 
 i. p 2";2. 
 
 8 Chardin, lom. i. p. 255-259. With the Orientals, (D'Herbelol, 
 Biblioth. Orient, p. 834.) he ascribes the f)undaiion of Tauris, or Te- 
 bris, to Zobeide, the wife of the famous Khalif Haroun Alrashid ; but 
 it appears to have been mon* ancient; and the names of Gandzaca, 
 Gazaca, Gaza, are expressive of the royal treasure. The number of 
 550,000 inhabitants is reduced by Chardin from 1,100,000, the popular 
 estimate. 
 
 t He opene 1 the gospel, and applied, or interpreted the first ca.sual 
 passasre to the name and situation of Albania. Theophanes, p. 253. 
 u The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the Araxes, is sixty 
 parasangs in length and twenty in breadth, (Olearius, p. 1023, 1024.) 
 abounding in waters and fruitful pastures. (Hist, de Nader Shah, 
 translated by IMr. Jones from a Persian MS. pari. ii. p. 2, 3.) See the 
 encampments of Timur, (Hist, par Sherefeddin Ali, 1. v. c. 37.1. vi.c. 
 13.) and the coronation of Nader Shah. (Hist. Persanne, p. 3—13. and 
 the English Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65.) 
 
 X Thebarma and Ormia, near the lake Spauto, are proved lobe the 
 same city by D'Anville. (Memoires de I'Academie, torn, xxviii. p. 564, 
 565. It is honoured as the birth-place of Zoroaster, according to the 
 Persians; (Schultens, Index Geograph. p. 48.) and their tradition is 
 fortified byM. Perron d'Anqueiil, (Mem. de I'Acad.des Inscript. torn. 
 xxx\. p. 375.) with some texts from his, or their, Zendavesia. 
 
 y I cannot find, and (what is much more) M. D'Anville does not at- 
 tempt to seek, the Salban, Tarantum, territory of the Huns, A;c. men- 
 tinned by Theophanes, (p. 260—262.) Eutychius, Annal, (lom. ii. p. 
 231, 232.) an insufllcient author, names Aspahan ; and Casbin is most 
 probably the city of Sapor. Ispahan is twenty-four days' journey from 
 Tauris, and Casbin halfway between them. (Voyages \q Tavernier, 
 lom. i. p. 63-32.) . ' " 
 
 , . per- 
 formed a laborious march in the silence of the night. 
 The flat roofs of the houses were defended with use- 
 less valour against the darts and torches of the Ro- 
 mans : the satraps and nobles of Persia, with their 
 wives and children, and the flower of their martial 
 youth, were either slain or made prisoners. The gene- 
 ral escaped by a precipitate flight, but his golden ar- 
 mour was the prize of the conqueror; and the soldiers 
 of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which 
 they h;id so nobly deserved. On the return of the 
 spring, the emperor traversed in seven days the moun- 
 tains of Curdistan, and passed without resistance the 
 rapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by the weight 
 of their spoils and captives, the Roman army halted 
 under the walls of Amida ; and Heraclius informed 
 the senate of Constantinople of his safety and suc- 
 cess, which they had already felt by the retreat of the 
 besiegers. The bridges of the Euphrates were de- 
 stroyed by the Persians; but as soon as the emperor 
 had discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend 
 the banks of the Sarus,* in Cilicia. That river, an 
 impetuous torrent, was about three hundred feet broad, 
 the bridge was fortified with strong turrets, and the 
 banks were lined with barbarian archers. After a 
 bloody conflict, which continued till the eveninji, the 
 Romans prevailed in the assault, and a Persian of gi- 
 gantic size was slain and thrown into the Sarus by the 
 hand of the emperor him.self. The enemies were dis- 
 persed and dismayed ; Heraclius pursued his march to 
 Sebaste in Cappadocia; and at the expiration of three 
 years, the same coast of the Euxine applauded his 
 return from a long and victorious expedition.* 
 
 Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, Deliverance of 
 the two monarchs who disputed the em- 
 pire of the east, aimed their desperate 
 strokes at the heart of their rival. The 
 military force of Persia was wasted by 
 the marches and combats of twenty years, and many 
 of the veterans, who had survived the perils of the 
 sword and the climate, were still detained in the for- 
 tresses of Egypt and Syria. But the revenge and 
 ambition of Chosroes exhausted his kingdom; and the 
 new levies of subjects, strangers, and slaves, were 
 divided into three formidable bodies.'' The first army 
 of fifty thousand men, illustrious by the ornament and 
 title of the golden spears, was destined to march against 
 Heraclius; the second was stationed to prevent his 
 junction with the troops of his brother Theodorus; and 
 the third was commanded to besiege Constantinople, 
 and to second the operations of the chagan, with whom 
 the Persian king had ratified a treaty of alliance and 
 partition. Sarbar, the general of the third army, pene- 
 trated through the provinces of Asia to the well-known 
 camp of Chalcedon, and amused himself with the de- 
 
 Constaniinoplo 
 from the Per- 
 sians and 
 Avars, 
 A.D.626. 
 
 z At ten parasangs from Tarsus, the army of the younger Cyrus 
 passed the Sarus three pleihra in breadth; the Pyramus, a stadium 
 in breadth, ran five parasangs further to the east. (Xenophon, Anabas. 
 1. i. p. 33, 34.) 
 
 X George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246—255. p. 49.) celebrateg 
 with truth the persevering courageof the three campaigns (r^nj »-i^i« 
 Sg-i,u:-j.) against the Persians. 
 
 b Petavius (Annotationes ad Nicephorum, p. 62, 63, 64.) discrimi- 
 nates the names and actions of five Persian generals who were succec- 
 sively sent against Hcracliwi. 
 
124 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIL 
 
 Chap. VH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 125 
 
 '!, 
 
 m^ 
 
 ',^ 
 
 U 
 
 't 
 
 
 I' 
 
 
 stniction of the sacred and profane buildings of the 
 Asiatic suburbs, while he impatiently waited the ar- 
 rival of his Scythian friends on the opposite side of 
 the Bosphorus. On the twenty-ninth of June, thirty 
 thousand barbarians, the vanguard of tiie Avars, forced 
 the long wall, and drove into the capital a promiscuous 
 crowd of peasants, citizens, and soldiers. Fourscore 
 thousand' of his native subjects, and of the vassal 
 tribes of Gepidae, Russians, Bulgarians, and Sclavo- 
 nians, advanced under the standard of the chagan ; 
 a Hionth was spent in marches and npgociations, but 
 the whole city was invested on the thirty-first (if July, 
 from the suburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blaclier- 
 nae and seven towers; and the inhabitants descried 
 with terror the flaming signals of the European and 
 Asiatic shores. In the mean while the magistrates of 
 Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the re- 
 treat of the chagan : but their deputies were rejected 
 and insulted ; and he suffered the patricians to stand 
 before his throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk 
 robes, were seated by his side. " You see," said the 
 haughty barbarian, " the proofs of my perfect union 
 with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready to 
 send into my camp a select band of three thousand 
 warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master 
 with a partial and inadequate ransom: your wealth and 
 your city are the only presents worthy of my accep- 
 tance. For yourselves, I shall permit you to depart, 
 each with an under-jjarment, and a shirt; and, at my 
 entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage 
 through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a 
 captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its f ite ; 
 nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Per- 
 sians, unless you could soar into the air like birds, un- 
 less like fishes you could dive into the waves. "'* Du- 
 ring ten successive days, the capital was assaulted by 
 the Avars, who had made some progress in the science 
 of attack ; they advanced to sap or batter the wall, 
 under the cover of the impenetrable tortoise ; their 
 engines discharged a perpetual volley of stones and 
 darts ; and twelve lofty towers of wood exalted the 
 combatants to the height of the neighbouring ramparts. 
 But the senate and people were animated by the spirit 
 of Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body 
 of twelve thousand cuirassiers; the powers of fire and 
 mechanics were used with superior art and success in 
 the defence of Constantinople ; and the galleys, with 
 two and three ranks of oars, commanded the Bospho- 
 rus, and rendered the Persians the idle spectators of 
 the defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed ; 
 a fleet of Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the har- 
 bour; the vassals of the chagan threatened to desert, 
 his provisions were exhausted, and after burning his 
 engines, he gave the signal of a slow and formidable 
 retreat. The devotion of the Romans ascribed this 
 signal deliverance to the Virgin Mary; but the mother 
 of Christ would sur*ly have condemned their inhuman 
 murder of the Persian envoys, who were entitled to the 
 rights of humanity, if they were not protected by the 
 laws of nations.* 
 
 .„. , After the division of his army. He- 
 
 conquesiof He- racHus prudently retired to the banks of 
 
 raciiiis. the Phasis, from whence he maintained 
 
 r 
 
 c This nunibrr of pi^ht myriads is apecified bv George of Pisidia. 
 (Bell. Abar. 219.) The poet (.W-SS.) cleariy indir.ates that the old 
 chagau lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that hia son and succes- 
 sor was born ^)i a foreign mother. Yet Fosgini (Annolai. p. .57.) has 
 given another interpretation to this passa-ie. 
 
 d A bird, a fro?, a mouse, and five arrows, had been the present of 
 the Scythian kirig to Darius. (Herodot. 1. iv. c. 131, 132.) Substituez 
 una leltre a ces signes (says Kouaseau, with much g(X>d taste) plus ella 
 sera menaf;anle moins elle etfrayera : ce ne sera qu'une fanfaronnade 
 dont Darius n'eut fait que rire. (Emile, torn. iii. p. 116.) Yet I much 
 question whether the senate and people of Constantinople laughed 
 at this message of the chagan. 
 
 ^ e The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392—397.) gives a minute and authen- 
 tic narrative of the siege and deliverance of Constantinople. Tlieo- 
 phanes (p 264.) adds some circumstances; and a faint light may be 
 obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia, who has composed a 
 poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 45—54.) to commemorate this auspicious 
 •rent. 
 
 a defensive war against the fifty thousand gold spears 
 of Persia. His anxiety was relieved by the deliver- 
 ance of Constantinople; his hopes were confirmed hy 
 a victory of his brother Theodorus ; and to the hostile 
 league of Chosroes with the Avars, the Roman em- 
 peror opposed the useful and honourable allianee of 
 the Turks. At his liberal invitation, the horde ol 
 Chozars' transported their tents from the plains of the 
 Volga to the mountains of Georgia; Heraclius rerei- 
 ved them in the neighbourhood of Teflis, and the khan 
 with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we 
 may credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the 
 ground, to adore the purple of the Caesar. Such vol- 
 untary homage and important aid were entiled to ihe 
 warmest acknowledgments ; and the emperor, taking 
 oflfhis own diadem, placed it on the head of the 'I'urk- 
 ish prince, whom he saluted with a tender emhrace 
 and the appellation of son. After a sumptuous ban- 
 quet, he presented Ziebel with the plate and orna- 
 ments, the gold, the gems, and the silk, which had 
 been used at the imperial table, and, with his own 
 hand, distributed rich jewels and ear-rings to his new 
 allies. In a secret interview, he produced the portrait 
 of his dauohter Eudocia,* condescended to flatter the 
 barbarian with the promise of a fiiir and auqust bride, 
 obtained an immediate succour of forty thousand horse, 
 and netrociated a strong diversion of the Turkish arms 
 on the side of the Oxus.*» The Persians, in their turn, 
 retreated with precipitation; in the camp of Edessa, 
 Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousand Ro- 
 mans and strangers ; and some months were success- 
 fully employed in the recovery of the cities of Syria, 
 Mesopotamia, and Armenia, whose fortifications had 
 been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still maintained 
 the important station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy 
 of Chosroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon aliena- 
 ted the mind of that powerful satrap from the service 
 of his king and country. A messenger was inter- 
 cepted with a real or fictitious mandate to the cadari- 
 gan, or second in command, directing him to send, 
 without delay, to the throne, the head of a guilty or un- 
 fortunate general. The despatches were transmitted 
 to Sarbar himself; and as soon as he read the sentence 
 of his own death, he dexterously inserted the names 
 of four hundred oflicers, assembled a military council, 
 and a.^ked the cadanu;an, whether he was prepared to 
 execute the commands of their tyrant? The Persians 
 unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the 
 sceptre ; a separate treaty was concluded with the 
 government of Constantinople ; and if some considera- 
 tions of honour or polic}*^ restrained Sarbar from joining 
 the standard of Heraclius, the emperor was assured, 
 that he might prosecute, without interruption, his de- 
 signs of victory and peace. 
 
 Deprived of his firmest support, and His third expedi- 
 doubtful of the fidelity of his subjects, tion, 
 
 the greatness of Chosroes was still con- ^' ^* ^'^^' 
 spicuous in its ruins. The number of five hundred 
 thousand may be interpreted as an oriental metaphor, 
 to describe the men and arms, the horses and ele- 
 phants, that covered Media and Assyria against the 
 the invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Romans boldly 
 advanced from the A raxes to the Tigris, and the timid 
 prudence of Rhazates was content to follow them by 
 
 f The power of the Chozars prevailed in the seventh, eishth, and 
 ninth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the Arabs, and, 
 under the name of Ao8n, to the Chinese themselves. De Guignes, 
 Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. part. ii. p. 507—509. 
 
 K Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of Heraclius and his 
 first wife Eudocia, was born at Constantinople on the 7lh of July, 
 A. D. 611, baptized the 15ih of August, and crowned (in the oratory 
 of St. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of October of the same year. 
 At this time she was about fifteen. Eudocia was afterwanls sent to 
 her Turkish husband, but the news of his death stopped her journey, 
 atul prevented the consummation. (Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. p. 
 118.) 
 
 h Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 13—16.) gives some curious and pmba- 
 ble facts; but his numbers are rather Uw high— 300,000 Romans as- 
 sembled at Edessa— 500,000 Persians killed at Nineveh. The abate- 
 ment of a cypher is scarcely enough to restore his sanity. 
 
 forced marches through a desolate country, till he 
 received a peremptory mandate to risk the fate of 
 Persia in a decisive battle. Eastward of the Tigris, 
 at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh 
 had formerly been erected:' the city, "and even the 
 ruins of the city, had long since disappeared : ^ the 
 vacant space afforded a spacious field for the opera- 
 tions of the two armies. But these operations are 
 neglected by the Byzantine historians, and, like the 
 authors of epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the 
 victory, not to the military conduct, but to the per- 
 sonal valour, of their favourite hero. On this memo- 
 and victories, r3\>\e day, Jleraclius, on his horse Phal- 
 December, 1 &c. Jus, surpassed the bravest of his war- 
 riors : his lip was pierced with a spear, the steed was 
 wounded in the thigh, but he carried his master safe 
 and victorious through the triple phalanx of the bar- 
 barians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs 
 were successively slain by the sword and lance of the 
 emperor; among these was Rhazates himself; he fell 
 like a soldier, but the sight of his head scattered grief 
 and despair through the fainting ranks of the Persians. 
 His armour of pure and massy gold, the shield of one 
 hundred and twenty plates, the sword and belt, the 
 saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumph of Heraclius, 
 and if he had not been faithfal to Christ and his 
 mother, the champion of Rome might have offered the 
 fourth opime spoils to the Jupiter of the capitol.' In 
 the battle of Nineveh, which was fiercely fought from 
 day-break to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight stand- 
 ards, beside those which might be broken or torn, 
 were taken from the Persians ; the greatest part of 
 their army was cut in pieces, and the victors, conceal- 
 ing their own loss, passed the night on the field. 
 They acknowledged, that on this occasion it was less 
 difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of Chos- 
 roes ; amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than 
 two bow-shot from the enemy, the remnant of the 
 Persian cavalry stood firm till the seventh hour of the 
 night; about the eighth hour they retired to their unri- 
 fled camp, collected their baggage, and dispersed on all 
 sides, from the want of orders rather than of resolu- 
 tion. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admi- 
 rable in the use of victory ; by a march of forty-eight 
 miles in four and twenty hours, his vanguard occupied 
 the bridges of the greater and the lesser Zab; and the 
 cities and palaces of Assyria were open for the first 
 time to the Romans. By a just gradation of magni- 
 ficent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of I)as- 
 tagerd, and, though much of the treasure had been 
 removed, and much had been expended, the remaining 
 wealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even 
 to have satiated their avarice. Whatever could not be 
 easily transported they consumed with fire, tliat Chos- 
 roes might feel the anguish of those wounds, which 
 he had so often inflicted on the provinces of the 
 empire : and justice might allow the excuse, if the 
 desolation had been confined to the works of regal 
 liixury, if national hatred, military license, and reli- 
 gious zeal, had not wasted with equal rage the habita- 
 tions and the temples of the guiltless subject. The 
 
 Flight of Cho6- 
 
 roes, 
 
 A. D. 627. 
 
 Dec. 29. 
 
 i Ctesias (apud Diodnr. Sicul. tom. 5. l.ii. p. 115. edit. Wesseling) 
 «sa gns 480 stadia (perhaps only 32 miles) for the circumference of 
 Nineveh. Jonas Ulks of three days' journey : the 120,0()0 persons 
 described by the prophet as incapable of discerning their right hand 
 from their left, may afford about 700,000 persons of all ages for the in- 
 habitants of that ancient capital, (Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c. 
 t^mi. iii. part i. p. 92,93.) which ceased to exist-GOO years before Christ. 
 The western suburb still subsisted, and is mentioned under the name 
 of Mnsul in the first age of the Arabian khalifs. 
 
 k Niebuhr (Voyage en Arable, &c. tom ii. p. 286.^ passed over Nine- 
 veh without perceiving it. He misUwk for a ridge of hills the old 
 rampart of brick or earth. It is said to have been 100 feet high, flanked 
 with 1500 towers, each of the height of 200 feet. 
 
 1 Rex regia arma fero (says Romulus, in the first consecration) 
 .... bina postea (continues Livy, i, JO.) inter tot bella, opima parta 
 sunt spolia, adeo rara ejus fonuna decoris. If Varro (apud Pomp. Fes- 
 lum, p. 306. edit. Dacier) could justify his liberality in granting the 
 opime spoils even to a common soldier who had slain the king or gene- 
 ral of the enemy, the honour would have been much more cheap and 
 common. 
 
 recovery of three hundred Roman standards, and the 
 deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and 
 Alexandria, reflect a purer glory on the arms of Herac- 
 lius. From the palace of Dastagerd, he pursued his 
 march within a few miles of Modain or Ctesiphon, till 
 he was stopped, on the banks of the Arba, by the dif- 
 ficulty of the passage, the rigour of the season, and 
 perhaps the fame of an impregnable capital. The 
 return of the emperor is marked by the modern name 
 of the city of Sherhzour; he fortunately passed mount 
 Zara before the snow, which fell incessantly thirty- 
 four days; and the citizens of Gandzaca, or Tauris, 
 were compelled to entertain his soldiers and their 
 horses with a hospitable reception." 
 
 When the ambition of Chosroes was 
 reduced to the defence of his hereditary 
 kingdom, the love of glory, or even the 
 sense of shame, should have urged him 
 to meet his rival in the field. In°the battle of Nineveh, 
 his courage might have taught the Persians to van- 
 quish, or he might have fallen with honour by the 
 lance of a Roman emperor. The successor of Cyrus 
 chose rather, at a secure distance, to expect the event, 
 to assemble the relics of the defeat, and to retire by 
 measured steps before the march of Heraclius, till he 
 beheld with a sigh the once loved mansions of Dasta- 
 gerd. Both his friends and enemies were persuaded, 
 that it was the intention of Chosroes to bury himself 
 under the ruins of the city and palace : and as both 
 might have been equally adverse to his flight, the 
 monarch of Asia, with Sira, and three concubines, 
 escaped through a hole in the wall nine days before 
 the arrival of the Romans. The slow and stately pro- 
 cession in which he showed himself to the prostrate 
 crowd, was changed to a rapid and secret journey ; 
 and the first evening he lodged in the cottage of a 
 peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give 
 admittance to the great king.° His superstition was 
 subdued by fear: on the third day, he entered with joy 
 the fortifications of Ctesiphon ; yet he still doubted of, 
 his safety till he had opposed the river Tigris to the 
 pursuit of the Romans. The discovery of^is flight 
 agitated with terror and tumult the palace, the city, 
 and the camp of Dastagerd : the satraps hesitated 
 whether they had most to fear from their sovereign or 
 the enemy ; and the females of the haram were aston- 
 ished and pleased by the sight of mankind, till the 
 jealous husband of three thousand wives again con- 
 fined them to a more distant castle. At his command, 
 the army of Dastagerd retreated to a new camp : the 
 front was covered by the Arba, and a line of two hun- 
 dred elephants ; the troops of the more distant pro- 
 vinces successively arrived, and the vilest domestics 
 of the king and satraps were enrolled for the last de- 
 fence of the throne. It was still in the power of Chos- 
 roes to obtain a reasonable peace ; and he was repeat- 
 edly pressed by the messengers of Heraclius, to spare 
 the blood of his subjects, and to relieve a humane con- 
 queror from the painful duty of carrying fire and sword 
 through the fairest countries of Asia. But the pride 
 of the Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his for- 
 tune ; he derived a momentary confidence from the 
 retreat of the emperor; he wept with impotent rage 
 over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, and disregarded 
 too long the rising murmurs of the nation, who com- 
 plained that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to 
 the obstinacy of an old man. That unhappy old man 
 was himself tortured with the sharpest pains both 
 of mind and body ; and, in the consciousness of his 
 
 m In describing this last expedilionof Heraclius, the facts, the pla- 
 ces, and the dales, of Theophanes (p. 265—271.) are so accurate and 
 authentic, that he must have followed the original letters of the em- 
 peror, of which the Paschal Chronicle has preserved (p. 398—402.) a 
 very curious specimen. 
 
 n The words of Theophanes are remarkable : tirnkSt Xce-ftr.f ng 
 
 f<rxs»To» '■VlfxxKMt^f iSav/LLsKTi, (p. 269.) Young princes who discover 
 a propensitj to war should repeatedly transcribe and translate such 
 Mlutaiy text*. 
 
126 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VII* 
 
 
 approaching end, lie resolved to fix the tiara on tlie 
 head of Merdaza, the most favoured of his sons. But 
 the will of Chosroes was no longer revered, and Siroes, 
 who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, 
 had conspired with the malcontents to assert and an- 
 ticipate the rights of primogeniture." Twenty-two 
 satraps, they styled tliemselves patriots, were tempted 
 by the wealth and honours of a new reign : to the sol- 
 diers, the heir of Chosroes promised an increase of 
 pay ; to the christians, the free exercise of their reli- 
 gion ; to the captives, liberty and rewards ; and to the 
 nation, instant peace and the reduction of taxes. It 
 was determined by the conspirators, that Siroes, with 
 the ensigns of royalty, should appear in the camp ; and 
 if the enterprise should fail, his escape was contrived 
 to the imperial court. But the new monarch was 
 saluted with unanimous acclamations ; the flight of 
 He is dennsed, Chosroes (yet where could he have fled?) 
 A^D. 023. was rudely arrested, eitjhteen sons were 
 and nfmdr?ed by massacred before his face, and he was 
 his sjn Siroes, thrown into a dungeon, where he expired 
 teb. 23. Qp ^i^g ^f^j, jjgy^ 'j'l^g Greeks and mo- 
 dern Persians minutely describe how Chosroes was 
 insulted, and famished, and tortured, by the command 
 of an inhuman son, who so far surpassed the example 
 of his father : but at the time of his death, what tongue 
 would relate the story of the parricide 1 what eye 
 could penetrate into the tower of darkness? According 
 to the faith and mercy of his christian enemies, he 
 sunk without hope into a still deeper abyss ;P and it 
 will not be denied, that tyrants of every age and sect 
 are the best entitled to such infernal abodes. The 
 glory of the house of Sassan ended with the life of 
 Chosroes : his unnatural son enjoyed only right months 
 the fruit of his crimes : and in the space of four years, 
 the regal title was assumed by nine candidates, who 
 disputed, with the sword o'r dagger, the fragments of 
 an exhausted monarchy. Every province, and each 
 city of Persia, was the scene of independence, of dis- 
 cord, and of blood, and the state of anarchy prevailed 
 about ei^ht years longer, till the factions were silen- 
 ced and united under the common yoke of \\z Arabian 
 caliphs.'! 
 
 Treaty of peace "^^ ^*^°" ^® *^® mountains became pas- 
 beiween the two sable, the emperor received the welcome 
 empires, news of the success of the conspiracy, 
 
 March, (kc. ^^^ death of Chosroes, and the elevation 
 of his eldest son to the throne of Persia. 
 The authors of the revolution, eager to display their 
 merits in the court or camp of Tauris, preceded the am- 
 bassadors of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their 
 master to his 6ro/Acr the emperor of the Romans.' In the 
 language of the usurpers of every age, he imputes his 
 own crimes to the Deity, and without degrading' his 
 equal majesty, he offers to reconcile the long discord of 
 the two nations, by a treaty of peace and alliance 
 more durable tlian brass or iron. The conditions of the 
 treaty were easily defined and faithfully executed. In 
 the recovery of the standards and prisoners which had 
 fallen into the hands of the Persians, the emperor imi- 
 tated the example of Augustus: their care of the na- 
 tional dignity was celebrated by the poets of the 
 
 The authentic narrative of the fall of Chosroes is contained in the 
 letter of Heraclius (Chron. Paschal, p. 398.) and the history of Theo- 
 phanes, (p. 271.) 
 
 p On the first rumour of the death of Chosroes, an Heracliad in two 
 cantos was instantly published atConstaniinople by George of Pisidia, 
 
 33. 97—105.) A priest and a poet might very properly exult in the 
 amnation of the public enemy, {'.ujrta-^v ivrx^Tx^w, v. 56.) but such 
 mean revenge is unworthy of a king and a conqueror ; and I am sorry 
 to find so much black superstition (i»=A*»z»-' Xso-joii,- tntn xxt j^-tuj- 
 
 fixTic-ii It; T:t K«Txx,'»»"* ...«»? TO jrvf axxTstir^jf bv, &C.) in the 
 
 letter of Heraclius : he almost applauds the parricide of Siroes as an 
 act of piety and justice. 
 
 q The best oriental accounts of this last period of the Sassanian 
 kin<_'8 are found in Eulychius, (Annal. lom. ii. p. 251—256.) wlio dis- 
 sernblps the parricide of Siroes, D'Herbelol, (Bibliuihec, Orieniale, 
 p. 739.) and Assemanni. (Bibliothec. Oriental, torn. iii. p. 415—420.) 
 
 r The letter of Siroes in the Paschal Chronicle (p. 402.) unfortu- 
 nately enos before he proceeds to business. The treaty appears in 
 iu e^cecution in the histories of TheopUanes and Nicephoru«. 
 
 times, but the decay of genius may be measured by^, 
 the distance between Horace and George of Pisidia : 
 the subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed 
 from persecution, slavery, and exile ; but instead of 
 the Roman eagles, the true wood of the holy cross was 
 restored to the importunate demands of the successor 
 of Constantine. The victor was not ambitious of en- 
 larging the weakness of the empire ; the son of Chos- 
 roes abandoned without regret the conquests of his fa- 
 ther; the Persians who evacuated the cities of Syria 
 and Egypt were honourably conducted to the frontier, 
 and a war which had wounded the vitals of the two 
 monarchies, produced no change in their external and 
 relative situation. The return of Heraclius from Tau . 
 ris to Constantinople, was a perpetual triumph ; and 
 after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he peace- 
 ably enjoyed the sabbath cf his toils. After a long 
 impatience, the senate, the clergy, and the people, 
 went forth to meet their hero, with tears and acclama- 
 tions, with olive branches and innumerable lamps : 
 he entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four 
 elephants ; and as soon as the emperor could disen- 
 gage himself from the tumult of public joy, he tasted 
 more genuine satisfaction in the embraces of his mo- 
 ther and his son.' 
 
 The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph 
 of a very different kind, the restitution of the true 
 cross to the holy sepulchre. Heraclius performed in 
 person the pilgriinage of Jerusalem, the identity of 
 the relic was verified by the discreet patriarch,* and 
 this august ceremony has been commemorated ny the 
 annual festival of the exaltation of the cross. Before 
 the emperor presumed to tread the consecrated ground, 
 he was instructed to strip himself of the diadem and 
 purple, the pomp and vanity of the world : but in the 
 judgment of his clergy, the persecution of the Jews 
 was more easily reconciled with the precepts of the 
 gospel. He again ascended his throne to receive the 
 congratulations of the ambassadors of France and In- 
 dia : and the fame of Moses, Alexander and Hercules," 
 was eclipsed, in the popular estimation, by the supe- 
 rior merit and glory of the great Heraclius. Yet the 
 deliverer of the east was indigent and feeble. Of the 
 Persian spoils, the most valuable portion had been ex- 
 pended in the war, distributed to the soldiers, or buri- 
 ed, by an unlucky tempest, in the waves of the Eux- 
 ine. The conscience of the emperor was oppressed 
 by the obligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, 
 which he had borrowed for their own defence : a per- 
 petual fund was required to satisfy these inexorable 
 creditors ; the provinces, already wasted by the arms 
 and avarice of the Persians, were compelled to a se- 
 cond payment of the same taxes ; and the arrears of 
 a simple citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were 
 commuted to a fine of one hundred thousand pieces of 
 gold. The loss of two hundred thousand soldiers* 
 who had fallen by the sword, was of less fatal impor- 
 tance than the decay of arts, agriculture, and popula- 
 tion, in this long and destructive war: and although a 
 victorious army had been formed under the standard of 
 Heraclius, the unnatural eflfort appears to have exhaus- 
 ted rather than exercised their strength. While the 
 emperor triumphed at Constantinople or Jerusalem, an 
 
 • The burthen of Corneille's son?, 
 
 '* Montrez Heraclius au peuple qui 1' attend," 
 is much better suited to the present occasion. See his triumph in 
 Theophanes, (p. 272, 273.) and Kicephorus, (p. 15, 16.) The life of the 
 mother and tenderness of the son are attested by George of Pisidia. 
 (Bell. Abar. 255, &c. p. 49.) The metaphor of the Sabb«th is used, 
 somewhat profanely, by these Byzantine christians. 
 
 t See Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. G28. No. 1—4.) Eutychius, 
 (Annal. tom. ii. p. 240—248.) Nicephorus, (Brev. p. 15 ) The seals of 
 the case had never been broken ; and this preservation of the cross is 
 ascribed (under God) to the devotion of queen Sira. 
 
 u George of Pisidia, Across, iii. de Expedit. contra Persas, 415, &c. 
 and Heracleid, Acroas. i. 65—138. I neglect the meaner parallels of 
 Daniel, Timoiheus, &c.; Chosroes and the chagan were of course com- 
 pared to Belshazzar, Pharaoh, ihe old serpent, &.c. 
 
 X Suidas (in Excerpt. Hist. Bvzant. p. 46.) gives this number : but 
 either the Ptrtian must be* read for the laaurian war, or this paasage 
 do6« not belong to the cmptror Heraclius. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 obscure town on the confines of Syria was pillaged by 
 the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some troops who 
 advanced to its relief: an ordinary and trifling occur- 
 rence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolu- 
 tion. These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; 
 tlieir frantic valour had emerged from the desert ; and 
 in the last eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the 
 Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from 
 the Persians. 
 
 U7 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Theological history of the doctrine of the tncarnaiion. — 
 T/ie human and divine nature of Chi^ist. — Enmity of 
 the patriarchs of Alexandria and Constanti7tople.— St. 
 Cyril and A''estoriu8. — Third gejieral council of Ephe- 
 sus.— Heresy of Eutyches. — Fourth general council of 
 Chalcedon. — Civil and ecclesiastical discord. — Intole- 
 rance of Justinian. — The three chapters,— Tlic MoJio- 
 thelite controversy.— State of the oriental sects.— I. 
 The JSTestorians.— II. The Jacobites.— Ul. The Maro- 
 nites,—lV, The Armenians.— Y. The Copts and Mys- 
 sinians. 
 
 The inrarnaiion After the extinction of paganism, the 
 of Christ, christians in peace and piety might have 
 enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the principle of 
 di?cord was alive in thei: bosom, and they were more 
 solicitous to explore the nature, than to practise the 
 laws, of their founder. I have already observed, that 
 the disputes of the Trinity were succeeded by those 
 of the Incarnation ; alike scandalous to the church, 
 alike pernicious to the state, , still more minute in their 
 origin, still more durable in their eflfects. It is my 
 design to comprise in the present chapter a religious 
 war of two hundred and fifty years, to represent the 
 ecclesiastical and political schism of the oriental sects, 
 and to introduceitheir clamorous or sanguinary contests, 
 by a modest inquiry into the doctrines of the primi- 
 tive church.* 
 
 I. A pure man to I. A laudable regard for the honour of 
 
 the Ebioniies. the first proselytes, has countenanced the 
 
 belief, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites, or at least 
 
 X By what means shall I authenticate this previous inquiry, which 
 I liave studied to circumscribe and compress 1--If I persist in support- 
 ing each fact or reflection by its proper and special evidence, every 
 line would demand a string of testimonies, and every note would 
 Bwell to a critical dissertatio'h. But the numberless passacps of an- 
 tifpiity which I have seen with my own eyes, are compiled, dicesied, 
 and illustrated, by Petarius and Le Clere, by Heausobre and Mas- 
 heim. I shall be content to fortify my narrative by the names and 
 character of these respectable guides ; and in tlie contemplation of a 
 minute or remote o!>jpct, I am not ashamed to borrow the aid of the 
 strongest glasses: 1. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius, is a work 
 of incredible labour and compass; the volumes which relate solely 
 to the incarnation (two folios, fifth and si.vlh, of 837 pages) are divided 
 into sixteen books -the first of history, the remainder of controversy 
 and d(»ctrine. The Jesuit's learning is copious and correct; his 
 Laiiniiy is pure, his method clear, his argument profound and well 
 connected ; but he is the slave of the fathers, the scourge of heretics, 
 and the enemy of truth and candour, as often as they are inimical to 
 tlie catholic cause. 2. The Arminian Le Clerc, who has composed 
 in a quarto volume (Amsterdam, 1716) the ecclesiastical history of the 
 two first centuries, was free both in his temper and situation; his 
 sonse is clear, but his thoughts are narrow ; he reduces the reason or 
 f'Uy of ages to the standard of his private judgment, and his iinpar- 
 tiality is sometimes quickened, and sometimes tainted, by his oppo- 
 sition to the fathers. See the heretics (Cerinthians, Ixxx. Ebionites, 
 ciii. Carpocratians, cxx. Valentinians, cxxi. Basilidians, cxxiii. Mar- 
 cionitrs, cxli, &c.) under their proper dates. 3. The Histoire Critique 
 du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734, 1739, in two vols, in 4to, with a 
 pcsihumous dissertation sur les Nazarenes, Lausanne, 1745) of M. de 
 Beausobre, is a treasure of ancient philosophy and theology. The 
 learned historian spins with incomparable art the systematic thread 
 of opinion, and transforms himself by turns Into the person of a saint, 
 a sage, or a heretic. Yet his refinement is sometimes excessive : he 
 betrays an amiable partiality in favour of the weaker side, and, while 
 he guards against calumny, he does not allow sufficient scope for su- 
 perstition and fanaticism. A copious table of contents will direct 
 the reader to any point that he wishes to examine. 4. Less profound 
 than Petavius, less independent than Le Clerc, less ingenious than 
 Beausobre, the historian Mosheim is full, rational, correct, and 
 minlerate. In his learned work, de Rebus Christianis ante Constan- 
 tinum, (Helmsiadt, 1753, in 4to,) see the Nazarenes and Ebionites. 
 p. 172-179. 328—332.) The Gnostics in general, p. 179, &c. Ctrin- 
 thus, p. 196—202. Basilides, p. 352-361. Carpocraies, p. 365-367. 
 Valeniinus, p.371-3S9. Marcion, p. 404— ilO. The Manich»ans, 
 p. &29-837, kc. ' 
 
 the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their obsti* 
 nate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites. 
 Their churches have disappeared, their books are oblite- 
 rated : their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of 
 fiiith, and the softness of their infant creed would be 
 variously moulded by the zeal or prudence of three 
 hundred years. Yet the most charitable criticism 
 must refuse these sectaries any knowledge of the pure 
 and proper divinity of Christ. Edu°cated in tne 
 school of Jewish prophecy and prejudice, they had 
 never been taught to elevate their hopes above a hu- 
 man and temporal Messiah." If they had courage to 
 hail their king when he appeared, in a plebeian aarb, 
 their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discern- 
 ing their God, who had studiously disguised his celes- 
 tial character under the name and persl>n of a mortal.' 
 The familiar companions of Jesus of Nazareth con- 
 versed with their friend and countryman, who, in all 
 the actions of rational and animal life appeared of the 
 same species with themselves. His progress from 
 infancy to youth and manhood, was marked"by a regu- 
 lar increase in stature and viisdom; and after a painful 
 agony of mind and body, he expired on the cross. 
 He lived and died for the service of mankind : but the 
 life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted 
 to the cause of religion and justice ; and although the 
 stoic or the hero may disdain the humble virtues of 
 Jesus, the tears which he shed over his friend and 
 country, may be esteemed the purest evidence of his 
 humanity. The miracles of the gospel could not as- 
 tonish a people who held with intrepid faith the more 
 splendid prodigies of the Mosaic law. The prophets 
 of ancient days had cured diseases, raised the dead, 
 divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended to hea- 
 ven in a fiery chariot. And the metaphorical style of 
 the Hebrews might ascribe to a saint and martyr, the 
 adoptive title of Son of God. 
 
 Yet in the insuflicient creed of the Hisbinhand 
 Nazarenes and Ebionites, a distinction elevation 
 is faintly noticed between the heretics, who confoun- 
 ded the generation of Christ in the common order of 
 nature, and the less guilty schismatics, who revered 
 the virginity of his mother, and excluded the aid of 
 an earthly father. The incredulity cf the former wa» 
 countenanced by the visible circumstances of his birth, 
 the legal marriajre of his reputed parents, Joseph and 
 Mary, and his lineal claim to the kingdom of David 
 and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and 
 authentic history has been recorded in several copies 
 of the gospel according to St. Matthew,'* which these 
 sectaries long preserved in the original Hebrew,* as the 
 sole evidence of their faith. The natural suspicions 
 of the husband, conscious of his own chastity, were 
 dispelled by the assurance (in a dream) that his wife 
 was pregnant of the Holy Ghost : and as this distant 
 and domestic prodigy could not fall under the personal 
 observation of the historian, he must have listened to 
 
 b K«i y'*f ir»vTif »|^li; rev Xgictv xvSfMTrev i? aivifjiiruiv Trg^vioKm- 
 
 ftiv yivnTiri*!, says the Jew Tryphon, (Justin. Dialog, p. 207.) in thq 
 name of his countrymen ; and the modern Jews^the ffw who divert 
 their thoughts from money to religion, siill hold the same language, 
 and allege the literal sense of the prophets. 
 
 e Chrysostom (Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, tom. v. c. 9. p. 183.) and 
 Athanasius (Petav. Dngmat. Theolog. tom. v. Li. c.2. p. 3 ) are obliged 
 to confess that the divinity of Christ is rarely mentioned by himself, 
 or his apostles. 
 
 d The two first chapters of St. Matthew did not exist in the Ebionita 
 copies; (Epiphan. Haeres. xxx. 13.) and the miraculous conception in 
 one of the last articles which Dr. Priestly has curtailed from his scanty 
 creed. 
 
 e It is probable enough that the first of the ^-uspels for the use of 
 the Jewish converts, was composed in the Hebrew or Syriac idiom; 
 the fact is attested by a chain of fathers— Papias, Trenaeus, Ongen, 
 Jerom, &c. It is devoutly believed by the catholics, and admitted 
 by Casaubon, Grotius, and Isaac Vossius, among the protestant critics. 
 But this Hebrew gospel of St. Matthew is most unaccountably lost; 
 and we may accuse the diligence or fidelity of the primitive churches, 
 who have preferred the unauthorized version of some nameless Greek. 
 Erasmus and his followers, who respect the Greek text as the originaL 
 gospel, deprive themselves of the evidence which declares it to ba 
 the work of an apostle. See Simon, Hist. Critique, &c. tom. iii.c.5 — • 
 9. p. 47—101. and the Prolegomena of Mill and Wetstein lo the Heyg, 
 Testament. 
 
128 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 129 
 
 •< ,; ii 
 
 '(? 
 
 
 the same voice which dictated to Isaiah the future con- 
 ception of a virgin. The son of a virgin, generated 
 by the ineffable operation vf the Holy Spirit, was a 
 creature without example or resemblance, superior in 
 every attribute of mind and body to the children of 
 Adam. Since the introduction of the Greek or Chal- 
 dean philosophy,' the Jews were persuaded ^ of the 
 pre-exislencc, transmifrration, and immortality of souls ; 
 and Providencn was juj^tified by a supposition, thai 
 they were confined in their earthly prisons to extir- 
 pate the stains which they had contracted in a former 
 state.'' But ihe (!e<Trees of purity and corruptirn are 
 almost immeasurable. It might be fairly presumed, 
 that the most subliuje and virtuous of human spirits 
 was infused into the offspring of Mary and tlie Holy 
 Ghost;' that his abasenjent was the result of his 
 voluntary choice ; and that the object of his mission 
 was to purify, iiot his own, but the sins of the world. 
 On his return to his native skies, he rrceivcd the im- 
 mense reward of his obedience; the everlasting king- 
 dom of the Messiah, which had been darkly foretold 
 by the prophets, under the carnal images of peace, 
 of conquest, and of drminion. Omnipotence could 
 enlarge the human faculties of Christ to the extent of 
 bis celestial office. In the language of antiquity, the 
 title of God has not been severely confined to the 
 first parent, and his incomparable minister, his only- 
 begotten Son, might claim, without presumption, the 
 religious, though secondary, worship of a subject 
 world. 
 
 n. A pure God IL The seeds of the faith, which had 
 to the Doceies. slowly arisen in the rocky and ungrateful 
 soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full maturity, to 
 the happier climes of the gentiles; and the strangers 
 of Rome or Asia, who never beheld the manhood, 
 were the more readily disposed to embrace the divin- 
 ity, of Christ. The pojytheist and the philosopher, 
 the Greek and the barbarian, were alike accustomed 
 to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain, of 
 angels or daemons, or deities, or aeons, or emanations, 
 issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem 
 strange or incredible, that the first of these aeons, the 
 Logos^ or word of God, of the same substance with 
 the Father, should descend upon earth, to deliver the 
 human race from vice and error, and to conduct them 
 in the paths of life and immortality. But the pevail- 
 ing doctrine of the eternity and inherent pravity of 
 matter infected the primitive churches of the east. 
 Many among the gentile proselytes refused to believe 
 that a celestial spirit, an undivided portion of the first 
 essence, had been personally united with a mass of 
 impure and contaminated flesh : and, in their zeal for 
 the divinity, they piously abjured the humanity, of 
 Christ. While his blood was still recent on mount 
 Calvary,*^ the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of 
 
 f The mplaphysics of the soul are diseneaispd by Cicero, (Tusculan. 
 1. i.) and Maximus of Tyre, (Disserial. xvi.) from itic imricacies of 
 dialoene, which somptijnes amuse, and ofieii perplex, the readers of 
 the Phadrus, the Phctdon, and the Lairs of Plato. 
 
 g The discipleg of Jesus were persuaded that a man miirht have 
 ginned before he was born, (Jnhn ix. 2.) and ihe Pharisees held the 
 iransniiirralion of virtuous souls; (Joseph, de Bel!. Judaico, I. ii. 
 c. 7.) and a modern Rabbi is modestly assured, that Hermes, Pythag. 
 oras, Plato, &c. derived their metaphysics from his illustrious coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 h Four different opinions have been entertained roncerninp the 
 origin of human souls. 1. Thai they are eternal and divine. 2. That 
 they were created in a separate slate of existence, before their union 
 with the body. 3. That iney have been i)ropagaied from the original 
 Slock of Adam, who contained in himself ine mental as well as the 
 corporeal seed of his posterity. 4. Thai each soul is occasionally 
 created and embodied in the moment of conception.— The last of 
 these sentiments appears to have prevailed among the moderns; and 
 our spiritual history is grown less sublime, without becoming more 
 
 intelligible. 
 
 I 'On >i Tou T,iiTH(i; »J/u%>i >i too AJx^ v,v — was one of the fifteen 
 heresies imputed to Origen, and denied by his apologist. (Phoiius, 
 Bibliolhec. cotl. cxvii. p. 295.) Some of the Rabbis attribute one and 
 the same soul to the persons of Adam, David, and the Messiah. 
 
 k Apostolis adhuc in seculo supersiilibus, apud Judjeam Christi 
 BansunuTPcenie, PHANTASMAdomini corpus asserebatur. Hieronym. 
 advrrs. Lucifer, c. 8. The epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, and 
 «ven ihe gospel according to St. John, are levelled against the grow- 
 in'^' rr,.r of the Docetes, who had obtained too much credit in the 
 
 * Id. Cl John IT. 1—6.) 
 
 ' Asiatics, invented the phanfasiic system, which was 
 
 : afterwards propagated by the Marcionites, the Mani- 
 chaeans, and the various names of the Gnostic heresy.' 
 
 I They denied the truth and authenticity of the gospels, 
 as far as they relate the conception of Mary, the birth 
 of Christ, and the thirty years that preceded the ex- 
 ercise of his ministry. He first appeared on the hanks 
 
 j of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood ; but it 
 was a form only, and not substance ; a human figure 
 
 j created by the hand of Omnipotence to imitate the facul- 
 ties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetual illu- 
 sion on the senses of his friends and enemies. Articu- 
 late S( unds vibrated en the enrs of the disciples; but 
 the image which wr.s impressed on their optic r.erve, 
 eluded the Uiore stubborn evi<lence of their touch ; 
 and they enjoyed the spiritual, not the corporeal, pre- 
 sence of the Son of God. The rage of the Jews was 
 idly wasted against an impassive phantom ; and the 
 mystic scenes of the passion and death, the resurrec- 
 ti n and ascension, of Christ, were represented on the 
 theatre of Jerusalem for the benefit of mankind. If it 
 were urged, that such ideal mimicry, such incessant 
 deception was unworthy of the God of truth, the 
 Docetes agreed with too many of their orthodox 
 brethren in the justification of pious falsehood. In 
 the system of the Gnostics, the Jehovah of Israel, the 
 Creator of this lower world, was a rebellious, or at 
 least an ijjnorant, spirit. The Son of God descended 
 upon earth to abolish his temple and his law ; and, for 
 the accomplishment of this salutary end, he dexter- 
 ously transferred to his own person the hope and pre- 
 diction of a temporal Messiah. 
 
 One of the most subtle disputants of His incorrupu 
 the Manicha;an school, has pressed the ^^^ ^^X* 
 danger and indecency of supposing, that the God of 
 the christians, in the state of a human foetus, emeraed 
 at the end of nine months from a female womb. The 
 pious horror of his antagonists provoked them to dis- 
 claim all sensual circumstances of conception and 
 delivery ; to maintain, that the divinity passed through 
 Mary like a sun-beam ihrouoh a plate of glass ; and to 
 assert, that the seal of her virginity remained unbro- 
 ken even at the moment when she became the mother 
 of Christ. But the rashness of these concessions has 
 encouragred a milder sentiment of those of the Doce- 
 tes, who taught, not that Christ was a phantom, but 
 that he was clothed with an impassable and incorrup- 
 tible body. Such, indeed, in the more orthodox sys- 
 tem, he has acquired since his resurrection, and such 
 he must always have possessed, if it were capable of 
 pervading, without resistance or injury, the density of 
 intermediate matter. Devoid of its most es.sential 
 properties, it might be exempt from the attributes and 
 infirmities of the flesh. A foetus that could increase 
 from an invisible point to its full maturity; a child 
 that could attain the stature of perfect manhood, with- 
 out deriving any nourishment from the ordinary sources, 
 might continue to exist without repairing a daily waste 
 by a daily supply of external matter. Jesus might share 
 the repasts of his disciples without being subject to 
 the calls of thirst or hunger ; and his virgin purity was 
 never sullied by the involuntary stains of sensual con- 
 cupiscence. Of a body thus singularly constituted, a 
 question would arise, by what means, and of what 
 materials, it was originally framed ; and our sounder 
 theology is startled by an answer which was not pecu- 
 liar to the Gnostics, that both the form and the sub- 
 stance proceeded from the divine essence. The idea 
 of pure and absolute spirit is a refinement of modern 
 philosophy : the incorporeal essence, ascribed by the 
 ancients to human souls, celestial beincrs, and even the 
 Deity himself, does not exclude the notion of extended 
 
 1 About the year 200 of the christian »ra, Irenseus and Hippolytus 
 refuted the thirty-two sects, tk^ \|,i«»Jii.iu/uev ^^vwriv^, which had mul- 
 tiplied to fourscore in the time of Epiphanius. (Phot. Biblioih. cod. 
 cxx. cxxi. cxxii.) The five biioks of Irenseus exist only in barbarous 
 I.«iin ; bot the original might perhaps be found in some mouuiesj 
 of'Oreece. • 
 
 in. Double na- 
 ture of Cerin- 
 Ihus. 
 
 space; and their imagination was satisfied with a 
 subtle nature of air, or fire, or ajther, incomparably 
 more perfect than the grossness of the material world. 
 If we define the place, we must describe the figure, of 
 the Deity. Our experience, perhaps our vanity, repre- 
 sents the powers of reason and virtue under a human 
 form. The anthropomorphites, who swarmed among 
 the monks of Egypt and the catholics of Africa, could 
 produce the express declaration of Scripture, that man 
 was made after the image of his Creator." The vene- 
 rable Serapian, one of the saints of the Nitrian desert, 
 relinquished, with many a tear, his darling prejudice; 
 and bewailed like an infant, his unlucky conversion, 
 which had stolen away his God, and left his mind 
 without any visible object of faith or devotion." 
 
 III. Such were the fleeting shadows 
 of the Docetes. A more substantial 
 though less simple hypothesis, was con- 
 trived by Cerinthus of Asia," who dared to oppose the 
 last of the apostles. Placed on the confines of the 
 Jewish and Gentile world, he laboured to reconcile 
 the Gnostic with the Ebionite, by confessing in the 
 same Messiah the supernatural union of a man and a 
 God : and this mystic doctrine was adopted with many 
 fanciful improvements by Carpocrates, Basilides, and 
 Valentine,'' the heretics of the Egyptian school. In 
 their eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was a mere mortal, the 
 legitimate son of Joseph and Mary: but he was the 
 best and wisest of the human race, selected as the 
 worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of 
 the true and supreme Deity. When he was baptized 
 in the Jordan, the Christ, the first of the ajons, the 
 Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the form 
 of a dove, to inhabit his mind and direct his actions, 
 during the allotted period of his ministry. When the 
 Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews, 
 the Christ, an immortal and impassible being, forsook 
 his earthly tabernacle, flew back to the pkroma, or 
 world of spirits, and left the solitary Jesus to suffer, 
 to complain, and to expire. But the justice and gene- 
 rosity of such a desertion are strongly questionable ; 
 and the fate of an innocent martyr, at first impelled, 
 and at length abandoned, by his divine companion, 
 might provoke the pity and indignation of the profane. 
 Their murmurs were variously silenced by the secta- 
 ries who espoused and modified the double system of 
 Cerinthus. It was alleged, that when Jesus was 
 nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a miraculous 
 apathy of mind and body, which rendered him insen- 
 sible of his apparent sufferings. It was aflirraed, that 
 
 m The pilgrim Cassian, who visited Egypt In the beginning of the 
 fifth century, observes and laments the reign of anthropomorphism 
 among the monks, who were not conscious that they embraced the 
 system of Epicunis. (Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, i. 18— 34.) Ab universe 
 propemodum genere monachorum, qui per lotam provinciam Egyp- 
 tum morabantur, prosimplicitatis errore suaceptum est, ut e conirario 
 memoratum ponlificem (.TTieophilus) velut naeresi gravissima de- 
 pravatum, pars maxima seniorum ab universo frateruitatis corpore 
 decerneret deleslandum. (Cassian, Collation, x. 2.) As long as St, 
 Aujrustin remained a Manichaean, he was scandalized by the anthro- 
 pomorphism of the vulgar catholics. 
 
 n Ita est in oratione senex mente confusus, eo quod illam «vSf «». 
 «-o;*of «ov imaginem Deitaiis, quam proponere sibi in oratione consue- 
 "verat, aboleri de suo corde sentiret, ul m amarissimos fletus, crebros- 
 que singultus repente prorumpens, in terram prostratus, cum ejulatu 
 validissimo proclamaret: "Heu me miserum!" tulerunt a me Deum 
 ineum, el quern nunc teneam non habeo, vel quern adorem, aut in- 
 ierpellam jam nescio. Cassian, CoUat. x. 2. 
 
 St. John and Cerinthus (A. D. 80. Cleric. Hist. Eccles. p. 493.) ac- 
 claentally met in the public bath of Ephesus; but the apostle fled 
 from the heretic, lest the building should tumble on their heads. 
 Jjiis foolish story, reprobated by Dr. Middleton, (Miscellaneous 
 'J: "^ks, vol. ii.) is related however by Irenaeus, (iii. 3.) on the evidence 
 of Polycarp, and was probably suited lo the time and residence of 
 jL-erinthus. The obsolete, yet probably the true, reading of 1 John, i v. 
 o.— OA.UII Tov liio-owi'— alludei to the double nature of that primitive 
 heretic. 
 
 p The Valentinlans embraced a complex, and almost Incoherent, 
 «,v8tcm. 1. Both Christ and Jesus were aeons, though of difTerenl de- 
 grees ; the one acting as the rational soul, the other as the divine spirit, 
 of the Saviour. 2. At the time of the passion thev both retired, and 
 left only a sensitive soul and a hinian body. 3. Even that body was 
 *''{J^'"<'*li,and perhaps apparent.— Such are the laborious conclusions 
 °'/^<^heim. But I much doubt whether the Latin translator under- 
 Wood Irenseus, and whether Irenaeus and the Valentinians understood 
 laemselves. 
 
 Vol. II. — R 9 
 
 these momentary though real pangs, would be abun- 
 dantly repaid by the temporal reign of a thousand 
 years reserved for the Messiah in his kingdom of the 
 new Jerusalem. It was insinuated, that if he suffered 
 he deserved to suffer; that human nature is never abso- 
 lutely perfect; and that the cross and passion might 
 serve to expiate the venial transgressions of the son 
 of Joseph, before his mysterious union with the Son of 
 God.i 
 
 IV. All those who believe the imma- ly pivine in- 
 teriality of the soul, a specious and noble carnation of* 
 tenet, must confess, from their present Apoiiinaris. 
 experience, the incomprehensible union of mind and 
 matter. A similar union is not inconsistent with a 
 much hig:her, or even with the highest, degree of men- 
 tal faculties ; and the incarnation of an aeon or arch- 
 angel, the most perfect of created spirits, does not 
 involve any positive contradiction or absurdity. In 
 the age of religious freedom, which was determined 
 by the council of Nice, the dignity of Christ was 
 nieasured by private judgment according to the indefi- 
 nite rule of Scripture, or reason, or tradition. But 
 when his pure and proper divinity had been established 
 on the ruins of Arianism, the faith of the catholics 
 trembled on the edge of a precipice where it was im- 
 possible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall; 
 and the manifold inconveniences of their creed were 
 aufgravated by the sublime character of their theology. 
 They hesitated to pronounce; that God himself, the 
 second person of an equal and consubstantial trinity, 
 was manifested in the flesh ; ' that a being who per- 
 vades the universe had been confined in the womb of 
 Mary; Ma/ his eternal duration had been marked by 
 the days, and months, and years, of human existence ; 
 that the Almighty had been scourged and crucified ; 
 that his impassible essence had felt pain and anguish ; 
 that his omniscience was not exempt from ignorance ; 
 and that the source of life and immortality expired on 
 mount Calvary. These alarming consequences were 
 affirmed with iJinblushing simplicity by Apollinnris,* 
 bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the 
 church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was 
 skilled in all the sciences of Greece; eloquence, eru- 
 dition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes of 
 Apoiiinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of re- 
 ligion. The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy 
 antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestled with the 
 Arians and polytheists, and, though he affected the 
 rigour of geometrical demonstration, his commentaries 
 revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the Scrip- 
 tures. A mystery, which had long floated in the loose- 
 ness of popular belief, was defined by his perverse 
 diligence in a technical form ; and he first proclaimed 
 the memorable words, "One incarnate nature of 
 Christ," which are still re-echoed with hostile cla- 
 mours in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Ethiopia. 
 He taught that the Godhead was united or mingled 
 with the body of a man ; and that the Logos, the eler- 
 
 q The heretics abused the passionate exclamation of" My God, my 
 God, why hast ihouforsaken me !" Rousseau, who has drawn an elo- 
 quent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets 
 that not a word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of 
 the dying philosopher. In the Messiah, such sentiments could be 
 only apparent ; and such ill sounding words are properly explained 
 as the application of a psalm or prophecy. 
 
 r This strong expression might be justified by the language of Su 
 Paul;(l Tim. iii. 16.) bui we are deceived by our modern Bibles. The 
 word 5 iichich) was altered to jfo,- (Go<f) at 'Constantinople in the be- 
 ginning of the sixth century; the true reading, which is visible in 
 the Latin and Syriac versions, still exists in the reaaoni ng of the Greek 
 as well as of the Latin fathers : and this fraud, with thai oi* the thre€ 
 witnesses of St. John, is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton. (See 
 his two letters translated by M. de Missy, in the Journal Britannique. 
 lom. XV. p. 148—190. 351—390 ) I have w^eighed the arguments, and 
 may yielatotheauihority,of the first of philosophers, who was deeply 
 skilled in critical and theological studies. 
 
 s For Apoiiinaris and his sect, see Socrates, 1. il. c. 46. 1. iii. c. 16, 
 Sozomen, 1. v. c. 18. I. vi. c. 25-27. Theodoret, 1. v. 3. 10, 11. Title- 
 mont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, torn. vii. p. 602—638. Not. p. 789 — 
 794. in 4to. Venise, 1732. The contemporary saints always mention 
 the bishop of Laodicea as a friend and brother. The style of the more 
 recent historians is harsh and hostile : yet Philostoi^ius compares 
 him (I. viii. c. 11—15.) lo Basil and Gregory. 
 
^ I 
 
 130 
 
 % THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 nal wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place and office 
 of a human soul. Yet as the profound doctor had been 
 terrified at his own rashness, Apollinaris was heard to 
 mutter some faint accents of excuse and explanation. 
 He acquiesced in the old distinction of the Greek 
 philosophers, between the rational and sensitive sou 
 of man, that he might reserve the Logos for intellectual 
 functions, and employ the subordinate human principle 
 in the meaner actions of animal life. \^ ilh the mode- 
 rate Docetes, he revered Mary as the spiritual, rather 
 than as the carnal, mother of Christ, whose body either 
 came from heaven, impassible and incorruptible, or was 
 absorbed, and as it were transfornipd, into the essence 
 of the Deity. The system of Apollinaris was strenu- 
 ously encountered by the Asiatic and Syrian divines, 
 whose schools are honoured by the names of Basil, 
 Gregory, and Chrysostom, and tainted by those of 
 Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius. But the person 
 of the ajred bishop of Laodicea, his character and dig- 
 nity, remained inviolate ; and his rivals, since we may 
 not suspect them of the weakness of toleration, were 
 astonisi.ed, perhaps, by the novelty of the argument, 
 and diffident of the final sentence of the catholic 
 church. Her judgment at length inclined in their 
 favour ; the heresy of Apollinaris was condemned, and 
 the separate congregations of his disciples were pro- 
 scribed by the imperial laws. But his principles were 
 secretly entertained in the monasteries of Egypt, and 
 his enemies felt the hatred of Theophilus and Cyril, 
 the successive patriarchs of Alexandria. 
 V n >,^ ^- '^h® grovelling Ebionite, and the 
 
 Jem and'verbai phanlastic Docetes, were rejected and 
 disputes. forgotten : the recent zeal against the 
 
 errors of Apollinaris, reduced the catholics to a seem- 
 ing agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus. 
 But instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they 
 established, and we still embrace, the substantial, indis- 
 soluble, and everlasting union of a perfect God with a 
 perfect man, of the second person of the Trinity with a 
 reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of 
 the fifth century the unify of the Iwo natures was the 
 prevailing doctrine of the church. On all sides, it was 
 confessed, that the mode of their co-existence could 
 neither be represented by our ideas, nor expressed by our 
 languajje. Yet a secret and incurable discord was che- 
 rish^ed, "between those who were most apprehensive of 
 confounding, and those who were more fearful of sepa- 
 ratintr, the divinity and the humanity of Cliritt. Im- 
 pelled by religions frenzy, they fled with adverse haste 
 from the error which they mutually deemed most de- 
 structive of truth and salvation. On either hand thry 
 were anxious to guard, they were jealous to defend, 
 the union and the distinction of the two natures, and 
 to invent such forms of speech, such symbols of dec- 
 trine, as were least susceptible of doubt or ambiguity. 
 The poverty of ideas and language tempted them to 
 ransack art and nature for every possible comparison, 
 and each comparison misled their fancy in the explana- 
 tion of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic 
 microscope, an atom is enlarged to a monster, and each 
 party was skilful to exaggerate the absurd or impious 
 conclusions that might be extorted from the principles 
 of their adversaries. To escape from each other, they 
 wandered through many a dark and devious thicket, 
 till they were astonished by the horrid phantoms of 
 Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite 
 issues of the theological labyrinth. As soon as they 
 beheld the twilight of sense and heresy, they started, 
 measured back their steps, and were again involved in 
 the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To purge them- 
 selves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error, 
 they disavowed their consequences, explained their 
 principles, excused their indiscretions, and unanimous- 
 ly pronounced the sounds of concord and faith. Yet a 
 latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among 
 the embers of contrnversy; by the breath of prejudice 
 and passion, it was quickly kindled to a mighty flame, 
 
 A. P. 412. 
 Oct. 16.— 
 A. D. 444. 
 June 27. 
 
 and the verbal disputes* of the oriental sects have 
 shaken the pillars of the church and state. 
 
 The name of Cyril of Alexandria is 
 famous in controversial story, and the 
 title of saint is a mark that his opinions 
 and his parly have finally prevailed. In 
 the house of his uncle, the archbishop Theophilus, he 
 imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dc minion, 
 and five years of his youth were profitably spent in 
 the adjacent monasteries of Nitria. Under the tuition 
 of the abbot Serapion, he applied himself to ecclesias- 
 tical studies with such indefatigable ar- Cvril patriarch 
 dour, that in the course of one sleepless of Alexandria, 
 nicrht he has perused the four gospels, the catholic 
 epTstles, and the epistle to the Romans. Origen he 
 detested ; but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, 
 of Athanasius and Basil, were continually in his 
 hands: by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith 
 was confirmed and his wit was sharpened ; he exten- 
 ded round his cell the cobwebs of scholastic theology, 
 and meditated the works of allegory and metaphysics, 
 whose remains, in seven verbose folios, now peaceably 
 slumber by the side of their rivals." Cyril prayed and 
 fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the re- 
 proach of a friend *) were still fixed on the world ; and 
 the call of Theophilus, who summoned him to the 
 tumult of cities and synods, was too readily obeyed 
 by the aspiring hermit. With the approbation of his 
 uncle he assumed the office, and acquired the fame, of 
 a popular preacher. His comely person adorned the 
 pulpit, the harmony of his voice resounded in the 
 cathedral, his friends were stationed to lead or s<-"ond 
 the applause of the consrpgation,^ and the has*/ notes 
 of the scribes preserved his discours< s, which, in their 
 efl^ect, though not in their composition, might be com- 
 pared with those of the Athenian orators. The death 
 of Theophilus expanded and realized the hopes of his 
 nephew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided ; the 
 soldiers and their general supported the claims of the 
 archdeacon ; but a resistless multitude, with voices 
 and with hands, asserted the cause of their favourite; 
 and, after a period of thirty-nine years, Cyril was 
 seated on the throne of Athanasius.' 
 
 The prize was not unworthy of his nig tyrannv. 
 ambition. At a distance from the ccurl, A. D. 413, 414, 
 and at the head of an immense capital, ^ »' <^- 
 the patriarch, as he was now styled, of Alexandria, 
 had uradually usurped the state and authority of a 
 civil magistrate. The public and private charities of 
 the city '^we re managed by his discretion; his voice 
 inflamed or appeased the passions of the multitude; 
 his commands were blindly obeyed by his numerous 
 and fanatic parabolani,*^ familiarized in their daily office 
 
 t I appeal to the confession of two oriental prelates, Gregory Abul- 
 phara"iii8 the Jacobite primate of the east, and Elias the Nestorian 
 nipiropolitan of Damascus, (see A9scman.Bibliolhcc.Onenlal.lom.il. 
 p 291. torn. iii. p. 514, &c.)that the Melchites, Jacobites, Neslorians, 
 &c agree in the doctrine, and differ only in the expression. Our most 
 learned and rational divines— Basnage, Le Clerc, Beausobre, La 
 Croze, Mosheim, Jablonski— are inclined to favour this charitable 
 judgment ; but the zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and the mod©- 
 ration of Dupin is conveyed in a whisper. . «. . 
 
 u La Croze (Hist, du Chrislianisme dcs Indes, torn. i. p. 24.) avows 
 his contempt for the genius and writings of Cyril. De tous les ou« 
 vra^es des anciens, il y en a peu qu'on lise avec moms d'utilit6 : and 
 Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, torn. iv. p. 42—52.) in words ot 
 respect, teaches us to despise them. „..,,.. , 
 
 X Of Isidore of Pelusium, (I. i. epist, 25. p. 8.) As the letter is not 
 of the most creditable sort, Tillemont, less sincere than the Bollan- 
 dists, affects a doubt whether this Cyril is the nephew of Theophilus. 
 (Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p. 268.) „ .. .ovi- r 
 
 T A grammarian is named by Socrates (1. vu. 13.) J.»*-uf 95 S, «k^o«. 
 r/f Tov iTTio-xo^ou Kue«A.X3« KXJir-J, x«. »rif • to x^otouj iv T«*f Std*r 
 
 z See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates (1. vii. c. 7.) and 
 Renaudot. (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 106. 108.) The Abb6 Re 
 naudot drew his materials from the Arabic history of Severus, bishop 
 of Hermopolis Magna, or Ashmunein, in the tenth century, who can 
 never be trusted, unless our assent is extorted by the internal evi- 
 dence of facts. , . , . ., .• •« 
 
 a The Parabolani of Alexandria were a charitable corporation, in- 
 stituted during the plague of Gellienus, to visit the sick and to bury 
 the dead. They gradually enlarged, abused, and sold the privileges 
 of their order. Their outrageous conduct under the reign of Cyril pro- 
 voked the emperor to deprive the patriarch of their aominaiion, ani- 
 
 with scenes of death ; and the praefects of Egypt were 
 awed or provoked by the temporal power of these 
 christian pontifl^s. Ardent in the prosecution of heresy, 
 Cyril auspiciously opened his reign by oppressing the 
 Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of the sec- 
 taries. The interdiction of their religious worship 
 appeared in his eyes a just and meritorious act; and 
 he confiscated their holy vessels, without apprehend- 
 ing the guilt of sacrilege. The toleration, and even 
 the privileges, of the Jews, who had multiplied to the 
 number of forty thousand, were secured by the laws 
 of the Cscsars and Piolemies, and a long prescription 
 of seven hundred years since the foundation of Alex- 
 andria. Without any legal sentence, without any 
 royal mandate, the patriarch, at the dawn of day, led 
 a seditious multitude to the attack of the synagogues. 
 Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapabte of 
 resistance ; their houses of prayer were levelled with 
 the ground, and the episcopal warrior, after rewarding 
 his troops with the plunder of their goods, expelled 
 from the city the remnant of the unbelieving nation. 
 Perhaps he might plead the insolence of their prospe- 
 rity, and their deadly haired of the christians, whose 
 blood they had recently shed in a malicious or acci- 
 dental tumult. Such crimes would have deserved the 
 animadversion of the magistrate; but in this promis- 
 cuous outrage, the innocent were confounded with the 
 guilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by the loss 
 of a wealthy and industrious colony. The zeal of 
 Cyril exposed him to the penalties of the Julian law ; 
 but in a feeble government, and a superstitious age, 
 he was secure of impunity, and even of praise. Ores- 
 tes complained ; but his just complaints were too 
 quickly forgotten by the ministers of Theodosius, and 
 too deeply remembered by a priest who afiected to 
 pardon, and continued to hate, the prefect of Egypt. 
 As he passed through the streets, his chariot was as- 
 saulted by a band of five hundred of the Nitrian 
 monks ; his guards fled from the wild beasts of the 
 desert ; his protestations that he was a christian and a 
 catholic, were answered by a volley of stones, and the 
 face of Orestes was covered with blood. The loyal 
 citizens of Alexandria hastened to his rescue; he in- 
 stantly satisfied his justice and revenge against the 
 monk by whose hand he had been wounded, and Am- 
 raonius expired under the rod of the lictor. At the 
 command of Cyril his body was raised from the 
 ground, and transported, in solemn procession, to the 
 cathedral ; the name of Ammonius was changed to 
 that of Thaumasius the wonderful ; his tomb was deco- 
 rated with the trophies of martyrdom, and the patri- 
 arch ascended the pulpit to celebrate the magnanimity 
 of an assassin and a rebel. Such honours might in- 
 cite the faithful to combat and die under the banners 
 of the saint; and he soon prompted, or accepted, the 
 sacrifice of a virgin, who professed the religion of the 
 Greeks, and cultivated the friendship of Orestes. 
 Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician,** 
 was initiated in her father's studies : her learned com- 
 ments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and 
 Diophantus, and she publicly taught, both at Athens 
 and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. 
 In the bloom of beauty, and in the maturity of wis- 
 dom, the modest maid refused her lovers and instruc- 
 ted her disciples; the persons most illustrious for their 
 rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philo- 
 sopher; and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the gor- 
 geous train of horses and slaves who crowded the 
 
 131 
 
 door of her academy. A rumour was spread amonff 
 the christians, that the daughter of Theon was the 
 only obstacle to the reconciliation of the praefect and 
 the archbishop ; and that obstacle was speedily remo- 
 ved. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, 
 Hypatia was torn from her chariot, stripped naked' 
 dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by 
 the hands of Peter the reader, and a troop of savage 
 and merciless fanatics : her flesh was scraped from her 
 bones with sharp oyster-shells,<= and her quivering 
 limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progress 
 of inquiry and punishment was stopped by seasonable 
 gifts; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted an 
 indelible stain on the character and religion of Cyril 
 of Alexandria.* 
 
 Superstition, perhaps, would more .. 
 ?^ntly expiate the blood of a virgin, ^rfhofCo'iSuri: 
 than the banishment of a saint ; and linopie, 
 Cyril had accompanied his uncle to the A" ^'/i?* 
 iniquitous synod of the Oak. When -^P""" *^- 
 the memory of Chrysostom was restored and conse^ 
 crated, the nephew of Theophilus, at the head of a 
 dying faction, still maintained the justice of his sen- 
 tence; nor was it till after a tedious delay and an ob- 
 stinate resistance, that he yielded to the consent of the 
 catholic world." His enmity to the Byzantine pon- 
 tiffs ' w;as a sense of interest, not a sally of passion : 
 he envied their fortunate station in the sunshine of the 
 imperial court; and he dreaded their upstart ambition, 
 which oppressed the metropolitans of Europe and 
 Asia, invaded the provinces of Antioch and Alexan- 
 dria, and measured their diocese by the limits of the 
 empire. The long moderation of Atticus, the mild 
 usurper of the throne of Chrysostom, suspended the 
 animosities of the eastern patriarchs ; hut Cyril was 
 at length awakened by the exaltation of a rival more 
 worthy of his esteem and hatred. After the short and 
 troubled reign of Sisinnius, bishop of Constantinople, 
 the factions of the clergy and people were appeased 
 by the choice of the emperor, who, on this occasion, 
 consulted the voice of fame, and invited the merit of 
 a stranger. Nestorius,* a native of Germanicia, and 
 a monk of Antioch, was recommended by the austerity 
 of his life, and the eloquence of his sermons ; but the 
 first homily which he preached before the devout Theo- 
 dosius betrayed the acrimony and impatience of his 
 zeal. "Give me, O Caesar!" he exclaimed, "give 
 me the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you in 
 exchange the kingdom of heaven. Exterminate with 
 me the heretics; and with you I will exterminate the 
 Persians." On the fifth day, as if the treaty had been 
 already signed, the patriarch of Constantinople disco- 
 vered, surprised, and attacked, a secret conventicle of 
 the Arians : they preferred death to submission ; the 
 flames that were kindled by their despair, soon spread 
 to the neighbouring houses, and the triumph of Nes- 
 torius \yas clouded by the name of incendiary. On. 
 either side of the Hellespont his episcopal vigour im- 
 posed a rigid formulary of faith and discipline; achro- 
 
 restrain their number to five or six hundred. But these restraints 
 were transient and ineffectual. See the Theodosian Code, 1. xvi. tit. 
 ij. and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p 27&— 278. 
 
 b For Theon, and his daughter Hypatia, see Fabricius, Bibliothec. 
 torn. VIII. p. 210,211. Herar icle in the Lexicon of Suidas is curious 
 and original. Hesychius (Meursii Opera, torn. vii. p. 295, 296.) ob- 
 serves, that she was pmseciited •^•« »i wTi^o.wooa-xt. a-asi^v • and 
 an epigram in the Greek Anthology (1. i. c. 76. p. 159. edit. Brodai) 
 celebrates her knowledge and eloquence. She is honourably men- 
 tioned (Epist. 10. 15, 16. 33-80. 124. 135. 153.) by her friend and dis- 
 ciple the philosophic bishop Syuesius. 
 
 C OffXKOK amXov, xxi fxiXy,Siv StjtTwxg-xvTn;, JcC. Oyster-shellg 
 
 were plentifully strewed on the sea-beach before the Caesareum. I 
 may therefore prefer the literal sense, without rejecting the metapho- 
 rical version of tegula, tiles, which is used by M. de'Valois. I am 
 ignorant, and the assassins were probably regardless, whether their 
 victim was yet alive. 
 
 d These exploits of St. Cyril are recorded by Socrates, (1. vii c 13 
 14, 15.) and the most reluctant bigotry is compelled to copy an his- 
 torian who coolly styles the murderers of Hypatia x^,S(li to ct5v^;«» 
 fvjtfMo*. At the mention of that injured name, I am pleased to ob- 
 serve a blush even on the cheek of Baronius. (A. D. 415. No, 4S.) 
 
 c He was deaf to the entreaties of Atticus of ConstantinoDJe, and of 
 Isidoreof Pelusium, and yielded only (if we mav believe Nicephorus, 
 I. xiv.c. 18.) to the personal intercession of the Virgin. Yet in his last 
 years he still muttered that John Chrysostom had been justly con- 
 demned. (Tillemont. Mem. Ecclea. torn. xiv. p. 2rS— 282. Baroniu8» 
 Annal. Eccles. A. D. 412. No. 46—64.) 
 
 f See their characters in the history of Socrates, (1. vii. c.25— 28.) 
 their power and pretensions, in the huce compilation of Tiiomasin. 
 (Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. i. p. 80— 91]) 
 
 g His elevation and conduct are described by Socrates, (1. vii. c. 
 29. 31.) and Marcellinus seema to have applied the loquenti» latisl 
 aapientis parum, of SaUu«t. 
 
 
 » V 
 
 h 
 
 1 ■.i 
 
 ■n 
 A 
 
 r 
 
132 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIH. 
 
 uoloorical error concerning the festival of Easter was 
 punished as an offence against the church and state. 
 Lydia and Caria, Sardes and Miletus, were purified 
 with the blood of the obstinate Quartodecimans ; and 
 the edict of the emperor, or rather of the patriarch, 
 enumerates three and twenty degrees and denonnna- 
 tions in the gruilt and punishment of heresy.** But 
 the sword of persecution, which Nestoriusso furiously 
 wielded, was soon turned against his own breast. 
 Religion was the pretence; but, in the judgment of a 
 contemporary saint, ambition was the genuine motive 
 of episcopal warfare.' 
 
 His heresy, In the Syrian school, Nestorius had 
 A. D. 429— 431. been taught to abhor the confusion of 
 the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the human- 
 ity of his master Christ from the divinity of the Lord 
 Jesus.^ The Blessed Virgin he revered as tlie mother 
 of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash 
 and recent title of mother of God,* which had been 
 insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian con- 
 troversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople, a friend 
 of the patriarch, and afterwards the patriarch himself, 
 repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a 
 word " unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the 
 church, and which could only tend to alarm the timo- 
 rous, to mislead the simple, to amuse the profane, and 
 to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the old geneal- 
 ogy of Olympus." In his calmer moments Nestorius 
 confessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the 
 union of the two natures, and the communication of 
 their idimns .^ but he was exasperated, by contradiction, 
 to disclaim the worship of a new-born, an infant Deity, 
 to draw his inadequate similes from the conjugal or 
 civil partnerships of life, and to describe the manhood 
 of Christ as the robe, the instrument, the tabernacle 
 of his Godhead. At these blasphemous sounds, the 
 pillars of the sanctuary were shaken. The unsuc- 
 cessful competitors of Nestorius indulged their pious 
 or personal resentment, the Byzantine clergy were 
 secretly displeased with the intrusion of a stranger: 
 whatever is superstitious or absurd, might claim the 
 protection of the monks ; and the people were interes- 
 ted in the glory of their virgin patroness.P The ser- 
 mons of the archbishop, and the service of the altar, 
 were disturbed by seditious clamour; his authority 
 ?ind doctrine were renounced by separate congrega- 
 tions ; every wind scattered round the empire the 
 
 h Cod. Theodofl. 1. xvi. tit. v. leg. 65. with the illustrationB of Baro- 
 aiufl, (A. D. 428. No. 25. &c.) Godefroy, (ad locum) and Pagi. (Crilica, 
 tomii. p. 208.) 
 
 i Ipidore of Pelusium, (I. iv. Epist. 57.) His words are strong and 
 
 scandalous — t» S»o/u»(^«ij,*i« «»• vuv Trt^t w(»yiu» SnOF kmi Koyti xgtir- 
 
 Tov i'ixoauvf <v Tr^^o-n-otDfTsti '•jir9 9<X.g(f %>gt; iXf3oixx(u9/uii'Oi, Isidore is 
 
 a saint, but he never became a bishop ; and I half suspect that the 
 pride of Diogenes trampled on the pride of Plato. 
 
 k La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 44—53.) Thesaurus 
 Epistolicus La Crozianus, torn. iii. p. 276—280.) has detected the use 
 oih Sirfra-rm and o xuftof iii<rou;, which, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
 centuries, (liscriminate the school of Diodorus of Tarsus and his Nes- 
 torian disciples. 
 
 1 eioTOKo? — Deipara: as in zoology we familiarly speak of ovipa- 
 rous and viviparous animals. It is not easv to fix the invention of 
 this word, which La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16.) 
 ascribes to Eusebius of Cwsarea and the Arians. The orthodox testi- 
 inonirs are produced by Cyril and Petavius, (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. 
 ▼. 1. V. c. 15. p. 2.>4, &c.) but the veracity of the saint is questionable, 
 and the epiihetof 9ioTO)io; so easily slides from the margin to the text 
 of a catholic MS. 
 
 m Basnage, in his Histoire de rEgli8e,awork of controversy, (tom. 
 1. p. 505.) justifies the mother, by the blood, of God, (Acts xx. 28. with 
 Mill's various readings.) But the Greek MSS. are far from unani- 
 mous; and the primitive style of the blood of Christ is preserved in 
 the Syriac version, even in those copies which were used by the chris- 
 tians of St. Thomas on the coast of Malabar. (La Croze, Christianisme 
 des Indes, tom. i. p. 347.) The jealousy of the Nestorians and Mono- 
 physiles has guarded the purity of their text. 
 
 • n The pagans of Egypt already laughed at the new Cybele of the 
 christians, (Isidor. 1. i. epist. 54.) a letter was forged in the name 
 of Hypatia, to ridicule the theology of her assassin. (Synodicon, c. 
 216. in iv. tom. Concil. p. 484.) In the article of Nestorius, Bayle 
 has scattered some loose philosophy on the worship of the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 o The flivTiyo<ri; of the Greeks, a mutual loan or transfer of the 
 idioms or properties of each nature to the other— of infinity to man, 
 passibility to God, &c. Twelve rules on this nicest of subjects com- 
 pose the Theological Grammar of Petavius. (Dogmata Theolog. tom. 
 ▼. 1. iv. c. 14, 15. p. 209, &c.) 
 
 See Ducange, C. P. Christiana, 1. i. p. 30, &c. 
 
 leaves of controversy ; and the voice of the combatants 
 on a sonorous theatre re-echoed in the cells of Pales- 
 tine and Egypt. It was the duty of Cyril to enlighten 
 the zeal and ignorance of his innumerable monks : in 
 the school of Alexandria, he had imbibed and profes- 
 sed the incarnation of one nature ; and the successor 
 of Athanasius consulted his pride and ambition, when 
 he rose in arms against another Arius, more formidable 
 and more guilty, on the second throne of the hierarchy. 
 After a short correspondence, in which the rival pre- 
 lates disguised their hatred in the hollow language 
 of respect and charity, the patriarch of Alexandria 
 denounced to the prince and people, to the east and to 
 the west, the damnable errors of the Byzantine pon- 
 tiff. From the east, more especially from Antioch, he 
 obtained the ambiguous counsels of toleration and 
 silence, which were addressed to both parlies while 
 they favoured the cause of Nestorius. But the Vati- 
 can received with open arms the messengers of Egypt. 
 The vanity of Celestine was flattered by the appeal ; 
 and the partial version of a monk decided the faith of 
 the pope, who, with his Latin clergy, was ignorant of 
 the language, the arts, and the theology of the Greeks. 
 At the head of an Italian synod, Celestine weighed 
 the merits of the cause, approved the creed of Cyril, 
 condemned the sentiments and person of Nestorius, 
 degraded the heretic from his episcopal dignity, allow- 
 ed a respite of ten days for recantation and penance, 
 and delegated to his enemy the execution of this rash 
 and illegal sentence. But the patriarch of Alexandria, 
 whilst he darted the thunders of a god, exposed the 
 errors and passions of a mortal ; and his twelve anathe- 
 mas*! still torture the orthodox slaves, who adore the 
 memory of a saint, without forfeiting their allegiance 
 to the synod of Chalcedon. These bold assertions 
 are indelibly tinged with the colours of the Apollina- 
 rian heresy ; but the serious, and perhaps the sincere, 
 professions of Nestorius have satisfied the wiser and 
 less partial theologians of the present times.*' 
 
 Yet neither the emperor nor the pri- yxt^x. council of 
 mate of the east were disposed to obey Ephesus, 
 the mandate of an Italian priest; and june-Ocfober. 
 a synod of the catholic or rather of 
 the Greek church was unanimously demanded as 
 the sole remedy that could appease or dpcide this 
 ecclesiastical quarrel.' Ephesus, on all sides acces- 
 sible by sea and land, was chosen for the place, the 
 festival of Pentecost for the day, of the meeting ; 
 a writ of summons was despatched to each metropo- 
 litan, and a guard was stationed to protect and con- 
 fine the fathers till they should settle the mysteries of 
 heaven, and the faith of the earth. Nestorius ap- 
 peared not as a criminal, but as a judge ; he depended 
 on the weight rather than the number of his prelates, 
 and his sturdy slaves from the baths of Zeuxippus, 
 were armed for every service of injury or defence. 
 But his adversary Cyril was more powerful in the 
 weapons both of the flesh and of the spirit. Diso- 
 bedient to the letter, or at least to the meaning, of the 
 royal summons, he was attended by fifty Egyptian 
 bishops, who expected from their patriarch's nod the 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He had contracted 
 
 q Concil. tom. Iii. p. 943. They have never been direc//y approved 
 by the church. (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 368—372.) I 
 almost pity the agony of race and sophistry with which Petavius 
 seems to be agitated in the sixth book of his J)ogmata Theologica. 
 
 r Such as the rational Basnage, (ad tom. i. Variar. Lection. Canisii 
 inPraefai. c. ii. p. 11— 23.) and La Crttze, the universal scholar (Chris- 
 tianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. IG— 20. Del'Ethiopie, p. 26,27. Thesaur. 
 Epist. p. 176, &c. 283. 285.) His free sentence is confirmed by that 
 of his friends Jablonski (Thesaur. Epist. torn. i. p. 193—201.) and 
 Mosheim; (idem. p. 304. Nestorium crimine caruisse est ct mea 
 sententia;) and three more respectable judges will not easily bo 
 found. Asseman, a learned and mo<lest slave, can hardly discern 
 (Bibliothec. Orient, lorn. iv. p. ISO— 224.) the guilt and error of the 
 Nestorians. 
 
 • The origin and progress of the Nestorian controversy, till the 
 synod of Ephesus, may be found in Socrates, (I. vii. c. 32.) Evagrius, 
 (I. i. c. l,2.)Liberatu8, (Brev. c. 1—4.) the original Acts, (Cii)ncil. tom 
 iii. p. 551—991. edit. Venise, 1728.) iho Annals of Baronius and Pagi, 
 and the faithful coUectiona of Tilleojoul. (Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p. 
 283-377.) 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 133 
 
 an intimate alliance with Memnon bishop of Ephesus. 
 The despotic primate of Asia disposed of the ready 
 succours of thirty or forty episcopal votes ; a crowd 
 of peasants, the slaves of the church, was poured into 
 the city to support with blows and clamours a meta- 
 physical argument : and the people zealously asserted 
 the honour of the Virgin, whose body reposed within 
 the walls of Ephesus.* The fleet which [iad transpor- 
 ted Cyril from Alexandria was laden with the riches 
 of Egypt; and he disembarked a numerous body of 
 mariners, slaves, and fanatics, enlisted with blind obe- 
 dience under the banner of St. Mark and the mother 
 of God. The fathers, and even the guards, of the 
 coiincil were awed by this martial array ; the adver- 
 saries of Cyril and Mary were insulted in the streets, 
 or threatened in their houses ; his eloquence and libe- 
 rality made a daily increase in the number of his ad- 
 herents ; and the Egyptian scon computed that he 
 might command the attendance and the voices of two 
 hundred bishops." But the author of the twelve ana- 
 themas foresaw and dreaded the opposition of John of 
 Antioch, who, with a small, though respectable, train 
 of metropolitans and divines, was advancing by slow 
 journeys from the distant capital of the east. Impa- 
 tient of a delay, which he stigmatized as voluntary 
 and culpable,* Cyril announced the opening of the 
 synod sixteen days after the festival of Pentecost. 
 Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his 
 eastern friends, persisted, like his predecessor Chry- 
 sostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction, and to disobey 
 the summons, of his enemies : they hastened his trial, 
 and his accuser presided in the seat of judgment. 
 Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, 
 defended his cause by a modest and temperate protest : 
 they were excluded from the councils of their breth- 
 ren. Candidian, in the emperor's name, requested a 
 delay of four days : the profane magistrate was driven 
 Condemnation with outrage and insult from the assem- 
 ofNesiorius, bly of the saints. The whole of this 
 "'^^ * • momentous transaction was crowded into 
 the compass of a summer's day : the bishops delivered 
 their separate opinions; but the uniformity of style 
 reveals the influence or the hand of a master, who has 
 been accused of corrupting the public evidence of 
 their acts and subscriptions.^ Without a dissenting 
 voice, they recognized in the epistles of Cyril, the 
 Nicene creed and the doctrine of the fathers : but the 
 partial extracts from the letters and homilies of Nes- 
 torius were interrupted by curses and anathemas; 
 and the heretic was degraded from his episcopal and 
 ecclesiastical dignity. The sentence, maliciously in- 
 scribed to the new Judas, was affixed and proclaimed 
 in the streets of Ephesus : the weary prelates, as they 
 issued from the church of the mother of God, were 
 saluted as her champions : and her victory was cele- 
 brated by the illuminations, the songs, and the tumult 
 of the night. 
 
 t The christians of the four first centuries were ignorant of the death 
 and burial of Mary. The tradition of Ephesus is affirmed by the 
 
 synod, (ivJ* o S«oX.oy»f Ijuxvv>):, XXI >| fiOTCKO; Trxgitvtif i\ ayix Mx^iv. 
 
 Concil. tom. iii. p. 1102.) yet it has been superseded by the claim of 
 Jerusalem ; and her emp/y sepulchre, as it was shown to the pilgrims, 
 produced the fable of her resurrection and assumption, in which the 
 Greek and Latin churches have piously acquiesced. See Baronius 
 (.\nnal. Eccles. A. D. 48. No. 6, tc.) and Tillemont, (Mem. Ecclei. 
 lorn. i. p. 467—477.) 
 
 u The Acts of Chalcedon (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1405. 1408.) exhibit a 
 lively picture of the blind, obstinate servitude of the bishops of Egypt 
 to their patriarch. 
 
 X Civil or ecclesiastical business detained the bishops at Antioch 
 till the 18ih of May. Ephesus was at the distance of thirty days' 
 >jurney ; and ten days more may be fairly allowed for accidents and 
 repose. The march of Xenophon over the same ground enumerates 
 above 260 parasangs or lea£rues,and this measure might be illustrated 
 from ancient and modern itineraries, if I knew how to compare the 
 Bpeed of an army, a synod, and a caravan. John of Antioch is reluc- 
 tantly acquitted by Tillemont himself. (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 
 386-339.) ^ 
 
 J M>A<?o/<ivav A") K»TM TO ^tov T« IV E^jTw 9-vvTi9»|v«» l^tfivtfftxrm 
 ^xvovfyicf, Ji *a» t«v< xiiTf^iu xxivirofitm. K.vetKKov rtxvx^evT-ig. Eva- 
 
 grius, 1. 1, c. 7. The same imputation was urged by count Irenseus ; 
 (torn. iii. p. 1249.) and the orthodox critics do not find it an easy task 
 U> defend the purity of the Greek or Latin copies of the Acts. 
 
 On the fifth day, the triumph was r, 
 clouded by the arrival and indignation of th^e^rlenul^^ 
 the eastern bishops. In a chamber of -^""^ 27, Jtc. 
 the inn, before he had wiped the dust from his shoes, 
 John of Antioch gave audience to Candidian the 
 imperial minister; who related his ineffectual eff'orts 
 to prevent or to annul the hasty violence of the Egyp- 
 tian. With equal haste and violence, the oriental 
 synod of fifty bishops degraded Cyril and Memnon 
 from their episcopal honours, condemned, in the 
 twelve anathemas, the purest venom of the Apollina- 
 rian heresy, and described the Alexandrian primate as 
 a monster, born and educated for the desiruction of the 
 church.' His throne was distant and inaccessible; 
 but they instantly resolved to bestow on the flock of 
 Ephesus the blessing of a faithful shepherd. By the 
 vigilance of Memnon, the churches were shut against 
 them, and a strong garrison was thrown into the 
 cathedral. The troops, under the command of Can- 
 didian, advanced to the assault; the outguards were 
 routed and put to the sword, but the place was impreg- 
 nable : the besiegers retired ; their retreat was pursued 
 by a vigorous sally ; they lost their horses, and many 
 of the soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubs 
 and stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was 
 defiled with rage and clamour, with sediUon and 
 blood ; the rival synods darted anathemas and excom- 
 munications from their spiritual engines; and the 
 court of Theodosius was perplexed by the adverse 
 and contradictory narratives of the Syrian and Egyp- 
 tian factions. During a busy period of three months, 
 the emperor tried every method, except the most efl!ec- 
 tual means of indifference and contempt, to reconcile 
 this theological quarrel. He attempted to remove or 
 intimidate the leaders by a common sentence of acquit- 
 tal or condemnation ; he invested his representatives 
 at Ephesus with ample power and military force: he 
 summoned from either party eight chosen deputies to 
 a free and candid conference in the neighbourhood of 
 the capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. 
 But the orientals refused to yield, and the catholics, 
 proud of their numbers and of their Latin allies, rejec- 
 ted all terms of union or toleration. The patience of 
 the meek Theodosius was provoked, and he dissolved 
 in anjrer this episcopal tumult, which at the distance 
 of thirteen centuries assumes the venerable aspect of 
 the third oecumenical council.* " God is my witness," 
 said the pious prince, " that I am not the author of this 
 confusion. His providence will discern and punish 
 the guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your 
 private virtues repair the mischief and scandal of your 
 meeting." They returned to their provinces ; but the 
 same passions which had distracted the synod of 
 Ephesus were diffused over the eastern world. After 
 three obstinate and equal campaigns, John of Antioch 
 and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain and 
 embrace : but their seeming re-union must be imputed 
 rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual las- 
 situde rather than to the christian charity of the patri- 
 archs. 
 
 The Byzantine pontiflf had instilled Victory of Cyril, 
 into the royal ear a baleful prejudice A. D. 431—435. 
 against the character and conduct of his Egyptian 
 rival. An epistle of menace and invective,'' which 
 
 z *0 Si I3-' oKiS((o T«w tKxKmTivv Ti%5!«? Kxt Tfx^tii. After tho 
 coalition of John and Cyril, these invectives were mutually forgotten. 
 The style of declamation must never be confounded with the genu- 
 ine sense which respectable enemies entertain of each other's merit. 
 (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1244.) 
 
 X See the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus in the original Greek, and 
 a Latin version almost contemporary, (Concil. tom. iii. p. 991—1339. 
 with the Synodicon adversus Tragaediam Irensei, tom. iv. p. 235 — 497.) 
 the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates (1. vii. c. 34.) and Evagrius, (I. 
 i. c. 3, 4,5.) and the Breviary of Liberatus, (in Concil. tom. vi. p. 419 
 — 459. c. 5, 6.) and the Memoires Eccles. of Tillemont. (tom. xiv. p. 
 377—487.) 
 
 b Txfxx^v (says the emperor in pointed language) to yi fn-i vxvr^ 
 
 XXI 5tu)^ia-/uov T«i{ »xxX.>|(ri»»s i/*/Si^X»iki»j . . . . cu? S^ko-vti^m; hffilf 
 Tfuro-jo-niS fixWev n uxgt&ttxt .... »t«« jrotxiKixf /txKKov tovtwv 
 ilM'y ftfiBvrtff i^tp «jrX0T»|Tef .... jrwyref fixKKov >| Ufi-t • . • ; 
 Ti» T« Tuiv ixxKnrtuiVf T« T» T«v fixrtXt-v fuWuv X^t^^t** fitvKirt* , 
 
 f 
 
 f : 
 
 » V 
 
134 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 135 
 
 t I 
 
 accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, 
 insolent, and envious priest, uho perplexed the sim- 
 plicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church 
 and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to 
 the wife and sister of Theodosius, presumed to sup- 
 pose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in the impe- 
 rial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, 
 Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, 
 threatened, and confined, by the magistrates in ihe 
 interest of Nestorius and the orientals ; who assem- 
 bled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the 
 fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. With- 
 out expectincr the royal licence, he escaped from his 
 guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the imper- 
 fect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of 
 safety and independence. But his artful emissaries, 
 both in the court and city, successfully laboured to 
 appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favour, 
 of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was 
 alternately swayed by his wife and sister, by the 
 eunuchs and women of the palace : superstition and 
 avarice were their ruling passions ; and the orthodox 
 -chiefs were assiduous in their endeavours to alarm 
 the former, and to gratify the latter. Constantinople 
 and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monas- 
 teries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches,' 
 had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of 
 Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. 
 From the first moment of their monastic life, they had 
 never mingled with the world, or trod the profane 
 ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the 
 danger of the church, their vow was superceded by a 
 more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head 
 of a long order of monks and hermits, who carried 
 burning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to 
 the mother of God, they proceeded from their monas- 
 teries to the palace. The peof)le were edified and in- 
 ilamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trem- 
 bling monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations 
 of the saints, who boldly pronounced, that none could 
 hope for salvation, unless they embraced the person 
 and the creed of the orthodox successor of Athanasius. 
 At the same time every avenue of the throne was 
 assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of fw/o 
 gies and henedidiona^ the courtiers of both sexes were 
 bribed according to their measure and rapaciousness. 
 But their incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries 
 of Constantinople and Alexandria ; and the authority 
 of the patriarch was unable to silence the just murmur 
 of his clergy, that a debt of sixty thousand pounds had 
 already been contracted to support the expense of this 
 scandalous corruption.** Pulcheria, who relieved her 
 brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest 
 pillar of orthodoxy ; and so intimate was the alliance 
 between the thunders of the synod and the whispers 
 of the court, that Cyril was assured of success if he 
 could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in 
 the favour of Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could 
 not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The em- 
 peror, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his 
 promise of protecting the innocence of the oriental 
 bishops ; and Cyril softened his anathemas, and con- 
 fessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a two-fold na- 
 
 1^; ewx, euTMj xiog/xv^; ingxi iv^sxi^tio-iu);. I shouM be curiiHis to 
 know how much Nestorius paid for these expressions so mortifying 
 to his rival. 
 
 c EutychPfl, the hercsiarch Eutyches, is honourably named by Cyril 
 as a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender «)f the faith. His 
 brother, the abbot Dalmatius, is likewise employed to bind tlie empe- 
 ror and all his chamberlains terribili conjuralione. Synodicon, c. 
 203. in Concil. torn. iv. p. 4G7. 
 
 d Clerici qui hie sunt conlristantur, quod ecclesia Alexandrina nu- 
 data sit hujus causa turbeloe : et debet praeter ilia quae hinc transmissa 
 Bint auri libras viilU quingentas. Et nunc ei scriptum est ut 
 prsestet ; sed de tua ecclesia prsesta avaritiae qu >rum nosti, &c. This 
 curious and original letter from Cyril's archdeicon to his creature the 
 new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccivmtably preserved in 
 an old Latin version. (Synodicon, c. 203. Con^'-il. tom. iv. p. 465 — 
 468.) The mask is almost dropped, and the saifita apeak the honest 
 language of interest and confeueracjr. 
 
 lure of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his 
 revenge against the unfortunate Nestorius.* 
 
 The rash and obstinate Nestorius, be- E^jje of Neato. 
 fore the end of the synod, was oppressed rius, ^ 
 
 by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and A.D.4S5. 
 faintly supported by his eastern friends. A sentiment 
 of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet 
 time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication:' 
 his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted ', 
 he was conducted with honour from Ephesus to his 
 old monastery of Antioch ; and, after a short pause, 
 his successors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknow- 
 ledged as the lawful bishops of Constantinople. But 
 in the silence of his cell, the degraded patriarch could 
 no longer resume the innocence and security of a pri- 
 vate monk. The past he regretted, he was discon- 
 tented with the present, and the future he had reason 
 to dread : the oriental bishops successively disengaged 
 their cause from his unpopular name, and each day 
 decreased the number of the schismatics who revered 
 Nestorius as the confessor of the faith. After a resi- 
 dence at Antioch of four years, the hand of Theodosius 
 subscribed an edict,* which ranked him with Simon 
 the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, 
 condemned his writings to the flames, and banished 
 his person first to Petra in Arabia, and at length to 
 Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert.'' Se- 
 cluded from the church and from the world, the exile 
 was still pursued by the rage of bigotry and war. A 
 wandering tribe of the Blemmycs or Nubians invaded 
 his solitary prison : in their retreat they dismissed a 
 crowd of useless captives ; but no sooner had Nesto- 
 rius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would 
 gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox city 
 to the milder servitude of the savages. His fligfht was 
 punished as a new crime : the soul of the patriarch 
 inspired the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt; 
 the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks, devoutly tor- 
 tured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril ; and, as far 
 as the confines of ^Ethiopia, the heretic was alternately 
 dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken 
 by the hardships and r.ccidents of these reiterated 
 journeys. Yet his mind was still independent and 
 erect ; the president of Thebais was awed by his pas- 
 toral letters ; he survived ihe catholic tyrant of Alex- 
 andria, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the synod 
 of Chalcedon would perhaps have restored him to the 
 honours, or at least to the communion, of the church. 
 The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to 
 their welcome summons ; ' and his disease might afford 
 
 e The tedious negociations tnat succeeded the synod of Ephesus are 
 diffusely related in the oripinal Acts, (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1339—1771. 
 ad fin. vol. and the Synodicon, in tom. iv.) Socrates, (1. vii. c.28. 35. 
 40. 41.) Evacrius, (1. i. c. 6, 7,8. 12.) Lihrralus, (c. 7— 10 ) Tillemont, 
 (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 4S7— 670. The most patient reader will 
 thank me for compressing so much nonsense and falsehood in a few 
 lines. 
 
 f AuT9u Ti ■v?'i>i5«vT0c, «^iTfa;7->) xxTM TO c<xii9v I :r X vx JTivvx I Hi' 
 v«,-.rf <»>•. Evacrius, 1. i. c. 7. The original letters in the Synodicon 
 (c. 15. 24, 25, 2rj.) justify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, 
 which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu. a Nestorian writer, apud Asscman. 
 Bibliot. Oriental, lorn. iii. p. 299. 302. 
 
 g See the imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus. 
 (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1730 — 173.").) The odious name of Simonians, 
 which was affixed to the disciples of this TifxrwJcu; Stl»T».»Ki»i, was 
 designed *»• »* ovu^tn ^fOc.>w>|fli»Tii xiuur^sv u^Sjuhomi' Ti/<a>f lav, t«l'i> 
 e(/tx(Tifju»Ta>v, XM< yuiiTi 'C^M\it»iTiiJ.A(t*:^fiy,Tt ;«y5VTa? seri/iiz; »xt6{ 
 
 ufl-MfX'^v. Yet these were christians', who differed only in names 
 and in shadows. 
 
 h The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians (Pan- 
 dect. 1. xlviii. tit. 22, leg. 7.) to thn.se happy spots which are discri- 
 minated by water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of 
 these under the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat: 1. The temple of 
 Jupiter Amnion. 2. The middle Oasis three days' journey to the 
 west of Lycopolis. 3. The southern, whore Nestorius was banished, 
 in tl»e first climate, and only three days' journey from the confines 
 of Nubia. See a learned Note of Michaelis, (ad Descript. .flEgypt. 
 Abulfeda?, p. 21—34.) 
 
 i The invitation of Nestorius to the synod of Chalcedon, is related 
 by Zacharias, bishop of IVlelitene, (Eva;j;riu9, 1. ii. c. 2. Asseman. 
 Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 53.) and the famous Xenaias or Phi loxenua, 
 bishop of Hierapolis, (Asseman, Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 40, Jtc.) de- 
 nied by Evagrius and Asseman, and stoutly maintained by La Croze. 
 (Thesaur. Epistol. tom. iii. p. ISI, &c.) The fact is not improbable ; 
 yet it was the interest of the Monophysites to spread the invidious re- 
 port ; and £utycbiuM(tQni. ii. p. 12.) affirms, that Nvstorlus died after 
 
 some colour to the scandalous report, that his tongue, 
 the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by the worms. 
 He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by 
 the names of Chemnis, or PanopoJis, or Akmim ; * 
 but the immortal malice of the Jacobites has perse- 
 vered for ages to cast stones against the sepulchre, and 
 to propagate the foolish tradition, that it was never 
 watered by the rain of heaven, which equally descends 
 on the righteous and the ungodly.' Humanity may 
 drop a tear on the fate of Nestorius; yet justice must 
 observe, that he suffered the persecution which he had 
 approved and inflicted." 
 
 Heresy of Euty- l^e death of the Alexandrian primate, 
 ches, after a reign of thirty-two years, aban- 
 
 A.U. 448. doned the catholics to the intemperance 
 of zeal and the abuse of victory." The Monophysite 
 doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rigorously preached 
 in the churches of Egypt and the monasteries of the 
 east; the primitive creed of Apollinaris was protected 
 by the sanctity of Cyril ; and the name of Eutyches, 
 his venerable friend, has been applied to the sect most 
 adverse to the Syrian heresy of Nestorius. His rival 
 Eutyches was tlte abbot, or archimandrite, or superior, 
 of three hundred monks, but the opinions of a sim- 
 ple and illiterate recluse might have expired in the 
 cell, where he had slept above seventy years, if the 
 resentment or indiscretion of Flavian, the Byzantine* 
 pontiff, had not exposed the scandal to the eyes of the 
 christian world. His domestic synod was instantly 
 convened, their proceedings were sullied with clamour 
 and artifice, and the aged heretic was surprised into a 
 seeming confession, that Christ had not derived his 
 body from the substance of the Virgin Mary. From 
 their partial decree, Eutyches appealed to a general 
 council, and his cause was vigorously asserted by his 
 godson Chrysaphius, the reigning eunuch of the palace, 
 and his accomplice Dioscorus, who had succeeded to the 
 throne, the creed, the talents, and the vices of the ne- 
 Second council phew of Theophilus. By the special sum- 
 of Ephesus, mons of Theodosius, the second synod 
 A. I). 449. Qf ji]p})esus was judiciously composed 
 
 Aug. 8—11. C ^ A ^^ J "l .-1 
 
 of ten metropolitans and ten bishops 
 from each of the six dioceses of the eastern empire : 
 some exceptions of favour or merit enlarged the num- 
 ber to one hundred and thirty-five; and the Syrian 
 Barsumas, as the chief and representative of the 
 monks, was invited to sit and vote with the successors 
 of the apostles. But the despotism of the Alexan- 
 drian patriarch again oppressed the freedom of debate : 
 the sam<) spiritual and carnal weapons were again 
 drawn from the arsenals of Egypt; the Asiatic vete- 
 rans, a band of archers, served under the orders of 
 Dioscorus ; and the more formidable monks, whose 
 minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy, besieged 
 the doors of the cathedral. The general, and, as it 
 should seem, the unconstrained, voice of the fathers, 
 accepted the faith and even the anathemas of Cyril ; 
 and the heresy of the two natures was formally con- 
 demned in the persons and writincjs of the most learned 
 orientals. " May those who divide Christ be divided 
 with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they 
 
 an exile of seven years, and consequently ten years before the synod 
 *f Chalcedon. 
 
 k Consult P'Anville, (Memoire sur I'Ecrypte, p. 191.) Pocock, 
 (Description of the East, vol i. p. 76.) Abulfeda, (Descript. ^^ypt. p. 
 14.) and his commentator Michaelis, (Not. p. 78—83.) and the Nubian 
 GeDjrrapher, (p. 42.) who mentions in tho twelfth century, the ruins 
 and the sucar-canes of Akmim. 
 
 1 Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 12.) and Gregory Bar-Hcbra?ug, or 
 Abulpharagius, (Asseman, tom. ii. p. 316.) represent the credulity of 
 the tenth and eleventh centuries. 
 
 m We are obliged to Evagrius (1. i. c. 7.) for some extracts from the 
 letters of Nestorius ; but the lively picture of his sufferings is treated 
 with insult by the hard and stupid fanatic. 
 
 n Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate sua effecis-se, ne Eulychi- 
 anismus et Monophyaitarum error in nervum erumperet : idque verum 
 puto . . . aliquo . . . honestomodo 5T»Xivu)S'»av cecinerat. The learned 
 Dut cautious Jablonski did not always speak the whole truth. Cum 
 Cyrillo leniusomninoegi,quam si tecum aut cumaliis rei hujus probe 
 gnaris et jequis rerum aestimatoribus sermones privatos coiiferrem, 
 KThesaur. Epistol. La Crozian, tom i. p. 197, 198.) an excellent key to 
 hifl dissertationi on the Nestorian controversy. 
 
 be burnt alive;" were the charitable wishes of a chris. 
 tian synod." The innocence and sanctity of Eutyches 
 were acknowledged without hesitation; but the prelates 
 more especially those of Thrace and Asia, were unwill 
 ling to (iepose their patriarch for the use or even abuse 
 of his lawful jurisdiction. They embraced the knees 
 of Dioscorus, as he stood with a threatening^ aspect on 
 the footstool of his throne, and conjured him to forgive 
 the offences, and to respect the dignity, of his brother. 
 *' Do you mean to raise a sedition V exclaimed the 
 relentless tyrant. " Where are the oflficers ?" At 
 these words a furious multitude of monks and sol- 
 diers, with staves, and swords, and chains, burst into 
 the church : the trembling bishops hid themselves 
 behind the altar, or under the benches, and as they 
 were not inspired with the zeal of martyrdom, they 
 successively subscribed a blank paper, which was 
 afterwards filled with the condemnation of the Byzan- 
 tine pontiff. Flavian was instantly delivered to the wild 
 beasts of this spiritual amphitheatre : the monks were 
 stimulated by the voice and example of Barsumas to 
 avenge the injuries of Christ : it is said that the patri- 
 arch of Alexandria reviled, and buffeted, and kicked, 
 and trampled his brother of Constantinople : p it is 
 certain, that the victim, before he could reach the 
 place of his exile, expired on the third day, of the 
 wounds and bruises which he had received at Ephe- 
 sus. This second synod has been justly branded as 
 a gang of robbers and assassins ; yet the accusers of 
 Dioscorus would magnify his violence, to alleviate the 
 cowardice and inconstancy of their own behaviour. 
 
 Thefaith of Egypt had prevailed ; but council of Chal- 
 the vanquished party was supported by cedon, 
 the same pope who encountered without ^(P'-J^^'t 
 fear the hostile rage of Attila and Gen- Oct.&-Nov.i. 
 seric. The theology of Leo, his famous iome or epis- 
 tle on the mystery of the incarnation, had been disre- 
 garded by the synod of Ephesus : his authority, and 
 that of the Latin church, was insulted in his legates, 
 who escaped from slavery and death to relate the mel- 
 ancholy tale of the tyranny of Dioscorus and the mar- 
 tyrdom of Flavian. His provincial synod annulled 
 the irregular proceedings of Ephesus; but as this 
 step w^as itself irregular, he solicited the convocation 
 of a general council in the free and orthodox provinces 
 of Italy. From his independent throne, the Roman 
 bishop spoke and acted without danger, as the head 
 of the christians, and his dictates were obsequiously 
 transcribed by Placidia and her son Yalentinian ; who 
 addressed their eastern colleague to restore the peace 
 and unity of the church. But the pageant of oriental 
 royalty was moved with equal dexterity by the hand 
 of the eunuch; and Theodosius could pronounce, 
 without hesitation, that the church was already peace- 
 ful and triumphant, and that the recent flame had been 
 extinguished by the just punishment of the Nestori- 
 aus. Perhaps the Greeks would be still involved in 
 the heresy of the monophysites, if the emperor's 
 horse had not fortunately stumbled ; Theodosius ex- 
 pired ; his orthodox sif?ter, Pulcheria, with a nom- 
 inal husband, succeeded to the throne ; Chrysaphi- 
 us was burnt, Dioscorus was disgraced, the exiles 
 were recalled, and the iome of Leo was subscribed by 
 the oriental bishops. Yet the pope was disappoint- 
 ed in his favourite project of a Latin council : he 
 
 I 
 
 4«; SxjO yivy,T»ij lis iM'f'O"* M'€'^i*l ....«* Tif Kiytt S\jo ttvxSiff** 
 
 At the request of Dioscorus, those who were not able to roar (ouija-a*) 
 stretched out their hands. At Chalcedon, the orientals disclaimed 
 these exclamations ; but the Egyptians more consistently declared 
 
 rx\jT* Kxt TOTi tiTTCfitv XX4 vuv Kiyo,uiv. (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1012.) 
 p EKiyi Si (Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum) to» 4>Kx^txvov^ x»t 
 
 dtiKoiiai; gti'Xif f :ifvxt Tf oj Aito-KOgH wjn/i/t vo v TJ x»« \axTiC«A'«'''>' • and 
 
 this testimony of Evagrius (1. ii. c. 2.) is amplified by the historian 
 Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. xiii. p. 44.) who affirms that Dioscorus kicked like 
 a wild ass. But the language of Liberatus (Brev. c. 12. in Concil. tom. 
 vi. p. 438.) is more cautious ; and the Acts of Chalcedon, which lavisti 
 the names of homicide, Cain, Sec. do not justify so pointed a charge. 
 The monk Barsumas is more particularly accused— ««■?«$« tok m»««- 
 (.•OK <»K»\,t»v»v' »uToj lo-TjjKi x«« »A-«y«i o-fst^ov. (Coacil. tom. ir. p. 
 1423.) 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
V 
 
 136 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 disdained to preside in the Greek synod, which was 
 speedily assembled at Nice in Bithynia; his legates 
 Tequired in a peremptory tone the presence of the em- 
 peror ; and the weary fathers were transported to 
 Chalcedon under the immediate eye of Marcian and 
 the senate of Constantinople. A quarter of a mile 
 from the Thracian Bosphorus, the church of St, Eu- 
 phemia was built on the summit of a gentle though 
 lofty ascent : the triple structure was celebrated as a 
 prodigy of art, and the boundless prospect of the land 
 and sea might have raised the mind of a sectary to the 
 contemplation of the God of the universe. Six hun- 
 dred and thirty bishops were ranged in order in the 
 nave of the church ; but the patriarchs of the east were 
 preceded by the legates, of whom the third was a 
 simple priest ; and the place of honour was reserved 
 for twenty laymen of consular or senatorian rank. 
 The gospel was ostentatiously displayed in the centre, 
 but the rule of faith was defined by the papal and im- 
 perial ministers, who moderated the thirteen sessions 
 of the council of Chalcedon.«» Their partial interpo- 
 sition silenced the intemperate shouts and execrations, 
 which degraded the episcopal gravity ; but, on the 
 formal accusation of the legates, Dioscorus was com- 
 pelled to descend from his throne to the rank of a 
 criminal, already condemned in the opinion of his 
 judges. The orientals, less adverse to Nestorius than 
 to Cyril, accepted the Romans as their deliverers : 
 Thrace, and Pontus, and Asia, were exasperated 
 against the murderer of Flavian, and the new patri- 
 archs of Constantinople and Antioch secured their 
 places by the sacrifice of their benefactor. The bish- 
 ops of Palestine, Macedonia, and Greece, were at- 
 tached to the faith of Cyril ; but in the face of the 
 synod, in the heat of the battle, the leaders, with their 
 obsequious train, passed from the right to the left 
 wing, and decided the victory by this seasonable de- 
 sertion. Of the seventeen suffragans who sailed from 
 Alexandria, four were tempted from their allegiance, 
 and the thirteen, falling prostrate on the ground, im- 
 plored the mercy of the council, with sighs and tears, 
 and a pathetic declaration, that, if they yielded, they 
 should be massacred, on their return to Egypt, by the 
 indignant people. A tardy repentance was allowed to 
 expiate the gjiilt or error of the accomplices of Dios- 
 corus : but their sins were accumulated on his head; 
 he neither asked nor hoped for pardon, and the mode- 
 ration of those who pleaded for a general amnesty was 
 drowned in the prevailing cry of victory and revenge. 
 To save the reputation of his late adherents, some per- 
 ianal offences were skilfully detected ; his rash and 
 illegal excommunication of the pope, and his contu- 
 macious refusal (while he was detained a prisoner) to 
 attend the summons of the synod. Witnesses were 
 introduced to prove the special facts of his pride, ava- 
 rice, and cruelty; and the fathers heard with abhor- 
 rence, that the alms of the church were lavished on 
 the female dancers, that his palace, and even his 
 bath, was open to the prostitutes of Alexandria, and 
 that the infamous Pansophia, or Irene, was publicly 
 entertained as the concubine of the patriarch.' 
 
 q The acig of the Council of Chalcedon, (Concil. torn, iv. p. 761— 
 2071.) comprehend thoseofEphesua, (p. 890— 1189.) which aiaincom- 
 
 I)Ti8e the synod of Consianiinople under Flavian ; (p. 930-1072.) and 
 trequires some attention to disengage this double involution. The 
 ^ole business of Eulyches, Flavian, and Dioscorus, is related by 
 Evaffnus (l. i. c. 9-12. and 1. ii. c. 1-4.) and Liberatus. (Brev. c. 
 11—14.) Once more, and almost for the last lime, I appeal to the 
 diligence of Tillemont. (Mem. Ecclcs. torn. xv. p. 479—719.) The 
 annals of Baronius and Pagi will accompany mo much further on my 
 long and laborious journey. 
 
 r M»A.«rT« 4 wi^i^oirjTOj IToii'to^i* Jj X5t?.«,u»v>i Opiivtt, (perhaps Ej- 
 #»l*1,) Tjf i nj x:«i 8 JTOA.uxi'Sf cow^aj tn AM^xvJf Svuw J>;,u9c «C>)>t8 <^M\iy\v 
 
 •uTut Ti xai t% igxTTH fii/xvyfttvii. (Concll. torn. iv. p. 1276.) A speci- 
 men of the wit and malice of the people is preserved in the Greelc 
 Anthology, (1. ii. c. 5. p. 188. edit. AVechel,) although the application 
 >va« unknown to the editor Brodaeus. The nameless epigrammatist 
 raises a tolerable pun, by confounding the episcopal salutation of 
 Peace be to all !" with the genuine or corrupted name of the bishop's 
 concubine ; ^ 
 
 E«fijvit nxvrtTiriVy urirxowof turtv twt'Kimf 
 
 For these scandalous offences Diosco- Faith of Chal 
 rus was deposed by the synod, and ban- cedon. 
 
 ished by the emperor; but the purity of his faith was- 
 declared in the presence, and with the tacit approba- 
 tion of the fathers. Their prudence supposed rather 
 than pronounced the heresy of Eutyches, who was 
 never summoned before their tribunal ; and they sat 
 silent and abashed, when a bold Monophysite, casting 
 at their feet a volume of Cyril, challenged them to 
 anathematize in his person the doctrine of the saint. 
 If we fairly peruse the acts of Chalcedon as they are 
 recorded by the orlhodox party,* we shall find that a 
 great majority of the bishops embraced the simple 
 unity of Christ; and the ambiguous concession, that 
 he was formed of or from two natures, might imply 
 either their previous existence, or their subsequent 
 confusion, or some dangerous interval between the 
 conception of the man and the assumption of the God, 
 The Roman theology, more positive and precise, adop- 
 ted the term most offensive to the ears of the Egyp- 
 tians, that Christ existed in two natures; and "this 
 momentous particle^ (which the memory, rather than 
 the understanding, must retain) had almost produced 
 a schism among the catholic bishops. The tome of 
 Leo had been respectfully, perhaps sincerely, sub- 
 scribed ; but they protested, in two successive debates, 
 that it was neither expedient nor lawful to transgress 
 the sacred land-marks which had been fixed at Nice, 
 I Constantinople, and Ephesus, according to the rule 
 of ^Jcripture and tradition. At length they yielded to 
 the importunities of their masters ; but their infallible 
 decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes 
 and vehement acclamations, was overturned in the 
 next session by the opposition of the legates and their 
 oriental friends. It was in vain that a mullitude of 
 episcopal voices repeated in chorus, »* The definition 
 of the fathers is orthodox and immutable! The here- 
 tics are now discovered ! Anathema to the Nestorians ! 
 Let them depart from the synod ! Let them repair to 
 Rome!"" The legates threatened, the emperor was 
 absolute, and a committee of eighteen bishops pre- 
 pared a new decree, which was imposed on the re- 
 luctant assembly. In the name of the fourth general 
 council, the Christ in one person, but in two natures, 
 was announced to the catholic world : an invisible line 
 was drawn between the heresy of Apollinaris and the 
 faith of St. Cyril ; and the road to paradise, a bridge 
 as sharp as a razor, was suspended over the abyss by 
 the master-hand of the theological artist. During ten 
 centuries of blindness and servitude, Europe received 
 her religious opinions from the oracle of the Vatican ; 
 and the same doctrine, already varnished with the rust 
 of antiquity, was admitted without dispute into the 
 creed of the reformers, who disclaimed the supremacy 
 of the Roman pontiff. The synod of Chalcedon still 
 triumphs in the protestant churches; but the ferment 
 of controversy has subsided, and the most pious chris- 
 tians of the present day are ignorant, or careless, of 
 their own belief concerning the mystery of the incar- 
 nation. 
 
 I am ignorant whether the patriarch, who seems to have been a jealoutf 
 lover, is the Cimon of a preceding epigram, whose a-io; ijiixo,- was 
 viewed with envy and wonder by Priapus himself. 
 
 s Those who reverence the inlallibility of synods, may try to ascer- 
 tain their sense. The leading bishops were attended by partial or 
 careless scribes, who dispersed their copies round the world. Our 
 Greek MSS. are sullied with thp false and proscribed readingof »x t»i» 
 cvrt'vv : (Concil. lom. iii. p. 1460.) the authentic translation of pope 
 Leo I. does not seem to have been executed ; and the old Latin ver- 
 sions materially differ from the present Vulgate, which was revised 
 (A. D. 550.) by Rusticus, a Roman priest, from the best MSS. of the 
 Ax).A*»»Toi at Constantinople, (Pucange,C. P. Christiana, 1. iv.p. 151.) 
 a famousmonastery of Latins, Greeks, and Syrians. See Concil. torn, 
 iv. p. 1959 2049. and Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 326, kc. 
 
 t It is darkly represented in the microscope of Petavius; (tom. v. 
 1. iii. c. 5.) yet the subtle theologian is himself afraid— ne quis fortasao 
 supervacaneam, etnimisanxiam putet hujusmodi vocularum inquiai- 
 tionem, et ab instituti theologici gravitate alieuam. (p. 124.) 
 
 u Efi.o>i<rxv q 6 ejoc xf»T««Tw ^ »a-ifX0/^»5* . . . . oi uvTtKtytvris 
 
 ii( Pu,/*i,v <»«^i>.6^<r.v. (Concil. torn. iv.p. 1449.) Evasrius and Libe- 
 ratus present only the placid face of the synod, and discreetly slid* 
 over these embers suppositos cinere dolosu. 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 137 
 
 Ptecord of the " Far differejit was the temper of the 
 east, Greeks and Egyptians under the ortho- 
 
 A.D.451— 482. ^^^ reiorns of Leo and Marcian. Those 
 pious emperors enforced with arms and edicts the 
 symbol of their faith ; ' and it was declared by the 
 conscience or honour of five hundred bishops, that the 
 decrees of the synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully 
 supported, even with blood. The catholics observed 
 with satisfaction, that the same synod was odious both 
 to the Nestorians and the Monophysites ;y but the Nes- 
 torians were less angry, or less powerful, and the east 
 was distracted by the obstinate and sanguinary zeal 
 of the Monophysites. Jerusalem was occupied by an 
 army of monks ; in the name of the one incarnate na- 
 ture, they pillaged, they burnt, they murdered ; the 
 sepulchre of Christ was defiled w ith blood ; and the 
 gates of the city were guarded in tumultuous rebellion 
 against the troops of the emperor. After the disgrace 
 and exile of Dioscorus, the Egyptians still regretted 
 their spiritual father ; and detested the usurpation of 
 his suc.cessor, who was introduced by the fathers of 
 Chalcedon. The throne of Proterius was supported 
 by a guard of two thousand soldiers ; he waged a five 
 years* war agrainst the people of Alexandria ; and on 
 the first intelligence of the death of Marcian, he be- 
 came the victim of their zeal. On the third day before 
 the festival of Easter, the patriarch was besieged in 
 the cathedral, and murdered in the baptistery. The 
 remains of his mangled corpse were delivered to the 
 flames, and his ashes to the wind : and the deed was 
 inspired by the vision of a pretended angel ; an ambi- 
 tious monk, who, under the name of Timothy the Cat,' 
 succeeded to the place and opinions of Dioscorus. 
 This deadly superstition was inflamed, on either side, 
 by the principle and the practice of retaliation : in the 
 pursuit of a metaphysical quarrel, many thousands* 
 were slain, and the christians of every degree were 
 deprived of the substantial enjoyments of social life, 
 and of the invisible gifts of baptism and the holy com- 
 munion. Perhaps an extravagant fable of the times 
 may conceal an allegorical picture of these fanatics, 
 who tortured each other, and themselves. " Under 
 the consulship of Venantius and Celer," says a grave 
 bishop, " the people of Alexandria, and all Egypt, 
 were seized with a strange and diabolical frenzy : great 
 and small, slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, 
 the natives of the land, who opposed the synod of 
 Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like 
 dogs, and tore, with their own teeth, the flesh from 
 their hands and arms.'"* 
 
 The Henoticon '^^e disorders of thirty years at length 
 
 of Zeno, produced the famous Henoticon* of the 
 
 A. D. 4©. emperor Zeno, which in his reign, and 
 
 in that of Anastasius, was signed by all the bishops of 
 
 X See, in the Appendix to the Acts of Chalcedon, the confirmation 
 of the Synod by Marcian ; (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1781. 1783.) his letters 
 to the monks of Alexandria, (p. 1791.) of Mount Sinai, (p. 1793.) of 
 Jerusalem and Palestine ; (p. 1798.) his laws against the Eutychians ; 
 (p. 1809. ISll. 1831.) the correspondence of Leo with the provincial 
 synods on the revolution of Alexandria, (p. 1835. 1930.) 
 
 y Photius (or rather Eulogius of Alexandria) confesses, in a fine 
 passage, the specious colour of this double charge against pope Leo 
 and his synod of Chalcedon. (Bibliot. cod. ccxxv. p. 768.) He waged 
 a double war against the enemies of the church, and wounded either 
 foe with the darts of his adversary — k«t' aA.Xi|\c<$oiX.i(r( touj u.vrt7r»- 
 xeuj i^iTfx.Tx;. A iiainst Nestorius he seemed to introduce the c-uv. 
 Zuo-'f of the Monophysites; against Eutyches he appeared to counie- 
 nance the oTcarTsco-fxv Ji»?of» of the Nestorians. The apologist claims 
 a charitable interpretation for the saints; if the same had been ex- 
 tended to the heretics, the sound of the controversy would have been 
 lost In the air. 
 
 X A.>.eufo,-, from his nocturnal expeditions. In darkness and dis- 
 guise he crept round the cells of the monastery, and whispered the 
 revelation to his slumbering brethren. (Theodor. Lector. 1. 1.) 
 
 rnv ynv uKKa y.xt xvzow rov »if*. Such is the hyperbolic language 
 of the Henoticon. 
 
 b See the Chronicle of the Victor Tunnunensis, in the Lectiones 
 Antiquae of Canisius, republished by Basnage, tom. i. p. 326. 
 
 c The Henoticon is transcribed by Evagrius, (1. iii. c. 13.) and trans- 
 lated by Liberatus, (Brev. c. 18.) Pagi, (Critica, tom. ii. p. 414.) and 
 Asseman (Bibliot. Orient, tom. i. p. ^3.) are satisfied that it is free 
 from heresy ; but Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. torn. v. 1. i. c. 13. p. 40.) 
 most unaccountably affirms Chalcedonensem ascivit. An adversary 
 would prove that he had never read the Henoticon. 
 
 Vol. II— S 
 
 the east, under the penalty of degradation and exile^ 
 if they rejected or infringed this salutary and funda- 
 mental law. The clergy may smile or groan at the 
 presumption of a layman who defines the articles of 
 faith ; yet if he stoops to the humiliating task, his 
 mind is less infected by prejudice or interest, and the 
 authority of the magistrate can only be maintained by 
 the concord of the people. It is in ecclesiastical 
 story, that Zeno appears least contemptible ; and I am 
 not able to discern any Manichaean or Eutychian guilt 
 in the generous saying of Anastasius, That it was 
 unworthy of an emperor to persecute the worshippers 
 of Christ and the citizens of Rome. The Henoticon 
 was most pleasing to the Egyptians ; yet the smallest 
 blemish has not been described by the jealous, and 
 even jaundiced, eyes of our orthodox schoolmen, and it 
 accurately represents the catholic faith of the incarna- 
 tion, without adopting or disclaiming the peculiar 
 terms or tenets of the hostile sects. A solemn ana- 
 thema is pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches ; 
 against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or con- 
 founded, or reduced to a phantom. Without defining 
 the number or the article of the word nature, the pure 
 system of St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, 
 and Ephesus, is respectfully confirmed, but, instead 
 of bowing at the name of the fourth council, the sub- 
 ject is dismissed by the censure of all contrary doc- 
 trines, if any such have been taught either elsewhere 
 or at Chalcedon. Under this ambiguous expression, 
 the friends and the enemies of the last synod might 
 unite in a silent embrace. The most reasonable chris- 
 tians acquiesced in this mode of toleration ; but their 
 reason was feeble and inconstant, and their obedience 
 was despised as timid and servile by the vehement 
 spirit of their brethren. On a subject which engrossed 
 the thoughts and discourses of men, it was difficult to 
 preserve an exact neutrality ; a book, a sermon, a 
 prayer, rekindled the flame of controversy; and the 
 bonds of communion were alternately broken and re- 
 newed by the private animosity of the bishops. The 
 space between Nestorius and Eutyches was filled by 
 a thousand shades of language and opinion ; the ace^ 
 phali^ of Egypt, and the Roman pontiflfs, of equal 
 valour, though of unequal strength, may be found at 
 the two extremities of the theological .^cale. The ace- 
 phali, without a king or a bishop, were separated 
 above three hundred years from the patriarchs of Alex- 
 andria, who had accepted the communion of Con- 
 stantinople, without exacting a formal condemnatioa 
 of the synod of Chalcedon. For accepting the com- 
 munion of Alexandria, without a formal approbation 
 of tho same synod, the patriarchs of Constantinople 
 were anathematized by the popes. Their inflexible 
 despotism involved the most orthodox of the Greek 
 churches in this spiritual contagion, denied or doubted 
 the validity of their sacraments,* and fomented, thirty- 
 five years, the schism of the east and west, till they 
 finally abolished the memory of four Byzantine pon- 
 tiflfs, who had dared to oppose the supremacy of St. 
 Peter.' Before that period, the precarious truce of 
 Constantinople and Egypt had been violated by the 
 zeal of the rival prelates. Macedonius, who was 
 
 d See Renaudot. (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 123. 131. 145. 195. 247.) 
 They were reconciled by the care of Mark L (A. D. 799—819.) he 
 promoted their chiefs to the bishoprics of Alhribis and Talba, (per- 
 haps Tava. See D'Anville, p. 82.) and supplied the sacraments, which 
 had failed for want of an episcopal ordination. 
 
 e De his quos baptizavit,quos ordinavit Acacius, majorum tradition© 
 confectam et veram, praecipuc religiosse solicitudini congruam pr«- 
 bemus sine difficullate medicinam. (Galacius, in epist. i. ad Euphe- 
 mium, Concil. tom. v. 286.) The offer of a medicine proves the disease,^ 
 and numbers must have perished before the arrival of the Komaa 
 physician. Tillemont himself (Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. STZ, b4A 
 &c.) is shocked at the proud uncharitable temper of the popes : they 
 are now glad, says'he, to invoke St. Flavian of Anlioch, St. tlias of 
 Jerusalem, &c. to whom they refused communion whilst upon earth. 
 But Cardinal Baronius is firm and hard as the rock of St. Ireter. 
 
 f Their names were erased from the diptych of the church: ex 
 venerabili diptycho, in quo piae memorise transitum ad coclum haben- 
 tium episcoporum vocabula continentur. (Concil. torn. iv. p. 1846.> 
 This ecclesiastical record was therefore equivalent to the book of life. 
 
 J 
 
 ♦ t\ 
 
 ■ili 
 
 jf 
 
 II 
 
138 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 I* 
 
 'I 
 
 suspected of the Nestonan heresy, asserted, in dis- 
 grace and exile, the synod of Chalc« don, while the 
 succesfior of Cyril would have purchased its overthrow 
 with a bribe of two thousand pounds of gold. 
 
 . In the fever of the times, the sense, or 
 
 and%eTigi?uswar, rather the sound, of a syllable, was suf- 
 lill the death of ficient to disturb the peace of an empire. 
 a''d''1o8^518 TheTRisAGioN,K (thrice holy,) "Holy, 
 holy, holy. Lord God of hosts!" is sup- 
 posed, by the Greeks, to be the identical hymn which 
 the angels and cherubim eternally repeat before the 
 throne of God, and which, about the middle o( the 
 fifth century, was miraculously revealed to the church 
 of Constantinople. The devotion of Anlicch soon 
 added, '* who was crucified for us ! " and this grateful 
 address, either to Christ alone, or to the whole ^M- 
 nity, may be justified by the rules of theology, and has 
 been gradually adopted by the catholics of the east 
 and west. But it had been imagined by a monophy- 
 site bishop ; •» the gift of an enemy was at first rejected 
 as a dire and dangerous blasphemy, and the rash in- 
 novation had nearly cost the emperor Anastasius his 
 throne and his life.' The people of Constantinople 
 were devoid of any rational principles of freedom ; but 
 they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the colour of 
 a livery in the races, or the colour of a mystery in the 
 schools. The Trisagion, with and without this obnox- 
 ious addition, was chanted in the cathedral by two 
 adverse choirs, and when their lungs were exhausted, 
 they had recourse to the more solid arguments of 
 sticks and stones : the aggressors were punished by 
 the emperor, and defended by the patriarch ; and the 
 crown and mitre were staked on the event of this 
 momentous quarrel. The streets were instantly crowd- 
 ed with innumerable swarms of men, women, and chil- 
 dren ; the legions of monks, in regular array, marched, 
 and shouted, and fought at their head, *' Christians ! 
 this is the day of martyrdom : let us not desert our 
 spiritual father; anathema to the Manichaean tyrant! 
 he is unworthy to reign." Such wms the catholic cry ; 
 and the tjalleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars be- 
 fore the palace, till the patriarch had pardoned his 
 penitent, and hushed the waves of the troubled multi- 
 tude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a 
 speedy exile ; but ihe zeal of his flock was again exas- 
 pprated by the same question, *' Whether one of the 
 Trinity had been crucified ] " On this momentous 
 occasion, the blue and' green factions of Constanti- 
 nople suspended their discord, and the civil and mili- 
 tary powers were annihilated in their presence. The 
 keys of the city, and the standards of the guards, were 
 deposited in the forum of Conslantine, the principal 
 station and camp of the faithful. Day and night they 
 were inncessantly busied cither in singing hymns to 
 the honour of their God, or in pillaginij and murdering 
 the servants of their prince. The head of his favourite 
 monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of 
 the Holy Trinity, was borne aloft on a spear; and the 
 firebrands, which had been darted aaainst heretical 
 structures, diffused the undistinguishing flames over the 
 most orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor 
 were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, 
 till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the 
 mercy of his subjects. Without his diadem, and in 
 ihe posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the 
 
 r Petavius, (Dogmat. Theolog. torn. v. I. ▼. c, 2—4. p. 217—225.) and 
 Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. lorn. xiv. p, 713, &;c.799.) reprpseni ihe his- 
 tory and doctrine of the TrisaKJon. In the twelve centuries between 
 Isaiah and St. Proclus's boy, who was tak(?n up into heaven before the 
 bishop an<l people of Constantinople, the sonu was considerably im- 
 proved. The boy heard the angels sing, "Holy God ! Holy stron" ! 
 Holy immortal !" " ° ' 
 
 h Peter Gnapheus, the /w//«r, (a trade which he had exercised in 
 Lis monastery,) patriarch of Antioch. His tedious rtory is discussed in 
 the annals of Fagj, (A. D. 477 — 490.) and a dissertation of 31. de Valois 
 at the end of his Evagriiis. 
 
 I The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must be gathered from 
 the Chronicles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes. As tlie last 
 was not published in the time of Baronius, hia critic Pagi ia more 
 copious, as well aa more correct. 
 
 throne of the circus. The catholics, before his face, 
 rehearsed their genuine Trisagion ; they exulted in 
 the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, 
 of abdicating the purple; they listened to the admoni- 
 tion, that, since all could not reign, they should pre- 
 viously agree in the choice of a sovereign ; and they 
 accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom 
 their master, without hesitation, condemned to the 
 lions. Thfse furious but transient seditions were 
 encouraged by the success of Vitalian, who, with an 
 army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idola- 
 ters, declared himself the champion of the catholic 
 faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, 
 besieged Constantinople, exterminated sixty-five thou- 
 sand of his fellovv-christians, till he obtained the re- 
 call of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, and 
 the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, an or- 
 thodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying Anas- 
 tasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of 
 
 Justinian. And such was the event of ,-• , . ,. . 
 . - . - . ... ... First religious 
 
 the Jirst of the reliLUous wars, which war, 
 
 have been waged in the name, and by A. D. 514. j 
 the disciples, of the God of peace.^ 
 
 Justinian has been already seen in the 
 various lights of a prince, a conqueror, ^aeJlnd^ g^** 
 and a lawgiver: the theologian' still re- vemment of Jui- 
 mains, and it affords an unfavourable . d'kiqIIIcs- 
 prejudice, that his theology should form 
 a very prominent feature of his portrait. The sove- 
 reign sympathized with his subjects in their super- 
 stitious reverence for living and departed saints : his 
 Code, and more especially his Novels, confirm and 
 enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dis- 
 pute between a monk and a layman, the partial judge 
 was inclined to pronounce that truth, and innocence, 
 and justice, were always on the side of the church. 
 In his public and private devotions, the emperor was 
 assiduous and exemplary ; his prayers, vigils, and 
 fasts, displayed the austere penance of a monk; his 
 fancy was amused by the hope, or belief, of personal 
 inspiration ; he had secured the patronage of the Virgin 
 and St. Michael the archangel; and his recovery from 
 a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous 
 succour of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. 
 The capital and the provinces of the east were deco- 
 rated with the monuments of his religion ; °* and though 
 the far ureater part of these costly structures may be 
 attributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the 
 royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine 
 sense of love and gratitude towards his invisible bene- 
 factors. Among the titles of imperial greatness, the 
 name of Fious was most pleasing to his ear; to pro- 
 mote the temporal and spiritual interest of the church, 
 was the serious business of his life; and the duty of 
 father of his country was often sacrificed to that of de- 
 fender of the faith. The controversies of the times 
 were congenial to his temper and understanding; and 
 the theological professors must inwardly deride the 
 diligence of a stranger, who cultivated their art and 
 neglected his own. " Wiiat can ye fear," said a bold 
 conspirator to his associates, ** from your bigoted 
 tyrant? Sleepless and unarmed he sits whole nights 
 
 k The peneral histoir, from the Council of Chalcedon to the death 
 of Anaslasius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus, (c. 14 — 19.) 
 the second and third books of Evagrius, the Abstract of the two 
 books of Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the epis- 
 tles of the Popes, (Concil. torn, v.) The series is continued with 
 some disorder in the fifteenth and sixteenth tomrs of the IMemoires 
 Ecclesiastiques of Tillemont. And here I must take leave for ever 
 of that incomparable guide— whose bigotry is overbalanced by the 
 merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness. 
 He was prevented by death from completing, as he designed, the 
 sixth century of the church and empire. 
 
 1 The strain of the Anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 11. 13. 18.27,28.) 
 with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is confirmed, rather than 
 contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth botik of Evag- 
 rius, and the complaints of the African Facumlus, in his twelfth 
 book— de tribus capitulis, " cum videri doctus apprtit, importune . . 
 spontaneis quaestionibus ecclesiam lurbat." See Procop. de BelL 
 Goth 1. iii. c.35. 
 
 m Procop. de Edificiis, I. i. c. 6, 7.&c. passim. 
 
 Chap. VIIT. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 139 
 
 '1 
 
 in his closet, debaiingr with reverend grey-beards, and ' 
 turning over the pages of ecclesiastical volumes."" 
 Thefruits of these lucubrations were displayed in many 
 a conference; where Justinian miyht shine as the loud- 
 est and most subtle of the disputants, in many a ser- 
 mon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles, 
 proclaimed to the empire the theology of their master. 
 While the barbarians invaded the provinces, while the 
 victorious legions marched under the banners of Beli- 
 sarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown 
 to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a 
 synod. Had he invited to these synods a disinterested 
 and rational spectator, Justinian might have learned, 
 "//m/ religious controversy is the offspring of arro- 
 gance and folly ; that true piety is most laudably ex- 
 pressed by silence and submission ; that man, ignorant 
 of his own nature, should not presume to scrutinize 
 the nature of his God; and that it is sufficient for us 
 to know, that power and benevolence are the perfect 
 attributes of the Deity." ° 
 
 . Toleration was not the virtue of the 
 
 '^^ times, and indulgence to rebels has sel- 
 
 dom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince 
 descends to the narrow and peevish character of a dis- 
 putant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of 
 argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise 
 without mercy the perverse blindness of those w'ho 
 wilfully shtit their eyes airainst the light of demon- 
 stration. The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet 
 various scene of persecution ; and he appears to have 
 surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the con- 
 trivance of his laws and the rigfour of their execution. 
 
 The insufficient term of three months 
 of heretics ; • j r ^u • • i 
 
 was assigned lor the conversion or exile 
 
 of all heretics ;p and if he still connived at their pre- 
 carious stay, they were df^prived, under his iron yoke, 
 not only of the benefits of society, but of the common 
 birtl'.-right of men and christians. At the end of four 
 hundred years, the Monlanists of Phrygia,'' still breathed 
 the wild enthusiasm of perfection and prophecy, which 
 they had imbibed from their male and female apostles, 
 the special organs of the Paraclete. On the approach 
 of the catholic priests and soldiers, they grasped with 
 alacrity the crown of martyrdom ; the conventicle and 
 the congregation perished in the flames, hut these pri- 
 mitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundred 
 years after the death of their tyrant. Under the pro- 
 tection of the Gothic confederates, the church of the 
 Arians of Constantinople had braved the severity of 
 the laws: their clergy equalled the wealth and magni- 
 ficence of the senate ; and the gold atid silver which 
 was seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian might 
 perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces and 
 the trophies of the barbarians. A secret remnant of 
 
 of Pagans; 
 
 pajrans, who still lurked in the most re- 
 fined and the most rustic conditions of 
 mankind, excited the indignation of the christians, 
 who were perhaps unwilling that any strangers should 
 be the witnesses of their intestine quarrels. A bishop 
 was named as the inquisitor of the faith, and his dili- 
 gence soon discovered in the court and city, the 
 magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who 
 
 n *0; ^1 x«Si|Txt «^uX.9(XTe; i; ten in-< KiTX>fi tivo; kid^i vvxruiir ojuw 
 T»»{ Tu'V riflvuv y-ifvertv xo-Xf'Ov stvxKvxy.' 'v rx Xf irtavrv Koyix TtthShv 
 
 fxy*. Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. S2. In the life of St. Euty- 
 chius (apud Aleman. ad Procop. Arcan. c. 18.) the same character is 
 given with a desicn to praise Justinian. 
 
 o For those wise and moderate sentiments, Procopius (de Bell. 
 Goth. I. i. c. 3.) is scourged in the preface of Alemannus, who ranks 
 him among \.\\p political cliristians-sed lomre veriiis haerosiun omnium 
 senlinas, pr.>rsns(iue Atheos- abominable atheists, who preached the 
 imitation of God's mercy to man, (ad Hist. Arcan. c. 13.) 
 
 p This alternative, a precious circumstance, is preserved by John 
 Malala, (torn. ii. p. 63. edit. Venet. 1733 ) wno«Ieserves more credit as 
 he tlraws towards his end. After numberins the heretics, Nestorians, 
 Eutycliians, Sec. ne expectent,. says Justinian, ut dicni venia judicen- 
 lur : jubemus, enim ul . . . convicti et aperti haeretici jusiae et idoneae 
 animadversioiii Kubiicianiur. IJaronius copies and applauds this edict 
 of the Code. (.\. I». .V27. No. 30, 40.) 
 
 q See the character and priiirjplpsof the IVIontanists, in Mosheim, 
 do Kebus Christ, ante Coiisuniinum, p. 410-^124. 
 
 still cherished the superstition of the Greeks. They 
 were sternly informed that they must choose without 
 delay between the displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian, 
 and that their aversion to the gospel could no longer 
 be disguised under the scandalous mask of indifference 
 or impiety. The patrician Photius perhaps alone w^as 
 resolved to live and to die like his ancestors: he 
 enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and 
 left his tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with 
 ignominy the lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His 
 weaker brethren submitted to their earthly monarch, 
 underwent the ceremony of baptism, and laboured, by 
 their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to 
 expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of 
 Homer, and the theatre of the Trojan war, still retained 
 the last sparks of his mythology : by the care of the 
 same bishop, seventy thousand pagans were detec- 
 ted and converted in Asia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria; 
 ninety-six churches were built for the new proselytes; 
 and linen vestments, bibles, and liturgies, and vases 
 of gold and silver, were supplied by the pious munifi- 
 cence of Justinian.' The Jews, who 
 had been gradually stripped of their im- ° ^"' 
 munities, were oppressed by a vexatious law% which 
 compelled them to observe the festival of Easter the 
 same day on which it was celebrated by the chris- 
 tians.* And they might complain with the more rea- 
 son, since the catholics themselves did not agree with 
 the astronomical calculations of their sovereign : the 
 people of Constantinople delayed the beginning of 
 their Lent a whole week after it had been ordained by 
 authority ; and they had the pleasure of fasting seven 
 days, while meat was exposed for sale by the com- 
 mand of the emperor. The Samaritans , c. 
 
 >. r» 1 .• ♦ ^1 of Samaritans. ' 
 
 of Palestine* were a motley race, an am- 
 biguous sect, rejected as Jews by the pagans, by the 
 Jews as schismatics, and by the christians as idolaters. 
 The abomination of the cross had already been plan- 
 ted on their holy mount of Garizim,** but the persecu- 
 tion of Justinian afforded only the alternative of bap- 
 tism or rebellion. They chose the latter : under the 
 standard of a desperate leader, they rose in arms, and 
 retaliated their wrongs on the lives, the property, and 
 the temples, of a defenceless people. The Samari- 
 tans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the 
 east : twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand 
 were sold by the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and 
 India, and the remains of that unhappy nation atoned 
 for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocri.«y. It 
 has been computed that one hundred thousand Roman 
 subjects were extirpated in the Samaritan war,' which 
 converted the once fruitful province into a desolate 
 and srnokinnf wilderness. But in the creed of Jus- 
 tinian, the guilt of murder could not be applied to the 
 slaughter of unbelievers : and he piously laboured to 
 establish with fire and sword the unity of the christian 
 faith .y 
 
 r Theophan. Chron. p. 153. John, the monophysite bishop of 
 Asia, is « more authentic witness of this transaction, in whicn ho 
 was himself employed by the emperor. (Asseman. Bib. Orient, torn, 
 ii. p. 8-5.) 
 
 s Compare Procopius (Hist. Arcan. c. 2S. and Aleman's Notes) with 
 Theophanes. (Chron. p. 190.) The council of Nice lias intrusted the 
 patriarch, or rather the astnmomers, of Alexandria, with the annual 
 proclamation of Kasler; and we still read, or rather we do not read, 
 many of the Paschal epistles of St. Cyril. Since the reign of mono^ 
 phytism in Egypt, the catholics wore perplexed by such a f^x)lish pre- 
 judice as that which so long opposed, among the protcstants, the re- 
 ception of the Gregorian style. 
 
 t For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consult Basnage, 
 Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial work. 
 
 u Sichem, Neapolis, Naplous, the ancient and modern seat of the 
 Samaritans, is situate in a valley between the barren Ebal,ihe moun- 
 tain of cursing to the north, and the fruitful Garizini, or mountain 
 of cursing to the south, ten or eleven hours' travel from Jerusalem. 
 See Mauiidrel, Journey from Aleppo, Sec. p. 59—6.3. 
 
 X Procop. Anecdoi.c. 11. Theophan. Chron. p. 122. John Malala, 
 Chron. tom. ii. p. 62. I remember an observation, half philosophical, 
 half superstitious, that the province which had been ruined by the 
 bigotry of Justinian, was the same through which the Mahometans 
 penetrated into the empire. 
 
 y The expression of Procopius is remarkable: ou yap o» i^oxn ^oirct 
 
 Anecdot. c. 13. 
 
 
 , i] 
 
 Ii 
 
 ill 
 
140 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIII 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 141 
 
 -fl 
 
 Hi8 orthodoxy. 
 
 * 
 
 I 
 
 With these sentiments, it was inciinr]- 
 bent on hinn, at least, to be always in the 
 right. In the first years of his administration, he sig- 
 nalized his zeal as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy: 
 the reconciliation of the Greeks and Latins established 
 the tome of St. Leo as the creed of the emperor and the 
 empire; the Nestorians and Eutychians were exposed, 
 on either side, to the double edge of persecution ; and 
 the four synods, of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, 
 and Chalccdon, were ratified by the code of a catholic 
 lawnriver.' But while Justinian strove to maintain tjje 
 uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, 
 whose vices were not incompatible with devotion, had 
 listened to the monophysite teachers ; and the open or 
 clandestine enemies of the church revived and multi- 
 plied at the smile of their gracious patroness. The 
 capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spi- 
 ritual discord ; yet so doubtful was the sincerity of 
 the royal consorts, that their seeming disagreement 
 was imputed by many (o a secret and mischievous 
 confederacy against the religion and happiness of their 
 The three people.* The famous dispute of the 
 chapters. THREE CHAPTERS,'' which has filled morc 
 A.D. 532-G98. volumes than it deserves lines, is deeply 
 marked with this subtle and disingenuous spirit. It 
 was now three hundred years since the body of Ori- 
 gen*^ had been eaten by the worms : his soul, of which 
 he held the pre-exislence, was in the hands of its 
 Creator, but his writings were eagerly perused by the 
 monks of Palestine. In these writings, the piercing 
 eye of Justinian descried more than ten metaphysical 
 errors ; and the primitive doctor, in the company of 
 Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy to 
 the eterniiy of hell-fire, which he had presumed to 
 deny. Under the cover of this precedent, a treache- 
 rous blow was aimed at th,e council of Chalcedon. 
 The fathers had listened without impatience to the 
 praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia ;^ and their justice 
 or indulgence had restored both Theodoret of Cyrrhus, 
 and Ibas of Edessa, to the communion of the church. 
 But the characters of these oriental bishops were 
 tainted with the reproach of heresy ; tlie first had been 
 the master, the two others were the friends, of Nesto- 
 rius : their most suspicious passages were accused 
 under the title of the ihree chapters ,• and the condem- 
 nation of their memory must involve the honour of a 
 synod, whose name was pronounced with sincere or 
 affected reverence by (he catholic world. If these 
 bishops, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated 
 in the sleep of death, they would not probably be 
 awakened by the clamour, which after a hundred 
 years was raised over their grave. If they were al- 
 ready in the fangs of the daemon, their torments could 
 neither be aggravated nor assuaged by human indus- 
 
 X See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328. and {he original evidence of 
 the laws of Justinian. Duringr the first years of his reign, Baronius 
 himself is in extreme pood humour with the emperor, who courted 
 the popes, till he got them into his power. 
 
 * Procopius, Anecdot. c. 1.3. Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 10. If the ecclesi- 
 astical never read the sacred historian, their common suspicion proves 
 at least the general hatred. 
 
 b On the subject of the three chapters, the original acts of the fifth 
 general council of Constantinople supply mucli useless, thnu^h au- 
 thentic, knowledcre. (Concil. torn. vi. p. 1—419.) The Greek Evacrius 
 is less copious and correct (1. iv. c. 39.) than the three zealous Afri- 
 eans, Facundus, (in his twelve books, de tribus capitulis, which are 
 most correctly published by Simond,) I.iberatus, (in his Breviarum, c. 
 22—24.) and Viclor Tunnunensis in his Chronicle, (in tom i. Antiq. 
 Lect. Canisii, p. 330— 331 ) The Liber Pontificali8,orAnastasius,(in 
 Vigilio, Pelajrio, &c.) is original, Italian evidence. The modern 
 readerwill derive some information from Dupin(Bibliot.Ecoles tom 
 ▼. p. 139—207.) and Basnage ; (Hist, de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 519—541 ) 
 yet the latter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the authority and 
 character of the popes. 
 
 c Origen had indeed too great a propensity to imitate the frK»xtt 
 and Svra-icn* of the old philosophers. (Justinian, ad Mennam, in 
 Concil. tom. vi. p. 35G.) His moderate opinions were too repuenant 
 lo the zeal of the church, and he was found guilty of the heresy of 
 reason. 
 
 d Basnajre (Praefat. p. 11—14. ad tom. i. Antiq. Lect. Canis.) has 
 fiiirly weighed the guilt and innocence of Theodore of Mopsuestia. If 
 lie composed 10,0(X) volumes, as many errors would be a charitable 
 allowance In all the subsequent catalogues of heresiarchs, he alone, 
 without his two brethren, is included ; and it is the duty of Asseman 
 (Bibliot. Orient, torn. iv. p. 203—207.) lo justify the sentence. 
 
 try. If in the company of saints and angels they 
 enjoyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled 
 at the idle fury of the theological insects who still 
 crawled on the surface of the earth. The foreujo.st of 
 these insects, the emperor of the Romans, darted nis 
 sling, and distilled his venom, perhaps without dis- 
 cerning the true motives of Theodora and her ecclesi- 
 astical faction. The victims were no longer subject 
 to his power, and the vehement style of his edicts 
 could only proclaim their damnation, and invite the 
 clergy of the east to join in a full chorus of curses and 
 ariathemas. The east, with some hesita- 
 tion, consented to the voice of her sove- YllUn^^tli «*• 
 
 , r- r I 1 . 1 i» . council, iia.oi 
 
 reign : the fifth general council, of three Constaminopie, 
 patriarchs and one hundred and sixty- -t'^'i^'t^* 
 five bishops, was held at Constantino- ^^^^^ ^-•'""^ 2. 
 pic ; and the authors, as well as the defenders, of the 
 three chapters, were separated from the communion 
 of the saints, and solemnly delivered to the prince of 
 darkness. But the Latin churches were more jealous 
 of the honour of Leo and the synod of Chalcedon ; 
 and if they had fought as they usually did under the 
 standard of Rome, they might have prevailed in the 
 cause of reason and humanity. But their chief was a 
 prisoner in the hands of the enemy ; the throne of St. 
 Peter, which had been disgraced by the simony, was 
 betrayed by the cowardice, of Vigilius, who yielded, 
 after a long and inconsistent struggle, to the despotism 
 of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks. His 
 apostacy provoked the indignation of the Latins, and 
 no more than two bishops could be found who would 
 inipose their hands on his deacon and successor Pela 
 gius. Yet the perseverance of the popes insensibly 
 transferred to their adversaries the appellation of schis 
 matics ; the Illyrian, African, and Italian churches 
 were oppressed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, 
 not without some effort of military force ;* the distant 
 barbarians transcribed the creed of the Vatican, and 
 in the period of a century, the schism of the three 
 chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian 
 province.' But the religious discontent of the Italians 
 had already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, 
 and the Romans themselves were accustomed to sus- 
 pect the faith, and to detest the government, of their 
 Byzantine tyrant. 
 
 Justinian w^as neither steady nor con- Heresy of Jus 
 sistent in the nice process of fixinor his tinian, 
 volatile opinions and those of his sub- A.D.564. 
 jects. In his youth he was offended by the slightest 
 deviation from the orthodox line; in Iiis old age, he 
 transgressed the measure of temperate heresy, and the 
 Jacobites, not less than the catholics, were scandalized 
 by his declaration, that the body of Christ was incor- 
 ruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to 
 any wants and infirmities, the inheritance of our mor- 
 tal flesh. This phantastic opinion was announced in 
 the last edicts of Justinian ; and at the moment of his 
 seasonable departure, the clergy had refused to tran- 
 scribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and the 
 people were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop of 
 Treves, secure beyond the limits of his power, ad- 
 dressed the monarch of the east in the language of 
 authority and affection. ♦' Most gracious Justinian, 
 remember your baptism and your creed. Let not your 
 grey hairs be defiled with heresy. Recall your fathers 
 from exile, and your followers from perdition. You 
 cannot be ignorant, that Italy and Gaul, Spain and 
 
 e See the complaints of Liberatus and Victor, and the exhortation* 
 of pope Pelagius to the comjueror and exarch of Italy. Schisma . . . 
 per polestatea publicas opprimatur, &c. (Coucil. tom. vi. p. 467, &c.> 
 An army was detained losuppressilieseditionof an Illyrian city. See 
 Procopius: (de Bell. Goth. 1. iv. c. 25.) (i* -ip ivix* <rr<Tiv atoroic si 
 Xfi<rT4i»va« hi:tix»'^i\iT»i. He seems to promise an ecclesiastical his- 
 tory. It would have been curious and impartial. 
 
 f The bishops of the patriarchate of Aquileia were reconciled bjr 
 pope Honorius, A. D. G38; (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 376.) 
 but they again relapsed, and the schism was not finally extincuished 
 till 698. Fourteea years before, the church of Spain had overlooked 
 the fifth general council with contemptuous silence, (xiii. ConciU 
 Toleun. in CoQcil. tom. vii. p. 487—494.) 
 
 Africa, already deplore your fall, and anathematize 
 your name. Unless, without delay, you destroy what 
 you have taught; unless you exclaim with a loud 
 voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Nes- 
 torius, anathema to Eutyches, you will deliver your 
 soul to the same flames in which they will eternally 
 burn." He died and made no sign.* His death re- 
 stored in some degree the peace of the church, and the 
 reigns of his four successors, Justin, Tiberius, Mau- 
 rice, and Phocas, are distinguished by a rare, though 
 fortunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical history of the 
 east.'' 
 
 The Monothelite ^^^ faculties of sense and reason are 
 coninwersy, least capable of acting on themselves; 
 A. D. 659. jj^g gy(j jg nnosl inaccessible to the sight, 
 the soul to the thought; yet we think, and even feel, 
 that one iviU^ a sole principle of action, is essential to 
 a rational and conscious being. When Heraclius re- 
 turned from the Persian war, the orthodox hero con- 
 sulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom he 
 adored, of one person, but of two natures, was actua- 
 ted by a single or a double will. They replied in the 
 singular, and the emperor was encouraged to hope 
 that the Jacobites of Egypt and Syria might be recon- 
 ciled by the profession of a doctrine, most certainly 
 harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught 
 even by the Nestorians themselves.' The experiment 
 was tried without effect, and the timid or vehement 
 catholics condemned even the semblance of a retreat 
 in the presence of a subtle and audacious enemy. The 
 orthodox (the prevailing) party devised new modes of 
 speech, and argument, and interpretation : to either 
 nature of Christ, they speciously applied a proper and 
 distinct energy ; but the difference was no longer visi- 
 ble when they allowed that the human and the divine 
 will were invariably the same.* The disease was at- 
 tended with the customary symptoms ; but the Greek 
 clergy, as if satiated with the endless controversy of 
 the incarnation, instilled a healing counsel into the car 
 of the prince and people. They declared themselves 
 MoNOTHELiTES, (asscrters of the unity of will,) but 
 they treated the words as new, the questions as super- 
 fluous, and recommended a religious silence as the 
 The ecthesis of most agreeable to the prudence and cha- 
 Heraciius, rjty of the gospel. This law of silence 
 Thfiyul'oi "^^'^s successively imposed by the ecthesis 
 Constans, or exposition of Heraclius, the type or 
 A. D. 648. model of his grandson Constans;' and the 
 imperial edicts were subscribed with alacrity or reluc- 
 tance by the four patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, 
 Alexandria and Antioch. But the bishop and monks 
 of Jerusalem sounded the alarm; in the language, or 
 even in the silence, of the Greeks, the Latin churches 
 detected a latent heresy: and the obedience of pope 
 
 K Nicetius, bishop of Treves: (Concil. tom. vi. p. 511—513.) he 
 himself, like most of the Galilean prelates, (Gre?or. Epist. 1. vii. ep. 
 5. in Concil. tom. vi. p. 1007.) was separated from the communion 
 of the four patriarchs by his refusal to condemn the three chapters. 
 Baronius almost pronounces the damnation of Justinian. (A. D. 565. 
 
 No. 6.) 
 
 h After relatin* the last heresy of Justinian, (1. iv. c. 39—41.) and 
 the edict of his successor, (I. v. c. 3.) the remainder of the history of 
 £va?riu8, is filled with civil, instead of ecclesiastical, events. 
 
 i This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent, doctrine of the Nes- 
 torians, had been observed by La Croze, (Chrislianisme des Indes, 
 tom. i. p. 19, 20.) and is more fully exptised by Abulphara^us, (Bibliot. 
 Orient, tom ii. p. 292. Hist. Dynast, p. 91. vers. Latin. Pocock.) and 
 Asseman himself, (tom. iv. p. 218.) They seem ignorant that they 
 might allege the positive authority of the ecthesis. 'o ju*»eof Nis-o(<e; 
 
 xxtVip Stmgav T>i» ;»i«v tou Ku^tou ivatSf wn-jfTif, xsti Joa ii(r»y<ov viou;, 
 
 (the commonreproachof iheMonophysiies,) Juo 6iMm«t» rourav .«»ri.i- 
 
 euK it8Xa«iiti, TSu^avTiov St TauTO ^owA.»«y Twr .... Jos v^onoTrmv 
 
 «Jo;i«<ri. (Concil. tom. vii. p. 205.) 
 
 k See the orthodox faiih in Petavius : (Dogmata Theolog. tom. v. 
 1. ix. c. 6—10. p. 433-447.) all the depths of this controversy are 
 sounded in the Ureek dialo<?ue between Maximus and Pyrrhus, (ad 
 calcem tom. viii. Annal. Baron, p. 755—794.) which relates a real 
 conference, and produced as short-lived a conversion. 
 
 1 Impiissimamecthesim . . . . scelerosum typum, (Concil. tom. vii. 
 p. 366.) dialKilicsB operationis genimina (sors, eermina, or else the 
 Greek ytv^iuarx, in the original. Concil. p. 363, 364.) are the expres- 
 sions of the eighteenth anathema. The epistle of pope Martin to 
 Amandus, a Gallican bishop, stigmatizes the Monotbelites and their 
 heresy with equal viruleace, (p. 392.) 
 
 Honorius to the commands of his sovereign was re- 
 tracted and censured by the bolder ignorance of his 
 successors. They condemned the execrable and abo- 
 minable heresy of the Monolheliles, who revived the 
 errors of Manes, Apollinaris, Eutyches, &c.; they 
 signed the sentence of excommunication on the tomb 
 of St. Peter ; the ink was mingled with the sacramen- 
 tal wine, the blood of Christ; and no ceremony was 
 omitted that could fill the superstitious mind with hor- 
 ror and affright. As the representative of the western 
 church, pope Martin and his Lateran synod anathema- 
 tized the perfidious and guilty silence of the Greeks : 
 one hundred and five bishops of Italy, for the most 
 part the subjects of Constans, presumed to reprobate 
 his wicked type and the impious ecthesis of his grand- 
 father, and to confound the authors and their adherents 
 with the twenty-one notorious heretics, the apostates 
 from the church, and the organs of the devil. Such an 
 insult under the tamest reign could not pass with im- 
 punity. Pope Martin ended his days on the inhospi- 
 table shore of the Tauric Chersonesus, and his oracle, 
 the abbot Maximus, was inhumanly chastised by the 
 amputation of his tongue and his right hand." Cut 
 the same invincible spirit survived in their successors, 
 and the triumph of the Latins avenged their recent de- 
 feat, and obliterated the disgrace of the three chapters. 
 The synods of Rome were confirmed by 
 the sixth general council of Constanti- councfi!"iid. 
 nople, in the palace and presence of a of Constanti- 
 new Constantino, a descendant of Hera- "xd. 680 
 clius. The royal convert converted the Nov.*7.— 
 Byzantine pontiff and a majority of the s^/^g 
 bishops ;■ the dissenters, with their chief, ^^ * 
 Macarius of Antioch, were condemned to the spiritual 
 and temporal pains of heresy ; the east condescended 
 to accept the lessons of the west ; and the creed was 
 finally settled, which teaches the catholics of every 
 age, that two wills or energies are harmonized in the 
 person of Christ. The majesty of the pope and the Ro- 
 man synod was represented by two priests, one dea- 
 con, and three bishops : but these obscure Latins had 
 neither arms to compel, nor treasures to bribe, nor 
 language to persuade ; and I am ignorant by what arts 
 they could determine the lofty emperor of the Greeks 
 to abjure the catechism of his infancy, and to perse- 
 cute the religion of his fathers. Perhaps the monks 
 and people of Constantinople" were favourable to the 
 Lateran creed, which is indeed the least favourable 
 of the two : and the suspicion is countenanced by the 
 unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appear 
 in this quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. 
 While the synod debated, a fanatic proposed a more 
 summary decision, by raising a dead man to life ; the 
 prelates assisted at the trial, but the acknowledged 
 failure may serve to indicate, that the passions and 
 prejudices of the multitude were not enlisted on the 
 side of the Monotbelites. In the next generation, 
 when the son of Constantine was deposed and slain 
 by the disciples of Macarius, they tasted the feast of 
 revenge and dominion : the image or monument of the 
 sixth council was defaced, and the original acts were 
 committed to the flames. But in the second year, 
 their patron was cast headlong from the throne, the 
 bishops of the east were released from their occasional 
 
 m The sufferings of Martin and Maximus are described with pathe- 
 tic simplicity in the original letters and acts. (Concil tom. vii. p. 63 
 —78. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 656, No. 2. et annos subsequent.) 
 Yet the chaslisementof their disobedience, f^e^ i« and <r:.juarcf o-ixio-- 
 ui:, had been previously announced in the type of Consuns. (Concil. 
 tom. vii. p. 240.) 
 
 n Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 368.) most erroneously supposes that 
 the 124 bishops of the Roman synod transported ihemselves to Con- 
 stantinople; and by adding them to the 168 Greeks, thus composes 
 the fourth council of 292 fathers. 
 
 o The Monothelite Constans was hated by all St» toi txvt« (says 
 Theophanes, Chron. p. 292.) t/u,<r,<rSi <rccSe» ^*e* ^rarvrxv. Whea 
 the ]VIonothelite monk failed in his miracle, the people shouted i kx9( 
 »v,i,ona-i. (Concil. lorn. vii. p. 1032.) But this was a natural and 
 transient emotion ; and I much fear that the latter is an anticipation 
 of orthodoxy in tlie good people of Constantinople. 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 
 ill 
 
 > *: 
 
 il 
 
142 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 H3 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 I'l 
 
 'I. 
 
 conformity, the Roman faith was more firmly re-plant- 
 ed by the orthodox successors of Bardanes, and the 
 fine problems of tiie incarnation were forgotten in the 
 more popular and visible quarrel of the worship of 
 images.P 
 
 Union of the Before the end of the seventh century, 
 GreokandLa- the creed of the incarnation, which had 
 tin churches. ^^^^^ defined at Rome and Constantino- 
 ple, was uniformly preached in the remote islands of 
 Britain and Ireland;'' the same ideas were entertained, 
 or rather the same words were repeated, by all the 
 christians whose liturgy was performed in the Greek 
 or Latin tongue. Their numbers, and visible splen- 
 dour, bestowed an imperfect claim to the appellation 
 of catholics; but in the east they were marked with 
 the less honourable name of Melchitcs, or royalists ; ' 
 of men, whose faith, instead of resting on the basis 
 of Scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established, 
 and was still maintained, by the arbitrary power of a 
 temporal monarch. Their adversaries might allege 
 the words of the fathers of Constantinople, who pro- 
 fess themselves the slaves of the king; and they 
 might relate, with malicious joy, how the decrees of 
 Chalcedon had been inspired and reformed by the em- 
 peror Marcian and his virgrin bride. % The prevailing 
 faction will naturally inculcate the duty of submission"^ 
 nor is it less natural that dissenters should feel and 
 assert the principles of freedom. Under the rod of 
 persecution, the Neslorians and monophysites degene- 
 rated into rebels and fugitives; and the most an'cienl 
 and useful allies of Rome were taught to consider the 
 emperor not as the chief, but as the enemy, of the 
 christians. Language, the leading principle which 
 unites or separates the tribes of mankind, soon discri- 
 minated the sectaries of the east, by a peculiar and 
 perpetual badge, which abolished the means of inter- 
 Perpetual sepa- i-'ourse and the hope of reconciliation, 
 ration of the ori- The long dominion of the Greeks, their 
 entai sects. colonies, and above all their eloquence, 
 had propagated a language doubtless the most perfect 
 that has been contrived by the art of man. Yet the 
 body of the people, both in Syria and Egypt, still 
 persevered in the use of their national idioms; with 
 this difference, however, that the Coptic was confined 
 to the rude and illiterate peasants of the Nile, while 
 the Syriac,* from the mountains of Assyria to the Red 
 
 p The history of Monoihelitjsm rnav be f Mind in the Acts of the 
 Synods of Rome (torn. vii. p.>r— 395. 601—608.) and Constantinople. 
 (p. 609— 1 1-29.) Baronius extracted some orijrinal documents from the 
 Vatican library ; and his chronolocrv is rccfified by the diliirence of 
 Pagi. Even Dupin (Bibliotheque'Eccleg. torn. vi. p. 57—71.) and 
 Basnaf];o (Hist, de I'Eglise, toni. i. p. 541-555.) allbrd a tolerable 
 abrjil^ment. 
 
 q In the Lateran synod of 679, Wilfrid, an Anclo-Saxon bishop, sub- 
 BCribed pro omni Aquilonari parte Britannia? ct Hiberniae, qua; ab An- 
 glorum et Britlonum, necnon Scotonim et Pictorum gentibus coleban- 
 lur. (^Jius, in Vit. St. Wilfrid, c. 31. apud Paci, Crilica, tom. iii. p. 
 «8.) Theodore (ma?na5 insuljB Britanniae archiepiscopus et philoso- 
 phus) was long expected at Rome, (Council, tom. vii. p. 714.) but he 
 contented himself with holdin? (A. D. 680.) his provincial synod of 
 Hatfield, in which he received the decrees of pope Martin and the 
 first I^terari council against the monothelites. (Concil. torn. vii. p. 
 oJ7, &c.) Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Ciliciu, had been named 
 to the primacy of Britain by pope Viialian, (A. D. 668, See Baronius 
 and Pagi,) whose esteem for his learning and piety was tainted by 
 WJme distrust of his national character— ne quid contrarium veriiatis 
 fidei, brajcorum more, in ecclcsiam cui praeesset introduceret. The 
 Cilician was sent from Rome to Canterbury under the tuition of an 
 African guide (Bedae Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, 1. iv. c. 1.) He ad- 
 Jiered to the Roman doctrine ; and the same creed of the incarnation 
 has been uniformly transmitted from Theodore to the modern pri- 
 mates, whose understanding is perhaps seldom engaged with that ab- 
 atnise mystery. ° 
 
 r This name, unknown till the tenth century, appears to be of Sv- 
 riac origin. It was m vented by the Jacobites, and eagerly adopted by 
 the Nestorians and Mahometans ; but it was accepted without shame 
 by the catholics, and is frequently used in the Annals of Eutychius. 
 (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 507, &c. tom. iii. p.355. Renau- 
 dot. Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 119.) 'Hm«i? 5ou\o. to« ^ar.^i^j 
 ■was the acclamation of the fathers of Constantinople. (Concil. tom' 
 Tii.p. 765.) ^ ^ »v-"-wra. 
 
 » The Syrlac, which the natives revere as the primitive lan'»ua'»e 
 was divided into three dialects. 1. The Aramaan, as it was refined' 
 at Edessa and the cities of Mesopotamia. 2. The Palestine, which 
 was used in Jerusalem, Damascus, and the real of Syria. 3. The 
 Nabathaan, the rustic idiom of the mountains of Assyria and the 
 villages of Irak. (Gregor. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast, p. 11) On the 
 Syriac, see Ebed-Jesu, (Asseman. torn. iii. p. 326, &c.) whose prejudice 
 alone could prefer i; to the Arabic 
 
 sea, was adapted to the higher topics of poetry and 
 argument. Armenia and Abyssinia were infected by 
 the speech or learning of the Greeks; and their barba- 
 ric tongues, which had been revived in the studies of 
 modern Europe, were unintelligible to the inhabitants 
 of the Roman empire. The Syriac and the Coptic, 
 the Armenian and the ^Ethiopic, are consecrated in the 
 service of their respective churches : and their theo- 
 logy is enriched by domestic versions^ both of the 
 Scriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a 
 period of thirteen hundred and sixty years, the spark 
 of controversy, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorins, 
 still burns in the bosom of the east, and the hostile 
 conimunions still maintain the faith and discipline of 
 their founders. In the most abject state of ignorance, 
 poverty, and servitude, the Nestorians and Monophy- 
 sites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and 
 cherish the toleration of their Turkish masters, which 
 allows them to anathematize, on the one hand, St. 
 Cyril and the synod of Ephesus; on the other, pope 
 Leo and the council of Chalcedon. The weight which 
 they cast into the downfall of the eastern empire de- 
 mands cur notice, and the reader may be amused with 
 the various prospects of, I. The Nestorians. II. The 
 Jacobites." III. The Maronites. IV. The Armenians. 
 V. The Copts ; and, VI. The Abyssinians. To the 
 three former, the Syriac is common ; but of the latter, 
 each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom. 
 Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia 
 would be incapable of conversing with their ancestors; 
 and the Christians of Egypt and Syria, who reject the 
 religion, have adopted the language, of the Arabians. 
 The lapse of time has seconded the sacerdotal arts ; 
 and in the east, as well as in the west, the Deity is 
 addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown to the ma- 
 jority of the congregation. 
 
 I. Both in his native and his episco- i. The Nesto- 
 pal province, the heresy of the imfortu- ■ kians, 
 nate Nestorius was speedily obliterated. The orien- 
 tal bishops, who at Ephesus had resisted to his face 
 the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy 
 concessions. The same prelates, or their successors, 
 subscribed, without a murmur, the decrees of Chalce- 
 don ; the power of the Monophysites reconciled them 
 wiih the catholics in the conformity of passion, of in- 
 terest, and insensibility of belief; and their last reluc- 
 tant sigh was breathed in the defence of the three 
 chapters. Their disseniina brethren, less moderate, 
 or more sincere, were crushed by the penal laws : and 
 as early as the reign of Justinian, it became difficult 
 to find a church of Nestorians within the limits of the 
 Roman empire. Beyond those limits they had dis- 
 covered a new world, in which they might hope for 
 liberty, and aspire to conquest. In Persia, notwith- 
 standing the resistance of the Magi, Christianity had 
 struck a deep root, and the nations of the east reposed 
 under its salutary shade. The catholic, or primate, 
 resided in the capital : in his synods, and in their dio- 
 ceses, his metropolitans, bishops, and clergy, repre- 
 sented the pomp and honour of a regular hierarchy : 
 they rejoiced in the increase of proselytes, who were 
 converted from the Zendavesta to the Gospel, from the 
 secular to the monastic life; and their zeal was stimu- 
 lated by the presence of an artful and formidable ene- 
 my. The Persian church had been founded by the 
 
 1 1 shall now enrich my ignorance with the spoils of Simon, Walton, 
 MilljWetstein, Assemannus, Ludolphus, La Croze, whom I have con- 
 sulted with some care. It appears, 1. 7%a/, of all the versions which 
 are celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful whether any are now ex- 
 tant in their pristine integrity. 2. 7'hat thu Syriac has the best claim, 
 and that the consent of the oriental sects is a proof that it is more an- 
 cient than their schism. 
 
 V On the account of the Monophysites and Npstorians,! am deeply 
 indebted to the Bibliothoca Oriental is Clementine- Vaticana of Joseph 
 Sitnon Assemannus. That learned Maronite was despatched in the 
 year 1715, by pope Clement XI. to visit the monasteries of E'^vpt 
 and Syria, in search of MSS. His four folio volumes published at 
 Rome 1710-1728, contain a partonly, thoush perhaps the most valua- 
 ble, of hia extensive project. Asa nativeand asascholar, he piwsessed 
 the Syriac literature ; and, though a dependent of Rome, he wishes to 
 be moderate and carxlid. 
 
 missionaries of Syria ; and their language, discipline, 
 and doctrine, were closely interwoven with its original 
 frame. The catholics were elected and ordained by 
 their own suffragans ; but their filial dependence on 
 the patriarchs of Anlioch is attested by the canons of 
 the oriental church.* In the Persian school of Edessa,^ 
 the rising generations of the faithful imbibed their 
 theological idiom ; they studied in the Syriac version 
 the ten thousand volumes of Theodore of Mopsuestia, 
 and they revered the apostolic faith and holy martyr- 
 dom of his disciple Nestorius, whose person and lan- 
 guage were equally unknown to the nations beyond 
 the 'figris. The first indelible lesson of Ibas, bishop 
 of Edessa, taught them to execrate the Egyptians, 
 who, in the synod of Ephesus, had impiously con- 
 founded the two natures of Christ. The flight of the 
 niaslVrs and scholars, who were twice expelled from 
 the Athens of Syria, dispersed a crowd of missiona- 
 ries inflamed by the double zeal of religion and re- 
 venge. And the rigid unity of the Monophysites, 
 who, under the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, had 
 invaded the thrones of the east, provoked their anta- 
 gonists, in a land of freedom, to avow a moral, rather 
 than a physical, union of the two persons of Chri.^t. 
 Since the first preaching of the gospel, the Sassanian 
 kings beheld, with an eye of suspicion, a race of aliens 
 and apostates, who had embraced the religion, and 
 who might favour the cause, of the hereditary foes of 
 their country. The royal edicts had often prohibited 
 their dangerous correspondence with the Syrian cler- 
 gy; the progress of the schism was grateful to the 
 jealous pride of Perezes, and he listened to the elo- 
 quence of an artful prelate, who painted Nestorius as 
 the friend of Persia, and urged him to secure the fide- 
 lity of his christian subjects, by granting a just pre- 
 ference to the victims and enemies of the Roman ty- 
 rant. The Nestorians composed a large majority of 
 the clerwy and people; they were encouraged by the 
 smile, and armed with the sword, of despotism ; yet 
 many of their weaker brethren were startled at the 
 thought of breaking loose from the communion of the 
 christian world, and the blood of seven thousand seven 
 hundred Monophysitf^s or catholics, confirmed the uni- 
 f)rmity of faith and discipline in the churches of Per- 
 sia.' Their ecclesiastical institutions are distinguished 
 by a liberal principle of reason, or at least of policy; 
 the austerity of the cloister was relaxed and gradually 
 forgotten ; houses of charity were endowed for the 
 sole masters of education of orphans and foundlings ; 
 Persia, the law of Celibacy, so forcibly recom- 
 
 A.D. 500,&c. mended to the Greeks and Latins, was 
 disregarded by the Persian clergy; and the number of 
 the elect was multiplied by the public and reiterated 
 nuptials of the priests, the bishops, and even the pa- 
 triarch himself. To this standard of natural and reli- 
 gious freedom, myriads of fugitives resorted from all 
 the provinces of the eastern empire ; the narrow bigo- 
 try of Justinian was punished by the emigration of 
 his most industrious subjects; they transported into 
 Persia the arts both of peace and war; and those who 
 
 X See the Arabic canons of Nice in the translation of Abraham Ec- 
 chelensis, No. 37, 39, 39, 40. Concil. tom. ii. p. 335, 336. edit. Venet. 
 These vuiiar titles, Nicene and Arabic, are both apocryphal. The 
 council of Nice enacted no more than twenty canons. (Theodoret, Hist. 
 Eccles. 1. i. c. 8.) and the remainder, seventy or eighty, were collected 
 from the synods of the Greek church. The Syriac edition of Maruthas 
 is no longer extant, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, tom. i. p. 195. tom. iii. 
 p. 74.) and the Arai)ic version is marked with many recent interpola- 
 tions. Yet this code contains many curious relics of ecclesiastical 
 discipline ; and since it is equally revered by all the eastern commu- 
 nions, it was probably finished before the schism of the Nestorians and 
 Jacobites. (Fabric. Bibliot. Grace, tom. xi. p. 363 — 367.) 
 
 J Theodore the reader (1. ii. c. 5. 49. ad calcem Hist. Eccles.) has 
 noticed this Persian school of Edessa. Its ancient splendour, and the 
 two aeras of its downfall, (A. D. 431. and 489.) are clearly discussed by 
 Assemanni. (Biblioth, Orient, tom. ii. p. 402. iii. p. 376. 378. iv. p. 70. 
 92^1.) 
 
 « A dissertation on the state of the Nestorians has swelled in the 
 hands of Assemanni to a folio volumeof 950 pages, and his learned re- 
 Bearches are d^esied in the most lucid order. Besides this fourth 
 Volume of the Bibliotheca Orientalis, the extracts in the three pre- 
 ceilinsj tomes (tom. i. p. 203. ii. p. 321-463. iii. 64-70. 378—395, &c. 
 403-408. 580-^89.) may be usel^ully conaulted 
 
 Their missions 
 in Tartary, In- 
 dia, China, &c. 
 A. D. 500-1200. 
 
 deserved the favour, were promoted to the service, of 
 a discerning monarch. The arms of Nushirvan, and 
 his fiercer grandson, were assisted with advice, and 
 money, and troops, by the desperate sectaries who still 
 lurked in their native cities of the east; their zeal was 
 rewarded witii the gift of the catholic churches ; but 
 when those cities and churches were recovered by 
 Heraclius, their open profession of treason and heresy 
 compelled them to seek a refuge in the realm of their 
 foreign ally. But the seeming tranquillity of the Nes- 
 torians was often endangered, and sometimes over- 
 thrown. They were involved in the common evils of 
 oriental despotism : their enmity to Rome could not 
 always atone for their attachment to the gospel : and 
 a colony of three hundred thousand Jacobites, the cap- 
 tives of Apamea and Antioch, were permitted to erect 
 an hostile altar in the face of the catholic, and in the 
 sunshine of the court. In his last treaty, Justinian 
 introduced some conditions which tended to enlarge 
 and fortify the toleration of Christianity in Persia. 
 The emperor, ignorant of the rights of conscience, wa* 
 incapable of pity or esteem for the heretics who denied 
 the authority of the holy synods : but he flattered him- 
 self that they would gradually perceive the temporal 
 benefits of union with the empire and the church of 
 Rome; and if he failed in exciting their gratitude, he 
 might hope to provoke the jealousy of their sovereign* 
 In a later age, the Lutherans have been burnt at Paris 
 and protected in Germany, by the superstition and 
 policy of the most christian king. 
 
 The desire of gaining souls for God, 
 and subjects for the church, has excited 
 in every age the diligence of the chris- 
 tian priests. From the conquest of Per- 
 sia they carried their spiritual arms to the north, the 
 east, and the south ; and the simplicity of the gospel 
 was fashioned and painted with the colours of the Sy- 
 riac theology. In the sixth century, according to the 
 report of a Nestorian traveller,* Christianity was suc- 
 cessfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, the 
 Persians, the Indians, the Persarmenians, the Medes, 
 and the Elamites : the barbaric churches, from the 
 gulf of Persia to the Caspian sea, were almost infi- 
 nite ; and their recent faith was conspicuous in the 
 number and sanctity of their monks and martyrs. The 
 pepper coast of Malabar, and the isles of the ocean, 
 Socotora and Ceylon, were peopled with an increasing 
 multitude of christians, and the bishops and clergy of 
 those sequestered regions derived their ordination frona 
 the catholic of Babylon. In a subsequent age, the zezil 
 of the Nestorians overleaped the limits which had con- 
 fined the ambition and curiosity both of the Greeks and 
 Persians. The missionaries of Balch and Samarcand 
 pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tar- 
 tar, and insinuated themselves into the camps of the 
 valleys of Imaus and the banks of the Selinga. They 
 exposed a metaphysical creed to those illiterate shep- 
 herds : to those sanguinary warriors they recommen- 
 ded humanity and repose. Yet a khan, whose power 
 they vainly magnified, is said to have received at their 
 hands the rites of baptism, and even of ordination; 
 and the fame of Prester or Presbyter John** has long 
 
 a See the Topographia Christiana of Coamas, surnamed Indico- 
 pleustes, or the Indian navigator, 1. iii. p. 178, 179. 1. xi. p. 337. The 
 entire work, of which some curious extracts may be found in Photius, 
 (Cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10. edit. Hoeschel.) Thevenot, (in the first part of 
 his Relations des Voyages, &c.) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. I. iii. 
 c. 25. tom. ii, p. 603—617.) has been published by Father Montfaucon 
 at Paris, 1707, in the Nova Collectio Patrum, (lom. ii. p. 113—3460 
 It was the design of the author to confute the impious heresy of those 
 who maintain that the earth is a globe, and not a flat oblong table, as 
 it is represented in the Scriptures, (I. ii. p. 138.) But the nonsense 
 of the monk is mingled with the practical knowledge of the travel- 
 ler, who performed his voyage, A. D. 522, and published his book 
 at Alexandria, A. D. 547. (1. ii. p. 140, 141. Montfaucon, Praefat. c. 
 2.) The Nestorian ism of Cosmas, unknown to his learned editor, 
 was detected by La Croze, (Chrisiianisme des Indes, lom. i. p. 
 40—55.) and is confirmed by Assemanni. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. iv. ju 
 60."), 606.) 
 
 b In its long progress to Mosul, Jerusalem, Rome, &c. the story of 
 Prester John evaporated in a monstrous fable, of which some features 
 
 f 
 
 s 
 
 ■ \\ 
 
 ¥ 
 
 Mi 
 
 ■ t 
 
 > '. 
 
 
144 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 amused the credulity of Europe. The royal convert 
 was indulged in the use of a portable altar; hut he 
 despatched an embassy to the patriarch, to inquire 
 how, in the season of Lent, he should abstain from 
 animal food, and how he might celebrate the eucharist 
 in a desert that produced neither corn nor wine. In 
 their progress by sea and land, the Nestorians entered 
 China by the port of Canton and the northern resi- 
 dence of Sijran. Unlike the senators of Rome, who 
 assumed with a smile the characters of priests and 
 au^iirs, the mandarins, who affect in public tlie reason 
 of philosophers, are devoted in private to every mode 
 of popular superstition. They cherished and ihey con- 
 founded the gods of Palestine and of India; but the 
 propagation of Christianity awakened the jealousy of 
 the slate, and after a short vicissitude of favour and 
 persecution, the foreign sect expired in ignorance and 
 oblivion.' Under the reion of the cali))h5:, the Nesto- 
 Tian church was diffused from China to Jerusalem and 
 Cyprus; and their numbers, with those of the Jaco- 
 bites, were computed to surpass the Greek and Latin 
 communions."* Twenty-five metropolitans or archbish- 
 ops composed their hierarchy, but several of these 
 were dispensed, by the distance and danger of the 
 way, from the duty of personal attendance, on the easy 
 condition that every six years they should testify their 
 faith and obedience to the catholic or patriarch of Baby- 
 lon, a vague appellation, which has been successively 
 applied to the royal seats of Seleucia, Ctrsiphon, 
 and Bagdad. These remote branches are long since 
 withered, and the old patriarchal trunk® is now dividtd 
 by the Elijahs of Mosul, the representatives, almost 
 in lineal descent, of the genuine and primitive succes- 
 sion, the Josephs of Amida, who are reconciled to the 
 church of Rome,' and the Simeons of Van or Ormia, 
 whose revolt at the head of forty thousand families, 
 was promoted in the sixteenth century by the Sophis 
 of Persia. The number of three hundred thousand is 
 allowed for the whole body of the Nestorians, who, 
 under the name of Chaldeans or Assyrians, are con- 
 founded with the most learned or the most powerful 
 nation of eastern antiquity. 
 
 The christians According to the legend of antiquity, 
 of St. Thomas the gospel was preached in India by St. 
 *°a!d?883. 'i'homas.« At the end of the ninth cen- 
 tury, his shrine, perhaps in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Madras, was devoutly visited by the am- 
 bassadors of Alfred, and their return with a cargo of 
 pearls and spices rewarded the zeal of the English 
 monarch, who entertained the largest projects of trade 
 
 have been borrowed frf>m the Lama of Thibet, (Hist. Genealogique des 
 Tarlares, P. ii. p. 42. Hist, de Genj»iscan, p. 31, ice.) and were igno- 
 ranily transferred by the Portueuese to the emperor of Abyssinia. 
 <Ludolph. Hist, ^thiop. Comment. 1. ii. c. 1.) Yet it is probable that 
 in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Nestorian Christianity was pro- 
 fessed in the horde of Keraites. (D'Herbelot, p. 256. 915. 950. Asse- 
 manni, torn. I v. p. 458—504.) 
 
 e The Christianity of China, between the seventh and thirteenth 
 century, is invincibly proved by the consent of Chinese, Arabian, 
 Syriac, and Latin evidence. (Assemanni, Biblioth. Orient, torn. iv. p. 
 £02—552. Mem. de I'Acadomie des Inscript. torn. xxx. p. 802—819.) 
 The inscription of Sigansu, which describes the fortunes of the 
 NesKn-ian church, fn>m the first mission, A. D. 63G, to the current 
 year 781, is accused of fors^ery by La Croze, Voltaire, Icz. who become 
 the dupes of their own cunning, while they are afraid of a Jesuitical 
 fraud. 
 
 d Jacobitte et Nesiorianae plures quam Graeci et Latini. Jacob a 
 Vilriac(s Hist, Hierusul. I. ii. c. 76. p. 1U93. in the Gesla Dei per Fran- 
 cos. The numbers are given by Thomasin, Discipline de I'Eg'lise, torn. 
 i. p. 172. » i' D » 
 
 e The division of the patriarchate may be traced in the Bibliotheca 
 Orient, of Assemanni, torn. i. p. 0-23-549. tom. ii. p. 457, &c. torn. lii. 
 p. 603. p. 621—623. tom. iv. p. 164-169. p. 423 p. 62a-629, fcc. 
 
 f The pompous language of Rome, on ihe submission of a Nestorian 
 patriarch, is elegantly represented in the seventh bo«ik of Fra-Paolo, 
 Babylon, Nineveh, Arbela, and the trophies of Alexander, Tauris, and 
 Ecbatana, the Tigris and Indus. 
 
 % The Indian missionary St. Thomas, an apoetle, a Manichaean, 
 or an Armenian merchant, (La Croze, Christ ianisme des Indes, tom. 
 i. p. 57—70.) was famous, however, as early as the time of Jerom, (ad 
 Marcellum epist. 148.) Marco-Polo was informed on the spot that he 
 Buffered martyrdom in the city of Malabar, or Mel iapour, a league only 
 from Madras, (D'Anville, Eclaircissemens sur I'lnde, p. 125) where 
 the Portuguese founded an episcopal church under the name of St. 
 Thom»i, and where the saint performed an annual miracle, till he was 
 f ileoced by the profane neighbourhooU of the English. (La Cruze, turn. 
 iU p. 7—16.) 
 
 and discovery.'' When the Portuguese first opened 
 the navigation of India, the christians of St. Thomas 
 had heen seated for ages on the coast of Malabar, and 
 the difference of their character and colour attested the 
 mi.xture of a foreign race. In arms, in arts, and pos- 
 sibly in virtue, they excelled the natives of Hindos- 
 tan : the husbandmen cultivated the palm-tree, the 
 merchants were enriched by the pepper-trade, the sol- 
 diers preceded the nairs or nobles of Malabar, and 
 their hereditary privileges were respected by the gra- 
 titude or the fear of the king of Cochin and the Zamo- 
 rin hisiiself. Tliey acknowledged a Gentoo sovereign, 
 but they were governed, even in temporal concerns, 
 by the bishop of Angamala. He still asserted his 
 ancient title of metropolitan of India, but his real 
 jurisdiction was exercised in fourteen hundred chur- 
 ches, and he was intrusted with the care » T^ is^nn ;ir 
 of two hundred thousand souls. Their ^-^-^^'^c. 
 religion would have rendered them the firmest and 
 most cordial allies of the Portuguese, but the inquisi- 
 tors soon discovered in the christians of St. Thomas 
 the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism. Instead 
 of owning themselves the subjects of the Roman pon- 
 tiff, the spiritual and temporal monarch of the globe, 
 they adhered, like their ancestors, to the communion 
 of the Nestorian patriarch; and the bishops whom he 
 ordained at Mosul traversed the dangers of the sea and 
 land to reach their diocese on the coast of Malabar. 
 In their Syriac liturgy, the names of Theodore and 
 Nestorius were piously commemorated ; they united 
 their adoration of the two persons of Christ; the title 
 of Mother of God was offensive to their ear, and they 
 measured with scrupulous avarice the honours of the 
 Virgin Mary, whom the superstition of the Latins had 
 almost exalted to the rank of a goddess. When her 
 image was first presented to the disciples of St. Tho- 
 mas, they indignantly exclaimed, " We are christians, 
 not idolaters !" and their simple devotion w-as content 
 with the veneration of the cross. Their separation 
 from the western world had left them in ignorance of 
 the improvements, or corruptions, of a thousand years; 
 and their conformity with the faith and practice of the 
 fifth century, would equally disappoint the prejudices 
 of a papist or a protestant. It was the first care of the 
 ministers of Rome to intercept all correspondence with 
 the Nestorian patriarch, and several of his bishops 
 expired in the prisons of the holy office. The flock, 
 without a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of 
 the Portuguese, the arts of the Jesuits, and the zeal 
 of Alexes de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, in his per- 
 sonal visitation of the coast of Malabar. The synod 
 of Diamper, at which he presided, consummated the 
 pious work of the reunion, and rigorously imposed the 
 doctrine and discipline of the Roman church, without 
 forgetting auricular confession, the strongest engine 
 of ecclesiastical torture. The memory of Theodore 
 and Nestorius was condemned, and Malabar was re- 
 duced under the dominion of the pope, of the primate, 
 and of the Jesuits who invaded the see of Angamala 
 or Cranganor. Sixty years of servitude . ^ irgoicea 
 and hypocrisy were patiently endured \ ' ' ^ 
 but as soon as the Portuguese empire was shaken by 
 the courage and industry of the Dutch, the Nestorians 
 asserted, with vigour and effect, the religion of their 
 fathers. The Jesuits were incapable of defending the 
 power which they had abused : the arms of forty thou- 
 sand christians were pointed against their falling ty- 
 rants ; and the Indian archdeacon assumed the charac- 
 ter of bishop, till a fresh supply of episcopal gifts and 
 
 h Neither the author of the Saxon Chronicle (A. D. 883.) nor 
 William of Malmesbury (de Gestis Reeum Angliae, 1. ii. c. 4. p. 44.) 
 were capable in the twelfth century, of inventing this extraordinary 
 fact; they are incapable of explaining the motives and measures of 
 Alfred ; and their hasty notice serves only to provoke our curiosity. 
 William of Malmesbury feels the difficulty of the enterprise, quod 
 quivis in hoc saeculo miretur; and I almost suspect that the English 
 ambassadors collected their cargo and legend in Egypt. The royal 
 author has not enriched his Orosiiis (see Harrington's Miscellanies) 
 with an Indian, aa well aa a Scandinavian, royage. 
 
 145 
 
 Syriac missionaries could be obtained from the patri- 
 arch of Babylon. Since the expulsion of the Portu- 
 guese, the Nestorian creed is freely professed on the 
 coast of Malabar. The trading companies of Holland 
 ' and England are the friends of toleration; but if op- 
 pression be less mortifying than contempt, the chris- 
 tians of St. Thomas have reason to complain of the 
 cold and silent indiflference of their brethren of Eu- 
 rope.' 
 
 II. The Jaco- II. The history of the Monophysites 
 BITES. is less copious and interesting than that 
 
 of the Nestorians. Under the reigns of Zeno and 
 Anastasius, their artful leaders surprised the ear of the 
 prince, usurped the thrones of the east, and crushed 
 on its native soil the school of the Syrians. The rule 
 of the Monophysite faith was defined with exquisite 
 discretion by Severus patriarch of Antioch ; he con- 
 demned, in the style of the Henoticon, the adverse 
 heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, maintained 
 against the latter the reality of the body of Christ, and 
 constrained the Greeks to allow that he was a liar who 
 spoke truth.'' But the approximation of ideas could 
 not abate the vehemence of passion ; each party was 
 the more astonished that their blind antagonist could 
 dispute on so trifling a diflference ; the tyrant of Syria 
 enforced the belief of his creed, and his reign was pol- 
 luted with the blood of three hundred and fifty monks, 
 » T» CIO who were slain, not perhaps without pro- 
 vocation or resistance, under the walls 
 of Apamea.' The successor of Anastasius replanted 
 the orthodox standard in the east: Severus fled into 
 Egypt, and his friend, the eloquent Xenaias," who had 
 escaped from the Nestorians of Persia, was suffocated 
 in his exile by the Melchites of Paphlagonia. Fifty- 
 four bishops were swept from their thrones, eight hun- 
 dred ecclesiastics were cast into prison,' and notwith- 
 standing the ambiguous favour of Theodora, the orien- 
 tal flocks, deprived of their shepherds, must insensibly 
 have been either famished or poisoned. In this spi- 
 ritual distress, the expiring faction was revived, and 
 united, and perpetuated, by the labours of a monk ; 
 and the name of James Baradaeus" has been preserved 
 in the appellation oi Jacobites, a familiar sound which 
 may startle the ear of an English reader. From the 
 holy confessors in their prison of Constantinople, he 
 received the powers of bishop of Ede«sa and apostle 
 of the east, and the ordination of fourscore thousand 
 
 > Concerning the christians of St. Thomas, see Asseman. Bibliot. 
 Orient, lorn. iv. p. 391-407. 435-461.; Geddes's Church History of 
 Malabar; and, above all, La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme des 
 Indes, In two vols. 12mo, La Haye, 1758, a learned and agreeable 
 work. They have drawn from the same source, the Portuguese and 
 Italian narratives; and the prejudices of the Jesuits are sufficiently 
 corrected by those of the protesunts. 
 
 k Oiov ii^iif :^t\i^»Ki>iiiM is the expression of Theodore, in his 
 Treatise of the Incarnation, p. 245. 247. as he is quoted by La Croze, 
 <Hist. du Christianisme d'Ethiopie etd'Armenie,p. 35.) who exclaims, 
 perhaps too hastily, " Quel pitoyable raisonnement !" Renaudot has 
 touched (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 127—138.) the oriental accounts 
 of Severus ; and his authentic creed may be found in the epistle of 
 John the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, in the tenth century, to his 
 brother Mennas of Alexandria. (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 
 132—141.) *^ 
 
 1 Epist. Archimandritarum et Monachorum Syria Secunda ad 
 Papam Hormisdam, Concil. tom. v. p. 598—602. The courage of St. 
 Sabas, ut leo animoeus, will justify the suspicion that the arms of 
 these monks were not always spiritual or defensive. (Baronius, A. D. 
 513. No. 7. &c.) 
 
 m Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient, lorn. ii. p. 10 — 46.) and La Croze 
 (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 36 — 40.) will supply the history of 
 Xenaias, or Philoxenus, bishop of Mabug, or Hierapolis, in Syria. He 
 was a perfect master of the Syriac language, and the author or editor 
 of a version of the New Testament. 
 
 B The names and titles of fifty-four bishops, who were exiled by 
 Justin, are preserved in the Chronicle of Dionysius. (apud Asseman. 
 tom. ii. p. 54.) Severus was personally summoned to Constantinople 
 —for his trial, says Liberatus (Brev. c. 19.)— that his tongue might be 
 cut out, says Evagrius, (I. iv. c. 4.) The prudent patriarch did not 
 »Uy to examine the difference. This ecclesiastical revolution is fixed 
 by Pagi at the month of September of the year 518. (Critica, tom. ii. 
 p. 506.) 
 
 The obscure hlstonr of James, or Jacobus Baradaus, or Zanzalus, 
 may be gathered from Eutychius,(Annal. tom. ii. p. 144. 147.) Renau- 
 dot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 133.) and Assemannus, (Bibliot. Orient. 
 ^^- KP' ^^- ^°"^' "• P- ^2—69. 324—332. p. 414- torn. ill. p. 385— 
 •siW.) He seems to be unknown to the Greeki. The Jacobites them- 
 selves had rather deduce their name and pedigree from St. James the 
 •poetle. 
 
 Vol. II.— T 10 
 
 bishops, priests, and deacons, is derived from the same 
 inexhaustible source. The speed of the zealous mis 
 sionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of 
 a devout chief of the Arabs; the doctrine and disci- 
 pline of the Jacobites were secretly established in the 
 dominions of Justinian ; and each Jacobite was com- 
 pelled to violate the laws and to hate the Roman 
 legislator. The successors of Severus, while they 
 lurked in convents or villages, while they sheltered 
 their proscribed heads in the caverns of hermits, or 
 the tents of the Saracens, still asserted, as they now 
 assert, their indefeasible right.to the title, the rank, 
 and the prerogatives, of the patriarch of Antioch : un- 
 der the milder yoke of the idfidels, they reside about a 
 league from Merdin, in the pleasant monastery of Za- 
 pharan, which they have embellished with cells, aque- 
 ducts, and plantations. The secondary, though hon- 
 ourable, place is filled by the maphrian, who, in his 
 station at Mosul itself, defies the Nestorian catholic 
 with whom he contests the supremacy of the east. 
 Under the patriarch and the maphrian, one hundred 
 and fifty archbishops and bishops have been counted 
 in the diflferent ages of the Jacobite church ; but the 
 order of the hierarchy is relaxed or dissolved, and the 
 greater part of their dioceses is confined to the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Euphrates and the TiffHs. The cities 
 of Aleppo and Amida, which are often visited by the 
 patriarch, contain some wealthy merchants and indus- 
 trious mechanics, but the multitude derive their scanty 
 sustenance from their daily labour : and poverty, as 
 well as superstition, may impose their excessive fasts: 
 five annual lents, during' which, both the clergy and 
 laity abstain not only from flesh or eggs, but even from 
 the taste of wine, of oil, and offish. Their present num- 
 bers are esteemed from fifty to fourscore thousand sools, 
 the remnant of a populous church, which has gradually 
 decreased under the oppression of twelve centuries. 
 Yet in that long period, some strangers of merit have 
 been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew 
 was the father of Abulpharagius p primate of the east, 
 so truly eminent both in his life and death. In his 
 life, he was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Arabic 
 tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtle phi- 
 losopher, and a moderate divine. In his death, his 
 funeral was attended by his rival the Nestorian patri- 
 arch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians, who for- 
 got their disputes, and mingled their tears over the 
 grave of an enemy. The sect which was honoured 
 by the virtues of Abulpharagius appears, however, to 
 sink below the level of their Nestorian brethren. The 
 superstition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts 
 more rigid,*" their intestine divisions are more nume* 
 rous, and their doctors (as far as I can measure the 
 degrees of nonsense) are more remote from the pre- 
 cincts of reason. Something may possibly be allowed 
 for the rigour of the Monophysite theology; much 
 more for the superior influence of the monastic order. 
 In Syria, in Egypt, in ^Ethiopia, the Jacobite monks 
 have ever been distinguished by the austerity of their 
 penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive or 
 dead they are worshipped as the favourites of the 
 Deity ; the crozier of bishop and patriarch is reserved 
 for their venerable hands ; and they assume the gov- 
 ernment of men, while they are yet reeking with the 
 habits and prejudices of the cloister.' 
 
 p The account of his person and writings is perhaps the most ctt« 
 rious article in the Bibliotheca of Assemannus, (tom. ii. p. 244—321. 
 under the name of Gregorius Bar-Hebraus.) La Crore (Chris- 
 tianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 5*— 63.) ridicules the prejudice of the Span- 
 iards against the Jewish blood which secretly defiles their church and 
 state. 
 
 q This excessive abstinence is censured by La Croze, (p. %S.> 
 and even by the Syrian Assemannus, (tom. i. p. 226. tom. ii. p. 304| 
 305.) 
 
 r The sute of the Monophysites \e excellently illustrated in a dis- 
 sertation at the beginning of the second volume of AssemannuSi 
 which contains 142 pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar 
 Hebr«us, or Abulpharagius. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 321-463.) pur- 
 sues the double series of the Nestorian catholics ana the niaphrtan$ 
 of ihe Jacobites. 
 
 K 
 
 •4 
 
 Ii 
 
 m 
 
 II 
 
'/ 
 
 140 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 147 
 
 III. The Ma- HI. In the style of the oriental chris- 
 KOKiTKs. tians, the Monothelites of every age 
 are described under the appellation of Marunites^* a 
 name which has been insensibly transferred from a 
 hermit to a monastery, from a monastery to a nation. 
 Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed 
 his religious madness in Syria; the rival cities of 
 Apameaand Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church 
 was erected on his tomb, and six hundred of his dis- 
 ciples united their solitary cells on the banks of the 
 Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation, they 
 nicely threaded the orthodox line between the sects 
 of Nestorius and Eutyches; but the unfortunate ques- 
 tion of one will or operation in the two natures of 
 Christ, was generated by their curious leisure. Their 
 proselyte, the emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a 
 JVlaronite from the walls of Emesa; he found a refuge 
 in the monastery of his brethren ; and their theologi- 
 cal lessons were repaid with the gift of a spacious and 
 wealthy domain. The name and doctrine of this ven- 
 erable school were propagated among the Greeks and 
 Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius, 
 patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the synod 
 of Constantinople, that sooner than subscribe the two 
 wilU of Christ, he would submit to be hewn peace-meal 
 and cast into the sea.* A similar or a less cruel mode 
 of persecution soon converted the unresisting subjects 
 of the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites^^ or 
 rebels, was bravely maintained by the hardy natives 
 of mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most 
 learned and popular of the monks, assumed the cha- 
 racter of patriarch of Antioch ; his nephew Abraham, 
 at the head of the Maronites, defended their civil and 
 religious freedom against the tyrants of the east. The 
 son of the orthodox Constantino pursued, with pious 
 hatred, a people of soldier:^ ^vho might have stood the 
 bulwark of his empire against the common foes of 
 Christ and of Rome. An army of Greeks invaded 
 Syria ; the monastery of St. Maron was destroyed 
 with fire ; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and 
 murdered, and twelve thousand of their followers were 
 transplanted to the distant frontiers of Armenia and 
 Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maronites has 
 survived the empire of Constantinople, and they still 
 enjoy, under their Turkish masters, a free religion and 
 a mitigated servitude. Their domestic governors are 
 chosen among the ancjent nobility ; the patriarch, in 
 his monastery of Canobin, still fancies himself on the 
 throne of Antioch ; nine bishops compose his synod, 
 and one hundred and fifty priests, who retain the liber- 
 ty of marriage, are intrusted with the care of one hun- 
 dred thonsand souls. Their country extends from the 
 ridge of Mount Libanus to the shores of Tripoli ; and 
 the gradual descent affords, in a narrow space, each 
 variety of soil and climate, from the Holy Cedars, 
 erect under the weiaht of snow,* to the vine, the mul- 
 berry, and the olive trees of the fruitful valley. In 
 ihe twelfth century, the Maronites, abjuring the Mono- 
 
 t The synonymous use of the two words may be proved from Euiy- 
 chius; (Annal. torn. ii. p. 191. 207, SS^Z.) and many similar passages 
 which may be found in the methodical table of Pocock. He was hot 
 actuated by any prejudice against the Maronites of the tenth century ; 
 and we may believe a Melchiie, whose testimony is confirmed by the 
 Jacobites and Latins. 
 
 t Concil. torn. vii. p. 780. The Monothelite cause was supported 
 with firmness and subtilty by Consuntine, a Syrian priest of Auamea, 
 (p. 1040, &c.) » y ** p > 
 
 n Theophanes (Chron. p. 295, 296. 300. 302. 306.) and Cedrenus (p. 
 437 440.) relate the exploits of the Mardaites: the name (Afarrf, in 
 Syriac rebellavit) is explained by La Roque ; (Voyage de la Syrie, 
 U>m. ii. p. 53.) the dates are fixed byPagi; (A. D. 676. No. 4—14. 
 A. D. 680, No. 3, 4.) and even the obscure story of the patriarch John 
 Maron (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 496—620.) illustrates, from 
 the year 686 to 707, the troubles of mount Libanus. 
 
 I In the last century twenty large cedars still remained ; (Voyage 
 de la Roque, tom. j. p. 68—76.) at present they are reduced to four or 
 five. (Vol ney, torn. i. p. 264.) These trees, so famous in Scripture, 
 were guarded by excommunication : the wood was sparingly borrowed 
 for small crosses, &c. ; an annual mass was chanted under their shade ; 
 and they were endowed by the Syrians with a sensitive power of 
 erecting their branches to repel the snow, to which mount Libanus 
 \m les9 faithful than it is painted by Tacitus; inter ardurefl opacum 
 Bdumqup oivibuj— ;» dariug metaphor. (Hist. v. 6.) 
 
 thelite error, were reconciled to the Latin churches of 
 Antioch and Rome,^ and the same alliance has been 
 frequently renewed by the ambition of the popes and 
 the distress of the Syrians. But it may reasonably 
 be questioned, whether their union has ever been 
 perfect or sincere; and the learned Maronites of the 
 college of Rome have vainly laboured to absolve their 
 ancestors from the guilt of heresy and schism.* 
 
 IV. Since the age of Constantino, the iv. The Arms. 
 Armenians* had signalized their attach- nians. 
 ment to the religion and empire of the christians. The 
 disorders of their country, and their ignorance of tie 
 Greek tongue, prevented their clergy from assisting at 
 the synod of Chalcedon, and they floated eighty-four 
 years'' in a state of indifference or suspense, till their 
 vacant faith was finally occupied by the missionaries 
 of Julian of Halicarnassus,' who in Egypt, their com- 
 mon exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or 
 the influence of his rival Severus, the Monophysite 
 patriarch of Antioch. The Armenians alone are the 
 pure disciples of Eutyches, an unfortunate parent, 
 who has been renounced by the greater part of his 
 spiritual progeny. They alone persevere in the opi- 
 nion, that the manhood of Christ was created, or ex- 
 isted without creation, of a divine and incorruptible 
 substance. Their adversaries reproach them with the 
 adoration of a phantom ; and thoy retort the accusa- 
 tion, by deriding or execrating the blasphemy of the 
 Jacobites, who impute to the Godhead the vile infir- 
 mities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutrition 
 and digestion. The religion of Armenia could not 
 derive much glory from the learning or the power of 
 its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin 
 of their schism; and their christian kings, who arose 
 and fell in the thirteenth century on the confines of 
 Cilicia, were the clients of the Latins, and the vassals 
 of the Turkish sultan of Iconiura. The helpless na- 
 tion has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquil- 
 lity of servitude. From the earliest period to the pre- 
 sent hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual 
 war; the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dis- 
 peopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis ; and myri- 
 ads of christian families were transplanted, to perish 
 or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. 
 Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians 
 is fervent and intrepid : they have often preferred the 
 crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet; 
 they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks; 
 and their transient union with the Latins is not less 
 devoid of truth, than the thousand bishops whom their 
 patriarch offered at the feet of the Roman pontiff.'' 
 
 y The evidence of William of Tyre (Hist, in Gestis Dei per Fran- 
 cos, 1. xxii. c. 8. p. 1022.) is copied or confirmed by Jacques de Viira. 
 (Hist. Hierosolvm, 1. ii.c.77. p. 1093,1094.) But this unnatural leapue 
 expired with the power of the Franks; and Abulpharagius (who died 
 in 1-286) considers the Maronites as a sect of Monothelites. (Bibliot. 
 Orient, tom. ii. p. 292.) 
 
 r I find a description and history of the Maronites in the Voyage do 
 la Syrie et du Mont Liban. par la Kt<iue. (2 vols, in 12mo, Amsterdam, 
 1723; particularly tom. i. p. 42—47. p. 174—184. tom. ii. p. 10—120.) 
 In the ancient part, he copies the prejudices of Nairon and the other 
 Maronitf*s of Rome, which Assemannus is afraid to renounce, and 
 ashamed to support. Jablonski, (Inslitut. Hist. Christ, tom. iii. p. 186 ) 
 Niebuhr, (Voyage de I'Arabie, &,c. tom. ii. p. 346. 370—381.) and, above 
 all, the judicious Volney, (Voyage en Egypie et en Syrie, lom. ii. p. 
 8—31. Paris, 1787,) may be consulted. 
 
 a The religion of the Armenians is briefly described by La Croza. 
 (Hist, du Christ, de I'Ethiopie et de I'Armenie, p. 269 — 402.) He re- 
 fers to the great Armenian History of Galanus, (3 vols, in fol. Rome, 
 1650 — 1661,) and commends the state of Armenia in the third vol- 
 ume of the Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant. The 
 work of a Jesuit must have sterling merit wh^n it is praised by La 
 Croze. 
 
 b The schism of the Armenians is placed 84 years after the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon. (Pagi, Critica, ad A. D. 535.) It was consummated 
 at the end of seventeen years; and it is from the year of Clirist 552 
 that we date the sera of the Armenians, (I'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 
 
 XXXV.) 
 
 c The sentiments and success of Julian of Halicarnassus may be 
 seen in Liberalus, (Brev. c. 19.) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 
 132—303.) and Assemannus. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. Dissertat. ae 
 Monophysiiis, c. viii.p. 236.) 
 
 d See a remarkable fact of the twelfth century in the history of Nice- 
 tas Choniates. (p. 2.">8.) Yet three hundred years before, Photiui 
 (Episiol. ii. p. 49. edit 3Ioniacul.) had gloried in the converaiou of the 
 
 The catholic, or patriarch, of the Armenians, resides in 
 the monastery of Ekmiasin, three leagues from Erivan. 
 Forty-seven archbishops, each of whom may claim the 
 obedience of four or five suffragans, are consecrated by 
 his hand ; but the far greater part are only titular pre- 
 lates, who dignify with their presence and service the 
 simplicity of his court. As soon as they have per- 
 formed the liturgy, they cultivate the garden ; and our 
 bishops v/\\\ hear with surprise, that the austerity of 
 their life increases in just proportion to the elevation 
 of their rank. In the fourscore thousand towns or vil- 
 lages of his spiritual empire, the patriarch receives a 
 small and voluntary tax from each person above the 
 age of fifteen ; but the annual amount of six hundred 
 thousand crowns is insufficient to supply the incessant 
 demands of charity and tribute. Since the beginning 
 of the last century, the Armenians have obtained a 
 large and lucrative share of the commerce of the east: 
 in their return from Europe, the caravan usually halts 
 in the neighbourhood of Erivan, the altars are enriched 
 with the fruits of their patient industry ; and the faith 
 of Eutyches is preached in their recent congregations 
 of Barbary and Poland." 
 
 V. The C0PT3 V. In the rest of the Roman empire, 
 orEoTTiANs. the despotism of the prince might eradi- 
 cate or silence the sectaries of an obnoxious creed. 
 But the stubborn temper of the Egyptians maintained 
 their opposition to the synod of Chalcedon, and the 
 policy of Justinian condescended to expect and to seize 
 the opportunity of discord. The Monophysite church 
 of Alexandria' was torn by the disputes of the corrup- 
 iibles and ineorrupiibks, and on the death of the patri- 
 arch, the two factions upheld their respective candi- 
 The patriarch dates.« Gaian was the disciple of Ju- 
 TheodMius, lian, Theodosius had been the pupil of 
 A. u. 5d7-568. Severus : the claims of the former were 
 supported by the consent of the monks and senators, 
 the city and the province; the latter depended on the 
 priority of his ordination, the favour of the empress 
 Theodora, and the arms of the eunuch Narses, which 
 might have been used in more honourable warfare. 
 The exile of the popular candidate to Carthage and 
 Sardinia, inflamed the ferment of Alexandria; and 
 after a schism of one hundred and seventy years, the 
 Gaianites still revered the memory and doctrine of their 
 founder. The strength of numbers and of discipline 
 was tried in a desperate and bloody conflict; the streets 
 were filled with the dead bodies of citizens and sol- 
 diers ; the pious women, ascending the roofs of their 
 houses, showered down every sharp or ponderous 
 utensil on the heads of the enemy ; and the final vic- 
 tory of Narses was owing to the flames, with which 
 he wasted the third capital of the Roman world. But 
 the lieutenant of Justinian had not conquered in the 
 cause of a heretic; Theodosius himself was speedily 
 Paul, A.D. 538. }^^^S^ gently removed; and Paul of 
 Tanis, an orthodox monk, was raised to 
 the throne of Athanasius. The powers of government 
 were strained in his support; he might appoint or dis- 
 place the dukes and tribunes of Egypt ; the allowance 
 of bread, which Diocletian had granted, was sup- 
 pressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schis- 
 matics were deprived at once of their spiritual and 
 carnal food. In his turn, the tyrant was excommuni- 
 cated by the zeal and revenge of the people; and none 
 ■ except his servile Melchites would salute him as a 
 man, a christian, or a bishop. Yet such is the blind- 
 
 ness of ambition, that, when Paul was expelled on a 
 charge of murder, he solicited, with a bribe of seven 
 hundred pounds of gold, his restoration to the same 
 station of hatred and ignominy. His successor Anol- 
 hnaris entered the hostile city in military Apoliinaris, 
 array, alike qualified for prayer or for bat- A. D. :>5i. 
 tie. His troops, under arms, were distributed throut^h 
 the streets; the gates of the cathedral were guarde'd, 
 and a chosen band was stationed in the choir, to de- 
 fend the person of their chief. He stood erect on his 
 throne, and throwing aside the upper garment of a 
 warrior, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the mul- 
 titude in the robes of patriarch of Alexandria. Aston- 
 ishment held them mute ; but no sooner had Apoliina- 
 ris begun to read the tome of St. Leo, than a volley of 
 curses, and invectives, and stones, assaulted the odious 
 minister of the emperor and the synod. A charge 
 was instantly sounded by the successor of the apos- 
 tles ; the soldiers waded to their knees in blood ; and 
 two hundred thousand christians are said to have 
 fallen by the sword : an incredible account, even if it 
 be extended from the slaughter of a day to the eighteen 
 years of the reign of Apoliinaris. Two succeeding 
 patriarchs, Eulogius>» and John,' laboured in the con- 
 version of heretics, with arms and arguments more 
 w;orthy of their evangelical profession. The theolo- 
 gical knowledge of Eulogius was dis- Euio^ius 
 played in many a volume, which mag- A.D.W ' 
 nified the errors of Eutyches and Severus, and attemp- 
 ted to reconcile the ambiguous language of St. Cyril 
 with the orthodox creed of pope Leo and the fathers 
 of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of 
 John the eleemosynary were dictated ^^^°» ^' i^- 6^* 
 by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven 
 thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his 
 expense; on his accession, he found eight thousand 
 pounds of gold in the treasury of the church ; he col- 
 lected ten thousand from the liberality of the faithful ; 
 yet the primate could boast in his testament, that he 
 left behind him no more than the third part of the 
 smallest of the silver coins. The churches of Alex- 
 andria were delivered to the catholics, the religion of 
 the Monophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a 
 law was revived which excluded the natives from the 
 honours and emoluments of the state. 
 
 A more important conquest still re- Their separation 
 mamed, of the patriarch, the oracle and and decay, 
 leader of the Egyptian church. Theodosius had re- 
 sisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the 
 spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. " Such," replied 
 the patriarch, " were the offers of the tempter when he 
 showed the kingdoms of the earth. But my soul is 
 far dearer to me than life or dominion. The churches 
 are in the hands of a prince who can kill the body ; 
 but my conscience is my own ; and in exile, poverty, 
 or chains, I will stedfastly adhere to the faith of my 
 holy predecessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. 
 Anathema to the tome of Leo and the synod of Chal- 
 cedon ! Anathema to all who embrace their creed ! 
 Anathema to them now and for evermore! Naked 
 came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I des- 
 cend into the grave. Let those who love God, follow 
 me and seek their salvation." After comforting his 
 brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and"* sus- 
 tained, in six successive interviews, the almost irre- 
 sistible weight of the royal presence. His opinions 
 
 e The travelling Armenians are in the way of every traveller, and 
 
 neir mother church is en the hish road between Constantinople and 
 
 Ispahan : for their present state see Fabricius, (Lux Evangelii, &;c. 
 
 c. txxviii p. 40-^oi.) Olearius, (I. iv. c. 40.) Chardin,(vol. ii. p. 232.) 
 
 jiSfjT.'K^'r"''*'^,'F> *."''' «»>ove all, Tavernier, (tom. i. p. 28-37. 
 
 i.^ k'^ a '*'"VI"*S jeweller, who had read nothing, but had seen 
 ■0 much and so well. °' 
 
 iami^''® history of the Alexandrian patriarchs, from Dioscorus to Ben- 
 
 ihT A^n, ! f p*^?'"*?''"*"'''*^' (P- "-1-164.) and the second tome of 
 I'lP Annals of Eutychius. 
 
 ^^^^Lt'^'l^: '• ^' ^' ^'''°'- ^^°- P- ^> 330. Procop. 
 
 h Eulogius, who had been a monk of Antioch, was more conspicu- 
 ous for subtilty than eloquence. He proves that the enemies of the 
 faith, the Gaianites and the Theodosians, ought not to be reconciled : 
 that the same proposition may be orthodox in the mouth of St. Cyril, 
 heretical in that of Severus ; that the opposite assertions of St. Leo 
 are equally true, &c. His writings are no lonerer extant, except in 
 the Extracts of Photius, who had perused them with care and satisfac 
 tion. Cod, ccviii. ccxxv. ccxxvi. ccxxvii. ccxxx. cclxxx. 
 
 i See the Life of John the eleemosynary by his contemporary 
 Leontius, bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, whose Greek text, either lost 
 or hidden, is reflected in the Latm version of Baroniiis. (A. D 610 
 No. 9. A. D. 620. No. 8.) Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 763.) and Fa 
 bricius (I. v. c. 11. torn. vii. p. 4J4.) have made some critical observa 
 tioug. 
 
 ( 
 
 
 
 ll 
 
148 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 149 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 were favourably entertained in the palace and the city ; 
 the influence of Theodora assured him a safe conduct 
 and honourable dismission ; and he ended his days, 
 though not on the throne, yet in the bosom, of his na- 
 tive country. On the news of his death, ApoUinaris 
 indecently feasted the nobles and the clergy ; but his 
 joy was checked by the intelligence of a new election ; 
 and while he enjoyed the wealth of Alexandria, his 
 rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais, and were 
 maintained by the voluntary oblations of the people. 
 A perpetual succession of patriarchs arose from the 
 ashes of Theodosius; and the Monophysite churches 
 of Syria and Egypt were united by the name of Jaco- 
 bites and the communion of the faith. But the same 
 faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of the 
 Syrians, was diffused over the mass of the Egyptian 
 or Coptic nation ; who, almost unanimously, rejected 
 the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon. A thousand 
 years were now elapsed since Egypt had ceased to be 
 a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia and Europe 
 had trampled on the ready necks of a people, whose 
 ancient wisdom and power ascend beyond the records 
 of history. The conflict of zeal and persecution re- 
 kindled some sparks of their national spirit. They ab- 
 jured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language 
 of the Greeks : every Melchite, in their eyes, was a 
 stranger, every Jacobite a citizen ; the alliance of mar- 
 riage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a 
 deadly sin ; the natives renounced all allegiance to the 
 emperor ; and his orders, at a distance from Alexan- 
 dria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military 
 force. A generous effort might have redeemed the 
 religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred 
 monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of 
 holy warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, 
 since life had no comfort or delight. But experience 
 has proved the distinction of active and passive cou- 
 rage ; the fanatic who endures without a groan the 
 tonure of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly 
 before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillani- 
 mous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a 
 change of masters ; the arms of Chosroes depopulated 
 the land, yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a 
 short and precarious respite. The victory of Herac- 
 lius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the 
 patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. 
 
 T, • • .!.» In his flificht, Benjamin was encouraged 
 Benjamin, the . • i • i l j l- *" ♦ 
 
 Jacobite patri- by a voice, which bade him expect, at 
 
 arch, ^ the end of ten years, the aid of a foreign 
 
 AD. 625-661. ^^ji^n^ marked like the Egyptians them- 
 selves with the ancient right of circumcision. The 
 character of these deliverers, and the nature of the 
 deliverance, will be hereafter explained ; and I shall 
 step over the interval of eleven centuries to observe 
 the present misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The 
 populous city of Cairo affords a residence, or rather 
 a shelter for their indigent patriarch, and a rem- 
 nant of ten bishops ; forty monasteries have survived 
 the inroads of the Arabs ; and the progress of servi- 
 tude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to 
 the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thou- 
 sand families ; ^ a race of illiterate beggars, whose 
 only consolation is derived from the superior wretch- 
 edness of the Greek patriarch and bis diminutive 
 congregation.^ 
 
 k This number is taken from the curious Recherche* sur lea Egyp- 
 tiens et les Chinois; (torn. ii. p. 192, 193.) and appears more probable 
 than the 600,0(X) ancient, or 15,000 modern, Copts of Gemelli Carreri. 
 Cyril IJucar, the protestant patriarch of Constantinople, laments that 
 those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodox 
 Greeks, ingeniously applying the ttokk** k»v StK»St( oiwo»»ro oivt> 
 xo«o of Homer, (Iliad ii. 128.) the most perfect expression of con- 
 tempt. (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.) 
 
 1 The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c. may be 
 found in the Abb6 Renaudot's motley work, neither a translation nor 
 an original ; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite ; in the 
 two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651 ; and John Simon 
 Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the 
 thirteenth century. The more recent accounts must be searched for 
 in the travellers into Egypt, and the Nouveaux Memoires des Mis- 
 fion« du Levant. In the last cenlurjr, Joseph Abudacnus, a naiivo 
 
 VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to yj thb Abts- 
 the Caesars, or a slave to the khalifs, siMANsand 
 still gloried in the filial obedience of the Ncbians. ) 
 kings of Nubia and iEthinpa. He repaid their homage 
 by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly as- 
 serted that they could bring into the field a hundred 
 thousand horse, with an equal number of camels ; " 
 that their hand could pour out or restrain the waters of 
 the Nile;" and the peace and plenty of Egypt was 
 obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the 
 patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius re- 
 commended to his patroness the conversion of the 
 black nations of Nubia from the tropic of Cancer to 
 the confines of Abyssinia." Her design was suspected 
 and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The 
 rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embar- 
 ked at the same time ; but the empress, from a motive 
 of love or fear, was more eflTectually obeyed ; and the 
 catholic priest was detained by the president of The- 
 bais, while the king of Nubia and his court were has- 
 tily baptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy 
 envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with 
 honour ; but when he accused the heresy and treason 
 of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to 
 reply that he would never abandon his brethren, the 
 true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the synod 
 of Chalcedon.P During several ages, the bishops of 
 Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobite 
 patriarch of Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, 
 Christianity prevailed; and some rites, some ruins, 
 are still visible in the savage towns of Sennaar and 
 Dongola.'' But the Nubians at length executed their 
 threats of returning to the worship of idols ; the climate 
 required the indulgence of polygamy, and they have 
 finally preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abase- 
 ment of the cross. A metaphysical religion may ap- 
 pear too refined for the capacity of the negro race : yet 
 a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the word* 
 of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite creed. 
 
 Christianity was more deeply rooted church of Abys- 
 in the Abyssinian empire ; and, although sinia, 
 
 the correspondence has been sometimes ^- ^* ^^' 
 interrupted above seventy or a hundred years, the 
 mother-church of Alexandria retains her colony in a 
 state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once com- 
 posed the ^thiopic synod : had their number amoun- 
 ted to ten, they might have elected an independent 
 primate; and one of their kings was ambitious of pro- 
 moting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But 
 the event was foreseen, the increase was denied ; the 
 episcopal oflBce has been gradually confined to the 
 abuna, ' the head and author of the Abyssinian priest- 
 
 of Cairo, published at Oxford, in thirty pages, a slight Historia Jaco- 
 bitarum, 147. post. 150. 
 
 m About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 221, 
 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 99. 
 
 n Ludolph. Hist. /Eihiopic. et Comment. 1. i. c. 8. Renaudot, Hist. 
 Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, Sec. This opinion, introduced into E^ypt and 
 Europe by the artifice of the Copia, the pride of the Abyssinians, iha 
 fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not eren the sem* 
 blance of truth. The rains of Ethiopia do not, in the increase of ths 
 Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches at 
 Napata, within three days' journey of the Red sea, (see D'Anville'i 
 Maps,) a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most 
 probably surpass, the power of the Cesars. 
 
 o The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features and olive com 
 plexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years are not 
 sufficient to change the colour of the human race. The Nubians, an 
 African race, are pure negroes, as black as those of Senegal or Con- 
 go, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair. (BuflTon, Hist. Naiu- 
 relle, torn. v. p. 117. 143, 144. 166.219. edit, in 12mo, Paris, 1769.) The 
 ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary pheno- 
 menon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians of mo- 
 dern times. 
 
 p Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 329. 
 
 q The Christianity of the Nubians, A. D. 1153, is attested by the 
 sheriff al Edrisi, faliely described under the name of the Nubian 
 geographer, (p. 13.) who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The 
 rays ol^hlstorical light that twinkle in the history of Renaudot (p« 
 178. 220. 224. 281. 286. 405. 434. 451. 464.) are all previous to this asra. 
 See the modern state in the Lettrrs Edifiantes (Recueil iv.) and 
 Busching, (torn. ii. p. 152 — 159. par Berenger.> 
 
 r The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins with the title 
 of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the four patriarchSi 
 and their chief is no more than a metropolitan or national primate. 
 (Ludolph. Hist. iEthiopic. et Comment. 1. Ui. c. 7.) The seven bisbr 
 
 hood; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an 
 Egyptian monk ; and the character of a stranger appears 
 more Venerable in the eyes of the people, less dan- 
 gerous in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, 
 when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival 
 chiefs, with their patrons, Justinian and Theodora, 
 strove to outstrip each other in the conquest of a remote 
 and independent province. The industry of the em- 
 press was again victorious, and the pious Theodora 
 has established in that sequestered church the faith 
 and discipline of the Jacobites.' Encompassed on all 
 sides by the enemies of their religion, the ^Ethiopians 
 slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by 
 whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by 
 The Portuguese ^'^^ Portuguese, who, turning the south- 
 in Abyssinia, ern promontory of Africa, appeared in 
 
 A. P. 1525— India and the Ked sea, as if they had 
 '^° ' • descended through the air from a distant 
 planet. In the first moments of their interview, the 
 subjects of Rome and Alexandria observed the resem- 
 blance, rather than the diflference, of their faith; and 
 each nation expected the most important benefits from 
 an alliance with their christian brethren. In their 
 lonely situation, the -(Ethiopians had almost relapsed 
 into the savage life. Their vessels, which had traded 
 to Ceylon, scarcely presumed to navigate the rivers 
 of Africa; the ruins of Axume were deserted, the na- 
 tion was scattered in villages, and the emperor, a pom- 
 pous name, was content, both in peace and war, with 
 the immovable residence of a camp. Conscious of 
 their own Indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the 
 rational project of importing the arts and ingenuity of 
 Europe;' and their ambassadors at Rome and Lisbon 
 were instructed to solicit a colony of smiths, carpen- 
 ters, tilers, masons, printers, surgeons, and physicians, 
 for the use of their country. But the public danger 
 soon called for the instant and effectual aid of arms 
 and soldiers, to defend an unwarlike people from the 
 barbarians who ravaged the inland country, and the 
 Turks and Arabs who advanced from the sea-coast in 
 more formidable array. ./Ethiopia was saved by four 
 hundred and fifty Portuguese, who displayed in the 
 field the native valour of Europeans, and the artificial 
 powers of the musket and cannon. In a moment of 
 terror, the emperor had promised to reconcile himself 
 and his subjects to the catholic faith ; a Latin patriarch 
 represented the supremacy of the pope ; ^ the empire, 
 enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was supposed to con- 
 tain more gold than the mines of America ; and the 
 "wildest hopes of avarice and zeal were built on the 
 willing submission of the christians of Africa. 
 Mission of the ^^^ the VOWS which pain had extorted, 
 
 Jesuits, were forsworn on the return of health. The 
 A.D. loo7. Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken 
 constancy to the Monophysite faith ; their languid belief 
 was inflamed by the exercise of dispute ; they branded 
 the Latins with the names of Arians and Nestorians, 
 and imputed the adoration oi four gods, to those who 
 separated the two natures of Christ. Fremona, a place 
 of worship, or rather of exile, was assigned to the 
 Jesuit missionaries. Their skill in the liberal and 
 mechanic arts, their theological learning, and the de- 
 cency of their manners, inspired a barren esteem ; but 
 
 eps of Renaudot, (p. 511.) who existed A. D. 1131, are unknown to 
 the historian. 
 
 • I know not why Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 3S4.) 
 should call in question these probable missions of Thoodora into 
 Nubia and JElhiopia. The slight notices of Abvssinia till the year 
 I'liK) are supplied by Renaudot (p. 336. 341. 381, 382. 405. 443, &c. 452. 
 456. 4G3. 475. 4S0. 511. 525- 559. 554.) from the Coptic writers. The 
 mind of Ludolphus was a perfect blank. 
 
 t Ludolph. Hist. .Sthiop. I. iv. c. 5. The most necessary arts are 
 now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign trade is in the hands of 
 the Armenians. What Gregory principally admired and envied was 
 the industry of Europe— artes et opificia. 
 
 u John Bermudez, whose relation, printed at Lisbon, 1569, was 
 translated into English by Purchas, (Pilgrin)s, I. vii. c. 7. p. 1 149, &c.) 
 and from thence into French by La Crozt^ (Chrislianisme d'Ethiopie, 
 p. 92—265.) The piece is curious; but tlie author may be suspected 
 of deceiving Abyssinia, Rome, and Portugal. His title to the rank of 
 patriarch is dark and doubtful, (Ludolph. Comment. No 101. p. 473.) 
 
 con- 
 that 
 
 they were not endowed with the gifts of miracles," and 
 they vainly solicited a reinforcement of European 
 troops. The patience and dexterity of forty years at 
 length obtained a more favourable audience, and two 
 emperors of Abyssinia were persuaded that Rome could 
 ensure the temporal and everlasting happiness of her 
 votaries. The first of these royal converts lost his 
 crown and his life ; and the rebel army was sanctified 
 by the abuna, who hurled an anathema at the apostate, 
 and absolved his subjects from their oath of fidelity. 
 The fate of Zadenghel was revenged by the courage 
 and fortune of Susneus, who ascended the throne un- 
 der the name of Segued, and more vigorously prose- 
 cuted the pious enterprise of his kinsman. After the 
 amusement of some unequal combats between the 
 Jesuits and his illiterate priests, the emperor declared 
 himself a proselyte to the synod of Chalcedon, pre- 
 suming that his clergy and people would embrace 
 without delay the religion of their prince. The liberty 
 of choice was succeeded by a law, which imposed, 
 under pain of death, the belief of the two natures of 
 Christ: the Abyssinians were enjoined to w^ork and 
 to play on the sabbath ; and Segued, in the face of 
 Europe and Africa, renounced his connexion with the 
 Alexandrian church. A Jesuit, Alphonso conversion of 
 Mendez, the catholic patriarch of iEthip- the emperor, 
 pia, accepted in the name of Urban Vllt. ^- ^- ^^26. 
 the homage and abjuration of his penitent. " I 
 fess," said the emperor on his knee, " I confess 
 the pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of St. 
 Peter, and the sovereign of the world. To him I swear 
 true obedience, and at his feet I offer my person and 
 kingdom." A similar oath was repeated by his son, 
 his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies 
 of the court : the Latin patriarch was invested with 
 honours and wealth ; and his missionaries erected their 
 churches or citadels in the most convenient stations 
 of the empire. The Jesuits themselves deplore the 
 fatal indiscretion of their chief, who forgot the mild- 
 ness of the gospel and the policy of his order, to intro- 
 duce with hasty violence the liturgy of Rome and the 
 inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient 
 practice of circumcision, which health rather than su- 
 perstition had first invented in the climate of iEthio- 
 pia.y A new baptism, a new ordination, w^as inflicted 
 on the natives ; and they trembled with horror when 
 the most holy of the dead were torn from their graves, 
 when the most illustrious of the living were excom- 
 municated by a foreign priest. In the defence of their 
 religion and liberty, the Abyssinians rose in arms, with 
 desperate but unsuccessful zeal. Five rebellions w^ere 
 extinguished in the blood of the insurgents : two abu- 
 nas were slain in battle, whole legions were slaughter- 
 ed in the field, or suffocated in their caverns ; and nei- 
 ther merit, nor rank, nor sex, could save from an 
 ignominious death the enemies of Rome. But the 
 victorious monarch was finally subdued by the con- 
 stancy of the nation, of his mother, of his son, and of 
 his most faithful friends. Segued listened to the voice 
 of pity, of reason, perhaps of fear; and his edict of 
 liberty of conscience instantly revealed the tyranny 
 and weakness of the Jesuits. On the death of his 
 father, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and re- 
 stored to the wishes of the nation the faith and disci- 
 
 X Religio Romana .... nee precibus patrum nee miraculis ab ip- 
 sis editis suffulciebatur, is the uncontradiclod assurance of the devout 
 emperor Susneus to his patriarch Mendez ; (Ludolph. Comment. No. 
 126. p. 529.) and such assurances should be preciously kept, as an 
 antidote against any marvellous legends. _ 
 
 y lam aware how tender is the question of circumcision, let I 
 will affirm, 1. That the Ethiopians have a physical reason for the 
 circumcision of males, and even of females. (Kecherches Philoso- 
 phiques, sur les Americains, tom. ii.) 2. That it was practised in 
 ^Ethiopia long before the introduction of Judaism or Christianity. 
 (Herodot. 1. ii. c. 104. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 72, 73 ) "Infantes 
 circumciduntob consuetudinem non ob Judaisinum," saya Gregory 
 the Abyssinian priest, (apud Fabric. Lux Christiana, p. 720.) Yet, 
 in the heat of dispute, the Portuguese were sometimes branded with 
 the name of uncircumcised. (La Croze, p. 80. Ludolph. Hist, and 
 Comment. I. iii. c. 1.) 
 
150 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 151 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 pline of Egypt. The Monophysite churches resounded 
 with a song of triuniph, '* that the sheep of iEthiopia 
 Final expulsion were now delivered from the hyaenas of 
 of the Je«u'ta, the west;" and the gates of that solitary 
 A. D. 1632, &c. jgalm were for ever shut against the arts, 
 the science, and the fanaticism of Europe.' 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Plan of the four last volumes. — Succession and charac- 
 ters of the Greek emperors of Constantinople, from the 
 time of Jleraclius to the Latin conquest. 
 
 Defects of the ^ nkNi, HOW deduced from Trajan to 
 Byzantine hii- Constantine, from Constantine to Herac- 
 ^ory. ]iug^ the regular series of the Roman 
 
 emperors; and faithfully exposed the prosperous and 
 adverse fortunes of their reigns. Five centuries of the 
 decline and fall of the empire have already elapsed ; 
 but a period of more than eight hundred years still 
 separates me from the term of my labours, the taking 
 of Constantinople by the Turks. Should I persevere 
 in the same course, a prolix and slender thread would 
 be spun through many a volume, nor would the patient 
 reader find an adequate reward of instruction or amuse- 
 ment. At every step, as we sink deeper in the decline 
 and fall of the eastern empire, the annals of each suc- 
 ceeding reign would impose a more ungrateful and 
 melancholy task. These annals must continue to re- 
 peat a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and mise- 
 ry ; the natural connexion of causes and events would 
 be broken by frequent and hasty transitions, and a mi- 
 nute accumulation of circumstances must destroy the 
 light and eftect of those general pictures which com- 
 pose the use and ornament of a remote history. From 
 the time of Heraclius, the Byzantine theatre is con- 
 tracted and darkened ; the line of empire, which had 
 been defined by the laws of Justinian and the arms of 
 Belisarius, recedes on all sides from our view : the 
 Roman name, the proper subject of our inquiries, is 
 reduced to a narrow corner of Europe, to the lonely 
 suburbs of Constantinople ; and the fate of the Greek 
 empire has been compared to that of the Rhine, which 
 loses itself in the sands, before its waters can mingle 
 with the ocean. The scale of dominion is diminished 
 to our view by the distance of time and place : nor is 
 the loss of external splendour compensated by the 
 nobler gifts of virtue and genius. In the last moments 
 of her decay, Constantinople was doubtless more opu- 
 lent and populous than Athens at her most flourishing 
 sera, when a scanty sum of six thousand talents, or 
 twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling, was pos- 
 sessed by twenty-one thousand male citizens of an 
 adult age. But each of these citizens was a free man, 
 who dared to assert the liberty of his thoughts, words, 
 and actions ; whose person and property were guarded 
 by equal law; and who exercised his independent vote 
 in the government of the republic. Their numbers 
 seem to be multiplied by the strong and various dis- 
 criminations of character: under the shield of free- 
 dom, on the wings of emulation and vanity, each 
 Athenian aspired to the level of the national dignity : 
 from this commanding eminence, some chosen spirits 
 soared beyond the reach of a vulgar eye; and the 
 
 « The three protestant hiatorians, Ludolphus, (Hist. JEthiopica, 
 Francofurt, 1681 ; ComnriPntariua, 1691 ; Rclaiio Nova, &.c. 1693, in 
 folio,) Geddes, (Church History of j^thiopia, London, 1696, in 8vn.) 
 and I,a Croze, (Hist, du Christianisnie d'Eihiopio et d'Armenie La 
 Haye, 1739, in r2mo,) have drawn their principal materials from'the 
 Jesuits, especially from the genoral history of Tellez, published in 
 Portuguese at Coimbra, 1660. We might be surprised at their frank- 
 ness; but their most flagitious vice, the spirit of persecution, was in 
 their eyes their most meritorious virtue. Ludolphus possessed some, 
 though a slight, advantage from the yEthiopic language, and the per- 
 sonal conversation of Gregory, a free-spirited Abyssinian priest, whom 
 he invited from Rome to the court of Saxe-Gotha. See the Theologia 
 ^thiopica of Gregory, in Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, p. 716—734. 
 
 chances of superior merit in a great and populous 
 kingdom, as they are proved by experience, would 
 excuse the computation of imaginary millions. The 
 territories of Athens, Sparta, and their allies, do not 
 exceed a moderate province of France or England: 
 but after the trophies of Salamis and Plataea, they ex- 
 pand in our fancy to the gigantic size of Asia, which 
 had been trampled under the feet of the victorious 
 Greeks. But the subjects of the Byzantine empire, 
 who assume and dishonour the names both of Greeks 
 and Romans, present a dead uniformity of abject vices, 
 which are neither softened by the weakness of human- 
 ity, nor animated by the vigour of memorable crimes. 
 The free men of antiquity might repeat with generous 
 enthusiasm the sentence of Homer, " that on the first 
 day of his servitude, the captive is deprived of one 
 half of his manly virtue." But the poet had only 
 seen the eflfects of civil or domestic slavery, nor could 
 he foretell that the second moiety of manhood must be 
 annihilated by the spiritual despotism, which shackles, 
 not only the actions, but even the thoughts, of the 
 prostrate votary. By this double yoke, the Greeks 
 were oppressed under the successors of Heraclius, the 
 tyrant; a law of eternal justice was degraded by the 
 vices of his subjects ; and on the throne, in the camp, 
 in the schools, we search, perhaps with fruitless dili- 
 gence, the names and characters that may deserve to be 
 rescued from oblivion. Nor are the defects of the sub- 
 ject compensated by the skill and variety of the pain- 
 ters. Of a space of eight hundred years, the four first 
 centuries are overspread with a cloud interrupted by 
 some faint and broken rays of historic light : in the 
 lives of the emperors, from Maurice to Alexius, Basil 
 the Macedonian has alone been the theme of a separate 
 work ; and the absence, or loss, or imperfection of con- 
 temporary evidence, must be poorly supplied by the 
 doubtful authority of more recent compilers. The four 
 last centuries are exempt from the reproach of penury ; 
 and with the Comnenian family, the historic muse of 
 Constantinople again revives, but her apparel is gaudy, 
 her motions are without elegance or grace. A succes- 
 sion of priests, or courtiers, treads in each other's foot- 
 steps in the same path of servitude and superstition : 
 their views are narrow, their judgment is feeble or 
 corrupt; and we close the volume of copious barren- 
 ness, still ignorant of the causes of events, the charac- 
 ters of the actors, and the manners of the times, which 
 they celebrate or deplore. The observation which has 
 been applied to a man, may be extended to a whole 
 people, that the energy of the sword is communicated 
 to the pen ; and it will be found by experience, that 
 the tone of history will rise or fall with the spirit of 
 the age. 
 
 From these considerations, I should , 
 have abandoned without regret the Greek with the revo- 
 slaves and their servile historians, had I luiions of ih« 
 not reflected that the fate of the Byzan- ^°'^'** 
 tine monarchy is passively connected with the most 
 splendid and important revolutions which have chang- 
 ed the state of the world. The space of the lost pro- 
 vinces was immediately replenished with new colonies 
 and rising kingdoms : the active virtues of peace and 
 war deserted from the vanquished to the victorious 
 nations ; and it is in their origin and conquests, in 
 their religion and government, that we must explore 
 the causes and effects of the decline and fall of the 
 eastern empire. Nor will this scope of narrative, the 
 riches and variety of these materials, be incompatible 
 with the unity of design and composition. As, in his 
 daily prayers, the mussulman of Fez or Delhi still 
 turns his face towards the temple of Mecca, the histo- 
 rian's eye shall be always fixed on the city of Constan- 
 tinople. The excursive line may embrace the wilds ot 
 Arabia and Tartary, but the circle will be ultimately re- 
 duced to the decreasing limit of the Roman monarchy. 
 
 On this principle I shall now establish pian of the four 
 the plan of the four last volumes of the last volumes. 
 
 present work. The first chapter will contain, in a re- 
 gular series, the emperors who reigned at Constanli- 
 rople during a period of six hundred years, from the 
 days of Heraclius to the Latin conquest: a rapid ab- 
 stract, which may be supported by general appeal to 
 the order and text of the original historians. In this 
 introduction, I shall confine myself to the revolutions 
 of the throne, the succession of families, the personal 
 characters of the Greek princes, the mode of their life 
 end death, the maxims and influence of their domestic 
 government, and the tendency of their reign to accele- 
 rate or suspend the downfall of the eastern empire. 
 Such a chronological review will serve to illustrate 
 the various argument of the subsequent chapters ; and 
 each circumstance of the eventful story of the barba- 
 rians will adapt iiself in a proper place to the Byzan- 
 tine annals. The internal state of the empire, and the 
 dangerous heresy of the Paulicians, which shook the 
 east and enlightened the west, will be the subject of 
 two separate chapters; but these inquiries must be 
 postponed till our further progress shall have opened 
 the view of the world in the ninth and tenth centuries 
 of the christian sera. After this foundation of Byzan- 
 tine history, the following nations will pass before our 
 eyes, and each will occupy the space to which it may 
 be entitled by greatness or merit, or the degree of con- 
 nexion with the Roman world and the present age. 
 
 I. The Franks ; a general appellation which includes 
 all the barbarians of France, Italy, and Germany, who 
 were united by the sword and sceptre of Charlemagne. 
 The persecution of images and their votaries, separated 
 Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and pre- 
 pared the restoration of the Roman empire in the west. 
 
 II. The Arabs or Saracens. Three ample chapters 
 will be devoted to this curious and interesting object. 
 In the first, after a picture of the country and its inha- 
 bitants, I shall investigate the character of Mahomet; 
 the character, religion, and success of the prophet. In 
 the second I shall lead the Arabs to the conquest of 
 Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the provinces of the Roman 
 empire; nor can I check their victorious career till 
 they have overthrown the monarchies of Persia and 
 Spain. In the third I shall inquire how Constantino- 
 ple and Europe were saved by the luxury and arts, 
 the division and decay, of the empire of the caliphs. 
 A single chapter will include. III. The Bulgarians, 
 IV. Hungarians, and V. Russians, who assaulted by 
 sea or by land the provinces and the capital ; but the 
 last of these, so important in their present greatness, 
 will excite some curiosity in their origin and infancy. 
 VI. The Normans ; or rather the private adventures 
 of that warlike people, who founded a powerful king- 
 dom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Con- 
 stantinople, displayed the trophies of chivalry, and 
 almost realized the wonders of romance. VII. The 
 Latins ; the subjects of the pope, the nations of the 
 west, who enlisted under the banner of the cross for 
 the recovery or relief of the holy sepulchre. The 
 Greek emperors were terrified and preserved by the 
 myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with 
 Godfrey of Bouillon and the peers of Christendom. 
 The second and third crusades trod in the footsteps of 
 the first; Asia and Europe were mingled in a sacred 
 war of two hundred years ; and the christian powers 
 were bravely resisted, and finally expelled, by Saladin 
 and the Mamalukes of Egypt. In these memorable 
 crusades, a fleet and army of French and Venetians 
 were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus : 
 they assaulted the capital, they subverted the Greek 
 monarchy : and a dynasty of Latin princes were seated 
 near three score years on the throne of Constantine. 
 VIII. The Greeks themselves, during this period of 
 captivity and exile, must be considered as a foreign 
 nation ; the enemies, and again the sovereigns, of Con- 
 stantinople. Misfortune had rekindled a spark of na- 
 tional virtue; and the imperial series may be continued 
 with some dignity from the restoration to the Turkish 
 
 conquest. IX. The Moguls and Tartars. By the 
 arms of Zingis and his descendants, the globe was 
 shaken from China to Poland and Greece: the sultans 
 were overthrown: the caliphs fell, and the Caesars 
 trembled on their throne. The victories of Timour 
 suspended above fifty years the final ruin of the By- 
 zantine empire. X. I have already noticed the first 
 appearance of the Turks ; and the names of the fathers, 
 of Seljuk and Olhmany discriminate the two successive 
 dynasties of the nation, which emerged in the eleventh 
 century from the Scythian wilderness. The former 
 established a potent and splendid kingdom from the 
 banks of the Oxus to Antioch and Nice; and the first 
 crusade was provoked by the violation of Jerusalem 
 and the danger of Constantinople. From an humble 
 origin, the Ottomans arose, the scourge and terror of 
 Christendom. Constantinople was besieged and taken 
 by Mahomet II., and his triumph annihilates the rem- 
 nant, the image, the title, of the Roman empire in the 
 east. The schism of the Greeks will be connected 
 with their last calamities, and the restoration of learn- 
 ing in the western world. I shall return from the cap- 
 tivity of the new, to the ruins of ancient, Rome : and 
 the venerable name, the interesting theme, will shed a 
 ray of glory on the conclusion of my labours. 
 
 The emperor Heraclius had punished second marriag* 
 a tyrant and ascended his throne; and and death of 
 the memory of his reign is perpetuated Heraclius. 
 by the transient conquest and irreparable loss of the 
 eastern provinces. After the death of Eudocia, hia 
 first wife, he disobeyed the patriarch, and violated the 
 laws, by his second marriage with his niece Martina ; 
 and the superstition of the Greeks beheld the judgment 
 of heaven in the diseases of the father, and the defor- 
 mity of his offspring. But the opinion of an illegiti- 
 mate birth is sufficient to distract the choice, and 
 loosen the obedience, of the people ; the ambition of 
 Martina was quickened by maternal love, and perhaps 
 by the envy of a stepmother; and the aged husband 
 was too feeble to withstand the arts of conjugal allure- 
 ments. Constantine, his eldest son, enjoyed in a ma- 
 ture age the title of Augustus ; but the weakness of 
 his constitution required a colleague and a guardian, 
 and he yielded with secret reluctance to the partitioa 
 of the empire. The senate was sum- a. D. 638. 
 moned to the palace to ratify or attest J"iy 4. 
 the association of Heracleonas, the son of Martina ; 
 the imposition of the diadem was consecrated by the 
 prayer and blessing of the patriarch ; the senators and 
 patricians adored the majesty of the great emperor and 
 the partners of his reign ; and as soon as the doors 
 were thrown open, they were hailed by a. D. 639. 
 the tumultuary but important voice of the January, 
 soldiers. After an interval of five months, the pom- 
 pous ceremonies which formed the essence of the By- 
 zantine state were celebrated in the cathedral and the 
 hippodrome: the concord of the royal brothers, was 
 affectedly displayed by the younger leaning on the arm 
 of the elder ; and the name of Martina was mingled 
 in the reluctant or venal acclamations of the people. 
 Heraclius survived this association about a. D. 641. 
 two years : his last testimony declared f"®^- ^^• 
 his two sons the equal heirs of the eastern empire, and 
 commanded them to honour his widow Martina as 
 their mother and their sovereign. 
 
 When Martina first appeared on the constantine m. 
 throne with the name and attributes of ^^^•^*- 
 royalty, she was checked by a firm February, 
 though respectful opposition : and the dying embers 
 of freedom were kindled by the breath ol superstitious 
 prejudice. " We reverence," exclaimed the voice of 
 a citizen, "we reverence the mother of our princes; 
 but to those princes alone our obedience is due ; and 
 Constantine, the elder emperor, is of age to sustain. 
 
 %\ 
 
 
 : I 
 
 
 : m 
 
152 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 '• I 
 
 ? 
 
 
 in his own hands, the weight of the sceptre. Your 
 sex is excluded by nature from the toils of government. 
 How could you combat, how could you answer, the 
 barbarians, who, with hostile or friendly intentions, 
 may approach the royal city ? May heaven avert from 
 the Roman republic this national disgrace, which 
 would provoke the patience of the slaves of Persia !" 
 Martina descended from the throne with indignation, 
 and souijht a refuge in the female apartment of the pa- 
 lace. The reign of Constantino tlie third lasted only 
 one hundred and three days: he expired in the thirti- 
 eth year of his age, and although his life had been a 
 long malady, a belief was entertained that poison had 
 been the means, and his cruel step-mother the author, 
 Heracieonas, ^f his Untimely fate. Martina reaped in- 
 A. D. 641. deed the harvest of his death, and assu- 
 lay 25. ^^^ ^j^^ government in the name of the 
 surviving emperor; but the incestuous widow of He- 
 raclius was universally abhorred; the jealousy of the 
 people was awakened, and the two orphans whom 
 Constantino had left, became the objects of the public 
 care. It was in vain that the son of Martina, who 
 was no more than fifteen years of age, was taught to 
 declare himself the guardian of his nephews, one of 
 whom he had presented at the baptismal font : it was 
 in vain that he swore on the wood of the true cross, to 
 defend them against all their nnomics. On his death- 
 bed, the late emperor had despatched a trusty servant 
 to arm the troops and provinces of the east, in the 
 defence of his helpless children: the eloquence and 
 liberality of Valentin had been successful, and from 
 his camp of Chalcedon, he boldly demanded the pun- 
 ishment of the assassins, and the restoration of the 
 lawful heir. The licence of the soldiers, who devour- 
 ed the grapes and drank the wine of their Asiatic vine- 
 yards, provoked tiie citizens of Constantinople against 
 the domestic authors of their calamities, and the dome 
 of St. Sophia re-echoed, not with prayers and hymns, 
 but with the clamours and imprecations of an enrao-ed 
 multitude. At their imperious command, Heracieonas 
 appeared in the pulpit with the eldest of the royal 
 orphans; Constans alone was saluted as emperor of 
 the Romans, and a crown of gold, which had been 
 taken from he tomb of Heraclius, was placed on his 
 head, with the solemn benediction of the patriarch. 
 But in the tumult of joy and indignation, the church 
 was pillaged, the sanctuary was polluted by a promis- 
 cuous crowd of Jews and barbarians ; and the Mono- 
 thelite Pyrrhus, a creature of the empress, after drop- 
 ping a protestation on the altar, escaped by a prudent 
 flight from the zeal of the catholics. A more serious 
 and bloody task was reserved for the senate, who 
 derived a temporary strength from the consent of the 
 soldiers and people. The spirit of Roman freedom re- 
 vived the ancient and awful examples of the judgment 
 of tyrants, and the imperial culprits were deposed and 
 Punishment of Condemned as the authors of the death 
 HeracTeonas, *^^ Constantine. But the severity of the 
 A. D. wi. conscript fathers was stained by the in- 
 Septeraber. discriminate punishment of the innocent 
 and the guilty: Martina and Heracieonas were sen- 
 tenced to the amputation, the former of her tongue, 
 ine latter of his nose ; and after this cruel execution, 
 they consumed the remainder of their days in exile 
 and oblivion. The Greeks who were capable of re- 
 flection might find some consolation for their servitude, 
 by observing the abuse of power when it was lodged 
 tor a moment in the hands of an aristocracy. 
 CoMtansII. We shall imagine ourselves transpor- 
 s^me'iSVr ^®^ H^ hundred years backwards to the 
 feepiember. ^f ^^^ Antonines, if we listen to the 
 
 oration which Constans H. pronounced in the twelfth 
 year of his age before the Byzantine senate. After 
 letuming his thanks for the just punishment of the 
 assassins, who had intercepted the fairest hopes of his 
 father's reign, " By the divine providence," said the 
 young emperor, ♦» and by your righteous decree, Mar- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tina and her incestuous progeny have been cast head- 
 long from the throne. Your majesty and wisdom have 
 prevented the Roman state from degenerdtina into law- 
 less tyranny. I therefore exhort and beseech you to 
 stand forth as the counsellors and judges of the com- 
 mon safety." The senators were gratified by the re- 
 spectful address and liberal donative of their sove- 
 reign ; but these servile Greeks were unworthy and 
 regardless of freedom ; and in his mind, the lesson of 
 an hour was quickly erased by the prejudices of the 
 age and the habits of despotism. He retained only a 
 jealous fear lest the senate or people should one day 
 invade the right of primogeniture, and seat his brother 
 Theodosius on an equal throne. By the imposition of 
 holy orders, the grandson of Heraclius was disquali- 
 fied for the purple ; but this ceremony, which seemed 
 to profane the sacraments of the church, was insuffi- 
 cient to appease the suspicions of the tyrant, and the 
 death of the deacon Theodosius could alone expiate 
 the crime of his royal birth. His murder was avenged 
 by the imprecations of the people, and the assassin, 
 in the fulness of power, was driven from his capital 
 into voluntary and perpetual exile. Constans embar- 
 ked for Greece ; and, as if he meant to retort the abhor- 
 rence which he deserved, he is said, from the imperial 
 galley, to have spit against the walls of his native 
 city. After passing the walls at Athens, he sailed to 
 Tarentum ii> Italy, visited Rome, and concluded a long 
 pilgrimage of disgrace and sacrilegious rapine, by fix- 
 ing his residence at Syracuse. But if Constans could 
 fly from his people, he could not fly from himself. 
 The remorse of his conscience created a phantom who 
 pursued him by land and sea, by day and by night ; and 
 the visionary Theodosius, presenting to his lips a cup 
 of blood, said, or seemed to say, "Drink, brother, 
 drmk ;"a sure emblem of the aggravation of his guilt, 
 smce he had received from the hands of the deacon 
 the mystic cup of the blood of Christ. Odious to 
 himself and to mankind, Constans perished by domes- 
 tic, perhaps by episcopal, treason, in the capital of 
 Sicily. A servant who waited in the bath, after pour- 
 ing warm water on his head, struck him violently with 
 the vase. He fell, stunned by the blow, and sufl'oca- 
 ted by the water ; and his attendants, who wondered 
 at the tedious delay, beheld with indiflerence, the 
 corpse of their lifeless emperor. The troops of Sicily 
 invested with the purple an obscure youth, whose in- 
 imitable beauty eluded, and it might easily elude, the 
 declining art of the painters and sculptors of the aae. 
 
 Constans had left in the Byzantine * 
 
 palace three sons, the eldest of whom ^Tolml?m^' 
 had been clothed in his infancy with the A. D. 668.' 
 purple. When the father summoned September. 
 them to attend his person in Sicily, these precious hos- 
 tages were detained by the Greeks, and a firm refusal 
 informed him that they were the children of the state. 
 The news of his murder was conveyed with almost 
 supernatural speed from Syracuse to Constantinople; 
 and Constantine, the eldest of his sons, inherited his 
 throne without being the heir of the public hatred. 
 His subjects contributed, with zeal and alacrity, to 
 chastise the guilt and presumption of a province which 
 had usurped the rights of the senate and people ; the 
 young emperor sailed from the Hellespont with a 
 powerful fleet ; and the legions of Rome and Carthage 
 were assembled under his standard in the harbour of 
 Syracuse. The defeat of the Sicilian tyrant was easy, 
 his punishment just, and his beauteous head was ex- 
 posed in the hippodrome : but I cannot applaud the 
 clemency of a prince, who, among a crowd of victims, 
 condemned the son of a patrician, for deploring with 
 some bitterness the execution of a virtuous father. 
 The youth was castrated : he survived the operation, 
 and the memory of this indecent cruelty is preserved 
 by the elevation of Germanus to the rank of a patriarch 
 and saint. After pouring this bloody libation on his 
 father s tomb, Constantine returned to his capital, and 
 
 153 
 
 the growth of his young beard during the Sicilian voy- 
 age, was announced by the familiar surname of Pogo- 
 natus, to the Grecian world. But his reign, like that 
 of his predecessor, was stained with fraternal discord. 
 On his two brothers, Heraclius and Tiberius, he had 
 bestowed the title of Augustus : an empty title, for 
 they continued to languish, without trust or power, in 
 the solitude of the palace. At their secret instigation, 
 the troops of the Anatolian theme or province, ap- 
 proached the city on the Asiatic side, demanded for 
 the royal brothers the partition or exercise of sove- 
 reignty, and supported their seditious claim by a theo- 
 logical argument. They were christians, (they cried J 
 and orthodox catholics; the sincere votaries of the 
 holy and undivided Trinity. Since there are three 
 equal persons in heaven, it is reasonable there should 
 be three equal persons upon earth. The emperor in- 
 vited these learned divines to a friendly conference, in 
 which they might propose their arguments to the sen- 
 ate : they obeyed the summons, but the prospect of their 
 bodies hanging on the gibbet in the suburb of Galata, 
 reconciled their companions to the unity of the reign 
 of Constantine. He pardoned his brothers, and their 
 names were still pronounced in the public acclama- 
 tions : but on the repetition or suspicion of a similar 
 off*ence, the obnoxious princes were deprived of their 
 titles and noses, in the presence of the catholic bishops 
 who were assembled at Constantinople in the sixth 
 general synod. In the close of his life, Pogonatus 
 was anxious only to establish the right of primogeni- 
 ture : the hair of his two sons, Justinian and Herac- 
 lius, was oflfered on the shrine of St. Peter, as a sym- 
 bol of their spiritual adoption by the pope ; but the 
 elder was alone exalted to the rank of Augustus, and 
 the assurance of the empire. 
 
 Justinian II. After the decease of his father, the in- 
 
 A.D. 685. heritance of the Roman world devolved 
 September. ^^ Justinian II. ; and the name of a tri- 
 umphant lawgiver was dishonoured by the vices of a 
 boy, who imitated his namesake only in the expensive 
 luxury of building. His passions were strong ; his 
 understanding was feeble ; and he was intoxicated 
 with a foolish pride, that his birth had given him the 
 command of millions, of whom the smallest commu- 
 nity would not have chosen him for their local magis- 
 trate. His favourite ministers were two beings the 
 least susceptible of human sympathy, a eunuch and a 
 monk : to the one he abandoned the palace, to the 
 other the finances ; the former corrected the emperor's 
 mother with a scourge, the latter suspended the insol- 
 vent tributaries, with their heads downwards, over a 
 slow and smoky fire. Since the days of Commodus 
 and Caracalla, the cruelty of the Roman princes had 
 most commonly been the eflTect of their fear ; but Jus- 
 tinian, who possessed some vigour of character, en- 
 joyed the sufferings, and braved the revenge, of his 
 subjects, about ten years, till the measure was full, of 
 his crimes and of their patience. In a dark dungeon, 
 Leontius, a general of reputation, had groaned above 
 three years, with some of the noblest and most de- 
 serving of the patricians; he was suddenly drawn 
 forth to assume the government of Greece; and this 
 promotion of an injured man was a mark of the con- 
 tempt rather than of the confidence of his prince. As 
 he was followed to the port by the kind ofllices of his 
 friends, Leontius observed with a sigh that he was a 
 victim adorned for sacrifice, and that inevitable death 
 Would pursue his footsteps. They ventured to reply, 
 that glory and empire might be the recompense of a 
 generous resolution; that every order of men abhorred 
 the reign of a monster; and that the hands of two hun- 
 dred thousand patriots expected only the voice of a 
 leader. The night was chosen for their deliverance ; 
 and in the first effort of the conspirators, the praefect 
 was slain, and the prisons were forced open : the 
 emissaries of Leontius proclaimed in every street, 
 ** Christians, to St. Sophia !" and the seasonable text 
 Vol. II.— U 
 
 of the patriarch, " This is the day of the Lord !" was 
 the prelude of an inflammatory sermon. From the 
 church the people adjourned to the hippodrome: Jus- 
 tinian, in whose cause not a sword had been drawn 
 was dragged before these tumultuary judges, and their 
 clamours demanded the instant death o^f the tyrant. 
 But Leontius, who was already clothed with the pur- 
 ple, cast an eye of pity on the prostrate son of his'own 
 benefactor and of so many emperors. The life of Justi- 
 nian was spared ; the amputation of his nose, perhaps 
 of his tongue, was imperfectly performed : the happy 
 flexibility of the Greek language could impose the 
 name of Rhinotmetus; and the mutilated tyrant was 
 banished to Chersonae in Crim-Tartary, a lonely settle- 
 ment, where corn, wine, and oil, were imported as 
 foreign luxuries. 
 
 On the e6ge of the Scythian wilder- His exile, » 
 ness, Justinian still cherished the pride ^' D. 695—705. 
 of his birth, and the hope of his restoration. After 
 three years' exile, he received the pleasing intelligence 
 that his injury was avenged by a second revolution, 
 and that Leontius in his turn had been dethroned and 
 mutilated by the rebel Apsimar, who assumed the 
 niore respectable name of Tiberius. But the claim of 
 lineal succession was still formidable to a plebeian 
 usurper ; and his jealousy was stimulated by the com- 
 plaints and charges of the Chersonites, who beheld the 
 vices of the tyrant in the spirit of the exile. With a band 
 of followers, attached to his person by common hope 
 or common despair, Justinian fled from the inhospitable 
 shore to the horde of the Chozars, who pitched their 
 tents between the Tanais and Borysthenes. The khan 
 entertained with pity and respect the royal suppliant : 
 Phanagoria, once an opulent city, on the Asiatic side 
 of the lake Moeotis, was assigned for his residence; 
 and every Roman prejudice was stifled in his marriage 
 with the sister of the barbarian, who seems, however, 
 from the name of Theodora, to have received the sacra- 
 ment of baptism. But the faithless Chozar was soon 
 tempted by the gold of Constantinople; and had not 
 the design been revealed by the conjugal love of Theo- 
 dora, her husband must have been assassinated, or be- 
 trayed into the power of his enemies. After strang- 
 ling, with his own hands, the two emissaries of the 
 khan, Justinian sent back his wife to her brother, and 
 enribarked on the Euxine in search of new and more 
 faithful allies. His vessel was assaulted by a violent 
 tempest; and one of his pious companions advised 
 him to deserve the mercy of God by a vow of general 
 forgiveness, if he should be restored to the throne, 
 " Of forgiveness?" replied the intrepid tyrant: ** may 
 I perish this instant — may the Almighty whelm me in 
 the waves — if I consent to spare a single head of my 
 enemies !" He survived this impious menace, sailed 
 into the mouth of the Danube, trusted his person in 
 the royal village of the Bulgarians^, and purchased the 
 aid of Terbelis, a pagan conqueror, by the promise of 
 his daughter and a fair partition of the treasures of the 
 empire. The Bulgarian kingdom extended to the con- 
 fines of Thrace ; and the two princes besieged Con- 
 stantinople at the head of fifteen thousand horse. Ap- 
 simar was dismayed by the sudden and hostile appa- 
 rition of his rival, whose head had been promised by 
 the Chozar, and of whose evasion he was yet igno- 
 rant. After an absence of ten years, the crimes of 
 Justinian were faintly remembered, and the birth and 
 misfortunes of their hereditary sovereign excited the 
 pity of the multitude, ever discontented with the ruling 
 powers ; and by the active diligence of his adherents 
 he was introduced into the city and palace of Con« 
 stantine. 
 
 In rewarding his allies, and recalling jjjg restoration 
 his wife, Justinian displayed some sense and death, 
 of honour and gratitude ; and Terbelis ^- ^- ^05—711. 
 retired, after sweeping away a heap of gold coin, 
 which he measured with his Scythian whip. But 
 never was vow more religiously performed than the 
 
 
154 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 sacred oath of revenge which he had sworn amidst the 
 storms of the Euxine. The two usurpers, for I must 
 reserve the name of tyrant for the conqueror, were 
 dragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, 
 the other from his palace. Before their execution, 
 Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostrate in chains 
 beneath the throne of the emperor; and Justinian, 
 planting a foot on each of their necks, contemplated 
 above an hour the chariot-race, while the inconstant 
 people shouted, in the words of the Psalmist, " Thou 
 Shalt trample on the asp and the basilisk, and on the 
 lion and dragon shalt thou set thy foot !" The uni- 
 versal defection which he had once experienced might 
 provoke him to repeat the wish of Caligula, that the 
 Roman people had but one head. Yet I shall presume 
 to observe, that such a wish is unworthy of an inge- 
 nious tyrant, since his revenge and cruelly would have 
 been extinguisfied by a single blow, instead of the 
 slow variety of tortures which Justinian inflicted on 
 the victims of his anger. His pleasures were inex- 
 haustible : neither private virtue nor public service 
 could expiate the guilt of active, or even passive, obe- 
 dience to an established government; and during the 
 six years of his new reign, he considered the axe, the 
 cord, and the rack, as the only instruments of royalty. 
 But his most implacable hatred was pointed against 
 the Chersonites, who had insulted his exile, and vio- 
 lated the laws of hospitality. Their remote situation 
 afforded some means of defence, or at least of escape ; 
 and a grievous tax was imposed on Constantinople, to 
 supply the preparations of a fleet and army. " All are 
 guilty, and all must perish,'' was the mandate of Jus- 
 tinian ; and the bloody execution was intrusted to his 
 favourite Stephen, who was recommended by the epi- 
 thet of the savage. Yet even the savage Stephen im- 
 perfectly accomplished the intentions of his sovereign. 
 The slowness of liis attack allowed the greater part 
 of the inhabitants to withdraw into the country; and 
 the minister of vengeance contented himself with re- 
 ducing the youth of both sexes to a state of servitude, 
 with roasting alive seven of the principal citizens, 
 with drowning twenty in the sea, and with reserving 
 forty-two in chains to receive their doom from the 
 mouth of the emperor. In their return, the fleet was 
 <lriven on the rocky shores of Anatolia; and Justinian 
 applauded the obedience of the Euxine, which had 
 involved so many thousands of his subjects and ene- 
 Jnies in a common shi()wreck : but the tyrant was still 
 insatiate of blood, and a second expedition was com- 
 manded to extirpate the remains of the proscribed 
 colony. In the short interval, the Chersonites had re- 
 turned to their city, and were prepared to die in arms ; 
 the khan of the Chozars had renounced the cause of 
 bis odious brother ; the exiles of every province were 
 assembled in Tauris; and Bardanes, under the name 
 of Philippicus, was invested with the purple. The 
 imperial troops, unwilling and unable to perpetrate 
 the revenge of Justinian, escaped his revenge by ab- 
 juring his allegiance : the fleet, under their new sove- 
 reign, steered back a more auspicious course to the 
 harbours of Sinope and Constantinople ; and every 
 tongue was prompt to pronounce, every hand to exe- 
 cute, the death of the tyrant. Destitute of friends, he 
 was deserted by his barbarian guards ; and the stroke 
 of the assassin was praised as an act of patriotism and 
 Roman virtue. His son Tiberius had taken refuge in 
 a church ; his aged grandmother guarded the door ; 
 and the innocent youth, suspending round his neck the 
 most formidable relics, embraced with one hand the 
 altar, with the other the wood of the true cross. But 
 the popular fury that dares to trample on superstition, 
 is deaf to the cries of humanity; and the race of He- 
 raclius was extinguished after a reign of one hundred 
 years. 
 Philippicus, Between the fall of the Heraclian and 
 A. D. 711. the rise of the Isaurian dynasty, a short 
 December, interval of six yearg is divided into three 
 
 reigns. Bardanes, or Philippicus, was hailed at Con- 
 stantinople as a hero who had delivered his country 
 from a tyrant ; and he might taste some moments of 
 happiness in the first transports of sincere and uni- 
 versal joy. Justinian had left behind him an ample 
 treasure, the fruit of cruelty and rapine : but this use- 
 ful fund was soon and idly dissipated by his succes- 
 sor. On the festival of his birth-day, Philippicus 
 entertained the multitude with the games of the hippo- 
 drome; from thence he paraded through the streets with 
 a thousand banners and a thousand trumpets; refreshed 
 himself in the baths of Zeuxippus, and returning to 
 the palace, entertained his nobles with a sumptuous 
 banquet. At the meridian hour he withdrew to his 
 chamber, intoxicated with flattery and wine, and for- 
 getful that his example had made every subject ambi- 
 tious, and that every ambitious subject was his secret 
 enemy. Some bold conspirators introduced them- 
 selves in the disorder of the feast; and the slumbering 
 monarch was surprised, bound, blinded, and deposed, 
 before he was sensible of his danger. Yet the traitors 
 were deprived of their reward ; and the free voice of 
 the senate and people promoted Artemius Anastasius ll, 
 from the office of secretary to that of em- A. D. 713. 
 peror ; he assumed the title of Anastasius ''""® ^' 
 
 the second, and displayed in a short and troubled 
 reign the virtues both of peace and war. But, after 
 the extinction of the imperial line, the rule of obe- 
 dience was violated, and every change difi'used the 
 seeds of new revolutions. In a mutiny of the fleet, 
 an obscure and reluctant ofllicer of the revenue was 
 forcibly invested with the purple : after some months 
 of a naval war, Anastasius resigned the sceptre ; and 
 the conqueror, Theodosius the third, sub- xheodosius III. 
 mitted in his turn to the superior ascen- A. D. 716. 
 dant of Leo, the general and emperor of January, 
 the oriental troops. His two predecessors were permit- 
 ted to embrace the ecclesiastical profession : the rest- 
 less impatience of Anastasius tempted him to risk and 
 to lose his life in a treasonable enterprise; but the last 
 days of Theodosius were honourable and secure. The 
 single sublime word, "health," which he inscribed 
 on his tomb, expresses the confidence of philosophy 
 or religion; and the fame of his miracles was long 
 preserved among the people of Ephesus. This con- 
 venient shelter of the church might sometimes impose 
 a lesson of clemency ; but it may be questioned whe- 
 ther it is for the public interest to diminish the perils 
 of unsuccessful ambition. 
 
 I have dwelt on the fall of a tyrant; I 
 shall briefly represent the founder of a 
 new dynasty, who is known to posterity 
 by the invectives of his enemies, and 
 whose public and private life is involved in the eccle- 
 siastical story of the Iconoclasts. Yet in spite of the 
 clamours of superstition, a favourable prejudice for the 
 character of Leo the Isaurian, may be reasonably 
 drawn from the obscurity of his birth, and the duration 
 of his reign. — I. In an age of manly spirit, the pros- 
 pect of an imperial reward would have kindled every 
 energy of the mind, and produced a crowd of compe- 
 titors as deserving as they were desirous to reign. 
 Even in the corruption and debility of the modern 
 Greeks, the elevation of a plebeian from the last to 
 the first rank of society, supposes some qualifications 
 above the level of the multitude. He would probably 
 be ignorant and disdainful of speculative science; and, 
 in the pursuit of fortune, he might absolve himself 
 from the obligations of benevolence and justice : but 
 to his character we may ascribe the useful virtues of 
 prudence and fortitude, the knowledge of mankind, 
 and the important art of gaining their confidence and 
 directing their passions. It is agreed that Leo was a 
 native of Isauria, and that Conon was his primitive 
 name. The writers, whose awkward satire is praise, 
 describe him as an itenerant pedlar, who drove an ass 
 with some paltry merchandise to the country fairs ; and 
 
 155 
 
 Leo TIT. 
 
 the Isauriao, 
 
 A. D. 718. 
 
 March 25. 
 
 V 
 
 ^ r 
 
 'i 
 
 foolishly relate that he met on the road some Jewish 
 fortune-tellers, who promised him the Roman empire, 
 on condition that he should abolish the worship of 
 idols. A more probable account relates the emigration 
 of his father from Asia Minor to Thrace, where he ex- 
 ercised the lucrative trade of a grazier ; and he must 
 have acquired considerable wealth, since the first in- 
 troduction of his son was procured by a supply of 
 five hundred sheep to the imperial camp. His first 
 service was in the guards of Justinian, where he soon 
 attracted the notice, and by degrees the jealousy, of 
 the tyrant. His valour and dexterity were conspicu- 
 ous in the Colchian war: from Anastasius he received 
 the command of the Anatolian legions, and by the 
 sufl!'rage of the soldiers he was raised to the empire 
 with the general applause of the Roman world. — II. 
 In this dangerous elevation, Leo the third supported 
 himself against the envy of his equals, the discontent 
 of a powerful faction, and the assaults of his foreign 
 and domestic enemies. The catholics, who accuse his 
 religious innovations, are obliged to confess that they 
 were undertaken with temper and conducted with firm- 
 ness. Their silence respects the wisdom of his ad- 
 ministration and the purity of his manners. After a 
 reign of twenty-four years, he peaceably expired in 
 the palace of Constantinople; and the purple which 
 he had acquired was transmitted by the right of inhe- 
 ritance to the third generation. 
 
 Conatantine V. , '" ^ ^<^"? ''^'ff" ^f thirty-four years, 
 Copronymus, the SOU and successor of Leo, Constan- 
 
 June^ia' ^'"® ^^® ^^^^* surnamed Copronymus, 
 attacked with less temperate zeal the 
 images or idols of the church. Their votaries have 
 exhausted the bitterness of religious gall, in their por- 
 trait of the spotted panther, this antichrist, this flying 
 dragon of the serpent's seed, who surpassed the vices 
 of Elagabalus and Nero. His reign was a long butch- 
 ery of whatever was most noble, or holy, or inno- 
 cent, in his empire. In person, the emperor assisted 
 at the execution of his victims, surveyed their agonies, 
 listened to their groans, and indulged, without' satia- 
 ting, his appetite for blood : a plate of noses was ac- 
 cepted as a grateful ofiVring, and his domestics were 
 often scourged or mutilated by the royal hand. His 
 surname was derived from his pollution of his baptis- 
 mal font. The infant might be excused ; but the manly 
 pleasures of Copronymus degraded him below the 
 level of a brute ; his lust confounded the eternal dis- 
 tinctions of sex and species ; and he seemed to extract 
 some unnatural delight from the objects most offensive 
 to human sense. In his religion, the Iconoclast was 
 a heretic, a Jew, a Mahometan, a pagan, and an atheist ; 
 and his belief of an invisible power could be disco- 
 vered only in his magic rites, human victims, and 
 nocturnal sacrifices to Venus and the daemons of anti- 
 quity. His life was stained with the most opposite 
 vices, and the ulcers which covered his body, antici- 
 pated before his death the sentiment of hell-tortures. 
 Of these accusations, which I have so patiently copied, 
 a part is refuted by its own absurdity ; and in the pri- 
 vate anecdotes of the life of princes, the lie is more 
 easy as the detection is more difficult. Without adop- 
 ting the pernicious maxim, that where much is alleged, 
 something must he true, I can however discern, that 
 Constantino the fifth was dissolute and cruel. Cal- 
 umny is more prone to exaggerate than to invent; and 
 her licentious tongue is checked in some measure by 
 the experience of the age and country to which she 
 appeals. Of the bishops and monks, the generals and 
 magistrates who are said to have suffered under his 
 reign, the numbers are recorded, the names were con- 
 spicuous, the execution was public, the mutilation 
 visible and permanent. The catholics hated the per- 
 son and government of Copronymus; but even their 
 hatred is a proof of their oppression. They dissem- 
 ble the provocations which might excuse or justify his 
 Tigcur, but even these provocations must gardually in- 
 
 flame his resentment, and harden his temper in the use 
 or the abuse of despotism. Yet the character of the 
 fifth Constantine was not devoid of merit, nor did his 
 government always deserve the curses or the contempt 
 of the Greeks. From the confession of his enemies, 
 I am informed of the restoration of an ancient aque- 
 duct, of the redemption of two thousand five hundred 
 captives, of the uncommon plenty of the limes, and of 
 the new colonies with which he re-peopled Constanti- 
 nople and the Thracian cities. They reluctantly praise 
 his activity and courage : he was on horseback in the 
 field at the head of his legions; and, although the 
 fortune of his arms was various, he triumphed by sea 
 and land, on the Euphrates and the Danube, in civil 
 and barbarian war. Heretical praise must he cast into 
 the scale, to counterbalance the weight of orthodr.x 
 invective. The Iconoclasts revered the virtues of !he 
 prince: forty years after his death, they still prayed 
 before the tomb of the saint. A miraculous vision was 
 propagated by fanaticism or fraud ; and the christian 
 hero appeared on a milk-white steed, brandishing his 
 lance against the pagans of Bulgaria : " An absurd 
 fable," says the catholic historian, ** since Coprony- 
 mus is chained with the daemons in the abyss of hell." 
 
 Leo the fourth, the son of the fifth and Leo IV 
 the father of the sixth Constantine, was a.d. 775. 
 of a feeble constitution both of mind and ^^^P^- *4. 
 body, and the principal care of his reign was the settle- 
 ment of the succession. The association of the young 
 Constantine was urged by the officious zeal of his sub- 
 jects ; and the emperor, conscious of his decay, com- 
 plied, after a prudent hesitation, with their unanimous 
 wishes. The royal infant, at the age of five years, 
 was crowned with his mother Irene ; and the national 
 consent was ratified by every circumstance of pomp 
 and solemnity, that could dazzle the eyes, or bind the 
 conscience, of the Greeks. An oath of fidelity was 
 administered in the palace, the church, and the hip- 
 podrome, to the several orders of the state, who ad- 
 jured the holy names of the Son, and mother, of 
 God. "Be witness, O Christ! that we will watch 
 over the safety of Constantine the son of Leo, ex- 
 pose our lives in his service, and bear true allegiance 
 to his person and posterity." They pledged their 
 faith on the wood of the true cross, and the act of 
 their engagement was deposited on the altar of St. 
 Sophia. The first to swear, and the first to violate 
 their oath, were the five sons of Copronymus by a 
 second marriage ; and the story of these princes is 
 singular and tragic. The right of primogeniture ex- 
 cluded them from the throne; the injusUce of their 
 elder brother defrauded them of a legacy of about two 
 millions sterling; some vain titles were not deemed a 
 sufllicient compensation for wealth and power; and 
 they repeatedly conspired against their nephew, before 
 and after the death of his father. Their first attempt 
 was pardoned ; for the second off'ence they were con- 
 demned to the ecclesiastical state ; and for the third 
 treason, Nicephorus, the eldest and most guilty, was 
 deprived of his eyes, and his four brothers, Christo- 
 pher, Nicetas, Anthemeus, and Eudoxas, were pun- 
 ished, as a milder sentence, by the amputation of their 
 tongues. After five years' confinement, they escaped 
 to the church of St. Sophia, and displayed a pathetic 
 spectacle to the people. *' Countrymen and chris- 
 tians," cried Nicephorus for himself and his mute 
 brethren, *' behold the sons of your emperor, if you 
 can still recognize our features in this miserable state. 
 A life, an imperfect life, is all that the malice of our 
 enemies has spared. It is now threatened, and we 
 now throw ourselves on your compassion." The rising 
 murmur might have produced a revolution, had it not 
 been checked by the presence of a minister, who sooth- 
 ed the unhappy princes with flattery and hope, and 
 gently drew them from the sanctuary to the palace. 
 They were speedily embarked for Greece, and Athens 
 was allotted for the place of their exile. In this calm 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 b 
 
 i 
 
156 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 157 
 
 3i ' 
 
 lil ^ 
 
 «* 
 
 I 
 
 retreat, and in their helpless condition, Nicephorus and 
 his brothers were tormented by the thirst of power, and 
 tempted by a Sclavonian chief, who offered to break 
 their prison, and to lead them in arms, and in the pur- 
 ple, to the gates of Constantinople. But the Athenian 
 people, ever zealous in the cause of Irene, prevented 
 her justice or cruelty; and the five sons of Coprony- 
 mus were plunged in eternal darkness and oblivion. 
 
 F'or himself, that emperor had chosen 
 ^"S Iren", a barbarian wife, the daughter of the 
 A.D. 780.' khan of the Chozars; but in the mar- 
 Sepi.8. riaore of his heir, he preferred an Athe- 
 nian virgin, an orphan, seventeen years old, whose sole 
 fortune must have consisted in her personal accom- 
 plishments. The nuptials of Leo and Irene were cele- 
 brated with royal pomp ; she soon acquired the love 
 and confidence of a feeble husband, and in his testa- 
 ment lie declared the empress guardian of the Roman 
 world, and of their son Constantine the sixth, who was 
 no more than ten years of age. During his childhood, 
 Irene most ably and assiduously discharged, in her 
 public administration, the duties of a faithful mother; 
 and her zeal in the restoration of images has deserved 
 the name and honours of a saint, which she still occu- 
 pies in the Greek calendar. But the emperor attained 
 the maturity of youth; the maternal yoke became more 
 grievous ; and he listened to the favourites of his own 
 age, who shared his pleasures, and were ambitious of 
 sharing his power. Their reasons convinced him of 
 his right, their praises of his ability, to reign; and he 
 consented to reward the services of Irene by a perpe- 
 tual banishment to the isle of Sicily. But her vigi- 
 lance and penetration easily disconcerted their rash 
 projects : a similar, or more severe, punishment was 
 retaliated on themselves and their advisers : and Irene 
 inflicted on the ungrateful prince the chastisement of 
 a boy. After this contest, the mother and the son 
 were at the head of two domestic factions; and, in- 
 stead of mild influence and voluntary obedience, she 
 held in chains a captive and an enemy. The empress 
 was overthrown by the abuse of victory ; the oath of 
 fidelity, which she exacted to herself alone, was pro- 
 nounced with reluctant murmurs; and the bold retusal 
 of the Armenian guards encouraged a free and general 
 declaration, that Constantine the sixth was the lawful 
 emperor of the Romans. In this character he ascended 
 his hereditary throne, and dismissed Irene to a life of 
 solitude and repose. ' But her haughty spirit conde- 
 scended to the arts of dissimulation : she flattered the 
 bishops and eunuchs, revived the filial tenderness of 
 the prince, regained his confidence, and betrayed his 
 credulity. The character of Constantine was not 
 destitute of sense or spirit ; but his education had 
 been studiously neglected ; and his ambitious mo- 
 ther exposed to the public censure the vices which 
 she had nourished, and the actions which she had 
 secretly advised : his divorce and second marriage 
 offended the prejudices of the clergy, and by his 
 imprudent rigour he forfeited the attachment of 
 the Armenian guards. A powerful conspiracy was 
 formed for the restoration of Irene ; and the secret, 
 thoucjh widely diffused, was faithfully kept about eight 
 months, till the emperor, suspicious of his danger, 
 escaped from Constantinople, with the design of ap- 
 pealing to the provinces and armies. By this hasty 
 flight, the empress was left on the brink of the preci- 
 
 fice ; yet before she implored the mercy of her son, 
 rene addressed a private epistle to the friends whom 
 she had placed about his person, with a menace, that, 
 unless i/iei/ accomplished, she would reveal, their trea- 
 son. Their fear rendered them intrepid ; they seized 
 the emperor on the Asiatic shore ; and he was trans- 
 ported to the porphyry apartment of the palace, where 
 he had first seen the light. In the mind of Irene, am- 
 bition had stifled every sentiment of humanity and 
 nature; and it was decreed in her bloody council, that 
 Constantine should be rendered incapable of the 
 
 throne : her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince, 
 and slabbed their daggers with such violence and pre- 
 cipitation into his eyes, as if they meant to execute a 
 mortal sentence. An ambiguous passage of Theo- 
 phanes persuaded the annalist of the church that death 
 was the immediate consequence of this barbarous exe- 
 cution. The catholics have been deceived or subdued 
 by the authority of Baronius ; and protestant zeal has 
 re-echoed the words of a cardinal, desirous, as it 
 should seem, to favour the patroness of images. Yet 
 the blind son of Irene survived many years, oppressed 
 by the court and forgotten by the world : the Issaurian 
 dynasty was silently extinguished ; and the memory 
 of Constantine was recalled only by the nuptials of 
 his daughter Euphrosyne with the emperor Michael 
 the second. 
 
 The most bigoted orthodoxy has justly Tpphp, 
 
 execrated the unnatural mother, who may A.D. 792. 
 not easily be paralleled in the history of August 19. 
 crimes. To her bloody deed, superstition has attribu- 
 ted a subsequent darkness of seventeen days; during 
 which many vessels in mid-day were driven from their 
 course, as if the sun, a globe of fire so vast and so re- 
 mote, could sympathize with the atoms of a revolving 
 planet. On earth, the crime of Irene was left five 
 years unpunished ; her reign was crowned with exter- 
 nal splendour; and if she could silence the voice of 
 conscience, she neither heard nor regarded the re- 
 proaches of mankind. The Roman world bowed to 
 the government of a female; and as she moved through 
 the streets of Constantinople, the reins of four milk- 
 white steeds were held by as many patricians, who 
 marched on foot before the golden chariot of their 
 queen. But these patricians were, for the most part, 
 eunuchs; and their black ingratitude justified, on this 
 occasion, the popular hatred and contempt. Raised, 
 enriched, intrusted with the first dignities of the em- 
 pire, they basely conspired against their benefactress : 
 the great treasurer Nicephorus was secretly invested 
 with the purple ; her successor was introduced into 
 the palace, and crowned at St. Sophia by the venal 
 patriarch. In their first interview, she recapitulated 
 with digrnity the revolutions of her life, gently accused 
 the perfidy of Nicephorus, insinuated that he owed 
 his life to her unsuspicious clemency, and, for the 
 throne and treasures which she resigned, solicited a 
 decent and honourable retreat. His avarice refused 
 this modest compensation; and in her exile of the isle 
 of Lesbos, the empress earned a scanty subsistence by 
 the labours of her distaff. 
 
 Many tyrants have reigned undoubt- Nfcephonisl. 
 edly more criminal than Nicephorus, but A.D. 802. 
 none, perhaps, have more deeply incur- October 31. 
 red the universal abhorrence of their people. His 
 character was stained with the three odious vices of 
 hypocrisy, ingratitude, and avarice : his want of virtue 
 was not redeemed by any superior talents, nor his 
 want of talents by any pleasing qualifications. Un- 
 skilful and unfortunate in war, Nicephorus was van- 
 quished by the Saracens, and slain by the Bulgarians; 
 and the advantage of his death overbalanced, in the 
 public opinion, the destruction of a Ro- stauraciua 
 man army. His son and heir Staura- A. D. sii. 
 cius escaped from the field with a mor- July 25. 
 tal wound : yet six months of an expiring life were 
 sufl^cient to refute his indecent, though popular, de- 
 claration, that he would in all things avoid the exam- 
 ple of his father. On the near prospect of his decease, 
 Michael, the great master of the palace, and the hus- 
 band of his sister Procopia, was named by every per- 
 son of the palace and city, except by his envious bro- 
 ther. Tenacious of a sceptre now falling from his 
 hand, he conspired against the life of his successor, 
 and cherished the idea of changing to a democracy the 
 Roman empire. But these rash projects served only 
 to inflame the zeal of the people and to remove the 
 scruples of the candidate : Michael the first accepted 
 
 the purple, and, before he sunk into the grave, the son 
 Michari I. f. Nicephorus implored the clemency of 
 Khancabe, his new Sovereign. Had Michael in an 
 A.D. 811. age of peace ascended an hereditary 
 October . throne, he might have reigned and died 
 the father of his people ; but his mild virtues were 
 adapted to the shade of private life, nor was he capa- 
 ble of controlling the ambition of his equals, or of re- 
 sisting the arms of the victorious Bulgarians. While 
 his want of ability and success exposed him to the 
 contempt of the soldiers, the masculine spirit of his 
 wife Procopia awakened their indignation. Even the 
 Greeks of the ninth century were provoked by the in- 
 solence of a female, who, in the front of the standards, 
 presumed to direct their discipline and animate their 
 valour ; and their licentious clamours advised the new 
 Semiramis to reverence the majesty of a Roman camp. 
 After an unsuccessful campaign, the emperor left, in 
 their winter quarters of Thrace, a disaffected army 
 under the command of his enemies ; and their artful 
 eloquence persuaded the soldiers to break the dominion 
 of the eunuchs, to degrade the husband of Procopia, 
 and to assert the right of a military election. They 
 marched towards the capital : yet the clergy, the sen- 
 ate, and the people of Constantinople, adhered to the 
 cause of Michael ; and the troops and the treasures 
 of Asia might have protracted the mischiefs of civil 
 war. But his humanity (by the ambitious it will be 
 termed weakness) protested, that not a drop of chris- 
 tian blood should be shed in his quarrel, and his mes- 
 sengers presented the conquerors with the keys of the 
 city and the palace. They were disarmed by his in- 
 nocence and submission ; his life and his eyes were 
 spared ; and the imperial monk enjoyed the comforts 
 of solitude and religion above thirty-two years after 
 he had been stripped of the purple and separated from 
 his wife. 
 I,eo V. the ^ rebel in the time of Nicephorus, the 
 
 Armenian, famous and Unfortunate Bardanes, had 
 ^J V^/f' °"^® ^^^® curiosity to consult an Asiatic 
 prophet, who, after prognosticating his 
 fall, announced the fortunes of his three principal ofli- 
 cers, Leo the Armenian, Michael the Phrygian, and 
 Thomas the Cappadocian, the successive reigns of the 
 two former, the fruitless and fatal enterprise of the 
 third. This prediction was verified, or rather was 
 produced, by the event. Ten years afterwards, when 
 the Thracian camp rejected the husband of Procopia, 
 the crown was presented to the same Leo, the first in 
 military rank, and the secret author of the mutiny. As 
 he affected to hesitate, " With this sword," said his 
 companion Michael, **I will open the gates of Constan- 
 tinople to your imperial sway ; or instantly plunge it 
 into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the just de- 
 sires of your fellow-soldiers." The compliance of the 
 Armenian was rewarded with the empire, and he 
 reigned seven years and a half under the name of Leo 
 the fifth. Educated in a camp, and ignorant both of 
 laws and letters, he introduced into his civil govern- 
 ment the rigour and even cruelty of military discipline ; 
 but if his severity was sometimes dangerous to the in- 
 nocent, it was always formidable to the guilty. His 
 religious inconstancy was taxed by the epithet of Cha- 
 meleon, but the catholics have acknowledged by the 
 voice of a saint and confessors, that the life of the 
 Iconoclast was useful to the republic. The zeal of his 
 companion Michael was repaid with riches, honours, 
 and military command ; and his subordinate talents 
 were beneficially employed in the public service. Yet 
 the Phrygian was dissatisfied at receiving as a favour 
 a scanty portion of the imperial prize which he had 
 bestowed on his equal ; and his discontent, which 
 sometimes evaporated in hasty discourse, at length 
 assumed a more threatening and hostile aspect against 
 a prince whom he represented as a cruel tyrant. That 
 tyrant, however, repeatedly detected, warned, and dis- 
 missed the old companion of his arms, till fear and 
 
 resentment prevailed over gratitude; and Michael, 
 after a scrutiny into his actions and designs, was con' 
 victed of treason, and sentenced to be burnt alive in 
 the furnace of the private baths. The devout humani- 
 ty of the empress Theophano was fatal to her husband 
 and family. A solemn day, the twenty-fifth of Decem- 
 ber, had been fixed for the execution : she urged, that 
 the anniversary of the Saviour's birth would be pro- 
 faned by this inhuman spectacle, and Leo consented 
 with reluctance to a decent respite. But on the vigil 
 of the feast, his sleepless anxiety prompted him to 
 visit at the dead of night the chamber in which his 
 enemy was confined : he beheld him released from his 
 chain, and stretched on his jailor's bed in a profound 
 slumber: Leo was alarmed at these signs of security 
 and intelligence ; but, though he retired with silent 
 steps, his entrance and departure were noticed by a 
 slave who lay concealed in a corner of the prison. 
 Under the pretence of requesting the spiritual aid of a 
 confessor, Michael informed the conspirators, that their 
 lives depended on his discretion, and that a few hours 
 were left to assure their own safety, by the deliverance 
 of their friend and country. On the great festivals, a 
 chosen band of priests and chanters was admitted into 
 the palace by a private gate to sing matins in the cha- 
 pel ; and Leo, who regulated with the same strictness 
 the discipline of the choir and of the camp, was sel- 
 dom absent from these early devotions. In the eccle- 
 siastical habit, but with swords under their robes, the 
 conspirators mingled with the procession, lurked ia 
 the angles of the chapel, and expected, as the signal 
 of murder, the intonation of the first psalm by the em- 
 peror himself. The imperfect light, and the uniformity 
 of dress, might have favoured his escape, while their 
 assault was pointed against a harmless priest; but 
 they soon discovered their mistake, and encompassed 
 on all sides the royal victim. Without a weapon and 
 without a friend, he grasped a weighty cross, and stood 
 at hay against the hunters of his life; but as he asked 
 for mercy, " This is the hour, not of mercy, but of 
 vengeance," was the inexorable reply. The stroke of 
 a well-aimed sword separated from his body the right 
 arm and the cross, and Leo the Armenian was slain at 
 the foot of the altar. 
 
 A memorable reverse of fortune was Michael n th 
 displayed in Michael the second, who. Stammerer, 
 from a defect in his speech, was sur- A.D. 820. 
 named the Stammerer. He was snatched ^^' 
 
 from the fiery furnace to the sovereignty of an empire; 
 and as in th tumult a smith could not readily be found, 
 the fetters remained on his legs several hours after ha. 
 was seated on the throne of the Caesars. The royal 
 blood which had been the price of his elevation, was 
 unprofitably spent: in the purple he retained the igno- 
 ble vices of his origin ; and Michael lost his provinces 
 with as supine indifference as if they had been the 
 inheritance of his fathers. His title was disputed by 
 Thomas, the last of the military triumvirate, who 
 transported into Europe fourscore thousand barbarians 
 from the banks of the Tigris and the shores of the 
 Caspian. He formed the siepre of Constantinople; 
 but the capital was defended with spiritual and carnal 
 weapons ; a Bulgarian king assaulted the camp of the 
 orientals, and Thomas had the misfortune, or the weak- 
 ness, to fall alive into the power of the conqueror. 
 The hands and feet of the rebel were amputated ; he 
 was placed on an ass, and, amidst the insults of the 
 people, was led through the streets, which he sprinkled 
 with his blood. The depravation of manners, as sa- 
 vage as they were corrupt, is marked by the presence 
 of the emperor himself. Deaf to the lamentations of 
 a fellow-soldier, he incessantly pressed the discovery 
 of more accomplices, till his curiosity was checked by 
 the question of an honest or guilty minister; " Would 
 you give credit to an enemy, against the most faithful 
 of your friends ?" After the death of his first wife, 
 the emperor, at the request of the senate, drew from 
 
 I 
 
 I J 
 
158 
 
 I? 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 her monastery Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constan- 
 tine the sixth. Her august birth might justify a stipu- 
 lation in the marriage-contract, that her children should 
 equally share the empire with their elder brother. But 
 the nuptials of Michael and Euphrosyne were barren; 
 and she was content with the title of mother of The- 
 ophilus, his son and successor. 
 Theophiius, "^^^ character of Theophil US is a rare 
 AD. 829. example in which religious zeal has al- 
 Ociober3. lowed, and perhaps magnified, the vir- 
 tues of a heretic and a persecutor. His valour was 
 often felt by the enemies, and his justice by the sub- 
 jects, of the monarchy ; but the valour of Theophi- 
 lus was rash and fruitless, and his justice arbitrary 
 and cruel. He displayed the banner of the cross 
 against the Saracens; but his five expeditions were 
 concluded by a signal overthrow; Amorium, the native 
 city of his ancestors, was levelled with the ground ; 
 and from his military toils, he derived only the sur- 
 name of the Unfortunate. The wisdom of a sovereign 
 is comprised in the institution of laws and the choice 
 of magistrates, and while he seems without action, his 
 civil government revolves round his centre with the 
 silence and order of the planetary system. But the 
 justice of Theophilus was fashioned on the model of 
 the oriental despots, who, in personal and irregular 
 acts of authority, consult the reason or passion of the 
 moment, without measuring the sentence by the law, 
 or the penalty by the offence. A poor woman threw 
 herself at the emperor's feet to complain of a powerful 
 neighbour, the brother of the empress, who had raised 
 his palace-wall to such an inconvenient height, that 
 her humble dwelling was excluded from light and air! 
 On the proof of the fact, instead of grantfng, like an 
 ordinary judge, sufficient or ample damages to the 
 plaintiff', the sovereign adjudged to her use and benefit 
 the palace and the ground. Nor was Theophilus con- 
 tent with this extravagant satisfaction : his zeal con- 
 verted a civil trespass into a criminal act; and the 
 unfortunate patrician was stripped and scourged in the 
 public place of Constantinople. For some venial of- 
 fences, some defect of equity or vigilance, the principal 
 ministers, a praefect, a quaestor, a captain of the guards, 
 were banished or mutilated, or scalded with boiling 
 pitch, or burnt alive in the hippodrome ; and as these 
 dreadful examples might be the effects of error or 
 caprice, they must have alienated from his service the 
 best and wisest of the citizens. But the pride of the 
 monarch was flattered in the exercise of power, or, as 
 he thought, of virtue ; and the people, safe in their 
 obscurity, applauded the danger and debasement of 
 their suj)eriors. This extraordinary rigour was justi- 
 fied, in some measure, by its salutary consequences; 
 since, after a scrutiny of seventeen days, not a com- 
 plaint or abuse could be found in the court or city : 
 and it might be alleged that the Greeks could be ruled 
 only with a rod of iron, and that the public interest is 
 the motive and law of the supreme judge. Yet in the 
 crime, or the suspicion, of treason, that judge is of all 
 others the most credulous and partial. Theophilus 
 might inflict a tardy vengeance on the assassins of Leo 
 and the saviours of his father ; but he enjoyed the 
 fruits of their crime ; and his jealous tyranny sacrificed 
 a brother and a prince to the future safety of his life. 
 A Persian of the race of the Sassanides died in poverty 
 and exile at Constantinople, leaving an only son, the 
 issue of a plebeian marriage. At the age of twelve 
 years, the royal birth of Theophobus was revealed, and 
 his merit was not unworthy of his birth. He was 
 educated in the Byzantine palace, a christian and a 
 soldier; advanced with rapid steps in the career of 
 fortune and glory; received the hand of the emperor's 
 sister ; and was promoted to the command of thirty 
 thousand Persians, who, like his father, had fled from 
 the Mahometan conquerors. These troops, doubly in- 
 fected with mercenary and fanatic vices, were desirous 
 of r«voltingr against their benefactor, and erectimr the 
 
 i5d 
 
 standard of their native king: but the loyal Theopho- 
 bus rejected their oflfers, disconcerted their schemes, 
 and escaped from their hands to the camp or palace of 
 his royal brother. A generous confidence might have 
 secured a faithful and able guardian for his wife and 
 his infant son, to whom Theophilus, in the flower of 
 his age, was compelled to leave the inheritance of the* 
 empire. But his jealousy was exasperated by envy 
 and disease: he feared the dangerous virtues which 
 might either support or oppress their infancy and 
 weakness ; and the dyiner emperor demanded the head 
 of the Persian prince. With savage delight, he recog- 
 nized the familiar features of his brother: ** Thou art 
 no longer Theophobus," he said ; and, sinking on his 
 couch, he added, with a faultering voice, ** Soon, too 
 soon, I shall be no more Theophilus !" 
 
 The Russians, who have borrowed from the Greeks 
 the greatest part of their civil and ecclesiastical poli- 
 cy, preserved, till the last century, a singular institu- 
 tion in the marriage of the Czar. They collected, not 
 the virgins of every rank and of every province, a vain 
 and romantic idea, but the daughters of the principal 
 nobles, who awaited in the palace the choice of their 
 sovereign. It is affirmed, that a similar method was 
 adopted in the nuptials of Theophilus. With a golden 
 apple in his hand, he slowly walked between two con- 
 tending beauties ; his eye was detained by the charms 
 of Icasia, and, in the awkwardness of a first declara- 
 tion, the prince could only observe, that, in this world, 
 women had been the cause of much evil: "And sure- 
 ly, sir," she pertly replied, "they have likewise been 
 the occasion of much good." This afl^ectation of un- 
 seasonable wit displeased the imperial lover; he turn- 
 ed aside in disgust ; Icasia concealed her mortification 
 in a convent; and the modest silence of Theodora was 
 rewarded with the golden apple. She deserved the 
 love, but did not escape the severity, of her lord. 
 From the palace garden he beheld a vessel deeply 
 laden, and steering into the port : on the discovery 
 that the precious cargo of Syrian luxury was the pro- 
 perty of his wife, he condemned the ship to the flames, 
 with a sharp reproach, that her avarice had degraded 
 the character of an empress into that of a merchant. 
 Yet his last choice intrusted her with the Michael III 
 guardianship of the empire and her son a.d.842. ' ' 
 Michael, who was left an orphan in the January 20. 
 fifth year of his age. The restoration of images, and 
 the final extirpation of the Iconoclasts, has endeared 
 her name to the devotion of the Greeks; but in the 
 fervour of religious zeal, Theodora entertained a grate- 
 ful regard for the memory and salvation of her hus- 
 band. After thirteen years of a prudent and frugal ad- 
 ministration, she perceived the decline of her influence ; 
 but the second Irene imitated only the virtues of her 
 predecessor. Instead of conspiring against the life or 
 government of her son, she retired, without a struffgle, 
 though not without a murmur, to the solitude of private 
 life, deploring the ingratitude, the vices, and the in- 
 evitable ruin, of the worthless youth. 
 
 Among the successors of Nero and Elagabalus, wo 
 have not hitherto found the imitation of their vices, 
 the character of a Roman prince who considered plea- 
 sure as the object of life, and virtue as the enemy of 
 pleasure. Whatever might have been the maternal 
 care of Theodora in the education of Michael the 
 third, her unfortunate son was a king before he was a 
 man. If the ambitious mother laboured to check the 
 progress of reason, she could not cool the ebullition 
 of passion ; and her selfish policy was justly repaid 
 by the contempt and in^titude of the headstrong^ 
 youth. At the age of eighteen, he rejected her au- 
 thority, without feeling his own incapacity to govern 
 the empire and himself. With Theodora, all gravity 
 and wisdom retired from the court; their place was 
 supplied by the alternate dominion of vice and folly; 
 and it was impossible, without forfeiting the public 
 esteem, to acquire or preserve the favour of the em- 
 
 peror. The millions of gold and silver which had 
 been accumulated for the service of the state, were 
 lavished on the vilest of men, who flattered his pas- 
 sions and shared his pleasures ; and in a reign of thir- 
 teen years, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to 
 strip the palace and the churches of their precious fur- 
 niture. Like Nero, he delighted in the amusements 
 of the theatre, and sighed to be surpassed in the ac- 
 complishments in which he should have blushed to 
 excel. Yet the studies of Nero in music and poetry, 
 betrayed some symptoms of a liberal taste; the more 
 ignoble arts of the son of Theophilus was confined to 
 the chariot-race or the hippodrome. The four factions 
 which had agitated the peace, still amused the idle- 
 ness of the capital : for himself, the emperor assumed 
 the blue livery ; the three rival colours were distribu- 
 ted to his favourites, and in the vile though eager con- 
 tention he forgot the dignity of his person and the 
 safety of his dominions. He silenced the messenger 
 of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention 
 in the most critical moment of the race ; and by his 
 command the importunate beacons were extinguished, 
 that too frequently spread the alarm from 'tarsus to 
 Constantinople. The most skilful charioteers obtained 
 the first place in his confidence and esteem; their merit 
 was profusely rewarded ; the emperor feasted in their 
 houses, and presented their children at the baptismal 
 font ; and while he applauded his own popularity, he 
 I affected to blame the cold and stately reserve of his 
 predecessors. The unnatural lusts which had degra- 
 ded even the manhood of Nero, were banished from 
 the world ; yet the strength of Michael was consumed 
 by the indulgence of love and intemperance. In his 
 midnight revels, when his passions were inflamed by 
 wine, he was provoked to issue the most sanguinary 
 commands ; and if any feelings of humanity were left, 
 he was reduced, with the return of sense, to approve 
 the salutary disobedience of his servants. But the 
 most extraordinary feature in the character of Michael, 
 is the profane mockery of the religion of his country. 
 The superstition of the Greeks might indeed excite 
 the smile of a philosopher; but his smile would have 
 been rational and temperate, and he must have con- 
 demned the ignorant folly of a youth who insulted 
 the objects of public veneration. A buff'oon of the 
 court was invested in the robes of the patriarch : the 
 twelve metropolitans, among whom the emperor was 
 ranked, assumed their ecclesiastical garments : they 
 used or abused the sacred vessels of the altar; and in 
 their bacchanalian feasts, the holy communion was 
 administered in a nauseous compound of vinegar and 
 mustard. Nor were these impious spectacles con- 
 cealed from the eyes of the city. On the day of a so- 
 lemn festival, the emperor, with his bishops or buf- 
 foons, rode on asses through the streets, encountered 
 the true patriarch at the head of his clergy ; and by 
 their licentious shouts and obscene gestures, disorder- 
 ed the gravity of the christian procession. The devo- 
 tion of Michael appeared only in some oflfence to rea- 
 son or piety : he received his theatrical crowns from 
 the statue of the Virgin ; and an imperial tomb was 
 violated for the sake of burning the bones of Constan- 
 tino the Iconaclast. By this extravagant conduct, the 
 son of Theophilus became as contemptible as he was 
 odious ; every citizen was impatient for the deliver- 
 ance of his country ; and even the favourites of the 
 moment were apprehensive that a caprice might snatch 
 away what a caprice had bestowed. In the thirtieth 
 year of his age, and in the hour of intoxication and 
 sleep, Michael the third was murdered in his chamber 
 by the founder of a new dynasty, whom the emperor 
 had raised to an equality of rank and power. 
 Basil I. the . '^^® genealogy of Basil the Macedo- 
 Macedonian, nian (if it be not the spurious off*spring 
 
 S*e?t.^I* ^f P"^® ^"^ flattery) exhibits a genuine 
 
 picture of the revolution of the most 
 
 illustrious families. The Arsacides, the rivals of 
 
 Rome, possessed the sceptre of the cast near four hun- 
 dred years; a younger branch of these Parthian kintrs 
 continued to reign in Armenia; and their royal descen- 
 dants survived the partition and servitude of that an- 
 cient monarchy. Two of these, Artabanus and Chli- 
 enes, escaped or retired to the court of Leo the first: 
 his bounty seated them in a safe and hospitable exile*, 
 in the province of Macedonia : Adrianople was their 
 final settlement. During several generations they 
 maintained the dignity of their birth ; and their Roman 
 patriotism rejected the tempting offers of the Persian 
 and Arabian powers, who recalled them to their native 
 country. But their splendour was insensibly clouded 
 by time and poverty ; and the father of Basil was re- 
 duced to a small farm, which he cultivated with his 
 own hands : yet he scorned to disgrace the blood of 
 the Arsacides by a plebeian alliance : his wife, a widow 
 of Adrianople, was pleased to count among her ances- 
 tors the great Constantine; and their royal infant was- 
 connected by some dark aflinity of lineage or country 
 with the Macedonian Alexander. No sooner was he 
 born, than the cradle of Basil, his family, and his city, 
 were swept away by an inundation of the Bulgarians : 
 he was educated a slave in a foreign land ; and in this 
 severe discipline, he acquired the hardiness of body 
 and flexibility of mind which promoted his future ele- 
 vation. In the age of youth or manhood he shared the 
 deliverance of the Roman captives, who generously 
 broke their fetters, marched through Bulgaria to the 
 shores of the Euxine, defeated two armies of barbari- 
 ans, embarked in the ships which had been stationed 
 for their reception, and returned to Constantinople, 
 from whence they were distributed to their respective 
 homes. But the freedom of Basil was naked and des- 
 titute: his farm was ruined by the calamities of war: 
 after his father's death, his manual labour, or service, 
 could no longer support a family of orphans; and he 
 resolved to seek a more conspicuous theatre, in which 
 every virtue and every vice may lead to the paths of 
 greatness. The first night of his arrival at Constan- 
 tinople, without friends or money, the weary pilgrim 
 slept on the steps of the church of St. Diomede : he 
 was fed by the casual hospitality of a monk; and was 
 introduced to the service of a cousin and namesake of 
 the emperor Theophilus ; who, though himself of a 
 diminutive person, was always followed by a train of 
 tall and handsome domestics. Basil attended his pa- 
 tron to the government of Peloponnesus; eclipsed by 
 his personal merit, the birth and dignity of Theophi- 
 lus, and formed a useful connexion with a wealthy and 
 charitable matron of Patras. Her spiritual or carnal 
 love embraced the young adventurer, whom she adop- 
 ted as her son. Daniel is presented him with thirty 
 slaves ; and the produce of her bounty was expended 
 in the support of his brothers, and the purchase of 
 some large estates in Macedonia. His gratitude or 
 ambition still attached him to the service of Theophi- 
 lus ; and a lucky accident recommended him to the 
 notice of the court. A famous wrestler, in the train 
 of the Bulgarian ambassadors, had defied, at the royal 
 banquet, the boldest and most robust of the Greeks. 
 The strength of Basil was praised ; he accepted the 
 challenge ; and the barbarian champion was over- 
 thrown at the first onset. A beautiful but vicious 
 horse was condemned to be hamstrung : it was sub- 
 dued by the dexterity and courage of the servant of 
 Theophilus; and his conqueror was promoted to an 
 honourable rank in the imperial stables. But it was 
 impossible to obtain the confidence of Michael without 
 complying with his vices ; and his new favourite, the 
 great chamberlain of the palace, was raised and sup- 
 ported by a disgraceful marriage with a royal concu- 
 bine, and the dishonour of his sister, who succeeded 
 to her place. The public administration had been 
 abandoned to the Caesar Bardas, the brother and ene- 
 my of Theodora; but the arts of female influence per- 
 suaded Michael to hate and to fear his uncle : he was 
 
 
160 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 •Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 **^i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 drawn from Constantinople, under the pretence of a 
 Cretan expedition, and stabbed in the tent of audience, 
 by the sword of tlie chamberlain, and in the presence 
 of the emperor. About a month after this execution, 
 Basil was invested with the title of Augustus and the 
 government of the empire. He supported this une- 
 qual association till his influence was forfeited by 
 popular esteem. His life was endangered by the 
 caprice of the emperor; and his dignity was profaned 
 by a second colleague, who had rowed in the galleys. 
 Yet the murder of his benefactor must be condemned 
 as an act of injiratiiude and treason ; and the churches 
 which he dedicated to the name of St. Michael, were 
 a poor and puerile expiation of his guilt. 
 
 The different ages of Basil the first may be com- 
 pared with those of Augustus. The situation of the 
 Greek did not allow him in his earliest youth to lead 
 an army a;»ainst his country, or to proscribe the no- 
 blest of her sons ; but his aspiring genius stooped to 
 the arts of a slave ; he dissembled his ambition and 
 even his virtues, and grasped, with the bloody hand 
 of an assassin, the empire which he ruled with the 
 •wisdom and tenderness of a parent. A private citizen 
 may feel his interest repugnant to his duty; but it 
 must be from a deficiency of sense or courage, that an 
 absolute monarch can separate his happiness from his 
 glory, or his glory from the public welfare. The life 
 or panegyric of Basil has indeed been composed and 
 published under the long reign of his descendants ; 
 but even their stability on the throne may be justly 
 ascribed to the superior merit of their ancestor. In 
 his character, his grandson Constantino has attempted 
 to delineate a perfect image of royalty : but that fee- 
 ble prince, unless he had copied a real model, could 
 not easily have soared so high above the level of his 
 own conduct or conceptions. But the most solid praise 
 of Basil is drawn from the domparison of a ruined and 
 a flourishing monarchy, that which he wrested from 
 the dissolute Michael, and that which he bequeathed 
 to the Macedonian dynasty. The evils which had 
 been sanctified by time and example, were corrected 
 by his master-hand ; and he revived, if not the na- 
 tional spirit, at least the order and majesty, of the 
 Roman empire. His application was indefatigable, 
 his temper cool, his understanding vigorous and deci- 
 sive ; and in his practice he observed that rare and 
 salutary moderation, which pursues each virtue, at an 
 equal distance between, the opposite vices. His mili- 
 tary service had been confined to the palace ; nor was 
 the emperor endowed with the spirit or the talents of 
 a warrior. Yet under his reign the Roman arms were 
 again formidable to the barbarians. As soon as he 
 had formed a new army by discipline and exercise, he 
 appeared in person on the banks of the Euphrates, 
 curbed the pride of the Saracens, and suppressed the 
 dangerous though just revolt of the Manichaeans. His 
 indignation against a rebel who had long eluded his 
 pursuit, provoked him to wish and to pray, that, by 
 the grace of God, he might drive three arrows into the 
 head of Chrysochir. That odious head, which had 
 been obtained by treason rather than by valour, was 
 suspended from a tree, and thrice exposed to the dex- 
 terity of the imperial archer : a base revenge against 
 the dead, more worthy of the times than of the charac- 
 ter of Basil. But his principal merit was in the civil 
 admmistration of the finances and of the laws. To 
 replenish an exhausted treasury, it was proposed to 
 resume the lavish and ill-placeo gifts of his predeces- 
 sor : his prudence abated one moity of the restitution ; 
 and a sum of twelve hundred thousand pounds was 
 instantly procured to answer the most pressing de- 
 mands, and to allow some space for the mature opera- 
 tions of economy. Among the various schemes for 
 the improvement of the revenue, a new mode was 
 suggested of capitation, or tribute, which would have 
 too much depended on the arbitrary discretion of the 
 assessors. A sufficient list of honest and able agents 
 
 was instantly produced by the minister; but on the 
 more careful scrutiny of Basil himself, only two could 
 be found, who might be safely intrusted with such 
 dangerous powers : and they justified his esteem by 
 declining his confidence. But the serious and suc- 
 cessful diligence of the emperor established by degrees 
 an equitable balance of property and payment, of receipt 
 and expenditure : a peculiar fund was appropriated to 
 each service; and a public method secured the interest 
 of the prince and the property of the people. After 
 reforming the luxury, he assigned two patrimonial 
 estates to supply the decent plenty, of the imperial 
 table : the contributions of the subject were reserved 
 for his defence ; and the residue was employed in the 
 embellishment of the capital and provinces. A taste 
 for building, however costly, may deserve some praise 
 and much excuse ; from thence industry is fed, art is 
 encouraged, and some object is attained of public 
 emolument or pleasure : the use of a road, an aque- 
 duct, or an hospital, is obvious and solid ; and the 
 hundred churches that arose by the command of Basil, 
 were consecrated by the devotion of the age. In the 
 character of a judge, he was assiduous and impartial ; 
 desirous to save, and not afraid to strike : the oppres- 
 sors of the people were severely chastised ; but his 
 personal foes, whom it might be unsafe to pardon, 
 were condemned, after the loss of their eyes, to a life 
 of solitude and repentance. The change of language 
 and manners demanded a revision of the obsolete ju- 
 risprudence of Justinian; the voluminous body of his 
 Institutes, Pandects, Code, and Novels, was digested 
 under forty titles, in the Greek idiom ; and iheBasi- 
 licsj which were improved and completed by his son 
 and grandson must be referred to the original genius 
 of the founder of their race. This glorious reign was 
 terminated by an accident in the chase. A furious stag 
 entangled his horns in the belt of Basil, and raised 
 him from his horse : he was rescued by an attendant, 
 who cut the belt and slew the animal ; but the fall, or 
 the fever, exhausted the strength of the aged monarch, 
 and he expired in the palace, amidst the tears of his 
 family and people. If he struck off the head of the 
 faithful servant, for presuming to draw his sword 
 against his sovereign; the pride of despotism, which 
 had lain dormant in his life, revived in the last mo- 
 ments of despair, when he no longer wanted or valued 
 the opinion of mankind. 
 
 Of the four sons of the emperor, Con- 
 stantine died before his father, whose 
 grief and credulity were amused by a 
 flattering impostor and a vain apparition. 
 Stephen, the youngest, was content with the honours 
 of a patriarch and a saint; both Leo and Alexander 
 were alike invested with the purple, but the powers 
 of government were solely exercised by the elder 
 brother. The name of Leo the sixth, has been dig- 
 nified with the title oi philosopher ; and the union of 
 the prince and the sage, of the active and speculative 
 virtues, would indeed constitute the perfection of hu- 
 man nature. But the claims of Leo are far short of 
 this ideal excellence. Did he reduce his passions and 
 appetites under the dominion of reason 1 His life was 
 spent in the pomp of the palace, in the society of his 
 wives and concubines ; and even the clemency which 
 he showed, and the peace which he strove to preserve, 
 must be imputed to the softness and indolence of his 
 character. Did he subdue his prejudices*and those of 
 his subjects 1 His mind was tinged with the most 
 puerile superstition ; the influence of the clergy, and 
 the errors of the people, were consecrated by his laws ; 
 and the oracles of Leo, which reveal, in prophetic style, 
 the fate of the empire, are founded on the arts of as- 
 trology and divination. If we still inquire the reason 
 of his sage appellation, it can only be replied, that the 
 son of Basil was less ignorant than the greater part of 
 his contemporaries in church and state; that his edu- 
 cation had been directed by the learned Photius ; and 
 
 Leo "VI. tho 
 
 Philosopher, 
 
 A. D. 886. 
 
 March 1. 
 
 *that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science 
 were composed by the pen, or in the name, of the im- 
 perial philosopher. But the reputation of his philosophy 
 and religion was overthrown by a domestic vice, the 
 repetition of his nuptials. The primitive ideas of the 
 merit and holiness of celibacy, were preached by the 
 monks and entertained by the Greeks. xMarriage was 
 allowed as a necessary means for the propagation of 
 mankind ; after the death of either party, the survivor 
 might satisfy, by a second union, the weakness or the 
 strength of the flesh ; but a third marriage was cen- 
 sured as a state of legal fornication ; and 2l fourth was 
 a sin or scandal as yet unknown to the christians of 
 the east. In the beginning of his reign, Leo himself 
 had abolished the state of concubines, and condemned, 
 without annulling, third marriages; but his patriotism 
 and love soon compelled him to violate his own laws, 
 and to incur the penance, which in a similar case he 
 had imposed orj. his subjects. In his three first alli- 
 ances, his nuptial bed was unfruitful ; the emperor re- 
 quired a female companion, and the empire a legiti- 
 mate heir. The beautiful Zoe was introduced into 
 the palace as a concubine ; and after a trial of her 
 fecundity, and the birth of Constantine, her lover 
 declared his intention of legitimating the mother and 
 the child, by the celebration of his fourth nuptials. 
 But the patriarch Nicholas refused his blessing: the 
 imperial baptism of the young prince was obtained by 
 a promise of separation ; and the contumacious hus- 
 band of Zoe was excluded from the communion of the 
 faithful. Neither the fear of exile, nor the desertion 
 of his brethren, nor the authority of the Latin church, 
 nor the danger of failure or doubt in the succession to 
 the empire, could bend the spirit of the inflexible 
 monk. After the death of Leo he was recalled from 
 exile to the civil and ecclesiastical administration; 
 and the edict of union which was promulgated in the 
 name of Constantine, condemned the future scandal 
 of fourth marriages, and left a tacit imputation on his 
 own birth. 
 
 In the Greek language purple and por- 
 phyry are the same word ; and as the 
 colours of nature are invariable, we may 
 learn that a dark deep red was the Tyrian 
 dye which stained the purple of the ancients. An 
 apartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with 
 porphyry : it was reserved for the use of the pregnant 
 empresses ; and the royal birth of their children was 
 expressed by the appellation of porphyrogenite, or born 
 in the purple. Several of the Roman princes had been 
 blessed with an heir ; but this peculiar surname was 
 first applied to Constantine the seventh. His life and 
 titular reign were of equal duration ; but of fifty-four 
 years, six had elapsed before his father's death ; and 
 the son of Leo was ever the voluntary or reluctant sub- 
 ject of those who oppressed his weakness or abused his 
 confidence. His uncle Alexander, who had long been 
 invested with the title of Augustus, was the first col- 
 league and governor of the young prince : but in a 
 rapid career of vice and folly, the brother of Leo al- 
 ready emulated the reputation of Michael, and when 
 he was extinguished by a timely death, he entertained 
 a project of castrating his nephew, and leaving the 
 empire to a worthless favourite. The succeeding years 
 of the minority of Constantine were occupied by his 
 mother Zoe, and a succession or council of seven re- 
 gents, who pursued their interest, gratified their pas- 
 sions, abandoned the republic, supplanted each other, 
 and, finally vanished in the presence of a soldier. 
 
 defined by the new appellation of father 
 of the emperor; but Romanus soon dis- 
 dained the subordinate powers of a min- 
 ister, and assumed, with the titles of 
 
 161 
 
 Komanus I. L» 
 
 Alexandpr, Con- 
 stantine VII. 
 Porphyrogpni- 
 tU8, A. D. 911. 
 May 11. 
 
 raised himself to the command of the naval armies; 
 and in the anarchy of the times, had deserved, or at 
 least had obtained, the national esteem. With a vic- 
 torious and affectionate fleet, he sailed from the mouth 
 of the Danube into the harbour of Constantinople, and 
 Was hailed as the deliverer of the people, and the 
 guardian of the prince. His supreme ofl5ce was at first 
 Vol. II.— V 11 
 
 capenus. 
 
 A. D.919. 
 
 Dec. 24. 
 
 Caesar and Augustus, the full indepen- Siephen'J Con. 
 dence of royalty, which he held near five "^"^'^^ viii. 
 and twenty years. His three sons, Christopher, Ste- 
 phen, and Constantine, were successively adorned with 
 the same honours, and the lawful emperor was de- 
 graded from the first to the fifth rank in this college 
 of princes. Yet, in the preservation of his life and 
 crown, he might still applaud his own fortune and the 
 clemency of the usurper. The examples of ancient 
 and modern history would have excused the ambition 
 of Romanus : the powders and the laws of the empire 
 were in his hand : the spurious birth of Constantine 
 would have justified his exclusion; and the grave or 
 the monastery was open to receive the son of the con- 
 cubine. But Lecapenus does not appear to have pos- 
 sessed either the virtues or the vices of a tyrant. The 
 spirit and activity of his private life dissolved away 
 in the sunshine of the throne; and in his licentious 
 pleasures, he forgot the safety both of the republic and 
 of his family. Of a mild and religious character, he 
 respected the sanctity of oaths, the innocence of the 
 youth, the memory of his parents, and the attachment 
 of the people. The studious temper and retirement of 
 Constantine disarmed the jealousy of power ; his books 
 and music, his pen and his pencil, were a constant 
 source of amusement ; and if he could improve a scanty 
 allowance by the sale of his pictures, if their price was 
 not enhanced by the name of the artist, he was en- 
 dowed with a personal talent, which few princes could 
 employ in the hour of adversity. 
 
 The fall of Romanus was occasioned 
 by his own vices and those of his chil- 
 dren. After the decease of Christopher, 
 his eldest son, the two surviving brothers quarrelled 
 with each other, and conspired against their father. 
 At the hour of noon, when all strangers were regularly 
 excluded from the palace, they entered his apartment 
 with an armed force, and conveyed him, in the habit 
 of a monk, to a small island in the Propontis, which 
 was peopled by a religious community. The rumour 
 of this domestic revolution excited a tumult in the 
 city ; but Porphyrogenitus alone, the true and lawful 
 emperor, was the object of the public care; and tho 
 sons of Lecapenus were taught, by tardy experience, 
 that they had achieved a guilty and perilous enterprise 
 for the benefit of their rival. Their sister Helena, the 
 wife of Constantine, revealed, or supposed, their treach- 
 erous design of assassinating her husband at the royal 
 banquet. His loyal adherents were alarmed ; and the 
 two usurpers were prevented, seized, degraded from 
 the purple, and embarked for the same island and 
 monastery where their father had been so lately con- 
 fined. Old Romanus met them on the beach with a 
 sarcastic smile, and, after a just reproach of their folly 
 and ingratitude, presented his imperial colleagues with 
 an equal share of his water and veffetable diet. In 
 the fortieth year of his reign, Constantine the seventh 
 obtained the possession of the eastern world, which 
 he ruled, or seemed to rule, near fifteen years. But 
 he was devoid of that energy of character which could 
 emerge into a life of action and glory ; and the studies 
 which had amused and dignified his leisure, were in- 
 compatible with the serious duties of a sovereign. 
 The emperor neglected the practice, to instruct his son 
 Romanus in the theory, of government: while he in- 
 
 constant! ne vn. 
 
 A. D. 945. 
 Jan. 27. 
 
 From an obscure origin, Romanus Lecapenus had dulged the habits of intemperance and sloth, he dropt 
 
 the reins of the administration into the hands of He- 
 lena his wife; and, in the shifting scene of her favour 
 and caprice, each minister was regretted in the promo- 
 tion of a more worthless successor. Yet the birth 
 and misfortunes of Constantine had endeared him to 
 the Greeks; they excused his failings ; they respected 
 his learning, his innocence, and charity, his love of 
 
'i 
 
 M 
 
 162 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 f N 
 
 I ' 
 
 ■ii! 
 
 l> 
 
 V 
 I r 
 
 [3 
 
 justice ; and the ceremony of his funeral was mourned 
 with the unfeigned tears of his subjects. Tiie body, 
 according to ancient custom, lay in state in the ves- 
 tibule of the palace; and the civil and military officers, 
 the patricians, the senate, and the clergy, approached 
 in due order to adore and kiss the inanimate corpse of 
 their sovereign. Before the procession moved towards 
 the imperial sepulchre, a herald proclaimed this anful 
 admonition: "Arise, O king of the world, and obey 
 the summons of the King of kings !" 
 Romanus II. ju- ^^^ death of Constantino was imputed 
 tior, A. D. 959. to poison ; and his son Romanus, who 
 
 Nov. 15. derived that name from his maternal 
 grandfather, ascended the throne of Constantinople. 
 A prince who, at the age of twenty, could be suspect- 
 ed of anticipating his inheritance, must have been al- 
 ready lost in the public esteem; yet Romanus was 
 rather weak than wicked ; and the largest share of the 
 guilt was transferred to his wife, Theophano, a woman 
 of base origin, masculine spirit, and flagitious man- 
 ners. The sense of personal glory and public happi- 
 ness, the true pleasures of royalty, were unknown to 
 the son of Constantine ; and, while the two brothers, 
 Nicephorus and Leo, triumphed over the Saracens, 
 the hours which the emperor owed to his people were 
 consumed in strenuous idleness. In the morning he 
 visited the circus ; at noon he feasted the senators ; 
 the greater part of the afternoon he spent in the sphrr- 
 risterium^ or tennis-court, the only theatre of his vic- 
 tories ; from thence he passed over to the Asiatic side 
 of the Bosphorus, hunted and killed four wild boars 
 of the largest size, and returned to the palace, proudly 
 content with the labours of the day. In strength and 
 beauty he was conspicuous above his equals: tall and 
 straight as a young cypress, his complexion was fair 
 and florid, his eyes sparklinir, his shoulders broad, his 
 nose long and aquiline. Yet even these perfections 
 were insufficient to fix the love of Theophano ; and, 
 after a reign of four years, she mingled for her hus- 
 band the same deadly draught which she had com- 
 posed for his father. 
 Nicephorus II. •'^y ^'^^ marriage with this im]>ious 
 
 Phocas, woman, Romanus the younger left two 
 A.D.9G3. Aug.6. sons, Basil the Second and Constaniine 
 the ninth, and two daughters, Theophano and Anne. 
 The eldest sister was given to Otho tlio second, em- 
 peror of the west; the younger became the wife of 
 Wolodomir, great duke and apostle of Russia, and, by 
 the marriage of her grand-daughter with Henry the 
 first, king of France, the blood of the Macedonians, 
 and perhaps of the Arsacides, still flows in the veins 
 of the Bourbon line. After the death of her husband, 
 the empress aspired to reign in the name of her sons, 
 the elder of whom was five, and the younger only two, 
 years of age; but she soon felt the instability of a 
 throne which was supported by a female who could 
 not be esteemed, and two infants who could not be 
 feared. Theophano looked around for a protector, and 
 threw herself into the arms of the bravest soldier; her 
 heart was capacious ; but the deformity of the new 
 favourite rendered it more than probable that interest 
 was the motive and excuse of her love. Nicephorus 
 Phocas united, in the popular opinion, the double me- 
 rit of a hero and a saint. In the former character, his 
 qualifications were genuine and splendid : the descen- 
 dant of a race, illustrious by their military exploits, he 
 had displayed, in every station and in every province, 
 the courage of a soldier and the conduct of a chief; 
 and Nicephorus was crowned with recent laurels, from 
 the important conquest of the isle of Crete. His reli- 
 gion was of a more ambiguous cast; and his hair-cloth, 
 his fasts, his pious idiom, and his wish to retire from 
 the business of the world, were a convenient mask for 
 his dark and dangerous ambition. Yet he imposed on 
 a holy patriarch, by whose influence, and by a decree 
 of the senate, he was intrusted, during the minority of 
 the young princes, with the absolute and independent 
 
 command of the oriental armfcs. As soon as he had 
 secured the leaders and the troops, he boldly marched 
 to Constantinople, trampled on his enemies, avowed 
 his correspondence with the empress, and, without de- 
 grading her sons, assumed, with the title of Augustus, 
 the pre-eminence of rank and plenitude of power. But 
 his marriage with Theophano was refused by the same 
 patriarch who had placed the crown on his head : by 
 his second nuptials he incurred a year of canonical 
 penance ; a bar of spiritual affinity was opposed to 
 their celebration ; and some evasion and perjury were 
 required to silence the scruples of the clergy and peo- 
 ple. The popularity of the emperor was lost in the 
 purple: in a reign o^ six years he provoked the hatred 
 of strangers and subjects ; and the hypocrisy and ava- 
 rice of the first Nicephorus were revived in his suc- 
 cessor. Hypocrisy I shall never justify or palliate; 
 but I will dare to observe, that the odious vice of ava- 
 rice is of all others the most hastily arraigned, and 
 most unmercifully condemned. In a private citizen, 
 our judgment seldom expects an accurate scrutiny into 
 his fortune and expense; and in a steward of the pub- 
 lic treasure, frugality is always a virtue, and the in- 
 crease of taxes too often an indispensable duty. In the 
 use of his patrimony, the generous temper of Nicepho- 
 rus had been proved ; and the revenue was strictly 
 applied to the service of the state: each spring the 
 emperor marched in person against the Saracens; and 
 every Roman might compute the employment of his 
 taxes in triumphs, conquests, and the security of the 
 eastern barrier. 
 
 Among the warriors who promoted his -, , r,. . 
 
 , ^. =», J 11-^11 John Zimiaceg, 
 
 elevation, and served under his standard, Basil ii. 
 
 a noble and valiant Armenian had deser- Consiamine ix. 
 ved and obtained the most eminent re- ^■^•^^'^' ^6<^-^- 
 wards. The statue of John Zimisces was below the 
 ordinary standard ; but this diminutive body was en- 
 dowed with strength, beauty, and the soul of a hero. 
 By the jealousy of the emperor's brother, he was de- 
 graded from the office of general of the east, to that of 
 director of the posts, and his murmurs were chastised 
 with disgrace and exile. But Zimisces was ranked 
 among the numerous lovers of the empress : on her 
 intercession he was permitted to reside at Chalcedon, 
 in the neighbourhood of the capital : her bounty was 
 repaid in liis clandestine and amorous visits to the 
 palace ; and Theophano consented, with alacrity, to 
 the death of an ugly and penurious husband. Seme 
 bold and trusty conspirators were concealed in her 
 most private chambers : in the darkness of a winter 
 night, Zimisces, with his principal companions, em- 
 barked in a small boat, traversed the Bosphorus, land- 
 ed at the palace stairs, and silently ascended a ladder 
 of ropes, which was cast down by the female atten- 
 dants. Neither his own suspicions, nor the warnings 
 of his friends, nor the tardy aid of his brother Leo, nor 
 the fortress which he had erected in the palace, could 
 protect Nicephorus from a domestic foe, at whoso 
 voice every door was opened to the assassins. As he 
 slept on a bear-skin, on the ground, he was roused by 
 their noisy intrusion, and thirty daggers glittered be- 
 fore his eyes. It is doubtful whether Zimisces im- 
 brued his hands in the blood of his sovereign; but he 
 enjoyed the inhuman spectacle of revenge. The mur- 
 der was protracted by insult and cruelty; and as soon 
 as the head of Nicephorus was shown from the win- 
 dow, the tumult was hushed, and the Armenian was 
 emperor of the east. On the day of his coronation, he 
 was stopped on the threshold of St. Sophia, by th*:; 
 intrepid patriarch, who charged his conscience with 
 the deed of treason and blood ; and required, as a 
 sign of repentance, that he should separate himself 
 from his more criminal associate. This sally of apos- 
 tolic zeal was not oflfensive to the prince, since he 
 could neither love nor trust a woman who had repeat- 
 edly violated the most sacred obligations ; and The- 
 ophano, instead of sharing his imperial fortune, was 
 
 dismissed with ignominy from his bed and palace. In 
 their last interview, she displayed a frantic and impo- 
 tent rage; accused the ingratitude of her lover; assaul- 
 ted, with words and blows, her son Basil, as he stood 
 silent and submissive in the presence of a superior col- 
 league; and avowed her own prostitution, in proclaim- 
 ing the illegitimacy of his birth. The public indigna- 
 tion was appeased by her exile, and the punishment 
 of the meaner accomplices : the death of an unpopu- 
 lar prince was forgiven ; and the guilt of Zimisces 
 was forgotten in the splendour of his virtues. Per- 
 haps his profusion was less useful to the state than 
 the avarice of Nicephorus; but his gentle and gene- 
 rous behaviour delighted all who approached his per- 
 son; and it was onfy in the paths of victory that he 
 , trod in the footsteps of his predecessor. The greatest 
 part of his reign was employed in the camp and the 
 field : his personal valour and activity were sicrnalized 
 on the Danube and the Tigris, the ancient boundaries of 
 the Roman world ; and by his double triumph over the 
 Russians and the Saracens, he deserved the titles of 
 saviour of the empire, and conqueror of the east. In 
 his last return from Syria, he observed that the most 
 fruitful lands of his new provinces were possessed by 
 the eunuchs. " And is it for them," he exclaimed, 
 with honest indignation, " that we have fought and 
 conquered ? Is it for them that we shed our blood, 
 and exhaust the treasures of our people V The com- 
 plaint was re-echoed to the palace, and the death of 
 Zimisces is strongly marked with the suspicion of 
 poison. 
 
 Basil II. and Under this usurpation, or regency, of 
 
 Consiamine IX. twelve years, the two lawful emperors, 
 Januarfio. ^^^^^ ^"^ Constantino, had silently 
 grown to the age of manhood. Their 
 tender years had been incapable of dominion : the re- 
 spectful modesty of their attendance and salutation, 
 was due to the age and merit of their guardians: the 
 childless ambition of those guardians had no tempta- 
 tion to violate their right of succession : their patri- 
 mony was ably and faithfully administered ; and the 
 premature death of Zimisces was a loss, rather than a 
 benefit, to the sons of Romanus. Their.want of ex- 
 perience detained them twelve years lono-er the ob- 
 scure and voluntary pupils of a minister, who extended 
 his reign by persuading them to indulge the pleasures 
 of youth, and to disdain the labours of government. In 
 this silken web, the weakness of Constantine was for 
 ever entangled ; but his elder brother felt the impulse 
 of genius and the desire of action; he frowned, and 
 the minister was no more. Basil was the acknow- 
 ledged sovereign of Constantinople, and the provinces 
 of Europe; but Asia was oppressed by two veteran 
 generals, Phocas and Sclerus, who, alternately friends 
 and enemies, subjects and rebels, maintained their in- 
 dependence, and laboured to emulate the example of 
 successful usurpation. Against these domestic ene- 
 mies, the son of Romanus first drew his sword, and 
 they trembled in the presence of a lawful and hiah- 
 spirited prince. The first, in the front of battle, was 
 thrown from his horse, by the stroke of poison, or an 
 arrow: the second, who had been twice loaded with 
 chains, and twice invested with the purple, M-as de- 
 sirous of ending in peace the small remainder of his 
 days. As the aged suppliant approached the throne, 
 ^vith dim eyes and faltering steps, leaning on his two 
 attendants, the emperor exclaimed, in the insolence of 
 youth and power, *' And is this the man who has so 
 long been the object of our terror V After he had 
 confirmed his own authority, and the peace of the em- 
 pire, the trophies of Nicephorus and Zimisces would 
 not suflTer their royal pupil to sleep in the palace. His 
 Jong and frequent expeditions against the Saracens 
 jvere rather glorious than useful to the empire; but the 
 ima! destruction of the kingdom of Bulgaria appears, 
 since the time of Belisarius, the most important tri- 
 umph of the Roman arms. Yet instead of applauding 
 
 163 
 
 their victorious prince, his subjects detested the rapa- 
 Clous and rigid avarice of Basil ; and in the imperfect 
 narrative of his exploits, we can only discern the cou- 
 rage, patience, and ferociousness of a soldier A vi- 
 cious education, which could not subdue his spirit, had 
 clouded his mmd ; he was ignorant of every science- 
 and the remembrance of his learned and feeble orandl 
 sire might encourage his real or affected contempt of 
 laws and lawyers, of artists and arts. Of such a cha- 
 racter, in such an age, superstition took a firm and 
 lasting possession ; after the first licence of his youth, 
 Basil the second devoted his life, in the palace and the 
 camp, to the penance of a hermit, wore'the monastic 
 habit under his robes and armour, observed a vow of 
 continence, and imposed on his appetites a perpetual 
 abstinence from wine and flesh. In the sixty-eiahih 
 year of his age, his martial spirit urged him to embark 
 in person for a holy war against the Saracens of Sicily ; 
 he was prevented by death, and Basil, surnamed the 
 J^layer of the Bulgarians, was dismissed from the world, 
 with the blessings of the clergy and the curses of the 
 people. After his decease, his brother p,„„, ,. ,^ 
 Constantine enjoyed, about three years, Tf) I'dS'^* 
 the power, or rather the pleasures, of December, 
 royalty, and his only care was the settlement of the 
 succession. He had enjoyed sixty-six years the title 
 of Augustus; and the reign of the two brothers is the 
 longest, and most obscure, of the Byzantine history. 
 
 A lineal succession of five emperors, 
 in a period of one hundred and sixty ^o"^*""" '"• 
 years, had attached the loyalty of the A.ufitS. 
 Greeks to the Macedonian dynasty, J^ov.12. 
 which had been thrice respected by the usurpers of 
 their power. After the death of Constantine the 
 ninth, the last male of the royal race, a new and bro- 
 ken scene presents itself, and the accumulated years 
 of twelve emperors do not equal the space of his sinale 
 reign. His elder brother had preferred his private 
 chastity to the public interest, and Constantine himself 
 had only three daughters ; Eudocia, who took the veil, 
 and Zoe and Theodora, who were preserved till a ma- 
 ture age in a state of ignorance and virginity. When 
 their marriage was discussed in the council of their 
 dying father, the cold or pious Theodora refused to 
 give an heir to the empire, but her sister Zoe presented 
 herself a willing victim at the altar. Romanus Arcry- 
 rus, a patrician of a graceful person and fiiir reputation, 
 was chosen for her husband, and, on his declinino- that 
 honour, was informed, that blindness or death was the 
 second alternative. The motive of his reluctance was 
 conjugal affection, but his faithful wife sacrificed her 
 own happiness to his safety and greatness ; and her 
 entrance into a monastery removed the only bar to the 
 imperial nuptials. After the decease of Constantine, 
 the sceptre devolved to Romanus the third; but his 
 labours at home and abroad were equally feeble and 
 fruitless; and the mature age, the forty-eight years 
 of Zoe, were less favourable to the hopes of pregnancy 
 than to the indulgence of pleasure. Her favourite 
 chamberlain was a handsome Paphlagonian of the name 
 of Michael, whose first trade had been that of a money- 
 chanjrer; and Romanus, either from gratitude or equity, 
 connived at their criminal intercourse, or accepted a 
 slight assurance of their innocence. But Zoe soon 
 justified the Roman maxim, that every adulteress is 
 capable of poisoning her husband ; and the death of 
 Romanus was instantly followed by the scandalous 
 marriage and elevation of Michael the ,,. , , „, , 
 fourth. The expectations of Zoe were, pipmaLoLn,' 
 however, disappointed : instead of a vicro- A D. 1034. 
 rous and grateful lover, she had placed ^^"^ "' 
 in her bed a miserable wretch, whose health and reason 
 were impaired by epileptic fits, and whose conscience 
 was tormented by despair and remorse. The most 
 skilful physicians of the mind and body were sum- 
 moned to his aid ; and his hopes were amused by fre- 
 quent pilgrimages to the baths, and to the tombs of the 
 
K 
 
 164 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX, 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 165 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 iw 
 
 i: 
 
 most popular saints ; the monks applauded hie penance, 
 and, except restitution, (hut to whom should he have 
 restored 1) Michael sought every method of expiating 
 his guilt. \\ hile he groaned and prayed m sackcloth 
 and ashes, his brother, the eunuch John, smiled at 
 his remorse, and enjoyed the harvest of a crime of 
 which himself was the secret and most guilty author. 
 His administration was only the art of satiatmg his 
 avarice, and Zoe became a captive in the palace of her 
 fatliers and in the hands of her slaves. When he per- 
 ceived the irretrievable decline of his brother's health, 
 he introduced his nephew, another Michael, who de- 
 rived his surname of Calaphates from his father's oc- 
 cupation in the careening of vessels : at the command 
 of the eunuch, Zoe adopted, for her son, the son of a 
 mechanic ; and this fictitious heir was invested with 
 the title and purple of the Caesars, in the presence of 
 the senate and clergy. So feeble was the character 
 of Zoe, that she was oppressed by the liberty and power 
 which she recovered by the death of the Paphlagonian ; 
 and at the end of four days she placed the crown on 
 the head of Michael the fifth, who had 
 ^'"^'phLT;, ' protested, with tears and oaths, that he 
 A. D. 1041. should ever reign the first and most obe- 
 
 Dec.14. (Jient of her subjects. The only act of 
 his short reign was his base ingratitude to his benefac- 
 tors, the eunuch and the empress. The disgrace of 
 the former was pleasing to the public ; but the murmurs, 
 and at length the clamours, of Constantinople deplored 
 the exile of Zoe, the daughter of so many emperors ; 
 her vices were forgotten, and Michael was taught, that 
 there is a period in which the patience of the tamest 
 slaves rises into fury and revenge. The citizens of 
 every degree assembled in a formidable tumult which 
 lasted three days; they besieged the palace, forced the 
 gates, recalled their mothers^ 'Log from 
 
 *doraT herprison,Theodora from her monastery, 
 
 A. D. i(i42. and condemned the son of Calaphates to 
 
 April 21. ^J^g J^gg ^^ J^-g j^ygg Qf (jf J^iS W^ . ^OT 
 
 the first time, the Greeks beheld with surprise the 
 two royal sisters seated on the same throne, presiding 
 in the senate, and giving audience to the ambassadors 
 of the nations. But this singular union subsisted no 
 more than two months ; the two sovereigns, their tem- 
 pers, interests, and adherents, were secretly hostile to 
 each other ; and as Theodora was still averse to mar- 
 riage, the' indefatigable Zoe, at the age 
 ■ McTomachusT of sixty, consented, for the public good, 
 A. D. 1042. to sustain the embraces of a third hus- 
 •^""''"' band, and the censures of the Greek 
 church. His name and number were Constantine the 
 tenth, and the epithet of MonomachuSy the single com- 
 batant, must have been expressive of his valour and 
 victory in some public or private quarrel. But his 
 health was broken by the tortures of the gout, and his 
 dissolute reign was spent in the alternative of sickness 
 and pleasure. A fair and noble widow had accompanied 
 Constantine in his exile to the isle of Lesbos, and 
 Sclerena gloried in the appellation of his mistress. 
 After his marriage and elevation, she was invested 
 with the title and pomp of Augusta, and occupied a 
 contiuuous apartment in the palace. The lawful con- 
 sort (such was the delicacy or corruptiori of Zoe) con- 
 sented to this strange and scandalous partition ; and the 
 emperor appeared in public between his wife and his 
 concubine. He survived them both ; but the last mea- 
 sures of Constantine to change llie order of succession 
 were prevented by the more vigilant friends of Theo- 
 ^» , dora ; and after his decease, she resumed, 
 
 Theodora, "^'"» ' ' 
 
 A. D. 1054. With the general consent, the possession 
 
 Nov. 20. of her inheritance. In her name, and 
 
 by the influence of four eunuchs, the eastern world was 
 
 peaceably governed about nineteen months; and as 
 
 they wished to prolong their dominion, they persuaded 
 
 Michael VI. the aged princess to nominate for her suc- 
 
 Siraiioticus, cessor Michael the sixth. The surname 
 
 ^A?i.^^.^* of Straiioticus declares his military pro- 
 
 fession ; but the crazy and decrepit veteran could only 
 see with the eyes, and execute with the hands, of his 
 ministers. Whilst he ascended the throne, Theodora 
 sunk into the grave ; the last of the Macedonian or 
 Basilian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly 
 dismiss, this shameful and destructive period of tw enty- 
 eight years, in which the Greeks, degraded below the 
 common level of servitude, were transfirred like a 
 herd of cattle by the choice or caprice of two impotent 
 females. 
 
 From this night of slavery, a ray of jgaac I. Comne- 
 freedom, or at least of spirit, begins to mis, 
 
 emerge ; the Greeks either preserved or ^'^'^^fi^ 
 revived the use of surnames, which per- 
 petuate the fame of hereditary virtue; and we now 
 discern the rise, succession, and alliances of the last 
 dynasties of Constantinople and Trebizond. The 
 Comneni, who upheld for a while the fate of the sink- 
 inj; empire, assumed the honour of a Roman origin ; 
 bu"t the family had been long since transported from 
 Italy to Asia. Their patrimonial estate was situate in 
 the district of Castamona, in the neighbourhood of the 
 Euxine ; and one of their chiefs, who had already en- 
 tered the paths of ambition, revisited with aflection, 
 perhaps with regret, the modest though honourable 
 dwelling of his fathers. The first of their line was 
 the illustrious Manuel, who, in the reign of the second 
 Basil, contributed by war and treaty to appease the 
 troubles of the east : he left in a tender age two sons, 
 Isaac and John, whom, with the consciousness of de- 
 sort, he bequeathed to the gratitude and favour of his 
 sovereign. The noble youths were carefully trained 
 in the learning of the monastery, the arts of the palace, 
 and the exercFses of the camp: and from the domestic 
 service of the guards, they were rapidly promoted to 
 the command of provinces and armies. Their fraternal 
 union doubled the force and reputation of the.Comneni, 
 and their ancient nobility was illustrated by the mar- 
 riage of the two brothers, with a captive princess of 
 BuTgaria, and the daughter of a patrician, who had 
 obtained the name of Charon from the number of ene- 
 mies whom he had sent to the infernal shades. The 
 soldiers had served with reluctant loyalty a series of 
 effeminate masters; the elevation of Michael the sixth 
 was a personal insult to the more deserving generals; 
 and their discontent was inflamed by the parsimony of 
 the emperor and the insolence of the eunuchs. They 
 secretly assembled in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, and 
 the votes of the military synod would have been unani- 
 mous in favour of the old and valiant Catacalon, if the 
 patriotism or modesty of the veteran had not sugges- 
 ted the importance of birth as well as merit in the 
 choice of a sovereign. Isaac Comnenus was approved 
 by general consent, and the associates separated with- 
 out delay to meet in the plains of Phrygia at the head 
 of their respective squadrons and detachments. The 
 cause of Michael was defended in a single battle by 
 the mercenaries of the imperial guard, who were aliens 
 to the public interest, and animated only by a principle 
 of honour and gratitude. After their defeat, the fears 
 of the emperor solicited a treaty, which was alniost 
 accepted by the moderation of the Comnenian. But 
 the former was betrayed by his ambassadors, and the 
 latter was prevented by his friends. The solitary 
 Michael submitted to the voice of the people ; and the 
 patriarch annulled their oath of allegiance ; and as he 
 shaved the head of the royal monk, congratulated his 
 beneficial exchange of temporal royalty for the kingdom 
 of heaven; an exchanjre, however, which the priest, on 
 his own account, would probably have declined. By 
 the hands or lae same patriarch, Isaac Comnenus was 
 solemnly crowned : the sword which he inscribed on 
 his coins, might be an offensive symbol, if it implied 
 his title by conquest; but this sword would have been 
 drawn against the foreign and domestic enemies of the 
 state. The decline of his health and vigour suspended 
 the operation of active virtue; and the prospect of ap- 
 
 proaching death determined him to interpose some 
 moments between life and eternity. But instead of 
 leaving the empire as the marriage portion of his 
 daughter, his reason and inclination concurred in the 
 preference of his brother John, a soldier, a patriot, and 
 the father of five sons, the future pillars of an heredi- 
 tary succession. His first modest reluctance might be 
 the natural dictates of discretion and tenderness, but 
 his obstinate and successful perseverance, however it 
 may dazzle with the show of virtue, must be censured 
 as a criminal desertion of his duty, and a rare offeiice 
 against his family and country. The purple which 
 he had refused was accepted by Constantine Ducas, 
 a friend of the Comnenian house, and whose noble 
 birth was adorned with the experience and reputation 
 of civil policy. In the monastic habit, Isaac recovered 
 his health, and survived two years his voluntary abdi- 
 cation. At the command of his abbot, he observed 
 the rule of St. Basil, and executed the most servile of- 
 fices of the convent : but his latent vanity was gratified 
 by the frequent and respectful visits of the reigning 
 monarch, who revered in his person the character of a 
 benefactor and a saint, 
 n . .-^^YT If Constantine the eleventh were in- 
 
 Constantine XI. , , , i- , a. .u i^ ^i^^^ 
 
 Ducas, deed the subject most worthy of empire, 
 
 A. D.1059. ^g jnust pity the debasement of the age 
 ^®*^' ^' and nation in which he was chosen. In 
 the labour of puerile declamations he sought, without 
 obtaining, the crown of eloquence, more precious, in 
 his opinfon, than that of Rome; and, in the subordi- 
 nate functions of a judge, he forgot the duties of a 
 sovereign and a warrior. Far from imitating the patri- 
 otic indifference of the authors of his greatness, Ducas 
 was anxious only to secure, at the expense of the re- 
 public, the power and prosperity of his children. His 
 three sons, Michael the seventh, Andronicus the first, 
 and Constantine the twelfth, were invested, in a tender 
 age, with the equal title of Augustus ; and the succes- 
 sion was speedily opened by their father's death. 
 His widows Eudocia, was intrusted with 
 ^D.To67. the administration; but experience had 
 May. taught the jealousy of the dying monarch 
 
 to protect his sons from the danger of her second nup- 
 tials ; and her solemn engagement, attested by the 
 principal senators, was deposited in the hands of the 
 patriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants 
 of Eudocia, or those of the state, called aloud for the 
 male virtues of a soldier ; and her heart had already 
 chosen Romanus Diogenes, whom she had raised from 
 the scaftbld to the throne. The discovery of a trea- 
 sonable attempt had exposed him to the severity of the 
 laws : his beauty and valour absolved him in the eyes 
 of the empress ; and Romanus, from a mild exile, was 
 recalled on the second day to the command of the ori- 
 ental armies. Her royal choice was yet unknown to 
 the public ; and the promise which would have be- 
 trayed her falsehood and levity, was stolen by a dex- 
 terous emissary from the ambition of the patriarch. 
 Xiphilin at first alleged the sanctity of oaths and the 
 sacred nature of a trust; but a whisper, that his bro- 
 ther was the future emperor, relaxed his scruples, and 
 forced him to confess, that the public safety was the 
 supreme law. He resigned the important paper ; and 
 -„ when his hopes were confounded by the 
 ' iToTenes, nomination of Romanus, he could no 
 A. D. 1067. longer regain his security, retract his 
 August. declarations, nor oppose the second nup- 
 tials of the empress. Yet a murmur was heard in the 
 palace; and the barbarian guards had raised their bat- 
 tle-axes in the cause of the house of Ducas, till the 
 young princes were soothed by the tears of their mo- 
 ther, and the solemn assurances of the fidelity of their 
 guardian, who filled the imperial station with dignity 
 and honour. Hereafter I shall relate his valiant but 
 unsuccessful efforts to resist the progress of the Turks. 
 His defeat and captivity inflicted a deadly wound on 
 the Byzantine monarchy of the east ; and after he was 
 
 released from the chains of the sultan, he vainly sought 
 his wife and hi? subjects. His wife had been thrust 
 into a monastery, and the subjects of Michael vn. 
 Romanus had embraced the rigid maxim Parapinaces, 
 
 of the civil law, that a prisoner in the ctSSinlxn. 
 hands of the enemy is deprived, as by a.d. ion. 
 the stroke of death, of all the public and August. 
 private rights of a citizen. In the general consterna/- 
 tion, the Caesar John asserted the indefeasible right 
 of his three nephews : Constantinople listened to his 
 voice ; and the Turkish captive was proclaimed in the 
 capital, and received on the frontier, as an enemy of 
 the republic. Romanus was not more fortunate in 
 domestic than in foreign war : the loss of two battles 
 compelled him to yield, on the assurance of fair and 
 honourable treatment ; but his enemies were devoid 
 of faith or humanity; and, after the cruel extinction of 
 his sight, his wounds were left to bleed and corrupt, 
 till in a few days he was relieved from a state of 
 misery. Under the triple reign of the house of Ducas, 
 the two younger brothers were reduced to the vain 
 honors of the purple ; but the eldest, the pusillanimous 
 Michael, was incapable of sustaining the Roman scep- 
 tre ; and his suname of Parapinaces denotes the re- 
 proach which he shared with an avaricious favourite, 
 who enhanced the price, and diminished the measure, 
 of wheat. In the school of Psellus, and after the ex- 
 ample of his mother, the son of Eudocia made some 
 proficiency in philosophy and rhetoric ; but his charac- 
 ter was degraded rather than ennobled, by the virtues 
 of a monk and the learning of a sophist. Strong in 
 the contempt of their sovereign and their own esteena, 
 two generals, at the head of the European and Asiatic 
 legions, assumed the purple at Adrianople and Nice. 
 Their revolt was in the same month ; they bore the 
 same name of Nicephorus ; but the two candidates 
 were distinguished by the surnames of Bryennius and 
 Botaniates ; the former in the maturity of wisdom and 
 courage, the latter conspicuous only by the memory 
 of his past exploits. While Botaniates advanced with 
 cautious and dilatory steps, his active competitor stood 
 in arms before the gates of Constantinople. The name 
 of Bryennius was illustrious; his cause was popular; 
 but his licentious troops could not be restrained from 
 burning and pillaging a suburb ; and the people, who 
 would have hailed the rebel, rejected and repulsed the 
 incendiary of his country. This change of the public 
 opinion was favourable to Botaniates, w^ho at length, 
 with an army of Turks, approached the shores of Chal- 
 cedon. A formal invitation, in the name of the patri- 
 arch, the synod, and the senate, was circulated through 
 the streets of Constantinople ; and the general assem- 
 bly, in the dome of St. Sophia, debated, with order 
 and calmness, on the choice of their sovereign. The 
 guards of Michael would have dispersed this unarmed 
 multitude; but the feeble emperor, applauding his 
 own moderation and clemency, resigned the ensigns 
 of royalty, and was rewarded with the monastic habit, 
 and the title of archbishop of Ephesus. He left a son, 
 a Constantine, born and educated in the purple ; and a 
 daughter of the house of Ducas illustrated the blood, 
 and^confirmed the succession, of the Comnenian dy- 
 nasty. 
 
 John Comnenus, the brother of the j^Ticephoms IIL 
 emperor Isaac, survived in peace and Botaniates, 
 dignity his generous refusal of the seep- ^ifrci^S|; 
 tre. By his wife Anne, a woman of 
 masculine spirit and policy, he left eight children ; the 
 three daughters multiplied the Comnenian alliances 
 with the noblest of the Greeks : of the five sons, 
 Manuel was stopped by a premature death ; Isaac and 
 Alexius restored the imperial greatness of their house, 
 which was enjoyed without toil or danger by the two 
 younger brethren, Adrian and Nicephorus. Alexius, 
 the third and most illustrious of the brothers, was en- 
 dowed by nature with the choicest gifts both of mind 
 and body : they were cultivated by a liberal education, 
 
Il 
 
 166 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 "y 
 
 t' 
 
 I ]■ 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 f I 
 
 
 and exercised in the school of obedience and adversity. 
 The youth was dismissed from the perils of the Tur- 
 kish war, by the paternal care of the emperor Koma- 
 nus ; but the mother of the Comneni, with her aspi- 
 ring race, was accused of treason, and banished, by 
 the sons of Ducas, to an island in the Propontis. The 
 two brothers soon emerged into favour and action, 
 fought by each other's side against the rebels and bar- 
 barians, and adhered to the emperor Michael, till he 
 was deserted by the world and by himself. In his 
 first interview with Botaniates, '* Prince," said Alexi- 
 us, with a noble frankness, " my duty rendered me 
 your enemy ; the decrees of Ood and of the people 
 have made me your subject. Judge of my future loy- 
 alty by my past opposition." The successor of Mi- 
 chael entertained him with esteem and confidence : his 
 valour was employed against three rebels, who dis- 
 turbed the peace of the empire, or at least of the em- 
 perors. Ursel, Bryennius, and Basilacius, were for- 
 midable by their numerous forces and military fame : 
 they were successively vanquished in the field, and led 
 in chains to the foot of the throne; and whatever treat- 
 ment they might receive from a timid and cruel court, 
 they applauded the clemency, as well as the courajre, 
 of their conqueror. But the loyalty of the Comneni 
 was soon tairjted by fear and suspicion ; nor is it easy 
 to settle, between a subject and a despot, the debt of 
 gratitude, which the former is tempted to claim by a 
 revolt, and the latter to discharge by an executioner. 
 The refusal of Alexius to march against a fourth rebel, 
 the husband of his sister, destroyed the merit or me- 
 mory of his past services : the favourites of Botaniates 
 provoked the ambition which they apprehended and 
 accused ; and the retreat of the two brothers might be 
 justified by the defence of their life or liberty. The 
 women of the family were deposited in a sanctuary, 
 respected by tyrants : the men, mounted on horseback, 
 sallied from the city, and erected the standard of civil 
 war. The soldiers, who had been gradually assem- 
 bled in the capital and the neighbourhood, were de- 
 voted to the cause of a victorious and injured leader : 
 the tits of common interest and domestic alliance se- 
 cured the attachment of the house of Ducas ; and the 
 generous dispute of the Comneni was terminated by 
 the decisive resolution of Isaac, who was the first to 
 invest his younger brother with the name and ensigns 
 of royalty. They returned to Constantinople, to threa- 
 ten rather than besiege that impregnable fortress ; but 
 the fidelity of the guards was corrupted ; a gate was 
 surprised, and the fleet was occupied by the active 
 courage of George Pelaeologus, who fought against his 
 father, without foreseeing that he laboured for his pos- 
 terity. Alexius ascended the throne ; and his aged 
 competitor disaj)peared in a monastery. An army of 
 various nations was gratified with the pillajje of the 
 city; but the public disorders were expiated by the 
 tears and fasts of the Comneni, who submitted to 
 every penance compatible with the possession of the 
 empire. 
 
 The life of the emperor Alexius has 
 been delineated by a favourite daughter, 
 who was inspired by a tender regard for 
 his person and a laudable zeal to perpe- 
 tuate his virtues. Conscious of the just suspicion of 
 her readers, the princess Anna Comnena repeatedly 
 protests, that, besides her personal knowledge, she 
 had searched the discourse and writings of the most 
 respectable veterans ; that after an interval of thirty 
 years, forgotten by, and forgetful of, the world, her 
 mournful solitude was inaccessible to hope and ft ar; 
 and that truth, the naked perfect truth, was more dear 
 and sacred than the memory of her parent. Yet, in- 
 stead of the simplicity of style and narrative which 
 wins our belief, an elaborate aflfectation of rhetoric and 
 science betrays in every page the vanity of a female 
 author. The genuine character of Alexius is lost in a 
 vague constellation of virtues ; and the perpetual strain 
 
 Alexius I. 
 
 Comncnus, 
 
 A. D 1081. 
 
 April 1. 
 
 of panegyric and apology awakens our jealousy, to 
 question the veracity of the historian and the meiit of 
 the hero. We cannot, however, refuse her judicious 
 and important remark, that the disorders of the times 
 were the misfortune and the glory of Alexius; and that 
 every calamity which can afllict a declining empire 
 was accumulated on his reign by the justice of Heaven 
 and the vices of his predecessors. In the east, the 
 victorious Turks had spread, from Persia to the Hel- 
 lespont, the reijjn of the Koran and the Crescent : the 
 west was invaded by the adventurous valour of the 
 Normans ; and, in the moments of peace, the Danube 
 poured forth new swarms, who had gained, in the sci- 
 ence of war, what they had lost in the ferociousness 
 of manners. The sea was not less hostile than the 
 land ; and while the frontiers were assaulted by an 
 open enemy, the palace was distracted with secret 
 treason and conspiracy. On a sudden, the banner of 
 the cross was displayed by the Latins; Europe was 
 precipitated on Asia; and Constantinople had almost 
 been swept away by this impetuous deluge. In the 
 tempest Alexius steered the imperial vessel with dex- 
 terity and courage. At the head of his armies, he was 
 bold' in action, skilful in stratagem, patient of fatigue, 
 ready to improve his advantages, and rising from his 
 defeats with inexhaustible vigour. The discipline of 
 the camp was revived, and a new generation of men 
 and soldiers was created by the example and the pre- 
 cepts of their leader. In his intercourse with the 
 Latins, Alexius was patient and artful : his discerning 
 eye pervaded the new system of an unknown world ; 
 and I shall hereafter describe the superior policy with 
 which he balanced the interests and passions of the 
 champions of the first crusade. In a long reign of 
 thirty-seven years, he subdued and pardoned the envy 
 of his equals : the laws of public and private order 
 were restored : the arts of wealth and science were 
 cultivated : the limits of the empire were enlarged in 
 Europe and Asia; and the Comnenian sceptre was 
 transmitted to his children of the third and fourth ge- 
 neration. Yet the difficulties of the times betrayed 
 some defects in his character, and have exposed his 
 memory to some just or ungenerous reproach. The 
 reader may possibly smile at the lavish praise which 
 his daughter so often bestows on a flying hero: the 
 weakness or prudence of his situation might be mis- 
 taken for a want of personal courage ; and his politi- 
 cal arts are branded by the Latins with the names of 
 deceit and dissimulation. The increase of the male 
 and female branches of his family adorned the throne, 
 and secured the succession ; but their princely luxury 
 and pride oflfended the patricians, exhausted the reve- 
 nue, and insulted the misery of the people. Anna is 
 a faithful witness that his happiness was destroyed, 
 and his health was broken, by the cares of a public 
 life : the patience cf Constantinople was fatigued by 
 the length and severity of his reign ; and before Alexius 
 expired, he had lost the love and reverence of his sub- 
 jects. The clergy could not forgive his application 
 of the sacred riches to the defence of the state ; but 
 they applauded his theological learning and ardent 
 zeal for the orthodox faith, which he defended with his 
 tongue, his pen, and his sword. His character was 
 degraded by the superstition of the Greeks; and the 
 same inconsistent principle of human nature enjoined 
 the emperor to found an hospital for the poor and in- 
 firm, and to direct the execution of a heretic, who was 
 burnt alive in the square of St. Sophia. Even the 
 sincerity of his moral and religious virtues was sus- 
 pected by the persons who had passed their lives in 
 his familiar confidence. In his last hours, when he 
 was pressed by his wife Irene to alter the succes- 
 sion, he raised his head, and breathed a pious ejacu- 
 lation on the vanity of this world. The indignant 
 reply of the empress may be inscribed as an epitaph 
 on his tomb, *' You die, as you have lived, — an hypo- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 167 
 
 CRITK 
 
 1»» 
 
 It was the wish of Irene to supplant 
 ^<>^j;;,,°JnJ;f °* the eldest of her surviving sons, in favour 
 a' D. Ills'. of her daughter the princess Anna, whose 
 Aug. 15. philosophy would not have refused the 
 weight of a diadem. But the order of male succession 
 was'^asserted by the friends of their country ; the law- 
 ful heir drew the royal signet from the finger of his 
 insensible or conscious father, and the empire obeyed 
 the master of the palace. Anna Comnena was stimu- 
 lated by ambition and revenge to conspire against the 
 life of her brother, and when the design was preveiited 
 by the fears or scruples of her husband, she passion- 
 ately exclaimed, that nature had mistaken the two 
 sexes, and had endowed Bryennius with the soul of a 
 woman. The two sons of Alexius, John and Isaac, 
 maintained the fraternal concord, the hereditary virtue 
 of their race; and the younger brother was content 
 with the title of Sebastocrator, which approached the 
 dignity, without sharing the power, of the emperor. 
 In'^the same person, the claims of primogeniture and 
 merit were fortunately united ; his swarthy complexion, 
 harsh features, and diminutive stature, had suggested 
 the ironical surname of Calo-Johannes, or John the 
 Handsome, which his grateful subjects more seriously 
 applied to the beauties of his mind. After the disco- 
 very of her treason, the life and fortune of Anna were 
 justly forfeited to the laws. Her life was spared by 
 the clemency of the emperor, but he visited the pomp 
 and treasures of her palace, and bestowed the rich con- 
 fiscation on the most deserving of his friends. That 
 respectable friend, Axuch, a slave of Turkish extrac- 
 tion, presumed to decline the gift, and to intercede for 
 the criminal : his generous master applauded and imi- 
 tated the virtue of his favourite, and the reproach or 
 complaint of an injured brother was the only chastise- 
 ment of the guilty princess. After this example of 
 clemency, the remainder of his reign was never dis- 
 turbed by conspiracy or rebellion : feared by his no- 
 bles, beloved by his people, John was never reduced 
 to the painful necessity of punishing, or even of par- 
 doning, his personal enemies. During his government 
 of twenty-five years, the penalty of death was abolished 
 in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful 
 to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, m a 
 larcre and vicious community, is seldom consistent 
 with the public safety. Severe to himself, indulgent 
 to others, chaste, frugal, abstemious, the philosophic 
 Marcus would not have disdained the artless virtues 
 of his successor, derived from his heart, and not bor- 
 rowed from the schools. He despised and moderated 
 the stately magnificence of the Byzantine court, so 
 oppressive to the people, so contemptible to the eye of 
 reason. Under such a prince, innocence had nothing 
 to fear, and merit had every thing to hope ; and with- 
 out assuming the tyrannic office of a censor, he intro- 
 duced a grad'ual though visible reformation in the pub- 
 lic and private manners of Constantinople. The only 
 defect of this accomplished character, was the frailty 
 of noble minds, the love of arms and military glory. 
 Yet the frequent expeditions of John the Handsome 
 may be justified, at least in their principle, by the ne- 
 cessity of repelling the Turks from the Hellespont and 
 the Bosphorus. The sultan of Iconium was confined 
 to his capital, the barbarians were driven to the moun- 
 tains, and the maritime provinces of Asia enjoyed the 
 transient blessings of their deliverance. From Con- 
 stantinople to Antioch and Aleppo, he repeatedly 
 marched at the head of a victorious army, and in the 
 sieges and battles of this holy war, his Latin allies 
 were astonished by the superior spirit and prowess ot 
 a Greek. As he began to indulge the ambitious hope 
 of restoring the ancient limits of the empire, as he re- 
 volved in his mind the Euphrates and Tigris, the do- 
 minion of Syria, and the conquest of Jerusalem, the 
 thread of his life and of the public felicity was broken 
 by a singular accident. He hunted the wild boar in 
 the vallej of Anazarbus, and had fixed his javelin in 
 
 the body of the furious animal : but, in the struggle/ 
 a poisoned arrow dropped from his quiver, and a slight 
 wound in his hand, which produced a mortification, 
 was fatal to the best and greatest of the Comnenian 
 princes. 
 
 A premature death had swept away Manuel, 
 the two eldest sons of John the Hand- A.D.ius. 
 some ; of the two survivors, Isaac and "^P"^ ^• 
 Manuel, his judgment or aflfeclion preferred the young- 
 er; and the choice of their dying prince was ratified 
 by the soldiers, who had applauded the valour of his 
 favourite in the Turkish war. The faithful Axuch 
 hastened to the capital, secured the person of Isaac in 
 honourable confinement, and purchased, with a gift of 
 two hundred pounds of silver, the leading ecclesiastics 
 of St. Sophia, who possessed a decisive voice in the 
 consecration of an emperor. With his veteran and 
 aflfectionate troops, Manuel soon visited Constantino- 
 ple; his brother acquiesced in the title of Sebastocra- 
 tor; his subjects admired the lofty stature and martial 
 graces of their new sovereign, and listened with credu- 
 lity to the flattering promise, that he blended the wis- 
 dom of age with the activity and vigour of youth. By 
 the experience of his government, they were taught, that 
 he emulated the spirit, and shared the talents, of his 
 father, whose social virtues were buried in the grave. 
 A reign of thirty-seven years is filled by a perpetual 
 though various warfare against the Turks, the chris- 
 tians, and the hordes of the wilderness beyond the 
 Danube. The arms of Manuel were exercised on 
 mount Taurus, in the plains of Hungary, on the coast 
 of Italy and Egypt, and on the seas of Sicily and 
 Greece: the influence of his ne^ociations extended 
 from Jerusalem to Rome and Russia ; and the Byzan- 
 tine monarchy, for a while, became an object of respect 
 or terror, to the powers of Asia and Europe. Educa- 
 ted in the silk and purple of the east, Manuel possessed 
 the iron temper of a soldier, which cannot easily be 
 paralleled, except in the lives of Richard the first of 
 England, and of Charles the twelfth of Sweden. Such 
 was his strength and exercise in arms, that Raymond, 
 surnamcd the Hercules of Antioch, was incapable of 
 wielding the lance and buckler of the Greek emperor. 
 I In a fariTous tournament, he entered the lists on a fiery 
 1 courser, and overturned in his first career two of the 
 ! stoutest of the Italian knights. The first in the charge, 
 ! the last in the retreat, his friends and his enemies alike 
 trembled, the former for his safety, and the latter for 
 their own. After posting an ambuscade in the wood, 
 he rode forwards in search of some perilous adventure, 
 accompanied only by his brother and the faithful Ax- 
 uch, who refused to desert their sovereign. Eighteen 
 horsemen, after a short combat, fled before them : but 
 the numbers of the enemy increased ; the march of 
 the reinforcement was tardy and fearful, and Manuel, 
 without receiving a wound, cut his way through a 
 squadron of five hundred Turks. In a battle against 
 the Hungarians, impatient of the slowness of his 
 troops, he snatched a standard from the head of the 
 column, and was the first, almost alone, who passed 
 a brido-e that separated him from the enemy. In the 
 same country, after transporting his army beyond the 
 Save, he sent back the boats, with an order, under pain 
 of death, to their commander, that he should leave him 
 to conquer or die on that hostile land. In the siege 
 of Corfu, towing after him a captive galley, the empe- 
 ror stood aloft on the poop, opposing against the vol- 
 leys of darts and stones, a large buckler and a "owinff 
 sail ; nor could he have escaped inevitable death, had 
 j not the Sicilian admiral enjoined his archers to respect 
 ! the person of a hero. In one day, he is said to have 
 ' slain above forty of the barbarians with his own hand ; 
 he returned to the camp, dragging along four lurkisH 
 ' prisoners, whom he had tied to the rings of his saddle: 
 he was ever the foremost to provoke or to accept a 
 single combat ; and the gigantic champions, who en- 
 countered his arm, were transpierced by the lance, or 
 
K 
 
 . (' ■ 
 
 f I*: 
 
 168 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 169 
 
 
 cut asunder by the sword, of the invincible Manuel. 
 The story of his exploits, which appear as a model or 
 a copy of the romances of chivalry, may induce a rea- 
 sonable suspicion of the veracity of the Greeks : I 
 will not, to vindicate their credit, endanger my own; 
 yet I may observe, that in the long scries of their an- 
 nals, Manuel is the only prince who has been the sub- 
 ject of similar exaggeration. With the valour of a 
 soldier, he did not unite the skill or prudence of a ge- 
 neral : his victories were not productive of any perma- 
 nent or useful conquest; and his Turkish laurels were 
 blasted in his last unfortunate campaign, in which he 
 lost his army in the mountains of Pisidia, and owed 
 his deliverance to the generosity of the sultan. But 
 the most singular feature in the character of Manuel, 
 is the contrast and vicissitude of labour and sloth, of 
 hardiness and effeminacy. In war he seemed ignorant 
 of peace, in peace he appeared incapable of war. In 
 the field he slept in the sun or in the snow, tired in the 
 longest marches the strength of his men and horses, 
 and shared with a smile the abstinence or diet of the 
 camp. No sooner did he return to Constantinople, 
 than he resigned himself to the arts and pleasures of 
 a life of luxury: the expense of his dress, his table, 
 and his palace, surpassed the measure of his predeces- 
 sors, and whole summer days were idly wasted in the 
 delicious isles of the Propontis, in the incestuous love 
 of his niece Theodora. The double cost of a warlike 
 and dissolute prince exhausted the revenue, and mul- 
 tiplied the taxes; and Manuel, in the distress of his 
 last Turkish camp, endured a bitter reproach from tiie 
 mouth of a desperate soldier. As he quenched his 
 thirst, he complained that the water of a fountain was 
 mingled with christian blood. *' It is not the first 
 time," exclaimed a voice from the crowd, " that you 
 have drunk, O emperor, the blood of your christian 
 subjects." Manuel Comnenus was twice married, to 
 the virtuous Bertha or Irene of Germany, and to the 
 beauteous Maria, a French or Latin princess of Anti- 
 och. The only daughter of his first wife was destined 
 for Bala an Hungarian prince, who was educated at 
 Constantinople under the name of Alexius ; and the 
 consummation of their nuptials might have transferred 
 the Roman sceptre to a race of free and warlike bar- 
 barians. But as soon as Maria of Antioch had given 
 a son and heir to the empire, the presumptive rights 
 of Bela were abolished, and he was deprived of his 
 promised bride; hut the Hungarian prince resumed his 
 name and the kingdom of his fathers, and displayed 
 such virtues as might excite the regret and envy of the 
 Greeks. The son of Maria was named Alexius; and 
 at the age of ten years, he ascended the Byzantine 
 throne, after his father's decease had closed the glories 
 of the Comnenian line. 
 
 Alexius II. The fraternal concord of the two sons 
 
 .fA- ^' J^^j of the great Alexius, had been sometimes 
 Characie/'^and clouded by an opposition of interest and 
 first adventures passion. By ambition, Isaac the Sebas- 
 of Andronicus. tocrator was excited to flight and rebel- 
 lion, from whence he was reclaimed by the firmness 
 and clemency of John the Handsome. The errors of 
 Isaac, the father of the emperors of Trebizond, were 
 short and venial ; but John, the elder of his sons, re- 
 nounced for ever his religion. Provoked by a real or 
 imaginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from the 
 Roman to the Turkish camp : his apostacy was re- 
 warded with the sultan's daughter, the title of Chele- 
 bi, or noble, and the inheritance of a princely estate ; 
 and in the fifteenth century, Mahomet the second 
 boasted of his imperial descent from the Comnenian 
 family. Andronicus, the younger brother of John, son 
 of Isaac, and grandson of Alexius Comnenus, is one 
 of the most conspicuous characters of the age : and 
 his genuine adventures might form the subject of a 
 very singular romance. To justify the choice of three 
 ladies of royal birth, it is incumbent on me to observe, 
 that their fortunate lover was cast in the best propor- 
 
 tions of strength and beautv; and that the want of the 
 softer graces was supplied by a manly countenance, a 
 lofty stature, athletic muscles, and the air and deport- 
 ment of a soldier. The preservation, in his old age, 
 of health and vigour, was the reward of temperance 
 and exercise. A piece of bread and a draught of wa- 
 ter were often his sole and evening repast; and if he 
 tasted of a wild boar, or a stag, which he had roasted 
 with his own hands, it was the well-earned fruit of a 
 laborious chase. Dexterous in arms, he was ignorant. 
 of fear: his persuasive eloquence could bend to every 
 situation and character of life : his style, though not 
 his practice, was fashioned by the example of St. 
 Paul ; and, in every deed of mischief, he had a heart 
 to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute. 
 In his youth, after the death of the emperor John, he 
 followed the retreat of the Roman army ; but, in the 
 march through Asia Minor, design or accident tempted 
 him to wander in the mountains; the hunter was en- 
 compassed by the Turkish huntsmen, and he remain- 
 ed some time a reluctant or willing captive in the 
 power of the sultan. His virtues and vices recom- 
 mended him to the favour of his cousin : he shared the 
 perils and the pleasures of Manuel; and while tlie em- 
 peror lived in public incest with his niece Theodora, 
 the affections of her sister Eudocia were seduced and 
 enjoyed by Andronicus. Above the decencies of her 
 sex and rank, she gloried in the name of his concu- 
 bine ; and both the palace and the camp could witness 
 that she slept, or watched, in the arms of her lover. 
 She accompanied him to his military command of 
 Cilicia, the first scene of his valour and imprudence,. 
 He pressed, with active ardour, the siege of Mopsues- 
 tia : the day was employed in the boldest attacks ; but 
 the night was wasted in song and dance; and a band 
 of Greek commedians formed the choicest part of his 
 retinue. Andronicus was surprised by the sally of a 
 vigilant foe : but, while his troops fled in disorder, big 
 invincible lance transpierced the thickest ranks of the 
 Armenians. On his return to the imperial camp of 
 Macedonia, he was received by Manuel with public 
 smiles and a private reproof; but the duchies of Nais- 
 sus, Braniseba, and Castoria, were the reward or con- 
 solation of the unsuccessful general. Eudocia still 
 attended his motions : at midnight, their tent was sud- 
 denly attacked by her angry brothers, impatient to ex- 
 piate her infamy in his blood : his daring spirit refused 
 her advice, and the disguise of a female habit; and 
 boldly starting from his couch, he drew his sword, and 
 cut his way through the numerous assassins. It was 
 here that he first betrayed his ingratitude and treache- 
 ry : he engaged in a treasonable correspondence with 
 the king of Hungary and the German emperor : ap- 
 proached the royal tent at a suspicious hour, with a 
 drawn sword, and, under the mask of a Latin soldier, 
 avowed an intention of revenge against a mortal foe ; 
 and imprudently praised the fleetness of his horse as 
 an instrument of flight and safety. The monarch dis- 
 sembled his suspicions ; but, after the close of the 
 campaign, Andronicus was arrested and strictly con- 
 fined in a tower of the palace of Constantinople. 
 
 In this prison he was left above twelve years ; a 
 most painful restraint, from which the thirst of action 
 and pleasure perpetually urged him to escape. Alone 
 and pensive, he perceived some broken bricks in a 
 corner of the chamber, and gradually widened the pas- 
 sage, till he had explored a dark and forgotten recess. 
 Into this hole he conveyed himself, and the remains 
 of his provisions, replacing the bricks in their former 
 position, and erasing with care the footsteps of his re- 
 treat. At the hour of the customary visit, his guards 
 were amazed by the silence and solitude of the prison, 
 and reported with shame and fear his incomprehensi- 
 ble flight. The gates of the palace and city were in- 
 stantly shut : the strictest orders were despatched into 
 the provinces, for the recovery of the fugitive ; and his 
 wife, on the suspicion of a pious act, was basely im— 
 
 f 
 
 prisoned in the same tower. At the dead of night she 
 beheld a spectre : she recognized her husband : they 
 shared their provisions ; and a son was the fruit of 
 these stolen interviews, which alleviated the tcdious- 
 iiess of their confinement. In the custody of a woman, 
 the vigilance of the keepers was insensibly relaxed ; 
 and the captive had accomplished his real escape, 
 when he was discovered, brought back to Constanti- 
 nople, and loaded with a double chain. At length he 
 found the moment, and the means, of his deliverance. 
 A boy, his domestic servant, intoxicated the guards, 
 and obtained in wax the impression of the keys. By 
 the diligence of his friends, a similar key, with a bun- 
 dle of ropes, was introduced into the prison, in the 
 bottom of a hogshead. Andronicus employed, with 
 industry and courage, the instruments of his safety, 
 unlocked the doors, descended from the tower, con- 
 cealed himself all day among the bushes, and scaled 
 in the night the garden-wall of the palace. A boat 
 was stationed for his reception ; he visited his own 
 house, embraced his children, cast away his chain, 
 mounted a fleet horse, and directed his rapid course 
 towards the banks of the Danube. At Anchialus in 
 Thrace, an intrepid friend supplied him with horses 
 and money : he passed the river, traversed with speed 
 the desert of Moldavia and the Carpathian hills, and 
 had almost reached the town of Halicz,in Polish Rus- 
 sia, when he was intercepted by a party of Walachians, 
 who resolved to convey their important captive to Con- 
 stantinople. His presence of mind again extricated 
 him from this danger. Under the pretence of sick- 
 ness, he dismounted in the night, and was allowed to 
 step aside from the troop : he planted in the ground 
 his long staff; clothed it with his cap and upper gar- 
 ment; and, stealing into the wood, left a phantom to 
 amuse, for some time, the eyes of the Walachians. 
 From Halicz he was honourably conducted to Kiow, 
 the residence of the great duke : the subtle Greek soon 
 obtained the esteem and confidence of leroslaus : his 
 character could assume the manners of every climate ; 
 and the barbarians applauded bis strength and courage 
 in the chase of the elks and bears of the forest. In 
 this northern region he deserved the forgiveness of 
 Manuel, who solicited the Russian prince to join his 
 arms in the invasion of Hungary. The influence of 
 Andronicus achieved this important service: his pri- 
 vate treaty was signed with a promise of fidelity on 
 one side, and of oblivion on the other; and he marched, 
 at the head of the Russian cavalry, from the Borys- 
 thenes to the Danube. In his resentment Manuel had 
 ever sympathized with the martial and dissolute cha- 
 racter of his cousin ; and his free pardon was sealed 
 in the assault of Zemlin, in which he was second, and 
 second only, to the valour of the emperor. 
 
 No sooner was the exile restored to freedom and his 
 country, than his ambition revived, at first to his own, 
 and at length to the public misfortune. A daughter of 
 Manuel was a feeble bar to the succession of the more 
 deserving males of the Comnenian blood : her future 
 marriage'^with the prince of Hungary was repugnant 
 to the hopes or prejudices of the princes and nobles. 
 But when an oath of allegiance was required to the pre- 
 sumptive heir, Andronicus alone asserted the honour of 
 the Roman name, declined the unlawful engagement, 
 and boldly protested against the adoption of a stranger. 
 His patriotism was offensive to the emperor, but he 
 spoke the sentiments of the people, and was removed 
 from the royal presence by an honourable banishment, 
 a second command of the Cilician frontier, with the 
 absolute disposal of the revenues of Cyprus. In this 
 station the Armenians again exercised his courage and 
 exposed his negligence ; and the same rebel, who baf- 
 fled all his operations, was unhorsed and almost slain 
 by the vigour of his lance. But Andronicus soon dis- 
 covered a more easy and pleasing conquest, the beau- 
 tiful Philippa, sister of the empress Maria, and daugh- 
 ter of Raymond of Poitou, the Latin prince of Antioch. 
 Vol. II.— W 
 
 For her sake, he deserted his station, and wasted the 
 summer in balls and tournaments : to his love she 
 sacrificed her innocence, her reputation, and the offer 
 of an advantageous marriage. But the resentment of 
 Manuel for this domestic affront, interrupted his plea- 
 sures: Andronicus left the indiscreet princess to weep 
 and to repent; and, with a band of desperate adven- 
 turers, undertook the pilgrimage of Jerusalem. His 
 birth, his martial renown, and professions of zeal, an- 
 nounced him as the champion of the cross ; he soon 
 captivated both the clergy and the king; and the Greek 
 prince was invested with the lordship of Berytus, on 
 the coast of Phoenicia. In his neighbourhood resided 
 a young and handsome queen, of his own nation and 
 family, great-grand-daughter of the emperor Alexis, 
 and widow^ of Baldwin the third, king of Jerusalem. 
 She visited and loved her kinsman. Theodora was 
 the third victim of his amorous seduction; and her 
 shame was more public and scandalous than that of 
 her predecessors. The emperor still thirsted for re- 
 venge; and his subjects and allies of the Syrian fron- 
 tier were repeatedly pressed to seize the person, and 
 put out the eyes, of the fugitive. In Palestine he was 
 no longer safe ; but the tender Theodora revealed his 
 danger, and accompanied his flight. The queen of .Te- 
 rusalem was exposed to the east, his obsequious con- 
 cubine; and two illegitimate children were the living 
 monuments of her weakness. Damascus was his first 
 refuge ; and, in the characters of the great Noureddin 
 and his servant Saladin, the superstitious Greek might 
 learn to revere the virtues of the mussulmans. As the- 
 friend of Noureddin he visited, most probably, Bag- 
 dad, and the courts of Persia ; and, after a long circuit 
 round the Caspian sea and the mountains of Georgia, 
 he finally settled among the Turks of Asia Minor, the 
 hereditary enemies of his country. The sultan of 
 Colonia afforded an hospitable retreat to Andronicus, 
 his mistress, and his band of outlaws : the debt of 
 gratitude was paid by frequent inroads in the Roman- 
 province of Trebizond; and he seldom returned with- 
 out an ample harvest of spoil and of christian captives. 
 In the story of his adventures, he was fond of com- 
 paring himself to David, who escaped, by a long exile, 
 the snares of the wicked. But the royal prophet (h© 
 presumed to add) was content to lurk on the borders 
 of Judea, to slay an Amalekite, and to threaten, in his 
 miserable state, the life of the avaricious Nabal. The- 
 excursions of the Comnenian prince had a w ider range ; 
 and he had spread over the eastern w^orld the glory of 
 his name and religion. By a sentence of the Greek 
 church, the licentious rover had been separated from 
 the faithful ; but even this excommunication may 
 prove, that he never abjured the profession of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 His vigilance had eluded or repelled the open and 
 secret persecution of the emperor ; but he was at length 
 insnared by the captivity of his female companion. 
 The governor of Trebizond succeeded in his attempt 
 to surprise the person of Theodora : the queen of Jeru- 
 salem and her two children were sent to Constantino- 
 ple, and their loss imbittered the tedious solitiide of 
 banishment. The fugitive implored and obtained a 
 final pardon, with leave to throw himself at the feet 
 of his sovereign, who w^as satisfied with the submis- 
 sion of this haughty spirit. Prostrate on the ground, 
 he deplored with tears and groans the guilt of liis past 
 rebellion ; nor would he presume to arise, unless some- 
 faithful subject would drag him to the foot of the 
 throne, by an iron chain with which he had secretly- 
 encircled his neck. This extraordinary penance exci- 
 ted the wonder and pity of the assembly ; his sins were 
 forgiven by the church and state; but the just suspi- 
 cion of Manuel fixed his residence at a distance from 
 the court, at Oenoe, a town of Pontus, surrounded with 
 rich vineyards, and situate on the coast of the Euxme.- 
 The death of Manuel, and the disorders of the minor- 
 ity soon opened the fairest field to his ambition. The- 
 
ll 
 
 170 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 171 
 
 •i 
 
 to 
 
 I t 
 
 r 
 
 11 m i 
 
 
 
 emperor was a boy of twelve or fourteen years of age, 
 without vigour, or wisdom, or experience ; his mother, 
 the empress Mary, abandoned her person and govern- 
 ment to a favourite of the Comnenian name ; and his 
 sister, another Mary, whose husband, an Italian, was 
 decorated with the title of Csesar, excited a conspira- 
 cy, and at length an insurrection, against her odious 
 stepmother. The provinces were forgotten, the capital 
 was in flames, and a century of peace and order was 
 overthrown in the vice and weakness of a few months. 
 A civil war was kindled in Constantinople; the two 
 factions fought a bloody battle in the square of the pal- 
 ace, and the rebels sustained a regular siege in the cathe- 
 dral of St. Sophia. The patriarch laboured with honest 
 zeal to heal the wounds of the republic, the most re- 
 spectable patriots called aloud for a guardian and aven- 
 ger, and every tongue repeated the praise of the talents 
 and even the virtues of Andronicus. In his retirement, 
 he affected to revolve the solemn duties of his oath : 
 ♦* If the safety or honour of the imperial family be 
 threatened, I will reveal and oppose the mischief to 
 the utmost of my power." His correspondence with 
 the patriarch and patricians was seasoned with apt 
 quotations from the psalms of David and the epistles 
 of St. Paul ; and he patiently waited till he was called 
 to her deliverance by the voice of his country. In his 
 inarch from Oenoe to Constantinople, his slender train 
 insensibly swelled to a crowd and an army ; his pro- 
 fessions of religion and loyalty were mistaken for the 
 language of his heart ; and the simplicity of a foreign 
 dress, which showed to advantage his majestic stature, 
 displayed a lively image of his poverty and exile. All 
 opposition sunk before him ; he reached the straits of 
 the Thracian Uosphorus; the Byzantine navy sailed 
 from the harbour to receive and transport the saviour 
 of the empire : the torrent was loud and irresistible, 
 and the insects who had basked in the sunshine of 
 royal favour disappeared at the blast of the storm. 
 It was the first care of Andronicus to occupy the pal- 
 ace, to salute the emperor, to confine his mother, to 
 punish her minister, and to restore the public order and 
 tranquillity. He then visited the sepulchre of Man- 
 uel : the spectators were ordered to stand aloof, but as 
 he bowed in the attitude of prayer, they heard, or 
 thought they heard, a murmur of triumph and revenge : 
 ** I no longer fear thee, my old enemy, who hast dri- 
 ven me a vaoabond to every climate of the earth. 
 Thou art safely deposited under a seven-fold dome, 
 from whence thou canst never arise till the signal of 
 the last trumpet. It is now my turn, and speedily 
 will I trample on thy ashes and thy posterity." From 
 his subsequent tyranny we may impute such feelings 
 to the man and the moment : but it is not extremely 
 probable that he gave an articulate sound to his secret 
 thoughts. In the first months of his administration, 
 his designs were veiled by a fair semblance of hypo- 
 crisy, which could delude only the eyes of the mulli- 
 tttde : the coronation of Alexius was performed with 
 due solemnity, and his perfidious guardian, holding in 
 his hands the body and blood of Christ, most fervent- 
 ly declared, that he lived, and was ready to die, for 
 the service of his beloved pupil. But his numerous 
 adherents were instructed to maintain, that the sinking 
 empire must perish in the hands of a child, that the 
 Romans could only be saved by a veteran prince, bold 
 in arms, skilful in policy, and taught to reign by the 
 long experience of fortune and mankind ; and that it 
 was the duty of every citizen to force the reluctant 
 modesty of Andronicus to undertake the burthen of the 
 public care. The young emperor was himself con- 
 strained to join his voice to the general acclamation, 
 and to solicit the association of a colleague, who in- 
 stantly degraded him from the supreme rank, secluded 
 his person, and verified the rash declaration of the pa- 
 triarch, that Alexius might be considered as dead, so 
 soon as he was committed to the custody of his guar- 
 dian But his death was preceded by the imprison- 
 
 ment and execution of his mother. After blackening 
 her reputation, and inflaming against her the passions 
 of the multitude, the tyrant accused and tried the em- 
 press for a treasonable correspondence with the king 
 of Hungary. His own son, a youth of honour and 
 humanity, avowed his abhorrence of this flagitious act, 
 and three of the judges had the merit of preferring 
 their conscirnce to their safety : but the obsequious 
 tribunal, without requiring any proof, or hearing any 
 defence, condemned the widow of Manuel ; and her 
 unfortunate son subscribed the sentence of her death. 
 Maria was strangled, her corpse was buried in the sea, 
 and her memory was wounded by the insult most of- 
 fensive to female vanity, a false and ugly representa- 
 tion of her beauteous form. Tiie fate of her son was 
 not long deferred : he was strangled with a bowstring, 
 and the tyrant, insensible to pity or remorse, after 
 surveying the body of the innocent youth, struck it 
 rudely with his foot: *'Thy father," he cried, *' was 
 a knave, thy mother a whore, and thyself a foul!''^ 
 
 The Roman sceptre, the reward of his Andronicus I. 
 crimes, was held by Andronicus about Comnenus, 
 three years and a half as the guardian or ^'^- ^^• 
 sovereijjn of the empire. His govern- 
 ment exhibited a singular contrast of vice and virtue. 
 When he listened to his passions he was the scourge, 
 when he consulted his reason the father, of his people. 
 In the exercise of private justice, he was equitable a*id 
 rigorous : a shameful and pernicious venality was 
 abolished, and the offices were filled with the most 
 deserving candidates by a prince who had sense to 
 choose, and severity to punish. He prohibited the 
 inhuman practice of pillaging the goods and persons 
 of shipwrecked mariners; the provinces, so long the 
 objects of oppression or neglect, revived in prosperity 
 and plenty ; and millions applauded the distant bles- 
 sings of his reign, while he was cursed by the wit- 
 nesses of his daily cruelties. The ancient proverb, 
 That blood-thirsty is the man who returns from ban- 
 ishment to power, had been applied with too much 
 truth to Marius and Tiberius ; and was now verified 
 for the third time in the life of Androiiicus. His me- 
 mory was stored with a black list of the enemies and 
 rivals, who had traduced his merit, opposed his great- 
 ness, or insulted his misfortunes: and the only comfort 
 of his exile was the sacred hope and promise of re- 
 venge. The necessary extinction of the young empe- 
 ror and his mother, imposed the fatal obligation of 
 extirpating the friends, who hated, and might punish, 
 the assassin ; and the repetition of murder rendered 
 him less willing, and less able to forgive. A horrid 
 narrative of the victims whom he sacrificed by poison 
 or the sword, by the sea or the flames, would be less 
 expressive of his cruelty than the appellation of the 
 halcyon days, which was applied to a rare and blood- 
 less week of repose : the tyrant strove to transfer, on 
 the laws and the judges, some portion of his guilt ; but 
 the mask was fallen, and his subjects could no longer 
 mistake the true author of their calamities. The no- 
 blest of the Greeks, more especially those who, by 
 descent or alliance, might dispute the Comnenian in- 
 heritance, escaped from the monster's den : Nice or 
 Prusa, Sicily or Cyprus, were their places of refuge ; 
 and as their flight was already criminal, they aggrava- 
 ted their offence by an open revolt, and the imperial 
 title. Yet Andronicus resisted the daggers and swords 
 of his most formidable enemies : Nice and Prusa were 
 reduced and chastised : the Sicilians were content with 
 the sack of Thessalonica; and the distance of Cyprus 
 was not more propitious to the rebel than to the tyrant. 
 His throne was subverted by a rival without merit, 
 and a people without arms. Isaac Angelus, a de- 
 scendant in the female line from the great Alexius, 
 was marked as a victim, by the prudence or supersti- 
 tion of the emperor. In a moment of despair, Angelus 
 defended his life and liberty, slew the executioner, and 
 fled to the church of St. Sophia. The sanctuary was 
 
 insensibly filled with a curious and mournful crowd, 
 who, in his fate, prognosticated their own. But their 
 lamentations were soon turned to curses, and their 
 curses to threats : they dared to ask, " Why do we 
 fear T why do we obey 1 We are many, and he is 
 one; our patience is the only bond of our slavery." 
 VVith the dawn of day the city burst into a general se- 
 dition, the prisons were thrown open, the coldest and 
 most servile were roused to the defence of their coun- 
 try, and Isaac, the second of the name, was raised from 
 the sanctuary to the throne. Unconscious of his dan- 
 ger, the tyrant was absent : withdrawn from the toils of 
 stale, in the delicious islands of the Propontis. He had 
 contracted an indecent marriage with Alice, or A^nes, 
 daughter of Lewis the seventh, of France, and relict of 
 the unfortunate Alexius ; and his society, more suitable 
 to his temper than to his age, was composed of a young 
 wife and a favourite concubine. On the first alarm he 
 rushed to Constantinople, impatient for the blood of 
 the guilty ; but he was astonished by the silence of the 
 palace, the tumult of the city, and the general deser- 
 tion of mankind. Andronicus proclaimed a free par- 
 don to his subjects ; they neither desired, nor would 
 grant, forgiveness : he offered to resign the crown to 
 his son Manuel ; but the virtues of the son could not 
 expiate his father's crimes. The sea was still open 
 for his retreat; but the news of the revolution had 
 flown along the coast: when fear had ceased, obedi- 
 ence was no more: the imperial galley was pursued 
 and taken by an armed brigantine ; and the tyrant was 
 dragaed to the presence of Isaac Angelus, loaded with 
 fetters, and a long chain round his neck. His elo- 
 quence, and the tears of his female companions, plead- 
 ed in vain for his life ; but, instead of the decencies of 
 a legal execution, the new monarch abandoned the 
 criminal to the numerous sufferers, whom he had de- 
 prived of a father, a husband, or a friend. His teeth 
 and hair, an eye and a hand, were torn from him, as a 
 poor compensation for their loss; and a short respite 
 was allowed, that he might feel the bitterness of death. 
 Astride on a camel, without any danger of a rescue, he 
 was carried through the city, and the basest of the 
 populace rejoiced to trample on the fallen majesty of 
 their prince. After a thousand blows and outrages, 
 Andronicus was hung by the feet, between two pillars 
 that supported the statues of a wolf and a sow ; and 
 every hand that could reach the public enemy, inflicted 
 on his body some mark of ingenius or brutal cruelty, 
 till two friendly or furious Italians, plunging their 
 swords into his body, released him from all human 
 punishment. In this long and painful agony, " Lord, 
 have mercy upon me ! and why will you bruise a bro- 
 ken reed ?" were the only words that escaped his 
 mouth. Our hatred for the tyrant is lost in pity for 
 the man ; nor can we blame his pusillanimous resig- 
 nation, since a Greek christian was no longer master 
 
 of his life. 
 
 I have been tempted to expatiate on 
 Isaac n.Ange- ^^^ extraordinary character and adven- 
 
 A. D. il83. lures of Andronicus ; bwt I shall here ter- 
 Sepi !'-• minate the series of the Greek emperors 
 since the time of Heraclius. The branches that sprang 
 from the Comnenian trunk had insen^bly withered ; 
 and the male line was continued only in the posterity 
 of Andronicus himself, who, in the public confusion, 
 usurped the sovereignty of Trebizond, so obscure in 
 history, and so famous in romance. A private citizen 
 of Philadelphia, Constantino Angelus, had emerged to 
 wealth and honours, by his marriage with a daughter 
 of the emperor Alexius. His son Andronicus is con- 
 spicuous only by his cowardice. His grandson Isaac 
 
 A. D. 1201. punished and succeeded the tyrant : but 
 April 12. he was dethroned by his own vices, 
 and the ambition of his brother; and their discord 
 introduced the Latins to the conquest of Constanti- 
 nople, the first great period in the fall of the eastern 
 empire. 
 
 If we compute the number and duration of the 
 reio^ns, it will he found, that a period of six hundred 
 years is filled by sixty emperors, including in the 
 Augustan list some female sovereigns ; and deducting 
 some usurpers who were never acknowledged in the 
 capital, and some princes who did not live to possess 
 their inheritance. The average proportion will allow 
 ten years for each emperor, far below the chronolo- 
 gical rule of Sir Isaac Newton, who, from the ex- 
 perience of more recent and regular monarchies, has 
 defined about eighteen or twenty years as the term of 
 an ordinary reign. The Byzantine empire was most 
 tranquil and prosperous when it could acquierce in 
 hereditary succession; five dynasties, the Heraclian, 
 Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and Comnenian families, 
 enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony during 
 their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four 
 generations ; several princes number their reign with 
 Those of their infancy: and Constantine the seventh 
 and his two grandsons occupy the space of an entire 
 century. But in the intervals of the Byzantine dy- 
 nasties, the succession is rapid and broken, and the 
 name of a successful candidate is speedily erased by 
 a more fortunate competitor. Many were the paths 
 that led to the summit of royalty : the fabric of rebel- 
 lion was overthrown by the stroke of conspiracy, or 
 undermined by the silent arts of intrigue : the favour- 
 ites of the soldiers or people, of the senate or clergy, 
 of the women and eunuchs, were alternately clothed 
 with the purple ; the means of their elevation were 
 base, and their end was often contemptible or tragic. 
 A being of the nature of man, endowed with the 
 same f\iculties, but with a longer measure of exis- 
 tence, would cast down a smile of pity and contempt 
 on the crimes and follies of human ambition, so eager, 
 in a narrow span, to grasp at a precarious and short- 
 lived enjoyment. It is thus that the experience of 
 history exalts and enlarges the horizon of our intellec- 
 tual view. In a composition of some days, in a pe- 
 rusal of some hours, six hundred years have rolled 
 away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted 
 to a fleeting moment : the grave is ever beside the 
 throne; the success of a criminal is almost instantly 
 followed by the loss of his prize ; and our immortal rea- 
 son survives and disdains the sixty phantoms of kings 
 who have passed before our eyes, and faintly dwell 
 on our remembrance. The observation, that, in every 
 age and climate, ambition has prevailed with the 
 same commanding energy, may abate the surprise of 
 a philosopher; but while he condemns the vanity, he 
 may search the motive, of this universal desire to 
 obtain and hold the sceptre of dominion. To the 
 greater part of the Byzantine series, we cannot rea- 
 sonably ascribe the love of fame and of mankind. The 
 virtue alone of John Comnenus was beneficent and 
 pure : the most illustrious of the princes, who precede 
 or follow that respectable name, have trod with some 
 dexterity and vigour the crooked and bloody paths 
 of a selfish policy : in scrutinizing the imperfect 
 characters of Leo the Isaurian, Basil the first, and 
 Alexius Comnenus, of Theophilus, the second Basil, 
 and Manuel Comnenus, our esteem and censure are 
 almost equally balanced ; and the remainder of the 
 imperial crowd could only desire and expect to be 
 foraotten by posterity. Was personal happiness the 
 aim and object of their ambition ? I shall not descant 
 on the vulgar topics of the misery of kings; but I 
 may surely observe, that their condition, of all others, 
 is the most pregnant with fear, and the least suscep- 
 tible of hope. For these opposite passions, a larger 
 scope was allowed in the revolutions of antiquity, 
 than in the smooth and solid temper of the modern 
 world, which cannot easily repeat eilher the triumph 
 of Alexander or the fall of Darius. But the peculiar 
 infelicity of the Byzantine princes exposed them to 
 domestic perils, without affording any lively promise 
 of foreign conquest. From the pinnacle of greatness. 
 
 'I 
 
 It 
 

 f* 
 
 172 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 173 
 
 if 
 
 'J--' 
 > 
 
 • i 
 
 Andronicus was precipitated by a death more cruel 
 and shameful than that of the vilest malefactor; but 
 the most glorious of his predecessors had much more 
 to dread from their subjects than to hope from their 
 enemies. The army was licentious without spirit, 
 the nation turbulent without freedom : the barbarians 
 of the east and west pressed on the monarchy, and 
 the loss of the provinces was terminated by the final 
 servitude of the capital. 
 
 The entire series of Roman emperors, from the first 
 of the Caesars to the last of the Constantines, extends 
 above fifteen hundred years : and the term of dominion, 
 unbroken by foreign conquest, surpasses the measure 
 of the ancient monarchies ; the Assyrians or Medes, 
 the successors of Cyrus, or those of Alexander. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Introduction, worship, and persecution of images. — Revolt 
 of Italy and Rome. — Temporal dominiim of the popes. — 
 Conquest of Italy by the Franks. — Establishment of im- 
 ages. — Character and coronation of Charlemagne. — Res- 
 toration and decay of the Roman empire in the west. — 
 Independence of Italy. — Constitution of the Germanic 
 body. 
 Introduction of ^^ the connexion of the church and 
 images into iho state, I have considered the lormer as 
 christian church, subservient only, and relative, to the 
 latter; a salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in nar- 
 rative, it had ever been held sacred. The oriental 
 philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predes- 
 tination and grace, and the strange transformations of 
 the eucharist from the sisfn to the substance of Christ's 
 body,* I have purposely abapdcfned to the curiosity 
 of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with 
 diligence and pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical 
 history, by which the decline and fall of the Roman 
 empire were materially affected, the propagation of 
 Christianity, the constitution of the catholic church, 
 the ruin of paganism, and the sects that arose from 
 the mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity 
 and incarnation. At the head of this class, we may 
 justly rank the worship of images, so fiercely disputed 
 in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a question of 
 popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the 
 temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of 
 the Roman empire in the west. 
 
 The primitive christians were possessed with an 
 unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse of 
 images; and this aversion may be ascribed to their 
 descent from the Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks. 
 The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all represen- 
 tations of the Deity ; and that precept was firmly esta- 
 blished in the principles and practice of the chosen 
 people. The wit of the christian apologists was point- 
 ed against the foolish idolaters, who bowed before 
 the workmanship of their own hands ; the images of 
 brass and marble, which, had they been endowed with 
 sense and motion, should have started rather from the 
 pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist.** 
 Perhaps some recent and imperfect converts of the 
 Gnostic tribe, mig'.it crown the statues of Christ and 
 St. Paul with the profane honours which they paid to 
 those of Aristotle and Pythagoras ;« but the public 
 religion of the catholics was uniformly simple and 
 
 a The learned Selden has ^iven the history of transubstantiaiion 
 in a comprehensive and piihv sentence. "This opinion is only 
 rhetoric turned into logic." (His Works, vol. iii. p. 2073, in his Ta- 
 ble-Talk.) 
 
 b Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quod si sentire simulacra 
 et moveri possent, udoratura hominem fuissentaquo sunt expolita. 
 (Divin. Institut. 1. ii. c. 2.) Lactantius is the hist, as well as the njosl 
 eloquent, of the Latin apologists. Their raillery of idols attacks nut 
 only the object, but the form and matter. 
 
 c See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Ausrustin. (Basnage, Hist, des 
 Eglises Rcformees, torn. ii. p. 1313.) This Gnostic practice has a 
 singular atHnity with the private worship of Alexander Severus. 
 (Larnpridius, c 29. Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 34.) 
 
 spiritual ; and the first notice of the use of pictures is 
 in the censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred 
 years after the christian ara. Under the successors 
 of Constantine,in the peace and luxury of the triumph- 
 ant church, the more prudent bishops condescended 
 to indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit of the 
 multitude : and, after the ruin of paganism, they were 
 no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious 
 parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic wor- 
 ship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. 
 The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was im- 
 plored, were seated on the right hand of God ; but the 
 gracious and often supernatural favours, which in 
 the popular belief were showered round their tomb, 
 conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout 
 pilgrims, who visited, and touched, and kissed, these 
 lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and 
 suflferings.'' But a memorial, more interesting than 
 the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is the 
 faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by 
 the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age, such 
 copies, so congenial to human feelings, have been 
 cherished by the zeal of private friendship, or public es- 
 teem: the images of the Roman emperors were adored 
 with civil, and almost religious, iionours ; a reverence 
 less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to 
 the statues of sages and patriots ; and these profane 
 virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the pre- 
 sence of the holy men, who had died for their celes- 
 tial and everlasting country. At first, the experiment 
 
 was made with caution and scruple ; a,, . . . 
 
 , , 11'. 1- ' . Their worshipk 
 
 and the venerable pictures were discreet- 
 ly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the 
 cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen pro- 
 selytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, 
 the honours of the original were transferred to the 
 copy : the devout christian prayed before the image 
 of a saint; and the pagan rites of genuflexion', lumina- 
 ries, and incense, again stole into the catholic church. 
 The scruples of reason, or piety, were silenced by 
 the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the 
 pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be 
 -endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered 
 as the proper objects of religious adoration. The 
 most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash at- 
 tempt of defining, by forms and colours, the infinite 
 Spirit, the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains 
 the universe." But the superstitious mind was more ea- 
 sily reconciled to paint and to worship the angels, and, 
 above all, the Son of God, under the human shape, 
 which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. 
 The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with 
 a real and mortal body ; but that body had ascended 
 into heaven; and, had not some similitude been pre- 
 sented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual wor- 
 ship of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible 
 relics and representations of the saints. A similar 
 indulgence was requisite, and propitious, for the Vir- 
 gin Mary : the place of her burial was unknown ; and 
 the assumption of her soul and body into heaven was 
 adopted by the credulity of the Greeks and Latins. 
 The use, and even the worship, of images, was firmly 
 established before the end of the sixth century: they 
 were fondly cherished by the warm imagination of the 
 Greeks and Asiatics : the Pantheon and Vatican were 
 adorned with the emblems of a new superstition; bu* 
 this semblance of idolatry was more coldly enter- 
 tained by the rude barbarians and the Arian clergy of 
 the west. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or 
 marble, which peopled the temples of antiquity, were 
 
 d See this history, 255. 304. 393. 395. 
 
 e Oo y*f T9 feusv knKoMv vrrx^x^^ **' ttKniTrrtv fttf^xi; rtrt **i 
 trXfffKf^v uirtixxi^oftiv, cut* xi)(t» xtet ^uXoi; tuv \jTrt(9vTHv x»i wfOx. 
 
 vat.%5v ouTiaif Tt/ixv >).un5 S nyvi^xxfitv . (Concilium Niccnum, ii. in 
 Collect. Labb. torn. viii. p. 1025. edit. Venet.) II seroit peuleire 
 a-propos de ne point souffrir d'images de la Trinity ou de la Divinity ; 
 les defenseura les plus zeli-s des images ayant condamne celles-ci, et 
 le concile de Trente ne parlant que des images de Jesus Christ et 
 des Saints. (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. Wm. vi. p. 154.) 
 
 oflfensive to the fancy or conscience of the christian 
 Greeks ; and a smooth surface of colours has ever been 
 esteemed a more decent and harmless mode of imita- 
 tion.' . , ^ ,. ,1 
 The image of The merit and effect of a copy depends 
 Edeesa. on its resemblance with the original ; 
 T)ut the primitive christians were ignorant of the gen- 
 uine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his 
 apostles : the statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine* 
 was more probably that of some temporal saviour; the 
 Gnostics and their profane monuments were repro- 
 bated ; and the fancy of the christian artists could only 
 l)e guided by the clandestine imitation of some hea- 
 then model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous 
 invention assured at once the likeness of the image and 
 the innocence of the worship. A new superstructure 
 of fable w^as raised on the popular basis of a Syrian 
 legend, on the correspondence of Christ and Abgarus, 
 80 famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantly 
 deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of 
 Caesarea'' records the epistle,' but he most strangely 
 forgets the picture, of Christ ; ^ the perfect impression 
 of his face on a linen, with which he gratified the 
 faith of the royal stranger, who had invoked his heal- 
 insz power, and offered the strong city of Edessa to 
 protect him against the malice of the Jews. The 
 ignorance of the primitive church is explained by the 
 long imprisonment of the image in a niche of the wall, 
 from whence, after an oblivion of five hundred years, 
 it was released by some prudent bishop, and seasona- 
 bly presented to the devotion of the times. Its first 
 and most glorious exploit was the deliverance of the 
 city from the arms of Chosroes Nushirvan ; and it 
 was soon revered as a pledge of the divine promise, 
 that Edessa should never be taken by a foreign enemy. 
 It is true, indeed, that the text of Procopius ascribes 
 the double deliverance of Edessa to the wealth and 
 valour of her citizens, who purchased the absence 
 and repelled the assaults of the Persian monarch. 
 He was ignorant, the profane historian, of the testi- 
 mony which he is compelled to deliver in the eccle- 
 siastical page of Evagrius, that the Palladium was 
 exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had 
 been sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, 
 added new fuel to the flames of the besieged. After 
 this important service, the image of Edessa was pre- 
 served with respect and gratitude ; and if the Armeni- 
 
 f This ceneral history of imases is drawn from the twenty-second 
 
 book of the Hist, des Edises Reformtes of Basnage, toin. "• P- 1<«^- 
 
 1337. He was a protesiant, but of a manly spirit ; and on this head 
 
 l^protestants a?e so notoriously in the right, that they can venture 
 
 to be impartial. See the perplexity of poor Fnar Pagi, Cntica, torn. 
 
 ** r'After removin* some rubbish of miracle and inconsistency, it 
 n.ay be allowed Ihat. as late as the year 300, Paneas in P-l^^J-n^ was 
 decorated with a bronze statue, reprosenling a g/^ve personage v.rapt 
 in a cloak, with a erateful or suppliant female kneeling before him , 
 Lml Jhat an inscription-r. ^r,,..ru. .u.f>.T,-was Perhaps in- 
 Jcr bed on the pedestal. By the christians, this group wa^ [ool'shly 
 explained of their founder and >he«.or woman whom he had cured 
 of the bloody flux. (Euseb. vii. IS. Philostora. vii. 3, &c.) M. de 
 Boausobre nv.r" Reasonably conjectures the philosopher Apollonjus, 
 crtheemperor Vespasian: in the latter supposition, the t^emale^te a 
 city, a province, or perhaps the queen Berenice. (Bibliotheque Ger- 
 
 "^;^i;^^HisJ:^.5les: U 1. c. n The learne^-mannus ^as 
 briii^'hl up the collateral aid of three Syrians, St. Ephrem, J(»sua 
 S y iVes, and James Bishop of Sarufi ; but \ do not find any notice of 
 the Sv'rac original or the archives of Edessa, (Bibiot. Orient torn 
 i p. ^18. 420. 554.) their vague belief is probably derived from the 
 
 ^r-fhe evidences f t these epistles is stated and rejected by the can- 
 <lid Lardner ^Heathen Testim(mies, vol. i. p. 279-309. Among the 
 hml ^ b"got8 who are forcibly driven from this convenient, but un- 
 tenable, p!st, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, ^'^ves T.llemoi.ts Jcc 
 to discover Mr. Addison, an English gentleman, (his Works, vol i. 
 p. 528. BaskerviUe's edition,) but his superficial tract on [he chns- 
 tian religion owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested 
 
 applause of our clergy. ^ . tjio:^* nr:or.t 
 
 k From the silence of James of Sarug, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient 
 t). 299. 319.) and the testimony of Evagrius, (Hist, hccles. 1. iv. c. ii .) 
 f conclude that this fable was invented between the years o-l and 
 594, most probably after the siege of Edessa in 540. (Asseman. torn. i. 
 p. 416. Procopius, de Bell. Persic. 1. ii) It is the sword and buck- 
 ler of Gregory II. (in Epist. i. and Leon. Isaur. Concil. torn. viii. p. 
 656, 657.) of John Damascenus, (Opera, torn. i. p. 281. edit Le'juien,) 
 and of the second Nicene Council. (Actio, v. p. ICGO.) The most 
 perfect edition may be found in Cedrenus. (Compend. p. 1/a— i/o.; 
 
 ans rejected the legend, the more credulous Greeks 
 adored the similitude, which was not the work of any 
 mortal pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine 
 original. The style and sentiments of a Byzantine 
 hymn will declare how far their worship was removed 
 from the grossest idolatry. " How can we with mor- 
 tal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splen- 
 dour the host of heaven presumes not to behold? He 
 who dwells in heaven condescends this day to visit us 
 by his venerable image : He who is seated on the 
 cherubim, visits us this day by a picture, which the 
 Father has delineated with his immaculate hand, which 
 he has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we 
 sanctify by adoring it with fear and love." Before 
 the end of the sixth century, these images, made with- 
 out hands^ (in Greek it is a single word,') were propa- 
 gated in the camps and cities of the eastern empire : ■ 
 they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of 
 miracles ; and in the hour of danger or tumult, their ven- 
 erable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the cour- 
 age, or repress the fury, of the Roman legions. Of 
 these pictures, the far greater part, the j^^ ^^^j^^ 
 transcripts of a human pencil, could only 
 pretend to a secondary likeness and improper title : 
 but there were some of higher descent, who derived 
 their resemblance from an immediate contact with the 
 original, endowed, for that purpose, with a miraculous 
 and prolific virtue. The most ambitious aspired from 
 a filial to a fraternal relation with the'image of Edessa ; 
 and such is the veronica of Rome, or Spain, or Jerusa- 
 lem, which Christ in his agony and bloody sweat 
 applied to his face, and delivered to a holy matron. 
 The fruitful precedent was speedily transferred to the 
 Virgin Mary, and the saints and martyrs. In the 
 church of Diospolis, in Palestine, the features of the 
 mother of God" were deeply inscribed in a marble 
 column : the east and west have been decorated by tho 
 pencil of St. Luke; and the evangelist, who was per- 
 haps a physician, has been forced to exercise the 
 occupation of a painter, so profane and odious in the 
 eyes of the primitive christians. The Olympian Jove, 
 created by the muse of Homer and the chisel of Phi- 
 dias, might inspire a philosophic mind with momen- 
 tary devotion ; but these catholic images were faintly 
 and flatly delineated by monkish artists in the last 
 degeneracy of taste and genius." 
 
 The worship of images had stolen Opposition to 
 into the church by insensible degrees, i^^a?® worship, 
 and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious 
 mind, as productive of comfort, and innocent of sin. 
 But in the beginning of the eighth century, in the full 
 magnitude of the abuse, the more timorous Greeks 
 were awakened by an apprehension, that under the 
 mask of Christianity they had restored the religion of 
 their fathers : they heard, with grief and impatience, 
 the name of idolaters: the incessant charge of the 
 Jews and Mahometans, p who derived from the Law 
 
 1 Axf'es'ro.nTOf. See Ducance, in Gloss. Grac. et Lat. The sub- 
 iect is treated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser. 
 (Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de 
 Officiis, p. 289— 330.) the ass, or rather the fox, of Ingoldstadi, (sea 
 the Scaligerana,) with equal reason and wit by the protesiant Beau. 
 sobre,in tho ironical controversy which he has spread through many 
 volumes of the Bibliotheque Germanique. (tom.xvuij). l-50.xx. p. 
 27—68. XXV. p. 1—46. xxvii. p. 83-112. xxviii. p. 1-33. xxxi. p. HI 
 —148. xxxii. p. 75-107. xxxiv. p.. 67-96.) 
 
 m Theophylact Simocaua (1. ii. c. 3. p. 34. 1. iii. c. 1. p. 63.) cele- 
 brates the itxvSfixcv i.xao-jux, which he styles «%i«e9''e»«i^e'' ; yet it 
 was no more than a copy, since he adds «^%»^"'«r t» •v.'"'" '• ^^;- 
 fixtoi (of Edessa) 3f«i<rx»usuiT» t« x^fK^ev. See Pagi, toiH. II. A. IJ. &ao. 
 
 n' See. in the genuine or supposed words of John Damascenus, two 
 passa^'es on the Virgin and St. Luke, which have not been noticed 
 Ky Gr°elser, nor consequently by Beausobre. (Opera Joh. Damaacen. 
 
 k /•! Q cot \ 
 
 ^T» ySur scandalous figures stand quite out from the canvass : they 
 are as bad as a group of statues !" It was thus that the ignorance and 
 bigot?y of a Griek priest applauded the pictures of Titian, which he 
 had ordered, and refused to accept. ••/..,. 
 
 p By Ced enus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the origin of the 
 Trnnoclasis is imputed to the caliph Yezid and two Jews, who pro- 
 r^^sed he emp 7to Leo; and the teproaches of these hostile sect.. 
 Hes are turned into an absurd conspiracy for restoring the purity of 
 the chriaiian worship. (See Spanheim, Hist. Imag. c. 20 
 
I 
 
 174 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 17& 
 
 
 lt*t 
 
 i*T! 
 
 V 
 
 ^4 
 
 and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images 
 and all the relative worship. The servitude of ihe 
 Jews miglit curb their zeal, and depreciate their au- 
 thority; but the triumphant mussulmans, who reigned 
 at Damascus, and threatened Constantinople, cast into 
 the scale of reproach the accumulated weight of truth 
 and victory. The cities of Syria, Palestine, and 
 Egypt, had been fortified with the images of Christ, 
 his mother, and his saints ; and each city presumed on 
 the hope or promise of miraculous defence. In a rapid 
 conquest of ten years, the Arabs subdued those cities 
 and these images; and, in their opinion, the Lord of 
 hosts pronounced a decisive judgment between the 
 adoration and contempt of these mute and inanimate 
 idols. For a while Edessa had braved the Persian as- 
 saults; but the chosen city, the spouse of Christ, was 
 involved in the common ruin; and his divine resem- 
 blance became the slave and trophy of the infidels. 
 After a servitude of three hundred years, the Palla- 
 dium was yielded to the devolion of Constantinople, 
 for a ransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver, the 
 redemption of two hundred mussulmans, and a perpe- 
 tual truce for the territory of Edessa.'' In this season 
 of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the monks 
 was exercised in the defence of images ; and they at- 
 tempted to prove, that the sin and schism of the great- 
 est part of the orientals had forfeited the favour, and 
 annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But 
 they were now opposed by tiie murmurs of many 
 simple or rational christians, who appealed to the evi- 
 dence of texts, of facts, and of the primitive times, and 
 secretly desired the reformation of the church. As the 
 worship of images had never been established by any 
 general or positive law, its progress in the eastern em- 
 pire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differ- 
 ences of men and manners, the local degrees of refine- 
 ment, and the personal characters of the bishops. 
 The splendid devotion was fondly cherished by the 
 levity of the capital, and the inventive genius of the 
 Byzantine clergy ; while the rude and remote districts 
 of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacred 
 luxury. Many large congregations of Gnostics and 
 Arians maintained, after their conversion, the simple 
 worship which had preceded their separation ; and the 
 Armenians, the most warlike subjects of Rome, were 
 not reconciled, in the twelfth century, to the sight of 
 images.' These various denominations of men afford- 
 ed a fund of prejudice aftd aversion, of small account 
 in the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which, in 
 the fortune of a soldier, a prelate, or a eunuch, might 
 be often connected with the powers of the church 
 and state. 
 
 Leo the Icono- ^^ ^uch adventurers, the most fortu- 
 ciasi, and his nate was the emperor Leo the third,* 
 successors^ ^^°' ^'^^^ ^^® mountains of Isanria, as- 
 ' ■ cended the throne of the east. He was 
 
 ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but his education, 
 his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews and 
 Arabs, had inspired the martial peasant with a hatred 
 of images; and it was held to be the duty of a prince, 
 
 q See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 287.) Abnlpharagiiis, (Dynast, p. 
 201.) and Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 2G4.) and the criticisms of 
 Pagi, (torn. iii. A. D. 911.) The prudent Franciscan refuses to deter- 
 mine whether the image of Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa ; 
 but its repose is inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is no 
 longer famous or fashionable. 
 
 yofiuTJii. (Nicetas, 1. ii. p. 258.) The Armenian churches are still 
 content with the cross, (Missions du Levant, tom. iii. p. 148.) but 
 surely the superstitious Greek is unjust to the superstition of the 
 Germans of the twelfth century. 
 
 I Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the Iconoclasts 
 must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom. viii. and ix. Collect. 
 Labbe, edit. Venet. and the historical writings of Theophanes, Nice- 
 phorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonaras, &c. Of the modern catholics, 
 Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Eccles. Seculum viii. and 
 ix.) and Maimbourc, (Hist, des Iconoclastes,) have treated the sub- 
 ject with learnin", passion, and crcduHiy. The protesiant labours 
 of Frederic Spanneim (Historia Imaginarum Kesiituta) and James 
 Basnage (Hist, des Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. 1. xxiii. p. 1339—1385.) 
 are cast into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and oppo- 
 site tendency, it is easy for ua to poise the balance wiih philosophic 
 indifference. 
 
 to impose on his subjects the dictfites of his own 
 conscience. But in the outset of an unsettled reign, 
 during ten years of toil and danger, Leo submitted to 
 the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before the idols 
 which he despised, and satisfied the Roman pontiff* 
 with the annual professions of his orthodoxy and zeal. 
 In the reformation of religion, his first steps were 
 moderate and cautious : he assembled a great council 
 of senators and bishops, and enacted, with their con- 
 sent, that all the images should be removed from the 
 sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the churches, 
 where they might be visible to the eyes, and inac- 
 cessible to the superstition, of the people. But it 
 was impossible on either side to check the rapid 
 though adverse impulse of veneration and abhorrence: 
 in their lofty position, the sacred images still edified 
 their votaries, and reproached the tyrant. He was 
 himself provoked by resistance and invective; and 
 his own party accused him of an imperfect discharge 
 of his duty, and urged for his imitation the example 
 of the Jewish king, who had broken without scruple 
 the brazen serpent of the temple. By a second edict, 
 he proscribed the existence as well as the use of reli- 
 gious pictures ; the churches of Constantinople and 
 the provinces were cleansed from idolatry ; the images 
 of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, were demolished, 
 or a smooth surface of plaster was spread over the 
 walls of the edifice. The sect of the Iconoclasts was 
 supported by the zeal and despotism of six emperors, 
 and the east and west were involved in a noisy con- 
 flict of one hundred and twenty years. It was the 
 design of Leo the Isaurian to pronounce the condemna- 
 tion of imai^es, as an article of faith, and by the au- 
 thority of a general council : but the convocation of 
 such an assembly was reserved for his son Constan- 
 tino;' and though it is stigmatized by triumphant 
 bigotry as a meeting of fools and alheist.«, their own 
 partial and mutilated acts betray many symptoms of 
 reason and piety. The debates and decrees of many 
 provincial synods introduced the sum- Their synod of 
 mons of the general council which met Consiaminoplo, 
 in the suburbs of Constantinople, and * ''*** 
 
 was composed of the respectable number of three hun- 
 dred and thirty -eight bishops of Europe and Anato- 
 lia; for the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria were 
 the slaves of the caliph, and the Roman pontiff" had 
 withdrawn the churches of Laly and the west from 
 the communion of the Greeks. This Byzantine synod* 
 assumed the rank and powers of the seventh general 
 council ; yet even this title was a recognition of the 
 six preceding assemblies, which had lahoriously built 
 the structure of the catholic faith. After a serious 
 deliberation of six months, the three hundred and 
 thirty-eight bishops pronounced and subscribed a 
 unanimous decree, that all visible symbols of Christ, 
 except in the eucharist, were either blasphemous or 
 heretical ; that image-worship was a corruption of Chris- 
 tianity and a renewal of paganism ; that all such 
 monuments of idolatry should be broken or erased ; 
 and that those who should refuse to deliver the objects 
 of their private superstition, were giiilty of disobe- 
 dience to the authority of the church and of the empe- 
 ror. In their loud and loyal acclamations, they cele- 
 brated the merits of their temporal redeemer ; and to 
 his zeal and justice they intrusted the execution of 
 their spiritual censures. At Constantinople, as in the 
 former councils, the will of the prince was the rule of 
 episcopal fviith ; but on this occasion, I am inclined 
 to suspect that a large majority of the prelates sacri- 
 ficed their secret conscience to the temp- ^j^^j^. ^^.^^j 
 tations of hope and fear. In the long 
 
 t Some flowers of rhetoric are isoieToi- ^rafavojusv xai «3»oi, and 
 the bishops tci.; juaTaio^fOTif. By Damascenus it is styled aKVfOf 
 K»i aSsxTot. (Opera, tom. i. p. 623.) Spanheim's Apology for tho 
 Synod of Constantinople (p. 171, &.c.) is worked up with truth and 
 ingenuity, from such materials as ho could find in the Nicene Arts, 
 (pT 1()46, &.C.) The witty John of Damascus converts »7r.(rx'):Toui into 
 fTio-KOToui, makes them x'.»A.«oJeu>.cw>-, slaves of their belly, &c 
 Opera lorn. i. p. 306. 
 
 night of superstition, the christians had wandered far 
 away from the simplicity of the gospel : nor was it 
 easy for ihern to discern the clue, and tread back the 
 mazes, of the labyrinth. The worship of images was 
 inseparably blended, at least to a pious fancy, with 
 the cross, the Virgin, the saints and their relics : the 
 holy ground was involved in a cloud of miracles and 
 visions; and the nerves of the mind, curiosity and 
 scepticism, were benumbed by the habits of obedience 
 and belief. Constantine himself is accused of indulg- 
 in(T a royal licence to doubt, to deny, or deride the 
 mysteries of the catholics," but they were deeply in- 
 scribed in the public and private creed of his bishops; 
 and the boldest Iconoclast might assault with a secret 
 horror the monuments of popular devotion, which were 
 consecrated to the honour of his celestial patrons. 
 In the reformation of the sixteeth century, freedom 
 and knowledge had expanded all the faculties of man : 
 the thirst of innovation superseded the reverence of 
 antiquity; and the vigour of Europe could disdain 
 those phantoms which terrified the sickly and servile 
 weakness of the Greeks. 
 
 Their persecu- '^*^^ scandal of an abstract heresy can 
 lion of the ima- be Only proclaimed to the people by the 
 gesand monks, blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but 
 A.v.i^-t . . j^^ ^^g^ ignorant can perceive, the most 
 torpid must feel, the profanation and downfall of their 
 visible deities. The first hostilities of Leo were direc- 
 ted against a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and above 
 the gate, of the palace. A ladder had been planted 
 for the assault, but it was furiously shaken by a crowd 
 of zealots and women : they beheld, with ]»ious trans- 
 port, the ministers of sacrilege tumbling from on 
 high, and dashed against the pavement; and the hon- 
 ours of the ancient martyrs were prostituted to these 
 criminals, who justly suffered for murder and rebel- 
 lion.* The execution of the imperial edict was resist- 
 ed by frequent tumults in Constantinople and the pro- 
 vinces: the person of Leo was endangered, his officers 
 were massacred, and the popular enthusiasm was quel- 
 led by the strongest eff'orls of the civil and military 
 power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy sea, the numer- 
 ous islands were filled with images and monks: their 
 votaries abjured, without scrupio, the enemy of Christ, 
 his mother, and the saints : they armed a fleet of boats 
 and galleys, displayed their consecrated banners, and 
 boldly steered for the harbour of Constantinople, to 
 place on the throne a new favourite of God and the 
 people. They depended on the succour of a miracle ; 
 but their miracles were ineflficient against the Greek 
 fire ; and, after the defeat and conflagration of their 
 fleet, the naked islands were abandoned to the clemen- 
 cy or justice of the conqueror. The son of Leo, in 
 the first year of his reign, had undertaken an expedi- 
 tion against the Saracens : during his absence, the 
 capital, the palace, and the purple, were occupied by 
 his kinsman, Arlavasdes, the ambitious champion of the 
 orthodox faith. The worship of images was triuinph- 
 antly restored : the patriarch renounced his dissimu- 
 lation, or dissembled his sentiments ; and the righteous 
 claim of the usurper was acknowledgjed, both in the 
 new and in ancient Rome. Constantine flew for re- 
 fuge to his paternal mountains ; but he descended at the 
 head of the bold and aflTectionate Isaurians ; and his 
 final victory confounded the arms and predictions of 
 the fanatics. His long reign was distracted with clam- 
 our, sedition, conspiracy, and mutual hatred, and san- 
 guinary revenge: the persecution of images was the 
 motive, or pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they 
 missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the 
 
 u He is accused of proscribing the title of saint; styling the Vir- 
 gin, mother of Christ ; comparing her after her delivery to an empty 
 purse; of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c. In his defence, Spanheim 
 (c. iv. p. 207.) is somewhat embarrassed between the interest of a 
 protestant and the duty of an orthodox divine. 
 
 1 The holy confessor Theophanes approves the principle of their 
 rebellion, iitw xivovfuvot (:»,xcy, (p. 339.) Gregory H. (in Epist. i. ad 
 Imp. Leon. Concil. tom. viii. p. 661. 6frl.) applauds the leal of the 
 Byzantine women who killed the imperial officers. 
 
 Greeks with the crown of martyrdom. In every act 
 of open and clandestine treason, the emperor felt the 
 unforgiving enmity of the monks, the faithful slaves 
 of the superstition to which they owed their riches 
 and influence. They prayed, they preached, they 
 absolved, they inflamed, they conspired : the solitude 
 of Palestine poured forth a torrent of invective ; and 
 the pen of St. John Damascenus, >' the last of the 
 Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head, both in this 
 world and the next.* I am not at leisure to examine 
 how far the monks provoked, nor how much they 
 have exaggerated, their real and pretended sufferings, 
 nor how many lost their lives or limbs, their eyes or 
 their beards, by the cruelty of the emperor. From 
 the chastisement of individuals, he proceeded to the 
 abolition of the order; and, as it was wealthy and 
 useless, his resentment might be stimulated by avarice, 
 and justified by patriotism. The formidable name 
 and mission of the Dragon^" his visitor-general, exci- 
 ted the terror and abhorrence of the black nation : the 
 relijjious communities were dissolved, the buildings 
 were converted into majjazines, or barracks ; the lands, 
 movables, and cattle, wire confiscated ; and our mo- 
 dern precedents will support the charge, that much 
 wanton or malicious havoc was exercised against the 
 relics, and even the books, of the monasteries. With 
 the habit and profession of monks, the public and pri- 
 vate worship of images was rigorously proscribed; 
 and it should seem, that a solemn abjuration of idola- 
 try was exacted from the subjects, or at least from the 
 clergy, of the eastern empire.'' 
 
 The patient east abjured, with reluc- state of Italy, 
 tance, her sacred images ; they were 
 fondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by the in- 
 dependent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank 
 and jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and 
 the pope of Rome were nearly equal. But the Greek 
 prelate was a domestic slave under the eye of his mas- 
 ter, at whose nod he alternately passed from the con- 
 vent to the throne, and from the throne to the convent. 
 A distant and dangerous station, amidst the barbarians 
 of the west, excited the spirit and freedom of the La- 
 tin bishops. Their popular election endeared them to 
 the Romans; the public and private indigence was re- 
 lieved by their ample revenue: and the weakness or 
 neglect of the emperors compelled them to consult, both 
 in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city. In 
 the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed 
 the virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same 
 character was assumed, the same policy was adopted, 
 by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who ascended 
 the chair of St. Peter; and, after the loss of her le- 
 trions and provinces, the genius and fortune of th& 
 popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is 
 agreed, that in the eighth century, their dominion was 
 founded on rebellion, and that the rebellion was pro- 
 duced and justified, by the heresy of the Iconoclasts ; 
 but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in 
 
 y John, or Mansur, was a noble christian of Damascus, who held 
 a considerable oflice in the service of the caliph. His zeal in tho 
 cause of imaces exposed him to the resentment and treachery of the 
 Greek emperor; and on tlie suspicion of a treasonable correspon- 
 dence, he was deprived of his ri^ht hanJ, which was miraculously 
 restored by tho Virgin. After this deliverance, he resigned his office, 
 distributed his wealth, and buried himself in the monastery of St.. 
 Sabas, between Jerusalem and the Dead sea. The legend is famous ; 
 but his learned editor, father Lequien, has unluckily proved that St. 
 John Damascenus was already a monk before the Iconoclast dispute. 
 (Opera, tom. i. Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. p. 10—13. et Notas ad loc.) 
 
 X After sending Leo to the devil, he iniroiluces his heir— rs t^i»C'* 
 
 X0T6U yfvyi^f^t, X** T>;5 Kxxixi seoTBu x\if(9fejus; ev SittKui ytve^atvoc. 
 
 (Opera Damascen. tom. i.p. 625.) If the authenticity of this piece be 
 suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no longer extant, Damas- 
 cenus bestowed on Constantine the tiileof viev M*jc^j5,Xf«fTOjM«jiOK, 
 /u«<ra\«ov, (tom. i-p.306.) 
 
 * In the narrative of this persecution from Theophanes and Cedre- 
 nus, Spanheim (p. 235—238.) is happy to compare the Draco of Leo 
 with the dragoons (Dracoties) of Louis XIV. ; and highly solaces him- 
 self with this controversial pun. 
 
 b ll^oyex/j^fix yuf i^tjrift^i k*t« vxtxv ttjex'** tijv oaro rijf X^'f^C 
 stuTOr, jretrTstj Ivoy^xi/xt x*t o/ivvvxi too uierniTxt mv ir(iirxv¥ffri¥ 
 
 rmv <r«»rT»v iixovutv, (Damascen. Op. lorn. i. p. 625.) This oath and 
 subscription I do not remember to have seen in any modern coul- 
 pilation. 
 
.■ ! 
 
 I( 
 
 176 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 177 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 V 
 
 Mil) 
 
 
 i 
 
 this memorable contest, is variously interpreted by the 
 wishes of their friends and enemies. The Byzantine 
 writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless ad- 
 monition, they pronounced the separation of the east 
 and west, and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the 
 revenue and sovereignty of Italy. Their excommuni- 
 cation is still more clearly expressed by the Greeks, 
 who beheld the accomplishment of the papal trmmphs ; 
 and as they are more strongly attached to their religion 
 than to their country, they praise, instead of blaming, 
 the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men.« The 
 modern champions of Rome are eager to accept the 
 praise and the precpdent: this great and glorious ex- 
 ample of the deposition of royal' heretics is celebrated 
 by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine ;** and if 
 they are asked, why the same thunders were n«>t hur- 
 led against the Neros and the Julians of antiquity? 
 they reply, that the weakness of the primitive church 
 was the sole cause of her patient loyalty.* On this 
 occasion, the effects of love and hatred are the same ; 
 and the zealous prntestants, who seek to kindle the 
 indignation, and to alarm the fears, of princes and ma- 
 gistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason of the 
 two Gregories against their lawful sovereign.' They 
 are defended only by the moderate catholics, for the 
 most part, of the Galilean church,« who respect the 
 saint, without approving the ^n. These common ad- 
 vocates of the crown and the mitre circumscribe the 
 truth of facts by the rule of equity. Scripture, and tra- 
 dition ; and appeal to the evidence of the Latins,*' and 
 the lives ' and epistles of the popes themselves. 
 
 Two original epistles, from Gregory 
 go^rrn'°o the the second to the emperor Leo, are still 
 emperor, extant ; ^ and if they cannot be praised 
 
 A. D.727. ^g ^^^ ^^gj perfect models of eloquence 
 and logic, they exhibit the portrait, or at least the 
 mask, of the founder of the papal monarchy. " Du- 
 ring ten pure and fortunate ye ars," says Gregory to 
 
 says Theophanes. (Chronograph, p. 343.) For this Grt^ory is styled 
 byCedrenus »*»tp «5ric9>>»xo?, (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thun- 
 der «»»5^uc.T. •■ur.^.Ki.-, (lorn. ii. 1. XV. p. 104, 105.) It may be ob- 
 served, that the Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of 
 
 xhe two Gregories. ^, ^ ^ ,. 
 
 d See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 730. No. 4. 5. : dignum exem- 
 ■plum' Bellarmin. de Romano Poniificc, 1. v. c. 8.: mulclavit eum 
 parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italia, 1. iii. Opera, torn. n. p. 169. 
 Yet such is the change of Italy, that Sigonius is corrected by the edi- 
 tor of Milan, Philippus Argelatus, a Bolognese, and subject of the 
 
 ^^'e^Quod si chrisliani olim nori deposuerunt Neronem aut Julianum, 
 id fuit quia deerant vires temporales christianis, (honest Bellarmine, 
 de Rom. Pont. 1. v. c. 7.) Cardinal Perron adds a distinction more 
 honourable to the first christians, but not more satisfactory to modern 
 princes— the treason of heretics and apostates, who break their oath, 
 belie their coin, and renounce their allegiance to Christ and his vicar. 
 (Perroniana, p. 89.) 
 
 t Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage, (Hist, de rbglise, p. 
 1350 1351.) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum,) who, 
 ■with a hundred more, tread in the footsteps of the centuriators of 
 
 Maiidebursih. . . 
 
 r See Launoy, (Opera, torn. v. pars n. epist. vii. 7, p. 4o6— 474.) 
 Naialis Alexander, (Hist. Nov. Testamenti, secul. viii. dissert, i. p. 
 92-% ) Pasi, (Criiica, tom. iii. p. 215, 216.) and Giannone, (Istoria 
 Civile di N'apoli, tom. i. p. 317—320.) a disciple of the Gallican 
 school. In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, 
 •who stand on the^ open middle ground exposed to the fire of both 
 
 h They appealed to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus, (de Gestis Lan- 
 cobard. I. vi. c. 49. p. 50G, 507. in Script. Ital. Muralori, tom. J. pars. 
 i.) and the nominal Anasiasius, (de Vit. Pont, in Muraton, tom. iii. 
 pars i. Gregorius II. p. 154. Gregorius III. p. 153. Zacharias, p. 161. 
 SlPF)hanos III. p. 165. Paulus, p. 172. Slephanus IV. p. 174. Ha- 
 drianus, p. 179. Leo III. p. 195.) Yet I may remark, that the true 
 Anasliisius (Hist. Eccles. p. 134. edit. Reg.) and the Historia Miscella, 
 (I. x.\i. p. 151. in torn. i. Script. Ital.) both of the ninth century, trans- 
 late and approve the Greek text of Theophanes. 
 
 i With some minute difference, the most learned critics, Lucas 
 Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini, Muralori, (Prolegome- 
 na ad tom. iii. pars i.) are agreed that the Liber Poniificalis was com- 
 posed ami continued by the apostolical librarians and notaries of the 
 eighth and ninth centuries; and that the last and smallest part is 
 the work of Anastasius, whose name it bears. The style is barba- 
 rous, the narrative partial, the details are trifling-yet it must be 
 read as a curious and auth..*nlic record of '»e times. The epistles of 
 the Doocs are dispersed in the volumes of Councils. 
 
 k The two epistles of Gregory II. have been preserved in the Acts 
 of the Nicene 'council, (tom. viii. p. 651-674.) They are without a 
 date, which is variously fixed, by liaronius m the year 726,^ Mura- 
 tori (Annali d'ltalia, torn. vi. p. 120.) in 729, and by P^»6! '" ^30. Such 
 Is the force of prejudice, that some papists have praised the good 
 sense and moderation of these letters. 
 
 the emperor, " we haye tasted the annual comfort of 
 your royal letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your 
 own hand, the sacred pledges of your attachment to 
 the orthodox creed of our fathers. How deplorable is 
 the change ! how tremendous the scandal ! You now 
 accuse the catholics of idolatry ; and, by the accusa- 
 tion, you betray your own injpiety and ignorance. To 
 this ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness 
 of our style and arguments : the first elements of holy 
 letters are sufficient for your confusion ; and were you 
 to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the 
 enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children 
 would be provoked to cast their horn books at your 
 head." After this decent salutation, the pope attempts 
 the usual distinction between the idols of antiquity and 
 the christian imaj^es. The former were the fanciful 
 representations ot phantoms or daemons, at a tirne 
 when the true God had not manifested his person in 
 any visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forms 
 of Christ, his mother, and his saints, who had ap- 
 proved, by a crowd of miracles, the innocence and 
 merit of this relative worship. He must indeed have 
 trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert 
 the perpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, 
 and their venerable presence in the six synods of the 
 catholic church. A more specious argument is drawn 
 from present possession and recent practice : the har- 
 mony of the christian world supercedes the demand 
 of a general council ; and Gregory frankly confesses, 
 that such assemblies can only be useful under the 
 reign of an orthodox prince. To the impudent and 
 inhuman Leo, more guilty than a heretic, he recom- 
 mends peace, silence, and implicit obedience to his 
 spiritual guides of Constantinople and Rome. The 
 limits of civil and ecclesiastical powers are defined by 
 the pontiff. To the former he appropriates the body; 
 to the latter, the soul : the sword of justice is in the 
 hands of the magistrate : the more formidable weapon 
 of excommunication is intrusted to the clergy; and in 
 the exercise of their divine commission, a zealous son 
 will not spare his offending father : the successor of 
 St. Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the earth. 
 **You assault us, O tyrant! with a carnal and military 
 hand : unarmed and naked, we can only implore the 
 Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he will 
 send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body 
 and the salvation of your soul. You declare, with 
 foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders to Rome; 
 I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter ; and 
 Gregory, like his predecessor Martin, shall be trans- 
 ported in chains, and in exile, to the foot of the im- 
 perial throne. Would to God, that I might be per- 
 mitted to tread in the footsteps of the holy Martin ; 
 but may the fate of Constans serve as a warning to the 
 persecutors of the church. After his just condemna- 
 tion by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, 
 in the fulness of his sins, by a domestic servant : the 
 saint is still adored by the nations of Scylhia, among 
 whom he ended his banishment and his life. But it is 
 our duty to live for the edification and support of the 
 faithful people; nor are we reduced to risk our safely 
 on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of 
 defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation 
 of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation; 
 but we can remove to the distance of four-and-twenty 
 stadia^^ to the first fortress of the Lombards, and then 
 
 you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant 
 
 that the popes are the bond of union, the mediators of 
 peace, between the east and west 1 The eyes of the 
 nations are fixed on our humi lity; and they revere, as 
 
 \ E.x5(r*-Ti<r<raf a f«J«» \j7roy,,.'fv.a-n o Af%««e6u,- 'V^/xy,; f ij ti,v %rf xk 
 Tx; Kxf.:T«i «»<,«»« -iravi JjxJovTOv; nM/xtv:. (EpiSt. J. p. 6M.) ThiS 
 
 proximity of the Lombards is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini 
 (Dissert, iv. de Ducani Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 17'2, 
 1730 forcibly reckons the twenlvfi>urlh stadia, not from Rome, but 
 from the limits of the Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps 
 Sora, of the Lombards. I rather believe that Gregory, with the pe- 
 dantry of the age, employs stadia for miles, without anuch inquiry 
 into the genuine meastu-e. 
 
 a God upon earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image 
 you threaten to destroy." The remote and interior 
 kingdoms of the west present their homage to Christ 
 and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to visit one 
 of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to re- 
 ceive from our hands the sacrament of baptism." The 
 barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, 
 while you alone are deaf to the voice of the Shepherd. 
 These pious barbarians are kindled into rage : they 
 thirst to avenge the persecution of the east. Abandon 
 your rash and fatal enterprise ; reflect, tremble, and 
 repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood 
 that will be spilt in the contest ; may it fall on your 
 own head." 
 
 Revolt of Italy, The first assault of Leo against the 
 A.D. 728, ate. images of Constantinople had been wit- 
 nessed by a crowd of strangers from Italy and the 
 west, who related with grief and indignation the sacri- 
 lege of the emperor. But on the reception of his pro- 
 scriptive edict, they trembled for their domestic dei- 
 ties ; the images of Christ and the Virgin, of the 
 angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in all the 
 churches of Italy; and a strong alternative was pro- 
 posed to the Ronian pontiff, the royal favour as the 
 price of his compliance, degradation and exile as the 
 penalty of his disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy 
 allowed him to hesitate ; and the haughty strain in 
 which Gregory addressed the emperor displays his 
 confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the powers 
 of resistance. Without depending on prayers or mira- 
 cles, he boldly armed against the public enemy, and 
 his pastoral letters admonished the Italians of their 
 danjier and their duty." At this signal, Ravenna, 
 Venice, and the cities of the exarchate and Pentapolis, 
 adhered to the cause of religion; their military force 
 by sea and land consisted, for the most part, of the 
 natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal was 
 transfused into the mercenary strangers. The Italians 
 swore to live and die in the defence of the pope and 
 the holy images ; the Roman people were devoted to 
 their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious to 
 share the merit and advantage of this holy war. The 
 most treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, 
 was the destruction of the statues of Leo himself: 
 the most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion, 
 was the withholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving 
 him of a power which he had recently abused by the 
 imposition of a new capitation.^ A form of adminis- 
 tration was preserved by the election of magistrates 
 and governors ; and so high was the public indigna- 
 tion, that the Italians were prepared to create an or- 
 thodox emperor, and to conduct him with a fleet and 
 army to the palace of Constantinople. In that palace, 
 the Roman bishops, the second and third Gregory, 
 were condemned as the authors of the revolt, and 
 every attempt was made, either by fraud or force, to 
 seize their persons, and to strike at their lives. The 
 city was repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of 
 the guards, and dukes and exarchs of high dignity or 
 
 K 
 
 n At8 T»U IT«Tlf9U JwTlcof TOW Kiytftl'^V XUTTITOU. (p. 665.) ThS 
 
 ,jpe appears to have imposed on the ignorance of the Greeks; he 
 .♦ved and died in the Lateran ; and in his time all the kingdoms of 
 the west had embraced Christianity. May not this unknown Septe- 
 tus have some reference to the chief of the Saxon Heptarchv, to Ina 
 king of Wessex, who, in the pontificate of Gregory the second, visited 
 Rome, for the purpose, not of baptism, but of pilgrimage 1 (Pagi, 
 A. D. 689, No. 2. A. D. 726, No. 15) , ^ , ^ 
 
 o I shall transcribe the important and decisive passage of the Liber 
 Pontificalis. Respiciens ergo pius vir profanam principis jussionem, 
 jam contra imperatorem quasi contra hostem se arraavit, renuens 
 hseresim ejus, scribens ubique se cavere christianos, eo quod orta 
 fuisset impietas Ulis. Igitur permoti omnes Pentapolenses, atque 
 Veneliarum exercitus contra imperatoris jussionem restiterunt; di- 
 centes se nunquam in ejusdem poniificis condescendere necem, sed 
 pro ejus magis defensione viriliter decertare. (p. 156.) 
 
 p A census, or capitation, says Anastasius; (p. 156.) a most cruel 
 tax, unknown to the Saracens themselves, exclaims the zealous 
 Mai mbourg, (Hist des Iconoclastes, I. i.) and Theophanes, (p. 3-14.) 
 who talks of Pharaoh's numbering the male children of Israel. This 
 mode of uxation was familiar to the Saracens; and, most unluckily 
 for the historian, it was imposed « few yean afterwards in France by 
 his patron I»uis XIV, 
 
 Vol. II.— X 12 
 
 secret trust; they landed with foreign troops, they ob- 
 tained some domestic aid, and the superstition of Na- 
 ples may blush that her fathers were attached to the 
 cause of heresy. But these clandestine or open at- 
 tacks were repelled by the courage and vigilance of 
 the Romans ; the Greeks were overthrown and massa- 
 cred, their leaders suffered an ignominious death, and 
 the popes, however inclined to mercy, refused to in- 
 tercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna,** the 
 several quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody 
 and hereditary feud; in religious controversy they 
 found a new aliment of faction : but the votaries of 
 images were superior in numbers or spirit, and the 
 exarch, who attempted to stem the torrent, lost his life 
 in a popular sedition. To punish this flagitious deed, 
 and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor sent a 
 fleet and army into the Adriatic gulf. After suffering 
 from the winds and waves much loss and delay, the 
 Greeks made their descent in the neighbourhood of 
 Ravenna: they threatened to depopulate the guilty 
 capital, and to imitate, perhaps to surpass, the exam- 
 ple of Justinian the second, who had chastised a for- 
 mer rebellion by the choice and execution of fifty of 
 the principal inhabitants. The women and clergy, in 
 sackcloth and ashes, lay prostrate in prayer ; the men 
 were in arms for the defence of their country; the 
 common danger had united the factions, and the event 
 of a battle was preferred to the slow miseries of a 
 siege. In a hard-fought day, as the two armies alter- 
 nately yielded and advanced, a phantom was seen, a 
 voice was heard, and Ravenna was victorious by the 
 assurance of victory. The strangers retreated to their 
 ships, but the populous sea-coast poured forth a mul- 
 titude of boats ; the waters of the Po were so deeply 
 infected with blood, that during six years, the public 
 prejudice abstained from the fish of the river; and the 
 institution of an annual feast perpetuated the worship 
 of images, and the abhorrence of the Greek tyrant. 
 Amidst the triumph of the catholic arms, the Roman 
 pontiff convened a synod of ninety-three bishops 
 against the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With their 
 consent, he pronounced a general excommunication 
 against all who by word or deed should attack the tra- 
 dition of the fathers and the images of the saints : in 
 this sentence the emperor was tacitly involved,' but 
 the vote of a last and hopeless remonstrance may seein 
 to imply that the anathema was yet suspended over 
 his guilty head. No sooner had they confirmed their 
 own safety, the worship of images, and the freedom 
 of Rome and Italy, than the popes appear to have re- 
 laxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics 
 of the Byzantine dominion. Their moderate counsels 
 delayed and prevented the election of a new emperor, 
 and they exhorted the Italians not to separate from the 
 body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was per- 
 mitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna, a cap- 
 tive rather than a master; and till the imperial coro- 
 nation of Charlemagne, the government of Rome and 
 Italy was exercised in the name of the successors of 
 Constantine.' 
 
 The liberty of Rome, which had been Kepubllc of 
 oppressed by the arms and arts of Angus- Rome. 
 
 q See the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, (in the Scriptores Rerum 
 Italicarum of Muratori, tom. ii. pars i.) whose deeper shade of bar- 
 barism marks the difference between Kome and Ravenna. Yet wa 
 are indebted to him for some curious and domestic facts— the quar- 
 rels and factions of Ravenna, (p. 154.) the revenue of Justinian IL 
 (p. 160, 161.) the defeat of the Greeks, (p. 170, 171.) &c. 
 
 r Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quis .... imaginum 
 sacrarum .... destructor .... extiterit,.sit extorris a corpore D. N. 
 Jesu Christi vel totius ecclesiae unitate. The canonists may decide 
 whether the guilt or the name constitutes the excommunication ; and 
 the decision is of the last importance to their safety, since, according 
 to the oracle, (Gratian Caus. xxiii. p. 5. c. 47. apud. Spanheim. Hist. 
 Imag. p. 112.) homicidas non esse qui excommunicates trucidant. 
 
 • Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans con versionem prin- 
 cipis. (Anastas. p. 156.) Sed ne desisterent ab amore et fide R. 
 J. admonebat. (p. 157.) The popes style Leo and Constantine Co- 
 pronymus, Imperatores et Domini, with the strange epithet of P»w- 
 8imi. A famous Mosaic of the Lateran (A. D. 798.) represents Clhnrt, 
 who delivers the keys to St. Peter, and the banner to Consianiin© Y. 
 (Muratori, Annali d'lulia, torn. vi. p. 337.) 
 
I ! 
 
 
 J'' 
 
 f 
 
 I I 
 
 m 
 
 ITS 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chaf* X* 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 179 
 
 .,: ■? 
 
 
 i 
 
 tu8, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years 
 of servitude, from the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. 
 By the Csesars, the triumphs of the consuls had been 
 annihilated : in the decline and fall of the empire, the 
 god Terminus, the sacred boundary, had insensibly 
 receded from the ocean, the Rhine, the Danube, and 
 the Euphrates ; and Rome was reduced to her ancient 
 territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to 
 the mouth of the Tiber.' When the kings were ba- 
 nished, the republic reposed on the firm basis which 
 had been founded by their wisdom and virtue. Their 
 perpetual jurisdiction was divided between two annual 
 magistrates: the senate continued to exercise the pow- 
 ers of administration and counsel; and the legislative 
 authority was distributed in the assemblies of the peo- 
 ple, by a well-proportioned scale of property and ser- 
 Tice. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive 
 Romans had improved the science of government and 
 war: the will of the community was absolute: the 
 rights of individuals were sacred : one hundred and 
 thirty thousand citizens were armed for defence or 
 conquest; and a band of robbers and outlaws was 
 moulded into a nation, deserving of freedom, and am- 
 bitious of glory." When the sovereignty of the Greek 
 emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Rome pre- 
 sented the sad image of depopulation and decay : her 
 slavery was a habit, her liberty an accident ; the eflfect 
 of superstition, and the object of her own amazement 
 and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or even 
 the forms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the 
 practice and memory of the Romans ; and they were 
 devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to build the fa- 
 bric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the 
 offspring of slaves and strangers, was despicable in 
 the eyes of the victorious barbarians. As often as the 
 Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter con- 
 tempt of a foe, they called him a Roman ; "and in 
 this name," says the bishop Liutprand, " we include 
 whatever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is 
 perfidious, the extremes of avarice and luxury, and 
 every vice that can prostitute the dignity of hunian 
 nature."* By the necessity of their situation, the in- 
 habitants of Rome were cast into the rough model of 
 a republican government: they were compelled to elect 
 some judges in peace, and some leaders in war: the 
 nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves 
 could not be executed without the union and consent 
 of the multitude. The style of the Roman senate and 
 people was revived,'' but the spirit was fled ; and their 
 new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous 
 conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want 
 of laws could only be supplied by the influence of re- 
 ligion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were 
 moderated by the authority of the bishop. His alms, 
 his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and 
 prelates of the west, his recent services, their grati- 
 tude and oath, accustomed the Romans to consider him 
 as the first magistrate or prince of the city. The chris- 
 tian humility of the popes was not offended by the 
 
 t I have traced the Roman duchy according to the maps, and the 
 maps accordine to the excellent dissertation, of father Barettj. (de 
 ChoTographia, fialiae Medii jEvi, sect. xx. p. 21&— -ISi.) Yet I must 
 nicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard foundation, (p. 211.) and 
 that Terracina was usurped by the Greeks. 
 
 u On the extent, population, &c. of the Roman kingdom, the rea- 
 der may peruse, with pleasure, the Disrours Preliminaire to the 
 Republlque Roinaine of M. de Beaufort, (torn, i.) who will not be 
 accused of too much credulity for the early ages of Rome. 
 
 X Quo8 {Rmnanoa) nos lionsrobardi scilicet, Soxones, Fnnci, Lo- 
 thaiingi, Bajoari, Suevi, Burgundioncs, tanto dedignaniur ut inimicos 
 no«tro« commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum nisi Romane, dicamus: 
 hoc solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid ignobililatis, quicquid 
 limidiialis, quicquid avaritiae, quicquid luxuriae, quicquid mendacii, 
 iramo quicquid vitiorum est comprehendentes. (Liutprand. in Legat. 
 Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p 481) For the sins of Cato or Tully, 
 Minos might have imposed, as a fit penance, the daily perusal of this 
 barbarous passage. 
 
 y PIpino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque universa populi ge- 
 neraliias a Deo servaijB RomansB urbis. Codex Carolin. episl. 36. in 
 Script. Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 16(). The names of senatus and sena- 
 tor were never toUUy extinct ; (Dissert. Chorograph. p. 216,217.) but 
 in the middle ages they signified Uule more than aobilcs, opiimates, 
 Ac. (Ducange, Olo68. Latin.) 
 
 name of Domtnus, or Lord ; and their face and inscrip- 
 tion are still apparent on the most ancient coins.* 
 Their temporal donriinion is now confirmed by the re- 
 verence of a thousand years ; and their noblest title is 
 the free choice of a people, whom they had redeemed 
 from slavery. 
 
 In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the Rome attacked 
 holy people of Ehs enjoyed a perpetual t,ards, 
 
 peace, under the protection of Jupiter, A. D. 730-752. 
 and in the exercise of the Olympic eames.* Happy 
 would it have been for the Romans, if a similar privi- 
 lerre had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the 
 calamities of war; if the christians, who visited the 
 holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in 
 the presence of the apostle and his successor. But 
 this mystic circle could have been traced only by the 
 wand of a legislator and a sage : this pacific system 
 was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the 
 popes : the Romans were not addicted, like the inha- 
 bitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of 
 agriculture; and the barbarians of Italy, though soft- 
 ened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states 
 in the institutions of public and private life. A me- 
 morable example of repentance and piety was exhibit- 
 ed by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at 
 the gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the 
 voice of Gregory the second,'* withdrew his troops, re- 
 signed his conquests, respectfully visited the church 
 of^St. Peter, and, after performing his devotions, offer- 
 ed his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his 
 silver cross, and his crown of gold, on the tomb of the 
 apostle. But this religious fervour was the illusion, 
 perhaps the artifice, of the moment ; the sense of in- 
 terest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and ra- 
 pine was congenial to the Lombards; and both the 
 prince and people were irresistibly tempted by the dis- 
 orders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the un- 
 warlike profession of her new chief. On the first 
 edicts of the emperor, they declared themselves the 
 champions of the holy images; Liutprand invaded the 
 province of Romagna, which had already assumed that 
 distinctive appellation ; the catholics of the exarchate 
 yielded without reluctance to his civil and military 
 power; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the 
 first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. 
 That city and fortress were speedily recovered by the 
 active diligence and maritime forces of the Venetians ; 
 and those faithful subjects obeyed the exhortation of 
 Gregory himself, in separating the personal guilt of 
 Leo^from the general cause of the Roman empire.^ 
 The Greeks were less mindful of the service, than the 
 Lombards of the injury : the two nations, hostile in 
 their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous and unnatu- 
 ral alliance : the king and the exarch marched to the 
 conquest of Spoleto and Rome : the storm evaporated 
 without effect, but the policy of Liutprand alarmed 
 Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility and 
 truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the 
 equal enemy of the emperor and the pope : Ravenna 
 was subdued by force or treachery,"* and this final con- 
 quest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who had 
 
 t See Muratori, Antiquit. Iuli» Medii JEvi, lorn. ii. Dissertate 
 xxvii. p. 548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianu* Papa ; (.A. D. 
 772.) on the reverse, Vict. DDNN. with the word CONOB, which tho 
 Pere Joubert (Science dcs Medailles, tom. ii. p. 42) explains by 
 COA'stanlinopoli Officini 3'. (A<cun</a.) . .. 
 
 A See West's Dissertation on the Olympic games, (Pindar, vol. n. 
 p. 32—36. edition in 12mo.) and the judicious redections of Polybius, 
 (tom. i. 1. iv. p. 4G6. edit. Gronov.) , ^ , . ^ , . ^„ 
 
 b The speech of Gresory to the Lombard is finely composed by 
 Sigonius, (de Regno I;ali«, 1. iii. Opera, tom. ii. p. 173.) who imitates 
 the licence and the spirit ofSallust or Li vy. 
 
 c The Venetian historians, John Sagorninus (Chron. Venet. p. IJ ) 
 and the doge Andrew Dandolo. (Scriplorefl Ker. Ital. tom. xii. p. 13j )■ 
 have preserved this epistle of Gregory. The loss and recovery ol 
 Ravenna are mentioned by Paulus Diaconus; (de Gest. Langobard.- 
 1. vi. c. 49. 64. in Script. lul. tom. i. pars i. p. 506. 508.) but our chro- 
 nologists, Pagi, Muratori, &c. cannot asceruin the date or circum- 
 stances, f. 
 
 d The option will depend on the various readings of the Mbs. oi 
 knasias'iua—deceptrat, or dectrpscrat. (Script. Ital. torn. iii. pais u 
 p. 167.) 
 
 reit^ned with a subordinate power since the time of 
 Justinian and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome 
 was summoned to acknowledge the victorious Lom- 
 bard as her lawful sovereign *, and the annual tribute 
 of a piece of gold was fixed as the ransom of each 
 citizen, and the sword of destruction was unsheathed 
 to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Ro- 
 mans hesitated ; they entreated ; they complained ; and 
 the threatening barbarians were checked by arms and 
 negociations, till the popes had engaged the friendship 
 of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps.« 
 Herdeliverance I" '"« distress, the first Gregory had 
 by Pepin, implored the aid of the hero of the age, 
 A. D. 754. q( Charles M artel, who governed the 
 French monarchy with the humble title of mayor or 
 duke ; and who, by his signal victory over the Sara- 
 cens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from 
 the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the pope 
 were received by Charles with decent reverence ; but 
 the greatness of his occupations, and the shortness of 
 his life, prevented his interference in the affairs of 
 Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. 
 His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, 
 assumed the office of champion of the Roman church ; 
 and the zeal of the French prince appears to have been 
 prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the 
 danger was on the banks of the Tiber, the succour on 
 those of the Seine ; and our sympathy is cold to the 
 relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the 
 city, Stephen the third embraced the generous resolu- 
 tion of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy and 
 France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to 
 excite the pity and indignation of his friend. After 
 soothing the public despair by litanies and orations, he 
 undertook this laborious journey with the ambassa- 
 dors of the French monarch and the Greek emperor. 
 The king of the Lombards was inexorable ; but his 
 threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the 
 speed, of the Roman pontiff, who traversed the Pen- 
 nine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St. Maurice, and 
 hastened to grasp the right hand of his protector ; a 
 hand which was never lifted in vain, either in war or 
 friendship. Stephen was entertained as the visible 
 successor of the apostle ; at the next assembly, the 
 field of March, or of May, his injuries were exposed 
 to a devout and warlike nation, and he repassed the 
 Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the 
 head of a French army, which was led by the king in 
 person. The Lombards, after a weak resistance, ob- 
 tained an ignominious peace, and swore to restore the 
 possessions, and to respect the sanctity, of the Roman 
 church. But no sooner was Astolphus delivered from 
 the presence of the French arms, than he forgot his 
 promise and resented his disgrace. Rome was again 
 encompassed by his arms ; and Stephen, apprehensive 
 of fatiguing the zeal of his Transalpine allies, enforced 
 his complaint and request by an eloquent letter in the 
 name and person of St. Peter himself.' The apostle 
 assures his adoptive sons, the king, the clergy, and the 
 nobles of France, that, dead in the flesh, he is still 
 alive in the spirit; that they now hear, and must obey, 
 the voice of the founder and guardian of the Roman 
 church : that the Virgin, the angels, the saints, and 
 the martyrs, and all the host of heaven, unanimously 
 urge the request, and will confess the obligati()n ; that 
 riches, victory, and paradise will crown their pious en- 
 terprise, and that eternal damnation will be the penalty 
 
 * The Codex Carollnus is a collection of the epistles of the popes 
 to Charies Martel, (whom they style Subregulus,) Pepin, and Char- 
 lemagne, as far as the year 791, when it was formed by the last of 
 these princes. His original and authentic MS. (Bibliotheca Cubi- 
 cularis) is new in the imperial library of Vienna, and has been pub- 
 lished by Lambecius and Muratori. (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. 
 pars ii. p. 7.^, &.c.) 
 
 f See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex Carolinus, epist. 
 iii. p. 92. The enemies of the popes have charged them with fraud 
 and blasphemy ; yet they surely meant to persuade rather than de- 
 ceive. This introduction of the dead, or of immortals, was familiar 
 to the ancient orators, though it is executed on this occasion in the 
 rud« fashion of the age. 
 
 Lombardy by 
 
 Charlemagne, 
 
 A. D. 774. 
 
 of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb, his temple, 
 and his people, to fall into the hands of the perfidious 
 Lombards. The second expedition of Pepin was no* 
 less rapid and fortunate than the first : St. Peter was 
 satisfied, Rome was again saved, and Astolphus was 
 taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the 
 scourge of a foreign master. After this double chas- 
 tisement, the Lombards languished about twenty years 
 in a state of languor and decay. But their minds were 
 not yet humbled to their condition ; and instead of af- 
 fecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly 
 harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims, eva- 
 sions, and inroads, which they undertook without re- 
 flection and terminated without glory. On either side, 
 their expiring monarchy was pressed by the zeal and 
 prudence of pope Adrian the first, the genius, the for- 
 tune, and greatness of Charlemagne the son of Pepin; 
 these heroes of the church and state were united in 
 public and domestic friendship, and, while they tram- 
 pled on the prostrate, they varnished their proceedings 
 with the fairest colours of equity and moderation.* 
 The passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were 
 the only defence of the Lombards ; the former were 
 surprised, the latter were invested, by conquest of 
 the son of Pepin ; and after a blockade ~ 
 of two years, Desiderius, the last of their 
 native princes, surrendered his sceptre 
 and his capital. Under the dominion of a foreign 
 king, but in the possession of their national laws, the 
 Lombards became the brethren rather than the subjects 
 of the Franks ; who derived their blood, and manners, 
 and language, from the same Germanic origin.'' 
 
 The mutual obligations of the popes pepj^ and Char- 
 and the Carlovmgian family, lorm the lemagne, kingg 
 important link of ancient and modern, of "f„^p"*L^ ^^ 
 civil and ecclesiastical, history. Li the 
 conquest of Italy, the champions of the Roman church 
 obtained a favourable occasion, a specious title, the 
 wishes of the people, the prayers and intrigues of the 
 clergy. But the most essential gifts of the popes to 
 the Carlovingian race were the dignities of king of 
 France,' and of patrician of Rome. L Under the 
 sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter, the nations began to 
 resume the practice of seeking, on the banks of the 
 Tiber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their 
 fate. The Franks were perplexed between the name 
 and substance of their government. All the powers 
 of royalty were exercised by Pepin, mayor of the 
 palace ; and nothing, except the regal title, was wan- 
 ting to his ambition. His enemies were crushed by 
 his valour; his friends were multiplied by his liberali- 
 ty; his father had been the saviour of Christendom; 
 and the claims of personal merit were repeated and 
 ennobled in a descent of four generations. The name 
 and image of royalty was still preserved in the last 
 descendant of Clovis, the feeble Childeric ; but his 
 obsolete right could only be used as an instrument of 
 sedition ; the nation was desirous of restoring the sim- 
 plicity of the constitution ; and Pepin, a subject and a 
 prince, was ambitious to ascertain his own rank and 
 the fortune of his family. The mayor and the nobles 
 were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to the royal phan- 
 tom ; the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their 
 
 g Except in the divorce of the daughter of Desiderius, whom Char. 
 lemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine. Pope Stephen IV. had 
 most furiously opposed the alliance of a noble Frank — cum perfidia, 
 horrida, nee dicenda,f(UBtenlissima natione Longobardonim— to whom 
 he imputes the first suin of leprosy. (Cod. Carolin. epist. 4.5. p. 17^ 
 179.) Another reason against the marriage was the existence of a 
 first wife. (MuraU»ri, Annali d'lulia, tom. vi. p. 232,233.236, 237. But 
 Charlemagne indulged himself in the freedom of polygamy or con- 
 cubinage. , . , -.__, 
 
 h See the Annali d'ltalia of Muratori, tom. vi. and the three first 
 Dissertations of his Antiquitates Italiae Medii ^vi, torn. i. 
 
 i Besides the common hisUirians, three French critics, Launoy, 
 (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. I. vii. epist. 9. p. 477-487.) Pag'' (Cnuca, A . D. 
 751, No. 1. 6. A.D. 752, No. 1-10.) and Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Nov. 
 Testament!, disserlat. ii. p. 96-107.) have treated this subject of the 
 deposition of Childeric with learning and attention, but with astronff 
 bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet they are hard 
 pressed by the texts which they produce of Eeinhard, Theophane^ 
 and the old annals, Laureshamensis Fuldensis, Lowielani. 
 
 •Ik 
 
 i^ 
 
 1 r 
 
 
 { 
 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
It' 
 
 r i 
 
 ¥ 
 
 11, « 
 I! 
 
 180 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Cha». X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 181 
 
 i, 
 
 t 
 
 eyes; and their common ambassadors addressed the 
 Roman pontiff, to dispel their scruples, or to absolve 
 their promise. The interest of pope Zachary, the suc- 
 cessor of the two Gregories, prompted him to decide, 
 and to decide in their favour : he pronounced that the 
 nation might lawfully unite, in the same person, the title 
 and authority of king; and that the unfortunate Childe- 
 ric, a victim of the public safety, should be degraded, 
 shaved, and confined in a monastery for the remainder 
 of his days. An answer so agreeable to their wishes 
 was accepted by the Franks, as the opinion of a casu- 
 ist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet: 
 the Merovingian race disappeared from the earth ; and 
 Pepin was exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a 
 free people, accustomed to obey his laws, and to march 
 under his standard. His coronation was twice per- 
 formed, with the sanction of the popes, by their most 
 faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, 
 and by the grateful hands of Stephen the third, who, 
 in the monastery of St. Denys, placed the diadem on 
 the head of his benefactor. The royal unction of the 
 kings of Israel was dexterously applied ; * the succes- 
 sor of St. Peter assumed the character of a divine am- 
 bassador: a German chieftain was transformed into 
 the Lord's anointed ; and this Jewish rite has been dif- 
 fused and maintained by the superstition and vanity 
 of modern Europe. The Franks were absolved from 
 their ancient oath : but a dire anathema was thundered 
 against them and their posterity, if they should dare 
 to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a 
 king, except in the holy and meritorious race of the 
 Carlovingian princes. Without apprehending the fu- 
 ture danger, these princes gloried in their present se- 
 curity : the secretary of Charlemagne affirms, that the 
 French sceptre was transferred by the authority of the 
 popes;' and, in their boldest enterprises, they insist, 
 with confidence, on this signal and successful act of 
 temporal jurisdiction. 
 
 Patricians of H. In the change of manners and Ian- 
 
 Rome, guage, the patricians of Rome™ were far 
 
 removed from the senate of Romulus, or the palace of 
 Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or 
 the fictitious parents of the emperor. After the reco- 
 very of Italy and Africa by the arms of Justinian, the 
 importance and danger of those remote provinces re- 
 quired the presence of a supreme magistrate; he was 
 indifferently styled the exarch or the patrician; and 
 these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place in the 
 chronology of princes, extended their jurisdiction over 
 the Roman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the loss 
 of the exarchate, the distress of the Romans had ex- 
 acted some sacrifice of their independence. Yet, even 
 in this act, they exercised the right of disposing of 
 themselves ; and the decrees of the senate and people 
 successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity 
 with the honours of patrician of Rome. The leaders 
 of a powerful nation would have disdained a servile 
 title and subordinate oflice ; but the reign of the Greek 
 emperors was suspended ; and, in the vacancy of the 
 empire, they derived a more glorious commission from 
 the pope and the republic. The Roman ambassadors 
 presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine 
 of St. Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty ; 
 
 k Not absolutely for the first time. On a less conspicuous theatre, 
 It had bpen used, iu the sixth and seventh centuries, by the provin- 
 cial bishops of Britain and Spain. The royal unction of Constanti- 
 nople was borrowed from the Latins in the last age of the empire. 
 Constantine Manasses mentions that of Charlemagne as a foreign, 
 Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See Selden's Titles of Honour, 
 in his Works, vol. iii. part. i. p. 234—2-19. 
 
 1 See Eginhard, in Vila Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9, &c. c. iii. p. 24. 
 Childeric was deposed— J«ssii, the Carlovingians were established— 
 auctoritate, Poniificis Komani. Launoy, &c. pretend that these 
 strong words are susceptible of a very soft interpretation. Be it so ; yet 
 Eginhard understood the world, the court, and the Latin language. 
 
 'm For the title and powers of patrician of Rome, see Ducan^ge, 
 (Gloss. Latin, tom. v. p. 149-151.) Pagi, (Critica, A. D. 740, No. 6^- 
 11.) Muratori, (Annali d'lialia, tom. vi. p. 308—329.) and St. Marc. 
 (Abrege Chronologique d'ltalie, tom. I. p. 379—382.) Of these the 
 Franciscan Pagi is the most disposed to make the p«triciaa a lieute- 
 &aat of the church, rather than of the empire. 
 
 with a holy banner, which it was their right and duty 
 to unfurl in the defence of the church and city.» In 
 the time of Charles Martel and of Pepin, the interpo- 
 sition of the Lomb? kingdom covered the freedom, 
 while it threatened tne safely, of Rome ; and the patri- 
 ciate represented only the title, the service, the alliance, 
 of these distant protectors. The power and policy of 
 Charlemagne annihilated an enemy and imposed a 
 master. In his first visit to the capital, he was re- 
 ceived with all the honours which had formerly been 
 paid to the exarch, the representative of the emperor; 
 and these honours obtained some new decorations from 
 the joy and gratitude of pope Adrian the first.** No 
 sooner was he informed of the sudden approach of the 
 monarch, than he despatched the magistrates and no- 
 bles of Rome to meet him, with the banner, about 
 thirty miles from the city. At the distance of one 
 mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the tchools^ or 
 national communities, of Greeks, Lombards, Saxons, 
 &c. : the Roman youth were under arms; and the 
 children of a more tender age, with palms and olive 
 branches in their hands, chanted the praises of their 
 great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses, and 
 ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his horse, 
 led the procession of the nobles to the Vatican, and, 
 as he ascended the stairs, devoutly kissed each step 
 of the threshold of the apostles. In the portico, Adrian 
 expected him at the head of his clergy : they embraced, 
 as friends and equals ; but in their march to the altar, 
 the king or patrician assumed the right hand of the 
 pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and 
 empty demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six 
 years that elapsed between the conquest of Lombardy 
 and his imperial coronation, Rome, which had been 
 delivered by the a word, was subject, as his own, to the 
 sceptre of Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance 
 to his person and family: in his name money wai 
 coined, and justice was administered ; and the election 
 of the popes was examined and confirmed by his au- 
 thority. Except an original and self-inherent claim 
 of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remain- 
 ing, which the title of emperor could add to the patri- 
 cian of Rome.' 
 
 The gratitude of the Carlovingians 
 was adequate to these obligations, and 
 their names are consecrated, as ihe sa- 
 viours and benefactors of the Roman 
 church. Her ancient patrimony of farms and houses 
 was transformed by their bounty into the temporal do- 
 minion of cities and provinces ; and the donation of the 
 exarchate was the first-fruits of the conquests of Pe- 
 pin.** Astolphus with a sigh relinquished his prey; 
 the keys and the hostages of the principal cities were 
 delivered to the French ambassador ; and, in his mas- 
 ter's name, he presented them before the tomb of St. 
 Peter. The ample measure of the exarchate ' might 
 
 ■ The papal advocates can soflen the symbolic meaning of ths 
 banner and the keys ; but the style of ad regnum dimisimus, or di- 
 reximus, (Codex Cfarulin. epist. i. lorn. iii. pars ii. p. 7S.) seems \a 
 allow of no palliation or escape. In the MS. of the Vienna library, 
 they read instead of regnum, rogum, prayer or request, (see Du- 
 cange ;) and the royalty of Charles Martel is subyerted by this im 
 portant correction. (Catalini, in his Critical Prefaces Anaalid'Iuli*, 
 tom. XTii. p. 95—99.) 
 
 In the authentic narratiTe of this reception, the Liber Ponlificinil 
 obseryes— obYiam illi ejus sanctitas dirigens venerabiles cruces, id 
 estsigna; sicut mos est ad exarchum aut patricium suscipiendutn, 
 eum cum ingenti honore suscipl fecit, (tom. iii. pars i. p. 185.) 
 
 p Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before the empire of Charlemagne, 
 describes Rome as his subject city— Yesiras civiutes, (ad Pompeium 
 Fesiom,) suis addidit sceptris, (de Metensis Ecclesia Episcopis.) 
 Some Carlovingian medals, struck at Rome, have engaged Le Blanc 
 to write an elaborate, though partial, dissertation on their authority 
 at Rome, both as patricians and emperors. (Amsterdam, lo92. 
 in 4to.) 
 
 1 Mosheim (Institution Hist. Eccles. p. 263.) weighs this donation 
 with fair and deliberate prudence. The original act has never been 
 produced: but the Liber Pontificalia represents, (p. 171 ) and the 
 Codex Carolinus supposes, this ample gin. Both are contemporary 
 records; and the latter is the more authentic, since it has been pre- 
 served, not in the papal, but the imperial, library. 
 
 r Between the exorbitant claims and narrow concessions of inte- 
 rest and prejudice, from which even Muratori (Antiquiiat. tom. i. p« 
 63—68) IS not exempt, I have been guided, la the limita of the ex- 
 
 Donations of Pe- 
 pin and Char- 
 lemagne to ths 
 popes. 
 
 ! 
 
 comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed 
 the emperor and his vicegerent ; but its strict and pro- 
 per limits were included in the territories of Ravenna, 
 Bologna, and Ferrara : its inseperable dependency was 
 the Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from 
 Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland 
 country as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In this 
 transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes had 
 been severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a 
 christian priest should have rejected an earthly king- 
 dom, which it was not easy for him to govern without 
 renouncing the virtues of his profession. Perhaps a 
 faithful subject, or even a generous enemy, would have 
 been less impatient to divide the spoils of the barbarian; 
 and if the emperor had intrusted Stephen to solicit in 
 his name the restitution of the exarchate, I will not 
 absolve the pope from the reproach of treachery and 
 falsehood. But in the rigid interpretation of the laws, 
 every one may accept, without injury, whatever his 
 benefactor can bestow without injustice. The Greek 
 emperor had abdicated, or forfeited, his right to the 
 exarchate; and the sword^of Astolphus was broken by 
 the stronger sword of the Carlovingian. It was not 
 in the cause of the Iconoclast that Pepin had exposed 
 his person and army in a double expedition beyond the 
 Alps : he possessed, and might lawfully alienate, his 
 conquests : and to the importunities of the Greeks he 
 piously replied, that no human consideration should 
 tempt him to resume the gift which he had conferred 
 on the Roman pontiff for the remission of his sins and 
 the salvation of his soul. The splendid donation was 
 granted in supreme and absolute dominion, and the 
 world beheld for the first time a christian bishop in- 
 vested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the 
 choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the im- 
 position of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ra- 
 venna. In the dissolution of the Lombard kingdom, 
 the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto • sought a re- 
 fuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the Ro- 
 man fashion, declared themselves the servants and 
 subjects of St. Peter, and completed, by this voluntary 
 surrender, the present circle of the ecclesiastical state. 
 That mysterious circle was enlarged to an infinite 
 extent, by the verbal or written donation of Charle- 
 magne,* who, in the first transports of his victory, 
 despoiled himself and the Greek emperor of the cities 
 and islands which had formerly been annexed to the 
 exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and 
 reflection, he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, 
 the recent greatness of his ecclesiastical ally. The 
 execution of his own and his father's promises was 
 respectfully eluded : the king of the Franks and Lom- 
 bards asserted the inalienable rights of the empire ; 
 and, in his life and death, Ravenna," as well as Rome, 
 was numbered in the list of his metropolitan cities. The 
 sovereignty of the exarchate melted away in the hands 
 of the popes : they found in the archbishops of Ra- 
 venna a dangerous and domestic rival :' the nobles and 
 people disdained the yoke of a priest; and, in the dis- 
 
 trchate and Pentapolis, by the Dissertalio Chorographica Italiae 
 Medii ^vi, tom. x. p. 160—180. 
 
 • Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eos in servitio B. Petri reciperet et 
 more Romanoruni lonsurari facerel. (Anastasius, p. 185.) Yet it 
 may be a question wliether they gave their own persons or their 
 country. 
 
 t The policy and donations of Charlemagne are carefully examined 
 by St. Marc, (Abrige, tom. i. p. 390-408.) who has well studied the 
 Codex Caroli nus. I believe, with him, that they were only verbal. 
 The most ancient act of donation that pretends to be extant, is that 
 of the emperor Lewis the Pious. (Sigonius, de Regno Iuli2B, 1. iv. 
 Opera, tom. ii. p. 267-270.) Its authenticity, or at least its integrity, 
 are much questioned, (Pagi, A. D. 817, No. 7, &c. Muratori, Annali, 
 tom. vi. p. 432, &c. Dissertat. Chorographica, p. 33, 34.) but I see no 
 reasonable objection to these princes so freely disposing of what was 
 not their own. . 
 
 tt Charlemagne solicited and obtained from the proprietor, Hadrian 
 I. the mosaics of the palace of Ravenna, for the decoration of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle. (Cod. Carolin. epist. 67. p. 223.) 
 
 X The popes often complain of the usurpation of Leo of Ravenna. 
 (Codex (farolin. epist. 51—53. p. 200—205.) Si corpus St. Andreae 
 frairis germani St. Petri hie humasset, nequaquam nos Romani pon- 
 tifices sic subjugassent. (Agnellus, Liber Fontificalis, in Scriptores 
 Kerum Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 107.) 
 
 orders of the times, they could only retain the memory 
 of an ancient claim, which, in a more prosperous age 
 they have revived and realized. 
 
 Fraud is the resource of weakness and Forgery of the 
 cunning; and the strong though ignorant donation of Con 
 barbarian, was often entangled in the net s^ni»ne- 
 of sacerdotal policy. The Vatican and Lateran were 
 an arsenal and manufacture, which, according to the 
 occasion, have produced or concealed a various collec- 
 tion of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious, acts, 
 as they tended to promote the interest of the Roman 
 church. Before the end of the eighth century, some 
 apostolical scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, com- 
 posed the decretals, and the donation of Constantine, 
 the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal 
 monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation was 
 introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian the 
 first, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberali- 
 ty, and revive the name, of the great Constantine.^ 
 According to the legend, the first of the christian em- 
 perors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the 
 waters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Roman bish- 
 op ; and never was physician more gloriously recom- 
 pen.sed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the seat 
 and patrimony of St. Peter ; declared his resolution of 
 founding a new capital in the east; and resigned to the 
 popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, 
 Italy, and the provinces of the west.' This fiction was 
 productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek 
 princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation : and 
 the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful in- 
 heritance. The popes were delivered from their debt 
 of gratitude ; and the nominal gifts of the Carlovin- 
 gians were no more than the just and irrevocable res- 
 titution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state. 
 The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the 
 choice of a fickle people ; and the successors of St.. 
 Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple 
 and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the ig- 
 norance and credulity of the times, that the most ab- 
 surd of fables was received, with equal reverence, in 
 Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among th& 
 decrees of the canon law.* The emperors, and the 
 Romans, were incapable of discerning a forgery, that 
 subverted their rights and freedom ; and the only op- 
 position proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in 
 the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth 
 and validity of the donation of Constantine.'' In the 
 revival of letters and liberty this fictitious deed was 
 transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla, the pen of 
 an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot.* His contem- 
 
 r Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S. R. Ecclesia 
 elevata exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hisperiae partibus largiri 
 dignatus est ... . Quia ecce novus Constantinus his temporibus, &c. 
 (Cl>dex Carolin. epist. 49. in tom. iii. part. ii. p. 195.) Pagi (Critica, 
 A. D. 324, No. 16.) ascribes them to an impostor of the eighth century, 
 who borrowed the name of St. Isidore : his humble title of Peccator 
 was ienorantly, but aptly, turned into JVfcrca/ or; his merchandise 
 was indeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper were sold for much 
 wealth and power. 
 
 t Fabricius (Bibliot. Gr«c. tom. vi. p. 4—7.) has enumerated the 
 several editions of this Act, in Greek and I.atin. The copy which 
 Laurentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to be taken either from 
 the spurious Acts of St. Silvester, or from Gratian's Decree, to which, 
 according to him and others, it has been surrepticiously tacked. 
 
 a In the year 1059, it was believed (was it believed ?) by pope Leo 
 IX., Cardinal Peter Damianus, &c. Muratori places (Annali d'ltalia, 
 tom. ix. p. 23, 24.) the fictitious donations of Lewis the Pious, the 
 Othos, Ace. de Donatione Consiantini. See a Disserution of Natalia 
 Alexander, seculum iv. diss. 25. p. 3.S5— 350. 
 
 b See a large account of the controversy, (A. D. 1105.) which arose 
 from a private law-suit, in the Chronicon. Farsense, (Script. Kerum 
 Italicarum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 637, &c.) a copious extract from "»« ar- 
 chives of that Benedictine abbey. They were formeriy accessible 
 to curious foreigners, (Le Blanc and Mabillon,) and would have en- 
 riched the first volume of the Hisioria Monastica Italiae of Quirim. 
 But they are now imprisoned, (Muratori, Scriptores K. 1. i^'"- »• 
 pars ii. p. 269.) by the timid policy of the court of Rome ; and the 
 future cardinal yielded to the voice of authority and the whispers of 
 ambition. (Quirini, Comment, pars ii. p. 12-3-1360 
 
 c I have read in the collection of Schardius, (de Potestate Impenali . 
 Ecclesiastica, p. 734-780.) this animated discourse, which waa com- 
 posed by the author, A. D. 1440, six years after the flight of pope 
 Eugenius IV. It is a most vehement party pamphlet : Valla justifiei 
 and animates the revolt of the Romans, and would even approve th« 
 use of a dagger against their sacerdotal tyrant. Such a cntic migW 
 
 ^i 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
ill 
 
 182 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chaj*. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 183 
 
 
 
 ^J^ 
 
 
 il 
 
 
 Restoration of 
 images in the 
 eaai by the em- 
 press Irene, 
 A. D. 780, &c. 
 
 ii 
 
 poraries of the fifteenth century were astonished at his 
 sacrilegious holdness ; yet such is the silent and irre- 
 sistible progress of reason, that before the end of the 
 next age, the fable was rejected by the contempt of his- 
 torians «» and poets,* and the tacit or modest censure 
 of the advocates of the Roman church.' The popes 
 themselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of 
 the vulgar;* but a false and obsolete title slill sancti- 
 fies their reign ; and, by the same fortune which has 
 attended the decretals and the Sibylline oracles, the 
 edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been 
 undermined. 
 
 While the popes established in Italy 
 their freedom and dominion, the images, 
 the first cause of their revolt, were re- 
 stored in the eastern empire.** Under 
 the reign of Constantino the fifth, the 
 union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown 
 the tree, without extirpating the root, of superstition. 
 The idols, for such they were now held, were secretly 
 cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devo- 
 tion ; and the fond alliance of the monks and females 
 obtained a final victory over the reason and authority 
 of man. Leo the fourth maintained with less rigour 
 the religion of his father and grandfather; but his 
 wife, the fair and ambitious Irene, had imbibed the 
 zeal of the Athenians, the heirs of the idolatry, rather 
 than the philosophy, of their ancestors. During the 
 life of her husband, these sentiments were inflanved 
 by danger and dissimulation, and she could only labour 
 to protect and promote some favourite monks whom 
 she drew from their caverns, and seated on the metro- 
 politan thrones of the east. But as soon as she reigned 
 in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seri- 
 ously undertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts ; and the 
 first step of her future persecution was a general edict 
 for liberty of conscience. In the restoration of the 
 monks, a thousand images were exposed to the public 
 Teneration; a thousand legends were invented of their 
 fiufferings and miracles. By the opportunities of death 
 or removal, the episcopal seats were judiciously filled ; 
 the most eager competitors for earthly or celestial fa- 
 vour anticipated and flattered the judgment of their 
 sovereign ; and the promotion of her secretary Tara- 
 sius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople, and 
 the command of the oriental church. But the decrees 
 of a general council could only be repealed by a simi- 
 lar assembly : ' the Iconoclasts whom she convened, 
 
 expect the persecution of the clerpy ; yet he made his peace, and is 
 buried in the Lateran. (Bayle, Diciionnaire Critique, Valla; Vossius ; 
 de Historicis Latinis, p. 590.) 
 
 d See Guicciardini, a servant of the popes, in that long and valua- 
 ble digression, which has resumed its place in the last edition, cor- 
 rectly published from the author's MS. and printed in four volumes 
 in quarto, under the name of Friburgo, 1775. (Istoria d'ltalia, torn. i. 
 p. 385—395.) 
 
 • The Paladin Astolpho found it in the moon, among the things 
 that were loet upon earth. (Orlando Furioso, xxxiv. 80.) 
 Di vari fiore ad un grand monte passa, 
 Ch'ebbe gia buono odore, or puzza forte 
 Queslo era il dono (ae pero air lece) 
 Che Constantino al buon Silvesiro fece. 
 Yet this Incomparable poem has been approved by a boll of Leo X. 
 
 f See Baronius, A. D. 324. No. 117-123. A.D.lldl, No.51,&c. The 
 cardinal wishes to suppose that Rome was offered by Consiantine, 
 and refused by Silvester. The act of donation he considers, strangely 
 enoijgh, as a forgery of the Greelu. 
 
 S Baronius n'en dit guerres contre; encore en a-t-il trop dit, et I'on 
 Youloit sans moi, (.Cardinal du Perron,) qui I'empechaij^ensurer 
 cette partie de son histoire. J'en devisai un jour avec le Pape, et il 
 ne me repondit autre chose " che volete ) i Canonici la lengono," il 
 le disoit en riant. (Perroniana, p. 77.) 
 
 a The remaining history of images, from Irene to Theodora, Is col- 
 lected, for the catholics bv Baronius and Pagi, (A. D. 780-^40.) Na- 
 talis Alexander, (Hist. N. P. Seculum viii. Panoplia adversiia Hsere- 
 ticoe, p. 118—178.) and Dupiu ; (Bibliot. Eccles. torn. vi. p. 136— 1.t4.) 
 for the protpsianis by Spanheim, (Hisi. Imag. p. 305—639.) Basnage, 
 (Hist, de I'Egl.ie, torn. i. p. 556—572. tom. ii. p. 1362—1385.) and 
 Mosheim. (Institut. Hist. Eccles. secul. viii. et ix.) The protcsunts, 
 except Mosheim, are soured with controversy; but the catholics, ex- 
 cept I)upin, are inflamed by the fury and superstition of the monks; 
 and even Le Beau, (Hist, du Bas Empire,) a gentleman and a scho- 
 lar, is infected by the odious contagion. 
 
 i See the Acts, in Greek and Laiin, of the second council of Nice, 
 with a number of relative pieces, in the seventh volume of the Coun- 
 cils, p. 645—1600. A faithful version, with some critical notes, would 
 provoke, in different readers, a sigh or a smile. 
 
 were bold in possession, and averse to debate; and the 
 feeble voice of the bishops was re-echoed by the more 
 formidable clamour of the soldiers and people of Con- 
 stantinople. The delay and intrigues of ymh general 
 a year, the separation of the disaffected council, lid. of 
 troops, and the choice of Nice for a se- j^'d^jst, 
 cond orthodox synod, removed these ob- Sept.* 24— 
 stacles; and the episcopal conscience Oct. 23. 
 was again, after the Greek fashion, in the hands of the 
 prince. No more than eighteen days were allowed for 
 the consummation of this important work : the Icono- 
 clasts appeared, not as judges, but as criminals or 
 penitents ; the scene was decorated by the legates of 
 pope Adrian and the eastern patriarch ;^ the decrees 
 were framed by the president Tarasius, and ratified by 
 the acclamations and subscriptions of three hundred 
 and fifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that 
 the worship of images is agreeable to Scripture and 
 reason, to the fathers and councils of the church : but 
 they hesitate whether that worship be relative or di- 
 rect; whether the Godhead, and the figure of Christ, 
 be entitled to the same mode of adoration. Of this 
 second Nicene council, the acts are still extant; a 
 curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of 
 falsehood and folly. I shall only notice the judgment 
 of the bishops, on the comparative merit of image wor- 
 ship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce 
 with the daemon of fornication, on condition of inter- 
 ruptinor his daily prayers to a picture that hung in his 
 cell. ?Iis scruples prompted him to consult the abbot. 
 »' Rather than abstain from adoring Christ and his 
 mother in their holy images, it would be better for 
 you," replied the casuist, ** to enter every brothel, and 
 visit every prostitute, in the city." ' 
 
 For the honour of orthodoxy, at least Final establish- 
 the orthodoxy of the Roman church, it g.^'Ji^^emp^eS 
 is somewhat unfortunate, that the two Theodora, 
 princes who convened the two councils A.D. 842. 
 of Nice are both stained with the blood of their sons. 
 The second of these assemblies was approved and 
 rigorously executed by the despotism of Irene, ana 
 she refused her adversaries the toleration which at 
 first she had granted to her friends. During the five 
 succeeding reigns, a period of thirty-eight years, the 
 
 contest was maintained, with unabated rag| and vari 
 ous success, between the worshippers and^he break- 
 ers of the images ; but I am not inclined to pur- 
 sue with minute diligence the repetition of the same 
 events. Nicephorus allowed a general liberty of 
 speech and practice ; and the only virtue of his reign 
 is accused by the monks as the cause of his temporal 
 and eternal perdition. Superstition and weakness 
 formed the character of Michael the first, but the 
 saints and images were incapable of supporting their 
 votary on the throne. In the purple, Leo the fifth as- 
 serted the name and religion of an Armenian ; and the 
 idols, with their seditious adherents, were condemned 
 to a second exile. Their applause would have sanc- 
 tified the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassin 
 and successor, the second Michael, was tainted from 
 his birth with the Phrygian heresies : he attempted to 
 mediate deiween the contending parties ; and the in- 
 tractable spirit of the catholics insensibly cast him 
 into the opposite scale. His moderation was guarded 
 by timidity ; but his son Theophilus, alike ignorant 
 of fear and pity, was the last and most cruel of the 
 Iconoclasts. The enthusiasm of the times ran strongly 
 against them; and the emperors, who st emmed the 
 
 k The pope's legates were casual messengers, two priests without 
 any special commission, and who were disavowed on their return. 
 Some vagabond monks were persuaded by the catholics to represent 
 the orienial patriarchs. This curious anecdote is revealed by The- 
 odore Studites, (episi. i. 38. in Sirmond. 0pp. tom. v. p. 1319.) one 
 of the warmest Iconoclasts of the age. 
 
 I 2:v^?i(i« St «*o« ftn x»r«A.nrn» iv t<i jroXit toiwtii ^o^vkov i<( o Mt 
 
 Xfirnv <««»* Tuc »J«"f •uT«u fi>ir(<i( t* IIX8VI. These visits could not 
 be innocent, since tlie ^»*m<"* «-ej»i«»« (the d»mon of fornication) 
 
 iv. p. 901. Actio v. p. 1031. 
 
 ) 
 
 torrent, were exasperated and punished by the public 
 hatred. After the death of Theophilus, the final vic- 
 tory of the images was achieved by a second female, 
 his widow Theodora, whom he left the guardian of the 
 empire. Her measures were bold and decisive. The 
 fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fame and 
 the soul of her deceased husband ; the sentence of the 
 Iconoclast patriarch was commuted from the loss of 
 his eyes to a whipping of two hundred lashes ; the 
 bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and the festival 
 of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the tri- 
 umph of the images. A single question yet remained, 
 whether they are endowed with any proper and inhe- 
 rent sanctity: it was agitated by the Greeks of the 
 eleventh century;" and as this opinion has the strong- 
 est recommendation of absurdity, I am surprised that 
 it was not more explicitly decided in the aflirmative. 
 In the west pope Adrian the first accepted and an- 
 nounced the decrees of the Nicene assembly, which 
 is now revered by the catholics as the seventh in 
 rank of the general councils. Rome and Italy were 
 docile to the voice of their father; but the greatest 
 part of the Latin christians were far behind in the race 
 . of superstition. The churches of France, 
 iheF^ran^kJ.and Germany, England, and Spain, steered 
 ofChariomagne, a middle course between the adoration 
 A.D.794, &c. ^^^ ^jjg destruction of images, which 
 they admitted into their temples, not as objects of 
 worship, but as lively and useful memorials of faith 
 and history. An angry book of controversy was com- 
 posed and published in the name of Charlemagne;" 
 under his authority a synod of three hundred bishops 
 was assembled at Frankfort:*' they blamed the fury 
 of the Iconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe 
 censure against the superstition of the Greeks, and the 
 decrees of their pretended council, which was long 
 despised by the barbarians of the west.P Among them 
 the worship of images advanced with silent and insen- 
 sible progress; but a large atonement is made for their 
 hesitation and delay, by the gross idolatry of the ages 
 which precede the reformation, and of the countries, 
 both in Europe and America, which are still immersed 
 in the gloom of superstition. 
 
 It was after the Nicene synod, and 
 
 rfSfe'j:r«fmm ""de' 'h« '^'>S« "f «t<e pious Irene, that 
 the Eastern em- the popes consummated the separation 
 
 ^I'^n rri_flnn ©^ Rome and Italy, by the translation of 
 A.u.77*-tjuu. ^^^ ^^p.^^ ^^ ^^^ jggg orthodox Charie- 
 
 magne. They were compelled to choose between the 
 rival nations : religion was not the sole motive of their 
 choice; and while they dissembled the failings of their 
 friends, they beheld, with reluctance and suspicion, the 
 catholic virtues of their foes. The difference of lan- 
 guage and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the 
 two capitals; and they were alienated from each other 
 by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that 
 schism the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the 
 popes of sovereignty : their submission would have 
 exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant; and 
 the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as 
 well as the tyranny, of the Byzantine court. The 
 Greek emperors had restored the images, but they had 
 
 m See an account of this controversy in the Alexius of Anna Com- 
 nena, (I. v p. 129.) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 371, 372.) 
 
 > The Librl Carolini, (Spanheim, p. 443—529.) composed in the 
 palace or winter-quarters of Charlemagne, at Worms, A. D 790; and 
 sent by Engebert to pope Hadrian I. who answered them b^ a gran- 
 dis et verbosa epistola, (Concil. tom. viii. p. 1553.) The Carolines 
 propose 120 objections against the Nicene synod, and such words as 
 these are the flowers of their rhetoric— dementi am . . prisc» Gen- 
 
 lilitaiis obsoletum errorem argumenta insanissima et absur- 
 
 dissima . . • . derisione dignas neenias, &c. &c. 
 
 o The assemblies of Charlem'>ene were political, as well as eccle- 
 siastical : aiul the three hundred members (Nat. Alexander, sec. viii. 
 g. 53.) who sat and voted at Frankfort must include not only the 
 ishops, but the abbots, and even the principal laymen. 
 
 p tjui supra sanciissima patres nostri (episcopi et sacerdotes) om- 
 nitnodis serviiium et adoraiionem ima^inum renuenles contempse- 
 runt, alque consenlientes condemnaverunt. (Concil. tom. ix. p. 101. 
 Canon, ii. Franckfurd.) A polemic must be hard-hearted indeed, who 
 does not pity the efforts of Baronius, Pagi, Alexander, Maimbuurg, 
 fcc. to elude this unlucky sentence. 
 
 not restored the Calabrian estates*! and the Illyriaa 
 diocese,' which the Iconoclasts had torn away from the 
 successors of St. Peter; and pope Adrian threatens them 
 with a sentence of excommunication unless they spec* 
 dily abjure this practical heresy.* The Greeks were 
 now orthodox, but their religion might be tainted by the 
 breath of the reigning monarch : the Franks were now 
 contumacious ; but a discerning eye might discern 
 their approaching conversion from the use, to the ado- 
 ration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was 
 stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes ; but 
 the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of 
 a statesman, to the various practice of France and 
 Italy. In his four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, 
 he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship 
 and piety ; knelt before the tomb, and consequently 
 before the image, of the apostle; and joined, without 
 scruple, in all the prayers and processions of the Ro- 
 man liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the 
 pontiffs to renounce their benefactor? Had they a 
 right to alienate his gift of the exarchate ? Had they 
 power to abolish his government of Rome ? The title 
 of patrician was below the merit and greatness of 
 Charlemagne ; and it was only by reviving the wes- 
 tern empire that they could pay their obligations or 
 secure their establishment. By this decisive measure 
 they would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks: 
 from the debasement of a provincial town, the majesty 
 of Rome would be restored : the Latin christians 
 would be united, under a supreme head, in their an- 
 cient metropolis ; and the conquerors of the west 
 would receive their crown from the successors of St, 
 Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous 
 and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of 
 the Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, 
 with honour and safety, the government of the city.* 
 
 Before the ruin of paganism iii Rome, coronation of 
 the competition for a wealthy bishopric 
 had often been productive of tumult and 
 bloodshed. The people were less nu- 
 merous, but the times were more savage, 
 the prize more important, and the chair 
 of St. Peter was fiercely disputed by the leading ec- 
 clesiastics who aspired to the rank of sovereign. The 
 reign of Adrian the first" surpasses the measure of 
 past or succeeding ages;* the walls of Rome, the 
 
 q Theophanes (p. 343.) specifies those of Sicilv and Calabria, which 
 yielded an annual rent of three talents and a half of gold, (perhapf 
 7000Z. sterling.) Liutprand more pompously enumerates the patri- 
 monies of the Roman church in Greece, Judaea, Persia, Mesopot*. 
 mia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Libya, which were detained by the injus- 
 tice of the Greek emperor. (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in ScripuReruA 
 Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) . .^ .,.«,». . 
 
 r The great diocese of the eastern Illyrtcum, with Apulia, Calalma, 
 and Sicily, (Thomasin, Discipline de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 145.) by the 
 confession of the Greeks, the patriarch of Constantinople had de- 
 tached from Rome the metropolitans of Thessalonica, Athens, Co- 
 rinth, Nicopolis, and Patra, (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 92.) 
 and his spiritual conquests extended to Naples and Amalphi. (Giaa- 
 none, Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. I. p. 517—524. Pagi, A. D. 730. 
 
 No. 11.) . . , V • • It 
 
 • In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore reversis in aliit 
 duobus, in eodem (was it the same?) permaneant errore . . . . de dio- 
 cesi S. R. E. seu de patrimoniis iterum increpantes commonemus, ut 
 si ea restituere noluerit hereticum eum pro hujusmodi errore perse- 
 verantia decernemus, (Epist. Hadrian. Fapae ad Carolum Magnum, 
 in Concil. U.m. viii. p. 1598.) to which he adds a reason, most directly 
 opposite to his conduct, that he preferred the salvation of souls and 
 rule of faith to the goods of this transitory world. 
 
 t Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than the tdvocaiei 
 of the church, (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See Ducange. Gloes. 
 Lai. tom. i. p. 297.) His antagonist Muratori reduces the popes to be 
 no more than the exarchs of the emperor. In the more equitable 
 view of Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 264, 265.) they held Rome 
 under the empire as the most honourable speciesof fief or benefice— 
 premuntur nocte caliginosa! , i.-- •-!.• 
 
 u His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of thirty-eigM 
 verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author, (Ooncil. 
 tom. viii. p. 520.) • -: 
 
 Post patrem lacrymans Carolus hsec camiina scripsi. 
 Tu mihi dulcis amor, te inodo plango pater . . . 
 Nomina jungo simul titulis, clarissime, nostra 
 Adrianus, Carolus, rex eeo, tuque pater. ^^ 
 
 The poetry might be supplied by Alcum; but the tears, the mott 
 glorious tribute, can only belong to Charlemagne. 
 
 X Every new pope is admonished-" Sancte Pater, noa videbis an- 
 nos Petri," twenty-five years. On the whole series the averase 11 
 about eight years— a short hope for an ambitious cardmaL 
 
 Charlemagne 
 as emperor of 
 Rome and of 
 the west, 
 A.D. 800. 
 Dec. 25* 
 
 II 
 
 
 H 
 
 \ 
 
'i\ 
 
 184 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Cbap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 185 
 
 ?; 
 
 I' 
 
 ♦♦ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ft' 
 
 lit 
 
 \n 
 
 
 1.1'' 
 
 sacred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards, and the 
 friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his 
 fame : he secretly edified the throne of his successors, 
 and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great 
 prince. His memory was revered; but in the next 
 election, a priest of the Lateran, Leo the third, was 
 preferred to the nephew and the favourite of Adrian, 
 ■whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the 
 church. Their acquiescence or repentance disguised, 
 above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, 
 till the day of a procession, when a furious band of 
 conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude, and 
 assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person 
 of the pope. But their enterprise on his life or liberty 
 was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and 
 lemorse. Leo was left for dead on the ground ; on his 
 revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of blood, 
 he recovered his speech and sight ; and this natural 
 event was improved to the miraculous restoration of 
 his eyes and tongue, of which he had been deprived, 
 twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins.^ From 
 his prison he escaped to the Vatican ; the duke of 
 Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne sympa- 
 thized in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in 
 Westphalia accepted, or solicited, a visit from the 
 Roman pontiff. Leo repassed the Alps with a com- 
 mission of counts and bishops, the guards of his safety 
 and the judges of his innocence; and it was not with- 
 out reluctance, that the conqueror of the Saxons de- 
 layed till the ensuing year the personal discharge of 
 this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, 
 he was received at Rome with the due honours of king 
 and patrician : Leo was permitted to purge himself by 
 oath of the crimes imputed to his charge : his enemies 
 were silenced, and the sacrilegious attempt against his 
 life was punished by the mild and insufiicient penalty 
 of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last year 
 of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the 
 church of St. Peter ; and, to gratify the vanity of 
 Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his coun- 
 try for the habit of a patrician." After the celebration 
 of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious 
 crown on his head,* and the dome resounded with the 
 acclamations of the people, " Long life -and victory to 
 Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God 
 the great and pacific emperor of the Romans !" The 
 head and body of Charlemagne were consecrated by 
 the royal unction : after the example of the Caesars, he 
 was saluted or adored by the pontiff; his coronation 
 oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and 
 privileges of the church ; and the first-fruits were paid 
 in his rich offerings to the shrine of the apostle. In 
 his familiar conversation, the emperor protested his 
 ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would 
 have disappointed by his absence on that memorable 
 day. But the preparations of the ceremony must have 
 disclosed the secret ; and the journey of Charlemagne 
 reveals his knowledge and expectation : he had ac- 
 knowledged that the imperial title was the object of his 
 ambition, and a Roman synod had pronounced, that it 
 was the only a dequate reward of his merit and service.'' 
 
 y The asaurance of Anastasiiis (torn. iii. para i. p. 197, 198.) \a sup- 
 ported by the credulity of some French annalists ; but Eginhard, and 
 other writers of the same age, are more natural and sincere. " Unus 
 ei oculus paullulum est laesus," says John the deacon of Naples. 
 (Vit. Episcop. Napol. in Scriptores Muratori, torn. i. pars ii. p. 312.) 
 Theodolphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, observes with pru- 
 dence, (1. iii. carm. 3.) 
 
 \^ Reddita sunt 1 miram est : mirum est auferre nequisse. 
 
 > Est tamen in dubio, hinc mirer aui inde magis. 
 ' « Twice, at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he appeared at Rome 
 — longa tunica et chlamyile amictus, et calceameniis quoque Ro- 
 mano more formatis. Eginhard (c. xxiii. p. 109—113.) describes, like 
 Suetonius, the simplicity of his dress, so popular in the nation, that 
 when Charles the Bald returned to France in a foreign habit, the 
 patriotic dogs barked at the apostate. (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, 
 torn. IT. p. 109.) 
 
 a See Anastaslus, (p. 199.) and Eginhard. (c. xxviii. p. 124—128.) 
 The unction is mentioned by Theophanes, (p. 399.) the oath by Sigo- 
 liius, (from the Ordo Romanus,) and the pope's adoration, more anti- 
 
 auorum principumjbjthe Annales Bertiniani. (Script. Murator. tom. 
 . pars ii. p. 505.) 
 b This great event of the translation or restoration of the^empire, 1 
 
 Reign and cha- 
 racter of Charlo- 
 magne, 
 A. i). 768-814 
 
 The appellation of great has been of- 
 ten bestowed, and sometimes deserved, 
 but Charlemagne is the only prince in 
 whose favour the title has been indisso- 
 lubly blended with the name. That name, with the 
 addition of saint, is inserted in the Roman calendar ; 
 and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the 
 praises of the historians and philosophers of an en- 
 lightened age.* His real merit is doubtless enhanced 
 by the barbarism of the nation and the times from 
 which he emerged : but the apparent magnitude of an 
 object is likewise enlarged by an unequal comparison ; 
 and the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual splendour 
 from the nakedness of the surrounding desert. With- 
 out injustice to his fame, I may discern some blemishes 
 in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the 
 western empire. Of his moral virtues, chastity is not 
 the most conspicuous:"* but the public happiness could 
 not be materially injured by his nine wives or concu- 
 bines, the various indulgence of meaner or more tran- 
 sient amours, the multitude of his bastards whom he 
 bestowed on the church, and the long celibacy and 
 licentious manners of his daughters,* whom the father 
 was suspected of loving with too fond a passion. I 
 shall be scarcely permitted to accuse the ambition of a 
 conqueror; but in a day of equal retribution, the sons 
 of his brother Carloman, the Merovingian princes of 
 Aquitain, and the four thousand five hundred Saxons 
 who were beheaded on the same spot, would have 
 something to allege against the justice and humanity 
 of Charlemagne. His treatment of the vanquished 
 Saxons 'was an abuse of the right of conquest; his 
 laws were not less sanguinary than his arms ; and in 
 the discussion of his motives, whatever is subtracted 
 from bigotry must be imputed to temper. The seden- 
 tary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind 
 and body; and his subjects and enemies were not less 
 astonished at his sudden presence, at the moment when 
 they believed him at the most distant extremity of the 
 empire; neither peace nor war, nor summer nor win- 
 ter, were a season of repose ; and our fancy cannot 
 easily reconcile the annals of his reign with the geo- 
 graphy of his expeditions. But this activity was a 
 national, rather than a personal, virtue ; the vagrant 
 life of a Frank was spent in the chase, in pilgrimage, 
 in military adventures ; and the journeys of Charle- 
 magne were distinguished only by a more numerous 
 train and a more important purpose. His military re- 
 nown must be tried by the scrutiny of his troops, his 
 enemies, and his actions. Alexander conquered with the 
 arms of Philip, but the two heroes who preceded Char- 
 lemagne, bequeathed him their name, their examples, 
 
 Spanheim, (de fictd Translatione Imperii,) Giannone, (tom. i. p. 
 395—405.) St. Marc, (Abrogii Chronolopique, lorn. i. p. 438—450.) 
 Gaillard. (Hist, de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 386—416.) Almost all 
 these moilerns have some religious or national bias. 
 
 c By Mably, (Observations sur I'Histoire de France.) Voltaire, 
 (Histoire Generale,) Robertson, (History of Charles V.) and Montes- 
 quieu. (Esprit, des Loix, 1. xxxi. c. IH.) In the year 1782, M. Gail- 
 lard published his Histoire de Charlemagne, (in 4 vols. 12mo.) which 
 I have freely and profitably used. The author is a man of sense and 
 humanity ; and his work is laboured with industry and elegance. 
 But I have likewise examined the original monuments of the reigns 
 of Pepin and Charlemagne, in the 5th volume of the Historians of 
 France. 
 
 d The vision of Weltin, composed by a monk, eleven years after 
 the death of Charlemagne, shows him in purgatory, with a vulture, 
 who is perpetually gnawing the guilty member, while the rest of his 
 body, the emblem of his virtues, is sound and perfect, (see Gaillard, 
 tom. ii. p. 317—360.) 
 
 e The marriage of Eginhard with Imma, daughter of Charlemagne, 
 is, in my opinion, sufficiently refuted by the probrum and suspicio 
 that sullied these fair damsels, without excepting liis own wife, (c. 
 xix. p. 98—100. cum Notis Schmincke.) The husband must have 
 been too strong for the historian. 
 
 t Besides the massacres and traasmigrations, the pain of death was 
 
 Pronounced against the following crimes: 1. The refusal of baptism. 
 . The false pretence of baptism. 3. A relapse to idolatry. 4. Tho 
 murder of n priest or bishop. 6. Human sacrifices. 6. Eating meat 
 in Lent. But every crime might be expiated by baptism or penance : 
 (Gaillard. U»m. ii. p. 241—247.) and the christian Saxons became the 
 friends and equal* of the Franks. (Siruv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae* 
 p.l33.> 
 
 ! 
 
 and the companions of their victories. At the head 
 of his veteran and superior armies, he oppressed the 
 savage or degenerate nations, who were incapable of 
 confederating for their common safety : nor did he ever 
 encounter an equal antagonist in numbers, in disci- 
 pline, or in arms. The science of war has been lost 
 and revived with the arts of peace; but his campaigns 
 are not illustrated by any siege or battle of singular 
 difficulty and success; and he mightbehold, with envy, 
 the Saracen trophies of his grandfather. After his 
 Spanish expedition, his rear-guard was defeated in the 
 Pyrcnaean mountains ; and the soldiers, whose situa- 
 tion was irretrievable, and whose valour was useless, 
 might accuse, with their last breath, the want of skill 
 or caution of their general." I touch with reverence 
 the laws of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a 
 respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a 
 series, of occasional and minute edicts, for the correc- 
 tion of abuses, the reformation of manners, the econo- 
 my of his farms, the care of his poultry, and even the 
 sale of his eggs. He wished to improve the laws and 
 the character of the Franks ; and his attempts, how- 
 ever feeble and imperfect, are deserving of praise : the 
 inveterate evils of the times were suspended or molli- 
 fied by his government ; ^ but in his institutions I can 
 seldom discover the general views and the immortal 
 spirit of a legislator, who survives himself for the bene- 
 fit of posterity. The union and stability of his empire 
 depended on the life of a single man: he imitated the 
 dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among 
 his sons; and, after his numerous diets, the whole 
 constitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders 
 of anarchy and despotism. His esteem for the piety 
 and knowledge of the clergy tempted him to intrust 
 that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civil 
 jurisdiction ; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped 
 and degraded by the bishops, might accuse, in some 
 measure, the imprudence of his father. His laws en- 
 forced the imposition of tithes, because the daemons 
 had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment 
 had been the cause of the last scarcity.' The literary 
 merits of Charlemagne are attested by the foundation 
 of schools, the introduction of arts, the works which 
 were published in his name, and his familiar connexion 
 with the subjects and strangers whom he invited to 
 his court to educate both the prince and people. His 
 own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect ; if 
 he spoke Latin, and understood Greek, he derived the 
 rudiments of knowledge from conversation, rather than 
 from books ; and, in his mature age, the emperor strove 
 to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant 
 now learns in his infancy.* The grammar and logic, 
 the music and astronomy, of the times, were only cul- 
 tivated as the handmaids of superstition : but the curi- 
 osity of the human mind must ultimately tend to its 
 improvement, and the encouragement of learning re- 
 flects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the 
 character of Charlemagne.* The dignity of his per- 
 son," the length of his reign, the prosperity of his 
 
 % Tn this action the famous Rutland, Rolando, Orlando, was slain— 
 cum pluribus aliis. See the trurh in Eginhard, (c. 9. p. 51—56.) and 
 the fable in an ingenious Supplement of M. Gaillard. (tom. iii. p. 474.) 
 The Spaniards are too proud of a victory, which history ascribes to 
 the Gascons, and romance to the Saracens. 
 
 h Yet Schmidt, from the best authorities, represents the interior 
 disorders and oppression of his reign. (Hist, des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 
 45—49.) 
 
 I Omnis homo ex sua proprietate legitimam decimam ad ecclesiam 
 conferat. Experimento enim didicimus, in anno, quo ilia valida 
 fames irrepsit, ebullire vacuas annonas a daemonibus devoratas, et 
 voces exprobationis auditas. Such is the decree and assertion of the 
 great Council of Frankfort, (canon xxv, tom. ix. p. 105.) Both Selden, 
 (Hist, of Tithes: Works, vol. iii. part ii. p. 1146.) and Montesquieu, 
 (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxxi. c. 12.) represent Charlemagne as the first 
 legal author of tithes. Such obligations have country gentlemen to 
 his memory ! 
 
 k Eginhard (c. 25. p. 119.) clparly affirms, lentabal et scribere . . . 
 fed parum prospere successit labor praepoeterus et sero inchoatus. 
 The moderns have perverted and corrected this obvious meaning, 
 and the title of M. Gaillard's Dissertation (tom. iii. p. 247—260.) be- 
 trays his partiality. 
 
 1 See Gaillard, lorn. iii. p. 138—176. and Schmidt, tom. ii. p. 121—129. 
 
 m M. Gaillard (tom. iii. p. 372.) fixes the true stature of Charle- 
 
 VoL. IL— Y 
 
 arms, the vigour of his government, and the reverence 
 of distant nations, distinguished him from the royal 
 crowd ; and Europe dates a new aera from his restora- 
 tion of the western empire. 
 
 That empire was not unworthy of its Extent of his em- 
 title : ' and some of the fairest kingdoms P're in France, 
 of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince, 
 who reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy, 
 Germany, and Hungary." I. The Roman province of 
 Gaul had been transformed into the name and monar- 
 chy of France ; but, in the decay of the Merovingian 
 line, its limits were contracted by the independence 
 of the Britons and the revolt oi Aquitain, Charlemagne 
 pursued, and confined, the Britons on the shores of the 
 ocean ; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and lan- 
 guage are so different from the French, was chastised 
 by the imposition of tribute, hostages, and peace. Af- 
 ter a long and evasive contest, the rebellion of the 
 dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of 
 their province, their liberty, and their lives. Harsh 
 and rigorous would have been such treatment of am- 
 bitious governors, who had too faithfully copied the 
 mayors of the palace. But a recent discovery p has 
 proved that these unhappy princes were the last and 
 lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, a 
 younger branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the 
 Merovingian house. Their ancient kingdom was re- 
 duced to the duchy of Gasnogne, to the counties of 
 Fesenzac and Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees : 
 their race was propagated till the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century ; and. after surviving their Carlovingian 
 tyrants, they were reserved to feel the injustice, or the 
 favours, of a third dynasty By the re-union of Aqui- 
 tain, France was enlarged to its present boundaries, 
 with the addition of the Netherlands and . 
 
 Spain, as far as the Rhine. II. The ^* * 
 
 Saracens had been expelled from France by the grand- 
 father and father of Charlemagne; but they still pos- 
 sessed the greatest part of Spain, from the rock of 
 Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civil divi- 
 sions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his pro- 
 tection in the diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne under- 
 took the expedition, restored the emir, and, without 
 distinction of faith, impartially crushed the resistance 
 of the Christians, and rewarded the obedience and ser- 
 vice of the Mahometans. In his absence he instituted 
 the Spanish march,^ which extended from the Pyrenees 
 to the river Ebro : Barcelona was the residence of the 
 French governor: he possessed the counties of Bousil- 
 Ion and Catalonia ,- and the infant kingdoms of Navarre 
 and Arragon were subject to his jurisdiction. III. Aa 
 king of the Lombards, and patrician of 
 Rome, he reigned over the greatest part ^ ^' 
 
 maene (see a Dissertation of Marquard Freher ad calcem Eginhard, 
 p. 220, &c.) at five feet nine inches of French, about six feet one inch 
 and a fourth English, measure. The romance writers have increased 
 it to eight feet, and the giant was endowed with matchless strength 
 and appetite : at a single stroke of his good sword Joueuse, he cut 
 asunder a horseman and his horse ; at a single repast he devoured a 
 gooee, two fowls, a quarter of mutton, &c. 
 
 n See the concise, but correct and original, work of D'Anville, 
 (Etats form^es en Europe apres la Chute de I'Empire Remain en 
 Occident, Paris, 1771, in 4to.) whose map includes the emnire of 
 Charlemagne ; the different parts are illustrated, by Valesius (Nolitia 
 Galliaruni) for France, Beretti (Dissertatio Chorographica) for Italy, 
 De Marca (Marca Hispanica) for Spain. For the middle geography 
 of Germany, I confess myself poor and destitute. 
 
 o After a brief relation of his wars and conquests, (Vit. Carol, c. 
 5—14.) Eginhard recapitulates, in a few words, (c. 15.) the countries 
 subject to his empire. Struvius (Corpus Hist. German, p. 118—149.) 
 has inserted in his Notes the texts of the old Chronicles. 
 
 p Of a charter granted to the monastery of Alaon (A. D. 845.) bj 
 Charles the Bald, which deduces this royal pedigree. I doubt whe- 
 ther some subsequent links of the ninth and tenth centunes are 
 equally firm ; yet the whole is approved and defended by M. Gail- 
 lard, (tom. ii. p. 60-81. 203— 206.) who affirms that the family of Mon- 
 tesquieu (not of the President de Montesquieu) is descended, in the 
 female line, from Clotaire and Clovis— an innocent pretension! 
 
 q The governors or counts of the Spanish march revolted from 
 Charles the Simple about the year 900; and a poor pitunce, the 
 RousiUon, has been recovered in 1642 by the kings of Fraiice. (Lon- 
 euerue. Description de la France, tom. i. p. 220-222.) Yetihe Rou- 
 siUon conuins 188,900 subjects, and annually pays 2,600,000 livres j 
 (Necker,Adminisiration des Finances.tom. i. p. 278, 279.) more people, 
 perhaps, and doubtless more money, than the march of Charlemagat- 
 
 P 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 *l 
 
 
 11 
 
186 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 187 
 
 IN 
 
 ♦. 
 
 \4 
 
 4 
 
 of Italy,' a tract of a thousand miles from the Alps 
 to the borders of Calabria. The duchy of Bereventum, 
 a Lombard fief, had spread, at the expense of the 
 Greeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But 
 Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in 
 the slavery of his country; assumed the independent 
 title of prince ; and opposed his sword to the Carlo- 
 vingian monarchy. His defence was firm, his submis- 
 sion was not inglorious, and the emperor was content 
 with an easy tribute, the demolition of his fortresses, 
 and the acknowledgment, on his coins, of a supreme 
 lord. The artful flattery of his son Grimoald added 
 the appellation of father, but he asserted his dignity 
 with prudence, and Beneventum insensibly escaped 
 . from the French yoke.' IV. Charlemagne 
 
 Germany, ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^.j^^ united Germany un- 
 der the same sceptre. The name of Oriental France is 
 preserved in the circle oi Franconia t and the people of 
 Hesse and Thuringia were recently incorporated with 
 the victors, by the conformity of religion and govern- 
 ment. The Jikvianni, so formidable to the Romans, 
 were the faithful vassals and confederates of the 
 Franks; and their country was inscribed within the 
 modern limits of Alsace, Swabia, and Switzerland. 
 The Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws 
 and manners, were less patient of a master : the re- 
 peated treasons of Tasillo justified the abolition of 
 their hereditary dukes ; and their power was shared 
 among the counts, who judged and guarded that im- 
 portant frontier. But the north of Germany, from the 
 Rhine and beyond the Elbe, was still hostile and pa- 
 gan ; nor was it till after a war of thirty-three years 
 that the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and 
 of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries were 
 extirpated : the foundation of eight bishoprics, of Mun- 
 fiter, Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, 
 Verden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either 
 side of the Weser, the bounds of ancient Saxony ; 
 these episcopal seats were the first schools and cities 
 of that savage land ; and the religion and humanity of 
 the children atoned, in some degree, for the massacre 
 of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Scla- 
 Tonians, of similar manners and various denominations, 
 overspread the modern dominions of Prussia, Poland, 
 and Bohemia, and some transient marks of obedience 
 have tempted the French historian to extend the em- 
 pire to the Baltic and the Vistula. The conquest or 
 conversion of those countries is of a more recent age; 
 but the first union of Bohemia with the Germanic body 
 may be justly ascribed to the arms of Char- 
 Hungary, lemagne. V. He retaliated on the Avars, 
 or Huns of Pannonia, the same calamities which they 
 had inflicted on the nations. Their rings, the wooden 
 fortifications which encircled their districts and vil- 
 lages, were broken down by the triple eff"ort of a 
 French army, that was poured into their country by 
 land and water, through the Carpathian mountains and 
 «long the plain of the Danube. After a bloody con- 
 flict of eight years, the loss of some French generals 
 was avenged by the slaughter of the most noble Huns : 
 the relics of the nation submitted : the royal residence 
 of the chagan was left desolate and unknown ; and the 
 treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty years, 
 enriched the victorious troops, or decorated the chur- 
 ches of Italy and Gaul.* After the reduction of Pan- 
 nonia, the empire of Charlemagne was bounded only 
 by the conflux of the Danube with the Teyss and the 
 Save : the provinces of Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia, 
 were an easy, though unprofitable, accession ; and it 
 was an eflTect of his moderation, that he left the mari- 
 time cities under the real or nominal sovereignty of the 
 
 r Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, torn. ii. p. 200, Sec. 
 
 ■ See Gi.-tnnone, lorn. i. p. 374, 375. and the Annals of Muratori. 
 
 t Quot prselia in eo gesta ! quantum sanguinis effusunt sit! Testa- 
 tor vacua onini habilatione Pannonia, et locus in quo recia Cagani 
 fuit ita desertus, ut ne vestigium quidem humanac habilationis appa- 
 reat. Tota in hoc belle Hunnorum nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, 
 -<nnnif pecunia et coogeati ex longo tempore thesauri direpti lunt. 
 
 Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to 
 the reputation, than to the power, of the Latin empe- 
 ror ; nor did he risk any ecclesiastical foundations to 
 reclaim the barbarians from their vagrant life and 
 idolatrous worship. Some canals of communication 
 between the rivers, the Saone and the Meuse, the 
 Rhine and the Danube, were faintly attempted." Their 
 execution would have vivified the empire ; and mor^ 
 cost and labour were often wasted in the structure of 
 cathedral. 
 
 If we retrace the outlines of this geo- His neighbour* 
 graphical picture, it will be seen that andenemioa. 
 the empire of the Franks extended, between east and 
 west, from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between 
 the north and south, from the duchy of Beneventum to 
 the river Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany 
 and Denmark. The personal and political importance 
 of Charlemagne was magnified by the distress and 
 division of the rest of Europe. The islands of Great 
 Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of prin- 
 ces of Saxon or Scottish origin ; and, after the loss of 
 Spain, the Christian and Gothic kingdom of Alphonso 
 the Chaste was confined to the narrow range of the 
 Aslurian mountains. These petty sovereigns revered 
 the power or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, 
 implored the honour and support of his alliance, and 
 styled him their common parent, the sole and su- 
 preme emperor of the west." He maintained a more 
 equal intercourse with the caliph Harun al Rashid,' 
 whosp dominion stretched from Africa to India, and 
 accepted from his ambassadors a tent, a water-clock| 
 an elephant, and the keys of the holy sepulchre. It is 
 not easy to conceive the private friendship of a Frank 
 and an Arab, who were strangers to each other's per- 
 son, and language, and religion : but their public cor- 
 respondence was founded on vanity, and their remote 
 situation left no room for a competition of interest. 
 Two-thirds of the western empire of Rome were sub- 
 ject to Charlemagne, and the deficiency was amply 
 supplied by his command of the inaccessible or invin- 
 cible nations of Germany. But in the choice of his 
 enemies, we may be reasonably surprised that he so 
 often preferred the poverty of the north to the riches 
 of the south. The three and thirty campaigns labori- 
 ously consumed in the woods and morasses of Ger- 
 many, would have sufl^iced to assert the amplitude of 
 his title by the expulsion of the Greeks from Italy and 
 the Saracens from Spain* The weakness of the Greeks 
 would have ensured an easy victory : and the holy cru- 
 sade against the Saracens would have been prompted 
 by glory and revenge, and loudly justified by religioa 
 and policy. Perhaps, in his expeditions beyond the 
 Rhine and the Elbe, he aspired to save his monarchy 
 from the fate of the Roman empire, to disarm the ene- 
 mies of civilized society, and to eradicate the seed of 
 future emigrations. But it has been wisely observed, 
 that in a light of precaution, all conquest must be inef- 
 fectual, unless it could be universal ; since the increa- 
 sing circle must be involved in a larger sphere of hos- 
 tility." The subjugation of Germany withdrew the 
 veil which had so longf concealed the continent or 
 
 a The junction of the Rhine and Danube was undertaken only for 
 the service of the Pannonian war. (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, 
 torn. ii. p. 312—315.) The canal, which would have been only two 
 leagues in length, and of which some traces are still extant in Swa- 
 bla, was interrupted by excessive rains, military avocations, and 
 superstitious fears. (Schspflin, Hist, de I'Academie des Inscrip- 
 tions, tom. xviii. p. S56. Moliniina fluviorum, Ac. jungendoruui, 
 p. 59—62.) 
 
 X See Eginhard, c. 16. and Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361—385. who men- 
 tions, with a loose reference, the intercourse of Charlemagne and 
 liebert, the emperor's pift of bis own sword, and the modest answer 
 of his Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if genuine, would have adorned 
 our English histories. 
 
 y The correspondence is mentioned only in the French annals, 
 and the orientals are ignorant of the caliph's friendship for the chris- 
 tian dog—ti polite appellation, which Harun bestows on the emperor 
 of the Ureeks. 
 
 z Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361—365. 471—476. 492. I have borrowed hit 
 judicious remarks on Charlen^gne's plan of conquest, and the juii- 
 cious distinction of his enemief of the first and second encgintSf 
 (tom. ii. p. 1S4. 509, Xc.) 
 
 A. D. 813. 
 
 islands of Scandinavia from the knowledge of Europe, 
 and awakened the torpid courage of their barbarous 
 natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped 
 from the christian tyrant to their brethren of the north ; 
 the ocean and Mediterranean were covered with their 
 piratical fleets; and Charlemagne beheld with a sigh 
 ihe destructive progress of the Normans, who, in less 
 than seventy years, precipitated the fall of his race 
 and monarchy. 
 
 Had the pope and the Romans revived 
 A.'V^su-S?! *^® primitive constitution, the titles of 
 in Italy; 911, in emperor and Augustus were conferred 
 ii^F?an7e! ^^' °" Charlemagne for the term of his life ; 
 and his successors, on each vacancy, 
 must have ascended the throne by a formal or tacit 
 election. But the association of his son Lewis the 
 Pious asserts the independent right of monarchy and 
 conquest, and the emperor seems on this occasion to 
 have foreseen and prevented the latent 
 claims of the clergy. The royal youth 
 was commanded to take the crown from the altar, and 
 with his own hands to place it on his head, as a gift 
 which he held from God, his father, and the nation.* 
 The same ceremony was repeated, thougrh with less 
 energy, in the subsequent associations of Lothaire and 
 Lewis the second : the Carlovingian sceptre was trans- 
 mitted from father to son in a lineal descent of four 
 generations ; and the ambition of the popes was re- 
 duced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing 
 these hereditary princes who were already invested 
 Lewis the Pious, with their power and dominions. The 
 A. D. 814—840. pious Lewis survived his brothers, and 
 embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne; but the 
 nations and the nobles, his bishops and his children, 
 quickly discerned that this mighty mass was no longer 
 inspired by the same soul ; and the foundations were 
 undermined to the centre, while the external surface 
 was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which 
 consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire 
 was divided by treaty between his three sons, who 
 Lothaire I. had violated every filial and fraternal 
 A. D. 840-856. duty. The kingdoms of Germany and 
 France were forever separated ; the provinces of Gaul, 
 between the Rhone and the Ali)s, the Meuse and the 
 Rhine, were assigned, with Italy, to the imperial dig- 
 nity of Lothaire. In the partition of his share, Lor- 
 raine and Aries, two recent and transitory kingdoms, 
 were bestowed on the younger children ; and Lewis 
 Lewis II. the second, his eldest son, was content 
 A.D. 85&— 875. with the realm of Italy, the proper and 
 sufficient patrimony of a Roman emperor. On his 
 death without any male issue, the vacant throne was 
 disputed by his uncles and cousins, and the popes 
 most dexterously seized the occasion of judging the 
 claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing 
 on the most obsequious, or most liberal, the imperial 
 office of Advocate of the Roman church. The dregs 
 of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any 
 symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epi- 
 thets of the bald, the stammerer, the fat, and the sim- 
 ple, disiingnished the tame and uniform features of a 
 crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the 
 failure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance 
 devolved on Charles the Fat, the last emperor of his 
 Division of the ^^^^^Y ' h*s insanity authorized the de- 
 empire, scrlion of Germany, Italy, and France : 
 A.D. 888. he ^3Q (jleposed in a diet, and solicited 
 his daily bread from the rebels by whose contempt his 
 life and liberty had been spared. According to the 
 measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and 
 the lords, usurped the fragments of the failing empire ; 
 
 a Thepan, the biographer of Lewis, relates this coronation ; and 
 Baroniiis has honeutly transcribed it, (A. D. 813, No. 13, &c. See 
 Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 506, 507, 508.) howsoever adverse to the claims of 
 the popes. For the series of the Carlovingians, see the historians 
 of France, Italy, and Germany; Pfeffel, Schmidt, Velly, Muralori, 
 and rvon Voltaire, whose pictures are sometimes just, and always 
 pleasing. < 
 
 Otho king of 
 Germany re«- 
 tores and ap- 
 propriates the 
 western em- 
 pire, A. D. 962. 
 
 and some preference was shown to the female or ille- 
 gitimatfc blood of Charlemagne. Of the greater part, 
 the title and the possession were alike doubtful, and 
 the merit was adequate to the contracted scale of their 
 dominions. Those who could appear with an army 
 at the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the 
 Vatican ; but their modesty was more frequently satis- 
 fied with the appellation of kings of Italy ; and the 
 whole term of seventy-four years may be deemed a 
 vacancy, from the abdication of Charles the Fat to the 
 establishment of Otho the first. 
 
 Otho*^ was of the noble race of the 
 dukes of Saxony ; and if he truly de- 
 scended from Witikind, the adversary 
 and proselyte of Charlemagne, the pos- 
 terity of a vanquished people was exal- 
 ted to reign over their conquerors. His father Henry 
 the Fowler was elected, by the suffrage of the nation, 
 to save and institute the kingdom of Germany. Its 
 limits^ were enlarged on every side by his son, the 
 first and greatest of the Othos. A portion of Gaul to 
 the west of the Rhine, along the banks of the Meuse 
 and the Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by 
 whose blood and language it has been tinged since the 
 time of Caesar and Tacitus. Between the Rhine, the 
 Rhone, and the Alps, the successors of Otho acquired 
 a vain supremacy over the broken kingdoms of Bur- 
 gundy and Aries. In the north, Christianity was pro- 
 pagated by the sword of Otho, the conqueror and apos- 
 tle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder; the 
 marches of Brandenburg and Sleswick were fortified 
 With German colonies; and the king of Denmark, the 
 dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves 
 his tributary vassals. At the head of a victorious 
 army, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of 
 Italy, delivered the pope, and for ever fixed the im- 
 perial crown in the name and nation of Germany. 
 From that memorable oera, two maxims of public ju- 
 risprudence were introduced by force and ratified by 
 time. I. That the prince, who was elected in the Ger- 
 man diet, acquired, from that instant, the subject king- 
 doms of Italy and Rome. II. But that he might not 
 legally assume the titles of emperor and Augustus, till 
 he had received the crown from the hands of the Ro- 
 man pontiff.** 
 
 The imperial dignity of Charlemagne Transactions of 
 was announced to the east by the altera- the western and 
 tion of his style; and instead of saluting eastern empires, 
 his fathers, the Greek emperors, he presumed to adopt 
 the more equal and familiar appellation of brother.* 
 Perhaps in his connexion with Irene he aspired to the 
 name of husband : his embassy to Constantinople 
 spoke the language of peace and friendship, and might 
 conceal a treaty of marriage with that ambitious prin- 
 cess, who had renounced the most sacred duties of a 
 mother. The nature, the duration, the probable con- 
 sequences of such an union between two distant and 
 dissonant empires, it is impossible to conjecture; but 
 the unanimous silence of the Latins may teach us to 
 suspect, that the report was invented by the enemies 
 
 b He was the son of Otho, the son of Ludolph, in whose favour th« 
 duchy of Saxony had been instituted, A. D. 858. Ruolgerus, the 
 biographer of St. Bruno, (Bibliot. Bunavianae Catalop. tom. iii. vol. 
 ii. p. 679.) gives a splendid character of his familpr. Alavorum atavi 
 usque ad hominum memoriam omnes nobilissimi ; nullus in eorum 
 stirpe ignotus, nullus deseaer facilo reperitur, (apud Struvium, Corp. 
 Hist. German, p. 216.) Yet Gundling (in Henrico Ancupe) is not 
 satisfied of his descent from Witikind. 
 
 c See the treatise of Coringius: (de Finibus Imperii Germanici, 
 Francofurt. 1680, in 4to:) he rejects the extravagant and improper 
 scale of the Roman and Carlovingian empires, and discusses with 
 moderation the right? of Germany, her vassals, and her neighbours. 
 
 d The power of custom forces me to number Coniad I. and Henry 
 I. the Fowler, in the list of emperors, a title which was never as- 
 sumed by those kings of Germany. The Italians, Muratori for in- 
 stance, are more scrupulous and correct, and only reckon the princes 
 who have been crowned at Rome. 
 
 e Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis. (C. P. imperatoribus super hoc 
 indignantibuB magna tulit palieniia, vicitque eorum contumaciam 
 . . . . mittendo ad eos crebras legationes, et in epistolis fratres eat 
 appcllando. Eginhard, c. 28. p. 12S. Perhaps it was on their ac 
 count that, like Augustus, he affected some reluctance to recelv* 
 the empire. 
 
 I 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
 s 
 
188 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 189 
 
 
 ^h 
 
 w 
 
 11 [ 
 
 nl 
 
 *■* 
 
 of Irene, to charge her with the guilt of betraying the 
 church and state to the strangers of the west.' The 
 French ambassadors were the spectators, and had 
 nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of Nice- 
 phorus, and the national hatred. Constantinople was 
 exasperated by the treason and sacrilege of ancient 
 Rome : a proverb, " That the Franks were good friends 
 and bad neighbours," was in every one's mouth ; but 
 it was dangerous to provoke a neighbour who might 
 be tempted to reiterate, in the church of St. Sophia, 
 the ceremony of his imperial coronation. After a 
 tedious journey of circuit and delay, the ambassadors 
 of Nicephorus found him in his camp, on the banks 
 of the river Sala ; and Charlemagne affected to con- 
 found their vanity by displaying, in a Franconian vil- 
 lage, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine 
 palace.K The Greeks were successively led through 
 four halls of audience : in the first they were ready to 
 fall prostrate before a splendid personage in a chair of 
 state, till he informed them that he was only a servant, 
 the constable, or master of the horse, of the emperor. 
 The same mistake, and the same answer, were repeated 
 in the apartments of the count palatine, the steward, 
 and the chamberlain; and their impatience was gradu- 
 ally heightened, till the doors of the presence-chamber 
 were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine mon- 
 arch, on his throne, enriched with the foreign luxury 
 which he despised, and encircled with the love and 
 reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace 
 and alliance was concluded between the two empires, 
 and the limits of the east and west were defined by 
 the right of present possession. But the Greeks *• soon 
 forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it 
 only to hate the barbarians by whom it was extorted. 
 During the short union of virtue and power, they re- 
 spectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the 
 acclamations of basileus, and emperor of the Romans. 
 As soon as these qualities were separated in the per- 
 son of his pious son, the Byzantine letters were in- 
 scribed, "To the king, or, as he styles himself, the 
 emperor, of the Franks and Lombards." When both 
 power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis 
 the second of his hereditary title, and, with the bar- 
 barous appellation of rex or rega^ degraded him among 
 the crowd of Latin princes. His reply ' is expressive 
 of his weakness : he proves, with some learning, that 
 both in sacred and profane history, the name of king 
 is synonymous with the Greek word hasikus .• if, at 
 Constantinople, it were assumed in a more exclusive 
 and imperial sense, he claims from his ancestors, and 
 from the pope, a just participation of the honours of 
 the Roman purple. The same controversy was revived 
 in the reign of the Othos ; and their ambassador de- 
 scribes, in lively colours, the insolence of the Byzan- 
 tine court.* The Greeks affected to despise the poverty 
 and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons ; and in their 
 last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Ger- 
 many the title of Roman emperors. 
 
 f Theophanes speaks of the coronation and unction of Charles, 
 K»f9u\\o,-, (Chronograph, p. 399.) and of his treaty of marriage with 
 Irene, (p. 402.) which is unknown to the Latins. Gaillard relates 
 his transactions with the Greek empire, (torn. ii. p. 446—468.) 
 
 g Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant was a farce 
 suitable to children only; but that it was indeed represented in the 
 presence, and for the benefit, of children of a larger growth. 
 
 b Compare, in the original texts collected by Pagi, (tom. iii. A. D. 
 812, No. 7. A. D. 824, No. 10, &c.) the contrast of Charlemagne and 
 his son : to the former the ambassadors of Michael (who were indeed 
 disavowed) more suo, id est lingua Graeca laudes dixenmt, impera- 
 lorem eum et B»(riA.i» appellantes ; to the latter, Vocato imperatori 
 Francorunif tec. 
 
 i See the epistle, in Paralipomena, of the anonymous writer of 
 Salerno, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 213—254. c. 93-107.) whom 
 Baroniiis (A. D. 871, No. 51—71.) mistook for Erchempert, when he 
 transcribed it in his Annals. 
 
 k Ipse enim vos, non imperatoreniy id est Z*iri\t* sua Imgua, sed 
 ob indi'^nationem ^ny*, id est regem nostni vocabat. (Liutprand, in 
 Legat. in Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 479.) The pope had exhorted 
 Nicephoru.s, emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with Oiho, the 
 au'ust emperor of the Romans— (\m^ inscripiio secundum Grae- 
 coa peccatoria el temeraria .... imperatorem inquiunt univer- 
 talem, Romanorum, Augustumi magnum, golum, Nicephorum, 
 (p. 48C.) 
 
 These emperors, in the election of the Authority of th« 
 popes, continued to exercise ihe powers S'jS'nlof the 
 which had been assumed by the Gothic popes, 
 and Grecian princes ; and the importance A. D. 800-lOGO. 
 of this prerogative increased with the temporal estate 
 and spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman church. In 
 the christian aristocracy, the principal members of the 
 clergy still formed a senate to assist the administra- 
 tion, and to supply the vacancy, of the bishop. Rome 
 was divided into twenty-eight parishes, and each 
 parish was governed by a cardinal-priest, or presbyter, 
 a title which, however common and modest in its ori- 
 gin, has aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their 
 number was enlarged by the association of the seven 
 deacons of the most considerable hospitals, the seven 
 palatine judges of the Lateran, and some dignitaries 
 of the church. The ecclesiastical senate was di- 
 rected by the seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman 
 province, who were less occupied in the suburb dio- 
 ceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Praeneste, 
 Tibur, and the Sabines, than by their weekly ser- 
 vice in the Lateran, and their superior share in the 
 honours and authority of the apostolic see. On the 
 death of the pope, these bishops recommended a suc- 
 cessor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals,* and 
 their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or 
 clamour of the Roman people. But the election was 
 imperfect; nor could the pontiff be legally consecrated 
 till the emperor, the advocate of the church, had gra- 
 ciously signified his approbation and consent. The 
 royal commissioner examined, on the spot, the form 
 and freedom of the proceedings ; nor was it till after 
 a previous scrutiny into the qualifications of the can- 
 didates, that he accepted an oath of fidelity, and con- 
 firmed the donations which had successively enriched 
 the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, 
 the rival claims were submitted to the sentence of the 
 emperor; and in a synod of bishops he presumed to 
 judge, to condemn, and to punish, the crimes of a 
 guiUy pontiff. Otho the first imposed a treaty on the 
 senate and people, who engaged to prefer the candi- 
 date most acceptable to his majesty : " his successors 
 anticipated or prevented their choice : they bestowed 
 the Roman benefice, like the bishoprics of Cologne or 
 Bamberg, on the chancellors or preceptors : and what- 
 ever might be the merit of a Frank or Saxon, his name 
 sufl^cieraly attests the interposition of foreign power. 
 These acts of prerogative were most speciously ex- 
 cused by the vices of a popular election. The compe- 
 titor who had been excluded by the cardinals, appealed 
 to the passions or avarice of the multitude : the Vati- 
 can and the Lateran were stained with blood ; and the 
 most powerful senators, the marquises of Tuscany 
 and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic see in 
 a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pon- 
 tiffs, of the ninth and tenth centuries, Disorders, 
 were insulted, imprisoned, and murder- 
 ed, by their tyrants; and such was their indigence 
 after the loss and usurpation of the ecclesiastical patri- 
 monies, that they could neither support the state of a 
 prince, nor exercise the charity of a priest." The in- 
 
 1 The origin and progress of the title of cardinal may be found ia 
 Thomasin, (Discipline de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1261— 1298.) Muratori. 
 (Antiquitat. Iialiae Medii JE\\, tom. vi. Dissert. Ixi. p. 159—182.) and 
 Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 345—347.) who accurately re- 
 marks the forms and changes of the election. The canlinal bishops, 
 so highly exalted by Peter Damianus, are sunk to a level with the 
 rest of the sacred college. 
 
 m Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos, 
 praeter consensum et electionem Othonisetfilii sui. (Liutprand, l.vi. 
 c. 6. p. 472.) This important concession may either supply or con- 
 firm the decree of the clergy and people of Rome so fiercely rejected 
 by Baronius, Pa^i, and Muratori, (A. D. 964.) and so well defended 
 and explained by St. Marc. (Abrc-g*-, torn. ii. p. 808—816. tom. iv. p. 
 1167—1185.) Consi'lt that historical critic, and the Annals of Mura- 
 tori, for the election and confirmation of each pope. 
 
 n The oppression and vices of the Roman church in the tenth 
 century are strongly painted in the history and legation of Liut- 
 prand ; (see p.440. 450. 471—476. 479,&c.) and it is whimsical enough 
 to observe Muratori tempering the invectives of Baronius against the 
 popes. But these popes had been chosen, not by the cardinals, but 
 by lay-patrons. 
 
 fluence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and The- 
 odora, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their 
 political and amorous intrigues : the most strenuous 
 of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, 
 and their reign** may have suggested to the darker 
 agesP the fable *> of a female pope.' The bastard son, 
 the grandson, and the gn^at-grandson, of Marozia, a 
 rare gc^nealogy, were seated in ijie chair of St. Peter, 
 and it was at the age of nineteen years that the second 
 of these became the head of the Latin church. His 
 youth and manhood were of a suitable complexion ; 
 and the nations of pilgrims could bear testimony to 
 the charges that were urged against him in a Roman 
 synod, and in the presence of Otho the Great. As 
 John XII. had renounced the dress and the decencies 
 of his profession, the soldier may not perhaps be dis- 
 honoured by the wine which he drank, the blood that 
 he spilt, the flames that he kindled, or the licentious 
 pursuits of gaming and hunting. His open simony 
 might be the consequence of distress: and his blas- 
 phemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, 
 could not possibly be serious. But we read with some 
 surprise that the worthy grandson of Marozia lived in 
 public adultery with the matrons of Rome: that the 
 Lateran palace was turned into a school for prostitution, 
 and that his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred 
 the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, 
 lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his 
 successor.* The protestants have dwelt with malicious 
 pleasure on these characters of antichrist; but to a 
 philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less 
 dangerous than their virtues. After a long series of 
 scandal, the apostolic see was reformed 
 ?nddTims°?f and exalted by the austerity and zeal 
 the church. of Gregory VII. That ambitious monk 
 A.D.i073,&c. ^igyQtgJ hig life to the execution of two 
 projects. I. To fix in the college of cardinals the 
 freedom and independence of election, and for ever to 
 abolish the right or usurpation of the emperors and 
 the Roman people. II. To bestow and resume the 
 western empire as a fief or benefice* of the church, 
 and to extend his temporal dominion over the kings 
 and kingdoms of the earth. After a contest of fifty 
 
 The lime of pope Joan {papissa Joanna) is placed somewhat 
 earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of her ima- 
 Binary reign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and Benedict 111. 
 But the contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links the death of Leo 
 and the elevation of Benedict; (illico, mox, p. 247.) and the accu- 
 rate chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and Leibnitz, fixes both events to 
 
 the year 857. ^ :, j, a nr. 
 
 p The advocates for pope Joan produce one hundred and fifty wit- 
 nesses, or rather echoes, of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
 centuries. They bear testimony against themselves and the legend, 
 by multiplying the proof that so curious a story must have been re- 
 peated by writers of every description to whom it was known. On 
 those of the ninth and tenth centuries, the recent event would have 
 flashed with a double force. Would Photius have spared such a re- 
 proach t Could Liutprand have missed such scandal 7 It is scarcely 
 worth while to discuss the various readings of Martinus folonus, 
 Sigebert of Gemblours, or even Marianus Scotus; but a mi»st palpa- 
 ble forgery is the passage of pope Joan, which has been foisted into 
 some MSS. and editions of the Roman Anastasius. 
 
 q ha false, it deserves that name; but I would not pronounce it 
 incredible. Suppose a famous French chevalier of our own times to 
 have been born in Italy, and educated in the church, instead of the 
 army: her merit or fortune might haye raised her to St. Peters 
 chair : her amours would have been natural ; her delivery in the 
 streets unlucky, but not improbable. j t ,• «j :.u„„, 
 
 r Till the reformation, the tale was repeated and believed without 
 offence ; and Joan's female statue long occupied her place among the 
 popes in the cathedral of Sienna. (Pagi, Critica, torn. in. P- 624-626.) 
 She has been annihilated by two learned protestants, Blondel and 
 Bayle ; (Dictionnaire Critique, Papessk, Polonus, Blondkl ;) but 
 
 the'ir brethren were scandalized by this suitable and generous criti- 
 cism. Spanheim and L'Eufant attemjTto save this poor engine of 
 controversy ; and even Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubt 
 
 and suspicion, (p. 289.) T^-t:- 
 
 • Laieranense palatium prostibulum meretricum . . . . iestis 
 
 omnium gentium, prjBterquam ilomanorum, absentia mulierum, quae 
 sanctorum apnstolorum limiiia orandi gratia liment visere, cum non- 
 nuUas ante dies paucos, hunc audierint conjugatas, viduas, virgines 
 vi oppressisse. (Liutprand, Hist. 1. vi. c 6. p. 471. See the whole 
 affairof John XII. p. 371^476.) . . ^ . ,. 
 
 t A new example of the mischief of equivocation is the benejKium 
 (Ducange, tom. i. p. 617, &c.) which the pope conferred on the empe- 
 ror Frederic I. since the Latin word may signify either a legal bel, 
 or a simple favour, an obligation, (we want the word btenfatt.) hee 
 Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, tom. iii. p. 393—408. Pfeffel, Abr6g4 
 Chronologique, torn. i. p. 229. 296. 317. 321. 430. 430. 500. 505. 509, *c.) 
 
 years, the first of these designs was accomplished by 
 the firm support of the ecclesiastical order, whose 
 liberty was connected with that of their chief. But 
 the second attempt, though it was crowned with some 
 partial and apparent success, has been vigorously re- 
 sisted by the secular power, and finally extinguished 
 by the improvement of human reason. 
 
 In the revival of the empire of Rome, Authority of 
 neither the bishop nor the people could the emperor* 
 bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the pro- ^'^ '^^"™®* 
 vinces which were lost, as they had been won, by the 
 chance of arms. But the Romans were free to choose 
 a master for themselves ; and the powers which had 
 been delegated to the patrician, were irrevocably gran- 
 ted to the French and Saxon emperors of the west. 
 The broken records of the times *• preserve some re- 
 membrance of their palace, their mint, their tribunal, 
 their edicts, and the sword of justice, which, as late 
 as the thirteenth century, was derived from Caesar to 
 the praefect of the city.* Between the arts of the 
 popes and the violence of the people, this supremacy 
 was crushed and annihilated. C'mtent with the titles 
 of emperor and Augustus, the successors of Charle- 
 magne neglected to assert this local jurisdiction. In 
 the hour of prosperity, their ambition was diverted by 
 more alluring objects; and in the decay and division 
 of the empire, they were oppressed by the defence of 
 their hereditary provinces. Amidst tlie Revolt of 
 ruins of Italy, the famous Marozia invi- Aiberic, 
 
 ted one of the usurpers to assume the a.j^. w*. 
 character of her third husband ; and Hugh, king of 
 Burgundy, was introduced by her faction into the mole 
 of Hadrian or castle of St. Angelo, which commands 
 the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her son 
 by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend 
 at the nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungrate- 
 ful service was chastised with a blow by his new 
 father. The blow was productive of a revolution. 
 " Romans," exclaimed the youth, " once you were the 
 masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most 
 abject of your slaves. They now reign, these vora- 
 cious and brutal savages, and my injury is the com- 
 mencement of your servitude." ^ The alarum-bell was 
 rung to arms in every quarter of the city : the Bur- 
 gundians retreated with haste and shame; Marozia 
 was imprisoned by her victorious son ; and his brother, 
 pope John XL was reduced to the exercise of his spi- 
 ritual functions. With the title of prince, Alberic pos- 
 sessed above twenty years the government of Rome, 
 and he is said to have gratified the popular prejudice, by 
 restoring the ofiice, or at least the title, of consuls and 
 tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, with 
 the pontificate, the name of John XII. Like his pre- 
 decessor, he was provoked by the Lombard princes to 
 seek a deliverer for the church and republic ; and the 
 services of Otho were rewarded with the imperial 
 dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans 
 were impatient, the festival of the coronation was dis- 
 turbed by the secret conflict of prerogative and free- 
 dom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to 
 stir from his person, lest he should be assaulted and 
 murdered at the foot of the altar." Be- of pope 
 fore he repassed the Alps, the emperor J*^' Jez'" 
 chastised the revolt of the people and * * ,' , 
 
 the ingratitude of Jo"hn XII. The pope was degraded 
 in a synod ; the praefect was mounted on an ass, 
 
 u For the history of the emperors in Rome and luly, see Si?o">."«» 
 de Regno Italia, 0pp. tom. ii. with the Notes of Saxius, an<l/*»ej'^°- 
 nlls of Muratori, who might refer more distinctly to the authors of 
 
 '•'x^eftire Dissertation of Le Blanc at the end of his Treatise des 
 Monnoyes de France, in which he produces some Roman coins of tha 
 
 ^'rRoVaSraliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romani. 
 
 im'pererrTRoma'n* urbis d-g-^- ^^^^^rp^id^'r^lllTl'^ 
 ta lit meretricum eliam imperio pareat? (Liuiprana, i. in. c. i^. p. 
 & ) sSius 0. vi. p. 400.) positively affirms the renovation of the 
 cSnsulshi^ Tbut in the old writers Albericus is more frequently styled 
 
 princeps Komanorum. ^ , . , . ... ^ ^oq 
 s Piimar, p. 354. apud Schmidt, torn. ni. p. «». 
 
 f'l 
 
 ^ 4 
 
 
 < i 
 
 s 
 
190 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 191 
 
 ti 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 ll!! 
 
 I ' * 
 
 3' 
 
 I 
 
 ^ I 
 
 whipped through the city, and cast into a dungeon ; 
 thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others were 
 mutilated or banished; and this severe process was 
 justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Jus- 
 tinian. The voice of fame has accused the second 
 Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of 
 the senators, whom he had invited to his table under 
 the fair semblance of hospitality and friendship.* In 
 the minority of his son Otho the third, Rome made a 
 bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the con- 
 sul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From 
 Of the consul ^^® Condition of a subject and an exile, 
 Crescentius, he twice rose to the command of the 
 A. D. 998. gjjy^ oppressed, expelled, and created 
 the popes, and formed a conspiracy for restoring the 
 authority of the Greek emperors. In the fortress of 
 St. Angelo, he maintained an obstinate siege, till the 
 unfortunate consul was betrayed by a promise of safe- 
 ty : his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his head 
 was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a 
 reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, 
 was besieged three days, without food, in his palace ; 
 and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or 
 fury of the Romans. The senatoi; Ptolemy was the 
 leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius 
 enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her 
 husband, by a poison which she administered to her 
 imperial lover. It was the design of Otho the third 
 to abandon the ruder countries of the north, to erect 
 Lis throne in Italy, and to revive the institutions of 
 the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once 
 in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tiber, to 
 receive their crown in the Vatican.'' Their absence 
 was contemptible, their presence odious and formida- 
 ble. They descended from the Alps, at the head of 
 their barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to 
 the country ; and their transient visit was a scene of 
 tumult and bloodshed.* A faint remembrance of their 
 ancestors still tormented the Romans; and they be- 
 held with pious indignation the succession of Saxons, 
 Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the 
 purple and prerogatives of the Csesars. 
 The kingdom of There is nothing perhaps more ad- 
 liaiy, verse to nature and reason than to hold 
 
 A. D. 774-1250. j„ obedience remote countries and foreign 
 nations, in opposition to.tlieir inclination and interest. 
 A torrent of barbarians may pass over the earth, but 
 an extensive empire must be supported by a refined 
 system of policy and oppression : in the centre, an ab- 
 solute power, prompt in action, and rich in resources : 
 a swift and easy communication with the extreme 
 parts : fortifications to check the first effort of rebel- 
 lion : a regrular administration to protect and punish ; 
 and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without 
 provoking discontent and despair. Far different was 
 the situation of the German Csesars, who M'ere ambi- 
 tious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patri- 
 monial estates were stretched along the Rhine, or 
 scattered in the provinces ; but this ample domain was 
 alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive 
 princes ; and their revenue, from minute and vexatious 
 prerogative, was scarcely sufficient for the maintenance 
 of their household. Their troops were formed by the 
 legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who 
 passed the Alps with reluctance, assumed the licence 
 
 » This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in the Pantheon 
 of Godfrey of Viierbo, (Script. lul. torn. vii. p. 436, 437.) who flou- 
 rished towanls the end of the twelfth century ; (Fabricius, Bibliot. 
 Latin, med. et infimi JEvi, Uim. iii. p. 69. edit. Mansi ;) bui his evi- 
 deace, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably suspected by Mu- 
 ratori. (Annali, torn. viii. p. 177.) 
 
 b The coronation of the emperor, and some original ceremonies of 
 the tenth century, are preserved in the Panegyric on Berengarius, 
 (Script. lul. torn. ii. pars i. 405— 414.) illustrated by the Notes of 
 Hadrian, Valesius, and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole 
 process of the Koman expedition, in good Latin, but with some errors 
 of time and fact, (1. vii. p. 441 — 446.) 
 
 c In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad IL Muratori takes leave 
 to observe— doveano ben essere allora, indifciplinali, Bark>ari, abet- 
 tiali Tedeschi. Annal. torn. viii. p. 368. 
 
 of rapine and disorder, and capriciously deserted be* 
 fore the end of the campaign. Whole armies were 
 swept away by the pestilential influence of the cli- 
 mate : the survivors brought back the bones of their 
 princes and nobles,** and the effects of their own in- 
 temperance were of^ten imputed to the treachery and 
 malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the 
 calamities of the barbarians. This irregular tyranny 
 might contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants 
 of Italy ; nor can the people, or the reader, be much 
 interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekin-^ 
 died the flame of industry and freedom; and the gene- 
 rous example was at length imitated by the republics 
 of Tuscany. In the Italian cities a municipal govern- 
 ment had never been totally abolished ; and their first 
 privileges were granted by the favour and policy of the 
 emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian 
 barrier against the independence of the nobles. But 
 their rapid progress, the daily extension of their power 
 and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and 
 spirit of these rising communities.* Each city filled 
 the measure of her diocese or district: the jurisdiction 
 of the counts and bishops, of the marquises and 
 counts, was banished from the land ; and the proudest 
 nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their 
 solitary castles, and to embrace the more honourable 
 character of freemen and magistrates. The legisla- 
 tive authority was inherent in the general assembly ; 
 but the executive powers were intrusted to three con- 
 suls, annually chosen from the three orders o{ captains, 
 valva88orSj* and commons, into which the republic was 
 divided. Under the protection of equal law, the la- 
 bours of agriculture and commerce, were gradually 
 revived ; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was 
 nourished by the presence of danger ; and as often as 
 the bell was rung, or the standard ' erected, the gates^ 
 of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, 
 whose zeal in their own cause was soon guided by the 
 use and discipline of arms. At the foot of these popu- 
 lar ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was overthrown ; 
 and the invincible genius of liberty prevailed over the 
 two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age: 
 the first, superior perhaps in military prowess ; the 
 second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accom- 
 plishments of peace and learning. 
 
 Ambitious of restoring the splendour Frederic the first- 
 of the purple, Frederic the first invaded A. D. iisz-iiso* 
 the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a states- 
 man, the valour of a soldier, and the cruelty of a ty- 
 rant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had re- 
 newed a science most favourable to despotism ; and 
 his venal advocates proclaimed the emperor the abso- 
 lute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. 
 His royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were^ 
 acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia ; and the reve- 
 nne of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of 
 silver,^ which were multiplied to an indefinite de- 
 mand, by the rapine of the fiscal oflficers. The obsti- 
 nate cities were reduced by the terror or the force of 
 his arms : his captives were delivered to the execu- 
 tioner, or shot from his military engines ; and, after 
 the siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that: 
 
 d After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for that purpose were 
 a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and a German who wa» 
 using it fi)r nis brother, promised it to a friend, after it should have 
 been employed for himself. (Schmidt, torn. iii. p. 423, 424.) Ths 
 same author observes that the whole Saxon line was extinguished ia 
 Italy, (torn. i. p. 440.) 
 
 e Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important passage on tbft 
 Italian cities ; (1. ii. c. 13. in Script. Iial. torn vi. p. 707—710.) and the 
 rise, progress, and government of these republics are perfectly illus- 
 trated by Muratori. (Antiquitat. lial. Medii JEvi, torn. iv. dissert, 
 xlv.— lil. p. 1—675. Annal. lom. viii. ix. x.) 
 
 f For these titles, see Selden, (Titles of Honour, vol. iii. part. I. j>. 
 488.) Ducange, (Gloss. I^lin. tom. ii. p. 140. tom. vi. p. 776.) and SW 
 Marc, (Abregc Chronologique, torn. ii. p. 719.) 
 
 g The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standard plan 
 ted on a car or waggon, drawn by a team of oxen. (Ducange, !«.m. il 
 p. 194, 195. Muratori, Antiquitat. tom. ii. diss, xxxvi. p. 489-493.) 
 
 «» Gunther Ligurinu«| 1. viii. 684, ei »e(^ apud Schmidt, lom. Hi 
 p. 399, 
 
 ^ 
 
 h 
 
 stately capital were razed to the ground, three hundred 
 hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants 
 were dispersed in four villages, under the yoke of the 
 inflexible conqueror.' But Milan soon rose from her 
 ashes ; and the league of Lombardy was cemented by 
 distress : iheir cause was espoused by Venice, pope 
 Alexander the third, and the Greek emperor: the fabric 
 of oppression was overturned in a day; and in the 
 treaty of Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some 
 reservations, the freedom of four and twenty cities. 
 Frederic the His grandson contended with their vi- 
 second, gour and maturity : but Frederic the 
 A.D.1198— 1250. second^ was endowed with some per- 
 sonal and peculiar advantages. His birth and educa- 
 tion recommended him to the Italians ; and in the im- 
 placable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were 
 attached to the emperor, while the Guelfs displayed 
 the banner of liberty and the church. The court of 
 Rome had slumbered, when his father Henry the sixth 
 was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoms of 
 Naples and Sicily ; and from these hereditary realms, 
 the son derived an ample and ready supply of troops 
 and treasure. Yet Frederic the second was finally 
 oppressed by the arms of the Lombards and the thun- 
 ders of the Vatican ; his kingdom was given to a 
 stranger, and the last of his family was beheaded at 
 Naples on a public scaffold. During sixty years, no 
 emperor appeared in Italy, and the name was remem- 
 bered only by the ignominious sale of the last relics 
 of sovereignty. 
 
 The barbarian conquerors of the west 
 Jf th^princel were pleased to decorate their chief with 
 of Germany, the title of emperor; but it was not their 
 A..liS^—l^i50, design to invest him with the despotism 
 of Constantine and Justinian. The per- 
 sons of the Germans were free, their conquests w^ere 
 their own, and their national character was animated 
 by a spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of 
 the new or the ancient Rome, It would have been a 
 vain and a dangerous attempt to impose a monarch on 
 the armed freemen, who were impatient of a magis- 
 trate ; on the bold, who refused to obey ; on the pow- 
 erful, who aspired to command. The empire of Char- 
 lemagne and Otho was distributed among the dukes of 
 the nations or provinces, the counts of the smaller dis- 
 tricts, and the margraves of the marches or frontiers, 
 who all united the civil and military authority as it 
 had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Cae- 
 sars. The Roman governors, who, for the most part, 
 were soldiers of fortune, seduced their mercenary le- 
 gions, assumed the imperial purple, and either failed 
 or succeeded in their revolt, without wounding the 
 power and unity of government. If the dukes, mar- 
 graves, and counts, of Germany, were less audacious 
 m their claims, the consequences of their success were 
 more lasting and pernicious to the state. Instead of 
 aiming at the supreme rank, they silently laboured to 
 establish and appropriate their provincial indepen- 
 dence. Their ambition was seconded by the weight 
 of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and 
 support, the common interest of the subordinate nobi- 
 lity, the change of princes and families, the minorities 
 of Otho the third and Henry the fourth, the ambition 
 of the popes, and the vain pursuit of the fugitive 
 crowns of Italy and Rome. All the attributes of re- 
 gal and territorial jurisdiction were gradually usurped 
 by the commanders of the provinces ; the riffht of 
 peace and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxa- 
 tion, of foreign alliance and domestic economy. What- 
 ever had been seized by violence, was ratified by favour 
 or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote 
 
 I Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram. (Bucard. de 
 Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 917.) This volume of Mu- 
 ratori contains the orieinals of the history of Frederic the first, which 
 must be compared with doe regard to the circumsunces and preju- 
 dices of each German or Lombard writer. 
 
 k For the history of Frederic II. and the house of Swabia al Naples, 
 ■ea Giannone, Isloria Civile, tom. ii. 1. xiv.— xix. 
 
 or a voluntary service ; whatever had been granted to 
 one, could not, without injury, be denied to his succes- 
 sor or equa] ; and every act of local or temporary pos- 
 session was insensibly moulded into the constitution of 
 the Germanic kingdom. In every province, the visible 
 presence of the duke or count was interposed between 
 the throne and the nobles ; the subjects of the law 
 became the vassals of a private chief; and the stan- 
 dard, which he received from his sovereign, was often 
 raised against him in the field. The temporal power 
 of the clergy was cherished and exalted by the super- 
 stition or policy of the Carlovingian and Saxon dynas- 
 ties, who blindly depended on their moderation and 
 fidelity ; and the bishoprics of Germany were made 
 equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and 
 population, to the most ample states of the military 
 order. As long as the emperors retained the preroga- 
 tive of bestowing on every vacancy these ecclesiastic 
 and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by 
 the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favourites. 
 But in the quarrel of the investitures, they were de- 
 prived of their influence over the episcopal chapters ; 
 the freedom of election was restored, and the sovereign 
 was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to his Jirst prayers, 
 the recommendation, once in his reign, to a single pre- 
 bend in each church. The secular governors, instead 
 of being recalled at the will of a superior, could be 
 degraded only by the sentence of their peers. In the 
 first age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son 
 to the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as 
 a favour; it was gradually obtained as a custom, and 
 extorted as a right : the lineal succession was often 
 extended to the collateral or female branches ; the 
 states of the empire (their popular, and at length their 
 legal, appellation) were divided and alienated by tes- 
 tament and sale ; and all idea of a public trust was 
 lost in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. 
 The emperor could not even he enriched by the casual- 
 ties of forfeiture and extinction : within the term of a 
 year, he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief, and 
 in the choice of the candidate, it was his duty to con- 
 sult either the general or the provincial diet. 
 
 After the death of Frederic the second, jj,^ Grrmanic 
 Germany was left a monster with a hun- ronAiiuti.>n, 
 dred heads. A crowd of princes and ^ ** **^- 
 prelates disputed the ruins of the empire : the lords of 
 innumerable castles were less prone to obey, than to 
 imitate, their superiors; and, according to the mea- 
 sure of their strength, their incessant hostilities re- 
 ceived the names of conquest or robbery. Such an- 
 archy was the inevitable conseauence of the laws 
 and manners of Europe; and the kingdoms of France 
 and Italy were shivered into fragments by the violence 
 of the same tempest. But the Italian cities and the 
 French vassals were divided and destroyed, mhile the 
 union of the Germans has produced, under the name 
 of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. 
 In the frequent and at last the perpetual iostitvtioo 
 of diets, a national spirit was kept alive, ^mi Um 
 powers of a common legislature are still exercised by 
 the three branches or colleges of the eleetort, tM 
 
 frinces, and the free and imperial cities of (•ermany. 
 . Seven of the most powerful feudatories were per- 
 mitted to assume, with a distinguished name aad 
 rank, the exclusive privilege of choosing the Romui 
 emperor ; and these electors were the king of Bobemny 
 the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg^ 
 the count palatine of the Rhine, and the three arch- 
 bishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Coloffiie. II. 
 The college of princes and prelates purged themselTee 
 of a promiscuous multitude : they reduced to four re- 
 presentative votes, the long series of indepeodeat 
 counts, and excluded the nobles or equestrian order, 
 sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets, had 
 appeared on horseback in the field of election. 111. 
 The pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and Um 
 mitre, wisely adopted the commons as the third braaek 
 
 fii 
 
^\J 
 
 190 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 191 
 
 whipped through the city, and cast into a dungeon ; 
 thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others were 
 mutilated or banished; and this severe process was 
 juslified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Jus- 
 tinian. The voice of fame has accused the second 
 Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of 
 the senators, whom he had invited to his table under 
 the fair semblance of hospitality and friendship.* In 
 the minority of his son Oiho the third, Rome made a 
 bold attempt to shake oflf the Saxon yoke, and the con- 
 sul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From 
 Of ihe consul ^^® condition of a subject and an exile, 
 CreJu>m?us, he twice rose to the command of the 
 A.D.wa city, oppressed, expelled, and created 
 the popes, and formed a conspiracy for restoring the 
 authority of the Greek emperors. In the fortress of 
 SU Angelo, he maintained an obstinate siege, till the 
 oofortunate consul was betrayed by a promise of safe- 
 ty : his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his head 
 was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a 
 reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, 
 was besieged three days, without food, in his palace ; 
 and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or 
 fury of the Romans. The senatoi; Ptolemy was the 
 leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius 
 enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her 
 husband, by a poison which she administered to her 
 imperial lover. It was the design of Otho the third 
 to abandon the ruder countries of the north, to erect 
 Lis throne in Italy, and to revive the institutions of 
 the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once 
 in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tiber, to 
 receive their crown in the Vatican." Their absence 
 was contemptible, their presence odious and formida- 
 ble. They descended from the Alps, at the head of 
 their barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to 
 the country ; and their transient visit was a scene of 
 tumult and bloodshed.* A faint remembrance of their 
 ancestors still tormented the Romans; and they be- 
 held with pious indignation the succession of Saxons, 
 Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the 
 purple and prerogatives of the Cassars. 
 The kingdom of There is nothirjg perhaps more ad- 
 luiy, verse to nature and reason than to hold 
 
 A. D. 774-1250. j„ obedience remote countries and foreign 
 nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest. 
 A torrent of barbarians may pass over the earth, but 
 an extensive empire must be supported by a refined 
 system of policy and oppression : in the centre, an ab- 
 solute power, prompt in action, and rich in resources : 
 a swift and easy communication with the extreme 
 parts : fortifications to check the first effort of rebel- 
 lion : a regular administration to protect and punish ; 
 and a wefl-disciplined army to inspire fear, without 
 provoking discontent and despair. Far different was 
 the situaSon of the German Caesars, who were ambi- 
 tious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patri- 
 monial estates were stretched along the Rhine, or 
 scattered in the provinces ; but this ample domain was 
 alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive 
 princes ; and their revenue, from minute and vexatious 
 prerogative, was scarcely sufficient for the maintenance 
 of their household. Their troops were formed by the 
 legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who 
 passed the Alps with reluctance, assumed the licence 
 
 of rapine and disorder, and capriciously deserted be- 
 fore the end of the campaign. Whole armies were 
 swept away by the pestilential influence of the cli- 
 mate : the survivors brought back the bones of their 
 princes and nobles,** and the "effects of their own in- 
 temperance were often imputed to the treachery and 
 malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the 
 calamities of the barbarians. This irregular tyranny 
 might contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants 
 of Italy; nor can the people, or the reader, be much 
 interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekin* 
 died the flame of industry and freedom ; and the gene- 
 rous example was at length imitated by the republics 
 of Tuscany. In the Italian cities a municipal govern- 
 ment had never been totally abolished ; and their first 
 privileges were granted by the favour and policy of the 
 emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian 
 barrier against the independence of the nobles. But 
 their rapid progress, the daily extension of their power 
 and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and 
 spirit of these rising communities." Each city filled 
 the measure of her diocese or district: the jurisdiction 
 of the counts and bishops, of the marquises and 
 counts, was banished from the land ; and the proudest 
 nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their 
 solitary castles, and to embrace the more honourable 
 character of freemen and magistrates. The legisla- 
 tive authority was inherent in the general assembly ; 
 but the executive powers were intrusted to three con- 
 suls, annually chosen from the three orders of captains, 
 valvassors,* and commons, into which the republic was 
 divided. Under the protection of equal law, the la- 
 bours of agriculture and commerce, were gradually 
 revived ; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was 
 nourished by the presence of danger ; and as often as 
 the bell was rung, or the standard « erected, the gales 
 of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, 
 whose zeal in their own cause was soon guided by the 
 use and discipline of arms. At the foot of these popu- 
 lar ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was overthrown ; 
 and the invincible genius of liberty prevailed over the 
 two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age: 
 the first, superior perhaps in military prowess; the 
 second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accom- 
 plishments of peace and learning. 
 
 Ambitious of restoring the splendour Frederic the first- 
 of the purple, Frederic the first invaded a. d. ii52-ii90 
 the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a states- 
 man, the valour of a soldier, and the cruelty of a ty- 
 rant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had re- 
 newed a science most favourable to despotism ; and 
 his venal advocates proclaimed the emperor the abso- 
 lute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. 
 His royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were 
 acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia ; and the reve- 
 nue of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of 
 silver,^ which were multiplied to an indefinite de- 
 mand, by the rapine of the fiscal officers. The obsti- 
 nate cities were reduced by the terror or the force of 
 his arms : his captives were delivered to the execu- 
 tioner, or shot from his military engines ; and, after 
 the siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that 
 
 a This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in the Pantheon 
 of Godfrey of Viierbo, (Script. Ilal. torn, vii, p. 4M6, 437.) who flou- 
 rished towanla the end of the twelfth century ; (Fabricius, Bibliot. 
 Latin, med. et infimi ^vi, torn. iii. p. 69. edit. Mansi ;) but his evi- 
 dence, which Imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably suspected by Mu- 
 ratori. (Annali, tonj. viii. p. 177.) 
 
 b The coronation of the emperor, and some original ceremonies of 
 the tenth century, are preserved in the Paneiryric on Berengarius, 
 (Script. Iial. torn. ii. pars i. 405-414.) illustrated by the Notes of 
 Hadrian, Valesius, and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole 
 process of the Roman expedition, in good Latin, but with some errors 
 of time and fact, (1. vii. p. 441 — '146.) 
 
 « In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad IL Muralori lakes leave 
 to observe— doveano ben essere allora, indisciplinati, Barbari, afr««- 
 tiuli Tedetchi. Annal. torn. viii. p. 368. 
 
 d After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for that purpose were 
 a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and a German who was 
 using it fur nis brother, promised it to a friend, after it should have 
 been employed for himself. (Schmidt, lorn. iii. p. 423, 424.) Th» 
 same author observes that the whole Saxon line was extinguished ia 
 Italy, (tom. i, p. 410.) 
 
 e Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important passage on lh» 
 Italian cities ; (I. ii. c. 13. in Script. Iial. torn vi. p. 707—710.) and the 
 rise, progress, and government of these republics are perfectly illus- 
 trated by Muralori. (Aniiquitat. lul. Medii JEvi, tom. Iv. dissert, 
 xlv.— Iii. p. 1—675. Annal. lom. viii. ix. x.) 
 
 f For these titles, see Selden, (Titles of Honour, vol. iii. part. 5. p. 
 488.) Ducange, (Gloss. Laiin. tom. ii. p. 140. tom. vi. p. 776.) and St. 
 Marc, (Abrtigti Chronologique, lom. ii. p. 719.) 
 
 g The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standard plan 
 led on a car or waggon, drawn by a team of oxen. (Ducange, torn. ii. 
 p. 194, 195. Muraloj-i, Aniiquitat. ici i. ii. diss, xxxvi. p. 489— -493.) 
 
 h Guniher Ligurinusi 1. viii. 994, et ^et^ apuU Schiuidt, tom. iii 
 p. 399. 
 
 stately capital were razed to the ground, three hundred 
 hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants 
 were dispersed in four villages, under the yoke of the 
 inflexible conqueror.' But Milan soon rose from her 
 ashes ; and the league of Lombardy was cemented by 
 distress: iheir cause was espoused by Venice, pope 
 Alexander the third, and the Greek emperor: the fabric 
 of oppression was overturned in a day; and in the 
 treaty of Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some 
 reservations, the freedom of four and twenty cities. 
 Frederic the His grandson contended with their vi- 
 second, gour and maturity : but Frederic the 
 A. D. 1198-1250. second* was endowed with some per- 
 sonal and peculiar advantages. His birth and educa- 
 
 \^ tion recommended him to the Italians ; and in the im- 
 placable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were 
 attached to the emperor, while the Guelfs displayed 
 
 * the banner of liberty and the church. The court of 
 Rome had slumbered, when his father Henry the sixth 
 was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoms of 
 Naples and Sicily; and from these hereditary realms, 
 the son derived an ample and ready supply of troops 
 and treasure. Yet Frederic the second was finally 
 oppressed by the arms of the Lombards and the thun- 
 
 Iders of the Vatican ; his kingdom was given to a 
 -^ stranger, and the last of his family was beheaded at 
 Naples on a public scaffold. During sixty years, no 
 emperor appeared in Italy, and the name was remem- 
 bered only by the ignominious sale of the last relics 
 of sovereignty. 
 
 The barbarian conquerors of the west 
 of ihe^priu'ces Were pleased to decorate their chief with 
 of Germany, the title of emperor; but it was not their 
 
 ^'^ tcT*^^* ^^^^'g"" ^^ invest him with the despotism 
 of Constantino and Justinian. The per- 
 sons of the Germans were free, their conquests were 
 their own, and their national character was animated 
 by a spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of 
 the new or the ancient Rome. It would have been a 
 vain and a dangerous attempt to impose a monarch on 
 the armed freemen, who were impatient of a magis- 
 trate ; on the bold, who refused to obey ; on the pow- 
 erful, who aspired to command. The empire of Char- 
 lemagne and Otho was distributed among the dukes of 
 the nations or provinces, the counts of the smaller dis- 
 tricts, and the margraves of the marches or frontiers, 
 who all united the civil and military authority as it 
 had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Cae- 
 sars. The Roman governors, who, for the most part, 
 were soldiers of fortune, seduced their mercenary le- 
 gions, assumed the imperial purple, and either failed 
 or succeeded in their revolt, without wounding the 
 power and unity of government. If the dukes, mar- 
 graves, and counts, of Germany, were less audacious 
 in their claims, the consequences of their success were 
 more lasting and pernicious to the state. Instead of 
 aiming at the supreme rank, they silently laboured to 
 establish and appropriate their provincial indepen- 
 dence. Their ambition was seconded by the weight 
 of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and 
 support, the common interest of the subordinate nobi- 
 lity, the change of princes and families, the minorities 
 of Otho the third and Henry the fourth, the ambition 
 of the popes, and the vain pursuit of the fugitive 
 crowns of Italy and Rome. All the attributes of re- 
 gal and territorial jurisdiction were gradually usurped 
 by the commanders of the provinces ; the right of 
 peace and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxa- 
 tion, of foreign alliance and domestic economy. What- 
 ever had been seized by violence, was ratified by favour 
 or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote 
 
 i Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram. (Bucard. de 
 Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 917.) This volume of Mu- 
 ralori contains the originals of the histoid of Frederic the first, which 
 must be compared with due regard to the circumstances and preju- 
 dices of each German or Lombard writer. 
 
 k For the history of Frederic II. and the house of Swabiaal Naples, 
 ■ee Giiinnone, Isioria Civile, tom. ii. 1. xiv.— xix. 
 
 or a voluntary service ; whatever had been granted to 
 one, could not, without injury, be denied to his succes- 
 sor or equaj ; and every act of local or temporary pos- 
 session was insensibly moulded into the constitution of 
 the Germanic kingdom. In every province, the visible 
 presence of the duke or count was interposed between 
 the throne and the nobles ; the subjects of the law 
 became the vassals of a private chief; and the stan- 
 dard, which he received from his sovereign, was often 
 raised against him in the field. The temporal power 
 of the clergy was cherished and exalted by the super- 
 stition or policy of the Carlovingian and Saxon dynas- 
 ties, who blindly depended on their moderation and 
 fidelity; and the bishoprics of Germany were made 
 ^qual in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and 
 population, to the most ample states of the military 
 order. As long as the emperors retained the preroga- 
 tive of bestowing on every vacancy these ecclesiastic 
 and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by 
 the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favourites. 
 But in the quarrel of the investitures, they were de- 
 prived of their influence over the episcopal chapters ; 
 the freedom of election was restored, and the sovereign 
 was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to hisj^r*/ prayers, 
 the recommendation, once in his reign, to a single pre- 
 bend in each church. The secular governors, instead 
 of being recalled at the will of a superior, could be 
 degraded only by the sentence of their peers. In the 
 first age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son 
 to the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as 
 a favour; it was gradually obtained as a custom, and 
 extorted as a right : the lineal succession was often 
 extended to the collateral or female branches; the 
 states of the empire (their popular, and at length their 
 legal, appellation) were divided and alienated by tes- 
 tament and sale ; and all idea of a public trust w^as 
 lost in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. 
 The emperor could not even be enriched by the casual- 
 ties of forfeiture and extinction : within the term of a 
 year, he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief, and 
 m the choice of the candidate, it was his duty to con- 
 sult either the general or the provincial diet. 
 
 After the death of Frederic the second, ^he Germanic 
 Germany was left a monster with a hun- constitution, 
 dred heads. A crowd of princes and ^- ^- *''^^- 
 prelates disputed the ruins of the empire : the lords of 
 innumerable castles were less prone to obey, than to 
 imitate, their superiors; and, according to the mea- 
 sure of their strength, their incessant hostilities re- 
 ceived the names of conquest or robber3% Such an- 
 archy was the inevitable consequence of the laws 
 and manners of Europe ; and the kingdoms of France 
 and Italy were shivered into fragments by the violence 
 of the same tempest. But the Italian cities and the 
 French vassals were divided and destroyed, while the 
 union of the Germans has produced, under the name 
 of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. 
 In the frequent and at last the perpetual institution 
 of diets, a national spirit was Kept alive, and the 
 powers of a common legislature are still exercised by 
 the three branches or colleges of the electors, the 
 
 frinces, and the free and imperial cities of Germany. 
 . Seven of the most powerful feudatories were per- 
 mitted to assume, with a distinguished name and 
 rank, the exclusive privilege of choosing the Roman 
 emperor ; and these electors were the king of Bohemia, 
 the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburgh, 
 the count palatine of the Rhine, and the three arch- 
 bishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. 
 The college of princes and prelates purged themselves 
 of a promiscuous multitude : they reduced to four re- 
 presentative votes, the long series of independent 
 counts, and excluded the nobles or equestrian order, 
 sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets, had 
 appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. 
 The pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the 
 mitre, wisely adopted the commons as the third branch 
 
102 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 hi 
 I* 
 
 .1 
 
 
 4 
 
 of the legislature, and, in the progress of society, they 
 were introduced about the same lera into the national 
 assemhlies of France, England, and Germany. The 
 Hanseatic league commanded the trade and naviga- 
 tion of the north : the confederates of the Rhine secured 
 the peace and intercourse of the inland country : the 
 influence of the cities has been adequate to their 
 wealth and policy, and their negative still invalidates 
 the acts of the two superior colleges of electors and 
 princes 
 
 1 
 
 Weakness and 
 
 g)verty of the 
 erman empe- 
 ror Charles IV. 
 A. D. 1*17—1373 
 
 It is in the fourteenth century that we 
 may view in the strongest light the state 
 and contrast of the Roman empire of 
 Germany, which no longer held, except 
 on the borders of the Rhine and Danube, 
 a single province of Trajan or Constantine. Their un- 
 worthy successors were the counts of Hapsburgh, of 
 Nassau, of Luxemburgh, and of Schwartzenburgh : the 
 emperor Henry the seventh procured for his son the 
 crown of Bohemia, and his grandson Charles the fourth 
 was born among a people strange and barbarous in the 
 estimation of the Germans themselves." After the 
 excommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received 
 the gift or promise of the vacant empire from the Ro- 
 man pontiffs, who, in the exile and captivity of Avig- 
 non, affected the dominion of the earth. The death 
 of his competitors united the electoral college, and 
 Charles was unanimously saluted king of the Romans, 
 and future emperor: a title which, in the same age, 
 was prostituted to the Caesars of Germany and Greece. 
 The German emperor was no more than the elective 
 and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy of princes, 
 who had not left him a village that he might call his 
 own. His best prerogative was the right of presiding 
 and proposing in the national senate, which was con- 
 vened at his summons; and his native kingdom of 
 Bohemia, less opulent than the adjacent city of Nurem- 
 burgh, was the firmest seat of his power and the 
 richest source of his revenue. The army 
 A. P. 1395. ^jjj^ ^jjj^.jj jjp passed the Alps consisted 
 
 of three hundred horse. In the cathedral of St. Am- 
 hrose, Charles was crowned with the iron crown, 
 which tradition ascribed to the Lombard monarchy ; 
 but he was admitted only with a peaceful train ; the 
 gates of the city were shut upon him ; and the king 
 of Italy was held a captive by the arms of the Visconti, 
 whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan. In 
 the Vatican he was again crowned with the golden 
 crown of the empire ; but, in obedience to a secret 
 treaty, the Roman emperor immediately withdrew, 
 without reposing a single night within the walls of 
 Rome. The eloquent Petrarch," whose fancy revived 
 the visionary glories of the capitol, deplores and up- 
 braids the ignominious flight of the Bohemian : and 
 even his contemporaries could observe, that the sole 
 exercise of his authority was in the lucrative sale of 
 privileges and titles. The gold of Italy secured the 
 
 1 In the immense labyrinth of the ju$ publicam of Germany, I 
 must either quote one writer or a thousand ; and I had rather trust 
 to one faithful guide, than transcribe, on credit, a multitude of names 
 and passages. That guide is M. Pfeffel, the author of the best legal 
 and constitutional history that I know of any country. (Nouvel 
 Abr6g« Chronologique de i'Histoire et du Droit Public d'Alleinagne; 
 Paris, 1776, 2 vols, in 4to.) His learning and judgment have dis- 
 cerned the most interesting facts; his simple brevity comprises them 
 in a narrow space; his chronological order distributes them under 
 the proper dales; aiul an elaborate index collects them under their 
 respective heads. To this work, in a less perfect state, Dr. Kobert- 
 Bon was gratefully indebted for that masterly sketch which traces 
 even the modern changes of the Germanic body. The Corpus His- 
 loriae Germanicae of Slruvius has been likewise consulted, the more 
 usefully, as that huge compilation is fortified in every page with the 
 original texts. 
 
 in Yet, personalli/, Charles IV. must not be considered as a bar- 
 barian. After his education at Paris, he recovered the use of the 
 Bohemian, his native, idiom; and the emperor convers«^d and wrote 
 ^iih eqiiHl facility in French, Latin, Italian, and German. (Slruvius, 
 p. 615, 616.) Petrarch always represents him as a polite and learned 
 prince. ^ ... , 
 
 n Besides the German and Italian historians, ihe expedition of 
 Charles IV. is painted in lively and original colours in the curious 
 Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 376 — 430. by the Abbe 
 de Sade, whose prolixity has never been blamed by any reader of 
 taate and curiosity. 
 
 election of his son ; but such was the shameful poverty 
 of the Roman emperor, that his person was arrested 
 by a butcher in the streets of Worms, and was de- 
 tained in the public inn, as a pledge or hostage for the 
 payment of his expenses. 
 
 From this humiliating scene, let us His ostenution, 
 turn to the apparent majesty of the same ^- ^- * • 
 Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden bull, 
 which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated 
 in the style of a sovereign and legislator. A hundred 
 princes bowed before his throne, and exalted their 
 own dignity by the voluntary honours which they 
 yielded to their chief or minister. At the royal ban- 
 quet, the hereditary great oflficers, the seven electors, 
 who in rank and title were equal to kings, performed 
 the solemn and domestic service of the palace. The 
 seals of the triple kingdom were borne in state by the 
 archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, the per- 
 petual archchancellors of Germany, Italy, and Aries. 
 The great marshal, on horseback, exercised his func- 
 tion with a silver measure of oats, which he emptied 
 on the ground, and immediately dismounted to re- 
 gulate the order of the guests. The great steward, 
 the count palatine of the Rhine, placed the dishes on 
 the table. The great chamberlain, the margrave of 
 Brandenburgh, presented, after the repast, the golden 
 ewer and basin, to wash. The king of Bohemia, as great 
 cup-bearer, was represented by the emperor's brother, 
 the duke of Luxemburgh and Brabant; and the pro- 
 cession was closed by the great huntsmen, who intro- 
 duced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of horns 
 and hounds." Nor was the supremacy of the emperor 
 confined to Germany alone : the hereditary monarchs 
 of Europe confessed the pre-eminence of his rank and 
 dignity : he was the first of the christian princes, the 
 temporal head of the great republic of the west :p to 
 his person the title of majesty was long appropriated; 
 and he disputed with the pope the sublime prerogative 
 of creating kings and assemblingcouncils. The oracle 
 of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a pensioner 
 of Charles the fourth; and his school resounded with 
 the doctrine, that the Roman emperor was the right- 
 ful sovereign of the earth, from the rising to the set- 
 ting sun. The contrary opinion was condemned, 
 not as an error, but as a heresy, since even the gospel 
 had pronounced, " And there went forth a decree from 
 C«sar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." < 
 
 If we annihilate the interval of time contrast of the 
 and space betweenAugustus and Charles, power and mo- 
 strong and striking will be the contrast des^J o^ Augu- 
 between the two Caesars ; the Bohemian, 
 who concealed his weakness under the mask of osten- 
 tation, and the Roman, who disguised his strength 
 under the semblance of modesty. At the head of his 
 victorious legions, in his reign over the sea and land, 
 from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic ocean, 
 Augustus professed himself the servant of the state 
 and the equal of his fellow-citizens. The conqueror 
 of Rome and her provinces assumed the popular and 
 legal form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His 
 wfll was the law of mankind, but in the declaration 
 of his laws he borrowed the voice of the senate and 
 people; and, from their decrees, their master accepted 
 and renewed his temporary commission to administer 
 the republic. In his dress, his domestics,' his titles, 
 in all the offices of social life, Augustus maintained 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 < 
 
 o See the whole ceremony, in Slruvius, p. 629. 
 
 p The republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor at Its heafl, 
 was never represented with more dignity ihan in the Council of Con- 
 stance. See L'Enfant's History of that assembly. 
 
 q Gravina, Origiups Juris Civilis, p. 108. 
 
 r Six thousand urns have been discovered of the slaves and freed- 
 men of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the division of office, 
 that one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by 
 the empress's maids, another for the care of her lap-dog, &c. (Camer* 
 Sepolchrale, by Biaiichini. Extract of his work, in the Bibliothequ© 
 Italiqup, tom. iv. p. 175. His Eloge, by Fonienelle, tom. vi. p. 356.) 
 Bui these servants were of ihe same rank, and possibly not mi^ 
 numerous than those of Polliu or Lentulus. They only prove taa 
 general richee of the city. 
 
 the character of a private Roman ; and his most artful 
 flatterers respected the secret of his absolute and per- 
 petual monarchy. 
 
 103 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Description of Arabia and its inhabitants. —Birth, charac- 
 ier and doctrine of Mahomet. — He preaches at Mecca.-^ 
 Flies to Medina. ^Propagates his religion by the sword 
 --Voluntary or reluctant submission of the Arabs.— His 
 death and successors. -—T/ie claims and fortunes of All 
 and his descendaiits. 
 
 After pursuing above six hundred years the fleet- 
 ing Cffisars of Constantinople and Germany, I now 
 descend, in the reign of Heraclius, on the eastern bor- 
 ders of the Greek monarchy. While the state was 
 exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was 
 distracted by the Nesiorian and Monophysite sects, 
 Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran 
 in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Chris- 
 tianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian pro- 
 phet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of his re- 
 ligion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the 
 eastern empire ; and our eyes are curiously intent on 
 one of the most memorable revolutions, which have 
 impressed a new and lasting character on the nations 
 of the globe.* 
 
 Description of In the vacant space between Persia, 
 Arabia. Syria, Egypt, and ^Ethiopia, the Arabian 
 peninsula*' may be conceived as a triangle of spacious 
 but irregular dimensions. From the northern point 
 of Beles' on the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred 
 miles is terminated by the straits of Babel mandel and 
 the land of frankincense. About half this length may 
 be allowed for the middle breadth, from east to west, 
 from Bassora to Suez, from the Persian gulf to the 
 Red sea.* The sides of the triangle are gradually en- 
 larged, and the southern basis presents a front of a 
 thousand miles to the Indian ocean. The entire sur- 
 face of the peninsula exceeds in a fourfold proportion 
 that of Germany or France ; but the far greater part 
 has been justly stigmatized with the epithets of the 
 
 The soil and stony and the sandy. Even the wilds of 
 climate. Tartary are decked, by the hand of na- 
 ture, with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage ; and the 
 lonesome traveller derives a sort of comfort"and s ociety 
 
 » As in this and the following chapter I shall display much Arabic 
 learning, I must profess my total ignorance of the oriental tongues, 
 and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who have transfused 
 their science into the I^tin, French, and English languages. Their 
 colleriions, versions, and histories, I shall occasionally notice. 
 
 b The geographers of Arabia may be divided into three classes: 1. 
 
 Ihe Greeks ^nA Latins, yN\\o»B progressive knowledge may be traced 
 
 inAgaiharcides,(de Mari Ruhro, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor.tom.i.) 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. 1. i|. p. 159-167. I. iii, p. 211-216. edit. 
 
 Wpssf-ling,) Slrabo, (1. xvi. p. 1112-1114. from Eratosthenejt, p. 1122 
 
 /u Vt "^ Artemidorus.) Dionysius, (Periegesis, 927—969.) Pliny. 
 
 (Hisi. Naiur. v. 12. vi. 32.) and Ptolemy. (Descript. et Tabula Ur' 
 
 Dium, in Hudson, torn. Iii.) 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated 
 
 trie subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the extracts of 
 
 i-.M^ock (Specimen Hist. Arabum. p. 125—128.) from the Geography 
 
 01 Ihe Shenf al Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the 
 
 vprsion or abridgment (p. 24-27. 44-66. 108, &c. 119, &c.) which the 
 
 maroniies have published under the absurd title of Geographia Nu- 
 
 Diensis; (Paris, 1619.) but the Latin and French translators. Greaves 
 
 (in Hudson, tom. iii.) and Galland, (Voyage de la Palestine par la 
 
 «oque, p. 265-346.) have opened to us the Arabic of Abulfeda, the 
 
 most copious and correct account of the peninsula, which maybe 
 
 enriched, however, from the Bibliolheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, 
 
 p. 1-W. et alibi passim. 3. The European travellers ; among whom 
 
 anaw (p. 438-455.) and NIebuhr (Description, 1773. Voyages, tom. 
 
 1-1776.) deserve an honourable distinction : Busching (Geographie par 
 
 Kerenger, tom. viii. p. 416—510.) has compiled with judgment; and 
 
 .K 1^ .. '■ ^^*P* (Orbis Veteribus Notus, and Ire Parii'e de I'Asle) 
 
 r. iii 'At.^®^**'^* ^**® reader, with hia Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. 
 
 p. 20S— 231 .) a r 1 
 
 5 Abulfed. Descript. Arabias, p. 1. D'Anville, I'Euphrate et le 
 iigre, p. 19,^. It was in this place, the paradise or garden of a 
 wirap, that Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates, 
 (Anabasis, 1. 1, c. 10. p. 29. edit. Wells.) 
 
 d Reland haa proved, with much superfluous learning, 1. That our 
 nea sea, (the Arabian gulf) is no more than a part of the Mare Ru- 
 th^w.'! « w'"'** •-'v-T"" of the ancieota, which waa extended to 
 »1 L^^"'^® space of the Indian ocean. 2. That the aynonyraous 
 
 Vol. II.— Z 13 * 
 
 from the presence of vegetable life. But in the drearV 
 waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is inte^. 
 sected by sharp and naked mountains ; and the face of 
 the desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the 
 direct and intense rays of the tropical sun. Instead of 
 refreshing breezes, the winds, particularly from the 
 ^u" u'lT^*' diffuse a noxious and even deadly vapour- 
 the hillocks of sand which they alternately raise and 
 scatter, are compared to the billows of the ocean, and 
 whole caravans, whole armies, have been lost and 
 buried m the whirlwind. The common benefits of 
 water are an object of desire and contest; and such is 
 the scarcity of wood, that some art is requisite to pre- 
 serve and propagate the element of fire. Arabia is des 
 titute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the soil, and 
 
 ^'u "^r^.'i^ P''^^"^® ^° '^^ adjacent regions: the torrents 
 that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth • 
 the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, 
 that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are 
 nourished by the dews of the night: a scanty supply of 
 rain is collected in cisterns and aqueducts : the wells 
 and springs are the secret treasure of the desert ; and 
 the pilgrim of Mecca,* after many a dry and sultry 
 march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters, which 
 have rolled over a bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the 
 general and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. 
 The experience of evil enhances the value of any lo- 
 cal or partial enjoyments. A shady grove, a green 
 pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to attract 
 a f^olony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spots 
 which can afford food and refreshment to themselves 
 and their cattle, and which encourage their industry in 
 the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The 
 high lands that border on the Indian ocean are distin- 
 guished by their superior plenty of wood and water; 
 the air is more temperate, the fruits are more delicious, 
 the animals and the human race more numerous: the 
 fertility of the soil invites and rewards the toil of the 
 husbandman ; and the peculiar gifts of frankincense' 
 and coffee have attracted in different ages the mer- 
 chants of the world. If it be compared with the rest 
 of the peninsula, this sequestered region may truly 
 deserve the appellation of the happy ,- and the splendid 
 colouring of fancy and fiction has been suggested by 
 contrast, and countenanced by distance. It was for 
 this earthly paradise that nature had reserved her 
 choicest favours and her most curious workmanship: 
 the inconnpatible blessings of luxury and innocence 
 were ascribed to the natives : the soil was impregnated 
 with gold « and gems, and both the land and sea were 
 taught to exhale the odours of aromatic sweets. This 
 division of the sandy, the stony, and the 
 happy, so familiar to the Greeks and La- ?a'„Tt° elo'nV; 
 tins, IS unknown to the Arabians them- and the happy, 
 selves: and it is singular enough, that a ^■^''•a- 
 country, whose language and inhabitants have ever 
 been the same, should scarcely retain a vestige of its 
 ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein 
 and Oman are opposite to the realm of Persia. The 
 kingdom of Yemen displays the limits, or at least the 
 situation, of Arabia Faelix: the name of Neged is ex- 
 tended over the inland space : and the birth of Maho- 
 met has illustrated the province of Hejaz along the 
 coast of the Red sea.** 
 
 e Tn the thirty days, or stations, between Cairo and Mecca, thers 
 are fifteen destitute of good water. See the rout of the Hadjees, ia 
 Shaw's Travels, p. 477. 
 
 f The aromatics, especially the thus or frankincense, of Arabia, 
 occupy the twelfth book of Pliny. Our great poet (Paradise Lost, I. 
 iv.) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odours that are blown by the 
 north-east wind from the Sabaean coast: 
 
 Many a league, ^ 
 
 PleasM with the grateful scent, old Ocean smilea. 
 (Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 42.) 
 
 % Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were found, from the 
 size of an olive to that of a nut ; that iron was twice, and silver ten 
 times, the value of gold, (de Mari Rubro, p. 60.) These real or ima- 
 ginary treasures are vanished; and no gold mines are at preMnt 
 known in Arabia. (Neibuhr, Description, p. 124.) 
 
 b Consult, peruse, and siudy, the Specimen Historias Arabum of 
 Pocock ! (Ozoo. 1660, ia 4to.> The thirty pagei of text and fWitMl 
 
 i , 
 
 \ 
 
 •', • 
 
 IJ 
 
^1' 
 
 'tl 
 
 III 
 
 194 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 CflAP. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 195 
 
 1' 
 
 IH 
 
 ^f-' 
 
 ii: 
 
 Manners of the Th® measure of population is regu- 
 Bedoweens, or lated by the means of subsistence ; and 
 pastoral Arabs, ^^e inhabitants of this vast peninsula 
 might be outnumbered by the subjects of a fertile and 
 industrious province. Along the shores of the Persian 
 gulf, of the ocean, and even of the Red sea, the Idhy- 
 vphagi; or fish-eaters, continued to wander in quest of 
 their precarious food. In this primitive and abject 
 state, which ill deserves the name of society, the hu- 
 man brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense 
 or lantjuage, is poorly distinguished from the rest of 
 the animal creation. Generations and ages might roll 
 away in silent oblivion, and the helpless savage was 
 restrained from multiplyinor his race, by the wants and 
 pursuits which confined his existence to the narrow 
 margin of the sea-coast. But in an early period of 
 antiquity the great body of the Arabs had emerged 
 from this scene of misery ; and as the naked wilder- 
 ness could not maintain a people of hunters, they rose 
 at once to the more secure and plentiful condition of 
 the pastoral life. The same life is uniformly pursued 
 by the roving tribes of the desert; and in the portrait 
 of the modern Bedoweens^ we may trace the features 
 of their ancestors,^ who, in the age of Moses or Ma- 
 homet, dwelt under similar tents, and conducted their 
 horses, and camels, and sheep, to the same springs 
 and the same pastures. Our toil is lessened, and our 
 wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful 
 animals: and the Arabian shepherd had acquired the ab- 
 solute possession of a faithful friend and 
 The horse. laborious slave.' Arabia, in the opinion 
 of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country 
 of the horse ; the climate most propitious, not indeed 
 to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that 
 generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, 
 and the English breed, is derived from a nriixture of 
 Arabian blood : «" the Bedoweens preserve, with super- 
 stitious care, the honours and the mfnnory of the purest 
 race : the males are sold at a high price, but the fe- 
 males are seldom alienated ; and the birth of a noble 
 foal was esteemed, among the tribes, as a subject of 
 joy and mutual congratulation. These horses are edu- 
 cated in the tents, among the children of the Arabs, 
 w^ith a tender familiarity, which trains them in the 
 habits of gentleness and attachment. They are ac- 
 customed only to walk and to gallop : their sensations 
 are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and 
 the whip ; their powers are reserved for the moments 
 of flight and pursuit; but no sooner do they feel the 
 touch'" of the hand or the stirrup, than they dart away 
 with the swiftness of the wind ; and if their friend be 
 dismounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till 
 he has recovered his seat. In the sands of Africa and 
 Arabia, the camel is a sacred and pre- 
 The camel. ^^^^^ ^^^^ ,pj^^^ strong and patient 
 
 beast of burthen can perform, without eating or drink- 
 ing, a journey of several days ; and a reservoir of fresh 
 
 are extracted from the Dynaaties of Gregory Abulpharagius, which 
 Pocock afterwards translated : (Oxon. 1663, in 4io.) the three hun- 
 dred and fifiy-eight notes form a classic and original work on the 
 Arabian antiquities. 
 
 i Arrian remarks the Icthyophapi of the coast of Hejaz, (Periplus 
 Maris Erythrsei, p. 12.) and beyond Aden, (p. 15.) It seems probable 
 that the shores of the Red sea (in the largest sense) were occupied 
 by these savages in the time, perhaps, of Cyrus ; but I can hardly 
 beliere that any cannibals were left among the savages in the reign 
 of Justinian. (Procop. de Bell. Persic. I. i. c. 19.) 
 
 k See the Specimen Historiae Arabum of Pocock, p. 2. 5. ti6, &c. 
 The ji>urney of M. d'Arvieux, in 1664, to the camp of the emir of 
 mount Carmel, (Voyage de la Palestine, Amsterdam, 1718.) exhibits 
 a pleasing and original picture of the life of the Bedoweens, which 
 may be illustrated from Niebuhr, (Description de I'Arabie, p. 327— 
 344.) and Volney, (tom. i.p. 343—385.) the last and most judicious of 
 our Syrian travellers. 
 
 I Read (it is no unpleasant task) the incomparable articles of the 
 Borse and the Camel, in the Natural History of M. de Buffon. 
 
 m For the Arabian horses, see D'Arvieux, (p. 159—173.) and Nie- 
 buhr, (p. 142—144.) At the end of the ihirieenlh century, the horses 
 of Naged were esteemed sure-footed, those of Yemen strong and set- 
 -viceable, those of Hejaz m(»8t noble. The horses of Europe, the tenth 
 and last class, were genprally despised, as having too much body and 
 too little spirit; (D'Herbelol, Bibliot. Orient, p. 339.) their strength 
 WM r^qMisite to bear the weight of the knight and his armour. 
 
 water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomach of 
 the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks^ 
 of servitude : the larger breed is capable of transport- 
 ing a weight of a thousand pounds ; and the drome- 
 dary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the 
 fleetest courier in the race. Alive or dead, almost 
 every part of the camel is serviceable to man : her 
 milk is plentiful and nutritious : the younger and ten- 
 der flesh has the taste of veal : " a valuable salt is ex* 
 tracted from the urine : the dung supplies the deficiency 
 of fuel ; and the long hair, which falls each year and 
 is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the gar- 
 ments, the furniture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. 
 In the rainy seasons they consume the rare and insuf- 
 ficient herbage of the desert: during the heats of 
 summer and the scarcity of winter, they remove their 
 encampments to the sea-coast, the hills of Yemen, or 
 the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and have often 
 extorted the dangerous licence of visiting the banks 
 of the Nile, and the villages of Syria and Palestine. 
 The life of a wandering Arab is a life of danger and 
 distress; and though sometimes, by rapine or ex- 
 change, he may appropriate the fruits of industry, a 
 privale citizen in Europe is in possession of more 
 solid and pleasing luxury, than the proudest emir, 
 who marches in the field at the head of ten thousand 
 horse. 
 
 Yet an essential diff-erence may be cities of Arabia, 
 found between the hordes of bcythia and 
 the Arabian tribes ; since many of the latter were col- 
 lected into towns, and employed in the labours of trade 
 and agriculture. A part of their time and industry 
 was still devoted to the management of their cattle : 
 they mingled, in peace and war, with their brethren 
 of the desert ; and the Bedoweens derived from their 
 useful intercourse, some supply of their wants, and 
 some rudiments of art and knowledge. Among the 
 forty-two cities of Arabia," enumerated by Abulfeda, 
 the most ancient and populous were situate in the 
 happy Yemen : the towers of Saana,P and the marvel- 
 lous reservoir of Merab,*> were constructed by the kings 
 of the Homerites ; but their profane lustre was eclipsed 
 by the prophetic glories of Medina' and Mecca,* near 
 the Red sea, and at the distance from each other of 
 two hundred and seventy miles. The Mecca- 
 last of these holy places was known to ' 
 the Greeks under the name of Macoraba; and the ter- 
 mination of the word is expressive of its greatness, 
 which has not indeed, in the most flourishing period, 
 
 B Qui carnibus camelorum vesci solent odii tenaces sunt, wu the 
 opinion of an Arabian physician. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 88.) Ma- 
 homet himself, who was fond of milk, prefers the cow, and does 
 not even mention the camel; but the diet of Mecca and Medina 
 was already more luxurious. (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. 
 p. 404.) 
 
 Yet Marcian of Heraclea (In Periplo, p. 16. in tom. I. Hudson 
 Minor. Geograph.) reckons one hundred and sixty-four towns in 
 Arabia Felix. The size of the towns might be small— the faith of 
 the writer might be large. 
 
 P It is compared by Abulfeda (in Hudson, tom. iii. p. 54.) to Damas- 
 cus, and is still the residence of the Iman of Yemen. (Voyages de 
 Niebuhr, tom. i. p. 331—342.) Saana is twenty-four parasangs from ' 
 Dafar, (Abulfeda, p. 51.) and sixty-eight from Aden, (p. 53.) 
 
 q Pocock, Specmien, p. 57. Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 52. Meriaba, 
 or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed by the legions 
 of Augjjstus, (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32.) and had not revived in the foii5> 
 teenth century. (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. p. 58.) ^^^-r-*""^ ' 
 
 r The name of ct7y, Medina, was appropriated, Kst^^^oxi", to 
 Yalreb, (the lairippa of the Greeks,) the seat of the prophet. The 
 distances from Medina are reckoned by Abulfe<la in stations, or days 
 journey of a caravan : (p. 15.) to Bahrein, fifteen ; to Bassora, eighteen ; 
 to Cusah, twenty ; to Damascus or Palestine, twenty ; to Cairo, twen- 
 ty-five ; to Mecca, ten ; from Mecca to Saana (p. 42.) or Aden, thirty ; 
 to Cairo, thirty-one days, or 412 hours: (Shaw's Travels, p. 477.) 
 which, according to the estimate of D'Anville, (Mesures Itineraires, 
 p. 99.) allows about twenty-five English miles for a day's journey. 
 From the land of frankincense (Hadramant, in Yemen, between 
 Aden and Cape Fartasch) to Gaza, in Syria, Pliny (Hist. Nat. xii. 32 ) 
 computes sixty-five mansions of camels. These measures may as- 
 sist fancy and elucidate facts. 
 
 1 Our notions of Mecca n»usi be drawn from the Arabians. (D'Her- 
 belot, Biblioiheque Orientale, p. 363—371. Pocock, Specimen, p- 
 125—128. Abulfeda, p. 11— 40.) As no unbeliever is permitted to 
 enter the city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of The- 
 venot (Voyages du Levant, part i. p. 490.) are taken from the suspi- 
 cious mouth of an African rone|;ado. Some Persians counted six 
 thousand bouses. (Chardin, tom. iv. p. 167.) 
 
 exceeded the size and populousness of Marseilles. 
 Some latent motive, perhaps of superstition, must have 
 impelled the founders, in the choice of a most unpro- 
 mising situation. They erected their habitations of 
 mud or stone, in a plain about two miles long and one 
 mile broad, at the foot of three barren mountains : the 
 soil is a rock ; the water even of the holy well of 
 Zemzem is bitter or brackish ; the pastures are remote 
 from the city ; and grapes are transported above seven- 
 ty miles from the gardens of Tayef. The fame and 
 spirit of the Koreishites, who reigned in Mecca, were 
 conspicuous among the Arabian tribes ; but their un- 
 herirade. grateful soil refused the labours of agri- 
 
 culture, and their position was favoura- 
 ble to the enterprises of trade. By the sea-port of 
 Gedda, at the distance only of forty miles, they main- 
 tained an easy correspondence with Abyssinia; and 
 that christian kingdom aflforded the first refuge to the 
 disciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were 
 conveyed over the peninsula of Gerrha or Katif, in the 
 province of Bahrein, a city built, as it is said, of rock- 
 salt, by the Chaldean exiles : * and from thence, with 
 the native pearls of the Persian gulf, they were floated 
 on rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is 
 placed almost at an equal distance, a month's journey, 
 between Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left 
 hand. The former was the winter, the latter the sum- 
 mer, station of her caravans; and their seasonable ar- 
 rival relieved the ships of India from the tedious and 
 troublesome navigation of the Red sea. In the mar- 
 kets of Saana and Merab, in the harbours of Oman 
 and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites were laden 
 with a precious cargo of aromatics ; a supply of corn 
 and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostra 
 and Damascus ; the lucrative exchange diflfused plenty 
 and riches in the streets of Mecca ; and the noblest of 
 her sons united the love of arms with the profession of 
 merchandise." 
 
 National inde- The perpetual independence of the 
 pendenceofthe Arabs has been the theme of praise 
 Arabs. among strangers and natives; and the 
 
 arts of controversy transform this singular event into 
 a prophecy and a miracle, in favour of the posterity of 
 Ismael.' Some exceptions, that can neither be dis- 
 sembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as 
 indiscreet as it is superfluous; the kingdom of Yemen 
 has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, 
 the Persians, the sultans of Egypt, ^ and the Turks:" 
 the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly 
 bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province 
 of Arabia* embraced the peculiar wilderness in which 
 
 t Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 1 1 10. See one of these salt houses near Bassora. 
 in D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 6. x 
 
 u Minim diclu ex innumeris populis pars aequa in eommerciia aut 
 in latrociniis deeit. (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32.) See Hale's Koran, 
 Sural, cvi. p. Sal. Pocock, Specimen, p. 2. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. 
 Orient, p. 3G1. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 5. Gagnier, Vie de 
 Mahomet, torn. i. p. 72. 120. 126, *c. 
 
 X A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo edition) ha« 
 formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by the independence 
 of the Arabs. A critic, besidta the exceptions of fact, might dispute 
 the meaning of the text, (Genes, xvi. 12.) the extent of the applica- 
 tion, and the foundation of the pedigree. 
 
 y It was subdued, A. D. 1173, by a brother of the great Saladin, who 
 founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites. (Guignes, Hist, des Huns, 
 tom. i. p. 425. D'Herbelot, p. 477.) 
 
 « By the lieutenant of Sofvnian, (A. D. 1538.) and Selim II. (1568.) 
 See Caniimer's Hist, of the ()thman empire, p. 201. 221. The pasha, 
 who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys, but no revenue 
 was ever remitted to the Porte, (Marsigli, Suto Militare dell'Imperio 
 Ottomanno, p. 124.) and the Turks were expelled about the year 
 1630. (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168.) 
 
 « Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and the third 
 Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, which dated 
 their aera from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, a 
 lieutenant of Trajan. (Dion. Cassius, I. Ixviii.) Petra was the capiul 
 of the Nabathaeans; whose name is derived from the eldest of the 
 rfons of Ismael. (Gen. xxv. 12, &.c. with the Commentaries of Jerom, 
 Le Clerc, and Calmet.) Justinian relinquished a palm country of 
 ten days' iuurney to the south of iElah, (Procop. de Bell. Persic. 1. i. 
 c. 19.) and the Romans maintained a centurion and a custom-house, 
 (Arnan in Periplo Marifl Erythrai, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. i ) at a 
 PJll?^ (^;"«i «-/"', Pagus Albus Hawara) in me territory of Medina. 
 (D'Anville, Memoire 8ur I'Egypte, p. z43.) These real possessionp, 
 and 8i.me naval inroadsof Imjan, (Peripl. p. 14, 1.5.) are magnified 
 by history and medals into the Roman conqueM of Arabia. ' 
 
 Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in 
 the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are 
 temporary or local : the body of the nation has esca- 
 ped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies : the 
 arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, 
 could never achieve the conquest of Arabia ; the pre- 
 sent sovereign of the Turks •» may exercise a shadow 
 of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the 
 friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to pro- 
 voke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes 
 of their freedom are inscribed on the character and 
 country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, « 
 their intrepid valour had been severely felt by their 
 neighbours in offensive and defensive war. The patient 
 and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed 
 in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The 
 care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the 
 women of the tribe ; but the martial youth, under the 
 banner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the 
 field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, 
 and the scymitar. The long memory of their indepen- 
 dence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, and suc- 
 ceeding generations are animated to prove their de- 
 scent, and to maintain their inheritance. Their domes- 
 tic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common 
 enemy ; and in their last hostilities against the Turks, 
 the caravan of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by 
 fourscore thousand of the confederates. When they 
 advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front; in 
 the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and 
 camels, who in eight or ten days can perform a march 
 of four or five hundred miles, disappear before the con- 
 queror ; the secret waters of the desert elude his search ; 
 and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, 
 hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, 
 who scorns his efl^orts, and safely reposes in the heart 
 of the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the 
 Bedoweens are not only the safeguards of their own 
 freedoni, but the barriers also of the Happy Arabia, 
 whose inhabitants, remote from war, are enervated by 
 the luxury of the soil and climate. The legions of 
 Augustus melted away in disease and lassitude ;'' and 
 it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Ye- 
 men has been successfully attempted. When Ma- 
 homet erected his holy standard," that kingdom was a 
 province of the Persian empire ; yet seven princes of 
 the Homerites still reigned in the mountains ; and the 
 vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget his dis- 
 tant country and his unfortunate master. The his- 
 torians of the age of Justinian represent the state of 
 the independent Arabs, who were divided by interest 
 or aflfection in the long quarrel of the east : the tribe 
 of Gossan was allowed to encamp on the Syrian terri- 
 tory : the princes of Htra were permitted to form a 
 city about forty miles to the southward of the ruins 
 of Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy 
 and vigorous; but their friendship was venal, their 
 faith inconstant, their enmity capricious : it was an 
 easier task to excite than to disarm these roving bar- 
 barians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they 
 learned to see, and to despise, the spendid weakness 
 both of Rome and of Persia. From Mecca to the 
 Euphrates, the Arabian tribes' were confounded by 
 
 b Niebuhr, (Description de I'Arabie, p. 302, 303. 329— 331 ) afford* 
 the most recent and authentic intelligence of the Turkish empire in 
 
 Ala D I a* 
 
 c Diodorus Siculus, (tom. ii. 1. xix. p. 390—393. edit. Wesseling,) 
 has clearly exposed the freedom of the Nabathsean Arabs, who re- 
 sisted the arms of Antigonus and his son. 
 
 d Strabo, I. xvi. p. 1127—1129. Plin. Hist. Natur. vi. 32. ^liu« 
 Gallus landed near I^ledina, and marched near a thousand miles 
 into the part of Yemen between Mareb and the ocean. The non 
 ante devictis Sabeas regibus (Od. p. i. 29.) and the intacti Arabum 
 thesauri (Od iii. 24.) of Horace, attest the virgin purity of Arabia. 
 
 e See »be imp»rf3ci history of Yemen in Pocock, Specimen, p. 
 55—66. of Hir-, p. 66—74. of Gassan, p. 75—78. as far as it could be 
 known or preservrd in the time of ignorance. 
 
 f T^e X»(»KttviK» ^vK», juvetxStf ixvrx, xsi ts trXiifOv otUTwv *fn» 
 
 /ueve^ei x*ti •Jto-srerei, are described by Menander, (Excerpt. Lega- 
 tion, p. 149.) Procopius, (de Bell. Persic. 1. i. c. 17. 19. 1. ii. c 10.) and, 
 in the most lively colours, by Ammianus Marcellinus, (1. ziv. <w4.> 
 who had spoken of them as early ac the reign of Marcuf. . 
 
 i 
 
 M' 
 
 
 L 
 
Ir 
 I' 
 
 196 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 197 
 
 he Greeks and Latins, under the greneral appellation 
 of Saracens, « a name which every christian mouth 
 has been taught to pronounce with terror and abhor- 
 rence. 
 ThPir.?.mp. The slaves of domestic tyranny may 
 lie fnSdom vainly exult in their national indepen- 
 and charaier. dence : but the Arab is personally free ; 
 and he enjoys, in some degree, the benefits of society, 
 without forfeiting the prerogatives of nature. In every 
 tribe, superstition, or gratitude, or fortune, has exalted 
 a particular family above the heads of their equals. 
 The dignities of sheich and emir invariably descend in 
 this chosen race ; but the order of succession is loose 
 and precarious ; and the most worthy or aged of the 
 noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though im- 
 portant, office of composing disputes by their advice, 
 and guiding valour by their example. Even a female 
 of sense and spirit has been permitted to command the 
 countrymen of Zenobia.*' The momentary junction of 
 several tribes produces an army ; their more lasting 
 union constitutes a nation ; and the supreme chief, the 
 emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at their head, 
 may deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honours of 
 the kingly name. If the Arabian princes abuse their 
 power, they are quickly punished by the desertion 
 of their subjects, who had been accustomed to a mild 
 and parental jurisdiction. Their spirit is free, their 
 steps are unconfined, the desert is open, and the tribes 
 and families are held together by a mutual and volun- 
 tary compact. The softer natives of Yemen sup- 
 ported the pomp and majesty of a monarch; but if he 
 could not leave his palace without endangering his 
 life, ' the active powers of government must have been 
 devoled on his nobles and magistrates. The cities 
 of Mecca and Medina present, in the heart of Asia, 
 the form, or rather the substance, of a commonwealth. 
 The grandfather of Mahomet, and his lineal ancestors, 
 appear in foreign and domestic transactions as the 
 princes of their country ; but they reigned, like Pericles 
 at Athens, or the Medici at Florence, by the opinion 
 of their wisdom and integrity; their influence was 
 divided with their patrimony ; and the sceptre was 
 transferred from the uncles of the prophet to a younger 
 branch of the tribe of Koreish. On solemn occasions 
 they convened the assembly of the people ; and since 
 mankind must be either compelled or persuaded to 
 obey, the use and reputation of oratory among the 
 ancient Arabs is the clearest evidence of public free- 
 dom. * But their simple freedom was of a very dif- 
 ferent cast from the nice and artificial machinery of 
 the Greek and Roman republics, in which each mem- 
 ber possessed an undivided share of the civil and po- 
 litical rights of the community. In the more simple 
 state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of 
 her sons disdains a base submission to the will of a 
 roaster. His breast is fortified with the austere vir- 
 
 K The name which, iwed by Ptolemy and Pliny In a more confined, 
 by Ammianus and Procoplua in a larger, nense, haa been derived, 
 ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely from the 
 village of Saraka (,«»t« N»oc«T»i8u?, Stephan de Urbibus,) more 
 plausibly from the Arabic words, which signify a thievish character, 
 or oriental situation. (Holtinger, Hist. Oriental. I. i. c. I. p. 7, 8. Po- 
 cock, Specimen, p. 33. 35. Asseman. Bibllot. Orient, lorn. Iv. p. 567.) 
 Yet the last and most popular of these etymologies, is refuted by 
 Ptolemy, (Arabia, p. 2. 18. in Hudson, torn, iv.) who expressly re- 
 marks the western and southern position of the Saracens, then an 
 obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The appellation cannot 
 therefore allude to any nati(mal character, and, since it was imposed 
 by strangers, it must be found, not in the Arabic, but in a foreign 
 Anguage. _ . . 
 
 h Saraceni .... mulieres aiunt m eos regnare. (Expositio totius 
 Mundi, p. 3. In Hudson, torn, iii.) The reign of Mavia is famous in 
 eccleaiastical story. Pocock. Specimen, p. 69. 83. 
 
 i Mil i^iiv:*' (K T(0V 6s(rix.ii<;uv, IS the report of Agatharades,(de Marl 
 Rubro, p. 63, 64. In Hudson, torn, i) Diodorus Siculus, (torn. i. I. iii. c. 
 47. p. 215.) and Sirabo, (1. xvi. p. 1124) But I much suspect that this 
 is one of the popular tales, or extraordinary accidents, which the 
 credulity of travellers so often transforms into a fact, a custom, and 
 m law. 
 
 k Non gloriabantur antiquitus Arabes, nisi gladio, hoapite, et elo- 
 quentia. (Sephadius, aputl Pocock, Specimen, p. 161, 162.) This gift 
 of speech ihey shared only with the Persians ; and the sententious 
 Arabs would probably havt disdained the simple and sablime lof ic 
 of Demosthenes. 
 
 tues of courage, patience, and sobriety; the love of 
 independence prompts him to exercise the habits of 
 self-command; and the fear of dishonour guards him 
 from the meaner apprehension of pain, of danger, and 
 of death. The gravity and firmness of the mind is 
 conspicuous in his outward demeanour : his speech is 
 slow, weighty, and concise, he is seldom provoked to 
 laughter, his only gesture is that of stroking his 
 beard, the venerable symbol of manhood; and the 
 sense of his own importance teaches him to accost 
 his equals without levity, and his superiors without 
 awe.' The liberty of the Saracens survived their 
 conquests : the first caliphs indulged the bold and 
 familiar language of their subjects : they ascended 
 the pulpit to persuade and edify the congregation: 
 nor was it before the seat of empire was removed to 
 the Tigris, that the Abbassides adopted the proud 
 and pompous ceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine 
 courts. 
 
 In the study of nations and men, we civil wars and 
 may observe the causes that render them private revenge, 
 hostile or friendly to each other, that tend to narrow or 
 enlarge, to mollify or exasperate, the social character. 
 The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind, 
 has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger 
 and enemy ; and the poverty of the land has intro^ 
 duced a maxim of jurisprudence, which they believe 
 and practise to the present hour. They preiend, that 
 in the division of the earth, the rich and fertile climates 
 were assigned to the other branches of the human 
 family ; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael 
 might recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inhe- 
 ritance of which he had been unjustly deprived. Ac- 
 cording to the remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes arc 
 equally addicted to theft and merchandise : the cara- 
 vans tliat traverse the desert are ransomed or pillaged ; 
 and their neighbours, since the remote times of Job 
 and Sesostris," have been the victims of their rapa- 
 cious spirit. If a Bedoween discovers from afar a 
 solitary traveller, he rides furiously against him, cry- 
 ing, with a loud voice, ** Undress thyself, thy aunt 
 {my wife) is without a garment." A ready submift- 
 sion entitles him to mercy; resistance will provoke 
 the aggressor, and his own blood must expiate the 
 blood which he presumes to shed in legitimate de- 
 fence. A single robber, or a few associates, are bran- 
 ded with their genuine name ; but the exploits of a 
 numerous band assume the character of a lawful and 
 honourable war. The temper of a people, thus armed 
 against mankind, was doubly inflamed by the domes- 
 tic licence of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the 
 constitution of Europe, the right of peace and war is 
 now confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a 
 much smaller list of respectable potentates ; but each 
 Arab, with impunity and renown, might point his jave- 
 lin against the life of his countryman. The union of 
 the nation consisted only in a vague resemblance of 
 language and manners : and in each community, the 
 jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. 
 Of the time of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, 
 seventeen hundred battles" are recorded by tradition; 
 hostility was embittered with the rancour of civil fac- 
 tion ; and the recital, in prose or verse, of an obsolete 
 feud, was sufllcient to rekindle the same passions 
 among the descendants of the hostile tribes. In pri- 
 vate life, every man, at least every family, was the 
 
 I I must remind the reader that D'Arvieux, D'Herbelot, and Nle- 
 buhr, represent, in the moe! lively colours, the manners and govern- 
 ment of the Arabs, which are illustrated by many IncidenUl passages 
 in the life of MahomeU 
 
 m Observe the first chapter of Job, and the long wall of fifteen 
 hundred stadia which Sesostris built from Pelusium to Heliopolis. 
 (Dlodor. Sicul. tom. i. I. i. p. 67.) Under the name of Hucsos, the 
 shepherd kings, they had formerly subdued Egypt. (Marsham, 
 Canon. Chron. p. 98— 163,&c.) 
 
 ■ Or, according to another account, 1200, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque 
 Orientate, p. 75.) the two historians who wrote of the Ayam al Arab, 
 the battles of the Arabs, lived in the ninth and tenth century. The 
 famous war of Dahes and Gabrah was occasioned by two horses, lasted 
 forty yean, and ondad in a proverb. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 49.) 
 
 judge and avenger of its own cause. The nice sensi- 
 bility of honour, which weighs the insult rather than 
 the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of 
 the Arabs : the honour of their women, and of their 
 beards, is most easily wounded ; an indecent action, a 
 contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood 
 of the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy, 
 that they expect whole months and years the oppor- 
 tunity of revenge. A fine or compensation for murder 
 is familiar to the barbarians of every age : but in 
 Arabia the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty to accept 
 the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the 
 law of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs 
 refuses even the head of the murderer, substitutes an 
 innocent to the guilty person, and transfers the penalty 
 to the best and most considerable of the race by whom 
 they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, 
 they are exposed in their turn to the danger of repri- 
 sals, the interest and principal of the bloody debt are 
 accumulated; the individuals of either family lead a 
 life of malice and suspicion, and fifty years may some- 
 times elapse before the account of vengeance be finally 
 settled." This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of pity or 
 forgiveness, has been moderated, however, by the 
 maxims of honour, which require in every private en- 
 counter some decent equality of age and strength, of 
 numbers and weapons. An annual fes- 
 Annua truce, ^.^^j ^^ ^^^^ perhaps of four, months, 
 
 was observed by the Arabs before the time of Maho- 
 met, during which their swords were religiously 
 sheathed both in foreign and domestic hostility; and 
 this partial truce is more strongly expressive of the 
 habits of anarchy and warfare.^ 
 
 Their social But the spirit of rapine and revenge 
 
 qualifications was attempered by the milder influence 
 and virtues. of trade and literature. The solitary 
 peninsula is encompassed by the most civilized na- 
 tions of the ancient world : the merchant is the friend 
 of mankind : and the annual caravans imported the 
 first seeds of knowledge and politeness into the cities, 
 and even the camps, of the desert. Whatever may be 
 the pedigree of the Arabs, their language is derived 
 from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the 
 Syriac, and the Chaldean tongues; the independence 
 of the tribes was marked by their peculiar dialects;*! 
 but each, after their own, allowed a just preference to 
 the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia, 
 as well as in Greece, the perfection of language out- 
 stripped the refinement of manners ; and her speech 
 could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two 
 hundred of a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the 
 thousand of a sword, at a time when this copious dic- 
 tionary was intrusted to the memory of an illiterate 
 people. The monuments of the Homerites were in- 
 scribed with an obsolete and mysterious character; 
 but the Cufic letters, the ground-work of the present 
 alphabet, were invented on the banks of the Euphrates ; 
 and the recent invention was taught at Mecca by a 
 stranger who settled in that city after the birth of Ma- 
 homet. The arts of grammar, of metre, and of rheto- 
 ric, were unknown to the free-born eloquence of the 
 Arabians ; but their penetration was sharp, their fancy 
 luxuriant, their wit strong and sententious,' and their 
 
 ^m-^^ I- ■ - ■■■»■■ ■ I III ■ I .^1 ■ M ^ m I ■! .^^^^^mi^^^^^^i^^^ I 
 
 o The modern theory and practice of the Arabs in the revenge of 
 murder, are described by Niebuhr. (Description, p. 26— 31.) The 
 harsher features of antiquity may be traced in the Koran, c. 2. p. 20. 
 c. 17. p. 230. with Sale's Observations. 
 
 P Procopius (de Bell. Persic. 1. i. c. 16.) places the /tro holy months 
 about the summer solstice. The Arabians consecrate /oMr months 
 of the year— the first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth ; and pcetend, 
 that in a long series of ages the truce was infringed only four or six 
 limes. (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 147—150. and Notes on the 
 ninth chapter of the Koran, p. 154, &c. Casiri, Bibliot. Hispano- 
 Arabica, tom. ii. p. 20, 21.) 
 
 q Arrian, in the second century, remarks (in Peripla Marls Ery- 
 thrsBi, p. 12.) the partial or total difference of the dialects of the 
 Arabs. Their language and letters are copiously treated by Pocock, 
 (Specimen, p. 150—154.) (Dasiri, (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 
 1. 83. 292. tom. ii. p. 25, &c.) and Niebuhr. (Description de I'Arabie, 
 p. 72—86.) I pass slightly ; I am not fond of repeating words like a 
 parrot. 
 
 t A familiar tale in Voluire's Zadig (la Chien et la Cheval) is re- 
 
 more elaborate compositions were addressed with 
 energy and effect to the minds of their 
 hearers. The genius and merit of a ^o^e of poverty, 
 rising poet was celebrated by the applause of his own 
 and the kindred tribes. A solemn banquet was pre- 
 pared, and a chorus of women, striking their tymbals, 
 and displaying the pomp of their nuptials, sung in the 
 presence of their sons and husbands the felicity of their 
 native tribe ; that a champion had now appeared to vin- 
 dicate their rights ; that a herald had raised his voice to 
 immortalize their renown. The distant or hostile tribes 
 resorted to an annual fair, which was abolished by the 
 fanaticism of the first Moslems ; a national assembly 
 that must have contributed to refine and harmonize the 
 barbarians. Thirty days were employed in the ex- 
 change, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence 
 and poetry. The prize was disputed by the generous 
 emulation of the bards ; the victorious performance 
 was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs ; 
 and we may read in our own language, the seven ori- 
 ginal poems which were inscribed in letters of gold, 
 and suspended in the temple of Mecca.* The Arabian 
 poets were the historians and moralists of the age; 
 and if they sympathized with the prejudices, they 
 inspired and crowned the virtues, of their country- 
 men. The indissoluble union of generosity and valour 
 was the darling theme of their song ; and when they 
 pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race, 
 they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach, that the 
 men knew not how to give, nor the Examples of 
 women to deny.* The same hospitality, generosity. • 
 which was practised by Abraham, and celebrated by 
 Homer, is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs. 
 The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, em- 
 brace, without inquiry or hesitation, the stranger who 
 dares to confide in their honour and to enter their tent. 
 His treatment is kind and respectful ; he shares the 
 wealth, or the poverty, of his host; and, after a need- 
 ful repose, he is dismissed on his way, with thanks, 
 with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart 
 and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a 
 brother or a friend ; but the heroic acts that could de- 
 serve the public applause, must have surpassed the 
 narrow measure of discretion and experience. A dis- 
 pute had arisen, who, among the citizens of Mecca, 
 was entitled to the prize of generosity ; and a succes- 
 sive application was made to the three who were 
 deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son 
 of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his 
 foot was in the stirrup when he heard the voice of a 
 suppliant, " O son of the uncle of the apostle of God, 
 I am a traveller, and in distress !" He instantly dis- 
 mounted, to present the pilgrim with his camel, her 
 rich caparison, and a purse of four thousand pieces of 
 gold, excepting only the sword, either for its intrinsic 
 value, or as the gift of an honoured kinsman. The 
 servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his 
 master was asleep; but he immediately added, " Here 
 is a purse of seven thousand pieces of gold, (it is all 
 we have in the house,) and here is an order, that will 
 entitle you to a camel and a slave :" the master, as 
 soon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faith- 
 ful steward with a gentle reproof, that by respecting 
 his slumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of 
 these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, 
 was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two 
 slaves. " Alas !" he replied, " my coffers are empty ! 
 
 lated, to prove the natural sagacity of the Arabs, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. 
 Orient, p. 120, 121. Gagnicr, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 37—46.) but 
 D'Arvieux, or rather La Roque, (Voyage de Palestine, p. 92.) dlenies 
 the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundred and 
 sixty-nine sentences of All (translated by Ockley, London, 1718.) 
 afford a just and favourable specimen of Arabian wit. 
 
 » Pocock (Specimen, p. 1.58- IGl.) and Casiri (BiblioU Hispano- 
 Arabica, tom. 1. p. 48. 84, &;c. 119. tom. ii. p. 17, &c.) speak of the 
 Arabian poets before Mahomet : the seven poems of the Caaba have 
 been published in English by sir William Jones ; but his honourable 
 mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more iniaxeat. 
 ing than the obscure and obsolete text. 
 
 t Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30. 
 
 <v ■■ 
 
 I ' ■- 
 
 ».♦ 
 
 I 
 
 •< 
 
198 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 199 
 
 *! 
 
 
 
 hut these you may sell ; if you refuse, I renounce 
 them." At these words, pushing away the youths, 
 he groped along the wall with his staff. The charac- 
 ter of Hatera is the perfect model of Arabian virtue ; » 
 he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a suc- 
 cessful robber : forty camels were roasted at his hos- 
 pitable feast ; and at the prayer of a suppliant enemy, 
 he restored both the captives and the spoil. The free- 
 dom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice : 
 they proudly indulged the spontaneous impulse of pity 
 and benevolence. 
 
 Ancient idol- The religion of the Arabs,* as well as 
 atjy. of the Indians, consisted in the worship 
 
 of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars ; a primitive 
 and specious mode of superstition. The bright lumi- 
 naries of the sky display the visible image of the De- 
 ity : their number and distance convey to a philoso- 
 phic, or even a vulgar, eye, the idea of boundless 
 space : the character of eternity is marked on these 
 solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or de- 
 cay : the regularity of their motions may be ascribed 
 to a principle of reason or instinct ; and their real or 
 imaginary influence encourages the vain belief that 
 the earth and its inhabitants are the object of their 
 peculiar care. The science of astronomy was culti- 
 vated at Babylon ; but the school of the Arabs was a 
 clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal 
 marches, they steered by the guidance of the stars : 
 their names, and order, and daily station, were familiar 
 to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween ; and 
 he was taught by experience to divide in twenty-eight 
 parts the zodiac of the moon, and to bless the constel- 
 lations who refreshed, with salutary rains, the thirst 
 of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could 
 not be extended beyond the visible sphere ; and some 
 metaphysical powers were necessary to sustain the 
 transmigration of souls and the resurrection of bodies: 
 a camel was left to perish on the grave, that he might 
 serve his master in another life; and the invocation of 
 departed spirits implies that they were still endowed 
 with consciousness and power. I am ignorant, and I 
 am careless, of the blind mythology of the barbarians ; 
 of the local deities, of the stars, the air, and the earth, 
 of their sex or titles, their attributes, or subordination. 
 Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, 
 created and changed the rites and the object of his 
 fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has 
 bowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of 
 The Caaba or Mecca. The genuine antiquity of the 
 temple of Mecca. CAABAascends beyond the christian aera : 
 in describing the coast of the Red sea, the Greek his- 
 torian Diodorusy has remarked, between the Thaumu- 
 dites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose supe- 
 rior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians : the linen 
 or silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turk- 
 ish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the 
 Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before 
 the time of Mahomet." A tent, or a cavern, might 
 suffice for the worship of the savages, but an edifice 
 
 « D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, 
 torn. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen, p. 43. 46. 48.) 
 were likewise conspicuous for their liberality ; and the latter is ele- 
 gantly praised bj an Arabian poet : '' Yidebis eum cum acceaseris 
 •zuluntem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis." 
 
 X Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancient Ara- 
 bians, may be found in Pocock. (Specimen, p. 89—136. 163, 164.) His 
 profound erudition is more clearly and concisely interpreted by Sale, 
 (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14—24.) and Asseinanni (Bibliot. Orient, 
 torn. iv. p. 580—590.) has added some valuable remarks. 
 
 Tifov. (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. 1. iii. p. 211.) The character and posi- 
 tion are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curious 
 passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet 
 this famous temple had been overlooked by Agalharcidos, (de Mari 
 Rubro, p. 58. in Hudson, tom. i.) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of 
 the description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian 1 
 Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome 650, and 746, the 
 dates of their respective histories? (Dodwell, in Dissert, ad tom. i. 
 Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Grace, tom. ii. p. 770.) 
 
 X Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we 
 ascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years, before the christian sera. 
 The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than 
 ft pisce of Egyptian linen. (Abulfsda, in Yit. Mohamm»d, c. 6. p. 14.) 
 
 of Stone and clay has been erected in its place ; and 
 the art and power of the monarchs of the east have 
 been confined to the simplicity of the original model.* 
 A spacious portico includes the quadrangle of the 
 Caaba; a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twen- 
 ty-three broad, and twenty-seven high : a door and a 
 window admit the light; the double roof is supported 
 by three pillars of wood ; a spout (now of gold) dis- 
 charges the rain-water, and the well Zemzem is pro- 
 tected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe 
 of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired the cus- 
 tody of the Caaba : the sacerdotal oflice devolved 
 through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Ma- 
 homet; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence 
 he sprung, was the most respectable and sacred in the 
 eyes of their country.* The precincts of Mecca en- 
 joyed the rights of sanctuary; and, in the last month 
 of each year, the city and temple were crowded with 
 a long train of pilgrims, who presented their vows and 
 offerings in the house of God. The same rites, which 
 are now accomplished by the faithful mussulman, 
 were invented and practised by the superstition of the 
 idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their 
 garments : seven times, with hasty steps, they encir- 
 cled the Caaba, and kissed the black stone: seven 
 times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains: 
 seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina : 
 and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present 
 hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial 
 of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground. 
 Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba 
 their domestic worship : the temple was adorned, or 
 defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men, 
 eagles, lions, and antelopes ; and most conspicuoiis 
 was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his 
 hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the in- 
 struments and symbols of profane divination. But 
 this statue was a monument of Syrian arts : the devo- 
 tion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a 
 tablet: and the rocks of the desert were hewn into 
 gods or altars, in imitation of the black stone* of 
 Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of 
 an idolatrous origin. From Japan to sacrifices and 
 Peru, the use of sacrifice has univer- rites, 
 
 sally prevailed ; and the votary has expressed his gra- 
 titude, or fear, by destroying, or consuming, in honour 
 of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their 
 gifts. The life of a man'' is the most precious obla- 
 tion to deprecate a public calamity : the altars of PhoB- 
 nicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been 
 polluted with human gore : the cruel practice was long 
 preserved among the Arabs ; in the third century, a 
 boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the Duma- 
 tians;* and a royal captive was piously slaughtered 
 by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of 
 
 a The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied in 
 Sale, the Universal History, &c.) was a Turkish draught, which Re- 
 land (de Rcligione Mohammed ica, p. 113—123.) has corrected and 
 explained from the best authorities. For the description and lesend 
 of the Caaba, consult Pocock, (Specimen, p. 115—122.) the Bibli- 
 otheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, {jCaaha^ Hagir, Zemxem, &c.) and 
 Sale. (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114—122.) 
 
 b Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the Caa- 
 ba, A. D. 440; but the story is dtfTerently told by Jannabi, (Gagnier, 
 Yie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65—69.) and by Abulfeda, (in Yit. Moham. 
 c. 6. p. 13.) 
 
 c In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Araba 
 
 the worship of a stone — A^apio* rii3»v9'< /ufv, irriva i» ovk ••^9«, T* li 
 
 mymKn» oirer, Ktitf ■(» tit^ «>'«»9(, (Dissert. viii. tom. i. p. 142. edit. 
 Reiske) and the reproach is furiously re-echoed by the christians. 
 (Clemens Alex, in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, I. vi. 
 p. 246.) Yet these stones were no other than the p^itux.* of Syria 
 and Greece, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity. (Euseb. 
 Prsep. Evangel. I. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54—56.) 
 
 d The two horrid subjects of Av5f9juo-.» and H»i JoJuTia, are accu- 
 rately diflcussed bv the learned Sir John Marsham. (Canon. Chron. 
 p. 76 — 78. 301—304.) Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices 
 from the example of Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus 
 lived before, or after, Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all. 
 
 e Kar'»Toc «K»,-«» w»tS» ijwor, IS the reproach of Porphyry ; but h* 
 likewise imputes to the Romans the same barbarous cualoni, which, 
 A. U. C. 657, had been finally abolished. Dumaetha, Daumat al (jren. 
 dal, is noticed by Ptolemy, (Tabul. p. 37. Arabia, p. 9—29.) and Abul* 
 feda, (p. 57.) and may be found in D'Aaville's maps, in th« aild> 
 dessrt batwaan Chaibar and Tadmor. 
 
 I 
 
 the emperor Justinian.' A parent who drags his son 
 to the altar, exhibits the most painful and sublime ef- 
 fort of fanaticism : the deed, or the intention, was sanc- 
 tified by the example of saints and heroes ; and the 
 father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash 
 vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent of a hun- 
 dred camels. In the time of ignorance, the Arabs, 
 like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste 
 of swine's flesh ;« they circumcised •* their children at 
 the age of puberty : the same customs, without the 
 censure or the precept of the Koran, have been silently 
 transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has 
 been sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator 
 indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen. 
 It is more simple to believe that he adhered to the 
 habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeing 
 that a practice congenial to the climate of Mecca, 
 might become useless or inconvenient on the banks of 
 the Danube or the Volga. 
 
 Introduction of Arabia was free : the adjacent king- 
 the Sabians. doms were shaken by the storms of con- 
 quest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to 
 the happy land where they might profess what they 
 thought, and practise what they professed. The re- 
 ligions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews and 
 christians, were disseminated from the Persian gulf to 
 the Red sea. In a remote period of antiquity, Sabian- 
 ism was diff"used over Asia by the science of the Chal- 
 deans ' and the arms of the As.syrians. From the 
 observations of two thousand years, the priests and 
 astronomers of Babylon*' deduced the eternal laws of 
 nature and providence. They adored the seven gods, 
 or angels, who directed the course of the seven planets, 
 and shed their irresistible influence on the earth. The 
 attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs 
 of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constellations of the 
 northern and southern hemisphere, were represented 
 by images and talismans ; the seven days of the week 
 were dedicated to their respective deities : the Sabians 
 prayed thrice each day ; and the temple of the moon 
 at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage.* But the 
 flexible genius of their faith was always ready either 
 to teach or to learn : in the tradition of the creation, 
 the deluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular 
 agreement with their Jewish captives ; they appealed 
 to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and 
 a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the 
 last remnant of the polytheists into the christians of 
 St. John, in the territory of Bassora." The altars of 
 Babylon were overturned by the Magians ; but the 
 
 f Procopius, (de Bell. Persico, 1. i. c. 28.) Evagrius, (1. vi. c. 21.) and 
 Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72. 86.) attest the human sacrifices of the 
 Arabs in the sixth century. The danger and escape of Abdallah, is 
 a tradition rather than a fact. (Gagnier, Yie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 
 82—84.) 
 
 g Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus, (Polyhistor. c. 33.) who 
 copies Pliny (1. viii. c. 68.) in the strange supposition, that hogs can- 
 not live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a natural and 
 superstitious horror for that unclean beast. (Marsham, Canon, p. 205.) 
 The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of ablu- 
 tion, (Herodot. 1. i. c. 80.) which is sanctified by the Mahometan law. 
 (Reland, p. 75, &c. Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas, 
 tom. iv. p. 71, &c.) 
 
 h The Mahomeun doctors are not fond of the subject ; yet they 
 hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend that Ma- 
 homet was miraculously born without a foreskin. (Pocock, Specimen, 
 p. 319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 106, 107.) 
 
 i Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. ii. p. 142—145.) has cast on their reli- 
 gion the curious but superficial glance of a Greek. Their astronomy 
 would be far more valuable; they had looked through the telescope 
 of reason, since they could doubt whether the sun were in the num- 
 ber of the planets or of the fixed stars. 
 
 k Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Coelo, 1. ii. com. xlvi. p. 
 123. lin. la apud Marsham, Canon. Chron jj. 474. who doubts the 
 fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date of the 
 Chaldean observations ,8 the year 2234 before Christ. After the con- 
 quest of Babylon, by Alexander, they were communicated, at the re- 
 quest of Aristotle, to the astronomer Hipparchus. What a moment 
 in the annals of science ! 
 
 1 Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138—146.) HoUinger, (Hist. Orient, p. 
 162—203.) Hyde, (de Religione Yet. Persarum, p. 124. 12;^, &c.) 
 D'Herbelot, {Sabi, p. 725, 726.) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 
 14, 15.) rather excite than gratify our curiosity, and the last of these 
 writers confi'Unds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs. 
 
 n D'Anville (I'Euphrates de le Tigre, p. 130—147) will fix the po- 
 
 ..•ition of these ambiguous christians ; Asaemannus (Bibliot. Oriental. 
 
 tom. iv. p. GU7 — 614.) may explain their tenets. But it is a slippery 
 
 injuries of the Sabians were revenged by 
 the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned TheMagiana. 
 above five hundred years under a foreign yoke; and the 
 purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the conta- 
 gion of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries 
 the freedom of the desert." Seven hun- 
 dred years before the death of Mahomet, ® ®^'' 
 
 the Jews were settled in Arabia : and a far greater 
 multitude was expelled from the holy land in the wars 
 of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired 
 to liberty and power : they erected synagogues in the 
 cities, and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile 
 converts were confounded with the children of Israel, 
 whom they resembled in the outward mark of cir- 
 cumcision. The christian missionaries _,^ .... 
 
 ..,, ^. J ^1 The Christiana, 
 
 were still more active and successful : 
 
 the catholics asserted their universal reign ; the sects 
 whom they oppressed successively retired beyond the 
 limits of the Roman empire ; the Marcionites and the 
 Manichaeans dispersed their phantastic opinions and 
 apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the 
 princes of Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer 
 creed by the Jacobite and Nestorian bishops." The 
 liberty of choice was presented to the tribes : each 
 Arab was free to elect or to compose his private reli- 
 gion : and the rude superstition of his house was min- 
 gled with the sublime theology of saints and philoso- 
 phers. A fundamental article of faith was inculcated 
 by the consent of the learned strangers ; the existence 
 of one supreme God, who is exalted above the powers 
 of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed him- 
 self to mankind by the ministry of his angels and 
 prophets, and whose grace or justice has interrupted, 
 by seasonable miracles, the order of nature. The most 
 rational of the Arabs acknowledged his power, though 
 they neglected his worship ; »• and it was habit rather 
 than conviction that still attached them to the relics of 
 idolatry. The Jews and christians were the people 
 of the book ; the Bible was already translated into the 
 Arabic language,*! and the volume of the Old Testa- 
 ment was accepted by the concord of these implacable 
 enemies. In the story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the 
 Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers of their 
 nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Is- 
 mael ; revered the faith and virtue of Abraham ; traced 
 his pedigree and their own to the creation of the first 
 man, and imbibed with equal credulity the prodigies 
 of the holy text, and the dreams and traditions of the 
 Jewish rabbis. 
 
 The base and plebeian origin of Ma- Bi^h and educa- 
 homet is an unskilful calumny of the tion of Mahomet, 
 christians,' who exalted instead of de- ^- ^- 569— eo9. 
 grading the merit of their adversary. His descent 
 from Ismael was a national privilege or fable ; but if 
 the first steps of the pedigree* are dark and doubtful, 
 
 task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people, afraid and ashamed 
 to disclose their secret traditions. 
 
 n The Magi were fixed in the province of Bahrein, (Gagnier, Vie 
 de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114.) and mingled with the old Arabians. 
 (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146 — 150.) 
 
 o The state of the Jews and christians in Arabia is described by 
 Pocock from Sharestani, &c. (Specimen, p. 60. 134, &c.) Hotiinger, 
 (Hist. Orient, p. 212—238.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient, p. 474— 476.) 
 Basnage, (Hist, des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 185. tom. viii. p. 280.) and Sale. 
 (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &,c. 33, &c.) 
 
 p In their offerings it was a maxim to defraud God for the profit of 
 the idol, not a mere potent, but a more irriuble, patron. (Pocock, 
 Specimen, p. 108, 109.) 
 
 q Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or christian, appear 
 more recent than the Koran ; but the existence of a prior translation 
 may be fairly inferred,— 1. From the perpetual practice of the syna- 
 gogue, of expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in the vul- 
 gar tongue of the country. 2. From the analogy of the Armenian, 
 Persian, .£thiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers of the 
 fifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were translated into oZf 
 the barbaric languages. (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, 
 p. 34. 93—97. Simeon, Hist. Critique du V. et du N. Testament, torn. 
 1. p. 180, 181. 282—286. 293. 30.5, 306. tom. iv. p. 206.) 
 
 r In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere ortum. &c. 
 (Hettinger, Hist. Orient, p. 136.) Yet Theophanes, the most ancient 
 of the Greeks, and the father of many a lie, confesses that Mahomet 
 was of the race of Ismael, >* f^'»i ^»v.x-.T»T.it ^uKm. (Chronograph. 
 
 ^'« Abulfeda (in Vlt. Mohammed, c. 1, 2.) and Gagnier (Vie de Ma- 
 homet, p. 25—27.) describe the popular and approved genealogy oC 
 
 !■; = 
 
 f 
 
 t >. I. 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 h 
 
 
 !•.! 
 
 •'"'I 
 i,;r 
 • 1 
 
lit 
 
 '9 
 
 200 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap XL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 201 
 
 1 
 1^ 
 
 
 he could produce many generations of pure and genu- 
 ine nobility : he sprung from the tribe of Koreish and 
 the family of Hashem, the most illustrious of the 
 Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and the hereditary guar- 
 dians of the Caaba. The grandfather of Mahomet was 
 Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and 
 generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine 
 ■with the supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had 
 been fed by the liberality of the father, was saved 
 by the courage of the son. The kingdom of Yemen 
 "Was subject to the christian princes of Abyssinia ; their 
 vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge 
 the honour of the cross; and the holy city was inves- 
 ted by a train of elephants, and an army of Africans. 
 A treaty was proposed ; and, in the first audience, the 
 grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of 
 his cattle. " And why," said Abrahah, ** do you not 
 rather implore my clemency in favour of your temple, 
 which I have threatened to destroy V " Because," 
 replied the intrepid chief, " the cattle is my own ; the 
 Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their 
 house from injury and sacrilege." The want of pro- 
 Tisions, or the valour of the Koreish, compelled the 
 Abyssinians to a disgraceful retreat: their discomfiture 
 has been adorned with a miraculus flight of birds, who 
 Deliverance of showered down stones on the heads of 
 Mecca. the infidels; and the deliverance was long 
 commemorated by the aera of the elephant.* The glory 
 of Abdol Motalled was crowned with domestic happi- 
 ness, his life was prolonged to the age of one hundred 
 and ten years, and he became the father of six daugh- 
 ters and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallah 
 was the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian 
 youth ; and in the first night, when he consummated his 
 marriage with Amina, of the noble race of the Zah- 
 rites, two hundred virgins are said to have expired of 
 jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly 
 Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah and Amina, was 
 born at Mecca, four years after the death of Justinian, 
 and two months after the defeat of the Abyssinians," 
 whose victory would have introduced into the Caaba 
 the religion of the christians. In his early infancy, 
 he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his 
 grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; 
 and in the division of the inheritance, the orphan's 
 share was reduced to five camels and an ^Ethiopian 
 maid-servant. At home and abroad, in peace and war, 
 Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles, was 
 the guide and guardian of his youth; in his twenty- 
 fifth year, he entered into the service of Cadijah, a rich 
 and noble widow of Mecca, who soon rewarded his 
 fidelity with the gift of her hand and fortune. The 
 marriage contract, in the simple style of antiquity, re- 
 cites the mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah ; de- 
 
 scribes him as the most accomplished of the tribe of 
 Koreish ; and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of 
 gold and twenty camels, which was supplied by the 
 liberality of his uncle.* By this alliance, the son of 
 Abdallah was restored to the station of his ancestors; 
 and the judicious matron was content with his domes- 
 tic virtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age,y he 
 assumed the title of a prophet, and proclaimed the 
 religion of the Koran. 
 
 According to the tradition of his com- Qualifications of 
 panions, Mahomet* was distinguished the prophet, 
 by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which is 
 seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been 
 refused. Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his 
 side the affections of a public or private audience. 
 They applauded his commanding presence, his majes- 
 tic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his 
 flowing beard, his countenance that painted every sen- 
 sation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each 
 expression of the tongue. In the familiar oflices of 
 life he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremo- 
 nious politeness of his country : his respectful atten- 
 tion to the rich and powerful was dignified by his 
 condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of 
 Mecca : the frankness of his manner concealed the 
 artifice of his views ; and the habits of courtesy were 
 imputed to personal friendship or universal benevo- 
 lence. His memory was capacious and retentive, his 
 wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judg- 
 ment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the 
 courage both of thought and action; and, although his 
 designs might gradually expand with his success, the 
 first idea which he entertained of his divine mission 
 bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. 
 The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the 
 noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of Arabia ; 
 and the fluency of his speech was corrected and en- 
 hanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable 
 silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet 
 was an illiterate barbarian : his youth had never been 
 instructed in the arts of reading and writing;* the 
 common ignorance exempted him from shame or re- 
 proach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of exis- 
 tence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors, which 
 reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. 
 Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his 
 view : and some fancy has been indulged in the poli« 
 tical and philosophical observations which are ascribed 
 
 the prophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its authenticity : at 
 Lausanne, I will venture to observe, 1. TViat from Ismael to Maho- 
 met, a period of 2500 years, they reckon thirty, instead of seventy- 
 Jive, generations. 2. TViat the modern Bedoweens are ignor.int of 
 their history, and careless of their pedigree. (Voyage de d'Arvieux, 
 p. 100. 103.) 
 
 t The seed of this history, or fable, is conteined in the hundred 
 and fifth chapter of the Koran ; and Gagnier (in Prefat. ad Vit. 
 Moham. p. 18, &c.) has translated the historical narrative of Abulfe- 
 da, which may be illustrated from D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 
 12.) and Pococlc. (Specimen, p. 64.) Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 
 48.) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet; but Sale, (Koran, p. 
 601—503.) who is half a mussulman, attacks the inconsistent faith of 
 the doctor for believing the miracles of the Delphic Apollo. Maracci 
 (Alcoran, lorn. i. part ii. p. 14. torn. ii. p. 823.) ascribes the miracle to 
 the devil, and extorts from the Mahometans the confession, that God 
 would not have defended against the christians the idols of the Caaba. 
 
 B The safest «ras of Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. i. p. 2.) of Alexander, or 
 the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Naser, or Nabonasser, 1316, equally lead us 
 to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar is too dark and uncertain 
 to support the Benedictines, (Art de verifier les Dales, p. 15.) who, 
 from the day of the month and week, deduce a new mode of calcu- 
 lation, and remove the birth of Mahomet to the year of Christ 570, 1 
 the loth of November. Yet this date would agree with the year 882 
 of the Greeks, which is assigned by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 5.) 
 and Abulpharagius. (Dynast, p. 101. and Krrata Pocock's version.) 
 While we refine our chronology, it is possible that the illiterate pro- 
 phet was ignorant of his own age.* 
 
 •Some learned men amone the moderns date Ihe birth of Mahomat ia tbfl jm 671 of tlie 
 '»*^-» m. (MoUMumedli Kelicioi^ *c voa Cludius, p, 2l.}-a. 
 
 T I copy the honourable testimony of Abu Taleb to his family and 
 nephew. Laus Dei, qui nos a slirpe Abraham!, et semine Ismaelis 
 constituit, et nobis regionem sacrani dedit, et nos judices hominibus 
 statuit. Porro Mohammed filius Abdallahi nepotis niei {nepos tneuf} 
 
 3U0 cum ex »quo librabitur e Korashidis quispiam cui non prspon- 
 eraturus est, bonitate et excellentia, et intellectu et gloria, et accu- 
 mine, elsi opum inops fuerit, (et eerie opes umbra transiena sunt et 
 depositum quod reddi debet,) desiderio Chadija filiae Chowailedi 
 tenetur, et ilia vicissim ipsius quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis^ 
 ego in me suscipiam. (Pocock, Specimen e septima parte libri £bn 
 Hamduni.) 
 
 y The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to his mission, is 
 preserved by Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. 3—7.) and the Arabian writers of 
 
 genuine or apocryphal note, who are alleged by Hoitinger, (Hist. 
 >rient. p. 20^1-211.) Maracci, (tom. i. p. 10-14.) and Gagnier. (Vie 
 de Mahomet, tom. I. p. 97—134.) 
 
 « Abulfeda, in Vit. c. Ixv. Ixvi. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. ili. 
 P- 272—289. The best traditions of the person and conversation of 
 the prophet are derived from Ayesha, Ali,and Abu Horaira, (Gagnier, 
 tom. ii. p. 267. Ockley's Hist, of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 149.) sur- 
 named the Father of a Cat, who died in the year 59 of the Hegira. 
 
 a Those who believe that Mahomet could read or write, are inca- 
 pable of reading what is written, with another pen, in the Surats, or 
 Chapters of the Koran, vii. xxix. xcvi. These texts, and ihe tradition 
 of the Sonna, are admitted, without doubt, by Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. 
 vii.) Gagnier, (Not. ad Abulfed. p. 15.) Pocock, (Specimen, p. 151.) 
 Reland, (de Keligione Mohammedica, p. 236.) and Sale. (Preliminary 
 Discourse, p. 42.) Mr. While, almost alone, denies the ignorance, 
 to accuse the imposture, of the propliet. His arguments are far from 
 satisfactory. Two short trading journeys to the fairs of Syria, were 
 surely not sufficient to infuse a science so rare among the citizens 
 of Mecca: it was not in the cool deliberate act of a treaty, that Ma- 
 homet would have dropped the mask ; nor can any conclusion bo 
 drawn from the words of disease and delirium. The lettered youth, 
 before he aspired to the prophetic character, must have often exer- 
 cised, in private life, the arts of reading and writing; and his first 
 converts, of his own family, would have been the first to detect and 
 upbraid his scandalous hypocrisy. (White'f Sermons, p. 203, 204^ 
 Notci, p. xxxvi.— xxxvjii.) 
 
 I 
 
 to the Arabian traveller,^ He compares the nations 
 and the religions of the earth; discovers the weakness 
 of the Persian and Roman monarchies; beholds, with 
 pity and indignation, the degeneracy of the times ; and 
 resolves to unite, under one God and one king, the 
 invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. 
 Our more accurate inquiry will suggest, that instead of 
 visiting the courts, the camps, the temples of the east, 
 the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined 
 to the fairs of Bostra and Damascus : that he was only 
 thirteen years of age when he accompanied the cara- 
 van of his uncle ; and that his duty compelled him to 
 return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise 
 of Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, 
 the eye of genius might discern some objects invisible 
 to his grosser companions ; some seeds of knowledge 
 might be cast upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance 
 of the Syriac language must have checked his curi- 
 osity; and I cannot perceive, in the life or writings of 
 Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond 
 the limits of the Arabian world. From every region 
 of that solitary world, the pilgrims of Mecca were an- 
 nually assembled, by the calls of devotion and com- 
 merce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a simple 
 citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political 
 state and character of the tribes, the theory and prac- 
 tice of the Jews and christians. Some useful stran- 
 gers might be tempted, or forced, to implore the 
 rights of hospitality ; and the enemies of Mahomet 
 have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian 
 monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid 
 to the composition of the Koran.* Conversation en- 
 riches the understanding, but solitude is the school of 
 genius ; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand 
 of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahomet 
 was addicted to religious contemplation: each year, 
 during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the 
 world, and from the arms of Cadijah : in the cave of 
 Hera, three miles from Mecca,* he consulted the spirit 
 of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the hea- 
 vens, but in the mind oif the prophet. The faith which, 
 under the name of /s/aw, he preached to his family and 
 nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a neces- 
 sary fiction, That there is only one God, and that 
 Mahomet is the apostle of God. 
 
 It is the boast of the Jewish apolo- 
 One God. ^j^^g^ ^^^^ ^j^-j^ ^^^ learned nations of 
 
 antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism, 
 their simple ancestors of Palestine preserved the know- 
 ledge and worship of the true GoJ. The moral attri- 
 butes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled with 
 the standard of human virtue : his metaphysical quali- 
 ties are darkly expressed ; but each page of the penta- 
 teuch and the prophets is an evidence of his power : 
 the unity of his name is inscribed on the first table 
 of the law ; and his sanctuary was never defiled by 
 any visible image of the invisible essence. After the 
 ruin of the temple, the faith of the Hebrew exiles 
 was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the spiritual 
 devotion of the synagogue ; and the authority of Ma- 
 homet will not justify his perpetual reproach, that 
 the Jews of Mecca or Medina adored Ezra as the son 
 
 b The Count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 202—228.) 
 leads 
 Cyri 
 
 fiction , _. 
 
 Boni pourtant des hommes." The two Syrian journeys are expressed 
 by almost all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans and christians. 
 (Gacnier ad Abulfed. p. 10.) 
 
 c I am not at leisure to pursue the fables or conjectures which 
 name the strangers accused or suspected by the infidels of Mecca. 
 (Koran, c. 16. p. 223. c. 35. p. 297. with Sale's Remarks. Prideaux's 
 Life of Mahomet, p. 22—27. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 11. 74. 
 Maracci, tom. ii. p. 400.) Even Prideaux has observed, that the 
 transaction must nave been secret, and that the scene lay in the 
 heart of Arabia. 
 
 d Abulfeda in Vit. c. 7. p. 15. Gagnier, tom. i. p. 133. 135. The 
 situation of mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda. (Geograph. Arab, 
 p. 4.) Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of Egeria, ubi noc- 
 turnae Numa constituebat amice, of the Idseau mount) where Miaos 
 conversed with Jove, &c. 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 A 
 
 of God.* But the children of Israel had ceased to 
 be a people ; and the religions of the world were 
 guilty, at least in the eyes of the prophet, of giving 
 sons, or daughters, or companions, to the surpreme 
 God. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is 
 manifest and audacious : the Sabians are poorly ex- 
 cused by the pre-eminence of the first planet, or in- 
 telligence, in their celestial hierarchy; and in the 
 Magian system the conflict of the two principles be- 
 trays the imperfection of the conqueror. The chris- 
 tians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed 
 inte a semblance of paganism : their public and pri- 
 vate vows were addressed to the relics and images 
 that disgraced the temples of the east : the throne of 
 the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, 
 and saints, and angels, the objects of popular venera- 
 tion ; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished in 
 the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary 
 with the name and honours of a goddess.' The mys- 
 teries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to con- 
 tradict the principle of the divine unity. In their 
 obvious sense, they introduce three equal deities, and 
 transform the man Jesus into the substance of the 
 son of God:* an orthodox commentary will satisfy 
 only a believing mind : intemperate curiosity and zeal 
 had tom the veil of the sanctuary ; and each of the 
 oriental sects was eager to confess that all, except 
 themselves, deserved the reproach of idolatry and 
 polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free from sus- 
 picion or ambiguity ; and the Koran is a glorious tes- 
 timony to the unity of God. The prophet of Mecca 
 rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and 
 planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises 
 must set, that whatever is born must die, that what- 
 ever is corruptible must decay and perish.'' In the 
 Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm con- 
 fessed and adored an infinite and eternal being, with- 
 out form or place, without issue or similitude, present 
 to our most secret thoughts, existing by the neces- 
 sity of his own nature, and deriving from himself all 
 moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime 
 truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, * 
 are firmly held by his disciples, and defined with me- 
 taphysical precision by the interpreters of the Koran, 
 A philosophic theist might subscribe the popular creed 
 of the Mahometans : ^ a creed too sublime perhaps 
 for our present faculties. What object remains for 
 the fancy, or even the understanding, when we have 
 abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of 
 time and space, of motion and matter, of sensation 
 and reflection ? The first principle of reason and reve- 
 lation was confirmed by the voice of Mahomet : his 
 proselytes, from India to Morocco, are distinguished' 
 
 e Koran, c. 9. p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other commentatow 
 quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge ; but I do not understand that 
 it is coloured by the most obscure or absurd tradition of ihe Tal- 
 mudists. 
 
 f Hettinger, Hist. Orient, p. 225—228. The Collyridian heresy was 
 carried from Thrace to Arabia by some women, and the name wa« 
 borrowed from the xowuf •?, or cake, which they offered to the eod- 
 dess. This example, that of Beryllus bishop of Bostra, (Euseb. Hist. 
 Eccles. 1. vi. c.:3.)and several others, may excuse the reproach, 
 Arabia haeresean ferax. 
 
 g The three gods in the Koran (c. 4. p. 81. c. 5. p. 92.) are obviously 
 directed against our catholic mystery ; but the Arabic commentatori 
 understand them of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin Mary, an 
 heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said, by some barbarians al the 
 council of Nice. (Eutych. Annal. tom. i. p. 440.) But the existence 
 of the Marianites is denied by the candid Beausobre : (Hist, de 
 Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 532.) and he derives the mistake from the 
 word Rouahy the Holy Ghost, which in some oriental tongues is of 
 the feminine gender, and is figuratively styled the mother of Christ 
 in the gospel of the Nazarines. 
 
 h This train of thought is philosophirally exemplified in the cha- 
 racter of Abraham, who opposed in Chaldaea ihe first introduction of 
 idolatry. (Koran, c. 6. p. 106. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 13.) 
 
 i See the Koran, particularly the second, (p. 30.) the fifiy-seventh, 
 (p. 437.) the fifiy-eighih, (p. 441.) chapters, which proclaim the om- 
 nipotence of the Creator. , ,c. • 
 
 k The most orthodox creeds are translated by Pocock, (Specimen, 
 p. 274. 284-292.) Ockley, (Hist, of the Saracens, vol. u. p. Ixxxii.— 
 xcv.) Reland, (de Religion. Moham. 1. i. p. 7—13.) and Chardin. 
 (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 4-28.) The great truth, that God u 
 without similitude, is foolishly criticised by Maraccj, (Alcoran, torn, 
 i. part. iii. p. 87—94.) because he made man after his own image. 
 
 i» 
 
 Wi 
 
 >^' 
 
 M 
 
 / 
 
202 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 203 
 
 f 
 
 by the name of Unitarians ; and the dangrer of idolatry 
 has been prevented by the interdiotion of images. The 
 doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute predestination 
 is strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they 
 striignrle with the common difficulties, Ami; to reconcile 
 the prescience of God with the freedom and responsi- 
 bility of man; how to explain the permission of evil 
 under the reign of infinite power and infinite goodness. 
 , , ^ ^ The God of nature has written his 
 
 Manomet the . ni- i ju:»i„.„ 
 
 aposiie of God, existence on all his works, and his law 
 ami the last of \n the heart of man. To restore the 
 the prophets. knowledge of the one, and the practice 
 of the other, has been the real or pretended aim of 
 the prophets of every age : the liberality of Mahomet 
 allowed to his predecessors the same credit which he 
 claimed for himself; and the chain of inspiration was 
 prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation 
 of the Koran.' During that period, some rays of pro- 
 phetic light had been imparted to one hundred and 
 twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by 
 their respective measure of virtue and grace ; three 
 hundred and thirteen apostles were sent with a special 
 commission to recall their country from idolatry and 
 vice ; one hundred and four volumes had been dictated 
 by the holy spirit; and six legislators of transcendent 
 brightness have announced to mankind the six suc- 
 cessive revelations of various rites, but of one immu- 
 table religion. The authority and station of Adam, 
 Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, rise 
 in just gradation above each other; but whosoever hates 
 or rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with 
 the infidels. The writings of the patriarchs were 
 extant only in the apocryphal copies ot the Greeks and 
 Syrians:" the conduct of Adam had not entitled him 
 to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven 
 precepts of Noah were observed by an inferior and 
 imperfect class of the proselytes of the synagogue ; " 
 and the memory of Abraham was obscurely revered 
 by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea: of the 
 myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived 
 and reigned ; and the remnant of the inspired writings 
 was comprised in the books of the Old and New Tes- 
 „ tament. The miraculous story of Moses 
 
 °*^** is consecrated and embellished in the 
 
 Koran ; " and the captive Jews enjoy the secret re- 
 venge of imposing their own belief on the nations 
 •whose recent crerds they deride. For the author of 
 Christianity, the Mahometans are taught by the pro- 
 phet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence, p 
 " Verily, Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, 
 is the apostle of God, and his word, 
 which he conveyed into Mary, and a Spirit proceed- 
 ing from him : honourable in this world, and in the 
 world to come ; and one of those who approach near 
 to the presence of God." •» The wonders of the gen- 
 uine and apocryphal gospels ' are profusely heaped 
 on his head ; and the Latin church has not disdained 
 
 1 Reland, de Relig. Moham. 1. i. p. 17—47. Sale's Preliminary 
 Discourse, p. 73 — 76. Voyage de Chardin, torn. iv. p. 28— 37. and 
 37—47. for the Persian addition, " Ali is the vicar of God I" Yet the 
 precise number of prophets is not an article of faith. 
 
 m For tlie apocryphal books of Adam, see Fabricius, Codex Pseu- 
 depigraphus V. T. p. 27—29; of Seth, p. 154—157; of Enoch, p. 
 160—219. But the book of Enoch is consecrated, in some measure, 
 by the quotation of the apostle St. Jude ; and a long legendary frag- 
 ment is alleged by Syncelliis and Scaliger. 
 
 B The seven precepts of Noah are explained by Marsham, (Canon. 
 Chronicus, p. 154—180.) who adopts, on this occasion, the learning 
 and credulity of Selden. 
 
 o The articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ^c. in the Bibli- 
 olheque of D'Herbelot, are gaily bedecked with the fanciful legends 
 •of the Mahometans, vfho have built on the ground-work of Scripture 
 and the Talmud. 
 
 P Koran, c. 7. p. 128, &c. c. 10. p. 173, &c. D'Herbelot, p. 647, &c. 
 
 q Koran, c. 3. p. 40. c. 4. p. 80. D'Herbelot, p. 399, &c. 
 
 r See the gospel of St. Thomas, or of the infancy, in the Codex 
 Apocryphus N. T. of Fabricius, who collects the various testimonies 
 xoncerning it, (p. 128—158.) It was published in Greek by Cotelier, 
 and ID Arabic by Sike, who thinks our present copy more recent 
 than Mahomet. Yet his quoutions agree with the original about 
 the speech of Christ in his cradle, his living birds of clay, Sec. (Sike, 
 c. 1. p. 168, 169. c. 36. p. 193, 199. c. 46. p. 206. Co/W««r. c. 2. p. 
 160,161.) 
 
 to borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception* 
 of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus was a mere mortal ; 
 and, at the day of judgment, his testimony will serve 
 to condemn both the Jews, who reject him as a prophet, 
 and the christians, who adore him as the Son of God. 
 The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation, 
 and conspired against his life ; but their intention only 
 was guilty, a phantom or a criminal was substituted 
 on the cross, and the innocent saint was translated to 
 the seventh heaven.* During six hundred years the 
 gospel was the way of truth and salvation ; but the 
 christians insensibly forgot both the laws and the 
 example of their founder; and Mahomet was instruct- 
 ed by the Gnostics to accuse the church, as well as 
 the synagogue, of corrupting the integrity of the sa- 
 cred text. " The piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced 
 in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious 
 than themselves: the evangelic promise of the Para- 
 clete^ or Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and 
 accomplished in the person, of Mahomet,'' the greatest 
 and last of the apostles of God. 
 
 The communication of ideas requires 
 a similitude of thought and language : 
 the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without 
 effect on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the 
 distance of their understandings, if it be compared 
 with the contact of an infinite and finite mind, with the 
 word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen of 
 a mortal ! The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, 
 of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not 
 be incompaiible with the exercise of their reason and 
 memory ; and the diversity of their genius is strongly 
 marked in the style and composition of the books of 
 the Old and New Testament. But Mahomet was 
 content with a character more humble, yet more sub- 
 lime, of a simple editor: the substance of the Koran, J^ 
 according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and 
 eternal ; subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and 
 inscribed with a pen of light on the table of his ever- 
 lasting decrees. A paper copy, in a volume of silk 
 and gems, was brought down to the lowest heaven 
 by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, 
 had indeed been despatched on the most important 
 errands; and this trusty messenger successively re- 
 vealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian prophet. 
 Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the 
 divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced 
 at the discretion of Mahomet ; each revelation is suited 
 to the emergencies of his policy or passion ; and all 
 contradiction is removed by the saving maxim, that 
 any text of scripture is abrogated or modified by any 
 subsequent passage. The word of God, and of the 
 apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on 
 palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton ; and 
 the pages, without order or connexion, were cast into 
 
 • It is darkly hinted ia the Koran, (c. 3. p. 39.) and more clearly ex- 
 plained by the tradition of the Sonniies. (Sale'sNote, and Maraccl, 
 torn. ii. p. 112.) In the twelfth century, the immaculate conception 
 was condemned by St. Bernard as a presumptuous novelty. (Fra Pao- 
 lo, Istoria del Concilio di Trento, 1. ii.) 
 
 t See the Koran, c. 3. v. 53. and c. 4. v. 156. of Maracci's edition. 
 Deus est praesiantissimus dolose agentium (an odd phrase) . . . nee 
 crucifixerunt eum, sed objecta est eis simililudo: an expression that 
 may suit with the system of the Doceles; but the commentators 
 believe, (Maracci, U»m. ii. p. 113-115. 173. Sale, p. 42, 43. 79.) that 
 another man, a friend or an enemy, was crucified in the likeness of 
 Jesus; a fable which they had read in the goepel of St. Barnabas, 
 and which had been started as early as the lime of Iren«us, by some 
 Ebioniie heretics. (lieausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme. tum. ii. p. 25. 
 Mosheim de Reb. Christ, p. 35i3.) 
 
 u This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran : (c. 3. p. 45.) but 
 neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently versed in lan- 
 guages and criticism to give any weight or colour to their suspicions. 
 Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some stories, and the 
 illiterate prophet n)ight listen to the bold assertions of the Mani- 
 chaeans. See Beausobre, torn. i. p. 291—305. 
 
 X Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament, which 
 are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the mussulmans, they ap- 
 ply to the prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or Comforter, which 
 nad been already usurped bv the Monianists and Manichaeans, 
 (Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, lorn. i. p. 263, Sec.) and 
 the easy change of letters wifmA^uro^ for >raf*K».nTOf, aflfords the ety- 
 mology of the name of Mohammed. (Maracci, torn. i. part i. p. 15—28.) 
 
 J For the Koran, see D'Herbelot, p. 83—89. Maracci, torn. i. in VlU 
 i Mohammed, p. 32 — 45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 56—70. 
 
 a domestic chest in the custody of one of his wives. 
 Two years after the death of Mahomet, the sacred 
 volume was collected and published by his friend 
 and successor Abubeker: the work was revised by 
 the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; 
 and the various editions of the Koran assert the same 
 miraculous privilege of a uniform and incorruptible 
 text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the pro- 
 phet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his 
 book, audaciously challenges both men and angels 
 to imitate the beauties of a single page, and presumes 
 to assert that God alone could dictate this incom- 
 parable performance. ' This argument is most power- 
 fully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is 
 attuned to faith and rapture, whose ear is delighted 
 by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is in- 
 capable of comparing the productions of human ge- 
 nius. * The harmony and copiousness of style will 
 not reach, in a version, the European infidel : he will 
 peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhap- 
 sody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which 
 seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which some- 
 times crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the 
 
 the integrity of the Koran.* The votaries of Mahomet 
 are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts, 
 and their confidence and credulity increase as they are 
 further removed from the time and place of his spiri- 
 tual exploits. They believe or affirm that trees went 
 forth to meet him ; that he was saluted by stones ; that 
 water gushed from his fingers ; that he fed the hungry, 
 cured the sick, and raised the dead ; that a beam 
 groaned to him ; that a camel complained to him ; that 
 a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poi- 
 soned ; and that both animate and inanimate nature 
 were equally subject to the apostle of God.* His 
 dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described as 
 a real and corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, 
 the Borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to 
 that of Jerusalem : with his companion Gabriel, he 
 successively ascended the seven heavens, and received 
 and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the pro- 
 phets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. 
 Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was per- 
 mitted to proceed ; he passed the veil of unity, ap- 
 proached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt 
 a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoul- 
 
 clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the der was touched by the hand of God. After this fami- 
 
 Arabian missionary ; but his loftiest strains must yield 
 to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, com- 
 posed in a remote age, in the same country, and in 
 the same language.'' If the composition of the Koran 
 exceed the faculties of a man, to what superior intelli- 
 gence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the 
 Philippics of Demosthenes ? In all religions, the life 
 of the founder supplies the silence of his written re- 
 velation : the sayings of Mahomet were so many les- 
 sons of truth ; his actions so many examples of virtue ; 
 and the public and private memorials were preserved 
 by his wives and companions. At the end of two 
 hundred years, the Sonna^ or oral law, was fixed and 
 consecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who dis- 
 criminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy- 
 five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred 
 thousand reports, of a more doubtful or spurious charac- 
 ter. Each day the pious author prayed in the temple 
 of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with the water 
 of Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited 
 on the pulpit, and the sepulchre of the apostle ; and 
 the work has been approved by the four orthodox 
 sects of the Sonnites. ^ 
 
 Miracles '^'*® mission of the ancient prophets, 
 
 of Moses and of Jesus, had been con- 
 firmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was 
 repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and 
 Medina, to produce a similar evidence of his divine 
 legation ; to call down from heaven the angel or the 
 volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the 
 desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the unbelieving 
 city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the 
 Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of 
 vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of 
 his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence 
 of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that 
 would depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravate the 
 guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of 
 his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation ; and 
 the.se passages of scandal establish, beyond suspicion, 
 
 t Koran, c. 17. v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci, p. 410. 
 
 » Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might be equalled 
 or surpassed by a human pen ; (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c.) and 
 Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the translator) derides the 
 rhyminc affectation of the most applauded passage, (torn. i. part ii. 
 p. 69-75.) 
 
 b CoUoquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabia atque ab 
 Arabibus habiia. (Luwth, de Poesi Hebraeorum Prselect. xxxii. xxxiii. 
 xxxiv. with his(i€'nnan editor Michaelis, Epimetron iv.) Yet Mi- 
 chaeli.'* (p. Cri— era.) has detected many Epyptian images, the ele- 
 phantiasis, papyrus, Nile, Crocodile, &c. The language is ambigu- 
 ously styled, ArabicoIIebraa. The resemblance of the sister dia- 
 lects was much more visible in their childhood than in their mature 
 age. (Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job.) 
 
 c Al Bochari died A. H. '224. See D'Herbelot, p. 208. 416. 827. 
 Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19. p. 33. 
 
 liar though important conversation, he again descended 
 to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, returned to Mecca, 
 and performed in the tenth part of a night the jour- 
 ney of many thousand years.' According to another 
 legend, the apostle confounded in a national assembly 
 the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless 
 word split asunder the orb of the moon : the obedient 
 planet stooped from her station in the sky, accom- 
 plished the seven revolutions round the Caaba, saluted 
 Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and suddenly con- 
 tracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and 
 issued forth through the sleeve, of his shirt.« The 
 vulgar are amused with the marvellous tales ; but the 
 gravest of the mussulman doctors imitate the modes- 
 ty of their master, and indulge a latitude of faith or 
 interpretation."* They might speciously allege, that 
 in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate 
 the harmony, of nature ; that a creed unclouded with 
 mystery may be excused from miracles ; and that the 
 sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of 
 Moses. 
 
 The polytheist is oppressed and dis- precepts of Ma- 
 tracted by the variety of superstition : a homet— prayer, 
 thousand rites of Egyptian origin were fasi»"g> aims* 
 interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law ; and 
 
 d See more remarkably, Koran, c. 2. 6. 12, 13. 17. Prideaux (Life 
 of Mahomet, p. IS, 19.) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, with 
 a more learned apparatus, has shown that the passages which deny 
 his miracles are clear and positive, (Alcoran, torn. i. part, ii.p.7— 12.) 
 and those which seem to assert them, are ambiguous and insufficient, 
 (p. lti-22.) 
 
 e See the Specimen Hist. Arabnm, the text of Abulpharagius, p. 
 17. the notes of Pocock, p. 187—190. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orien- 
 tale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de Chardin, torn. iv. p. 200—203. Maracci 
 (Alcoran, torn. i. p. 22—64.) has most laboriously collected and con- 
 futed the miracles and prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to 
 some writers, amount to three thousand. 
 
 f The nocturnal journey is substantially related by Abulfeda, (In 
 Vit. Mohammed, c. 19. p. 33.) who wishes to think it a vision; by 
 Prideaux, (p. 31— 40.) who aggravates the absurdities; and by Gag- 
 nier, (torn, i. p. 252— 3^13.) who declares, from the zealous Al Jan- 
 nabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Koran. Yet the 
 Koran, without naming either heaven, or Jerusalem, or Mecca, ha« 
 only dropl a mysterious hint: Laus illi qui transtulit servum suum 
 ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum. (Koran, c. 17. v. 1. in 
 Maracci, torn. ii. p. 407; for Sale's version is more licentious.) A 
 slender basis for the aerial structure of tradition. 
 
 ( In the prophetic style, which uses the present or past for the 
 future, Mahomet had said : Appropinquavit hora, et scissa est luna. 
 (Koran, c. 54. v. 1. in Maracci, torn. ii. p. 688.) This figure of rheto- 
 ric has been converted into a fact, which is said to be attested by the 
 most respectable eye-witnesses. (Maracci, tom. ii. p. 690.) The fes- 
 tival is still celebrated by the Persians ; (Chardin, tom. iv. p. 201.) 
 and the legend is tediously spun out by (iagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, 
 tom. i. p. 183-234.) on the faith, as it should seem, of the creduloug 
 Al Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of the 
 principal witness; (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 1S7.) the best inter- 
 preters are content with the simple sense of the Koran ; (Al Beidawi, 
 apud Hottinger, Hist. Orient. 1. ii. p. 302.) and the silence of Abul- 
 feda is worthy of a prince and a philosopher. 
 
 h Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 17; and his scepti- 
 cism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190—194. from the purett 
 authorities. 
 
 ^ 
 
 -• ' I 
 
 4 
 
 Ii 
 
204 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 the spirit of the gospel had evaporated in the pagean- 
 try of the church. The prophet of Mecca was tempted 
 by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the 
 rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visitinor the 
 holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Maho- 
 met himself inculcate a more simple and rational 
 piety : prayer, fastinpr, and alms, are the religious du- 
 ties of a mussulman ; and he is encouraged to hope, 
 that prayer will carry him half way to God, fasting 
 will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms \vill 
 gain him°admittance.' I. According to the tradition 
 of the nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal 
 conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose 
 on his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. 
 By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alleviation 
 of this intolerable burthen; the number was gradu- 
 ally reduced to five; without any dispensation of 
 business or pleasure, or time or place; the devotion of 
 the faithful is repeated at day-break, at noon, in the 
 afternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the 
 night; and, in the present decay of religious fervour, 
 our travellers are edified by the profound humility and 
 attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is 
 the key of prayer : the frequent lustration of the hands, 
 the face, and the body, which was practised of old by 
 the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the Koran : and a 
 permission is formally granted to supply with sand the 
 scarcity of water. The words and attitudes of suppli- 
 cation, as it is performed either sitting, or standing, or 
 prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or 
 authority, but the prayer is poured forth in short and 
 fervent ejaculations ; the measure of zeal is not ex- 
 hausted by a tedious liturgy ; and each mussulman, for 
 his own person, is invested with the character of a 
 priest. Among the theists, who reject the use of 
 images, it has been found necessary to restrain the 
 wanderings of the fancy, by directing the eye and the 
 thought towards a kebla^ or visible point of the hori- 
 zon. The prophet was at first inclined to gratify the 
 Jews by the choice of Jerusalem; but he soon returned 
 to a more natural partiality ; and five times every day 
 the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, 
 are devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet 
 every spot for the service of God is equally pure : the 
 Mahometans indifferently pray in their chamber or in 
 the street. As a distinction from the Jews and chris- 
 tians, the Friday in each week is set apart for the use- 
 ful institution of public worship: the people are assem- 
 bled in the mosch : and the imam, some respectable 
 elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin the prayer and pro- 
 nounce the sermon. But the Mahometan religion is 
 destitute of priesthood or sacrifice ; and the independent 
 spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on the 
 ministers and slaves of superstition. IL The volun- 
 tary ^ penance of the ascetics, the torment and glory 
 of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured 
 in his companions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, 
 and women, and sleep ; and firmly declared, that he 
 would suffer no monks in his religion.* Yet he insti- 
 tuted, in each year, a fast of thirty days ; and strenu- 
 ously recommended the observance, as a discipline 
 which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a 
 
 i The most authentic account of these precepts, pilgrimage, prayer, 
 fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian and Ara- 
 bian ttieologians by Maracci; (Prodrom. part iv. p. 9—24.) Keland ; 
 (in his excellent treatise de Religione Mohammedica, Utrecht, 1717, 
 
 a 67— 123.) and Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, torn. iv. p. 47—195.) 
 aracci is a nartial accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes 
 of a philoflopner; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled 
 over the east in his closet at Utrecht. The fourteenth letter of Tour- 
 nefort (Voyage du Levant, torn. ii. p. 325—360. in ociavo) describes 
 what he had seen of the religion of the Turks. 
 
 k Mahomet (Sale's Koran, c. 9. p. 153.) reproaches the christians 
 with taking their priests and monks for their lords, besides God. 
 Yet Maracci (Prodromus, part iii. p. 69, 70.) excuses the worship, 
 especially of the pope, and quotes, fron) the Koran itself, the case of 
 Eblis, or Satan, who was cast from heaven for refusing to adore Adam. 
 
 1 Koran, c. 5. p. 94. and Sale's note, which refers to the authority 
 of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D'Herbelot declares, that Mahomet 
 condemned la vie religieuse ; and that the first swarms of fakirs, 
 dervises. &c. did not appear till after the year 300 of the Hegira. 
 UiJbliol. Orient, p. 292. 718.) 
 
 salutary exercise of obedience to the will of God and 
 his apostle. During the month of Ramadan, from the 
 rising to the setting of the sun, the mussulman ab- 
 stains from eating, and drinking, and women, and 
 baths, and perfumes; from all nourishment that can 
 restore his strength, from all pleasure that can gratify 
 his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the 
 Ramadan coincides, by turns, with the winter cold and 
 the summer heat; and the patient martyr, without 
 assuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect 
 the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdic- 
 tion of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or 
 hermits, is converted by Mahomet alone into a positive 
 and general law;™ and a considerable portion of the 
 globe has abjured, at his command, the use of that 
 salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful 
 restraints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine, and 
 eluded by the hypocrite : but the legislator, by whom 
 they are enacted, cannot surely be accused of alluring 
 his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual appe- 
 tites. III. The charity of the Mahometans descends 
 to the animal creation ; and the Koran repeatedly in- 
 culcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and indispen- 
 sable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. 
 Mahomet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has de- 
 fined the precise measure of charity : the standard may 
 vary with the degree and nature of property, as it con- 
 sists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or mer- 
 chandise; but the mussulman does not accomplish the 
 law, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue ; and if 
 his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the 
 tenth, under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a 
 ffih,^ Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since 
 we are forbid to injure those whom we are bound to 
 assist. A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven 
 and of futurity ; but in his moral precepts he can only 
 repeat the lessons of our own hearts. 
 
 The two articles of belief, and the four Resurrection 
 practical duties of Islam, are guarded by 
 rewards and punishments; and the faith of the mus- 
 sulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment 
 and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to 
 determine the moment of that awful catastrophe, 
 though he darkly announces the signs, both in heaven 
 and earth, which will precede the universal dissolu- 
 tion, when life shall be destroyed, and the order of 
 creation shall be, confounded in the primitive chaos. 
 At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into 
 being; angels, genii, and men, will arise from the 
 dead, and the human soul will again be united to the 
 body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first en- 
 tertained by the Egyptians ; ° and their mummies were 
 embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to pre- 
 serve the ancient mansion of the soul, during a period 
 of three thousand years. But the attempt is partial 
 and unavailing; and it is with a more philosophic 
 spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the 
 Creator, whose word can re-animate the breathless 
 clay, and collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer 
 retain their form or substance.' The intermediate 
 state of the soul it is hard to decide ; and those who 
 
 —— 
 
 m See the double prohibition; (Koran, c. 2. p. 25. c. 5. p. 94.) the 
 one in the style of a legislator, the other in that of a fanatic. The 
 public and private motives of Mahomet are inveslieated by Prideaux 
 (Lifeof Mohomet, p. 62— 64.)and Sale. (Preliminary Discourse, p. 1*24.) 
 
 n The jealousy of Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p. 33.) prompts him 
 to enumerate the more liberal alms of the catholics of Rome. Fif- 
 teen great hospitals are open to many thousand patients and pil* 
 grims, fifteen hundred maidens are annually portioned, fifty-six 
 charity-schools are founded for both sexes, one hundred and twenty 
 confraternities relieve the wants of their brethren, dec. The bene- 
 volence of London is still more extensive ; but I am afraid that much 
 more is to be ascribed to the humanity, than to the religion, of the 
 people. 
 
 o See Herodotus (1. 11. c. 123.) and our learned countryman Sir 
 John Marsham. (Canon. Chronicus, p. 46.) The ASm of the same 
 writer (p. 254 — 274.) is an elaborate sketch of the infernal regions, 
 as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and Greeks, of 
 the poets and philosophers, of antiquity. 
 
 P The Koran (c. 2. p. 259, *c. ; of Sale, p. 32. ; of Maracci, p. 97.) 
 relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the curiosity, ana con- 
 firmed the faith, of Abraham. 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 205 
 
 most firmly believe her immateria. nature, are at a loss 
 to understand how she can think or act without the 
 aaency of the ortrans of sense. 
 
 Hell and para- The reunion of the soul and body will 
 dise. be followed by the final judgment of 
 
 ^ mankind ; and, in his copy of the Magian picture, the 
 I prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of pro- 
 ceeding, and even the slow and successive operations, 
 of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries 
 he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the 
 hope of salvation, for asserting the blackest heresy, 
 that every man who believes in God, and accomplishes 
 good works, may expect in the last day a favourable 
 sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to 
 the character of a fanatic ; nor is it probable that a 
 messenger from heaven should depreciate the value 
 and necessity of his own revelation. In the idiom of 
 the Koran,«« the belief of God is inseparable from that 
 of Mahomet : the good works are those which he had 
 enjoined ; and the two qualifications imply the profes- 
 sion of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are 
 equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though ex- 
 cused by ignorance, and crowned with virtue, will be 
 scourged with everlasting torments; and the tears 
 which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother, for 
 whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking 
 contrast of humanity and enthusiasm.' The doom of 
 the infidels is common : the measure of their guilt and 
 punishment is determined by the degree of evidence 
 which they have rejected, by the magnitude of the 
 errors which they have entertained : the eternal man- 
 sions of the christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the 
 Magians, and the idolaters, are sunk below each other 
 in the abyss; and the lowest hell is reserved for the 
 faithless hypocrites who have assumed the mask of 
 religion. After the greater part of mankind has been 
 condemned for their opinions, the true believers only 
 will be judged by their actions. The good and evil 
 of each mussulman will be accurately weighed in a 
 real or allegorical balance, and a singular mode of 
 compensation will be allowed for the payment of inju- 
 ries : the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his 
 own good actions, for the benefit of the person whom 
 he has wronged ; and if he should be destitute of any 
 moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded 
 with an adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. 
 According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall pre- 
 ponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, 
 without distinction, will pass over the sharp and peril- 
 ous bridge of the abyss ; but the innocent, treading in 
 the footsteps of Mahomet, will gloriously enter the 
 gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the 
 first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of ex- 
 piation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand 
 years; hut the prophet has judiciously promised, that 
 all his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be 
 saved, by their own faith, and his intercession, from 
 eternal damnation. It is not surprising that supersti- 
 tion should act most powerfully on the fears of her 
 votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more 
 energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. With 
 the two simple elements of darkness and fire, we cre- 
 ate a sensation of pain, which may be aggravated to 
 an infinite de«rree by the idea of endless duration. 
 But the same Idea operates with an opposite effect on 
 the continuity of pleasure ; and too much of our pre- 
 sent enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the 
 comparison, of evil. It is natural enough that an 
 Arabian prophet should dwell with raptures on the 
 
 ^ The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet damns all 
 unbelievers; (de Relision. Moham. p. 128—142.) that devils will not 
 be finally saved ; (p. 196—199.) that paradise will not solely consist 
 of corporeal delishis ; (p. 199—205.) and that women's souls are im- 
 mortal, (p. 205—^9.) 
 
 r Al Beidawi, apud Sale, Koran, c. 9. p. 164. The refusal to pray 
 for an unbelieving kindred, is justified, according to Mahomet, by 
 ihs duty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham, who reprobated 
 his own father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9. v. 
 116 Maracci, torn. ii. p. 317.) fuit sane piiw, iniii«. 
 
 groves, the fountains, and the rivers, of paradise ; but 
 instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a 
 liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and 
 friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, 
 the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, 
 rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, 
 and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, 
 which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the short 
 period of this mortal life. Seventy-two hourtes, or 
 black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming 
 youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be 
 created for the use of the meanest believer; a moment 
 of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years, and 
 his faculties will be increased an hundred-fold, to ren- 
 der him worthy of his felicity. Notwithstanding a 
 vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to 
 both sexes ; but Mahomet has not specified the male 
 companions of the female elect, lest he should either 
 alarm the jealousy of their former husbands, or dis- 
 turb their felicity, by the suspicion of an everlasting 
 marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has pro- 
 voked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks; 
 they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; 
 and his modest apologists are driven to the poor 
 excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder 
 and more consistent party adhere, without shame, to 
 the literal interpretation of the Koran : useless would 
 be the resurrection of the body, unless it were restored 
 to the possession and exercise of its worthiest facul- 
 ties ; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoy- 
 ment is requisite to complete the happiness of the 
 double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of the 
 Mahometan paradise will not be confined to the indul- 
 gence of luxury and appetite; and the prophet has 
 expressly declared, that all meaner happiness will be 
 forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who 
 shall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision." 
 
 The first and most arduous conquests Mahomet 
 of Mahomet* were those of his wife, his preaches at 
 servant, his pupil, and his friend ; " since ^^ p*^. : 
 he presented himself as a prophet to 
 those who were most conversant with his infirmities 
 as a man. Yet Cadijah believed the words, and cher- 
 ished the glory, of her husband ; the obsequious and 
 affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of free- 
 dom ; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, em- 
 
 I For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, k,c. consult the Koran; 
 (c. 2. ▼. 25. c, 56. 78, &c.) with Maracci's virulent, but learned, refu- 
 tation; (in his notes, and in the Prodromus, part iv. p. 78. 120. 122, 
 ice.) D'Herbelot; (Bibliotheque Oricntale, p. 368. 375.) Reland; (p. 
 47—61.) and Sale ; (p. 76—103.) The original ideas of the Magi are 
 darkly and doubtfully explored by their apologist Dr. Hyde. (Hist. 
 Reli^fonis Persarum, c. 32. p. 4a2-412. Oxon. 1760.) In the article 
 of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and philosophy 
 supply the absence of genuine information. 
 
 t Before 1 enter on the history of the prophet, it is incumbent on 
 me to produce my evidence. The Latin, French, and English ver- 
 sions of the Koran are preceded by historical discourses, and the 
 three translators, Maracci, (tom. i. p. 10—32.) Savary, (lom. i. p. 
 1—248.) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 33-56.) had accurately 
 studied the language and character of their author. Two professed 
 lives of Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux, (Life of Ma- 
 homet, seventh edition, London, 1718, in octavo,) and the Count do 
 Boulainvilliers; (Vie de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo,) but the 
 adverse wish of findinir an impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted 
 the learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The arti- 
 cle in D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p.59S-G03.) is chiefly drawn from 
 Novairi and Mircond ; but the best and most authentic of our guides 
 is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor at Oxford of the 
 oriental tongues. In two elaborate works (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita 
 et Rebus gesiis Mohammedis, &c. Latine vertit, Praefaiione el Notis 
 illustravit Johannes Gagnier, Oxon. 1723, in folio. La Vie de Maho- 
 met traduite et compilee de I'Alcoran, des Traditions auihenlique« 
 de la Sonna et des meilleurs Auteurs Arabes ; Amsterdam, 174»,rf 
 vols, in 12mo.) he has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the 
 Arabic text of Abulfeda and Al Jannabi; the first, an enlightened 
 prince, who reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A. D. 1310-1332, isee^ag- 
 iiier Prafat. ad Abulfed.) the second, a credulous doctor, who visited 
 Mecca, A. D. 1556. (D'Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, lom. '"• P'^^' -"!/ 
 These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive ^^^^f f "^^J. ^^i' 
 low the order of lime, and the division of chapters. YeUmujit ob- 
 serve, that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are in^J/^"; h' TlurTof thl 
 that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of the 
 
 "?Afier the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8.) discloses the secret doubu of 
 th« wfpnf Mahomet As if he had been a privy counsellor of th« 
 Xhet BlK^miers tp. 272, &c,) unfold, th'e .ublime and patriolte 
 Yiewi of Cadijah and the first di»ciple«. 
 
 81 
 
206 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 207 
 
 «') 
 
 braced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of 
 a youthful hero; and the wealth, the moderation, the 
 veracity of Abubeker, confirmed the religion of the 
 prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his 
 persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of 
 Mecca were introduced to the private lessons of 
 Islam; they yielded to the voice of reason and enthu- 
 siasm ; they repeated the fundamental creed ; ** there 
 is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God ;'' 
 and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with 
 riches and honours, with the command of armies and 
 the government of kingdoms. Three years were si- 
 lently employed in the conversion of fourteen prose- 
 lytes, the first-fruits of his mission ; but in the fourth 
 year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to 
 impart to his family the light of divine truth, he pre- 
 pared a banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of 
 milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of the race 
 of Hashem. " Friends and kinsmen," said Mahomet 
 to the assembly, " 1 offer you, and I alone can offer, 
 the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this world 
 and of the world to come. God has commanded me 
 to call you to his service. Who among you will sup- 
 port my burthen 1 Who among you will be my com- 
 panion and my vizir?"* No answer was returned, 
 till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and con- 
 tempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage 
 of Ali, a youth in the fourteenth year of his age. "O 
 prophet, I am the man : whosoever rises against thee, 
 I will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his 
 legs, rip up his belly. prophet, I will be thy vizir 
 over them." Mahomet accepted his offer with trans- 
 port, and Abu Taleb was ironically exhorted to respect 
 the superior dignity of his son. In a more serious 
 tone, the father of Ali advised his nephew to relinquish 
 his impracticable design. " Spare your remonstran- 
 ces," replied the intrepid fanatic to his uncle and bene- 
 factor; ** if they should place the sun on my right- 
 hand, and the moon on my left, they should not divert 
 me from my course." He persevered ten years in the 
 exercise of his mission ; and the religion which has 
 overspread the east and west, advanced with a slow 
 and painful progress within the walls of Mecca. Yet 
 Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the in- 
 crease of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who 
 revered him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably 
 dispensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran. 
 The number of proselytes may be estimated by the 
 absence of eighty-three men and eighteen women, who 
 retired to ^Ethiopia in the seventh year of his mission; 
 and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of 
 bis uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, 
 who signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal 
 which he had exerted for its destruction. Nor was 
 the charity of Mahomet confined to the tribe of Ko- 
 reish, or the precincts of Mecca : on solemn festivals, 
 in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the Caaba, 
 accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both 
 in private converse and public discourse, the belief and 
 worship of a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and 
 of his weakness, he asserted the liberty of conscience, 
 and disclaimed the use of religious violence : y but he 
 called the Arabs to repentance, and conjured them to 
 remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and Thamud, 
 whom the divine justice had swept away from the face 
 of the earth." 
 
 X Vezirus, portitor, bajulus, onus/erena ; and this plebeian name 
 was transferred by an apt metaphur to the pillars of the state. (Gag- 
 nier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavour to preserve the Arabian 
 idiom, as far as I can feel it myself, in a l^tin or French translation. 
 
 y The passages of the Koran in behalf of tolerdtion are strong and 
 numerous : c. 2. v. 257. c. 16. 129. c. 17. 54. c. 4.'>. 15. c. 50. 39. c. 88. 
 21,A:c. with the' notes of Maracci and Sale. This character alone 
 may generally decide the doubts of the learned, whether a chapter 
 was revealed at Mecca or Medina. 
 
 « See the Koran, (passim, and especially c. 7. p. 123, 124. &c.) and 
 the tradition of the Arabs. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 35-37.) The ca- 
 verns uf the tribeof Thamud, fit for men of the ordinary stature, were 
 shown in the midway between Medina and Damascus, (Abulfed. 
 Arabia Descript. p. 43, 44.) aud may be probably ascribed lo the 
 
 The people of Mecca were hardened jg opposed by 
 in their unbelief by superstition and the Koreish, 
 envy. The elders of the city, the un- ^- ^* 613-622. 
 cles of the prophet, affected to despise the presump- 
 tion of an orphan, the reformer of his country : the 
 pious orations of Mahomet in the Caaba were answer- 
 ed by the clamours of Abu Taleb. " Citizens and 
 pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his 
 impious novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al 
 Lata and Al Uzzah." Yet the son of Abdallah was 
 ever dear to the aged chief; and he protected the fame 
 and person of his nephew against the assaults of the 
 Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the pre- 
 eminence of the family of Hashem. Their malice 
 was coloured with the pretence of religion : in the age 
 of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Ara- 
 bian magistrate ;* and Mahomet was guilty of desert- 
 ing and denying the national deities. But so loose 
 was the policy of Mecca, that the leaders of the Kore- 
 ish, instead of accusing a criminal, were compelled to 
 employ the measures of persuasion or violence. They 
 repeatedly addressed Abu Taleb m the style of re- 
 proach and menace. " Thy nephew reviles our reli- 
 gion; he accuses our wise forefathers of ignorance and 
 folly : silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and 
 discord in the city. If he persevere, we shall draw 
 our swords against him and his adherent*), and thou 
 wilt be responsible for the blood of thy fellow-citi- 
 zens." The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb 
 eluded the violence of religious faction; the most help- 
 less or timid of the disciples retired to iGthiopia, and 
 the prophet withdrew himself to various places of 
 strength in the town and country. As he was still 
 supported by his family, the rest of the tribe of Kore- 
 ish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse 
 with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, 
 neither to marry nor to give in marriage, but to pursue 
 them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver 
 the person of Mahomet to the justice of the gods. 
 The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the 
 eyes of the nation ; the messengers of the Koreish 
 pursued the mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: 
 they besieged the prophet and his most faithful follow- 
 ers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual 
 animosity by the retaliation of injuries and insults. 
 A doubtful truce restored the appearances of concord ; 
 till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned Mahomet to the 
 power of his enemies, at the moment when he was 
 deprived of his domestic comforts by the loss of his 
 faithful and generous Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the 
 chief of the branch of Ommiyah, succeeded to the 
 principality of the republic of Mecca. A zealous vo- 
 tary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem, 
 he convened an assembly ©f the Koreishites and their 
 allies, to decide the fate of the apostle. His impri- 
 sonment might provoke the despair of his enthusiasm ; 
 and the exile of an eloquent and popular fanatic would 
 diffuse the mischief through the provinces of Arabia. 
 His death was resolved ; and they agreed that a sword 
 from each tribe should be buried in his heart, to divide 
 the guilt of his blood, and baffle the ven- .„d driven from 
 geance of the Hashemites. An angel or Mecca, 
 a spy revealed their conspiracy ; and ^- ^' ^^' 
 flight was the only resource of Mahomet.'' At the 
 dead of night, accompanied by his friend Abubeker^ 
 he silently escaped from his house: the assassins 
 watched at the door ; but they were deceived by the 
 figure of Ali, who reposed on the bed, and was cover- 
 ed with the green vestment of ths apostle. The Ko- 
 
 Troglodytes of the primitive world. (Michael is, ad Lowth de P«»esi 
 HebrsBor. p. 131—134. Recherches sur les Egyptiens, lorn. ii. p. 
 49, &c.) 
 
 a In the lime of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Ara- 
 bian magistrate, (c. 13. v. 26—28.) I blush for a respectable prelate, 
 (de Pocsi HebrsBorum, p. 650, 651.edit. Michaelis; and letter of a late 
 professor in the university of Oxford, p. 15—53.) who justifies and 
 applauds this patriarchal inquisition. 
 
 b D'Herbelni, Bibliot Ori£ni. p. 445. He quotes a parUcular hit- 
 tory of the flight of Mahomet. 
 
 reish respected the piety of the heroic youth ; but some 
 verses of Ali, which are still extant, exhibit an inte- 
 resting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, and his 
 religious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his 
 companion were concealed in the cave of Thor, at the 
 distance of a league from Mecca ; and in the close of 
 each evening, they received, from the son and daugh- 
 ter of Abubeker, a secret supply of intelligence and 
 ( food. The diligence of the Koreish explored every 
 ' haunt in the neighbourhood of the city ; they arrived 
 at the entrance of the cavern ; but the providential de- 
 I ceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest, is supposed 
 \ to convince them that the place was solitary and invio- 
 I late. " We are only two," said the trembling Abube- 
 • ker. "There is a third," replied the prophet; " it is 
 ^ God himself." No sooner was the pursuit abated, 
 than the two fugitives issued from the rock, and moun- 
 ted their camels : on the road to Medina, they were 
 overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish ; they re- 
 deemed themselves with prayers and promises from 
 their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of an 
 Arab might have changed the history of the world. 
 The flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina has 
 fixed the memorable aera of the Hegira^^ which, at the 
 end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar 
 years of the Mahometan nations.* 
 
 Received as The religion of the Koran might have 
 prince of Medina, perished in its cradle, had not Medina 
 A.D.622. embraced with faith and reverence the 
 holy outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the city, known 
 under the name of Yathreb, before it was sanctified 
 by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the 
 tribes of the Charegites and the Awsites, whose he- 
 reditary feud was rekindled by the slightest provoca- 
 tions : two colonies of Jews, who boasted a saoe/dotal 
 race, were their humble allies, and without converting 
 the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and 
 religion, which distinguished Medina as the city of 
 the book. Some of her noblest citizens, in a pilgri- 
 mage to the Caaba, were converted by the preaching 
 of Mahomet: on their return they diffused the belief 
 of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ra- 
 tified by their deputies in two secret and nocturnal 
 interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the 
 first, ten Charegites and two Awsites united in faith 
 and love, protested in the name of their wives, their 
 children, and their absent brethren, that they would 
 forever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of 
 the Koran. The second was a political association, 
 the first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens.' 
 Seventy-three men and two women of Medina held a 
 solemn conference with Mahomet, his kinsmen, and 
 his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other 
 by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised in the 
 name of the city, that if he should be banished, they 
 would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a 
 leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their 
 wives and children. " But if you are recalled by your 
 country," they asked with a flattering anxiety, " will 
 you not abandon your new allies 1" "All things," 
 replied Mahomet with a smile, "are now oonimon be- 
 tween us : your blood is as my blood, your ruin as my 
 ruin. We are bound to each other by the ties of ho- 
 nour and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy 
 of your foes." " But if we are killed in your service, 
 what," exclaimed the deputies of Medina, " will be 
 
 our reward?" "Paradise," replied the prophet. 
 " Stretch forth thy hand." He stretched it forth, and 
 they reiterated the oath of allegiance and fidelity. 
 Their treaty was ratified by the people, who unani- 
 mously embraced the profession of Islam ; they rejoi- 
 ced in the exile of the apostle, but they trembled for 
 his safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. Af- 
 ter a perilous and rapid journey along the sea-coast, he 
 halted at Koba, two miles from the city, and made his 
 public entry into Medina, sixteen days after his flight 
 from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens advanced 
 to meet him; he was hailed with acclamations of loy- 
 alty and devotion; Mahomet was mounted on a she- 
 camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban was 
 unfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a stan- 
 dard. His bravest disciples, who had been scattered 
 by the storm, assembled round his person : and the 
 equal though various merit of the Moslems was dis- 
 tinguished by the names of Muhageriam and ^nsars^ 
 the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. 
 To eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Mahomet judi- 
 ciously coupled his principal followers with the rights 
 and obligations of brethren, and when Ali found him- 
 self without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that 
 he would be the companion and brother of the noble 
 youth. The expedient was crowned with success: 
 the holy fraternity was respected in peace and war, 
 and the two parties vied with each other in a gene- 
 rous emulation of courage and fidelity. Once only 
 the concord was slightly ruflied by an accidental 
 quarrel ; a patriot of Medina arraigned the insolence 
 of the strangers, but the hint of their expulsion was 
 heard with abhorrence, and his own son most eager- 
 ly offered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his 
 father. 
 
 « The Hegira was Instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in imi- 
 tation of the wra of the martyrs of the christians ; (D'Herbelot, p. 
 444.) and properly commenced sixty-eight days before the flight of 
 Mahomet, with the first of Moharren, or first day ofthat Arabian 
 year, which coincides with Friday, July 16th, A. D. 622. (Abulfeda, 
 Vit. Moham. c. 22, 23. p. 45—50 ; and Greaves's edition of Ullug 
 Beig's Epochae Arabum, &c. c. 1. p. 8. 10, &c.) 
 
 d Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, may be found in 
 Abulfeda (p. 14—45.) and Gagnier, (torn. i. p. 134—251. 332— 3S3.) 
 The lege»?d from p. 187—234. is vouched by Al Jannabi, and disdained 
 by AbuUeda. 
 
 e The triple inauguration of Mahomet is described by Abulfeda 
 (p. 30. 33. 40. 86.) and Gagnier. (loin. i. p. 342, &c. 349, &c. torn. ii. p. 
 223, &c.) 
 
 From his establishment at Medina, His regal dignity, 
 Mahomet assumed the exercise of the A. D. 6522— 632. 
 regal and sacerdotal ofllice; and it was impious to 
 appeal from a judge whose decrees were inspired by 
 the divine wisdom. A small portion of ground, the 
 patrimony of two orphans, was acquired by gift or 
 purchase : ' on that chosen spot, he built a house and 
 a mosch, more venerable in their rude simplicity than 
 the palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs. His 
 seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apos- 
 tolic title ; when he prayed and preached in the weekly 
 assembly, he leaned against the trunk of a palm-tree ; 
 and it was long before he indulged himself in the use 
 of a chair or pulpit of rough timber.* After a reign 
 of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in 
 the field, renewed their oath of allegiance; and their 
 chief repeated the assurance of protection till the 
 death of the last member, or the final dissolution of the 
 party. It was in the same camp that the deputy of 
 Mecca was astonished by the attention of the faithful 
 to the words and looks of the prophet, by the eager- 
 ness with which they collected his spittle, a hair that 
 dropt on the ground, the refuse water of his lustra- 
 tions, as if they participated in some degree of the 
 prophetic virtue. " I have seen," said he, " the Chos- 
 roes of Persia and the Caesar of Rome, but never did 
 I behold a king among his subjects like Mahomet 
 among his companions." The devout fervour of en- 
 thusiasm acts with more energy and truth than the 
 cold and formal servility of courts. 
 
 r Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 44.) reviles the wickedness of th» 
 impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the sons of a carpenter; a 
 reproach which he drew from the Disputatio contra Saracenos, com- 
 posed in Arabic before the year 1130; but the honest Gagnier (ad 
 Abulfed. p. 53.) has shown that they were deceived by the word Al 
 Naejar, which signifies, in this place, not an obscure trade, but a 
 noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate state of the ground is descnbed 
 by Abulfeda; and his worthv interpreter has proved, from Al Bo- 
 chari, the offer of a price ; from Al Jannabi, the fair purchase ; and 
 from Ahmed Ben Joseph, the payment of the money by the generoui 
 Abubeker. On these grounds the prophet must be honourably ac- 
 
 '^"c AUannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 246.324.) describes the 8^1 
 and pulpit, as two venerable relics of the apostle of God ; and th» 
 portrait of his court is uken from Abulfeda. (c. 44. p. 85.) 
 
 }, ■ . 
 
 ^ 
 
 ] t 
 
 
 iL^J 
 
208 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 209 
 
 He declares war ^^ ^^^ State of nature every man has 
 against the infi- a right to defend, by force of arms, his 
 ***■• person and his possessions ; to repel, 
 
 or even to prevent, the violence of his enemies, and 
 to extend his hostilities to a reasonable measure of 
 ^ satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the 
 
 Arabs, the duties of subject and citizen imposed a 
 feeble restraint; and Mahomet, in the exercise of a 
 peacpful and benevolent mission, had been despoiled 
 and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. 
 The chfice of an independent people had exalted the 
 fug'itive of Mecca to the rank of a sovereign; and he 
 was invested with the just prerogative of forming 
 alliances, and of waging offensive or defensive war. 
 l*he imperfection of human rights was supplied and 
 armed by the plenitude of divine power : the prophet 
 of Medina assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer 
 and more sans^uinary tone, which proves that his 
 former moderation was the effect of weakness : ^ the 
 means of persuasion had been tried, the season of 
 forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded 
 to propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the 
 monuments of idolatry, and, without regarding the 
 sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving 
 nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts, so 
 repeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by 
 the author to the Pentateuch and the Gospel. But 
 the mild tenor of the evangelic style may explain an 
 ambiguous text, that Jesus did not bring peace on the 
 earth, but a sword: his patient and humble virtues 
 should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal of 
 princes and bishops, who have disgraced the name 
 of his disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, 
 Mahomet mia^ht appeal with more propriety to the 
 example of Moses, of the judges and the kings of 
 Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews are still 
 more rigid than those of the Arabian legislator.* The 
 Lord of hosts marched in person before the Jews : if 
 a city resisted their summons, the males, without dis- 
 tinction, were put to the sword : the seven nations of 
 Canaan were devoted to destruction ; and neither re- 
 pentance nor conversion could shield them from the in- 
 evitable doom, that no creature within their precincts 
 should be left alive. The fair option of friendship, 
 or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies 
 of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, 
 they were admitted to all the temporal and spiritual 
 benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under 
 the same banner to extend the religion which they 
 had embraced. The clemency of the prophet was 
 decided by his interest, yet he seldom trampled on a 
 prostrate enemy ; and he seems to promise, that, on 
 the payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his un- 
 believina subjects might be iudulged in their worship, 
 or at least in their imperfect faith. In the first months 
 of his reign, he practised the lessons of holy warfare, 
 and displayed his white banner before the gates of 
 Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine 
 battles or sieges;* and fifty enterprises of war were 
 achieved in ten years by himself or his lieutenants. 
 The Arab continued to unite the professions of a mer- 
 chant and a robber; and his petty excursions for the 
 defence or the attack of a caravan insensibly prepared 
 his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribu- 
 
 h The eighth and ninth chaptors of the Koran are the loudest and 
 Tnf>8l vehempnt; and Maracci (Prodromiis, part iv. p. 59— 64 ) has 
 invpiffhed with more justice than discretion against the double deal- 
 ing of the impitstor. 
 
 I The tenth and twentieth chapteni of Deuteronomy, with the 
 practical comments of Joshua, David, &c. are read with more awe 
 than satisfaction by the pious christians of the present age. But the 
 bishops, as well as the rabbis, of former times, have beat the drum- 
 ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale's Preliminary Dis- 
 course, p. 142 143.) ' 
 
 k Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private arsenal of the 
 apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances, seven pikes or half- 
 pikes, a quiver, and three bows, seven cuirasses, three shields, and 
 two helmets, (Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 328—334.) with a large while stan- 
 dard, a black banner, (p. 335.) twenty horses, (p. 322.) &c. Two of 
 Si'olil*''^'*^ sayings are recorded by tradition. (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 
 
 tion of the spoil was regulated by a divine law :* the 
 whole was faithfully collected in one common mass : 
 a fifth of the gold and silver, the prisoners and cattle, 
 the movables and immovables, was reserved by the 
 prophet for pious and charitable uses ; the remainder 
 was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who 
 had obtained the victory or guarded the camp : the 
 rewards of the slain devolved to their widows and 
 orphans ; and the increase of cavalry was encouraged 
 by the allotment of a double share to the horse and 
 to the man. From all sides the roving Arabs were 
 allured to the standard of religion and plunder: the 
 apostle sanctified the licence of embracing the female 
 captives as their wives or concubines ; and the enjoy 
 ment of wealth and beauty was a feeble type of the 
 joys of paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of 
 the faith. "The sword," says Mahomet, "is the 
 I key of heaven and of hell : a drop of blood shed in the 
 cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail 
 than two months of fasting or prayer : whosover falls 
 in battle, his sins are forgiven : at the day of judg- 
 ment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, 
 and odoriferous as musk ; and the loss of his limbs 
 shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cheru- 
 bim." The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired 
 with enthusiasm : the picture of the invisible world 
 was strongly painted on their imagination ; and the 
 death which they had always despised became an 
 object of hope and desire. The Koran inculcates, in 
 the most absolute sense, the tenets of fate and pre- 
 destination, which would extinguish both industry and 
 virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his 
 speculative belief. Yet their influence in every age 
 has exalted the courage of the Saracens and Turks, 
 The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle 
 with a fearless confidence : there is no danger where 
 there is no chance : they were ordained to perish in 
 their beds; or they were safe and invulnerable amidst 
 the darts of the enemy." 
 
 Perhaps the Koreish would have been 
 content with the flight of Mahomet, had 
 they not been provoked and alarmed by 
 the vengeance of an enemy, who could 
 intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed 
 through the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, 
 with only thirty or forty followers, conducted a wealthy 
 caravan of a thousand camels : the fortune or dexterity 
 of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet ; but the 
 chief of the Koreish was informed that the holy robbers 
 were placed in ambush to await his return. He des- 
 patched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca, and they 
 were roused, by the fear of losing their merchandise and 
 their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief 
 with the military force of the city. The sacred band 
 of Mahomet was formed of three hundred and thirteen 
 Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and 
 the rest auxiliaries : they mounted by turns a train of 
 seventy camels (the camels of Yathreb were formida- 
 ble in war) ; but such was the poverty of his first 
 disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in 
 the field." In the fertile and famous vale of Beder," 
 
 1 The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum, is exhausted 
 In a separate dissertation by the learned Reland. (DissertationM 
 Miscellaneae, tom. iii. Dissert, x. p. 3—63.) 
 
 m The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which few reli<'ion« 
 can reproach each other, is sternly exposed in the Koran, (c. 3. p. 52, 
 53. c. 4. p. 70, Ac. with the notes of Sale, and c. 17. p. 413. with thcwe 
 of Maracci.) Reland (de Kelig. Mohamm. p. Gl— 64) and Sale (Pre- 
 lim. Discourse, p. 103.) represent the opinions of the doctors, and 
 our modern travellers the confidence, the fading confidence, of 
 the Turks. 
 
 n Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 9.) allows him seventy or 
 eighty horse ; and on two other occasions prior to the battle of Ohiid, 
 he enlists a body of thirty, (p. 10.) and of 500 (p. 66.) troopers. Yet 
 the mussulmans, in the field of Ohud, had no more than two horses, 
 according to the belter sense of Abulfeda, (in Vit. Mohamm. c. xxxi. 
 p. 65.) In the Stony province, the camels were numerous; but the 
 horse appears to have been less common than in the Happy or the 
 Desert Arabia. 
 
 o Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and forty from 
 Mecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Egypt; and the pilgrims 
 annually commemorate the prophet's victory by illumiuations. rock- 
 ets, &c. Shaw's Travels, p. 477. 
 
 His defensive 
 wars against 
 the Koreish 
 of Mecca. 
 
 three stations from Medina, he was informed by his 
 scouts of the caravan that approached on one side; of 
 the Koreish, one hundred horse, eight hundred and 
 fifty foot, who advanced on the other. After a short 
 debate, he sacrificed the prospect of wealth to the pur- 
 suit of glory and revenge; and a slight intrenchment 
 was formed, to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh 
 water that glided through the valley. " God," he 
 Battle of Beder, exclaimed, as the numbers of the Koreish 
 A.D.623. descended from the hills, " O God, if 
 these are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worship- 
 ped on the earth ? — Courage, my children, close your 
 ranks ; discharge your arrows, and the day is your 
 own." At these words he placed himself, with Abu- 
 beker, on a throne or pulpit, p and instantly demanded 
 the succour of Gabriel and three thousand angels. 
 His eye was fixed on the field of battle : the mussul- 
 mans fainted and were pressed : in that decisive mo- 
 ment the prophet started from his throne, mounted his 
 horse, and cast a handful of sand into the air; **■ Let 
 their faces be covered with confusion." Both armies 
 heard the thunder of his voice : their fancy beheld the 
 angelic warriors : *» the Koreish trembled and fled : 
 seventy of the bravest were slain ; and seventy cap- 
 tives adorned the first victory of the faithful. The 
 dead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and in- 
 sulted : two of the most obnoxious prisoners were 
 punished with death; and the ransom of the others, 
 four thousand drams of silver, compensated in some 
 degree the escape of the caravan. But it was in vain 
 that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new road 
 through the desert and along the Euphrates : they 
 were overtaken by the diligence of the mussulmans; 
 and wealthy must have been the prize, if twenty 
 thousand drams could be set apart for the fifth of the 
 apostle. The resentment of the public and private 
 loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three 
 thousand men, seven hundred of whom were armed 
 with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on 
 horseback : three thousand camels attended his march ; 
 and his wife Henda, with fifteen matrons of Mecca, in- 
 cessantly sounded their timbrels to animate the troops, 
 and to magnify the greatness, of Hobal, the most 
 Of Ohud, popular deity of the Caaba. The stan- 
 A. D. 623. dard of God and Mahomet was upheld 
 by nine hundred and fifty believers : the disproportion 
 of numbers was not more alarming than in the field 
 of Beder; and their presumption of victory prevailed 
 against the divine and human sense of the apostle. 
 The second battle was fought on mount Ohud, six 
 miles to the north of Medina :' the Koreish advanced 
 in the form of a crescent ; and the right wing of caval- 
 ry was led by Caled, the fiercest and most success- 
 ful of the Arabian warriors. The troops of Mahomet 
 were skilfully posted on the declivity of a hill, and 
 their rear was guarded by a detachment of fifty archers. 
 The weight of their charge impelled and broke the 
 centre of the idolaters; but in the pursuit they lost the 
 advantage of their ground : the archers deserted their 
 station : the mussulmans were tempted by the spoil, 
 disobeyed their general, and disordered their ranks. 
 The intrepid Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their 
 
 F The place to which Mahomet retired durinc the action is styled 
 by Gagnier, (in Abulfeda, c. 27. p. 53. Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 
 30. 33.) Umbraeulum, une loge de bois avec une parte. The same 
 Arabic word is rendered by Reiske, (Annates Moslemici AbulfedsB, 
 p. 23.) by Solium Suggeatua editior ; and the difference is of the ut- 
 most moment for the honour both of the interpreter and of the hero. 
 I am sorry to observe the pride and acrimony with which Reiske chas- 
 tises his fellow-labourer. S»pe sic vertit, ut integrae pagina neque- 
 ant nisi una litura corri|i: Arabice non satis callebat, et carebat 
 iudicio critico. J. J. Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisa Tabu- 
 ias, p. 228. ad calcem Abulfeda Syri2B Tabulse ; Lepsia, 1766, in 4to. 
 
 q The loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3. p. 124, 125. c. 8. p. 9.) 
 allow the commenutors to fluctuate between the numbers of 1000, 
 3000, or 9000 angels; and the smallest of these might suffice for the 
 slaughter of seventy of the Koreish. (Maracci, Alcoran, tom. ii. p. 
 131.) Yet the same scholiasts confess, that this angelic band was 
 not visible to any mortal eye. (Maracci, p. 297.) They refine on the 
 words, (c. 8. 16.) «« not thou, bui God," &c. (D'Herbelot, Bibliol. 
 Orientate, p. 600, 601.) 
 
 r Geograbh. Nubiensis, p. 47. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 B 14 
 
 1 
 
 Mahomet sub- 
 dues the Jewf 
 of Arabia, 
 A. D. 623-627. 
 
 flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud voice, that Ma- 
 homet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the 
 face with a javelin : two of his teeth were shattered 
 with a stone; yet, in the midst of tumult and dismay, 
 he reproached the infidels with the murder of a pio- 
 phet, and blessed the friendly hand that stanched his 
 blood, and conveyed him to a place of safety. Se- 
 venty martyrs died for the sins of the people : they 
 fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each brother embracing 
 his lifeless companion ; ■ their bodies were mangled 
 by the inhuman females of Mecca ; and the wife of 
 Abu Sophian tasted the entrails of Hamza, the uncle 
 of Mahomet. They might applaud their superstition, 
 and satiate their fury ; but the mussulmans soon ral- 
 lied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or 
 courage to undertake the siege of Me- The nations, or 
 dina. It was attacked the ensuing year the ditch, 
 by an army of ten thousand enemies ; ^- ^- ^^• 
 and this third expedition is variously named from the 
 nations, which marched under the banner of Abu So- 
 phian, from X\\G ditch which was drawn before the city, 
 and a camp of three thousand mussulmans. The pru- 
 dence of Mahomet declined a general engagement ; the 
 valour of Ali was signalized in single combat; and the 
 war was protracted twenty days, till the final separa- 
 tion of the confederates. A tempest of wind, rain, 
 and hail, overturned their tents: their private quarrels 
 were fomented by an insidious adversary ; and the 
 Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to 
 subvert the throne, or to check the conquests, of their 
 invincible exile.* 
 
 The choice of Jerusalem for the first 
 kebla of prayer discovers the early pro- 
 pensity of Mahomet in favour of the 
 Jews ; and happy would it have been 
 for their temporal interest, had they recognized, in the 
 Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the promised 
 Messiah. Their obstinacy converted his friendship 
 into implacable hatred, with which he pursued that 
 unfortunate people to the last moment of his life ; and 
 in the double character of an apostle and a conqueror, 
 his persecution was extended to both worlds." The 
 Kainoka dwell at Medina under the protection of the 
 city : he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, 
 and summoned them to embrace his religion, or con- 
 tend with him in battle. " Alas," replied the trem- 
 bling Jews, ** we are ignorant of the use of arms, but 
 we persevere in the faith and worship of our fathers ; 
 why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just de- 
 fence?'* The unequal conflict was terminated in fif- 
 teen days; and it was with extreme reluctance that 
 Mahomet yielded to the importunity of his allies, and 
 consented to spare the lives of the captives. But 
 their riches were confiscated, their arms became more 
 effectual in the hands of the mussulmans ; and a wretch- 
 ed colony of seven hundred exiles was driven with 
 their wives and children to implore a refuge on the 
 confines of Syria. The Nadharites were more guilty, 
 since they conspired in a friendly interview to assas- 
 sinate the prophet. He besieged their castle three 
 miles from Medina, but their resolute defence obtained 
 an honourable capitulation ; and the garrison, sounding 
 their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted 
 to depart with the honours of war. The Jews had ex- 
 cited and joined the war of the Koreish : no sooner had 
 the nations retired from the ditch, than Mahomet, with- 
 out laying aside his armour, marched on the same day 
 to extirpate the hostile race of the children of Koraidha. 
 
 • In the third chapter of the Koran, (p. 50-53. with Sale's notes,) 
 the prophet alleges some poor excuses for the defeat o' Ohud. 
 
 t For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of Beder, of O^Jia* and 
 of the ditch, peruse Abulfeda, (p. 56—61. 64-69. 73-77.) Gagmen 
 (tom. ii. p. 23-45. 70-96. 120-139.) with the proper articlM of 
 D'Herbelot, and the abridgments of Elmacin, (Hist, baracen. p.b,7.) 
 and Abulpharagius. (Dynast, p. 102.) ..... e ^.^ ,, .k- 
 
 n The wars of Mahomet against the Jewish tribes, of Kainoka, the 
 Nadharites, Koraidha, and Chaibar, are elated V Abulfeda (p 61. 
 71. 77. 87, Ac.) and Gagnier. (tom. U. p. 61— «5. Iw— IW. 139— 14& 
 268—284.) 
 
 { . 
 \ i 
 
 
 
 
 It 
 
 I: 
 
 *t 
 
 w 
 
 it • 
 
 ^1 
 
 :l 11 
 
210 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 211 
 
 .;i i 
 
 'I 
 
 ti: 
 
 After a resistance of twenty-five days, they surrendered 
 at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their 
 old allies of Medina : they could not be ignorant that 
 fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. A 
 venerable elder, to whose judgment they appealed, 
 pronounced the sentence of their death: seven hundred 
 Jews were dragged in chains to the market-place of 
 the city : they descended alive into the grave prepared 
 for their execution and burial ; and the apostle beheld 
 with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless 
 enemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by 
 the mussulmans : three hundred cuirasses, five hun- 
 dred pikes, a thousand lances, composed the most 
 useful portion of the spoil. Six days' journey to the 
 north-east of Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of 
 Chaibar was the seat of the Jewish power in Arabia; 
 the territory, a fertile spot in the desert, was covered 
 with plantations and cattle, and protected by eight 
 castles, some of which were esteemed of impregnable 
 strength. The forces of Mahomet consisted of two 
 hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot: in the suc- 
 cession of eight regular and painful sieges they were 
 exposed to danger, and fatigue, and hunger; and the 
 most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event. The 
 apostle revived their faith and courage by the example 
 of Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion 
 of God : perhaps we may believe that a Hebrew cham- 
 pion of gigantic stature was cloven to the chest by his 
 irresistible scymitar; but we cannot praise the modesty 
 of romance, which represents him as tearing from its 
 hinges the gate of a fortress, and wielding the ponde- 
 rous buckler in his left hand.* After the reduction of 
 the castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. 
 The chief of the tribe was tortured, in the presence 
 of Mahomet, to force a confession of his hidden trea- 
 sure : the industry of the shepherds and husbandmen 
 was rewarded with a precarious toleration : they were 
 permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, 
 to improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for his 
 emolument and their own. Under the reign of Omar, 
 the Jews of Chaibar were-transplanted to Syria; and 
 the caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master, 
 that one and the true religion should be professed in 
 his native land of Arabia.^ 
 
 SubmlMion of Y'wQ times each day the eyes of Ma- 
 Mecca, homet were turned towards Mecca,* and 
 A.D. G29. jjg ^y.^g urged by the most sacred and 
 powerful motives to revisit, as a conqueror, the city 
 and temple from whence he had been driven as an 
 exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and 
 sleeping fancy: an idle dream was translated into 
 vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy banner; and 
 a rash promise of success too hastily dropped from the 
 lips of the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca 
 displayed the peaceful and solemn pomp of a pil- 
 griniage : seventy camels chosen and bedecked for 
 sacrifice, preceded the van ; the sacred territory was 
 respected ; and the captives were dismissed without 
 ransom to proclaim his clemency and devotion. But 
 no sooner did Mahomet descend into the plain, within 
 a day's journey of the city, than he exclaimed, *' they 
 have clothed themselves with the skins of tigers:" the 
 cumbers and resolution of the Koreish opposed his 
 progress ; and the roving Arabs of the desert might 
 desert or betray a leader whom they had followed for 
 the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic sunk into a 
 
 X Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to affirm that he him- 
 ■elf, and seven other men, afterwards tried, without success, to move 
 the same gatr^ from the ground. (Abulf«^da, p. 90.) Abu Kafe was an 
 eye-witness, but who will be witness for Abu Rafe I 
 
 J The banishment of the Jews is atlesteil by Klmacin (Hist. Sara- 
 een. p. 9.> and the great Al Zabari. (Gagoier, tom. ii. p. 285.) Yet 
 Kiebuhr (Description de I'Arabie, p. 324.) believes that the Jewish 
 religion, ami Kareite sect, are still professed by the tribe of Chaibar; 
 and that, in the plunder of the caravans, the disciples of Moses are 
 the confederates of those of Mahomet. 
 
 s The successive steps of tite reduction of Mecca are related by 
 Abulfeda (p. 84—67. 97—100. ICG— 111.) and Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 209— 
 345. 309—332. tom. iii. p. 1—58.) Elinacin, (Hiai. Saracen, p. 8—10.) 
 Abulpharagtus. (Dynast, p. 1U3.) 
 
 cool and cautious politician : he waved in the treaty 
 his title of apostle of God, concluded with the Koreish 
 and their allies a truce of ten years, engaged to restore 
 the fugitives of Mecca who should embrace his reli- 
 gion, and stipulated only, for the ensuing year, the 
 humble privilege of entering the city as a friend, and 
 of remaining three days to accomplish the riles of the 
 pilgrimage. A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on 
 the retreat of the mussulmans, and their disappoint- 
 ment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet 
 who had so often appealed to the evidence of success. 
 The faith and hope of the pilgrims were rekindled by 
 the prospect of Mecca : their swords were sheathed : 
 seven limes in the footsteps of the apostle ihey encom- 
 pasiJpd the Caaba : the Koreish had retired to the hills, 
 and Mahomet, after the custonnary sacrifice, evacuated 
 the city on the fourth day. The people was edified by 
 his devotion ; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, 
 or seduced ; and both Caled and Amrou, the future 
 conquerors of Syria and Egypt, most seasonably de- 
 serted the sinking cause of idolatry. The power of 
 Mahomet was increased by the submission of the 
 Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were assembled 
 for the conquest of Mecca; and the idolaters, the 
 weaker party, were easily convicted of violating the 
 truce. Enthusiasm and discipline impelled the march, 
 and preserved the secret, till the blaze of ten thousand 
 fires proclaimed to the astonished Koreish the design, 
 the approach, and the irresistible force of the enemy. 
 The haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the 
 city, admired the variety of arms and ensigns that 
 passed before him in review ; observed that the son of 
 Abdallah had acquired a mighty kingdom, and con- 
 fessed, under the scymitar of Omar, that he was the 
 apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and 
 Sylla was stained with the blood of the Romans: the 
 revenge of Mahomet was stimulated by religious zeal, 
 and his injured followers were eager to execute or to 
 prevent the order of a massacre. Instead of indulging 
 iheir passions and his own,* the victorious exile for- 
 gave the guilt, and united the factions, of Mecca. His 
 troops, in three divisions, marched into the city : eight 
 and twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword 
 of Caled ; eleven men and six women were proscribed 
 by the sentence of Mahomet; but he blamed the cru- 
 elly of his lieutenant; and several of the most obnox- 
 ious victims were indebted for their lives to his cle- 
 mency or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish were 
 prostrate at his feet. " What mercy can you expect 
 from the man whom you have wronged V " We con- 
 fide in the generosity of our kinsman." "And you 
 shall not confide in vain : begone ! you are safe, you 
 are free." The people of Mecca deserved their par- 
 don by the profession of Islam ; and after an exile of 
 seven years, the fugitive missionary was enthroned as 
 the prince and prophet of his native country.** But 
 the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were 
 ignominiously broken : the house of God was purified 
 and adorned : as an example to future times, the apos- 
 tle again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim ; and a per- 
 petual law was enacted that no unbeliever should dare 
 to set his foot on the territory of the holy city.* 
 
 a After the conquest of Mecca, the Mahomet of Voltaire Imagines 
 and perpetrates the most horrid crimes. The poet confesses, that he 
 is not supported by the truth of history, and can only allege, que ceiui 
 qui fait la cuerre d sa palrie au nom de Dieu, est capable de tout. 
 (CEuvres de Voluire, tom. xv. p. 282.) The maxim is neither chari- 
 tabl« nor philosophic ; and some reverence is surely due to the fame 
 of heroes and the religion of nations. I am informed ttmt a Turkish 
 ambassador tit Paris was much ccandaLiied at the representation of 
 this trage<ly. 
 
 b The Mahometan doctors still dispute, whether Mecca was re- 
 duced by ftJfce or consent; (Abulfetla, p. 1(17. et Gagnier ad locum;) 
 and this verbal controversy is uf as much memenl «s our own about 
 William the Conquerw. 
 
 c In exciudiitg the christians from the peninsula of Arabia, the 
 province -of Hejaz, or the navigation of the Red sea, Chardin (Voy 
 ages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 166.) and Keland (Dissert. Miscell tom. iii 
 p. .'j1.) are more rigid than the mussulmans themsplves. 'I he chris- 
 tians are received without scruple into the poru of Mocha, and even 
 of Credda, and it is only the city and precinct* of Mecca ilM »re iOr 
 
 -^^ 
 
 Conquest of '^^^ conquest of Mecca determined 
 
 Arabia, the faith and obedience of the Arabian 
 A.D.629-632. trjbes ; ^ who, according to the vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune, had obeyed, or disregarded, the elo- 
 quence or the arms of the prophet. Indiflference for 
 rites and opinions still marks the character of the Be- 
 doweens : and they might accept, as loosely as they 
 hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet an obstinate 
 remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of 
 their ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a pro- 
 per appellation from the idols, whom Mahomet had 
 vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates of Tayef 
 had sworn to defend.* Four thousand pagans advan- 
 ced with secrecy and speed to surprise the conqueror: 
 they pitied and despised the supine negligence of the 
 Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and per- 
 haps the aid, of a people who had so lately renounced 
 their gods, and bowed beneath the yoke of their ene- 
 my. The banners of Medina and Mecca were dis- 
 played by the prophet; a crowd of Bedoweens in- 
 creased the strength or numbers of the army, and 
 twelve thousand mussulmans entertained a rash and 
 sinful presumption of their invincible strength. They 
 descended without precaution into the valley of Ho- 
 nain : the heights had been occupied by the archers 
 and slingers of the confederates ; their numbers were 
 oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their cou- 
 rage was appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their 
 impending destruction. The prophet, on his white 
 mule, was encompassed by the enemies : he attempted 
 to rush against their spears in search of a glorious 
 death : ten of his faithful companions interposed their 
 weapons and their breasts ; three of these fell dead at 
 his feet : " O my brethren," he repeatedly cried with 
 sorrow and indignation, "I am the son of Abdallah, I 
 am the apostle of truth ! O man, stand fast in the faith ! 
 God, send down thy succour !" His uncle Abbas, 
 who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loud- 
 ness of his voice, made the valley resound with the 
 recital of the gifts and promises of God : the flying 
 Moslems returned from all sides to the holy standard; 
 and Mahomet observed with pleasure, that the furnace 
 was again rekindled : his conduct and example restored 
 the battle, and he animated his victorious troops to in- 
 flict a merciless revenge on the authors of their shame. 
 From the field of Honain, he marched without delay 
 to the siege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of 
 Mecca, a fortress of strength, whose fertile lands pro- 
 duce the fruits of Syria in the midst of the Arabian 
 desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how) 
 in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of bat- 
 tering rams and military engines, with a body of five 
 hundred artificers. But it was in vain that he offered 
 freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated his 
 own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees ; that 
 the ground was opened by the miners ; that the breach 
 was assaulted by the troops. After a siege of twenty 
 days, the prophet sounded a retreat, but he retreated 
 with a song of devout triumph, and affected to pray 
 for the repentance and safety of the unbelieving city. 
 The spoil of this fortunate expedition amounted to six 
 thousand captives, twenty-four thousand camels, forty 
 thousand sheep, and four thousand ounces of silver : a 
 tribe who had fought at Honain redeemed their pri- 
 soners by the sacrifice of their idols; but Mahomet 
 compensated the loss, by resigning to the soldiers his 
 fifth of the plunder, and wished, for their sake, that 
 he possessed as many head of cattle as there were 
 trees in the province of Tehama. Instead of chas- 
 
 acccssible to the profane, (Niebuhr, Description de I'Arabie, p. 308, 
 309. Voyace en Arabie, tom. i. p. 205. 248, &c.) 
 
 d Abulfeda, p. 112—115. Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 67—88. D'Herbelot, 
 Mohammed. 
 
 « The siege of Tayef, division of the spoil, kc. are related by Abul- 
 ff Ja (p. 117—123.) and Gagnier, (tom. iii. p. 83—111.) It is Al Jan- 
 Diibi who mentions the engines and en|:ineers of the tribe of Daws. 
 Tlie fertile spot of Tayef was supposed to be a piece of the land of 
 Syria detached and dropped in the eeneiml deluge. 
 
 tising the disaffection of the Koreish, he endeavoured 
 to cut out their tongues, (his own expression,) and 
 to secure their attachment by a superior measure of 
 liberality : Abu Sophian alone was presented with 
 three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver ; 
 and Mecca was sincerely converted to the profitable 
 religion of the Koran. 
 
 The fugitives and auxiliaries complained, that they 
 who had borne the burthen were neglected in the sea- 
 son of victory. "Alas," replied their artful leader, 
 " suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, these 
 doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable 
 goods. To your guard I intrust my life and fortunes. 
 You are the companions of my exile, of my kingdom, 
 of my paradise." He was followed by the deputies of 
 Tayef, who dreaded the repetition of a siege. " Grant 
 us, O apostle of God ! a truce of three years, with the 
 toleration of our ancient worship." " Not a month, 
 not an hour." " Excuse us at least from the obliga- 
 tion of prayer." *' Without prayer religion is of no 
 avail." They submitted in silence ; their temples 
 were demolished, and the same sentence of destruc- 
 tion was executed on all the idols of Arabia. His 
 lieutenants, on the shores of the Red sea, the ocean, 
 and the gulf of Persia, were saluted by the acclama- 
 tions of a faithful people ; and the ambassadors who 
 knelt before the throne of Medina, were as numerous 
 (says the Arabian proverb) as the dates that fall from 
 the maturity of a palm-tree. The nation submitted to 
 the God and the sceptre of Mahomet : the opprobrious 
 name of tribute was abolished : the spontaneous or 
 reluctant oblations of alms and tithes were applied to 
 the service of religion : and one hundred and fourteen 
 thousand Moslems accompanied the last pilgrimage 
 of the apostle.' 
 
 When Heraclius returned in triumph 
 from the Persian war, he entertained, at M^h^raVtans ^- 
 Emesa, one of the ambassadors of Ma- gainst the Ro- 
 homet, who invited the princes and na- 'Xd^gS'So. 
 tions of the earth to the profession of 
 Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians 
 has supposed the secret conversion of the christian 
 emperor ; the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a per- 
 sonal visit to the prince of Medina, who accepted from 
 the royal bounty a rich domain, and a secure retreat, 
 in the province of Syria.s But the friendship of He- 
 raclius and Mahomet was of short continuance : the 
 new religion had inflamed rather than assuaged the 
 rapacious spirit of the Saracens ; and the murder of an 
 envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with 
 three thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine, that 
 extends to the eastward of the Jordan. The holy ban- 
 ner was intrusted to Zeid ; and such was the discipline 
 or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest chiefs 
 served without reluctance under the slave of the pro- 
 phet. On the event of his decease, Jaafar and Abdal- 
 lah were successively substituted to the command ; 
 and if the three should perish in the war, the troops 
 were authorized to elect their general. The three 
 leaders were slain in the battle of Muta,*" the first mi- 
 litary action which tried the valour of the Moslems 
 against a foreign enemy. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in 
 the foremost ranks : the death of Jaafar was heroic and 
 memorable : he lost his right-hand : he shifted the 
 standard to his left : the left was severed from his 
 body : he embraced the standard with his bleeding 
 stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty 
 honourable wounds. " Advance," cried Abdallah, who 
 stepped into the vacant place, *' advance with confi- 
 
 f The last conquests and pilerimage of Mahomet are contained in 
 Abulfeda, (p. 121—133.) Gacnipr, (tom. iii. p. 119-219.) Elmacin, 
 (p. 10, 11.) Abulphardgius, (p. 103) The ninth of the Hegira was 
 styled the Year of Embassies. (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 121.) 
 
 C Compare the bigoted Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, torn. n. p. 232-- 
 255.) with the no less bigoted Greeks, Theophanes, (p. 276—278.) Zo- 
 naras, (tom. ii. 1. xi v. p. 86.) and Cedrenus. (p. 421 .) . ^ ., , 
 
 1h For the battle of Muta, and its consequences, see Abulfeda (p. 
 100—102.) and Gagnier. (tom. ii. p. 327—343.) K«Ai«es (sayi Theo- 
 phanes) ir Kiytvrt /.uxc'f*" T*** t*""* 
 
 %'■■ 
 
 -,* 
 
 '»! 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 l\ 
 
 
 f 
 
 
312 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 dcnce : either victory or paradise is our own." The 
 lance of a Roman decided the alternative ; but the fal- 
 ling standard was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of 
 Mecca : nine swords were broken in his hand ; and 
 his valour withstood and repulsed the superior num- 
 bers of the christians. In the nocturnal council of the 
 camp he was chosen to command : his skilful evolu- 
 tions of the ensuing day secured either the victory or 
 the retreat of the Saracens ; and Caled is renowned 
 amontr his brethren and his enemies by the glorious 
 appelfation of the Sword of God, ' In the pulpit, Ma- 
 homet described, with prophetic rapture, the crowns 
 of the blesseil martyrs ; but in private he betrayed the 
 feelings of human nature: he was surprised as he 
 wept over the daughter of Zeid : " What do I see V 
 said the astonished votary. " You see," replied the 
 apostle, " a friend who is deploring the loss of his 
 most faithful friend." After the conquest of Mecca, 
 the sovereign of Arabia affected to prevent the hostile 
 preparations of Heraclius ; and solemnly proclaimed 
 war against the Romans, without attempting to dis- 
 guise the hardships and dangers of the enterprise.' The 
 Moslems were discouraged : they alleged the want of 
 money, or horses, or provisions ; the season of harvest, 
 and the intolerable heat of the summer: »* Hell is much 
 hotter," said the indignant prophet. He disdained to 
 compel their service ; hut on his return he admonished 
 the most guilty, by an excommunication of fifty days. 
 Their desertion enhanced the merit of Abubeker, 0th- 
 man, and the faithful companions who devoted their 
 lives and fortunes ; and Mahomet displayed the banner 
 at the head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand 
 foot. Painful indeed was the distress of the march: 
 lassitude and thirst were aggravated by the scorching 
 and pestilential winds of the desert : ten men rode by 
 turns on the same camel ; and they were reduced to 
 the shameful necessity of drinking the water from the 
 belly of that useful animal. In the mid-way, ten days' 
 journey from Medina and Damascus, they reposed 
 near the grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond that 
 place Mahomet declined the prosecution of the war : 
 he declared himself satisfied with the peaceful inten- 
 tions, he was more probably daunted by the martial 
 array, of the emperor of the east. But the active and 
 intrepid Caled spread around the terror of his name ; 
 and the prophet received the submission of the tribes 
 and cities, from the Euphrates to Ailah, at the head 
 of the Red sea. To his christian subjects, Mahomet 
 readily granted the security of their persons, the free- 
 dom of their trade, the property of their goods, and 
 the toleration of their worship.^ The weakness of 
 their Arabian brethren had restrained them from op- 
 posing his ambition; the disciples of Jesus were en- 
 deared to the enemy of the Jews ; and it was the in- 
 terest of a conqueror to propose a fair capitulation to 
 the most powerful religion of the earth. 
 
 Till the age of sixty-three years, the 
 
 ^^'^mei.^**"*^ strength of Mahomet was equal to the 
 
 A. D. KB. temporal and spiritual fatigues of his 
 
 June 7. mission. His epileptic fits, an absurd 
 
 calumny of the Greeks, would be an object of pity 
 
 rather than abhorrence ; * but he seriously believed that 
 
 i The expedition of Tabuc is recorded by our ordinary historians, 
 Abulfeda (Vit, Moham. p. 123—127.) and Gagnier : (Vie de Mahomet, 
 torn iii. p. 147—163.) but we have the advantas;e of appealing to the 
 original evidence of the Koran, (c. 9. p. 154. 165.) with Sale's learned 
 and rational notes. 
 
 k The Diploma securilatia Ailensihus, is attested by Ahmed Ben 
 Joseph, and the author Libri Splendorum ; (Gaznier. Not. ad Abul- 
 fnilam D 125.) but Abulfeda himself, as well as Elmacin, (Hist. Sara- 
 
 he was poisoned at Chaibar by the revengcTof a Jew- 
 ish female." During four years, the health of the pro- 
 phet declined ; his infirmities increased ; but his mor- 
 tal disease was a fever of fourteen days, which depri- 
 ved him by intervals of the use of reason. As soon 
 as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his breth- 
 ren by the humility of his virtue or penitence. "If 
 there be any man," said the apostle from the pulpit, 
 " whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own 
 back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the 
 reputation of a mussulman 1 let him proclaim mi/ faults 
 in the face of the congregation. Has any one been 
 despoiled of his goods ? the little that I possess shall 
 compensate the principal and the interest of the debt." 
 " Yes," replied a voice from the crowd, " I am entitled 
 to three drams of silver." Mahomet heard the com- 
 plaint, satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor 
 for accusing him in this world rather than at the day 
 of judgmen't. He beheld with temperate firmness the 
 approach of death ; enfranchised his slaves ; (seven- 
 teen men, as they are named, and eleven women;) 
 minutely directed the order of his funeral, and mode- 
 rated the lamentations of his weeping friends, on 
 whom he bestowed the benediction of peace. Till the 
 third day before his death, he regularly performed the 
 function of public prayer : the choice of Abubeker to 
 supply his place, appeared to mark that ancient and 
 faithful friend as his successor in the sacerdotal and 
 regal oflSce ; but he prudently declined the risk and 
 envy of a more explicit nomination. At a moment 
 when his faculties were visibly impaired, he called for 
 pen and ink to write, or, more properly, to dictate, a 
 divine book, the sum and accomplishment of all his 
 revelations : a dispute arose in the chamber, whether 
 he should be allowed to supersede the authority of the 
 Koran ; and the prophet was forced to reprove the in- 
 decent vehemence of his disciples. If the slightest 
 credit may be afforded to the traditions of his wives 
 and companions, he maintained, in the bosom of his 
 family, and to the last moments of his life, the dignity 
 of an apostle, and the faith of an enthusiast ; described 
 the visits of Gabriel, who bade an everlasting farewell 
 to the earth, and expressed his lively confidence, not 
 only of the mercy, but of the favour, of the Supreme 
 Being. In a familiar discourse he had mentioned his 
 special prerogative, that the angel of death was not 
 allowed to take his soul till he had respectfully asked 
 the permission of the prophet. The request was gran- 
 ted ; and Mahomet immediately fell into the agony of 
 his dissolution : his head was reclined on the lap of 
 Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he fainted 
 with the violence of pain ; recovering his spirits, he 
 raised his eyes towards the roof of the house, and, 
 with a steady look, though a faltering voice, uttered 
 the last broken, though articulate, words: »*0 God! 
 
 pardon my sins .... Yes, ... I come, 
 
 among my fellow-citizens on high :" and thus peacea- 
 bly expired on a carpet spread upon the floor. An 
 expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by 
 this mournful event: the army halted at the gates of 
 Medina: the chiefs were assembled round their dying 
 master. The city, more especially the house, of the 
 prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow or silent 
 despair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope 
 and consolation. ** How can he be dead, our witness, 
 our intercessor, our mediator with God 1 By God he 
 is not dead : like Moses and Jesus he is wrapt in a 
 
 213 
 
 the christians ; which was admitted and reprobated by the opp<>8ite 
 taste of Salmasius and Grolius. (Bayle, Mahomkt, Rem. AA.) Hot- 
 tinger doubts of its authenticity; (Hist. Orient, p. 237 ) Kenaudot 
 unfes the consent of the MahomeUns uHist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 169.) 
 but Mosheim (Hist. Eccles. p. W4.)ahow9 the futility of their opinion, 
 and inclines to believe it spurious. Yet Ab"lpharagius quotes the im- 
 poeior's treaty with the Nestorian patriarch ; (Asseman. Bibliot. On- 
 em. torn. ii. p. 418.) but Abulpharagius was primate of the Jacobites. 
 I The epilepsy, or falliag-sicknees, of Mahomei, is Mierted bj 
 
 Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks ; and is gr«e|'^ 
 swallowed by the gross bigotry of Hoitinger, (Hial. Orient, p. lU. »'•' 
 Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 12.) and Maracci. (torn. ii. Alcoran, 
 p 762, 763.) The titles (the wrapped up, the covered) of two ctiap- 
 lers of the Koran (73, 74.) can hardW be strained to such an interpret!- 
 tion ; the silence, the ignorance of the Mahometan commenuiors, u 
 more conclusive than the most peremptorv denial ; and the char"!' 
 ble side is espoused by Ockley, (Hist, of the Saracens, torn. i. p J'"' 
 Gagnier, (ad Abulfeda, p. 9. V'ie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. US') *°" 
 Sale. (Koran, p. 469-474.) , 
 
 n This poison (more ignominious since it was oflrered as a 1^":^ 
 his prophetic knowledge) is frankly confessed by his zealous voUj^" 
 Abulfeda (p. 92.) aad Al Jannabi. (apud Gagnier, torn. ii. p. 286— »3' 
 
 holy trance, and speedily will he return to his faithful 
 people." The evidence of sense was disretrarded ; 
 and Omar, unsheathing his scymitar, threatened to 
 strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dare 
 to affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult 
 was appeased by the weight and moderation of Abu- 
 beker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to Omar and the 
 multitude, "or the God of Mahomet, whom you wor- 
 ship 1 The God of Mahomet liveth for ever, but the 
 apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and according to 
 his own prediction, he has experienced the common 
 fate of mortality." He was piously interred by the 
 hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot on 
 which he expired ;" Medina has been sanctified by the 
 death and burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable 
 pilgrims of Mecca often turn aside from the way, to 
 bow, in voluntary devotion," before the simple tomb 
 of the prophet.P 
 
 „. ^^ At the conclusion of the life of Maho- 
 
 met, it may perhaps be expected, that I 
 should balance his faults and virtues, that I should 
 decide whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more 
 properly belongs to that extraordinary man. Had I 
 been intimately conversant with the son of Abdallah, 
 the task would still be difficult, and the success uncer- 
 tain: at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly con- 
 template his shade through a cloud of religious in- 
 cense; and could I truly delineate the portrait of an 
 hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply 
 to the solitary of mount Hera, to the preacher of Mec- 
 ca, and to the conqueror of Arabia. The author of a 
 mighty revolution appears to have been endowed with 
 a pious and contemplative disposition : so soon as mar- 
 riage had raised him above the pressure of want, he 
 avoided the paths of ambition and avarice; and till the 
 age of forty, he lived with innocence, and would have 
 died without a name. The unity of God is an idea 
 most (congenial to nature and reason ; and a slight con- 
 versation with the Jews and christians would teach 
 him to despise and detest the idolatry of Mecca. It 
 was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the doc- 
 trine of salvation, to rescue his country from the do- 
 minion of sin and error. The energy of a mind inces- 
 santly bent on the same object, would convert a gene- 
 ral obligation into a particular call ; the warm sugges- 
 tions of the understanding or the fancy, would be felt 
 as the inspirations of heaven ; the labour of thought 
 would expire in rapture and vision ; and the inward 
 sensation, the invisible monitor, would be described 
 with the form and attributes of an angel of God.*» 
 From enthusiasm to imposture, the step is perilous and 
 slippery : the daemon of Socrates' affords a memorable 
 
 ■ The Greeks and Latins have invented and propagated the vul- 
 far and ridiculous story, that Mahomet's iron tomb is suspended in , 
 the air at Mecca ((rnf*» //iTiAjpi^o^n-or. Laonicus Chalcocondyles de 
 Rebus Turcicis, I. iii. p. 66.) by the action of equal and potent load- 
 stones. (Diciionnaire de Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. EE. FF.) Without 
 tny philosophical inquiries, it may suffice, that, 1. The prophet was 
 not buried at Mecca ; and, 2. That his tomb at Medina, which has 
 been visited by millions, is placed on the cround, (Reland. de Relig. 
 
 263- ^' "■ *^' ^^' **' ^^~^**'^ Gagnier. (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. 
 
 • Al Jannabi enumerates (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 372—391.) 
 the multifarious duties of a pilgrim who visits the tombs of the pro- 
 phet and his companions ; and the learned casuist decides, that this 
 tct of devotion is nearest in obligation and merit to a divine precept. 
 The doctors are divided which, of Mecca and Medina, be the most 
 excellent, (p. 391—394.) 
 
 P The last sickness, death, and burial of Mahomet, are described 
 by Abulfeda and Gagnier. (Vit. Moham. p. 133—142. Vie de Mahomet, 
 lorn, iii, p. 220—271.) The most private and interesting circumstan- 
 ces were originally received from Ayesha, Ali, the sons of Abbas, &c. ; 
 »nd as they dwelt at Medina, and survived the prophet many years, 
 Ihey might repeat the pious tale to a second or third generation of 
 pilgrims. 
 
 «l The christians, rashly enough, have assigned to Mahomet a lame 
 pigeon, that seemed to descend from heaven and whisper in his ear. 
 As this pretended miracle is urged by Grotius, (de Veritate Religio- 
 Cis Chnstianae.) his Arabic translator, the learned Pocock, inquired 
 •1 him the names of his authors; and Grotius confessed that it is un- 
 known to the Mahomeuns themselves. Lest it should provoke their 
 indignation and laughter, the pious lie is suppressed in the Arabic 
 version; but it has maintained an edifying place in the numerous 
 Witions of the Latin text. (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 186, 
 187. Reland, de Religion. Moham. 1. ii. c. 39. p. 259—262.) 
 
 instance, how a wise man may deceive himself, how 
 a good man may deceive others, how the conscience 
 may slumber in a mixed and middle state between 
 self-illusion and voluntary fraud. Charity may be- 
 lieve that the original motives of Mahomet were those 
 of pure and genuine benevolence ; but a human mis- 
 sionary is incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbe- 
 lievers who reject his claims, despise his arguments, 
 and persecute his life; he might forgive his personal 
 adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemies of God ; 
 the stern passions of pride and revenge were kindled 
 in the bosom of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the pro- 
 phet of Nineveh, for the destruction of the rebels 
 whom he had condemned. The injustice of Mecca, 
 and the choice of Medina, transformed the citizen into 
 a prince, the humble preacher into the leader of ar- 
 mies; but his sword was consecrated by the example 
 of the saints; and the same God who afflicts a sinful 
 world with pestilence and earthquakes, might inspire 
 for their conversion or chastisement the valour of his 
 servants. In the exercise of political government, he 
 wjas compelled to abate of the stern rigour of fanati- 
 cism, to comply in some measure with the prejudices 
 and passions of his followers, and to employ even the 
 vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. 
 The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, 
 were often subservient to the propagation of the faith ; 
 and Mahomet commanded or approved the assassina- 
 tion of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from 
 the field of battle. By the repetition of such acts, the 
 character of Mahomet must have been gradually stain- 
 ed ; and the influence of such pernicious habits would 
 be poorly compensated by the practice of the personal 
 and social virtues which are necessary to maintain the 
 reputation of a prophet among his sectaries and friends. 
 Of his last years, ambition was the ruling passion ; 
 and a politician will suspect, that he secretly smiled 
 (the victorious impostor!) at the enthusiasm of his 
 youth, and the credulity of his proselytes.* A philo- 
 sopher will observe, that their credulity and his suc- 
 cess would tend more strongly to fortify the assurance 
 of his divine mission, that his interest and religion 
 were inseparably connected, and that his conscience 
 would be soothed by the persuasion, that he alone was 
 absolved by the Deity from the obligation of positive 
 and moral laws. If he retained any vestige of his 
 native innocence, the sins of Mahomet maybe allowed 
 as an evidence of his sincerity. In the support of 
 truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less 
 criminal ; and he would have started at the foulness of 
 the means, had he not been satisfied of the importance 
 and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror or a 
 priest, I can surprise a word or action of unaffected 
 humanity ; and the decree of Mahomet, that, in the 
 sale of captives, the mothers should never be separated 
 from their children, may suspend, or moderate, the 
 censure of the historian.* 
 
 The good sense of Mahomet" despised Private life of 
 the pomp of royalty : the apostle of God Mahomet. 
 submitted to the menial offices of the family ; he kin- 
 
 yfv>irmi mi« nworgiyii ju» reurou J »v fiiKKu) 9rg»TTnv^ w^OTf.jrii St 
 eujTori, (Plato, in Apolog. Socrat. c. 19. p. 121, 122. edit. Fischer.) 
 The familiar examples, which Socrates urges in his Dialogue with 
 Theages, (Platon. Opera, tom. i. p. 128, 129. edit. Hen. Siephan.) are 
 beyond the reach of human foresight; and the divine inspiration 
 (the Ast.uofioi.) of the philosopher, is clearly taught in the Memora- 
 bilia of Xenophon. The ideas of the most rational Platonists are 
 expressed by Cicero, (de Divinat. i. 54.) and in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre. (p. 153—172. edit. Davis.) 
 
 I In some passage of his voluminous writings, Voltaire compares 
 the prophet, in his old age, to a fakir: " qui detache le chaine de son 
 cou pour en donner sur fes oreilles a ses confreres." 
 
 t Gagnier relates, with the same impartial pen, this humane law 
 of the prophet, and the murders of Caab, and Sophian, which he 
 prompted and approved. (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 69. 97. 208.) 
 
 u For the domestic life of Mahomet, consult Gagnier, and the cor- 
 responding chapters of Abulfeda; for his diet, (tom. iii. p. 285—288.) 
 his children, p. (189.289.) his wives, (p. 290-303.) his marriage with 
 Zeineb, (tom. ii. p. 152—160.) his amour with Mary, (p. 303—309.) the 
 false accusation of Ayesha, (p. 186—199.) The most original evidence 
 of the three last transactions is contained in the twenty-fourth, thir- 
 ty-third, and sixty-sixth chapters of the Koran, with Sale's Commen- 
 tary. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 80—90.) and Maracci (Prodrom. 
 
 ■i 
 
 
 ^^l 
 
 
ii 
 
 214 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 215 
 
 t:^^ 
 
 died the fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and 
 mended with his own hands his shoes and his woollen 
 garment. Disdaining the penance and merit of a her- 
 mit, he observed, without effort or vanity, the abste- 
 mious diet of an Arab and a soldier. On solemn occa- 
 sions he feasted his companions with rustic and hos- 
 pitable plenty ; but in his domestic life, many weeks 
 would elapse without a fire beinor kindled on the 
 hearth of the prophet. The interdiction of wine was 
 confirmed by his example : his hunger was appeased 
 with a sparing allowance of barley-bread : he delighted 
 in the taste of milk and honey ; but his ordinary food 
 consisted of dates and water. Perfumes and women 
 were the two sensual enjoyments which his nature 
 required, and his religion did not forbid ; and Ma- 
 homet affirmed, that the fervour of his devotion was in- 
 creased by these innocent pleasures. The heat of the 
 climate inflames the blood of the Arabs ; and their 
 libidinous complexion has been noticed by the writers 
 of antiquity.* Their incontinence was regulated by 
 the civil and religious laws of the Koran : their inces- 
 tuous alliances were blamed; the boundless licence 
 of polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives or 
 concubines; their rights both of bed and of dowry 
 were equitably determined ; the freedom of divorce 
 was discouraged, adultery was condemned as a capital 
 offence ; and fornication, in either sex, was punished 
 with a hundred stripes. ^ Such were the calm and 
 rational precepts of the legislator : but in his private 
 conduct, Mahornet indulged the appetites of a man, 
 and abused the claims of a prophet. A special reve- 
 lation dispensed him from the laws which he had im- 
 posed on his nation ; the female sex, without reserve, 
 was abandoned to his desires ; and this singular pre- 
 rogative excited the envy rather than the scandal, the 
 veneration rather than the envy, of the devout mussul- 
 mans. If we remember the seven hun- 
 iswjves, j^^j wives and three hundred concu- 
 bines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the mo- 
 desty of the Arabian, who espoused no more than 
 seventeen or fifteen wives ; eleven are enumerated who 
 occupied at Medina their separate apartments round 
 the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their turns 
 the favour of his conjugal society. What is singular 
 enough, they were all widows, excepting only Ayesha, 
 the daughter of Abubeker. She was doubtless a vir- 
 gin, since Mahomet consummated his nuptials (such 
 IS the premature ripeness of the climate) when she 
 was only nine years of age. The youth, the beauty, the 
 spirit of Ayesha, gave her a superior ascendant : she 
 was beloved and trusted by the prophet; and, after 
 his death, the daughter of Abubeker was long revered 
 as the mother of the faithful. Her behaviour had been 
 ambiguous and indiscreet: in a nocturnal march she 
 was accidentally left behind ; and in the morning 
 Ayesha returned to the camp with a man. The tem- 
 per of Mahomet was inclined to jealousy; but a divine 
 revelation assured him of her innocence : he chastised 
 her accusers, and published a law of domestic peace, 
 that no woman should be condemned unless four male 
 witnesses had seen her in the act of adultery.* In his 
 adventures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and with 
 Mary, an Egyptian captive, the amorous prophet for- 
 got the interest of his reputation. At the house of 
 Zeid, his freedman and adopted son, he beheld, in a 
 loose undress, the beauty of Zeineb, and burst forth 
 into an ejaculation of devotion and desire. The ser- 
 vile, or grateful, freedman understood the hint, and 
 
 Alcoran, part iv. p. 49 — 59.) have maliciously exaggerated ihe frail- 
 ties of Mahomet. 
 
 X Incredibile est quo anlore apud eoe in Venerem uierque solviiur 
 •exus. (Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv. c. 4.) 
 
 y Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 135—137.) has recapitulale<l the 
 laws of marriage, divorce, &c. ; and the curious reader of Selden's 
 Uxor Hebraica will recognize many Jewish ordinances. 
 
 > In a memorable case, the Caliph Omar decided that all presum- 
 live evidence was of no avail ; and that all the four witnesses must 
 have actually seen styluin in pvxide. (Abulfeda Annales Muslemici, 
 p. 71. vers. Keiske.) ^ 
 
 yielded without hesitation to the love of his benefac- 
 tor. But as the filial relation had excited some doubt 
 and scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven 
 to ratify the deed, annul the adoption, and gently to 
 reprove the apostle for distrusting the indulgence of 
 his God. One of his wives, Hafna, the daughter of 
 Omar, surprised him on her own bed, in the embraces 
 of his Egyptian captive: she promised secrecy and 
 forgiveness : he swore that he would renounce the pos- 
 session of Mary. Both parties forgot their engage- t! 
 ments : and Gabriel again descended with a chapter 
 of the Koran, to absolve him from his oath, and to ex- [ 
 hort him freely to enjoy his captives and concubines, 
 without listening to the clamours of his wives. In a 
 solitary retreat of thirty days, he laboured, alone with 
 Mary, to fulfil the commands of the angel. When 
 his love and revenge were satiated, he summoned to 
 his presence his eleven wives, reproached their dis- 
 obedience and indiscretion, and threatened them with 
 a sentence of divorce, both in this world and in the 
 next : a dreadful sentence, since those who had as- 
 cended the bed of the prophet were for ever excluded 
 from the hope of a second marriage. Perhaps the 
 incontinence of Mahomet may be palliated by the 
 tradition of his natural or preternatural gift;* he united 
 the manly virtue of thirty of the children of Adam ; 
 and the apostle might rival the thirteenth labour *• of 
 the Grecian Hercules.' A more serious and decent 
 excuse may be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. 
 During the twenty-four years of their marriage, her 
 youthful husband abstained from the right of polyga- 
 my, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron 
 was never insulted by the society of a rival. After 
 her death, he placed her in the rank of the four per- 
 fect women, with the sister of Moses, the mother of 
 Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. 
 " Was she not old 1 " said Ayesha, with the insolence 
 of a blooming beauty; "has not God given you a bet- 
 ter in her place 1 " ** No, by God," said Mahomet, 
 with an effusion of honest gratitude, " there never car. 
 be a better ! She believed in me, when men despised 
 me : she relieved my wants, when I was poor and per- 
 secuted by the world." ^ 
 
 In the largest indulgence of polygamy, ^^^ ^^.^^^^^ 
 the founder of a religion and empire 
 might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous 
 posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Ma- 
 homet were fatally disappointed. The virgin Ayesha, 
 and his ten widows of mature age and approved ferti- 
 lity, were barren in his potent embraces. The four 
 sons of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary, his 
 Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the 
 birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the 
 prophet wept over his grave ; but he sustained with 
 firmness the raillery of his enemies, and checked the 
 adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assn- 
 ranee that an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by 
 the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given 
 him four daughters, who were married to the most 
 faithful of his disciples: the three eldest died before 
 their father; but Fatima, who possessed his confi- 
 dence and love, became the wife of her cousin Ali, and 
 
 a Sibi robur ad generationem, quantum triginta viri habent inesflo 
 jactaret: ita ut unica hora posset umlecim foeminis saliiifacere,vi^ 
 ex Arabura libris refert Slus Petnis Paschasius, c. 2. (.Maracci, Fn> 
 dromus Alcoran, part iv. p. 55. See likewise Otmervations de Bdon. 
 1. iii. c. 10. fol. 179. recto.) Al Jannabi (Gagnier, torn. iii. p. 487.) re- 
 cords his own testimony, that he surpassed all men in conjugal vi- 
 gour; and Abnlfeda mentions the exclamation of Ali, who washed 
 his boily after his death, "O propheta, eerie penis suus cu;lum versui 
 erectus est," (in Vit. Mahommed. p. 140.) 
 
 b I borrow the style of a father of the church, »»«6a.«v..» 'H(aKX.<«; 
 r(iTK»tltit»ror attKor. (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 106.) 
 
 c The common and most glorious legend includes, in a single right, 
 the fifty victories of Hercules over the virgin daughters of Thesii«»» 
 (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. 1. iv. p. 274. Pausanias, I. ix. p. 763. Siaiius 
 Sylv. 1. i. eleg. iii. v. 42.) But Athenseus allows seven nights, (Diep- 
 nttsophist. 1. xiii. p. 556.) and ApoUodorus fifty, for this arduous 
 achievement of Hercules, who was then no more than eigliieen years 
 of age. (Bibliot. 1. ii. c. 4. p. 111. cum noiis Heyne, part i. p. 332.) 
 
 4 Abulfoda ia Vit. Moham. p. 12, 13. 16, 17. cum nutis Gagnisr. 
 
 Character of Ali. 
 
 the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit and 
 misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me 
 10 antici(>ate, in this place, the scries of the Saracen 
 caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of 
 the faithful as the vicars and successors of the apostle 
 of God.« 
 
 The birth, the alliance, the character 
 of Ali, which exalted him above the 
 rest of his countrymen, might justify his claim to the 
 vacant throne of Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, 
 in his own rioht, the chief of the family of Hashem, 
 and the hereditary prince or guardian of the city and 
 temple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct ; 
 but the husband of Fatima might expect the inheri- 
 tance and blessing of her father : the Arabs had some- 
 times been patient of a female reign ; and the two 
 grandsons of the prophet had often been fondled in his 
 lap, and shown in his pulpit, as the hope of his age, 
 and the chief of the youth of paradise. The first of 
 tlie true believers might aspire to march before them 
 in this world and in the next; and if some were of a 
 graver and more rigid cast, the zeal and virtue of Ali 
 were never outstripped by any recent proselyte. He 
 united the qualifications of a poet, a soldier, and a 
 saint: his wisdom still breathes in a collection of 
 moral and religious sayings; ' and every antagonist, in 
 the combats of the tongue or of the sword, was sub- 
 dued by his eloquence and valour. From the first 
 hour of his mission to the last rites of his funeral, the 
 apostle was never forsaken by a generous friend, 
 whom he delighted to name his brother, his vicegerent, 
 and the faithful Aaron of a second Moses. The son 
 of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for neglect- 
 ing to secure his interest by a solemn declaration of 
 his right, which would have silenced all competition, 
 and sealed his succession by the decrees of heaven. 
 But the unsuspecting hero confided in himself: the 
 jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear of opposition, 
 might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet; and the 
 bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, 
 the daughter of Abubeker, and the enemy of Ali. 
 Reisn of Abu- ^^^ silence and death of the prophet 
 ' beker, ' restored the liberty of the people ; and 
 A. D. ^ his companions convened an assembly 
 ""^ * to deliberate on the choice of his succes- 
 sor. The hereditary claim and lofty spirit of Ali, were 
 otfensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous of be- 
 stowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and fre- 
 quent election : the Koreish could never be reconciled 
 to the proud pre-eminence of the line of Hashem ; the 
 ancient discord of the tribes was rekindled ; the fugt' 
 lives of Mecca and the auxiliaries of Medina asserted 
 their respective merits ; and the rash proposal of choos- 
 ing two independent caliphs would have crushed in 
 their infancy the religion and empire of the Saracens. 
 The tumult was appeased by the disinterested resolu- 
 tion of Omar, who, suddenly renouncing his own pre- 
 tensions, stretched forth his hand, and declared him- 
 self the first subject of the mild and venerable Abube- 
 ker. The urgency of the moment, and the acqui- 
 escence of the people, might excuse this illegal and 
 precipitate measure ; but Omar himself confessed from 
 the pulpit, that if any mussulman should hereafter 
 presume to anticipate the suffrage of his brethren, both 
 
 • This outline of the Arabian history is drawn from the Bibli- 
 otheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (under the names of Aboubecre, 
 Omary Othman, Alt, 4-c.) from the Annals of Abulfeda, Abulphara- 
 gius, and Elmacin, (under the proper years of the He^ira,) and 
 especially from Ockley's History of the Saracens, (vol. i. p. 1—10. 
 115— 122. 229, 249. 3G3— 372. 37S-391. and almost the whole of the 
 second volume.) Yet we should weigh with caution the traditions 
 of the hostile sects; a stream which becomes still more muddy as it 
 flows further from the source. Sir John Chardin has too faithfully 
 copied the fables and errors of the modern Persians. (Voyages, tom. 
 ii. p. 235—250, &c.) 
 
 f Ockley (at the end of his second volume) has given an English 
 version of 169 sentences, which he ascribes, with some hesitation, to 
 Ali, the son of Abu Taleb. His preface is coloured by the enthusiasm 
 of a translator ; yet these sentences delineate a cbaracteritlic, though 
 dark, picture ol human life. 
 
 the elector and the elected would be worthv of death.* 
 After the simple inauguration of Abubeker, he was 
 obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia: 
 the Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity ; 
 and their chief, in his own house, maintained, above 
 six months, a sullen and independent reserve ; without 
 listening to the threats of Omar, who attempted to 
 consume with fire the habitation of the daughter of 
 the apostle. The death of Fatima, and the decline of 
 his party, subdued the indignant spirit of Ali: he con- 
 descended to salute the commander of the faithful, 
 accepted his excuse of the necessity of subjugating 
 their common enemies, and wisely rejected his cour- 
 teous offer of abdicating the government of the Ara- 
 bians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph 
 was summoned by the angel of death. In his testa- 
 ment, with the tacit approbation of his companions, 
 he bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and intrepid 
 virtue of Omar. " I have no occasion," said the mo- 
 dest candidate, " for the place." " But the place has 
 occasion for you," replied Abubeker; ofOmar 
 who expired with a fervent prayer, that a. d. 634*. 
 the God of Mahomet would ratify his July 24. 
 choice, and direct the mussulmans in the way of 
 concord and obedience. The prayer was not ineffec- 
 tual, since Ali himself, in a life of privacy and prayer, 
 professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of 
 his rival ; who comforted him for the loss of empire, 
 by the most flattering marks of confidence and esteem. 
 In the twelfth year of his reign, Omar received a mor- 
 tal wound from the hand of an assassin ; he rejected 
 with equal impartiality the names of his son and of 
 Ali, refused to load his conscience with the sins of his 
 successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable 
 companions the arduous task of electing a comman- 
 der of the faithful. On this occasion, Ali was again 
 blamed by his friends •» for submitting his right to the 
 judgment of men, for recognizing their jurisdiction by 
 accepting a place among the six electors. He might 
 have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise 
 a strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran 
 and tradition, but likewise to the determinations of two 
 seniors.* With these limitations, Othman, of Othman 
 the secretary of Mahomet, accepted the A.d. 644. 
 government; nor was it till after the Nov. 6. 
 third caliph, twenty-four years after the death of the 
 prophet, that Ali was invested, by the popular choice, 
 with the regal and sacerdotal office. The manners of 
 the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity, and 
 the son of Abu Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of 
 this world. At the hour of prayer, he repaired to the 
 mosch of Medina, clothed in a thin cotton gown, a 
 coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand« 
 and his bow in the other, instead of a walking-staff. 
 The companions of the prophet and the chiefs of the 
 tribes saluted their new sovereign, and gave him their 
 right hands as a sign of fealty and allegiance. 
 
 The mischiefs that flow from the con- Discord of th» 
 tests of ambition are usually confined to Turks and Per- 
 the times and countries in which they ■'*°*' 
 have been agitated. But the religious discord of the 
 friends and enemies of Ali has been renewed in every 
 age of the Hegira, and is still maintained in the im- 
 mortal hatred of the Persians and Turks.^ The for* 
 
 f Ockley (Hist, of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6.) from an Arabian 
 MS. represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitution of her father ia 
 the place of the apostle. This fact, so improbable in itself, is unno- 
 ticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari, the last of whom 
 quotes the tradition of Ayesha herself. (Vit. Mohaouned. p. 136* Vio 
 de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 236.) 
 
 h Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah,the son of Abba», 
 who died A. D. 687. with the title of grand doctor of the Moslems. Ia 
 Abulfeila he recapitulated the important occasions in which Ali had 
 neglected his salutary advice ; (p. 76. vers. Keiske;) and concludes, 
 (p. 85.) O princeps fidelium, absque coniroversia tu quidera vere for* 
 tis es, at inops boni consilii, et rerum perendarum parum callena. 
 
 i I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p. 115. Ockley, 
 tom. i. p. 371.) may signify not two actual counsellors, but his two 
 predecessors, Abubeker and Omar. , ,. . . 
 
 k The schism of the Persians is explained by all our travellew of 
 the last century, especially in the •econd and fourth Tolumei of UieiC 
 
 <«i 
 
 It 
 
 ■i M 
 
 l\ 
 
' 
 
 216 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 217 
 
 
 II 
 
 mer, who are branded with the appellation of Shutea 
 or sectaries, have enriched the Mahometan creed with 
 a new article of faith ; and if Mahomet be the apostle, 
 his companion Ali is the vicar, of God. In their pri- 
 vate converse, in their public worship, they bitterly 
 execrate the three usurpers who intercepted his inde- 
 feasible right to the dignity of imam and caliph ; and 
 the name of Omar expresses in their tongue the 
 perfect accomplishment of wickedness and impiety.' 
 The Sonnites, who are supported by the general con- 
 sent and orthodox traditions of the mussulmans, enter- 
 tain a more impartial, or at least a more decent, opin- 
 ion. They respect the memory of Abubeker, Omar, 
 Othman, and Ali, the holy and legitimate successors 
 of the prophet. But they assign the last and most 
 humble place to the husband of Fatima, in the persua- 
 sion that the order of succession was determined by 
 the degrees of sanctity." An historian who balances 
 the four caliphs with a hand unshaken by superstition, 
 will calmly pronounce, that their manners were alike 
 pure and exemplary ; that their zeal was fervent and 
 probably sincere ; and that, in the midst of riches and 
 power, their lives were devoted to the practice of mo- 
 ral and religious duties. But the public virtues of 
 Abubeker and Omar, the prudence of the first, the se- 
 verity of the second, maintained the peace and pros- 
 perity of their reigns. The feeble temper and declin- 
 ing age of Othman were incapable of sustaining the 
 weight of conquest and empire. He chose, and he 
 was deceived ; he trusted, and he was betrayed : the 
 most deservino- of the faithful became useless or hos- 
 tile to his government, and his lavish bounty was pro- 
 ductive only of ingratitude and discontent. The spi- 
 rit of discord went forth in the provinces, their depu- 
 ties assembled at Medina, and the Charegites, the des- 
 perate fanatics who disclaimed the yoke of subordina- 
 tion and reason, were confounded among the free-born 
 Arabs, who demanded the redress of their wrongs and 
 the punishment of their oppressors. From Cufa, from 
 Bassora, from Egypt, from the tribes of the desert, 
 they rose in arms, encamped about a league from Me- 
 dina, and despatched a haughty mandate to their so- 
 vereign, requiring him to execute justice, or to descend 
 from the throne. His repentance began to disarm and 
 disperse the insurgents ; but their fury was rekindled 
 by the arts of his enemies ; and the forgery of a perfi- 
 dious secretary was contrived to blast his reputation 
 and precipitate his fall. The caliph had lost the only 
 guard of his predecessors, the esteem and confidence 
 of the Moslems ; during a siege of six weeks his 
 water and provisions were intercepted, and the feeble 
 gates of the palace were protected only by the scruples 
 of the more timorous rebels. Forsaken by those who 
 had abused his simplicity, the helpless and venerable 
 caliph expected the approach of death ; the brother of 
 Death of 0th- Ayesha marched at the head of the assas- 
 man, sins ; and Othman, with the Koran in his 
 
 ' ^une?8 ^^P' ^^^ pierced with a multitude of 
 
 wounds. A tumultuous anarchy of five 
 days was appeased by the inauguration of Ali : his 
 Tefusal w-ould have provoked a general massacre. In 
 this painful situation he supported the becoming pride 
 of the chief of the Hashemites ; declared that he had 
 rather serve than reign ; rebuked the presumption of 
 the strangers, and required the formal, if not the volun- 
 
 xnaster, Chardin. Niebuhr, though of inferior merit, has the advan- 
 tage of writing so late as the year 1764, (Voyages en Arabie, &c. torn, 
 ii. p. 208— 233.) since the ineffectual attempt of Nadir Shah to chani'e 
 Ihe religion of the nation, (see his Persian History translated inu> 
 French by Sir William Jones, torn. ii. p. 5, 6. 47, 48. 144—155.) 
 
 1 Omar is the name of the devil ; his murderer is a saint. When 
 the Persians shoot with the bow, they frequently cry, " May this ar- 
 row go to the heart of Omar!" (Voyages de Chardin, torn. ii. p. 239, 
 240. 259, &c.) ^ ' 
 
 m This gradation of merit is distinctly marked in a creed illustrated 
 by Keland ; (de Kelig. Mohamm. 1. i. p. 37.) and a Sonnite argument 
 Inserted by Ockley. (Hist of the Saracens, lorn. ii. p. 230.) The prac- 
 tice of cursing the memory of Ali was abolished, after forty years, by 
 the Ommiades themselves; (D'Herbelot, p. 690.) and there are few 
 among the Turks who presume to revile him a« an infidel. (Voyacea 
 de Chardin, torn. iv. p. 46.) 
 
 tary, assent of the chiefs of the nation. He hzis never 
 been accused of promoting the assassin of Omar: though 
 Persia indiscreetly celebrates the festival of that holy 
 martyr. The quarrel between Othman and his sub- 
 jects was assuaged by the early mediation of Ali; and 
 Hassan, the eldest of his sons, was insulted and woun- 
 ded in the defence of the caliph. Yet it is doubtful 
 whether the father of Hassan was strenuous and sin- 
 cere in his opposition to the rebels; and it is cettaia 
 that he enjoyed the benefit of their crime. The temp- 
 tation was indeed of such magnitude as might stagger 
 and corrupt the most obdurate virtue. The ambitious 
 candidate no longer aspired to the barren sceptre of 
 Arabia : the Saracens had been victorious in the east 
 and west; and the wealthy kingdoms of Persia, Syria^ 
 and Egypt, were the patrimony of the commander of 
 the faithful. 
 
 A life of prayer and contemplation Reign of Ali, 
 had not chilled the martial activity of A. D. 655—660. 
 Ali ; but in a mature age, after a long experience of 
 mankind, he still betrayed in his conduct the rashness 
 and indiscretion of youth. In the first days of his 
 reign, he neglected to secure, either by gifts or fetters, 
 the doubtful allegiance of Telha and Zobeir, two of the 
 most powerful of the Arabian chiefs. They escaped 
 from Medina to Mecca, and from thence to Bassora ; 
 erected the standard of revolt; and usurped the gov- 
 ernment of Irak, or Assyria, which they had vainly 
 solicited as the reward of their services. The mask 
 of patriotism is allowed to cover the most glaring in- 
 consistencies ; and the enemies, perhaps the assassins, 
 of Othman now demanded vengeance for his blood. 
 They were accompanied in their flight by Ayesha, the 
 widow of the prophet, who cherished, to the last hour 
 of her life, an implacable hatred against the husband 
 and the posterity of Fatima. The most reasonable 
 Moslems were scandalized, that the mother of the 
 faithful should expose in a camp her person and cha- 
 racter ; but the superstitious crowd was confident that 
 her presence would sanctify the justice, and assure the 
 success, of their cause. At the head of twenty thou- 
 sand of his loyal Arabs, and nine thousand valiant 
 auxiliaries of Cufa, the caliph encountered and defeat- 
 ed the superior numbers of the rebels under the walls 
 of Bassora. Their leaders, Telha and Zobeir, were 
 slain in the first battle that stained with civil blood 
 the arms of the Moslems. After passing through the 
 ranks to animate the troops, Ayesha had chosen her 
 post amidst the dangers of the field. In the heat of 
 the action, seventy men, who held the bridle of her 
 camel, were successively killed or wounded ; and the 
 cage, or litter, in which she sat, was struck with jave- 
 lins and darts like the quills of a porcupine. The ve- 
 nerable captive sustained with firmness the reproaches 
 of the conqueror, and was speedily dismissed to her 
 proper station, at the tomb of Mahomet, with the re^ 
 spect and tenderness that was still due to the widow 
 of the apostle. After this victory, which was styled 
 the Day of the Camel, Ali marched against a more 
 formidable adversary ; against Moawiyah, the son of 
 Abu Sophian, who had assumed the title of caliph, 
 and whose claim was supported by the forces of Syria 
 and the interest of the house of Ommiyah. From the 
 passage of Thapsacus, the plain of Siflin" extends 
 alonor the western bank of the Euphrates. On this 
 spacious and level theatre, the two competitors waged 
 a desultory war of one hundred and ten days. In the 
 course of ninety actions or skirmishes, the loss of Ali 
 was estimated at twenty-five, that of Moawiyah at 
 forty-five, thousand soldiers ; and the list of the slain 
 was dignified with the names of five and twenty vete- 
 rans who had fought at Beder under the standard of 
 Mahomet. In this sanguinary contest the lawful caliph 
 displayed a superior character of valour and humanity. 
 His troops were strictly enjoined to await the first 
 
 n The plain of Siffin is determined by D'An villa (I'Euphrate et la 
 Tigre, p. 29.) to be the Campus B&rbaricus of Procopius. 
 
 I 
 
 • 
 
 onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and 
 to respect the bodies of the dead, and the chastity of 
 the female captives. He generously proposed to save 
 the blood of the Moslems by a single combat; but his 
 trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence 
 of inevitable death. The ranks of the Syrians were 
 broken by the charge of a hero who was mounted on 
 a pyebald horse, and wielded with irresistible force 
 his ponderous and two-edged sword. As often as he 
 smote a rebel, he shouted the Allah Acbar, " God is 
 victorious ;" and in the tumult of a nocturnal battle, 
 he was heard to repeat four hundred times that tremen- 
 dous exclamation. The prince of Damascus already 
 meditated his flight, but the certain victory w^as snatch- 
 ed from the grasp of Ali by the disobedience and en- 
 thusiasm of his troops. Their conscience was awed 
 by the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran which 
 Moawiyah exposed on the foremost lances; and Ali 
 was compelled to yield to a disgraceful truce and an 
 insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow and 
 indignation to Cufa ; his party was discouraged ; the 
 distant provinces of Persia, of Yemen, and of Egypt, 
 were subdued or seduced by his crafty rival ; and the 
 stroke of fanaticism, which was aimed against the 
 three chiefs of the nation, was fatal only to the cousin 
 of Mahomet. In the temple of Mecca, three Chare- 
 gites or enthusiasts discoursed of the disorders of the 
 church and state : they soon agreed, that the deaths 
 of Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the 
 viceroy of Egypt, would restore the peace and unity 
 of religion. Each of the assassins chose his victim, 
 poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and secretly re- 
 paired to the scene of action. Their resolution was 
 equally desperate : but the first mistook the person of 
 Amrou, and stabbed the deputy who occupied his 
 seat; the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt 
 by the second ; the lawful caliph, in the mosch of 
 Cufa, received a mortal wound from the hand of the 
 third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, 
 and mercifully recommended to his children, that they 
 would despatch the murderer by a single stroke. The 
 sepulchre of Ali" was concealed from the tyrants of 
 the house of Ommiyah ;p but in the fourth age of the 
 Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a city, arose near the ruins 
 of Cufa.^ Many thousands of the Shiites repose in 
 holy ground at the feet of the vicar of God ; and the 
 desert is vivified by the numerous and annual visits 
 of the Persians, who esteem their devotion not less 
 meritorious thao the pilgrimage of Mecca. 
 „ . ,j^ The persecutors of Mahomet usurped 
 
 Reign of Moa- , . , *^ .^ /• i • t^^^ j *u 
 
 wiyah, the inheritance of his children; and the 
 
 A. D. 655, or champions of idolatry became the su- 
 661-680. preme heads of his religion and empire. 
 The opposition of Abu Sophian had been fierce and ob- 
 Btinate ; his conversion was tardy and reluctant; his new 
 faith was fortified by necessity and interest; he served, 
 lie fought, perhaps he believed ; and the sins of the time 
 of ignorance were expiated by the recent merits of the 
 family of Ommiyah. Maowiyah, the son of Abu So- 
 phian, and of the cruel Henda, was dignified in his 
 early youth with the oflice or title of secretary of the 
 prophet : the judgment of Omar intrusted him with the 
 government of Syria ; and he administered that inri- 
 portant province above forty years, either in a subordi- 
 nate or supreme rank. Without renouncing the fame 
 of valour and liberality, he aflfected the reputation of 
 
 o Abulfpda, a modern Sonnite, relates the different opinions con- 
 cerning the burial of Ali, but adopts the sepulchre of Cufa, hodie 
 fama numerc»que religiose frequenlantium celebratum. This num- 
 ber is reckoned by Niebuhr to amount annually to 2000 of the dead, 
 and 5000 of the living, (torn. ii. p. 208, 209.) 
 
 P All the tyrants of Persia, from Adhad el Dowlat (A. D. 977, D'Her- 
 belot, p. 58, 59, 95.) to Nadir Shah, (A. D. 1743, Hist, de Nadir Shah, 
 torn. ii. p. l.">5.) have enriched the tomb of Ali with the spoils of the 
 people. The dome is copper, wlih a bright and massy gilding, which 
 glitters to the sun at the distance of many a mile. 
 
 q The city of Meshed Ali, five or six miles from the ruins of Cufa, 
 and one hundred and twenty lo the south of Bagdad, is of the size 
 and form of the modern Jerusalem. Meshed Hosein, larger and 
 more populous, is at the distancs of thirty miles. 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 C 
 
 humanity and moderation : a grateful people were at- 
 tached to their benefactor ; and the victorious Moslems 
 were enriched with the spoils of Cyprus and Rhodes. 
 The sacred duty of pursuing the assassins of Othman 
 was the engine and pretence of his ambition. The 
 bloody shirt of the martyr was exposed in the mosch 
 of Damascus : the emir deplored the fate of his injured 
 kinsman ; and sixty thousand Syrians were engaged 
 in his service by an oath of fidelity and revenge. Am- 
 rou, the conqueror of Egypt, himself an army, was 
 the first who saluted the new monarch, and divulged 
 the dangerous secret, that the Arabian caliphs might 
 be created elsewhere than in the city of the prophet.' 
 The policy of Moawiyah eluded the valour of his rival ; 
 and, after the death of Ali, he negociated the abdica- 
 tion of his son Hassan, whose mind was either above 
 or below the government of the world, and who retired 
 without a sigh from the palace of Cufa to an humble 
 cell near the tomb of his grandfather. The aspiring 
 wishes of the caliph were finally crowned by the im- 
 portant change of an elective to an hereditary king- 
 dom. Some murmurs of freedom or fanaticism attes- 
 ted the reluctance of the Arabs, and four citizens of 
 Medina refused the oath of fidelity; but the designs 
 of Moawiyah were conducted with vigour and address; 
 and his son Yezid, a feeble and dissolute youth, was 
 proclaimed as the commander of the faithful and the 
 successor of the apostle of God. 
 
 A familiar story is related of the bene- Death of Hosein 
 volence of one of the sons of Ali. In A. D. 680. 
 serving at table, a slave had inadvertently ^^^ *^- 
 dropt a dish of scalding broth on his master : the heed- 
 less wretch fell prostrate, to deprecate his punishment, 
 and repeated a verse of the Koran : " Paradise is for 
 those who command their anger;" — " I am not angry :" 
 — "and for those who pardon ofl^ences:" — "I pardon 
 your oflTence :" — " and for those who return good for 
 evil:" — "I give you your liberty, and four hundred 
 pieces of silver." "With an equal measure of piety, 
 Hosein, the younger brother of Hassan, inherited a 
 remnant of his father's spirit, and served with honour 
 against the christians in the siege of Constantinople. 
 The primogeniture of the line of Hashem, and the holy 
 character of grandson of the apostle, had centred in 
 his person, and he was at liberty to prosecute his claim 
 against Yezid, the tyrant of Damascus, whose vices 
 he despised, and whose title he had never deigned to 
 acknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from 
 Cufa to IVfedina, of one hundred and forty thousand 
 Moslems, who professed their attachment to his cause, 
 and who were eaffer to draw their swords so soon as 
 he should appear on the banks of the Euphrates. 
 Against the advice of his wisest friends, he resolved 
 to trust his person and family in the hands of a perfi- 
 dious people. He traversed the desert of Arabia with 
 a timorous retinue of women and children ; but as he 
 approached the confines of Irak, he was alarmed by 
 the solitary or hostile face of the country, and sus- 
 pected either the defection or ruin of his party. His 
 fears were just; Obeidollah, the governor of Cufa, had 
 extinguished the first sparks of an insurrection ; and 
 Hosein, in the plain of Kerbela, was encompassed by 
 a body of five thousand horse, who intercepted his 
 communication with the city and the river. He might 
 still have escaped to a fortress in the desert, that had 
 defied the power of Cassar and Chosroes, and confided 
 in the fidelity of Tai, which would have armed ten 
 thousand warriors in his defence. In a conference 
 with the chief of the enemy, he proposed the option 
 of three honourable conditions; that he should be al- 
 lowed to return to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier 
 garrison against the Turks, or safely conducted to the 
 presence of Yezid. But the commands of the caliph, 
 or his lieutenant, were stern and absolute ; and Hosein 
 
 r 
 
 « 
 
 )■■! 
 
 r I borrow, on this occasion, the strong sense and expression of 
 Tacitus: (Hist. i. 4.) Evulgato imperii arcane posse imperatui^m 
 alibi quani Koiuae fieri 
 
218 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 210 
 
 1:1 
 
 ri ■>' 
 
 •I 
 
 was informed that he must either submit as a captive 
 and a criminal to the commander of the faithful, or ex- 
 pect the consequences of his rebellion. '* Do you 
 think," replied he, " to terrify me with death !" Arid, 
 during the short respite of a night, he prepared with 
 calm and solemn resignation to encounter his fate. He 
 checked the lamentations of his sister Falima, who 
 deplored the impending ruin of his house. *' Our 
 trust," said Hosein, 'Ms in God alone. All things, 
 both in heaven and earth, must perish and return to 
 their Creator. My brother, my father, my mother, 
 were better than me, and every mussulman has an ex- 
 ample in the prophet." He pressed his friends to 
 consult their safely by a timely flight: they unani- 
 mously refused to desert or survive their beloved mas- 
 ter ; and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer 
 and the assurance of paradise. On the morning of the 
 fatal day, he mounted on horseback, with his sword in 
 one hand and the Koran in the other : his generous 
 band of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse and 
 forty foot ; but their flanks and rear were secured by 
 the tent-ropes, and by a deep trench which they had 
 filled with lighted faggots, according to the practice 
 of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with reluctance: 
 and one of their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, 
 to claim the partnership of inevitable death. In every 
 close onset, or single combat, the despair of the Fati- 
 mites was invincible ; but the surrounding multitudes 
 galled them from a distance with a cloud of arrows, 
 and the horses and men were successively slain : a 
 truce was allowed on both sides for the hour of prayer; 
 and the battle at length expired by the death of the 
 last of the companions of Hosein. Alone, weary and 
 wounded, he seated himself at the door of his tent. 
 As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced in the 
 month with a dart ; and his son and nephew, two beau- 
 tiful youths, were killed in his arms. He lifted his 
 hands to heaven, they were full of blood, and he ut- 
 tered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead. In 
 a transport of despair his sister issued from the tent, 
 and abjured the general of the Cufians, that he would 
 not suffer Hosein to be murdered before his eyes : a 
 tear trickled down his venerable beard ; and the bold- 
 est of his soldiers fell back on every side as the dying 
 hero threw himself among them. The remorseless 
 Shamer, a name detested by the faithful, reproached 
 their cowardice ; and the grandson of Mahomet was 
 slain with three and thirty strokes of lances and swords. 
 After they had trampled on his body, they carried his 
 head to the castle of Cufa, and the inhuman Obeidol- 
 lah struck him on the mouth with a cane : ** Alas !" 
 exclaimed an aged mussulman, *' on these lips have I 
 seen the lips of the apostle of God !" In a distant 
 age and climate the tragic scene of the death of Hosein 
 will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.' On 
 the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout 
 pilgrimage to his sepulchre, his Persian votaries aban- 
 don their souls to the religious frenzy of sorrow and 
 indignation.^ 
 
 J fM When the sisters and children of AH 
 
 hornet and AH. ^^^ brought in chains to the throne of 
 Damascus, the caliph was advised to 
 extirpate the enmity of a popular and hostile race, 
 whom he had injured beyond the hope of reconcilia- 
 tion. But Yezid preferred the counsels of mercy; and 
 the mourning family was honourably dismissed to 
 mingle their tears with their kindred at Medina. The 
 glory of martyrdom superseded the right of primogeni- 
 ture ; and the twelve imams," or pontiffs, of the Per- 
 
 ■ I have abridged the interesting narrative of Ockley. (lotn. ii. p. 
 170—2:31.) It is long and minute; but the pathetic almost always 
 consists in the detail of little circumstances. 
 
 t Niebuhr the Dane (Voyages en Arabie, &c. torn. ii. p. 208, &c.) is 
 perhaps the only European traveller who has dared to visit Meshrd 
 All and Meshed Hosein. The two sepulchres are in the hands of the 
 Turks, who tolerate and lax the devotion of the Persian heretics. 
 The festival of the death of Hosein is amply described by Sir John 
 Chardin, a traveller whom I have often praised. 
 
 • The general article of InMtn, in P'Herbelot'f Bibliotheque, will 
 
 sian creed are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal 
 descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. "With- 
 out arms or treasures, or subjects, they successively 
 enjoyed the veneration of the people, and provoked 
 the jealousy of the reigning caliphs ; their tombs at 
 Mecca or Medina, on the banks of the Euphrates, or 
 in the province of Chorasan, are still visited by the 
 devotion of their sect. Their names were often the 
 pretence of sedition and civil war; but these rnyal 
 saints despised the pomp of the world, submitted to 
 the will of God and the injustice of man, and devoted 
 their innocent lives to the study and practice of reli- 
 gion. The twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicu- 
 ous by the title of Mahadi^ or the Guide, surpassed 
 the solitude and sanctity of his predecessors. He con- 
 cealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad : the time and 
 place of his death are unknown ; and his votaries pre- 
 tend, that he still lives, and will appear hefore the day 
 of judgment to overthrow the tyranny of Dejal, or the 
 antichrist.* In the lapse of two or three centuries the 
 posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet, had multi- 
 plied to the number of thirty-three thousand : ^ the 
 race of Ali might be equally prolific; the meanest in- 
 dividual was above the first and greatest of princes; 
 and the most eminent were supposed to excel the per- 
 fection of angels. But their adverse fortune, and the 
 wide extent of the mussulman empire, allowed an 
 ample scope for every bold and artful impostor, who 
 claimed affinity with the holy seed : the sceptre of the 
 Almohades in Spain and Africa, of the Fatimites in 
 Egypt and Syria," of the sultans of Yemen, and of the 
 sophis of Persia,* has been consecrated by this vague 
 and ambiguous title. Under their reigns it might be 
 dangerous to dispute the legitimacy of their birth ; 
 and one of the Fatimite caliphs silenced an indiscreet 
 question by drawing his scymitar : " This," said 
 Moez, ** is my pedigree; and these," casting a hand- 
 ful of gold to his soldiers, " and these are my kindred 
 and my children." In the various conditions of prin- 
 ces, or doctors, or nobles, or merchants, or beggars, 
 a swarm of the genuine or fictitious descendants of 
 Mahomet and Ali is honoured with the appellation of 
 sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the Ottoman empire, 
 they are distinguished by a green turban, receive a 
 stipend from the treasury, are judged only by their 
 chief, and, however debased by tortune or character, 
 still assert the proud pre-eminence of their birth. A 
 family of three hundred persons, the pure and ortho- 
 dox branch of the caliph Hassan, is preserved without 
 taint or suspicion in the holy cities of Mecca and Me- 
 dina, and still retains, after the revolutions of twelve 
 centuries, the custody of the temple and the sovereign- 
 ty of their native land. The fame and merit of Ma- 
 homet would ennoble a plebeian race, and the ancient 
 blood of the Koreish transcends the recent majesty of 
 the kings of the earth.** 
 
 indicate the succession ; and the lives of the twelve are given under 
 their respective names. 
 
 X The name of Antichrist may seem ridiculous, but the Mahome^ 
 tans have liberally borrowed the fables of every religion. (Sale'f 
 Preliminary Discourse, p. 90. 82.) In the royal stable of Ispahan, 
 two horses were always kept saddled, one for Mahadi himself, tho 
 other for his lieutenant, Jesus the son of Mary. 
 
 r In the year of the Hegira 200. (A. D. 816.) See D'Herbelot, p. 646. 
 
 > D'Herbelot, p. 342. The enemies of the Fatimites disgraced them 
 by a Jewish origin. Yet they accurately deduced iheir genealogy 
 from Jaafar, the sixth Imam ; and the impartial Abulfeda allows 
 (Annal. Moslem, p. 230.) that they were owned by many, qui absque 
 controversia genuiai sunt Alidarum, homines propaginum sux gi>ntis 
 exacte callentes. He qotes some lines from the celebrated Scherif 
 or Rfmdi, Rgone hurailiatem induam in terris hostium 1 (I suspect 
 him to be an Edrissite of Sicily,) cum in .^gypto sit Chalifa de gento 
 Alii, quocum ego cominunem habeo patrem et vindicem. 
 
 » The kings of Persia of the last dynasty are descended from Sheik 
 Sell, a saint of the fourteenth century, and through him from IMousa 
 Cassem, the son of Hosein, the son of Ali. (Oleariiis, p. 957. Chardin, 
 tom. iii. p. 2^.) But I cannot trace the intermediate degrees in any 
 genuine or fabuloii* pedigree. If they were truly Fatimites, they 
 might draw their origin froai the princesof Mazanderan, who reigned 
 in the ninth century. (D'Herbelot, p. 96.) 
 
 b The present slate of the fannly of Mahomet and Ali is most ac- 
 curately described by Demetrius Cantemir, (Hist, of the Othmaa 
 empire, p. 94.) and Niebiihr. (Description de I'Arabie, p. 9—16.317, 
 &c.) It is much to be lamented, that the Danish traveller was uu. 
 able to purchase the chronicles of Arabia. 
 
 Success of Ma 
 hornet. 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 The talents of Mahomet are entitled 
 to our applause, but his success has per- 
 haps too strongly attracted our admiration. Are we 
 surprised that a multitude of proselytes should em- 
 brace the doctrine and the passions of an eloquent 
 fanatic 1 In the heresies of the church, the same se- 
 duction has been tried and repeated from the time of 
 the apostles to that of the reformers. Does it seem 
 incredible that a private citizen should grasp the sword 
 and the sceptre, subdue his native country, and erect 
 a monarchy by his victorious arms 1 In the moving 
 picture of the dynasties of the east, a hundred fortu- 
 nate usurpers have arisen from a baser origin, sur- 
 mounted more formidable obstacles, and filled a large 
 scope of empire and conquest. Mahomet was alike 
 instructed to preach and to fight, and the union of 
 these opposite qualities, while it enhanced his merit, 
 contributed to his success : the operation of force and 
 persuasion, of enthusiasm and fear, continually acted 
 on each other, till every barrier yielded to their irre- 
 sistible power. His voice invited the Arabs to free- 
 dom and victory, to arms and rapine, to the indulgence 
 of their darling passions in this world and the other : 
 the restraints which he imposed were requisite to es- 
 tablish the credit of the prophet, and to exercise the 
 obedience of the people; and the only objection to his 
 success was his rational creed of the unity and perfec- 
 Permanency of tions of God. It is not the propagation 
 his religion. but the pprmpnpinfy nf his rp[mion that 
 
 deserves our wonder : the same pure and perlt^ct im- 
 pression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina, is 
 preserved after the revolutions of twelve centuries, by 
 the Indian, the African, and the Turkish proselytes of 
 the Koran. If the christian apostles, St. Peter or St. 
 Paul, could return to the Vatican, they might possibly 
 inquire the name of the Deity who is worshipped with 
 such mysterious rites in that magnificent temple : at 
 Oxford or Geneva, they would experience less surprise ; 
 but it might still be incumbent on them to peruse the 
 catechism of the church, and to study the orthodox com- 
 mentators on their ow^n writings and the words of their 
 Master. But the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with 
 an increase of splendour and size, represents the hum- 
 ble tabernacle erected at Medina bv the hands of Ma- 
 hornet. The Mahometans have uniformly withstood 
 the temptation of reducing the objects of their faith 
 and devotion to a level with the senses and imagina 
 
 as the fundamental code, not only of theology but of 
 civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws which 
 regulate the actions and the property of mankind, are 
 guarded by the infallible and immutable sanction of 
 the will of God. This religious servitude is attended 
 with some practical disadvantage ; the illiterate legis- 
 lator had been often misled by his own prejudices and 
 those of his country ; and the institutions of ihe Ara- 
 bian desert may be ill adapted to the wealth and num- 
 bers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occa- 
 sions, the Cadhi respectfully places on his head the 
 holy volume, and substitutes a dexterous interpretation 
 more apposite to the principles of equity, and the 
 manners and policy of the times. 
 
 His beneficial or pernicious influence His merit towards 
 on the public happiness is the last con- his country, 
 sideration in the character of Mahomet. The most 
 bitter or most bigoted of his christian or Jewish foes, 
 will surely allow that he assumed a false commission 
 to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than 
 their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his 1 
 religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior re vela- 1 
 tions, the virtues and miracles of their founders. Thef 
 idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of God ; 
 the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, 
 and fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of 
 devotion ; and his rewards and punishments of a future 
 life were painted by the images most congenial to an 
 ignorant and carnal generation. Mahomet was per- 
 haps incapable of dictating a moral and political sys- 
 tem for the use of his countrymen : but he breathed 
 among the faithful a spirit of chari^ and friendship, 
 recommended the practice of the social virtues, and 
 checked, by his laws and precepts, the 
 venge and the oppression of widows an< 
 The hostile tribes were united in faith and 
 and the valour which had been idly spent in domestic 
 quarrels, was vigorously directed against a foreign 
 enemy. Had the impulse been less powerful, Ara- 
 bia, free at home, and formidable abroad, might have 
 flourished under a succession of her native monarchs. 
 Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity 
 of conquest. The colonies of the nation were scattered 
 over the east and west, and their blood was mingled 
 with the blood of their converts and captives. After 
 the reign of three caliphs, the throne w^as transported 
 from Medina to the valley of Damascus and the banks 
 
 virtues, and 
 thirst of re-^ 
 md orphans. J 
 id obedience,' 
 
 tion of man. ** I believe in one God, and Mahomet* (of the Tigris; the holy cities were violated by impious 
 the apostle of God," is the simple and invariable pro-^ war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a subject, per- 
 
 fession of Islam. The intellectual ima^e of the Deity 
 has never been degraded by any visible idol ; the 
 honours of the prophet have never transgressed the 
 measure of human virtue; and his living precepts hare 
 restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the 
 bounds of reason and religion. The votaries of Ali 
 have indeed consecrated the memory of their hero, his 
 wife, and his children ; and some of the Persian doc- 
 tors pretend that the divine essence was incarnate in 
 the person of the Imams; but their superstition is 
 universally condemned by the Sonnites ; and their im- 
 piety has afforded a seasonable warning against the 
 worship of saints and martyrs. The metaphysical 
 questions on the attributes of God, and the liberty of 
 man, have been agitated in the schools of the Maho- 
 metans, as well as in those of the christians ; but 
 among the former they have never engaged the pas- 
 sions of the people or disturbed the tranquillity of the 
 state. The cause of this important difference may be 
 found in the separation or union of the regal and sacer- 
 dotal characters. It was the interest of the caliphs, 
 the successors of the prophet and commanders of the 
 faithful, to repress and discourage all religious innova- 
 tions : the order, the discipline, the temporal and spi- 
 ritual ambition of the clergy, are unknown to the Mos- 
 lems ; and the sages of the law are the guides of their 
 C(Miscience and the oracles of their faith. From the 
 Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koran is acknowledged 
 
 haps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert, 
 awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed 
 their old and solitary independence.' 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, arid Spa^n, 
 by the Arabs or Saracens. — Empire of the caliphs, or suc- 
 cessors of Mahomet. — State of the cliristians, Sfc. under 
 their government. 
 
 The revolution of Arabia had not 
 changed the character of the Arabs : the 
 death of Mahomet was the signal of in- 
 dependence; and the hasty structure of his power and 
 religion tottered to its foundations. A small and faith- 
 ful hand of his primitive disciples had listened to his 
 eloquence, and shared his distress ; had fled with the 
 apostle from the persecution of Mecca, or had received 
 
 Union of the 
 
 Arabs, 
 
 A. D.632. 
 
 c The writers of the Modern Universal History (vol. i. and ii.) have 
 compiled, in STjO folio pages, the life of Mahomet and the annals of 
 the caliphs. They enjoyod the advantage of reading, and sometime* 
 correcting, the Arabic text; yet, notwithstanding their high-sounding 
 boasts, I cannot find, after the conclusion of my work, that they have 
 afforded me much (if any) additional information. The dull mass is 
 not quickened by a spark of philosophy or taste ; and the compilers 
 indulge the criticism of acrimonious bigotry against Boulainvilliers, 
 Sale, Gagnier, and all who treated Mahomet with favour, or even 
 justice. 
 
 I 
 
 <i 
 
 m 
 
■< . 
 
 220 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 221 
 
 u 
 
 »'i'l 
 
 II 
 
 •1 
 
 7* 
 
 the fuo:itive in the walls of Medina. The increasing 
 myriads, who acknowledged Mahomet as their king 
 and prophet, had been compelled by his arms, or al- 
 lured by his prosperity. The polytheists were con- 
 f.unded by the simple idea of a solitary and invisible 
 God ; the pride of the christians and Jews disdained 
 the yoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. 
 Their habits of faith and obedience were not sufficient- 
 ly confirmed ; and many of the new converts regretted 
 the venerable antiquity of the law of Moses, or the 
 rites and mysteries of the catholic church, or the idols, 
 the sacrifices, the joyous festivals of their pagan an- 
 cestors. The jarring interests and hereditary feuds of 
 the Arabian tribes had not yet coalesced in a system 
 of union and subordination; and the barbarians were 
 impatient of the mildest and most salutary laws that 
 curbed their passions, or violated their customs. They 
 submitted with reluctance to the religious precepts of 
 the Koran, the abstinence from wine, the fast of the 
 Ramadan, and the daily repetition of five prayers ; and 
 the alms and tithes, which were collected for the trea- 
 sury of Medina, could be distinguished only by a name 
 Irom the payment of a perpetual and ignominious tri- 
 bute. The example of Mahomet had excited a spirit 
 of fanaticism or imposture, and several of his rivals 
 presumed to imitate the conduct, and defy the authori- 
 ty, of the living prophet. At the head of the fugitives 
 and auxiliaries^ the first caliph was reduced to the 
 cities of Mecca, Medina, and Tayef ; and perhaps the 
 Koreish would have restored the idols of the Caaba, 
 if their levity had not been checked by a seasonable 
 reproof. " Ye men of Mecca, will ye be the last to 
 embrace, and the first to abandon, the religion of 
 Islam 1" After exhorting the Moslems to confide in 
 the aid of God and his apostle, Abubeker resolved, by 
 a vigrorous attack, to prevent the junction of the rebels. 
 The women and children were safely lodged in the 
 cavities of the mountains : the warriors, marching un- 
 der eleven banners, diffused the terror of their arms ; 
 and the appearance of a military force revived and 
 confirmed the loyalty of the faithful. The inconstant 
 tribes accepted, with humble repentance, the duties of 
 prayer, and fasting, and alms ; and, after some exam- 
 ples of success and severity, the most daring apos- 
 tates fell prostrate before the sword of the Lord and of 
 Caled. In the fertile province of Yemanah,* between 
 the Red sea and the gulf of Persia, in a city not infe- 
 rior to Medina itself, a powerful chief, his name was 
 Moseilama, had assumed the character of a prophet, 
 and the tribe of Hanifa listened to his voice. A fe- 
 male prophetess was attracted by his reputation : the 
 decencies of words and actions were spurned by these 
 favourites of heaven;'' and they employed several days 
 in mystic and amorous converse. An obscure sentence 
 of his Koran, or book, is yet extant;' and, in the pride 
 of his mission, Moseilama condescended to offer a par- 
 tition of the earth. The proposal was answered by 
 Mahomet with contempt; but the rapid progress of 
 the impostor awakened the fears of his successor : 
 forty thousand Moslems were assembled under the 
 
 1 See iho dpacriptlon of the city and country of Al Yeinanah, in 
 Abulfeda, Dogrripl. Arabia, p. 60, 61. In the thirteenth century, 
 there were some ruins, and a few palms ; but in the present century, 
 the 8a:ne pround is occupied by the visions and arms of a modern 
 
 Srophet, whose tenets are imperfectly known. (Niebuhr, Description 
 erArabie,29G-302.) 
 
 b Their first salutation maybe transcribed, but cannot be trans- 
 lated. It was thus that Moseilama said or sung : 
 
 Surge tandem itaque strenue permolenda ; nam stratus tibi torus est. 
 Aut in propatulo lentorio si velis, aut in abdiiiore cubiculo si malis ; 
 Aut supinam te humi exporreciam fustigabo, si velis, aut si malis 
 
 manibus pedibusque nixam. 
 Aut si velis ejus (Priapi) gemino triente, aut si malis totus veniam. 
 Imo, lotus venito, O Apostole Dei, clamabat foemina. Id ipsum, 
 
 dicebat 
 Moseilama, mihi quoque suggessit Deus. 
 
 The prophetess Segjah, after the fall of her lover, returned to idola- 
 try ; but, under the reign of Moawiyah, she became a mussulman, 
 and died at Bassora. (Abulfeda, Annal. vers. Reiske, p. 63.) 
 
 c See this text, which demonstrates a God from the work of gene- 
 ration, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. Arabuni;p. IS.and Dynast. 
 p. 103.) and Abulfeda (Annal. p. 63.) 
 
 Standard of Caled ; and the existence of their faith was 
 resigned to the event of a decisive battle. In the first 
 action they were repulsed with the loss of twelve hun- 
 dred men ; but the skill and perseverance of their 
 general prevailed : their defeat was avenged by the 
 slaughter of ten thousand infidels; and Moseilama 
 himself was pierced by an ^Ethiopian slave with the 
 same javelin which had mortally wounded the uncle 
 of Mahomet. The various rebels of Arabia, without 
 a chief or cause, were speedily suppressed by the 
 power and discipline of the rising monarchy ; and the 
 whole nation again professed, and more stedfastly 
 held, the religion of the Koran. The ambition of the 
 caliphs provided an immediate exercise for the restless 
 spirit of the Saracens : their valour was united in the 
 prosecution of a holy war ; and their enthusiasm was 
 equally confirmed by opposition and victory. 
 
 From the rapid conquests of the Sara- Character of 
 cens a presumption will naturally arise, ^^^^ir caliphs, 
 that the first caliphs commanded in person the armies 
 of the faithful, and sought the crown of martyrdom in 
 the foremost ranks of the battle. The courage of 
 Abubeker,^ Omar,«and Oihman,'had indeed been tried 
 in the persecution and wars of the prophet ; and the 
 personal assurance of paradise must have taught them 
 to despise the pleasures and dangers of the present 
 world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable 
 or mature age ; and esteemed the domestic cares of 
 religion and justice the most important duties of a sov- 
 ereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege of 
 Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the frequent 
 pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca; and they calmly 
 received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preach- 
 ed before the sepulchre of the prophet. The austere 
 and frugal measure of their lives was the effect of vir- 
 tue or habit, and the pride of their simplicity insulted 
 the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When 
 Abubeker assumed the office of caliph, he enjoined his 
 daughter Ayesha to take a strict account of his private 
 patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were 
 enriched or impoverished by the service of the state. 
 He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces 
 of gold, with the suflficient maintenance of a single 
 camel and a black slave ; but on the Friday of each 
 week he distributed the residue of his own and the 
 public money, first to the most worthy, and then to 
 the most indigent, of the Moslems. The remains of 
 his wealth, a coarse garment, and five pieces of gold, 
 Vere delivered to his successor, who lamented with a 
 modest sigh his own inability to equal such an admi- 
 rable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar 
 were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker; his food 
 consisted of barley-bread or dates ; his drink was wa- 
 ter ; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered 
 in twelve places ; and a Persian satrap, who paid his 
 homage to the conqueror, found him asleep among the 
 beggars on the steps of the mosch of Medina. Eco- 
 nomy is the source of liberality, and the increase of 
 the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and per- 
 petual reward for the past and present services of the 
 faithful. Careless of his own emolument, he assigned 
 to Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, the first and most 
 ample allowance of twenty-five thousand drams or 
 pieces of silver. Five thousand were allotted to each 
 of the aged warriors, the relicts of the field of Beder, 
 and the last and meanest of the companions of Maho- 
 met was distinguished by the annual reward of three 
 thousand pieces. One thousand was the stipend of 
 the veterans who had fought in the first battles against 
 the Greeks and Persians, and the decreasing pay, as 
 low as fifty pieces of silver, was adapted to the re- 
 spective merit and seniority of the soldiers of Omar. 
 
 d His reign in Eutychius, torn. ii. p. 251. Elmacin. p. 18. Abuf- 
 pharafi^ius, p. 108. Abulfeda, p. 60. D'Herbelot, p. 68. 
 
 e His reien in Kutychius, p.'264. Klmacin,p.24. Abulpharagius, 
 p. 110. Abulfeda, p. 66. D'Herbelot, p. 686. 
 
 r His reign in Eutvrhius, p. 323. Elmacin, p. 36. Abulpharagiu5t 
 p. 115. Abulfeda, p. 75. D'Herbelot, p. 695. 
 
 Under his reign, and that of his predecessor, the con- 
 querors of the east were the trusty servants of God 
 and the people : the mass of the public treasure was 
 consecrated to the expenses of peace and war : a pru- 
 Jent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the 
 discipline of the Saracens, and they united, by a rare 
 felicity, the despatch and execution of despotism, with 
 the equal and frugal maxims of a republican govern- 
 ment. The heroic courage of Ali,* the consummate 
 prudence of Moawiyah,'' excited the emulation of their 
 subjects ; and the talents which had been exercised in 
 the school of civil discord, were more usefully applied 
 to propagate the faith and dominion of the prophet. 
 In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus, the 
 succeeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were 
 alike destitute of the qualifications of statesmen and 
 of saints.' Yet the spoils of unknown nations were 
 continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uni- 
 form ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed 
 to the spirit of the nation rather than the abilities of 
 their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed for 
 the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Maho- 
 met was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and 
 disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and 
 the barbarians, of Europe: the empires of Trajan, or 
 even of Constantino or Charlemagne, would have re- 
 pelled the assault of the naked Saracens, and the tor- 
 rent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in 
 the sands of Arabia. 
 
 . In the victorious days of the Roman 
 
 eir conquests, yppyjjjj^j^ j{ j,gj [)een the aim of the sen- 
 ate to confine their consuls and legions to a single war, 
 and completely to suppress a first enemy before they 
 provoked the hostilities of a second. These timid 
 maxims of policy were disdained by the magnanimity 
 or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same 
 vigour and success they invaded the successors of Au- 
 gustus and those of Artaxerxes ; and the rival monar- 
 chies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy 
 whom they had been so long accustomed to despise. In 
 the ten years of the administration of Omar, the Sara- 
 cens reduced to his obedience thirty six thousand cities 
 or castles, destroyed four thousand churches or temples 
 of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen hundred moschs 
 for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One hun- 
 dred years after his flight from Mecca, the arms and 
 the reign of his successors extended from India to the 
 Atlantic ocean, over the various and distant provinces, 
 which may be comprised under the names of, I. Per- 
 sia; II. Syria; III. Esrypt; IV. Africa; and, V.Spain. 
 Under this general division, I shall proceed to unfold 
 these memorable transactions ; despatching with bre- 
 vity the remote and less interesting conquests of the 
 east, and reserving a fuller narrative for those domes- 
 tic countries, which had been included within the pale 
 of the Roman empire. Yet I must excuse my own 
 defects by a just complaint of the blindness and insuf- 
 ficiency of my guides. The Greeks, so loquacious in 
 controversy, have not been anxious to celebrate the 
 triumphs of their enemies.^ After a century of igno- 
 rance, the first annals of the mussulmans were col- 
 
 K His reign in Eutychius, p. 343. Elmacin, p. 51. Abulpharagius, 
 p. 117. Abulfeda, p. 83. D'fierbelot, p. 89. 
 
 h His reign in Eutychius, p. 344. Elmacin, p. 54. Abulpharagius, 
 p. 12.3. Abulfeda, p. 101. D'Herbelot, p. 586. 
 
 i Their reigns in Eutychius, torn. ii. p. 360—395. Elmacin, p. 59 
 —108. Abulpharagius, Dynast, ix. p. 124— 139. Abulfeda, p. Ill— 141. 
 D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, p. 691. and the particular arti- 
 cles of the Ommiades. 
 
 k Fi>r the seventh and eighth century, we have scarcely any ori- 
 ginal evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the Chronicles 
 of Theophanes, (Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr. et Lat. 
 cum noiis Jacobi Goar. Paris, 1655, in folio,) and the Abridgment of 
 Nicephorus, (Nicephori Patriarchs C. P Breviarium Historicum. Gr, 
 et Lat. Paris, 1648, in folio) who both lived in the beginning of the 
 ninth cenlury,(aee Hanckius de Scriptor. Byzant. p. 200— 246.) Their 
 coniemptirary, Pnoiiua, does not seem to be more opulent. After 
 praising the style of Nicephorus, he adds, K3(< iKnit TroKKov^ »fi tov 
 
 Wfo auTCu awOKfu3-TS|Uiv6,- T»i?i T>;{ ^rO(^»c, t^ lr^l^ye»<ff^^ni Only 
 
 complains of his extreme brevity. (Phot. Bibliot. Cod. Ixvi. p. 100.) 
 Some additions may be gleaned from the more recent histories of 
 Cedrenufl and Zonaraa of the twelfth centurjr. 
 
 lected in a great measure from the voice of tradition.* 
 Among the numerous productions of Arabic and Per- 
 sian literature," our interpreters have selected the im- 
 perfect sketches of a more recent age." The art and 
 genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asia- 
 tics;" they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our 
 monkish chronicles of the same period may be com- 
 pared to their most popular works, which are never 
 vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom. The 
 oriental library of a Frenchman p would instruct th« 
 most learned mufti of the east; and perhaps the Arabs 
 might not find in a sigle historian, so clear and com- 
 prehensive a narrative of their own exploits, as that 
 which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets. 
 
 I. In the first year of the first caliph, invasion of 
 his lieutenant Caled, the sword of God, Persia, 
 
 and the scourge of the infidels, advanced ^' ^- ^^* 
 to the banks of the Euphrates, and reduced the cities 
 of Anbar and Hira. Westward of the ruins of Baby- 
 lon, a tribe of sedentary Arabs had fixed themselves 
 on the verge of the desert ; and Hira was the seat of 
 a race of kings who had embraced the christian reli- 
 gion, and reigned above six hundred years under the 
 shadow of the throne of Persia.'' The last of the Mon- 
 dars was defeated and slain by Caled ; his son was 
 sent a captive to Medina ; his nobles bowed before the 
 successor of the prophet ; the people were tempted by 
 the example and success of their countrymen ; and the 
 caliph accepted as the first fruits of foreign conquest, 
 an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces of gold. 
 The conquerors, and even their historians, were aston- 
 ished by the dawn of their future greatness : " In the 
 same year," says Elmacin, *' Caled fought many sig- 
 nal battles; an immense multitude of the infidels was 
 slaughtered ; and spoils, infinite and innumerable, were 
 acquired by the victorious Moslems." ' But the invin- 
 
 I Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of Taborestan, a famous imam of 
 Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished his general history in 
 the year of the Hegira 302. (A. D. 914.) At the request of his friends, 
 he re<luced a work of 30,000 sheets to a more reasonable size. But 
 his Arabic original is known only by the Persian and Turkish ver- 
 sions. The Saracenic history of Ebn Amid, or Elmacin, is said to 
 be an abridgment of the great Tabari. (Ockley's Hist, of the Sara* 
 cens, vol. ii. preface, p. xxxiz. and, list of authors, D'Herbelot, p. 
 866. 870. 1014.) 
 
 m Besides the lists of authors framed by Prideaux, (Life of Maho- 
 met, p. 179—189.) Ockley, (at the end of his second volume,) and 
 Petit de la Croix, (Hist, de Gengiscan, p. 525—550.) we find in ths 
 Bibliotheque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of two or three hundred 
 histories or chronicles of the east, of which not more than three or 
 four are older than Tabari. A lively sketch of oriental literature ie 
 given by Reiske (in his Prodidagmau ad Hagji Chalifas librum mo- 
 morialem ad calcem Abulfeda 1'abulae Syriae, Lipsiae, 1766;) but hie 
 
 groject and the French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist, de Timur 
 lee, torn. i. preface, p. xlv.) have fallen to the ground. 
 
 B The particular historians and geographers will be occasionallr 
 introduced. The four following titles represent the Annals whicn 
 have guided me in this general narrative. I. A7inaUs Eutychii^ 
 Patriarcha Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 16r)6, 2 vols, 
 in 4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author, translated by 
 Pocock to gratify the presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 
 2. Historia Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera et studio TTionuB 
 Erpenii, in 4to. Lugd. Batavoruni, 1625. He is said to have hastily 
 translated a corrupt MS., and his version is often deficient in style 
 and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa Dynastiarum a Gregorio 
 Abulpharagio, interprete Edtcardo Pocockio, in 4to. Oxon. 1663. 
 More useful for the literary than the civil history of the east. 4. 
 Abulfeda Annates Moslemici ad Ann. Hegira ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. 
 Reiske, in 4to. Lipsiet, 1754. The best of our chronicles, both for 
 the original and version, yet how far below the name of Abulfeda. 
 We know that he wrote at Hamah, in the fourteenth century. The 
 three form* r were christians of the tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 centuries; the two first, natives of Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and 
 a Jacobite scribe. 
 
 M. de Guignes (Hist, des Huns, tom. i. pref. xiz. xx.) has charac- 
 terized, with truth and knowledge, the two sorts of Arabian histo- 
 rians, the dry annalist, and the tumid and flowery orator. 
 
 P Bibliotheque Orientale, par M. D'Herbelot, in fulio, Paris, 1697. 
 For the character of the respectable author, consult his friend The- 
 venol. (Voyages du Levant, part i. chap. 1.) His work is an agreea- 
 ble miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I never can 
 digest the alphabetical order; and I find him more satisfactory in the 
 Persian than I he Arabic history. The recent supplement from the 
 papers of M. M. Visdelou and Galland (in folio. La Haye, 1779.) is of 
 a different cast, a medley of tales, proverbs, and Chinese antiquitieg, 
 
 q Pocock will explain the chronology, (Specimen Hist. Arabum, 
 p. 66—74.) and D'Anville the geography, d'Euphrate et le Tigre. p. 
 125.) of the dynasty of the Almondars. The English scholar under- 
 stood more Arabic than the Mufti of Aleppo (Ockley, vol. ii. p. 34.); 
 the French geographer is equally at home in every age and everj 
 climate of the world. . 
 
 r Fecit et Chaled plurima in hoc anno prslia, in quibui Ticerun( 
 
 
222 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 223 
 
 11 
 
 •,!' 1-. 
 
 u * , 
 
 » 
 
 I 
 
 cible Caled was soon transferred to the Syrian war : 
 the invasion of the Persian frontier was conducted by 
 less active or less prudent commanders ; the Saracens 
 were repulsed with loss in the passage of the Eu- 
 phrates; and, though they chastised the insolent pur- 
 suit of the Magians, their remaining forces still hovered 
 in the desert of Babylon. 
 T, .., ,n The indignation and fears of the Per- 
 
 desia, sians suspended tor a moment their in- 
 
 A.D. 636. testine divisions. By the unanimous 
 sentence of the priests and nobles, their queen Arzema 
 was deposed ; the sixth of the transient usurpers, who 
 had arisen and vanished in three or four years, since 
 the death of Chosroes and the retreat of Heraclius. 
 Her tiara was placed on the head of Yezdegerd, the 
 trrandson of Chosroes; and the same sera, which co- 
 incides with an astronomical period ,• has recorded the 
 fall of the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zo- 
 roaster.* The youth and inexperience of the prince, 
 he was only fifteen years of age, declined a perilous 
 encounter: the royal standard was delivered into the 
 hands of his general Rustam ; and a remnant of thirty 
 thousand regular troops was swelled in truth, or in 
 opinion, to one hundred and twenty thousand subjects, 
 or allies, of the great king. The Moslems, whose 
 numbers were reinforced from twelve to thirty thou- 
 sand, had pitched their camp in the plains of Cadesia:" 
 and their line, though it consisted of fewer wen, could 
 produce more soldiers^ than the unwieldy host of the 
 infidels. I shall here observe what I must often re- 
 peat, that the charge of the Arabs was not, like that 
 of the Greeks and Romans, the effort of a firm and 
 compact infantry : their military force was chiefly 
 formed of cavalry and archers; and the engagement, 
 which was often interrupted and often renewed by 
 single combats and flying skirmishes, might be pro- 
 tracted without any decisive event to the continuance 
 of several days. The periods of the battle of Cadesia 
 were distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The 
 first, from the well-timed appearance of six thousand of 
 the Syrian brethren, was denominated the day of succour. 
 The day of concussion might express the disorder of one, 
 or perhaps of both, of the contending armies. The 
 third, a nocturnal tumult, received the whimsical name 
 of the night of barking, from the discordant clamours, 
 ■which were compared to the inarticulate sounds of the 
 fiercest animals. The morning of the succeeding day 
 'determined the fate of Persia ; and a seasonable whirl- 
 wind drove a cloud of dust against the faces of the un- 
 believers. The clangour of arms was re-echoed to the 
 tent of Rustam, who, far unlike the ancient hero of his 
 name, was gently reclining in a cool and tranquil 
 shade, amidst the baggage of his camp, and the train 
 of mules that were laden with gold and silver. On 
 the sound of danger he started from his couch; but his 
 flight was overtaken by a valiant Arab, who caught 
 him by the foot, struck off his head, hoisted it on a 
 lance, and instantly returning to the field of battle, 
 
 IVIuslimi, et tn/{J«/iam iminensii multhudine occisa spolia indnita 
 et innuinera sunt nacti. (Hist. Saracenica, p. 20.) The christian 
 annalist slides into the national and compendious term of infidels, 
 and I often adopt (I hope without scandal) this characteristic mode 
 of expression. 
 
 ■ A cycle of 120 years, at the end of which an intercalary month 
 of 30 days supplied the use of our Bissextile, and restored the inte- 
 grity of the solar year. In a great revolution of 1440 years this in- 
 tercalation was successively moved from the first to the twelfth 
 month; but Hyde and Freret are involved in a profound contro- 
 ■versy, whether the twelve, or only eight, of these changes were ac- 
 complished before the »ra of Yezdegerd, which is unanimously fixed 
 to the 16lh of June, A. D. 632. How laboriously does the curious 
 apirit of Europe explore the darkest and most distant antiquities! 
 (Hyde, de Keligione Persarum, c. 14—13. p. 191—211. Freret in the 
 Mem. de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xvi. p. 233—267.) 
 
 t Nine days after the death of Mahomet, (7ih June, A. D.632.) we 
 find the aera of Yezdegerd, (16th June, A. D. 632.) and his accession 
 cannot be postponed beyond the end of the first year. His predeces- 
 oors could not therefore resist the arms of the caliph Omar; and 
 these unquestionable dates overthrow the ihoughlless chronolojcy of 
 Abulpharagius. See Ockley's Hist of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 130. 
 
 u Cadesia, says the Nubian geographer, (p. 121.) is in n)ar^ine soli- 
 tiidine, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two stations from Cula. Otter 
 (Voyage, torn. i. p. 163.) reckons fifteen leagues, and observes, that 
 the place is supplied with dates and water. 
 
 carried slaughter and dismay among the thickest ranks 
 of the Persians. The Saracens confess a loss of seven 
 thousand five hundred men ; and the battle of Cadesia 
 is justly described by the epithets of obstinate and 
 atrocious.* The standard of the monarchy was over- 
 thrown and captured in the field — a leathern apron of 
 a blacksmith, who, in ancient times, had arisen the 
 deliverer of Persia ; but this badge of heroic poverty 
 was disguised, and almost concealed, by a profusion 
 of precious gems.J" After this victory, the wealthy 
 province of Irak, or Assyria, submitted to the caliph, 
 and his conquests were firmly established by the speedy 
 foundation of Bassora,' a place which ever commands 
 the trade and navigation of the Persians. At the dis- 
 tance of fourscore miles from the gulf, the Euphratea 
 and Tigris unite in a broad and direct current, which 
 is aptly styled the river of the Arabs. In the midway, 
 between the junction and the mouth of these famous 
 streams, the new settlement was planted on the west- 
 ern bank : the first colony was composed of eight hun- 
 dred Moslems ; but the influence of the situation soon 
 reared a flourishing and populous capital. The air, 
 though excessively hot, is pure and healthy : the mea- 
 dows are filled with palm trees and cattle ; and one 
 of the adjacent valleys has been celebrated among the 
 four paradises or gardens of Ac<ia. Un- Foundation of 
 der the first caliphs, the jurisdiction of Bassora. 
 this Arabian colony extended over the southern pro-^ 
 vinces of Persia : the city has been sanctified by the 
 tombs of the companions and martyrs ; and the ves- 
 sels of Europe still frequent the port of Bassora, as a 
 convenient station and passage of the Indian trade. 
 
 After the defeat of Cadesia, a country Sack of Madayn, 
 intersected by rivers and canals might A. D. 637. 
 have opposed an insuperable barrier to March, 
 the victorious cavalry ; and the walls of Ctesiphon or 
 Madayn, which had resisted the battering-rams of the 
 Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the 
 Saracens. But the flying Persians were overcome by 
 the belief, that the last day of their religion and em- 
 pire was at hand : the strongest posts were abandoned 
 by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part 
 of his family and treasures, escaped to Holwan at the 
 foot of the Median hills. In the third month after the 
 battle, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed the Tigris 
 without opposition ; the capital was taken by assault; 
 and the disorderly resistance of the people gave a 
 keener edge to the sabres of the Moslems, who shout- 
 ed with religious transport, " This is the white palace 
 of Chosroes ; this is the promise of the apostle of God !" 
 The naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched 
 beyond the measure of their hope or knowledge. Each 
 chamber revealed a new treasure secreted with art, or 
 ostentatiously displayed ; the gold and silver, the vari- 
 ous wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed (says 
 Abulfeda) the estimate of fancy or numbers ; and ano- 
 ther historian defines the untold and almost infinite 
 mass, by the fabulous computation of three thousands 
 of thousands of thousands pieces of gold.* Some mi- 
 nute though curious facts represent the contrast of 
 riches and ignorance. From the remote islands of 
 the Indian ocean, a large provision of camphire** had 
 
 K Atrox, contumax, plus semel rencrvatum, are the well-chosen 
 expressions of the translator of Abulfeda, (Reiske, p. 69.) 
 
 J D'Herbeloi, Bibliotheque Orieniale, p. 297. 348. 
 
 « The reader may satisfy himself on the subject of Bassora, by 
 consulting the following writers : Geograph. Nubien8,p. 121. D'Her- 
 le Orieniale, p. 192. D'Anville, L'buphrate et le 
 
 belot, Bibliotheque 
 
 Tigre, p. 13(». 133. 145. Raynal, Hist. Fhilosophique de deux Indes, 
 torn. ii. p. 92—100. Voyages de Fietro della \ alle, torn. iv. p. 370— 
 391. De TavemJer, tom\ i. p. 240—247. De Thevenot, tom. ii. p 
 545—584. D'Otter,tom.ii.p.45— 78. De Niebuhr,tom.ii. p. 172—199. 
 
 a Mente vix potest numerove comprehendi quanta spolia . . . nos- 
 tris cesserint. Abulfeda, p. 69. Yet I still suspect, that the extrava- 
 gant numbers of Elmacin may be the error, not of the text, but of 
 the version. The best translators from the Greek, for instance, I 
 find to be very poor arithmeticians. 
 
 b The camphire tree grows in China and Japan ; but many hun- 
 dred weight of those meaner sorts are exchanged for a single pound 
 of the more precious cum of Borneo and Sumatra. (Kaynal, Hist. 
 Philosoph. torn. i. p. 362-365. Dictionnaire d'Hist. Nalurelle par 
 Bomare. Miller's Gardener's Dictionary.) These maj be the 
 
 been imported, which is employed with a mixture of 
 wax to illuminate the palaces of the east. Strangers 
 to the name and properties of that odoriferous gum, 
 the Saracens, mistaking it for salt, mingled the cam- 
 phire in their bread, and were astonished at the bitter- 
 ness of the taste. One of the apartments of the palace 
 was decorated with a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in 
 length, and as many in breadth : a paradise or garden 
 was depictured on the ground ; the flowers, fruits, and 
 shrubs, were imitated by the figures of the gold embroi- 
 dery, and the colours of the precious stones ; and the 
 ample square was encircled by a variesrated and verdant 
 border. The Arabian general persuaded his soldiers 
 to relinquish their claim, in the reasonable hope, that 
 the eyes of the caliph would be delighted with the 
 splendid workmanship of nature and industry. Re- 
 gardless of the merit of art, and the pomp of royalty, 
 the rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren 
 of Medina : the picture was destroyed ; but such was 
 the intrinsic value of the materials, that the share of 
 Ali alone was sold for twenty thousand drams. A mule 
 that carried away the tiara and cuirass, the belt and 
 bracelets, of Chosroes, was overtaken by the pursuers; 
 the gorgeous trophy was presented to the commander 
 of the faithful; and the grave.^t of the companions 
 condescended to smile when they beheld the white 
 beard, hairy arms, and uncouth figure of the veteran, 
 who was invested with the spoils of the Great King.« 
 The sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its desertion 
 and gradual decay. The Saracens disliked the air and 
 Foundation of situation of the place, and Omar was 
 Cufa. advised by his general to remove the 
 
 seat of government to the western side of the Eu- 
 phrates. In every age the foundation and ruin of the 
 Assyrian cities have been easy and rapid : the countrj^ 
 is destitute of stone and timber; and the most solid 
 structures'* are composed of bricks baked in the sun, 
 and joined by a cement of the native bitumen. The 
 name of Cufa" describes a habitation of reeds and 
 earth ; but the importance of the new capital was 
 supported by the numbers, wealth, and spirit, of a co- 
 lony of veterans; and their licentiousness was indulged 
 by the wisest caliphs, who were apprehensive of pro- 
 voking the revolt of a hundred thousand swords: " Ye 
 men of Cufa," said Ali, who solicited their aid, "you 
 have been always conspicuous by your valour. You 
 conquered the Persian king, and scattered his forces, 
 till you had taken possession of his inheritance." 
 This mighty conquest was achieved by the battles of 
 Jalula and Nehavend. After the loss of the former, 
 Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and concealed his shame 
 and despair in the mountains of Farsistan, from whence 
 Cyrus had descended with his equal and valiant com- 
 panions. The courage of the nation survived that of 
 the monarch : among the hills to the south of Ecba- 
 tana or Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thouf^and Per- 
 sians made a third and final stand for their religion and 
 country; and the decisive battle of Nehavend was 
 styled by the Arabs the victory of victories. If it be 
 true that the flying general of the Persians was stopt 
 aid overtaken in a crowd of mules and camels laden 
 with honey, the incident, however slight or singular, 
 will demote the luxurious impediments of an oriental 
 army.' 
 
 Conquest of '^^ g^ogT^^hj of Persia is darkly 
 
 Persia, delineated by the Greeks and Latins; 
 
 .P. 6 37— 651. Ijuj ti^g most illustrious of her cities ap- 
 
 islands of the first climate from whence the Arabians imported their 
 camphire. (Geograph. Nub. p. 34, 35. D'Herbelot, p. 238.) 
 
 c See Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, lorn. i. p. 376, 377. I may credit 
 the fact, without believing the prophecy. 
 
 '^.^.^^ '"•*■'' considerable ruins of Assyria are the tower of Belus, at 
 Babylon, and the hall of Chosroes, at Ctesiphon; they have been 
 visited by that vain and curious traveller Fietro della Valle, (tom. i. 
 p. 713-718. 731— 735.) 
 
 e Consult the article of Cou/uh in the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, 
 (p. 277, 278.) and the second volume of Ockley's History, particularly 
 p. 40. and 153. 
 
 t See the article of Nehavend, In D'Herbelot, p. 667, 668. and Voy- 
 t«e« ia Tuniuie et en Perse, par Ouer, torn. i. p. 191, 
 
 pear to be more ancient than the invasion of the Arabs. 
 By the reduction of Hamadan and Ispahan, of Casuinj 
 Tauris, and Rei, they gradually approached the shores 
 of the Caspian sea : and the orators of Mecca mitrht 
 applaud the success and spirit of the faithful, who had 
 already lost sight of the northern bear, and had almost 
 transcended the bounds of the habitable world.* Again 
 turning towards the west and the Roman empire, ihey 
 repassed the Tigris over the bridge of Mosul, and, in 
 the captive provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, 
 embraced their victorious brethren of the Syrian army. 
 From the palace of Madayn their eastern progress was 
 not less rapid or extensive. They advanced along the 
 Tigris and the gulf; penetrated through the passes of 
 the mountains into the valley of the Estachar or Per- 
 sepolis; and profaned the last sanctuary of the Magian 
 enipire. The grandson of Chosroes was nearly "sur- 
 prised among the falling columns and mutilated fig- 
 ures; a sad emblem of the past and present fortune of 
 Persia ;*• he fled with accelerated haste over the desert 
 of Kirman, implored the aid of the warlike Segestans, 
 and sought an humble refuge on the verge of the Tur- 
 kish and Chinese power. But a victorious army is 
 insensible of fatigue : the Arabs divided their forces 
 in the pursuit of a timorous enemy; and the caliph 
 Othman promised the government of Chorasan to the 
 first general who should enter that large and populous 
 country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. The 
 condition was accepted ; the prize was deserved ; the 
 standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of 
 Herat, Merou, and Balch ; and the successful leader 
 neither halted nor reposed till his foaming cavalry had 
 tasted the waters of the Oxus. In the public anarchy, 
 the independent governors of the cities and castles 
 obtained their separate capitulations : the terms were 
 granted or imposed by the esteem, the prudence, or 
 the compassion, of the victors ; and a simple profes- 
 sion of faith established the distinction between a bro- 
 ther and a slave. After a noble defence, Harmozan, 
 the prince or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa, was com- 
 pelled to surrender his person and his state to the dis- 
 cretion of the caliph; and their interview exhibits a 
 portrait of the Arabian manners. In the presence, 
 and by the command, of Omar, the gay barbarian was 
 despoiled of his silken robes embroidered with gold, 
 and of his tiara bedecked with rubies and emeralds : 
 " Are you now sensible," said the conqueror to his 
 naked captive; "are you now sensible of the judg- 
 ment of God, and of the different rewards of infidelity 
 and obedience ?" "Alas !" replied Harmozan, " I feel 
 them too deeplj'. In the days of our common igno- 
 rance, we fought with the weapons of the flesh, and 
 my nation was superior. God was then neuter: since 
 he has espoused your quarrel, you have subverted our 
 kingdom and religion." Oppressed by this painful 
 dialogue, the Persian complained of intolerable thirst, 
 but discovered some apprehensions lest he should be 
 killed whilst he was drinking a cup of water. " Be of 
 good courage," said the caliph, " your life is safe till 
 you have drank this water :" the crafty satrap accepted 
 the assurance, and instantly dashed the vase against 
 the ground. Omar would have avenged the deceit; but 
 his companions represented the sanctity of an oathf 
 and the speedy conversion of Harmozan entitled himi 
 not only to a free pardon, but even to a stipend of two 
 thousand pieces of gold. The administration of Peiv 
 
 K It is in such a style of ignorance and wonder that the Athenian, 
 orator describes the Artie conquests of Alexander, who never ad- 
 vanced beyond the shores of the Caspian. AKej^rnvS^e; ig* t«,> »fXTow 
 K*i ttii ctxouyuivH;, oKiyov Siiv, nx<rti; fet6»)riixii. .^schines contra 
 Ctesiphontem. tom. iii. p. 554. edit. Grace. Orator. Reiske. This me- 
 morable cause was pleaded at Athens, Olymp. cxii. 3. (before Christ, 
 330.) in the autumn, (Taylor, praefat. p. 370, &c.> about a year after 
 the battle of Arbela ; and Alexander, in the pursuit of Darius, wa» 
 marching towards Hyrcania and Bactriana. 
 
 h We are indebted for this curious particular to the Dynasties of 
 Abulpharagius, p. 116. but it is needless to prove the identity of E»> 
 tachar and Persepolis; (D'Herbelot, p. 327.) and still more needless 
 to copy the drawings and descriptioiu of Sir John Chardiu, ori}g|)> 
 neille le Bruyn. 
 
224 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 sia was regulated by an actual survey of the people, 
 the catlle, and the fruits of the earth ;* and this monu- 
 ment, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might 
 have instructed the philosophers of every age. 
 Death of the last The flight of Yezdegerd had carried 
 king, A. D. 651. him beyond the Oxus, and as tar as the 
 Jaxartes, two rivers' of ancient and modern renown, 
 which descend from the mountains of India towards 
 the Caspian sea. He was hospitably entertained by 
 Tarkhan, prince of Farirana," a fertile province on the 
 Jaxartes : the king of Samarcand, with the Turkish 
 tribes of Sogdiana and Scythia, were moved by the 
 lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch ; and 
 he solicited, by a suppliant embassy, the more solid 
 and powerful friendship of the emperor of China." 
 The virtuous Taitsong," the first of the dynasty of the 
 Tang, may be justly compared with the Antonines of 
 Rome: his people enjoyed the blessings of prosperity 
 and peace ; and his dominion was acknowledged by 
 forty-four hordes of the barbarians of Tartary. His 
 last garrisons of Cashgar and Khoten maintained a 
 frequent intercourse with their neighbours of the Jax- 
 artes and Oxus : a recent colony of Persians had in- 
 troduced into China the astronomy of the Magi ; and 
 Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid progress and 
 dangerous vicinity of the Arabs. The influence, and 
 perhaps the supplies, of China, revived the hopes of 
 Yezdegerd and the zeal of the worshippers of fire ; and 
 he returned with an army of Turks to conquer the 
 inheritance of his fathers. The fortunate Moslems, 
 without unsheathing their swords, were the spectators 
 of his ruin and death. The grandson of Chosroes was 
 betrayed by his servant, insulted by the seditious in- 
 habitants of Merou, and oppressed, defeated, and pur- 
 sued, by his barbarian allies. He reached the banks 
 of a river, and offered his rings and bracelets for an 
 instant passage in a miller's boat. Ignorant or insen- 
 sible of royal distress, the rustic replied, that four 
 drams of silver were the daily profit of his mill, and 
 that he would not suspend his work unless the loss 
 were repaid. In this moment of hesitation and delay, 
 the last of the Saasanian kings was overtaken and 
 slaughtered by the Turkish cavalry, in the nineteenth 
 year of his unhappy reign.P His son Firuz, an hum- 
 ble client of the Chinese emperor, accepted the station 
 of captain of his guards ; and the Magian worship was 
 long preserved by a colony of loyal exiles in the pro- 
 vince of Bucharia. His grandson inherited the regal 
 name ; but after a faint and fruitless enterprise, he re- 
 turned to China, and ended his days in the palace of 
 Sigan. The male line of the Sassanides was extinct; 
 but the female captives, the daughters of Persia, were 
 given to the conquerors in servitude, or marriage; and 
 the race of the caliphs and imams was ennobled by 
 the blood of their royal mothers.** 
 
 I After the conquest of Persia, Theophanes adds, »wt«, i$ rm xf •»•, 
 
 «aiA.iu«-«v OvftafOi »v»ye»9n*»* »»r»r ti|k ww' •vto» ••kow^ii'h*' •>-•- 
 vtTS 'Ti 'ti mvstyfM^tt »»> eiv$f«i?rwv K»i *Tttvm* XMi f vr»y. (ChrODOgraph. 
 
 p. ^83.) 
 
 k Amidst our measre relations, T must repret, that D'Herbelot has 
 not found and used a Persian translation of Tabari, enriched, as he 
 says, wiih many extracts from the native historians of the Ghebers or 
 Majri. (Biblioiheque Orientale, p. 1014.) 
 
 1 The most authentic accounts of the two rivers, the Sihon, (Jax- 
 artes,) and the Gihon, (Oxus,) may be f(»und in Sherif al Edrisi, 
 (Geograph. Nubipns, p. 138.) Abulfeda, (Descript. Chorasan. in Hud- 
 «f>n, torn. iii. p. 23.) Abulsrhazi Khan, who reigned on their banks, 
 (Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, p. 32. 57. 766.) and the Turkish Geo- 
 grapher, a MS. in the king of France's library. (Examen. Critique 
 des Historiens d'Alexandre, p. 194—360.) 
 
 m The territory of Fargana is described by Abulfeda, p. 76, 77. 
 
 B Eo redegit an^usliarum eundem rpgem exsulem, ul Turcici regis, 
 et Sugdiani, et Sinensis, auxilia missis lileris imploraret. (Abulfed. 
 Annal. p. 74.) The connexion of the Persian and Chinese history is 
 illustrated by Frerei, (Mem. de I'Academie, tom. xvi. p 245-255.) 
 and de Guienes, (Hist, des Huns, tom. i. p. 54—59, and for the geo- 
 graphy of the borders, tom. ii. p. 1—43.) 
 
 o Hist.Sinica, p.41— 46. in the third part of the Relations Curieuses 
 
 of Thevenot. 
 
 p I have endeavoured to harmonize the various narratives of Elma- 
 cin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 37 ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 116.) Abulfeda, 
 (Annal. p. 74. 79.) and D'Herbelut. (p. 485.) The end of Yezdegerd 
 was not only unfortunate but obscure. 
 
 5 The two daughters of Yezdegerd married Hassan, the son of Ali, 
 and Mohammed, the soa of Abubeker ; and the firal of these was the 
 
 After the fall of the Persian kingdom. The conquest of 
 the river Oxus divided the territories of Tran^xiana, 
 the Saracens and of the Turks. This A.u.7io. 
 narrow boundary was soon overleaped by the spirit of 
 the Arabs; the governors of Chorasan extended their 
 successive inroads; and one of their triumphs was 
 adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen, which 
 she dropped in her precipitate flight beyond the hills 
 of Bochara.' But the final conquest of Transoxiana,' 
 as well as of Spain, was reserved for the alorious 
 reign of the inactive Walid ; and the name of Catibah, ■ 
 the" camel driver, declares the origin and merit of his 
 successful lieutenant. While one of his colleagues 
 displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks of 
 the Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the 
 Jaxartes, and the Caspian sea, were reduced by the 
 arms of Catibah to the obedience of the prophet and 
 of the caliph.* A tribute of two millions of pieces of 
 gold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were 
 burnt or broken ; the mussulman chief pronounced a 
 sermon in the new mosch of Carizme ; after several 
 battles, the Turkish hordes were driven back to the 
 desert; and the emperors of China solicited the friend- 
 ship of the victorious Arabs. To their industry, the 
 prosperity of the province, the Sogdiana of the an- 
 cients, may in a great measure be ascribed ; but the 
 advantages of the soil and climate had been under- 
 stood and cultivated since the reign of the Macedonian 
 kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens, Carizmo, 
 Bochara, and Samarcand, were rich and populous un- 
 der the yoke of the shepherds of the north. These 
 cities were surrounded with a double wall ; and the 
 exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, en- 
 closed the fields and gardens of the adjacent district. 
 The mutual wants of India and Europe were supplied 
 by the diligence of the Sogdian merchants ; and the 
 inestimable art of transforming linen into paper, has 
 been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over 
 the western world." 
 
 II. No sooner had Abubeker restored inyaaion of Sy- 
 the unity of faith and government, than [j^'caj 
 
 he despatched a circular letter to the Ara- \ ^' ^^* 
 bian tribes. "In the name of the most merciful God, 
 to the rest of the true believers. Health and happiness, 
 and the mercy and blessing of God be upon you. I 
 praise the most high God, and I pray for his prophet 
 Mahomet. This is to acquaint you, that 1 intend to 
 send the true believers into Syria* to take it out of the 
 
 father of a numerous progeny. The daughter of Phirouz became ths 
 wife of the caliph Walid, and their son Yezid derived his genuine or 
 fabulous descent from the Choeroes of Persia, the Caesars of Rome, 
 and the Chagans of the Turks or Avars. (D'Herbelot, Bibliol. Orien- 
 tale, p. 96. 487.) ^^^. 
 
 r It was valued al 2000 pieces of gold, and was the prize of Obei- 
 dollah, the son of Ziyad, a name afterwards infamous by the munipr 
 of Hosein. (Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 142, 143.) Mil 
 brother Salem was accompanied by his wife, the first Arabian woman 
 (A. D. 680.) who passed the Oxus: she borrowed, or riiher stole, the 
 crown and jewels of the princess of the Sogdians, (p. 231,232.) 
 
 ■ A part of Abiilfeda's geography is translated by Greaves, insertpd 
 In Hudson's collection of the minor geographers, (tom. iii.) and enii- 
 tied, Descriptio Chorasmia et Mawaralnahra, id est, regionem exii* 
 fluvium, Oxum, p. 80. The name of Tratia-oxiana, softer m souiiu, 
 equivalent in sense, is aptly used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist, lie Gen- 
 giscan, &c.) and some modern orientalists, but they are mistaken in 
 ascribing it to the writers of antiquity. 
 
 t The conquests of Catibah are faintly marked by Elmacin, (Hist. 
 Saracen, p. 84.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Catbah, Samarcand, 
 Valid,) and De Guienes. (Hist, des Huns, tom. i. p. 53, 59.) 
 
 u A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in the Biblioihpca 
 Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p.208,&c. The librarian Casiri (tom. ii.9) 
 relates, from credible testimony, that paper was first imported from 
 China to Samarcand, A. H. 30. and invented, or rather introduced, at 
 Mecca, A. H. 8-*. The Escurial library contains paper MSS. as oia 
 as the fourth or fifth century of the Hegira. 
 
 Chap. XH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 225 
 
 I LUC luui III Ul mill »^cwiui/ v»» ifn\^ ««v-{j..— ■ . 
 
 X A separate history of the conquest of Syria has been composea 
 by Al Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A. D. 748. and dit'J 
 A. D. 822. he likewise wrote the conquest of Egypt, of Diarbekir, &i. 
 Above the meagre and recent chronicles of the Arabians, Al WakKii 
 has the double merit of antiquity and copiousness. His tales and 
 traditions afford an artless picture of the men and the times. ^^J 
 his narrative is loo often defective, trifling, and improbable. Till 
 something better shall be found, his learned and spirited interpreter 
 (Ockley, in his history of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 21— 342.) will ^^^ 
 deserve the petulant animadversion of Reiske. (Prodidagmaia aU 
 Hacji Chalifas Tabulas, p. 236.) I am sorry to think that the labouri 
 of Ockley were consummated ia a jail, (bee hifl two preface* lo «»• 
 
 hands of the infidels. And I would have you know, 
 that the fighting for religion is an act of obedience to 
 God." His messengers returned with the tidings of 
 pious and martial ardour which they had kindled in 
 every province; and the camp of Medina was succes- 
 sively filled with the intrepid bands of the Saracens, 
 who panted for action, complained of the heat of the 
 season and the scarcity of provisions, and accused with 
 impatient murmurs the delays of the caliph. As 
 soon as their numbers were complete, Abubeker ascen- 
 ded the hill, reviewed the men, the horses, and the 
 arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer for the success 
 of their undertaking. In person, and on foot, he ac- 
 companied the first day's march ; and when the blush- 
 ing leaders attempted to dismount, the caliph removed 
 their scruples by a declaration, that those who rode, 
 and those who walked, in the service of religion, were 
 equally meritorious. His instructions^ to the chiefs 
 of the Syrian army were inspired by the warlike fan- 
 aticism which advances to seize, and affects to despise, 
 the objects of earthly ambition. "Remember," said 
 the successor of the prophet, " that you are always in 
 the presence of God, on the verge of death, in the assu- 
 rance of judgment, and the hope of paradise. Avoid 
 injustice and oppression ; consult with your brethren, 
 and study to preserve the love and confidence of your 
 troops. When you fight the battles of the Lord, ac- 
 quit yourselves like men, without turning your backs; 
 but let not your victory be stained with the blood of 
 women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn 
 any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do 
 any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. 
 When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, 
 and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will 
 find some religious persons who live retired in monas- 
 teries, and propose to themselves to serve God that 
 way : let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy 
 their monasteries ;■ And you will find another sort of 
 people, that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who 
 have shaven crowns ;■ be sure you cleave their skulls, 
 and give them no quarter till they either turn Mahom- 
 etans or pay tribute." All profane or frivolous conversa- 
 tion, all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels, was 
 severely prohibited among the Arabs: in the tumult 
 of a camp, the exercises of religion were assiduously 
 practised ; and the intervals of action were employed 
 in prayer, meditation, and the study of the Koran. 
 The abuse, or even the use, of wine was chastised by 
 fourscore strokes on the soles of the feet, and in the 
 fervour of their primitive zeal many secret sinners re- 
 vealed their fault, and solicited their punishment. Af- 
 ter some hesitation, the command of the Syrian army 
 was delegated to Abu Obeidah, one of the fugitives of 
 Mecca and companions of Mahomet; whose zeal and de- 
 votion were assuaged, without being abated, by the sin- 
 gular mildness and benevolence of his temper. But in 
 all the emergencies of war, the soldiers demanded the 
 superior genius of Caled; and whoever might be the 
 choice of the prince, the sword of God was both in fact 
 and fame the foremost leader of the Saracens. He 
 obeyed without reluctance; he was consulted without 
 jealousy ; and such was the spirit of the man, or rather 
 of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to 
 serve under the banner of the faith, though it were in 
 
 first vol. A. D. 1708. to the second, 1718. with the list of authors at 
 the end.) 
 
 y The instructions, &c. of the Syrian war, are described by Al 
 Wakidi and Ockley, tom. i. p. 22—27, &c. In the sequel it is neces- 
 sary to contract, and needless to quote, their circumstantial narrative. 
 My obligations to others shall be noticed. 
 
 % Notwithstanding this precept, M. Pauw (Recherches sur lea 
 Egyptiena, tom. ii. p. 192. edit. Lausanne) represents the Bedoweens 
 as the implacable enemies of the christian monks. For my own 
 part I am more inclined to suspect the avarice of the Arabian rob- 
 bers, and the prejudices of the (Jerman philosopher. 
 
 a Even in the seventh century, the monks were generally laymen : 
 they wore their hair long and dishevelled, and shaved their heads 
 when they were ordained priests. The circular tonsure was sacred 
 and mysterious: it was the crown of thorns ; but it was likewise a 
 royal diadem, and every priest was a king, &c. (Thomasin, Disci- 
 pline de I'EglistS tom. i. p. 721—758. especially p. 737, 738.) 
 Vol. H.— 2 D 15 
 
 the hands of a child or an enemy. Glory, and riches, 
 and dominion, were indeed promised to the victorious 
 mussulman; but he was carefully instructed, that if 
 the goods of this life were his only incitement, thty 
 likewise would be his only reward. 
 
 One of the fifteen provinces of Syria, 
 the cultivated lands to the eastward of ^'^^®°^ ^"• 
 the Jordan, had been decorated by Roman vanity, 
 with the name oi Arabia ,'' and the first arms of the Sa- 
 racens were justified by the semblance of a national 
 right. The country was enriched by the various 
 benefits of trade ; by the vigilance of the emperors it 
 was covered with a line of forts ; and the populous 
 cities of Gerasa, Philadelphia, and Bosra,* were se- 
 cure, at least from a surprise, by the solid structure of 
 their walls. The last of these cities was the eigh- 
 teenth station of Medina : the road was familiar to the 
 caravans of Hejaz and Irak, who annually visited this 
 plenteous market of the province and the desert : the 
 perpetual jealousy of the Arabs had trained the inha- 
 bitants to arms; and twelve thousand horse could 
 sally from the gates of Bosra, an appellation which 
 signifies, in the Syriac language, a strong tower of de- 
 fence. Encouraged by their first success agrainst the 
 open towns and flying parties of the borders, a detach- 
 ment of four thousand Moslems presumed to summon 
 and attack the fortress of Bosra. They were oppres- 
 sed by the number of the Syrians ; they were saved by 
 the presence of Caled, with fifteen hundred horse : he 
 blamed the enterprise, restored the battle, and rescued 
 his friend, the venerable Serjabil, who had vainly in- 
 voked the unity of God and the promise of the apostle. 
 After a short repose, the Moslems performed their ab- 
 lutions with sand instead of water ; ** and the morning 
 prayer was recited by Caled before they mounted on 
 horseback. Confident in their strength, the people of 
 Bosra threw open their gates, drew their forces into 
 the plain, and swore to die in the defence of their reli- 
 gion. But a religion of peace was incapable of with- 
 standing the fanatic cry of ** Fight, fight! Paradise, 
 paradise !" that re-echoed in the ranks of the Saracens ; 
 and the uproar of the town, the ringing of the bells,* 
 and the exclamations of the priests and monks, increa- 
 sed the dismay and disorder of the christians. With 
 the loss of two hundred and thirty men, the Arabs 
 remained masters of the field ; and the ramparts of 
 Bosra, in expectation of human or divine aid, were 
 crowded with holy crosses and consecrated banners. 
 The governor Romanus had recommended an early 
 submission; despised by the people, and degraded 
 from his office, he still retained the desire and oppor- 
 tunity of revenge. In a nocturnal interview, he in- 
 formed the enemy of a subterraneous passage from his 
 house under the wall of the city ; the son of the caliph, 
 with a hundred volunteers, were committed to the faith 
 of this new ally, and their successful intrepidity gave 
 an easy entrance to their companions. After Caled 
 had imposed the terms of servitude and tribute, the 
 apostate or convert avowed in the assembly of the peo- 
 
 b Huic Arabia est conserta, ex alio latere Nabathaeis contigua; 
 opima varieute commerciorum, castrisque oppleu validis et castel* 
 lis, quae ad repellendos gentium vicinarum excursus, solicitudo per- 
 viget veterum per opportunos saltos erexit et cautos. Ammian. Mar- 
 cellin. xiv. 8. Reland. Palestin. tom. i. p. 85, 86. 
 
 c With Gerasa and Philadelphia, Ammianus praises the fortifica- 
 tions of Bosra, firmiiale cautissimas. They deserved the same praise 
 iu the time of Abulfeda, (Tabul. Syriae, p. 99.) who describes this 
 city, the metropolis of Hawran, (Auranitis,) four days' journey from 
 Damascus. The Hebrew etymology I learn from Reland, Palestin. 
 tom. ii.p. 666. 
 
 d The apostle of a desert, and an army, was obliged to allow this 
 ready succedaneum for water; (Koran, c. iii. p. 66. c. v. p. 83.) but 
 the Arabian and Persian casuits have embarrassed his free permis- 
 sion with many niceties and distinctions. (Keland de Relig. Moham- 
 med. 1. i. p. 82, 83. Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. iv.) 
 
 e The bells rung ! Ockley, vol. i. p. 38. Yet I much doubt whether 
 this expression can be justified by the text of Al Wakidi, or the 
 practice of the times. At Graecos, says the learned Ducange, (Glos- 
 sar. med. et infim. Graecitat. tom. i. p. 774.) campanarum usus serius 
 transit et etiamnum rarissimus est. The oldest example which h« 
 can find in the Byzantine writers is of the year 1040; but the Vene- 
 tians pretend, thai they introduced belli at CoaslanUaopla in tlM 
 DimU century. 
 
 
 <\ 
 
 { 
 
 ^..1 
 
220 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chaf. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 227 
 
 n 
 
 pie his meritorious treason ; ** I renounce your socie- 
 ty," said Romanus, " both in this world, and the world 
 to come. And I deny him that was crucified, and 
 ■whosoever worships him. And I choose God for my 
 Lord, Islam for my faith, Mecca for my temple, the 
 Moslems for my brethren, and Mahomet for my pro- 
 phet; who was sent to lead us into the right way, and 
 to exalt the true religion in spite of those who join 
 partners with God." 
 
 Siege of Damaa- The conquest of Bosra, four days' 
 CU8, journey Irom Damascus,' encouraged the 
 
 A. D. 633. Arabs to besiege the ancient capital of 
 Syria.* At some distance from the walls, they en- 
 camped among the groves and fountains of that deli- 
 cious territory,'' and the usual option of the Mahometan 
 faith, of tribute or of war, was proposed to the reso- 
 lute citizens, who had been lately strengthened by a re- 
 inforcement of five thousand Greeks. In the decline 
 as in the infancy of the military art, an hostile defiance 
 was frequently offered and accepted by the generals 
 themselves:' many a lance was shivered in the plain 
 of Damascuja, and the personal prowess of Caled was 
 signalized in the first sally of the besieged. After an 
 obstinate combat, he had overthrown and made prisoner 
 one of the christian leaders, a stout and worthy antago- 
 nist. He instantly mounted a fresh horse, the gift of 
 the governor of Palmyra, and pushed forwards to the 
 front of the battle. "Repose yourself for a moment," 
 said his friend Derar, " and permit me to supply your 
 place: you are fatigued with fighting with this dog." 
 ** O Derar!" replied the indefatigable Saracen, ** we 
 shall rest in the world to come. He that labours to-day 
 shall rest to-morrow." With the same unabated ar- 
 dour, Caled answered, encountered, and vanquished a 
 second champion ; and the heads of his two captives 
 who refused to abandon their religion were indignantly 
 hurled into the midst of the city. The event of some 
 general and partial actions reduced the Damascenes to 
 a closer defence : but a messenger whom they dropt 
 from the walls, returned with the promise of speedy 
 and powerful succour, and their tumultuous joy con- 
 veyed the intelligence to the camp of the Arabs. Af- 
 ter some debate it was resolved by the generals, to 
 raise, or rather to suspend, the siege of Damascus, till 
 they had given battle to the forces of the emperor. In 
 the retreat, Caled would have chosen the more peril- 
 ous station of the rear-guard ; ho modestly yielded to 
 the wishes of Abu Obeidah. But in the hour of dan- 
 ger he flew to the rescue of his companion, who was 
 rudely pressed by a sally of six thousand horse and 
 ten thousand foot, and few among the christians could 
 relate at Damascus the circumstances of their defeat. 
 The importance of the contest required the junction of 
 the Saracens, who were dispersed on the frontiers of 
 Syria and Palestine; and I shall transcribe one of the 
 circular mandates which was addressed to Amrou, the 
 future conqueror of Egypt. " In the name of the most 
 merciful God : from Caled to Amrou, health and hap- 
 
 f Damascus is amply described by the Sherif al Edris! ; (Geograph. 
 Nub. p. 116, 117.) and his translator, Sionila ; (Apppndix, c. 4.) Abul- 
 feda; (Tabula Syriae, p. 1(».) Schultens; (Index Geograph. ad Vit. 
 Saladin.) D'Herbelot; (Bibliol. Orient, p. 291.) Thevenot; (Voyage 
 du Levant, pan i. p. 688-693.) Maundrell ; (Journev from Aleppo to 
 Jerusalem, p. 122—130.) and Pocock. (Deacriplion of the East, vol. ii. 
 p. 117—127.) 
 
 ff Nobilisaima civitas, says Justin. According to the oriental tra- 
 ditions, it was older than Abraham or Semiramis. Joseph. Antiq. 
 Jud. 1. 1, c. 6, 7. p. 24. 29. edit. Havercamp. Justin, xxxvi. 2. 
 
 iuKnn, ry ii^ xv xm ftiyri* ^»fi»TK«9 Xiy*, t9«j ti e»XX.oit Tu/tir*. 
 ri», iiev Ugiuv %»KKn, K»t viwv fttyiin, »«( Jif^v tvxMfviu, %», w^yat* 
 «X».«<», ««» warmftov wKnin, xst yt,( iv^ogm »«K«,<r»», fcc. Julian. 
 
 epist. xxiv. p. 392. These splendid epithets are occasioned by the 
 figs of Damascus, of which the author sends a hundred to his friend 
 Serapion, and this rhetorical theme is inserted by Petavius, Span- 
 heim, kc. (p. 390—396.) among the genuine epistles of Julian. How 
 could they overlook that the writer Is an an inhabitant of Damascus, 
 <he thrice affirms, that this peculiar fig grows only w«p' i/***,) a city 
 which Julian never entered or approached 1 
 
 * Voltaire, who casts a keen and lively glance over the surface of 
 history, has been struck with the resemblance of the first Moslems 
 mad tUtt heroes of the Iliad ; the siee* of Troy aad that of DamaKus. 
 ium. Oenerale, torn. i. p. 348.) 
 
 piness. Know that thy brethren the Moslems design, 
 to march to Aiznadin, where there is an army of se- 
 venty thousand Greeks, who purpose to come against 
 us, that they may extinguish the light of God with their 
 mouths ; hut God preserveth his light in spite of the inft^ 
 dels,^ As soon therefore as this letter of mine shall 
 be delivered to thy hands, come with those that are 
 with thee to Aiznadin, where thou shalt find us if it 
 please the most high God." The summons was cheer- 
 fully obeyed, and the forty-five thousand Moslems who 
 met on the same day, on the same spot, ascribed to the 
 blessing of Providence the effect of their activity and 
 zeal. 
 
 About four years after the triumphs Battle of Aiina- 
 of the Persian war, the repose of He- din, 
 
 radius and the empire was again dis- ^j ^ f|^- 
 turbed by a new enemy, the power of 
 whose religion was more strongly felt, than it was 
 clearly understood, by the christians of the east. In 
 his palace of Constantinople or Anticoh, he was awa- 
 kened by the invasion of Syria, the loss of Bosra, and 
 the danger of Damascus. An army of seventy thou- 
 sand veterans, or new levies, was assembled at Hems 
 or Emesa, under the command of his general Wer- 
 dan;* and these troops, consisting chiefly of cavalry, 
 might be indifferently styled either Syrians, or Greeks, 
 or Komans : Syriansy from the place of their birth or 
 warfare; Greeks^ from the religion and language of 
 their sovereign ; and Romans^ from the proud appella- 
 tion which was still profaned by the successors of 
 Constantine. On the plain of Aiznadin, as Werdan 
 rode on a white mule decorated with gold chains, and 
 surrounded with ensigns and standards, he was sur- 
 prised by the near approach of a fierce and naked war- 
 rior, who had undertaken to view the stale of the 
 enemy. The adventurous valour of Derar was inspi- 
 red, and has perhaps been adorned, by the enthusiasm 
 of his age and country. The hatred of ihe christians, 
 the love of spoil, and the contempt of danger, were 
 the ruling passions of the audacious Saracen; and the 
 prospect of instant death could never shake his reli- 
 gious confidence, or ruffle the calmness of his resolu- 
 tion, or even suspend the frank and martial pleasantry 
 of his humour. In the most hopeless enterprises, he 
 was bold, and prudent, and fortunate : after innumera- 
 ble hazards, after being thrice a prisoner in the hands 
 of the infidels, he still survived to relate the achieve- 
 ments, and to enjoy the rewards, of the Syrian con- 
 quest. On this occasion, his single lance maintained 
 a flying fight against thirty Romans, who were de- 
 tached by Werdan ; and after killing or unhorsing se- 
 venteen of their number, Derar returned in safety to 
 his applauding brethren. When his rashness was 
 mildly censured by the general, he excused himself 
 with the simplicity of a soldier. ** Nay," said Derar, 
 " I did not begin first; but they came out to take me, 
 and I was afraid that God should see me turn my 
 back ; and indeed I fought in good earnest, and with- 
 out doubt God assisted me against them ; and had I 
 not been apprehensive of disobeying your orders, I 
 should not have come away as I did ; and I perceive 
 already that they will fall into our hands." In the 
 presence of both armies, a venerable Greek advanced 
 from the ranks with a liberal offer of peace ; and the 
 departure of the Saracens would have been purchased 
 by a gift to each soldier, of a turban, a robe, and a 
 piece of gold ; ten robes and a hundred pieces to their 
 leader ; one hundred robes and a thousand pieces to 
 
 k These words are a text of the Koran, c. ix. 32. Ixi. 8. Like out 
 fanatics of the last century, the Moslems, on every familiar or im- 
 portant occasion, spoke the language of their scriptures ; a slyl« 
 more natural in their mouths, than tne Hebrew idiom transplanted 
 into the climate and dialect of Britain. 
 
 1 The name of Werdan is unknown to Theophanes, and, though it 
 might belons to an Armenian chief, has very little of a Greek aspect 
 or sound. If the Byzantine historians have mangled the oriental 
 names, the Arabs, in this instance, likewise have talien ample re- 
 venge on their enemies. In transposing the Greek character from 
 right to left, might they not produce, from the familiar appellatioo 
 QiAndrtvPf sumething like the anagram Wtrdani 
 
 \ 
 
 the caliph. A smile of indij^ation expressed the re- 
 fusal of Caled. " Ye christian dogs, you know your 
 option ; the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. We are 
 a people whose delight is in war, rather than in peace ; 
 and we despise your pitiful alms, since we shall be 
 speedily masters of your wealth, your families, and 
 your persons." Notwithstanding this apparent dis- 
 dain, he was deeply conscious of the public danger; 
 those who had been in Persia, and had seen the armies 
 of Chosroes, confessed that they never beheld a more 
 formidable array. From the superiority of the enemy, 
 the artful Saracen derived a fresh incentive of courage : 
 ** You see before you," said he, " the united force of 
 the Romans : you cannot hope to escape, but you may 
 conquer Syria in a single day. The event depends on 
 your discipline and patience. Reserve yourselves till 
 the evening. It was in the evening that the prophet 
 was accustomed to vanquish." During two succes- 
 sive engagements, his temperate firmness sustained 
 the darts of the enemy, and the murmurs of his troops. 
 At length, when the spirits and quivers of the adverse 
 line were almost exhausted, Caled gave the signal of 
 onset and victory. The remains of the imperial army 
 fled to Antioch, or Csesarea, or Damascus ; and the 
 death of four hundred and seventy Moslems was com- 
 pensated by the opinion that they had sent to hell 
 above fifty thousand of the infideU. The spoil was 
 inestimable ; many banners and crosses of gold and 
 silver, precious stones, silver and gold chains, and 
 innumerable suits of the richest armour and apparel. 
 The general distribution was postponed till Damascus 
 should be taken : but the seasonable supply of arms 
 became the instrument of new victories. The glorious 
 intelligence was transmitted to the throne of the ca- 
 liph, and the Arabian tribes, the coldest or most hos- 
 tile to the prophet's mission, were eager and importu- 
 nate to share the harvest of Syria, 
 The Arabs return The sad tidings were carried to Da- 
 te Damascus, mascns by the speed of grief and terror; 
 and the inhabitants beheld from their walls the return 
 of the heroes of Aiznadin. Amrou led the van at the 
 head of nine thousand horse : the bands of the Sara- 
 cens succeeded each other in formidable review ; and 
 the rear was closed by Caled in person, with the stan- 
 dard of the black eagle. To the activity of Derar he 
 intrusted the commission of patroling round the city 
 with two thousand horse, of scouring the plain, and 
 of intercepting all succour and intelligence. The rest 
 of the Arabian chiefs were fixed in their respective 
 stations before the seven gates of Damascus ; and the 
 siege was renewed with fresh vigour and confidence. 
 The an, the labour, the military engines, of the Greeks 
 and Romans are seldom to be found in the simple, 
 though successful operations of the Saracens : it was 
 sufficient for them to invest a city with arms, rather 
 than with trenches; to repel the sallies of the be- 
 sieged ; to attempt a stratagem or an assault ; or to 
 cxpecl the progress of famine and discontent. Damas- 
 cus would have acquiesced in the trial of Aiznadin, as 
 a final and peremptory sentence between the emperor 
 and the caliph : her courage was rekindled by the ex- 
 ainple and authority of Thomas, a noble Greek, illus- 
 trious in a private condition by the alliance of Herac- 
 lius.» The tumult and illumination of the night pro- 
 claimed the design of the morning sally ; and the 
 christian hero, who aflfrcted to despise the enthusiasm 
 of the Arabs, employed the resource of a similar su- 
 perstition. At the principal gate, in the sight of both 
 armies, a lofty crucifix was erected ; the bishop, with 
 his clergy, accompanied the march, and laid the vo- 
 lume of the New Testament before the image of Jesus ; 
 and the contending parties were scandalized or edified 
 
 B Vanity prompted the Arabs to believe, that Thomas was the 
 son-in-law of the emperor. We know the children of Heraclius by 
 ni8 two wives; and his august daughter would not have married in 
 exile at Damascus. (See Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 118, 119.) Had 
 Je been less religious, I might only suspect the legitimacy of the 
 
 by a prayer, that the Son of God would defend hia 
 servants and vindicate his truth. The battle raged 
 with insessant fury ; and the dexterity of Thomas," an 
 incomparable archer, was fatal to the boldest Saracens, 
 till their death was revenged by a female heroine. The 
 wife of Aban, who had followed him to the holy war, 
 embraced her expiring husband. " Happy," said she, 
 ** happy art thou, my dear: thou art gone to thy Lord 
 who first joined us together, and then parted us asun- 
 der. I will revenge thy death, and endeavour to the 
 utmost of my power to come to the place where thou 
 art, because I love thee. Henceforth shall no man 
 ever touch me more, for I have dedicated myself to the 
 service of God." Without a groan, without a tear, 
 she washed the corpse of her husband, and buried him 
 with the usual rites. Then grasping the manly wea- 
 pons, which in her native land she was accustomed to 
 wield, the intrepid widow of Aban sought the place 
 where his murderer fought in the thickest of the bat- 
 tle. Her first arrow pierced the hand of his standard- 
 bearer; her second wounded Thomas in the eye; and 
 the fainting christians no longer beheld their ensign or 
 their leader. Yet the generous champion of Damas- 
 cus refused to withdraw to his palace : his wound was 
 dressed on the rampart; the fight was continued till 
 the evening ; and the Syrians rested on their arms. In 
 the silence of the night, the signal was given by a 
 stroke on the great bell ; the gates were thrown open, 
 and each gate discharged an impetuous column on the 
 sleeping camp of the Saracens. Caled was the first 
 in arms; at the head of four hundred horse he flew to 
 the post of danger, and the tears trickled down his iron 
 cheeks, as he uttered a fervent ejaculation; '* O God, 
 who never sleepest, look upon thy servants, and do not 
 deliver them into the hands of their enemies." The 
 valour and victory of Thomas were arrested by the 
 presence of the sword of God,- with the knowledge 
 of the peril, the Moslems recovered their ranks, and 
 charged the assailants in the flank and rear. After the 
 loss of thousands, the christian general retreated with 
 a sigh of despair, and the pursuit of the Saracens was 
 checked by the military engines of the rampart. 
 
 After a siege of seventy days," the pa- ^^^ ^j^y j^ ^•^^^ 
 tience, and perhaps the provisions, of the en by storm and 
 Damascenes were exhausted ; and the *^*Pi%*'^' 
 bravest of their chiefs submitted to the 
 hard dictates of necessity. In the occurrences of peace 
 and M ar, they had been taught to dread the fierceness of 
 Caled, and to revere the mild virtues of Abu Obeidah. 
 At the hour of midnight, one hundred chosen deputies 
 of the clergy and people were introduced to the tent of 
 that venerable commander. He received and dismiss- 
 ed them with courtesy. They returned with a written 
 agreement, on the faith of a companion of Mahomet, 
 that all hostilities should cease ; that the voluntary 
 emisfrants might depart in safety, with as much as they 
 could carry away of their efTects; and that the tributa- 
 ry subjects of the caliph should enjoy their lands and 
 houses, with the use and possession of seven churches. 
 On these terms, the most respectable hostages, and the 
 gate nearest to his camp, were delivered into his hands : 
 his soldiers imitated the moderation of their chief; and 
 he enjoyed the submissive gratitude of a people whom 
 he had rescued from destruction. But the success of 
 the treaty had relaxed their vigilance, and in the same 
 moment the opposite quarter of the city was betrayed 
 
 B Al Wakidi (Ockley, p. 101.) says, " with poisoned arrows ;" but 
 this savage invention is so repugnant to the practice of the Greeks 
 and Romans, that I must suspect, on this occasion, the malevolent 
 credulity of the Saracens. 
 
 o Abulfeda allows only seventy days for the siege of Damascus; 
 (Annal. Moslem, p. 67. vers. Reiske ;) but Eluiacin, who mentions this 
 opinion, prolongs the term to six months, and notice the use of the 
 balisUt by the Saracens. (Hist. Saracen, p. 25. 32.) Even this longer 
 period is insufficient to fill the interval between the battle of Aizna- 
 din (July, A. D. 633.) and the accession of Omar, (24th Juljr, A. D. 
 634 ) to whose reign the conquest of Damascus is unanimously 
 ascribed. (Al Wakidi, apud Ockley, vol. i. p. 115. Abulpharagius, 
 Dynast, p. 112. vers. Pocock.) Perhaps, as in the Trojan war the 
 operations were interrupted by excursion* and detachmenw, nil th» 
 \ui feventy days of the siege. 
 
 'l. 
 
 i'-t 
 
 
228 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chip. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 220 
 
 
 I 
 
 ti 
 
 t 
 
 I' 
 
 and taken by assault. A party of a hundred Arabs 
 had opened the eastern gate to a more inexorable foe. 
 ** No quarter," cried the rapacious and sanguinary 
 Caled, " no quarter to the enemies of the Lord :" his 
 trumpets sounded, and a torrent of christian blood was 
 poured down the streets of Damascus. When he 
 reached the church of St. Mary, he was astonished 
 and provoked by the peaceful aspect of his compan- 
 ions ; their swords were in the scabbard, and they 
 were surrounded by a multitude of priests and monks. 
 Abu Obeidah saluted the general : " Cod," said he, 
 »* has delivered the city into my hands by way of 
 surrender, and has saved the believers the trouble 
 of fighting." " And am / not," replied the indignant 
 Caled, "am / not the lieutenant of the commander of 
 the failbfuH Have I not taken the city by storm 1 
 The unbelievers shall perish by the sword. Fall on." 
 The hungry and cruel Arabs would have obeyed the 
 welcome'^command ; and Damascus was lost, if the 
 benevolence of Abu Obeidah had not been supported 
 by a decent and dignified firmness. Throwing him- 
 self between the trembling citizens and the most eager 
 of the barbarians, he adjured them by the holy name 
 of God, to respect his promise, to suspend their fury, 
 and to wait the determination of their chiefs. The 
 chiefs retired into the church of St. Mary ; and after 
 a vehement debate, Caled submitted in some measure 
 to the reason and authority of his colleague; who 
 urged the sanctity of a covenant, the advantage as 
 well as the honour which the Moslems would derive 
 from the punctual performance of their word, and the 
 obstinate resistance which they must encounter from 
 the distrust and despair of the rest of the Syrian cities. 
 It was agreed that the sword should be sheathed, that 
 the part'^of Damascus which had surrendered to Abu 
 Obeidah, should be immediately entitled to the benefit 
 of his capitulation, and that the final decision should be 
 referred to the justice and wisdom of the caliph.J* A 
 large majority of the people accepted the terms of tole- 
 ration and tribute ; and Damascus is still peopled by 
 twenty thousand christians. But the valiant Thomas, 
 and the free-born patriots who had fought under his 
 banner, embraced the alternative of poverty and exile. 
 In the adjacent meadow, a numerous encampment was 
 formed of priests and laymen, of soldiers and citizens, 
 of women and children: they collected, with haste and 
 terror, their most precious movables ; and abandoned, 
 with loud lamentations, or silent anguish, their native 
 ■homes, and the pleasant banks of the Pharphar. The 
 •inflexible soul of Caled was not touched by the spec- 
 tacle of their distress : he disputed with the Damas- 
 cenes the property of a magazine of corn ; endeavoured 
 to exclude the garrison from the benefit of the treaty; 
 consented, with reluctance, that each of the fugitives 
 should arm himself with a sword, or a lance, or a bow; 
 and sternly declared, that, after a respite of three days, 
 they might be pursued and treated as the enemies of 
 the Moslems. 
 
 Pursuit of the The passion of a Syrian youth com- 
 
 jDamascenes. pleted the ruin of the exiles of Damas- 
 cus. A nobleman of the city, of the name of Jonas,<» 
 was betrothed to a wealthy maiden ; but her parents 
 delayed the consummation of his nuptials, and their 
 daughter was persuaded to escape with the man whom 
 she had chosen. They corrupted the nightly watch- 
 
 p It appears from Abulfeda (p. 125.) and Elmacin, (p. 32.) that this 
 distinction of the two parts of Damascus was long remembered, 
 though not always respected, by the Mahometan soyereigns. See 
 likewise Eutychius. (Annal. lorn. ii. p. 379, 380. 333.) 
 
 q On the fate of these lovers, whom lie names Phocyas and Eudo- 
 cia Mr. Hughes has built the siege of Damascus, one of our most 
 popular tragedies, and which possesses the rare merit of blending 
 na'ure and history, the manners of the times and the feelings of the 
 heart. The fiwlish delicacy of the players compelled him to soften 
 the guilt of the hero and the despair of the heroine. Inoiead of a 
 base'rene'Tado, Phocyas serves the Arabs as an honourable ally ; In- 
 aiead of prompting their pursuit, he flies to the succour of his coun- 
 trymen, and after killing Caled and Derar, is himself mortally 
 wounded, and expires in the presence of Eudocia, who professes her 
 resolution to take the veil at Consuntiaople. A frigm c«tMirophe l 
 
 men of the gate Keisan : the lover, who led the way, 
 was encompassed by a squadron of Arabs; but his ex* 
 clamation in the Greek tongue, "the bird is taken," 
 admonished his mistress to hasten her return. In the 
 presence of Caled, and of death, the unfortunate Jonas 
 professed his belief in one God and his apostle Maho- 
 met ; and continued, till the season of his martyrdom, 
 to discharge the duties of a brave and sincere mussul- 
 man. When the city was taken, he flew to the monas- 
 tery, where Eudocia had taken refuge ; but the lover 
 was forgotten ; the apostate was scorned ; she prefer- 
 red her religion to her country ; and the justice of Ca- 
 led, though deaf to mercy, refused to detain by force 
 a male or female inhabitant of Damascus. Foiir days 
 was the general confined to the city by the obligation 
 of the treaty, and the urgent cares of his new con- 
 quest. His appetite for blood and rapine would have 
 been extinguished by the hopeless computation of time 
 and distance ; but he listened to the importunities of 
 Jonas, who assured him that the weary fugitives might 
 yet be overtaken. At the head of four thousand horse, 
 in the disguise of christian Arabs, Caled undertook 
 the pursui?. They halted only for the moments of 
 prayer ; and the guide had a perfect knowledge of the 
 country. For a long way the footsteps of the Damas- 
 cenes were plain and conspicuous : they vanished on 
 a sudden ; but the Saracens were comforted by the 
 assurance that the caravan had turned aside into the 
 mountains, and must speedily fall into their hands. In 
 traversing the ridges of the Libanus, they endured in- 
 tolerable hardships, and the sinking spirits of the vete- 
 ran fanatics were supported and cheered by the uncon- 
 querable ardour of a lover. From a peasant of the 
 country, they were informed that the emperor had sent 
 orders to the colony of exiles, to pursue without delay 
 the road of the sea-coast and of Constantinople, ap- 
 prehensive, perhaps, that the soldiers and people of 
 Antioch might be discouraged by the sight and the 
 story of their sufferings. The Saracens were conduc- 
 ted through the territories of Gabala' and Laodicea, 
 at a cautious distance from the walls of the cities ; the 
 rain was incessant, the night was dark, a single moun- 
 tain separated them from the Roman army ; and Caled, 
 ever anxious for the safety of his brethren, whispered 
 an ominous dream in the ear of his companion. With 
 the dawn of day the prospect again cleared, and they 
 saw before them, in a pleasant valley, the tents of Da- 
 mascus. After a short interval of repose and prayer, 
 Caled divided his'cavalry into four squadrons, com- 
 mitting the first to his faithful Derar, and reserving 
 the last for himself. They successively rushed on the 
 promiscuous multitude, insuflSciently provided with 
 arms, and already vanquished by sorrow and fatigue. 
 Except a captive who was pardoned and dismissed, 
 the Arabs enjoyed the satisfaction of believing that 
 not a christian of either sex escaped the edge of their 
 scymitars. The gold and silver of Damascus was 
 scattered over the camp, and a royal wardrobe of three 
 hundred load of silk might clothe an army of naked 
 barbarians. In the tumult of the battle, Jonas sought 
 and found the object of his pursuit; but her resent- 
 ment was inflamed by the last act of his perfidy ; and 
 as Eudocia struggled in his hateful embraces, she 
 struck a dagger to her heart. Another female, the 
 widow of Thomas, and the real or supposed daughter 
 of Heraclius, was spared and released without a ran- 
 som : but the generosity of Caled was the effect of 
 his contempt; and the haughty Saracen insulted, by a 
 message of defiance, the throne of the Caesars. Caled 
 had penetrated above a hundred and fifty miles into 
 the heart of the Roman province : he returned to Da- 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 '4 
 
 T The towns of Gabala and Laodicea, which the Arabs passed, sliH 
 exist In a state of decay. (Maundrell, p. 11, 12. Pocock, vol. ii. P 
 13.) Had not the christians been overtaken, they must have croeaed 
 the Orontes on some bridge in the sixteen miles between A ntiycn 
 and the sea, and might have rejoined the high road of Constantino- 
 ple at Alexandria. iThe Itineraries will represent the direcliool 
 and distancet, (p. 146. 143. 561, &a3. edit. W«fiMUo«.) 
 
 Fairof Abyla. 
 
 xnascus with the same secrecy and speed. On the 
 accession of Omar, the sword of God was removed from 
 the command ; but the caliph, who blamed the rash- 
 ness, was compelled to applaud the vigour and con- 
 duct, of the enterprise. 
 
 Another expedition of the conquerors 
 of Damascus will equally display their 
 avidity and their contempt for the riches of the pre- 
 sent world. They were informed that the produce 
 and manufactures of the country were annually col- 
 lected in the fair of Abyla,* about thirty miles from 
 the city ; that the cell of a devout hermit was visited 
 at the same time by a multitude of pilgrims ; and that 
 the festival of trade and superstition would be enno- 
 bled by the nuptials of the daughter of the governor 
 of Tripoli. Abdallah, the son of Jaafar, a glorious 
 and holy martyr, undertook, with a banner of five hun- 
 dred horse, the pious and profitable commission of 
 despoiling the infidels. As he approached the fair of 
 Abyla, he was astonished by the report of a mighty 
 concourse of Jews and christians, Greeks and Arme- 
 nians, of natives of Syria and of strangers of Egypt, 
 to the number of ten thousand, besides a guard of five 
 thousand horse that attended the person of the bride. 
 The Saracens paused : *• For my own part," said Ab- 
 dallah, " I dare not go back : our foes are many, our 
 danger is great, but our reward is splendid and secure, 
 either in this life or in the life to come. Let every 
 man according to his inclination advance or retire." 
 Not a mussulman deserted his standard. ** Lead the 
 way," said Abdallah to his christian guide, ** and you 
 shall see what the companions of the prophet can per- 
 form." They charged in five squadrons ; but after the 
 first advantage of ihe surprise they were encompassed 
 and almost overwhelmed by the multitude of their 
 enemies ; and their valiant band is fancifully compared 
 to a white spot in the skin of a black camel.* About the 
 hour of sunset, when their weapons dropped from their 
 hands, when they panted on the verge of eternity, they 
 discovered an approaching cloud of dust, they heard the 
 welcome sound of the techir,^ and they soon perceived 
 the standard of Caled, who flew to their relief with 
 the utmost speed of his cavalry. The christians were 
 broken by his attack, and slaughtered in their flight, 
 as far as the river of Tripoli. They left behind them 
 the various riches of the fair ; the merchandises that 
 were exposed for sale, the money that was brought for 
 purchase, the gay decorations of the nuptials, and the 
 governor's daughter, with forty of her female attend- 
 ants. The fruits, provisions, and furniture, the mo- 
 ney, plate, and jewels, were diligently laden on the 
 backs of horses, asses, and mules ; and the holy rob- 
 bers returned in triumph to Damascus. The hermit, 
 after a short and angry controversy with Caled, de- 
 clined the crown of martyrdom, and was left alive in 
 the solitary scene of blood and devastation. 
 Siepes of Heiio. Syria,' one of the countries that have 
 poiis and Erne- been improved by the most early culti- 
 •»,A. D. 635. vation, is not unworthy of the prefer- 
 
 • Dair Abil Kodos. After retrenching the last word, the epithet 
 holy^ I discover the Abila of Lysanias between Damascus and Helio- 
 polis; the name iAbil signifies a vineyard) concurs with the situa- 
 tion to justify my conjecture. (Reland, Palestin. torn, i. p. 317. torn, 
 ii. p. 625. 527.) 
 
 t I am bolder than Mr. Ockley, (vol. i. p. 164.) who dares not in- 
 ■en this figurative expression in the text, though he observes in a 
 marginal note, that the Arabians often borrow their similes from that 
 yaeful and familiar animal. The rein-deer may be equally famous 
 in the songs of the Laplanders. 
 ■ We heard the tecbir ; so the Arabs call 
 
 Their shout of onset, when with loud appeal 
 
 They challenge heaven, as if demanding conquest. 
 This word, so formidable in their holy wars, is a verb active (says 
 Ockley, in his index) of the second conjugation, from Kabbara, 
 which signifies saying Alia Acbar, God is most mighty '. 
 
 X In the geography of Abulfeda, the description of Syria, his native 
 country, is the most interesting and authentic portion. It was pub- 
 lished in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in quarto, with the learned 
 notes of Kochler and Keiske, and some extracts of geography and 
 natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii. Amon" the modern travels, 
 Pocock's Description of the East (of Syria and Mesopoumia, vol. ii. 
 p. 88—209.) is a work of superior learning and dignity ; but the au- 
 thor too often confounds wbat^e had seen and what he had read 
 
 ence.y The heat of the climate is tempered by the 
 vicinity of the sea and mountains, by the plenty of 
 wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil 
 affords the subsistence, and encourages the propagra- 
 lion, of men and animals. From the age of David to 
 that of Heraclius, the country was overspread with 
 ancient and flourishing cities : the inhabitants were 
 numerous and wealthy; and, after the slow ravage of 
 despotism and superstition, after the recent calamities 
 of the Persian war, Syria could still attract and reward 
 the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain of ten days* 
 journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is 
 watered on the western side by the winding course of 
 the Orontes. The hills of Libanus and Anti-Libanus* 
 are planted from north to south, between the Orontes 
 and the Mediterranean ; and the epithet of hollow 
 (Coele-syria) was applied to a long and fruitful valley, 
 which is confined in the same direction by the two 
 ridges of snowy mountains. Among the cities, iwhich 
 are enumerated by Greek and oriental names in the 
 geography and conquest of Syria, we may distinguish 
 Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis and Baalbec, the former 
 as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital 
 of the valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they 
 were strong and populous : the turrets glittered from 
 afar : an ample space was covered with public and 
 private buildings ; and the citizens were illustrious by 
 their spirit, or at least by their pride ; by their riches, 
 or at least by their luxury. In the days of paganism, 
 both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the 
 worship of Baal, or the sun ; but the decline of their 
 superstition and splendour has been marked by a sin- 
 gular variety of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the 
 temple of Emesa, which was equalled in poetic style 
 to the summits of mount Libanus,* while the ruins of 
 Baalbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite 
 the curiosity and wonder of the European traveller.'' 
 The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in 
 lenorth, and one hundred in breadth : the front is adorn- 
 ed with a double portico of eight columns ; fourteen 
 may be counted on either side; and each column, 
 forty-five feet in height, is composed of three massy 
 blocks of stone or marble. The proportions and or- 
 naments of the Corinthian order express the architec- 
 ture of the Greeks ; but as Baalbec has never been 
 the seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how 
 the expense of these magnificent structures could be 
 supplied by private or municipal liberality.* From 
 
 y The praises of Dionrsius are just and lively. K»< mr fur (Syria) 
 weKKot Ti xo(< oKoioi uAe^i ixewo-jv, (in Periegesi, v. 902. in torn. iv. 
 Geograph. Minor Hudson.) In another place he styles the country 
 5roA.u*-Toxii> mi»v. (v. 898.) He proceeds to say, 
 
 nmr» Si t«» KuratfH ti xtn iwdoroj i^rXiro JJ"?"! 
 
 M>|A.ei TI $i(€i/ui*«< x«< iivifiTt *»(frO¥ «igi<y. V. 921, 922. 
 
 This poetical geographer lived in the age of Augustus, and his de- 
 scription of the world is illustrated by the Greek commentary of 
 Eustathius, who paid the same compliment to Homer and Dionyiius. 
 (Fabric. Bibliol. Graec. 1. iv. c. ii. torn. iii. p. 21, &c.) 
 
 g The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus is excellently 
 described by the learning and sense of Reland. (Palastin. torn. i. p. 
 311-326.) 
 
 a Emesae fastigia celsa renident. 
 
 Nam diffusa solo latus explicat ; ac subit auras 
 
 Turribus in coelum niienlibus : incola Claris 
 
 Cor studiisacuit ... 
 
 Denique flammicomo devoti pectora soli 
 
 Vitam agitanl. Libanus frondosa cacumina turget. 
 
 Et tamen bis certant celsi fastigia templi. 
 These verses of the Latin version of Rufus Avienus are wanting in 
 the Greek original of Dionysius; and since they are likewise unno- 
 ticed by Eustathius, I must, with Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin, torn. iii. 
 p. 153. edit. Ernesti) and against Salmasius, (ad Vopiscum, p- 366, 
 367. in Hist. August.) ascribe them to the fancy, rather than to the 
 MSS., of Avienus. ,^ 
 
 b I am much better satisfied with Maundrell's slight octavo, (Jour- 
 nev, p. 134—139.) than with the pompous folio of Dr. Pocock; (De- 
 scr'iption of the 6asl, vol. ii. p. 106-113.) but everv preceding ac- 
 count is eclipsed by the magnificent description and drawinss ol M. 
 M. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into England the ruins 
 of Palmyra and Baalbec. .... ,, , 
 
 c The orientals explain the prodigy by a never-failing expedient. 
 The edifices of Baalbec were constructed by the fairies or the genu. 
 (Hist, de Timour Bee, torn. iii. 1. v. c. 23. p. 311, 312. Voyage d'CH- 
 ter, tom. i. p. 83.) With less absurdity, but with equal ignorance, 
 Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel ascr.be them to the Sabaeans or Aadites. 
 Non sunt in omni Syria aedificia magnificentiora his. (Tabula Syrise, 
 p. 103.) 
 
 • 1 
 
 m 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
230 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 231 
 
 *» 
 
 
 i 
 
 I- 
 
 y'i 
 
 I 
 
 the conquest of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to 
 Heliopolis and Emesa : but I shall decline the repeti- 
 tion of the sallies and combats which have been al- 
 ready shown on a largo scale. In the prosecution of 
 the war, tlieir policy was not less effectual than their 
 sword. By short and separate truces they dissolved 
 the union of the enemy ; accustomed the Syrians to 
 compare their friendship with their enmity ; familiar- 
 ized the idea of their languagre, religion, and manners; 
 and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines 
 and arsenals of the cities which they returned to be- 
 siege. They aggravated the ransom of the more weal- 
 thy, or the more obstinate ; and Chalcis alone was taxed 
 at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces 
 of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as many figs 
 and olives as would load five thousand asses. But 
 the terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully ob- 
 served ; and the lieutenant of the caliph, who had pro- 
 mised not to enter the walls of the captive Baal bee, 
 remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till the 
 jarring factions solicited the interposition of a foreign 
 master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Sy- 
 ria was achieved in less than two years. Yet the com- 
 mander of the faithful reproved the slowness of their 
 progress; and the Saracens, bewailing their fault with 
 tears of rage and repentance, called aloud on their 
 chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the 
 Lord. In a recent action, under the walls of Emesa, 
 an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled, was heard 
 aloud to exclaim, " Methinks I see the black-eyed 
 girls looking upon me; one of whom, should she ap- 
 pear in this world, all mankind would die for love of 
 her. And I see in the hand of one of them, a hand- 
 kerchief of green silk, and a cap of precious stones, 
 and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither quick- 
 ly, for I love thee." With these words, charging the 
 christians, he made havoc wherever he went, till, ob- 
 served at length by the governor of Hems, he was 
 struck through with a javelin. 
 
 Battle of Yermuk I' ^^^ incumbent on the Saracens to 
 A. D. 636. exert the full powers of their valour and 
 November. enthusiasm against the forces of the em- 
 peror, who was taught by repeated losses, that the 
 rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would spee- 
 dily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From 
 the provinces of Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand 
 soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch 
 and Caesarea : the light troops of the army consisted 
 of sixty thousand christian Arabs of the tribe of Gas- 
 aan. Under the banner of Jabalah, the last of their 
 princes, they marched in the van ; and it was a maxim 
 of the Greeks, that, for the purpose of cutting diamond, 
 a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius with- 
 held his person from the dangers of the field ; but his 
 presumption, or perhaps his despondency, suggested a 
 peremptory order, that the fate of the province and the 
 war should be decided by a single battle. The Sy- 
 rians were attached to the standard of Rome and of 
 the cross; but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were 
 exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious 
 host, who oppressed them as subjects, and despised 
 them as strangers and aliens.'' A report of these 
 mighty preparations was conveyed to the Saracens in 
 their camp of Emesa ; and the chiefs, though resolved 
 to fight, assembled a council : the faith of Abu Obei- 
 dah would have expected on the same spot the glory 
 of martyrdom ; the wisdom of Caled advised an hon- 
 ourable retreat to the skirts of Palestine and Arabia, 
 where they might await the succours of their friends, 
 and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy messen- 
 ger soon returned from the throne of Medina, with the 
 blessincrs of Omar and Ali, the prayers of the widows 
 of the prophet, and a reinforcement of eight thousand 
 
 i I have read somewhere in Tacitus, or Groiius, Subjecios habent 
 tamquam suos, vilea tamquam alienoB. Some Greek officers ravished 
 the wife, and murdered the child, of their Sjrian landlord; and Ma- 
 nuel smiled at bis uudutiful compliment. 
 
 Moslems. In their way they overturned a detachment 
 of Greeks, and when they joined at Yermuk the camp 
 of their brethren, they found the pleasing intelligence, 
 that Caled had already defeated and scattered the 
 christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bosra, the springs of mount Hermon de- 
 scend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis, or ten 
 cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has been 
 corrupted to Yermuk, is lost after a short course in the 
 lake of Tiberias.* The banks of this obscure stream 
 were illustrated by a long and bloody encounter. On 
 this momentous occasion, the public voice, and the 
 modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the command to the 
 most deserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his 
 station in the front, his colleague was posted in the 
 rear, that the disorder of the fugitives might be check- 
 ed by his venerable aspect, and the sight of the yellow 
 banner which Mahomet had displayed before the walls 
 of Chaibar. The last line was occupied by the sister 
 of Derar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted 
 in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the 
 bow and the lance, and who in a moment of captivity 
 had defended, against the uncircumcised ravishers, 
 their chastity and religion.' The exhortation of the 
 general was brief and forcible ; " Paradise is before 
 you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear." Yet such 
 was the weight of the Roman cavalry, that the right 
 wing of the Arabs was broken and separated from the 
 main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder, and 
 thrice were they driven back to the charge by the re- 
 proaches and blows of the women. In the intervals 
 of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents of his breth- 
 ren, prolonged their repose by repeating at once the 
 prayers of two different hours ; bound up their wounds 
 with his own hands, and administered the comfortable 
 reflection, that the infidels partook of their sufferings 
 without partaking of their reward. Four thousand 
 and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of 
 battle ; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled 
 seven hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in 
 that meritorious service. The veterans of the Syrian 
 war acknowledged that it was the hardest and most 
 doubtful of the days which they had seen. But it was 
 likewise the most decisive ; many thousands of the 
 Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; 
 many were slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods 
 and mountains ; many, by mistaking the ford, were 
 drowned in the waters of the Yermuk; and however 
 the loss may be magnified,' the christian writers con- 
 fess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins.'' 
 Manuel, the Roman general, was either killed at Da- 
 mascus, or took refuge in the monastery of mount 
 Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah la- 
 mented the manners of Arabia, and his unlucky pre- 
 ference of the christian cause.' He had once inclined 
 
 e See Reland, Palestin. torn. i. p. 272. 283. torn. il. p. 773. 775. This 
 learned professor was equal to the task of describing the Holy Land, 
 since he was alike conrersant with Greek and Latin, with Hebrew 
 and Arabian literature. The Yermuk, or Hieromax, is noticed bj 
 Celarius (Geograph. Antiq. torn. ii. p. 392.) and D'Anville. (Geopra- 
 phie Ancienne, tom. ii, p. 185.) The Arabs, and even Abulfcda him- 
 self, do not seem to recognixe the scene of their victory. 
 
 f These women were of the tribe of the Hamyariies, who derived 
 their origin from the ancient Amalekites. Their females were ac- 
 customed to ride on horseback, and to fight like the Amazons of old. 
 (Ockley, vol. i. p. 67.) 
 
 f We killed or them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph, one hundred 
 and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty thousand. (Ockley, toI. 
 i. p. 241.) As I cannot doubt nis veracity, nor believe his compula- 
 tion, I must suspect that the Arabic historians indulged themselves 
 in tlie practice of composing speeches and letters for their heroes. 
 
 k After deploring the sins of the christians, Theophanes addf 
 (Chronograph, p. 276.) avifii a i(nfn*o( A/^utKn xtutt«» ^f*%( ror x»o» 
 
 x»T» TO r»S.ti»9 K»yu (does he mean Aiznadin 1) i»i lif/<euxar, ««« 
 Ti|v mStfTjuov «rju»Toxurtsr. His account is brief and obscure, but he 
 accuses the numbers of the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud 
 of dust: /*>( JuvifjirTij (the Romans) •tnisrfOff-ajjr^Tai ix^e"*! ^"* ''^^ 
 
 xorte^TOv, »|TTuiirT«i, XM< j«VT9u; ^aKKotr$( ii; r»( ftvefovf too Xi{- 
 
 ftaxiov irormfxiv ixii 3i?r.*xe»To »(^nv. (Chronograph, p. 280) 
 
 i See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 70, 71.) who transcribes the 
 poetical complaint of Jabalah himself, and some panegyrical strains 
 of an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of Gassan sent from Constan- 
 tinople a gift of five hundred pieces ^f gold by the bands of ths am 
 bassador of Omar. 
 
 to the profession of Islam ; but in the pilgrimage of 
 Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his 
 brethren, and fled with amazement from the stern and 
 equal justice of the caliph. The victorious Saracens 
 enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose : 
 the spoil was divided by the dircretion of Abu Obei- 
 dah : an equal share was allowed to a soldier and to 
 his horse, and a double portion was reserved for the 
 noble coursers of the Arabian breed. 
 Conquest of Je- After the battle of Yermuk, the Ro- 
 rusaiem, man army no longer appeared m the 
 A. D. 637. ggij . ^^^ t}^ Saracens might securely 
 
 choose among the fortified towns of Syria, the first 
 object of their attack. They consulted the caliph 
 whether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem ; 
 and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege 
 of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem was the 
 first or second capital of Palestine ; but after Mecca 
 and Medina, it was revered and visited by the devout 
 Moslems, as the temple of the Holy Land which had 
 been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of Jesus, 
 and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian 
 was sent with five thousand Arabs to try the first ex- 
 periment of surprise or treaty ; but on the eleventh 
 day, the town was invested by the whole force of Abu 
 Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to 
 the chief commanders and people of Mlia,^ "Health 
 and happiness to every one that follows the right 
 way! We require of you to testify that there is but 
 one God, and that Mahomet is his apostle. If you 
 refuse this, consent to pay tribute, and be under us 
 forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men against you 
 who love death better than you do the drinking of wine 
 or eating hog's fiesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, 
 if it please God, till I have destroyed those that fight 
 for you, and made slaves of your children." But the 
 city was defended on every side by deep valleys and 
 steep ascents ; since the invasion of Syria, the walls 
 and towers had been anxiously restored ; the bravest 
 of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest 
 place of refuge; and in the defence of the sepulchre 
 of Christ, the natives and strangers might feel some 
 sparks of the enthusiasm which so fiercely glowed in 
 the bosoms of the Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem 
 lasted four months ; not a day was lost without some 
 action of sally or assault; the military engines inces- 
 santly played from the ramparts ; and the inclemency 
 of the winter was still more painful and destructive to 
 the Arabs. The christians yielded at length to the 
 perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch Sophro- 
 nius appeared on the walls, and by the voice of an in- 
 terpreter demanded a conference. After a vain attempt 
 to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph from his im- 
 pious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the peo- 
 ple, a fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, 
 that the articles of security should be ratified by the 
 authority and presence of Omar himself. The ques- 
 tion was debated in the council of Medina ; the sanc- 
 tity of the place, and the advice of Ali, persuaded the 
 caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and ene- 
 mies ; and the simplicity of his journey is more illus- 
 trious than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. 
 The conqueror of Persia and Syria was mounted on a 
 red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of 
 corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern 
 bottle of water. Wherever he halted, the company, 
 without distinction, was invited to partake of his 
 liomely fare, and the repast was consecrated by the 
 prayer and exhortation of the commander of the faith- 
 ful.' But in this expedition or pilgrimage, his power 
 
 k In the name of the city, the profane prevailed over the sacred ; 
 Jerusalem was known to the devout christians; (Euseb. de Martyr. 
 Palest, c. ix.) but the legal and popular appellation of ^lia (the 
 colony of JE.\'v\s Hadrianus) has passed from the Romans to the 
 Arabs. (Reland, Palestin. tom. 1. p. 207. tom. ii. p- 835. D'Herbelot, 
 Bibliotheque Orientale, Coda, p. 269. Ilia, p. 420.) The epithet of 
 Al Coda, the Holy, is used as the proper name of Jerusalem. 
 
 I The singular journey and equipage of Omar are described (be- 
 
 was exercised in the administration of justice : he re- 
 formed the licentious poligamy of the Arabs, relieved 
 the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and chas- 
 tised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them 
 of their rich silks, and dragging them on their faces 
 in the dirt. When he came within sight of Jerusalem, 
 the caliph cried with a loud voice, "God is victorious. 
 O Lord, give us an easy conquest ;" and, pitching his 
 tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on the 
 ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the 
 city without fear or precaution ; and courteously dis- 
 coursed with the patriarch concerning its religious an- 
 tiquities." Sophronius bowed before his new master* 
 and secretly muttered in the words of Daniel, " The 
 abomination of desolation is in the holy place." ■ At 
 the hour of prayer they stood together in the church 
 of the resurrection ; but the caliph refused to perform 
 his devotions, and contented himself with praying on 
 the steps of the church of Constantine. To the patri- 
 arch he disclosed his prudent and honourable motive. 
 " Had I yielded," said Omar, " to your request, the 
 Moslems of a future age would have infringed the 
 treaty under colour of imitating my example." By 
 his command the ground of the temple of Solomoa 
 was prepared for the foundation of a moseh ; "* and, 
 during a residence of ten days, he regulated the pre- 
 sent and future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina 
 might be jealous, lest the caliph should be detained by 
 the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty of Damascus; 
 her apprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and 
 voluntary return to the tomb of the apostle.P 
 
 To achieve what yet remained of the of Aleppo ana 
 Syrian war, the caliph had formed two Antioch, 
 separate armies ; a chosen detachment, A. D. 638. 
 under Amrou and Yezid, was left in the camp of Pa- 
 lestine; while the larger division, under the standard 
 of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched away to the north 
 against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of these, the 
 Beraea of the Greeks, was not yet illustrious as the 
 capital of a province or a kingdom ; and the inhabit- 
 ants, by anticipating their submission and pleading 
 their poverty, obtained a moderate composition for 
 their lives and religion. But the castle of Aleppo,' 
 distinct from the city, stood erect on a lofty artificial 
 mound : the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and 
 faced with free-stone ; and the breadth of the ditch 
 might be filled with water from the neigbouriog springs. 
 After the loss of three thousand men, the garrison was 
 still equal to the defence : and Youkinna, their valiant 
 and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, a holy 
 monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In 
 a siege of four or five months, the hardest of the Sy- 
 rian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed 
 
 sides Ockley, vol. i. p. 250.) by Murtadi. (Marveilles de I'Egypte, p. 
 200-202.) . T , .. 
 
 m The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at Jerusalem, and 
 describing the name, the religion, and the person of Omar, the future 
 conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to have soothed the pride 
 of their foreign masters, Cyrus and Alexander. (Joseph. Ant. Jud, 1. 
 xi.c. 1.8. p. 547. 579-582.) ,. . * 
 
 n To p,Z»\vyi*» tp.; i(iffxu>T$m( to p^5i» Si» ^»vinK tou r^etirrew 
 ifcj i¥ Toirw kytw. Theophan. Chronograph, p. 281. This predic- 
 tion, which had already served for Antiochus and the Romans, was 
 again refitted for the present occasion, by the economy of Sophro- 
 nius, one of the deepest theologians of the Monothelite controversy. 
 
 o According to the accurate survey of D'Anville, (Disseruiion sur 
 Tancienne Jerusalem, p. 42—54.) the mosch of Omar, enlarged and 
 embellished by succeeding caliphs, covered the ground of the an- 
 cient temple, (»rj.xi««o» TOU ftiym>.6\) v»6v J«)ri?av, says Phocas,)a 
 length of 215, a breadth of 172, toiaes. The Nubian geographer d^ 
 Clares, that this magnificent structure was second only in size and 
 beauty to the great mosch of Cordova, (p. 113.) whose present state 
 Mr. Swinburne has so elegantly represented. (Travels into Spain, 
 p. 296-302.) ,, , ,j.,„ ■ 
 
 p Of the many Arabic tarikhs or chronicles of Jerusalem, (D Her- 
 belot, p. 867.) Ockley found one among the Pocock MSS. of Uxtord, 
 (vol. i. p. 257.) which he has used to supply the defective narrative 
 
 of Al Wakidi. ... , « oi « onnx.?- 
 
 q The Persian historian of Timur (torn. in. 1. v. c. 21. p. 300.) de- 
 scribes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock one hundred cubit« 
 in hei'^ht ; a proof, says the French translator, that he had never 
 visited the place. It is now in the midst of the city, of no strength, 
 with a single gate, the circuit is about 500 or 600 paces, and the ditck 
 half full •f stagnant water. (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p. 149. 
 Pocock, vol. iiTpart i. p. 150.) Th« fortresses of ths east are MB-, 
 temptible to a European ©ye. 
 
 1 1 
 
 j 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
832 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XTI. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 238 
 
 u 
 
 
 i 
 
 ♦ 
 
 and wounded : their removal to the distance of a mile 
 oould not seduce the vigilance of Youkinna ; nor could 
 the christians be terrified by the execution of three 
 hundred captives, whom they beheaded before the cas- 
 tle wall. The silence, and at length the complaints, 
 of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope and 
 patience were consumed at the foot of this impregna- 
 ble fortress. ** I am variously affected," replied Omar, 
 '* by the difference of your success ; but I charge you 
 by no means to raise the siege of the castle. Your re- 
 treat would diminish the reputation of our arms, and 
 encourage the infidels to fall upon you on all sides. 
 Remain before Aleppo till God shall determine the 
 event, and forage with your horse round the adjacent 
 country." The exhortation of the commander of the 
 faithful was fortified by a supply of volunteers from 
 all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived in the camp on 
 horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a ser- 
 vile birth, but of gigantic size, and intrepid resolution. 
 The forty-seventh day of his service he proposed, with 
 only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. 
 The experience and testimony of Caled recommended 
 his offer ; and Abu Obeidah admonished his brethren not 
 to despise the baser origin of Dames, since he himself, 
 could he relinquish the public care, would cheerfully 
 serve under the banner of the slave. His design was 
 covered by the appearance of a retreat; and the camp 
 of the Saracens was pitched about a league from Alep- 
 po. The thirty adventurers lay in ambush at the foot 
 of the hill; and Dames at length succeeded in his in- 
 quiries, though he was provoked by the ignorance of 
 his Greek captives. "God curse these dogs," said 
 the illiterate Arab, " what a strange barbarous lan- 
 guage they speak !" At the darkest hour of the night, 
 he scaled the most accessible height, which he had 
 diligently surveyed, a place where the stones were 
 less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the guard 
 less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted 
 on each other's shoulders, and the weight of the col- 
 umn was sustained on the broad and sinewy back of 
 the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascent 
 could grasp and climb the lowest part of the battle- 
 ments : they silently stabbed and cast down the senti- 
 nels ; and the thirty brethren, repealing a pious ejacu- 
 lation, ** O apostle of God, help and deliver us !" were 
 successively drawn up by the long folds of their tur- 
 bans. With bold and cautious footsteps. Dames ex- 
 plored the palace of the governor, who celebrated, 
 in riotous merriment, the festival of his deliverance. 
 From thence, returning to his companions, he assault- 
 ed on the inside the entrance of the castle. They over- 
 powered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the 
 drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the ar- 
 rival of Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their 
 danger and assured their conquest. Youkinna, a for- 
 midable foe, became an active and useful proselyte ; 
 and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard 
 for the most humble merit, by detaining the army 
 at Aleppo till Dames was cured of his'honourable 
 wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by 
 the castle of Azaz and the iron bridge of the Oron- 
 tes. After the loss of these important posts, and the 
 defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury 
 of Antioch' trembled and obeyed. Her safety was 
 ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold ; 
 but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the 
 seat of the Roman government in the east, which had 
 been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and 
 holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke 
 
 r The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is of some Im- 
 portance. By comparing the years of the world in the chronof^raphy 
 of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the history of Elmaci n 
 vre shall determine, that it was taken between January 23d and Sep! 
 lember Ist of the year of Christ 638. (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal 
 lorn. ii. p. 812, 813.) Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. i. p. 314.) assigns that 
 ©vent to Tuesday, August 21st, an inconsistent date ; since Easter 
 fell that year on April 5th, the Slst of August must have been a Fri- 
 day, (bee the Tables of the Art de Verifier les Date*.) 
 
 of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial 
 town.* 
 
 In the life of Heraclius, the glories of FUght of Her*, 
 the Persian war are clouded on 'hither ciius, 
 
 hand by the disgrace and weakness of ^' ^* *^ 
 his more early and his later days. "When the suc- 
 cessors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword of war and 
 religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect 
 of toil and danger; his nature was indolent, nor could 
 the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be kindled to 
 a second effort. The sense of shame, and the importu- 
 nities of the Syrians, prevented his hasty departure 
 from the scene of action ; but the hero was no more ; 
 and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody 
 fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some 
 degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. 
 Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he invol- 
 ved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy 
 for the unity of his will ; and while Heraclius crowned 
 the oflfspring of his second nuptials, he was tamely 
 stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance. 
 In the cathedral of Antioch, in the presence of the 
 bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he bewailed the 
 sins of the prince and people ; but his confession in- 
 structed the world that it was vain, and perhaps im- 
 pious, to resist the judgment of God. The Saracens 
 were invincible in fact, since they were invincible in 
 opinion ; and the desertion of Youkinna, his false re- 
 pentance and repeated perfidy, might justify the sus- 
 picion of the emperor that he was encompassed by 
 traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his 
 person and their country to the enemies of Christ. In 
 the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated 
 by the omens and dreams of a falling crown ; and after 
 bidding an eternal farewell to Syria, he secretly em- 
 barked with a few attendants, and absolved the faith 
 of his subjects.* Constantine, his eldest son, had 
 been stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, 
 the civil metropolis of the three provinces of Pales- 
 tine. But his private interest recalled him to the By- 
 zantine court; and, after the flight of his father, he 
 felt himself an unequal champion to the united force 
 of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by 
 three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, 
 in the depth of winter, had climbed the snowy moun- 
 tains of Libanus, and who were speedily followed by 
 the victorious squadrons of Caled himself. From the 
 north and south the troops of Antioch and Jerusalem 
 advanced along the sea-shore, till their banners were 
 joined under the walls of the Phoenician End of the Sj. 
 cities : Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed ; "an war. 
 and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without 
 distrust the captive harbours, brought a seasonable 
 supply of arms and provisions to the camp of the Sa- 
 racens. Their labours were terminated by the unex- 
 pected surrender of Caesarea: the Roman prince had 
 embarked in the night;" and the defenceless citizens 
 solicited their pardon with an oflfering of two hundred 
 thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the pro- 
 vince, Ramlah, Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapo- 
 lis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, 
 Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute 
 
 • His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful city to assume 
 the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual aera, is given i» A»Tiex«'« t$ 
 
 fiiv)f Tm »v»TOK>,i. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91. edit. Venet. Wo 
 may distinguish his authentic information of Qomcsiic facts from his 
 gross ignorance of general history. 
 
 t See Ockley, (vol. i. p. 308. 312.) who laughs at the credulity of 
 his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to Syria, Vale Syria 
 et ultimum vale, he prophesied that the Romans should never re-en- 
 ter the province till the birth of an inauspicious child, the future 
 scourge of the empire. Abulfeda, p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of 
 the mystic sense, or nonsense, of this prediction. 
 
 u In the loose and obscure chronology of the times,! am guided by 
 an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of Constantine Por- 
 phyrogenitus,) which certifies that, June 4. A. I). 638. the emperor 
 crowned his younger son Heraclius, in the presence of his eldest^ 
 i*^??^5i'"®' * '" ^^® palace of Constantinople; that January 1. 
 A. D. 639. the royal procession visited the great church, and oa tb* 
 4th of the same month, the hippodrome. 
 
 i 
 
 the will of the conqueror ; and Syria bowed under the 
 sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years after Pom- 
 pey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings.* 
 The conqueror* The sieges and battles of six cam- 
 of Syria, paigns had consumed many thousands 
 A. D. 633-639. ^^ ^^^ Moslems. They died with the 
 
 reputation and cheerfulness of martyrs ; and the sim- 
 plicity of their faith may be expressed in the words of 
 an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last 
 time, his sister and mother: **It is not," said he, 
 " the delicacies of Syria, or the fading delights of this 
 world, that have prompted me to devote my life in 
 the cause of religion. But I seek the favour of God 
 and his apostle ; and I have heard from one of the 
 companions of the prophet, that the spirits of the mar- 
 tyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, 
 who shall taste the fruits, and drink of the rivers, of 
 paradise. Farewell, we shall meet again among the 
 groves and fountains which God has provided for his 
 elect." The faithful captives might exercise a pas- 
 sive and more arduous resolution ; and a cousin of 
 Mahomet is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence 
 of three days, the wine and pork, the only nourish- 
 ment that was allowed by the malice of the infidels. 
 The frailty of some weaker brethren exasperated the 
 implacable spirit of fanaticism ; and the father of 
 Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostacy and 
 damnation of a son, who had renounced the promises 
 of God, and the intercession of the prophet, to occupy, 
 with the priests and deacons, the lowest mansions of 
 hell. The more fortunate Arabs, who survived the 
 war, and persevered in the faith, were restrained by 
 their abstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. 
 After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah with- 
 drew his troops from the pernicious contagion of the 
 luxury of Antioch, and assured the caliph that their 
 religion and virtue could only be preserved by the 
 hard discipline of poverty and labour. But the vir- 
 tue of Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind 
 and liberal to his brethren. After a just tribute of 
 praise and thanksgiving, he dropt a tear of compas- 
 sion ; and sitting down on the ground, wrote an 
 answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of 
 his lieutenant: ** God," said the successor of the pro- 
 phet, " has not forbidden the use of the good things 
 of this world to faithful men, and such as have per- 
 formed good works. Therefore you ought to have 
 given them leave to rest themselves, and partake 
 freely of those good things which the country afford- 
 edth. If any of the Saracens have no family in Ara- 
 bia, they may marry in Syria : and whosoever of them 
 wants any female slaves, he may purchase as many as 
 he hath occasion for." The conquerors prepared to 
 use, or to abuse, this gracious permission ; but the 
 year of their triumph was marked by a mortality of 
 men and cattle ; and twenty-five thousand Saracens 
 were snatched away from the possession of Syria. 
 The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the 
 christians ; but his brethren recollected that he was 
 one of the ten elect whom the prophet had named as 
 the heirs of paradise.^ Caled survived his brethren 
 about three years ; and the tomb of the Sword of God 
 is shown in the neighbourhood of Emesa. His 
 valour, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire 
 of the caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a spe- 
 cial providence ; and as long as he wore a cap, which 
 had been blessed by Mahomet, he deemed himself in- 
 vulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels. 
 
 X Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque monumenla sunt 
 Cn. Pompeii viriutis, (Yell. Patercul. ii. 38.) rather of his fortune 
 and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman province, and the 
 last of the Seleucides were incapable of drawing a sword in the 
 defence of their patrimony. (See the original texts collected by 
 Usher, Annal. p. 420.) ' v o 
 
 y Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem, p. 73. Mahomet could artfully vary 
 the praises of his disciples. Of Omar he was accustomed to say, that 
 If a prophet could arise after himself, it would be Omar; and that in 
 a general calamity, Omar would be excepted by the divine justice. 
 (Ockley, vol. i. p. 221.) r / j 
 
 Vol. II 2 E 
 
 The place of the first conquerors was „ , .. 
 
 ,. S , /^ r ..L • Progress of the 
 
 supplied by a new generation ot their Syrian conqu». 
 
 children and countrymen : Syria became ^on, 
 the seat and support of the house of -^ • ». 639-€55* 
 Ommiyah ; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of 
 that powerful kingdom, were consecrated to enlarge 
 on every side the empire of the caliphs. But the 
 Saracens despise a superfluity of fame ; and their his- 
 torians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate 
 conquests which are lost in the splendour and rapidity 
 of their victorious career. To the north of Syria, they 
 passed mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience the 
 province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancient 
 monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second 
 ridge of the same mountains, they spread the flame of 
 war, rather than the light of religion, as far as the shores 
 of the Euxine and the neighbourhood of Constantino- 
 pie. To the east they advanced to the banks and sour- 
 ces of the Euphrates and Tigris : ■ the long-disputed 
 barrier of Rome and Persia was forever confounded ; 
 the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibisr, 
 which had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or 
 Nushirvan, were levelled in the dust ; and the holy 
 city of Abgarus might vainly produce the epistle or 
 the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To 
 the westf the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea : 
 and the ruin of Aradus, a small island or peninsula on 
 the coast was postponed during ten years. But the 
 hills of Libanus abounded in timber; the trade of 
 Phoenicia was populous in mariners ; and a fleet of 
 seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned 
 by the natives of the desert. The imperial navy of 
 the Romans fled before them from the Pamphylian 
 rocks to the Hellespont ; but the spirit of the emperor, 
 a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued before 
 the combat by a dream and a pun.* The Saracens 
 rode masters of the sea ; and the islands of Cyprus, 
 Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were successively exposed 
 to their rapacious visits. Three hundred years be- 
 fore the christian aera, the memorable though fruitless 
 siege of Rhodes *» by Demetrius, had furnished that 
 maritime republic with the materials and the subject 
 of a trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo or the sun, 
 seventy cubits in height, was erected at the entrance 
 of the harbour, a monument of the freedom and the 
 arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six years, the 
 colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake ; 
 but the massy trunk, and huge fragments, lay scatter- 
 ed eight centuries on the ground, and are often descri- 
 bed as one of the wonders of the ancient world. They 
 were collected by the diligence of the Saracens, and 
 sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who is said to 
 have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of 
 the brass metal : an enormous weight, though we 
 should include the hundred colossal figures,' and the 
 three thousand statues, which adorned the prosperity 
 of the city of the sun. 
 
 II. The conquest of Egypt may be 
 explained by the character of the victo- 
 rious Saracen, one of the first of his na- 
 
 ECTPT. 
 
 Character and 
 life of Amrou.. 
 
 t Al Wakidi had likewise written a history of the conquest of 
 Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the second vol.) 
 which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The Chronicle 
 of Dionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records the taking of 
 Edessa, A. D. 637, and of Dara, A. D. 641. (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, 
 tom. ii. p. 103.) and the attentive may glean some doubtful informa- 
 tion from the Chronography of Theophanes, (p. 285—287.) Most of 
 the towns of Mesopotaniiayieldedbyflurrender.(Abulpharag.p.ll2.) 
 
 a. He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless and unmean- 
 ing vision ; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice, understood the sure 
 omen of a defeat concealed in that inauspicious word «»f xKKto vi*tir^ 
 Give to another the victory. (Theophan. p. 286. Zonaras, tom. ii. 1. 
 xiv. p. 88.) . . J 
 
 b Every passage and every fact that relates to the isle, the city, and 
 the colossus of Rhodes, are compiled in the laborious treatise of Meur- 
 sius, who has bestowed the same diligence on the two larger islands 
 of Crete and Cyprus. See in the third vol. of his works, the Rhodus 
 of Meursius, (1. i. c. 15. p. 715—719.) The Byzantine writers, Th©- 
 ophanes and Constantine, have ignorantly prolon^d the term to 1360 
 years, and ridiculously divide the weight among 30,000 camels. 
 
 c Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, sayt Pliny, with hit 
 usual spirit. Hist. Natur. xxxir. 18. - -. - 
 
 I 
 
 !■ 
 
234 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 235 
 
 N 
 '•'i 
 
 lion, in an age when the meanest of the brethTen was 
 exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm. 
 The birth of Amrou was at once base and illustrious : 
 his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide 
 amonw five of the Koreish ; but the proof of resem- 
 blance adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her 
 lovers."* The youth of Amrou was impelled by the 
 passions and prejudices of his kindred ; his poetic 
 genius was exercised in satirical verses against the 
 person and doctrine of Mahomet ; his dexterity was 
 employed by the reigning faction to pursue the reli- 
 pious exiles who had taken refuge in the court of the 
 Ethiopian king.* Yet he returned from this embassy, 
 a secret proselyte; his reason or his interest deter- 
 mined him to renounce the worship of idols ; he esca- 
 ped from Mecca with his friend Caled, and the pro- 
 phet of Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satis- 
 faction of embraoinor the two firmest champions of his 
 cause. The impatience of Amrou to lead the armies 
 of the faithful was checked by the reproof of Omar, 
 who advised him not to seek power and dominion, 
 fiince he who is a subject to-day, may be a prince to- 
 morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the 
 two first successors of Mahomet ; they were indebted 
 to his arms for the conquest of Palestine ; and in all 
 the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the 
 temper of a chief, the valour of an adventurous sol- 
 dier. In a visit to Medina, the caliph expressed a 
 wish to survey the sword which had cut down so 
 many christian warriors : the son of Aasi unsheathed 
 a short and ordinary scymitar; and as he perceived 
 the surprise of Omar, " Alas,*' said the modest Sara- 
 cen, " the sword itself, without the arm of its master, 
 is neither sharper nor more weighty than the sword of 
 Pharezdak the poet."' After the conquest of Egypt, 
 he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman ; 
 but in the subsequent troubles the ambition of a sol- 
 dier, a statesman, and an orator, emerged from a pri- 
 vate station. His powerful support, both in council 
 and in the field, established the throne of the Ommi- 
 ades ; the administration and revenue of Egypt were 
 restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful 
 friend who had raised himself above the rank of a sub- 
 ject; and Amrou ended his days in the palace and city 
 which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His 
 dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Ara- 
 bians as a model of eloquence and wisdom : he de- 
 plored the errors of his youth ; but if the penitent was 
 still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exag- 
 gerate the venom and mischief of his impious compo- 
 sitions.' 
 
 From his camp, in Palestine, Amrou 
 had surprised or anticipated the caliph's 
 leave for the invasion of Egypt.* The 
 magnanimous Omar trusted in his God 
 and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chos- 
 Toes and Caesar : but when he compared the slender 
 force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enter- 
 prise, he condemned his own rashness, and listened to 
 his timid companions. The pride and the greatness 
 
 d We learn this anecdote from a spirited old woman, who reviled 
 to Iheir faces ihe caliph and his friend. She was encouraged by the 
 flilence of Amrou and the liberality of Moawiyah. (Abulfeda, Annal. 
 Moslem, p. 111.) 
 
 e Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. il. p. 46, &c. who quotes the 
 Abyssinian history, or romance of Abdel Balcides. Yet the fact of 
 the embassy and ambassador may be allowed. 
 
 r This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. ad Carmen Tograi, p. 
 184.) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris. (Philosophical Arrange- 
 ments, p. 360.) 
 
 t For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley (Hist, of the 
 Saracens, vol. i. p. 28. 63. 94. 328. 342. 344. and to the end of the vol- 
 mne; vol. ii. p. 51. 55. 57. 74. 110—112. 162.) and Otter. (Mem. de 
 I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 131, 132.) The readers of 
 Tacitus may aptly compare Vespasian and Mucianus, with Moawi- 
 yah and Amrou. Yet the resemblance is still more in the situation, 
 than in the characters, of the men. 
 
 h Al Wakidi had likewise composed a separate history of the con- 
 <iuest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure; and his own 
 inquiries (vol. i. p. 344—362.) have added very little to the original 
 text of Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296—323. vers. Pocock,) the 
 Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived three hundred years 
 after the revolution. 
 
 Invasion of 
 
 Egypt, 
 
 A. D. 638. 
 
 June. 
 
 of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran ; 
 and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely 
 sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of 
 six hundred thousand of the children of Israel: the 
 cities of Egypt were many and populous; their archi- 
 tecture was strong and solid ; the Nile, with its nume- 
 rous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier ; and 
 the granary of the imperial city Would be obstinately 
 defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, 
 the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the 
 decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. 
 At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid 
 Amrou had marched away from his station of Gaza 
 when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar. 
 ** If you are still in Syria," said the ambiguous man- 
 date, *' retreat without delay ; but if, at the receipt of 
 this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of 
 Egypt, advance with confidence, and depend on the 
 succour of God and of your brethren." The experi- 
 ence, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amrou had 
 taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and he 
 continued his march till his tents were unquestionably 
 pitched on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his 
 officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely 
 inquired the name and situation of the place, and de- 
 clared his ready obedience to the commands of the 
 caliph. After a sieje of thirty days, he took posses- 
 sion of Farmah or Pelusium ; and that key of Egypt, 
 as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of 
 the country, as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the 
 neighbourhood of the modern Cairo. 
 
 On the western side of the Nile, at a jhe cities of 
 small distance to the east of the Pyra- Memphis, Baby- 
 mids, at a small distance to the south of ^^"'*"*^ ^'*'^°- 
 the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in 
 circumference, displayed the majjnificence of ancient 
 kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Caesars, 
 the seat of government was removed to the sea-coast; 
 the ancient capital was eclipsed by the arts and opu- 
 lence of Alexandria ; the palaces, and at length the 
 temples, were reduced to a desolate and ruinous con- 
 dition : yet, in the age of Augustus, and even in that 
 of Constantine, Memphis was still numbered amoi.g 
 the greatest and most populous of the provincial cities.' 
 The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of 
 three thousand feet, were united by two bridtfes of six- 
 ty and of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream 
 by the small island of Rouda, which was coveied with 
 gardens and habitations.* The eastern extremity of 
 the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and 
 the camp of a Roman legion, which protected the pas- 
 sage of the river, and the second capital of Egypt. 
 This important fortress, which might fairly be de- 
 scribed as a part of Memphis or Misrah, was invested 
 by the arms of the lieutenant of Omar : a reinfoicement 
 of four thousand Saracens soon arrived in his camp; 
 and the military engines, which battered the walls, 
 may be imputed to the art and labour of his Syrian 
 allies. Yet the siege was protracted to seven months; 
 and the rash invaders were encompassed and threat- 
 ened by the inundation of the Nile.* Their last as- 
 sault was bold and successful : they passed the ditch, 
 which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied 
 
 I Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator, observes of Heliopolis, 
 vutv ftiv euv «f i )rai>i(i|fie( 'n noKtf ; (Geograph. 1. xvii. p. 1153.) but of 
 Memphis he declares, »«*.•; J'ir« fny»K>i n Km iu»»^fo,-, ^»uti;* 
 /uit' Ax.iCMf^fiiM*: (p. 1161.) he notices, however, the mixture of in- 
 habitants, and the ruics of the palaces. In the proper Eeypt, Am* 
 mianus enumerates Meinphis among the four cities, maximis urbibus 
 quibus provincia nitet; (xxii. 16.) r.nd the name of Memphis appears 
 with distinction in the Roman Itinerary and episcopal lists. 
 
 k These rare and curious facts, the breadth (2946 feet) and the 
 bridge of the Nile, are only to be ifound in the Danish traveller and 
 the Nubian geographer, (p. 98.) 
 
 1 From the raonin of April, the Nile begins Imperceptibly to ris^ ; 
 the swell becomes strong and visible in the moon after the summer 
 solstice. (Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 10.) and is usually proclaimed at Cairo 
 on St. Peter's day, (June 29.) A register of thirty successive years 
 marks the greatest height of the waters between July 23. and August 
 18. (Maillet, Description de I'Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67, &;c. Pocock'i 
 Description of the East, vol. i. p. 200. Shaw's Travels, p. 383.) 
 
 I 
 
 "Voluntary sub- 
 mission of the 
 Copts or Jaco- 
 bites, 
 
 A. D. 638. 
 
 their scaling-ladders, entered the fortress with the 
 shout of " God is victorious !" and drove the rem- 
 nant of the Greeks to their boats and the isle of 
 Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the 
 conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf 
 and the peninsula of Arabia: the remains of Memphis 
 were deserted ; the tents of the Arabs were converted 
 into permanent habitations; and the first mosch was 
 blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of 
 Mahomet." A new city arose in their camp on the 
 eastward bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quar- 
 ters of Babylon and Fostat are confounded in their 
 present decay by the appellation of old Misrah, or 
 Cairo, of which they form an extensive suburb. But 
 the name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly 
 belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in 
 the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs." It has 
 gradually receded from the river, but the continuity of 
 buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from the 
 monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin." 
 
 Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and 
 profitable enterprise, must have retreat- 
 ed to the desert, had they not found a 
 powerful alliance in the heart of the 
 country. The rapid conquest of Alexan- 
 der was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the 
 natives : they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the 
 disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples of 
 Egypt, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the 
 flesh of the god Apis.P After a period of ten centuries 
 the same revolution was renewed by a similar cause ; 
 and in the support of an incomprehensible creed, the 
 zeal of the Coptic christians was equally ardent. I 
 have already explained the origin and progress of the 
 Monophysite controversy, and the persecution of the 
 emperors, which converted a sect into a nation, and 
 alienated Egypt from their religion and government. 
 The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the 
 Jacobite church : and a secret and effectual treaty was 
 opened during the siege of Memphis between a victo- 
 rious army and a people of slaves. A rich and noble 
 Egyptian, of the name of Mokawkas, had dissembled 
 his faith to obtain the administration of his province : 
 in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to inde- 
 pendence : the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among 
 princes; but he declined, with rich gifts and ambigru- 
 ous compliments, the proposal of a new religion.*! The 
 abuse of his trust exposed him to the resentment of 
 Heraclius ; his submission was delayed by arrogance 
 and fear ; and his conscience was prompted by interest 
 to throw himself on the favour of the nation and the 
 support of the Saracens. In his first conference with 
 Amrou, he heard without indignation the usual option 
 of the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. " The Greeks," 
 replied Mokawkas, " are determined to abide the de- 
 termination of the sword ; but with the Greeks I desire 
 
 » Murudi, Mervcilles de I'Egypte, 243— 259. He expatiates on 
 the subject with the zeal and minuteness of a citizen and a bigot, 
 and his local traditions have a strong air of truth and accuracy. 
 
 ■ D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233. 
 
 The position of New and of Old Cairo is well known, and has 
 been often described. Two writers, who were intimately acquainted 
 with ancient and modern Egypt, have fixed, after a learned inquiry, 
 the city of Memphis at Gizeh, directly opposite the Old Cairo. 
 <Sicard, Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant, tom. vi. p. 5, 6. 
 Shaw's Observations and Travels, p. 296—304.) Yet we may not dis- 
 regard the authority or the arguments of Pocock, (vol. i. p. 25 — 41.) 
 Niebuhr, (Voyage, tom. i. p. 77—106.) and, above all, of D'Anville, 
 (Description de I'Egypte, p. Ill, 112. 130—149.) who have removed 
 Memphis towards the village of Mohannah, some miles further to 
 the south. In their heat, the disputants have forgot that the ample 
 space of a metropolis covers ana annihilates the far greater part of 
 the controversy. 
 
 P See Herodotus, 1. iii. c. 27, 28, 29. JRVi&n. Hist. Var. 1. iv. c. 8. 
 Suidas in iJxe«, torn. ii. p. 774. Diodor. Sicul. tom. ii. 1. xvii. p. 197. 
 edit. Wesseling. Tmp n,frm¥ ttrifiHuorwp n; t* >*i(M,says the last 
 of these historians. 
 
 q Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with two maids, 
 and one eunuch, an alabaster vase, an ingot of pure gold, oil, honey, 
 and the finest white linen of Egypt, with a horse, a mule, and an 
 ass, distinguished by their respective qualifications. The embassy 
 of Mahomet was despatched from Medina in the seventh year of the 
 Hegira, (A. D. Si-'.) See Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 255, 
 256,303.) from AlJonnabi, ^ ' •» r j 
 
 no communion, either in this world or in the next, and 
 I adjure for ever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of 
 Chalcedon, and his Melchite slaves. For myself and 
 my brethren, we are resolved to live and die in the 
 profession of the gospel and unity of Christ. It is 
 impossible for us to emhrace the revelations of youi 
 prophet ; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully 
 submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal 
 successors." The tribute was ascertained at twc 
 pieces of gold for the head of every christian ; but old 
 men, monks, women, and children, of both sexes, 
 under sixteen years of age, were exempted from this 
 personal assessment : the Copts above and below 
 Memphis swore allegiance to the caliph, and promised 
 an hospitable entertainment of three days to every 
 mussulman who should travel through their country. 
 By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and civil 
 tyranny of the Melchites were destroyed : ' the ana- 
 themas of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; 
 and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of the 
 church, were restored to the national communion of 
 the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the 
 moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing 
 summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged 
 from his desert; and, after the first interview, the cour- 
 teous Arab affected to declare, that he had never con- 
 versed with a christian priest of more innocent man- 
 ners and a more venerable aspect." In the march from 
 Memphis to Alexandria the lieutenant of Omar intrus- 
 ted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyp- 
 tians: the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; 
 and in every step of his progress, he could depend on 
 a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The 
 Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal 
 a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by the uni- 
 versal defection ; they had ever been hated, they were 
 no longer feared : the magistrate fled from his tribunal, 
 the bishop from his altar; and the distant garrisons 
 were surprised or starved by the surrounding multi- 
 tudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready 
 conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have 
 escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or reli- 
 gion, was connected with their odious name. 
 
 By the retreat of the Greeks from the siege and con. 
 provinces of Upper Egypt, a consider- quest of Alex- 
 able force was collected in the island of *"^^"a. 
 Delta ; the natural and artificial channels of the Nile 
 afforded a succession of strong and defensible posts ; 
 and the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared by 
 the victory of the Saracens in two and twenty days of 
 general or partial combat. In their annals of con- 
 quest, the siege of Alexandria* is perhaps the most 
 arduous and important enterprise. The first trading 
 city in the world was abundantly replenished with 
 the means of subsistence and defence. Her numerous 
 inhabitants fought for the dearest of human rights, 
 religion and property ; and the enmity of the natives 
 seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of 
 peace and toleration. The sea was continually open; 
 and if Heraclius had been awake to the public dis- 
 tress, fresh armies of Romans and barbarians might 
 have been poured into the harbour to save the second 
 capital of the empire. A circumference of ten miles 
 
 r The praefecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the war, had been 
 trusted by Heraclius to the patriarch Cyrus. (Theophan. p. 290, 281.) 
 ♦' In Spain," said James II. " do you not consult your priests ?" " We 
 do," replied the catholic ambassador, "and our affairs succeed ac- 
 cordingly." I know not how to relate the plans of Cyrus, of paying 
 tribute without impairing the revenue, and of converting Omar by 
 his marriage with the emperor's daughter. (Nicephor. Breviar, p. 
 17, 18.) 
 
 ■ See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alezan- 
 drin. p. 156—172.) who has enriched the conquest of Egypt with some 
 facts from the Arabic text of Severus the Jacobite historian. 
 
 t The local description of Alexandria is perfectly ascertained by 
 the master hand of the first of geographers; (D'Anville, Memoire 
 sur I'Egypte, p. 52—63.) but we may borrow the eyes of the modem 
 travellers, more especially of Thevenot, (Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 
 381—396) Pocock, (vol. i. p. 2— 13.) and Niebuhr. (Voyage en Arable, 
 tom. i. p. 34—43.) Of the two modern rivals, Savary and Volnej, 
 the one may amuse, the other will insiruct. 
 
 
 i: 
 
 
 i:t 
 
236 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 " ill 
 
 
 would have scattered the forces of the Greeks, and 
 favoured the stratagems of an active enemy ; but the 
 two sides of an oblong square were covered by the 
 sea and the lake Maraeotis, and each of the narrow 
 ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. 
 The eflforts of the Arabs were not inadequate to the 
 difficulty of the attempt and the value of the prize. 
 From the throne of Medina, the eyes of Omar were 
 fixed on the camp and city : his voice excited to arms 
 the Arabian tribes and the veterans of Syria; and the 
 merit of a holy war was recommended by the pecu- 
 liar fame and fertility of Egypt. Anxious for the 
 ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful natives 
 devoted their labours to the service of Amrou ; some 
 sparks of martial spirit were perhaps rekindled by the 
 example of their allies; and the sanguine hopes of 
 Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of 
 St. John of Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch ob- 
 serves, that the Saracens fought with the courage of 
 lions; they repulsed the frequent and almost daily 
 sallies of the besieged, and soon assaulted in their 
 turn the walls and towers of the city. In every at- 
 tack, the sword, the banner of Amrou, glittered in 
 the van of the Moslems. On a memorable day, he 
 was betrayed by his imprudent valour: his followers 
 who had entered the citadel were driven back ; and 
 the general, with a friend and a slave, remained a 
 prisoner in the hands of the christians. When Amrou 
 was conducted before the prsefect, he remembered his 
 dignity, and forgot his situation ; a lofty demeanour, 
 and resolute language, revealed the lieutenant of the 
 caliph, and the battle-axe of a soldier was already 
 raised to strike off the head of the audacious captive. 
 His life was saved by the readiness of his slave, who 
 instantly gave his master a blow on the face, and 
 commanded him, with an angry tone, to be silent in 
 the presence of his superiors. The credulous Greek 
 was deceived ; he listened to the offer of a treaty, and 
 his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more 
 respectable embassy, till the joyful acclamations of 
 the camp announced the return of their general, and 
 insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a 
 siege of fourteen months, '* and the loss of three and 
 twenty thousand men, the Saracens prevailed : the 
 Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished num- 
 bers, and the standard of Mahomet was planted on 
 the walls of the capital of Egypt. **I have taken," 
 said Amrou to the caliph, ** the great city of the west. 
 It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its 
 riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with 
 observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four 
 thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of 
 amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of 
 vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews. 
 The town has been subdued by force of arms, without 
 treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are impatient 
 to seize the fruits of their victory." * The commander 
 of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of pil- 
 lage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth 
 and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and 
 the propagation of the faith : the inhabitants were 
 numbered ; a tribute was imposed ; the zeal and resent- 
 ment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites 
 who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged in 
 the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. 
 The intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous 
 event afflicted the declining health of the emperor; 
 
 u Both Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 319.) and Elmacin (Hist. Sa- 
 racen. p. 28.) conctir in fixing liie taking of Alexandria to Friday of 
 the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth year of the Hegira. 
 (December 22. A. D. 640.) In reckoning backwards fourteen months 
 spent before Alexandria, seven months before Babylon, &c. Amrou 
 might have invaded Egypt about the end of the voar 638: but we are 
 assured, that he entered the country the 12th of Bayni, 6ih of June. 
 (Murtadi, IVIerveilles de I'Egypte, p. 164. Severus, apud Kenaudot, 
 p. 162.) The Saracen, and afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted 
 at Pelusium, or Damietta, during the leacou of the inundation of 
 the Nile. 
 
 X Eutych. Anoal. torn. ii. p. 316. 319. 
 
 and Heraclius died of a dropsy about seven weeks 
 after the loss of Alexandria.^ Under the minority of 
 his grandson, the clamours of a people, deprived of 
 their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court 
 to undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In 
 the space of four years, the harbour and fortifications 
 of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and army 
 of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valour 
 of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic peril 
 from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the 
 facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and 
 the obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, 
 that if a third time he drove the infidels into the sea, 
 he would render Alexandria as accessible on all sides 
 as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to his promise, 
 he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers, 
 but the people were spared in the chastisement of the 
 city, and the mosch oi Mercy was erected on the spot 
 where the victorious general had stopped the fury of 
 his troops. 
 
 I should deceive the expectation of The Alexandrian 
 the reader, if I passed in silence the fate library. 
 of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the 
 learned Abulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou was 
 more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and 
 in his leisure hours, the Arabian chief was pleased 
 with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Am- 
 monius, and who derived the surname of Philoponusy 
 from his laborious studies of grammar and philoso- 
 phy .• Imboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philo- 
 ponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his 
 opinion, contemptible in that of the barbarians ; the 
 royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alex- 
 andria, had not been appropriated by the visit and the 
 seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify 
 the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity 
 refused to alienate the minutest object without the con- 
 sent of the caliph ; and the well-known answer of 
 Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. " If 
 these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of 
 God, they are useless and need not be preserved : if 
 they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be 
 destroyed." The sentence was executed with blind 
 obedience : the volumes of paper or parchment were 
 distributed to the four thousand baths of the city ; and 
 such was their incredible multitude, that six months 
 were barely sufficient for the consumption of this pre- 
 cious fuel. Since the Dynasties of Abulpharagius* 
 have been given to the world in a Latin version, the 
 tale has been repeatedly transcribed ; and every scho- 
 lar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irrepara* 
 hie shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius 
 of antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted 
 to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact 
 is indeed marvellous : *' Read and wonder !" says the 
 historian himself: and the solitary report of a stranger 
 who wrote at the end of six hundred years on the con- 
 fines of Media, is overbalanced by the silence of two 
 annalists of a more early date, both christians, both 
 natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the 
 patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the conquest 
 of Alexandria.** The rigid sentence of Omar is repug- 
 
 J Notwithstanding some inconsistencies of Theophanes and Ce- 
 drenufl, the accuracy of Pa»i (Critica, tom. ii. p. 824.) has extracted 
 from Nicephorus and the Chronicon Orientale the true date of the 
 death of Heraclius, February Uth, A. D. 641. fifty days after the loss 
 of Alexandria. A ifuunh of the time was sufficient to convey the in* 
 tellieence. 
 
 X Many treatises of this lover of labour (c«».ojro»B{) are still ex- 
 tant; but for readers of the present age, the printed and unpublished 
 are nearly in the same predicament. Mcwes and Aristotle are the 
 chief objects of his verbose commentaries, one of which is dated as 
 early as May 10th, A. D. 617. (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. ix. p. 458 
 — 468.) A modern, (John Le Clerc,) who sometimes assumed the 
 same name, was equal to old Fhiloponus in diligence, and far supe- 
 rior in eood sense and real knowledge. 
 
 a Abulpharag. Dynast, p. 114. vers. Focock. Audi quid factum dit 
 et mirare. It would be endless to enumerate the moderns who have 
 wondered and believed, but I may distinguish with honour the ra« 
 tional scepticism of Renaudot : (Hist. Alex. Fatriarch. p. 170.) bis* 
 toria . . . habet aliquid .4nrirrsf, ut Arabibus familiare est. 
 
 b Tbti curiouf anecdote will he vainly fouf bt in the annal< oi 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 237 
 
 k 
 
 nant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mahome- 
 tan casuists : they expressly declare, that the religious 
 books of the Jews and christians, which are acquired 
 by the right of war, should never be committed to the 
 flames; and that the works of profane science, historians 
 or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully 
 applied to the use of the faithful." A more destructive 
 seal may perhaps be attributed to the first successors 
 of Mahomet ; yet in this instance, the conflagration 
 would have speedily expired in the deficiency of mate- 
 rials. I shall not recapitulate the disasters of the 
 Alexandrian library, the involuntary flame that was 
 kindled by Caesar in his own defence,* or the mis- 
 chievous bigotry of the christians who studied to de- 
 stroy the monuments of idolatry.* But if we gradually 
 descend from the age of the Antonines to that of The- 
 odosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary 
 witnesses, that the royal palace and the temple of 
 Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, 
 hundred thousand volumes, which had been assembled 
 by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies.' 
 Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might 
 be enriched with a repository of books ; but if the 
 ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy 
 were indeed consumed in the public baths,* a philoso- 
 pher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately 
 devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret 
 the more valuable libraries which have been involved 
 in the ruin of the Roman empire ; but when I serious- 
 ly compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, 
 and the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than 
 our losses, are the object of my surprise. Many curi- 
 ous and interesting facts are buried in oblivion ; the 
 three great historians of Rome have been transmit- 
 ted to our hands, in a mutilated state, and we are de- 
 prived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, 
 iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we 
 should gratefully remember, that the mischances of 
 time and accident have spared the classic works to 
 which the suffrage of antiquity •* had adjudged the first 
 place of genius and glory : the teachers of ancient 
 knowledge, who are still extant, had perused, and 
 compared the writings of their predecessors ; ' nor can 
 it fairly be presumed that any important truth, any use- 
 ful discovery in art or nature has been snatched away 
 from the curiosity of modern ages. 
 Administration In the administration of Egypt,* Am- 
 of Egypt you balanced the demands of justice and 
 policy ; the interest of the people of the law, who were 
 defended by God ; and of the people of the alliance, 
 
 Eutychius, and the Saracenic history of Elmacin. The silence of 
 Abulfeda, Murudi, and a crowd of Moslems, is less conclusive from 
 their isnorance of christian literature. 
 
 « See Reland, de Jure Militari Mohammedanorum, in his third 
 volume of Dissertations, p. 37. The reason for not burning the reli- 
 gious books of the Jews or christians, is derived from the respect that 
 la due to the name of God. 
 
 d Consult the collections of Frensheim (Supplement. Livian. c. 
 12.43.) and Usher. (Annal. p. 469.) Livy himself had styled the 
 Alexandrian library, elegantia regum curauqua e^regium opes; a 
 liberal encomium, for which he is penly criticised by the narrow 
 stoicism of Seneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 9.) whose wisdom, 
 on this occasion, deviates into nonsense. 
 
 « See this History, p. 467. 
 
 f Aulus Gellius, (Noctes Attica, vi. 17.) Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 xxii. 16.) and Orosius, (I. vi. c. 15.) Thpy all speak in the past 
 tense, and the words of Ammianus are remarkably strong : fuerunt 
 Biblioiheca innumerabiles; et loquitur monumentorum veterum 
 concinens fides, &c. 
 
 % Renaudot answers for versions of the Bible, Hexapla, Catena 
 Patrum, Commentaries, &c. (p. 170.) Our Alexandrian MS. if it 
 came from Egypt, and not from Constantinople or mount Aihos, 
 (Weisteio, Frolegom. ad N. T. p. 8, &c.) might possiblj/ be among 
 them. 
 
 h I have often perused with pleasure a chapter of Quintilian, (In- 
 Btitut. Orator, x. i.) in which that judicious critic enumerates and 
 appreciates the series of Greek and Latin classics. 
 
 i Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c. On this subject Wolton 
 (Reflections on ancient and modern Learning, p. 83-95.) argues with 
 solid sense, against the lively exotic fancies of Sir William Temple. 
 The contempt of the Greeks for Barbaric science, would scarcely 
 admit the Indian or jEihiopic books into the library of Alexandria; 
 nor is it proved that philosophy has sustained any real loss from their 
 exclusion. 
 
 k This curious and authentic intelligence of Murtadi (p. 234— 289.) 
 ha« not been discovered either by Ockley, or by the gelf-sufficient 
 compiler! of the Modern Uoivertal History. 
 
 who were protected by man. In the recent tumult of 
 conquest and deliverance, the tongue of the Copts and 
 the sword of the Arabs were most adverse to the tran- 
 quillity of the province. To the former, Amrou de- 
 clared, that faction and falsehood would be doubly chas- 
 tised ; by the punishment of the accusers, whom he 
 should detest as his personal enemies, and by the pro- 
 motion of their innocent brethren, whom their envy had 
 laboured to injure and supplant. He excited the lat- 
 ter by the motives of religion and honour to sustain the 
 dignity of their character, to endear themselves by a 
 modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph, 
 to spare and protect a people who had trusted to their 
 faith, and to content themselves with the legitimate 
 and splendid rewards of their victory. In the manage- 
 ment of the revenue he disapproved the simple but op- 
 pressive mode of a capitation, and preferred with reason 
 a proportion of taxes, deducted on every branch from 
 the clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A third 
 part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual re- 
 pairs of the dykes and canals, so essential to the pub- 
 lic welfare. Under his administration the fertility of 
 Egypt supplied the dearth of Arabia; and a string of 
 camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered almost 
 without an interval the long road from Memphis to 
 Medina.^ But the genius of Amrou soon renewed the 
 maritime communication which had been attempted or 
 achieved by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Cae- 
 sars; and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was 
 opened from the Nile to the Red sea. This inland 
 navigation, which would have joined the Mediterra- 
 nean and the Indian ocean, was soon discontinued as 
 useless and dangerous : the throne was removed from 
 Medina to Damascus, and the Grecian fleets might have 
 explored a passage to the holy cities of Arabia." 
 
 Of his new conquest, the caliph Omar Riches and pop- 
 had an imperfect knowledge from the uiousness. ^ 
 voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He re- 
 quested that his lieutenant would place before his eyes 
 the realm of Pharaoh and the Amelekites ; and the an- 
 swer of Amrou exhibits a lively and not unfaithful pic- 
 ture of that singular country. ° "0 commander of the 
 faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green 
 plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. 
 The distance from Syene to the sea is a month's jour- 
 ney for a horseman. Along the valley descends a 
 river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes 
 both in the evening and morning, and which rises and 
 falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When 
 the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the 
 springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile 
 rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the 
 realm of Egypt: the fields are overspread by the salu- 
 tary flood ; and the villages communicate with each 
 other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inunda- 
 tion deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of the 
 various seeds : the crowds of husbandmen who blacken 
 the land may be compared to a swarm of industrious 
 ants ; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash 
 of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and 
 fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom 
 deceived ; but the riches which they extract from the 
 wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit- 
 trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between 
 those who labour and those who possess. According 
 to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the coun- 
 
 1 Eutychius, Annal. tom. ii. p. 320. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 3^ 
 m On these obscure canals, the reader may try to satisfy himself 
 from D'Anville, (Mem. sur I'Eeypte, p. 108—110. 124. 132.) anda 
 learned thesis maintained and pi-inted at Sirasburg in the yearl77t3. 
 (Jungendorum mariumfluviorumque molina, p.39 — 47.68 — 70.) Even 
 the supine Turks have agitated the old project of joining the two 
 seas. (Memoiresdu Baron de Toll, tom. i v.) 
 
 n A small volume, des Merveilles, &c. de I'Egypte, composed in 
 the thirteenth century by Murtadi of Cairo, and translated from an 
 Arabic MS. of cardinal Mazarin, was published by Fierre Vatier, 
 Faris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt are wild and legendary; but 
 the writer deserves credit and esteem for his account of the conquest 
 and geography of his native country. (See the correfpondence of 
 Amrou and Omar, p. 279-289.) 
 
 ( ^ 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 238 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 239 
 
 I 
 
 Hi 
 
 •I 
 
 try is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald^ 
 and the deep yellow of a golden harvest."® Yet this 
 beneficial order is sometimes interrupted ; and the long 
 delay and sudden swell of the river in the first year of 
 the conquest miaht afford some colour to an edifying 
 fable. It is said, that the annual sacrifice of a viginP 
 had been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and that 
 the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, 
 till the mandate of the caliph was cast into the obedi- 
 ent stream, which rose in a single night to the height 
 of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for 
 their new conquest encouraged the licence of their ro- 
 mantic spirit. We may read, in the gravest authors, 
 that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand cities 
 or villages:'! that, exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, 
 the Copts alone were found, on the assessment, six 
 millions of tributary subjects,' or twenty millions of 
 either sex, and of every age : that three hundred mil- 
 lions of gold or silver were annually paid to the treasu- 
 ry of the caliph.* Our reason must be startled by 
 these extravagant assertions ; and they will become 
 more palpable, if we assume the compass and measure 
 the extent of habitable ground : a valley from the tro- 
 pic to Memphis, seldom broader than twelve miles, and 
 the triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand 
 one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of 
 the magnitude of France.* A more accurate research 
 will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three 
 hundred millions, created by the error of a scribe, are 
 reduced to the decent revenue of four millions three 
 hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine hun- 
 dred thousand were consumed by the pay of the sol- 
 diers." Two authentic lists, of the present and of the 
 twelfth century, are circumscribed within the respect- 
 able number of two thousand seven hundred villages 
 and towns. * After a long residence at Cairo, a French 
 consul has ventured to assign about four millions of 
 Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, 
 
 o In a twenty years' residence at Cairo, the consul Maillet had 
 contemplated that varying scene, the Nile; <lettre ii. particularly 
 
 S. 70. 75.) the fertility of the land, (lettre ix.) From a college at Cam- 
 ridge, the poetic eye of Grey had seen the same objects with a 
 keener glance : 
 
 What wonder in the sultry climes that spread, 
 Where Nile redundant o'er his summer bed, 
 From his broad bosom life and verdure flings, 
 And broods o'er Egypt with his wat'ry wings; 
 If with advent 'rous oar, and readv sail, , 
 
 The dusky neople Jrive before the gale: ' 
 Or on frail floats to neighbouring cities ride, 
 That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide. 
 
 (Mason's Works, and Memoirs of Gray, p. 199, 200.) 
 p Murtadi, p. 164—167. The reader will not easily credit a human 
 sacrifice under the christian emperors, or a miracle of the successors 
 of Mahomet. 
 
 q Maillet, Description de I'Egypte, p. 22. He mentions this num- 
 ber as the common opinion; and adds, that the generality of these 
 villages contain two or three thousand persons, and that many of 
 them are more populous than our large cilips. 
 
 r Eutych. Annal. tom. li. p. 308. 311. The twenty millions are 
 computed from the following da/a; one-twelfth of mankind above 
 sixty, one-third below sixteen, the proportion of men to women as 
 seventeen to sixteen. (Recherches sur la population de la France, p. 
 71, 72^) The president Goguet (Origine des Arts, &c. tom. iii. p. 26, 
 «c.) bestows twenty-seven millions on ancient Egypt, because the 
 •eve^teen hundred companions ofSesostriswere born on the same day. 
 • fclmacin. Hist. Saracen, p. 218; and this gross lump is swallowed 
 without scruple by D'Herbeloi, (Biblioi. Orient, p. 1031.) Arbuthnot, 
 (tables of ancient Coins, p. 262.) and De Guignes. (Hist, des Huns, 
 lorn. 111. p. 135.) They might allege the not less extravagant libe- 
 rality of Applan in favour of the Ptolemies (in pr»fat.) of seventy- 
 four myriads, 740,000 talents, an annual income of 185, or near 
 JUO, millions of pounds sterling, according as we reckon by the 
 lS\*" Of '^® Alexandrian talent. (Bernard de Ponderibus Antiq. 
 
 t See the measurement of D'Anville. (Mem. sur I'Egypte, p. 23, 
 &c.) After some peevish cavils, M. Pauw (Recherches sur les Egy^ 
 tiens, tom. i. p. 118.— 121.) can only enlarge his reckoning to 2250 
 wiuare leagues. ° 
 
 u Renaudut, Hist. Patriarch. Alexand. p. 334, who calls the com- 
 mon reading or version of Elmacjn, error librarii. His own emen- 
 dation, of 4,3(K),000 pieces, in thP ninth century, maintains a proba- 
 ble medium between the 3,000,000 which the Arabs acquired by the 
 conjiueBl of Egypt, (idem. p. 168.) and the 2,400,000 which the sultan 
 of Cousianiinople levied in the last century. (Pieiro della Valle 
 lorn. i. p. 352; Thevenot, part i. p. 834.) Pauw (Recherches, tom! 
 ii. p. 365—373.) gradually raises the revenue of the Pharaohs, the 
 Ptolemies, and the CsBsars, from six to fifteen millions of German 
 crowns. 
 
 X The list of Schultens, (Index Geoeraph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin. 
 p. 6.) conuins 2396 places ; that of D'A'nviile, (Mem. but rEgypie, p. 
 W.) from th« divaa of Cairo, enumerate* 2696. 
 
 Africa. 
 
 First invasioik 
 
 by Abdallah, 
 
 A. D. M7. 
 
 I though not incredible, scope of the population of 
 Egypt, y 
 
 IV. The conquest of Africa, from the 
 Nile to the Atlantic ocean," was first at- 
 tempted by the arms of the caliph 0th- 
 man. The pious design was approved 
 by the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the 
 tribes ; and twenty thousand Arabs marched from Me- 
 dina, with the gifts and the blessing of the comman- 
 der of the faithful. They were joined in the camp of 
 Memphis by twenty thousand of their countrymen ,*^and 
 the conduct of the war was intrusted to Abdallah,* the 
 son of Said and the foster-brother of the caliph, who 
 had lately supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of 
 Egypt. Yet the favour of the prince, and the merit of 
 his favourite, could not obliterate the guilt of his apos- 
 tasy. The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful 
 pen, had recommended him to the important office of 
 transcribing the sheets of the Koran: he betrayed his 
 trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which he had 
 made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice, and ex- 
 pose the ignorance, of the apostle. After the conquest 
 of Mecca, he fell prostrate at the feet of Mahomet ; his 
 tears, and the entreaties of Othman, extorted a reluc- 
 tant pardon ; but the prophet declared that he had so 
 long hesitated, to allow time for some zealous disciple 
 to avenge his injury in the blood of the apostate. "With 
 apparent fidelity and effective merit, he served the re- 
 ligion which it was no longer his interest to desert: 
 his birth and talents gave him an honourable rank 
 among the Koreish ; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdal- 
 lah was renowned as the boldest and most dexterous 
 horseman of Arabia. At the head of forty thousand 
 Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the unknown 
 countries of the west. The sands of Barca might be 
 impervious to a Roman legion ; but the Arabs were at- 
 tended by their faithful camels; and the natives of the 
 desert beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the 
 soil and climate. After a painful march, they pitched 
 their tents before the walls of Tripoli,*' a maritime city 
 in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants, of 
 the province had gradually centred, and which now 
 maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. 
 A reinforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in 
 pieces on the sea-shore ; but the fortifications of Tripo- 
 li resisted the first assaults ; and the Saracens were 
 tempted by the approach of the prsefect Gregory ,« to re- 
 linquish the labours of the siege for the ^,,3 pr»fect 
 perils and the hopes of a dicisive action. Gregory and his 
 If his standard was followed by one hun- daughter. 
 
 y See Maillet, (Description de I'Egypte, p. 28.) who seems to arguo 
 with candour and judgment. I am much belter satisfied with the 
 observations than with the reading of the French consul. He was 
 Ignorant of Greek and Latin literature, and his fancy is loo much 
 delighted with the fictions of the Arabs. Their best knowledge is 
 collected by Abulfeda; (Deecript. jEgypt. Arab, el Lat. a Joh. David 
 Michaelis, Gotiingae, in4to. ir76.)and in two recent voyages into 
 Egypt, we are amused by Savary, and instructed by Volney. I wish 
 the latter could travel over the globe. 
 
 I My conquest of Africa is drawn from two French interpreters of 
 Arabic literature, Cardonne, (Hist, de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne sous 
 la Domination des Arabes, tom. i. p. 8-55.) and Oiler, (Hist, do 
 1 Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 111—125. and 136.) They 
 derive their principal information from Novairl,whocompo«ed, A.D. 
 1331, an Encyclopedia in more than twenty volumes. The five 
 
 5eneral pans successively treat of, 1. Physics, 2. Man; 3. Animals; 
 . Plants, and 5. History ; and the African affairs are discussed in the 
 sixth chapter of the fifth section of this last part. (Reiske Pro«lidag- 
 mau ad Hagji Chalifae Tabulas, p. 23^—234.) Amons the older his- 
 torians who are quoted by Novairi we may distinguish the original 
 narrative of a soldier who led the van of the Moslems. 
 
 a See the history of Abdallah, in Abulfeda, (Vit. Mohammed, p. 
 109.) and Ga^nier. (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 45—48.) 
 
 b The province and city of Tripoli are described by Leo Africanus, 
 (in Navigatione et Viaggi di Ramusio. mm. i. Venetia, 1560, fol. 76. 
 r«r«o,) and Marmol. (Description de I'Afrique, torn. ii. p. 562.) The 
 first of these writers was a Moor, a scholar, and a traveller, who 
 composed or translated his African geography in a state of captivity 
 at Rome, where he had assumed the name and religion of pope Leo 
 X. In a similar captivity amon^ the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a 
 soldier of Charles V. compiled his Description of Africa, translated 
 by D'Ablancourt into French. (Paris, 1667, 3 vols, in 4lo.) Marmol 
 had read and seen, but he is destitute of the curious and extensive 
 observation which abounds in the original work of Leo the African. 
 
 e Theophanes, who mentions the defeat rather than the death of 
 Gregory. He brands the prsefect with the name of Tv«iir»«; : he kad 
 probably assumed the purple. (Cbronc^raph. p. 2^5.) 
 
 dred and twenty thousand men, the regular bands of 
 the empire must have been lost in the naked and dis- 
 orderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the 
 strength, or rather the numbers, of his host. He re- 
 jected with indignation the option of the Koran or the 
 tribute; and durinjj several days, the two armies were 
 fiercely engaged from the dawn of light to the hour of 
 noon, when their fatigue and the excessive heat com- 
 pelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their 
 respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid 
 of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought 
 ^ by his side : from her earliest youth she was trained to 
 i mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the 
 s<;ymitar ; and the richness of her arms and apparel was 
 conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her 
 hand, with a hundred thousand pieces of gold, was of- 
 fered for the head of the Arabian general, and the youths 
 of Africa were excited by the prospect of the glorious 
 prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, 
 Abdallah withdrew his person from the field; but the 
 Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of their leader, 
 and the repetition of these equal or unsuccessful con- 
 flicts. 
 Victory of the A noble Arabian, who afterwards be- 
 Arab?. came the adversary of Ali, and the father 
 of a caliph, had signalized his valour in Egypt, and 
 Zobeir** was the first who planted a scaling-ladder 
 against the walls of Babylon. In the African war he 
 was detached from the standard of Abdallah. On the 
 news of the battle, Zobeir, with twelve companions, cut 
 his way through the camp of the Greeks, and pressed 
 forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to par- 
 take of the dangers of his brethren. He cast his eyes 
 round the field: "Where," said he, "is our gene- 
 ral?'* "In his tent." "Is the tent a station for the 
 general of the Moslems 1" Abdallah represented with 
 a blush the importance of his own life, and the tempta- 
 tion that was held forth by the Roman praefect. " Re- 
 tort," said Zobeir, "on the infidels their ungenerous 
 attempt. Proclaim through the ranks, that the head 
 of Gregory shall be repaid with his captive daughter, 
 and the equal sum of one hundred thousand pieces of 
 gold." To the courage and discretion of Zobeir the 
 lieutenant of the caliph intrusted the execution of his 
 own stratagem, which inclined the long-disputed bal- 
 ance in favour of the Saracens, Supplying by activity 
 and artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part of their 
 forces lay concealed in their tents, while the remain- 
 der prolonged an irregular skirmish with the enemy, 
 till the sun was high in the heavens. On both sides 
 they retired with fainting steps : their horses were un- 
 bridled, their armour was laid aside, and the hostile 
 nations prepared, or seemed to prepare, for the refresh- 
 ment of the evening, and the encounter of the ensuing 
 day. On a sudden the charge was sounded: the Ara- 
 bian camp poured forth a swarm of fresh and intrepid 
 warriors ; and the long line of the Greeks and Africans 
 was surprised, assaulted, overturned, by new squad- 
 rons of the faithful, who, to the eye of fanaticism, 
 might appear as a band of angels descending from the 
 8l<y. The prsefect himself was slain by the hand of 
 Zobeir : hi.s daughter, who sought revenge and death, 
 Was surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives 
 involved in their disaster the town of Sufetula, to which 
 they escaped from the sabres and lances of the Arabs. 
 Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty miles to the 
 south of Carthage : a gentle declivity is watered by a 
 running stream, and shaded by a grove of juniper trees ; 
 and, in the ruins of a triumphal arch, a portico, and three 
 temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet ad- 
 mire the magnificence of the Romans.* After the fall 
 of this opulent city, the provincials and barbarians im- 
 plored on all sides the mercy of the conqueror. His 
 
 d See in Ockley, (Hist, of me Saracens, vol. ii. p. 45.) the death 
 of Zobeir, which was honoured with the tears of Ali, against whom 
 he had rebelled. His valour at the siege of Babylon, ifindeed it be 
 the same person, is mentioned by Eutychiua. (Annal. torn. ii. p. 308. 
 
 • Shaw's Travels, p. 118, 119. 
 
 vanity or his zeal might be flattered by offers of tribute 
 or professions of faith : but his losses, his fatigues, and 
 the progress of an epidemical disease, prevented a so- 
 lid establishment ; and the Saracens, after a campaign 
 of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of Egypt* 
 with the captives and the wealth of their African expe* 
 dition. The caliph's fifth was granted to a favourite^ 
 on the nominal payment of five hundred thousand pieces 
 of gold ;' but the state was doubly injured by this fal- 
 lacious transaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one 
 thousand, and each horseman three thousand, pieces, 
 in the real division of the plunder. The author of the 
 death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the 
 most precious reward of the victory : from his silence 
 it might be presumed that he had fallen in the battle, 
 till the tears and exclamations of the praefect's daugh- 
 ter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valour and mo- 
 desty of that gallant soldier. The unfortunate virgin 
 was offered, and almost rejected as a slave, by her fa- 
 ther's murderer, who coolly declared that his sword 
 was consecrated to the service of religion ; and that he 
 laboured for a recom pence far above the charms of mor- 
 tal beauty, or the riches of this transitory life. A re- 
 ward congenial to his temper, was the honourable com- 
 mission of announcing to the caliph Othman the suc- 
 cess of his arms. The companions, the chiefs, and 
 the people, were assembled in the mosch of Medina, 
 to hear the interesting narrative of Zobeir; and, as the 
 orator forgot nothing except the merit of his own coun- 
 sels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by 
 the Arabians with the heroic names of Caled and 
 Amrou.' 
 
 The western conquests of the Saracens « >. .. 
 
 1 1 ' ... rrogppss 01 in© 
 
 were suspended near twenty years, till Saracens in Af- 
 
 their dissensions were composed by the ll^Lcoo • 
 
 establishment of the house of Ommiyah ; ^' "' ^^5-€8». 
 and the caliph Moawiyah was invited by the cries of 
 the Africans themselves. The successors of Heraclius 
 had been informed of the tribute which they had been 
 compelled to stipulate with the Arabs; but instead of 
 being moved to pity and relieve their distresses, they 
 imposed, as an equivalent or a fine, a second tribute of 
 a similar amount. The ears of the Byzantine minis- 
 ters Mere shut against the complaints of their poverty 
 and ruin ; their despair was reduced to prefer the do- 
 minion of a single master ; and the extortions of the 
 patriarch of Carthage, who was invested with civil and 
 military power, provoked the sectaries, and even the 
 catholics, of the Roman province to abjure the religion 
 as well as the authority of their tyrants. The first lieu- 
 tenant of Moawiyah acquired a just renown, subdued 
 an important city, defeated an army of thirty thousand 
 Greeks, swept away fourscore thousand captives, and 
 enriched with their spoils the bold adventurers of 
 Syria and Egypt. •» But the title of conqueror of Afri- 
 ca is more justly due to his successor Akbah. He 
 marched from Damascus at the head of ten thousand of 
 the bravest Arabs ; and the genuine force of the Mos- 
 lems was enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion 
 of many thousand barbarians. It would be difilicult, 
 nor is it necessary, to trace the accurate line of the pro- 
 gress of Akbah. The interior regions have been peo- 
 pled by the Orientals with fictitious armies and imagi- 
 nary citadels. In the warlike province of Zab, or Nu- 
 midia, fourscore thousand of the natives might assem- 
 
 f Mimica emptio, says Abulfeda, erai hasc, el mira donatio; quan> 
 doquidem Othman, ejus nomine nummos ex aerario prius ablator 
 aerario prsestabat. (Annal. Moslem, p. 78.) Elmacin (in his cloudy 
 version, p. 39.) seems to report the same job. When the Arab* 
 besieged the palace of Othman, it stood high in their catalogue of 
 grievances. 
 
 *<!) TftiyOfiai TOuTOir Tftirouri XMi reug tvy *urai xrnvoun, Kat> rA'XI- 
 
 «r«»Ti{ ^o(cv( /ttT» Tmv A^fttv inre''^*''' Theophan. Chronograph, 
 p. 285. edit. Paris. His chronolo?y is loose and inaccurate. 
 
 h Theophanes (In Chronograph, p. 293.) inserts the vague rumouw 
 that might reach Constantinople, of the western conquests of the 
 Arabs; and I learn from Paul Warnefrid, deacon of Aquileia,(d» 
 Gestis Lanfobard. 1. v. c. 13.) that at this time ihey sent a fleet from 
 Alexandria into Uie Sicilian and African teaa. 
 
 f 
 
 ^li 
 
^0 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 241 
 
 U ' 
 
 m 
 
 it 
 
 in 
 
 ble in arms ; but the number of three hundred and sixty 
 towns is incompatible with the ignorance or decay of 
 husbandry ; ' and a circumference of three leagues will 
 not be justified by the ruins of Erbe or Lambesa, the 
 ancient metropolis of that inland country. As we ap- 
 proach the sea-coast, the well-known cities of Bugia^ 
 and Tangier* define the more certain limits of the Sar- 
 acen victories. A remnant of trade still adheres to the 
 commodious harbour of Bugia, which, in a more prosper- 
 ous age, is said to have contained about twenty thou- 
 sand houses ; and the plenty of iron which is dug from 
 the adjacent mountains might have supplied a braver 
 people with the instruments of defence. The remote 
 position and venerable antiquity of Tingi, or Tangier, 
 have been decorated by the Greek and Arabian fables ; 
 but the figurative expressions of the latter, that the walls 
 were constructed of brass, and that the roofs were co- 
 vered with gold and silver, may be interpreted as the 
 emblems of strength and opulence. The province of 
 Mauritania Tingitana," which assumed the name of the 
 capital, had been imperfectly discovered and settled by 
 the Romans ; the five colonies were confined to a nar- 
 row pale, and the more southern parts were seldom ex- 
 plored except by the agents of luxury, who searched 
 the forests for ivory and the citron-wood," and the shores 
 of the ocean for the purple shell-fish. The fearless Ak- 
 bah plunged into the heart of the country, traversed 
 the wilderness in which his successors erected the 
 splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco," and at length 
 penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great de- 
 sert. The river Sus descends from the western sides 
 of Mount Atlas, fertilizes, like the Nile, the adjacent 
 soil, and falls into the sea at a moderate distance from 
 the Canary, or Fortunate, islands. Its banks were in- 
 habited by the last of the Moors, a race of savages, 
 without laws, or discipline, or religion: they were as- 
 tonished by the strange and irresistible terrors of the 
 oriental arms ; and as they possessed neither gold nor 
 silver, the richest spoil was the beauty of the female 
 captives, some of whom were afterwards sold for a 
 thousand pieces of gold. The career, though not the 
 zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a bound- 
 less ocean. He spurred his horse into the waves, and 
 raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed with the tone of 
 a fanatic, " Great God ! if my course were not stopped 
 by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown king- 
 doms of the west, preaching the unity of thy holy name, 
 and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who wor- 
 ship any other gods than thee.*'' Yet this Mahome- 
 
 i See Novairi, (apud Otter, p. 118.) Leo Africanus, (fol. 81 verao,) 
 who reckons only cinque citta d infinite easal; Marmol, (Des- 
 cription de I'Afrique, lorn. iii. p. 33.) and Shaw, (Travels, p. 57. 
 65—68.) 
 
 k Leo African, fol. 58. verso, 59. recto. Marmol. torn. ii. p. 415. 
 Shaw, p. 43. 
 
 1 Leo African, fol. 52. Marmol, torn. ii. p. 228. 
 
 m Regio ignobilis, et vix quicquam illustre sortita, parvls oppidis 
 habitatur, parva flumina emittit, solo quam viris molior et segnilie 
 gentis olMcura. Pomponius Mela, {. 5. iii. 10. Mela deserves the 
 more credit, since his own Phoenician ancestors had migrated from 
 Tingitana to Spain. (See, in ii. 6. a passage of that geographer so 
 cruelly tortured by Salmaciius, Isaac Vosaius, and the most virulent 
 of critics, James uronovius.) He lived at the time of the final re- 
 duction of that country by the emperor Claudius; yet almost thirty 
 years afterwards, Pliny (Hist. Nat. v. i.) complains of his authors, 
 to«> lazy to inquire, too proud to confess, their ignorance of that wild 
 and remote province. 
 
 ■ The foolish fashion of this citron-woo*l prevailed at Rome among 
 the men, as much as the taste for pearls among the women. A round 
 board or table, four or five feel in diameter, sold for the price of an 
 estate, (latifundii taxatione,) eii^ht. ten, or twelve thousand pounds 
 sterling. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xiii. 29.) I conceive that I must not 
 confound the tree citrus, with that of the fruit citrum. But I am 
 not botanist enough to define the former (it is like the wild cypress) 
 by the vulgar or Linnaean name; nor will I decide whether the 
 citrum be the orange or the lemon. Salmasius appears to exhaust 
 the subject, but he loo often involves himself in the web of his disor- 
 derly erudition. (Plinian. Exercilat. tom. ii. p. 666, &c.) 
 
 o Leo African, fol. 16. verso. Marmol, tom. ii. p. 28. This pro 
 -vince, the first scene of the exploits and greatness of the chertjg, is 
 often mentioned in the curious history of that dynasty at the end of 
 the third volume of Marmol, Description de I'Afrique. The third 
 ■vol. of the Recherches Hisioriques sur les Maures (lately published 
 at Paris) illustrates the history and geography of the kingdoms of Fez 
 and Morocco. 
 
 p Otter (p. 119.) has given the strong tone of fanaticism to this ex- 
 clamation, which Cardonne (p. 37.) has fofieued to a piouf wish of 
 
 tan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was una- 
 ble to preserve his recent conquests. By the univer- 
 sal defection of the Greeks and Africans, he was recal* 
 led from the shores of the Atlantic, and the surround- 
 ing multitudes left him only the resource of an honour- 
 able death. The last scene was dignified by an ex- 
 ample of national virtue. An ambitious chief, who had 
 disputed the command and failed in the attempt, was 
 led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian ge- 
 neral. The insurgents had trusted to his discontent and 
 revenge ; he disdained their offers and revealed their 
 designs. In the hour of danger, the grateful Akbah 
 unlocked his fetters, and advised him to retire; he chose 
 to die under the banner of his rival. Embracing as 
 friends and martyrs, they unsheathed their scymitars, 
 broke their scabbards, and maintained an obstinate 
 combat, till they fell by each other's side on the last 
 of their slaughtered countrymen. The third general or 
 governor of Africa, Zuheir, avenged and encountered 
 the fate of his predecessor. He vanquished the natives 
 in many battles : he was overthrown by a powerful ar- 
 my, which Constantinople had sent to the relief of Car- 
 thage. 
 
 It had been the frequent practice of the Foundation of 
 Moorish tribes to join the invaders, to Cairoan, 
 share the plunder, to profess the faith, ^* ^* ^^iy-m. 
 and to revolt to their savage state of independence and 
 idolatry, on the first retreat or misfortune of the Mos- 
 lems. The prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an 
 Arabian colony in the heart of Africa; a citadel that 
 might curb the levity of the barbarians, a place of refuge 
 to secure against the accidents of war, the wealth and the 
 families of the Saracens. With this view, and under the 
 modest title of the station of a caravan, he planted this 
 colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its pre- 
 sent decay, Cairoan^ still holds the second rank in the 
 kingdom of Tunis from which it is distant about fifty 
 miles to the south:' its inland situation, twelve miles 
 westward of the sea, has protected the city from the 
 Greek and Sicilian fleets. When the wild beasts and 
 serpents were extirpated, when the forest, or rather 
 wilderness, was cleared, the vestiges of a Roman town 
 were discovered in a sandy plain : the vegetable food 
 of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of 
 springs constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns 
 and reservoirs a precarious supply of rain-water. These 
 obstacles were subdued by the industry of Akbah ; he 
 traced a circumference of three thousand and six hun- 
 dred paces, which he encompassed with a brick wall; 
 in the space of five years, the governor's palace was 
 surrounded with a sufificient number of private habita- 
 tions; a spacious mosch was supported by five hun- 
 dred columns of granite, porphyry, and Numidian mar- 
 ble ; and Cairoan became the seat of learning as well 
 as of empire. But these were the glories of a later 
 age ; the ncv^ colony was shaken by the successive de- 
 feats of Akbah and Zuheir, and the western expeditions 
 were again interrupted by the civil discord of the Ara- 
 bian monarchy. The son of the valiant Zobeir main- 
 tained a war of twelve years, a siege of seven months 
 against the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said to 
 unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtilty of the 
 fox ; but if he inherited the courage, he was devoid of 
 the generosity, of his father. • 
 
 preaching the Koran. Yet they had both the same text of Novairi 
 before their eyes. 
 
 q The foundation of Cairoan is mentioned byOckley; (Hist, of the 
 Saracens, vol. ii. p. 129, 130.) and the situation, mosch, kc. of the 
 city are described by Leo Africanus, (fol. 75.) Marmol, (tom. ii. p. 532.) 
 and Shaw, (p. 115.) 
 
 r A portentous, though frequent, mistake has been the confound- 
 ing, from a slight similitude of name, the Cyrene of the Greeks, anJ 
 the Cairoan of the Arabs, two cities which are separated by an in- 
 terval of a thousand miles along the sea-coast. The great Thuanui 
 has not escaped this fault, the less excusable as it is connected with 
 a formal and elaborate description of Africa, (Historiar. 1. vii. c 2. ia 
 tom. i. p. 240. edit. Buckley.) 
 
 ■ Besides the Arabic chronicles of Abulfeda, Elmacin, and Abul- 
 pharagius, under the seveniy-ihird year of the Hegira, we may con- 
 sult D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient, p. 7.) and Ockley, (Hist, of ihs 
 Saracens, vol. ii. p. 339—349.) The latter haa givea the last and 
 
 Conqueft of The return of domestic peace allowed 
 Carthage, the caliph Abdalmalek to resume the 
 A. D. 692— 69S. conquest of Africa ; the standard was de- 
 livered to Hassan governor of Egypt, and the revenue 
 of that kingdom, with an army of forty thousand men, 
 was consecrated to the important service. In the vi- 
 cissitudes of war, the interior provinces had been al- 
 ternately won and lost by the Saracens. But the sea- 
 coast still remained in the hands of the Greeks; the 
 predecessors of Hassan had respected the name and 
 fortifications of Carthage ; and the number of its de- 
 fenders was recruited by the fugitives of Cabes and 
 i Tripoli. The arms of Hassan were bolder and more 
 i fortunate : he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of 
 m Africa ; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify 
 ) the suspicion that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, 
 the more tedious operation of a regular siege. But the 
 joy of the conquerors was soon disturbed by the ap- 
 pearance of the christian succours. The prefect and 
 patrician John, a general of experience and renown, 
 embarked at Constantinople the forces of the eastern 
 empire:* they were joined by the ships and soldiers 
 of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths" was 
 obtained from the fears and religion of the Spanish mo- 
 narch. The weight of the confederate navy broke the 
 chain that guarded the entrance of the harbour; the 
 Arabs retired to Cairoan, or Tripoli ; the christians lan- 
 ded ; the citizens hailed the ensign of the cross, and the 
 winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory or de- 
 liverance. But Africa was irrecoverably lost : the zeal 
 and resentment of the commander of the faithful* pre- 
 pared in the ensuing spring a more numerous arma- 
 ment by sea and land ; and the patrician in his turn was 
 compelled to evacuate the post and fortifications of 
 Carthage. A second battle was fought in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Utica : the Greeks and Goths were again 
 defeated . and their timid embarkation saved them from 
 the sword of Hassan, who had invested the slight and 
 insufficient rampart of their camp. Whatever yet re- 
 mained of Carthage, was delivered to the flames, and 
 the colony of Dido^ and Ceesar lay desolate above two 
 hundred years, till a part, perhaps a twentieth, of the 
 old circumference was repeopled by the first of the Fa- 
 timite caliphs. In the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the second capital of the west was represented 
 by a mosch, a college without students, twenty-five or 
 thirty shops, and the huts of five hundred peasants, 
 who, in their abject poverty, displayed the arrogance 
 of the punic senators. Even that paltry village was 
 swept away by the Spaniards whom Charles the fifth 
 had stationed in the fortress of the Goletta. The ruins 
 of Carthage have perished ; and the place might be 
 
 pathetic dialogue between Abdallah and his mother: but he has for- 
 poi a physical effect oiher grief for his death, the return, at the age 
 of ninety, and fatal consequences, of her mentea. 
 
 t Ai*trTto; .... •jracvra r« 'F:v/«x<icx t^-ju^A.io'i irX.0 i/tsi, f^otriiyei' 
 Tl iw' «ur««{ IvtXtlVmV TOf \l*T(l1Hi¥ ijUTTHftW Ttov iroKtfjt.iu>v Tf o%««f '• 
 «--4,uivei TTfo; Kx(X^Sov» xmt* ruiv EjiasexJivwv t^nrifx-^if, Niccphori 
 
 Constantinopolitani Breviar. p. 28. The patriarch of Constantino- 
 ple, with Theophanes, (Chronograph, p. 309.) have slightly men- 
 tioned this last attempt for the relief of Africa. Pagi (Critica, tom. 
 iii. p. 129. 141.) has nicely ascertained the chronology by a strict 
 comparison of the Arabic and Byzantine historians, who often disa- 
 gn e both in time and fact. See likewise a note of Otter, (p. 121.) 
 
 u Dove s'erano ridotti i nobili Romanl e i Gotti ; and afterwards, 
 I Romani suggirono e i Gotti, lasciarono Carthagine. (Leo African, 
 fol. 72. recto.) I know not from what Arabic writer the African de- 
 rived his Goths; but the fact, though new, is so interesting and so 
 probable, that I will accept it on the slightest authority. 
 
 » This commander is styled by Nicephorus B«(r*A.iw; ra^KKifi'wt', a 
 ▼acue though not Improper definition of the caliph. Theophanes 
 introduces the strange appellation of n(OTo«ru/u3oA.of, which his in- 
 terpreter Goar explains oy Vizir Axem. They may approach the 
 iruih. In assigning the active part to the minister, rather than the 
 prince; but they forget that the Ommiades had only a kaieb, or se- 
 crelary, and that the office of Vizir was not revived or instituted till 
 the laid year of the Hegira. (D'Herbelot. p. 912.) 
 
 y According to Solinus, (1.27. p. 36. edit. Salmas.) the Carthage of 
 Dido stood either 677 or 737 years; a various reading, which proceeds 
 from the difference of MSS. or editions. (Salmas. Plin. Exercit. tom. 
 1. p. 228.) The former of these accounts, which gives 823 years be- 
 fore Christ, is more consistent with the well-weighed testimony of 
 Velllus Paterculus; but the latter is preferred by our chronologists 
 (Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 398.) u more asreeahlf to the Hebrew 
 and Tyrian annals. 
 
 Vol. n.— 2 F 16 
 
 unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not 
 
 guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller.* 
 
 The Greeks were expelled, but the pj,.,, , ^ 
 A I • A. ^ . /• .1 i'lnal conquer 
 
 Arabians were not yet masters of the of Africa, 
 
 country. In the interior provinces the ^' ^- 698— 70SL 
 Moors or Berhers,*^ so feeble under the first Caesars, so 
 formidable to the Byzantine princes, maintained a dis- 
 orderly resistance to the religion and power of the suc- 
 cessors of Mahomet. Under the standard of their 
 queen Cahina the independent tribes acquired some 
 degree of union and discipline ; and as the Moors respec- 
 ted in their females the character of a prophetess, they 
 attacked the invaders, with an enthusiasm similar to 
 their own. The veteran bands of Hassan were inade- 
 quate to the defence of Africa : the conquests of an age 
 were lost in a single day ; and the Arabian chief, over- 
 whelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines of Egypt, 
 and expected, five years, the promised succours of the 
 caliph. After the retreat of the Saracens, the victo- 
 rious prophetess assembled the Moorish chiefs, and 
 recommended a measure of strange and savage policy, 
 "Our cities, said she, "and the gold and silver which, 
 they contain, perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs. 
 These vile metals are not the objects of oitr ambition ; we 
 content ourselves with the simple productions of the 
 earth. Let us destroy these cities ; let us bury in their 
 ruins those pernicious treasures ; and when the avarice 
 of our foes shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps 
 they will cease to disturb the tranquillity of a warlike 
 people." The proposal was accepted with unanimous 
 applause. From Tangier to Tripoli the buildings, or 
 at least the fortifications, were demolished, the fruit- 
 trees were cut down, the means of subsistence were 
 extirpated, a fertile and populous garden was changed 
 into a desert, and the historians of a more recent peri- 
 od could discern the frequent traces of the prosperity 
 and devastation of their ancestors. Such is the tale 
 of the modern Arabians. Yet I strongly suspect that 
 their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous, 
 and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of barba- 
 rians, has induced them to describe, as one voluntary 
 act, the calamities of three hundred years since the first 
 fury of the Donatists and Vandals. In the progress 
 of the revolt Cahina had most probably contributed 
 her share of destruction ; and the alarm of universal 
 ruin might terrify and alienate the cities that had reluc- 
 tantly yielded to her unworthy yoke. They no lon- 
 ger hoped, perhaps they no longer wished, the return 
 of their Byzantine sovereigns: their present servitude 
 was not alleviated by the benefits of order and justice* 
 and the most zealous catholic must prefer the imper- 
 fect truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry 
 of the Moors. The general of the Saracens was again 
 received as the saviour of the province; the friends of 
 civil society conspired against the sa,vages of the land; 
 and the royal prophetess was slain in the first battle 
 which overturned the baseless fabric of her supersti- 
 tion and empire. The same spirit revived under the 
 successor of Hassan : it was finally quelled by the ac- 
 tivity of Musa and his two sons; but the number of 
 the rebels may be presumed from that of three hun- 
 dred thousand captives; sixty thousand of whom, the 
 
 % Leo African, fol. 71. verso; 72. recto. Marmol, tom. ii. p. 445 — 
 447. Shaw, p. 80. 
 
 a The history of the word Barhar may be classed under four 
 periods. 1. In the time of Homer, when the Greeks and Asiatics 
 might probably use a common idiom, the imitative sound of barbar 
 was applied to the ruder tribes, whose pronunciation w^as most harsh, 
 whose grammar was most defective. Kaj<? B»fi««>Bpvu»'o«. (Iliad, ii. 
 867. with the Oxford scholiast, Clarke's Annotations, and Henry- 
 Stephen's Greek Thesaurus, tom. i. p. 720.) 2. From the time, at 
 least, of Herodotus, it was extended to all the nations who were 
 strangers to the language and manners of the Greeks. 3. In the age 
 of Plautus, the Romans submitted to the insult, (Pompeius Festus, 1. 
 ii. p. 48. edit. Dacier,) and freely gave themselves the name of bar- 
 barians. They insensibly claimed an exemption for Italy, and her 
 subject provinces; and at lensrih removed the disgraceful appella* 
 lion to the savage or hostile nations beyond the pale of the empire. 
 4. In every sense, it was due to the Moors : the familiar word was 
 borrowed from the Latin provincials by the Arabian conquerors, and 
 has justly sealed as • local deaomiaation (Barbary) ftlong the north- 
 ern cowl of Afirica. 
 
 f 
 
 & 
 
 If- 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
242 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XH. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 243 
 
 \.^ 
 
 m\ 
 
 WB ' 
 
 ealiph's fifth, were sold for the profit of the public trea- 
 sury. Thirty thousand of the barbarian youth were 
 enlisted in the troops ; and the pious labours of Musa, 
 to inculcate the knowledge and practice of the Koran, 
 accustomed the Africans to obey the apostle of God 
 and the commander of the faithful. In their climate 
 and government, their diet and habitation, the wander- 
 ing Moors resembled the Bedo weens of the desert. 
 Adoption of the With the religion, they were proud to 
 Moors. adopt the language, name, and origin of 
 ^Arabs: the blood of the strangers and natives was 
 insensibly mingled ; and from the Euphrates to the 
 Atlantic the same nation might seem to be diffused 
 over the sandy plains of Asia and Africa. Yet I will 
 not deny that fifty thousand tents of pure Arabians 
 might be transported over the Nile, and scattered 
 through the Libyan desert ; and I am not igrnorant that 
 five of the Moorish tribes still retain their barbarous 
 idiom, with the appellation and character of white Afri- 
 cans. •' 
 Spam. First V. In the progress of conquest from 
 
 dMiKM'^of^iho ^^® ^^^^^ ^"^ south, the Goths and the 
 Arabs, Saracens encountered each other on the 
 
 A. D.709. confines of Europe and Africa. In the 
 opinion of the latter, the difference of religion is a rea- 
 sonable ground of enmity and warfare.* As early as 
 the time of Othman** their piratical squadrons had rav- 
 aged the coasts of Andalusia ;• nor had they forgotten 
 the relief of Carthage by the Gothic succours. In that 
 age, as well as in the present, the kings of Spain were 
 possessed of the fortress of Ceula; one of the columns 
 of Hercules, which is divided by a narrow strait from 
 the opposite pillar or point of Europe. A small por- 
 tion of Mauritania was still wanting to the African 
 conquest ; but Musa, in the pride of victory, was repul- 
 sed from the walls of Ceuta, by the vigilance and cou- 
 rage of count Julian, the general of the Goths. From 
 his disappointment and perplexity, Musa was relieved 
 by an unexpected message of the christian chief, who 
 offered his place, his person, and his sword, to the 
 successors of Mahomet, and solicited the disjrraceful 
 honour of introducing their arms i nto the heart of Spain.' 
 If we inquire into the cause of his treachery, the Span- 
 iards will repeat the popular story of his daughter Ca- 
 va-j« of a virgin who was seduced, or ravished by her 
 sovereign; of a father who sacrificed his religion and 
 country to the thirst of revenge. The passions of prin- 
 ces have often been licentious and destructive; but 
 this well-known tale, romantic in itself, is indifferent- 
 
 b The first biwk of Leo Africaniis, and the observations of Dr. Shaw, 
 (p. 220. 223. 227. 247, &c.) will throw some light on the roving tribes 
 of Barbary, of Arabian or Moorish descent. But Shaw had seen 
 these savages with distant terror; and Leo, a captive in the Vati- 
 can, appears to have lost more of his Arabic, than he could acquire 
 of Greek or Roman, learning. Many of his gross mistakes might 
 be detected in the first period of the Mahometan history. 
 
 c In a conference with a prince of the Greeks, Amrou observed, 
 that their religion was different; upon which score it was lawful for 
 brothers to quarrel. Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 328. 
 
 d Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem, p. 78. vers. Reiske. 
 
 • The name of Andalusia is applied b^ the Arabs not only to the 
 modern province, but to the whole peninsula of Spain. (Geosraph. 
 Nub. p. 151. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 114, 115.) The etymology 
 has been most improbably deduced from Vandalusia, country of the 
 Vandals. (D'AnviUe, Eiats de I'Europe, p. 146, 147, &c.) But the 
 Handalusia of Casirl, which signifies in Arabic, the region of the 
 evenin?, of the wosi, in a word, the Hesperia of the Greeks, is per- 
 fectly apposite. Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. ii. p. 327, &c. 
 
 t The fall and resurrection of the Gothic monarchy are related by 
 Mariana, (torn. i. p. 238-260. 1, vi. c. 19-26. 1. vii. c. 1,2.) That his- 
 torian has infused into his noble work (Hisloriae de Rebus Hispaniae, 
 libri XXX. Hagae Comitum 1733, in four volumes in folio, with the 
 Continuation of Miniana) the style and spirit of a Roman classic ; 
 anrt after the twelfth century, his knowledge and judgment may be 
 safely trusted. But the Jesuit is not exempt from the prejudices of 
 his order; he adopts and adorns, like his rival Buchanan, the most 
 absurd of the national legends; he is too careless of criticism and 
 chronology, and supplies, from a lively fancy, the chasms of hisiori- 
 cal evidence. These chasms are large and frequent ; Roderic, arch- 
 bishop of Toledo, the father of the Spanish history, lived five hun- 
 dred years after the conquest of the Arabs ; and tiie more early ac- 
 counts are comprised in some meagre lines of the blind chronicles 
 of Isidore of Badajos (Pacensis) and of Alphonso III. King of Leon, 
 which I have seen only in the annals of Pagi. 
 
 « L© viol (says Voltaire) est aussi difficile a faire qu'4 prouver. 
 Des eveaues se seroient-ils lign^s pour une fille 1 (Hisi. Generalo, c. 
 xzvi.) Uiff argumoxki is not logically conclusive. 
 
 ly supported by external evidence ; and the history of 
 Spain will suggest some motives of interest and policy 
 more congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman.^ 
 After the decease or deposition of VVitiza, his two sons 
 were supplanted by the ambition of Roderic, a noble 
 Goth, whose father, the duke or governor state of the 
 of a province, had fallen a victim to the Gothic mon- 
 preceding tyranny. The monarchy was ^'^^^y- 
 still elective; but the sons of Witiza, educated on the 
 steps of the throne, were impatient of a private station. 
 Their resentment was the more dangerous, as it was 
 varnished with the dissimulation of courts: their fol- 
 lowers were excited by the remembrance of favours 
 and the promise of a revolution ; and their uncle Oppas, 
 archbishop of Toledo and Seville, was the first person 
 in the church, and the second in the state. It is pro- 
 bable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of the 
 unsuccessful faction ; that he had little to hope and 
 much to fear from the new reign ; and that the impru- 
 dent king could not forget or forgive the injuries which 
 Roderic and his family had sustained. The merit and 
 influence of the count rendered him a useful or formida- 
 ble subject: his estates were ample, his followers bold 
 and numerous, and it was too fatally shown that, by 
 his Andalusian and Mauritanian commands, he held 
 in his hand the keys of the Spanish monarchy. Too 
 feeble, however, to meet his sovereign in arms, he 
 sought the aid of a foreign power; and his rash invi- 
 tation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities 
 of eight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a per- 
 sonal interview, he revealed the wealth and nakedness 
 of his country; the weakness of an unpopular prince; 
 the degeneracy of an effeminate people. The Goths 
 were no longer the victorious barbarians, who had 
 humbled the pride of Rome, despoiled the queen of 
 nations, and penetrated from the Danube to the Atlan- 
 tic ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenaean 
 mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered in 
 a long peace ; the walls of the cities were mouldered 
 into dust; the youth had abandoned the exercise of 
 arms ; and the presumption of their ancient renown 
 would expose them in a field of battle to the first 
 assault of the invaders. The ambitious Saracen was 
 fired by the ease and importance of the attempt ; but 
 the execution was delayed till he had consulted the 
 commander of the faithful ; and his messenger returned 
 with the permission of Walid to annex the unknown 
 kingdoms of the west to the religion and throne of the 
 caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with 
 secrecy and caution, continued his correspondence and 
 hastened his preparations. But the remorse of the con- 
 spirators was soothed by the fallacious assurance that 
 he should content himself with the glory and spoil, 
 without aspiring to establish the Moslems beyond the 
 sea that separates Africa from Europe.' 
 
 Before Musa would trust an army of Th© first descent 
 tlie faithful to the traitors and infidels of the Arabs, 
 of a foreign land, he made a less dan- A. D. 710. July, 
 gerous trial of their strength and veracity. One hun- 
 dred Arabs, and four hundred Africans, passed over in 
 four vessels, from Tangier, or Ceuta; the place of 
 their descent on the opposite shore of the strait, is 
 
 h In the story of Cava, Mariana (I. vi. c. 21. p. 241, 242.) seems to 
 vie with the Lucretia of Li vy. Like the ancients, he seldom quoies ; 
 and the oldest testimony of Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 713, No. 
 19.) that of Lucas Tudensis, a Gallician deacon of the thirteenth 
 century, only says. Cava quain pro concubina utebatur. 
 
 i The orientals, Elmacin, Abulpharagius, Abulfeda, pass over the 
 conquest of Spain in silence, or with a single word. The text of 
 Novairi, and tne other Arabian writers, is represented, though wiih 
 some foreign alloy, by M. de Cardonne, (Hist, de I'Afririue et de 
 I'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, Paris, 1765, 3 vol. in 12mo, 
 torn. i. p. 55—114.) and more concisely by M. de Guignes. (Hist, des 
 Huns, torn. i. p. 347—350.) The librarian of the Escurial has not 
 satisfied my hopes: yet he appears to have searched with diligence 
 his broken materials; and the history of the conquest is illusfra'ed 
 by some valuable fragments of the genuine Razis, (who wrote at 
 Corduba, A. H. 300.) of Ben Hazil, kc. See Bibliot. Arabico-His 
 pana, torn. ii. p. 32. 105, 106. 182. 252. 319—332, On this occasion 
 the industry of Pagi has been aided by the Arabic learning of his 
 friend the Abb«i de Longuerue, and to their joint labours I am deeplf 
 ludebted. - - -' 
 
 / 
 
 marked by the name of Tarif their chief: and the date 
 of this memorable event*' is fixed to the month of Ram- 
 adan, of the ninety-first year of the Hegira, to the 
 month of July, seven hundred and forty-eight years 
 from the Spanish aera of Caesar,' seven hundred and 
 ten after the birth of Christ. From their first station, 
 they marched eighteen miles through a hilly country 
 to the castle and town of Julian:" on which (it is still 
 called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green 
 Island, from a verdant cape that advances into the 
 sea. Their hospitable entertainment, the christians who 
 joined their standard, their inroad into a fertile and 
 unguarded province, the richness of their spoil, and 
 the safety of their return, announced to their brethren 
 the most favourable omens of victory. In the ensuing 
 spring, five thousand veterans and volunteers were em- 
 barked under the command of Tarik, a dauntless and 
 skilful soldier, who surpassed the expectation of his 
 chief; and the necessary transports were provided by the 
 Their second industry of their too faithful ally. The 
 ^' A^lT^ni Saracens landed ■ at the pillar, or point 
 April. of Europe ; the corrupt and familiar ap- 
 pellation of Gibraltar, {Gebel al Thrik) describes the 
 mountain of Tarik ; and the intrenchments of his camp 
 were the first outline of those fortifications, which, in 
 the hands of our countrymen, have resisted the art and 
 power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent gov- 
 ernors informed the court of Toledo of the descent and 
 progress of the Arabs ; and the defeat of his lieutenant 
 Edeco, who had been commanded to seize and bind 
 the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of 
 the magnitude of the danger. At the royal summons, 
 the dukes, and counts, the bishops and nobles of the 
 Gothic monarchy, assembled at the head of their fol- 
 lowers ; and the title of king of the Romans, which is 
 employed by an Arabic historian, may be excused by 
 the close affinity of language, religion, and manners, 
 between the nations of Spain. His army consisted of 
 ninety or a hundred thousand men ; a formidable pow- 
 er, if their fidelity and discipline had been adequate to 
 their numbers. The troops of Tarik had been aug- 
 mented to twelve thousand Saracens; but the christian 
 malcontents were attracted by the influence of Julian, 
 and a crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the tem- 
 poral blessings of the Koran. In the neighbourhood 
 of Cadiz, the town of Xeres" has been illustrated by 
 and victory, the encounter which determined the fate 
 July 19—26. Qf the kingdom ; the stream of the Gau- 
 dalete, which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, 
 and marked the advancing and retreating skirmishes 
 of three successive and bloody days. On the fourth 
 day, the two armies joined a more serious and decisive 
 issue, but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of 
 his unworthy successor, sustaining on his head a 
 diadem of pearls, encumbered with a flowing robe of 
 
 k A mistake of Roderic of Toledo, in comparing the lunar years of 
 the Hegira with the Julian years of the sera, has determined Baro- 
 nius, Mariana, and the crowd of Spanish historians, to place the first 
 invasion in the year 713, and the battle of Xeres in November 714. 
 This anachronism of three years has been detected by the more cor- 
 rect industry of modern chronologists, above all, of Pagi (Critica, 
 lorn. iii. p. 169. 171—174.) who have restored the genuine date of the 
 revolution. At the present time an Arabian scholar, like Cardonne, 
 who adopts the ancient error, (torn. i. p. 75.) is inexcusably ignorant 
 or careless. 
 
 I The aera of Caesar, which in Spain was in legal and popular use 
 till the fourteenth century, begins thirty-eight years before the birth 
 of Christ. I would refer the origin to the general peace by sea and 
 land, which confirmed the power and partition of the triumvirs. 
 (Dion Cassius, 1. xlviii. p. 547. 553. Appian de Bell. Civil. 1. v. p. 
 I05I edit, fol.) Spain was a province of Caesar Octavian ; and Tar- 
 ragona, which raised the first temple to Augustus, (Tacit. Annal. i. 
 78.) might borrow from the orientals this mode of flattery. 
 
 m The road, the country, the old castle of Count Julian, and the 
 superstitious belief of the Spaniards of hidden treasures, &c. are de- 
 scribed by Pere Labat, (Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, torn. i. p. 
 207—217.) with his usual pleasantry. 
 
 B The Nubian Geographer, (p. 154.) explains the topography of the 
 war; but it is highly incredible that the lieutenant of Musa should 
 execute the desperate and useless measure of burning his ships. 
 
 o Xeres (the Roman colony of Asta Regia) is only two leagues from 
 Cadiz. In the sixteenth century it was a granary of corn ; and the 
 wine of Xeres is familiar to the nations of Europe. (Lud. Nonii 
 Hispania, c. 13. p. 54—56. a work of correct and concise knowledge; 
 D'Anvills, Etau de I'Europe, ate. p. 154.) 
 
 gold and silken embroidery, and reclining on a litter 
 or car of ivory drawn by two white mules. Notwith- 
 standing the valour of the Saracens, they fainted under 
 the weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres wa» 
 overspread with sixteen thousand of their dead bodies. 
 '* My brethren," said Tarik to his surviving compan- 
 ions, " the enemy is before you, the sea is behind : 
 whither would ye fly ? Follow your general : I am 
 resolved either to lose my life, or to trample on the 
 prostrate king of the Romans." Besides the resource 
 of despair, he confided in the secret correspondence and 
 nocturnal interviews of count Julian with the sons and 
 the brother of Witiza. The two princes and the arch- 
 bishop of Toledo occupied the most important post : 
 their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the chris- 
 tians; each warrior was prompted by fear of suspicion 
 to consult his personal safety ; and the remains of the 
 Gothic army were scattered or destroyed in the flight 
 and pursuit of the three following days. Amidst the 
 general disorder, Roderic started from his car, and 
 mounted Orelia, the fleetest of his horses ; but he 
 escaped from a soldier's death to perish more ignobly 
 in the waters of the Bcetis or Guadalquivir. His 
 diadem, his robes, and his courser, were found on the 
 bank ; but as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in 
 the waves, the pride and ignorance of the caliph must 
 have been gratified with some meaner head, which 
 was exposed in triumph before the palace of Dasmas- 
 cus. " And such," continues a valiant historian of 
 the Arabs, " is the fate of those kings who withdraw 
 themselves from a field of batltle."? 
 
 Count Julian had plunged so deep into „ . ,.. r. 
 .. J • r .\.\.\^- 1 L ^ Ruin of the Go- 
 
 guilt and infamy, that his only hope was thic monarchy^ 
 
 in the ruin of his country. After the A. D. 711. 
 battle of Xeres he recommended the most eflfectual 
 measures to the victorious Saracen. " The king of 
 the Goths is slain ; their princes are fled before you, 
 the army is routed, the nation is astonished. Secure 
 with sufficient detachments the cities of Bcetica ; but 
 in person, and without delay, march to the royal city 
 of Toledo, and allow not the distracted christians 
 either time or tranquillity for the election of a new 
 monarch." Tarik listened to his advice. A Roman 
 captive and proselyte, who had been enfranchised by 
 the caliph himself, assaulted Cordova with seven hun- 
 dred horse : he swam the river, surprised the town, and 
 drove the christians into the great church, where they 
 defended themselves above three months. Another 
 detachment reduced the sea-coast of Boetica, which in 
 the last period of the Moorish power has comprised in 
 a narrow space the populous kingdom of Grenada. 
 The march of Tarik from Boetis to the Tagus,*i wat 
 directed through the Sierra Morena, that separates An- 
 dalusia and Castille, till he appeared in arms under the 
 walls of Toledo.' The most zealous of the catholics 
 ! had escaped with the relics of their saints : and if the 
 I gates were shut, it was only till the victor had sub- 
 j scribed a fair and reasonable capitulation. The vol- 
 I untary exiles were allowed to depart with their effects; 
 ' seven churches were appropriated to the christian wor- 
 ship ; the archbishop and his clergy were at liberty to 
 exercise their functions, the monks to practise or neg- 
 lect their penance ; and the Goths and Romans were 
 left in all civil and criminal cases to the subordinate 
 
 P Id sane infortunii regibus pedem ex acie referentibus sape con- 
 tingit. Ben Hazil of Grenada, in Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. ii. 
 p. 327. Some credulous Spaniards believe that king Roderic, or Ro- 
 derigo, escaped to a hermit's cell ; and others, that he was cast alive 
 into a tub full of serpents, from whence he exclaimed, with a lamen- 
 table voice, " they devour the part with which I have bo grievously 
 sinned." (Don Quixote, part ii. 1. iii. c. i.) 
 
 q The direct road from Corduba to Toledo was measured by Mr. 
 Swinburne's mules in 72 1-2 hours ; but a larger computation must 
 be adopted for the slow and devious marches of an army. The Arat>s 
 traversed the province of La Mancha, which the pen of Cervantes 
 has transformed into classic ground to the reader of every nation. 
 
 r The antiquities of Toledo, Urbs Parva in the Punic wars, Urht 
 Regia in the sixth century, are briefly described by Nonius. (His- 
 pania, c. 59. p. 181—186.) He borrows from Koderic the /atale paUi- 
 tium of Moorish portraits; but modestly insinuates that it was no 
 more than a Roman amphitheatre. 
 
 sj. 
 
 !^ 
 
 in 
 
 (■•■ 
 
%u 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XJL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 li '' 
 
 jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates. But 
 if the justice of Tarik protected the christians, his 
 gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whose se- 
 cret or open aid he was indebted for his most impor- 
 tant acquisitions. Persecuted by the kings and synods 
 of Spain, who had often pressed the alternative of 
 banishment or baptism, that outcast nation embraced 
 the moment of revenge : the comparison of their past 
 and present state was the pledge of their fidelity; and 
 the alliance between the disciples of Moses and of 
 Mahomet, was maintained till the final aera of their 
 common expulsion. From the royal seat of Toledo, 
 the Arabian leader spread his conquests to the north, 
 over the modem realms of Castille and Leon ; but it 
 is needless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his 
 approach, or again to describe the table of emerald,* 
 transported from the east by the Romans, acquired by 
 the Goths among the spoils of Rome, and presented 
 by the Arabs to the throne of Damascus. Beyond the 
 Asturian mountains, the maritime town of Gijon was 
 the term* of the lieutenant of Musa, who had perform- 
 ed, with the speed of a traveller, his victorious march, 
 of seven hundred miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to 
 the Bay of Biscay. The failure of land compelled 
 him to retreat: and he was recalled to Toledo, to ex- 
 cuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in the 
 absence of his general. Spain, which, in a more sav- 
 age and disorderly state, had resisted, two hundred 
 years, the arras of the Romans, was overrun in a few 
 months by those of the Saracens ; and such was the 
 eagerness of submission and treaty, that the governor 
 of Cordova is recorded as the only chief who fell, 
 without conditions, a prisoner into their hands. The 
 cause of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in the 
 field of Xeres ; and, in the national dismay, each part 
 of the monarchy declined a contest with the antagonist 
 who had vanquished the united strength of the whole." 
 That strength had been wasted by two successive sea- 
 sons of famine and pestilence ; and the governors, who 
 were impatient to surrender, might exaggerate the 
 difiiculty of collecting the provisions of a siege. To 
 disarm the christians, superstition likewise contributed 
 her tenors : and the subtle Arab encouraged the report 
 of dreams, omens, and prophecies, and of the portraits 
 of the destined conquerors of Spain, that were discov- 
 ered on breaking open an apartment of the royal pal- 
 ace. Yet a spark of the vital flame was still alive : 
 some invincible fugitives preferred a life of poverty 
 and freedom in the Asturian valleys ; the hardy moun- 
 taineer repulsed the slaves of the caliph; and the 
 sword of Pelagius has been transformed into the scep- 
 tre of the catholic kings,* 
 
 Con uefltofSoam ^" *^*^ intelligence of this rapid suc- 
 "by^Musa, cess, the applause of Musa degenerated 
 A. D. 712, 713. into envy; and he began, not to complain, 
 but to fear, that Tarik would leave him nothing to 
 subdue. At the head often thousand Arabs and eight 
 thousand Africans, he passed over in person from 
 Mauritania to Spain : the first of his companions were 
 the noblest of the Koreish : his eldest son was left in 
 command of Africa ; the three younger brethren were 
 
 of an age and spirit to second the boldest enterprises 
 of their father. At his landing in Algezire, he was 
 respectfully entertained by count Julian, who stifled 
 his inward remorse, and testified, both in words and 
 actions, that the victory of the Arabs had not impaired 
 his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet re- 
 mained for the sword of Musa. The tardy repentance 
 of the Goths had compared their own numbers and 
 those of the invaders; the cities from which the march 
 of Tarik had declined, considered themselves as im- 
 pregnable ; and the bravest patriots defended the for- 
 tifications of Seville and Merida. They were succes- 
 sively besieged and reduced by the labour of Musa, 
 who transported his camp from the Bcetis to the Anas, 
 from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When he 
 beheld the works of Roman magnificence, the bridge, 
 the acqueducts, the triumphal arches, and the theatre, 
 of the ancient metropolis of Lusitania, " I should im- 
 agine," said he to his four companions, " that the 
 human race must have united their art and power in 
 the foundation of this city : happy is the man who 
 shall become its master !" He aspired to that happi- 
 ness, but the Emeritans sustained on this occasion the 
 honour of their descent from the veteran legionaries of 
 Augustus.^ Disdaining the confinement of their walls, 
 they gave battle to the Arabs on the plain ; but an am- 
 buscade rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, 
 chastised their indiscretion, and intercepted their re- 
 turn. The wooden turrets of assault were rolled for- 
 wards to the foot of the rampart; hut the defence of 
 Merida was obstinate and long ; and the castle of the 
 martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of the 
 Moslems. The constancy of the besieged was at 
 length subdued by famine and despair; and the pru- 
 dent victor disguised his impatience under the names 
 of clemency and esteem. The alternative of exile or 
 tribute was allowed ; the churches were divided be- 
 
 245 
 
 « In the Historia Arabum (c. 9. p. 17. ad calcem Elmaon) Ro<l"ic 
 of Toledo describes the emerald tables, and inserlB the name of Me- 
 dinat Almeyda, in Arabic words and leiters. He appears to be con- 
 yereant witli the Mahometan writers; but I cannot agree with M. 
 do Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. p. 350.) that he had read and 
 transcribed Novairi ; because he was dead a hundred years before 
 Novairi composed his history. This mistake is founded on a still 
 crosser error. M. de Guignes confounds the historian Koderic Xi- 
 inenes, archbishop of Toledo in the thirteenth century, with cardi- 
 nal Ximenes who governed Spain in the beginning of the sixteenth, 
 and was the subject, not the author, of historical compositions. 
 
 t Tarik might have inscribed on the last rock, the boast of Reg- 
 nard and his° companions in their Lapland journey, " Hie tandem 
 atctimus, nobis ubi defuit orbia." 
 
 u Such was the argument of the traitor Oppas, and every chief to 
 vhom it was addressed did not answer with the spirit of Pelagms: 
 Omnis Hispaniadudum sub uno regimineGothorum,omnis exercitus 
 Hispaniae in uno congregatus Ismaelitarum non valuit sustiuere im- 
 peium. Chron. Alphonsi Regis, apud Pagi, lora. in. p. 177. 
 
 « The revival of the Gothic kingdom in the Asturias is distinctlj 
 though concisely noticed by D'AnviUo. CEut» de I'Europe, p. U9.) 
 
 tween the two religions ; and the wealth of those who 
 had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, was con- 
 fiscated as the reward of the faithful. In the midway 
 between Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa 
 saluted the vicegerent of the caliph, and conducted 
 him to the palace of the Gothic kings. Their first in- 
 terview was cold and formal : a rigid account was 
 exacted of the treasures of Spain : the character of 
 Tarik was exposed to suspicion and obloc^uy ; and the 
 hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignominiously scour- 
 ged by the hand, or the command, of Musa. Yet so 
 strict was the discipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame 
 the spirit, of the primitive Moslems, that, after this 
 public indignity, Tarik could serve and be trusted in 
 the reduction of the Tarragonese province. A mosch 
 was erected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Ko- 
 reish : the port of Barcelona was opened to the ves- 
 sels of Syria; and the Goths were pursued beyond the 
 Pyrenean mountains into their Gallic province of Sep- 
 timania or Languedoc* In the church of St. Mary at 
 Carcassone, Musa found, but it is improbable that he 
 left, seven equestrian statues of massy silver; and 
 from his term or column of Narbonne, he returned on 
 his footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores 
 of the ocean. During the absence of the father, his 
 son Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents of Seville, and 
 reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast of the 
 Mediterranean : his original treaty with the discreet 
 
 
 T The honourable relics of the Cantabrian war (Dion Cassius, I. Im 
 D 720.) were planted in this metropolis of Luaiiania, perhaps oi 
 Spain, (submittit cui tota suoe Hispania fasces.) Nonius (Hispania 
 c 31 P 106-113.) enumerates the ancient structures, but concluaes 
 w'ith'a sigh: Urbs hajc olim nobilissima ad magnam incolarum 
 infrequentiam delapsa est, el prater priscae claritatis rumas ninii 
 
 ""i'^Both the interpreters of Novairi, De Guignes (Hist, des Huns, 
 tom. i. p. 349.) and Cardonne, (Hist, de I'Afrique el de t'Espagn^. 
 torn. I. p. 93, 94. 104, 105.) lead Musa into the Narbonnese Gaul. B''^ 
 I find no mention of this enterprise, either in Roderic of Toledo », or tne 
 MSS. of the Escurial,and ihe invasion of the Saracens is p.^tponeu 
 by a French chronicle till the ninth year after the conquest of S>pa>n 
 A. D. 721. (Pagi, Crilica, tom. lii. p. 177. 195. Historians ol rr*^^ 
 torn, iii.) I much queaiion whether Musa ever pawed the Ff rentes 
 
 and valiant Theodemir » will represent the manners and 
 policy of the times. •* The conditions of peace agreed 
 and stvorn between Mdelaziz, ike son of Musa, ihe son 
 of Nassir, and Theodemir, prince of ihe Goths. In thjB 
 name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes 
 peace on these conditions : that Theodemir shall not 
 be disturbed in his principality ; nor any injury be of- 
 fered to the life or property, the wives and children, 
 the religion and temples, of the christians : that The- 
 odemir shall freely deliver his seven cities, Orihuela, 
 Valentola, Alicant, Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra, (now 
 Bejar,) Ora, (or Opta,) and Lorca : that he shall not 
 assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall 
 faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile 
 designs : that himself, and each of the Gothic nobles, 
 shall annually pay one piece of gold, four measures of 
 wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion of 
 honey, oil, and vinegar ; and that each of their vassals 
 shall be taxed at one moiety of the said imposition. 
 Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the Hegira 
 ninety-four, and subscribed with the names of four 
 mussulman witnesses.""* Theodemir and his subjects 
 were treated with uncommon lenity; but the rate of 
 tribute appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, 
 according to the submission or obstinacy of the chris- 
 tians.* In this revolution, many partial calamities 
 were inflicted by the carnal or religious passions of the 
 enthusiasts; some churches were profaned by the new 
 worship : some relics or images were confounded with 
 idols : the rebels were put to the sword ; and one town 
 (an obscure place between Cordova and Seville) was 
 razed to its foundations. Yet if we compare the in- 
 vasion of Spain by the Goths, or its recovery by the 
 kings of Castille and Arragon, we must applaud the 
 moderation and discipline of the Arabian conquerors. 
 Disgrace of Musa, The exploits of Musa were performed 
 A. D.714. in the evening of life, though he aflfected 
 to disguise his age by colouring with a red powder the 
 whiteness of his beard. But in the love of action and 
 glory, his breast was still fired with the ardour of youth ; 
 and the possession of Spain was considered only as 
 the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With a 
 powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing 
 to repass the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and 
 Italy the declining kingdoms of the Franks and Lom- 
 bards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of 
 the Vatican. From thence, subduing the barbarians 
 of Germany, he proposed to follow the course of the 
 Danube from its source to the Euxine sea, to over- 
 throw the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, 
 and returning from Europe to Asia, to unite his new 
 acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria.** 
 But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution, 
 must have seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and 
 the visionary conqueror was soon reminded of his de- 
 pendence and servitude. The friends of Tarik had 
 effectually stated his services and wrongs: at the 
 
 » Four hundred years after Theodemir, his territories of Murcia and 
 tanhagena retain in the Nubian geographer Edrisi (p. 154. 161.) the 
 "^i^? '•' Tadrair, (D'Anville, Etats de I'Europe, p. 156. Pagi, tom. iii. 
 f^ ^^ *° '■^*' present decay of Spanish agriculture, Mr. Swinburne 
 (Travels into Spain, p. 119.) surveyed with pleasure the delicious 
 Talley from Murcia to Orihuela, four leagues and a half of the finest 
 corn, pulse, lucern, oranges, &c. 
 
 b See the treaty in Arabic and Latin, in the Bibliotheca Arabfco- 
 Mispana, tom. ii. p. 105, 106. It is siined the 4th of the month of 
 Kp^eb, A. H. 94. the 5th of April, A. D. 713. a date which seems to 
 prolong the resistance of Theodemir, and the government of Musa. 
 5 ' ''^"» the history of Sandoval, p. 87. Fleury (Hist. Eccles. tom. 
 '£• P; "^»t.) has given the substance of another treaty concluded A. 
 «•■ t. 732 A. D. 734. between an Arabian chief and the Goths and 
 !V^"'*"»» ^^^ territory of Conimbra in Portugal. The tax of the 
 cnurchM is fixed at twenty-five pounds of gold ; of the monasteries, 
 nuy ; of the cathedrals, one hundred: the christians are judged by 
 vneir count, but in capital cases he must consult the alcaide." The 
 cnurch doors must be shut, and they must respect the name of Ma- 
 il.!? \» i^ ^^y ^^^ original before me; it would confirm or de- 
 rroy a dark suspicion, that the piece has been forged to introduce 
 the immunity of a neighbouring convent. 
 
 /r1 J*"" ^'^'g^'.^hich is attested by several Arabian historians, 
 d»f«? ' ^TV'- P- 1"*' ??'^ ""^y ^« compared with that of Mithri! 
 con! ' T^"^ ("'"" i^® Cr>m»a to Rome ; or with that of Caesar, to 
 conquer the east, and return home by the north ; and all three kre 
 perhaps surpassed by ih« real and succesiful enterprise of HannibaU 
 
 court of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were 
 blamed, his intentions were suspected, and his delay 
 in complying with the first invitation was chastised 
 by a harsher and more peremptory summons. An 
 intrepid messenger of the caliph entered his camp at 
 Lugo in Gallicia, and in the presence of the Saracens 
 and christians arrested the bridle of his horse. His 
 own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated the duty 
 of obedience ; and his disgrace was alleviated by the 
 recall of his rival, and the permission of investing- 
 with his two governments his two sons, Abdallah and 
 Abdelaziz. His long triumph, from Ceuta to Damas- 
 cus, displayed the spoils of Afric and the treasures of 
 Spain : four hundred Gothic nobles, with gold coro- 
 nets and girdles, were distinguished in his train; and 
 the number of male and female captives, selected for 
 their birth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or 
 even at thirty, thousand persons. As soon as ho 
 reached Tiberias in Palestine, he was apprised of the 
 sickness and danger of the caliph, by a private mes- 
 sage from Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir; 
 who wished to reserve for his own reign the spectacle 
 of victory. Had Walid recovered, the delay of Musa 
 would have been criminal : he pursued his march, and 
 found an enemy on the throne. In his trial before a 
 partial judge, against a popular antagonist, he was 
 convicted of vanity and falsehood ; and a fine of two 
 hundred thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his 
 poverty or proved his rapaciousness. The unworthy 
 treatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar indig- 
 nity; and the veteran commander, after a public whip- 
 ping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace 
 gate, till he obtained a decent exile, under the pious 
 name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of 
 the caliph might have been satiated with the ruin of 
 Musa; but his fears demanded the extirpation of a po- 
 tent and injured family. A sentence of death was in- 
 timated with secresy and speed to the trusty servants 
 of the throne both in Africa and Spain ; and the forms, 
 if not the substance, of justice were superseded in this 
 bloody execution. In the mosch or palace of Cordo- 
 va, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of the conspi- 
 rators ; they accused their governor of claiming the 
 honours of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with 
 Egilona, the widow of Roderic, oflfended the preju- 
 dices both of the christians and Moslems. By a re- 
 finement of cruelty, the head of the son was presented 
 to the father, with an insulting question, whether he 
 acknowledged the features of the rebel ? "I know 
 his features," he exclaimed with indignation ; " I as- 
 sert his innocence; and I imprecate the same, a juster, 
 fate, against the authors of his death." The age and 
 despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings; 
 and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken 
 heart. His rival was more favourably treated : his 
 services were forgiven ; and Tarik was permitted to 
 mingle with the crowci of slaves." I am ignorant 
 whether count Julian was rewarded with the death 
 which he deserved indeed, though not from the hands 
 of the Saracens ; but the tale of their ingratitude to 
 the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most unques- 
 tionable evidence. The two royal youths were rein- 
 stated in the private patrimony of their father ; but on 
 the decease of Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjust- 
 ly despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle 
 Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before 
 the caliph Hasheim, and obtained the restitution of 
 her inheritance ; but she was given in marriage to a 
 noble Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, 
 were received in Spain with the consideration that 
 was due to their origin and riches. 
 
 e I much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two Arabic works of 
 the eighth century, a Life of IMusa, and a poem on the exploits of 
 Tarik. Of these authentic pieces, the former was composed by a 
 grandson of Masa, who had escaped from the massacre of bis kin- 
 dred ; the latter, by the vizir of the first Abdalrahman caliph of 
 Spain, who might have conversed with some of the veteran! of th* 
 conqueror. (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 36. 139.) 
 
 t 
 
 

 246 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 Chap. XU. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 247 
 
 til 
 
 •■ <-, 
 
 iiiii 
 
 Prosperity of A province is assimilated to the vic- 
 Spain under torious State by the introduction ot stran- 
 ihe Arabs. ggyg gnj j^e imitative spirit of the na- 
 tives ; and Spain, which had been successively tinc- 
 tured with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood, im- 
 bibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of 
 the Arabs. The first conquerors, and the twenty suc- 
 cessive lieutenants of the caliphs, were attended by a 
 numerous train of civil and military followers, who 
 preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home : the pri- 
 vate and public interest was promoted by the establish- 
 ment of faithful colonies ; and the cities of Spain were 
 proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their 
 eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley 
 bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of 
 Spaniards, their original claim of conquest ; yet they 
 allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their esta- 
 blishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion 
 of Damascus was planted at Cordova ; that of Emesa 
 at Seville ; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis at Jaen ; that 
 of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The 
 natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round 
 Toledo and the inland country, and the fertile seats of 
 Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of 
 Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most 
 noble of the Arabian tribes.' A spirit of emulation, 
 sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was 
 nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years 
 after the conquest, a map of the province was pre- 
 sented to the caliph : the seas, the rivers, and the har- 
 bours, the inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, 
 and the mineral productions of the earth.' In the 
 space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were im- 
 proved by the agriculture,'* the manufactures, and the 
 commerce of an industrious people; and the eflfects of 
 their diligence have been magnified by the idleness of 
 their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned 
 in Spain solicited the support of the christians; and, in 
 his edict of peace and protection, he contents himself 
 with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces of 
 gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand hor- 
 ses, as many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an 
 equal number of helmets and lances.' The most pow- 
 erful of his successors derived from the same kingdom 
 the annual tribute of twelve millions and forty-five 
 thousand dinars of pieces of gold, about six millions 
 of sterling money ;^ a sum which, in the tenth cen- 
 tury, most probably surpassed the united revenues of 
 the christian monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova 
 contained six hundred moschs, nine hundred baths, 
 and two hundred thousand houses: he gave laws to 
 eighty cities of the first, to three hundred of the second 
 and third, order; and the fertile banks of the Guadal- 
 quivir were adorned with twelve thousand villages and 
 
 f Bibllot. Arab.-Hispana, lorn. ii. p. 32. 252. The former of these 
 quolalions is taken from a Biographia Hispaniea, by an Arabian of 
 Valenlia; (see the copious Extracts of Casiri, tom. ii. p. 30 — 121.) 
 and the latter from a general Chronology of the Caliphs, and of the 
 African and Spanish Dynasties, with" a particular History of the 
 Kingdom of Grenada, of which Casiri has giren almost an entire 
 Tersion. (Bibliol. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 177—319.) The author, 
 Ebn KhaiPb, a natite of Grenada, and a contemporary of Norairi 
 and Abulfeda, (born A. D. 1313, died A. D. 1374.) was an historian, 
 geographer, physician, poet, &c. (tom. ii. p. 71, 72.) 
 
 g Cardonne, Hist, de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, tom. i. p. 116, 117. 
 
 h A copious treatise on husbandry, by an Arabian of Seville, in 
 the twelfth century, is in the Escurial library, and Casiri had some 
 thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of the authors quoted, 
 AralM, as well as Greeks, Latins, fcc. ; but it is much if the Andalu- 
 lian saw these strangers through the medium of his countryman 
 Columella. (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 323— 3Sfe.) 
 
 i Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. ii. p. 104. Casiri translates the 
 original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it is alleged in the Ara- 
 bic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. Bui I am most exceedingly sur- 
 prised at the address, Principibus caterisque Chrisiianis Hispania 
 8uis CasteUa. The name of Castella was unknown in the eighth 
 century, the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022, a hundred 
 years after the time of Rasis, (Bibliot. tom. ii. p. 330) and the appel- 
 lation wais always expressive, not of a tributary province, but of a 
 line of castles independent of the Moorish yoke. (D'Anville, Etats 
 de I'Europe, p. 166—170.) Had Casiri been a critic, he would have 
 cleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making. 
 
 k Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at 
 130,000,000 of French livres. The entire picture of peace and pros- 
 perity reltvves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish anuals. 
 
 hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, bu 
 they created, and they describe, the most prosperous 
 aera of the riches, the cultivation, and the populous- 
 ness of Spain.* 
 
 The wars of the Moslems were sane- Religious tol©. 
 tified by the prophet; but, among the rai>"n- 
 
 various precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs 
 selected the lessons of toleration that might tend to 
 disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was 
 the temple and patrimony of the God of Mahomet; 
 but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the na- 
 tions of the earth. The polytheists and idolaters, who 
 were ignorant of his name, might be lawfully extir- 
 pated by his votaries;" but a wise policy supplied the 
 obligation of justice; and after some acts of intole- 
 rant zeal, the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan 
 have spared the pagods of that devout and populous 
 country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and 
 of Jesus, were solemnly invited to accept the more 
 perfect revelation of Mahomet ; but if they preferred 
 the payment of a moderate tribute, they were entitled 
 to the freedom of conscience and religious worship.' 
 In a field of battle, the forfeit lives of Propagation of 
 the prisoners were redeemed by the pro- Mahomensm. 
 fession of hlam ; the females were bound to embrace 
 the religion of their masters, and a race of sincere 
 proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education 
 of the infant captives. But the millions of Asiatic and 
 African converts, who swelled the native band of the 
 faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than 
 constrained, to declare their belief in one God and the 
 apostle of God. By the repetition of a sentence, and 
 the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the cap- 
 tive or the criminal, arose in a moment the free and 
 equal companion of the victorious Moslems. Every 
 sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved 
 the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence 
 of nature ; the active spirits who slept in the cloister 
 were awakened by the trumpet of the Saracens ; and 
 in the convulsion of the world, every member of a new 
 society ascended to the natural level of his capacity and 
 courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by 
 the invisible as well as temporal blessings of the Ara- 
 bian prophet ; and charity will hope that many of his 
 proselytes entertained a serious conviction of the truth 
 and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an in- 
 quisitive polytheist, it must appear worthy of the hu- 
 man and the divine nature. More pure than the sys- 
 tem of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law of Moses, 
 the religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent 
 with reason, than the creed of mystery and supersti- 
 tion, which, in the seventh century, disgraced the sim- 
 plicity of the gospel. 
 
 In the extensive provinces of Persia Fall of the Mt- 
 and Africa, the national religion has gians of Persia. 
 been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The ambi- 
 guous theology of the Magi stood alone among the 
 sects of the east ; but the profane writings of Zoroas- 
 ter" might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be 
 
 1 I am happy enough to possess a splendid and interesting work 
 which has only been distributed in presents by the court of Madrid: 
 Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Eseurialensis, opera et $tudio M- 
 chaelis Casiri, Syro-Maronit^t : Matriti, in folio, tomua prior. 
 1760. tomus posterior, 1770. The execution of this work does hon- 
 our to the Spanish press ; the MSS. to the number of mdcccli, are 
 judiciously classed by the editor, and his copious extracts throw 
 some light on the Mahometan literature and history of Spain. 
 These relics are now secure, but the task has been supinely delayed, 
 till in the year 1671 a fire consumed the greatest part of the Escurial 
 libary, rich in the spoils of Grenada and Morocco. 
 
 m The Ilarbii, as they are styled, qui tolerari nequeunt, are, I. 
 Those who, besides God, worship the sun, moon, or idols. 2. Athe- 
 ists. Uirique, quamdiu princeps aliquis inter Mohammedanos iu- 
 perest, oppugnari debent donee religionem amplectantur. nee re- 
 quies iis concedenda est, nee pretium acceptanaum pro obtinenda 
 conscientia libertate. (Reland. Dissertat. x. de Jure Miliuri Mo- 
 hammedan, tom. iii. p. 14.) A rigid theory ! 
 
 n The distinction oetween a proscribed and a tolerated sect, be- 
 tween the JIarbii and the People of the Book, the believers in some 
 divine revelation, is correctly defined in the conversation of tha 
 caliph Al Mamun with the idolaters or Sabaeans of Charns. Hottin* 
 ger. Hist. Orient, p. 107, 108. 
 
 The Zend or Paiaad, iha bibU of tha Oheben, \m reckoned bf 
 
 ) I 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 -acxterously connected with the chain of divine revela- 
 tion. Their evil principle, the daemon Ahriman, might 
 be represented as the rival, or as the creature, of the 
 God of light. The temples of Persia were devoid of 
 images ; but the worship of the sun, and of fire might 
 be siigmatized as a gross and criminal idolatry .p The 
 milder sentiment was consecrated by the practice of 
 Mahomet *» and the prudence of the caliphs; the Ma- 
 gians or Ghebers were ranked with the Jews and 
 christians among the people of the written law;' and 
 as late as the third century of the Hegira, the city of 
 Herat will aflford a lively contrast of private zeal and 
 public toleration.' Under the payment of an annual 
 tribute, the Mahometan law secured to the Ghebers 
 of Herat their civil and religious liberties : but the 
 recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by the 
 antique splendour of the adjoining temple of fire. A 
 fanatic Imam deplored, in his sermons, the scandalous 
 neighbourhood, and accused the weakness or indifl!er- 
 ence of the faithful. Excited by his voice, the people 
 assembled in tumult ; the two houses of prayer were 
 consumed by the flames, but the vacant ground was 
 immediately occupied by the foundations of a new 
 mosch. The injured Magiappealed to the sovereign 
 of Chorasan ; he promised justice and relief; when, 
 behold ! four thousand citizens of Herat, of a grave 
 character and mature age, unanimously swore that the 
 idolatrous fane had never existed ; the inquisition was 
 Eilenced, and their conscience was satisfied (says the 
 historian Mirchond *) with this holy and meritorious 
 perjury." But the greatest part of the temples of Per- 
 fcia were ruined by the insensible and general desertion 
 of their votaries. It was insensible^ since it is not ac- 
 companied with any memorial of time or place, of per- 
 secution or resistance. It was general, since the whole 
 realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the faith of 
 the Koran ; and the preservation of the native tongue 
 reveals the descent of the Mahometans of Persia.* In 
 
 themselves or at least by the Mahometans, among the ten books 
 which Abraham received from heaven; and their religion is honour- 
 ably styled the religion of Abraham. (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 
 701. Hvde, de Religione veterum Perearum, c. iii. p. 27, 28, &c.) I 
 much fear that we do not possess any pure and^7-«« description of 
 the system of Zoroaster. Dr. Prideaux (Connexion, vol. i. p. 300. 
 octavo) adopts the opinion, that he had been the slave and scholar of 
 some Jewish prophet in the captivity of Babylon. Perhaps the Per- 
 sians, who have been the masters of the Jews, would assert the 
 honour, a poor honour, of being their masters. 
 
 p The Arabian Nights, a faithful and amusing picture of the orien- 
 tal world, represent in the most odious colours the Magians, or wor- 
 shippers of fire, to whom they attribute the annual sacrifice of a nius- 
 Bulman. The religion of Zoroaster has not the least affinity with that 
 of the Hindoos, yet they are often confounded by the Mahometans; 
 and the sword of Timour was sharpened by this mistake. (Hist, de 
 Timour Bee, par Cherefeddin Ali Yezdi, 1. v.) 
 
 q Vie de Mahomet, par Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 114, 115. 
 _ r Has tres sectae, Judaei, Christfcini, et qui inter Persas Magorum 
 mstituiis addicii sunt, xt«T' «;ex>«v, popu/» libri, dicuntur. (Reland, 
 Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 15.) The caliph Al Mamun confirms this hon- 
 ourable distinction in favour of three sects, with the vague and 
 equivocal religion of the Sabaeans, under which the ancient poly- 
 theists of Charrse were allowed to shelter their idolatrous worship. 
 (Hotlinger, Hist. Orient, p. 167, 168.) 
 
 » This singular story is related by D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 
 148. 449.) on the faith of Khondemir, and by Mirchond himself. (Hist, 
 priorum Kegum Persarum, &c. p. 9, 10. not. p. 88, 89.) 
 
 t Mirchond, (Mohammed Emir Khoondah Shah) a native of Herat, 
 Composed in the Persian language a general history of the east, from 
 the creation to the year of the Hegira, 875. (A. D. 1471.) In the year 
 904. (A. D. 1498.) the historian obuined the command of a princely 
 library, and his applauded work, in seven or twelve parts, was ab- 
 breviated in three volumes by his son Khondemir, A. H. 927. A. D. 
 1520. The two writers, most accurately distinguished by Petit de la 
 Croix, (Hist, de Genghiican, p. 537, 538. 544, 545.) are loosely con- 
 founded by D'Herbelot, (p. 358. 410. 994, 995.) but his numerous ex- 
 tracts, under the improper name of Khondemir, belong to the father 
 rather than the son. The historian of Gen^hizcan refers to a MS. of 
 Mirchond, which he received from the hands of his friend D'Herbe- 
 lot himself. A curious fragment (the Taherian and Soffarian Dynas- 
 ties) has been lately published in Persic and Latin; (Vienna, 1782, 
 in 4to, cum notis Bernard de Jenisch ;) and the editor allows us to 
 hope for a continuation of Mirchond. 
 
 u Quo lestimonio boni se quidpiam praestitisse oplnabantur. Yet 
 Mirchond must have condemned their zeal, since he approved the 
 legal fjleraiion of the Magi, cui (the fire temple) peracto singulis 
 annis censii, uti sacra Mohammedis lege eautum, ab omnibus moles- 
 liis ac oneribus libero esse licuit. 
 
 a The last Magian of name and power appears to be Mardavige 
 the Dilemite, who, in the beginning of the tenth century, reigned in 
 the northern provinces of Persia, near the Caspian sea. (D'Herbelot, 
 Bibliou Orient, p. 335.) But his soldiers and successors, the Bow- 
 
 the mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of unbe 
 lievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and 
 a faint tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive 
 in the province of Kirman, along the banks of the 
 Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in the colony 
 which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Ab- 
 bas at the gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has 
 retired to mount Elbourz, eighteen leagues from the 
 cit^ of Yezd : the perpetual fire (if it continue to burn) 
 is inaccessible to the profane ; but his residence is the 
 school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage, of the Ghe- 
 bers, whose hard and uniform features attest the un- 
 mingled purity of their blood. Under the jurisdiction 
 of their elders, eighty thousand families maintain aa 
 innocent and industrious life ; their subsistence is de- 
 rived from some curious manufactures and mechanic 
 trades ; and they cultivate the earth with the fervour 
 of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood the 
 despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats 
 and tortures the prophetic books of Zoroaster; and this 
 obscure remnant of the Magians is spared by the mo- 
 deration or contempt of their present sovereigns.^ 
 
 The northern coast of Africa is the Decline and fall 
 only land in which the light of the gos- of Christianity 
 pel, after a long and perfect establish- ^° Africa. , 
 ment, has been totally extinguished. The arts, which 
 had been taught by Carthage and Rome, were involved 
 in a cloud of ignorance ; the doctrine of Cyprian and 
 Augustin was no longer studied. Five hunared epis- 
 copal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of 
 the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal 
 and numbers of the clergy declined ; and the people, 
 without discipline or knowledge, or hope, submissively 
 sunk under the yoke of the Arabian prophet. Withia 
 fifty years after the expulsion of the » n y^o -9 
 Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed ^'"' ^^' ^ 
 the caliph that the tribute of the infidels was abolished 
 by their conversion,* and, though he sought to disguise 
 his fraud and rebellion, his specious pretence was 
 drawn from the rapid and extensive progress of the 
 Mahometan faith. In the next age, an 
 extraordinary mission of five bishops A. D. 837. « 
 was detached from Alexandria to Cairoan. They were 
 ordained by the Jacobite patriarch to cherish and re- 
 vive the dying embers of Christianity : * but the inter- 
 position of a foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, 
 an enemy to the catholics, supposes the decay and dis- 
 solution of the African hierarchy. It was no longer 
 the time when the successor of St. Cyprian, at the 
 head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal 
 contest with the ambition of the Roman 1053—1078 
 
 pontiff. In the eleventh century, the un- 
 fortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of Car- 
 thage, implored the alms and the protection of the 
 Vatican ; and he bitterly complains that his naked 
 body had been .<!courged by the Saracens, and that his 
 authority was disputed by the four suffragans, the tot- 
 tering pillars of his throne. Two epistles of Gregory 
 the seventh^ are destined to soothe the distress of the 
 catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. The 
 pope assures the sultan that they both worship the 
 same God, and may hope to meet in the bosom of 
 
 ides, either professed or embraced the Mahometan faith ; and under 
 their dynasty (A. D. 933—1020.) I should place the fall of the religioa 
 of Zoroaster. 
 
 J The present state of the Ghebers in Persia is taken from Sir 
 John Chardin, not indeed the most learned, but the most judicious 
 and inquisitive, of our modern travellers. (Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. 
 p. 109. 179—187. in 4to.) His brethren, Pietro de la Valle, Olearius. 
 Thevenot, Tavernier, &c. whom I have fruitlessly searched, had 
 neither eyes nor attention for this interesting people. 
 
 r The letter of Abdoulrahman, governor or tyrant of Africa, to th« 
 caliph Aboul Abbas, the first of the Abbassides, is dated A. H. 132. 
 (Cardonne, Hist, de I'Afrique et de TEspagne, mm. i. p. 168.) 
 
 a Bibliotheque Orieniale, p. 66. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex, 
 p. 287, 288. ^ „. . „''^ 
 
 b Among the Epistles of the Popes, see Leo IX. epist. 3. Gregor. 
 VII. 1. \. opist. 22, 23. 1. iii. epist. 19, 20, 21 ; and the criticisms of 
 Pagi, (tom. iv. A. D. 1053, No. 14. A.D. 1073, No. 13.) who investigateg 
 the name and family of the Moori.<«h prince, with whom tha proudM^ 
 of the Koman pontiflGi so politely corresponds. 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 Ji 
 
 r 
 
 ♦? 
 
848 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIL 
 
 -Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 249 
 
 tn 
 
 m 
 
 A. D. 1535. 
 
 Abraham ; but the complaint, that three bishops could 
 no longer be found to consecrate a brother, announces 
 the speedy, and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order, 
 and Spain, The christians of Africa and Spain had 
 A.D.ll49,&c. long since submitted to the practice of 
 circumcision, and the legal abstinence from wine and 
 pork; and the name of Mozarabes^ (adoptive Arabs) 
 was applied to their civil or religious conformity.** 
 About the middle of the twelfth century the worship 
 of Christ and the succession of pastors were abolished 
 along the coast of Barbary, and in the kingdom of 
 Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and Grenada.' The 
 throne of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded 
 on the blindest fanaticism, and their extraordinary 
 rigour might be provoked or justified by the recent 
 victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily 
 and Castille, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of 
 the Mozarabes was occasionally revived 
 by the papal missionaries ; and, on the 
 landing of Charles the fifth, some families of Latin 
 christians were encouraged to rear their heads at Tu- 
 nis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was 
 quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli 
 to the Atlantic has lost all memory of the language 
 and religion of Rome.' 
 
 Toleration of After the revolution of eleven centu- 
 ihe christians, ^ies, the Jews and christians of the Turk- 
 ish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was 
 granted by the Arabian caliphs. During the first age 
 of the conquest, they suspected the loyalty of the ca- 
 tholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their secret 
 attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians 
 and Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved them- 
 selves the sincere and voluntary friends of the Maho- 
 metan government.* Yet this partial jealousy was 
 healed by time and submission : the churches of 
 E^ypt were shared with the catholics;* and all the 
 oriental sects were included in the common benefits 
 of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domes- 
 tic jurisdiction, of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the 
 clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate : the 
 learning of individuals recommended them to the em- 
 ployments of secretaries and physicians : they were 
 enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue : 
 and their merit was sometimes raised to the command 
 of cities and provinces. A caliph of the house of 
 Abbas was heard to declare that the christians were 
 most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. 
 
 e MozarabM, or Mnstarabeg, adscitilii, as it is intrrpreled In La- 
 tin. (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 39, 40. Bibliot. Arabico- 
 Hispana, torn. ii. p. 18.) The Mozarabic liturgy, the ancient ritual 
 of the church of Toledo, has been attacked by the popes, and ex- 
 posed to the doubtful trials of the sword and of fire. (Marian. Hist. 
 Hispan. torn. i. 1. ix. c. 18. p. 378.) It was, or rather it is, in the La- 
 tin tonpue; yet in the eleventh century it was found necessary (A. 
 JE. C. 1687. A. D. 1039.) to transcribe an Arabic version of the canons 
 of the councils of Spain, (Biblioi. Arab. Hist. torn. i. p. 547.) for the 
 use of the bishops and clergy in the INlourish kingdoms. 
 
 d About the middle of the tenth century, the clergy of Cordova was 
 reproached with this criminal compliance, by the intrepid envoy of 
 the emperor Otho I. (Vit. Johan. Gorz, in Secui. Benedict. V. No. 
 115. apud Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 91.) 
 
 e Pa?i, Critica, tom. iv. A. D. 1149, No. 8, 9. He iuslly observes, 
 that when Seville, &c. were retaken by Ferdinand of Castille, no 
 Christiana, except captives, were found in the place; and that the 
 Mozarabic churches of Africa and Spain, described by James a Vitri- 
 aco, A. D. 121S, (Hist. Hierosol. c. 80. p. 1093. in Gest. Dei per Fran- 
 cos,) are copied from some older book. I shall add, that the date of 
 the Hegira 677. (A. D. 1278.) must apply to the copy, not the compo- 
 sition, of a treatise of jurisprudence, which slates the civil rights of 
 Ihechristiansof Cordova, (Bibliot. Arab. Hist. torn. i.p.471.) and that 
 the Jews were the only dissenters whom Abul Waled, king of Gre- 
 nada, (A. D. 1313.) could either discountenance or tolerate, (tom. ii. 
 
 p. 28a) 
 
 f Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 288. Leo Africanus would 
 have flattered his Roman masters, could he have discovered any 
 latent relics of the Christianity of Africa. 
 
 g Absit (said the catholic to the vizir of Bagdad) ut pari loco ha- 
 beas Nestorianos, quorum prseter Arabas nullus alius rex est, et 
 Gracos quorum reges amovendo Arabibus bello non desisumt, &c. 
 See in the Collections of Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, tom. iv. p. 94 
 — 101.) the slate of the Nestorians under the caliphs. That of the 
 Jacobites is more concisely exposed in tho Preliminary Dissertation 
 of ihe second volume of Assemannus. 
 
 h Eulych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 384. 387, 388. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. 
 Alex. p. 205, 206. 2o7. 332. A taint of ihe Monothelile heresy might 
 render the first of these Greek patriarchs less loyal lu tba emperors 
 juid less obnoxious to the Arabs. 
 
 ♦* The Moslems," said he, " will abuse their present 
 fortune ; the Magians regret their fallen greatness ; 
 and the Jews are impatient for their approaching de* 
 liverance." • But the slaves of despo- ,,...,.. 
 tism are exposed to the alternatives of i**^"- hardships, 
 favour and disgrace. The captive churches of the 
 east have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or 
 bigotry of their rulers ; and tlie ordinary and legal 
 restraints must be offensive to the pride, or the zeal, 
 of the christians.^ About tw'O hundred years after 
 Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow sub- 
 jects by a turban or girdle of a less honourable colour; 
 instead of horses or mules, they were condemned to 
 ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Their public 
 and private buildings were measured by a diminutive 
 standard ; in the streets or the baths it is their duty to 
 give way or bow down before the meanest of the peo- 
 ple ; and their testimony is rejected, if it may tend to 
 the prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of proces- 
 sions, the sound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted 
 in their worship : a decent reverence for the national 
 faith is imposed on their sermons and conversations ; 
 and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch, or to 
 seduce a mussulman, will not be suffered to escape 
 with impunity. In a time, however, of tranquillity 
 and justice, the christians have never been compelled 
 to renounce the gospel, or to embrace the Koran ; but 
 the punishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates 
 who have professed and deserted the law of Mahomet. 
 The martyrs of Cordova provoked the sentence of the 
 cadhi, by the public confession of their inconstancy, 
 or their passionate invectives against the person and 
 religion of the prophet.* 
 
 At the end of the first century of the The empire of 
 Hegira, the caliphs were the most po- the caliphs, 
 tent and absolute monarchs of the globe. A.D.713. 
 Their prerogative was not circumscribed, either in right 
 or in fact, by the power of the nobles, the freedom of 
 the commons, the privileges of the church, the votes 
 of a senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The 
 authority of the companions of Mahomet expired with 
 their lives ; and the chiefs or emirs of the Aiabian 
 tribes left behind, in the desert, the spirit of equality 
 and independence. The regal and sacerdotal charac- 
 ters were united in the successors of Mahomet; and 
 if the Koran was the rule of their actions, they were 
 the supreme judges and interpreters of that divine 
 book. They reigned by the right of conquest over the 
 nations of the east, to whom the name of liberty was 
 unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in 
 their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were 
 exercised at their own expense. Under the last of 
 the Ommiades, the Arabian empire extended two hun- 
 dred days' journey from east to west, from the confines 
 of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic 
 ocean. And if we retrench the sleeve of the robe, as 
 it is styled by their writers, the long and narrow pro- 
 vince of Africa, the solid and compact dominion from 
 Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will spread 
 on every side to the measure of four or five months of 
 the march of a caravan." We should vainly seek the 
 
 i Motadhed, who had reigned from A. D. 892 — 902. The Magians 
 still held their name and rank among the religions of the empire. 
 (Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient, lorn. Iv. p. 97.) 
 
 k Reland explains the general restraints of the Mahometan policy 
 and jurisprudence. (Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 16—20.) The oppressive 
 edicts of the caliph Motawakkel, (A. D. 8^17—861.) which are still in 
 force, are noticed by Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 448.) and D'Her- 
 belot. (Bibliot. Orient, p. 6-10.) A perspcmion of the caliph Omar II. 
 is related, and most probably magnified, by the Greek Theophanes. 
 (Chron. p. 334.) 
 
 1 The martyrs of Cordova, (A. D. 850, Sec.) are commemorated and 
 justified by Si. Eulogius, who at length fell a victim himself. A sy- 
 nod convened by the caliph ambiguously censured their rashness. 
 The moderate Fleury cannot reconcile their conduct with the disci- 
 pline of antiquity, touiefois I'autorite do I'eglise, &c. (Fleury, Hist. 
 Eccles. tom. x. p. 415—522. particularly p. 451. 508, 509.) Their au- 
 thentic acts throw a strong, though transient, light on the Spanish 
 church in the ninth century. 
 
 m See the article Eslamiuh, (as we say Christendom) in the Bibli- 
 otheque Oriental^, (p. 325.) This chart of the Mahometan world it 
 suited by the author, Ebn Alwardi, to the year of the Hegira 386 
 
 1 
 
 indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded 
 the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but 
 the progress of the Mahometan religion diffused over 
 this ample space a general resemblance of man- 
 ners and opinions. The language and laws of the 
 Koran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand 
 and Seville : the Moor and the Indian embraced as 
 countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca; 
 and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular 
 idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Ti- 
 gris.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 The txco sieges of Constantinople by ihe Arabs. — Tlieir in- 
 vasion of France^ and defeat by Charles Martel. — Civil 
 war of the Ommiades and Abbassides. — Learning of tfie 
 Arabs. — Luxury of the caliphs. — Naval enterprises on 
 Crete, Sicily , and Rome. — Decay and division of the em- 
 pire of the caliphs, — Defeats and victories of the Greek 
 emperors. 
 
 The limits of ^ When the Arabs first issued from the 
 the Arabian desert, they must have been surprised at 
 conquests. ^j^g ^^^^ ^^^ rapidity of their own suc- 
 cess. But when they advanced in the career of vic- 
 tory to the banks of the Indus and the summit of the 
 Pyrenees ; when they had repeatedly tried the edge 
 of their scymitars and the energy of their faith, they 
 might be equally astonished that any nation could 
 resist their invincible arms, that any boundary should 
 confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. 
 The confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed 
 be excused, since the calm historian of the present 
 hour, who strives to follow the rapid course of the 
 Saracens, must study to explain by what means the 
 church and state were saved from this impending, and, 
 as it should seem, from this inevitable danger. The 
 deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by 
 their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the cour- 
 age of the northern shepherds; China was remote and 
 inaccessible : but the greatest part of the temperate 
 zone was subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the 
 Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and 
 the loss of their fairest provinces, and the barbarians 
 of Europe might justly tremble at the precipitate fall 
 of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall un- 
 fold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britian, 
 and our neighbours of Gaul, from the civil and reli- 
 gious yoke of the Koran ; that protected the majesty 
 of Rome, and delayed the servitude of Constantinople ; 
 that invigorated the defence of the christians, and 
 scattered among their enemies the seeds of division 
 and decay. 
 
 Forty-six years after the flight of Ma- 
 homet from Mecca, his disciples appear- 
 ed in arms under the wails of Constan- 
 tinople.* They were animated by a genuine or ficti- 
 tious saying of the prophet, that, to the first army 
 which besieged the city of the Caesars, their sins were 
 forgiven : the long series of Roman triumphs would be 
 meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of New 
 
 (A. D. 995.) Since that time, the losses in Spain have been over- 
 balanced by the conquests in India, Tartary, and the European 
 Tuhkpy. 
 
 n The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead languaffp in the col- 
 lege of Mecca. By the Danish traveller, this ancient idiom is com- 
 fiared to the I^atin ; the vulgar long:ue of Hejaz and Yemen to the ; 
 lalian ; and the Arabian dialects of Svria, Ejrypt, Africa, &c. to the ' 
 Provencal, Spanish and Portuguese. (I^iebuhr, Description de I'Ara- ' 
 bie, p. 74, &c.) 
 
 » Theophanes places the seven years of the siege of Constantino- 
 ple in the year of otir christian jera 673. (of the Alexandrian 665. 
 aept. i.)and the peace of the Saracens^ /owr years afterwards; a 
 filanng inconsistency ? which Petavius, Goar, and Pasi, (Critica, tom. 
 !:« ?•» A r;l"?^® struggled to remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira 
 Sq^^> 1?'^ • u*"i'u''L^^ •* assigned by Elmacin, the year 48. (A. D. 
 w>s, f eb. 2U.) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteem the most con- 
 venient and creditable. 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 G 
 
 First siege of 
 Constaniinople 
 by the Arabs, 
 A. D. 668-675. 
 
 I Rome ; and the wealth of nations was deposited id 
 this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. Na 
 I sooner had the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals 
 and established his throne, than he aspired to expiate 
 the guilt of civil blood, by the success and glory of 
 this holy expedition;'' his preparations by sea and 
 land were adequate to the importance of the object; 
 his standard was intrusted to Sophian, a veteran war- 
 rior, but the troops were encouraged by the example 
 and presence of Yezid, the son and presumptive heir 
 of the commander of the faithful. The Greeks had 
 little to hope, nor had their enemies any reasons of 
 fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigningr 
 emperor, who disgraced the name of Constantino, and 
 imitated only the inglorious years of his grandfather 
 Heraclius. Without delay or opposition, the naval 
 forces of the Saracens passed through the unguarded 
 channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the 
 feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is 
 maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital.* The 
 Arabian fleet cast anchor, and the troops were disem- 
 barked near the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from 
 the city. During many days, from the dawn of light 
 to the evening, the line of assault was extended from 
 the golden gate to the eastern promontory, and the 
 foremost warriors were impelled by the weight and ef- 
 fort of the succeeding columns. But the besiegers had 
 formed an insufficient estimate of the strength and re- 
 sources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls 
 were guarded by numbers and discipline ; the spirit of 
 the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their 
 religion and empire : the fugitives from the conquered 
 provinces more successfully renewed the defence of 
 Damascus and Alexandria ; and the Saracens were dis- 
 mayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artifi- 
 cial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted 
 their arms to the more easy attempts of plundering the 
 European and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis : and 
 after keeping the sea from the month of April to that 
 of September, on the approach of winter they retreat- 
 ed fourscore miles from the capital, to the isle of Cyz- 
 icus, in which they had established their magazine of 
 spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseve- 
 rance, or so languid were their operations, that they 
 repeated in the six following summers the same attack 
 and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vi- 
 gour, till the mischances of shipwreck and disease, of 
 the sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the 
 fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss, or 
 commemorate the martyrdom, of thirty thousand Mos- 
 lems, who fell in the siege of Constantinople ; and the 
 solemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the cu- 
 riosity of the christians themselves. That venerable 
 Arab, one of the last of the companions of Mahomet, 
 was numbered among the ansars., or auxiliaries, of 
 Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. 
 In his youth he fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the 
 holy standard ; in his mature age he was the friend 
 and follower of Ali ; and the last remnant of his 
 strength and life was consumed in a distant and dan- 
 gerous war against the enemies of the Koran. His 
 memory was revered ; but the place of his burial was 
 neglected and unknown, during a period of seven hun- 
 dred and eiorhty years, till the conquest of Constanti- 
 nople by Mahomet the second. A seasonable vision 
 (for such are the manufacture of every religion) re- 
 
 b For this first siege of Constantinople, see Nicephorus ; (Breviar, 
 p. 21, 22.) Theophanes; (Chronograph, p. 294.) Cedreuus; (Compend. 
 p. 437.) Zonaras ; (Hist. tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 89.) Elmacin ; (Hist. Sara- 
 cen, p. 56, 57.) Abulfeda ; (Annal. Moslem, p. 107, 108. vers. Reiske ;> 
 D'Herbelot; (Bibliot. Orient. Constantinah ;) Ockley's History of the 
 Saracens, vol. ii. p. 127, 128. 
 
 c The state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed in the 
 Memoires of the Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 39—97.) who was sent Uy 
 fortify them against the Russians. From a principal actor, I should 
 have expected more accurate details; but he seems to write for the 
 amusement, rather than the instruction, of his reader. Perhaps, on 
 the approach of the enemy, the minister of Constantine was occu- 
 pied, like that of Musiapha, in finding two Canary birds, who should 
 sing precisely the same note. 
 
 J 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 i' 
 
 
 * 
 t 
 
 
 iflif 
 
,m 
 
 ft 
 
 if 
 
 250 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 251 
 
 «, 
 
 
 m 
 
 vealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls and the 
 bottom of the harbour ; and the mosch of Ayub has 
 been deservedly chosen for the simple and martial in- 
 auguration of the Turkish sultans.'' 
 
 Peace and The event of the siege revived, both 
 
 tribute, in the east and west, the reputation of 
 A. D. 677. ^jjg Roman arms, and cast a momentary 
 shade over the glories of the Saracens. The Greek 
 ambassador was favourably received at Damascus, in 
 a general council of the emirs or Koreish : a peace, or 
 truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two em- 
 pires ; and the stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty 
 horses of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and three thou- 
 sand pieces of gold, degraded the majesty of the com- 
 mander of the faithful.* The aged caliph was desi- 
 rous of possessing his dominions, and ending his days 
 in tranquillity and repose : while the Moors and Indi- 
 ans trembled at his name, his palace and city of Da- 
 mascus was insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, 
 of Mount Libanus, the firmest barrier of the empire, 
 till they were disarmed and transplanted by the sus- 
 picious policy of the Greeks.' After the revolt of Ara- 
 oia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah* was reduced 
 to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress 
 and fear enforced their compliance with the pressing 
 demands of the christians ; and the tribute was increas- 
 ed to a slave, a horse, and a thousand pieces of gold, 
 for each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of 
 the solar year. But as soon as the empire was again 
 united by the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he dis- 
 claimed a badge of servitude not less injurious to his 
 conscience than to his pride ; he discontinued the pay- 
 ment of the tribute; and the resentment of the Greeks 
 was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the 
 second Justinian, the just rebellion of his subjects, 
 and the frequent change of his antagonists and suc- 
 cessors. Till the reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens 
 had been content with the free possession of the Per- 
 sian and Roman treasures, in the coin of Chosroes and 
 Caesar. By the command of that caliph, a national 
 mint was established, both for silver and gold ; and 
 the inscription of the dinar, though it might be cen- 
 sured by some timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity 
 of the God of Mahomet.* Under the reign of the ca- 
 liph Walid, the Greek language and characters were 
 excluded from the accounts of the public revenue.' If 
 this change was productive of the invention or familiar 
 use of our present numerals, the Arabic or Indian cy- 
 phers, as they are commonly styled, a regulation of 
 
 
 d Demetrius Cantemir's Hist, of the Othman empire, p. 105, 106. 
 Rycaut's Slate of the Ottoman Empire, p. 10, 11. Voyages de The- 
 Tenot, part i. p. 189. The christians, who suppose that the martyr 
 Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the patriarch Job, betray their 
 own ignorance rather than that of the Turks. 
 
 e Theophanes, thou«rh a Greek, deserves credit for these tributes, 
 •<Chronograph, p. 295, 296. 300, 301.) which are confirmed, with some 
 variation, by the Arabic History of Abulpharagius. (Dynast, p. 123. 
 ▼ers. Pocock.) 
 
 f The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed, tiiv 'p^/iMixiiv 
 
 }wyM{'«4«v MKf i«Ti)f t«rj*; .... w»vSnv» *»K» w$irowi»w if 'Tiif*»n» 'virr 
 
 ▼•»» A^apvif fi§xe* Tiu VU9. (Chronograph, p. 302, 303.) The series of 
 ■these events may be traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the 
 Abridgment of the Patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22—24. 
 
 ( These domestic revolutions are related in a clear and natural 
 style, in the second volume of Ockley's History of the Saracens, p. 
 1153 — 370. Besides our printed authors, he draws his materials from 
 the Arabic MSS. of Oxford, which he would have more deeply 
 searched, had he been confined to the Bodleian library instead of the 
 city jail ; a fate how unworthy of the man and of his country ! 
 
 b Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76. A. D. 695. five or 
 fliz years later than the Greek historians, has compared the weight 
 of the best or common gold dinar, to the drachm or dirhem of Egypt, 
 <p. 77.) which may be equal to two pennies (48 grains) of our Troy 
 weight, (Hooper's Inquiry into Ancient Measures, p. 24— 36.) and 
 equivalent to eight shillings of our sterling money. From the same 
 Elmacin and the Arabian physicians, some dinars as high as two dir- 
 hems, as low as half a dirhem, may be deduced. The piece of silver 
 ■was the dirhem, both in value and weight; but an old, though fair 
 coin, struck at Waset, A. H. 88. and preserved in the Bodleian 
 library, wants four grains of the Cairo standard. (See the Modern 
 Univ. History, torn. i. p. 548. of the French translation.) 
 
 i Kji« ixwA.vrf y(m^i(ri»t iKXnvtft towj StiMftcvi t«»» XaytStruMtv 
 
 1X-«1$I| H^VVNT*!' Tlf IXItVuiy y ) <«>«■«•>» f40*»^», »f Sv:tiM^ tf T^JM^*, 1) OXTcu 
 
 lifttrv If Tfi» •yf»^$<r6»i. Theophan. Chronograph, p. 314. This 
 -defect, if it really existed, must have stimulateU the ingenuity of the 
 ^Anbfl U> invent or borrow. 
 
 office has promoted the most important discoveries of 
 arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematical sciences.'^ 
 
 Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the second sie«-e of 
 throne of Damascus, while his lieuten- Constantinople, 
 ants achieved the conquest of Transox- A. D. 716— 718. 
 iana and Spain, a third army of Saracens overspread 
 the provinces of Asia Minor, and approached the bor- 
 ders of the Byzantine capital. But the attempt and 
 disgrace of the second siege was reserved for his 
 brother Soliman, whose ambition appears to have been 
 quickened by a more active and martial spirit. In the 
 revolutions of the Greek empire, after the tyrant Jus- 
 tinian had been punished and avenged, an humble 
 secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, was promoted by 
 chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarnr^ed 
 by the sound of war; and his ambassador returned 
 from Damascus with the tremendous news that the 
 Saracens were preparing an armament by sea and land, 
 such as would transcend the experience of the past, or 
 the belief of the present age. The precautions of An- 
 astasius were not unworthy of his station, or of the 
 impending danger. He issued a peremptory mandate, 
 that all persons who were not provided with the means 
 of subsistence for a three years' siege, should evacu- 
 ate the city; the public granaries and arsenals were 
 abundantly replenished ; the walls were restored and 
 strengthened ; and the engines for casting stones, or 
 darts, or fire, were stationed along the ramparts, or in 
 the brigantines of war, of which an additional number 
 was hastily constructed. To prevent is safer, as well 
 as more honourable, than to repel an attack; and a 
 design was meditated, above the usual spirit of the 
 Greeks, of burning the naval stores of the enemy, the 
 cypress timber that had been hewn in Mount Libanus, 
 and was piled along the sea-shore of Phoenicia, for the 
 service of the Egyptian fleet. This generous enter- 
 prise was defeated by the cowardice or treachery of 
 the troops, who, in the new language of the empire 
 were styled of the ohsequian theme} They murdered 
 their chief, deserted their standard in the isle of 
 Rhodes, dispersed themselves over the adjacent conti- 
 nent, and deserved pardon or reward by investing with 
 the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The name 
 of Theodosius might recommend him to the senate 
 and people; but, after some months, he sunk into a 
 cloister, and resigned, to the firmer hand of Leo the 
 Isaurian, the urgent defence of the capital and empire. 
 The most formidable of the Saracens, Moslemah, the 
 brother of the caliph, was advancing at the head of 
 one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians, 
 the greater part mounted on horses or camels ; and the 
 successful sieges of Tyana, Amorium, and Periiamus, 
 were of sufficient duration to exercise their skill and 
 to elevate their hopes. At the well-known passage of 
 Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan arms were 
 transported, for the first time, from Asia to Europe. 
 From thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of 
 the Propontis, Moslemah invested Constantinople on 
 the land side, surrounded his camp with a ditch and 
 rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, 
 and declared, by words and actions, a patient resolu- 
 tion of expecting the return of seed-time and harvest, 
 should the obstinacy of the besieged prove equal to 
 his own. The Greeks would gladly have ransomed 
 their religion and empire, by a fine or assessment of a 
 piece of gold on the head of each inhabitant of the 
 
 k According to a new, though probable, notion, maintained by M. 
 de Villoison, (Anecdota Gr»ca, tom. ii. p. 152—157.) our cyphers are 
 not of Indian or Arabic invention. They were used by the Greek 
 and Latin arithmeticians long before the age of Boethius. After the 
 extinction of science in the west, they were adopted by the Arabic 
 versions from the original MSS. and restored to the Latins about the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 1 In the division of the themes, or provinces described by Con- 
 stantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Thematibus, 1. i. p. 9, 10.) the obae- 
 qvium, a Latin appellation of the army and palace, was the fourth la 
 the public order. Nice was the metropolis, and its jurisdiction ex- 
 tended from the Hellespont over the adjacent parts of Bilhynia and 
 Phrygia. (See the two maps prefixed by Delisle to th« Imperium 
 Orientale of Banduri.) 
 
 ♦ 
 
 city; but the liberal offer was rejected with disdain, 
 and the presumption of Moslemah was exalted by the 
 speedy approach and invincible force of the navies of 
 Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to 
 eighteen hundred ships: the number betrays their in- 
 considerable size ; and of the twenty stout and capa- 
 cious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, 
 each was manned with no more than one hundred 
 heavy-armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded 
 on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards the 
 mouth of the Bosphorus ; the surface of the strait was 
 overshadowed, in the language of the Greeks, with a 
 moving forest, and the same fatal night had been fixed 
 by the Saracen chief for a general assault by sea and 
 land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the em- 
 peror had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded 
 the entrance of the harbour ; but while they hesitated 
 whether they should seize the opportunity, or appre- 
 hend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at 
 hand. The fireships of the Greeks were launched 
 against them, the Arabs, their arms, and vessels, were 
 involved in the same flames, the disorderly fugitives 
 were dashed aorainst each other or overwhelmed in the 
 waves ; and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that 
 had threatened to extirpate the Roman name. A still 
 more fatal and irreparable loss was that of the caliph 
 Soliman, who died of an indigestion'" in his camp 
 near Kinnisrin or Chalcis in Syria, as he was prepar- 
 ing to lead against Constantinople the remaining forces 
 of the east. The brother of Moslemah was succeed- 
 ed by a kinsman and an enemy ; and the throne of an 
 active and able prince was degraded by the useless 
 and pernicious virtues of a bigot. W'hile he started 
 and satisfied the scruples of a blind conscience, the 
 siege was continued through the winter by the neglect 
 rather than by the resolution, of the caliph Omar." The 
 winter proved uncommon rigorous : above a hundred 
 days the ground was covered with deep snow, and the 
 natives of the sultry climes of Egypt and Arabia lay tor- 
 pid and almost lifeless in their frozen camp. They revi- 
 ved on the return of spring ; a second effort had been 
 made in their favour; and their distress was relieved 
 by the arrival of two numerous fleets, laden with corn, 
 and arms, and soldiers ; the first from Alexandria, of 
 four hundred transports and galleys ; the second of 
 three hundred and sixty vessels from the ports of Af- 
 rica. But the Greek fires were again kindled, and if 
 the destruction was less complete, it was owing to the 
 experience which had taught the Moslems to remain 
 at a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian 
 mariners, who deserted with their ships to the emperor 
 of the christians. The trade and navigation of the 
 capital were restored ; and the produce of the fisheries 
 supplied the wants, and even the luxury of the in- 
 habitants. But the calamities of famine and disease 
 were soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as the 
 former was miserably assuaged, so the latter was 
 dreadfully propagated, by the pernicious nutriment 
 which hunger compelled them to extract from the most 
 unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest, 
 and even of enthusiasm, was extinct : the Saracens 
 could no longer straggle beyond their lines, either sin- 
 gle or in small parties, without exposing themselves 
 to the merciless retaliation of the Thracian peasants. 
 An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Dan- 
 
 m The caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of figs, which 
 he swallowed alternately, and the repast was concluded with mar- 
 row and sugar. In one of his pilgrimages to Mecca, Soliman ate, at 
 a sini^le meal, seventy pomegranates, a kid, six fowls, and a huge 
 quantity of the grapes of Tayef. If the bill of fare be correct, we 
 must admire the appetite, rather than the luxury, of the sovereign 
 of Asia. (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem, p. 126.) 
 
 n See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the Bibliotheque Ori- 
 entale, (p. 6S9, 690.) praeferena, says Elmacin, (p. 91.) religionem 
 ■uam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous of being with God, 
 that he would not have anointed his ear (his own saying) to obtain a 
 perfect cure of his last malady. The caliph had only one .•jhiri, and 
 in an age of luxury, his annual expense was no more than two 
 <lrachms. (Abulpharajius, p. 131.) Haud diu gavisua CO principe fuit 
 •rbis Moslemus. (Abulfeda, p. 127.) 
 
 ube by the gifts and promises of Leo ; and these sav- 
 age auxiliaries made some atonement for the evils 
 which they had inflicted on the empire, by the defeat 
 and slaughter of twenty-two thousand Asiatics. A 
 report was dexterously scattered, that the Franks, the 
 unknown nations of the Latin world, were arming by 
 sea and land in the defence of the christian cause, and 
 their formidable aid was expected with far different 
 sensations in camp and city. At length after a siege 
 of thirteen months,^ the hopeless Mosle- Failure and re- 
 mah received from the caliph the wel- treat of the Sar- 
 come permission of retreat. The march ^^®°^* 
 of the Arabian cavalry over the Hellespont and through 
 the provinces of Asia, was executed without delay or 
 molestation ; but an army of their brethren had been 
 cut in pieces on the side of Bithynia, and the remains 
 of the fleet were so repeatedly damaged by the tem- 
 pest and fire, that only five galleys entered the port of 
 Alexandria to relate the tale of their various and almost 
 incredible disasters.^ 
 
 In the two sieges, the deliverance of intention and 
 Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed use of the Greek 
 to the novelty, the terrors, and the real ^'^^• 
 efficacy of the Greek fire.*^ The important secret of 
 compounding and directing this artificial flame was 
 imparted by Callinicus, a native of Heliopolisin Sy- 
 ria, who deserted from the service of the caliph to that 
 of the emperor.' The skill of a chemist and engineer 
 was equivalent to the succour of fleets and armies ; 
 and this discovery or improvement of the military art 
 was fortunately reserved for the distressful period, 
 when the degenerate Romans of the east were incapa- 
 ble of contending with the warlike enthusiasm and 
 youthful vigour of the Saracens. The historian who 
 presumes to analyze this extraordinary composition, 
 should suspect his own ignorance and that of his By- 
 zantine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless 
 and, in this instance, so jealous of the truth. From 
 their obscure, and perhaps fallacious, hints, it should 
 seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek fire 
 was the naptha,' or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, 
 and inflammable oil,* which springs from the earth, 
 and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact with the 
 air. The naptha was mingled, I know not by what 
 methods or in what proportions, with sulphur and with 
 the pitch that is extracted from ever-green firs." From 
 
 Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that the siege of Con- 
 stantinople was raised the 15th of August; (A. D. 71S.) but as the 
 former, our best witness, affirms that it continued thirteen months, the 
 latter must be mistaken in supposing that it began on the same day 
 of the preceding year. I do not find that Pagi has remarked ihi« 
 inconsistency. 
 
 P In the second siege of Constantinople, I have followed Nicepho- 
 rus, (Brev. p. 33—36.) Theophanes, (Chronograph, p. 324—334.) Ce- 
 drenus, (Compend. p. 449 — 452.) Zonaras, (lorn. ii. p. 98—102.) Elma- 
 cin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 88.) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 126.) and 
 Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 130.) the most satisfactory of the Arabs. 
 
 q Our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages and Byzan- 
 tine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in several 
 K laces of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few gleanings be- 
 ind. See particularly Glossar, Med. et Infim. Graecilat. p. 1275. 
 sub voce riup i»K»<T<riof^ '^yto*. Glossar. Med. et Infim. Laliniiat. 
 Jgnus Gracua. Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 305, 306. Ob- 
 servations sur Joinville, p. 71, 7i. 
 
 r Theophanes styles him oifx»Ti»Tu.». (p. 295.) Cedrenus, (p. 437.) 
 brings this artist from (the ruins oO Heliopolis in Egypt; and che. 
 mislry was indeed the peculiar science of the Egyptians. 
 
 1 The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history of Jerusa- 
 lem, (Geit. Dei per Francos, p. 1167.) the oriental fountain of James 
 de Vitry, (1. iii. c. 84.) is introduced on slight evidence and strong 
 probability. Cinnamus (1. vi. p. 165.) calls the Greek fire jtu^ Mi»J«- 
 xo» ; and the naptha is known to abound between the Tigris and the 
 Caspian Sea. According to Pliny, (Hist. Nalur. ii. 109.) it was sub- 
 servient to the revenge of Medea, and in either etymology the 
 i;c»<of MijJjjif, or Mm^i.x,-, (Frocop. de Bell. Gothic. 1. ir. c 11.) may 
 fairly signify this liquid bitumen. 
 
 t On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see Dr. Watson's (the 
 present Bishop of Llandaff's) Chemical Essays, vol. iii. essay i. a 
 classic book, the best adapted to infuse the taste and knowledge of 
 chemistry. Tlie less perfect ideas of the ancients may be found ia 
 Strabo, (Geograph. 1. xvi. p. 1078.) and Pliny. (Hist. Natur. ii. 106, 
 109.) Huic (Naphtfue) magna cognatio est ignium, transiliuntque 
 protinus in eam undecunque visam. Of our travellers I am besi 
 pleased with Otter, (tom. i. p. 153—168.) 
 
 u Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain. A»» rm 
 
 «-lvxi)f, xj(< xKKtJtv Ti*u>r rofOVTuif Smt^Op »nSxKwv o-ufM^iTMi Smxfvtw 
 »xjiuro». Tout* ^ir;* Ssiou Tf KSeAin-OK i/u/S»A.X.it«i ti( «vA.trxtVf 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 k 
 
 i 
 
 11 
 

 252 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIU. 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 253 
 
 «; 
 
 this mixture, which produced a thick smolce and a 
 loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, 
 -which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but like- 
 wise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or lateral 
 progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nour- 
 ished and quickened, by the element of water; and 
 sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies that 
 could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was 
 justly denominated by the Greeks, the liquid^ or the 
 maritime^ fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it 
 was employed with equal effect, by sea and land, in 
 battles or in sieges. It was either poured from the 
 ramparts in large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls 
 of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, 
 twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply 
 imbibed the inflammable oil ; sometimes it was de- 
 posited in fireships, the victims and instruments of a 
 more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown 
 through long tubes of copper, which were planted on 
 the prow of a galley, and most fancifully shaped into 
 the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit 
 a stream of liquid and consuming fire. This impor- 
 tant art was preserved at Constantinople, as the pal- 
 ladium of the state: the galleys and artillery might 
 occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome ; but the 
 compositition of the Greek fire was concealed with 
 the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies 
 was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and 
 surprise. In the treatise of the administration of the 
 empire, the royal author* suggests the answers and ex- 
 cuses that might best elude the indiscreet curiosity 
 and importunate demands of the barbarians. They 
 should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had 
 been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of 
 the Constantines, with a sacred injunction, that this 
 gift of Heaven, this peculiar blessing of the Romans, 
 should never be communicated to any foreign nation : 
 that the prince and subject were alike bound to reli- 
 gious silence under the temporal and spiritual penal- 
 ties of treason and sacrilege ; and that the impious 
 attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural 
 vengeance of the God of the christians. By these 
 precautions, the secret was confined, above four hun- 
 dred years, to the Romans of the east ; and, at the end 
 of the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every 
 sea and every art were familiar, suffered the effects, 
 without understanding the composition, of the Greek 
 fire. It was at length either discovered or stolen by 
 the Mahometans ; and, in the holy wars of Syria and 
 Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against 
 themselves, on the heads of the christians. A knight, 
 who despised the swords and lances of the Saracens, 
 relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and 
 those of his companions, at the sight and sound of 
 the mischievous engine that discharged a torrent of 
 the Greek fire, the /et* Gregeois, as it is styled by 
 the more early of the French writers. It came flying 
 through the air, says Joinville,y like a winged long- 
 tailed dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, with 
 the report of thunder and the velocity of lightning; 
 and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this 
 deadly illumination. The use of the Greek, or, as it 
 might now be called, of the Saracen fire, was contin- 
 ued to the middle of the fourteenth century,* when the 
 
 n*ri. (Alexiad. 1. xiii. p. 383.) Elsewhere (I. xi. p. 336.) she men- 
 tions the properly of burning x«t« to tt^xvi; kx* •!?* ixxtifn. Leo, 
 In the nineteenth chapter of his Tactics, (Opera Meursii, torn. vi. p. 
 843. edit. Lami, Florent. 1745.) speaks of the new invention of wvp 
 fitT* 3(3vT>); xMi xx-vov. These are genuine and imperial testi- 
 monies. 
 
 X Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii, c. xiii. p. 
 64, 65. 
 
 y Histoire de St. Louis, p. 39. Paris, 1688. p. 44. Paris, de I'lmpri- 
 merie Royale, 1761. The former of these editions is precious for the 
 observations ji)f Ducange ; the latter for the pure and original text of 
 Joinville. We must have recourse to that text to discover, that the 
 feu Gregeois was shot with a pile or javelin, from an engine that 
 acted like a sling. 
 
 1 The vanity, or envv, of shaking the established property of Fame, 
 has templed some moaernsto carry gunpowder above the fourteenth, 
 (see Sir William Temple, Uutentf, &c.) aad the Greek fire aboYe the 
 
 scientific or casual compound of nitre, sulphur, and 
 charcoal, effected a new revolution in the art of war 
 and the history of mankind.* 
 
 Constantinople and the Greek fire invasion of France 
 might exclude the Arabs from the east- by the Arabs, 
 ern entrance of Europe ; but in the west, ^' ^-"^'^^^ *c. 
 on the side of the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul 
 were threatened and invaded by the conquerors of 
 Spain.*" The decline of the French monarchy invited 
 the attack of these insatiate fanatics. The descend- 
 ants of Clovis had lost the inheritance of his martial 
 and ferocious spirit ; and their misfortune or demerit 
 has aflUxed the epithet of lazy to the last kings ot the 
 Merovingian race.* They ascended the throne with- 
 out power, and sunk into the grave without a name. 
 A country palace, in the neighbourhood of Compiegne,* 
 was allotted for their residence or prison : but each 
 year, in the month of March or May, they were con- 
 ducted in a waggon drawn by oxen to the assembly 
 of the Franks, to give audience to foreign ambassa- 
 dors, and to ratify the acts of the mayor of the palace. 
 That domestic ofl[icer was become the minister of the 
 nation and the master of the prince. A public employ- 
 ment was converted into the patrimony of a private 
 family : the elder Pepin left a king of mature years 
 under the guardianship of his own widow and her 
 child ; and these feeble regents were forcibly dispos- 
 sessed by the most active of his bastards. A govern- 
 ment, half savage and half corrupt, was almost dis- 
 solved ; and the tributary dukes, the provincial counts, 
 and the territorial lords, were tempted to despise the 
 weakness of the monarch, and to imitate the ambition 
 of the mayor. Among these independent chiefs, one 
 of the boldest and most successful was Eudes, duke 
 of Aquitain, who, in the southern provinces of Gaul, 
 usurped the authority, and even title, of king. The 
 Goths, the Gascons, and the Franks, assembled under 
 the standard of this christian hero : he repelled the 
 first invasion of the Saracens; and Zama, lieutenant 
 of the caliph, lost his army and his life under the 
 walls of Thoulouse. The ambition of his successors 
 was stimulated by revenge ; they repassed the Pyrenees 
 with the means and the resolution of conquest. The 
 advantageous situation which had recommended Nar- 
 bonne* as the first Roman colony, was again chosen 
 
 seventh century, (see theSaluste du President des Brosse8,tom.ii.p. 
 381.) But their evidence, which precedes the vulgar aera of the in- 
 vention, is seldom clear or satisfactory, and subsequecft writers may 
 be suspected of fraud or credulity. In the earliest sieges, some com- 
 bustibles of oil and sulphur have been used, and the Greek fire has 
 some affinities with gunpowder both in nature and efTocis ; for the 
 anliqi/iiy of the first, a passage of Procopius; (de Bell. Goth. 1. iv. c. 
 11.) lor that of the second, some facts in the Arabic history of Spain 
 (A. D. 1219. 1312. 1332. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. torn. ii. p. 6—8.) are the 
 most difiicult to elude. 
 
 a That extraordinary man. Friar Bacon, reveals two of the ingre- 
 dients, saltpetre and sulphur, and conceals the third in a sentence 
 of mysterious gibberish, as if he dreaded the conseciuenccs of his 
 own discovery. (Biog. Brit. vol. i. p. 430. new edition.) 
 
 b For the invasion of France, and the defeat of the Arabs by 
 Charles Martcl, see the Historia Arabum (c. 11—14.) of Roderic 
 Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, who had before him the christian 
 chronicle of Isidore Pacensis, and the Mahometan hisiory of No- 
 vairi. The Moslems are silent or concise in the account of their 
 losses, but M. Cardonne (tom. i. p. 129—131.) has given a pure and 
 simple account of all that he could collect from Ibn Halikan, Hid< 
 juzi, and an anonymous writer. The text of the chronicles of France, 
 and lives of saints, are inserted in the collection of Bouquet, (tom. 
 iii.)and the Annals of Pagi, who (tom. iii. under the proper years) 
 has restored the chronology, which is anticipated six years in the 
 Annals of Baronius. The Dictionary of Bayle {Abderame and Mu- 
 nuxa) has more merit for lively reflection than original research. 
 
 c Esinhart, de Vita Caroli Magni, c. ii. p. 13—18. edit. Schmink, 
 Utrecht, 1711. Some modern critics accuse the minister of Charl© 
 magne of exaggerating the weakness of the Merovingians : but the 
 general outline is just, and the French reader will for ever repeat 
 the beautiful lines of Boileau's Lutrin. 
 
 d Mamacca, on the Oyse, between Compiegne and Noyon, which 
 Eginhart calls perparvi rediiiis villam, (see the notes, and the map 
 ofancient France for Dom. Bouquet's Collection.) Compendium, 
 or Compiegne, was a palace of more dignity, (Hadrian Valesii No- 
 tilia Galliarum, p. 152.) and that laughing philosopher, the Abb6 
 Galliani, (Dialogues sur le Commerce des BUds,) may truly afllrni, 
 that it was the residence of the Fois trds Chretiens et ires chevelus. 
 
 e Even before that colony, A. U. C. 630. (Velleius Patercul. i. 15.) 
 in the time of Polybius, (Hist. 1. iii. p. 265. edit. Gronov.) Narbonne 
 was a Celtic town of the first eminence, and one of the most north- 
 era places uf the known world. (D'Aoville, I«lotice de I'Aacienn& 
 Oaule, p. 473.) 
 
 » 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 I 
 
 Expedition and 
 victories of Ab- 
 derame. 
 
 A. D.731. 
 
 oy the Moslems : they claimed the province of Sep- 
 temania or Languedoc as a just dependence of the 
 Spanish monarchy : the vineyards of Gascony and the 
 city of Bordeaux were possessed by the sovereign of 
 Damascus and Samarcand ; and the south of France, 
 from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Rhone, 
 assumed the manners and religion of Arabia. 
 
 But these narrow limits were scorned 
 by the spirit of Abdalrahman, or Abder- 
 ame, who had been restored by the caliph 
 Hashemto the wishes of the soldiers and 
 people of Spain. That veteran and daring commander 
 adjudged to the obedience of the prophet whatever 
 yet remained of France or of Europe ; and prepared to 
 execute the sentence, at the head of a formidable host, 
 in the full confidence of surmounting all opposition 
 either of nature or of man. His first care was to sup- 
 press a domestic rebel, who commanded the most im- 
 portant passes of the Pyrenees : Munuza, a Moorish 
 chief, had accepted the alliance of the duke of Aquitain ; 
 and Eudes, from a motive of private or public interest, 
 devoted his beauteous daughter to the embraces of the 
 African misbeliever. But the strongest fortresses of 
 Cerdagne were invested by a superior force ; the rebel 
 was overtaken and slain in the mountains; and his 
 widow was sent a captive to Damascus, to gratify the 
 desires, or more probably the vanity, of the commander 
 of the faithful. From the Pyrenees, Abderame proceed- 
 ed without delay to the passage of the Rhone and the 
 siege of Aries. An army of christians attempted the 
 relief of the city : the tombs of their leaders were yet 
 visible in the thirteenth century ; and many thousands 
 of their dead bodies were carried down the rapid stream 
 into the Mediterranean sea. The arms of Abderame 
 were not less successful on the side of the ocean. He 
 passed without opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, 
 which unite their waters in the gulf of Bourdeaux ; 
 but he found, beyond those rivers, the camp of the in- 
 trepid Eudes, who had formed a second army, and 
 sustained a second defeat, so fatal to the christians, 
 that, according to their sad confession, God alone could 
 reckon the number of the slain. The victorious Sar- 
 acen overran the provinces of Aquitain, whose Gallic 
 names are disguised, rather than lost, in the modern 
 appellations of Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou : his 
 standards were planted on the walls, or at least before 
 the gates, of Tours and of Sens ; and his detachments 
 overspread the kingdom of Burgundy as far as the 
 well known cities of Lyons and Besangon. The 
 memory of these devastations, for Abderame did not 
 spare the country or the people, was long preserved 
 by tradition ; and the invasion of France by the Moors 
 or Mahometans, affords the ground-work of those fa- 
 bles, which have been so wildly disfigured in the ro- 
 mances of chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the 
 Italian muse. In the decline of society and art, the 
 deserted cities could supply a slender booty to the 
 Saracens; their richest spoil was found in the church- 
 es and monasteries, which they stripped of their orna- 
 nients and delivered to the flames: and the tutelar 
 saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, 
 forgot their miraculous powers in the defence of their 
 own sepulchres.' A victorious line of march had 
 been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock 
 of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire ; the repetition 
 of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to 
 the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland : 
 the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the 
 Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed 
 ^ithont a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. 
 Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be 
 
 f With regard to the sanctuary of St. Martin of Tours, Roderic 
 Ximones accuses the Saracens of the deed. Turonis civitatem, ec 
 cieeiam et palaiia vasiatione et incendio simili diruit et consump- 
 fho .T/»e continuator of Fredegarius imputes to them no more than 
 l!l„.* .. o • , ^**'""^ beatissimi Martini evertendam desti- 
 th\"honour?f;hei.fat. ^^' ^""'^^ a»aalisi w« more jealous of 
 
 taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might 
 demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and 
 truth of the revelation of Mahomet.* 
 
 From such calamities was Christen- Defeat of the 
 dom delivered by the genius and fortune ESierMan^ei, 
 ot one man. Charles, the illegitimate A. D.732. 
 son of the elder Pepin, was content with the titles of 
 mayor or duke of the Franks ; but he deserved to be- 
 come the father of a line of kings. In a laborious 
 administration of twenty-four years, he restored and 
 supported the dignity of the throne, and the rebels of 
 Germany and Gaul were successively crushed by the 
 activity of a warrior, who, in the same campaign, 
 could display his banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and 
 the shores of the ocean. In the public danger, he w^as 
 summoned by the voice of his country ; and his rival, 
 the duke of Aquitain, was reduced to appear among 
 the fugitives and suppliants. " Alas !" exclaimed the 
 Franks, " what a misfortune ! what an indignity ! We 
 have long heard of the name and conquests of the 
 Arabs ; we were apprehensive of their attack from the 
 east ; they have now conquered Spain, and invade our 
 country on the side of the west. Yet their numbers, 
 and (since they have no buckler) their arms, are infe- 
 rior to our own." " If yon follow my advice," replied 
 the prudent mayor of the palace, " you will not inter- 
 rupt their march, nor precipitate your attack. They 
 are like a torrent, which it is dangerous to stem in its 
 career. The thirst of riches and the consciousness of 
 success, redouble their valour, and valour is of more 
 avail than arms or numbers. Be patient till they have 
 loaded themselves with the encumbrance of wealth. 
 The possession of wealth will divide their counsels 
 and assure your victory." This subtle policy is per- 
 haps a refinement of the Arabian writers ; and the sit- 
 uation of Charles will suggest a more narrow and 
 selfish motive of procrastination; the secret desire of 
 humbling the pride, and wasting the provinces, of the 
 rebel duke of Aquitain. It is yet more probable, that 
 the delays of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. 
 A standing army was unknown under the first and 
 second race : more than half the kingdom was now in 
 the hands of the Saracens : according to their respec- 
 tive situation, the Franks of Neustria and Austrasia 
 were too conscious or too careless of the impending 
 danger; and the voluntary aids of the Gepidae and 
 Germans were separated by a long interval from the 
 standard of the christian general. No sooner had 
 he collected his forces, than he sought and found the 
 enemy in the centre of France, between Tours and 
 Poitiers. His well-conducted march was covered by 
 a range of hills, and Abderame appears to have been 
 surprised by his unexpected presence. The nations 
 of Asia, Africa, and Europe, advanced with equal ar- 
 dour to an encounter which would change the history 
 of the world. In the six first days of desultory com- 
 bat, the horsemen and archers of the cast maintained 
 their advantage : but in the closer onset of the seventh 
 day, the orientals were oppressed by the strength and 
 stature of the Germans, who, with stout hearts and 
 iron hands,*" asserted the civil and religious freedom 
 of their posterity. The epithet of Martel the Hammer^ 
 which has been added to the name of Charles, is ex- 
 pressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes : the 
 valour of Eudes was excited by resentment and emu- 
 lation ; and their companions, in the eye of history, 
 are the true peers and paladins of French chivalry. 
 After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain. 
 
 ff Yet I sincerely doubt whether the Oxford mosch would have 
 produced a volume of controversy so elegant and ingenious as the 
 sermons lately preached by Mr. White, the Arabic professor, at Mr. 
 Hampton's lecture. His observations on the character and religion 
 of Mahomet, are always adapted to his argument, and generally 
 founded in truth and reason. He sustains the part of a lively and 
 eloquent advocate ; and sometimes rises to the merit of an historiaa 
 and philosopher. 
 
 h Gens Austria membrorum pre-eminentia valida, et gens Ger- 
 mana corde et corpore praestantissima, quasi in iciu oculi, manu fer- 
 ret, et pectore arduo, Arabes extiazerent. (Eoderic. Toletaa. c. xiv.> 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 \\ 
 
254 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 255 
 
 
 5 <* 
 
 t 
 
 f' f : 
 
 the Saracens, in the close of the evenintr, retired to 
 their camp. In the disorder and despair of the night, 
 the various tribes of Yennen and Damascus, of Africa 
 and Spain, were provoked to turn their arms against 
 each other : the remains of their host were suddenly 
 dissolved, and each emir consulted his safety by a 
 hasty and separate retreat. At the dawn of day, the 
 stillness of an hostile camp was suspected by the vic- 
 torious christians : on the report of their spies, they 
 ventured to explore the riches of the vacant tents ; but, 
 if we except some celebrated relics, a small portion 
 of the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful 
 owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over 
 the catholic world, and the monks of Italy could affirm 
 and believe that three hundred and fifty, or three hun- 
 dred and seventy-five, thousand of the Mahometans 
 had been crushed by the hammer of Charles;' while 
 no more than fifteen hundred christians were slain in 
 the field of Tours. But this incredible tale is suf- 
 ficiently disproved by the caution of the French gen- 
 eral, who apprehended the snares and accidents of a 
 pursuit, and dismissed his German allies to their native 
 forests. The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss 
 of strength and blood, and the most crbel execution is 
 inflictedTnot in the ranks of battle, but on the backs 
 of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the Franks 
 They reireai'be- was complete and final; Aquitain was 
 fore ihe Franks, recovered by the arms of Eudes ; the 
 Arabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul, and they 
 were soon driven beyond the Pyrenees by Charles 
 Martel and his valiant race.* It might have been 
 expected that the saviour of Christendom would have 
 been canonized, or at least applauded, by the gratitude 
 of the clergy, who are indebted to his sword for their 
 present existence. But in the public distress, the may- 
 or of tlie palace had been compelled to apply the riches, 
 or at least the revenues, of the bishops and abbots, to 
 the relief of the state and the reward of the soldiers. 
 His merits were forgotten, his sacrilege alone was re- 
 membered, and, in an epistle to a Carlovingian prince, 
 a Gallic synod presumes to declare that his ancestor 
 was damned ; that on the opening of his tomb, the 
 spectators were affrighted by a smell of fire and the 
 aspect of a horrid dragon ; and that a saint of the 
 times was indulged with a pleasant vision of the soul 
 and body of Charles Martel, burning, to all eternity, in 
 the abyss of hell.' 
 
 ^ . The loss of an army, or a province in 
 
 Elevation of the . ^ u i ««^«:^r..i ♦« 
 
 Abbassides, the western world, was less paintul to 
 
 A. D. 746-750. the court of Damascus, than the rise and 
 prosrress of a domestic competitor. Except among the 
 Syrians, the caliphs of the house of Ommiyah had 
 never been the objects of the public favour. The life 
 of Mahomet recorded their perseverance in idolatry and 
 rebellion : their conversion had been reluctant, their 
 elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was 
 cemented with the most holy and noble blood of Ara- 
 bia. The best of their race, the pious Omar, was dis- 
 satisfied with his own title ; their personal virtues were 
 insufficient to justify a departure from the order of 
 succession ; and the eyes and wishes of the faithful 
 were turned towards the line of Hashem and the kin- 
 
 i These numbers are suied by Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of 
 Aquileia, (de Geslis Langobard. 1. vi. p. 921. edit. Grot.) and Anasla- 
 sius, the librarian of the Roman church, (in Vit. Gregorii II.) who 
 tells a miraculous story of three consecrated sponges, which render- 
 ed invulnerable the French soKiters among whom they had been 
 shared. It should seem, that in his letters to the Pope, Eudes usurp- 
 ed the honour of the victory, for which he was chastised by the 
 French annalists, who, with equal falseliood, accuse him of inviting 
 
 the Saracens. . ^ . . , ^ « . 
 
 k Narbonne, and the rest of Septimanra, was recovered by Pepin, 
 the son of Charles Martel, A. D. 755. (Pagi, Crilica, tom. iii. p. 300.) 
 Thirty-seven years afterwards it was pillaged by a sudden inroad of 
 the Arabs, who employed the captives in the construction of the 
 roosch of Cordova. (De Guignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. i. p. 351.) 
 1 This pastoral letter, addressed to Lewis the Germanic, the grand- 
 I of Charlemagne, and most probably composed by the pen of th« 
 
 •on 
 
 artful Hincmar, is dated in the year 858, and signed by the bishops 
 of the provinces of Rheims, and Rouen. (Barunius, Annal. Lccles. 
 A. D.741.Fleury, Hist. Eccles. lorn. x. p.5l4 -516.) Yet Baroinus him- 
 •elf, and the French critics, reject with conlempl thii episcopal fiction. 
 
 dred of the apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites- 
 were either rash or pusillanimous; but the descend* 
 ants of Abbas cherished, with courage and discretion, 
 the hopes of their rising fortunes. From an obscure 
 residence in Syria, they secretly despatched their 
 agents and missionaries, who preached in the eastern 
 provinces their hereditary and indefeasible right; and 
 Mohammed, the son of Ali, the son of Abdallah, the son 
 of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audience to 
 the deputies of Chorasan, and accepted their free gift 
 of four hundred thousand pieces of gold. After the 
 death of Mohammed, the oath of allegiance was ad- 
 ministered in the name of his son Ibrahim to a numer- 
 ous band of votaries, who expected only a signal and 
 a leader ; and the governor of Chorasan continued to 
 deplore his fruitless admonitions and the deadly slum- 
 ber of the caliphs of Damascus, till he himself, with 
 all his adherents, was driven from the city and palace 
 of Meru, by the rebellious arms of Abu Moslem. ^ 
 That maker of kings, the author, as he is named, of 
 the call of the Abbassides, was at length rewarded for 
 his presumption of merit with the usual gratitude of 
 courts. A mean, perhaps a foreign, extraction could 
 not repress the aspiring energy of Abu Moslem. Jeal- 
 ous of his wives, liberal of his wealth, prodigal of 
 his own blood and of that of others, he could boast 
 with pleasure, and possibly with truth, that he had 
 destroyed six hundred thousand of his enemies ; and 
 such was the intrepid gravity of his mind and counte- 
 nance, that he was never seen to smile except on a day 
 of battle. In the visible separation of parties the 
 green was consecrated to the Fatimites; the Ommiades 
 were distinguished by the white; and the blacky as the 
 most adverse, was naturally adopted by the Abbas- 
 sides. Their turbans and garments were stained with 
 that gloomy colour : two black standards,on pike-staves 
 nine cubits long, were borne aloft in the van of Abu 
 Moslem ; and their allegorical names of the night and 
 the shadow obscurely represented the indissoluble union 
 and perpetual succession of the line of Hashem. From 
 the Indus to the Euphrates the east was convulsed by 
 the quarrel of the white and the black factions ; the 
 Abbassides were most frequently victorious ; but their 
 public success was clouded by the personal misfortune 
 of their chief. The court of Damascus, awakening 
 from a long slumber, resolved to prevent the pilgrim- 
 atre of Mecca, which Ibrahim had undertaken with a 
 splendid retinue, to recommend himself at once to the 
 favour of the prophet and of the people. A detach- 
 ment of cavalry intercepted his march and arrested his 
 person ; and the unhapjty Ibrahim, snatched away from 
 the promise of untasted royalty, expired in iron fetters 
 in the dungeons of Haran. His two younger brothers, 
 Saffah and Almansor, eluded the search of the tyrant, 
 and lay concealed at Cufa, till the zeal of the people 
 and the approach of his eastern friends allowed them 
 to expose their persons to the impatient public. On 
 Friday, in the dress of a caliph, in the colours of the 
 sect, Saffah proceeded with religious and military 
 pomp to the mosch : ascending the pulpit, he prayed 
 and preached as the lawful successor of Mahomet; 
 and, after his departure, his kinsmen bound a willing 
 people by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks 
 of the Zab, and not in the mosch of Cufa,^that this im- 
 portant controversy was determined. Every advan- 
 tage appeared to be on the side of the white faction : 
 the authority of established government, an army of 
 an hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, against a 
 sixth part of that number; and the presence and merit 
 of the caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the 
 house of Ommiyah. Before his accession to the 
 throne he had deserved, by his Georgian warfare, the 
 
 in The steed and the saddle which had carried any of his wives 
 were instantly killed or burnt, lest they should be afterwards moun- 
 ted by a male. Twelve hundred mules or camels were required for 
 his kitchen furniture; and the daily consumption amounted to three- 
 thousand cakes, a hundred sheep, besidei oxen, poultry, dtc. (Abul- 
 pharagius. Hist. Dynast, p. 1-10.) 
 
 
 honourable epithet of the ass of Mesopotamia ; ■ and 
 he might have been ranked among the greatest prin- 
 ces, had not, says Abulfeda, the eternal order decreed 
 that moment for the ruin of his family; a decree 
 against which all human prudence and fortitude must 
 struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mis- 
 taken, or disobeyed : the return of his horse, from 
 which he had dismounted on a necessary occasion, 
 impressed the belief of his death : and the enthusiasm 
 of the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdal- 
 lah, the uncle of his competitor. After an irretrieva- 
 ble defeat, the caliph escaped to Mosul ; but the 
 colours of the Abbassides were displayed from the 
 rampart ; he suddenly repassed the Tigris, cast a me- 
 lancholy look on his palace of Haran, crossed the Eu- 
 phrates, abandoned the fortifications of Damascus, and, 
 without halting in Palestine, pitched his last and fatal 
 p,ii ^i-.K«. r\r^ camp at Busir on the banks of the Nile.** 
 
 Fall of the Om- _■¥• j i i i • 
 
 miades, His Speed was urged by the incessant 
 4; V- ^.^- diligence of Abdallah, who in every step 
 
 reb. 10. !• Ji •. • I 1 "^ ^ ' 
 
 of the pursuit acquired strength and re- 
 putation : the remains of the white faction were final- 
 ly vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which termi- 
 nated the life and anxiety of Mervan, was not less 
 welcome perhaps to the unfortunate than to the victo- 
 rious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueror 
 eradicated the most distant branches of the hostile 
 race: their bones were scattered, their memory was 
 accursed, and the martyrdom of Hossein was abun- 
 dantly revenged on the posterity of his tyrants. Four- 
 score of the Ommiades, who had yielded to the faith 
 or clemency of their foes, were invited to a banquet at 
 Damascus. The laws of hospitality were violated by 
 a promiscuous massacre : the board was spread over 
 their fallen bodies ; and the festivity of the guests was 
 enlivened by the music of their dying groans. By the 
 event of the civil war, the dynasty of the Abbassides 
 was firmly established ; but the Christians only could 
 triumph in the mutual hatred and common loss of the 
 disciples of Mahomet.P 
 
 Revolt of Spain, Yet the thousands who were swept 
 A. D. 755. away by the sword of war might have 
 been speedily retrieved in the succeeding generation, 
 if the consequences of the revolution had not tended to 
 dissolve the power and unity of the empire of the Sar- 
 acens. Ill the proscription of the Ommiades, a royal 
 youth of the name of Abdalrahman alone escaped the 
 rage of his enemies, who hunted the wandering exile 
 from the banks of the Euphrates to the valleys of mount 
 Atlas. His presence in the neighbourhood of Spain 
 revived the zeal of the white faction. The name and 
 cause of the Abbassides had been first vindicated by 
 the Persians; the west had been pure from civil arms; 
 and the servants of the abdicated family still held, by 
 a precarious tenure, the inheritance of their lands, and 
 
 I 
 
 ■ Al TTeman. He had been governor of Mesopotamia, and the 
 Arabic proverb praises the courage of that warlike breed of asses who 
 never fly from an enemy. The surname of Mervan may justify the 
 comparison of Homer, (Iliad, k. 557, &c.) and both will silence the 
 moderns, who consider the ass as a stupid and ignoble emblem. 
 (D'Hnrbelot. Bibliot. Orient, p. 558.) 
 
 o Four several places, all in Egypt, bore the name of Busir, or Bu- 
 ■iris, so famous in Greek fable. The first, where Mervan was slain, 
 was to the west of the Nile, in the province of Fium, or Arsinoe ; the 
 second in the Delta, in the Sebennytic nome; the third, near the 
 pyramids ; the fourth, which was destroyed by Dioclesian, (see above, 
 p. 14r» ) in the Thebais. I shall here transcribe a note of the learned 
 anj orthodox Michaelia: Videntur in pluribus -Egypti superioris ur- 
 bibus Busiri Coptojque arma sumpsisse christiani, libertatemque de 
 relisione sentiendi defendisse, sed succubuisse quo in bello Coptus 
 et Busiris diruta, et circa Esnam magna strages edita. Bellum nar- 
 rant Sf'd causam belli ignorant scriptores Byzantini, alioqui Coptum 
 •t Busirim tion robellasse dicturi, sed causam christianorum suscep- 
 luri. (Not. 211. p. 1(X).) For the geography of the four Busirs, see 
 Abulfeda, (Descript. JRgypt. p. 9. vers. Michaelis, Gottingae, 1776. in 
 quarto.) Michaelis, (Not. 122—127. p. 53-63.) and D'Anville. (Me- 
 inoire sur I'Egypte, p. 85. 147. 205.) 
 
 P See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 136-145.) Eutychius, (Annal. 
 torn. II. p. 392. vers. Pocock,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 109—121.) 
 Abulpharagius, (Hist. Dynast, p. 1*4-140.) Roderic of Toledo, (Hist. 
 Arabum, c. 18. p. 33.) Theophanes. (Chronograph, p. 356, 357. who 
 ■peaks of the Abbassides under the names of X:«<..*<raviraii and Mx«^». 
 f 'f 1.,) and the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, in the articles of Ommi- 
 •aes, Abbass^dcs, M<»rvan, Ibrahim, Saffah, Aboik Motltn, 
 
 the offices of government. Strongly prompted by gra- 
 titude, indignation, and fear, they invited the grandson 
 of the caliph Hashem to ascend the throne of Ms ances- 
 tors ; and, in his desperate condition, the extremes of 
 rashness and prudence were almost the same. The 
 acclamations of the people saluted his landing on the 
 coast of Andalusia; and, after a successful struggle, 
 Abdalrahman established the throne of Cordova, and 
 was the father of the Ommiades of Spain, who reign- 
 ed above two hundred and fifty years from the Atlantic 
 to the Pyrenees. <> He slew in battle a lieutenant of the 
 Abbassides, who had invaded his dominions with a fleet 
 and army : the head of Ala, in salt and camphire, was 
 suspended by a daring messenger before the palace of 
 Mecca; and the caliph Almansor rejoiced in his safety, 
 that he was removed by seas and lands from such a for- 
 midable adversary. Their mutual designs or declara- 
 tions of offensive war evaporated without eflfect ; but 
 instead of opening a door to the conquest of Europe, 
 Spain was dissevered from the trunk of the monarchy, 
 engaged in perpetual hostility with the east, and incli- 
 ned to peace and friendship with the christian sove- 
 reigns of Constantinople and France. Triple division 
 The example of the Ommiades was imi- of the caliphate, 
 tated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the 
 Edrissites of Mauritania, and the more powerful Fati- 
 mites of Africa and Egypt. In the tenth century, the 
 chair of Mahomet was disputed by three caliphs or 
 commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, 
 Cairoan, and Cordova, excommunicated each other, and 
 agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is 
 more odious and criminal than an unbeliever. ' 
 
 Mecca was the patrimony of the line Magnificenceof 
 or Hashem, yet the Abbassides were the caliphs, 
 never tempted to reside either in the A. D. 750— 960. 
 birth*place or the city of the prophet. Damascus was 
 disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the blood, 
 of the Ommiades ; and, after some hesitation, Alman- 
 sor, the brother and successor of Saffah, laid the foun- 
 dations of Bagdad,^ the imperial seat of his posterity 
 d uring a reign of five hundred years. * The chosen spot 
 is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles 
 above the ruins of Modain : the double wall was of a 
 circular form ; and such was the rapid increase of a 
 capital, now dwindled to a provincial town, that the 
 funeral of a popular saint might be attended by eight 
 hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of 
 Bagdad and the adjacent villages. In this city ofpeace^ 
 amidst the riches of the east, the Abbassides soon dis- 
 dained the abstinence and frugality of the first caliphs, 
 and aspired to emulate the magnificenceof the Persian 
 kings. After his wars and buildings, Almansor left 
 behind him in gold and silver about thirty millions 
 sterling;' and this treasure was exhausted in a few 
 
 q For the revolution of Spain, consult Roderic of Toledo, (c. xviii. 
 p. 34, &c.) the Bibliothoca Arabico Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 30. 198.) and 
 Cardonne. (Hist de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, tom. i. p. 180—197.205. 
 272. 323, fcc.) 
 
 r I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and fancies of Sir 
 William Temple, (his Works, vol. iii. p. 371—374. octavo edition,) 
 and Voltaire, (Histoire Generale, c. xxviii. tom. ii. p. 124, 125. edition 
 de Lausanne,) concerning the division of the Saracen empire. The 
 mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the want of knowledge or reflec- 
 tion ; but Sir William was deceived by a Spanish impostor, who has 
 framed an apocryphal history of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs. 
 
 » The geographer D'Anville, (I'Euphraie et le Tigre, p. 121—123.) 
 and the orientalist D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque, p. 167, 168.) may sufllce 
 for the knowledge of Bagdad. Our travellers, Pielro della Valle, 
 (tom. i. p. 688—698.) Tavernier, (tom. i. p. 230—238.) Thevenot, (part 
 ii. p. 209—212.) Otter, (tom. i. p. 162—168.) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en 
 Arable, tom. ii. p. 239—271.) have seen only its decay ; and the Nu- 
 bian geographer, (p. 204.) and the travelling Jew, Benjamin of Tu- 
 dela, (Itinerarium, p. 112— 123. a Const. I'Empereur, apud Elzevir. 
 1633.) are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have known 
 Bagdad under the reign of the Abbassides. 
 
 t The foundations of Bagdad were laid A. H. 145. A. D. 762. Mos- 
 lasem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and put to death by the 
 Tartars, A. H. 656. A. D. 1258. the 20ih of February. 
 
 n Medina! al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as is more 
 neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers, E.fit»e3^c>.»i (Irenopo- 
 lis.) There is some dispute concerning the etymology of Bagdad, 
 but the first syllable is allowed to signify a garden in the Persian 
 tongue ; the garden of Dad, a christian hermit, whose cell had been 
 the only habitation on the spot. 
 
 z Reliquit in Rrario sezcentiei millies mille statersf , et qiuter 01 
 
 li 
 
 ^1 
 
 *! 
 
if.. i 
 
 856 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Chap. XIH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 257 
 
 ri^ 
 
 ■h 
 
 
 l'» 
 
 
 
 years by the vices or virtues of his children. His son 
 Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six 
 millions of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable mo- 
 tive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns, and car- 
 avanseras, which he distributed along a measured road 
 of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels laden 
 with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of 
 Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the roy- 
 al banquet.' The courtiers would surely praise the 
 liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gave away 
 four-fifihs of the income of a province, a sura of two 
 millions four hundred thousand gold dinars, before he 
 drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the 
 same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were 
 showered on the head of the bride," and a lottery of 
 lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of 
 fortune. The glories of the court were brightened, 
 rather than impaired, in the decline of the empire, and 
 a Greek ambassador might admire, or pity, the mag- 
 nificence of the feeble Moctader. " The caliph's whole 
 army," says the historian Abulfeda, " both horse and 
 foot, was under arms, which together made a body of 
 one hundred and sixty thousand men. His state-offi- 
 cers, the favourite slaves, stood near him in splendid 
 apparel, their belts glittering with gold and gems. 
 Near thenn were seven thousand eunuchs, four thou- 
 sand of them white, the remainder black. The porters 
 or door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Bar- 
 ges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were 
 seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace 
 itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight 
 thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hun- 
 dred of which were of silk embroidered with gold. 
 The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. 
 A hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to 
 each lion.* Among the other sppciacles of rare and 
 stupendous luxury, was a tree of gold and silver spread- 
 ing into eisrhteen larcje branches, on which, and on the 
 lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same 
 precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. 
 While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the 
 several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through 
 this scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador was 
 led by the vizir to the foot of the caliph's throne.**'* 
 In the west, the Ommiades of Spain supported, with 
 equal pomp, the title of commander of the faithful. 
 Three miles from Cordova, in honour of his favourite 
 sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans con- 
 structed the city, palace, and gardens of Zehra. Twen- 
 ty-five years, and above three millions sterling, were 
 employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the 
 artists of Constantinople, the most skilful sculptors 
 and architects of the ag-e ; and the buildinnrs were sus- 
 tained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Span- 
 ish and African, of Greek and Italian, marble. The 
 hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearls, and 
 a great bason in the centre was surrounded with the 
 curious and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. 
 In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basons 
 and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was 
 
 vicies millips miUe aureos aureos. Elmacin. Hist. Saracen, p. 126. 
 I have reckoned the gold pieces al eishl shillings, and the propor- 
 tion to tho silver as twelve to one. Bill I will never answer for the 
 numbers of Erpenius; and the Latins are scarcely above the savages 
 in the language of arithmetic. 
 
 J D'Herbelot, p. 5.30. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam apporla- 
 vil, rem ibi aut niinquam aut rarissime visam. 
 
 X Abulfeda, p. 194. 189. describes the splendour and liberality of 
 Almamon. Milton has alluded to this oriental custom : 
 —Or where the gorgeous east, with richest hand, 
 Showers on her kinjrs Barbaric pearls and gold. 
 I have used the modern word lottery, to express the missilia of the 
 Roman emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught 
 them, as they were thrown among the crowd. 
 
 a When Bell of Antermony (Travels, vol. i. p. 99.) accompanied 
 the Russian ambassador to the audience of the unfortunate Shah 
 Hussein, of Persia, tteo lions were introduced, to denote the power 
 of the king over the fiercest animals. 
 
 b Abulfeda, p. 237. D'Herbelot, p. 509. This embassy was received 
 «t Bagdad, A. H. 305. A. D. 917. In the passage of Abulfeda, I have 
 tised, with some variations, the English translation of the learned 
 and amiable Mr. Harris, of Solubur/. (Philological Iaqatrie«, p. 
 363, 364.) 
 
 replenished not with water, but with the purest quick- 
 silver. The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives, con- 
 cubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six thousand 
 three hundred persons ; and he was attended to the 
 field by a guard of twelve thousand horse, whose belts 
 and scymiiars were studded with gold.' 
 
 In a private condition, our desires are iia consequences 
 perpetually repressed by poverty and on private and 
 subordination ; but the lives and labours P"^*'" »^*PP'"«-»- 
 of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic 
 prince, whose laws are blindly obeyed, and whose 
 wishes are instantly gratified. Our imagination is 
 dazzled by the splendid picture ; and whatever may be 
 the cool dictates of reason, there are few among us 
 who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts 
 and the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some 
 use to borrow the experience of the same Abdalrahman, 
 whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration 
 and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial 
 which was found in the closet of the deceased caliph. 
 ** I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or 
 peace ; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my ene- 
 mies ; and respected by my allies. Riches and hon- 
 ours, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor 
 does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting 
 to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently 
 numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness 
 which have fallen to my lot : they amount to four- 
 teen : — O man ! place not thy confidence in this pres- 
 ent world ! " * The luxury of the caliphs, so useless 
 to their private happiness, relaxed the nerves, and ter- 
 minated the progress, of the Arabian empire. Tem- 
 poral and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupa- 
 tion of the first successors of Mahomet ; and after 
 supplying themselves with the necessaries of life, the 
 whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that salu- 
 tary work. The Abbassides were impoverished by the 
 multitude of their wants and their contempt of econ- 
 omy. Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, 
 their leisure, their affections, the powers of their mind, 
 were diverted by pomp and pleasure ; the rewards of 
 valour were embezzled by women and eunuchs, and 
 the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the 
 palace. A similar temper was dififused among the 
 subjects of the caliph. Their stern enthusiasm was 
 softened by time and prosperity : they sought riches 
 in the occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of 
 literature, and happiness in the tranquillity of domestic 
 life. War was no longer the passion of the Saracens; 
 and the increase of pay, the repetition of donatives, 
 were insuflScient to allure the posterity of those volun- 
 tary champions who had crowded to the standard of 
 Abubeker and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of par- 
 adise. 
 
 Under the reign of the Ommiades, the introduction of 
 studies of the Moslems were confined to learnine among 
 the interpretation of the Koran, and the ^a? D.'^754* &c. 
 eloquence and poetry of their native 813, &;c. 
 tongue. A people continually exposed to the dangers 
 of the field must esteem the healing powers of medi- 
 cine, or rather of surgery : but the starving physician.*; 
 of Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise and 
 temperance deprived them of the greatest part of their 
 practice.* After their civil and domestic wars, the 
 
 c Cardonne, Histoire de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, torn. i. p. 330- 
 33G. A just idea of the taste and architecture of the Arabians of 
 Spain, may be conceived from the description and plates of the AI- 
 hambra of Grenada. (Swinburne's Travels, p. 171—188.) 
 
 d Cardonne, tom i. p. 329, aiO. This confession, the complainU 
 of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read Prior's verbose but elo- 
 quent poem,) and the happy ten days of the emperor Seghed, (Ram- 
 bler, No. 204, 205.) will be triumphantly quoted by the detractors 
 of human life. Their expectations are commonly immoderate, their 
 estiujales are seldom impartial. If I may sprak of myself, (the only 
 person of whom I can speak with certainty,) my happv hours have 
 far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the caliph of 
 Spain ; and I shall not scruple to add, that many of them are due la 
 the pleasing labour of the present composition. 
 
 e The Gulistan (p. 289.) relates the conversation of Mahomet and » 
 
 hysician. (Epistol. Renaudoi. in Fabricius, Bibliol. Grasc. lorn, pj 
 14.) The prophet himielf was skilled in the art of m9dicka»iJ» 
 
 
 \ 
 
 subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental 
 leiliargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisi- 
 tion of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged 
 by the caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of 
 the Mahometan law, had applied himself with suc- 
 cess to the study of astronomy. But when the sceptre 
 devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, 
 he completed the designs of his grandfather, and in- 
 vited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambas- 
 sadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, 
 and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science : 
 at his commartd they were translated by the most skil- 
 ful interpreters into the Arabic language : his subjects 
 were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive 
 writings ; and the successor of Mahomet assisted with 
 pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputa- 
 tions of the learned. " He was not ignorant," says 
 Abulpharagius, "that they are the elect of God, his 
 best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted 
 to the improvement of their rational faculties. The 
 mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glorv 
 in the industry of their hands or the indulgence oflhefr 
 brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, 
 with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids 
 of the cells of a bee-hive : ' these fortitudinous heroes 
 are awed by the superior fierceness of the lions and 
 tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments, they are much 
 inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid 
 quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true 
 luniinaries and legislators of a world, which, without 
 their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbar- 
 isnn."* The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were 
 imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas : 
 their rivals the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades 
 of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as 
 the commanders of the faithful : the same royal pre- 
 rogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the 
 provinces; and their emulation diffused the taste and 
 the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara 
 to Fez and Cordova. The vizir of a sultan consecrated 
 a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the 
 foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed 
 with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. 
 The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps 
 at different times, to six thousand disciples of every 
 degree, from the son of the noble to that of the me- 
 chanic : a sufficient allowance was provided for the 
 indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the 
 professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In 
 every city the productions of Arabic literature were 
 copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious 
 and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused 
 the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the 
 carriage of his books would have required f'ur hun- 
 dred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites con- 
 sisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly 
 transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, 
 without jealousy or avarice, to the students of Cairo. 
 Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can 
 believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library 
 of six hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which 
 were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, 
 Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, 
 and Murcia,had given birth to more than three hundred 
 
 Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 394—405.) has given an extract 
 01 the aphorisms which are extant under his name. 
 
 T^*^^'"^ curious architecture in Reaumur. (Hist, des Insectes, 
 torn. V. Memoire viii.) These hexagons are closed by a pyramid; 
 ine angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid, such as would ac- 
 complish the given end with the smallest quantity possible of mate- 
 rials, were determined by a mathematician, at 109 degrees 26 mi- 
 nutes for the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for the smaller. The 
 actual measure is 109 degrees 28 minutes, 70 degrees 32 minutes, 
 i f ^ K "k^*^'^^*'' harmony raises the work at the expense of the art- 
 ist: the bees are not masters of transcendant geometry. 
 
 c Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H. 462. A. D. 1069. 
 nas turnished Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 160.) with this curious pas- 
 sage, as well as with the textof Pocock's Specimen Historiae Arabum. 
 A number of literary anecdotes of philosophers, physicians, &c. who 
 nave flourished under each caliph, furm the principal merit of ihe 
 dynasties of Abulpharasiui. i 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 H 17 
 
 writers, and above seventy j)ublic libraries were opened 
 in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of 
 Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, 
 till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval 
 with the darkest and most slothful period of European 
 annals ; but since the sun of science has arisen in the 
 west, it should seem that the oriental studies have lan- 
 guished and declined. •» 
 
 In the libraries of the Arabians, as in Th^jr ,.o«i ™^ 
 *i i* i-« .\ ^ ^ ineir real piXK 
 
 tfiose ot tiurope, the far greater part of gressin thegci- 
 the innumerable volumes were possessed ^^^^ea. 
 only of local value or imaginary merit. ' The shelves 
 were crowded with orators'and poets, whose style W2ls 
 adapted to the taste and manners of their countrymen ; 
 with general and partial histories, which each revolving 
 generation supplied with a new harvest of persons and 
 events ; with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, 
 which derived their authority from the law of the 
 prophet ; with the interpreters of the Koran, and ortho- 
 dox tradition ; and with the whole theological tribe, 
 polemics, mystics, scholastics, and moralists, the first 
 or the last of writers, according to the different esti- 
 nriate of sceptics or believers. The works of specula- 
 tion or science may be reduced to the four classes of 
 philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and physic. The 
 sages of Greece were translated and illustrated in the 
 Arabic language, and some treatises, now lost in the 
 original, have been recovered in the versions of the 
 east,^ which possessed and studied the writings of 
 Aristotle and Plato, of Euclid and Apollonius, of 
 Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. ' Among the ideal 
 systems, which have varied with the fashion of the 
 times, the Arabians adopted the philosophy of the 
 Stagirite, alike intelligible or alike obscure for the rea- 
 ders of every age. Plato wrote for the Athenians, and 
 his allegorical genius is too closely blended with the 
 language and religion of Greece. After the fall of that 
 religion, the peripatetics, emerging from their obscu- 
 rity, prevailed in the controversies of the oriental sects, 
 and their founder was long afterwards restored by the 
 Mahometans of Spain to the Latin schools." The 
 physics, both of the Academy and the Lycaum, as 
 they are built, not on observation, but on argument, 
 have retarded the progress of real knowledge. The 
 metaphysics of infinite, or finite, spirit, have too often 
 been enlisted in the service of superstition. But the 
 human faculties are fortified by the art and practice 
 of dialectics ; the ten predicaments of Aristotle collect 
 and methodise our ideas, " and his syllogism is the 
 keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wield- 
 ed in the schools of the Saracens, but as it is more 
 effectual fr.r the detection of error than for the investi- 
 gation of truth, it is not surprising that new generation* 
 
 n Tiipse literary anecdotes are borrowed from the Bibliotheca Ara- 
 bir.o-Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 38. 71. 201, 202.) Leo Africanus, (de Arab. 
 Medicis ^t Philosophia, in Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. xiii. p. 259 — 
 298. particularly p. 274.) and Renaudot. (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 274, 
 275. 536, 537.) besides the chronological remarks of Abulpharagius. 
 
 i The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a just idea of the 
 proportion of the classes. In the library of (TaiVo, the MSS. of astro* 
 nomy and medicine amounted to 6500, with two fair globes, the one 
 of brass, the other of silver. (Bibliot. Arab. Hist, tom.'i. p. 417.) ' 
 
 k As, for instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh books (the eighth is 
 still wanting) of the Conic Sections of Apollonius Percaeus, which 
 were printed from the Florence MSS. 1661. (Fabric. Bibliot. Grjsc. 
 tom. ii. p. 559.) Yet the fifth book had been previously restored by 
 the mathematical divination of Viviani. (See in Eloge inFontenelle, 
 tom. V. p. 59, Sec.) 
 
 1 The merit of these Arabic versions is freely discussed by Renau- 
 dot, (Fabric. Bibliot. Grac. tom. i. p. 812—816.) and piously defended 
 by Casiri. (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 238—240.) Most of the 
 versions of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, &c. are ascribed to 
 Honain, a physician of the Nestoriau sect, who flourished ai Bagdad 
 in the court of the caliphs, and died A. D. 876. He was at the head 
 of a school or manufacture of translations, and the works of his sons 
 and disciples were published under his name. See Abulpharagius, 
 (Dynast, p. 83. 115. 171— 174.) and apud Asseman, (Bibliot. Orient, 
 tom. ii. p. 438.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientate, p. 456.) Asseman, 
 (Bibliot. Orient, tom. iii. p. 164.) and Casiri. (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, 
 tom. i. p. 238, &c. 251. 236—290. 302. 304, &c.) 
 
 m See Mosheira, InDiitut. Hist. Eccles. p. ISl. 214. 236. 257, 315. 
 338. 396. 438, &c. 
 
 n The most elegant commenury on the Categories or Predica- 
 
 I meats of Aristotle may be found in the Philosophical Arraogementtf 
 of Mr. James Harris, (Jjondon, 1775. in ocuvo,) who laboured to ra- 
 vivo th9 0tudiei of Grecian liieraiuro and philc«oph/. . >-■ - 
 
 i! 
 
\l i 
 
 258 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 '}' 
 
 •• ^ 
 
 'm 
 
 I K 
 
 ■I 
 
 :.;jiM 
 
 « 
 
 ■m 
 
 of masters and disciples should still revolve in the 
 same circle of logical argument. The mathenriatics 
 are distinguished by a peculiar privilege, that, in the 
 course of^'ages, they may always advance, and can 
 never recede. But the ancient geometry, if I am not 
 misinformed, was resumed in the same state by the 
 Italians of the fifteenth century ; and whatever may be 
 the origin of the name, the science of algebra is as- 
 cribed to the Grecian Diophantus by the modest tes- 
 timony of the Arabs themselves." They cultivated 
 with more success the sublime science of astrononiy, 
 which elevates the mind of man to disdain his dimin- 
 utive planet and momentary existence. The costly 
 instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph 
 Almamon, and the land of the Chaldaeans still afforded 
 the same spacious level, the same unclouded horizon. 
 In the plains of Sinaar, and a second time in those of 
 Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree 
 of the great circle of the earth, and determined at 
 twenty-four thousand miles the entire circumference of 
 the globe. P From the reign of the Abbassides to that 
 of the grand-children of Tamerlane, the stars, without 
 the aid of glasses, were diligently observed; and the 
 astronomical tables of Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand,«» 
 correct some minute errors, without daring to renounce 
 the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a step 
 towards the discovery of the solar system. In the 
 eastern courts, the truths of science could be recom- 
 mended only by ignorance and folly, and the astrono- 
 mer would have been disregarded, had he not debased 
 his wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of astro- 
 logy. ' But in the science of medicine, the Arabians 
 have been deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua 
 and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with 
 the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight 
 hundred and sixty physicians were licensed to exer- 
 cise their lucrative profession :• in Spain, the life of 
 the catholic princes was intrusted to the skill of the 
 Saracens,* and the school of Salerno, their legitimate 
 offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of 
 the healing art. " The success of each professor must 
 have been influenced by personal and accidental causes; 
 but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their gen- 
 eral knowledge of anatomy,* botany, ' and chemistry,* 
 
 •.V 
 
 o Abulpharagius Dynast, p. 81. 222. Bibliot. Arab. Hist. torn. i. p. 
 370, 371. In quern (says the primate of the Jacobites) si immiserit se 
 lector oceanum hoc in genere (algebra) inveniet. The linie of Dio- 
 phantus of Alexandria is unknown, but his six books are still extant, 
 «nd have been illustrated by the Greek Planudes and the French- 
 man Meziriac. (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. torn. iv. p. 12—15.) 
 
 p Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem, p. 210, 211. vers. Reiske) describes 
 this operation according to Ibn Challecan, and the best historians. 
 This degree most accurately contains 200,000 royal or Hashemite 
 cubits, which Arabia had derived from the sacred and legal practice 
 both of Palestine and Egypt. This ancient cubit is repeated 400 
 limes in each basis of the great pyramid, and seems to indicate the 
 primitive and universal measures of the eaat. See the Metrologie of 
 the laborious M. Paucton, p. 101—195. 
 
 <l See the Astronomical Tablps of Ulugh Begh, with the preface 
 of Dr. Hyde, in the first volume of his Syntagma Disaeriaiionum, 
 Oxon. 1767. , ^ ^ 
 
 T The truth of astrology was allowed by Albumazar, and the best of 
 the Arabian astronomers, who drew their most certain predictions, 
 not from Venus and Mercury, but from Jupiter and the 8un.(Abul- 
 pharag. Dynast, p. 161 —163.) For the slate and science of the Persian 
 aaironomers, see Chardin. (Voyages en Perse, lorn. iii. p. 162—203.) 
 
 ■ Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. i. p. 438. The original relates a 
 pleasant tale of an ignorant, but harmless, practitioner. 
 
 » In the year 956, Sancho the fat, king of Leon, was cured by the 
 physicians of Cordova. (Mariana, I. viii. c. 7. torn. i. p. 318.) 
 
 « The school of Salerno, and the introduction of the Arabian sci- 
 ences into Italy, are discussed with learning and judgment by Mura- 
 lori (Antiquitat. Ilaliae Medii itvi, torn. iii. p. 932—940.) and Gian- 
 none. (latoria Civili di Napoli, torn. ii. p. 119—127.) 
 
 X See a good view of the progress of Anatomy in Wotton. (Reflec- 
 tions on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 208— 256.) His reputa- 
 tion has been unworthily depreciated by the wits iu the controversy 
 of Boyle a» d Beniley. 
 
 J Bibliot Arab. Hispana, lorn. i. p. 275. Al Beithar, of Malaga, their 
 greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa, Persia, and India. 
 
 X Dr. Watson (Elements of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 17,&c.> allows the 
 original merit of the Arabians. Ydt he quotes the modest confes- 
 sion of ihe famous Geber of the ninth century, (D'Herbelot, p. 317.) 
 that he had drawn most of his science, perhaps of the transmutation 
 of metals, from the ancient sages. Whatever might be the origin or 
 extent of their knowledge, the arts of chemistry and alchy my appear 
 lo have been known in Egypt at lea*t three hundred years before 
 Mahomet. (Wotton's Reflections, p. 121--133. JPauw, Recherches sur 
 leeEcyptieni et letChiuois, » -«« ^ 
 
 , torn. i. p. 37&— 429.) 
 
 the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A su- 
 perstitious reverence for the dead confined both the 
 Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and 
 quadrupeds: the more solid and visible parts were 
 known in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the 
 human frame was reserved for the microscope and the 
 injections of modern artists. Botany is an active science, 
 and the discoveries of the torrid zone might enrich the 
 herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand plants. Some 
 traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the tern- 
 pies and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experi- 
 ence had been acquired in the practice of arts and man- 
 ufactures ; but the science of chemistry owes its origin 
 and improvement to the industry of the Saracens. 
 They first invented and named the alembic for purpo- 
 ses of distillation, analyzed the substances of the three 
 kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and affinities 
 of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous min- 
 erals into soft and salutary medicines. But the most 
 eager search of Arabian chemistry was the transmuta- 
 tion of metals, and the elixir of immortal health : the rea- 
 son and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated in 
 the crucibles of alchy my, and the consunimation of the 
 great work was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, 
 fable, and superstition. 
 
 But the Moslems deprived themselves want of enidi. 
 of the principal benefits of a familiar tion, taste, and 
 intercourse with Greece and Rome, the ff«e*^'^"™- 
 knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the 
 freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their 
 native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any 
 foreign idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen 
 among their christian subjects; they formed their 
 translations, sometimes on the original text, more fre- 
 quently perhaps on a Syriac version ; and in the crowd 
 of astronomers and physicians, there is no example of 
 a poet, an orator, or even an historian, being taught to 
 speak the language of the Saracens. * The mythology 
 of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of those 
 stern fanatics; they possessed in lazy ignorance the 
 colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of 
 Carthage and Rome : the heroes of Plutarch and Livy 
 were buried in oblivion ; and the history of the world 
 before Mahomet was reduced to a short legend of the 
 patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian kings. Our 
 education in the Greek and Latin schools may have 
 fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste ; and I 
 am not forward to condemn the literature and judgment 
 of nations, of whose language I am ignorant. Yet I 
 knoiv that the classics have much to teach, and I believe 
 that the orientals have much to learn : the temperate 
 dignity of style, the graceful proportions of art, the 
 forms'of visible and intellectual beauty, the just de- 
 lineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of nar- 
 rative and argument, the regular fabric of epic and 
 dramatic poetry. •• The influence of truth am! reason 
 is of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers 
 of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings, and assertf'd 
 the rights, of civil and religious freedom. Their moral 
 and political writings might have gradually unlocked 
 the fetters of eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit 
 of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian 
 sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant, and their 
 prophet an impostor.* The instinct of superstition 
 
 % Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 26. 143.) mentions a Syrian Terslon of 
 Homor's two poems, by Theophilus, a christian Maronite of mount 
 Libanus, who professed astronomy at Koha or Edessa towards the einl 
 of the eighth century. His work would be a literary curiosity. I 
 have read somewhere, but I do not believe, that Plutarch's Live* 
 were translated into Turkish for the use of Mahomet the second. 
 
 b I have perused, with much pleasure, Sir William Jones's Laim 
 Commentary on Asiatic Poetry, (London, 1774, in octavo,) which was 
 composed in the youth of that wonderful linguist. At present, m 
 the maturity of .his taste and judgment, he would perhaps abate ot 
 the fervent, and even partial, praise which he haa bestowed on iha 
 orientals. . , 
 
 c Among the Arabian philosophers, Averroes haa been accused oi 
 despising the religion of the Jews, the christians, and the Mahome- 
 tans, (see his article in Bayle's Dictionary.) Each of these secu 
 would agree, that in two initancea out of three, hia cunteaipt wai 
 reasonable. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 259 
 
 was alarmed by the introduction even of the abstract 
 sciences ; and the more rigid doctors of the law con- 
 demned the rash and pernicious curiosity of Almamon."* 
 To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise, and 
 the belief of predestination, we must ascribe the invin- 
 cible enthusiasm of the prince and people. And the 
 sword of the Saracens became less formidable, when 
 their youth was drawn away from the camp to the col- 
 lege, when the armies of the faithful presumed to read 
 and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greeks 
 was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted 
 the sacred fire to the barbarians of the east.* 
 Wars of Harun I" ^he bloody conflict of the Ommiades 
 al Kashid against and Abbassides, the Greeks had stolen 
 *^r nT.fi"''on' ^^^ opportunity of avenging their wrongs 
 A.D.7bi-au,. and enlarging their limits. Buta severe 
 retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the third caliph of 
 the new dynasty, who seized, in his turn, the favoura- 
 ble opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and 
 Constantine, were seated on the Byzantine throne. An 
 army of ninety-five thousand Persians and Arabs was 
 sent from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, under 
 the command of Harun, ' or Aaron, the second son of 
 the commander of the faithful. His encampment on 
 the opposite heights of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, in- 
 formed Irene, in her palace of Constantinople, of the 
 loss of her troops and provinces. With the consent 
 or connivance of their sovereign, her ministers sub- 
 scribed an ignominious peace : and the exchange of 
 some royal gifts could not disguise the annual tribute 
 of seventy thousand dinars of gold, which was im- 
 posed on the Roman empire. The Saracens had too 
 rashly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile 
 land : their retreat was solicited by the promise of 
 faithful guides and plentiful markets ; and not a Greek 
 had courage to whisper, that their weary forces might 
 be surrounded and destroyed in their necessary pas- 
 sage between a slippery mountain and the river San- 
 garius. Five years after this expedition, Harun as- 
 cended the throne of his father and his elder brother; 
 the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race, 
 illustrious in the west, as the ally of Charlemagne, and 
 familiar to the most childish readers, as the perpetual 
 hero of the Arabian tales. His title to the name of 
 .?/ Rashid (the Jus/) is sullied by the extirpation of the 
 generous, perhaps the innocent, Barmecides ; yet he 
 could listen to the complaint of a poor widow who 
 had been pillaged by his troops, and who dared, in a 
 passage of the Koran, to threaten the inattentive despot 
 with the judgment of God and posterity. His court 
 was adorned with luxury and science ; but, in a reign 
 of three and twenty years, Harun repeatedly visited 
 
 'his provinces from Chorasan to Egypt; nine times he 
 performed the pilgrimage of Mecca; eight times he 
 
 'invaded the territories of the Romans; and as often as 
 they declined the payment of the tribute, they were 
 taught to feel that a month of depredation was more 
 costly than a year of submission. But when the un- 
 natural mother of Constantine was deposed and ban- 
 ished, her successor, Nicephorus, resolved to obliterate 
 this badge of servitude and disgrace. The epistle of 
 the emperor to the caliph was pointed with an allusion 
 to the game of chess, which had already spread from 
 Persia to Greece. "The queen (he spoke of Irene) 
 
 : considered you as a rook, and herself as a pawn. That 
 pusillanimous female submitted to pay a tribute, the 
 double of which she ousrht to have exacted from the 
 
 < D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, p. 546. 
 
 >•>••< Sau^xi^trcti, iK^oror frot^rn To»f iS»ir», &c. Cedrenus, D. 548. 
 ih •'^^'^^^ ^°^ manfully the emperor refused a mathematician to 
 ifie instances and oflTers of the caliph Almamon. This absurd scru- 
 f pie IS expressed almost in the same words by the continuator of The- 
 ophancs. (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 118.) 
 .K ^^® JL^e reign and character of Harun al Rashid, in the Biblio- 
 jneque Orientale, p. 431-433. under his proper title: and in the re- 
 jaiive articles to which M. D'Herbelot refers. That learned collec 
 wr has shown much taste in stripping the orienul chronicles of their 
 ^'utructive and amufing anecdotee. 
 
 barbarians. Restore therefore the fruits of your injus- 
 tice, or abide the determination of the sword.'' At 
 these words the ambassadors cast a bundle of swords 
 before the foot of the throne. The caliph smiled at the 
 menance, and drawing his scymitar, samsamah^ a wea- 
 pon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder the 
 feeble arms of the Greeks, without turning the edge, 
 or endangering the temper, of his bladef He then 
 dictated an epistle of tremendous brevity : " In the 
 name of the most merciful God, Harun al Rashid, 
 commander of the faithful, to Nicephorus, the Roman 
 dog. I have read thy letter, O thou son of an unbeliev- 
 ing mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shah behold, 
 my reply." It was written in characters of blood and 
 fire on the plains of Phrygia ; and the warlike celerity 
 of the Arabs could only be checked by the arts of 
 deceit and the show of repentance. The triumphant 
 caliph retired, after the fatigues of the campaign, to 
 his favourite palace of Racca on the Euphrates T^ but 
 the distance of five hundred miles, and the inclemency 
 of the season, encouraged his adversary to violate the 
 peace. Nicephorus was astonished by the bold and 
 rapid march of the commander of the faithful, who 
 repassed in the depth of winter the snows of mount 
 Taurus: his stratagems of policy and war were ex- 
 hausted; and the perfidious Greek escaped with three 
 wounds from a field of battle overspread with forty 
 thousand of his subjects. Yet the emperor was 
 ashamed of submission, and the caliph was resolved 
 on victory. One hundred and thirty-five thousand 
 regular soldiers received pay, and were inscribed in 
 the military roll ; and above three hundred thousand 
 persons of every denomination marched under the black 
 standard of the Abbassides. They swept the surface 
 of Asia Minor far beyond Tyana and Ancyra, and in- 
 vested the Pontic Heraclea,** once a flourishing state, 
 now a paltry town ; at that time capable of sustaining, 
 in her antique walls, a month's siege against the forces 
 of the east. The ruin was complete, the spoil was 
 ample; but if Harun had been conversant with Grecian 
 story, he would have regretted the statue of Hercules, 
 whose attributes, the club, the bow, the quiver, and 
 the lion's hide, were sculptured in massy gold. The 
 progress of desolation by sea and land, from the Eux- 
 ine to the isle of Cyprus, compelled the emperor Ni- 
 cephorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the new 
 treaty, the ruins of Heraclea were left for ever as a 
 lesson and a trophy; and the coin of the tribute waa 
 marked with the image and superscription of Harun 
 and his three sons." Yet this plurality of lords might 
 contribute to remove the dishonour of the Roman 
 name. After the death of their father, the heirs of the 
 caliph were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, 
 the liberal Almamon, was sufficiently engaged in the 
 restoration of domestic peace and the introduction of 
 foreign science. 
 
 Under the reign of Almamon at Bag- 
 dad, of Michael the Stammerer at Con- 
 stantinople, the islands of Crete ^ and 
 
 The Arabs sub- 
 due the isle of 
 Cnte, 
 
 A. D. 823. 
 
 f For the situation of Racca, the old Nicephorium, consult D'An- 
 ville, (I'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 24—27.) The Arabian Nights re- 
 present Harun al Rashid as almost stationary in Bagdad. He res- 
 pected the royal seat of the Abbassides ; but the vices of the inhabi- 
 tants had driven him from the city. (Abulfed. Annal. p. 167.) 
 
 h M. de Tournefon, in his coasting voyage from Consuntinople to 
 Trebizond, passed a night at Heraclea or Eregri. His eye surveyed 
 the present sute, his reading collected the antiquities, of the city. 
 (Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xvi. p. 23—35.) We have a sepa- 
 rate history of Heraclea in the fragments of Memnon, which are pre- 
 served by Photius. 
 
 i The wars of Harun al Rashid against the Roman empire are re- 
 lated by Theophanes, (p. 384, 385. 391. 396. 407, 408.) Zonaras, (torn, 
 ii. 1. XV. p. 115. 124.) Cedrenus, (p. 477, 478.) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. 
 ii. p. 407.) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 136. 151. 152.) Abulpharagiu8| 
 (Dynast, p. 147. 151.) and Abulfeda, (p. 156. 166—168.) 
 
 k The authors from whom I have learned tiie most of the ancient 
 and modern state of Crete, are Belon, (Observations, &c. c. 3— SSO, 
 Paris, 1555.) Tournefort, (Voyage du Levant, tom. i, lettre ii. et iii.> 
 and Meursius. (Crjsta, in his works, tom. iii. p. 343 — 544.) Although 
 Crete is styled by Homer ilm^ot, by Dionysius K>v*tn ti x«« iu(3oT«f, 
 1 cannoi conceive that mountainous island to surpass; or even 19 
 equal, in fertility the ereater part of Spain. 
 
 Vi 
 
J 
 
 260 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 i 
 
 s 
 
 y ( 
 
 1. 
 
 } 
 
 M 
 
 i\ 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 # 
 
 Sicily were subdued by tbe Arabs. The former of 
 these conquests is disJained by their own writers, who 
 were ignorant of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but 
 it has not been overlooked by the Byzantine historians, 
 who now begin to cast a clearer light on the affairs of 
 their own times.' A band of Andalusian volunteers, 
 discontented with the climate or government of Spain, 
 explored the adventures of the sea ; but as they sailed 
 in no more than ten or twenty galleys, their warfare 
 must be branded with the name of piracy. As the 
 subjects and sectaries of the white party, they might 
 lawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. 
 A rebellious faction introduced them into Alexandria ; " 
 they cut in pieces both friends and foes, pillaged the 
 churches and the moschs, sold above six thousand 
 christian captives, and maintained their station in the 
 capital of Kgypt, till they were oppressed by the forces 
 and the presence of Almamon himself. From the 
 mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, the islands and 
 sea-coasts both of the Greeks and Moslems were 
 exposed to their depredations; they saw, they envied, 
 they tasted, the fertility of Crete, and soon returned 
 with forty galleys to a more serious attack. The An- 
 dalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmo- 
 lested ; but when they descended with their plunder 
 to the sea-shore, their vessels were in flames, and their 
 chief, Abu Caab, confessed himself the author of the 
 mischief. Their clamours accused his madness or 
 treachery. " Of what do you complain 1 " replied the 
 crafty emir. " I have brought you to a land flowing 
 with milk and honey. Here is your true country : 
 repose from your toils, and forget the barren place of 
 your nativity." "And our wives and children 1" 
 "Your beauteous captives will supply the place of 
 your wives, and in their embraces you will soon become 
 the fathers of a new progeny." The first habitation 
 was their camp, with a ditch and rampart, in the bay 
 of Suda ; but an apostate monk led them to a more 
 desirable position in the eastern parts ; and the name 
 of Candax, their fortress and colony, has been extend- 
 ed to the whole island, under the corrupt and modern 
 appellation of Candia. The hundred cities of the age 
 of Minos were diminished to thirty; and of these, 
 only one, most probably Cydonia, had courage to re- 
 tain the substance of freedom and the profession of 
 Christianity. The Saracens of Crete soon repaired the 
 loss of their navy : and the timbers of mount Ida were 
 launched into the main. During a hostile period, of 
 one hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes of Con- 
 stantinople attacked these licentious corsairs with 
 fruitless curses and ineffectual arms, 
 and of Sicily, The loss of Sicily ■ was occasioned by 
 A. D. 827 -878. an act of superstitious rigour. An amo- 
 rous youth, who had stolen a nun from her cloisipr, 
 "was sentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his 
 tongue. Euphemius appealed to the reason and policy 
 of the Saracens of Africa ; and soon returned with the 
 imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and- an 
 army of seven hundred horse and ten thousand foot. 
 They landed at Mazara near the ruins of the ancient 
 Selinus; but after some partial victories, Syracuse" 
 
 I The most authentic and circumstantial intelligence is obtained 
 from the four books of the Continuation of Theopharies, compiled by 
 the pen or the command of Constantine Porphyr»>genitu8, with the 
 Life of his father Basil the Macedonian. (Scriptoreo post Theopha- 
 nem, p. 1—162. a Francisc. Combesis, Paris, 1685.) The loss of Crete 
 and Sicily is related, 1. ii. p. 46—52. To these we may add the se- 
 condary evidence of Joseph Gonesius,(l. ii.p.21. Venet. irJ3.)George 
 Cedrenus, (Compend. 5<)6-508.) and John Scylilzes Curopalala, 
 <apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. 1). fW7. No. 2t, ice.) But the modern 
 Greeks are such notorious plagiaries, that 1 should only quote a plu- 
 rality of names. 
 
 m Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 251—256. 268—270.) has de- 
 scribed the ravages of the Andalusian Arabs in Egypt, but has forgot 
 to connect them with the conquest of Crete. 
 
 B An^o. (says the continuator of Theophanes, 1. ii. p. 51.) *i t«vt« 
 
 f»( iX.flou<r» {iMu>v. This history of the loss of Sicily is no longer ex- 
 tant. Muratori (Annali d'lulia, torn. vii. p. 7. 19. 21, &c.) has added 
 •ome circumstances from the Italian chronicles. 
 
 o The splendid and interesting tragedy of Tancredt would adapt 
 itself much better to thia epoch, than lo the date (A. D. IOO9.) which 
 
 was delivered by the Greeks, the apostate was slain 
 before her walls, and his African friends were reduced 
 to the necessity of feeding^ on the flesh of their own 
 horses. In their turn they were relieved by a power- 
 ful reinforcement of their brethren of Andalusia; the 
 largest and western part of the island was gradually 
 reduced, and the commodious harbour of Palermo was 
 chosen for the seat of the naval and military power of 
 the Saracens. Syracuse preserved about fifty years 
 the faith which she had sworn lo Christ and to Caesar. 
 In the last and fatal siege, her citizens displayed some 
 remnant of the spirit which had formerly resisted the 
 powers of Athens and Carthage. They stood above 
 twenty days against the battering-rams and caiapultscy 
 the mines and tortoises of the besiegers ; and the place 
 miccht have been relieved, if the mariners of the impe- 
 rial fleet had not been detained at Constantinople in 
 building a church to the Virgin Mary. Tlie deacon 
 Theodosius, with the bishop and clergy, was dragged 
 in chains from the altar to Palermo, cast into a subter- 
 raneous dungeon, and exposed to the hourly peril of 
 death or apostasy. His pathetic, and not inelegant, 
 complaint, may be read as the epitaph of his country.' 
 From the Roman conquest to this final calamity, Syra- 
 cuse, now dwindled to the primitive isle of Ortygea, 
 had insensibly declined. Yet the relics were still pre- 
 cious ; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand 
 pounds of silver; the entire spoil was computed at 
 one million of pieces of gold, (about four hundred thou- 
 sand pounds sterling,) and the captives must out-num- 
 ber the seventeen thousand christians, who were trans- 
 ported from the sack of Tauromenium into African 
 servitude. In Sicily, the religion and language of the 
 Greeks were eradicated; and such was the docility of 
 the rising generation, that fifteen thousand boys were 
 circumcised and clothed on the same day with the son 
 of the Fatimite caliph. The Arabian squadrons issued 
 from the harbours of Palermo, Biserta, and Tunis ; a 
 hundred and fifty towns of Calabria and Campania 
 were attacked and pillaged, nor could the suburbs of 
 Rome be defended by the name of the Csesars and 
 apostles. Had the Mahometans been united, Italy 
 must have fallen an easy and glorious accession to the 
 empire of the prophet. But the caliphs of Bagdad had 
 lost their authority in the west; the Aglabites and 
 Fatimites usurped the provinces of Africa; their emiirs 
 of Sicily aspired to independence ; and the design of 
 conquest and dominion was degraded to a repetition of 
 predatory inroads.' 
 
 In the sufferings of prostrate Italy, the 
 name of Rome awakens a solemn and 
 mournful recollection. A fleet of Sara- 
 cens from the African coast presumed 
 mouth of the Tiber, and to approach a city which even 
 yet, in her fallen state, was revered as the meiropolis 
 of the christian world. The gates and ramparts were 
 guarded by a trembling people ; but the tombs and 
 temples of St. Peter and St. Paul were left exposed 
 in the suburbs of the Vatican and of the Ostian way. 
 Their invincible sanctity had protected them against 
 the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards ; but the 
 Arabs disdained both the gospel and the legend : and 
 their rapacious spirit was approved and animated by 
 the precepts of the Koran. The christian idols were 
 stripped of their costly offerings ; a silver altar was torn 
 away from the shrine of St. Peter; and if the bodies 
 or the buildings were left entire, their deliverance 
 must be imputed to the haste, rather than the scruples, 
 
 Voltaire himself has chosen. But I must gently reproach the p^pt, 
 for infusing into the Greek subjects the spirit of modern knights and 
 ancient republicans. 
 
 p The narrative or lamentation of Theodosius is transcribed anJ 
 illustrated by Pagi. (Critica, torn. iii. p. 719, Ac.) Constantine ?^*- 
 phyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 69, 70. p. 190—192.) nreniiona the lotf 
 of Syracuse and the triumph of the dtmons. 
 
 q The extracts from the Arabic histories of Sicily are given in 
 Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 271—273.) and in the first volume uf 
 Muratori 's Scriptores Kerum Italicarum. M. de Guignes (Hist, del 
 Huof , torn. i. p. 383, 364.) haa added eome important lacie. 
 
 Invasion of 
 Rome by the 
 Saracena, 
 A. D. 846. 
 
 to enter the 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 261 
 
 > 
 
 of the Saracens. In their course along the Appian 
 way, they pillaged Fundi and besieged Gayeta ; but 
 ihey had turned aside from the walls of Rome, and, 
 by their divisions, the capitol was saved from the yoke 
 of the prophet of Mecca. The same danger still im- 
 pended on the heads of the Roman people ; and their 
 domestic force was unequal to the assault of an Afri- 
 can enriir. They claimed the protection of their Latin 
 sovereign ; but the Carlovingian standard was over- 
 thrown by a detachment of the barbarians : they med- 
 itated the restoration of the Greek emperors ; but the 
 attempt was treasonable, and the succour remote and 
 precarious.'" Their distress appeared to receive some 
 aggravation from the death of their spiritual and tem- 
 poral chief; but the pressing emergency superceded 
 the forms and intrigues of an election : and the unani- 
 mous choice of Pope Leo the fourth • was the safety 
 of the church and the city. This pontiflT was born a 
 Roman ; the courage of the first ages of the republic 
 glowed in his breast; and, amidst the ruins of his 
 country, he stood erect, like one of the firm and lofty 
 columns that rear their heads above the fragments of 
 the Roman forum. The first days of his reign were 
 consecrated to the purification and removal of relics, 
 to prayers and processions, and to all the solemn offices 
 of religion, which served at least to heal the imagina- 
 tion, and restore the hopes, of the multitude. The 
 public defence had been long neglected, not from the 
 presumption of peace, but from the distress and pov- 
 erty of the times. As far as the scantiness of his 
 means and the shortness of his leisure would allow, 
 the ancient walls were repaired by the command of 
 Leo ; fifteen towers, in the most accessible stations, 
 were built or renewed ; two of these commanded on 
 either side the Tiber : and an iron chain was drawn 
 across the stream to impede the ascent of a hostile navy. 
 The Romans were assured of a short respite by the 
 welcome news, that the siege of Gayeta had been 
 raised, and that a part of the enemy, with their sacri- 
 legious plunder had perished in the waves. 
 
 Victory and ^"^ ^^® Storm which had been de- 
 reiga of Leo layed, soon burst upon them with redou- 
 ^ A D 849 ^^®^ violence. The Aglabite,* who reign- 
 ed in Africa, had inherited from his father 
 a treasure and an army : a fleet of Arabs and Moors, 
 after a short refreshment in the harbours of Sardinia, 
 cast anchor before the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen 
 miles from the city ; and their discipline and numbers 
 appeared to threaten, not a transient inroad, but a seri- 
 ous design of conquest and dominion. But the vigi- 
 lance of Leo had formed an alliance with the vassals 
 of the Greek empire, the free and maritime stales of 
 Gayeta, Naples, and Amalfi ; and in the hour of dan- 
 ger, their galleys appeared in the port of Ostia under 
 the command of Caesarius the son of the Neapolitan 
 duke, a noble and valiant youth, who had already van- 
 quished the fleets of the Saracens. With his principal 
 companions, Caesarius was invited to the Lateran pal- 
 ace, and the dexterous pontiflT aflfected to inquire their 
 errand, and to accept with joy and surprise their pro- 
 vidential succour. The city bands, in arms, attended 
 their father to Ostia, where he reviewed and blessed his 
 generous deliverers. They kissed his feet, received 
 the communion with martial devotion, and listened to 
 the prayer of Leo, that the same god who had sup- 
 ported St. Peter and St. Paul on the waves of the sea, 
 
 ^ _ 
 
 ' One of the most eminent Romans (Gratianus, magister militum 
 W Komani palatii superisla) was accused of declaring. Quia Franci 
 nihil nobis boni faciunt, neque adjutorium praebent, sed magis quae 
 n^mra sunt violenter tollunt. Quare non advocamus Gnsecos, et cum 
 fis f(jedus pacis componentes, Francorum regem et gentem de nostro 
 regno et dominatione expellimus ? Anastasius in Leone IV. p. 199. 
 
 • Voltaire (Hist. Generate, torn. ii. c. 38. p. 124.) appears to be re- 
 markably struck with the character of Pope Leo IV. I have bor- 
 rowed his general expression, but the sight of the forum has furnish- 
 ed me with a more distinct and lively image. 
 
 t De Guignes, Hist. Generals des Huns, lorn. i. p. 363, 364. Car- 
 donne, Hist, de I'Afrique et de TEspacne, sous la Domination des 
 Arabes, torn. ii. p. 24, 25. I observe, and cannot reconcile, the differ- 
 cac« of these writers in the succession of the Aglabitet. 
 
 would strengthen the hands of his champions against 
 the adversaries of his holy name. After a sfmilar 
 prayer, and with equal resolution, the Moslems ad- 
 vanced to the attack of the christian galleys, which 
 preserved their advantageous station along the coast. 
 The victory inclined to the side of the alUes, when it 
 was less gloriously decided in their favour by a sud- 
 den tempest, which confounded the skill and courage 
 of the stoutest mariners. The christians were shel- 
 tered in a friendly harbour, while the Africans were 
 scattered and dashed in pieces among the rocks and 
 islands of a hostile shore. Those who escaped from 
 shipwreck and hunger, neither found, nor deserved, 
 mercy at the hands of their implacable pursuers. The 
 sword and the gibbet reduced the dangerous multitude 
 of captives; and the remainder was more usefully 
 employed, to restore the sacred edifices which they 
 had attempted to subvert. The pontifl^ at the head of 
 the citizens and allies, paid his grateful devotion at 
 the shrines of the apostles; and, among the spoils of 
 this naval victory, thirteen Arabian bovvs of pure and 
 massy silver were suspended round the altar of the 
 fisherman of Galilee. The reign of Leo the fourth 
 was employed in the defence and ornament of the Ro- 
 nrjan state. The churches were renewed and embel- 
 lished : near four thousand pounds of silver were con- 
 secrated to repair the losses of St. Peter; and his 
 sanctuary was decorated with a plate of gold of the 
 weight of two hundred and sixteen pounds, embossed 
 with the portraits of the pope and emperor, and encir- 
 cled with a string of pearls. Yet this vain magnifi- 
 cence reflects less glory on the character of Leo, than 
 the paternal care with which he rebuilt the walls of 
 Horta and Ameria; and transported the wandering in- 
 habitants of Centumcellas to his new foundation of 
 Leopolis, twelve miles from the sea-shore." By his 
 liberality, a colony of Corsicans, with their wives and 
 children, was planted in the station of Porto at the 
 mouth of the Tiber : the falling city was restored for 
 their use, the fields and vineyards were divided among 
 the new settlers : their first eflforts were assisted by a 
 gift of horses and cattle ; and the hardy exiles, who 
 breathed revenge against the Saracens, swore to live 
 and die under the standard of St. Peter. The nations 
 of the west and north who visited the threshold of the 
 apostles had gradually formed the large and populous 
 suburb of the Vatican, and their various habitations 
 were distinguished, in the laguage of the times, as the 
 schools of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards and 
 Saxons. But this venerable spot was still open to 
 sacrilegious insult : the design of enclosing it with 
 walls and towers exhausted all that authority could 
 command, or charity would supply ; and the pious la- 
 bour of four years was animated in every season, and 
 at every hour, by the presence of the indefatigable 
 
 pontiff*. The love of fame, a generous ^ , . 
 r. iji . uj7^*j- Foundation of 
 
 but worldly passion, may be detected m the Leonine 
 
 the name of the Leonine city^ which he city, 
 bestowed on the Vatican ; yet the pride ^* ^^ 
 of the dedication was tempered with christian penance 
 and humility. The boundary was trod by the bishop 
 and his clergy, barefoot, in sackcloth and ashes ; the 
 songs of triumph were modulated to psalms and lita- 
 nies; the walls were besprinkled with holy water; and 
 the ceremony was concluded with a prayer, that under 
 the guardian care of the apostles and the angelic host, 
 both the old and the new Rome might ever be pre- 
 served pure, prosperous, and impregnable.* 
 
 u Beretti (Chorographla Italiae Medii M\\. p. 106. 109.) has illus- 
 trated Centumcellae, Leopolis, Civitas Leonina, and the other placet 
 of the Roman duchy. 
 
 X The Arabs and the Greeks are alike silent concerning the inva- 
 sion of Rome by the Africans. The I^atin chronicles do not afford 
 much instruction, (see itie Annals of Baronius and Pagi.) Our au- 
 thentic and contemporary guide for the popes of the ninth century is 
 Anastasius, librarian of the Roman church. His life of Leo IV. con- 
 uins twenty four pages (p. 175—199. edit. Paris ;) and if a great part 
 consist of superstitious trifles, we must blame or commend hii hero, 
 who was much ofteaer in a church than in a camp. 
 
 
 
262 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIU. 
 
 ♦i 
 
 I' .v" 
 
 \m 
 
 The Amorian 
 war between 
 Theophilus 
 and Moiasflem, 
 A.D.838. 
 
 the middle 
 
 The emperor Theophilus, son of Mi- 
 chael the Stammerer, was one of the 
 most active and high-spirited princes 
 who reigned at Constantinople during 
 age. In offensive or defensive war, he 
 marched in person five times against the Saracens, for- 
 midable in his attacks, esteemed by the enemy in his 
 losses and defeats. In the last of these expeditions 
 he penetrated into Syria, and besieged the obscure 
 town of Sozopetra ; the casual birth-place of the ca- 
 liph Motassem, whose father Harun was attended in 
 peace or war by the most favourite of his wives and 
 concubines. The revolt of a Persian impostor em- 
 ployed at that moment the arms of the Saracen, and 
 he could only intercede in favour of a place for which 
 he felt and acknowledged some degree of filial affec- 
 tion. These solicitations determined the emperor to 
 wound his pride in so sensible a part. Sozopetra was 
 levelled with the ground, the Syrian prisoners were 
 marked or mutilated with ignominious cruelty, and a 
 thousand female captives were forced away from the 
 adjacent territory. Among these a matron of the house 
 of Abbas invoked, in an agony of despair, the name of 
 Motessem ; and the insults of the Greeks engaged the 
 honour of her kinsman to avenge his indicrnity, and to 
 answer her appeal. Under the reign of the two elder 
 hrothers, the inheritance of the youngest had been con- 
 fined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and Circassia; 
 this frontier station had exercised his military talents; 
 and among his accidental claims to the name of Oclo- 
 nari/y^ the most meritorious are the eight battles which 
 he gained or fought against the enemies of the Koran. 
 In this personal quarrel, the troops of Irak, Syria, and 
 Eg3mt, were recruited from the tribes of Arabia and 
 the Turkish hordes ; his cavalry might be numerous, 
 though we should deduct some myriads from the hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand horses of the royal stables ; 
 and the expense of the armament was computed at 
 four millions sterling, or one hundred thousand pounds 
 of gold. From Tarsus, the place of assembly, the 
 Saracens advanced in three divisions along the high 
 road of Constantinople : Motassem himself comman- 
 ded the centre, and the vanguard was given to his son 
 Abbas, who, in the trial of the first adventures, might 
 succeed with the more glory, or fail with the least re- 
 proach. In the revenge of his injury, the caliph pre- 
 pared to retaliate a similar affront. The father of The- 
 ophilus was a native of Amorium'in Phrygia : the 
 original seat of the imperial house had been adorned 
 with privileges and monuments ; and whatever might 
 be the indifference of the people, Constantinople itself 
 was scarcely of more value in the eyes of the sove- 
 reign and his court. The name of Amorium was in- 
 scribed on the shields of the Saracens ; and their three 
 armies were again united under the walls of the de- 
 voted city. It had been proposed by the wisest coun- 
 sellors, to evacuate Amorium, to remove the inhabi- 
 tants, and to abandon the empty structures to the vain 
 resentment of the barbarians. The emperor embraced 
 the more generous resolution of defending, in a siege 
 and battle, the country of his ancestors. When the 
 armies drew near, the front of the Mahometan line 
 appeared to a Roman eye more closely planted with 
 spears and javelins ; but the event of the action was 
 not glorious on either side to the national troops. The 
 Arabs were broken, but it was by the swords of thirty 
 thousand Persians, who had obtained service and set- 
 tlement in the Byzantine empire. The Greeks were 
 repulsed and vanquished, but it was by the arrows of 
 
 y The same number was applied to the following circumstance in 
 the Life of Motassem : he was the eighth of the Abbassides ; he 
 reigned eight years, eight months, and eight days ; If fi eight sons, 
 eight daughters, eight thousand slaves, eight millions of guld. 
 
 Amorium is seldom mentioned by the old geographers, and total- 
 ly forgotten in the Roman Itineraries. After the sixth century, it 
 became an episcopal see, and at length the metropolis of the new 
 Oalaiia. (Carol. Scio. Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, p. 234.) The city rose 
 again from its ruins, if we should read Ammuria, not Anguria, in 
 the text of the Nubian geographer, (p. 236.) 
 
 the Turkish cavalry ; and had not their bow-stringrs 
 been damped and relaxed by the evening rain, very 
 few of the christians could have escaped with the em- 
 peror from the field of battle. They breathed at Do- 
 ryleeum, at the distance of three days ; and Theophi- 
 lus, reviewing his trembling squac'rons, forgave the 
 common flight both of the prince and people. After 
 this discovery of his weakness, he vainly hoped to 
 deprecate the fate of Amorium : the inexorable caliph 
 rejected with contempt his prayers and promises ; and 
 detained the Roman ambassadors to be the witnesses 
 of his great revenge. They had nearly been the wit- 
 nesses of his shame. The vigorous assaults of fifty- 
 five days were encountered by a faithful governor, 
 a veteran garrison, and a desperate people ; and the 
 Saracens must have raised the siege, if a domestic 
 traitor had not pointed to the weakest part of the wall, 
 a place which was decorated with the statues of a lion 
 and a bull. The vow of Motassem was accomplished 
 with unrelenting rigour: tired, rather than satiated, 
 with destruction, he returned to his new palace of Sa- 
 mara, in the neighbourhood of Bagdad, while the un- 
 fortunate^ Theophilus implored the tardy and doubt- 
 ful aid of his western rival the emperor of the Franks. 
 Yet in the siege of Amorium above seventy thousand 
 Moslems had perished : their loss had been revenged 
 by the slaughter of thirty thousand christians, and the 
 sufTerings of an equal number of captives, who were 
 treated as the most atrocious criminals. Mutual ne- 
 cessity could sometimes extort the exchange or ransom 
 of prisoners;'' but in the national and religious conflict 
 of the two empires, peace was without confidence, and 
 war without mercy. Quarter was seldom given in the 
 field ; those who escaped the edge of the sword were 
 condemned to hopeless servitude, or exquisite torture; 
 and a catholic emperor relates, with visible satisfac- 
 tion, the execution of the Saracens of Crete, who were 
 flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil.* 
 To a point of honour Motassem had sacrificed a flou- 
 rishing city, two hundred thousand lives, and the pro- 
 perty of millions. The same caliph descended from 
 his horse, and dirtied his robe, to relieve the distress 
 of a decrepit old man, who, with his laden ass, had 
 tumbled into a ditch. On which of these actions did 
 he reflect with the most pleasure, when he was sum- 
 moned by ti.e angel of death 1 "* 
 
 With Motassem, the eighth of the Disorders of th« 
 Abbassides, the glory of his family and Td!'^!-?^,*' 
 nation expired. When the Arabian con- &c. * 
 querors had spread themselves over the east, and were 
 mingled with the servile crowds of Persia, Syria, and 
 Egypt, they insensibly lost the freeborn and martial 
 virtues of the desert. The courage of the south is the 
 artificial fruit of discipline and prejudice; the active 
 power of enthusiasm had decayed, and the mercenary 
 forces of the caliphs were recruited in those climates 
 of the north, of which valour is the hardy and sponta- 
 neous production. Of the Turks, • who dwelt beyond 
 
 ...■ In ^he east he was styled Aurwxnf; (Continuator Theophan. 1. 
 in. p. 84.) but such was the ignorance of the west, that his ambassa- 
 dors, in public discourse, might boldly narrate, de victoriis, quas ad- 
 yersus exteras bellando gentes ccelitus fuerat assecutus. (Annalist, 
 bertinian. apud Pagi, torn. iii. p. 720.) 
 b Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 167, 168.) relates one of these singular 
 
 of the riyer Lamus in Cilicia, the limit of 
 
 the two empires, and one day's journey westward of Tarsus. (D'An- 
 ▼ille, Geographie^ncienne, lom. ii. p. 91.) Four thousand four hun- 
 dred and sixty Moslems, eight hundred women and children, one 
 
 hundred confederates,were exchanged for an equal number of Greeks. 
 They passed each other in the middle of the bridge, and when they 
 reached their respective friends, they shouted Alia Acbar, and Ki/rie 
 Eleiaon. Many of the prisoners of Amorium were probably among 
 them, but in the same year, (A. H. 231.) the most illustrious of them, 
 the forty-two martyrs, were beheaded by the caliph's order. 
 
 e Constan. Porphyrogenitus, in Vit. Basil, c. 61. p. 186. Thess 
 Saracens were indeed treated with peculiar seyerity as pirates and 
 renegadoes. 
 
 d For TItmiphilus, Motassem, and the Amorian war, see the Con- 
 tinuator of Theophanes, (1. iii. p. 77-81.) Genesius, (I. iii. p.24— ai.) 
 Ledrenus, (528-532.) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 180.) Abulphara- 
 gius, (Dvnast. p 165, 166.) Abulftda, (Annal. Moslem, p. 191.) 5'Her. 
 belot, (Bibliot. Onentale, p. 639, 640.) 
 
 • M. da GuiguM, who sometimes leaps, and somMimM stumblti. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 263 
 
 ihe Oxus and Jaxartes, the robust youths, either taken 
 in war, or purchased in trade, were educated in the 
 exercises of the field, and the profession of the Mahom- 
 etan faith. The Turkish guards stood in arms round 
 the throne of their benefactor, and their chiefs usurped 
 the dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motas- 
 sem, the first author of this dangerous example, introdu- 
 ced into the capital above fifty thousand Turks ; their 
 licentious conduct provoked the public indignation, 
 and the quarrels of the soldiers and people induced 
 the caliph to retire from Bagdad, and establish his 
 own residence and the camp of his barbarian favourites 
 at Samara on the Tigris, about twelve leagues above 
 the city of Peace.' His son Motawakkel was a jeal- 
 ous and cruel tyrant : odious to his subjects, he cast 
 himself on the fidelity of the strangers, and these 
 strangers, ambitious and apprehensive, were tempted 
 by the rich promise of a revolution. At the instigation, 
 or at least in the cause of his son, they burst into his 
 apartment at the hour of supper, and the caliph was 
 cut into seven pieces by the same swords which he 
 had recently distributed among the guards of his life 
 and throne. To this throne, yet streaming with a 
 father^s blood, Mostanser was triumphantly led ; but 
 in a reign of six months, he found only the pangs of a 
 guilty conscience. If he wept at the sight of an old 
 tapestry which represented the crime and punishment 
 of the son of Chosroes ; if his days were abridged by 
 ^rief and remorse, we may allow some pity to a par- 
 ricide, who exclaimed in the bitterness of death, that 
 he had lost both this world and the world to come. 
 After this act of treason, the ensigns of royalty, the 
 garment and walking-staff of Mahomet, were given 
 and torn away by the foreign mercenaries, who in four 
 years created, deposed, and murdered, three comman- 
 ders of the faithful. As often as the Turks were in- 
 flamed by fear, or rage, or avarice, these caliphs were 
 dragged by the feet, exposed naked to the scorching* 
 sun, beaten with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase 
 by the abdication of their dignity, a short reprieve of 
 inevitable fate.* At length, however, the fury of the 
 tempest was spent or diverted : the Abbassides returned 
 to the less turbulent residence of Bagdad ; the inso- 
 lence of the Turks was curbed with a firmer and more 
 skilful hand, and their numbers were divided and de- 
 stroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the east 
 had been taught to trample on the successors of the 
 prophet ; and the blessings of domestic peace were 
 obtained by the relaxation of strength and discipline. 
 So uniform are the mischiefs of military despotism, 
 that I seem to repeat the story of the praetorians of 
 Rome.'' 
 
 J.. , While the flame of enthusiasm was 
 
 gressoftheCar- damped by the business, the pleasure, and 
 inathians, the knowledge of the age, it burnt with 
 
 A. D. 890-951. concentrated heat in the breasts of the 
 chosen few, the congenial spirits who were ambitious of 
 reiirni ng either in this world or in the next. How care- 
 fully soever the book of prophecy had been sealed by the 
 apostle of Mecca, the wishes, and (if we may profane 
 
 in the gulf between Chinese and Mahometan story, thinks he can 
 see, that these Turks are the Hoeike, alias the Kao-tche, or high- 
 vaegont ; that they were divided into fifteen hordes, from China 
 and Siberia to the dominions of the caliphs and Samanides, &c. 
 (Hist, des Huns,tom. iii. p. 1-33. 124—131.) 
 
 t He changed the old names of Sumere, or Samara, into the fanci- 
 ful title of Sermen-rai, that which gives pleasure at first sight. 
 (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 808. D'Anville, I'Euphrate 
 et le Tisre, p. 97, 98.) 
 
 g Take a specimen, the death of the caliph Motaz : Correptum 
 pedibus pertrahunt, et sudibus probe permulcanl, et spoliaium lace- 
 ris vestibus in sole collocant prae cujus acerrimo astii pedes alternis 
 attoUebat et demittebat. Adstantium aliquis misero colaphos conti- 
 nue ingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus avertere studebat 
 
 Quo facto tradllus lonori fuit totoque triduo cibo potuque prohibitus. 
 . . . Suffocatus, S(,c. (Abulfeda, p. 206.) Of the caliph Mohtadi, he 
 says, cervices ipsi perpetuis ictibus contuudebant, testiculosque pe- 
 dibus conculcabant, (p. 208.) 
 
 k See under the reigns of Motassem, Motawakkel, Mostanser, 
 IMoetain, Motaz, Muhtadi, and Motamed, in the Bibliotheque of 
 
 Herbelot, and the now familiar Aauals of Elmacin, Abulpharagiui, 
 and Abulfeda. 
 
 the word) even the reason, of fanaticism, might believe 
 that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, the same God, 
 in the fulness of time, would reveal a still more perfect 
 and permanent law. In the two hundred and seventy- 
 seventh year of the Hegira, and in the neighbourhood 
 of Cufa, an Arabian preacher, of the name of Carmath, 
 assumed the lofty and incomprehensible style of the 
 guide, the director, the demonstration, the word, the 
 holy ghost, the camel, the herald of the Messiah, who 
 had conversed with him in a human shape, and the 
 representative of Mohammed the son of Ali, of St John 
 the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. In his mystic 
 volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a 
 more spiritual sense: he relaxed the duties of ablution, 
 fasting, and pilgrimage ; allowed the indiscriminate 
 use of wine and forbidden food ; and nourished the 
 fervour of his disciples by the daily repetition of fifty 
 prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd 
 awakened the attention of the magistrates of Cufa ; a 
 timid persecution assisted the progress of the new sect ; 
 and the name of the prophet became more revered after 
 his person had withdrawn from the world. His twelve 
 apostles dispersed themselves among the Bedo weens, 
 " a race of men," says Abulfeda, ** equally devoid of 
 reason and of religion;" and the success of their 
 preaching seemed to threaten Arabia with a new revo- 
 lution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since 
 they disclaimed the title of the house of Abbas, and 
 abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs of Bagdad. 
 They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed 
 a blind and absolute submission to their imam, who 
 was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God 
 and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed 
 the fifth of their substance and spoil ; the most flagi- 
 tious sins were no more than the type of disobedience ; 
 and the brethren were united and concealed by an oath 
 of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they Their miiitarj 
 prevailed in the province of Bahrein, expioiw, 
 
 along the Persian gulf: far and wide, A. D. 900, &c. 
 the tribes of the desert were subject to the sceptre, or 
 rather to the sword, of Abu Said and his son Abu 
 Taher: and these rebellious imams could muster in 
 the field a hundred and seven thousand fanatics. The 
 mercenaries of the caliph were dismayed at the ap- 
 proach of an enemy who neither asked nor accepted 
 quarter; and the difference between them, in fortitude 
 and patience, is expressive of the change which three 
 centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of 
 the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every 
 action ; the cities of Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and 
 Bassora, were taken and pillaged ; Bagdad was filled 
 with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind 
 the veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the 
 Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates of the capital 
 with no more than five hundred horse. By the special 
 order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, 
 and the person or head of the rebel was expected ev- 
 ery hour by the commander of the faithful. His lieu- 
 tenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Aba 
 Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy es- 
 cape. " Your master," said the intrepid Carmathian 
 to the messenger, " is at the head of thirty thousand 
 soldiers : three such men as these are wanting in his 
 host : " at the same instant, turning to three of his com- 
 panions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger 
 into his breast, the second to leap into the Tigris, and 
 the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. 
 They obeyed without a murmur. " Relate," continued 
 the imam, " what you have seen : before the evening 
 your general shall be chained among my dogs." Be- 
 fore the evening, the camp was surprised, and the 
 menance was executed. The rapine of the Carmathi- 
 ans was sanctified by their aversion to the worship 
 of Mecca: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and 
 twenty thousand devout Moslems were abandoned on 
 the burning sands to a death of hunger and thiwU 
 
♦ I 
 
 264 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 -Uilf! 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
 ity 
 
 iff 
 
 1^1 
 
 Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed 
 without interruption; but in the festival of devotion, 
 Abu laher stormed the holy city, and trampled on the 
 most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith. Thirty 
 They pillage thousand citizens and strangers were put 
 / n'^^^o '^ ^^® sword ; the sacred precincts were 
 A. u V2J. polluted by the burial of three thousand 
 dead bodies; the well of Zemzem overflowed with 
 blood ; the rjolden spout was forced from his place ; 
 the veil of the Caaba was divided amoncr these impi- 
 ous sectaries ; and the black stone, the first monument 
 of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their cap- 
 ital. After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty thev 
 continued to invest the confines of Irak, Syria, and 
 J:.gypt; but the vital principle of enthusiasm had 
 withered at the root. Their scruples, or their avarice, 
 again opened the pilgrimage of Mecca, and restored 
 the black stone of the Caaba; and it is needless to 
 inquire into what factions they were broken, or bv 
 whose swords they were finally extirpated. The sect 
 of the Carmathians may be considered as the second 
 
 the caH^'hs^^ '*®°^'"® ^""^ ^^" °^ ^^® ^""^'"^ ^^ 
 
 Revolt of the The third and most obvious cause was 
 A-'aMO-lk "!* .T*'?r*" .^.".^ ™?g"i«»<le of the em- 
 nr«..^i .P'y" "?*"^' ^''* '=^''P'» Almamon mio-ht 
 
 east and the west, than to manage a chess-board of two 
 feet square : jet I suspect that in both those ffames 
 
 ih,.7„'.f "''J^ ""^ "''">■ r*'"' "i^'^kes; and I perceive, 
 tliat in the dislant provinces the authority of the first 
 and most powerful of the Abbassides was already 
 impaired. Tije analogy of despotism invests U,e rep^ 
 lesentative with the full majesty of the prince : The 
 division and balance of powers might relax the habits 
 or obedience, might encourage the passive subject to 
 inquire into the origin and administration of civil gov" 
 ernment. He who is born in the purple is seldom 
 worthy to reign; but the elevation of a%rivate ma" 
 of a peasant perhaps, or a slave, affords a strong pre- 
 sumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy 
 ^n/; '!""?.'* """S^","? aspires to secure the property 
 and nheruance of h.s precarious trust ; the nations 
 must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign : and 
 the command of armies and treasures are at once the 
 object and the nstrument of his ambition. A change 
 
 TaUnrr'^ ^''""'^ as long as the lieutenants of "fie 
 caliph were content with their vicarious title : while 
 the;^ solicited for themselves or their sons a renewal of 
 
 In ti^^^KP ^""'' ""•* !'"' """'"'ained on the coin and 
 m the public prayers, the name and prerogative of the 
 commander of the fai.hful. But in the long and hered! 
 itary exercise of power, they assumed thi pride and 
 attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace or war 
 JiuZ^A.^' P""*«''™«"«. depended solely on th"; 
 7aLT ''^'«y«""«' of the government were reserv- 
 ed fo local services or private magnificence. Instead 
 of a regular supply of men and money, the Successors 
 of t7lX'\ "'"" """"^Z "•"'■ 'he o«ten.a ious gift 
 
 iLT or sli '• " I ""'/ "f •'=•*'"• "^ =•»' of silk haf g. 
 ings, or some pounds of musk and amber ' ^ 
 
 I^J^X.1 temo^Lt!, "'•"•'' f ^P"'"' f™'" "'« 
 Abbassides theX. ^ *P'"'"i^' ^"Premacy of the 
 
 Ag.ab,theiLten:;t^r :^n3!!;:^n:i:? Hrn*: 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 Chap. XIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 bequeathed to the dynasty of the Jgiabifes the inheri- 
 tance of his name and power. The in- The A^Ubiie. 
 dolence or policy of the caliphs dissem- A. D. m^ml 
 bled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison 
 the founder of the Ednsites.^ ^ho erected ^ The Ed ' 1 
 the kingdom and city of Fez on the A. D. s^S-w! 
 shores of the western ocean." In the east, the first 
 dynasy was that of the Tahenfes^o the posterity of 
 the valiant Taher who, in the civil wars The Taheritel 
 of the sons of Harun, had served with A.D. 81^1^: 
 too much zeal and success the cause of Almamon, the 
 younger brother. He was sent into honourable exile, 
 to command on the banks of the Oxus ; and the inde' 
 pendence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan 
 till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest 
 and respectful demeanour, the happiness of their sub- 
 jects, and the security of their frontier. Thev were 
 supplanted by one of those adventurers so frequent in 
 the annals of the east, who left his trade of a brazier 
 
 LrTh J* r ^^® "r^ °^ Soffarides) The SofTaride., 
 tor the profession of a robber. In a A. D. 872-902! 
 nocturnal visit to the treasure of the prince of Sistan, 
 Jacob, the son of Leith, stumbled over a lump of salt! 
 which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt amonJ 
 the orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pi- 
 ous robber immediately retired wiihoutspoil or damage. 
 The discovery of this honourable behaviour recom- 
 mended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an army at 
 first for his benefactor, at last for himself, subdued 
 i'ersia, and threatened the residence of the Abbassides. 
 Un his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was ar- 
 rested by a fever. He gave audience in bed to the 
 ambassador of the caliph ; and beside him on a table 
 were exposed a naked scymitar, a crust of brown 
 bread, and a bunch of onions. »* If I die," said he, 
 " }our master is delivered from his fears. If I live 
 f^is must determine between us. If I am vanquished! 
 t can return without reluctance to the homely fare of 
 my youth." From the height where he stood, the de- 
 scent would not have been so soft or harmless a time- 
 ^ death secured his own repose and that of the caliph, 
 who paid with the most lavish concessions the retreat 
 
 tooTrLAr r ^'^^^^sides Were too feeble to contend, 
 too proud to forgive: they invited the powerful dynasty 
 ot the Samamdes, who passed the Oxus t^p «j/ ., 
 with ten thousand horse; so poor, that I D^^rTsgr 
 
 auilhpH Th^'lT^.^^ "^^^^ ' "° ^^^^«' t^^t they van- 
 nnf th. ^K ?'^'"'" i^'^y^ "'^'^^ ^'°»^« '"ore numer- 
 ous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent in 
 chains, a grateful offering to the court of Brgdad ; an2 
 as the victor was content with the inheritance of Trans- 
 oxiana and Chorasan, the realms of Persia returned 
 for a while to the allegiance of the caliphs The 
 bvZTrT^^r 1'"^ ^HK ^^^« ^^'^« disLmberel 
 unta.v i hese barbarians, in religion and ^^ 
 manners the countrymen of Mahomet, a n'SSiil^i^?'' 
 emerged from the bloody factions of the The iSidTei, l 
 paiaceto a provincial command and an in- ^' ^' ^^^~^^- 1 
 dependent throne : their names became famous and for- 
 midable in their time ; but the founders of these twe 
 
 265 
 
 Bome inconsistenae TSo.rand^chr?nn, -^^^ I find 
 
 rhr^norogy of the eSrfn^.?'"- ''^""1''' ^'"^ *•> e^hibiT a g%ne il 
 but his afiacUentTni; oTafh^oo^'l''^' '""^ ^^siotxc^X anetdotea 
 «*^rof lime and place? ^** sometimes confounded the 
 
 ?„„;■. "V'S."" C"™- 1- P- 359.) concernin" the Edrwites I Tif; 
 
 l-atin vereion of M rchind • vet [he 1™, '? '"'^'.<"^\^»^'7 and 
 ready been drained b,,hedil^Je,ce„f1« D.Herb'e'h,! '^"* '""' »'• 
 
 iiih, on the C.rmaJfi.L"ndlWd.li°,i;.f «*'«''• ""' *~*'' «™ 
 
 potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, 
 the vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed im- 
 plored the mercy of God to a sinner, ignorant of the 
 limits of his own power : the second, in the midst of four 
 hundred thousand soldiers and eight thousand slaves, 
 concealed from every human eye the chamber where 
 he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in 
 the vices of kings ; and both Egypt and Syria were 
 recovered and possessed by the Abbassides during an 
 interval of thirty years. In the decline of their em- 
 pire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul 
 and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of 
 
 The Ramadan- ^^^ tribe ofllamadan. The poets of their 
 ilea, court could repeat, without a blush, that 
 
 A. D. 892—1001. nature had formed their countenances for 
 beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands 
 for liberality and valour : but the genuine tale of the 
 elevation and reign of the Hamadatittes, exhibits a 
 scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the 
 same fatal period, the Persian kingdom was again 
 
 The Bowides, usurped by the dynasty of the Bowides, 
 A. D. 933—1035. by the sword of three brothers, who, 
 under various names, were styled the support and 
 columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian sea to 
 the ocean, would suffer no tyrants but themselves. 
 Under their reign, the language and genius of Persia 
 revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years 
 after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the 
 sceptre of the east. 
 
 Fallen stale of Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, 
 the caliphs of and the thirty-ninth of the successors of 
 A*^*936 & Mahomet, was the last who deserved the 
 
 ' ' ' ' title of commander of the faithful ;*» the 
 last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people, or con- 
 versed with the learned ; the last who, in the expense 
 of his household, represented the wealth and magnifi- 
 cence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of 
 the eastern world were reduced to the most abject mis- 
 ery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile 
 condition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed 
 their dominions within the walls of Bagdad ; but that 
 capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain 
 of their past fortune, discontented with their present 
 state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury 
 which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and 
 tribute of nations. Their idleness was exercised by 
 faction and controversy. Under the mask of piety, 
 the rigid followers of Hanbal ' invaded the pleasures 
 of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and 
 princes, spilt the wine, broke the instruments, beat 
 the musicians, and dishonoured with infamous suspi- 
 cions, the associates of every handsome youth. In 
 each profession, which allowed room for two persons, 
 the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali ; 
 and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous 
 grief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and cursed 
 their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be 
 repressed by a military force ; but who could satisfy 
 the avarice or assert the discipline of the mercenaries 
 themselves ? The African and the Turkish guards drew 
 their swords against each other, and the chief comman- 
 ders, the emirs al Omra,' imprisoned or deposed their 
 
 q Hie est ultimus chalifah qui multum atque sspius pro concione 
 
 peroravii Full etiam ultimus qui olium cum erudiiis et face- 
 
 lis hominibud fallere hilariterque agere soleret. Ultimus tandem 
 chatifarum cui sumplus, siipendia, reditus, et thesauri, culinae, caete- 
 raque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad inslar comparata 
 fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post quam indignis et servilibus 
 ludibriis exagiiati, quam ad humilem fonunam ultimumque con- 
 tempium abjecti fuerint hi quondam poleniissimi totius terrarum 
 orienialium orbis domini. Abulfod. Annal. Moslem, p. 261. I have 
 given this passage as the manner and lone of Abulfeda, but the cast 
 of Liitin eliKjuence belongs more properly to Reiske. The Arabian 
 historian (p. 255. 257. 261—269, 283, &c.) has supplied me with the 
 most interesting facts of this paragraph. 
 
 r Their master, on a similar occasion, showed himself of a more 
 indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of 
 one of the four orthodox sects, was born at Bagdad A. H. 164, and 
 died there A. H.241. He fought and suffered in the dispute concern- 
 ing the creation of the Koran. 
 
 ■ The office of vizir was superseded by the emir al Omra, Impera- 
 tor Imporatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi, aad which merged 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 I 
 
 sovereigns, and violated the sanctuary of the mosch and 
 haram. If the caliphs escaped to the camp or court of 
 any neighbouring prince, their deliverance was a change 
 of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to 
 invite the Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced 
 the factions of Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The 
 civil and military powers were assumed by Moezal- 
 dowlat, the second of the three brothers, and a stipend 
 of sixty thousand pounds sterling was assigned by his 
 generosity for the private expense of the commander 
 of the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audi- 
 ence of the ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the 
 presence of a trembling multitude, the caliph was 
 dragged from his throne to a dungeon, by the com- 
 mand of the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dile- 
 mites. His palace was pillaged, his eyes were put 
 out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired 
 to the vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the 
 school of adversity, the luxurious caliphs resumed the 
 grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive times. 
 Despoiled of their armour and silken robes, they 
 fasted, they prayed, they studied the Koran and the 
 tradition of the Sonnites ; they performed, with zeal 
 and knowledge, the functions of their ecclesiastical 
 character. The respect of nations still waited on the 
 successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law and 
 conscience of the faithful ; and the weakness or division 
 of their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to 
 the sovereignty of Bagdad. But their misfortunes 
 had been imbittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, 
 the real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from the 
 extremity of Africa, these successful rivals extinguish- 
 ed, in Egypt and Syria, both the spiritual and tempo- 
 ral authority of the Abbassides : and the monarch of 
 the Nile insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of 
 the Tigris. 
 
 In the declining age of the caliphs, in Enterprises of 
 the century which elapsed after the w^ar ihe Greeks, 
 of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile ^' ^' ^• 
 transactions of the two nations were confined to some 
 inroads by sea and land, the fruits of their close vicin- 
 ity and indelible hatred. But when the eastern world 
 was convulsed and broken, the Greeks were roused 
 from their lethargy by the hopes of conquest and re- 
 venge. The Byzantine empire, since the accession of 
 the Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity ; 
 and they might encounter with their entire strength 
 the front of some petty emir, whose rear was assault- 
 ed and threatened by his national foes of the Mahom- 
 etan faith. The lofty titles of the morning star, and 
 the death of the Saracens,* were applied in the public 
 acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince as re- 
 nowned in the camp as he was unpopular Reduction of 
 in the city. In the subordinate station Crete, 
 of great domestic or general of the east, he reduced 
 the island of Crete, and extirpated the nest of pirates 
 who had so long defied, with impunity, the majesty of 
 the empire." His military genius was displayed in 
 the conduct and success of the enterprise, which had 
 so often failed with loss and dishonour. The Saracens 
 were confounded by the landing of his troops on safe 
 and level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to 
 the shore. Seven months were consumed in the siege 
 of Candia; the despair of the native Cretans was 
 stimulated by the frequent aid of their brethren of 
 Africa and Spain ; and, after the massy wall and 
 double ditch had been stormed by the Greeks, a hope- 
 
 at length in the Bowides and Seljukides ; vectigalibus, et tributis, et 
 curiis per omnes regiones praefecit, jussitque in omnibus susgesiis 
 nominis ejus in concionibus mentionem fieri. (Abulpharacius, Dynast, 
 p. 199.) It is likewise mentioned by Elmacin, (p. 254, 255.) 
 
 t Liutprand, whose choleric temper was embittered by his uneasy- 
 situation, suggests the names of reproach and contempt more appli- 
 cable to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks, Ecce venit 
 Stella matutina, surgit Eous, reverberat obtutu solis radios, pallida 
 Saracenorum mors, Nicephorus mi^""- 
 
 u Notwithsunding the insinuations of Zonaras, ««< i« ^*i,&c.(tom 
 ii. 1. xvi. p. 197.) it is an undoubted fact, that Crete was completely 
 and finally subdued by Nicephorus Phocas. (Pagi, Critica, torn. iii. p. 
 873—875. Meursius, Creu, 1. iii. c. 7. lom. iii. p. 464, 465.) 
 
266 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIU. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 267 
 
 \it 
 
 
 
 ;|iM 
 
 ;» 
 
 less conflict was still maintained in the streets and 
 houses of the city. The whole island was subdued in 
 the capital, and a submissive people accepted, without 
 resistance, the baptism of the conqueror.* Constanti- 
 nople applauded the long-forgotten pomp of a triumph : 
 but the imperial diadem was the sole reward that could 
 repay the services, or satisfy the ambition of Nice- 
 phorus. 
 
 Theeaaterncon- After the death of the younger Ro- 
 <)ue8u of Nice- manus, the fourth in lineal descent of 
 ESd^Jhn'zfmi. '»"« Basilian race, his widow Theopha- 
 ce«, n<a successively married Nicephorus 
 
 A. D. 903—975. Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, 
 the two heroes of the age. They reigned as the guar- 
 dians and colleagues of her infant sons ; and the 
 twelve years of their military command form the most 
 splendid period of the Byzantine annals. The subjects 
 and confederates, whom they led to war, appeared, at 
 least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand 
 strong; and of these about thirty thousand were armed 
 with cuirasses : ^ a train of four thousand mules attend- 
 ed their march; and their evening camp was regularly 
 fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series of 
 bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than 
 an anticipation of what would have been effected in a 
 few years by the course of nature : but I shall briefly 
 prosecute the conquests of the two emperors from the 
 aills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. The 
 Conquest of sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, in 
 Ciiicja. Cilicia, first exercised the skill and per- 
 severance of their troops, on whom, at this moment, 
 I shall not hesitate to bestow the name of Romans. 
 In the double city of Mopsuestia, which is divided by 
 the river Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems were 
 predestined to death or slavery," a surprising degree of 
 population, which must at least include the inhabitants 
 of the depending districts. They were surrounded 
 and taken by assault ; but Tarsus was reduced by the 
 slow progress of famine ; and no sooner had the Sara- 
 cens yielded on honourable terms, than they were 
 mortified by the distant and unprofitable view of the 
 naval succours of Egypt. They were dismissed with 
 a safe-conduct to the confines of Syria; a part of the 
 old christians had quietly lived under their dominion ; 
 and the vacant habitations were replenished by a new 
 colony. But the mosch was converted into a stable; 
 the pulpit was delivered to the flames ; many rich 
 crosses of gold and gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, 
 were made a grateful offering to the piety or avarice 
 of the emperor; and he transported the gates of Mop- 
 suestia and Tarsus, which were fixed in the wall of 
 Constantinople, an eternal monument of his victory. 
 , iDTasionof After they had forced and secured the 
 Syria. narrow passes of mount Amanus, the two 
 Roman princes repeatedly carried their arms into the 
 heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls 
 of Antioch, the humanity or superstition of Nicephorus 
 appeared to respect the ancient metropolis of the east : 
 he contented himself with drawing round the city a 
 line of circumvallalion ; left a stationary army ; and 
 instructed his lieutenant to expect, without impatience, 
 the return of spring. But in the depth of winter, in a 
 
 % 
 
 X A Greek life of St. Nicon the Armenian waa found in the Sfona 
 library, and translated into Latin by the Jesuit Sirmond, for the use 
 of Cardinal Baronius. This contemporary legion casts a ray of light 
 on Crete and Peloponnesus in the tenth century. He found the 
 newly-recovered island, fcedis detestand* Agarenorum superstition is 
 Testigiis adhuc plenain ac refertam .... but the victorious mis- 
 sionary, perhaps with some carnal aid, ad baptismum omnes verssque 
 £dei disciplinam pepulit. Ecclesiis per totam insulain sedificatis, 
 fcc. (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 961.) 
 
 y Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 27S, 279. Liutprand was disposed to 
 depreciate the Greek power, yet he owns that Nicephorus led against 
 Assyria an army of eighty tliousand men. 
 
 > Ducenta fore millia hominum numerabat urbs (Abulfeda« Annal. 
 Moslem, p. 231.) of Mopsuestia, or Masifa, Mampsysta, Mansista, 
 Mamista, as it is corruptly, or perhaps more correctly, styled in the 
 middle ages. (Wesseliiig, Itinerar. p. 580.) Yet I cannot credit this 
 -extreme populousness a few years after the testimony of the emperor 
 Leo, au yj,.f 9rsx.v7xi|jt» ff stow TOif KiA.t^i /3»(i3»(«t; ifir. (Tactica, 
 e. zviii. in Meursii Oper. torn. vi. p. 817.) 
 
 dark and rainy night, an adventurous subaltern, with 
 three hundred soldiers, approached the rampart, appli- 
 ed his scaling-ladders, occupied two adjacent towers, 
 stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, and 
 bravely maintained his post till be was relieved by the 
 tardy, though efllectual, support of his reluctant chief. 
 The first tumult of slaughter and rapine Recovery of 
 subsided ; the reign of Ccesar and of Amioch. 
 Christ was restored ; and the eflforts of a hundred 
 thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria and the fleets 
 of Africa, were consumed without effect before the 
 walls of Antioch. The royal city of Aleppo was sub- 
 ject to Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of Hamadan, who 
 clouded his past glory by the precipitate retreat which 
 abandoned his kingdom and capital to the Roman inva- 
 ders. In his stately palace, that stood without the 
 walls of Aleppo, they joyfully seized a well-furnished 
 magazine of arms, a stable of fourteen hundred mules, 
 and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the 
 walls of the city withstood the strokes of their hatter- 
 ing-rams; and the besiegers pitched their tents on 
 the neighbouring mountain of Jaushan. Their retreat 
 exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and merce- 
 naries ; the guard of the gates and ramparts was de- 
 serted ; and while they furiously charged each other 
 in the market-place, they were surprised and destroyed 
 by the sword of a common enemy. The male sex 
 was exterminated by the sword ; ten thousand youths 
 were led into captivity ; the weight of the precious 
 spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts 
 of burthen ; the superfluous remainder was burnt; and 
 after a licentious possession of ten days, the Romans 
 marched away from the naked and bleeding city. In 
 their Syrian inroads they commanded the husbandmen 
 to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in the 
 ensuing season, might reap the benefit : more than a 
 hundred cities were reduced to obedience ; and eigh- 
 teen pulpits of the principal moschs were committed 
 to the flames to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples 
 of Mahomet. The classic names of Hierapolis, Apa- 
 mea, and Emesa, revive for a moment in the list of 
 conquest : the emperor Zimisces encamped in the 
 paradise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a 
 submissive people; and the torrent was only stopped 
 by the impregnable fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast 
 of Phcenici^. Since the days of Herac- Passage of the 
 lius, the Euphrates, below the passage Euphrates. 
 of mount Taurus, had been impervious, and almost 
 invisible to the Greeks. The river yielded a ixt^ 
 passage to the victorious Zimisces; and the histori- 
 an may imitate the speed with which he overran the 
 once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa, Marty ropol is, 
 Amida,* and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire 
 in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. His ardour was 
 quickened by the desire of grasping the virgin treasures 
 of Ecbatana,** a well-known name, under which the 
 Byzantine writer has concealed the capital of the 
 Abbassides. The consternation of the fugitives had 
 already diff*used the terror of his name ; but the fancied 
 riches of Bagdad had already been dissipated by the 
 avarice and prodigality of domestic tyrants. The 
 prayers of the people and the stern de- Danger of Baf- 
 mands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, dad. 
 
 required the caliph to provide for the defence of the 
 city. The helpless Mothi replied, that his arms, his 
 
 a The text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names of Emela and 
 Myctarsim, reveals the cities of Amida and Mariyropolis. (Miafare- 
 kin. See Abulfeda, Geograph. p. 245. vers Reiske.) Of the former, 
 Leo observes, urbs iiiunila et illustris ; of the latter, clara atquo con- 
 spicua opibusque et pecore, reliquis ejus provinciis urbibus atque op- 
 pidis longe prsestans. 
 
 b Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam everteret . . . 
 aiunt enim urbium quae usquam sunt ac toto orbe existunt felicissi- 
 mam esse auroque ditissimam. (Leo Diacon. apud Paeium, tom. iv. p. 
 34.) This splendid description suits only with Bagdad, and cannot 
 possibly apply either to Hamadan. the true Ecbatana, (D'Anville, 
 Geog. Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 237.) or Tauris, which has commonly been 
 mistaken for that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefi- 
 nite sense, is transferred by a more classic authority (Cicero pr» 
 Lege Manilla, c. 4.) to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Foatus^ 
 
 I 
 
 revenues, and his provinces, had been torn from his 
 hands, and that he was ready to abdicate a dignity 
 which he was unable to support. The emir was inex- 
 orable ; the furniture of the palace was sold ; and the 
 paltry price of forty thousand pieces of gold was 
 instantly consumed in private luxury. But the appre- 
 hensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the 
 Greeks ; thirst and hunger guarded the desert of 
 Mesopotamia ; and the emperor, satiated with glory, 
 and laden with oriental spoils, returned to Constanti- 
 nople, and displayed, in his triumph, the silk, the 
 aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold and sil- 
 ver. Yet the powers of the east had been bent, not 
 broken, by this transient hurricane. After the depar- 
 ture of the Greeks, the fugitive princes returned to 
 their capitals ; the subjects disclaimed their involun- 
 tary oaths of allegiance ; the Moslems again purified 
 their temples, and overturned the idols of the saints 
 and martyrs ; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a 
 Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and 
 spirit of the Melchites were inadequate to the support 
 of the church and state. Of these extensive conquests, 
 Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and the isle of Cy- 
 prus, was alone restored, a permanent and useful 
 accession to the Roman empire.* 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Siatt of the eastern empire in the tenth century. — Extent 
 and division. — Wealth and Revenue. — Palace of Constan- 
 tinople. — Titles and offices. — Pride and power of the 
 emperors. — Tactics of the Greeks, Arabs, and Franks. — 
 iow of the Latin tongue. — Studies and solitude of the 
 Greeks, 
 Memorial of the A RAY of historic light seems to beam 
 Greek empire, from the darkness of the tenth century. 
 We open with curiosity and respect the royal volumes 
 of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,* which he composed 
 at a mature age for the instruction of his son, and 
 which promise to unfold the state of the eastern empire, 
 both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In 
 Works of Con- ^^® ^^^^ °^ these works he minutely de- 
 sianiine For- scribes the pompous ceremonies of the 
 phyrogenitus. church and palace of Constantinople, 
 aocording to his own practice and that of his predeces- 
 sors.* In the second, he attempts an accurate survey 
 of the provinces, the themes, as they were then denom- 
 inated, both of Europe and Asia.* The system of 
 Roman tactics, the discipline and order of the troops, 
 and the military operations by land and sea, are ex- 
 plained in the third of these didactic collections, which 
 may be ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo.** 
 
 * — III I. 
 
 c See the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abutfeda, from 
 A. H. 351. to A. H. 361. and the reiens of Nicephorus Fhocas and 
 John Zimisces, in the Chronicles of Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. zvi. p. 199. 1. 
 xvii. 215.) and Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 649—684.) Their manifold 
 defects are partly supplied by the MS. history of Leo the deacon, 
 which Fagi obtained from the Benedictines, and has inserted almost 
 entire, in a Latin version. (Critica, tom. iii. p. 873. tom. iv. p. 37.) 
 
 a The epithet of ^»t<f^Jeoyi*^rii, Forphyrogenitus, born in the pur- 
 ple, is elegantly defined by Claudian: 
 
 Ardua privatos nescit foriuna Fenates; 
 Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas 
 Ezcepit Tyrio venerabile pignus in ostro. 
 And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin (}lo88aries, produces many pas- 
 sages expressive of ihe same idea. 
 
 b A splendid MS. of Constantine, de Caeremoni is Aulas et Ecclesiae 
 ByzantinK, wandered from Constantinople to Euda, Frankfort, and 
 Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid edition by Leich and 
 Reiske, (A. D. 1751. in folio,) with such slavish praise as editors ne- 
 ver fail to bestow on the worthy or worthless object of their toil. 
 
 c See, in the first volume of Bauduri's Imperium Orienlale, Con- 
 atantinus de Thematibus, p. i— 24. de Administrando Imperio, p. 
 45—127. edit. Venet. The text of the old edition of Meursius is cor- 
 rected from a MS. of the royal library of Faris, which Isaac Casau- 
 bon had formerly seen, (Epist. ad Folybium, p. 10.) and the sense is 
 illustrated by two maps of William Delisle, the prince of geogra- 
 phers, till the appearance of the greater D'Anville. 
 
 d The Tactics of Leo and Constantino are published with the aid 
 of some new MSS. in the great edition of the works of Meursius, by 
 the learned John Lami, (tom. vi. p. 531—920. 1211—1417. Florent. 
 1745.) yet the text is still corrupt and mutilated, the version is still 
 obscure and faulty. The imperial library of Vienna would afford 
 «ome valuable materials to a new editor. (iabricBiblioUGraectom. 
 vi. p. 369, 370.) 
 
 In the fourth, of the administration of the empire, he 
 reveals the secrets of the Byzantine policy, in friendly 
 or hostile intercourse with the nations of the earth. 
 The literary labours of the age, the practical systems 
 of laws, agriculture, and history, might redound to the 
 benefit of the subject and the honour of the Macedonian 
 princes. The sixty books of the Basilics,'' the code 
 and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually 
 framed in the three first reigns of that prosperous 
 dynasty. The art of agriculture had amused the 
 leisure, and exercised the pens, of the best and wisest 
 of the ancients ; and their chosen precepts are com- 
 prised in the twenty books of the Geoponics^ of Con- 
 stantine. At his command, the historical examples 
 of vice and virtue were methodized in fifty-three books,' 
 and every citizen might apply to his contemporaries or 
 himself, the lesson or the warning of past times. From 
 the august character of a legislator, the sovereign of 
 the east descends to the more humble office of a teacher 
 and a scribe : and if his successors and subjects were 
 regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and 
 enjoy the everlasting legacy. 
 
 A closer survey will indeed reduce the Their imper- 
 value of the gift, and the gratitude of fections. 
 posterity : in the possession of these imperial treasures 
 we may still deplore our poverty and ignorance; and 
 the fading glories of their authors will he obliterated 
 by indifference or contempt. The Basilics will sink 
 to a broken copy, a partial and mutilated version, in 
 the Greek language, of the laws of Justinian ; but the 
 sense of the old civilians is often superseded by the 
 influence of bigotry ; and the absolute prohibition of 
 divorce, concubinage, and interest for money, enslaves 
 the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life. 
 In the historical hook, a subject of Constantine might 
 admire the inimitable virtues of Greece and Rome: 
 he might learn to what a pitch of energy and elevation 
 the human character had formerly aspired. But a 
 contrary effect must have been produced by a new 
 edition of the lives of the saints, which the great logo- 
 thete, or chancellor of the empire, was directed to 
 prepare : and the dark fund of superstition was enriched 
 by the fabulous and florid legions of Simon the Meta- 
 phrast^ The merits and miracles of the whole calen- 
 dar are of less account in the eyes of a sase, than the 
 toil of a single husbandman, who multiplies the gifts 
 of the Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren. 
 Yet the royal authors of the Geoponics were more 
 seriously employed in expounding the precepts of the 
 destroying art, which has been taught since the days 
 of Xenophon,' as the arts of heroes and kings. But 
 the Tactics of Leo and Constantine are mingled with 
 
 e On the subject of the Basilics, Fabricius, (Bibliot. Gr?ec. tom. 
 xii. p. 425—514.) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Romani, p. 396 — 399.) 
 and Oiannone, (Istoria Civile de Napoli, tom. i. p. 450—458.) as his- 
 torical civilians, may be usefully consulted. Forty-one bcwks of this 
 Greek code have been published, with a Latin version, by Charles 
 Annibal Fabrottus, (Faris, 1647.) in seven tomes in folio; four other 
 books have since been discovered, and are inserted in Gerard Meer- 
 man's Novus Thesaurus Juris Civ. et Canon, tom. v. Of the whole 
 work, the sixty books, John Leunclavius has printed (Basil, 1575.) 
 an eclogue or synopsis. The hundred and thirteen novels, or new 
 laws, of Leo, may be found in the Corpus Juris Civilis. 
 
 t I have used the last and best edition of the Geoponics, (by Nicho- 
 las Niclas, Lipsiae, 1781. 2 vols, in octavo. I read in the preface, that 
 the same emperor restored the long-forgotten systems of rhetoric and 
 philosophy ; and his two books of Iltppiatrica, or Horse-physic, were 
 published at Faris, 1530, in folio. (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 
 493-500.) 
 
 g Of these fifty-three books, or titles, only two have been preserved 
 and printed, de Legationibus, (by Fulvius Ursinus, Antwerp, 1582. 
 and Daniel Haeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603.) and de Virtulibus et 
 Viiiis, (by Henry Valeaius, or de Valois, Paris, 1634.) ' 
 
 h The life and writings of Simon Meiaphrastes are described by 
 Hankius, (de Scriptoribus Byzanl. p. 418—460.) This bi(»grapher of 
 the saints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase of the sense or 
 nonsense of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric is again para- 
 
 Eh rased in the Latin version of Surius, and scarcely a thread can 
 e now visible of the origrinal texture. 
 
 i According to the first book of the Cyropaedia, professors of tactic*, 
 a small part of the science of war, were already instituted in Per- 
 sia, by which Greece mDst be understood. A good edition of all th* 
 Scriptores Tactici would be a task not unworthy of a scholar. His 
 industry might discover some new MSS., and his learning might illuc- 
 trate the niiiiury history of the ancients. But this scholar ahoulA 
 be likewise a soldier ; and, alas ! Quintua Icilius is no more. 
 
 I- 
 
 ■i ! 
 
268 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XfV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 *269 
 
 f: , r, 
 
 1 
 
 
 the baser alloy of the acre in which they lived. It was 
 destitute of original genius; they implicitly transcribe 
 the rules and maxims which had been confirmed by 
 victories. It was unskilled in the propriety of style 
 and method ; they blindly confound the most distant 
 and discordant institutions, the phalanx of Sparta and 
 that of Macedon, the legions ot Cato and Trajan, of 
 Augustus and Theodosius. Even the use, or at least 
 the importance of these military rudiments may be 
 fairly questioned : their general theory is dictated by 
 reason ; but the merit, as well as difficulty, consists in 
 the application. The discipline of a soldier is formed 
 by exercise rather than by study: the talents of a com- 
 mander are appropriated to those calm, though rapid, 
 minds, which nature produces to decide the fate of 
 armies and nations: the former is the habit of a life, 
 the latter the glance of a moment ; and the battles won 
 by lessons of tactics may be numbered with the epic 
 poems created from the rules of criticism. The book 
 of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the 
 despicable pageantry which had infected the church 
 and slate since the gradual decay of the purity of the 
 one and the power of the other. A review of the 
 themes or provinces, might promise such authentic and 
 useful information, as the curiosity of government only 
 can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin 
 of the cities, and malicious epigrams on the vices*of 
 their inhabitants. ^ Such information the historian 
 would have been pleased to record ; nor should his 
 silence be condemned if the most interesting objects, 
 the population of the capital and provinces, the amount 
 of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of subjects and 
 strangers who served under the imperial standard, have 
 been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his son 
 Constantine. His treatise of the public administration 
 is stained with the same blemishes; yet it is discrim- 
 inated by peculiar merit : the antiquities of the nations 
 may be doubtful or fabulous ; but the geography and 
 manners of the barbaric world are delineated with 
 Embassy of Liut- curious accuracy. Of these nations, the 
 prand. Franks alone were qualified to observe in 
 their turn, and to describe, the metropolis of the east. 
 The ambassador of the great Otho, a bishop of Cre- 
 mona, has painted the state of Constantinople about the 
 middle of the tenth century : his style is glowing, his 
 narrative lively, his observation keen ; and even the 
 prejudices and passions of Liutprand are stamped with 
 an original character of freedom and genius.' From 
 this scanty fund of foreign and domestic materials, I 
 shall investigate the form and substance of the Byzan- 
 tine empire ; the provinces and wealth, the civil gov- 
 ernment and military force, the character and literature, 
 of the Greeks in a period of six hundred years, from 
 the reign of Heraclius to the successful invasion of the 
 Franks or Latins. 
 
 The themes or After the final division between the 
 imp1;irLl'uI 1°"? «f Theodosius, the swarms of bar- 
 limiia in every barians from Scythia and Germany over- 
 *°®- spread the provinces and extinguished 
 
 the empire of ancient Rome. The weakness of Con- 
 stantinople was concealed by extent of dominion : her 
 limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kina- 
 dom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendid acqui- 
 sition of Africa and Italy. But the possession of these 
 new conquests was transient and precarious; and 
 almost a moiety of the eastern empire was torn away 
 
 k After observing that the dement of the Cappadocians rose in nro- 
 poriion to their rank and riches, he inserts a more pointed eoicram 
 Which 18 ascribed to Demodocus : ^ '' ' 
 
 KxrSai'f, yivTM/ttvtf c»i';U»toj toJioKov. 
 
 The sting is precisely the same with the French epigram against 
 Freron : Un serpent mordit Jean Freron— Eh bien 7 Lo serppnt en 
 mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom read in the Anthology, I 
 should be curious to learn through what channel it was conveyed 
 for their imitation. (Consuntin. Porphyrogen. de Themat. c. ii. Brunk. 
 Analect. Grace, torn. ii. p. 56. Brodaei Anthologia, 1. ii. p. 244.) 
 
 1 The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad Nicephorura 
 rhocam, is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, torn. 
 11. pars 1. 
 
 by the arms of the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were 
 oppressed by the Arabian caliphs ; and, after the reduc- 
 tion of Africa, their lieutenants invaded and subdued 
 the Roman province which had been changed into the 
 Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands of the Med- 
 iterranean were not inaccessible to their naval powers ; 
 and it was from their extreme stations, the harbours of 
 Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or 
 rebel emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and cap- 
 ital. The remaining provinces under the obedience of 
 the emperors, were cast into a new mould; and the 
 jurisdiction of the presidents, the consulars, and the 
 counts, was superseded by the institution of the themes,'' 
 or military governments, which prevailed under the 
 successors of Heraclius, and are described by the pen 
 of the royal author. Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve 
 in Europe and seventeen in Asia, the origin is obscure, 
 the etymology doubtful or capricious : the limits were 
 arbitrary and fluctuating; but some particular names, 
 that sound the most strangely to our ear, were derived 
 from the character and attributes of the troops that were 
 maintained at the expense, and for the guard, of the 
 respective divisions. The vanity of the Greek princes 
 most eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and the 
 memory of lost dominion. A new Mesopotamia was 
 created on the western side of the Euphrates: the 
 appellation and praetor of Sicily were transferred to a 
 narrow slip of Calabria ; and a fragment of the duchy 
 of Beneventum was promoted to the style and title of 
 the theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian 
 empire, the successors of Constantine might indulge 
 their pride in more solid advantages. The victories of 
 Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil the second, re- 
 vived the fame, and enlarged the boundaries, of the 
 Roman name : the province of Cilicia, the metropolis 
 of Antioch, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were 
 restored to the allegiance of Christ and C«sar: one 
 third of Italy was annexed to the throne of Constanti- 
 nople : the kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed; and 
 the last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty exten- 
 ded their sway from the sources of the Tigris to the 
 neighbourhood of Rome. In the eleventh century, the 
 prospect was again clouded by new enemies and new 
 misfortunes : the relics of Italy were swept away by 
 the Norman adventurers; and almost all the Asiatic 
 branches were dissevered from the Roman trunk by the 
 Turkish conquerors. After these losses, the emperors 
 of the Comnenian family continued to reign from the 
 Danube to Peloponnesus, and from Belgrade to Nice, 
 Trebizond, and the winding stream of the Meander. 
 The spacious provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, and 
 Greece, were obedient to their sceptre; the posses- 
 sion of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, was accompanied 
 by the fifty islands of the jKgean or Holy Sea ; ■ and 
 the remnant of their empire transcends the measure of 
 the largest of the European kingdoms. 
 The same princes might assert, with 
 dignity and truth, that of all of the mon- 
 archs of Christendom they possessed the 
 greatest city," the most ample revenue, the most flour- 
 ishing and populous state. With the decline and fall 
 of the empire, the cities of the west had decayed and 
 
 General wealth 
 and populous- 
 ness. 
 
 m See Constantine de Themaiibus, in Banduri, torn. i. p. 1—30. 
 who owns that the word is cvx ^»A.«i». ei^x is used by Maurice 
 (Stratagem. 1. il. c.2.) for a legion, from whence the name was easily 
 iransh'rred to its post or province. (Ducangp, Gloss. Grsec. tom. i. p. 
 487, 488.) Some etymologies are attempted for the Opsician, Opti- 
 mician, Thracesion, themes. 
 
 n 'Ay .oi jr.A.»j.o,-, as it is Styled by the modem Greeks, from which 
 the corrupt names of Archipelago, I'Archipel, and the Arches, have 
 been transformed by geographers and seamen. (D'Anville, Geogra- 
 phie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 281. Analyse de la Cane de la Grece, p. 
 60.) The numbers of monks or caloyers in all the islands and the ad- 
 jacent mounuin of Athos, (Observations de Belon, fol. 32. verso ) 
 monte santo, might justify the epithet of holy, iy.o; a slight altera- 
 tion from the original ».>^».ei, imposed by the Dorians, who, in their 
 dialect, pave the figurative name of »>yt;, or goats, to the bounding 
 waves. (Vossms, apud Cellarium, Geograph. Antiq. tom. i. p. 829.) 
 
 o According to the Jewish traveller who had visited Europe and 
 Asia, Consuntinople was equalled only by Bagdad, the great city of 
 c 6 p""*? r** (Voya«« d% 6«njamin de tudele, par Bmtier, icm. U 
 
 fallen ; nor could the ruins of Rome, or the mud walls, 
 wooden hovels, and narrow precincts of Paris and 
 London, prepare the Latin stranger to contemplate the 
 situation and extent of Constantinople, her stately pal- 
 aces and churches, and the arts and luxury of an innu- 
 merable people. Her treasures mijjht attract, but her 
 virgin strength had repelled, and still promised to repel, 
 th* audacious invasion of the Persian and Bulgarian, 
 the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less 
 fortunate and impregnable; and few districts, few 
 cities, could be discovered which had not been violated 
 by some fierce barbarian, impatient to despoil, because 
 he was hopeless to possess. From the age of Justin- 
 ian the eastern empire was sinking below its former 
 level : the powers of destruction were more active than 
 those of improvement; and the calamities of war were 
 imbittered by the more permanent evils of civil and 
 ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped 
 from the barbarians was often stripped and imprisoned 
 by the ministers of his sovereign : the Greek super- 
 stition relaxed the mind by prayer, and emaciated the 
 body by fasting ; and the multitude of convents and 
 festivals diverted many hands and many days from the 
 temporal service of mankind. Yet the subjects of the 
 Byzantine empire were still the most dexterous and 
 diligent of nations ; their country was blessed by nature 
 with every advantage of soil, climate, and situation ; 
 and in the support and restoration of the arts, their 
 patient and peaceful temper was more useful than the 
 warlike spirit and feudal anarchy of Europe. The 
 provinces that still adhered to the empire were repeo- 
 pled and enriched by the misfortunes of those which 
 were irrecoverably lost. From the yoke of the caliphs, 
 the catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, retired to the 
 allegiance of their prince, to the society of their breth- 
 ren ; the movable wealth, which eludes the search of 
 oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile ; 
 and Constantinople received into her bosom the fugi- 
 tive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Ar- 
 menia and Scythia, who fled from hostile or religious 
 persecution, were hospitably entertained : their follow- 
 ers were encouraged to build new cities and to cultivate 
 waste lands; and many spots, both in Europe and 
 Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the 
 memory, of these national colonies. Even the tribes 
 of barbarians who had seated themselves in arms on 
 the territory of the empire, were gradually reclaimed 
 to the laws of the church and state ; and as long as they 
 were separated from the Greeks, their posterity sup- 
 plied a race of faithful and obedient soldiers. Did we 
 possess sufficient materials to survey the twenty-nine 
 themes of the Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity might 
 be satisfied with a chosen example : it is fortunate 
 enough that the clearest light should be thrown on 
 the most interesting province, and the name of Pel- 
 oponnesus will awaken the attention of the classic 
 reader. 
 
 Slate of Pelo- -^^ early as the eighth century, in the 
 ponnesus : Scla- troubled reign of the Iconoclasts, Greece, 
 vonians. j^^j even Peloponnesus,** were overrun 
 
 by some Sclavonian bands, who outstripped the royal 
 standard of Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, 
 and Danaus, and Pelops, had planted in that fruitful 
 soil the seeds of policy and learning; but the savages 
 of the north eradicated what yet remained of their 
 sickly and withered roots. In this irruption, the country 
 and the inhabitants were transformed ; the Grecian 
 blood was contaminated ; and the proudest nobles of 
 Peloponnesus were branded with the names of foreign- 
 ers and slaves. By the diligence of succeeding princes, 
 
 p Ec5x.3c£i,Si) Si «-«o-c4 !| x<^'e* **' ytyovs £,*fBxg9(, says Constan- 
 tine, (Thematibus, 1. ii. c. 6. p. 25.) in a style as barbarous as the 
 idea, which he confirms, as usual, by a foolish epigram. The epit- 
 omizer of Strabo likewise observes, xx* wv St ttxtuv 'Hwngov, xxt 
 
 i-i^9wTj»i« (1. vli. p. 98. edit. Hudson ;) a passage which leads Dodwell 
 a weary dance, (Geograph. Miner, tom. ii. dissert, vi. p. 170—191.) 
 lo enumerate the inroads of the Sclavi, and lo &z the date (A. D. 980.) 
 of ihis petty geographer. 
 
 the land was in some measure purified from the bar- 
 barians; and the humble remnant was bound by an 
 oath of obedience, tribute, and military service, which 
 they often renewed and often violated. The sie<Te of 
 Patras was formed by a singular concurrence o*f the 
 Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and the Saracens of 
 Africa. In their last distress, a pious fiction of the 
 approach of the praetor of Corinth, revived the courajre 
 of the citizens. Their sally was bold and successful ; 
 the strangers embarked, the rebels submitted, and the 
 glory of the day was ascribed to a phantom or a stran- 
 ger, who fought in the foremost ranks under the char- 
 acter of St. Andrew the apostle. The shrine which 
 contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of 
 victory, and the captive race was forever devoted to 
 the service and vassalage of the metropolitan church 
 of Patras. By the revolt of two Sclavonian tribes in 
 the neighbourhood of Helos and Lacedaemon, the peace 
 of the peninsula was often disturbed. They some- 
 times insulted the weakness, and sometimes resisted 
 the oppression, of the Byzantine government, till at 
 length the approach of their hostile brethren extorted 
 a golden bull to define the rights and obligations of 
 the Ezzerites and Milengi, whose annual tribute was 
 defined at twelve hundred pieces of gold. From these 
 strangers the imperial geographer has accurately dis- 
 tinguished a domestic and perhaps original race, who, 
 in some degree, might derive their blood from the much 
 injured helots. The liberality of the Freemen of 
 Romans, and especially of Augustus, Laconia. 
 had enfranchised the maritime cities from the domin- 
 ion of Sparta; and the continuance of the same benefit 
 ennobled them with the title of Elcuthero, or free Laco- 
 nians.** In the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 
 they had acquired the name of Mainotcs, under which 
 they dishonour the claim of liberty by the inhuman 
 pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores. 
 Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, 
 extended to the cape of Malea: they accepted a chief 
 or prince from the Byzantine praetor, and a light tribute 
 of four hundred pieces of gold was the badge of their 
 immunity, rather than of their dependence. The free- 
 men of Laconia assumed the character of Romans, and 
 long adhered to the religion of the Greeks. By the 
 zeal of the emperor Basil, they were baptized in the 
 faith of Christ : but the altars of Venus and Neptune 
 had been crowned by these rustic votaries five hundred 
 years after they were proscribed in the Roman world. 
 In the theme of Peloponnesus, ' forty cities and re- 
 cities were still numbered, and the decli- venue of Pelo- 
 ning state of Sparta, Argos, and Corinth, Pt»nnesu«. 
 may be suspended in the tenth century, at an equal 
 distance, perhaps, between their antique splendour and 
 their present desolation. The duty of military service, 
 either in person or by substitute, was imposed on the 
 lands or benefices of the province : a sum of five pieces 
 of gold was assessed on each of the substantial tenants ; 
 and the same capitation was shared among several 
 heads of inferior value. On the proclamation of an 
 Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused themselves 
 by a voluntary oblation of one hundred pounds of gold, 
 (four thousand pounds sterling,) and a thousand horses 
 with their arms and trappings. The churches and 
 monasteries furnished their contingent ; a sacrilegious 
 profit was extorted from the sale of ecclesiastical 
 honours; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia" was 
 made responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces 
 of gold.* 
 
 q Strabon. Geograph. 1. viii. p. 562. Pausanias, Graec. Descriptio, 
 1. iii. c. 21. p. 264, 265. Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. iv. c. 8. 
 
 r Constantin. de Adminisirando Imperio, 1. ii. c. 50, 51, 52. 
 
 • The rock of Leucate was the southern promontory of his island 
 and diocese. Had he been the exclusive guardian of the Lover's 
 Leap, so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist. Sappho) and the 
 Spectator, he might have been the richest prelate of the Greek 
 cliurch. 
 
 t Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis ecclesiam guam 
 debere Nicephoroaureos centum persolvere, similiter el ceterai pluf 
 minusYS secundum vire« sua*. (Liutprand in Legal, p. 41^.) 
 
270 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 271 
 
 
 i« »i 
 
 
 f » 
 
 '^ 
 
 If; 
 
 Manufaciureji, ei- But the wealth of the province, and 
 peciaily ofsiik, the trust of the revenue, were founded 
 on the fair and plentiful produce of trade and manufac- 
 tures; and sonrie symptoms of liberal policy may be 
 traced in a law which exempts from all personal taxes 
 the mariners of Peloponnesus, and the workmen in 
 parchment and purple. This denomination may be 
 fairly applied or extended to the manufactures of linen, 
 woolen, and more especially of silk: the two former 
 of which had flourished in Greece since the days of 
 Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early 
 as the reign of Justinian. These arts, which were 
 exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, afforded 
 food and occupation to a numerous people : the men, 
 womt?n, and children, were distributed according to 
 their age and strength ; and if many of these were 
 domestic slaves, their masters, who directed the work 
 and enjoyed the profit, were of a free and honourable 
 condition. The gifts which a rich and generous matron 
 of Peloponnesus presented to the emperor Basil, her 
 adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian 
 looms. Daniel is bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a 
 pattern which imitated the spots ofa peacock's tail, of a 
 magnitude to overspread the floor of a new church, 
 erected in the triple name of Christ, of Michael the 
 archangel, and of the prophet Elijah. She gave six 
 hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use and 
 denomination; the silk was painted with the Tyrian 
 die, and adorned by the labours of the needle; and the 
 linen was so exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might 
 be rolled in the hollow ofa cane." In his description 
 of the Greek manufactures, an historian of Sicily dis- 
 criminates their price, according to the weight and 
 quality of the silk, the closeness of the texture, the 
 beauty of the colours, and the taste and materials of 
 the embroidery. A single, or even a double or treble, 
 thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the 
 union of six threads composed a piece of stronger and 
 more costly workmanship. Among the colours, he 
 celebrates, with aflectation of eloquence, the fiery blaze 
 of the scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green. The 
 embroidery was raised either in silk or gold : the more 
 simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by 
 the nicer imitation of flowers : the vestments that were 
 fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with 
 precious stones ; and the figures were delineated in 
 strings of oriental pearls." Till the twelfth century, 
 Greece alone, of all the countries of Christendom, was 
 possessed of the insect who is taught by nature, and 
 of the workmen who are instructed by art, to prepare 
 this elegant luxury. But the secret had been stolen by 
 the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs : the caliphs 
 of the east and west scorned to borrow from the unbe- 
 lievers their furniture and apparel ; and two cities of 
 Spain, Almeria and Lisbon, were famous for the man- 
 ufacture, the use, and perhaps the exportation of silk, 
 transported from It was first introduced into Sicily by the 
 Greece to Sicily. Normans; and this emigration of trade 
 distinguishes the victory of Roger from the uniform and 
 fruitless hostilities of every age. After the sack of 
 Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his lieutenant embarked 
 with a captive train of weavers and artificers of both 
 sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and digraceful 
 to the Greek emperor.^ The king of Sicily was not 
 
 n See Constanline, (in Vii. Basil, c. 74, 75, 76. p. 195. 197. in Script. 
 
 Eoet Theophanem,) who allows himself to use many technical or 
 arbarous words: barbarous, says he, rif tw* itokkw* m/i»hx^xofyor 
 y»f tjri T«uro<( xtiroxiXTiir. Ducange laboun on Bome ; but he was 
 not a weaver. 
 
 X The manufactures of Palermo, as they are described by Hu«io 
 Falcandus (Hist. Sicula in proem, in Muraiori Script. Kerum. ItaFl- 
 carum, torn. v. p. 256.) is a copy of those of Greece. Without tran- 
 •cribing his declamatory sentences, which 1 have softened in the text, 
 I shall observe, that in this passage the strange word exarentasmata 
 is very properly changed for exanthemata by Carisius, the first edi- 
 tor. Falcandus lived about the year 1190. 
 
 y Inde ad interiora Graecise progress!, Corinthium, Thebas, Athe- 
 nas, aniiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et, maxima ibidem 
 
 Sracda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos texere solent, ob 
 'nominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis gloriam, captivos de- 
 Qucunt. C^uos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliv m«iropoli colloc«n«, ar- 
 
 insensible of the value of the present ; and, in the res 
 titution of the prisoners, he excepted only the male 
 and female manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who 
 labour, says the Byzantine historian, under a barba- 
 rous lord, like the old Eretrians in the service of Darius.* 
 A stately edifice, in the palace of Palermo, was erected 
 for the use of this industrious colony ;' and the art was 
 propagated by their children and disciples to satisfy the 
 increasing demand of the western world. The decay 
 of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles 
 of the island, and the competition of the Italian cities. 
 In the year thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, 
 among her sister republics, enjoyed the lucrative mo- 
 nopoly.'' A domestic revolution dispersed the manu- 
 facturers to Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and 
 even the eountries beyond the Alps ; and thirteen years 
 after this event the statutes of Modena enjoin the plan- 
 ting of mulberry trees, and regulate the duties on raw 
 silk.' The northern climates are less propitious to the 
 education of the silkworm ; but the industry of France 
 and England** is supplied and enriched by the produo 
 tions of Italy and China. 
 
 I must repeat the complaint that the Revenue of the 
 vague and scanty memorials of the times Greek empire.. 
 will not afford any just estimate of the taxes, the re- 
 venue, and the resources of the Greek empire. From 
 every province of Europe and Asia the rivulets of 
 gold and silver discharged into the imperial reservoir 
 a copious and perennial stream. The separation of 
 the branches from the trunk Increased the relative 
 maornitude of Constantinople ; and the maxims of des- 
 potism contracted the state to the capital, the capital 
 to the palace, and the palace to the royal person. A 
 Jewish traveller, who visited the east in the twelfth 
 century, is lost in his admiration of the Byzantine 
 riches. "It is here," says Benjamin of Tudela, "in 
 the queen of cities, that the tributes of the Greek em- 
 pire are annually deposited, and the lofty towers are 
 filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and 
 gold. It is said, that Constantinople pays each day 
 to her sovereign twenty thousand pieces of gold ; 
 which are levied on the shops, taverns, and markets, 
 on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, of Russia and 
 Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital 
 by sea and land."* In all pecuniary matters, the au- 
 thority of a Jew is doubtless respectable ; but as the 
 three hundred and sixty-five days would produce a 
 yearly income exceeding seven millions sterling, I am 
 tempted at least to retrench the numerous festivals of 
 the Greek calendar. The mass of treasure that was 
 saved by Theodora and Basil the second, will suggest 
 a splendid, though indefinite, idea of their supplies 
 and resources. The mother of Michael, before she 
 retired to a cloister, attempted to check or expose the 
 prodigality of her ungrateful son, by a free and faith- 
 ful account of the wealth which he inherited ; one hun- 
 dred and nine thousand pounds of gold, and three hun- 
 
 tern texendi suos edocere prsecipit ; et exhinc praedicta ars Ilia, priu» 
 i. Graecis tantum inter christianos habita, Komanis patere coepit in- 
 geniis. (Otho Frisingen. de Gestis Frederici I. 1. i. c. a3. in Muratorl 
 Script. Ilal. tom. vi. p. 668.) This exception allows the bishop to 
 celebrate Lisbon and Almeria in sericorum pannorum opificio praeno- 
 bilissimae, (in Chron. apud Muraturi, Annali d'lialia, tom. ix. p. 415.> 
 B Nicetas in Manuel, 1. ii. c. 8. p. 65. He describes these Greeks 
 
 as skilled iuiit^icv; oSocx; v^»^¥l^¥, aS t^V ^(ovettuxorrmf t«v i^x/ti. 
 
 a Hugo Falcandus styles them nobiles officinas. The Arabs had 
 not introduced silk, though they had planted canes and made sugar 
 in the plains of Palermo. 
 
 b See the Life of Castruccio Casticani, not by Machiavel, but by 
 the more authentic biographer Nicholas Tegrimi. Muratori, who 
 has inserted it in the eleventh volume of his Scriptores, quotes this 
 curious passage in his Italian Anti(|uities, (tom. i. dissert, xxv. p. 378.) 
 
 c From the MS. statutes, as they are quoted by Muratori in his 
 Italian Antiquities, (tom. il. dissert, xxx. p. 46—48.) 
 
 d The broad silk manufacture was established in England in the 
 year 1620. (Anderson's Chronological Deduction, vol. ii. p. 4.) but it 
 is to the revocation of the edict of Nantes that we owe the Spital- 
 fields colony. 
 
 Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, tom. i. c. 5. p. 44-52. The 
 Hebrew text has been translated into French bv that marvellous 
 child Baratier, who has added a volume of crude learning. The 
 errors and fictions of the Jewish rabbi are not • sufficieat ground to> 
 deny the reality of hif travels. 
 
 1 
 
 dred thousand of silver, the fruits of her own economy 
 and that of her deceased husband.' The avarice of 
 Basil is not less renowned than his valour and fortune : 
 his victorious armies were paid and rewarded without 
 breaking into the mass of two hundred thousand pounds 
 of gold, (about eight millions sterling,) which he had 
 buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace.* Such 
 accumulation of treasure is rejected by the theory and 
 practice of modern policy ; and we are more apt to 
 compute the national riches by the use and abuse of 
 the public credit. Yet the maxims of antiquity are 
 still embraced by a monarch formidable to his ene- 
 mies ; by a republic respectable to her allies ; and 
 both have attained their respective ends, of military 
 power, and domestic tranquillity, 
 p^^ ^ , Whatever might be consumed for 
 
 of^i'he emperors7 *''® present wants, or reserved for the 
 future use, of the state, the first and 
 most sacred demand was for the pomp and pleasure 
 of the emperor ; and his discretion only could define 
 the measure of his private expense. The princes of 
 Constantinople were far removed from the simplicity 
 of nature; yet, with the revolving seasons, they were 
 led by taste or fashion to withdraw to a purer air, from 
 the smoke and tumult of the capital. They enjoyed, 
 or affected to enjoy, the rustic festival of the vintage : 
 their leisure was amused by the exercise of the chase 
 and the calmer occupation of fishing; and, in the sum- 
 mer heats, they were shaded from the sun, and re- 
 freshed by the cooling breezes from the sea. The 
 coasts and islands of Asia and Europe were covered 
 with their magnificent villas ; but, instead of the mo- 
 dest art which secretly strives to hide itself and to de- 
 corate the scenery of nature, the marble structure of 
 their gardens served only to expose the riches of the 
 lord, and the labours of the architect. The successive 
 casualties of inheritance and forfeiture, had rendered 
 the sovereign proprietor of many stately houses in the 
 city and suburbs, of which twelve were appropriated 
 
 _. , , to the ministers of state ; but the great 
 The palace of ^„i„^^ h .u^ « r ..l • . .f' . 
 
 Constantinople. Palace," the centre of the imperial resi- 
 dence, was fixed during eleven centuries 
 to the same position, between the hippodrome, the 
 cathedral of St. Sophia, and the gardens, which de- 
 scended by many a terrace to the shores of the Pro- 
 pontis. The primitive edifice of the first Constantine 
 was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome ; the gradual 
 improvements of his successors aspired to emulate 
 the wonders of the old world,' and in the tenth cen- 
 tury, the Byzantine palace excited the admiration, at 
 least of the Latins, by an unquestionable pre-eminence 
 of strength, size, and magnificence."* But the toil and 
 treasure of so many ages had produced a vast and ir- 
 regular pile : each separate building was marked with 
 the character of the times and of the founder; and the 
 want of space might excuse the reigning monarch who 
 demolished, perhaps with secret satisfaction, the works 
 of his predecessors. The economy of th« emperor 
 Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for 
 domestic luxury and splendour. A favourite ambas- 
 sador, who had astonished the Abbassides themselves 
 by his pride and liberality, presented on his return the 
 
 r See the coniinuator of Theophanes, (1. iv. p. 107.) Cedrenus, (p. 
 at4.) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. xvl. p. 157.) 
 
 s Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. xvii. p. 225) instead of pounds, uses the more 
 classic appellation of talents, which, in a literal sense and strict 
 computation, would multiply sixty-fold the treasure of Basil. 
 
 h For a copious and minute description of the imperial palace, see 
 the Constanlinop. Christiana (1. ii. c.4. p. 113—123.) of Ducange, the 
 rillejnontof the middle ages. Never has laborious Germany pro- 
 duced two antiquarians more laborious and accurate than these two 
 nativps of lively France. 
 
 • The Byzantine palace surpasses the capitol, the palace of Perga- 
 mus, the Rufinian wood, (zA,5f3, ay»K/it»,) the temple of Adrian at 
 Lyzicua, the pyramids, the Pharus, &;c. according to the epigram 
 (Antholog. Grajc. 1. ir.p. 488, 489. Brodai, apud Wechel) ascribed 
 to Julian, exprsefect of Egypt. Seventy-one of his epigrams, some 
 lively, are collected in Brunck, (Analeci. Graec. tom. ii. p. 495-510.) 
 but this IS wanting. 
 
 k Consuntinopolitanum Palatlum non pulchritudine solum, ve- 
 rum etiamfr/riitudine, omnibus quaa unquam videram munitionibus 
 praesial. (Liutprand, Hist. 1. v. c. 9. p. 465.) 
 
 model ofa palace, which the caliph of Bagdad had re- 
 cently constructed on the banks of the 'Tigris. The 
 m()del was instantly copied and surpassed : the new 
 buildings of Theophilus' were accompanied with gar- 
 dens, and with five churches, one of which was con- 
 spicuous for size and beauty : it was crowned witn 
 three domes, the roof of gilt brass reposed on columns 
 of Italian marble, and the walls were incrusted with 
 marbles of various colours. In the face of the church, 
 a semicircular portico, of the figure and name of the 
 Greek si gma, was supported by fifteen columns of 
 Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were 
 of a similar construction. The square before the 
 sigma was decorated with a fountain, and the margin 
 of the bason was lined and encompassed with plates 
 of silver. In the beginning of each season, the ba- 
 son, instead of water, was replenished with the most 
 exquisite fruits, which were abandoned to the popu- 
 lace for the entertainment of the prince. He enjoyed 
 this tumultuons spectacle from a throne resplendent 
 with gold and gems, which was raised by a marble 
 staircase to the height of a lofty terrace. Below 
 the throne were seated the officers of his guards, 
 the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions of the cir- 
 cus ; the inferior steps were occupied by the people, 
 and the place below was covered with troops of dan- 
 cers, singers, and pantomimes. The square was sur- 
 rounded by the hall of justice, the arsenal, and the 
 various offices of business and pleasure ; and the pur- 
 pie chamber was named from the annual distribution 
 of robes of scarlet and purple by the hand of the em- 
 press herself. The long series of the apartments was 
 adapted to the seasons, and decorated with marble and 
 porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and mosaics, with 
 a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. His 
 fanciful magnificence employed the skill and patience 
 of such artists as the times could aflford : but the taste 
 of Athens would have despised their frivolous and 
 costly labours; a golden tree, with its leaves and 
 branches, which sheltered a multitude of birds war* 
 bling their artificial notes, and two lions of massy gold,, 
 and of the natural size, who looked and roared like 
 their brethren of the forest. The successors of The* 
 ophilus, of the Basilian and Comnenian dynasties, 
 were not less ambitious of leaving some memorial of 
 their residence ; and the portion of the palace moat 
 splendid and august, was dignified with the title of 
 the golden irtcltnium,'^ With becoming modesty, the 
 rich and noble Greeks aspired to imi- Furniture and 
 tate their sovereign, and when they pass- attendance. 
 ed through the streets on horseback, in their robes of 
 silk and embroidery, they were mistaken by the chil- 
 dren for kings." A matron of Peloponnessus,® who 
 had cherished the infant fortunes of Basil the Mace- 
 donian, was excited by tenderness or vanity to visit 
 the greatness of her adopted son. In a journey of five 
 hundred miles from Patras to Constantinople, her age 
 or indolence declined the fatigue of a horse or car- 
 riage : the soft litter or bed of Danielis was transport- 
 ed on the shoulders of ten robust slaves ; and as they 
 were relieved at easy distances, a band of three hun- 
 dred was selected for the performance of this service. 
 She was entertained in the Byzantine palace with 
 filial reverence, and the honours of a queen ; and what- 
 ever might be the origin of her wealth, her gifts were 
 
 I See the anonymous continuator of Theophanes, (p. 59. 61 . 86.) 
 whom I have followed in the neat and concise abstract of Le Beau. 
 (Hist, de Bas Empire, tom. xiv. p. 436. 438.) 
 
 m In aureo triclinio qua praestantior est pars potentissimus (<^ 
 usurper Jiomanus') degens CKteras partes i'filiis) Jislribuerat. (Liui- 
 prand. Hist. 1. v. c. 9. p. 469.) For this lax signification of tricli- 
 niiun, (aedificium tria vel plura x>.<rif scilicet ?ty complectens,) see 
 Ducange, Gloss. Graec. et Observations sur Joinville, p. 240.) and 
 Reiske, (ad Constantinum de Ceremoniis, p. 7.) 
 
 n In equis vecti (says Benjamin of Tudela) regum filiig videntur 
 persimiles. I prefer the Latin version of Constantine I'Empereur 
 (p. 46.) to the French of Baratier, (tom. i. p. 49.) 
 
 o See the account of her journey, munificence, and testament, !o 
 the Life of Basil, by his grandson Constantine, (c. 74, 75, 76. n 
 195-197.) *^' 
 

 272 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 273 
 
 rt 
 
 ►j ■ ,1 
 
 «^ 
 
 4 
 
 not unworthy of the regal dignity. I have already 
 described the fine and curious manufactures of Pelo- 
 ponnesus, of linen, silk, and woollen ; but the most 
 acceptable of her presents consisted in three hundred 
 beautiful youths, of whom one hundred were eunuchs ; p 
 '* for she was not ignorant," says the historian, " that 
 the air of the palace is more congenial to such insects, 
 than a shepherd's dairy to the flies of the summer." 
 During her lifetime, she bestowed the greater part of 
 her estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament insti- 
 tuted Leo, the son of Basil, her universal heir. After 
 the payment of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms 
 were added to the imperial domain ; and three thou- 
 sand slaves of Danielis were enfranchised by their 
 new lord, and transplanted as a colony to the Italian 
 coast. From this example of a private matron, we 
 may estimate the wealth and magnificence of the em- 
 perors. Yet our enjoyments are confined by a narrow 
 circle ; and, whatsoever may be its value, the luxury 
 of life is possessed with more innocence and safety 
 by the master of his own, than by the steward of the 
 public, fortune. 
 
 Honours and li- ^" ^" absolute government, which le- 
 tlefl of the im- vels the distinctions of noble and plebeian 
 perial family. birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain 
 of honour ; and the rank, both m the palace and the 
 empire, depends on the titles and offices which are 
 bestowed and resumed by his arbitrary will. Above 
 a thousand years, from Vespasian to Alexius Comne- 
 nus,*> the desar was the second person, or at least the 
 second degree, after the supreme title of Augustus was 
 more freely communicated to the sons and brothers of 
 the reigning monarch. To elude without violating his 
 promise to a powerful associate, the husband of his 
 sister, and, without giving himself an equal, to reward 
 the piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty Alexius inter- 
 posed a new and supereminent dignity. The happy 
 flexibility of the Greek tongue allowed him to com- 
 pound the names of Augustus and emperor, (sebastos 
 and antocrator,) and the union produced the sonorous 
 title of sehastoerator. He was exalted above the Cae- 
 sar on the first step of the throne : the public accla- 
 mations repeated his name; and he was only distin- 
 guished from the sovereign by some peculiar ornaments 
 of the head and feet. The emperor alone could assume 
 the purple or red buskins, and the close diadem or 
 tiara, which imitated the fashion of the Persian kings.' 
 It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost 
 concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels : the 
 crown was formed by a horizontal circle and two 
 arches of gold : at the summit, the point of their in- 
 tersection, was placed a globe or cross, and two strings 
 or lappets of pearl depended on either cheek. Instead 
 of red, the buskins of the sehastoerator and Caesar 
 were green ; and on their open coronets or crowns, the 
 precious gems were more sparingly distributed. Be- 
 side and below the Caesar, the fancy of Alexius crea- 
 ted the pan-hypersebastos and the protosebasiosy whose 
 sound and signification will satisfy a Grecian ear. 
 They imply a superiority and a priority above the sim- 
 ple name of Augustus ; and this sacred and primitive 
 title of the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen 
 and servants of the Byzantine court. The daughter 
 of Alexius applauds, with fond complacency, this art- 
 ful gradation of hopes and honours ; but the science 
 
 p Corsama/ium ("aip^'i"**';, Ducanpp, G\o68.) Gr»ci vocant, am- 
 pulatis virilibua el virga, puenini eunuchum ijuos Verdunenflps iner- 
 calores ob immensiiin lucrum facero aoleni et in Hispanium ducere. 
 <Liutprand, I. vi. c. 3. p. 470.) The last aboniinalion of the abomi- 
 nable slave-trade ! Yet I am surprised to find in the tenth century, 
 «uch active speculations of commerce in Lorraine. 
 
 4 See the Alexiad (1. iii. p. 78, 7lM of Anna Comnena, who, except 
 in filial piety, may be compared to Mademoiselle de Montpensier. In 
 her awful reverence for titles and forms, she styles her father E;r.j-,. 
 fo*»exti,i\xe inventor of this royal an, the t«x*>i ti^vx., and i^.. 
 
 T Xtijuux^ cisavsc. S^-^Syi/** ; see Reiske, ad Ceremoniale, p. 14, 15. 
 Ducange has given a learned dissertation on the crowns of Connan- 
 tinople, Rome, France, Sec. (gur Joinville, xxv. p. 289—303.) but of 
 his thirty-four models, uoue exactly tally with Anne's description. 
 
 of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and 
 this vain dictionary was easily enriched by the prida 
 of his successors. To their favourite sons or brothers, 
 they imparted the more lofty appellation of lord or 
 despotf which was illustrated with new ornaments and 
 prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person 
 of the emperor himself. The five titles of, 1. Despot ; 
 2. Sebaatocrator ; 3. Caesar ,• 4. Pan-hypersebastos ; and, 
 5. Protosebastos ,• were usually confined to the princes 
 of his blood : they were the emanations of his majesty, 
 but as they exercised no regular functions, their exis- 
 tence was useless, and their authority precarious. 
 
 But in every monarchy the substantial ofRcers of ih« 
 powers of government must be divided palace, the staia 
 and exercised by the ministers of the and the army, 
 palace and treasury, the fleet and army. The titles 
 alone can differ; and in the revolution of ages, the 
 counts and prsefects, the praetor and quaestor, insensibly 
 descended, while their servants rose above their heads 
 to the first honours of the state. 1. In a monarchy, 
 which refers every object to the person of the prince, 
 the care and ceremonies of the palace form the most 
 respectable department. The curopalata^* so illustrious 
 in the age of Justinian, was supplanted by the pro- 
 tovestiare, whose primitive functions were limited to the 
 custody of the wardrobe. From thence his jurisdiction 
 was extended over the numerous menials of pomp and 
 luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the 
 public and private audience. 2. In the ancient system 
 of Constantine, the name of logothete, or accountant, 
 was applied to the receivers of the finances : the prin- 
 cipal officers were distinguished as the logothetes of 
 the domain, of the posts, the army, the private and 
 public treasure; and the great logothete, ihe supreme 
 guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with 
 the chancellor of the Latin monarchies.* His discern- 
 ing eye pervaded the civil administration; and he was 
 assisted, in due subordination, by iheeparch or praefect 
 of the city, the first secretary, and the keepers of the 
 privy seal, the archives, and the red or purple ink which 
 was reserved for the sacred signature of the emperor 
 alone." The introductor and interpreter of foreign am- 
 bassadors were the great cAious " and the dragotnan^f two 
 names of Turkish origin, and which are still familiar 
 to the sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and 
 service of guards, the domestics insensibly rose to the 
 station of generals ; the military themes of the east 
 and west, the legions of Europe and Asia, were often 
 divided, till the great domestic was finally invested with 
 the universal and absolute command of the land forces. 
 The protos/rator, in his original functions, was the 
 assistant of the emperor when he mounted on horse- 
 back : he gradually became the lieutenant of the great 
 domestic in the field; and his jurisdiction extended 
 over the stables, the cavalry, and the royal train of 
 hunting and hawking. The stratopedarch was the great 
 
 I Pars exstans curis, solodiadematc dispar, 
 Ordine pro rerum vocitatus Cura-Palati ; 
 says the African Corippus ; (de Laudibus Juslini, 1. i. 136.) and in the 
 same century (the sixth) CassiL>di>rus represents him, who, virgd au- 
 rea decoratus, inter numerosa obsequia primus ante pedes regis ince- 
 deret. (Variar. vii. 5.) But this great officer, unknown, «•-.«•. ^f-r*?, 
 exercising no function, vw St ouff ><>»<, was cast dowu by the modern 
 Greeks to the fifteenth rank. (Codin. c. 5. p. 65.) 
 
 t Nicetas (in Manuel. 1. vii. c.i.) defines him <•» k A%Ttva>¥ $«rit 
 K»^ KiXxfigr, cii A 'Ea-Xhh,- inronv AeyojiTcf. Yet the epithet of 
 /«■>.>; was added by the elder Andronicus. (Ducange, torn. i. p. 822, 
 823.) 
 
 u From Leo I. (A. D. 470) the imperial Ink, which is still visibls 
 on some original acts, was a mixture of vermillion and cinnabar, or 
 purple. The emperor's guardians, who shared in his prerogat ve, 
 always marked in green ink the indiction, and the month. See ihe 
 Dictionnaire Diplomatique, (torn. i. p 511—513) a valuable abridge 
 ment. 
 
 z The sultan sent a Soov; to Alexius; (Anna Comnena, 1. vi. p. 
 170. Ducange ad loc.) and Pachymer often speaks of the /"'y-i t^»«u«. 
 (I. vii. c. 1. I. xii. c. 30. 1, xiii. c. 22.) The Chiaoush basha is now at 
 the head of 700 officers. (Kycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 349. octavo 
 edition.) 
 
 y Tagerman is the Arabic name of an Interpreter ; (D'Herbelot, p. 
 
 854, 855.) I'f •^TOf Tu)' iti*^\mmv ov; iiotvui; Cfe/<M^ov<rt Sfxytftxwf^ 
 
 says Codinus, (c. v. No. 70. p. 67.) See Villeharduuin, (No. 96.) Bus- 
 bequius, (Epist. iv. p. 338.) and Ducange. (Observations sur Villehar- 
 douin, and (iloss. Gr»c. et Latin.) 
 
 judge of the camp ; the protospathaire commanded the 
 guards; the constable^* the great xteriarch^ and the 
 acolyth, were the separate chiefs of the Franks, the 
 barbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary 
 strangers, who, in the decay of the national spirit, 
 formed the nerve of the Byzantine armies. 4. The 
 naval powers were under the command of the great 
 duke f in his absence they obeyed the great drungaire 
 of the fleet ; and in his place, the emir, or admiral^ a 
 name of Saracen extraction,* but which has been na- 
 turalized in all the modern languages of Europe. Of 
 these officers, and of many more whom it would be 
 useless to enumerate, the civil and military hierarchy 
 was framed. Their honours and emoluments, their 
 dress and titles, their mutual salutations and respective 
 pre-eminence, were balanced with more exquisite labour 
 than would have fixed the constitution of a free people ; 
 and the code was almost perfect when this baseless 
 fabric, the monument of pride and servitude, was for 
 ever buried in the ruins of the empire.** 
 Adoration of the The most lofty titles, and the most 
 emperor. humble postures, which devotion has 
 applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted 
 by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with 
 ourselves. The mode of acforaiion,* of falling prostrate 
 on the ground, and kissing the feet of the emperor, was 
 borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude ; but it 
 was continued and aggravated till the last age of the 
 Greek monarchy. Excepiing only on Sundays, when 
 it was waved, from a motive of religious pride, this 
 humiliating reverence was exacted from all who entered 
 the royal presence, from the princes invested with the 
 diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who 
 represented their independent sovereigns, the caliphs 
 of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the kings of France and Italy, 
 and the Latin emperors of ancient Rome. In his trans- 
 actions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona,'* 
 asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity of 
 Reception of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity can- 
 ambassadore. not disguise the abasement of his first 
 audience. When he approached the throne, the birds 
 of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which 
 were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of 
 gold. With his two companions Liutprand was com- 
 pelled to bow and fall prostrate; and thrice he touched 
 the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in the 
 short interval, the throne had been hoisted by an engine 
 from the floor to the ceiling, the imperial figure appeared 
 in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview 
 was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In 
 this honest and curious narrative the bishop of Cre- 
 mona represents the ceremonies of the Byzantine court, 
 which are still practised in the sublime Porte, and 
 which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of 
 Muscovy or Russia. After a long journey by the sea 
 and land, from Venice to Constantinople, the ambas- 
 sador halted at the golden gate, till he was conducted 
 by the formal officers to the hospitable palace prepared 
 for his reception ; but this palace was a prison, and his 
 jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse either 
 with strangers or natives. At his first audience, he 
 offered the gifts of his master, slaves, and golden vases, 
 and costly armour. The ostentatious payment of the 
 
 1 K'.*9r»ux.«(, or KerTer»ux»<, a corruption from the Latin Comes 
 stabull, or the French Connetable. In a military sense, it was used 
 by the Greeks in the eleventh century, at least as early as in France. 
 
 a It was directly borrowed from the Normans. In the twelfth 
 century, Giannone reckons the admiral of Sicily among the great 
 officers. 
 
 b This sketch of honours and offices is drawn from George Codinus 
 Curopalata, who survived the taking of Constantinople by the Turks : 
 his elaborate, though trifling work (de Officiis Ecclesiae et Aulas C. 
 P.) has been illusiraied by the notes of G oar, and three books of 
 Gretser, a learned Jesuit. 
 
 e The respectful salutation of carrying the hand to the mouth, ad 
 OS, is the root of the Latin word, adoro adorare. See our learned Sel- 
 den, (vol. iii. p. 143—145. 942.) in his Titles of Honour. It seems, from 
 the first book of Herodotus, to be of Persian origin. 
 
 i The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople, all that he 
 «aw or suffered in the Greek capital, are pleasantly described by him- 
 .self. (Hist, l.vi.c.l— 4.p.469— 471. Legaiio ad Nicephorum Phocam, 
 p.479-43\) 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 K 18 . 
 
 officers and troops displayed before his eyes the riches 
 of the empire : he was entertained at a royal banquet • 
 in which the ambassadors of the nations were mar- 
 shalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks : from 
 his own table, the emperor, as the most signal favour 
 sent the plates which he had tasted ; and his favourites 
 were dismissed with a robe of honour.' In the morn- 
 ing and evening of each day, his civil and military 
 servants attended their duty in the palace ; their labour 
 was repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their 
 lord ; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign ; 
 but all earthly greatness stood silent and submissive ia 
 his presence. In his regular or extraor- Processions and 
 dinary processions through the capital, acclamations. 
 he unveiled his person to the public view : the rites of 
 policy were connected with those of religion, and his 
 visits to the principal churches were regulated by the 
 festivals of the Greek calendar. On the eve of these 
 processions, the gracious or devout intention of the 
 monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets 
 were cleared and purified ; the pavement was strewed 
 with flowers ; the most precious furniture, the gold and 
 silver plate, and silken hangings, were displayed from 
 the windows and balconies, and a severe discipline 
 restrained and silenced the tumult of the populace. 
 The march was opened by the military officers at the 
 head of their troops : they were followed in long order by 
 the magistrates of the civil government : the person of 
 the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, 
 and at the church door he was solemnly received by the 
 patriarch and his clergy. The task of applause was 
 not abandoned to the rude and spontaneous voices of 
 the crowd. The most convenient stations were occu- 
 pied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the 
 circus ; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken 
 the capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation of 
 servitude. From either side they echoed in responsive 
 melody the praises of the emperor; their poets and 
 musicians directed the choir, and long life « and victory 
 were the burden of every song. The same acclama- 
 tions were performed at the audience, the banquet, and 
 the church ; and as an evidence of boundless sway, 
 they were repeated in the Latin,** Gothic, Persian, 
 French, and even English language,' by the mercena- 
 ries who sustained the real or fictitious character of 
 those nations. By the pen of Constantine Porphyro- 
 genitus, this science of form and flattery has been re- 
 duced into a pompous and trifling volume,^ which the 
 vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample 
 supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a prince 
 would surely sugsrest, that the same acclamations were 
 applied to every character and every rf^ijin : and if he 
 had risen from a private rank, he might remember, that 
 his own voice had been the loudest and most eager 
 in applause, at the very moment he envied the fortune, 
 or conspired against the life of his predecessor.' 
 
 • Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced, on his fore- 
 head, a pike or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a cross bar of two 
 cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked, ihoush cinctured 
 (co»ipM/ra/i) together, and singly, climbed, stood, played, descended, 
 ^c. iia me stupidum reddidit : ulrum mirabilius nescio, (p. 470.) At 
 another repast an homily of Chrysosiom on the Acts of the Apostles 
 was read elatS voce non Latine, p. 483.) 
 
 t Gala is not improbably derived from Cala,or Caloat, in Arabic a 
 robe of honour. (Reiske, Not. in Ceremon. p. 84 ) 
 
 g rioxvxf 5v»^«'v is explained by ivyr/**^*'". (Codin. c. 7.Ducange, 
 Gloss. Grace, torn. i. p. 1199.) 
 
 ^c/utvi H^Tff xTOfi; y,9 A*9v*-T0{ mwo;. (Ccremon. c. 75. p. 215.) The 
 want of the Latin v, obliged the Greeks to employ their i ; nor do 
 they regard quantity. Till he recollected the true language, these 
 strange sentences might puzzle a professor. 
 
 i ^Xfxyyti x>Tx t»i» 7r»tgtxv yKvr<rx* v.'jii outbi, yytw IvxXtvtei 
 
 TToxuxfOi-'Couo-i. (Codin. p. 90.) I wish he had preserved the words, 
 however corrupt, of their Engl ish acclamation. 
 
 k For all these ceremonies, see the professed work of Constantine 
 Porphyrogenitus, with the notes, or rather dissertations, of his German 
 editors, Leich and Reiske. For the rank of the standing couniers, 
 p. 80. not. 23. 62 ; for the adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95. 240. not. 
 131 ; the processions, p. 2, &c. not. p. 3. &c. the acclamations, passim, 
 not. 25, &C. the factions and hippodrome, p. 177—214. not. 9. 93, itc. 
 the Gothic games, p. 221. not. Ill ; vintage, p. 217. not. 109; much 
 more information is scattered over the work. 
 
 I Et privato Othonl et nuper eadem dicenti not* aduUtio. (TaciU 
 Hi«. LM) - 
 
ij -4' 
 
 274 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 '9 
 
 * ;i' 
 
 
 [I 
 
 •i ;i 
 
 lit J 
 
 'it 
 
 
 s 
 
 fi 
 
 ? 
 
 i 
 
 MarHa^ of the The princes of the north, of the nations, 
 Caesar* with for- says Constantine, without faith or fame, 
 eign nations. ^^^^ ambitious of minglincr their blood 
 
 "with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with a 
 .royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters wiih 
 a Roman prince." The aged monarch, in his instruc- 
 tions to his son, reveals the secret maxims of policy and 
 pride ; and suggests the most decent reasons for refus- 
 ing these insolent and unreasonable demands. Every 
 animal, says the discreet emperor, is prompted by 
 nature to seek a mate among the animals of his own 
 species ; and the human species is divided into various 
 tribes, by the distinction of language, religion, and 
 manners. A just regard to the purity of descent pre- 
 serves the harmony of public and private life ; but the 
 mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source of disor- 
 der and discord. Such had ever been the opinion and 
 •practice of the sage Romans: their jurisprudence pro- 
 scribed the marriage of a citizen and a stranger : in 
 the days of freedom and virtue, a senator would have 
 scorned to match his daughter with a king : the glory 
 of Mark Antony was sullied by an Egyptian wife;" 
 «ind the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular cen- 
 sure, to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Berenice." 
 This perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous 
 'Sanction of the great Constantine. The ambassadors 
 of the nations, more especially of the unbelieving na- 
 tions, were solemnly admonished, that such strange 
 •alliances had been condemned by the founder of the 
 Imaginary law church and city. The irrevocable law 
 of Consuntine. was inscribed on the altar of St. Sophia ; 
 and the im}xious prince who should stain the majesty 
 of the purple was excluded from the civil and ecclesi- 
 astical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors 
 were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine 
 history, they might produce three memorable examples 
 of the violation of this imaginary law : the marriage 
 of Leo, or rather of his father Constantine the fourth, 
 with the daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nup- 
 tials of the grand-daughter of Romanus with a Bulga- 
 rian prince, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy 
 •with young Romanus, the son of Constantine Porphyro- 
 genitus himself. To these objections three answers 
 were prepared which solved the difficulty and establish- 
 ed the law. I. The deed and the guilt of Constantine 
 The first excep. Copronymus were acknowledged. The 
 tion, Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptis- 
 
 mal font, and declared war against the 
 holy images, had indeed embraced a barbarian wife. 
 By this impious alliance he accomplished the measure 
 of his crimes, and was devoted to the just censure of the 
 The second, church and of posterity. II. Romanus 
 A. D.941. could not be alleged as a legitimate em- 
 peror ; he was a plebeian usurper, ignorant of the laws, 
 and regardless of the honour, of the monarchy. His son 
 Christopher, the father of the bride, was the third in 
 Tank in the college of princes, at once the subject and 
 the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians 
 were sincere and devout christians ; and the safety of 
 the empire, with the redemption of many thousand cap- 
 tives depended on this preposterous alliance. Yet no 
 consideration could dispense from the law of Constan- 
 tine : the clergy, the senate, and the people, disapproved 
 the conduct of Romanus ; and he was reproached, both 
 in his life and death, as the author ofthe public disgrace. 
 The third, III. For the marriage of his own son 
 A. D.943. with the daughter of Hugo k ing of Italy, 
 
 m The Ihirteenth chapter, de Adminislratione Imperii, may be ex- 
 plained and rectified by iheFamiliae Byzaniina of micange. 
 
 n Sequilurque nefas ^gyplla conjunx. (Virgil, Aneid vi'ti. 689.) 
 Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long line of liin^g. 
 Quid te mutavit, (says Antony in a private leiterio Auguaiua,) an 
 
 ?uod reginam ineol Uxor mea est. (Sueton. in Aiijrusi, c.C9.) Yet 
 much question, (for I cannot stay to inquire.) whether the triumvir 
 ever dared to celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian 
 rites. 
 
 o Berenicem invitus inTitam dimisit. (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7.) 
 Have 1 observed elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty was at this time 
 above fifty years of age 1 The judicious Racine has moot discreetly 
 fuppreseed both hot age and her country. 
 
 A. D. 733. 
 
 a more honourable defence is contrived by the wise 
 Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, 
 esteemed the fidelity and valour of the Franks ;p and 
 his prophetic spirit beheld the vision of their future 
 greatness. They alone were excepted from the gene- 
 ral prohibition : Hugo king of France, was the lineal 
 descendant of Charlemagne ; *» and his daughter Bertha 
 inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. 
 The voice of truth and malice insensibly betrayed the 
 fraud or error of the imperial court. The patrimonial 
 estate of Hugo was reduced Trom the monarchy of 
 France to the simple county of Aries ; though it was 
 not denied, that, in the confusion of the times, he had 
 usurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the 
 kingdom of Italy. His father was a private noble; 
 and if Bertha derived her female descent from the 
 Carlovingian line, every step was polluted with illegi- 
 timacy or vice. The grandmother of Hugo was the 
 famous Valdrada, the concubine, rather than the wife, 
 of the second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and 
 second nuptials, had provoked against him the thun- 
 ders of the Vatican. His mother, as she was styled, 
 the great Bertha, was successively the wife of the 
 count of Aries and ofthe marquis of Tuscany : France 
 and Italy were scandalized by her gallantries ; and, till 
 the age of threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were 
 the zealous servants of her ambition. The example of 
 maternal incontinence was copied by the king of Italy ; 
 and the three favourite concubines of Hugo were de- 
 corated with the classic names of Venus, Juno, and 
 Semele.' The daughter of Venus was granted to the 
 solicitations of the Byzantine court : her name of Ber- 
 tha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was 
 wedded, or rather betrothed, toyoungr Romanus, the fu- 
 ture heir of the empire of the east. The consummation 
 of this foreign alliance was suspended by the tender 
 age of the two parties ; and at the end of five years, 
 the union was dissolved by the death of the virgin 
 spouse. The second wife of the emperor Romanus 
 was a maiden of plebeian, but of Roman, birth: and 
 their two daughters, Theophano and Anne, were given 
 in marriage to the princes ofthe earth. The eldest was 
 bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the ^^^^ ^^ q^^^ 
 eldest son of the great Otho, who had many, 
 solicited this alliance with arms and A. D. 972. 
 embassies. It might legally be questioned how far a 
 Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French na- 
 tion: but every scruple was silenced by the fame and 
 piety of a hero who had restored the empire of the west. 
 After the death of her father-in-law and husband, The- 
 ophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during 
 the minority of her son, the third Otho ; and the La- 
 tins have praised the virtues of an empress, who sacri- 
 ficed to a superior duty the remembrance of her country.* 
 In the nuptials of her sister Anne, every prejudice was 
 lost, and every consideration of dignity was superce- 
 ded, by the stronger argument of necessity and fear. 
 A pagan of the north, Wolodomir, great Wolodomir of 
 prince of Russia, aspired to a daughter Russia, 
 of the Roman purple ; and his claim was ^' ^' ^^* 
 enforced by the threats of war, the promise of conver- 
 sion, and the oflfer of a powerful succour against a^ 
 
 P Constantine was made to praise the *v^irn« and ^rifi^svii* of 
 the Franks, with whom he claimed a private and public alliance. 
 The French writers (Isaac Casaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly 
 delighted with these compliments. 
 
 q Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp. c. 26.) ez> 
 hibits a pedigree and life of the illustrious kine Hugo. (Tie'/Sxin-reu 
 inyii Ouye»:«;.) A more correct idea may be formed from the Criti- 
 cism of Pagi, the Annals of Muratori, and the Abridgment of St. Marc, 
 A. D. 925-946. 
 
 r After the mention of the three goddesses, Liutprand very natu- 
 rally adds, et quoniam non rex solus iis abutebatur, earum nati ex in- 
 cenis patribus originem ducunt : (Hist. I. iv. c. 6.) (or the marriage of 
 the younger Bertha, see Hist. 1. v. c. 5. for the incontinence ofthe el- 
 der, dulclsexercitio Hymenaei, 1. ii. c. 15. for the virtues and vices of 
 Hugo, I. iii. c. 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that the bishop of Cremo« 
 na was a lover of scandal. 
 
 • Licet ilia Imperairix Grseca sibi et aliis fuisset satis utilis, et op- 
 tima, &c. is the preamble of an inimical writer, apud Pagi, torn. ir. 
 A. D. 989. N(v 3. Her marriage and principal actions may be found 
 in Muratori, Pa^;!, and St. Marc, under the proper /eus. 
 
 275 
 
 domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, 
 the Grecian princess was torn from the palace of her 
 fathers, and condenmed to a savage reign and a hopeless 
 exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the polar circle.* Yet the marriage of 
 Anne was fortunate and fruitful : the daughter of her 
 grandson Jeroslaus was recommended by her imperial 
 descent ; and the king of France, Henry I. sought a wife 
 on the last borders of Europe and Christendom." 
 
 tic Dower ^" ^^'® ^J^^^^^"® palace, the emperor 
 uespoi p . ^^g ^^ g^g^ gj^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ceremonies 
 
 which he imposed, of the rigid forms which regulated 
 each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and 
 violated the leisure of his rural solitude. But the lives 
 and fortunes of millions hung on his arbitrary will : 
 and the firmest minds, superior to the allurements of 
 pomp and luxury, may be seduced by the more active 
 pleasure of commanding their equals. The legislative 
 and executive powers were centred in the person of 
 the monarch, and the last remains of the authority of 
 the senate were finally eradicated by Leo the philoso- 
 pher.* A lethargy of servitude had benumbed the 
 minds of the Greeks : in the wildest tumults of rebel- 
 lion they never aspired to the idea of a free constitu- 
 tion ; and the private character of the prince was the 
 only source and measure of their public happiness. 
 Superstition rivetted their chains ; in the church of St. 
 Sophia he was solemnly crowned by the patriarch ; 
 at the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive and 
 unconditional obedience to his government and family. 
 On his side he engaged to abstain as much as possible 
 
 Coronation oath, f^om the capital punishments of death and 
 mutilation ; his orthodox creed was sub- 
 scribed with his own hand, and he promised to obey 
 the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons of the 
 holy church.y But the assurance of mercy was loose 
 and indefinite : he swore, not to his people, but to an 
 invisible judge, and except in the inexpiable guilt of 
 heresy, the ministers of heaven were always prepared 
 to preach the indefeasible right, and to absolve the 
 venial transgressions, of their sovereign. The Greek 
 ecclesiastics were themselves the subjects of the civil 
 magistrate : at the nod of a tyrant the bishops were 
 created, or transferred, or deposed, or punished with 
 an ignominious death : whatever might be their wealth 
 or influence, they could never succeed like the Latin 
 clergy in the establishment of an independent republic ; 
 and the patriarch of Constantinople condemned, what 
 he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Ro- 
 man brother. Yet the exercise of boundless despotism 
 is happily checked by the laws of nature and necessity. 
 In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the master of 
 an en.pire is confined to the path of his sacred and 
 laborious duty. In proportion to his vice and folly, 
 he drops the sceptre too weighty for his hands ; and 
 the motions of the royal image are ruled by the imper- 
 ceptible thread of some minister or favourite, who 
 undertakes for his private interest to exercise the task 
 of the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the 
 most absolute monarch may dread the reason or the 
 caprice of a nation of slaves; and experience has proved, 
 
 t Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 699. Zonaras, torn. ii. p. 221. Elmacin, Hist. 
 Saracenica, 1. iii. c. 6. Nestor apud Levesque, tom. ii. p. 112. Pagi, 
 Criiica, A. D. 987. No. 6. a singular concourse ! Wolodomir and Anne 
 are ranked among the saints of the Russian church. Yet we know his 
 vices, and are ignorant of her virtues. 
 
 u Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam, filiam regis 
 Jeroslai. An embaesy of bishops w ts sent into Russia, and the father 
 gratanter liliam commultis donis misit. This event happened in 
 the year 1051. See the passages of the original chronicles in Bou- 
 quet's Historians of France, (tom. xi. p. 29. 159. 161. 319. 384. 481.) 
 Voltaire might wonder at this alliance; but he should not have 
 owned his ignorance of the country, religion, &c. of Jeroslaus— a 
 name so conspicuous in the Russian annals. 
 
 X A constitution of Leo the phiI<isopher (Ixxviii.) ne senatus con- 
 lulta amplius fiant, speaks the language of naked despotism, •$ cv to 
 
 T«.:v TO axfl''" "IT* Ti,» xe*»** TTXftx^fitVMV vvvxirTiri*'. 
 
 y Codinus (de Ofllciis, c. xvii. p. 120, 121.) gives an idea of this 
 oath so strong to the church »•?»,- x». yimo-ioj Sov^ef *»i vlof tj-j 
 •/••s t»xKtftrt»i^ BO weak to the people x*. mw»xiri»t ftvm* »«> 
 *>»fwTi)f lar/tjii' n»^ ifittrnv T(vT»>{ x<(T» T« ivvmrtvt 
 
 that whatever is gained in the extent, is lost in the 
 safety and solidity, of regal power. 
 
 Whatever titles a despot may assume, ... 
 whatever claims he may assert, it is on the 'Greek^\h*o 
 the sword that he must ultimately depend Saracens, and the 
 to guard him against his foreign and do- ^'^°''"- 
 mestic enemies. From the age of Charlemagne to that 
 of the crusades, the world (for I overlook the remote 
 monarchy of China) was occupied and disputed by the 
 three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the Sar- 
 acens, and the Franks. Their military strength may 
 be ascertained by a comparison of their courage, their 
 arts and riches, and their obedience to a supreme head, 
 who might call into action all the energies of the state. 
 The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were 
 superior to the Franks, and at least equal to the 
 Saracens, in the second and third of these warlike qual- 
 ifications. 
 
 The wealth of the Greeks enabled Navy of the 
 them to purchase the service of the poorer Greeks, 
 nations, and to maintain a naval power for the protec- 
 tion of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies.* 
 A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of 
 Constantinople for the blood of the Sclavonians and 
 Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians : their valour con- 
 tributed to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces ; 
 and if a hostile people pressed too closely on the fron- 
 tier, they were recalled to the defence of their country, 
 and the desire of peace, by the well-managed attack 
 of a more distant tribe.* The command of the Medi- 
 terranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the columns 
 of Hercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, 
 by the successors of Constantine. Their capital was 
 filled with naval stores and dexterous artificers ; the sit- 
 uation of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep gulfs, 
 and numerous islands, accustomed their subjects to the 
 exercise of navigation ; and the trade of Venice and 
 Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen to the imperial 
 fleet.* Since the time of the Peloponnesian and Punic 
 wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged ; and 
 the science of naval architecture appears to have de- 
 clined. The art of constructing those stupendous 
 machines which displayed three, or six, or ten, ranges 
 of oars, rising above or falling behind, each other, was 
 unknown to the ship-builders of Constantinople, as 
 well as to the mechanicians of modern days.' The 
 Dromones^ * or light galleys of the Byzantine empire, 
 were content with two tiers of oars; each tier was 
 composed o{ five and twenty benches; and two row- 
 ers were seated on each bench, who plied the oars oa 
 either side of the vessel. To these we must add the 
 captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood 
 erect with his armour-bearer on the poop, two steers- 
 men at the helm, and two officers at the prow, the one 
 to manage the anchor, the other to point and play 
 against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The whole 
 crew, as in the infancy of the art, performed the double 
 
 « If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus to the ambassador of 
 Otho, Nee est in mari domino tuo classium numerus. Naviganiium 
 fortiUido mihi soli inest, qui cum classibue aggrediar, bello maritimas 
 ejus civitates demoliar; et quae flun)inibus sum vicina redigam in 
 favillam. (Liutprand in Legat. ad Nicephorum Phocam, in Muratori 
 Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) He observes in 
 another place, qui cseteris praestant Venetici sunt et Amalphitani. 
 
 a Nee ipsa capiet eum (tne emperor Oiho) in qua ortus est pauper 
 et pellicea Saxonia: pecunia qua poUemus omnes nationes super 
 eum inviiabimus: et quasi Keramicum confrin^emus. (Liutprand ia 
 Legat. p. 487.) The two books, de administrando imperio, perpetu- 
 ally inculcate the same policy. 
 
 b The nineteenth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs. Opera, 
 tom. vi. p. 825—848.) which is given more correct from a manuscript 
 of Gudius, by the laborious Fabricius, (Bibliol. Gr»c. tom. vi. p. 
 372- -379.) relates to the Naumachia or naval war. 
 
 c Even of fifteen or sixteen rows of oars, in the navy of Demetriuc 
 Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty rows of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus were applied to a floating palace, whose tonnage, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Arbuthnot, (Tables of ancient Coins, &c. p. 231—236.) 
 is compared as 4 1-2 to one, with an English 100 gun ship. 
 
 d The Dromones of Leo, &c. are so clearly described with two tiem 
 of oars, that I must censure the version of Meursius and Fabricius, 
 who pervert the sense by a blind atuchment to the classic appella* 
 tion of Triremes. Ttie Byzantine historians are lometimM guilty 
 of the same inaccuracy. 
 
,!4: 
 
 276 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 tit-*' 
 
 4. 
 
 it 
 
 k 
 
 » 
 
 service of mariners and soldiers ; they were provided 
 with defensive and offensive arms, with bows and 
 arrows, which they used from the upper deck, with 
 long pikes, which they pushed through the port-holes 
 of the lower tier. Sometimes indeed the ships of war 
 were of a larger and more solid construction ; and the 
 labours of combat and navigation were more regularly 
 divided between seventy soldiers and two hundred and 
 thirty mariners. But for the most part they were of 
 the light and manageable size ; and as the cape of 
 Malea^ in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its an- 
 cient terrors, an imperial fleet was transported five 
 miles over land across the isthmus of Corinth.* The 
 principles of maritime tactics had not undergone any 
 change since the time of Thucydides: a squadron of 
 galleys still advanced in a crescent, charged to the 
 front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks against the 
 feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for cast- 
 ing stones and darts was built of strong timbers in the 
 midst of the deck ; and the operation of boarding was 
 effected by a crane that hoisted baskets of armed men. 
 The language of signals, so clear and copious in the 
 naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly ex- 
 pressed by the various positions and colours of a com- 
 manding flag. In the darkness of the night the same 
 orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break, 
 to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading 
 galley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated from 
 one mountain to another; a chain of eight stations 
 commanded a space of five hundred miles; and Con- 
 stantinople in a few hours was apprized of the hostile 
 motions of the Saracens of Tarsus.' Some estimate 
 may be formed of the power of the Greek emperors, 
 by the curious and minute detail of the armament 
 which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet 
 of one hundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five 
 vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in the 
 capital, the islands of the iGgean sea, and the sea-ports 
 of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four 
 thousand mariners, seven thousand three hundred and 
 forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five thou- 
 sand and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had 
 been transplanted from the mountains of Libanus. 
 Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed 
 at thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred 
 and thirty-six thousand pounds sterling. Our fancy is 
 bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms and 
 engines, of clothes and linen, of bread for the men and 
 forage for the horses, and of stores and utensils of every 
 description, inadequate to the conquest of a petty island, 
 but amply sufficient for the establishment of a flourish- 
 ing colony.* 
 
 Tactics and cha- '^^e invention of the Greek fire did 
 racier of ilie not, like that of gunpowder, produce a 
 Greeks. t^^al revolution in the art of war. To 
 
 these liquid combustibles the city and empire of Con- 
 stantine owed their deliverance ; and they were em- 
 ployed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect. 
 But they were either less improved, or less susceptible 
 of improvements : the engines of antiquity, the cata- 
 -pultae, balistae, and batterinj-rams, were still of most 
 frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence of 
 
 • Constanlin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil, c. Ixi. p. 135. He calmly 
 praises Ihe stratagem as a 39uiM(» r\^*^r^¥ x»t o-so")" ; but the sailing 
 round Peloponnesus is described by his terrified fancy as a circum- 
 navisation of a thousand miles. 
 
 f The continuator of Theophanes, (I. iT. p. 122, 123.) names the 
 •uccessive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, mount Ar^aeus, 
 Isamus, ^gilus, the hill of Mamus, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill of 
 Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirms, 
 that the news were transmitted »* axapn, in an indivisible moment 
 of time. Miserable amplification, which, by saying too much, says 
 nothing. How much more forcible and instructive would have been 
 the definition of three, or six, or twelve hours 1 
 
 s See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, I. ii. c. 44. 
 
 S. 176—192. A critical reader will discern iome inconsistencies in 
 ifferent parts of this account; but they are not more obscure or 
 more stubborn than the establishment and effectives, the present 
 and fit for duly, the rank and file and the private, of a modern re- 
 turn, which retain in proper hands the knowledge of these profiuble 
 loysteries. 
 
 fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced 
 to the quick and heavy /re of a line of infantry, whom 
 it were fruitless to protect with armour against a simi- 
 lar fire of their enemies. Steel and iron were still 
 the common instruments of destruction and safety ; and 
 the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth cen- 
 tury did not, either in form or substance, essentially 
 differ from those which had covered the companions 
 of Alexander or Achilles.^ But instead of accustoming 
 the modern Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the 
 constant and easy use of this salutary weight, their 
 armour was laid aside in light chariots, which followed 
 the march, till, on the approach of an enemy, they 
 resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual en- 
 cumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of 
 swords, battle-axes, and spears ; but the Macedonian 
 pike was shortened a fourth of its length, and reduced 
 to the more convenient measure of twelve cubits or 
 feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and Arahian 
 arrows had been severely felt ; and the emperors lament 
 the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfor- 
 tunes; and recommend, as an advice, and a command, 
 that the military youth, till the age of forty, should 
 assiduously practise the exercise of the bow.' The 
 6aTwfo, or regiments, were usually three hundred strong; 
 and, as a medium between the extremes of four and 
 sixteen, the foot-soldiers of Leo and Constantine wera 
 formed eight deep ; but the cavalry charged in four 
 ranks, from the reasonable consideration, that the 
 weight of the front could not be increased by any pres- 
 sure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks of the infan- 
 try or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious 
 array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the 
 troops, whose numbers might swell the appearance of 
 the line, but of whom only a chosen band would dare 
 to encounter the spears and swords of the barbarians. 
 The order of battle must have varied according to the 
 ground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordi- 
 nary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented 
 a succession of hopes and resources most agreeable to 
 the temper as well as the judgment of the Greeks.^ In 
 case of a repulse, the first line fell back into the inter- 
 vals of the second ; and the reserve, breaking into two 
 divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the 
 victory or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could 
 enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the 
 camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the 
 edicts and books, of the Byzantine monarch.' What- 
 ever art could produce from the forge, the loom, or the 
 laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the riches of 
 the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen. 
 But neither authority nor art could frame the most im- 
 portant machine, the soldier himself; and if the cere- 
 monies of Constantine always suppose the safe and 
 triumphal return of the emperor," his tactics seldom 
 soar above the means of escaping a defeat, and pro- 
 crastinating the war." Notwithstanding some transient 
 success, the Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and 
 that of their neighbours. A cold hand and a loquacious 
 tongue was the vulgar description of the nation : the 
 
 h See the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters s^*?* o^Kmv^ ^,f, i-rn. 
 »■•'-«, and T»f« >wu»»(r.«.-, in the Tactics of Leo, with the correspond- 
 ing passages in those of Constantine. 
 
 1 They observe t»i{ ymf tc£i»»,- 7r»*TtKmt m/ntknintrm .... IV TOi; 
 
 'Tji/t»¥0t( r» noKK» »u» iitiiii o-9»x/u»t» y tvirSx*. (Leo Tactic J). 581 
 Conslantin. p. 1216.) Yet such were not the maxims of the Greeks 
 and Romans, who despised the loose and distant practice of archery. 
 
 k Compare the passaces of the Tactics, p. 669. and 721. and the 
 twelfth with the eiphieenih chapter. 
 
 1 In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely deplores the loas of 
 discipline and the calamities of the times, and repeats, without scru- 
 
 rle, (Proem, p. 537.) the reproaches of if^iKu*, sct»;.». x-^vy.ixTti 
 i*K*» &c. nor does it appear that the same censures were less ile 
 served In the next generation by the disciples of Constantine. 
 
 m See in the Ceremonial (1. ii. c. 19. p. 353.) the form of the empe- 
 ror's trampling on the necks of the captive Saracens, while ih" 
 singers chanted " thou hast made my enemies my footstool !" and tin 
 people shouted f »rty times the kyrie eleison. 
 
 B Leo observes (Tactic, p. 668.) that a fair open battle against ant 
 nation whatsoever is tfrtrfakti and imcivdui-ov ; the words ar" 
 strone, and the remark is true; yet if such had been lh«^ opinion of 
 
 I' the old Rumani, Leo had never reigned on the shoree of liie Thraciao 
 Boflphoru«. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 277 
 
 author of the tactics was besieged in his capital ; and 
 the last of the barbarians, who trembled at the name 
 of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly exhibit the 
 medals of gold and silver which they had extorted 
 from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What 
 spirit their government and character denied, might 
 have been inspired in some degree by the influence of 
 religion; but the religion of the Greeks could only 
 teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor Ni- 
 cephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and 
 glory of the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing 
 the honours of martyrdom on the christians who lost 
 their lives in a holy war against the infidels. But this 
 political law was defeated by the opposition of the 
 patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators : and 
 they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all 
 who were polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier, 
 should be separated, during three years, from the com- 
 munion of the faithful." 
 
 Character and These scruples of the Greeks have 
 uctics of the been compared with the tears of the prim- 
 Saracens, jjjyg Moslems when they were held back 
 from battle ; and this contrast of base superstition and 
 high-spirited enthusiasm, unfolds to a philosophic eye 
 the history of the rival nations. The subjects of the 
 last caliphs P had undoubtedly degenerated from the 
 zeal and faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet 
 their martial creed still represented the Deity as the 
 author of war : •* the vital though latent spark of fanat- 
 icism still glowed in the heart of their religion, and 
 among the Saracens who dwelt on the christian bor- 
 ders, it was frequently rekindled to a lively and active 
 fame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant 
 slaves who had been educated to guard the person and 
 accompany the standard of their lord ; but the mussul- 
 man people of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, 
 were awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed a 
 holy war against the infidels. The rich were ambitious 
 of death or victory in the cause of God ; the poor were 
 allured by the hopes of plunder ; and the old, the in- 
 firm, and the women, assumed their share of merito- 
 rious service by sending their substitutes, with arms 
 and horses, into the field. These offensive and defen- 
 sive arms were similar in strength and temper to those 
 of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the manage- 
 ment of the horse and the bow : the massy silver of 
 their belts, their bridles, and their swords, displayed 
 the magnificence of a prosperous nation, and except 
 some black archers of the south, the Arabs disdained 
 the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead of wag- 
 gons, they were attended by a long train of camels, 
 mules, and asses; the multitude of these animals, 
 whom they bedecked with flags and streamers, ap- 
 peared to swell the pomp and magnitude of their host; 
 and the horses of the enemy were often disordered by 
 the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of 
 the east. Invincible by their patience of thirst and 
 heat, their spirits were frozen by a winter's cold, and 
 the consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted 
 the most rigorous precautions against the surprises of 
 the night. Their order of battle was a long square of two 
 deep and solid lines ; the first of archers, the second of 
 cavalry. In their engagements by sea and land, they 
 sustained with patient firmness the fury of the attack, 
 and seldom ad vanced to the charge till they could d iscern 
 and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they 
 were repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally 
 or renew the combat ; and their dismay was heigh- 
 
 • Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xvi. p. 202, 203.) and Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 
 868.) who relate the design of Nicephorus, most unfortunately apply 
 the epithet of yii-va.xs to the opposition of the patriarch. 
 
 P The eighteenth chapter of the tactics of the different nations, is 
 the most historical and useful of the whole collection of Leo. The 
 manners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic, p. 809—817. and a frag- 
 ment from the Medicean MS. in the preface of the sixth volume of 
 Meursius) the Roman emperor was too frequently called upon to 
 study. 
 
 H lI«rT«( }f )c«i XMX«u ifyev tov Gi** mitjo* v>roT(SiVT«<, x«i jrtXf. 
 #••'« x*'t"* A-iytva-i TOf Hior rev itmrK»(wil^tfTm iSvif t* T«wf 9r*Xf> 
 
 jfvf hkttrm, Leon. Tactic, p. 809. 
 
 tened by the superstitious prejudice, that God had 
 declared himself on the side of their enemies. The 
 decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this fear- 
 ful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the Ma- 
 hometans and christians, some obscure prophecies*^ 
 which prognosticated their alternate defeats. The 
 unity of the Arabian empire was dissolved, but the 
 independent fragments were equal to populous and 
 powerful kingdoms; and in their naval and military- 
 armaments, an emir of Aleppo or Tunis might command 
 no despicable fund of skill and industry and treasure. 
 In their transactions of peace and war with the Sara- 
 cens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt that 
 these barbarians had nothing barbarous in their disci- 
 pline ; and that if they were destitute of original ge- 
 nius, they had been endowed with a quick spirit of 
 curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed more 
 perfect than the copy: their ships, and engines, and 
 fortifications, were of a less skilful construction ; and 
 they confess, without shame, that the same God who 
 has given a tongue to the Arabians, had more nicely 
 fashioned the hands of the Chinese, and the heads of 
 the Greeks.* 
 
 A name of some German tribes be- The Franks or 
 tween the Rhine and the Weser had Latins, 
 spread its victorious influence over the greatest part 
 of Gaul, Germany, and Italy ; and the common appel- 
 lation of Franks* was applied by the Greeks and 
 Arabians to the christians of the Latin church, the 
 nations of the west, who stretched beyond their know- 
 ledge to the shores of the Atlantic ocean. The vast 
 body had been inspired and united by the soul of 
 Charlemagne ; but the division and degeneracy of his 
 race soon annihilated the imperial power, which would 
 have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and revenged 
 the indignities of the christian name. The enemies 
 no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer 
 trust, the application of a public revenue, the labours 
 of trade and manufactures in the military service, the 
 mutual aid of provinces and armies, and the naval 
 squadrons which were regularly stationed from the 
 mouth of the Elbe to that of the Tiber. In the begin- 
 ning of the tenth century, the family of Charlemagne 
 had almost disappeared ; his monarchy was broken 
 into many hostile and independent stales ; the regal 
 title was assumed by the most ambitious chiefs ; their 
 revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchy 
 and discord ; and the nobles of every province dis- 
 obeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and 
 exercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and 
 neighbours. Their private wars, which overturned 
 the fabric of government, fomented the martial spirit 
 of the nation. In the system of modern Europe, the 
 power of the sword is possessed, at least in fact, by 
 five or six mighty potentates; their operations are con- 
 ducted on a distant frontier, by an order of men who 
 devote their lives to the study and practice of the mili- 
 tary art ; the rest of the country and community en- 
 joys in the midst of war the tranquillity of peace, and 
 is only made sensible of the change by the aggrava- 
 tion or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders 
 of the tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was 
 a soldier, and every village a fortification ; each wood 
 or valley was a scene of murder and rapine ; and the 
 lords of each castle were compelled to assume the 
 character of princes and warriors. To their own cou- 
 
 r Liulprand, (p. 484, 485.) relates and interprets the oracles of the 
 Greeks and Saracens, in which, after the fashion of prophecy, the 
 past is clear and historical, the future is dark, enigmatical, and erro- 
 neous. From this boundary of light and shade an impartial critic 
 may commonly determine the dale of the composition. 
 
 « The sense of this distinction is expressed by Abulpharagius, 
 (Dynast, p. 2. 62. 101.) but I cannot recollect the passage in which it 
 is conveyed by this lively apophthegm. 
 
 t Ex Francis, quo nomine tarn Latinos quam Teutones compre- 
 hendit ludum habuit. (Liutprand in Legal, ad Imp. Nicephorum, p. 
 483, 484.) This extension of the name may be confirmed from Con- 
 stantine (de administrando Imperio, 1. ii. c. 27, 28.) and Eutychius, 
 (Annal. torn. i. p. 55, 56.) who both lived before the Crusades. The 
 testimonies of Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 69.) and Abulfeda (PrafaL 
 ad Geograph.) are more recent. 
 
'.'i 
 
 276 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIY. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 277 
 
 1 ;i 
 
 f 
 
 it 
 
 •I 
 
 service of mariners and soldiers ; they were provided 
 wiih defensive and offensive arms, with bows and 
 arrows, which they used from the upper deck, with 
 long pikes, which they pushed through the port-holes 
 of the lower tier. Sometimes indeed the ships of war 
 were of a larger and more solid construction ; and the 
 labours of combat and navigation were more regularly 
 divided between seventy soldiers and two hundred and 
 thirty mariners. But for the most part they were of 
 the light and manageable size ; and as the cape of 
 Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its an- 
 cient terrors, an imperial fleet was transported five 
 miles over land across the isthmus of Corinth.* The 
 principles of maritime tactics had not undergone any 
 change since the time of Thucydides : a squadron of 
 galleys still advanced in a crescent, charged to the 
 front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks against the 
 feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for cast- 
 ing stones and darts was built of strong timbers in the 
 midst of the deck ; and the operation of boarding was 
 effected by a crane that hoisted baskets of armed men. 
 The language of signals, so clear and copious in the 
 naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly ex- 
 pressed by the various positions and colours of a com- 
 manding flag. In the darkness of the night the same 
 orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break, 
 to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading 
 galley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated from 
 one mountain to another; a chain of eight stations 
 commanded a space of five hundred miles ; and Con- 
 stantinople in a few hours was apprized of the hostile 
 motions of the Saracens of Tarsus.' Some estimate 
 may be formed of the power of the Greek emperors, 
 by the curious and minute detail of the armament 
 which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet 
 of one hundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five 
 vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in the 
 capital, the islands of the iEgean sea, and the sea-ports 
 of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four 
 thousand mariners, seven thousand three hundred and 
 forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five thou- 
 sand and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had 
 been transplanted from the mountains of Libanus. 
 Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed 
 at thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred 
 and thirty-six thousand pounds sterling. Our fancy is 
 bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms and 
 engines, of clothes and linen, of bread for the men and 
 forage for the horses, and of stores and utensils of every 
 description, inadequate to the conquest of a petty island, 
 but amply suflicient for the establishment of a flourish- 
 ing colony.* 
 
 Tactics and cha- '^^® invention of the Greek fire did 
 racier of the not, like that of gunpowder, produce a 
 Greeks. ^^^^^ revolution in the art of war. To 
 
 these liquid combustibles the city and empire of Con- 
 stantino owed their deliverance ; and they were em- 
 ployed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect. 
 But they were either less improved, or less susceptible 
 ■of improvements : the engines of antiquity, the cata- 
 'pultoe, balistae, and batterina-rams, were still of most 
 frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence of 
 
 • Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil, c. Ixi. p. 185. He calmly 
 praises Ihe stratagem as a i->vKn¥ <r^t¥^T^v xai 9-»o>)» ; but the sailing 
 round Peloponnesus is described by his terrified fancy as a circum- 
 navisation of a thousand miles. 
 
 f The continualor of Theophanes, (1. ir. p. 122, 123.) names the 
 successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, mount Arpseus, 
 Isamus, iEgilus, the hill of Mamus, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill of 
 Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirms, 
 that the news were transmitted i* (»Kc«fit, in an indivisible moment 
 of time. Miserable amplification, which, by saying Uki much, says 
 nothing. How much more forcible and instructive would have been 
 the definition of three, or six, or twelve hours 1 
 
 g See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyropeniius, I. ii. c. 44. 
 
 S. 176 — 192. A critical reader will discern ■ome inconsistencies in 
 ifferent parts of this account; but they are not more obscure or 
 more stubborn than the establishment and effectives, the present 
 and fit for duty, the rank and file and the private, of a modern re- 
 turn, which retain in proper hands the knowledge of these profitable 
 Vaysteries. 
 
 fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced 
 to the quick and heavy yire of a line of infantry, whom 
 it were fruitless to protect with armour against a simi- 
 lar fire of their enemies. Steel and iron were still 
 the common instruments of destruction and safety ; and 
 the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth cen- 
 tury did not, either in form or substance, essentially 
 differ from those which had covered the companions 
 of Alexander or Achilles.^ But instead of accustoming 
 the modern Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the 
 constant and easy use of this salutary weight, their 
 armour was laid aside in lightchariots, which followed 
 the march, till, on the approach of an enemy, they 
 resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual en- 
 cumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of 
 swords, battle-axes, and spears ; but the Macedonian 
 pike was shortened a fourth of its lenath, and reduced 
 to the more convenient measure of twelve cubits or 
 feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and Arahian 
 arrows had been severely felt ; and the emperors lament 
 the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfor- 
 tunes; and recommend, as an advice, and a command, 
 that the military youth, till the age of forty, should 
 assiduously practise the exercise of the bow." The 
 bands^ or regiments, were usually three hundred strong; 
 and, as a medium between the extremes of four and 
 sixteen, the foot-soldiers of Leo and Constantine were 
 formed eight deep ; but the cavalry charged in four 
 ranks, from the reasonable consideration, that the 
 weight of the front could not be increased by any pres- 
 sure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks of the infan- 
 try or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious 
 array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the 
 troops, whose numbers might swell the appearance of 
 the line, but of whom only a chosen band would dare 
 to encounter the spears and swords of the barbarians. 
 The order of battle must have varied according to the 
 ground, the object, and the adversary ; but their ordi- 
 nary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented 
 a succession of hopes and resources most aorreeal>le to 
 the temper as well as the judgment of the Greeks.^ In 
 case of a repulse, the first line fell back into the inter- 
 vals of the second; and the reserve, breaking into two 
 divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the 
 victory or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could 
 enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the 
 camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the 
 edicts and books, of the Byzantine monarch.* What- 
 ever art could produce from the forge, the loom, or the 
 laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the riches of 
 the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen. 
 But neither authority nor art could frame the most im- 
 portant machine, the soldier himself; and if the cere- 
 monies of Constantine always suppose the safe and 
 triumphal return of the emperor," his tactics seldom 
 soar above the means of escaping a defeat, and pro- 
 crastinatinof the war." Notwithstanding some transient 
 success, the Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and 
 that of their neighbours. A cold hand and a loquacious 
 tongue was the vulgar description of the nation : the 
 
 h See the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters t*? . otx.jv, ^if < 4-rX(. 
 «••'-;, and "i^* >vu»»9-4a., in the Tactics of Leo, with the correspond- 
 ing passages in those of Constantine. 
 
 I They observe tiij y^f tc^ii*,- TrNvriXw; B/uiXiiinTHf .... IV Tti{ 
 'Pai/usvoi; t» n'iWa vuviiuiSi T9»XfA»r» y tviri»', (Leo TaCtic. p. 5S1. 
 
 Constantin. p. 1216.) Yet such were not the maxims of the Ureeks 
 and Romans, who despised the loose and distant practice of archery. 
 
 k Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669. and 721. and iho 
 twelfth with the eiphieenth chapter. 
 
 I In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely deplores the loas of 
 discipline and the calamities of the times, and repeats, without scru- 
 pie, (Prcem. p. 537.) the reproaches of »."»».••», ara^.a, xyvy\xrt* 
 inKi» &c. nor does it appear that the same censures were less de 
 served in the next generation by the disciples of Constantine. 
 
 » See in the Ceremonial (I. ii. c. 19. p. 353.) the form of the empe- 
 ror's trampling on the necks of the captive Saracens, while ihfl 
 singers chanted " thou hast made my enemies my fLX>(jBtooi !" and the 
 people shouted f'^ty times the kyrie eleison. 
 
 B Leo observes (Tactic, p. 668.) that a fair open battH against any 
 nation whatsoever is iTio-caA.*,- and iviKtviwc* \ the words ar^ 
 strong, and the remark is true; yet if such had been lh«i opinion I'f 
 the old Romanf, Leo had aover reigned on the shoreeof the Thraciaa 
 Bosphorus. 
 
 suthor of the tactics was besieged in bis capital ; and 
 the last of the barbarians, who trembled at the name 
 of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly exhibit the 
 medals of gold and silver which they had extorted 
 from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What 
 spirit their government and character denied, might 
 have been inspired in some degree by the influence of 
 religion ; but the religion of the Greeks could only 
 teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor Ni- 
 cephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and 
 glory of the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing 
 the honours of martyrdom on the christians who lost 
 their lives in a holy war agrainst the infidels. But this 
 political law was defeated by the opposition of the 
 patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators : and 
 they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all 
 who were polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier, 
 should be separated, during three years, from the com- 
 munion of the faithful." 
 
 Character and These scruples of the Greeks have 
 uctics of the been compared with the tears of the prim- 
 Saracens, itive Moslems when they were held back 
 from battle ; and this contrast of base superstition and 
 high-spirited enthusiasm, unfolds to a philosophic eye 
 the history of the rival nations. The subjects of the 
 last caliphs P had undoubtedly degenerated from the 
 leal and faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet 
 their martial creed still represented the Deity as the 
 author of war : •> the vital though latent spark of fanat- 
 icism still glowed in the heart of their religion, and 
 among the Saracens who dwelt on the christian bor- 
 ders, it was frequently rekindled to a lively and active 
 flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant 
 slaves who had been educated to guard the person and 
 accompany the standard of their lord ; but the mussul- 
 man people of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, 
 were awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed a 
 holy war against the infidels. The rich were ambitious 
 of death or victory in the cause of God ; the poor were 
 allured by the hopes of plunder ; and the old, the in- 
 firm, and the women, assumed their share of merito- 
 rious service by sending their substitutes, with arms 
 and horses, into the field. These offensive and defen- 
 sive arms were similar in strength and temper to those 
 of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the manage- 
 ment of the horse and the bow : the massy silver of 
 their belts, their bridles, and their swords, displayed 
 the magnificence of a prosperous nation, and except 
 some black archers of the south, the Arabs disdained 
 the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead of wag- 
 gons, they were attended by a long train of camels, 
 mules, and asses; the multitude of these animals, 
 whom they bedecked with flags and streamers, ap- 
 peared to swell the pomp and magnitude of their host; 
 and the horses of the enemy were often disordered by 
 the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of 
 the east. Invincible by their patience of thirst and 
 heat, their spirits were frozen by a winter's cold, and 
 the consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted 
 the most rigorous precautions against the surprises of 
 the night. Their order of battle was a long square of two 
 deep and solid lines ; the first of archers, the second of 
 cavalry. In their engagements by sea and land, they 
 sustained with patient firmness the fury of the attack, 
 and seldom advanced to the charge till they could discern 
 and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they 
 were repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally 
 or renew the combat ; and their dismay was heigh- 
 
 o Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xvi. p. 202, 203.) and Cedrenu.", (Compend. p. 
 668.) who relate the design of Nicepliorus, most unfortunately apply 
 the epithet of yn-vo-.tjuj to the opposition of the patriarch. 
 
 p The eighteenth chapter of the tactics of the different nations, is 
 the most historical and useful of the whole collection of Leo. The 
 manners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic, p. 809—817. and a frag- 
 ment from the Medicean MS. in the preface of the sixth volume of 
 Meursius) the Roman emperor was too frequently called upon to 
 Study. 
 
 ^ 1I«VT«( i$ *»t xMxau i(yov t** Bt*v mtrttw lirertSivrui^xui «-tX.i. 
 ^•t( x**<"* Kiytvrt T0» Hio» rev it»r»,tfwii^»9T» idvn tii Ttvf x-fXi* 
 
 M»*>( liXtvTM. Leon. Tactic, p. 809. 
 
 tened by the superstitious prejudice, that God had 
 declared himself on the side of their enemies. The 
 decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this fear- 
 ful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the Ma- 
 hometans and christians, some obscure prophecies^ 
 which prognosticated their alternate defeats. The 
 unity of the Arabian empire was dissolved, but the 
 independent fragments were equal to populous and 
 powerful kingdoms ; and in their naval and military 
 armaments, an emir of Aleppo or Tunis might command 
 no despicable fund of skill and industry and treasure. 
 In their transactions of peace and war with the Sara- 
 cens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt that 
 these barbarians had nothing barbarous in their disci- 
 pline ; and that if they were destitute of original ge- 
 nius, they had been endowed with a quick spirit of 
 curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed more 
 perfect than the copy: their ships, and engines, and 
 fortifications, were of a less skilful construction ; and 
 they confess, without shame, that the same God who 
 has given a tongue to the Arabians, had more nicely 
 fashioned the hands of the Chinese, and the heads of 
 the Greeks.* 
 
 A name of some German tribes be- The Franks or 
 tween the Rhine and the Weser had Latins, 
 spread its victorious influence over the greatest part 
 of Gaul, Germany, and Italy ; and the common appel- 
 lation of Franks* was applied by the Greeks and 
 Arabians to the christians of the Latin church, the 
 nations of the west, who stretched beyond their know- 
 ledge to the shores of the Atlantic ocean. The vast 
 body had been inspired and united by the soul of 
 Charlemagne ; but the division and degeneracy of his 
 race soon annihilated the imperial power, which would 
 have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and revenged 
 the indignities of the christian name. The enemies 
 no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer 
 trust, the application of a public revenue, the labours 
 of trade and manufactures in the military service, the 
 mutual aid of provinces and armies, and the naval 
 squadrons which were regularly stationed from the 
 mouth of the Elbe to that of the Tiber. In the begin- 
 ning of the tenth century, the family of Charlemagne 
 had almost disappeared ; his monarchy was broken 
 into many hostile and independent states ; the regal 
 title was assumed by the most ambitious chiefs ; their 
 revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchy 
 and discord ; and the nobles of every province dis- 
 obeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and 
 exercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and 
 neighbours. Their private wars, which overturned 
 the fabric of government, fomented the martial spirit 
 of the nation. In the system of modern Europe, the 
 power of the sword is possessed, at least in fact, by 
 five or six mighty potentates; their operations are con- 
 ducted on a distant frontier, by an order of men who 
 devote their lives to the study and practice of the mili- 
 tary art; the rest of the country and community en- 
 joys in the midst of war the tranquillity of peace, and 
 is only made sensible of the change by the aggrava- 
 tion or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders 
 of the tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was 
 a soldier, and every village a fortification ; each wood 
 or valley was a scene of murder and rapine ; and the 
 lords of each castle were compelled to assume the 
 character of princes and warriors. To their own cou- 
 
 r Liutprand, (p. 484, 485.) relates and interprets the oracles of the 
 Greeks and Saracens, in which, after the fashion of prophecy, the 
 past is clear and historical, the future is dark, enigmatical, and erro- 
 neous. From this boundary of light and shade an impartial critic 
 may commonly determine the dale of the composition. 
 
 » The sense of this distinction is expressed by Abulpharagius, 
 (Dynast, p. 2. 62. 101.) but I cannot recollect the passage in which it 
 is conveyed by this lively apophthegm. 
 
 t Ex Francis, quo nomine lam Latinos quam Teulones compre- 
 hendit ludum habuii. (Liuiprand in Legal, ad Imp. Nicephorum, p. 
 483, 484.) This extension of the name may be confirmed from Con- 
 sianiine(de adminisirando Imperio, I. ii. c. 27,28.) and Eutychiut, 
 (Annal. torn. i. p. 55, 56.) who both lived before the Crusades. The 
 testimonies of Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 69.) and Abulfeda (Pr»laU 
 ad Geograpb.) are more recent. 
 
 fj9 
 
 «! 
 
278 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XTV. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 rage and policy, they boldly trusted for the safety of 
 their family, the protection of their lands, and the re- 
 venge of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of a 
 larger size, they were too apt to transgress the privi- 
 lege of defensive war. The powers of the mind and 
 body were hardened by the presence of danger and ne- 
 cessity of resolution : the same spirit refused to desert 
 a friend and to forgive an enemy ; and, instead of sleep- 
 ing under the guardian care of the magistrate, they 
 proudly disdained the authority of the laws. In the 
 days of feudal anarchy, the instruments of agriculture 
 and art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed ; 
 the peaceful occupations of civil and ecclesiastical 
 society were abolished or corrupted ; and the bishop 
 who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was more for- 
 cibly urged by the manners of the times than by the 
 obligation of his tenure." 
 
 Their character The love of freedom and of arms was 
 and tactics. felt, with conscious pride, by the Franks 
 themselves, and is observed by the Greeks with some 
 degree of amazement and terror. "The Franks," 
 says the emperor Constantine, " are bold and valiant 
 to the verge of temerity ; and their dauntless spirit is 
 supported by the contempt of danger and death. In 
 the field and in close onset, they press to the front, 
 and rush headlong against the enemy, without deign- 
 ing to compute either his numbers or their own. Their 
 ranks are formed by the firm connexions of consan- 
 guinity and friendship ; and their martial deeds are 
 prompted by the desire of saving or revenging their 
 dearest companions. In their eyes, a retreat is a 
 shameful flight; and flight is indelible infamy."' A 
 nation endowed with such high and intrepid spirit, 
 must have been secure of victory, if these advantages 
 had not been counterbalanced by many weighty de- 
 fects. The decay of their naval power left the Greeks 
 and Saracens in possession of the sea, for every pur- 
 pose of annoyance and supply. In the age which pre- 
 ceded the institution of knighthood, the Franks were 
 rude and unskilful in the service of cavalry;/ and in 
 all perilous emergencies, their warriors were so con- 
 scious of their ignorance, that they chose to dismount 
 from their horses and fight on foot. Unpractised in 
 the use of pikes, or of missile weapons, they were 
 encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight 
 of their armour, the magnitude of their shields, and, 
 if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by 
 
 foreigners. An ambassador of the great Otho declared, 
 in the palace of Constantinople, that the Saxons could 
 dispute with swords better than with pens, and that 
 they preferred inevitable death to the dishonour of 
 turning their backs to an enemy." It was the glory 
 of the nobles of France, that, in their humble dwel- 
 lings, war and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole 
 occupation, of their lives. They aflfected to deride the 
 
 falaces, the banquets, the polished manners, of the 
 talians, who, in the estimate of the Greeks them- 
 selves, had degenerated from the liberty and valour of 
 the ancient Lombards.* 
 
 By the well-known edict of Caracalla, oblivion of the 
 his subjects, from Britain to Egypt, were Latin Language, 
 entitled to the name and privileges of Romans, and 
 their national sovereign might fix his occasional or 
 permanent residence in any province of their com- 
 mon country. In the division of the east and west, 
 an ideal unity was scrupulously preserved, and in 
 their titles, laws, and statutes, the successors of Ar- 
 cadius and Honorius announced themselves as the in- 
 separable colleagues of the same oflice, as the joint 
 sovereigns of the Roman world and city, which were 
 bounded by the same limits. After the fall of the 
 western monarchy, the majesty of the purple resided 
 solely in the princes of Constantinople ; and of these, 
 Justinian was the first, who, after a divorce of sixty 
 years, regained the dominion of ancient Rome, and 
 asserted, by the right of conquest, the august title of 
 emperor of the Romans.** A motive of vanity or dis- 
 content solicited one of his successors, Constans the 
 second, to abandon the Thracian Bosphorus, and to 
 restore the pristine honours of the Tiber : an extrava- 
 gant project, (exclaims the malicious Byzantine,) as 
 if he had despoiled a beautiful and blooming virgin, to 
 enrich, or rather to expose, the deformity of a wrinkled 
 and decrepid matron.' But the sword of the Lom- 
 bards opposed his settlement in Italy: he entered 
 Rome, not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after 
 a visit of twelve days, he pillaged, and for ever de- 
 serted, the ancient capital of the world."* The final 
 revolt and separation of Italy was accomplished about 
 two centuries after the conquests of Justinian, and from 
 his reign we may date the gradual oblivion of the 
 Latin tongue. That legislator had composed his In- 
 stitutes, his Code, and his Pandects, in a language 
 which he celebrates as the proper and public style of 
 
 279 
 
 their unwieldy intemperance. Their independent spi- the Roman government, the consecrated idiom of the 
 Tit disdained the yoke of subordination, and abandoned palace and senate of Constantinople, of the camps and 
 the standard of their chief, if he attempted to keep the tribunals of the east.' But this foreiirn dialect was 
 
 field beyond the term of their stipulation or service. — ->- 
 
 On all sides they were open to the snares of an enemy, 
 less brave, but more artful, than themselves. They 
 might be bribed, for the barbarians were venal ; or 
 suprised in the night, lor they neglected tlie precau- 
 tions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels. 
 The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their 
 strength and patience, and they sunk in despair if their 
 voracious appetite was disappointed of a plentiful sup- 
 ply of wine and of food. This general character of 
 the Franks was marked with som'e national and local 
 shades, which I should ascribe to accident, rather than 
 to climate, but which were visible both to natives and 
 
 u On this subject of ecclealaaiical and beneficiary discipline, father 
 Thomaain (torn. in. I. i. c. 40. 45-47.) may be usef'ully consulted. A 
 general law of Charlemagne exemnied the bishopa from peraonal ser- 
 vice ; but the opposite practice, which prevailed from the ninth to 
 the fifteenth century, is countenanced by the example or silence of 
 mints and doctors . . . You justify your cowardice by the holy 
 canons, says Rutherius of Verona; the canons likewise forbid you to 
 whore, and yet ■ 
 
 X In the eighteenth chapter of his Tatics, the eniperor Leo has 
 feirly stated the military vices and virtues of the Franks (whom 
 meursius ridiculously translates by Galli) and the I^ombards, or 
 Langobards. See likewise the twenty-fourth Dissertation of Mura- 
 tori de Antiquitatibiis Ilalise medii ^vi. 
 
 y Domini tui miliies (says the proud Nicephorus) equitandi ignari 
 pedestris pugnse suntinscii: scutorum magnitude, loricarum gravi- 
 tudo, ensium, longiiudo, galearumque pondus neutra parte pugnare 
 •ossinit; ac subridens, impedit, inquit, et eos gastrimargia hoc est 
 ▼•ntfis ingluvies, &c. Liutprand in Legal, p. 490, 481. i 
 
 « In Sazonia certe scio .... decentius ensibus pusnare quara 
 calaniis, et prius mortem obire quam hoalibus lerga care. (Liutprand, 
 p. 482.) o V r I 
 
 a <^^%yyn TBi^u* xMi A»y<3««^e< Xoy^e» iXtu5ifi«f vi;< ir«XM« 
 
 x-oto-JiTTgti, »A.A.' oi ^iv Ae>^i6»(loi to »X.i6» tdj TOjauTi-,- m^it^c »«r 
 
 I'^'J^mV* ^^**"'^ Taclira, c. 18. p. 905. The emperor Leo died 
 A. D. 911.; an historical poem, which ends in 916, and appears to 
 have been comp^^ed in 940, by a native of Venetia, discriminates in 
 these verses the manners of Italy and France: 
 Quid inertia bello 
 
 Pectora (Ubertus ait) duris praptewditis amiis, 
 
 O Itali 1 Polius vobis sacra pocula cordi ; 
 
 Saepius et stomachum nitidis laxare saginit 
 
 Elatasque donios rulilo fulcire melallo. 
 
 Non eadem Gallos similis vol cura remordel ; 
 
 Vicinas quibus est studium devincere terras 
 
 Depressumque larem spoliis hinc inde coactis 
 
 Sustentare 
 
 ^A?**^"'' ^*"nen Panegyricum de Laudibus Berengarli August!, 1. 
 li. in Muratori Script. Kerum lulic. torn. ii. pars i. p. 393.) 
 
 b Justinian, s&ys the historian Agathias, (1. v. p. 157.) 't^.toc r- 
 juM.Mir <.«TeKf»T«p SFO^.T. x«i ire»>/«.T.. Yet the specific title of 
 emperor of the Romans was not used at ConsUntinople, till it had 
 been claimed by the French and German emperors of old Rome. 
 
 c Constantine Manasses reprobates this design in his barbarous 
 verse : ** 
 
 T^» iroXir ti|» dg»T«A.i<«i> mlti%i9■|A^T■A^ SiXwr, 
 SJf i»T«f 3i3f9foX.ife» ai«^OKOTf<ifn( »u^^^». 
 
 And it is confirmed by Theoplianes,Zonaras, Cedrenus, and the His- 
 tona OTiscella: voluit in urbem Romam Imperium transfer re, (1. xii. 
 p. 1.^. in lorn. i. pars i. of the Scriptores Rer. lul. of Muratori.) 
 
 d Paul Diacon. 1. v. c. 11. p. 480. Anaslasius in Vitis Ponlificum, 
 in Muraton's Collection, torn. iii. para i. p. 141. 
 
 • Consult the preface of Ducange (ad Gloss. Grssc. medii .fivi) and 
 the Novsls of Justinian, cvii.lxri.) Tb« Greek Ui^iiagewM «••»•(, 
 
 unknown to the people and soldiers of the Asiatic pro- 
 vinces, it was imperfectly understood by the greater 
 part of the interpreters of the laws and the ministers 
 of the state. After a short conflict, nature and habit 
 prevailed over the obsolete institutions of human 
 power : for the general benefit of his subjects, Justi- 
 nian promulgated his Novels in the two languages : 
 the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were 
 successively translated : ' the original was forgotten, 
 the version was studied, and the Greek, whose intrin- 
 , sic merit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a 
 I legal, as well as a popular, establishment in the Byzan- 
 tine monarchy. The birth and residence of succeed- 
 ing princes estranged them from the Roman idiom : 
 Tiberius by the Arabs,* and Maurice by the Italians,'* 
 are distinguished as the first of the Greek Caesars, as 
 the founders of a new dynasty and empire : the silent 
 i revolution was accomplished before the death of Hera- 
 clius ; and the ruins of the Latin speech were darkly 
 preserved in the terms of jurisprudence and the accla- 
 mations of the palace. After the restoration of the 
 western empire by Charlemagne and the Othop, the 
 names of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signi- 
 fication and extent; and these haughty barbarians 
 asserted, with some justice, their superior claim to the 
 language and dominion of Rome. They insulted the 
 aliens of the east who had renounced the dress and 
 idiom of Romans ; and their reasonable practice will 
 'justify the frequent appellation of Greeks.' But this 
 
 ^ ^ , contemptuous appellation was indiff- 
 
 The Greek em- .i ' . , j • '^V.i • j ? 
 
 perors and their nantly rejected by the prince and people 
 
 subjects reuin to whom it is applied. Whatsoever 
 S"ame?fR?maSs! ^^anges had been introduced by the 
 lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and 
 unbroken succession from Augustus and Constantine ; 
 and in the lowest period of degeneracy and decay, the 
 name of Romans adhered to the last fragments of the 
 empire of Constantinople.^ 
 
 Period of igno- While the government of the east was 
 ranee. transacted in Latin, the Greek was the 
 language of literature and philosophy ; nor could the 
 masters of this rich and perfect idiom be tempted to 
 envy the borrowed learning and imitative taste of 
 their Roman disciples. After the fall of paganism, 
 the loss of Syria and Egypt, and the extinction of the 
 schools of Alexandria and Athens, the studies of the 
 Greeks insensibly retired to some regular monasteries, 
 and above all, to the royal college of Constantinople, 
 which was burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian.* In 
 
 the Latin was 3r«r^<B; to himself, xv^imtmto; to their oxtn in; o-xnM»t 
 the system of government. 
 
 f Ow ^i)* »KK» x»i Ai4rir«xi| >.i^<; x«< ^(»Tti ng iirt revg vo/uov; 
 Ttvf v-vviivMi T«uT>i» nn ivvmfiirtv; inr»rf»%i^i. (Matt. Blastares, Hist. 
 Juris, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Grace, tom, xii. p. 369.) The Code and 
 Pandects (the latter by Thalelaeus) were translated in the time of 
 Justinian, (p. 358. 3G6.) Theophilus, one of the original triumvirs, 
 has left an elegant, though diffuse, paraphrase of the Institutes. On 
 the other hand, Julian, antecessor of Constantinople, (A. D. 570.) czx. 
 Novellas Grscas eleganti Latinitate donavii, (Heineccius, Hist. J. 
 R. p. 3%.) for the use of Italy and Africa. 
 
 g Abulpharagius assigns the seventh dynasty to the Franks or Ro- 
 mans, the eighth to the Greeks, the ninth to the Arabs. A tempore 
 August! Caosaris donee imperaret Tiberius Caesar spatio circiteran- 
 norum 600 fuerunt Imperatores C. P. Patricii, et praecipua pars ezer- 
 citus Romani : extra quod, consiliarii, scribae et populus, omnes 
 Graeci fuerunt: deinde regnum etiam GHIecanicum factum est, (p. 
 90. vers. Pocock.) The christian and ecclesiastical studies of Abul- 
 pharagius gave him some advantage over the more ignorant Moslems. 
 
 h Primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio confirmalus est; or, ac- 
 cording to another MS. of Paulus Diaconus, (1. iii. c. 15. p. 443.) in 
 Graecorum Imperio. 
 
 ' i Quia linguam, mores, vestesque mutastis, putavit Sanctissimus 
 Papa, (an audacious irony,) ita vos (vobis) displicere Romanorum 
 nomen. Hie nuncios, rogabant Nicephorum imperatorem Graeco- 
 rum, ut cum Othone imperatore Romanorum amieitiam faeeret. 
 (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 486.) 
 
 k By Laonicus Chalcocondyles, who survived the last siege of 
 Constantinople, the account is thus stated, (1. i. p. 3.) Constantine 
 transplanted his Latins ©f Italy to a Greek city of Thrace: they 
 adopted the language and manners of the natives, who were con- 
 founded with them under the name of Romans. The kings of Con- 
 stantinople, says the historian, tx-i to o-9»> «vreu; o-i/«vvyiTi«< 'Pui- 
 
 I See Ducange, (C. P. Christiana, 1. li. p. 150, 151.) who collects 
 the testimonies, not of Theophanes, but at least of Zonaras, (tom. ii. 
 I. xr. p. 104.) Codrenus, (p. 494.) Michael Glydas, (p. 281.) Constan- 
 
 the pompous style of the age, the president of that 
 foundation was named the Sun of Science : his twelve 
 associates, the professors in the diflerent arts and 
 faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a li- 
 brary of thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was 
 open to their inquiries ; and they could show an an- 
 cient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of parchment 
 one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, 
 as it was fabled, of a prodigious serpent.™ But the 
 seventh and eighth centuries were a period of discord 
 and darkness ; the library was burnt, the college was 
 abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes 
 of antiquity ; and a savage ignorance and contempt of 
 letters has disgraced the princes of the Heraclean and 
 Isaurian dynasties." 
 
 In the ninth century we trace the first Revival of (Jreek 
 dawnings of the restoration of science." learning. 
 After the fanaticism of the Arabs had subsided, the 
 caliphs aspired to conquer the arts, rather than the 
 provinces, of the empire: their liberal curiosity rekin- 
 dled the emulation of the Greeks, brushed away the 
 dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them to 
 know and reward the philosophers, whose labours had 
 been hitherto repaid by the pleasure of study and the 
 pursuit of truth. The Caesar Bardas, the uncle of 
 Michael the third, was the generous protector of let- 
 ters, a title which alone has preserved his memory and 
 excused his ambition. A particle of the treasures of 
 his nephew was sometimes diverted from the indul- 
 gence of vice and folly ; a school was opened in the 
 palace of Magnaura ; and the presence of Bardas ex- 
 cited the emulation of the masters and students. At 
 their head was the philosopher Leo, archbishop of 
 Thessalonica ; his profound skill in astronomy and the 
 mathematics was admired by the strangers of the east; 
 and this occult science was magnified by vulgar cre- 
 dulity, which modestly supposes that all knowledge 
 superior to its own must be the efl^ect of inspiration or 
 magic. At the pressing entreaty of the Cassar, his 
 friend the celebrated Photius,? renounced the freedom 
 of a secular and studious life, ascended the patriarchal 
 throne, and was alternately excommunicated and ab- 
 solved by the synods of the east and west. By the 
 confession even of priestly hatred, no art or science, 
 except poetry, was foreign to this universal scholar, 
 who was deep in thousfht, indefatigable in reading, and 
 eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercised the oflice of 
 protospathaire, or captain of the guards, Photius was 
 sent ambassador to the caliph of Bagdad.^ The tedi- 
 ous hours of exile, perhaps of confinement, were ber 
 guiled by the hasty composition of his Library^ a liv- 
 ing monument of erudition and criticism. Two hun- 
 dred and fourscore writers, historians, orators, philo- 
 sophers, theologians, are reviewed without any regular 
 method : he abridges their narrative or doctrine, appre- 
 ciates their style and character, and judges even the 
 fathers of the church with a discreet freedom, which 
 often breaks through the superstition of the times. 
 
 tine Manasses, p. 87.) After refuting the absurd charge against the 
 emperor, Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum, p. 99—111.) like a true advo- 
 cate, proceeds to doubt or deny the reality of the fire, and almost of 
 the library. 
 
 m According to Malchns, (Apud Zonar. 1. xiv. p. 53.) this Homer 
 was bOrni in the lime of Basiliseus. The MS. might be renewed— 
 But on a serpent's skin ? Most strange and incredible ! 
 
 n The a«xoy«!» of Zonaras, the ayem ««« mfi»9t» of Cedrenus, ar© 
 strong words, perhaps not ill suited to those reigns. 
 
 o See Zonaras (1. xvi. p. 160, 161.) and Cedrenus, (p. 549, 550.> 
 Like Friar Bacon, the philosopher Leo has been transformed by ig- 
 norance into a conjurer : yet not so undeservedly, if he be the author 
 of the oracles more commonly ascribed to the emperor of the same 
 name. The physics of Leo in MS. are in the library of Vienna. 
 (Fabrieius, Bibliot. Grace, tom. vi. p. 366. tom. xii. p. 7S1.) Quiescant f 
 
 P The ecclesiastical and literary character of Photius is copiously 
 discussed by Hanckius, (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 269—396.) and 
 Fabrieius. 
 
 q Et( AxTufioo? can only mean Bagdad, the seat of the caliph ; and 
 the relation of his embassy might have been curious and instructive. 
 But how did he procure his books? A library so numerous could 
 neither be found at Bagdad, nor transported with his baggage, nor 
 preserved in his memory. Yet the last, however incredible, seems 
 to be affirmed by Photius himself, »<r«j <»utu>v it ^mMt ^ur<vCi. Cam< 
 usat (Hist. Critique des Journaux, p. 87-^94.) gives a {ood aceoant 
 of the Miriobiblon. 
 
 n 
 
 ' ^ 
 
 i 
 
280 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Ckap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 The emperor Basil, who lamented the defects of his 
 own education, intrusted to the care of Photius his son 
 and successor Leo the philosopiier; and the reign of 
 that prince and of his son Constantino Porphyrogeni- 
 tus forms one of the most prosperous aeras of the By- 
 zantine literature. By their mimificence the treasures 
 of antiquity were deposited in the imperial library ; by 
 their pens, or those of their associates, they were im- 
 parted in such extracts and abridgments as might 
 amuse the curiosity, without oppressing the indolence, 
 of the public. Besides the Basilics^ or code of laws, 
 the arts of husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying 
 the human species, were propagated with equal dili- 
 frence ; and the history of Greece and Rome was di- 
 gested into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two 
 only (of embassies, and of virtues and vices) have 
 escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the 
 reader miijht contemplate the image of the past world, 
 apply the lesson or warning of each page, and learn to 
 admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter 
 period. I shall not expatiate on the works of the By- 
 zantine Greeks, who, by the assiduous study of the 
 ancients, have deserved, in some measure, the remem- 
 brance and gratitude of the moderns. The scholars 
 of the present age may still enjoy the benefit of the 
 philosophical common-place book of Stobaeus, the 
 grammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chi- 
 liads of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narra- 
 tives in twelve thousand verses, and the commentaries 
 on Homer of Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, 
 who, from his horn of plenty, has poured the names 
 and authorities of four hundred writers. From these 
 originals, and from the numerous tribe of scholiasts 
 and critics,' some estimate may be formed of the lite- 
 rary wealth of the twelfth century : Constantinople was 
 enlightened by the genius of Homer and Demosthenes, 
 of Aristotle and Plato; and in the enjoyment or ne- 
 glect of our present riches, we must envy the generation 
 that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, the 
 orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander,' and 
 the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labour 
 of illustration attests not only the existence, but the 
 popularity, of the Grecian classics: the general know- 
 ledge of the age may be deduced from the example of 
 two learned females, the empress Eudocia, and the 
 princess Anna Comnena, who cultivated, in the pur- 
 ple, the arts of rhetoric and philosophy.* The vulgar 
 dialect of the city was gross and barbarous : a more 
 correct and elaborate style distinguished the discourse, 
 or at least the compositions, of the church and palace, 
 which sometimes aflfected to copy the purity of the 
 Attic models. 
 
 i Decay of taste In OUT modem education, the painful 
 and genius, though necessary attainment of two lan- 
 guages, which are no longer living, may consume the 
 time and damp the ardour of the youthful student. 
 The poets and orators were long imprisoned in the 
 barbarous dialects of our western ancestors, devoid of 
 
 281 
 
 r Of these modern Greeks, see the respectiTe articles in the Bibli- 
 Oineca Uraeca of Fabricius; a laborious work, yet susceptible of a 
 M9%?^i.^ *"^"l?"7 'S'Pforenienls: of Eustathius, (torn. i. p. 
 38^292. 306-3-29.) of the Pselli, (a diatribe of Leo Allatius, ad cal- 
 cem lorn, v ) of Constantine Porphyrogeniius, (lorn. vi. p. 486— 5(»9.) 
 SJ^ w .h^''^^*?' ^^^'T'- '''"• P- 665-7-28.) of Suidas, (tomfix. p. 6'20- 
 wiLi 4? Tzetzes, (torn. x.i. p. 245-273.) Mr. Harris, in his Philo- 
 {in'MtX",^C?:'2^*^^^^^ ^^« eiven a sketch of ti.is Byzan- 
 
 Graecis, c. 6.) and I.e Clerc (Hiblioihecjue Choisie, torn xix n 285 ^ 
 mention a commentary of Michael Psellus on twenty-four DlavTnf 
 Menander, still extant in MS. at Constantinople Yet such class c 
 studies seem incompatible with the craviiy or dulness of a scS. 
 man, who pored over the categories, (de Psellis, p. 42.) and Michael 
 bas probably been confounded with Homerus SelUus, who wrote ar 
 gumenis to the comedies of Menander, In the tenth century «uida9 
 quotes fifty plays, but he often traitfcribes the old scholiast of Aristo- 
 phanes. 
 
 t Anna Comnena may boast of her Greek style, (rs 'EKK^v^t^nv ,; 
 «K<<e» •(r«^ooJ^)tu.«,,) and Zonaras, her contemporary, but not her flat- 
 terer, may add with truth, yKjorr*^ ,tx** »xf.,S*f ArT.>(»^ouB-*v 
 ■i A V"^^^ ^*s conversant with the artful dialogues of Plato; and 
 had studied the T»rf»xvc, or quadrivium of astrology, geometry, 
 arithmetic, and music. (See her preface to the Alexiad, with Du- 
 cange's noieco / 
 
 harmony or grace; and their genius, without precept 
 or example, was abandoned to the rude and native 
 powers of their judgment and fancy. But the Greeks 
 of Constantinople, after purging away the impurities 
 of their vulgar speech, acquired the free use of their 
 ancient language, the most happy composition of human 
 art, and a familiar knowledge of the sublime masters 
 who had pleased or instructed the first of nations. But 
 these advantages only tend to aggravate the reproach 
 and shame of a degenerate people. They held in their 
 lifeless hands the riches of their fathers, without in- 
 heriting the spirit which had created and improved 
 that sacred patrimony : they read, they praised, they 
 compiled, but tlieir languid souls seemed alike incapa- 
 ble of thought and action. In the revolution of ten 
 centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt th& 
 dignity or promote the happiness of mankind. Not a 
 single idea has been added to the speculative systems 
 of antiquity, and a succession of patient disciples be- 
 came in their turn the dogmatic teachers of the next 
 servile generation. Not a single composition, of his- 
 tory, philosophy, or literature has been saved from ob- 
 livion by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, 
 of original fancy, or even of successful imitation. In 
 prose, the least offensive of the Byzantine writers are 
 absolved from censure by their naked and unpresuming 
 simplicity; but the orators, most eloquent* in their 
 own conceit, are the farthest removed from the models 
 whom they affect to emulate. In every page our taste 
 and reason are wounded by the choice of gigantic 
 and obsolete words, a stiff and intricate phraseology, 
 the discord of images, the childish play of false or un- 
 seasonable ornament, and the painful attempt to elevate 
 themselves, to astonish the reader, and to involve a 
 trivial meaning in the smoke of obscurity and exag- 
 geration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious affec- 
 tation of poetry ; their poetry is sinking below the 
 flatness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and 
 lyric muses were silent and inglorious : the bards of 
 Constantinople seldom rose above a riddle or epigram, 
 a panegyric or tale; they forgot even the rules of 
 prosody; and with the melody of Homer vet sounding 
 in their ears, they confound all measure' of feet and 
 syllables in the impotent strains which have received 
 the name of political or city verses.' The minds of 
 the Greeks were bound in the fetters of a base and im- 
 perious superstition, which extends her dominion round 
 the circle of profane science. Their understandings 
 were bewildered in metaphysical controversy : in the 
 belief of visions and miracles, they had lost all princi- 
 ples of nrioral evidence, and their taste was vitiated by 
 the homilies of the monks, an absurd medley of decla- 
 mation and Scripture. Even these contemptible stu- 
 dies were no longer dignified by the abuse of superior 
 talents : the leaders of the Greek church were humbly 
 content to admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, 
 nor did the schools or pulpit produce any rivals of the 
 fame of Athanasius and Chrysostom.y 
 
 Iri all the pursuits of active and spec- Wantof national 
 Illative life, the emulation of states and emulation, 
 individuals is the most powerful spring of the efforts 
 and improvements of mankind. The cities of ancient 
 Greece were cast in the happy mixture of union and 
 independence, which is repeated on a larger scale, but 
 in a looser form, by the nations of modern Europe : the 
 union of language, religion, and manners, which ren- 
 ders them the spectators and judges of each other's 
 merit : « the independence of government and interest 
 which asserts their separate freedom, and excites them 
 
 u To censure the Byzantine taste, Pucanee (Prafat. Gloss. Graec. 
 p. 17.) strings the authorities of Aulus Gellius, Jerom, Peironius, 
 Oeorge Hamartolus, Louginus ; who give at once the precept and 
 the example. r r « 
 
 » The versus politici, tliose common pristitiites, as, from their 
 easiness, they are styled by Loo Allatins, usually consist of fifteen 
 syllables, "fhey are used by Constantine Manasses, John TzetzeJ 
 
 V A- ^^RoVn T V'l"'^r'.'**-P- i-P.345,ai6.edit. Ba8il.l7620 
 «i^hi .tn, "^ ^'l^ 4^'"' "« St. John Damasconus in th» 
 
 "f H wi7.;jy;:vTK?. '^i}^' ''''''' "^^^« ^-^^ ^'^-^ . 
 
 [i 
 
 to strive for pre-eminence in the career of glory. The 
 situation of the Romans was less favourable ; yet in the 
 early ages of the republic, which fixed the national 
 character, a similar emulation was kindled among the 
 states of Latium and Italy; and, in the arts and scien- 
 ces, they aspired to equal or surpass their Grecian mas- 
 ters. The empire of the Caesars undoubtedly checked 
 the activity and progress of the human mind ; its mag- 
 nitude might indeed allow some scope for domestic 
 competition; but when it was gradually reduced, at 
 first to the east and at last to Greece and Constantinople, 
 the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and 
 languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary and 
 insulated slate. From the north they were oppressed 
 by nameless tribes of barbarians, to whom they scarcely 
 imparted the appellation of men. The language and 
 religion of the more polished Arabs were an insur- 
 mountable bar to all social intercourse. The conquer- 
 ors of Europe were their brethren in the christian 
 faith ; but the speech of the Franks or Latins was un- 
 known, their manners were rude, and they were rarely 
 connected, in peace or war, with the successors of 
 Heraclius. Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied 
 pride of the Greeks was not disturbed by the compar- 
 ison of foreign merit ; and it is no wonder if they fainted 
 in the race, since they had neither competitors to urgre 
 their speed, nor judges to crown their victory. The 
 nations of Europe and Asia were mingled by the ex- 
 peditions to the Holy Land ; and it is under the Com- 
 nenian dynasty that a faint emulation of knowledge 
 and military virtue was rekindled in the Byzantine 
 empire. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Origin and doctrine of the Pauliclans. — Their persecution 
 by the Greek emperors. — Revolt in Armenia , ^c. — Trans- 
 plantation into Thrace. — Propagation in the west. — The 
 seeds, character , and consequences of the reformation. 
 
 Supine super- ^^ ^^*6 profession of Christianity, the 
 inition of the variety of national characters may be 
 Greek church, clearly distinguished. The natives of 
 Syria and Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and 
 contemplative devotion : Rome again aspired to the 
 dominion of the world ; and the wit of the lively and 
 loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of 
 metaphysical theology. The incomprehensible mys- 
 teries of the Trinity and Incarnation, instead of com- 
 manding their silent submission, were agitated in 
 vehement and subtle controversies, which enlarged 
 their faith at the expense, perhaps, of their charity and 
 reason. From the council of Nice to the end of the 
 seventh century, the peace and unity of the church was 
 invaded by these spiritual wars; and so deeply did 
 they affect the decline and fall of the empire, that the 
 historian has too often been compelled to attend the 
 synods, to explore the creeds, and to enumerate the 
 sects, of this busy period of ecclesiastical annals. From 
 the beginning of the eighth century to the last ages 
 of the Byzantine empire, the sound of controversy 
 was seldom heard : curiosity was exhausted, zeal 
 was fatigued, and, in the decrees of six councils, the 
 articles of the catholic faith had been irrevocably de- 
 fined. The spirit of dispute, however vain and perni- 
 cious, requires some energy and exercise of the mental 
 faculties ; and the prostrate Greeks were content to 
 fast, to pray, and to believe, in blind obedience to the 
 patriarch and his clergy. During a long dream of 
 superstition, the Virgin and the Saints, their visions 
 and miracles, their relics and images, were preached 
 by the monks and worshipped by the people ; and the 
 appellation of people might be extended, without in- 
 justice, to the first ranks of civil society. At an un- 
 seasonable moment, the Isaurian emperors attempted 
 somewhat rudely to awaken their subjects ; under their 
 Vol. IL— 2 L 
 
 Origin of the 
 
 Pauiicians or 
 
 disciples of St. 
 
 Paul, 
 
 A. D. 660, &.C. 
 
 influence, reason might obtain some proselytes, a far 
 greater number was swayed by interest or fear* but 
 the eastern world embraced or deplored their visible 
 deities, and the restoration of images was celebrated 
 as the feast of orthodoxy. In this passive and unani 
 mous state the ecclesiastical rulers were relieved 
 from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure, of persecu- 
 tion. The pagans had disappeared ; the Jews were 
 silent and obscure ; the disputes with the Latins were 
 rare and remote hostilities against a national enemy ; 
 and the sects of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free tole- 
 ration under the shadow of the Arabian caliphs. About 
 the middle of the seventh century, a branch of Mani- 
 chjEans was selected as the victims of spiritual tyranny r 
 their patience was at length exasperated to despair and 
 rebellion ; and their exile has scattered over the west 
 the seeds of reformation. These important events will 
 justify some inquiry into the doctrine and story of the 
 Paulicians;* and, as they cannot plead for them- 
 selves, our candid criticism will magnify the good^ and 
 abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by their ad- 
 versaries. 
 
 The Gnostics, who had distracted the 
 infancy, were oppressed by the greatness 
 and authority, of the church. Instead 
 of emulating or surpassing the wealth, 
 learning, and numbers, of the catholics, 
 their obscure remnant was driven from the capitals of 
 the east and west, and confined to the villages and 
 mountains along the borders of the Euphrates. Some 
 vestige of the Marcionites may be detected in the fifth 
 century ;** but the numerous sects were finally lost in 
 the odious name of the Manichaeans ; and these here- 
 tics, who presumed to reconcile the doctrines of Zoro- 
 aster and Christ, were pursued by the two religions 
 with equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grand- 
 son of Heraclius, in the neighbourhood of Samosata, 
 more famous for the birth of Lucian than for the title 
 of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by the 
 Pauiicians as the chosen messenger of truth. In his 
 humble dwellinorof Mananalis, Constantine entertained 
 a deacon, who returned from Syrian captivity, and re- 
 ceived the inestimable gift of the New Testament, 
 which was already concealed from the vulgar by the 
 prudence of the Greek, and perhaps of the Gnostic 
 clergy.* These books became the measure of his 
 studies and the rule of his faith ; and the catholics, who 
 dispute his interpretation, acknowledge that his text 
 was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself 
 with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of 
 St. Paul : the name of the Pauiicians is derived by 
 their enemies from some unknown and domestic teacher ; 
 but I am confident that they gloried in their affinity to 
 the apostle of the gentiles. His disciples, Titus, Tim- 
 othy, Sylvanus, Tychicus, were represented by Con- 
 stantine and his fellow-labourers: the names of the 
 apostolic churches were applied to the congregations 
 which they assembled in Armenia and Cappadocia; 
 and this innocent allegory revived the example and 
 memory of the first ages. In the gospel, 
 and the epistles of St. Paul, his faithful 
 follower investigated the creed of primitive Christian- 
 ity; and, whatever might be the success, a protestant 
 reader will applaud the spirit, of the inquiry. But if 
 
 a The errors and virtues of the Pauiicians are weighel, with his 
 usual judgment and candour, by the learned Mosheim. (Hist. Eccle- 
 siast. seculum ix. p. 311, fee.) He draws his original intHligence 
 from Photius (contra Manichaeos, I. i.) and Peter Siculus. (Hist. Ma- 
 nichaeorum.) The first ot these accounts has not fallen into my 
 hands; the second, which JVIosheim prefers, I have read in a Latin 
 version inserted in the Maxima Bibliotbeca Patrum, (torn. xyi. p. 
 754—764.) from the edition of the Jesuit Kaderus. (lugolstadii, 1604, 
 
 in 4to.) , ^ . • o • 
 
 b In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in hyna, con- 
 tained eight hundred villages. Of these, two were inhabited by 
 Arians and Eunomians, and eight by ^farc^ottt■tes, whom the labori- 
 ous bishop reconciled to the catholic church. (Dupin, Bibliot. tccls- 
 siastinue, tom. iv. p. 81,82.) ,. . , 
 
 c Nobis profanis isia (sacra Erangeha) legere non licet sed sacer- 
 dotibus duntaxat, was the first scruple of a catholic when he WM ad* 
 vised to read the Bible. (Petr. Sicul. p. 761.) 
 
 Their Bible. 
 
 H 
 
i 
 
 -282 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 the scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were 
 not perfect. Their founders rejected the two epistles 
 of St. Peter,* the apostle of the circumcision, whose 
 •dispute with their favourite for the ohservance of the 
 law could not easily be forgiven." They a^rreed with 
 their Gnostic brethren in the universal contempt for 
 the Old Testament, the books of Moses and the proph- 
 ets, which have been consecrated by the decrees of the 
 catholic church. With equal boldness, and doubtless 
 with more reason, Constantine, the new Sylvanus, 
 disclaimed their visions, which, in so many bulky and 
 splendid volumes, had been published by the oriental 
 •sects ; ' the fabulous productions of the Hebrew pat- 
 riarchs and the sages of the east ; the spurious gospels, 
 epistles, and acts, which in the first age had over- 
 whelmed the orthodox code ; the theology of Manes, 
 and the authors of the kindred heresies ; and the thirty 
 generations, or aeons, which had been created by the 
 fruitful fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sineerely 
 condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichaan 
 «ect, and complained of the injustice which impressed 
 that invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul 
 and of Christ. 
 
 The Bimpiicityof Of the ecclesiastical chain, many links 
 their belief and had been broken by the Paulician refor- 
 worahip. jjjgj^g . ^^j jj^gj^ liberty was enlarged as 
 
 they reduced the number of masters, at whose" voice 
 profane reason must bow to mystery and miracle. The 
 early separation of the Gnostics had preceded the es- 
 tablishment of the catholic worship ; and against the 
 gradual innovations of discipline and doctrine, they 
 were as strongly guarded by habit and aversion, as by 
 the silence of St. Paul and the evangelists. The ob- 
 jects which had been transformed by the magic of 
 superstition, appeared to the eyes of the Paulicians in 
 their genuine and naked colours. An image made 
 without hands, was the common workmanship of a 
 mortal artist, to whose skill alone the wood and can- 
 vass must be indebted for their merit or value. The 
 miraculous relics were aheap of bones and ashes, des- 
 titute of life or virtue, or of any relation, perhaps, with 
 the person to whom they were ascribed. The true and 
 vivifying cross was a piece of sound or rotten timber; 
 the body and blood of Christ, a loaf of bread and a cup 
 of wine, the gifts of nature and the symbols of ^race. 
 The mother of God was degraded from her cefestial 
 lionours and immaculate virginity ; and the saints and 
 angels were no longer solicited to exercise the labori- 
 ous office of mediation in heaven, and ministry upon 
 earth. In the practice, or at least in the theory, of the 
 sacraments, the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all 
 visible objects of worship, and the words of the gospel 
 were, m their judgment, the baptism and communion 
 of the faithful. They indulged a convenient latitude 
 for the interpretation of Scripture; and as often as 
 they were pressed by the literal sense, they could 
 escape to the intricate mazes of figure and allegory. 
 1 heir utmost diligence must have been employed to 
 dissolve the connexion between the Old and the New 
 Testament; since they adored the latter as the oracles 
 of God, and abhorred the former as the fabulous and 
 absurd invention of men or daemons. We cannot be 
 surprised that they should have found in the gospel 
 
 inJSJ^u.J^L^tfX"'^^ *P"^^® *»f S'- P«»er, the Paulician. are 
 ^pJn, fs^J w^ ,*^- ^^% I^^-t respectable of the ancienla and mo- 
 t!^^^^cl7^TuL^V,^- ^""°"' Hi«t- Critique du Nouveau Tee- 
 Sfi .: rJ A 7^^^ I'^^ewise overlooked the Apocalypee. (Petr. 
 Sicul p. 756.) but as uuch neglect is not impuie<l as a brii^ie. the 
 Greeks of the ninth century must hare been carelesrof the credU 
 and honour of the Revelations. ^-"^eiess oi tne credit 
 
 • This contention, which has not escaped the malice of Porohvrv 
 fupposes some error and passion in one or both of the aposiles Bv 
 Chrysostom, Jerom, and Erasmus, it is represented as a sham *aua/ 
 rel, a pious fraud, for the benefit of the Gentiles and the correction 
 of the Jews. (iMiddleton's Works, vol. ii. p. 1-20.) <^orrection 
 
 » Thtwe who are curious of this heterodox library, may consult the 
 researches of Beausobre.(Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, torn. i. p 
 A»j-4J7.) Lven in Africa, St. Austin could describe the Manichaean 
 ^; i!.\*I!' "?"'^'» tarn grandes, Urn pretiosi codices, (contra Faust. 
 xui. 14.) but he adds, without pity, Incendite omnes illa« membra- 
 nas. and his advice has been rigorously followed. 
 
 the orthodox mystery of the Trinity: but instead of 
 confessing the human nature and substantial snfrerinog 
 of Christ, they amused their fancy with a celestial body 
 that passed through the virgin like water through a 
 pipe: with a fantastic crucifixion, that eluded the vain 
 and impotent malice of the Jews. A creed thus simple 
 and spiritual was not adapted to the ge- rr. 
 nius of the times ;. and the rational chris- ?wo JrinMpiel'if 
 tian, who might have been contented with ihe Magians and 
 the light yoke and easy burthen of Jesus Manichaans. 
 and his apostles, was justly offended, that the Pauli- 
 cians should dare to violate the unity of God, the first 
 article of natural and revealed religion. Their belief 
 and their trust was in the Father, of Christ, of the 
 human soul, and of the invisible world. But they like- 
 wise held the eternity of matter; a stubborn and 
 rebellious substance, the origin of a second principle, 
 of an active being, who has created this visible world, 
 and exercises his temporal reiun till the final consum- 
 mation of death and sin."* The appearances of moral 
 and physical evil had established the two principles 
 in the ancient philosophy and religion of the east; 
 from whence this doctrine was transfused to the varioui 
 swarms of the Gnostics. A thousand shades may be 
 devised in the nature and character of ^Am/ion, from a 
 rival god to a subordinate daemon, from passion and 
 frailty to pure and perfect malevolence: but, in spite 
 of our efl^orts, the goodness, and the power, of Ormusd 
 are placed at the opposite extremities of the line; and 
 every step that approaches the one must recede in equal 
 proportion from the other.' 
 
 The apostolic labours of Constantine- m. 
 Sylvanus soon multiplied the number of mem ofX^pjI;: 
 his disciples, the secret recompense of licians in Arme- 
 spiritual ambition. The remnant of the "'*' Pontus, Ac. 
 Gnostic sects, and especially the Manichseans of Ar- 
 menia, were united under his standard ; many catholics 
 were converted or seduced by his arguments ; and he 
 preached with success in the regions of Pontus " and 
 Cappadocia, which had long since imbibed the religion 
 of Zoroaster. The Paulician teachers were distinguish- 
 ed only by their scriptural names, by the modest liUe of 
 fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity of their lives, their 
 zeal or knowledge, and the credit'of some extraordinary 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapable of 
 desiring, or at least of obtaining, the wealth and honours 
 of the catholic prelacy: such anti-christian pride they 
 bitterly censured ; and even the rank of elders or pres- 
 byters was condemned as an institution of the Jewish 
 synagogue. The new sect was loosely spread over 
 the provinces of Asia Minor to the westward of the Eu- 
 phrates; six of their principal congregations represented 
 the churches to which St. Paul had addressed his epis- 
 ties ; and their founder chose his residence in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Colonia,> in the same district of Pontus 
 which had been celebrated by the altars of Bellona" 
 
 2Sr 
 
 Sif..T.l)i®rnV?Pj^-.K'™"u''^ the Paulicians are defined by Peter 
 biculus, (p. 7o6 ) with much prejudice and passion. 
 
 m,».Ml^"r."n '"T"* *»»oma est, duo rerum esse principia; Deura 
 malum et Deum bonum, aliumque hujus mundi conditorem et pria. 
 cipein, et ahum futuri «vi. (Peir. Sicul. p. 736.) ^ 
 
 rn'riTi/nil ;l?rJ Moshe.m, (Instuui. Hist. Eccles. and de Rebui 
 Christianis ante Consianiinum,sec i. ii. iii.) have laboured to explore 
 
 ^1h'e'rwTp'rrn^c%?el^"'^"' -^'^^"'^ '' '"^^ «"-^- - ^^e suS^ 
 k The countries between the Euphrates and the Halvs were no., 
 sessed above 350 years by the Medes (Herodot 1 i! c 1(» ) and P^ 
 nit" •L*"?^'^? ^'%' °^ Po°l"» were of the royal fkce of the Ach» 
 
 Su Le^ailr,' tom.^.ttut",'rp.'2S^ "' '' ''- ^^"^^^^^"' ^oya/a 
 .«"} The leinnleof Bellona,at Comana in Pontus, was a powerful 
 and wealthy fljundanon, and the high priest was respecieS m thi 
 second person m the kingdom. As the sacerd^al Xe hid b^S 
 occupied by his rnother's family, Slrabo (1. xii. p. 809 835 836 ffi?^ 
 
 i[^s?^::^ ^^ ^-^"- -^ ci^^«:r^7f ihTiod^diitt^jf'!^ 
 
 ij 
 
 end the miracles of Gregory." After a mission of 
 twenty-seven years, Sylvanus, who had retired from 
 the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell a sacri- 
 Persecuiion of fice to Roman persecution. The laws 
 the Greeit em- of the pious emperors, which seldom 
 perors. touched the lives of less odious here- 
 
 tics, proscribed without mercy or disguise the tenets, 
 the books, and the persons of the Montanists and Man- 
 ichaeans: the books were delivered to the flames; and 
 all who should presume to secrete such writings, or to 
 profess such opinions, were devoted to an ignominious 
 death.*' A Greek minister armed with legal and mili- 
 tary powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shep- 
 herd, and to reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a 
 refinement of cruelty, Simeon placed the unfortunate 
 Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were com- 
 manded, as the price of their pardon and the proof of 
 their repentance, to massacre their spiritual father. 
 They turned aside from the impious office; the stones 
 droptfrom their filial hands, and of the whole number, 
 only one executioner could be found, a new David, as 
 he is styled by the catholics, who boldly overthrew 
 the giant of heresy. This apostate, Justus was his 
 name, again deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting 
 brethren, and a new conformity to the acts of St. Paul 
 may be found in the conversion of Simeon : like the 
 apostle, he embraced the doctrine which he had been 
 sent to persecute, renounced his honours and fortunes, 
 and acquired among the Paulicians the fame of a mis- 
 sionary and a martyr. They were not ambitious of 
 martyrdom,!* but in a calamitous period of one hundred 
 and fifty years, their patience sustained whatever zeal 
 could inflict; and power was insufficient to eradicate 
 the obstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason. From 
 the blood and ashes of the first victims, a succession 
 
 or the flames. Her guilt or merit has perhaps been 
 stretched beyond the measure of truth ; but if the ac- 
 count be allowed, it must be presumed that many 
 simple Iconoclasts were punished under a more odi- 
 ous name; and that some who were driven from 
 the church, unwillingly took refuge in the bosom of 
 heresy. 
 
 The most furious and desperate of re- Revolt of the 
 bels are the sectaries of a reliofion long Paulicians, 
 persecuted, and at length provoked. In ^- ^ ^5-880. 
 a holy cause they are no longer susceptible of fear or 
 remorse : the justice of their arms hardens them against 
 the feelings of humanity ; and they revenge their 
 father's wrongs on the children of their tyrants. Such 
 have been the Hussites of Bohemia and the Calvinists 
 of France, and such in the ninth century, were the 
 Paulicians of Armenia and the adjacent provinces.' 
 They were first awakened to the massacre of a gover- 
 nor and bishop, who exercised the imperial mandate of 
 converting or destroying the heretics : and the deepest 
 recesses of mount Argaeus protected their independence 
 and revenge. A more dangerous and consuming flame 
 was kindled by the persecution of Theodora, and the 
 revolt of Carheas, a valiant Paulician, who commanded 
 the guards of the general of the east. His father had 
 been impaled by the catholic inquisitors ; and religion, 
 or at least nature, might justify his desertion and 
 revenge. Five thousand of his brethren were united 
 by the same motives ; they renounced the allegiance 
 of antichristian Rome ; a Saracen emir introduced Car- 
 beas to the caliph ; and the commander of the faithful 
 extended his sceptre to the implacable enemy of the 
 Greeks. In the mountains between Se- They fortify j 
 was and Trebizond he founded or forti- Tephrice, 
 fied the city of Tephrice,* which is still occupied by a 
 
 of teachers and congregations repeatedly arose : amidst | fierce and licentious people, and the neighbouring hills 
 their foreign hostilities, they found leisure for domestic were covered with the Paulician fugitives, who now 
 quarrels : they preached, they disputed, they suffered ; j reconciled the use of the Bible and the sword. During 
 and the virtues, the apparent virtues, of Sergius, in a | more than thirty years, Asia was afflicted by the calam- 
 pilgrimage of thirty-three years, are reluctantly con- jities of foreign and domestic war : in their hostile in- 
 fessed by the orthodox historians.** The native cruel- j roads the disciples of St. Paul were joined with those 
 ty of Justinian the second was stimulated by a pious { of Mahomet; and the peaceful christians, the aged 
 cause; and he vainly hoped to extinguish, in a single j parent and tender virgin, who were delivered into bar- 
 conflagration, the name and memory of the Paulicians. barous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerant 
 By their primitive simplicity, their abhorrence of pop- spirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, 
 ular superstition, the Iconoclast princes might have so intolerable the shame, that even the dissolute Mi- 
 been reconciled to some erroneous doctrines ; but they chael, the son of Theodora, was compelled to march in 
 themselves " . . - . . _ _ . 
 
 monks, and 
 
 were exposed to 
 they chose to be 
 
 should be accused as the accomplices, of the Manichae 
 ans. Such a reproach has sullied the clemency of 
 Nicephorus, who relaxed in their favour the severity 
 of the penal statutes, nor will his character sustain the 
 honour of a more liberal motive. The feeble Michael 
 the first, the rigid Leo the Armenian, were foremost in 
 the race of persecution ; but the prize must doubtless 
 be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of Theodora, 
 who restored the images to the oriental church. Her 
 inquisitors explored the cities and mountains of the 
 lesser Asia, and the flatterers of the empress have af- 
 firmed that, in a short reign, one hundred thousand 
 Paulicians were extirpated by the sword, the gibbet, 
 
 n Gregory, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea, (A. D. 240 — ^265.) surnamed 
 Thaumaturgus, or the Wonder-worker. A hundred years afterwards, 
 the history or romance of his life was composed by Gregory of Nyssa, 
 liis namesake and countryman, the brother of the great St. Basil. 
 
 o Hoc caslerum ad sua egregia facinora, divini atque orthodoxi 
 imperitores addideruni, ut Manichseos Montanosque capitali puniri 
 «ententia juberent, eorumque libros, quocumque in loco invenli es- 
 Bent flammis tradi ; quod siquis uspiam eosdem occullasse deprehen- 
 deretur, hunc eundem mortis pnenae addici, ejusque bona in fiscum 
 Inferri. (Petr. Sicul. p. 759.) What more could bigotry and persecu- 
 tion desire 1 
 
 P It should seem, that the Paulicians allowed themselves some 
 latitude of equivocation and menial reservation : till the catholics 
 discovered the pressing questions, which reduced them to the alter- 
 native of apostasy or martyrdom. (Petr. Sicul. p. 760.) 
 
 q The persecution is told by Peirus Siculus (p. 579—763.) with 
 •atisfaclion and pleasantry. Justus Justa persolvit. Simeon was 
 not T.To,- but x;)rs<, (the pronunciation of the two vowels must have 
 been nearly the same,) a great whale thai drowned the mariners who 
 cnisiook bim for an island. See likewise Cedrenus, (p. 432—435.) 
 
 the calumnies of the person against the Paulicians : he was defeated under 
 the tyrants, lest they the walls of Samosata; and the Roman emperor fled 
 
 before the heretics whom his mother had condemned 
 to the flames. The Saracens fought under the same 
 banners, but the victory was ascribed to Carbeas ; and 
 the captive generals, with more than a hundreci tri- 
 bunes, were either released by his avarice, or tortured 
 by his fanaticism. The valour and ambition of Chry- 
 socheir,* his successor, embraced a wider circle of 
 rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful 
 Moslems, he boldly penetrated into the heart of Asia; 
 the troops of the frontier and the palace were repeat- 
 edly overthrown ; the edicts of persecu- and niiiage Asia 
 tion were answered by tlie pillage of Minor, 
 Nice and Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus; nor 
 could the apostle St. John protect from violation his 
 city and sepulchre. The cathedral of Ephesus was 
 turned into a stable for mules and horses ; and the 
 Paulicians vied with the Saracens in their contempt 
 and abhorrence of images and relics. It is not unplea- 
 
 r Petras Siculus, (p. 763, 764.) the conlinuator of Theophanes, (1. 
 iv. c. 4. p. 103, 104.) (Cedrenus, (p. 541, 542. 545.) and Zonaras, (torn, 
 ii. I. xvi. p. 156.) describe the revolt and exploits of Carbeas and his 
 Paulicians. 
 
 • Otter (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, tom. ii.) is probably ths 
 only Frank who has visited the independent barbarians of Tephrice, 
 now Divrigni, from whom he fortunately escaped in the train of a 
 Turkish officer. 
 
 t In the history of Chrvsocheir, Genesius (Chron. p. 67—70. edit. 
 Venel.) has exposed the nakedness of the empire. Consuntine Por- 
 phyro<^enitus (in Vit. BaDil. c 37—43. p. 166-171.) has displayed th* 
 glory of his grandfather. Cedrenus (p. 570—573.) is witnoul tk«ir 
 passions or their knowledge. 
 
 
 I 
 
 ; t 
 
 ■ i 
 
 I 
 
k • 
 
 284 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 hi 
 
 h 
 
 w 
 
 ■ing lo observe the triumph of rebellion over the same 
 despotism which has disdained the prayers of an inju- 
 red people. The emperor Basil, the Macedonian, was 
 reduced to sue for peace, to offer a ransom for the cap- 
 tives, and to request, in the language of moderation 
 and charity, that Chrysocheir would spare his fellow- 
 christians, and content himself with a royal donative 
 of gold and silver and silk garments. " If the empe- 
 ror," replied the insolent fanatic, " be desirous of peace, 
 let him abdicate the east, and reign without molestation 
 in the west. If he refuse, the servants of the Lord 
 will precipitate him from the throne." The reluctant 
 Basil suspended the treaty, accepted the defiance, and 
 Jed his army into the land of heresy, which he wasted 
 with fire and sword. The open country of the Pauli- 
 cians was exposed to the same calamities which they 
 had inflicted ; but when he had explored the strength of 
 1 ephrice, the multitude of the barbarians, and the ample 
 mapzines of arms and provisions, he desisted with a 
 sigh from the hopeless siege. On his return to Con- 
 stantinople belaboured, by the foundation of convents 
 and churches, to secure the aid of his celestial patrons, 
 of Michael the archangel and the prophet Elijah ; and 
 It was his daily prayer that he might liv« to trans- 
 pierce, with three arrows, the head of his impious ad- 
 versary. Beyond his expectations, the wish was ac- 
 complished : after a successful inroad, Chrysocheir 
 was surprised and slain in his retreat ; and the rebel's 
 liead was triumphantly presented at the foot of the 
 throne. On the reception of this welcome trophy, 
 Basil instantly called for his bow, discharged three 
 arrows with unerringr aim, and accepted the applause 
 of the court, who hailed the victory of the royal archer. 
 Their decline, ^y^ Chrysocheir, the glory of the Pau- 
 Ucians faded and withered ;« on the se- 
 cond expedition of the emperor, the impregnable Te- 
 phrice was deserted by the heretics, who sued for 
 inercy or escaped to the borders. Thecity was ruined, 
 but the spirit of independence survived in the moun- 
 tains : the Pauhcians defended, above a century, their 
 religion and liberty, infested to the Roman limits, and 
 maintained their perpetual alliance with the enemies 
 ot the empire and the gospel. 
 
 Their transpian- About the middle of the eighth centu- 
 raeniato'Thrace/J' ^onstantine, surnamed Copronymus 
 by the worshippers of images, had made 
 an expedition into Armenia, and found, in the cities of 
 Melitene and Theodosiopolis, a great number of Pau- 
 licians, his kindred heretics. Asa favour, or punish- 
 ment, he transplanted them from the banks of the 
 I^uphrates to Constantinople and Thrace; and by this 
 emigration their doctrine was introduced and diffused 
 in Lurope.« If the sectaries of the metropolis were 
 soon mingled with the promiscuous mass, those of the 
 coun ry struck a deep root in a foreign soil. The 
 Pauhcians of Thrace resisted the storms of persecu- 
 lion, maintained a secret correspondence with their 
 Armenian brethren, and gave aid and comfort to their 
 
 flTtlu V"! ' n*"!'"^! "^' ^''^^"^ «"««ess» the in- 
 fant fdith of the Bul^rians.7 In the tenth century, 
 
 they were restored ana multiplied by a more powerful 
 colony which John Zimisces" transported from the 
 nrS'^r *"^^' t?, the valleys of mount Ha^mus. The 
 oriental clergy who would have preferred the destruc- 
 t^n, impa lently sighed for the absence of the Man- 
 ch«ans: the War ike emperor had felt and esteemed 
 their valour: their attachment to the Saracens was 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 Chap. XV. 
 
 gant .8 the Greek tongue, even in the mouth of CeSu«*. ^""^ '^^' 
 X Copronymus transported his t«^,.,v.s-, heretics -and th.,- . 
 
 ^h^^JnVais'^f Vh;>phan;r' '''' "^"^^""-' '^ ^^"> -^' ^^ -'p^ed 
 
 S tS« n'/""* addressed his preservative, the H.sioria Echio?um 
 10 the new archbishr.p of the Bulgarians, (p. 754.) ^*'»'<^"««''um, 
 
 ZimLesa £%7n wiU'^'l"' '"^ Jn'j^''^"' t'-'^nsplanted by John 
 bITm Mf.i ••• ', ^^'^'" Armenia to Thrace, is mentioned bv Zo 
 
 pregnant with mischief; but, on the side of the Dan- 
 ube, against the barbarians of Scythia, their service 
 might be useful, and their loss would be desirable. 
 Iheir exile in a distant land was softened by a free 
 toleration : the Paulicians held the city of Philippopolis 
 and the keys of Thrace; the catholics were their sub- 
 jects; the Jacobite emigrants their associates: thev 
 occupied a line of villages and castles in Macedonia 
 and bpirus ; and many native Bulgarians were associ- 
 ated to the communion of arms and heresy. As lono- 
 as they were awed by power and treated with mode* 
 ration, their voluntary bands were distinguished in the 
 armies of the empire ; and the courage of these do^s, 
 Z^f ^r^^l""^ war, ever thirsty of human blood, is 
 noticed with astonishment, and almost with reproach, 
 by the pusillanimous Greeks. The same spitit ren- 
 dered them arrogant and contumacious: they were 
 easily provoked by caprice or injury; and their privi- 
 eges were often violated by the faithless bigotry of 
 the government and clergy. In the midst of the 
 Norman war, two thousand five hundred Manichaeans 
 deserted the standard of Alexius Comnenus,* and re- 
 tired to their native homes. He dissembled till the 
 moment of revenge; invited the chiefs to a friendly 
 conference; and punished the innocent and guilty bv 
 imprisonment, confiscation, and baptism. In an inter- 
 val of peace, the emperor undertook the pious office of 
 reconciling them to the church and state : his winter- 
 quarters were fixed at Philippopolis ; and the thirteenth 
 apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, con- 
 sumed whole days and nights in theological cintro- 
 versy. His arguments were fortified, their obstinacy 
 was melted, by the honours and rewards which he 
 bestowed on the most eminent proselytes ; and a new 
 city, surrounded with gardens, enriched with iramuni- 
 ties, and dignified with his own name, was founded by 
 Alexius, for the residence of his vulgar converts. The 
 important station of Philippopolis was wrested from 
 their hands; the contumacious leaders were secured in 
 a dungeon, or banished from their country ; and their 
 hves were spared by the prudence, rather than the 
 mercy, of an emperor, at whose command a poor and 
 solitary heretic was burnt alive before the church of 
 ^t.bophia.*' But the proud hope of eradicating the 
 prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned bv the 
 invincible zeal of the Paulic'ians,Uo ceased to^u! 
 
 death of Alexius, they soon resumed their civil and 
 religious laws. In the beginning of the thirteenth 
 
 3TJ' V/ ^''^1''' P""™^^« (^ manifest corruption) 
 res ded on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Dal- 
 ma la, and governed, by his vicars, the filial congre- 
 gations of Italy and France.' From that lera, a minutt 
 scrutiny might prolong and perpetuate the cha n of 
 tradition. At the end of the last' age, the sect or col- 
 onx still inhabited the valley of mounJ H«mus, where 
 their Ignorance and poverty were more frequently tor^ 
 
 ^rlpnt^^r';,' ^'!f^ 'If^^y *^^" ^y '^' TurkishVov- 
 ernment. fhe modern Paulicians have lost all memory 
 
 ZTtS' u ^ <^ross, and the practice of bloody sacri- 
 
 of TaTtaryV'""" ''^''''' *''^' '"''"''''"^ ^'""^ '^'^ ^'^'^^ 
 
 In the west, the first teachers of the t,. . . , , 
 Manich«an theology had been repulsed tion'^n't^o^T^a"!,; 
 oy the people, or suppressed by the and France, ' 
 
 ble here,, .he wa» de.i™."fT?u.ine '''■'''''''°'' ""'°'° "'"'"'"'• 
 
 tic',, w"o ;irv"a!;iXf. anr'c'o'nfn ■ j» ^r""!"?' « •«" »' «""• 
 Mcheim, Hi«. EccSuca, p 3S) T"' *'"""'■ '• "■ P- '»6-<M. 
 
 c Matt. Paris, Hist. Maittr n 9fi7 'ri.:-„ , _ 
 
 torian is alleged by Ducan '^^n an eirln P^''^^® "^^Vf ^"^^''^ ^i.. 
 
 J 1 Se«lviarsigii, Slato Miliurt dell' Imperio Ottomano, p. 91 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 285 
 
 
 to the strong, though secret, discontent which armed 
 the most pious christians against the church of Rome. 
 Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious : 
 less degenerate perhaps than the Greeks in the worship 
 of saints and images, her innovations were more rapid 
 and scandalous : she had rigorously defined and im- 
 posed the doctrine of transubstantiation : the lives of 
 the Latin clergy were more corrupt, and the eastern 
 bishops might pass for the successors of the apostles, 
 if they were compared with the lordly prelates, who 
 wielded by turns the crosier, the sceptre, and the sword. 
 Three different roads might introduce the Paulicians 
 into the heart of Europe. After the conversion of 
 Hungary, the pilgrims who visited Jerusalem might 
 Bafoly follow th« course of the Danube : in their jour- 
 ney and return they passed through Philippopolis ; and 
 the sectaries, disguising their name and heresy, might 
 accompany the French or German caravans to their 
 respective countries. The trade and dominion of 
 Venice pervaded the coast of the Adriatic, and the 
 hospitable republic opened her bosom to foreigners 
 of every climate and religion. Under the Byzantine 
 standard, the Paulicians were often transported to the 
 Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily : in peace and war 
 they freely conversed with strangers and natives, and 
 their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Mi- 
 lan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps.* It was soon 
 discovered, that many thousand catholics of every rank, 
 and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaean her- 
 esy ; and the flames which consumed twelve canons 
 of Orleans was the first act and signal of persecution. 
 The Bulgarians,' a name so innocent in its origin, so 
 odious in its application, spread their branches over the 
 face of Europe. United in common hatred of idolatry 
 and Rome, they were connected by a form of episcopal 
 and presbyierian government; their various sects were 
 discriminated by some fainter or darker shades of the- 
 ology ; but they generally agreed in the two principles, 
 the contempt of the Old Tc'Stament, and the denial of 
 the body of Christ, either on the cross or in the Eucha- 
 rist. A confession of simple worship and blameless 
 manners is extorted from their enemies ; and so high 
 was their standard of perfection, that the increasing 
 congregations were divided into two classes of disci- 
 ples, of those who practised, and of those who aspired. 
 It was in the country of the Albigeois,'^ in the southern 
 Persecution of provinces of France, that the Paulicians 
 the Aibi^eois, were most deeply implanted; and the 
 A. D. 1200, Sec. g^jjjg vicissitudes of martyrdom and re- 
 venge which had been displayed in the neighbourhood 
 of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the 
 eastern emperors were revived by Frederic the second. 
 The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by the 
 barons and cities of Languedoc : Pope Innocent III. 
 surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was 
 in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes 
 of the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far 
 excelled by the founders of the inquisition ;•' an office 
 
 e The Introduction of the Paulici^s into Italy and France, is am- 
 ply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italia medii ^vi, torn. v. 
 dissert. Ix. p. 81-152.) and Mosheim (p. 379-382.419—422.) Yet 
 b«Hh hiive overlooked a curious passage of Willian) the Apulian, who 
 clearly describes them in a battle between the Greeks and the Nor- 
 mans, A. D. 1040. (in Muratori, Script. Kerum Ital. tom. v. p. 256.) 
 Cum Graecis aderant quidam. quos pessiinus error 
 Fecerat amenies, et ab ipso nomen habebant. 
 But he is so ignorant of their doctrine as to make them a kind of 
 Sabelllans or Patripassians. 
 
 f Bulgari, BoulgrM, Bougres, a national appellation, has been 
 appli^'d by the French as a term of reproach to usurers and unnatu- 
 ral sinners. The Paterini, or Palelini, has been made lo signify a 
 BUKKHh and flattering hypocrite, such as VArocat Patelin of that 
 original and pleasant'farce. (Ducange, Gloss. Latinitat. medii et in- 
 fimi M\\ ) The Manichxans were likewise named Cathari, or the 
 pure, by corruption, Gazari, Sec. 
 
 g Of the laws, crusade, and persecution against the Albigeois, a 
 jusi, though general, idea is expressed by Mosheim, (p. 477— 481.) 
 The detail may be found in the ecclesiastical historians, ancient and 
 mcKiem, catholics and proiestania; and amongst these Fleury is the 
 nit>8t impartial and moderate. 
 
 b The acta (Liber Senientiarum) of the inquisition of Thoulouse 
 (A. D. 1307—1323; have been publifhed by Limborch (Amstelodami, 
 
 more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of 
 an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Pau- 
 licians, or Albigeois, were extirpated with fire and 
 sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, 
 concealment, or catholic conformity. But the invinci- 
 ble spirit which they had kindled still lived and breath- 
 ed in the western world. In the state, in the church, 
 and even in the cloister, a latent succession was 
 preserved of the disciples of St. Paul, who protested 
 against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bible as 
 the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the 
 visions of the Gnostic 'theology. The struggles of 
 Wickliflf in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were pre- 
 mature and inefliectual ; but the names of Zuinwlius, 
 Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as 
 the deliverers of nations. 
 
 A philosopher, who calculates the de- character and 
 gree of their merit and the value of their consequences of 
 reformation, will prudently ask from ^*'® Keformation. 
 what articles of faith, above or against our reason, they 
 have enfranchised the christians ; for such enfranchise- 
 ment is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compa- 
 tible with truth and piety. After a fair discussion we 
 shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than scanda- 
 lized by the freedom of our first reformers.' With the 
 Jews, they adopted the belief and defence of all the 
 Hebrew scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the 
 garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; 
 and they were bound, like the catholics, to justify 
 against the Jews the abolition of a divine law. In the 
 great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the re- 
 formers were severely orthodox : they freely adopted 
 the theology of the four, or the first six, councils ; and 
 with the Athanasian creed, they pronounced the eternal 
 damnation of all who did not believe the catholic faith. 
 Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread 
 and wine into the body and blood of Christ, is a tenet 
 that may defy the power of argument and pleasantry ; 
 but instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, 
 of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first 
 protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and 
 awed by the words of Jesus in the institution of the 
 sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, and Cal- 
 vin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist; and the 
 opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual 
 communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed 
 in the reformed churches.'^ But the loss of one mys- 
 tery was amply compensated by the stupendous doc- 
 trines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and 
 predestination, which have been strained from the 
 epistles of St. Paul. These subtle questions had most 
 assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen ; 
 but the final improvement and popular use may be at- 
 tributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as 
 the absolute and essential terms of salvation. Hith- 
 erto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against 
 the Protestants ; and many a sober christian would 
 rather admit that a wafer is God, than that God is a 
 cruel and capricious tyrant. 
 
 Yet the services of Luther and his rivals are solid 
 and important ; and the philosopher must own his ob- 
 ligations to these fearless enthusiasts.' I. By their 
 hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuse 
 of indulgences to the intercession of the Virgin, has 
 
 1692.) with a previous history of the inquisition in general. They 
 deserved a more learned and critical editor. As we must not calum- 
 niate even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will observe, that of a list of 
 criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four 
 women were delivered to the secular arm. 
 
 i The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposed in the 
 second part of the general history of Mosheim; but the balance, 
 which he has held with so clear an eye, and so steady a hand, begins 
 to incline in favour of his Lutheran brethren. 
 
 k Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and perfect: 
 but in the fundamental articles of the church of England, a strong; 
 and explicit declaration against the real presence was obliterated in 
 the original copy, to please the people or the Lutherans, or Queea 
 Elizabeth. (Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 82. 128. 302.) 
 
 1 " Had it not been for such men an Luther and myself," said th* 
 fanatic Whiston to Halley the philosopher, "you would now te 
 kneeling before an image of St. Wiaifred." 
 
 m 
 
 '1 •»i 
 
I 
 
 286 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVI 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 is 
 
 i''i 
 
 been levelled with the ground. Myriads of both sexes 
 of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty 
 and labours of social life. An hierarchy of saints and 
 angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were 
 stripped of their temporal power, and reduced to the 
 enjoyment of celestial happiness : their images and 
 relics were banished from the cliurch ; and the credu- 
 lity of the people was no longer nourished with the 
 daily repetition of miracles and visions. The imitation 
 of paganism was supplied by a pure and spiritual 
 worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy 
 of man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only re- 
 mains to observe, whether such sublime simplicity be 
 consistent with popular devotion; whether the vulgar, 
 in the absence of all visible objects, will not be infla- 
 med by enthusiasm, or insensibly subside in languor 
 and indifference. IL The chain of authority was 
 broken, which restrains the bigot from thinking as he 
 pleases, and the slave from speaking as he thinks : 
 the popes, fathers, and councils, were no longer the 
 supreme and infallible judges of the world ; and each 
 christian was taught to acknowledge no law but the 
 scriptures, no interpreter but his own conscience. This 
 freedom, however, was the consequence, rather than 
 the design, of the reformation. The patriot reformers 
 were ambitious of succeeding the tyrants whom they 
 had dethroned. They imposed with equal rigour their 
 creeds and confessions ; they asserted the right of the 
 magistrate to punish heretics with death. The pious 
 or personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in Serve- 
 tus- the guilt of his own rebellion:" and the flames of 
 Smithfield, in which he was afterwards consumed, had 
 been kindled for the Anabaptists by the zeal of Cran- 
 mer.« The nature of the tiger was the same, but he 
 was gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs. A 
 spirtual and temporal kingdom was possessed by 
 the Roman pontiff: the proteetant doctors were sub- 
 jects of an humble rank, without revenue or juris- 
 diction. His decrees were consecrated by the anti- 
 quity of the catholic church : their arguments and 
 disputes were submitted to the people ; and their ap- 
 peal to private judgment was accepted beyond their 
 wishes, by curiosity and enthusiasm. Since the 
 days of Luther and Calvin, a secret reformation has 
 been silently working in the bosom of the reformed 
 churches ; many weeds of prejudice were eradicated ; 
 and the disciples of Erasmus p diffused a spirit of 
 freedom and moderation. The liberty of conscience 
 has been claimed as a common benefit, an inalienable 
 right :i the free governments of Holland' and Eng- 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 land • introduced the practice of toleration ; and the 
 narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by 
 the prudence and humanity of the times. In The ex- 
 ercise, the mind has understood the limits, of its pow- 
 ers, and the words and shadows that might amuse 
 the child can no longer satisfy his manly reason. 
 The volumes of controversy are overspread with cob- 
 webs : the doctrine of a protestant church is far re- 
 moved from the knowledge or belief of its private 
 members ; and the forms of orthdoxy, the articles of 
 faith, are subscribed with a sigh, or a smile, by the 
 modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity are 
 alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and 
 scepticism. The predictions of the catholics are ac- 
 complished : the web of mystery is unravelled by the 
 Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose numbers 
 must not be computed from their separate congrega- 
 tions ; and the pillars of revelation are shaken by those 
 men who preserve the name without the substance of 
 religion, who indulge the licence without the temper 
 of philosophy.* 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 T/ieBulgarians.-^Origin, migrations, and settlement of the 
 
 Hungarians. — Their inroads in the east and ivest. The 
 
 monarchy of Russia.— Geogranhy and trade. — Wars of 
 the Russians against the Greek empire.— Conversion of 
 the barbarians, "' 
 
 uThTtL^^I. ""^^n^t W^^ Diclionnaire Critique of Chauffepl.^, 
 ^P« ^iiTo ^''''T^YJi';*'],'?^^^ "^^^ "f ^f^'s shameful transaciU 
 Ic! lorn. 7i!'p. 55!-1m!' ^^^*°"y' tio^,^■^.^xx Memoirea d'Hiatoir"; 
 n I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution of Serve- 
 tua, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the Auto de Fes of 
 ?«PZ,iS^h^'*'^"^*'- }''^^^ ^^*» "^C:alvin seems to have been en- 
 Id JZf?v hV^",1"*^ malice, and perhaps envy. He accused his 
 betra^?7for hi! tV' ?'"'"°!? ^""'"'t«' '^^ J"^sefl of Vienna, and 
 den?/ 2 Ti L .^^,^'"/^"'".' ^^® "^"^^ ^""""^ ^^ «» P^^'-^le corre^pon- 
 dana!; tl'IU ^. ""^ ""^'^^ ,''*? "°^ varnished by the pretence of 
 yetu^a wai, a h.r^'T*' °"'^^*- ^" t'" P*^^« through Geneva, Ser- 
 nni n J,ff I ^'^V"^^" Stranger, who neither preached, nor printed, 
 dien??whi?h"*hP^tp!; •^- A catholic inquisitor^ields the aame obe-' 
 ditn^as he wmfwi hT^T"' H?^ ^**^" T»*^*^ '^e golden rule of 
 SL of iLrLr* rl M*^"?® ^y ' *. "^^^ ^*''<^*» I read in a moral trea- 
 tise of laocraiea, (m Nicole, torn. i. p. 93. edit. Battle.) four hundred 
 years before the publication of the ioapel. 'A J-^x ,T^ru9'?r.I!. 
 
 CGibbon has not given the exact ineanin«'of this passage whirh 
 does not inculcute fully the rule of chafiiv-" /Jo uT^d^^th* 
 uhichypu .could uiah (hot they sho^iiaJoL you^'-b'uilhf/pl /fhl 
 rule of justice-" i?o not those things to othirsichichifSn^Jtl 
 your»efres by them, tcould irritate you:^^-G ' '"^ *''^** '^ 
 
 ^ o See Burnet, vol. ii. page &1-86. The sense and humanity of the 
 young king were oppressed by the authority of the primate 
 
 Ptrdsinus may be considered aa the father of rational iheolo^v 
 After a slumber of a hundred years, it was revived by the Arminians 
 of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le Clerc; in England by Chil 
 Jjngworth, the lat.tudinarians of Cambridge, (Burnet, fiist. of his own 
 2'y"*c.'' '' ^' ^^-^^- '^^^'^ ediiiono Tillotaon, Clarke, hS 
 
 ^\. L*.T ■°'"7 ^° obaerve, that the three writers of the last age, by 
 
 ri\h^iJ "fi'^i" "*( ^leration have been ao nobly defended, gayle, 
 
 lieibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and philosophers. ^ ' 
 
 » &«• th« •xcelleni chapter of Sir WiUium Templa on the religion 
 
 Unijer the reign of Constantino the grandson of 
 Her^clius, the ancient barrier of the Danube, so often 
 violated and so often restored, was irretrievably swept 
 away by a new deluge of barbarians. Their progress 
 was favoured by the caliphs, their unknown and acci- 
 dental auxiliaries ; the Roman legions were occupied 
 in Asia; and after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Af- 
 rica, the Cffisars were twice reduced to the danger and 
 disgrace of defending their capital against the Sara- 
 cens. If, in the account of this interesting people, I 
 have deviated from the strict and original line of my 
 undertaking, the merit of the subject will hide my 
 transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the east, in 
 the west, in war, in religion, in science, in their pros- 
 perity, and in their decay, the Arabians press them- 
 selves on our curiosity; the first overthrow of the 
 church and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to 
 their arms; and the disciples of Mahomet still hold 
 the civil and religious sceptre of the oriental world. 
 But the same labour would be unworthily bestowed 
 on the swarms of savages, who, between the seventh 
 and the twelfth century, descended from the plains of 
 fecythia, m transient inroad, or perpetual emigration.* 
 Iheir names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their 
 actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their 
 valour brutal, and the uniformity of their public and 
 private lives was neither softened by innocence, nor 
 refined by policy. The majesty of the Byzantine 
 throne repelled and survived their disorderly attacks; 
 the greater part of th ese' barbarians has disappeared 
 
 BeI^4Kia?7'i"'„''il \r V":'?*'';!?''*^ *'^h G^»'"'' (J« R^bu* 
 npri»i .'«/.<?<■ • P; *^' *^* ?*^'*- '" '2mo.) who appn»ve8 the im- 
 
 of the InoSistiSS""'"''""' *°^ ^"»y ^«"^«'""'' the'Soody tribuSl 
 ^i'-^'"".}^ illiam Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p 53 54 ^ pt- 
 plains the law of England aa it was fixed at the RevoluUon ThS 
 exceptions of pap.sia, and of those who deny the Trinity woud a.ilT 
 leave a tolera\)le ^^cope for persecution, if the national spirit were 
 not more effectual than a hundrod statutes. ^ 
 
 t I shall recommend to public animadversion two Dassa?eji in 
 Dr. Priestley, which betray the ultimate tendency of h?som^nh,ns 
 n 27^'" Q^rT'i 1 '^''^ f "'^^-^'^ '^^ Corruptions of Chr^straniiyTvoM: 
 may uemblef' ^"'''' ^' '^^ "''''"^' <'"*• *' P'^*^-) ^^e magistrati; 
 
 ^All the passages of the Byzantine history which relate to iha 
 barbarians, are compiled, meih.uliso,!, and transcribed in a Latin 
 version, by the laborious John Gotthef StritSr, |n his^' V^.^^^^^^^ 
 
 ti;m''pirii^l7SJr''!'7?i'"^'"r •"""'' *^ Seplemtnones incolen* 
 Burih« f«K?^K ' ^'^^'-^P '"/'ur tomes, or six volumes, in 4ta, 
 But the fashiun baa uol enhanced the price of these raw materiala. 
 
 % 
 
 I 
 
 without leaving any memorial of their existence, and 
 the despicable remnant continues, and may long con- 
 tinue, to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. 
 From the antiquities of, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, 
 and, III. Russians, I shall content myself with select- 
 ing such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. The 
 conquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy of 
 the, V. Turks, will naturally terminate in the memora- 
 ble Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double fall of 
 the city and empire of Constantine. 
 Emieration of In his march to Italy, Theodoric'' the 
 *a® n"i^"i°^' Ostrogoth had trampled on the arms of 
 A.D.bw,&c. tj^g Bulgarians. After this defeat, the 
 name and the nation are lost during a century and' a 
 half; and it may be suspected that the same or a simi- 
 lar appellation was revived by strange colonies from 
 the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga. A king 
 of the ancient Bulgaria « bequeathed to his five sons a 
 last lesson of moderation and concord. It was re- 
 ceived as youth has ever received the counsels of age 
 and experience : the five princes buried their father ; 
 divided his subjects and cattle; forgot his advice; 
 separated from each other; and wandered in quest of 
 fortune, till we find the most adventurous in the heart 
 of Italy, under the protection of the exarch of Raven 
 
 287 
 
 na." 
 
 ! 
 
 
 \ 
 
 But the stream of emigration was directed or 
 impelled towards the capital. The modern Bulgaria, 
 along the southern banks of the Danube, was stamped 
 with the name and image which it has retained to the 
 present hour; the new conquerors successively ac- 
 quired, by war or treaty, the Roman provinces of Dar- 
 dania, Thessaly, and the two Epirus' ; • the ecclesias- 
 tical supremacy was translated from the native city of 
 Justinian ; and, in their prosperous age, the obscure 
 town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was honoured with 
 the throne of a king and a patriarch.' The unques- 
 tionable evidence of language attests the descent of 
 the Bulgarians from the original slock of the Scla- 
 vonian, or more properly Slavonian, race ; « and the 
 kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croa- 
 tians, Walachians,'' &c. followed either the standard 
 or the example of the leading tribe. From the Eux- 
 ine to the Adriatic, in the state of captives, or sub- 
 jects, or allies, or enemies, of the Greek empire, 
 they overspread the land ; and the national appella- 
 tion of the SLAVES' has been degraded by chance or 
 malice from the signification of glory to that of servi- 
 
 b See vqI. i. p, 533. 
 
 *oo^oo"P^."^'' P- 296-299. Anastasius, p. 113. Nlcephorus, C. P. 
 p. -K, 2J Theophanes places the old Bulgaria on the banks of the 
 Atell or Volga; but he deprives himself of all geographical credit, 
 by discharging that river into the Euxine sea. 
 
 d Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. 1. v. c. 29. p. SSI, SS2. The 
 apparent difference between the Lombard historian and the above- 
 mentioned Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo Pellesrino (de 
 Ducaiu Kpneveniano, dissert, vii. in the Scriptores Rerum Ital. tom 
 y. p. 1»>,I87) and Beretti. Chorograph. Italia medii ^vi, p. 273, 
 *c.) This Bulgarian colony was planted in a vacant district of 
 Samnium, and learned the Latin, without forgetting their native 
 lan^iage. " 
 
 • These provinces of the Greek idiom and empire, are assigned to 
 the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 between the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople. (Baronius, An- 
 nal. Eccles. A. D. 869. No. 75.) 
 
 ' The situation and royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida, are clearly 
 expressed in Cedrenus, (p. 713.) The removal of an archbishop or 
 patriarch from Justinianea prima to Lychnidus, and at length to 
 1 ernovo, has produced some perplexity in the ideas and language of 
 Ihe Greeks, (Nicephoras Gregoras, I. ii. c. 2. p. 14, 15. Thomasin, 
 Discipline de I'Eglise, tom. 1. 1. i.e. 19. 23.) and a Frenchman (D'An- 
 ville) IS more accurately skilled in the geography of their own coun- 
 "J- (Hist, de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xjrxi.) 
 
 s Chalcondyles, a competent judjre, affirms the identity of the 
 language of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians, J3u/^an<w»«, Poles, 
 cue Kebus Turcicis, 1. x. p. 283.) and elsewhere of the Bohemians, 
 II. n. p. 38.) The same author has marked the separate idiom of the 
 Hungarians. 
 
 h See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de Originibus Scla- 
 Jicis, Vindubonae, 1745. in four parts, or two volumes in folio. His 
 coneciions and researches are useful to elucidate the antiquities of 
 ^onemia and the adjacent countries : but his plan is narrow, his style 
 barbarous, his criticism shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free 
 from the prejudices of a Bohemian. 
 
 fr^J%j ''"''*"'^^8 V* ^he well-known and probable derivation 
 i«r?l ?i"/°' {""*l^^«^'«. a word of familiar use in the different dia- 
 J^fif m .P*^ "^ "^^^^l *^^ ^*''<^»» ^'>f"« Ihe termination of the 
 W^ 101 loS'S' '"^"' ^ 0'*«i^»^'» Sclanicis, pais i. p. 40. pars 
 
 tude.* Among these colonies the Chro- 
 batians,^ or Croats, who now attend the vo'Sti^n.^D^: 
 motions of an Austrian army, are the ^atia, 
 descendants of a mighty people, the con- ^' ^* ^» ^^' 
 querors and sovereigns of Dalmatia. The maritime 
 cities, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa, im- 
 plored the aid and instructions of the Byzantine court: 
 they were advised by the magnanimous Basil to re- 
 serve a small acknowledgment of their fidelity to the 
 Roman empire, and to appease, by an annual tribute, 
 the wrath of these irresistible barbarians. The kincr. 
 dom of Croatia was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feu- 
 datory lords ; and their united forces were numbered 
 at sixty thousand horse and one hundred thousand 
 foot. A long sea-coast, indented with capacious har- 
 bours, covered with a string of islands, and almost in 
 sight of the Italian shores, disposed both the natives 
 and strangers to the practice of navigation. The boata 
 or brigantines of the Croats were constructed after the 
 fashion of the old Liburnians ; one hundred and eicrhly 
 vessels may excite the idea of a respectable navy ;°but 
 our seamen will smile at the allowance of ten, or twen- 
 ty, or forty, men for each of these ships of war. They 
 were gradually converted to the more honourable ser- 
 vice of commerce ; yet the Sclavonian pirates were 
 still frequent and dangerous; and it was not before the 
 close of the tenth century that the freedom and sove- 
 reignty of the gulf were effectually vindicated by the 
 Venetian republic." The ancestors of these Dalma- 
 tian kings were equally removed from the use and 
 abuse of navigation ; they dwelt in the White Croatia, 
 in the inland regions of Silesia and Little Poland, 
 thirty days' journey, according to the Greek compu- 
 tation, from the sea of darkness. . 
 
 The glory of the Bulgarians" was v » ir- a 
 confined to a narrow scope both of time of the filigll 
 and place. In the ninth and tenth cen- *"•*"»» 
 turies, they reigned to the south of the A. ^- ^^O-^Oir. 
 Danube; but the more powerful nations that had fol- 
 lowed their emigration, repelled all return to the north 
 and all progress to the west. Yet, in the obscure ca- 
 talogue of their exploits, they might boast an honour 
 which had hitherto been appropriated to the Goths ; 
 that of slaying in battle one of the successors of Au- 
 gustus and Constantine. The emperor Nicephorus 
 had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his life in the 
 Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced 
 with boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, 
 and burnt the royal court, which was probably no'more 
 than an edifice and village of timber. But, while he 
 searched the spoil, and refused all offers of treaty, his 
 enemies collected their spirits and their forces : the 
 passes of retreat were insuperably barred ; and the 
 trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim : "Alas ! 
 alas ! unless we could assume the wings of birds, we 
 cannot hope to escape." Two days he waited his fate 
 in the inactivity of despair ; but, on the morning of the 
 third, the Bulgarians surprised the camp ; and the Ro- 
 man prince, with the great officers of the empire, were 
 slaughtered in their tents. The body of 
 Valens had been saved from insult ; but 
 
 A. D. 811. 
 
 k This conversion of a national into an appellative name appeal* 
 to have arisen in the eighth century, in the oriental France, where 
 the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of the 
 Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but of Sorabian, race. From thence 
 the word was extended to general use, to the modern languages, ancb 
 even to the style of the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and I^tia 
 Glossaries of Ducange.) The confusion of the iit&Kf, or Servians,, 
 with the Latin Servi, was still more fortunate and familiar. (Coa- 
 stant. Porphyr. de administrando imperio, c. 32. p. 99.) 
 
 1 The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most accurate for his- 
 own times, most fabulous for preceding ages, describes the Sclavo- 
 nians of Dalmatia, (c. 29—36.) 
 
 m See the anonymous chronicle of the eleventh century, ascribed 
 to John Sagorninus, (p. 94—102.) and that composed in the fourteenth 
 by the Doge Andrew Dandolo; (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom. xii.p. 227— 
 230.) the two oldest monuments of the history of Venice. 
 
 n The first kingdom of the Bulgarians msnr be found, under tl^ 
 proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras. The Byzan- 
 tine materials are collected by Slriiter ; (Memoris Populorum, tom. 
 ii. pars ii. p. 441—647.) and the series of their kings is dispoced %ni 
 •euled by Ducange. (Fam. Byzauu p. 305—318.) 
 
 I 
 
 
'!i ^ 
 
 988 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Hi 
 
 the head of Nicephorus was exposed on a spear, and 
 his skull, enchased with gold, was often replenished 
 in the feasts of victory. The Greeks bewailed the 
 dishonour of the throne ; but they acknowledged the 
 just punishment of avarice and cruelty. This savage 
 cup was deeply tinctured with the manners of the 
 Scythian wilderness; but they were softened before 
 the end of the same century by a peaceful intercourse 
 with the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated region, 
 and the introduction of the christian worship. The 
 nobles of Bulgaria were educated in the schools and 
 palace of Constantinople ; and Simeon," a youth of the 
 
 Qflft_927 ^°y^^ ^^"®' ^'^^ instructed in the rhetoric 
 * or 932. * of Demosthenes and the logic of Aristo- 
 tle. He relinquished the profession of a 
 monk for that of a king and warrior; and in his reign, 
 of more than forty years, Bulgaria assumed a rank 
 ^ among the civilized powers of the earth. The Greeks, 
 whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consola- 
 tion from indulging themselves in the reproaches of 
 perfidy and sacrilege. They purchased the aid of the 
 pagan Turks ; but Simeon, in a second battle, redeem- 
 ed the loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed 
 a victory to elude the arms of that formidable nation. 
 The Servians were overthrown, made captive, and dis- 
 persed ; and those who visited the country before their 
 restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants, 
 without women or children, who extorted a precarious 
 subsistence from the chace. On classic ground, on 
 the banks of the Achelous, the Greeks were defeated ; 
 their horn was broken by the strength of the barbaric 
 HercuIes.P He formed the siege of Constantinople; 
 and, in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon 
 imposed the conditions of peace. They met with the 
 most jealous precautions; the royal galley was drawn 
 close to an artificial and well-fortified platform ; and 
 the majesty of the purple was emulated by the pomp 
 of the Bulgarian. " Are you a christian V said the 
 humble Romanus : •* It is your duty to abstain from 
 the blood of your fellow-christians. Has the thirst 
 of riches seduced you from the blessincrs of peace 1 
 Sheath your sword, open your hand, and I will satiate 
 the utmost measure of your desires." The reconcilia- 
 tion was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom 
 of trade was granted or restored ; the first honours of 
 the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above 
 the ambassadors of enemies or strangers ; *> and her 
 princes were dignified with the high and invidious title 
 A. D. 950 &.C. ^^f*^*^^^* or emperor. But this friend- 
 ■ ■ ' ' ship was soon disturbed : after the death 
 of Simeon, the nations were again in arms ; his feeble 
 successors were divided and extinguished; and, in the 
 beoinning of the eleventh century, the second Basil, 
 who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation 
 of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in 
 «ome measure gratified by a treasure of four hun- 
 dred thousand pounds sterling, (ten thousand pounds' 
 weight of gold,) which he found in the palace of 
 Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite 
 vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been 
 guilty of the defence of their country. They were de- 
 prived of sight; but to one of each hundred a single 
 eye was left, that he might conduct his blind century 
 to the presence of their king. Their king is said to 
 
 o Simeonem aemi-Grascum esse aiebant, eo quod a pueritia By- 
 iniii Demosihenis rheioricam et Arisloielis syllogismos decJicerai. 
 Liulprand, I. in. c. 8. He saya in another place, Simeon, forlis be!- 
 Jalor, BulgariB praserai ; Chnsiianus, sed vicinis Graecis valde ini- 
 
 -Rigidum fera dextera cornu 
 
 Diicus, (I. i. c. 2.) 
 
 P 
 
 Dum tenet, infregit, truncaque a fronte revellit. 
 Ovid (Meiamorph. ix. 1— 100.) has boldly painted the combat of the 
 yiver ?od and the hero; the native and the stranger. 
 
 n The ambassador of Oiho was provoked by the Greek excuses 
 cum Chrisiophori filiam Peirus Bulgarorum VasiUua conjugem du' 
 ceret. Symphona, id est consonantia, scripto jurameuto firma^a sunt 
 «t omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum 
 Aposioli prsBponantur, honorentur, diligentur. (Liuiprand. in Lega. 
 tione, p. 4*2.) See the Ceremoniale of C'onstantine Porphyrogenitus. 
 torn. i. p. 82. torn. ii. p. 429, 430. 434, 435. 443, 444. 446, 447. with the 
 •nnoiaiioDj of Kei«k9. 
 
 have expired of grief and horror; the nation was awed 
 by this terrible example ; the Bulgarians were swept 
 away from their settlements, and circumscribed within 
 a narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to 
 their children the advice of patience and the duty of 
 revenge. 
 
 II. When the black swarm of Hun- Emigration of 
 garians first hung over Europe, about the Turks or 
 nine hundred years after the christian Hungarians, 
 aera, they were mistaken by fear and su- A.D.884. 
 perstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, 
 the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.' 
 Since the introduction of letters, they have explored 
 their own antiquities with a strong and laudable im- 
 pulse of patriotic curiosity.' Their rational criticism 
 can no longer be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila 
 and the Huns ; but they complain that their primitive 
 records have perished in the Tartar war ; that the truth 
 or fiction of their rustic songs is long since forgotten ; 
 and that the fragments of a rude chronicle * must be 
 painfully reconciled with the contemporary though fo- 
 reign intelligence of the imperial geographer." Magiar 
 is the national and oriental denomination of the Hun- 
 garians ; but, among the tribes of Scythia they are 
 distinguished by the Greeks under the proper and 
 peculiar name of I'urks, as the descendants of that 
 mighty people who had conquered and reigned from 
 China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved 
 a correspondence of trade and amity with the eastern 
 Turks on the confines of Persia; and after a separa- 
 tion of three hundred and fifty years, the missionaries 
 of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their 
 ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They 
 were hospitably entertained by a people of pagans and 
 savages, who siill bore the name of HungariaTis ; con- 
 versed in their native tongue, recollected a tradition of 
 their long-lost brethren, and listened with amazement 
 to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and reli- 
 s^ion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the 
 interest of consanguinity; and one of the greatest of 
 their princes had formed the generous, though fruit- 
 less, design of replenishing the solitude of Pannonia 
 by this domestic colony from the heart of Tartary.* 
 From this primitive country they were driven to the 
 west by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight 
 of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were 
 fugitives and conquerors. Reason or fortune directed 
 their course towards the frontiers of the Roman em- 
 pire ; they halted in the usual stations along the banks 
 of the great rivers ; and in the territories of Moscow, 
 Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have been dis- 
 covered of their temporary residence. In this long 
 and Viirious peregrination, they could not always es- 
 cape the dominion of the stroncrer; and the purity of 
 their blood was improved or sullied by the mixture of 
 
 r A bishop of Wurtrburgh submitted this opinion to a reverend 
 abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog were the 
 ppiriiual persecutors of the church ; since Giig signifies the root, the 
 pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the rcwt, the 
 propagation of their sects. Yet these men once commanded the re- 
 spect of mankind (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 594, &c.) 
 
 • The two national authors, from whom I have derived the most 
 assistance, are George Pray, (nisseriaiiones ad Annales veterura 
 Hungarorum, &c. Vindobonae, 1775. in folio,) and Stephen Katona. 
 (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hunsrariae siirpia Arpadiana, Pas- 
 tini, 1778—1781, 5 vols, in ocUvo.) The first embraces a large and 
 often conjectural space; the latter, by his learning, judgment, and 
 perspicuity, deserves the name of a critical historian. 
 
 t The author of this Chronicle is styled the noury of king Bela. 
 Katona has assigned him to the twelfth century, and defends his 
 character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This rude annalist 
 must have transcribed some historical records, since he could affirm 
 with dignity, rejeclis falsis fabulis rusiicorum, et garrulo canlu jocu- 
 lalorum. In the fifteenth century, these fables were collected by 
 Thurotzius, and embellished by the Italian Bonfinius. See the Pre- 
 liminary Discourse in the Hist. Critica Ducum, p. 7—33. 
 
 n See Constantino de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4. 13. 38— 42. 
 Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work to the year* 
 949, 9jO, 951. (p. 4-7.) The critical historian (p. 34-107.) eiidea- 
 voiirs to prove the e.xislence, and to relate the actions, of a first 
 iluke AtmuSf the father of Arpad, who is Ucitly rejected by Con- 
 
 X Pray (Dissertat. p. 37-39, &c.) produces and illustrates the orl 
 ginai passages of the Hungariaa niiasioiuiries, Boufiaitu and JSaeU 
 
 W Jf 1 V i U«e 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 289 
 
 « 
 
 i 
 
 « foreign race : from a motive of compulsion, or choice, 
 several tribes of the Chazars were associated to the 
 standard of their ancient vassals; introduced the use 
 of a second language; and obtained by their superior 
 renown the most honourable place in the front of bat- 
 tle. The military force of the Turks and their allies 
 marched in seven equal and artificial divisions ; each 
 division was formed of thirty thousand eight hundred 
 and fifty-seven warriors, and the proportion of wo- 
 men, children, and servants, supposes and requires at 
 least a million of emigrants. Their public councils 
 were directed by seven vayvods^ or hereditary chiefs ; 
 but the experience of discord and weakness recom- 
 loended the more simple and vigorous administration 
 of a single person. The sceptre, which had been 
 declined by the modest Lebedius, was granted to the 
 birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the 
 authority of the supreme khan of the Chazars con- 
 firmed the engagement of the prince and people ; of 
 the people to obey his commands, of the prince to con- 
 sult their happiness and glory. 
 
 Their Fennic With this narrative we might be rea- 
 
 origin. sonably content, if the penetration of 
 
 modern learning had not opened a new and larger 
 prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian 
 language stands alone, and as it were insulated amonor 
 the Sclavonian dialects ; but it bears a close and clear 
 afRnity to the idioms of the Fennic race,^ of an obso- 
 lete and savage race, which formerly occupied the 
 northern regions of Asia and Europe. The genuine 
 appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western 
 confines of China ; » their migration to the banks of the 
 Irtish is attested by Tartar evidence;* a similar name 
 and langfuage are detected in the southern parts of 
 Siberia ; * and the remains of the Finnic tribes are 
 widely, though thinly, scattered from the sources of 
 the Oby to the shores of Lapland.' The consanguinity 
 of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the 
 powerful energy of climate on the children of a com- 
 mon parent; the lively contrast between the bold ad- 
 venturers, who are intoxicated with the wines of the 
 Danube, and the wretched fugitives who are immersed 
 beneath the snows of the polar circle. Arms and free- 
 dom have ever been the ruling, though too often the 
 unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are en- 
 dowed by nature with a vigorous constitution of soul 
 and body."" Extreme cold has diminished the stature 
 and congealed the faculties of the Laplanders ; and 
 the Arctic tribes, alone among the sons of men, are 
 ignorant of war, and unconscious of human blood : a 
 ^.^PPy ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guar- 
 dians of their peace ! • 
 
 T Fischer, in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de Origine Ungrorum, 
 and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii. &c. have drawn up several comparative 
 tables of the Hungarian with the Fennic dialects. The affinity is 
 indeed striking, but the lists are short; the words are purposely 
 chosen ; and I read In the learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petro- 
 pol. lorn. X. p. 374.) that although the Hungarian has adopted many 
 hennic words, (innumeras voces.) it essentially diflfers toto genio et 
 natura. 
 
 « In the region of Turfan, which is clearly and minutely described 
 by the Chinese geographers. (Gaubil. Hist, du Grand Gengiscan, p. 
 13.; De Guignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31, &c.) 
 
 * Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi Bahadur Khan, 
 panie ii. p. 90-98. » r o , 
 
 b In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives (Harris's Collection 
 of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920, 921.) and Bell (Travels, vol. 
 >• p. 174.) found the Vogulitz in the neighbourhood of Tobolsky. By 
 the tortures of the etymological art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to 
 the same name; the circumjacent mountains really bear the appel- 
 lation of Ugrian; and of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the 
 nearest to the Hungarian. (Fischer, Dissertat. i. p. 20—30. Pray, 
 Dissertat. ii. p. 31— 34.) 
 
 e The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described in the curious 
 work of M. Leveque. (Hist, des Peuples soumis a la Domination de 
 la Russie, tom. i. p. 361—561.) 
 
 A This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is chiefly drawn 
 irom the Tactics of Leo, p. 796-801. and the Latin Annals, which 
 are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A. D. 889, &c. 
 
 • Buffon, (Hist. Naturelle. tom. v. p. 6. in 12mo. Gustavus Adol- 
 phus attempted, without success, to form a regiment of Laplan- 
 tiers. Grotius says of these Arctic tribes, arma arcus et pharetra, 
 sed adversjs feras; (Annal. 1. iv. p. 236.) and attempts, after the 
 manner of Tacitus, to varrish with philosophy their brutal igao- 
 
 \oh. H.— 2M 19 
 
 It is the observation of the imperial Tactics and ma*, 
 author of the Tactics,' that all the Scy- n^" of the Hun- 
 thian hordes resembled each other in llJlaH' ^^^ ^^' 
 their pastoral and military life, that they A.*d' 900, ate. ' 
 all practised the same means of subsistence, and em- 
 ployed the same instruments of destruction. But he 
 adds, that the two nations of Bulgarians and Hunga- 
 rians were superior to their brethren, and similar to 
 each other, in the improvements, however rude, of their 
 discipline and government; their visible likeness de- 
 termines Leo to confound his friends and enemies in 
 one common description; and the picture may be 
 heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries 
 of the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of 
 military prowess, all that is valued by mankind ap- 
 peared vile and contemptible to these barbarians, 
 whose native fierceness was stimulated by the con- 
 sciousness of numbers and freedom. The tents of the 
 Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; 
 they shaved their hair, and scarified their faces : in 
 speech they were slow, in action prompt, in treaty 
 perfidious; and they shared the common reproach of 
 barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of 
 truth, too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their 
 most solemn engagements. Their simplicity has been 
 praised ; yet they abstained only from the luxury they 
 had never known ; whatever they saw, they coveted ; 
 their desires were insatiate, and their sole industry was 
 the hand of violence and rapine. By the definition of 
 a pastoral nation, I have recalled a long description of 
 the economy, the warfare, and the government that 
 prevail in that stage of society; I may add, that to 
 fishing, as well as to the chase, the Hungarians were 
 indebted for a part of their subsistence: and since 
 they seldom cultivated the ground, they n»ust, at least 
 in their new settlements, have sometimes practised a 
 slight and unskilful husbandry. In their emigrations, 
 perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompanied 
 by thousands of sheep and oxen, who increased the 
 cloud of formidable dust, and afforded a constant and 
 wholesome supply of milk and animal food. A plen- 
 tiful command of forage was the first care of the gene- 
 ral, and if the flocks and herds were secure of their 
 pastures, the hardy warrior was alike insensible of 
 danger and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle 
 that overspread the country exposed their camp to a 
 nocturnal surprise, had not a still wider circuit been 
 occupied by their light cavalry, perpetually in motion 
 to discover and delay the approach of the enemy. Af- 
 ter some experience of the Roman tactics, they adopt- 
 ed the use of the sword and spear, the helmet of the 
 soldier, and the iron breast-plate of his steed : but 
 their native and deadly weapon was the Tartar bow : 
 from the earliest infancy, their children and servants 
 were exercised in the double science of archery and 
 horsemanship ; their arm was strong ; their aim was 
 sure ; and in the most rapid career, they were taught 
 to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley 
 of arrows into the air. In open combat, in secret am- 
 bush, in flight, or pursuit, they were equally formida- 
 ble : an appearance of order was maintained in the 
 foremost ranks, but their charge was driven forwards 
 by the impatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They 
 pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and 
 horrific outcries ; but if they fled, with real or dissem- 
 bled fear, the ardour of a pursuing foe was checked 
 and chastised by the same habits of irregular speed 
 and sudden evolution. In the abuse of victory, they 
 astonished Europe, yet smarting from the wounds of 
 
 f Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks was monar- 
 chical, and that their punishments were rigorous. (Tactics, p. 896. 
 «?ri<i>f(; Kxi e>*(ii*i.') Khegino (in Chron. A. D. 889.) mentions theft 
 as a capital crime, and his jurisprudence is confirmed by the original 
 code of St. Stephen. (A. D. 1016.) If a slave were guilty, he was 
 chastised, for the first time, with the loss of his nose, or a fine of five 
 heifers; for the second, with the loss of his ears, or a similar fine; 
 for the third, with death; which the freeman did not incur till the 
 fourth offance, as his first penalty was the loss of liberty. (KaVewii 
 Hist. Begum Hungar. lorn. 1. p. 231, 232.) ^ 
 
 |l: 
 
](■ 
 
 '«.» 
 
 'H I 
 
 2oe 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 w 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 the Saracen and the Dane : mercy they rarely asked, ' covered country. They requested leave to retire ► 
 and more rarely bestowed ; both sexes were accused , their request was proudly rejected by the Italian king ^ 
 as equally inaccessible to pity, and their appetite for and the lives of twenty thousand christians paid the 
 
 Taw flesh mi^rht countpnancA thft nonul;ir talf>. th»t thpv f/irfzAif ^f k:« -.i.-*: __. _ i . . '^ . 
 
 291 
 
 law flesh migrht countenance the popular tale, that they 
 drank the blood and feasted on the hearts of the slain. 
 Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those princi* 
 pies of justice and humanity, which nature has im- 
 planted in every bosom. The licence of public and 
 private injuries was restrained by laws and punish- 
 ments ; and in the security of an open camp, theft 
 is the most temptingr and most dangerous offence. 
 Among the barbarians, there were many, whose spon- 
 taneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their 
 manners, who performed the duties, and sympathized 
 with the affections, of social life. 
 Esublishmeni . After a lonor pilgrimage of flight or 
 and inroads of victory, the Turkish hordes approached 
 ipl, a!d?^" *^^ common limits of the French and 
 Byzantine empires. Their first con- 
 quests and final settlements extended on either side of 
 the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and be- 
 yond the measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, 
 or the modern kingdom of Hungary.* That ample and 
 fertile land was loosely occupied by the Moravians, a 
 Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven by the 
 invaders into the compass of a narrow province. Char- 
 lemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire as 
 far as the edge of Transsylvania; but, after the failure 
 
 forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the 
 cities of the west, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in 
 fame and splendour; and the pre-eminence of Rome 
 Itself was only derived from the relics of the apostles.. 
 The Hungarians appeared ; Pavia was in 
 flames; forty-three churches were con- ^-^-^^ 
 sumed ; and, after the massacre of the people, they 
 spared about two hundred wretches, who had gathered 
 some bushels of gold and silver (a vague exaggera- 
 tion) from the smoking ruins of their country. In 
 these annual excursions from the Alps to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Rome and Capua, the churches, that yet 
 escaped, resounded with a fearful litany; "O save 
 and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians !" 
 But the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the tor- 
 rent rolled forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme 
 land of Calabria.^ A composition was offered and ac- 
 cepted for the head of each Italian subject ; and ten 
 bushels of silver were poured forth in the Turkish 
 camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of vio- 
 lence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the 
 numbers of the assessment and the standard of the 
 metal. On the side of the east the Hungarians were 
 opposed in doubtful conflict by the equal arms of the 
 Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with the 
 pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the 
 
 ihp^r Jrj i';'^l^'^'*"^' ^^^ ^?''^i^ forgot, .^^a..,, «..„ ^„,«e «,.„3„on lormea me 
 
 vZ.^ tTI '1^ ';' a"'^ fV^^ monarchs of oriental | feyzantine empire. The barrier was 
 
 ih? «rm« If ^tj^r^TuP ^'^^5 P'-^^l^ed to invite overturned ; the emperor of Constanti 
 ine arms of the Turks: thpv msbprt ihrmirrh tu^ ».«oi L,^ — 1„ u_l_ij ., '^ • . V . 
 
 the arms of the Turks : they rushed through the real 
 or figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown 
 open ; and the king of Germany has been justly re- 
 proached as a traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical 
 society of the christians. During the life of Arnulph, 
 the Hungarians were checked by gratitude or fear ; but 
 A.D. 900, &c. ^" *^® infancy of his son Lewis they dis- 
 covered and invaded Bavaria; and such 
 •was their Scythian speed, that in a single day a cir- 
 cuit of fifty miles was stript and consumed. In the 
 battle of Auorsburgh the christians maintained their 
 advantage till the seventh hour of the day : they were 
 deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of 
 the Turkish cavalry. The conflasjration spread over 
 the provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia ; and 
 the Hungarians'" promoted the reign of anarchy, by 
 forcing the stoutest barons to discipline their vassals 
 and fortify their castles. The origin of walled towns 
 
 A.D.924. 
 
 nople beheld the waving banners of the Turks ; and 
 one of their boldest warriors presumed to strike a bat- 
 tle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures 
 of the Greeks diverted the assault; but the Hungari- 
 ans might boast, on their retreat, that they had im- 
 posed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the ma- 
 jesty of the Caesars.' The remote and rapid opera- 
 tions of the same campaiorn appear to magnify the 
 power and numbers of the Turks ; but their courage is 
 most deserving of praise, since a liirht troop of three 
 or four hundred horse would often attempt and exe- 
 cute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalo- 
 nica and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the 
 ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a 
 triple scourge from the north, the east, and the south : 
 the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen, some- 
 times trod the same ground of desolation ; and these 
 savage foes might have been compared by Homer to 
 
 is ascribed to this calamitous period ; norc7urd'an; tTe'T^oTons | ow „g Tv^^r^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Vil! eo.!«H^*?';® ,^??l"«^ ?» e^^^my. who, almost at gled stag." ^ over.ine carcasses ol a man- 
 
 the same instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monas- 
 ^•jyofSt. Gall, and the city of Bremen, on the shores 
 of the northern ocpan. Above thirty years the Ger- 
 manic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the iano- 
 ininy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by'' the 
 raenace, the serious and effectual menace, of dragging 
 the women and children into captivity, and of slauerh- 
 tering the males above the age of ten years. I have 
 neither power nor inclination to follow the Hungarians 
 beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with surprise, 
 that the southern provinces of France were blasted 
 by the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, 
 A. D. 900. ^^^ astonished at the approach of these 
 1. I u J . formidable stranaers.' The vicinity of 
 Italy had tempted their early inroads ; but, from their 
 camp on the Brenta, they beheld with some terror the 
 apparent strength and populousness of the new-dis- 
 
 The deliverance of Germany and Victory of Henrr 
 Christendom was achieved by the Sax- iheFowier, 
 on princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho A.D.935. 
 the Great, who, in two memorable battles, for ever 
 broke the power of the Hungarians.* The valiant 
 
 g See Katona, Hist. Ducum. Hungar. p. 321—352 
 k Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere naiiones expense mevitiam 
 &c. in ih« preface of Liutprand, (1. i. c. 2.) who frequenilf e7Daikie« 
 on the calainuies of hit own limea. See 1. i. c. 5?]. ii. c! !Tiff 
 
 ^'I'So M'" '^'V'?"ol"Py mu" be reclified by Pagi and Miiraiori. 
 •.n- m J?'"*® ]*\?^J '*'^"'' "'■ A""?*''' Zoltan, and Toxus, are criti- 
 JI^JJk"*"^*^^''^ ?*^"''- <"'«^- Ducum, Ac. p. 107-499.) His d - 
 SkSuf^nf',"'''*^! t*''' "u*''**'" »"** foreigner; vet to the deeds of 
 
 k Muraion has considered with patriotic care the danger and re- 
 sources of Modena. The citizens besought St. Geniinilnus, iheir 
 patron, to aTert, by his intercession, the rabies, Jlagellum, &c! 
 
 Nunc le rogamus, licet servi pessiini, 
 ^. ... Ab Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis. 
 
 1 he bjshop erected walls for the public defence, not contra dnminoa 
 serenos, (Antiquitat. Ilal. med. iEvi, torn. i. disserlat. i. p. 21, 22.) and 
 the song of the nightW watch if not without elegance or use, (loin. 
 111. aiss. II. p. 709.) The Italian annalist ha« accurately traced the 
 
 5|i^'^^n ^"^"" ■".'?**^'»- (Annali d'llalia, torn. vii. p. 365. 367. 393. 401. 
 437. 440. torn. vjii. p. 19. 41. 52, *c.) 
 
 1 Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that they be- 
 "^IST'v'" attacked, or insulted Constantinople; (Pray, disserlat. x. 
 p. 239. Kalona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354 36(1.) ancf the fact is almost con- 
 lessea by the Byzantine historians : (Leo Grammaticus, p. 506. Ce- 
 drenus, torn. ii. p. 629.) yet, however glorious to the nation, it is de- 
 nied or doubled by the critical historian, and even by the notary of 
 liela. Iheir scepticism is meritorious; they could not safely tran- 
 scribe or believe the rusticorum fabulus: but Kalona nii^ht have 
 given due attention to the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gen- 
 lem aique Cfracorum tribuiariani fecerant. (Hisu 1. ii. c.4. p. 435.> 
 
 r.."m'^J?*^LA!!!9S2'^!^*'i^n';'"'^l""^ discussed by Katona. (Hist. Du- 
 cum, p. 56(^368. 427-470.) Liutprand (I. ii. c. 8, 9.) is the best evi- 
 denteforihe fortner,and Witichi.ul (Annal. Saxon.l. iii.) of ihiut- 
 ^IL}'^'' 'k* "lii<^»> historian wiU not even overlook "he horn if ^ 
 warnor, which u said to be preserved at Jazberio. - 
 
 I 
 
 Henry was roused from a bed of sickness by the inva- 
 sion of his country; but his mind was viaorous and 
 his prudence successful. " My companions," said he, 
 on the morning of the combat, " maintain your ranks, 
 receive on your bucklers the first arrows of the pa- 
 gans, and prevent their second discharge by the equal 
 and rapid career of your lances." They obeyed and 
 conquered : and the historical picture of the castle of 
 Merseburgh expressed the features, or at least the cha- 
 racter, of Henry, who, in an age of ignorance, intrusted 
 to the finer arts the perpetuity of his name." At the 
 end of twenty years, the children of the Turks who 
 had fallen by his sword invaded the empire of his son ; 
 and their force is defined, in the lowest estimate, at one 
 ofOiho the Great, hundred thousand horse. They were in- 
 A.D. 955. vited by domestic faction; the gates 
 of Germany were treacherously unlocked ; and they 
 spread, far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse, into the 
 heart of Flanders. But the vigour and prudence of 
 Otho dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made 
 serisible, that unless they were true to each other, their 
 religion and country were irrecoverably lost; and the 
 national powers were reviewed in the plains of Augs- 
 burgh. They marched and fought in eight legions, 
 according to the division of provinces and tribes ; the 
 first, second, and third, were composed of Bavarians; 
 the fourth of Franconians; the fifth of Saxons, under 
 the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth 
 and seventh consisted of Swabians ; and the eighth 
 legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of 
 the host. The resources of discipline and valour were 
 fortified by the arts of supersiiiion, which, on this oc- 
 casion, may deserve the epithets of generous and salu- 
 tary. The soldiers were purified with a fast; the camp 
 was blessed with the relics of saints and martyrs; and 
 the christian hero girded on his side the sword of Con- 
 stantino, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, 
 and waved the banner of St. Maurice, the praefect of 
 the Thebaean legion. But his firmest confidence was 
 placed in the holy lance,** whose point was fashioned 
 of the nails of the cross, and which his father had ex- 
 torted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats of 
 war, and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were 
 expected in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, 
 a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube ; turned 
 the rear of the christian army ; plundered the bag- 
 gage, and disordered the legions of Bohemia and 
 Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, 
 whose duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an 
 arrow as he rested from his fatigues : the Saxons 
 fought under the eye of their king; and his victory 
 surpassed, in merit and importance, the triumphs oV 
 the last two hundred years. The loss of the Hunga- 
 rians was still greater in the flight than in the action ; 
 they were encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and 
 their past cruellies excluded them from the hope of 
 mercy. Three captive princes were hanged at Ratis- 
 bon, the multitude of prisoners was slain or mutilated, 
 and the fugitives, who presumed to appear in the face 
 of their country, were condemned to everlasting po- 
 verty and disgrace.** Yet the spirit of the nation was 
 not humbled, and the most accessible passes of Hun- 
 gary were fortified with a ditch and rampart. Adver- 
 «ity suggested the counsels of moderation and peace : 
 
 A.D. 97!8. 
 
 • Hunc vero triumphum, tarn laude quam memoria dignum, ad 
 MeresbuFgum rex in superiori coenactilo domus per C*?-^*****', id 
 ••t, piciuram, noiari praBcepil,adeo ut rem veram potius quam verisi- 
 mil'-in videas; a high enaimiuin (Liutprand, 1. ii. c. 9.) Another 
 palace in Germany had been painted with holy subjects by the order 
 of Charlemagne; and Muratori may justly affirm, nulla secula fuere 
 In quibus piciores desiderati fueriut. (Antiquitat. Jul. medii iEvi, 
 torn. II. dissprt. xxiv. p. 360, 361.) Our domestic claims to antiquity 
 of Ignorance and original impf^rfection (Mr. Walpole's lively words) 
 o**^ \ * «nuch more recent dale. (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 
 
 P See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 929. No. 2-5. The lance of 
 Christ IS taken from the best evidence, Liutprand, (l.ix. c. 12.)Sige- 
 tert, an J the acts <>f St. Gerard : but the other military relics depend 
 on the faith of the Gnsia A n£.Mi>rum post Bedam, 1. ii. e. 8. 
 
 b Katona, Hisi, Ducum Hungari«, p. 500, &.c. 
 
 the robbers of the west acquiesced in a 
 sedentary life ; and the next generation 
 was taught by a discerning prince, that far more might 
 be gained by multiplying and exchanging the produce 
 of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish or 
 Fennic blood, was mingled with new colonies of Scy- 
 thian or Sclavonian origin ; ' many thousands of robust 
 and industrious captives had been imported from all 
 the countries of Europe;' and after the marriage of 
 Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he bestowed honours 
 and estates on the nobles of Germany.* The son of 
 Geisa was invested with the regal title, and the house 
 of Arpad reigned three hundred years in the kingdom 
 of Hungary. But the freeborn barbarians were not 
 dazzled by the lustre of the diadem, and the people 
 asserted their indefeasible right of choosing, deposing, 
 and punishing the hereditary servant of the state. 
 
 HI. The name of Russians « was first origin of the 
 divulged, in the ninth century, by an Russian mon- 
 embassy from Theophilus, emperor of ^^*^''y- 
 the east, to the emperor of the west, Lewis, the son 
 of Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by 
 the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, » n <«o 
 or czar, of the Russians. In their jour- 
 ney to Constantinople, they had traversed many hos- 
 tile nations; and they hoped to escape the dangers 
 of their return, by requesting the French monarch to 
 transport them by sea to their native country. A 
 closer examination detected their origin ; they were 
 the brethren of the Swedes and Normans, whose name 
 was already odious and formidable in France ; and it 
 might justly be apprehended, that these Russian stran- 
 gers were not the messengers of peace, but the emis- 
 saries of war. They were detained, while the Greeks 
 were dismissed ; and Lewis expected a more satisfac- 
 tory account, that he might obey the laws of hospital- 
 ity or prudence, according to the interest of both em- 
 pires.* The Scandinavian origin of the people, or at 
 least the princes, of Russia, may be confirmed and 
 illustrated by the national annals ^ and the general 
 
 r Among these colonies we may distinguish, 1. the Chazarw, or 
 Labari, who joined the Hungarians on their inarch. (Constant, de 
 Admin. Imp. c. 39, 40. p. 108, 109.) 2. The Jazyges, Moravians, and 
 isiculi, whom they found in the land ; the last were perhaps a rem- 
 nant of the Huns of Atlila, and were intnisted with the guard of the 
 borders. 3. The Russians, who, like the Swiss in France, imparled 
 a general name to the royal porters. 4. The Bulcarians, whose chiefs 
 (A. p. 956.) were invited, cum magna multitudiiie Hismahelitarumf 
 Had any of these Sclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion? 
 5. The Bisseni and Cumans, a mixed njultiiudeof Patzinacites, Uzi, 
 Chazars, &;c. who had spread to the lower Danube. The last colony 
 of 40,000 Cumans, A. D. 1239, was received and converted by the 
 kings of Hungary, who derived from that tribe a new regal appella- 
 tion. (Pray, Dissert, vi. vii. p. 109 -173. Kalona, Hist. Ducum. p. 
 95-99. 259-264. 476. 479-483, &c.) ' ^ 
 
 • Christiani autern, quorum pars major populi est, qui ex omni 
 parte mundi illuc iracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the languase of 
 Piligrinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary, A. D. 973. "Pans 
 major is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517. 
 
 t The lideles Teutonici of Geisa, are authenticated in old charac* 
 lers: and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a fair estimate 
 of these colonies, which had been so loosely magnified by ihe Iialiaa 
 Ranzanus. (Hist. Critic. Ducum, p. 667— 681.) 
 
 u Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singular form, 
 P^c, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologiei 
 have been suggested. I have penised, with pleasure and profit, a dis- 
 sertation de Origine Russtirum, (Comment. Academ. PetropoliunK, 
 tom. viii. p. 388-436.) by Theophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned Ger- 
 man, who spent his life and labours in the service of Russia. A geo- 
 graphical tract of D'Anville, de I'Empire de Rusaie, son Origine, et 
 ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772. in 12mo,) has likewise been of use. 
 
 X See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut aureis in tabuli» 
 figatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum, (in Script. Ital. Mun> 
 tori, U)m. ii. pars i. p. 525.) A. D. 839. twenty -two years before the am 
 of Ruric. In the tenth century, Liutprand (Hist. 1. v. c. 6.) speaks 
 of the Russians and Normans as the same Aquilonares homines of & 
 red complexion. 
 
 r My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M. Leveque, Hi»- 
 loire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these ancient annalista, 
 was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning of the twelfth cen- 
 tury ; but his chronicle was obscure, till it was published at Peters- 
 burgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist, de Russie, torn. i.p. xvi. Coxe's 
 Travels, vol. ii. p. 184. 
 
 [The late Schloetzer has translated and commented upon the An- 
 nals of Nestor; and his work is a mine of information to those who 
 would hereafter investigate the History of the North. In 1809, four 
 volumes of it wore already published. The whole work will consist 
 of twelve volumes. The first is occupied with an introduction to tlie 
 ancient history of Russia; the second contains the ancient history 
 of Russia, or that before Rurik and the reign of this prince ; the 
 third contains the reiga of Oleg, and the fourth that of Igor. |L 
 
 
 'Ii 
 
IR 
 
 20!^ 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 293 
 
 M4 
 
 history of the north. The Normans, who had 8o long 
 been concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, 
 suddenly burst forth in the spirit of naval and military 
 enterprise. The vast, and as it is said, the populous, 
 regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were 
 crowded with independent chieftains and desperate 
 adventurers, who sighed in the laziness of peace, and 
 smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy was the exer- 
 cise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the Scan- 
 dinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and 
 narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped 
 their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, 
 and explored every coast that promised either spoil or 
 settlement. The Baltic was the first scene of their 
 naval achievements ; they visited the eastern shores, 
 the silent residence of Fennic and Sclavonian tribes, 
 and the primitive Russians of the lake Ladoga paid a 
 tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these stran- 
 gers, whom they saluted with the title of Varangians^* 
 or Corsairs. Their superiority in arms, discipline, 
 and renown, commanded the fear and reverence of the 
 natives. In their wars aaainst the more inland sava- 
 ges, the Varangians condescended to serve as friends 
 and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or conquest, 
 obtained the dominion of a people whom they were 
 qualified to protect. Their tyranny was expelled, 
 their valour was again recalled, till at length, Ruric, a 
 A D 862 Scandinavian chief, became the father 
 of a dynasty which reigned above seven 
 hundred years. His brothers extended his influence : 
 the example of service and usurpation was imitated 
 by his companions in the southern provinces of Rus- 
 sia; and their establishments, by the usual methods 
 of war and assassination, were cemented into the fa- 
 bric of a powerful monarchy. 
 
 The Varansians ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ descendants of Ruric 
 of Constantino- were considered as aliens and conquer- 
 P^®' ors, they ruled by the sword of the Va- 
 
 rangians, distribu-ted estates and subjects to their faith- 
 ful captains, and supplied their numbers with fresh 
 streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast.* But 
 when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a deep and 
 permanent root into the soil, they mingled with the 
 Kussians in blood, religion, and language, and the first 
 "Waladimir had the merit of delivering his country 
 from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him 
 on the throne ; his riches were insufficient to satisfy 
 their demands; but they listened to his pleasing ad- 
 vice, that they should seek, not a more grateful, hut a 
 more wealthy, master; that they should embark for 
 Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk 
 and gold would be the recompence of their service. 
 At the same time the Russian prince admonished his 
 Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompence 
 and restrain, these impetuous children of the north. 
 Contemporary writers have recorded the introduction, 
 name, and character of the Varangians : each day they 
 rose in confidence and esteem ; the whole body was 
 assembled at Constantinople to perform the duty of 
 .•guards ; and their strength was recruited by a nume- 
 rous band of their countrymen from the island of 
 Thule. On this occasion, the vajrue appellation of 
 Thule is applied to England ; and the new Varangians 
 were a colony of English and Danes \\,ho fled from 
 the yoke of the Norman conqueror. The habits of 
 pilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries 
 
 Ewere, member of the Imperial Academy of Russian Anti(|uitie8, 
 has aliempird to proTe, in a disssria'.ion published at Riga in 1308. 
 that the founders of the Russian empire came from the south, and 
 were the Chozares, a Turcoman tribe. The son of the commentator 
 upon Nestor, M. Christian Schbjelzer, has replied to the greater part 
 of his objections. {Coup d^atil aur Vetat de la Lilttrature ancienne 
 tt de VHistoire en AlUmagne. By Ch. Villers, page 95, &c.)-G.] 
 
 % Thpophil. Sig. Bayer do Varagis, (for the name is diffi*rentiy 
 spell) in Comment. Acadeu) Petrt»politanaB, tom. iv. p. 275—311. 
 
 m Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were still guarded 
 «x fugiiivorum servorum robore confluentium, ei maxime Danorum. 
 Bayer, who quotes (p. 292.) the Chronicle of Dithmar of Merseburgh, 
 observes, that it was unusual for the Germans to enlist in a foreign 
 service. 
 
 of the earth ; these exiles were entertained in the By- 
 zantine court ; and they preserved, till the last age of 
 the empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and 
 the use of the Danish or English tongue. With their 
 broad and double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, 
 they attended the Greek emperor to the temple, the 
 senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted un- 
 der their trusty guard ; and the keys of the palace, the 
 treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and 
 faithful hands of the Varangians.** 
 
 In the tenth century, the geography of Geography and 
 Scythia was extended far beyond the trade of Russia, 
 limits of ancient knowledge; and the A. D. 950. 
 monarchy of the Russians obtains a vast and conspic- 
 uous place in the map of Constantine.' The sons of 
 Ruric were masters of the spacious province of Wol- 
 odomir, or Moscow : and, if they were confined on that 
 side by the hordes of the east, their western frontier in 
 those early days was enlarged to the Baltic sea and 
 the country of the Prussians. Their northern reign 
 ascended above the sixtieth degree of latitude, over 
 the Hyperborean regions, which fancy had peopled 
 with monsters, or clouded with eternal darkness. To 
 the south they followed the course of the Borysthenes, 
 and approached with that river the neighbourhood of 
 the Euxine sea. The tribes that dwelt, or wandered, 
 on this ample circuit, were obedient to the same con* 
 queror, and insensibly blended into the same nation. 
 The language of Russia is a dialect of the Sclavonian ; 
 but, in the tenth century, these two modes of speech 
 were different from each other; and, as the Sclavonian 
 prevailed in the south, it may be presumed that the 
 original Russians of the north, the primitive subjects 
 of the Varangian chief, were a portion of the Fennic 
 race. With the emigration, union, or dissolution of 
 the wandering tribes, the loose and indefinite picture 
 of the Scythian desert has continually shifted. But 
 the most ancient map of Russia affords some places 
 which still retain their name and position ; and the 
 two capitals, Novogorod** and Kiow,* are coeval with 
 the first age of the monarchy. Novogorod had not 
 yet deserved the epithet of great, nor the alliance of 
 the Hanseatic league, which diffused the streams of 
 opulence and the principles of freedom. Kiow could 
 not yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumera- 
 ble people, and a degree of areatness and splendour, 
 which was compared with Constantinople by those 
 who had never seen the residence of the Caesars. In 
 their origin, the two cities were no more than camps 
 or fairs, the most convenient stations in which the bar- 
 barians micrht assemble for the occasional business of 
 war or trade. Yet even these assemblies announce 
 
 b Du Cange has collected from the original authors the state and 
 history of the Varangi at Constantinople. (Glossar. Med. et Infim» 
 Graecitatis, sub roce Btf »>>^o.. Med. et Infimae Latinitatis, sub toco 
 Vagri. Not. ad Alexiad. Anna Comnense, p. 256—258. Notes sur 
 Villehardouin, p. 296—299.) See likewise the annotations of Reiska 
 to the Ceremotiiale Aulas Byzant. of Constantine, tom. ii. p. 149, 150. 
 Saxo Grammaticus athrms that they spoke Danish; but Codiniis 
 maintains them till the fifteenth century in the use of their nativ* 
 
 English: II*a.vx()i"^«vO'< •> i»(»yy9t K»Tm Tmt ir»Tft*¥ yKmrrm* 
 
 c The original record of the geography and trade of Russia is pro- 
 duced by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. 
 Imperii, c. 2. p. 55, 56. c. 9. p. 59—61. c. 13. p. 63—67. c. 37. p. 106. c. 
 42. p. 112, 113.) and illustrated by the diligence of Bayer, (de Geo> 
 graphia Russias vicinarumque Regionum circiter A. C. 948. in Com- 
 ment. Academ. Petropol. tom. ix. p. 367 — 422. tom. x. p. 371—421.) 
 with the aid of the chronicles and traditions of Russia, Scandiua> 
 via, &c. 
 
 d The haughty proverb, " Who can resist God and the great Novo- 
 gorod ?" is applied by IVt. Levesque (Hist, de Russie, torn. i. p. 60.) 
 even to the times that preceded the reign of Ruric. In the course 
 of his history he frequently celebralPS this rppublic, which was sup- 
 pressed A. U. 1475. (lorn. ii. p. 252-266.) That accurate traveller, 
 Adam Olearius, describes (in 1635) the remains of Novogorod, and 
 the route by sea and land of the Holstein ambassadors, tom. i. p. 123 
 —129. 
 
 e In hac magna civiiate, quae est caput regni, phis irecentas eccle- 
 sia habentur et nundinae octo, populi etiam isnota manus. (Eggehar- 
 dus ad A. D. 1018, apud Bayer, tom. ix. p. 412.) He likewise quotes 
 (lorn. X. p. 397.) the words of the Saxon annalist, Cujus (Russia) 
 metropolis est Chive, amula sceptri Constantinopolitani, qua est 
 clarissimum decus Oracia. The fame of Kiow, especially ih th» 
 eleveniti century, had reached the German and the Arabian googrftp 
 pheri. . . 
 
 come progress in the arts of society ; a new breed of 
 cattle was imported from the southern provinces ; and 
 the spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the sea 
 and land from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the 
 mouth of the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In 
 the days of idolatry and barbarism, the Sclavonic city 
 of Julin was frequented and enriched by the Normans, 
 who had prudently secured a free mart of purchase 
 and exchange.' From this harbour, at the entrance of 
 the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three 
 days to the eastern shores of the Baltic, the most dis- 
 tant nations were intermingled, and the holy groves of 
 Curland are said to have been decorated with Grecian 
 and Spanish gold.* Between the sea and Novogorod 
 an easy intercourse was discovered ; in the summer, 
 through a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the 
 winter season, over the hard and level surface of 
 boundless snows. From the neighbourhood of that 
 city, the Russians descended the streams that fall into 
 the Borysthenes ; their canoes, of a single tree, were 
 laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, 
 the spoil of their bee-hives, and the hides of their cat- 
 tle ; and the whole produce of the north was collected 
 and discharged in the magazines of Kiow. The 
 month of June was the ordinary season of the depar- 
 ture of the fleet : the timber of the canoes was framed 
 into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious 
 boats ; and they proceeded without obstacle down the 
 Borysthenes, as far as the seven or thirteen ridges of 
 rocks, which traverse the bed, and precipitate the wa- 
 ters, of the river. At the more shallow falls it was 
 suflUcient to lighten the vessels ; but the deeper cata- 
 racts were impassable ; and the mariners, who dragged 
 their vessels and their slaves six miles over land, were 
 exposed in this toilsome journey to the robbers of the 
 desert."* At the first island below the falls, the Rus- 
 sians celebrated the festival of their escape; at a se- 
 cond, near the mouth of the river, they repaired their 
 shattered vessels for the longer and more perilous voy- 
 age of the Black sea. If they steered along the coast, 
 the Danube was accessible ; with a fair wind they 
 could reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite 
 shores of Anatolia ; and Constantinople admitted the 
 annual visit of the strangers of the north. They re- 
 turned at the stated season with a rich cargo of corn, 
 wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece, and the 
 spices of India. Some of their countrymen resided 
 in the capital and provinces ; and the national treaties 
 
 Srotected the persons, efiects, and privileges, of the 
 Russian merchant.^ 
 
 Naval ex edi- ^"' ^^® Same communication which 
 tions of the Rus- had been opened for the benefit, was 
 sians against soon abused for the injury, of mankind. 
 Constantmople. j^ ^ ^^^-^^ ^^ ^^^ hundred and ninety 
 
 t In Odora ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissima civitas 
 Julinum, celeberrimam barbaris et Gracis qui sunt in circuitu pra- 
 stans stationem, est sane maxima omnium quas Europa claudit civi- 
 tatum, (.\dam Bremensis, Hist. Eccles. p. 19.) A strange exaggera- 
 tion even in the eleventh century. 'I'he trade of the Baltic, ana the 
 Hanseatic league, are carefully treated in Anderson's Historical De- 
 duction of Commerce ; at least, in our languu^^es, I am not acquain- 
 ted with any book so satisfactory. 
 
 r According to Adam of Bremen, (de Sitii Dania, p. 58.) the old 
 Curland extended eight days' journey along the coast ; and by Peter 
 Teutoburgicus, (p. 68. A. D. 1326.) Memel is defined as the common 
 frontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia. Aurum ibi plurimum (says 
 Adam) divinis, auguribus atque necromanticis omnes domus sunt 
 
 plena a tolo orbe ibi responsa petuntur, maxime ab Hispanis 
 
 (forsan Zupanis, id est reeulis Leiiovia) et Graecis. The name of 
 Greeks was applied to the Russians even before their conversion ; an 
 imperfect conversion, if they still consulted the wizards of Curland. 
 (Bayer, tom. x. p. 378 — 402, kc. Groiius, Prolegomen. ad Hist. Goth, 
 p. 99.) 
 
 h Constantine only reckons seven cataracts, of which he gives the 
 Russian and Sclavonic names ; but thirteen are enumerated by the 
 Sieur de Beau plan, a French engineer, who had surveyed the course 
 and navigation of the Dnieper or Borysthenes, (Description do I'Uk- 
 raine, Rouen, 1660. a thin quarto,) but the map is unluckily wauling 
 in my copy. 
 
 i Nestor, apud Levesque, Hist, de Russie, tom. i. p. 78—80. From 
 the Dnieper or Borysthenes, the Russians went to Black Bulgaria, 
 Chazaria, and Syria. To Syria, how I where ? when 1 May we not, 
 instead of ^"C", read i;us«v.» a (de Administrat. Imp. c. 42. p. 113.) 
 The aUeration is slight ; the position of Suania, between Chazaria 
 and Lazica, is perfect! v suiuble ; and the name was still used in the 
 eleventh century. (Cedren. tom. ii. p. 770.) 
 
 ' years, the Russians made four attempts to plunder the 
 treasures of Constantinople : the event was various, 
 but the motive, the means, and the object, were the 
 same in these naval expeditions.^ The Russian tra- 
 ders had seen the magnificence and tasted the luxury 
 of the city of the CiEsars. A marvellous tale, and a 
 scanty supply, excited the desires of their savage 
 countrymen : they envied the gifts of nature which 
 their climate denied ; they coveted the works of art 
 which they were too lazy to imitate and too indigent 
 to purchase : the Varangian princes unfurled the ban- 
 ners of piratical adventure, and their bravest soldiers 
 were drawn from the nations that dwelt in the north- 
 ern isles of the ocean.' The image of their naval ar- 
 maments was revived in the last century, in the fleets 
 of the Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, 
 to navigate the same seas, for a similar purpose." 
 The Greek appellation of monoxyla^ or single canoes, 
 might be justly applied to the bottom of their vessels. 
 It was scooped out of the long stem of a beech or wil- 
 low, but the slight and narrow foundation was raised 
 and continued on either side with planks, till it attain- 
 ed the length of sixty, and the height of about twelve, 
 feet. These boats were built without a deck, but with 
 two rudders and a mast; to move with sails and oars; 
 and to contain from forty to seventy men, with their 
 arms, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. 
 The first trial of the Russians was made with two 
 hundred boats ; but when the national force was exer- 
 ted, they might arm against Constantinople a thousand 
 or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet was not much 
 inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but it wa& 
 magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the 
 real proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the 
 Greek emperors been endowed with foresight to dis- 
 cern, and vigour to prevent, perhaps they might have 
 sealed with a maratime force the mouth of the Borys* 
 thenes. Their indolence abandoned the coast of Ana- 
 tolia to the calamities of a piratical war, which, after 
 an interval of six hundred years, again infested the 
 Euxine ; but as long as the capital was respected, tho^ 
 sufferings of a distant province escaped the notice both 
 of the prince and the historian. The storm which had 
 swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at length 
 burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace ; a strait of fifteen 
 miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russian might 
 have been stopped and destroyed by a more skilful 
 adversary. In their first enterprise " un- The first, 
 der the princes of Kiow, they passed A. D. 865. 
 without opposition, and occupied the port of Constan- 
 tinople in the absence of the emperor Michael, the son 
 of Theophilus. Through a crowd of perils, he landed 
 at the palace-stairs, and immediately repaired to a 
 church of the Virgin Mary.® By the advice of the 
 patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn 
 from the sanctuary and dipped in the sea ; and a sea- 
 sonable tempest, which determined the retreat of the 
 Russians, was devoutly ascribed to the mother of 
 God.P The silence of the Greeks may The second, 
 inspire some doubt of the truth, or at A. D. 904. 
 
 k The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ninth, tenth, and 
 eleventh centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals, especially 
 those of Zonaras and Cedrenus ; and all their testimonies are collec- 
 ted in the Ruasica of Stritler, tom. ii. p. 939—1044. 
 
 xouvTwy IV TCi; ir^crxf xr«e<; tov OxiMirov yitret; tSuoor. CedrenuS in 
 
 Compend. p. 758. 
 
 m See Beauplan (Descriptiondel'Ukraine,p. 54— 61.): hisdescrip- 
 tions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the circumstance of 
 firearms, we may read old Russians for modern Cossacks. 
 
 n It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given a Dissertation de 
 Russoruin prima Expeditione Constanlinopolitana. (Comment. Aca- 
 dem. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 365—391.) After disentangling some chro- 
 nological intricacies, he fixes it in the years 864 or 965, a date whicU 
 mi^ht have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in the beginning 
 of M. Levesque's history. 
 
 o When Photius wrote his enciclic epistle on the conversion of the 
 Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently ripe ; he reproaches the 
 
 nation as »•« a'U5T>iTj6 kx* fnxmvixv ^avrxi SiUTtfivf TotTTO/ttivov. 
 
 P Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini Continuator, in 
 Script, post. Theophanem, p, 121, 122. Symeon Logothet. p. 445,446. 
 Creorg. Monach. p. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. ^1. Zooaraf, torn. 
 ii. p. 162. 
 
 t|. 
 
 
 t 
 

 204 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVL 
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 205 
 
 H 
 
 
 least of the importance, of the second attempt hy Oleg, 
 the guardian of the sons of Ruric. A strong barrier 
 of arras and fortifications defended the Bosphorus : 
 they were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing 
 the boats over the isthmus; and this simple operation 
 is described in the national chronicles, as if the Rus- 
 sian fleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and 
 The third, favourable gale. The leader of the third 
 A. D. 941. armament, Igor, the son of Roric, had 
 chosen a moment of weakness and decay, when the 
 naval powers of the empire were employed against the 
 Saracens. But if courage be not wantinor, the instru- 
 ments of defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken 
 and decayed galleys were boldly launched against the 
 enemy ; but mstead of the single tube of Greek fire 
 usually planted on the prow, the sides and stern of 
 each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid 
 combustible. The engineers were dexterous ; the wea- 
 ther was propitious ; many thousand Russians, who 
 chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the 
 sea, and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were 
 inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and soldiers. 
 Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow wa- 
 ter; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to 
 letrieve his disgrace and claim his revenge.' After a 
 ^ The fourth, long peace, Jaroslaus, the great-grand- 
 A. D. 1013. son of Igor, resumed the same project 
 of a naval invasion. A fleet, under the command of 
 his son, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bospho- 
 rus by the same artificial flames. But in the rashness of 
 pursuit, the vanguard of the Greeks was encompassed 
 by an irresistible multitude of boats and men ; their 
 provision of fire was probably exhausted ; and twenty- 
 ibur galleys were either taken, sunk, or destroyed.' 
 Negoclations Yet the threats or calamities of a Rus- 
 and prophecy, sian war were more frequently diverted 
 "by treaty than by arms. In these naval hostilities, 
 every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks ; 
 their savage enemy afforded no mercy ; his poverty 
 promised no spoil ; his impenetrable retreat deprived 
 the conqueror of the hopes of revenge ; and the pride 
 or weakness of empire indulged an opinion, that no 
 honour could be gained or lost in the intercourse with 
 barbarians. At first their demands were hio^h and in- 
 admissible, three pounds of ^old for each soldier or 
 mariner of the fleet : the Russian youth adhered to the 
 design of conquest and glory ; but the counsels of 
 moderation were recommended by the hoary sages. 
 " Be content," they said, " with the liberal oflTers of 
 Caesar ; is it not far better to obtain without a combat, 
 the possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects 
 of our desires 1 Are we sure of victory 1 Can we 
 conclude a treaty with the sea 1 We do not tread on 
 the land ; we float on the abyss of water, and a com- 
 mon death hangs over our heads."* The memory of 
 these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the 
 polar circle, left a deep impression of terror on the 
 imperial city. By the vulgar of every rank, it was 
 asserted and believed, that an equestrian statue in the 
 square of Taurus, was secretly inscribed with a pro- 
 phecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should be- 
 come masters of Constantinople." In our own time, a 
 
 q See Nestor and Nicon, in Levesque's Hwt. de Russie, torn. i. p. 
 74—80. Katona (Hist. Ducum p. 75— 79.) uses his advantage to dis- 
 prove this Russian victory, which would cloud the siege ofKiow by 
 the Hungarians. 
 
 T Leo iOrammailcus, p. 506,507'.lncert. Coniin. p. 263, 2M. Symeon 
 Logothet. p. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. p. 588, 589. Cedren. torn, 
 ii. p. 629. Zonaras, torn. ii. p. 190, 191. and Liutprand, 1. v. c. 6. 
 who writes from the narratives of his father-in-law, then ambassa 
 dor at Constantinople, and corrects the vain exaggeration of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 • I can only appeal to Cedrenus (torn. ii. p. 758, 759.) and Zonaras 
 (torn. ii. p. 053, 254.) ; but ihoy grow more weighty and credible as 
 they draw near to their own limes. 
 
 t Nestor, apud Levesque, Hist, de Russie, torn. i. p. 87. 
 
 n This brazen statue, which had been brought from Antioch,and 
 was melted down by the Latins, was supcK^ed to represent either 
 Joshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See Nicetas Choniaies, (p. 
 413, 414.) Codinus, (de Originibus C. P. p. 24.) and the anonymous 
 writer de Aniiqiiilat. C. P. (Banduri, Imp. Orient, torn. i. p. 17, 18.) 
 who lived about the year llOO. They witneM the belief uf the pro- 
 phecy i the rest is immaterial. 
 
 Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borya- 
 thenes, has circumnavigated the continent of Europe; 
 and the Turkish capital has been threatened by a squa- 
 dron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of which, 
 with its naval science and thundering artillery, could 
 have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as those 
 of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation 
 may yet behold the accomplishment of ihe prediction, 
 of a rare prediction, of which the style is unambigu- 
 ous and the date unquestionable. 
 
 By land the Russians were less formi- Reign of 
 dable than by sea ; and as they fought SwaiosUue 
 for the most part on foot, their irregular ^- D. 955— 973. 
 legions must often have been broken and overthrown 
 by the cavalry of the Scythian hordes. Yet their 
 growing towns, however slight and imperfect, presen- 
 ted a shelter to the subject, and a barrier to the ene- 
 my : the monarchy of Kiow, till a fatal partition, as- 
 sumed the dominion of the north ; and the nations 
 from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repel- 
 led by the arms of Swatoslaus,* the son of Igor, the 
 son of Oleg, the son of Ruric. The vigour of his 
 mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a 
 military and savage life. Wrapt in a bear-?kin, Swa- 
 toslaus usually slept on the ground, his head reclining 
 on a saddle ; his diet was coarse and frugal, and, like 
 the heroes of Homer,'' his meat (it was often horse- 
 flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The exer- 
 cise of war gave stability and discipline to his army ; 
 and it may be presumed, that no soldier was permitted 
 to transcend the luxury of his chief. By an embassy 
 from Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, he was moved 
 to undertake the conquest of Bulgaria, and a gift of 
 fifteen hundred pounds of gold was laid at his feet to 
 defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the expedi- 
 tion. An army of sixty thousand men was assembled 
 and embarked ; they sailed from the Borysthenes to 
 the Danube ; their landing was effected on the Maesian 
 shore ; and, after a sharp encounter, the swords of the 
 Russians prevailed against the arrows of the Bulga- 
 rian horse. The vanquished king sunk into the grave ; 
 his children were made captive; and his dominions, as 
 far as mount Haemus, were subdued or ravaged by the 
 northern invaders. But instead of relinquishing his 
 prey, and performing his engagements, the Varangian 
 prince was more disposed to advance than to retire; 
 and, had his ambition been crowned with success, the 
 seat of empire in that early period might have been 
 transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. 
 Swatoslaus enjoyed and acknowledged the advantages 
 of his new position, in which he could unite, by ex- 
 change or rapine, the various productions of the earth. 
 By an easy navigation he might draw from Russia the 
 native commodities of furs, wax, and hydromel ; Hun- 
 gary supplied him with a breed of horses and the 
 spoils of the west; and Greece abounded with gold, 
 silver, and the foreign luxuries, which his poverty had 
 affected to disdain. The bands of Patzinacites, Cho- 
 zars,and Turks, repaired to the standard of victory; and 
 the ambassador of Nicephorus betrayed his trust, as- 
 sumed the purple, and promised to share with his new al- 
 lies the treasures of the eastern world. From the banks 
 of the Danube the Russian prince pursued his march as 
 far as Adrianople ; a formal summons to evacuate the 
 Roman province was dismissed with contempt; and 
 Swatoslaus fiercely replied, that Constantinople might 
 soon expect the presence of an enemy and a master. 
 
 Nicephorus could no longer expel the jjjg dpfe^t by 
 mischief which he had introduced ; but John Zimisces, 
 his throne and wife were inherited by ^* ^- ^70—973. 
 
 z The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviatoslaf, or Sphendosthlabus, is ex- 
 tracted from the Russian Chronicles by M. Levesque. (Hist, de Rus- 
 sie, torn. i. p. 94—107.) 
 
 r This resemblance may be clearly seen in the ninth book of the 
 llia<l, (205—221.) in the minute detail of the coolcery of Achilles. By 
 such a picture, a modern epic poet would disgrace his work, and dis- 
 gust his reader; but the (jreek vorsps are harmonious, a dead lan- 
 guage can seldom appear low or familiar; and at the distance of two 
 thousand seven hundred years, we are amueed with the primitiv* 
 raaonera of aniiiiuity. 
 
 John Zimisces,* who, in a diminutive body, possessed 
 the spirit and abilities of a hero. The first victory of 
 his lieutenants deprived the Russians of their foreign 
 allies, twenty thousand of whom were either destroyed 
 by the sword, or provoked to revolt, or tempted to de- 
 sert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand 
 barbarians were still in arms ; and the legions that had 
 been recalled from the new conquests of Syria, prepa- 
 red, with the return of the spring, to march under the 
 banners of a warlike prince, who declared himself the 
 friend and avenger of the injured Bulgaria. The pas- 
 ses of mount Haemus had been left unguarded : they 
 were instantly occupied ; the Roman vanguard was 
 formed of the immortalt ; (a proud imitation of the 
 Persian style ;) the emperor led the main body of ten 
 thousand five hundred foot; and the rest of his forces 
 followed in slow and cautious array, with the baggage 
 and military engines. The first exploit of Zimisces 
 -was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or Peristhlaba,' 
 in two days : the trumpets sounded ; the walls were 
 scaled ; eight thousand five hundred Russians were 
 put to the sword ; and the sons of the Bulgarian king 
 were rescued from an ignominious prison, and invested 
 with a nominal diadem. After these repeated losses, 
 Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of Dristra, on the 
 banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy 
 who alternately employed the arms of celerity and 
 delay. The Byzantine galleys ascended the river; the 
 legions completed a line of circumvallation ; and the 
 Kussian prince was encompassed, assaulted, and fam- 
 ished, in the fortifications of the camp and city. Many 
 deeds of valour were performed; several desperate 
 sallies were attempted ; nor was it till after a siege of 
 sixty-five days tliat Swatoslaus yielded to his adverse 
 fortune. The liberal terms which he obtained an- 
 nounce the prudence of the victor, who respected the 
 valour, and apprehended the despair, of an unconquer- 
 ed mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself, 
 by solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostile de- 
 signs ; a safe passage was opened for his return ; the 
 liberty of trade and navigation was restored; a mea- 
 sure of com was distributed to each of his soldiers ; 
 and the allowance of twenty -two thousand measures 
 attests the loss and the remnant of the barbarians. 
 After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth 
 of the Borysthenes ; but their provisions were exhaus- 
 ted, the season was unfavourable; they passed the 
 winter on the ice ; and, before they could prosecute 
 their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and oppressed 
 by the neighbouring tribes, with whom the Greeks 
 entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence.* 
 Far different was the return of Zimisces, who was re- 
 ceived in his capital like Camillus or Marius, the sa- 
 viours of ancient Rome. But the merit of the victory 
 was attributed by the pious emperor to the mother of 
 God ; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the di- 
 vine infant in her arms, was placed on a triumphal 
 car, adorned with the spoils of war, and the ensigns 
 of Bulgarian royalty. Zimisces made his public en- 
 try on horseback; the diadem on his head, a crown of 
 laurel in his hand ; and Constantinople was astonished 
 to applaud the martial virtues of her sovereign.* 
 
 • This singular epithet is derived from the Armenian language, and 
 T^i^i<rx>({ iu interpreted in Greek by Atsu^xjc.i^i)?, or A»8*e«x»<;;>!;. As 
 I profess niyself equally ignorant of these words, I may be indulged 
 in the question in the play," Pray, which of you is the interpreter 1" 
 From the context, they seem to signify Adolescentulut. (Leo Dia- 
 con. 1. iv. MS. apud Du Cange, Glussar. Grasc. p. 1570.) 
 
 « In the Sclavonic tongue, the name of Feristhlaba implied the 
 great or illustrious city, M*y»>^^ *** cut* xmi xi^j/uivk, says Anna 
 Comnena. (Alexiad. 1. vii. p. 194.) From its poeition between mount 
 Haemus and the lower Danube, it appears to fill the ground, or at 
 least the station, of Marcianopolis. The situation of Diirostolus, or 
 Dristra, is well known and conspicuous. (Comment. Academ. Peiro- 
 pol. torn. ix. p. 415, 416. D'Anville, Geographic Ancienne, torn. i. p. 
 307. 31 1 .) 
 
 b The political management of the Greeks, more especially with 
 the Patzinacites, is explained in the seven first chapters, de Admin- 
 istralione Imperii. 
 
 c In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon, (apud Pagi, Critica, 
 lorn. iv. A. D. 968— 9r3.) is more authentic and circumstaniial than 
 Cedrenus, (torn. iL p. 660-683.) and Zooaiw, (torn, ii, p. 306—214.) 
 
 Photius of Constantinople, a patriarch conversion of j 
 whose ambition was equal to his curios- Russia, 
 ity, congratulates himself and the Greek A. D. 864. ' ^ 
 church on the conversion of the Russians.^ Those 
 fierce and bloody barbarians had been persuaded by 
 the voice of reason and religion, to acknowledge Jesus 
 for their God, the christian missionaries for their teach- 
 ers, and the Romans for their friends and brethren. 
 His triumph was transient and premature. In the va- 
 rious fortune of their piratical adventures, some Rus- 
 sian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled 
 with the waters of baptism; and a Greek bishop, with 
 the name of metropolitan, might administer the sacra- 
 ments in the church of Kiow, to a congregation of 
 slaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel was 
 sown on a barren soil ; many were the apostates, the 
 converts were few ; and the baptism of Olga may be 
 fixed as the aera of Russian Christianity.* A female, 
 perhaps of the basest origin, who could revenge the 
 death, and assume the sceptre, of her husband Igor, 
 must have been endowed with those active virtues 
 which command the fear and obedience of barbarians. 
 In a moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed 
 from Kiow to Constantinople; and the Baptism of Olga, 
 emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus A. D. 955. 
 has described, with minute diligence, the ceremonial 
 of her reception in his capital and palace. The steps, 
 the titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presentit, 
 were exquisitely adjusted, to gratify the vanity of the 
 stranger, with due reverence to the superior majesty 
 of the purple.' In the sacrament of baptism, she re- 
 ceived the venerable name of the empress Helena; 
 and her conversion might be preceded or followed by 
 her uncle, two interpreters, sixteen damsels of a high- 
 er, and eighteen of a lower, rank, twenty-two domes- 
 tics or ministers, and forty-four Russian merchants, 
 who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga. 
 After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly 
 persisted in her new religion; but her labours in the 
 propagation of the gospel were not crowned with suc- 
 cess; and both her family and nation adhered with 
 obstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. 
 Her son Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scora 
 and ridicule of his companions; and her grandson 
 Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and 
 decorate the monuments of ancient worship. The 
 savage deities of the north were still propitiated with 
 human sacrifices ; in the choice of the victim, a citizen 
 was preferred to a stranger, a christian to an idolater; 
 and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdo- 
 tal knife, was involved in the same doom by the rage 
 of a fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of 
 the pious Olga had made a deep, though secret, im- 
 pression on the minds of the prince and people : the 
 Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, 
 and to baptize ; and the ambassadors or merchants of 
 Russia compared the idolatry of the woods with the 
 elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had 
 gazed with admiration on the dome of St. Sophia ; the 
 lively pictures of saints and martyrs, the riches of the 
 altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the 
 pomp and order of the ceremonies ; they were edified 
 by the alternate succession of devout silence and har- 
 monious song ; nor was it difficult to persuade them. 
 
 These declaimers have multiplied to 90S,0Q0 and 330,000 men, thosa 
 Russian forces, of which the contemporary had given a moderate and 
 consistent account. 
 
 d Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35. p. 58. edit. Montacut. It was unvrorthf 
 of the learning of the editor to mistake the Russian nation, to 'P^f, 
 for a war-cry of the Bulgarians ; nor did it become the enlightened 
 patriarch to accuse the Sclavonlan idolaters TXf 'EKK>ifxiis *•• •?!•« 
 do^Hf. They were neither Greeks nor atheista. 
 
 e M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and modem re- 
 searches, the most satisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi, 
 and the conversion of Russia. (Hist, de Russie, torn. i. p. 35—54. 5*. 
 92,113.113-121.124-129. 148, 149, &c.) 
 
 f See the Ceremoniale Aula Byzant. torn. 11. c. 15. p. 343—345. tlw 
 style of Olga, or Elga, is Aex«<'^'<r(r» 'r<^'irt*(. For the chief of bar- 
 barians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an AlheniUk 
 magistrate, with a female termination, which would hftT« aatonlalMd 
 tiie ear of I)8mosibene8. 
 
 :l 
 

 w ^ 
 
 296 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 t ' 
 
 that a choir of angels descended each day from heaven 
 ; ofWoiodomir, to join in the devotion of the christians.' 
 A.D.988. But the conversion of Wolodomir was 
 determined, or hastened, by his desire of a Roman 
 bride. At the same time, and in the city of Cherson, 
 the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by 
 the christian pontiff: the city he restored to the empe- 
 ror Basil, the brother of his spouse : but the brazen 
 gates were transported, as it is said, to Novogorod, 
 and erected before the first church as a trophy of his 
 victory and faith."* At his despotic command, Peroun, 
 the god of thunder, whom he had so long adored, was 
 dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve 
 sturdy barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen 
 image, which was indignantly cast into the waters of 
 the Borysihenes. The edict of Wolodomir had pro- 
 claimed, that all who should refuse the rites of bap- 
 tism would be treated as the enemies of God and their 
 prince ; and the rivers were instantly filled with many 
 thousands of obedient Russians, who acquiesced in 
 the truth and excellence of a doctrine- which had been 
 embraced by the great duke and his boyars. In the 
 next generation, the relics of paganism were finally 
 extirpated ; but as the two brothers of Wolodomir had 
 died without baptism, their bones were taken from the 
 grave, and sanctified by an irregular and posthumous 
 sacrament. 
 
 Christianity of I" the ninth, tenth, and eleventh cen- 
 
 A n %^n'nn ^"^'^^ ^^ ^^® christian aera, the reign of 
 A.u.buo-1100. the gospel and of the church was exten- 
 ded over Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Den- 
 mark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia.' The 
 triumphs of apostolic zeal were repeated in the iron 
 a^e of Christianity ; and the northern and eastern re- 
 prions of Europe submitted to a religion, more different 
 in theory than in practice from the worship of their 
 native idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks, 
 both of Germany and Greece, to visit the tents and 
 huts of the barbarians : poverty, hardships, and dan- 
 gers, were the lot of the first missionaries : their cou- 
 rage was active and patient ; their motive pure and 
 meritorious ; their present reward consisted in the tes- 
 timony of their conscience and the respect of a grate- 
 ful people; but the fruitful harvest of their toils was 
 inherited and enjoyed by the proud and wealthy pre- 
 lates of succeeding times. The first conversions were 
 free and spontaneous ; a holy life and an eloquent 
 tongue were the only arms of the missionaries; but 
 the domestic fables of the pagans were silenced by the 
 miracles and visions of the strangers ; and the favour- 
 able temper of the chiefs was accelerated by the dic- 
 tates of vanity and interest. The leaders of nations, 
 who were saluted with the titles of kings and saints,* 
 held It lawful and pious to impose the catholic faith 
 on their subjects and neighbours : the coast of the 
 Baltic, from Holstein to the gulf of Finland, was in- 
 vaded under the standard of the cross; and the reiirn 
 of Idolatry was closed by the conversion of Lithuania 
 m the fourteenth century. Yet truth and candour 
 must acknowledge, that the conversion of the north 
 imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 the new christians. The rage of war, inherent to the 
 human species, could not be healed by the evangelia 
 precepts of charity and peace ; and the ambition of 
 catholic princes has renewed in every age the calami* 
 ties of hostile contention. But the admission of the 
 barbarians into the pale of civil and ecclesiastical so- 
 ciety delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea 
 and land, of the Normans, the Hungarians, and the 
 Russians, who learned to spare their brethren and cul- 
 tivate their possessions.' The establishment of law 
 and order was promoted by the influence of the cler- 
 gy ; and the rudiments of art and science were intro- 
 duced into the savage countries of the globe. The 
 liberal piety of the Russian princes engaged in their 
 service the most skilful of the Greeks, to decorate the 
 cities and instruct the inhabitants : the dome and the 
 paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the 
 churches of Kiow and Novogorod : the writings of the 
 tathers were translated into the Sclavonic idiom ; and 
 three hundred noble youths were invited or compelled 
 to attend the lessons of the college of Jaroslaus. It 
 should appear that Russia might have derived an early 
 and rapid improvement from her peculiar connexion 
 with the church and state of Constantinople, which in 
 that age so justly despised the ignorance of the Latins. 
 «ut the Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and 
 verging to a hasty decline : after the fall of Kiow, the 
 navigation of the Borysthenes was forgotten ; the great 
 princes of Wolodomir and Moscow were separated 
 from the sea and Christendom ; and the divided monar- 
 chy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of 
 lartar servitude." The Sclavonic and Scandinavian 
 kingdoms, which had been converted by the Latin 
 missionaries, were exposed, it is true, to the spiritual 
 jurisdiction and temporal claims of the popes;" but 
 they were united, in language and religious worship, 
 with each other, and with Rome ; they imbibed the 
 free and generous spirit of the European republic, and 
 gradually shared the light of knowledge which arose 
 on the western world. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 The SarcKens, Frariks, and Greeks, in Italy.— First adven- 
 tures and settlement of the Normans,— Character and 
 conquests of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia. -Delive- 
 ranee of Sicily by his brother Roser.— Victories of Robert 
 over tlie emperors of the east mi west. -Roger /king of 
 Sicily, invades Africa and Greece.-The emperjr Mamlel 
 Comnenus.-Wars of the Greeks and Nilrinans. -Ex- 
 tinction of the Normans, 
 
 The three great nations of the worid. Conflict of the 
 tne ureeks, the Saracens, and the Saracens, Latin* 
 Franks, encountered each other on the fiaw^'®*''"' *° 
 theatre of Italy.* The southern provin- A. i\ 840-ioir. 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 297 
 
 rJ:o?rj-1*°°"J^"'""' fragment published by Bandu 
 ^;*?h«ln"":: "rP- ^^2' M3.) de_<5onver8ione Russorum. 
 
 uri, (Imperium 
 
 k r«K„~.U^ A*^ » **^'' "'^ ^onverBione nussorum, 
 
 h Cherson, or Corsun, is mentioned by Herberstein faoud Pn.*! 
 
 in3hnthP.lf«?r,^-.'*'* P^^'^V^ Wolodomir's baptism and Sria"!-' 
 
 Yet an obserihS t?a"v;Slr ^ ^'^'"^ *'" ^'^^ preserved at Noioi^^od! 
 V *" O'J'erving traveller transports the brazen gates from ivfairde 
 bureh in Germany (Coxe's Travels into Russia? Ic.JolTpS: 
 and quotes an inscription, which seems to jusiifV hii op inioK* The 
 incHlern reader must not confound this old Cherson ofTh^Tauric or 
 Crimaean peninsula, with a new city of the same name which hal 
 arisen near the mouth of the Borysthenes, and was ffiy honSured 
 
 JoVof^JTe'wesT '"'"'''''' °^ '^' ^"'^'''' "^ ^"^''^ wiih\he empe 
 i Consult the Latin text, or English version, of Mosheim's excel 
 IhSe Ifentu " *" ^^^*'' """^^^ '^® ^"^ *'®*'^ °' ^^''^'^^ "^ «ach of 
 
 k In the year 1000, the ambassadors of St. Stephen received from 
 ^^rl^l^'^l'^^' ''t® l"'f °J ^''^S «^ Hungary, with a diadem of Greek 
 JJ/K^T^k'P.V '> ^^'^ ^^^" designed for the duke of Poland: but 
 in, «« J^^ ^/ 1^ **^" confession, were yet too barbarous to deserve 
 
 sSiTA;j"adi:si,"£S!f priir^^ ^''*'""' "^^ ^'"^'^- *^«6"- 
 
 1 Listen to the exultations of Adam of Bremen, (A. D 1090^ of 
 
 no^rS &c 'naUo""'' 1 '°?'f' ^^ '« ''^''' ^ ?«« ula feVcSislSi^Da^. 
 J^naJe' V^^^ ' J*";'^"^,""^ "^^ ^ *«» Dei laudibus Alleluia re- 
 
 J^n?Pnt.;-o:,' ^^«^« P"P" "» 'He Piraticus suis nunc finibus 
 
 turn ido Jt^im "• P*y'* horribilis semper inaccessa propter cu! 
 turn idolotum . prajdicatores veniaiis ubique certaiim admittit 
 &C.&C (de Situ Dani»,&c p. 40, 41. edit. Elzevir: a curiouT and 
 
 ch?i's"lrty7''' '^ ''*' "'"^ '^ ^"'"P"' *"^ '^^ intr^uctioa Sf 
 
 hv^.hl t/J[®*' P'''",^?^'*'!:;?''^'^ •" **56 from Kiow, which was ruined 
 by the Tartani in 1240. Moscow became the seat of empire in iha 
 sixteenth century See the first and second volumes of leveiSue'J 
 History, and Mr. Coxe's Travels into the North, torn. i. p. 241, &c 
 . n The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the reverential exores. 
 sions of regniun oblatum, debitam obedientiam, &c. which wera 
 most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII. and the Hungarian calh! 
 olics are distressed between the sanctity of the pope an\l the inde- 
 pendence of the crown. (Katona, Hist. Criiica; torn. i. d 20^25 
 tom. II. p. 304. 316. 360, &c.) * ^' ''^^'^' 
 
 * For the general history of Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries 
 I may properly refer to the fifth, si.xih. and seventh books of S^goniui 
 de Regno Italia ; (in the spcond volume of his works Milan ir«? 
 the Annals of Baronius, with the Criticism of k*? the , event ffi 
 eighth books of the Istoria Civile del Re-no di Nano of Ginnnnn- . 
 the seventh and eighth volumes (the ocCo edS) of iho'Sl^ 
 
 £iiui'of"Ar d? St' 'm^t'c''. '"^^^"^ r'r« ^^^'^^ Abregi Ch^onotil 
 j gique 01 iVi. de S>t. Marc, a work which, under a Buperficial liUe^ 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 ces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were 
 subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and 
 princes of Beneventum ; '' so powerful in war, that 
 they checked for a moment the genius of Charle- 
 magne; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in 
 their capital an academy of thirty-two philosophers 
 and grammarians. The division of this flourishinor 
 state produced the rival principalities of Benevento^ 
 Salerno, and Capua ; and the thoughtless ambition or 
 revenge of the competitors invited the Saracens to the 
 Tuin of their common inheritance. During a calami- 
 tous period of two hundred years, Italy was exposed 
 to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not 
 capable of healing by the union and tranquillity of a 
 perfect conquest. Their frequent and almost annual 
 squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were 
 entertained with too much indulgence by the christians 
 of Naples : the more formidable fleets were prepared 
 on the African coast; and even the Arabs of Andalu- 
 sia were sometimes tempted to assist or oppose the 
 Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of hu- 
 man events, a new ambuscade was concealed in the 
 Caudine forks, the fields of Cannae were bedewed a 
 second time with the blood of the Africans, and the 
 sovereign of Rome again attacked or defended the 
 walls of Capua and Tarentum. A colony of Saracens 
 had been planted at Bari, which commands the en- 
 trance of the Adriatic gulf; and their impartial depre- 
 dations provoked the resentment, and conciliated the 
 union, of the two emperors. An offensive alliance 
 was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, the first 
 of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of Charle- 
 magne;* and each party supplied the deficiencies of 
 his associate. It would have been imprudent in the 
 Byzantine monarch to transport his stationary troops 
 of Asia to an Italian campaign ; and the Latin arms 
 would have been insufficient if his superior navv had 
 not occupied the mouth of the gulf. The fortress of 
 Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and 
 Conquest of Bari, by the Cavalry and galleys of the 
 A. D.871. Greeks; and, after a defence of four 
 years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of 
 Lewis, who commanded in person the operations of 
 the siege. This important conquest had been achiev- 
 ed by the concord of the east and west ; but their re- 
 cent amity was soon imbittered by the mutual com- 
 plaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed 
 as their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp 
 of the triumph ; extolled the greatness of their powers, 
 and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of 
 the handful of barbarians who appeared under the ban- 
 ners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply is expres- 
 sed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: "We 
 confess the magnitude of your preparations," says the 
 great-grandson of Charlemagne. " Your armies were 
 indeed as numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who 
 darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a short 
 flieht, tumble weary and breathless to the ground. 
 Like them, ye sunk after a feeble effort ; ye were van- 
 quished by your own cowardice ; and withdrew from 
 the scene of action to injure and despoil our christian 
 subjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were fbw in 
 number; and why were we few ? because, after a tedi- 
 ous expectation of your arrival, I had dismissed my 
 host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors to 
 continue the blockade of the city. If they indulged 
 their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, 
 did these feasts abate the vigour of their enterprise ? 
 
 tontains much genuine learning and industry. But my long-accus- 
 lomed reader will give me credit for saying, that I myself have as- 
 cended to the fountain-head, as often as such ascent could be either 
 profitable or possible; and that I have diligently turned over the 
 originals in the first volumes of Muratori's great collection of the 
 S^riptorea Rerum Italicarum. 
 
 b Camillo Pellegrino,a learned Capuan of the last century, has 
 illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his tww bwks, 
 Historia PnncipurivLongobardorum, in the Scriptores of Muratori 
 lorn. n. pars i. p. 221-^5. and tom. v.p. 159-5M5. 
 
 e See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibtw, 1. il. c. xi. in Vil. 
 tSasil. c. 5o. p. 181. ' 
 
 Vol. H.— 2 N 
 
 Is it by your fasting that the walls of Bari have been 
 overturned ? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished 
 as they were by languor and fatigue, intercept and 
 vanquish the three most powerful emirs of the Sara- 
 cens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of 
 the city 1 Bari is now fallen ; Tarentum trembles ; Ca- 
 labria will be delivered ; and, if we command the sea,, 
 the island of Sicily may be rescued from the hands of 
 the infidels. My brother, (a name most offensive to 
 the vanity of the Greek,) accelerate your naval suc- 
 cours, respect your allies, and distrust your flatterers."* 
 
 These lofty hopes were soon extin- 
 guished by the death of Lewis, and theSrS^e^"?! 
 decay of the Carlovingian house ; and luly, 
 whoever might deserve the honour, the A. D.890. ' 
 Greek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the 
 advantage of the reduction of Bari. The Italians of 
 Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to 
 acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from 
 mount Garganus to the bay of Salerno, leaves the far 
 greater part of the kingdom of Naples under the do- 
 minion of the eastern empire. Beyond that line, the 
 dukes or republics of Amalfi" and Naples, who had 
 never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced ia 
 the neighbourhood of their lawful sovereign; and 
 Amalfi was enriched by supplying Europe with the 
 produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard 
 princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua,' were re- 
 luctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world, 
 and too often violated their oaths of servitude and tri- 
 bute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as 
 the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lom- 
 bardy ; the title of patrician, and afterwards the singu- 
 lar name of Catapan,^ was assigned to the supreme 
 governor; and the policy both of the church and state 
 was modelled in exact subordination to the throne of 
 Constantinople. As long as the sceptre was disputed 
 by the princes of Italy, their eflTorts were feeble and 
 adverse ; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces 
 of Germany, which descended from the Alps under 
 the imperial standard of the Othos. The first and 
 greatest of those Saxon princes was compelled to re- 
 linquish the siege of Bari : the second, after the loss 
 of his stoutest bishops and barons, escaped with ho- 
 nour from the bloody field of Crotona. p^feat of Otho 
 Un that day the scale of war was turned III. 
 
 against the Franks by the valour of the ^- ^- ^^ 
 Saracens.* These corsairs had indeed been driven by 
 the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of 
 Italy ; but a sense of interest was more prevalent than 
 superstition or resentment, and the caliph of Egypt 
 had transported forty thousand Moslems to the aid of 
 his christian ally. The successors of Basil amused 
 themselves with the belief, that the conquest of Lom- 
 
 d The original epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the emperor Ba- 
 sil, a curious record of the age, was first published by Baronius, (An- 
 nal. Eccles. A. D. 871. No. 51—71.) from the Vatican MS.of Erchem- 
 pert, or rather of the anonymous historian of Salerno. 
 
 e See an excellent Dissertation de Kepublica Amalphitana, in the 
 Appendix (p. 1—42.) of Henry Brencman's Historia Paudeciarunu 
 (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.) 
 
 f Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and protection prin. 
 cipibus Canuano et Beneventano,servis meis, quos oppurnare dispo. 
 
 no Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum patres et avi nostro 
 
 imperio tribuu dederuni. (Liutprand, in Legat. p. 4&4.) Salerno v» 
 not mentioned, yet the prince chansed his party about the same time, 
 and Camillo Pellegrino (Script. Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 285.) ha« 
 
 Apu 
 
 K See the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Du Cange, (Ksniraivw, 
 catapanus,) and his notes on the Alexias, (p, 275.) Aeainst the con- 
 temporary notion, which derives it from k^ctx v»v,juxta omne, he 
 treats it as a corruption of the Latin capitanetis. Yet M. de St. Marc 
 has accurately observed (Abreg(i Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924.) that 
 in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles of the 
 first rank, the great valvassors of Italy. 
 
 h Ow /UOfSf A»x ir^iKtfJiMV enKfi&ix-f tTtrtiyftivtov to TOiOuTOr Vfrifyxyt 
 
 TO tivoij (the Lombards,) xkk» xxi «j^x'»e»» xf')«"»M»vof, ««• Jixce«o. 
 
 0-VVtf, K»t %(l(;OT)fT« l^ltiKMf T« Te<( ir(OTl(^0/*l¥Oti TTger^lfOftlVOg xxi 
 
 Ti|v iKtv9t(tx¥ xvTttc vxTtii Tf SovKux^j xet< TuL>y xKKmv ^OfOKCyiKWT 
 
 xxetCoftivof. (Leon, Tactic, c. xv. p. 471.) The little Chronicle of 
 Beneventum (torn. ii. pars i. p. 280.) gives a far different character 
 of the Greeks during the five years (A. D. 891—896.) that Leo wa# 
 master of the ciyr. 
 
 i 
 
 :;!;> 
 
u 
 
 ■ 1* 
 
 ■I 
 
 m 
 
 298 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVH. ■ Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 f 
 
 Anecdotes. 
 
 bardy had been achieved, and was still preserved, by 
 the justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, 
 and the gratitude of a people whom they had rescued 
 from anarchy and oppression. A series of rebellions 
 might dart a ray of truth into th^ palace of Constanti- 
 nople; and the illusions of flattery were dispelled by 
 the easy and rapid success of the Norman adventu- 
 rers. 
 
 The revolution of human affairs had 
 
 produced in Apulia and Calabria a me- 
 lancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and 
 the tenth century of the christian aera. At the former 
 period the coast of Great Greece (as it was then sty- 
 Jed) was planted with free and opulent cities : these 
 'Cities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and philoso- 
 phers ; and the military strength of Tarentum, Syba- 
 ris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a powerful 
 kincrdom. At the second sera, these once flourishinor 
 provinces were clouded with ignorance, impoverished 
 ity tyranny, and depopulated by barbarian war: nor 
 'Can we severely accuse the exaggeration of a contem- 
 porary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to 
 the same desolation which had covered the earth after 
 the general deluge." Among the hostilities of the 
 Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern 
 Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressive 
 A D 873 ^^ ^^^*' national manners. 1. It was 
 
 the amusement of the Saracens to 
 profane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and 
 churches. At the siege of Salerno, a mussulman chief 
 spread his couch on the communion-table, and on that 
 altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a christian 
 nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam 
 in the roofv was accidentally or dexterously thrown 
 down on his head ; and the death of the lustful emir 
 ■was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which was at 
 length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse.^ 
 
 A. D. 874 ^' '^^*® Saracens besieged the cities of 
 Beneventum and Capua : after a vain 
 appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lom- 
 bards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek em- 
 peror.* A fearless citizen dropt from the walls, passed 
 the intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and 
 fell into the hands of the barbarians, as he was return- 
 ing with the welcome news. They commanded him 
 to assist their enterprise, and deceive his countrymen, 
 with the assurance that wealth and honours should bo 
 the reward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity 
 would be punished with immediate death. He affec- 
 ted to yield, but as soon as he was conducted within 
 hearing of the christians on the rampart, ** Friends and 
 brethren," he cried with a loud voice, " be hold and 
 patient, maintain the city ; your sovereign is informed 
 of your distress, and your deliverers are at hand. I 
 know my doom, and commit my wife and children to 
 your gratitude." The rage of the Arabs confirmed 
 his evidence ; and the selMevoted patriot was trans- 
 pierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to live 
 in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of 
 the same story in ancient and modern times, may 
 sprinkle some doubts on the reality of this generous 
 
 A. D. 930. <ieed.* 3. The recital of a third inci- 
 dent may pro voke a smile amidst the 
 
 i CaUbriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam reperientes funditus 
 depopulaii sunt, (or depopularuni,) ita ut deseria sit velut in diluvio. 
 Such is the text of Heromperi, or Erchemperl, according to the two 
 ©ditions of Caraccioli, (Rer. lulic. Script, torn. v. p. 23.) and Camillo 
 Pellegrino, (torn. ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, 
 when they were reprinted by Muratori. 
 
 k Barouius (Annal. Eccles, A. D. 874. No. 2.) has drawn this story 
 from a MS. of Erchemperl, who died at Capua only fifteen years after 
 the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a false title, and we 
 can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of Salerno, (Paralipomena, 
 c. 110.) composed towards the end of the tenth century, and published 
 In the second volume of Muratori's Collection. See the Disseruiions 
 of Camillo Pellegrino, torn. ii. pars i. 231— 281, &c. 
 
 1 Consianiine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 58. p. 183.) is the 
 original author of tills story. He places it under the rei?ns of Basil 
 anu Lewis II.; yet the reduction of Beneventum by the Greeks is 
 dated A. D. 891, after the decease of both of those princes. 
 
 m In the year 6G3, the same tragedy is described by Paul the Dea- 
 UfD, (d© Qestis Lai^obard. 1. ▼. c. 7, 8. p. STO, 871. edit. Grol.) under 
 
 horrors of war. Theobald, marquis of Camerino and 
 Spoleto," supported the rebels of Beneventum; and 
 his wanton cruelty Was not incompatible in that age 
 with the character of a hero. His captives of the 
 Greek nation or party were castrated without mercy, 
 and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that 
 he wished to present the emperor with a supply of 
 eunuchs, the most precious ornaments of the Byzan- 
 tine court. The garrison of a castle had been defeated 
 in a sally, and the prisoners w^ere sentenced to the cus- 
 tomary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by 
 the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding 
 cheeks, dishevelled hair, and importunate clamours, 
 compelled the marquis to listen to bercomplaint. " Is 
 it thus," she cried, " ye magnanimous heroes, that ye 
 wage war against /women, against women who have 
 never injured ye, aihd whose only arms are the distaff 
 and the loom]" Theobald denied the charge, and 
 protested, that, since the Amazons, he had never heard 
 of a female war. »* And how," she furiously exclaim- 
 ed, " can you attack us more directly, how can you 
 wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our 
 husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source 
 of our joys, and the hope of our posterity 1 The plun- 
 der of our flocks and herds I have endured without a 
 murmur, but this fatal injury, this irreparable loss, 
 subdues my patience, and calls aloud on the justice of 
 heaven and earth." A general laugh applauded her 
 eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, 
 were moved by her ridiculous, yet rational, despair; 
 and with the deliverance of the captives, she obtained 
 the restitution of her effects. As she returned in tri- 
 umph to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, 
 to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment 
 should be inflicted on her husband, were he again ta- 
 ken in arms? *' Should such," she answered without 
 hesitation, *' be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, 
 and a nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, 
 and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal 
 offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what 
 his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar 
 and lawful property."" 
 
 The establishment of the Normans in origin of the 
 the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily,? is Normans in iiaij, 
 an event most romantic in its origin, and ^' ^' *^^^* 
 in its consequences most important both to Italy and 
 the eastern empire. The broken provinces of the 
 Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, were e.xposed to 
 every invader, and every sea and land were invaded by 
 the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. 
 After a long indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair 
 and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, 
 by the Normans of France : they renounced their gods 
 for the God of the christians ;*> and the dukes of Nor- 
 
 299 
 
 the walls of the same city of Beneventum. But the actors are diffe- 
 rent, and the guilt is imputed to the Greeks themselves, which in ihs 
 Byzantine edition is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in 
 Germany, M. D'Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, 
 I* said to have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behaviour 
 IS the more heroic, as mere silence was required by the enemy wha 
 had made him prisoner. (Voluire, Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33. torn. ii. 
 p. 172.) 
 
 n Theobald, who is styled Tferoa by Liutprand, was properly duk« 
 of Spolelo and marquis of Camerino. from the year 926 to 935. Ths 
 title and office of marquis (commander of the march or frontier) waui 
 introduced into Italy by the French emperors. (Abreg6 Chronolo- 
 gique, torn. ii. p. S45— 732, &c.) 
 
 o Liutprand, Hist. I. iv. c. iv. in the Remm Italic. Script, torn. i. 
 pars i. p. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness of the ule be question- 
 ed, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that it is hanl if I may not trans- 
 cribe with caution, what a bishop could write without scruple. What 
 if I had translated, ut viris cerletis tesiiculos ampuure, in quibui 
 noslri corporis refocillalio, &c.? 
 
 P The original monuments of the Normans in July are collected 
 in the fifth volume of Muratori ; and among these we may distinguisli 
 the poem of William Apulus (p. 245-278.) and the history of Galfri- 
 dus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537—607.) Both were natives of France, 
 but they wrote on the spot, in the as^e of the first conquerors, (befors 
 A. D. 1100.) and with the spirit of freemen. It is needless to recapit- 
 ulate the compilers and critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, 
 Fagi, Giannone, Muratori, St. Marc, &c. whom I have always consul- 
 ted, and never copied. 
 
 q Some of the first converts were baptized ten or twelve times, for 
 the sake of the white garment usually given at this ceremony. At 
 the funeral of Kollo, the gifts to mooMteries for ihu repute of hi« Mul 
 
 mandy acknowledged themselves the vassals of the 
 successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savaire 
 fierceness which they had brought from the snowy 
 mountains of Norway, was refin^, without being cor- 
 rupted, in a warmer climate ; the companions of Rollo 
 insensibly mingled with the natives ; they imbibed the 
 'manners, language,' and gallantry, of the French na- 
 tion; and, in a martial age, the Normans might claim 
 the palm of valour and glorious achievements. Of the 
 tfashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardour 
 the pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy Land. 
 In this active devotion, their minds and bodies were 
 invigorated by exercise : danger was the incentive, 
 ^novelty the recompence; and the prospect of the world 
 |was decorated by wonder, credulity, and ambitious 
 Jhope. They confederated for their mutual defence : 
 .^nd the robbers of the Alps, who had been allured by 
 -the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm 
 4<)f a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the ca- 
 |vern of mount Garganus in Apulia, which had been 
 l«anctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael,* 
 they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, 
 but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, 
 ^and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was 
 
 IMelo ; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuc- 
 cessful revolt, was compelled to seek new allies and 
 avengers of his country. The bold appearance of the 
 i Normans revived his hopes and solicited his confi- 
 ;dence:* they listened to the complaints, and still more 
 to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of 
 , wealth demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they 
 j viewed, as the inheritance of the brave, the fruitful 
 I land which was oppressed by effeminate tyrants. On 
 • their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of en- 
 ^ terprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely asso- 
 ; ciated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the 
 ' Alps by separate roads, and in the disguise of pil- 
 grims; but in the neighbourhood of Rome they were 
 saluted by the chief of Bari, who supplied the more 
 indigent with arms and horses, and instantly led them 
 to the field of action. In the first conflict, their valour 
 prevailed ; but in the second engagement they were 
 overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of 
 < the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their faces 
 to the enemy. The unfortunate Melo ended his life, a 
 suppliant at the court of Germany : his Norman fol- 
 lowers, excluded from their native and their promised 
 land, wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy, 
 and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To 
 that formidable sword, the princes of Capua, Beneven- 
 tum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately appealed in their 
 domestic quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline 
 of the Normans gave victory to the side which they 
 espoused ; and their cautious policy observed the bal- 
 ance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival 
 state should render their aid less important and their 
 service less profitable. Their first asylum was a strong 
 camp in the depth of the marshes of Campania ; but 
 
 vrere accompanied by a sacrifice of one hundred captives. But in a 
 generation or two, the national change was pure and general. 
 
 r The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans of Bayeur 
 on the sea-coast, at a time (A. D. 940.) when it was already forgotten 
 at Rouen, in the court and capiul. Quern (Riclyird I.) confestim 
 palfir Baiocas mittens Botoni niiliiiae suae principi nutriendum tradi- 
 , oil, ut ibi lingua eruditus Danicu, suis exterisque hominibus sciret 
 apene dare responsa. (Wilhelm. Gemeticensis de Ducibus Norman- 
 nis, 1. iii. c. 8. p. 623. edit. Camden.) Of the vernacular and favour- 
 ite idiom of William the Conqueror, (A. D. 1035) Selden (Opera, 
 lorn. ii. p. 1640—1656.) has given a specimen, obsolete and obscure 
 even to antiquarians and lawyers. 
 
 • See Leandro Albert! (Descrizione d'ltalia, p. 250.) and Baronius. 
 (A. D. 493. No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the temple and ora- 
 cle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the soothsayer, (Strab. Geo- 
 graph. I. vi. p. 435, 436.) the catholics (on this occasion) have sur- 
 passed the Greeks in the elegance of their superstition. 
 
 [• The Normans were^alreatly known in Italy for their valour, 
 aorne years before, fifty of their knishis, happening to meet at Sa- 
 lerno at the time when a small fleet of Saracens had just insulted 
 that city, obuined of Guainiar III. then prince of Salerno, arms and 
 horses, opened the gates of the city, and attacked and defeated the 
 fearacens. Guaimar in vain attempted to retain them in his service: 
 but made them promise that they would send others of the bold war- 
 riors of their nation to fight the infideli. (Hist, dec Ripub. lul. vol. 
 >• p. ..63.) — U.J 
 
 they were soon endowed by the liberality of the duke 
 of Naples with a more plentiful and permanent seat. 
 Eight miles from his residence, as a bul- f d • 
 wark against Capua, the town of A versa """AveH^l^ °*^ 
 was built and fortified for their use ; and A. D. 1029. 
 they enjoyed, as their own, the corn and fruits, the 
 meadows and groves, of that fertile district." The re- 
 port of their success attracted every year new swarms 
 of pilgrims and soldiers : the poor were urged by ne- 
 cessity ; the rich were excited by hope ; and the brave 
 and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease 
 and ambitious of renown. The independent standard 
 of Aversa aflforded shelter and encouragement to the 
 outlaws of the province, to every fugitive who had 
 escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; 
 and these foreign associates were quickly assimilated 
 in manners and language to the Gallic colony. The 
 first leader of the Normans was count Rainulf ; and, 
 in the origin of society, pre-eminence of rank is the 
 reward and the proof of superior merit.' 
 A S^nce the conquest of Sicily by the The Norman. 
 Arabs, the trrecian emperors had been serve in Sicily, 
 anxious to regain that valuable posses- A.D. i038. 
 sion ; but their efforts, however strenuous, had been 
 opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly 
 armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages 
 of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals: 
 twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a 
 single expedition ; and the victorious Moslems derided 
 the policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not 
 only with the custody of their women, but with the 
 command of their men.'' After a reign of two hun- 
 dred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divi- 
 sions.* The emir disclaimed the authority of the king 
 of Tunis ; the people rose against the emir ; the cities 
 were usurped by the chiefs ; each meaner rebel was 
 independent in his village or castle ; and the weaker 
 of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the 
 christians. In every service of danger the Normans 
 were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights^ 
 or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, 
 the agent and interpreter of the Greeks, under the 
 standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before 
 their landing, the brothers were reconciled ; the union 
 of Sicily and Africa was restored ; and the island was 
 guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the 
 van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the valour of an 
 untried foe. In a second action, the emir of Syracuse 
 was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of 
 William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his 
 intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thou- 
 sand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the 
 labour of the pursuit : a splendid victory ; but of which 
 the pen of the historian may divide the merit with the 
 lance of the Normans. It is, however, true, that they 
 essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who 
 
 [u This account is not accurate. After the retreat of the emperor 
 Henry II. the Normans united under the command of Rainulr and 
 took possession of Aversa, then a small castle belonging to the duchj 
 of Naples. They had been masters of it but a few years when Pan- 
 dulf IV. prince of Capua, found means of taking Naples by surprise. 
 Sergius, commander of the soldiery, and chief of this republic, with 
 the principal citizens, left the city, where they saw witn horror the 
 establishmentof a strange government, and retired to A versa. When, 
 with the assistance of the Greeks and of those citizens who were still 
 faithful to their country, he had collected money enough to satisfy 
 the demands of the Normans, he marched at their head to attack tho 
 garrison of the prince of Capua. He subdued it and re-entered Na- 
 ples. It was then that he granted to the Normans the possession of 
 Aversa and its territory, made it an earldom, and conferred it upon 
 Rainulf. (Hist, des R6pub. Ital. vol. i. p. 267.)— G.] 
 
 V See the first book of William Apulus. His words are applicabU 
 to every swarm of barbarians and freebooters : 
 
 I Si vicinorum xu\s peinitiosus ad illos 
 Confugiebat, euin grataniesuscipiebant: 
 Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant 
 Informant propria; gens efficiatur ut una. 
 And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy : 
 
 Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia null©; 
 Pars, quia de magnis majora subire volebant. 
 w Liutprand in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has illustrated this ereat 
 from the MS. history of the deacon Leo, (torn. iv. A. D. 965. No. 
 17—19.) 
 
 z See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori Script. B*> 
 rum lul. torn. i. p. 253. 
 
 :!i 
 
300 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CuAP. XVn. B Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 301 
 
 ! 
 
 :)• 
 
 I 
 
 reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of Sicily, 
 binder the obedience of the emperor. But his military 
 fame was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the 
 division of the spoil, the deserts of his brave auxilia- 
 ries were forgotten ; and neither their avarice nor their 
 pride could brook this injurious treatment. They com- 
 plained, by the mouth of their interpreter : their com- 
 plaint was disregarded ; their interpreter was scourged ; 
 the sufferings were his ,• the insult and resentment be- 
 longed to those whose sentiments he had delivered. 
 Yet they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, 
 a safe passage to the Italian continent : their brethren 
 of Aversa sympathised in their indignation, and the 
 province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the 
 Their conquest ^ebt.T Above twenty years after the 
 of Apulia, first emigration, the Normans took the 
 A. D. 1040— 1043. i^gjj yf\i\^ no more than seven hundred 
 
 horse and five hundred foot; and after the recall of the 
 Byzantine legions" from the Sicilian war, their num- 
 bers are magnifiea to the amount of threescore thou- 
 sand men. Their herald proposed the option of battle 
 or retreat; " of battle," was the unanimous cry of the 
 Normans ; and one of their stoutest warriors, with a 
 stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of the 
 Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh 
 horse; the insult was concealed from the imperial 
 troops ; but in two successive battles they were more 
 fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. 
 In the plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled before the 
 adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was 
 made prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new do- 
 minion ; and the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brun- 
 dusium, and Tarentum, were alone saved in the ship- 
 wreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera we 
 may date the establishment of the Norman power, 
 "which soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. 
 Twelve counts* were chosen by the popular suffrage; 
 and age, birth, and merit were the motives of their 
 choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were 
 appropriated to their use ; and each count erected a 
 fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his 
 Yassals. In the centre of the province, the common 
 habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis 
 and citadel of the republic ; a house and separate quar- 
 ter was allotted to each of the twelve counts ; and the 
 national concerns were regulated by this military sen- 
 ate. The first of his peers, their president and gene- 
 ral, was entitled count of Apulia ; and this dignity was 
 conferred on William of the iron arm, who, in the 
 language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb 
 in society, and an angel in council.*" The manners of 
 his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary 
 and national historian.' "The Normans," says Ma- 
 
 y Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, and the conauest 
 ©f Apulia, (l. i. c. 7, 8, 9. 19.) The same evenia are described by 
 Cedrenus (torn. ii. p. 741—743.735, 756.) and Zonaras; (torn. ii. p. 
 237, 238.) and the Greeks are so hardened to disgrace, that their nar- 
 ratives are impartial enough. 
 
 t Cedrenus specifies the rtytt* of the Obsequiem, (Phrygia,) and 
 the iftfti of the Thracesians; (Lydia ; consult Constantine de The- 
 matibus, i. 3, 4. with Delisle's map ;) and afterwards names the Fisi- 
 Aians and I.ycaonians with the foederati. 
 
 a Omnes conveniunl; el bis sex nobiliores, 
 Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et aetaf, 
 Elegere duces. Provectis ad comiiatum 
 His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris 
 Quo donantnr erat. Hi tolas undique terra* 
 Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet; 
 Singula proponunt loca qua coniingere forte 
 Cuique duci debenl, et quaeque tributa locorura. 
 And after speaking of Melphi, William Apulus adds, 
 Pro numero comituin bis sex statuvre plateas, 
 Atquo domus comitum toiidem fabricantur in urbe. 
 Leo Osliensis (I. ii. c. 67.) enumeraies the divisions of the .\pulian 
 cities, which it is needless to repeal. 
 
 b Gulielm. Apulus, 1. ii. c 12. according to the reference of Gian- 
 none, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, torn. ii. p. 31.) which I cannot verify 
 in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas virea,pro- 
 bittia animi, and vivida virtus ; and declares thai, had he lived, no 
 poet could have equalled his merits, (1. i. p. 258. 1. ii. p. 239.) He 
 was bewailed by ihe Normans, quippe qui tanli consilii v rum, (says 
 Malaterra, 1. i. c. 12. p. 552.) tarn armis strenuum, lam sibi munifi- 
 cum, aifabilem, morigeraium, ulierius se habere diffidebant. 
 
 e The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix .... adulari sciens . . . . 
 •loouentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (1. i.e. 3. p. 550.) are expressive 
 •f the popular and proverbial character of the Norman*. 
 
 laterra, "are a cunning and revengeful character of ih© 
 people ; eloquence and dissimulation ap- Nonnans. 
 pear to be their hereditary qualities; they can stoop 
 to flatter ; but unless they are curbed by the restraint 
 of law, they indulge the licentiousness of nature and 
 passion. Their princes affect the praise of popular 
 munificence ; the people observe the medium, or rather 
 blend the extremes, of avarice and prodigality ; and, 
 in their eager thirst of wealth and dominion, they des- 
 pise whatever they possess, and hope whatever they 
 desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress, the ex> 
 ercises of hunting and hawking,'' are the delight of the 
 Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure 
 with incredible patience the inclemency of every cli- 
 mate, and the toil and abstinence of a military life."* 
 The Normans of Apulia were seated oppression of 
 on the verge of the two empires ; and, Apulia, 
 according to the policy of the hour, they ^- ^* *^^» **^- 
 accepted the investiture of their lands from the sove- 
 reigns of Germany or Constantinople. But the firmest 
 title of these adventurers was the right of conquest: 
 they neither loved nor trusted ; they were neither trus- 
 ted nor beloved : the contempt of the princes was 
 mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was min- 
 gled with hatred and resentment. Every object of de- 
 sire, a horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified 
 the rapaciousness of the strangers;' and the avarice of 
 their chiefs was only coloured by the more specious 
 names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts 
 were sometimes joined in a league of injustice; in 
 their domestic quarrels they disputed the spoils of the 
 people : the virtues of William were buried in his 
 grave; and Drogo, his brother and successor, was bet- 
 ter qualified to lead the valour, than to restrain the 
 violence, of his peers. Under the reign of Constan- 
 tine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevf> 
 lence, of the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve 
 Italy from this adherent mischief, more grievous than 
 a flight of barbarians ;> and Argyrus, the son of Melo, 
 was invested for this purpose with the most lofty ti- 
 tles •* and the most ample commission. The memory 
 of his father might recommend him to the Normans; 
 and he had already engaged their voluntary service to 
 quell the revolt of Maniaces, and to avenge their own 
 and the public injury. It was the design of Constan- 
 tine to transplant this warlike colony from the Italian 
 provinces to the Persian war ; and the son of Melo 
 distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufac- 
 tures of Greece, as the first fruits of the imperial boun- 
 ty. But his arts were baflled by the sense and spirit 
 of the conquerors of Apulia : his gifts, or at least his 
 proposals, were rejected ; and they unanimously re- 
 fused to relinquish their possessions and their hopes 
 for the distant prospect of Asiatic for- League of the 
 tune. After the means of persuasion pope and the 
 had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel ^wo «'"^S' 
 or to destroy : the Latin powers were * ' ' 
 solicited against the common enemy ; and an offensive 
 alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors 
 
 d The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the descend- 
 ants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import from Nor- 
 way and Iceland ihe finest casts of falcons. 
 
 • We may compare this portrait with that of William of Malms- 
 bury, (de Geslis Anglorum, 1. iii. p. 101, 102.) who appreciates, like 
 a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues of the baxons and Nor* 
 mans. England was assuredly a gainer by the conquest. 
 
 f Tne biographer of Si. Leo IX. pours his holy venom on the Nor- 
 mans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem Normanorum, 
 crudeli et inaudita rabie, et plusquam pagana impietate, adversus 
 ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim chrisiianos trucidare, &c. (Wibert, c. 
 6.) The honest Apulian (I. ii. p. 259.) says calmly of their accuser, 
 Veris commiscens fallacia. 
 
 g The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, Sec. must be col- 
 lected from Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 7.57, 758.) William Apulus, (1. i. p. 
 257, 258. 1. ii. p. 259.) and the two Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Pro- 
 tospala, (Muratori, Script. Iial. tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44.) and an anony- 
 mous writer. (Anliquitat. Ilaliae medii jfevi, tom. i. p. 31—35) This 
 last is a fragment of some value. 
 
 h Argyrus received, says the anonymous chronicle of Bari, impe- 
 rial letters, Foederatus et Patricialus, et Catapani et Vesiat'is. In 
 his Annals, Muralori (tom. viii. p. 426.) very properly reads, or in- 
 terprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos or Augustus. But in hit 
 Aniiquiiies, he was taught by Du Cange to make it a palatine office, 
 master of the wardrobe. 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 Expedition of 
 pope Let) IX. 
 against the Nor 
 mans, 
 A. D. 1053. 
 
 1. 
 
 of the east and west. The throne of St. Peter was 
 occupied by Leo the ninth, a simple saint,' of a temper 
 most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose 
 venerahle character would consecrate with the name 
 of piety the measures least compatible with the prac- 
 tice of religion. His humanity was affected by the 
 complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured peo- 
 ple : the impious Normans had interrupted the pay- 
 ment of tithes : and the temporal sword might be law- 
 fully unsheathed against the sacrilegious robbers, who 
 were deaf to the censures of the church. As a Ger- 
 man of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo had free 
 access to the court and confidence of the emperor 
 Henry the third ; and in search of arms and allies, his 
 nrdeiit zeal transported him from Apulia to Saxony, 
 Trom the Elbe to the Tiber. During these hostile pre- 
 parations, Argyrus indulged himself in the use of se- 
 cret and guilty weapons : a crowd of Normans became 
 105! ^^^ victims of public or private revenge; 
 and the valiant Drogo was murdered in a 
 church. But his spirit survived in his brother Hum- 
 phrey, the third count of Apulia. The assassins were 
 chastised ; and the son of Melo, overthrown and 
 wounded, was driven from the field to hide his shame 
 behind the walls of Bari, and to await the tardy suc- 
 cour of his allies. 
 
 But the power of Constantine was 
 distracted by a Turkish war; the mind 
 of Henry was feeble and irresolute ; and 
 the pope, instead of repassing the Alps 
 with a German army, was accompanied only by a 
 guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers 
 of Lorrain. In his long progress from Mantua to 
 Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Ita- 
 lians was enlisted under the holy standard : ^ the 
 priest and the robber slept in the same tent : the pikes 
 and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the 
 martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the 
 order of march, of encampment, and of combat. The 
 Normans of Apulia could muster in the field no more 
 than three thousand horse, with a handful of infantry ; 
 the defection of the natives intercepted their provisions 
 and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of fear, was 
 chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the 
 hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace 
 or reluctance before their spiritual father. But the 
 pope was inexorable ; his lofty Germans affected to 
 deride the diminutive stature of their adversaries; 
 and the Normans were informed that death or exile 
 was their only alternative. Flight they disdained, 
 and, as many of them had been three days without 
 tasting food, they embraced the assurance of a more 
 easy and honourable death. They climbed the hill of 
 Civiiella, descended into the plain, and charged in 
 His defeat and *hree divisions the army of the pope. 
 captivity, June On the left, and in the centre, Richard 
 count of Aversa, and Robert the famous 
 Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the 
 Iialian multitudes, who fought without discipline, and 
 fled without shame. A harder trial was reserved for 
 the valour of count Humphrey, who led the cavalry 
 of the right wing. The Germans' have been descri- 
 bed as unskilful in the management of the horse 
 and lance : but on foot they formed a strong and im- 
 
 • A Life of St. Leo IX. deeply tinged with the passions and preju- 
 Y'^|)».of the age, has been composed by Wibert, printed at Paris, 
 1615. in octavo, and since inserted in the Collections of the Bolan- 
 oists, of Mabillon, and of Muralori. The public and private history 
 <^f that pope is diligently treated by M. de St. Marc. (Abreg6, tom. 
 II p. 140-210. and p. 25—95. second column.) 
 
 k See the expedition of Leo IX. against the Nonnans. See Wil- 
 lia,,! Apulus (1. ii. p. 259—261.) and Jeffrey Malaterra, (1. i. c. 13, 14, 
 lo. [I. 253.) They are impartial, as the national is counterbalanced 
 Dy the clerical prejudice. 
 
 1 Teutonic!, quia casaries et forma decoros 
 Fecerat egre^ie proceri corporis illos. 
 Corpora derident Normannica, quae breviora 
 Esse videbaniur. 
 The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he 
 'ipais himself a little in the battle. Two of his ■imiles from hawk- 
 log and lorcery are descriptive of manner*. 
 
 penetrable phalanx ; and neither man, nor steed, nor 
 armour, could resist the weight of their long and two- 
 handed swords. After a severe conflict, they were 
 encompassed by the squadrons returning from the pur- 
 suit; and died in their ranks with the esteem of their 
 foes, and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of 
 Civitella were shut against the flying pope, and he 
 was overtaken by the pious conquerors, who kissed 
 his feet, to implore his blessing, and the absolution of 
 their sinful victory. The soldiei-s beheld in their ene- 
 my and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we 
 may suppose the policy of the chiefs, it is probable 
 that they were infected by the popular superstition. 
 In the calm of retirement, the well-meaninor pope de- 
 plored the effusion of christian blood, which must be 
 imputed to his account : he felt that he had been the 
 author of sin and scandal : and as his undertaking 
 had failed, the indecency of his military character was 
 universally condemned." With these dispositions, he 
 listened to the offers of a beneficial treaty ; deserted 
 an alliance which he had preached as the cause of 
 God ; and ratified the past and future conquests of the 
 Normans. By whatever hands they had origin of the pa- 
 been usurped, the provinces of Apulia pal Tnvestiture to 
 and Calabria were a part of the donation ^^^ Normans. 
 of Constantine and the patrimony of St. Peter : the 
 grant and the acceptance confirmed the mutual claims 
 of the pontiff and the adventurers. They promised to 
 support each other with spiritual and temporal arms ; 
 a tribute or quit-rent of twelve-pence was afterwards 
 stipulated for every plough-land : and since this memo- 
 rable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained 
 above seven hundred years a fief of the holy see." 
 
 The pedigree of Robert Guiscard » Birth and cha- 
 is variously deduced from the peasants racier of Robert 
 and the dukes of Normandy : from the .^H'^r^S' mo- 
 peasants, by the pride and ignorance of " ^^'^^*^«* 
 a Grecian princess ; p from the duke, by the igno- 
 rance and flattery of the Italian subjects.*' His genu- 
 ine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle 
 order of private nobility.' He sprang from a race of 
 valvassors or bannerets^ of the diocese of the Coutances, 
 in the Lower Normandy : the castle of Hauteville was 
 their honourable seat : his father Tancred was conspi- 
 cuous in the court and army of the duke ; and his mili- 
 tary service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights. 
 Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, 
 made him the father of twelve sons, who were educa- 
 
 m Several respectable censures or complaints are produced by M, 
 de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200-204 ) As Peter Damianus, the oracle 
 of the times, had denied the popes the right of making war, the her- 
 mit (lumens eremi incola) is arraigned by the cardinal, and Baroniuf 
 (Aiinal. Eccles. A. D. 1053, No. 10—17.) most strenuously asserts the 
 two swords of St. Peter. 
 
 n The origin and nature of the papal investilures are ably discussed 
 by Gianiione, (Isloria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 37—49. 57—66.) as a 
 lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly strives to reconcile the du- 
 ties of patriot and catholic, adopts an empty distinction of " Ecclesia 
 Romana non dedit sed accepit," and shrinks from an honest but 
 dangerous confession of the truth. 
 
 The birth, character, and first actions of Robert Guiscard may 
 be found in Jeffrey Malaterra, (I. i. c. 3, 4. 11. 16, 17, 18, 38, 39, 40.) 
 William Apulus, (1. ii. p. 260—26-2.) William Gemeticensis, or of Ju- 
 mieges, (1. xi. c. 3S). p. 663, 664. edit. Camden.) and Anna Comnena, 
 (Alexiad, 1. i. p. 23—27. 1. vi. p. 165, 166.) with the annotations of Du 
 Cange. (Not. in Alexiad. p. 230. 232. 320.) who has swept all the 
 French and Latin Chronicles for supplemental intelligence. 
 
 p o f i Fz^TTtgrci (a Greek corruption) siroj tiv Kof/xxwos to ytvtj, 
 
 Ti)v Tuztn- ao-if/uoi Again, (^ et^AfOv; ^rtivu Tuxi; ari^t^xvt;;. 
 
 And elsewhere, (I. iv. p. 84.) »-9 itjc*ti;; ^ivix; kx« tuj^ih »zxvsu;. 
 Anna Comnena was born in ihfe purple ; yet her father was no more 
 than a private though illustrious subject, who raised himself to the 
 empire. 
 
 q Giannone (tom. ii. p. 2.) forgets all his original authors, and rests 
 this princely descent on the credit of Inveges, an .Augustine monk 
 of Palermo in the last century. Thev continue the succession of 
 dukes frorti RoUo to William II. the Bastard or Conqueror, whom 
 they hold (communemenie si tiene) to be the father uf'/ancred of 
 Hauteville: a most stranee and stupendous blunder' The sons of 
 Tancred fought in Apulia'^ before William II. was three years old, (A. 
 D 1047.) 
 
 r The judgment of Du Cange is just and moderate: Certe humilis 
 fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalein et regium speciemus api- 
 cem, ad quern postea pervenit ; quae honesta tamen et praeier nobi- 
 lium vulgarium siaiuin el condiiionem illustris habiia est, ''quae nee 
 humi reperet nee altum quid tumeret." (Wilbelra. Malmiibur. do 
 Gestis Anglorum, 1. iii. p. 107. Not. ad Alexiad. p. 230.) 
 

 302 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVU. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 303 
 
 te^ at home by the impartial tenderness of his second 
 wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficient for 
 this numerous and daring progeny; they saw around 
 the neighbourhood the mischiefs of poverty and dis- 
 cord, and resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glo- 
 rious inheritance. Two only remained to perpetuate 
 the race, and cherish their father's age : their ten bro- 
 thers, as they successively attained the vigour of man- 
 hood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and 
 joined the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder 
 were prompted by native spirit; their success encou- 
 raged their younger brethren, and the three first in 
 seniority, William, Drogo, and Humphrey, deserved 
 to be the chiefs of their nation, and the founders 
 of the new republic. Robert was the eldest of the 
 seven sons of the second marriage ; and even the re- 
 luctant praise of his foes has endowed him with the 
 heroic qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His 
 lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army : his 
 limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength and 
 gracefulness ; and to the decline of life, he maintain- 
 ed the patient vigour of health and the commanding 
 dignity of his form. His complexion was ruddy, his 
 shoulders were broad, his hair and beard were long 
 and of a flaxen colour, his eyes sparkled with fire, and 
 his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress obedi- 
 ence and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the 
 luder ages of chivalry, such qualifications are not be- 
 low the notice of the poet or historian : they may 
 observe that Robert, at once, and with equal dexterity, 
 could wield in the right hand his sword, his lance in 
 the left; that in the battle of Civitella, he was thrice 
 unhorsed ; and that in the close of that memorable 
 day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of 
 valour from the warriors of the two armies.* His 
 boundless ambition was founded on the consciousness 
 of superior worth ; in the pursuit of greatness, he was 
 never arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom 
 moved by the feelings of humanity : though not insen- 
 sible of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means 
 was determined only by his present advantage. The 
 surname of Guiscard* was applied to this master of 
 political wisdom, which is too often confounded with 
 the practice of dissimulation and deceit ; and Robert 
 is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cun- 
 ning of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet 
 these arts were disguised by an appearance of milita- 
 ry frankness ; in his highest fortune, he was accessi- 
 ble and courteous to his fellow-soldiers ; and while 
 he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he 
 affected in his dress and manners to maintain the 
 ancient fashion of his country. He grasped with a 
 rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal, 
 hand : his primitive indigence had taught the habits 
 of frugality ; the gain of a merchant was not below 
 his attention ; and his prisoners were tortured with 
 slow and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of 
 their secret treasure. According to the Greeks, he 
 departed from Normandy with only five followers on 
 horseback, and thirty on foot ; yet even this allowance 
 appears too bountiful : the sixth son of Tancred of 
 Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim ; and his first 
 military band was levied among the adventurers of 
 Italy. His brothers and countrymen had divided the 
 fertile lands of Apulia ; but they guarded their shares 
 
 - ■ ■—■ — -.-■-.- ^ ^ ^ 
 
 • I shall quote wiih pleasure some of ihe best lines of the Apulian, 
 (1. ii. p. 270.) 
 
 Pugnat utHique manu, nee lancea cassa, nee ensit 
 Cassufl erat, quocunque manu deducere velleu 
 Ter dejtictua equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis 
 Major in arma red it ; stimulos furor ipse ministrat. 
 Ut ieo cum frondens, &c. 
 
 Nullus in hoc bello sicuti post bella probatum est 
 
 Victor vel victus, tarn magnos edidit ictus, 
 t The Norman writers and editors most conversant with their own 
 idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidws, a cunning man. 
 The root (tcise) is familiar to our ear ; and in llio old word Wiaeacre 
 I can discern something of a similar sense and termination. T>tir 
 Aivxn* M^vcuMyaimxti, i$ no bad iraaslation of the surnam* aad cha- 
 racter of Robert. 
 
 with the jealousy of avarice ; the aspiring youth was 
 driven forwards to the mauntains of Calabria, and in 
 his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives, it 
 is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. 
 To surprise a castle or a convent, to insnare a wealthy 
 citizen, to plunder the adjacent villages for necessary 
 food, were the obscure labours which formed and ex- 
 ercised the powers of his mind and body. The volun- 
 teers of Normandy adhered to his standard ; and, under 
 his command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the 
 name and character of Normans. 
 
 Asthegeniusof Robert expanded with mg ambition 
 his fortune, he awakened the jealousy of and success, 
 his elder brother, by whom, in a tran- A. D. 1054-108O. 
 sient quarrel, his life was threatened and his liberty 
 restrained. After the death of Humphrey, the tender 
 age of his sons excluded them from the command ; 
 they were reduced to a private estate by the ambition 
 of their guardian and uncle; and Guiscard was exalted 
 on a buckler, and saluted count of Apulia and general 
 of the republic. With an increase of authority and of 
 force, he resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon 
 aspired to a rank that should raise him for ever above 
 the heads of his equals. By some acts of rapine or 
 sacrilege, he had incurred a papal excommunication : 
 but Nicholas the second was easily persuaded, that 
 the divisions of friends could terminate only in their 
 mutual prejudice; that the Normans were the faithful 
 champions of the holy see ; and it was safer to trust 
 the alliance of a prince than the caprice of an aristo- 
 cracy. A synod of one hundred bishops was convened 
 at Melphi; and the count interrupted an important en- 
 terprise to guard the person and execute the decrees 
 of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy con- 
 ferred on Robert and his posterity the ducal title," with 
 the investiture of Apulia, Calabria, and all the lands, 
 both in Italy and Sicily, which his sword could rescue 
 from the schismatic Greeks and the unbelieving Sara- 
 cens.* This apostolic sanction might justify his arms: 
 but the obedience of a free and victorious people could 
 not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard 
 dissembled his elevation till the ensuing campaicrn had 
 been illustrated by the conquest of Consenza and Rog- 
 gio. In the hour of triumph, he assembled his troops, 
 and solicited the Normans to confirm by their suffrage 
 the judgment of the vicar of Christ: the soldiers 
 hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke; 
 and the counts, his former equals, pronounced the oath 
 of fidelity, with hollow smiles and secret indignation. 
 After this inauguration, Robert styled Duke of Apulia, 
 himself, "by the grace of God and St. A.D.IOGO. 
 Peter, duke of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of 
 Sicily ;" and it was the labour of twenty years to de- 
 serve and realize these lofty appellations. Such tardy 
 progress, in a narrow space, may seem unworthy of 
 the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the nation: 
 hut the Normans were few in number; their resources 
 were scanty ; their service was voluntary and precari- 
 ous. The bravest designs of the duke were sometimes 
 opposed by the free voice of his parliament of barons: 
 the twelve counts of popular election conspired asrainst 
 his authority ; and against their perfidious uncle the 
 sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By 
 his policy and vigour, Guiscard discovered their plots, 
 suppressed their rebellions, and punished the guilty 
 with death or exile : but in these domestic feuds, his 
 years and the national strength were unprofitably con- 
 sumed. After the defeat of his foreign enemies, the 
 Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, their broken forces 
 
 n The acquisition of the ducal title by Robert Guiscard is a nice 
 and obscure businpss. With the good advice of Giannone, Muratori, 
 and St. Marc, I have endeavoured to form a consistent and probable 
 narrative. 
 
 X Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. P. 1059. No. 69.) has publ!.'»hed the 
 original act. He professes to have copied it fnnn the Liber Cen- 
 guum, a Vatican MS. Yet a Librr Censuum of the twelfth coniiiry 
 has been printed by Muratori ; (Aniiquit. medii Jilvi,tom. v. p.85l— 
 9U6.) and the names of Vatican and Cardinal awaken the suspicious 
 of a prottstaut, and even of a philosopher. 
 
 i 
 
 letreated to the strong and populous cities of the sea- 
 coast. They excelled in the arts of fortification and 
 defence ; the Normans were accustomed to serve on 
 horseback in the field, and their rude attempts could 
 only succeed by the efforts of persevering courage. 
 The resistance of Salerno was maintained above eight 
 months: the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near four 
 years. In these actions the Norman duke was the 
 foremost in every danger; in every fatigue the last 
 and most patient. As he pressed the citadel of Saler- 
 » no, a huge stone from the rampart shattered one of his 
 military engines ; and by a splinter he was wounded 
 in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in 
 a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, 
 and thatched with straw; a perilous station, on all 
 sides open to the inclemency of the winter and the 
 spears of the enemy.^ 
 
 His Italian con- The Italian conquests of Robert cor- 
 quests. respond with the limits of the present 
 kingdom of Naples ; and the countries united by his 
 arms have not been dissevered by the revolutions of 
 seven hundred years." The monarchy has been com- 
 posed of the Greek provinces of Calabria and Apulia, 
 of the Lombard principality of Salerno, the republic 
 of Amalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large 
 and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts 
 only were exempted from the common law of subjec- 
 tion ; the first for ever, and the two last till the middle 
 of the succeeding century. The city and immediate 
 territory of Benevento had been transferred, by gift or 
 exchange, from the German emperor to the Roman 
 pontiff: and although this holy land was sometimes 
 invaded, the name o? St. Peter was finally more potent 
 than the sword of the Normans. Their first colony of 
 Aversa subdued and held the state of Capua ; and her 
 princes were reduced to beg their bread before the 
 palace of their fathers. The dukes of Naples, the 
 present metropolis, maintained the popular freedom, 
 under the shadow of the Byzantine empire. Among 
 the new acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of Sa- 
 lerno," and the trade of Amalphi,*' may detain for a mo- 
 School of Sa- ment the curiosity of the reader. I. Of 
 lerno. the learned faculties, jurisprudence im- 
 
 plies the previous establishment of laws and property ; 
 and theoloory may perhaps be superseded by the full 
 light of religion and reason. But the savage and the 
 sage must alike implore the assistance of physic ; and, 
 if our diseases are inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs 
 of blows and wounds would be more frequent in the 
 ruder ages of society. The treasures of Grecian medi- 
 cine had been communicated to the Arabian colonies 
 of Africa, Spain, and Sicily; and in the intercourse of 
 peace and war, a spark of knowledge had been kindled 
 and cherished at Salerno, an illustrious city, in which 
 the men were honest and the women beautiful.' A 
 school, the first that arose in the darkness of Europe, 
 was consecrated to the healing art; the conscience of 
 monks and bishops was reconciled to that salutary and 
 lucrative profession; and a crowd of patients, of the 
 
 7 Read the life of Guiscard in the second and third books of the 
 Apulian, the first and second books of Malaterra. 
 
 « The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger 1. the exemption of 
 Benevcnte and the twelve provinces of the kingdom, are fairly ex- 
 posed by Giannone in the second volume of his Istoria Civile, 1. ix. 
 J xi. and 1. xvii. p. 460--470. This modern division was not esta- 
 blished before the time of Frederic II. 
 
 » Giannone, (torn. ii. p. 119—127.) Muratori, (Antiquitat. medii 
 JEvi, lorn. iii. dissert, xlir. p.935,l»36.) and Tiraboschi, (Istoria della 
 LeiiPtura Iialiana,) have given an historical account of these phy- 
 sicians; their medical knowledge and practice must be left to our 
 physicians. 
 
 b At the end of the Historia Pandectarum of Henry Brenckman, 
 (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722. in 4to,) the indefatigable author has in- 
 serted two dissertations, de Republica Amalphitana, and de Amalphi 
 a risanis direpta, which are built on the testimonies of one hundred 
 and forty writers. Yet he has forgotten two most important passages 
 of the embassy of Liutprand, (A. D. 969.) which compare the trade 
 and navigation of Amalphi with that of Venice. 
 * Urbs Latii non est hac delitiosior urbe, 
 
 Frugibus, arboribua, vino redundat ; et unde 
 
 Non tibi poma, nuces, non pulchra palatia detunt, 
 
 Hoa species rouliebris abcst probitasque virorum. 
 
 (Qulielmufl Apulus, 1. iii. p. S67,> 
 
 most eminent rank, and most distant climates, invited 
 or visited the physicians of Salerno. They were pro- 
 tected by the Norman conquerors ; and Guiscard 
 though bred in arms, could discern the merit and value 
 of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of thirty-nine 
 years, Constantine, an African christian, returned from 
 Bagdad, a master of the language and learning of the 
 Arabians ; and Salerno was enriched by the practice, 
 the lessons, and the writings, of the pupil of Avicen- 
 na. The school of medicine has long slept in the 
 name of a university; but her precepts are abridged in 
 a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine 
 verses, or Latin rhymes, of the twelfth Trade of Amal- 
 century."* II. Seven miles to the west phi. 
 
 of Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples, the ob- 
 scure town of Amalphi displayed the power and re- 
 wards of industry. The land, however fertile, was of 
 narrow extent; but the sea was accessible and open: 
 the inhabitants first assumed the ofl^ce of supplying 
 the western world with the manufactures and produc- 
 tions of the east; and this useful traffic was the source 
 of their opulence and freedom. The government wasr 
 popular, under the administration of a duke and the 
 supremacy of the Greek emperor. Fifty thousand 
 citizens were numbered in the walls of Amalphi ; nor 
 was any city more abundantly provided with gold, sil- 
 ver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners 
 who swarmed in her port excelled in the theory and 
 practice of navigation and astronomy ; and the disco- 
 very of the compass, which has opened the globe, is 
 due to their ingenuity or good fortune. Their trade 
 was extended to the coasts, or at least to the commo- 
 dities, of Africa, Arabia, and India; and their settle- 
 ments in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and 
 Alexandria, acquired the privileges of independent, 
 colonies.® After three hundred years of prosperity, 
 Amalphi was oppressed by the arms of the Normans, 
 and sacked by the jealousy of Pisa ; but the poverty 
 of one thousand fishermen is yet dignified by the re- 
 mains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of 
 royal merchants.' 
 
 Roger, the twelfth and last of the conquest of Sici- 
 sons ot 1 ancred, had been long detained ly by Count Ro- 
 in Normandy by his own and his father's ^^^i. ,^„ ,,^ 
 
 ^^^ u^ ^ . J *u 1 A. D. 1060— 1090. 
 
 age. He accepted the welcome sum- 
 mons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved 
 at first the esteem, and afterwards the envy, of his 
 elder brother. Their valour and ambition were equal ; 
 but the youth, the beauty, the elegant manners, of Ro- 
 ger, engaged the disinterested love of the soldiers and 
 people. So scanty was his allowance, for himself and 
 forty followers, that he descended from conquest to 
 robbery, and from robbery to domestic theft ; and so 
 loose were the notions of property, that, by his own 
 historian, at his special command, he is accused of 
 stealing horses from a stable at Melphi.* His spirit 
 
 d Muratori carries their antiquity above the year (1066.) of the 
 death of Edward the ConfeB8<jr, the rex Anglorum to whom they are 
 addressed. Nor is this date aflfecied by the opinion, or rather mis- 
 take, of Pasquier, (Recherches de la France, I. vii. c. 2.) and Du- 
 oange. (Glossar. Latin.) The practice of rhyming, as early as th» 
 seventh century, was borrowed from the languages of the north and 
 east. (Muratori, Antiquitat. torn. iii. dissert, xl. p. 686— 70S.) 
 
 e The description of Amalphi, by William the Apulian, (1. iii. p. 
 267.) contains much truth ana some poetry ; and the third line raajp 
 be applied to the sailor's compass : 
 
 Nulla magis locuples argento, vestibus, auro 
 Partibus innumeris : hac plurimus urbe moratur 
 Nauta maris ccblique vias aperire peritus. 
 Hue et Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe 
 Regis, et Auiiochi. Gens haec freta plurima transit.. 
 His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri. 
 HsBC gens est totum prope nobiliiate per orbem, 
 Et mercanda ferens, et amans mercata referre. 
 t [Amalphi had but a thousand inhabitants, at 'ho beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, when Brenckman vis.ted it, (Brenck. Ue Rep» 
 Amalp. Diss. i. chap, xxiii) but at present it has six or eight thou- 
 sand. (Hist, des R6p. Ital. vol. i. p. 304.)— G.J 
 
 g Latrocinio armigerorum suorum in multis sustentabatur, quod 
 quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus; sed ipso ita prsecipienta 
 adhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi sumue et pluribus pate»> 
 cat, quam laboriose et cum quanta augustia a profunda paupertme 
 ad summum culmen diviiiarum vel honoris attigerit. Such is tlie 
 preface of Malaterra (1. i. c. 25.) to the horse-steal ins. From the mo- 
 ment (1. i. c. 19.) that he has mentioned his patron Koger. the elder 
 
 i\ 
 
 ,H 
 
 i > 
 
 
" ; 
 
 It 
 
 304 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 «merged from poverty and disgrace : from these base 
 practices he rose to the merit and glory of a holy war; 
 and the invasion of Sicily was seconded by the zeal 
 and policy of his brother Guiscard. After the retreat 
 of the Greeks, the idolaters, a most audacious reproach 
 of the catholics, had retrieved their losses and posses- 
 sions; but the deliverance of the island, so vainly 
 undertaken by the forces of the eastern empire, was 
 achieved by a small and private band of adventurers.** 
 In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an open boat, the 
 real and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; 
 landed wiih only sixty soldiers on a hostile shore ; 
 drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina ; and safely 
 returned with the spoils of the adjacent country. In 
 the fortress of Trani, his active and patient courage 
 vras equally conspicuous. In his old age he related 
 with pleasure, that by the distress of the siege, him- 
 self, and the countess his wife, had been reduced to a 
 single cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately : 
 that in a sally his horse had been slain, and he was 
 dragged away by the Saracens ; but that he owed his 
 rescue to his good sword, and had retreated with his 
 saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy might be 
 left in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of 
 Trani, three hundred Normans withstood and repulsed 
 the forces of the island. In the field of Ceramio, fifty 
 thousand horse and foot were overthrown by one hun- 
 dred and thirty-six christian soldiers, without reckon- 
 ing St. George, who fought on horseback in the fore- 
 most ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, 
 were reserved for the successor of St. Peter ; and had 
 these barbaric spoils been exposed not in the Vatican, 
 but in the capitol, they might have revived the memo- 
 ry of the Punic triumphs. These insufficient numbers 
 of the Normans most probably denote their knights, 
 the soldiers of honourable and equestrian rank, each 
 of whom was attended by five or six followers in the 
 field;' yet, with the aid of this interpretation, and 
 after every fair allowance on the side of valour, arms, 
 and reputation, the discomfiture of so many myriads 
 will reduce the prudent reader to the alternative of a 
 miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily derived a fre- 
 quent and powerful succour from their countrymen of 
 Africa : in the siege of Palermo, the Norman cavalry 
 was assisted by the galleys of Pisa; and, in the hour 
 of action, the envy of the two brothers was sublimed 
 to a generous and invincible emulation. After a war 
 of thirty years,^ Rog^r, with the title of great count, 
 obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most fruit- 
 ful island of the Mediterranean ; and his administra- 
 tion displays a liberal and enlightened mind above the 
 limits of his age and education. The Moslems were 
 maintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and 
 property ; ^ a philosopher and physician of Mazara, 
 of the race of Mahomet, harangued the conqueror, and 
 was invited to court; his geography of the seven cli- 
 mates was translated into Latin ; and Roger, after a di- 
 ligent perusal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the 
 writings of the Grecian Ptolemy.' A remnant of chris- 
 
 broiher sinks into ihe second character. Somethin| similar in Vel- 
 leius Palerculus may be observed of Augustus and Tiberius. 
 
 h Duo sibi proficua depuians animse scilicit et corporis si terram 
 Idolis dediiain ad cuUum divinum revocaret. (Galfrid Malaterra, I. 
 ii. c. I.) The conquest of Sicily is related in the three last books, 
 and he himself has given an accurate summary of the chapters, (p. 
 544—546.) 
 
 i See the word milites, in the Latin Glossary of Ducange. 
 
 j Of ixld particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that the Arabs had 
 introduced inu> Sicily the use of camels, (1. i. c. 33.) and of carrier- 
 pigeons : (c. 42.) and that the bite of the tarantula provokes a windy 
 dispositioh, que per anum inhonesta crepitando, emergit: a symp- 
 tom most ridiculously felt by the whole Norman army in their camp 
 near Palirmo, (c. 36.) I shall add an eiymoloisry ma unworthy of the 
 eleventh century: Measana is derived from Messia, the place from 
 whence the harvests of the isle were sent in tribute to Rome, (\. ii. c. i.) 
 
 k See the capitulation of Palermo in iVlalaterra, 1. ii. c. 45. and 
 Giannone, who remarks the general toleration of the Saracens, (t^m. 
 ii. p. 72.) 
 
 1 John Leo Afer, de Medicis el Philosophis Arabibus, c. 11. apud 
 Fabric. Bibliol. Gr»c. torn. xiii. p. 278, 279. This philosopher is 
 named Esseriph Essachalli, and he died in Africa, A. H. 516. A. D. 
 11%2. Yet this story bears a strange resemblance lo the Sherif al 
 £driMi, who preiemed hit book, Gegf raphia Nubiensif, (fee preface, 
 
 tian natives had promoted the success of the Normans: 
 they were rewarded by the triumph of the cross. The 
 island was restored to the jurisdiction of the Roman 
 pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal 
 cities; and the clergy were satisfied by a liberal en- 
 dowment of churches and monasteries. Yet the catho- 
 lic hero asserted the rights of the civil magistrate. 
 Instead of resigning the investiture of benefices, he 
 dexterously applied to his own profit the papal claims; 
 the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged, 
 by the singular bull, which declares the princes of 
 Sicily hereditary and perpetual legates of the holy 
 see." 
 
 To Robert Guiscard the conquest of Robert invadeg 
 Sicily was more glorious than benefi- the eastern em- 
 cial : the possession of Apulia and Gala- P''"f' _ ,„, 
 
 , . ••1 1 4 !• I'..- A. D. 1081. 
 
 bria was inadequate to his ambition; 
 and he resolved to embrace or create the first occasion 
 of invading, perhaps of subduing, the Roman empire 
 of the east.' From his first wife, the partner of his hum- 
 ble fortunes, he had been divorced under the pretence 
 of consanguinity ; and her son Bohemond was desti- 
 ned to imitate, rather than to succeed, his illustrious 
 father. The second wife of Guiscard was the daugh- 
 ter of the princess of Salerno ; the Lombards acquies- 
 ced in the lineal succession of their son Roger; their 
 five daughters were given in honourable nuptials,** and 
 one of them was betrothed, in a tender age, to Con- 
 stantine, a beautiful youth, the son and heir of the 
 emperor Michael.P But the throne of Constantinople 
 was shaken by a revolution : the imperial family of 
 Ducas was confined to the palace or the cloister; and 
 Robert deplored, and resented, the disgrace of his 
 daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, 
 who styled himself the father of Constantine, soon 
 appeared at Salerno, and related the adventures of his 
 fall and flight. That unfortunate friend was acknow- 
 ledged by the duke, and adorned with the pomp and 
 titles of imperial dignity : in his triumphal progress 
 through Apulia and Calabria, M ichael *i was saluted 
 with the tears and acclamations of the people ; and 
 pope Gregory the seventh exhorted the bishops to 
 of preach, and the catholics to fight, in the pious work 
 his restoration. His conversations with Robert were 
 frequent and familiar; and their mutual promises were 
 justified by the valour of the Normans and the treas- 
 ures of the east. Yet this Michael, by the confession 
 of the Greeks and Latins, was a pageant and an im- 
 postor; a monk who had fled from his convent, or a 
 domestic who had served in the palace. The fraud 
 
 p. 88. 90. 170 ) to Roger king of Sicily, A. H. 548. A. P. 1153. (D'Her- 
 belot, Bibliotheque Orienlale, p. 786. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, 
 
 B. 188. Petit de la Croix, Hist, de Gongiscan, p. 535, 536. Casiri, 
 ibliot. Arab. Hispan. lom. ii. p. 9—13.) and I am afraid of some 
 mistake. 
 
 m Malaterra remarks the foundation of the bishoprics, (1. iv. c. 7.) 
 and prtnluces the original of the bull, (I. iv. c. 29.) Gianniine gives 
 a rational idea of this privilege, and the tribunal of the monarchy of 
 Sicily; (tom ii. p. 95-102.) and St. Marc (Abrege, torn. iii. p. 217— 
 301. Isi column) labours the case with the diligence of a Sicilian 
 lawyer. 
 
 n In the first expedition of Robert against the Greeks, I follow 
 Anna Comnena, (the first, third, fourth, and fifth books of the Alex- 
 iad,) William Apulus, (1. iv. and v. p. 270—275.) and JeflTrey Mala- 
 terra, (1. iii. c. 13, 14. 24—29. 39.) Their information is contemporary 
 and authentic, but none of them were eye-witnesses of the war. 
 
 o One of them was married to Hugh, the son of Azzo, or Axo, a 
 marquis of Lombardy, rich, powerful, and noble. (Gulielm. Apul. 1. 
 iii. p. 267.) in the eleventh century, and whose ancestors in the tenth 
 and ninth are explored by the critical industry of Leibnitz and Mu- 
 ratori. From the two elder sons of the marquis Azzo, are derived the 
 illustrious linee of Brunswick and Este. See Muratori, AntichiisB 
 Estense. 
 
 P Anna Comnena, somewhat too wantonly, praises and bewails that 
 handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric nuptials, (I. i. p. 
 23.) was betrothed as her huaband ; he was *y»Kiua ^vr.tuf 
 
 Wiiu xi't'" ^tKOTiftn.ux Jtfwsu y tviui etTOf j3»', &c. (p. 27.) 
 
 Elsewhere she describes the red and white of liis skin, bis hawk's 
 eyes, Jcc. I. iii. p. 71. 
 
 q Anna Comnena, 1. i. p. 28, 29. Gulielm. AptJl. \. iv. p. 271. Gal- 
 frid Malaterra, 1. iii. c. 13. p.579, 5S0. Malaterra is more cautious ia 
 his style: but the Apulian is more bold and positive. 
 
 Mentiius se Michaelem 
 
 Venerat a Danais quidum seductor ad ilium. 
 As Gregory YII. had believed, Baronius, almost aloue, rscogaizM tb* 
 emperor Michael, (A. D. lOdO. Ho, i4.) 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 tad been contrived by the subtle Guiscard ; and he 
 trusted, that after this pretender had given a decent 
 colour to his arms, he would sink, at the nod of the 
 conqueror, into his primitive obscurity. But victory 
 was the only argument that could determine the belief 
 of the Greeks; and the ardour of the Latins was much 
 inferior to their credulity ; the Norman veterans wish- 
 ed to enjoy the harvest of their toils, and the unwar- 
 like Italians trembled at the known and unknown dan- 
 gers of a transmarine expedition. In his new levies 
 Robert exerted the influence of gifts and promises, the 
 terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and some 
 acts of violence might justify the reproach, that age 
 and infancy were pressed without distinction into the 
 service of their unrelenting prince. After two years* 
 incessant preparations, the land and naval forces were 
 assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme promon- 
 tory, of Italy ; and Robert was accompanied by his 
 wife, who fought by his side, his son Bohemond, and 
 the representative of the emperor Michael. Thirteen 
 hundred knights,' of Norman race or discipline, form- 
 ed the sinews of the army, which might be swelled 
 to thirty thousand' followers of every denomination. 
 The men, the horses, the arms, the engines, the wood- 
 en towers, covered with raw hides, were embarked on 
 board one hundred and fifty vessels : the transports had 
 been built in the ports of Italy, and the galleys were 
 supplied by the alliance of the republic of Ragusa. 
 Siege of Durazzo. -^.t the mouth of the Adriatic gulf, the 
 A. D. 1061. shores of Italy and Epirus incline to- 
 june 17. ^3j,jg g^^i^ ^^j^^j.^ r^^^ gp^^^ between 
 
 Brundusium and Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no 
 more than one hundred miles;* at the last station of 
 Otranto, it is contracted to fifty ; » and this narrow dis- 
 tance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Poinpey the sub- 
 lime or extravagant idea of a bridge. Before the gen- 
 eral embarkation, the Norman duke despatched Bohe- 
 mond with fifteen galleys to seize or threaten the ilse 
 of Corfu, to survey the opposite coast, and to secure 
 an harbour in the neighbourhood of Vallona for the 
 landing of the troops. They passed and landed with- 
 out perceiving an enemy; and this successful experi- 
 ment displayed the neglect and decay of the naval 
 power of the Greeks. The islands of Epirus and the 
 maritime towns were subdued by the arms or the name 
 of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu (I 
 use the modern appellation) to the siege of Durazzo. 
 That city, the western key of the empire, was guarded 
 by ancient renown, and recent fortifications, by George 
 Palaeologus, a patrician, victorious in the oriental war's, 
 and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedoni- 
 ans, who, in every age, have maintained the character 
 of soldiers. In the prosecution of his enterprise, the 
 courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of 
 danger and mischance. In the most propitious season 
 of the year, as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm 
 of wind and snow unexpectedly arose; the Adriatic 
 was swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a new 
 shipwreck confirmed the ohl infamy of the Acrocerau- 
 nian rocks.* The sails, the masts, and the oars, were 
 
 305 
 
 , r Ipse armaia militia non plusquam MCCC milites secum habu- 
 iBse, ab eis qui eidem negotio interfuerunt attestatur. (Malaterra, 1. 
 ni. c. 24. p. 583.) These are the same whom the Apulian (1. iv. p. 
 -.73.) styles the equestris gens ducis, equites de gente ducis. 
 
 • E.s Te,ax3»T, x"^««^*,-, says Anna Comnena; (Alexias, 1. i. p. 
 37.) and her account tallies with the number and lading of the ships. 
 Ivii in Dyrrachium cum XV. millibus hominum, says the Chronicon 
 Breve Normannicum. (Muratori Scriptores, lom. v. p. 278.) I have 
 endeavoured to reconcile these reckonings. 
 
 t The Itinerary of Jerusalem (p. 609. edit. Wesseling) gives a true 
 and reasonable space of a thousand stadia, or one hundred miles, 
 which IS strangely doubled by Strabo (1. vi. p. 433.) and Pliny. (Hist. 
 iVatur. 111. 16.) ' 
 
 u Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. 6. 16.) allows quinquaginta millia for this 
 brevissimus cursus, and agrees witli the real distance from Otranto 
 toLa Vallona, or Aulon. (D'Anville, Analyse de sa Carte des Coles 
 de la (Jrece, &c. p. 3-6.) Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutes ceji- 
 turn, (Harduin, Not. Ixvi. in Plin. 1. iii.) might have been corrected 
 by every Venetian pilot who had sailed out of the gulf. 
 
 X Infames scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. carm. i. 3. The pracipi- 
 tem Africum decerlantem Aquilonibus ei rabiem Noli, and t&e mon- 
 Blra natantia of the Adriatic, are fomewhat enlarfed: but Horact 
 
 Vol. II. — 2 O 80 
 
 shattered or torn away ; the sea and shore were cover- 
 ed with the fragments of vessels, with arms and dead 
 bodies ; and the greatest part of the provisions were 
 either drowned or damaged. The ducal galley was 
 laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted 
 seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics 
 of his loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his sol- 
 diers. The Normans were no longer the bold and ex- 
 perienced mariners who had explored the ocean from 
 Greenland to mount Atlas, and who smiled at the pet- 
 ty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept 
 during the tempest; they were alarmed by the hostile 
 approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by 
 the prayers and promises of the Byzantine court. The 
 first day's action was not disadvantageous to Bohe- 
 mond, a beardless youth,^ who led the naval powers 
 of his father. All night the galleys of the republic 
 lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the 
 victory of the second day was decided by the dexterity 
 of their evolutions, the station of their archers, the 
 weight of their javelins, and the borrowed aid of the 
 Greek fire. The Apulian and Ragusian vessels fled to 
 the shore, several were cut from their cables, and drag- 
 ged away by the conqueror ; and a sallv from the town 
 carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Nor- 
 man duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Du- 
 razzo, and as soon as the besiegers had lost the com- 
 mand of the sea, the islands and maritime towns with- 
 drew from the camp the supply of tribute and provision. 
 That camp was soon afllicted with a pestilential dis- 
 ease ; five hundred knights perished by an inglorious 
 death: and the list of burials (if all could obtain a de- 
 cent burial) amounted to ten thousand persons. Under 
 these calamities, the mind of Guiscard alone was firm 
 and invincible : and while he collected new forces from 
 Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or scaled, or sapped, 
 the walls of Durazzo. But his industry and valour 
 were encountered by equal valour and more perfect in- 
 dustry. A movable turret, of a size and capacity to 
 contain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards 
 to the foot of the rampart : but the descent of the door 
 or draw-bridge was checked by an enormous beam, 
 and the wooden structure was instantly consumed by 
 artificial flames. 
 
 While the Roman empire was attack- The army and 
 ed by the Turks in the east, and the "^arch of the 
 Normans in, the west, the aged succes- juT,''^''''^ ^^"" 
 sor of Michael surrendered the sceptre Aprii-Septem- 
 to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious ^^''' » 
 
 captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. 
 The princess Anne, his daughter and historian, ob- 
 serves, in her afl^ected style, that even Hercules was 
 unequal to a double combat ; and, on this principle, 
 she approves a hasty peace with the Turks, which 
 allowed her father to undertake in person the relief 
 of Durazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the 
 camp without soldiers, and the treasury without mo- 
 ney ; yet such were the vigour and activity of hia 
 measures, that in six nwnlhs he assembled an army of 
 seventy thousand men,* and performed a march of five 
 hundred miles. His troops were levied in Europe 
 and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black sea ; his 
 majesty was displayed in the silver arms and rich 
 trappings of the companies of horse-guards ; and the 
 emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes, 
 
 trembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting naoment In the his- 
 tory of poetry and friendship. 
 
 y r-.iv St tif TOW TT/uj'.uvje auTOu i*uSf («r»»ree». (Alexias, 1. IV. p. 106.) 
 
 Yet the Normans shaved, and the Venetians wore, their beards; they 
 must have derided the no-beard of Bohemond ; a harsh interpreta- 
 tion ! (Ducange, Not. ad Alexiad. p. 283.) 
 
 X Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, tom, ix. p. 136, 137.) observes, that some 
 authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. I. iii. c. 49.) compose the 
 Greek army of 170,000 men, but that ihe hundred may be struck off, 
 and that IVlalaterra only reckons 70,000: a slight inattention. The 
 passage to which he alludes, is in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata^ 
 (Script. Ilal. lom. v. p. 45.) Malaterra (I. iv. c. 27.) speaks in high, 
 but indefinite, terms of the emperor, cum copiia innumerabilibuas 
 like the Apulian poet, (1. iv. p. 272.) 
 
 More lociuiurum mouies et plana teguntur* 
 
 \ 
 
 l" ); 
 
 i;^- 
 
\i i' 
 I* 
 
 30d 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVn. 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 n 
 
 some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed 
 with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of 
 the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their 
 youthful ardour might animate the multitude; but 
 their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination 
 were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their 
 importunate clamours for speedy and decisive action 
 disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, who might 
 have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The 
 enumeration of provinces recalls a sad comparison of 
 the past and present limits of the Roman world : the 
 raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; 
 and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been 
 purchased by the evacuation of the cities which were 
 immediately occupied by the Turks. The strength 
 of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the 
 Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently 
 augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from 
 the British island of Thule. Under the yoke of the 
 Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppres- 
 sed and united : a band of adventurous youths resolved 
 to desert a land of slavery ; the sea was open to their 
 escape; and. In their long pilorrimage, they visited 
 every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and re- 
 Tenge. They were entertained in the service of the 
 Greek emperor; and their first station was in a new 
 city on the Asiatic shore ; but Alexius soon recalled 
 them to the defence of his person and palace ; and 
 bequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their 
 faith and valour.* The name of a Norman invader 
 revived the memory of their wrongs ; they marched 
 with alacrity against the national foe, and panted to 
 tegain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the 
 battle of Hastings. The Varangians were supported 
 by some companies of Franks or Latins ; and the 
 rebels who had fled to Constantinople from the tyran- 
 ny of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and 
 gratify their revenge. In this emergency, the empe- 
 ror had not disdained the impure aid of the Paulicians 
 or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these 
 heretics united with the patience of martyrdom, the 
 spirit and discipline of active valour.** The treaty 
 with the sultan had procured a suj»ply of some thou- 
 sand Turks ; and the arrows of the Scythian horse 
 Were opposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. 
 On the report and distant prospect of these formidable 
 numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal 
 oflicers. "You behold," said he, "your danger: it 
 is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with 
 arms and standards; and the emperor of the Greeks 
 is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and 
 union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the 
 command to a more worthy leader." The vote and 
 acclamation, even of his secret enemies, assured him, 
 in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confi- 
 dence ; and the duke thus continued : " Let us trust 
 in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the 
 means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our 
 baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the 
 place of our nativity and our burial." The resolution 
 was unanimously approved, and without confining 
 himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle array 
 the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was co- 
 vered by a small river; his right wing extended to the 
 sea ; his left to the hills : nor was he conscious, per- 
 haps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had 
 formerly disputed the empire of the world.' 
 Battle of Du- Against the advice of his wisest cap- 
 razzo, tains, Alexius resolved to risk the event 
 
 A. D. 1081. of a nreneral action, and exhorted the ffar- 
 October 19. • /» -r* 1 • ^ au • j 
 
 nson of Durazzo to assist their own de- 
 ft See William of Malmsbury de Gestis Anglorum, 1. ii. p. 92. 
 Alexius fidem Anglorum suapiciens praecipuis familiaritatibus suis 
 eos applicabat, amorem eorum filio transcribens. Odericua Yitalis 
 
 {Hiai. Ecclea. 1. iv. p. 508. 1. vij. p. 641.) relates their emigration 
 irom England, and their service in Greece. 
 
 b See the Apulian, 1. i. p. 256. The character and story of these 
 JAanichBans has been the subject of the fifly-fourth chapter, 
 c See the simple and masterlj namtiTe of Cissar Uoiself. (Com- 
 
 liverance by a well-timed sally from the town. He- 
 marched in two columns to surprise the Normans be- 
 fore day-break on two different sides : his light caval- 
 ry was scattered over the plain ; the archers formed 
 the second line ; and the Varangians claimed the 
 honours of the van-guard. In the first onset, the bat- 
 tle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody 
 impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now 
 reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and 
 Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs, they fled 
 towards the river and the sea ; but the bridge had 
 been broken down to check the sally of the garrison, 
 and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, 
 who played their engines among the disorderly throng. 
 On the verge of ruin, they were saved by the spirit 
 and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Ro- 
 bert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike Amazon, a 
 second Pallas ; less skilful in arts, but not less terri- 
 ble in arms, than the Athenian goddess ; •* though 
 wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and 
 strove by her exhortation and example to rally the fly- 
 ing troops." Her female voice was seconded by the 
 more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as 
 calm in action as he was magnanimous in council : 
 "Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly? 
 Your enemy is implacable; and death is less grievous 
 than servitude." The moment was decisive : as the 
 Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered 
 the nakedness of their flanks : the main battle of the 
 duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire : 
 they couched their lances, and the Greeks deplore the 
 furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry.' 
 Alexius was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or 
 a general ; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of 
 the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he 
 despised his subjects, and despaired of his fortune. 
 The princess Anne, who drops a tear on this melan 
 choly event, is reduced to praise the strength and 
 swiftness of her father's horse, and his vigorous strug- 
 gle, when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of 
 a lance, which had shivered the imperial helmet. His 
 desperate valour broke through a squadron of Franks 
 who opposed his flight; and, after wandering two 
 days and as many nights in the mountains, he found 
 some repose of body, though not of mind, in the walls 
 of Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the 
 tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered the escape 
 of so illustrious a prize; but he consoled his disap- 
 pointment by the trophies and standards of the field, 
 the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and 
 the glory of defeating an army five times more numer- 
 ous than his own. A multitude of Italians had been 
 the victims of their own fears; but only thirty of his 
 knights were slain in this memorable day. In the 
 Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and English, 
 amounted to five or six thousand :^ the plain of Duraz- 
 
 ment. de Bell. Civil, iii. 41—75.) It is a pity that Quintua Iciliua (M. 
 
 Guischard) did not live to analyze these operations, as he has done 
 
 the campaigns of Africa and Spain, 
 d llaXA..-*; xkX» kxv /u^ Ashvi-, which is vpry properly translated by 
 
 the president Cuusin, (Mist, de Constantinople, torn. iv. p. 131. in 
 
 12Dio.)qui combattoil conime uno ralla8,quoiqu'elle ne fiit paa aussi 
 
 savante que celle d'Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed 
 
 of two discordant characters, of Neith,the workwoman of Sais in 
 
 Esypt, and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritoniau lake in Libya. 
 
 (Banier, Myihologie, torn. iv. p. 1—31. in 12mi\) 
 e Anna Comneiia (1. iv. p. 116.) admires, with some depree of ter. 
 
 ror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar to the Latins; 
 
 and though the Apulian (1. iv. p. 273.) mentions her presence and hei 
 
 wound, he represents her aa far less intrepid. 
 Uxor in hoc bello Koberti forte sagittfi, 
 Quadam laesa fuii: quo vulncre territa, nuUam. 
 Dum sperabat opem, se pcene subegerat hosli. 
 
 The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner. 
 
 f Awo Tut TOu 'Pe^TTif Tou jrfmy\^T»fHvm (t»X<n;y Yivmr*mv Tlfti Wfm 
 Ti|i' itxTM Twv ivetvTiatv l^wxTtnv Tief KiKxitiv dvuTTOij-o*: (Anna. 1. ▼ 
 
 p. 133.) and elsewhere "•» y»f KiXtoj xviip vxf ir %ou/«tve( mi* »'» 
 5ro«,-o{ Ti|» of/iifv, K«i Ti,r di»v if.v (p. 146.) The pedantry of the prin- 
 cess in the choice of classic appellations, encouraged Ducange l» 
 apply to his countrymen the characters of the ancient Gauls. 
 
 K Lupus Proiospaia (torn. iii. p. 45.) says 6000; William the Apu- 
 lian more than 5000. (1. iv. p. 273.) Their modesty is singular and 
 laudable : they might with so little trouble have slain two hundred 
 myriads of schismatics and iofidels i 
 
 HI 
 
 r 
 
 f 
 
 10 was stained with noble and royal blood ; and the 
 end of the impostor Michael was more honourable than 
 his life. 
 
 Durazzo taken, I' is more than probable that Guis- 
 A. D. 1082. card was not afliicted by the loss of a 
 Feb. 8. costly pageant, which had merited only 
 the contempt and derision of the Greeks. After their 
 defeat, they still persevered in the defence of Duraz- 
 zo; and a Venetian commander supplied the place of 
 George Pala3ologus, who had been imprudently called 
 away from his station. The tents of the besiegers 
 were converted into barracks, to sustain the inclemen- 
 cy of the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the 
 garrison, Robert insinuated, that his patience was at 
 least equal to their obstinacy.*' Perhaps he already 
 trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian 
 noble, who sold the city for a rich and honourable 
 marriage. At the dead of night several rope-ladders 
 were dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians 
 ascended in silence; and the Greeks were awakened 
 by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet 
 they defended the street three days against an enemy 
 already master of the rampart ; and near seven months 
 elapsed between the first investment and the final 
 surrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman 
 duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; 
 traversed the first mountains of Thessaly ; surprised 
 three hundred English in the city of Castoria; ap- 
 proached Thessalonica ; and made Constantinople 
 tremble. A more pressing duty suspended the prose- 
 cution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck, pes- 
 tilence, and the sword, his army was reduced to a 
 third of the original numbers ; and instead of being 
 recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive 
 epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers which had been 
 produced by his absence; the revolt of the cities and 
 barons of Apulia ; the distress of the pope ; and the 
 Return of Ro- approach or invasion of Henry king of 
 rf Bohelond"''" ^^rmany. Highly presuming that his 
 ^onemond. ^^^^^^ ^^,^^ sufficient for the public safe- 
 ty, he repassed the sea in a single brigantine, and left 
 the remains of the army under the command of his son 
 and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond to re- 
 spect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey 
 the authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard 
 trod in the footsteps of his father : and the two des- 
 troyers are compared, by the Greeks, to the caterpillar 
 and the locust, the last of whom devours whatever 
 has escaped the teeth of the former.' After winning 
 two battles against the emperor, he descended into the 
 plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous 
 realm of Achilles,^ which contained the treasure and 
 magazines of the Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise 
 must not bo refused to the fortitude and prudence of 
 Alexius, who bravely struggled with the calamities of 
 the times. In the poverty of the state, he presumed 
 to borrow the superfluous ornaments of the churches; 
 the desertion of the Manichasans was supplied by 
 some tribes of Moldavia : a reinforcement of seven 
 thousand Turks replaced and revenged the loss of 
 their brethren : and the Greek soldiers were exercised 
 to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice of 
 ambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught 
 ny experience, that the formidable cavalry of the 
 Franks on foot was unfit for action, and almost incapa- 
 ble of motion ;* nis archers were directed to aim their 
 
 * The Romans had changed the inauspicious name o{ Epi-damntcs 
 
 307. 
 
 " ihe Romans had changed the inauspicious name o{ Epi-damntcs 
 10 JJyrrachnim, (Plin. iii. 26.) and the vulgar corruption of Duracium 
 tsee Malaierra) bore some affinity to hardness. One of Robert's 
 names was Durand, a durando: poor wii! (Alberic. Monach. in 
 i/hron. apud Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. ix. p. 137.) 
 
 i Bfou^evs XO.I »xgiS»i ,,,,» »» Tie auTeu," nxrte* xx, Itev. (Anna, 
 
 1. 1, p. 3o.) By these similes, so different from those of Homer, she 
 wishea to inspire contempt, as well as horror for the little noxious 
 animal, a conqueror. Moet unfortunately, the common sense, or 
 common nonsense, of mankind, resists her laudable design. 
 
 k rrodiit hac auctor Trojanae cladis Achilles. 
 
 The supposition of the Apulian (1. v. p. 275.) may be excused by the 
 more classic poetry of Virgil, (^neid fl. 197.) Larisseus Achilles, but 
 U is pot justified by the geography of Homer. ' 
 
 , I The T«» wiStKny «^{8«>.^<T*., which encumbered the knifhUi oo 
 
 arrows at the horse rather than the man ; and a variety 
 of spikes and snares were scattered over the ground 
 on vvhich he might expect an attack. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of Larissa the events of war were protrac- 
 ted and balanced. The courage of Bohemond was al- 
 ways conspicuous and often successful ; but his camp 
 was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks ; the city 
 was impregnable; and the venal or discontented 
 counts deserted his standard, betrayed their trusts, and 
 enlisted in the service of the emperor. Alexius re- 
 turned to Constantinople with the advantaae, rather 
 than the honour, of victory. After evacuating the con- 
 quests w-hich he could no longer defend, the son of 
 Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a 
 tather who esteemed his merit, and sympathized in his 
 misfortune. 
 
 Of the Latin princes, the allies of The emperor 
 Alexius and enemies of Robert, the Henry iir in- 
 most prompt and powerful was Henry ^^1?^ ^^ ^^^ 
 the third or fourth, king of Germany a! D.^iosi. 
 and Italy, and future emperor of the west. The epis- 
 tle of the Greek monarch" to his brother is filled with 
 the warmest professions of friendship, and the most 
 lively desire of strengthening their alliance by every 
 public and private tie. He congratulates Henry on 
 his success m a just and pious war; and complains 
 that the prosperity of his own empire is disturbed by 
 the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The 
 list of his presents expresses the manners of the age, 
 a radiated crown of gold, a cross set with pearls to 
 hang on the breast, a case of relics, with the names 
 and titles of the saints, a vase of crystal, a vase of 
 sardonyx, some balm, most probably of Mecca, and one 
 hundred pieces of purple. To these he added a more 
 solid present, of one hundred and forty-four thousand 
 Byzantines of gold, with a further assurance of two 
 hundred and sixteen thousand, as soon as Henry should 
 have entered in arms the Apulian territories, and con- 
 firmed by an oath the league against the common ene- 
 my. The German," who was already in Lombardy 
 at the head of an army and a faction, accepted these 
 liberal offers, and marched towards the south: his 
 speed v/as checked by the sound of the battle of Du- 
 razzo ; but the influence of his arms, or name, in the 
 hasty return of -Robert, was a full equivalent for the 
 Grecian bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of 
 the Normans, the allies and vassals of Gregory the 
 seventh, his implacable foe. The long quarrel of the 
 throne and mitre had been recently kindled by the 
 zeal and ambition of that haughty priest :° the king- 
 and the pope had degraded each other ; and each had 
 seated a rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of 
 his antagonist. After the defeat and death of his 
 Swabian rebel, Henry descended into Italy, to assume 
 the imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican the 
 tyrant of the church.? But the Roman people adher- 
 
 fool, have been ignorantly translated spurs. (Anna Comnena, Alex- 
 ias, 1. V. p. 140.) Ducange has explained the true sense by a ridicu- 
 lous and inconvenient fashion, which lasted from the eleventh to 
 the fifteenth century. These peaks in the form of a scorpion, 
 were sometimes two feet, and fastened to the knee with a silver 
 chain. 
 
 m The epistle itself (Alexias, 1, iii. p. 93, 94, 95.) well deserves ta 
 be read. There is one expression, «.-<> o^rixinw .5"iiiju»vsv yuiT« xe^<r*- 
 <ii8u, which Ducange does not understand. I have endeavoured to 
 grope out a tolerable meaning: zfvo-»?«ov, is a golden crown; «^f5- 
 TTtKixvs, is explained by Simon Fortius (in Lexico Graeco-Barbar.) by 
 xifxvvet jTf nrn^, a flash of lightning. 
 
 n For these general events I must refer to the general historian« 
 Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St. Marc, &c. 
 
 o The Lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or invectives: (St. 
 Marc, Abreg6, torn. iii. p. 235, &c.) and his miraculous or magical per- 
 formances are alike incredible to a modern reader. He will, as 
 usual, find some instruction in Le Clerc, (Vie de Hildebrand, Bibliot. 
 ancienne et moderne, torn. viii.)and much amusement in Bayle. 
 (Dictionnaire Critique, Gregoire VII.) That pope was undoubtedly a 
 great man, a second Athanasius, in a more fortunate age of the church. 
 May I presume to afid, that the portrait of St. Ailianasius is one of 
 the passages of my history (vol. i. p. 275, &c.) wiili wliich I am the least 
 dissatisfied ? 
 
 P Anna, with the rancour of a Grerk schismatic, calls him x»t«»-. 
 Tvros ovTOi liats^a,, (1. i. p. 32.) a pope, or priest, worthy to be spit 
 upon ; and accuses him of scourging, shaving, perhaps of castrating, 
 the ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31. 33.) But this outrage is improba- 
 ble and doubtful, (see the sensible preface of Cousin.) 
 
 i«! 
 
 ^ 
 
 
k 
 
 It 
 
 lilt 
 
 ail 
 
 308 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 309 
 
 cd to the cause of Gregory : their resolution was for- 
 tified by supplies of men and money from Apulia; and 
 Besieees Rome, the city was thrice ineffectually besieg- 
 A.D. ed by the king of Germany. In the 
 
 1081-1084. fourth year he corrupted, as it is said, 
 with Byzantine gold, the nobles of Rome, whose 
 estates and castles had been ruined by the war. The 
 A n irvu gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages, 
 March 21.* were delivered into his hands : the anti- 
 
 24. pope, Clement the third, was consecra- 
 
 ^** ted in the Lateran : the grateful pontiff 
 crowned his protector in the Vatican ; and the empe- 
 ror Henry fixed his residence in the capitol, as the 
 lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The 
 ruins of the Septizonium were still defended by the 
 nephew of Gregory : the pope himself was invested 
 in the castle of St. Angelo : and his last hope was in 
 the courage and fidelity of his Norman vassal. Their 
 friendship had been interrupted by some reciprocal 
 injuries and complaints ; but, on this pressing occa- 
 sion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of his oath, 
 by his interest, more potent than oaths, by the love of 
 fame, and his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling 
 the holy banner, he resolved to fly to the relief of the 
 prince of the apostles : the most numerous of his 
 armies, six thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot, 
 was instantly assembled ; and his m"9Tch from Salerno 
 to Rome was animated by the public applause and the 
 promise of the divine favour. Henry, invincible in 
 sixty-six battles, trembled at his approach ; recollec- 
 ted some indispensable affairs that required his pre- 
 sence in Lombardy; exhorted the Romans to perse- 
 riies before Ro- vere in their allegiance; and hastily re- 
 ben; May. treated three days before the entrance of 
 the Normans. In less than three years, the son of 
 Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering 
 the pope, and of compelling the two emperors of the 
 east and west, to fly before his victorious arms.<» But 
 the triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities 
 of Rome. By the aid of the friends of Gregory, the 
 walls had been perforated or scaled ; but the imperial 
 faction was still powerful and active; on the third 
 day, the people rose in a furious tumult; and a hasty 
 word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was 
 the signal of fire and pillage.' The Saracens of Sici- 
 ly, the subjects of Roger, and auxiliaries of his bro- 
 ther, embraced this fair occasion of rifling and profan- 
 ing the holy city of the christians: many thousands 
 of the citizens, in the sight, and by the allies, of their 
 «piritual father, were exposed to violation, captivity, 
 or death ; and a spacious quarter of the city, from the 
 Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the flanies, 
 and devoted to perpetual solitude.* From a city, 
 where he was now hated, and might be no longer fear- 
 ed, Gregory retired to end his days in the palace of 
 Salerno. The artful pontiff might flatter the vanity 
 of Guiscard, with the hope of a Roman or imperial 
 erown ; but this dangerous measure, which would have 
 inflamed the ambition of the Norman, must for ever 
 have alienated the most faithful princes of Germany. 
 Second expedi- The deliverer and scourge of Rome 
 tion of Robert might have indulged himself in a season 
 *° A. aTm. of repose ; but in the same year of the 
 October. flight of the German emperor, the inde- 
 
 l * 
 
 q Sic uno tempore victi 
 
 Sunt lerrsB Domini duo: rex AlemannicuB iste, 
 Imperil rector Romanr maxinius ille. 
 Alter ad arma mens arniis superaiur ; et alter 
 Nominia audiii sola formidine cesait. ^ , , ,. . 
 It is singular enough, that the Apulian, a Lann, should distinguish 
 the Greek as ihe ruler of the Roman empire, O^L^- P- ^^^O 
 
 , The narrative of Malaterra (I. in. c 37. p. o87, oS8.) is authentic, 
 circumstantial, and fair. Dux ignem exclamans urbe incensa. &c. 
 The Apulian softens the mischief, i\n6e quibusdam ad.bus exust.s,) 
 ihich IS ajrain exaegeraied in some partial chronicles. (Muratori An- 
 
 """If Afie"r* men'lioning this devastation, the Jesuit Donalus (de Roma 
 veter! « novT! ii. c. 8. p. 489.) prettily adds, D"^*;"'',^. h^^'.^J^^ '" 
 Ccelio monie inierque ipsum et capitolium mwerab.l.s faciea proa- 
 tratas urbis, nisi in hortorum vinetorumque amanitatenri Koma resur- 
 rexisaet ui perpeiua viridiuie coniegeret vulnera el ruinas luai. 
 
 fatigable Robert resumed the design of his eastern 
 conquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had 
 promised to his valour the kiniidoms of Greece and 
 Asia;* his troops were assembled in arms, flushed 
 with success and eager for action. Their numbers, in 
 the language of Homer, are compared by Anna to a 
 swarm of b'ees;" yet the utmost and moderate limits ' 
 of the powers of Guiscard have been already defined ; 
 they were contained on this second occasion in one 
 hundred and twenty vessels ; and as the season was 
 far advanced, the harbour of Brundusium' was prefer- 
 red 10 the open road of Olranto. Alexius, apprehen- 
 sive of a second attack, had assiduously laboured to 
 restore tlie naval forces of the empire ; and obtained 
 from the republic of Venice an important succour of 
 thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, and nine gal- 
 leols or ships of extraordinary strength and magni- 
 tude. Their services were liberally paid by the li- 
 cence or monopoly of trade, a profitable gift of many- 
 shops and houses in the port of Constantinople, and a 
 tribute to St. Mark, the more acceptable, as it was the 
 produce of a tax on their rivals of Amalphi. By the 
 union of the Greeks and Venetians, the Adriatic was 
 covered with a hostile fleet ; but their own neglect, or 
 the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind, or the 
 shelter of a mist, opened a free passage ; and the Nor- 
 man troops were safely disembarked on tlie coast of 
 Epirus. With twenty strong and well-appointed gal- 
 leys, their intrepid duke immediately souiiht the ene- 
 my, and though more accustomed to fight on horse- 
 back, he trusted his own life, and the lives of his bro- 
 ther and two sons, to the event of a naval combat. 
 The dominion of the sea was disputed in tliree en- 
 gagements, in sight of the island of Corfu : in the 
 two former, the skill and number of the allies were 
 superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained a 
 final and complete victory." The light brigantines of 
 the Greeks were scattered in ignominious flight: the 
 nine castles of the Venetians maintained a more obsti- 
 nate conflict ; seven were sunk, two were taken ; two 
 thousand five hundred captives implored in vain the 
 mercy of the victor; and the daughter of Alexius 
 deplores the loss of thirteen thousand of his subjects 
 or allies. The want of experience had been supplied 
 by the gei)ius of Guiscard ; and each evening, when 
 he had sounded a retreat, he calmly explored the cau- 
 ses of his repulse, and invented new methods how to 
 remedy his own defects, and to baflSe the advantages 
 of the enemy. The winter season suspended his pro- 
 gress ; with the return of spring he again aspired to 
 the conquest of Constantinople ; but, instead of tra- 
 versing the hills of Epirus, he turned his arms against 
 Greece and the islands, where the spoils would repay 
 the labour, and where the land and sea forces might 
 pursue their joint operations with vigour and effect. 
 But in the isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally 
 blasted by an epidemical disease : Robert himself, in 
 
 t The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed by the pope^ 
 (Anna, I. i. p. 32.) is sufficiently confirmed by the Apulian, (I. iv. p. 
 270.) 
 
 Romani regni sibi promisisse coronam : 
 Papa ferebatur. 
 Nor can I understand why Gresler, and the other papal advocates, 
 should be displeased with this new instance of apostolic jurisdic- 
 tion. . 
 
 u See Homer, Iliad B. (I hate this pedantic mode of quotation by 
 the letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &;c. His bees are the image of 
 a diflorderly crowd : their discipline and public works seem to be the 
 Ideas of a later age, (Virgil, ^neid. 1. i.) 
 
 z Guilielm. Apulus, I. v. p. 276. The admirable port of Brundu- 
 sium was double; the outward harbour was a gulf covered by an 
 island, and narrowing by degre<^, till it communicated by a small 
 gullet with the inner harbour, which embraced the city on bitih 
 sides. Caesar and nature have laboured for its ruin ; and against 
 such agents, what are the feeble efforts of the Neapolitan govern- 
 ment ? (Swinburne's Travels in the two Sicilies, vol. i. p. 384 — 
 
 390.) 
 
 J William of Apulia (I. v. p. 276.) describes the victory of the 
 Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats, which are diligently 
 recorded by Anna Comnena, (I. vi. p. 159, 160, 161.) In her turn, 
 she invents or magnifies a fourth action, to give the Venetians re- 
 venge and rewards. Their own feelings were far different, since 
 they deposed their doge, propter excidium sloli. (Dandulu* iu Chroa- 
 In Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicaromt una, xiu p. 349.) 
 
 n 
 
 Reign and am- 
 bition of Roger, 
 ereat count of 
 Sicily. 
 A.D. 
 1101-1154. 
 Feb. 26. 
 
 • His death, *^^® Seventieth year of his age, expired 
 A. D, 1085'. in his tent; and a suspicion of poison 
 
 July 17. ^Yas imputed, by public rumour, to his 
 wife, or to the Greek emperor/ This premature death 
 might allow a boundless scope for the imagination of 
 his future exploits ; and the event sufficiently declares, 
 that the Norman greatness was founded on his life.' 
 "Without the appearance of an enemy, a victorious 
 army dispersed or retreated in disorder and consterna- 
 tion; and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire, 
 rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which trans- 
 ported the remains of Guiscard was shipwrecked on 
 the Italian shore ; but the duke's body was recovered 
 from the sea, and deposited in the sepulchre of Venu- 
 sia,'' a place more illustrious for the birth of Horace,' 
 than fur the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his 
 second son and successor, immediately sunk to the 
 humble station of a duke of Apulia : the esteem or 
 partiality of his father left the valiant Bohemond to 
 the inheritance of his sword. The national tranquillity 
 was disturbed by his claims, till the first crusade 
 against the infidels of the east, opened a more splen- 
 did field of glory and conquest.* 
 
 Of human life, the most glorious or 
 humble prospects are alike and soon 
 bounded by the sepulchre. The male 
 line of Robert Guiscard was extinguish- 
 ed, both in Apulia and at Antioch, in the 
 second generation; but his younger broth- 
 er became the father of a line of kings ; and the son 
 of the great count was endowed with the name, the 
 conquests, and the spirit, of the first Roger.* The 
 heir of that Norman adventurer was born in Sicily ; 
 and, at the age of only four years, he succeeded to the 
 sovereignty of the island, a lot which reason might 
 envy, could she indulge for a moment the visionary, 
 though virtuous, wish of dominion. Had Roger been 
 content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and grate- 
 ful people might have blessed their benefactor ; and, 
 if a wise administration could have restored the pros- 
 perous times of the Greek colonies,' the opulence and 
 power of Sicily alone might have equalled the widest 
 scope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword 
 of war. But the ambition of the great count was 
 ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was gratified by 
 the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought 
 to obtain the undivided possession of Palermo, of 
 which one moiety had been ceded to the elder branch ; 
 struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limits beyond the 
 measure of former treaties ; and impatiently watched 
 the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia, 
 Duke of Apulia, the grandson of Robert. On the first in- 
 A. D. 1127. telligence of his premature death, Roger 
 
 % The most authentic writers, William of Apulia, (1. v. 277.) Jef- 
 frey Malaterra, (I. iii. c. 41. p. 589.) and Romuald of Selerno, (Chron. 
 in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. torn, vii.) are ignorant of tiiie crime, 
 80 apparent to our countrymen, William of Malmsbury, (I. iii. p. 
 107.) and Roger de Hoveden : (p. 710. in Script, post Bedum :) and 
 the latter can tell, how the just Alexius marriea, crowned, and burnt 
 alive, his female accomplice. The Enslish historian is indeed so 
 blind, that he ranks Robert Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights 
 of Henry I. who ascended the throne fifteen years after the duke of 
 Apulia's death. 
 
 * The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers orer the grave 
 of an enemy : (Alexiad, 1. t. p. 162—166.) and his best praise is the 
 esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the 8ov3reign of his 
 family. Graecia (says Malaterra) host ibus recedentibus libera laeta 
 quievit: Apulia tola sive Calabria turbatur. 
 
 b Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris, 
 is one of the last lines of the Apulian's poem, (1. v. p. 278.) William 
 of Malmsbury (I. iii. p. 107.) inserts an epitaph on Guiscard, which 
 is not worth transcribing. 
 
 c Yet Horace had few obligations to Venusia; he was carried to 
 Rome in his childhood ; (Serin, i. 6.) and his repeated allusions to 
 the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii. 4. Serm. ii. 1.) 
 are unworthy of his age and genius. 
 
 d See Giannone, (torn. ii. p. 88—93.) and the historians of the first 
 crusade. 
 
 e The reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily, fills four 
 books of the Istoria Civile of Giannone, (torn. ii. 1. xi— xiv. p. 136— 
 340.) and is spread over the ninth and tenth volumes of the Italian 
 Annals of Muratori. In the Biblioiheque Italique (torn. i. p. 175—222.) 
 I find a useful abstract of Capecelatro, a modern Neapolitan, who has 
 composed in two volumes, the history of his country from Roger I. to 
 Frederic II. inclusive. 
 
 f According to the testimony of Philistus and Diodorus, the tyrant 
 rionyiiufl of Syracuse could maintain a standing force of 10,000 horce, 
 
 Sicilv, 
 A D. 1130. 
 Dec. 25— 
 A. D. 1139. 
 
 July 23. 
 
 sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor 
 in the bay of Salerno, received, afttr ten days' nego- 
 ciation, an oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, 
 commanded the submission of the barons, and extort- 
 ed a legal investiture from the reluctant popes, who 
 could not long endure either the friendship or enmity 
 of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of Beneven- 
 to was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St, 
 Peter; but the reduction of Capua and Naples com- 
 pleted the design of his uncle Guiscard ; and the sole 
 inheritance of the Norman conquests was possessed 
 oy the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of 
 power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles 
 of duke and of count; and the isle of Sicily, with a 
 third perhaps of the continent of Italy, might form the 
 basis of a kingdom « which would only yield to the 
 monarchies of France and England. The chiefs of 
 the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo, 
 might doubtless pronounce under what name he should 
 reign over them ; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a 
 Saracen emir were insufficient to justify his regal cha- 
 racter; and the nine kings of the Latin world^ might 
 disclaim their new associate, unless he were conse- 
 crated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The 
 pride of Anacletus was pleased to con- First king of 
 fer a title, which the pride of the Nor- 
 man had stooped to solicit;' but his 
 own legitimacy was attacked by the ad- 
 verse election of Innocent the second ; 
 and while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the success- 
 ful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations of 
 Europe. The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, 
 and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an 
 ecclesiastical patron ; and the sword of Lothaire the 
 second of Germany, the excommunications of Inno- 
 cent, the fleets of Pisa, and the zeal of St. Bernard, 
 were united for the ruin of the Sicilian robber. After 
 a gallant resistance, the Norman prince was drivea 
 from the continent of Italy ; a new duke of Apulia 
 was invested by the pope and the emperor, each of 
 whom held one end of the gonfanou, or flag-staff, as 
 a token that they asserted their right, and suspended 
 their quarrel. But such jealous friendship was of 
 short and precarious duration: the German armies 
 soon vanished in disease and desertion :^ the Apulian 
 duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a 
 conqueror, who seldom forgave either the dead or the 
 living; like his predecessor Leo the ninth, the feeble 
 though haughty pontiff became the captive and friend 
 of the Normans : and their reconciliation was cele- 
 brated by the eloquence of Bernard, who now revered 
 the title and virtues of the king of Sicily. 
 
 As a penance for this impious war His conquests ia 
 against the successor of St. Peter, that Africa, 
 
 monarch might have promised to dis- A.D. 1122—1152. 
 play the banner of the cross, and he accomplished 
 with ardour a vow so propitious to his interest and 
 revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might provoke 
 a just retaliation on the heads of the Saracens: the 
 Normans, whose blood had been mingled wnth so 
 
 100,000 foot, and 400 galleys. Compare Hume (Essays, vol. !. p. 268. 
 435.) and his adversary Wallace. (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307.) 
 The ruins of Agrigenlum are the theme of every traveller, D'Orville, 
 Reidesel, Swinburne, &c. 
 
 g A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from the year 1127 
 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the consent of the barons, 
 and the ancient royalty of Sicily ana Palermo, without introducing 
 Pope Anacletus. (Alexand. Coenobii Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gesiii 
 Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. torn. v. p. C07 
 —645.) 
 
 h The kings of France, England, Scotland, Castile, Arragon, Na- 
 varre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three first were more 
 ancient than Charlemaene ; the three next were created by their 
 sword : the three last by their baptism ; and of these the king of 
 Hungary alone was honoured or debased by a papal crown. 
 
 i Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a more early 
 and independent coronation, (A. D. 1130. May 1.) which Giannone 
 unwillingly reject*!, (torn. ii. p. 137—144.) This fiction is disproved 
 by the silence of contemporaries; nor can it be restored by a spurious 
 charter of Messina. (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, 
 Crilica, tom. iv. p. 467, 468.) 
 
 k Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire's army, who soun- 
 ded, or°rather cried, a retreat ; for the Germans (says Cinnamus, I. iii. 
 c. i. p. 51 .) are ignorant of the use of trumpets. Most ignorant himself I 
 
 
 i1 
 
It i ; 
 
 ,1 
 
 310 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 311 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 many subject streams, were encouraged to remember 
 and emulate the naval trophies of their fathers, and in 
 the maturity of their strength they contended with the 
 decline of an African power. When the Fatimite 
 caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he reward- 
 ed the real merit and apparent fidelity of his servant 
 Joseph, with a gift of his royaj mantle, and forty Ara- 
 bian horses, his palace, with its sumptuous furniture, 
 and the government of the kingdoms of Tunis and 
 Algiers. The Zeirides,' the descendants of Joseph, 
 forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant bene- 
 factor ; grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity ; 
 and after running the little course of an oriental dynasty, 
 were now faiiitingf in their own weakness. On the 
 side of the land, they were pressed by the Almohades, 
 the fanatic princes of Morocco, while the sea-coast 
 was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and Franks, 
 who, before the close of the eleventh century, had 
 extorted a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of 
 gold. By the first arms of Roger, the island or rock 
 of Malta, which has been since ennobled by a military 
 and religious colony, was inseparably annexed to the 
 crown of Sicily. Tripoli," a strong and maritime 
 €ity, was the next object of his attack ; and the slaugh- 
 ter of the males, the captivity of the females, might 
 be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems 
 themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named 
 Africa from the country, and Mahadia" from the Ara- 
 bian founder : it is strongly built on a neck of land, 
 but the imperfection of the harbour is not compensated 
 by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was 
 besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet 
 of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with 
 men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign 
 had fled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, 
 declined tiie last and irresistible assault, and secretly 
 escaping with the Moslem inhabitants, abandoned the 
 place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In 
 successive expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieu- 
 tenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, 
 Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast ;" the fortresses 
 were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a 
 boast, that it held Africa in subjection, might be in- 
 scribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger.** 
 After his death, that sword was broken ; and these 
 transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, 
 or lost, under the troubled reign of his successor.*' 
 The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved, 
 that the African continent is neither inaccessible nor 
 invincible ; yet the great princes and powers of Chris- 
 tendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments 
 against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy 
 -' conquest and long servitude of Spain. 
 Hifl invasion of Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, 
 Greece, the Normans had relinquished, above 
 A. D. 1146. sixty years, their hostile designs against 
 the empire of the east. The policy of Roger solicited 
 a public and private union with the Greek princes, 
 whose alliance would dignify his regal character : he 
 demanded in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian 
 family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed to pro- 
 
 I See De Guisnes, Hist. Generale des Huns, torn. i. p. 369—372. 
 and Cardonne, Hiat. de I'Afrique, &c. soua la Domination des Arabes, 
 torn. ii. p. 70—144. Their common original appears to be Nnvajri. 
 
 m Tripoli, (says the Nubian geographer, or more properly the She- 
 rif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata, sila prope lilius maris. 
 Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus captivis ductis, viros 
 peremit. 
 
 n See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramiisio, mm. i. fol. 74. 
 verso, ful. 75. recto,) and Shaw's Travels, (p. 110.) the seventh book 
 of Thuanu.s, and the eleventh of the Abbe's de Venoi. The p'^ssession 
 and defence of the place was offered by Charles V. and wisely decli- 
 ned by the knights of Malta. 
 
 o Piigi hasaccuraiely marked the African conquests of Roger ; and 
 his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe Longuerue, with 
 •ome Arabic memorials. (A. D. 1147. No. 26, 27. A. D. 1148. No. 16. 
 A. D. 1153. No. 16.) 
 
 P Apulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. 
 A proud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors 
 were still discriminated from their christian and IVloslem subjects. 
 
 q Hugo Palcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori Script, loin, vii. p. 270, 
 271.) ascribes these lueses to the neglect or treachery of the admiral 
 
 [ mise a favourable event. But the contemptuous treat- 
 ment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of 
 the new monarch; and the insolence of the Byzantine 
 court was expiated, according to the laws of nations, 
 by the sufferings of a guiltless people.' With a fleet 
 of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily, ap- 
 peared before Corfu; and both the island and city 
 were delivered into his hands by the disaffected inha- 
 bitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is still more 
 calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some 
 moment in the annals of commerce, the Normans spread 
 themselves by sea, and over the provinces of Greece ; 
 and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, 
 was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs 
 of Athens no memorial remains. The ancient walls, 
 which encompassed, without guarding, the opulence 
 of Thebes, were scaled by the Latin christians ; but 
 their sole use of the gospel was to sanctify an oath, 
 that the lawful owners had not secreted any relic of 
 their inheritance or industry. On the approach of the 
 Normans the lower town of Corinth was evacuated : 
 the Greeks retired to the citadel, which was seated on 
 a lofty eminence abundantly watered by the classic 
 fountain of Pirene ; an impregnable fortress, if the 
 want of courage could be balanced by any advantages 
 of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had sur- 
 mounted the labour (their sole labour) of climbing the 
 hill, their general, from the commanding eminence, 
 admired his own victory, and testified his gratitude to 
 heaven, by tearing from the altar the precious image 
 of Theodore the tutelary saint. The silk weavers of 
 both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily, com- 
 posed the most valuable part of the spoil, and in com- 
 paring the skilful industry of the mechanic with the 
 sloth and cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to 
 exclaim, that the distaff and loom were the only wea- 
 pons which the Greeks were capable of His admiral do- 
 using. The progress of this naval arma- livers Louis vil. 
 ment was marked by two conspicuous of France: 
 events, the rescue of the king of France, and the insult 
 of the Byzantine capital. In his return by sea from 
 an unfortunate crusade, Louis the seventh was inter- 
 cepted by the Greeks, who basely violated the laws 
 of honour and religion. The fortunate encounter of 
 the Norman fleet delivered the royal captive ; and 
 after a free and honourable entertainment in the court 
 of Sicily, Louis continued his journey to Rome and 
 Paris.^ In the absence of the emperor, ineiilts Con- 
 Constantinople and the Hellespont were siantinopie. 
 left without defence and without the suspicion of dan- 
 ger. The clergy and people, for the soldiers had fol- 
 lowed the standard of Manuel, were astonished and 
 dismayed at the hostile appearance of a line of galleys, 
 which boldly cast anchor in the front of the imperial 
 city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inade- 
 quate to the siege or assault of an immense and popu- 
 lous metropolis : but George enjoyed the glory of 
 humbling the Greek arrogance, and of marking the 
 path of conquest to the navies of the west. He landed 
 some soldiers to rifle the fruits of the royal gardens, 
 and pointed with silver, or more probably with fire, 
 the arrows which he discharged against the palace of 
 
 the Caesars.* This playful outrage of r^,^ „^^^,.„, 
 , . r c- -I *^ iT L 1 ^ • I The emperor 
 
 the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised Manual repulew 
 
 an unguarded moment, Manuel affected !:*"L^,°.'""o*"f'„ 
 
 ♦ ^ J • I -1 u- *• 1 • •* , A. D. 1143,1149. ' 
 
 to despise, while his martial spirit, and 
 
 r The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end too soon or begin 
 loo late, must be supplied by Oiho of Frisingen, a German, (de Ges- 
 tis Frederic! I. 1. i. c. 33. in Muratori Script, lom. vi. p. 608.) ihti 
 Venetian Andrew Pandolus, (Id. torn. xii. p. 282, 283.) and the Greek 
 writers Cinnamus (1. iii. c. 2—5.) and Nicetas, (in Manuel. 1. iii. c. 
 1—6.) 
 
 • To this imperfect capture and speedy rescue, I apply the t»/ 
 oKtyov tiKit Tou •A.x»»i, of Cinnamus, 1. ii. c. 19. p. 49. Muratori, on 
 tolerable evidence, (Annali dllalia, tum. ix. p 420, 421 ) lauchs at 
 the delicacy of the French, who maintain, marisque nullo impedi- 
 ente periculo ad regnum proprium reversum esse; yet I observe that 
 their advocate, Ducanpe, is less jKisiiive as the commentator on Cin- 
 namus, than as the editor of Joinville. 
 
 t In palaiium regium 8a<ritia9 itrneas injeclt, says Dandolus ; but 
 Nicet4i«| 1. ii. c. 8. p. 66. traosfuruis ihem iulu b<a>i •t^(vT«(wt ixovt* 
 
 the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge. 
 The Archipelago and Ionian sea were covered with 
 his squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not 
 by what favourable allowance of transports, victual- 
 lers, and pinnaces, our reason or even our fancy can 
 be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen hun- 
 dred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine his- 
 torian. These operations were directed with prudence 
 and energy : in his homeward voyage George lost 
 nineteen of his galleys, which were separated and ta- 
 ken ; after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored the 
 clemency of her lawful sovereign ; nor could a ship, a 
 soldier of the Norman prince, be found, unless as a 
 captive, within the limits of the eastern empire. The 
 prosperity and the health of Roger were already in a 
 declining state : while he listened in his palace of 
 Palermo to the messengers of victory or defeat, the 
 invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, was 
 celebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander 
 or Hercules of the age. 
 
 He reduces Apu- ^ prince of such a temper could not 
 lia and Calabria, be Satisfied with having repelled the in- 
 A. D. 1155. solence of a barbarian. It was the right 
 and duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel 
 to restore the ancient majesty of the empire, to recover 
 the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise this 
 pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal." 
 The natives of Calabria were still attached to the 
 Greek language and worship, which had been inexora- 
 bly proscribed by the Latin clergy : after the loss of 
 her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage 
 to the crown of Sicily : the founder of the monarchy 
 had ruled by the sword ; and his death had abated the 
 fear, without healing the discontent, of his subjects: 
 the feudal government was always pregnant with the 
 seeds of rebellion ; and a nephew of Roger himself in- 
 vited the enemies of his family and nation. The ma- 
 jesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian and 
 Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his 
 person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and 
 noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch 
 intrusted a fleet and army : the siege of Bari was his 
 first exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well 
 as steel was the instrument of victory. Salerno, and 
 some places along the western coast, maintained their 
 fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in two cam- 
 paigns the greater part of his continental possessions: 
 and the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and 
 falsehood, was content with the reduction of three hun- 
 dred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose 
 names and titles were inscribed on all the walls of the 
 palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified 
 by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of 
 His design of the German Caesars ; * but the successor 
 acouiring' Italy of Constantine soon renounced this igno- 
 emp^ire,^^*^^'^" minious pretence, claimed the indefea- 
 A.D. 1155— 1174, sible dominion of Italy, and professed 
 ^^' his design of chasing the barbarians be- 
 
 yond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal gifts, 
 and unbounded promises, of their eastern ally, the free 
 cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous 
 struggle against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa : 
 the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the contributions 
 of Manuel ; and he poured, says the historian, a river 
 of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment 
 to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of 
 the Venetians.J^ The situation and trade of Ancona 
 
 •Tf MXTovf, and adds, that Manuel styled this insult ?r«iyv<ov, and 
 
 fiKwr* \>(5-iuovT«. These arrows, by the compiler, Vincent 
 
 de Beauvais, are again transmuted into gold. 
 
 u For the invasion of Italy, which is almost overlooked by Nicetas, 
 see the more polite history of Cinnamus, (1. iv. c. 1—15. p. 78—101.) 
 who introiluces a diffuse narrative by a lofty profession, ^i(t tm 
 
 2^<xiA.iM{ Ti, x«i Tijj iTuKmv irxiTTTiTO J'ljf, «ij xse« tscutm; *PjU/*8»«0«J 
 
 X The Latin, Otho, (de Gesiis Frederici 1. 1. ii. c. 30. p. 734.) attests 
 the forgery ; the Greek, Cinnamus, (1. i. c. 4. p. 78.) claims a promise 
 of restitution from Conrad and Frederic. An act of fraud is always 
 -cretlible when it is told of the Greeks. 
 
 1 Quod ADConitani Grtecum imperium nimis diligerent 
 
 rendered it an important garrison in the heart of Italy: 
 it was twice besieged by the arms of Frederic ; the 
 imperial forces were twice repulsed by the spirit of 
 freedom ; that spirit was animated by the ambassador 
 of Constantinople; and the most intrepid patriots, the 
 most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth 
 and honours of the Byzantine court.* The pride of 
 Manuel disdained and rejected a barbarian colleague ; 
 his ambition was excited by the hope of stripping the 
 purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, 
 in the west, as in the east, his lawful title of sole 
 emperor of the Romans. With this view, he solicited 
 the alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome. 
 Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the 
 Greek monarch; the splendid nuptials of his niece 
 with Odo Frangipani, secured the support of that 
 powerful family,* and his royal standard or image was 
 entertained with due reverence in the ancient metro- 
 polis.*' During the quarrel between Frederic and Alex- 
 ander the third, the pope twice received in the Vatican 
 the ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his 
 piety by the long-promised union of the two churches, 
 tempted the avarice of his venal court, and exhorted 
 the Roman pontiff to seize the just provocation, the 
 favourable moment, to humble the savage insolence of 
 the Alemanni, and to acknowledge the true representa- 
 tive of Constantine and Augustus."^ 
 
 But these Italian conquests, this uni- Failure of his 
 versal reign, soon escaped from the hand designs, 
 of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded 
 by the prudence of Alexander the third, who paused on 
 this deep and momentous revolution;^ nor cculd the 
 pope be seduced by a personal dispute to renounce 
 the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After 
 his reunion with Frederic, he spoke a more peremp- 
 tory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors, 
 excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pro- 
 nounced the final separation of the churches, or at 
 least the empires, of Constantinople and Rome.* The 
 free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their 
 foreign benefactor, and without preserving the friend- 
 ship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity of Venice.' 
 By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, 
 the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons, 
 and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. 
 This violation of the public faith exasperated a free 
 and commercial people: one hundred galleys were 
 launched and armed in as many days ; they swept the 
 coasts of Dalmatia and Greece; but after some mutual 
 wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement, 
 inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the republic; 
 and a complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries, 
 was reserved for the succeeding generation. The lieu- 
 tenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he 
 was strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of 
 Apulia and Calabria : but that his forces were inade- 
 
 Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love, perhaps 
 of envy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the emperor; and ibo 
 Latin narrative is confirmed by Cinnamus, (I. iv. c. 14. p. 98.) 
 
 X Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the first in 1167, 
 against Frederic I. in person ; (Annali, torn. x. p. 39, &c.) the second 
 in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian, archbishop of Mentz, a maa 
 unworthy of his name and office, (p. 76, &c.) It is of the second siega 
 that we possess an original narrative, which he has published in his 
 great collection, (torn. vi. p. 921—946.) 
 
 a We derive this anecdote froni an anonymous chronicle of Fossa 
 Nova, published by Muratori, (Script. Ital. torn. vii. p. 874 ) 
 
 b The Ba(r.>.«iov (r»A*i«ov of Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 14. p. 99.) is suscep- 
 tible of this double sense. A standard is more I<atin, an image mora 
 Greek. 
 
 c Nihilominus quoque peiebal, ut quia occasio justa et tempus 
 opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona imperii a 
 sancto aposlolo sibi redderetur ; quoniam non ad P'rederici Ala- 
 manni, sed ad suum jus asseruit periinere. (Vit. Alexandri III. a Car- 
 dinal. Arragoniae, in Script. Rerum Ital. torn. iii. pars i. p. 458.) Hifl 
 second embassy was accompanied cum immeiisa multitudine pecu« 
 niarum. 
 
 d Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III. p. 460, 461.) says 
 the cautious pope. 
 
 irxKxtaivofpu yturwv (Cinnamus, I. iv. c. 14. p. 99.) 
 
 f In his sixth book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian war, which. 
 Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The Italian ac- 
 counts, which do not satisfy our curioflity, are reported by the anaalirt 
 Muratori, under the yean 1171, &c. 
 
 
 i K 
 

 
 312 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 :*■■: 
 
 I 
 
 quate to resist the impending attack of the king of 
 Sicily. His prophecy was soon verified : the death 
 of Palaeologus devolved the command on several chiefs, 
 alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military ta- 
 lents; the Greeks were oppressed by land and sea; 
 and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the 
 Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility 
 against the person or dominions of their conqueror.* 
 Yet the king of Sicily esteemed the courage and con- 
 stancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on 
 the Italian shore; he respectfully addressed the new 
 Justinian ; solicited a peace or truce of thirty years, 
 accepted as a gift the regal title ; and acknowledged 
 Peace with the himself the military vassal of the Roman 
 Komans, empire.** The Byzantine Caesars ac- 
 A. D. 1156. quiesced in this shadow of dominion, 
 without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the ser- 
 vice of a Norman army; and the truce of thirty years 
 was not disturbed by any hostilities between Sicily 
 and Constantinople. About the end of that period the 
 throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, 
 who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and 
 mankind : the sword of William the second, the grand- 
 son of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Com- 
 nenian race ; and the subjects of Andronicus might 
 salute the strangers as friends, since they detested 
 Last war of the *'^^''' Sovereign as the worst of enemies. 
 Greeks and Nor- The Latin historians' expatiate on the 
 "™*A*D 1185 J'^pid progress of the four counts who in- 
 vaded Romania with a fleet and army, 
 and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience 
 of the king of Sicily. The Greeks'' accuse and mag- 
 nify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelites that were 
 perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the second city 
 •of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those 
 invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were des- 
 troyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter 
 applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories 
 of their countrymen on the sea of Marmora or Pro- 
 pontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the 
 walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the 
 crimes of Andronicus, had united against tiie Franks 
 the zeal and courage of the successful insurgents : ten 
 thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus, the 
 new emperor, nnght indulge his vanity or vengeance 
 in the treatment of four thousand captives. Such was 
 the event of the last contest between the Greeks and 
 Normans : before the expiration of twenty years, the 
 lival nations were lost or dcLTaded in fon ian servi- 
 tude : and the successors of Constantine did^not long 
 survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy. 
 William I. the '^^® sceptre of Roger successively 
 Bad, king of Si- devolved to his son and grandson : they 
 ^*^i'. D. 1154. ^\9^^} he confounded under the name of 
 Feb.* 26— * William ; they are strongly discrimina- 
 
 ^ivFay 7^^* ^^^ ^y ^^® epithets of the bad and the 
 
 ] good.' but these epithets, which appear 
 
 to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot 
 
 strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. 
 
 When he was roused to arms by danger and shame, 
 
 g This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno, (in Muratori, 
 Scrrpt. Iial. torn. vii. p. 198.) It is whimsical enouph, that in the 
 praise of the kmg of Sicily, Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 13. n, 97,98.) is much 
 warmer and copious than Falcandus, (p. 268. 270.) But the Greek is 
 fond of description, and the Latin historian is not fond of William 
 the Bad. 
 
 ,nS y°^ the epistle of William T. see Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 15. p. 101, 
 102.) and Niceias, '1. ii. c. 8.) It is difficult to affirm whether these 
 Greeks deceived themselves, or the public, in these flattering por- 
 traits of the grandeur of the empire. 
 
 i I can only quote of original evidence, the poor chronicles of Sicard 
 Of Cremona, (p. 603.) and of Fossa Nova, (p. 875.) as they are publish- 
 ed in the seventh tome of Muratori's historians. The king of Sicily 
 
 ■ent his troops contra nequitiam Andronici ad acquirendum 
 
 imperium C. P. They were capti aul confusi decepti captique, 
 
 D^ XSctaC* 
 
 k By the failure of Cinnamus, we are now reduced to Nicetas. (in 
 Andronico, l.i. c. 7, 8, 9. 1. ii. c. 1. in Isaac Angelo, 1. i. c. 1—4.) who 
 now becomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived the em- 
 peror and the empire, he is above flattery : but the fall of Constanti- 
 nople exasperated his prejudices atjainst the Latins. For the honour 
 of learning, 1 shall observe that Homer's great commentator, Eusla- 
 tniufj archbishop of Thessalonica, refused to desert his flock. 
 
 the first William did not degenerate from the valour 
 of his race ; but his temper was slothful ; his manners 
 were dissolute; his passion head-strong and mischiev- 
 ous; and the monarch is responsible, not only for 
 his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great 
 admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired 
 against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian 
 conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of orien- 
 tal manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even the 
 haram, of a sultan ; and a christian people was oppres- 
 sed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, 
 who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the reli- 
 gion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the limes ' 
 has delineated the misfortunes of his country;" the 
 ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt 
 and punishment of his assassins; the imprisonment 
 and deliverance of the king himself; the private feuds 
 that arose from the public confusion ; and the various 
 forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, 
 the island, and the continent, during the reiffn of Wil- 
 liam the first, and the minority of his son. The youth,, 
 innocence, and beauty of William the wiiiiam il. the 
 second," endeared him to the nation : the Goo<i,' 
 
 factions were reconciled ; the laws were ^.J *^' 
 revived ; and from the manhood to the a. D*ii89. 
 premature death of that amiable prince, Nov. 16. 
 Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and 
 happiness, whose value was eniianced by the remem- 
 brance of the past and the droad of futurity. The 
 legitimate male posterity of Tancred of Hauteville 
 was extinct in the person of the second William ; but 
 his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most 
 powerful prince of the age ; and Henry the sixth, the 
 son of Frederic Barbarossa, descended from the Alps, 
 to claim the imperial crown and the inheritance of his 
 wife. Against the unanimous wish of a free people, 
 this inheritance could only be acquired by arms; and 
 I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the 
 historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment and on 
 the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the pro- 
 phetic eye of a statesman. " Constantia, the daugh- 
 ter of Sicily, nursed from her cradle in L,n,en^,tion of 
 tne pleasures and plenty, and educated the historian' 
 in the arts and manners, of this fortunate Falcandus. 
 isle, departed long since to enrich the barbarians with 
 our treasures, and now returns, with her savage allies, 
 to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. 
 Already I behold the swarms of ancjry barbarians: our 
 opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, 
 are shaken with fear, desolated by slauahter, con- 
 sumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and 
 lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our citizens, 
 the rapes of our virgins and matrons." In this ex- 
 
 1 The Historia Siculaof Hugo Falcandus, which properW extends 
 from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the seventh volume of Muratori's 
 Collection, (tom. vii. p. 2ri9— 314.) and preceded by an eloquent pre- 
 face or epistle (p. 251 -208.) de Calamitatibus Siciliae. Falcandus 
 has been styled the Tacitus of Sicily; and, after a just, but im- 
 mense, abatement, from the first to the twelfth centurv," from a sena- 
 tor to a monk, I would not strip him of his title: his narrative is 
 rapid and perspiciiou.-*, his style bold and elegant, his observation 
 keen : he had studied mankind, and feels like a man. I can only 
 regret the narrow and barren field on which his labours have been 
 cast. 
 
 m The laborious Benedictines (I'Art de verifier les Pates, p. 896.) 
 are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus, is Fulcandus, or 
 Fourault. According to them, Hugues Foucault, a Frenchman by 
 birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his 
 patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II. 
 archbishop of Palermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet 
 Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian : and the title of ^/;/nmw» 
 (which he bestows on himselO appears to indicate, that he was born, 
 or at least eduratrd, in iho island 
 
 n Falcand. p. ;^. Richard de St. fiermano begins his history from 
 the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaning epi- 
 thets, he thus continues: Irgis et justitiae cultus tempore suo^vige- 
 bat in regno ; sun erat quilibet forte contentus ; (were they mortals ?) 
 ubique pax, ubique srciirita.o, nrc latronum meiuebat viator insidias, 
 nee maris nauta offeudicula piratarum. (Script. Ke;um Ital. tom. 
 vii. p. 969.) 
 
 o Constantia, primis a cunabulis in delicianim tuarum affluentia 
 diutius educata, tuisque inslilutis, doctrinis, et moribus informata, 
 tandem opibus tuis barbams delatura discpssit : et nunc cum ingen- 
 libus copiis revertitur, ut pulcherrima nutricis«rnamenta barbaricS 
 
 ftf'ditate contaminet Iniueri mihi jam videor turbulenias bar- 
 
 barurum acies civiutes opuleaiaa et luca diuturni pacefloren* 
 
 r 
 
 M 
 
 tremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sici- 
 lians act? By the unanimous election of a king of 
 valour and experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet 
 De preserved ;P for in the levity of the Apulians, ever 
 eager for new revolutions, I can repose neither con- 
 fidence nor hope.*» Should Calabria be lost, the lofty 
 towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength of 
 Messina,' might guard the passage against a foreign 
 invader. If the savage Germans coalesce with the 
 pirates of Messina; if they destroy witli fire the fruit- 
 ful region, so often wasted by the fires of mount 
 ^tna,» what resource will be left for the interior parts 
 of the island, these noble cities which should never 
 be violated by the hostile footsteps of a barbarian 1 ' 
 Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earth- 
 quake : the ancient virtue of Syracuse expires in pov- 
 erty and solitude; " but Palermo is still crowned with 
 a diadem, and her triple walls enclose the active multi- 
 tudes of christians and Saracens. If the two nations, 
 under one king, can unite for their common safety, 
 they may rush on the barbarians with invincible arms. 
 But if the Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of in- 
 juries, should now retire and rebel ; if they should 
 occupy the castles of the mountains and soa-coast, the 
 unfortunate christians, exposed to a double attack, 
 and placed as it were between the hammer and the 
 anvil, must resign themselves to hopeless and inev- 
 itable servitude." * W^e must not forget, that a priest 
 here prefers his country to his religion ; and that the 
 Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were still numerous 
 and powerful in the state of Sicily. 
 Conquest of the The hopes, or at least the wishes, of 
 ci'iy^b^hfemi Falcandus, were at first gratified by the 
 peror Henry VII. free and unanimous election of Tancred 
 A. D. 1204. the grandson of the first king, whose 
 birth was illegitimate, but whose civil and military 
 virtues shone without a blemish. During four years, 
 the term of his life and reign, he stood in arms on the 
 furthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the 
 powers of Germany ; and the restitution of a royal 
 captive, of Constantia herself, without injury or ran- 
 som, may appear to surpass the most liberal measure 
 of policy or reason. After his decease, the kingdom 
 >f his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; 
 
 nd Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua 
 ") Palermo. The political balance of Italy was de- 
 
 troyed by his success ; and if the pope and the free 
 cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, 
 
 hey would have combined the powers of earth and 
 heaven to prevent the dangerous union of the German 
 empire with the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle 
 policy, for which the Vatican has so often been praised 
 or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive ; 
 
 lia, metu concuiere, caedi vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedare luxuriA ; 
 hinc civesaut gladiis intercepti, aut servituie depress!, virgines con- 
 siupratae, matronse. Sec. 
 
 P Certe si regem non dubiae virlutis elegerint, nee a Saracenis 
 christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus licet quasi desperatis 
 et perditis sub venire, et incursus hostium, si prudenter egerit, pro- 
 pulsare. 
 
 q In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum rerum studiis 
 aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiducise reponendum. 
 
 r Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas, .... murorum 
 etiam ambitum densis turribus circumseptum. 
 
 • Cum crudeliiaie piraticji Theutonum confligat atrocitas, et inter 
 ambustos lapides, et ^thnae flagrantis incendia, &c, 
 
 t Earn partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgor illustrat, 
 quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio praeminere, nefarium 
 esset . . . vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I wish to transcribe his 
 florid, but curious, description of the palace, city, and luxuriant plain 
 of Palermo. 
 
 u Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tarn inopia civium, quam 
 paucitas bellatorum elidunt. 
 
 X At vero, quia difiicile et chrislianos in lanto rerum turbine, sub- 
 lato regis limore, Saracenos non opprimere, si Saraceni injuriis fati- 
 gaii ab eis cceperint dissidere, et castella forte maritima vel montanas 
 inunitiines occupaverint ; ut hinc cum Theutonicis summa virtute 
 pugnandum illinc Saracenis crebris insuliibus occurrendum, quid 
 putas acturi sunt Siculi inter has depressi angustias, et velut inter 
 malleum et incudem multo cum discrimine constituti 7 hoc utique 
 agent quod poterunt, ut se barbaris miserabili conditione dedenies, 
 in eorum se conferant potestatem. O utinam plebis et procerum, 
 christianorum et Saracenorum vota conveniaut ; ut regem sibi con- 
 corditer eligentes, barbaros totis viribus, loto conanime, totisque de- 
 •ideriis proturbare conteadant. The Normans and Sicilians appear 
 to be confounded. 1 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 P 
 
 and if it were true that Celestine the third had kicked 
 away the imperial crown from the hend of the pros- 
 trate Henry, > such an act of impotent pride could 
 serve only to cancel an obligation and provoke an 
 enemy. The Genoese, who enjoyed a beneficial trade 
 and establishment in Sicily, listened to the promise 
 of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure:* 
 their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and 
 opened the harbour of Palermo; and the first act of 
 his government was to abolish the privileges, and to 
 seize the property, of these imprudent allies. The 
 last hope of Falcandus w^as defeated by the discord of 
 the christians and Mahometans : they fought in the 
 capital; several thousand of the latter were slain; but 
 their surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and 
 disturbed about thirty years the peace of the island. 
 By the policy of Frederic the second, sixty thousand 
 Saracens were transplanted to Nocera in Apulia. In 
 their wars against the Roman church, the emperor 
 and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced 
 by the service of the enemies of Christ; and this 
 national colony maintained their religion and manners 
 in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated, at the 
 end of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge 
 of the house of Anjou.' All the calamities which the 
 prophetic orator had deplored, were surpassed by the 
 cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He 
 violated the royal sepulchres, and explored the secret 
 treasures of the palace, Palermo, and the whole king- 
 dom : the pearls and jewels, however precious, might 
 be easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses 
 were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily. •* The 
 young king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of 
 both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses 
 of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumour of rebellion, 
 the captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of 
 the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touch- 
 ed with sympathy for the miseries of her country; and 
 the heiress of the Norman line might struggle to check 
 her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony of her 
 new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age 
 under the name of Frederic the second, pj^j^^ extinction 
 Ten years after this revolution, the of the Normans, 
 French monarchs annexed to their crown ■^•^- ^^04.. 
 the duchy of Normandy : the sceptre of her ancient 
 dukes had been transmitted, by a grand-daughter of 
 William the Conqueror, to the house of Plantaganet; 
 and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so 
 many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in 
 Apulia, Sicily, and the east, were lost, either in vic- 
 tory or servitude, among the vanquished nations. 
 
 CHAPTER XVHI. 
 
 TTie TurJcs of the house of Seljuk. — Thetr revolt against 
 Mahmud, conqueror of Hindosian. — Togrul subdues Per* 
 sta, and protects the caliphs. — Defeat and captivity of the 
 emperor Romanus Diogenes by Alp Arslan.— Power and 
 magnificence of Malek Shah. — Conquest of Asia Minor 
 and Syria. — State and oppression of Jerusalem. — Pilgrt' 
 mages to the holy sepulchre. 
 
 From the isle of Sicily, the reader must ^jj^ Tcrks. 
 transport himself beyond the Caspian sea, 
 
 y The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de Hoveden,(p. 689.) 
 will lightly weigh acainst the silence of German and Italian history. 
 (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, tom. x. p. 156.) The priests and pilgrims, 
 who returned from Rome, exalted, by every tale, the omnipotence of 
 the holy father. 
 
 z Egoenim in eocum Teutonicis manere non debeo.(Ceffari, Annal. 
 Genuenses, in Muratori. Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. vi. p.367,368.> 
 
 a For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, seethe Annals of Mura- 
 tori, (tom. X. p. 149. and A. D. 1223. 1247.) Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 385.> 
 and of the originals, in Muratori's Collection, Richard de St. Germa- 
 no, (tom. vii. p. 996.) Malteo Spinelli de Giovenazzo, (tom. vii. p» 
 1064.) Nicholas de Jamsilla, (lorn. x. p. 494.) and Matteo Villani, 
 (tom. xiv 1. vii. p. 103.) The last of these insinuates, that in redu- 
 cing the Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather 
 artifice than violence. 
 
 b Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec, (1. iv. c. 2(1) 
 Reperit thesauros absconditoe, et omnem lapidum pretiotorum ei 
 
 ; i" 
 
 1 1 
 
 i' J 
 
 'lli 
 
 1: 
 
 M .1 
 
314 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Ciup. XVIII. 
 
 Chap. XVIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE. 
 
 it 
 
 hk 
 
 315 
 
 h 'f-^. 
 
 
 n 
 
 4 
 
 -It 
 
 <o the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against 
 ■whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their 
 Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since 
 dissolved ; but the name was still famous among the 
 Greeks and orientals ; and the fragments of the nation, 
 each a powerful and independent people, were scat- 
 tered over the desert from China to the Oxus and tiie 
 Danube : the colony of Hungarians was admitted into 
 the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were 
 occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. 
 "While Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Nor- 
 man lance, a swarm of tliese northern shepherds over- 
 spread the kingdoms of Persia : their princes of the 
 race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire 
 from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; 
 and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia 
 Minor, till the victorious crescent has been planted on 
 the dome of St. Sophia. 
 Mahmud the One of the greatest of the Turkish 
 Gaznevide. princes was Mahmood or Mahmud,* the 
 A. D. 997-1028. Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern 
 provinces of Persia one thousand years after the birth 
 of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of the 
 slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful. 
 But in this descent of servitude, the first degree was 
 merely titular, since it was filled by the sovereign of 
 Transoxiana and Chorassan, who still paid a nominal 
 allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank 
 was that of a minister of state, a lieutenant of the 
 Samanides,'' who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of 
 political slavery. But the third step was a state of 
 real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel ; 
 from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, 
 ascended to the supreme command of the city and 
 province of Gazna,"= as the son-in-law and successor 
 of his grateful master. The falling dynasty of the 
 Samanides was at first protected, and at last over- 
 thrown, by their servants; and, in the public dis- 
 orders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. 
 For him the title of ««//««•' was first invented ; and his 
 kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian 
 to the mouth of the Indus. But the principal source 
 of his fame and riches was the holy war which he 
 waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this 
 His twelve ex- foreign narrative I may not consume a 
 jpdiiioria inio page ; and a volume would scarcely snf- 
 "^^^"^ fice to recapitulate the battles and sieges 
 of his twelve expeditions. Never was the mussulman 
 hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the 
 height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the 
 barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy, 
 
 gemmarnm gloriain, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis, gloriose ad lerram 
 8uam redieril. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions the violation of the 
 royal tomb and corpses, computes the spoil of Salerno at 200,000 oun- 
 ces of gold, (p. 746.) On these occasions. I am almost tempted to ex- 
 claim with the listening maid in La Fontaine, "Je voudrois bien 
 avoir ce qui manque." 
 
 a I am indebted for his character and history to D'Herbelot, (Bib- 
 liotheque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533—537.) M. de Guignes, (Histoire 
 des Huns, torn. lii. p. 155—173.) and our countryman. Colonel Alex- 
 ander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23-83.) In the two first volumes of his History 
 of Hindostan, he styles himself the translator of the Persian Ferish- 
 ta ; but in his florid text, it is not easy to distinguish the version and 
 the original. 
 
 b The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A. D. 874— 
 ^;.^,^^^^ princes. See their succession and ruin, In the Tables 
 of M. de Guignes, (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. p. 404—406.) They were 
 followed by the Gaznevides, A. D. 999—1183. (see torn. i. p. 239, 240.) 
 His division of nations often disturbs the series of time and place. 
 
 e Gaznah hortos non habet ; est emporium et domicilium merca- 
 tur» Indies. Abulfedse Geograph. Keiske, tab. xxiii. p. 349. D'Her- 
 belot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller. 
 
 d By the ambassador of the Caliph of Bagdad, who employed the 
 Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master. (D'Herbe- 
 lot, p. 825.) It is interpreted AuTruix^ctToup, BMo-iXiu; Bx<rtKtu>v by the 
 Byzantine writers of the eleventh century ; and the name (i;ooXT». 
 »oj, Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin Ian- 
 fuages. after it had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljuliides, 
 and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur 
 Joinville, p. 238—240. Gloss. Grsec. el Latin.) labours to find the title 
 of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia ; but his proofs are mere 
 flhadows ; a proper name in the Themes of Constaniine, (ii. 11.) an 
 anticipation of Zonaras, Sec. and a medal of Kai Khofrou, not (as he 
 believes) the Sassanide of the sixth, but the Seljukide of Iconium 
 <4 the iM-elfth eeniury. (De Guignes, Hist, dea Huof, lom. i. p. 246.) 
 
 &' 
 
 [or the formidable array of their elephants of war." 
 The sultan of Gazna surpassed the limits of the con- 
 quests of Alexander : after a march of three months, 
 over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the 
 famous city of Kinnoge,' on the Upper Ganges: and, 
 in a naval combat on one of the branches of the Indus, 
 he fought and vanquished four thousand boats of the 
 natives. Dehli, Labor, and Multan, were compelled 
 to open their gates: the fertile kingdom of Guzarat 
 attiacted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his 
 avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering 
 the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern ocean. 
 On. the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved 
 their dominions; the people, their lives and fortunes; 
 but to the religion of Hindostan, the zealous mus- 
 sulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred 
 temples, or pagodas, were levelled with the ground ; 
 many thousand idols were demolished ; and the ser- 
 vants of the prophet were stimulated and rewarded by 
 the precious materials of which they were composed. 
 The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on the promontory 
 of Guzarat, in the neighbourhood of Diu, one of the 
 last remaining possessions of the Portuguese. « It 
 was endowed with the revenue of two thousand vil- 
 lages ; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the 
 service of the deity, whom they washed each morning 
 and evening in water from the distant Ganges: the 
 subordinate ministers consisted of three hundred musi- 
 cians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing 
 girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three 
 sides of the temple were protected by the ocean, the 
 narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural orartifical pre- 
 cipice; and the city and adjacent country were peopled 
 by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and 
 the punishment of Kinnoge and Dehli ; but if the impi- 
 ous stranger should presume to approach ihtir holy 
 precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast 
 of the divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith 
 of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the 
 strength of this Indian deity. Fifty thousand of his 
 worshippers were pierced by the spear of the Moslems ; 
 the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; 
 and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at 
 the head of the idol. The tremblinor Brahmins are 
 said to have offered ten millions sterling for his nm- 
 som; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, 
 that the destruction of a stone image would not change 
 the hearts of the Gentoos; and that such a sum might 
 be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. " Your 
 reasons," replied the sultan, " are specious and strong ; 
 but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud ap- 
 pear as a merchant of idols." He repealed his blows, 
 and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the 
 belly of the statue, explained in some deoree the 
 devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments 
 of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and 
 Medina. Bagdad listened to the edifying tale ; and 
 Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of 
 guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet. 
 
 From the paths of blood, and such is ,,. , 
 4U« u*„. r .• T ^ r H's character. 
 
 the history ot nations, I cannot refuse 
 
 to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or 
 virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still 
 venerable in the east ; his subjects enjoyed the bless- 
 ings of prosperity and peace ; his vices were concealed 
 by the veil of religion ; and two familiar examples 
 
 e Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist, of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 49.) mentions 
 the report of a guti in the Indian array. But as I am slow in be- 
 lieving this premature (A. D. 1008.) use of artillery, I r^ust desire to 
 scrutinize first the text, and then the authority, of Ferishta, who liv- 
 ed in the Mogul court in the last century. 
 
 t Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra,) is marked in lati- 
 tude 27« 3', longitude SO-^ 13'. See D'Anville, (Antiquity de I'Inde, p. 
 CO— 62.) corrected by the local knowledge of Major Kennel, (in his 
 excellent Memoir on his Map of Hindostan, p.37— 43.) 300 jewellers, 
 30,000 shops for the areca nut, 60,000 bands of musicians, Sec. (Abul- 
 fed. Geograph. Ub. xv. p. 274. Dow, vol. i. p. 16.) will allow an ample 
 deduction. 
 
 c The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta, (Dow, vol. i. p. 66.) Con- 
 sult Abulfeda, (p. 272.) and Reanel's Map of Hindostan. 
 
 will testify his justice and magnanimity. I. Ashe 
 sat in the divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the 
 throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier, 
 who had driven him from his house and bed. »' Sus- 
 pend your clamours," said Mahmud, " inform me of 
 his next visit, and ourself in person will judge and 
 punish the offender." The sultan followed his guide, 
 invested the house with his guards, and extinguishing 
 the torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who 
 had been seized in the act of rapine and adultery. 
 After the execution of his sentence, the lights were 
 rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer, and rising 
 from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which 
 he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The 
 poor man, whose injury he had avenged, was unable to 
 suppress his astonishment and curiosity ; and the cour- 
 teous monarch condescended to explain the motives 
 of this singular behaviour. "I had reason to suspect 
 ^ that none except one of my sons could dare to perpe- 
 ' trate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, 
 that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My 
 prayer was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the 
 offender; and so painful was my anxiety, that I had 
 passed three days without food since the first moment 
 of your complaint." II. The sultan of Gazna had 
 declared war against the dynasty of the Bowides, the 
 sovereigns of the western Persia : he was disarmed by 
 an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his inva- 
 sion till the manhood of her son.'' ** During the life 
 of my husband," said the artful regent, " I was ever 
 apprehensive of your ambition : he was a prince and a 
 soldier worthy of your arms. He is now no more : 
 his sceptre has passed to a woman and a child, and 
 j you dare not attack their infancy and weakness. How 
 ' inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful 
 your defeat! and yet the event of w^ar is in the hand 
 of the Almighty." Avarice was the only defect that 
 tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmud ; and 
 never has that passion been more richly satiated. The 
 orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the ac- 
 count of millions of gold and silver, such as the avi- 
 dity of man has never accumulated ; in the magnitude 
 of pearls, diamonds, and rubies, such as have never 
 been produced by the workmanship of nature.' Yet 
 the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious 
 minerals : her trade, in every age, has attracted the 
 gold and silver of the world ; and her virgin spoils 
 were rifled by the first of the Mahonrietan conquerors. 
 His behaviour, in the last days of his life, evinces the 
 vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, so dan- 
 gerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the 
 vast and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna ; 
 burst into tears ; and again closed the doors, without 
 bestowing any portion of the wealth which he could no 
 longer hope to preserve. The following day he re- 
 viewed the state of his military force; one hundred thou- 
 sand foot, fifty-five thousand horse, and thirteen hun- 
 dred elephants of battle.* He again wept at the insta- 
 bility of human greatness ; and his grief was imbittered 
 hy the hostile progress of the Turkmans, whom he had 
 introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom. 
 
 TVT ^ In the modern depopulation of Asia, 
 
 manners and .• i *• r ^ j 
 
 emigration of ^"6 regular operation of government and 
 
 tiie Turks or agriculture is confined to the neighbour- 
 
 A. d!*'j'8(J-i'o28. ^®°^ °^ cities ; and the distant country 
 * is abandoned to the pastoral tribes of 
 
 h D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet these letters, 
 apophthegms. Sec. are rarely the language of the heart, or the motives 
 of public action. 
 
 « For instance, a ruby of four hundred and fifty miskals, (Dow, vol. 
 i. p. 5.3.) or six pounds three ounces : the largest in the treasury of 
 Dehli weighed seventeen miskals. (Voyages de Tavernier, partie ii. 
 P. 280.) It is true, that in the east all coloured stones are called ru- 
 bies, (p. 355.) and that Tavernier saw three latter and more precious 
 among the jewels de noire grand roi, le plus puissant et plus magni- 
 fique de tous les rois de la teVre, (p. 376 ) 
 
 k Dow, vol. i. p. 65. The sovereign of Kinoge is said to have pos- 
 sessed 2500 elephants. (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p. 274.) From 
 these Indian stories, the reader may correct a note in my first volume, 
 <p. 82.) or from that note he may correct these stories. 
 
 Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans.'^ Of the last-mentioned 
 people, two considerable branches extend on either side 
 of the Caspian sea: the western colony can muster 
 forty thousand soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the 
 traveller, but more strong and populous, has increased 
 to the number of one hundred thousand families. In the 
 midst of civilized nations, they preserve the manners 
 of the Scythian desert, remove their encanipn.ents 
 with the change of seasons, and feed their cattle among 
 the ruins of palaces and temples. Their flocks and 
 herds are their only riches ; their tents, either black 
 or white, according to the colour of the banner, are co- 
 vered with felt, and of a circular form : their winter 
 apparel is a sheepskin ; a robe of cloth or cotton their 
 summer garment : the features of the men are harsh 
 and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft 
 and pleasing. Their wandering life maintains the 
 spirit and exercise of arms ; they fight on horseback ; 
 and their courage is displayed in frequent contests with 
 each other and with their neighbours. For the licence 
 of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the sovereign 
 of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the 
 hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration 
 of the eastern Turkmans, the most ancient of their race, 
 may be ascribed to the tenth century of the christian 
 aera." In the decline of the caliphs, and the weakness 
 of their lieutenants, the barrier of the Jaxartes was 
 often violated : in each invasion, after the victory or 
 retreat of their countrymen, some wandering tribe, em- 
 bracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encamp- 
 ment in the spacious plains and pleasant climate of 
 Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who 
 aspired to the throne encouraged these emigrations, 
 which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and 
 rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder 
 natives of Turkestan; and this policy was abused by 
 Mahmud the Gaznevide beyond the example of former 
 times. He was admonished of his error by a chief 
 of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of 
 Bochara. The sultan had inquired what supply of 
 men he could furnish for military service. **Ifyou 
 send," replied Ismael, " one of these arrows into our 
 camp, fifty thousand of your servants will mount on 
 horseback." "And if that number," continued Mah- 
 mud, ** should not be sufficient 1" " Send this second 
 arrow to the horde of Balik, at.d you will find fifty 
 thousand more." ** But," said the Gaznevide, dis- 
 sembling his anxiety, " if I should stand in need of 
 the whole force of your kindred tribes?" ** Despatch 
 my bow," was the last reply of Ismael, "and as it is 
 circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two 
 hundred thousand horse." The apprehension of such 
 formidable friendship induced Mahmud to transport 
 the most obnoxious tribes into the heart of Chorasan, 
 where they would be separated from their brethren by 
 the river Oxus, and enclosed on all sides by the walls 
 of obedient cities. But the face of the country was an 
 object of temptation rather than terror ; and the vigour 
 of government was relaxed by the absence and death of 
 the sultan of Gazna. The shepherds were converted 
 into robbers; the bands of robbers were collected into 
 an army of conquerors : as far as Ispahan and the Ti- 
 gris, Persia was afllicted by their predatory inroads ; 
 and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to mea- 
 sure their courage and numbers with the proudest 
 sovereigns of Asia. Massoud, the son and successor 
 of Mahmud, had too long neglected the advice of his 
 wisest omrahs. "Your enemies," they repeatedly 
 urged, " were in their origin a swarm of ants ; they are 
 
 1 See a just and natural picture of these pastoral manners in the 
 history of William archbishop of Tyre, (I. i. c. vii. in the Gesta Dei 
 
 Ber Francos, p. 633, 634.) and a valuable note by the editor of the 
 [isloire Genealogique des Tartars, p. 535—538. 
 
 m The first emigrations of the Turkmans, and doubtful origin of 
 the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History of the Huns, 
 by M. de Guignes, (toni. i. Tables Chronologiques, 1. v. tom. iii. 1. vii. 
 ix. x.)and the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (p. 799—802. 
 897—901.) Elmarin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 331—333.) and Abulpharatius, 
 (Dynast, p. 221, 222.) 
 
 k 
 I 
 
 
 
316 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIH. 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 317 
 
 
 hi 
 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 
 now little snakes; and, unless they be instantly crush- 
 ed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of ser- 
 pents." After some alternatives of truce and hostility, 
 after the repulse or partial success of his lieutenants, 
 the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, 
 
 . who attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts 
 and irregular onset. " Massoud," says the Persian 
 historian," *' plunged singly to oppose 
 GaIneNXs,ind the torrrent of gleaming arms, exhibit- 
 Bubd lie Persia, ing such acts 01 gigantic force and val- 
 A. D. 1038. ^yj^ gg never king had before displayed. 
 A few of his friends, roused by his words and actions, 
 and that innate honour which inspires the brave, se- 
 conded their lord so well, that wheresoever he turned 
 his fatal sword, the enemies were mowed down, or 
 retreated before him. But now, when victory seemed 
 to blow on his standard, misfortune was active behind 
 it; for when he looked round he beheld almost his 
 whole army, excepting that body he commanded in per- 
 son, devouring the paths of flight,'* The Gaznevide 
 was abandoned by the cowardice or treachery of some 
 
 . generals of Turkish race ; and this memorable day of 
 Zendecan® founded in Persia the dynasty of the shep- 
 herd kings.P 
 
 Dynasty of the '^^® victorious Turkmans immediately 
 Seijukians, proceeded to the election of a king; and, 
 A.D. 103a— 1152. jf the probable tale of a Latin historian <« 
 deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice 
 of their new master. A number of arrows were suc- 
 cessively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a family, 
 and a candidate ; they were drawn from the bundle by 
 the hand of a child ; and the important prize was ob- 
 tained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michael, the son of 
 Seljuk, whose surname was immortalized in the great- 
 ness of his postertity. The sultan Mahmud, who val- 
 ued himself on his skill in national genealogy, profes- 
 sed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk : yet the fa- 
 ther of that race appears to have been a chief of pow- 
 er and renown.' For a daring intrusion into the ha- 
 rem of his prince, Seljuk was banished from Turkes- 
 tan : with a numerous tribe of his friends and vassals, 
 he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the neighbour- 
 hood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, 
 and acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war against 
 the infidels. His age, of a hundred and seven years, 
 surpassed the life of his son, and Seljuk adopted the 
 care of his two grandsons, Togrul and Jaafar; the eld- 
 est of whom, at the age of forty-five, was invested with 
 the title of sultan, in the royal city of Nishabur. The 
 
 „. , ^ blind determination of chance was iusti- 
 
 Reign and cha- /.ji.! •, r.u ri 
 
 racter of Togrul "^^^ by the vutues 01 the successful can- 
 
 Bep, didate. It would be superfluous to praise 
 
 A. D. 1038-1063. the val OUT of a Turk ; and the ambition 
 of Togrul" was equal to his valour. By his arms the 
 
 n Dow, Hist, of Hindostan, toI. i. p. 89. 93—98. I have copied this 
 passage as a specimen of the Persian manner ; but I suspect, lliat by 
 Bonie odd fatality, the style of Ferishia has been improved by that of 
 Ossian. 
 
 o The Zendekan of D'Herbelot, (p. 1028.) the Dindaka of Dow, (vol. 
 I. p. 97.) is probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda, (Geograph. p. 345. 
 Reiske,) a small town of Chorasan, twodays' journey from Marti, and 
 renowned through the cast for the production and manufacture of 
 cotton. 
 
 P The Byzantine historians (Cedrenus, torn. ii. p. 766, 767. Zonaraa, 
 torn. ii. p. 97. Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21.) have confounded, in 
 this revolution, the truth of time and place, of names and persons, 
 of causes and events. The ignorance and errors of these Greeks 
 (which I shall not stop to unravtl) may inspire some distrust of the 
 etory of Cyaxares and Cyrus, as it is told by their most eloquent pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 q Willerm. Tyr. 1. i. c. 7. p. 633. The divination by arrows is an- 
 cient and famous in the east. 
 
 r D'Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his posterity, Seljuk 
 became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from the great Afrasiab. 
 emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar pedigree of the house ot^ 
 Zingis gave a different cast to flattery and fable ; and the historian 
 Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from Alankavah, the virgin mother, 
 (p. 801. col. 2.) If they be the same as the Zalzuts of Abulchazi 
 Bahader Khan, (Hist. Genealogique, p. 148.) we quote in their favour 
 the most weighty evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the descen- 
 dant of Zingis, Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan. 
 
 • By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the Tangroli-pix of the 
 (jreeks. His reign and character are faithfully exhibited by D'Her- 
 belot (Bibliotheque Orienlale, p. 1027, 1028.) and Ue Guignes. (Hist. 
 oei Huns, torn. iii. p. 189—201.) 
 
 Gaznevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms 
 of Persia, and gradually driven to the banks of the In- 
 dus, in search of a softer and more wealthy conquest. 
 In the west he annihilated the dynasty of the Bow- 
 ides ; and the sceptre of Irak pass»:d from the Persian 
 to the Turkish nation. The princes who had felt, or 
 who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed their heads 
 in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media, 
 he approached the Roman confines, and the shepheid 
 presumed to despatch an ambassador, or herald, to 
 demand the tribute and obedience of the emperor of 
 Constantinople.* In his own dominions, Togrul was 
 the father of his soldiers and people ; by a firm and 
 equal administration Persia was relieved from the 
 evils of anarchy ; and the same hands which had been 
 imbrued in blood became the guardians of justice and 
 the public peace. The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, 
 portion of the Turkmans" continued to dwell in the 
 tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to tiie 
 Euphrates, these military colonies were protected and 
 propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of 
 the court and city were refined by business and soften- 
 ed by pleasure : they imitated the dress, language, and 
 manners, of Persia ; and the royal palaces of Nishabur 
 and Rei displayed the order and magnificence of a 
 great monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians 
 and Persians were promoted to the honours of the 
 state ; and the whole body of the Turkish nation em- 
 braced with fervour and sincerity the religion of Ma- 
 homet. The northern swarms of barbarians, who over- 
 spread both Europe and Asia, have been irreconcila- 
 bly separated by the consequences of a similar con- 
 duct. Among the Moslems, as among the christians, 
 their vague and local traditions have yielded to the 
 reason and authority of the prevailing system, to the 
 fame of antiquity, and the consent of nations But the 
 triumph of the Koran is more pure and meritorious, 
 as it was not assisted by any visible splendour of 
 worship which might allure the pagans by some resem- 
 blance of idolatry. The first of the Seljukian sultans 
 was conspicuous by his zeal and faith : each day he 
 repeated the five prayers which are enjoined to the 
 true believers: of each week the two first days were 
 consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in every city 
 a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay 
 the foundations of a palace.* 
 
 With the belief of the Koran, the son He delivers the 
 of Seljuk imbibed a lively reverence for caliph of Bagdad 
 the successor of the prophet. But that ^- ^- ^^^^' 
 sublime character was still disputed by the caliphs of 
 Bagdad and Egypt, and each of the rivals was solici- 
 tous to prove his title in the judgment of the strong, 
 though illiterate, barbarians. Mahmud the Gaznevide 
 had declared himself in favour of the line of Abbas; 
 and had treated with indignity the robe of honour 
 which was presented by the Fatimite ambassador. 
 Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the 
 change of fortune ; he applauded the victory of Zen- 
 decan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal 
 vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul exe- 
 cuted and enlarged this important trust, he was called 
 to the deliverance of the caliph Cayem, and obeyed 
 the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to his 
 arms.y In the palace of Bagdad, the commander of 
 the faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. 
 
 t Cedrenus, lorn. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, torn. ii. p. 257. With 
 their usual knowledge of oriental affairs, they describe the ambassa- 
 dor as a »/icri/f, who, like the syncellus of the patriarch, was the 
 vicar and successor of the caliph. 
 
 n From William of Tyre, I have borrowed the distinction of Turks 
 and Turkmans, which at least is popular and convenient. The nanips 
 are the same, and the addition of man is of the same import in the 
 Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics will adopt the etymology 
 of James de Vitry, (Hist. Hierosul. 1. i. c. 11. p. 1061.) of Turcomani, 
 quasi Turci et Comani, a mixed people. 
 
 X Hist.Generale des Huns, torn. iii. p. 165, 166, 167. M. de Guignes 
 quotes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt. 
 
 y Consult the Biblioiheque Orienlale, in the articles of the Ahbas 
 sides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin and Abulphara- 
 gittf. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 His servant or master, the prince of the Bowides, 
 could no longer protect him from the insolence of 
 meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris were 
 oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian 
 emirs. The presence of a conqueror was implored as 
 a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire and 
 sword were excused as the sharp but salutary reme- 
 <3ies which alone could restore the health of the re- 
 public. At the head of an irresistible force, the sul- 
 tan of Persia marched from Hamadan : the proud were 
 crushed, the prostrate were spared ; the prince of the 
 Bow ides disappeared ; the heads of the most obstinate 
 rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul ; and he inflicted 
 a lesson of obedience on the people of Mosul and 
 Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and 
 the restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted 
 the reward of his labours ; and a solemn comedy re- 
 presented the triumph of religious prejudice over bar- 
 barian power." The Turkish sultan em- 
 H.S investiture, y^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Tigus, landed at the gate 
 
 of Racca, and made his public entry on horseback. 
 At the palace-gate he respectfully dismounted, and 
 walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without arms. 
 The caliph was seated behind his black veil : the black 
 garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, 
 and he held in his hand the staflfof the apostle of God. 
 The conqueror of the east kissed the ground, stood 
 some time in a modest posture, and was led towards 
 the throne by the vizir and an interpreter. After To- 
 grul had seated himself on another throne, his com- 
 mission was publicly read, which declared him the 
 temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He 
 was successively invested with seven robes of honour, 
 and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the 
 seven climates of the Arabian empire. His mystic 
 veil was perfumed with musk ; two crowns were pla- 
 ced on his head ; two scymitars were girded to his 
 side, as the symbols of a double reign over the east 
 and west. After this inauguration, the sultan was 
 prevented from prostrating himself a second time ; but 
 he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the 
 faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice 
 of heralds and the applause of the Moslems. In a 
 second visit to Bagdad, the Seljukian prince again 
 rescued the caliph from his enemies ; and devoutly, on 
 foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to the 
 palace. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage 
 of TogruPs sister with the successor of the prophet. 
 Without reluctance he had introduced a Turkish vir- 
 gin into his haram ; but Cayem proudly refused his 
 daughter to the sultan, disdained to mingle the blood 
 of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shep- 
 herd ; and protracted the negociation many months, till 
 the gradual diminution of his revenue admonished him 
 and death, that he was Still in the hands of a mas- 
 A. D. 1063. ter. The royal nuptials were followed 
 by the death of Togrul himself;* as he left no chil- 
 dren, his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title 
 and prerogatives of sultan ; and his name, after that 
 of the caliph, was pronounced in the public prayers 
 of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the Abbas- 
 sides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. 
 On the throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less 
 jealous of the domestic administration of Bagdad; and 
 the commanders of the faithful were relieved from the 
 ignominious vexations to which they had been exposed 
 by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty. 
 The T k Since the fall of the caliphs, the dis- 
 
 vade the Roman cord and degeneracy of the Saracens 
 empire, respccted the Asiatic provinces of Rome ; 
 
 A.D. 1050. which, by the victories of Nicephorus, 
 
 X For this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. de Guigne8,(tom. 
 iii. p. 197, 198.) and that learned author is obliged to Bondari, who 
 composed in Arabic the history of the Seljukides, (torn. v. p. 365.) I 
 am ignorant of his age, country, and character. 
 
 a Eodem anno (A. H. 455.) obiit princeps Togrulbecus .... rex fuit 
 Clemens, prudens, et perl'.ua regnandi, cujus terror corda mortalium 
 invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad ipsum scriberent. £lma- 
 ciu, Hwt. Saracen, p. 312. vers. £rp«nii. 
 
 Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far as Anti- 
 och and the eastern boundaries of Armenia. Twenty- 
 five years after the death of Basil, his successors were 
 suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, 
 who united the Scythian valour with the fanaticism of 
 new proselytes, and the art and riches of a powerful 
 monarchy.'* The myriads of Turkish horse over- 
 spread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to 
 Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty 
 thousand christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Ara- 
 bian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make 
 any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. 
 The torrent rolled away from the open country ; the 
 sultan retired without glory or success from the siege 
 of an Armenian city ; the obscure hostilities were 
 continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events ; 
 and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed 
 the fame of the conqueror of Asia.*= The Rgj^n ^f ^jp 
 name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is Arslan, 
 expressive of the popular idea of the ^' ^- ioa3-i072. 
 perfection of man ; and the successor of Togrul dis- 
 played the fierceness and generosity of the royal ani- 
 mal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the 
 Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis 
 of Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the 
 fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil. The 
 solid structure resisted the destroyer : but he carried 
 away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and 
 pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, 
 whose mortal frailties were now covered by the vene- 
 rable rust of antiquity. The final con- „ 
 
 . /. A • J r^ • Conquest of 
 
 quest of Armenia and Georgia was Armenia and 
 
 achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, Georgia, 
 the title of 'a kingdom, and the spirit of A. D. 1O65-IO68. 
 a nation, were annihilated : the artificial fortifications 
 were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople ; 
 by strangers without faith, veterans without pay or 
 arms, and recruits without experience or discipline. 
 The loss of this important frontier was the news of a 
 day; and the catholics were neither surprised nor dis- 
 pleased, that a people so deeply infected with the 
 Nestorian and Eutychian errors, had been delivered 
 by Christ and his mother into the hands of the infi- 
 dels.^ The woods and valleys of mount Caucasus 
 were more strenuously defended by the native Geor- 
 gians* or Iberians : but the Turkish sultan and his son 
 Malek were indefatigable in this holy war : their cap- 
 tives were compelled to promise a spiritual, as well as 
 temporal, obedience; and, instead of their collars and 
 bracelets, an iron horse-shoe, a badge of ignominy, 
 was imposed on the infidels who still adhered to the 
 worship of their fathers. The change, however, was 
 not sincere or universal ; and, through ages of servi- 
 tude, the Georgians have maintained the succession 
 of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, 
 whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is 
 
 b For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general the By- 
 zantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator 
 of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Cxsar. The two first of 
 these were monks, the two latter statesmen ; yet such were the 
 Greeks, that the difference of style and character is scarcely discer- 
 nible. For the orientals, I draw as usual on the wealth of D'Herbe- 
 lot (see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of de Guignes. 
 (Hist, des Huns, torn. iii. 1. x.) 
 
 TO Tsuficter yivof »jro Ti|f TOmuxiif ^uvx/tfw;, oTOiotv o MaxiJ'auv Aa.i^- 
 atvi^^sj »x«»» x:*T»re»4'»To Tlie<r», Cedrenus. lom. ii. p. 791. The cre- 
 dulity of the vulgar is always probable ; and the Turks had learned 
 from the Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein. (D'Her- 
 belot, p. 317, &c.) 
 
 d *Oi X9t< l&>ift»v xMt }Air07r»TMfHMVfX*t Af/avtxv etxovriy xai »t 
 
 T«(» Iouooe<xi|v Tcu Nsj-efieu xxt Tooir Ax<9«>-''<'*' igrfrxtv-sviriv etifirtr. 
 
 (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni,tom.ii. p. 834.) whose ambiguous M»n- 
 struction shall not tempt me to suspect that he con(c)unded the Wes- 
 torian and Monophysite heresies. He familiarly talks of the /*«!vif, 
 xoA.e;, eey*i,eto», qualities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the 
 perfect Being, but his bigotry is forced to confess, that they were 
 soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox Romans. 
 
 e Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter, 
 Memoria Byzant. torn. iv. Iberica) I should derive it from their agri- 
 culture, as the XxwSxi yi'jiieyot of Herodotus, (1. iv. c. 13. p. 289. edit. 
 Wesseling.) But it appears only since the crusades, among the La 
 tins (Jac. a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79. p. 1095.) and orientalS| 
 (D'Herbelot, p. 407.) and was devoutly borrowed from St. Georg« ot. 
 Cappadocia. 
 
 [ 
 
 
 t I 
 
 *!i: 
 
 t ( 
 
 
 !■ 
 
318 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVHL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 319 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice ; their pro- 
 fession, and still more their practice, of Christianity is 
 an empty riamc; and if they have emerged from he- 
 resy, it is only because they are too illiterate to re- 
 member a metaphysical creed.' 
 
 The emperor Ro- '^'^^ false or genuine magnanimity of 
 maiiua Diogenes, Mahmud the Gaznevide, was not imita- 
 A. D. 1063^1071. ^g(j 5y ^]p Arslan ; and he attacked with- 
 out scruple the Greek empress Eudocia and her chil- 
 dren. His alarming progress compelled her to give 
 herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and 
 Romanus Diogenes was invested with tlie imperial 
 purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged 
 him from Constantinople within two months after his 
 accession ; and the next campaign he most scanda- 
 lously took the field during the holy festival of Eas- 
 ter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the 
 husband of Eudocia : in the camp, he was the empe- 
 ror of the Romans, and he sustained that character 
 with feeble resources, and invincible courage. By his 
 spirit and success, the soldiers were taught to act, the 
 subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks 
 had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia ; but the sul- 
 tan himself had resigned to his emirs the prosecution 
 of the war : and their numerous detachments were 
 scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. La- 
 den with spoil, and careless of discipline, they were 
 separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks : the 
 activity of the emperor seemed to multiply his pre- 
 sence ; and while they heard of his expedition to An- 
 tioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebi- 
 zond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks were 
 driven beyond the Euphrates : in the fourth and last, 
 Romanus undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The 
 desolation of the land obliged him to transport a sup- 
 ply of two months' provisions ; and he marched for- 
 wards to the siege of Malazkerd,* an important for- 
 tress in the midway between the modern cities of 
 Arzeorum and Van. His army amounted, at the least, 
 to one hundred thousand men. The troops of Con- 
 stantinople were reinforced by the disorderly multi- 
 tudes of Phyrgia and Cappadocia ; but the real 
 strength was composed of the subjects and allies of 
 Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons 
 of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were 
 themselves of the Turkish race;** and, above all, the 
 mercenary and adventurous bands of French and Nor- 
 mans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant 
 Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish 
 kings,^ and were allowed to excel in the exercise of 
 arms, or, according to the Greek style, in the practice 
 of the Pyrrhic dance. 
 
 Defeat of the Ro. ^9" ^^® report of this bold invasion, 
 which threatened his hereditary domi- 
 nions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of 
 action at the head of forty thousand 
 
 horse.* His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed 
 
 mans, 
 
 A. D. 1071. 
 
 August. 
 
 t Moaheim, Insiiiut. Hist. Ecclee. p. 682. See in Chardin'a Tra- 
 ■vela, (lorn, i, p. 171—174.) the manners and religion of this handsome 
 but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam 
 to the present century, in the Tables of M. de Guignes, ( torn. i. p. 
 433 — 438.) 
 
 K This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Ad- 
 ininistrai. Imperii, 1. ii. c. 44. p. 119.) and the Byzantines of the ele- 
 ▼enth century, under the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is con- 
 founded with Theodosiopolis; but Delisle, in his notes and maps, has 
 Yery properly fixed the situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 
 3t0.) describes Malasgerd as a small town, built with black sioue, 
 supplied with water, without trees, &c. 
 
 h The Uzi of the Greeks, (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. torn. iii. p. 
 923—948.) are the Gozz of the orientals. (Hist, des Huns, torn. ii. p. 
 522. torn. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appearon the Danube and the Volga, 
 in Arnrienia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name seenia to have been 
 extended to the whole Turkman race. 
 
 i Urseliu9 (ihe Kusselius of Zonaras) is distinguished by Jef!rey 
 Iffalaterra (I. i. c. 33.) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily, and 
 vrith the surname of Baliol: and our own historians will tell how 
 the BaUols caroe from Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's castle 
 on the Tees, married an heiress of Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad 
 Kicephor. Bryennium, I. ii. No. 4.) has laboured the subject in hon- 
 our of the president de Bailleul, whose father had changed the sword 
 fvr th« gown. 
 
 k Elmacin (p. 343, 344.) Msigna this probable number, which if re- 
 duced by Abulpharagiuf to 15,000, (p, 227.) and by D'HertwloU (p. 
 
 and dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks; 
 and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal 
 generals, he displayed the first example of his valour 
 and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had 
 separated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. 
 It was in vain that he attempted to recall the merce- 
 nary Franks: they refused to obey his summons; he 
 disdained to await their return; the desertion of the 
 Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion ; and 
 against the most salutary advice he rushed forwards 
 to speedy and decisive action. Had he listened to 
 the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might have 
 secured a retreat, perhaps a peace ; but in these over- 
 tures he supposed the fear or weakness of the enemy, 
 and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult 
 and defiance. " If the barbarian wishes for peace, 
 let him evacuate the ground which he occupies for the 
 encampment of the Romans, and surrender his city 
 and palace of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity." Alp 
 Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he 
 wept the death of so many faithful Moslems; and, 
 after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free permission to 
 all who were desious of retiring from the field. W'ith 
 his own hands he tied up his horse's tail, exchanged 
 his bow and arrows for a mace and scymitar, clothed 
 himself in a white garment, perfumed his body with 
 musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that 
 spot should be the place of his burial.' The sultan 
 himself had affected to cast away his missile weapons; 
 but his hopes of victory were placed in the arrows of 
 the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were loosely 
 distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the 
 successive lines and reserves of the Grecian tactics, 
 Romanus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, 
 and pressed with vigour and impatience the artful and 
 yielding resistance of the barbarians. In this desul- 
 tory and fruitless combat he wasted the greater part 
 of a summer's day, till prudence and fatigue compel- 
 led him to return to his camp. But a retreat is always 
 perilious in the face of an active foe; and no sooner 
 had the standard been turned to the rear than the pha- 
 lanx was broken by the base cowardice, or the baser 
 jealousy, of Andronicus, a rival prince, who disgraced 
 his birth and the purple of the Caesars." The Turkish 
 squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of 
 confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their formi- 
 dable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks. 
 In the destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, 
 it would be needless to mention the number of the 
 slain or captives. The Byzantine writers deplore the 
 loss of an inestimable pearl : they forget to mention, 
 that in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces of Rome 
 were irretrievably sacrificed. 
 
 As long as a hope survived, Romanus captivity and 
 attempted to rally and save the relics of deliverance of 
 his army. When the centre, the impe- t»»e emperor, 
 rial station, was left naked on all sides, and encompas- 
 sed by the victorious Turks, he still, with desperate 
 courage, maintained the fight till the close of day, at 
 the head of the brave and faithful subjects who adhered 
 to his standard. They fell around him ; his horse was 
 slain ; the emperor was wounHed ; yet he stood alone 
 and intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the 
 strength of multitudes. The glory of this illustrious 
 prize was disputed by a slave and a soldier ; a slave 
 who had seen him on the throne of Constantinople, 
 and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been ex- 
 cused on the promise of some signal service. De- 
 
 102.) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 men to the 
 emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says^ cum centum hominum milli- 
 bus, multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks ab- 
 stain from any definition of numbers. 
 
 I The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of the presence 
 of the sulun ; he committed his forces to a eunuch, had retired to a 
 distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth 1 
 
 m He was the son of the Cxsar John Ducas, brother of the emperor 
 Consuntine. (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus Bryen- 
 nius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (1. i. p. 30. 38. 
 1. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus, «u »»vv fi ^iKtu^. 
 •x**- •'{•» ^•r«M». Scyljtzei speaki more expliciiljr of hi« treasoa. 
 
 spoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Ro- 
 manus spent a dreary and perilous night on the field 
 of battle, amidst a disorderly crowd of the meaner 
 barbarians. In the morning the royal captive was 
 ■i presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune, 
 ♦ till the identity of the person was ascertained by the 
 report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic 
 evidence of Basilacius, who embraced with tears the 
 feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of 
 Constantine, in a plebeian habit, was led into the 
 Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the ground be- 
 fore the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed ; and 
 Alp Arslan, starting from his throne, is said to have 
 planted his foot on the neck of the Roman emperor." 
 But the fact is doubtful ; and if, in this moment of in- 
 solence, the sultan complied with a national custom, 
 the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise of his 
 bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most ci- 
 vilized ages. He instantly raised the royal captive 
 from the ground ; thrice clasping his hand with tender 
 sympathy, assured him, that his life and dignity should 
 be inviolate in the hands of a prince who had learned 
 to respect the majesty of his equals and the vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus was con- 
 ducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with 
 pomp and reverence by the ofl^cers of the sultan, who, 
 twice each day, seated him in the place of honour at 
 his own table. In a free and familiar conversation of 
 eight days, not a word, not a look, of insult escaped 
 from the conqueror; but he severely censured the un- 
 worthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince 
 in the hour of danger, and gently admonished his an- 
 tagonist of some errors which he had committed in 
 the management of the war. In the preliminaries of 
 negociation. Alp Arslan asked him what treatment he 
 expected to receive, and the calm indifference of the 
 emperor displays the freedom of his mind. " If you 
 are cruel," said he, " you will take my life ; if you 
 listen to pride, you will drag me at your chariot 
 wheels; if you consult your interest, you will accept a 
 ransom, and restore me to my country." " And what," 
 continued the sultan, " would have been your own 
 behaviour, had fortune smiled on your arms ?" The 
 reply of the Greek betrays a sentiment, which pru- 
 dence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to 
 suppress. " Had I vanquished," he fiercely said, " I 
 would have inflicted on thy body many a stripe." 
 The Turkish conqueror smiled at the insolence of his 
 captive; observed that the christian law inculcated the 
 love of enemies and forgiveness of injuries; and nobly 
 declared that he would not imitate an example which 
 he condemned. After mature deliberation. Alp Arslan 
 dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a 
 million, an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty 
 thousand pieces of gold," the marriage of the royal 
 children, and the deliverance of all the Moslems who 
 were in the power of the Greeks. Romanus, with a 
 sigh, subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the ma- 
 jesty of the empire; he was immediately invested 
 with a Turkish robe of honour ; his nobles and patri- 
 cians were restored to their sovereign ; and the sultan, 
 after a courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich 
 presents and a military guard. No sooner did he 
 Teach the confines of the empire, than he was informed 
 that the palace and provinces had disclaimed their 
 allegiance to a captive; a sum of two hundred thou- 
 sand pieces was painfully collected ; and the fallen 
 monarch transmitted this part of his ransom, with a 
 sad confession of his impotence and disgrace. The 
 generosity, or perhaps the ambition, of the sultan, pre- 
 pared to espouse the cause of his ally ; but his designs 
 
 " This circumstance, which we read and doubt in Scylitzes and 
 Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by Nicephorus and 
 Zonaras. ^ i- 
 
 n The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and the orientals, 
 i he other Greeks are modestly silent ; but Nicephorus Bryennius 
 flares lo affirm that the terms were aw* a**i,i%( 'PM/tai.,v «^jix,-, and 
 that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful treaty. 
 
 were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and deaths 
 of Romanus Diogenes.P 
 
 la the treaty of peace, it ^oes not ap- j^^^y^ - ., 
 pear that Alp Arslan extorted any pro- Arslan, ^ 
 vince or city from the captive emperor ; ^' ^- ^072. 
 and his revenge was satisfied with the trophies of 
 his victory, and the spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch t«^ 
 the Black sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject 
 to his laws; twelve hundred princes, or the sons of 
 princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred 
 thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The 
 sultan disdained to pursue the fugitive Greeks ; but ho 
 meditated the more glorious conquest of Turkestan, 
 the original seat of the house of Seljuk. He moved 
 from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus ; a bridge was 
 thrown over the river; and twenty days were con- 
 sumed in the passage of his troops. But the progress 
 of the great king was retarded by the governor of Ber- 
 zem : and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend 
 his fortress against the powers of the East. When 
 he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan, 
 instead of praising his valour, severely reproached his 
 obstinate folly; and the insolent replies of the rebel 
 provoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to- 
 four stakes, and left to expire in that painful situation. 
 At this command, the desperate Carizmian, drawing a 
 <iag&er, rushed headlong towards the throne : the guards 
 raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked hy 
 Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age : he 
 drew his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced 
 aside, and he received in his breast the dagger of 
 Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces. The wound 
 was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a 
 dying admonition to the pride of kings. "In my 
 youth," said Alp Arslan, " I was advised by a sage 
 to humble myself before God ; to distrust my own 
 strength ; and never to despise the most contemptible 
 foe. I have neglected these lessons ; and my neglect 
 has been deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from 
 an eminence I beheld the numbers, the discipline, and 
 the spirit, of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble un- 
 der my feet ; and I said in my heart, surely thou art the 
 king of the world, the greatest and most invincible of 
 warriors. These armies are no longer mine ; and, in 
 the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by 
 the hand of an assassin." «» Alp Arslan possessed the 
 virtues of a Turk and a mussulman; his voice and 
 stature commanded the reverence of mankind ; his face 
 was shaded with long whiskers; and his ample turban 
 was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The remains 
 of the sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Selju- 
 kian dynasty ; and the passenger might read and medi* 
 tate this useful inscription:' "O ye who have seem 
 
 THE GLORY OF AlP ArSLAN EXALTED TO THE HEAVENS, 
 REPAIR TO MaRU, AND YOU WILL BEHOLD IT BURIED IN 
 
 THE DUST." The annihilation of the inscription, and 
 the tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability 
 of human greatness. 
 
 During the life of Alp Arslan, his Rei^'n and prtje- 
 eldest son had been acknowledged as perilyofMaieic 
 the future sultan of the Turks, On his .^ff'lVmj ,no« 
 father's death, the inheritance was dis- ^' ^' *"7^»092. 
 puted by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother : they drew 
 their scymitars, and assembled their followers ; and 
 
 p The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be found 
 
 ■» Tnhn Srv1it7Pa arl rnl/«otri Poilpani tnm ii « (Wl tUt ZonaraS, 
 
 in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, torn. ii. p. 835— S43. Zonaras, 
 torn. ii. p. 281— 284. Nicephorus Bryennius, I. i. p. 25—32. Glyca*,. 
 p. 325—327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin. HisL Saracen. 
 
 B. 343, 344. Abulpharag. Dynast, p. 22r. D'Herbeloi, p. 102, 103, 
 e Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207—211. Besides my old acquaintance 
 Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the historian of the Huns has consul- 
 ted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah, a Chronicle of the 
 caliphs, by Soyruthi, Abulmahasen of Egypt, and Novairi of Africa, 
 q This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p 103, 104.) and M. 
 de Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their oriental writers ; huj. 
 neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin. (Hist. Sara- 
 cen, p. 344, 345.) 
 
 r A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,) who has severely 
 scrutinized the epiuphs of Pope, might cavil in this sublime inscrip 
 tion at the words '' repair to Maru," since the reader must alr«Ml/ b* 
 1 at Maru before he could. peruse the inscription. 
 
 
 i 
 
 'M 
 
\i i- 
 
 820 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XVIII. 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 
 k)l 
 
 I* 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 .!•' 
 
 
 the triple victory of Malek Shah' established his own 
 reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every 
 age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power 
 has inspired the same passions, and occasioned the 
 same disorders ; but from the long series of civil war, 
 it would not be easy to extract a sentiment more pure 
 and magnanimous than is contained in the saying of 
 the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he per- 
 formed his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the 
 imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he 
 asked his vizir Nizam, who had knelt beside him, 
 what had been the object of his secret petition : "That 
 your arms may be crowned with victory," was the 
 prudent and, moat probably, the sincere answer of the 
 minister. " For my part," replied the generous Ma- 
 lek, " I implored the Lord of hosts, that he would 
 take from me my life and crown, if my brother be 
 more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems." 
 The favourable judgment of heaven was ratified by 
 the caliph; and for the first time, the sacred title of 
 commander of the faithful was communicated to a 
 barbarian. But this barbarian, by his personal merit, 
 and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince 
 «f his asre. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, 
 he marched at the head of innumerable armies to 
 achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been 
 undertaken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, 
 the boatmen, who had been employed in transporting 
 some troops, complained that their payment was as- 
 signed on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frown- 
 ed at this preposterous choice; but he smiled at the 
 artful flattery of his vizir. " It was not to postpone 
 their reward, that I selected those remote places, but 
 to leave a memorial to posterity, that, under your 
 reign, Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same 
 SQvereign." But this description of his limits was 
 unjust and parsimonious : beyond the Oxus, he redu- 
 ced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, 
 and Samarcand, and crushed each rebellious slave, 
 or independent savage, who dared to resist. Malek 
 passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundary of 
 Persian civilization : the hordes of Turkestan yielded 
 to his supremacy : his name was inserted on the coins, 
 and in the prayers of Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on 
 the extreme borders of China. From the Chinese 
 frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or 
 feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as the 
 mountains of Georgia, the neighbourhood of Constan- 
 tinople, the holy city of Jerusalem, and the spicy 
 groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of resigning himself 
 to the luxury of his haram, the shepherd king, both in 
 peace and war, was in action and in the field. By 
 the perpetual motion of the royal camp, each province 
 was successively blessed w^ith his presence ; and he 
 is said to have perambulated twelve times the wide 
 extent of his dominions, which surpassed the Asiatic 
 reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these expeditions, 
 the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of 
 Mecca: the freedom and safety of the caravans were 
 protected by his arms ; the citizens and pilgrims were 
 enriched by the profusion of his alms ; and the desert 
 was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, 
 which he instituted for the use of his brethren. Hun- 
 ting was the pleasure, and even the passion, of the 
 sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand 
 horses ; but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, 
 for each piece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold 
 on the poor, a slight atonement, at the expense of the 
 people, for the cost and mischief of the amusement of 
 kings. In the peaceful prosperity of his reign, the 
 cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and hospitals, 
 with moschs and colleges; few departed from his 
 divan without reward, and none without justice. The 
 
 • TheBiblioihequeOrientale haa given the textof the reign of Ma- 
 lek ; (p. 542—544. 65 1, 655.) and the Hisloire Generate ties Huns, (lom. 
 lit- p. ^14— 224.) haa added the udual measure of repetiiion, emenda- 
 tion, and supplement. Without these two learned Frtnchmeii, I 
 should be blind indeed in the CMtern world. 
 
 language and literature of Persia revived under the 
 house of Seljuk : * and if Malek emulated the liberality 
 of a Turk less potent than himself," his palace might 
 resound with the songs of a hundred poets. The sul- 
 tan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the 
 reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a 
 general assembly of the astronomers of the east. By 
 a law of the prophet, the Moslems are confined to the 
 irregular course of the lunar months ; in Persia, since 
 the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has 
 been known and celebrated as an annual festival;* 
 but after the fall of the Magian empire, the intercala- 
 tion had been neglected ; the fractions of minutes and 
 hours were multiplied into days; and the date of the 
 spring was removed from the sign of Aries to that of 
 Pisces. The reign of Malek was illustrated by the 
 Gelalxan sera ; and all errors, either past or future, 
 were corrected by a computation of time, which sur- 
 passes the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the 
 Gregorian style.' 
 
 In a period when Europe was plung- His death, 
 ed in the deepest barbarism, the light a. D. io92. 
 and splendour of Asia may be ascribed to the docility 
 rather than the knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. 
 An ample share of their wisdom and virtue is due to 
 a Persian vizir, who ruled the empire under the reigns 
 of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the most 
 illustrious ministers of the east, was honoured by the 
 caliph as an oracle of religion and science ; he was 
 trusted by the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of his 
 power and justice. After an administration of thirty 
 years, the fame of the vizir, his wealth, and even his 
 services, were transformed into crimes. He was over- 
 thrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival; 
 and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that 
 his cap and inkhorn, the badges of his office, were 
 connected by the divine decree with the throne and 
 diadem of the sultan. At the age of ninety-three 
 years, the Venerable statesman was dismissed by his 
 master, accused by his enemies, and murdered by a 
 fanatic : the last words of Nizam attested his inno- 
 cence, and the remainder of Malck's life was short 
 and inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this dis- 
 graceful transaction, the sultan moved to Bagdad, with 
 the design of transplanting the caliph, and of fixing 
 his own residence in the capital of the Moslem world. 
 The feeble successor of Mahomet obtained a respite 
 of ten days; and before the expiration of the term, 
 the barbarian was summoned by the angel of death. 
 His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in mar- 
 riage a Roman princess ; but the proposal was decent- 
 ly eluded ; and the daughter of Alexius, who might 
 herself have been the victim, expresses her abhorrence 
 of this unnatural conjunction." The daughter of the 
 sultan was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi, with the 
 imperious condition, that, renouncing the society of 
 his wives and concubines, he should for ever confine 
 himself to this honourable alliance. 
 
 The greatness and union of the Turk- pivjgion of the 
 ish empire expired in the person of Ma- Seijukian em- 
 lek Shah. His vacant throne was dis- P'*^®* 
 
 t See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir'William Jones's His- 
 tory of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak, Auvari, Has- 
 chadi, &c. in the Bibliotheque Orientate. 
 
 u His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed round his 
 sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast hanclfuls of gold and 
 silver to the poets. (D'Herbelot, p. 107.) All this may be true ; but I 
 do not un<lerstand how he could reign in Transoxiana in the time of 
 Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder could surpass him in power 
 and pomp. I suspect that the beginning, not the end of the eleventh 
 century, is the true sera of his reign. 
 
 X See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. p. 235. 
 
 y The Gelalaean asra (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, was one of the 
 names or titles of IVIalek Shah) is fixed to the fifteenth of March, A. 
 H. 471. A. D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the original testimonies 
 of the Persians and Arabians, (de Keligione veterum Persarum, c. 16. 
 p. 200-211.) 
 
 s She speaks of this Persian royalty as airmrm x»xoS»tn»virte** 
 irtvtai. Anna Comnena was only nine years old at the end of the 
 
 1 reign of Malek Shah, (A. D. 1092.) and when she speaks of his aasaA- 
 sination, she confounds the sulun with the vixir.(Al«ziaa, 1. vi.p. 
 177, 178.) . - ^ _ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 / 
 
 
 j)uted by his brother and his four sons ; and, after a 
 jseries of civil wars, the treaty which reconciled the 
 surviving candidates confirmed a lasting separation in 
 the Persian dynasty, the eldest and principal branch 
 j of the house of Seljuk. The three younger dynasties 
 ' were those of Kerman^ of Syria^ and of Roum .• the 
 first of these commanded an extensive, though ob- 
 scure,* dominion on the shores of the Indian ocean : '' 
 the second expelled the Arabian princes of Aleppo 
 and Damascus; and the third, our peculiar care, inva- 
 <led the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The gen- 
 erous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation : 
 he allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom 
 he had vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms 
 worthy of their ambition ; nor was he displeased that 
 they should draw away the more ardent spirits, who 
 might have disturbed the tranquillity of his reign. As 
 the supreme head of his family arid nation, the great 
 sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute 
 of his royal brethren : the thrones of Herman and 
 Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus ; the Atabeks, and 
 emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia, erected their stan- 
 dards under the shadow of his sceptre ; « and the 
 hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the wes- 
 tern Asia. After the death of Malek, the bands of union 
 and subordination were relaxed and finally dissolved; 
 the indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their 
 slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms ; and, in the 
 oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the dust 
 of their feet.* 
 
 Conquest of Asia A prince of the royal line, Cutnlmish, 
 M,nor^ by the the son of Izrail, the son of Seljuk, had 
 A. D. fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan; 
 
 1074-1084. and the humane victor had dropt a tear 
 oyer his grave. His five sons, strong in arms, am- 
 bitious of power, and eager for revenge, unsheathed 
 their scyraitars against the son of Alp Arslan. The 
 two armies expected the signal, when the caliph, for- 
 getful of the majesty which secluded him from vulgar 
 eyes, interposed his venerable mediation. " Instead 
 of shedding the blood of your brethren, your brethren 
 both in descent and faith, unite your forces in a holy 
 war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and his 
 apostle." They listened to his voice ; the sultan em- 
 braced his rebellfous kinsmen ; and the eldest, the 
 valiant Soliman, accepted the royal standard, which 
 gave him the free conquest and hereditary command 
 of the provinces of the Roman empire, from Arzeroum 
 to Constantinople, and the unknown regions of the 
 west.' Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed 
 the Euphrates ; the Turkish camp was soon seated in 
 the neighbourhood of Kutaieh in Phrygia ; and his 
 flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as the 
 Hellespont and the Black sea. Since the decline of 
 the empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been ex- 
 posed to the transient, though destructive, inroads of 
 the Persians and Saracens ; but the fruits of a lasting 
 conquest were reserved for the Turkish sultan ; and 
 his arms were introduced by the Greeks, who aspired 
 to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the cap- 
 tivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of Eudo- 
 
 321 
 
 f * ^. obscure, that the industry of M. de Guignes could only copy 
 
 c"^' c P ^^' ^^'^' '*'• P**^ '• P- ^^^' ^^•'> ^^'^ history, or rather list, 
 01 the Seljukides of Herman, in Bibliotheque Orieniale. They were 
 exiinsuished before the end of the twelfth century. 
 
 b favprnier, perhaps the only traveller who has visited Ker- 
 nian, describes the capital as a great ruinous village, twenty-five 
 (lays journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from Ormus, in the 
 110 ?^ * fertile country. (Voyages en Turquie et en Perse, p. 107. 
 
 c It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of Asia Minor 
 oDpyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan ; (Alexias, 1. vi. p. 
 1^ ^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ two sons of Soli man' were detained in his court, (p. 
 
 «> This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengis- 
 can, p. 161 ) from some poet, most probably a Persian. 
 . e On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. de Guignes has derived no as- 
 sisunce fmm the Turkish or Arabian writers, w!io produce a naked 
 \u^- L Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are unwilling to expose 
 KT-t'v'^K- "^**' *"** ^^ "'"'' extort some hints from Scylitzes, (p. 860. 
 e^.) xNicephorus Bryennius, (p. 88. 91, 92, &c. 103, 104.) and Anna 
 Co.T:nena, (Alexias, p. 91, 92, *c. 168, &c.) 
 
 Vol.. 1I.-2 Q 21 ' 
 
 cia had trembled under the weight of the imperial 
 crown, till the provinces of the east and west were 
 lost in the same month by a double rebellion: of either 
 chief Nicephorus was the common name; but the 
 surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the 
 European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or 
 rather their promises, were weighed in the divan; 
 and, after some hesitation, Soliman declared himself 
 in favour of Botoniates, opened a free passage to his 
 troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, andwoin- 
 ed the banner of the crescent to that of the cross. 
 Alter his ally had ascended the throne of Constanti- 
 nople, the sultan was hospitably entertained in the 
 suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari ; and a body of two 
 thousand Turks was transported into Europe, to whose 
 dexterity and courage the new emperor was indebted 
 for the defeat and captivity of his rival Bryennius. 
 But the conquest of Europe was dearly purchased by 
 the sacrifice of Asia ; Constantinople was deprived 
 of the obedience and revenue of the provinces beyond 
 the Bosphorus and Hellespont ; and the regular pro- 
 gress of the Turks, who fortified the passes of the 
 rivers and mountains, left not a hope of their retreat or 
 expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of the 
 sultan : Melissenus, in his purple robes and red bus- 
 kins, attended the motions of the Turkish camp ; and 
 the desponding cities were tempted by the summons 
 of a Roman prince, who immediately surrendered 
 them into the hands of the barbarians. These acqui- 
 sitions were confirmed by a treaty of peace with the 
 emperor Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him 
 to seek the friendship of Soliman ; and it was not till 
 after the sultan's death that he extended as far as Ni- 
 comedia, about sixty miles from Constantinople, the 
 eastern boundary of the Roman world. Trebizond 
 alone, defended on either side by the sea and moun- 
 tains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine, the 
 ancient character of a Greek colony, and the future 
 destiny of a christian empire. 
 
 Since the first conquests of the caliphs, ^he Seliukian 
 the establishment of the Turks in Ana- kingdom of 
 tolia or Asia Minor was the most deplo- Roum. 
 rahle loss which the church and empire had sustained. 
 By the propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deser- 
 ved the name of Gazi, a holy champion ; and his new 
 kingdom, of the Romans, or of Roum^ was added to 
 the tables of oriental geography. It is described as 
 extendinor from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from 
 the Black sea to the confines of Syria ; pregnant with 
 mines of silver and iron, of alnm and copper, fruitful 
 in corn and wine, and productive of cattle and excel 
 lent horses.' The wealth of Lydia, the arts of the 
 Greeks, the splendour of the Augustan age, existed 
 only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure 
 in the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the 
 present decay, Anatolia still contains some wealthy 
 and populous cities ; and, under the Byzantine empire, 
 they were far more flourishing in numbers, size, and 
 opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice, the 
 metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace 
 and fortress : the seat of the Selj'jkian dynasty of 
 Roum was planted one hundred miles from Constanti- 
 nople; and the divinity of Christ was denied and de- 
 rided in the same temple in which it had been pro- 
 nounced by the first general synod of the catholics. 
 The unity of God, and the mission of Mahomet, were 
 preached in the moschs ; the Arabian learning was 
 taught in the schools; the cadhis judged according to 
 the law of the Koran; the Turkish manners and lan- 
 guage prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps 
 were scattered over the plains and mountains of Ana- 
 tolia. On the hard conditions of tribute and servi- 
 tude, the Greek christians might enjoy the exercise of 
 their religion ; but their most holy churches were pro- 
 
 f Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the Armenian, whoia 
 Tartar history may be found in the collections of Kamusio and Bei- 
 geron. (See Abulfeda, Geo§;rapb. climat. xvii. p. 301— 30^.) 
 
 • 
 
 TraP 
 
 A 
 
322 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CiTAP. XVIIL 
 
 Chap. XVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 m 
 
 or' 
 
 > 
 
 I 
 
 faned ; their priests and bishops were insulted ; « they 
 were compelled to suffer the triumph of the pagans, 
 and the apostasy of their brethren ; many thousand 
 children were marked by the knife of circumcision ; 
 and many thousand captives were devoted to the ser- 
 vice or the pleasures of their masters.'' After the loss 
 of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive alle- 
 giance to Christ and Caesar; but the solitary province 
 was separated from all Roman aid, and surrounded on 
 all sides by the Mahometan powers. The despair of 
 Philaretus the governor prepared the sacrifice of his 
 religion and loyalty, had not his guilt been prevented 
 by his son, who hastened to the Nicene palace, and 
 offered to deliver this valuable prize into the hands of 
 Soliman. The ambitious sultan mounted on horse- 
 back, and in twelve nights (for he reposed in the day) 
 performed a march of six hundred miles. Antioch 
 was oppressed by the speed and secrecy of his enter- 
 prise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea 
 and the confines of Aleppo,' obeyed the example of 
 the metropolis. From Laodicea to the Thracian Bos- 
 phorus, or arm of St. George, the conquest and reign 
 of Soliman extended thirty days' journey in length, 
 and in breadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks 
 of Lycia and the Black sea.^ The Turkish ignorance 
 of navigation protected, for a while, the inglorious 
 Bafety of the emperor ; but no sooner had a fleet of two 
 hundred ships been constructed by the hands of the 
 captive Greeks, than Alexius trembled behind the 
 walls of his capital. His plaintive epistles were dis- 
 persed over Europe, to excite the compassion of the 
 Latins, and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the 
 liches, of the city of Constantine.' 
 
 , ., But the most interesting conquest of 
 
 gdmage one: the Seljukian Turks, was that of Jcru- 
 Tusaiem, salem,™ which soon became the theatre 
 
 A. D. 638-1099. ^^ nations. In their capitulation with 
 Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated the assurance of 
 their religion and property; but the articles were in- 
 terpreted by a master, against whom it was danger- 
 ous to dispute ; and in the four hundred years of the 
 reign of the caliphs, the political climate of Jerusalem 
 was exposed to the vicissitudes of storm and sun- 
 shine." By the increase of proselytes and population, 
 the Mahometans might excuse their usurpation of 
 three-fourths of the city : but a peculiar quarter was 
 reserved for the patriarch with his clergy and people ; 
 a tribute of two pieces of gold was the price of protec- 
 tion ; and the sepulchre of Christ, with the church of 
 the resurrection, was still left in the hands of his 
 
 K Dicit eon quendam abuaione Sodomiiicn iniervertisge episcopum. 
 (Guibert. Abbai. Hist. Hieriwl. 1. i. p. 468.) It |is odd enough, that 
 we should find a parallf-l passage of the same people in the present 
 aae. " 11 n'esl point d'horreur que ces Turcs n'ayent commis, et 
 ■Pmblables aiix soldals effrenos, qui dans la sac d'une ville non con- 
 tens de disposer ne lout a leur gr»; preiendeni encore aux succt-s les 
 moins desirables. Quelque Sipahis ont porte leurs altontata sur la 
 personne du vieux rabhi de la synagogue, et celle de I'Archevequo 
 Urec." (Memoires du Baron de Toit, torn. ii. p. 193.) 
 
 h The emperor, or abbot, describes the scenes of a Turkish camp 
 as if they had been present. Malrcs correptae in conspeclu filiarum 
 muliipliciter repeiiiis diversorum coitibus vexabanlur ; (is that the 
 true readin|r ?) cum filiae assisienles carmina prsecinere saliando co- 
 gerentur. Mox eadem passio ad filias, &c. 
 
 i See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna Comnena, (Alex- 
 ias, 1. vi. p. 168, 169.) with the notes of Ducange. 
 
 k William of Tyre, (I. i. c. 9, 10. p. 635.) gives the most authentic 
 and deplorable account of these Turkish conquests. 
 
 1 In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius seems to fnll too 
 low beneath his character and dignity ; yet it is approved by Du- 
 cange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &,c.) and paraphrased by the abbot 
 Guibert, a contemporary liistorian. The Greek text no longer ex- 
 ists : and each translator and scribe might say with Guibert, (p. 475) 
 verbis vestiu meis, a privilege of most indefinite latitude. 
 
 m Our best fund for the history of Jerusalem from Heraclius to the 
 crusades, is contained in two large and original passages of William 
 archbishop of Tyre, (I. i. c. 1—10. 1. xviii. c. 5, 6.) the principal au- 
 thor of the Gesta Dei per Francos. M. de Guignes has composed a 
 ■very learned Memoire sur le Commerce des Francois dans le Levant 
 avant les Croisades, &c. (Mem. de TAcademie des Inscriptions, torn, 
 aixxvii. p. 467—500.) , . , , 
 
 D Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque lucida plerum- 
 que nubila recepit intervalla, et aegrotantium more temporum prae- 
 sentium gravabatur aut respirabat qualitate. (1. i. c. 3. p. 63U.) The 
 Lalinity of William of Tyre is by no means contemptible : but in his 
 account of 490 years, from the loss to the recovery of Jeniaaiem, he 
 •Aceeds the uue account by thirty yean. 
 
 votaries. Of these votaries, the most numerous and 
 respectable portion were strangers to Jerusalem : the 
 pilgrimages to the Holy Land had been stimulated, 
 rather than suppressed, by the conquest of the Arabs; 
 and the enthusiasm which had always prompted these 
 perilous journeys, was nourished by the congenial pas- 
 sions of grief and indignation. A crowd of pilgrims 
 from the east and west continued to visit the holy 
 sepulchre, and the adjacent sanctuaries, more espe- 
 cially at the festival of Easter: and the Greeks and 
 Latins, the Nestorians and Jacobites, the Copts and 
 Abyssinians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintain- 
 ed the chapels, the clergy, and the poor of their re- 
 spective communions. The harmony of prayer in so 
 many various tongues, the worship of so many nations 
 in the common temple of their religion, might have 
 afforded a spectacle of edification and peace; but the 
 zeal of the christian sects was imbittered by hatred 
 and revenge ; and in the kingdom of a suffering Mes- 
 siah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to 
 command and persecute their spiritual brethren. The 
 pre-eminence was asserted by the spirit and numbers 
 of the Franks; and the greatness of Charlemagne • 
 protected both the Latin pilgrims, and the catholics of 
 the east. The poverty of Carthage, Alexandria, and 
 Jerusalem, was relieved by the alms of that pious em- 
 peror ; and many monasteries of Palestine were found- 
 ed or restored, by his liberal devotion. Harun Alra- 
 shid, the greatest of the Abbassides, esteemed in his 
 christian brother a similar supremacy of genius and 
 power : their friendship was cemented by a frequent 
 intercourse of gifts and embassies ; and the caliph, 
 without resigning the substantial dominion, presented 
 the emperor with the keys of the holy sepulchre, and 
 perhaps of the city of Jerusiilem. In the decline of 
 the Carlovingian monarchy, the republic of Amalphi 
 promoted the interest of trade and religion in the east. 
 Her vessels transported the Latin pilgrims to the coasts 
 of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by their use- 
 ful imports, the favour and alliance of the Fatimite 
 caliphs : p an annual fair was instituted on mount Cal- 
 vary ; and the Italian merchants founded the convent 
 and hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the cradle of 
 the monastic and military order, which has since reign- 
 ed in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the 
 christian pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of 
 a prophet, the disciples of Maliomet, instead of blam- 
 ing, would have imitated, their piety : but these rigid 
 Unitarians were scandalized by a worship which re- 
 presents the birth, death, and resurrection, of a God; 
 the catholic images were branded with the name of 
 idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation'' at 
 the miraculous flame, which was kindled on the eve of 
 Easter in the holy sepulchre.' This pious fraud, first 
 devised in the nintli century,* was devoutly cherished 
 by the Latin crusaders, and is annually repeatetl by 
 the clergy of the Greek, Armenian, and Coptic sects, 
 
 o For the transactions of Charlemaene with the Holy Land, see 
 Eginhard, (de Vitfi Caroli Magni, c 16. p. 79-82.) Constantine P>>f 
 phyrogenitus, (de Administratione Imperii, 1. ii. c. 26. p. 80.) and Pa- 
 gi. (Crilica, torn. A. D. 800. No. 13, 14, 15.) 
 
 P The caliph granted his privileges, Amalphiunis viris amicis Pt 
 ulilium introducioribus. (Gesia Dei, p. 934.) The trade of Venice i) 
 Ecypt and Palestine cannot produce so old a title, unless we adopt 
 the laughable translation of a Frenchman who mistook the two far 
 tions of the circus (Veneli el Prasini) for the Venetians and Pari- 
 sians. . 
 
 q An Arabic chronicle of Jerusalem (apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, 
 tom. i. p. 628. lorn. iv. p. 368.) attests the unbelief of the caliph and 
 the historian ; yet Canlacuzene presumes to appeal to the Mahonif- 
 tans themselves for the truth of this perpetual miracle. 
 
 r In his Dissertations on Ecclesiastical History, the learned lVTo« 
 heim ha.s separately discussed this pretended miracle, (torn. ii. p. 214 
 — 30C.) de luminesancti sepulchri. 
 
 • William of Malmesbury (I. iv. c. it. p. 209.) quotes the Itinerary 
 of the monk Bernard, an eye-witness, who visited Jerusalem A. I'- 
 870. The miracle is confirmed by another pilgrim some yearsjolder ; 
 and Mosheim ascribes the invention to the Franks, soon after the 
 decease of Charlemagne. 
 
 t Our travellers, Sandys, (p. 134.) Thevenot, (p. 621— €27.) Maun- 
 drell, (p. y4, U5 ) &c. describe this extravagant farce. The catho- 
 lics are puzzled to decide, tchen the miracle ended, and the tricl^ 
 began. 
 
 I 
 
 who impose on the credulous spectators" for their 
 own benefit, and that of their tyrants. In every age, 
 a principle of toleration has been fortified by a sense 
 of interest; and the revenue of the prince and his 
 emir was increased each year, by the expense and 
 tribute of so many thousand strangrers. 
 Under the Fati. I'^e revolution which transferred the 
 mite caliphs, sceptre from the Abbassides to the Fati- 
 A.D. 969-1070. n^jtgg ^yag 3 benefit, rather than an in- 
 jury, to the Holy Land. A sovereign resident in 
 Egypt, was more sensible of the importance of chris- 
 tian trade ; and the emirs of Palestine were less re- 
 mote from the justice and power of the throne. But 
 the third of these Fatimite caliphs was the famous 
 Hakem,' a frantic youth, who w^as delivered by his 
 impiety and despotism from the fear either of God or 
 man ; and whose reign was a wild mixture of vice 
 and folly. Regardless of the most ancient customs 
 of Egypt, he imposed on tho women an absolute con- 
 finement : the restraint excited the clamours of both 
 sexes; their clamours provoked his fury; a part of 
 Old Cairo was delivered to the flames ; and the guards 
 and citizens were engaged many days in a bloody con- 
 flict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous 
 mussulman, the founder or benefactor of moschs and 
 colleges: twelve hundred and ninety copies of the Ko- 
 ran were transcribed at his expense in letters of gold ; 
 and his edict extirpated the vineyards of the Upper 
 Egypt. But his vanity was soon flattered by the hope 
 of introducing a new religion ; he aspired above the 
 fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visible image 
 of the most high God, who, after nine apparitions on 
 earth, was at length manifest in his royal person. At 
 the name of Hakem, the lord of the living and the 
 dead, every knee was bent in religious adoration : his 
 mysteries were performed on a mountain near Cairo: 
 sixteen thousand converts had signed his profession 
 of faith ; and at the present hour, a free and warlike 
 people, the Druses of mount Libanus, are persuaded 
 of the life and divinity of a madman and tyrant.y In 
 his divine character, Hakem hated the Jews and chris- 
 tians, as the servants of his rivals : while some re- 
 mains of prejudice or prudence still pleaded in favour 
 of the law of Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Pales- 
 tine, his cruel and wanton persecution made some 
 martyrs and many apostates : the common rights and 
 special privileges of the sectaries were equally dis- 
 regarded ; and a general interdict was laid on the devo- 
 Sacriiege of ^^0" of Strangers and natives. The tem- 
 a"d\'oo9 ^^® °^ ^^® christian world, the church 
 • • of the resurrection, was demolished to its 
 foundations ; the luminous prodigy of Easter was in- 
 terrupted, and much profane labour was exhausted to 
 destroy the cave in the rock which properly consti- 
 tutes the holy sepulchre. At the report of this sacri- 
 lege, the nations of Europe were astonished and afllict- 
 ed : but instead of arming in the defence of the Holy 
 Land, they contented themselves with burning or ba- 
 nishing the Jews, as the secret advisers of the im- 
 pious barbarian.' Yet the calamities of Jerusalem 
 were in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy 
 or repentance of Hakem himself; and the royal man- 
 
 323 
 
 n The orientals themselves confess the fraud, and plead necessity 
 and edification ; (M«imoires du Chevalier D'Arvieux, tom. ii. p. 140. 
 Joseph Abudacni, Hist. Copt .c. 20.) but I will not auempt, with Mo- 
 «iieim to explain the mode. Our travellers have failed with the 
 DlooU of St. Januariu.s at Naples. 
 
 X See D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orienlale, p. 411.) Renaudot, (Hist. Pa- 
 triarch. Alex. p. 390. 397. 400, 401.) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 321- 
 'J-J.) and Marei, (p. 334—386.) an historian of Egypt, translated by 
 iteiske from Arabic into German, and verbally interpreted to me by 
 
 y The religion of the Druses is concealed by their ignorance and 
 nypocnsy. Their secret doctrines are confined to the elect, who 
 profess a o>ntcmplalive life ; and the vulgar Druses, the most indif- 
 lerent of men, occasionally conform to the worship of the Mahome- 
 lans and christians of their neighbourhood. The little that is, or de- 
 serves to be, known, may be seen in the industrious Niebuhr, (Voy- 
 ages, torn, ii. p. 354—357.) and the second volume of the recent and 
 Instructive Travels of M. de Vohiey. 
 
 D.'iww ^^*^^^' ^' '"• ^' '^' *"^ ^^® Annals of Baronius and Pagi, A. 
 
 date was sealed for the restitution of the churches 
 when the tyrant was assassinated by the emissaries 
 of his sister. The succeeding caliphs resumed the 
 maxims of religion and policy ; a free toleration was 
 again granted ; with the pious aid of the emperor of 
 Constantinople, the holy sepulchre arose from its 
 ruins ; and, after a short abstinence, the pilgrims re- 
 turned with an increase of appetite to the spiritual 
 feast.* In the sea-voyage of Palestine, the dangers 
 were frequent, and the opportunities rare; but°the 
 conversion of Hungary opened a safe communication 
 between Germany and Greece. The charity of St. 
 Stephen, the apostle of his kingdom, relieved and 
 conducted his itinerant brethren;'' and from Belgrade 
 to Antioch, they traversed fifteen hundred miles of a 
 
 christian empire. Among the Franks, t««.,^ r -i 
 ♦k.,. » -.1 r -1 • ° •• *'"'"^'»» Increase of pil- 
 
 the zeal ot pilgrimage prevailed beyond erimages, 
 
 the example of former times ; and the ^- ^ *^'*» *<^« 
 roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and 
 of every rank, who professed their contempt of life, so 
 soon as they should have kissed the tomb of their 
 Redeemer. Princes and prelates abandoned the care 
 of their dominions ; and the numbers of these pious 
 caravans were a prelude to the armies which marched 
 in the ensuing age under the banner of the cross. 
 About thirty years before the first crusade, the arch- 
 bishop of Mentz, with the bishops of Utrecht, Bam- 
 berg, and Ratisbon, undertook this laborious journey 
 from the Rhine to the Jordan ; and the multitude of 
 their followers amounted to seven thousand persons. 
 At Constantinople, they were hospitably entertained 
 by the emperor; but the ostentation of their wealth 
 provoked the assault of the wild Arabs; they drew 
 their swords with scrupulous reluctance, and sustained 
 a siege in the village of Capernaum, till they were 
 rescued by the venal protection of the Fatimite emir. 
 After visiting the holy places, they embarked for Italy, 
 but only a remnant of two thousand arrived in safety 
 in their native land. Ingulphus, a secretary of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, was a companion of this pil- 
 grimage : he observes that they sallied from Nor- 
 mandy, thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen ; but 
 that they repassed the Alps, twenty miserable palm- 
 ers, with the staff in their hand, and the wallet at 
 their back.' 
 
 After the defeat of the Romans, the Conquest of Je- 
 tranqnillity of the Fatimite caliphs was rusaiem by the 
 invaded by the Turks.* One of the lieu- a. 'd!' 
 
 tenants of Malek Shah, Atsiz the Cariz- 1076-1096. 
 mian, marched into Syria at the head of a powerful 
 army, and reduced Damascus by famine and the sword. 
 Hems, and the other cities of the province, acknow- 
 ledged the caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia ; 
 and the victorious emir advanced without resistance to 
 the banks of the Nile : the Fatimite was preparing to 
 fly into the heart of Africa : but the negroes of his 
 guard and the inhabitants of Cairo made -a desperate 
 sally, and repulsed the Turk from the confines of 
 Egypt. In his retreat, he indulged the licence of 
 slaughter and rapine; the judge and notaries of Jeru- 
 salem were invited to his camp, and their execution 
 was followed by the massacre of three thousand citi- 
 zens. The cruelty or the defeat of Atsiz was soon 
 punished by the sultan Toucush, the brother of Malek 
 
 a Per idem tempus ex universo orbe lam innumerabiiis multiiudo 
 coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis, quantum 
 
 nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris plebis 
 
 mediocres reges et comiles praesules mulieres 
 
 multae uobiles cum pauperioribus Pluribus enim erat mentis 
 
 desiderium mori priusquam ad propria reverterentur. (Glaber, 1. ir. 
 c. 6. Bouquet, Historians of France, torn. x. p. 50.) 
 
 b Glaber, 1. iii. c. 1. Katona, (Hist. Crit. Reg. Hungarie, lom. i. 
 
 J. 304—311.) examines whether St. Stephen founded a monastery at 
 erusalem. 
 c Baronius (A. D. 1064. No. 43—56.) has transcribed the greater 
 
 Eart of the original narratives of Ingulphus, Mariauus, and Lam- 
 ertus. 
 
 d See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 349, 350.) and Abulpharagiui. 
 (Dynast, p. 237. vejs. Pocock.) M. ae Guignes, (Hist, des Huns, lom. 
 iii. part. i. p. 215, 216.) adds the testimonies, or rather the nameg, ^ 
 Abulfeda and Novaira. 
 
 it 
 
^k3t' 
 
 324 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 325 
 
 
 
 L M^ 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 Shah, who with a higher title and more formidable 
 powers, asserted the dominion of Syria and Palestine. 
 The house of Seljuk reigned about twenty years in 
 Jerusalem ; • but the hereditary command of the holy 
 city and territory was instrusted or abandoned to the 
 emir Ortok, the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose 
 children, after their expulsio.i from Palestine, fornied 
 two dynasties on the borders of Armenia and Assyria.' 
 The oriental christians and the Latin pilgrims de- 
 plored a revolution, which, instead of the regular 
 government and old alliance of the caliphs, imposed 
 on their necks the iron yoke of the strangers of the 
 north." In his court and camp the great sultan had 
 adopted in some degree the arts and manners of Per- 
 sia; but the body of the Turkish nation, and more 
 especially the pastoral tribes, still breathed the fierce- 
 ness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem, the 
 western countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and 
 domestic hostility ; and the shepherds of Palestine, 
 who held a precarious sway on a doubtful frontier, 
 had neither leisure nor capacity to await the slow 
 profits of commercial and religious freedom. The pil- 
 grims, who, through innumerable perils, had reached 
 the gates of Jerusalem, were the victims of private 
 rapine or public oppression, and often sunk under the 
 pressure of famine and disease, before they were per- 
 mitted to salute the holy sepulchre. A spirit of na- 
 tive barbarism, or recent zeal, prompted the Turk- 
 mans to insult the clergy of every sect : the patriarch 
 was dragged by the hair along the pavement, and cast 
 into a dungeon, to extort a ransom from the sympathy 
 of his flock ; and the divine worship in the church of 
 the resurrection was often disturbed by the savage 
 rudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited 
 the millions of the west to march under the standard of 
 the cross to the relief of the Holy Land : and yet how 
 trifling is the sum of these accumulated evils, if com- 
 pared with the single act of the sacrilege of Hakem, 
 which had been so patiently endured by the Latin 
 christians ! A slighter provocation inflamed the more 
 irascible temper of their descendants : a new spirit 
 had arisen of religious chivalry and papal dominion : 
 a nerve was touched of exquisite feeling ; and the sen- 
 sation vibrated to the heart of Europe. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Origin and numbers of the first crusade. — Characters of the 
 Latin princes. — Their march to Constantinople. — 1 olicy 
 of the Greek emperor Alexius. — Conquefi of Nice, An- 
 tiochy and Jerusalem y by the Franks. — Deliverance of the 
 holy sepulchre. — Godfrey of Bouillon, first king of Jeru- 
 aalem. — Institutions of the French or Latin kingdom. 
 
 The first crusadp, About twenty years after the conquest 
 A D. 1095— 1099. of Jerusalem by the Turks, the holy 
 Peter the hermit, sepulchre was visited by a hern)it of the 
 name of Peter, a native of Amiens, in the province of 
 Picardy*in France. His resentment and sympathy 
 were excited by his own injuries and the oppression 
 of the christian name ; he mingled his tears with those 
 
 c From the expedition of Isar Atsiz (A. H. 469. A. D. 1076.) to the 
 exp^ilsion of the Ortokides, (A. D. 1096 ) Yet William of Tyre (I. i. 
 c. 6. p. 633.) assPFiB, that Jerusalem was thirty-eight yearn in the 
 hands of the Turks ; and an Arabic chronicle, quoted by Pagi, (lorn. 
 iv. p. 202.) supposes, that the city was reduced by a Carizmian eene- 
 ral to the obedience of the caliph of Bagdad, A. H. 463. A. D.'l070. 
 These early dates are not very couipatible with the general history 
 of Asia ; and I am sure, that as late us A. D. 1064. the regnum Babv- 
 lonicum (of Cairo) still prevailed in Palestine. (Barunius, A. D. 10G4. 
 No. 56.) 
 
 r De Guignes, Hist, des Huns. lorn. \ p 249-252. 
 
 g Willerm. Tyr. 1. i. c. 8. p. 634. who strives hard to magnify the 
 christian grievances. The Turks exacted an aureus from each pil- 
 grim. The caphar of the Franks is now fourteen dollars: and Eu- 
 rope does not complain of this voluntary tax. 
 
 a Whimsical enough is the origin of the name of P/carJs, and from 
 Ihence of Picardie, which does not date earlier than A. 1). 1200. It 
 was an academical joke, an epithet first applied to the quarrelsome 
 humour of those students, in the University of Paris, who came from 
 the frontier of France and Flanders. (Valesii Notitia Galliaruni, p. 
 447. Longuerue, Deacriplion de la Fraace, p. 54.) 
 
 of the patriarch, and earnestly inquired, if no hopes of 
 relief could be entertained from the Greek emperors 
 of the east. The patriarch exposed the vices and 
 weakness of the successors of Constanline. *' I will 
 rouse," exclaimed the hermit, " the martial nations of 
 Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedient to 
 the call of the hermit. The astonished patriarch dis- 
 missed him with epistles of credit and complaint ; and 
 no sooner did he land at Bari, than Peter hastened to 
 kiss the feet of the Roman pontiflf. His stature wai 
 small, his appearance contemptible ; but his eye wa« 
 keen and lively ; and he possessed that vehemence of 
 speech, which seldom fails to impart the persuasion 
 of the soul.** He was born of a gentleman's family, 
 (for we must now adopt a modern idiom,) and his 
 military service was under the neighbouring counts of 
 Boulogrne, the heroes of the first crusade. But he 
 soon relinquished the sword and the world ; and if it 
 be true, that his wife, however noble, was aged and 
 ugly, he miirht withdraw, with the less reluctance, 
 from her bed to a convent, and at length to a hermi- 
 taore. In this austere solitude, his body was ema- 
 ciated, his fancy was inflamed ; whatever he wished, 
 he believed ; whatever he believed, he saw in dreams 
 and revelations. From Jerusalem, the pilgrim return- 
 ed an accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in the 
 popular madness of the times, pope Urban the second 
 received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious de- 
 sign, promised to support it in a general council, and 
 encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the 
 Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the 
 pontiff, his zealous missionary traversed, with speed 
 and success, the provinces of Italy and France. His 
 diet was abstemious, his prayers long and fervent, 
 and the alms which he received with one hand, he 
 distributed with the other: his head was bare, his feet 
 naked, his meagre body was wrapt in a coarse gar- 
 ment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and 
 the ass on which he rode was sanctified in the public 
 eye, by the service of the man of God. He preached 
 to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, and 
 the highways : the hermit entered with equal confi- 
 dence the palace and the cottage ; and the people, for 
 all were people, were impetuously moved by his call 
 to repentance and arms. When he painted the suffer- 
 ings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every 
 heart was melted to compassion ; every breast glowed 
 with indignation, when he challenged the warriors of 
 the age to defend their brethren, and rescue their Sa- 
 viour : his ignorance of art and language was com- 
 pensated by sighs, and tears, and ejaculations; and 
 Peter supplied the deficiency of reason by loud and 
 frequent appeals to Christ and his mother, to the saints 
 and angels of paradise, with whom he had personally 
 conversed. The most perfect orator of Athens might 
 have envied the success of his eloquence : the rustic 
 enthusiast inspired the passions which he felt, and 
 Christendom expected with impatience 
 and decrees of the supreme pontiff. 
 
 The magnanimous spirit of Gregory 
 the seventh had already embraced the 
 design of arming Europe against Asia; 
 the ardour of his zeal and ambition still 
 breathes in his epistles : from either side of the Alps, 
 fifty thousand catholics had enlisted under the banner 
 of St. Peter;* and his successor reveals his intention 
 of marching at their head against the impious sectaries 
 of Mahomet. But the glory or reproach of executing, 
 not in person, this holy enterprise, was re- 
 
 the counsels 
 
 Urban II. in the 
 
 council of I'la- 
 
 centia, 
 
 A. D. 1095. 
 
 March. 
 
 though 
 
 b William of Tyre (1. i. c 11. p. 637, 636.) thus describes the her- 
 mit: Pusillus, persona coniempiibilis, vivacis ingenii, et oculum ha- 
 bens perspicacem gratumqiie, oi sponte fluens ei non deerat flo- 
 quium. See Albert Aquensis, p. 1S5. Guibert, p. 4S2. Anna Com- 
 nena in Alexiad. 1. x. p. 2S4, &c. with Ducange's notes, p. 349. 
 
 c Ultra quinquaginia millia, si me possum in expeditione pn> duce 
 el pontifice habf^re, armata manii volunt in inimicos Dei insurgrre 
 et ad sepulchrum Domini ipso ducente pervoaire. Gregor. vii. epist 
 ii. 31. in torn. zii. p. 322. concU 
 
 » 
 
 served (ox Urban the second,** the most faithful of his 
 disciples. He undertook the conquest of the east, 
 whilst the larger portion of Rome was possessed and 
 fortified by his rival Guibert of Ravenna, who con- 
 tended with Urban for the name and honours of the 
 pontificate. He attempted to unite the powers of the 
 west, at a time when the princes were separated from 
 the church, and the people from their princes, by the 
 excommunication which himself and his predecessors 
 had thundered against the emperor and the king of 
 France. Philip the first, of France, supported with 
 patience the censures which he had provoked by his 
 scandalous life and adulterous marriage. Henry the 
 fourth, of Germany, asserted the right of investitures, 
 the prerogative of confirming his bishops by the deli- 
 very of the ring and crosier. But the emperor's party 
 was crushed in Italy by the arms of the Normans and 
 the countess Mathilda; and the long quarrel had been 
 recently envenomed by the revolt of his son Conrad 
 and the shame of his wife,' who, in the synods of 
 Constance and Placentia, confessed the manifold pros- 
 titutions to which she had been exposed by a hus- 
 band regardless of her honour and his own.' So popu- 
 lar was the cause of Urban, so weighty was his in- 
 fluence, that the council which he summoned at Pla- 
 centia* was composed of two hundred bishops of 
 Italy, France, Burgundy, Swabia, and Bavaria. Four 
 thousand of the clergy, and thirty thousand of the 
 laity, attended this important meeting; and, as the 
 most spacious cathedral would have been inadequate 
 to the multitude, the session of seven days were held 
 in a plain adjacent to the city. The ambassadors of 
 the Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, were intro- 
 duced to plead the distress of their sovereign and the 
 danger of Constantinople, which was divided only by 
 a narrow sea from the victorious Turks, the common 
 enemies of the christian name. In their suppliant ad- 
 dress they flattered thg p-ide of the Latin princes; 
 and, appealing at once to their policy and religion, ex- 
 horted them to repel the barbarians on the confines of 
 Asia, rather than to expect them in the heart of Eu- 
 rope. At the sad tale of the misery and perils of 
 their eastern brethren, the assembly burst into tears : 
 the most ea?er champions declared their readiness to 
 march ; and the Greek ambassadors were dismissed 
 with the assurance of a speedy and powerful succour. 
 The relief of Constantinople was included in the larger 
 and most distant project of the deliverance of Jeru- 
 salem; but the prudent Urban adjourned the final deci- 
 sion to a second synod, which he proposed to cele- 
 brate in some city of France in the autumn of the 
 same year. The short delay would propagate the 
 flanie of enthusiasm ; and his firmest hope was in a 
 nation of soldiers,*' still proud of the pre-eminence of 
 
 i See the original lives of Urban II. by Pandulphus Pisanus and 
 Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. lul. Script, torn. iii. pars i. p. 
 352, 353. 
 
 e She is known by the different names of Praxes, Euprsecia, Eufra- 
 sia, and Adelais ; and was the daughter of a Russian prince and the 
 widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh. Struv. Corpus Hist. Germa- 
 nic*, p. 340. 
 
 t Henricus odio earn coppit habere : idee incarceravit earn, et con- 
 cessit ut plerinue vim ei inferrent ; immo filium hortans ut earn su- 
 P^'iaret. (Dodechin, Continual. Marian. Scot, apud Baron. A. D. 
 1093, No. 4J In the synol of Constance, she is described by Ber- 
 tholdus, rerum inspector: quae se tantas et tarn inauditas fornicaiio- 
 num spurcitias, et a tantis passam fuisse conquesta est, &c. and 
 again at Placentia : satis inisericorditer suscepii, eo quod ipsam tan- 
 las spurcitias non lam comrnisisse quam inviiam pertulisse pro certe 
 cognoverit papa cum sancla synodo. Apud Baron. A. D. 1093. No. 
 4. 1094. No. 3. A rare subject for the infallible decision of a pope 
 and council. These abominaiious are repugnant to every principle 
 of human nature, which is not altered by a dispute about rings and 
 crosiers. Yet it should seem, that the wretched woman was tempted 
 by the priests to relate or subscribe some infamous stories of herself 
 and her husband. 
 
 g See the narrative and acta of the synod of Placentia, Cone il. torn. 
 XII. p. 821, &c. 
 
 h Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and valour of 
 the French nation, the author and example of the crusades : Gens 
 nobilis, prudens, bellicosa, dapsilis et niiida .... Quos enim Brito- 
 nes, Anglos, Ligures, si bonis eos moribus videamus, non illico 
 francos homines appellemusi (p. 478.) He owns, however, that 
 the vivacity of the French degenerates into petulance among for- 
 •tcnen, (p. 463.) and vain loquacioiwneM, (p. 602.) 
 
 their nanie, and ambitious to emulate their hero Char- 
 lemagne,' who, in the popular Romance of Turpin,* 
 had achieved the conquest of the Holy Land. A 
 latent motive of affection or vanity might influence the 
 choice of Urban : he was himself a native of France, 
 a monk of Clugny, and the first of his countrymen 
 who ascended the throne of St. Peter. The pope had 
 illustrated his family and province ; nor is there per- 
 haps a more exquisite gratification than to revisit, in a 
 conspicuous dignity, the humble and laborious scenes 
 of our youth. 
 
 It may occasion some surprise that the council of cier- 
 Koman pontitt should erect, m the heart mont, A. D. 1095. 
 of France, the tribunal from whence he November, 
 hurled his anathemas against the king; but our sur- 
 prise will vanish so soon as we form a just estimate 
 of a king of France of the eleventh century.* Philip the 
 first was the great-grandson of Hugh Capet, the foun- 
 der of the present race, who, in the decline of Charle- 
 magne's posterity, added the regal title to his patri- 
 monial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow 
 compass, he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction ; 
 but in the rest of France, Hugh and his first descen- 
 dants were no more than the feudal lords of about 
 sixty dukes and counts, of independent and hereditary 
 power," w'ho disdained the control of laws and legal 
 assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was 
 revenged by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. 
 At Clermont, in the territories of the count of Au- 
 vergne," the pope might brave with impunity the re- 
 sentment of Philip ; and the council w hich he con- 
 vened in that city was not less numerous or respecta- 
 ble than the synod of Placentia." Besides his court 
 and council of Roman cardinals, he was supported by 
 thirteen archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five 
 bishops; the number of mitred prelates was computed 
 at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were 
 blessed by the saints, and enlightened by the doctors of| 
 the age. From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train 
 of lords and knights of povver and renown attended 
 the council,? in high expectation of its resolves ; and 
 such was the ardour of zeal and curiosity, that the 
 city was filled, and many thousands, in the month of 
 November, erected their tents or huts in the open 
 field. A session of eight days produced some useful 
 or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a 
 severe censure was pronounced against the licence of 
 private war ; the truce of God <> was confirmed, a sus- 
 pension of hostilities during four days of the week ; 
 women and priests were placed under the safeguard 
 of the church ; and a protection of three years was 
 extended to husbandmen and merchants, the defence- 
 
 » Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex Franco- 
 rum apuri fecit usque C. P. (Gesta Francorum, p. 1. Robert. Mon- 
 ach. Hist. Hieros, 1. 1. p. 33. &c.) 
 
 k John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was Archbishop of Rheims, A. D. 
 773. After the year ICXX), this romance was composed in his name, 
 bv a monk of the borders of France and Spain ; and such was the 
 idea of ecclesiastical merit, that he describes himself as a fighting 
 and drinking priest! Yet the book of lies was pronounced authentic 
 by pope Calixtus II. (A. D. 1122.) and is respectfully quoted by tho 
 abbot Suger, in the great Chronicles of St. Denys. (Fabric. Bibliot. 
 Latin, medii ^vi, edit. Mansi, torn. iv. p. 161.) 
 
 1 See Flat de la France, by the Count de Boulainvilliers, torn. f. 
 p. 180.— 18-2. and the second volume of the Observations sur I'His- 
 loire de France, by the Abb(i de Mably. 
 
 m In the provinces of the south of the liOire, the first Capetiant 
 were scarcely allowed a feudal supremacy. On all sides, Normandy, 
 Bretagne, Aquitain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Flanders, contracted 
 the name and limits of the proper France. See Hadrian. Vales. 
 Not ilia Galliaruin. 
 
 n These counts, a younger branch of the dukes of Acjuitain, were 
 at length despoiled of the greatest part of their country by Philip 
 Augustus. The bishops of Clermont gradually became princes of 
 the city. Melanges, tin^s d'une grande Bibliotheque, torn, xzxvi. p. 
 2S8, &c. 
 
 See the acts of the council of Clermont, Concil. torn. xii. p. 
 829, &c. 
 
 P Confluxenint ad Concilium e multis regionibus, viri potentes et 
 
 i 
 
 i: 
 
 q The Truce of God (Treva or Treuga Dei) was first invented in 
 Aquitain, A. D. 1032 ; blamed by some bishops as an occasion of per- 
 jury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to Iheir privileges. 
 (Ducange, GIom. Latin. Wm. vi. p. 682—686.) 
 
n 'k-^: 
 
 3«U 
 
 THE DECLINE AND TALL 
 
 Chap. XIX* 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 327 
 
 JMll 
 
 h 
 
 '4 
 
 less victims of military rapine. But a law, however 
 venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform 
 the temper of the times ; and the benevolent efforts of 
 Urban deserve the less praise, since he laboured to 
 appease some domestic quarrels, that he might spread 
 the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. 
 From the synod of Placenlia, the rumour of his great 
 design had gone forth among the nations : the clergy 
 on their return had preached in every diocese the 
 merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy Land ; 
 and when the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the 
 market-place of Clermont, his eloquence was addressed 
 to a well-prepared and impatient audience. His topics 
 were obvious, his exhortation was vehement, his suc- 
 cess inevitable. The orator was interrupted by the 
 shout of thousands, who with one voice, and in their 
 rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, "God wills it, God wills 
 it." ' " It is indeed the will of God," replied the pope ; 
 "and let this memorable word, the inspiration surely 
 of the Holy Spirit, be for ever adopted as your cry 
 of battle, to animate the devotion and courage of the 
 champions of Christ. His cross is the symbol of your 
 salvation ; wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as an external 
 mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of 
 your sacred and irrevocable engagement." The pro- 
 posal was joyfully accepted ; great numbers, both of 
 the clergy and laity, impressed on their garments the 
 sign of the cross,* and solicited the pope to march at 
 their head. This dangerous honour was declined by 
 the more prudent successor of Gregory, who alleged 
 the schism of the church, and the duties of his pasto- 
 ral office, recommending to the faithful, who were dis- 
 qualified by sex or profession, by age or infirmity, to 
 aid, with their prayers and alms, the personal service 
 of their robust brethren. The name and powers of 
 his legate he devolved on Adhemar bishop of Puy, 
 the first who had received the cross at his hands. 
 The foremost of the temporal chiefs was Raymond 
 count of Thoulouse, whose ambassadors in the coun- 
 cil excused the absence, and pledged the honour, of 
 their master. After the confession and absolution of 
 their sins, the champions of the cross were dismissed 
 with a superfluous admonition to invite their country- 
 men and friends ; and their departure for the Holy 
 Land was fixed to the festival of the Assumption, the 
 fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year.* 
 Justice of the So familiar, and as it were so natural, 
 
 crusades. to man, is the practice of violence, that 
 our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the 
 most disputable right, as a sufHcient ground of nation- 
 
 • r Deua vult, Deua vult! was the pure acclamation of the clergy 
 who unilerstoiHl Latin. (Robert IVlon. 1. i. p. 32.) By the illiieraie 
 laity who spoke the Povincial or Limousin idiom, it was corrupted 
 to Dtus lo volt, or Diex el voit. See Chron. Cusinense, 1. iv. c. 11. 
 p. 497. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. torn. iv. and Ducange, (Dis- 
 serut. xi. p. 207. sur Joinville, and Gloss. Latin, torn. ii. p. 690.) 
 who, in his preface, produces a very difficult specimen of the dialect 
 of Rovergne, A. D. 1100. very near, both in time and place, to the 
 council of Clermont, (p. 15, 16.) 
 
 • Moat commonly on their shoulders, in gold, or 8i!k, or cloth, sewed 
 on their garments. In the first crusade, all were red ; in the third, the 
 French alone preserved that colour, while preen cn^ses were adopt- 
 ed by the Flemings, and while by the English. (Pucan^e, torn. ii. p. 
 651.) Yet in Englitnd, ihe red ever appears the favourite, and, as it 
 were, the national, colour of our miliury ensigns and uniforms. 
 
 t Bongarsius, who has published the original writers of the cru- 
 •ades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title of Guibertus, 
 Gesta Dbi per Francos ; though some critics propose to read Gesta 
 Diaboli per Francos. (Hanovise, 1611, two vols, in fulio.) I shall 
 briefly enumerate, as they sund in this collection, the authors whom 
 I have used for the first crusade. I. Gesta Francorum. IL Robertus 
 Monachus. III. Baldricus. IV. Kaimundus de Agiles. V. Albertus 
 Aquensis. VL Fulcherius Carnoiensis. VII. Guibertus. VIII. Wil- 
 lielmus Tyriensis. Muratori has given us, IX. Radulphus Cado- 
 mensis de Gestis Tancredi, (Script. Rer. Ital. torn. v. p 2SS— 333.) 
 and, X. Bernardus Thesaurius de Acquisiiione Terrse Sanciae, (lom. 
 vii. p. 604—848.) The last of these was unknown lo a laie French 
 historian, who has given a large and critical list of the writers of the 
 crusades, (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13— 141.) and most of whose 
 
 ^'udgments mv own experience will allow me lo ratify. It was late 
 efore I could obtain a sight of the French historians collected by 
 Duchesne. I. Petri Tudebodi Sacerdoiis Sivracensis Historia de 
 Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. iv. p. 773—815.) has been transfused 
 into the first anonymous writer of Bongarsius. II. The Metrical 
 History of the First Crusade, in seven books, (p. 890—912.) is of small 
 value or account. 
 
 al hostility. But the name and nature of a holy war 
 demands a more rigorous scrutiny ; nor can we hastily 
 believe, that the servants of the Prince of peace would 
 unsheath the sword of destruction, unless the motive 
 were pure, the quarrel legitimate, and the necessity 
 inevitable. The policy of an action may be deter- 
 mined from the tardy lessons of experience ; but, be- 
 fore we act, our conscience should be satisfied of the 
 justice and propriety of our enterprise. In the age of 
 the crusades, the christians, both of the east and west, 
 were persuaded of their lawfulness and merit; their 
 arguments are clouded by the perpetual abuse of 
 Scripture and rhetoric ; but they seem to insist on the 
 right of natural and religious defence, their peculiar 
 title to the Holy Land, and the impiety of their pagan 
 and Mahometan foes." I. The right of a just defence 
 may fairly include our civil and spiritual allies: it 
 depends on the existence of danger : and that danger 
 must be estimated by the two-fold consideration of the 
 malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious 
 tenet has been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty 
 of extirpating all other religions by the sword. Tins 
 charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the 
 Koran, by the history of the mussulman conquerors, 
 and by their public and legal toleration of the chris- 
 tian worship. But it cannot be denied, that the orien- 
 tal churches are depressed under their iron yoke ; that, 
 in peace and war, they assert a divine and indefea- 
 sible claim of universal empire ; and that, in their 
 orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are continually 
 threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In the 
 eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks 
 
 f»resented a real and urgent apprehension of these 
 osses. They had subdued, in less than thirty years, 
 the kingdoms of Asia, as far as Jerusalem and the 
 Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on the 
 verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy 
 for their brethren, the Latins had a right and interest 
 in the support of Constantinople, the most important 
 barrier of the west; and the privilege of defence must 
 reach to jvrevent, as well as to repel, an impending 
 assault. But this salutary purpose mioht have been 
 accomplished by a moderate succour; and our calmer 
 reason must disclaim the innumerable hosts and re- 
 mote operations, which overwhelmed Asia and depop- 
 ulated Europe. II. Palestine could add nothing to 
 the strength or safety of the Latins ; and fanaticism 
 alone could pretend to justify the conquest of that 
 distant and narrow province. The christians affirmed 
 that their inalienable title to the promised land had 
 been sealed by the blood of their divine Saviour : it 
 was their right and duty to rescue their inheritance 
 from the unjust possessors, who profaned his sepul- 
 chre, and oppressed the pilgrimage of his disciples. 
 Vainly would it be alleged that the pre-eminence of 
 Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, have been 
 abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the 
 christians is not a local deity, and that the recovery 
 of Bethlehem or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will 
 not atone for the violation of the moral precepts of the 
 gospel. Such arguments glance aside from the lead- 
 en shield of superstition; and the religious mind will 
 not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred ground of 
 mystery and miracle. III. But the holy wars which 
 have been waged in every climate of the globe, from 
 Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindostan, re- 
 quire the support of some more general and flexible 
 tenet. It has been often supposed, and sometimes 
 affirmed, that a difference of religion is a worthy cause 
 of hostility; that obstinate unbelievers may be slain 
 or subdued by the champions of the cross ; and that 
 grace is the sole fountain of dominion as well as of 
 
 u If the reader will turn to the first scene of the first part of Henry 
 the Fourth, he will see in the text of Shakspeare the natural feelingi 
 of enthusiasm ; and in the notes of Dr. Johnson, the workings of a 
 bigoted though vigorous mind, greedy of every pretence to hale aad 
 persecute those who dissent from hi* creed. 
 
 mercy. Above four hundred years before the first 
 crusade, the eastern and western provinces of the Ro- 
 man empire had been acquired about the same time, 
 and in the same manner, by the barbarians of Germany 
 and Arabia. Time and treaties had legitimated the 
 conquests of the christian Franks ; but in the eyes of 
 their subjects and neighbours, the Mahometan princes 
 were still tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms of war 
 or rebellion, might be lawfully driven from their un- 
 lawful possession.* 
 
 Spiritual mo- ^^ *^® manners of the christians were 
 lives and in- relaxed, their discipline of penance ^ was 
 duigencea. enforced ; and with the multiplication of 
 sins, the remedies were multiplied. In the primitive 
 church, a voluntary and open confession prepared the 
 work of atonement. In the middle ages, the bishops 
 and priests interrogated the criminal ; compelled him 
 to account for his thoughts, words, and actions ; and 
 prescribed the terms of his reconciliation with God. 
 But as this discretionary power might alternately be 
 abused by indulgence and tyranny, a rule of discip- 
 line was frarned, to inform and regulate the spiritual 
 judges. This mode of legislation was invented by 
 the Greeks; their penitentials * were translated, or imi- 
 tated, in the Latin church ; and, in the time of Char- 
 lemagne, the clergy of every diocese were provided 
 with a code, which they prudently concealed from the 
 knowledge of the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate 
 of crimes and punishments, each case was supposed, 
 each difference was remarked, by the experience or 
 penetration of the monks ; some sins are enumerated 
 which innocence could not have suspected, and others 
 which reason cannot believe ; and the more ordinary 
 offences of fornication and adultery, of perjury and 
 sacrilege, of rapine and murder, were expiated by a 
 penance, which, according to the various circumstan- 
 ces, was prolonged from forty days to seven years. 
 During this term of mortification, the patient was 
 healed, the criminal was absolved, by a salutary re- 
 gimen of fasts and prayers : the disorder of his dress 
 was expressive of grief and remorse: and he humbly 
 abstained from all the business and pleasure of social 
 life. But the rigid execution of these laws would 
 have depopulated the palace, the camp, and the city ; 
 the barbarians of the west believed and trembled ; but 
 nature often rebelled against principle ; and the magis- 
 trate laboured without effect to enforce the jurisdic- 
 tion of the priest. A literal accomplishment of pen- 
 ance was indeed impracticable ; the guilt of adultery 
 was multiplied by daily repetition ; that of homicide 
 might involve the massacre of a whole people; each 
 act was separately numbered ; and, in those times of 
 anarchy and vice, a modest sinner might easily incur 
 a debt of three hundred years. His insolvency was 
 relieved by a commutation, or indulgence ; a year of 
 penance was appreciated at twenty-six so/tV/i * of silver, 
 about four pounds sterling, for the rich ; at three 
 solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent : and these 
 alms were soon appropriated to the use of the church, 
 which derived, from the redemption of sins, an inex- 
 haustible source of opulence and dominion. A debt 
 of three hundred years, or twelve hundred pounds. 
 
 « The sixth Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical History, (p. 223 
 -~261.) contains an accurate aud rational view of the causes and ef- 
 fects of the crusades. 
 
 y The penance, indulgences, &c. of the middle ages are amply 
 discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae medii JE.\\, tom. ▼. dissert. 
 Ixviii. p. 709—758.) and by M. Chais, (Lettres sur les Jubiles et les 
 Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 et 22. p. 471—556.) with this dif- 
 ference, that the abases of superstition are mildly, perhaps faintly, 
 exposed by the learned Italian, and peevishly magnified by the 
 Dutch minister. 
 
 * Schmidt (Histoire des Allemands, lom. ii. p. 211—220. 452—462.) 
 gives an abstract of the Penitential of Rhegino in the ninth, and of 
 Burchard in the tenth, century. In one year, five aud thirty mur- 
 ders were perpetrated at W^orros. 
 
 * Till the twelfth century, we may support the clear account of 12 
 denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or shilling; and 20 solidi to the 
 pound weigiit of silver, about the pound sterling. Our money is 
 diminished to a third, and the French to a fiftieth, of this primitive 
 Aaudard. 
 
 was enough to impoverish a plentiful fortune; the 
 scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the aliena- 
 tion of land ; and the princely donations of Pepin and 
 Charlemagne are expressly given for the remedy of 
 their soul. It is a maxim of the civil law, thai who- 
 soever cannot pay with his purse, must pay with his 
 body ; and the practice of flagellation was adopted 
 by the monks, a cheap, though painful, equivalent. 
 By a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed 
 at three thousand lashes;'' and such was the skill 
 and patience of a famous hermit, St. Dominic of the 
 iron cuirass,*^ that in six days he could discharge an 
 entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thou- 
 sand stripes. His example was followed by many 
 penitents of both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice 
 was accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiate 
 on his own back the sins of his benefactors.** These 
 compensations of the purse and the person introduced, 
 in the eleventh century, a more honourable mode of 
 satisfaction. The merit of military service against 
 the Saracens of Africa and Spain, had been alFowed 
 by the predecessors of Urban the second. In the 
 council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a plenary 
 indulgence to those who should enlist under the ban- 
 ner of the cross ; the absolution of all their sins, and a 
 full receipt for all that might be due of canoncial 
 penance.* The cold philosophy of modern times is 
 incapable of feeling the impression that was made on 
 a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of their pas- 
 tor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by 
 thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the 
 infidels the same deeds which they had exercised 
 against their christian brethren ; and the terms of 
 atonement were eagerly embraced by offenders of 
 every rank and denomination. None were pure ; none 
 were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and 
 those who were the least amenable to the justice of 
 God and the church, were the best entitled to the tem- 
 poral and eternal recompense of their pious courage. 
 If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesi- 
 tate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyr- 
 dom ; ' and should they survive, they could expect 
 without impatience the delay and increase of their 
 heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the 
 Son of God, who had laid down his life for their salva- 
 tion : they took up the cross, and entered with con- 
 fidence into the way of the Lord. His providence 
 would watch over their safety; perhaps his visible 
 and miraculous power would smootli the difficultieg 
 of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar of 
 Jehovah had marched before the Israelities into the 
 promised land. Might not the christians more rea- 
 sonably hope that the rivers would open for their pas- 
 sage ; that the walls of the strongest cities would fall 
 at the sound of their trumpets ; and that the sun would 
 be arrested in his mid career, to allow them time for 
 the destruction of the infidels 1 
 
 Of the chiefs and soldiers who march- Temporal and 
 ed to the holy sepulchre, I will dare to carnal motives, 
 affirm, that all were prompted by the spirit of enthu- 
 siasm; the belief of merit, the hope of reward, and the 
 
 b Each century of lashes was sanctified with the recital of a psalm ; 
 and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment of 15,000 stripes, wa0 
 equivalent to five years. 
 
 c The Life and Achievements of St. Dominic Loricctus was com- 
 posed by his friend and admirer, Peter Damianus. See Fleury, Hist. 
 Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 99 — 104. Baronius, A. D. 1056. No. 7. who ob- 
 serves from Damianus, how fashionable, even among ladies of qual- 
 ity, (sublimis generis) this expiation (purgatorii genus) was grown, 
 
 d At a quarter or even half a rial a lash, Sancho Panza was a 
 cheaper, and possibly not a more dishonest, workman. I rememl>er 
 in Pere Lebat (Voyages en Italie, tom. vii. p. 16—29.) a very liTrijr 
 picture of the dexterity of one of these artists. 
 
 e Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniae adep. 
 tione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem profectiis fuerit, iter 
 illud pro omni poBnitenlia reputelur. Canon. Concil. Claromont. ii. 
 p. 829. Guibert styles it novum salulis genus, (p. 741.) and is alnaooC 
 philosophical on the subject. 
 
 f Such at least was the belief of the crusaders, and such is the unl> 
 form style of the historians; (Esprht des Croisades, tom. iii. p. 477.) 
 but the prayer for the repose of their souls is inconsistent in onlxdos 
 theology with the merits of martyrdom. 
 
 t. 
 i 
 
V i' 
 
 i|»' 
 
 32S 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 9W 
 
 ■t: 
 
 I 
 
 >i 
 
 i 
 
 'i 
 
 
 assurance of divine aid. But I am equally persuaded, 
 that in many it was not the sole, that in some it was 
 not the leading, principle of action. The use and abuse 
 of religion are feeble to stenri, they are strong and 
 irresistible to impel, the stream of national manners. 
 Against the private wars of the barbarians, their bloody 
 tournaments, licentious loves, and judicial duels, the 
 popes and synods might ineffectually thunder. It is 
 a more easy task to provoke the metaphyscial dis- 
 putes of the Greeks, to drive into the cloister the vic- 
 tims of anarchy or despotism, to sanctify the patience 
 of slaves and cowards, or to assume the merit of the 
 humanity and benevolence of modern christians. War 
 and exercise w^ere the reigning passions of the Franks 
 or Latins; they were enjoined, as a penance, to gra- 
 tify those passions, to visit distant lands, and to draw 
 their swords against the nations of the east. Their 
 victory, or even their attempt, would immortalize the 
 names of the intrepid heroes of the cross ; and the 
 purest piety could not be insensible to the most splen- 
 did prospect of military glory. In the petty quarrels 
 of Europe, they shed the blood of their friends and 
 countrymen, for the acquisition perhaps of a castle or 
 village. They could march with alacrity against the 
 distant and hostile nations who were devoted to their 
 arms: their fancy already grasped the golden sceptres 
 of Asia; and the conquest of Apulia and Sicily by the 
 Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most 
 private adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, 
 must have yielded to the climate and cultivation of 
 the Mahometan countries; and their natural and artifi- 
 cial wealth had been magnified by the tales of pil- 
 grims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The 
 vulgar, both the great and small, were taught to be- 
 lieve every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and 
 honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, 
 of palaces of marble and jasper, and of odoriferous 
 groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this earthly 
 paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve 
 a plenteous and honourable establishment, which he 
 measured only by the extent of his wishes.* Their 
 vassals and soldiers trusted their fortunes to God and 
 their master: the spoils of a Turkish emir might en- 
 rich the meanest follower of the camp ; and the fla- 
 vour of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women,** 
 were temptations more adapted to the nature, than to 
 the profession, of the champions of the cross. The 
 love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the mul- 
 titudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiasti- 
 cal tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and 
 burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the 
 glebe, might escape from a haughty lord, and trans- 
 plant themselves and their families to a land of 
 liberty. The monk might release himself from the 
 discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend 
 the accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his 
 creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every cast 
 might continue to brave the laws and elude the punish- 
 ment of their crimes.' 
 
 Influence of These motives were potent and nu- 
 
 exarapie. merous : when we have singly com- 
 puted their weight on the mind of each individual, we 
 must add the infinite series, the multiplying powers, 
 of example and fashion. The first proselytes became 
 the warmest and most effectual missionaries of the 
 cross: among their friends and countrymen they 
 preached the duty, the merit, and the recompence, of 
 
 g The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the adventurers 
 ad animandos in <iui Francia residerant. Huge de Reiipste could 
 boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and ten castles of the 
 yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he should acquire an hundred 
 
 acqi 
 castlei by the conquest of Aleppo. (Guibert, p. 554, 555.) 
 
 h In his genuine or fictitious letter to the Count of Flanders, Alex- 
 iua mingles with the danger of the church, and the relics of eainis, 
 the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherriniarum fu'minarum voluptas ; 
 <p. 476.) as if, says the indignant Guiberl, the Greek women were 
 handsomer than those of France. 
 
 ^ i Seethe privileges of the Crucesignati, freedom from debt, usury, 
 injury, secular justice, &c. The pope was iheir perpetual cuardiaii. 
 (Ducange, torn, i: p, 651, 652.) 
 
 their holy vow ; and the most reluctant hearers wercr 
 insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion 
 and authority. The martial youths were fired by the 
 reproach or suspicion of cowardice; the opportunity of 
 visiting with an army the sepulchre of Christ, was em- 
 braced by the old and infirm, by women and children^ 
 who consulted rather iheir zeal than their strength ; 
 and those who in the evening had derided the folly of 
 their companions, were the most eager, the ensuing 
 day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance which 
 magnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the 
 enterprise. Since the Turkish conquest, the paths of 
 pilgrimage were obliterated ; the chiefs themselves 
 had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and 
 the state of their enemies ; and such was the stupidity 
 of the people, that, at the sight of the first city or 
 castle beyond the limits of their knowledge, they 
 were ready to ask whether that was not Jerusalem, 
 the term and object of their labours. Yet the more 
 prudent of the crusaders, who were not sure that they 
 should be fed from heaven with a shower of quails or 
 manna, provided themselves with those precious me- 
 tals, which, in every country, are the representatives 
 of every commodity. To defray, according to their 
 rank, the expenses of the road, princes alienated their 
 provinces, nobles their land and castles, peasants their 
 cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value 
 of property was depreciated by the eager competition 
 of multitudes; while the price of arms and horses 
 was raised to an exorbitant height by the wants and 
 impatience of the buyers.*' Those who remained at 
 home, with sense and money, were enriched by the 
 epidemical disease : the sovereigns acquired at a cheap 
 rate the domains of their vassals; and the ecclesiasti- 
 cal purchasers completed the payment by the assu- 
 rance of their prayers. The cross, which was com-^ 
 monly sewed on the garment, in cloth or silk, was 
 inscribed by some zealots on their skin : a hot iron, or 
 indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark ; 
 and a crafty monk, who showed the miraculous im- 
 pression on his breast, was repaid with the popular 
 veneration and the richest benefices of Palestine.' 
 
 The fifteenth of August had been fixed _. 
 in the council of Clermont for the depar- ^X?ruMdei!j* 
 ture of the pilgrims : but the day was A. D. 1096. ' 
 anticipated by the thoughtless and needy March, May, &c. 
 crowd of plebeians; and I shall briefly despatch the 
 calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before 1 
 enter on the more serious and successful enterprise of 
 the chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of 
 France and Lorraine, above sixty thousand of the 
 populace of both sexes flocked round the first mis- 
 sionary of the crusade, and pressed him with clamo- 
 rous importunity to lead them to the holy sepulchre. 
 The hermit, assuming the character, without the talents 
 or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the for- 
 ward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the 
 Rhine and Danube. Their wants and numbers soon 
 compelled them to separate, and his lieutenant, Wal- 
 ter the pennyless, a valiant though needy soldier, con- 
 ducted a vanguard of pilgrims, whose condition may 
 be determined from the proportion of eight horsemen 
 to fifteen thousand foot. The example and footsteps 
 of Peter were closely pursued by another fanatic, the 
 monk Godescal, whose sermons had swept away fif- 
 teen or twenty thousand peasants from the villages of 
 Germany. Their rear was again pressed by a herd of 
 two hundred thousand, the most stupid and savage re- 
 fuse of the people, who mingled with their devotion a 
 brutal licence of rapine, prostitution, and drunkenness. 
 Some counts and gentlemen, at the head of three thou- 
 sand horse, attended the motions of the multitude to 
 
 k Guiben (p. 481.) paints In lively colours this general emotion. 
 He was one of the few contemporaries who had genius enough to feel 
 the astonishing scenes that were passing before their eyes. Erat ita- 
 <|UH videre miraculum caro umnes emere, atque vili vendere, &c. 
 
 1 Some instances of these stigmata are given in the Esprit des 
 Cro.sades (torn. ni. p. 169, &c.) from authon whom I have not leen. 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 329 
 
 leaders (may 
 
 partake in the spoil ; but their genuine 
 ■we credit such folly?) were a goose and a goat, 
 who were carried in the front, and to whom these 
 worthy christians ascribed an infusion of the divine 
 spirit." Of these and of other bands of enthusiasts, 
 the first and most easy warfare was against the Jews, 
 the murderers of the Son of God. In the trading 
 cities of the Moselle and the Rhine their colonies 
 were numerous and rich ; and they enjoyed, under the 
 protection of the emperor and the bishops, the free 
 exercise of their religion." At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, 
 Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy peo- 
 ple were pillaged and massacred :" nor had they felt a 
 more bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. 
 A remnant was saved by the firmness of their bishops, 
 who accepted a feigned and transient conversion ; but 
 the more obstinate Jew^s opposed their fanaticism to 
 the fanaticism of the christians, barricadoed their 
 houses, and precipitating themselves, their families, 
 and their wealth, into the rivers or the flames, dis- 
 appointed the malice, or at least the avarice, of their 
 implacable foes. 
 
 The destruction Between the frontiers of Austria and 
 in Hungary and the seat of the Byzantine monarchy, the 
 "^A D 1096 ^rusaders were compelled to traverse an 
 interval of six hundred miles; the wild 
 and desolate countries of Hungary p and Bulgaria. 
 The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers; but 
 it was then covered with morasses and forests, which 
 spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased 
 to exercise his dominion over the earth. Both nations 
 had imbibed the rudiments of Christianity ; the Hun- 
 garians were ruled by their native princes ; the Bul- 
 garians by a lieutenant of the Greek emperor; but on 
 the slightest provocation, their ferocious nature was 
 rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by the 
 disorders of the first pilgrims. Agriculture must have 
 been unskilful and languid among a people, whose 
 cities were built of reeds and timber, which were 
 
 m Full et aliud scelus detestabile in hac concrregatione pedestris 
 populi stulti et vesanae levitatis, anstrem quendam divino spiriiii 
 asperebant afflatum, et capellatn non minus eodem repletam, et has 
 sibi duces secundae viae fecerant, &c. (Albert Aquensis, I. i. c. 31, p. 
 196.) Had these peasants founded an empire, they might have in- 
 troduced, as in Egypt, the worship of animals, which their philo- 
 sophic descendants would have glossed over with some specious and 
 subtle allegory. 
 
 n Benjamin of Tudela describes the slate of his Jewish brethren 
 from Cologne along the Rhine : they were rich, generous, learned, 
 hospitable, and lived in the eager hope of the Messiah. (Voyage, 
 lom. i. p. 243—245. par Baratier.) In seventy years (he wrote about 
 A. D. 1170.) they had recovered from these massacres. 
 
 o These massacres and depredations on the Jews, which were re- 
 newed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true, that St. Ber- 
 nard, (epist. 363. tom. I. p. 329.) admonishes the oriental Franks, non 
 sunt perfiequendi Judaei, non sunt trucidandi. The contrary doc- 
 trine had been preached by a rival monk. 
 
 P See the contemporary description of Hungary In Otho of Frisin- 
 fen, 1. ii. c. 31. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. vi. p. 
 665,666. ' r ) *' 
 
 deserted in the summer season for the tents of hunter* 
 and shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was 
 rudely demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily con- 
 sumed ; and on the first quarrel, the crusaders gave a 
 loose to indignation and revenge. But their ignorance 
 of the country, of war, and of discipline exposed them 
 to every snare. The Greek prsefect of Bulgaria com- 
 manded a regular force ; at the trumpet of the Hun- 
 garian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial sub- 
 jects bent their bow^s and mounted on horseback; 
 their policy was insidious, and their retaliation on 
 these pious robbers was unrelenting aud bloody.* 
 About a third of the naked fugitives,'and the hermit 
 Peter w-as of the number, escaped to the Thracian 
 mountains : and the emperor, who respected the pil- 
 grimage and succour of the Latins, conducted them 
 by secure and easy journeys to Constantinople, and 
 advised them to await the' arrival of their brethren. 
 For a while they remembered their faults and losses; 
 but no sooner were they revived by the hospitable en- 
 tertainment, than their venom was again inflamed ; they 
 stung their benefactor, and neither gardens, nor pala- 
 ces, nor churches, were safe from their depredations. 
 For his own safety, Alexius allured them to pass over 
 to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus ; but their blind 
 impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station 
 which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against 
 the Turks, who occupied the road of Jerusalem. The 
 hermit, conscious of his shame, had w-ithdrawn from 
 the camp to Constantinople : and his lieutenant, Wal- 
 ter the Pennyless, who was worthy of a better com- 
 mand, attempted w'ithout success to introduce some 
 order and prudence among the herd of savages. They 
 separated in quest of prey, and themselves fell an 
 easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a rumour 
 that their foremost companions were rioting in the 
 spoils of his capital, Soliman tempted the main body 
 to descend into the plain of Nice; they were over- 
 whelmed by the Turkish arrows ; and a pyramid of 
 bones' informed their companions of the place of 
 their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred 
 thousand had already perished, before a single city 
 was rescued from the infidels, before their graver and 
 more noble brethren had completed the preparations of 
 their enterprise.* 
 
 q The old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius, are ill inform- 
 ed of the first crusade, wliich they involve in a single passage. Ka- 
 tona, like ourselves, can only quote the writers of France; but ha 
 compares with local science the ancient and modern geography. 
 Ante port am Cyperon, is Sopron or Poson ; Malevilla, Zemlin ; 
 Fluvius Maroe, Savus ; Lintax, Leith ; AUsebroch, or ^arseburga, 
 Ouar, or Moson ; Tollenburg, Fragg, (de Kegibus Hungarian tom. iii. 
 p. 19 — 53.) 
 
 r AnnaComnena (Alexias, I. x. p. 287.) describes this ofi»» KtKm»»e 
 
 as a mountain •. v»l^o» x»t >Sa»3o$ Ka« nK»Tt( u^icK^yuiTArer, Iq th© 
 
 siege of Nice, such were used by the Franks themselves ai the ma- 
 terialsofa wall. 
 
 • To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, the particular references to the great events of the first crusade. 
 
 The Crowd. 
 
 The 
 ChieTf. 
 
 L Ge«ta Frfj». i 
 corum. 5 
 
 II. RnbeHiu > 
 Monacbui. ) 
 
 lU. BaadrictM. 
 rv. RiimuD- > 
 
 ilutdesAgi: 
 
 • Alberts 
 AqueDM 
 
 I. Fulcheriui 
 CaraotcDtii 
 
 V. Albertm > 
 
 VLFulcheriuiJ 
 
 VU. GuiberiM 
 
 VIIL Wilier- 1 
 muiTyrensii $ 
 
 Cadonieiuit 
 
 X Benardot> 
 TbeminLriiM 5 
 
 I 
 
 p. 1,2. 
 p. 33, 34. 
 p. 89. 
 
 1. i. c. 7-31. 
 p. 384. 
 p. 482.485. 
 I. I. c. 18-30. 
 
 e. 7—11. 
 
 p. 2. 
 
 p. 35,36. 
 
 The Road to 
 CoosUntioo, 
 
 L i. c. 17. 
 
 c 1-3. 15. 
 
 p. 2, 3. 
 p. 36,37. 
 p. 91—93. 
 p. 130, 14a 
 
 L iL e. 1—9. 
 p.385, 3S6. 
 
 p.4SS,4S9. 
 
 < I. ii. c. 1-4. 
 { 13. 17. 22. 
 
 c. 4—7. 17. 
 c. 11-20. 
 
 Aleziiw. 
 
 Nice and Asia 
 Miuor. 
 
 Ede 
 
 Antiocb. 
 
 The Battle. 
 
 The Holj 
 Lance. 
 
 Conquest of 
 Jeritealem. 
 
 p. 4, 6. 
 
 p. 37, 38. 
 
 p. 91-94. 
 
 p. 140, 141. 
 
 ( I. ii. c 9. 
 {—19. 
 
 p. 386. 
 
 p. 485-490. 
 
 I. it. c. 5-23. 
 
 ( c. 8-13. 
 {18,19. 
 
 c. II— aa 
 
 p. 5-7. 
 p. 39-45. 
 p. 94-101. 
 
 P-IA 
 
 C 1. iL c. 20-43. 
 
 < L iii, c. 1—4. 
 
 p. 387-389. 
 
 < p. 491—493. 
 {496. 
 
 ( 1. iii. c. 1-12. 
 { 1. iv. c 13-25. 
 
 J c. 14-16. 
 {21-47. 
 
 C.21-.S3. 
 
 ( 1. iii. c. 5-32. 
 ] 1. iv, 9-12. 
 (I. V, 15-22- 
 
 p, 389, 390, 
 P, 496, 497, 
 l,iv,<^ 1-6, 
 
 |e,K. 
 
 p, 9-15, 
 p,4S-55, 
 p, 101, 111, 
 
 p, 142-149, 
 
 (I, iii, c. 33w 
 ^-66, iv, 
 U-26, 
 
 Pj 390'™-392j 
 
 < p. 498, 
 { 506, 612, 
 
 (I. iv, 9. 24, 
 
 {i.v,i-r 
 
 c, 48-71, 
 c, 27-38, 
 
 23,' 
 
 p, 15-22, 
 
 P, 56-66, 
 
 p, 111—122, 
 
 p, 149-155, 
 |l>.c,7, 
 
 p, 392-395, 
 
 p, 512-523. 
 1. »i. c. 1-23. 
 
 c. 72-91. 
 c. 39-52. 
 
 p. is-aoi 
 
 p. 61, 62. 
 
 p. 116-119. 
 
 J p. 150. 
 { 152. 156. 
 
 I. iv. c. 43. 
 p. 3ffi2. 
 
 y p. 520. 
 ^530.633. 
 
 I. vi. C. 14. 
 
 c. 10&-109. 
 C45. 
 
 P, 86-29, 
 
 p. 74-81, I 
 
 p, 130-138, 
 
 p, 173-163, 
 
 i 1, V. c, 45, 46, 
 { 1, vi, c, i-SO, 
 
 P,3S6— (00, 
 
 r, 523-637, 
 
 ( I, yii, c, 1 26, 
 {I, Till, c, 1-24, 
 
 c, 111—138, 
 
 0,84—77, 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 R 
 
 
830 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 V »fl 
 
 ■\^' 
 
 
 
 . I 
 
 The chiefs of the None of the great sovereigns of Eu- 
 first crusade, pope embarked their persons in the first 
 crusade. The emperor Henry ihe fourth was not dis- 
 posed to obey the summons of the pope; Philip the 
 first of France was occupied by his pleasures; Wil- 
 liam Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the 
 kings of Spain were engaged in a domestic war against 
 the Moors ; and the northern monarchs of Scotland, 
 Denmark,* Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers 
 to the passions and interests of the south. The reli- 
 gious ardour was more strongly felt by the princes of 
 the second order, who held an important place in the 
 feudal system. Their situation will naturally cast 
 under four distinct heads the review of their names and 
 characters ; but I may escape some needless repetition, 
 by observing at once, that courage and the exercise 
 of arms are the common attribute of these christian 
 I. Godfrey of adventurers. I. The first rank both in 
 Bouillon. war and council is justly due to Godfrey 
 of Bouillon ; and happy would it have been for the cru- 
 saders, if they had trusted themselves to the sole con- 
 duct of that accomplished hero, a worthy representa- 
 tive of Charlemagne, from whom he was descended 
 in the female line. His father was of the noble race 
 of the counts of Boulogne : Brabant, the lower pro- 
 vince of Lorraine," was the inheritance of his mother; 
 und by the emperor's bounty, he was himself invested 
 •with that ducal title, which has been improperly trans- 
 ferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes.' 
 In the service of Henry the fourth, he bore the great 
 standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the 
 breastofRodolph the rebel king: Godfrey was the first 
 who ascended the walls of Rome ; and his sickness, 
 his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms against 
 the pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the 
 holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His 
 valour was matured by prudence and moderation ; his 
 piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult 
 of a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues 
 of a convent. Superior to the private factions of the 
 chiefs, he reserved his enmity for the enemies of 
 Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by the at- 
 tempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknow- 
 ledged by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon ^ was ac- 
 companied by his two brothers, by Eustace the elder, 
 who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by 
 the younger, Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous 
 virtue. The duke of Lorraine was alike celebrated on 
 either side of the Rhine; from his birth and education, 
 he was equally conversant with the French and Teu- 
 tonic languages : the barons of France, Germany, and 
 Lorraine, assembled their vassals ; and the confederate 
 force that marched under his banner was composed of 
 fourscore thousand foot and about ten thousand horse. 
 11. Hughof Ver- H* ^^ ^he parliament that was held at 
 mandoia, Robert Paris, in the king's presence, about two 
 RoKTf"Kkn- months after the council of Clermont, 
 ders, Stephen of Hugh, count of Vermandois, was the 
 Chanres, &c. most Conspicuous of the princes who as- 
 sumed the cross. But the appellation of the Great 
 was applied, not so much to his merit or possessions, 
 (though neither were contemptible,) as to the royal 
 birth of the brother of the king of France.* Robert, 
 
 t The author of the Esprit des Croiaades has doubted, and might 
 have diabelieved, the cruaade and tragic death of prince Sueno, with 
 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was cut off by sultan Soliman in Cappado- 
 cia, but who still Uvea in the poem of Tasso, (torn. iv. p. 111 — 115.) 
 
 « The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia,or Lorraine, were 
 broken into the two duchies, of the Moselle, and of the Meuse: the 
 first has preserved its name, which in the latter has been changed 
 into that of Brabant. (Vales. Notii. Gall. p. 283—288.) 
 
 X See, in the Description of France, by the Abbe de Longuerup, 
 the articles of Baulogne, part i. p. 54. Brabant^ part ii. p. 47, 48. 
 Bouillon, p. 134. On his departure, Godfrey sold or pawned Bouil- 
 lon to the church for 1300 marks. 
 
 y See the family character of Godfrey, In William of Tyre, 1. ix.c. 
 5 — 8; his previous design in Guibert, (p. 845.) his sickness and vow, 
 in Bernard Thesaur. (c. 78.) 
 
 I Anna Comnena supposes, that Hugh was proud of his nobility, 
 riches, and power, (1. x. p. 2^.) the two last articles appear more 
 equivocal; but an iv/iint*, which seven hundred years ago waa 
 
 duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of William the 
 Conqueror ; but on his father's death he was deprived 
 of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and 
 the activity of his brother Rufus. The wcrth of 
 Robert was degraded by an excessive levity and easi- 
 ness of temper; his cheerfulness seduced Fiim to the 
 indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality im- 
 poverished the prince and people ; his indiscriminate 
 clemency multiplied the number of offenders; and the 
 amiable qualities of a private man became the essen- 
 tial defects of a sovereign. For the trifling sum of 
 ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy during 
 his absence to the English usurper;* but his engage- 
 ment and behaviour in the holy war announced in 
 Robert a reformation of manners, and restored him in 
 some degree to the public esteem. Another Robert 
 was count of Flanders, a royal province, which, in 
 this century, gave three queens to the thrones of 
 France, England, and Denmark: he was surnamed 
 the Sword and Lance of the christians; but in the ex- 
 ploits of a soldier, he sometimes forgot the duties of a 
 general. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois, and 
 of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; 
 and the number of his castles has been compared to 
 the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. 
 His mind was improved by literature; and in the 
 council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen '' was chosen 
 to discharge the office of their president. These four 
 were the principal leaders of the French, the Nor- 
 mans, and the pilgrims of the British isles: but the 
 list of the barons, who were possessed of three or 
 four towns, would exceed, says a contemporary, the 
 catalogue of the Trojan war.' HL In in. Raymond of 
 the south of France, the command was Thouiouse. 
 assumed by Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the pope's le- 
 gate, and by Raymond, count of St. Giles and Thou- 
 iouse, who added the prouder titles of duke of Nar- 
 bonne and marquis of Provence. The former was a 
 respectable prelate, alike qualified for this world and 
 the next. The latter was a veteran warrior who had 
 fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who conse- 
 crated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, 
 but to the perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. 
 His experience and riches gave him a strong ascen- 
 dant in the christian camp, whose distress he was 
 often able, and sometimes willing, to relieve. But it 
 was easier for him to extort the praise of the infidels, 
 than to preserve the love of his subjects and asso- 
 ciates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a tem- 
 per, haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he 
 resigned an ample patrimony for the cause of God, his 
 piety, in the public opinion, was not exempt from 
 avarice and ambition.'' A mercantile, rather than a 
 martial, spirit prevailed among \\\s provincials^* a com- 
 mon name, which included the natives of Auvergne 
 and Languedoc,' the vassals of the kingdom of Bur- 
 famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the ancient dignity 
 of the Capetian family of France. 
 
 a Will. Gemeticensis, 1. vii. 7. p. 672, G73. in Camden. Normani- 
 cis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth pan of the present 
 yearly revenue. Ten tho4Mand marks may be equal to five hundred 
 thousand livres, and Normandy annually yields fifly-eeven millions 
 to the king, (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom, i. p. 287.) 
 
 b His original letter to his wife is insert "d in the Spicilegium of 
 Dom. Luc. d'Acheri, tom. iv. and quoted in the Esprit aes Croisades, 
 tom. i. p. 63. 
 
 c Unius enim, duum, trium seu quatuor oppidorum dominos quis 
 numeretl quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem Trojana 
 obsidio coegisse puteiur. (Ever the lively and interesting Guibert, 
 p. 486.) 
 
 d It is singular enough that Raymond of St. Giles, a second char- 
 acter in the genuine history of the crusades, should shine as the first 
 of heroes in the writings of the Greeks (Anna Comnen. Alexiad, 1. x. 
 xi.) and the Arabians. (Longueniana, p. 129.) 
 
 e Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et Vasconia, et Golhi, (of 
 Languedoc,) provinciates appellabaniur, ceeteri vero Francigenae et 
 hoc in exercitu : inter hostes autem Franci dicebantur. Raymond 
 des Agiles, p. 144. 
 
 f The town of his birth, or first appanage, was consecrated to St. 
 .Xgidius, whose name, as early as the first crusade, was corrupted 
 by the French into St. Gilles, or St. Giles. It is situate in the Lower 
 Languedoc, between Nismes and the Khune, and still boasts a col- 
 legiate church of the foundation of Raymond. (Melaages tires d'un* 
 grande Bibliotheque, tom. zxzvii. p. 61.) 
 
 331 
 
 f 
 
 Ifundy or Aries. From the adjacent frontier of Spain, 
 he drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched 
 through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians flocked to his 
 standard, and his united force consisted of one hundred 
 thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to 
 enlist and the last to depart, the delay may he excused 
 j by the greatness of his preparation and the promise 
 » IV. Bohemond of an everlasting farewell. IV. The 
 and Tancred. name of Bohemond, the son of Robert 
 Guiscard, was already famous by his double victory 
 over the Greek emperor: but his father's will had 
 reduced him to the principality of Tarentum, and the 
 remembrance of his eastern trophies, till he was awa- 
 kened by the rumour and passage of the French pil- 
 grims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that 
 we may seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with 
 . a small allay of religious fanaticism. His conduct 
 ^ may justify a belief that he had secretly directed the 
 design of the pope, which he affected to second with 
 astonishment and zeal : at the siege of Amalphi, his 
 example and discourse inflamed the passions of a con- 
 federate army ; he instantly tore his garment to supply 
 crosses for the numerous candidates, and prepared to 
 visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thou- 
 sand horse and twenty thousand foot. Several princes 
 of the Norman race accompanied this veteran general ; 
 and his cousin Tancred « was the partner, rath'er than 
 the servant, of the war. In the accomplished charac- 
 ter of Tancred, we discover all the virtues of a perfect 
 knight,"* the true spirit of chivalry, which inspired the 
 generous sentiments and social offices of man, far bet- 
 ter than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of 
 the times. 
 
 Chivalry. Between the age of Charlemagne and 
 
 that of the crusades, a revolution had ta- 
 ken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and the 
 French, which was gradually extended to the rest of 
 Europe. The service of the infantry was degraded to 
 the plebeians ; the cavalry formed the strength of the 
 armies, and the honorable name of miles, or soldier, 
 was confined to the gentlemen' who served on horse- 
 , back, and were invested with the character of knight- 
 ; hood. The dukes and counts, who had usurped *the 
 , rights of sovereignty, divided the provinces among their 
 faithful barons: the barons distributed among their 
 j vassals the fiefs or benefices of their jurisdiction ; and 
 * these military tenants, the peers of each other and of 
 ' their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, 
 which disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as 
 - of the same species with themselves. The dignity of 
 g their birth was preserved by pure and equal alliances; 
 their sons alone, who could produce four quarters or 
 lines of ancestry, without spot or reproach, might le- 
 gally pretend to the honour of knighthood ; but a val- 
 iant plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by 
 the sword, and became the father of a new race. A sin- 
 gle knight could impart, according to his judgment, 
 the character which he received ; and the warlike sov- 
 ereigns of Europe derived more glory from this per- 
 
 i: The mother of Tancred was Emma, sister of the great Robert 
 ouiscard; his father, the marquis Odo the Good. It is singular 
 enouchjihat the family and country of so illustrious a person should 
 De unknown: but Muratori reasonably conjectures that he was an 
 iUlian, and perhaps of the race of ihe marquises of Montferrat in 
 fiedinont. (Script, tom. v. p. 291, 282.) 
 
 1» To gratify the childish vanity of the house of Este, Tasso has in- 
 serted m his poem, and in the first crusade, a fabulous hero, the brave 
 ana amorous Rinaldo, (x. 75. xvii. 66—94.) He might borrow his 
 name from a Rinaldo, with the Aquila bianca Estense, who vanquish- 
 en, as the standard-bearer of the Roman church, the emperor Frederic 
 I. (Moria Imperiale di Ricobaldo, in Muratori Script. Iial. tom. ix. p. 
 ^. Ariosio, Orlando Fnrioso, iii. 30.) But, 1. The distance of sixty 
 ^®*J^ "^J-ween the youth of the two Rinaldos, destroys their identity. 
 tf .k vt'""^ Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the end 
 01 the fifteenth century. (Muratori, p. 281-289.) 3. This Rinaldo, 
 a^iu his explom.are not less chimerical than the hereof Tasso. (Mu- 
 raiori, Aiiiichiia Estense, tom. i. p. 350.) 
 
 > Of the words geniili», gentilhomme, gentleman, two etymologies 
 are pnnJuced • 1. From the barbarians of the fifth century, the sol- 
 uters, and at length the conquerors of the Roman empire, who were 
 ▼ainor their foreign nobility : and, 2. From the sense of the civilians, 
 wno consider gentilis as synonymous wifh ingenuiis, Seldeu in- 
 clines to the first, but the latter is more pure, as well a« probable. 
 
 sonal distinction, than from the lustre of their diademw 
 This ceremony, of which some traces may be found in 
 Tacitus and the woods of Germany ,k was in its oriain 
 simple and profane; the candidate, after some previous 
 trial, w-as invested with the sword and spurs; and his 
 cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight blow, as 
 an emblem of the last affront, which it was lawful for 
 him to endure. But superstition mingled in every pub- 
 lic and private action of life ; in the holy wars, it sanc- 
 tified the profession of arms; and the order of chivalry 
 was assimilated in its rights and privileges to the sa- 
 cred orders of priesthood. The bath and white gar- 
 ment of the novice were an indecent copy of the regen- 
 eration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the 
 altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion : his 
 solemn reception was preceded by fasts and vigils ; 
 and he was created a knight in the name of God, of 
 St. George, and of St. Michael the archangel. He 
 swore to accomplish the duties of his profession: and 
 education, example, and the public opinion, were the 
 inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of 
 God and the ladies, (I blush to unite such discordant 
 names,) he devoted himself to speak the truth; to 
 niaintain the right ; to protect the distressed ; to prac- 
 tise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the ancients ; to 
 pursue the infidels; to despise the allurements of ease 
 and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adven- 
 ture the honour of his character. The abuse of the 
 same spirit provoked the illiterate knight to disdain 
 the arts of industry and peace; to esteem himself the 
 sole judge and avenger of his own injuries; and proud- 
 ly to neglect the laws of civil society and military dis- 
 cipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine 
 the temper of barbarians, and to infuse some principles 
 of faith, justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and 
 have been often observed. The asperity of national 
 prejudice was softened ; and the community of religion 
 and arms spread a similar colour and generous emula- 
 tion over the face of Christendom. Abroad, in enter- 
 prise and pilgrimage, at home, in martial exercise, the 
 warriors of every country were perpetually associated ; 
 and impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to 
 the Olympic games of classic antiquity.' Instead of 
 the naked spectacles which corrupted the manners of 
 the Greeks, and banished from the stadium the virgins 
 and matrons ; the pompous decoration of the lists was 
 crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born 
 beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the 
 prize of his dexterity and courage. The skill and 
 strength that were exerted in wrestling and boxing, 
 bear a distant and doubtful relation to the merit of a 
 soldier; but the tournaments, as they were invented 
 in France, and eagerly adopted both in the east and 
 west, presented a lively image of the business of 
 the field. The single combats, the general skirmish, 
 the defence of a pass, or castle, were rehearsed as in 
 actual service; and the contest, both in real and mimic 
 war, was decided by the superior management of the 
 horse and lance. The lance was the proper and pecu- 
 liar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a large 
 and heavy breed ; but this charger, till he was roused 
 by the approaching danger, was usually led by an 
 attendant, and he quietly rode a pad or palfrey of a 
 more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his greaves 
 and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe ; but 
 I may remark, that at the period of the crusades, the 
 armour was less ponderous than in later times ; and 
 that, instead of a massy cuirass, his breast was defended 
 by an hauberk or coat of mail. \\'hen their long lan- 
 ces were fixed in the rest, the warriors furiously spur- 
 red their horses against the foe ; and the light cavalry 
 
 k Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania, c. 13. 
 1 The athletic exercises, particularly the ccestus and pancratium, 
 were condemned by Lycurgus, FhilopoKmen, and Galen, a lawgiver, 
 
 a general, and a physician. Against their authority and reasons, the 
 reader may weigh the apolpgy of Lucian, in the character of Solon. 
 See West on the Olympic Games, in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86—96.243 
 
 — 24S. 
 
 ;-i 
 
332 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX> 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 333 
 
 II 
 
 ' \s 
 
 10 
 fir' 
 
 ** 
 
 i*l 
 
 I 
 
 If % 
 
 of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the 
 direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each 
 knight was attended to the field by his faithful squire, 
 a youth of equal birth and similar hopes; he was fol- 
 lowed by his archers and men at arms, and four, or 
 five, or six soldiers, were computed as the furniture of 
 a complete lance. In the expeditions to the neighbour- 
 ing kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feu- 
 dal tenure no longer subsisted ; the voluntary service 
 of the knights and their followers was either prompted 
 by zeal or attachment, or purchased with rewards and 
 promises; and the numbers of each squadron were 
 measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of 
 each independent chieftain. They were distinguished 
 by his banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war; 
 and the most ancient families of Europe must seek in 
 these achievements the origin and proof of their nobil- 
 ity. In this rapid portrait of chivalry, I have been 
 urged to anticipate on the story of the crusades, at once 
 an effect, and a cause, of this memorable institution." 
 March of the Such were the troops, and such the 
 princes to Con- leaders, who assumed the cross for the 
 Xra ioSer'Au- ^deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As 
 guBiis.— A. D. soon as they were relieved by the ab- 
 1097, May. sence of the plebeian multitude, they en- 
 
 couraged each other, by interviews and messages, to 
 accomplish their vow, and hasten their departure. 
 Their wives and sisters were desirous of partaking 
 the danger and merit of the pilgrimage; their portable 
 treasures were conveyed in bars of silver and gold ; 
 and the princes and barons were attended by their 
 equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure 
 and to supply their table. The difficulty of procuring 
 subsistence for so many myriads of men and horses, 
 engaged them to separate their forces ; their choice of 
 situation determined the road ; and it was agreed to 
 meet in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, and from 
 thence to begin their operations against the Turks. 
 From the banks of the Mouse and the Moselle, God- 
 frey of Bouillon followed the direct way of Germany, 
 Hungary, and Bulgaria: and, as long as he exercised 
 the sole command, every step afforded some proof of 
 his prudence and virtue. On the confines of Hunn^ary 
 he was stopped three weeks by a christian people, to 
 whom the name, or at least the abuse, of the cross was 
 justly odious. The Hungarians still smarted with the 
 wounds which they had received from the first pil- 
 grims : in their turn they had abused the right of de- 
 fence and retaliation ; and they had reason to appre- 
 hend a severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, 
 and who was engaged in the same cause. But, after 
 weighing the motives and the events, the virtuous duke 
 was content to pity the crimes and misfortunes of his 
 worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies, the mes- 
 sengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage 
 and an equal market. To remove their suspicions, 
 Godfrey trusted himself, and afterwards his brother, to 
 the faith of Carloman king of Hungary, who treated 
 them with a simple but hospitable entertainment: the 
 treaty was sanctified by their common gospel ; and a 
 proclamation, under pain of death, restrained the ani- 
 mosity and licence of the Latin soldiers. From Aus- 
 tria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hun- 
 gary, without enduring or offering an injury; and the 
 proximity of Carloman, who hovered on their flanks 
 with his numerous cavalry, was a precaution not less 
 useful for their safety than for his own. They reached 
 the banks of the Save ; and no sooner had they passed 
 the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hosta- 
 ges, and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes 
 for the success of their enterprise. With the same 
 conduct and discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods 
 
 m On the curioua subjects of knighthood, knights-service, nobility, 
 arms, cry of war, banners, and tournaments, an ample fund of infor- 
 mation may be sought in Selden, (Opera, lorn. iii. pan i. Titles of 
 Honour, part ii. c. 1.3. 5. 8.) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin, torn, i v. p. 398^ 
 412, &c.) Dissertations sur Joinville, (I. vi.— xii. p. 127—142. p. 165— 
 222.) and M. de St. Palaye. (Memoires sur la Chevalerie.) 
 
 of Bulgaria and the frontiers of Thrace; and might 
 congratulate himself, that he had almost reached th© 
 first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing his sword 
 against a christian adversary. After an easy and plea- 
 sant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aqui- 
 leia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days 
 through the savage country of Dalmatia" and Sclavo- 
 nia. The weather was a perpetual fog; ihe land was 
 mountainous and desolate ; the natives were either fu- 
 gitive or hostile : loose in their religion and govern- 
 ment, they refused to furnish provisions or guides; 
 murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and 
 day the vigilance of the count, who derived more secu- 
 rity from the punishment of some captive robbers than 
 from his interview and treaty with the prince of Sco- 
 dra." His march between Durazzo and Constantino- 
 ple was harassed, without being stopped, by the pea- 
 sants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same 
 faint and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the re- 
 maining chiefs, who passed the Adriatic from the coast 
 of Italy. Bohemond had arms and vessels, and fore- 
 sight and discipline; and his name was not forgotten 
 in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever 
 obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his mil- 
 itary conduct and the valour of Tancred; and if the 
 Norman prince affected to spare the Greeks, he gorged 
 his soldiers with the full plunder of an heretical cas- 
 tle.P The nobles of France pressed forwards with the 
 vain and thoughtless ardour of which their nation has 
 been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia 
 the march of Hugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and 
 of Stephen of Chartres, through a wealthy country, 
 and amidst the applauding catholics, was a devout or 
 triumphant progress : they kissed the feet of the Ro- 
 man pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was 
 delivered to the brother of the French monarch.** But 
 in this visit of piety and pleasure, they neglected to 
 secure the season, and the means, of their embarka- 
 tion : the winter was insensibly lost : iheir troops were 
 scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They 
 separately accomplished their passage, regardless of 
 safety or dignity : and within nine months from the 
 feast of the assumption, the day appointed by Urban, 
 all the Latin princes had reached Constantinople. But 
 the count of Vermandois was produced as a captive; 
 his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and 
 his person, against the law of nations, was detained by 
 the lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh 
 had been announced by four and twenty knights in 
 golden armour, who commanded the emperor to revere 
 the general of the Latin christians, the brother of the 
 king of kings. 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 In some oriental tale I have read the 
 
 Policy of tb« 
 
 fable of a shepherd, who was ruined by emperor Alexiuj 
 the accomplishment of his own wishes; a°'d"^096 
 he had prayed for water; the Ganges Decpmber, 
 was turned into his grounds, and his A. D. 1097, May. 
 
 n The Faxnilie Dalmatics cf Ducanee are meagre and imperfect; 
 the national historians are recent and" fabulous, the Greeks remote 
 and careless. In the year 1104, Coloman reduced the maritime coun- 
 try as far as Trau and Salona. (Katona, Hist. Crit. tom. iii. p. 195-'2Ur.) 
 
 o Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress of (icntius kin; 
 of the lUyrians, arx munitissima,afierwan's a Roman colony. (Olla- 
 rius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called Iscodar, or Scutari, (D'An- 
 yille, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 164.) The Sanjiak (now a 
 pasha) of Scutari, or Schendoire, was the eighth under the Beglerbrg 
 of Romania, and furnished 600 soldiers on a revenue of 76,787 rixdul" 
 lars. (Marsigli, Slato Militare del Imperio Oitomano, p. 128.) 
 
 p In Pelagoniacastrumhaereticum spoliatumcumsuishab- 
 
 itatoribus igne combussere. Nee id eis injuria contigit : quia illonim 
 deteslabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamc^ue circumjacentes regionfs 
 suo pravo doemale foHlaveral. (Robert. Mun. p. 36, 37.) After cooUj 
 relating the fact, the archbishop Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes 
 siquidem illi viatores, Judeos, haereticos, Saracenos equaliter habent 
 ezosoe ; quo omnes appellant inimicoe Dei, (p. 92.) 
 
 q Ave(X.a3e/tiiie; awo ^Tutum T»n> Xt^^'t* TOw <Ayiov niT#eu rnM*t»f 
 
 (Alexiad, I. x. p. 288.) ^ 
 
 r 'O i>»(rtKivi TU.V o»a-iXtwv, xcti aiexoiyt; tow ^(uyyixtv rf «Tivfi*T»f 
 
 i5r»»T8<. This oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of Verman- 
 dois; but the patriot Ducango repeats with much complacency, (NoU 
 ad Alexiad. p. 362, 353. Dissert, xxvil. sur Joinville, p. 316.) the pas- 
 sages of Matthew Paris (A. D. 1254.) and Froissard, (vol. iv. p. 201.) 
 which style the king of France, rex regum, and the chef de U)u# lei 
 rois Chretiens. 
 
 i 
 
 flock and cottage were swept away by the inunda- 
 tion. Such was the fortune, or at least the apprehen- 
 sion, of the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose 
 name has already appeared in this history, and whose 
 conduct is so differently represented by his daughter 
 Anne,* and by the Latin writers.' In the council of 
 Placentia, his embassadors had solicited a moderate 
 succour, perhaps often thousand soldiers : but he was 
 astonished by the approach of so many potent chiefs 
 and fanatic nations. The emperor fluctuated between 
 hope and fear, between timidity and courage; but in 
 the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I 
 cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously 
 conspired against the life or honour of the French 
 heroes. The promiscuous multitudes of Peter the Her- 
 mit were savage beasts, alike destitute of humani- 
 ty and reason : nor was it possible for Alexius to pre- 
 vent or deplore their destruction. The troops of God- 
 frey and his peers were less contemptible, but not 
 less suspicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives 
 might be pure and pious ; but he was equally alarmed 
 by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond, and 
 his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs ; the courage 
 of the French was blind and headstrong; they might 
 be tempted by the luxury and wealth of Greece, and 
 elated by the view and opinion of their invincible 
 strength ; and Jerusalem might be forgotten in the pros- 
 pect of Constantinople. After a long march and pain- 
 ful abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the 
 plains of Thrace ; they heard with indignation, that 
 their brother, the count of Vermandois, was imprison- 
 ed by the Greeks; and their reluctant duke was com- 
 pelled to indulge them in some freedom of retaliation 
 and rapine. They were appeased by the submission 
 of Alexius ; he promised to supply their camp ; and 
 as they refused, in the midst of winter, to pass the 
 Bosphorus, their quarters were assigned among the 
 gardens and palaces on the shores of that narrow sea. 
 But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the midst of 
 the two nations, who despised each other as slaves 
 and barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, 
 and suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations : 
 prejudice is blind, hunger is deaf; and Alexius is ac- 
 cused of a design to starve or assault the Latins in a dan- 
 gerous post, on all sides encompassed with the waters." 
 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net, overspread 
 the plain, and insulted the suburbs : but the gates of 
 Constantinople were strongly fortified ; the ramparts 
 were lined with archers; and after a doubtful conflict, 
 both parties listened to the voice of peace and religion. 
 The gifts and promises of the emperor insensibly 
 soothed the fierce spirit of the western strangers; as a 
 christian warrior, he rekindled their zeal for the prose- 
 cution of their holy enterprise, which he engaged to 
 second with his troops and treasures. On the return 
 of spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a plea- 
 sant and plentiful camp in Asia; and no sooner had he 
 passed the Bosphorus, than the Greek vessels were 
 suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The same 
 policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who 
 were swayed by the example, and weakened by the 
 departure, of their foremost companions. By his skill 
 
 • Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A. D. 1083, indic- 
 lion vii. (Alexiad. I. vii. p. 106, 167.) At thirteen, the time of the first 
 cnisade, she was nubile, and perhaps married to the younger Nice- 
 phoriis Bryennius, whom she fondly styles Te» i/«ew Kx>r«(a(, (1. x. p. 
 295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined., that her enmity to Bohe- 
 mond was the fruit of disappointed luve. In the transactions of Con- 
 stantinople and Nice, her partial accounts (Alex. 1. x. xi. p. 283—317.) 
 may be opposed to the partiality of the Latins, but in their subsequent 
 exploits she is brief and ignorant. 
 
 I In their views of the character and conduct of Alexius,'Maimbourg 
 has favoured the catholic Franlfs, and Voltaire has been partial to the 
 schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a philosopher is less excusable 
 than that of a Jesuit. 
 
 tt Between the Black sea, the Bosphorus, and the river Barbyses, 
 ^hich is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through aflat mead- 
 ow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople is by the 
 ■tone bridge of the DlachtTna^ which in success! ve ages was restored 
 by Justinian and Basil. (Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, I. ii. c. 3. Du- 
 cange, C. P. Christiana, I. iv. c 2. p. 179.) 
 
 He obtains the 
 
 homage of the 
 
 crusaders. 
 
 and diligence, Alexius prevented the union of any two 
 of the confederate armies at the same moment un- 
 der the walls of Constantinople ; and before the feast of 
 the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast 
 of Europe. 
 
 The same arms which threatened Eu- 
 rope might deliver Asia, and repel the 
 Turks from the neighbouring shores of 
 the Bosphorus and Hellespont. The fair provinces 
 from Nice to Antioch were the recent patrimony of the 
 Roman emperor ; and his ancient and perpetual claim 
 still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. In 
 his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the am- 
 bitious hope of leading his new allies to subvert the 
 thrones of the east ; but the calmer dictates of reason 
 and temper dissuaded him from exposing his royal per- 
 son to the faith of unknown and lawless barbarians. 
 His prudence, or his pride, was content with extorting 
 from the French princes an oath of homage and fi- 
 delity, and a solemn promise, that they would either 
 restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests, as the hum- 
 ble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their 
 independent spirit was fired at the mention of this 
 foreign and voluntary servitude : they successively 
 yielded to the dexterous application of gifts and flat- 
 tery ; and the first proselytes became the most elo- 
 quent and effectual missionaries to multiply the com- 
 panions of their shame. The pride of Hugh of Ver- 
 mandois was soothed by the honors of his captivity; 
 and in the brother of the French king, the example of 
 submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind 
 of Godfrey of Bouillon e.\ery human consideration 
 was subordinate to the glory of God and the success 
 of the crusade. He had firmly resisted the tempta- 
 tions of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the at- 
 tack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius es- 
 teemed his virtues, deservedly named him the champi- 
 on of the empire, and dignified his homage with the 
 filial name and the rights of adoption." The hateful 
 Bohemond was received as a true and ancient ally; 
 and if the emperor reminded him of former hostilities, 
 it was only to praise the valour that he had displayed, 
 and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of 
 Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lod- 
 ged and entertained, and served with imperial pomp : 
 one day, as he passed through the gallery of the pa- 
 lace, a door was carelessly left open to expose a pile 
 of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of curious and 
 costly furniture, that was heaped in seeming disorder, 
 from the floor to the roof of the chamber. " What 
 conquests," exclaimed the ambitious miser, ** might 
 not be achieved by the possession of such a treasure !" 
 " It is your own," replied a Greek attendant, who 
 watched the motions of his soul ; and Bohemond, 
 after some hesitation, condescended to accept this 
 magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by 
 the assurance of an independent principality ; and 
 Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daring demand 
 of the office of great don^cstic, or general, of the east. 
 The two Roberts, the sons of the conqueror of Eng- 
 land, and the kinsmen of three queens,^ bowed in their 
 turn before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of 
 Stephen of Chartres attests his admiration of the 
 emperor, the most excellent and liberal of men, who 
 taught him to believe that he was a favourite, and 
 promised to educate and establish his youngest son. 
 In his southern province, the count of St. Giles and 
 Thoulouse faintly recognised the supremacy of the 
 king of France, a prince of a foreign nation and lan- 
 guage. At the head of a hundred thousand men, he 
 
 X There were two sorts of adoption, the one by arms, the other by 
 introducing the son between the shirt and skin of his father. Du- 
 cange (sur Joinville, diss. xxii. p. 270.) supposes Godfrey's adoptioa 
 to have been of the latter sort. 
 
 J After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man of the king 
 of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See the first act ia 
 Rymer'fl Ftedera. 
 
 ■r 
 
 I- 
 
 ii 
 
334 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XfX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 i. 
 
 
 declared that he was the soldier and servant of Christ 
 alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied wilh an 
 equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His obstinate 
 resistance enhanced the value and the price of his sub- 
 mission ; and he shone, says the princess Anne, among 
 the barbarians, as the sun amidst the stars of heaven. 
 His disgust of the noise and insolence of the French, 
 his suspicions of the designs of Bohemond, the em- 
 peror imparted to his faithful Raymond : and that 
 aged statesman might clearly discern, that however 
 false in friendship, he was sincere in his enmity." 
 The spirit of chivalry was last subdued in the person 
 of Tancred ; and none could deem themselves dis- 
 honoured by the imitation of that gallant knight. He 
 disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch ; 
 assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; es- 
 caped to Asia in the habit of a private soldier; and 
 yielded with a sigh to the authority of Bohemond and 
 the interest of the christian cause. The best and most 
 ostensible reason was the impossibility of passing the 
 sea and accomplishing their vow, without the licence 
 and the vessels of Alexius ; but they cherished a 
 secret hope, that as soon as they trod the continent of 
 Asia, their swords would obliterate their shame, and 
 dissolve the engagement, which on this side might 
 not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony of 
 their homage was grateful to a people who had long 
 since considered pride as the substitute of power. 
 High on his throne, the emperor sat mute and immo- 
 vable; his majesty was adored by the Latin princes; 
 and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his knees, 
 an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to 
 confess, and unable to deny.* 
 
 Insolence of the Private or public interest suppressed 
 Franks. ^hg murmurs of the dukes and counts ; 
 but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert of 
 Paris *>) presumed to ascend the throne, and to place 
 himself by the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of 
 Baldwin provoked him to exclaim, in his barbarous 
 idiom, " Who is this rustic, that keeps his seat, while 
 80 many valiant captains are standing round him V 
 The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his 
 indignation, and questioned his interpreter concerning 
 the meaning of the words, which he partly suspected 
 from the universal language of gesture and coun- 
 tenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims, he 
 endeavoured to learn the name and condition of the 
 audacious baron. "I am a Frenchman," replied Ro- 
 bert, " of the purest and most ancient nobility of my 
 country. All that I know is, that there is a church 
 in my neighbourhood,* the resort of those who are 
 desirous of approving their valour in single combat. 
 Till an enemy appears, they address their prayers to 
 God and his saints. That church I have frequently 
 visited, but never have I found an antagonist who dared 
 to accept ray defiance." Alexius dismissed the chal- 
 lenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the 
 Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure 
 this lively examnle of the manners of his age and 
 country. 
 
 335 
 
 « Sensit vetus regnandi, falsus in amore, odia non fingere. Tacit. 
 
 VI. 44. > ° 
 
 » The proud historians of the cnisadea slide and stumble over the 
 humiliatmg step. Yet, since the heroes knell to salute the emperor as 
 he sat motionless on his ihn.ne, it is clear that they must have kissed 
 either his feet or knees. Ii is only sinpular, that Anna should not 
 have amply supplied the silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The 
 abasement of their princes would have added a fine chapter to the 
 Ceremoniale Aulse Bvzautinas. 
 
 b He called himself ^^ayyot xmSs^o; rwy ivytvwv. (Alexias 1. x 
 p. 301.) What a title of noblesse of the twelfth century, if any one* 
 could now prove his inheritance ! Anna relates, with visible plea- 
 sure, that the swelling barbarian, Amtiv*; TiTv9w/iit>o<, was kuled 
 or wounded, after fighting in the front in the battle of Dorylaeum' 
 (1. xi. p. 317.) This circumstance may justify the suspicion of Du- 
 cange, (Not. p. 362.) that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of 
 the district most peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France 
 iVIaU de Prance.) 
 
 c With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his church to be 
 that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quern duello dimicaturi 
 •olent invocare : pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus (his tomb) pernoc- 
 tant invictos reddit, ut etde Burgundia et Italia tali necessitate con> 
 fugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberieusis, epist. 139. 
 
 The conquest of Asia was undertaken Their f«Tiew 
 and achieved by Alexander, with thirty- and numbers, 
 five thousand Alacedonians and Greeks ;* A. Diooz. 
 and his best hope was in the strength *^' 
 
 and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The prin- 
 cipal force of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry ; 
 and when that force was mustered in the plains of 
 Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on 
 horseback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting 
 men, completely armed with the helmet and coat of 
 mail. The value of these soldiers deserved a strict 
 and authentic account; and the flower of European 
 chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formida- 
 ble body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might 
 be enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and 
 archers ; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in their 
 own disorder; and we depend not on the eyes or 
 knowledge, but on the belief and fancy, of a chaplain 
 of count Baldwin,* in the estimate of six hundred 
 thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the 
 priests and monks, the women and children, of the 
 Latin camp. The reader starts ; and before he is re- 
 covered from liis surprise, I shall add, on the same 
 testimony, that if all who took the cross had accom- 
 plished their vow, above six millions would have 
 niigrated from Europe to Asia. Under this oppres- 
 sion of faith, I derive some relief from a more saga- 
 cious and thinking writer,' who, after the same review 
 of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of the priest of 
 Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cisalpine re- 
 gions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient 
 to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. 
 The coolest scepticism will remember, that of these 
 religious volunteers great numbers never beheld Con- 
 stantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the influence is 
 irregular and transient: many were detained at home 
 by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness ; and 
 many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the 
 more insuperable as they were unforeseen to these 
 ignorant fanatics. The savage countries of Hungary 
 and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones; their 
 vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish sultan; 
 and the loss of the first adventurer, by the sword, or 
 climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three 
 hundred thousand men. Yet the myriads that sur- 
 vived, that marched, that pressed forwards on the 
 holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to 
 themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy 
 of her language sinks under the efforts of the princess 
 Anne : « the images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, 
 of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imper- 
 fectly represent what she had seen and heard ; and 
 the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe was 
 loosened from its foundations, and hurled against 
 Asia. The ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labour 
 under the same doubt of a vague and indefinite magni- 
 tude: but I am inclined to believe, that a largf^r num- 
 ber has never been contained within the lines of a 
 single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first opera- 
 tion of the Latin princes. Their motives, their char- 
 acters, and their arms, have been already displayed. 
 Of their troops, the most numerous portion were na- 
 tives of France : the Low Countries, the banks of the 
 Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reinforcement: 
 some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, 
 
 d There is some diversify on the numbers of his army ; but no au- 
 thority can be compared wilh that of Ptolemy, who stales it at five 
 thousand horse and thirty thousand foot. (See Usher's Aunalf s, p. 
 152.) 
 
 e Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 367. He enumerates nineteen naii-n; 
 of different names and languages, (p. 389.) but I do not clearly m- 
 prehend his difference between the Franci and Galli, Halt . •! 
 Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385.) he contemptuously brands the d» sortf rs 
 
 t Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition implies an im- 
 mense muliiiude. By Urban 11. in the fervour of his zeal, it is only 
 rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil. tom. xii. p. 731.) 
 
 K Alexias, 1. x. p. 283. 3tJ5. Her fastidious delicacy complains of 
 their strange and inarticulate names, and indeed there is scarcrly 
 one thai she has not contrived to disfigure wilh the proud ignorance^ 
 so dear and familiar to a polished people. I shall select only one 
 example, SangoUs, fur the count of St. Giles. 
 
 'i 
 
 May 14— 
 June 2U. 
 
 Lombardy, and England;' and from the distant bogs 
 and mountains of Ireland or Scotland * issued some nak- 
 ed and savage fanatics, ferocious at home but unwar- 
 like abroad. Had not superstition condemned the sa- 
 crilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest 
 christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless 
 crowd, with mouths but without hands, might have 
 been stationed in the Greek empire, till their com- 
 panions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. 
 A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the 
 Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. 
 Their northern constitution was scorched by the rays, 
 and infected by the vapours, of a Syrian sun. They 
 consumed, with heedless prodigality, their stores of 
 water and provision: their numbers exhausted the in- 
 land country : the sea was remote, the Greeks were 
 unfriendly, and the christians of every sect fled before 
 the voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In 
 the dire necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted 
 and devoured the flesh of their infant or adult cap- 
 tives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolaters 
 of Europe were rendered more odious by the name 
 and reputation of cannibals : the spies who introduced 
 themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond were shown 
 several human bodies turning on the spit: and the art- 
 ful Norman encouraged a report, which increased at the 
 same time the abhorrence and the terror of the infidels.* 
 Siege of Nice ^ ^^^® expatiated with pleasure on 
 
 A. D. 1097. ' the first steps of the crusaders, as they 
 paint the manners and character of Eu- 
 rope : but I shall abridge the tedious and 
 uniform narrative of their blind achievements, which 
 were performed by strength and are described by 
 ignorance. From their first station in the neighbour- 
 hood of NIcomedia, they advanced in successive divi- 
 sions; passed the contracted limit of the Greek em- 
 pire; opened a road through the hills, and commenced, 
 by the siege of his capital, their pious warfare against 
 the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended 
 from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and bar- 
 red the pilgrimage of Jerusalem: his name was Kil- 
 lidge-Arslan, or Soliman,' of the race of Seljuk, and 
 the son of the first conqueror ; and in the defence of a 
 land which the Turks considered as their own, he 
 deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone 
 he is knoM'n to posterity. Yielding to the first im- 
 pulse of the torrent, he deposited his family and trea- 
 sure in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thou- 
 sand horse : and twice descended to assault the camps 
 or quarters of the christian besiegers, which formed 
 an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and 
 solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and 
 flanked by three hundred and seventy towers; and on 
 the verge of Christendom, the Moslems were trained 
 in arms, and inflamed by religion. Before this city, 
 the French princes occupied their stations, and pro- 
 secuted their attacks without correspondence or subor- 
 
 h William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year 1130.) has in- 
 sprtPd in his history (1. iv. p. 130—154.) a narrative of the first cru- 
 sade : but I wish that, instead of listening to the tenue murmur 
 which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143.) he had confined him- 
 self lo the numbers, families, and adventures of his countrymen. I 
 finil in Dugdale, that an English Norman, Stephen earl of Albemarle 
 and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard with duke Robert, at the baltle 
 of Aniioch. (Baronage, part i. p. 61.) 
 
 » Videres Scoiorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium cnneos, (Gui- 
 ^n. p. 471.) the crus intectum, and hispida chlamys, may suit the 
 His-'hlanders ; but the finibus uliginosis, may rather apply to the Irish 
 bliss. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions the W^elch and 
 Scots, &c. (1. iv. p. 133.) who quilted, the former venationem saliu- 
 um, the latter familiarilatem pulicum. 
 
 k This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more frequently an arti- 
 fice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena, (Alexias, I. x. p. 288.) 
 tiuibert, (p. 546.) Radulph. Cadom. (c. 97.) The straugem is related 
 by ihe author of GesU Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and 
 Raymond liea Agiles, in the siege and famine of Antioch. 
 
 1 His mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the Latins, and 
 his character is highly embellished by Tasso.' His Turkish name of 
 K'llidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500. A. D. 1192—1206. See De Guignes's 
 i-ibles, torn. i. p. 245.) is employed by the orientals, and with some 
 cornipiion by the Greeks : but little more than his name can be 
 i;>und in the Mahometan writers, who are dry and sulky on the sub- 
 ject of the fiirsi crusade. (De Gitignes, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10—30.) 
 
 dination : emolation prompted their valour; but their 
 valour was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation 
 degenerated into envy and civil discord. In the sie^e 
 of Nice, the arts and engines of antiquity were em- 
 ployed by the Latins ; the mine and the battering-ram, 
 the tortoise, and the belfry or movable turret, artificial 
 fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the 
 cross-bow for the casting of stones and darts." In 
 the space of seven weeks, much labour and blood 
 were expended, and some progress, especially by 
 count Raymond, was made on the side of the besieg- 
 ers. But the Turks could protract their resistance 
 and secure their escape, as long as they were masters 
 of the lake ° Ascanius, which stretches several miles 
 to the westward of the city. The means of conquest 
 were supplied by the prudence and industry of Alex- 
 ius ; a great number of boats were transported on 
 sledges from the sea to the lake : they were filled 
 with the most dexterous of his archers ; the flight of 
 the sultana was intercepted ; Nice was invested by 
 land and water; and a Greek emissary persuaded the 
 inhabitants to accept his master's protection, and to 
 save themselves, by a timely surrender, from the rage 
 of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, 
 or at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood 
 and plunder, were awed by the imperial banner that 
 streamed from the citadel ; and Alexius guarded with 
 jealous vigilance this important conquest. The mur- 
 murs of the chiefs were stifled by honour or interest ; 
 and after a halt of nine days, they directed their march 
 towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek ge- 
 neral, whom they suspected of a secret connivance 
 with the sultan. The consort and the principal ser- 
 vants of Soliman had been honourably restored with- 
 out ransom ; and the emperor's generosity to the mts- 
 creanis^ was interpreted as treason to the christian 
 cause. 
 
 Soliman was rather provoked than dis- Battle of Doryi*. 
 mayed by the loss of his capital : he nm, A. D. 1097, 
 admonished his subjects and allies of Ju^y*. 
 this strange invasion of the western barbarians ; the 
 Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion f 
 the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard ; 
 and his whole force is loosely stated by the christians 
 at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty^ 
 thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they 
 had left behind them the sea and the Greek frontier;, 
 and hovering on the flanks, observed their careless 
 and confident progress in two columns beyond the 
 view of each other. Some miles before they could 
 reach Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and less nume- 
 rous, division was surprised, and attacked, and almost 
 oppressed, by the Turkish cavalry .p The heat of the 
 weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous 
 onset, overwhelmed the crusaders ; they lost their 
 order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sus- 
 tained by the personal valour, rather than by the mili- 
 tary conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of 
 Normandy. They were revived by tlie welcome ban- 
 ners of duke Godfrey, who flew to their succour, with 
 the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse ; 
 and was followed by Raymond of Thoulouse, the 
 bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the sacred army. 
 
 m On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the middle aees, see 
 Muratori. (Aniiquiiat. lialiae, tom. ii. dissert, xxvi. p. 453— 524.) Th» 
 bel/redus, from whence our belfry, was the movable tower of ihe an- 
 cients. (Ducange, tom. i. p. 608.) 
 
 n I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between the sieg* 
 and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez before Mex- 
 ico. See Dr. Robertson's Hist, of America, I. v. 
 
 o Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders, and con- 
 fined in that language to its primitive sense. It should seem, that 
 the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they branded every 
 unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still lurks in the minds 
 of many who think themselves christians 
 
 P Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his brother R(v 
 ger. (A. D. 1098. No. 15.) The enemies consisted of Medes, Persians, 
 Chaldeans : be it so. The first attack was cum nostro incoinmodo ; 
 true and tender. But were Godfrey of Bouillon and Hugh brothers 7 
 Tancred is styled Jilius ; of whom ? certainly not of Roger, nor of 
 Bohemond. * 
 
 V 
 
 { 
 
 fl 
 
336 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX, 
 
 
 lb 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 Without a moment^s pause, they formed in new order, 
 and advanced to a second battle. They were received 
 with equal resolution ; and, in their common disdain 
 for the un warlike people of Greece and Asia, it was 
 confessed on both sides, that the Turks and the Franks 
 were the only nations entitled to the appellation of 
 soldiers.'J Their encounter was varied and balanced 
 by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct 
 charge, and wheeling evolutions ; of the couched lance, 
 and the brandished javelin ; of a weighty broad-sword, 
 and a crooked sabre ; of cumbrous armour, and thin 
 flowing robes; and of the long Tartar bow, and the 
 arbalist or cross-bow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown 
 to the orientals.' As long as the horses were fresh, 
 and the quivers full, Soliman maintained the advan- 
 tage of the day ; and four thousand christians were 
 pierced by the Turkish arrows. In the evening, swift- 
 ness yielded to strength ; on either side the numbers 
 were equal, or at least as great as any ground could 
 hold, or any generals could manage ; but in turning 
 the hills, the last division of Raymond and \\\s provin- 
 cials was led, perhaps without design, on the rear of 
 an exhausted enemy ; and the long contest was deter- 
 mined. Besides a nameless and unaccountable multi- 
 tude, three thousand pagan knights were slain in the 
 battle and pursuit ; the camp of Soliman was pillaged ; 
 and in the variety of precious spoil, the curiosity of 
 the Latins was amused with foreign arms and apparel, 
 and the new aspect of dromedaries and camels. The 
 importance of the victory was proved by the hasty 
 retreat of the sultan; reserving ten thousand guards 
 of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the king- 
 dom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and 
 kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a 
 March through march of five hundred miles, the crusa- 
 the Lesser Asia, ders traversed the Lesser Asia, through 
 July — Sepiem- a wasted land and deserted towns, with- 
 out either finding a friend or an enemy. 
 The geographer' may trace the position of Dorylasum, 
 Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germani- 
 cia, and may compare those classic appellations with 
 the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr 
 the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the 
 pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of 
 water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented 
 by intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the first 
 rivulet, their haste and intemperance were still more 
 pernicious to the disorderly throng. They climbed 
 with toil and danger the sleep and slippery sides of 
 mount Taurus : many of the soldiers cast away their 
 arms to secure their footsteps ; and had not terror pre- 
 ceded their van, the long and trembling file might 
 have been driven down the precipice by a handful of 
 resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable 
 chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Thou- 
 louse, were carried in litters: Raymond was raised, 
 as it is said, by miracle, from a hopeless malady ; and 
 Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that 
 rough and perilous chacc in the mountains of Pisidia. 
 n^\A ..e A To improve the general consternation, 
 
 Baldwin fi.unds ^. • r t» l j j *l i ai 
 
 the principaiiiy the cousin of 13ohemond and the brother 
 °f JJ^^*",*?!' ,,„ of Godfrey were detached from the main 
 
 A> D. 1US7 — 1151. -iL ^1 • *• I /• 
 
 army with their respective squadrons of 
 five, and of seven, hundred knights. They overran in 
 a rapid career the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from 
 
 
 4 Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione; et quia 
 nullus homo naluraliler debet esse miles nisi Franci eiTurci. (Gesla 
 Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of bUxMi aud valour is at- 
 tested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.) 
 
 r Balista, Balestra, Arbalealre. See Muratori, Antiq. lorn. ii. p. 
 517—524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin, torn. i. p. 531, 532. In the time 
 of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes under the name 
 of tzangra, was unknown in the east, (1. x. p. 291.) By a humane 
 iDConsisiency, the pope strove to prohibit it in christian wars. 
 
 a The curious reader may compare the classic learning of Cellarius, 
 and the geographical science of D'Anville. William of Tyre is 
 tbe only historian of the crusades who has any knowledge of anti- 
 
 Juity, and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps of the Franks from 
 ^onsuntinople to Antioch. (Voyaj^e en Turquie et en Perse, torn. i. 
 p. 35-88.) 
 
 Cogni to the Cyrian gates : the Norman standard was 
 first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; 
 but the proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked 
 the patient and generous Italian ; and they turned their 
 consecrated swords against each other in a private and 
 profane quarrel. Honour was the motive, and fame 
 the reward, of Tancred ; but fortune smiled on the 
 more selfish enterprise of his rival.* He was called to 
 the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had 
 been suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the 
 christians of Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character 
 of his son and champion ; but no sooner was he intro- 
 duced into the city, than he inflamed the people to the 
 massacre of his father, occupied the throne and trea- 
 sure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia 
 and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first 
 principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted 
 fifty-four years beyond the Euphrates." 
 
 Before the Franks could enter Syria, 
 the summer, and even the autumn, were ^'®J® u.^SstT**' 
 completely wasted : the siege of Antioch, Oct. 21.— * 
 or the separation and repose of the army A. D. 1OT3. 
 during the winter season, was strongly 
 debated in their council : the love of arms and the holy 
 sepulchre urged them to advance ; and reason perhaps 
 was on the side of resolution, since every hour of de- 
 lay abates the fame and force of the invader, and mul- 
 tiplies the resources of defensive war. The capital of 
 Syria was protected by the river Orontes ; and the iron 
 bridge, of nine arches, derives its name from the massy 
 gates of the two towers which are constructed at either 
 end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of 
 Normandy : his victory gave entrance to three hundred 
 thousand crusaders, an account which may allow some 
 scope for losses and desertion, but which clearly de- 
 tects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In the 
 description of Antioch,* it is not easy to define a mid- 
 dle term between her ancient magnificence, under the 
 successors of Alexander and Augustus, and the modern 
 aspect of Turkish desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four 
 cities, if they retained their name and position, must 
 have left a large vacuity in a circumference of twelve 
 miles; and that measure, as well as the number of 
 four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with 
 the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the 
 siege. Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a 
 great and populous capital. At the head of the Turk- 
 ish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran chief, commanded in 
 the pJace : his garrison was composed of six or seven 
 thousand horse, and fifteen or twenty thousand foot : 
 one hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen 
 by the sword ; and their numbers were probably infe- 
 rior to the Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians, who had 
 been no more than fourteen years the slaves of the 
 house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid and 
 stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of 
 threescore feet in the valleys ; and wherever less art 
 and labour had been applied, the ground was supposed 
 to be defended by the river, the morass, and the moun- 
 tains. Notwithstanding these fortifications, the city 
 had been repeatedly taken by the Persians, the Arabs, 
 the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a circuit must 
 have yielded many pervious points of attack ; and in a 
 siege that was formed about the middle of October, the 
 vigour of the execution could alone justify the boldness 
 of the attempt. "Whatever strength and valour could 
 perform in the field was abundantly discharged by the 
 champions of the cross : in the frequent occasions of 
 
 t This detached conquest of Edessa is best represented by Fulche- 
 rius Carnotensis, orof Chartre8,(in the colleciionsofBonMrsius, Du- 
 chesne, and Martenne,) the valiant chaplain of count Baldwin, (Es- 
 prit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13, 14.) In the disputes of that prince 
 with Tancred, his partiality is encountered by the partiality of RaduU 
 phus Cadomensis, the soldier and historian of the gallant marquis. 
 
 n See de Guignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. i. p. 456. 
 
 « For Antioch, see Pococke, (Description of the East, vol. U. part I. 
 
 189—193.) Otter, (Voyage en Tunjuie, &c. tom. i. p. 81, &c.) the 
 
 urkish geographer, (in Otter's notes) the Index Geographicus of 
 Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit. Saladin,) and Abuueda. (Ta- 
 bula Syri», p. 115, 116. vers. Keiske.) 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 sallies, of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, 
 they were often victorious; and we can only complain,' 
 that their exploits are sometimes enlarged beyond the 
 scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey y 
 divided a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch ; and 
 one half of the infidel fell to the ground, while the 
 other was transported by his horse to the city gate. 
 As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist^ 
 " I devote thy head," he piously exclaimed, »' to the 
 daemons of hell ;" and that head was instantly cloven 
 to the breast by the resistless stroke of iiis descending 
 falchion. But the reality or report of such gigantic 
 prowess ' must have taught the Moslems to keep within 
 their walls ; and against those walls of earth or stone, 
 the sword and the lance were unavailing weapons. In 
 the slow and successive labours of a siege, the crusa- 
 ders were supine and ignorant, without skill to con- 
 trive, or money to purchase, or industry to use, the ar- 
 tificial engines and implements of assault. In the con- 
 quest of Nice, they had been powerfully assisted by 
 the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor : his 
 absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and 
 Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade 
 to the coast of Syria : the stores were scanty, the return 
 precarious, and the communication difficult and danger- 
 ous. Indolence or weakness had prevented the Franks 
 from investing the entire circuit; and the perpetual 
 freedom of two gates relieved the wants and recruited 
 the garrison of the city. At the end of seven months, 
 after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by 
 famine, desertion, and fatigue, the progress of the cru- 
 saders was imperceptible, and their success remote, if 
 the Latin Ulysses, the artful and ambitious Bohemond, 
 had not employed the arms of cunning and deceit. 
 The christians of Antioch were numerous and discon- 
 tented : Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had acquired the 
 favour of the emir and the command of three towers ; 
 and the merit of his repentance disifuised to the Lat- 
 ins, and perhaps to himself, the fouf design of perfidy 
 and treason. A secret correspondence, for their mu- 
 tual interest, was soon established between Phirouz 
 and the prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in 
 the council of the chiefs, that he could deliver the city 
 into their hands. But he claimed the sovereignty of 
 Antioch as the reward of his service; and the proposal 
 which had been rejected by the envy, was at length 
 extorted from the distress, of his equals. The noctur- 
 nal surprise was executed by the French and Norman 
 princes, who ascended in person the scaling-ladders 
 that were thrown from the walls: their new proselyte, 
 after the murder of his too scrupulous brother, embra- 
 ced and introduced the servants of Christ ; the army 
 rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon 
 found, that, although mercy was hopeless, resistance 
 was impotent. But the citadel still refused to surren- 
 der; and the victors themselves were speedily encom- 
 passed and besieged by the innumerable forces of Ker- 
 boLja, prince of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turk- 
 ish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of Antioch. 
 I* ive and twenty days the christians spent on the verge 
 of destruction ; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph 
 and the sultan left them only the choice of servitude or 
 Victory of the ^leath.* In this extremity they collected 
 crusaders, the relics of their strength, sallied from 
 June*28^' *^® town, and in a single memorable day 
 annihilated or dispersed the host of Turks 
 
 337 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum, tanta viriuie 
 inior8U,utquod pectus medium disjunxitspinametviialiainterrupit; 
 |i sx lubricus ensis super crus dextrum integer exivit: sicque caput 
 • luegruni cum dextrji pane corporis immersitgurgite,pariemqueQU8B 
 cqiio praesidebat remisit civiiati. (Robert. Mon. p. 50.) Cujus ense 
 irajpcius, Turcus duo (actus est Turci : ut inferior alter in urbem 
 Jiiuiiar^i, alter arciienens in flumine naiaret. (Radulph. Cadnm. c. 
 Un ^' V^i'X''' he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribusof God- 
 i,,o ' 'iliain of Tyre covers it by, obstupuil populus facli novi- 
 n!>rr;,*, ■ mirabilis, (1. v. c. 6. p. 701.) Yet it must not have ap- 
 peared mcredible to the knights of that age. 
 
 ^ See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest Tancred, 
 wTio imposed silence on his squire. (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53.) 
 
 ' Atier mentioning the distress and humble petition of the Franks, 
 
 Vol. II — 2« 32 
 
 and Arabians, which they might safely report to have 
 consisted of six hundred thousand men." Their super- 
 natural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human 
 causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless des- 
 pair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, per- 
 haps the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous 
 adversaries. The battle is described with as much 
 disorder as it was fought; but we may observe the tent 
 of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace, enriched 
 with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above 
 two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three 
 thousand guards, who were cased, the horses as well 
 as the men, in complete steel. 
 
 In the eventful period of the sieo-e and r^. . ^ . 
 defence of Antioch, the crusaders^ were JnTh^ZZ 
 alternately exalted by victory or sunk in Antioch. 
 despair; either swelled with plenty or emaciated with 
 huriger. A speculative reasoner might suppose, that 
 their faith had a strong and serious influence on their 
 practice; and that the soldiers of the cross, the deliv- 
 erers of the holy sepulchre, prepared themselves by a 
 sober and virtuous life for the daily contemplation of 
 martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable 
 illusion : and seldom does the history of profane war 
 display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution 
 as were exhibited under the walls oi Antioch. The 
 grove of Daphne no longer flourished ; but the Syrian 
 air was still impregnated with the same vices; the 
 christians were seduced by every temptation' that na- 
 ture either prompts or reprobates ; the authority of the 
 chiefs was despised; and sermons and edicts were 
 alike fruitless against those scandalous di.sorders, not 
 less pernicious to military discipline, than repugnant 
 to evangelic purity. In the first days of the siege and 
 the po.ssession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with 
 wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsis- 
 tence of weeks and months : the desolate country no 
 longer yielded a supply; and from that country they 
 were at length excluded by the arms of the besiegi no- 
 Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of want, was 
 envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer 
 heats, unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment 
 of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pestilence 
 are always the same, and always disgustful: and our 
 imagination may suggest the na'lure of their suflferintrs 
 and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil 
 were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest 
 nourishment; and dreadful must have been the calam- 
 ities of the poor, since, after paying three ruarks of 
 silver for a goat and fifteen for a lean camel,"* the count 
 of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and duke 
 Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horses had . 
 been reviewed in the camp : before the end of the sieire 
 they were diminished to two thousand, and scarcely 
 two hundred fit for service cnuld be mustered on the 
 day of battle. Weakness of body and terror of mind 
 extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; 
 and every motive of honour and religion was si7bdued 
 by the desire of life.« Among the chiefs, three heroes 
 
 Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka,or Kerbo<'a : " Non 
 evasuri estis nisi per gladium." (Dynast, p. 242.) ° 
 
 b In describing the host of Kerboga, m->st of the Latin historians, 
 the author of the Gesta, (p. 17.) Robert Monachua, (p 56.) Baldric, 
 (p. ill.) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p 392.) Guiben, (p. 512.) William 
 of Tyre, (I. vi. c. 3. p. 7J4.) Bernard Thesaurarius, (c, 39. p. 695.) are 
 content with the vague expressions of infiniia mulliiudo, immensum 
 agmen, innumerae copise or gentes, which correspond with the ^tr« 
 »v«f .5/«i,Tu.v x;.»..»4^,v of Anna Comnena. (Alexias, I. xi. p. 318-320.) 
 The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Al bert Aquensis at 200,000, (I. 
 IV. c. 10. p. 242.) and by Radulphus Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 
 72. p. 309.) 
 
 c See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon of royal birth, 
 who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at 
 dice with a Syrian concubine. 
 
 d The value of an ox rose from fivesolidi (fifteen shillins?) at Christ- 
 mas to two marks, (four pounds,) and afterwards much liigher: a kid 
 or lamb, from one shilling to eighteen of our present money : in the 
 second famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a 
 piece of gold. More examples might be produced ; but it is the ordi- 
 nary, not the extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the phi- 
 losopher. 
 
 • Alii multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta de libro 
 vita, presenii operi non sunt infereuda. (Will, Tyr. 1. vi. c. 5.p.7i5.| 
 
 \\ 
 
 I 
 
338 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 CuAP. XIX. 
 
 Crap. XIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 \i 
 
 i4 
 
 may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of 
 Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety; 
 Bohemond by ambiiion and interest; and Tancred de- 
 clared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long as he 
 was at the head of forty knights, he would never relin- 
 quish the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of 
 Thoulouse and Provence was suspected of a voluntary 
 indisposition: the duke of Normandy was recalled 
 from the sea-shore by the censures of the church; 
 Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the 
 battle, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of return- 
 ing to France ; and Stephen count of Chartres basely 
 deserted the standard which he bore, and the council 
 in which he presided. The soldiers were discouraged 
 by the flight of William viscount of Melun, surnamed 
 the Carpenter, from the weijrhty strokes of his axe ; 
 and the saints were scandalized by the fall of Peter the 
 Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, at- 
 tempted to escape from the penance of a necessary 
 fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names 
 (says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; 
 and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was 
 applied to the deserters who dropt in the night from 
 the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius,' who 
 seemed to advance to the succour of the Latins, was 
 dismayed by the assurance of their hopeless condition. 
 They expected their fate in silent despair; oaths and 
 punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse 
 the soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found 
 necessary to set fire to their quarters. 
 Legend of the For their salvation and victory, they 
 Jioly lance. were indebted to the same fanaticism 
 which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a 
 cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and 
 miracles, were frequent and familiar. In the distress 
 of Antioch, they were repeated with unusual energy 
 and success: St Ambrose had assured a pious ecclesi- 
 astic, that two years of trial must precede the season 
 of deliverance and grace ; the deserters were stopped 
 by the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; 
 the dead had promised to arise and combat with their 
 brethren ; the Virgin had obtained the pardon of their 
 sins; and their confidence was revived by a visible 
 sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery of the 
 HOLY LANCE. Thc policy of their chiefs has on this 
 occasion been admired, and might surely be excused ; 
 but a pious fraud is seldom produced by the cool con- 
 spiracy of many persons; and a voluntary impostor 
 might depend on the support of the wise and the cre- 
 dulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles, 
 there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, 
 and his name was Peter Bartholemy. He presented 
 himself at the door of the council-chamber, to disclose 
 an apparition of St. Andrew, which had been thrice 
 reiterated in his sleep, with a dreadful menace, if he 
 presumed to suppress the commands of heaven. " At 
 Antioch," said the apostle, "in the church of my bro- 
 ther St. Peter, near the high altar, is concealed the 
 steel head of the lance that pierced the side of our Re- 
 deemer. In three days, that instrument of eternal, and 
 now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to his 
 disciples. Search and ye shall find: bear it aloft in 
 batile ; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the 
 souls of the miscreants." The pope's legate, the bish- 
 op of Puy, affected to listen with coldness and distrust ; 
 but the revelation was eagerly accepted by count Ray- 
 mond, whom his faithful subject, in the name of the 
 apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance. 
 The experiment was resolved ; and on the third day, 
 after a due preparation of prayer and fasting, the priests 
 of Marseilles introduced twelve trusty spectators, 
 among whom were the count and his chaplain ; and 
 
 Guibert (p. 519. 523.) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, and even 
 Stephen of Chanree. , ... 
 
 * See the profrreea of the crusade, the retreat of Alexius, the -vjclory 
 of Amioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem, in the Alexiad, 1. xi. p. 
 317—327. Anna was so prone to exaggeration, thai she magnifies the 
 •xpleits of ihe Latins. 
 
 the church-doors were barred against the impetuous 
 multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed 
 place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug 
 to the depth of twelve feet without discovering the ob- 
 ject of their search. In the evening, when count Ray- 
 mond had withdrawn to his post, and the weary assis- 
 tants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt, and 
 without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the 
 darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to 
 secrete and deposit the head of the Saracen lance ; and 
 the first sound, the first gleam, of the steel was saluted 
 with a devout rapture. The holy lance was drawn 
 from its recess, wrapt in a veil of silk and gold, and 
 exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their anx- 
 ious suspense hurst forth in a general shout of joy and 
 hope, and the desponding troops were again inflamed 
 with the enthusiasm of valour. "Whatever had been 
 the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments, of the 
 chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revelation 
 by every aid that discipline and devotion could afford. 
 The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an 
 injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the ap- 
 proaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance 
 on themselves and their horses, and to expect with the 
 dawn of day the signal of victory. On the festival of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of Antioch were 
 thrown open : a martial psalm, ** Let the Lord arise, 
 and let his enemies be scattered !" was chanted by a 
 procession of priests and monks; the battle array was 
 marshalled in twelve divisions, in honour of the twelve 
 apostles ; and the holy lance, in the absence of Ray- 
 mond, was intrusted to the hands of his chaplain. 
 The influence of this relic or trophy was felt by the 
 servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ ;s and 
 its potent energy was heightened by an accident, a 
 stratagem, or a rumour, of a miraculous complexion. 
 Three knights, in white garments and Celestial war- : 
 resplendent arms, either issued, or seem- riors. 
 ed to issue, from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the 
 pope's legate, proclaimed them as the martyrs St. 
 George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice; the tumult of 
 battle allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny; and the 
 welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the imagina- 
 tion of a fanatic army. In the season of danger and 
 triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles 
 was unanimously asserted ; but as soon as the tempo- 
 rary service was accomplished, the personal dignity 
 and liberal alms which the count of Thoulouse derived 
 from the custody of the holy lance, provoked the envy, 
 and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A Norman 
 clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the 
 truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, 
 and the character of the prophet ; and the pious Bohe- 
 mond ascribed their deliverance to the merits and in- 
 tercession of Christ alone. For a while, the Provin- 
 cials defended their national palladium with clamours 
 and arms; and new visions condemned to death and 
 hell thc profane sceptics, who presumed to scrutinize 
 the truth and merit of the discovery. The prpvahncc 
 of incredulity compelled the author to submit his life 
 and veracity to the judgment of God. A pile of dry 
 faggots, four feet high, and fourteen long, was erected 
 in the midst of the camp ; the flames burnt fiercely to 
 the elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of 
 twelve inches was left for the perilous trial. The un- 
 fortunate priest of Marseilles traversed the fire with 
 dexterity and speed; but his thighs and belly were 
 scorched by the intense heat ; he expired the next day ; 
 and the logic of believing minds will pay some regard 
 to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. 
 Some efforts were made by the Provincials to substi- 
 tute a cross, a ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the 
 holy lance, which soon vanished in contempt and ob- 
 
 r The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud de Guignes, torn. ii. p. ii- 
 p. 95.) is more correct in his account of the holy lance than the chris- 
 tians, Anna Comuena and Abulpharagius: the Greek princess con- 
 founds it with a nail of the cross * (I. xi. p. 326.) the Jacobite priuiate, 
 with Su Peter's lUfT, (p. 242.) 
 
 339 
 
 I 
 
 livion.* Yet the revelation of Antioch is gravely as- 
 serted by succeeding historians ; and such is the pro- 
 gress of credulity, that miracles, most doubtful on the 
 spot and at the moment, will be received with implicit 
 faith at a convenient distance of time and space. 
 The Plate of the '^^e prudence or fortune of the Franks 
 Turks and ca- had delayed their invasion till the decline 
 liphs of Egypt, of the Turkish empire.^ Under the man- 
 ly government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms 
 of Asia were united in peace and justice ; and the in- 
 numerable armies w^hich they led in person were equal 
 in courage, and superior in discipline, to the barbarians 
 of the west. But at the time of the crusade, the in- 
 heritance of Maiek Shaw was disputed by his four 
 sons; their private ambition was insensible of the 
 public danger; and, in the vicissitudes of their for- 
 tune, the royal vassals were ignorant, or regardless, of 
 the true object of their allegiance. The tvventy-eight 
 emirs who marched with the standard of Kerboga, 
 were his rivals or enemies; their hasty levies were 
 drawn from the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and 
 Syria; and the Turkish veterans were employed or 
 consumed in the civil wars beyond the Tigris. The 
 caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weak- 
 ness and discord, to recover his ancient possessions; 
 and his sultan Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, 
 expelled the children of Ortok, and restored in Pales- 
 tine the civil and ecclesiastical authority of the Fati- 
 mites.* They heard with astonishment of the vast 
 armies of christians that had passed from Europe to 
 Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which 
 broke the power of the Turks, the adversaries of their 
 sect and monarchy. But the same christians were 
 the enemies of the prophet; and from the overthrow 
 of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their enterprise, 
 which was gradually understood, would urge them for- 
 ward to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the 
 Nile. An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which 
 rose and fell with the events of the war, was main- 
 tained between the throne of Cairo and the camp of 
 the Latins; and their adverse pride was the result of 
 ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt 
 declared in a haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone, 
 that their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of 
 the faithful, had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish 
 yoke ; and that the pilgrims, if they would divide their 
 numbers, and lay aside their arms, should find a safe 
 and hospitable reception at the sepulchre of Jesus. In 
 the belief of their lost condition, the caliph Mostali 
 despised their arms and imprisoned their deputies; 
 the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to 
 solicit those formidable champions with mfts of horses 
 and silk robes, of vases, and purses of gold and silver; 
 and in his estimate of their merit er power, the first 
 place was assigned to Bohemond, and the second to 
 Godfrey. In either fortune the answer of the crusa- 
 ders was firm and uniform : they disdained to inquire 
 into the private claims or possessions of the followers 
 of Mahomet : whatsoever was his name or nation, the 
 usurper of Jerusalem was their enemy ; and instead 
 of prescribing the mode and terms of their pilgrimage. 
 It was or.ly by a timely surrender of the city and p'ro- 
 vince, their sacred right, that he could deserve their 
 alliance, or deprecate their impendingf and irresistable 
 attack.' ^ ^ 
 
 Delay of the 
 
 Franks, 
 
 A. D. 1098. 
 
 July— 
 
 A. D. low. 
 
 May. 
 
 1 T **** antagonists who express the most intimate knowledge 
 ana the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the/ra«d, are Kay- 
 mond lies Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one attached to the 
 count of Thoulouse, the other to the Norman prince. Fulcherius Car- 
 notonsis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et non fraudem ! and afler- 
 wanls, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter occuUatam forsilan. The rest of 
 in« herd are loud and strenuous. 
 
 See M. de Guipnes, (torn. ii. p. ii. p. 233, Sec.) and the articles of 
 ^^'■*<aroA:, Mohammed, Saneiar, in D'Herbelot. 
 II ^oL /''"''■> o"" sultan Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem and Tyre, A. 
 ti.4Sy. (Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 47a De Guig- 
 
 nes, torn. i. p. 249. from Abulfeda and Ben Schouiiah.) Jerusalem 
 anie advenium vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus, say the 
 l*aiifniie ambassadors. j > / 
 
 ' See ihe transactions between the caliph of Egypt and the crusa- 
 ders, in William of Tyre (1. iv. c. 04. 1. vi. c. 19.) and Albert Aquen- 
 
 Yet this attack, when they were with- 
 in the view and reach of their glorious 
 prize, was suspended above ten months 
 after the defeat of Kerboga. The zeal 
 and courage of the crusaders were chill- 
 ed in the moment of victory ; and instead of raarchinw 
 to improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to 
 enjoy the luxury, of Syria. The causes of this strange 
 delay may be found in the want of strength and subor- 
 dination. In the painful and various service of An- 
 tioch, the cavalry was annihilated; many thousands 
 of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, and 
 desertion : the same abuse of plenty had been produc- 
 tive of a third famine; and the alternative of in- 
 temperance and distress had generated a pestilence, 
 which swept away above fifty thousand of the pil- 
 grinns. Few were able to command, and none were 
 willing to obey: the domestic feuds, which had been 
 stifled by common fear, were again renewed in acts, 
 or at least in sentiments, of hostility ; the fortune of 
 Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy of their com- 
 panions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the 
 defence of their new principalities; and count Ray- 
 mond exhausted his troops and treasures in an idle ex- 
 pedition into the heart of Syria. The winter was con- 
 sumed in discord and disorder ; a sense of honour and 
 religion was rekindled in the spring; and the private 
 soldiers, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy, 
 awakened with angry clamours the indolence of their 
 chiefs. In the month of May, the relics rpj^^j^. , 
 of this mighty host proceeded from An- jeliiTaiem, 
 tioch to Laodicea ; about forty thousand ^ ^- it>99. 
 Latins, of whom no more than fifteen ^^*^ 13-June 6. 
 hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot, were capable 
 of immediate service. Their easy march was contin- 
 ued between mount Libanus and the sea-shore ; their 
 wants were liberally supplied by the coasting traders 
 of Genoa and Pisa ; and they drew large contributions 
 from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Acre, and Cae- 
 sarea, who granted a free passage, and promised to 
 follow the example of Jerusalem. From Caesarea 
 they advanced into the midland country ; their clerks 
 recognized the sacred geography of Lydda, Ramla, 
 Emaus, and Bethlem, and as soon as they descried the 
 holy city, the crusaders forgot their toils and claimed 
 their reward." 
 
 Jerusalem has derived some reputation Sfege and con- 
 from the number and importance of her *l"®*^ f •^^™- 
 memorable sieges. It was not till after a. D.To99. 
 a long and obstinate contest that Babylon June 7— July is. 
 and Rome could prevail against the obstinacy of the 
 people, the craggy ground that might supersede the 
 necessity of fortifications, and the walls and towers 
 that would have fortified the most accessible plain.* 
 These obstacles were diminished in the age of the cru- 
 sades. The bulwarks had been completely destroyed 
 and imperfectly restored : the Jews, their nation, and 
 worship, were forever banished ; but nature is less 
 changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem, though 
 somewhat softened and somewhat removed, was still 
 strong against the assaults of an enemy. By the ex- 
 perience of a recent siege, and a three years' posses- 
 sion, the Saracens of Egypt had been taught to dis- 
 cern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects of a 
 place, which religion as well as honour forbade them, 
 to resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph's lieutenant, 
 was intrusted with the defence: his policy strove to 
 restrain the native christians by the dread of their own 
 ruin and that of the holy sepulchre; fro animate the 
 
 sis, (1. iii. c. 59.) who are more sensible of their importance, than the 
 contemporary writers. 
 
 m The greatest part of the march of the Franks is traced, and 
 most accurately traced, iu Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to 
 Jerusalem; (p. 17—67.) un des meilleurs moroeaux, sans contre- 
 dit, qu'on ait dans ce genre. (D'Anville, Memoire sur Jerusalem, p. 
 27.) 
 
 n See the masterly description of Tacitus, (Hist. v. 11, 12, 13.) 
 who supposes, that the Jewish lawgivers had provided fora perp«tua1 
 state 01 Uoeiiliiy against the rest oi" mankind. 
 
 f 
 
340 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 
 hi 
 
 Moslems by the assurance of temporal and eternal j 
 rewards. His garrison is said to have consisted of 
 forty thousand Turks and Arabians ; and if he could 
 muster twenty thousand of the inhabitants, it must be 
 confessed that the besieged were more numerous than 
 the besieging army." Had the diminished strength 
 and numbers of the Latins allowed them to grasp the 
 whole circumference of four thousand yards, (about 
 two English miles and a hair,P) to what useful pur- 
 pose should they have descended into the valley of 
 jBen Himmon and torrent of Cedron,** or approached 
 the precipices of the south and east, from whence they 
 had nothing either to hope or fearl Their siege was 
 more reasonably dirpcted aoainst the northern and 
 western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erect- 
 ed his standard on the iirst swell of mount Calvary : 
 to the left, as far as St. Stephen's gate, the line of at- 
 tack was continued by Tancred and the two Roberts ; 
 and count Raymond established his quarters from the 
 citadel to the foot of mount Sion, which was no longer 
 included within the precincts of the city. On the fifth 
 day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic 
 hope of battering down the walls without engines, 
 and of scaling them without ladders. By the dint of 
 brutal force, they burst the first barrier, but they were 
 driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp : 
 the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by 
 tl»e too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems; and 
 time and labour were found to be the only moans of 
 victory. The time ol the siege was indeed fulfilled in 
 forty days, but they were forty days of calamity and 
 anguish. A repetition of the old complaint of famine 
 may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or 
 disorderly appetite of the Franks ; but the stony soil 
 of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty 
 springs and hasty torrents were dry in the summer 
 season; nor was the thirst of the besiegers relieved, 
 as in the city, by the artificial supply of cisterns and 
 aqueducts. The circumjacent country is equally des- 
 titute of trees for the uses of shade or building: but 
 some large beams were discovered in a cave by the 
 crusaders : a wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove 
 of Tasso,' was cut down : the necessary timber was 
 transported to the camp by the viflrour and dexterity of 
 Tancred : and the engines were framed by some Gen- 
 oese artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbour 
 of Jaffa. Two movable turrets were constructed at 
 the expense, and in the stations, of the duke of Lor- 
 raine, and the count of Thoulouse, and rolled forwards 
 with devout labour, not to the most accessible, but to 
 the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Ray- 
 mond's tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the 
 besieged, but his colleague was more vijrilant and suc- 
 cessful ; the enemies were driven by his archers from 
 the rampart ; the draw-bridge was let down ; and on a 
 Friday at three in the afternoon, the day and hour of 
 the Passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on 
 the walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed 
 
 ■"♦ 
 
 
 o The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with sense and 
 erudition by the French author of the Esprit des Croisatles, (loin. iv. 
 
 R.3G8— 388.) who observes, that, according to the Arabians, the in- 
 abitants of Jerusalem must have exceeded 20(VXX) ; that in the 
 g\pge of Titus, Josephus collects 1,300,000 Jews; that they are slated 
 by Tacitus hioiself at 600,000; and that the largest defalcation, that 
 hi? accepivius can justify, will still leave them more numerous than 
 the Roman army. 
 
 P Maundrell, who diligently perambulated the walls, found a cir- 
 cuit of 4630 paces, or 4167 English yards: (p. 109, 110.) from an au- 
 thentic plan, D'Anville concludes a measure nearly similar, of 1960 
 French toises, (p. 23—29.) in his scarce and valuable tract. Forlhe 
 topography of Jerusalem, see Keland. (Paleslina, loin. ii. p. 832— 
 
 860.) 
 
 q Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in 
 auinmer, and of the little spring or brook of Siloe. (Reland, loin. i. 
 p. 294. 300.) Both strangers and natives complained of the want of 
 ■water, which in lime of war was studiously asgravated. Within 
 the city, Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct, and 
 cisterns for rain water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivu- 
 let Tektie or Etham, which is likewise meniioued by Bohadin, (in 
 Vil. Saladin, p. 238.) ... . w 
 
 r Gierusalemme Liberala, canto xiii. It is pleasant enough to ob- 
 «orve how Tasso has copied and embelliahed the miuutesi deuils of 
 the siege. 
 
 on every side by the emulation of valour; and about 
 four hundred and sixty years after the conquest of 
 Omar, the holy city was rescued from the Malu metan 
 yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the 
 adventurers had agreed to respect the exclusive pn.p- 
 erty of the first occupant ; and the spoils of the great 
 mosque, seventy lamps and massy vases of gold and 
 silver, rewarded the diligence, and displayed the gen- 
 erosity of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was oflTered by 
 his mistaken votaries to the God of the christians : 
 resistance might provoke, but neither age nor sex could 
 mollify, their implacable rage: they indulgi'd them- 
 selves three days in a promiscuous massacre ;• and 
 the infection of the dead bodies produced an epidemi- 
 cal disease. After seventy thousand Moslems had 
 been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been 
 burnt in their synagogue, they could still reserve a 
 multitude of captives, whom interest or lassitude per- 
 suaded them to spare. Of these savage heroes of the 
 cross, Tancred alone betrayed some sentiments of com- 
 passion ; yet we may praise the more selfish lenity of 
 Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe-conduct 
 to the garrison of the citadel.* The holy sepulchre 
 was now free; and their bloody victors prepared to 
 accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and barefoot, with 
 contrite hearts, and in an humble posture, they ascend- 
 ed the hill of Cavalry, amidst the loud anihems of the 
 clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the Sa- 
 viou"r of the world ; and bedewed with tears of joy and 
 penitence the monument of thiir redemption. This 
 union of the fiercest and most tender passions has been 
 variously considered by two philosophers; by the 
 one," as easy and natural ; by the other,' as absurd and 
 incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously applied to the 
 same persons and the same hour : the example of the 
 virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his conjpan- 
 ions ; while they cleansed their bodies, they purified 
 their minds ; nor shall I believe that the most ardent 
 in slaughter and rapine were the foremost in the pro- 
 cession to the sepulchre. 
 
 Eight days after this memorable Election and 
 event, which pope Urban did not live to reign of Godfrey 
 hear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the A.^D."l!m* 
 election of a king, to guard and* govern juiy ai— 
 their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the ^j^,**}?^* 
 Great, and Stephen of Chartres, had re- " ^ • 
 
 tired with some loss of reputation, which they strove 
 to regain by a second crusade and an honourable 
 death. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and Bo- 
 hemond at Antioch; and two Roberts, the duke of 
 Normandy > and the count of Flanders, preferred thiir 
 fair inheritance in the west to a doubtful competition 
 or a barren sceptre. The jealousy and antbition of 
 Raymond were condemned by his own followers, and 
 the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the army, 
 proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most wor- 
 thy of the champions of Christendom. His magna- 
 nimity accepted a trust as full of danger as of glory; 
 but in a city where his Saviour had been crowned 
 with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name and 
 ensigns of royalty ; and the founder of the kingdom 
 of Jerusalem contented him?elf with the modest title 
 of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 • Besides the Latins, who are not ashamed of the massacre, spo 
 Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 363.) Abulpharaeius, (Dynast, p. 243) 
 and M. de Gnisnes, (lom. ii. p. ii. p. 99.) from Aboulmahaspn. 
 
 t The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages Neblosa, was named 
 t":astellum Pisanum, from the patriarch Uainibert. ll is still the cit- 
 adel, the residence of the Turkish asa, and commands a prospect 
 of the Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia. (U'Anville. p. 19—23.) ll was 
 likewise called the Tower of David, suf^^o^ wa^/*,^ i5i,-»Te<. 
 
 u Hume, in his History of England, vol. i. p. 311, 312. octavo 
 edition. .. , 
 
 X Voltaire, in his Essai sur rHisioire Generale, lom. ii. c. o4. p. 
 
 3^5, 346. , . . « . ,. 
 
 y The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and the Provincials 
 to Raymond of Thoulouse, the clory of refusing the cn>wn; but the 
 honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory of the ambiti«>n 
 and revenge (Villehacriouin, No. 136.) of th« count of St. Giles. Ho 
 died at ihe siege of Tripoli, which was possessed by his desceuu- 
 auu. 
 
 i 
 
 Ascalon, 
 A. D. 1099. 
 August 12. 
 
 government of a single year,« too short for the public 
 happiness, was interrupted in the first fortnight by a 
 summons to the field, by the approach of the vizir or 
 sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow to prevent, 
 but who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jeru- 
 salem. His total overthrow in the battle of Ascalon 
 sealed the establishment of the Latins in Syria, and 
 signalized the valour of the French princes, who in 
 this action bade a long farewell to the holy wars. 
 
 Battle of ^^^? .S^^fy "^'g'>t be derived from the 
 prodigious inequality of numbers, though 
 I shall not count the myriads of horse 
 and foot on the side of the Fatirnites ; 
 but, except three thousand Ethiopians or blacks, who 
 were armed with flails or scourges of iron, the barba- 
 rians of the south fled on the first onset, and aflTorded 
 a pleasing comparison between the active valour of 
 the Turks and the sloth and efl^erninacy of the natives 
 of Egypt. After suspending before the holy sepul- 
 chre the sword and standard of the sultan, the new 
 king (he deserves the title) embraced his departing 
 companions, and could retain only with the gallant 
 Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand 
 foot-soldiers, for the defence of Palestine. His sove- 
 reignty was soon attacked by a new enemy, the only 
 one against whom Godfrey was a coward. ' Adhemar, 
 bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and 
 action, had been swept away in the last platrue of An- 
 ti()ch : the remaining ecclesiastics preserved only the 
 pride and avarice of their character: and their sedi- 
 tious clamours had required that the choice of a bish- 
 op should precede that of a king. The revenue and 
 jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by 
 the Latin clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and 
 Syrians was justified by the reproach of heresy or 
 schisni;* and, under the iron yoke of their deliverers, 
 the oriental christians regretted the tolerating govern- 
 ment of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert, archbishop 
 of Pisa, liad long been trained in the secret policy of 
 Rome: he brought a fleet of his countrymen to the 
 succour of the Holy Land, and was installed, without 
 a competitor, the spiritual and temporal head of the 
 church. The new patriarch'' immediately grasped 
 the sceptre which had been acquired by the toil and 
 blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey 
 and Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the 
 investiture of their feudal possessions. Nor was this 
 sufiicient; Daimbert claimed the immediate property 
 of Jerusalem and Jafl[*a: instead of a firm and generous 
 refusal, the hero negociated with the priest; a quarter 
 of either city was ceded to the church ; and the modest 
 bishop was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the 
 rest, on the death of Godfrey without children, or 
 on the future acquisition of a new seat at Cairo or 
 Damascus. 
 
 The kingdom of Without this indulgence, the conquer- 
 
 a.dTcS9-Ti87 ?F^'°"^^ have almost been stripped of 
 * his mfant kingdom, which consisted only 
 of Jerusalem and Jaflfa, with about twenty villages 
 and towns of the adjacent country.*^ Within this nar- 
 row verge, the Mahometans were still lodged in some 
 •mnregnable castles ; and the husbandman, the traders, 
 and the pilgrims, were exposed to daily and domestic 
 hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and the 
 two Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded 
 to the throne, the Latins breathed with more ease and 
 safety; and at length they equalled, in the extent of 
 their dominions, though not in the millions of their 
 
 341 
 
 subjects, the ancient princes of Jndah and Israel * 
 After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea 
 Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon,' which were powerfullv 
 assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa and 
 even of Flanders and Norway ,' the range of sea-coast 
 trom Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was posses- 
 sed by the christian pilgrims. If the prince of An- 
 tioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of Edessa 
 and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the kin? 
 of Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphra- 
 tes; and the four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, 
 and Aleppo, were the only relics of the Mahometan 
 conquests in Syria.* The laws and language, the 
 manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin 
 church, were introduced into these transmarine colo- 
 nies. According to the feudal jurisprudence, the prin- 
 cipal states and subordinate baronies, descended in 
 the line of male and female succession : »> but the chil- 
 dren of the first conquerors,' a motley and degenerate 
 race, were dissolved by the luxury of the climate ; the 
 arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful 
 hope and a casual event. The service of the feudal 
 tenures k was performed by six hundred and sixty-six 
 knights, who might expect the aid of two hundred 
 more under the banner of the count of Tripoli; and 
 each knight was attended to the field by four squires 
 or archers on horseback.^ Five thousand and seventy- 
 five scr/mn/s, most probably foot soldiers, were sup- 
 plied by the churches and cities ; and the whole legal 
 miJitia of the kingdom could not exceed eleven thou- 
 sand men, a slender defence against the surrounding 
 myriads of Saracens and Turks." But the firmest 
 bulwark of Jerusalem was founded on the knights of 
 the hospital of St. John," and of the temple of So- 
 lomon;° on the strange association of a monastic 
 and military life, which fanaticism might suggest, but 
 which policy must approve. The flower of "the nobil- 
 
 1 fv^r^i^^'^.o'^"!^"' ^^^ ^'^"^^ 0*" Ascalon, &c. in William of Tyre, 
 first cru"d '" ^^^ conclusion of the Latin historians of the 
 
 • Renaud(.i, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479. 
 n ir r I- ;^i*""8 of the patriarcli Daimbert, in William of Tyre, 
 in.in^JL' /**"*=••/• 4. 7. 9.) who asserts with marvellous candour the 
 
 , w?,- P^^'^iif^^" conquerors and kinjrs of Jerusalem, 
 bn. Tv V^- '"• V^. *• *• ^^' The Historia Hierosolymitana of Jaco- 
 Marfnni « *'^''- ^'^ ll '^:.?^-¥^'> *"d ^^6 Secreta Fidelium Crucis of 
 LaJn uL ^"*^"'}-V- "'• P- *•> <lescribe the suie and conquests of the 
 ■i^iin kingdom of Jerusalem. 
 
 d An actual muster, not includine the tribes of Levi and Ben- 
 
 I^mJH' ^^^k .?*'''5^*'? *'■"'/ ^^ 1.300,000, or 1,574,000 fighting men ; 
 which, with the addition of women, children, and slaves, may impl^ 
 a population of thirteen millions, in a country sixty leagues in leneih. 
 and thirty broad. The honest and rational Le Clerc (Comment oa 
 *a Samuel xxiv. and 1st Chronicles xxi.) aestuat angusto in limite, 
 and mutters his suspicion of a false transcript ; a dangerous suspicion » 
 
 e 1 hose sieges are related, each in its proper place, in the great 
 history of William of Tyre, from the ninth to the eighteenth book, 
 and more briefly told by Bernardus Thesaurarius. (de Acquisitione 
 Terrae banciae, c. 89-98. p. 732-740.) Some domestic facts are 
 celettrated in the Chronicles of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the 
 sixth, ninth, and twelfth tomes of Muratori. 
 
 f Quidam populus de insulis occidentis epressus, et maxime de ea 
 pane quae Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre (1. xi. c. 14. p. 804.) 
 marks their course per Briiannicum mare et Calpen to the siege of 
 
 I Ji ?f,"^!*^5''"' *P"^ ^^ Guignes, Hist, des Huns, lom. ii. part ii. p. 
 loO, lal. A. D. 1127. He must speak of the inland country. 
 
 h Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs of female succes- 
 sion, in a land, hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta virilia et virtuosa 
 esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with the approbation, of 
 her feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged to choose a husband and 
 champion. (Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242, &c.) See in M. de Guicnes 
 (torn. i. p. 441— 471.) the accurate and useful tables of these dynas- 
 ties, which are chiefly drawn from the Lignages d'Outremer. 
 
 i They were called by derision Poullains, Pullam, and their 
 name is never pronounced without contempt. (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. 
 torn. V. p. 535. and Observations sur Joinville, p. 84, 85. Jacob, si 
 Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. 1. i. c. 67. 72. and Sanut, 1. iii. p. viii. c. 2. 
 p. 182.) Illustrium virorum qui ad Terrae Sanctae .... liberationem 
 in ipsa manserunt degeneres filii .... in deliciis enutriti, molles et 
 effuBininati, &;c. 
 
 k This authentic detail is extracted from the Assises de Jerusalem. 
 (c. 324. 326—331.) Sanut (1. iii. p. viii. c. i. p. 174.) reckons only 
 518 knights, and 5775 followers. 
 
 1 The sum total, and the division, ascertain the service of the 
 three great baronies at 100 knights each ; and the text of tlie Assises, 
 which extends the number to 500, can only be justified by this sup- 
 position. 
 
 m Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons brought a 
 voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxia statum suum. 
 
 n William of Tyre (1. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5.) relates the i-Mioble origin, 
 and early insolence, of the Hospitalers, who s<^»on deserted their 
 humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the more august char- 
 acter of St. John the Baptist. (See the ineffectual struggles of Pagi, 
 Critica, A. D. 1099. No. 14—18.) They assumetl the profession of 
 arms about the year 1120; the hospital was mater ; the temple, _/lZta ; 
 the Teutonic order was founded A. D. 1190. at the siege of Acre. 
 (Mosheim, Institut. p. 389, 390.) 
 
 See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi, composed A. 
 D. 1132—1136. in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p. 547—563. edit. Mabilloii, Ve- 
 nei. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away on the dead 
 templars, would be highly valued by the historiani of Malta. 
 
I<',K' 
 
 ttf' 
 
 342 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XIX. 
 
 Jhap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 ity of Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to pro- 
 fess the vows, of these respectable orders; their spirit 
 and discipline were immortal ; and the speedy dona- 
 tion of twenty-eight thousand farms, or manors,'' ena- 
 bled them to support a regular force of cavalry and in- 
 fantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of 
 the convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms : 
 the world was scandalized by the pride, avarice, and 
 corruption, of these christian soldiers; their claims of 
 immunity and jurisdiction disturbed the harmony of 
 the church and state ; and the public peace was endan- 
 
 fered by their jealous emulation. But in their most 
 issolute period, the knights of the hospital and tem- 
 ple maintained their fearless and fanatic character : 
 they neglected to live, but they were prepared to die, 
 in the service of Christ; and the spirit of chivalry, 
 the parent and offspring of the crusades, has been 
 transplanted by this institution from the holy sepul- 
 chre to the isle of Malta.*» 
 
 Aaise of Jerusa- The Spirit of freedom, which pervades 
 lem, the feudal institutions, was felt in its 
 A. D. 1009-1369. strongest energy by the volunteers of the 
 cross, who elected for their chief the most deserving 
 of his peers. Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious 
 of the lesson or example, a model of political lioerty 
 was introduced : and the laws of the French kingdom 
 are derived from the purest source of equality and jus- 
 tice. Of such laws, the first and indispensable condi- 
 tion is the assent of those, whose obedience they re- 
 quire, and for whose benefit they are designed. No 
 sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon accepted the office of 
 supreme magistrate, than he solicited the public and 
 private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the 
 best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. 
 From these materials, with the counsel and approba- 
 tion of the patriarch and barons, of the clergy and 
 laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of Jerusalem,' 
 a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The 
 new code, attested by the seals of the king, the patri- 
 -arch, and the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in 
 the holy sepulchre, enriched with the improvements of 
 succeeding times, and respectfully consulted as often 
 as any doubtful question arose in the tribunals of Pal- 
 estine. With the kingdom and city, all was lost:» the 
 fragments of the written law were preserved by jealous 
 tradition' and variable practice till the middle of the 
 thirteenth century : the code was restored by the pen 
 of John d'Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal 
 feudatories;" and the final revision was accomplished 
 in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the use 
 of the Latin kingdom of Cyprus." 
 
 P Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to the hospita- 
 lers 19,000, to the templars 9,000 maneria^ a word of much higher 
 import (as Ducan^e has rightly observed) in the English than in the 
 French idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a dwelling. 
 
 q In the three last books of the Histoire des Chevaliers de Malthe, 
 par rAbb«i de Verlot, the reader may amuse himself with a fair, and 
 sometimes flattering, picture of the order, while it was employed for 
 the defence of Palestine. The subsequent books pursue their emi- 
 grations to Khodes and Malta. 
 
 r The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French, were printed with 
 Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and Paris, 1690. in 
 folio,) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de laThaumassiere, with 
 a comment and glossary. An Italian version had been published in 
 1735, at Venice, for the use of the kingdom of Cyprus. 
 
 • A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorous expression of the 
 Assise, (c. 281.) Yet Jerusalem capitulated with Saladin ; the queen 
 and the principal christians departed in peace ; and a code so precious 
 and so portable could not provoke the avarice of the conquerors. I 
 have sometimes suspected ihe existence of this original copy of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, which might bo invented to sanctify aud authenti- 
 cate the traditionary customs of the French in Palestine. 
 
 t A noble lawyer, Kaoul de Tabarie, denied the prayer of king 
 Amauri, (A. U. 1195— 1205.) that he would commit his knowledge to 
 writing; and frankly declared, que de ce qu'il savoit ne stroit-il ja 
 Qul borjois son pureill, ne null sage htnnme lestrt^, (c. 281.) 
 
 u The compiler of this work, Jean d'Ibelin, was count of Jaffa and 
 Ascalon, lord of Baruth (Herytus) and Kames, and died A. 1). 12G6. 
 (Sanut. 1. iii. p. ii. c. 5. S.) The family of Ibelin, which descended 
 from a younger brother of a count of Chartrcs in France, long flourish- 
 ed in Palestine and Cyprus, (see the Lignagps de ca Mer, or d'Ouire- 
 mcr, c. 6. at the end ot the Assises de Jerusalem, an original book, 
 which records the pedigrees of the French adventurers.) 
 
 X By sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of the island : the 
 work was finished the third of Nov. 1369, sealed with four seals, and 
 deposited iu the catiiedral of Nicosia. (Sue the preface to the Aui«ds.) 
 
 The justice and freedom of the consti- -,^., . r„„„„ 
 
 11^ ^L 1 Court of peerg. 
 tution were maintained by two tribunals 
 
 of unequal dignity, which were instituted by Godfrey 
 of Bouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem. The 
 king, in person, presided in the upper court, the court 
 of the barons. Of these the four most conspicuous 
 were the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon and Caesa- 
 rea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli, who, perhaps 
 with the constable and marshal,^ were in a special 
 manner the compeers and judges of each other. But 
 all thenobles, who held their lands immediately of the 
 crown, were entitled and bound to attend the king^s 
 court; and each baron exercised a similar jurisdiction 
 in the subordinate assemblies of his own feudatories. 
 The connexion of lord and vassal was honourable and 
 voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor, protec- 
 tion to the dependent; but they mutually pledged their 
 faith to each other; and the obligation on either side 
 might be suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury. 
 The cognisance of marriages and testaments was 
 blended with religion, and usurped by the clergy; but 
 the civil and criminal causes of the nobles, the inheri- 
 tance and tenure of their fiefs, formed the proper occu- 
 pation of the supreme court. Each member was the 
 judge and guardian both of public and private rights. 
 It was his duty to assert with his tongue and sword 
 the lawful claims of the lord : but if an unjust superior 
 presumed to violate the freedom or property of a vas- 
 sal, the confederate peers stood forth to maintain his 
 quarrel by word and deed. They boldly affirmed his 
 innocence and his wrongs ; demanded the restitution 
 of his liberty or his lands ; suspended, after a fruitless 
 de^iand, their own service ; rescued their brother from 
 prison ; and employed every weapon in his defence, 
 without offering direct violence to the person of their 
 lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes." In their 
 pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the 
 court were subtle and copious; but the use of argu- 
 ment and evidence was often superseded by judicial 
 combat; and the Assise of Jerusalem admits in many 
 cases this barbarous institution, which has been slowly 
 abolished by the laws and manners of Europe. 
 
 The trial by battle was established in Law of judicial 
 all criminal cases, which affected the combats. 
 life, or limb, or honour, of any person; and in all civil 
 transactions, of or above the value of one mark of sil- 
 ver. It appears that in criminal cases the combat was 
 the privilege of the accuser, who, except in a charge 
 of treason, avenged his personal injury, or the death of 
 those persons whom he had a right to represent; but 
 wherever, from the nature of the charge, testimony 
 could be obtained, it was necessary for him to produce 
 witnesses of the fact. In civil cases, the combat was 
 not allowed as the means of establishing the claim of 
 the demandant; but he was obliged to produce wit- 
 nesses who had, or assumed to have, knowledge of the 
 fact. The combat was then the privilege of the de- 
 fendant; because he charged the witness with an at- 
 tempt by perjury to take away his right. He came 
 therefore to be in the same situation as the appellant 
 in criminal cases. It was not then as a mode of proof 
 that the combat was received, nor as making naked 
 evidence; (according to the supposition of Montes- 
 quieu;') but in every case the right to offer battle was 
 founded on the right to pursue by arms the redress of 
 
 J The cautious John d'Ibelin argues, rather than aflirms, that Tri- 
 poli is the fourth barony, and expn-sses some doubt concerning ih» 
 right or pretension of the constable and marshal, (c. 323.) 
 
 > Entre seignor et homme ne n'a que la foi ; . . . . mais tant qii9 
 I'homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choees, (c. 206.) Toui 
 les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise lenus lesunsaf 
 autres .... et en celle n)aniere que le seignor mette main ou face 
 mettre au cors ou au fi«i d'aucun d'yaus sans csgard et sans connois- 
 sance de court, que tous les autres doivent venlr devant le seignor, 
 &c. (212.) The form of their remonstrances is conceived with the 
 noble simplicity of freedom. 
 
 » See I'Esprit des I-oix, 1. xxviii. In the forty years since its pub- 
 lication, no work has been more read and criticised ; and the spirit 
 of in(]uiry which it has excited, is not the least of our obligationa 19 
 the aulhof. 
 
 \ 
 
 . ^n injury; and the judicial combat was fought on the 
 game principle, and with the same spirit, as a private 
 duel. Champions were only allowed to women, and 
 to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The conse- 
 quence of a defeat was death to the person accused, or 
 to the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser 
 himself: but in civil cases, the demandant was pun- 
 ished with infamy and the loss of his suit, while his 
 witness and champion suffered an ignominious death. 
 In many cases it was in the option of the judge to 
 award or to refuse the combat : but two are specified, 
 in which it was the inevitable result of the challenge; 
 if a faithful vassal gave the lie to his compeer, who 
 unjustly claimed any portion of their lord's demesnes; 
 or if an unsuccessful suitor presumed to impeach the 
 judgment and veracity of the court. He might im- 
 peach them, but the terms were severe and perilous : 
 in the same day he successively fought all the mem- 
 bers of the tribunal, even those who had been absent : 
 a single defeat was followed by death and infamy; and 
 where none could hope for victory, it is highly proba- 
 ble that none would adventure the'trial. In the Assise 
 of Jerusalem, the legal subtilty of the count of Jaffa is 
 more laudably employed to elude, than to facilitate, 
 the judicial combat, which he derives from a principle 
 of honour rather than of superstition.'* 
 Court of bur- Among the causes which enfranchised 
 gesses. the plebeians from the yoke of feudal 
 tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is 
 one of the most powerful ; and if those of Palestine are 
 coeval with the first crusade, they may be ranked with 
 the most ancient of the Latin world. Many of the pil- 
 grims had escaped from their lords under the banner 
 of the cross ; and it was the policy of the French prin- 
 ces to tempt their stay by the assurance of the rights 
 and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in 
 the Assise of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his 
 knights and barons, the court of peers, in which he 
 presided himself, Godfrey of Bouillon established a 
 second tribunal, in which his person was represented 
 by his viscount. The jurisdiction of this inferior court 
 extended over the burgesses of the kingdom ; and it 
 was composed of a select number of the most discreet 
 and worthy citizens, who were sworn to judge, accord- 
 ing to the laws, of the actions and fortunes of their 
 equals.' In the conquest and settlement of new cities, 
 the example of Jerusalem was imitated by the kings 
 and their great vassals ; and above thirty similar corpo- 
 rations were founded before the loss of the Holy Land. 
 ^rri»n. Auothcr class of subjects, the Syrians,'' 
 or oriental christians, were oppressed by 
 the zeal of the clergy, and protected by the tolera- 
 tion of the state. Godfrey listened to their reasonable 
 prayer, that they might be judged by their own na- 
 tional laws. A third court was instituted for their 
 use, of limited and domestic jurisdiction : the sworn 
 members were Syrians, in blood, language, and reli- 
 gion ; but the office of the president (in Arabic, of 
 the rau) was sometimes exercised by the viscount of 
 Villains and the city. At an immeasurable distance 
 slaves. below the nobles, the burgesses, and the 
 ttrangers, the Assise of Jerusalem condescends to men- 
 tion the tJtV/atfis and slaves, the peasants of the land and 
 the captives of war, who were almost equally consid- 
 ered as the objects of property. The relief or protec- 
 
 343 
 
 tion of these unhappy men was not esteemed worthy 
 of the care of the legislator; but he diligently provides 
 for the recovery, though not indeed for the punishment 
 of the fugitives. Like hounds, or hawks, who had' 
 strayed from the lawful owner, they might be lost and 
 claimed : the slave and falcon were of the same value • 
 but three slaves, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to 
 equal the price of the war-horse; and the sum of three 
 hundred pieces of gold was fixed, in the age of chiv- 
 alry, as the equivalent of the more noble animal.' 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Preservation of the Greek emptre.— Numbers, passage^ and 
 event, of the second and third crusades.-Sf. Bernard.— 
 Reign of Saladin in Egypt and Svria.—His conquest of 
 Jerusalem.— Naval crusades.— Richard the first of Eng. 
 land.— Pope Innocent the third; and the fourth and ffth 
 crusades.— The emperor Frederic the second.— Louis tht 
 ninth of France; and the two last crusades.— Expulsion 
 of the Latins or Franks by the Mamalukes. 
 
 In a style less grave than that of his- success of 
 tory, I should perhaps compare the em- Alexius, 
 peror Alexius* to the jackall, who is A. D. 1097— 1113. 
 said to follow the steps, and to devour the leavings of 
 the lion. Whatever had been his fears and toils in the 
 passage of the first crusade, they were amply recom- 
 pensed by the subsequent benefits which he derived 
 from the exploits of the Franks. His dexterity and 
 vigilance secured their first conquest of Nice; and 
 from this threatening station the Turks were compel- 
 led to evacuate the neighbourhood of Constantinople. 
 While the crusaders, with blind valour, advanced into 
 the midland countries of Asia, the crafty Greek im- 
 proved the favourable occasion when the emirs of the 
 sea-coast were recalled to the standard of the sultan. 
 The Turks were driven from the isles of Rhodes and 
 Chios ; the cities of Ephesus and Smyrna, of Sardes, 
 Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were restored to the em- 
 pire, which Alexius enlarged from the Hellespont to 
 the banks of the Maeander, and the rocky shores of 
 Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendour; 
 the towns were rebuilt and fortified ; and the desert 
 country was peopled with colonies of christians, who 
 were gently removed from the more distant and dan- 
 gerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may for- 
 give Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy 
 sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatized 
 with the foul reproach of treason and desertion. They 
 had sworn fidelity and obedience to his throne; but 
 he had promised to assist their enterprise in person, or 
 at least, with his troops and treasures : his base retreat 
 dissolved their obligations ; and the sword, which had 
 been the instrument of their victory, was the pledge 
 and title of their just independence. It does not ap- 
 pear that the emperor attempted to revive his obsolete 
 claims over the kingdom of Jerusalem ;•* but the bor- 
 ders of Cilicia and Syria were more recent in his pos- 
 session, and more accessible to his arms. The great 
 army of the crusaders was annihilated or dispersed ; 
 the principality of Antioch was left without a head, by 
 the surprise and captivity of Bohemond : his ransom 
 had oppressed him with a heavy debt; and his Nor- 
 
 b For the intelligence of this obscure and' obsolete jurisprudence, 
 (c. 80—111.) I am deeply indebted to the friendshipof a learned lord, 
 >who, with an accurate and discerning eye, has surveyed the philo- 
 sophic history of law. Bv his studies, posterity might be enriched : 
 the merit of the orator and the judge can be/elt only by his contem- 
 poraries. 
 
 c lA)uis le Gros, who is considered as the father of this institution in 
 France, did not httpm his reign till nine years (A. D. 1108.) after God- 
 frey of Bouillon. (Assises, c. 2. 324.) For its origin and effects, see 
 the judicious remarks of Dr. Robertson. (History of Charles V. vol. 
 I. p. 3U-3C. 251—265. quarto edition.) 
 
 i Every reader conversant with the historians of the crusades, will 
 undersund by the people des Suriens, the oriental christians, Mel- 
 •chites, Jacobites, or Nestorian.*", who had all adopted the use of the 
 Arabic language, (vol. iv. p. 593.) 
 
 e See the Assises de Jerusalem, (310, 311, 312.) These laws were 
 enacted as late as the year 1350, in the kinpdom of Cyprus. In the 
 same century, in the reign of Edward 1. 1 understand, from a late pub- 
 lication, (of his Book of Account,) that the price of a war-horse was 
 not less exorbitant in England. 
 
 » Anna Comnena relates her father's conquests in Asia Minor, 
 Alexiad, 1. xi. p. 321—325. 1. xiv. p. 419. ; his Cilician war against 
 Tancred and Bohemond, p. 328—342. ; the war of Epirus, with tedi- 
 ous prolixity, 1. xii. xiii. p. 345— 4U6. ; the death of Bohemond, 1. xiv. 
 p. 419. 
 
 b The kings of Jerusalem submitted however to a nominal depen- 
 dence, and in the dates of their inscriptions, (one is still legible ia 
 the church of Bethlem,) they respectfully placed before their own 
 the name of the reigning emperor. (Ducange, DiMertationi Bur Join- 
 ville, xxvii. p. 319.^ 
 
 ^ 1 
 
3U 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 • •■> 
 
 «f 
 
 i| 
 
 man followers were insufficient to repel the hostilities 
 of the Greeks and Turks. In this distress, Bohemond 
 embraced a magnanimous resolution, of leavingr the 
 defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faitliful Tan- 
 cred ; of arming the west against the Byzantine em- 
 pire, and of executing the design which he inherited 
 from the lessons and example of his father Guiscard. 
 His embarkation was clandestine ; and if we may 
 credit a tale of the princess Anne, he passed the hos- 
 tile sea, closely secreted in a conin.*= But his recep- 
 tion in France was dignified by the public applause, 
 and his marriage with the king's daughter; his return 
 was glorious, since the bravest spirits of the age en- 
 listed under his veteran command ; and he repassed 
 the Adriatic at the head of five thousand horse and 
 forty thousand foot, assembled from the most remote 
 climates of Europe."^ The strength of Durazzo, and 
 prudence of Alexius, the progress of famine, and ap- 
 proach of winter, eluded his ambitions hopes; and the 
 venal confederates were seduced from his standard. 
 A treaty of peace* suspended the fears of the Greeks : 
 and they were finally delivered by the death of an ad- 
 versary, whom neither oaths could bind, nor dangers 
 could appal, nor prosperity could satiate. His chil- 
 dren succeeded to the principality of Antioch ; but the 
 boundaries were strictly defined, the homage was clear- 
 ly stipulated, and the cities of Tarsus and Malmistra 
 were restored to the Byzantine emperors. Of the 
 coast of Anatolia, they possessed the entire circuit 
 from Trebizond to the Syrian gates. The Seljukian 
 dynasty of Roum ' was separated on all sides from the 
 sea and their mussulman brethren ; the power of the 
 sultans was shaken by the victories, and even the 
 defeats, of the Franks ; and after the loss of Nice, 
 they removed their throne to Cogni or Iconium, an ob- 
 scure and inland town above three hundred miles from 
 Constantinople.^ Instead of trembling for their capi- 
 tal, the Comnenian princes waged an offensive war 
 against the Turks, and the first crusade prevented the 
 fall of the declining empire. 
 
 Expfdliiong by . ^" >^^ twelfth Century, three great em- 
 land : the firat igrations marched by land from the west 
 ^^a'dmoi to the relief of Palestine. The soldiers 
 
 the second, of ^"^ pilgrims of Lombardy, France, and 
 Conrad III. and Germany, were excited by the example 
 a" D Vi47. ^"^ success of the first crusade.'* Forty- 
 ihe third, of eight years after the deliverance of the 
 ^A*l7ns9 ^"^^ sepulchre, the emperor, and the 
 
 French king, Conrad the third, and Louis 
 the seventh, undertook the second crusade to support 
 the falling fortunes of the Latins.' A grand division 
 of the third crusade was led by the emperor Frederic 
 Barbarossa,* who sympathised with his brothers of 
 
 e Anna Comnena adds, that to complete the imitation, he was shut 
 up with a dead cock ; and condescends to wonder how the barbarian 
 could endure the confinement and putrefaction. Thia absurd tale is 
 unknown to the Latins. 
 
 d A;ro HuA.>,;, jn the Byzantins geography, must mean England ; 
 yet we are more credibly informed, that our Henry I. would not suf- 
 fer him to levy any troops in his kingdom, (Ducange, Not. ad Alex- 
 iad. p. 41.^ 
 
 e The copy of the treaty (Alexiad, 1. xiii. p. 406-41G.) is an origi- 
 nal and curious piece, which would require, and might afford, a good 
 map of the principality of Antioch. 
 
 f See the learned work of M. de Gui^nes, (lorn. ii. part ii.) the his- 
 tory of the Seljukians of Iconium, Aleppo, and Damascus, as far as 
 It may be collected from the Greeks, Latins, and Arabians. The 
 last are ignorant or regardless of the affairs of Roum. 
 
 g Iconium IS mentioned as a station by Xenophon, and by Strabo, 
 with the ambiguous title of k.mottok.;, (Cellarius, torn. ii. p. 121.) 
 Yet St. Paul found in that place a multitude {^K^isi) of Jews and 
 Gentiles. Under the corrupt name of Kunijah, it is described as a 
 great city, with a river and gardens, three leagues from the moun- 
 tains, and decorated (I know not why) with Tlaio's tomb. (Abulfeda 
 tabul. xvii. p. 3<)3. vers. Reiske ; and the Index Geo^raphicus of 
 Schultens from Ibn Said.) ° 
 
 h For this supplement to the first crusade, see Anna Comnena. 
 (Alexias, 1. xi. p. 331, &c. and the eighth book of Albert Anuensis.) 
 
 i For the second crusade, of Conrad III. and Louis VII. see Wil- 
 liam of Tyre, (1. xvi. c. 18—29.) Olho of Frisingen, (1. i. c. 34-45. 
 59, 60.) Matthew Paris, (Hist. Major, p. 68) Struvius, (Corpus Hist. 
 Germanicae, p. 372, 373.) Scriptores Kerum Francicarum a Duchesne, 
 torn. iv. Nicetaa, ia Vil. Manuel, 1. i. c. 4, 5, 6, p. 41—48. Cinnamus, 
 1. ii. p. 41 — 49. 
 
 WA^ipf 1*'\^/T^^%'^7'^1)fi«'' 5."*'*Tn^^ '" o.*^^ ine original writers are silent. The Mahometans gave him 
 
 iiaac Angel. 1. n. c. ^-8. p. 2o7-266. biruv. (Corpus Hist. Germ. | 2UU,U00, or 26O,0U0, men. (Bohadin, in Vil. Siiiadiu. p. 110.) 
 
 France and England in the common loss of Jerusalem, 
 These three expeditions may be compared in their 
 resemblance of the greatness of numbers, their pas- 
 sage through the Greek empire, and the nature and 
 event of their Turkish warfare, and a brief parallel 
 may save the repetition of a tedious narrative. How- 
 ever splendid it may seem, a regular story of the cru- 
 sades would exhibit the perpetual return of the same 
 causes and effects ; and the frequent attempts for the 
 defence or recovery of the Holy Land, would appear 
 so many faint and unsuccessful copies of the original. 
 
 L Of the swarms that so closely trod „. . 
 in the footsteps of the first pilgrims, the ^he.r numbers, 
 chiefs were equal in rank, though unequal in fame and 
 merit, to Godfrey of Bouillon and his fellow-adventu- 
 rers. At their head were displayed the banners of the 
 dukes of Burgundy, Bavaria, and Aquitain ; the first 
 a descendant of Hugh Capet, the second a father of 
 the Brunswick line: the archbishop of Milan, a tem- 
 poral prince, transported, for the benefit of the Turks, 
 the treasures and ornaments of his church and palace; 
 and the veteran crusaders, Hugh the Great, and Ste- 
 phen of Chartres, returned to consummate their unfin- 
 ished vow. The huge and disorderly bodies of their 
 followers moved forward in two columns ; and if the 
 first consisted of two hundn d and sixty thousand per- 
 sons, the second might possibly amount to sixty thou- 
 sand horse, and one hundred thousand foot,' The 
 armies of the second crusade might have claimed the 
 conquest of Asia : the nobles of France and Germany 
 were animated by the presence of their sovereigns ; 
 and both the rank and personal characters of Conrad 
 and Louis, gave a dignity to their cause, and a disci- 
 pline to their force, which might be vainly expected 
 from the feudatory chiefs. The cavalry of the empe- 
 ror, and that of the king, was each composed of sev- 
 enty thousand knights, and their immediate attendants 
 in the field;" and if the light-armed troops, the pea- 
 sant infantry, the women and children, the priests and 
 monks, be rigorously excluded, the full account will 
 scarcely be satisfied with four hundred thousand souls. 
 The west, from Rome to Britain, was called into action ; 
 the kings of Poland and Bohemia obeyed the sum- 
 mons of Conrad ; and it is aflirmed by the Greeks and 
 Latins, that in the passage of a strait or river, the By- 
 zantine agents, after a tale of nine hundred thousand, 
 desisted from the endless and formidable computation." 
 In the third crusade, as the French and English pre- 
 ferred the navigation of the Mediterranean, the host 
 of Frederic Barbarossa was less numerous. Fifteen 
 thousand knights, and as many squires, were the flower 
 of the German chivalry : sixty thousand horse, and 
 one hundred thousand foot, were mustered by the em- 
 peror in the plains of Hungary; and after such repeti- 
 tions, we shall no longer be startled at the six hundred 
 thousand pilgrims, which credulity has ascribed to this 
 last emigration." Such extravagant reckonings prove 
 only the astonishment of contemporaries ; but their 
 astonishment most strongly bears testimony to the ex- 
 istence of an enormous though indefinite multitude. 
 
 414.) and two historians, who probably were spectators, Tagino, (in 
 Scrlptor. Freher. torn i. p. 406 — 416. edit. Siruv.) and the Anonymiis 
 de Expeditione Asiatica Fred. I. (in Canisii Antiq. Lection, tom. iii. 
 p. ii. p. 49f'— 526. edit Basnaee.) 
 
 1 Anne, who states these la'ter swarms at 40,000 horse, and 100,000 
 foot, calls them Normans, and places at their head two brothers of 
 Flanders. The Greeks were strangely ignorant of the names, fami- 
 lies, and possessions of the Latin princes. 
 
 m William of Tyre, and Matthew Paris, reckon 70,000 loricali ia 
 each of the armies. 
 
 n The imperfect enumeration is mentioned by Cinnamus, (jwivi^- 
 KowTa nveia-ati,) and confirmed by Odo de Dio^iloapud Ducange and 
 Cinnamum, with the more precise sum of 900,556. Why must there- 
 fore the version and comment suppose the modest ana insufficient 
 reckoning of 90,000 1 Does not Godfrey of Viterbo (Pantheon, p. xii» 
 in Muratori, tom. vii. p. 462.) exclaim, „ 
 
 Numerum si poscere quseras, 
 
 Millia millena militrs acmen erat. 
 
 o This extravagant account is given by Albert of Slade: (apuJ 
 Struvium, p. 414.) my calculation is borrowed from Godfrey of Viter- 
 bo, Arnold of Lubeck, apud eundem, and Bernard Thesaur. (c. 169. p. 
 m4.) The original writers are silent. ~ "' 
 
 345 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 The Greeks might applaud their superior knowledge 
 of the arts and stratagems of war, but they confessed 
 the strength and courage of the French cavalry and 
 the infantry of the Germans ;p and the strangers are 
 descjibed as an iron race, of gigantic stature, who 
 darted fire from their eyes, and spit blood like water 
 on the ground. Under the banners of Conrad, a troop 
 of females rode in the attitude and armour of men; 
 and the chief of these Amazons, from her gilt spurs 
 and buskins, obtained the epithet of the Golden-footed 
 Dame. 
 
 Passage through ^'* ^he numbers and character of the 
 the Greek era- strangers was an object of terror to the 
 P're. effeminate Greeks, and the sentiment of 
 
 fear is nearly allied to that of hatred. This aversion 
 was suspended or softened by the apprehension of the 
 Turkish power ; and the invectives of the Latins will 
 not bias our more candid belief, that the emperor Alex- 
 ius dissembled their insolence, eluded their hostilities, 
 counselled their rashness, and opened to their ardour 
 the road of pilgrimage and conquest. But when the 
 Turks had been driven from Nice and the sea-coast, 
 when the Byzantine princes no longer dreaded the dis- 
 tant sultans of Cogni, they felt with purer indignation 
 the free and frequent passage of the western barba- 
 rians, who violated the majesty, and endangered the 
 safety, of the empire. The second and third crusades 
 were undertaken under the reign of Manuel Comnenus 
 and Isaac Angelus. Of the former, the passions were 
 always impetuous, and often malevolent; and the na- 
 tural union of a cowardly and a mischievous temper 
 was exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or 
 mercy, could punish a tyrant, and occupy his throne. 
 It was secretly, and perhaps tacitly, resolved by the 
 prince and people to destroy, or at least to discourage, 
 the pilgrims, by every species of injury and oppres- 
 sion ; and their want of prudence and discipline contin- 
 ually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The 
 western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and 
 fair market in the country of their christian breth- 
 ren; the treaty had been ratified by oaths and hos- 
 tages; and the poorest soldier of Frederic's army was 
 furnished with three marks of silver to defray his ex- 
 nenses on the road. But every engagement was vio- 
 lated by treachery and injustice; and" the complaints 
 of the Latins are attested by the honest confession of 
 a Greek historian, who has dared to prefer truth to 
 his country .1 Instead of an hospitable reception, the 
 gates of the cities, both in Europe and Asia, were 
 closely barred against the crusaders ; and the scanty 
 pittance of food was let down in baskets from the 
 \yalls. Experience or foresight might excuse this 
 timid jealousy ; but the common duties of humanity 
 prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous 
 ingredients, in the bread ; and should Manuel be ac- 
 quitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of coin- 
 ijig base money for the purpose of trading with the 
 pilgrims. In every step of their march they were 
 stopped or misled : the governors had private orders 
 to fortify the passes and break down the bridges 
 against them : the stragglers were pillaged and mur- 
 dered ; the soldiers and horses were pierced in the 
 woods by arrows from an invisible hand ; the sick 
 were burnt in their beds ; and the dead bodies were 
 bung on gibbets along the highways. These injuries 
 exasperated the champions of the cross, who were not 
 endowed with evangelical patience ; and the Byzan- 
 tine princes, who had provoked the unequal conflict, 
 promoted the embarkation and march of these formi- 
 dable guests. On the verge of the Turkish frontier 
 
 Af r "^"^i*^ obser\'e, that in the second and third crusades, the subjects 
 01 t-Jnrad and Frederic are styled by the Greeks and orienuls Ala- 
 »na/j;ji. The Lechi and Tzechi of Cinnamus are the Poles and Bohe- 
 
 li .«'"/,?" "• " ^^"' *^'** French that he reserves the ancient appella- 
 uonoi Germans. He likewise names the Be.m.jor b^.t=.,vc.. 
 
 q IViceias waa a child at the second crusade, but in the third he 
 commanded against the Franks the imporunt jxist of Philippopolis. 
 v^innaiimg is infe^rted with national prejudice and pride. 
 
 Vol. 11 2f 
 
 Barbarossa spared the guilty Philadilphia/ rewarded 
 the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard neces- 
 sity that had stained his sword with any drops of chris- 
 tian blood. In their intercourse with the monarchs of 
 Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks was ex- 
 posed to an anxious trial. They might boast that on 
 the first interview the seat of Louis was a low stool^ 
 beside the throne of Manuel ;• but no sooner had the 
 French king transported his army beyond the Bospho- 
 rus, than he refused the offer of a second conference, 
 unless his brother would meet him on equal terms, 
 either on the sea or land. With Conrad and Frederic, 
 the ceremonial was still nicer and more difl^icult: like 
 the successors of Constantine, they styled themselves 
 emperors of the Romans;* and firmly maintained the 
 purity of their title and dignity. The first of these 
 representatives of Charlemagne would only converse 
 with Manuel on horseback in the open field ; the sec- 
 ond, by passing the Hellespont rather than the Bos- 
 phorus, declined the view of Constantinople and its 
 sovereign. An emperor, who had been crowned at 
 Rome, was reduced in the Greek epistles to the hum- 
 ble appellation of rex, or prince of the Alemanni ; and 
 the vain and feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of 
 the name of one of the greatest men and monarchs of 
 the age. While they viewed with hatred and suspi- 
 cion the Latin pilgrims, the Greek emperors maintain- 
 ed a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks and 
 Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained, that by his- 
 friendship for the great Saladin he had incurred the 
 enmity of the Franks ; and a mosque was founded at 
 Constantinople for the public exercise of the religion 
 of Mahomet." 
 
 III. The swarms that followed the ^ 
 first crusade, were destroyed in Anatolia Turkish warfare, 
 by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish arrows: and 
 the princes only escaped with some squadrons of horse 
 to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just 
 opinion maybe formed of their knowledge and human- 
 ity; of their knowledge from the design of subduing 
 Persia and Chorasan in their way to Jerusalem ; of 
 their humanity, from the massacre of the christian peo- 
 ple, a friendly city, who came out to meet them with 
 palms and crosses in their hands. The arms of Con- 
 rad and Louis were less cruel and imprudent; but the 
 everit of the second crusade was still more ruinous to 
 Christendom ; and the Greek Manuel is accused by 
 his own subjects of giving seasonable intelligence to 
 the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin princes. 
 Instead of crushing the common foe, by a double at- 
 tack at the same time but on different sides, the Ger- 
 mans were urged by emulation, and the French were 
 retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely passed the 
 Bosphorus when he was met by the returning emperor, 
 who had lost the greatest part of his army in glorious, 
 but unsuccessful, actions on the banks of the Maean- 
 der. The contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened 
 the retreat of Conrad ; the desertion of his independent 
 vassals reduced him to his hereditary troops; and he 
 borrowed some Greek vessels to execute by sea tlie 
 pilgrimage of Palestine. Without studying the les- 
 sons of experience, or the nature of war, the king of 
 France advanced through the same country to a simi- 
 lar fate. The vanguard, which bore the royal banner 
 
 r The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by Nicetas, while 
 the anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his countrymen, (cul- 
 pa nostra.) History would be pleasant, if we were embarrasspd only 
 by such contradictions. It is likewise from Niceias, that we learn 
 the pious and humane sorrow of Frederic. 
 
 • Ikixfta.^^ fJf«, which Cinnamus translates into Latin by the word 
 rsxxiov. Ducange works very hard to save his king and country iront 
 such ignominy, (sur Joinville, Dissertat. .vxvii. p. 317— 320.) Louis 
 afterwards insisted on a nif etine in marl ex a>(iuo, not ex equo, accord- 
 ing to the laughable readinirs of some MSS. 
 
 r Ego Romanorum imperaior sum. ilh^ Komaniorum. (Anonym. Ca 
 nis. p. 512.) The public and historical style of the Greeks waa Pij^ 
 . . . princeps. Yet Cinnamus owns, that i/iTn^xrcf is synonymous 
 
 to Bx<r»A.8uc. 
 
 u In the epistles of Innocent III. (xiii. p. 1S4.) and the History of 
 Boha4lin, (p. 129, 13(1.) see the views of a pope and a cadhi on this 
 singular toleration. 
 
 \ 
 
346 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 , , \ 
 
 m 
 
 
 V i"" i 
 
 
 II r*i- 
 
 I , 
 
 and the oriflamme of St. Denys," had doubled their 
 inarch with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the 
 rear, which the king commanded in person, no longer 
 found their companions in the evening camp. In 
 darkness and disorder, they were encompassed, as- 
 saulted, and overwhelmed, by the innumerable host 
 of Turks, who in the art of war were superior to the 
 christians of the twelfth century. Louis, who climbed 
 a tree in the general discomfiture, was saved by his 
 own valour and the ignorance of his adversaries ; and 
 with the dawn of day he escaped alive, but almost 
 alone, to the camp of the vanguard. But instead 
 of pursuing his expedition by land, he was rejoiced 
 to shelter the relics of his army in the friendly sea- 
 port of Satalia. From thence he embarked for An- 
 tioch ; but so penurious was the supply of Greek 
 vessels, that they could only afford room for his 
 Icnights and nobles ; and the plebeian crowd of infan- 
 try was left to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian 
 hills. The emperor and the king embraced and wept 
 at Jerusalem ; their martial trains, the remnant of 
 mighty armies, were joined to the christian powers 
 of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was the 
 final effort of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis 
 embarked for Europe with the personal fame of piety 
 and courage : but the orientals had braved these potent 
 monarchs of the Franks, with whose names and mili- 
 tary forces they had been so often threatened .^ Per- 
 haps they had still more to fear from the veteran genius 
 of Frederic the first, who in his youth had served in 
 Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in 
 Germany and Italy had taught Barbarossa to com- 
 mand ; and his soldiers, even the prirjces of the em- 
 pire, were accustomed under his reion to obey. As 
 soon as he lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicra, 
 the last cities of the Greek frontier, he plunoed into 
 the salt and barren desert, a land (says tlie historian) 
 of horror and tribulations." During twenty days, every 
 step of his fainting and sickly march was besieged by 
 the innumerable hordes of Turkmans,* whose numbers 
 and fury seemed after each defeat to multiply and 
 inflame. The emperor continued to struggle and to 
 suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities, 
 that when he reached the gales of Iconium, no more 
 than one thousand knights were able to serve on 
 horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he de- 
 feated the guards, and stormed the capital of the sul- 
 tan,** who humbly sued for pardon and peace. The 
 road was now open, and Frederic advanced in a career 
 of triumph, till he was unfortunately drowned in a 
 petty torrent of Cilicia.« The remainder of his Ger- 
 mans were consumed by sickness and desertion ; and 
 the emperor's son expired with the greatest part of 
 his Swabian vassals at the siege of Acre. Among 
 the Latin heroes, Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic 
 Barbarossa alone could achieve the passage of the 
 Lesser Asia; yet even their success was a warning; 
 and in the last and most experienced age of the cru- 
 
 X As counts of Vexin, the kinirs of France were the Tassalsand ad- 
 Tocates of the monastery of St. Denys. The saint's peculiar banner, 
 which they received from the abbot, was of a s-iuare form, and a red 
 or Jtamtng colour. The oriflamme appeared at the head of the French 
 armies from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. (Ducange sur Join- 
 ville. Dissert, xxiii. p. 244—253.) 
 
 y The original French histories of the second crusade are the Ges- 
 ta Ludovici VII. published in the fourth Tolume of Duchesne's col- 
 lection. The same Tolume contains many original letters of the 
 king,of Suger hia minister, &c. the best documents of authentic his- 
 tory. 
 
 I Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam, sterilem, inamoenam. 
 Anonym. Canis. p. 517. The emphiUic language of a sufferer. 
 
 a Gens innumera,8ylTestris, indomita, praedonessineduclore. The 
 Bultan of Cogni might sincerely rejoice in their defeat. Anonym. 
 Canis. p. 517, 518. 
 
 b See in the anonjrmous writer in the Collection of Canisius, Tagi- 
 no, and Bohadin, (V it. Saladin. p. 119, 120.) the ambiguous conduct 
 of Kill idgeArslan, sultan of Cogni, who hated and feared both Saladin 
 and Frederic. 
 
 c The desire of comparing two great men has tempted many writers 
 to drown Frederic in the river Cydnus, in which Alexander so impru- 
 dently bathed, (Q. Curt. 1. iii. c. 4, 5) But, from the march of the 
 emperor, I rather judge, that his Saleph ia the Calycaduus, a itream 
 «f leas fame, but of a longer coun e. 
 
 il»i 
 
 sades, every nation preferred the sea to the toils and 
 perils of an inland expediiion.** 
 
 The enthusiasm of the first crusade obstinacy of the 
 is a natural and simple event, while enthusiasm of 
 hope was fresh, danger untried, and i*»e crusades, 
 enterprise congenial to the spirit of the times. But 
 the obstinate perseverance of Europe may indeed 
 excite our pity and admiration; that no instruction 
 should have been drawn from constant and adverse 
 experience; that the same confidence should have 
 repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six 
 succeeding generations should have rushed headlong 
 down the precipice that was open before them ; and 
 that men of every condition should have staked their 
 public and private fortunes on the desperate adven- 
 ture of possessing or recovering a tomb-stone two 
 thousand miles from their country. In a period of 
 two centuries after the council of Clermont, each 
 spring and summer produced a new emigration of 
 pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land; 
 but the seven great armaments or crusades were ex- 
 cited by some impending or recent calamity: the 
 nations were moved by the authority of their pontiflfs, 
 and the example of their kings : their zeal was kindled, 
 and their reason was silenced, by the voice of their 
 holy orators ; and among these, Bernard,* the monk, 
 or the saint, may claim the most honourable place. 
 About eight years before the first con- character and 
 que.st of Jerusalem, he was born of a mission of si. 
 noble family in Burgundy; at the age of ^''fj'"^''_..„ 
 three-and-twenty he buried himself in " * 
 the monastery of Citeaux, then in the primitive fer- 
 vour of the institution ; at the end of two years he led 
 forth her third colony, or daughter, to the valley of 
 Clairvaux' in Champagne; and was content, till the 
 hour of his death, with the humble station of abbot 
 of his own community. A philosophic age has abo- 
 lished, with tco liberal and indiscriminate disdain, 
 the honours of these spiritual heroes. The meanest 
 among them are distinguished by some energies of 
 the mind; they were at least superior to their votaries 
 and disciples; and, in the race of superstition, they 
 attained the prize for which such numbers contended. 
 In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard st(^od high 
 above his rivals and contemporaries; his compositions 
 are not devoid of wit and eloquence; and he seems to 
 have preserved as much reason and humanity as may 
 be reconciled with the character of a saint. In a secu- 
 lar life, he would have shared the seventh part of a 
 private inheritance ; by a vow of poverty and periance, 
 by closing his eyes against the visible world,' by the 
 refusal of all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot of 
 Clairvaux became the oracle of Europe, and the foun- 
 der of one hundred and sixty convents. Princes and 
 pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his apostolical cen- 
 sures : France, England, and Milan, consulted and 
 obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church: 
 the debt was repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the 
 
 d Marinus Sanatus, A. D. 1321. lays it down as a precept, Quf4 
 stulus ecclesiae per terram nullatenus est ducenda. He reailves by 
 the divine aid, the objection, or rather exception, of the first crusadf. 
 (Secreta Fideliuni Crucis, 1. ii. pars ii. c. i. p. 37.) 
 
 • The most authentic information of St. Bernard must be drawn 
 from his own writings, published in a correct edition by P^re IMabil 
 Ion, and reprinted at Venice, 1750, in six volumes in folio. Whatevpr 
 friendship could recollect, or superstition could add, is contained in 
 the two lives, by his disciples, in the sixth volume : whatever learn- 
 ing and criticism could ascertain, may be found in the prefaces of lh» 
 Benedictine editor. 
 
 f Clairvaux, surnamed the valley of Abysynth, Is situate amonsihs 
 woods near Bar sur Aube in Champagne. St. Bernard would blush al 
 the pomp of the church and monastery ; he would asi< for the library, 
 and I know not whether he would be much edified by a ton of 8(J0 
 mulds, (914 l-7ih hogsheads,) which almost rivals that of Heidelbtir^, 
 (Melanges tirtis d'une Grande Biblioiheque, torn. xlvi. p, 15-20) 
 
 K The disciples of the saint (Vit. Ima, I. iii. c. 2. p. 1232. Vit.2da, 
 c. 16. No. 45. p. 13S3.) record a marvellous example of his piou.s apa- 
 thy. Juxta lacum etiam Lausannensem totius uiei itinere pergens, 
 penitus non attendii aut se videre non vidit. Cum enim vespere fac- 
 to de eodem lacu socii coUoquerentur. interrogabat eos ubi Ucus ill* 
 isset ; et mirati sunt universi. To admire or despise St. Bernard al 
 he ought, the reader, like myself, should have before the windows u^ 
 hi« library the beautiei of that incomparable landscape. 
 
 347 
 
 second; and his successor, Eugenius the third, was 
 the friend and disciple of the holy Bernard. It was 
 in the proclamation of the second crusade that he 
 shone as the missionary and prophet of God, who 
 called the nations to the defence of his holy sepul- 
 chre.'' At the parliament of Vezelay he spoke before 
 the king; and Louis the seventh, with his nobles, 
 received their crosses from his hand. The abbot of 
 Clairvaux then marched to the less easy conquest of 
 the emperor Conrad : a phlegmatic people, ignorant 
 of his language, was transported by the pathetic vehe- 
 mence of his tone and gestures ; and his progess, from 
 Constance to Cologne, was the triumph of eloquence 
 and zeal. Bernard applauds his own success in the 
 depopulation of Europe; affirms that cities and castles 
 were emptied of their inhabitants ; and computes, that 
 only one man was left behind for the consolation of 
 seven widows.' The blind fanatics were desirous of 
 electing him for their general; but the example of the 
 hermit Peter was before his eyes; and while he as- 
 sured the crusaders of the divine favour, he prudently 
 declined a military command, in which failure and 
 victory would have been almost equally disgraceful 
 to his character.* Yet, after the calamitous event, 
 the abbot of Clairvaux was loudly accu.sed as a false 
 prophet, the author of the public and private mourn- 
 ing; his enemies exulted, his friends blushed, and his 
 apology was slow and unsatisfactory. He justifies 
 his obedience to the commands of the pope; expati- 
 ates on the mysterious ways of Providence; imputes 
 the misfortunes of the pilgrims to their own sins; and 
 modestly insinuates, that his mission had been ap- 
 proved by signs and wonders." Had the fact been 
 certain, the argument would bo decisive; and his 
 faithful disciples, who enumerate twenty or thirty 
 miracles in a day, appeal to the public assemblies of 
 France and Germany, in which they were performed." 
 At the present hour, such prodigies will not obtain 
 credit beyond the precincts of Clairvaux; but in the 
 preternatural cures of the blind, the lame, and the 
 sick, who were presented to the man of God, it is 
 impossible for us to ascertain the separate shares of 
 accident, of fancy, of imposture, and of fiction. 
 Progress of the Omnipotence itself cannot escape the 
 Mahometans. murmurs of its discordant votaries ; since 
 the same dispensation which was applauded as a de- 
 liverance in Europe, was deplored, and perhaps ar- 
 raigned, as a calamity in Asia. After the loss of Jeru- 
 salem, the Syrian fugitives diffused their consternation 
 and sorrow: Bagdad mourned in the dust; the cadhi 
 Zeineddin of Damascus tore his beard in the caliph's 
 preserjce ; and the whole divan shed tears at his mel- 
 ancholy tale." But the commanders of the faithful 
 could only weep; they were themselves captives in 
 the hands of the Turks : some temporal power was 
 restored to the last age of the Abbassides; but their 
 humble ambition was confined to Bagdad and the adja- 
 cent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian sultans, 
 had followed the common law of the Asiatic dynasties, 
 the unceasing round of valour, greatness, discord, de- 
 generacy, and decay : their spirit and power were un- 
 
 1> Oiho Prising. 1. i. c. 4. Bernard. Epist. 363. ad Francos Orien- 
 tales. Opn. torn. i. p. 328. Vit. Ima, I. iii. c. 4. torn. vi. p 1235. 
 
 > Matiiiastis et obedivi .... multiplicati sunt super numerum ; 
 vacuanlur urbes et ca.stella; elpen* jam non inveniunt quern appre- 
 hendant septein mulieres unum virum ; adeo ubique viduse vivis re- 
 manent viris. Bernard. Epist. p. 247. We must be careful not to con- 
 strue p^ne as a substantive. 
 
 k Quis ego sum ut disponam acies, ut egrediar ante fncies armato- 
 Tum, aut (juid tarn remotuin a professione lue.i, si vires, si peril ia, &c. 
 Epist. 256. toin. i. p. 259. He speaks with contempt of the hermit 
 Peier, vir quidam. Epist. 363. 
 
 1 Sic dicunt forsitan iste, unde scimus quod a Domino sermo egres- 
 Bus sill Quae si'»na tu facis ut credamus tibi ? Non est quod ad 
 ista ipse respondcam : parcendum verecundiae meae, responde tu 
 pro me, et pro te ipso, secundum quae vidisti et audisli, el secundum 
 fjuod le inspiraverii Deus. Consolat. 1. ii. c. 1. Opp, torn. ii. p. 421— 
 
 n> See the testimonies in Vita Ima, 1. iv. c. 5, 6. Opp. torn. vi. p. 
 1258-1261. 1. vi. c. 1-17. p. 1286-1314. 
 
 n Abulmahasen apud De Guignes. Hist, des Huns. torn. ii. p. ii. 
 p. 99. ^ *^ 
 
 equal to the defence of religion; and, in his distant 
 realm of Persia, the christians were strangers to the 
 name and the arms of Sangiar, the last hero of hia 
 race." While the sultans were involved The Atabeks of 
 in the silken web of the haram, the pious Syria, 
 task was undertaken by their slaves, the Atabeks,p a 
 Turkish name, which, like the Byzantine patricians, 
 may be translated by Father of the Prince. Ascansar| 
 a valiant Turk, had been the favourite of Malek Shaw, 
 from whom he received the privilege of standing on 
 the right hand of the throne ; but, in the civil wars that 
 ensued on the monarch's death, he lost his head and 
 the government of Aleppo. His domes- 2enehi 
 tic emirs persevered in their attachment A. D. ' ' 
 to his son Zenghi, who proved his first 1127—1145. 
 arms against the Franks in the defeat of Aniioch ; 
 thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan 
 established his military fame; and he was invested 
 with the command of Mosul, as the only champion 
 that could avenge the cause of the prophet. The pub- 
 lic hope was not disappointed : after a sieg«^ of twenty- 
 five days, he stormed the city of Edessa, and recovered 
 from the Franks their conquests beyond the Euphra- 
 tes :^ the martial tribes of Curdistan were subdued by 
 the independent sovereign of Mosul and Aleppo: his 
 soldiers were taught to behold the camp as their only 
 country ; they trusted to his liberality for their rewards ; 
 and their absent families were protected by the vigi- 
 lance of Zenghi. At the head of these Koureddin 
 veterans, his son Noureddin gradually ' A. D. ' 
 united the Mahometan powers; added 1145—1174. 
 the kingdom of Damascus to that of Aleppo, and waged 
 a long and successful war against the christians of 
 Syria ; he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to 
 the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful 
 servant with all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. 
 The Latins themselves were compelled to own the 
 wisdom and courage, and even the justice and piety, 
 of this implacable adversary.' In his life and govern- 
 ment the holy warrior revived the zeal and simplicity 
 of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from 
 his palace; the use of wine from his dominions; the 
 public revenue was scrupulously applied to the public 
 service; and the frugal household of Noureddin was 
 maintained from his legitimate share of the spoil which 
 he vested in the purchase of a private estate. His fa- 
 vourite sultana sighed for some female object of ex- 
 pense. "Alas," replied the king, " I fear God, and 
 am no more than the treasurer of the Moslems. Their 
 property I cannot alienate; but I still possess three 
 shops in the city of Hems: these you may take; and 
 these alone can I bestow." His chamber of justice 
 was the terror of the great and the refuge of the poor. 
 Some years after the sultan's death, an oppressed sub- 
 ject called aloud in the streets of Damascus, " O Nou- 
 reddin, Noureddin, where art thou now? Arise, arise, 
 to pity and protect us !" A tumult was apprehended, 
 and a living tyrant blushed or trembled at the name of 
 a departed monarch. 
 
 o See his article in the Bibliotheque Orientate of D'Herbelot, and 
 De Guignes, torn. ii. p. i. p. 230— 2G1. Such was his valour, that he 
 was styled the second Alexander; and such the extravagant love of 
 his subjects, that they prayed for the sultau a year after his decease. 
 Yet Sangiar might have been made prisoner by the Franks, as well 
 as by the Uzes. He reigned near fifty years, (A. D. J103— 1152.) and 
 was a munificent patron of Persian poetry. 
 
 p See the Chronology of the Atabeks of Irak and Syria, in De Guig- 
 nes, torn. i. p. 254; and the reigns of Zenghi and Noureddin in the 
 same writer, (tom. ii. p. ii. p. 147—221.) who uses the Arabic text of 
 Benelalhir, Ben Schouna, and Abulfeda; theBiblioth' queOrientale, 
 under the articles Atabeks and Noureddin, and the Dynasties of Abul- 
 pharaeius, p. 250-267. vers. Pocock. 
 
 q William of Tyre (1. xvi. c. 4, 5. 7.) describes the loss of Edessa, 
 and the death of Zenghi. The corruption of his name into Sanguin, 
 afforded the Latins a comforiable allusion to his sanguinary charac- 
 ter and end, sit sansruine sanguinolentus. 
 
 r Noradinus (says^ William of Tyre, 1. xx. 33.) maximus nominig et 
 fidei chrisliaiiae persecutor; princeps lamen Justus, vafer, providu8,et 
 secundum eentis suae iradiliones religiosus. Toliiis catholic witness 
 we m.iy add the primate of the Jacobites, (Abulpharag p. 267.) quo 
 non alter erat inter regea viiae raiione magis laudabili, aut quae pluri- 
 bus justitiae experimeniisabundaret. The true praise of king* if after 
 their death, and from the mouth of their enemies. 
 
 
 ' ^i ' .^ fc a i jp" » 
 
1 
 
 348 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 349 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 u •> 
 
 k l( 
 
 '.* 
 
 ■i; 
 
 Conquest of ^7 *^e ^rms of the Turks and Franks 
 Egypt by the the Fatimites had been deprived of Syria. 
 A. D^libb— 1169 '^" Egypt the decay of their character 
 * and influence was still more essential. 
 Yet they were still revered as the descendants and 
 successors of the prophet ; they maintained their invis- 
 ible state in the palace of Cairo ; and their person was 
 seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects or 
 strangers. The Latin ambassadors have described 
 their own introduction through a series of gloomy pas- 
 sages, and glittering porticos :• the scene was enliven- 
 ed by the warbling of birds and the murmur of foun- 
 tains : it was enriched by a display of rich furniture 
 and rare animals; of the imperial treasures, something 
 was shown, and much was supposed ; and the long or- 
 der of unfolding doors was guarded by black soldiers 
 and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of the presence- 
 chamber was veiled with a curtain ; and the vizir, who 
 conducted the ambassadors, laid aside his scymitar, 
 and prostrated himself three times on the ground ; the 
 veil was then removed; and they beheld the com- 
 mander of the faithful, who signified his pleasure to 
 the first slave of the throne. But this slave was his 
 master ; the vizirs or sultans had usurped the supreme 
 administration of Egypt; the claims of the rival candi- 
 dates were decided by arms; and the name of the most 
 worthy, of the strongest, was inserted in the royal 
 patent of command. The factions of Darg^ham and 
 Shawer alternately expelled each other from the capi- 
 tal and country; and the weaker side implored the 
 dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus or the 
 king of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies of the sect 
 and monarchy of the Fatimites. By his arms and re- 
 ligion the Turk was most formidable; but the Franks, 
 in an easy direct march, could advance from Gaza to 
 the Nile; while the intermediate situation of his realm 
 compelled the troops of Noureddin to wheel round the 
 skirts of Arabia, a long and painful circuit, which ex- 
 posed them to thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of 
 the desert. The secret zeal and ambition of the Turk- 
 ish prince aspired to reign in Egypt under the name 
 of the Abbassides; but the restoration of the suppliant 
 Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first expedi- 
 tion ; and the success was intrusted to the emir Shira- 
 couh, a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham 
 was oppressed and slain; but the ingratitude, the jeal- 
 ousy, the just apprehensions, of his more fortunate 
 rival, soon provoked him to invite the king of Jerusa- 
 lem to deliver Egypt from his insolent benefactors. 
 To this union the forces of Shiracouh were unequal; 
 he relinauished the premature conquest ; and the evac- 
 uation of Belbeis or Pelusium was the condition of his 
 safe retreat. As the Turks defiled before the enemy, 
 and their general closed the rear, with a vigilant eye, 
 and a battle-axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to ask 
 him if he were not afraid of an attack 1 ** It is doubt- 
 less in your power to begin the attack," replied the in- 
 trepid emir; »»but rest assured, that not one of my sol- 
 diers will go to paradise till he has sent an infidel to 
 hell." His report of the riches of the land, the effem- 
 inacy of the natives, and the disorders of the govern- 
 ment, revived the hopes of Noureddin ; the caliph of 
 Bagdad applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh 
 descended into Egypt a second time with twelve thou- 
 sand Turks, and eleven thousand Arabs. Yet his 
 forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of 
 the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unu- 
 sual degree of military art, in his passage of the Nile, 
 his retreat into Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the 
 battle of Babain, the surprise of Alexandria, and his 
 marches and counter-marches in the flats and valley of 
 Egypt, from the tropic to the sea. His conduct was 
 seconded by the courage of his troops, and on the eve 
 
 • From the ambassador, William of Tyre (1. xix. c. 17, 19 ) describes 
 the palace of Cairo. In the caliph's treasure were found a pearl as 
 large as a pigeon's egg, a ruby weighing seventeen Egyptian drams, 
 an emerald a palm and a half in length, and many vasos of crystal 
 and porcelain of China. (Renaudol, p. 536.) 
 
 of action a Mamaluke* exclaimed, "If we cannot wrest 
 Egypt from the christian dogs, why do we not re- 
 nounce the honours and rewards of the sultan, and 
 retire to labour with the peasants, or to spin with the 
 females of the haram ?" Yet, after all his efforts in 
 the field," after the obstinate defence of Alexandria* 
 by his nephew Saladin, an honourable capitulation and 
 retreat concluded the second enterprise of Shiracouh; 
 and Noureddin reserved his abilities for a third and 
 more propitious occasion. It was soon oflTered by tlie 
 ambition and avarice of Amalric or Amaury, king of 
 Jerusalem, who had imbibed the pernicious maxim, 
 that no faith should be kept with the enemies of God. 
 A religious warrior, the great master of the hospital, 
 encouraged him to proceed ; the emperor of Constant!, 
 nople either gave, or promised, a fleet to act with the 
 armies of Syria; and the perfidious christian, unsatis- 
 fied with spoil and subsidy, aspired to the conquest of 
 Egypt. In this emergency, the Moslems turned their 
 eyes towards the sultan of Damascus ; the vizir, whom 
 danger encompassed on all sides, yielded to their unan- 
 imous wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be tempted 
 by the fair oflfer of one third of the revenue of the king- 
 dom. The Franks were already at the gates of Cairo; 
 but the suburbs, the old city, were burnt on their ap- 
 proach ; they were deceived by an insidious negocia- 
 lion, and their vessels were unable to surmount the 
 barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a con- 
 test with the Turks in the midst of a hostile country; 
 and Amaury retired into Palestine with the shame and 
 reproach that always adhere to unsuccessful injustice. 
 After this deliverance, Shiracouh was invested with a 
 robe of honour, which he soon stained with the blood 
 of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish 
 emirs condescended to hold the oflice of vizir; but this 
 foreign conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites 
 themselves ; and the bloodless change was accomplish- 
 ed by a message and a word. The caliphs had been 
 degraded by their own weakness and the tyranny of 
 the vizirs : their subjects blushed, when the descend- 
 ant and successor of the prophet presented his naked 
 hand to the rude gripe of a Latin ambassador; they 
 wept when he sent the hair of his women, a sad em- 
 blem of their grief and terror, to excite e„^ of theFati. 
 the pity ot the sultan of Damascus. By mite caliphs, 
 the command of Noureddin, and the A. D. li7l. 
 sentence of the doctors, the holy names of Abubeker, 
 Omar, and Othman, were solemnly restored : the ca- 
 liph Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the 
 public prayers as the true commander of the faithful; 
 and the green livery of the sons of Ali was exchanged 
 for the black colour of the Abbassides. The last of 
 his race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten days, 
 expired in happy ignorance of his fate : his treasures 
 secured the loyalty of the soldiers, and silenced the 
 murmurs of the sectaries; and in all subsequent revo- 
 lutions Egypt has never departed from the orthodox 
 tradition of the Moslems.^ 
 
 The hilly country beyond the Tigris Reign and char- 
 is occupied by the pastoral tribes of the acier of Saladin, 
 Curds ; * a people hardy, strong, savage, ^" ^- "91—1193. 
 
 t Mamluc, plur. Mamalic, is defined by Pocock, (Prolegom. ad 
 Abulpharag. p. 7.) and D'Herbelot, (p. 545.)8ervum empiitium, seu 
 qui pretio numeralo in domini possessionem cedit. They frequently 
 occur in the wars of Saladin, (Buhadin, p. 236, ice.) and it was only 
 the Buhartie IVIamalukes that were first introduced into Egypt by his 
 descendants. 
 
 u Jacobus a Viiriaco (p. II 16.) gives the king of Jerusalem no more 
 than 374 knights. Both the Franks and the Moslems report the supe- 
 rior numbers of the enemy; a difference which may be solved by i 
 counting or omitting the unwarlike Egyptians. ' 
 
 X It was the Alexandria of the Arabs, a middle term in extent and 
 riches between the period of the Greeks and Romans, and that of the 
 Turks. (Savary, Letires sur TEgypte, torn. i. p. 25, 26.) 
 
 y For this great revolution of Egypt, see William Tyre, (1. xix. 5, 
 6. .7. 12— 31. XX. 5-12.)Bohadin,(in Vil. Saladin. p. 30-^39.) Abul- 
 
 lom. 1. p. 141-163. in 4to,) and M. de Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 185-215.) 
 
 « For the Curds, see De Guignes, tom. I. p. 416, 417. the In<lex Geo- 
 
 graphicus of Schullens, and Tavernier, Voyages, p. i. p. 308, 309. Tb9 
 
 Ayoubiies descended from the tribe of Rawadi«i, one of the noblMlJ 
 
 impatient of yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of 
 the government of their national chiefs. The resem- 
 blance of name, situation, and manners, seem to iden- 
 tify them with the Carduchians of the Greeks ;* and 
 they still defend against the Ottoman Porte the antique 
 freedom which they asserted against the successors of 
 Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to em- 
 brace the profession of mercenary soldiers : the service 
 of his father and uncle prepared the reign of the great 
 Saladin ;'' and the son of Job or Ayub, a simple Curd, 
 mafrnanimously smiled at his pedigree, which flattery 
 deduced from the Arabian caliphs.'^ So unconscious 
 was Nouteddin of the impending ruin of his house, 
 that he constrained the reluctant youth to follow his 
 uncle Shiracouh into Egypt; his military character 
 was established by the defence of Alexandria; and if 
 we may believe the Latins, he solicited and obtained 
 from the christian general the profane honours of 
 knighthood.'* On the death of Shiracouh, the office 
 of grand vizir was bestowed on Saladin, as the young- 
 est and least powerful of the emirs ; but with the 
 advice of his father, whom he invited to Cairo, his 
 genius obtained the ascendant over his equals, and at- 
 tached the army to his person and interest. While 
 Noureddin lived, these ambitious Curds were the most 
 humble of his slaves ; and the indiscreet murmurs of 
 the divan were silenced by the prudent Ayub, who 
 loudly protested that at the command of the sultan he 
 himself would lead his son in chains to the foot of the 
 throne. " Such language," he added in private, " was 
 prudent and proper in an assembly of your rivals ; but 
 we are now above fear and obedience ; and the threats 
 of Noureddin shall not extort the tribute of a sugar- 
 cane." His seasonable death relieved them from the 
 odious and doubtful conflict : his son, a minor of eleven 
 years of age, was left for a while to the emirs of Da- 
 mascus ; and the new lord of Egypt was decorated by 
 the caliph with every title* that could sanctify his usur- 
 pation in the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin 
 long content with the possession of Egypt; he de- 
 spoiled the christians of .Jerusalem, and the Atabeks 
 of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir : Mecca and Me- 
 dina acknowledged him for their temporal protector: 
 his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or 
 the happy Arabia ; and at the hour of his death, his 
 empire spread from the African Tripoli to the Tigris, 
 and from the Indian ocean to the mountains of Arme- 
 nia. In the judgment of his character, the reproaches 
 of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on our minds, 
 impressed, as they are, with the principle and ex- 
 perience of law and loyalty. But his ambition may 
 in some measure be excused by the revolution of Asia,' 
 which had erased every notion of legitimate succes- 
 sion ; by the recent example of the Atabeks them- 
 selves ; by his reverence to the son of his benefactor, 
 his humane and generous behaviour to the collateral 
 
 bill as /A«y were infected with the heresy of the metempsychosiii, the 
 orthodox sultans insinuated that their descent was only on the mo- 
 ther's side, and that their ancestor was a stranger who settled among 
 
 the Curds. 
 
 » See the fourth book of the Anabasis of Xenophon. The ten thou- 
 sand suffered more from the arrows of the free Carduchians, than from 
 the splendid weakness of the great king. 
 
 b We are indebted to the pnifessor Schultens (Lugd. Bat. 17.55. in 
 |''li<>) for the richest and most authentic materials, a life of Saladin by 
 l^ \'\^^^ *"^ minister the cadhi Bohadin, and copious extracts from 
 ine history of his kinsman the prince Abulfeda of Hamah. To these 
 ^^ '"^y a'lil, the article of Salaheddin in the Bibliotheque Orientale, 
 anu all that mav be gleaned from the Dynasties of Abulpharagius. 
 
 c since Abulfeda was himself an Ayoubite, he may share the praise, 
 lorimiiaiine, at least tacitly, the modesty of the founder. 
 
 d Hist. Hienisol. in the G'^'sia Dei per francos, p. 1152. A similar 
 
 Louvre;) but 
 order of chris- 
 
 be understood ; 
 
 ., , , , olumen : our he- 
 
 A]^\f^i^^i! "*""*' ^^8 Joseph, and he was styled Salahoddin, salus ; 
 ■^i Malichua, Al Nasirv^, rex defensor: Abu Modeffir, pater vicio- 
 '!», Schultens, Prafat. 
 
 ' Abulfeda, who descended from a brother of Saladin, observes from 
 many examples, that the founders of dynasties took the guilt for 
 inemselves, and left the reward to their innocem colUierals. (Ex- 
 verpi. p. 10.) 
 
 branches; by iheir incapacity and his merit; by the 
 approbation of the caliph, the sole source of all legiti- 
 mate power; and, above all, by the wishes and inter- 
 est of the people, whose happiness is the first object 
 of government. In his virtues, and in those of his pa- 
 tron, they admired the singular union of the hero and 
 the saint; for both Noureddin and Saladin are ranked 
 among the Mahometan saints ; and the constant medi- 
 tation of the holy war appears to have shed a serious 
 and sober colour over their lives and actions. The 
 youth of the latter « was addicted to wine and women ; 
 but his aspiring spirit soon renounced the temptations 
 of pleasure, for the graver follies of fame and domin- 
 ion : the garment of Saladin was of a coarse woolen ; 
 water was his only drink ; and, while he emulated the 
 temperance, he surpassed the chastity of his Arabian 
 prophet. Both in faith and practice he was a ri^id 
 mussulman ; he ever deplored that the defence of reli- 
 gion had not allowed him to accomplish the pilarimage 
 of Mecca ; but at the stated hours, five limes each 
 day, the sultan devoutly prayed with his brethren : the 
 involuntary omission of fasting was scrupulously re- 
 paid ; and his perusal of the Koran on horseback, 
 between the approaching armies, may be quoted as a 
 proof, however ostentatious, of piety and courage.'' 
 The superstitious doctrine of the sect of Shafei was 
 the only study that he deigned to encourage : the poets 
 were safe in his contempt; but all profane science was 
 the object of his aversion ; and a philosopher, who 
 had vented some speculative novelties, was seized and 
 strangled by the command of the royal saint. The 
 justice of his divan was accessible to the meanest 
 suppliant against himself and his ministers; and it 
 was only for a kingdom that Saladin would deviate 
 from the rule of equity. While the descendants of 
 Seljuk and Zenghi held his stirrup and smoothed his 
 garments, he was affable and patient with the meanest 
 of his servants. So boundless was his liberality, that 
 he distributed twelve thousand horses at the siege of 
 Acre; and, at the time of his death, no more than 
 forty-seven drachms of silver and one piece of gold 
 coin were found in the treasury; yet, in a martial reign, 
 the tributes were diminished, and the wealthy citizens 
 enjoyed without fear or danger the fruits of their in- 
 dustry. Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were adorned by the 
 royal foundations of hospitals, colleges, and mosques; 
 and Cairo was fortified with a wall and citadel ; but 
 his works were consecrated to public use,' nor did 
 the sultan indulge himself in a garden or palace of 
 private luxury. In a fanatic age, himself a fanatic, 
 the genuine virtues of Saladin commanded the esteem 
 of the christians : the emperor of Germany gloried in 
 his friendship ;* the Greek emperor solicited his alli- 
 ance ; ' and the conquest of Jerusalem diffused, and 
 perhaps magnified, his fame both in the East and West 
 Indies. 
 
 During its short existence, the king- His conquest of 
 dom of Jerusalem" was supported by the kingdom. 
 the discord of the Turks and Saracens ; ^J^' **^* 
 and both the Fatimite caliphs and the "^ 
 
 sultans of Damascus were tempted to sacrifice the 
 cause of their reliorlon to the meaner considerations of 
 private and present advantage. But the powers of 
 Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were now united by a hero, 
 whom nature and fortune had armed against the chris- 
 tians. All without now bore the most threateninor as- 
 pect ; and all was feeble and hollow in the internal 
 state of Jerusalem. After the two first Baldwins, the 
 
 g See his life and character in Renaudot, p. 537—548. 
 
 h His civil and religious virtues are celebrated in the first chapter 
 of Bohadin, (p. 4 — 30.) himself an eye-witness, and an honest bigot. 
 
 i In many works, particularly Joseph's well in the castle of Cairo, 
 the sultan and the patriarch have been confounded by the ignorance 
 of natives and travellers. 
 
 k Anonym. Canisii, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 504. 
 
 I Bohadin, p. 129, 130. 
 
 m For the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, see William of Tyre, from 
 the ninth to the twenty-second book. Jacob a Vitriaco, Hist. Hio- 
 rosolem. 1. i. and Sanutus, Secreta Fidelium Crucis, 1. iiL p. vi. vii 
 viii. iz. 
 
 

 
 f ^ 
 
 ■4i 
 
 
 350 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 351 
 
 brother and cousin of Godfrfiy of Bouillon, the sceptre 
 devolved by female succession to Melisenda, daugh- 
 ter of the second Baldwin, and her hushand Fulk, 
 count of Anjou, the father, by a former marriage, of 
 our English Planta^enets. 'I'heir two sons, Baldwin 
 the third, and Araaury, waged a strenuous, and not un- 
 successful, war against the infidels; but the son of 
 Amaury, Baldwin the fourth, was deprived by the lep- 
 rosy, a gift of the crusades, of the faculties both of 
 mind and body. His sister Sybilla, the mother of 
 Baldwin the fifth, was his natural heiress: after the 
 suspicious death of her child, she crowned her second 
 husband, Guy of Lusignan, a prince of a handsome 
 person, but of such base renown, that his own brother 
 Jeffrey was heard to exclaim, " Since they have made 
 htm a king, surely they would have made me a god ! " 
 The choice was generally blamed ; and the most pow- 
 erful vassal, Raymond count of Tripoli, who had been 
 excluded from the succession and regency, entertained 
 an implacable hatred against the king, and exposed 
 his honour and conscience to the temptations of the 
 sultan. Such were the guardians of the holy city; a 
 leper, a child, a woman, a coward, and a traitor: yet 
 its fate was delayed twelve years by some supplies 
 from Europe, by the valour of the military orders, and 
 by the distant or domestic avocations of their great 
 enemy. At length, on every side, the sinking state 
 was encircled and pressed by a hostile line ; and the 
 truce was violated by the Franks, whose existence 
 it protected. A soldier of fortune, Reginald of Cha- 
 tillon, had seized a fortress on the edge of the desert, 
 from whence he pillaged the caravans, insulted Ma- 
 homet, and threatened the cities of Mecca and Medina. 
 Saladin condescended to complain; rejoiced in the 
 denial of justice ; and at the head of fourscore thou- 
 sand horse and foot, invaded the Holy Land. The 
 choice of Tiberias for his first siege was suggested by 
 the count of Tripoli, to whom it belonged ; and the 
 king of Jerusalem was persuaded to drain his garri- 
 sons, and to arm his people for the relief of that im- 
 portant place.' By the advice of the perfidious Ray- 
 mond, the christians were betrayed into a camp des- 
 titute of water: he fled on the first onset, with the 
 curses of both nations :" Lusignan was overthrown, 
 with the loss of thirty thousand men; and the wood 
 of the true cross, a dire misfortune ! was left in the 
 power of the infidels. The royal captive was con- 
 ducted to the tent of Saladin; and as he fainted with 
 thirst and terror, the generous victor presented him 
 •with a cup of sherbet, cooled in snow, without suffer- 
 ing his companion, Reginald of Chatillon, to partake 
 of this pledge of hospitality and pardon. "The per- 
 son and dignity of a king," said the sultan, "are 
 sacred ; but this impious robber must instantly ac- 
 knowledge the prophet whom he has blasphemed, or 
 meet the death which he has so often deserved." On 
 the proud or conscientious refusal of the christian war- 
 rior, Saladin struck him on the head with hisscymitar, 
 and Reginald was despatched by the guards.P The 
 trembling Lusignan was sent to Damascus, to an hon- 
 ourable prison and speedy ransom; but the victory 
 was stained by the execution of two hundred and thirty 
 knights of the hospital, the intrepid champions and 
 martyrs of their faith. The kingdom was left with- 
 out a head ; and of the two grand masters of the mili- 
 
 B Templarii ut apes bombabant et hospitalarii ut venti Btridebant, 
 et baronea se exitio offerebant, ci Turcopuli (the christian light troops) 
 ■emetipsi in ignem injiciebant; (Tspahani de Expugnatione Kudsit- 
 ica, p. 18. apud Schuliens ;) a specimen of Arabian eloquence, some- 
 what different from the style or Xenophon. 
 
 o The Latins affirm, the Arabians insinuate, the treason of Ray- 
 mond ; but had he really embraced their religion, he would have been 
 a saint and a hero in the eyes of the latter. 
 
 P Kenaud, Reginald, or Arnold de Chatillon, is celebrated by the 
 Latins in his life and death ; but the circumstances of the latter are 
 more distinctly related by Buhadin and Abulfeda ; and Joinville (Hist, 
 de St. Ltiuis, p. 70.) alludes to the practice of Saladin, of never putting 
 to death a prisoner who had tasted his bread and salt. Some of the 
 companions of Arnold had been slaughtered, and almost sacrificed, in 
 a vall«y of Mecca, ubi Mcrificia macuiuiur. (Aoulfcda, p. 32.) ^ 
 
 and city of 
 Jerusalem, 
 A. D. 1187. 
 October 2. 
 
 tary orders, the one was slain and the other was a 
 prisoner. From all the cities, both of the sea-coast 
 and the inland country, the garrisons had been drawn 
 away for this fatal field : Tyre and Tripoli alone could 
 escape the rapid inroad of Saladin; and three months 
 after the battle of Tiberias, he appeared in arms before 
 the gates of Jerusalem.** 
 
 He might expect that the siege of a 
 city so venerable on earth and in heaven, 
 so interesting to Europe and Asia, would 
 rekindle the last sparks of enthusiasm; 
 and that of sixty thousand christians, every man would 
 be a soldier, and every soldier a candidate for martyr- 
 dom. But queen Sybilla trembled for herself and her 
 captive husband ; and the barons and knights, who had 
 escaped from the sword and chains of the Turks, dis- 
 played the same factious and selfish spirit in the public 
 ruin. The most numerous portion of the inhabitants 
 was composed of the Greek and oriental christians, 
 whom experience had taught to prefer the Mahometan 
 before the Latin yoke ; ' and the holy sepulchre attract- 
 ed a base and needy crowd, without arms or courage, 
 who subsisted only on the charity of the pilgrims. 
 Some feeble and hasty efforts were made for the de- 
 fence of Jerusalem; but in the space of fourteen days, 
 a victorious army drove back the sallies of the be- 
 sieged, planted their engines, opened the wall to the 
 breadth of fifteen cubits, applied their scaling-ladders, 
 and erected on the breach twelve banners of the prophet 
 and the sultan. It was in vain that a bare-foot proces- 
 sion of the queen, the women, and the monks, implored 
 the Son of God to save his tomb and his inheritance 
 from impious violation. Their sole hope was in the 
 mercy of the conqueror, and to their first suppliant de- 
 putation that mercy was sternly denied. **He had 
 sworn to avenge the patience and long-suffering of the 
 Moslems ; the hour of forgiveness was elapsed, and the 
 moment was now arrived to expiate, in blood, the in- 
 nocent blood which had been spilt by Godfrey and the 
 first crusaders." But a desperate and successful strug- 
 gle of the Franks admonished the sultan that his tri- 
 umph was not yet secure; he listened with reverence 
 to a solemn adjuration in the name of the common Fa- 
 ther of mankind; and a sentiment of human sympathy 
 mollified the rigour of fanaticism and conquest. Ho 
 consented to accept the city, and to spare the inhabi- 
 tants. The Greek and oriental christians were per- 
 mitted to live under his dominion ; but it was stipula- 
 ted, that in forty days all the Franks and Latins should 
 evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the 
 sea-ports of Syria and Egypt; that ten pieces of gold 
 should be paid for each man, five for each woman, and 
 one for every child ; and that those who were unable to 
 purchase their freedom should be detained in perpetual 
 slavery. Of some writers it is a favourite and invidi- 
 ous theme to compare the humanity of Saladin with 
 the massacre of the first crusade. The difference 
 would be merely personal ; but we should not forget 
 that the christians had offered to capitulate, and that 
 the Mahometans of Jerusalem sustained the last ex- 
 tremities of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed 
 due to the fidelity with which the Turkish conqueror 
 fulfilled the conditions of the treaty ; and he may be 
 deservedly praised for the glance of pity which he cast 
 on the misery of the vanquished. Instead of a rigor- 
 ous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty 
 thousand byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand 
 poor; two or three thousand more were dismissed by 
 his gratuitous clemency; and the number of slaves was 
 reduced to eleven or fourteen thousand persons. In 
 his interview with the queen, his words, and even his 
 tears, suggested the kindest consolations; his liberal 
 alms were distributed among those who had been made 
 
 q Vertot, who well describes the loss of the kingdom and city (HisU 
 des Chevaliers de Malthe, torn. i. 1. ii. p. 226—278.) inserts two origi 
 nal epistles of a knight templar. 
 
 r Renaudot, Ui«u Fauiarch. Alex. p. 545. 
 
 orphans or widows by the fortune of war; and while 
 the knights of the hospital were in arms against him, 
 he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, du- 
 ring the term of a year, the care and service of the sick. 
 In these acts of mercy the virtue of Saladin deserves 
 our admiration and love: ho was above the necessity 
 of dissimulation, and his stern fanaticism would have 
 prompted him to dissemble rather than to affect, this 
 ^ profane compassion for the enemies of the Koran. Af- 
 ter Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of 
 the strangers, the sultan made his triumphant entry, 
 his banners waving in the wind, and to the harmony 
 of martial music. The great mosch of Omar, which 
 had been converted into a church, was again consecra- 
 ted to one God and his prophet Mahomet; the walls 
 and pavement were purified with rose-water; and a 
 pulpit, the labour of Noureddin, was erected in the 
 sanctuary. But when the golden cross that glittered 
 on the dome was cast down, and dragged through the 
 streets, the christians of every sect uttered a lamenta- 
 ble groan, which was answered by the joyful shouts of 
 the Moslems. In four ivory chests the patriarch had 
 collected the crosses, the images, the vases, and the 
 relics of the holy place : they were seized by the con- 
 queror, who was desirous of presenting the caliph with 
 the trophies of christian idolatry. He was persuaded, 
 however, to intrust them to the patriarch and prince 
 of Antioch ; and the pious pledge was redeemed by 
 Richard of England, at the expense of fifty-two thou- 
 sand byzants of gold.* 
 The third cm- '^^^ nations might fear and hope the 
 sade, by sea, immediate and final expulsion of the 
 A. D. 1188. Latins from Syria ; which was yet de- 
 layed above a century after the death of Saladin.* In 
 the career of victory, he was first checked by the re- 
 sistance of Tyre; the troops and garrisons, which had 
 capitulated, were imprudently conducted to the same 
 port : their numbers were adequate to the defence of 
 the place ; and the arrival of Conrad of Montferrat in- 
 spired the disorderly crowd with confidence and union. 
 His father, a venerable pilgrim, had been made pris- 
 oner in the battle of Tiberias; but that disaster was 
 unknown in Italy and Greece, when the son was urged 
 by ambition and piety to visit the inheritance of his 
 royal nephew, the infant Baldwin. The view of the 
 Turkish banners warned him from the ho.stile coast of 
 Jaffa; and Conrad was unanimously hailed as the 
 prince and champion of Tyre, which was already be- 
 sieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The firmness 
 of his zeal, and perhaps his knowledge of a generous 
 foe, enabled him to brave the threats of the sultan, and 
 to declare, that should his aged parent be exposed be- 
 fore the walls, he himself would discharge the first 
 arrow, and glory in his descent from a christian mar- 
 tyr.' The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the 
 harbour of Tyre; but the chain was suddenly drawn, 
 and five galleys were either sunk or taken : a thousand 
 Turks were slain in a sally ; and Saladin, afterburning 
 his enaines, concluded a glorious campaifyn by a dis- 
 graceful retreat to Damascus. He was soon assailed 
 by a more formidable tempest. The pathetic narra- 
 tives, and even the pictures, that represented in lively 
 colours the servitude and profanation of Jerusalem, 
 awakened the torpid sensibility of Europe, the empe- 
 ror Frederic Barbarossa, and the kings of France and 
 England, assumed the cross; and the tardy magnitude 
 of their armaments was anticipated by the maritime 
 states of the Mediterranean and the ocean. The skil- 
 
 • J"'"" the conquest of Jpnisalem, Bohadin (p. 67—75.) and Abulfeda 
 (p. 40—4.3.) are our Moslem witness^ s. Of the christian, Bernard The- 
 "aurarins (c. 151—167.) is the most copious and authentic; see like- 
 >*isp Matthew Paris, (p. 120-124.) 
 
 ' 1 i,*" "'^S*"' "f Tyre and Acre are most copiously described by Ber- 
 nard Thesiiurarius. (de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, c. 167—179.) the 
 "uthnrof the Historia Hierosolymiiana, (p. 1150—1172. in Bongarsius,) 
 Abulfpd;i, (p 43-50.) and Bohadin, (p. 75-179.) 
 
 u 1 liavp rollowed a moderate and probable representation of the 
 ««ct ; by Verua, who adopts without reluctance a romantic tale, the 
 ula marquis is actually exposed lo the darts of the besieged. 
 
 ful and provident Italians first embarked in the ships 
 of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. They were speedily fol- 
 lowed by the most eaaer pilgrims of France, Norman- 
 dy, and the Western Isles. The powerful succour of 
 Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled near a hundred 
 vessels ; and the northern warriors were distinguished 
 in the field by a lofty stature and a ponderous battle- 
 axe.* Their increasing multitudes could no longer be 
 confined within the walls of Tyre, or remain obedient 
 to the voice of Conrad. They pitied the misfortunes, 
 and revered the dignity, of Lusignan, who was released 
 from prison, perhaps to divide the army of the Franks. 
 He proposed the recovery of Ptolemais, or Acre, thirty 
 miles to the south of Tyre; and the place was first in- 
 vested by two thousand horse and thirty thousand foot 
 under his nominal command. I shall not expatiate on 
 the story of this memorable siege ; which lasted near 
 two years, and consumed, in a narrow space, the for- 
 ces of Europe and Asia. Never did the «,. 
 flame of enthusiasm burn with fiercer A.^D^im ' 
 and more destructive rage ; nor could the July— A. I). 1190. 
 true believers, a common appellation, ''"'^' 
 who consecrated their own martyrs, refuse some ap- 
 plause to the mistaken zeal and courage of their adver- 
 saries. At the sound of the holy trumpet, the Mos- 
 lems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the oriental provin- 
 ces, assembled under the servant of the prophet: ^ his 
 camp was pitched and removed within a few miles of 
 Acre; and he laboured, night and day, for the relief of 
 his brethren and the annoyance of the Franks. Nino 
 battles, not unworthy of the name, were fought, in the 
 neighbourhood of mount Carmel, with such vicissitude 
 of fortune, that in one attack, the sultan forced his way 
 into the city ; that in one sally, the christians penetra- 
 ted to the royal tent. By the means of divers and pi- 
 geons, a regular correspondence was maintained with 
 the besieged : and, as often as the sea was left open, 
 the exhausted garrison was withdrawn, and a fresh 
 supply was poured into the place. The Latin camp 
 was thinned by famine, the sword, and the climate; 
 but the tents of the dead were replenished with new 
 pilgrims, who exaggerated the strength and speed of 
 their approaching countrymen. The vulgar were as- 
 tonished by the report, that the pope himself, with an 
 innumerable crusade, was advanced as far as Constan- 
 tinople. The march of the emperor filled the east with 
 more serious alarms; the obstacles which he encoun- 
 tered in Asia, and perhaps in Greece, were raised by 
 the policy of Saladin ; his joy on the death of Barba- 
 rossa was measured by his esteem ; and the christians 
 were rather dismayed than encouraged at the sight of 
 the duke of Swabia and his way-worn remnant of five 
 thousand Germans. At length, in the spring of the 
 second year, the royal fleets of France and England 
 cast anchor in the bay of Acre, and the siege was more 
 vigorously prosecuted by the youthful emulation of the 
 two kings, Philip Augustus and Richard Plantagenet. 
 After every resource had been tried, and every hope 
 was exhausted, the defenders of Acre submitted to 
 their fate; a capitulation was granted, but their lives 
 and liberties were taxed at the hard conditions of a ran- 
 som of two hundred thousand pieces of gold, the de- 
 liverance of one hundred nobles, and fifteen hundred 
 inferior captives, and the restoration of the wood of 
 the holy cross. Some doubts in the agreement, and 
 some delay in the execution, rekindled the fury of the 
 Franks, and three thousand Moslems, almost in the 
 sultan's view, were beheaded by the command of the 
 sanguinary Richard. * By the conquest of Acre, the 
 
 X Northmanni et Gothi, et caeteri populi insularum quae inter occi- 
 dentem et septentrionem sitae sunt, gentes bellicosae, corporis pro- 
 ceri, mortis intrepidse, bipennibus arniatae, navibus rotundis quss 
 Ysnachiae dicuntur ad vectae. 
 
 y The historian of Jerusalpm (p. IIOS.) adds the nations of the east 
 from the Tigris to India, and the swarthy tribes of Moors and Getu- 
 lians, 80 that Asia and Africa fought against Europe. 
 
 X Bohadin, p. 190. and this massacre is neither denied nor blamed 
 by the christian historians. Asacriter jussa complentea, (the £n( lislt 
 
 i 
 
352 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 i!i< 
 
 Richard of Eng- 
 land in Pules- 
 tinp, 
 A. D. 1191,1192. 
 
 Latin powers acquired a strong town and a conve- 
 nient harbour; but the advantacre was most dearly 
 purchased. The minister and historian of Saladin 
 computes, from the report of the enemy, that their 
 numbers, at different periods, amounted to five or six 
 hundred thousand ; that more than one hundred thou- 
 sand christians were slain ; that a far greater number 
 were lost by disease or shipwreck ; and that a small 
 portion of ihis mighty host could return in safety to 
 their native countries.* 
 
 Philip Augustus, and Richard the first, 
 are the only kings of France and Eng- 
 land, who have fought under the same 
 banners ; but the holy service, in which 
 they were enlisted, was incessantly disturbed by their 
 national jealousy ; and the two factions, which they 
 protected in Palestine, were more averse to each other 
 than to the common enemy. In the eyes of the orien- 
 tals, the French monarch was superior in dignity and 
 power ; and in the emperor's absence, the Latins re- 
 vered him as their temporal chief.** His exploits were 
 not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but the 
 statesman predominatt^d in his character ; he was soon 
 weary of sacrificing his health and interest on a barren 
 coast ; the surrender of Acre became the signal of his 
 departure; nor could he justify this unpopular deser- 
 tion, by leaving the duke of Burjrundy, with five hun- 
 dred knights, and ten thousand foot, for the service of 
 the Holy Land. The kingr of England, though infe- 
 rior in dignity, surpassed his rival in wealth and mili- 
 tary renown ;* and if heroism be confined to brutal and 
 ferocious valour, Richard Plantaffenet will stand high 
 among the heroes of the age. The memory of Caur 
 de Lton^ of the lion-hearted prince, was long dear and 
 glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance 
 of sixty years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings 
 by the grandsons of the Turks and Saracens, against 
 whom he had fought : his tremendous name was em- 
 ployed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants ; 
 and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider 
 was wont to exclaim, *' Dost thou think king Richard 
 is in that bushV'* His cruelty to the Mahometans 
 was the effect of temper and zeal ; but I cannot believe 
 that a soldier, so free and fearless in the use of his 
 lance, would have descended to whet a dagger against 
 his valiant brother Conrad of Montferrat, who was 
 slain at Tyre by some secret assassins.* After the 
 surrender of Acre, and the departure of Philip, the 
 king of England led the crusaders to the recovery of 
 the sea-coast ; and the cities of Caesarea and Jaffa 
 were added to the fragments of the kingdom of Lusig- 
 nan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre to 
 Ascalon, was a great and perpetual battle of eleven 
 days. In the disorder of his troops, Saladin remained 
 on the field with seventeen guards, without lowering 
 his standard, or suspending the sound of his brazen 
 
 Boldiprs) says Galfridus a Vinesauf, (1.4. c. 4. p. 346.) who fixes at 2700 
 lh*» nuniborof victims; who are multiplied to 5000 by Roger Huve- 
 deii, (i». 697, 698.) The humanity or avarice of Philip Augustus was 
 persuaded to ransom his prisoners. (Jacob, a Viiriaco, 1. i. c. 93. p. 
 1122) 
 
 » Bohadin, p. 14. He quotes the judgment of Balianus, and the 
 prince of Sidon, and adds, ex illo mundo quasi hominum paucissimi 
 redieriint. Anion? the christians who died before St. John d'Acre, I 
 find the English names of De Ferrers earl of Derby, (Dupdale, Baron- 
 a-.'e, part i. p. 260.) Mowbray, (idem, p. 124.) De Mandevil, De Fien- 
 nes, St. John, Scrope, Pigot, Talbot, &c. 
 
 b Macnus hie apud eos, inierque reges eorum turn virtute, turn 
 maj^siaie eminens .... summus rerum arbiter. (Bohadin, p. 159.) 
 lie does not seem to have known the names either of Philip or Kicb- 
 ard. 
 
 e Rex Anglise, prsestrenuus .... rege Gallorum minor apud eos 
 censebatur ralione regni atque dignitatis; sed tum divitiis florentior, 
 turn bellica virtute ni'ulto erat celebrior. (Bohadin, p. 101.) A stran- 
 ger misrhl admire those riches; the national historians will tell with 
 what lawless and wasteful oppr.ssion they were collected. 
 
 d Joinville, p. 17. Cuides-iu que cesoit le roi Richart? 
 
 • Yet he was guilty in the opinion of the Moslems, who attest the 
 confession of the assassins, that they were sent by the king of Eng- 
 land ; (Bohadin, p. 225 ) and his only defence is an absurd and palpa- 
 ble forgery, (Hist, de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xvi. p. 155— 
 163.) a pretended letter from the prince of the assassins, the sheich, 
 or old man of the mountain, who justified Richard, by assuming to 
 himself the guili or merit of the mtirder. 
 
 kettle-drum ; he again rallied and renewed the charge : 
 and his preachers or heralds called aloud on the unt' 
 iarians^ manfully to stand up against the christian 
 idolaters. But the progress of these idolaters was 
 irresistible : and it was only by demolishing the walls 
 and buildings of Ascalon, that the sultan could prevent 
 them from occupying an important fortress on the con- 
 fines of Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies 
 slept; but in the spring, the Franks advanced within 
 a day's march of Jerusalem, under the leading stan- 
 dard of the English king, and his active spirit inter- 
 cepted a convoy, or caravan, of seven thousand camels. 
 Saladin' had fixed his station in the holy city : but the 
 city was struck with consternation and discord : he 
 fasted ; he prayed ; he preached ; he offered to share 
 the dangers of the siege ; but his Mamalukes, who 
 remembered the fate of their companions at Acre, pres- 
 sed the sultan with loyal or seditious clamours, to 
 reserve his person and iheir courage for the future 
 defence of their religion and empire.* The Moslems 
 were delivered by the sudden, or as they deemed, the 
 miraculous, retreat of the christians ;*• and the laurels 
 of Richard were blasted by the prudence, or envy, of 
 his companions. The hero, ascending a hill, and veil- 
 ing his face, exclaimed with an indignant voice, 
 '* Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy 
 to view, the sepulchre of Christ!" After his return 
 to Acre, on the news that Jaffa was surprised by the 
 sultan, he sailed with some merchant vessels, and 
 leaped foremost on the beach ; the castle was relieved 
 by his presence; and sixty thousand Turks and Sara- 
 cens fled before his arms. The discovery of his weak- 
 ness provoked them to return in the morning ; and 
 they found him carelessly encamped before the gates 
 with only seventeen knights and three hundred arch- 
 ers. Without counting their numbers, he sustained 
 their charge ; and we learn from the evidence of his 
 enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, 
 rode furiously along their front, from the right to the 
 left wing, without meeting an adversary who dared to 
 encounter his career.' Am I writing the history of 
 Orlando or Amadis ? 
 
 During these hostilities, a languid and 
 tedious negociation* between the Franks 
 and Moslems was started, and continu- 
 ed, and broken, and again resumed, and 
 again broken. Some acts of royal courtesy, the gift 
 of snow and fruit, the exchange of Norway hawks 
 and Arabian horses, softened the asperity of religious 
 war : from the vicissitude of success, the monarchs 
 might learn to suspect that heaven was neutral in the 
 quarrel ; nor, after the trial of each other, could either 
 hope for a decisive victory.' The health both of 
 
 f See the distress and pious fimnnees of Saladin, as they are descri- 
 bed by Bohadin, (p. 7—9. 235-237.) who himself harangued the de- 
 fenders of Jerusalem ; their fears were not unknown to the enpmy. 
 (Jacob a Vitriaco, 1. i. c. 100. p. 1123. Vinisauf, I. v. c. 50. p. 399.) 
 
 K Yet unless the sultan, or an Ayoubiie prince, remained in Jeru.sa- 
 lem, nee Curdi Turcjs, nee Turci essent obtemperaturi Cordis. (Bo- 
 hadin, p. 236.) He draws aside a corner of the political curtain. 
 
 h Bohadin, (p. 237.) and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf, (1. vi. c. 1—8. p. 
 403— 409.) ascribe the retreat to Richard himself: and Jacobus n Vit- 
 riaco observes, that in his impatience to depart, in alterum vinim 
 mutatus est, (p. 1123.) Yet Joinville, a French knight, accuses the 
 envy of Hugh duke of Burgundy, (p. 116.) without supposing, like 
 Matthew Paris, that he was bribed by Saladin. 
 
 i The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, are related by 
 Bohadin (p. ]81— 249.) and Abulfcda, (p. 51, 52.) The author of the 
 Itinerary, or the monk of St. Alban's, cannot exaggerate the cadhi's 
 account of the prowe.ss of Richard ; (Vinisauf, I. vi. c 14— 24. p. 412— 
 421. Hist. Major, p. 137—143.) and on the whole of this war, there is a 
 marvellous agreement between the christian and Mahometan writers, 
 who mutually praise the virtues of their enemies. 
 
 k See the progress of negcKiation and ht«tility in Bohadin, (p. ^^ 
 —260.) who was himself an actor in the treaty. Richard declared his 
 intention of returning with new armies to the conquest of the Holy 
 Land; and Saladin answered the menace with a civil compliment. 
 (Vinisauf, I. vi. c. 28. p. 423.) 
 
 1 The most copious and originalaccounlof this holy war, is Galfrioi 
 a Vinisauf Iiinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi et aliorum in Ter- 
 ram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in the second volume 
 of Gale's Scriptores Hist. Anglicanae, (p. 247 — 429.) Roger Hoveden 
 and Matthew Paris afford likewise many valuable materials ; and the 
 former describes, with accuracy, the discipline and navigation of tbo 
 English fleet. 
 
 His treaty and 
 departure, 
 A. D. 1192. 
 September. 
 
 Eichard and Saladin appeared to be in a declining 
 stale; and they respectively suffered the evils of dis- 
 tant and domestic warfare : Plantagenet was impatient 
 to punish a perfidious rival who had invaded Norman- 
 dy in his absence ; and the indefatigable sultan was 
 subdued by the cries of the people, who were the vic- 
 tims, and of the soldiers, who were the instruments, 
 of his martial zeal. The first demands of the king of 
 England were the restitution of Jerusalem, Palestine, 
 and the true cross ; and he firmly declared, that him- 
 self and his brother pilgrims would end their lives in 
 the pious labour, rather than return to Europe with 
 ignominy and remorse. But the conscience of Saladin 
 refused, without some weighty compensation, to re- 
 store the idols, or promote the idolatry, of the chris- 
 tians : he assorted, with equal firmness, his religious 
 and civil claini to the sovereignty of Palestine; "des- 
 canted on the importance and sanctity of Jerusalem ; 
 and rejected all terms of the establishment, or parti- 
 tion, of the Latins. The marriage which Richard pro- 
 posed, of his sister with the sultan's brother, was 
 defeated by the difference of faith : the princess abhor- 
 red the embraces of a Turk ; and Adel, or Saphadin, 
 would not easily renounce a plurality of wives. A 
 personal interview was declined by Saladin, who 
 alleged their mutual ignorance of each other's lan- 
 guage ; and the negociation was managed with much 
 art and delay by their interpreters and envoys. The 
 final agreement was equally disapproved by the zeal- 
 ots of both parties, by the Roman pontiff^ and the caliph 
 of Bagdad. It was stipulated that Jerusalem and the 
 holy sepulchre should be open, without tribute or vex- 
 ation, to the pilgrimage of the Latin christians; that, 
 after the demolition of Ascalon, they should inclu- 
 
 Nsively possess the sea-coast from JaflTa to Tyre ; that 
 the count of Tripoli and the prince of Antioch should 
 J be comprised in the truce; and that, during three 
 years and three months, all hostilities should cease. 
 The principal chiefs of the two armies swore to the 
 observance of the treaty ; but ihe monarchs were sat- 
 isfied with giving their word and their right hand ; and 
 ^ the royal majesty was excused from an oath, which 
 always implies some suspicion of falsehood and dis- 
 I Death of honour. Richard embarked for Europe, 
 
 Saladin, to seek along captivity and a premature 
 ^Marcr4.* g^'^^e ; and the space of a few months 
 concluded the life and glories of Saladin. 
 The orientals describe his edifying death, which hap- 
 pened at Damascus; but they seem ignorant 'of the 
 equal distribution of his alms among the three reli- 
 gions," or of the display of a shroud, instead of a 
 standard, to admonish the east of the instability of 
 human greatness. The unity of empire was dissolved 
 by his death ; his sons were oppressed by the stronger 
 arm of their uncle Saphadin ; the hostile interests of 
 the sultans of Egypt, Damascus, and Aleppo," were 
 agrain revived ; and the Franks or Latins stood, and 
 breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses along the Sy- 
 rian coast. 
 
 Innocent HI. The noblest monument of a conquer- 
 A. D. 1198-1216. pr'g fame, and of the terror which he 
 inspired, is the Salad ine tenth, a general tax, which 
 ^vas imposed on the laity, and even the clergy, of the 
 Latin church for the service of the holy war. The prac- 
 tice was too lucrative to expire with the occasion; and 
 this tribute became the foundation of all the titles and 
 tenths on ecclesiastical benefices, which have been 
 granted by the Roman pontiffs to catholic sovereigns, 
 or reserved for the immediate use of the apostolic 
 see." Tliis pecuniary emolument must have tended 
 
 353 
 
 to increase the interest of the popes in the recovery of 
 Palestine: after the death of Saladin they preached 
 the crusade, by their epistles, their legates, and their 
 missionaries; and the accomplishment of the pious 
 work might have been expected from the zeal and 
 talents of Innocent the third.? Under that young and 
 ambitious priest, the successors of St. Peter attained 
 the full meridian of their greatness ; and in a reign of 
 eighteen years, he exercised a despotic command over 
 the emperors and kings, whom he raised and deposed; 
 over the nations, whom an interdict of months or 
 years deprived, for the offence of their rulers, of the 
 exercise of christian worship. In the council of the 
 Lateran he acted as the ecclesiastical, almost as the 
 temporal, sovereign of the east and west. It was at 
 the feet of his legate that John of England surren- 
 dered his crown ; and Innocent may boast of the two 
 most signal triumphs over sense and humanity, the 
 establishnient of transubstaniiation, and the origin of 
 the inquisition. At his voice, two crusades, the fourth 
 and the fifih, were undertaken ; but, except a king of 
 Hungary, the princes of the second order were at^the 
 head of the pilgrims : the forces were inadequate to 
 the design; nor did the effects correspond with the 
 hopes and wishes of the pope and the people. The 
 fourth crusade was diverted from Syria jy,g f^^u^th 
 to Constantinople ; and the conquest of crusade, 
 the Greek or Roman empire by the La- ^- ^- *'^- 
 tins will form the proper and important subject of the 
 next chapter. In the fifih,<> two hun- The fifth, 
 dred thousand Franks were landed at A. D. 1218. 
 the eastern mouth of the Nile. They reasonably 
 hoped that Palestine must be subdued in Egypt, the 
 seat and storehouse of the sultan; and, after a siege 
 of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of 
 Damietta. But the christian army was ruined by the 
 pride and insolence of the legate Pelagius, who, in 
 the pope's name, assumed the character of general ; 
 the sickly Franks were encompassed by the waters 
 of the Nile and the oriental forces ; and it was by the 
 evacuation of Damietta that they obtained a safe re- 
 treat, some concessions for the pilgrims, and the tardy- 
 restitution of the doubtful relic of the true cross. 
 The failure may in some measure be ascribed to the 
 abuse and multiplication of the crusades, which were 
 
 £ reached at the same time against the pagans of 
 livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France, 
 and the kings of Sicily of the imperial family.' In 
 these meritorious services, the volunteers might ac- 
 quire at home the same spiritual indulgence, and a 
 larger measure of temporal rewards; and even the 
 popes, in their zeal against a domestic enemy, were 
 sometimes tempted to forget the distress of their 
 Syrian brethren. From the last age of the crusades 
 they derived the occasional command of an army and 
 revenue; and some deep reasoners have suspected 
 that the whole enterprise, from the first synod of 
 Placentia, was contrived and executed by the policy 
 of Rome. The suspicion is not founded either in 
 nature or in fact. The successors of St. Peter appear 
 to have followed, rather than guided, the impulse of 
 manners and prejudice; without much foresioht of the 
 seasons, or cultivation of the soil, they gathered the 
 ripe and spontaneous fruits of the superstition of the 
 
 n> Even Vertot (torn. i. p. 2S1.) adopts the foolish notion of the in- 
 aifffrence of Saladin, who professed the Koran with his last breath. 
 
 "See the succession of the Ayoubites, in Abulpharasius, (Dynast. 
 T> Z77, &c.) and the tables of M. de Guignes, I'Arl de Verifier les 
 L»ate8, and the Bibliotheque Orientale. 
 
 o Thomaain (Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. iii. p. 311— 374) has copi- 
 ously treated of the origin, abuses, and restrictions of these tenth*. 
 A theory was started, but not pursued, that thej were rightfully due 
 Vol. II 2 U 23 
 
 to the pope, a tenth of the Levitee' tenth to the high-priest. (Selden 
 on Tithes; see his Works, vol. iii. p. ii. p. 1083.) 
 
 P See the Gesta Innocentii III. in Murat. Script. Rer. Iial. (torn. iii. 
 p. i. p. 486—568.) 
 
 q See the fifth crusade, and the siege of Dami< tta, in Jacobus a Vit- 
 riaco, (1. iii. p. 112.1-1149. in the Gesta Dei of Bongarsius,) an eye- 
 witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, (in Script. Muratori, torn. vii. p. 825 
 —846. c. 190—207.) a contemporary, and Sanutus,(Secreta Fidel. Cru- 
 cis, 1. iii. p. xi. c. 4—9.) a diligent compiler; and of the Arabians, 
 Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 294.) and the Extracts at the end of Joia- 
 ville, (p. 533. 537. 540 547, &c.) 
 
 r To those who took the cross against Mainfroy, the pope (A. D, 
 1255) granted plenissimam peccatorum remissionem. Fidelee mira* 
 bantur quod tantum eis promitteret pro sanguine Christ iannrum effun- 
 dendo quantum pro cruore infidelium aliquando. (Matthew Parif, p. 
 785.) A high flight fur the reaaon of the thirteenth ceatuiy. 
 
I ll 
 
 ^.0 
 
 P. 
 
 ^■f 
 
 If yx»- 
 K 
 
 ™r , T • fc 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 854 
 
 times. They gathered these fruits without toil or 
 personal danger: in the council of the Lateran, Inno- 
 cent the third declared an ambiguous resolution of 
 animating the crusaders by his example : but the pilot 
 of the sa'cred vessel could not abandon the helm ; nor 
 was Palestine ever blessed with the presence of a 
 
 Roman pontiff.* , r m- j * * 
 
 The persons, the families, and estates 
 
 F?eVr??TlTn of the pilgrims, were under the imme- 
 Palesiine, diate protection of the popes; and these 
 
 A. D. 132a spiritual patrons soon claimed the pre- 
 rogative of directing their operations, and enforcing, 
 by commands and censures, the accomplishment of 
 their vow. Frederic the second,' the grandson of 
 Barbarossa, was successively the pupil, the enemy, 
 and the victim of the church. At the age of twenty- 
 one years, and in obedience to his guardian Innocent 
 the third, he assumed the cross; the same promise 
 was repeated at his royal and imperial coronations; 
 and his marriage with the heiress of Jerusalem forever 
 bound him to defend the kingdom of his son Conrad. 
 But as Frederic advanced in age and authority, he 
 repented of the rash engagements of his youth : his 
 liberal sense and knowledge taught him to despise the 
 phantoms of superstition and the crowns of Asia: he 
 no longer entertained the same reverence for the suc- 
 cessors of Innocent; and his ambition was occupied 
 by the restoration of the Italian monarchy from Sicily 
 to the Alps. But the success of this project would 
 have reduced the popes to their primitive simplicity; 
 and, after the delays and excuses of twelve years, they 
 urged the emperor, with entreaties and threats, to fix 
 the time and place of his departure for Palestine. In 
 the harbours of Sicily and Apulia he prepared a fleet 
 of one hundred galleys, and of one hundred vessels, 
 that were framed to transport and land two thousand 
 five hundred knights, with their horses and atten- 
 dants; his vassals of Naples and Germany formed a 
 powerful army ; and the number of Enalish crusaders 
 was magnified to sixty thousand by the report of 
 fame. But the inevitable, or affected, slowness of 
 these mighty preparations, consumed the strength and 
 provisions of the more indiaent pilgrims; the multi- 
 tude was thinned by sickness and deserti<m, and the 
 sultry summer of Calabria anticipated the mischiefs 
 of a Syrian campaitrn. At length the emperor hoisted 
 sail at Brundusium', with a fleet and army of forty 
 thousand men ; but he kept the sea no more than three 
 days; and his hasty retreat, which was ascribed by 
 his friends to a grievous indisposition, was accused 
 by his enemies as a voluntary and obstinate disobe- 
 dience. For suspending his vow was Frederic ex- 
 communicated by Gregory the ninth ; for presuming, 
 the next year, to accomplish his vow, he was again 
 excommunciated by the same pope." While he served 
 under the banner of the cross, a crusade was preached 
 against him in Italy ; and after his return he was com- 
 pelled to ask pardon for the injuries which he had 
 suffered. The clergy and military orders of Pales- 
 tine were previously instructed to renounce his com- 
 munion and dispute his commands; and in his own 
 kingdom, the emperor was forced to consent that the 
 orders of the camp should be issued in the name of 
 God and of the christian republic. Frederic entered 
 Jerusalem in triumph ; and with his own hands (for 
 no priest would perform the ofllice) he took the crown 
 from the altar of the sepulchre. But the patriarch 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 cast an interdict on the church which his presence- 
 had profaned ; and the knights of the hospital and 
 temple informed the sultan how easily he might be 
 surprised and slain in his unguarded visit to the river 
 Jordan. In such a state of fanaticism and faction, 
 victory was hopeless, and defence was difficult; but 
 the conclusion of an advantageous peace may be im- 
 puted to the discord of the Mahometans, and their 
 personal esteem for the character of Frederic. The 
 enemy of the church is accused of maintaining with 
 the miscreants an intercourse of hospitality and friend- 
 ship, unworthy of a christian ; of despising the bar- 
 renness of the land ; and of indulging a profane 
 thought, that if Jehovah had seen the kingdom of 
 Naples, he never would have selected Palestine for 
 the inheritance of his chosen people. Yet Frederic 
 obtained from the sultan the restitution of Jerusalem, 
 of Bethlem and Nazareth, of Tyre and Sidon : the 
 Latins were allowed to inhabit and fortify the city ; 
 an equal code of civil and religious freedom was rati- 
 fied for the sectaries of Jesus and those of Mahomet; 
 and, while the former worshipped at the holy sepul- 
 chre, the latter might pray and preach in the mosch 
 of the temple,* from whence the prophet undertook 
 his nocturnal journey to heaven. The clergy deplored 
 this scandalous toleration; and the weaker Moslems 
 were gradually expelled ; but every rational object of 
 the crusades was accomplished without bloodshed ; 
 the churches were restored, the monasteries were re- 
 plenished ; and, in the space of fifteen years, the 
 Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of six thou- 
 sand. This peace and prosperity, for which they were 
 ungrateful to their benefactor, was terminated by the 
 irruption of the strange and savage hordes of Cariz- 
 mians.y Flying from the arms of the invasion of the 
 Moguls, those shepherds of the Caspian Carizmians, 
 rolled headlong on Syria ; and the union ^'^- *^^- 
 of the Franks with the sultans of Aleppo, Hems, and 
 Damascus, was insufficient to stem the violence of 
 the torrent. Whatever stood against them, was cut 
 off by the sword, or dragged into captivity : the mili- 
 tary orders were almost exterminated in a single bat- 
 tle; and in the pillage of the city, in the profanation 
 of the holy sepulchre, the Latins confess and regret 
 the modesty and discipline of the Turks and Saracens. 
 Of the seven crusades, the two last gi. Louis, and the 
 were undertaken by Louis the ninth, s'f'',"^?!'^ 
 king of France; who lost his liberty in A. u. i-ii^i-^^. 
 Egypt, and his life on the coast of Africa. Twenty- 
 eight years after his death, he was canonized at Kome ; 
 and sixty-five miracles were readily found, and sol- 
 emnly attested, to justify the claim of the royal saint.* 
 The voice of history renders a more honourable testi- 
 mony, that he united the virtues of a king, a hero, and 
 a man ; that his martial spirit was tempered hy the 
 love of private and public justice ; and that Louis was 
 the father of his people, the friend of his nciohbours, 
 and the terror of the infidels. Superstition alone, in 
 all the extent of her baleful influence,* corrupted his 
 understanding and his heart ; his devotion stooped to 
 admire and imitate the begging friars of Francis and 
 Dominic; he pursued with blind and cruel zeal the 
 enemies of the faith; and the best of kings twice de- 
 scended from his throne to seek the adventures of a 
 spiritual knight-errant. A monkish historian would 
 have been content to applaud the most despicable part 
 
 
 t This simple idea is agreeable to the good sense of Moshcim, (In- 
 sliiut. Hist. Eccles. p. 332.) and the fine philosophy of Hume. (Hisi. 
 of Eneland, vol. i. p. 330.) , , -^ ■, • u u 
 
 t The original materials for the crusade of Frederic 11. may be 
 drawn from Richard de St. Germane (in Muraion, Script. Rermn 
 Ilal. torn. vii. p. 1002-1013.) and Matthew Pans, (p. 286. ii9l. 300. 
 302. 304.) The most rational moderns are, Fleury, (Hist, fcccies 
 lom. xvl.) Vertot, (Chevaliers de Malthe, torn. i. 1. n>.) Giannone, 
 Clatoria Civile di Napoli, torn. ii. 1. xvi.) and Muratori. (Annah. 
 d'lulia, torn, x.) . , . v . .« ..„ . 
 
 fl Poor Muratori knows what to think, but knowi not wnil w »y . 
 ■* Chino qui il capo/' &.c. p. da. 
 
 X The clergy artfully confounded the mosch or church of the tem- 
 ple with the holy sepulchre, and their wilful error has deceived both 
 Vertot and Muratori. . v m . 
 
 y The irruption of the Carizmians, or Corasmins, is related by 3iai- 
 thew Paris, (p. 546, 547.) and by Joinville, Nangis, and the Arabians, 
 (p. Ill, 112. 191, 192. 5'28. .-iSO.) 
 
 X Read, if you can, the Life and Miracles of St. Louis, by the con- 
 fessor of (Jueen Margaret, (p. 291—523 Joinville, du Louvre.) 
 
 a He believed all that mother church taught, (Joinville, p. 10.) Bui 
 he cautioned Joinville asainsl disputing with infidels. '' L'onin\' 
 lay (said he in his old language) quand il ot medire de la loy cresii- 
 enne, ne doit pas defftndre la loy chrestienne ne maia que de d et- 
 p«e, dequoi il doit donner paimLlfi ventre d&Uiuis. tani cuiuiue elle j 
 peui entrer," (p. 12.) 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. XX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 I 
 
 355 
 
 of his character; but the noble and p^allant Joinville,** 
 who shared the friendship and captivity of Louis, has 
 traced with the pencil of nature the free portrait of his 
 virtues as well as of his failings. From tliis intimate 
 knowledge we may learn to suspect the political views 
 of depressing their great vassals, which are often im- 
 puted to the royal authors of the crusades. Above 
 all the princes of the middle ages, Louis the ninth 
 successfully laboured to restore the prerogatives of the 
 crown ; but it was at home, and not in the east, that 
 he acquired for himself and his posterity; his vow- 
 was the result of enthusiasm and sickness; and if he 
 were the promoter, he was likewise the victim, of this 
 holy madness. For the invasion of Egypt, France 
 was exhausted of her troops and treasures ; he covered 
 the sea of Cyprus with eighteen hundred sails; the 
 most modest enumeration amounts to fifty thousand 
 men ; and, if we might trust his own confession, as it 
 is reported by oriental vanity, he disembarked nine 
 thousand five hundred horse, and one hundred and 
 thirty thousand foot, who performed their pilgrimage 
 under the shadow of his power.' 
 He ukes Da- I" complete armour, the oriflamme wa- 
 mietia, ving before him, Louis leaped foremost 
 A. D. 1249. p„ l^^^ beach ; and the strong city of Da- 
 mietta, which had cost his predecessors a siege of six- 
 teen months, was abandoned on the first assault by the 
 trembling Moslems. But Damietta was the first and 
 the last of his conquests ; and in the fifth and sixth 
 crusades, the same causes, almost on the same ground, 
 were productive of similar calamities.'' After a ruin- 
 ous delay, which introduced into the camp the seeds 
 of an epidemical disease, the Franks advanced from 
 the sea-coast towards the capital of Egypt, and strove 
 to surmount the unseasonable inundation of the Nile, 
 which opposed their progress. Under the eye of their 
 intrepid monarch, the barons and knights of France 
 displayed their invincible contempt of danger and dis- 
 cipline : his brother, the count of Artois, stormed with 
 inconsiderate valour the town of Massoura ; and the 
 carrier pigeons announced to the inhabitants of Cairo 
 that all was lost. But a soldier, who afterwards 
 usurped the sceptre, rallied the flying troops : the main 
 body of the christians was far behind their vanguard ; 
 and Artois was overpowered and slain. A shower of 
 Greek fire was incessantly poured on the invaders; the 
 Nile was commanded hy the Egyptian galleys, the 
 open country by the Arabs; all provisions were inter- 
 cepted ; each day agj/ravated the sickness and fam- 
 ine ; and about the same time a retreat was found to 
 be necessary and impracticable. The oriental writers 
 confess, that Louis might have escaped, if he would 
 have deserted his subjects : he was made prisoner, with 
 the greatest part of his nobles ; all who could not re- 
 deem their lives by service or ransom, were inhumanly 
 massacred; and the walls of Cairo were decorated 
 with a circle of christian heads.* The 
 king of France was loaded with chains ; 
 but the generous victor, a great grand- 
 son of the brother of Saladin, sent a 
 robe of honour to his royal captive, and his deliver- 
 ance, w-ith that of his soldiers, was obtained by the 
 restitution of Damietta ' at.d the payment of four hun- 
 
 His 
 
 captivity 
 Esypi, 
 A. D. 12.->0. 
 April 5- May 6. 
 
 in 
 
 ^ I have^lwo editions of Joinville, the one (Paris, 1688.) most valu- 
 i7R?\ observations of Ducance ; the other (Paris au Louvre, 
 
 J/ol.) most precious for the pure and authentic text, a MS. of which 
 naa been recently discovered. The last editor proves, that the his- 
 i«>ry ofSt. Louis was finished A. D. 1309. without explaining, or even 
 aamiring, the age of the author, which must have exceeded ninety 
 years. (Preface, p. xi. Observations de Ducauge, p. 17.) 
 
 « J<'inville, p. 32. Arabic Extracts, p. 549. 
 
 « The last editors have enriched their Joinville with large and cu- 
 rious extracts from the Arabic historians, Macrizi, Abulfeda, &c. See 
 J'K'^wise Ahulj.hara?iiis, (Dynast, p. 3-22— 325.) who calls him by the 
 corrupt name of Redefrans. Matthew Paris (p. G83, 6&4 ) has des- 
 cnopu the rival folly of the French and English who fought and fell 
 •I Massoura. 
 
 li, «^ f^?""^' '" ^'' agreeable Leitres sur I'Egyple, has given a descrip- 
 »_n or Damietta, Xtom. i. leltre xxiii. p. 174- 290.) and a narrative of 
 »ne expedition of St. I/)uis. (xxv. p. .%6— 350.) 
 
 ' Tor the ransom of St. Louis, a million of byrants was asked and 
 fraoied ; but the sultan's generosity reduced that sum to 800,000 by- 
 
 dred thousand pieces of gold. In a soft and luxurious 
 climate, the degenerate children of the companions 
 of Noureddin and Saladin were incapable of resist- 
 ing the flower of European chivalry; they triumph- 
 ed by the arms of their slaves or Mamalukes, the har- 
 dy natives of Tartary, who at a tender age had been 
 purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were edu- 
 cated in the camp and palace of the sultan. But 
 Egypt soon afforded a new example of the danger of 
 pr^torian bands ; and the rage of these ferocious ani- 
 mals, who had been let loose on the strangers, was 
 provoked to devour their benefactor. In the^'pride of 
 conquest Touran Shaw, the last of his race, was mur- 
 dered by his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the 
 assassins entered the chamber of the captive king, 
 with drawn scymitars, and their hands imbrued in the 
 blood of their sultan. The firmness of Louis com- 
 manded their respect;* their avarice prevailed over 
 cruelty and zeal ; the treaty was accomplished ; and 
 the king of France, with the relics of his army, was 
 permitted to embark for Palestine. He wasted four 
 years within the walls of Acre, unable to visit Jerusa- 
 lem, and unwilling to return without glory to his native 
 country. 
 
 The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after six- 
 teen years of wisdom and repose, to undertake the 
 seventh and last of the crusades. His finances were 
 restored, his kingdom was enlarged ; a new generation 
 of warriors had arisen, and he embarked with fresh 
 confidence at the head of six thousand horse and thirty 
 thousand foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the 
 enterprise : a v^Mld hope of baptizing the king of Tu- 
 nis, tempted him to steer for the African coast; and 
 the report of an immense treasure reconciled his troops 
 to the delay of their voyage to the Holy Land. In- 
 stead of a proselyte, he found a siege ; His death before 
 the French panted and died on the burn- Tunis in the 
 ing sands ; St. Louis expired in his tent; '"TD.'im'^^' 
 and no sooner had he closed his eyes, Aug. 25. 
 than his son and successor gave the signal of the re- 
 treat.'' »» It is thus," says a lively WTiter, " that a 
 christian king died near the ruins of Carthage, wa- 
 ging war against the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land 
 to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria."^ 
 
 A more unjust and absurd constitu- The Mamalukes 
 tion cannot be devised, than that which of Egypt, 
 condemns the natives of a country to '^'^•*^^^^'^*^*^* 
 perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of 
 strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state of 
 Egypt above five hundred years. The most illus- 
 trious sultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynasties* 
 W'ere themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circas- 
 sian bands ; and the four and twenty beys, or military 
 chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their sons, but 
 by their servants. They produce the great charter of 
 their liberties, the treaty of Selim the first with the 
 republic;' and the Othman emperor still accepts from 
 
 zants, which are valued by Joinville at 400,000 French livres of hi« 
 own time, and expressed by Matthew Paris by 1(X),000 marks of sil- 
 ver. (Ducange, Dissertation xx. sur Joinville.) 
 
 r The idea of the emirs to choose Louis for their sultan, is seriously 
 attested by Joinville, (p. 77, 78.) and docs not appear to roe so absurd 
 as to M. de Voltaire. (Hist. Generale, torn. ii. p. 386, 387.) The Mam* 
 alukes themselves were strangers, rebels, ana equals ; they had felt 
 his valour, they hoped his conversion ; and such a motion, which was 
 not seconded, might be made, perhaps by a secret christian, iu their 
 tumultuous assembly. 
 
 h See the expedition in the Annals of St. Louis, by William de 
 Nangis, p. 270—287. and the Arabic Extracts, p. 545. 555. of the Lou- 
 vre edition of Joinville. 
 
 i Voltaire, Hist. Generale, torn. ii. p. 391. 
 
 k The chronology of the two dynasties of Mamalukes, the Baha- 
 riles, Turks or Tartars of Kipzak, and the Borgites, Circassians, is 
 given by Pocock (Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 6—31.) and de Guig- 
 nes, (tom. i. p. 264—270.) their history from Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c. to 
 the beginning of the fifteenth century, by the same M. de Guignet, 
 (tom. iv. p. 110— 3i.'8.) 
 
 I Savary, Lettres sur I'Egypte, lom. ii. leltre xv. p. 189-208. I 
 much question the authenticity of this copy: yet it is true, that sul- 
 tan Selim concluded a treaty with the Circassians or Mamalukes of 
 Egypt, and left them in possession of arms, riches, and power. See 
 a new Abregt^ de I'Histoire Ottomane, composed in Egypt, and trans- 
 lated by M. Digeon, (tom. i. p. 55— 58. Paris, 1781.) a curious, autheo- 
 tic, and uaiioaai hittor/. 
 
 •I 
 
14 
 
 
 356 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 357 
 
 m 
 
 IT' 
 
 "t ' 
 
 ll 
 
 hi • 
 
 l\ 
 
 ? 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 Effvpt a slioht acknowledgrment of tribute and subjec- 
 tioiu With some breathing intervals of peace and 
 order, the two dynasties are marked as a period of 
 lapine and bloodshed ;» but their throne, however 
 shaken, reposed on the two pillars of discipline and 
 valour; their sway extended over Egypt, Nubia, Ara- 
 bia, and Syria ; their Mamalukes were multiplied from 
 eight hundred to twenty-five ihousand horse; and their 
 numbers were increased hy a provincial miliiia of one 
 hundred and seven thousand foot, and the occasional 
 aid of sixty-six thousand Arabs." Princes of such 
 power and spirit could not long endure on their coast 
 a hostile and independent nation ; and if the ruin of 
 the Franks was postponed about forty yeaxs, they 
 were indebted to the cares of an unsettled reign, to 
 the invasion of the Moguls, and to the occasional aid 
 of 8ome warlike pilgrims. Among these, the English 
 reader will observe the name of our first Edward, 
 who assumed the cross in the life-time of his father 
 Henry. At the head of a thousand soldiers, the future 
 conqueror of Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from 
 a siege ; marched as far as Nazareth with an army of 
 nine "thousand men; emulated the fame of his uncle 
 Richard; extorted, by his valour, a ten years' truce ; 
 and escaped, with a danijerous wound, from the dagger 
 LoMof Antioch. of a fanatic assassin.- Antioch,P whose 
 
 A. D. 1268. 
 June 12. 
 
 situation had been less exposed to the 
 calamities of the holy war, was finally 
 occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, sultan 
 of Egypt and Syria; the Latin principality was ex- 
 tinguished ; and the first seat of the christian name 
 was dispeopled by the slaughter of seventeen, and the 
 captivity of one hundred, thousand of her inhabitants. 
 The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, 
 Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, and Jaffa, and the stronger 
 castles of the hospitalers and templars, successively 
 fell ; and the whole existence of the Franks was con- 
 fined to the city and colony of St. John of Acre, which 
 is sometimes described by the more classic title of 
 Ptolemais. 
 
 After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre,*! which is dis- 
 tant about seventy miles, became the metropolis of 
 the Latin christians, and was adorned with strong and 
 stately buildings, with aqueducts, an artificial port, 
 and a double wall. The population was increased by 
 the incessant streams of pilgrims and fugitives : in 
 the pauses of hostility the trade of the East and West 
 was attracted to this convenient station ; and the mar- 
 ket could offer the produce of every clime and the 
 interpreters of every tongue. But in this conflux of 
 nations, every vice was propagated and practised : of 
 all the disciples of Jesus and Mahomet, the male and 
 female inhabitants of Acre were esteemed the most 
 corrupt; nor could the abuse of religion he corrected 
 by the discipline of law. The city had many sove- 
 reigns, and no government. The kings of Jerusalem 
 and Cyprus, of the house of Lusignan, the princes of 
 Antioch, the counts of Tripoli and Sidon, the great 
 masters of the hospital, the temple, and the Teutonic 
 order, the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, the 
 pope's legate, the kings of France and England, as- 
 sumed an independent command ; seventeen tribunals 
 exercised the power of life and death; every criminal 
 
 m Si tolum (|Uo rpgnum occuparunt tempus reapicias, praeserllm 
 aiu>d fini pntpius, reperiea illud bellis, pugnia, injuriis, ac rapinis re- 
 ferium. (Al Jannabi, apud Pocock, p. 31.) The reigii of Mohammed, 
 (A. D 1311— llMl.) affords a happy exception. (De Guignes, torn. it. 
 
 ^ B They are now reduced to 8500 : but the expense of each Mama- 
 luke may be rated at JOO louis: and Egypt groans under the avarice 
 and insolence of these strangers. (Voyages de Volney, torn. i. p. 89— 
 
 187 ^ 
 
 o See Carte's History of England, vol ii. p. 165-175. and his origi- 
 nal authors, Thomas Wilkes and Walter "^'"'•^^f Ji,<lj'';/; ^' I 
 35 ) in Gple'8 Collection, (torn. ii. p. 97. 589-592.) They are both 
 ignorant of the princess Eleanor's piety in sucking the poisoned 
 wound, and saving her husband at the risk of her own life. 
 
 p Sanuius, Secret. Fidelium Crucis, I. iii. p. xii. c. 9. and DeOuig- 
 nw. Hist, des Huns, torn. iv. p. 143. from the Arabic historians. 
 
 q The Plate of Acre is represented in all the Chronicles of the 
 times, and m.^t accurately in John Villani, I. viL c. 144. in IVluralori, 
 Scriptures Kerum Italicarum, torn. ziii. p. 337| 338. 
 
 was protected in the adjacent quarter; and the perpe- 
 tual jealousy of the nations often burst forth in aclg 
 of violence and blood. Some adventurers, who dis- 
 graced the ensign of the cross, compensated their 
 want of pay by the plunder of the Mahometan villa- 
 ges : nineteen Syrian merchants, who traded under 
 the public faith, were despoiled and hanged by the 
 christians; and the denial of satisfaction justified the 
 arms of the sultan Khalil. He marched against Acre 
 at the head of sixty thousand horse and one hundred 
 and forty thousand foot: his train of artillery (if I 
 may use the word) was numerous and weighty ; the 
 separate timbers of a single engine were transported in 
 one hundred waggons: and the royal historian Abul- 
 feda, who served with the troops of Hamah, was him- 
 self a spectator of the holy war. Whatever might be the 
 vices of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by en- 
 thusiasm and despair ; but they were torn by the discord 
 of seventeen chiefs, and overwhelmed on all sides by 
 the powers of the sultan. After a siege Thelossof Acr« 
 of thirty-three days, the double wall was J^'J^*^® ^^^^ 
 forced by the Moslems; the principal a.'d. 1295. 
 tower yielded to their engines ; the Ma- May 13. 
 malukes made a general assault; the city was storm- 
 ed; and death or slavery was the lot of sixty thousand 
 christians. The convent, or rather fortress, of the 
 templars resisted three days longer; but the great 
 master was pierced w iih an arrow ; and, of five hun- 
 dred knights, only ten were left alive, less happy than 
 the victims of the sword, if they lived to suffer on a 
 scaffold in the unjust and cruel proscription of the 
 whole order. The king of Jerusalem, the patriarch, 
 and the great master of the hospital, effected their 
 retreat to the shore ; but the sea was rough, the vessels 
 were insufficient; and great numbers of the fugritives 
 were drowned before they could reach the isle of 
 Cyprus, which might comfort Lusignan for the loss 
 of Palestine. By the command of the sultan, the 
 churches and fortifications of the Latin cities were 
 demolished ; a motive of avarice or fear still opened 
 the holy sepulchre to some devout and deftnceless 
 pilgrims ; and a mournful and solitary silence prevail- 
 ed along the coast which had so long resounded with 
 the woRLD^s debate/ 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Schisms of the Greeks and Latins.— State of Cwsimitinc- 
 pie. — Revolt of the Bulgarians. — Isaac Aneelus dethrm- 
 ed by ?ns brother Alexitis.— Origin of the fourth crusade. 
 — Alliance of the French and Venetians with the son r.f 
 Isaac. — Their naval expedition to Const ant inople.--Th 
 two sieges and final cotu/uest of the city by the Latins. 
 
 The restoration of the western empire schism of the 
 by Charlemagne was speedily followed Greeks, 
 by the separation of the Greek and Latin churches.* 
 A religious and national animosity still divides the two 
 largest communions of the christian world ; and the 
 schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most use- 
 ful allies, and provoking her most dangerous enemies, 
 has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman em- 
 pire in the east. 
 
 In the course of the present history Their aversion 
 the aversion of the Greeks for the Latins 10 the Latins. 
 has been often visible and conspicuous. It was ori- 
 ginally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, 
 after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality 
 or dominion ; and finally exasperated by the preference 
 which their rebellious subjects had given to the alU- 
 
 r See the final expulsion of the Franks, in Sanuius, 1. iii. P. xii. c. 
 11—22. Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c in De Guignes, torn. iv. p. lt)2. 164. 
 and Vertot. torn. i. I. iii. p. 407— 4iJ8. 
 
 a In the successive centuries, from the ninth to the eighteenin, 
 Mosheim traces the schism of the Greeks with learning, clearness, 
 and impartiality: \he filioque^ (Insiitut. Hist. Eccles. p. 277.) Leo 
 IlL p. 303. Phoiiua, p. »I7, 308. Michael Cerulariua, p. 370, 371, «c. 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 ance of the Franks. In every age the Greeks were 
 proud of their superiority in profane and religious 
 knowledge : they had first received the light of Chris- 
 tianity ; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven 
 general councils ; they alone possessed the language 
 of Scripture and philosophy ; nor should the barba- 
 rians, immersed in the darkness of the west,'' pre- 
 sume to argue on the high and mysterious questions 
 of theological science. Those barbarians despised in 
 their turn the restless and subtle levity of the orientals, 
 the authors of every heresy ; and blessed their own 
 simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of 
 the apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the 
 synods of Spain, and afterwards of France, improved 
 or corrupted the Nicene creed, on the mysterious sub- 
 ject of the third person of the Trinity.* In the long 
 Procession of the controversies of the east, the nature and 
 Holy Ghost, generation of the Christ had been scru- 
 pulously defined ; and the well-known relation of father 
 and son seemed to convey a faint image to the human 
 mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the 
 Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, 
 was considered by the catholics as a substance, a per- 
 son, a god ; he was not begotten, but in the orthodox 
 style he proceeded. Did he proceed from the Father 
 alone, perhaps by the Son ? or from the Father and the 
 Son % The first of these opinions was asserted by 
 the Greeks, the second by the Latins ; and the addition 
 to the Nicene creed of the word filioque, kindled the 
 flame of discord between the oriental and the Gallic 
 churches. In the origin of the dispute, the Roman 
 pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and modera- 
 tion :** they condemned the innovation, but they acqui- 
 esced in the sentiment, of their Transalpine brethren ; 
 they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and 
 charity over the superfluous research ; and in the cor- 
 respondence of Charlemagne and Leo the third, the 
 pope assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the 
 prince descends to the passion and prejudices of a 
 priest.* But the orthodoxy of Rome spontaneously 
 obeyed the impulse of her temporal policy ; and the 
 filioque, which Leo wished to erase, was transcribed 
 m the symbol and chanted in the liturgy of the Vati- 
 can. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds are held as 
 the catholic faith, without which none can be saved ; 
 and both papists and protestants must now sustain and 
 return the anathemas of the Greeks, who deny the 
 procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as 
 Variety of eccle- ^'^"" ^^® Father. Such articles of faith 
 siasiical disci- are not susceptible of treaty ; but the 
 P''**®' rules of discipline will vary in remote 
 
 and independent churches ; and the reason, even of di- 
 vines, might allow, that the diflference is inevitable 
 and harmless. The craft or superstition of Rome has 
 imposed on her priests and deacons the rigid obliga- 
 tion of celibacy ; among the Greeks it is confined to 
 the bishops ; the loss is compensated by dignity or 
 annihilated by age ; and the parochial clergy, the pa- 
 pas, enjoy the conjugal society of the wives whom 
 they have married before their entrance into holy 
 orders. A question concerning the azyms was fiercely 
 
 T»« y«p <£a-«ri^iev fiUftt '■^*f*('/.^* yivufi/iXTu, (Phol. Epist. p. 47. 
 
 edit. Monlacul.) The oriental patriarch continues to apply the im- 
 ages of thunder, earthquake, hail, wild boar, precursors of Antichrist, 
 4c. kc. 
 
 e The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy Ghost, is 
 discussed in the historical, theological, and controversial sense, or 
 nonpf nsp, by the Jesuit Petavius. (Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. 1. vii. 
 P.36Z-440.) 
 
 d Before the shrine of St. Peter, he placed two shields of the weight 
 of 94 1-2 pounds of pure silver •, on which he inscribed the text of both 
 creeds (utroque symbolo) pro amore et cautelu orthodox* fidei. (Anas- 
 las, in Leon. 111. in Muratori. tom. iii. pars i. p. 2()8.) His language 
 most clearly proves, that neither xhefilioque nor the Athanasian creed 
 were received at Rome about the year SiO. 
 
 e The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare, that all who 
 rejected the ^/i07M«. at least the doctrine, must be damned. All, 
 replies the pope, are not capable of reaching the altiora mysteria; 
 qui p()iuerit, ei non voluerit, salvus esse non potest, (Collect. Concil. 
 torn. ix. p. 277—286.) The potuerit would leave a large loop-hole of 
 MlvationI 
 
 debated in the eleventh century, and the essence of the 
 eucharist was supposed in the east and west to depend 
 on the use of levened or unlevened bread. Shall I 
 mention in a serious history the furious reproaches 
 that were urged against the Latins, who for a long 
 while remained on the defensive ? They neglected 
 to abstain, according to the apostolical decree, from 
 things strangled, and from blood : they fasted, a Jew- 
 ish observance ! on the Saturday of each week ; dur- 
 ing the first week of Lent they permitted the use of 
 milk and cheese ; ' their infirm monks were indulged 
 in the taste of flesh ; and animal grease was substitu- 
 ted for the want of vegetable oil : the holy chrism or 
 unction in baptism was reserved to the episcopal 
 order : the bishops, as the bridegrooms of their chur- 
 ches, were decorated with rings ; their priests shaved 
 their faces, and baptized by a single immersion. Such 
 were the crimes which provoked the zeal of the patri- 
 archs of Constantinople; and w^hich were justified 
 with equal zeal by the doctors of the Latin church.* 
 
 Bigotry and national aversion are pow- Ambitious quar- 
 erful magnifiers of every object of dis- rels of Photius, 
 pute ; but the immediate cause of the Knsianiinopie, 
 schism of the Greeks may be traced in with the^ popes, 
 the emulation of the leading prelates, ^' ^' ^'^-*^- 
 who maintained the supremacy of the old metropolis 
 superior to all, and of the reigning capital, inferior to 
 none, in the christian world. About the middle of the 
 ninth century, 'Photius,'' an ambitious layman, the 
 captain of the guards and principal secretary, was 
 promoted by merit and favour to the more desirable 
 office of patriarch of Constantinople. In science, even 
 ecclesiastical science, he surpassed the clergy of the 
 age ; and the purity of his morals has never been im- 
 peached : but his ordination was hasty, his rise was 
 irregular; and Ignatius, his abdicated predecessor, 
 was yet supported by the public compassion and the 
 obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the tri- 
 bunal of Nicholas the first, one of the proudest and 
 most aspiring of the Roman pontiflTs, who embraced 
 the welcome opportunity of judging and condemning 
 his rival of the east. Their quarrel was imbittered 
 by a conflict of jurisdiction over the king and nation 
 of the Bulgarians ; nor was their recent conversion to 
 Christianity of much avail to either prelate, unless he 
 could number the proselytes among the subjects of 
 his power. With the aid of his court the Greek pa- 
 triarch was victorious ; but in the furious contest he 
 deposed in his turn the successor of St. Peter, and 
 involved the Latin church in the reproach of heresy 
 and schism. Photius sacrificed the peace of the world 
 to a short and precarious reign : he fell with his pa- 
 tron, the Caesar Bardus ; and Basil the Macedonian 
 performed an act of justice in the restoration of Igna- 
 tius, whose age and dignity had not been sufficiently 
 respected. From his monastery, or prison, Photius 
 solicit(?d the favour of the emperor by pathetic com- 
 plaints and artful flattery ; and the eyes of his rival 
 were scarcely closed, when he was again restored to 
 the throne of Constantinople. After the death of Ba- 
 sil, he experienced the vicissitudes of courts and the 
 ingratitude of a royal pupil : the patriarch was again 
 deposed, and in his last solitary hours he might regret 
 the freedom of a secular and studious life. In each 
 revolution, the breath, the nod, of the sovereign had 
 been accepted by a submissive clergy ; and a synod 
 of three hundred bishops was always prepared to hail 
 
 f In France, after some harsher laws, the ecclesiastical disciplme 
 is now relaxed : milk, cheese, and butter, are become a perpetual, 
 and eggs an annual, indulgence in Lent. (Vie priv<ie des Francois, 
 
 tom. ii. "p. 27— 38.) , . ,. , . 
 
 g The original monuments of the schism, of the charges of the 
 Greeks against the Latins, are deposited in the epistles of Photius, 
 (Epist. Encyclica, ii. p. 47—61.) and of Michael Cerularms. (Canisii 
 Aniiq. Lectiones, tom. iii. P. i. p. 281—324. edit. Basnage, with the 
 prolix answer of Cardinal Humbert.) ,. . ^ , „ 
 
 h The tenth volume of the Venice edition of the Councils contains 
 all the acts of the synods, and history of Photius : they are abridged, 
 with a faint tinge of prejudice or prudence, by Dupin and Fleury. 
 
 m 
 
 'J 
 
 <s 
 
358 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 359 
 
 
 
 
 1' 
 
 Constantinople were ratified by their epistles or le-l Greek clergy washed and purified the altar. ^^l.Rh 
 gates. But the court and the people, Ignatius and ! had been defiled by the sacrifice of a trench priest. 
 Photius, were equally adverse to their claims; their i The companions of Frederic Barbarossa deplore the 
 ministers were insulted or imprisoned : the procession 
 
 of the Holy Ghost was forgotten : Bulgaria was for 
 ever annexed to the Byzantine throne ; and the schism 
 •was prolonged by the rigid censure of all the multi- 
 plied ordinations of an irregular patriarch. The dark- 
 ness and corruption of the tenth century suspended the 
 intercourse, without reconciling the minds, of the two 
 nations. But when the Norman sword restored the 
 churches of Apulia to the jurisdiction of Rome, the 
 departing flock was warned, by a petulent epistle of 
 the Greek patriarch, to avoid and abhor the errors of 
 the Latins. The rising majesty of Rome could no 
 
 „^ lonffer brook the insolence of a rebel ; 
 
 The popes ex- ."■«»• • \ ^ i 
 
 communicate and Michael Cerularius was excommu- 
 
 ihe patriarch of nicated in the heart of Constantinople by 
 
 Sdthe"Gr"eTll3, the pope's legates. Shaking the dust 
 
 A. D. 1054. from their feet, they deposited on the 
 
 July 16. ^jj^j. jjf gt^ Sophia a direful anathema,* 
 
 which enumerates the seven mortal heresies of the 
 Greeks, and devotes the guilty teachers, and their 
 unhappy sectaries, to the eternal society of the devil 
 
 injuries which they endured, both in word and deed, 
 from the peculiar rancour of the bishops and monks. 
 Their prayers and sermons excited the people against 
 the impious barbarians; and the patriarch is accused 
 of declaring, that the faithful might obtain the redemp- 
 tion of all their sins by the extirpation of the schis- 
 matics." An enthusiast, named Dorotheus, alarmed 
 the fears, and restored the confidence, of the emperor, 
 by a prophetic assurance, that the German heretic, 
 after assaulting the gate of Blachernes, would be 
 made a singular example of the divine vengeance. 
 The passages of these mighty armies were rare and 
 perilous events; but the crusades introduced a frequent 
 and familiar intercourse between the two nations, 
 which enlarged their knowledge without abating their 
 prejudices. The wealth and luxury of The LRtina at 
 Constantinople demanded the produc- Constantinople; 
 tions of every climate : these imports were balanced 
 by the art and labour of her numerous inhabitants; 
 her situation invites the commerce of the world ; and, 
 in every period of her existence, that commerce has 
 
 and his an<rels. According to the emergencies of the | been in the hands of foreigners. After the decline of 
 church anf state a friendly correspondence was some- | Amal phi, the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, intro- 
 times resumed ; the language of charity and concord i duced their factories and settlements into the capital 
 was sometimes affected ; but the Greeks have never of the empire : their services were rewarded with 
 recanted their errors ; the popes have never repealed honours and immunities ; they acquired the possession 
 their sentence : and from this thunderbolt we may date | of lands and houses ; their families were multiplied by 
 the consummation of the schism. It was enlarged I marriages with the natives; and, after the toleration 
 by each ambitious step of the Roman pontiffs; the, of a Mahometan mosch, it was impossible to interdict 
 emperors blushed and trembled at the ignominious fate I the churches of the Roman rile." The two wives of 
 of their royal brethren of Germany; and the people i Manuel Comnenus° were of the race of the Franks; 
 were scandalized by the temporal power and military the first, a sister-in-law of the emperor Conrad; the 
 life of the Latin clergy.' second, a daughter of the prince of Antioch : he obtain- 
 
 Enmiiyof the The^version of the Greeks and La- ed for his son Alexius a daughter of Philip Augustus 
 Greeks and La- ii„s ^as nourished and manifested in j king of France; and he bestowed his own daughter 
 *'°''a D ^l^e three first expeditions to the Holy j on a marquis of Montserrat, who was educated and 
 
 1100-1200. Land. Alexius Comnenus contrived the | dignified in the palace of Constantinople. The Greek 
 absence at least of the formidable pilgrims: his sue-' encountered the arms and aspired to the empire, of 
 cessors, Manuel and Isaac Angelus, conspired with ; the west; he esteemed the valour, and trusted the 
 the Moslems for the ruin of the greatest princes of | fidelity, of the Franks ;p their military talents were 
 the Franks; and their crooked and malignant policy unfitly recompensed by the lucrative ofiices of judges 
 was seconded by the active and voluntary obedience of and treasurers; the policy of Manuel had solicited the 
 every order of their subjects. Of this hostile temper, alliance of the pope; and the popular voice accused 
 a large portion may doubtless be ascribed to the dif-l him of a partial bias to the nation and religion of the 
 ference of language, dress, and manners, which severs Latins.<» During his reign, and that of his successor 
 and alienates the^nations of the globe. The pride, as! Alexius, they were exposed at Constantinople to the 
 well as the prudence, of the sovereign was deeply reproach of foreigners, heretics, and favourites ; and 
 wounded by the intrusion of foreign armies, that claim- 1 this triple guilt was severely expiated in the tumult, 
 ed a right of traversing his dominions, and passing! which announced the return and elevation of Androni- 
 
 nnder the walls of his capital ; his subjects were ; , His anonymous historian (de Exppdit. Asiat. Fred. I. in Canisii 
 insulted and plundered by the rude strangers Ot the j Lection. Antiq. torn. iii. pars ii. p. 511. edit. Basnage) mentions the 
 west; and the hatred of the pusillanimous Greeks was sermons of the Greok patriarch, riuomodoGraecisinjunxeral in remis- 
 
 , J , , /.I u ij J ->: .^ r.*^- sionem peccatorum peroprinos occidere et delere de terra. Tagino 
 
 sharpened by secret envy of the bold and pious enter- observes, (in Scriptores Frcher. torn. i. p. 409. edit. Siruv.) Gr»ci 
 prises of the Franks. But these profane causes of haereticos ni>s appellant: clerici el monachi dictis et factis persa- 
 
 n»tinn»l pnmitv wpro fnrtifipd nnd inflamed hv the n^unli""' ^'® '"^X ^'■^^ ^^^ declaration of the Emprror Baldwin 
 nauonai enmity were loriinea ana innamea uy l»e,^j.^^^j^ ^^^^ afterwards: Hac est (gens) qua Latinos omnes non 
 
 venom ot religious zeal. Instead ot a kmd embrace, j hominum nomine, sed canum dlgnabaiur; quorum sanpuinem effun- 
 a hospitable reception from their christian brethren dere pene inter merita reputabant. (Gesta Innocent. HI. c. 92. in 
 
 r .u ^^t ^,,^-.. ♦ _ „ * u. . ^^ «. 4i i Muratori, Script. Korum Italicarum, torn. iii. pars I. p. 536.) There 
 
 of the cast, every tongue was taught to repeat the ; „,ay ^e some exaggeration, but it was as effectual for \he action and 
 
 names of schismatic and heretic, more odious to an re-action of hatred. 
 
 orthodox ear than those of pagan and infidel : instead "^^!^"jS^?,^'""*:"^f^'^^'*?'^•^'•P *^l^*5?:i^^^^^ 
 
 ^ , . , 1 /• ^1 ^^ r • /•/••» 1 passage of pJiceias, (in Manuel. 1, V. c. 9.) who observes of the Vene- 
 
 of being Joved lor the general conlormity of faith and tian5,«»T» a-^nvn ««• ^(»r(t»s Tn*Kx,>{»vxi*<inoKiv ^motKu»i .,a.\«- 
 
 ^ ^aVTO, &!'. 
 
 o Duci«n2P,Fam. Byzant. p. 186, 187. 
 
 i The synod of Constantinople, held in the ycar869, is theeightliof , p Niceuis in Manwfl. 1. vii. c. 2. Kegnante cnim (Manuele) . . . . 
 the general councils, the last a.«»8enibly of the east which is recogni- apud euiu tautarn Lalinus populus repererat eraiiam ut neglectis, 
 zed by the Uoinan church. She rejects the synods of Constantinople Graculis 8i:is tanquam vins moUibus et effuminatis, .... soils 
 of the years 867 and 879, which were, however, equally numerous and Laiinis grandia commitieret nejrolia .... erga eos profus.n liberali- 
 noisy ; but they were favourable to Photius. tate abundabat - - - ex omni orbe ad eum tanquam ad benefactorem 
 
 k See this anathema in the councils, tom. xi. p. M57— 1 160. nobiles et ignobilee concurrebant. Willerm Tyr. xxii. c. 10. 
 
 1 Anna Comnena (Alexiad, 1. i. p 31— 33 ) represents the abhor- ; q The suspicions of the Greeks would have been confirmed, if they 
 rence, not only of the church, but of the palace, for Gregory VII. the , had seen the poliiical epistles of Manuel to pope Alexandre ill. the 
 popes, and the Latin communion. The style of Cinnamus and Nice- enemy of his enemy Frederic 1., in which the emperor dix'. ires his 
 las is siill more vehement. Yet how calm is the voice of history ; wish of uniting the Greeks and Latins as one flock under one shep- 
 compared with that of polemics ! I herd, ice. (See Fleury. Hist. Ecclea. torn. xv. p. 187. 213. 243.) 
 
 I 
 
 their mas!«acre, cus.' The people rose in arms ; from 
 A. 1^- 11S3. the Asiatic shore the tyrant despatched 
 his troops and galleys to assist the national revenge; 
 and the hopeless resistance of the strangers served 
 only to justify the rage, and sharpen the daggers, of 
 the assassins. Neither age, nor sex, nor the ties of 
 friendship or kindred, could save the victims of nation- 
 al hatred, and avarice, and religious zeal : the Latins 
 Mere slaughtered in their houses and in the streets ; 
 their quarter was reduced to ashes; the clergy were 
 burnt in their churches, and the sick in their hospi- 
 tals ; and some estimate may be formed of the slain 
 from the clemency which sold above four thousand 
 christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks. The 
 priests and monk.s were the loudest and most active in 
 the destruction of the schismatics ; and they chanted a 
 thanksgiving to the Lord, when the head of a Roman 
 cardinal, the pope's legate, was severed from his bo- 
 dy, fastened to the tail of a dog, and dragged, with 
 savage mockery, through the city. The more diligent 
 of the strangers had retreated, on the first alarm, to 
 their vessels, and escaped through the Hellespont 
 from the scene of blood. In their flight, they burnt 
 and ravaged two hundred miles of the sea-coast ; 
 inflicted a severe revenge on the guiltless subjects 
 of the empire; marked the priests and monks as their 
 peculiar enemies ; and compensated, by the accumula- 
 tion of plunder, the loss of their property and friends. 
 On their return, they exposed to Italy and Europe the 
 wealth and weakness, the perfidy and malice, of the 
 Greeks, whose vices were painted as the genuine 
 characters of heresy and schism. The scruples of the 
 first crusaders had neglected the fairest opportunities 
 of securing, by the possession of Constantinople, the 
 way to the Holy Land : a domestic revolution invited, 
 and almost compelled, the French and Venetians to 
 achieve the conquest of the Roman empire of the east. 
 Reiiin and cha- In the series of the Byzantine princes, 
 racter of Isaac I have exhibited the hypocrisy and ambi- 
 Al^anSo— 1195. ^^°"» *^® tyranny and fall, of Andronicus, 
 Sept 12. the last male of the Comnenian family 
 who reigned at Constantinople. The revolution, whicli 
 cast him headlong from the throne, saved and exalled 
 Isaac Angelus,* who descended by the females from 
 the same imperial dynasty. The successor of a second 
 Nero might have found it an easy task to deserve the 
 esteem and affection of his subjects: they sometimes 
 had reason to regret the administration of Andronicus. 
 The sound and vigorous mind of the tyrant was capa- 
 ble of discerning the connexion between his own and 
 the public interest; and while he was feared by all 
 who could inspire him with fear, the unsuspected 
 people, and the remote provinces, might bless the 
 inexorable justice of their master. But his successor 
 was vain and jealous of the supreme power, which he 
 wanted courage and abilities to exercise ; his vices 
 were pernicious, his virtues (if he possessed any 
 virtues) were useless, to mankind; and the Greeks, 
 who imputed their calamities to his negligence, denied 
 him the merit of any transient or accidental benefits 
 of the times. Isaac slept on the throne, and was 
 awakened only by the sound of pleasure : his vacant 
 hours were amused by comedians and buflfoons, and 
 even to these bufi*oons the emperor was an object of 
 contempt : his feasts and buildings exceeded the ex- 
 amples of royal luxury ; the number of his eunuchs 
 and domestics amounted to twenty thousand : and the 
 daily sum of four thousand pounds of silver would 
 swell to four millions sterling the annual expense of 
 his household and table. His poverty was relieved 
 by oppression ; and the public discontent was inflamed 
 
 r See the Greek and Latin narratives in Nicetas (in Alexio Com- 
 neno, c. 10.) and William of Tyre ; (1. xxii. c. 10—13.) the first soft 
 and concise, the second loud, copious, and tragical. 
 
 • The history of the reign of Isaac Aneelus is composed, in three 
 books, by the senator Nicetas ; (p. 228—290.) and his offices of logo- 
 theie, or principal secretary, ana judge of the veil or palace, rould 
 not bribe the Impartiality of the historian. H« wrote, it is true, after 
 the fall and death of his benefactor. 
 
 by equal abuses in the collection, and the application, 
 of the revenue. While the Greeks numbered the days 
 of their servitude, a fluttering prophet, whom he re- 
 warded with the dignity of patriarch, assured him of 
 a long and victorious reign of thirty-two years ; durincr 
 which he should extend his sway to mount Libanus, 
 and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his 
 only step towards the accomplishment of the predic- 
 tion, was a splendid and scandalous embassy to Sala- 
 din,' to demand the restitution of the holy sepulchre, 
 and to propose an offensive and defensive league with 
 the enemy of the christian name. In these unworthy 
 hands, of Isaac and his brother, the remains of the 
 Greek empire crumbled into dust. The island of 
 Cyprus, whose name excites the ideas of elpgance and 
 pleasure, was usurped by his namesake, a Comneniaa 
 prince; and by a strange concatenation of events, the 
 sword of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom 
 on the house of Lusignan, a rich compensation for th« 
 loss of Jerusalem. 
 
 The honour of the monarchy, and the Revolt of the 
 safety of the capital, were deeply woun- Bul^arian», 
 ded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and A. D. 1186. 
 Wallachians. Since the victory of the second Basil, 
 they had supported, above a hundred and seventy 
 years, the loose dominion of the Byzantine princes; 
 but no effectual measures had been adopted to impose 
 the yoke of laws and manners on these savage tribes. 
 By the command of Isaac, their sole means of subsis- 
 tence, their flocks and herds, were driven away, to 
 contribute towards the pomp of the royal nuptials; 
 and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the 
 denial of equal rank and pay in the military service. 
 Peter and Asan, two powerful chiefs, of the race of 
 the ancient kings," asserted their own rights and the 
 national freedom : their daemoniac impostors proclaim- 
 ed to the crowd, that their glorious patron St. Deme- 
 trius had for ever deserted the cause of the Greeks : 
 and the conflagration spread from the banks of the 
 Danube to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After 
 some faint efforts, Isaac Angelus and his brother ac- 
 quiesci^d in their independence ; and the imperial 
 troops wore soon discouraged by the bones of their 
 fellow-soldiers, that were scattered along the passes 
 of mount Haemus. By the arms and policy of Joha 
 or Joannices, the second government of Bulgaria was 
 firmly established. The subtle barbarian sent an em- 
 bassy to Innocent the third, to acknowledge himself a 
 genuine son of Rome in descent and religion ;* and hum- 
 bly received from the pope the licence of coining mo- 
 ney, the royal title, and a Latin archbishop or patriarch. 
 The Vatican exulted in the spiritual conquest of Bul- 
 garia, the first object of the schism ; and if the Greeks 
 could have preserved the prerogatives of the church, 
 they would gladly have resigned the rights of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 The Bulgarians were malicious enough Usurpation and 
 to pray for the long life of Isaac Angelus, i'le^^^in^e- 
 the surest pledge of their freedom and lus^,*'"* "^ ' 
 prosperity. Yet their chiefs could in- A. D. 1195-1203. 
 volve in the same indiscriminate con- April 8. 
 tempt the family and nation of the emperor. "In all 
 the Greeks," said Asan to his troops, *♦ the same cli- 
 mate, and character, and education, will be produc- 
 tive of the same fruits. Behold my lance," continued 
 the warrior, " and the long streamers that float in the 
 
 t SeeBohadin, Vit. Saladin. p. 129— 131. 226. vers. Schultens. The 
 ambassador of Isaac was et]ually versed in the Greek, French, and 
 Arabian laneuages ; a rare instance in those times. His embassieii 
 were received with honour, dismissed without effect, and reported 
 with scandal in the west. ... 
 
 u Ducange, Famili® Dalmaticae, p. 318-320. The original corres- 
 pondence of the Bulgarian king and the Roman pontiff is inscribed 
 in the Gesta Innocent III. c. 6(>— 82. p. 513—525. 
 
 X The pope acknowledges liis pe«ligree, a nobili urbis Komae pro- 
 sapia cenltores lui originem traxprunt. This tradition, and the strong 
 resemblance of the Latin and Wallachian idioms, is explained by M. 
 D'Anvllle. (Etats de I'Europc, p. 25&-2C2.) The Italian coloni^ of 
 the Dacia of Tnijan were swept away by the tide of emigration from 
 the Danube to the Volga, and brought back by another wave from tha 
 Volga to the Danube. Possible, but strange I 
 
 

 360 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXI. 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 361 
 
 1*1 
 
 if*: 
 
 ^ 
 
 H* 
 
 ^j 
 
 i ■ 
 
 wind. They differ only in colour ; they are formed of 
 the same silk, and fashioned by ihe same workman; 
 nor has the stripe that is stained in purple, any supe- 
 rior price or value above its fellows." ^ Several of 
 these candidates for the purple successively rose and 
 fell under the empire of Isaac : a general who had 
 repelled the fleets of Sicily, was driven to revolt and 
 Tum by the ingratitude of the prince; and his luxu- 
 rious repose was disturbed by secret conspiracies 
 and popular insurrections. The emperor was saved 
 by accident, or the merit of his servants : he was at 
 length oppressed by an ambitious brother, who, for the 
 hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the obligations of 
 nature, of loyalty, and of friendship." While Isaac in 
 theThracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary plea- 
 sures of the chace, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was 
 invested with the purple, by the unanimous suffrage of 
 the camp : the capital and the clergy subscribed to their 
 choice ; and the vanity of the new sovereign rejected 
 the name of his fathers for the lofty and royal appella- 
 tion of the Comnenian race. On the despicable cha- 
 racter of Isaac I have exhausted the language of con- 
 tempt ; and can only add, that in a reign of eight 
 years, the baser Alexius * was supported by the mas- 
 culine vices of his wife Euphrosyne. The first intel- 
 ligence of his fall was conveyed to the late emperor 
 by the hostile aspect and pursuit of the guards no lon- 
 ger his own : he fled before them above fifty miles as 
 far as Stagy ra in Macedonia ; but the fugitive, with- 
 out an object or a follower, was arrested, brought back 
 to Constantinople, deprived of his eyes, and confined 
 in a lonesome tower, on a scanty allowance of bread 
 and water. At the moment of the revolution, his son 
 Alexius, whom he educated in the hope of empire, 
 was twelve years of age. He was spared by the 
 usurper, and reduced to attend his triumph both in 
 peace and war; but as the army was encamped on the 
 sea-shore, an Italian vessel facilitated the escape of the 
 royal youth ; and, in the disguise of a common sailor, 
 he eluded the search of his enemies, passed the Hel- 
 lespont, and found a secure refuge in the isle of Sicily. 
 After saluting the threshold of the apostles, and im- 
 ploring the protection of pope Innocent the third, 
 Alexius accepted the kind invitation of his sister Irene, 
 the wife of Philip of Swabia, king of the Romans. 
 But in his passage through Italy, he heard that the 
 flower of western chivalry was assembled at Venice 
 for the deliverance of the Holy Land ; and a ray of 
 hope was kindled in his bosom, that their invincible 
 swords might be employed in his father's restoration. 
 The fourth cru- About ten or twelve years after the 
 sade, loss of Jerusalem, the nobles of France 
 
 A. D. 8. ^^ere again summoned to the holy war 
 by the voice of a third prophet, less extravagant, per- 
 haps, than Peter the hermit, but far below St. Bernard 
 in the merit of an orator and a statesman. An illite- 
 rate priest of the neighbourhood of Paris, Fulk of 
 Neuilly,'» forsook his parochial duty, to assume the 
 more flattering character of a popular a;id itinerant 
 missionary. The fame of his sanctity and miracles 
 was spread over the land; he declaimed, with seve- 
 rity and vehemence, against the vices of the age ; and 
 his sermons, which he preached in the streets o? Paris, 
 converted the robbers, the usurers, the prostitutes, and 
 even the doctors and scholars of the university. No 
 sooner did Innocent the third ascend the chair of St. 
 
 y This parable is in the brsisavase slyle ; but T wish the Wallach 
 had not iniroduceti the chtssic names of Mysians, the experiment of 
 the magnet or loadstone, and the passage of an old comic poet (Ni- 
 cetas, in Alex. Comneno, I. i. p. 299. 300.) 
 
 » The Latins aggravate the ingratitude of Alexius, by supposing 
 thai he had been released by his brother Isaac from Turkish captivi'- 
 Iv. This pathetic tale had doubtless been repeated at Venice and 
 Zara; bull do not readily discover its grounus in the Greek histo- 
 rians. 
 
 m See the reign of Alexius Angelus, or Comnenus, in the three books 
 of Nicetas, p. 291— 35'2. 
 
 o See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. torn. xvi. p. 26, &c. and Villehardouin, 
 No. 1. with the observations of Ducange, which I always mean to 
 quou with tho original text. 
 
 Peter, than he proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and 
 France, the obligation of a new crusade.* The elo- 
 quent pontiff described the ruin of Jerusalem, the tri» 
 umph of the pagans, and the shame of Christendom r 
 his liberality proposed the redemption of sins, a plena- 
 ry indulgence to all who should serve in Palestine, 
 either a year in person, or two years by a substitute ;* 
 and among his legates and orators who blew the sacred 
 trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and most 
 successful. The situation of the principal monarchs 
 was averse to the pious summons. The emperor Fre- 
 deric the second was a child ; and his kingdom of Ger- 
 many was disputed by the rival houses of Brunswick 
 and Swabia, the memorable factions of the Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus of France had per- 
 formed, and could not be persuaded to renew, the per- 
 ilous vow ; but as he was not less ambitious of praise 
 than of power, he cheerfully instituted a perpetual 
 fund for the defence of the Holy Land. Richard of 
 England was satiated with the glory and misfortunes 
 of his first adventure, and he presumed to deride the 
 exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed 
 in the presence of kings. " You advise me," said 
 Plantagenet, *• to dismiss my three daughters, pride, 
 avarice, and incontinence : I bequeath them to the 
 most deserving; my pride to the knights-templars, my 
 avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my incontinence 
 to the prelates." But the preacher was heard and 
 obeyed by the great vassals, the princes of the second 
 order; and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Cham- 
 pagne, was the foremost in the holy race. The val- 
 iant youth, at the age of twenty-two years, was en- 
 couraged by the domestic examples of his father, 
 who marched in the second crusade, and of his elder 
 brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the 
 title of king of Jerusalem : two thousand two hundred 
 knights owed service and homage to his peerage :• 
 the nobles of Champagne excelled in all embraced by the 
 the exercises of war;' and, by his mar- barons of France. 
 riage with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw 
 a band of hardy Gascons from either side of the Pyre- 
 nsean mountains. His companion in arms was Louis, 
 count of Blois and Chartres; like himself, of regal 
 lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the 
 same time, of the kings of France and England. In 
 a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated their 
 zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit of Matthew of 
 Montmorency ; the famous Simon of Montfort, the 
 scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey 
 of Villehardouin,* marshal of Champagne,'' who has 
 condescended, in the rude idiom of his aire and coun- 
 try,' to write or dictate^ an original narrative of the 
 
 e The contemporary life of pope Innocent III. published by Baluzo 
 and Muratori, (Script<fres Rerum Italicarum, torn. iii. pars i. p. 436 
 —566.) is most valuable for the important and orifrinal documents 
 which are inserted in the text. The bull of the crusade may be read, 
 c. 84, 85. 
 
 d Por-ce que cil pardon, fut issi gran, si s'en esmeurent mult li 
 cuers des pens, et mult s'en croisierent, p(»rce que li pardons ere si 
 gran. (Villehardouin, No. 1.) Our philosophers may refine on the 
 causes of the crusades, but such were the genuine feelings of a French 
 knight. 
 
 e This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege homage) was en- 
 rolled in the church of St. Stephens at Troyes. and attested A. D, 
 1213, by the marshal and butler of Champagne. (Ducange, Observ. p. 
 254.) 
 
 f Campania .... militiae privilegiosingularius excellit ... in tyro- 
 ciniis .... prolusione armorum, ^c. Ducange, p. 249. from the old 
 Chronicle of Jerusalem, A. D. 1177—1199. 
 
 g The name of Villehardouin was taken from a villaire and castle in 
 the diocese of Troyes, near the river Aube, between Bar and Arceis. 
 The family was ancient and noble ; the elder branch of our historian 
 existed after the year i4(M), the younger, which acquired the princi- 
 pality of Achaia, merged in the house of Savoy. (Ducange, p. 235-^ 
 245.) 
 
 h This office was held by his father and his descendants, but Du- 
 cange has not hunted it with his usual sagacity. I find that, in the 
 vear 1356, it was in the family of Cunflans ; but these provincial have 
 been long since eclipsed by the national marshals of France. 
 
 i This language, of which I shall produce some specimens, is ex- 
 plained by Vepenere and Ducange in a version and glossary. Tho 
 president Des Brosses (iMechanisine des Langues, torn. ii. p. 83.) gives 
 it as the example of a language which has ceased to be French, and is 
 understood only by grainmarians. 
 
 k His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste (cuvre die/a,(No. 
 62, &c.) may justify the suspicion, (mure probable than Mr. Wood's oo 
 
 f 
 
 councils and actions in which he bore a memorable 
 part. At the same time, Baldwin count of Flanders, 
 who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed the 
 cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry and the prin- 
 cipal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious 
 province.^ The vow which the chiefs had pronounced 
 in churches, they ratified in tournaments : the opera- 
 tions of the war were debated in full and frequent 
 assemblies; and it was resolved to seek the deliver- 
 ance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since Saladin's 
 death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war. 
 But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the 
 toils and perils of a land expedition ; and, if the 
 Flemings had dwelt along the ocean, the French ba- 
 rons were destitute of ships and ignorant of naviga- 
 tion. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing 
 six deputies or representatives, of whom Villehar- 
 douin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct 
 the motions, and to pledge the faith of the whole con- 
 federacy. The maritime states of Italy were alone 
 possessed of the means of transporting the holy war- 
 riors with their arms and horses; and the six de- 
 puties proceeded to Venice to solicit, on motives of 
 piety or interest, the aid of that powerful republic. 
 State of the Ve- '" ^^^ invasion of Italy by Attila, 
 netians, I have mentioned"* the flight of the 
 A. D. 697— 1200. Venetians from the fallen cities of the 
 continent, and their obscure shelter in the chain of 
 islands that line the extremity of the Adriatic gulf. 
 In the midst of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, 
 and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced into a re- 
 public : the first foundations of Venice were laid in 
 the island of Rialto ; and the annual election of the 
 twelve tribunes was superseded by the permanent 
 office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the two 
 empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive 
 and perpetual independence." Against the Latins, 
 their antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, 
 and may be justified by the pen. Charlemagne him- 
 self resigned all claims of sovereignty to the islands 
 of the Adriatic gulf; his son Pepin was repulsed in 
 the attacks of the lagunas or canals, too deep for the 
 cavalry, and too shallow for the vessels ; and in every 
 age, under the German Cjesars, the lands of the re- 
 public have been clearly distinguished from the king- 
 dom of Italy. But the inhabitants of Venice were 
 considered by themselves, by strangers, and by their 
 sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of the Greek 
 empire; "in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs 
 of their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; 
 and the vain titles, the servile honours, of the Byzan- 
 tine court, so ambitiously solicited by their dukes, 
 would have degraded the magistrates of a free people. 
 But the bands of this dependence, which was never 
 absolute or rigid, were imperceptibly relaxed by the 
 ambition of Venice and the weakness of Constan- 
 tinople. Obedience was softened into respect, privi- 
 lege ripened into prerogative, and the freedom of 
 domestic government was fortified by the indepen- 
 dence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities of 
 
 Hnmer,) that he could neither read nor write. Yet Champagne may 
 b'last (if ihe two first historians, the noble authors of French prose, 
 V illehardouin and Jolnville. 
 
 > The crusade and reigns of the counts of Flanders, Baldwin and 
 his brother Henry, are the subject of a particular history by the Jes- 
 JiitDouiremens, (Constant! nopol is Belgica ; Turnaci, J638. in 4to,) 
 Vfhich I have only seen with the eyes of Ducange. 
 
 m History, &c. vol. i. p. 475, 476. 
 
 _ •> The foundation and independence of Venice, and Pepin's inva- 
 
 8i"n, are discussed by Pagi (Crilica, torn. iii. A. D. 810, No. 4. &c.) 
 
 and Beretti. CDissert. Chorograph. Italiae medii ^vi, in Muratori, 
 
 ^/npt. torn. X. p. 153.) The two criiics have a slieht bias, the 
 
 ^^'w""*" adverse, the Italian favourable, to the republic. 
 
 o When the son of Charlemagne asserted his right of sovereignty, 
 ne was answered by the loyal Venetians, or« Jijuii; Sovkoi SiKoftiv 
 • '►XI Tcu 'p./ia.sBv cx<r.x.ix.f, (Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Admin- 
 li'trnt. Imppfii, pars ii. c. 28. p. 85) and the report ol the ninth, esta- 
 Dlishfw the fact of the tenth, century, which is confirmed by the 
 embassy of Liutprand of Cremona. The annual tribute, which the 
 Pmperor allows them to pay to the king of Italy, alleviates, by doub- 
 ling, their servitude ; but the hateful word ^oo\oi must be translated, 
 *» m the charter nf 827, (Laugier, Hist, de Venice, torn. i. p. 67, Sec.) 
 i>y the st.fter appellation ofttUfditi, ot Melts. 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 V 
 
 Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the sovereigns of the 
 Adriatic; and when they armed against the^ Normans 
 in the cause of Alexius, the emperor applied, not to 
 the duty of his subjects, but to the gratitude and gene- 
 rosity of his faithful allies. The sea was their patrl- 
 mony : p the western parts of the Mediterranean, from 
 Tuscany to Gilbraltar, were indeed abandoned to their 
 rivals of Pisa and Genoa ; but the Venetians acquir- 
 ed an early and lucrative share of the commerce of 
 Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with the 
 increasing demand of Europe : their manufactures of 
 silk and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, 
 are of high antiquity ; and they enjoyed the fruits of 
 their industry in the magnificence of public and private 
 life. To assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to 
 protect the freedom of navigation, the republic could 
 launch and man a fleet of a hundred galleys ; and the 
 Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans, were encoun- 
 tered by her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were 
 assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the sea- 
 coast; but their zeal was neither blind nor disinterest- 
 ed ; and in the conquest of Tyre, they shared the sove- 
 reignty of a city, the first seat of the commerce of the 
 world. The policy of Venice was marked by the 
 avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, 
 power; yet her ambition was prudent; nor did she 
 often forget that if armed galleys were the effect and 
 safeguard, merchant vessels were the cause and sup- 
 ply, of her greatness. In her religion, she avoided 
 the schism of the Greeks, without yielding a servile 
 obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a free intercourse 
 with the infidels of every clime appears to have allay- 
 ed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive 
 government was a loose mixture of democracy and 
 monarchy: the doge was elected by the votes of the 
 general assembly ; as long as he was popular and suc- 
 cessful, he reigned with the pomp and authority of a 
 prince; but in the frequent revolutions of the state, he 
 was deposed, or banished, or slain, by the justice or 
 injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century pro- 
 duced the first rudiments of the wise and jealous aris- 
 tocracy, which has reduced the doge to a pageant and 
 the people to a cypher.'' 
 
 When the six ambassadors of the Alliance of the 
 French pugrims arrived at Venice, they French and 
 were hospitably entertained in the pa- ^^^{J^^'sJii 
 lace of St. Mark, by the reigning duke : 
 his name was Henry Dandolo;' and he shone in the 
 last period of human life as one of the most illustrious 
 characters of the times. Under the weight of years, 
 and after the loss of his eyes," Dandolo retained a 
 sound understanding and a manly courage ; the spirit 
 of a hero, ambitious to signalize his reign by some 
 memorable exploits ; and the wisdom of a patriot, 
 anxious to build his fame on the glory and advantage 
 of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and 
 
 P See the twenty-fifth and thirtieth dissertations of the Antiquita- 
 tes medii lE.y\ of Muratori. From Anderson's History of Commerce, 
 I understand that the Venetians did not trade to England before the 
 year 1323. The most flourishing state of their wealth and con** 
 raerce in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is agreeably descri- 
 bed bv the Abbd Dubos. (Hist, de la Ligue de Cambray, tom. ii. p, 
 443-4«0.) 
 
 q The Venetians have been slow in writing and publishing their 
 history. Their most ancient monuments are, 1. The rude Chronicle 
 (perhaps) of John Sagorninus, (Venezia, 1765, in octavo,) wliiclt 
 represents the state and manners of Venice in the year 1008. 2. 
 The larger history of the doge, (1342—1354.) Andrew Pandolo, pub- 
 lished for the first time in the twelfth tom. of Muratori, A. D. 1728. 
 The History of Venice by the Abb«i Laugier (Paris, 1728.) is a work 
 of some merit, which I have chitfly used for the constitutional part. 
 
 r Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election, (A. D. 1192.) and 
 ninety-seven at his death, (A. D. 1205.) See the Observations of Du- 
 cange sur Villehardouin, No. tX)4. Bui this extraordinary longevity 
 is not observed by the original writers, nor does there exist another 
 example of a hero near a hundred years of age. Theophrastus might 
 aflford an instance of a writer of ninety-nim-; but instead of -■•'•'••'•ixovtb, 
 (Prooem. ad Character.) I am much inclined to read «3^o^ii«8vt«^ 
 with his last editor Fischer, and the first thoughts of Casaubon. It is 
 scarcely possible that the powers of the mind and body should sup- 
 port themselves till such a period of life. 
 
 • The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom. ii. p. 119.) accuse the em- 
 peror Manuel ; but the calumny is refuted by Villehardouin and tho 
 old vrriters, who suppose Dandolo lost his eyes by a wound. (No. 3ik 
 and Ducange.) 
 
/l, 
 
 i 1 
 
 362 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap* XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPmE. 
 
 363 
 
 m 
 
 i4 
 
 ^i 
 
 m 
 
 ^liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies; in 
 such a cause, and with such associates, he should 
 aspire, were he a private man, to terminate his life; 
 but he was the servant of the republic, and some delay 
 was requisite, to consult, on this arduous business, 
 the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of the 
 French 'was first debated by the six sages who had 
 been recently appointed to control the administration 
 of the doge : it was next disclosed to the forty mem- 
 Ijers of the council of state ; and finally communicated 
 to the legislative assembly of four hundred and fifty 
 representatives, who were annually chosen in the six 
 quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was 
 still the chief of the republic ; his legal authority was 
 supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo; his 
 arguments of public interest were balanced and ap- 
 proved ; and he was authorized to inform the ambas- 
 sadors of the following conditions of the treaty.* It 
 was proposed that the crusaders should assemble 
 at Venice, on the feast of St. John of the ensuing 
 year: that flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared 
 ifor four thousand five hundred horses, and nine thou- 
 sand squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the 
 embarkation of four thousand five hundred knights, 
 and twenty thousand foot: that during a terni of nine 
 months they should be supplied with provisions, and 
 transported to whatsoever coast the service of God 
 and Christendom should require; and that the republic 
 should join the armament with a squadron of fifty 
 galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims should 
 pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thou- 
 sand marks of silver ; and that all conquests, by sea 
 and land, should be equally divided between the con- 
 federates. The terms were hard ; but the emergency 
 was pressing, and the French barons were not less 
 profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly 
 was convened to ratify the treaty : the stately chapel 
 and place of St. Mark were filled with ten thousand 
 citizens ; and the noble deputies were taught a new 
 lesson of humbling themselves before the majesty of 
 the people. »' Illustrious Venetians," said the mar- 
 shal of Champagne, " we are sent by the greatest and 
 most powerful barons of France, to implore the aid of 
 the masters of the sea for the deliverance of Jeru- 
 salem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate at 
 your feet; nor will we rise from the ground, till you 
 have promised to avenge with us the injuries of 
 Christ." The eloquence of their words and tears," 
 their martial aspect, and suppliant attitude, were ap- 
 plauded by a universal shout; as it were, says Jeffrey, 
 by the sound of an earthquake. The venerable doge 
 ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those 
 motives of honour and virtue, which alone can be 
 offered to a popular assembly : the treaty was tran- 
 scribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, 
 mutually accepted by the weeping and joyful repre- 
 sentatives of France and Venice ; and despatched to 
 Rome for the approbation of pope Innocent the third. 
 Two thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants 
 for the first expenses of the armament. Of the six 
 deputies, two repassed the Alps to announce their 
 success, while their four companions made a fruitless 
 trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of 
 Genoa and Pisa. 
 
 Assembly and The execution of the treaty was still 
 departure of the opposed by unforeseen difficulties and 
 Ve'fce/'''™ delays. The marshal, on his return to 
 A. d' 1202. Thoyes, was embraced and approved by 
 Oct. 8. Thibaut count of Champagne, who had 
 
 been unanimously chosen general of the confederates. 
 
 t See the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, p. 
 323-326. 
 
 u A reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent tears of 
 the marshal and his brother kniphts. Sachiez que la ot mainte lernie 
 ploree de piliti (No. 17.); mult plorant (ibid.) : inainie lerme pli.r.'-e 
 (No. 34.) ; si orent mult pitiii et plorerent mull durement (No. GO.) ; 
 i ot mainto lermo ploree de pitic. (No. 202.) They weep on every 
 ©ccaaion of grief, joy, or devotion. 
 
 But the health of that valiant youth already declined, 
 and soon became hopeless ; and he deplored the un- 
 timely fate, which condemned him to expire, not in a 
 field of battle, but on a bed of sickness. To his brave 
 and numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed 
 his treasures: they swore in his presence to accom- 
 plish his vow and their own; but some there were, 
 says the marshal, who accepted his gifts and forfeited 
 their word. The more resolute champions of the 
 cross held a parliament at Soissons for the election 
 of a new general ; but snch was the incapacity, or 
 jealousy, or reluctance, of the princes of France, 
 that none could be found both able and willing to as- 
 sume the conduct of the enterprise. They acquiesced 
 in the choice of a stranger, of Boniface marquis of 
 Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes, and himself 
 of conspicuous fame in the wars and negociations of 
 the times ; * nor could the piety or ambition of the 
 Italian chief decline this honourable invitation. After 
 visiting the French court, where he was received as a 
 friend and kinsman, the marquis, in the church of Sois- 
 sons, was invested with the cross of a pilgrim and the 
 staff of a general; and immediately repassed the Alps, 
 to prepare for the distant expedition of the east. About 
 the festival of the Pentecost he displayed his banner, 
 and marched towards Venice at the head of the Ita- 
 lians: he was preceded or followed by the counts of 
 Flanders and Blois, and the most respectable barons 
 of France ; and their numbers were swelled by the 
 pilgrims of Germany,> whose object and motives were 
 similar to their own. The Venetians had fulfilled, 
 and even surpassed, their engagements: stables were 
 constructed for the horses, and barracks for the troops; 
 the magazines were abundantly replenished with forage 
 and provisions ; and the fleet of transports, ships, and 
 galleys, was ready to hoist sail as soon as the republic 
 had received the price of the freight and armament. 
 But that price far exceeded the wealth of the crusa- 
 ders who were assembled at Venice. The Flemings, 
 whose obedience to their count was voluntary and 
 precarious, had embarked in their vessels for the long 
 navigration of the ocean and Mediterranean; and many 
 of the French and Italians had preferred a cheaper and 
 more convenient passage from Marseilles and Apulia 
 to the Holy Land. Each pilgrim might complain, that 
 after he had furnished his own contribution, he was 
 made responsible for the deficiency of his absent breth- 
 ren : the gold and silver plate of the chiefs, which 
 they freely delivered to the treasury of St. Mark, was 
 a generous but inadequate sacrifice ; and after all their 
 efforts, thirty-four thousand marks were still wanting 
 to complete the stipulated sum. The obstacle was 
 removed by the policy and patriotism of the doge, 
 who proposed to the barons, that if they would join 
 their arms in reducing some revolted cities of Dal- 
 malia, he would expose his person in the holy war, 
 and obtain from the republic a long indulgence, till 
 some wealthy conquest should afford the means of 
 satisfying the debt. After much scruple and hesita- 
 tion, they chose rather to accept the offer than to re- 
 linquish the enterprise; and the first hostilities of the 
 fleet and army were directed against siepeofZara, 
 Zara,« a strong city of the Sclavonian 
 
 Nov. 10. 
 
 X By a victory (A. D. 1191.) over the citizens of the Asti, by a cru- 
 sade to Palestine, and by an embassy from the pope to the German 
 princes. (Muralori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. x. p. 163. 202.) 
 
 y See the crusade of the Germans in the Hisioria C. P. of Gunther, 
 Canisii Antiq. Lect. torn, iv, p. v.— viii.) who celebrates the pilgri- 
 mage of his abbot Martin, one of the preaching rivals of Fulk of 
 Neuilly. His monastery, of the Cistertian order, was situate in the 
 diocese of Basil. , 
 
 I Jadera, now Zara, was a Roman colony, which acknowledged 
 Augustus for its parent. It is now only two miles r-jund, and contains 
 five or six thousand inhabitants ; but the fortifications are strong, and 
 it is joined to the main land by a brid<:e. See the travels of the two 
 companions, Spon and Wheeler ; (Voyage de Dalmatie, de Grece,&c. 
 lorn. i. p. 64— 70. Journey into Greece, p. 8— 14.) The laatof whomi 
 by mistaking Sislertta fi>r Sestertii, values an arch with statues and 
 Columns at twelve pounds. If, in his time, there were no trees near 
 Zura, the cherry trees were not yet planted which produce our incom- 
 I arable marasijuin. 
 
 i\ 
 
 coast, which had renounced its allegiance to Venice, 
 and implored the protection of the king of Hungary.* 
 The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the harbour : 
 landed their horses, and troops, and military engines ; 
 compelled the inhabitants, after a defence of five days, 
 to surrender at discretion : their lives were spared, but 
 the revolt was punished by the pillage of their houses 
 • and the demolition of their walls. The season was 
 ' far advanced ; the French and Venetians resolved to 
 pass the winter in a secure harbour and plentiful 
 ' country ; but their repose was disturbed by national 
 and tumultuous quarrels of the soldiers and mariners. 
 The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of dis- 
 cord and scandal ; the arms of the allies had been 
 stained in their outset with the blood, not of infidels, 
 but of christians : the king of Hungary and his new 
 subjects were themselves enlisted under the banner of 
 the cross; and the scruples of the devout, were magni- 
 fied by the fear or lassitude of the reluctant, pilgrims. 
 The pope had excommunicated the false crusaders 
 who had pillaged and massacred their brethren,** and 
 only the marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort 
 escaped these spiritual thunders; the one by his ab- 
 sence from the siege, the other by his final departure 
 from the camp. Innocent might absolve the simple and 
 submissive penitents of France ; but he was provoked 
 by the stubborn reason of the Venetians, who refused to 
 confess their guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, 
 in their temporal concerns, the interposition of a priest. 
 The assembly, of such formidable pow- 
 
 ^?isadl™ with' ^'^ ^y '^"d ^"^ ^««' had revived the 
 the Greek hopes of the young <= Alexius ; and, both 
 *"° AlwJi'ur""^ ^' Venice and Zara, he solicited the arms 
 of the crusaders for his own restoration 
 and his father's <• deliverance. The royal youth was 
 recommended by Philip, king of Germany : his pray- 
 ers and presence excited the compassion of the camp ; 
 and his cause was embraced and pleaded by the mar- 
 quis of Montferrat and the doge of Venice. A double 
 alliance, and the dignity of Caisar, had connected with 
 the imperial family the two elder brothers of Boni- 
 face : • he expected to derive a kingdom from the im- 
 portant service ; and the more generous ambition of 
 Dandolo was eager to secure the inestimable benefits 
 of trade and dominion that might accrue to his coun- 
 try.' Their influence procured a favourable audience 
 for the ambassadors of Alexius ; and if the magnitude 
 of his offers excited some suspicion, the motives and 
 rewards which he displayed might justify the delay 
 and diversion of those forces which had been consecra- 
 ted to the deliverance of Jerusalem. He promised, 
 in his own and his father's name, that as soon as they 
 should be scaled on the throne of Constantinople, they 
 would terminate the long schism of the Greeks, and 
 submit themselves and their people to the lawful 
 supremacy of the Romish church. He engaged to 
 recompense the labours and merits of the crusaders, 
 by the immediate payment of two hundred thousand 
 marks of silver ; to accompany them in person to 
 
 » Catnno (Hist. Critica Reg. Hunjraria, Stirpis Arpad. tom. iv. p. 
 536- 55S.) collecis all the facts and testimonies most adverse to the 
 Conquerors of Zara. 
 
 b See the whole transaction, and the sentiments of the pope, in the 
 Epistles of Innocent III. Gesta, c. 86—88. 
 
 e A mtxlern reader is surprised to hear of the valet de Constantino- 
 ple, as applied to young Alexius, on account of his youth, like the 
 t«/on/.s of Spain, and the nobilissimus puer of the Romans. The 
 pazps and valets of the knights were as noble as themselves. (Ville- 
 hardouin and Ducange, No. 36.) 
 
 d The emperor Isaac is styled by Villehardouin, Sursac, (No. 35, 
 *c.) which may be derived from the French Sire, or the Greek K-jp 
 (xuf.oi) melted into its proper name; the further corruptions of Tur- 
 sac and Conserac will instruct us what licence may have been used 
 in the old dynasties of Assyria and Egypt. 
 
 e Reinipr and Conrad : the former married Maria, dau";hter of the 
 emperor Manuel Comnenus ; the latter was the husband of Theodo- 
 ra Aiieela, sister of the empert)rs Isaac and Alexius. Conrad aban- 
 doned the Greek court and princess for the glorvof defending Tyre 
 against SaUdin. (Ducange, Fam. Byzanl. p. 187. '203.) 
 
 f Nicetas(in Alexio Comneno, I. iii. c. 9.) accuses the doge and 
 Venetians as the first authors of the war against Constantinople, and 
 considers only as a *■»/*» u^rif xu;u»t«, the arrival and shameful offers 
 « the royal exile. 
 
 Egypt ; or, if it should be judged more advantageous, 
 to maintain, during a yenr, ten thousand men, and, dur- 
 ing his life, five hundred knights, for the service of the 
 Holy Land. These templing conditions were accep- 
 ted by the republic of Venice ; and the eloquence of 
 the doge and marquis persuaded the counts of Flan- 
 ders, Blois, and St. Pol, with eight barons of France, 
 to join in the glorious enterprise. A treaty of offensive 
 and defensive alliance was confirmed by their oaths and 
 seals ; and each individual, according to his situation 
 and character, was swayed by the hope of public or pri- 
 vate advantage; by the honour of restoring an exiled 
 monarch ; or by the sincere and probable opinion, that 
 their efforts in Palestine would be fruitless and un- 
 availing, and that the acquisition of Constantinople 
 must precede and prepare the recovery of Jerusalem. 
 But they were the chiefs or equals of a valiant band 
 of freemen or volunteers, who thought and acted for 
 themselves : the soldiers and clergy were divided ; 
 and, if a large majority subscribed to the alliance, the 
 numbers and arguments of the dissidents were strong 
 and respectable.* The boldest hearts were appalled 
 by the report of the naval power and impregnable 
 strength of Constantinople; and their apprehensions 
 were disguised to the world, and perhaps to them- 
 selves, by the more decent objections of religion and 
 duty. They alleged the sanctity of a vow, which had 
 drawn them from their families and homes to the res- 
 cue of the holy sepulchre ; nor should the dark and 
 crooked counsels of human policy divert them from a 
 pursuit, the event of which was in the hands of the 
 Almighty. Their first offence, the attack of Zara, 
 had been severely punished by the reproach of their 
 conscience and the censures of the pope ; nor would 
 they again imbrue their hands in the blood of their 
 fellow-christians. The apostle of Rome had pronoun- 
 ced ; nor would they usurp the right of avenging with 
 the sword the schism of the Greeks, and the doubtful 
 usurpation of the Byzantine monarch. On these prin- 
 ciples or pretences, many pilgrims, the most distin- 
 guished for their valour and piety, withdrew from the 
 camp ; and their retreat was less pernicious than the 
 open or secret opposition of a discontented party, that 
 laboured, on every occasion, to separate the army and 
 disappoint the enterprise. 
 
 Notwithstanding this defection, the Voyage from 
 departure of the fleet and army was gtami^nopie" 
 vigorously pressed by the Venetians ; A D. leoo. 
 whose zeal for the service of the royal April 7-June 24. 
 y.outh concealed a just resentment to his nation and 
 family. They were mortified by the recent preference 
 which had been given to Pisa, the rival of their trade; 
 they had a long arrear of debt and injury to liquidate 
 with the Byzantine court; and Dandolo might not dis- 
 courage the popular tale, that he had been deprived 
 of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who perfidiously 
 violated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar 
 armament, for ages, had not rode the Adriatic; it was 
 composed of one hundred and twenty flat-bottomed 
 vessels or palanders for the horses; two hundred and 
 forty transports filled with men and arms ; seventy 
 storeships laden with provisions; and fifty stout gal- 
 leys, well prepared for the encounter of an enemy .** 
 W hile the wind was favourable, the sky serene, and 
 the water smooth, every eye was fixed with wonder 
 and delight on the scene of military and naval pomp 
 which overspread the sea. The shields of the knights 
 and squires, at once an ornament and a defence, were 
 arranged on either side of the ships ; the banners of 
 the nations and families were displayed from the stern ; 
 
 % Villehardouin and Gunther represent the spniimenis of the two 
 parties. The abbot Martin left the army at Zara, proceeded to Pa- 
 lestine, was sent ambassador to Constantinople, and became a reluc- 
 tant witness of the second siege. 
 
 h The birth and dignity of Andrew Dandolo gave hun the motive 
 and the means of searching in the archives of V^Miice the memorable 
 story of bis ancestor. His brevity seems to accuse the copious and 
 more recent narratives of Sanudo, (in Muratori, Script. Rerum ItAlt- 
 caruin, tom. Jixii.) Blondus, SabelUcus, and Rhaniusius. 
 
^'< 
 
 364 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 365 
 
 I : 
 
 '0 
 
 IT' 
 
 h ' 
 
 ■r-r. 
 
 
 our modern artillery was supplied by three hundred 
 engines for casting stones and darts : the fatiaues of 
 the way were cheered with the sound of music ; and 
 the spirits of the adventurers were raised by the mutual 
 assurance, that forty thousand christian heroes were 
 equal to the conquest of the world.' In the naviga- 
 tion^ from Venice and Zara, the fleet was success- 
 fully steered by the skill and experience of the Vene- 
 tian pilots ; at Durazzo, the confederates first landed 
 on the territories of the Greek empire : the isle of 
 Corfu afforded a station and repose; they doubled, 
 without accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the 
 southern point of Peloponnesus or the Morea ; made 
 a descent in the islands of Negropont and Andros; 
 and cast anchor at Abydus on the Asiatic side of the 
 Hellespont. These preludes of conquest were easy 
 and bloodless ; the Greeks of the provinces, without 
 patriotism or courage, were crushed by an irresistible 
 force ; the presence of the lawful heir might justify their 
 obedience; and it was rewarded by the modesty and 
 discipline of the Latins. As they penetrated through 
 the Hellespont, the magnitude of their navy was com- 
 pressed in a narrow channel ; and the face of the 
 waters was darkened with innumerable sails. They 
 again expanded in the bason of the Propontis, and tra- 
 versed that placid sea, till they approached the Euro- 
 pean shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen, three leagues 
 to the west of Constantinople. The prudent doge dis- 
 suaded them from dispersing themselves in a populous 
 and hostile land ; and, as their stock of provisions was 
 reduced, it was resolved, in the season of harvest, 
 to replenish their storeships in the fertile islands 
 of the Propontis. With this resolution, they direct- 
 ed their course; but a strong gale, and their own im- 
 patience, drove them to the eastward : and so near did 
 they run to the shore and the city, that some volleys 
 of stones and darts were exchanged between the ships 
 and the rampart. As they passed along, they gazed 
 with admiration on the capital of the east, or, as it 
 should seem, of the earth ; rising from her seven hills, 
 and towering over the continents of Europe and Asia. 
 The swelling domes and lofty spires of five hundred 
 palaces and churches were gilded by the sun and re- 
 flected in the waters ; the walls were crowded with 
 soldiers and spectators, whose numbers they beheld, 
 of whose temper they were ignorant ; and each heart 
 was chilled by the reflection, that, since the begin- 
 ning of the world, such an enterprise had never been 
 undertaken by such a handful of warriors. But the 
 momentary apprehension was dispelled by hope and 
 valour ; and every man, says the marshal of Cham- 
 pagne, glanced his eye on the sword or lance which 
 he must speedily use in the glorious conflict.' The 
 Latins cast anchor before Chalcedon; the mariners 
 only were left in the vessels; the soldiers, horses, and 
 arms, were safely landed ; and, in the luxury of an 
 imperial palace, the barons tasted the first fruits of 
 their success. On the third day, the fleet and army 
 moved towards Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Con- 
 stantinople ; a detachment of five hundred Greek 
 horse was surprised and defeated by fourscore French 
 knin[hts; and in a halt of nine days, the camp was 
 plentifully supplied with forage and provisions. 
 Fniiiless nego- In relating the invasion of a great em- 
 ciaiion of ihe pire, it may seem strange that I have not 
 emperor. described the obstacles which should 
 
 have checked the progress of the strangers. The 
 Greeks, in truth, were an unwarlike people : but they 
 
 i VillPhardouin, No. 62. His feelings and expressions are original ; 
 he often weeps, but he rejoices in the glories and perils of war with a 
 spirit unknown to a sedenury writer. 
 
 k In this voyage, almost all the geographical names acre corrupted 
 by the Latins. The modern appellation of Chalcis, and all Euboea, 
 is derived from its Euripus, Evripo, Negripo, Negripont, which 
 dishonours our maps. (D'Anville, Geographie Anoienne, torn. i. p. 
 263 ^ 
 
 1 Et sachiez que il ne ot si hardi cui le cuer ne fremist (c. 67.) . . . . 
 Chascuns regardoit ses armes .... que par lenos «n aront mMtier, (c. 
 68.) Such is the honesty of courage. 
 
 were rich, industrious, and subject to the will of a 
 single man: had that man been capable of fear, when 
 his enemies were at a distance, or of courage, when 
 they approached his person. The first rumour of his 
 nephew's alliance with the French and Venetians was 
 despised by ihe usurper Alexius ; his flatterers per- 
 suaded him, that in this contempt he was bold and 
 sincere; and each evening, in the close of the ban- 
 quet, he thrice discomfited the barbarians of the west. 
 These barbarians had been justly terrified by the re- 
 port of his naval power; and the sixteen hundred 
 fishing boats of Constantinople" could have manned 
 a fleet, to sink them in the Adriatic, or stop tiieir en- 
 trance in the mouth of the Hellespont. But all force 
 may be annihilated by the negligence of the prince 
 and the venality of his ministers. The great duke, or 
 admiral, made a scandalous, almost a public, auction 
 of the sails, the masts, and the rigging; the royal 
 forests were reserved for the more important purpose 
 of the chace; and the trees, says Nicetas, were guard- 
 ed by the eunuchs, like the groves of religious wor- 
 ship." From his dream of pride, Alexius was awa- 
 kened by the siege of Zara, and the rapid advances of 
 the Latins ; as soon as he saw the danger was real, he 
 thought it inevitable, and his vain presumption was 
 lost in abject despondency and despair. He suffered 
 these contemptible barbarians to pitch their camp in 
 the sight of the palace ; and his apprehensions were 
 thinly disguised by the pomp and menace of a sup- 
 pliant embassy. The sovereign of the Romans was 
 astonished (his ambassadors were instructed to say) at 
 the hostile appearance of the strangers. If these pil- 
 grinjs were sincere in their vow for the deliverance of 
 Jerusalem, his voice must applaud, and his treasures 
 should assist, their pious design ; but should they 
 dare to invade the sanctuary of empire, their numbers, 
 were they ten times more considerable, should not 
 protect them from his just resentment. The answer 
 of the doge and barons was simple and magnanimous. 
 *♦ In the cause of honour and justice," they said, "we 
 despise the usurper of Greece, his threats and his 
 offers. Our friendship and his allegiance are due to 
 the lawful heir, to the young prince, who is seated 
 among us, and to his father, the emperor Isaac, who 
 has been deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his 
 eyes, by the crime of an ungrateful brother. Let that 
 brother confess his guilt, and implore forgiveness, 
 and we ourselves will intercede, that he may be per- 
 mitted to live in affluence and security. But let him 
 not insult us by a second message: our reply will be 
 made in arms, in the palace of Constantinople." 
 
 On the tenth day of their encamp- paasageofthe 
 ment at Scutari, the crusaders prepared Bosphorus, 
 themselves, as soldiers and as catholics, ^"'^ * 
 for the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed 
 was the adventure; the stream was broad and rapid; 
 in a calm the current of the Euxine might drive down 
 the liquid and unextinguishable fires of the Greeks; 
 and the opposite shores of Europe were defended by 
 seventy thousand horse and foot in formidable array. 
 On this memorable day, which happened to be bright 
 and pleasant, the Latins were distributed in six bat- 
 tles or divisions ; the first, or va.iguard, was led by 
 the count of Flanders, one of the most powerful of the 
 christian princes in the skill and number of his cross- 
 bows. The four successive battles of the French were 
 commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St. 
 Pol and Blois, and Matthew of Montmorency ; the 
 last of whom was honoured by the voluntary service 
 of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The sixth 
 division, the rearguard and reserve of the army, was 
 conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head 
 
 m Eandem urbem plus in solis navibus piscatorum abundare,quam 
 illoe in toto navigio. Habebat enim mille et sexcentas p'.scatoria* 
 naves .... Bellicasautem sive mercatorias habebant infinitae mulU* 
 tudinis et portum tutissimum. Gunther, Hist. C. P. c.8. p. 10. 
 
 B KutatiTi^ i'lfuir mKTiMv^ iis-|<* St xttt Sie^uTivTtyv ir»f»Xitrm¥ If'*' 
 
 I i«*T« T«vTMv<. Niceias in Alex. Comneno, I. iii. c. 9. p. 348. 
 
 J 
 
 of the Germans and Lombards. The chargers, sad- 
 dled, with their long caparisons dragging on the 
 ground, were embarked in the fiai pa landers ;° and the 
 knitrhts stood by the side of their horses, in complete 
 arnTour, their helmets laced, and their lances in their 
 hands. Their numerous train of Serjeants^ and arch- 
 1 ers occupied the transports ; and each transport was 
 towed by the strength and swiftness of a galley. The 
 six divisions traversed the Bosphorus, without encoun- 
 tering an enemy or an obstacle ; to land the foremost 
 was The wish, to conquer or die was the resolution, of 
 every division and of every soldier. Jealous of the 
 pre-eminence of danger, the knights in their heavy ar- 
 mour leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as their 
 girdle; the Serjeants and archers were animated by 
 their valour; and the squires, letting down the draw- 
 bridges of the palanders, led the horses to the shore. 
 Before the squadrons could mount and form, and couch 
 their lances, the seventy thousand Greeks had vanish- 
 ed from their sight ; the timid Alexius gave the ex- 
 ample to his troops: and it was only by the plunder 
 of his rich pavilions that the Latins were informed 
 that they had fought against an emperor. In the first 
 consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved, by a 
 double attack, to open the entrance of the harbour. 
 The tower of Galata,<> in the suburb of Pera, was at- 
 tacked and stormed by the French, while the Vene- 
 tians assumed the more diflficult task of forcing the 
 boom or chain that was stretched from that tower to 
 the Byzantine shore. After some fruitless attempts, 
 their intrepid perseverance prevailed : twenty ships of 
 war, the relics of the Grecian navy, were either sunk 
 or taken ; the enormous and massy links of iron were 
 cut asunder by the shears, or broken by the weight, of 
 the galleys ; ' and the Venetian fleet, safe and triumph- 
 ant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople. By 
 these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thou- 
 sand Latins solicited the licence of besieging a capital 
 which contained above four hundred thousand inhabit- 
 ants,* able, though not willing, to bear arms in the de- 
 fence of their country. Such an account would indeed 
 suppose a population of near two millions; but what- 
 ever abatement may be required in the numbers of the 
 Greeks, the belief of those numbers will equally exalt 
 the fearless spirit of their assailants. 
 
 In the choice of the attack, the French 
 ^l"^ p^^^fc"^ and Venetians were divided by their ha- 
 Sti'nupi'e by" bits of life and warfare. The former af- 
 the Latins, firmed with truth, that Constantinople 
 July 7—18. ^^,^g j^Qgj accessible on the side of the 
 sea and the harbour. The latter might assert with 
 honour, that they had long enough trusted their lives 
 
 ■ 
 
 o From the version of Vi^nere I adopt the well-sounding word, pa- 
 lander, which is still used, I believe, in the Mediterranean. But 
 had I written in French, I should have preferred the original and ex- 
 pressive denomination of vessiers, or hussiers, from the huts, or door, 
 which was let down as a draw bridge ; but which, at sea, was closed 
 i Jntu tiie side of the ship. (See Ducahge au Villehardouin, No. 14. and 
 
 Joinville, p. 27, '-'S. edit, du Louvre.) 
 
 (P To avoid the vague expressions of the followers, &c. I use, after 
 Villfhardouin, the word Serjeants for all horsemen who were not 
 ljni?his. There were serj<^ani8 at arms, and Serjeants at law; and 
 , if we visit the parade and Westniinster-hall, we may observe the 
 
 Btrinse result of the distinction. (Ducange, Glossar. Latin. Servien- 
 I /ea, &c.tom vi. p. 226— 231.) 
 
 s It ia needless to observe, that on the subject of Galata, the chain, 
 Ac. Ducange is accurate and full. Consult likewise the proper chap- 
 ipfs of the C. P. Christiana of the same author. The inhabitants of 
 Galata were so vain and ignorant, that they applied to themselves 
 Si. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. 
 
 r The vessel that broke the chain was named the Eagle, Aquila, 
 (Dand(.l Chronicon. p. 322.) which Blondus (de Geslis Venet) nas 
 I . chaniied into i49ui7o, the north wind. Ducange, Observations, No. 
 ' 8J. maintains the latter reading ; but he had not seen the respectable 
 
 text of Dandolo, nor did he enough consider the topography of the 
 harbour. The south east would have been a more effectual wind. 
 
 • Quaire cens mil homes ou plus, (Villehardouin, No. 134.) must 
 be understood of men of a military age. Le Beau (Hist, du Bas Em- 
 pire, lorn. XX. p. 417.) allows Constantinople a million of inhabitants, 
 of whom 6(»,(iOU horse, and an infinite number of foot soldiers. In its 
 present decay, the capital of the Ottoman empire may contain 4(X),<J0U 
 ■^•uls ; (Bell's Travels, vol. ji. p. 401, 4a2.) but as the Tuiks keep no 
 registers, and as circumstances are fallacious, it is impossible to as- 
 certain (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arable, toui. i. p. 18, 19.) the real popu- 
 lousnesj of their ciliei. 
 
 and fortunes to a frail bark and a precarious element, 
 and loudly demanded a trial of knighthood, a firm 
 ground and a close onset, either on foot or horseback. 
 After a prudent compromise, of employing the two na- 
 tions by sea and land, in the service best suited to 
 their character, the fleet covering the army, they 
 both proceeded from the entrance to the extremi- 
 ty of the harbour : the stone bridge of the river was 
 hastily repaired ; and the six battles of the French 
 formed their encampment anainst the front of the cap- 
 ital, the basis of the triangle which runs about four 
 miles from the port to the Propontis.' On the edge 
 of a broad ditch, at the foot of a lofty rampart, they 
 had leisure to contemplate the difficulties of their en- 
 terprise. The gates to the right and left of their nar- 
 row camp poured forth frequent sallies of cavalry and 
 light-infantry, which cut off their stragglers, swept the 
 country of provisions, sounded the alarm five or six 
 times in the course of each day, and compelled them 
 to plant a pallisade, and sink an intrenchment, for their 
 immediate safety. In the supplies and convoys the 
 Venetians had been too sparing, or the Franks too vo- 
 racious : the usual complaints of hunger and scarcity 
 were heard, and perhaps felt : their stock of flour would 
 be exhausted in three weeks ; and their disgust of salt 
 meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses. 
 The trembling usurper was supported by Theodore 
 Lascaris, his son-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired 
 to save and to rule his country; the Greeks, regard- 
 less of that country, were awakened to the defence of 
 their religion ; but their firmest hope was in the 
 strength and spirit of the Varangian guards, of the 
 Danes and English, as they are named in the writers 
 of the times." After ten days' incessant labour, the 
 ground was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches 
 of the besiegers were regularly made, and two hun- 
 dred and fifty engines of assault exercised their various 
 powers to clear the rampart, to baiter the walls, and 
 to sap the foundations. On the first appearance of a 
 breach, the scaling-ladders were applied ; the numbers 
 that defended the vantage ground repulsed and op- 
 pressed the adventurous Latins; but they admired the 
 resolution of fifteen knights and Serjeants, who had 
 gained the ascenc, and maintained their perilous sta- 
 tion till they were precipitated or made prisoners by 
 the imperial guards. On the side of the harbour the 
 naval attack was more successfully conducted by the 
 Venetians ; and that industrious people employed eve- 
 ry resource that was known and practised before the 
 invention of gunpowder. A double line, three bow- 
 shots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships; 
 and the swift motion of the former was supported by 
 the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks 
 and poops, and turrets, were the platforms of military 
 engines, that discharged their shot over the heads of 
 the first line. The soldiers, who leaped from the gal- 
 leys on shore, immediately planted and ascended their 
 scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more 
 slowly into the intervals, and lowering a drawbridge, 
 opened a way through the air from their masts to the 
 rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a ven- 
 erable and conspicuous form, stood aloft, in complete 
 armour, on the prow of his galley. The great stand- 
 ard of St. Mark was displayed before him ; his threats, 
 promises, and exhortations, urged the diligence of the 
 rowers ; his vessel was the first that struck ; and Dan- 
 dolo was the first warrior on the shore. The nations 
 admired the magnanimity of the blind old man, with- 
 out reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished 
 
 t On the most correct plans of Constantinople, I know not how to 
 measure more than 4000 paces. Yet Villehardoum computes the 
 space at three leagues. (No. 86.) If his eye were not deceived, he 
 must reckon by the old Gallic league of 1500 paces, which might 
 still be used in Champagne. ... ,xt o« 
 
 u The guards, the Varangi, are styled by Villehardouin, (No. BO- 
 SS, &c.) Englois et Danois avec leurs baches. Whatever had been 
 their origin, a French pilgrim could not be mistaken ia the oatioiui 
 of which* they were at thai lime composed. 
 

 366 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 chaf. xxr. 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 36T 
 
 
 hi' 
 
 r 
 
 V I 
 
 1! 
 
 the price of life, and enhanced the value of immortal 
 glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand, (for the 
 standard-bearer was probably slain,) the banner of the 
 republic was fixed on the rampart: twenty-five tow- 
 ers were rapidly occupied ; and, by the cruel expedi- 
 ent of fire, the Greeks were driven from the adjacent 
 quarter. The dofre had despatched the intelligence of 
 his success, wheli he was checked by the danger of 
 his confederates. Nobly declaring, that he would ra- 
 ther die with the pilgrims than gain a victory by their 
 destruction, Dandolo relinquished his advantage, re- 
 called his troops, and hastened to the scene of action. 
 He found the six weary diminutive battles of the French 
 encompassed by sixty squadrons of the Greek cavalry, 
 the least of which was more numerous than the largest 
 of their divisions. Shame and despair had provoked 
 Alexius to the last effort of a general sally; but he 
 was awed by the firm order and manly aspect of tlie 
 Latins ; and, after skirmishing at a distance, withdrew 
 his iroops in the close of the evening. The silence or 
 tumult of the night exasperated his fears ; and the tim- 
 id usurper, collecting a treasure often thousand pounds 
 of gold, basely deserted his wife, his people, and his 
 fortune; threw himself into a bark, stole through the 
 Bosphorus, and landed in shameful safety in an ob- 
 scure harbour of Thrace. As soon as they were ap- 
 prized of his flight, the Greek nobles sought pardon 
 and peace in the dungeon where the blind Isaac ex- 
 pected each hour the visit of the executioner. Again 
 saved and exalted by the vicissitudes of fortune, the 
 captive in his imperial robes was replaced on the 
 throne, and surrounded with prostrate slaves, whose 
 real terror and affected joy he was incapable of dis- 
 cerning. At the dawn of day hostilities were suspen- 
 ded ; and the Latin chiefs were surprised by a mes- 
 sage from the lawful and reigning emperor, who was 
 impatient to embrace his son, and to reward his gen- 
 erous deliverers.* 
 
 Restoration of But these generous deliverers were 
 the emperor unwilling to release their hostage, till 
 ImrhfsTn"'' they had obtained from his father the 
 Alexius, payment, or at least the promise, of their 
 
 July 19. recompence. They chose four ambassa- 
 dors, Matthew of Montmorency, our historian, the mar- 
 shal of Champagne, and two Venetians, to congratu- 
 late the emperor. The gates were thrown open on 
 their approach, the streets on both sides were lined 
 with the battle-axes of the Danish and English guard ; 
 the presence chamber glittered with gold and jewels, 
 the false substitutes of virtue and power ; by the side 
 of the blind Isaac, his wife was seated, the sister of 
 the king of Hungary; and by her appearance, the no- 
 ble matrons of Greece were drawn from their domestic 
 retirement, and mingled with the circle of senators and 
 soldiers. The Latins, by the mouth of the marshal, 
 spoke like men conscious of their merits, but who re- 
 spected the work of their own hands ; and the emperor 
 clearly understood, that his son's engagements with 
 Venice and the pilgrims must be ratified without hes- 
 itation or delay. Withdrawing into a private cham- 
 ber with the empress, a chamberlain, an interpreter, 
 and the four ambassadors, the father of young Alexius 
 inquired with some anxiety into the nature of his stip- 
 ulations. The submission of the eastern empire to the 
 pope, the succour of the Holy Land, and a present 
 contribution of two hundred thousand marks of silver. 
 " These conditions are weighty," was his prudent re- 
 ply ; ** they are hard to accept, and difficult to perform. 
 But no conditions can exceed the measure of your ser- 
 vices and deserts." After this satisfactory assurance, 
 the barons mounted on horseback, and introduced the 
 
 X For the first siege and conquest of Constanlinople,we may read the 
 original letter of the crusaders to Innocent III. Gesta, c. 91. p. 533. 
 534. Villehardouin, No. 75— 99. Nicelas in Alexio Comnen. 1. iii. 
 c. 10. p. 349—352. Dandolo, in Chron, 322. Gunlher, and his abbot 
 Martin, were not yet returned from their obstinate pilgrimage at Je- 
 rusalem, or St John d'Acre, where tho greatest part oi the company 
 bad died of the plague. 
 
 heir of Constantinople to the city and palace : his 
 youth and marvellous adventures engaged every heart 
 in his favour, and Alexius was solemnly crowned with 
 his father in the dome of St. Sophia. In the first daya 
 of his reign, the people, already blessed with the res- 
 toration of plenty and peace, were delighted by the 
 joyful catastrophe of the tragedy; and the discontent 
 of the nobles, their regret, and their fears, were cover- 
 ed by the polished surface of pleasure and loyalty. 
 The mixture of two discordant nations in the same 
 capital, might have been pregnant with mischief and 
 danger ; and the suburb of Galata, or Pera, was as- 
 signed for the quarters of the French and Venetinns* 
 But the liberty of trade and familiar intercourse was 
 allowed between the friendly nations; and each day 
 the pilgrims were tempted by devotion or curiosity 
 to visit the churches and palaces of Constantinople. 
 Their rude minds, insensible perhaps of the finer arts,, 
 were astonished by the magnificent scenery : and the 
 poverty of their native towns enhanced the populous- 
 ness and riches of the first metropolis of Christendom.^ 
 Descending from his state, young Alexius was promp- 
 ted by interest and gratitude to repeat his frequent and 
 familiar visits to his Latin allies; and in the freedom 
 of the table, the gay petulence of the French some- 
 times forgot the emperor of the east.« In their most 
 serious conferences, it was agreed, that the re-union of 
 the two churches must be the result of patience and 
 time ; but avarice was less tractable than zeal ; and a 
 large sum was instantly disbursed to appease the 
 wants, and silence the importunity, of the cru.«5aders.* 
 Alexius was alarmed by the approaching hour of their 
 departure : their absence might have relieved him from 
 the engagement which he was yet incapable of per- 
 forming; but his friends would have left him, naked 
 and alone, to the caprice and prejudice of a perfidious 
 nation. He wished to bribe their stay, the delay of a 
 year, by undertaking to defray their expense, and to 
 satisfy in their name, the freight of the Venetian ves- 
 sels. The offer was agitated in the council of the ba- 
 rons; and, after a repetition of their debates and 
 scruples, a majority of votes again acquiesced in the 
 advice of the doge and the prayer of the young empe- 
 ror. At the price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold, 
 he prevailed on the marquis of Montferrat to lead him 
 with an army round the provinces of Europe ; to estab- 
 lish his authority, and pursue his uncle, while Con- 
 stantinople was awed by the presence of Baldwin and 
 his confederates of France and Flanders. The expe- 
 dition was successful ; the blind emperor exulted in 
 the success of his arms, and listened to the predictions 
 of his flatterers, that the same Providence which had 
 raised him from the dungeon to the throne, would heal 
 his gout, restore his sight, and watch over the long 
 prosperity of his reign. Yet the mind of the suspi- 
 cious old man was tormented by the rising glories of 
 his son ; nor could his pride conceal from his envy^ 
 that, while his own name was pronounced in faint and 
 reluctant acclamations, the royal youth was the theme 
 of spontaneous and universal praise.** 
 
 By the recent invasion, the Greeks Quarrel of tha 
 were awakened from a dream of nine Greeks and La 
 centuries ; from the vain presumption ^'°*' 
 
 y Compare, in the rude energy of Villrhardouin, (No. 66 100.) ihf 
 inside and outside views of Constantinople, and their impression o» 
 the minds of the pilgrims : cette ville (says he) que de toutes les au 
 tres ^>re souveraine. See the parallel passages oi^ Fulcherius Carno 
 tensis. Hist. Hieropol. 1. i. c. 4. and Will. Tyr. ii. 6. xx. 26. 
 
 X As they played at dice, the Latins took off his diadem, and clap 
 ped on his head a woollen or hairy cap, to fiiyxwrretrrtf xa« jruy 
 KA.ii$-ev x»T«ffiijrai»iv c vo^i^. (Nicetas, p. 358.) If these merry com 
 panions were Venetians, it was the insolence of trade and a conimon« 
 wealth. 
 
 * Villehardouin, No. 101. Dandolo, p. 322. The doge affirms, that 
 the Venetians were paid more slowly than the French ; but he own«, 
 that the histories of the two nations differed on that subject. Had ho 
 read Villehardouin 1 The Greeks complained, however, quod totius 
 GraecisB opes transtulisset. (Gunther, Hist. C. P. c. 13 ) See the la- 
 mentations and invectives of Nicetas, (p. 355.) , 
 
 b The reign of Ale.\ius Comneiius occupies three books in Niceta»^ 
 p. 291-352. Tho short restoration of Imuic and his ■on is despalcheJ 
 in five chapters, p. 352-3C2. 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 that the capital of the Roman empire was impregna- 
 ble to foreign arms. The strangers of the west had 
 violated the city, and bestowed the sceptre, of Con- 
 stantino : their imperial clients soon became as unpop- 
 ular as themselves : the well-known vices of Isaac 
 were rendered still more contemptible by his infirmi- 
 ties, and the young Alexius was hated as an apostate, 
 who had renounced the manners and religion of his 
 country. His secret covenant with the Latins was 
 divulged or suspected ; the people, and especially the 
 clergy, were devoutly attached to their faith and su- 
 perstition ; and every convent, and every shop, re- 
 sounded with the danger of the church, and the tyran- 
 ny of the pope.' An empty treasury could ill supply 
 the demands of regal luxury and foreign extortion : 
 the Greeks refused to avert, by a general tax, the im- 
 pending evils of servitude and pillage; the oppression 
 of the rich excited a more dangerous and personal re- 
 sentment ; and if the emperor melted the plate, and 
 despoiled the images, of the sanctuary, he seemed to 
 justify the complaints of heresy and sacrilege. During 
 the absence of marquis Boniface and his imperial pu- 
 pil, Constantinople was visited with a calamity which 
 might be justly imputed to the zeal and indiscretion 
 of the Flemish pilgrims.** In one of their visits to the 
 city, they were scandalized by the aspect of a mosch 
 or synagogue, in which one God was worshipped, 
 without a partner or a son. Their effectual mode of 
 controversy was to attack the infidels with the sword, 
 and their habitation with fire : but the infidels, and 
 some christian neighbours, presumed to defend their 
 lives and properties; and the flames which bigotry had 
 kindled consumed the most orthodox and innocent 
 structures. During eight days and nights, the confla- 
 gration spread above a league in front, from the har- 
 bour to the Proponlis, over the thickest and most pop- 
 ulous regions of the city. It is not easy to count the 
 stately churches and palaces that were reduced to a 
 smoking ruin, to value the merchandize that perished 
 in the trading streets, or to number the families that 
 were involved in the common destruction. By this 
 outrage, which the doge and the barons in vain affect- 
 ed to disclaim, the name of the Latins became still 
 more impopular; and the colony of that nation, above 
 fifteen thousand persons, consulted their safety in a 
 hasty retreat from the city to the protection of their 
 standard in the suburb of Pera. The emperor returned 
 in triumph ; but the firmest and most dexterous policy 
 would have been insnfllicient to steer him through the 
 tempest, which overwhelmed the person and govern- 
 ment of that unhappy youth. His own inclination, 
 and his father's advice, attached him to his benefac- 
 tors : but Alexius hesitated between gratitude and pa- 
 triotism, between the fear of his subjects and of his 
 allies.* By his feeble and fluctuating conduct he lost 
 the esteem and confidence of both ; and, while he invi- 
 ted the marquis of Montferrat to occupy the palace, he 
 suffered the nobles to conspire, and the people to arm, 
 for the deliverance of their country. Regardless of 
 bis painful situation, the Latin chiefs repeated their 
 demands, resented his delays, suspected his intentions 
 and exacted a decisive answer of peace .or war. The 
 liaiiffhty summons was delivered by three French 
 knights and three Venetian deputies, who girded their 
 swords, mounted their horses, pierced through the an- 
 gry multitude, and entered, with a fearless counte- 
 nance, the palace and presence of the Greek emperor. 
 
 e When Nicetas reproaches Alexius for his impious league, he be- 
 stows the harshest names on the pope's new religion, m'S*" *«• «»to. 
 
 "■wTarov. . , TrxfiXTfOTTttv frtfuot , , ,Tu)VT0«n»3r» itfivoftiaiv x»ivi(r- 
 '"" • • . firxiirtv Ti xx< /Uf ratjrotiio-tv >ru)v 9r»>.3»ijuw 'Pju'^jho «{ iSujv, 
 
 (P- 348.) Such was the sincere language of every Greek to the last 
 gisp «>f iho empire. 
 
 . <i Nicetas (p. 355.) is positive in the charge, and specifies the Flem- 
 ings, (rA.<i/.o»,.-j) ihoush he is wrong in supposing it an ancient 
 nainp. Villehardouin (No. 107.) exculpates the barons, and is igno- 
 rant (perhaps affectedly ignorant) of the names of the guilty. 
 
 5 Compare the suspicii-ns and complaints of Niceias'^(p. 359—362.) 
 /'in , ^'""^ charges of Baldwin of Flanders, (Gesta Innocent 111. 
 ^' Ji. p. 534 ) cum patriarcha el mole nobilium, nobis promissis perju- 
 
 In a peremptory tone, they recapitulated their service*^ 
 and his engagements ; and boldly declared, that unless 
 their just claims were fully and immediately satisfied, 
 they should no longer hold him either as a sovereign or 
 a friend. After this defiance, the first that had ever 
 wounded an imperial ear, they departed without be- 
 traying any symptoms of fear; but their escape from 
 a servile palace and a furious city astonished the am- 
 bassadors themselves ; and their return to the camp 
 was the signal of mutual hostility. 
 
 Among the Greeks, all authority and The war re- 
 wisdom were overborne by the impetu- «"n*'A 
 ous multitude, who mistook their rage 
 for valour, their numbers for strength, and their fanat- 
 icism for the support and inspiration of Heaven. In 
 the eyes of both nations, Alexius was false and con- 
 temptible : the base and spurious race of the Angeli 
 was rejected with clamorous disdain; and the people 
 of Constantinople encompassed the senate, to demand 
 at their hands a more worthy emperor. To every sen- 
 ator, conspicuous by his birth or dignity, they succes- 
 sively presented the purple : by each senator the dead- 
 ly garment was repulsed : the contest lasted three 
 days; and we may learn from the historian Nicetas, 
 one of the members of the assembly, that ft^ar and 
 weakness were the guardians of their loyalty. A 
 phantom, who vanished in oblivion, was forcibly pro- 
 claimed by the crowd ;' but the author of the tumult, 
 and the leader of the war, was a prince of the house 
 of Ducas; and his common appellation of Alexius 
 must be discriminated by the epithet of Monrzoufle,* 
 which in the vulgar idiom expressed the close junc- 
 tion of his black and shaggy eye-brows. At once a 
 patriot and a courtier, the perfidious Mourzoufle, wha 
 was not destitute of cunningr and courage, opposed the- 
 Latins both in speech and action, inflamed the passions 
 and prejudices of the Greeks, and insinuated himself 
 into the favour and confidence of Alexius, who trusted 
 him with the office of great chamberlain, and tingpd 
 his buskins with the colours of royalty. At the dead' 
 of night, he rushed into the bed-chamber with an af- 
 frighted aspect, exclaiming that the palace was attack- 
 ed by the people and betrayed by the guards. Start- 
 ing from his couch, the unsuspecting prince threw 
 himself into the arms of the enemy, who had contrived; 
 his escape by a private staircase. But that staircase 
 terminated in a prison : Alexius was seized, stripped, 
 and loaded with chains; and, after tast- Ain,*:..--.,^ »>!- 
 
 , 1 1 • /. t II Alexius and his 
 
 mg some days the bitterness of death, he father depospd 
 was poisoned, or strangled, or beaten ^y Mci'r^oufle,. 
 with clubs, at the command, or in the 
 presence of the tyrant. The emperor Isaac Angelus 
 soon followed his son to the grave, and Mourzoufle, 
 perhaps, might spare the superfluous crime of hasten- 
 ing the execution of impotence and blindness. 
 
 The death of the emperors, and the Second siege, 
 usurpation of Mourzoufle, had changed January— April, 
 the nature of the quarrel. It was no longer the disa- 
 greement of allies who overvalued their services, or 
 neglected their obligations : the French and Venetians 
 forgot their complaints against Alexius, dropt a tear 
 on the untimely fate of their companion, and swore 
 revenge against the perfidious nation who had crown- 
 ed his assassin. Yet the prudent doge was still in- 
 clined to negociate ; he asked as a debt, a subsidy, or 
 a fine, fifty thousand pounds of gold, about two mil- 
 lions sterling; nor would the conference have been 
 abruptly broken, if the zeal, or policy, of Mourzoufle 
 had not refused to sacrifice the Greek church to tlie 
 safety of the state.* Amidst the invectives of his for- 
 
 f His name was Nicholas Canabus ; he deserved the praise of Nice> 
 las and the vengeance of Mourzoufle, (p 362.) 
 
 K Villehardouin (No. IKi.) speaks of him as a favourite, without 
 knowing that he was a prince of the blood, Angelus and Ducas. 
 Ducange, who pries into every corner, believes hini to be the son of 
 Isaac Ducas Sebaslocrator, and second cousin of young Alexius. 
 
 h This negocialion, probable in itself, and attested by Nicetas, (p. 
 3G3.) is omitted as scandalous by the delicacy of Dandolo and ViU»- 
 hardouin. 
 
 1" 
 
'•t 
 
 368 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 Chap. XXL 
 
 OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 369 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 eign and domestic enemies, we may discern that he was 
 not unworthy of the character which he had assumed, 
 of the public champion : the second siege of Constan- 
 tinople was far more laborious than the first ; the trea- 
 sury was replenished, and discipline was restored, by 
 a severe inquisition into the abuses of the forrner reign ; 
 and Mourzoufle, an iron mace in his hand, visiting the 
 posts, and affecting the port and aspect of a warrior, 
 was an object of terror to his soldiers, at least, and to 
 his kinsmen. Before and after the death of Alexius, 
 the Greeks made two vigorous and well-conducted at- 
 tempts to burn the navy in the harbour ; but the skill 
 and courage of the Venetians repulsed the fire-ships ; 
 and the vagrant flames wasted themselves without in- 
 jury in the'sea.' In a nocturnal sally the Greek empe- 
 ror was vanquished by Henry, brother of the count of 
 Flanders; the advantages of number and surprise ag- 
 gravated the shame of his defeat; his buckler was 
 found on the field of battle ; and the imperial stand- 
 ard,* a divine image of the Virgin, was presented, as 
 a trophv and a relic, to the Cistercian monks, the dis- 
 ciples of St. Bernard. Near three months, without 
 excepting the holy season of Lent, were consumed in 
 skirmishes and preparations, before the Latins were 
 ready or resolved for a general assault. The land 
 fortifications had been found impregnable; and the 
 Venetian pilots represented, that, on the shore of the 
 Propontis, the anchorage was unsafe, and the ships 
 must be driven by the current far away to the straits 
 of the Hellespont; a prospect not unpleasing to the 
 reluctant pilgrims, who sought every opportunity of 
 breaking the army. From the harbour, therefore, the 
 assault was determined by the assailants, and expected 
 by the besieged ; and the emperor had placed his scar- 
 let pavilions on a neighbouring height, to direct and 
 animate the efforts of his troops. A fearless specta- 
 tor, whose mind could entertain the ideas of pomp and 
 pleasure, might have admired the long array of two 
 embattled armies which extended above half a league, 
 the one on the ships and galleys, the other on the 
 walls and towers raised above the ordinary level by 
 several stages of wooden turrets. Their first fury 
 was spent in the discharge of darts, stones, and fire, 
 from the engines ; but the water was deep ; the French 
 were bold ; the Venetians were skilful ; they approach- 
 ed the walls; and a desperate conflict of swords, 
 spears, and battle-axes, was fought on the trembling 
 bridges that grappled the floating to the stable batte- 
 ries. In more than a hundred places, the assault was 
 urged, and the defence was sustained ; till the superi- 
 ority of ground and numbers finally prevailed, and the 
 Latin trumpets sounded a retreat. On the ensuing 
 days, the attack was renewed with equal vigour, and 
 a similar event; and, in the night, the doge and the 
 barons held a council, apprehensive only for the public 
 danger: not a voice pronounced the words of escape 
 or treaty ; and each warrior, according to his temper, 
 embraced the hope of victory, or the assurance of a 
 glorious death.' By the experience of the former 
 siege, the Greeks were instructed, but the Latins were 
 animated ; and the knowledge that Constantinople 
 might be taken, was of more avail than the local pre- 
 cautions which that knowledge had inspired for its 
 defence. In the third assault two ships were linked 
 together to double their strength ; a strong north wind 
 drove them on the shore ; the bishops of Troyes and 
 Soissons led the van ; and the auspicious names of the 
 
 i Baldwin mentions both atlpmpls to fire the fleet ; (Gen. c. 92. p. 
 534,535.) Villehardouin (No. 113-115.) only describes the first It 
 is remarkable, that neither of these warriors observe any peculiar 
 properties in the Greek fire. . « 
 
 k Ducan!;p (Nfo. 119.) pours forth a torrent of learning on the Con- 
 fanon Imperial. This banner of the Virgin in shown at Venice as a 
 trophy and relic : if it be genuine, the pious doge must have cheated 
 the monks of CiteauT. 
 
 1 Villehardouin iUo. 126.) confesses, that mult ere grant peril; 
 and Guniherus (Hist. C. P. c. 13.) affirms, that nulla spes victoria 
 •rridere poteral. Yet the knight despises those who thought of 
 flight, and the monk praisea hi« countrymen who were resolved on 
 death. 
 
 pilgrim and the paradise resounded along the line* 
 The episcopal banners were displayed on the Malls ; 
 a hundred marks of silver had been promised to the 
 first adventurers ; and if their reward was intercepted 
 hy death, their names have been immortalized by 
 fame. Four towers were scaled; three gales were 
 burst open ; and the French knights, who might trem- 
 ble on the waves, felt themselves invincible on horse- 
 back on the solid ground. Shall I relate that the thou- 
 sands who guarded the emperor's person, fled on the 
 approach, and before the lance, of a single warrior 1 
 Their ignominious flight is attested by their country- 
 man Nicetas : an army of phantoms marched with the 
 French hero, and he was magnified to a giant in the 
 eyes of the Greeks.' While the fugitives deserted 
 their posts and cast away their arms, the Latins enter- 
 ed the city under the banners of their leaders ; the 
 streets and gates opened for their passage ; and either 
 design or accident kindled a third conflagration, which 
 consumed in a few hours the measure of three of the 
 largest cities of France." In the close of the evening, 
 the barons checked their troops, and fortified their sta- 
 tions : they were awed by the extent and populousnesa 
 of the capital, which might yet require the labour of a 
 month, if the churches and palaces were conscious of 
 their internal strength. But in the morning, a sup- 
 pliant procession, with crosses and images, announced 
 the submission of the Greeks, and deprecated the 
 wrath of the conquerors ; the usurper escaped through 
 the golden gate : the palaces of Blachernae and Bou- 
 coleon were occupied by the count of Flanders and 
 the marquis of Montferrat ; and the empire, which 
 still bore the name of Constantine, and the title of 
 Roman, was subverted by the arms of the Latin pil- 
 grims.' 
 
 Constantinople had been taken by pniaee of Con- 
 storm ; and no restraints, except those of suntinople. 
 religion and humanity, were imposed on the conquer- 
 ors by the laws of war. Boniface, marquis of Mont- 
 ferrat, still acted as their general ; and the Greeks, 
 who revered his name as that of their future sovereign, 
 were heard to exclaim in a lamentable tone, " Holy 
 marquis-king, have mercy upon us !" His prudf noe 
 or compassion opened the gates of the city to the fugi- 
 tives ; and he exhorted the soldiers of the cross to 
 spare the lives of their fellow-christians. The streams 
 of blood that flow down the pages of Nicetas, may be 
 reduced to the slaughter of two thousand of his unre- 
 sisting countrymen;** and the greater part were massa- 
 cred, not by the strangers, but by the Latins, who had 
 heen driven from the city, and who exercised the re- 
 venge of a triumphant faction. Yet of these exiles, 
 some were less mindful of injuries than of benefits; 
 and Nicetas himself was indebted for his safety to the 
 generosity of a Venetian merchant. Pope Irinocent 
 the third accuses the pilgrims of respectinor, in their 
 lust, neither age nor sex, nor religious profession ; and 
 bitterly laments that the deeds of darkness, fornication, 
 adultery, and incest, were perpetrated in open day; 
 and that noble matrons and holy nuns were polluted 
 
 m Baldwin, and all the writers, honour the names of these two 
 galleys, felici auspicio. 
 
 « With an allusion to Homer, Nicetas calls him i»vi» ef>^u««c, nin* 
 orgyse, or eighteen yards hiah, a stature which would, indeed, have 
 excused the terror of the Greek. On this occasion, the historian 
 seems fonder of the marvellous, than of his country, or perhaps d 
 truth. Baldwin exclaims in the words of the psalmist, persequitur 
 unus ex nobis centum alienim. 
 
 o Villehardouin (No. 130 ) is ac;ain ignorant of the authors ol tun 
 more legitimate fire, which is ascribed by Gunthertoa quidam coiiifJ 
 Teuionicus. (c. 14.) They seem ashamed, the incendiaries ! 
 
 P For the second siege and conquest of Constantinoi-le, see ville- 
 hardouin, (No. 113—132) Baldwin's second Epistle to Innocent HI. 
 (Gesla, c. 92. p. 534— 637.) with the whole reign of Motirzoi.nH, i» 
 Nicetas, (p. 303-375.) and borrow some hints from Dandido, (Chron. 
 Venei. p. 320—330.) and Gunlher, (Hist. C. V. c. 14—18.) who add the 
 decorairms of piophecy and division. The former prinlucea an oracle 
 of the ErythrsBiin sybil, of a great armament on the Adriatic, under* 
 blind chief, against Byzantium, &c. Curious enough, were the pre- 
 diction anterior to the fict. 
 
 q Ceciderunt tamen ea die civium quasi duo millia, &c. (GunihPrt 
 c. 18.) Arithmetic is an excellent touchstone to try the aropUficaHOM 
 1 of paaaioa aad rhetoric. 
 
 I 
 
 by the grooms and peasants of the catholic camp.' 
 It is indeed probable that the licence of victory promp- 
 ted and covered a multitude of sins : but it is certain, 
 that the capital of the east contained a stock of venal 
 or willing beauty, suflicient to satiate the desires of 
 twenty thousand pilgrims : and female prisoners w^ere 
 no longer subject to the right or abuse of domestic 
 slavery. The marquis of Montferrat was the patron 
 of discipline and decency ; the count of Flanders was 
 the mirror of chastity : they had forbidden, under 
 pain of death, the rape of married women, or virgins, 
 or nuns ; and the proclamation was sometimes invoked 
 by the vantiuished" and respected by the victors. Their 
 cruelty and lust were moderated by the authority of 
 the chiefs, and feelings of the soldiers; for we are no 
 longer describing an irruption of the northern savages ; 
 and however ferocious they might still appear, time, 
 policy, and reliofion, had civilized the manners of the 
 French, and still more of the Italians. But a free 
 scope was allowed to their avarice, which was glutted, 
 even in the holy week, by the pillage of Constantino- 
 ple. The right of victory, unshackled by any promise 
 or treaty, had confiscated the public and private wealth 
 of the Greeks ; and every hand, according to its size 
 and strength, might lawfully execute the sentence and 
 seize the forfeiture. A portable and universal stand- 
 ard of exchange was found in the coined and uncoin- 
 ed metals of gold and silver, which each captor, at 
 home or abroad, might convert into the possessions 
 most suitable to his temper and situation. Of the 
 treasures, which trade and luxury had accumulated, 
 the silks, velvets, furs, the gems, spices, and rich 
 movables, were the most precious, as they could not 
 be procured for money in the ruder countries of Eu- 
 Division of the rope. An order of rapine was institu- 
 spoii. ted ; nor was the share of each individ- 
 
 ual abandoned to industry or chance. Under the tre- 
 mendous penalties of perjury, excommunication, and 
 death, the Latins were bound to deliver their plunder 
 into the common stock ; three churches were selected 
 for the deposit and distribution of the spoil ; a single 
 share was allotted to a foot soldier; two for a seijeant 
 on horseback ; four to a knight ; and larger propor- 
 tions according to the rank and merit of the barons 
 and princes. For violating this sacred engagement, a 
 knight, belonging to the count of St. Paul, was hang- 
 ed with his shield and coat of arms round his neck : 
 his example might render similar offenders more art- 
 ful and discreet ; but avarice was more powerful than 
 fear ; and it is generally believed, that the secret far 
 exceeded the acknowledged plunder. Yet the magni- 
 tude of the prize far surpassed the largest scale of ex- 
 perience or expectation.* After the whole had been 
 equally divided between the French and Venetians, 
 fifty thousand marks were deducted to satisfy the 
 debts of the former and the demands of the latter. The 
 residue of the French amounted to four hundred thou- 
 sand marks of silver," about eight hundred thousand 
 pounds sterling : nor can I better appreciate the value 
 of that sum in the public and private transactions of 
 the age, than by defining it at seven times the annual 
 revenue of the kingdom of England.* 
 
 ' Quidam (says Innocent HI. Ge«ta, e. 94. p. 538.) nee religioBi, 
 n''c aeiati, nee sexui pepercerunt ; sed fornicationes, adulteria, el 
 incesiusinoculis omnium exercentes, non solum maritatas etviduas, 
 spo et matronas et virgines Deo<]ue dicatas, exposiierunt spurcitiis gar- 
 ciniium. Villehardouin takes no notice of these common incidents. 
 
 • Nicolas saved, and afterwards married, a noble virgin, (p. 380.) 
 ^nom a Soldier, in-* ftxctvv^i iroKxon evf,Scv i:Ti3^iu^'i.,utvoj, had 
 aliiiiist vii.lated in spite of the svtoa.sw, $vTuK!u%r» iv yfyovorvv, 
 
 < Of the general mass of wealth, Gunther observes, ut de pauperi- 
 oiisei advenis cives diiissimi reddprenlur ; (Hist. C. P. c. 18.) Ville- 
 nardonin, (No. 132.) that since the creation, ne fu tant gaigniO dans 
 line vilip ; Baldwin (Gesta, c. 92.) ut tantum tota non videatur, possi- 
 dpre Laiinitas. 
 
 n Villehardouin, No. 153-135. Instead of 4a).000, there is a vari- 
 ous reading of 500,aX). The Venetians had off-^red to lake the whole 
 DOtty, and to give 400 marks to each knight, 2<K) to each priest and 
 jiorsf-nian, and lUO to each foot soldior ; ihey would have been great 
 loters. (Le Beau, Hist, du Bas Empire, loiu. xx. p. 506.) I know not 
 ifom whence. 
 
 « At the council of Lyons, CA. D. 1845.) the English ambassadors 
 Vol. U — 2 W 24 
 
 In this great revolution we enjoy the Misery of the 
 singular felicity of comparing the narra- Greek, 
 tives of Villehardouin and Nicetas, the opposite feel- 
 ings of the marshal of Champagne and the Byzantine 
 senator.^ At the first view it would seem that the 
 wealth of Constantinople was only transferred from 
 one nation to another ; and that the loss and sorrow of 
 the Greeks is exactly balanced by the joy and advan- 
 tage of the Latins. But in the miserable account of 
 war, the gain is never equivalent to the loss, the plea- 
 sure to the pain : the smiles of the Latins were tran- 
 sient and fallacious ; the Greeks for ever wept over 
 the ruins of their country ; and their real calamities 
 were aggravated by sacrilege and mockery. What 
 benefits accrued to the conquerors from the three fires 
 which annihilated so vast a portion of the buildings 
 and riches of the city ? What a stock of such things 
 as could neither be used or transported, was malicious- 
 ly or wantonly destroyed ! How much treasure was idly 
 wasted in gaming, debauchery, and riot ! And what pre- 
 cious objects were bartered for a vile price by the impa- 
 tience or ignorance of the soldiers, whose reward was 
 stolen by the base industry of the last of the Greeks ! 
 Those alone, who had nothing to lose, might derive 
 some profit from the revolution ; but the misery of the 
 upper ranks of society is strongly painted in the per- 
 sonal adventures of Nicetas himself. His stately pal- 
 ace had been reduced to ashes in the second conflagra- 
 tion, and the senator, with his family and friends, 
 found an obscure shelter in another house which he 
 possessed near the church of St. Sophia. It was the 
 door of this mean habitation that his friend, the Vene- 
 tian merchant, guarded in the disguise of a soldier, 
 till Nicetas could save, by a precipitate flight, the 
 relics of his fortune and the chastity of his daughter. 
 In a cold wintry season, these fugitives, nursed in the 
 lap of prosperity, departed on foot ; his wife was 
 with child ; the desertion of their slaves compelled 
 them to carry their baggage on their own shoulders; 
 and their women, whom they placed in the centre, 
 were exhorted to conceal their beauty with dirt, in- 
 stead of adorning it with paint and jewels. Every 
 step was exposed to insult and danger ; the threats of 
 the strangers were less painful than the taunts of the 
 plebeians, with whom they were now levelled ; nor 
 did the exiles breathe in safety till their mournful pil- 
 grimage was concluded at Selymbria, above forty 
 miles from the capital. On the way they overtook the 
 patriarch, without attendance and almost without appa- 
 rel, riding on an ass, and reduced to a state of aposto- 
 lic poverty, which, had it been voluntary, might per- 
 haps have been meritorious. In the mean while, his 
 desolate churches were profaned by the licentiousness 
 and party zeal of the Latins. After stripping the gems 
 and pearls, they converted the chalices Sacrilege and 
 into drinking-eups ; their tables, on which mockery, 
 they gamed and feasted, were covered with the pic- 
 tures of Christ and the saints ; and they trampled under 
 foot the most venerable objects of the christian wor- 
 ship. In the cathedral of St. Sophia, the ample veil 
 of the sanctuary was rent asunder for the sake of the 
 golden fringe ; and the altar, a monument of art and 
 riches, was broken in pieces and shared among the 
 captors. Their mules and horses were laden with the 
 wrought silver and guilt carvings, which they tore down 
 from the doors and pulpit ; and if the beasts stumbled 
 under the burthen, they were stabbed by their impa- 
 tient drivers, and the holy pavement streamed with 
 their impure blood. A prostitute was seated on the 
 throne of the patriarch ; and that daughter of Belial, 
 
 — .. 
 
 fitated the revenue of the crown, as below that of tlie foreign clergy, 
 which amounted t^ 6(),000 marks a year. (Matthew Paris, p. 451 
 Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 170.) 
 
 y The disonlers of the sack of Constantinople, and his own aoven- 
 lures, are feelingly described by Nicetas, p. 367—369. and in the Sta- 
 tus Urb. C. P. p. 375— 384. ^His complaints, even of sacrilege, are 
 justified by Innocent III. (Gesta, c. 92.) but Villehardouin does no( 
 betray a syiu|Jtom of pity or roraorse. 
 
t' 
 
 370 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXI^ 
 
 Cbap* XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 371 
 
 If' 
 
 m ' 
 
 i^f 
 « 
 
 ■4 
 
 I 
 
 W 
 
 as she is styled, sung and danced in the church, to 
 lidicule the hymns and processions of the orientals. 
 Nor were the repositories of the royal dead secure 
 from violation : m the church of the apostles, the 
 tombs of the emperors were rifled ; and it is said, that 
 after six centuries, the corpse of Justinian was found 
 without any signs of decay or putrefaction. In the 
 streets, the French and Flemings cloathed themselves 
 and their horses in painted robes and flowing head- 
 dresses of linen : and the coarse intemperance of their 
 feasts ■ insulted the splendid sobriety of the east. To 
 expose tho arms of a people of scribes and scholars, 
 they affected to display a pen, an inkhorn, and a sheet 
 of paper, without discerning that the instruments of 
 science and valour were alike feeble and useless in the 
 hands of the modern Greeks. 
 
 Deainiciion of Their reputation and their language 
 the fluiues. encouraged them, however, to despise the 
 ignorance, and to overlook the progress, of the Latins.* 
 In the love of the arts, the national difference was 
 still more obvious and real ; the Greeks preserved with 
 reverence the works of their ancestors, which they 
 could not imitate; and, in the destruction of the sta- 
 tues of Constantinople, we are provoked to join in the 
 complaints and invectives of the Byzantine historian.'' 
 We have seen how the rising city was adorned by the 
 vanity and despotism of the imperial founder ; in the 
 ruins of paganism, some gods and heroes were saved 
 from the axe of superstition ; and the forum and hip- 
 podrome were dignified with the relics of a better age. 
 Several of these are described by Nicetas,* in a florid 
 and affected style ; and, from his descriptions, I shall 
 select some interesting particulars. 1. The victorious 
 charioteers were cast in bronze, at their own, or the 
 public, charge, and fitly placed in the hippodrome; 
 they stood aloft in their chariots, wheeling round the 
 goal; the spectators could admire their attitude, and 
 judge of the resemblance ; and of these figures, the 
 most perfect might have been transported from the 
 Olympic stadium. 2. The sphynx, river-horse, and 
 crocodile, denote the climate and manufacture of 
 Egypt, and the spoils of that ancient province. 3. 
 The she-wolf, suckling Romulus and Remus ; a sub- 
 ject alike pleasing to the old and the neiv Romans : 
 but which could rarely be treated before the decline of 
 the Greek sculpture. 4. An eagle holding and tearing 
 a serpent in his talons ; a domestic monument of the 
 Byzantines, which they ascribed, not to a human 
 artist, but to the magic power of the philosopher Apol- 
 lonius, who by this talisman delivered the city from 
 such venomous reptiles. 5. An ass and his driver ; 
 which were erected by Augustus in his colony of Ni- 
 copolis, to commemorate a verbal omen of the victory 
 of Actium. 6. An equestrian statue ; which passed 
 in the vulgar opinion, for Joshua, the Jewish connuer- 
 or, stretching out his hand to stop the course of the 
 descending sun. A more classical tradition recogni- 
 zed the figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus ; and the 
 free attitude of the steed seemed to mark that he trod 
 on air, rather than on the earth. 7. A square and 
 lofty obelisk of brass ; the sides were embossed with 
 a variety of picturesque and rural scenes ; birds sing- 
 
 B If I rishilj apprehend the Greek of Nicetaa'fl receipts, their fa- 
 vourite dishes were boiled buttocks of beef, salt pork and peas, and 
 90up made of garlic and sharp or sour herbs, (p. d82.) 
 
 a Nicetas uses very harsh expressions, ^»p' ay ^s^fiMrei; Bm; 3»;ii;, 
 *cn j-ixiov c»v3«>.ci3«3^T««{. (Fragment. apud Fabric. Bibliot. GrsBC. torn, 
 vi. p. 414 ) This reproach, it is true, applies most sironely to their 
 ignorance of Greek and of Homer. In their own language, the Latins 
 of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were not destitute of litera- 
 ture. See Harris's Philological Inquiries, p. iii. c. 9, 10, 11. 
 
 b Nicetas was of Chonas in Phrypia; (the old Colossas of St. Paul ;) 
 he raised himself to the honours of senator, judge of the veil, and 
 great logothete ; beheld the f*ll of the empire, retired to Nice, and 
 composed an elaborate history from the death of Alexius Comnenus, 
 to the reign of Henry. - 
 
 e A manuscript of Nicetaa, in the Bodleian library, contains this 
 curious fragment on the statues of Constantinople, which fraud, or 
 shame, or rather carelessness, has dropt in the common editions. It 
 is published by Fabricius, (Bibliot. Gr»c. torn. vi. p. 406-416.) and 
 Immoderately praised by the late ingenious Mr. Harris of Salisbury. 
 (Philological Inquiries, p. iii. c. 5. p. dOl^^l^.) 
 
 ing ; rustics labouring, or playing on their pipes r 
 sheep bleating; lambs skipping ; the sea, and a scene 
 offish and fishing; little naked cupids laughing, play- 
 ing, and pelting each other with apples ; and, on the 
 summit, a female figure turning with the slightest 
 breath, and thence denominated the wind" 8 attendanL 
 8. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the 
 prize of beauty, the apple of discord. 9. The incom- 
 parable statue of Helen; which is delineated by Ni- 
 cetas in the words of admiration and love : her well- 
 turned feet, snowy arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, 
 swimming eyes, arched eye-brows, the harmony of 
 her shape, the lightness of her drapery, and her flow- 
 ing locks that waved in the wind : a beauty that 
 might have moved her barbarian destroyers to pity and 
 remorse. 10. The manly, or divine, form of Hercules,<> 
 as he was restored to life by the master-hand of Ly- 
 sippus; of such magnitude, that his thumb was equal 
 to the waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man ;• 
 his chest ample, his shoulders broad, his limbs strong 
 and muscular, his hair curled his aspect commanding. 
 Without his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin 
 carelessly thrown over him, he was seated on an osier 
 basket, his right leg and arm stretched to the utmost, 
 his left knee bent, and supporting his elbow, his head 
 reclining on his left hand, his countenance indignant 
 and pensive. 11. A colossal statue of Juno, which 
 had once adorned her temple of Samos; the enormous 
 head by four yoke of oxen was laboriously drawn to 
 the palace. 12. Another colossus, of Pallas or Miner- 
 va, thirty feet in height, and representing with admi- 
 rable spirit the attributes and character of the martial 
 maid. Before we accuse the Latins, it is just to re- 
 mark, that this Pallas was destroyed after the first 
 siege, by the fear and superstition of the Greeks them- 
 selves.' The other statues of brass which I have enu- 
 merated, were broken and melted by the unfeeling 
 avarice of the crusaders : the cost and labour were 
 consumed in a moment ; the soul of genius evapora- 
 
 the remnant of base metal was 
 for the payment of the troops. 
 Bronze is not the most durable of monuments; from 
 the marble forms of Phidias and Praxiteles, the La- 
 tins might turn aside with stupid contempt;* but 
 unless they were crushed by some accidental injury, 
 those useless stones stood secure on their pedestals.^ 
 The most enlijrhtened of the strangers, above the gross 
 and sensual pursuits of their countrymen, more piously 
 exercised the right of conquest in the search and sei- 
 zure of the relics of the saints.' Immense was the 
 supply of heads and bones, crosses and images, that 
 were scattered by this revolution over the churches of 
 Europe; and such was the increase of pilgrimage and 
 oblation, that no branch, perhaps, of more lucrative 
 plunder was imported from the east.*' Of the writings 
 of antiquity, many that still existed in the twelfth 
 century are now lost. But the pilgrims were not soli- 
 citous to save or transport the volumes of an unknown 
 tongue : the perishable substance of paper or parch- 
 ment can only be preserved by the multiplicity of 
 
 d To illuslmte the statue of Hercules, Mr. Harris quotes a Greek 
 epigram, and engraves a beautiful gem, which does not however copy 
 the attitude of the statue : in the latter Hercules had not his club, 
 and his right leg and arm were extended. 
 
 a I transcribe these proportions, which appear to me inconsistent 
 with each other; and may p<«sibiy show, tnat the boasted taste ol 
 Nicetas was no more than affectation and vanity. 
 
 f Nicetas in Isaaco Aneelo et Alexio, c. 3. p. 359. The Latin editor 
 very properly observes, that the historian, in his bombast style, pro- 
 duces ex pulice elephantem. 
 
 K In two passages of Nicetas (edit. Paris, p. 360. Fabric, p. 408.) 
 the Latins are branded with the lively reproach f d tou naxow •»•- 
 ^wTToi ^»f2>»((ii, and their avarice of brass is learly expresspd. 
 Yet the Venetians had the merit of removing four bronze horsos 
 from Constantinople to the place of St. Mark. (Sanuto. Vite del 
 Dogi, in Muratori, Script. Reruro Italicarum, tom. xxii. p. 534.) 
 
 h Winckelman, Hist, de rArt,tom. iii. p. 269, 270. 
 
 1 Seethe pious robbery of the abbot Martin, who transferred a ricli 
 cargo to his monastery of Paris, diocese of Basil, (Gunther, Hist. C. 
 P. c. 19. 23, 24.) Yet in secreting this booty, the saint incurred an 
 excommunication, and perhaps broke his oath. 
 
 k Fleury, Uift. Ecclet, tom. zvi. p. 139—146.; 
 
 ted in 
 coined 
 
 smoke ; and 
 into money 
 
 14 
 
 
 I 
 
 copies ; the literature of the Greeks had almost cen- 
 tred in the metropolis ; and, without computing the 
 extent of our loss, we may drop a tear over the libra- 
 ries that have perished in the triple fire of Constanti- 
 nople.' 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Partition of the empire by the French and Venetians. — 
 Five Latin emperors of the house of Flanders and Cour- 
 tenai/. — T/ieir ivars against the Bulgarians and Greeks. 
 — Weakness and poverty of the Latin empire. — Recovery 
 of Constantinople by the Greeks. — General consequences 
 of the crusades. 
 
 Election of the After the death of the lawful prin- 
 emperor Bald- ^es, the French and Venetians, confident 
 "a. b. 1204. of justice and victory, agreed to divide 
 May 9—16. and regulate their future possessions.* 
 It was stipulated by treaty, that twelve electors, six of 
 either nation, should be nominated ; that a majority 
 should choose the emperor of the east; and that, if the 
 votes were equal, the decision of chance should ascer- 
 tain the successful candidate. To him, with all the 
 titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, they 
 assigned the two palaces of Boucoleon and Blachernse, 
 with a fourth part of the Greek monarchy. It was 
 defined that the three remaining portions should be 
 equally shared between the republic of Venice and the 
 barons of France ; that each feudatory, with an hon- 
 ourable exception for the doge, should acknowledge 
 and perform the duties of homage and military service 
 to the supreme head of the empire ; that the nation 
 which gave an emperor, should resign to their brethren 
 the choice of a patriarch ; and that the pilgrims, what- 
 ever might be their impatience to visit the Holy Land, 
 should devote another year to the conquest and defence 
 of the Greek provinces. After the conquest of Con- 
 stantinople by the Latins, the treaty was confirmed 
 and executed ; and the first and most important step 
 was the creation of an emperor. The six electors of 
 the French nation were all ecclesiastics, the abbot of 
 Loees, the archbishop elect of Acre in Palestine, and 
 the bishops of Troyes, Soissons, Halberstadt, and Beth- 
 lehem, the last of whom exercised in the camp the 
 office of pope's legate : their profession and know- 
 ledge were respectable ; and as they could not be the 
 objects, they were best qualified to be the authors, of the 
 choice. The six Venetians were the principal servants 
 of the state, and in this list the noble families of Querini 
 and Contarini are still proud to discover their ancestors. 
 The twelve assembled in the chapel of the palace ; and 
 after the solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost they 
 proceeded to deliberate and vote. A just impulse of 
 respect and gratitude prompted them to crown the vir- 
 tues of the doge : his wisdom had inspired their enter- 
 prise; and the most youthful knights might envy and 
 applaud the exploits of blindness and age. But the 
 patriot Dandolo was devoid of all personal ambition, 
 and fully satisfied that he had been judged worthy to 
 feign. His nomination was overruled by the Vene- 
 tians themselves : his countrymen, and perhaps his 
 friends,** represented, with the eloquence of truth, the 
 
 • I shall conclude this chapter with the notice of a modern history, 
 ^nich illustrates the taking of Constantinople by the Latins; but 
 which has fallen somewhat late into my hanas. Paolo Ramusio, the 
 son of the compiler of voyages, was directed by the senate of Venice 
 to write the history of the conquest; and this order, which he recei- 
 ved in his youth, he executed in a mature age, by an elegant Latin 
 work, de Bello Constantinopolitano et Imperatoribus Comnenis per 
 ^allos et Venetos reslitutis. (Venet. 1635, in folio.) Ramusio, or 
 fv"^ """"*' I'^fiscribes and translates, sequitur ad unguem, a MS. 
 0' Villehardouin, which he possessed ; but he enriches liis narrative 
 with Greek and Latin materials, and we are indebted to him for a 
 correct stale of the fleet, the names of the fifty Venetian nobles who 
 Commanded the gallevs of the republic, and the patriot opposition of 
 "anialeon Barbus to the choice of the doge for emperor. 
 1 *^ ^''® """'"i'lal treaty of partition, in the Venetian Chronicle of 
 Andrew Dandolo, p. 326—330. and the subsequent election in Ville- 
 nardouin. No. 133—140. with Ducange in his Observations, and the 
 nrsi book of his Histoire de Constantinople sous I'Empire des 
 irancoia. 
 
 ^ After mentioning the nomination of the doge by a French elector, I 
 
 mischiefs that might arise to national freedom and the 
 common cause, from the union of two incompatible 
 characters of the first magistrate of a republic and the 
 emperor of the east. The exclusion of the doge left 
 room for the more equal merits of Boniface and Bald- 
 win ; and at their names all meaner candidates re- 
 spectfully withdrew. The marquis of Montferrat was 
 recommended by his mature age and fair reputation, 
 by the choice of the adventurers, and the wishes of 
 the Greeks ; nor can I believe that Venice, the mis- 
 tress of the sea, could be seriously apprehensive of a 
 petty lord at the foot of the Alps.' But the count of 
 Flanders was the chief of a wealthy and warlike peo- 
 ple ; he was valiant, pious, and chaste ; in the prime 
 of life, since he was only thirty-two years of age; a 
 descendant of Charlemagne, a cousin of the king of 
 France, and a compeer of the prelates and barons who 
 had yielded with reluctance to the command of a 
 foreigner. Without the chapel, these barons, with the 
 doge and marquis at their head, expected the decision 
 of the twelve electors. It was announced by the 
 bishop of Soissons, in the name of his colleagues; 
 *'Ye have sworn to obey the prince whom we should 
 choose : by our unanimous suffrage, Baldwin count of 
 Flanders and Hainault is now your sovereign, and 
 the emperor of the east." He was saluted with loud 
 applause, and the proclamation was re-echoed through 
 the city by the joy of the Latins, and the trembling 
 adulation of the Greeks. Boniface was the first to 
 kiss the hand of his rival, and to raise him on the 
 buckler; and Baldwin was transported to the cathe- 
 dral, and solemnly invested with the purple buskins. 
 At the end of three weeks he was crowned by the le- 
 gate, in the vacancy of a patriarch ; but the Venetian 
 clergy soon filled the chapter of St. Sophia, seated 
 Thomas Morosini on the ecclesiastical throne, and em- 
 ployed every art to perpetuate in their own nation the 
 honours and benefices of the Greek church.** With- 
 out delay the successor of Constantine instructed Pa- 
 lestine, France, and Rome, of this memorable revolu- 
 tion. To Palestine he sent, as a trophy, the gates of 
 Constantinople, and the chain of the harbour ; * and 
 adopted, from the Assise of Jerusalem, the laws or 
 customs best adapted to a French colony and conquest 
 in the east. In his epistles, the natives of France are 
 encouraged to swell that colony, and to secure that 
 conquest, to people a magnificent city and a fertile land, 
 which will reward the labours both of the priest and 
 the soldier. He congratulates the Roman pontiff on 
 the restoration of his authority in the east; invites 
 him to extinguish the Greek schism by his presence 
 in a general council ; and implores his blessing and 
 forgiveness for the disobedient pilgrims. Prudence 
 and dignity are blended in the answer of Innocent/ 
 In the subversion of the Byzantine empire, he arraigns 
 the vices of man, and adores the providence of God : 
 the conquerors will be absolved or condemned by their 
 future conduct; the validity of their treaty depends 
 on the judgment of St. Peter ; but he inculcates their 
 most sacred duty of establishing a just subordination 
 of obedience and tribute, from the Greeks to the La- 
 tins, from the magistrate to the clergy, and from the 
 clergy to the pope. 
 
 his kinsman Andrew Dandolo approves his exclusion, quidam Vene- 
 tonim fidelis et nobilis senez, usus oratione satis probabili, Ilc, 
 which has been embroidered by modern writers from Blondus to Lo 
 Beau. 
 
 e Nicetas, (p. 3S4.) with the vain ignorance of a Greek, describes 
 the marquis of Montferrat as a maritime power. Aa^nrxfi.*,- St 
 ctKiKfiui 7r»^xKio¥, Was he deceived by the Byzantine theme of 
 Lombardy which extended alon? the coast of Calabria ? 
 
 d They exacted an oath from Thomas Morosini lo appoint no can- 
 ons of St. Sophia, the lawful electors, except Venetians who had 
 lived ten years at Venice, &c. But the foreign clergy were envious, 
 the pope disapproved this national monopoly, and of the six Latin 
 patriarchs of Constantinople, only the first and the last were Vene- 
 tians, e Nicetas, p. 3~3. 
 
 f The Epistles of Innocent III. are a rich fund for the ecclesiasti- 
 cal and civil institution of the Latin empire of Constantinople ; and 
 the most important of these epistles vof which the collection in 2 
 vols, in folio, is published by Stephen Baluze) are inserted in hi* 
 GesU; in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 1. c. 94— 10&. 
 
 I^ ' 
 
 
! ^ 
 
 372 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 373 
 
 IT 
 
 if'i 
 
 h ' 
 
 t'!| 
 
 \^ii^ "f 
 
 ttf^ 
 
 it 
 
 Division of iho In the division of the Greek provin- 
 Gr«ek empire. ces,« the share of the Venetians was 
 more ample than that of the Latin emperor. No more 
 than one fourth was appropriated to his domain; a 
 clear moiety of the remainder was reserved for Venice ; 
 and the other moiety was distributed among the ad- 
 venturers of France and Lombardy. The venerable 
 Dandolo was proclaimed despot of Romania, and in- 
 vested after the Greek fashion with the purple buskins. 
 He ended at Constantinople his lon^and glorious life; 
 and if the prerogative was personal, the title was 
 used by his successors till the middle of the fourteenth 
 century, with the singular, though true, addition of 
 lords of one fourth and a half of the Roman empire.** 
 The doge, a slave of state, was seldom permitted to 
 depart from the helm of the republic ; but his place 
 was supplied by the Z>«i7, or regent, wlio exercised a 
 supreme jurisdiction over the colony of Venetians; 
 they possessed three of the eight quarters of the city ; 
 and his independent tribunal was composed of six 
 judges, four counsellors, two chamberlains, two fiscal 
 advocates, and a constable. Their long experience of 
 the eastern trade enabled them to select their portion 
 with discernment : they had rashly accepted the do- 
 minion and defence of Adrianople ; but it was the 
 more reasonable aim of their policy to form a chain of 
 factories, and cities, and islands, along the maritime 
 coast, from the neighbourhood of Ragusa to the Hel- 
 lespont and the Bosphorus. The labour and cost of 
 such extensive conquests exhausted their treasury : 
 they abandoned their maxims of government, adopted 
 a feudal system, and contented themselves with the 
 homage of their nobles,' for the possessions which 
 these private vassals undertook to reduce and main- 
 tain. And thus it was, that the family of Sanut ac- 
 quired the duchy of Naxos, which involved the great- 
 est part of the Archipelago. For the price of ten 
 thousand marks, the republic purchased of the mar- 
 auis of Montferrat the fertile island of Crete or Can- 
 dia, with the ruins of a hundred cities;^ but its im- 
 provement was stinted by the proud and narrow spirit 
 of an aristocracy ; ' and the wisest senators would 
 confess that the sea, not the land, was the treasury of 
 St. Mark. In the moiety of the adventurers, the mar- 
 quis Boniface might claim the most liberal reward ; 
 and, besides the isle of Crete, his exclusion from the 
 throne was compensated by the royal title and the pro- 
 vinces beyond the Hellespont. But he prudently ex- 
 changed that distant and difficult conquest for the 
 kingdom of Thessalonica or Macedonia, twelve days' 
 journey from the capital, where he might be supported 
 by the neighbouring powers of his brother-in-law the 
 king of Hungary. His progress was hailed by the 
 voluntary or reluctant acclamations of the natives; 
 and Greece, the proper and ancient Greece, again re- 
 ceived a Latin conqueror," who trod with indi^erence 
 
 K In the treaty of partition, most of the names are corrupted by the 
 •cribes ; they might be restored, and a good map, suited to the last 
 ace of the Byzantine empire, would be an improvement of geogra- 
 phy. But, alas ! D'Anville is no more. 
 
 b Their style was dominus quart» partis et dimidise imperii Ro- 
 Tnani, till Giovanni Dolfino, who was elected doge in the year 1356, 
 <Sanuto, p. 530. 641.) For the government of Constantinople, see 
 Ducange, Hisioire de C. P. i. 37. 
 
 i Ducange, (Hist, de C. P. ii. 6.) has marked the conquest* made 
 by the state or nobles of Venice of the islands of Candia, Corfu, Ce- 
 phalonia, Zante, Naxos, Paros, Melos, Andros, Mycone, Sycro, Cea, 
 and Lemnos. 
 
 k Boniface sold the isle of Candia, August 12. A. D. 1204. See the 
 act in Sanuto, p. 533.: but I cannot understand how it could be his 
 mother's portion, or how she could be the daughter of an emperor 
 Alexius. 
 
 I In the year 1212, the doge Peter Zani sent a colony to Candia, 
 drawn from every quarter of Venice. But in their savage manners 
 and frequent rebellions, the Candiots may be compared to the Corsi- 
 cans under the yoke of Genoa : and when I compare the accounts of 
 Belon and Tournefort, I cannot discern much dinereuce between the 
 Venetian and the Turkish island. 
 
 m Villehardouin (No. 159, 160. 173—177.) and Nicetas(p.3S7- 394.) 
 describe the expedition into Greece of the marquis Boniface. The 
 Choniate mi^ht derive his information from his brother Michael, 
 archbishop of Athens, whom he paints as an orator, a statesman, and 
 a saint. His encomium of Athens and the description of Tempe, 
 •huuld be published firom the Bodleian MS. of Niceta*, (Fabric. Bib- 
 
 that classic ground. He viewed with a careless eye 
 the beauties of the valley of Tempe; traversed with a 
 cautious step the straits of Thermopylae ; occupied the 
 unknown cities of Thebes, Athens, and Argos ; and 
 assaulted the fortifications of Corinth and Napoli," 
 which resisted his arms. The lots of the Latin pil- 
 grims were regulated by chance, or choice, or subse- 
 quent exchange ; and they abused, with intemperate 
 joy, the triumph over the lives and fortunes of a great 
 people. After a minute survey of the provinces, they 
 weighed in the scales of avarice the revenue of each 
 district, the advantage of the situation, and the ample 
 or scanty supplies for the maintenance of soldiers and 
 horses. Their presumption claimed and divided tiie 
 long-lost dependencies of the Roman sceptre : the 
 Nile and Euphrates rolled through their imaginary 
 realms ; and happy was the warrior who drew for his 
 prize the palace of the Turkish sultan of Iconium.** 
 I shall not descend to the pedigree of families and 
 the rent-roll of estates, but I wish to specify that the 
 counts of Blois and St. Pol were invested with the 
 duchy of Nice and the lordship of Demotica;P the 
 principal fiefs were held by the service of constable, 
 chamberlain, cup-bearer, butler, and chief cook; and 
 our historian, Jeffrey of Villehardouin, obtained a fair 
 establishment on the banks of the Hebrus, and united 
 the double office of marshal of Champagne and Roma- 
 nia. At the head of his knights and archers, each 
 baron mounted on horseback to secure the possession 
 of his share, and their first efforts were generally suc- 
 cessful. But the public force was weakened by their 
 dispersion ; and a thousand quarrels must arise under 
 a law, and among men, whose sole umpire was the 
 sword. Within three months after the conquest of 
 Constantinople, the emperor and the king of Thessa- 
 lonica drew their hostile followers into the field ; they 
 were reconciled by the authority of the doge, the 
 advice of the marshal, and the firm freedom of their 
 peers.' 
 
 Two fugitives, who had reigned at 
 Constantinople, still asserted the title of 
 emperor; and the subjects of their fallen 
 throne might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of 
 the elder Alexius, or e.xcited to revenge by the spirit 
 of Mourzoufle. A domestic alliance, a common inter- 
 est, a similar guilt, and the merit of extinguishing his 
 enemies, a brother and a nephew, induced the more 
 recent usurper to unite with the former the relics of his 
 power. Mourzoufle was received with smiles and ho- 
 nours in the camp of his father Alexius ; but the wick- 
 ed can never love, and should rarely trust, their fellow- 
 criminals: he was seized in the bath, deprived of his 
 eyes, stripped of his troops and treasures, and turn- 
 ed out to wander an object of horror and contempt to 
 those who with more propriety could hate, and with 
 more justice could punish, the assassin of the emperor 
 Isaac and his son. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or 
 remorse, was stealing over to Asia, he was seized by 
 the Latins of Constantinople, and condemned, after an 
 open trial, to an ignominious death. His judges de- 
 bated the mode of his execution, the axe, the wheel, 
 or the stake: and it was resolved that Mourzoufle' 
 
 liot. Gmc. torn. vi. p. 405.) and would have deserved Mr. Harris's 
 inquiries. 
 
 B Napoli di Romania, or Nauplia, the ancient sea-port of Argos, is 
 still a place of strength and consideration, situate on a rocky penin- 
 sula, with a good harbour. (Chandler's Travels into Greece, p. 2J7.) 
 
 o I have softened the expression of Nicetas, who strives to exposo 
 the presumption of the Franks. See de Rebus post C. P. expugna- 
 tam, p. 375— 3S1.' 
 
 P A city surrounded by the river Hebnis, and six leagues to the 
 south of Adrianople, received from its double wall the Greek na!ii<» 
 of Didymoieichos, insensibly corrupted into Demoticaand Dimot. I 
 have preferred the more convenient and modern appellation of Deiuo- 
 tica. This place was the last Turkish residence of Charles Xll. 
 
 q Their quarrel is told by VillrharJouin (No. 146—158) with liio 
 spirit of freedom. The merit and reputation of the marshal arc ac- 
 knowledged by the Greek historian, (p. 387.) niyx 7Txe% toi,- Axt-- 
 ¥iA,v Suvmftnov rf«T«uju»ri : unlike some modern heroes, whose ex- 
 ploits are only visible in their own memoirs. 
 
 r See the fate of Mourzoufle, in Nicetas, (p. 393.) Villehardouin, 
 (No. 141—149. 163.) and Gimtherus, (c. 2U, 21.) Neither the warsUoi 
 
 Revolt of the 
 
 Greeks, 
 A. D. 12(M, A.C. 
 
 4 
 
 ( 
 
 should ascend the Theodosian column, a pillar of white 
 marble of one hundred and forty-seven feet in height." 
 From the summit he was cast down headlong, and 
 dashed in pieces on the pavement, in the presence of 
 innumerable spectators, who filled the forum of Tau- 
 rus, and admired the accomplishment of an old pre- 
 diction, which was explained by this singular event.* 
 The fate of Alexius is less tragical : he was sent by the 
 marquis a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king of the 
 Romans ; but he had not much to applaud his fortune, 
 if the sentence of imprisonment and exile were changed 
 from a fortress in the Alps to a monastery in Asia. 
 But his daughter, before the national calamity, had 
 been given in marriage to a young hero who continued 
 the succession, and restored the throne, of the Greek 
 
 „^ . - princes." The valour of Theodore Las- 
 Theodore Las- *^ . . , • 1 • xi_ ^ 
 caris, emperor caris was Signalized in the two sieges 
 
 of Nice, of Constantinople. After the flight of 
 
 A. D. 1204-1222, jyiou^^oufle, when the Latins were al- 
 ready in the city, he oflfered himself as their emperor 
 to the soldiers and people : and his ambition, which 
 might be virtuous, was undoubtedly brave. Could he 
 have infused a soul into the multitude, they might have 
 crushed the strangers under their feet : their abject des- 
 pair refused his aid, and Theodore retired to breathe 
 the air of freedom in Anatolia, beyond the immediate 
 view and pursuit of the conquerors. Under the title, 
 at first of despot, and afterwards of emperor, he drew 
 to his standard the bolder spirits, who were fortified 
 against slavery by the contempt of life ; and as every 
 means was lawful for the public safety, implored with- 
 out scruple the alliance of the Turkish sultan. Nice, 
 where Theodore established his residence, Prusa and 
 Philaldephia, Smyrna and Ephesus, opened their gates 
 to their deliverer: he derived strength and reputation 
 from his victories, and even from his defeats : and the 
 successor of Constantine preserved a fragment of the 
 empire from the banks of the Maeander to the suburbs 
 of Nicomedia, and at length of Constantinople. An- 
 The dukes and Other portion, distant and obscure, was 
 emperors of possessed by the lineal heir of the Com- 
 Trebizond. neni, a son of the virtuous Manuel, a 
 grandson of the tyrant Andronicus. His name was 
 Alexius ; and the epithet of great was applied perhaps 
 to his stature, rather than to his exploits. By the indul- 
 gence of the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke 
 of Trebizond :* his birth gave him ambition, the revolu- 
 tion independence ; and without changing his title, he 
 reigned in peace from Sinope to the Phasis, along the 
 coast of the Black sea. His nameless son and succes- 
 sor is described as the vassal of the sultan, whom he 
 served with two hundred lances ; that Comnenian 
 prince was no more than duke of Trebizond, and the 
 title of emperor was first assumed by the pride and en- 
 vy of the grandson of Alexius. In the west, a third 
 The despots fragment was saved from the common 
 ofEpirus. shipwreck by Michael, a bastard of the 
 house of Angeli, who, before the revolution, had been 
 known as a hostagre, a soldier, and a rebel. His flicrht 
 from the camp of the marquis Boniface secured his 
 
 nor the monk afford a grain of pity for a tyrant or rebel, whose pun- 
 ishment, however, was more unexampled than his crime. 
 
 • The column of Arcadius, which represents in basso relievo his 
 victories, or those of his father Theodosius, is still extant at Constan- 
 tinople. It is described and measured by Gyllius, (Topograph, iv. 
 7.) Banduri, (ad 1. i. Antiquit. C. P. p. 507, &c ) and Tournefort. (Voy- 
 age du Levant, torn. ii. lettre xii. p. 231.) 
 
 t The nonsense of Guntherand the modern Greeks concerning this 
 roZumna /a/tJicrt, is unworthy of notice; but it is singular enough, 
 that fifiy years before the Latin conquest, the poet Tzetzes (Chiliad, 
 ix. 277.) relates the dream of a matron, who saw an army in the fo- 
 rum, and a man sitting on the column, clapping his hands, and utter- 
 ing a loud exclamation. 
 
 « The dynasties of Nice, Trebizond, and Epirus, (of which Nicetas 
 ■aw the origin without much pleasure or hope,) are learnedly explor- 
 ed* and clearly represented, in the Familse Byzaniinae of Ducange. 
 
 « Except some fads in Pachymer and Nicephorus Gregoras, which 
 will hereafter be used, the Byzantine writers disdain to speali of the 
 empire of Trebizond, or principality of the Lazi ; and among the 
 Latins, it is conspicuous only in the romances of the fourteenth or fif- 
 teenth centuries. Yet the indefatigable Ducange has dug out (Fam. 
 Byz. p. 192.) two authentic passages in Vincent of Beauvais,(l. xxxi. 
 c. 144.) and the prolonotary Ogerius. (apud Wading, A. D. 1279. No. 4.) 
 
 freedom ; by his marriage with the governor's daughter, 
 he commanded the important place of Durazzo, assum- 
 ed the title of despot, and founded a stron«r and con- 
 spicuous principality in Epirus, jEtolia, an"d 'J'hessa- 
 ly, which have ever been peopled by a warlike race. 
 The Greeks, who had offered their service to their new 
 sovereigns, were excluded by the haughty Latins'^ 
 from all civil and military honours, as a nation born 
 to tremble and obey. Their resentment prompted 
 them to show that they might have been useful friends, 
 since they could be dangerous enemies : their nerves 
 were braced by adversity : whatever was learned or 
 holy, whatever was noble or valiant, rolled away inta 
 the independent states of Trebizond, Epirus, and Nice ; 
 and a single patrician is marked by the ambiguous 
 praise of attachment and loyalty to the Franks. The 
 vulgar herd of the cities and the country would have 
 gladly submitted to a mild and regular servitude ; and 
 the transient disorders of war would have been ob- 
 literated by some years of industry and peace. But 
 peace was banished, and industry was crushed, in the 
 disorders of the feudal system. The Roman emperors 
 of Constantinople, if they were endowed with abili*- 
 ties, were armed with power for the protection of their 
 subjects; their laws were wise, and their administra- 
 tion was simple. The Latin throne was filled by a titular 
 prince, the chief, and often the servant, of his licentious 
 confederates ; the fiefs of the empire, from a kingdom 
 to a castle, were held and ruled by the sword of the 
 barons : and their discord, poverty, and ignorance, ex- 
 tended the ramifications of tyranny to the most seques- 
 tered villages. The Greeks were oppressed by the 
 double weight of the priest, who was invested with 
 temporal power, and of the soldier, who was inflamed 
 by fanatic hatred ; and the insuperable bar of religion 
 and language forever separated the stranger and the 
 native. As long as the crusaders were united at Con- 
 stantinople, the memory of their conquest, and the ter- 
 ror of their arms, imposed silence on the captive land : 
 their dispersion betrayed the smallness of their num- 
 bers and the defects of their discipline; and some fail- 
 ures and mischances revealed the secret, that they were 
 not invincible. As the fear of the Greeks abated, their 
 hatred increased. They murmured; they conspired; 
 and before a year of slavery had elapsed, they implored, 
 or accepted, the succour of a barbarian, whose power 
 they had felt, and whose gratitude they trusted.* 
 
 The Latin conquerors had been salu- The Bulgarian 
 ted with a solemn and early embassy war, 
 
 from John, or Joannice, or Calo-John, ^* ^- *^^- 
 the revolted chief of the Bulgarians and Wallachians. 
 He deemed himself their brother, as the votary of the 
 Roman pontiflf, from whom he had received the regal 
 title and a holy banner; and in the subversion of 
 the Greek monarchy, he might aspire to the name of 
 their friend and accomplice. But Calo-John was as- 
 tonished to find, that the count of Flanders had as- 
 sumed the pomp and pride of the successor of Con- 
 stantine ; and his ambassadors were dismissed with a 
 haughty message, that the rebel must deserve a par- 
 don, by touching with his forehead the footstool of the 
 imperial throne. His resentment* would have exhal- 
 ed in acts of violence and blood; his cooler policy 
 watched the rising discontent of the Greeks ; aflfected a 
 tender concern for their sufferings ; and promised, that 
 their first stuggles for freedom should be supported by 
 his person and kingdom. The conspiracy was propa- 
 
 y The portrait of the French Latins is drawn in NiceUs by the 
 hand of prejudice and resentment: ovSiv tu)v<»x\u>v i5v*v i*j Afjo,- tf. 
 
 yx ,rX(X<rviJiiiiaKii,(r5xt i,v«i?i3VT0, »\X' ovJj Tif rxv xxe^rwv -. tx» 
 ;uouo-<«v TTXfX rati ^»e,3e.foi? Tewrei,- t^igsv.iTiTO, Ka. fl-«j« tcuto oiftmt 
 
 TtfV (fVTtV tia-XV XVYIfitgOt, XXt TCU XiKOV H%9V TOW KiyOV Wf 5Tf iXCV-«, 
 
 z I here begin to use. with freedom and confidence, the eight boolM 
 of the Histoire de C. P. sous I'Empire des Frangois, which Ducanga 
 has "iven as a supplement to Villehardoum; and which, in a barba- 
 rous'style, deserves the praise of an original and classic work. 
 
 a In Calo-John's answer to the pope, we may find his claims and 
 complaints: (Gesta Innocent IIL c. 108,109.) he was cherished at 
 Rome as the prodigal son. 
 
 m 
 
\r^ 
 
 374 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 375 
 
 i] 
 
 *') 
 
 t»i 
 
 m 
 
 
 gated by national hatred, the firmest band of associa- 
 tion aud secrecy : the Greeks were impatient to sheath 
 their daggers in the breasts of the victorious strangers ; 
 but the execution was prudently delayed, till Henry, 
 the emperor's brother, had transported the flower of 
 his troops beyond the Hellespont. Most of the towns 
 and villages of Thrace were true to the moment and 
 the signal : and the Latins, without arms or suspicion, 
 were slaughtered by the vile and merciless revenge of 
 their slaves. From Demotica, the first scene of the 
 massacre, the surviving vassals of the count of St. Pol 
 escaped to Adrianople ; but the French and Venetians, 
 who occupied that city, were slain or expelled by the 
 furious multitude ; the garrisons that could effect their 
 retreat fell back on each other towards the metropolis ; 
 and the fortresses, that separately stood against the re- 
 bels, were ignorant of each other's and of their sove- 
 reign's fate. The voice of fame and fear announced 
 the revolt of the Greeks and the rapid approach of their 
 Bulgarian ally ; and Calo-John, not depending on the 
 forces of his own kingdom, had drawn from the Scy- 
 thian wilderness a body of fourteen thousand Comans, 
 who drank, as it was said, the blood of their captives, 
 and sacrificed the christians on the altars of their 
 gods.** 
 
 Alarmed by the sudden and growing danger, the 
 emperor despatched a swift messenger to recall count 
 Henry and his troops; and had Baldwin expected the 
 return of his gallant brother, with a supply of twenty 
 thousand Armenians, he might have encountered the 
 invader with equal numbers and a decisive superiority 
 of arms and discipline. But the spirit of chivalry 
 could seldom discriminate caution from cowardice; 
 and the emperor took the field with a hundred and for- 
 ty knights, and their train of archers and Serjeants. 
 The marshal, who dissuaded and obeyed, led the van- 
 guard in their march to Adrianople; the main body 
 was commanded by the count of Blois; the aged doge 
 of Venice followed with the rear ; and their scanty 
 numbers were increased from all sides by the fugitive 
 Latins. They undertook to besiege the rebels of 
 Adrianople ; and such was the pious tendency of the 
 crusades, that they employed the holy week in pil- 
 laging the country for their subsistence, and in framing 
 engines for the destruction of their fellow-christians. 
 But the Latins were soon interrupted and alarmed by 
 the light cavalry of the Comans, who boldly skirmish- 
 ed to the edge of their imperfect lines: and a procla- 
 mation was issued by the marshal of Romania, that, 
 on the trumpet's sound, the cavalry should mount and 
 form ; but that none, under pain of death, should aban- 
 don themselves to a desultory and dangerous pursuit. 
 This wise injunction was first disobeyed by the count 
 of Blois, who involved the emperor in his rashness 
 and ruin. The Comans, of the Parthian or Tartar 
 school, fled before their first charge ; but after a career 
 of two leagues, when the kniorhts and their horses 
 were almost breathless, they suddenly turned, rallied, 
 and encompassed the heavy squadrons of the Franks. 
 Defeat and cap. The count was slain on the field; the 
 tiyiiy of Bald- emperor was made prisoner ; and if the 
 
 A.' D. 1205. one disdained to fly, if the other refused 
 
 April 15. to yield, their personal bravery made a 
 poor atonement for their ignorance, or neglect, of the 
 duties of a general.* 
 
 Proud of his victory and his royal prize, the Bulga- 
 rian advanced to relieve Adrianople and achieve the 
 destruction of the Latins. They must inevitably have 
 been destroyed, if the marshal of Romania had not dis- 
 
 b The Comans were a Tartar or Turkman horde, which encamped 
 in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on the verge of Moldavia, 
 The greater part were pagans, but some were Mahometans, and the 
 whole horde was converted to Christianity (A. D. 1370.) by Lewis 
 kinz of Hunjrary. 
 
 c Nicetao, from ignorance or malice, imputes the defeat to the cow- 
 ardice of Dandolo; (p. 383.) but Villehardouin shares his own glory 
 with his venerable friend, qui viels homo ere el gote no veoit, mais 
 mult ii« Mgef et preui et vigucros. (No. 193.) 
 
 played a cool courage and consummate skill : uncom- 
 mon in all ages, but most uncommon in those times, 
 when war was a passion, rather than a science. His 
 grief and fears were poured into the firm Retreat of the 
 and faithful bosom of the doge ; but in Latins, 
 
 the camp he diffused an assurance of safety, which 
 could only be realized by the general belief. All day 
 he maintained his perilous station between the city and 
 the barbarians. Villehardouin decamped in silence at 
 the dead of night; and his masterly retreat of three 
 days would have deserved the praise of Xenophon and 
 the ten thousand. In the rear, the marshal supported 
 the weight of the pursuit; in the front, he moderated 
 the impatience of the fugitives ; and wherever the Co- 
 mans approached, they were repelled by a line of im- 
 penetrable spears. On the third day, the weary troops 
 beheld the sea, the solitary town of Rodosto,' and 
 their friends, who had landed from the Asiatic shore. 
 They embraced, they wept; but they united their arms 
 and counsels ; and, in his brother's absence, count Hen- 
 ry assumed the regency of the empire, at once in a 
 state of childhood and caducity.* If the Comans with- 
 drew from the summer heats, seven thousand Latins, 
 in the hour of danger, deserted Constantinople, their 
 brethren, and their vows. Some partial success was 
 overbalanced by the loss of one hundred and twenty 
 knights in the field of Rusium ; and of the imperial do- 
 main, no more was left than the capital, with two or 
 three adjacent fortresses on the shores of Europe and 
 Asia. The king of Bulgaria was resistless and inexo- 
 rable ; and Calo-John respectfully eluded the demands 
 of the pope, who conjured his new proselyte to restore 
 peace and the emperor to the afllicted Latins. The de- 
 liverance of Baldwin, he said, was no longer in the 
 power of man: that prince had died in prison ; and the 
 manner of his death is variously related Death of the 
 by ignorance and credulity. The lovers emperor, 
 of a tragic legend, will be pleased to hear, that the 
 royal captive was tempted by the amorous queen 
 of the Bulgarians ; that his chaste refusal exposed 
 him to the falsehood of a woman and the jealousy of 
 a savage; that his hands and feet were severed from 
 his body ; that his bleeding trunk was cast among the 
 carcasses of dons and horses; and that he breathed 
 three days, before he was devoured by the birds of 
 prey.' About twenty years afterwards, in a wood of 
 the Netherlands, a hermit announced himself as the 
 true Baldwin, the emperor of Constantinople, and law- 
 ful sovereign of Flanders. He related the wonders of 
 his escape, his adventures, and his penance, among a 
 people prone to believe and to rebel; and, in the first 
 transport, Flanders acknowledged her long-lost sove- 
 reign. A short examination before the French court 
 detected the impostor, who was punished with an ig- 
 nominious death; but the Flemings still adhered to the 
 pleasing error ; and the countess Jane is accused by the 
 gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition the life 
 of an unfortunate father.* 
 
 In all civilized hostility, a treaty is cs- Rei<rn and cha- 
 tablished for the exchange or ransom of ^*^if^°*!?^"''^' 
 prisoners: and if their captivity be pro- 20.— A. D. 1216. 
 longed, their condition is known, and June ii. 
 they are treated according to their rank with humani- 
 
 d The truth of eeoirraphy, and the original text of Villehardouin, 
 (No. 194.) place Rodosto three days' journey (trois journces) from 
 Adrianople: but Vigenere, in his version, has most absurdly substi- 
 tuted trois heures ; and this error, which is not corrected by Ducange, 
 has entrapped several moderns, whose names I dhall spare. 
 
 • The reign and end of Baldwin are related by Villehadouin and 
 Nicetas: (p. 336—416.) and their omissions are supplied by Ducange 
 in his Observations, and to the end of his first book. 
 
 f After brushing* away all doubtful and improbable circumstances, 
 we may prove the death of Baldwin, 1. By the firm belief of th» 
 French barons. (Villehardouin, No. 23i).) 2.' By the declaration of 
 Calo-John himself, who excuses his not releasing the captive empe- 
 ror, quia debitum carnis exsolverat cum carccre teneretur. (tiesta 
 Innocent III. c. 109.) 
 
 K See the story of this impostor from the French and Flemish wri- 
 ters in Ducange, Hist, de C. P. iii. 9. and the ridiculous fables that 
 were believed by the monks of St. Albans, in Matthew Paris, Hist. 
 Major, p. 271, 273. 
 
 i 
 I 
 
 -ly or honour. But the savage Bulgarian was a stran- ' 
 ger to the laws of war; his prisons were involved in 
 darkness and silence; and above a year elapsed before 
 tho Latins could be assured of the death of Baldwin, 
 before his brother, the regent Henry, would consent to 
 assume the title of emperor. His moderation was ap- 
 plauded by the Greeks as an act of rare and inimitable 
 virtue. Their light and perfidious ambition was eager 
 to seize or anticipate the moment of a vacancy, while 
 •a law of succession, the guardian both of the prince 
 and people, was gradually defined and confirmed in the 
 monarchies of Europe. In the support of the eastern 
 empire Henry was gradually left without an associate, 
 as the heroes of the crusades retired from the world 
 or from the war. The doge of Venice, the venerable 
 Dandolo, in the fulness of years and glory, sunk into the 
 grave. The marquis of Montferrat was slowly recall- 
 ed from the Peloponnesian war to the revenge of Bald- 
 win and the defence of Thessalonica. Some nice dis- 
 putes of feudal homage and service were reconciled in 
 a personal inlerview between the emperor and the king : 
 they were firmly united by mutual esteem and the com- 
 mon danger; and their alliance was sealed by the nup- 
 tials of Henry with the daughter of the Italian prince. 
 He soon deplored the loss of his friend and father. At 
 the persuasion of some faithful Greeks, Boniface made a 
 bold and successful inroad among the hills of Rhodope ; 
 the Bulgarians fled on his approach; they assembled 
 to harass his retreat. On the intelligence that his 
 rear was attacked, without waiting for any defensive 
 armour, he leaped on horseback, couched his lance, and 
 drove the enemies before him ; but in the rash pursuit 
 he was pierced with a mortal wound ; and the head of 
 the king of Thessalonica was presented to Calo-John, 
 who enjoyed the honours, without the merit, of victory. 
 It is here, at this melancholy event, that the pen or the 
 Toice of Jeffrey of Villehardouin seems to drop or to 
 expire;** and if he still exercised his military office of 
 marshal of Romania, his subsequent exploits are buried 
 in oblivion.* The character of Henry was not unequal 
 to his arduous situation : in the siege of Constantino- 
 ple, and beyond the Hellespont, he had deserved the 
 fame of a valiant knight and a skilful commander ; and 
 his courage was tempered with a degree of prudence 
 and mildness unknown to his impetuous brother. In 
 the double war against the Greeks of Asia and the Bul- 
 garians of Europe, he was ever the foremost on ship- 
 board or on horseback ; and though he cautiously pro- 
 vided for the success of his arms, the drooping Latins 
 were often roused by his example to save and to se- 
 cond their fearless emperor. But such efforts, and 
 some supplies of men and money from France, were of 
 less avail than the errors, the cruelty, and death, of 
 their most formidable adversary. When the despair of 
 the Greek subjects invited Calo-John as their deliver- 
 er, they hoped that he would protect their liberty and 
 adopt their laws : they were soon taught to compare 
 the degrees of national ferocity, and to execrate the 
 savage conqueror, who no longer dissembled his inten- 
 tion of dispeopling Thrace, of demolishing the cities, 
 and of transplanting the inhabitants beyond the Danube. 
 Many towns and villages of Thrace were already eva- 
 cuated ; a heap of ruins marked the place of Phiiippo- 
 polis, and a similar calamity was expected at Demoti- 
 ca and Adrianople, by the first authors of the revolt. 
 They raised a cry of grief and repentance to the throne 
 of Henry : the emperor alone had the magnanimity to 
 forgive and trust them. No more than four hundred 
 knights, with their Serjeants and archers, could be as- 
 sembled under his banner ; and with this slender force 
 
 k Villehardouin, No. 257. I quote, with regret, this lamentable 
 conclusion, where we lose at once the original history, and the rich 
 illustrations of Ducange. The last pages may derive some light from 
 Hepry's two Epistles to Innocent III. (Gesta, c. 106, 107.) 
 
 I The marshal was alive in 1212. but he probably died soon after- 
 wards, without returning to France. (Ducange, Observations sur Vil- 
 lehardouin, p. 23S.) His fief of Messinople, the gift of Boniface, was 
 the ancient Maximianopolis, which flourished in the time of Ammia- 
 nus Marcellinus, among the cities of Thrace. (No. 141.) 
 
 he fought and repulsed the Bulgarian, who, besides bis 
 infantry, was at the head of forty thousand horse. In 
 this expedition, Henry felt the difference between a hos- 
 tile and a friendly country ; the remaining cities were 
 preserved by his arms ; and the savage, with shame 
 and loss, was compelled to relinquish his prey. The 
 siege of Thessalonica was the last of the evils which 
 Calo-John inflicted or suffered ; he was stabbed in the 
 night in his tent ; and the general, perhaps the assas- 
 sin, who found him weltering in his blood, ascribed 
 the blow with general applause to the lance of St. De- 
 metrius.*' After several victories, the prudence of Hen- 
 ry concluded an honourable peace with the successor 
 of the tyrant, and with the Greek princes of Nice and 
 Epirus. If he ceded some doubtful limits, an ample 
 kingdom was reserved for himself and his feudatories ; 
 and his reign, which lasted only ten years, afforded a 
 short interval of prosperity and peace. Far above the 
 narrow policy of Baldwin and Boniface, he freely in- 
 trusted to the Greeks the most important ofl^ces cf the 
 state and army : and this liberality of sentiment and 
 practice was the more seasonable, as the princes of 
 Nice and Epirus had already learned to seduce and 
 employ the mercenary valour of the Latins. It was 
 the aim of Henry to unite and reward his deserving 
 subjects of every nation and language; but he appear- 
 ed less solicitous to accomplish the impracticable 
 union of the two churches, relagius, the pope's le- 
 gate, who acted as the sovereign of Constantinople, 
 had interdicted the worship of the Greeks, and sternly 
 imposed the payment of tithes, the double procession 
 of the Holy Ghost, and a blind obedience to the Ro- 
 man pontiff. As the weaker party, they pleaded the 
 duties of conscrence, and implored the rights of tole- 
 ration : *' Our bodies," they said, " are Cesar's, but 
 our souls belong only to God." The persecution was 
 checked by the firmness of the emperor;* and if we 
 can Believe that the same prince was poisoned by the 
 Greeks themselves, we must entertain a contemptible 
 idea of the sense and gratitude of mankind. His va- 
 lour was a vulgar attribute, which he shared with ten 
 thousand knights; but Henry possessed the superior 
 courage to oppose, in a superstitious age, the pride and 
 avarice of the clergy. In the cathedral of St. Sophia 
 he presumed to place his throne on the right hand of 
 the patriarch ; and this presumption excited the sharp- 
 est censure of pope Innocent the third. By a salutary 
 edict, one of the first examples of the laws of mort- 
 main, he prohibited the alienation of fiefs : many of 
 the Latins, desirous of returning to Europe, resigned 
 their estates to the church for a spiritual or temporal 
 reward ; these holy lands were immediately discharged 
 from military service ; and a colony of soldiers would 
 have been gradually transformed into a colony of 
 priests." 
 
 The virtuous Henry died at Thessa- Peter of Courte- 
 lonica, in the defence of that kingdom, "*L Tn^.tnnni^/ 
 
 ,1 • r ^ ^\. ru-r-j Constantinople, 
 
 and of an infant, the son of his friend a. d. 1217. 
 Boniface. In the two first emperors of April 9. * 
 Constantinople, the male line of the counts of Flan- 
 ders was extinct. But their sister Yolande was the 
 wife of a French prince, the mother of a numerous 
 progeny ; and one of her daughters had married An- 
 drew king of Hungary, a brave and pious champioa 
 of the cross. By seating him on the Byzantine throne, 
 the barons of Romania would have acquired the for- 
 ces of a neighbouring and warlike kingdom ; but the 
 prudent Andrew revered the laws of succession ; and 
 
 k The church of this patron of Thessalonica was served by the 
 canons of the holy sepulchre, and contained a divine ointment 
 which distilled daily and stupendous miracles. (Ducange, Hist, de C. 
 P. i. 4.) 
 
 toleration 
 
 he reign of H.-*...., .- e-7 ■.. — 
 
 41. 1. ii. c. 1—22.) who is much indebted to the Epistles of the popef. 
 Le Beau (Hist, du Bas Empire, torn. xxi. p. 120—122.) has found, per- 
 haps in Doutreman, some laws of Henry, which determined the ser- 
 vice of fiefs, and the prerogative of the unperor. 
 
 ij* •' 
 
 S'. I 
 
376 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 Chap. XXII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 377 
 
 1: 
 
 'it 
 
 'i 
 
 1? 
 
 y 
 
 I, 
 
 I 
 
 it 
 
 1'' 
 
 W 
 
 the princess Yolandc, with her husband Peter of 
 Courtenay, count of Auxerre, was invited by the La- 
 tins to assume the empire of the East. The royal 
 birth of his father, the noble origin of his mother, re- 
 commended to the barons of France the first cousin of 
 their king. His reputation was fair, his possessions 
 were ample, and, in the bloody crusade against the 
 Albigeois, the soldiers and the priests had been abun- 
 dantly satisfied of his zeal and valour. Vanity might 
 applaud the elevation of a French emperor of Constan- 
 tinople ; but prudence must pity, rather than envy, his 
 Imaginary greatness. To assert and adorn his title, 
 he was reduced to sell or mortgage the best of his pa- 
 trimony. By these expedients, the liberality of his 
 royal kinsman Philip Augustus, and the national spirit 
 of chivalry, he was enabled to pass the Alps at the 
 head of one hundred and forty knights, and five thou- 
 sand five hundred Serjeants and archers. After some 
 hesitation, pope Honorius the third was persuaded to 
 crown the successor of Constantino : but he performed 
 the ceremony in a church without the walls, lest he 
 should seem to imply or to bestow any right of sove- 
 reignty over the ancient capital of the empire. The 
 Venetians had engaged to transport Peter and his for- 
 ces beyond the Adriatic, and the empress, with her 
 four children, to the Byzantine palace ; but they re- 
 quired, as the price of their service, that he should 
 recover Durazzo from the despot of Epirus. Michael 
 Angelus, or Comnenus, the first of his dynasty, had 
 bequeathed the succession of his power and ambi- 
 tion to Theodore, his legitimate brother, who already 
 threatened and invaded the establishments of the La- 
 tins. After discharging his debt by a fruitless assault, 
 the emperor raised the siege to prosecute a long and 
 perilous journey over land from Durazzo to Thessalo- 
 nica. He was soon lost in the mountains of Epirus : 
 the passes were fortified ; his provisions exhausted : 
 he was delayed and deceived by a treacherous negoci- 
 I His captivity ^tion ; and, after Peter of Courtenay and 
 ^"^nlr^S'ViQ **'® Roman legate had been arrested in 
 A.V.IU7 ui9.a banquet, the French troops, without 
 leaders or hopes, were eager to exchange their arms 
 for the delusive promise of mercy and bread. The 
 Vatican thundered ; and the impious Theodore was 
 threatened with the vengeance of eartli and heaven : 
 but the captive emperor and his soldiers were forgot- 
 ten, and the reproaches of the pope are confined to the 
 imprisonment of his legate. No sooner was he satis- 
 fied by the deliverance of the priest and a promise of 
 spiritual obedience, than he pardoned and protected 
 the despot of Epirus. His peremptory commands 
 suspended the ardour of the Venetians and the king 
 of Hungary ; and it was only by a natural or untimely 
 death " that Peter of Courtenay was released from his 
 hopeless captivity .• 
 
 Robert emperor , '^^® ^^"^ ignorance of his fate, and 
 of Consianiino- *"© presence of the lawful sovereign, of 
 
 ?.^b I22l-i22a Y"**"*^®» !^'* ^^»^e or widow, delayed the 
 proclamation of a new emperor. Before 
 her death, and in the midst of her grief, she was deli- 
 vered of a son, who was named Baldwin, the last and 
 inost unfortunate of the Latin princes of Constantino- 
 ple. His birth endeared him to the barons of Roma- 
 nia; but his childhood would have prolonged the 
 troubles of a minority, and his claims were sup'erseded 
 by the elder claims of his brethren. The first of these, 
 Philip of Courtenay, who derived from his mother the 
 inheritance of Namur, had the wisdom to prefer the 
 substance of a marquisate to the shadow of an empire ; 
 and on his refusal Robert, the second of the sons of 
 
 B Acropoliu (c. 14.) affirms, that Peter of Courtenay died by the 
 M^OTd Oeyov M»x»^e»i vivio-sx.); but from his dark expressions, I 
 ■hould conclude a previous captivity u» 5r»vT»{ agSifv Sta-MMTxs rro\^. 
 r«i <ruv ir»rt trxivta-,. The chronicle of Auxerre delays the empe- 
 icr's death till the year 1219; and Auxerre is in the neighbourhood 
 of Courtenay. 
 
 o See the reign and death of Peter of Courtenay, inDucanep,(Hist. 
 de C. P. 1. ii. c. 22—28.) who feebly strives to ejtcuse the neglect of 
 in© emperor by Honorius III. 
 
 Peter and Yolande, was called to the throne of Con- 
 stantinople. Warned by his father's mischance, he 
 pursued his slow and secure journey through Germa. 
 ny aiid along the Danube : a passage was opened by 
 his sister's marriage with the king of Hungary ; and 
 the emperor Robert was crowned by the patriarch in 
 the cathedral of St. Sophia. But his reign was an 
 aera of calamity and disgrace : and the colony, as it 
 was styled, of New France, yielded on all sides ta 
 the Greeks of Nice and Epirus. After a victory, 
 which he owed to his perfidy rather than his courage, 
 Theodore Angelus entered the kingdom of Thessaloni- 
 ca, expelled the feeble Demetrius, the son of the mar- 
 quis Boniface, erected his standard on the walls of 
 Adrianople ; and added, by his vanity, a third or fourth 
 name to the list of rival emperors. The relics of the 
 Asiatic province were swept away by John Vataces, 
 the son-in-law and successor of Theodore Lascaris, 
 and who, in a triumphant reign of thirty-three years, 
 displayed the virtues of both peace and war. Under 
 his discipline the swords of the French mercenaries 
 were the most effectual instrument of his conquests, 
 and their desertion from the service of their country 
 was at once a symptom and a cause of the rising as- 
 cendant of the Greeks. By the construction of a fleet, 
 he obtained the command of the Hellespont, reduced 
 the islands of Lesbos and Rhodes, attacked the Vene- 
 tians of Candia, and intercepted the rare and parsimo- 
 nious succours of the west. Once, and once only, the 
 Latin emperor sent an army against Vataces ; and in 
 the defeat of that army, the veteran knights, the last 
 of the original conquerors, were left on the field of 
 battle. But the success of a foreign enemy was less 
 painful to the pusillanimous Robert than the insolence 
 of his Latin subjects, who confounded the weakness 
 of the emperor and the empire. His personal misfor- 
 tunes will prove the anarchy of the government and 
 the ferociousness of the times. The amorous youth 
 had neglected his Greek bride, the daughter of Vata- 
 ces, to introduce into the palace a beautrful maid, of a 
 private, though noble, family of Artois ; and her mo- 
 ther had been tempted by the lustre of the purple to 
 forfeit her engagements with a gentleman of Burgun- 
 dy. His love was converted into rage; he assembled 
 his friends, forced the palace gates, threw the mother 
 into the sea, and inhumanly cut off the nose and lips 
 of the wife or concubine of the emperor. Instead of 
 punishing the offender, the barons avowed and ap- 
 plauded the savage deed,? which as a prince and as a 
 man, it was impossible that Baldwin should forgive. 
 He escaped from the guilty city to implore the justice 
 or compassion of the pope : the emperor was coolly 
 exhorted to return to his station ; before he could obey, 
 he sunk under the weight of grief, shame, and impo- 
 tent resentment.'* 
 
 It was only in the age of chivalry that Baldwin ll. and 
 valour could ascend from a private sta- JohnofBrienne, 
 tion to the thrones of Jerusalem and Con- s.TEopit^'"' 
 stantinople. The titular kingdom of Je- A. D. 1-223-1237. 
 rusalem had devolved to Mary, the daughter of Isabel- 
 la and Conrad of Montferrat, and the grand-daughter 
 of Almeric or Amaury. She was given to John of 
 Brienne, of a noble family in Champagne, by the pub- 
 lic voice, and the judgment of Philip Augustus, who 
 named him as the most worthy champion of the Holy 
 Land.' In the fifth crusade, he led a hundred thou- 
 sand Latins to the conque^Jt of Egypt; by him the 
 siege of Damietta was achieved ; and the subsequent 
 
 P Marinus Sanulus (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, 1. ii. p. 4. c. 18. p. 7.) 
 is so much delighted with this bUwdy deed, that he has transcribeiJ it 
 in his margin as a bonum exemplum. Yet he acknowledges the dam- 
 sel for the lawful wife of Robert. 
 
 q^See the reign of Robert, in Ducange. (Hist de C. P. 1. iii. c. 1 
 
 r Rex i?ilur Franciae, deliberalione habita, respondit nuntiis, 5e 
 dalurum hominem Syria panibus aptum ; in armis prubum, (nrtux,) 
 m bellis secururn, in agendis providum, Johannem comitern Bren- 
 nensein. Sanui. Secreu Fidelium, I. jii. p. xi. c. 4. p. 205. Matthew 
 
 
 i 
 
 failure was justly ascribed to the pride and avarice of 
 the legate. After the marriage of his daughter with 
 Frederic the second,' he was provoked by the empe- 
 ror's ingratitude to accept the command of the army 
 of the church; and though advanced in life, and des- 
 poiled of royalty, the sword and spirit of John of Bri- 
 enne were still ready for the service of Christendom. 
 In the seven years of his brother's reign, Baldwin of 
 Courtenay had not emerged from a state of childhood, 
 and the barons of Romania felt the strong necessity 
 of placing the sceptre in the hands of a man and a he- 
 ro. The veteran king of Jerusalem might have dis- 
 dained the name and oflice of regent ; they agreed to 
 invest him for his life with the title and prerogatives 
 of emperor, on the sole condition, that Baldwin should 
 marry his second daughter, and succeed at a mature 
 age to the throne of Constantinople. The expectation, 
 both of the Greeks and Latins, was kindled by the re- 
 nown, the choice and the presence of John of Brienne : 
 and they admired his martial aspect, his green and 
 vigorous age of more than fourscore years, and his size 
 and stature, which surpassed the common measure of 
 mankind.' But avarice, and the love of ease, appear 
 to have chilled the ardour of enterprise : his troops 
 were disbanded, and two years rolled away without 
 action or honour, till he was awakened by the danger- 
 ous alliance of Vataces emperor of Nice, and of Azan, 
 king of Bulgaria. They besieged Constantinople by 
 sea and land, wMth an army of one hundred thousand 
 men, and a fleet of three hundred ships of war; while 
 the entire force of the Latin emperor was reduced to 
 one hundred and sixty knights, and a small addition 
 of Serjeants and archers. I tremble to relate, that in- 
 stead of defending the city, the hero made a sally at 
 the head of his cavalry ; and that of forty-eight squad- 
 ions of the enemy, no more than three escaped from 
 the edge of his invincible sword. Fired by his exam- 
 ple, the infantry and the citizens boarded the vessels 
 that anchored close to the walls ; and twenty-five were 
 dragged in triumph into the harbour of Constantinople. 
 At the summons of the emperor, the vassals and allies 
 armed in her defence; broke through every obstacle 
 that opposed their passage; and in the succeeding year 
 obtained a second victory over the same enemies. By 
 the rude poets of the age, John of Brienne is compared 
 to Hector Roland, and Judas Maccabaeus : " but their 
 credit and his glory, receives some abatement from 
 the silence of the Greeks. The empire was soon de- 
 prived of the last of her champions : and the dyinw 
 monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit 
 of a Franciscan friar.* 
 Baldwin II. In the double victory of John of Bri- 
 M^* h^* enne, I cannot discover the name or ex- 
 A. D 1261. ploits of his pupil Baldwin, who had 
 July 25. attained the age of military service, and 
 who succeeded to the imperial dignity on the decease 
 of his adoptive father.' The royal youth was employ- 
 ed on a commission more suitable to his temper ; he 
 
 • Giannone (Istoria Civile, lorn. ii. 1. xvi.p. 380— 3S5.) discusses the 
 marriage of Frederic If. with the daughter of John of Brienne, and 
 the double union of the crowns of Naples anrl'Jerusalem. 
 
 t Acropolita, c. 27. The historian was at that time a boy, and edu- 
 cated at Constantinople. In 1233, when he was eleven years old, his 
 father broke the Latin chain, left a splendid fortune, and escaped to 
 the Greek court of Nice, where his son was raised to tlie highest hon- 
 ours. 
 
 n Philip Mouskes, bishop of Tourney, (A.D. 1274— 1282 ) has com- 
 posed a poem, or rather a string of verses, in bad old Flemish French, 
 on the liaiin emperors of Constantinople, which Ducange has pub- 
 lished at the end of Villehardouin ; see p. 224. for the prowess of John 
 of Brienne. 
 
 N'Aie, Ector, Roll' ne Ogiera 
 
 Ne Judas Machabeus Ii fiers 
 
 Tani, ne fit '^'armes en eslors 
 
 Com fist Ii Rols Jehans eel jori 
 
 £t il defors et il dedans 
 
 La paru sa force et ses sens 
 
 Et Ii hardiment qu'il avoit. 
 , > See the reign of John de Brienne, in Ducange, Hi8t.de C. P. 1. 
 HI. c. 13-26. 
 
 7 See the reign of Baldwin II. till his expulsion from Constanti- 
 nople, in Ducange, Hist, de C. P. 1. iv. c. 1— »4. the •nd, I. ▼. c. 
 
 Vol. II.— 2 X 
 
 was sent to visit the western courts, of the pope more 
 especially, and of the king of France ; to excite their 
 pity by the view of his innocence and distress; and to 
 obtain some supplies of men or money for the relief of 
 the sinking empire. He thrice repeated these mendi- 
 cant visits, in which he seemed to prolong his stay, 
 and postpone his return; of the five and twenty years 
 of his reign a greater number were spent abroad than 
 at home ; and in no place did the emperor deem him- 
 self less free and secure than in his native country and 
 capital. On some public occasions, his vanity might 
 be soothed by the title of Augustus, and by the hon- 
 ours of the purple; and at the general council of Ly- 
 ons, when Frederic the second was excommunicated 
 and deposed, his oriental colleague was enthroned on 
 the right hand of the pope. But how often was the 
 exile, the vagrant, the imperial beggar, humbled with 
 scorn, insulted with pity, and degraded in his own 
 eyes and those of the nations ! In his first visit to 
 England, he was stopped at Dover by a severe repri- 
 mand, that he should presume, without leave, to enter 
 an independent kingdom. After some delay, Baldwin, 
 however, was permitted to pursue his journey, was 
 entertained with cold civility, and thankfully departed 
 with a present of seven hundred marks.* From the 
 avarice of Rome, he could only obtain the proclama- 
 tion of a crusade, and a treasure of indulgences: a 
 coin, whose currency was depreciated by too frequent 
 and indiscriminate abuse. His birth and misfortunes 
 recommended him to the generosity of his cousin Lou- 
 is the ninth ; but the martial zeal of the saint was 
 diverted from Constantinople to Egypt and Palestine; 
 and the public and private property of Baldwin was 
 alleviated, for a moment, by the alienation of the mar- 
 quisate of Namur and the lordship of Courtenay, the 
 last remains of his inheritance.* By such shameful 
 or ruinous expedients, he once more returned to Roma- 
 nia, with an army of thirty thousand soldiers, whose 
 numbers were doubled in the apprehension of the 
 Greeks. His first despatches to France and England 
 announced his victories ^d his hopes : he had reduced 
 the country round the capital to the distance of three 
 days' journey ; and if he succeeded against an impor- 
 tant though nameless city, (most probably Chiorli,) 
 the frontier would be safe and the passage accessible. 
 But these expectations (if Baldwin was sincere) quick- 
 ly vanished like a dream; the troops and treasures of 
 France melted away in his unskilful hands ; and the 
 throne of the Latin emperor was protected by a dishon- 
 ourable alliance with the Turks and Comans. To 
 secure the former, he consented to bestow his niec« 
 on the unbelieving sultan of Cogni ; to please the lat- 
 ter, he complied with their pagan rites ; a dog was 
 sacrificed between the two armies ; and the contract- 
 ing parties tasted each other's blood, as a pledge of 
 their fidelity.'' In the palace, or prison, of Constanti- 
 nople the successor of Augustus demolished the vacant 
 houses for winter-fuel, and stripped the lead from the 
 churches for the daily expense of his family. Some 
 usurious loans were dealt with a scanty hand by the 
 merchants of Italy ; and Philip, his son and heir, was 
 pawned at Venice as the security for a debt.* Thirst, 
 hunger, and nakedness, are positive evils; but wealth 
 is relative; and a prince, who would be rich in a pri- 
 vate station, may be exposed by the increase of his 
 wants to all the anxiety and bitterness of poverty. 
 
 t Matthew Paris relates the two visits of Baldwin II. to the Eng- 
 lish court, p. 396. 637. : his return to Greece armaia manu, p. 407; hw 
 letters of his nomen formidabile, &c. p. 481. (a passage which had 
 escaped Ducange) ; his expulsion, p. 8oi0. 
 
 * Louis IX. disapproved and stopped the alienation of Courtenay. 
 (Ducanse, I. iv. c. 23.) It is now annexed to the royal demesne, but 
 granted for a term {engage) to the family of Boulainvilhers. Cour- 
 tenay, in the election of Nemours in the Isle de France, is a town of 
 900 inhabitants, with the remains of a castle. (Melanges tirts d un» 
 grande Biblioiheque,tom. xiv. p. 74— 77.) .... 
 
 b Joinville, p. KH. edit, du Louvre. A Coman prince, who died 
 without baptism, was buried at the gates of Constantinople with ft 
 live relinue of slaves and horses. 
 
 c Saout. Secret. Fidel. Crucis, 1. ii. p. iv. c. 18. p. 73. 
 
it ' 
 
 378 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXH. 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 'Ml 
 
 f^ 
 
 h 
 
 *\ 
 
 f 
 
 f b- 
 
 , 1 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 The holy crown But in this abject distress the empe- 
 of thorns. ror and empire were still possessed ot an 
 ideal treasure, which drew its fantastic value from the 
 superstition of the christian world. The merit of the 
 true cross was somewhat impaired by its frequent di- 
 vision ; and a long captivity among the infidels might 
 shed some suspicion on the fragments that were pro- 
 duced in the east and west. But another relic of the 
 Passion was preserved in the imperial chapel of Con- 
 stantinople ; and the crown of thorns which had been 
 placed on the head of Christ was equally precious and 
 authentic. It had formerly been the practice of the 
 Egyptian debtors to deposit, as a security, the mum- 
 mies of their parents ; and both their honour and their 
 religion were bound for the redemption of the pledge. 
 In the same manner, and in the absence of the empe- 
 ror, the barons of Romania borrowed the sum of thir- 
 teen thousand one hundred and thirty-four pieces of 
 gold,* on the credit of the holy crown : they failed in 
 their performance of the contract, and a rich Venetian, 
 Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy their impatient 
 creditors, on condition that the relic should be lodged 
 at Venice, to become his absolute property, if it were 
 not redeemed within a short and definite term. The 
 ■barons apprized their sovereign of the hard treaty and 
 impending loss ; and as the empire could not afford a 
 ransom of seven thousand pounds sterling, Baldwin 
 ■was anxious to snatch the prize from the Venetians, 
 and to vest it with more honour and emolument in the 
 hands of the most christian king.* Yet the negocia- 
 tion was attended with some delicacy. In the pur- 
 chase of relics, the saint would have started at the 
 guilt of simony; but if the mode of expression were 
 changed, he might lawfully repay the debt, accept the 
 gift, and acknowledge the obligation. His ambassa- 
 dors, two Dominicans, were despatched to Venice, to 
 redeem and receive the holy crown, which had escaped 
 the dangers of the sea and the galleys of Vataces. On 
 opening a wooden box, they recognized the seals of 
 the doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine 
 of silver: and within this shrine the monument of the 
 Passion was enclosed in a golden vase. The reluc- 
 tant Venetians yielded to justice and power : the em- 
 peror Frederic granted a free and honourable passage ; 
 the court of France advanced as far as Troyes in 
 Champagne, to meet with devotion this inestimable 
 relic : it was borne in triumph through Paris by the 
 king himself, barefoot, and in his shirt; and a free 
 -gift often thousand marks of silver reconciled Bald- 
 win to his loss. The success of this transaction 
 tempted the Latin emperor to offer with the same gen- 
 erosity the remaining furniture of his chapel ;' a large 
 and authentic portion of the true cross, the baby-linen 
 of the Son of God ; the lance, the sponge, and the 
 chain, of his Passion ; the rod of Moses ; and part of 
 the skull of St. John the baptist. For the reception 
 of these spiritual treasures, twenty thousand marks 
 were expended by St. Louis on a stately foundatiori, 
 the holy chapel of Paris, on which the muse of Boi- 
 leau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth of 
 such remote and ancient relics, which cannot be prov- 
 ed by any human testimony, must be admitted 1)y 
 those who believe in the miracles which they have 
 performed. About the middle of the last age, an in- 
 veterate ulcer was touched and cured by a holy prickle 
 of the holy crown ;« the prodigy is attested by the most 
 
 ProgrPBs of the 
 
 Greeks, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1237—1261. 
 
 pious and enlightened christians of France; nor will 
 the fact be easily disproved, except by those who are 
 armed with a general antidote against religious cre- 
 dulity.'" 
 
 The Latins of Constantinople* were 
 on all sides encompassed and pressed : 
 their sole hope, the last delay of their 
 ruin, was in the division of their Greek 
 and Bulgarian enemies, and of this hope they were 
 deprived by the superior arms and policy of Vataces 
 emperor of Nice. From the Propontis to the rocky 
 coast of Pamphylia, Asia was peaceful and prosper- 
 ous under his reign : and the events of every cam- 
 paign extended his influence in Europe. The strong 
 cities of the hills of Macedonia and Thrace were res- 
 cued from the Bulgarians ; and their kingdom waa 
 circumscribed by its present and proper limits, along 
 the southern banks of the Danube. The sole empe- 
 ror of the Romans could no longer brook that a lord 
 of Epirus, a Comnenian prince of the west, should 
 presume to dispute or share the honours of the pur- 
 ple ; and the humble Demetrius changed the colour 
 of his buskins, and accepted with gratitude the appel- 
 lation of despot. His own subjects were exasperated 
 by his baseness and incapacity : they implored the 
 protection of their supreme lord. After some resis- 
 tance, the kingdom of Thessalonica was united to the 
 empire of Nice ; and Vataces reigned without a com- 
 petitor from the Turkish borders to the Adriatic gulf. 
 The princes of Europe revered his merit and power; 
 and had he subscribed an orthodox creed, it should 
 seem that the pope would have abandoned without r^ 
 luctanre the Latin throne of Constantinople. But the 
 death of Vataces, the short and busy reign of Theo- 
 dore his son, and the helpless infancy of his grandson 
 John, suspended the restoration of the Greeks. In the 
 next chapter, I shall explain their domestic rerolu- 
 tions ; in this place, it will be sufficient to observe that 
 the young prince was oppressed by the ambition of 
 his guardian and colleague Michael Pa- Michael Pai«eo- 
 
 Iffiologus, who displayed the virtues and logos, the Greek 
 ^•11 *. .1 /• J r emperor, 
 
 Vices that belong to the founder ot a a. D. 1259. 
 new dynasty. The emperor Baldwin l^ec. i. 
 had flattered himself, that he might recover some 
 provinces or cities by an impotent ncgociation. His 
 ambassadors were dismissed from Nice with mockery 
 and contempt. At every place which they named, 
 Palceologus alleged some special reason, which ren- 
 dered it dear and valuable in his eyes : in the one he 
 was born; in another he had first been promoted to 
 a military command ; and in a third he had enjoyed, 
 and hoped long to enjoy, the pleasures of the chace. 
 " And what then do you propose to give us V said the 
 astonished deputies. " Nothing," replied the Greek, 
 "not a foot of land. If your master be desirous of 
 peace, let him pay me, as an annual tribute, the sum 
 which he receives from the trade and customs of Con- 
 stantinople. On these terms I may allow him to reign. 
 If he refuses, it is war. I am not ignorant of the art 
 of war, and I trust the event to God and my sword."" 
 An expedition against the despot of Epirus was the 
 first prelude of his arms. If a victory was followed 
 by a defeat ; if the race of the Comneni or Arigeli 
 survived in those mountains his efforts and his reign; 
 
 d Under the words Perparus^ Perpera, Hyperperum, Ducange is 
 
 . short and vague : Monetae genus. From a corrupt passage of Gunthe- 
 
 nis, (Hist. C. P. c. 8. p. 10.) I guess that the Perpera waa the nummus 
 
 aureus, the fourth part of a mark of silver, or about ten shillings 
 
 sterling in value. In lead it would be loo contemptible. 
 
 • For the translation of the holy crown, &c. from Constantinople to 
 Paris, see Ducange (Hist, de C. P. 1. iv. c 11—14. 24. 35.) and Fleury, 
 (Hist. Eccles. torn. xvii. p. 201—204.) 
 
 r Melanges tires d'une grande Bibliotheque, torn, xliii. p. 201—205. 
 
 The Lutrin of Boileau exhibit* the inside, the soul, and manners of 
 
 the Sainte Chapellt ; and many facts relative to the institution are 
 
 .collected and explained by his commenuiors, Brosette and de St. 
 
 Marc. , « , 
 
 f It wM performed A. D. I606, March 24, on the meet of Pascal ; 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 and that superior genius, with Arnauld, Nicole, &c. were on the spol, 
 to believe and attest a miracle which confounded the Jesuits, and 
 saved Port Royal. (CEuvres de Racine, torn. vi. p. 176—187. in hu 
 eloquent History of Port Royal.) 
 
 h Voltaire (Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 37. CEuvres, torn. ix. p. 1^ 
 179.) strives to invalidate the fact : but Hume, (Essays, vol. ii. p. 4iC, 
 484.) with more skill and success, seizes the battery, and luriia tns 
 cannon against his enemies. . 
 
 i The gradual losses of the Latins may be traced in the thirfl. 
 fourth, and fifth books of the compilation of Ducange : but of the 
 Greek conquest he has dropped many circumstances, which may M 
 recovered from the large history of CTeorge Acropoliia, and the tliree 
 first books of Nicephonis Grecoras, two writers of the Byzantine 
 series, who have had the good fortune to meet with learned editor*, 
 Leo Allatius at Rome, and John Boivin in the Academy of Inscnp^ 
 lions of Paris. 
 
 k George Acropolita, c. 78. p. 89. 93. edit. Paris. 
 
 I 
 
 the captivity of Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, de- 
 prived the Latins of the most active and powerful vas- 
 sal of their expiring monarchy. The republics of 
 Venice and Genoa disputed, in the first of their naval 
 wars, the command of the sea and the commerce of 
 the east. Pride and interest attached the Venetians 
 to the defence of Constantinople; their rivals were 
 templed to promote the designs of her enemies, and the 
 alliance of the Genoese with the schismatic conqueror 
 provoked the indignation of the Latin church.* 
 Constantinople Intent on this great object the em- 
 recovered by the peror Michael visited in person and 
 A. D. 1261. strengthened the troops and fortifications 
 July 25. of Thrace. The remains of the Latins 
 were driven from their last possessions : he assaulted 
 without success, the suburb of Galata ; and corres- 
 ponded with a perfidious baron, who proved unwilling 
 or unable to open the gates of the metropolis. The 
 next spring, his favourite general Alexius Stratego- 
 pulus, whom he had decorated with the title of Cae- 
 sar, passed the Hellespont with eight hundred horse 
 and some infantry," on a secret expedition. His in- 
 structions enjoined him to approach, to listen, to 
 watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous en- 
 terprise against the city. The adjacent territory be- 
 tween the Propontis and the Black sea was cultivated 
 by a hardy race of peasants and outlaws, exercised in 
 arms, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by 
 language, religion, and present advantage, to the party 
 of the Greeks. They were styled the volunteers,* and 
 by their free service the army of Alexius, with the 
 regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries," was 
 augmented to the number of five and twenty thousand 
 (men. By the ardour of the volunteers, and by his 
 own ambition, the Caesar was stimulated to disobey 
 the precise orders of his master, in the just confidence 
 that success would plead his pardon and reward. The 
 weakness of Constantinople, and the distress and 
 terror of the Latins, were familiar to the observation 
 of the volunteers : and they represented the present 
 moment as the most propitious to surprise and con- 
 quest. A rash youth, the new governor of the Vene- 
 tian colony, had sailed away with thirty galleys, and 
 the best of the French knights, on a wild expedition 
 to Daphnusia, a town on the Black sea, at the distance 
 of forty leagues; and the remaining Latins were with- 
 out strength or suspicion. They were informed that 
 Alexius had passed the Hellespont ; but their appre- 
 hensions were lulled by the smallness of his original 
 numbers : and their imprudence had not watched the 
 subsequent increase of his army. If he left his main 
 body to second and support his operations, he might 
 advance unperceived in the night with a chosen de- 
 tachment. While some applied scaling-ladders to the 
 lowest part of the walls, they were secure of an old 
 Greek, who could introduce their companions through 
 a subterraneous passage into his house ; they could 
 soon on the inside break an entrance through the gol- 
 den gate, which had been long obstructed ; and the 
 conqueror would be in the heart of the city, before the 
 Latins would be conscious of their danger. After 
 some debate, the Caesar resigned himself to the faith 
 of the volunteers; they were trusty, bold, and success- 
 ful ; and in describing the plan, I have already related 
 
 ^ The Greeks, ashamed of any foreign aid, disauise the alliance 
 *? T '"^'^'^"'' of l*^e Genoese ; but the fact is proved by the testimony 
 of J Villani, (Chron. I. vi. c. 71. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italica- 
 rum, torn. xiii. p. 202, 203.) and William de Nangis, (Annales de St. 
 I/ouis, p. 248. in the Louvre Joinville,) two impartial foreigners ; and 
 Urban IV. threatened to deprive Genoa of her archbishop. 
 
 « Some precautions must be used in reconciling the discordant 
 nvimbers ; the 3'JO soldiers of Nicetas, the 25,000 of Spandugino ; (apud 
 l^ucaiigp, 1. V. c. 24.) the Greeks and Scythians of Acropolita; and 
 *!•*'"" fnerous army of Michael, in the Epistles of pope Urban IV. 
 
 n Hi^»^»Taf«e«, They are described and named by Pachymer, (1. 
 
 It ia needless to seek these Comans in the deserts of Tartary, or 
 «»en of Moldavia. A part of the horde had submitted to John Vata- 
 c*«, and was probably settled as a nursery of soldiers on some waste 
 •wxdj of Thrace. (Canlacuien. I. i. c. 8.) 
 
 379 
 
 the execution and success.P But no sooner had Alex- 
 ius passed the threshold of the golden gate, than he 
 trembled at his own rashness ; he paused, he delibera- 
 ted ; till the desperate volunteers urged him forward 
 by the assurance that in a retreat lay the greatest and 
 mo.st inevitable danger. Whilst the Caj.sar kept his 
 regulars in firm array, the Comans dispersed them- 
 selves on all sides ; an alarm was sounded, and the 
 threats of fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a 
 decisive resolution. The Greeks of Constantinople 
 remembered their native sovereigns ; the Genoese 
 merchants their recent alliance and Venetian foes; 
 every quarter was in arms ; and the air resounded with 
 a general acclamation of " Long life and victory to 
 Michael and John, the august emperors of the Ro- 
 mans !" Their rival, Baldwin, was awakened by the 
 sound ; but the most pressing danger could not prompt 
 him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which 
 he deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret; 
 he fled from the palace to the sea-shore, where he'^des- 
 cried the welcome sails of the fleet returning from the 
 vain and fruitless attempt on Daphnusia. "Constan- 
 tinople was irrecoverably lost : but the Latin empe- 
 ror and the principal families embarked on board the 
 Venetian galleys, and steered for the isle of Euboea, 
 and afterwards for Italy, where the royal fugitive was 
 entertained by the pope and Sicilian king with a mix- 
 ture of contempt and pity. From the loss of Constan- 
 tinople to his death, he consumed thirteen years, soli- 
 citing the Catholic powers to join in his restoration : 
 the lesson had been familiar to his youth ; nor was his 
 last exile more indigent or shameful than his three 
 former pilgrimages to the courts of Europe. His son 
 Philip was the heir of an ideal empire ; and the pre- 
 tensions oi his daughter Catharine were transported by 
 her marriage to Charles of Valois, the brother of Phi- 
 lip the Fair, king of France. The house of Courte- 
 nay was represented in the female line by successive 
 alliances, till the title of emperor of Constantinople, 
 too bulky and sonorous for a private name, modestly 
 expired in silence and oblivion.** 
 
 After the narrative of the expeditions General conse- 
 ot the Latins to Palestine and Constanti- quences of the 
 nople, I cannot dismiss the subject with- crusades, 
 oiit revolving the general consequences on the coun- 
 tries that were the scene, and on the nations that 
 were the actors, of these memorable crusades.' As 
 soon as the arms of the Franks were withdrawn, the 
 impression, though not the memory, was erased in the 
 Mahometan realms of Egypt and Syria. The faithful 
 disciples of the prophet were never tempted by a pro- 
 fane desire to study the laws or language of the idol- 
 aters ; nor did the simplicity of their primitive man- 
 ners receive the slightest alteration from their inter- 
 course in peace and war with the unknown strangers 
 of the west. The Greeks, who thought themselves 
 proud, but who were only vain, showed a disposition 
 somewhat less inflexible. In the efljorts for the reco- 
 very of their empire, they emulated the valour, disci- 
 pline, and tactics, of their antagonists. The modern 
 literature of the west they might justly despise; but 
 its free spirit would instruct them in the rights of 
 man ; and some institutions of public and private life 
 were adopted from the French. The correspondence 
 of Constantinople and Italy diffused the knowledge 
 
 p The loss of Constantinople is briefly told by the Latins : the con- 
 quest is described with more satisfaction by the Greeks ; by Acropo- 
 lita, (c. 85.) Pachymer, (1. ii. c. 26, 27.) NicephorusGregoras, (1. iv. c. 
 1, 2.) See Ducange, Hist, do C. P. 1. v. c. 19-27. 
 
 q See the three last books, (1. v.— viii.) and the genealogical tables 
 of Ducange. In the year 13S2, the titular emperor of Constantinople 
 was James de Baux, duke of Andria in the kingdom of Naples, the 
 son of Margaret, daughter of Catharine de Valois, daughter of Catha- 
 rine, daughter of Philip, son of Baldwin II. (Ducange, 1. viii. c. 37, 
 38.) It is uncertain whether he left any posterity. 
 
 r Abulfeda, who saw the conclusion of the crusades, speaks of the 
 kingdoms of the Franks, and those of the Negroes, as equally un- 
 known. (Prolegom. ad Geograph.) Had he not disdained the Latiii 
 language, how easily might the Syrian prince have found books and 
 interpreters. 
 
i I 
 
 380 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 M 
 
 lis' 
 
 If! 
 
 hi* 
 
 4 $i 
 
 «j 
 
 ^1 ^y^ 
 
 I 
 
 i] 
 
 of the Latin tongue; and several of the fathers and 
 classics were at length honoured with a Greek ver- 
 sion.* But the national and religious prejudices of 
 the orientals were inflamed by persecution ; and the 
 leign of the Latins confirmed the separation of the two 
 churches. 
 
 If we compare, at the aera of the crusades, the La- 
 tins of Europe with the Greeks and Arabians, tlieir 
 respective degrees of knowledge, industry, and art, 
 our rude ancestors must be content with the third rank 
 in the scale of nations. Their successive improve- 
 ment and present superiority may be ascribed to a 
 peculiar energy of character, to an active and imitative 
 spirit, unknown to their more polished rivals, who at 
 that time were in a stationary or retrograde state. With 
 such a disposition, the Latins should have derived the 
 most early and essential benefits from a series of 
 events which opened to their eyes the prospect of the 
 world, and introduced them to a long and frequent 
 intercourse with the more cultivated regions of the 
 east. The first and most obvious progress was in 
 trade and manufactures, in the arts which are strongly 
 prompted by the thirst of wealth, the calls of neces- 
 sity, and the gratification of the sense of vanity. 
 Among the crowd of unthinking fanatics, a captive or 
 a pilgrim might sometimes observe the superior refine- 
 ments of Cairo and Constantinople : the first importer 
 of wind-mills* was the benefactor of nations ; and if 
 such blessings are enjoyed without any grateful re- 
 membrance, history has condescended to notice the 
 more apparent luxuries of silk and sugar, which were 
 transported into Italy from Greece and Egypt. But 
 the intellectual wants of the Latins were more slowly 
 felt and supplied ; the ardour of studious curiosity 
 was awakened in Europe by different causes and more 
 recent events; and, in the age of the crusades, they 
 viewed with careless indifference the literature of the 
 Greeks and Arabians. Some rudiments of mathemati- 
 cal and medicinal knowledge might be imparted in 
 practice and in figures ; necessity might produce some 
 interpreters for the grosser business of merchants and 
 soldiers ; but the commerce of the orientals had not 
 diffused the study and knowledge of their languages 
 in the schools of Europe." If a similar principle of 
 leligion repulsed the idiom of the Koran, it should 
 have excited their patience and curiosity to understand 
 the original text of the gospel ; and the same gram- 
 mar would have unfolded the sense of Plato and the 
 beauties of Homer. Yet in a reign of sixty years, 
 the Latins of Constantinople disdained the speech and 
 learning of their subjects ; and the manuscripts were 
 the only treasures which the natives might enjoy with- 
 out rapine or envy. Aristotle was indeed the oracle 
 of the western universities, but it was a barbarous 
 Aristotle ; and, instead of ascending to the fountain 
 head, his Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt 
 and remote version from the Jews and Moors of Anda- 
 lusia. The principle of the crusade was a savage 
 fanaticism ; and the most important effects were ana- 
 logous to the cause. Each pilgrim was ambitious to 
 return with his sacred spoils, the relics of Greece and 
 Palestine;^ and each relic was preceded and followed 
 by a train of miracles and visions. The belief of the 
 catholics was corrupted by new legends, their practice 
 
 I A short and superficial account of these versions from Latin into 
 Greek, is given by Huet, (de Inierpretatione el de Claris Interpret!- 
 bus, p. 131—335.) Maxinius Planudes, a monk of Constantinople, 
 (A. D. 13-7 — 1353.) has translated Caesar's Commentaries, the Som- 
 nium Scipionis, the Metamorphoses and Heroides of Ovid, &,c. (Fa- 
 bric. Bib. Grace, torn. x. p. 533.) 
 
 t Windmills, first invented in the dry country of Asia Minor, 
 were used in Normandy as early aa the year 1105. (Vie priv^e des 
 Frangois, torn. i. p. 42, 43. Ducange, Gloss. Lat. lorn. iv. p. 474.) 
 
 u See the complaints of Roger Bacon. (Biographia Britannica, vol. 
 Lp. 418. Kippis^s edition.) If Bacon hiniself, or Gerben, understood 
 aame Greek, they were prodigies, and owed nothing to the commerce 
 
 w Such was the opinion of the great Leibnitz, ((Euvrea de Fonte- 
 nelle, torn. v. p. 458.) a master of the history of the middle ages. I 
 •hall only inslance the pedigree of the Carmelites, and the flight of 
 the house of Loretio, which were both derived from Pale»line. 
 
 by new superstitions ; and the establishment of the 
 inquisition, the mendicant orders of monks and friars, 
 the last abuse of indulgences, and the final progress 
 of idolatry, flowed from the baneful fountain of the 
 holy war. The active spirit of the Latins preyed on 
 the vitals of their reason and religion; and if the 
 ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age of absurdity 
 and fable. 
 
 In the profession of Christianity, in the cultivation 
 of a fertile land, the northern conquerors of the Ro- 
 man empire insensibly mingled with the provincials, 
 and rekindled the embers of the arts of antiquity. 
 Their settlements about the age of Charlemagne had 
 acquired some degree of order and stability, when 
 they were overwhelmed by new swarms of invaders, 
 the Normans, Saracens,* and Hungarians, who re- 
 plunged the western countries of Europe into their 
 former state of anarchy and barbarism. About the 
 eleventh century, the second tempest had subsided by 
 the expulsion or conversion of the enemies of Chris- 
 tendom : the tide of civilization, which had so lona 
 ebbed, began to flow with a steady and accelerated 
 course ; and a fairer prospect was opened to the hopes 
 and efforts of the rising generations. Great was the 
 increase, and rapid the progress, during the two hun- 
 dred years of the crusades ; and some philosophers 
 have applauded the propitious influence of these holy 
 wars, which appear to me to have checked rather than 
 forwarded the maturity of Europe.'" The lives and 
 labours of millions, which were buried in the east, 
 would have been more profitably employed in the im- 
 provement of their native country : the accumulated 
 stock of industry and wealth would have overflowed 
 in navigation and trade ; and the Latins would have 
 been enriched and enlightened by a pure and friendly 
 correspondence with the climates of the east. In one 
 respect I can indeed perceive the accidental operation 
 of th6 crusades, not so much in producing a benefit 
 as in removing an evil. The larger portion of the in- 
 habitants of Europe were chained to the soil, with- 
 out freedom, or property, or knowledge ; and the two 
 orders of ecclesiastics and nobles, whose numbers 
 were comparatively small, alone deserved the name of 
 citizens and men. This oppressive system was sup- 
 ported by the arts of the clergy and the swords of the 
 barons. The authority of the priests operated in the 
 darker ages as a salutary antidote : they prevented the 
 total extinction of letters, mitigated the fierceness of 
 the times, sheltered the poor and defenceless, and pre- 
 served or revived the peace and order of civil society. 
 But the independence, rapine, and discord, of the feu- 
 dal lords were unmixed with any semblance of good ; 
 and every hope of industry and improvement was 
 crushed by the iron weight of the martial aristocracy. 
 Among the causes that undermined that Gothic edifice, 
 a conspicuous place must be allowed to the crusades. 
 The estates of the barons were dissipated, and their 
 race was often extinguished, in these costly and peril- 
 ous expeditions. Their poverty extorted from their 
 pride those charters of freedom which unlocked the 
 fetters of the slave, secured the farm of the peasant 
 and the shop of the artificer, and gradually restored 
 a substance and a soul to the most numerous and use- 
 ful part of the community. The conflagration which 
 destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave 
 air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and 
 nutritive plants of the soil. 
 
 S81 
 
 X If I rank the Saracens with the barbarians, it is only relative to 
 their wars, or rather inroads, In Italy and France, where Iheir sole 
 purpose was to plunder and destroy. 
 
 y On this interesting subject, the progress of society in Europe, a 
 strong ray of philosophic light has broke from Scotland in our o*n 
 limes'; and it is with private, as well as public regard, that 1 repeal 
 tiie names of Hume, Robertson, and Adam Smith. 
 
 X [See upon this subject a work by Hecren, entitled Essai sur I'm* 
 fluence des Croisades, (Paris, 1808.) in which the beneficial, though 
 late, results of these holy wars are developed with as much philoso" 
 phic sagacity as eruditiun.— G.] 
 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 Digression on the Family of Courtenay, 
 
 The purple of three emperors, who have reigned at 
 Constantinople, will authorize or excuse a di^ession 
 on the origin and singular fortunes of the house of 
 CouRTKNAV,* in the three principal branches, I. Of 
 Edessa; II. Of France ; and. III. Of England ; of 
 which the last only has survived the revolutions of 
 eight hundred years. 
 
 Ori<'in of the J.' .before the introduction of trade, 
 family of Cour- which Scatters riches, and of knowledge, 
 ^^A^i) 1020 which dispels prejudice, the prerogative 
 ' of birth is most strongly felt and most 
 humbly acknowledged. In every age, the laws and 
 manners of the Germans have discriminated the ranks 
 of society : the dukes and counts, who shared the 
 empire of Charlemagne, converted their office to an 
 inheritance ; and to his children, each feudal lord be- 
 queathed his honour and his sword. The proudest 
 families are content to lose, in the darkness of the mid- 
 dle ages, the tree of their pedigree, which, however 
 deep and lofty, must ultimately rise from a plebeian 
 root ; and their historians must descend ten centuries 
 below the christian aera, before they can ascertain any 
 lineal succession by the evidence of surnames, of arms, 
 and of authentic records. With the first rays of light,** 
 we discern the nobility and opulence of Atho, a French 
 knight : his nobility, in the rank and title of a name- 
 less father ; his opulence, in the foundation of the castle 
 of Courtenay in the district of Gatinois, about fifty- 
 six miles to the south of Paris. From the reign of Ro- 
 bert, the son of Hugh Capet, the barons of Courtenay 
 are conspicuous among the immediate vassals of 
 the crown; and Joscelin, the grandson of Atho and a 
 noble dame, is enrolled among the heroes of the first 
 crusade. A domestic alliance (their mothers were 
 sisters) attached him to the standard of Baldwin of 
 I. The counts of Bmges, the second count of Edessa: a 
 
 Edessa, princely fief, which he was worthy to 
 A. D. JiOt— tl52.ygggjYe, and able to maintain, announces 
 the number of his martial followers: and after the 
 departure of his cousin, Joscelin himself was invested 
 with the county of Edessa on both sides of the Eu- 
 phrates. By the economy in peace, his territories 
 were replenished with Latin and Syrian subjects ; his 
 magazines with corn, wine, and oil ; his castles with 
 gold and silver, with arms and horses. In a holy 
 warfare of thirty years, he was alternately a conqueror 
 and a captive : but he died like a soldier, in a horse- 
 litter at the head of his troops; and his last glance 
 beheld the flight of the Turkish invaders who had 
 presumed on his age and infirmities. His son and 
 successor, of the same name, was less deficient in val- 
 our than in vigilance ; but he sometimes forgot that 
 dominion is acquired and maintained by the same arts. 
 He challenged the hostility of the Turks, without 
 securing the friendship of the prince of Antioch; and, 
 amidst the peaceful luxury of Turbessel, in Syria,* 
 Joscelin neglected the defence of the christian frontier 
 beyond the Euphrates. In his absence, Zenghi, the 
 first of the Atabeks, besieged and stormed his capital, 
 Kdessa, which was feebly defended by a timorous and 
 disloyal crowd of orientals : the Franks were oppres- 
 sed in a bold attempt for its recovery, and Courtenay 
 ended his days in the prison of Aleppo. He still left 
 a fair and ample patrimony. But the victorious Turks 
 
 » I have applied, but not confined myself, to A genealogical His- 
 f/,^ °J the noble and illustrious Family of Courtenay, by Ezra 
 ^eareland, Tutor to Sir William Courtenay, and Rector ^f Hani 
 liT "'^l^^^' '"/t'^'o. The first part is extracted from William 
 fm ^"^^^ second from Bouchet's French history; and the third 
 
 irom various memorials, public, provincial, and private, of the Cour- 
 lenays of Devonshire. The rector of Honitan has more gratitude ihan 
 rSJ'J*' ^^^ '"^re industry than criticism. 
 
 of the conlinua- 
 
 tor f a"- P'"'.""^'^*' record of the family, is a passage 
 slVk- J^"'"' * monk of Fleury, who wrote in the twelfth century. 
 °* ,I?"^n«>nicle, in the Historians of France, (tom. xi. p. 276.) 
 f.nr """r ^s^'» Of a» it i« now styled, Telbesher, is fixed bv D'Anvllle 
 Zeu ""^^^o^y milea from the great passage over the Euphrates at 
 
 oppressed on all sides the weakness of a widow and 
 orphan ; and, for the equivalent of an annual pension, 
 they resigned to the Greek emperor the charge of de- 
 fending, and the shame of losing, the last relics of the 
 Latin conquest. The countess dowager of Edessa 
 retired to Jerusalem with her two children ; the daugh 
 ter, Agnes, became the wife and mother of a king , 
 the son, Joscelin the third, accepted the office of senes- 
 chal, the first of the kingdom, and held his new es- 
 tates in Palestine by the service of fifty knights. His 
 name appears with honour in all the transactions of 
 peace and war; but he finally vanishes in the fall of 
 Jerusalem ; and the name of Courtenay, in this branch 
 of Edessa, was lost by the marriage of his two daugh- 
 ters with a French and German baron.* 
 
 II. While Joscelin reigned beyond the l^- TheCourte- 
 Euphrates, his elder brother Milo, the nayso^^l'^ance. 
 son of Joscelin, the son of Atho, continued, near the 
 Seine, to possess the castle of their fathers, which 
 was at length inherited by Rainaud, or Reginald, the 
 youngest of his three sons. Examples of genius or 
 virtue must be rare in the annals of the oldest fami- 
 lies ; and, in a remote age, their pride will embrace a 
 deed of rapine and violence; such, however, as could 
 not be perpetrated without some superiority of cour- 
 age, or, at least, of power. A descendant of Regi- 
 nald of Courtenay may blush for the public robber, 
 who stripped and imprisoned several merchants, after 
 they had satisfied the king's duties, at Sens and Or- 
 leans. He will glory in the oflfence, since the bold 
 offender could not be compelled to obedience and res- 
 titution, till the regent and the count of Champagne 
 prepared to march against him at the head of an army.' 
 Reginald bestowed his estates on his ^^^^^ alliance 
 eldest daughter, and his daughter on the with the royal 
 seventh son of king Louis the Fat ; and ^^T'^Jf; ,,^ 
 their marriage was crowned with a nu- ' * 
 merous oflfspring. We might expect that a private 
 should have merged in a royal name ; and that the de- 
 scendants of Peter of France and Elizabeth of Cour- 
 tenay would have enjoyed the title and honours of 
 princes of the blood. 13ut this legitimate claim was 
 long neglected and finally denied ; and the cause of 
 their disgrace will represent the story of this second 
 branch. 1. Of all the families now extant, the most 
 ancient, doubtless, and the most illustrious, is the 
 house of France, which has occupied the same throne 
 above eight hundred years, and descends, in a clear 
 and lineal series of males, from the middle of the ninth 
 century.' In the age of the crusades, it was already 
 revered both in the east and west. But from Hugh 
 Capet to the marriage of Peter, no more than five 
 reigns or generations had elapsed ; and so precarious 
 was their title, that the eldest sons, as a necessary pre- 
 caution, were previously crowned during the lifetime 
 of their fathers. The peers of France have long main- 
 tained their precedency before the younger branches 
 of the royal line, nor had the princes of the blood, in 
 
 d His possessions are distinguished in the Assises of Jerusalem (c, 
 326.) among the feudal tenures of the kingdom, which must therefore 
 have been collected between the years 1153 and 1187. His pedigree 
 may be found in the Lignagts d'Outremer, c. 16. 
 
 e The rapine and satisfaction of Reginald de Courtenay, are pre- 
 posterously arranged in the Epistles of the abbot and regent Suger, 
 (cxiv. cxvi.)the best memorials of the age. (Duchesne^ Scriptorea 
 Hist. Franc, tom. iv. p. 530.) 
 
 f In the beginning of the eleventh century, after naming the father 
 and grandfather of Hugh Capet, the monk Glaber is obliged to add. 
 cujus genus valde inante reperitur obscurum. Yet we are assured 
 that the great-grandfather of Hugh Capet was Robert the Strong, 
 count of Anjou, (A. D. 863—873.) a noble Frank of Ncusiria, Neus- 
 tricus . . . generoea .stirpis, who was slain In the defence of his 
 country against the Normans, dum patriae fines tuebatur. Beyond 
 Robert, all is conjecture or fable. It is a probable conjecture, that 
 the thirtl race descended from the second Childebrand, the brother 
 of Charles Martel. It is an absurd fable, that the second was allied 
 to the first by the marriage of Ansbert, a Roman senator and the an- 
 cestor of St. Arnoul, with Bliiilde, a daughter of Clotaire I. The 
 Saxon origin of the house of France is an ancient but incredible 
 opinion. See a judiiJious memoir of M. de Foncemagne, (Wlemoireg 
 de TAcademie des Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 548—579.) He had pro- 
 mised to declare his own opinion in a second memoir, which has 
 never appeared. 
 
 I 
 
 
1. 1 
 
 4!i^ 
 
 382 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 383^ 
 
 
 %i 
 
 # 
 
 i»4 % 
 
 
 '4 
 
 the twelfth century, acquired that hereditary lustre 
 which is now diffused over the remote candidates for 
 the succession. 2. The barons of Courtenay must 
 have stood high in their own estimation, and in that 
 of the world, since they could impose on the son of a 
 king the obligation of adopting for himself and all his 
 descendants the name and arms of their daughter and 
 his wife. In the marriage of an heiress with her infe 
 
 and allowed : but as they continued to diverge from 
 the regal stem, the sons of Louis the Fat were insen- 
 sibly confounded with their maternal ancestors ; and 
 the new Courtenays might deserve to forfeit the hon- 
 ours of their birth, which a motive of interest had 
 tempted them to renounce. 3. The shame was far 
 more permanent than the reward, and a momentary 
 blaze was followed by a long darkness. The eldest 
 son of these nuptials, Peter of Courtenay, had mar- 
 ried, as I have already mentioned, the sister of the 
 counts of Flanders, the two first emperors of Constan- 
 tinople : he rashly accepted the invitation of the barons 
 of Romania; his two sons, Robert and Baldwin, suc- 
 cessively held and lost the remains of the Latin em- 
 pire in the east, and the grand-daughter of Baldwin 
 the second again mingled her blood with the blood of 
 France and of Valois. To support the expenses of a 
 troubled and transitory reign, their patrimonial estates 
 were mortgaged or sold ; and the last emperors of 
 Constantinople depended on the annual charity of 
 Rome and Naples. 
 
 While the elder brothers dissipated their wealth in 
 romantic adventures, and the castle of Courtenay was 
 profaned by a plebeian owner, the younger branches 
 of that adopted name were propagated and multiplied. 
 But their splendour was clouded by poverty and time: 
 after the decease of Robert, great nutler of France, 
 they descended from princes to barons ; the next gene- 
 rations were confounded with the simple gentry ; the 
 descendants of Hugh Capet, could no longer be visi- 
 ble in the rural lords of Tanlay and of Champignelles. 
 The more adventurous embraced without dishonour 
 the profession of a soldier : the least active and opu- 
 lent might sink, like their cousins of the branch of 
 Dreux, into the condition of peasants. Their royal 
 descent, in a dark period of four hundred years, be- 
 came each day more obsolete and ambiguous ; and 
 their pedigree, instead of being enrolled in the annals 
 of the kingdom, must be painfully searched by the 
 minute diligence of heralds and genealogists. It was 
 not till the end of the sixteenth century, on the acces- 
 sion of a family almost remote as their own, that the 
 princely spirit of the Courtenays again revived ; and 
 the question of the nobility, provoked them to assert 
 the royalty, of their blood. They appealed to the jus- 
 tice and compassion of Henry the fourth ; obtained a 
 favourable opinion from twenty lawyers of Italy and 
 Germany, and modestly compared themselves to the 
 descendant of king David, whose prerogatives were 
 not impaired by the lapse of ages or the trade of a 
 carpenter.' But every ear was deaf, and every cir- 
 cumstance was adverse, to their lawful claims. The 
 Bourbon kings were justified by the neglect of the 
 Valois; the princes of the blood, more recent and 
 lofty, disdained the alliance of this humble kindred ; 
 the parliament, without denying their proofs, eluded a 
 dangerous precedent by an arbitrary distinction, and es- 
 tablished St. Louis as the first father of the royal line.'' 
 
 A repetition of complaints and protests was repeat* 
 edly disregarded ; and the hopeless pursuit was ter- 
 minated in the present century by the death of ihe 
 last inale of the family.' Their painful and anxious 
 situation was alleviated by the pride of conscious vir- 
 tue : they sternly rejected the temptations of fortune 
 and favour; and a dying Courtenay would have sacrifi- 
 ced his son, if the youth could have renounced, for any 
 
 rior or her equal, such exchange was often required temporal interest, the right and title of a legitimaie 
 
 prince of the blood of France,^ 
 
 HI. According to the old register of m. TheCourte. 
 Ford Abbey, the Courtenays of Devon- nays of England, 
 shire are descended from prince Flurus, the second 
 son of Peter, and the grandson of Louis the Fat.-' 
 This fable of the grateful or venal monks was toa 
 respectfully entertained by our antiquaries, Camden,"* 
 and Dugdale : ■ but it is so clearly repugnant to truth 
 and time, that the rational pride of the family now 
 refuses to accept this imaginary founder. Their most 
 faithful historians believe, that after giving his daugh- 
 ter to the king's son, Reginald of Courtenay abandon- 
 ed his possessions in France, and obtained from the 
 English monarch a second wife and anew inheritance. 
 It is certain, at least, that Henry the second distin- 
 guished in i)is camps and councils, a Reginald, of the 
 name and arms, and, as it may be fairly presumed, of 
 the genuine race, of the Courtenays of France. The 
 right of wardship enabled a feudal lord to reward his 
 vassal with the marriage and estate of a noble heiress; 
 and Reginald of Courtenay acquired a fair establish- 
 ment in Devonshire, where his posterity has been 
 seated above six hundred years." From a Norman 
 baron, Baldwin de Brioniis, who had been invested by 
 the conqueror, Hawise, the wife of Reginald, derived 
 the honour of Okehampton, which was held by the 
 service of ninety-three knights ; and a female might 
 claiiTi the manly ofl^ces of hereditary viscount or 
 sheriff, and of captnin of the royal castle of Exeter. 
 Their son Robert married the sister of the earl of 
 Devon ; at the end of a century, on the failure of the 
 family of Rivers,P his great-grandson, Hugh the se- 
 cond, succeeded to a title which was still considered 
 as a territorial dignity; and twelve earls of Devon- 
 shire, of the name of Courtenay, have Tho earls of 
 flourished in a period of two hundred L'evonshire. 
 and twenty years. They were ranked among the 
 chief of the barons of the realm ; nor was it tilTafter 
 a strenuous dispute, that they yielded to the fief of 
 Arundel the first place in the parliament of England : 
 
 C Of Ihe Tarious petitions, apologies, &c. published by the pnnces 
 of Courtenay, I have seen the three following, all in octavo : 1. Do 
 Stirpe et Online Pomus de Courtenay : addita sunt Kesponsa cele- 
 berrimorum Europae Jurisconsullorum ; Paris, 1607, 2. Kepresenta- 
 tion du Precede tenu a I'instance faicte devant le Roi, par Messieurs 
 de Courtenay, pour la conservation de I'Honneur et Dignity de leur 
 Maison, branche de la royalle Maison de France ; a Paris, 1613. 3. 
 Kepresentation du subject qui a porte Messieurs de Salles et de Fra- 
 ville, de la Maison de Courtenay, a se retirer horsdu Royauine, 1614. 
 It was an homicide, fur which the Courtenays expected to be par- 
 doned, or tried, as princes of the blood. 
 
 k The sense of the parliament* is thiu ezpreued by Thuanuf : 
 
 Principis nomen nusquam in Gallia tributum, nisi iisqui per roarps 
 e regibus ni»8tris urisinern repHunt ; qui nunc laniuni a Liidovico 
 nono beatae memoriae numerantur; nam Corfinai et Dmcensos, a 
 Ludovico crasso genus ducentep ; hudie inter eos minime recensentur. 
 A distinction of expediency rather ihan justice. The sanctity of 
 Louis IX. could not inveai him with any special preropativp, and all 
 the descendants of Hush Capet must be included in his original com- 
 pact with the French nation. 
 
 i Tiie last male of the Courtenays was Chnrles Ro/rer, who died in 
 the year 1730, without leaving any sons. The l.tai female was Helene 
 He Courtenay, who married I»ui» de Beaufremont. Her title of 
 Princesse du Sang Royal de France, was suppressed (February 7ib, 
 1737.) by an arret of the parliament of Paris. 
 
 k The singular anecdote to which I allude, is related in the Recueil 
 lies Pieces inieressanies et peu connues; (Maesiricht, 1786, in 4 vols. 
 12mo ;) and the unknown editor quotes his author, who had received 
 it from Helene de Courtenay, man^uese de B aufremoni. 
 
 1 Dugdale Monasiicon Anglicanum, vol. i, p. 786, Yet this fable 
 must have been invenied before the reign of Kdward III. The pn-fuse 
 devotion of the three first generations to Ford Abbey, was follciwed by 
 oppression on one side and ingratitude on the other ; and in the sixth 
 Benerati»)n, the monks ceased to register the biiths, actions, and 
 deaths of their patrons, 
 
 B« In his Britannia, in the list of the earls of Devonshire. His ex- 
 pression, e regio sanguine ortus creduni, be, rays however some doubt 
 or suspiciori. 
 
 cju" ^". t!'' Baronage, p, i, p. 634. he refers to his own Monasticon. 
 bhould he not have corrected the register of Ford Abbey, and anni- 
 hilated the phantom Florus, by the unquestionable evidence of tho 
 French historians 1 
 
 o Besides the third and most valuable btx)k of Cleaveland's Histo- 
 ry, I have consulted Dugdale, the father of our genealogical science. 
 (.Baronage, p, i. p. 634-643.) 
 
 P This great family, de Ripuariis, de Redvers, de Rivers, ended ia 
 hdward the fifth's lime, in Isabella da Fortibus, a famous and potent 
 dowager, who long survived her brother and husband. (Dugdale, 
 Baronafe, p, I, p, 264-237.; ^ ** 
 
 
 their alliances were contracted with the noblest fami- 
 lies, the Veres, Despensers, St. Johns, Talbots, Bo- 
 huns, and even the Plantagenets themselves ; and in a 
 contest with John of Lancaster, a Courtenay, bishop 
 of London, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, 
 might be accused of profane confidence in the strength 
 and number of his kindred. In peace, the earls *of 
 Devon resided in their numerous castles and manors 
 of the west ; their ample revenue was appropriated to 
 devotion and hospitality ; and the epitaph of Edward, 
 surnamed, from his misfortune, the blind^ from his 
 virtues, the good, earl, inculcates with much ingenuity 
 a moral sentence, which may however be abused by 
 thoughtless generosity. After a grateful commemora- 
 tion of the fifty-five years of union and happiness, 
 which he enjoyed with Mabel his wife, the good earl 
 thus speaks from the tomb : 
 
 What we gave, we have ; 
 - What we spent, we had ; 
 
 » What we left, we lost.' 
 
 But their losses^ in this sense, were far superior to 
 their gifts and expenses ; and their heirs, not less than 
 the poor, were the objects of their paternal care. The 
 sums which they paid for livery and seisin, attest the 
 greatness of their possessions ; and several estates 
 have remained in their family since the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth centuries. In war, the Courtenays of Eng- 
 land fulfilled the duties, and deserved the honours, of 
 chivalry. They were often intrusted to levy and 
 command the militia of Devonshire and Cornwall; 
 they ofien attended their supreme lord to the borders 
 of Scotland; and in foreign service, for a stipulated 
 price, they sometimes niaintained fourscore men at 
 arms and as many archers. By sea and land they 
 fought under the standards of the Edwards and Hen- 
 rys : their names are conspicuous in battles, in tour- 
 naments, and in the original list of the order of the 
 Garter ; three brothers shared the Spanish victory of 
 the Black Prince ; and in the lapse of six generations, 
 the English Courtenays had learned to despise the 
 nation and country from which they derived their ori- 
 gin. In the quarrel of the two roses, the earls of De- 
 von adhered to the house of Lancaster, and three bro- 
 thers successively died, either in the field or on the 
 scaffold. Their honours and estates were restored by 
 f Henry the seventh ; a daughter of Edward the fourth 
 was not disgraced by the nuptials of a Courtenay ; 
 their son, who was created marquis of Exeter, enjoyed 
 the favour of his cousin Henry the eighth ; and in the 
 tarnp of Cloth of Gold, he broke a lance against the 
 French monarch. But the favour of Henry was the 
 prelude of disjrrace ; his disgrace was the signal of 
 death ; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the 
 marqui? of Exeter is one of the most noble and guilt- 
 1«^S9. His son Edward lived a prisoner in the Tower, 
 and died an exile at Padua ; and the secret love of 
 Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the prin- 
 cess Klizabeth, has shed a romantic colour on the 
 stary of this beautiful youth. The relics of his patri- 
 mony were conveyed into strange families by the mar- 
 riagres ©f his four aunts ; and his personal honours, as 
 " they had been legally extinct, were revived by the 
 patents of succeeding princes. But there still survi- 
 ved a lineal descendant of Hugh the first earl of De- 
 Vf'n, a younger braneh of the Courtenays, who have 
 been seated at Powderham castle above four hundred 
 years, from the reign of Edward the third to the pre- 
 sent hour. Their estates have been increased by the 
 ^rant and improvement of lands in Ireland, and they 
 have been recently restored to the honours of the peer- 
 32:^. Yet the Courtenays still retain the plaintive 
 • ^?}^^' which asserts tho innocence, and deplores the 
 1 laM^ their ancient house.'' While they sigh for 
 
 [past greatness, they are doubtless sensible of preseii 
 blessings; in the long series of the Courtenay annals,, 
 the most splendid «ra is likewise the most unfortu- 
 nate ; nor can an opulent peer of Britain be inclined 
 to envy the emperors of Constantinople, who wan- 
 dered over Europe to solicit alms for the support of 
 their dignity and the defence of their capital. 
 
 CHAP. XXIIL 
 
 The Greek emperors of Nice and Constantinople. — Elevation 
 and reign of Michael Palacologus.—Hi^ false union with 
 the pope and the Latin church.— Hostile desiinvt of 
 Charles of Anjou.—Revoli of Sicily.— War of the Cata- 
 Itms m Asia and Greece,— Revolutions and present stale 
 of Athens, 
 
 The loss 0/ Constantinople restored a Restoration of the 
 momentary vigour to the Greeks. From Greek empir». 
 their palaces, the princes and nobles were driven into 
 the field ; and the fragments of the fallino- monarchy 
 were grasped by the hands of the most 'vigorous or 
 the most skilful candidates. In the long and barren 
 pages of the Byzantine annals,* it would not be an 
 easy task to equal the two characters of Theodore 
 Lascaris and John Ducas Vataces,'' who tk h t 
 replanted and upheld the Roman stand- cS, 
 ard at Nice in Bithynia. The difl'erence ^- ^' 1^2^)4-1222. 
 of their virtues was happily suited to the diversity of 
 their situation. In his first efl^orts, the fugitive Las- 
 caris commanded only three cities and two thousand 
 soldiers : his reign was the season of generous and 
 active despair : in every military operation he staked 
 his life and crown ; and his enemies, of the Helles- 
 pont and the Maeander, were surprised by his celeri- 
 ty and subdued by his boldness. A victorious reign 
 of eighteen years expanded the principality of Nice 
 to the magnitude of an empire. The 
 throne of his successor and son-in-law ^''vataci** 
 Vataces was founded on a more solid ba- A. D. f222-i235. 
 sis, a larger scope, and more plentiful re- Oct. 30. 
 sources; and it was the temper, as well as the inter- 
 est, of Vataces to calculate the risk, to expect the mo- 
 nient, and to insure the success, of his ambitious de- 
 signs. In the decline of the Latins, I have briefly ex- 
 posed the progress of the Greeks ; the prudent and 
 gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign of 
 thirty-three years, rescued the provinces from national 
 and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the 
 imperial city, a leafless and sapless trunk, which 
 niust fall at the first stroke of the axe. But his inte- 
 
 rior and peaceful administration is still more deserving 
 of notice and praise.* The calamities of the times had 
 wasted the numbers and the substance of the Greeks; 
 the motives and the means of agriculture were extir- 
 pated ; and the most fertile lands were left without cul- 
 tivation or inhabitants. A portion of this vacant pro- 
 perty was occupied and improved by the command, 
 and for the benefit, of the emperor: a powerful hand 
 and a vigilant eye supplied and surpassed, by a skil- 
 ful management, the minute diligence of a private 
 farmer; the royal domain became the garden and gra- 
 nary of Asia; and without impoverishing the peo- 
 
 DpV?n!*K^'*'i*^' P- ^^'^' ^y ■"""* '^ •' aasi^ned to a Rivers, earl of 
 ippnih « ^"*' English denotes the fifteenth, raiher than the thir- 
 «^»?nin, cpntury. 
 
 diA pJi'i"^!"* ! Quid feci 7 a motto which was probably adopted by 
 '^owderham branch, after the loss of the earldom of Devonahire, 
 
 Sec. The primitive arms of the Courtenays were, or, three torteaux, 
 gtiles, which seem to denote their affinity with Godfrey of Bouillon, 
 and the ancient counts of Boulogne. 
 
 a For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more especially of John 
 Vataces and his son, their minister, George Acropoliia, is tho only 
 genuine contemporary : but George Pachymer returned to Constanti- 
 nople with the Greeks at the age of nineteen. (Hanckius. do Scripu 
 l^yzanl* c. 33, 31. p, 564-578. Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. torn. vi. p. 443 
 — 46<t.) Yet the history of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the four- 
 teenth century, is a valuable narrative from the taking of Constanti- 
 nople by the Latins. ,^^ 
 
 b Nicephorus Gregoras (1, ii, c. I.) distinguishes between the ogi,. 
 oeMH of Lascaris, and the i»ra5«« of Vataces. The two portraits ar9 
 in a very goc>d style. 
 
 e Pachymer, 1. i. c.23, 24. Nic. Greg. 1, ii. c.6. The reader of the 
 Bytantines must observe how rarely we are indulsed with such ore* 
 Clous details, '^ 
 
 I ■ 
 
(it 
 
 384 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIII. 
 
 Chap. XXIII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 
 I 
 
 '» 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 pie, the sovereign acquired a fund of innocent and pro- 
 ductive wealth. According to the nature of the soil, 
 his lands were sown with corn or planted with vines ; 
 the pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with 
 sheep and hogs ; and when Vataces presented to the 
 empress a crown of diamonds and pearls, he informed 
 her with a smile, that this precious ornament arose 
 from the sale of the eggs of his innumerable poultry. 
 The produce of his domain was applied to the mainte- 
 nance of his palace and hospitals, the calls of dignity 
 and benevolence : the lesson was still more useful than 
 the revenue ; the plough was restored to its ancient se- 
 curity and honour ; and the nobles were taught to 
 seek a sure and independent revenue from their estates, 
 instead of adorning their splendid beggary by the op- 
 pression of the people, or (what is almost the same) by 
 the favours of the court. The superfluous stock of 
 corn and cattle was eajrerly purchased by the Turks, 
 with whom Vataces preserved a strict and sincere alli- 
 ance; but he discouraged the importation of foreign 
 manufactures, the costly silks of the east, and the 
 curious labours of the Italian looms. "The demands 
 of nature and necessity," was he accustomed to say, 
 "are indispensable; but the influence of fashion may 
 rise and sink at the breath of a monarch ;" and both 
 his precept and example recommended simplicity of 
 manners and the use of domestic industry. The educa- 
 tion of youth and the revival of learning were the most 
 serious objects of his care : and, without deciding the 
 precedency, he pronounced with truth, that a prince 
 and a philosopher"* are the two most eminent charac- 
 ters of human society. His first wife was Irene, the 
 daughter of Theodore Lascaris, a woman more illus- 
 trious by her personal merit, the milder virtues of her 
 sex, than by the blood of the Angeli and Comneni, 
 tliat flowed in her veins, and transmitted the inheritance 
 of the empire. After her death he was contracted to 
 Anne, or Constance, a natural daughter of the emperor 
 Frederic the second ; but as the bride had not attain- 
 ed the years of puberty, Vataces placed in his solita- 
 ry bed an Italian damsel of her train; and his amorous 
 weakness bestowed on the concubine the honours, 
 though not the title, of lawful empress. His frailty 
 was censured as a flagitious and damnable sin by the 
 monks ; and their rude invectives exercised and dis- 
 played the patience of the royal lover. A philosophic 
 age may excuse a single vice, which was redeemed by 
 a crowd of virtues; and in the review of his fiults, and 
 the more intemperate passions of Lascaris, the judg- 
 ment of their contemporaries was softened by j^ratitude 
 to the second founders of the empire.* The slaves of 
 the Latins, without law or peace, applauded the happi- 
 ness of their brethren who had resumed their national 
 freedom ; and Vataces employed the laudable policy 
 of convincing the Greeks of every dominion that it 
 was their interest to be enrolled in the number of his 
 subjects. 
 Theodore Las- A. Strong shade of degeneracy is visi- 
 carisll.^ ble between John Vataces and his son 
 Oct. 30^- Theodore ; between the founder who sus- 
 A. D. 1259. tained the weight, and the heir who en- 
 Auguat. joyed the splendour, of the imperial 
 crown.' Yet tho character of Theodore was not de- 
 void of energy ; he had been educated in the school of 
 his father, in the exercise of war and hunting; Con- 
 stantinople was yet spared ; but in the three years of 
 a short reign, he thrice led his armies into the heart of 
 Bulgaria. His virtues were sullied by a choleric and 
 
 (Gre?. Acropol. c. 32.) The emperor, in a familiar conversation, ex- 
 ftmiued and encouraged the studiee of his future logotheie, 
 
 e Compare Acropolita, (c. 18. 52.) and ihe two first books of Nico- 
 phorus Grogoras. 
 
 f A Persian sayin£», that Cyrus was Ihe/ather, and Darius the mas- 
 ter, of his subjects, was applied to Vataces and his son, but Pachy- 
 mer (1. i. c.23.) his mistaken thp mild Darius for the cruel ('ambyses, 
 despot or tyrant of his people. By the institution of taxes, Darius had 
 incurred the less odious, but more contemptible, itamo uf Kan^i]>.cf, 
 merchant or broker. (Herodotus, iii. 89.) 
 
 suspicious temper; the first of these may be ascribed 
 to the ignorance of control ; and the second might 
 naturally arise from a dark and imperfect view of the 
 corruption of mankind. On a march in Bulgaria, he 
 consulted on a question of policy his principal minis- 
 ters; and the Greek logothete, George Acropolita, pre- 
 sumed to offend him by the declaration of a free and 
 honest opinion. The emperor half-unsheathed his 
 scymitar; but his more deliberate rage reserved Acro- 
 polita for a baser punishment. One of the first ofl^cers 
 of the empire was ordered to dismount, stripped of his 
 robes, and extended on the ground in the presence of 
 the prince and army. In this posture he was chastised 
 with so many and such heavy blows from the clubs of 
 two guards or executioners, that when Theodore com- 
 manded them to cease, the great logothete w^as scarce- 
 ly able to rise and crawl away to his tent. After a se- 
 clusion of some days, he was recalled by a perempto- 
 ry mandate to his seat in council ; and so dead were 
 the Greeks to the sense of honour and shame, that it 
 is from the narrative of the suflferer himself that we 
 acquire the knowledge of his disgrace.* The cruelty 
 of the emperor was exasperated by the pangs of sick- 
 ness, the approach of a premature end, and the suspi- 
 cion of poison and magic. The lives and fortunes, the 
 eyes and limbs, of his kinsmen and nobles, were sacri- 
 ficed to each sally of passion; and before he died, the 
 son of Vataces might deserve from the people, or at 
 least from the court, the appellation of tyrant. A ma- 
 tron of the family of the Palaeologi had provoked his 
 anger by refusing to bestow her beauteous daughter on 
 the vile plebeian who was recommended by his caprice. 
 Without regard to her birth or age, her body, as high 
 as the neck, was enclosed in a sack with several cats, 
 who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury against 
 their unfortunate fellow-captive. In his last hours the 
 emperor testified a wish to forgive and to be forgiven, a 
 just anxiety for the fate of John, his son and successor, 
 who, at the age of eight years, was condemned to the 
 dangers of a long minority. His last „. .. ..,. 
 choice intrusted the office of guardian to M'nonty of Joho 
 the sanctity of the patriarch Arsenius, 
 and to the courage of George Muzalon, 
 the great domestic, who was equally distinguished by 
 the royal favour and the public hatred. Since their con- 
 nexion with the Latins, the names and privileges of he- 
 reditary rank had insinuated themselves into the Greek 
 monarchy; and the noble families'' were provoked by 
 the elevation of a worthless favourite, to whose influ- 
 ence they imputed the errors and calamities of the late 
 reign. In the first council after the emperor's death, 
 Muzalon from a lofty throne pronounced a laboured 
 apology of his conduct and intentions : his modesty 
 was subdued by a unanimous assurance of esteem and 
 fidelity; and his most inveterate enemies were the loud- 
 est to salute him as the guardian and saviour of the Ro- 
 mans. Eight days were suflficient to prepare the exe- 
 cution of the conspiracy. On the ninth, the obsequies 
 of the deceased monarch were solemnized in the cathe- 
 dral of Magnesia,' an Asiatic city, where he expired, on 
 the banks of the Hermus, and at the foot of mount Sipy- 
 lus. The holy rites were interrupted by a sedition of the 
 guards ; Muzalon, his brothers, and his adherents, were 
 massacred at the foot of the altar; and the absent 
 patriarch was associated with a new colleague, with 
 
 385 
 
 Lascaris, 
 
 A. D. 1259. 
 
 August. 
 
 ft Acropolita (c. 63.) seems to admire his own firmness in sustainin* 
 a beatinp, and not returning to council till he was called. He relate* 
 the exploits of Theodore, and his own services, from c. 53. to c. 74. of 
 his history. See the third book of Nicephorus Gregoras. 
 
 h Pachymer (1. i. c. 21.) names and discriminates fifteen or twenty 
 Greek families, k«i So-oi »a.a.s», 4i< •[ fnyxKeytvy.f ritg» «»» %f u(ni9"u> • 
 K'xfiTtfTo. Does he mean, by this decoration, a figurative or a real 
 golden chain 1 Perhaps both. 
 
 I The old geographers, with Cellarfus and D'Anville, and our tra- 
 vf Hers, particularly Pocock and Chandler, will teach us to distinguish 
 the two Magnesias of Asia Minor, of the Mseander and of Sipylus. The 
 latter, our present object, is still flourishing for a Turkish city, and 
 lies eight hours, or leagues, to the north-east of Smyrna. (Tournefort, 
 Voyage du Levant, torn. iii. lettre xxli. p. 365—370. Chandler's 
 Travel! into Asia Minor, p. iJ67.> * 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 ( 
 
 Michael Palaeoloerus, the most illustrious, in birth and 
 merit, of the Greek nobles.^ 
 
 Family and cha- ^^ ^^^^^ who are proud of their ances- 
 racipr of Michael tors, the far greater part must be content 
 P4i«jiogus. with local or domestic renown ; and few 
 ihere are who dare trust the memorials of their family 
 to the public annals of their country. As early as the 
 middle of the eleventh century, the noble race of the 
 Palaeologi • stands hiuh and conspicuous in the Byzan- 
 tine history : it was the valiant George Palaeologus who 
 placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and 
 his kinsmen or descendants continue, in each genera- 
 tion to lead the armies and councils of the state. The 
 purple was not dishonoured by the alliance; and had 
 the law of succession, and female succession, been 
 strictly observed, the wife of Theodore Lascaris must 
 have yielded to her elder sister, the mother of Michael 
 Palaelogus, who afterwards raised his family to the 
 throne. In his person, the splendour of birth was dig- 
 nified by the merit of a soldier and a statesman : in his 
 early youth he was promoted to the office of constable 
 or commander of the French mercenaries : the pri- 
 vate expenses of a day never exceeded three pieces 
 of gold ; but his ambition was rapacious and profuse ; 
 and his gifts were doubled by the graces of his con- 
 versation and manners. The love of the soldiers and 
 people excited the jealousy of the court; and Michael 
 thrice escaped from the dangers in which he was in- 
 volved by his own imprudence or that of his friends. 
 I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a dispute 
 arose" between two officers, one of whom accused the 
 other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palaeo- 
 logi. The cause was decided, according to the new 
 jurisprudence of the Latins, by single combat: the de- 
 fendant was overthrown ; but he persisted in declarina 
 that himself alone was guilty ; and that he had uttereS 
 these rash or treasonable speeches without the appro- 
 bation or knowledge of his patron. Yet a cloud of 
 suspicion hung over the innocence of the constable : 
 he was still pursued by the whispers of malevolence; 
 and a subtle courtier, the archbishop of Philadelphia, 
 urged him to accept the judi^ment of God in the fiery 
 proof of the ordeal.* Three days before the trial, the 
 patient's arm was enclosed in a bajr, and secured by 
 the royal signet; and it was incumbent on him to bear 
 a red-hot ball of iron three times from the altar to the 
 rails of the sanctuary, without artifice and without in- 
 jury. Palaeologus eluded the dangerous experiment 
 with sense and pleasantry. " I am a soldier," said 
 he, " and will boldly enter the lists wiUi my accusers ; 
 but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed 
 with the gift of miracles. Your piety, most holy pre- 
 late, may deserve the intorposition of heaven, and 
 from your hands I will receive the fiery globe, the 
 pledge of my innocence." The archbishop started ; 
 the emperor smiled ; and the absolution or pardon of 
 Michael was approved by new rewards and new ser- 
 vices. II. In the succeeding reign, as he held the 
 gov(>rnn»ei)t of Nice, he was secretly informed, that the 
 mind of the absent prince was poisoned with jealousy ; 
 and that death, or blindness, would bahis final reward. 
 Instead of awaitinnr the return and sentence of Theodore, 
 the constable with some followers escaped from the 
 city and the empire; and though he was plundered by 
 the Turkmans of the desert, he found an hospitable 
 
 refuge m the court of the sultan. In the ambicruous 
 state of an exile, Michael reconciled the duties of arati- 
 tude and loyalty : drawing his sword against the Tar- 
 tars; admonishing the garrisons of the Roman limit; 
 and promoting, by his influence, the restoration of 
 peace, in which his pardon and recall were honourably 
 included. III. While he guarded the west against 
 the despot of Epirus, Michael was again suspected 
 and condemned in the palace ; and such was his loyal- 
 ty or weakness, that he submitted to be led in chains 
 above six hundred miles from Durazzo to Nice. The 
 civility of the messenger alleviated his disgrace; the 
 emperor's sickness dispelled his danger; and the last 
 breath of Theodore, which recommended his infant son, 
 at once acknowledged the innocence and the power of 
 Palajologns. 
 
 But his innocence had been too un- His elevation to 
 worthily treated, and his power was too the throne, 
 strongly felt, to curb an aspiring subject in the fair field 
 that was opened to his ambition." In the council after 
 the death of Theodore, he was the first to pronounce, and 
 the last to violate, the oath of allegiance to Muzalon ; 
 and so dexterous was his conduct, that he reaped the 
 benefit, without incurring the guilt, or at least the re- 
 proach, of the subsequent massacre. In the choice of 
 a repent, he balanced the interests and passions of the 
 candidates; turned their envy and hatred from himself 
 against each other, and forced every competitor to own, 
 that after his own claims, those of Palaeologus were 
 best entitled to the preference. Under the title of 
 great duke, he accepted or assumed, during a long mi- 
 nority, the active powers of government; the patriarch 
 was a venerable name; and the factious nobles were 
 seduced, or oppressed, by the ascendant of his genius. 
 The fruits of the economy of Vataces were deposited 
 in a strong castle on the banks of the Hermus, in the 
 custody of the faithful Varangians: the constable 
 retained his command or influence over the foreitrn 
 troops ; he employed the guards to possess the treaV 
 ure, and the treasure to corrupt the guards ; and what- 
 sover might be the abuse of the public money, his cha- 
 racter was above the suspicion of private avarice. By 
 himself, or by his emissaries, he strove to persuade 
 every rank of subjects, that their own prosperity would 
 rise in just proportion to the establishment of his au- 
 thority. The weio^ht of taxes was suspended, the per- 
 petual theme of popular complaint; and he prohibited 
 the trials by the ordeal and judicial combat. These 
 barbaric institutions were already abolished or under- 
 mined in France »• and England ;«« and the appeal to the 
 sword oflfended the sense of a civilized,' and the tem- 
 per of an unwarlike, people. For the future mainte- 
 nance of their wives and children, the veterans were 
 L'rateful : the priest and the philosopher applauded his 
 ardent zeal for the advancement of religion and learn- 
 ing; and his vague promise of rewarding merit, was 
 applied by every candidate to his own hopes. Con- 
 scious of the influence of the clergy, Michael success- 
 
 k See Acropolita, (c. 75, 76, &c.) who lived loo near the times: Pa- 
 
 1 TK^' ^' '• ^* *3-2.->.) Gregoras, (1. iii. c. 3, 4, 5.) 
 
 ' ine pedisree of PalsBjlogus is explained by Ducange: (Famil. 
 »yzaru. p. -230, dec.) the events of his private life are related by Pa- 
 Chymor (1. i. c. 7-]-.>.) and Gregoras, (I. ii.8. 1. iii. 2. 4 I. iv. 1.) with 
 ▼isiDift favour to the father of the reigning dynasty, 
 tur* l'.'P"^'^*^*''*^''*) relates the circumstances of this curious ad ven- 
 lure, which seem to have escaped the more recent writers. 
 
 b-.°rh ^*^^'"*''"'^'* '• ^- ^^-^ ^^"^ speaks with proper contempt of this 
 warDdruus trial, affirms, that he had seen in his youth many persons 
 wno ru'l sustained, without injury, the fiery ordeal. As a Greek, he 
 i^mAH' "f" ^^^^^^ ingenuity of the Greeks might furnish some 
 l/nini ^* "^' "' ^""^ against their ownsuper8tiiion,or that of their 
 
 Vol. 11.^2 Y 25 
 
 o Without comparing Pachymer to Thucydides, or Tacitus, I will 
 praise his narrative, (1. i.e. 13-32. 1. ii. c. 1-9.) which pursues the 
 ascent of Palseolopus with eloquence, perspicuity, and tolerable 
 freedom. Acropolita is more cautious, and Gregoras more con- 
 cise. 
 
 P The judicial combat was abolished by St. Louis in his own terri- 
 tories;and his example and auihoriiv were at length prevalent ia 
 France. (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c.'29.) 
 
 q In civil cases Henry II. gave an option to the defendant ; Glan- 
 ▼ ille prefers the proof by evidence, and that by judicial combat is re- 
 probated in the Heta. Yei the trial by battle has nevpf been abro- 
 gated in the English law, and it was ordered by the judges as late as 
 the beginning of the last century. 
 
 r Yet an ingenious friend has urged to me in mitigation of this prac- 
 tice, 1. That in nations emerging from barbarism, it moderates tlie 
 licence of private war and arbitrary revonge. 2. That it is less ab- 
 surd than the trials by the ordeal, or boiling water, or the cross, which 
 it has contributed to abolish. 3. That it served at least as a test of 
 personal courage; a quality so seldom united with a base disposition, 
 that the danger of a trial might be some check to a malicious perse- 
 cutor, and a useful barrier against injustice supported by power. The 
 gallant and unfortunate earl of Surrey might probably have escaped 
 his unmerited fate, had not his demand of the combat aeaiosi his ag- 
 cufor beea oterruled. 
 
386 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 387 
 
 fttlly laboared to secure tlie suffrage of that powerful 
 order. Their expensive journey from Nice to Magne- 
 •ia, afforded a decent and ample pretence : the leading 
 prelates were tempted by the liberality of his noctur- 
 nal visits; and the incorruptible patriarch was flattered 
 by the homage of his new colleague, who led his mule 
 by the bridle into the town, and removed to a respect- 
 ful distance the importunity of the crowd. Without 
 renouncing his title by royal descent, Pal«ologus en- 
 couraged a free discussion into the advantages of elec- 
 tive monarchy ; and his adherents asked, with the in- 
 solence of triumph, what patient would trust his wealth, 
 or what merchant abandon his vessel, to the hereditary 
 skill of a physician or pilot 1 The youth of the empe- 
 ror, and the impending dangers of a minority, required 
 the support of a mature and experienced guardian ; of an 
 associate raised above the envy of his equals, and invest- 
 ed with the name and prerogatives of royalty. For the 
 interest of the prince and people, without any selfish 
 views for himself or his family, the great duke consent- 
 ed to guard and instruct the son of Theodore ; but he 
 sighed for the happy moment when he might restore 
 to his firmer hands the administration of his patrimony, 
 and enjoy the blessings of a private station. He was 
 first invested with the title and prerogatives of despot^ 
 which bestowed the purple ornaments, and the second 
 place in the Roman monarchy. It was afterwards agreed 
 that John and Michael should be proclaimed as joint 
 emperors, and raised on the buckler, but that the pre- 
 eminence should be reserved for the birth-right of the 
 former. A mutual league of amity was pledged between 
 the royal partners ; and in case of a rupture, the subjects 
 were bound by Iheir oath of allegiance to declare them- 
 selves against the agsressor; an ambiguous name, the 
 seed of discord and civil war. Palacologus was con- 
 tent ; but on the day of the coronation, and in the cathe- 
 dral of Nice, his zealous adherents most vehemently 
 uroed the just priority of his age and merit. The un- 
 seasonable dispute was eluded by postponing to a more 
 convenient opportunity the coronation of John Lascaris ; 
 and he walked with a slight diadem in the train of his 
 guardian, who alone received the imperial crown from 
 the hands of the patriarch. It was not without extreme 
 
 ■MX. ID1 reluctance that Arsenius abandoned the 
 Michael Pal aeo- -.. -i u .. *u ^r • „ 
 
 logus empnror, cause of his pupil ; but the Varangians 
 
 A. D. 1200. brandished their battle-axes ; a sign of 
 January 1. assent was extorted from the trembling 
 youth; and some voices were heard, that the life of a 
 child should no longer impede the settlement of the na- 
 tion. A full harvest of honours and employments was 
 distributed among his friends by the grateful Palacolo- 
 gus. In his own family he created a despot and two se- 
 bastocrators ; Alexius Strategopulus was decorated with 
 the title of Caesar ; and that veteran commander soon 
 repaid the obligation, by restoring Constantinople to 
 the Greek emperor. 
 
 It was in the second year of his reign, 
 CoSs'Snopie, Y^^^® he resided in the palace and gar- 
 A. D 1261. dens of Nymphajum,* near Smyrna, that 
 July 25. ij^e fjrst messenger arrived at the dead of 
 night ; and the stupendous intelligence was imparted 
 to Michael, after he had been gently waked by the 
 tender precaution of his sister Eulogia. The man 
 was unknown or obscure ; he produced no letters from 
 the victorious Casar ; nor could it easily be credited, 
 after the defeat of Vataces and the recent failure of 
 Palffiologus himself, that the capital had been surpris- 
 ed by a detachment of eight hundred soldiers. As an 
 hostage, the doubtful author was confined, with the 
 assurance of death or an ample recompence ; and the 
 court was left some hours in the anxiety of hope and 
 fear, till the messengers of Alexius arrived with the 
 
 • The lite of Nymphaeum is not clearly defined in ancient or mo- 
 dern geography. Bui from ihe last hours of Valacea, (Acropoliu, c. 
 52.) ii id evident the palace and gardens of his favourite residence 
 iwere In the neighbourhood of Smyrna. Nymphaum mighl be loose- 
 ly placed in Lydia. CGregonm, 1. vi. 6.) 
 
 authentic intelligence, and displayed the trophies of 
 the conquest, the sword and sceptre/ the buskins and 
 bonnet," of the usurper Baldwin, which he had dropt 
 in his precipitate flight. A general assenibly of the 
 bishops, senators, and nobles, was immediately con- 
 vened, and never perhaps was an event received with 
 more heartfelt and universal joy. In a studied oration, 
 the new sovereign of Constantmople congratulated his 
 own and the public fortune, " There was a time," 
 said he, "a far distant time, when the Roman empire 
 extended to the Adriatic, the Tigris, and the confines 
 of jGthiopia, After the loss of the provinces, our 
 capital itself, in these last and calamitous days, has 
 been wrested from our hands by the barbarians of the 
 west. From the lowest ebb, the tide of prosperity 
 has again returned in our favour ; but our prosperity 
 was that of fugitives and exiles : and when we were 
 asked, which was the country of the Romans, we in- 
 dicated with a blush the climate of the globe and the 
 quarter of the heavens. The divine Providence has 
 now restored to our arms the city of Constantine, the 
 sacred seat of religion and empire; and it will depend 
 on our valour and conduct to render this important 
 acquisition the pledge and omen of future victories.'* 
 So eager was the ^impatience of the j^^^„^„ ^^ ^^^ 
 prince and people, that Michael made u reek emperor, 
 his triumphal entry into Constantinople A. D. I5W1. 
 only twenty days after the expulsion of "^' 
 
 the Latins. The golden gate was thrown open at his 
 approach ; the devout emperor dismounted from hia 
 horse; and a miraculous image of Mary the Conduc- 
 tress was borne before him, that the divine Virgin in 
 person might appear to conduct him to the temple of 
 her Son, the cathedral of St. Sophia. But after the 
 first transport of devotion and pride, he sighed at the 
 dreary prospect of solitude and ruin. The palace 
 was defiled with smoke and dirt, and the gross intem- 
 perance of the Franks ; whole streets had been con- 
 sumed by fire, or were decayed by the injuries of 
 time ; the sacred and profane edifices were stripped of 
 their ornaments ; and, as if they were conscious of 
 their approaching exile, the industry of the Latins 
 had been confined to the work of pillage and destruc- 
 tion. Trade had expired under the pressure of anar- 
 chy and distress, and the numbers of inhabitants had 
 decreased with the opulence of the city. It was the first 
 care of the Greek monarch to reinstate the nobles in the 
 palaces of their fathers ; and the houses or the ground 
 which they occupied were restored to the families that 
 could exhibit a legal right of inheritance. But the 
 far greater part was extinct or lost; the vacant pro- 
 perty had devolved to the lord ; he repeopled Constan- 
 tinople by a liberal invitation to the provinces ; and 
 the brave volunteers were seated in the capital which 
 had been recovered by their arms. The French barons 
 and the principal families had retired with their empe- 
 ror ; hut the patient and humble crowd of Latins were 
 attached to the country, and indifferent to the change 
 of masters. Instead of banishing the factories of the 
 Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese, the prudent con- 
 queror accepted their oaths of allegiance, encouraged 
 their industry, confirmed their privileges, and allowed 
 them to live under the jurisdiction of their proper 
 magistrates. Of these nations, the Pisans and Vei e- 
 tians preserved their respective quarters in the city ; 
 but the services and power of the Genoese deserved 
 at the same time the gratitude and jealousy of the 
 Greeks. Their independent colony was first planted 
 at the sea-port town of Heraclea in Thrace. They 
 were speedily recalled, and settled in the exclusive 
 
 t This sceptre, the emblem of justice and power, was a long siaflT, 
 such as was used by the heroes in Homer. By the latter Greeks it 
 was named Dicanice, and the imperial sceptre was distinguished txB 
 usual by the red or purple colour. 
 
 « Acropoliia affirms (c. 87.) that this bonnet was after the French 
 fashion ; but from the ruby at the point or summit, Ducanee (Hist, de 
 C. P. 1. V. c. 28, 29.) believes that it was the high crowned hat of the 
 Creeke. Could Acropolita mistake the dress of his own court } 
 
 possession of the suburb of Galata, an advantageous 
 post, in which they revived the commerce, and insul- 
 ted the majesty, of the Byzantine empire." 
 
 Palseoio'^us '^^^ recovery of Constantinople was 
 
 blinds and ba- celebrated as the ajra of a new empire : 
 nishesihe y^^ conqueror, alone, and by the riffhl of 
 
 youn? emperor, , ^j j u- *• ^ .u 
 
 A. D. 1281. the sword, renewed his coronation in the 
 Dec. 25. church of St. Sophia ; and the name and 
 
 honours of John Lascaris, his pupil and lawful sove- 
 reign, were insensibly abolished. But his claims still 
 lived in the minds of the people; and the royal youth 
 must speedily attain the years of manhood and ambi- 
 tion. By fear oi conscience, Palajologus was restrained 
 from dipping his hands in innocent and royal blood ; 
 but the anxiety of a usurper and a parent urged him to 
 secure his throne, by one of those imperfect crimes so 
 familiar to the modern Greeks. The loss of sight 
 incapacitated the young prince fiir the active business 
 of the world : instead of the brutal violence of tearing 
 out his eyes, the visual nerve was destroyed by the 
 intense glare of a red-hot basin,r and John Lascaris 
 was removed to a distant castle, where he spent many 
 years in privacy and oblivion. Such cool and deliber- 
 ate guilt may seem incompatible with remorse ; but if 
 Michael could trust the mercy of Heaven, he was not 
 inaccessible to the reproaches and vengeance of man- 
 kind, which he had provoked by cruelly and treason. 
 His cruelty imposed on a servile court the duties of 
 applause or silence ; but the clergy had a right to 
 speak in the name of their invisible master ; and their 
 holy legions were led by a prelate, whose character 
 was above the temptation of hope or fear. After a 
 short abdication of his dignity, Arsenius * had consen- 
 ted to ascend the ecclesiastical throne of Constantino- 
 ple, and to preside in the restoration of the church. 
 His pious simplicity was long deceived by the arts of 
 Palaeologus ; and his patience and submission might 
 soothe the usurper, and protect the safety of the young 
 prince. On the news of this inhuman treatment, the 
 patriarch unsheathed the spiritual sword ; and super- 
 stition, on this occasion, was enlisted in the cause of 
 isexcommuni- humanity and justice. In a synod of 
 caied by the bishops, who were stimulated by the ex- 
 JeJilTs^*^ ^^' ample of his zeal, the patriarch pro- 
 
 A. D. 1262 nounced a sentence of excommunication ; 
 —1268. though his prudence still repeated the 
 name of Michael in the public prayers. The eastern 
 prelates had not adopted the dangerous maxims of 
 ancient Rome ; nor did they presume to enforce their 
 censures, by deposing princes, or absolving nations 
 from their oaths of allegiance. But the christian who 
 had been separated from God and the church, became 
 an object of horror ; and in a turbulent and fanatic 
 capital, that horror might arm the hand of an assassin, 
 or inflame a sedition of the people. Palaeologus felt 
 his danger, confessed his guilt, and deprecated his 
 judge : the act was irretrievable ; the prize was ob- 
 tained ; and the most rigorous penance, which he soli- 
 cited, would have raised the sinner to the reputation 
 of a saint. The unrelenting patriarch refused to 
 announce any means of atonement or any hopes of 
 mercy ; and condescended only to pronounce, that, for 
 so great a crime, great indeed must be the satisfaction. 
 ** Do you require," said Michael," that I should abdi- 
 cate the empire 1" At these words, he offered, or 
 
 X See Pachymer, (1. 2. c. 28— 33.) Acropolita, (c. F8.) Nicephorus 
 Gregnras, (I. iv. 7.) and for the treatment of the subject Laiiiis, Du- 
 cangp, (1. V. c. 30, 31.) 
 
 y This milder invention for extinguishing the sight, was tried by 
 the philosopher Democritus on himself, when he sousht to withdraw 
 his mind from the visible world : a foolish story ! The word abaci- 
 fiare, in Latin and Italian, has furnished Ducange (Gloss. Latin.) 
 with an opportunity to review the various mixles of blinding: the 
 more violent were scooping, burning with an iron or hot vinegar, and 
 binding the head with a strong cord till the eyes burst from their 
 sockets. IniTPnious tyrants ! 
 
 t See the first retreat and restoration of Arsenius, in Pachymer, (1. 
 ^ c. 15. 1. iii. c. 1,2.) and Nicephoras (jregoras. (I. iii. c. 1. 1. iv. c. 1.) 
 Posterity justly accused the =«r«A.».» and f»ivftt» of Arsenius, the vir- 
 tues of a hermit, the vices of a minister, (1. xii. c. 2.) 
 
 seemed to offer, the sword of state. Arsenius eagerly 
 grasped this pledge of sovereignty : but when he per- 
 ceived that the emperor was unwilling to purchase 
 absolution at so dear a rate, he indignantly escaped to 
 his cell, and left the royal sinner kneeling and weep- 
 ing before the door.' 
 
 The danger and scandal of this ex- Schismofthe 
 communication subsisted above three Arsenites. 
 years, till the popular clamour was as--^* ^' ^^®~*^*^- 
 suaged by time and repentance ; till the brethren of 
 Arsenius condemned his inflexible spirit, so repugnant 
 to the unbounded forgiveness of the gosple. The 
 emperor had artfully insinuated, that, if he were still 
 rejected at home, he might seek, in the Roman pontiff, 
 a more indulgent judge ; but it was far more easy and 
 effectual to find or to place that judge at the head of 
 the Byzantine church. Arsenius was involved in a 
 vague rumour of conspiracy and disaffection; some 
 irregular steps in his ordination and government were 
 liable to censure ; a synod deposed him from the epis- 
 copal office; and he was transported under a guard of 
 soldiers to a small island of the Propontis. Before 
 his exile, he suddenly requested that a strict account 
 might be taken of the treasures of the church ; boas- 
 ted, that his sole riches, three pieces of gold, had 
 been earned by transcribing the psalms ; continued to 
 assert the freedom of his mind ; and denied, with his 
 last breath, the pardon which was implored by the 
 royal sinner.** After some delay, Gregory, bishop of 
 Adrianople, was translated to the Byzantine throne; 
 but his authority was found insufficient to support the 
 absolution of the emperor; and Joseph, a reverend 
 monk, was substituted to that important function. 
 This edifying scene was represented in the presence 
 of the senate and people ; at the end of six years, the 
 humble penitent was restored to the communion of the 
 faithful; and humanity will rejoice, that a milder 
 treatment of the captive Lascaris was stipulated as a 
 proof of his remorse. But the spirit of Arsenius still 
 survived in a powerful faction of the monks and clergy, 
 who persevered above forty-eight years in an obstinate 
 schism. Their scruples were treated with tenderness 
 and respect by Michael and his son ; and the recon- 
 ciliation of the Arsenites was the serious labour of 
 the church and state. In the confidence of fanaticism, 
 they had proposed to try their cause by a miracle ; 
 and when the two papers, that contained their own 
 and the adverse cause, were cast into a fiery brasier, 
 they expected that the catholic verity would be re- 
 spected by the flames. Alas ! the two papers were 
 indiscriminately consumed, and this unforeseen acci- 
 dent produced the union of a day, and renewed the 
 quarrel of an age.' The final treaty displayed the 
 victory of the Arsenites : the clergy abstained during 
 forty days from all ecclesiastical functions : a slight 
 penance was imposed on the laity ; the body of Arse- 
 nius was deposited in the sanctuary; and in the name 
 of the departed saint, the prince and people were re- 
 leased from the sins of their fathers.* 
 
 The establishment of his family was j^^.^^ ^^ jy^j^.j^^gj 
 the motive, or at least the pretence, of Paiaoiogus, 
 the crime of Palasologus ; and he was A. D. 1259. 
 impatient to confirm the succession, by a. d! 1282. 
 sharing with his eldest son the honours Dec. il. 
 
 t The crime and excommunication of Michael are fairly told by 
 Pachymer (I. iii. c. 10. 14. 19, &c.) and Gregoras. (1. iv. c. 4.) His con- 
 fession and penance restored their freedom. 
 
 b Pachymer relates the exile of Arsenius : (1. iv. c. 1—16.) he was 
 one of the commissaries who visited him in the desert island. The 
 last testament of the unforgiving patriarch is still extant. (Dupia, 
 Bibliotheque Ecclesiasiiijue, torn. x. p. 95.) 
 
 c Pachymer (1. vii. c. 22.) relates this miraculous trial like a philo- 
 sopher, and treats with similar contempt a plot of the Arsenites, to hide 
 a revelation in the coffin of some old saint. (I. vii. c. 13.) He compen- 
 sates this incredulity by an image that weeps, another that bleeds, 
 (1. vii. c. 30.) and the miraculous cures of a deaf and a mute patient, 
 
 (1. xi. c. 32.) .^ V 1^. ,. , * 
 
 d The story of the Arsenites is spread through the thirteen books of 
 
 Pachymer. Their union and triumph are reserved for Nicephorus 
 
 Gregoras, (I. vii. c. 9.) who neither loves nor esteems these sectariet. 
 
 
 f 
 
 1 .> f 
 
388 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. KXIJI, 
 
 RetgnofAndro- of the puTple. Andronicus, afterwards 
 
 Td^'^S^.'s.^""^"^"^^*^ ^^® Elder, was proclaimed and 
 -A. b. 1332. 'crowned emperor of the Komans, in the 
 Feb. 13. fifteenth year of his age ; and, from the 
 first aera of a prolix and inglorious ceign, he held that 
 august title nine years as the colleague, and fifty as 
 the successor of his father. Michael himself, had he 
 died in a private station, would have been thought 
 more worthy of the empire : and the assaults of his 
 temporal and spiritual enemies left him few moments 
 to labour for his own fame or the happiness of his sub- 
 jects. He wrested from the Franks several of the no- 
 blest islands of the Archipelago, Lesbos, Chios, and 
 Rhodes: his brother^Constantine was sent to command 
 in Malvasia and Sparta; and the eastern side of the 
 Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Tasnarus, was 
 repossessed by the Greeks. This effusion of christian 
 blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch ; and 
 the insolent priest presumed to interpose his fears and 
 scruples between the arms of princes. But in the pro- 
 secution of these western conquests, the countries be- 
 yond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks; 
 and their depredations verified the prophecy of a dyincr 
 senator, that the recovery of Constantinople would be 
 the ruin of Asia. The victories of Michael were 
 achieved by his lieutenants ; his sword rusted in the 
 palace ; and, in the transactions of the emperor with 
 the popes and the king of Naples, his political arts 
 were stained with cruelty and fraud.' 
 
 L The Vatican was the most natural 
 
 Jh? LaiilT "''^ '^f"^« °^ ^ ^-^.''" emperor, who had been 
 church, A. D. driven from his throne ; and pope Urban 
 1274-1277. the fourth appeared to pity the misfor- 
 tunes, and vindicate the cause, of the fugitive Bald- 
 win. A crusade, with plenary indulgence, was preach- 
 ed by his command against the schismatic Greeks ; he 
 excommunicated their allies and adherents; solicited 
 Louis the ninth in favour of his kinsman ; and demand- 
 ed a tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues of France and 
 England for the service of the holy war.' The subtle 
 Greek, who watched the rising tempest of the west, 
 attempted to suspend or soothe the hostility of the 
 pope, by suppliant embassies and respectful letters ; 
 but he insinuated that the establishment of peace must 
 prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the eastern 
 church. The Roman court could not be deceived by 
 80 gross an artifice; and Michael was admonished, 
 that the repentance of the son should precede the for- 
 giveness of the father ; and that faith (an ambiguous 
 word) was the only basis of friendship and alliance. 
 After a long and affected delay, the approach of dan- 
 ger, and the importunity of Gregory the tenth, com- 
 pelled him to enter on a more serious negociation : ho 
 alleged the example of the great Vataces; and the 
 Greek clergy, who understood the intentions of their 
 prince, were not alarmed by the first steps of reconcil- 
 iation and respect. But when he pressed the conclu- 
 sion of the treaty, they strenuously declared, that the 
 Latins, though not in name, were heretics in fact, and 
 that they despised those strangers as the vilest and 
 most despicable portion of the human race.* It was 
 <he task ot the emperor to persuade, to corrupt, to in- 
 timidate, the most popular ecclesiastics, to gain the 
 vote of each individual, and alternately to ur<re the 
 aroruments of christian charity and the public welfare. 
 The texts of the fathers and the arms of the Franks 
 were balanced in the theological and political scale * 
 
 e Of tho thirteen books of Pachymfr, the first six (as the fourth and 
 fifth of Nicephorus Greg-iras) contain the reign of Michael at the 
 time of whose d'-aih he was ftrty years of age. Instead of breakin'' 
 like his edit>r the Piire Pousdin, his history into two pans I fol- 
 low Ducange and Cousin, who number the thirteen books in one 
 series. 
 
 t Ducange, Hist, de C. P. I. r. c. 33, kc. from the Epistles of Ur- 
 ban IV. 
 
 K From their mercintile intercourse with the Venetians and Geno- 
 ese, they brandf^d the Latins as xj«jii,a.o. and o»»awTo..(Pachymer, 1. 
 ▼. c. 10.) " Some are h^rplics in name; others, like the Latins, in 
 fact, said the learned Veccus, (I. t. c. 12.) who soon afierwarda be- 
 came a convert, (c. 15, 16.) and a patriarch, (c. 24.) 
 
 and without approving the addition to the Nicene 
 creed, the most moderate were laught to confess, that 
 the two hostile propositions of proceeding from the 
 Father by the Son, and proceeding from the Father 
 AND the Son, might be reduced to a safe and catholic 
 sense.** The supremacy of the pope was a doctrine 
 more easy to conceive, but more painful to acknow- 
 ledge; yet Michael represented to his monks and pre- 
 lates, that they might submit to name the Roman bish- 
 op as the first of the patriarchs ; and that their distance 
 and discretion would guard the liberties of the eastern 
 church from the mischievous consequences of the right 
 of appeal. He protested that he would sacrifice his 
 life and empire rather than yield the smallest point of 
 orthodox faith or national independence: and this de- 
 claration was sealed and ratified by a golden bull. 
 The patriarch Jo.seph withdrew to a monastery, to re- 
 sign or resume his throne, according to the event of 
 the treaty: the letters of union and obedience were 
 subscribed by the emperor, his son Andronicus, and 
 thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans, with their 
 re.«:pective synods ; and the episcopal list was multi- 
 plied by many dioceses which were annihilated under 
 the yoke of the infidels. An embassy was composed 
 of some trusty ministers and prelates; they embarked 
 for Italy, with rich ornaments and rare perfumes, for 
 the altar of St. Peter ; and their secret orders authori- 
 zed and recommended a boundless compliance. They 
 were received in the general council of Lyons, by pope 
 Gregory the tenth, at the head of five hundred bish- 
 ops.' He embraced with tears his long-lost and re- 
 pentant children; accepted the oath of'^the ambassa- 
 dors, who abjured the schism in the name of the two 
 emperors ; adorned the prelates with the ring and mi- 
 tre ; chanted in Greek and Latin the Nicene creed 
 with the addition ofJiUoque; and rejoiced in the union 
 of the east and west, which had been reserved for his 
 reign. To consummate this pious work, the Byzan- 
 tine deputies were speedily followed by the pope's 
 nuncios ; and their instruction discloses the policy of 
 the Vatican, which could not be satisfied with the vain 
 title of supremacy. After viewing the temper of the 
 prince and people, they were enjolTied to absolve the 
 schismatic clergy, who should subscribe and swear 
 their abjuration and obedience; to establish in all the 
 churches the use of the perfect creed ; to prepare the 
 entrance of a cardinal legate, with the full powers and 
 dignity of his office ; and to instruct the emperor in 
 the advantages which he micrht derive from the tem- 
 poral protection of the Roman pontiflf.^ 
 
 But they found a country without a His persecution 
 triend, a nation in which the names of of the Greeks, 
 Rome and Union were pronounced with A. D. 1277— 12S2. 
 abhorrence. The patriarch Joseph was indeed remov- 
 ed ; his place was filled by Veccus, an ecclesiastic of 
 learning and moderation ; and the emperor was siill 
 urged by the same motives, to persevere in the same 
 professions. But in his private language Palieologus 
 affected to deplore the pride, and to blame the innova- 
 tions, of the Latins; and while he debased his char- 
 acter by this double hypocrisy, he justified and pun- 
 ished the opposition of his subjects. By the joint 
 suffrage of the new and the ancient Rome, a sentence 
 of excommunication was pronounced against the obsti- 
 nate schismatics; the censures of the church were execu- 
 ted by the sword of Michael ; on the failure of persua- 
 sion, he tried the arguments of prison and exile, of whip- 
 
 h In this class, we may place Pachymer himself, whose copious 
 and candid narmiive occupies the fifih and sixth books of his histo- 
 ry. Yet the Greek is silent on the council of Lyons, and seems to 
 beliere that the popes always resided in Home and Italy, (I. v. c. 17. 
 
 i See the acts of the council of Lyons in the year 1274. Fleury, 
 Hist. Ecclesiastique, torn, xviii. p. 181—199. Dupin, Bibliot. Ecclea. 
 lom. X. p. 135. 
 
 k This curious Instruction, which has been drawn with more or 
 less honesty by Wading and Leo Allalius from the archives of the 
 25^^^258.?'^*'* >n »n abstract or version by Fleury, (torn, xviii 
 
 Chap. XXIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ^89 
 
 ping and mutilation; those touch-stones, says an his- 
 torian, of cowards and the brave. Two Greeks still 
 reigned in jEtolia, Epirus, and Thessaly, with the ap- 
 pellation of despots ; they had yielded to the sover- 
 eigns of Constantinople, but they rejected the chains 
 of the Roman pontiff, and supported their refusal by 
 successful arms. Under their protection, the fugitive 
 monks and bishops assembled in hostile synods; and 
 retorted the name of heretic with the galling addition 
 of apostate; the prince of Trebizond was tempted to 
 assume the forfeit title of emperor ; and even the La- 
 tins of Negropont, Thebes, Athens, and the Morea, 
 forgot the merits of the convert, to join, with open or 
 clandestine aid, the enemies of Palaeologus. His fa- 
 Tourite generals, of his own blood and family, succes- 
 sively deserted, or betrayed, the sacrilegious trust. 
 His sister Eulogia, a niece, and two female cousins, 
 conspired against him ; another niece, Mary queen of 
 Bulgaria, negociated his ruin with the sultan of Egypt ; 
 and, in the public eye, their treason was consecrated 
 as the most sublime virtue.* To the pope's nuncios, 
 who urged the consummation of the work, Palaologus 
 exposed a naked recital of all that he had done and 
 suffered for their sake. They were assured that the 
 guilty sectaries, of both sexes and every rank, had 
 been deprived of their honours, their fortunes, and their 
 liberty ; a spreading list of confiscation and punish- 
 ment, which involved many persons, the dearest to the 
 emperor, or the best deserving of his favour. They 
 were conducted to the prison, to behold four princes 
 of the royal blood chained in the four corners, and 
 shaking their fetters in an agony of grief and rage. 
 Two of these captives were afterwards released ; the 
 one by submission, the other by death : but the obsti- 
 nacy of their two companions was chastised by the 
 loss of their eyes; and the Greeks, the least adverse 
 to the union, deplore the cruel and inauspicious trage- 
 dy." Persecutors must expect the hatred of those 
 whom they oppress; but they commonly find some 
 consolation in the testimony of their conscience, the 
 applause of their party, and, perhaps, the success of 
 their undertaking. But the hypocrisy of Michael, 
 which was prompted only by political motives, must 
 have forced him to hate himself, to despise his follow- 
 ers, and to esteem and envy the rebel champions by 
 whom he was detested and despised. While his vio- 
 lence was abhorred at Constantinople, at Rome his 
 slowness was arraigned, and his sincerity suspected ; 
 till at length pope Martin the fourth excluded the Greek 
 emperor from the pale of a church, into which he was 
 The union dis- Striving to reduce a schismatic people. 
 
 solved, No sooner had the tyrant expired, than 
 
 A. D. 1283. ^fjg union was dissolved, and abjured by 
 unanimous consent; the churches were purified; the 
 penitents were reconciled; and his son Andronicus, 
 after weeping the sins and errors of his youth, most 
 piously denied his father the burial of a prince and a 
 christian." 
 
 Charles of An- H. In the distress of the Latins, the 
 jou subdues Na- walls and towers of Constantinople had 
 '^a"*^ fS^' fallen to decay: they were restored and 
 
 Feb. 26. * fortified by the policy of Michael, who 
 deposited a plenteous store of corn and salt provisions, 
 to sustain the siege which he might hourly expect 
 from the resentment of the western powers. Of these, 
 the sovereign of the two Sicilies was the most formi- 
 
 1 This frank and authentic conf«^ssion of Michael's distress, is 
 exhibited in barbarous Latin by Ogerius, who signs himself Protono- 
 larius Interpretum, and transcribed by Wading from the MSS. of 
 the Vatican. (A. D. 1J78. No. 3.) His Annals of the Franciscan 
 order, the Fratres Minores, in seventeen volumes in folio, (Rome, 
 1741.) I have now accidentally seen among the waste paper of a 
 l)ook seller* 
 
 in See the sixth book of Pachymer, particularly the chapters 1.11. 
 16. 18. 24—27. He is the more credible, as he speaks of this persecu- 
 tion with less anger than sorrow. 
 
 ■ Pachymer, 1. vii. c. 1-11. 17. The speech of Andronicus the 
 Elder (lib. xii. c. 2.) is a curious record, which proves, thai if the 
 Greeks were the slaves of the emperor, the emperor was not less 
 the slave of superstition and the clergy. 
 
 dable neighbour; but as long as they were possessed 
 by Mainfroy, the bastard of Frederic the second, his 
 monarchy was the bulwark, rather than the annoyance, 
 of the eastern empire. The usurper, tliough a brave 
 and active prince, was sufficiently employed in the de- 
 fence of his throne : his proscription by successive 
 popes had separated Mainfroy from the common cause 
 of the Latins ; and the forces that might have besieged 
 Constantinople were detained in a crusade against the 
 domestic enemy of Rome. The prize of her avenger, 
 the crown of the two Sicilies, was won and worn by 
 the brother of St. Louis, by Charles count of Anjou 
 and Provence, who led the chivalry of France on this 
 holy expedition.*' The disaffection of his christian 
 subjects compelled Mainfroy to enlist a colony of Sa-^ 
 racens whom his father had planted in Apulia : and 
 this odious succour will explain the defiance of the 
 catholic hero, who rejected all terms of accommoda- 
 tion. *' Bear this message," said Charles, " to the 
 sultan of Nocera, that God and the sword are umpire 
 between us ; and that he shall either send me to para- 
 dise, or I will send him to the pit of hill." The ar- 
 mies met, and though I am ignorant of Mainfroy's 
 doom in the other world, in this he lost his friends, 
 his kingdom, and his life, in the bloody battle of Ben- 
 evento. Naples and Sicily were immediately peopled 
 with a warlike race of French nobles; and their aspir- 
 ing leader embraced the future conquest of Africa, 
 Greece and Palestine. The most specious reasons 
 might point his first arms against the Byzantine em- 
 pire ; and Palaeologus, diffident of his own strength, 
 repeatedly appealed from the ambition of Charles to 
 the humanity of St. Louis, who still preserved a just 
 ascendant over the mind of his ferocious brother. For 
 a while the attention of that brother was confined at 
 home by the invasion of Conradin, the last heir of the 
 imperial house of Swabia: but the hapless boy sunk 
 in the unequal conflict ; and his execution on a public 
 scaffold taught the rivals of Charles to tremble for 
 their heads as well as their dominions. A second res- 
 pite was obtained by the last crusade of St. Louis to 
 the African coast; and the double motive of interest 
 and duty urged the king of Naples to assist, with his 
 powers and his presence, the holy enterprise. The 
 death of St. Louis released him from the importunity 
 of a virtuous censor: the king of Tunis confessed him- 
 self the tributary and vassal of the crown Threatens the 
 of Sicily ; and the boldest of the French Greek empire, 
 knights were free to enlist under his ban- ^- ^' *'^^^» **^* 
 ner against the Greek empire. A treaty and a mar- 
 riage united his interest with the house of Courtenay ; 
 his daughter Beatrice was promised to Philip, son and 
 heir of the emperor Baldwin ; a pension of six hundred 
 ounces of gold was allowed for his maintenance; and 
 his generous father distributed among his allies the 
 kingdoms and provinces of the east, reserving only 
 Constantinople, and one day's journey round the city, 
 for the imperial domain.? In this perilous moment 
 Palajologus was the most eager to subscribe the creed, 
 and implore the protection, of the Roman pontiff, who 
 assumed, with propriety and weight, the character of 
 an angel of peace, the common father of the christians. 
 By his voice, the sword of Charles was chained in the 
 scabbard ; and the Greek ambassadors beheld him, in 
 the pope's anti-chamber, biting his ivory sceptre in a 
 transport of fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to 
 enfranchise and consecrate his arms. He appears to 
 have respected the disinterested mediation of Gregory 
 
 o The best accounts, the nearest the time, the mcst full and enter- 
 taining, of the conquest of Naples by Charles of Anjou, may be found 
 in the Florentine Chronicles of Kicordano Malespina, (c. 'o»— »**.) 
 and Giovanni Villani, (1. vii. c 1-10.25-30.) which are published 
 by Muratori in li.e eighth and thirteenth volumes of the historians of 
 Italy. In his Annals, (lom. xi. p. 56-72.) he has abrideed these preat 
 events, which are likewise described in the Istoria Civile of (jian- 
 none. torn. ii. 1. Jtix. torn. iii. 1. XX. ^ ^ ^ . 
 
 P Ducange, Hist, de C P. 1. v. c. 49-56. 1. vi. c. 1-13. See Pachy- 
 mer, 1. iv. c. 29. 1. v. c. 7-10. 25. 1. vi. c. 30, 32, 33. and Nicephorut 
 Gregoras, 1. iv. 5. 1. v. . 16. 
 
 I 
 
 t 1 
 
 I 
 
390 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIU. 
 
 Chap. XXllL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 391 
 
 Falaulogus in- 
 stigates ihB re- 
 volt of Sicily, 
 A. D. 1280. 
 
 the tenth ; hut Charles was insensibly disfjusted by 
 the pride and partiality of Nicholas thft third ; and his 
 attachment to his kindred, the Ursini family, alienated 
 the most strenuous champion from the service of the 
 church. The hostile league aoainst the Greeks, of 
 Philip the Latin emperor, the king of the two Sicilies, 
 and the republic of Venice, was ripened into execu- 
 tion; and the election of Martin the fourth, a French 
 pope, gave a sanction to the cause. Of the allies, 
 Philip supplied his name, Martin, a bull of excommu- 
 nication, the Venetians, a squadron of forty galleys ; 
 and the formidable powers of Charles consisted of 
 forty counts, ten thousand men at arms, a numerous 
 body of infantry, and a fleet of more than three hun- 
 dred ships and transports. A distant day was appoint- 
 ed for assembling this mighty force in the harbour of 
 Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a 
 detachment of three hundred knights, who invaded 
 Albania, and besieged the fortress of Belgrade. Their 
 defeat miirht amuse with a triumph the vanity of Con- 
 stantinople; but the more sagacious Michael, despair- 
 ing of his arms, depended on the effects of a conspira- 
 cy ; on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the 
 bow-string «> of the Sicilian tyrant. 
 
 Among the proscribed adherents of 
 the house of Swabia, John of Procida 
 forfeited a small island of that name in 
 the bay of Naples. His birth was noble, 
 but his education was learned ; and in the poverty of 
 exile, he was relieved by the practice of physic, which 
 he had studied in the school of Salerno. Fortune had 
 left him nothing to lose, except life; and to despise 
 life is the first qualification of a rebel. Procida was 
 endowed with the art of negocialion, to enforce his 
 reasons, and disguise his motives ; and in his various 
 transactions with nations and men, he could persuade 
 each party that he labonred solely for iheir interest. 
 The new kingdoms of Charles were afflicted by every 
 species of fiscal and military oppression;' and the 
 lives and fortunes of his Italian subjects were sacri- 
 ficed to the greatness of their master and the licen- 
 tiousness of his followers. The haired of Naples was 
 repressed by his presence ; but the looser government 
 of his vicegerents excited the contempt, as well as the 
 aversion, of the Sicilians : the island was aroused to 
 a sense of freedom by the eloquence of Procida; and 
 he displayed to every baron his private interest in the 
 common cause. In the confidence of foreign aid, he 
 successively visited the courts of the Greek emperor, 
 and of Peter king of Arragon,' who possessed the 
 maritime countries of Valentia and Catalonia. To the 
 anihitious Peter a crown was presented, which he 
 might justly claim by his marriage with the sister of 
 Mainfroy, and by the dying voice of Conradin, who 
 from the scaffold had cast a ring to his heir and aven- 
 ger. PaliBologus was easily persuaded to divert his 
 enemy from a foreign war by a rebellion at home ; and 
 a Greek subsidy of twenty-five thousand ounces of 
 gold was most profitably applied to arm a Catalan 
 fleet, which sailed under a holy banner to the specious 
 attack of the Saracens of Africa. In the disguise of 
 a monk or beggar, the indefatigable missionary of re- 
 volt flew from Constantinople to Rome, and from Sici- 
 ly to Saragossa ; the treaty was sealed with the sig- 
 net of Pope Nicholas himself, the enemy of Charles; 
 and his deed of gift transferred the fiefs of St. Peter 
 from the house of Anjou to that of Arragon. So 
 
 [widely diffused and so freely circulated, the secret 
 was preserved above two years with impenetrable dis- 
 cretion ; and each of the conspirators imbibed the 
 maxim of Peter, who declared that he would cut off 
 his left hand if it were conscious of the intentions of 
 his right. The mine was prepared with deep and dan- 
 gerous artifice ; but it may be questioned, whether the 
 instant explosion of Palermo were the effect of acci- 
 dent or design. 
 
 On the vigil of Easter a procession of 
 the unarmed citizens visited a church v«fppil'*° 
 without the walls ; and a noble damsel A. D. 1'2S2. 
 was rudely insulted by a French sol- March 30. 
 dier.* The ravisher was instantly punished with 
 death ; and if the people at first were scattered by a 
 military force, their numbers and fury prevailed : the 
 conspirators seized the opportunity ; the flame spread 
 over the island; and eight thousand French were 
 exterminated in a promiscuous massacre, which has 
 obtained the name of the Sicilian Vespers." From 
 every city the banners of freedom and the church were 
 displayed : the revolt was inspired by the presence or 
 the soul of Procida ; and Peter of Arragon, who sail- 
 ed from the African coast to Palermo, was saluted as 
 the king and saviour of the isle. By the rebellion of 
 a people on whom he had so long trampled with impu- 
 nity, Charles was astonished and confounded ; and in 
 the first agony of grief and devotion, he was heard to 
 exclaim, »* O God ! if thou hast decreed to humble 
 me, grant me at least a gentle and gradual descent 
 from the pinnacle of greatness !" His fleet and army, 
 which already filled the sea-ports of Italy, were has- 
 tily recalled from the service of the Grecian war ; and 
 the situation of Messina exposed that town to the 
 first storm of his revenge. Feeble in themselves, and 
 yet hopeless of foreign succour, the citizens would 
 have repented, and submitted on the assurance of full 
 pardon and their ancient privileges. But the pride of 
 the monarch was already rekindled ; and the most fer- 
 vent entreaties of the legate could extort no more than 
 a promise, that he would forgive the remainder, after 
 a chosen list of eight hundred rebels had been yielded 
 to his discretion. The despair of the Messinese re- 
 newed their courage ; Peter of Arragon approached 
 to their relief; '^ and his rival was driven back by the 
 failure of provision and the terrors of the equinox to the 
 Calabrian shore. At the same moment, the Catalan 
 admiral, the famous Roger de Loria, swept the channel 
 with an invincible squadron ; the French DefeaiofCharies, 
 fleet, more numerous in transports than Oct. 2. 
 in galleys, was either burnt or destroyed; and the 
 same blow assured the independence of Sicily and the 
 safety of the Greek empire. A few days before his 
 death, the emperor Michael rejoiced in the fall of In 
 enemy whom he hated and esteemed : and perhaps he 
 might be content with the popular judgment, that had 
 they not been matched with each other, Constantino- 
 ple and Italy must speedily have obeyed the same 
 master.* From this disastrous moment, the life of 
 Charles was a series of misfortunes; his capital was 
 insulted, his son was made prisoner, and he sunk into 
 
 q The readPT of Herodotug will recollect how miraculously ihe As- 
 ■jrrian host of Sennacherib was disarmed and destroyed, (1 ii c 141 ■» 
 
 r According to Sabas Malaspina, (Hist. Sicula, 1. iii. c. 16. in Mura- 
 &«'"; !,",ii ^- ^^'^ * ^^'''^'"^ Guelph, the subjects of Charles, who 
 Kf-.i^'''.u • 1*'"^'''^^ *'* ^'^'f' ^'^?*" to regret him as a lamb : and he 
 justihes their discontent by the oppressions of the French government, 
 c 11 w: "^ ' ■ ihe. Sicilian manifesto in Nicholas Specialis, (1. j. 
 c. U. in Muratori, torn. x. p. 93(>.) 
 
 ria'na (hJs^. 'oun''^",*'"? counsels of Peter king of Arragon, in Ma- 
 the Jeiui 'a dJf»?f *•'• V"' *"• ^•,^'"- '''?' *^-> The reader forgives 
 i«.n«e ^^^"-^^ "* f*^^"''' ^l^ay" of his style, and often of his 
 
 li, n^nfin .^ ! ^^'"^>'?® sufferings of his country, Nicholas Specla- 
 nni5oi'. ^ tf«e true spirit of Italian jealousy, Qua omnia et griviora 
 m. iT.ln.S"''^^'^'' P*'!^"^' *">'"" Siculi toler^ssent, nisi (quo<l pri- 
 s^n^ a r. c 2 p"9J?y^ "' cuvendum est)alienas faminas invaSii- 
 
 «' Ifl^i'mTr"''!' V? ?^".? ^^^S*'^ ^" remember this bloody lesson; 
 and dZ K'^f ' .'*l^ J^"'y ^h« '■•'""h,) I ^"1 breakfast kt Milan, 
 and d.ne at Naples." '« Your majesty (replied the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor) may perhaps arrive in Sicily fur vespers." «raoaw« 
 w This revolt, with the subse.|upnt victory, are related bv two na- 
 Sla/sSi^.f'J-^'^T^ ' Ne'ocastro, (inlviuratorirtom ^,iiL?and 
 .w Lpr^ ?fh/no . ^' ^'" ^^"^i"". i"'n- 'f) iheone a contemporary, the 
 f rebeUion In^l '^n""'^'- ^^^ P*''*^'^ Specialis disclaims the Jkme 
 rn.m i ' ^ *" previous correspondence with Peter of Arragon, 
 (nullo communicato consilio) who /iam)«ned to be with a fleet anJ 
 army on the African coast, (I. i. c. 4 9 ) 
 
 denr^'fn ?hr.'""'' ^IT'!^ ^'^ 7' ""' ^'^ «^'"'^^» ^^^ ^'"'dom of Provi- 
 Pa?»ol.i. J ? h'^nt' .^'«"ce of states and princes. For the honour of 
 Pa asologus, I had rather this balance had been observed by an luliaa 
 
 ^ 
 
 the grave without recorering the isle of Sicily, which, 
 after a war of twenty years, was finally severed from 
 tht^ throne of Naples, and transferred, as an indepen- 
 dent kingdom, to a younger branch of the house of 
 
 Arragon.3^ 
 
 I shall not, I trust, be accused of su- 
 The service and perstition : but I must remark, that, even 
 ransfnuie Gre'Jk in this world, the natural order of events 
 empire, will sometimes afford the strong appear- 
 
 A.D. 1303-1307. ^i^^gg of moral retribution. The first 
 
 Palaeologus had saved his empire by involving the 
 kinnrdoms of the west in rebellion and blood ; and 
 from these seeds of discord uprose a generation of 
 iron men, who assaulted and endangered the empire 
 of his son. In modern times, our debts and taxes are 
 the secret poison, which still corrodes the bosom of 
 peace : hut in the weak and disorderly government of 
 the middle ages, it was agitated by the present evil of 
 the disbanded armies. Too idle to work, too proud to 
 beg, the mercenaries were accustomed to a life of ra- 
 pine : they could rob with more dignity and effect 
 under a banner and a chief; and the sovereign, to 
 whom their service was useless, and their presence 
 importunate, endeavoured to discharge the torrent on 
 some neighbouring countries. After the peace of Si- 
 cily, many thousands of Genoese, Catalans,^ &c. who 
 had fought, by sea and land, under the standard of 
 Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by 
 the resemblance of their manners and interest. They 
 heard that the Greek provinces of Asia were invaded 
 by the Turks ; they resolved to share the harvest of 
 pay and plunder; and Frederic king of Sicily most 
 liberally contributed the means of their departure. In 
 a warfare of twenty years, a ship, or a camp, was be- 
 come their country ; arms were their sole profession 
 and property ; valour was the only virtue which they 
 knew ; their women had imbibed the fearless temper 
 of their lovers and husbands : it was reported, that, 
 with a stroke of their broadsword, the Catalans would 
 cleave a horseman and a horse ; and the report itself 
 was a powerful weapon. Roger de Flor was the most 
 popular of their chiefs ; and his personal merit over- 
 shadowed the dignity of his prouder rivals of Arra- 
 gon. The offspring of a marriage between a German 
 gentleman of the court of Frederic the second and a 
 damsel of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, 
 an apostate, a pirate, and at length the richest and 
 most powerful admiral of the Mediterranean." He 
 sailed from Messina to Constantinople, with eighteen 
 galleys, four great ships, and eight thousand adventu- 
 rers : and his previous treaty was faithfully accom- 
 piished by Andronicus the elder, who accepted with 
 joy and terror this formidable succour. A palace was 
 allotted for his reception, and a niece of the emperor 
 was given in marriage to the valiant stranger, who 
 was immediately created great duke or admiral of 
 Romania. After a decent repose, he transported his 
 troops over the Propontis, and boldly led them against 
 the Turks : in two bloody battles thirty thousand of 
 the Moslems were slain : he raised the siege of Phila- 
 delphia, and deserved the name of the deliverer of 
 Asia. But after a short season of prosperity, the 
 cloud of slavery and ruin again burst on that unhappy 
 province. The inhabitants escaped, (says a Greek 
 historian) from the smoke into the flames; and the 
 hostility of the Turks was less pernicious than the 
 friendship of the Catalans. The lives and fortunes 
 
 y See the Chronicle of Villani, the eleventh volume of the Annali 
 d'ltalia of Muratori, and the twentieth and twenty-first books of the 
 
 Istoria Civile of Giannone. , o • j- .v.,,K.^„«»f 
 
 z In this motley multitude, the Catalansand Spaniards the bravest 
 of the soldiery, were styled, by themselves and the Greeks, Amoga- 
 Tares. .Moncada derives their origin from the Goths, and Pachymer 
 <1. xi. c. 22.) from the Arabs ; and in spile of national and religious 
 pride, I am afraid the latter is in the right. ,* •, i i 
 
 a r!?ee, upon Roeer de Flor and his companions, a detailed and 
 Interesting historical fragment entitled, les Espagnols du quatorzieme 
 Sict'le. inserted in a work translated from the German, called ^5pam 
 in 1»)6. vol. ii.paee 167. This account renders manifest the small 
 •rrors whicii have'crepl intoGibbon's narration.— G.j 
 
 which they had rescued, they considered as their own : 
 the willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race 
 t>f circumcision for the embraces of a christian sol- 
 dier: the exaction of fines and supplies was enforced 
 by licentious rapine and arbitrary executions ; and, on 
 the resistance of Magnesia, the great duke besie«ed a 
 city of the Roman empire.'' These disorders he ex- 
 cused by the wrongs and passions of a victorious 
 army ; nor would his own authority or person have 
 been safe, had he dared to punish his faithful follow- 
 ers, who were defrauded of the just and covenanted 
 price of their services. The threats and complaints 
 of Andronicus disclosed the nakedness of the empire. 
 His golden bull had invited no more than five hundred 
 horse and a thousand foot soldiers ; yet the crowds of 
 volunteers, who migrated to the east, had been enlis- 
 ted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While his 
 bravest allies were content with three byzants or pie- 
 ces of gold, for their monthly pay, an ounce, or even 
 two ounces, of gold, were assigned to the Catalans, 
 whose annual pension would thus amount to near a 
 hundred pounds sterling: one of their chiefs had 
 modestly rated at three hundred thousand crowns the 
 1 value of h'\s future merits; and above a million had 
 been issued from the treasury for the maintenance of 
 these costly mercenaries. A cruel tax had been impo- 
 sed on the corn of the husbandman : one third was 
 retrenched from the salaries of the public officers ; and 
 the standard of the coin was so shamefully debased, 
 that of the four and twenty parts only five were of pure 
 gold,' At the summons of the emperor, Roger evac- 
 uated a province which no longer supplied the mate- 
 rials of rapine : but he refused to disperse his troops ; 
 and while his style was respectful, his conduct was 
 independent and hostile. He protested, that if the 
 emperor should march against him, he would advance 
 forty paces to kiss the ground before him, but in ris- 
 ing from this prostrate attitude Roger had a life and 
 sword at the service of his friends. The great duke 
 of Romania condescended to accept the title and orna- 
 ments of Caesar : but he rejected the new proposal of 
 the government of Asia with a subsidy of corn and 
 money, on condition that he should reduce his troops 
 to the liarmless number of three thousand men. As- 
 sassination is the last resource of cowards. The Cae- 
 sar was tempted to visit the royal residence of Adri- 
 anople : in the apartment, and before the eyes, of the 
 empress, he was stabbed by the Alani guards ; and, 
 though the deed was imputed to their private revenge, 
 his countrymen, who dwelt at Constantinople in the 
 security of peace, were involved in the same proscrip- 
 tion by the prince or people. The loss of their leader 
 intimidated the crowd of adventurers, who hoisted the 
 sails of flight, and were soon scattered round the coasts 
 of the Mediterranean. But a veteran band of fifteen 
 hundred Catalans or French, stood firm in the strong 
 fortress of Gallipoli on the Hellespont, displayed the 
 banners of Arragon, and offered to revenge and justify 
 their chief by an equal combat of ten or a hundred 
 warriors. Instead of accepting this bold defiance, the 
 emperor Michael, the son and colleague of Andronicus, 
 resolved to oppress them with the weight of multi- 
 tudes : every nerve was strained to form an army of 
 thirteen thousand horse and thirty thousand foot ; 
 and the Propontis was covered with the ships of the 
 
 b Some idea may be formed of the population of these cities, from 
 the 36,000 inhabitants of Tralles, which, in Uie preceding reign, WM 
 rebuilt by the emperor, and ruined by the Turks. (Pachymer, 1. vi. 
 
 ^'Ti hive collected these pecuniary circumstances from Pachymer, 
 M ^ri r 21 1 Tii r 4 »5 8 14 19:) who describes the progressive 
 feaiion ofthe gold'c^oin! Evinin the prosperous times of Joha 
 niiras Vataces the bvzants were composed in equal proportions ol 
 ?h"e7-e ard'he^bas^rTc^^ The P^^te^ifrrs'^ofla^r^W 
 '"'^^'V.tVycZlr'S ' Mt'e^his d afh,C''s"nda?d'Aie 
 fo ten^tratft'u in th^pubU^Ji^trtss it was reduced to the moiety. 
 The prince wis el eve^d for a moment, while credit and commerce 
 iere ?orever blasted. In France, the gold coin is of twenw-two ca- 
 rawT(one twelfth alloy,) and the standard of England and ifolland is 
 still higher. 
 
 . I 
 ? 
 
 
 '•iV 
 
 I 
 
 pi 
 
399 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXII!. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 303 
 
 Greeks and Genoese. In two battles by sea and land, 
 these mighty forces were encountered and overthrown 
 by the despair and discipline of the Catalans; the 
 young emperor fied to the palace ; and an insufficient 
 guard of light horse was left for the protection of the 
 open country. Victory renewed the hopes and num- 
 bers of the adventurers : every nation was blended 
 under the name and standard of the great company ; 
 and three thousand Turkish proselytes deserted from 
 the imperial service to join this military association. 
 In the possession of Gallipoli, the Catalans intercep- 
 ted the trade of Constantinople and the Black sea, 
 while they spread their devastations on either side of 
 the Hellespont over the confines of Europe and Asia. 
 To prevent their approach, the greatest part of the 
 Byzantine territory was laid waste by the Greeks 
 themselves : the peasants and their cattle retired into 
 the city; and myriads of sheep and oxen, for which 
 neither place nor food could be procured, were unpro- 
 fitably slaughtered on the same day. Four times the 
 emperor Andronicus sued for peace, and four times he 
 was inflexibly repulsed, till the want of provisions, 
 and the discord of the chiefs, compelled the Catalans 
 to evacuate the banks of the Hellespont and the 
 neighbourhood of the capital. After their separation 
 from the Turks, the remains of the great company 
 pursupd their march through Macedonia and Thessaly, 
 to seek a new establishment in the heart of Greece."* 
 Revoiutiong of After some ages of oblivion, Greece 
 Athens, was awakened to new misfortunes by 
 A. D. 1204-145G. ^jjg ar^g ^f tjjg Latins. In the two hun- 
 dred and fifty years between the first and the last con- 
 quest of Constantinople, that venerable land was dis- 
 puted by a multitude of petty tyrants ; without the 
 comforts of freedom and genius, her ancient cities 
 were again plunged in foreign and intestine war; and, 
 if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might re- 
 pose with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not 
 pursue the obscure and various dynasties, that rose 
 and fell on the continent or in the isles ; but our si- 
 lence on the fate of Athens,* would argue a strange 
 ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal 
 science and amusement. In the partition of the em- 
 pire, the principality of Athens and Thebes was as- 
 signed to Oiho de la Roche, a noble warrior of Bur- 
 gundy,' with the title of great duke,* which the Latins 
 understood in their own sense, and the Greeks more 
 foolishly derived from the age of Constantine.'' Otho 
 followed the standard of the marquis of Montferrat; 
 the ample state which he acquired by a miracle of 
 conduct or fortune,' was peaceably inherited by his 
 
 d The Catalan war is most copiously related by Pachvmer, in the 
 eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books, till he breaks off in the year 
 1308. Nicephorus Greeoras (1. vii.3— 6.) is more concise and com- 
 plete. Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as French, has hunted 
 their footsteps with his usual diligence. (Hist. de. C. P. 1. vi. c.22— 
 46.) He »|uotes an Arragonese history, which I have read with plea- 
 sure, and which the Spaniards extol as a model of style and compo- 
 ■ition. (Rxpedicion de los Catalanes y Arrasoneses contra Turcos y 
 Griegos : Barcelona, 1623, in quarto : Madrid, J777, in ocuvo.) Don 
 Francisco de Moncada, Conde de Osona, may imitate Caesar or Sal- 
 lust ; he may transcribe the Greek or Italian contemporaries; but he 
 never quotes his authorities, and I cannot discern any national re- 
 cords of the exploits of his countrymen. 
 
 [Ramon Montaner, one of the Catalans who accompanied Roger 
 de Flor and who was governor of Gallipoli, has written In Spanish 
 the history of that band of adventurers, to which he belonged and 
 from which he separated when he left the Thracian Chersonesus to 
 penetrate into Macedonia and Greece.— f?.] 
 
 e See the laborious history of Ducange, whose accurate table of the 
 French dynasties, recapitulates the thirty-five passages in which he 
 mentions the dukes of Athens. ° 
 
 f He Is twice mentioned by Villehardouin with honour; (No. 151. 
 235) and under the first passage, Ducange observes all that can be* 
 known of his person and family. 
 
 g From these Latin princes of the fourteenth century, Boceace 
 Chaucer, and Shakspeare, have borrowed their Tlieseus, duke of 
 Athens. An ignorant age transfers its own language and manners to 
 the most distant times. 
 
 h The same Constantino gave to Sicily a king, to Russia the mag. 
 nua dapi/er of the empire, to Thebes the primicerius ; and Uiese 
 absurd fables are properly lashed by Ducange, (ad Nicephor. Greg. 
 1. vii. c. 5.) By the Latins, the lord of Thebes was styled, by cor- 
 ruption, the Megas Kurios, or Grand Sire ! 
 
 1 (JLuodam miraculo, says Alberic. He was probably received by 
 laichael thoniates, the archbishop who had defended Athens against 
 
 son and two grandsons, till the family, though not 
 the nation, was changed, by the marriage of an heiress 
 into the elder branch of the house of Brienne. The 
 son of that marriage. Waller de Brienne, succeeded to 
 the duchy of Athens ; and, with the aid of some Cata- 
 lan mercenaries, whom he invested with fiefs, reduced 
 above thirty castles of the vassal or neighbouring 
 lords. But when he was informed of the approach and 
 ambition of the great company, he collected a force of 
 seven hundred knights, six thousand four hundred 
 horse, and eight thousand foot, and boldly met them 
 on the banks of the river Cephisus in Boeotia. The 
 Catalans amounted to no more than three thousand five 
 hundred horse, and four thousand foot; but the defi- 
 ciency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and 
 order. They formed round their camp an artificial 
 inundation ; the duke and his knights advanced with- 
 out fear or precaution on the verdant meadow ; their 
 horses plunged into the bog ; and he was cut in pie- 
 ces, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His 
 family and nation were expelled ; and his son Walter 
 de Brienne, the titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of 
 Florence, and the constable of France, lost his life in 
 the field of Poitiers. Attica and Bceotia were the re- 
 wards of the victorious Catalans ; they married the 
 widows and daughters of the slain ; and during four- 
 teen years, the great company was the terror of the 
 Grecian states. Their factions drove them to acknow- 
 ledge the sovereignty of the house of Arragon ; and 
 during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens, 
 as a government or an appanage, was successively 
 bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the French 
 and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Acca- 
 ioli, a family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, 
 and sovereign in Greece. Athens, which they embel- 
 lished with new buildings, became the capital of a 
 state, that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth, Del- 
 phi, and a part of Thessaly ; and their reign was 
 finally determined by Mahomet the second, who stran- 
 aled the last duke, and educated his sons in the disci- 
 pline and religion of the seraglio. 
 
 Athens,* though no more than the 
 shadow of her former self, still contains 
 about eight or ten thousand inhabitants : of these, three- 
 fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the 
 Turks, who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in 
 their intercouse with the citizens, somewhat of the 
 pride and gravity of their national character. The 
 olive-tree, the gift of Minerva, flourishes in Attica ; nor 
 has the honey of mount Hymettus lost any part of its 
 exquisite flavour:' but the languid trade is monopoli- 
 zed by strangers; and the affriculture of a barren land 
 is abandoned to the vagrant Wallachians. The Athe- 
 nians are still distinguished by the subtilty and acute- 
 ness of their understandings: but these qualities, un- 
 less ennobled by freedom, and enlightened by study, 
 will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning: and it 
 is a proverbial saying of the country, " From the Jews 
 of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the 
 Greeks of Athens, good Lord deliver us !" This artful 
 people has eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws, 
 by an expedient which alleviates their sei vitude and ag- 
 gravates their shame. About the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, the Athenians chose for their protector the kis- 
 
 Present stale of 
 Athens. 
 
 the tyrant L«o Sigurus. (Nicetas in Baldwino.) Michael was ihw 
 brother of the historian Nicetas ; and his encomium of Athens is still 
 extant in MS. in the Bodleian library. (Fabric. Bibliot. Grac. torn, 
 vi. p. 403 ) 
 
 k The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is extracted 
 from Spon, (Voyage en Grece, torn. ii. p 79— 199.) and Wheeler, (Tra. 
 v('\a into Greece, p. 337—414.) Stuart, (Antiquities of Athens, pas- 
 sim,) and Chandler, (Travels into Greece, p. 23—172.) The first of 
 iht'se travellers visited Greece In the year 1676, the last in 1765 ; and 
 ninety years had not produced much difference in the tranquil 
 scene. ^ 
 
 I Theancients, or at least the Athenians, believed that all the beefl 
 in the world had been propagated from Mount Hymettus. They 
 taught, that health might be preserved, and life prolonged, by th» 
 
 tea, 1. XT* 
 
 t 
 
 lar aga, or cbief black eunuch of the seraglio. This 
 ^Ethiopian slave, who possesses the sultan's ear, con- 
 descends to accept the tribute of thirty thousand 
 crowns : his lieutenant, the way wode, whom he annu- 
 ally confirms, may reserve for his own about five or six 
 thousand more ; and such is the policy of the citizens, 
 that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppres- 
 sive governor. Their private diflferences are decided 
 by the archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the 
 Greek church, since he possesses a revenue of one thou- 
 sand pounds sterling ; and by a tribunal of the eight 
 geronii or elders, chosen in the eight quarters of the 
 city : the noble families cannot trace their pedigree 
 above three hundred years ; but their principal members 
 are distinguished by a grave demeanour, a fur cap, and 
 the lofty appellation o( archon. By some, who delight 
 in the contrast, the modern language of Athens is re- 
 presented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the se- 
 venty dialects of the vulgar Greek:" this picture is 
 too darkly coloured; but it would not be easy, in the 
 country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader, or 
 a copy, of their works. The Athenians walk with su- 
 pine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity ; 
 and such is the debasement of their character, that they 
 are incapable of admiring the genius of their predeces- 
 sors.' 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Civil wars, and ruin of the Greek empire. — Heigtis of An- 
 dromcus, the elder and younger, and John Palacologus. 
 — Regency, revolt, reign, and abdication of John Van- 
 iacuzene. — Establishment of a Genoese colony at Pera or 
 Galala, — Their wars with' the empire and city of Cm- 
 stantinople, 
 
 Superatition of The long reign of Andronicus* the el- 
 Andronicusand jgj jg chiefly memorable by the disputes 
 a! DViS»i of the Greek church, the invasion of the 
 '—1320. Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman 
 power. He is celebrated as the most learned and vir- 
 tuous prince of the age ; but such virtue and such 
 learning contributed neither to the perfection of the in- 
 dividual, nor to the happiness of society. A slave of 
 the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on all 
 sides by visible and invisible enemies ; nor were the 
 flames of hell less dreadful to his fancy than those of 
 a Catalan or Turkish war. Under the reign of the 
 Palaeologi, the choice of the patriarch was the most 
 important business of the state ; the heads of the Greek 
 church were ambitious and fanatic monks ; and their 
 vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were 
 equally mischievous or contemptible. By his intem- 
 perate discipline, the patriarch Alhanasius ^ excited the 
 hatred of the clergy and people ; he was heard to declare, 
 that the sinner should swallow the last dregs of the 
 cup of penance ; and the foolish tale was propagated 
 of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted the 
 lettuce of a convent garden. Driven from the throne 
 by the universal clamour, Athanasius composed, before 
 his retreat, two papers of a very opposite cast. His 
 public testament was in the tone of charity and resig- 
 nation; the private codicil breathed the direst anathe- 
 mas against the authors of his disgrace, whom he ex- 
 
 external use of oil, and the internal uso of honey. (Geoponi 
 c. 7. p. 10Q9-1094. edit. Niclas.) ' ^ 
 
 m Ducange, Glossar. Graec. praefat. p. 8. who quotes for his author 
 Theodosius Zygomalas, a modern grammarian. Yet Spon (tom. ii. p. 
 194.) and Wheeler, (p. a'io.) no incompetent judges, enteruin amore 
 favourable opinion of the Ailic dialect. 
 
 n Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name of Athens, 
 which they still call Athini. From the »»j t*!" Aj.iK.|r we have form- 
 ed our own barbarism of Setines. 
 
 a Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the invective 
 (Nicephoru-i Gregoras, 1. i.c.l.) which he pronounced against historic 
 falseho^id. It Is true, that his censure is more pointedly urged against 
 calumny than against adulation. 
 
 b For llie anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer, (1. ix. c. 
 24.) who relates the general history of Ailianaskis, (1. viii. c. 13—16. 
 20— ii. 1. X. c. 27—29. 31—36. 1. xi. c. 1—3. 5, 6. 1. xiii. c. 8. 10. 23. 35.) 
 and is followed by Nicephorus Greeoras, (1. vl. c. 5. 7. 1. vii. c. 1. 9.) 
 who includes the second retreat of vm lecond CbrysoflWm. ^ 
 
 Vol. H.— 2 Z 
 
 eluded for ever from the communion of the holy Trini- 
 ty, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he 
 enclosed in an earthen pot, which was placed, by 
 his order, on the top of one of the pillars in the dome 
 of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of discovery and re- 
 venge. At the end of four years, some youths, climb- 
 ing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected 
 the fatal secret; and, as Andronicus felt himself touch- 
 ed and bound by the excommunication, he trembled 
 on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacher- 
 ously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was in- 
 stantly convened to debate this important question : 
 the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was gene- 
 rally condemned ; but as the knot could be untied only 
 by the same hand, and that hand was now deprived 
 of the crosier, it appeared that this posthumous decree 
 was irrevocable by any earthly power. Some faint 
 testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted 
 from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of 
 the emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with 
 no less ardour than Athanasius himself, the restoration 
 of a patriarch, by whom alone he could be healed. At 
 the dead of night, a monk rudely knocked at the door 
 of the royal bed-chamber, announcing a revelation of 
 plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes. 
 Andronicus started from his bed, and spent the night 
 in prayer, till he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight 
 motion of the earth. The emperor on foot led the bish- 
 ops and monks to the cell of Athanasius, and, after a 
 proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message 
 had been sent, consented to absolve the prince, and 
 govern the church of Constantinople. Untamed by 
 disgrace, and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was 
 again odious to the flock, and his enemies contrived 
 a singular, and, as it proved, a successful, mode of 
 revenge. In the night they stole away the foot-stool 
 or foot-cloth of his throne, which they secretly repla- 
 ced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The 
 emperor was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and 
 Athanasius leading the tractable beast to the feet of 
 Christ. The authors of the libel were detected and 
 punished ; but as their lives had been spared, the 
 christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell ; 
 and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for 
 a moment, were again closed by his successor. 
 
 If this transaction be one of the most curious and 
 important of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least ac- 
 cuse the brevity of my materials, since I reduce into 
 some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer,* 
 Cantacuzene,'' and Nicephorus Gregoras,' who hare 
 composed the prolix and languid story of the times. 
 The name and situation of the emperor John Cantacu- 
 zene might inspire the most lively curiosity. His me- 
 morials of forty years extend from the revolt ef the 
 younger Andronicus to his own abdication of the em- 
 pire ;''and it is observed, that, like Moses and Caesar, 
 he was the principal actor in the scenes which he de- 
 scribes. But in this eloquent work we should vainly 
 seek the sincerity of a hero or a penitent. Retired in 
 a cloister from the vices and passions of the world, 
 he presents not a confession, but an apology, of the 
 life of an ambitious statesman. Instead of unfolding 
 the true counsels and characters of men, he displays 
 the smooth and specious surface of events, highly var- 
 nished with his own praises and those of his friends. 
 Their motives are always pure : their ends always legi- 
 timate : they conspire and rebel without any views of in- 
 
 c Pachymer, in seven books, 377 folio pages, describes the first 
 twenty-six years of Andronicus the Elder ; and "'arks thndate of his 
 composition by the current news or lie of the day. (A. V. icww ) fcitner 
 death or disgust prevented him from resuming the pen. ^ ., . 
 
 d After an interval of twelve years, from the conclusion of Fachy- 
 mer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen ; and his first book (c. \-5\P' 
 9—150.) relates the civil war, and the eight last years of the elder An- 
 dronlcus. The Ingenious comparison with Moses and ta»ar, is fan- 
 cied by his French translator, the president Cousin. 
 
 e Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly mcludes the entire lifr and 
 rei^n of Andronicus the Elder, (I. vi.c. i. l.i. c. i. p. %-291.) Thisw 
 the" part of which Cantacuzene coinpUiai aa & ial»e and maliciotia r*. 
 I prefleutaiiou of his conduct. 
 
 I' I 
 
 «r.i 
 
 * f 
 
 
 :iU 
 
394 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 395 
 
 terest; and the violence which they inflict or suffer is ce- 
 lebrated as the spontaneous effect of reason and virtue. 
 First disputes be- After the example of the first of the Pa- 
 
 iween the elder laeolocri, the elder Andronicus associated 
 and yuungcr Au- . . ^ xm- l i » .i l r .i 
 
 dromcus, his Son Michael to the honours of the pur- 
 
 A. D. 1320. pie, and from the age of eighteen to his 
 premature death, that prince was acknowledged, ahove 
 twenty-live years, as the second emperor of the Greeks.' 
 At the head of an army, he excited neither the fears of 
 the enemy, nor the jealousy of the court; his modesty 
 and patience were never tempted to compute the years 
 of his father; nor was that father compelled to repent 
 of his liberality either by the virtues or vices of his 
 son. The son of Michael was named Andronicus 
 from his grandfather, to whose early favour he was in- 
 troduced by that nominal resemblance. The blossoms 
 of wit and beauty increased the fondness of the elder 
 Andronicus; and, with the common vanity of the age, 
 he expected to realize in the second, the hope which 
 had been disappointed in the first, generation. The 
 boy was educated in the palace as an heir and a fa- 
 vourite ; and in the oaths and acclamations of the peo- 
 ple, the august triad was formed by the names of the 
 father, the son, and the grandson. But the younger An- 
 dronicus was speedily corrupted by his infant great- 
 ness, while he beheld with puerile impatience the 
 double obstacle that hung, and might long hang, over 
 his rising ambition. It was not to acquire fame, or to 
 diffuse happiness, that he so eagerly aspired ; wealth 
 and impunity were in his eyes the most precious attri- 
 butes of a monarch ; and his first indiscreet demand 
 was the sovereignty of some rich and fertile island, 
 where he might lead a life of independence and plea- 
 sure. The emperor was offended by the loud and fre- 
 quent intemperance which disturbed his capital ; the 
 sums which his parsimony denied were supplied by 
 the Genoese usurers of Pera ; and the oppressive debt, 
 which consolidated the interest of a faction, could be 
 discharged only by a revolution. A beautiful female, 
 a matron in rank, a prostitute in manners, had instruct- 
 ed the younger Andronicus in the rudiments of love; 
 but he had reason to suspect the nocturnal visits of a 
 rival ; and a stranger passing through the street was 
 pierced by the arrows of his guards, who were placed 
 in ambush at her door. That stranger was his brother, 
 prince Manuel, who languished and died of his wounds ; 
 and the emperor Michael, their common father, whose 
 health was in a declining state, expired on the eighth 
 day, lamenting the loss of both his children.* How- 
 ever guiltless in his intention, the younger Andronicus 
 might impute a brother's and a father's death to the 
 consequence of his own vices ; and deep was the sigh of 
 thinking and feeling men, when they perceived, instead 
 of sorrow and repentance, his ill-dissembled joy on the 
 removal of two odious competitors. By these melan- 
 choly events, and the increase of his disorders, the 
 mind of the elder emperor was gradually alienated ; and 
 after many fruitless reproofs, he transferred on another 
 grandson »• his hopes and affection. The change was 
 announced by the new oath of allegiance to the reign- 
 ing sovereign, and the person whom he should appoint 
 for his successor : and the acknowledged heir, after a 
 repetition of insults and complaints, was exposed to 
 the indignity of a public trial. Before the sentence, 
 which would probably have condemned him to a dun- 
 
 f He was crowned May 21 st, 1105, and died October 12th, 1320. (Du- 
 can?e, Fam. Byz. p. 239.) His brother Theodore, by a second marriage, 
 inherited the marquisaio of Montferral, apostatized to the religion and 
 manners of the Latins, (ir. k»i yv^M>) «»• ariei. xai <rx>iM»T., ««. y,v. 
 »n>v K9upji x:ti a-.Tiy $3iTtv A»Tivof Dv »Kf»,^vn(, Nic. Greg 1 ix 
 c. 1.) and founded a dynasty of Italian princes, which was extin- 
 guished A. D. 1533. (Ducange, Fam. Byz. p. 249-253.) 
 
 «We are indebted to Nicephorus Gregoras (I. viii. c. 1.) for the 
 Kno-A-ledge of this tragic adventure; while Cantacuzene more dis- 
 creetly conceals the vices of Andronicus the Younger, of which he 
 was the witness, and perhaps the associate, (\ c. i. 1, &c.) 
 t5n« k'" ^®»^'"ed heir was Michael Catharus, the bastard of Constan- 
 
 nicui"N?^«"lI*^ '°"a '" ^**'^ P^'j'^*^^ of excluding his grandson Andro- 
 nicus, Nicophora. Gregoraa (l. viii. c. 3.) agrees with Cani»cuzene, (1 
 
 "I 
 
 geon or a cell, the emperor was informed that the pal- 
 ace courts were filled with the armed followers of his 
 grandson; the judgment was softened to a treaty of re- 
 conciliation ; and the triumphant escape of the prince 
 encouraged the ardour of the younger faction. 
 
 Yet the capital, the clergy, and the se- tk,^-,- i 
 ^^*^ ^11 1*. 7 ""^ 1 Three civil wars 
 
 nate, adlierea to the person, or at least to between the two 
 
 the government, of the old emperor; and empen.rs, 
 it was only in the provinces, by flight, Apfii2u- 
 and revolt, and foreign succour, that the A. D. 1338. 
 malcontents could hope to vindicate their ^'^ ^* 
 cause and subvert his throne. The soul of the enter- 
 prise was the great domestic John Cantacuzene : the 
 sally from Constantinople is the first date of his ac- 
 tions and memorials; and if his own pen be most de- 
 scriptive of his patriotism, an unfriendly historian has 
 not refused to celebrate the zeal and ability which he 
 displayed in the service of the young emperor. That 
 prince escaped from the capital under the pretence of 
 hunting; erected his standard at Adrianople; and, 
 in a few days, assembled fifty thousand horse and 
 foot, whom neither honour nor duty could have arm- 
 ed against the barbarians. Such a force might have 
 saved or commanded the empire; but their coun- 
 sels were discordant, their motions were slow and 
 doubtful, and their progress was checked by intrigue 
 and negociation. The quarrel of the two Andronici 
 was protracted, and suspended, and renewed, during a 
 ruinous period of seven years. In the first treaty, the 
 relics of the Greek empire were divided ; Constantino- 
 ple, Thessalonica, and the islands, were left to the el- 
 der, while the younger acquired the sovereignly of the 
 greatest part of Thrace, from Philippi to the Byzan- 
 tine limits. By the second treaty, he Coronation of 
 stipulated the payment of his troops, his ihevoungerAn. 
 immediate coronation, and an adequate a.1)"5325 
 share of the power and revenue of the Feb. 2!!°* 
 
 state. The third civil war was terminated by the sur- 
 prise of Constantinople, the final retreat of the old 
 emperor, and the sole reign of his victorious grandson. 
 The reasons of this delay may be found in the charao ters 
 of the men and of the times. When the heir of the 
 nionarchy first pleaded his wrongs and his apprehen- 
 sions, he was heard with pity and applause : and his 
 adherents repeated on all sides the inconsistent promise, 
 that he would increase the pay of the soldiers and allevi- 
 ate the burthens of the people. The grievances of forty 
 years was mingled in his revolt ; and the rising gene- 
 ration was fatigued by the endless prospect of a reiim, 
 whose favourites and maxims were of other limes. The 
 youth of Andronicus had been without spirit, his age 
 was without reverence : his taxes produced an annual 
 revenue of five hundred thousand pounds ; yet the rich- 
 est of the sovereigns of Christendom was incapable of 
 maintaining three thousand horse and twenty galleys, to 
 resist the destructive progress of the Turks.* ** How 
 different,'* said the younger Andronicus, "is my situa- 
 tion from that of the son of Philip ! Alexander might 
 complain, that his father would leave him nothing to 
 conquer: alas ! my grandsire will leave me nothing to 
 lose." But the Greeks were soon admonished, that the 
 public disorders could not be healed by a civil war ; and 
 that their young favourite was not destined to be the 
 saviour of a falling empire. On the first repulse, his 
 party was broken by his own levity, their intestine dis- 
 cord, and the intrigues of the ancient court, which 
 tempted each malcontent to desert or betray the cause 
 of rebellion. Andronicus the younger was touched 
 with remorse, or fatigued with business, or deceived 
 by negociation ; pleasure rather than power was l.<s 
 aim : and the licence of maintaining a thousand hounds, 
 a thousand hawks, and a thousand huntsmen, was sufli- 
 cient to sully his fame a nd disarm his ambition. 
 
 i See Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. iii. c. 6. The younger Andronicus 
 complained, that in four years and four months a sum of 35(>,000 by- 
 
 ^^J)]l^ f^^ *!it,'l" V ° ^"" ^"^ '''« expenses of his household. (Can- 
 lacuzen. 1. ic. 48.) Yet he would have remitted the debt, if he might 
 have been allowed to squeeze the farmen of the reteauol 
 
 The elder An- Let US now Survey the catastrophe of 
 
 ■( droiiirus abdi- this busy plot, and the final situation of 
 t "^^"'.i^.fr^'''* the principal actors.^ The age of Andro- 
 A. I>. 1328. 111CU8 was consumed m civil discord; 
 1 *'^*y '^'^' and, amidst the events of war and treaty, 
 
 his power and reputation continually decayed, till the 
 ' fatal night in which the gales of the city and palace 
 were opened, without resistance, to his grandson. 
 His principal commander scorned the repeated warn- 
 intrs of danger ; and retiring to rest in the vain security 
 of iirnorance, abandoned the feeble monarch, with some 
 priests and pages, to the terrors of a sleepless night. 
 These terrors were quickly realized by the hostile 
 shouts, which proclaimed the titles and victory of 
 Andronicus the younger; and the aged emperor, falling 
 prostrate before an image of the Virgin, despatched a 
 suppliant message to resign the sceptre, and to obtain 
 his life at the hands of the conqueror. The answer of 
 his grandson was decent and pious ; at the prayer of 
 his friends the younger Andronicus assumed the sole 
 administration ; but the elder still enjoyed the name 
 and pre-eminence of the first emperor, the use of the 
 great palace, and a pension of twenty-four thousand 
 pieces of gold, one half of which was assigned on the 
 royal treasury, and the other on the fishery of Constan- 
 tinople. But his impotence was soon exposed to con- 
 tempt and oblivion ; the vast silence of the palace 
 was disturbed only by the cattle and poultry of the 
 neighbourhood, which roved with impunity through 
 the solitary courts; and a reduced allowance of ten 
 thousand pieces of gold' was all that he could ask, 
 and more than he could hope. His calamities were 
 imbittered by the gradual extinction of sight; his 
 confinement was rendered each day more rigorous ; 
 and during the absence and sickness of his grand- 
 son, his inhuman keepers, by the threats of instant 
 death, compelled him to exchange the purple for the 
 monastic habit and profession. The monk Antony 
 had renounced the pomp of the world ; yet he had 
 occasion for a coarse fur in the winter season, and 
 as wine was forbidden by his confessor, and wa- 
 ter by his physician, the sherbet of Egypt was his 
 common drink. It was not without difficulty that the 
 late emperor could procure three or four pieces to sa- 
 tisfy these simple wants ; and if he besto\yed the gold 
 to relieve the more painful distress of a friend, the sa- 
 crifice is of some weight in the scale of humanity and 
 His death, religion. Four years after his abdication, 
 A. D 1332. Andronicus or Antony expired in a cell, 
 Feb. 13. j^ ^j^g seventy -fourth year of his age: 
 and the last strain of adulation could only promise a 
 more splendid crown of glory in heaven than he had 
 enjoyed upon earth." 
 
 Reien of Andro- Nor was the reign of the younger, 
 nicus the more glorious or fortunate than that ol 
 the elder, Andronicus." He gathered 
 the fruits of ambition ; but the taste was 
 transient and bitter : in the supreme sta- 
 tion he lost the remains of his early popu- 
 larity, and the defects of his character became still 
 more conspicuous to the world. The public reproach 
 urged him to march in person against the Turks; nor 
 did his courage fail in the hour of trial, but a defeat 
 and a wound were the only trophies of his expedition 
 in Asia, which confirmed the establishment of the Otto- 
 
 k I (yllow the chronology of Nicephorus Gregoras, who is remarka- 
 bly exact. It is proved that Cantacuzene has misuken the dates of 
 his own actions, or rather that his text has been corrupted by ignorant 
 transcribers. . ._ 
 
 1 I have endoavoured to reconcile the 24,000 pieces of Cantacuzene 
 (I. ii. c. 1.) with the 10,000 t)f Nicephorus Gregoras; (1. ix. c. 2.) the 
 one of whom wished to soften, the other to magnify, the hardships of 
 
 the old emperor. , .. mu !_• 
 
 m See Nicephorus Gregoras, (1. ix. 6-8. 10. 14. 1. x. c. 1 ) The his 
 torian had tasted of the prosperity, and shared the retreat, of his bene- 
 factor; and that friendship which "waits or to the scaffold or the 
 cell," should not lightly be accused as " a hireling, a prostitute to 
 praise." 
 
 B The sole reign of Andronicus the younger is described by Canta- 
 cuzene, (1. ii. c. 1—40. p. 191—339.) and Nicephorus Gregoras, (1. ix. 
 C. 7.1. xj.c. 11. p. 262-361.) 
 
 His two wives. 
 
 younger, 
 A. D. 1323. 
 May 24— 
 A. D. 1341, 
 June 15. 
 
 PalaeMogus, 
 A. D. 1341. 
 June 15 — 
 A. D. 1391. 
 
 Fortune of John 
 Cantacuzenus. 
 
 man monarchy. The abuses of the civil government 
 attained their full maturity and perfection ; his neglect 
 of forms, and the confusion of national dresses, are de- 
 plored by the Greeks as the fatal symptoms of the decay 
 of the empire. Andronicus was old before his time ; the 
 intemperance of youth had accelerated the infirmities of 
 age ; and after being rescued from a dangerous malady 
 by nature, or physic, or the Virgin, he was snatched 
 away before he had accomplished his forty-fifth year. 
 He was twice married ; and as the pro- 
 gress of the Latins in arms and arts had 
 softened the prejudices of the Byzantine court, his two 
 wives were chosen in the princely houses of Germany 
 and Italy. The first, Agnes at home, Irene in Greece, 
 was daughter of the duke of Brunswick. Her father* 
 was a petty lord »* in the poor and savage n^gions of 
 Germany ;*» yet he derived some revenue from his sil- 
 ver mines ;' and his family is celebrated by the Greeks 
 as the most ancient and noble of the Teutonic name.' 
 After the death of this childish princess, Andronicus 
 sought in marriage Jane, the sister of the count of Sa- 
 voy,* and his suit was preferred to that of the French 
 king." The count respected in his sister the superior 
 majesty of a Roman empress ; her retinue was compo- 
 sed of kights and ladies ; she was regenerated and 
 crowned in St. Sophia, under the more orthodox appel- 
 lation of Anne; and, at the nuptial feast, the Greeks 
 and Italians vied with each other in the martial exer- 
 cises of tilts and tournaments. 
 
 The empress Anne of Savoy survived her husband : 
 their son, John Palaeologus, was left an orphan and 
 an emperor, in the ninth year of his age; j^pj^„ ^^ j^^jj^, 
 and his weakness was protected by the 
 first and most deserving of the Greeks. 
 The long and cordial friendship of his 
 father for John Cantacuzene is alike 
 honourable to the prince and the subject. 
 It had been formed amidst the pleasures of their 
 youth : their families were almost equally noble ; * 
 
 Acnes, or Irene, was the daughter of duke Henry the Wonderful, 
 the chief of the house of Brunswick, and the fourth in descent from 
 the famous Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, and con- 
 queror of the Sdavi on the Baltic coast. Her brother Henry was .sur- 
 named the Gr^eA, from his two journeys into the east: but theso 
 journeys were subsequent to his sister's marriage ; and I am ignorant 
 how Agnes was discovered in the heart of Germany, and recommend- 
 ed to the Byzaniine court. (Riniius, Memoirs of the House of Bruns- 
 wick, p. 126—137.) 
 
 P Henry the Wonderful was the f )under of the branch of Gruben- 
 hagen, extinct in the year 1596. (Rimius, p. 287.) He resided in the 
 castle of WolfenbutlPl, and possessed no more than a sixth part of 
 the allodial estates of Brunswick and Luneburgh, which the (iuelph 
 family had saved from the confiscation of their great fiefs. The fre- 
 quent partitions among brothers had almost ruined the princely houses 
 of Germany, till that just, but pernicious, law wa.s slowly superseded 
 by the right of primogeniture. The principality of Grubenhagen, one 
 of the last remains of the Hercynian forest, is a woody, mountainous, 
 and barren tract. (Busching's Geography, vol. vi. p.270— 2S6. Eng- 
 lish translation.) 
 
 q The royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburgh will leach us, 
 how justly, in a much later period, the north of Germany deserved 
 the epithets of poor and barbarous. (Essai sur les Manirs, &c.) In the 
 year 1306, in the woods of Luneburgh, some wild people of the Vened 
 race were allowed to bury alive their infirm and useless parents. 
 (Rimius, p. 136.) 
 
 r The assertion of Tacitus, that Germany was destitute of the pre- 
 cious metals, must be taken, even in his own time, with some limita- 
 tion. (Germania, c. 5. Annal. xi. 20.) According to Spener, (Hist. 
 Germaniae Pragmatica; lorn. i. p. 351.) Argentifodina in Hercyniis 
 montibus, imperante Olhone magno, (A. P. 968 )primum apertae, lar- 
 gam eliam opes augend i dederunt copiam : but Rimius (p. 258, 259.) 
 defers till the year 1016 the discovery of the silver mines of Gruben- 
 hagen, or the Upper Hartz, which were productive in the beginning 
 of the fourteenth century, and which still yield a considerable reve- 
 nue to the house of Brunswick. 
 
 • Cantacuzene has given a most honourable testimony, »;» i •« 
 rif/uxv-Dv stuTii SuyotTtjp Jouoj vT» ^TTf oui i^'. u IX (the moilem Greeks 
 employ the vt for the J, and the f^- for the c, and the whole will 
 read in the Italian idiom di Brunzuic,) tou j7»^' ^uts.; iT.;*vif»eTe«, 
 
 X9t< Xa.ujTfOTiiT* n-xvT3t{ Tcu« c/KO^u>.ou,- ::Tff^=e>.>.svTO,-;Teu>iv90f. ino 
 
 praise is just In itself, and pleasing to an English ear. , .. 
 
 t Anne, or Jane, was one of the four daughters of Amedee the 
 Great by a second marriage, and half sister of his successor Edward 
 count of Savoy. (Anderson's Tables, p. 660.) See Cantacuzene, (1. 1. 
 
 *u That king, if the fact be true, must have been Charles the Fair, 
 who in five years (1321—1326.) was married to three wives. (Ander- 
 son, p. 628 ) Anne of Savoy arrived at ConsUntinople in February, 
 
 X The noble race of the Canlacuzeni (illustrious from the eleventh 
 century in the Byzantine annals) was drawn from the Paladins «f 
 
 V'j 
 
 A 
 
396 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 and the recent lustre of the purple was amply compen- 
 sated by the energy of a private education. We have 
 seen that the young emperor was saved by Cantacu- 
 zene from the power of his grandfather; and, after 
 six years of civil war, the same favourite brought him 
 hack in triumph to the palace of Constantinople. 
 Under the reign of Andronicus the younger, the great 
 domestic ruled the emperor and the empire ; and it 
 was by his valour and conduct that the isle of Lesbos 
 and the principality of ^Etolia were restored to their 
 ancient allegiance. His enemies confess, that, among 
 the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate 
 and absttMiiions ; and the free and voluntary account 
 which he produces of his own wealth ^ may sustain 
 the presumption that it was devolved by inheritance, 
 and not accumulated by rapine. He does not indeed 
 specify the value of his money, plate, and jewels ; yet, 
 afrer a voluntary gift of two hundred vases of silver, 
 after much had been secreted by his friends and plun- 
 dered by his foes, his forfeit treasures were sufficient 
 for the equipment of a fleet of seventy galleys. He 
 does not measure the size and number of his estates ; 
 but his granaries were heaped with an incredible store 
 of wheat and barley ; and the labour of a thousand 
 yoke of oxen might cultivate, according to the practice 
 of antiquity, about sixty-two thousand five hundred 
 acres of arable land." His pastures were stocked with 
 two thousand five hundred brood mares, two hundred 
 camels, three hundred mules, five hundred asses, five 
 thousand horned cattle, fifty thousand hogs, and seven- 
 ty thousand sheep ; » a precious record of rural opu- 
 lence, in the last period of the empire, and in a land, 
 most probably in Thrace, so repeatedly wasted by 
 foreign and domestic hostility. The favour of Canta- 
 cuzene was above his fortune. In the moments of 
 familiarity, in the hour of sickness, the emperor was 
 desirous to level the distance between them, and pres- 
 sed his friend to accept the diadem and purple. The 
 He is left regent virtue of the great domestic, which is 
 efihe empire. attested by his own pen, resisted the 
 dangerous proposal ; but the last testament of Andro- 
 nicus the younger named him the guardian of his son, 
 and the regent of the empire. 
 
 His regency is Had the regent found a suitable re- 
 ^aiiacked, turn of obedience and gratitude, perhaps 
 • he would have acted with pure and zea- 
 lous fidelity in the service of his pupil.»» A guard of 
 five hundred soldiers watched over his person and the 
 palace : the funeral of the late emperor was decently 
 performed ; the capital was silent and submissive ; 
 and five hundred letters, which Cantacuzene despatch- 
 ed in the first month, informed the provinces of their 
 loss and their duty. The prospect of a tranquil mino- 
 byApocaucus; f'ty was blasted by the great duke or 
 admiral Apocaucus; and to exaggerate 
 hts perfidy, the imperial historian is pleased to magni- 
 fy his own imprudence, in raising him to that office 
 against the advice of his more sagacious sovereign. 
 Bold and subtle, rapacious and profuse, the avarTce 
 and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns subservient 
 to each other, and his talents were applied to the ruin 
 of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the 
 
 397 
 
 France, the heroes of those romances which, in the ihirieenih cen- 
 tury, were translated and read by the Greeks. (Ducange. Fam Bv- 
 zant. p. 258.) * ' ' 
 
 J See Cantacuzene, (I. iii. c. 24. 30. 36.) 
 
 « Saserna, In Gaul, or Columella, in Italy or Spain, allow two yoke 
 of oxen, two drivers, and six labourers, for two hundred jucera f l»5 
 tncli.sh acres) of arable land, and three more men must be added if 
 there be much underwood. (Columella de Re Ruatica, 1 ii c 13 d 
 441. edit. Gcsner.) • . . p. 
 
 « In this enumeration, (1. iii. c. 30.) the French translation of the 
 resident Cousin is blotted with three palpable and essential errors 
 . He omits the ]U00 yoke of working oxen. 2. He interprets the 
 ^jfTxxjTi:*. Tfoj J. o-;<:iA.4«»., by the number of fifteen hundred. 3 He 
 fk" rV^'u'"^"*!' ^'^^ chiliads, and gives Cantacuzene no more 
 man juoo hogs. Put not your trust in translations ! 
 
 b bee the regency and reign of John Cantacuzenus, and the whole 
 propreos of the civil war, in his own history, (1. iii. c. l-iOO. p. 34S— 
 353-492 ) '" ""*' "^ Nicephoru* Gregoras, (1. xii. c. 1. 1. xt. c. 9. p. 
 
 I 
 
 command of a naval force and an impregnable castle, 
 and under the mask of oaths and flattery he secretly 
 conspired against his benefactor. The female court 
 of the empress was bribed and directed : by the empress 
 he encouraged Anne of Savoy to assert, Anne of Savoy; 
 by the law of nature, the tutelage of her son ; the love 
 of power was disguised by the anxiety of maternal 
 tenderness : and the founder of the Pal«ologi had in- 
 instructed his posterity to dread the example of a perfi- 
 dious guardian. The patriarch John of Apri was a proud 
 and feeble old man, encompassed by a 
 numerous and hungry kindred. He pro- ^^ ^^® patriarch, 
 duced an obsolete epistle of Andronicus, which be- 
 queathed the prince and people to his pious care : the 
 fate of his predecessor Arsenius prompted him to pre- 
 vent, rather than punish, the crimes of an usurper ; and 
 Apocaucus smiled at the success of his own flattery, 
 when he beheld the Byzantine priest assuming the 
 state and temporal claims of the Roman pontiflf.* Be- 
 tween the th ree persons so difl'erent in their situation and 
 character, a private league was concluded : a shadow 
 of authority was restored to the senate ; and the people 
 were tempted by the name of freedom. By this pow- 
 erful confederacy, the great domestic was assaulted at 
 first with clandestine, at length with open, arms. His 
 prerogatives were disputed ; his opinions slighted ; 
 his friends persecuted ; and his safety was threatened 
 both in the camp and city. In his absence on the pub- 
 lic service, he was accused of treason ; proscribed as 
 an enemy of the church and state ; and delivered, 
 with all his adherents, to the sword of justice, the 
 vengeance of the people, and the power of the devil : 
 his fortunes were confiscated ; his aged mother was 
 cast into prison ; all his past services were buried in 
 oblivion ; and he was driven by injustice to perpetrate 
 the crime of which he was accused.'' From the re- 
 view of his preceding conduct, Cantacuzene appears 
 to have been guiltless of any treasonable designs : and 
 the only suspicion of his innocence must arise from 
 the vehemence of his protestations, and the sublime 
 purity which he ascribes to his own virtue. While 
 the empress and the patriarch still aflfected the appear- 
 ances of harmony, he repeatedly solicited the permis- 
 sion of retiring to a private, and even a monastic, life. 
 After he had been declared a public enemy, it was his 
 fervent wish to throw himself at the feet of the young 
 emperor, and to receive without a murmur the stroke 
 of the executioner; it was not without reluctance that 
 he listened to the voice of reason, which inculcated the 
 sacred duty of saving his family and friends, and pro- 
 ved that he could only save them by drawing the 
 sword and assuming the imperial title. 
 
 In the strong city of Demotica, his Cantacuzene a.. 
 peculiar domain, the emperor John Can- »umes the pur- 
 tacuzenus was invested with the purple a fi' mi 
 buskins : his right leg was clothed by Oct. 26. * 
 his noble kinsman, the left by the Latin chiefs, on 
 whom he conferred the order of knighthood. But 
 even in this act of revolt, he was still studious of loy- 
 alty ; and the titles of John Paleeologus and Anne of 
 Savoy were proclaimed before his own name and that 
 of his wife Irene. Such vain ceremony is a thin dis- 
 guise of rebellion, nor are there perhaps any persona/ 
 wrongs that can authorize a subject to take arms 
 against his sovereign : but the want of preparation 
 and success may confirm the assurance of the usur- 
 per, that this decisive step was the eflect of neces- 
 sity rather than of choice. Constantinople adhered 
 to the young emperor : the king of Bulgaria was invi- 
 
 nn' if?® aMumed the royal privilege of red shoes or buskins ; placed 
 hv»^ n.t^*'^ * mitre of silk and gold ; subscribed his epistles with 
 hyacinth or green ink, and claimed for the new, whatever Constats 
 
 GreJ.Ss,T.'xiy. c. 3 )' *"''""'' ^""''- (C»"'*<^""«- ^' *"• ^- 36. Nia. 
 
 r^Jil''' ^'■*'?"™'' <* ^l'- c- 5.) confesses the innocence and Tirtues of 
 Cantacuzenus, the guilt and flagitious vices of Apocaucus ; nor W 
 
 ft.rmer'".f/''/"'°"'^"^*'"'P^''^'^*» "»» ^«»'g*°"« enmity to tht 
 
 •'i 
 
 i 
 
 ted to the relief of Adrianople : the principal cities 
 of Thrace and Macedonia, after some hesitation, re- 
 nounced their obedience to the great domestic; and 
 the leaders of the troops and the provinces, were indu- 
 ced, by their private interest, to prefer the loose domin- 
 ion of a woman and a priest. The army of Cantacu- 
 zene, in sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks 
 of the Melas to tempt or intimidate the capital : it was 
 dispersed by treachery or fear ; and the oflicers, more 
 especially the mercenary Latins, accepted the bribes, 
 and embraced the service, of the Byzantine court. 
 After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated be- 
 tween the two characters) took the road of Thessalo- 
 nica with a chosen remnant ; but he failed in his enter- 
 prise on that important place; and he was closely 
 pursued by the great duke, his enemy Apocaucus, at 
 the head of a superior power by sea and land. Dri- 
 ven from the coast, in his march, or rather flight, into 
 the mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his 
 troops to scrutinize those who were worthy and will- 
 ing to accompany his broken fortunes. A base majo- 
 rity bowed and retired ; and his trusty band was 
 diminished to two thousand, and at last to five hun- 
 dred, volunteers. The cral^* or despot of the Servians, 
 received him with generous hospitality ; but the ally 
 was insensibly degraded to a suppliant, an hostage, a 
 captive ; and, in this miserable dependence, he waited 
 at the door of the barbarian, who could dispose of the 
 life and liberty of a Roman emperor. The most temp- 
 ting offers could not persuade the cral to violate his 
 trust ; but he soon inclined to the stronger side ; and 
 his friend was dismissed without injury to a new 
 The civil war, vicissitude of hopes and perils. Near 
 A. D. I34I— 1347. six years the flame of discord burnt with 
 various success and unabated rage : the cities were 
 distracted by the faction of the nobles and plebeians ; 
 the Cantacuzeni and Palaeologi ; and the Bulgarians, 
 the Servians, and the Turks, were invoked on both 
 sides as the instruments of private ambition and the 
 common ruin. The regent deplored the calamities, 
 of which he was the author and victim : and his own 
 experience might dictate a just and lively remark on 
 the different nature of foreign and civil war. " The 
 former," said he, ** is the external warmth of summer, 
 always tolerable, and often beneficial ; the latter is the 
 deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a 
 remedy the vitals of the constitution."' 
 Victory of Can- The introduction of barbarians and sa- 
 ucuzene. yages into the contests of civilized na- 
 tions, is a measure pregnant with shame and mischief; 
 which the interest of the moment may compel, but 
 which is reprobated by the best principles of humanity 
 and reason. It is the practice of both sides to accuse 
 their enemies of the guilt of the first alliances; and those 
 who fail in their negociations are loudest in their cen- 
 sure of the example which they envy, and would glad- 
 ly imitate. The Turks of Asia were less barbarous 
 perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia ; 
 but their religion rendered them the implacable foes 
 of Rome and Christianity. To acquire the friendship 
 of their emirs, the two factions vied with each other in 
 baseness and profusion : the dexterity of Cantacuzene 
 obtained the preference ; but the succour and victory 
 Were dearly purchased by the marriage of his daugh- 
 ter with an infidel, the captivity of many thousand 
 christians, and the passage of the Ottomans into Eu- 
 rope, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman 
 empire. The inclining scale was decided in his fa- 
 
 • The princes of Senria (Ducange, Famil. Dalmaticae, &c. c. 2, 3, 4. 
 9.) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral, in their native idiom, 
 (I^ucange, Gloss. Grace, p. 751.) That title, the equivalent of king, 
 appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from whence it has been borrowed 
 by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks, and even by the Turks, 
 (Leunclavius, Pandect. Turc. p. 422.) who reserve the name of Pa- 
 dishah for the emperor. To obtain the latter instead of tlie former is 
 the ambition of the French at Constantinople. (Avertissement a 
 I'Hisioire de Timur Bee, p. 39.) 
 
 f Nic. Gregoras, 1. xii. c. 14. It is surprising that Cantacuzene has 
 not inserted this just and lively image in his own writiop. 
 
 vour by the death of Apocaucus, the just, though sin- 
 gular, retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles 
 or plebeians, whom he feared or hated, had been seized 
 by his orders in the capital and the provinces ; and the 
 old palace of Constantine was assigned for the place 
 of their confinement. Some alterations in raising the 
 walls, and narrowing the cells, had been ingeniously 
 contrived to prevent their escape, and aggravate their 
 misery ; and the work was incessantly pres.sed by the 
 daily visits of the tyrant. His guards watched at the 
 gate, and as he stood in the inner court to overlook the 
 architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted 
 and laid breathless on the ground, by two resolute pri- 
 soners of the Palaeologian race,* who were armed with 
 sticks, and animated by despair. On the rumour of 
 revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their 
 fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the 
 battlements the tyrant's head, presuming on the favour 
 of the people and the clemency of the empress. Anne 
 of Savoy might rejoice in the fall of a haughty and 
 ambitious minister, but while she delayed to resolve 
 or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, 
 were excited by the widow of the great duke to a se- 
 dition, an assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of 
 whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious 
 of the deed) escaped to a neighbouring church, they 
 were slaughtered at the foot of the altar; and in his 
 death the monster was not less bloody and venomous 
 than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the 
 cause of the young emperor; and his surviving asso- 
 ciates, suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct 
 of the war, and rejected the fairest terms of accommo- 
 dation. In the beginning of the dispute, the empress 
 felt and complained, that she was deceived by the en- 
 emies of Cantacuzene : the patriarch was employed to 
 preach against the forgiveness of injuries; and her 
 promise of immortal hatred was sealeci by an oath, 
 under the penalty of excommunication.'' But Anne 
 soon learned to hate without a teacher: she beheld the 
 misfortunes of the empire with the indifli^rence of a 
 stranger : her jealousy was exasperated by the com- 
 petition of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms 
 of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch 
 to convene a synod, and degrade him from his office. 
 Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the 
 most decisive advantage ; but the civil war was pro- 
 tracted by the weakness of both parties; and the mod- 
 eratioii of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach 
 of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered 
 the provinces and cities ; and the realm of his pupil 
 was measured by the walls of Constantinople ; but the 
 metropolis alone counterbalanced the rest of the em- 
 pire ; nor could he attempt that important conquest 
 till he had secured in his favour the public voice and 
 a private correspondence. An Italian, ^^ re-enters 
 of the name of Facciolati,' had succeed- Constantinople, 
 ed to the oflice of great duke ; the ships, A. D. 1347. 
 the guards, and the golden gate, were ^^nuaryS. 
 subject to his command ; hut his humble ambition was 
 bribed to become the instrument of treachery ; and the 
 revolution was accomplished without danaer or blood- 
 shed. Destitute of the powers of resistance, or the 
 hope of relief, the inflexible Anne would have still de- 
 fended the palace, and have smiled to behold the oip- 
 ital in flames rather than in the possession of a rival. 
 She yielded to the prayers of her friends and enemies ; 
 and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who pro- 
 fessed a loyal and zealous attachment to the son of his 
 
 g The two avengers were both Palaeologi, who might resent, with 
 royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The tragedy of Apo- 
 caucus may deserve a peculiar reference to Cantacuzene, (1. iii. c. 
 86.) and Nic. Gregoras, (I. xiv. c. 10.) 
 
 h Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, ati'l spares the empress, the 
 mother of his sovereign, (1. iii. 33, 34.) against whom Nic. Gregora* 
 expresses a particular animosity, (I. xiv. 10, II. xv. 5) It is true, 
 that they do not speak exactly of the same time. 
 
 i The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic. Gregoras, (1. xv. c. 
 8.) but the name is more discreetly suppreMed by bis great accom- 
 plice. (Caniacuzea. 1. iii. c. 99.) 
 
 
 ll 
 
 '•1 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 3' 
 
 I 
 
398 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Cautacuzene, 
 A. D. J347. 
 
 Jan. 8- 
 
 A. D. 1355. 
 
 January. 
 
 benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John 
 Palaeologus was at lengih consummated : the heredi- 
 tary right of the pupil was acknowledged : but the 
 sole administration during len years was vested in the 
 guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were 
 seated on the Byzantine throne ; and a general amnes- 
 ty quieted the apprehensions, and confirmed the pro- 
 perty, of the most guilty subjects. The festival of the 
 coronation and nuptials was celebrated with the ap- 
 pearances of concord and magnificence, and both were 
 equally fallacious. During the late troubles, the trea- 
 sures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, 
 had been alienated or embezzled ; the royal banquet 
 was served in pewter or earthenware ; and such was 
 the proud poverty of the times, that the absence of 
 gold and jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of 
 glass and gilt leather.^ 
 
 Reign of John ' hasten to conclude the personal his- 
 tory of John Cantacuzene.' He triumph- 
 ed and reigned ; but his reign and tri- 
 umph were clouded by the discontent of 
 his own and the adverse faction. His 
 followers might style the general amnesty, an act of 
 pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion for his friends:" 
 in his cause their estates had been forfeited or plunder- 
 ed ; and as they wandered naked and hungry through 
 the streets, they cursed the selfish generosity of a 
 Jeader, who, on the throne of the empire, might relin- 
 quish without merit his private inheritance. The adhe- 
 rents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and 
 fortunes by the precarious favour of an usurper ; and 
 the thirst of revenge was concealed by a tender con- 
 cern for the succession, and even the safety, of her 
 son. They were justly alarmed by a petition of the 
 friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be released 
 from their oath of allegiance to the Pafaeologi; and in- 
 trusted with the defence of some cautionary towns; a 
 measure supported with argument and eloquence ; and 
 which was rejected (says the imperial historian) " by 
 my sublime, and almost incredible, virtue." His re- 
 pose was disturbed by the sound of plots and sedi- 
 tions; and he trembled lest the lawful prince should 
 be stolen away by some foreign or domestic enemy, 
 who would inscribe his name and his wrongs in the 
 banners of rebellion. As ihe son of Andronicus ad- 
 "vanced in the years of manhood, he began to feel and 
 act for himself; and his rising ambition was rather 
 stimulated than checked by the imitation of his fath- 
 er's vices. If we may trust his own professions, Can- 
 tacuzene laboured with honest industry to correct these 
 sordid and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind of 
 the young prince to a level with his fortune. In the 
 Serviari expedition, the two emperors showed them- 
 selves in cordial harmony to the troops and provinces ; 
 and the younger colleague was initiated by the elder 
 in the mysteries of war and government. After the 
 conclusion of the peace, Palaeologus was left at Thes- 
 salonioa, a royal residence, and a frontier station, to 
 secure by his absence the peace of Constantinople, and 
 to withdraw his youth from the temptations of a luxu- 
 rious capital. But the distance weakened the powers 
 of control, and the son of Andronicus was surrounded 
 with artful or unthinking companions, who taught him 
 to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile, and to vindi- 
 cate his rights. A private treaty with the cral or des- 
 pot of Servia, was soon followed by an open revolt ; 
 
 k Nic. Greg. 1. xv. 11. There were however some true oearla but 
 ▼ery ihinly sprinkled. The rest of the atones had only /-vxcVi^rl,, 
 
 » From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene continues his 
 history and that of the empire, one year beyond the abdication of his 
 ion Matthew, A. D 1357. (1. iv. c. 1-50. p. 705-911.) Nicephonj; 
 Ijregoras ends with the eynod of Constantinople, in the year 1351 • 
 O. xxii. c. 3. p. 660. the rest, to the conclusion of the twenty-fourth 
 DooK, p. 717. 18 all controversy ;) and his fourteen laat books are still 
 ^oS. in the king of France's library. 
 
 iup« »!i^ e;n?pen)r (Caniacuzen. 1. iv.c.l.) represents his own vir- 
 wh!'.ufrpr2i' K ^T^e^I?" ('• »v. c. 11.) the complaints of his friends, 
 
 309 
 
 and Cantacuzene, on the throne of the elder Androni- 
 cus, defended the cause of age and prerogative, which 
 in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At hi* 
 request, the empress-molher undertook the voyage of 
 Thessalonica, and the office of mediation : she reiurn- 
 ed without success; and unless Anne of Savoy was 
 instructed by adversity, we may doubt the sincerity, 
 or at least the fervour, of her zeal. While the regent 
 grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous hand,"^she 
 had been instructed to declare, that the ten years of his 
 legal administration would soon elapse: and that after 
 a full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor Can- 
 tacuzene sighed for the repose of a cloister, and was 
 ambitious only of a heavenly crown. Had these sen- 
 timents been genuine, his voluntary abdication would 
 have restored the peace of the empire, and his con- 
 science would have been relieved by an act of justice. 
 Palajologus alone was responsible for r k u . . 
 
 h' r . .11 John Pal aBoloffiig 
 
 IS future government; and whatever takes up arms a- 
 might be his vices, they were surely less gain»i h'm, 
 formidable than the calamities of a civil ^' ^ ^^• 
 war, in which the barbarians and infidels were again 
 invited to assist the Greeks in their mutual destruc- 
 tion. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a 
 deep and everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene pre- 
 vailed in the third contest in which he had been in- 
 volved ; and the young emperor, driven from sea and 
 land, w;as compelled to take shelter among the Latins 
 of the isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy 
 provoked the victor to a step which must render the 
 quarrel irreconcilable ; and the association of his son 
 Matthew, whom he invested with the purple, estab- 
 lished the succession in the family of the Cantacuzeni. 
 But Constantinople was still attached to the blood of 
 her ancient princes; and this last injury accelerated 
 the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese 
 espoused the cause of Palaeologus, obtained a promise 
 of his sister, and achieved the revolution with two 
 galleys and two thousand five hundred auxiliaries. 
 Under the pretence of distress, they were admitted in- 
 to the lesser port; a gate was opened, and the Latin 
 shout of ** Long life and victory to the emperor, John 
 Palaealogus !" was answered by a general rising in 
 his favour. A numerous and loyal party yet adhered 
 to the standard of Cantacuzene : but he asserts in his 
 history (does he hope for belief?) that his tender con- 
 science rejected the assurance of conquest; that, in 
 free obedience to the voice of religion and philosophy, 
 he descended from the throne, and embraced with 
 pleasure the monastic habit and profession." So soon 
 as he ceased to be a prince, his successor was not un- 
 willing that he should be a saint : the remainder of his 
 life was devoted to piety and learning; 
 in the cells of Constantinople and mount i'l^Jze".:' 
 Athos, the monk Joasaph was respected A. D. 1355. 
 as the temporal and spiritual father of Ja""**ry- 
 the emperor; and if he issued from his retreat, it was* 
 as the minister of peace, to subdue the obstinacy and 
 solicit the pardon of his rebellious son.® 
 
 Yet in the cloister, the mind of Can- j.. , 
 tacuzenewas still exercised by theolo- !n7rhe'ii"hro"f 
 gical war. He sharpened a controver- "'"""^ Thabor, 
 sial pen against the Jews and Mahome- Al>.i34i-i35i. 
 tans; P and in every state he defended with equal zral 
 
 n The awkward apology of Cantacuzene, (I. iv. c. 39-42.) who re- 
 lates, with visible confusion, his own downfall, may br supplied by 
 the less accurate, but more honest, narrativF4 of Matthew Villaui, (I 
 IV. c. 46. in the Script Rer. Ital torn. xiv. p. 268.) and Duca5,(c. Id, I J ) 
 
 o Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honoured with c W\u-r from 
 the pope. (Fleury. Hist. Eccles. torn. xx. p. 2.50.) His death is pluced 
 by respectable authority on the 20th of November, 1411. (Ducaiice, 
 FaiTj. Byzant. p. 260.) But if he were of the aee of his CMmpaiii.m 
 Andronicus the younger, he must have lived 116 years; a rare in- 
 stance of longeyity, which iu so illustrious a person would have at- 
 tracted universal notice. 
 
 • ^ Su/^"*" '^ '"Courses, or books, were printed at Basil, 1543. (Fab. 
 rtc. Bibliot. Graec. torn. vi. p. 473 ) He composed them to satisfy a 
 proselyte who was assaulted with letters from his friends of Ispahan. 
 Caniacuzene had read the Koran ; but I understand fn.m IMiracci,. 
 that he adopt* the vulgar prejudice! and fablei agaiusi Mahomet aud 
 nif religion. 
 
 I 
 
 the divine light of mount Thabor, a memorable ques- 
 tion, which consummates the religious follies of the 
 Greeks. The fakirs of India,"* and the monks of the 
 oriental church, were alike persuaded, that in total 
 abstraction of the faculties of the mind and body, the 
 purer .«'pirit may ascend to the enjoyment and vision 
 of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monas- 
 teries of mount Athos ' will be best represented in the 
 words of an abbot, who flourished in the eleventh cen- 
 tury. " When thou art alone in thy cell," says the 
 ascetic teacher, *» shut thy door, and seat thyself in a 
 corner; raise thy mind above all things vain and tran- 
 sitory ; recline thy beard and chin on thy breast ; turn 
 thy eyes and thy thought towards the middle of thy 
 belly, the region of the navel ; and search the place 
 of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first, all will be 
 dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day and 
 ni<;ht, you w ill feel an ineffable joy ; and no sooner 
 has the soul discovered the place of the heart, than it 
 is involved in a mystic and ethereal light." This 
 light, the production of a distempered fancy, the crea- 
 ture of an empty stomach and an empty brain, was 
 adored by the Quietistsas the pure and perfect essence 
 of God himself; and as long as the folly was confined 
 tn mount Athos, the simple solitaries were not inqui- 
 sitive how the divine essence could be a material suh- 
 tJtance, or how an immaterial substance could be per- 
 ceived by the eyes of the body. But in the reign of 
 the younger Andronicus, these monasteries were vis- 
 ited by Barlaam,* a Calabrian monk, who was equally 
 skilled in philosophy and theology ; who possessed 
 the languages of the Greeks and Latins; and whose 
 versatile genius could maintain their opposite creeds, 
 according to the interest of the moment. The indis- 
 cretion of an ascetic revealed to the curious traveller 
 the secrets of mental prayer; and Barlaam embraced 
 the opportunity of ridiculing theQuieiists, who placed 
 the soul in the navel; of accusing the monks of mount 
 Aihos of heresy and blasphemy. His attack compel- 
 led the more learned to renounce or dissemble the 
 simple devotion of their brethren; and Gregory Pala- 
 mas introduced a scholasiic distinction between the 
 essence and operation of God. His inaccessible es- 
 sence dwells in the midst of an uncreated and eternal 
 light; and this beatific vision of the saints had been 
 manifested to the disciples on mount Thabor, in the 
 transfiguration of Christ. Yet this distinction could 
 not escape the reproach of polytheism : the eternity 
 of the light of Thabor was fiercely denied ; and Bar- 
 laam still charged the Palamites with holding two 
 eternal substances, a visible and an invisible God. 
 From the ra^e of the monks of mount Athos, who 
 threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to Constanti- 
 nople, where his smooth and specious manners intro- 
 duced him to the favour of the great domestic and the 
 emperor. The court and the city were involved in 
 this theological dispute, which flamed amidst the civil 
 war ; but the doctrine of Barlaam was disgraced by 
 his flight and apostacy ; the Palamites triumphed ; and 
 their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri, was depo- 
 sed by the consent of the adverse factions of the state. 
 In the character of emperor and theologian, Cantacu- 
 zene presided in the synoj of the Greek church, which 
 established, as an article of faith, the uncreated light 
 of mount Thabor; and, after so many insults, the rea- 
 son of mankind was slightly wounded by the addition 
 of a single absurdity. Many rolls of paper or parch- 
 ment have been blotted ; and the impenitent sectaries, 
 who refused to subscribe the orthodox creed, were de- 
 
 prived of the honours of christian burial ; but in the 
 next age the question was forgotten ; nor can I learn 
 that the axe or faggot were employed for the extirpa- 
 tion of the Barlaamite heresy.* 
 
 For the conclusion of this chapter, I r-.,w u . » 
 1 J ^1 /-^ "... t'SlaDlishmentof 
 
 nave reserved the Genoese war, which the Genoese at 
 
 shook the throne of Cantacuzene, and V**^' .o"^.,*^***^ 
 betrayed the debility of the Greek em- A- 1^- 1201-1347. 
 pire. The Genoese, who, after the recovery of Con- 
 stantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or Gala- 
 ta, received that honourable fief from the bounty of 
 the emperor. They were indulged in the use of their 
 laws and magistrates ; but they submitted to the duties 
 of vassals and subjects : the forcible word of liegemerij* 
 was borrowed from the Latin jurisprudence ; and 
 lUe'iT podestoj or chief, before he entered on his office, 
 saluted the emperor with loyal acclamations and 
 vows of fidelity. Genoa sealed a firm alliance with 
 the Greeks ; and, in case of a defensive war, a supply 
 of fifty empty galleys and a succour of fifty galleys 
 completely armed and manned, was promised by the 
 republic to the empire. In the revival of a naval 
 force, it was the aim of Michael Palaeologus to deliver 
 himself from a foreijnrn aid ; and his vigorous govern- 
 ment confined the Genoese of Galata within those 
 limits which the insolence of wealth and freedom pro- 
 voked thern to exceed. A sailor threatened that they 
 should soon be masters of Constantinople, and slew 
 the Greek who resented this national aff"ront ; and an 
 armed vessel, after refusing to salute the palace, was 
 guilty of some acts of piracy in the Black sea. Their 
 countrymen threatened to support their cause ; but the 
 long and open village of Galata was instantly surroun- 
 ded by the imperial troops; till, in the moment of the 
 assault, the prostrate Genoese implored the clemency 
 of their sovereign. The defenceless situation which 
 secured their obedience, exposed them to the attack 
 of their Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the elder 
 Andronicus, presumed to violate the majesty of the 
 throne. On the approach of their fleets, the Genoese, 
 with their families and eflfects, retired into the city : 
 their empty habitations were reduced to ashes: and 
 the feeble prince, who had viewed the destruction of 
 his suburb, expressed his resentment, not by arms, 
 but by ambassadors. This misfortune, however, was 
 advantageous to the Genoese, who obtained, and im- 
 perceptibly abused, the dangerous licence of surround- 
 ing Galata with a strong wall ; of introducing into 
 the ditch the waters of the sea ; of erecting lofty tur- 
 rets ; and of mounting a train of military engines on 
 the rampart. The narrow bounds in which they had 
 been circumscribed, were insufl!icient for the growing 
 colony ; each day they acquired some addition of land- 
 ed property ; and the adjacent hills were covered 
 with their villas and castles, which they joined and 
 protected by new fortifications.* The navigation and 
 trade of the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek 
 emperors, who commanded the narrow^ entrance, the 
 gates, as it were, of that inland sea. In the reign of 
 Michael Palaeologus, their prerogative was acknow- 
 ledged by the sultan of Egypt, who solicited and ob- 
 tained the liberty of sending an annual ship for the 
 purchase of slaves in Circassia and the Lesser Tarta- 
 ry ; a liberty pregnant with mischief to the christian 
 
 q See the Voyaees de Bernier, torn. i. p. 127. 
 
 r Mosheim, Insiitui. Hist. Eccles. p. 522, 523, Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 
 lom-.xx. p. 22. 24. 107-114, &c. The former unfolds the cause with 
 the judgment of a philosopher, the latter transcribes and translates 
 Viilh the prejudices of a catholic priest. 
 
 . » Basnace (in Canisii Antio. Lecliones, torn, i v. p. 363— 368.) has 
 invesiiirated the character and story of Barlaam. The duplicity of 
 his opinions had inspired some doubts of the identity of his person. 
 See likewise Fabricius. (Bibliot. Grasc. torn. x. p. 427—432.) 
 
 I See Cantacuzene, (1. ii. c. 39, 40. 1. It. c.3. 23, 24, 25.) and Nic. 
 Gregoras, (1. x\. c. 10. 1. xv. 3.7. &c.) whose last books, from the nine- 
 teenth to the iweniy-fourih, are almf>8t confined to a subject so inter- 
 esting to the authors, Boivin, (in Vit. Nic. Gregorae,) from the uin- 
 published books, and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. U)ni. x. p. 462— 473.X 
 or rather Montfaugon, from the MSS. of the Coislin library, hava 
 added some facts and documents. 
 
 « Fachymer, (1. v. c. 10.) very properly explains xir«eu« (ligios} hj 
 iSioxj;. The use of these words in the Greek and Latin of the feudal 
 times, may be amply understood from the Glossaries of Ducange. 
 (Graec. p. dll, 812. Latin, tom. iv. p. 109—111.) 
 
 z The e^itablishment and progress of the Genoese at Pera, or Ga1a« 
 ta, is described by Ducange (C. P. Christiana, 1. i. p. 68, 69.) from the 
 Byzantine historians, Fachymer, (1. ii. c. 35. 1. v. 10. 30. 1. ix. 15. L. 
 xii. 6. 9. (Nicephoras Gregoras, (I. v. c. 4. 1. vi. c. 11. 1. ix. c. 5. 1. xW 
 c. 1. 1. XV. c. 1. b.) and Cantacuzene, (1. i. c. 12. 1. ii. c. 29, &c.> 
 
 II* 
 
 IF 
 
 'i 
 
 t i 
 
 
400 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 cause; since these youths were transformed by edu- 
 cation and discipline into the formidable Mamalukes.^ 
 Their trade and From the colony of Pera, the Genoese 
 insolence. engaged w»ilh superior advantage in the 
 lucrative trade of the Black sea; and their industry 
 supplied the Greeks with fish and corn ; two articles 
 of food almost equally important to a superstitious 
 people. The spontaneous bounty of nature appears 
 to have bestowed the harvests of Ukraine, the produce 
 of a rude and savage husbandry ; and the endless ex- 
 portation of salt fish and caviar is annually renewed 
 by the enormous sturgeons that are caught at the 
 mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station of the 
 rich mud and shallow water of the Maeotis." The 
 waters of the Oxus, the Caspian, the Volga, and the 
 Don, opened a rare and laborious passage for the 
 gems and spices of India; and, after three months' 
 march, the caravans of Carizme met the Italian ves- 
 sels in the harbours of Crimaja.* These various bran- 
 ches of trade were monopolized by the diligence and 
 power of the Genoese. Their rivals of Venice and 
 Pisa were forcibly expelled ; the natives were awed 
 by the castles and cities, which arose on the founda- 
 tions of their humble factories ; and their principal 
 establisiiment of CafTa^ was besieged without effect 
 by the Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks 
 were oppressed by these haughty merchants, who fed, 
 or famished, Constantinople, according to their inter- 
 est. They proceeded to usurp the customs, the fish- 
 ery, and even the toll, of the Bosphorus ; and while 
 they derived from these objects a revenue of two hun- 
 dred thousand pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thou- 
 sand was reluctantly allowed to the emperor.* The 
 colony of Pera or Galata acted, in peace and war, 
 as an independent state ; and, as it will happen in dis- 
 tant settlements, the Genoese podesta too often forgot 
 that he was the servant of his own masters. 
 Their war with These usurpations were encouraged by 
 the emperor the Weakness of the elder Androilicus, 
 
 ^A^D^JaS*' ^"^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^'^ ^'^""^ ^^^* afllicted his 
 age and the minority of his grandson. 
 The talents of Cantacuzene were employed to the ruin, 
 rather than the restoration, of the empire ; and after 
 his domestic victory, he was condemned to an igno- 
 minious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoese 
 should reign in Constantinople. The merchants of 
 Pera were offended by his refusal of some contiguous 
 lands, some commanding heights, which they propo- 
 sed to cover with new fortifications ; and in the ab- 
 sence of the emperor, who was detained at Demotica 
 by sickness, they ventured to brave the debility of a 
 female reign. A Byzantine vessel, which had pre- 
 sumed to fish at the mouth of the harbour, was sunk 
 by these audacious strangers; the fishermen were 
 murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese 
 demanded satisfaction ; required, in a haughty strain, 
 that the Greeks should renounce the exercise of navi- 
 gjjiion ; and encountered with regular arms the first 
 sallies of the popular indignation. They instantly 
 occupied the debatable land ; and by the labour of a 
 wh.ile people, of either sex and of every age, the wall 
 
 y Both Pachympr (1. iii. c. 3, 4, 5.) and Nic. Gree. (1. it. c. 7.) un- 
 derstanil and deplore the effpcisof this dangerous indulgence. Bibars, 
 stiltan of Esrypl, himself a Tartar, but a deVout mussulman, oblaiued 
 fr.)m the children of Zingis the permission to build a stately mosch 
 m the capital of Crimea. (De Ouignes, Hist, des Huns, torn. iii. p. 
 
 t Chardin (Voyages en Perse, torn. i. p. 48.) was assured at Caffa, 
 that these fishes were sometimes twenty-four or twenty-six feet h>ng, 
 weighed eight or nine hundred pounds, and yielded three or fmr 
 quintals of caviar. The corn of the Bosphorus had supplied the Athe- 
 nians in the time of Demosthenes. 
 
 a De Guignps, Hist, des Huns, torn. iii. p. 343, 344. Viagci di Ra- 
 niueio, torn. i. fol. 4*0. But this land or water carriage could only be 
 practicable when Tartary was united under a wise aiid powerful mo- 
 narch. 
 
 b Nic. Gregoras (1. xiii. c. 12.) is judicious and well informed on 
 the tmdp and colonies of the Black sea. Chardin describes the pre- 
 sent ruins of Caffa, where, in f )rty days, he saw above 4)0 sail em- 
 ployed in the corn and fish trade. (Voyages en Ferae, lorn. i. p. 46 
 
 c bee Nic. Gregoras, I. xvii. c. 1. 
 
 was raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible 
 speed. At the same time, they attacked and burnt 
 two Byzantine galleys; while the three others, the 
 remainder of the imperial navy, escaped from their 
 hands : the inhabitants without the gates, or along the 
 shore, were pillaged and destroyed ; and the care of 
 the regent, of the empress Irene, was confined to the 
 preservation of the city. The return of Cantacuzene 
 dispelled the public consternation ; the emperor inclin- 
 ed to peaceful counsels ; but he yielded to the obsti- 
 nacy of his enemies, who rejected all reasonable terms, 
 and to the ardour of his subjects, who threatened, in 
 the style of Scripture, to break them in pieces like a 
 potter's vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes, 
 that he imposed for the construction of ships, and the 
 expenses of the war; and as the two nations were 
 masters, the one of the land, the other of the sea, Con- 
 stantinople and Pera were pressed by the evils of a 
 mutual siege. The merchants of the colony, who had 
 believed that a few days would terminate the war, al- 
 ready murmured at their losses ; the succours from 
 their mother-country were delayed by the factions of 
 Genoa; and the most cautious embraced the opportu- 
 nity of a Rhodian vessel to remove their families and 
 effects from the scene of hostility. In Destruction of 
 the spring, the Byzantine fleet, seven his fleet, 
 galleys and a train of smaller vessels, ^' ^- *^'* 
 issued from the mouth of the harbour, and steered in 
 a single line along the shore of Pera; unskilfully pre- 
 senting their sides to the beaks of the adverse squad- 
 ron. The crews were composed of peasants and me- 
 chanics; nor was their ignorance compensated by the 
 native courage of barbarians: the wind was strong, 
 the waves were rough ; and no sooner did the Greeks 
 perceive a distant and inactive enemy, than they leap- 
 ed headlong into the sea, from a doubtful, to an inevi- 
 table, peril. The troops that marched to the attack of 
 the lines of Pera were struck at the same moment 
 with a similar panic; and the Genoese were astonish- 
 ed, and almost ashamed, at their double victory. Their 
 triumphant vessels, crowned with flowers, and drag- 
 ging after them the captive galleys, repeatedly passed 
 and repassed before the palace : the only virtue of the 
 emperor was patience ; and the hope of revenge his 
 sole consolation. Yet the distress of both parties in- 
 terposed a temporary agreement ; and the shame of the 
 empire was disguised by a thin veil of dignity and 
 power. Summo^ning the chiefs of the colony, Canta- 
 cuzene affected to despise the trivial object of the de- 
 bate; and, after a mild reproof, most liberally granted 
 the lands, which had been previously resigned to the 
 seeming custody of his officers.* 
 
 But the emperor was soon solicited to 
 violate the treaty, and to join his arms Victory of thf> 
 with the Venetians the perpetual ene- ^rnafanVrnd'* 
 mies of Genoa and her colonies. While Greeks, 
 he compared the reasons of peace and ^p^*^^* 
 war, his moderation was provoked by a 
 wanton insult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharg- 
 ed from their rampart a large stone that fell in the 
 midst of Constantinople. On his just complaint, they 
 coldly blamed the imprudence of their sngineer; but 
 the next day the insult was repeated, and they exulted 
 in a second proof that the royal city was not beyond 
 the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly 
 signed his treaty with the Venetians ; but the weight 
 of the Roman empire was scarcely felt in the balance 
 of these opulent and powerful republics.* From the 
 straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their 
 fleets encountered each other with various success; 
 and a memorable battl'e was fought in the narrow 
 
 A The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene (1. It. c. 11.) 
 with obscurity and confusion, and by Nic. Gregoras (1 xvii. c. 1—7.) 
 in a clear and honest narrative. The priest was less responsible than 
 the prince for the defeat of the fleet. 
 
 «-• n£*''o.^^*^°'?'' war is darkly told by Cantacuzene, (1, It. c. 18. p. 24, 
 2o. 28-3?.) who wishes to disguise what he dares not deny. I recr»t 
 this part of Nic. Gregoras, which u iiill in MS. at Pari*. 
 
 401 
 
 sea, under the walls of Constantinople. It would 
 not be an easy task to reconcile the accounts of the 
 Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoese;' and while I 
 depend on the narrative of an impartial historian,* I 
 shall borrow from each nation the facts that redound 
 to their own disgrace, and the honour of their foes. 
 The Venetians, with their allies the Catalans, had the 
 advantage of number ; and their fleet, with the poor addi- 
 tion of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to seventy- 
 five sail ; the Genoese did not exceed sixty-four; but 
 in those times their ships of war were distinguished 
 by the superiority of their size and strength''. The 
 names and faniilies of their naval commanders, Pisani 
 and Doria, are illustrious in the annals of their country ; 
 but the personal merit of the former was eclipsed by 
 the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in 
 tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was 
 continued from the dawn to the extinction of 1 ight. The 
 enemies of the Genoese applaud their prowess : the 
 friends of the Venetians are dissatisfied with their be- 
 haviour : but all the parties agree in praising the skill 
 and boldness of the Catalans, who, with many wounds, 
 sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation 
 of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful ; but the 
 thirteen Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken, 
 were compensated by a double loss of the allies ; of 
 fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans, and two Greeks ; 
 and even the grief of the conquerors expressed the as- 
 surance and habit of more decisive victories. Pisani 
 confessed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified harbour, 
 from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the se- 
 nate, he steered with a broken and flying squadron for 
 the isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the 
 sovereignty of the sea. In a public epistle,»» to the 
 doge and senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to 
 reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of 
 Italy. The orator celebrates the valour and victory 
 of the Genoese, the first of men in the exercise of na- 
 val war: he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their 
 Venetian brethren ; but he exhorts them to pursue with 
 fire and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to 
 purge the metropolis of the east from the heresy with 
 Their treaty with ^^*''ch i' was infected. Deserted by 
 the empire, their friends, the Greeks were incapable 
 May b. of resistance ; and three months after the 
 battle, the emperor Cantacuzene solicited and sub- 
 scribed a treaty, which forever banished the Venetians 
 and Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopo- 
 ly of trade, and almost a right of dominion. The Ro- 
 man empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might 
 soon have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the aml>i- 
 tion of the republic had not been checked by the ruin 
 of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of 
 one hundred and thirty years was determined by the 
 triumph of Venice; and the factions of the Genoese 
 compelled them to seek for domestic peace under the 
 protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the 
 French king. Yet the spirit of commerce survived 
 that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed 
 tl'.e capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was invol- 
 ved by the Turks in the final servitude of Constanti- 
 nople itself. 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Conquests of Zingis Khan and the Moguls from China to 
 Poland. — Escape of Constantinople a7id the Greeks. — Ori- 
 
 f Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, lorn. xii. p. 144.) refers to the most an- 
 neni Chronicles of Venice, (Caresinus, the coniinuator of Andrew 
 Dandolus, torn. xii. p. 421, 422 ) and Genoa, (George Stella, Annates 
 Oenuenses, torn. xvii. p. 1091, 1092.) both of which I have diligently 
 consulted in his great Collection of the Historians of Italy. 
 
 C See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, 1. ii. c. 59, GO. p. 
 
 fc~T> '^^ ^' '^^' ^^ P *^^' **'^* '" ^"ralori's Collection, torn. xiv. 
 OCT AI% ^^^^ ^^ ^*^^ (Memoires sur la Viede Petrarque, torn. iii. p. 
 -^7— 263.) translates this letter, which he had copied from a MS. in 
 ine king of France's library. Though a servant of the duke of Milan, 
 reirarch pours forth his astonishment and grief at the defeat and des- 
 pair of the Genoese in the following year, (p. 323—332.) 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 A 26 
 
 gtn of the Ottoman Turks in Bithynia.—Rtigns and vie- 
 tones of Othman, Orchan, Amurath the first, and Baja- 
 zet the first. — Foundation and progress of the Turfash 
 monarchy in Asia and Europe. — Danger of Constantino* 
 pie and the Greek empire. 
 
 From the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, 
 from the cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, 
 I shall now ascend to the victorious Turks ; whose 
 domestic slavery was ennobled by martial discipline, 
 religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the national 
 character. The rise and progress of the Ottomans, 
 the present sovereigns of Constantinople, are connect- 
 ed with the most important scenes of modern history; 
 but they are founded on a previous knowledge of the 
 great eruption of the Moguls and Tartars; whose ra- 
 pid conquests may be compared with the primitive 
 convulsions of nature, which have agitated and alter- 
 ed the surface of the globe. I have long since assert- 
 ed my claim to introduce the nations, the immediate 
 or remote authors of the fall of the Roman empire ; nor 
 can I refuse myself to those events, which from their 
 uncommon magnitude, will interest a philosophic mind 
 in the history of blood.* 
 
 From the spacious highlands between Zingis Khan, 
 China Siberia, and the Caspian sea, the fh^M'S^and 
 tide ot emigration and war has repeated- Tartars, 
 ly been poured. These ancient seats of ^' ^- ^206-1227 
 the Huns and Turks were occupied in the twelfth cen- 
 tury by many pastoral tribes, of the same descent and 
 similar manners, which were united and led to conquest 
 by the fonnidable Zingis. In his ascent to greatness, 
 that barbarian (whose private appellation was Temu- 
 gin) had trampled on the necks of his equals. His 
 birth was noble : but it was in the pride of victory, that 
 the prince or people deduced his seventh ancestor from 
 the immaculate conception of a virgin. His father 
 had reigned over thirteen hordes, which composed 
 about thirty or forty thousand families; above two 
 thirds refused to pay tithes or obedience to his infant 
 son : and at the age of thirteen Temugin fought a battle 
 against his rebellious subjects. The future" conqueror 
 of Asia was reduced to fly and to obey: but he rose 
 superior to his fortune, and in his fortieth year he had 
 established his fame and dominion over the circumjacent 
 tribes. In a state of society, in which policy is rude 
 and valour is universal, the ascendant of one man must 
 be founded on his power and resolution to punish his 
 enemies and recompense his friends. His first milita- 
 ry league was ratified by the simple rites of sacrificing 
 a horse and tasting of a running stream: Temugin 
 pledged himself to divide with his followers the sweets 
 and bitters of life ; and when he had shared among 
 them his horses and apparel, he was rich in their gra^ 
 titude and his own hopes. After his first victory, he 
 placed seventy caldrons on the fire, and seventy of 
 the most guilty rebels were cast headlong into the boil- 
 ing water. The sphere of his attraction was continu- 
 ally enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the submis- 
 sion of the prudent; and the boldest chieftains might 
 tremble, when they beheld enchased in silver, the skull 
 of the khan of the Keraites ; •* who, under the name of 
 Prester John, had corresponded with the Roman pon- 
 tiifand the princes of Europe. The ambition of Te- 
 mugin condescended to employ the art of snprrstition ; 
 and it was from a naked prophet, who could ascend to 
 heaven on a white horse, that he accepted the title of 
 Zingis,' the most great ,♦ and a divine right to the con- 
 
 a The reader is invited to review the chapters of the first volume ; 
 the manners of pastoral nations, the conquests of Attila and the Huns, 
 which were composed at a time when I entertained the wish, ra- 
 ther than the hope, of concluding my history. 
 
 b The khans of the Keraites were most probably incapable of read- 
 ing the pompous epistles composed in their name by the Nestorian 
 missionaries, who endowed them with the fabulous wonders of an In- 
 dian iiingdom. Perhaps these Tartars (the presbyter or priest John) 
 had submitted to the rites of baptism and ordination. (Asseman. Bib> 
 liot. Orient, torn. iii. p. ii. p. 487— 503.) 
 
 c Since the history ana tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at least in 
 French, seems to be the more fashionable spelling; but Abulghazi 
 Khan must have known the true name of his ancestor. His etymolo- 
 gy appears just: Zin^ in the Mogul tongue, signifies great, and jt« ia 
 
 i 
 
 «:« 
 
402 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 403 
 
 His laws. 
 
 quest and dominion of the earth. In a general courouU 
 iat, or diet, he was seated on a felt, which was long 
 afterwards revered as a relic, and solemnly proclaim- 
 ed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls '•and Tartars.* 
 Of these kindred, though rival, names, the former had 
 given birth to the imperial race; and the latter has been 
 extended by accident or error over the spacious wilder- 
 ness of the north. 
 
 The code of laws which Zingis dicta- 
 ted to his subjects, was adapted to the 
 preservation of domestic peace, and the exercise of 
 foreign hostility. The punishment of death was in- 
 flicted on the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and 
 the capital thefts of a horse or ox ; and the fiercest of 
 men wero mild and just in their intercourse with each 
 other. The future election of the great khan was ves- 
 ted in the princes of his family and the heads of the 
 tribes; and the regulations of the chace were essential 
 to the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar camp. The 
 victorious nation was held sacred from all servile la- 
 bours, which were abandoned to slaves and strangers; 
 and every labour was servile except the profession of 
 arms. The service and discipline of the troops, who 
 were armed with bows, scymitars, and iron maces, 
 and divided by hundreds, thousands, and ten thou- 
 sands, were iho institutions of a veteran commander. 
 Each officer and soldier was made responsible, under 
 pain of death, for the safety and honour of his com- 
 panions ; and the spirit of conquest breathed in the 
 law, that peace should never be granted unless to a 
 vanquished and suppliant enemy. But it is the reli- 
 gion of Zinffis that best deserves our wonder and ap- 
 plause. The catholic inquisitors of Europe, who de- 
 fended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confoun- 
 ded by the example of a barbarian, who anticipated 
 the lessons of philosophy,' and established by his 
 laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. 
 His first and only article of faith was the existence of 
 one God, the author of all orood ; who fills by his pre- 
 sence the heavens and earth, which he has created by 
 his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to 
 the idols of their peculiar tribes ; and many of them 
 had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the 
 religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These 
 various systems in freedom and concord, were taught 
 and practised within the precincts of the same camp ; 
 and the Bonze, the Irnam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, 
 and thf» Latin priest, enjoyed the same honourable ex- 
 emption from service and tribute : in the mosch of 
 Bocharn, the insolent victor might trample the Koran 
 under his horse's feet, but the calm legislator respec- 
 ted the prophets and pontiffs of the most hostile sects. 
 The reason of Zingis was not informed by books; the 
 khan could neither read nor write ; and except the 
 tribe of the Igours, the greatest part of the Moguls and 
 Tartars were as illiterate as their sovereign. The 
 memory of their exploits was preserved by tradition: 
 sixty-eight years after the death of Zingis, these tra- 
 ditions were collected and transcribed ;» the brevity 
 of their domestic annals may be supplied by the Chi- 
 
 thp supprlaiive iprmi nation. (Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, part, 
 iii. p. i?4, 195.) From the same idea of magnitude, the appellation of 
 Zingis is bpsiowed the ocean. 
 
 d The name of Moguls has prevailed among the orientals, and still 
 adiieres to the titular sovereign, the Great Mogul of Hindoslan. 
 
 e The Tartars (more properly Tatars) were descended from Tatar 
 Khan, the brother of Mogul Khan, {see Abulghazi, part i. and ii.) and 
 once f(»rmed a horde of 70,000 families on the borders of Kitay, (p 
 103—112.) In the great invasion of Europe, (A. D. 1238.) they seem 
 to have led the vanguard ; and the similitude of the name of Tar- 
 tarei, recommended that of Tartars to the Latins. (Matt. Paris p 
 39S, &;c.) *^' 
 
 f A singular conformity may be found between the religious laws 
 of Zingis Khan, and of Mr. Locke. (Constitutions of Carolina, in his 
 Works, vol. iv. p. 535. 4to. edition, 1777.) 
 
 K In the year 1294, by the command of Cazan, khan of Persia, the 
 wurth in his descent from Zingis. From these traditions, his vizir 
 Fadlallah composed a Mogul history in the Persian language, which 
 hM been used by Petit de la Croix. (Hist, de Oenghizcan, p.637— 
 »>» ) The Histoire Genealogi-jue des Tartars (A Leyde, 1726. in 12mo. 
 -iiomes) was translated by the Swedish prisoners in Siberia from 
 U»« Mogul MS. of Abulgasi Bahadur Khan, a descendwit of Zingis, 
 
 nese,'» Persians,* Armenians,* Syrians,* Arabians,"* 
 Greeks," Russians,** Poles,P Hungarians,«« and Latins ;' 
 and each nation will deserve credit in the relation of 
 their own disasters and defeats.* 
 
 The arms of Zingis and his lieuten- invasion of 
 ants successively reduced the hordes of China, 
 the desert, who pitched their tents be- ^- ^- 12*0—1214. 
 tween the wall of China and the Volga ; and the Mo- 
 gul emperor became the monarch of the pastoral world, 
 the lord of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, 
 who felt their united strength, and were impatient to 
 rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the south. 
 His ancestors had been the tributaries of the Chinese 
 emperors ; and Temugin himself had been disgraced 
 by a title of honour and servitude. The court of Pe- 
 kin was astonished by an embassy from its former 
 vassal, who, in the tone of the king of nations, exac- 
 ted the tribute and obedience which he had paid, and 
 who affected to treat the son of heaven as the most con- 
 temptible of mankind. A haughty answer disguised 
 their secret apprehensions ; and their fears were soon 
 justified by the march of innumerable squadrons, who 
 pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the great 
 wall. Ninety cities were stormed or starved, by the 
 Moguls ; ten only escaped ; and Zingis, from a know- 
 ledge of the filial piety of the Chinese, covered his 
 
 who reigned over the Usbecks of Charaism, or Carizme. (A. D. 1644 
 —1663.) He is of most value and credit for the names, pedigrees, 
 and manners of his nation. Of his nine parui, the first descejids 
 from Adam to Mogul Khan ; the second, from Mogul to Zingis; the 
 third is the life of Zingis ; the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, the 
 general history of his four sons, and their p«isterily ; the eighth and 
 ninth, the particular history of the descendanis of Sheibani Khan, 
 who reigned in Maurenhar and Charasm. 
 
 h Histoire do Gentchiscan, et de toute la Dinastiedes Mongousses 
 successours, Confjuerans de la Chine ; tir«ie de THisioire de la Chine, 
 par le R. P Gaubil, de la Sociei6 de Jesus, Missionaire A Pekin ; d 
 Paris, 1739, in 4fo. This translation is stamped with the Chinese 
 character of domestic accuracy and foreign ignorance. 
 
 i See the Histoire du Grand Genghizcan, prpmier empereur des 
 Mogols et Tartares, par M. Petit de la Croix, k Paris, 1710. in IJmo.; 
 a work of ten years' labour, chiefly drawn from the Persian writers, 
 among whom Nisavi, the secretary of sultan Gelaleddin, has the merit 
 and prejudicesof a contemporary. A slight air of romance is th*^ fault 
 of the originals, or the compiler. See likewise the articles of Gen- 
 ghiscan, Mohammed^ Gelaleddin, Sec. in the Bibliotheque OrieuUle 
 of d'Herbelot. 
 
 k Haiihonus, or Aithonus, an Armenian prince, and afterwards a 
 monk of Premontro, (Fabric. Biblioi Lat. niedii. JEv\, torn. i. p. 34.) 
 dictated, in the French languag**, his book de Tartaris, to his <>ld fel- 
 low-soldiers. It was immediately translated into Latin, and is inser- 
 ted in the Novus Orbis of Symon Grynaeus. (Basil, J555. in folio.) 
 
 1 Zinzis Khan, and his first successors, occupy the conclusion of the 
 ninth Dynasty of Abulpharagius, (vers. Pocock, Oxon. 1663. in 4to.) 
 and his tenth Dynasty is that of the Moguls of Persia. Assemannus 
 (Bibliot. Orient, torn, ii.) has extracted some facts from his Syriac 
 writings, and the lives of the Jacobite maphrians, or primates of the 
 east. 
 
 m Among the Arabians, in language and religion, we may distin- 
 guish Abulfeda, sultan of Hamah in Syria, who fought in person, un- 
 der the Mamaluke standard, against the Moguls. 
 
 B Nicephorus Gregoras (I. ii. c. 5. 6 ) has felt the necessity of con- 
 necting the Scythian and Byzantine histories. He describes with 
 truth and elegance the settlement and manners of the Moguls of Per- 
 sia, but he is ignorant of their origin, and corrupts the names of Zin- 
 gis and his sons. 
 
 o M. Levesque (Histoire de Russie, torn, ii.) has described the con- 
 quest of Russia by the Tartars, from the patriarch Nicon, and the old 
 chronicles. 
 
 P f or Poland, I am content with the Sarmaiia Asiatics et Europea 
 of Matthew a Michou, or de Mischovia, a canon and physician of 
 Cracow, (A. D. 1506.) inserted in the Novus Orbis of Grynaeus. Fa- 
 bric. Bibliot. Latin, media et infirmae jEiatis, tom. v. p. 56. 
 
 q I should quote Thuroczius, the oldest general historian, (pars ii. 
 c. 74. p. 150.) in the first volume of the Scriptores Herum Hungarica.- 
 rum, did notthe same volume contain the original narrative t/a con- 
 temporary, an eye-witness, and a sufferer, (M. Kogerii, Hungari, Va 
 radiensis Capiiuli Canonici, Carmen miserabile, seu Hislona super 
 Desiruciione Kegni Hungarias, Temptiribus Bel8B,lV. Regis per 'lar- 
 taros, facta p. 292—321.) the best picture that I have ever seen of all 
 the circumstances of a barbaric invasion. 
 
 r Matthew Pans has represented, from authentic documents, th* 
 danger and distress of Europe, (consult the word Tartari in his 
 copious Index.) From motives of zeal and curiosity, the court uf 
 the great khan in the thirteenth century was visited by two friars, 
 John de Piano Carpini, and William Rubru({uis, and by Alarco Pulo, 
 a Venetian gentleman. The Latin relations of the two former ars 
 inserted in the first volume of Hackluyt; the Italian ori<'inal or 
 version of the third (Fabric. Bibliot. Latin, medii JE.s\, torn. ii. p. 
 198. tom. V. p. 25.) may be found in the second tome of Ramusio. 
 
 ■ In his great History of the Huns, M. de Guignes has most amply 
 treated of Zingis Khan and his successors. See tom. iii. 1. xv—xix 
 and in the collateral articles of the Seljukiansof Roum, tom. ii L 
 XI. the Carizmians, 1. xiv. and the Mamalukes. tom iv. 1. xxi.- con- 
 sult likewise the tables of the first volume. He is ever learned and 
 accurate; yet I am only indebted to him for a general view, and 
 some passages of AbulfoUa, which are siill Uteai iu the Arabic lexu 
 
 vanguard with their captive parents ; an unworthy, 
 and by degrees a fruitless, abuse of the virtues of his 
 enemies. His invasion was supported by the revolt 
 of a hundred thousand Khitans, who guarded the fron- 
 tier ; yet he listened to a treaty ; and a princess of 
 China, three thousand horses, five hundred youths, 
 and as many virgins, and a tribute of gold and silk, 
 were the price of his retreat. In his second expedi- 
 tion, he compelled the Chinese emperor to retire be- 
 yond the yellow river to a more southern residence. 
 The seige of Pekin * was long and laborious : the in- 
 habitants were reduced by famine to decimate and de- 
 vour their fellow-citizens ; when their ammunition 
 was spent, they discharged ingots of gold and silver 
 ■ from their engines ; but the Moguls introduced a mine 
 to the centre of the capital ; and the conflagration of 
 the palace burnt above thirty days. China was deso- 
 lated by Tartar war and domestic faction ; and the five 
 northern provinces were added to the empire of Zingis. 
 Of Carizme, ^" ^^® west, he touched the dominions 
 Transoxiana, of Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, who 
 
 A*D* r2i8-l224 ^^^S^^^ ^^^"^ ^he Persian gulf to the bor- 
 ders of India and Turkestan ; and who, 
 in the proud imitation of Alexander the Great, forgot 
 
 , the servitude and ingratitude of his fathers to the 
 house of Seljuk. It was the wish of Zingis to estab- 
 
 I lish a friendly and commercial intercourse with the 
 most powerful of the Moslem princes ; nor could he 
 be tempted by the secret solicitations of the caliph of 
 Bairdad, who sacrificed to his personal wrongs the 
 safety of the church and state. A rash and inhuman 
 deed provoked and justified the Tartar arms in the in- 
 
 I vasiou of the southern Asia. A caravan of three am- 
 
 I bassadors and one hundred and fifty merchants, was 
 arrested and murdered at Otrar, by the command of 
 Mohammed ; nor was it till after a demand and de- 
 nial of justice, till he had prayed and fasted three 
 nights on a mountain, that the Mogul emperor appeal- 
 ed to the judgment of God and his sword. Our Euro- 
 pean battles, says a philosophic writer," are petty 
 skirmishes, if compared to the numbers that have 
 fought and fallen in the fields of Asia. Seven hun- 
 dred thousand Moguls and Tartars are said to have 
 marched under the standard of Zingis and his four 
 sons. In the vast plains that extend to the north of 
 the Sihon or Jaxartes, they were encountered by four 
 hundred thousand soldiers of the sultan ; and in the 
 first battle, which was suspended by the night, one 
 hundred and sixty thousand Carizmians were slain. 
 Mohammed was astonished by the multitude and va- 
 lour of his enemies : he withdrew from the scene of 
 danger, and distributed his troops in the frontier 
 towns ; trusting that the barbarians, invincible in the 
 field, would be repulsed by the length and difficulty of 
 so many sieges. But the prudence of Zingis had 
 formed a body of Chinese engineers, skilled in the me- 
 chanic arts ; informed perhaps of the secret of gun- 
 powder, and capable, under his discipline, of attack- 
 ing a foreign country with more vigour and success 
 than they had defended their own. The Persian his- 
 torians will relate the sieges of Otrar, Cogende, Bo- 
 chara, Samarcand, Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nisabour, 
 Balch, and Candahar; and the conquest of the rich 
 and populous countries of Transoxiana, Carizme, and 
 rhorasan. The destructive hostilities of Attila and 
 the Huns have long since been elucidated by the ex- 
 ample of Zingis and the Moguls; and in this more 
 proper place I shall be content to observe, that, from 
 the Caspian to the Indus, they ruined a tract of many 
 hundred miles, which was adorned with the habita- 
 
 t More pn>perly Yen king, an ancient city, whose ruins still ap- 
 pear somp furlones to the south-east of the modern Pekin, which was 
 built by Cublat Khan. (Gabel, p. 146.) Pe-king and Nan-king, are 
 vasup titles, the courts of the north .ind of the south. The identity 
 and chang« of names perplex the most skilful readers of the Chinese 
 geography, (p. 177.) 
 
 u M. de Voltaire, Essai sur I'Histoire Generale, lorn. iii. c. 60. p. 8. 
 His account of Zingis and the Moguls contains, as usual, much gene* 
 ral sense and truth, with some particular errors. 
 
 tions and labours of mankind, and that five centuries 
 have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four 
 years. The Mogul emperor encouraged or indulged 
 the fury of his troops; the hope of future possession 
 was lost in the ardour of rapine and slaughter ; and 
 the cause of the war exasperated their native fierce- 
 ness by the pretence of justice and revenge. The 
 downfall and death of the sultan Mohammed,°who ex- 
 pired unpitied and alone, in a desert island of the 
 Caspian sea, is a poor atonement for the calamities of' 
 which he was the author. Could the Carizmian em- 
 pire have been saved by a single hero, it would have 
 been saved by his son Gelaleddin, whose active va- 
 lour repeatedly checked the Moguls in the career of 
 victory. Retreating, as he fought, to the banks of the 
 Indus, he was oppressed by their innumerable host, 
 till, in the last moment of despair, Gelaleddin spurred 
 his horse into the waves, swam one of the broadest 
 and most rapid rivers of Asia, and extorted the admi- 
 ration and applause of Zingis himself. It was in this 
 camp that the Mogul conqueror yielded with reluc- 
 tance to the murmurs of his weary and wealthy troops, 
 who sighed for the enjoyment of their native land. 
 Encumbered with the spoils of Asia, he slowly mea- 
 sured back his footsteps, betrayed some pity for the 
 misery of the vanquished, and declared his intention 
 of rebuilding the cities which had been swept away 
 by the tempest of his arms. After he had repassed 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes, he was joined by two gener- 
 als, whom he had detached with thirty thousand horse, 
 to subdue the western provinces of Persia. They had 
 trampled on the nations which opposed their passage, 
 penetrated through the gates of Derbent, traversed The 
 Volga and the desert, and accomplished the circuit of 
 the Caspian sea, by an expedition which had never 
 been attempted, and has never been repealed. The 
 return of Zingis was signalized by the overthrow of 
 the rebellious or independent kingdoms of Tartary ; 
 and he died in the fulness of years and His death, 
 glory, with his last breath exhorting and A. D. 1J27. 
 instructing his sons to achieve the conquest of the Chi- 
 nese empire. 
 
 The harem of Zingis was composed of conquests of the 
 five hundred wives and concubines ; and Moguls under 
 of his numerous progeny, four sons, il- ^h«8«"essorsof 
 lustrious by their birth and merit, exer- a. d. 
 
 cised under their father the principal of- 1227—1295. 
 fices of peace and war. Toushi was his great hunts- 
 man, Zagatai* his judge, Octai his minister, and Tuli 
 his general ; and their names and actions are often 
 conspicuous in the history of his conquests. Firmly 
 united for their own and the public interest, the three 
 brothers and their families were content with depen- 
 dent sceptres ; and Octal, by general consent, was 
 proclaimed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls and 
 Tartars. He was succeeded by his son Gayuk, after 
 whose death the empire devolved to his cousins Man- 
 gou and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons 
 of Zingis. In the sixty-eight years of his four first 
 successors, the Moguls subdued almost all Asia, and 
 a large portion of Europe. Without confining my- 
 self to the order of time, without expatiating on the 
 detail of events, I shall present a general picture of the 
 progress of their arms ; I. In the east ; II. In the south : 
 III. In the west ; and IV. In the north. 
 
 I. Before the invasion of Zingis, Chi- of the northern 
 na was divided into two empires or dy- empire of China, 
 nasties of the north and south ;y and the ^'^- ^'^^^ 
 diflference of origin and interest was smoothed by a 
 
 X Zagatai gave his name to his dominions of Maurenahar, or Trans- 
 oxiana; and the Moguls of Hindoslan, who emigrated from that 
 country, are styled Zagatai."* by the Persians. This certain etymo. 
 logy, and the similar example of Uzbek, Nogai, &c. may warn us not 
 absolutely to reject the derivations of a national, from a personal, 
 name. 
 
 y In Marco Polo, and the oriental geographers, the names of Cathay 
 and Mangi distinguish the northern and southern empires, which, 
 from A. D. 1234 to 1279. were those of the great khan, and of the 
 Chinese. The search of Cathay, afier China bad been found, excited 
 
 * ■ 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 I 
 
404 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 405 
 
 general conformity of laws, language, and national 
 manners. The norlhern empire, which had been dis- 
 membered by Zingis, was finally subdued seven years 
 after his death. After the loss of Pekin, the emperor 
 had fixed his residence at Kaifong, a city many leagues 
 in circumference, and which contained, according to 
 the Chinese annals, fourteen hundred thousand fami- 
 lies of inhabitants and fugitives. He escaped from 
 thence with only seven horsemen, and made his last 
 stand in a third capital, till at length the hopeless 
 monarch, protesting his innocence and accusing his 
 fortune, ascended a funeral pile, and gave orders, 
 that, as soon as he had stabbed himself, the fire 
 should be kindled by his attendants. The dynasty of 
 the Songi the native and ancient sovereigns of the 
 whole empire, survived about forty-five years the fall of 
 the northern usurpers ; and the perfect conquest was 
 reserved for the arms of Cublai. Duringr this inter- 
 val, the Moguls were often diverted by foreign wars ; 
 and, if ihe Chinese seldom dared to meet their victors 
 in the field, their passive courage presented an endless 
 succession of cities to storm and of millions to slaugh- 
 ter. In the attack and defence of places, the engines 
 of antiquity and the Greek fire were alternately em- 
 ployed : the use of gunpowder in cannon and bombs 
 appears as a familiar practice ; * and the sieges were 
 conducted by the Mahometans and Franks, who had 
 been liberally invited into the service of Cublai. Af- 
 ter passing the great river, the troops and artillery 
 were conveyed along a series of canals, till thry in- 
 vested the royal residence of Hamcheu, or Quinsay, 
 in the country of silk, the most delicious climate of 
 China. The emperor, a defenceless youth, surrender- 
 ed his person and sceptre ; and before he was sent in 
 exile into Tartary, he struck nine times the ground 
 with his forehead, to adore in prayer or thanksgiving 
 the mercy of the great khan. Yet the war (it was 
 Of the southern, now Styled a rebellion) was still main- 
 A.D. 1279. tained in the southern provinces from 
 Hamcheu to Canton ; and the obstinate remnant of 
 independence and hostility was transported from the 
 land to the sea. But when the fleet of the S(mg was 
 surrounded and oppressed by a superior armament, 
 their last champion leaped into the waves with his 
 infant emperor in his arms. ** It is more glorious," 
 he cried, ** to die a prince, than to live a slave." A 
 hundred thousand Chinese imitated his example ; and 
 the whole empire from Tonkin to the great wall, sub- 
 mitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless 
 ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan : his fleet 
 was twice shipwrecked ; and the lives of a hundred 
 thousand Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the 
 fruitless expedition. But the circumjacent kingdoms, 
 Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu, Bengal, and Thi- 
 bet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and 
 obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He ex- 
 plored the Indian ocean with a fleet of a thousand 
 ships : they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably 
 to the isle of Borneo, under the equinoxial line ; and 
 though they returned not without spoil or glory, the 
 emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had es- 
 caped from their hands. 
 
 Of Persia, and ^^' '^^^ conquest of Hindostan by 
 
 the empire of the Moguls was reserved in a later pe- 
 
 th^caiiphs^ jiod for the house of Timour ; but that 
 
 of Iran or Persia, wa s achieved by Ho- 
 
 anil misled our navigators of the sixteenth century, in their allempta 
 lo discover the north east passage. 
 
 1 I depend on the knowledge and fidelity of the Fere Gaubil, v?ho 
 translates thp Chinese texts of the annals of the Moeuls or Yuen ; (p. 
 71. 93. 153.) but I am ignorant at what time these annals were com- 
 posed and published. The two uncles of Marco Polo, who served as 
 engineers at the siege of Siengiangfuu, (I. ii. c. 61. in Kamueio, torn. 
 II. bee Gaubil, p. 155. 157 ) must have felt and related the effects of 
 Ihis deslruciive powder, and their silence is a weighty, and almost 
 decisive, objection. I entertain a suspicion, that the recent discovery 
 was carried from Europe to China by the caravans of the fifteenth 
 century, and falsely adopted as an old national discovery before the 
 r» V? A^^ Portuguese and Jesuits in the sixteenth. Yet the Pere 
 wauDii amrms, that the use of gunpowder haa been known lo the 
 
 Chinese above 1600 years.' 
 
 lagou Khan, the grandson of Zingis, the brother and 
 lieutenant of the two successive emperors, Mangou 
 and Cublai. I shall not enumerate the crowd of sul- 
 tans, emirs, and atabeks, whom he trampled into dust; 
 but the extirpation of the ^ssaasinst or Ismaelians * of 
 Persia, may be considered as a service to mankind. 
 Among the hills to the south of the Caspian, these 
 odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above a 
 hundred and sixty years ; and their prince, or imam, 
 established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colo- 
 ny of mount Libanus, so famous and formidable in the 
 hjstory of the crusades." With the fanaticism of the 
 Koran, the Ismaelians had blended the Indian trans- 
 migration, and the visions of their own prophets ; and 
 it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies 
 in blind obedience to the vioar of God. The daggers 
 of his missionaries were felt both in the east and west : 
 the christians and the Moslems enumerate, and per- 
 haps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacri- 
 ficed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment of ihe old man 
 (as he was corruptly styled) (f ihe mouniain. But 
 these dagcrers, his only arms, were broken by the 
 sword of Holagou, and not a vestige is left of the 
 enenn'es of mankind, except the word assassin^ which, 
 in the most odious sense, has been adopted in the lan- 
 guages of Europe. The extinction of the Abbassi- 
 des cannot be indifferent to the spectators of their 
 ffreatness and decline. Since the fall of their Selju- 
 kian tyrants, the caliphs had recovered their lawful 
 dominion of Bagdad and the Arabian Irak ; but the 
 city was distracted by theological factions, and the 
 commander of the faithful was lost in a harem of 
 seven hundred concubines. The invasion of the Mo- 
 guls he encountered with feeble arms and haughty 
 embassies. ** On the divine decree," said the caliph 
 Mostasem, " is founded the throne of the sons of Ab- 
 bas : and their foes shall surely be destroyed in this 
 world and in the next. Who is this Holagou that 
 dares to rise against them 1 If he be desirous of 
 peace, let him instantly depart from the sacred territo- 
 ry : and perhaps he may obtain from our clemency the 
 pardon of his fault." This presumption was cherish- 
 ed by a perfidious vizir, who assured his master, that, 
 even if the barbarians had entered the city, the women 
 and children, from the terraces, would be sufTicient to 
 overwhelm them with stones. But when Holagou 
 touched the phantom, it instantly vanished into smoke. 
 After a siege of two months, Bagdad was stormed and 
 sacked by the Moguls : and their savage commander 
 pronounced the death of the caliph Mostasem, the last 
 of the temporal successors of Mahomet; whose noble 
 kinsmen, of the race of Abbas, had reigned in Asia 
 above five hundred years. Whatever might be the 
 designs of the conqueror, the holy cities oflviecca and 
 Medina* were protected by the Arabian desert; but 
 the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris and Euphrates, 
 pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to 
 join the Franks in the deliverance of Jerusalem. 
 Egypt was lost, had she been defended only by her 
 feeble offspring ; but the Mamalukes had breathed in 
 their infancy the keenness of a Scythian air: equal in 
 valour, superior in discipline, they met the Moguls in 
 many a well-fought field ; and drove back the stream 
 of hostility to the eastward of the Euphrates. But it 
 oyerfloweci with resistless violence the of AnamUa, 
 kingdoms of Armenia and Anatolia, of A. D. 1242' 
 which the former was possessed by the —1272. 
 christians, and the latter by the Turks. The sultans 
 
 » All that can be known of the Assassins of Persia and Syria, h 
 poured from the copious, and even profuse, erudition of M. Falco- 
 net, in two memoiret read before the Academy of Inscriptions, (torn, 
 xvii. p. J'27— 170.) 
 
 b The Ismaelians of Syria, 40,000 Assassins, had acquired or f.n.n- 
 ded ten castles in the hills above Tortosa. About the year 1230, they 
 were extirpated by the Mamalukes. 
 
 c As a proof of the ignorance of the Chinese in foreign transac- 
 tions, I must observe, that some of their historians extend the ron- 
 ^"^/}^. "f Zingia himself to Medina, the country of Maho.net. (Ciiubil, 
 
 i 
 
 Bta, Poland, 
 Hungary, &c. 
 A. D. 1235 
 — 1-245. 
 
 of Iconium opposed some resistance to the Mogul 
 arms, till Azzadin sought a refuge among the Greeks 
 of Constantinople, and his feeble successors, the last 
 of the Seljukian dynasty, were finally extirpated by the 
 khans of Persia. 
 
 OfKipzakjRua- III. No sooner had Octai subverted 
 the northern empire of China, than he 
 resolved to visit with his arms the most 
 remote countries of the west. Fifteen 
 hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars were inscribed 
 on the military roll : of these the great khan selected 
 a third, which he intrusted to the command of his 
 nephew Baton, the son of Tuli; who reigned over his 
 father's conquests to the north of the Caspian sea. 
 After a festival of forty days. Baton set forwards on 
 this great expedition : and such was the speed and 
 ardour of his innumerable squadrons, that in less than 
 six years they had measured a line of ninety degrees 
 of longitude, a fourth part of the circumference of the 
 globe. The great rivers of Asia and Europe, the 
 Volga and Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the Vis- 
 tula and Danube, they either swam with their horses, 
 or passed on the ice, or traversed in leathern boats, 
 which followed the camp, and transported their wag- 
 gons and artillery. By the first victories of Baton, 
 the remains of national freedom were eradicated in 
 the immense plains of Turkestan and Kipzak.'* In 
 his rapid progress, he overran the kingdoms, as they 
 are now styled, of Astracan and Cazan ; and the 
 troops which he detached towards mount Caucasus, 
 explored the most secret recesses of Georgia and Cir- 
 cassia. The civil discord of the great dukes, or prin- 
 ces, of Russia, betrayed their country to the Tartars. 
 They spread from Livonia to the Black sea, and both 
 Moscow and Kiow, the modern and the ancient capi- 
 tals, were reduced to ashes ; a temporary ruin, less 
 fatal than the deep, and perhaps indelible, mark, which 
 a servitude of two hundred years has imprinted on the 
 character of the Russians. The Tartars ravaged with 
 equal fury the countries which they hoped to possess, 
 and those which they were hastening to leave. From 
 the permanent conquest of Russia, they made a deadly 
 though transient inroad into the heart of Poland, and 
 as far as the borders of Germany. The cities of Lub- 
 lim and Cracow were obliterated : they approached 
 the shores of the Baltic ; and in the battle of Lignitz, 
 they defeated the dukes of Silesia, the Polish palen- 
 tines, and the great master of the Teutonic order, and 
 filled nine sacks with the right ears of the slain. From 
 Lignitz, the extreme point of their western march, 
 they turned aside to the invasion of Hungary : and the 
 presence or spirit of Batou inspired the host of five 
 hundred thousand men : the Carpathian hills could not 
 be long impervious to their divided columns ; and their 
 approach had been fondly disbelieved till it was irre- 
 sistibly felt. The king, Bela the fourth, assembled 
 the military force of his counts and bishops; but he 
 had alienated the nation by adopting a vagrant horde 
 of forty thousand families of Comans, and these sa- 
 vage guests were provoked to revolt by the suspicion 
 of treachery and the murder of their prince. The 
 whole country north of the Danube was lost in a day, 
 and depopulated in a summer; and the ruins of cities 
 and churches were overspread with the bones of the 
 natives, who expiated the sins of their Turkish ances- 
 tors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the sack of Wa- 
 radin, describes the calamities which he had seen, or 
 suffered ; and the sanguinary rage of sieges and bat- 
 tles is far less atrocious than the treatment of the fugi- 
 tives, who had been allured from the woods under a 
 promise of peace and pardon, and who were coolly 
 slaughtered as soon as they had performed the labours 
 of the harvest and vintage. In the winter, the Tar- 
 
 J The Dashte Kipzak, or plain of Kipzak, extends on either side 
 of the Volga, in a boundlesB space towards the Jaik and Borysthe- 
 nes, and is supposed to contain the primitive name and nation of the 
 Cossack*. 
 
 tars passed the Danube on the ice, and advanced to 
 Gran or Strigonium, a German colony, and the metro- 
 polis of the kingdom. Thirty engines were planted 
 against the walls; the ditches were filled with sacks 
 of earth and dead bodies ; and after a promiscuous mas- 
 sacre, three hundred noble matrons were slain in the 
 presence of the khan. Of all the cities and fortresses 
 of Hungary, three alone survived the Tartar invasion, 
 and the unfortunate Bela hid his head among the is- 
 lands of the Adriatic. 
 
 The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of sa- 
 vage hostility : a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to 
 Sweden : and the remote nations of the Baltic and the 
 ocean trembled at the approach of the Tartars,* whom 
 their fear and ignorance were inclined to separate from 
 the human species. Since the invasion of the Arabs 
 in the eighth century, Europe had never been exposed 
 to a similar calamity ; and if the disciples of Mahomet 
 would have oppressed her religion and liberty, it might 
 be apprehended that the shepherds of Scythia would 
 extinguish her cities, her arts, and all the institu- 
 tions of civil society. The Roman pontiff attempted 
 to appease and convert these invincible pagans by a 
 mission of Franciscan and Dominican friars ; but he 
 was astonished by the reply of the khan, that the sons 
 of God and of Zingis were invested with a divine pow- 
 er to subdue or extirpate the nations; and that the pope 
 would be involved in the universal destruction unless 
 he visited in person, and as a suppliant, the royal 
 horde. The emperor Frederic the second embraced a 
 niore generous mode of defence ; and his letters to the 
 kings of France and England, and the princes of Germa- 
 ny, represented the common danger, and urged them 
 to arm their vassals in this just and rational crusade.' 
 The Tartars themselves were awed by the fame and 
 valour of the Franks : the town of Newstadt in Austria 
 was bravely defended against them by fifty knights and 
 twenty crossbows ; and they raised the siege'' on the 
 appearance of a German army. After wasting the 
 adjacent kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, 
 Batou slowly retreated from the Danube to the'^Vol- 
 ga, to enjoy the rewards of victory in the city and 
 palace of Serai, which started at his command from 
 the midst of the desert. 
 
 IV. Even the poor and frozen regions Of Siberia, 
 of the north attracted the arms of the A.. D. 1-242, &c. 
 Moguls : Sheibani khan, the brother of the great Ba- 
 tou, led a horde of fifteen thousand families into the 
 wilds of Siberia; and his descendants reigned at To- 
 bolskoy above three centuries, till the Russian conquest. 
 The spirit of enterprise which pursued the course of 
 the Oby and Yenisei must have led to the discovery 
 of the icy sea. After brushing away the monstrous 
 fables of men with dogs' heads and cloven feet, we 
 shall find, that, fifteen years after the death of Zingis, 
 the Moguls were informed of the name and manners 
 of the Samoyedes in the neighbourhood of the polar 
 circle, who dwelt in subterraneous huts, and derived 
 their furs and their food from the sole occupation of 
 hunting.* 
 
 e In the year 1239, the inhabitants of Gothia iSteeden") and Frise 
 were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars, from sending, as usual, 
 their ships to the herring-fisherv on the coast of England ; and as there 
 was no exportation, forty or fifty of these fish were sold for a shilling. 
 (Matthew Paris, p. 396.) It is whimsical enough, lliat the orders of a 
 Mogul khan, who reigned on the borders of China, should have lower- 
 ed the price of herrings in the English market. 
 
 f I shall copy his characteristic or flattering epithets of the different 
 countries of Europe : Furens ac fervens ad arma Germania, strenuss 
 militire genitrixet alumna Francia, bellicosa et audax Hispania, vir- 
 tuosaviris et classe inunita fertilis Anglia, impetuosis bellatoribus re- 
 ferta Alemannia, navalis Dacia, indoniita Italia, pacis ignara Bur- 
 gundia, inquieta Apulia, cum maris Graeci, Adrialici, et Tyrrheni in- 
 sulis, pyraticis et inviciis, Creta, Cypro, Sicilia, cum Oceano conter- 
 minis insulis, et regionibup, cruenta Hybernia, cum agili Wallia, pa- 
 lustris Scotia, glacialis Norwegia.suam eleciam militiam sub vexillo 
 Crucis destinabunt, Sec. (Hatthew Paris, p. 498.) 
 
 g See Carpin's relation in Hackluyt, vol. i. p. 30. The pedigree 
 of the khans of Siberia is given by Abulghazi, (part viii. pages 
 435 — 495.) Have the Russians found no Tartar Chronicles at To- 
 bolsk ? 
 
 ff 
 
406 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 407 
 
 M 
 
 Li 
 
 -,. While China, Syria, and Poland, were 
 
 The succetflora . , , i "^ • i_ *l T»r i 
 
 of Zinsis, invaded at the same time by the Moguls 
 
 A. D._ and Tartars, the authors of the mighty 
 
 1227—1259. mischief were content with the know- 
 ledge and declaration, that their word was the sword 
 of death. Like the first caliphs, the first successors 
 of Zingis seldom appeared in person at the head of 
 their victorious armies. On the banks of the Onon 
 and Selinga the royal or golden horde exhibited the 
 contrast of simplicity and greatness ; of the roasted 
 sheep and mare's milk which composed their banquets; 
 and of a distribution in one day of five hundred wag- 
 gons of gold and silver. The ambassadors and princes 
 of Europe and Asia were compelled to undertake this 
 distant and laborious pilgrimage: and the life and reign 
 of the great dukes of Russia, the kings of Georgia and 
 Armenia, the sultans of Iconium, and the emirs of Per- 
 sia, were decided by the frown or smile of the great 
 khan. The sons and grandsons of Zingis had been ac- 
 customed to the pastoral life ; but the village of Cara- 
 corum'' was gradually ennobled by their election and 
 residence. A change of manners is implied in the re- 
 moval of Octai and Mangou from the tent to a house ; 
 and their example was imitated by the princes of their 
 family and the great officers of the empire. Instead 
 of the boundless forest, the enclosure of a park aflford- 
 €d the more indolent pleasures of the chace ; their new 
 habitations were decorated with painting and sculp- 
 ture ; their superfluous treasures were cast in fountains, 
 and basins, and statues of massy silver ; and the art- 
 ists of China and Paris vied with each other in the 
 service of the great khan.' Caracorum contained two 
 streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of Ma- 
 hometan traders; and the places of religious worship, 
 one Nestorian church, two moschs, and twelve temples 
 of various idols, may represent in some degree the 
 number and division of inhabitants. Yet a French 
 missionary declares, that the town of St. Denys, near 
 Paris, was more considerable than the Tartar capital ; 
 and that the whole palace of Mangou was scarcely 
 equal to a tenth part of that Benedictine abbey. The 
 conquests of Russia and Syria might amuse the vanity 
 of the great khans ; but they were seated on the borders 
 of China; the acquisition of that empire was the near- 
 est and most interesting object; and they might learn 
 from their pastoral economy, that it is for the ad van- 
 Adopt the man. ^^^® of the shepherd to protect and pro- 
 nera of China, pagate his nock. I have already celebra- 
 ' 1259—1368 ^^® wisdom and virtue of a manda- 
 
 rin, who prevented the desolation of five 
 populous and cultivated provinces. In a spotless ad- 
 ministration of thirty years, this friend of his country 
 and of mankind continually laboured to mitigate, or 
 suspend, the havoc of war; to save the monuments, 
 and to rekindle the flame, of science ; to restrain the 
 military commander by the restoration of civil magis- 
 trates; and to instil the love of peace and justice into 
 the minds of the Moguls. He struggled with the bar- 
 barism of the first conquerors ; but his salutary lessons 
 produced a rich harvest in the second generation. The 
 northern, and by degrees the southern, empire, acqui- 
 esced in the government of Cublai, the lieutenant, and 
 afterwards the successor, of Mangou ; and the nation 
 was loyal to a prince who had been educated in the 
 manners of China. He restored the forms of her vene- 
 rable constitution ; and the victors submitted to the 
 laws, the fashions, and even the prejudices, of the van- 
 quished people. This peaceful triumph, which has 
 been more than once repeated, may be ascribed in a 
 great measure to the numbers and servitude of the Chi- 
 
 h The map of D'Anville, and the Chinesp Itineraries (de Guigneo 
 torn. 1. part ii. p. 57.) seem to mark ihe position of Holin, or Caraco^ 
 rum, about six hundred miles to the north-west of Pekin. The di». 
 lance between Selinginsky and Pekin is near 2000 Russian versts. 
 between 1300 and 1400 English miles. (Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 67.) 
 /.fc* Ir"''""j "'^ ^^ Caracorum his countryman Guillaume Bou- 
 m?tJ^ vl^v* , Pfiris, who had executed for the khan a silver tree, 
 IK^! / -^^ *^^"^ ''""»• a"'^ ejecting four diflTerent liquors. Abul- 
 snazi ipan jv. p. 336.) meuiions the paimeri of Kiu/ or China. 
 
 Mogul empire, 
 A. D. 
 1259—1300. 
 
 nese. The Mogul army was dissolved in a vast and 
 populous country ; and their emperors adopted with 
 pleasure a political system, which gives to the prince 
 the solid substance of despotisn), and leaves to the sub- 
 ject the empty names of philosophy, freedom, and filial 
 obedience. Under the reign of Cublai, letters and 
 commerce, peace and justice, were restored; the great 
 canal, of five hundred miles, was opened from Nankin 
 to the capital : he fixed his residence at Pekin ; and 
 displayed in his court the magnificence of the greatest 
 monarch of Asia. Yet this learned prince declined 
 from the pure and simple religion of his great ances- 
 tor; he sacrificed to the idol Fo; and his blind attach- 
 ment to the lamas of Thibet and the bonzes of China* 
 provoked the censure of the disciples of Confucius. 
 His successors polluted the palace with a crowd of eu- 
 nuchs, physicians, and astrologers, while thirteen miN 
 lions of their subjects were consumed in the provinces 
 by famine. One hundred and forty years after the 
 death of Zingis, his degenerate race, the dynasty of the 
 Yuen, was expelled by a revolt of the native Chinese; 
 and the Mogul emperors were lost in the i,j,i,i^,„ ^^^^^ 
 oblivion of the desert. Before this revo- 
 lution, they had forfeited their suprema- 
 cy over the dependent branches of their 
 house, the khans of Kipzak and Russia, the khans of 
 Zagatai, or Transoxiana, and the khans of Iran or Per- 
 sia. By their distance and power these royal lieuten- 
 ants had soon been released from the duties of obedi- 
 ence ; and after the death of Cublai, they scorned to 
 accept a sceptre or a title from his unworthy succes- 
 sors. According to their respective situation, they 
 maintained the simplicity of the pastoral life, or as- 
 sumed the luxury of the cities of Asia; but the princes 
 and their hordes were alike disposed for the reception 
 of a foreign worship. After some hesitation between 
 the Gospel and the Koran, they conformed to the re- 
 ligion of Mahomet; and while they adopted for their 
 brethren the Arabs and Persians, they renounced all 
 intercourse with the ancient Moguls, the idolaters of 
 China. 
 
 In this shipwreck of nations, some gjcape of Con- 
 surprise may be excited by the escape of siaminopie and 
 
 the Roman empire, whose relics, at the ^^® Greeit em 
 .; e a\, -KM ^ • !• P'l'e from the 
 
 time ot the Mogul invasion, were dis- 
 membered by the Greeks and Latins. 
 Less potent than Alexander, they were 
 pressed, like the Macedonian, both in Europe and 
 Asia, by the shepherds of Scythia : and had the Tar- 
 tars undertaken the siege, Constantinople must have 
 yielded to the fate of Pekin, Samarcand, and Bagdad. 
 The glorious and voluntary retreat of Baton from the 
 Danube, was insulted by' the vain triumph of the 
 Franks and Greeks;* and in a second expedition 
 death surprised him in full march to attack the capital 
 of the Caesars. His brother Borga carried the Tartar 
 arms into Bulgaria and Thrace ; but he was diverted 
 from the Byzantine war by a visit to Novogorod, in 
 the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, where he number- 
 ed the inhabitants and regulated the tributes of Rus- 
 sia. The Mogul khan formed an alliance with the 
 Mamalukes against his brethren of Persia: three hun- 
 dred thousand horse penetrated through the gates of 
 Derbend ; and the Greeks might rejoice in the first 
 example of domestic war. After the recovery of Con- 
 stantinople, Michael Palceologus," at a distance from 
 
 Moguls, 
 A. D. 1240- 
 1304. 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
 k The attachment of the khans, and the hatred of the mandarins, to 
 the bonzes and lamas (Duhalde, Hist, de la Chine, tom. i. p 502, 503.) 
 seems to represent them as the priests of the same god, of the Indian 
 Fo, whose worship prevails among the sects of Hindostan, Siam. Thi- 
 bet, China, and Japan. But this mysterious subject is siiU luat. in a 
 cloud, which the researches of our Asiatic society may gradually dis 
 pel. 
 
 1 Some repulse of the Moguls in Hungary (Matthew Paris, p. 54J5, 
 646.) might jjropagate and colour the report of the union and victory 
 of the kings of the Franks on the confines of Bulgaria. Abulphara- 
 gius, (Dynast, p. 310.) after forty years, beyond the Tigris, might be 
 easily deceivea. 
 
 m See Pachymer, 1. iii. c. 25. and 1. ix. c. 26, 27. and the false alarm 
 at Nice, I. Iii. c. 27. Nicephorus Gregoras, I. It. c. 6. 
 
 his court and army, was surprised and surrounded, in 
 a Thracian castle, by twenty thousand Tartars. But 
 the object of iheir march was a private interest: they 
 came to the deliverance of Azzadin, the Turkish sul- 
 tan ; and were content with his person and the trea- 
 sure of the emperor. Their general Nogo, whose 
 name is perpetuated in the hordes of Astracan, raised 
 a formidable rebellion against MengoTimour, the third 
 of the khans of Kipzak ; obtained in marriage Maria 
 the natural daughter of Palaeologus ; and guarded the 
 dominions of his friend and father. The subsequent 
 invasions of a Scythian cast were those of outlaws 
 and fugitives : and some thousands of Alani and Co- 
 mans, who had been driven from their native seats, 
 were reclaimed from a vagrant life, and enlisted in 
 the service of the empire. Such was the influence in 
 Europe of the invasion of the Moguls. The first ter- 
 ror of their arms secured, rather than disturbed, the 
 peace of the Roman Asia. The sultan of Iconium 
 solicited a personal interview with John Vataces ; and 
 his artful policy encouraged the Turks to defend their 
 barrier against the common enemy." That barrier in- 
 deed was soon overthrown ; and the servitude and ruin 
 of theSeljukians exposed the nakedness of the Greeks. 
 The formidable Holagou threatened to march to Con- 
 stantinople at the head of four hundred thousand men ; 
 and the groundless panic of the citizens of Nice will 
 present an image of the terror which he had inspired. 
 The accident of a procession, and the sound of a dole- 
 ful litany, ** From the fury of the Tartars, good Lord, 
 deliver us," had scattered the hasty report of an as- 
 sault and massacre. In the blind credulity of fear, 
 the streets of Nice were crowded with thousands of 
 both sexes, who knew not from what or to whom they 
 fled ; and some hours elapsed before the firmness of the 
 military officers could relieve the city from this imag- 
 inary foe. But the ambition of Holagou and his suc- 
 cessors was fortunately diverted by the conquest of 
 Bagdad, and a long vicissitude of Syrian wars : their 
 hostility to Ihe Moslems inclined them to unite with 
 the Greeks and Franks;" and their generosity or con- 
 tempt had offered the kingdom of Anatolia as the re- 
 ward of an Armenian vassal. The fragments of the 
 Seljukian monarchy were disputed by the emirs who 
 had occupied the cities or the mountains ; but they all 
 confessed the supremacy of the khans of Persia ; and 
 he often interposed his authority, and sometimes his 
 arms, to check their depredations, and to preserve the 
 peace and balance of his Turkish frontier. The death 
 Decline of the of Cazan,P one of the greatest and most 
 Mogul khans of accomplished princes of the house of 
 
 A.'d. 1304. Zingis, removed this salutary control ; 
 
 May 31. and the decline of the Moguls gave a 
 
 free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman 
 
 Empire.** 
 
 Oriein of the After the retreat of Zingis, the sultan 
 
 Ottomans, Gelaleddin of Carizme had returned from 
 A. D. 1240, &c. India to the possession and defence of 
 his Persian kingdoms. In the space of eleven years, 
 that hero fought in person fourteen battles ; and such 
 was his activity, that he led his cavalry in seventeen 
 days from Teflis to Kerman, a march of a thousand 
 miles. Yet he was oppressed by the jealousy of the 
 Moslem princes, and the innumerable armies of the 
 Moguls : and after his last defeat, Gelaleddin perish- 
 
 ■ G. Acropolita, p. 36, 37. Nic. Greg. 1. ii. c. 6, 1. iy. c. 5. 
 
 o Abulpharagius, who wrote in the year 1284, declares, thai the 
 Moguls, since the fabulous defeat of Baton, had not attacked either 
 the Franks or Greeks ; and of this he is a competent witness. Hay- 
 ton, likewise, the Arnieniac prince, celebrates their friendship for 
 himself and his nation. 
 
 P Pachymer gives a splendid character of Cazan Khan, the rival of 
 Cyrus and Alexander, (1. xii. c. 1.) In the conclusion of his history, 
 <l. ziii. c. 36.) he hopes much from the arrival of 30,000 Tochars or 
 Tartars, who were ordered by the successor of Cazan to restrain the 
 Turks of Bilhynia, A. D. 1308. 
 
 • q The origin of the Ottoman dynasty is illustrated by the critical 
 learning of M. M. de Guignes (Hist, des Huns. tom. iv. p. 329—337.) 
 and D*Anville, (Empire Turc, p. 14—22.) two inhabitants of Paris, 
 from whom the orieniali may leara the history and geography of their 
 own country. 
 
 ed ignobly in the mountains of Curdistan. His death 
 dissolved a veteran and adventurous aimy, which in- 
 cluded under the name of Carizmians or Corasmins 
 many Turkman hordes, that had attached themselves 
 to the sultan's fortune. The bolder and more power- 
 ful chiefs invaded Syria, and violated the holy $;epul- 
 chre of Jerusalem : the more humble engaged in the 
 service of Aladin, sultan of Iconium ; and among 
 these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line! 
 They had formerly pitched their tents near the south- 
 ern banks of the Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and 
 Nesa ; and it is somewhat remarkable, that the same 
 spot should have produced the first authors of the Par- 
 thian and Turkish empires. At the head, or in the 
 rear, of a Carizmian army, Soliman Shah was drown- 
 ed in the passage of the Euphrates : his son Ortho- 
 grul became the soldier and subject of Aladin, and 
 established at Surgut, on the banks of the Sangar, a 
 camp of four hundred families or tents, whom he po- 
 verned fifty-two years both in peace and war. He 
 was the father of Thaman, or Athman, ReiimofOih- 
 whose Turkish name has been melted ^nan, 
 
 into the appellation of the caliph Qth- -^I^- 1299-1326. 
 man ; and if we describe that pastoral chief as a shep- 
 herd and a robber, we must separate from those cha- 
 racters all idea of ignominy and baseness. Othman 
 possessed, and perhaps surpassed, the ordinary vir- 
 tues of a soldier ; and the circumstances of time and 
 place were propitious to his independence and success. 
 The Seljukian dynasty was no more; and the distance 
 and decline of the Mogul khans soon enfranchised 
 him from the control of a superior. He was situate 
 on the verge of the Greek empire : the Koran sancti- 
 fied his gazi^ or holy war, against the infidels ; and 
 their political errors unlocked the passes of mount 
 Olympus, and invited him to descend into the plains 
 of Bithynia. Till the reign of Palaeologus, these pas- 
 ses had been vigilantly guarded by the militia of the 
 country, who were repaid by their own safety and an 
 exemption from taxes. The emperor abolished their 
 privilege and assumed their office ; but the tribute 
 was rigorously collected, the custody of the passes 
 was neglected, and the hardy mountaineers degenera- 
 ted into a trembling crowd of peasants without spirit 
 or discipline. It was on the twenty-seventh of July, 
 in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the 
 christian asra, that Othman first invaded the territory 
 of Nicomedia; *■ and the singular accuracy of the date 
 seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and de- 
 structive growth of the monster. The annals of the 
 twenty-seven years of his reign would exhibit a repe- 
 tition of the same inroads ; and his hereditary troops 
 were multiplied in each campaign by the accession of 
 captives and volunteers. Instead of retreating to the 
 hills, he maintained the most useful and defensible 
 posts ; fortified the towns and castles which he had 
 first pillaged ; and renounced the pastoral life for the 
 baths and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was 
 not till Othman was oppressed by age and infirmities, 
 that he received the welcome news of the conquest 
 of Prusa, which had been surrendered by famine or 
 treachery to the arms of his son Orchan. The glory 
 of Othman is chiefly founded on that of his descen- 
 dants ; but the Turks have transcribed or composed a 
 royal testament of his last counsels of justice and mo- 
 deration.' 
 
 r See Pachymer, 1. x. c. 25, 26. 1. xii!. c. 33—36. and concern inp the 
 
 rard of the mountains, I. i. c. 3—6. Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. vii. c. 
 and the first book of LaonicaJChalcondyles, the Athenian. 
 • I am ignorant whether the Turks have any writers older than 
 Mahomet II. nor can I reach beyond a meagre chronicle, (Annales 
 Turcici ad Annum 1550.) translated by John Gaudier, and published 
 by Leunclavius, (ad calcem Laonic. Chalcond, p. 311— .%0.) with 
 copious pandects, or commentaries. The history of the Growth and 
 Decay (A. D. 1300—1683.) of the Othman empire, was translated into 
 English from the Latin MS. of Demetrius (Jantemir, prince of Mol- 
 davia, (London, 1731, in folio.) The author is guilty of strange blun- 
 ders in oriental history ; but he was conversant with the language, 
 the annals, and the institutions of the Turks. Calhemir partly 
 draws his materials from the Synopsis of Saadi Effendi of Larissa, de- 
 dicated in the year 1606 to sultan Mustapha, and a valuable abridg- 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 t, 1 . 
 
408 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 *s 
 
 ;i 
 
 Rei?n of Orchan, From the conquest of Prusa, we may 
 A. D. 132^1360. date the true aera of the Ottoman empire. 
 The lives and possessions of the christian subjects 
 were redeemed by a tribute or ransom of thirty thou- 
 sand crowns of gold ; and the city, by the labours 
 of Orchan, assumed the aspect of a Mahometan capi- 
 tal ; Prusa was decorated with a mosch, a college, and 
 an hospital, of royal foundation ; the Seljukian coin 
 was changed for the name and impression of the new 
 dynasty: and the most skilful professors, of human 
 and divine knowledge, attracted the Persian and Ara- 
 bian students from the ancient schools of oriental 
 learning. The office of vizir was instituted for Ala- 
 din, the brother of Orchan ; and a different habit dis- 
 tinguished the citizens from the peasants, the Mos- 
 lems from the infidels. All the troops of Olhman had 
 consisted of loose squadrons of Turkman cavalry, who 
 served without pay and fought without discipline; but 
 a regular body of infantry was first established and 
 trained by the prudence of his son. A great number 
 of volunteers was enrolled with a small stipend, but 
 with the permission of living at home, unless they 
 were summoned to the field : their rude manners, and 
 seditious temper, disposed Orchan to educate his young 
 captives as his soldiers and those of the prophet ; but 
 the Turkish peasants were still allowed to mount on 
 horseback, and follow his standard, with the appella- 
 tion and the hopes of freebooters. By these arts he 
 formed an army of twenty-five thousand Moslems : a 
 train of battering-engines was framed for the use of 
 sieges ; and the first successful experiment was made 
 
 409 
 
 The knishts of 
 
 Rhodfs, 
 
 A. D. 1310. 
 
 Aue. 15— 
 
 A. D. 1523. 
 
 JCD. I. 
 
 His conquest of 0" ^^^® lilies of Nice and Nicomedia. 
 Biihynia, Orchan granted a safe conduct to all 
 A. D. 13-2G-1339. ^yj,o Were desirous of departing with 
 their families and effects; but the widows °of the 
 slain were given in marriage to the conquerors ; and 
 the sacrilegious plunder, the books, the vases, and 
 the images, were sold or ransomed at Constantinople. 
 The emperor Andronicus the younger was vanquished 
 and wounded by the son of Othman :» he subdued the 
 whole province or kingdom of Bithynia, as far as the 
 shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the 
 christians confessed the justice and clemency of a 
 reign, which claimed the voluntary attachment of the 
 Turks of Asia. Yet Orchan was content with the mo- 
 dest title of emir; and in the list of his compeers, the 
 princes of Roum or Anatolia," his military forces were 
 Division of Ana- surpassed by the emirs of Ghermian and 
 toira amon? the Caramania, each of whom could brinor 
 
 ^ra iSo'&c. ^"'"^ ^^^ ^®l^ ^" ^'■"^y «^ ^ofty thousand 
 ' * men. Their dominions w«re situate in 
 the heart of the Seljukian kingdom : but the holy 
 warriors, though of inferior note, who formed new 
 principalities on the Greek empire, are more conspic- 
 uous in the light of history. The maritime country 
 Su""j ^^® Propontis to the Maeander and the isle of 
 Rhodes, so long threatened and so often pillarred, was 
 finally lost about the thirtieth year of Andronicus the 
 elder.' Two Turkish chieftains, Sarukhan and Aidin, 
 left their names to their conquests, and their conquests 
 Loss of the to their posterity. The captivity or ruin 
 ^A^tmVST'''^ ^^® *^''^'» churches of Asia was con- 
 summated; and the barb arous lords of 
 
 ment of the original hialorians. In one of the Ramblers Dr John 
 sonpni.ses Knot ies (a General History of thrXurks to ulenreLent 
 year, London, 16(|3.) as the first of hiLrianrunhapiy onV'n tl^^^^ 
 choice of h,s subject. Yet I much doubt whether a JS^lial and ver- 
 l«ae compila .on from Latin writers, thirteen hundred fo io p^ees of 
 ■peecheg and battl^, can either instruct or amuse an enli^^htened 
 Ildc^'rilicism?""" '°'" thehisiortun some tincture of pialosophy 
 t Cantacuzene, though he relates the baule and heroic fli»ht of ihs 
 
 f^^^/p^"'^";?'''"''' <'; V;.*'- ^' ''' ^•> dissembles by his sifonce he 
 loss of Prusa^ Nice, and Nicomedia, which are fairly confessed bv 
 Nicephorus J^regoras, (1. viii. 15. ix. 9. 13. xi. 6.) It appears that Nice 
 was taken by Orchan in 1330, and Nicomedia ia J339, which are 
 ■omewhat different from the Turkish dates. 
 
 Tjo^rii! Pf ^'/i^" ?f Vhe Turkish emirs is extracted from two contem- 
 MS;rhf ^n"®';'^ N.cephorus Gregoras (I. vii. 1.) and the Arabian 
 firit bo^l^f'/? </uigne8, lom ii. p. ii. p. 76, 77.) S«e likewise the 
 nrsi Doolc of Laonicus Chalcoudyles. 
 « Facbymer, I. xiii. c. 13. 
 
 Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of 
 classic and christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephe 
 sus, the christians deplored the fall of the first angel^ 
 the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revela- 
 tions : y the desolation is complete; and the temple of 
 Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the 
 search of the curious traveller. The circus and three 
 stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with 
 wolves and foxes ; Sard is is reduced to a miserable 
 village ; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a 
 son, is invoked in the moschs of Thyatira and Perga- 
 mus ; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported 
 by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. 
 Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or 
 courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the 
 emperors, encompassed on all sides by th^e Turks, her 
 valiant citizens defended their reliffion and freedom 
 above fourscore years ; and at length capitulated with 
 the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek 
 colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still 
 erect ; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing exam- 
 pie, that the paths of honour and safety may some- 
 times be the same. The servitude of 
 Rhodes was delayed about two centuries 
 by the establishment of the knights of 
 St. John of Jerusalem :» under the dis- 
 cipline of the order, that island emerged 
 
 into fame and opulence ; the noble and warlike monks 
 were renowned by land and sea ; and the bulwark of 
 Christendom provoked, and repelled, the arms of the 
 Turks and Saracens. 
 
 The Greeks, by their intestine divi- p. , . 
 
 sions, were the authors of their final ihrCks-fn^ta 
 ruin. During the civil wars of the el- Kurope, 
 der and younger Andronicus, the son of ^- ^^ ^341-i»47. 
 Othman achieved, almost without resisUnce, the con- 
 quest of Bithynia ; and the same disorders encouratred 
 the Turkish emirs of Lydia and Ionia to build a fleet, 
 and to pillage the adjacent islands and the seacoast of 
 Europe. In the defence of his life and honour, Can- 
 tacuzene was tempted to prevent, or imitate, his ad- 
 versaries ; by calling to his aid the public enemies of 
 his religion and country. Amir, the son of Aidin, 
 concealed under a Turkish garb the humanity and po- 
 liteness of a Greek ; he was united with the great do- 
 mestic by mutual esteem and reciprocal services; and 
 their friendship is compared, in the vain rhetoric of 
 the times, to the perfect union of Orestes and Pyla- 
 des.» On the report of the danger of his friend, who 
 was persecuted by an ungrateful court, the prince of 
 Ionia assembled at Smyrna a fleet of three hundred 
 vessels, with an army of twenty-nine thousand men ; 
 sailed in the depth of winter, and cast anchor at the 
 mouth of the Hebrus. From thence, with a chosen 
 band of two thousand Turks, he marched along the 
 banks of the river, and rescued the empress, who was 
 besieged m Demotica by the wild Bulgarians. At that 
 disastrous moment, the life or death of his beloved 
 Cantacuzene was concealed by his flight into Servia : 
 but the grateful Irene, impatient to behold her deliv- 
 erer, invited him to enter the city, and accompanied 
 her message with a present of rich apparel, and a hun- 
 dred horses. By a peculiar strain of delicacy, the 
 gentle barbarian refu sed, in the absence of an unfortu- 
 
 y See the Travels of Wheeler and Spon, of Pococke and Chandler. 
 ^"%"J*^''« particularly Smith's Survey of the Seven churches of Asia 
 p. Akt—iJb. ihe more pious aniiquarics labour to reconcile the 
 promises and threats of the auilior of the Kevoiations wiiti the vre- 
 s«n/ stale of the seven cities. Perhaps it would be more prudent to 
 conflne his predictions to the characters and events of his own 
 times. 
 
 pa'k?""? "\r ^^^ ^*^^rl}^ ^°^^ °^ ^^® Histoire do I'Ordre de Malthc par 
 I Abbe cle Vmot. That pleasing writer beirays his iuiiorance, insup- 
 p<.sing that Othman, a freebooter of tlie Biihynian hills, could besiege 
 Khodes by sea and land. ^ 
 
 hio ^'<^^P^'^'«""8 Gregoras has expatiated with pleasure on this amla- 
 sieaks'wi^L'f' ^'- ^"- ^{ '''''''' ^' *?L ^'"- '• ^- ^''- 6-) Cantacuzene 
 Da^ion f;.r .r' ?> •\^"' he seems ignorant of his own sentimenul 
 
 SS^rrSmtd?h5p;ci?1v:"c'45o'' ''"" ''" P""''"'^^ °''"''' 
 
 nate friend, to visit his wife, or to taste the luxuries 
 of the palace ; sustained in his tent the rigour of the 
 winter; and rejected the hospitable gift, that he might 
 share the hardships of two thousand companions, all 
 as deserving as himself of that honour and distinction. 
 Necessity and revenge might justify his predatory ex- 
 cursions by sea and land : he left nine thousand five 
 hundred men for the guard of his fleet ; and persever- 
 ed in the fruitless search of Cantacuzene, till his em- 
 barkation was hastened by a fictitious letter, the seve- 
 rity of the season, the clamours of his independent 
 troops, and the weight of his spoil and captives. In 
 the prosecution of the civil war, the prince of Ionia 
 twice returned to Europe; joined his arms with those 
 of the emperor ; besieged Thessalonica, and threaten- 
 ed Constantinople. Calumny might affix some re- 
 proach on his imperfect aid, his hasty departure, and 
 a bribe of ten thousand crowns, which he accepted 
 from the Byzantine court ; but his friend was satis- 
 fied , and the conduct of Amir is excused by the more 
 sacred duty of defending against the Latins his hered- 
 itary dominions. The maritime powers of the Turks 
 had united the pope, the king of Cyprus, the repub- 
 lic of Venice, and the order of St. John, in a laudable 
 crusade ; their galleys invaded the coast of Ionia ; and 
 Amir was slain with an arrow, in the attempt to wrest 
 from the Rhodian knights the citadel of Smyrna.'' Be- 
 fore his death, he generously recommended another 
 ally of his own nation ; not more sincere or zealous 
 than himself, but more able to aflTord a prompt and 
 powerful succour, by his situation along the Propon- 
 tis and in the front of Constantinople. By the pros- 
 Marria-e of Or- P^ct of a more advantageous treaty, the 
 Chan with a Turkish prince of Bithynia was detach- 
 Greek princess, ed from his engagements with Anne of 
 A. D. iai6. g^y^y . ^,^j ^i^g pj.jjg ^|. Orchan dicta- 
 ted the most solemn protestations, that if he could ob- 
 tain the daughter of Cantacuzene, he would invariably 
 fulfil the duties of a subject and a son. Parental ten- 
 derness was silenced by the voice of ambition ; the 
 Greek clergy connived at the marriage of a christian 
 princess with a sectary of Mahomet ; and the father of 
 Theodora describes, with shameful satisfaction, the 
 dishonour of the purple.* A body of Turkish cavalry 
 attended the ambassadors, who disembarked from thir- 
 ty vessels before his camp of Selybria. A stately pa- 
 villion was erected, in which the empress Irene passed 
 the night with her daughters. In the morning, Theo- 
 dora ascended a throne, which was surrounded with 
 curtains of silk and gold ; the troops were under 
 arms ; but the emperor alone was on horseback. At 
 a signal the curtains were suddenly withdrawn, to dis- 
 close the bride, or the victim, encircled by kneeling 
 eunuchs and hymenaeal torches : the sound of flutes 
 and trumpets proclaimed the joyful event ; and her 
 pretended happiness was the theme of the nuptial 
 song, which was chanted by such poets as the age 
 could produce. Without the rites of the church, The- 
 odora was delivered to her barbarous lord ; but it had 
 been stipulated, that she should preserve her religion 
 in the harem of Boursa ; and her father celebrates her 
 charity and devotion in this ambiguous situation. Af- 
 ter his peaceful establishment on the throne of Con- 
 stantinople, the Greek emperor visited his Turkish 
 ally, who, with four sons, by various wives, expected 
 him at Scutari, on the Asiatic shore. The two prin- 
 ces paitook, with seeming cordiality, of the pleasures 
 of the banquet and the chace ; and Theodora was per- 
 mitted to repass the Bosphorus, and to enjoy some 
 
 b After the conquest of Smyrna by the Latins, the defence of this 
 fortreg."? was imposed by pope Gregory XI. on the knights of Rhodes, 
 (see Vertot. 1. v.) 
 
 c See Cantacuzene, (1. iii. c. 95.) Nicephorus Gregoras, who, for 
 the light of mount Thabor, brands the emperor with the names of 
 tyrant and Herod, excuses, rather than blames, this Turkish mar- 
 riajre, and alleges the passion and power of Orciian, i^-yuraiof, xxt 
 
 tlj S .vxftit T3U,- xar' MVTtv »t^>i IllfO-iXSv; {Turkish) [>Ttf»tyruiv T.»T(x- 
 
 f*;, (1. XV. 5.) He afterwards celebrates his kingdoms and arnues. 
 See his reign in Cantemir, p. 24—30. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 B 
 
 days in the society of her mother. But the friendsliip 
 of Orchan Was subservient to his religion and interest ; 
 and in the Genoese war he joined without a blush the 
 enemies of Cantacuzene. 
 
 In the treaty with the empress Anne, « . ,. , 
 
 *u^ r\.. • L J • 1^ 1 • Establishment 
 
 the Ottoman prince had inserted a singu- oftheOiiomans 
 lar condition, that it should be lawful in Europe,^ 
 for him to sell his prisoners at Constan- ^' ^' ^^^' 
 tinople, or transport them into Asia. A naked crowd 
 of christians of both sexes and every age, of priests 
 and monks, of matrons and virgins, was exposed 
 in the public market ; the whip was frequently used 
 to quicken the charity of redemption ; and the indi- 
 gent Greeks deplored the fate of their brethren, who 
 were led away to the worst of evils of temporal and 
 spiritual bondage.^ Cantacuzene was reduced to sub- 
 scribe the same terms ; and their execution must have 
 been still more pernicious to the empire : a body of 
 ten thousand Turks had been detached to the assis- 
 tance of the empress Anne ; but the entire forces of 
 Orchan were exerted in the service of his father. Yet 
 these calamities were of a transient nature; as soon as 
 the storm had passed away, the fugitives might return 
 to their habitations ; and at the conclusion of the civil 
 and foreign wars, Europe was completely evacuated 
 by the Moslems of Asia. It was in his last quarrel 
 with his pupil that Cantacuzene inflicted the deep and 
 deadly wound, which could never be healed by his 
 successors, and which is poorly expiated by his theo- 
 logical dialogues against the prophet Mahomet. Igno- 
 rant of their own history, the modern Turks confound 
 their first and their final passage of the Hellespont ;• 
 and describe the son of Orchan as a nocturnal robber, 
 who, with eighty companions, explores by stratagem 
 a hostile and unknown shore. Soliman, at the head 
 of ten thousand horse, was transported in the vessels, 
 and entertained as the friend, of the Greek emperor. 
 In the civil wars of Romania, he performed some ser- 
 vice and perpetrated more mischief; but the Cherso- 
 nesus was insensibly filled with a Turkish colony ; 
 and the Byzantine court solicited in vain the restitu- 
 tion of the fortresses of Thrace. After some artful 
 delays between the Ottoman prince and his son, their 
 ransom was valued at sixty thousand crowns, and the 
 first payment had been made, when an earthquake 
 shook tlie walls and cities of the provinces ; the dis- 
 mantled places were occupied by the Turks ; and Gal- 
 lipoli, the key of the Hellespont was rebuilt and re- 
 peopled by the policy of Soliman. The abdication of 
 Cantacuzene dissolved the feeble band.s of domestic 
 alliance ; and his last advice admonished his country- 
 men to decline a rash contest, and to compare their 
 own weakness with the numbers and valour, the dis- 
 cipline and enthusiam, of the Moslems. His prudent 
 counsels were despised by the headstrong vanity of 
 youth, and soon justified by the victories of the Otto- 
 mans. But as he practised in the field y.^,,. ^f rk...K,„ 
 
 , . r..u • -J ct I- 1-1 Death of Orchan 
 
 the exercise of thejcnc, Soliman was kil- and his son Soli- 
 led by a fall from his horse : and the aged "^*"' 
 Orchan wept and expired on the tomb of his valiant 
 son. 
 
 But the Greeks had not time to rejoice The reign and 
 in the death of their enemies ; and the European coti- 
 Turkish scymitar was wielded with the '^"^Sifi.^'""' 
 same spirit by Amurath the first, the son A. D.isco— 13S9. 
 of Orchan, and the brother of Soliman. ^^P^' 
 
 By the pale and fainting light of the Byzantine annals,' 
 
 d The most lively and concise picture of this captivity, may be 
 found in the history of Ducas, (c. 8.) who fairly describes what Can- 
 tacuzene confesses with a guilty blush ! 
 
 e ' ' ■ 
 
 &c, 
 
 ter satisfied with Chalcondyles, (1. i. p. «-, »~v.v *..-j .v.^.^.. ..v'^.uu- 
 sult the most authentic record, the fourth book of Cantacuzene. I 
 likewise regret the last books, which are still manuscript, of Nicepho- 
 rus Gregoras. 
 
 r After the conclusion of Cantacuzene and Gregoras, there foUovra 
 a dark interval of a hundred years. George Phranza, Michael Ducas, 
 and Laonicus Chalcondyles, all three wrote after the taking of Coa- 
 siautiuople. 
 
 1^. 
 
410 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 4 
 
 u 
 
 we can discern, that he subdued without resistance the 
 whole province of Romania or Thrace, from the Hel- 
 lespont to mount Haemus, and the verge of the capital ; 
 and that Adnanopie was chosen for the royal seat of 
 his government and religion in Europe. Constantino- 
 ple, whose decline is almost coeval with her foun- 
 dation, had often, in the lapse of a thousand years, 
 been assaulted by the barbarians of the east and west; 
 but never till this fatal hour had the Greeks been sur- 
 rounded, both in Asia and Europe, by the arms of the 
 same hostile monarchy. Yet the prudence or ffenerosi- 
 ty of Amurath postponed for a while this easy conquest; 
 and his pride was satisfied with the frequent and hiin.ble 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 a [fixture of servitude and freedom not unfrequent in 
 oriental history.' ^ 
 
 The character of Bajazet, the son and Th^ rPi^rn ofRa- 
 successor of Amurath, is sironirlv pv. J^^^pi r. iM^nm, 
 pressed in his s„rname of WerJ, Ir Z ^ 'i.l'^,'" 
 hghtmng; and he might glory in an epith, t, «; 
 nZtTu" ^'T ""^ "*''y •'"^'fy of his soul and ih- 
 n(h\l 5 '^''^'"'""'« "'"'=''• I" ""= <"""r'ee„ v.. ., - 
 r,„ LVT"' D '"«=«^"''y moved at the head of his 
 TZhT Po^^^foAdrianople.from the Danube 
 to the Euphrates; and, though he strenuously laboured 
 for he propagation of the law, he invaded, with in,. 
 paroal amb.t.on, the Christian and Mahometan princes 
 
 atfendan^ce of John Pal.olog^s and hllur sons 'w o^f"El7e''a:;'isu'^''i-ltV"'' ''''"""^""^ ^""^ 
 followed at his summons the court anA /^-irvrv ^V *u a *^"/°P® /"^ Asia, hrom Angfira to „. 
 
 nations between the Danube and the Adriatic, the Bul- 
 garians, Servians, Bosnians, and Albanians; and these 
 
 •..« i-i \. -L . . . — ' -^twauirtiiai alia incse 
 
 warlike tribes, who had so often insulted the majesty 
 of the empire, were repeatedly broken by his destruc- 
 tive inroads. Their countries did not abound either in 
 gold or silver; nor were their rustic hamlets and town- 
 snips enriched by commerce, or decorated by the arts 
 of luxury But the natives of the soil have been dis- 
 
 hX'^^A :Lv::L'rJii^^^^^^^ o^--^ and 
 
 gioris of Anatolia were reduced to his pCiri'to fue 
 obedience: he stripped of their heredita- *^«n"be. 
 ry poss,.ssions his brother emirs of Ghermian and 
 C-aramania, of Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the con- 
 quest of Iconium the ancient kingdom of the SHjukians 
 again revived m the Ottoman dynasty. Nor were the 
 conqnests ot Bajazet less rapid or important in Europe. 
 No sooner had he imposed a regular form of servitude 
 on the Servians and Bulgarians than he passed the 
 ^i:t.':/t!^^:^r^:}''--' new_ subjects in 
 
 boJy; and they w;y?oV/ert"^'Vy;;^^^^^^^^^^^ ZT: t'%'lf'u''''' rT'^' ^"^ new s'u"b ^ots in 
 
 into the firmest and most faithful s^.Sporterso^^ gI^uI ^^^^''^f «^-' Whatever yet adhered to the 
 
 toman ^greatness.. The vizir of AmuTath remin ed H krlZ^/l V"r.T fl^^l ^^.^^^--' ?"^ ''^f^-^^'y^ -- 
 
 «oman greatness.r The vizir of Amurath reminded his 
 •overeign that, according to the Mahometan law, he 
 
 and that the duty mifh easily b7r vied irvVern; of a"s '"'^V"'."^' ? " ^'"S"'" <"»^'' "">' "'" »i "w 
 
 ^a:^ V '"'o"' -"''■■J wc ivvmuj ij viffiian 
 
 officers were stationed at Gallipoli, to watch the pas- 
 «age and to select for his use the stoutest and most 
 beautiful of the christian youth. The advice was fol- 
 lowed ; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of 
 the J!.uropean captives were educated in reliajon and 
 arms; and the new militia was consecrated and named 
 by a celebrated dervish. Standing in the front of their 
 ranks, he stretched the sleeve of his gown over the 
 Head of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was de- 
 The Janizaries, ^^^ered in these words :»* Let them be 
 .r.^A' X ^^P^^ Janizaries; (yengi chert, or new 
 soldiers ;) may their countenance be ever bri<rht ' their 
 hand victorious ! their sword keen! may tireir "spear 
 always hang over the heads of their enemies! and 
 
 knowledged a Turkish master: an obsequious bishop 
 led h.m through the gates of Thermopyla^into Greece : 
 and we may observe, as a singular fact, that the widow 
 
 wheresoever^hey go, may they return wihaU/ "^o'nents the fire would be kind! 
 facers Such/asther.riL-n /,K!i"/u„^'u'^..^'^^^'^ ^^A^«- H'« "'tnisters trembled 
 
 face^ Such was the origin of these haughty troops, 
 the terror of the nations, and sometimes of Ihe sultans 
 themselves, fheir valour has declined, their disci- 
 pline is relaxed, and their tumultuary array is incapa- 
 ble of contending with the order and weapons of mo- 
 dern tactics ; but at the time of their institution, they 
 possessed a decisive superiority in war; since a regu- 
 lar body of infantry, in constant exercise and pay, was 
 not maintained by any of the princes of Christendom. 
 I he janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against 
 Rov'/ \t , * countrymen ; and in the battle oPCos- 
 
 Iv^r ih fi u ^u^ T^^'^' ^""^ ^h« conqueror walked 
 over the field he observed that the greatest part of the 
 slain consisted of beardless youths ; and listened to the 
 flattering reply of his vizir, that age and wisdom would 
 
 Brtht"f ' '^? I'' '' ^PP^^« »^« irresistible Tms. 
 W fh.7'''^' of his jan zaries could not defend him 
 from the dagger of despair : a Servian soldier started 
 
 Z?St TT^i'^ ^\'^ *^^^'^^' ^"^ Amurath was 
 
 lnnrfn\l ^ '"'"^ ""il^^^ ?"''^^ ^^""^^ ^he grand- 
 son of Othman was mild m his temper, modest in his ap- 
 
 parel, and a lover of learning and virtue : but the Mos- 
 lems were scandalized at his absence from public wor- 
 ship ,• and he was corrected by the firmness of the muf- 
 II, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause • 
 
 ♦ K« «-^ I r T^ I ... r^-^-^''^^^^ "-"c aiiciuill seal oi 
 
 the oracle of Delphi, deserved his favour by the sacri- 
 
 o^tinlt, ^,^^'''^T "^^""S^'^^' The Turkish communi- 
 cation he ween Europe and Asia had been dan<rerons 
 and doubtful, till he stationed at Gallipoli a fl^et of 
 galleys, to comnjand the Hellespont and intercept the 
 inH ? '"i".^"'" of Constantinople. While the monarch 
 indulged his passions in a boundles=s range of injustice 
 and cruelty he imposed on his soldiers the most rigid 
 raws of modesty and abstinence ; and the harvest w as 
 peaceably reaped and sold within the precincts of his 
 camp Provoked by the loose and corrupt administra- 
 lon of justice, he collected in a house the judges and 
 lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in a few 
 moments the fire would be kindled to reduce them to 
 
 in silence: but 
 
 Ai'tUi^r.: I ir ..-....^.cru III Mience: out an 
 
 yh hiopian buir,on presumed to insinuate the true cause 
 of the evil ; and future venality was left without excuse, 
 by annexing an adequate salary to the office of cadhi.» 
 Ihft humble title of emir was no longer suitable to the 
 Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet condescended to ac- 
 cept a patent of sultan from the caliphs who served in 
 t-gypt under the yoke of the Mamelukes :" a last and 
 
 by the Turkish conquerors to the house of AbbL and 
 
 he successors of the Arabian prophet. The ambition of 
 
 the sultan was inflamed by the obligation of deserving 
 
 ^Hsaugust title: and he turned his arms against th? 
 
 taUoM*.^'"''^'"'''P-^-^'-^'^^^'» own large and curioua anno. 
 prJi8??nd%ep?oJchfn^'!f« t'® common and proverbial exprewion. of 
 
 13-^^V.h« /Ifl"^ death of Morad, or Amurath I. in Cantemir fn 
 a CroatTn his f^nf inV?K*"°'*'",'"^'y' ^»^e «uUan waseiabbp.I by 
 
 «hich derive, .f„„bLrfS,X'pr„c<;"X"'' "' " "''"" 
 the TurlnS 47^ S',""'"^' '"f r'"°rie.'^f .he g^eat Stephen over 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 411 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual theatre of the Turk- 
 ish viftories and defeats. Sigismond, the Hunoarian 
 kiuix, was the son and f)rother of the emperors of the 
 west: his cause w-as that of Europe and the church: 
 ^nd, oil the report of his danger, the bravest knights 
 of France and Germany were eager to inarch under his 
 Battle of standard and that of the cross. In the 
 Nicopt»iis, battle of Nicopolis, Bajazet defeated a 
 
 ^•^•^^^- confederate army of a hundred thousand 
 Sept. 28. 1.- iij 111 .11 
 
 christians, who had proudly boasted, that 
 
 if the sky should fall, they could uphold it on their 
 lances. The far greater part were slain or driven into 
 the Danube : and Sigismond, escaping to Constantino- 
 ple by the river and the Black sea, returned after a 
 If ng circuit to his exhausted kingdom.® In the pride 
 of victory Bajazet threatened that he would besiege 
 Buda ; that he would subdue the adjacent countries of 
 Germany and Italy; and that he would feed his horse 
 with a bushel of oats on the altar of St. Peter at Rome. 
 His progress was checked, not by the miraculous in- 
 terposition of the apostle, not by a crusade of the chris- 
 tian powers, but by a long and painful fit of the gout. 
 The disorders of the moral, are sometimes corrected 
 by those of the physical, world; and an acrimonious 
 humour falling on the single fibre of one man, may pre- 
 vent or suspend the misery of nations. 
 Crusade and cap. ^uch is the general i^dea of the Hun- 
 liviiyofih© garian war; but the disastrous adven- 
 
 a'^d*^13?6-iS8 ^"'^^ of the French has procured us some 
 ' memorials which illustrate the victory 
 and character of Bajazet.** The duke of Burgundy, 
 sovereign of Flanders, and uncle of Charles the sixth, 
 yielded to the ardour of his son, John count of Ne- 
 vers; and the fearless youth was accompanied by four 
 princes, his cousins, and those of the French monarch. 
 Their inexperience was guided by the sire de Coucy, 
 one of the best and oldest captains of Christendom ;"i 
 but the constable, admiral, and marshal, of France,' 
 commanded an army which did not exceed the number 
 of a thousand knights and squires. These splendid 
 names were the source of presumption and the bane 
 of discipline. So many might aspire to command, that 
 none were willing to obey ; their national spirit despis- 
 ed both their enemies and their allies ; and in the per- 
 suasion that Bajazet would fly, or must fall, they began 
 to compute how soon they should visit Constantinople 
 and deliver the holy sepulchre. When their scouts 
 announced the approach of the Turks, the gay and 
 thoughtless youths were at table, already heated with 
 wine; they instantly clasped their armour, mounted 
 their horses, rode full speed to the vanguard, and re- 
 sented as an affront the advice of Sigismond, which 
 would have deprived them of the right and honour of 
 the foremost attack. The battle of Nicopolis would 
 not have been lost if the French would have obeyed 
 the prudence of the Hungarians : but it might have 
 been glori«>usly won, had the Hungarians imitated the 
 valour of the French. They dispersed the first line, 
 
 o See the Decades Rerum Hunparicarum (Dec. iii. 1. ii. p. 379.) of 
 Bonfinius, an Kalian, who, in the fifteenth century, was invited into 
 Hungary to compose an eloquent history of that kingdom. Yet, if it 
 be extant and accessible, I should give the preference to some home- 
 ly chr.micle of the time and country. 
 
 p I should not complain of the labour of this work, if my materials 
 were always derived from such books as the chronicle of honest Frois- 
 sard, (vol. iv. c. 67. 69. 72. 74. 79-a3. 85. 87. 89.) who read little, in- 
 quired much, and believed all. The original Memoires of the Mare- 
 chal de Boucicault (partie i. c. 22—28.) add some facts, but they are 
 dry and deficient, if compared with the pleasant garrulity of Froissard. 
 
 q An accurate Memoir on the life of Enquerrand VII. sire de Cou- 
 cy, has been given by the baron de Zurlanben. (Hist, de I'Academie 
 des Inscripii.ms, tom. xxv.) His rank and possessions were equally 
 considerable in France and England ; and, in 1375, he led an army of 
 adventurers into Switzerland, to recover a large patrimony which he 
 claimed in right of his grandmother, the daughter of the emperor 
 Albert 1. of Austria. (Sinner, Voyage dans la Suisse Occideniale, tom. 
 i. p. 118-121) 
 
 r That military office, so respectable at present, was still more con- 
 ■picuous when it was divided between two persons. (Daniel, Hist.de 
 la Mil ice Frangoise, tom. ii. p. 5.) One of these, the marshal of the 
 crusade, was the famous Boucicauli, who afterwards defended Con- 
 stantinople, governed Genoa, invaded the cuasl of Asia, and died in 
 the field of Aziacour. 
 
 consisting of the troops of Asia ; forced a rampart of 
 stakes, which had been planted against the cavalry : 
 broke, after a bloody conflict, the janizaries them- 
 selves; and were at length overwhelmed by the nume- 
 rous squadrons that issued from the woods, and charg- 
 ed on all sides this handful of intreped warriors. In the 
 speed and secrecy of his march, in the order and evo- 
 lutions of the battle, his enemies felt and admired the 
 military talents of Bajazet. They accuse his cruelty 
 in the use of victory. After reserving the count of Ne- 
 vers, and four and twenty lords, whose birth and riches 
 were attested by his Latin interpreters, the remainder 
 of the French captives, who had survived the slaugh- 
 ter of the day, were led before his throne ; and, as they 
 refused to abjure their faith, were successively behead- 
 ed in his presence. The sultan was exasperated by 
 the loss of his bravest janizaries ; and if it be true, 
 that, on the eve of the engagement, the French had 
 massacred their Turkish prisoners,* they might impute 
 to themselves the consequences of a just retaliation. 
 A knight, whose life had been spared, was permitted 
 to return to Paris, that he might relate the deplorable 
 tale, and solicit the ransom of the noble captives. In 
 the meanwhile, the count of Nevers, with the princes 
 and barons of France, were dragged along in the march- 
 es of the Turkish camp, exposed as a grateful trophy 
 to the Moslems of Europe and Asia, and strictly con- 
 fined at Boursa, as often as Bajazet resided in his capi- 
 tal. The sultan was pressed each day to expiate with 
 their blood the blood of his martyrs ; but he had pro- 
 nounced, they should live, and either for mercy or de- 
 struction his word was irrevocable. He w^as assured 
 of their value and importance by the return of the mes- 
 senger, and the gifts and intercessions of the kings of 
 France and of Cyprus. Lusignan presented him with, 
 a gold salt-cellar of curious workmanship, and of the 
 price of ten thousand ducats ; and Charles the sixth 
 despatched by the way of Hungary a cast of Norwe- 
 gian hawks, and six horse-loads of scarlet cloth, of 
 fine linen of Rheims, and of Arras tapestry, represent- 
 ing: the battles of the great Alexander. After much 
 delay, the effect of distance rather than of art, Bajazet 
 agreed to accept a ransom of two hundred thousand du- 
 cats for the count of Nevers and the surviving princes 
 and barons : the marshal Boucicault, a famous warrior, 
 was of the number of the fortunate ; but the admiral 
 of France had been slain in the battle; and the consta- 
 ble, with the sire de Coucy, died in the prison of Bour- 
 sa. This heavy demand, which was doubled by inci- 
 dental costs, fell chiefly on the duke of Burgundy, or 
 rather on his Flemish subjects, who were bound by the 
 feudal laws to contribute for the knighthood and cap- 
 tivity of the eldest son of their lord. For the faithful 
 discharge of the debt, some merchants of Genoa gave 
 security to the amount of five times that sum ; a lesson 
 to those warlike times, that commerce and credit are 
 the links of the society of nations. It had been stipu- 
 lated in the treaty, that the French captives should 
 swear never to bear arms against the person of their 
 conqueror; but the ungenerous restraint was abolished 
 by Bajazet himself. " I despise," said he to the heir 
 of Burgundy, " thy oaths and thy arms. Thou art 
 young, and mayst be ambitious of effacing the disgrace 
 or misfortune of thy first chivalry. Assemble thy pow- 
 ers, proclaim thy design, and be assured that Bajazet 
 will rejoice to meet thee a second time in the field of 
 battle." Before their departure, they were indulged 
 in the freedom and hospitality of the court of Boursa. 
 The French princes admired the magnificence of the 
 Ottoman, whose hunting and hawking equipage was 
 composed of seven thousand huntsmen and seven thou- 
 sand falconers.* In their presence, and at his com- 
 
 ■ For this odious fact, the Abb6 de Vertot quotes the Hist. Annonyme 
 de St. Denys, 1. xvi. c. 10, 11. (Ordre de Malthe, tom. ii. p. 130.) 
 
 t Sherefeddin Ali (Hist, de Timur Bee, 1. v. c. 13.) allows Bajazet 
 a round number of 12,000 officers and servants of the chace. A part of 
 his spoil! was afterwards displayed inahuating match of Timour: L 
 
 I 
 
 ^■^p* 
 
412 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 PI ' 
 
 mand, the belly of one of his chamberlains was cut 
 open, on a complaint against him for drinking the goat's 
 milk of a poor woman. The strangers were astonish- 
 ed by this act of justice; but it was "the justice of a sul- 
 tan who disdains to balance the weight of evidence, or 
 to measure the degrees of guilt. 
 The emperor After his enfranchisement from an op- 
 pT.sI*''^"* pressive guardian, John Palaeologus re- 
 A. D. 1352. Jan. mained thirty-six years the helpless, and, 
 8.— A. D. 1391. as it should seem, the careless, spectator 
 of the public ruin." Love, or rather lust, was his only 
 vigorous passion; and in the embraces of the wives or 
 virgins of the city, the Turkish slave forgot the disho- 
 nour of the emperor of the Romans. Andronicus, his 
 eldest son, had formed, at Adrianople, an intimate and 
 guilty friendship with Sauzes, the son of Amurath ; 
 and the two youths conspired against the lives and au- 
 thority of their parents. The presence of Amurath in 
 Europe soon discovered and dissipated their rash coun- 
 sels ; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight, the Ot- 
 toman threatened his vassal with the treatment of an 
 accomplice and an enemy, unless he inflicted a similar 
 punishment on his own son. Palaeologus trembled and 
 obeyed; and a cruel precaution involved in the same 
 sentence the childhood and innocence of John the 
 son of the criminal. But the operation was so mildly, 
 or so unskilfully, performed, that the one retained the 
 Sight of an eye, and the other was afflicted only with 
 Discord of the the infirmity of squinting. Thus exclu- 
 Greeks. (jgd f^,^,,, ^^^ succession, the two princes 
 were confined in the tower of Anema ; and the piety of 
 Manuel, the second son of the reigning monarch, was 
 rewarded with the gift of the imperial crown. But at 
 the end of two years, the turbulence of the Latins and 
 the levity of the Greeks produced a revolution ; and 
 the two emperors were buried in the tower from whence 
 the two prisoners were exalted to the throne. Another 
 period of two years afforded Palaeologus and Manuel 
 the means of escape: it was contrived by the magic, 
 or subtilty of a monk, who was alternately named the 
 angel or the devil : they fled to Scutari; their adherents 
 armed in their cause ; and the two Byzantine factions 
 displayed the ambition and animosity with which Cse- 
 S?u ^"d ^^'"P^y ''^^ disputed the empire of the world. 
 1 he Roman world was now contracted to a corner of 
 Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black sea, about 
 fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth; a space of 
 ground not more extensive than the lesser principali- 
 ties of Germany or Italy, if the remains of Constanti- 
 nople had not still represented the wealth and popu- 
 Jousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace. 
 It was found necessary to divide this fragment of the 
 empire; and while Palaeologus and Manuel were left 
 in possession of the carpital, almost all that lay without 
 the walls was ceded to the blind princes, who fixed 
 their residence at Rhodosto and Selybria. In the tran- 
 quil slunriber of royalty, the passions of John Pal»olo- 
 gus survived his reason and his strength; he deprived 
 his favourite and heir of a blooming princess of Trebi- 
 zond; and while the feeble emperor laboured to con- 
 summate his nuptials, Manuel, with a hundred of the 
 noblest Greeks, was sent on a peremptory summons to 
 the Ottoman porte. They served with honour in the 
 wars of Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Constantino- 
 ple excited his jealousy : he threatened their lives ; 
 the new works were instantly demolished ; and we shall 
 bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit of PaliBologus, 
 If we impute this last humiliation as the cause of his 
 death. 
 
 The earliest intelligence of that event was commu- 
 nicated to Manuel, who escaped with speed and secre- 
 
 413 
 
 '; 
 
 houndg with satin housings ; 2. leopards with collars set with jewels ■ 
 
 to'l*iS%el dS' "f i^hn PalaBologus and his son Manuel, from 1354 
 •econd bo^ks of ^h;. H^-, P^^'l'^^a, 1. i. c. 1^21. and the first and 
 aea of e^Ue ^*'*^*'^"'^y^^»' "^^"^ proper subject is drowned in a 
 
 cy from the palace of Boursa to the By- 
 zantine throne. Bajazet aflfected a proud m3,"" 
 indiflference at the loss of this valuable A. D. i3yi-i425. 
 pledge; and while he pursued his con- J"»/25. 
 quests in Europe and Asia, he left the emperor to strug- 
 gle with his blind cousin John of Selybria, who, in eight 
 years of civil war, asserted his right of primogenitu1-e. 
 At length the ambition of the victorious sultan° pointed 
 to the conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to 
 the advice of his vizir, who represented, that such an 
 enterprise might unite the powers of Christendom in a 
 second and more formidable crusade. His epistle to 
 the emperor was conceived in these Distrewof 
 words: "By the divine clemency, our Cons antinopie, 
 invincible scymitar has reduced to our ^- ^- ^3^^-*"*^- 
 obedience almost all Asia, with many and large coun- 
 tries in Europe, excepting only the city of Constan- 
 tinople, for beyond its walls thou hast nothing left. 
 Resign that city ; stipulate thy reward ; or tremble, 
 for thyself and thy unhappy people, at the conse- 
 quences of a rash refusal." But his ambassadors 
 were instructed to soften their tone, and to propose a 
 treaty, which was subscribed with submission and gra- 
 titude. A truce often years was purchased by an an- 
 nual tribute of thirty thousand crowns of gold : the 
 Greeks deplored the public toleration of the law of Ma- 
 homet, and Bajazet enjoyed the glory of establishing a 
 Turkish cadhi, and founding a royal mosch in the me- 
 tropolis of the eastern church.' Yet this truce was 
 soon violated by the restless sultan : in the cause of the 
 prince of Selybria, the lawful emperor, an army of Ot- 
 tomans again threatened Constantinople ; and the dis- 
 tress of Manuel implored the protection of the king of 
 France. His plaintive embassy obtained much pity 
 and some relief; and the conduct of the succour wa» 
 intrusted to the marshal Boucicault,^ whose religious 
 chivalry was inflamed by the desire of revenginl his 
 captivity on the infidels. He sailed with four ships of 
 war, from Aiguesmortes to the Hellespont ; forced the 
 passage, which was guarded by seventeen Turkish 
 galleys ; landed at Constantinople a supply of six hun- 
 dred men at arms and sixteen hundred archers; and re- 
 viewed them in the adjacent plain, without condescend- 
 ing to number or array the nmltitude of Greeks. By 
 his presence, the blockade was raised by sea and land; 
 the flying squadrons of Bajazet were driven to a more 
 respectful distance; and several castles in Europe and 
 Asia were stormed by the emperor and the marshaL 
 who fought with equal valour by each other's side. 
 But the Ottomans soon returned with an increase of 
 numbers ; and the intrepid Boucicault, after a year's 
 struggle, resolved to evacuate a country, which could 
 no longer aflford either pay or provisions for his soldiers. 
 i he marshal oflfered to conduct Manuel to the French 
 court, where he might solicit in person a supply of 
 men and money; and in the meanwhile, that, to extin- 
 guish all domestic discord, he should leave his blind 
 competitor on the throne. The proposal was embra- 
 ced : the prince of Selybria was introduced to the capi- 
 tal ; and such was the public misery, that the lot of the 
 exile seemed more fortunate than that of the sovereian. 
 Instead of applauding the success of his vassal, Uie 
 Turkish sultan claimed the city as his own ; and on 
 the refusal of John, Constantinople was more closely 
 pressed by the clamities of war and famine. Against 
 such an enemy, prayers and resistance were alike una- 
 vailing ; and the savage would have devoured his prey, 
 if, in the fatal moment, he had not been overthrown 
 by another savage stronger than himself. By the vic- 
 tory of Timour or Tamerlane, the fall of Constanti- 
 nople was delayed about fifty years; and this impor- 
 tant, though accidental, service may justly introduce 
 the life and character of the Mogul conqueror. 
 
 X Cantemir, p. 50-53. Of the Greeks, Ducas alone (c. 13 15 ) ac- 
 dM^rifrti'e^JoSS'^' ^^''* '' Constantinople. Yel el?n'!ji?i 
 
 ch;rii;T;rnVe:p^';;.'^^^^^^^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane to the throne of Samar- 
 cand. — nis conquests iyi Persia^ Geor^ia^ Tartary, Rus- 
 sia, India, Syria, and Anatolia. — His Turkish war. — 
 Defeat and captivity of Bajazet. — Death of Timour. — 
 Civil war of the sons of Bajazet. — Restoration of the 
 Turkish monarchy by Mahomet the first. — Siege of Con- 
 stantinople by Amurath the second. 
 
 Histories of Ti- The conquest and monarchy of the 
 MouB, or Ta- world was the first object of the ambi- 
 merlane. ^^QJ^ of TiMOUR. To live in the memory 
 
 and esteem of future ages, was the second wish of his 
 magnanimous spirit. All the civil and military trans- 
 actions of his reign were diligently recorded in the 
 journals of his secretaries:* the authentic narrative 
 was revised by the persons best informed of each par- 
 ticular transaction ; and it is believed in the empire 
 and family of Timour, that the monarch himself com- 
 posed the commentaries^ of his life, and the institu- 
 tions^ of his government."* But these cares were inef- 
 fectual for the preservation of his fame, and these pre- 
 cious memorials in the Mogul or Persian language 
 were concealed from the world, or, at least, from the 
 knowledge of Europe. The nations which he van- 
 quished exercised a base and impotent revenge ; and 
 ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny,* 
 which had disfigured the birth and character, the per- 
 son, and even the name, of Tamerlane.^ Yet his real 
 merit would be enhanced, rather than debased, by the 
 elevation of a peasant to the throne of Asia ; nor can 
 his lameness be a theme of reproach, unless he had the 
 weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honour- 
 able, infirmity. 
 
 In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasi- 
 ble succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubt- 
 less a rebel subject ; yet he sprang from the noble 
 tribe of Berlass ; his fifth ancestor, Carashar Nevian, 
 had been the vizir of Zagatai, in his new realm of 
 Transoxiana ; and in the ascent ot some generations, 
 the branch of Timour is confounded, at least by the 
 females,* with the imperial stem.** He was born forty 
 
 X These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or Cherefed- 
 din Ali, a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian language, a 
 history of Timour Beg, which has been translated into French by M. 
 Feiis de la Croix, (Paris, 1722. in 4 vols. 12 mo.) and has always been 
 my faithful guide. His geography and chronology are wonderfully 
 accurate ; and he may be trusted for public facts, though he servilely 
 praises the virtue and fortune of the hero. Timour's attention to 
 procure intellisence from his own and foreign countries, may be seen 
 in the Institutions, p. 215. 217. 349. 351. 
 
 b These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe : but Mr. White 
 elves some hope that they may be imported and translated by his 
 friend Major Davy, who had read in the east this " minute and laith- 
 ful narrative of an interesting and eventful period." 
 
 c I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turkish nr 
 Mogul language, be still extant. The Persic version, with an English 
 translation, and a most valuable index, was published (Oxford. 1789, 
 in 4to.) by the joint labours of Major Davy and Mr. White the Arabic 
 professor. This work has been translated from the Persic into French 
 (Paris, 17i7.) by Mr. Langles, a learned orientalist, who has added 
 the life of Timour, and many curious notes. 
 
 d Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imi- 
 tate, the institutions of his great ancestor. The English translator 
 relips on their internal evidence; but if any suspicion should arise 
 of fraud and fiction, they will not be dispelled by Major Davy's let- 
 ter. The orientals have never cultivated the art of criticism; the 
 patronage of a prince, less honourable perhaps, is not less lucrative, 
 than that of a bookseller; nor can it be deemed incredible that a 
 Persian, the real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the val- 
 ue and price, of the work. 
 
 e The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is 
 much esteemed for its florid elegance of style : Ahmedis Arabsiada 
 (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vita et Rerum gestarum Timuri. Arabice 
 et LMtine. Edidit Samuel Ilenricus Manger. FVanequera, 1767. 
 2 torn, in Ato. This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an 
 ignorant, enemy ; the very titles of his chapters are injurious ; as how 
 the wicked, as now the impious, as how the viper, &c. The copious 
 article of Timur, in Bibliotheque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as 
 D'Herbelot indifferently draws his materials (p. 877—888.) from Khoa- 
 demir, Ebn Schounah, and the Lebtarikh. 
 
 f Demir or Timur signifies, in the Turkish language. Iron ; and 
 Beg is the appellation of a lord or prince. By the change of a letter 
 or accent, it is changed into Lenc or Lame : and a European corrup- 
 tion confounds the two words in the name of Tamerlane. 
 
 g After relating some false and foolish tales of Timour Lenc, Arab- 
 shah is compelled to speak truth, and to own him for a kinsman of 
 Zingis, per mulieres (as he peevishly adds) laqueos Satana, (pars i. 
 c. 1. p. 25.) The testimony of Abulgliazi Khan (p. ii. c. 5. p. v. c.4.) 
 is uiiquesiionable and decisive. 
 
 k According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth ancestor of Zingis, 
 
 His first adven- 
 tures, 
 A. D. 
 1351-1370. 
 
 miles to the south of Samarcand, in the village of 
 Sebzar, in the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his 
 fathers were the hereditary chiefs, as well as of a to- 
 man of ten thousand horse.' His birth * was cast on 
 one of those periods of anarchy which announce the 
 fall of the Asiatic dynasties, and open a new j5eld to 
 adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were 
 extinct ; the emirs aspired to independence ; and their 
 domestic feuds could only he suspended by the con- 
 quest and tyranny of the khans of Kashgar, who, with 
 an army of Getes or Calmucks,' invaded the Transox- 
 ian kingdom. From the twelfth year 
 of his age, Timour had entered the field 
 of action ; in the twenty-fifth, he stood 
 forth as the deliverer of his country ; and 
 the eyes and wishes of the people were turned towards 
 a hero who suflfered in their cause. The chiefs of the 
 law and of the army had pledged their salvation to 
 support him with their lives and fortunes ; hut in the 
 hour of danger they were silent and afraid ; and, after 
 waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he re- 
 treated to the desert with only sixty horsemen. The 
 fugitives were overtaken by a thousand Getes, whom 
 he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies 
 were forced to exclaim, " Timour is a wonderful man ; 
 fortune and the divine favour are with him." But in 
 this bloody action his own followers were reduced to 
 ten, a number which was soon diminished by the de- 
 sertion of three Carizmians. He wandered in the 
 desert with his wife, seven companions, and four hor- 
 ses ; and sixty-two days was he plunged in a loath- 
 some dungeon, from whence he escaped by his own 
 courage and the remorse of the oppressor. After 
 swimming the broad and rapid stream of the Jihoon, 
 or Oxus, he led, during some months, the life of a 
 vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent 
 states. But his fame shone brighter in adversity ; he 
 learned to distinguish the friends of his person, the 
 associates of his fortune, and to apply the various cha- 
 racters of men for their advantage, and above all, for 
 his own. On his return to his native country, Timour 
 was successively joined by the parties of his confede- 
 rates, who anxiously sought him in the desert; nor 
 can I refuse to describe, in his pathetic simplicity, one 
 of their fortunate encounters. He presented himself 
 as a guide to three chiefs, who were at the head of 
 seventy horse. " When their eyes fell upon me," 
 says Timour, " they were overwhelmed with joy ; and 
 they alighted from their horses ; and they came and 
 kneeled ; and they kissed my stirrup. 1 also came 
 down from my horse, and took each of them in my 
 arms. And 1 put my turban on the head of the first 
 chief; and my girdle, rich in jewels and wrought with 
 gold, I bound on the loins of the second : and the 
 third, I clothed in my own coat. And they wept, 
 and I wept also; and the hour of prayer was arrived, 
 and we prayed. And we mounted our horses, and 
 came to my dwelling ; and I collected my people, and 
 made a feast." His trusty bands were soon increased 
 by the bravest of the tribes ; he led them against a 
 
 and the ninth of Timour, were brothers, and they aereed, that the 
 posterity of the elder should succeed to the dignity of khan, and that 
 the descendants of the younger should fill the office of their niinister 
 and general. This tradition was at least convenient to justify the 
 Jirst steps of Timour's ambition. (Institutions, p. 24, 25. from the' MS. 
 fragments of Timour's History.) 
 
 i See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's Geography (Cho- 
 rasmiae, &c. Descriptio, p. 60, 61.) in the third volume of Hudson's 
 Minor Cireek Geographers. 
 
 k See his nativity in Dr. Hyde, (Syntagma Disseriat. torn. ii. p. 
 466.) as it was cast by the astrologers of his grandson Ulugh Beg, 
 He was born A. D. 1336. April 9. 11" 57'. P. M. lat. 36. I know not 
 whether they can prove the great conjunction of the planets from 
 whence, like other conquerors and prophets, Timour received the 
 surname of Saheb Keran, or master of conjunctions. (Bibliot. Orient, 
 p. 878.) 
 
 1 In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of the khan of Kash- 
 gar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or Uzbeks, a name which 
 belongs to another branch and country of Tartars. (Abulghazi, p. v. 
 c. 5. p. vii. c. 5.) Could I be sure that this word is in the Turkish 
 original I would boldly pronounce, that the Institutions were framed 
 a century after the death of Timour, since the establishment of the 
 Uzbeks in Transoxiana. 
 
 
 I 
 
 , 1 
 
 I 
 
 f\\ 
 
 
 *'t 
 
 i ' 'I 
 
 Jf.'. 
 
414 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 !5 5 
 
 superior foe ; and, after some vicissitudes of war, the 
 Getes were finally driven from the kingdom of Trans- 
 oxiana. He had done much for his own glory ; but 
 much remained to be done, much art to be exerted, 
 and some blood to be spilt, before he could teach his 
 equals to obey him as their master. The birth and 
 power of emir Houssein compelled him to accept a 
 vicious and unworthy colleague, whose sister was the 
 best beloved of his wives. Their union was short and 
 jealous: but the policy of Timour, in their frequent 
 quarrels, exposed his rival to the reproach of injustice 
 and perfidy; and, after a final defeat, Houssein was 
 slain by some sagacious friends, who presumed for 
 the last time, to disobey the commands of their lord. 
 At the age of thirty-four," and in a general diet or cou- 
 He ascends the roultai, he was invested with imperial 
 throne of Zaga- command, but he aflfecled to revere the 
 A. D. 1370. house of Zingis ; and while the emir Ti- 
 April. mour reigned over Zagatai and the east, 
 
 a nominal khan served as a private officer in the armies 
 of his servant. A fertile kingdom, five hundred miles 
 in length and breadth, might have satisfied the ambi- 
 tion of a subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion 
 of the world ; and before his death, the crown of Za- 
 gatai was one of the twenty-seven crowns which he 
 had placed on his head. Without expatiating on the 
 victories of thirty-five campaigns, without describing 
 the lines of march which he repeatedly traced over the 
 continent of Asia, I shall briefly represent his conquests 
 in, L Persia, II. Tartary, and, IH. India," and from 
 thence proceed to the more interesting narrative of iiis 
 Ottoman war. 
 
 Hifl conquests, !• For every war, a motive of safety 
 or revenge, of honour or zeal, of right or 
 convenience, may be readily found in 
 the jurisprudence of conquerors. No 
 sooner had Timour re-united to the pa- 
 trimony of Zagatai the dependent countries of Cariz- 
 me and Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards 
 tbe kmgdoms of Iran or Persia. From the Oxus to the 
 Tigris, that extensive country was left without a law- 
 ful sovereign since the death of Abousaid, the last of 
 the descendants of the great Houlacou. Peace and 
 justice had been banished from the land above forty 
 years ; and the Mogul invader might seem to listen to 
 the cries of an oppressed people. Their petty tyrants 
 might have opposed him with confederate arms ; they 
 separately stood, and successively fell ; and the dif- 
 ference of their fate was only marked by the prompti- 
 tude of submission, or the obstinacy of resistance. 
 Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan or Albania, kissed the 
 footstool of the imperial throne. His peace offer- 
 ings of silks, horses, and jewels, were composed, 
 according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine 
 pieces ; but a critical spectator observed, that there 
 were only eight slaves. " I myself am the ninth,"" 
 replied Ibrahim, who was prepared for the remark; 
 
 Jju u if* ^"^""^ ^^^^ rewarded by the smile of Timour. 
 fehah Mansour, prince of Fars, or the proper Persia, 
 was one of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of 
 his enemies. In a battle under the walls of Shiraz, 
 He broke, w-ith three or four thousand soldiers, the coul 
 or main-body of thirty thousand horse, where the em- 
 peror fought m person. No more than fourteen or fif- 
 teen guards remained near the standard of Timour; he 
 stood firm as a rock, and received on his helmet two 
 weighty strokes of a scymitar;P the Moguls rallied; 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 AD. 
 
 137O-14C0. 
 
 I. Of Persia, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 138U-1393. 
 
 the head of Mansour was thrown at his feet : and he- 
 declared his esteem of the valour of a foe, by extirpa- 
 ting all the males of so intrepid a race. From Shiraz^ 
 his troops advanced to the Persian gulf; and the*^ 
 riches and weakness of Ormuz'' were displayed in an 
 annual tribute of six hundred thousand dinars of add.. 
 Bagdad was no longer the city of peace, the seat of 
 the caliphs : but the noblest conquests of Houlacou 
 could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor 
 The whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from 
 the mouth to the sources of those rivers, was reduced 
 to his obedience; he entered Edessa ; and the Turk- 
 mans of the black sheep were chastised for the sacri- 
 legious pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the moun- 
 tains of Georgia, the native christians still braved the 
 law and the sword of Mahomet; by three expedi- 
 tions he obtained the merit of the gazie, or holy war; 
 and the prince of Teflis became his proselyte and friend! 
 
 II. A just retaliation might be urged n or t t 
 for the invasion of Turkestan, or the east- uii, A. D. i3?o 
 em Tartary. The dignity of Timour -1383. 
 could not endure the impunity of the Getes ; he passed 
 the Sihoon, subdued the kingdom of Cashgar, and 
 marched seven times into the heart of their country. 
 His most distant camp was two months' journey, or 
 four hundred and eighty leagues to the north-east of 
 Samarcand ; and his emirs, who traversed the river Ir- 
 tish, engraved in the forests of Siberia a rude memo- 
 rial of their exploits. The conquest of Kipzak, or the 
 western Tartary,' was founded on the double motive 
 of aiding the distressed, and chastisinor the ungrateful. 
 Toctamish, a fugitive prince, was entertained and pro- 
 tected in his court: the ambassadors of Auruss Khan 
 were dismissed with a haughty denial, and followed 
 on the same day by the armies of Zagatai; and their 
 success established Toctamish in the Mogul empire of 
 the north. But after a reign of ten ye'ars, the new 
 khan forgot the merits and the strenirth of his benefac- 
 tor ; the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the sacn d 
 rights of the house of Zingis. Throuuh the gates of 
 Derbend, he entered Persia at the headof ninety thou- 
 sand horse; with the innumerable forces of Kipz-.ik, 
 Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he passed the Sihoon, 
 burnt the palaces of Timour, and compelled iiim, 
 amidst the winter snows, to contend for ^,„. , „ 
 Samercand and his life. After a mild s^I.^icT-A d" 
 expostulation, and a glorious victory, the J390-1396. 
 emperor resolved on revenge : and by the east, and the 
 west, of the Caspian, and the Volga, he twice invaded 
 Kipzak with such miahty powers, that thirteen miles 
 were measured from his right to his left wincr. In a 
 niarch of five months, they rarely beheld the (V-otsleps 
 of man; and their daily subsistence was often trusted 
 to the fortune of the chace. At length the armies en- 
 countered each other; hut the treachery of the stand- 
 ard-bearer, who, in the heat of action, reversed the im- 
 penal standard of Kipzak, determined the victory of 
 the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I speak the hinauatxe 
 or the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi t^o the 
 wind of desolation.' He fled to the chrisiian duke of 
 
 415 
 
 .i,ri,T A *^J.of Sherefeddin is employed on the private life of 
 
 the hero ; and he himself, or his secretary, (Institutions, p. 3-77 ) en- 
 larges with pleasure on the thirteen desiens and enterprises which 
 niost truly constitute his persona/ merit. It even shines through he 
 dark colouring of Arabshah, p. i. c. 1—12. ^ 
 
 ih! - ® conquests of Persia, Tartary, and India, are represented in 
 the second and third books of Sherefeddin, and by Arabshih, c 13- 
 bo. Consult the excellent indexes to the Institutions, 
 in rtJi 'rr® * u® J*^.^**® Tartars for the mysterious number of nine 
 nea?o]t!?u^ Abulghazi Khan, who, for that reason, divides his Ge- 
 nealogical History into nine parts. 
 
 rwawiv'tll'lfi-? ^"'^''5'1^/j*- *• '^•^S- P- J83-) the coward Timour 
 »u tway ig hw lent, «ud hid bimielf from the punuit of Shah Man- 
 
 sour under the women's garments. Perhaps Sherefeildin (1. iii c 25 t 
 
 has mapnifipd his conraee. ' 
 
 q The history of Ormuz is not unlike that of Tyre. Thp old riiv 
 
 npiltL*^""^*"''',"' ^"* i^^^^y-^ hylhe Tartars, and rf npxvnd ina 
 neighbouring island without fresh water or vpp»nHti..n. Thp kiM£-s..f 
 Ormuz.rich in the Indian trade and the pearl fiph.ry, p,wsrss.Mi h,r«P 
 lerriiories both in Persia a.d Arabia ; but they werp at firs, ilw inhn- 
 icy^Vu u® "i''^*"" "f Kerinaii, and at last were d-liv.p d (A p 
 151)5.) by the Portuguese tyrants from the tyranny of ih.'ir own vizu/ 
 
 261 262. an original Chn.nicle of Orinuz, in Texeira, or Stov, s's 
 History of Persia, p. 376-416. and the Iiiiierarips ii.sprtVd .n th. first 
 voUiine of Kamusi.., of Ludovico Banhpma, (1503.) f,.|. IC7 -f A.HJn-i 
 ESa-m^'^ ^"'* ^' ^- *"** "^ ^^^'^" ^^rX^^J. (in IDiO.) 
 r Arabshah had travelled into Kipzak, and acquired a sineular 
 regi^n-lf! i c -&^|.)'P*'-'' '"'^''' '"^ '«^-»"^'»"». "f that northern 
 
 sio'Jrril!!!'""? of Timour, p. 123. 125. Mr. White, the editor, be- 
 .tows some animadversion on the superficial account of Shpn fpddi... 
 
 ihetr-ueip^inVJfartioar '^''''^'''-^ '^' ^^-S^^of Timour. and" 
 
 ( 
 
 Lithuania ; again returned to the banks of the Volga ; 
 and, after fifteen battles with a donnestic rival, at last 
 perished in the wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a fly- 
 ing enemy carried Timour into the tributary provinces 
 of Russia : a duke of the reigning family was made 
 prisoner amidst the ruins of his capital ; and Yeletz, 
 l>y the pride and ignorance of the orientals, might ea- 
 sily be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the 
 nation. Moscow trembled at the approach of the Tar- 
 tar, and the resistance would have been feeble, since 
 the hopes of the Russians were placed in a miraculous 
 imnge of the Virgin, to whose protection they ascribed 
 the casual and voluntary retreat of the conqueror. Am- 
 bition and prudence recalled him to the south, the des- 
 olate country was exhausted, and the Mogul soldiers 
 w«'re enriched with an immense spoil of precious furs, 
 of linen of Antioch,' and of ingots of gold and silver." 
 On the banks of the Don, or Tanais, he received an 
 hunjhle deputation from the consuls and merchants of 
 Egypt,' Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who 
 occupied the commerce and city of Tana, or Azoph, at 
 the mouth of the river. They offered their gifts, ad- 
 mired his magnificence, and trusted to his royal word. 
 IJiit the peaceful visit of an emir, who explored the 
 state of the magazines and harbour, was speedily fol- 
 1, wed by the destructive presence nf the Tartars. The 
 city was reduced to ashes : the Moslems were pillaged 
 and di.'^missed ; but all the christians, who had not fled 
 to their ships, were condemned either to death or sla- 
 very.'' Revenge prompted him to burn the cities of 
 Serai and Astrachan, the monuments of rising civiliza- 
 tion ; and his vanity proclaimed, that he had penetra- 
 ted to the region of perpetual daylight, a strange phe- 
 nomenon, which authorized his Mahometan doctors to 
 dispense with the obligation of evening prayer.* 
 III. Of Hindos- ^^'* ^^hen Timour first proposed to 
 tan, his princes and emirs the invasion of In- 
 
 A.D. 1198, 1199. ^[^ Qj. Hindostan,* he was answered by 
 a murmur of discontent ; " The rivers ! and the moun- 
 tains and deserts! and the soldiers clad in armour ! 
 and the elephants, destroyers of men !" But the dis- 
 pleasure of the emperor was more dreadful than all 
 these terrors; and his superior reason was convinced, 
 that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect was safe 
 and easy in the execution. He was informed by his 
 spies of the weakness and anarchy of Hindostan : the 
 siihahs of the provinces had erected the standard of re- 
 bellion; and the perpetual infancy of sultan Mahmoud 
 was despised even in the harem of Delhi. The Mo- 
 gul army moved in three great divisions : and Timour 
 observes with pleasure, that the ninety-two squadrons 
 of a thousand horse most fortunately corresponded with 
 the ninety-two names or epithets of the prophet Ma- 
 homet. Between the Sihoon and the Indus they cross- 
 ed one of the ridges of mountains, which are styled by 
 
 t The fiirs of Russia are more credible than the ingots. But the 
 liiipii of Aniioch has never been famous: and Antioch was in ruins. 
 I .<5iiS!)'-ct that it was some manufacture of Europe, which the Hanse 
 nipn hunts had imported by the way of Novogorod. 
 
 u M. Levcscjue (Hist, de Kussie, loin. ii. p. 247. Vie de Timour, 
 p. 04-67. bpfore the French version of the institutes) has corrected 
 ihp prror of Sht-rpfpddin, and marked the true limit of Timour's con- 
 ri'.ipsts. His ariiuments are supeiflutus, and a simple appeal to the 
 KiissMii annals is sufficient to prove thai Moscow, which six years 
 bpfi.re h:id b^en taken by Toctamish, escaped the arms of a more 
 Ijrmidaolp invader. 
 
 X All K'iyptiiin consul from Grand Cairo is mentioned in Barbaro's 
 vovii<;p to Tana in 1436, after the city had been rebuilt. (Kamusio, 
 toiii. ii. fi.l 9-'.) 
 
 y Thp sacK of Azoph is described by Sherefeddin, (I. iii. c. 55.) and 
 miich iniTP particularly by the author of an IlHlian chronicle. (An- 
 drp;is dp Rpdusiis de Quero, in Chron. Tarvisiano, in Muralori Script. 
 Keruin Ualicarum. tttm. xix. p. 802— 805) He had cimversed with 
 the iNlianis, two Venplian brolhprs, one of whom ha<l been sent a de- 
 puty to th • camp of Timour, and the other had lost at Azoph three 
 Sons and 12,(k)i) ducais. 
 
 * Sh<-refpddin only says (1. iii. c. 13.) that the rays of the setting, 
 and ihitse of the rising, sun, were scarcely separated by any inter- 
 val ; a probl<-m which may be solved in the latitude of Moscow, (the 
 5(>Ui degree,) with the aid of the Aurora Borealis, and a long summer 
 Iwihiilii. But a day of forty days (Khondf-mir apud D'Herbelot, p. 
 830.) would rigorously confine us within the polar circle. 
 
 a For the Indian war, see the Institutions, (p. 129— 139.) the fourth 
 book of Sherefeddin, and the history of Ferishia, (in Dow, vol. ii. p. 
 l~ttD.) which throws a general light on the affairs of Hindostan. , 
 
 the Arabian geographers. The stony girdles of the 
 earth. The highland robbers were subdued or extir- 
 pated ; but great numbers of men and horses perished 
 in the snow ; the emperor himself was let down a pre- 
 cipice on a portable scaffold, the ropes were one hun- 
 dred and fifty cubits in length; and, before he could 
 reach the bottom, this dangerous operation was five 
 times repeated. Timour crossed the Indus at the or- 
 dinary passage of Atlok ; and successively traversed, 
 in the footsteps of Alexander, the Punjab, or five riv- 
 ers,** that fall into the master-stream. From Attok to 
 Delhi, the high road measures no more than six hun- 
 dred miles ; but the two conquerors deviated to the 
 south-east: and the motive of Timour was to join his 
 grandson, who had achieved by his command the con- 
 quest of Moullan. On the eastern hank of the Hypha- 
 sis, on the edge of the desert, the Macedonian hero 
 wept: the Mogul entered the desert, reduced the for- 
 tress of Batnir, and stood in arms before the gates of 
 Delhi, a great and flourishing city, which had subsist- 
 ed three centuries under the dominion of the Mahome- 
 tan kings. The siege, more especially of the castle, 
 might have been a work of time ; but he tempted, by 
 the appyarance of weakness, the sultan Mahmoud and 
 his vizir to descend into the plain, with ten thousand 
 cuirassiers, forty thousand of his foot-guards, and one 
 hundred and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said 
 to have been armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. 
 Against these monsters, or rather against the imagina- 
 tion of his troops, he condescended to use some extra- 
 ordinary precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron spikes 
 and a rampart of bucklers; but the event taught the 
 Moguls to smile at their own fears ; and, as soon as 
 these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior spe- 
 cies (the men of India) disappeared from the fields 
 Timour made his triumphal entry into the capital of 
 Hindostan; and admired, with a view to imitate, the 
 architecture of the stately mosch ; but the order and 
 licence of a general pillage and massacre polluted the 
 festival of his victory. He resolved to purify his sol- 
 diers in the blood of the idolaters, or Gentoos, who 
 still surpass, in proportion of ten to one, the numbers 
 of the Moslems. In this pious design, he advanced 
 one hundred miles to the north-east of Delhi, passed 
 the Ganges, fought several battles by land and water, 
 and penetrated to the famous rock of Coupele, the sta- 
 tue of the cow, that seems to discharge the mighty riv- 
 er, whose source is far distant, amons: the mountains- 
 of Thibet.* His return was along the skirts of tho 
 northern hills; nor could this rapid campaign of one 
 year justify the strange foresight of his emirs, that 
 their children in a warm climate would degenerate in- 
 to a race of Hindoos. 
 
 It was on the banks of the Ganges His war against 
 that Timour was informed, by his speedy sultan Bajazet,. 
 messengers, of the disturbances which ^•^- '*^* 
 had arisen on the confines of Georgia 
 and Anatolia, of the revolt of the christians, and th» 
 ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His vigour 
 of mind and body was not impaired by sixty-three 
 years, and innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying 
 some tranquil months in the palace of Samarcand, he 
 proclaimed a new expedition of seven years into the 
 western countries of Asia.** To the soldiers who had 
 served in the Indian war, he granted the choice of re- 
 fa The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches of the Indur, 
 have been laid down for the first lime with truth and arcuracy in 
 IVlaj)r Rennels incomparable map of Hindostan. In his Critical 
 Memoir he illusiratPH with judgment and learning the marches of 
 Alexander and Timour. . . _, . 
 
 e The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter, rise in Thi- 
 bet, from the opposite ridses of the some hills, separate from eacii 
 other to the distance of 1200 miles, and, after a winding course of 
 2000 miles, asjain meet in one point near the gulf of Bengal. Yet so 
 capricious is^fame, that the Burrampo-ter is a late discovery, while 
 his brother Ganges has been the theme of ancient and modern story. 
 Coupele, the scene of Timour's last victory, must be situate near 
 Luldin«^, lino miles from Calcutta; and, in 1774, a British camp* 
 (RennA's Memoir, p. 7. 59. 90. 91. 99.) 
 
 d See the Institutions, p. 141. to the end of the first book, and] 
 Sherefeddin (1. v. c. 1—16.) to the entrance of Timour into Syria.. 
 
 '-1 
 
 y 
 \ 
 
410 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ;wj| 
 
 h 
 
 maining at home, ot following their prince ; but the 
 troops of aH the provinces and kinordoms of Persia 
 were commanded to assemble at Ispahan, and wait the 
 arrival of the imperial standard. It was first directed 
 agrainst the christians of Georgia, who were strong on- 
 ly in their rocks, their castles, and the winter season ; 
 but these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and 
 perseverance of Timour; the rebels submitted to the 
 tribute or the Koran; and if both religions boasted of 
 their martyrs, that name is more justly due to the 
 christian prisoners, who were offered the choice of ab- 
 juration or death. On his descent from the hills, the 
 emperor gave audience to the first ambassadors of Ba- 
 jazet, and opened the hostile correspondence of com- 
 plaints and menaces, which fermented two years before 
 the final explosion. Between two jealous and haughty 
 neighbours, the motives of quarrel will seldom be 
 wanting. The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now 
 touched each other in the neighbourhood of Erzerum, 
 and the Euphrates; nor had the doubtful limit been 
 ascertained by time and treaty. Each of these ambi- 
 tions monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his 
 territory, of threatening his vassals, and protecting his 
 rebels; and, by the name of rebels, each unders^tood 
 the fugitive princes, whose kingdoms he had usurped, 
 and whose life or liberty he implacably pursued. The 
 resemblance of character was still more dangerous 
 than the opposition of interest; and in their victorious 
 career, Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet 
 was ignorant of a superior. The first epistle* of the 
 Mogul emperor must have provoked, instead of recon- 
 ciling, the Turkish sultan ; whose family and nation 
 he affected to despise.' " Dost thou not know, that 
 the greatest part of Asia is subject to our arms and 
 our laws 1 that our invincible forces extend from one 
 sea to the other 1 that the potentates of the earth form 
 a line before our gate 1 and that we have compelled 
 fortune herself to watch over the prosperity of our 
 empire? What is the the foundation of thy insolence 
 and folly 1 Thou hast fought some battles in the 
 woods of Anatolia ; contemptible trophies ! Thou hast 
 obtained some victories over the christians of Europe; 
 thy sword was blessed by the apostle of God ; and thy 
 obedience to the precept of the Koran, in waging war 
 against the infidels, is the sole consideration that pre- 
 vents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and 
 bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; 
 reflect ; repent ; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, 
 which is yet suspended over thy head. Thou are no 
 more than a pismire ; why wilt thou seek to provoke 
 the elephants? Alas! they will trample thee under 
 their feet." In his replies, Bajazet poured forth the 
 indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by such 
 unusual contempt. After retorting the basest'reproach- 
 es on the thief and rebel of the desert, the Ottoman 
 recapitulates his boasted victories in Iran, Touran, 
 and the Indies; and labours to prove, that Timour 
 had never triumphed unless by his own perfidy and 
 the vices of his foes. ♦» Thy armies are innumerable : 
 be they so ; but what are the arrows of the flying Tar- 
 tar against the scymitars and battle-axes of my firm 
 and invincible janizaries? I will guard the princes 
 who have implored my protection : seek them in my 
 tents. The cities of Arzingan and Erzerum are mine; 
 and unless the tribute be duly paid, I will demand the 
 arrears under the walls of Tauris and Sultania." The 
 ungovernable rage of the sultan at length betrayed 
 iiim to an insult of a more domestic kind. " If I fly 
 
 417 
 
 from my arms," said he, " may my wives be thrice 
 divorced from my bed : but if thou hast not courage to 
 meet me in the field, mayst thou again receive My 
 wives after they have thrice endured the embraces of 
 a stranger." « Any violation by word or deed of the 
 secrecy of the harem is an unpardonable offence amono- 
 the Turkish nations ; »" and tlie political quarrel of the 
 two monarchs was imbittered by private and personal 
 resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was 
 satisfied with the siege and destruction of Si was or 
 Sebaste, a strong city on the borders of Anatolia : and 
 he reveYiged the indiscretion of the Ottoman, on a gar- 
 rison of four thousand Armenians, who were buried 
 alive for the brave and faithful discharge of their duty 
 As a mussulman he seemed to respect the pious occu- 
 pation of Bajazet, who was still engaged in the block- 
 ade of Constantinople : and after this salutary lesson, 
 the Mogul conqueror checked his pursuit, and turned 
 aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt. In these 
 transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Timour invade, 
 orientals, and even by Timour, is styled Syria, 
 
 the Kaissar of Bourn, the Caesar of the A. D. 1400. 
 Romans, a title which, by a small anticipation, might 
 be given to a monarch who possessed the provinces, 
 and threatened the city, of the successors of Con- 
 stantino.' 
 
 I The military republic of the Mamalukes still reign- 
 ed in Egypt and Syria : but the dynasty of the Turks 
 was overthrown by that of the Circassians : ^ and their 
 favourite Barkok, from a slave and a prisoner, was 
 raised and restored to the throne. In the midst of re- 
 bellion and discord, he braved the menaces, corres- 
 ponded with the enemies, and detained the ambassa- 
 dors of the Mogul, who patiently expected his decease, 
 to revenge the crimes of the father on the feeble reign 
 of his son Parage. The Syrian emirs ' were assem- 
 bled at Aleppo to repel the invasion : they confided in 
 the fame and discipline of the Mamalukes, in the tem- 
 per of their swords and lances of tlve purest steel of 
 Damascus, in the strength of their walled cities, and 
 in the populousness of sixty thousand villages : and 
 instead of sustaining a siege they threw open their 
 gates, and arrayed their forces in the plain. But these 
 forces were not cemented by virtue and union; and 
 some powerful emirs had been seduced to desert or 
 betray their more loyal companions. Timour's front 
 was was covered with a line of Indian elephants, 
 whose turrets were filled with archers and Greek fire; 
 the rapid evolutions of his cavalry completed the dis- 
 may and disorder; the Syrian crowds fell hack on 
 each other ; many thousands were stifled or slaughter- 
 ed in the entrance of the great street ; the Moguls en- 
 tered with the fugitives ; and, after a short defence, 
 the citadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was 
 surrendered by cowardice or treachery, sacka Aleppo, 
 Among the suppliants and captives, Ti- A.D. i40o. 
 mour distinguished the doctors of the Nov. ii. 
 law, whom he invited to the dangerous honour of a 
 
 /o lY'T.^'^iu^'^^ f?P'*l^ o<^ these hostilo epistles in the Instliulions, 
 <p. 147.) in Sherefeddin (1. v. c. 14 ) and in Arabshah ; (lom. ii c 19 
 P- Ify— -'01.) which agree with each other in the spirit and substance 
 rather than in the style. It is probable, that they have been trans- 
 laied, wiih various latitude, from the Turkish original into the Ara- 
 Dic and Persian tongues. 
 
 ' The Mogul emir distingiiishrs himself and his countrymen by 
 l»-!v!^u"®."^ T'urAs, and stigmatizes the race and nation of Bajazet 
 wiin the less honourable epithet of Turkmans, Yet I do not under- 
 ■laua how the Ottomans could be descended from a Turkman sailor; 
 limlTaff ■ ' "hepherds were so remote from the sea, and all niari- 
 
 f According to the Koran (c. ii. p. 27. and Sale's Discourses, p. 134.) 
 a mussulman who had thrice divorced his wife (who had thrice re- 
 peaipd the words of a divorce) could not lake her again, till after she 
 had been married to, and repudiated Ay, another husband; an ieno- 
 minious transaction, which it is needless to aggravate, by suppoeln?, 
 that the first husband must see her enjoyed by a second before his 
 face. (Rycaut's Slate of the Ottoman empire, 1. ii. c. 21.) 
 
 h The common delicacy of the orientals, in never speaking of their 
 women, is ascribed in a much higher degree by Arabshah to the Turk- 
 ish nations; and it is remarkable enough, that Chalcondyles, (1. ii. 
 p. 55.) had some knowledge of the prejudice and the insult. 
 
 i For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions, (p. 131 . 147.) and 
 for the Persians, the Bibliolheque Orientale (p. 88-2.): but 1 do not 
 find that the title of Cxsar has been applied by the Arabians, or assu- 
 med by the Ottomans themselves. 
 
 k See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M. de Guienes, (torn. 
 IV. 1. xxii.) who, from the Arabic texts of Aboulmahasen Ebn Schou- 
 nah, and Ainiabi, has added some facts to our common stock of mate- 
 rials. 
 
 I For these recent and domestic transactions, Arabshah, though a 
 partial, is a credible, witness, (torn. i.e. 64— 68. tom. ii.c. 1—14) Ti- 
 mour must have been odious to a Syrian ; but the notoriety of facts 
 would have obliged him, in some meaaure, to respect his enemy and 
 
 ..''"'^^I- il" buters ma/ correct the luscioua sweets of Sherefeddia 
 (I. V. 17—29.) 
 
 'I 
 
 I 
 
 personal conference." The Mogul prince was a zeal- 
 ous mussulman ; but his Persian schools had taught 
 him to revere the memory of Ali and Hosein ; and 
 he had imbibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians, 
 as the enemies of the son of the daughter of the apos- 
 tle of God. To these doctors he proposed a captious 
 question, which the casuists of Bochara, Samarcand, 
 and Herat, were incapable of resolving, " Who are 
 the true martyrs, of those who are slain on my side, 
 or on that of my enemies?" But he was silenced, 
 or satisfied, by the dexterity of one of the cadhis of 
 Aleppo, who replied in the words of Mahomet him- 
 self, that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes the 
 martyr ; and that the Moslems of either party, who 
 fight only for the glory of God, may deserve that sa- 
 cred appellation. The true succession of the caliphs 
 was a controversy of a still more delicate nature, and 
 the frankness of a doctor, too honest for his situation, 
 provoked the emperor to exclaim, " Ye are as false as 
 those of Damascus : Moawiyah was a usurper, Yezid 
 a tyrant, and Ali alone is the lawful successor of the 
 prophet." A prudent explanation restored his tran- 
 quillity ; and he passed to a more familiar topic of con- 
 versation. *' What is your age V said he to the cad- 
 hi. " Fifty years." — '* It would be the age of my 
 eldest son : you see me here (continued Timour) a 
 poor, lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arm has the 
 Almighty been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of 
 Iran, Touran, and the Indies. I am not a man of 
 blood ; and God is my witness, that in all my wars I 
 have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies 
 have always been the authors of their own calamity." 
 During this peaceful conversation, the streets of Alep- 
 po streamed with blood, and re-echoed with the cries 
 of mothers and children, with the shrieks of violated 
 virgins. The rich plunder that was abandoned to his 
 soldiers might stimulate their avarice ; but their cruel- 
 ty was enforced by the peremptory command of pro- 
 ducing an adequate number of heads, which, accord- 
 ing to his custom, were curiously piled in columns 
 and pyramids : the Moguls celebrated the feast of 
 victory, while the surviving Moslems passed the night 
 in tears, and in chains. I shall not dwell on the march 
 of the destroyer from Aleppo to Damascus, where he 
 was rudely encountered, and almost overthrown, by 
 the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was impu- 
 ted to his distress and despair ; one of his nephews 
 deserted to the enemy ; and Syria rejoiced in the tale 
 of his defeat, when the sultan was driven by the revolt 
 of the Mamalukes to escape with precipitation and 
 shame to his palace of Cairo. Abandoned by their 
 prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended 
 their walls ; and Timour consented to raise the siege, 
 if they would adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom ; 
 each article of nine pieces. But no sooner had he in- 
 troduced himself into the city, under colour of a truce, 
 
 Damascus, ^^^^ he perfidiously violated the treaty ; 
 
 A. D. 1401. imposed a contribution of ten millions 
 Jan. 23. q£ g^jj . ^^^j animated his troops to 
 
 chastise the posterity of those Syrians who had exe- 
 cuted, or approved, the murder of the grandson of 
 Mahomet. A family which had given honourable bu- 
 rial to the head of Hosein, and a colony of artificers, 
 whom he sent to labour at Samarcand, were alone re- 
 served in the general massacre ; and after a period of 
 seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, be- 
 cause a Tartar was moved by religious zeal to avenge 
 the blood of an Arab. The losses and fatigues of the 
 campaign obliged Timour to renounce the conquest of 
 Palestine and Egypt; but in his return to the Eu- 
 phrates, he delivered Aleppo to the flames ; and justi- 
 fied his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two 
 thousand sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit 
 
 » These interesting conversations appear to have been copied by 
 Arabshah, (lom. i. c. 68. p. 025— 645.) from thecadhiand historian Ebn 
 Schounah, a principal actor. Yet how could be be alive seveuty-five 
 years afterwards ? (D'Herbelot, p. 792.) 
 
 Vol. II— 3 C 27 
 
 the tomb of his son. I have expatiated on the perso- 
 nal anecdotes which mark the character of the Mogul 
 hero ; but I shall briefly mention," that and Bagdad, 
 he erected on the ruins of Bagdad a py- A. d. i4ui.* 
 ramid of ninety thousand heads ; again ^"^^ ^* 
 visited Georgia ; encamped on the banks of the Araxes ; 
 and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the 
 Ottoman emperor. Conscious of the importance of 
 the war, he collected his forces from every province : 
 eight hundred thousand men were enrolled on his 
 military list;° but the splendid commands of five, 
 and ten, thousand horse, may be rather expressive 
 of the rank and pension of the chiefs, than of the 
 genuine number of effective soldiers.? In the pillage 
 of Syria, the Moguls had acquired immense riches : 
 but the delivery of their pay and arrears for seven 
 years, more firmly attached them to the imperial stan- 
 dard. 
 
 During this diversion of the Mogul invades A nato- 
 arms, Bajazet had two years to collect i'a» A. D. 1402. 
 his forces for a more serious encounter. They consis- 
 ted of four 'hundred thousand horse and foot,*» whose 
 merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. 
 W^e may discriminate the janizaries, who have been 
 gradually raised to an establishment of forty thousand 
 men ; a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern times ; 
 twenty thousand cuirassiers of Europe, clad in black 
 and impenetrable armour ; the troops of Anatolia, 
 whose princes had taken refuge in the camp of Ti- 
 mour, and a colony of Tartars, whom he had driven 
 from Kipzak, and to whom Bajazet had assigned a 
 settlement in the plains of Adrianople. The fearless 
 confidence of the sultan urged him to meet his antag- 
 onist ; and, as if he had chosen that spot for revenge, 
 he displayed his banners near the ruins of the unfortu- 
 nate Suvas. In the mean while, Timour moved from 
 the Araxes through the countries of Armenia and Ana- 
 tolia ; his boldness was secured by the wisest precau- 
 tions ; his speed was guided by order and discipline ; 
 and the woods, the mountains, and the rivers, were 
 diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who mark- 
 ed his road and preceded his standard. Firm in his 
 plan of fighting in the heart of the Ottoman kingdom, 
 he avoided their camp ; dexterously inclined to the 
 left ;*occu pied Caesarea; traversed the salt desert and 
 the river Halys, and invested Angora ; while the sultan, 
 immovable and ignorant in his post, com- Battle of Angora, 
 pared the Tartar swiftness to the crawl- A.D. 1402. July 2a 
 ing of a snail ; "" he returned on the wings of indignation 
 to the relief of Angora ; and as both generals were 
 alike impatient for action, the plains round that city 
 were the scene of a memorable battle, which has im- 
 mortalized the glory of Tiirtour and the shame of Ba- 
 jazet. For this signal victory the Mogul emperor 
 was indebted to himself, to the genius of the moment, 
 and the discipline of thirty years. He had improved 
 the tactics, without violating the manners, of his na- 
 
 B The marches and occupations of Timour between the Syrian and 
 Ottoman wars, are represented by Sherefeddin, (1. t. c. 29 — 43.) and 
 Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 15 — 18.) 
 
 This number of 800,000 was extracted by Arabshah, or rather by 
 Ebn Schounah, ex rationario Timuri, on the faith of a Carizmian offi- 
 cer; (tom. i. c. 68. p. 617.) and it is remarkable enough, thai a Greek 
 historian (Phranza, 1. i. c. 29.) adds no more than 20,<IfW men. Pog- 
 gius reckons 1,000,000; another Latin contemporary (Chron. Tarvis- 
 ianum, apud Muratori, tom. xix. p. 800.) 1,100,000 ; and the enormous 
 sum of I,60(),r,00 is attested by a German soldier, who was present at 
 the battle of Angora. (Leunclav. ad Chalcondyl. 1. iii. p. 82.) Timour, 
 in his Institutions, has not deigned to calculate his troops, his sub. 
 jects, or his revenues. 
 
 p A wide latitude of non-effectives was allowed by the Great Mo- 
 gul for his own pride and the benefit of his officers. Bernier's patron 
 was Peuje-Harari, commander of 5000 horse ; of which he maintain- 
 ed no more than 500. (Voyages, tom. i. p. 288, 289.) 
 
 q Timour himself fixes at 400,000 men the Ottoman army, (Institu- 
 tions, p. 153.) which is reduced to 150,000 by Phranza, (I. i. c.29.) and 
 swelled by the German soldier to l,40(»,0CO. It is evident, that the 
 Moguls were the more numerous. 
 
 r It may not be useless to mark the distances between Angora and 
 the neighbouring cities, by the journeys of the caravans, each of 
 twenty or twenty-five miles : to Smyrna twenty ; to Kiotahia ten ; to 
 Boursa ten ; to Csesarea eight ; to Sinope ten ; to Nicomedia nine ; to 
 Constantinople twelve, or thirteen. (See Tournefort, Voyage au 
 LavaDt, tom. ii. lettre xxl) , 
 
 
 t' 
 
 i 
 
 
418 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chaf. XXV f. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 tion," whose force still consisted in the missile wea- 
 pons, and rapid evolutions, of a numerous cavalry. 
 From a single troop to a great array, the mode of at- 
 tack was the same ; a foremost line first advanced to 
 the charge, and was supported in a just order by the 
 squadrons of the great vanguard. The general's eye 
 watched over the field, and at his command the front 
 and rear of the right and left wings successively mo- 
 ved forwards in their several divisions, and in a direct 
 or oblique line: the enemy was pressed by eighteen 
 or t\yenty attacks ; and each attack afforded a chance 
 of victory. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccess- 
 ful, the occasion was worthy of the emperor himself, 
 who gave the signal of advancing to the standard and 
 main body, which he led in person.* But in the battle 
 of Angora, the main body itself was supported, on the 
 flanks and in the rear, by the bravest squadrons of the 
 reserve, commanded by the sons and grandsons of 
 Timour. The conqueror of Hindostan ostentatiously 
 showed a line of elephants, the trophies, rather than 
 the instruments, of victory : the use of the Greek fire 
 was/amiliar to the Moguls and Ottomans: but had 
 they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of 
 gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder in the 
 hands of either nation must have turned the fortune 
 of the day." In that day Bajazet displayed the quali- 
 ties of a soldier and a chief: but his genius sunk under 
 a stronger ascendant : and, from various motives, the 
 greatest part of his troops failed him in the decisive 
 moment. His rigour and avarice had provoked a 
 mutiny among the Turks; and even his son Soliman 
 too hastily withdrew from the field. The forces of 
 Anatolia, loyal in their revolt, were drawn away to 
 the banners of their lawful princes. His Tartar allies 
 had been tempted by the letters and emissaries of 
 Timour;' who reproached their ignoble servitude un- 
 der the slaves of their fathers; and offered to their 
 hopes the dominion nf their new, or the liberty of their 
 ancient, country. In the right wing of Bajazet the 
 cuirassiers of Europe charged, with faithful hearts 
 and irresistible arms ; but these men of iron were soon 
 broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit: and 
 the janizaries, alone, without cavalry or missile wea- 
 pons, were encompassed by the circle of the Mogul 
 hunters. Their valour was at length oppressed by 
 heat, thirst, and the weight of numbers ; and the un- 
 fortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands 
 and feeu was transported from the field on the fleetest 
 Defrai and cap- of his horses. He was pursued and 
 i.v.iy or Bajazet. taken by the titular khan of Zaaatai ; 
 and, after his capture, and the defeat of the Otfoman 
 powers, the kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the 
 conqueror, who planted his standard at Kiotahia, and 
 dispersed on all sides the ministers of rapine and 
 destruction. Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and 
 best beloved of his grandsons, was despatched to 
 Boursa, with thirty thousand horse; and such was his 
 youthful ardour, that he arrived with only four thou- 
 sand at the gates of the capital, after performing in 
 five days a march of two hundred and thirty miles, 
 xet tear is still more rapid in its course: and Soli- 
 man, the son of Bajazet, had already passed over to 
 Ji^urope with the royal treasure. The spoil, however, 
 or the palace and city was immense; the inhabitants 
 had escaped : but the buildings, for the most part of 
 
 419 
 
 • See the Systema of Tactics in the InstituUon* wkii-v. tk^i?.,. 
 Ii5h editors have lllurtrated with elaborate p^nM* ^4^7^ 
 
 t The sultan himself (say. Timour) must then pSt?heTrt^f cou 
 Ifff^aV^f- fT^ ""^ P"'''"/^- A Tartar metaphor, wJkh is loJi 
 iSles, (p 15M57 r P'^®'^^^ *° ^^^ ^'®°'^' ^•"••^^ ^f the liiu. 
 
 ri"vt^®47^/rlf 5'?' °" Timour's side, is attested by Sherefeddin: 
 fcVrb.^- t'.l'"LyfJi*!lll"?"ei.-}l-P'<=»«n. th cannon, In! 
 
 wood, were reduced to ashes. From Boursa, the 
 grandson of Timour advanced to Nice, even yet a fair 
 and flourishing city; and the Mogul squadrons were 
 only stopped by the waves of the Propontis. The 
 same success attended the other mirzas and emirs in 
 their excursions: and Smyrna, defended by the zeal 
 and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone deserved the 
 presence of the emperor himself. After an obstinate 
 defence, the place was taken by storm; all that 
 breathed was put to the sword ; and the heads of the 
 christian heroes were launched from the encrines, on 
 board of two caracks, or great ships of Europe, that 
 rode at anchor in the harbour. The Moslems of Asia 
 rejoiced m their deliverance from a dangerous and 
 domestic foe, and a parallel was drawn between the two 
 rivals, by observing that Timour, in fourteen days, 
 had reduced a fortress which had sustained seven 
 years the siege, or at least the blockade, of Bajazet.r 
 The iron cage in which Bajazet was The history of 
 imprisoned by Tamerlane, so long and his iron cage 
 ^ Vk!®" '^Peated as a moral lesson**, is now rejected as 
 a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the vulgar 
 credulity.- They appeal with confidence to the Per- 
 sian history of Sherefeddin Ali, which has been given 
 *k ^n ^ ^""osity in a French version, and from which I 
 shall collect and abridge a more specious narrative of 
 this memorable transaction. No sooner a- ^ u v 
 was Timour informed that the captive pSnhlstJrL; 
 Ottoman was at the door of his tent, pf Timour; 
 than he graciously stept forwards to* receive him, 
 seated him by his side, and mingled with just re- 
 proaches a soothing pity for his rank and misfortune. 
 " Alas ! said the emperor, " the decree of fate is now 
 accomplished by your own fault: it is the web which 
 you have woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself 
 have planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, 
 the champion of the Moslems : you braved our threats ; 
 you despised our friendship ; you forced us to enter 
 your kingdom with our invincible armies. Behold 
 the event! Had you vanquished, I am not ignorant 
 of the fate which you reserved for myself and my 
 troops. But I disdain to retaliate: your life and ho- 
 nour are secure; and I shall express my gratitude to 
 God by my clemency to man." The royal captive 
 showed some signs of repentance, accepted the humi- 
 liation of a robe of honour, and embraced with tears 
 his son Mousa, who, at his request, was sought and 
 found among the captives of the field. The Ottoman 
 princes were lodged in a splendid pavilion ; and the 
 respect of the guards could be surpassed only by their 
 vigilance. On the arrival of the harem from Boursa, 
 Iiniour restored the queen Despina and her daughter 
 to their father and husband ; but he piously required, 
 • iS'^j Servian princess, who had hitherto been 
 indulged m the profession of Christianity, should em- 
 brace without delay the religion of the prophet. In the 
 feast of victory, to which Bajazet was invited, the 
 Mogul emperor placed a crown on his head and a 
 sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of reslor- 
 ing him with an increase of glory to the throne of his 
 ancestors. But the effect of this promise was dis- 
 appointed by the sultan's untimely deain : amidst the 
 care of the most skilful physicians, he expired of art 
 apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia, about 
 nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a 
 tear over his grave ; his body, with royal pomp, was 
 conveyed to the mausoleum which he had erected at 
 Boursa; and his son Mousa, after receivincr a rich 
 present of gold and jewels, of horses and arlns, was 
 
 ■rriheH «,Sti. -.— T u """"e" •>ua^J,^,,vu, tiiai aume cannon, tn- 
 
 arch to Delhi, is refuted by the universal silence of contemporaries 
 with trTH^l'J'^K^K'^ ^^i'. "^"^^ *"'^ Important negociailon 
 dence of iTr*";''*''^*' i» indisputablv pr«Yea by the ^int eyi- 
 clav n L,\\^'5*'p*"' ^^^T^- ''^^' PJ'* > Turkish, (Annal. Leun- 
 plw^ry ^^ ** ^*""'* historian*. (Khondemir, ap«d D'Herbeloi, 
 
 uJ,^yj )^^.^" ^^ Anatolia or Roum, I add some hints in the Insti- 
 A K u' H^l^^ copious narratives of Sherefeddin (1. t. c. 44-65 ) and 
 hi I'awfn.^T' "; "'.f-^'-l 9;i '**" P"^ only of Timoi^S"y, 
 clav n ^n 4^*?'' ^S^?"'?^'' (Cantemir, p. 63-55. Annal. Leunl 
 
 itir'' "cL^dyl^s' MM.?"'''"- ^^'~""' »• *• - ^'' «"-' ^ 
 
 i«'rJ,fv ^ThVi^'"'" of Voltaire (Essai sur I'Historre Generate, c. 88.> 
 Ai!^nlL,ul ' " "" /^^/y occasion, to reject a popular tale, and ta 
 
 faS^iulity U rS^^rb^ "'' "«* ^''^"^ ' "^ ^" »"* ''^'^ ^^ 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of 
 Anatolia. 
 
 Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which 
 has been extracted from his own memorials, and dedi- 
 cated to his son and grandson, nineteen years after his 
 decease;' and, at a time when the truth was remem- 
 bered by thousands, a manifest falsehood would have 
 implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty indeed 
 is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian histories ;'' 
 yet flattery, more especially in the east, is base and 
 audacious ; and the harsh and ignominious treatment 
 of Bajazet is attested by a chain of witnesses, some 
 of whom shall be produced in the order of their time 
 attested, 1. by and country. 1. The reader has not for- 
 ihe French; got the garrison of French, whom the 
 marshal Boucicault left behind him for the defence of 
 Constantinople. They were on the spot to receive 
 the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the over- 
 throw of their great adversary; and it is more than 
 probable, that some of them accompanied the Greek 
 embassy to the camp of Tamerlane. From their ac- 
 count, the hardships of the prison and death of Bajazet 
 arc affTirmed by the marshaFs servant and historian, 
 2. by the Iia- within the distance of seven years.* 2. 
 lians; The name of Poggius the Italian* is 
 
 deservedly famous among the revivers of learning 
 in the fifteenth century. His elegant dialogue on the 
 vicissitudes of fortune* was composed in his fiftieth 
 year, twenty-eight years after the Turkish victory of 
 Tamerlane ; ' whom he celebrates as not inferior to the 
 illustrious barbarians of antiquity. Of his exploits 
 and discipline Poggius was informed by several ocular 
 witnesses ; nor does he forget an example so apposite 
 to his theme as the Ottoman monarch, whom the 
 Scythian confined like a wild beast in an iron cage, 
 and exhibited a spectacle to Asia. I might add the 
 authority of two Italian chronicles, perhaps of an ear- 
 lier date, which would prove at least that the same 
 story, whether false or true, was imported into Europe 
 
 3 b ih A b • ^**^^ ^^® ^^^^ tidings of the revolution.* 
 ' 3. At the time when Poggius flourished 
 at Rome, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah composed at Damas- 
 cus the florid and malevolent history of Timour, for 
 which he had collected materials in his journeys over 
 Turkey and Tartary.'' Without any possible corres- 
 pondence between the Latin and the Arabian writer, 
 they agree in the fact of the iron cage; and their 
 agreement is a striking proof of their common veracity. 
 Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates another outrage, 
 which Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender 
 nature. His indiscreet mention of women and divor- 
 
 • • See the History of Sherefeddin, (1. v. c 49. 52, 63. 59, 60.) This 
 work was finished at Shiraz, in the year 1424, and dedicated to Sul- 
 tan Ibrahim, the son of Sharolih, the son of Timour, who reigned in 
 Farsistan in his father's lifetime. 
 
 b After the perusal of Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, &c. the learned 
 D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientate, p. 882.) may aflirm, that this fable is 
 not mentioned in the most authentic histories; but his denial of the 
 visible testimony of Arabshah leaves some room to suspect his ac- 
 curacy. 
 
 « Et fut lui meme (Bajazet) pr'S* et men<^ en prison, en laquelle 
 mourut de dure mort ! Memoires de Boucicault, p. i. c. 37. These 
 memoirs were composed while the marshal was still (provernor of 
 Genoa, from whence he was expelled in the year 1409, by a popular 
 insurrection. (Muratori, Annali d'llalia, torn. xii. p. 473, 474.) 
 
 d The reader will find a satisfactory account of the life and writ- 
 ings of Poggius, in the Poggiana, an entertaining work of M. Len- 
 fant,and in BibliothecaLalina mediae et infimae^latis of Fabricius, 
 (lorn. V. p. 305—308.) Poggius was born in the year 1380, and died 
 in 1459. 
 
 • The dialogue de Varietate Fortunae (of which a complete and 
 elegant edition has been published at Paris in 1723. in 4lo.) whs com- 
 posed a sh<jrt time before the death of Pope Martin V. (p. 5.) and 
 consequently about the end of the year 1430. 
 
 f See a splendid and eloquent encomium of Tamerlane, p. 36—39, 
 ipse enim novi (says Poggius) (jui fuere in ejus castris .... Regem 
 ▼ivum cepit, caveatjue in moduin ferae inclusum per omnem Asiam 
 circumiulit; egregium admirandumque spectaculum fortunae. 
 
 t The Chronicon Tarvisianum, (in Muratori, Script. Rerum. Ilali- 
 carum, tom. xix. p. 800.) and the Annales Esienses, (torn, xviii.p 
 974.) The two authors, Andrea de Redusiis de Quero, and James de 
 Delayto, were both coniemporaries, and both chancellors, the one of 
 Trevigi, the other of Ferrara. The evidence of the former is the most 
 positive. 
 
 h See Arabshah, lorn. ii. c. 2S. 34. He travelled in regiones Rumse- 
 M, A. H. 839. (A. D. 1435, July 27.) torn. ii. c. 2. p. 13. 
 
 ces was deeply resented by the jealous Tartar : in the 
 feast of victory, the wine was served by female cup- 
 bearers, and the sultan beheld his own concubines and 
 wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed 
 without a veil to the eyes of intemperance. To escape 
 a similar indignity, it is said, that his successors, 
 except in a single instance, have abstained from legi- 
 timate nuptials ; and the Ottoman practice and belief, 
 at least in the sixteenth century, is attested by the 
 observing Busbequius,' ambassador from the court of 
 Vienna to the great Soliman. 4. Such ^ i, j^^jj^^^j^ 
 IS the separation of language, that the 
 testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that 
 of a Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chal- 
 condyles and Ducas, who flourished in a later period, 
 and who speak in a less positive tone; but more atten- 
 tion is due to George Phranza,^ protovestiare of the 
 last emperors, and who was born a year before the 
 battle of Angora. Twenty-two years after that event, 
 he was sent ambassador to Amurath the second ; and 
 the historian might converse with some veteran janiza- 
 ries, who had been made prisoners with the sultan, 
 
 at)d had themselves seen him in his iron , k« .k» t.-.v- 
 _ mi 1 ^ . J . 5. by the Turlcfl, 
 
 cage. 5. 1 he last evidence, m every 
 
 sense, is that of the Turkish annals, which have 
 been consulted or transcribed by Leunclavius, Pocock, 
 and Cantemir.' They unanimously deplore the cap 
 tivity of the iron cage; and some credit may be allow- 
 ed to national historians, who cannot stigmatize the 
 Tartar without uncovering the shame of their king 
 and country. 
 
 From these opposite premises, a fair Probable con- 
 and moderate conclusion may be dedu- elusion. 
 ced. I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has faithfully 
 described the first ostentatious interview, in which the 
 conqueror, whose spirits were harmonized by success, 
 affected the character of generosity. But his mind 
 was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable arrogance 
 of Bajazet; the complaints of his enemies, the Anato- 
 lian princes, were just and vehement; and Timour be- 
 trayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph 
 to Samarcand. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by 
 diorging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul 
 emperor to impose a harsher restraint ; and in his per- 
 petual marches, an iron cage on a waggon might be in- 
 vented, not as a wanton insult, but as a rigorous pre- 
 caution. Timour had read in some fabulous history a 
 similar treatment of one of his predecessors, a king of 
 Persia; and Bajazet was condemned to represent the 
 person, and expiate the guilt, of the Roman Caesar." 
 
 But the strength of his mind and body -.„ ,. ..„ 
 -. , , *^ , . t ,,. ,"' Death of Ba- 
 
 fainted under the trial, and his premature jazet, 
 
 death might, without injustice, be ascri- A. D. 14{G. 
 bed to the severity of Timour. He warred '^^^ ' 
 not with the dead ; a tear and a sepulchre was all that 
 he could bestow on a captive who was delivered from 
 his power ; and if Mousa, the son of Bajazet, was per- 
 mitted to reign over the ruins of Boursa, the greatest 
 part of the province of Ariatolia had been restored by 
 the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns. 
 From the Irtish and Volga to the Per- 
 sian sfulf, and from the Ganges to Da- 
 mascus and the Archipelago, Asia was 
 in the hands of Timour ; his armies were 
 invincible, his ambition was boundless, and his zeal 
 might aspire to conquer and conver t the chri.stian king- 
 
 i Busbequius in Legatione Turcica, epist. i. p. 52. Yet his respect- 
 able authority is somewhat shaken bv the subsequent marnagps of 
 Amuralh II. with a Servian, and of Mahomet II. with an Asiatic, prin- 
 cess. (Cantemir, p. 83. 93.) J u- ir I 
 
 k See the testimony of (Jeorge Phranza, (1. 1. c. 29.) and his life in 
 Hanckius, (de Script. Byzani. p. i. c. 40.) Chalcondyles and Ducaa 
 speak in general terms of Bajazpt's cAatns. ,.,.,.. 
 
 1 Annales Leunclav. p. 321. Pocock, Prolegomen. ad Abulpharag. 
 Dynast. Cantemir, p. 55. . j 1 j • 
 
 m A Sapor, king ol Persia, had been made prisoner, and enclosed m 
 the figure of a cow's hide by Maximian or Galerius Caesar. Such is the 
 fable related by Eutychius. {Annal. tom. i. p. 421. vers. Pocock.) The 
 recoUeciion of the true history (Decline and Fall,&c. vol. i. p. 134 — 
 136.) wi 1 teach us to appreciate the knowledge of the orientals of the 
 ages which precede the Heginu 
 
 Term of the 
 
 conquests of 
 
 Timour, 
 
 A. D. 1403. 
 
 t> 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
420 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVL 
 
 Chaf XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 421 
 
 doms of the west, which already trembled at his name. 
 He touched the utmost verge of the land ; but an insu- 
 perable, though narrow, sea rolled between the two con- 
 tinenta of Europe and Asia;" and the lord of so many 
 tomang, or myriads, of horse, was not master of a sin- 
 pie galley. Th« two passages of the Bosphorns and 
 Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were pos- 
 sessed, the one by the christians, the other by the 
 Turks. On this great occasion, they forgot the differ- 
 ence of religion, to act with union and firmness in the 
 common cause : the double straits were guarded with 
 
 ^ ships and fortifications ; and they separately withheld 
 the transports which Timour demanded of either nation, 
 under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the 
 same time, they soothed his pride with tributary gifts 
 and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him 
 to retreat with the honours of victory. Soiiman, the 
 son of Bajazet, implored his clemency for his father 
 and himself; accepted, by a red patent, the investiture 
 of the kingdom of Romania, which he already held by 
 the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish, of castin^r 
 himself in person at the feet of the king of the world' 
 The Greek emperor" (either John or Manuel) submit- 
 ted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated 
 with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the treaty by an 
 oath of allegiance, from which ho could absolve his 
 conscience so soon as the Mogul arms had retired from 
 Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed 
 to the ambitious Tamerlane a new design of vast and 
 romantic compass; a design of subduing Etrypt and 
 Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, 
 entering Europe by the straits of Gibraltar, and, afteJ 
 imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, 
 of returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tarta- 
 ry. This remote, and perhaps imaginary, dantrer was 
 averted by the submission of the sultan of Ecrypt: the 
 honours of the prayer and the coin, attested ''at Cairo 
 the supremacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a giraffe, 
 or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Sam- 
 arcand the tribute of the African world. Our imagi- 
 nation is not less astonished by the portrait of a Mogul 
 who, in his camp, before Smyrna, meditates, and al- 
 most accomplishes, the invasion of the Chinese em- 
 pire.P Timour was urged to this enterprise by na- 
 tional honour and religious zeal. The torrents which 
 he had shed of mussulman blood could be expiated 
 only by an equal destruction of the infidels; and as he 
 now stood at the gates of paradise, he might best se- 
 cure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of 
 t/hma, founding moschs in every city, and establishinff 
 the profession of faith in one God, and his prophet Ma- 
 homet. The recent expulsion of the house of Zinn-is 
 was an insult on the Mogul name; and thedisorders'of 
 the empire afforded the fairest opportunity for revenue, 
 rhe illustrious Hongvou, founder of the dynasty "of 
 Ming, died four years before the battle of Ancrora ; and 
 his grandson, a weak and unfortunate youth, was burnt 
 in his palace, after a million of Chinese had perished 
 in the civil war.-» Before he evacuated Anatolia. Ti- 
 mour despatched beyond the Sihoon a numerous army, 
 or rather colony, of his old and new subjects, to open 
 the road, to subdue the pagan Calmucksand Mun^als, 
 and to found cities and magazines in the desert; and. 
 
 B Arabshah (torn. il. c.25.) deBcribea. like a ciirimi* tra.oitop fi,- 
 •traiui of Gallipoli and Conslaniinople' To aoqu?reT^^^^^^ 
 events, I have compared the narraiives and prejudiced of lh?Moeur, 
 Turks, Greekg, and Arabians. The Spanish Lbawador mSns 
 ^h,s^ho»t.le union of the christians and OiU)mans;tvre d, Tiiour! 
 
 o Since the name of Caesar had been transferred to the sultans of 
 Roum, the Greek princes of Constantinople (Sherefeddin, I t c 54 ) 
 vrere confounded with the christian lord» of Gallipoli, Thesslionica 
 kc. under the title of Tekkur, which is derived br corrupuJu from 
 the genitive t3« x^^.eu. (Cantemir. p. 51.) i-urrupuou irom 
 
 P See Shereleddin, 1. t. c. 4. who marks, in a just itinerary the 
 Hi.V°de.^ Jfuai' torn ??' n ^i '^ "^^ ^'''""^ «'"i*«^^' ^« G«'«'»«^ 
 
 by the diligence of his lieutenant, he soon received a 
 perfect map and description of the unknown regions, 
 Irom the source of the Irtish to the wall of China. 
 During these preparations, the emperor achieved the 
 final conquest of Georgia ; passed the winter on the 
 banks of the Araxes ; appeased the troubles of Persia ; 
 and slowly returned to his capital, after a campaign of 
 four years and nine months. 
 
 On the throne of Samarcand,' he dis- His triumph at 
 played, in a short repose, his magnifi- Samarcand, 
 cence and power; listened to the com- "^ju^ 'j!^' 
 plaints of the people; distributed a just A. d/i405. 
 measure of rewards and punishments; Januarys, 
 employed his riches in the architecture of palaces and 
 temples; and gave audience to the ambassadors of 
 Egypt, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia and Spain, the 
 last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed 
 the pencil of the oriental artists. The marriage of six 
 of the emperor's grandsons was esteemed an act of re- 
 ligion as well as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp 
 of the ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials. 
 They were celebrated in the gardens of Canighul, de- 
 corated with innumerable tents and pavilions, which 
 displayed the luxury of a great city, and the spoils of 
 a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut down to 
 supply fuel for the kitchens ; the plain was spread with 
 pyramids of meat, and vases of every liquor, to which 
 thousands of guests were courteously invited : the or- 
 ders of the state were marshalled at the royal banquet ; 
 nor were the ambassadors of Europe (says the haugh- 
 ty Persian) excluded from the feast; since even The 
 casses, the smallest of fish, find their place in the 
 ocean.' The public joy wa« testified by illuminations 
 and masquerades ; the trades of JSamarcand passed in 
 review ; and every trade was emulous to execute some 
 quaint device, some marvellous pageant, with the ma- 
 terials of their peculiar art. After the marriage contracts 
 had been ratified by the cadhis, the bridegrooms and 
 their brides retired to the nuptial chambers ;''nine times, 
 according to the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and 
 undressed; and at each change of apparel, pearls and 
 rubies were showered on their heads, and contemptuous- 
 ly abandoned to their attendants. A general indulgence 
 was proclaimed : every law was relaxed, every plea- 
 sure was allowed ; the people were free, the sovereign 
 was idle; and the historian of Timour may remark, 
 that, after spending fifty years to the attainment of em- 
 pire, the only happy period of his life were the two 
 months in which he ceased to exercise his power. But 
 he was soon awakened to the cares of government and 
 war. The standard was unfurled for the invasion of 
 China : the emirs made their report of two hundred 
 thousand, the select and veteran soldiers of Iran and 
 Touran : their baggage and provisions were transport- 
 ed by five hundred great waggons, and an immense 
 train of horses and camels ; and the troops might pre- 
 pare for a long absence, since more than six 'months 
 were employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan 
 from Samarcand to Pekin. Neither age, nor the seve- 
 rity of the winter, could retard the impatience of Ti- 
 mour; he mounted on horseback, passed the Sihoon on 
 the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred 
 miles, from his capital, and pitched his last camp in 
 the neighbourhood of Otrar, where he was expected by 
 the angel of death. Fatigue, and the in- „. . ^ 
 discreet use of iced water, accelerated the road^o'chil^l 
 progress of his fever; and the conqueror A. D. 1405. * 
 of Asia expired in the seventieth year of ^P""'^ *• 
 his age, thirty-five years after he had ascended the 
 
 vi'7*l' %r^"f"A- ^"ITPJ"',*"*^ *^.^*^'' of Timour, see Sherefeddin (I. 
 VI. c. 1— du.) and Arabshah. (torn. li. c. 35—47.) 
 
 • Sherefeddin (1. vi. c. 24.) mentions the ambassadors of one of the 
 
 most potent sovereigns of Europe. We know that it wa^ Hen?y 11 
 
 king of Castile: amd the curious relation of his two embassies is 
 
 ■till extant. (Mariana, Hist. Hispan. 1. xix. c. 11 torn if V 3^9 33/f 
 
 Avertissement d I'Hist. de Timur Bee, p. 2^133 )Seappearai^' 
 
 wise to have been some corresponden'ce between the Mu.?u^UmnerJr 
 
 t 
 
 
 m 
 
 throne of Zagatai. His designs were lost ; his armies 
 were disbanded ; China was saved ; and fourteen years 
 after his decease the most powerful of his children sent 
 an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court 
 of Pekin.' 
 
 Character and ^^^ fame of Timour has pervaded the 
 merits of Ti- east and west; his posterity is still in- 
 »no"'"' vested with the imperial title; and the 
 
 admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as 
 a deity, may be justified in some degree by the praise 
 or confession of his bitterest enemies." Although he 
 was lame of a hand and foot, his form and stature 
 were not unworthy of his rank; and his vigorous 
 health, so essential to himself and to the world, was 
 corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his fami- 
 liar discourse he was grave and modest, and if he was 
 ignorant of the Arabic language, he spoke with fluency 
 and elesrance the Persian and Turkish idioms. It was 
 his delight to converse with the learned on topics of 
 history and science; and the amusement of his leisure 
 hours was the game of chess, which he improved or 
 corrupted with new refinements.* In his religion, he 
 was a zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, mus- 
 sulman ;y but his sound understanding may tempt us 
 to believe, that a superstitious reverence for omens 
 and prophecies, for saints and astrologers, was only 
 affected as an instrument of policy. In the govern- 
 ment of a vast empire, he stood alone and absolute, 
 without a rebel to oppose his power, a favourite to 
 seduce his aflfections, or a minister to mislead his 
 judgment. It was his firmest maxim, that whatever 
 might be the consequence, the word of the prince 
 should never be disputed or recalled; but his foes 
 have maliciously observed, that the commands of 
 anger and destruction were more strictly executed 
 than those of beneficence and favour. His sons and 
 grandsons, of whom Timour left six and thirty at his 
 decease, were his first and most submissive subjects ; 
 and whenever they deviated from their duty, they 
 were corrected according to the laws of Zingis, with 
 the bastonade, and afterwards restored to honour and 
 command. Perhaps his heart was not devoid of the 
 social virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving 
 his friends and pardoning his enemies ; but the rules 
 of morality are founded on the public interest ; and it 
 may be sufficient to applaud the wisdom of a monarch, 
 for the liberality by which he is not impoverished, 
 and the justice bv which he is strenorthened and en- 
 riched. To maintain the harmony of authority and 
 obedience, to chastise the proud, to protect the weak, 
 to reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness 
 from his dominions, to secure the traveller and mer- 
 chant, to restrain the depredations of the soldier, to 
 cherish the labours of the husbandman, to encourage 
 industry and learning, and, by an equal and moderate 
 assessment, to increase the revenue, without increas- 
 ing the taxps, are indeed the duties of a prince; but, 
 in the discharge of these duties, he finds an ample 
 and immediate recompence. Timour might boast, 
 that, at his accession to the throne, Asia was the prey 
 of anarchy and rapine, whilst under his prosperous 
 monarchy a child, fearless and unhurt, might carry a 
 purse of gold from the east to the west. Such was 
 
 t See the translation of the Persian account of their embassy, a 
 eurious and original piece, (in the fourth part of the Relations de 
 Thevenot.) They presented the emperor of China with an old horse 
 which Timour had formerly rode. It was in the year 1419, that they 
 departed from the court of Herat, to which place they returned in 
 1422 from Pekin. 
 
 u From Arabshah, lom. ii. c. 99. The britrht or softer colours are 
 borrowed from Sherefeddin, D'Herbelot, and the Institutions. 
 
 X His new system was multiplied from 32 pieces and G4 squares to 56 
 pieces and 110 or 130 squares : but, except in his courf, the old game 
 has been thought sufliciently elaborate. The Mogul emperor was 
 rather pleased than hurt with the victory of a subject: a chess-player 
 will feel the value of this encomium ! 
 
 7 See Sherefeddin, 1. v. c. 15. 25. Arabshah (torn. ii. c. 96. p. 801. 
 803.) reproves thf! impiety of Timour and the Moguls, who almost 
 
 J referred to the Koran the t/asca, or law of Zingis (cui Deus male- 
 icat:) nor will he believe that Sharokh had abolished the use and 
 authority of that pagan code. 
 
 his confidence of merit, that from this reformation he 
 derived excuse for his victories, and a title to univer- 
 sal dominion. The four following observations will 
 serve to appreciate his claim to the public gratitude; 
 and perhaps we shall conclude, that the IMogul em- 
 peror was rather the scourge than the benefactor of 
 mankind. 1. If some partial disorders, some local 
 oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour, the 
 remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. 
 By their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants 
 of Persia might afflict their iiubjects ; but whole na- 
 tions were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. 
 The ground which had been occupied by flourishing 
 cities, was often marked by his abominable trophies, 
 by columns, or pyramids, of human heads. Astracan, 
 Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, 
 Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand others, were sacked, or 
 burnt, or utterly destroyed, in his presence, and by his 
 troops; and perhaps his conscience would have been 
 startled, if a priest or philosopher had dared to num- 
 ber the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to 
 the establishment of peace and order." 2. His most 
 destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests. 
 He invaded Turkestan, Kipzak, Russia, Hindostan, 
 Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia, without a hope 
 or a desire of preserving those distant provinces. From 
 thence he departed laden with spoil ; but he left be- 
 hind him neither troops to awe the contumacious, nor 
 magistrates to protect the obedient, natives. When 
 he had broken the fabric of their ancient government, 
 he abandoned them to the evils which his invasion 
 had aggravated or caused, nor were these evils com- 
 pensated by any present or possible benefits. 3. The 
 kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper 
 field which he laboured to cultivate and adorn, as the 
 perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful 
 labours were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, 
 by the absence of the conqueror. While he triumphed 
 on the Volga or the Ganges, his servants, and even 
 his sons, forgot their master and their duty. The 
 public and private injuries were poorly redressed by 
 the tardy rigour of inquiry and punishment ; and we 
 must be content to praise the institutions of Timour, 
 as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy. 4. What- 
 soever might be the blessings of his administration, 
 they evaporated with his life. To reign, rather than 
 to govern, was the ambition of his children and grand- 
 children ;* the enemies of each other and of the people. 
 A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory 
 by Sharokh, his youngest son ; but after his decease, 
 the scene was again involved in darkness and blood ; 
 and before the end of a century, Transoxiana and Per- 
 sia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the north, and 
 the Turkmans of the black and white sheep. The 
 race of Timour would have been extinct, if a hero, 
 his descendant in the fifth degree, had not fled before 
 the Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindostan. His 
 successors (the great Moguls**) extended their sway 
 from the mountains of Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and 
 from Candahar to the gulf of Bengal. Since the reign ^ 
 of Aurungzebe, their empire has been dissolved ; their 
 treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian rob- 
 ber; and the richest of their kingdoms is now posses- 
 sed by a company of christian merchants, of a remote 
 island in the northern ocean. 
 
 « Besides the bloody passages of this narrative, I must refer to an 
 anticipation in the Decline and Fall, whicli in a single note (vol. i. p. 
 462. note b) accumulates near 300,000 heads of the monuments of hig 
 cruelly. Except in Rowe's play on the fifth of November, I did not 
 expect to hear of Timour's amiable moderation. (White's preface, 
 p. 7.) Yet I cin excuse a generou.s enthusiasm in the reader, and 
 still more in the editor, of the /n.?/i7«/ions. , . . . . 
 
 a Consult the last chapters of Sherefeddin and Arabshah, and 
 M. de Gui-^nes, (Hist, des Huns, tom. iv. 1. xx.) Eraser's History of 
 Nadir Shah, p. 1—62. The story of Timour's descendants is im- 
 perfectly told ; and the second and third parts of Sherefeddin are 
 
 unknown. ,.,.., ^ ^ , , 
 
 b Shah AUum, the present Mogul, is in the fourl.eenth degree iron* 
 Timour, by Miran Shah, his third son. See the second volume of 
 Dow's History of Hindosuu. 
 
 .^ .. 
 
 
 }; 
 
 
 h 
 
 
422 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 CHif. XXVL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 423 
 
 '4 
 
 Civil ware of the Far different was the fate of the Otto- 
 ^"i^ °.'!./5'*^*,^/.V ™^" monarchy. The massy trunk was 
 
 A. D. 1403— 1421. k«r.* *«u il. j-j 
 
 bent to the grounn, hut no sooner did 
 the hurricane pass away, than it a^ain arose with 
 fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. When Ti- 
 mour, in every sense, had evacuated Anatolia, he left 
 the cities without a palace, a treasure, or a king. The 
 open country was overspread with hordes of shepherds 
 and robbers of Tartar or Turkman origin ; the recent 
 conquests of Bajazet were restored to the emirs, one 
 of whom, in base revenge, demolished his sepulchre; 
 and his five sons were eager, by civil discord, to con- 
 sume the remnant of their patrimony. I shall enume- 
 
 1 Muaupha- ^^^® ^^^^^ names in the order of their age 
 ' and actions.' I. It is doubtful, whether 
 I relate the storji of the true Mmtapha, or of an impos- 
 tor who personated that lost prince. He fought by 
 his father's side in the battle of Angora: but when 
 the captive sultan was permitted to inquire for his 
 children, Mousa alone could be found ; and the Tur- 
 kish historians, the slaves of the triumphant faction, 
 are persuaded that his brother was confounded among 
 the slain. If Mustapha escaped from that disastrous 
 field, he was concealed twelve years from his friends 
 and enemies; till he emerged in Thessaly, and was 
 hailed by a numerous party, as the son and successor 
 of Bajazet. His first defeat would have been his last, 
 had not the true, or false, Mustapha been saved by 
 the Greeks, and restored, after the decease of his 
 brother Mahomet, to liberty and empire. A degene- 
 rate mind seemed to argue his spurious birth : and if, 
 on the throne of Adrianople, he was adored as the 
 Ottoman sultan, his flight, his fetters, and an ignomi- 
 nious gibbet, delivered the impostor to popular con- 
 tempt. A similar character and claim was asserted 
 by several rival pretenders ; thirty persons are said to 
 have suffered under the name of Mustapha ; and these 
 frequent executions may perhaps insinuate, that the 
 Turkish court was not perfectly secure of the death 
 a.Iaa; °^ ^® lawful prince. 2. After his fa- 
 ther's captivity, Isa"* reigned for some 
 time in the neighbourhood of Angora, Sinope, and the 
 Black sea; and his ambassadors were dismissed from 
 the presence of Timour with fair promises and honour- 
 able gifts. But their master was soon deprived of his 
 province and life, by a jealous brother, the sovereign of 
 Amasia ; and the final event suggested a pious allusion, 
 that the law of Moses and Jesus, of Tsa and Mmsa, had 
 
 3. Soiiman, been abrogated by the greater Mahomet. 
 A. D. 1403-1410. 3. Soiiman is not numbered in the lists 
 of the Turkish emperors: yet he checked the victo- 
 rious progress of the Moguls ; and after their depar- 
 ture, united for a while the thrones of Adrianople and 
 Boursa. In war he was brave, active, and fortunate : 
 Ms courage was softened by clemency ; but it was 
 likewise inflamed by presumption, and corrupted by 
 intemperance and idleness. He relaxed the nerves 
 of discipline, in a government where either the subject 
 or the sovereian must continually tremble : his vices 
 alienated the chiefs of the army and the law ; and his 
 daily drunkenness, so contemptible in a prince and a 
 man, was doubly odious in a disciple of the prophet. 
 In the slumber of intoxication he was surprised by his 
 brother Mousa; and as he fled from Adrianople to- 
 wards the Byzantine capital, Soiiman was overtaken 
 and slain in a bath, after a reign of seven years and 
 
 4. Mouaa, ten months. 4. The investiture of Mousa 
 A. D. 1410. degraded him as the slave of the Mocjuls : 
 
 his trihutary kingdom of Anatolia was confined within 
 a narrow limit, nor could his broken militia and empty 
 treasury contend with the hardy and veteran bands of 
 
 e The civil ware, from ihe death of Bajazpt lo that of Mustapha 
 are related, according to the Turks, by Demetrius Cantetnir, (p. 5S- 
 8j..) Of the Greeks, Chalcnndyles, (I. iv. and v.) Phranza, (1. i. c. 
 
 infomiod "' ^'^' *^~^-^ '**® ^^^ " ^^»® "^o*' copious and best 
 
 welA?J'fIl*i*'' \""V,"- <^- 28- whose testimony on this occasion is 
 ta lilwi-2 . "^i"****? -v. ^^^ existence of Isa (unknown to the Turks) 
 is lUewise confirmed bj Sherefeddin, (L v. c. 67.) 
 
 the sovereign of Romania. Mousa fled in disguise 
 from the palace of Boursa; traversed the Propontis in 
 an open boat; wandered over the Wallachian and 
 Servian hills; and after some vain attempts, ascended 
 the throne of Adrianople, so recently stained with the 
 blood of Soiiman. In a reign of three years and a 
 half, his troops were victorious against the christians 
 of Hungary and the Morea; but Mousa was ruined by 
 his timorous disposition and unseasonable clemency. 
 After resigning the sovereignty of Anatolia, he fell a 
 victim to the perfidy of his ministers, and the superior 
 ascendant of his brother Mahomet. 5. 6. Mahomet I. 
 The final victory of Mahomet was the A. D. 1413-1421. 
 just recompence of his prudence and moderation. Be- 
 fore his father's captivity, the royal youth had been 
 intrusted with the government of Amasia, thirty days' 
 journey from Constantinople, and the Turkish fron- 
 tier against the christians of Trebizond and Georgia. 
 The castle, in Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impreg- 
 nable ; and the city of Amasia,' which is equally 
 divided by the river Iris, rises on either side in the 
 form of an amphitheatre, and represents on a smallei 
 scale the image of Bagdad. In his rapid career 
 Timour appears to have overlooked this obscure and 
 contumacious angle of Anatolia; and Mahomet, with- 
 out provoking the conqueror, maintained his silent 
 independence, and chased from the province the last 
 stragglers of the Tartar host. He relieved himself 
 from the dangerous neighbourhood of Isa ; but in tht 
 contests of their more powerful brethren, his firm neu 
 trality was respected ; till, after the triumph of Mousa, 
 he stood forth the heir and avenger of the unfortunate 
 Soiiman. Mahomet obtained Anatolia by treaty, and 
 Romania by arms; and the soldier who presented him 
 with the head of Mousa, was rewarded as the bene- 
 factor of his king and country. The eight years of 
 his sole and peaceful reign were usefully employed in 
 banishing the vices of civil discord, and restoring on 
 a firmer basis the fabric of the Ottoman monarchy. 
 His last care was the choice of two vizirs, Bajazet 
 and Ibrahim,' who might guide the t, • ^ . 
 youth of his son Amurath ; and such was ^'^°ra?h II"™"' 
 their union and prudence, that they con- A. D. 1421—1451. 
 cealed above forty days the emperor's ^®*'* '' 
 death, till the arrival of his successor in the palace of 
 Boursa. A new war was kindled in Europe by the 
 prince, or impostor, Mustapha; the first vizir lost his 
 army and his head ; hut the more fortunate Ibrahim, 
 whose name and family are still revered, extinguished 
 the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed 
 the scene of domestic hostility. 
 
 J\\ '^"^aTu""!^' the wisest Turks, Re.union of th. 
 and indeed the body of the nation, were Ottoman empire, 
 strongly attached to the unity of the em- ^' ^' ****• 
 pire ; and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asun- 
 der by private ambition, were animated by a strong 
 and invincible tendency of cohesion. Their efforts 
 might have instructed the christian powers; and had 
 they occupied, with a confederate fleet, the straits of 
 Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe, must have 
 been speedily annihilated. But the schism of the 
 vvest, the factions and wars of France and England, 
 diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise: they 
 enjoyed the present respite, without a thought of futuri- 
 ty ; and were often tempted by a momentary interest 
 to serve the common enemy of their religion. A co- 
 lony of Genoese,* which had been planted at Pho- 
 
 e Arabshah, loc. citat. Abulfeda, Geot»raph. tab. xvii. p. 3f,2. Bus- 
 bequius, epist. i. p. 96, 97. in Iiinere C. P. ei Amasiano. 
 
 f The virtues of Ibrahim are praised by a contemporary Greek. 
 (I)ucas, c. 2o.) His descendants are the sole nobles in Turkey • they 
 content themselves v»iih the administration of his pious foundation/, 
 are excused from public offices, and receive two annual visits froni 
 the sultan. (Cantemir, p. 76 ) 
 
 s See Pachymer, (I. v. c. 29.) Nicephorus Grcgoras, (1. ii. c. 1 ) Shere- 
 
 :nf?:}\ r- ^ ^^'^ *"'^ ^"'f '/•; ^ > The last if these a cuS 
 and careful observer, IS entitled, from his birth and station, to par- 
 t.cular credit in all that concerns Ionia and the islands. Among th. 
 nations that resorted to New Phoca-a, he mentions the EnlSf Av^ 
 y A.,r..) ; an earlj atidence of Mediterranean iraUe. ' 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 cwa* on the Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative 
 monopoly of alum;' and their tranquillity, under the 
 Turkish empire, was secured by the annual payment of 
 tribute. In the last civil war of the Ottomans, the Ge- 
 noese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious youth, 
 embraced the party of Amurath ; and undertook, with 
 seven stout galleys, to transport him from Asia to Eu- 
 rope. The sultan and five hundred guards embarked 
 on board the admiral's ship; which was manned by 
 eitrht hundred of the bravest Franks. His life and 
 liberty were in their hands ; nor can we, without reluc- 
 tance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst 
 of the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully accept- 
 ed a discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed 
 in sight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand 
 Italians, armed with lances and battle-axes, attended 
 Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople; and this venal 
 service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce 
 and colony of Phocaea. 
 
 State of the '^ Timour had generously marched at 
 Greek empire, the request, and to the relief, of the Greek 
 A. D. ia»~l225. emperor, he might be entitled to the praise 
 and gratitude of the christians.^ But a mussulman, 
 who carried into Georgia the sword of persecution, and 
 respected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not dispo- 
 sed to pity or succour the idolaters of Europe. The 
 Tartar followed the impulse of ambition ; and the de- 
 liverance of Constantinople was the accidental conse- 
 quence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it 
 was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of 
 the church and slate might be delayed beyond his un- 
 happy days ; and after his return from a western pil- 
 grimage, he expected every hour the news of the sad 
 catastrophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and re- 
 joiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, 
 and the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel ' immediate- 
 ly .sailed from Modon in the Morea, ascended the throne 
 of Constantinople, and dismissed his blind competitor 
 to an easy exile in the isle of Lesbos. The ambassa- 
 dors of the son of Bajazet were soon introduced to his 
 presence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was 
 modest; they were awed by the just apprehension, lest 
 the Greeks should open to the Moguls the gates of Eu- 
 rope. Soiiman saluted the emperor by the name of fa- 
 ther; solicited at his hands the government or gift of Ro- 
 mania ; and promised to deserve his favour by inviolable 
 friendship, and the restitution of Thessalonica, with the 
 most important places along the Strymon, the Propon- 
 tis, and the Black sea. The alliance of Soiiman expo- 
 sed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa : 
 the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Con- 
 stantinople ; but they were repulsed by sea and land ; 
 and unless the city was guarded by some foreign mer- 
 cenaries, the Greeks must have wondered at their 
 own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the division 
 of the Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manu- 
 el was tempted to assist the most formid^le of the sons 
 of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, 
 whose progress was checked by the insuperable barrier 
 of Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops were transport- 
 ed over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained 
 
 h For the spirit of navigation, and freedom of ancient Phocaa, or 
 rather of the Phocaeans, consult the first book of Herodotus, and iho 
 Geographical Index of his last and learned French translator, AI. 
 Larcher, (torn. vil. p. 299.) 
 
 i Phocaea is not enumerated by Pliny, (Hist. Nat. xxxr. 52.) among 
 the places pnxluctive of alum ; he reckons Egypt as the first, and for 
 the second the isle of Melos, whose alum mines are described by 
 Tournefort, (torn. i. lettre iv.) a traveller and a naturalist. After the 
 loss of Phocaea, the Genoese, in 1459, found that useful mineral in the 
 isle of Ischia. (Ismael. Bouillaud, ad Ducam, c. 25.) 
 
 k The writer who has the most abused this fabulous generosity, is 
 our ingenious Sir William Temple, (his Works, vol. iii. p. 349,350. oc- 
 tavo edition,) that lover of exotic virtue. After the conquest of Russia, 
 Ac. and the passage of the Danube, his Tarur hero relieves, visits, 
 admires, and refuses the city of Constantine. His flattering pencil 
 deviates in every line from the truth of history ; yet his pleasing fic- 
 tions are more excusable than the gross errors of Cantemir. 
 
 I For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I. and Amurath 
 n. see the Othman history of Cantemir, (p. 70— 95.) and the three 
 Greeks, Chalcondyles, Phranxa, and Ducas, who is still superior to 
 hi« rivals. 
 
 in the capital ; and his successful sally was the first 
 step to the conquest of Rcmania. The ruin was sus- 
 pended by the prudence and moderation of the conquer- 
 or: he faithfully discharged his own obligations and 
 those of Soiiman, respected the laws of gratitude and 
 peace ; and left the emperor guardian of his two young- 
 er sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the jeal- 
 ous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execu 
 tion of his last testament would have offended the na- 
 tional honour and religion : and the divan unanimously 
 pronounced, that the royal youths should never be aban- 
 doned to the custody and education of a christian dog. 
 On this refusal, the Byzantine councils were divided : 
 but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the pre- 
 sumption of his son John ; and they unsheathed a dan- 
 gerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or 
 false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a cap» 
 live and a hostage, and for whose maintenance they 
 received an annual pension of three hundred thousand 
 aspers." At the door of his prison, Mustapha subscri- 
 bed to every proposal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or 
 rather of Europe, was stipulated as the price of his de- 
 liverance. But no sooner was he seated on the throne 
 of Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors 
 with a smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, 
 that, at the day of judgment, he would rather answer 
 for the violation of an oath, than for the surrender of a 
 mussulman city into the hands of the infidels. The 
 emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals ; from 
 whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, 
 an injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, 
 in the ensuing spring, by the siege of Constantino- 
 ple." 
 
 The religious merit of subduing thesiegeofConstaa- 
 city of the Caesars, attracted from Asia a .^'""P^^uHT 
 crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the aTd'!*1422. 
 crown of martyrdom: their military ar- June lo— 
 dour was inflamed by the promise of rich August 24. 
 spoils and beautiful females: and the sultan's ambition 
 was consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid 
 Bechar, a descendant of the prophet," who arrived in 
 the camp, on a mule, with a venerable train of five hun- 
 dred disciples. But he might blush, if a fanatic could 
 blush, at the failure of his assurances. The strength, 
 of the walls resisted an army of two hundred thousand 
 Turks ; their assaults were repelled by the sallies of the 
 Greeks and their foreign mercenaries ; the old resour- 
 ces of defence were opposed to the new engines of at- 
 tack ; and the enthusiasm of the dervish, who was 
 snatched to heaven in visionary converse with Maho- 
 met, was answered by the credulity of the christians, 
 who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walk- 
 ing on the rampart and animating their courage.P After 
 a siege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Bour- 
 sa by a domestic revolt, which was kindled by Greek 
 treachery, and was soon extinguished by the death of 
 a guiltless brother. While he led his ,j,j^^ emperor 
 janizaries to new conquests in Europe JohnPaiaolo- 
 and Asia, the Byzantine empire was in- ^'140- 
 dulged in a servile and precarious respite jGiysi— * 
 of thirty years. Manuel sunk into the A. D. 1449. 
 grave ; and John Palaeologus was permit- October 31. 
 ted to reign, for an annual tribute of three hundred 
 thousand aspers, and the dereliction of almost all that 
 he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople. 
 
 m The Turkish asper (from the Greek -o-wj oc) is, or was, a piece of 
 tchite or silver money, at present much debased, but which was for- 
 merly equivalent to the 54th part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or se- 
 quin ; and the 300,(XX) aspers, a princely allowance or royal tribute, 
 may be computed at 2500/. sterling. (Leunclav. Pandect. Turc. p. 
 
 406-409.) .», .. • , J 
 
 n For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the particular and cou- 
 
 temporary narrative of John Cananus, published by Leo Allatiua, al 
 
 the endofhiseditionof Acropolita, (p. 1S8— 199.) 
 o Cantemir, p. 80. Cananus, who describes Seid Bechar without 
 
 naming him, supposes that the friend of Mahomet assumed in hit 
 
 amours the privilege of a prophet, and that the fairest of the Greek 
 
 nuns were promised to the saint and his disciples, 
 p For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals lothe mussulmao 
 
 saint; but who will bear testimony for Seid Bechar T 
 
 '! 
 
 » 
 
 t^ 
 
 t _ ** m 
 
 
424 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 f 
 
 c^eLt-iralSSrit ,, JV'"!?''"''"''!"'*"!;''"^ restoration of 
 ofihe Oitomans. *"e lurkish empire, the first merit must 
 ,. . ^ , doubtless be assigned to the personal 
 qualities of the sultans ; since, in human life, the most 
 important scenes will depend on the character of a sin- ! 
 gle actor. By some shades of wisdom and virtue, ! 
 they may be discriminated from each other; but, ex- 
 cept in a single instance, a period of nine reigns, and 
 two hundred and sixty-five years, is occupied, from the 
 elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare 
 series of warlike and active princes, who impressed 
 their subjects with obedience and their enemies with 
 terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, 
 the heirs of royalty were educated in the counsel and 
 the held ; from early youth they were intrusted by their 
 lathers with the command of provinces and armies • 
 and this manly institution, which was often productive 
 ol civil war, must have essentially contributed to the 
 discipline and vigour of the monarchy. The Ottomans 
 cannot style themselves, like the Arabian caliphs, the 
 descendants or successors of the apostle of God ; and ! 
 the kindred which they claim with the Tartar khans ' 
 Of the house of Zmgis. appears to be founded in flattery 
 rather than in truth.;. Their origin is obscure; but their 
 sacred and indefeasible right, which no time can erase, 
 and no violence can infringe, was soon and unaltera- 
 bly implanted in the minds of their subjects. A weak 
 or vicious sultan may be deposed and strangled; but 
 his inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot ; nor has 
 the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne 
 ofhis lawful sovereign.' While the transient dynas- 
 ties of Asia have been continually subverted by a craf- 
 ty vizir in the palace, or a victorious (reneral in the ' 
 camp, the Ottoman succession has been'confirmed by 
 the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated 
 with the vital principle of the Turkish nation. 
 Education and To the spirit and constitution of that 
 &L '^' "^''°"' ^ strong and singular influence 
 iJvo c. K- . r'1? however be ascribed. The primi- 
 tive subjects of Othman were the four hundred fami- 
 lies of wandering Turkmans, who had followed his an- 
 cestors from the Oxus to the Sangar; and the plains 
 of Analo la are still covered with the white and black 
 tents of iheir rustic brethren. But this original drop 
 was dissolved in the mass of voluntary and vanquish- 
 ed subjects, who, under the name of Turks, are united 
 
 Tn^ h! 'f """"^ '"'^^ ''^'^'""' J^"?"^?^' and manners. 
 In the c eies, from Erzeroum to Belgrade, that nation- 
 al appel.ation IS common to all the Moslems, the first 
 and mo^ honourable inhabitants; but they have aban- 
 
 iivMi/ J?if'r Joi^ania, the villages, ind the cul- 
 ti vatic, of the land, to the christian feasants. In the 
 vigorous age of the Ottoman government, the Turks 
 were themselves excluded from all civil and military 
 honours; and a servile class, an artificial people, was 
 raised by he discipline of education to obey,^o con- 
 
 th7fir'«t A ''T'l^'' f''"" '^' *'"^« ^f Orchan and 
 the lirst Amurath, the sultans were persuaded that a 
 
 Sn w^Jhf '''^r^ must be renewed in each gen! 
 Te ouX n^-^'i^^^'"'''' ^"^ '^'^' «"«h soldiers must 
 be sought notineflfeminate Asia, but among the hardy 
 and warlike natives of Europe. The pr^ovinces of 
 
 came the perpetual seminary of the Turkish army -and 
 
 cotnuest' r^'V''^' ^'^'^ '^^''^'^ -^« dimlnTsl^d by 
 conquest, an inhuman tax, of the fifth child, or of ev- 
 
 ery fifth year, was rigorously lev ied on th^ christian 
 
 Chap. XXVI. 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Into TurkUhiilJlerg.^' ^® tniMmuuiion of chri.iian children 
 
 families. At the age of twelve or fourteen years, the 
 , most robust youths wert torn from their parents ; their 
 i names were enrolled in a book ; and from that moment 
 , they were clothed, taught, and maintained, for the pub 
 I lie service. According to the promise of their appear- 
 , ance, they were selected for the royal schools of Bour- 
 [sa, rera, and Adrianople, intrusted to the care of the 
 bashaws, or dispersed in the houses of the Anatolian 
 peasantry. It was the first care of their masters to in- 
 struct them in the Turkish language : their bodies were 
 exercised by every labour that could fortify their 
 strength; they learned to wrestle, to leap, to run, to 
 shoot with the bow, and afterwards with the musket; 
 till they were drafted into the chambers and compa! 
 nies of the janizaries, and severely trained in the 
 military or monastic discipline of the order. The 
 youths most conspicuous for birth, talents, and beauty, 
 were admitted into the inferior class of a^mmo^/afM,o; 
 the more liberal rank ofichoglans, of whom the former 
 , were attached to the palace, and the latter to the person 
 or the prince. In four successive schools, under the 
 rod of the white eunuchs, the arts of horsemanship and 
 of darting the javelin were their daily exercise, while 
 those of a more studious cast applied themselves to the 
 study of the Koran, and the knowledge of the Arabic 
 and Persian tongues. As they advanced in seniority 
 and merit, they were gradually dismissed to military, 
 civil, and even ecclesiastical employments: the lon4r 
 their stay, the higher was their expectation ; till, at a 
 mature period, they were admitted into the number of 
 the forty agas, who stood before the sultan, and were 
 promoted by his choice to the government of provinces 
 and the first honours of the empire.* Such a mode of 
 institution was admirably adapted to the form and 
 spirit of a despotic monarchy. The ministers and Gene- 
 rals were, in the strictest sense, the slaves of th^em- 
 peror, to whose bounty they were indebted for their in- 
 Tn^T^ ""^"^ support. When they left the seraglio, 
 and suffered their beards to grow as the symbol of en- 
 franchisement, they found themselves in an important 
 o.?r'r .T-^^^T or friendship, without parents 
 and without heirs, dependent on the hand which had 
 raised them from the dust, and which, on the slightest 
 displeasure, could break in pieces these statues of glass, 
 as they are aptly termed by the Turkish proverb." In 
 
 ^r! Z T^ P"'"^"^ '*'P" ^^ education, their charac- 
 ter and alents were unfolded to a discerniner eye : the 
 man, naked and alone, was reduced to the s'tandard of 
 his personal merit; and, if the sovereign had wisdom 
 to choose, he possessed a pure and boundless liberty 
 of choice. The Ottoman candidates were trained by 
 he virtues of abstinence to those of action ; by the ha- 
 bi s of submission to those of command. A similar 
 
 .Kr". ^^f "^^ '''".^"« the troops; and their silence 
 and sobriety, their patience and modesty, have extorted 
 the reluctant praise of their christian enemies." Nor 
 can the victor^ appear doubtful, if we compare the 
 of fw? h" h'"^- T''''f "^ '^' janizaries with the pride 
 of th. nl f 'P^^P^"'^^"^^ of chivalry, the ignorance 
 of the new levies, the mutinous temper of the veterans, 
 and the vices of intemperance and disorder, which so 
 long contaminated the armies of Europe. 
 
 Greek I'^J »^ope of salvation for ther„.enUonandu.e 
 t^reek empire, and the adjacent kincr- ofgunpowder. 
 doms, would have been some more powerful weapon 
 some discovery in the art of war, that should give 
 thern a decisive superiority over their Turkish foes. 
 
 ouch a Wnnnnn wr^o i.-. 4K„:_ 1 j_ - 1 .. 
 
 425 
 
 Such a weapon was in thei'r hands; such a d"i"scovc7y 
 
 :ical period of their fate. The 
 
 had been made at this criti.„. ,,..,„. „. ,„,.,, ,3^^. ^.„^ 
 chemists of China or Europe, had fou nd, by casual or 
 
 t This sketch of ihe Turkish education and disciolinB \a rhirfl- 
 « See the entertaining and judicijus letters of Busbequiu*. 
 
 ) 
 
 
 elaborate experiments, that a mixture of salt-petre, sul- 
 phur, and charcoal, produces, with a spark of fire, a 
 tremendous explosion. It was soon observed, that if the 
 expansive force were compressed in a strong tube, a 
 ball of stone or iron might be expelled with irresistible 
 and destructive velocity. The precise aera of the in- 
 vention and application of gunpowder'' is involved in 
 doubtful traditions and equivocal language ; yet we may 
 clearly discern, that it was known before the middle of 
 the fourteenth century ; and that before the end of the 
 same, the use of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea 
 and land, was familiar to the states of Germany, Italy, 
 Spain, France, and England.* The priority of nations 
 is of small account; none could derive any exclusive 
 benefit from their previous or superior knowledge : and 
 in the common improvement, they stood on the same le- 
 vel of relative power and military silence. Nor was it 
 possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the 
 church ; it was disclosed to the Turks by the treache- 
 ry of apostates and the selfish policy of rivals; and the 
 sultans had sense to adopt, and wealth to reward, the 
 talents of a christian engineer. The Genoese, who 
 transported Amurath into Europe, must be accused as 
 his preceptors; and it was probably by their hands 
 that his cannon was cast and directed at the siege of 
 Constantinople.* The first attempt was indeed un- 
 successful ; but in the general warfare of the age, 
 the advantage was on iheir side who were most com- 
 monly the assailants ; for a while the proportion of the 
 attack and defence was suspended ; and this thunder- 
 ing artillery was pointed against the walls and towers 
 which had been erected only to resist the less potent 
 engines of antiquity. By the Venetians, the use of 
 gunpowder was communicated without reproach to the 
 sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the Ot- 
 toman power ; the secret was soon propagated to the ex- 
 tremities of Asia; and the advantage of the European 
 was confined to his easy victories over the savages of 
 the new world. If we contrast the rapid progress of 
 this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious 
 advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a 
 philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or 
 weep at the folly of mankind. 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Applications ofihe eastern emperors to the popes. — Visits to 
 tlve west J of John the firsts Manuel, and John the second, 
 Palscolos^us. — Union of the Greek and Latin churches, 
 promoted by the council of Basil ^ and concluded at Fera- 
 ra and Florence. — State of literature at Constantinople. — 
 Its revival in Italy by the Greek fugitives. — Curiosity and 
 emulation ofihe Latins. 
 
 Embassy of the In the four last Centuries of the Greek 
 
 younger Andro- emperors, their friendly or hostile aspect 
 nicus to pope * ' 1 /i j .u t *• u 
 
 Benedict XII. towards the pope and the Latins may be 
 
 a. d. 1339. observed as the thermometer of their pros- 
 perity or distress ; as the scale of the rise and fall of 
 the barbarian dynasties. When the Turks of the house 
 of Seljuk pervaded Asia, and threatened Constantino- 
 ple, we have seen at the council of Placentia, the sup- 
 pliant ambassadors of Alexius imploring the protection 
 
 J The first and second volumes of Dr. "Watson's chemical Essays 
 contain two valuable discourses on the discovery and composition of 
 gunpowder. 
 
 I On this subject modern testimonies cannot be trusted. The origi- 
 nal passaires are collected by Ducange. (Gloss. Latin, torn. i. p. 675. 
 liombarda.) But in the early doubtful twilight, the name, the sound, 
 fire, and effect, that seem to express our artillery, may be (airly inier- 
 pretpd of the old engines and the Greek fire. For the English cannon 
 at Crecy, the authority of John Villani (Chron. 1. xii. c. Go.) must be 
 weighed against the silence of Froissard. Yet Muratori (Antiquit. 
 ItalisB medii ^vi, torn. ii. Dissert, xxvi. p. 514, 515.) has produced a 
 decisive passage from Petrarch, (de Remediis utriusque Forlunae Dia- 
 log.) who, before the year 1344, execrates this terrestrial thunder, nu- 
 per rara, nunc communis. 
 
 a The Turkish cannon, which Ducas (c. 30.) first introduces before 
 Belgrade (A. D. 1436.) is mentioned by Cbalcondyles (I. T.p. 123.) in 
 1422, at the siege of Constantinople. 
 
 Vol. U 3 D 
 
 of the common father of the christians. No sooner had 
 the army of the French pilgrims removed the sultan 
 from Nice to Iconium, than the Greek princes resumed, 
 or avowed, their genuine hatred and contempt for the 
 schismatics of the west, which precipitated the first 
 downfall of their empire. The date of the Mogul in- 
 vasion is marked in the soft and charitable language 
 of John Vataces. After the recovery of Constantino- 
 ple, the throne of the first Palaeologuswas encompass- 
 ed by foreign and domestic enemies : as long as the 
 sword of Charles was suspended over his head, he 
 basely courted the favour of the Roman pontiflf; and 
 sacrificed to the present danger his faith, his virtue, and 
 the affection of his subjects. On the decease of Mi- 
 chael, the prince and people asserted the independence 
 of the church, and the purity of their creed : the elder 
 Andronicus neither feared nor loved the Latins ; in his 
 last distress pride was the safeguard of superstition; 
 nor could he decently retract in his age the firm and 
 orthodox declarations of his youth. His grandson, 
 the younger Andronicus, was less a slave in his tem- 
 per and situation ; and the conquest of Bithynia by 
 the Turks, admonished him to seek a temporal and 
 spiritual alliance with the western princes. After a 
 separation and silence of fifty years, a secret agent, 
 the monk Barlaam, was despatched to pope Benedict 
 the twelfth ; and his artful instructions appear to have 
 been drawn by the master-hand of the great domestic* 
 " Most holy father," was he commis- xhe ar-^umenta 
 sioned to say, **lhe emperor is not less for a crusade and 
 desirous than yourself of a union between "'^'*^'*' 
 the two churches : but in this delicate transaction, he is 
 obliged to respect his own dignity and the prejudices 
 of his subjects. The ways of union are two-fold ; force, 
 and persuasion. Offeree, the inefficacy has been alrea- 
 dy tried ; since the Latins have subdued the empire, 
 without subduing the minds, of the Greeks. The meth- 
 od of persuasion, though slow, is sure and permanent. 
 A deputation of thirty or forty of our doctors would 
 probably agree with those of the Vatican, in the love 
 of truth and the unity of belief, but on their return, 
 what would be the use, the recompence of such agree- 
 ment 1 the scorn of their brethren, and the reproaches 
 of a blind and obstinate nation. Yet that nation is 
 accustomed to reverence the general councils, which 
 have fixed the articles of our faith ; and if they repro- 
 bate the decrees of Lyons, it is because the eastern 
 churches were neither heard nor represented in that 
 arbitrary meeting. For this salutary end, it will be 
 expedient, and even necessary, that a well-chosen 
 legate should be sent into Greece, to convene the 
 patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and 
 Jerusalem; and with their aid, to prepare a free and 
 universal synod. But at this moment," continued the 
 subtle agent, " the empire is assaulted and endangered 
 by the Turks, who have occupied four of the greatest 
 cities in Anatolia. The christian inhabitants have 
 expressed a wish of returning to their allegiance and 
 religion ; but the forces and revenues of the emperor 
 are insufficient for their deliverance : and the Roman 
 legate must be accompanied, or preceded, by an army 
 of Franks, to expel the infidels, and open a way to 
 the holy sepulchre." If the suspicious Latins should 
 require some pledge, some previous effect of the since- 
 rity of the Greeks, the answers of Barlaam were per- 
 spicuous and rational. ** 1. A general synod can alone 
 consummate the union of the churches; nor can such 
 a synod be held till the three oriental patriarchs, and a 
 great number of bishops, are enfranchised from the 
 Mahometan yoke. 2. The Greeks are alienated by a 
 long series of oppression and injury : they must be 
 reconciled by some act of brotherly love, some effec- 
 
 * This curious instruction was transcribed (I believe) from the 
 Vatican archives, by Odoricus Raynaldus, in his Continuation of the 
 Annals of Baronius (Romae, 1646—1677. in ten volumes in folio.) I 
 have contented myself with the Abbe Fleury, (Hist. Ecclesiastique, 
 tom. XX. p. 1—8.) whose abstracts I have alway* found lo b« dew,, 
 accurate, and impartial. 
 
 J 
 
 
 •^^^fiii^^ 'w t '"' g .-.. ' 
 
425 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 Negociaiion of 
 Cantacuzene 
 with Clement 
 VI. 
 A. D. 1348. 
 
 taal succour, which may fortify the authority and argu- 
 ments of the emperor, and the friends of the union. 
 3. If some difference of faith or ceremonies should be 
 found incurable, the Greeks however are the disciples 
 of Christ; and the Turks are the common enemies of 
 the christian name. The Armenians, Cyprians, and 
 Rhodians, are equally attacked ; and it will become 
 the piety of the French princf^s to draw their swords 
 in the general defence of religion. 4. Should the sub- 
 jects of Andronicus be treated as the worst of schis- 
 matics, of heretics, of pagans, a judicious policy may 
 yet instruct the powers of the west to embrace a use- 
 ful ally, to uphold a sinking empire, to guard the con- 
 fines of Europe; and rather to join the Greeks against 
 the Turks, than to expect the union of the 7^urkish 
 arms with the troops and treasures of captive Greece." 
 The reasons, the offers, and the demands, of Androni- 
 cus, were eluded with cold and stately indifference. 
 The kings of France and Naples declined the dangers 
 and glory of a crusade: the pope refused to call a new 
 synod to determine old articles of faith : and his re- 
 gard for the obsolete claims of the Latin emperor and 
 clergy engaged him to use an offensive superscription ; 
 **To the moderator^ of the Greeks, and the persons 
 who style themselves the patriarchs of the eastern 
 churches." For such an embassy, a time and charac- 
 ter less propitious could not easily have been found. 
 Benedict the twelfth* was a dull peasant, perplexed 
 with scruples, and immersed in sloth and wine: his 
 pride mii;ht enrich with a third crown the papal tiara, 
 but he was alike unfit for the regal and the pastoral 
 office. 
 
 After the decease of Andronicus, while 
 the Greeks were distracted by intestine 
 war, they could not presume to agitate a 
 general union of the christians. But as 
 soon as Cantacuzene had subdued and pardoned his 
 enemies, he was anxious to justify, or at least to ex- 
 tenuate, the introduction of the Turks into Europe, 
 and the nuptials of his daughter with a mussulman 
 prince. Two officers of state, with a Latin interpre- 
 ter, were sent in his name to the Roman court, which 
 was transplanted to Avignon, on the banks of the 
 Rhone, during a period of seventy years ; they repre- 
 sented the hard necessity which had urged him to em- 
 brace the alliance of the miscreants, and pronounced 
 by his command the specious and edifying sounds of 
 union and crusade. Pope Clement the sixth,*" the suc- 
 cessor of Benedict, received them with hospitality and 
 honour, acknowledged the innocence of their sovereign, 
 excused his distress, applauded his magnanimity, and 
 displayed a clear knowledge of the state and revolu- 
 tions of the Greek empire, which he had imbibed from 
 the honest accounts of a Savoyard lady, an attendant 
 of the empress Anne.* If Clement was ill endowed 
 with ihe virtues of a priest, he possessed however the 
 spirit and magnificence of a prince, whose liberal hand 
 distributed benefices and kingdoms with equal facili- 
 
 b The ambiguity of this title is happy or ingenious; and mwUra- 
 tor, as synonymous to rector, gttbernutor, is a word of classical, and 
 «Ten Ciceronian, Laiiniiy, which may be found, not in the Glossary 
 of Ducanpe, but in the Thesaurus of Robert Stephens. 
 
 c The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch exposes the danger of 
 the 6arA, and the incapacity of ihepj/o/. Hasc inter, vino madidus, 
 ■TO gravis, ac aoporifero rore perfusus, jamjam nutitat, dormilat, jam 
 
 •omno praeceps, aUjue (uiinam solus) ruit Heu quanio feliciuf 
 
 P^'^Vi?"^"' eulcasset arairo, quam scalmum piscatorium ascendis- 
 seu This satire enpages his biographer to weigh the virtues and 
 ▼ices of Benedict XII. which have been exaggerated by Guelphs 
 a,nd Ghibenne»», by papists and protesiants. (See Memoires sur la 
 Vie de Pelrapiup, torn. i. p. 259. ii. not. xv. p. 13—15.) He gave oc- 
 casion to the saying, Bibanius papaliter. 
 
 d See the original Lives of (Jlement VI. in Muratori ; (Scriot 
 Rerum Ilalicaruni, torn. iii. p. ii. p. 550-589.) Matteo Villani, (Chron" 
 I. Iii. c. 43. In Muratori, torn. xiv. p. 186.) who styles him, molto 
 cavallaresco, poco religioso; Fleury (Hist. Eccles, torn. xx. p. 126) 
 and the Vie de Petrarque, (torn. ii. p. 42—45.) The Abb6 de Sade 
 treats him with the most indulgence : but he is a gentleman as well 
 •a a priest. 
 
 • Her name (most probably corrupted) wasZampea. She had ac- 
 companied and alone remained with her mistress at Constantinople, 
 ZT^k" ^"^ence, erudition, and politeneM, dei«rved the preiflei 
 ^ the (Sreeki themselrea. (Caniacuaen. 1. i. c. «0 j 
 
 427 
 
 ty. Under his reign Avignon was the seat of pomp 
 and pleasure : in his youth he had surpassed the licen- 
 tiousness of a baron ; and the palace, nay, the bed- 
 chamber, of the pope, was adorned, or polluted, by the 
 visits of his female favourites. The wars of France 
 and England were adverse to the holy enterprise; but 
 his vanity was amused by the splendid idea; and the 
 Greek ambassadors returned with two Latin bishops, 
 the ministers of the pontiff. On their arrival at Con- 
 stantinople, the emperor and the nuncios admired each 
 other's piety and eloquence : and their freauent confe- 
 rences were filled with mutual praises and promises, 
 by which both parties were amused, and neither could 
 be deceived. ** I am delighted," said the devout Can- 
 tacuzene, ** with the project of our holy war, which 
 must redound to my personal glory, as well as to the 
 public benefit of Christendom. My dominions wil. 
 give a free passage to the armies of France: my 
 troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall be consecrated 
 to the common cause ; and happy would be my fate, 
 could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. 
 Words are insutficient to express the ardour with 
 which I sigh for the re-union of the scattered mem- 
 bers of Christ. If my death could avail, I would 
 gladly present my sword and my neck : if the spiritual 
 phcenix could arise from my ashes, I would erect the 
 pile, and kindle the flame with my own hands." Yet 
 the Greek emperor presumed to observe, that the arti- 
 cles of faith which divided the two churches had been 
 introduced by the pride and precipitation of the La- 
 tins : he disclaimed the servile and arbitrary steps of 
 the first PaljBologus ; and firmly declared, that he 
 would never submit his conscience unless to the de- 
 crees of a free and universal synod. •* The situation 
 of the times," continued he, " will not allow the pope 
 and myself to meet either at Rome or Constantinople ; 
 but some maritime city may be chosen on the \(tTgQ of 
 the two empires, to unite the bishops, and to instruct 
 the faithful, of the east and west." The nuncios 
 seemed content with the proposition ; and Cantacu- 
 zene aflfects to deplore the failure of his hopes, which 
 were soon overthrown by the death of Clement, and 
 the different temper of his successor. His own life 
 was prolonged, but it was prolonged in a cloister; and, 
 except by his prayers, the humble monk was inca- 
 pable of directing the counsels of his pupil or the 
 state.' 
 
 Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that Treaty of John 
 pupil, John Palaeologus, was the best Paiae«>i(>RU8 I. 
 disposed to embrace, to believe, and to ^j^h Innocent 
 obey, the shepherd of the west. His A. D. 1355. 
 mother, Anne of Savoy, was baptized in the bosom of 
 the Latin church: her marriage with Andronicus im- 
 posed a change of name, of apparel, and of worship, 
 but her heart was still faithful to her country and 
 religion; she had formed the infancy of her son, and 
 she governed the emperor, after his mind, or at least 
 his stature, was enlarged to the size of man. In the 
 first year of his deliverance and restoration, the Turks 
 were still masters of the Hellespont; the son of Can- 
 tacuzene was in arms at Adrianople ; and Palaeologus 
 could depend neither on himself nor on his people. 
 By his mother's advice, and in the hope of foreign 
 aid, he abjured the rights both of the church and 
 slate ; and the act of slavery,* subscribed in purple 
 ink, and sealed with the golden bull, was privately 
 intrusted to an Italian agent. The first article of the 
 treaty is an oath of fidelity and obedience to Innocent 
 the sixth and his successors, the supreme pontiflfs of 
 the Roman and catholic church. The emperor prom- 
 ises to entertain with due reverence their legates and 
 nuncios; to assign a palace for their residence, and a 
 
 f See this whole negoclation in Cantacuzene, (I. iv. c. 9.) who, 
 amidst tno praises and virtues which he bestows on himself, reveali 
 the uneasiness of a guilty conscience. 
 
 K See the ignominious treaty in Fleury, (Hist. Ecclea. p. 151—154.) 
 
 -v u^"***^ u'.' *5° ^'■•^ '^ ffo"™ tbe Vatican archivei. It wu not 
 worth the irouble of a piou« furgery. 
 
 I 
 
 temple for their worship; and to deliver his second 
 son Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these 
 condescensions he requires a prompt succour of fifteen 
 galleys, with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand 
 archers, to serve against his christian and mui%sulman 
 enemies. Palajologus engages to impose on his clergy 
 and people the same spiritual yoke ; but as the resis- 
 tance of the Greeks might he justly foreseen, he adopts 
 the two effectual methods of corruption and education. 
 The legate was empowered to distribute the vacant 
 benefices among the ecclesiastics who should sub- 
 scribe the creed of the Vatican: three schools were 
 instituted to instruct the youth of Constantinople in 
 the language and doctrine of the Latins; and the name 
 of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was enrolled as 
 the first student. Should he fail in the measures of 
 persuasion or force, Palaeologus declares himself un- 
 worthy to reign ; transfers to the pope all regal and 
 paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full 
 power to regulate the family, the government, and the 
 marriage, of his son and successor. But this treaty 
 was neither executed nor published : the Roman gal- 
 leys were as vain and imaginary as the submission of 
 the Greeks ; and it was only by the secrecy, that 
 their sovereign escaped the dishonour of this fruitless 
 humiliation. 
 
 Visit of John Pa- The tempest of the Turkish arms soon 
 Iseolo^ua to Ur- burst on his head ; and, after the loss of 
 
 ban V. at Rome, . , . , j t» • u 
 
 A. D. 1369. Adrianople and liomania, he was en- 
 October 13, ace closed in his capital, the vassal of the 
 haughty Amurath, with the miserable hope of being 
 the last devoured by the savage. In this abject state, 
 Palajologus embraced the resolution of embarking for 
 Venice, and casting himself at the feet of the pope ; he 
 was the first of the Byzantine princes who had ever 
 visited the unknown regions of the west, yet in them 
 alone he could seek consolation or relief; and with 
 less violation of his dignity he might appear in the sa- 
 cred college than at the Ottoman Forte. After a long 
 absence, the Roman pontiflfs were returning from Avig- 
 non to the banks of the Tiber ; Urban the fifth,* of a 
 mild and virtuous character, encouraged or allowed the 
 pigrimage of the Greek prince ; and, within the same 
 year, enjoyed the glory of receiving in the Vatican the 
 two imperial shadows who represented the majesty of 
 Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant vi- 
 sit, the emperor of Constantinople, whose vanity was 
 lost in his distress, gave more than could be expected 
 of empty sounds and formal submissions.^ A previous 
 trial was imposed ; and in the presence of four cardi- 
 nals, he acknowledged, as a true catholic, the supre- 
 macy of the pope, and the double procession of the Holy 
 Ghost. ^ After this purification he was introduced to a 
 public audience in the church of St. Peter ; Urban, in 
 the midst of the cardinals, was seated on his throne ; 
 the Greek monarch, after three genuflexions, devoutly 
 kissed the feet, the hands, and at length the mouth, 
 of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in his 
 presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, 
 and treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vati- 
 can. The entertainment of Palaeologus was friendly 
 and honourable ; yet some difference was observed be- 
 tween the emperors of the east and west ; ' nor could the 
 former be entitled to the rare privilege of chanting the 
 gospel in the rank of a deacon.^ In favour of his pro- 
 
 b See the two first original Lives of Urban V. (in Muratori, Script. 
 Rerum Ilalicanim, torn. iii. p. ii. p. 623. 635.) and the ticclesiaslical 
 Annals of Spondanus (lom. i. p. 573. A. D. 1369. No. 7.) and Ray naldus, 
 (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 223, 224.) Yet, from some variations, 
 I suspect the papal writers of slightly magnifying the genuflexions of 
 
 Pal»<)locruS. 
 
 i Paullo minus quam si fuisset imperator Romanorum. Yet his 
 title of impera tor Graecorum was no longer disputed. (Vit. Urban V. 
 p. 623.) 
 
 k It was confined to the successors of Charlemagne, atid to them 
 only on (Christmas-day. On all other festivals these imperial deacons 
 were content to serve the pope, as he said mass, with the book and 
 the corporal. Yet the Abbe de Sade generously thinks that the me- 
 rits of Charles IV. might have entitled him, though not on the proper 
 tlay, (A. D. J36d. November 1.) to the whole privilege. He seems to 
 
 selyte. Urban strove to rekindle the zeal of the French 
 king, and the other powers of the west; but he found 
 theui cold in the general cause, and active only in 
 their domestic quarrels. The last hope of the empe- 
 ror was in an English mercenary, John Hawk wood,* 
 or Acuto, who with a band of adventurers, the white 
 brotherhood, had ravaged Italy from the Alps to Ca- 
 labria; sold his services to the hostile states ; and in- 
 curred a just excommunication by shooting his arrows 
 against the papal residence. A special licence was 
 granted to negociate with the outlaw, but the forces, 
 or the spirit, of Hawkwood were unequal to the enter- 
 prise ; and it was for the advantage, perhaps, of Palae- 
 ologus to be disappointed of a succour that must have 
 been costly, that could not be efllectual, and which 
 might have been dangerous." The disconsolate Greek • 
 prepared for his return, but even his return was impe- 
 ded by a most ignominious obstacle. On his arrival 
 at Venice, he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant 
 usury; but his cofl[ers were empty, his creditors were 
 impatient, and his person was detained as the best se- 
 curity for the payment. His eldest son Andronicus, 
 the regent of Constantinople, wsis repeatedly urged to 
 exhaust every resource; and, even by stripping the 
 churches, to extricate his father from captivity and dis- 
 grace. But the unnatural youth was insensible of the 
 disgrace, and secretly pleased with the captivity of the 
 emperor; the state was poor, the clergy were obsti- 
 nate; nor could some relijrious scruple be wanting to 
 excuse the guilt of his ind inference and delay. Such 
 undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety 
 of his brother Manuel, who instantly sold or mortga- 
 ged all that he possessed, embarked for Venice, reliev- 
 ed his father, and pledged his own freedom to be re- 
 sponsible for the debt. On his return to His return to 
 Constantinople, the parent and king dis- Constantinople, 
 tinguished his two sons with suitable re- ^* ^' *^^* 
 wards ; but the faith and manners of the slothful Palae- 
 ologus had not been improved by his Roman pilgri- 
 mage ; and his apostasy or conversion, devoid of any 
 spiritual or temporal effects, was speedily forgotten by 
 the Greeks and Latins." 
 
 Thirty years after the return of Palae- Visit of the em- 
 ologus, his son and successor, Manuel, peror Manuel 
 from a similar motive, but on a larger scale, again vi- 
 sited the countries of the west. In a precedinir chap- 
 ter I have related his treaty with Bajazet, the violation 
 of that treaty, the siege or blockade of Constantinople, 
 and the French succour under the command of the gal- 
 lant Boucicault.P By his ambassadors, Manuel had 
 solicited the Latin powers ; but it was thought that 
 the presence of a distressed monarch would draw 
 tears and supplies from the hardest barbarians ;•> and 
 the marshal who advised the journey, prepared the re- 
 ception, of the Byzantine prince. The land was occu- 
 pied by the Turks ; but the navigation of Venice was 
 
 affix a just value on the privilege and the man. (Vie de Petrarque, 
 tom. iii. p. 735.) 
 
 1 Through some Italian corruptions, the et)rmology of Falcone in 
 bosco (Mattheo Villani, 1. xi. c. 79. in Muratori, tom. xv. p. 746.) sug- 
 gests the English word Hawkwood, the true name of our adventurous 
 countryman. (Thomas Walsingham, Hist. Anglican, inter Scriptores 
 Cambdeni, p. 184.) After two and twenty victories, and one defeat, 
 he died, in 1394, general of the Florentines, and was buried with such 
 honours as the republic has not paid to Dante or Petrarch. (Muratori, 
 Annali d'llalia, tom. xii. p. 212—371.) 
 
 m This torrent of English (by birth or service) overflowed from 
 France into Italy after the peace of Breti^ny in 1360. Yet the excla- 
 mation of Muratori (Annali, tom. xii. p. 197.) is rather true ilian civil. 
 "Ci mancava ancor questo, che dopo essere calpestrata I'lulia da 
 lanii masnadieri Tedeschi ed Uneheri, venissero fin dall' Inghliterra 
 nuovi cnni a finire di divorarla."' 
 
 n Chalcondyles, 1. i. p. 25, 26. The Greek supposes his journey to 
 the king of France, which is sufliciently refuted by the silence of the 
 national historians. Nor am I much more inclined to believe that 
 Pal»ologus departed from Italy, valde bene consolatus et contentut. 
 (Vit. Urban V. p. 623.) , o . o- ,o^ 
 
 o His return in 1370, and the coronation of Manuel, Sept. 2o, 1373, 
 (Ducanse, Fam. Byzant. p. 241.) leaves some intermediate »ra for the 
 conspiracy and punishment of Andronicus. 
 
 p Memoires deBoucicault, p. i.e. 35, 36. ^ , , .. 
 
 q His journey into the west of Europe is slightly, and I beliere 
 reluctantly, noticed by Chalcondylei (I. ii. c. 44—50.) and Ducu 
 (c. 14.) 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
428 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 429 
 
 ipP 
 
 safe and open : Italy received him as the first, or at 
 least as the second, of the christian princes ; Manuel 
 was pitied as the champion and confessor of the faith ; 
 and the dignity of his behaviour prevented that pity 
 from sinking into contempt. From Venice he proceed- 
 ed to Padua and Pavia ; and even the duke of Milan, a 
 secret ally of Bajazet, gave him safe and honourable 
 conduct to the verge of his dominions.' On the con- 
 to the court of ^"^^ ^^ France' the royal officers under- 
 France, took the care of his person, journey, and 
 "^T^' '3'^' expenses ; and two thousand of the rich- 
 ' est citizens, in arms and on horseback, 
 came forth to meet him as far as Charenton, in the 
 neighbourhood of the capital. At the gates of Paris, 
 he was saluted by the chancellor and the parliament ; 
 and Charles the sixth, attended by his princes and no- 
 bles, welcomed his brother with a cordial embrace. 
 The successor of Constantine was clothed in a robe of 
 white silk, and mounted on a milk-white steed, a cir- 
 cumstance, in the French ceremonial, of singular im- 
 portance ; the white colour is considered as the symbol 
 of sovereignty ; and, in a late visit, the German empe- 
 ror, after a haughty demand and a peevish refusal, had 
 been reduced to content himself with a black courser. 
 Manuel was lodged in the Louvre ; a succession of 
 feasts and balls, the pleasures of the banquet and the 
 chase, were ingeniously varied by the politeness of the 
 French, to display their magnificence, and amuse his 
 grief; he was indulged in the liberty of his chapel ; and 
 the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished, and pos- 
 sibly scandalized, by the language, the rites, and the 
 vestments, of his Greek clergy. But the slightest 
 glance on the state of the kingdom must teach him to 
 despair of any effectual assistance. The unfortunate 
 Charles, though he enjoyed some lucid intervals, con- 
 tinually relapsed into furious or stupid insanity : the 
 reins of government were alternately seized by his 
 brother and uncle, the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, 
 whose factious competition prepared the miseries of 
 civil war. The former was a gay youth, dissolved in 
 luxury and love: the latter was the father of John 
 count of Nevers, who had so lately been ransomed 
 from Turkish captivity; and, if the fearless son was 
 ardent to revenge his defeat, the more prudent Bur- 
 gundy was content with the cost and peril of the first 
 experiment. When Manuel had satiated the curiosity, 
 and perhaps fatigued the patience, of the F'rench, he 
 resolved on a visit to the adjacent island. In his pro- 
 of England, gress from Dover, he was entertained at 
 "De^ *b"^" CJanterbury with due reverence by the 
 em er. priQ^ and monks of St. Austin ; and, on 
 Blackheath, king Henry the fourth, with the English 
 court, saluted the Greek hero, (I copy our old histo- 
 rian,) who, during many days, was lodged and treated 
 in London as eniperor of the east.* But the state of 
 England was still more adverse to the design of the 
 holy war. In the same year, the hereditary sovereign 
 had been deposed and murdered : the reigning prince 
 was a successful usurper, whose ambitionVas^punish- 
 cd by jealousy and remorse : nor could Henry of Lan- 
 caster withdraw his person or forces from the defence 
 of a throne incessantly shaken by conspiracy and re- 
 bellion. He pitied, he praised, he feasted, the empe- 
 
 T Muraiori, Annali d'ltalia, torn lii. p. 406. John Galeazzo was the 
 first and nr-st powerful duke of Milan. His connexion with Bajazet 
 IS attested by l-roissard ; and ho contributed to save and deliver the 
 French captives of Nicopolis. 
 
 • For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see Spondanus, (Annal. 
 Eccleg. loni. 1. p. 67b, 677. A. D. 1400. No. 5.) who ijuotes Juvenal des 
 Ursins, an-i the monk of St. Denys ; and Villaret, (Hist, de France 
 lorn. xii. p. 331—334.) who quotes nobody, according to the last fash- 
 ion of the French writers. 
 
 t A short note of Manuel in England, is extracted by Dr. Hody from 
 a MS. at Lambeth, (de (iraecis iilustribus, p. 14.) C. P. Imperaior.diu 
 variis(iue et horrendis paganorum insuliibus coarclatus, ut proeisdem 
 resistentiam triumphalem perquireret Anglorum Regem visitare de- 
 crevii, Sec. Rex (says Walsingham, p. 364.) nobili apparatu ... bus 
 cepii (ut decuit) tantum Heroa, duxit<|ue Londonias, et per mulios 
 aies exhibuit eloriose, pro expensia hospiiii sui solvens.et eum respi- 
 nens lanto fastigio douaiivii. He rep«at« the lame in hu Upodigma 
 
 ror of Constantinople ; but if the English monarch as- 
 sumed the cross, it was only to appease his people, and 
 perhaps his conscience, by the merit or semblance of 
 this pious intention." Satisfied, howev- Hjg r^^urn to 
 er, with gifts and honours, Manuel re- Greece, 
 turned to Paris ; and, after a residence of '■^•^- ^^^ 
 two years in the west, shaped his course through Ger- 
 many and Italy, embarked at Venice, and patiently ex- 
 pected, in the Morea, the moment of his ruin or deliv- 
 erance. Yet he had escaped the ignominious necessi- 
 ty of oflTering his religion to public or private sale. 
 The Latin church was distracted by the great schism : 
 the kings, the nations, the universities, of Europe, 
 were divided in their obedience between the popes of 
 Rome and Avignon ; and the emperor, anxious to con- 
 ciliate the friendship of both parties, abstained from 
 any correspondence with the indigent and unpopular 
 rivals. His journey coincided with the year of the ju- 
 bilee ; but he passed through Italy without desiring, or 
 deserving, the plenary indulgence which abolished the 
 guilt or penance of the sins of the faithful. The Ro- 
 man pope was offended by this neglect ; accused him of 
 irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhorted the 
 princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate 
 schismatic." 
 
 During the period of the crusades, the Greek know- 
 Greeks beheld with astonishment and ledge and de. 
 terror the perpetual stream of emigration ■cripiioM 
 that flowed, and continued to flow, from the unknown 
 climates of the west. The visits of their last empe- 
 rors removed the veil of separation, and they disclosed 
 to their eyes the powerful nations of Europe, whom 
 they no longer presumed to brand with the name of 
 barbarians. The observations of Manuel, and his more 
 inquisitive followers, have been preserved by a By- 
 zantine historian of the times:' his scattered ideas I 
 shall collect and abridge : and it may be amusing 
 enough, perhaps instructive, to contemplate the rude 
 pictures of Germany, France, and England, whose an- 
 cient and modern state are so familiar to our minds. I. 
 Germany (says the Greek Chalcondyles) , ^ 
 is of ample latitude from Vienna to the ^"™*°y*' 
 ocean ; and it stretches (a strange geography) from 
 Prague in Bohemia to the river Tartessus, and the Py- 
 renaean mountains." The soil, except in figs and olives, 
 is suflSciently fruitful ; the air is salubrious ; the bodies 
 of the natives are robust and healthy; afld these cold 
 regions are seldom visited with the calamities of pesti- 
 lence or earthquakes. After the Scythians or Tartars, 
 the Germans are the most numerous of nations ; they 
 are brave and patient, and were they united under a 
 single head, their force would be irresistible. By the 
 gift of the pope they have acquired the privilege of 
 choosing the Roman emperor;* nor is any people more 
 devoutly attached to the faith and obedience of the La- 
 tin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is di- 
 
 u Shakspeare begins and ends the play of Henry IV. with that 
 prince's vow of a crusade, and his belief that he should die in Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 X This fact is preserved in the Histnria Politica, A. D. 1391—1478. 
 published by Martin Crusius. (Turco Gr»cia, p. 1—43.) The image 
 of Christ, which the Greek emperor refused to worship, was probably 
 a work of sculpture. •- r / 
 
 7 The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus Chalcondyles ends 
 with the winter of 1463, and the abrupt conclusion seems to mark, 
 that he laid down his pen in the same year. We know that he was 
 an Athenian, and that some contemporaries of the same name con- 
 tributed to the revival of the Greek language in Italy. But in his 
 numerous digressions, the modest historian has never introduced 
 himself; and his editor Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius, (Bibliot. 
 Graec. lorn. vi. p. 474.) seems ignorant of his life and character. For 
 his descriptions of Germany, France, and England, see 1. ii. p. 36, 37. 
 44— 50. 
 
 1 1 shall not animadvert on the geographical errors of Chalcondyles. 
 In this instance, he perhaps followed, and mistook, Henxiotus, (1. ii. 
 C.33.) whose text may be explained, (Herodote de Larcher, torn. ii. 
 p 219, 220.) or whose ignorance may be excused. Had these modern 
 Greeks never read Sirabo, or any of their lesser geographers ? 
 
 * A citizen of new Kome, while new Rome survived, would have 
 scorned to dignify the German Pui with the titles of B*<r.x.vc or 
 Aurcxf .T«p p^^(..«v, but all pride was extinct in the bosom of Chal- 
 condyles; and he describes the Byzantine prince, and his iubject, 
 by the proper, ihougti humble, name* of ■£\A.v»<,and B*r.x.»i ju 
 
 I 
 
 vided among the princes and prelates ; but Strasburgh, 
 Cologne, Hamburgh, and more than two hundred free 
 cities, are governed by sage and equal laws, according 
 to the will, and for the advantage, of the whole com- 
 munity. The use of duels, or single combats on foot, 
 prevails among them in peace and war; their industry 
 excels in all the mechanic arts, and the Germans may 
 boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, which 
 is now diffused over the greatest part of the world, 
 of France- ^'* '^^® kingdom of France is spread 
 above fifteen or twenty days' journey 
 fron Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the Bri- 
 tish ocean ; containing many flourishing cities, and 
 among these Paris, the seat of the king, which sur- 
 passes the rest in riches and luxury. Many princes 
 and lords alternately wait in his palace, and acknow- 
 ledge him as their sovereign ; the most powerful are 
 the dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy, of whom the 
 latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders, 
 whose harbours are frequented by the ships and mer- 
 chants of our own, and the more remote, seas. The 
 French are an ancient and opulent people : and their 
 language and manners, though somewhat different, are 
 not dissimilar from those of the Italians. Vain of the 
 imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of their victories 
 over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their heroes, 
 Oliver and Rowland ; ^ they esteem themselves the 
 first of the western nations ; but this foolish arrogance 
 has been recently humbled by the unfortunate events 
 of their wars against the English, the inhabitants of 
 of England. ^^® British island. IIL Britain, in the 
 ocean, and opposite to the shores of 
 Flanders, may be considered either as one or as three 
 islands ; but the whole is united by a common interest, 
 by the same manners, and by a similar government. 
 The measure of its circumference is five thousand 
 stadia: the land is overspread with towns and villa- 
 ges: though destitute of wine, and not abounding in 
 fruit-trees, it is fertile in wheat and barley, in honey 
 and wool ; and much cloth is manufactured by the in- 
 habitants. In populousness and power, in riches and 
 luxury, London,* the metropolis of the isle, may claim 
 a pre-eminence over all the cities of the west. It is 
 situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which 
 at the distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic 
 sea ; and the daily flow and ebb of the tide affords a 
 safe entrance and departure to the vessels of com- 
 merce. The king is the head of a powerful and tur- 
 bulent aristocracy ; his principal vassals hold their 
 estates by a free and unalterable tenure ; and the laws 
 define the limits of his authority and their obedience. 
 The kingdom has been often afflicted by foreign con- 
 quest and domestic sedition ; but the natives are bold 
 and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. 
 The form of their shields or targets is derived from 
 the Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks ; 
 the use of the long-bow is the peculiar and decisive 
 advantage of the English. Their language bears no 
 affinity to the idioms of the continent : in the habits 
 of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished 
 from their neighbours of France; but the most singular 
 circumstance of their manners is their disregard of 
 conjugal honour and of female chastity. In their 
 mutual visits, as the first acts of hospitality, the guest 
 is welcomed in the embraces of their wives and 
 daughters; among friends they are lent and borrowed 
 without shame ; nor are the islanders offended at this 
 
 t> Most of the old romances were translated in the fourteenth cen- 
 lury into French prose, and soon became the favourite amusement 
 of the knights ana ladies in the court of Charles VI. If a Greek be- 
 lieved in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may surely be 
 excused, since the monks of St. Denys, national historians, nave 
 inserted the fables of archbishop Turpin in their Chronicles of 
 France. 
 
 c Asrlnrn .... '1 Ti ireA.i; 5vvafi$i Tf ^(Oixcurst Tuiv %¥ t;i vifTu 
 Tavry ir»Tm9 >reA.fi«r, oX,^(w Ti xst ri) rnKKt) luJai/uevtoc cvSi/nxg tuiv 
 
 "•f«« irwifmv Kniroftivn, Even since the lime of Fitzstephen, (the 
 twelfth century,) London appears to have maintained this pre-emi- 
 nence of wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has^at 
 wa»t, kept pace with the general improvemeat of Europe. ^^,^ 
 
 strange commerce, and its inevitable consequences.* 
 Informed as we are of the customs of old England, 
 and assured of the virtue of our mothers, we" may 
 smile at the credulity, or resent the injustice, of the 
 Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute* 
 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and in- 
 justice may teach an important lesson ; to distrust the 
 accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend 
 our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of 
 nature and the character of man.' 
 
 After his return, and the victory of indifference of 
 Timour, Manuel reigned many years in Manuel towards 
 prosperity and peace. As long as the ^^^ ^a.' D.' 
 sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship 1402—1417. 
 and spared his dominions, he was satisfied with the 
 national religion; and his leisure was employed in 
 composing twenty theological dialogues for its de- 
 fence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors 
 at the council of Constance* announces the restoration 
 of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church ; 
 the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, 
 reconciled the emperor to the Vatican ; and the siege 
 of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce 
 in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When 
 Martin the fifth ascended without a rival the chair of 
 St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of let- his negociation. 
 ters and embassies was revived between A. D. 
 
 the east and west. Ambition on one m^— 1425. 
 side, and distress on the other, dictated the same de* 
 cent language of charity and peace: the artful Greek 
 expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to Italian 
 princesses; and the Roman, not less artful, despatched 
 the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a com- 
 pany of noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the 
 obstinacy of the schismatics. Yet under this mask 
 of zeal, a discerning eye will perceive that all was 
 hollow and insincere in the court and church of Con- 
 stantinople. According to the vicissitudes of dangei 
 and repose, the emperor advanced or retreated ; alter 
 nately instructed and disavowed his ministers; and 
 escaped from an importunate pressure by urging the 
 duty of inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense 
 of his patriarchs and bishops, and the impossibility 
 of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms 
 were at the gates of his capital. From a review of 
 the public transactions it will appear, that the Greeks 
 insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a 
 council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded 
 the second, and only promised the first, as a conse- 
 quential and voluntary reward of the third. But we 
 have an opportunity of unfolding the His private mo- 
 most secret intentions of Manuel, as he tires, 
 explained them in a private conversation without arti- 
 fice or disguise. In his declining age, the emperoi 
 had associated John Palaeologus, the second of the 
 name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved 
 the greatest part of the authority and weight of govern- 
 ment. One day, in the presence only of the historian 
 Phranza,*" his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his 
 
 d If the double sense of the verb Ku» (osculor, and in utero gem) 
 be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave 
 no doubt of his meaning and mistake, (p. 49.) 
 
 e Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty passaj^e on the 
 English fashion of kissing strangers on their arrival and departure, 
 from whence, however, he draws no scandalous inferences. 
 
 f Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives 
 among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Caesar and Dion, (Dion 
 Cassius, 1. Ixii.tom. ii. p. 1007.) with Reimar's judicious annotation. 
 The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at first, is become less visible and 
 scandalous, in proportion as we have studied the manners of that 
 gentle and amorous people. 
 
 K See Lenfant, Hist, du Concile de Consiance, torn. ii. p. 576. and 
 for the ecclesiastical history of the times, the Annals of Spondanus, 
 the Bibliotheque of Dupin, lorn. xii. and twenty-first and twenty- 
 second volumes of the History, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury. 
 
 h From his early youth, George Phranza,or Phranzes, was employ. 
 ed in the service of the state and palace ; and Hauckius (de Script. 
 Byzant. p. i, c. 40.) has collected his life from his own writings. He 
 was no more than four and twenty years of age at the death of 
 Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms to his suc- 
 cessor : Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui minislravit 
 mihifideliterct diligenter. (I'hran.l. ii. c. I.) Yet the emperor Joha 
 was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnegus. 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 r-;" 
 
430 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 colleague and successor the true principle of his nego- 
 ciations with the pope.' »* Our last resource," said 
 Manuel, " against the Turks is their fear of our union 
 with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the west, 
 who may arm for our relief and for their destruction. 
 As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, pre- 
 sent this danger before their eyes. Propose a council ; 
 consult on the means ; but ever delay and avoid the 
 convocation of an assembly, which cannot tend either 
 to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins 
 are proud; the Greeks are obstinate; neither party 
 will recede or retract; and the attempt of a perfect 
 union will confirm the schism, alienate the churches, 
 and l^ave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of 
 the barbarians." Impatient of this salutary lesson, 
 the royal youth arose from his seat, and departed in 
 silence ; and the wise monarch (continues Phranza) 
 casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse : 
 "My son deems himself a great and heroic prince; 
 but, alas ! our miserable age does not afford scope for 
 heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might have 
 suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the pre- 
 sent state requires not an emperor, but a cautious 
 steward of the last relics of our fortunes. Well do I 
 remember the lofty expectations which he built on 
 our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I fear, that 
 hfe rash courajre will urge the ruin of our house, and 
 that even religion may precipitate our downfall." 
 Yet the experience and authority of Manuel preserved 
 the peace, and eluded the council ; till, in the seventy- 
 Hi* death, eighth year of his age, and in the habit 
 of a monk, he terminated his career, di- 
 viding his precious movables among his children and 
 the poor, his physicians and his ftvourite servants. 
 Of his six sons,^ Andronicus the second was invested 
 with the principality of Thessalonica, and died of a 
 leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians 
 and its final conquest by the Turks. Some fortunate 
 incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to 
 the empire; and in his more prosperous days, Manuel 
 had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles' with a 
 stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. 
 The wall was overthrown by the first blast of the 
 Ottomans: the fertile peninsula might have been suf- 
 ficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and 
 Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas ; but they wasted 
 in domestic contests the remains of their strength; 
 and the least successful of the rivals were reduced to 
 a life of dependence in the Byzantine palace. 
 
 Zpai of John Theeldestof the sons of Manuel, John 
 PaisBohjjTiJs II. Palaeologus the second, was acknow- 
 i425l?437 ledaed, after his father's death, as the 
 sole emperor of the Greeks. He imme- 
 diately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract a 
 new marriage with the princess of Trebizond : beauty 
 was in his eyes the first qualification of an empress; 
 and the clergy had yielded to his firm assurance, that 
 unless he might be indulged in a divorce, he would 
 retire to a cloister, and leave the throne to his brother 
 Cons^tantine. The first, and in truth the only, victory 
 of Palaeologus, was over a Jew,- whom, after a long 
 and learned dispute, he converted to the christian 
 faith; and this momentous conquest is carefully re 
 
 corded in the history of the times. But he soon re- 
 sumed the design of uniting the east and west; and, 
 regardless of his father's advice, listened, as it shoulj 
 seem with sincerity, to the proposal of meeting the 
 pope in a general council beyond the Adriatic. "This 
 dangerous project was encouraged by Martin the fifth, 
 and coldly entertained by his successor Eugenius] 
 till, after a tedious negociation, the emperor received 
 a summons from the Latin assembly of a new charac- 
 ter, the independent prelates of Basil, who styled 
 themselves the representatives and judges of the cath- 
 olic church. 
 
 The Roman pontiff had fought and Corruption of iho ) 
 conquered in the cause of ecclesiastical Laiin church. 
 treedom; but the victorious clergy were soon exposed 
 to the tyranny of their deliverer; and his sacred char- 
 acter was invulnerable to those arms which they found ' 
 so keen and effectual against the civil magistrate. 
 Their great charter, tlie right of election, was'^annihi^ 
 lated by appeals, evaded by trusts or commendams, 
 disappointed by reversionary grants, and superseded 
 by previous and arbitrary reservations." A public 
 auction was instituted in the court of Rome : the car- 
 dinals and favourites were enriched with the spoils of 
 nations; and every country might complain that the 
 most important and valuable benefices were accumu- 
 lated on the heads of aliens and absentees. During 
 their residence at Avignon, the ambition of the popes 
 subsided in the meaner passions of avarice" and lux- 
 ury ; they rigorously imposed on the clergy the tri- 
 butes of first-fruits and tenths ; but they freely tole- 
 rated the impunity of vice, disorder, and Schism 
 corruption. These manifold scandals a.d. ' 
 
 were aggravated by the great schism of 1377-14.>9. 
 the west, which continued above fifty years. In the 
 furious conflicts of Rome and Avignon, the vices of 
 the rivals were mutually exposed ; and their preca- 
 rious situation degraded their authority, relaxed their 
 discipline, and multiplied their wants and exactions. 
 To heal the wounds, and restore the Council of Pisa, 
 monarchy, of the church, the synods of A. D. J409. 
 Pisa and Constance p were successively ^^ ^^JJ'sj^a^ce, 
 convened ; but these great assemblies, 1414-1418. 
 conscious of their strength, resolved to vindicate the 
 privileges of the christian aristocracy. From a per- 
 sonal sentence against two pontiffs, whom they reject- 
 ed, and a third, their acknowledged sovereign, whom 
 they deposed, the fathers of Constance proceeded to 
 examine the nature and limits of the Roman supre- 
 macy ; nor did they separate till they had established 
 the authority, above the pope, of a general council. 
 It was enacted, that, for the government and reforma- 
 tion of the church, such assemblies should be held at 
 resrular intervals; and that each synod, before its dis- 
 solution, should appoint the time and place of the sub- 
 sequent meeting. By the influence of the court of 
 Rome, the next convocation at Sienna was easily 
 eluded; but the bold and vigorous pro- r r i 
 
 ceedings of the council of Basil i had A." 
 
 almost been fatal to the reigning pontiff, 
 
 431 
 
 1431-1443. 
 
 « See Phranzes, 1. \i. c. 13. While so many manuscriDta of tha 
 
 r^ir&c "ifi^i rulV*?'r *'" ^*^"^"^•' ^^ Ro^meTM?u"'?he Esci 
 A^.J^.' .J ? ^•*"®'^ °^ ■''*"'* *"^ reproach, that we should be re- 
 
 cem Theophylaci. Simocati»: In-olsiadi, 1604.) so deficieni in ac. 
 curacy and elegance. (Fabric. Bibliot. Gr»c. torn. Ti.p 616-620 ) 
 
 k See Ducange, Jam. Byzant. p. 243—248. 
 
 1 The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to iea. was 3800 
 orgyia, or toises, of six Greek feet, (Phranzes, 1. i. c. 38.) whkh 
 would produce a Greek mile still smaller than that of 660 French 
 totaes, which is assigned by D'Anville as still in use in Turkey 
 five mi^s are commonly reckoned for the breadth of the isthmus 
 bee the Travels of Spon, Wheeler, and Chandler. * 
 
 «a The first objection of the Jews is on the death of Christ: if it 
 were voluntary, Christ was a suicide: which the emperor parries 
 Tin .K '"y«<^''y- They then dispute on the conception of the Vir- 
 chapter )'*'^ ***° prophecies, &c. (Phranxes, 1. ii. c. 12. a whole 
 
 n In the treatise delle Materia Benrficlarie of FraPaoIo, (in the 
 fourth Tolume of the last, and best, edition of his works,) the papal 
 system is deeply studied and freely described. Should Rome and 
 her religion be annihilated, this golden volume may still survive, a 
 philosophical history, and a salutary warning. 
 
 o Pope John XXlf. (in 1334) left behind him, at Avignon, eighteen 
 millions of gold florins, and the value of seven millions more in plate 
 and jewels. See the Chronicle of John Villani, (1. xi.c.2r).in Mura- 
 tori 8 Collection, torn. xiii. p. 765.) whose brother received the ac- 
 count from the papal treasurers. A treasure of six or eight millions 
 sterling in the fourteenth century is enormous, and almost incredible. 
 
 P A learned and liberal proiesiant, M. Lenfant, has given a fair 
 history of the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basil, in six volumes 
 in ouarto ; but the last pan is the most hasty and imperfect, except 
 in the account of the troubles of Bohemia. 
 
 q The original acts or minutes of the council of Basil, are pre- 
 served In the public library, in twelve volumes in folio. Basil was 
 a free city, conveniently situate on the Rhine, and guarded by the 
 arms of the neighbouring and confederate Swiss. In U'A the uni- 
 versity was founded by pope Pius II. (iEneas Sylvius,) who had been 
 fh« ^I-i'' f V 1"""*=''; But what is a council, or a university, to 
 the presses of Froben and the studies of Erasmus i 
 
 Eugenius the fourth. A just suspicion of his design 
 prompted the fathers to hasten the promulgation of 
 their first decree, that the representatives of the church 
 militant on earth were invested with a divine and 
 spiritual jurisdiction over all christians, without except- 
 ing the pope ; and that a general council could not be 
 dissolved, prorogued, or transferred, unless by their 
 free deliberation and consent. On the notice that 
 Eugenius had fulminated a bull for that purpose, they 
 ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten, to cen- 
 ' sure, the contumacious successor of St. Peter. After 
 I Their opposition many delays, to allow time for repen- 
 vo Eugenius IV. tance, they finally declared, that, unless 
 he submitted within the term of sixty days, he was 
 suspended from the exercise of all temporal and eccle- 
 siastical authority. And to mark their jurisdiction 
 over the prince as well as the priest, they assumed 
 the government of Avignon, annulled the alienation 
 of the sacred patrimony, and protected Rome from the 
 imposition of new taxes. Their boldness was justi- 
 fied, not only by the general opinion of the clergy, 
 but by the support and power of the first monarchs of 
 Christendom : the emperor Sigismond declared him- 
 self the servant and protector of the synod ; Germany 
 and France adhered to their cause; the duke of Milan 
 was the enemy of Eugenius; and he was driven from 
 the Vatican by an insurrection of the Roman people. 
 Rejected at the same time by his temporal and spiri- 
 tual subjects, submission was his only choice; by a 
 most humiliating bull, the pope repealed his own acts, 
 and ratified those of the council ; incorporated his 
 legates and cardinals with that venerable body ; and 
 seemed to resign himself to the decrees of the supreme 
 legislature. Their fame pervaded the countries of the 
 cast; and it was in their preseiice that Sigismond 
 received the ambassadors of the Turkish sultan,' who 
 laid at his feet twelve large vases, filled with robes 
 Negociations ©^ silk and pieces of gold. The fathers 
 with the Greeks, of Basil aspired to the glory of reducing 
 the Greeks, as well as the Bohemians, 
 within the pale of the church ; and their 
 deputies invited the emperor and patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople to unite with an assembly which possessed 
 the confidence of the western nations. Palaeologus 
 was not averse to the proposal; and his ambassadors 
 were introduced with due honours into the catholic 
 senate. But the choice of the place appeared to be 
 an insuperable obstacle, since he refused to pass the 
 Alps, or the sea of Sicily, and positively required that 
 the synod should be adjourned to some convenient city 
 in Italy, or at least on the Danube. The other arti- 
 cles of this treaty were more readily stipulated : it was 
 agreed to defray the travelling expenses of the empe- 
 ror, wiih a train of seven hundred persons,* to remit an 
 immediate sum of eight thousand ducats* for the ac- 
 commodation of the Greek clergy; and in his absence 
 to grant a supply of ten thousand ducats, with three 
 hundred archers and some galleys, for the protection 
 of Constantinople. The city of Avignon advanced 
 the funds for the preliminary expenses ; and the em- 
 barkation was prepared at Marseilles with some diflfi- 
 culty and delay. 
 
 John Palaeologus In his distress the friendship of Pa- 
 embarks in the laeologus was disputed by the ecclesias- 
 ''^A.V.^1437,'' tical powers of the west; but the dex- 
 Nov. 4. terous activity of a monarch prevailed 
 
 T This Turkish embassy, attested only by Crantzius, is related 
 with some doubt by the annalist Spondanus, A. D. 1433. No. 25. tom. 
 J. p. 8.»4. 
 
 • Syropulus, p. 19. In this list, the Greeks appear to hare exceed- 
 ed the real numbers of the clerjry and laity which afterwards at- 
 tended the emperor and patriarch, but which are not clearly speci- 
 fied by the great ecclesiarch. The 75,000 florins which they asked 
 in this negociation of the pope (p. 9.) were more than they could 
 hope or want. 
 
 « I use indifferently the words ducat and^on'n, which derive their 
 names, the former from the dukes of Milan, the latter from the re- 
 
 f'ublic oi Florence. These gold pieces, the first that were coined in J 
 ^1y, perhaps in the Latin world, may be compared in weight and 1 
 value to one third of the English guinea. | 
 
 A.D. 
 1434-1437. 
 
 over the slow debates and inflexible temper of a repub- 
 lic. The decrees of Basil continually tended to cir- 
 cumscribe the despotism of the pope, and to erect a 
 supreme and perpetual tribunal in the church. Euo-e- 
 nius was impatient of the yoke ; and the union of The 
 Greeks might afford a decent pretence for translating 
 a rebellious synod from the Rhine to the Po. The 
 independence of the fathers was lost if they passed 
 the Alps : Savoy or Avignon, to which they acceded 
 with reluctance, were described at Constantinople as 
 situate far beyond the pillars of Hercules;" the empe- 
 ror and his clergy were apprehensive of the dangers of 
 a long navigation ; they were offended by a hauohty 
 declaration, that after suppressing the new heresy cf 
 the Bohemians, the council would soon eradicate the 
 old heresy of the Greeks." On the side of Eugeuius, 
 all was smooth, and yielding, and respectful : lind he 
 invited the Byzantine monarch to heal by his presence 
 the schism of the Latin, as well as of the eastern, 
 church. Ferrara, near the coast of the Adriatic, was 
 proposed for their amicable interview ; and with some 
 indulgence of forgery and theft, a surreptitious decree 
 was procured, which transferred the synod, with its 
 own consent, to that Italian city. Nine galleys were 
 equipped for this service at Venice, and in the isle of 
 Candia ; their diligence anticipated the slower ves- 
 sels of Basil : the Roman admiral was commissioned 
 to burn, sink, and destroy \y and these priestly squa- 
 drons might have encountered each other in the same 
 seas where Athens and Sparta had formerly contend- 
 ed for the pre-eminence of glory. Assaulted by the 
 importunity of the factions, who were ready to fight 
 for the possession of his person, Palaeologus hesi- 
 tated before he left his palace and country on a per- 
 ilous experiment. His father's advice still dwelt on 
 his memory : and reason must suggest, that since the 
 Latins were divided among themselves, they could 
 never unite in a foreign cause. Sigismond dissuaded 
 the unseasonable adventure ; his advice was impartial, 
 since he adhered to the council ; and it was enforced 
 by the strange belief, that the German Caesar would 
 nominate a Greek his heir and successor in the empire 
 of the west." Even the Turkish sultan was a coun- 
 sellor whom it might be unsafe to trust, but whom it 
 \vas dangerous to offend. Amurath was unskilled in 
 the dispute, but he was apprehensive of the union, of 
 the christians. From his own treasures, he offered 
 to relieve the wants of the Byzantine court; yet ho 
 declared with seeming magnanimity, that Constan- 
 tinople should be secure and inviolate, in the absence 
 of her sovereign." The resolution of Palseologus was 
 decided by the most splendid gifts and the most spe- 
 cious promises : he wished to escape for a while from 
 a scene of danger and distress; and after dismissing 
 with an ambiguous answer the messengers of the 
 council, he declared his intention of embarking in the 
 Roman galleys. The age of the patriarch Joseph was 
 more susceptible of fear than of hope ; he trembled at 
 
 tt At the end of the Latin version of Phranres, we read a Ion* 
 Greek epistle or declamation of George of Trebizond, who advises 
 the emperor to prefer Eugenius and Italy. He treats wiih conif^inpl 
 the schismatic assembly of Basil, the barbarians of Gaul and Ger- 
 many, who had conspired to transport the chair of St. Peter beyond 
 the Alps ; ci «fx.<e< (says he) rt x»t T^r ^it» o-o« 0-v»ei«» t'f i"" 
 '\if*x\tijt¥ mKwr x«< »ri(oi Tulii^wr i^a^svr*. Was Constant inopl* 
 unprovided with a mapt 
 
 X Syropulus (p. 26— 31.) attests his own indignation, and that of 
 his countrymen ; and the Basil deputies, who excused tho rash de- 
 claration, could neither deny nor alter an act of the council. 
 
 y Condolmieri, tlie pope's nephew and admiral, expressly declarf di 
 
 STi ifta-ftov iXn wxf» TOW Ilatirgi lv» ;reA.f/uifO-y e^ow rv tvfn t:« k;' t tfy m 
 Ti(f iJuvo^ov, K«» ii SuviiSn Kuruvr^ K»t mc»*>irii. The naval orders of 
 the synod were less peremptory, and. till the hostile squadrons ap- 
 peared, both parties tried to conceal their quarrel from the Greeks. 
 
 I Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palaeologus (p. 36.) .md the last 
 advice of Sigismond, (p. 57.) At Corfu, the Greek emperor was in- 
 formed of his friend's death ; had he known it sooner, he would have 
 returned home, (p. 79.) 
 
 a Phranzes himself, though from different motives, was of the ad- 
 vice of Amurath. (1. ii. c. 13.) Utinam ne sy nodus ista unqiiam fuis- 
 set, si tanias offensiones et detrimenla parilura erat. This Turl;i«h 
 embassy is likewine mentioned by Syropulus ; (p. 58.) and Amurath 
 kept his word. He might threaten, (p. 125. 219.) but he never at 
 tacked, the city. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
432 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVU. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 433 
 
 the perils of the sea, and expressed his apprehension, 
 that his feeble voice, with thirty perhaps of his ortho- 
 dox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign land by 
 the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He yielded 
 to the royal mandate, to the flattering assurance, that 
 he would be heard as the oracle of nations, and to the 
 secret wish of learning from his brother of the west, 
 to deliver the church from the yoke of kings.'' The 
 five cross-bearers, or dignitaries, of St. Sophia, were 
 bound to attend his person ; and one of these, the great 
 ccclesiarch or preacher, Sylvester Syropulus,* has com- 
 posed a free and curious history* of the false union.* 
 Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of 
 the emperor and the patriarch, submission was the 
 first duty, and patience the most useful virtue. In a 
 chosen list of twenty bishops, we discover the metro- 
 politan titles of Heraclea and Cyzicus, Nice and Nico- 
 media, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the personal merit 
 of Mark and Bessarion, who, in the confidence of their 
 learning and eloquence, were promoted to the episco- 
 pal rank. Some monks and philosophers were named 
 to display the science and sanctity of the'Greek church : 
 and the service of the choir was performed by a select 
 band of singers and musicians. The patriarchs of 
 Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, appeared by their 
 genuine or fictitious deputies ; the primate of Russia 
 represented a nationl church, and the Greeks might 
 contend with the Latins in the extent of their spiri- 
 tual empire. The precious vases of Sophia were ex- 
 posed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch might 
 officiate with becoming splendour; whatever gold the 
 emperor could procure, was expended in the massy 
 ornaments of his bed and chariot;' and while they 
 affected to maintain the prosperity of their ancient for- 
 tune, they quarrelled for the division of fifteen thou- 
 sand ducats, the first alms of the Roman pontiff. 
 After the necessary preparations, John Palaiologus, 
 with a numerous train, accompanied by his brother 
 Demetrius, and the most respectable persons of the 
 church and state, embarked in eight vessels with sails 
 and oars, which steered through the Turkish straits 
 of Gallipoli to the Archipelago, the Morea, and the 
 Adriatic Gulf.« 
 T1-. • , VI After a tedious and troublesome navi- 
 
 IIis triumphal . - ^ , , • i- 
 
 •lury at Venice, gation of seventy-seven days, this reli- 
 A. I>. 1433. gious squadron cast anchor before Ven- 
 ice ; and their reception proclaimed the 
 joy and magnificence of that powerful republic. In 
 the command of the world, the modest Augustus had 
 never claimed such honours from his subjects as were 
 paid to his feeble successor by an independent state. 
 
 i The reader will smile at the Bimplicity with which he imparted 
 these hopes to his favourites: TC4t«uri,y frKnfs^fo^mw a-xnrnr nKviCi 
 
 »mt o»i» T0» 1[:«74 i3m((|i iA.ij5i?j)T»i ti|» •xxX.i(or»»i' otwa Ttn; mt6ti> 
 
 liim; MUT«u io^jKii%i witf» T9» £jiiri>.i(-?, (p. 92.) Yet it would have 
 been difllcull for him to hare practised the lessons of Gregory VII. 
 
 e The christian name of Syl Tester is borrowed from the Latin calen- 
 dar. In modern Greek, »reuA.«?, as a diminutire, is added to the ends 
 of words : nor can any reasoning uf Creyghlon, the editor, excuse his 
 changing into Sguro])u\ii3 (Sguros fuscus) ihe Syropulus of his own 
 manuscript, whose name is subscribed with his own hand in the acts 
 of the Ci)uncil of Florence. Why might not the author be of Syrian 
 extraction 1 
 
 d From the conclusion of the historr, I should fix the date to the 
 year 1414, four years after the synoil, when the great ecclesiarch had 
 abdicated his office, (sectio xii. p. 330—350. ) His passions were cool- 
 ed by time and retirement; and, although Syropulus is often partial, 
 he is never intemperate. 
 
 • Vera historia unionis non vera inter Graeoa et Latinos, iUaga. 
 Cotmlts, 1660, in folio,) was first published with a l(^>se and florid 
 ▼ersion, by Robert Creyghton, chaplain to Charles II. in his exile. 
 The zeal of the editor has prrfixed a polemic title, for the beginning 
 of the original is wanting. Syropulus may be ranked with the best 
 of the Byzantine writers for the merit of his narration, and even of 
 his style; but he is excluded from the orthodox collections of the 
 councils. 
 
 f Syropulus (p. 63.) simply expresses his intention .*r' ovt«, »o/«. 
 
 irfuiu»iv IrnK'iti fxiy*i 3»<r»A.»w,- irap' ixiii'x'v t-u/zii^Oiro ; and the Latin 
 
 of Creyghton may afford a specimen of his florid paraphrase. Ut pom- 
 
 fa circuniductus noster Imperator Italia populia aliquis deauratus 
 upiter crederetur, aut Crcesus ex opulenia Lyilia. 
 K Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every fact, I will 
 obterveihat the navigation of the Greeks from Constantinople to 
 Venice and Ferrara is contained in the fourth section, (p. 67— ICIQ.) 
 and that the historian has the uncommon Ulent of placing each 
 ■cene before the reader'! eye. 
 
 Seated on the poop, on a lofty throne, he received the 
 visit, or, in the Greek style, the adoration, of the doge 
 and senators."* They sailed in the Bucentaur, which 
 was accompanied by twelve stately galleys : the sea 
 was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp 
 and pleasure; the air resounded with music and ac* 
 clamalions ; the mariners, and even the vessels, were 
 dressed in silk and gold ; and in all the emblems and 
 pageants, the Roman eagles were blended with the liona 
 of St. Mark. The triumphal procession, ascending the 
 great canal, passed under the bridge of theRialto; and 
 the eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the pa- 
 laces, the churches, and the populousness of a city, that 
 seems to float on the bosom of the waves.* They sigh- 
 ed to behold the spoils and trophies with which it had 
 been decorated after the sack of Constantinople. After 
 an hospitable entertainment of fifteen days, Palaeolo- 
 gus pursued his journey by land and water from Venice 
 to Ferrara ; and, on this occasion, the pride of the Vatican 
 was tempered by policy to indulge the into Ferrara, 
 ancient dignity of the emperor of the east. f"eb. 28. 
 He made h'a entry on a black horse ; but a milk-white 
 steed, whose trappings were embroidered with golden 
 eagles, was led before him ; and the canopy was borne 
 over his head by the princes of Este, the sons or kins* 
 men of Nicholas, marquis of the city, and a sovereign 
 more powerful than himsef.'' Palasologus did not 
 alight until he reached the bottom of the staircase : the 
 pope advanced to the door of the apartment ; refused his 
 proffered genuflection ; and, after a paternal embrace, 
 conducted the emperor to a seat on his left-hand. Nor 
 would the patriarch descend from his galley, till a 
 ceremony, almost equal, had been stipulated between 
 the bishops of Rome and Constantinople. The latter 
 was saluted by his brother with a kiss of union and 
 charity : nor would any of the Greek ecclesiastics sub- 
 mit to kiss the feet of the western primate. On the 
 opening of the synod, the place of honour in the cen- 
 tre was claimed by the temporal and ecclesiastical 
 chiefs; and it was only by alleging that his predeces- 
 sors had not assisted in person at Nice or Chalcedon, 
 that Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents of 
 Constantine and Marcian. After much debate, it was 
 agreed that the right and left sides of the church should 
 be occupied by the two nations ; that the solitary chair 
 of St. Peter should be raised the first of the Latin 
 line ; and that the throne of the Greek emperor, at the 
 head of his clergy, should be equal and opposite to the 
 the second place, the vacant seat of the emperor of the 
 west.' 
 
 But as soon as festivity and form had Council of the 
 given place to a more serious treaty, the {jnj^J* F^'^iira 
 Greeks were dissatisfied with their jour- and Florence, 
 ney, with themselves, and with the pope. A. D. 1433. 
 The pencil of his emissaries had painted ^ d!i439. 
 him in a prosperous state; at the head July 6. 
 of the princes and prelates of Europe, obedient at his 
 voice, to believe and to arm. The thin appearance of 
 the universal synod of Ferrara betrayed his weakness ; 
 and the Latins opened the first session with only five 
 archbishops, eighteen bishops, and ten abbots, thegreat- 
 
 h At the lime of the synod, Pharanzes was in Peloponnesus ; but he 
 received from the despot Demetrius, a faithful account of the honour 
 able reception of the emperor and patriarch both at Venice and Fer- 
 rara, (Dux .... sedentem Imperatorem adorat^) which are more 
 slightly mentioned by the Latins, (1. ii. c. 14—16.) 
 
 I The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French Ambassndoi 
 (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, 1. vii. c. 18.) at the sight of Yen 
 ice, abundantly prove, that in the fifteenth century it was the firsl 
 and most splendid of the christian cities. For the spoils of Constan- 
 tinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p. 87.) 
 
 k Nicholas III. of Este reigned for forty-eight years, (A. D. 1393— 
 1441.) and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma, Rovigo, and 
 Commachio. See his Life in Muraiori. (Antichita Estouse, torn. ii. p. 
 159-201.) ' 
 
 1 The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the strange dressei 
 of the Greeks, and especially the length of their garments, their 
 sleeves, and their beards ; nor was the emperor distinguished, excep: 
 by the purple colour, and his diadem or tiara with a jewel on the top. 
 (Hody de Graecis lUuairibus, p. 31.) Yet another spectator confesses, 
 that the Greek fashion was piu grave e piu dcgna than the Italiaxi. 
 (Veipaaiano, ia Vii. Eugen, iV. in Muraiori, loni. xxt. p. 261.) 
 
 est part of whom were the subjects or countrymen of the 
 Italian pontiff. Except the duke of Burgundy, none of 
 the potentates of the west condescended to appear in 
 person, or by their ambassadors ; nor was it possible to 
 suppress the judicial acts of Basil against the dignity 
 and perison of Eugenius, which were finally concluded 
 by a new election. Under these circumstances, a truce 
 or delay was asked and granted, till Palaeologus could 
 * expect from the consent of the Latins some temporal 
 reward for an unpopular union ; and after the first ses- 
 \ sion, the public proceedings were adjourned above six 
 montlis. The emperor, with a chosen band of his fa- 
 
 ) , vouritps and jrtm'zflrm, fixed his summer residence at a 
 pleasant spacious monastery, six miles from Ferrara ; 
 forgot, in the pleasures of the chase, the distress of the 
 church and state ; and persisted in destroying the game, 
 without listening to the just complaint:< of the marquis 
 or the husbandman." In the mean while, hisunfortu- 
 
 ) nate Greeks were exposed to all the miseries of exile 
 and poverty ; for the support of each stranger, a month- 
 
 l ly allowance was assigned of three or four gold florins ; 
 
 I and although the entire sum did not amount to seven 
 hundred florins, a long arrear was repeatedly incurred 
 by the indigence or policy of the Roman court.^ They 
 sighed for a speedy deliverance ; but their escape was 
 prevented by a triple chain: a passport from their su- 
 periors was required at the gates of Ferrara ; the go- 
 vernment of Venice had engaged to arrest and send 
 back the fugitives; and inevitable punishment awaited 
 them at Constantinople : excommunication, fines, and a 
 sentence, which did not respect the sacerdotal dignity, 
 that they should be stripped naked and publicly whip- 
 ped." it was only by the alternative of hunger or dis- 
 pute that the Greeks could be persuaded to open the first 
 conference ; and they yielded with extreme reluctance 
 to attend from Ferrara to Florence the rear of a flying 
 synod. This new translation was urged by inevitable 
 necessity ; the city was visited by the plague ; the fideli- 
 ty of the marquis might be suspected ; the mercenary 
 troops of the duke of Milan were at the gates ; and as 
 they occupied Romagna, it was not without difficulty 
 and danger that the pope, the emperor, and the bishops, 
 explored their way through the unfrequented paths of 
 the Appennine.^ 
 
 Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time 
 and policy. The violence of the fathers of Basil rather 
 promoted than injured the cause of Eugenius : the na- 
 tions of Europe abhorred the schism, and disowned 
 the election, of Felix the fifth, who was successively 
 a duke of Savoy, a hermit, and a pope ; and the great 
 princes were gradually reclaimed by his competitor to 
 a favourable neutrality and a firm attachment. The le- 
 gates, with some respectable members, deserted to the 
 Roman army, which insensibly rose in numbers and 
 reputation: the council of Basil was reduced to thirty- 
 nine bishops, and three hundred of the inferior clergy : •> 
 
 ■» For the emperor's hunting, see Syropulus, (p. 143, 144. 191.) The 
 pnpp had sent him eleven miserable hacks ; but he bought a strong 
 and swift horse that came from Russia. The name oli janizaries may 
 surprise : but the name, rather than the institution, had pasaed from 
 the Ottoman to the Byzantine court, and is often used in ihe last age 
 of the empire. 
 
 B The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that instead of provi- 
 sions, money should be distributed, four florins per month to the per- 
 sons of honourable rank, and three florins to their servants, with an 
 addition of thirty more to the empernr, twenty-five to the patriarch, 
 and twenty to the prince, or despot, Demetrius. The payment of the 
 first month amounted to 691 florins, a sum which will not allow us to 
 reckon above 20!) Greeks of every condition. (Syropulus, p. 104, 105.) 
 On th»' 2(Kh of October 1433, there was an arrear of four months ; in 
 April 1439, of three ; and of five and a half in July, at the time of the 
 union, (p 172. 2-r.. 271.) 
 
 o Syropulus (p. 141, 1 12. 201. 221.) deplores the imprisonment of the 
 Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and patriarch. 
 
 P The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in the thirteenth 
 volume of the Annals of Muratori. The schismatic Greek, Syropulus, 
 (p. 14.1.) appe;irs to have exaggerated the foar and disorder of the pope 
 in his rt'treai fn>m Ferrara to Florence, which is proved by the acts to 
 have boen somewhat more decent and deliberate. 
 
 S Svmpulus is pleased to reckon seven hundred prelates in the coun- 
 cil of Basil. The error is manifest, and perhaps voluntary. That ex. 
 iravagant number could not be supplied by oM the ecclesiastics of eve- 
 ry desree who were present at the council, nor by all the absent bish- 
 ops of the west, who, expressl/ or uciily, might adh«r« to ilf decreet. 
 Vol. II.— 3 E 28 
 
 while the Latins of Florence could produce the sub- 
 scriptions of the pope himself, eight cardinals, two pa- 
 triarchs, eight archbishops, fifty-two bishops, and for- 
 ty-five abbots, or chiefs of religious orders. After the 
 labour of nine months, and the debates of twenty-five 
 sessions, they attained the advantage and glory of the 
 re-union of the Greeks. Four principal questions had 
 been agitated between the two churches : 1. The use 
 of unleavened bread in the communion of Christ's bo- 
 dy. 2. The nature of purgatory. 3. The supremacy 
 of the pope. And, 4. The single or double procession of 
 the Holy Ghost. The cause of either nation was man 
 aged by ten theological champions : the Latins were 
 supported by the inexhaustible eloquence of cardinal 
 Julian : and Mark of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nice 
 were the bold and able leaders of the Greek forces. 
 We may bestow some praise on the progress of human 
 reason, by observing, that the first of these questions 
 was now treated as an immaterial rite, which might in- 
 nocently vary with the fashion of the age and country. 
 With regard to the second, both parties were agreed in 
 the belief of an intermediate state of purgation for the 
 venial sins of the faithful ; and whether their souls 
 were purified by elemental fire was a doubtful point, 
 which in a few years might be conveniently settled on 
 the spot by the disputants. The claims of supremacy 
 appeared of a more weighty and substantial kind ; yet 
 by the orientals the Roman bishop had ever been re- 
 spected as the first of the five patriarchs ; nor did they 
 scruple to admit, that his jurisdiction should be exer- 
 cised agreeable to the holy canons ; a vague allowance, 
 which might be defined or eluded by occasional conve- 
 nience. The procession of the Holy Ghost from the 
 Father alone, or from the Father and the Son, was 
 an article of faith which had sunk much deeper into 
 the minds of men; and in the sessions of Ferrara and 
 Florence, the Latin addition oijilioque was subdivided 
 into two questions, whether it were legal, and whether 
 it were orthodox. Perhaps it may not be necessary to 
 boast on this subject of my own impartial indifference ; 
 but I must think that the Greeks were strongly sap- 
 ported by the prohibition of the council of Chalcedon, 
 a(rainst adding any article whatsoever to the creed of 
 Nice, or rather of Constantinople.' In earthly affairs, 
 it is not easy to conceive how an assembly of legislators 
 can bind their successors, invested with powers equal 
 to their own. But the dictates of inspiration must be 
 true and unchangeable: nor should a private bishop, 
 or a provincial synod, have presumed to innovate 
 against the judgment of the catholic church. On the 
 substance of the doctrine, the controversy was equai 
 and endless : reason is confounded by the procession 
 of a deity : the gospel, which lay on the altar, was si- 
 lent ; the various texts of the fathers might be corrupted 
 by fraud or entangled by sophistry; and the Greeks were 
 ignorant of the characters and writings of the Latin 
 saints.* Of this at least we may be sure, that neithet 
 side could be convinced by the arguments of their op- 
 ponents. Prejudice may be enlightened by reason, and 
 a superficial glance may be rectified by a clear and 
 more perfect view of an object adapted to our faculties. 
 But the bishops and monks had been taught from their 
 infancy to repeat a form of mysterious words ; their na- 
 tional and personal honour depended on the repetition 
 of the same sounds ; and their narrow minds were 
 hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of a public 
 dispute. 
 
 While they were lost in a cloud of Negotiations 
 dust and darkness, the pope and empe- with the Greek., 
 ror were desirous of a seeming union, which could 
 
 r The Greeks, who disliked the union, were unwilling to sally from 
 this strong fortress, (p. 178. 193. 195. 202. of Syropulus.) The shame 
 of the Latins was asgravated by their producing an old MS. of the 
 second council of Nice, mihjilioque in the Nicene creed. A palpabU 
 
 fbrgery ! (p. 173.) 
 • «f tyM (says an emminent Greek) oT»y k; y«ov no-iXS* AxrtvMr 
 
 gu sr^oyxuyw t»vs» raiv »kiio"i iyiouv, urn ouJi yviugtlCM rtva. (SyropuluS, 
 
 p. 109.) See the perplexity of Ihe Greeks, (p. 217, 218. 252, 253. 273.) 
 
 1;; 
 
 i 
 
434 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 f ' 
 
 \m 
 
 alone accomplish the purposef? of their interview ; and 
 the obstinacy of public dispute was softened by the 
 arts of private and personal negociation. [Fhe patriarch 
 Joseph had sunk under the weight of age and infirmi- 
 ties; his dying voice breathed the counsels of charity 
 and concord, and his vacant benefice might tempt the 
 hopes of the ambitions clergy./ The ready and active 
 obedience of the archbishops of Russia and Nice, of 
 Isidore and Bessarion, was prompted and recompensed 
 by their speedy promotion to the dignity of cardinals. 
 Bessarion, in the first debates, had stood forth the most 
 strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek church; 
 and if the apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his 
 country,* he appears in ecclesiastical story a rare ex- 
 ample of a patriot who was recommended to court-fa- 
 vour by loud opposition and well-limed compliance. 
 With the aid of his two spiritual coadjutors, the empe- 
 ror applied his arguments to the general situation and 
 personal characters of the bishops, and each was suc- 
 cessively moved by authority and example. Their re- 
 venues were in the hands of the Turks, their persons in 
 those of the Latins; an episcopal treasure, three robes 
 and forty ducats, was soon exhausted : ■ the hopes 
 of their return still depended on the ships of Venice 
 and the alms of Rome : and such was their indigence, 
 that their arrears, the payment of a debt, would be ac- 
 cepted as a favour, and might operate as a bribe.* The 
 danger and relief of Constantinople might excuse some 
 prudent and pious dissimulation ; and it was insinuated, 
 that the obstinate heretics who should resist the con- 
 sent of the east and west, would be abandoned in a 
 hostile land to the revenge or justice of the Roman pon- 
 tifr.y In the first private assembly of the Greeks, the 
 formulary of union was approved by twenty-four, and re- 
 jected by twelve, members ; but the five cross-bearers of 
 St. Sophia, who aspired to represent the patriarch, were 
 disqualified by ancient discipline; and their right of 
 voting was transferred to an obsequious train of monks, 
 grammarians, and profane laymen. The will of the 
 monarch producd a false and servile unanimity, and no 
 more than two patriots had courage to speak their own 
 sentiments and those of their country. Demetrius, the 
 emperor's brother, retired to Venice, that he might not 
 be witness of the union ; and Mark of Ephesu^s, mis- 
 taking perhaps his pride for his conscience, disclaim- 
 ed all communion with the Latin heretics, and avowed 
 himself the champion and confessor of the orthodox 
 creed." In the treaty between the two nations, several ' 
 forms of consent were proposed, such as might satisfy 
 the Latins, without dishonouring the Greeks : and they 
 weighed the scruples of words and syllables, till the 
 theological balance trembled with a slight preponder- 
 ance in favour of the Vatican. It was agreed, (I must 
 entreat the attention of the reader,) that the Holy Ghost 
 proceeds from the Father and tho Son, as from one 
 principle and one substance ; that he proceeds bi/ the 
 Son, being of the same nature and substance, and that 
 he proceeds from the Father and the Son, by one spi- 
 raiion and production. It is less difficult to understand 
 tho articles of the preliminary treaty ; that the pope 
 should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their 
 
 435 
 
 Greeks at Flo- 
 rence, 
 
 A. D. 1438. 
 July 6. 
 
 return home; that he should annually maintain two- 
 galleys and three hundred soldiers for the defence of 
 Constantinople; that all the ships which transported 
 pilgrims to Jerusalem should be obliged to touch at that 
 port; that as often as they were required, the pope should 
 furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty for six months ; 
 and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of 
 Europe, if the emperor had occasion for land-forces. 
 
 The same year, and almost the same ^ 
 day, were marked by the deposition of pSi^ed^arBiTi 
 Eugenius at Basil ; and, at Florence, by A. D. 1438. ' 
 his re-union of the Greeks and Latins. J"ne25. 
 In the former synod, (which he styled indeed an as* 
 seiTibly of daemons,) the pope was branded with the 
 guilt of simony, perjury, tyranny, heresy, and schism;* 
 and declared to be incorrigible in his vices, unworthy 
 of any title, and incapable of holding any ecclesiasti- 
 cal office. In the latter he was revered Reunion of the 
 as the true and holy vicar of Christ, who 
 after a separation of six hundred years 
 had reconciled the catholics of the east 
 and west in one fold, and under one shepherd. The 
 act of union was subscribed by the pope, the emperor,, 
 and the principal members of both churches ; even by 
 those who, like Syropulus,'' had been deprived of their 
 right of voting. Two copies might have sufficed for 
 the east and west; but Eugenius was not satisfied, un- 
 less four authentic and similar transcripts were sio-ned 
 and attested as the monuments of his victory.* 6n a 
 memorable day, the sixth of July, the successors of 
 St. Peter and Constantine ascended their thrones ; the 
 two nations assembled in the cathedral of Florences 
 their representatives, cardinal Julian and Bessarion 
 archbishop of Nice, appeared in the pulpit, and, after 
 reading in their respective tongues the act of union, 
 they mutually embraced, in the name and presence of 
 their applauding brethren. The pope and his minis- 
 ters then officiated according to the Roman liturgy ; the 
 creed was chanted with the addition ofjiltoque; the ac- 
 quiesence of the Greeks was poorly excused by their 
 ignorance of the harmonious, but inarticulate sounds ;* 
 and the more scrupulous Latins refused any public 
 celebration of the Byzantine rite. Yet the emperor 
 and his clergy were not totally unmindful of national 
 honour. The treaty was ratified by their consent : it 
 was tacitly agreed that no innovation should be attempt- 
 ed in their creed or ceremonies : they spared and secret- 
 ly respected the generous firmness of Mark of Ephe- 
 sus; and, on the decease of the patriarch, they refused 
 to elect his successor, except in the cathedral of St. 
 Sophia. In the distribution of public and private re- 
 wards, the liberal pontiflf exceeded their t,. . 
 hopes and his promises : the Greeks, with S«um m^pit''. 
 
 A. D. 1440. 
 Feb. 1. 
 
 t See the polite aUercaiJon of Mark and Bessarion in Syropulus, (p. 
 2o7.) who never dissembles ihe vices of his own panr, and fairly 
 praises the virtues of the Latins. *^ " « i-m/ 
 
 nfn.!iLV'j^ Povenr of the Greek bishops, see a remarkable passa-e 
 of Ducaa, (c. 31.) One had possessed, for his whole properly, three old 
 gowns, &c. Br teaching one and tweniv years in his monastery, Bes- 
 8ari..n himself had collected forty gold florins; but of these, the arch- 
 bishop had expended twenty-eight in his voyage from Peloponnesus, 
 and the remainder at Constantinople. (Syropulus, p. 127 ) 
 
 X Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money before thev 
 had subscribed the act of union (p. 283.): yet he relates some busdi- 
 cious circumstances : and their bribery and corruption are positively 
 affirmed by the historian Ducas. «^ r / 
 
 y The Greeks most piteously express their own fears of exile and 
 perpetual slavery ; (Syropul. p. 196.) and they were strongly moved 
 oy the empcri»r's threats, (p. 260.) 
 
 * I had forgot another popular and orthodox protester : a favourite 
 K^y i! ^J^o ""ua'ly lay qui. ton the foot-cloth of the emperor's throne: 
 iuhl.f K*^^'^.'"^^^"'"'°"*'y *hilo the act of union was reading, 
 SSdw%V'riir^^^^ i'6ir*^'"e or the laahe. of the royal .1 
 
 less pomp and pride, returned by the same 
 road of Ferrara and Venice; and their 
 reception at Constantinople was such as will be describ- 
 ed in the following chapter.- The success of the first 
 trial encouraged Eugenius to repeal the same eHifyino- 
 scenes ; and the deputies of the Armenians, the Maron*^ 
 ites, the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt, the Nestorians 
 and thfeiBthiopians, were successively introduced, to 
 
 ^.nm i? «^f original Lives of the Popps, in Muratori's Collection, 
 hiL^HlVJ!;. T* ''^''•^ ^^^ manners of Euseiiius IV. appear to hava 
 JT,^ hi! i' '"'^ ®''^" exemplary. His situation, exposed to the world 
 and to his enemies, was a rfslraint, and is a pledge 
 
 o„n .V?P"'"'' ^'^^^" ihan subscribe, would have assisted, as the least 
 evil, at the ceremony of the union. He was compelled to do both : 
 
 wr, (p.^lc^im) "" ^'^^ "'^"''^'' *"'■ ■"^'"'"'on to Ihe empel 
 e None of these original acts of union can at present be produced. 
 Of the ten MSS that are preserved, (five at Rome, and the remainder 
 at t lorence, Bologna, Venice, Paris, and Tendon,) nine have been ex- 
 amined by an accurate critic, (M.de Brequigny,) who condemns them 
 for the variety and imperfections of the Greek signatures. Yet seve- 
 
 I?rih J o?l>i'"*^ **® f^r^^'^f.i as authentic copies, which were sub- 
 scribed at Florence, before (26th August 1439 ) the final separation of 
 
 lom.^x/iU. p 2^"Tlu' ^^^^'""'^^^ '^^ TAcadamie des InVcriptions,. 
 
 d 'H MJ- Ji «« -«-.iM9« iloKwr «c»v«i. (Syropul. p. 297 ) 
 sadorS of FnlHnH"'ln!,^r'"' "^""^^"^^ at Bologna with the ambaa- 
 n*r?S;.r^n!L,^1' K*^!^^^'?°'"®^"^^^^ »"«* answers, these im- 
 pJ p 307 )* ' "^ protended union of Florence. CSyro- 
 
 kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the 
 obedience and the orthodoxy of the east. These ori- 
 ental embassies, unknown in the countries which they 
 presumed to represent,' diffused over the west the fame 
 of Eugenius: and a clamour was artfully propagated 
 anraiiist the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and 
 Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the chris- 
 tian world. The vigour of opposition was succeeded 
 by the lassitude of despair: the council of Basil was 
 silently dissolved, and Foelix, renouncing the tiara, 
 again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage 
 Final peace of of Ripaille.« A general peace was se- 
 \ the church, cured by mutual acts of oblivion and in- 
 
 A. D. 1449. denmiiy : all ideas of reformation subsi- 
 ded : the popes continued to exercise and abuse their 
 ecclesiastical despotism ; nor has Rome been since 
 disturbed by the mischiefs of a contested election."* 
 State of the The journeys of three emperors were 
 
 Greek language unavailing for their temporal, or perhaps 
 nople?"^*" ** their spiritual, salvation ; but they were 
 A. D. ^ productive of a beneficial consequence; 
 1300-1453. ^j^g revival of the G reek learning in Italy, 
 from whence it was propagated to the last nations of 
 the west and north. In their lowest servitude and 
 depression, the subjects of the Byzantine throne were 
 still possessed of a golden key that could unlock the 
 treasures of antiquity ; of a musical and prolific lan- 
 guage, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a 
 body to the abstractions of philosophy. Since the 
 barriers of the monarchy, and even of the capital, had 
 been trampled under foot, the various barbarians had 
 doubtless corrupted the form and substance of the 
 national dialect; and ample glossaries have been com- 
 posed, to interpret a multitude of words of Arabic, 
 Turkish, Sclavonian, Latin, or French origin.' But a 
 purer idiom was spoken in the court and taught in the 
 college ; and the flourishing state of the language is 
 described, and perhaps embellished, by a learned Ita- 
 lian,'' who, by a long residence and noble marriage,* 
 was naturalized at Constantinople about thirty years 
 before the Turkish conquest. *' The vulgar speech," 
 says Philelphus," '* has been depraved by the people, 
 
 I So nugatory, or rather so fabulous, are these re-unions of the 
 Nestorians, Jacobites, &c. that I have turned over, without success, 
 thp Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemannus, a faithful slave of the 
 Vatican. 
 
 s Ripaille is situate near Thonon in Savoy, on the southern side 
 of the lake cf Geneva. It is now a Carthusian abbey ; and Mr. Ad- 
 dison (Travels into Italy, vol. ii. p. 147,148. of Baskervill's edition of 
 his works) has celebrated the place and the founder. JEneas Syl- 
 vius, and the fathers of Basil, applaud the austere life of the ducal 
 hermit; but the French an J Italian proverbs most unlQckily attest 
 the popular opinion of his luxury. 
 
 h In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and Florence, 1 
 have consulted the original acts, which fill the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth tomes of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the per- 
 spicuous though partial history of Augustin Palricius, an Italian of 
 the fifteenth century. They are digested and abridged by Dupin 
 (Bibliotherjue Eccles. torn, xii.) and the continuator of Fleury ; (torn, 
 xxii ) and the respect of the Gallican church for the adverse parties 
 confines their members to an awkward moderation. 
 
 i In the first attempt, IVleursius collected 3600 Grseco-barbarous 
 words, to which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800 more; yei 
 what plenteous gleanins did he leave to Fortius, Ducange, Fabrot- 
 ti. thp B'llandis.s, &c. (Fabric. Bibliot. Grace, torn. x. p. JOl. &c.) 
 Some Persic words may be found in Xenophon,and some Latin ones 
 iu Plutarch ; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce: 
 but the firm and substance of the language were not affected by this 
 sliifht alloy. 
 
 k The Life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud, restless, and ra- 
 pacious, has been dilijrenily crmposed by Launcelot, (Memoires de 
 I'Acadeinie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691—751.) and Tiraboschi, 
 (Isioria della Letteralura lialiana, tom. vil. p. 282—294.) for the most 
 part from his own letters. His elaborate writings, and those of his 
 tniiiemporaries, are f)rgotten: but their familiar epistles still de- 
 scribe the men and the limes. 
 
 I He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, 
 and the grand daughter of Manuel Chrysoloras. She was young, 
 bf;iutiful,and wealthy ; and her noble family was allied to the Dorias 
 of Genoa and the emperors of Constantinople. 
 
 m Graeci quibu9 lingua depravata non sit ... . ita loquuntur vulgo 
 hnc etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut Euripides tragi- 
 
 CU8, ut oratores omnes, ui historiographi, ut philosophi litterati 
 
 auifein homines et duciius et emendatius .... Nam viri aulici vete- 
 reni sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retinebant in primisque 
 ipsae nobiles mulieres: quibus cum nullum esset oinnino cum viris 
 peregriiiis commercium, merus illeac purus GrKCorum sermo serva- 
 baiur intactus. (Philelph. Epist. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 1^, 
 189.) He observes in another passage, uxor ilia mea Theodora locu* 
 tiooe erat admodum moderata el suavi ei maxime Attica. 
 
 and infected by the multitude of strangers and mer- 
 chants who every day flock to the city and mingle 
 with the inhabitants. It is from the disciples of siTch 
 a school that the Latin language received the versions 
 of Aristotle and Plato; so obscure in sense, and in 
 spirit so poor. But the Greeks who have escaped the 
 contagion, are those whom we follow ; and they alone 
 are worthy of our imitation. In familiar discourse, 
 they still speak the tongue of Aristophanes and Eurip- 
 ides, of the historians and philosophers of Athens; 
 and the style of their writings is still more elaborate 
 and correct. The persons who, by their birth and 
 offices, are attached to the Byzantine court, are those 
 who maintain, with the least alloy, the ancient stan- 
 dard of elegance and purity ; and the native graces of 
 language most conspicuously shine among the noble 
 matrons, who are excluded from all intercourse with 
 foreigners. With foreigners do I say 1 They live 
 retired and sequestered from the eyes of their fellow- 
 citizens. Seldom are they seen in the streets ; and 
 when they leave their houses, it is in the dusk of 
 evening, on visits to the churches and their nearest 
 kindred. On these occasions, they are on horseback, 
 covered with a veil, and encompassed by their parents, 
 their husbands, or their servants." ■ 
 
 Among the Greeks, a numerous and opulent clergy 
 was dedicated to the service of religion : their monks 
 and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gra- 
 vity and austerity of their manners : nor were they 
 diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and 
 pleasures of a secular, and even military, life. After 
 a large deduction for the time and talents that were 
 lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord, of 
 the church and cloister, the more inquisitive and am- 
 bitious minds would explore the sacred and profane 
 erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics 
 presided over the education of youth ; the schools of 
 philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the 
 fall of the empire ; and it may be affirmed, that more 
 books and more knowledge were included within the 
 walls of Constantinople, than could be dispersed over 
 the extensive countries of the west." comparison of 
 But an important distinction has been the (jreeks and 
 already noticed : the Greeks were sta- L*^'°*' 
 tionary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing 
 with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations 
 were excited by the spirit of independence and emula- 
 tion; and even the little world of the Italian states 
 contained more people and industry than the decreas- 
 ing circle of the Byzantine empire. In Europe, the 
 lower ranks of society were relieved from the yoke 
 of feudal servitude ; and freedom is the first step to 
 curiosity and knowledge. The use, however rude and 
 corrupt, of the Latin tongue had been preserved by su- 
 perstition ; the universities, from Bologna to Oxford,^ 
 were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their 
 misguided ardour might be directed to more liberal 
 and manly studies. In the resurrection of science, 
 Italy was the first that cast aw^ay her shroud ; and the 
 eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons and his example,, 
 may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day. 
 A purer style of composition, a more generous and 
 rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and 
 imitation of the writers of ancient Rome; and the dis- 
 ciples of Cicero and Virgil approached, with reverence- 
 and love, the sanctuary of their Grecian masters. Iii 
 the sack of Constantinople, the French, and even the 
 
 B Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or OrienUl jea- 
 lousy from the manners of ancient Rome. 
 
 See the state of learning in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies, in the learned and judicious Mosheim. (Institut. Hist. Eccle*. 
 p^ 434 440. 490 494.) 
 
 p At the end of the fifteenth century, there existed in Europe about 
 fifty universities, and of these the foundation often or twelve is prior 
 to the year 1300. They were crowded in proportion to their scarcity. 
 Bologna contained 10,000 students, chiefly of the civil law. In the 
 year 1357 the number at Oxford had decreased from 30,000 to 60(X) 
 scholars. (Henry's History of Great Brilian, vol. iv. p. 478.) Yet even 
 this decrease is much superior to the present list of the members of 
 the university. 
 
 I 
 
436 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 437 
 
 Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of 
 Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of art may be 
 annihilated by a single blow ; but the immortal mind 
 18 renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen ; 
 and such copies it was the ambition of Petrarch and 
 his friends to possess and understand. The arms of 
 th« Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight of the muses ; 
 yet we may tn^mble at the thought, that Greece might 
 have been overwhelmed, with her schools and libra- 
 ries, before Europe had emerged from the deluge of 
 barbarism, that the seeds of science mi^ht have been 
 scattered by the winds, before the Italian soil was 
 prepared for their cultivation. 
 
 Revival of the '^^® most learned Italians of the lif- 
 Greek learning teenth Century have confessed and ap- 
 In Italy. plauded the restoration of Greek litera- 
 
 ture, after a long oblivion of many hundred years.'' 
 Yet in that country, and beyond the Alps, some names 
 are quoted ; some profound scholars, who in the darker 
 ages were honourably distinguished by their know- 
 Wdae of the Greek tongue; and national vanity has 
 been loud in the praise of such rare examples of erudi- 
 tion. Without scrutinizing the merit of individuals, 
 truth must observe, that their science is without a 
 cause, and without an effect ; that it was easy for them 
 to satisfy themselves, and their more ignorant con- 
 temporaries; and that the idiom, which they had so 
 marvellously acquired, was transcribed in few manu- 
 scripts, and was not taught in any university of the 
 west. In a corner of Italy, it faintly existed as the 
 popular, or at least as the ecclesiastical, dialect.' 
 The first impression of the Doric and Ionic colonies 
 has never been completely erased : the Calabrian 
 churches were long attached to the throne of Constan- 
 tinople; and the monks of St. Basil pursued their 
 studies in mount Athos and the schools of the east. 
 Calabria was the native country of Barlaam, who has 
 already appeared as a sectary and an ambassador; 
 L«»Bon8 of Bar- ^^^ Barlaam was the first who revived, 
 ^»"J» beyond the Alps, the memory, or at least 
 
 A. D. 1339. tjjg writings, of Homer.' He is de- 
 scribed, by Petrarch and Boccace,' as a man of a 
 diminutive stature, though truly great in the measure 
 of learning and genius; of a piercing discernment, 
 though of a slow and painful elocution. For many 
 ages (as they aflUrm) Greece had not produced his 
 equal in the knowledge of history, grammar, and phi- 
 losophy ; and his merit was celebrated in the attesta- 
 tions of the princes and doctors of Constantinople. 
 One of these attestations is still extant; and the em- 
 peror Cantacuzene, the protector of his adversaries, 
 IS forced to allow, that Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato, 
 were familiar to that profound and subtle logician." 
 In the court of Avignon, he formed an intimate con- 
 nexion with Petrarch,* the first of the Latin scholars ; 
 and the desire of mutual instruction was the principle 
 Studies of Pe- of their literary commerce. The Tuscan 
 A d\'S9-1374 ^PP^^®*^ himself with eager curiosity and 
 • assiduous diligence to the study of the 
 Greek language ; and in a laborious struggle with the 
 
 q Of those wnters who profpssedly imat of the resloraiion of the 
 S!!^® .jr*7?'"^ .'"-IV^ly. the two principal are Hwlius, Dr. Humphrey 
 Hody, (de Oraecis lUusinbus, Linuuae tiraecse Liierarumque humani- 
 ormnliistauratonb.ia: Londini, 17«. in large octavo,) and Tirabos- 
 
 I ni^'Z*^^ ^^^ h^^/T"" ^*''*n»» ^^- y- p. 364-377. torn. vii. 
 P.U2-14J.) The Oxford professor ts a laborious scholar, but the 
 
 lisioJiaS ^'^^"^ ®"J**y* ^^^ superiority of a modern and national 
 
 r In Calabria quae dim magna Gracia dicebaiur, coloniia GrsBcis 
 repleta, reniansit (juaedam linguae veieris cognitio. (Hodius. d 2.) If 
 It were eradicated by the Romans, it was revived and perpetuated by 
 the monks of bt. Basil, who possessed seven convents at Rosanuo 
 *lone. (Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, torn. i. p. 520.) 
 
 • li Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans) vix, non 
 dicam libros std nomen Homeri audiveruni. Perhaps, in that res- 
 pect, the thirteenth century was less happy than the age of Char- 
 lemagne. 
 
 1 l^^® e^® character of Barlaam, in Boccace de Genealog. Deorum, 
 
 !• XV. Co, w 7 
 
 u Cantacuzene, 1. ii. c. 36. 
 
 Tiew. .t^'il''''""^'"'"Jo"f«'*^^'"^'''^^ ^"'^ Barlaam, and the two inter- 
 Memoiri.^^rll V "i *F' *"** *' ^^P*^" '" »342, see llie excellent 
 iuemoires sur la Vie da Peirarque, torn. i. p. 406-410. torn. ii. p. 75-77. 
 
 dryness and difficulty of the first rudiments, he began 
 to reach the sense, and to feel the spirit, of poets and 
 philosophers, whose minds were congenial to his own. 
 But he was soon deprived of the society and lessons 
 of this useful assistant: Barlaam relinquished his 
 fruitless embassy; and, on his return to Greece, he 
 rashly provoked the swarms of fanatic monks, by at- 
 tenipting to substitute the light of reason to that of 
 their naval. After a separation of three years, the 
 two friends again met in the court of Naples : but the 
 generous pupil renounced the fairest occasion of im- 
 provement; and by his recommendation Barlaam was 
 finally settled in a small bishopric of his native Cala- 
 bria.y The manifold avocations of Petrarch, love and 
 friendship, his various correspondence and frequent 
 journeys, the Roman laurel, and his elaborate com- 
 positions in prose and verse, in Latin and Italian, 
 diverted him from a foreign idiom ; and as he advanced 
 in life, the attainment of the Greek language was the 
 object of his wishes rather than of his hopes. When 
 he was about fifty years of age, a Byzantine ambassa- 
 dor, his friend, and a master of both tongues, pre- 
 sented hiiii with a copy of Homer ; and the answer of 
 Petrarch is at once expressive of his eloquence, grati- 
 tude, and regret. After celebrating the generosity of 
 the donor, and the value of a gift more precious in his 
 estimation than gold or rubies, he thus proceeds: 
 "Your present of the genuine and original text of the 
 divine poet, the fountain of all invention, is worthy 
 of yourself and of me: you have fulfilled your pro- 
 mise, and satisfied my desires. Yet your liberality is 
 still imperfect: with Homer you should have given 
 me yourself; a guide, who could lead me into the 
 fields of light, and disclose to my wondering eyes the 
 specious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But, 
 alas ! Homer is dumb, or I am deaf; nor is it in my 
 power to enjoy the beauty which I possess. I have 
 sealed him by the side of Plato, the prince of poets 
 near the prince of philosophers; and I glory in the 
 sight of my illustrious guests. Of their immortal 
 writings, whatever had been translated into the Latin 
 idiom I had already acquired ; but, if there be no pro- 
 fit, there is some pleasure, in beholding these venera- 
 ble Greeks in their proper and national habit. I am 
 delighted with the aspect of Homer ; and as often as 
 I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim with a sigh, 
 illustrious bard ! with what pleasure should I listen 
 to thy song, if my sense of hearing were not obstruct- 
 ed and lost by the death of one friend, and in the 
 miicWamented absence of another. Nor do I yet des- 
 pair; and the example of Cato suggests some com- 
 fort and hope, since it was in the last period of age 
 that he attained the knowledge of the Greek letters."* 
 
 The prize which eluded the efforts of of Boccace, 
 Petrarch, was obtained by the fortune A. D. 1360, &c. 
 and industry of his friend Boccace,* the father of the 
 Tuscan prose. That popular writer, who derives his 
 reputation from the Decameron, a hundred novels of 
 pleasantry and love, may aspire to the more serious 
 praise of restoring in Italy the study of the Greek lan- 
 guage. In the year one thousand three hundred and 
 sixty, a disciple of Barlaam, whose name was Leo, or 
 
 .u^ The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old Locri, in 
 the miildle ages Sancia Cyriaca, and by corruption Hieracium, Ge- 
 race. (Dissert. Chorographica Iialise medii aM, p. 312.) The dives 
 opum of the Norman times soon lapsed into poverty, since even tho 
 church was poor : yet the town still contains aXW inhabitants. (Swiu- 
 burne, p. 340.) 
 
 • '«/ **tI ^'^"?'^'"'^® * passage from this epistle of Petrarch ; (Famil. 
 IX. 2.) Donasti Homerum non in alienum sermonem violento alveo 
 derivatum, sed ex ipsis Graeci eloquii scaiebris, et qualis dlvino ille 
 
 profluxil ingenio Sine tua voce Homerus tuus apud me mutus, 
 
 immo_ vero ego apud ilium surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel ad- 
 speciu solo, ac ssepe ilium amplexus alque suspirans dico, O magne 
 
 a For Ui« jife and writings of Boccace, who was born in 1313, and 
 died in 137o, Fabricius (Bibliot. Utin. medii JEvi, torn. i. p. 248, 
 &c.) and Tiraboschi (torn. v. p. 83. 439-451.) may be consuliedl 
 ihe editions, Yersions, imitations, of his novels, are innumerable, 
 let he was ashanied to communicate that trifling, and perliaps scan- 
 aSd'm^Z^h^ P«^^"^h, hi. respectable friend, in whose letter, 
 ana memoira be conspicuously apptars. 
 
 n 
 
 f 
 
 . i 
 
 Leontius Pilatns, was detained in his way to Avignon 
 by the advice and hospitality of Boccace, who lodged 
 the stranger in his house, prevailed on the republic of 
 Florence to allow him an annual stipend, and devoted 
 his leisure to the first Greek professor, who taught 
 that language in the western countries of Euroj.>e. 
 » T>i ...- The appearance of Leo might disgust 
 
 LeoPilatus, ri j- • i u i fi j 
 
 first Greek pro- the most eager disciple ; he was clothed 
 
 fessoratFlo- j^ the mantle of a philosopher, or a men- 
 rence and in the ,. . .. . ' I'j i- 
 
 ^^g^^ dicant ; his countenance was hideous ; his 
 
 A. D. face was overshadowed with black hair; 
 
 1360—1363. jj-g j^ggyj jQpg j^^j uncombed ; his deport- 
 ment rustic; his temper gloomy and inconstant; nor 
 could he grace his discourse with the ornaments, or even 
 the perspicuity, of Latin elocution. But his mind was 
 stored with a treasure of Greek learning; history and 
 fable, philosophy and grammar, were alike at his com- 
 mand ; and he read the poems of Homer in the schools 
 of Florence. It was from his explanation that Boccace 
 composed and transcribed a literal prose version of 
 the Iliad and Odyssey, which satisfied the thirst of his 
 friend Petrarch, and which perhaps, in the succeeding 
 century, was clandestinely used by Laurentius Valla, 
 the Latin interpreter. It was from his narratives that 
 the same Boccace collected the materials for his trea- 
 tise on the genealogy of the heathen gods, a work, in 
 that age, of stupendous erudition, and which he osten- 
 tatiously sprinkled with Greek characters and passa- 
 ges, to excite the wonder and applause of his more 
 ignorant readers.* The first steps of learning are slow 
 and laborious ; no more than ten votaries of Homer 
 could be enumerated inalHtaly; and neither Rome, 
 nor Venice, nor Naples, could add a single name to 
 this studious catalogue. But their numbers would 
 have multiplied, their progress would have been acce- 
 lerated, if the inconstant Leo, at the end of three 
 years, had not relinquished an honourable and bene- 
 ficial station. In his passage, Petrarch entertained 
 him at Padua a short time ; he enjoyed the scholar, 
 but was justly offended with the gloomy and unsocial 
 temper of the man. Discontented with the world and 
 with himself, Leo depreciated his present enjoyments, 
 while absent persons and objects were dear to his 
 imagination. In Italy he was a Thessalion, in Greece 
 a native of Calabria; in the company of the Latins 
 he disdained their language, religion, and manners; 
 no sooner was he landed at Constantinople, than he 
 again sighed for the wealth of Venice and the ele- 
 gance of°Florence. His Italian friends were deaf to 
 his importunity ; he depended on their curiosity and 
 indulgence, and embarked on a second voyage; but 
 on his entrance into the Adriatic, the ship was assailed 
 by a tempest, and the unfortunate teacher, who like 
 Ulysses had fastened himself to the mast, was struck 
 dead by a flash of lightning. The humane Petrarch 
 dropt a tear on his disaster; but he was most anxious 
 to learn whether some copy of Euripides or Sophocles 
 might not be saved from the hands of the mariners.' 
 Foundation of But the faint rudiments of Greek leam- 
 ihe Greek Ian- Jng, which Petrarch had encouraged and 
 Ranue'r Chrys^o^ Boccace had planted, soon withered and 
 loras, expired. The succeeding generation was 
 
 A. D. 1390— 1415. content for a while with the improve- 
 ment of Latin eloquence ; nor was it before the end of 
 the fourteenth century, that a new and perpetual flame 
 was rekindled in Italy.^ Previous to his own journey, 
 
 b Boccace indulges an honest vanity; Osir ntationis causa Graeca 
 carmina adscripsi . ... jureutor meo; meum est hoc decusmeajiloria 
 srilicet inter Etruscos Graecis uii carminibus. Nonne ego fui qui 
 Leoiitium Pilatum, tec. (de Genealogia D< orum, 1. xv. c. 7. a work 
 which, though now forgotten, has run through thirteen or fourteen 
 editions.) 
 
 c Leontius, or Leo Pilatus, is sufficiently made known by Hody (p. 
 2—11.) and the Abb6 de Sade, (Vie de Peirarque, torn. iii. p. 62o— 
 634. 670—673.) who has very happily caught the lively and dramatic 
 manner of his original. 
 
 d Dr. Hodv (p. 51) is angry with Leonard Aretin, Guarinus, Paulus 
 Jovius, Jkc. U>T affirming, that the Greek letters were restored in Italy 
 post sefftingentos annos ; as if, says he, they had flourished till the 
 end of the seventh century. These writers most probably reckoned 
 
 the emperor Manuel despatched his envoys and ora- 
 tors to implore the compassion of the western prin- 
 ces. Of these envoys, the most conspicuous, or the 
 most learned, was Manuel Chrysoloras,* of noble birth, 
 and whose Roman ancestors are supposed to have 
 migrated with the great Constantine. After visiting 
 the courts of France and England, where he obtained 
 some contributions and more promises, the envoy was 
 invited to assume the oflUce of a professor ; and Flo- 
 rence had again the honour of this second invitation. 
 By his knowledge, not only of the Greek, but of the 
 Latin, tongue, Chrysoloras deserved the stipend, and 
 surpassed the expectation, of the republic. His school 
 was frequented by a crowd of disciples of every rank 
 and age ; and one of these, in a general history, has 
 described his motives and his success. " At that 
 time," says Leonard Aretin,' " I was a student of the 
 civil law ; but my soul was inflamed with the love of 
 letters; and I bestowed some application on the scien- 
 ces of logic and rhetoric. On the arrival of Manuel, 
 1 hesitated whether I should desert my legal studies, 
 or relinquish this golden opportunity ; and thus, in the 
 ardour of youth, I communed with my own mind- 
 Wilt thou be wanting to thyself and thy fortune? 
 Wilt thou refuse to be introduced to a familiar con- 
 verse with Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes'? with 
 those poets, philosophers, and orators, of whom such 
 wonders are related, and who are celebrated by every 
 age as the great masters of human science? Of pro- 
 fessors and scholars in civil law, a sufiicient supply 
 will always be found in our universities ; but a teacher, 
 and such a teacher, of the Greek language, if he once 
 be suflfered to escape, may never afterwards be re- 
 trieved. Convinced by these reasons, I gave myself 
 to Chrysoloras ; and so strong was my passion, that 
 the lessons which I had imbibed in the day were the 
 constant subject of my nightly dreams."* At the 
 same time and place, the Latin classics were explained 
 by John of Ravenna, the domestic pupil of Petrarch ;** 
 the Italians, who illustrated their age and country, 
 were formed in this double school ; and Florence be- 
 came the fruitful seminary of Greek and Roman erudi- 
 tion.' The presence of the emperor recalled Chryso- 
 loras from the college to the court; but he afterwards 
 taught at Pavia and Rome with equal industry and 
 applause. The remainder of his life, about fifteen 
 years, was divided between Italy and Constantinople, 
 between embassies and lessons. In the noble office 
 of enlightening a foreign nation, the grammarian wa» 
 not unmindful of a more sacred duty to his prince and 
 country; and Emanuel Chrysoloras died at Constance 
 on a public mission from the emperor to the council. 
 
 After his example, the restoration of jj^g Greeks in 
 the Greek letters in Italy was prosecu- Italy, 
 ted by a series of emigrants, who were A. D. 1400— isoo. 
 
 from the last period of the exarchate; and the presence of the Greek 
 magistrates and troops at Ravenna and Rome must have preserved, 
 in some degree, the use of their native tongue. 
 
 e See the article of Emanuel, or Manuel Chrysoloras, in Hody (p. 
 12—54.) and Tiraboschi, (tom. vii. p. 113—1 18.) The precise date of 
 his arrival floats between the years 1390 and 1400, and is only con- 
 fined by the reign of Boniface IX. 
 
 f The name of Aretinus has been assumed by five or six natives 
 ofArezzo in Tuscany, of whom the most famous and the most worth- 
 less lived in the sixteenth century. Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, the 
 disciple of Chrysoloras, was a linguist, an orator, and an historian, 
 the secretary of four successive popes, and the chancellor of the re- 
 public of Florence, where he died A. D. 1444. at the ajre of seven- 
 ty five. (Fabric. Bibliot. medii jEvi, tom. i. p. 190, &c. Tiraboschi, 
 lorn. vii. p. 33-38.) _ 
 
 g See the passage in Aretin. Commentario Rerum suo Tempore ia 
 Italia gpstarum, apud Hodium, p. 28—30. . a ' 
 
 h In this domestic discipline, Petrarch, who loved the youth, often 
 complains of the eager curiosity, restless temper, and proud feelings, 
 which announce the genius and glory of a riper age, (Memoires sur 
 Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 700-7U9.) . „. ., , i. 
 
 i Hinc Graecse Latinaque scholae exorlae sunt, Guarino Philelpho, 
 Leonardo Aretino, Caroloque, ac plerisque aliis tanquam ex equo 
 Trojano prodeuntibus, quorum emulatione multa incenia deincepg 
 ad laudem exciiata sunt. (Plalina in Bonifacio IX.) Another Italian 
 writer adds the names of Paulus Pelrus Vergerius, Omnibonus Vin- 
 ceniius, Poggius, Franciscus Barbarus, &c. But I question whether 
 a rigid chronology would allow Chrysoloras all these eminent scho- 
 lars. (Hodius, p. 25— 27, &c.) 
 
438 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 destitue of fortune, and endowed with learning, or at I superiority of these masters aro«:P fmm ♦».. r -r 
 leas with language. From the terror or oppression use of Avll ZL^!l"!\^^^^^^ 
 
 Chap. XXVIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 439 
 
 least with language. From the terror or oppVession 
 of the Turkish arms, the natives of Thessalonica and 
 Constantinople escaped to a land of freedom, curiosity, 
 and wealth. The synod introduced into Florence the 
 lights of the Creek church and the oracles of the Pla- 
 tonic philosophy: and the fuoritives who adhered to 
 the union, had the double merit of renouncing their 
 country, not jonly for the christian, but for the catholic 
 cause. A patriot, who sacrifices his party and con- 
 science to the allurements of favour, may be possessed 
 however of the private and social virtues : he nolonaer 
 hears the reproachful epithets of slave and apostaFe ; 
 and the consideration which he acquires amona his 
 new associates, will restore in his own eyes the'dig- 
 Dity ot his character. The prudent conformity of 
 Cardinal Beaaa- Bessarion was rewarded with the Ro- 
 non,&c. man purple: he fixed his residence in 
 Italy, and the Greek cardinal, the titular patriarch of 
 Constantinople, was respected as the chief and pro- 
 tector of his nation :k his abilities were exercised 
 in the legations of Bologna, Venice, Germany, and 
 trance; and his election to the chair of St. Peter 
 floated for a moment on the uncertain breath of a con- 
 clave.' His ecclesiastical honours diffused a splen- 
 dour and pre-eminence over his literary merit and ser- 
 vice: his palace was a school; as often as the cardi- 
 nal visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned 
 train of both nations;" of men applauded by them- 
 selves and the public; and whose writings, now over- 
 spread with dust, were popular and useful in their 
 own times. I shall not attempt to enumerate the 
 restorers of Grecian literature in the fifteenth century ; 
 and It may be sufficient to mention with gratitude the 
 
 
 John Argyropulus, and Demetrius Chalcondyles, who 
 taught their native language in the schools of Florence 
 Their faults and and Rome. Their labours were not in- 
 ' *"«••'"• ferior to those of Bessarion, whose purple 
 they revered, and whose fortune was the secret object 
 of their envy. But the lives of these grammarians 
 were humble and obscure : they had declined the 
 lucrative paths of the church; their dress and manners 
 secluded them from the commerce of the world; and 
 since they were confined to the merit, they might be 
 content with the rewards, of learning. From this 
 
 use of a living language; and their first disciples 
 were incapable of discerning how far they had deaene- 
 raled from the knowledge, and even the practice, of 
 their ancestors. A vicious pronunciation,? which they 
 introduced, was banished from the schools by the 
 reason of the succeeding age. Of the power of the 
 Greek accents they were ignorant, and those musical 
 notes, which, from an Atiic tongue, and to an Attic 
 ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony, were 
 to their eyes, as to our own, no more than minute and 
 unmeaning marks, in prose superfluous, and trouble- 
 some in verse. The art of grammar they truly pos- 
 sessed: the valuable fragments of Apollonius and 
 Herodian were transfused into their lessons; and their 
 treatises of syntax and etymology, though devoid of 
 philosophic spirit, are still useful to the Greek stu- 
 dent. In the shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries, 
 each fugitive seized a fragment of treasure, a copy of 
 some author, who, without his industry, micrht have 
 perished : the transcripts were multiplied by'an assi- 
 duous, and sometimes an elegant, pen ; and the text 
 was corrected and explained by their own comments, 
 or those of the elder scholiasts. The sense, though 
 not the spirit, of the Greek classics, was interpreted 
 to the Latin world: the beauties of style evaporate in 
 a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza selected 
 the more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus. 
 and their natural histories of animals and plants open' 
 V V?u ^li"'^ f'^" genuine and experimental science. 
 Yet the fleeting shadows of metaphys- The Platonic 
 ics were pursued with mora'curiosity and philosophy, 
 ardour. After a long oblivion, Plato was revived in 
 Italy by a venerable Greek,^ who taught in the house 
 
 character, Janus Lascaris ■ will deserve an excent on S?L' / rl™'' , "^ *'•''"""" recommended a modest 
 His elcuence, politeness, and im :;rnr deS' e" M ' ^^"'jL'!'lV"jr7.L-i'/_'''<' P''''""-'Vy''.'> 
 
 His eloquence, politeness, and imperial descent, re- 
 commended him to the French monarchs ; and in the 
 same cities he was alternately employed to teach and 
 to negociate. Duty and interest prompted them to 
 cultivate the study of the Latin lanauaae: and the 
 most successful attained the faculty of Vritincr and 
 speaking with fluency and elegance in a foreign idiom. 
 Hut they ever retained the inveterate vanity of their 
 
 rr"*'^//^^'.' P"'.'^' ^' ^' ^^3s* *heir esteem, was 
 reserved for the national writers, to whom they owed 
 
 ;IlT/?u^- ^""^ subsistence ; and they sometimes be- 
 tra>ed their contempt in licentious criticism or satire 
 on Virgil s poetry a nd the oratory of Tully." The 
 
 k See in Hody the article of Bpssarion (n f^fi I7r\ tk» i 
 
 Spect has cost thee a hat, and me the tiara ''' ^"' **®' ^^ ^«' 
 
 d^onio•^-^f &^:fL^.!l^T:^^^^?-|^7.h-i.-e Gaza Arcvropulu,, An- 
 
 », Blondus, Nicholaj 
 
 -. ........ tiiT. r>viiuu ui X' I ore nee 
 
 was involved in theological debate, some beneficial 
 consequences might flow from the study of his elegant 
 philosophy: his style is the purest standard of'the 
 Attic dialect; and his sublime thoughts are sometimes 
 adapted to familiar conversation, and sometimes adorn- 
 ed with the richest colours of poetry and eloquence. 
 1 he dialogues of Plato are a dramatic picture of the 
 lite and death of a sage ; and, as often as he descends 
 trom the clouds, his moral system inculcates the love 
 ot truth, of our country, and of mankind. The pre- 
 cept and example of Socrates recommended a modest 
 doubt and liheml innnirv • or,^ ;r .u« T)i_*-_' x_ •.• 
 
 tef^'v^'n Thessalonica, Philelphus, Popgius, Blondus Nicholas 
 Perrot, Valla, Cainpanus, Platina, &c. Viri (savs Hodv w ,k .k 
 
 pious zeal of a scholar) nullo*voperiiuri,(p 156) ^ ^^^ 
 
 »W« iff"^^' ^*"'" ^'^u""^ l!'^ taking of Constantinople, but his hont^ur 
 able life was stretched far into the sixteenth ceStury. (AD nS^ 
 Leo X. and I- rancis I. were his noblest patrons, under whose ausnir^, 
 
 275>'"h"LV^' ^''^"^ ^^^^T" °f "'""^ and Paris. (HoSy' p^.'Sr- 
 ind thpi! i^' posterity in France; but the counts de V nUmille 
 dSub fui „. "I^^"^"? branches, derive the name of Lascaris fr^m a 
 Greek ernTror^'m '^^ ihirieenih century with the daughter o^ I 
 
 o Two n^f r* ^'^V'^ange, Fam. Byzant p. 2-24-230.) 
 are presprvP.?'^,fP'^'^'"Vi*'"^^ y'lrgW, and three against TuUy. Italv in hiT.riT'a^A "on"!)"." ""^ ^^'aiomsis oi me times. He visited 
 OO bmer naip, .1 ^'''^ by Franciscus Floridus, who can find nesus See the S^^^^^ '" ^"^' his days in Pelopon 
 
 «o better name, than Gneculu, iaeptu. et impudeu.. (Hody, p' | £r7ci'us. fBibn'?. Cric loui il'^^^ Ue Georgiis, in^Fa- 
 
 blind devotion, adored the visions and errors of their 
 divine master, their enthusiasm might correct the dry 
 dogmatic method of the Peripatetic school. So equal, 
 yet so opposite, are the merits of Plato and Aristotle, 
 that they may he balanced in endless controversy; 
 but some spark of freedom may be produced by the 
 collision of adverse servitude. The modern Greeks 
 were divided between the two sects : with more fury 
 than skill they foujrht under the banner of their lea- 
 ders; and the field of battle was removed in their 
 flight from Constantinople to Rome. But this philo- 
 sophical deba te soon degenerated into an angry and 
 
 S^t'LJ" ^"' °*'? times, an English critic has accused the JEneid 
 Ssh?roidK;?ri'' '"?"'•>*' n"?atoria,spiritu et majestate fam i. 
 nis heroic defecta ; many such verses as he. the said Jeremiah IVIark- 
 land, would hare been ashamed of owning, (pr«fai. ad Statii Sylva., 
 
 r«nr?"Ln1"^* Chrysoloras, and his colleagues, are accused of i?no- 
 ?rp»i;. "^^' ^' "''Y"^' (Sylloge, &c. torn! ii. p. 235.) The modern 
 r^ f u >,7nrr"' V*}^ f f * ^ consonant, and confouid three Towell 
 wVirh fho f^^?.' ^'Phthongs. Such was the rulgar pronunciation 
 wsitv of r^.Jnh??''^'"^ '"^'"^^''^^d by penal siltutes in the un" 
 AltrcL?,)?«h.or.^*'-'f^"u^ ^^^ monosyllable c, represented to an 
 tl.*n rhi«K b'^*^'"5 o*^ "hfep, and a bell-wether is better evidence 
 cu^aJlv te ""' * <^h'»ncellor. The treatises of those scholars, par! 
 Sctl^nnX"^''n''*' n«r,"''d a more classical pronunciation, are 
 
 iJ : ^^'^■^ b"^ ^\ "^ difficult to paint sounds by words : and \n their 
 reference to modern use they can be underslood only by ih ir re^ 
 
 net'.!" li'e ^liSiZ^"?;".'!'";"/? '.",?".! '■-.''•>' -.P''>-P"-. 
 
 I 
 
 -personal quarrel of grammarians; and Bessarion, though 
 •an advocate for Plato, protected the national honour, 
 by interposing the advice and authority of a mediator. 
 In the gardens of the Medici, the academical doctrine 
 was enjoyed by the polite and learned : but their phi- 
 losophic society was quickly dissolved ; and if the 
 wriiino"S of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, 
 •the more powerful Stagy rite continued to reign the 
 oracle of the church and school.' 
 Emulation and I ^ave fairly represented the literary 
 
 Irogress of the merits of the Greeks ; yet it must be 
 aiins. confessed, that they were seconded and 
 
 surpassed by the ardour of the Latins. Italy was 
 divided into many independent states; and at that 
 time, it was the ambition of princes and republics to 
 yie with each other in the encouragement and reward 
 NichoianV. of literature. The fame of Nicholas the 
 A. D. 1447—1455. fifth • has not been adequate to his merits. 
 From a plebeian origin he raised himself by his virtue 
 and learning : the character of the man prevailed over 
 the interest of the pope ; and he sharpened those wea- 
 pons which were soon pointed against the Roman 
 church.* He had been the friend of the most eminent 
 scholars of the age: he became their patron; and such 
 was the humility of his manners, that the change was 
 scarcely discernible either to them or to himself. If 
 he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not 
 as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevo- 
 lence : and when modest merit declined his bounty, 
 ** accept it," would he say with a consciousness of 
 his own w^orth ; '* ye will not always have a Nicholas 
 among you." The influence of the holy see pervaded 
 Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the 
 search, not of benefices, but of books. From the ruins 
 of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries 
 of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manu- 
 scripts of the writers of antiquity ; and wherever the 
 original could not be removed, a faithful copy was 
 transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican, 
 the old repository for bulls and legends, for supersti- 
 tion and forgery, was daily replenished with more 
 precious furniture; and such was the industry of 
 Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years, he formed a 
 library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence 
 the Latin world was indebted for the versions of 
 Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodo- 
 tus, and Appian ; of Strabo's Geography, of the Iliad, 
 of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle, of 
 Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the fathers of the 
 Greek church. The example of the Roman pontiff 
 Cosmo and Lo- ^^'^^ preceded or imitated by a Floren- 
 Ten'ioofMediciB, tine merchant, who governed the repub- 
 A. D. 1428-1492. ijg without arms and without a title. 
 Cosmo of Medicis " was the father of a line of princes, 
 -whose name and age are almost synonymous with the 
 restoration of learning ; his credit was ennobled into 
 fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of 
 mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and 
 London: and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek 
 books was often imported in the same vessel. The 
 genius and education of his grandson Lorenzo rendered 
 him not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in 
 the literary race. In his palace, distress was entitled 
 
 to relief, and merit to reward ; his leisure hours were 
 delightfully spent in the Platonic academy : he encour- 
 aged the emulation of Demetrius Chalcondyles and 
 Angelo Politian; and his active missionary Janus 
 Lascaris returned from the east with a treasure of two 
 hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet 
 unknown in thie libraries of Europe.* The rest of Ita- 
 ly was animated by a similar spirit, and the progress 
 of the nation repaid the liberality of her princes. The 
 Latins held the exclusive property of their own litera- 
 ture: and these disciples of Greece were soon capable 
 of transmitting and improving the lessons which they 
 had imbibed. After a short succession of foreign teach- 
 ers, the tide of emigration subsided ; but the language 
 of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps ; and 
 the natives of France, Germany, and England,' impart- 
 ed to their country the sacred fire which they had kin- 
 dled in the schools of Florence and Rome." In the 
 productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts 
 of nature are excelled by industry and skill : the Greek 
 authors, forgotten on the banks of the Ilissus, have 
 been illustrated on those of the Elbe and the Thames: 
 and Bessarion or Gaza might have envied the superior 
 science of the barbarians ; the accuracy of Bud sens, the 
 taste of Erasmus, the copiousness of Stephens, the 
 erudition of Scaliger, the discernment of Reiske, or of 
 Bentley. On the side of the Latins, the discovery of 
 printing was a casual advantage ; but this useful art has 
 been applied by Aldus, and his innumerable succes- 
 sors, to perpetuate and multiply the works of antiqui- 
 ty.* A single manuscript imported from Greece is re- 
 vived in ten thousand copies ; and each copy is fairer 
 than the original. In this form Homer and Plato would 
 peruse with more satisfaction their own writings ; and 
 their scholiasts must resign the prize to the labours of 
 our western editors. 
 
 Before the revival of classic literature. Use and abuse of 
 the barbarians in Europe were immersed *"<^i'^«^i^""«°^- 
 in ignorance; and their vulgar tongues were marked 
 with the rudeness and poverty of their manners. The 
 students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece 
 were introduced to a new world of light and science : 
 to the society of the free and polished nations of anti- 
 quity ; and to a familiar converse with those immortal 
 men who spoke the sublime language of eloquence and 
 reason. Such an intercourse must tend to refine the 
 taste, and to elevate the genius, of the moderns ; and 
 yet, from the first experiments, it might appear that the 
 study of the ancients had given fetters, rather than 
 wings, to the human mind. However laudable, the 
 spirit of imitation is of a servile cast ; and the first 
 disciples of the Greeks and Romans were a colony of 
 strangers in the nidst of their age and country. The 
 minute and laborious diligence which explored the an- 
 
 r The slate of the Platonic philosophy in Italy, is illustrated by 
 Boivin, (!VIem. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. ii. p. 7Jo— TSy.) ana 
 Tiraboschi, (torn. vi. p. i. p. 259-288.) ., . t ««♦ 
 
 ■ See the Life of Nicholas V. by two contemporary autbors Janot- 
 tus Manetlus (tom. iii. p. ii.p. 9U5-%2.) and Vespasian of Horence, 
 (torn. XXV. p. 267-290.) in the collection of Muratori; and consult 
 Tiraboschi (tom. vi. p. i. p. 46-52. 109.) and Hody in the articles of 
 Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond,&c. ...... ,i,„ „„„oa 
 
 t Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truih and spirit, that the popes 
 in this insunce were worse politicians than the muflis, and that the 
 charm which had bound mankind for so many ages, was broken by 
 the magicians themselves. (Letters on the Study of History, I. vi. p. 
 165, 166. octavo edition, 1779.) /• «t j- •- :„ 
 
 u See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of Medicis, in 
 Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. p. i. I. i. c. 2.) who bestows a due measure of 
 praise on .Mphonso of Arragon, king of Naples, the dukes of Milan, 
 Ferrara, Urbino, Sec. The republic of Venice has deaerved the leaal 
 from the graliiude of scholars. 
 
 X Tiraboschi (torn. vi. p. i. p. 104.) from the preface of Janus Las- 
 caris to the Greek Anthology, printed at Florence 1494. Latebant 
 (savs Aldus in his preface to the Greek orators, apud Hodium, p. M.\i.} 
 
 in Atho Thraciae monte. Eas Lascaris in Italiam reportavit. 
 
 Miserat enim ipsum Laurentius ille Medices in Graec.am ad inqui- 
 rendos simul, et quaniovis emendos pretio bonoa libros. It is re- 
 niarkable enough/that the research was facilitated by sulun Baja- 
 
 *^i The Greek languagewas introduced into the university of Oxford 
 In the last years of the fifteenth century, by Grocyn, Li^^^c^^; »"'l 
 Latimer, who had all studied at Florence under De-^etnus Ch^icon- 
 dvles See Dr. Knight's curious life of Erasmus. Although a stout 
 academical patriot, he is forced to acknowledge that Erasmus learn- 
 ed Greek at Oxford, and taught it at Cambridge. ^^nooolv of 
 
 s The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a "^onopoiy oi 
 Greek leirnng. VSThen Aldus was about to publish the Greek echo- 
 UaS onXhocles and Euripides, Cave, C-id they,) cave hc^facjas 
 
 ne 6ar6ar.- ^slis adjuti domi maneant, et P^"'^'^!^* '"J'g^'^^g'^Jle. 
 tent. (Dr. Knight, in his life of Erasmus, p. 36a. from lieatus Rue- 
 
 °?Thl press of Aldus Manutius, ^,^T^\TAll"iS^rli\!'JotSi 
 irfl about the vear 1494 ; he printed above sixty consiaeraoie worns 
 
 orGt'k mlrlt'e 'almost afl f-,^»»« t'^.^^rj^K^t^^Jh?;" of 
 different treatises and authors, and of several •authors two, t«iree, or 
 ff^editions^ (Fabric. BJ^iot Gr^c. torn, x hi. 
 
 glory '^'';\/'^\i^^Sc.niLVZr\s,^ printed at Milan in 1476: 
 an'dTat theS^ncrHomefof H^ displays all the luxury of the 
 fvnoj aph c!l art. See the Annales Typographici of Mataire, and 
 IfirSbliographie Instructive of De Bare, a knowing bookseller of 
 Paris. 
 
440 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 |! 
 
 tiquities of remote limes, might have improved or adorn- 
 ed the present state of society : the critic and metaphy- 
 sician were the slaves of.Aristotle : the poets, histo- 
 rians, and orators, were proud to repeat the thoughts and 
 words of the Augustan age ; the works of nature were 
 observed with the eyes of Pliny and Theophrastus ; 
 and some Pagan votaries professed a secret devotion 
 to the gods of Homer and Plato.'' The Italians were 
 oppressed by the strength and numbers of their ancient 
 auxiliaries: the century after the deaths of Petrarch 
 and Boccace was filled with a crowd of Latin imitators, 
 who decently repose on our shelves; but in that sera of 
 learning, it will not be easy to discern a real discovery 
 of science, a work of invention or eloquence, in the 
 popular lanoruage of the country.*: But as soon as it 
 had been deeply saturated with the celestial dew, the 
 soil \yas quickened into vegetation and life ; the mo- 
 dern idioms were refined ; the classics of Athens and 
 Rome inspired a pure taste and a generous emulation ; 
 and in Italy, as afterwards in France and England, the 
 pleasing reign of poetry and fiction was succeeded 
 by the light of speculative and experimental philoso- 
 phy. Genius may anticipate the season of maturity ; 
 but m the education of a people, as in that of an indi- 
 vidual, memory must be exercised, before the powers 
 of reason and fancy can be expanded ; nor may the art- 
 ist hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to imi- 
 tate, the works of his predecessors. 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 441 
 
 CHAPTER XXVHL 
 
 Schism of the Greeks and Latins.— Reign and character of 
 Amuraih the second.— Crusade of Ladistaus kinir of 
 Hungary.— His defeat and death.— John Huniades.— 
 Scajiderbeg.-ConstaiUine Palxolugus, last emperor of 
 the east. ^ •' 
 
 Comparison of T'he respective merits of Rome and 
 Koine and Con- Constantinople are compared and cele- 
 Btantmopie. ^^ated by an eloquent Greek, the father of 
 the Italian schools.* The view of the ancient capital, 
 the seat of his ancestors, surpassed the most sanrruine 
 expectations of Emanuel Chrysoloras ; and he no longer 
 blamed the exclamation of an old sophist, that Rome 
 was the habitation, not of men, but of gods, lliosp 
 gods, and those men, had long since vanished ; but to 
 the eye of liberal enthusiasna, the majesty of ruin re- 
 stored the image of her ancient prosperity. The mon- 
 uments of the consuls and Caesars, of the martyrs and 
 apostles, engaged on all sides the curiosity of the phi- 
 losopher and the christian ; and he confessed, that in 
 every age the arms and the religion of Rome were destin- 
 ed to reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired 
 the venerable beauties of the mother, he was not for- 
 getful of his native, country, her fairest daughter, her 
 imperial colony ; and the Byzantine patriot expiates 
 with zeal and truth, on the eternal advantao-es of na- 
 
 I Vt uie 8vi?,d' hJ'fT "'"""^ n *'»?'"P^^» «f this classic enthusiasm, 
 verlai 0^10 Goor J f T ^^^""1''"^* Pl^iho said, in familiar con- 
 versaiion to George of Trebizond, ihat in a short time mankind 
 would unanimously renounce the Gospel and the Koran fTr ^ reli 
 
 had beVKVoiVded^rplJoKuri »\u' .'td^T/" "''^'T^' ^""^'^ 
 were accu.d of heLy i«^^^^^^ 
 
 Fra^nce?-e?Jbf;;ld?he'iute;sfrloX,VJit^^^^^^ 
 festival of Bacchus, and, as it is sa d^ briire^sacrPfir«Tf ^ ^.* 
 (Bayle. Dictionnaire, Jodellb. Font'en^Uef to,n"m p^sS-fen 
 Yet the sp.ni of bigotry might often discern a'serious mp^ay in the 
 eponive play of fancy and learning. mipieiy in ine 
 
 c The survivor of Boccace died in the year n7f. • an.i «,« - 
 Pl-ce before 1480 the composition of the TVllr^a. te ftfa'" Irof'fuki 
 J??7^'i?70*"''° Inamorato of Boyardo. (TiraboschiriS vi.'^p! h! 
 
 lo^. Jw!n ^J^^'^/ Emanuel Chrysoloras to the emperor John Pal»o- 
 C^dinr i A^ °^''"'^ ^^u® ^y® °^ ^*'" °f * classical slident, (ad calce.u 
 Si-eiA .h "'''^"''- ''^"^ ^' P- P- ^07-l-.:6.) The superscript", 
 Sd fn .h/T'''°''u'/^'"\''''^*^*^ •''•^»" Palsologus II. was asso- 
 deaih A ,mi r'Pr^ ^i^^''^ "-^^ ^^^ *•**•*' ^^e dale°of Chrvsuloras's 
 hfs youn-e,t ILn-'n" '^*'^' *^ least 14U8, is deduced from the a?e ..f 
 ifSlJri" (£uc*nai' p^^'"^!:'"'' »"d Thomas, who were both PorjJiyro- 
 gvnm, iuucange, tarn. Byzani. p. 241. 247.) i' y »• 
 
 ture, and the more transitory glories of art and domin- 
 ion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city of Constan- 
 tine. Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds 
 (as he modestly observes) to the honour of the original 
 and parents are delighted to be renewed, and even exceU 
 led, by the superior merit of their children. »* Constan- 
 tmople," says the orator, " is situate on a command- 
 ing point, between E urope and Asia, between the Archi- 
 pelago and the Euxine. By her interposition, the two 
 seas, and the two continents, are united for the common 
 benefit of nations ; and the gates of commerce may be 
 shut or opened at her command. The harbour, encom- 
 passed on all sides by the sea and the continent, is the 
 most secure and capacious in the world. The walls and 
 gates of Constantinople may be compared with those 
 of Babylon: the towers are many; each tower is a 
 solid and lofty structure; and the second wall, the 
 outer fortification, would be sufficient for the defence 
 and dignity of an ordinary capital. A broad and rapid 
 stream may be introduced into the ditches; and the 
 artificial island may be encompassed, like Athens,'' by 
 land or water." Two strong and natural causes are 
 alleged for the perfection of the model of new Rome. 
 The royal founder reigned over the most illustrious 
 nations of the globe; and in the accomplishment of 
 his designs, the power of the Romans was combined 
 with the art and science of the Greeks. Other cities 
 have been reared to maturity by accident and time; 
 their beauties are mingled with disorder and defor- 
 mity; and the inhabitants, unwilling to remove from 
 their natal spot, are incapable of correcting the errors 
 of their ancestors, and the original vices of situation 
 or climate. But the free idea of Constantinople was 
 formed and executed by a single mind; and the primi- 
 tive model was improved by the obedient zeal of the 
 subjects and successors of the first monarch. The 
 adjacent isles were stored with an inexhaustible sup- 
 ply of marble; but the various materials were trans- 
 ported from the most remote shores of Europe and 
 Asia; and the public and private buildings, the pala- 
 ces, churches, aqueducts, cisterns, porticoes, columns, 
 batl.s, and hippodromes, were adapted to the greatness 
 of the capital of the east. The superfluity of wealth 
 was spread along the shores of Europe and Asia; and 
 the Byzantine territory, as far as the Euxine, the Hel- 
 lespont, and the long wall, might be considered as a 
 populous suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flat- 
 tering picture, the past and the present, the times of 
 prosperity and decay, are artfully confounded ; but a 
 sigh and a confession escape from the orator, that his 
 wretched country was the shadow and sepulchre of its 
 former self. The works of ancient sculpture had been 
 delaced by christian zeal or barbaric violence; the 
 la.rest structures were demolished ; and the marbles 
 ot Faros or Numidia were burnt for lime ; or applied 
 to the nrieanest uses. Of many a statue, the place 
 was marked by an empty pedestal ; of many a column, 
 the size was determined by a broken capital ; the 
 tombs of the emperors were scattered on the ground; 
 the stroke of time was accelerated by storms and 
 earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned, by 
 vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments of gold and 
 silver. From these wonders, which lived only in 
 memory or belief, he distinguishes, however, the por- 
 phyry pillar, the column and colossus of Justinian,* 
 and the church, more especially the dome, of St. So- 
 phia; the best conclusion, since it could not be descri- 
 
 b Somebody observed that the city of Athens might be circumna- 
 vigated, (r.; ,..,v T,v ^c^.v T... AJ.v...» iov-ri^. x,.^rLV«^>?fr 
 
 ^ji ^.f .=r^.u.) But what mav be true in a rhetorical sense of Con- 
 stantinople, cannot be applied to the situation of Athens, five miles 
 sireaniS*' *"'*' * "*"' 'mersected or surrounded by any navigable 
 
 vif ri^'^J'?'"'!' Gregoras has described the Colo8.su8 of Justinian : fl. 
 ^ll. K.) but his measures are false and inconsistent. The editor 
 
 trr;!in'n."rr ''"^ t'" ^"""^ ^!'"^^^" ' ^"'^ '^^ sculptor gave him ih« 
 visfbre trPp.Trvn" ^^J"^''^"^" »^t"^- That of Justinian was s U T 
 visible to Peter Gyllius, not on the column, but in the outward court 
 of the seraglio; and he was at Constantinople when iriMmeUed 
 i down, and cast into a brass cannon, (de Topograph. C. P.^"i.Tl7.> 
 
 bed according to its merits, and after it no other object 
 could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets, that 
 a century before, the trembling fabrics of the colossus 
 and the church had been saved and supported by the 
 timely care of Andronicus the elder. Thirty years 
 after the emperor had fortified St. Sophia with two 
 new buttresses or pyramid.s, the eastern hemisphere 
 suddenly gave way ; and the images, the altars, and 
 the sanctuary, were crushed by the falling ruin. The 
 mischief indeed was speedily repaired ; the rubbish 
 was cleared by the incessant labour of every rank and 
 age; and the poor remains of riches and industry were 
 consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately and 
 venerable temple of the east.** 
 The Greek The last hope of the falling city and 
 
 schism after the empire was placed in the harmony of 
 council of t lor- , »^ , j j i^ • ,i ^ . 
 
 ence. the mother and daughter, in the mater- 
 
 A. D. 1440-1418. nal tenderness of Rome, and the filial 
 obedience of Constantinople. In the synod of Flor- 
 ence, the Greeks and Latins had embraced, and sub- 
 scribed, and promised ; but these signs of friendship 
 were perfidious or fruitless ;• and the baseless fabric 
 of the union vanished like a dream.' The emperor 
 and his prelates returned home in the Venetian gal- 
 leys : but as they touched at the Morea and the isles 
 of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects of the Latins com- 
 plained that the pretended union would be an instru- 
 ment of oppression. No sooner did they land on the 
 Byzantine shore, than they were saluted, or rather as- 
 sailed, with a general murmur of zeal and discontent. 
 During their absence, above two years, the capital had 
 been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers : 
 fanaticism fermented in anarchy ; the most furious 
 monks reigned over the conscience of women and birr- 
 ots; and the hatred of the Latin name was the first 
 principle of nature and religion. Before his departure 
 for Italy, the emperor had flattered the city with the 
 assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succour; 
 and the clerfjy, confident in their orthodoxy and sci- 
 ence, had promised themselves and their flocks an 
 easy victory over the blind shepherds of the west. 
 The double disappointment exasperated the Greeks ; 
 the conscience of the subscribing prelates was awa- 
 kened ; the hour of temptation was past; and they had 
 more to dread from the public resentment, than they 
 could hope from the favour of the emperor or the pope. 
 Instead of justifying their conduct, they deplored their 
 weakness, professed their contrition, and cast them- 
 selves on the mercy of God and of their brethren. 
 To the reproachful question, what had been the event 
 or the use of their Italian synod 1 they answered with 
 sighs and tears, " Alas ! we have made a new faith ; 
 we have exchanged piety for impiety ; we have betray- 
 ed the immaculate sacrifice ; and we are become Jlzy- 
 miies.^^ (The Azymites were those who celebrated 
 the communion with unleavened bread; and I must 
 retract or qualify the praise which I have bestowed on 
 the growing philosophy of the times.) "Alas! we 
 have been seduced by distress, by fraud, and by the 
 hopes and fears of a transitory life. The hand that 
 has signed the union should be cut off; and the tongue 
 that has pronounced the Latin creed deserves to be 
 torn from the root." The best proof of their repen- 
 tance was an increase of zeal for the most trivial rites 
 and the most incomprehensible doctrines ; and an 
 absolute separation from all, without excepting their 
 
 d See the decay and repairs of St. Sophia, in Nicephorus Gregoras, 
 (1. vii. 12. 1. XV. 2.) The building was propped by Andronicus in 
 1317, the eastern hemisphere fell in 1345. The Greeks in their pom- 
 pous rhetoric, exalted the beauty and holiness of the church, an 
 earthly heaven, the abode of angels, and of God himself, &c. 
 
 e The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus, (p. 312—351.) 
 opens the' schism from the first offif^e of the Greeks at Venice, to the 
 general opposition at Constantinople of the clergy and people. 
 
 f On the schism of Constantinople, see Phranza, (1. ii. c. 17.) Lao- 
 nicus Chalcondyles, (1. vi. p. ^o5, 156.) and Ducas (c. 31.); the last 
 of whom writes with truth and freedom. Among the moderns we 
 may distinguish the conlinuator of Fleury, (uim. xxii. p. 339. 401. 
 420, &c ) and Spondanus. (A. D. 1440—50.) The sense of the latter 
 is drowned in prejudice and passion, as soon as Rome and religion 
 »re concerned. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 F 
 
 prince, who preserved some regard for honour and 
 consistency. After the decease of the patriarch Jo- 
 seph, the archbishops of Heraclea and Trebizond had 
 courage to refuse the vacant office ; and cardinal Bes- 
 sarion preferred the warm and comfortable shelter of 
 the Vatican. The choice of the emperor and his cler- 
 gy was confined to Metrophanes of Cyzicus ; he was 
 consecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple was vacant. 
 The cross-bearers abdicated their service ; the infection 
 spread from the city to the villages ; and Metrophanes 
 discharged, without eflfect, some ecclesiastical thun- 
 ders against a nation of schismatics. The eyes of the 
 Greeks were directed to Mark of Ephesus, the cham- 
 pion of his country; and the sufferings of the holy 
 confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and 
 applause. His example and writings propagated the 
 flame of religious discord ; age and infirmity soon re- 
 moved him from the world ; but the gospel of Mark 
 was not a law of forgiveness ; and he requested with 
 his dying breath, that none of the adherents of Rome 
 might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul. 
 
 The schism was not confined to the ze^^ of the orl- 
 narrow limits of the Byzantine empire, entais and Rus- 
 Secure under the Mameluke sceptre, the ■'*"'• 
 three patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa- 
 lem, assembled a numerous synod ; disowned their 
 representatives at Ferrara and Florence ; condemned 
 the creed and council of the Latins ; and threatened 
 the emperor of Constantinople with the censures of 
 the eastern church. Of the sectaries of the Greek 
 communion, the Russians were the most powerful, 
 ignorant, and superstitious. Their primate, the car- 
 dinal Isidore, hastened from Florence to Moscow,' to 
 reduce the independent nation under the Roman yoke. 
 But the Russian bishops had been educated at mount 
 Athos ; and the prince and people embraced the the- 
 ology of their priests. They were scandalized by the 
 title, the pomp, the Latin cross of the legate, the 
 friend of those impious men who shaved their beards, 
 and performed the divine office with gloves on their 
 hands and rings on their fingers: Isidore was con- 
 demned by a synod ; his person was imprisoned in a 
 monastery ; and it was with extreme difficulty that the 
 cardinal could escape from the hands of a fierce and 
 fanatic people.'' The Russians refused a passage to 
 the missionaries of Rome who aspired to convert the 
 pagans beyond the Tanais ;' and their refusal was jus- 
 tified by the maxim, that the guilt of idolatry is less 
 damnable than that of schism. The errors of the 
 Bohemians were excused by their abhorrence for the 
 pope; and a deputation of the Greek clergy solici- 
 ted the friendship of those sanguinary enthusiasts.*' 
 While Eugenius triumphed in the union and ortho- 
 doxy of the Greeks, his party was contracted to the 
 walls, or rather to the palace, of Constantinople. The 
 zeal of Palajologus had been excited by interest ; it 
 was soon cooled by opposition : an attempt to violate 
 the national belief might endanger his life and crown; 
 nor could the pious rebels be destitute of foreign and 
 
 f Isidore was metropolitan of Kiow, but the Greeks subject to Po- 
 land have removed that see from the ruins of Kiow to Lemberg, or 
 Leopold. (Herbestein, in Ramusio, lom. ii. p. 127.) On the other 
 hand, the Russians transferred their spiritual obedience to the arch- 
 bishop, who became, in 1598, the patriarch of Moscow. (I.evesiiue, 
 Hist, de Russie, torn. iii. p. ISS. 190. from a Greek MS. at Turin, Iter 
 et labores Arcliiepiscopi Arsenii.) 
 
 h The curious narrative of Levesque (Hist, de Rus.'ie, torn. ii. p. 
 211i— 247.) is extracted from the patriarchal archives. The scenes of 
 Ferrara and Florence are described by ignorance and pa.ssion ; but 
 the Russians are credible in the account of their own prf-judices. 
 
 i The shamanism, the ancient religion of the Samanaeans and 
 Gymnosophists, has been driven by the more popular braniiiis from 
 India into the northern deserts; the naked philosophers were com- 
 pelled to wrap themselves in fur; but thry insensibly sunk into wiz- 
 ards and physicians. The Mordvaiis and Tcheremissps in the Euro- 
 pean Russia adhere to this religion, which is formed on the earthly 
 model of one king or God, his ministers or angels, and the rebellious 
 spirits who oppose his government. As these tribes of the Volga 
 have no images, they niiiiht more justly retort on the L^tin mission- 
 aries the name of idolaters. (Levesiiue, Hist, des Peuples soumis i la 
 Domination des Russes, torn. i. p. 194—2:37. 423 — 460.) 
 
 k Spondanus, Annal Eccles. torn. ii. A. D. 14-51, No. 13. The epi» 
 tie of the Greeks, with a Latin version, is extani in the college Ii 
 brary at Prague. 
 
442 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIII 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 443 
 
 clomestic aid. The sword of his brother Demetrius, 
 who in Italy had maintained a prudent and popular 
 silence, was half unsheathed in the cause of religion ; 
 tind Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and 
 alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks and 
 Latins. 
 
 Reign and cha- " Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived 
 *»«*«' of Amu- forty-nine, and reigned thirty, years, six 
 ** A. D. months, and eight days. He was a just 
 
 14-21— 1451. and valiant prince, of a great soul, patient 
 Feb. 9. Qf labours, learned, merciful, religious, 
 charitable; a lover and encourager of the studious, 
 and of all who excelled in any art or science ; a good 
 emperor, and a great general. No man obtained more 
 or greater victories than Amurath: Belgrade alone 
 withstood his attacks. Under his reign, the soldier 
 was ever victorious, the citizen rich and secure. If he 
 subdued any country, his first care was to build moschs 
 and caravanseras, hospitals and colleges. Every year 
 he gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of the 
 prophet; and sent two thousand five hundred to the 
 religious persons of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.'" 
 This portrait is transcribed from the historian of the 
 Othman empire: but the applause of a servile and 
 superstitious people has been lavished on the worst 
 of tyrants; and the virtues of a sultan are often the 
 "vices most useful to himself, or most agreeable to his 
 subjects. A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of 
 liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbi- 
 trary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the 
 character of justice; his profusion, of liberality ; his 
 obstinacy, of firmness. If the most reasonable excuse 
 be rejected, few acts of obedience will be found im- 
 possible : and guilt must tremble, where innocence 
 cannot always be secure. The tranquillity of the 
 people, and the discipline of the troops, were best 
 maintained by perpetual action in the field ; war was 
 the trade of tho janizaries; and those who survived 
 the peril, and divided the spoil, applauded the gene- 
 rous ambition of their sovereign. To propagate the 
 true reliffion, was the duty of a faithful mussulman : 
 the unbelievers were his enemies, and those of the 
 prophet; and, in the hands of the Turks, the scymiiar 
 was the only instrument of conversion. Under these 
 circumstances, however, the justice and moderation 
 of Amurath are attested by his conduct, and acknow- 
 ledged by the christians themselves; who consider a 
 prosperous reign and a peaceful death as the reward 
 of his singular merits. In the vigour of his age and 
 military power, he seldom engaged in a war till he 
 was justified by a previous and adequate provocation : 
 the victorious sultan was disarmed by submission ; 
 and in the observance of treaties, his word was invio- 
 late and sacred." The Hungarians were commonly 
 the aggressors; he was provoked by the revolt of 
 Scanderbcg; and the perfidious Caramanian was twice 
 vanquished and twice pardoned, by the Ottoman mon- 
 nrch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes had been 
 surprised by the despot: in the conquest of Thessa- 
 lonica, the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the 
 recent purchase of the Venetians; and after the first 
 sieae of Constantinople, the sultan was never tempt- 
 ed, by the distress, the absence, or the injuries of Pa- 
 Jaeologns, to extinguish the dying light of the Byzan- 
 tine empire. 
 
 His double abdi- ^ut the most Striking feature in the 
 A r^\^iin^\t,* ^^^® ^"^ character of Amurath, is the 
 AD. H42-1444. double abdication of the Turkish throne ; 
 and, were not his motives debased by an alloy of 
 superstition, we must praise the royal philosopher,' 
 
 ^ , ., 
 
 1 See Cantemir, History of the Othman empire, p. 94. Murad, or 
 Morad, may be more correct : but I have preferred ine popular name 
 to that obscure diligence which is rarely successful in translating an 
 wiental, into the Koman, alphabet. 
 
 who at the age of forty could discern the vanity of 
 human greatness, Resijjning the sceptre to his son, 
 he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia ; but 
 he retired to the society of saints and hermits. It 
 was not till the fourth century of the Hegira, that the 
 religirn of Mahomet had been corrupted by an institu- 
 tion so adverse to his genius ; but in the age of the 
 crusades, the various orders of Dervishes were multi- 
 plied by the example of the christian, and even the 
 Latin, monks." The lord of nations submitted to fast, 
 and pray, and turn round in endless rotation with the 
 fanatics, who mistook the giddiness of the head for 
 the illumination of the spirit.^ But he w^as soon 
 awakened from this dream of enthusiasm, by the Hun- 
 garian invasion ; and his obedient son was the fore- 
 most to urge the public danger and wishes of the 
 people. Under the banner of their veteran leader, the 
 janizaries fought and conquered ; but he withdrew 
 from the field of Warna, again to pray, to fast, and to 
 turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These pious 
 occupations were again interrupted by the danger of 
 the state. A victorious army disdained the inexpe- 
 rience of their youthful ruler: the city of Adrianople 
 was abandoned to rapine and slaughter; and the 
 unanimous divan implored his presence to appease the 
 tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the janizaries. 
 At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled 
 and obeyed ; and the reluctant sultan w^as compelled 
 to support his splendid servitude, till, at the end of 
 four years, he was relieved by the angel of death. 
 Ag«^ or disease, misfortune or caprice, have tempted 
 several princes to descend from the throne; and they 
 have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step. 
 But Amurath alone, in the full liberty of choice, after 
 the trial of empire and solitude, has repeated his pre- 
 ference of a private life. 
 
 After the departure of his Greek breth- Eu?enius forms 
 ren, Kugenius had not been unmindful a leoeue against 
 of their temporal interest; and his tender ^^^^^'^^443 
 reward for the Byzantine empire was 
 animated by a just apprehension of the Turks, who 
 approached, and might soon invade, the borders of 
 Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had expired; 
 and the coldness of the Franks was not less unrea- 
 sonable than their headlong passion. In the eleventh 
 century, a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on 
 Asia for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; but in 
 the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of religion 
 and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the 
 defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaus- 
 tible storehouse of men and arms : •> but that complex 
 and languid body required the impulse of a vigorous 
 hand ; and Frederic the third was alike impotent in 
 his personal character and his imperial dignity. A 
 long war had impaired the strength, without satiating 
 the animosity, of France and England :' but Philip, 
 duke of Burgundy, was a vain and magnificent prince; 
 
 nu3 
 
 towards 
 
 liis son Maholnel." 
 
 , « Voltaire CEsaai sur I'Histoire Generale, c. 89. p. 383, 2W.) ad- 
 
 mires le philosophe Turc ; would he have bestowed the same praise 
 on a christian prince far retiring to a monastery 1 In his way, Vol- 
 taire wag a bigot, an intolerant bigot. 
 
 o Spe the articles Dervische, Fakir, Nasser, Pohbaniat, in D'Her- 
 belot's Biblioiheque Orientate. Yet the subject is superficially treat- 
 ed from the Persian and Arabian writers. It is among the Turks 
 that these orders hare principally flourished. 
 
 P Rycaut (in the present State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 242 — 
 26S.) affords much information, which he drew from his personal 
 conversation with the hrads of the dervishes, most of whom ascribed 
 their origin to the lime of Orchan. He does not mention the Zichida. 
 of Chalcondyles, (1. vii. p. 286.) among whom Amurath retired: the 
 Seids of that author are the descendants of Mahomet. 
 
 q In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,CKX) horse, men at arms, 
 against the Hussites of Bohemia. (Lenfunt, Hist, du Concilede Basle, 
 torn. i. p. 3iS.) At the siege of Nuys, on the Rhine, in 1474, the 
 
 Srinces, prelates, and cities, sent their respective quotas: and the 
 ishop of Munster (qui n'est pas des plus grands) furnished 14(X) horse, 
 6U00 foot, all in green, with lilK) waggons. The united armies of 
 the king of England and the duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled 
 one-third of this German host. (iMemoires de Philippe de Comines, 
 1. iv. c. 2.) At present, six or seven hundred thousand men are 
 maintained in constant pay and admirable discipline, by the powen 
 of Germany. 
 
 r It was not till the year 1444 that France and England could agree 
 on a truce of some months. (See Rymer's Foedera, and the chronicles 
 of both nations.) 
 
 M 
 
 and he enjoyed, without danger or expense, the adven- 
 turous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in a gallant 
 fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont. 
 The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were 
 less remote from the scene of action ; and their hostile 
 flee's were associated under the standard of St. Peter. 
 The kingdoms of Hungary and Poland, which covered 
 as it were the interior pale of the Latin church, were 
 the most nearly concerned to oppose the progress of 
 the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians 
 and Sarmatians, and these nations might appear equal 
 to the contest, could they point, against the common 
 fop, those swords that were so wantonly drawn in 
 bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same spirit 
 was adverse to concord and obedience : a poor country 
 and a limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a 
 standing force; and the loose bodies of Polish and 
 Hungarian horse were not armed with the sentiments 
 and weapons which, on some occasions, have given 
 irresistible weight to the French cavalry. Yet, on 
 this side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the 
 eloquence of cardinal Julian, his legate, were pro- 
 moted by the circumstances of the time ;• by the union 
 of the two crowns on the head of Ladislaus,* a young 
 and ambitious soldier; by the valour of a hero, whose 
 name, the name of John Huniades, was already popu- 
 lar among the christians, and formidable to the Turks. 
 An endless treasure of pardons and indulgences was 
 scattered by the legate; many private warriors of 
 France and Germany enlisted under the holy banner; 
 and the crusade derived some strength, or at least 
 some reputation, from the new allies both of Europe 
 and Asia. A fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated 
 the distress and ardour of the christians beyond the 
 Danube, who would unanimously rise to vindicate 
 their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor," with 
 a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the 
 Bosphorus, and to sally from Constantinople at the 
 head of his national and mercenary troops. The sul- 
 tan of Caramania* announced the retreat of Amurath, 
 and a powerful division in the heart of Anatolia; and 
 if the fleets of the west could occupy at the same 
 moment the straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman 
 monarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. Hea- 
 ven and earth must rejoice in the perdition of the mis- 
 creants; and the legate, with prudent ambiguity, in- 
 stilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the visi- 
 ble, aid of the Son of God, and his divine mother. 
 
 Ladisiaus, kins ^^ ^**® ^^^^^^^ ^"^ Hungarian diets, 
 of Poland and a religious War was the unanimous cry, 
 Hungary, march- ^^^ Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, 
 
 fs against them. , , Vl- rj . u- . 
 
 led an army of his confederate subjects 
 as far as Sophia, the capital of the Bulgarian king- 
 dom. In this expedition they obtained two signal 
 victories, which were justly ascribed to the valour 
 and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a van- 
 guard of ten thousand men, he surprised the Turkish 
 camp; in the second, he vanquished and made pri- 
 snner the most renowned of their generals, who pos- 
 sessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. 
 The approach of winter, and the natural and artificial 
 obstacles of mount Haemus, arrested the progress of 
 
 • In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal.Eccles. A.D. 1443, 
 1444.) has been' my leading guide. He has diligently read, and cri- 
 tically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials, the historians 
 of Huncary, Poland, and the west. His narrative is perspicuous; 
 and where he can be free from a religious bias, the judgment of 
 Spi)nd;iiius is not contemptible. 
 
 t I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus) which most writers 
 affix to his name, either in compliance with the Polish pronuncia- 
 ii<m, or to distinguish him from his rival the infant Ladislaus of 
 Austria. Their competition for the crown of Hungary is described 
 by Calliinachus, (I. 1. ii. p. 447—486.) Bonfinius, (Decad. iii. 1. iv.) 
 5ipondanu9, and Lenfant. 
 
 u The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and Ducas, do 
 not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this crusade, which 
 he seems to have promoted by his wishes, and injured by his fears. 
 
 X Cantemir (p. 8S.) ascribes to his policy the original plan, and 
 transcribes his animating epistle to the king of Hungary. But the 
 Mahometan powers are seldom informed of the state of Christen- 
 dom ; and the situation and correspondence of the knights of Rhodes 
 must connect Ihem with the suliau of Caramauia, 
 
 Violation of the 
 
 peace, 
 
 A. D. 1414. 
 
 the hero, who measured a narrow interval of six days' 
 march from the foot of the mountains to the hostile 
 towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of the 
 Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed; and the 
 entrance into Buda was at once a military and reli- 
 gious triumph. An ecclesiatical procession was fol- 
 lowed by the king and his warriors on foot: he nicely 
 balanced the merits and rewards of the two nations; 
 and the pride of conquest was blended with the hum- 
 ble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine 
 standards, and four thousand captives, were unques- 
 tionable trophies; and as all were willing to believe, 
 and none were present to contradict, the crusaders 
 multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads 
 of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle.^ 
 The most solid proof, and the most salu- The Turkish; 
 tary consequence, of victory, was a depu- peace, 
 
 tation from the divan to solicit peace, to restore Ser- 
 via, to ransom the prisoners, and to evacuate the Hun- 
 garian frontier. By this treaty, the rational objects 
 of the war were obtained : the king, the despot, and 
 Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin, were satis- 
 fied with public and private emolument; a truce of 
 ten years was concluded ; and the followers of Jesus 
 and Mahomet, who swore on the Gospel and the 
 Koran, attested the word of God as the guardian of 
 truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place of the 
 gospel, the Turkish ministers had proposed to substi- 
 tute the eucharist, the real presence of the catholic 
 deity ; but the christians refused to profane their holy 
 mysteries ; and a superstitious conscience is less for- 
 cibly bound by the spiritual energy, than by the out- 
 ward and visible symbols, of an oath.' 
 
 During the whole transaction, the car- 
 dinal legate had observed a sullen si- 
 lence, unwilling to approve, and unable 
 to oppose, the consent of the king and people. But 
 the diet was not dissolved before Julian was fortified 
 by the welcome intelligence, that Anatolia was inva- 
 ded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek, 
 emperor ; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Bur- 
 gundy, were masters of the Hellespont ; and that the 
 allies, informed of the victory, and ignorant of the 
 treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently waited for the return 
 of his victorious army. " And is it thus," exclaimed 
 the cardinal,* " that you will desert their expectations 
 and your own fortune ? It is to them, to your God, 
 and your fellow-christians, that you have pledged 
 your faith ; and that prior obligation annihilates a rash 
 and sacrilegious oath to the enemies of Christ. His 
 vicar on earth is the Roman pontiflT; without whose 
 sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In his 
 name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms : 
 follow my footsteps in the paths of glory and salva- 
 tion ; and if still ye have scruples, devolve on my 
 head the punishment and the sin." This mischievous 
 casuistry was seconded by his respectable character, 
 and the levity of popular assemblies: war was resol- 
 ved on the same spot where peace had so lately been 
 sworn ; and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks 
 were assaulted by the christians; to whom, with some 
 reason, they might apply the epithet of infidels. The 
 falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and oath, was pal- 
 liated by the religion of the times : the most perfect, or 
 at least the most popular, excuse would have been the 
 
 J In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the Hungarians slay 
 300,000 Turks in one battle, but the modest Julian reduces the slaugh- 
 ter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels. (JEneas Sylvius in Europ. c. 5. and 
 epist. 44. 81. apud Spondanum.) 
 
 r See the oriirin of the Turkish war, and the first expedition of La- 
 dislaus, in the fifth and sixth books of the third Decad of Bonfinius, 
 who, in his division and style, copies Livy with tolerable success. 
 Callimachus (I. ii. p. 487—4%.) is still more pure and authentic, 
 
 » I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of Julian's speech, 
 which is variously worded by Callimachus, (1. iii. p 505—507.) Bonfi- 
 nius, (Dec. iii. 1. vi. p. 457, 458.) and other historians, who might in- 
 dulge their own eloquence, while thev represent one of the orators of 
 the age. But they all agree in the advice and arguments for perjury, 
 which in the field of controversy are fiercely attacked by the pro- 
 leslanis, and feebly defended by the catholic*. The latter are dis- 
 couraged by the misfortune of Warna, 
 
4ii 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIH. 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 445 
 
 ii 
 
 success of his arms and the deliverance of the eastern 
 church. But the same treaty which should have bound 
 his conscience, had diminished his strength. On the 
 proclamation of the peace, the French and German 
 volunteers departed with indignant murmurs : the Poles 
 were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps dis- 
 gusted with foreign command ; and their palatines 
 accepted the first licence, and hastily retired to their 
 provinces and castles. Even Hungary was divided 
 by faction, or restrained by a laudable scruple ; and 
 the rt'lics of the crusade that marched in the second 
 expedition, were reduced to an inadequate force of 
 twenty thousand men. A Walachian chief, who join- 
 ed the royal standard with his vassals, presumed to 
 remark that their numbers did not exceed the hunting 
 retinue that sometimes attended the sultan ; and the 
 gift of two horses of matchless speed, miirht admo- 
 nish Ladislaus of his secret foresight of the event. 
 But the despot of Servia, after the restoration of his 
 country and children, was tempted by the promise of 
 new realms ; and the inexperience of the king, the 
 enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial presump- 
 tion of Huniades himself, were persuaded that every 
 obstacle must yield to the invincible virtue of the 
 sword and the cross. After the passage of the Danube, 
 two roads might lead to Constantinople and the Hel- 
 lespont; the one direct, abrupt, and difficult, through 
 the mountains of Ha;mus; the other more tedious and 
 secure, over a level country, and along the shores of 
 the Euxine; in which their flanks, according to the 
 Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a mo- 
 vable fortification of waggons. The latter was judi- 
 ciously preferred : the catholics marched through the 
 plains of Bulgraria, burning, with wanton cruelty, the 
 churches and villages of the christian natives; and 
 their List station was at Warna, near the sea-shore ; 
 on which the defeat and death of Ladislaus have 
 bestowed a memorable name.'' 
 
 Battle of Warna, ^^ ^as on ihis fatal spot, that, instead 
 A. D. 1444. of finding a confederate fleet to second 
 Nov. 10. ^j^^j^ operations, they were alarmed by 
 the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued 
 from his Magiiesian solitude, and transported the forces 
 of Asia to the defence of Europe. According to some 
 writers, the Greek emperor had been awed, or sedu- 
 ced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus, and an 
 indelible stain o( corruption is fixed on the Genoese, 
 or the pope's nephew, the catholic admiral, whose 
 mercenary connivance betrayed the puard of the Hel- 
 lespont. From Adrianople, the sultan advanced by 
 hasty marches at the head of sixty thousand men; 
 and when the cardinal, and Huniades, had taken a 
 nearer survey of the numbers and order of the Turks, 
 these ardent warriors proposed the tardy and imprac- 
 ticable measure of a retreat. The king alone was 
 resolved to conquer or die; and his resolution had 
 almost been crowned with a glorious and salutary 
 victory. The princes were opposite to each other in 
 the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or generals of Anato- 
 lia and Romania, commanded on the right and left, 
 acjainst the adverse divisions of the despot and Hunia- 
 des. The Turkish wings were broken on the first 
 onset: hut the advantajie was fatal; and the rash vic- 
 tors, in the heat of the pursuit, were carried away far 
 from the annoyance of the enemy, or the support of 
 their friends. When Amuralh beheld the flight of his 
 squadrons, he despaired of his fortune and th^at of the 
 empire; a veteran janizary seized his horse's bridle: 
 and he had maornanimity to pardon and reward the 
 soldier who dared to perceive the terror, and arrest 
 the flight, of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty, the 
 
 b Warna, und°r the Grecian name of Odeasus, was a colony of the 
 MilPflians, which they denominated from the hero Ulvsses. (Cel- 
 lariu8,tom. i. p. 374. D'Anville, lorn. i. p 312.) Accordins to Arian's 
 reriplus of the Euxine, (p. 24,25. in the first volume of Hudson's 
 f .u'"'^^"^'''''^ '^ *^** situate 1740 stadia, or furlongs, from the mouth 
 oi the Danube, 1240 from Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge 
 •r promontory of mount Haeraus, which advancei into tho sea. 
 
 monument of christian perfidy, had been displayed in 
 the front of battle; and it is said, that the sultan in 
 his distress, lifting his eyes and his hands to heaven, 
 implored the protection of the God of truth ; and called 
 on the prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious 
 mockery of his name and religion.' With inferior 
 numbers and disordered ranks, the king of Hungary 
 rushed forwards in the confidence of victory, tilf his 
 career was stopped by the impenetrable phalanx of 
 the janizaries. If we may credit the Ottoman annals, 
 his horse was pierced by the javelin of Death of Lad is- 
 Amurath ;'' he fell among the spears of lau8. 
 
 the infantry; and a Turkish soldier proclaimed with 
 a loud voice, "Hungarians, behold the head of your 
 king !" The death of Ladislaus was the signal of 
 their defeat. On his return from an intemperate pur- 
 suit, Huniades deplored his error and the public loss : 
 he strove to rescue the royal body, till lie was over- 
 whelmed by the tumultuous crowd of the victors and 
 vanquished ; and the last efforts of his courage and 
 conduct were exerted to save the remnant of his Wala- 
 chian cavalry. Ten thousand christians were slain in 
 the disastrous battle of Warna : the loss of the Turks, 
 nriore considerable in numbers, bore a smaller propor- 
 tion to their total strength ; yet the philosophic sultan 
 was not ashamed to confess, that his ruin must be the 
 consequence of a second and similar victory. At his 
 command a column was erected on the spot where 
 Ladislaus had fallen ; but the modest inscription, in- 
 stead of accusing the rashness, recorded the valour, 
 and bewailed the misfortune, of the Hungarian youth.' 
 Before I lose sight of the field of War- The cardinal s 
 na, I am tempted to pause on the charac- Julian. ^ 
 ter and story of two principal actors, the cardinal Ju- 
 lian and John Huniades. Julian' Caesarini was born 
 of a noble family of Rome : his studies had embraced 
 both the Latin and Greek learning, both the sciences 
 of divinity and law; and his versatile genius was 
 equally adapted to the schools, the camp, and the court. 
 No sooner had he been invested with the Roman pur- 
 ple, than he was sent into Germany to arm the empire 
 against the rebels and heretics of Bohemia. The 
 spirit of persecution is unworthy of a christian; the 
 military profession ill becomes a priest; but the for- 
 mer is excused by the limes ; and the latter was enno- 
 bled by the courage of Julian, who stood dauntless and 
 alone in the disgraceful flight of the German host. As 
 the pope's legate, he opened the council of Basil ; but 
 the president soon appeared the most strenuous cham- 
 pion of ecclesiastical freedom ; and an opposition of 
 seven years was conducted by his ability and zeal. 
 After promoting the strongest measures against the 
 authority and person of Eugenius, some secret motive 
 of interest or conscience engaged him to desert on a 
 sudden the popular party. The cardinal withdrew 
 himself from Basil to Ferrara; and, in the debates of 
 the Greeks and Latins, the two nations admired the 
 dexterity of his arguments and the depth of his iheo- 
 
 c Some christian writers affirm, that he drew from his bosom the 
 host or wafer on which the treaty had not been sworn. The Moslems 
 suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to God and his prophet 
 Jpsus, which is likewise insinuated by Callimachus, (1. iii. p. 516. 
 Spondan. A. D. 1444, No. 8.) , ^ . h . 
 
 d A critic will always distrust these spolia optma of a victoriouB 
 general, so difficult for valour to obtain, s«> easy for flattery to invent. 
 (Cantemir, p. 90, 91.) Callimachus (I. iii. p. 517.) more simply and 
 probably affirms, supervenientibus janizaris, telorum multitudine, 
 non tain confossus est, ijuain obrutus. 
 
 e Besides some valuable hints from .fflneas Sylvius, which are dili- 
 gently collected by Spondanus, our best authorities are threo histo- 
 rians of the fifteenth century, Philippus Callimachus, (de Kebus a 
 Vladislao Polonorum atque Hungarorum Rege ge.nis, libri iii. in Bel. 
 Script. Rerum Hungaricarum, tom. i. p. 4:a— 518.) Bonfinius, (decad. 
 III. I. V. p. 460 — 467.) and Chalcondylcs, (1. vii. p. 165—179.) The two 
 first were Italians, but they passed their lives in Poland and Hunga- 
 ry, (habric. Bibliot. Latin, med el infimae ./Etatis, torn. i. p. 324. Vos- 
 B1U9, de Hist. Latin. 1. iii. c. 8. 11. Bavle, Dictionnaire, Bonfinius > 
 A small tract of Fu?lix Petancius, Chancellor of Segnia, (ad calcein 
 Liispinian. de Casaribus, p. 716-722.) represents the theatre of the 
 war in the fifteenth century. 
 
 r IVl. Lenfant has described the origin (Hist, du Concile de Basle, 
 torn. I. p Z47, &c.) and Bohemian campaign (p. 215, &c.) of canlinal 
 Julian. His services at Basil and Ferrara. and his unfortunate end, 
 are occasionally related by Spondanus, and the coniinuaior of Fleury. 
 
 loijical erudition.* In his Hungarian embassy, we 
 have already seen the mi'^chievous effects of his sophis- 
 try and eloquence, of which Julian himself was the first 
 victim. The cardinal, who performed the duties of a 
 priest and a soldier, was lost in the defeat of Warna. 
 The circumstances of his death are variously related ; 
 but it is believed, that a weighty incumbrance of gold 
 impeded his flight, and tempted the cruel avarice of 
 some christian fugitives. 
 
 johnCorvinus From an humble, or at least a doubt- 
 Huniades. fuJ^ origin, the merit of John Huniades 
 promoted him to the command of the Hungarian ar- 
 mies. His father was a Walachian, his mother a 
 Greek ; her unknown race might possibly ascend to the 
 emperors of Constantinople ; and the claims of the Wa- 
 lachians, with the surname of Corvinus, from the place 
 of his nativity, might suggest a thin pretence for ming- 
 ling his blood with the patricians of ancient Rome.'' In 
 his youth he served in the wars of Italy, and was retain- 
 ed, with twelve horsemen, by the bishop of Zagrab : the 
 valour of the white knight* was soon conspicuous; he 
 increased his fortunes by a noble and wealthy mar- 
 riage; and in the defence of the Hungarian borders, he 
 won in the same year three battles against the Turks. 
 By his influence, Ladislaus of Poland obtained the 
 crown of Hungary ; and the important service was re- 
 warded by the title and office of Waived of Transylva- 
 nia. The first of Julianas crusades added two Turkish 
 laurels on his brow ; and in the public distress the fa- 
 tal errors of Warna were forgotten. During the ab- 
 sence and minority of Ladislaus of Austria, the titu- 
 lar king, Huniades was elected supreme captain and 
 governor of Hungary ; and if envy at first was silenced 
 by terror, a reign of twelve years supposes the arts of 
 policy as well as of war. Yet the idea of a consum- 
 mate general is not delineated in his campaigns ; the 
 white knight fought with the hand rather than the 
 head, as the chief of desultory barbarians, who attack 
 without fear and fly without shame ; and his military 
 life is composed of a romantic alternative of victories 
 and escapes. By the Turks, who employed his name 
 to frighten their perverse children, he was corruptly 
 denominated Janeus Lain, or the W^icked : their hatred 
 is the proof of their esteem; the kingdom which he 
 guarded was inaccessible to their arms ; and they felt 
 him most daring and formidable, when they fondly be- 
 lieved the captain and his country irrecoverably lost. 
 Instead of confining himself to a defensive war, four 
 years after the defeat of Warna he again penetrated in- 
 to the heart of Bulgaria, and in the plain of Cossova 
 sustained, till the third day, the shock of the Ottoman 
 army, four times more numerous than his own. As he 
 fled alone through the woods of Walachia, the hero 
 was surprised by two robbers ; but while they dispu- 
 ted a gold chain that hung at his neck, he recovered his 
 sword, slew the one, terrified the other, and, after new 
 perils of captivity or death, consoled by his presence 
 an afllicted kingdom. But the last and most glorious 
 His defence of action of his life was the defence of Bel- 
 Reisrade, and grade against the powers of Mahomet 
 ^^ A% i4->6 ^^® second in person. After a siege of 
 July 2-2. ' forty days, the Turks, who had already 
 Sept. 4. entered the town, were compelled to re- 
 
 treat; and the joyful nations celebrated Huniades and 
 Belorade as the bulwarks of Christendom.^ About a 
 
 f Syropulus honourably praises the talents of an enemy : (p. 117.) 
 
 h See Bonfinius, decad. iii. 1. iv. p. 423. Could the Italian historian 
 pronounce, or the king of Hungary hear, without a blush, the absurd 
 flatiprv which confounded the name of a Walachian village with the 
 casual, though glorious, epithet of a single branch of the Valerian 
 family at Rome} 
 
 « Philip de Comlnes, (Memoires, 1. vi. c. 13.) from the tradition of 
 the times, mentions him with high encomiums, but under the whim- 
 sical name of the Chevalier Blanc de Valaii^ne (Valachia.) The Greek 
 Chalcondyles, and the Turkish annals of Leunclavius, presume to ac- 
 cuse his fidelity or valour. 
 
 k See Bonfinius (decad. iii. 1. viii. p. 492 ) and Spondanus. (A. D. 
 1456, No. 1—7.) Huniades shared the glory of the defence of Belgrade 
 with Capiftr&o, a Franciscan friar ; and in their respective narraiivesi 
 
 month after this great deliverance, the champion ex- 
 pired ; and his most splendid epitaph is the regret of 
 the Ottoman prince, who sighed that he could no long- 
 er hope for revenge against the single antaoonist who 
 had triumphed over his arms. On the first vacancy of 
 the throne Matthias Corvinus, a youth of eighteen years 
 of age, was elected and crowned by the grateful Hun- 
 garians. His reign was prosperous and long : Mat- 
 thias aspired to the glory of a conqueror and a saint; 
 but his purest merit is the encouragement of learning; 
 and the Latin orators and historians, who were invited 
 from Italy by the son, have shed the lustre of their elo- 
 quence on the father's character.' 
 
 In the list of heroes, John Huniades Binh and edu- 
 and Scanderbeg are commonly associa- caiion of Scan- 
 ted: "and they are both entitled to our o^Arbani^"'* 
 notice, since their occupation of the Ot- A. D. 
 
 toman arms delayed the ruin of the Greek 1404—1413, &c. 
 empire. John Castriot, the father of Scanderbeg," was 
 the hereditary prince of a small district of Epirus and 
 Albania, between the mountains and the Adriatic sea. 
 Unable to contend with the sultan's power, Castriot 
 submitted to the hard conditions of peace and tribute; 
 he delivered his four sons as the pledges of his fideli- 
 ty ; and the christian youths, after receiving: the mark 
 of circumcision, were instructed in the Mahometan re- 
 ligion, and trained in the arms and arts of Turkish po- 
 licy." The three elder brothers were confounded in 
 the crowd of slaves ; and the poison to which their 
 deaths are ascribed, cannot be verified or disproved by 
 any positive evidence. Yet the su.«!picion is in a great 
 measure removed by the kind and paternal treatment 
 of George Castriot, the fourth brother, who, from his 
 tender youth, displayed the strength and spirit of a 
 soldier. The successive overthrow of a Tartar and 
 two Persians, who carried a proud defiance to the Turk- 
 ish court, recommended him to the favour of Amurath, 
 and his Turkish appellation of Scanderbeg, {Iskender 
 heir,) or the lord Alexander, is an indelible memorial 
 of his glory and servitude. His father's principality 
 was reduced into a province : but the loss was com- 
 pensated by the rank and title of Sanjiak, a command 
 of five thousand horse, and the prospect of the first dig- 
 nities of the empire. He served with honour in the 
 wars of Europe and Asia ; and we may smile at the art 
 or credulity of the historian, who supposes, that in 
 every encounter he spared the christians, while he fell 
 with a thunderingr arm on his mussulman foes. The 
 glory of Huniades is without reproach ; he fought in 
 the defence of his religion and country ; but the ene- 
 mies who applaud the patriot, have branded his rival 
 with the name of traitor and apostate. In the eyes of 
 the christians, the rebellion of Scanderbeg is justified 
 by his father's wrongs, the ambiguous death of his three 
 brothers, his own degradation, and the slavery of his 
 country; and they adore the generous, though tardy, 
 zeal, with which he asserted the faith and independence 
 
 neither the sainl nor the hero condescend to take notice of his rival's 
 merit. 
 
 1 See Bonfinius, decad. iii. I. viii.— decad. iv. I. viii. The observa- 
 tions of Spondanus on the life and character of Matthias Corvinus are 
 curious and critical. (A. D. 1464, No. 1. 1475, No. 6. 1476, No. 14-16. 
 1490, No. 4, 5.) Italian fame was tho object of his vanity. His ac- 
 tions are celebrated in the Epitome R*»rum Hungaricarum (p. 322 — 
 412.) of Peter Ranzanus, a Sicilian. His wise and facetious sayings 
 are registered by Galestus Martius of Narni : (528-568.) and we have 
 a particular narrative of his wedding and coronation. These three 
 tracts are all conuiued in the Ist vol. of Bell's Scriptures Kerum Hun- 
 garicarum. . 
 
 m They are ranked by Sir William Temple, in his pleasing Essay 
 on Heroic Virtue, (Works, vol. iii. p. 3S5.)among the seven chiefs 
 who have deserved, without wearinsr, a royal crown ; Belisarius, Nar- 
 ses, Gonsalvo of Cordova, William first prince of Orange, Alexander 
 duke of Parma, John Huniades, and George Castriot, or Scander- 
 beg. . , , . . , 
 
 n I could wish for some simple authentic memoirs of a friend of 
 Scanderbe«», which would introduce me to the man, the time, and the 
 place In°the old and national history of Marinus Barletius, a priest 
 of Scodra, (de Vita, Moribus, et Rebus geslis Georgii Castrioti, &c. 
 libri xiii. p. SGT"- Aieentoral. 1537, in fol.) his gaudy and cumbersome 
 robes are stuck with many false jewels. See likewise Chalcondyles, 
 1. vii. p. 1S5. 1. viii. p. 229. 
 
 o His circumcision, education, &c. are marked by Marinus with 
 brevity and reluctance, (I. i. p. 6, 7.) 
 
44e 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXVIH. 
 
 Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of his ancestors. But he had imbibed from liis ninth 
 year the doctrines of the Koran ; he was ignorant of 
 the gospel ; the religion of a soldier is determined by 
 authority and habit ; nor is it easy to conceive what new 
 illumination at the age of forty p could be poured into 
 his soul. His motives would be less exposed to the 
 suspicion of interest or revenge, had he broken his 
 chain from the moment that he was sensible of its 
 weight: but a long oblivion had surely impaired his 
 original right; and every year of obedience and reward 
 had cemented the mutual bond of the sultan and his 
 subject. If Scanderbeg had long harboured the belief 
 of Christianity and the intention of revolt, a worthy 
 mind must condemn the base dissimulation, that could 
 serve only to betray, that could promise only to be for- 
 sworn, that could actively join in the temporal and 
 spiritual perdition of so many thousands of his unhap- 
 py brethren. Shall we praise a secret correspondence 
 "with Huniades, while he commanded the vanguard of 
 the Turkish army ? shall we excuse the desertion of 
 his standard, a treacherous desertion, which abandoned 
 the victory to the enemies of his benefactor? In the 
 His revolt from confusion of a defeat, the eye of Scan- 
 ihe Turks, derbeg was fixed on the Reis Effendi or 
 "^NoT^S^* principal secretary : with a dagger at his 
 breast, he extorted a firman or patent for 
 the governnrient of Albania; and the murder of the 
 guiltless scribe and his train prevented the consequences 
 of an immediate discovery. With some bold compan- 
 ions, to whom he had revealed his design, he escaped 
 in the night, by rapid marches, from the field of battle 
 to his paternal mountains. The gates of Croya were 
 opened to the royal mandate ; and no sooner did he com- 
 mand the fortress, than George Castriotdropl the mask 
 of dissimulation ; abjured the prophet and the sultan, 
 and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and 
 country. The names of religion and liberty provoked 
 a gerieral revolt: the Albanians, a martial race, were 
 unanimous to live and die with their hereditary prince ; 
 and the Ottoman garrisons were indulged in the choice 
 of martyrdom or baptism. In the assembly of the 
 states of Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general of the 
 Turkish war ; and each of the allies engaged to furnish 
 his respective proportion of men and money. From 
 these contributions, from his patrimonial estate, and 
 from the valuable salt-pits of Selina, he drew an annu- 
 al revenue of two hundred thousand ducats ;<> and the 
 entire sum exempt from the demands of luxury was 
 strictly appropriated to the public use. His manners 
 were popular; but his discipline was severe; and eve- 
 ry superfluous vice was banished from his camp : his 
 example strengthened his command, and under his con- 
 duct the Albanians were invincible in their own opin- 
 Hii valour; i°" ^"^ ^^^^ of their enemies. The brav- 
 est adventurers of France and Germany 
 were allured by his fame and retained in his service ; 
 his standing militia consisted of eight thousand horse 
 and seven thousand fool; the horses were small, the 
 men were active : but he viewed with a discerning eye 
 the difficulties and resources of the mountains; aiid, at 
 the blaze of ihe beacons, the whole nation was distri- 
 buted m the strongest posts. With such unequal arms 
 Scanderbeg resisted twenty-three years the powers 
 of the Ottoman empire ; and two conquerors, Amu- 
 rath the second, and his greater son, were repeatedly 
 baffled by a rebel, whom they pursued with seeming 
 contempt and implacable resentment. At the head of 
 sixty thousand horse and forty thousand janizaries, 
 Amuraih entered Albania; he might ravage the open 
 country, occupy the defenceless towns, convert the 
 churches into moschs, circumcise the christian youths. 
 
 447 
 
 and punish with death his adult and obstinate captives; 
 but the conquests of the sultan were confined to the 
 petty fortress of Sfetigrade ; and the garrison, invinci- 
 ble to his arms, was oppressed by a paltry artifice and 
 a superstitious scruple.' Amurath retired with shame 
 and loss from the walls of Croya, the castle and resi- 
 dence of the Castriots ; the march, the siege, th? re- 
 treat, were harassed by a vexatious, and almost invisi- 
 ble, adversary ;• and the disappointment might tend to 
 imbitter, perhaps to shorten, the last days of the sul- 
 tan.* In the fulness of conquest, Mahomet the second 
 still felt at his bosom this domestic thorn : his lieuten- 
 ants were permitted to negociate a truce; and the Al- 
 banian prince may justly be praised as a firm and 
 able champion of his national independence. The en- 
 thusiasm of chivalry and religion has ranked him wiih 
 the names of Alexander and Pyrrhus; nor would they 
 blush to acknowledge their intrepid countryman: but 
 his narrow dominion and slender powers must leave 
 him at an humble distance below the heroes of antiqui- 
 ty, who triumphed over the east and the Roman legions.. 
 His splendid achievements, the bashas whom he en- 
 countered, the armies that he discomfited, and the 
 three thousand Turks who were slain by his single 
 hand, must be weighed in the scales of suspicious crit- 
 icism. Against an illiterate enemy, and in the dark 
 solitude of Epirus, his partial biographers may safely 
 indulge the latitude of romance : but their fictions are 
 exposed by the light of Italian history; and they afford 
 a strong presumption against their own truth, by a 
 fiibulous tale of his exploits, when he passed the Adri- 
 atic with eight hundred horse to the succour of the 
 king of Naples.- Without disparagement to his fame, 
 they might have owned, that he was finally oppressed 
 by the Ottoman powers : in his extreme danger he ap- 
 plied to pope Pius the second for a refuge in^the eccle- 
 siastical state ; and his resources were almost exhaust- 
 ed, since Scanderbeg died a fugitive at Lissus, on the 
 Venetian territory.' His sepulchre was and dmh 
 soon violated by the Turkish conqueror: A. D. I4G7.' 
 but the janizaries, who wore his bones Jan 17. 
 enchased in a bracelet, declared by this superstitious 
 amulet their involuntary reverence for his valour. The 
 instant ruin of his country may redound to the hero's 
 glory ; yet, had he balanced the consequences of sub- 
 mission and resistance, a patriot perhaps would have 
 declined the unequal contest which must depend on 
 the life and genius of one man. Scanderbeo- might 
 indeed be supported by the rational, though fallacious, 
 hope, that the pope, the king of Naples, and the Ve- 
 netian republic, would join in the defence of a free and 
 christian people, who guarded the sea-coast of the Ad- 
 riatic, and the narrow passage from Greece to Italy. 
 His infant son was saved from the national shipwreck ; 
 the Castriots y were invested with the Neapolitan duke- 
 dom, and their blood continues to flow in the noblest 
 
 P Since Scanderbeg died A. D. 1466, in the sixiy-ihird year of his 
 age. (.Vlarinus, 1. xiii. p. 370.) he was born in 1403; since he was lorn 
 irom his parents by the Turks, when he was novennis, (Mariiius, 1. i. 
 P 1. 6.) thai event must have happened in 1412, nine years before the 
 accession of Amuraih II. who must have inherited, not acquired, the 
 
 Td.?J*"M " ol^^^-.o^.^"'.'?""* *»**» remarked this inconsistency, A. D. 
 a'fcji, xNo. di, 1443, No. 14. 
 
 1 His revenue and forcei are luckily given by Marinuf , (l. ii. p. 44.) 
 
 r 1 here were two Dibras, the upper and lower, thp Bulcnrian and 
 Albanian .the f .rmer, 7<> niiles from Croya, (I. i. p 17 ) was coiiti«'u. 
 ous to the fortress of Sfetiffrade, whose inhabitants r. fus»d to drink 
 
 .^'".*.rI\''"«J'^"^^'*''^ " •''"^^ ^''P ^^^ traitorously been cast. (I. v. p 
 139, 1 10.) We want a «;o.h1 map of Epirus. v . . h 
 
 • Compare the Turkish narrative of Cantemir (p 92 ) with the pomn- 
 ous and prolix drclamation in the fourth, fii'th and sixth bi»..k8 of the 
 Albanian priest, who has been copied by the tribe of strangers and 
 moderns. " 
 
 t In honour of his hero, Barletius, (I. vi. p. 188-152.) kills the sul- 
 tan. by disease indeed, under the walls of Croya. But this audaciou. 
 fiction 13 disproved by the Grreks and Turks, who agree in the lima 
 and manner of Amurath's death at Adrianople. 
 
 u See the marvHs of his Calabrian expedition in the ninth and 
 tenth b.)oks of Marinus Barletius, which may be rectified by the les 
 limony or silence of MurHtori,(Annalid'Iialia, torn, xiii p 291 ) and 
 his oriL'inal authors. (Joh. Simoneita de Rebus Franc isciSfortisc in 
 Muratori, Script. Rerum Ilal. torn. xxi. p. 728. et alioti ) The Al'ba 
 man cavalry, under the name of Strad tots, 8ix>n became famous in 
 the wars of Italy. (Memoires de Comines, I. viii. c. 5.) 
 
 I Spondanus, from the best evidence, and the mos'i rational criii- 
 cism, has reduced the giant Scanderbeer to the human siz<» (A n 
 461 No. 2(,. 1463, No. 9! 1465, No. 1-^ 13.'i4C7;No. 1 J^His own^eit?; 
 to the pope, and the testimonv of Phranza, (1. iii. c. 23.) a refuireo 
 in the neighbouring isle of Corf^u, demonstrate his list dis irewrw S 
 IS awkwardly concealed bv Marinus Barletius, (1 T) "' ^"'^" 
 
 *C IyuI^J mE^S**"* Casiriois, in Ducange. (Fam. Dalraaiic», 
 
 i 
 
 families of the realm. A colony of Albanian fugitives 
 obtained a settlement in Calabria, and they preserve 
 at this day the language and manners of their ances- 
 tors." 
 
 Constantine the . ,^ J^J ^^"^ ''^'^^' of the decline and 
 last of the Roman tall ot the Koman empire, I have reached 
 or Greek empe- at length the last reign of the princes of 
 
 A. Bilks. Constantinople, who so feebly sustained 
 
 Nov. 1.— the name and majesty of the Caesars. 
 
 ^SlV*^.^ On the decease of John Palaeologus, who 
 survived about four years the Hungarian 
 crusade,* the royal family, by the death of Andronicus 
 and the monastic profession of Isidore, was reduced to 
 three princes, Constantine, Demetrius, and Thomas, 
 the surviving sons of the emperor Manuel. Of these 
 the first and the last were far distant in the Morea ; 
 but Demetrius, who possessed the domain of Selybria, 
 was in the suburbs, at the head of a party : his ambition 
 was not chilled by the public distress; and his con- 
 spiracy with the Turks and the schismatics had alrea- 
 dy disturbed the peace of his country. The funeral of 
 the late emperor was accelerated with singular and 
 even suspicious haste : the claim of Demetrius to the 
 vacant throne was justified by a trite and flimsy so- 
 phism, that he was born in the purple, the eldest son of 
 his father's reign. But the empress-mother, the se- 
 nate and soldiers, the clergy and people, were unani- 
 mous in the cause of the lawful successor; and the 
 despot Thomas, who, ignorant of the change, acciden- 
 tally returned to the capital, asserted with becominj{ 
 zeal the interest of his absent brother. An ambassa- 
 dor, the historian Phranza, was immediately despatch- 
 ed to the court of Adrianople. Amurath received him 
 with honour and dismissed him with gifts ; but the 
 gracious approbation of the Turkish sultan announced 
 his supremacy, and the approaching downfall of the 
 eastern empire. By the hands of two illustrious depu- 
 ties, the imperial crown was placed at Sparta on the 
 head of Constantine. In the spring he sailed from the 
 Morea, escaped the encounter of a Turkish squadron, 
 enjoyed the acclamations of his subjects, celebrated 
 the festival of a new reign, and exhausted by his 
 donatives, the treasure, or rather the indigence, of 
 the state. The emperor immediately resigned to his 
 brothers the possession of the Morea ; and the brittle 
 friendship of the two princes, Demetrius and Thomas, 
 was confirmed in their mother's presence by the frail 
 security of oaths and embraces. His next occupation 
 was the choice of a consort. A daughter of the doge 
 of Venice had been proposed ; but the Byzantine no- 
 bles objected the distance between an hereditary mon- 
 arch and a(k elective magistrate ; and in their subse- 
 quent distress, the chief of that powerful reptiblic was 
 not unmindful of the affront. Constantine afterwards 
 hesitated between the royal families of Trebizond and 
 Georgia ; and the embassy of Phranza represents in his 
 public and private life the last days of the Byzantine 
 empire,'* 
 Embassies of The protovestiare, or erreat chamberlain, 
 
 Phniiiza, ^ Phranza, sailed from Constantinople as 
 A. D. 145U— 1452. jj^g minister of a bridegroom : and there- 
 lies of wealth and luxury were applied to his pompous 
 appearance. His numerous retinue consisted of no- 
 bles and guards, of physicians and monks : he was at- 
 tended by a band of music ; and the term of his costly 
 embassy was protracted above two years. On his ar- 
 rival in Georgia or Iberia, the natives from the towns 
 and viilanres flocked around the stranjiers; and such 
 was their simplicity, that they were delighted with the 
 effects, without understanding the cause, of musical 
 
 t This colony of Albanes is mentioned by Mr. Swinburne. (Travels 
 into the two Sicilies, vol. i. p. 350 — 354.) 
 
 » The chronology of Phranza is clear and authentic ; but instead of 
 four years and seven months. Spondanus (A. D. 1445, No. 7.) assigns 
 spven or eiuhl years to the reign of the last Constantine, wh'ch he 
 deduces from a spurious epistle of Eugenius IV. to the King of 
 iElhiopia. 
 
 b Phranza (I. iii. c. 1—6.) deserves credit and esteem. 
 
 harmony. Among the crowd was an old man, above- 
 a hundred years of age, who had formerly been carried 
 away a captive by the barbarians,' and who amused 
 his hearers with a tale of the wonders of India,** from 
 whence he had returned to Portugal by an unknown 
 sea.* From this hospitable land, Phranza proceeded 
 to the court of Trebizond, where he was informed by 
 the Greek prince of the recent decease of Amurath.. 
 Instead of rejoicing in the deliverance, the experienced 
 statesman expressed his apprehension, that an ambi- 
 tious youth would not long adhere to the sage and pa- 
 cific system of his father. After the sultan's decease,, 
 his christian wife, Maria,' the daughter of the Servian, 
 despot, had been honourably restored to her parents: 
 on the fame of her beauty and merit, she was recom- 
 mended by the ambassador as the most worthy objt^ct 
 of the royal choice; and Phranza recapitulates and re- 
 futes the specious objections that might be raised 
 against the proposal. The majesty of the purple would 
 ennoble an unequal alliance; the bar of afl5iiity might, 
 be removed by liberal alms and the dispensation of the 
 church ; the disgrace of Turkish nuptials had been re- 
 peatedly overiooked ; and, though the fair Maria was. 
 near fifty years of age, she mijrht yet hope to give an 
 heir to the empire. Constantine listened to the advice, 
 which was transmitted in the first ship that sailed 
 from Trebizond ; but the factions of the court opposed 
 his marriage; and it was finally prevented by the 
 pious vow of the sultana, who ended her days in the 
 monastic profession. Seduced to the first alternative,, 
 the choice of Phranza was derided in favour of a 
 Georoian princess; and the vanity of her father was 
 dazzled by the glorious alliance. Instead of demand- 
 ing, according to the primitive and national custom, a 
 price for his daughter,^ he offered a portion of fifty-six 
 thousand, with an annual pension of five thousand, 
 ducats; and the services of the ambassador were re- 
 paid by an assurance, that, as his son had been adopt- 
 ed in baptism by the emperor, the establishment of 
 his daughter should be the peculiar care of the empress 
 of Constantinople. On the return of Phranza, the 
 treaty was ratified by the Greek monarch, who with 
 his own hand impressed three vermilion crosses on 
 the golden bull, and assured the Georgian envoy, that 
 in the spring his galleys should conduct the bride to 
 her imperial palace. But Constantine embraced his 
 faithful servant, not with the cold approbation of a 
 sovereign, but with the warm confidence of a friend, 
 who, after a long absence, is impatient to pour hia 
 secrets into the bosom of his friend. State of the By- 
 '* Since the death of my mother and of "mine court. 
 Cantacuzene, who alone advised me without interest 
 or passion,'' I am surrounded," said the emperor, *' by 
 men whom I can neither love, nor trust, nor esteem. 
 You are not a stranger to Lucas Notaras, the great 
 admiral ; obstinately attached to his own sentiments, 
 he declares, both in private and public, that his senli- 
 
 c Suppose him to have been captured in 1394, in Timour's firat 
 war in Georgia ; (Sherefeddin, 1. iii. c. 50.) he might follow hia Tar- 
 tar master into Hindostan in 1398, and from thence sail to the spice 
 islands. 
 
 d The happy and pious Indians lived an hundred and fifty years, 
 and enjoyed the most p* rfect productions of the vegetable and mine- 
 ral kingdoms. The animals were on a large scale: dragons seventy 
 cubits, ants (the /orwijca /ndica) nine inches long, sheep like ele- 
 phants, elephants like sheep. Quidlibet audiendi, &c. 
 
 e He sailed in a country vessel from the spice islands to one of the 
 ports of the exterior India; invenitque navem grandem Ib^»-icamy 
 qua in Portugalliam est delatus. This passage, composed in 1477, 
 (Phranza, I. iii. c. 30.) twenty years before the discovery of the Cape' 
 of Goo«l Hope, is spurious or wonderful. But this new geography it 
 sullied by the old and incompatible error which places the source 
 of the Nile in India. 
 
 f Cantemir, (p. 63.) who styles her the daughter of Lazarus Ogli^ 
 and the Helen of the Servians, places her marriage with Amurath in 
 the year 1424. It will not easily be believed, that in sixand-twentjr 
 years' cohabitation, the sultan corpus ejus non tetigit. After the talc- 
 ing of Constantinople, she fled to Mahomet II. (Phranza, 1. iii. c. 22.>- 
 
 K The classical reader will recollect the offers of Agamemnon, 
 (Iliad, 1. V. 144.) and the general practice of antiquity. 
 
 h Cantacuzf-ne (I am ignorant of his relation to the emperor of 
 that name) was great domestic, a firm asserter of the Greek creed,, 
 and a brother of the queen of Servia, whom he visited with the chat* 
 acter of ambassador. (Syropulus, p. 37, 38. 45.) 
 
418 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 ments arc the absolute measure of my thoughts and 
 actions. The rest of the courtiers are swayed by 
 their personal or factious views ; and how can I con- 
 sult the monks on questions of policy and marriage 1 
 I have yet much employment for your diligence and 
 fidelity. In the spring you shall engage one of my 
 brothers to solicit the succour of the western powers ; 
 from the Morea you shall sail to Cyprus on a particu- 
 lar commission ; and from thence proceed to Georgia 
 to receive and conduct the future empress." ♦♦ Your 
 commands," replied Phranza, *' are irresistible ; but 
 deign, great sir," he added, with a serious smile, " to 
 consider, that if I am thus perpetually absent from my 
 family, my wife may be tempted either to seek an- 
 other husband, or to throw herself into a monastery." 
 After laughing at his apprehensions, the emperor more 
 gravely consoled him by the pleasing assurance that 
 Mia would be his last service abroad, and that he 
 destined for his son a wealthy and noble heiress ; for 
 himself, the important office of great logothete, or 
 
 tion of the most skilful masters, Mahomet advanced 
 with an early and rapid progress in the paths of know- 
 ledge; and besides his native tongue, it is affirmed 
 that he spoke or understood five languages,' the Ara- 
 bic, the Persian, the Chaldean or Hebrew, the Latin, 
 and the Greek. The Persian might indeed contribute 
 to his amusement, and the Arabic to his edification; 
 and such studies are familiar to the oriental youth. 
 In the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a con- 
 queror might wish to converse with the people over 
 whom he was ambitious to reign; his own praises in 
 Latin poetry ^ or prose • might find a passage to the 
 royal ear; but what use or merit could recommend to 
 the statesman or the scholar the uncouth dialect of his 
 Hebrew slaves? The history and geography of the 
 world were familiar to his memory: the lives of the 
 heroes of the east, perhaps of the west,' excited his 
 emulation : his skill in astrology is excused by the 
 folly of the times, and supposes some rudiments of 
 mathematical science ; and a profane taste for the arts 
 
 449 
 
 principal minister of state. The marriage was imme- is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the 
 
 diately stipulated; but the office, however incompati- painters of Italy.* But the influence of religion and 
 
 ble with his own, had been usurped by the ambition learning were employed without eflfect on his savage 
 
 of the admiral. Some delay was requisite to nego- and licentious nature. I will not transcribe, nor do I 
 
 ciate a consent and an equivalent; and the nomination firmly believe, the stories of his fourteen pages, whose 
 
 of Phranza was half declared, and half suppressed, bellies were ripped open in search of a stolen melon; 
 
 lest it might be displeasing to an insolent and power- 
 ful favourite. The winter was spent in the prepara- 
 tions of his embassy; and Phranza had resolved, that 
 the youth his son should embrace this opportunity of 
 foreign travel, and be left on the appearance of danger, 
 with his maternal kindred of the Morea. Such were 
 the private and public designs, which were inter- 
 rupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the 
 ruins of the empire. 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Reign and character of Mahomet the second. — Siege, as- 
 saultj and final conquest, of Constantinople by the Turks. 
 — Death of Constantine Pakcologus. — Servitude of the 
 Greeks. — Extinction of the Roman empire in the east. 
 — Consternation of Europe, — Conquests and death of 
 Mahomet the second. 
 
 Character of 
 Mahomet II. 
 
 or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed from 
 her body, to convince the janizaries that their master 
 was not the votary of love. His sobriety is attested 
 by the silence of the Turkish annals, which accuse 
 three, and three only, of the Ottoman line of the vice 
 of drunkenness.*' But it cannot be denied that his 
 passions were at once furious and inexorable; that in 
 the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt 
 on the slightest provocation ; and that the noblest of 
 the captive youth were often dishonoured by his unna- 
 tural lust. In the Albanian war, he studied the les- 
 sons, and soon surpassed the example, of his father; 
 and the conquest of two empires, twelve kingdoms, 
 and two hundred cities, a vain and flattoring account, 
 is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was doubt- 
 less a soldier, and possibly a general ; Constantinople 
 has sealed his glory ; but if we compare the means, 
 the obstacles, and the achievements, Mahomet the 
 second must blush to sustain a parallel with Alex- 
 ander or Timour. Under his command, the Ottoman 
 forces were always more numerous than their enemies; 
 yet their progress was bounded by the Euphrates and 
 the Adriatic; and his arms were checked by Huniades 
 and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian knights and by the 
 Persian king. 
 
 In the reign of Amurath, he twice 
 tasted of royalty, and twice descended 
 from the throne; his tender age was 
 incapable of opposing his father*s resto- 
 ration, but never could he forgive the 
 
 His rp1?n, 
 A. D. l4ol. 
 Feb. 9.— 
 A. D. 1431. 
 July 2. 
 
 The siege of Constantinople by the 
 Turks attracts our first attention to the 
 person and character of the great destroyer. Maho- 
 met the second * was the son of the second Amurath : 
 and though his mother has been decorated with the 
 titles of christian and princess, she is more probably 
 confounded with the numerous concubines who peo- 
 pled from every climate the haram of the sultan. His 
 first education and sentiments were those of a devout 
 mussulman; and as often as he conversed with an 
 infidel, he purified his hands and face by the legal 
 rites of ablution. Age and empire appear to have 
 
 rela.ved this narrow bigotry : his aspiring genius dis-,— -.-, „.... 
 
 dained to acknowledge a power above his own ; and Arabic, which the Koran must rpcommpnd to every mu99iilman 
 
 in his looser hours he presumed fit is said^ tn hrs^nA L/K-^*'"f'P^"''?^ * ^''^'•" od*"; requosied and obtained the liberty 
 
 *, u . ./.». iMCJsuiiieu ^11 IS saia; lO orana ] of his wife'a mother and sisters from the conqueror of Constantinople. 
 
 It was delivered into the sultanas hands by the envovs of the «iiike 
 of Milan. Philelphus himself was suspected of a design of reiirinjf 
 to Constantinople ; yet the orator often sounded the trumpet of holy 
 war. (See hia life by M. Launcelot, in the Memoircs de I'Academie 
 des Inscriptions, torn. x. p. 71S. 724, &c.) 
 
 e Robert Valturio published at Verona, In 14S3, his twelve books 
 de Re Militari, in which he first mentions the use of bombs By his 
 patron Sieijmond Malatesta, prince of Rimini, it had been addressed 
 with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II. 
 
 t Acconling to Phranza, he assiduously studied the lives and actions 
 of Alexander, Augustus, Constantine, and Theodosius. I have read 
 somewhere, that Plutarch's Lives were translated bv his orders into 
 the Turkish language. If the sultan himself understixxl Greek, it 
 
 the Turks or the christians. The mostm"od"eTa'te' pictu"re"a"p°pe;';;T; ' s^cK^teeed" ^"" ""' "'"'^' °*"-'''' '"^'J'"''- ^'^' '^'"^ '''"' ^'^ ' 
 
 e Quinque linguas prater suam noverat: Gracam, Latlnam, Chal- 
 daicam, Perslcam. The Latin translator of Phranza hns dropt the 
 
 the prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet 
 the sultan persevered in a decent reverence for the 
 doctrine and discipline of the Koran : «> his private 
 indiscretion must have been sacred from the vulgar 
 ear; and we should suspect the credulity of strangers 
 and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which 
 is hardened against truth, must be armed with supe- 
 rior contempt for absurdity and error. Under the tui- 
 
 a For the character of Mahomet II. it is dangerous to trust either 
 
 1^ 
 
 p.27'2-279 ) ^ -^ l>ictionnaire de Bayle, (torn. in. , posely beheaded, to instruct the painter in the action of the muscles. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Tizirs who had recommended that salutary measure. 
 His nuptials were celebrated with the daughter of a 
 Turkman emir; and, after a festival of two months, 
 he departed from Adrianople M'ith his bride, to reside 
 in the government of Magnesia. Before the end of 
 six weeks he was recalled by a sudden message from 
 the divan, which announced the decease of Amurath, 
 and the mutinous spirit of the janizaries. His speed 
 and vigour commanded their obedience: he passed 
 the Hellespont with a chosen guard ; and at the dis- 
 tance of a mile from Adrianople, the vizirs and emirs, 
 the imams and cadhis, the soldiers and the people, 
 fell prostrate before the new sultan. They aflfected to 
 weep, they affected to rejoice ; he ascended the throne 
 at the age of twenty-one years, amd removed the cause 
 of sedition by the death, the inevitable death, of his 
 infant brothers.' The ambassadors of Europe and 
 Asia soon appeared to congratulate his accession and 
 solicit his friendship; and to all he spoke the lan- 
 guage of moderation and peace. The confidence of 
 the Greek emperor was revived by the solemn oaths 
 and fair assurances with which he sealed the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaty : and a rich domain on the banks of 
 the Strymon was assigned for the annual payment of 
 three hundred thousand aspers, the pension of an Otto- 
 man prince, who was detained at his request in the 
 Byzantine court. Yet the neighbours of Mahomet 
 might tremble at the severity with which a youthful 
 monarch reformed the pomp of his father's household : 
 the expenses of luxury were applied to those of ambi- 
 tion, and an useless train of seven thousand falconers 
 was either dismissed from his service, or enlisted in 
 his troops. In the first summer of his reign, he visit- 
 ed with an army the Asiatic provinces ; but after 
 humbling the pride, Mahomet accepted the submis- 
 sion, of the Caramanian, that he might not be diverted 
 hy the smallest obstacle from the execution of his 
 great design.^ 
 
 Hostile intentions The Mahometan, and more especially 
 of Mahomet, the Turkish casuists, have pronounced 
 A. D. 1451. ^j^3j ^^ promise can bind the faithful 
 against the interest and duty of their religion ; and that 
 the sultan may abrograte his own treaties and those of 
 his predecessors. The justice and magnanimity of 
 Amurath had scorned this immoral privilege; but his 
 son, though the proudest of men, could stoop from am- 
 bition to the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit. 
 Peace was on his lips, while war was in his heart : he 
 incessantly sighed for the possession of Constantino- 
 ple; and the Greeks, by their own indiscretion, affor- 
 ded the first pretence of the fatal rupture.' Instead of 
 labouring to be forgotten, their ambassadors pursued 
 his camp, to demand the payment, and even the in- 
 crease, of their annual stipend : the divan was impor- 
 timed by their complaints, and the vizir, a secret friend 
 
 i Calapin, one of these royal infants, was saved from his cruel bro- 
 ther, ana baptized at Rome under the name of Callistus Olhoman- 
 »us. The emperor Frederic III. presented him with an estate in 
 Austria, where he ended his life: and Cuspinian, who in his youth 
 f onversed with the aged prince at Vienna, applauds his piety and 
 wisdom, (de Caesaribus, p. 672, 673.) 
 
 k See the accession of Mahomet II. in Ducas, (c. 33.) Phranza, (I. i. 
 c. 33. 1. iii. c. 2.) Chalcondyles, (I. vii. p. 199.) and Cantemir, (p. 96.) 
 
 1 Before I enter on the siege of Constantinople I shall observe, that 
 except the short hints of Cantemir and Leunclavius, I have not 
 been able to obtain any Turkish account of this corM^ucst ; such an 
 account as we possess of the siege of Rhodes by Soliman II. (Me- 
 Jtioires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xxvi. p. 723—769.) I 
 must therefore depend on the Greeks, whose prejudices, in some de- 
 prce, are subdued by their distress. Our standard texts are those of 
 Ducas, (c. 34—42.) Phranza, (I. iii. c. 7—20.) Chalcondyles, (I. viii. p. 
 201—214.) and Leonardus Chiensis. (Historia C. P. a Turco expugna- 
 la. NorimberghsB, 1544, in 4lo. 20 leaves.) The last of these nar- 
 ratives is the earliest in date, since it was composed in the isle of 
 Chios, the 16th of August, 1453, only seventy-nine days after the loss 
 of ihe city, and in the first confusion of ideas and passions. Some 
 hints may be added from an epistle of cardinal Isidore (in Farragine 
 Kerum Turcicarum, ad calcem Chalcondyl. Clauseri, Basil, 1556.) to 
 pope Nicholas V. and a tract of Theodosius Zygomale, which he ad- 
 dressed in the year 15S1 to Martin Crusius. (Turco-Graecia, 1. i. p, 74 
 —98. Basil, 1584.) The various facts and materials are briefly, though 
 critically, reviewed by Spondanus. (A. D. 14.53, No. 1—27.) The hear- 
 say relations of Monsirelet and the distant Latins, I shall take leave 
 to disregard. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 G 29 
 
 of the christians, was constrained to deliver the sense 
 of his brethren. " Ye foolish and miserable Romans," 
 said Calil, " we know your devices, and ye are igno- 
 rant of your own danger; the scrupulous Amurath is 
 no more ; his throne is occupied by a young conque- 
 ror, whom no laws can bind, and no obstacles can re- 
 sist : and if you escape from his hands^ give praise to 
 the divine clemency, which yet delays the chastise- 
 ment of your sins. Why do ye seek to affright us by 
 vain and indirect menaces ? Release the fugitive Or- 
 chan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hunga- 
 rians from beyond the Danube ; arm against us the na- 
 tions of the west ; and be assured, that you will only 
 provoke and precipitate your ruin." But if the fears 
 of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern language 
 of the vizir, they were soothed by the courleoKS^audi- 
 ence and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince ; and 
 Mahomet assured them tjjat on his return to Adriano- 
 ple, he would redress the grievances, and consult the 
 true interests, of the Greeks. No sooner had he re- 
 passed the Hellespont, than he issued a mandate to 
 suppress their pension, and to expel their officers from 
 the banks of the Strymon : in this measure he betray- 
 ed an hostile mind ; and the second order announced, 
 and in some degree commenced, the siege of Constan- 
 tinople. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an Asi- 
 atic fortress had formerly been raised by his grandfa- 
 ther : in the opposite situation, on the European side, 
 he resolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a 
 thousand masons were commanded to assemble in the 
 spring on a spot named Asomaton, about five miles 
 from the Greek metropolis." Persuasion is the resource 
 of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade ithe 
 ambassadors of the emperor attempted, without suc- 
 cess, to divert Mahomet from the execution of his de- 
 si<rn. They represented, that his grandfather had so- 
 licited the permission of Manuel to build a castle on 
 his own territories ; but that this double fortification, 
 which would command the strait, could only tend to 
 violate the alliance of the nations ; to intercept the La- 
 tins who traded in the Black sea, and perhaps to anni- 
 hilate the subsistence of the city. " I form no en- 
 terprise," replied the perfidious sultan, *' against the 
 city ; hut the empire of Constantinople is measured by 
 her walls. Have you forgot the distress to which my 
 father was reduced, when you formed a league with 
 the Hungarians ; when they invaded our country by 
 land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French 
 galleys ? Amurath was compelled to force the pas- 
 sage of the Bosphorus ; and your strength was not 
 equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at Ad- 
 rianople; the Moslems trembled ; and for a while the 
 Gabours^ insulted our disgrace. But when my father 
 had triumphed in the field of Warna, he vowed to 
 erect a fort on the western shore, and that vow it is 
 my duty to accomplish. Have ye the right, have ye 
 the power, to control my actions on my own ground 1 
 For that ground ts my own : as far as the shores of 
 the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the Turks, and 
 Europe is deserted by the Romans. Return, and in- 
 form your king, that the present Ottoman is fir differ- 
 ent from his predecessors ; that his resolutions surpass 
 their wishes ; and that he performs more than Ihet/ 
 could resolve. Return in safety — but the ne.xt who 
 delivers a similar messaere may evpect to be flayed 
 alive." After this declaration, Constantine, the first 
 
 m The situation of the fortress and the topography of the Bospho- 
 rus, are best learned from Pei--r Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, 1. ii. 
 c. 13.) Leunclavius, (Pandect, p. 445.) and Tournefori ; (Voyage dans 
 le Levant, tom. ii. lettr^ xv. p. 443, 444.) but I must regret the map 
 or plan which Touwefort sent to the French minister of the marine. 
 The reader mavturn back to ch.xvii. vol. i. of this history. 
 
 n The oppwDrious name which the Turks bestow on the infidels, is 
 expressed ^»&'><jp by Ducas, and Giaour by Leunclavius and the mo- 
 derns, fhe former term is derived by Ducange (Gloss. Graec. tom. i. 
 p. 530.) from Kxeiovgov, in vulgar Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a re- 
 trograde motion from the faith. But alas ! Gabour is no more than 
 Gheber, which was transferred from the Persian to the Turkish lan- 
 guage, from the worshippers of fire to those of the crucifix. (D'Herbs- 
 lot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 375.) 
 
450 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 451 
 
 -"*( 
 
 Hp builds a for 
 trefis on ihe Bos 
 phurus. 
 
 A. D. 145-2. 
 March. 
 
 of the Greeks in spirit as in rank," had determined to 
 vnsheath the sword, and to resist the approach and 
 establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus. He 
 ■was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclesias- 
 tical ministers, who recommended a system less gen- 
 erous, and even less prudent, than his own, to approve 
 their patience and long-suffering, to brand the Ottoman 
 with the name and guilt of an aggressor, and to de- 
 pend on chance and time for their own safety, and the 
 destruction of a fort which could not long be maintain- 
 ed in the neighbourhood of a great and populous city. 
 Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise, and the 
 hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away ; the 
 proper business of each man, and each hour, was post- 
 poned ; and the Greeks shut their eyes against the im- 
 pending danger, till the arrival of the spring and the 
 sultan decided the assurance of their ruin. 
 
 Of a master who never forgives, the 
 orders are seldom disobeyed. On the 
 twenty-sixth of March, the appointed 
 spot of Asomaton was covered with an 
 active swarm of Turkish artificers ; and the materials 
 by sea and land were diligently transported from Eu- 
 rope ami Asia.P The lime had been burnt in Cata- 
 phryoia; the timber was cut down in the woods of 
 Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the stones were dug 
 from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand 
 masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure 
 of two cubits was marked for their daily task. The 
 fortress *» was built in a triangular form ; each angle 
 was flanked by a strong and massy tower; one on the 
 declivity of the hill, two along the sea-shore; a thick- 
 ness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the walls, 
 thirty for the towers; and the whole building was co- 
 vered wiih a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself 
 pressed and directed the work with indefatigable ar- 
 dour: his thrre vizirs claimed the honour of finishing 
 their respective towers : the zeal of the cadhis emula- 
 ted that of the janizaries ; the meanest labour was en- 
 nobled by the service of God and the sultan ; and the 
 diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye 
 of a despot, whose smile was the hope of fortune, and 
 whose frown was the messenger of death. The Greek 
 emperor beheld with terror the irresistible progress of 
 the work ; and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to 
 assuage an implacable foe, who sought, and secretly 
 fomented, the slightest occasion of a quarrel. Such 
 occasions must soon and inevitably be found. The 
 ruins of stately churches, and even the marble columns 
 whicrh had been consecrated to Saint Michael the arch- 
 angel, were employed without scruple by the profane 
 and rapacious Moslems ; and some christians, who 
 presumed to oppose the removal, received from their 
 hands the crown of martyrdom. Oonstantine had so- 
 licited a Turkish guard to protect the fields and har- 
 vests of his subjects : the guard was fixed ; but their 
 first order was to allow free pasture to the mules and 
 horses «if the camp, and to defend their brethren if they 
 should be molested by the natives. The retinue of an 
 Ou-man chief had left their horses to pass the night 
 among the ripe corn : the damage was felt; the insult 
 was resented ; and several of both nations were slain 
 in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet listened with joy 
 to the complaint ; and a detachment was commanded 
 to exterminate ih« guilty village : the guilty had fled ; 
 but forty innocent ar^d uiisuspecting reapers were mas- 
 
 o Phranza does justice to his master's sease Md courage. Callidi- 
 taiem hominis non ignorans imperaior prjor arma movere consiituii, 
 and jtismaiizesthe folly of the cum sacri to^ profani proceres, which 
 he had heard, amentes spa vana pasci. Ducto \vas not a privy.coun- 
 aellor. 
 
 P Instead of this clear and consistent account, the Turkish annals 
 (Cantemir, p. 97.) revived the fuolish tale of the ox's hide, and Dido's 
 stratagem in the foundation of Carthage. These annals (unless we 
 are swayed by an anii-chrisiian prejudice) are far less valuable ihan 
 the Greek historians. 
 
 qln the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle of Europe, Phran- 
 xadoes not exactly agree with Chalcondyles, whose description has 
 »een verified on the spot by his editor Leunclaviuf. 
 
 sacred by the soldiers. Till this provo- The Turkish 
 cation, Constantinople had been open to ^"* June; 
 the visits of commerce and curiosity : on the first 
 alarm, the gates were shut; but the emperor, still anx- 
 ious for peace, released on the third day his Turkish 
 captives;' and expressed, in a last message, the firm 
 resignation of a christian and a soldier. *' Since nei- 
 ther oaths, nor treaty, nor submission, can secure peace, 
 pursue," said he to Mahomet, "your impious warfare. 
 My trust is in God alone : if it should please him to 
 mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; 
 if he delivers the city into your hands, I submit with- 
 out a murmur to his holy will. But until the Judge 
 of the earth shall pronounce between us, it is my duty 
 to live and die in the defence of my people." The 
 8ultan*s answer was hostile and deci- g^^ j , 
 sive : his fortifications were completed ; 
 and before his departure for Adrianople, he stationed a 
 vigilant aga and four hundred janizaries, to levy a tri- 
 bute of the ships of every nation that should pass with- 
 in the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel, refu- 
 sing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was 
 sunk with a single bullet. The master and thirty sai- 
 lors escaped in the boat; but they were dragged in 
 chains to the Porte; the chief was impaled ; his com- 
 panions were beheaded, and the historian Ducas' be- 
 held, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to the wild 
 beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till 
 the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched 
 into the Morea to divert the force of the brothers of 
 Constantino. At this aera of calamity, j^. d, 1453, 
 one of these princes, the despot Thomas, Jan. 17. 
 was blessed or aflHicted with the birth of a son ; " the 
 last heir," says the plaintive Phranza, " of the last 
 spark of the Roman empire."* 
 
 The Greeks and the Turks passed an p^pparatlons for 
 anxious and sleepless winter : the former the siege of Con< 
 were kept awake by their fears, the lat- ^^^}^^^i^2 
 ter by their hopes ; both by the prepara- sepiember,— 
 tions of defence and attack ; and the two A. D. 1453. 
 emperors, who had the most to lose or ^P"^* 
 to gain, were the most deeply aflfected by the national 
 sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was inflamed 
 by the ardour of his youth and temper : he amused his 
 leisure with building at Adrianople " the lofty palace 
 of Jehan Numa ; (the watch-tower of the world;) hut 
 his serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the con- 
 quest of the city of Caesar. At the dead of night, 
 about the second watch, he started from his bed, and 
 commanded the instant attendance of his prime vizir. 
 The message, the hour, the prince, and his own situa- 
 tion, alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; 
 who had possessed the confidence, and advised the 
 restoration, of Amuraih. On the accession of the son, 
 the vizir was confirmed in his ofllce and the appearan- 
 ces of favour; but the veteran statesman was not in- 
 sensible that he trod on a thin and slippery ice, which 
 might break under his footsteps, and plunge him into 
 the abyss. His friendship for the christians, which 
 might be innocent under the late reign, had stigmatiz- 
 ed him with the name of Gabour Ortachi, or foster- 
 brother of the infidels ; * and his avarice entertained a 
 venal and treasonable correspondence, which was de- 
 tected and punished after the conclusion of the war. 
 
 r Among these were some pages of Mahemet. so conscious nf hi) 
 inexorable rigour, that they begged to loao their heads in the city un- 
 less they could return before sunset. 
 
 • Ducas c. 35. Phranza, (I. iii. c. 3.) who had sailed in his vessel, 
 commemorates the Venetian pilot as a martyr. 
 
 t Auctum est Palaeologorum genus, et imperii successor, parvaequ© 
 Romanorum sciniillse hsres natus, Andreas, kc. (Phranza, 1. iii. c. 
 7.) The strong expression was inspired by his feelings. 
 
 u Cantemir, p. 97, 98. The sultan was either doubtful of his con- 
 quest, or ignorant of the superior merits of Constantinople. A city or 
 a kingdom may sometimes be ruined by the imperial fortune of their 
 sovereign. 
 
 z i;u»T(o*6c,by the president Cousin, is translated pcr« nourricier, 
 most correctly indeed from the Latin version ; but in his haste he 
 has overlooked the note by which Ismael Boillaud(ad Ducam, c. 35) 
 acknowledges and rectifies his own error. 
 
 On receiving the royal mandate, he embraced, perhaps 
 for the last time, his wife and children ; filled a cup 
 with pieces of gold, hastened to the palace, adored the 
 sultan, and offered, according to the oriental custom, 
 the slight tribute of his duty and gratitude.'' " It is 
 : not my wish," said Mahomet, " to resume my gifts, 
 ; but rather to heap and multiply them on thy headf In 
 my turn I ask a present far more valuable and impor- 
 tant ; — Constantinople." As soon as the vizir had re- 
 covered from his surprise, '*The same God," said he, 
 " who has already given thee so large a portion of the 
 Koman empire, will not deny the remnant and the 
 capital. His providence, and thy power, assure thy 
 success ; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful 
 slaves, will sacrifice our lives and fortunes." *» La- 
 la,"" (or preceptor,) continued the sultan, "do you 
 see this pillow 1 all the night, in my agitation, I have 
 pulled it on one side and on the other; I have risen 
 from my bed, again have I lain down ; yet sleep has 
 not visited these weary eyes. Beware of the gold 
 and silver of the Romans: in arms we are superior; 
 and with the aid of God, and the prayers of the pro- 
 phet, we shall speedily become masters of Constanti- 
 nople." To sound the disposition of his soldiers, he 
 often wandered through the streets alone, and in dis- 
 guise; and it was fatal to discover the sultan, when 
 he wished to escape from the vulgar eye. His hours 
 were spent in delineating the plan of the hostile city ; 
 in dehatinor, with his generals and engineers, on what 
 spot he should erect his batteries ; on which side he 
 should assault the walls; where he should spring his 
 mines ; to what place he should apply his scaling-lad- 
 ders : artd the exercises of the day repeated and prov- 
 ed the lucubrations of the night. 
 The great can- Among the implements of destruction, 
 non of Mahomet, he Studied with peculiar care the recent 
 and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artil- 
 lery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. 
 A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had 
 been almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to 
 the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the 
 Turkish .«!ultan. Mahomet was satisfied with Ihe an- 
 swer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on 
 the artist. " Am I able to cast a cannon capable of 
 throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the 
 walls of Con.«5taniinople?" "I am not ignorant of 
 their strength, but were they more solid than those of 
 Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power: 
 the position and management of that engine must be 
 left to your engineers." On this assurance, a foun- 
 dery was established at Adrianople: the metal was 
 prepared ; and at the end of three months, Urban pro- 
 duced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous, and 
 almost incredible, magnitude; a measure of twelve 
 palms is assigned to the bore ; and the stone bullet 
 weighed above six hundred pounds.* A vacant place 
 before the new palace was chosen for the first experi- 
 meni; but, to prevent the sudden and mischievous 
 efT* cts of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was 
 i^isued, that the cannon would be discharged the ensu- 
 ing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit 
 o> an tiundred furlongs; the ball, by the force of gun- 
 powd. r, was driven above a mile; and on the spot 
 where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in the 
 
 7 The nrienial cu8l(»m of never appearing without gifts before a 
 i"'v*>rpiern or a superior, is of high anii(]uiiy, and seems analogous 
 wiih the ill. a (►f sacrifice, still morR ancient and universal. See the 
 examples tif such Persian gifts, iElian. Hisl. Var. 1. i, c. 31, 32, 33. 
 
 « The Lala uf the Turks (Cantemir, p. 34 ) and the Tata of the 
 yrp ks (Ducas, c. 35.) are derived from the natural language of chil- 
 ( reii ; an. I it may be observed, thai all such primitive words which 
 '"•'ijoie their p.ireuts, are the simple repetition of one syllable, com- 
 
 e'SHd of a labial or a denial consonant and an open vowel, (des 
 riases, Mechaiiisme des Lancues, torn i. p. 231—347.) 
 » The Attic talent weighed about sixty minae, or avoirdupois 
 P"Uhd; ; (aee H«K)per on ancient Weights, Measures, &c.) but among 
 ine modern Greeks, that classic appellation was extended to a 
 Weight of one hundred, or one hundred and twenty.five, pounds. 
 (Oucange, TxA.»»ro..) Leonardus Chiensis measured the ball or 
 sit'ue of the second cannon : Lapidem, qui palmis undecim ex meis 
 tmbibat in gyro. j 
 
 ground. For the conveyance of this destructive en- 
 gine, a frame or carriage of thirty waggons was linked 
 together and drawn along by a team of sixty oxeu : 
 two hundred men on both sides were stationed to poiso 
 or support the rolling weight; two hundred and fifty 
 workmen marched before to smooth the way and re- 
 pair the bridges ; and near two months were employed 
 in a laborious journey of one hundred and fifty miles. 
 A lively philosopher'' derides on this occasion the 
 credulity of the Greeks, and observes, with much rea- 
 son, that we should always distrust the exaggerations 
 of a vanquished'people. He calculates, th°at a ball, 
 even of two hundred pounds, would require a charge 
 of one hundred and fifty pounds of powder ; and that 
 the stroke would be feeble and impotent, since not a 
 fifteenth part of the mass could be inflamed at the 
 same moment. A stranger as I am to the art of des- 
 truction, I can discern that the modern improvements 
 of artillery prefer the number of pieces to the weight 
 of metal ; the quickness of the fire to the sound, or 
 even the consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I 
 dare not reject the positive and unanimous evidence 
 of contemporary writers ; nor can it seem improbable, 
 that the first artists, in their rude and ambitious efforts, 
 should have transgressed the standard of moderation. 
 A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that of Ma- 
 homet, still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles ; 
 and if the use be inconvenient, it has been found on a 
 late trial that the effect was far from contemptible. A 
 stone bullet of eleven hundred pounds* weight was 
 once discharged with three hundred and thirty pounds 
 of powder; at the distance of six hundred yards it 
 shivered into three rocky fragments, traversed the 
 strait, and, leaving the waters in a foam, again rose 
 and bounded against the opposite hill.* 
 
 While Mahomet threatened the capital Mahomet n. ' 
 of the east, the Greek emperor implored forms the siege 
 with fervent prayers the assistance of of Constantino- 
 earth and heaven. But the invisible ^ ^A. D. 1453. 
 powers were deaf to his supplications : April 6. 
 and Christendom beheld with indifference the fall of 
 Constantinople, while she derived at least some prom- 
 ise of supply from the jealous and temporal policy of 
 the sultan of Egypt. Some states were too weak, 
 and others too remote ; by some the danger was con- 
 sidered as imaginary, by others as inevitable: the 
 westerri princes were involved in their endless and 
 domestic quarrels ; and the Roman pontiff was exas- 
 perated by the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks. 
 Instead of employing in their favour the arms and 
 treasures of Italy, Nicholas the fifth had foretold their 
 approaching ruin ; and his honour was engaged in the 
 accomplishment of his prophecy. Perhaps he was 
 softened by the last extremity of their distress; but 
 his compassion was tardy ; his efforts were faint and 
 unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen, before the 
 squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their 
 harbours.'' Even the princes of the Morea and of the 
 Greek islands affected a cold neutrality ; the Genoese 
 colony of Galata negociated a private treaty ; and the 
 sultan indulged them in the delusive hope, that by his 
 clemency they might survive the ruin of the empire.. 
 A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles, basely 
 withdrew from the danger of their country ; and the 
 avarice of the rich denied the emperor, and reserved 
 for Ihe Turks, the secret treasures which might have 
 
 b See Voltaire. (Hist. Generate, c. xci. p. 294, 295-) He was am- 
 bitious of universal monarchy ; and the poet frequently aspires to the 
 name and style of an astronomer, a chemist. Sec. 
 
 c The Baron deTotl, (tom. iii. p. 85—89.) who fortified the Darda. 
 nelles against the Russians, describes in a lively, and even comic, 
 strain his own prowess, and the consternation of the Turks. But 
 that adventurous traveller does not possess the art of gaining our 
 confidence. 
 
 d Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest Antoninus ; but 
 as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and ashamed, we find 
 the more courtly expression of Platina, in animo fuisse pontifici 
 juvare Graecos, and the positive assertion of £neas Sylvius, structam 
 classem, &c. (Spoad. A. P. 1453, No. 3.) 
 
452 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 raised in their defence whole armies of mercenaries.* 
 The indigent and solitary prince prepared however to 
 sustain his formidable adversary ; but if his courage 
 were equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate 
 to tl»e contest. In the beginning of the spring, the 
 Turkish vanguard swept the towns and villages as far 
 as the gates of Constantinople : submission was spar- 
 ed and protected ; whatever presumed to resist was 
 exterminated with fire and sword. The Greek places 
 on the Black sea, Mesenibria, Acheloum, and Bizon, 
 surrendered on the first summons; Selybria alone de- 
 served the honours of a siege or blockade ; and the 
 bold inhabitants, while they were invested by land, 
 launched their boats, pillaged the opposite coast of 
 Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public market. 
 But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was si- 
 lent and prostrate: he first halted at the distance of 
 five miles ; and from thence advancing in battle array, 
 planted before the gate of St. Romanus the imperial 
 standard ; and, on the sixth day of April, formed the 
 memorable siege of Constantinople. 
 Forces of the The troops of Asia and Europe exten- 
 Turks; ded on the right and left from the Pro- 
 pontis to the harbour : the janizaries in the front were 
 stationed before the sultan's tent; the Ottoman line 
 was covered by a deep intrenchment ; and a subordi- 
 nate army enclosed the suburb of Galata, and watch- 
 ed the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive 
 Philelphus, who resided in Greece about thirty years 
 before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish for- 
 ces, of any name or value, could not exceed the num- 
 ber of sixty thousand horse and twenty thousand foot; 
 and he upbraids the pusillanimity of the nations, who 
 had tamely yielded to an handful of barbarians. Such 
 indeed might be the regular establishment of the drpi- 
 cull,* the troops of the Porte, who marched with the 
 prince, and were paid from his royal treasury. But 
 the bashaws, in their respective governments, main- 
 tained or levied a provincial militia; many lands were 
 held by a military tenure ; many volunteers were at- 
 tracted by the hope of spoil ; and the sound of the 
 holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless 
 fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the 
 terrors, and in the first attack to blunt the swords, of 
 the christians. The whole mass of the Turkish pow- 
 ers is magnified by Ducas, Chalcondyles, and Leonard 
 of Chios, to the amount of three or four hundred thou- 
 sand men ; but Phranza was a less remote and more 
 accurate judge ; and his precise definition of two hun- 
 dred and fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the mea- 
 sure of experience and probability.* The navy of the 
 besiegers was less formidable : the Propontis was 
 overspread with three hundred and twenty sail ; but of 
 these no more than eighteen could be rated as galleys 
 of war; and the far greater part must be degraded 
 to the condition of storeships and transports, which 
 poured into the camp fresh supplies of men, ammuni- 
 
 i)f the Greeks. ^^""' ^"^ provisions. In her last decay, 
 Constantinople was still peopled with 
 more than an hundred thousand inhabitants ; but these 
 numbers are found in the accounts, not of war, but of 
 captivity ; and they mostly consisted of mechanics, of 
 priests, of women, and of men devoid of that spirit 
 
 e Antonin, in Proem.— Epist. cardinal. Isidor. apud Spontanum ; 
 and Dr. Johnson, in ihe tragedy of Irene, has happily seized this 
 characteristic circumstance : 
 
 Tlie groaning Greeks dig up the golden caTerns, 
 The accumulated wealth of hoarding ages; 
 That wealth which, granted to their weeping prince, 
 Had rang'd embattled nations at their gates. 
 f The palatine troops are styled Capiculi^vxB provincials. Serai- 
 cult ; and most of the names and institutions of the Turkish militia 
 existed before the Canon Nameh of Soliman II. from which, and his 
 own experience, count MursigU has composed his military state of 
 the Ottoman empire, 
 s The observation of Philelphus is approved by Cuspinian in the 
 
 J ear 1508, (de Capsaribus, in Epilog, de Militia Turcica, p. 697.) 
 larsigU proves, that the efTeclive armies of the Turks are much 
 less numerous Uian ihey appear. In the army that besieged Con- 
 stantinople, Leouardus Cbiensis reckous uo wore thua 15,000 jani- 
 zarief 
 
 which even women have sometimes exerted for the 
 common safety. I can suppose, I could almost ex- 
 cuse, the reluctance of subjects to serve on a distant 
 frontier, at the will of a tyrant ; but the man who 
 dares not expose his life in the defence of his children 
 and his property, has lost in society the first and most 
 active energies of nature. By the emperor's com- 
 mand, a particular inquiry had been made through the 
 streets and houses, how many of the citizens, or even 
 of the monks, were able and willinsr to bear arms for 
 their country. The lists were intrusted to Phranza j"* 
 and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, 
 with grief and surprise, that the national defence was 
 reduced to four thousand nine hundred and seventy 
 Bomatis. Between Constantine and his faithful min- 
 ister, this comfortless secret was preserved ; and a 
 suflicient proportion of shields, cross-bows, and mus- 
 kets, was distributed from the arsenal to the city 
 bands. They derived some accession from a body of 
 two thousand strangers, under the command of John 
 Justiniani, a noble Genoese; a liberal donative was 
 advanced to these auxiliaries ; and a princely recom- 
 pence, the isle of Lemnos, was promised to the valour 
 and victory of their chief. A strong chain was drawn 
 across the mouth of the harbour : it was supported by 
 some Greek and Italian vessels of war and merchan- 
 dise ; and the ships of every christian nation, that 
 successively arrived from Candia and the Black sea, 
 were detained for the public service. Against the 
 powers of the Ottoman empire, a city of the extent 
 of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen, miles was defended by 
 a scanty garrison of seven or eight thousand soldiers. 
 Europe and Asia were open to the besiegers; but the 
 strength and provisions of the Greeks must sustain a 
 daily decrease ; nor could they indulge the expecialion 
 of any foreign succour or supply. 
 
 The primitive Romans would have False union of 
 drawn their swords in the resolution ofthetwnchurchu, 
 death or conquest. The primitive chri.s- ^dq^^^^' 
 tians might have embraced each other, 
 and awaited in patience and charity the stroke of mar- 
 tyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were ani- 
 mated only by the spirit of religion, and that spirit 
 was productive only of animosity and di.scord. Be- 
 fore his death, the emperor John Palaeologus had re- 
 nounced the unpopular measure of an union with the 
 Latins ; nor was the idea revived, till the distress of 
 his brother Constantine imposed a last trial of fiattcry 
 and dissimulation.* With the demand of temporal aid, 
 his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assnr- 
 ance of spiritual obedience : his neglect of the church 
 was excused by the ardent cares of the state ; and his 
 orthodox wishes solicited the presence of a Roman le- 
 gate. The Vatican had been too often deluded ; yet 
 the signs of repentance could not decently be over- 
 looked ; a legate was more easily granted than an ar- 
 my ; and about six months before the final destruction, 
 the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that charac- 
 ter with a retinue of priests and soldiers. The empe- 
 ror saluted him as a friend and father ; respectfully lis- 
 tened to his public and private sermons ; and with the 
 most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribfd 
 the act of union, as it had been ratified in the council 
 of Florence. On the twelfth of December, the two 
 nations, in the church of St. Sophia, joined in the 
 communion of sacrifice and prayer ; and the namps of 
 the two pontiffs were solemnly commemorated ; the 
 names of Nicholas the fifth, the vicar of Christ, and 
 of the patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into ex- 
 ile by a rebellious people. 
 
 h Ego eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non absque dolore et ma*sli- 
 tia: mansitnue apud nos duos aliis occultus numerus. (Phranza, 1- 
 iii. c. 8.) With some indulgence for national prejudices, we canJU't 
 desire a more authentic witness, not only of public facts, but of 
 private counsels. 
 
 i In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not only partial, but 
 imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642, and the hisiory oi 
 Ducas, which represents these scenes (c. 35, 37.) with such truth aoa 
 spirit, was not printed till the year 1649. 
 
 Chaf. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 453 
 
 *i 
 
 ObsiinacT and But the dresS and language of the La- 
 
 fanaticism of the tin priest who oflliciated at the altar, were 
 Greeiis. .^^ object of scandal ; and it was obser- 
 
 ved with horror, that he consecrated a cake or wafer of 
 ' unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup 
 of the sacrament. A national historian acknowledges 
 with a blush, that none of his countrymen, not even 
 the emperor himself, were sincere, in this occasional 
 conformity.*' Their hasty and unconditional submis- 
 sion was palliated by a promise of future revisal ; but 
 the best, or the worst, of their excuses was the con- 
 fession of their perjury. When they were pressed 
 by the reproaches of their honest brethren, " Have 
 patience," they whispered, " have patience till God 
 shall have delivered the city from the great dragon 
 who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive 
 whether we are truly reconciled with the Azymites." 
 But patience is not the attribute of zeal ; nor can the 
 arts of a court be adapted to the freedom and violence 
 of popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia, 
 the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rush- 
 ed in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius,' to 
 consult the oracle of the church. The holy man was 
 invisible ; entranced, as it should seem, in deep medi- 
 tation, or divine rapture : but he had exposed on the 
 door of his cell a speaking tablet ; and they succes- 
 sively withdrew, after reading these tremendous words : 
 " miserable Romans, why will ye abandon the 
 truth ; and why, instead of confiding in God, will ye 
 put your trust in the Italians! In losing your faith, 
 you will lose your city. Have mercy on me, O Lord ! 
 I protest in thy presence, that I am innocent of the 
 crime. O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and re- 
 pent. At the same moment that you renounce the 
 religion of your fathers, by embracing impiety, you 
 submit to a foreign servitude." According to the 
 advice of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure 
 as angels, and as proud as daemons, rejected the act 
 of union, and abjured all communion with the pre- 
 sent and future associates of the Latins ; and their 
 example was applauded and imitated by the greatest 
 part of the clergy and people. From the monastery, 
 the devout Greeks dispersed themselves in the ta- 
 verns; drank confusion to the slaves of the pope; 
 emptied their glasses in honour of the image of the 
 holy Virgin ; and besought her to defend against Ma- 
 homet the city which she had formerly saved from 
 Choros and the Chagan. In the double intoxication 
 of zeal and wine, they valiantly exclaimed, " What 
 occasion have we for succour, or union, or Latins 1 far 
 from us be the worship of the Azymites!" During 
 the winter that preceded the Turkish conquest, the na- 
 tion was distracted by this epidemical frenzy ; and the 
 season of Lent, the approach of Easter, instead of 
 breathing charity and love, served only to fortify the 
 obstinacy and influence of the zealots. The confes- 
 sors scrutinized and alarmed the conscience of their 
 votaries, and a rigorous penance was imposed on those, 
 who had received the communion from a priest, who 
 had given an express or tacit consent to the union. 
 His service at the altar propagated the infection to the 
 mute ar\^ simple spectators of the ceremony : they for- 
 feited, by the impure spectacle, the virtue of the sacer- 
 dotal character; nor was it lawful, even in danger of 
 sudden death, to invoke the assistance of their prayers 
 or absolution. No sooner had the church of St. So- 
 piiia been polluted by the Latin sacrifice, than it was 
 deserted as a Jewish synagogue, or an heathen temple, 
 
 k Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges that the 
 mpasure was adopted only propter spem auxilii ; he affirms with 
 plf'asure, that those who refused to perform their devotions in St. So- 
 plila, Piira ciMpam et in pace essent, (I. iii. c. 20.) 
 
 ' His pritnitiveand secular name was George Scholarius, which he 
 ctianged for that of Gennadius, either when he became a monk or a 
 patriarch. His defence, at Flurpnce, of the same union which he fo 
 furiously attacked at Constantinople, has tempted Leo AUalius, (Dia- 
 trib. de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot. Grac, torn. x. p. 769—786.) to di- 
 7ide him into two men ; but Kenaudot (p 343 — 3H3.) has restored the 
 •uentity of his person and the duplicity of his character. 
 
 by the clergy and people : and a vast and gloomy si- 
 lence prevailed in that venerable dome, which had so 
 often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed with in- 
 numerable lights, and resounded with the voice of pray- 
 er and thanksgiving. The Latins were the most odious 
 of heretics and infidels ; and the first minister of the 
 empire, the great duke, was heard to declare, that he 
 had rather behold in Constantinople the turban of Ma- 
 homet, than the pope's tiara or a cardinal's hat." A 
 sentiment so unworthy of christians and patriots, was 
 familiar and fatal to the Greeks : the emperor was de- 
 prived of the affection and support of his subjects ; and 
 their native cowardice was sanctified by resignation to 
 the divine decree, or the visionary hope of a miracu- 
 lous deliverance. 
 
 Of the triangle which composes the siege of Con- 
 figure of Constantinople, the two sides siaminoplp bj 
 along the sea were made inaccessible ^i'^'iTi-'J* 
 to an enemy ; the Propontis by nature, April 6— 
 and the harbour by art. Between the ^^^^ ^^' 
 two waters, the basis of the triangle, the land side was 
 protected by a double wall, and a deep ditch of the 
 depth of one hundred feet. Against this line of forti- 
 fication, which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs to 
 the nieasure of six miles," the Ottomans directed their 
 principal attack; and the emperor, after distributing 
 the service and command of the most perilous stations, 
 undertook the defence of the external wall. In the 
 first days of the siege, the Greek soldiers descended 
 into the ditch, or sallied into the field ; but they sooa 
 discovered, that, in the proportion of their numbers, 
 one christian was of more value than twenty Turks : 
 and, after these bold preludes, they were prudently 
 content to maintain the rampart with their missile wea- 
 pons. Nor should this prudence be accused of pusil- 
 lanimity. The nation was indeed pusillanimous and 
 base; but the last Constantine deserves the name of an 
 hero ; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with 
 Roman virtue; and the foreign auxiliaries supported 
 the honour of the western chivalry. The incessant 
 volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with 
 the smoke, the sound, and the fire, of musketry and 
 cannon. Their small arms discharged at the same 
 time either five, or even ten, balls of lead, of the size 
 of a walnut; and, according to the closeness of the 
 ranks and the force of the powder, several breast-plates 
 and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But 
 the Turkish approaches were soon sunk in trenches, or 
 covered with ruins. Each day added to the science of, 
 the christians ; but their inadequate stock of gunpow- 
 der was wasted in the operations of each day. Their 
 ordnance was not powerful, either in size or number; 
 and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared 
 to plant them on the walls, lest the aged structure 
 should be shaken and overthrown by the explosion." 
 The same destructive secret had been revealed to the 
 Moslems ; by whom it was employed with the supe- 
 rior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great 
 cannon of Mahomet has been separately noticed ; an 
 important and visible object in the history of the 
 times : but that enormous engine was flanked by two 
 fellows almost of equal magnitude :p the long order 
 of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls; 
 fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most ac- 
 cessible places ; and one of these it is ambiguously 
 
 m *«Kio\«o» niKviTTfm, may be fairly translated a cardinal's hat. 
 The difference of the Greek and Latin habits imbiitered the schism. 
 
 n We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the smallest mea- 
 sure which is preserved in the wersts of Russia, 547 French toises, 
 and of 104 3-8 to a degree. The six miles of Phranza do not exceed 
 four English miles. (D'Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 61. 123, &,c.) 
 
 o At indies docliores nostri facti paravere contra hostes machina- 
 menla qua lamen avare dabanlur. Put vis erat nitri niodica exigua; 
 tela modica; bombardae, si aderant in commodiiale loci primum hos- 
 tes ofiendere maceriebus alveisque tectos non poterant. Nam si que 
 magnae erant, ne murus concuiereiur noster, quiescebant. This pas- 
 sage of Leonardos Chiensis is curious and important. 
 
 p According to Chalcondyles and Phranza, the great cannon burst, 
 an accident which, according to Ducas, was prevented by the artist's 
 skill. It is evident that they do not speak of the sante gun. 
 
I t 
 
 454 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 ••1: 
 
 ^1 
 
 expressed, that it was mounted with one hundred and 
 thirty guns, or that it discharged one hundred and 
 thirty bullets. Yet, in the power and activity of the 
 sultan, we may discern the infancy of the new science. 
 Under a master who counted the moments, the great 
 cannon could be loaded and fired no more than seven 
 times in one day.*! The heated metal unfortunately 
 burst ; several workmen were destroyed ; and the skill 
 of an artist was admired who bethought himself of 
 preventing the danger and accident by pouring oil, 
 after each explosion, into the mouth of the cannon. 
 Atuck and de- The first random shots were produc- 
 fence. tive of more sound than effect; and it 
 
 was by the advice of a christian, that the engineers 
 were taught to level their aim against the two oppo- 
 site sides of the salient angles of a bastion. However 
 imperfect, the weight and repetition of the fire made 
 some impression on the walls ; and the Turks pushing 
 their approaches to the edge of the ditch, attempted to 
 fill the enormous chasm, and to build a road to the 
 assault.' Innumerable fascines, and hogsheads, and 
 trunks of trees, were heaped on each other ; and such 
 was the impetuosity of the throng, that the foremost 
 and the weakest were pushed headlong down the pre- 
 cipice, and instantly buried under the accumulated 
 mass. To fill the ditch, was the toil of the besiegers ; 
 to clear away the rubbish, was the safety of the be- 
 sieged ; and, after a long and bloody conflict, the web 
 that had been woven in the day was still unravelled in 
 the night. The next resource of Mahomet was the 
 practice of mines ; but the soil was rocky ; in every 
 attempt he was stopped and undermined by the chris- 
 tian engineers ; nor had the art been yet invented of 
 replenishing those subterraneous passages with gun- 
 powder, and blowing whole towers and cities into the 
 air,* A circumstance that distinguishes the sieffe of 
 Constantinople, is the re-union of the ancient and mo- 
 dern artillery. The cannon were intermingled with the 
 mechanical engines for casting stones and darts ; the 
 bullet and the battering ram were directed against the 
 same walls ; nor had the discovery of gunpowder su- 
 perseded the use of the liquid and unextinguishable 
 fire. A wooden turret of the largest size was advan- 
 ced on rollers : this portable magazine of ammunition 
 and fascines was protected by a threefold covering of 
 bulls' hides; incessant volleys were securely dischar- 
 ged from the loop-holes ; in the front, three doors were 
 contrived for the alternate sally and retreat of the sol- 
 diers and workmen. They ascended by a stair-case to 
 the upper platform, and, as high as the level of that 
 platform, a scaling-ladder could be raised by pulleys 
 to form a bridge, and grapple with the adverse rampart. 
 By these various arts of annoyance, some as new as 
 they were pernicious to the Greeks, the tower of St. 
 Homanus was at length overturned ; after a severe 
 struggle the Turks were repulsed from the breach, and 
 interrupted by darkness ; but they trusted, that with 
 the return of light they should renew the attack with 
 fresh vigour and decisive success. Of this pause of 
 action, this interval of hope, each moment was impro- 
 ved by the activity of the emperor and Justiniani, who 
 passed the night on the spot, and urged the labours 
 which involved the safety of the church and city. At 
 the dawn of day, the impatient sultan perceived, with 
 astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret had 
 
 q Near a hundred years after the siege of ConsUntinople, the 
 French and English fleets in the Channel were proud of firing 300 
 ■hot in au engagement of two hours. (Memoires de Martin du Bellay 
 1. X. in the Collection Generate, torn. xxi. p. 239.) ' 
 
 r I have selected some curious facts, without striving to emulate 
 the bloody and obstinate eloquence of the Abbe de Vertot, in his pro- 
 lix descriptions of the sieges of Rhodes, Malta, dec. But that agreea- 
 ble historian had a turn for romance, and as he wrote to please the 
 order, he has adopted the same spirit of enthusiasm and chivalry. 
 
 • The first theory of mines with gunpowder appears in 14S(), in a 
 MS. of George of Sienna. (Tiraboschi, torn. vi. p. i. p. 3-24.) They i 
 were first practised at Sarzanella, in 1487; but the honour and im- 
 provement in 1503 is ascribed to Peter of Navarre, who used them ! 
 vfith success in the wars of luly. (Hist, de la Ligue de Cambray, 
 lum. 11. p. 93— 97.) ' I 
 
 been reduced to ashes; the ditcli was cleared and re- 
 stored ; and the tower of St. Homanus was auain stronor 
 and entire. He deplored the failure of his design; and 
 uttered a profane exclamation, that the word of the 
 thirty-seven thousand prophets should not have com- 
 pelled him to believe that such a work, in so short a 
 time, could have been accomplished by the infidels. 
 The p^enerosity of the christian princes succour and 
 was cold and tardy ; but in the first ap- victory of four 
 prehension of a siege, Constantine had "^^'P"* 
 negociated, in the isles of the Archipelago, the Morea, 
 and Sicily, the most indispensable supplies. As early 
 as the beginning of April, five' great ships, equipped 
 for merchandize and war, would have sailed from the 
 harbour of Chios, had not the wind blown obstinately 
 from the north." One of these ships bore the imperial 
 flag ; the remaining four belonged to the Genoese; and 
 they were laden with wheat and barley, with wine, 
 oil, and vegetables, and, above all, with soldiers and 
 mariners, for the service of the capital. After a tedious 
 delay, a gentle breeze, and on the second day, a strong 
 gale from the south, carried them through the Holles- 
 pont and the Propontis : but the city was already 
 invested by sea and land ; and the Turkish fleet at the 
 entrance of the Bosphorus, was stretched from shore 
 to shore, in the form of a crescent, to intercept, or at 
 least to repel, these bold auxiliaries. The reader who 
 has present to his mind the geographical picture of 
 Constantinople, will conceive and admire the great' 
 ness of the spectacle. The five christian ships con- 
 tinued to advance with joyful shouts, and a full press 
 both of sails and oars, against an hostile fleet of three 
 hundred vessels ; and the rampart, the camp, the coasts 
 of Europe and Asia, were lined with innjiimerable spec- 
 tators, who anxiously awaited the event of this mo- 
 mentous succour. At the first view that event could 
 not appear doubtful ; the superiority of the Moslems 
 was beyond all measure or account; and in a calm, 
 their numbers and valour must inevitably have prevail- 
 ed. But their hasty and imperfect navy had been 
 created, not by the genius of the people, but by the 
 will of the sultan : in the height of their prosperity, 
 the Turks have acknowledired, that if God had criven 
 them the earth, he had left the sea to the infidels;" 
 and a series of defeats, a rapid progress of decay, 
 has established the truth of their modest confession. 
 Except eighteen galleys of some force, the rest of 
 their fleet consisted of open boats, rudely constructed 
 and awkwardly managed, crowded with troops and 
 destitute of cannon; and since courasre arises in a orreat 
 measure from the consciousness of strength, the bravest 
 of the janizaries might tremble on a new element. In 
 the christian squadron, five stout and lofty ships were 
 guided by skilful pilots, and manned with the veterans 
 of Italy and Greece, long practised in the arts and 
 perils of the sea. Their weight was directed to sink 
 or scatter the weak obstacles that impeded their pas- 
 sage; their artillery swept the waters: their liquid 
 fire was poured on the heads of their adversaries, who, 
 with the design of boarding, presumed to approach 
 them; and the winds and waves are always on the 
 side of the ablest navigators. In this convict, the 
 imperial vessel, which had been almost overpowered, 
 was rescued by the Genoese : but the Turks, in a dis- 
 tant and closer attack, were twice repulsed with con- 
 siderable loss. Mahomet himself sat on horseback on 
 the beach, to encourage their valour by his voice and 
 
 t It fs singular that the Greeks should not agree in the number of 
 these illustrious vessels ; ihefive of Ducas, the your of Phrauza and 
 Leonardus, and the ttco of Chalcondyles, must be extended to the 
 smaller, or confined to the larger, size. Voltaire, in giving one of 
 these ships to Frederic III. confounds the emperor of the east and 
 west. 
 
 u In bold defiance, or rather in gross ignorance, of laneuage and 
 geography, the president Cousin detains them at Chios with a south, 
 and wafts them to Constantinople with a north, wind. 
 
 X The perpetual decay and weakness of the Turkish navy may be 
 observed in Kycaut, (State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 372-37d.) 
 1 hevenot, (Voyage*, p. i. p. 229-i»42.) and Toll ; (Memoirs, U>m. iii.) 
 the last uf whom is always solicitous to amuse and amaze his reader. 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE. 
 
 455 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 presence, by the promise of reward, and by fear, more 
 ,potent than the fear of the enemy. The passions of 
 his soul, and even the gestures of his body,^ seemed 
 to imitate the actions of the combatants; and, as if he 
 had been the lord of nature, he spurred his horse with 
 a fearless and impotent eflfort into the sea. His loud 
 reproaches, and the clamours of the camp, urged the 
 Ottomans to a third attack, more fatal and bloody 
 than the two former; and I mus-t repeat, though I can- 
 not credit, the evidence of Phranza, who afllirms, from 
 their own mouth, that they lost above twelve thou- 
 sand men in the slaughter of the day. They fled in 
 disorder to the shores of Europe and Asia, while the 
 christian squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered 
 along the Bosphorus, and securely anchored within 
 the chain of the harbour. In the confidence of vic- 
 tory, they boasted that the whole Turkish power must 
 have yielded to their arms ; but the admiral, or cap- 
 tain bashaw, found some consolation for a painful 
 wound in his eye, by representing that accident as the 
 cause of his defeat. Baltha Ogli was a renegade of 
 "the race of the Bulgarian prince's : his military charac- 
 ter was tainted with the unpopular vice of avarice ; 
 and under the despotism of the prince or people, mis- 
 fortune is a suflScient evidence of guilt. His rank 
 and services were annihilated by the displeasure of 
 Mahomet. In the royal presence, the captain bashaw 
 was extended on the ground by four slaves, and re- 
 ceived one hundred strokes with a golden rod:" his 
 death had been pronounced ; and he adored the clem- 
 ency of the sultan, who was satisfied with the milder 
 punishment of confiscation and exile. The introduc- 
 tion of this supply revived the hopes of the Greeks 
 and accused the supineness of their western allies. 
 Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and the rocks of Pales- 
 tine, the millions of the crusades had buried them- 
 selves in a voluntary and inevitable grave ; but the situa- 
 tion of the imperial city was strong against her ene- 
 mies, and accessible to her friends ; and a rational and 
 moderate armament of the maritime states might have 
 saved the relics of the Roman name, and maintained a 
 christian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman empire. 
 Yet this was the sole and feeble attempt for the deli- 
 verance of Constantinople ; the more distant powers 
 were insensible of its danger; and the ambassador of 
 Hungary, or at least of Huniades, resided in the Turk- 
 ish camp, to remove the fears, and to direct the opera- 
 tions, of the sultan.* 
 
 Mahomet trans- I' was diflicult for the Greeks to pene- 
 ports his navy trate the secret of the divan ; yet the 
 overland. Greeks are persuaded, that a resistance, 
 
 so obstinate and surprising, had fatigued the perseve- 
 rance of Mahomet. He began to meditate a retreat, 
 and the siege would have been speedily raised, if the 
 ambition and jealousy of the second vizir had not 
 opposed the perfidious advice of Calil Bashaw, who 
 still maintained a secret correspondence with the By- 
 zantine court. The reduction of the city appeared to 
 be hopeless, unless a double attack could be made 
 from the harbour as well as from the land : hut the 
 harbour was inaccessible ; an impenetrable chain was 
 now ^fended by eight large ships, more than twenty 
 of a smaller size, with several galleys and sloops ; 
 and, instead of forcing this barrier, the Turks might 
 apprehend a naval sally, and a second encounter in 
 the open sea. In this perplexity, the genius of Maho- 
 met conceived and executed a plan of a bold and 
 
 y I must confess, that I have before my eyes the living picture 
 ■which Thucydides (I. vii. c. 71.) has drawn of the passions and ges- 
 tures of the Athenians in a naval engagement in the great harbour 
 
 of Syracuse. , _ , oo ^ 
 
 t According to the exaggeration or corrupt text of Ducas, (c. 38.) 
 this golden bar was of the enormous and incredible weight of oOO 
 librae or pounds. Bouillaud's reading of 500 drachms, or five pounds, 
 is sufficient to exercise the arm of Mahomet, and bruise the back of 
 
 his admiral. , , . «. • en 
 
 * Ducas, who confesses himself ill-informed of the atiairs of Hunga- 
 ry, assigns a motive of superstition, a fatal belief that Constantinople 
 •would bo the term of the Turkish conquests. See Phranza (I. iii. c. 
 80.) and Spondantu. 
 
 marvellous cast, of transporting by land his lighter 
 vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus into 
 the higher part of the harbour. The distance is about 
 ten miles : the ground is uneven, and was overspread 
 with thickets ; and, as the road must he opened be- 
 hind the suburb of Galata, their free passage or total 
 destruction must depend on the option of the Genoese. 
 But these selfish merchants were ambitious of the 
 favour of being the last devoured ; and the defiriency 
 of art was supplied by the strength of obedient myriads. 
 A level way was covered with a broad platform of 
 strong and solid planks; and to render ih^m more 
 slippery and smooth, they were anointed with the fat 
 of sheep and oxen. Fourscore light galleys and bri- 
 gantines of fifty and thirty oars, were disembarked on 
 the Bosphorus shore; arranged successively on rol- 
 lers; and drawn forwards by the power of men and 
 pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed at the 
 helm, and the prow, of each vessel ; the sails were 
 unfurled to the winds; and the labour was cheered by 
 song and acclamation. In the course of a single night, 
 this Turkish fleet painfully climbed the hill, steered 
 over the plain, and was launched from the declivity 
 into the shallow waters of the harbour, far above the 
 molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. The 
 real importance of this operation was magnified by the 
 consternation and confidence which it inspired : but 
 the notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed be- 
 fore the eyes, and is recorded by the pens, of the two 
 nations.* A similar stratagem had been repeatedly 
 practised by the ancients ; * the Ottoman galleys (I 
 must again repeat) should be considered as large boats ; 
 and, if we compare the magnitude and the distance, 
 the obstacles and the means, the boasted miracle'' has 
 perhaps been equalled by the industry of our own 
 times.* As soon as Mahomet had occupied the upper 
 harbour with a fleet and army, he constructed, in the 
 narrowest part, a bridge, or rather mole, of fifty cubits 
 in breadth, and one hundred in length : it was formed 
 of casks and hogsheads ; joined with rafters, linked 
 with iron, and covered with a solid floor. On this 
 floating battery, he planted one of his largest cannon, 
 while the fourscore galleys, with troops and scaling- 
 ladders, approached the most accessible side, which 
 had formerly been stormed by the Latin conquerors. 
 The indolence of the christians has been accused for 
 not destroying these unfinished works; but their fire, 
 by a superior fire, was controlled and silenced ; nor 
 were they wanting in a nocturnal attempt to burn the 
 vessels as well as the bridge of the sultan. His vigi- 
 lance prevented their approach ; their foremost galliots 
 were sunk or taken ; forty youths, the bravest of Italy 
 and Greece, were inhumanly massacred at his com- 
 mand ; nor could the emperor's grief be assuaged by 
 the just though cruel retaliation, of exposing from the 
 walls the heads of two hundred and sixty mussulman 
 captives. After a siege of forty days, the Distress of the 
 fate of Constantinople could no longer ^^^y- 
 
 be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted 
 by a double attack : the fortifications, which had stood 
 for ages against hostile violence, were dismantled on all 
 sides by 'the Ottoman cannon: many breaches were 
 opened ; and near the gate of St. Romanus, four towers 
 had been levelled with the ground. For the payment of 
 his feeble and mutinous troops, Constantine was com- 
 
 b The unanimous testimony of the four Greeks is confirmed by 
 Cantemir, (p. 96.) from the Turkish annals ; but I could wish to con- 
 tract the distance often miles, and to prolong the term of ore nighu 
 
 c Phranza relates two examples of a similar transportation over 
 the six miles of the Isthmus of Corinth ; the one fabulous, of Augus- 
 tus, after the battle of Aciium ; the other true, of Nicetas, a Greek 
 general in the tenth century. To these he might have added a bold 
 enterprise of Hannibal, to introduce his vessels into the harbour of 
 Tarentum (Polybius, 1. viii. p. 749. edit. Gronov.) 
 
 d A Greek of Candia, who had served the Venetians in a similM 
 undertaking, (Spond. A. D. 143S, No. 37.) might possibly be the ad- 
 viser and agent of Mahomet. , , . i. , %_ # 
 
 e I particularly allude to our own embarkations on the lates oi 
 Canada in the years 1776 and 1777, so great in the labour, mo fruitleM 
 in the event. 
 
456 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 pelled to despoil tlie churches with the promise of a 
 fourfold restitution ; and his sacrilege offered a new 
 reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of dis- 
 cord impaired the remnant of the christian strength : 
 the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the 
 pre-eminence of their respective service; and Justi- 
 nian! and the great duke, whose ambition was not 
 extinguished by the common danger, accused each 
 other of treachery and cowardice. 
 Preparations of During the siege of Constantinople, 
 
 thIglneraiS- *^® ^'^^^^ ?^ P^^^® »"^ capitulation had 
 »auit, been sometimes pronounced ; and several 
 
 May 25. embassies had passed between the camp 
 and the city.' The Greek emperor was humbled by 
 adversity ; and would have yielded to any terms com- ' 
 paiible with relinrion and royalty. The Turkish sultan 
 was desirous of sparing the blood of his soldiers; 
 still more desirous of securing for his own use the 
 Byzantine treasures; and he accomplished a sacred 
 duty in presenting to the gahours the choice of cir- 
 cumcision, of tribute, or of death. The avarice of 
 Mahonriet might have been satisfied with an annual 
 sum of one hundred thousand ducats: but his ambi- 
 tion grasped the capital of the east : to the prince he 
 offered a rich equivalent, to the people a free tolera- 
 tion, or a safe departure : but after some fruitless 
 treaty, he declared his resolution of finding either a 
 throne, or a grave, under the walls of Constantinople. 
 A sense of honour, and the fear of universal reproach, 
 forbade Pala3oIogus to resign the city into the hands 
 of the Ottomans ; and he determined to abide the last 
 extremities of war. Several days were employed by 
 the sultan in the preparations for the assault ,♦ and a 
 respite was granted by his favourite science of astro- 
 logy, which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May, as 
 the fortunate and fatal hour. On the evening of the 
 twenty-seventh, he issued his final orders ; assembled 
 in his presence the military chiefs ; and dispersed his 
 heralds through the camp to proclaim the duty, and 
 the motives, of the perilous enterprise. Fear is the 
 first principle of a despotic government; and his men- 
 aces were expressed in the oriental style, that the fu- 
 gitives and deserters, had they the wings of a bird,* 
 should not escape from his inexorable justice. The 
 greatest part of his bashaws and janizaries were the 
 offspring of christian parents : hut the glories of the 
 Turkish name were perpetuated by successive adop- 
 tion; and in the gradual change of individuals, the 
 spirit of a legion, a regiment, or an oda, is kept alive 
 by imitation and discipline. In this holy warfare, the 
 Moslems were exhorted to purify their minds with 
 prayer, their bodies with seven ablutions; and to ab- 
 stain from food till the close of the ensuing day. \ 
 crowd of dervishes visited the tents, to instil the de- 
 sire of martyrdom, and the assurance of spendinrr an 
 immortal youth amidst the rivers and gardens of para- 
 dise, and in the embraces of the black-eyed viririns. 
 Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the efficacy of 
 temporal and visible rewards. A double pay was 
 promised to the victorious troops ; " The city and the 
 
 the ^eoSSn" tn'^i ^"^^ ^''^^' '". ^^''^ ^'"^^ '^"d Circumstances of 
 f -^hf fp. ' ^""^ */• '^ w*« neither glorious nor salutary ihfl 
 
 Should the fierce north, upon his frozen win»a, 
 «ear him aloft above the wondering clouds " 
 And seal him in the Pleiads' golden charioi- 
 Tlp-wio- ^^^^^^ should my fury drag him down to tortures. 
 Uesides the extravagance of the rant, I must observe. 1 That tho 
 operauon of the winds must be confined to the icr.r r'eJions of Se 
 
 Pu^eW' Jrpil %.H^r "^'.^'W'^^y' ^'^l ^^^ f^^^^' ^^ the'Pleiads are 
 pure y Greek, (Scholiast ad Homer, i; 686. Eudocia in Ionia, p 399 
 
 ^o^tie t^rin'"'- '• J\«^y»^' ?; 229. Not. 632.) and had no'affinUy 
 10 the astronomy of the east, (fayde ad Ulugbeg, Tabul. in Synta-. 
 p V2i?|''r.hr^- •• ^' 40- 42. Oogues. Origine d& Arts, &c torn -i. 
 ftudtd ?Thi'"' m"'- "^l C^lendrier, p. 73.) which Mahomet had 
 fiction -but Imnfh'i-" ""k *",".' 'V'? ""^ ^**st either in science or 
 dM w"ih ih« .^"*' V^" ^^*' ^'' Johnson has confounded the Pleia- 
 St^llaiion : ^ ' ^^" °' ""^^^on, the zodiac with a northern con. 
 
 At«T.* J'^y ,i«, iAi»5»„ i«-.xX,«-ir xiiAic^ri. 
 
 buildings," said Mahomet, "are mine; but I resign ta 
 your valour the captives and the spoil, the treasures 
 of gold and beauty ; be rich and be happy. Many are 
 the provinces of my empire ; the intrepid soldier who 
 first ascends the walls of Constantinople, shall be 
 rewarded with the government of the fairest and most 
 wealthy; and my gratitude shall accumulate his hon- 
 ours and fortunes above the measure of his own 
 hopes." Such various and potent motives diffused 
 among the Turks a general ardour, regardless of life 
 and impatient for action : the camp re-echoed with the 
 Moslem shouts of" God is God, there is but one God, 
 and Mahomet is the apostle of God;"»» and the sea 
 and land, from Galata to the seven towers, were illu- 
 minated by the blaze of their nocturnal fires. 
 
 Far different was the state of the t , <• „ - 
 christians ; who, with loud and impo- the emTerorand 
 tent complaints, deplored the guilt, or ihe Greeks, 
 the punishment, of their sins. The celestial image 
 of the Virgin had been exposed in solemn procession; 
 but their divine patroness was deaf to their entreaties; 
 they accused the obstinacy of the emperor for refusing- 
 a timely surrender; anticipated the horrors of their 
 fate ; and sighed for the repose and security of Turk- 
 ish servitude. The noblest of the Greeks, and the 
 bravest of the allies, were summoned to the palace, to 
 prepare them, on the evening of the twenty-eighth, for 
 the duties and dangers of the general assault. The 
 last speech of Palaeologus was the funeral oration of 
 the Roman empire:' he promised, he conjured, and he 
 vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was extin- 
 guished in his own mind. In this world all was com- 
 fortless and gloomy ; and neither the gospel nor the 
 church have proposed any conspicuous recompence to 
 the heroes who fall in the service of their country. 
 But the example of their prince, and the confinement 
 of a siege, had armed these warriors with the courage 
 of despair, and the pathetic scene is described by the 
 feelings of the historian Phranza, who was himself 
 present at this mournful assembly. They wept, they 
 embraced ; regardless of their families and fortunes, 
 they devoted their lives ; and each commander, depart- 
 ing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant and 
 anxious watch on the rampart. The emp^eror, and 
 some faithful companions, entered the dome of St. 
 Sophia, which in a few hours was to be converted 
 into a mosch ; and devoutly received, with tears and 
 prayers, the sacrament of the holy communion. He 
 reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded 
 with cries and lamentations ; solicited the pardon of 
 ail whom he might have injured ;k and mounted on 
 horseback to visit the guards, and explore the motions 
 of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last Con- 
 stantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of 
 the iiyzantine Caesars. » r r j 
 
 In the confusion of darkness an assail- The general as 
 ant may sometimes succeed ; but in this sauU, May 29. 
 great and general attack, the military judgment and 
 astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised him to 
 expect the morning, the memorable twenty-ninth of 
 May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the 
 christian a?ra. The preceding night had been strenu- 
 ously employed : the troops, the cannon, and the fas- 
 cines, were advanced to the e^ge of the ditch, which 
 in many parts presented a smooth and level passatre 
 to the breach ; and his fourscore galleys almost touch- 
 ed, with the prows and their scaling ladders, the less 
 defensible w-alls o f the harbour. Under pain of death, 
 
 nnmi'*lf*r^!i fiuarrels with these Moslem acclamations, not for the 
 name of God, but for that of the prophet : the pious zeal of Voltaire 
 IS excessive, and even ridiculous. «"i»oua.ro 
 
 -nir *")i *^'^*'* ,\^*^ '^"' »l'Scoursc was composed by Phranza him- 
 ^lmA,f H.nt.f'^l^'^K'' ^''''^'y ""^ ^^® ^""^^'^ a"'l ^he convent, that I 
 dur«„i^nA''^^*''^l'" " '^''* pronounced by Conslantine. I eonar- 
 
 i^poaa^^^ih^"I^^7^'P"'•? '" ^^'^^^ ^^ addresses himself more 
 rtspei iiuiiy to the Latin auxiliaries 
 
 Hv'inT'nri^^^^''^^"^''^^'''^ devotion has sometimes extorted from 
 eiveneM ofTnhiHp?. ^P^^^'^'^^^l of ^he gospel doctrine of the fo™ 
 lik pSon ZnlSfeiLr"' '"^ '' '"^^'^^ ''' "™^-' ^»^*" ^-«"<^« 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 457 
 
 silence was enjoined : but the physical laws of motion 
 and sound are not obedient to discipline or fear; each 
 individual might suppress his voice and measure his 
 footsteps; but the march and labour of thousands must 
 inevitably produce a strange confusion of dissonant 
 clamours, which reached the ears of the watchmen 
 of the towers. At day-break, without the customary 
 signal of the morning gun, the Turks assaulted the 
 city by sea and land ; and the similitude of a twined 
 or twisted thread has been applied to the closeness 
 and continuity of their line of attack.* The foremost 
 ranks consisted of the refuse of the host, a voluntary 
 crowd who fought without order or command ; of the 
 feebleness of age or childhood, of peasants and va- 
 grants, and of all who had joined the camp in the blind 
 hope of plunder and martyrdom. The common im- 
 pulse drove them onwards to the wall : the most auda- 
 cious to climb were instantly precipitated ; and not a 
 dart, not a bullet, of the christians was idly wasted 
 on the accumulated throng. But their strength and 
 ammunition were exhausted in this laborious defence: 
 the ditch was filled with the bodies of the slain ; they 
 supported the footsteps of their companions ; and of 
 this devoted vanguard, the death was more serviceable 
 than the life. IJnder their respective bashaws and 
 sanjaks, the troops of Anatolia and Romania w^ere 
 successively led to the charge: their progress was 
 various and doubtful ; but, after a conflict of two 
 hours, the Greeks still maintained, and improved, 
 their advantage ; and the voice of the emperor was 
 heard, encouraging his soldiers to achieve, by a last 
 effort, the deliverance of their country. In that fatal 
 moment, the janizaries arose, fresh, vigorous, and in- 
 vincible. The sultan himself on horseback, with an 
 iron mace in his hand, was the spectator and judge of 
 their valour: he was surrounded by ten thousand of his 
 domestic troops, whom he reserved for the decisive 
 occasions; and the tide of battle was directed and im- 
 pelled by his voice and eye. His numerous ministers 
 of justice were posted behind the line, to urge, to re- 
 strain, and to punish : and if danger was in the front, 
 shame and inevitable death were in the rear, of the fu- 
 gitives. The cries of fear and of pain were drowned 
 in the martial music of drums, trumpets, and atabals; 
 and experience has proved, that the mechanical opera- 
 tion of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the 
 blood and spirits, will act on the human machine more 
 forcibly than the eloquence of reason and honour. 
 From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Otto- 
 man artillery thundered on all sides ; and the camp 
 and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a 
 cloud of smoke, which could only be dispelled by the 
 final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire. 
 The single combats of the heroes of history or fable 
 amuse our fancy and engage our affections ; the skilful 
 evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve 
 a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the 
 uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is 
 blood, and horror, and confusion ; nor shall I strive, at 
 the distance of three centuries and a thousand miles, to 
 delineate a scene of which there could be no spectators, 
 and of which the actors themselves were incapable of 
 forming any just or adequate idea. 
 
 The immediate loss of Constantinople may be as- 
 cribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gaunt- 
 let of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the 
 exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose 
 arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of the city. 
 As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, 
 his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatiga- 
 ble eniperor. *' Your wound," exclaimed Palaeologus, 
 " is slight; the danger is pressing; your presence is 
 necessary ; and whither will you retire V " I will re- 
 tire," said the trembling Genoese, " by the same road 
 
 which God has opened to the Turks ;" and at ihesa 
 words hastily passed through one of the breaches of 
 the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act, he stained 
 the honours of a military life; and the few days which 
 he survived in Galata, or the isle of Chios, were im- 
 bittered by his own and the public reproach." His 
 example was imitated by the greatest part of the Lat- 
 in auxiliaries, and the defence began to slacken when 
 the attack was pressed with redoubled vigour. The 
 number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, 
 times superior to that of the christians ; the double 
 walls were reduced by the cannon to a heap of ruins : 
 in a circuit of several miles, some places must be found 
 more easy of access, or more feebly guarded ; and if the 
 besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the whole 
 city was irrecoverably lost. The first who deserved 
 the sultan's reward was Hassan the janizary, of gi- 
 gantic stature and strength. With his scymitar in one 
 hand and his buckler in the other, he ascended the out- 
 ward fortification : of the thirty janizaries, who were 
 emulous of his valour, eighteen perished in the bold 
 adventure. Hassan and his twelve companions had 
 reached the summit ; the giant was precipitated from the 
 rampart; he rose on one knee, and was again oppress- 
 ed by a shower of darts and stones. But his success- 
 had proved that the achievement was possible : the 
 walls and towers were instantly covered with a swarm 
 of Turks; and the Greeks, now driven from the van- 
 tage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multi- 
 tudes. Amidst these multiudes, the emperor," who 
 accomplished all the duties of a general and a sol- 
 dier, was long seen and finally lost. The nobles, who 
 fought round his person, sustained, till their last 
 breath, the honourable names of Pala;ologus and Can- 
 tacuzene : his mournful exclamation was heard, " Can- 
 not there be found a christian to cut off my head?"* 
 and his last fear was that of falling alive into the 
 hands of the infidels.P The prudent despair of Con- 
 stantino cast away the purple : amidst Death of the em- 
 the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, peror Constan- 
 
 . , . , J 1 • J J - ^.,., line Palaeologus. 
 
 and his body was buried under a moun- " 
 
 tain of the slain. After his death, resistance and or- 
 der were no more: the Greeks fled towards the city; 
 and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass 
 of the gate of St. Romanus. The victorious Turks 
 rushed ihroujrh the breaches of the inner wall, and as 
 they advanced into the streets, they were soon joined 
 by their brethren, who had forced the gate Phenar on 
 the side of the harbour.<> In the first heat of the pur- 
 suit, about two thousand christians were put to the 
 sword; but avarice soon prevailed over cruelty ; and 
 the victors acknowledged, that they should immediate- 
 ly have given quarter if the valour of the emperor and 
 his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar op- 
 position in every part of the capital. It was thus, after 
 a siege of fifty-three days, that Constan- Loss of the city 
 tinople, which had defied the power of an^l empire. 
 Chosroes, the Chagan, and the caliphs, was irretriev- 
 
 1 Resides the 10,000 guards, and the sailors and the marines, Du- 
 tas numbers in this general assault 250,000 Turks, both horse and 
 
 Cmiu 
 
 m In the severe censure of the flight of Justin'.ani, Phranza express- 
 es his own feelings and those of the public. For some private rea- 
 sons, he is treated with more lenity and respect by Ducas; but the 
 words of Leonardos Chiensis express his strong and recent indigpi- 
 tion, gloriae salutis suique oblitus. In the whole series of ih-^ir east- 
 ern policy, his countrymen, the Genoese, were always suspected, and 
 often guilty. _. , , , 
 
 n Ducas kills him with two blows of Turkish soldiers; Chalcondyles 
 wounds him in the shoulder, and then tramples him in the gate. The 
 Tief of I'hranza carrying him among the enemy, escapes from the 
 precise image of his death ; but we may, without flattery, apply these 
 noble lines of Dryden: 
 
 As to Sebastian, let them search the field. 
 And where they find a mountain of the slain, 
 Send one to climb, and looking down beneath, 
 There they will find him at his minly length, 
 With his face up to heaven, in that red monument 
 Which his good sword had digged, 
 o Spondanus, (A. D. 1453, No. 10.) who has hopes of his salvation, 
 wishes to absolve this dem^ind from the guilt of suicide. 
 
 p Leonardus Chiensis very properly observes, that the Turks, had 
 they known the emperor, wculd have laboured to save and secure a 
 captive so acceptable to the sultan. 
 
 q Cantemir, p. %. The christian ships in the mouth of the harbour 
 had flanked and retarded this naval atuck. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 H 
 
468 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 m 
 
 iM 
 
 ably subdaed by the arms of Mahomet the second. 
 Her empire had only been subverted by the Latins : 
 her religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem 
 conquerors.' 
 
 The Turks enter The tidings of misfortune fly with a 
 and pillage Con- rapid wing ; yet such was the extent of 
 •uniinopie. Constantinople, that the more distant 
 <]uarters might prolong, some moments, the happy ig- 
 norance of their ruin.* But ill the general consterna- 
 tion, in the feeli/igs of selfish or social anxiety, in the 
 tumult and thunder of the assault, a sleepless nicrht and 
 morning must have elapsed ; nor can I believe that many 
 Grecian ladies were awakened by the janizaries from 
 a sound and tranquil slumber. On the assurance of 
 the public calamity, the houses and convents were in- 
 stantly deserted; and the trembling inhabitants flock- 
 ed together in the streets, like a herd of timid animals ; 
 as if accumulated weakness could be productive of 
 strenjjth, or in the vain hope, thatarnid the crowd each 
 individual might be safe and invisible. From every 
 part of the capital, they flowed into the church of St. 
 Sophia: in the space of an hour, the sanctuary, the 
 choir, the nave, the upper and lower galleries, were 
 filled with the multitude of fathers and husbands, of 
 women and children, of priests, monks, and religious 
 virgins : the doors were barred on the inside, and they 
 sought protection from the sacred dome, which they 
 had so lately abhorred as a profane and polluted edifice. 
 Their confidence was founded on the prophecy of an 
 enthusiast or impostor; that one day the Turks should 
 enter Constantinople, and pursue the Romans as far as 
 the column of Consiantiiie in the square before St. So- 
 phia: but that this would be the term of their calami- 
 lies : that an angel would descend from heaven, with a 
 sword in his hand, and would deliver the empire, with 
 that celestial weapon, to a poor man seated at the foot 
 of the column. "Take this sword," would he say, 
 ** and avenge the people of the lord.** At these anima- 
 ting words, the Turks would instantly fly, and the vic- 
 torious Romans would drive them from the west, and 
 from all Anatolia, as far as the frontiers of Persia. It 
 is on this occasion, that Ducas, with some fancy and 
 much truth, upbraids the discord and obstinacy of the 
 Greeks. *' Had that angel appeared,'* exclaims the 
 historian, " had he offered to exterminate your foes if 
 you would consent to the union of the church, even 
 then, in that fatal moment, you would have rejected 
 your safety, or have deceived your God.*** 
 Captivity of the While they expected the descent of 
 Greek*. the tardy angel, the doors were broken 
 with axes ; and as the Turks encountered no resistance, 
 their bloodless hands were employed in selecting and 
 securing the multitude of their prisoners. Youth, 
 beauty, and the appearance of wealth, attracted their 
 choice ; and the right of property was decided among 
 themselves by a prior seizure, by personal strength, 
 and by the authority of command. In the space of an 
 hour, the male captives were bound with cords, the fe- 
 males with their veils and girdles. The senators were 
 linked with their slaves; the prelates, with the porters, 
 of the church ; and young men of a plebeian class, with 
 noble maids, whose faces had been invisible to the sun 
 and their nearest kindred. In this common captivity, 
 the ranks of society were confounded; the ties of na- 
 ture were cut asunder ; and the inexorable soldier was 
 
 f Chalcondyles most absurdly supposes, that ConsUntinople was 
 racked by the Asiatics in revenge for the ancient calamities of Troy • 
 and the grammarians of the fifteenth century are happy to melt 
 down the uncouth appellation of Turks, into the more classic name 
 of Teucri. 
 
 • When Cyrus surprised Babylon during the celebration of a festi- 
 val, so vast was the city, and so careless were the inhabiunts, that 
 much time elapsed before the distant quarters knew that they were 
 captives. Herodotus, (1. i. c. 191.) and Usher, (Annal. p. 78.) who has 
 quoted from the prophet Jeremiah a passage of similar import. 
 
 t This lively description is extracted from Ducas, (c. 39 ) who two 
 years afterwards was sent ambassador from the prince of Lesbos to the 
 ■ulian, (c. 44 ) Till Lesbos was subdued in 1463, (Phranza, 1. iii. c. 
 
 u A^ ''land must have been full of the fugitives of ConsUntinople, 
 ¥rho delighted to repeat, perhaps to adorn, the tale of their misery. 
 
 careless of the father's groans, the tears of the mother, 
 and the lamentations of the children. The loudest in 
 their wailings were the nuns, who were torn from the al- 
 tar with naked bosoms, outstretched hands, and dish- 
 evelled hair: and we should piously believe that few 
 could be tempted to prefer the viyils of the haram to 
 those of the monastery. Of these unfortunate Greeks, 
 of these domestic animals, whole strings were rudely 
 driven through the streets; and as the conquerors were 
 ea^er to return for more prey, their trembling pace was 
 quickened with menaces and blows. At the same hour, 
 a similar rapine was exercised in all the churches and 
 monasteries, in all the palaces and habitations of the 
 capital ; nor could any palace, however sacred or seques- 
 tered, protect the persons or the property of the Greeks. 
 Above sixty thousand of this devoted people were trans- 
 ported from the city to the camp and fleet ; exchanged 
 or sold according to the caprice or interest of their mas- 
 ters, and dispersed in remote servitude through the pro- 
 vinces of the Ottoman empire. Among these we may 
 notice some remarkable characters. The historian 
 Phranza, first chamberlain and principal secretary, was 
 involved with his family in the common lot. After 
 suffering four months the hardships of slavery, he re- 
 covered his freedom ; in the ensuing winter he ventured 
 to Adrianople, and ransomed his wife from the mir 
 bashi or master of horse ; but his two children, in the 
 flower of youth and beauty, had been seized for the use 
 of Mahomet himself. The daughter of Phranza died 
 in the seraglio, perhaps a virgin ; his son, in the fif- 
 teenth year of his age, preferred death to infamy, and 
 was stabbed by the hand of the royal lover." A deed 
 thus inhuman cannot surely be expiated by the taste and 
 liberality with which he released a Grecian matron and 
 her two daughters, on receiving a Latin ode from Phi- 
 lelphus, who had chosen a wife in that noble family.* 
 The pride or cruelty of Mahomet would have been most 
 sensibly gratified by the capture of a Roman legate; 
 but the dexterity of cardinal Isidore eluded the search, 
 and he escaped from Galata in a plebeian habit.' The 
 chain and entrance of the outward harbour was still 
 occupied by the Italian ships of merchandise and war. 
 They had signalized their valour in the siege ; they 
 embraced the moment of retreat, while the Turkish 
 mariners were dissipated in the pillage of the city. 
 When they hoisted sail, the beach was covered with a 
 suppliant and lamentable crowd : but the means of 
 transportation were scanty : the Venetians and Genoese 
 selected their countrymen; and notwithstanding the 
 fairest promises of the sultan, the inhabitants of Gala- 
 ta evacuated their houses, and embarked with their 
 most precious effects. 
 
 In the fall and the sack of great cities. Amount of the 
 an historian is condemned to repeat the "PO'*- 
 
 tale of uniform calamity: the same effects must be 
 produced by the same passion ; and when those pas- 
 sions may be indulged without control, small, alas! 
 is the difference between civilized and savage man. 
 Amidst the vague exclamations of bigotry and hatred, 
 the Turks are not accused of a wanton or immoderate 
 effusion of christian blood : but accordinor to their 
 maxims, (the maxims of antiquity,) the lives of the 
 vanquished were forfeited ; and the legitimate reward 
 of the conqueror was derived from the service, the 
 
 u See Phranza, 1. iii. c. 20, 21. His expressions are positive : Ame- 
 
 ras sua manu jugulavit volebat enim eo lurpiter et nefarie 
 
 abuti. Me miserum et infelicem. Yet he could only learn from 
 report the bloody or impure scenes that were acted in the dark re- 
 cesses of the seraglio. 
 
 X See Tiraboschi, (torn. vi. p. i. p. 29().) and Lancelot. (Mem. de 
 I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. x. p. 718.) I should be curious to 
 learn how he could praise the public enemy, whom he so often re- 
 viles as the most corrupt and inhuman of tyrants. 
 
 y The commentaries of Pius 11. suppose that he craftily placed his 
 cardinal's hat on the head of a corpse which was cut offand exposed 
 in triumph, while the legate himself was bought and delivered as a 
 captive of no value. The great Belgic Chronicle adorns his escap* 
 with new adventures, which he suppressed Cmy" Spondanus, A. D. 
 1453, No. 15.) in his own letters, lest he should lose the merit and 
 reward of sufleriog for Christ. 
 
 Chap.. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 459 
 
 «ale, or the ransom, of his captives of both sexes." 
 The wealth of Constantinople had been granted by 
 the sultan to his victorious troops; and the rapine of 
 an hour is more productive than the industry of years. 
 But as no regular division was attempted of the spoil, 
 the respective shares were not determined by merit; 
 and the rewards of valour were stolen away by the 
 followers of the camp, who had declined the toil and 
 danger of the battle. The narrative of their depreda- 
 tions could not afford either amusement or instruction : 
 the total amount, in the last poverty of the empire, 
 has been valued at four millions of ducats;* and of 
 this sum a small part was the property of the Vene- 
 tians, the Genoese, the Florentines, and the merchants 
 of Ancona. Of these foreigners, the stock was im- 
 proved in quick and perpetual circulation : but the 
 riches of the Greeks were displayed in the idle osten- 
 tation of palaces and wardrobes, or deeply buried in 
 treasures of ingots and old coin, lest it should be 
 demanded at their hands for the defence of their coun- 
 try. The profanation and plunder of the monasteries 
 and churches, excited the most tragic complaints. 
 The dome of St. Sophia itself, the earthly heaven, the 
 second firmament, the vehicle of the cherubim, the 
 throne of the glory of God,** was despoiled of the 
 oblations of ages; and the gold and silver, the pearls 
 and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments, were 
 most wickedly converted to the service of mankind. 
 After the divine images had been stripped of all that 
 could be valuable to a profane eye, the canvass, or 
 the wood, was torn, or broken, or burnt, or trod under 
 foot, or applied, in the stables or the kitchen, to the 
 vilest uses. The example of sacrileire was imitated, 
 however, from the Latin conquerors of Constantinople; 
 and the treatment which Christ, the Virgin, and the 
 saints, had sustained from the guilty catholic, might 
 be inflicted by the zealous mussulman on the monu- 
 ments of idolatry. Perhaps, instead of joining the 
 public clamour, a philosopher will observe, that in the 
 decline of the arts, the workmanship could not be 
 more valuable than the work, and that a fresh supply 
 of visions and miracles would speedily be renewed by 
 the craft of the priest and the credulity of the people. 
 He will more seriously deplore the loss of the Byzan- 
 tine libraries, which were destroved or scattered in 
 the general confusion : one hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand manuscripts are said to have disappeared ;* ten 
 volumes might he purchased for a single ducat; and 
 the same ijrnominious price, too high perhaps for a 
 shelf of theology, included the whole works of Aris- 
 totle and Homer, the noblest productions of the science 
 and literature of ancient Greece. We may reflect 
 with pleasure, that an inestimable portion of our clas- 
 sic treasures was safely deposited in Italy; and that 
 the mechanics of a German town had invented an art 
 which derides the havoc of time and barbarism. 
 M,h<^.««. TT From the first hour* of the memora- 
 
 visits the city, ble twenty-ninth of May, disorder and 
 St. Sophia, the Alpine prevailed in Constantinople, till 
 palace, &c. ^^^ e\g\i\\v hour of the same day ; when 
 the sultan himself passed in triumph through the gate 
 of St. Romanus. He was attended by his vizirs, ba- 
 shaws, and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine 
 historian) was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, 
 and equal in battle to any ten of the race of ordinary 
 
 X Ru5bequius expatiates with pleasure and applause on the rights 
 of war, and the use of slavery, among the ancients and the Turks, 
 (de Lfsat. Turcica, epist. iii. p. 161.) 
 
 * This sum is specified in a marginal note of Leunclavius, (Chal- 
 condyles, 1. viii. p. 211.) but In the distribution to Venice, Genoa, 
 Florence, and Ancona, of 50, 20, 20, and 15,<K)0 ducats, I suspect that 
 a fiEure has been dropt. Even with the restitution, the foreign pro- 
 perly would scarcely exceed one fourth. 
 
 b See the enthusiastic praises and lamentations of Phranza, 1. iii. 
 c. 17. 
 
 e See Pucas, (c. 43 ) and an epistle, July 15th, 14.53, from Laurus 
 Quirinus to pope Nicholas V. (Hody de Graecis, p. 192. from a MS. in 
 the C<»iion library.) 
 
 A The Julian calendar, which reckons the days and hours from 
 midnight, was used at Constantinople. But Ducas seems to under- 
 ■tand the natural hotra from suD-riie. 
 
 mortals. The conqueror* gazed with satisfaction and 
 wonder on the strange though splendid appearance of 
 the domes and palaces, so dissimilar from the style 
 of oriental architecture. In the hippodrome, or aimei' 
 dan^ his eye was attracted by the twisted column of 
 the three serpents ; and, as a trial of his strength, he 
 shattered with his iron mace or battle-axe the under 
 jaw of one of these monsters,*^ which in the eye of the 
 Turks were the idols or talismans of the city. At the 
 principal door of St. Sophia, he alighted from his 
 horse, and entered the dome ; and such was his jealous 
 regard for that monument of his glory, that on observ- 
 ing a zealous mussulman in the act of breaking the 
 marble pavement, he admonished him with his scymi- 
 tar, that, if the spoil and captives were granted to the 
 soldiers, the public and private burldings had been 
 reserved for the prince. By his command the metro- 
 polis of the eastern church was transformed into a 
 mosch : the rich and portable instruments of super- 
 stition had been removed ; the crosses were thrown 
 down ; and the walls, which were covered with ima- 
 ges and mosaics, were washed and purified, and re- 
 stored to a state of naked simplicity. On the day, or 
 on the ensuing Friday, the muezin, or crier, ascended 
 the most lofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan^ or pub- 
 lic invitation in the name of God and his prophet; the 
 imam preached ; and Mahomet the second performed 
 the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great 
 altar, where the christian mysteries had so lately been 
 celebrated before the last of the Caesars.* From St. 
 Sophia he proceeded to the august, but desolate, man- 
 sion, of a hundred successors of the great Constantine, 
 but which in a few hours had been stripped of the 
 pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the 
 vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his 
 mind ; and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian 
 poetry : *' The spider has wove his web in the impe- 
 rial palace ; and the owl hath sung her watch-song on 
 the towers of Afrasiab." * 
 
 Yet his mind was not satisfied, nor His behaviour] 
 did the victory seem complete, till he *» ^^e Greeks, 
 was informed of the fate of Constantine; whether he 
 had escaped, or been made prisoner, or had fallen in 
 the battle. Two janizaries claimed the honour and re- 
 ward of his death : the body, under a heap of slain, was 
 discovered by the golden eagles embroidered on his 
 shoes ; the Greeks acknowledged with tears the head 
 of their late emperor; and, after exposing the bloody 
 trophy,' Mahomet bestowed on his rival the honours 
 of a decent funeral. After his decease, Lucas Nota- 
 ras, great duke,* and first minister of the empire, was 
 the most important prisoner. When he offered his per- 
 son and treasures at the foot of the throne, "And why," 
 said the inditjnant sultan, "did you not employ these 
 treasures in the defence of your prince and country!" 
 " They were yours," answered the slave ; ** God had 
 reserved them for your hands." " If he reserved them 
 for me," replied the despot, "how have you presumed 
 to withhold them so long by a fruitless and fatal resis- 
 tance 1" The great duke alleged the obstinacy of the 
 
 • See the Turkish Annals, p. 329. and the Pandects of LeunclaviuSt 
 p. 448. 
 
 f I have had occasion (vol. i. p. 209.) to mention this curious relic 
 of Grecian antiquity. 
 
 K We are obliged to Canlemir (p. 102.) for the Turkish account of 
 the conversion of St. Sophia, so bitterly deplored by Phranza and 
 Ducas. It is amusing enough to observe, in what opposite lights tha 
 same object appears to a mussulman and a christian eye. 
 
 h This distich, which Cantemir gives in the original, derives new 
 beauties from the application. It was thus that Scipio repeated, in 
 the sack of Carthage, the famous prophecy of Homer. The same 
 generous feeling carried the mind of the conqueror to the past or the 
 
 future. _ ^ » Tx 1 J..O »T 
 
 i I cannot believe with Ducas, (see Spondanus, A. D. 1453, No. 
 13.) that Mahomet sent round Persia, Arabia, &c. the head of the 
 Greek emperor : he would surely content himself with a trophy less 
 
 inhuman. . , , , , ,, 
 
 k Phranza was the personal enemy of the great duke ; nor could 
 time, or death, or his own retreat to a monastery, extort a feeling of 
 sympathy or forgiveness. Ducas is inclined to praise and pity the 
 martyr; Chalcondyles is neuter, but we are indebted to him for the 
 hint of the Greek conspiracy. 
 
460 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXIX. 
 
 strangers, and some secret encouraorement from the 
 Turkish vizir; and from this perilous interview, he 
 was at length dismissed with the assurance of pardon 
 and protection. Mahomet condescended to visit his 
 wife, a venerable princess oppressed with sickness and 
 grief; his consolation for her misfortunes was in the 
 most tender strain of humanity and filial reverence. 
 A similar clemency was extended to the principal 
 officers of state, of whom several were ransomed at 
 his expense; and during some days he declared him- 
 self the friend and father of the vanquished people. 
 But the scene was soon changed ; and before his 
 departure, the hippodrome streamed with the blood of 
 his noblest captives. His perfidious cruelty is exe- 
 crated by the christians ; they adorn with the colours 
 of heroic martyrdom the execution of the great duke 
 and his two sons ; and his death is ascribed to the 
 generous refusal of delivering his children to the 
 tyrant's lust. Yet a Byzantine historian has dropt an 
 unguarded word of conspiracy, deliverance, and Ita- 
 lian succour : such treason may be glorious ; but the 
 rebel who bravely ventures, has justly forfeited, his 
 life; nor should we blame a conqueror for destroy- 
 ing the enemies whom he can no longer trust. On 
 the eighteenth of June, the victorious sultan returned 
 to Adrianople; and smiled at the base and hollow 
 embassies of the christian princes, who viewed their 
 approaching ruin in the fill of the eastern empire. 
 He re-peopiea Constantinople had been left naked 
 and adorns Con- and desolate, without a prince or a peo- 
 atantinople. p]g^ g^ gj^^ ^.^,^,j ^^^^ ^^ despoiled of 
 
 the incomparable situation which marks her for the 
 metropolis of a great empire; and the genius of the 
 place will ever triumph over the accidents of time and 
 fortune. Boursa and Adrianople, the ancient seals of 
 the Ottomans, sunk into provincial towns ; and Maho- 
 met the second established his own residence, and 
 that of his successors, on the same commanding spot 
 which had been chosen by Constantine.* The fortifi- 
 cations of Galata, which might afford a shelter to the 
 Latins, were prudently destroyed ; but the damage of 
 the Turkish cannon was soon repaired ; and before the 
 month of August, great quantities of lime had been 
 burnt for the restoration of the walls of the capital. 
 As the entire property of the soil and buildings, wheth- 
 er public or private, or profane or sacred, was now 
 transferred to the conqueror, he first separated a space 
 of eiurht furlongs from the point of the triangle for the 
 establishment of his seraglio or palace. It is here, in 
 the bosom of luxury, that the grand signtor (as he 
 has been emphatically named by the Italians) appears 
 to reign over Europe and Asia; but his person on the 
 shores of the Bosphorus may not always be secure 
 from the insults of a hostile navy. In the new charac- 
 ter of a mosch, the cathedral of St. Sophia was endow- 
 ed with an ample revenue, crowned with lofty mina- 
 rets, and surrounded with groves and fountains, for the 
 devotion and refreshment of the Moslems. The same 
 model was imitated in the Jami or royal moschs; and 
 the first of these was built, by Mahomet himself, on 
 the ruins of the church of the holy apostles, and the 
 tombs of the Greek emperors. On the third day after 
 the conquest, the grave of Abu Ayub, or Job, who had 
 fallen m the first siege of the Arabs, was revealed in a 
 vision; and it is before the sepulchre of the martyr, 
 that the new sultans are girded with the sword of em- 
 pire." Constantinople no longer appertains to the 
 Roman historian ; nor shall I enumerate the civil and 
 
 religious edifices that were profaned or erected by its 
 Turkish masters : the population was speedily renew- 
 ed ; and before the end of September, five thousand 
 families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the roy- 
 al mandate, which enjoined them, under pain of deaih, 
 to occupy their new habitations in the capital, 'i'he 
 throne of Mahomet was ijuarded by the numbers and 
 fidelity of his Moslem subjects ; but his rational policy 
 aspired to collect the renmantofthe Greeks; and they 
 returned in crowds, as soon as hey were assured of 
 their lives, and liberties, and the free exercise of their 
 religion. In the election and investiture of a patriarch, 
 the ceremonial of the Byzantine court was revived and 
 imitated. With a mixture of satisfaction and horror, 
 they behe>d the sultan on his throne; who delivered 
 into the hands of Gennadius the crosier or pastoral 
 staff, the symbol of his ecclesiastical office ; who con- 
 ducted the patriarch to the gate of the seraglio, pre- 
 sented him with a horse richly caparisoned, and direct- 
 ed the vizirs and bashaws to lead him to the palace 
 which had been allotted for his residence." The 
 churches of Constantinople were shared between the 
 two religions: their limits were marked; and, till it 
 was infringed by Selim, the grandson of Mahomet, the 
 Greeks* enjoyed above sixty years the benefit of this 
 equal partition. Encouraged by the ministers of the 
 divan, who wished to elude the fanaticism of the sul- 
 tan, the christian advocates presumed to allege that 
 this division had been an act, not of generosity, but of 
 justice ; not a concession, but a compact ; and that if 
 one half of the city had been taken by storm, the other 
 moiety had surrendered on the faith of a sacred capitu- 
 lation. The original grant had indeed been consumed 
 by fire ; but the loss was supplied by the testimony of 
 three aged janizaries who remembered the transaction ; 
 and their venal oaths are of more weight in the opinion 
 of Cantemir, than the positive and unanimous consent 
 of the history of the times.P 
 
 The remaining fragments of the Greek r- .• .• r u 
 kingdom m Lurope and Asia I shall imperial famiiiea 
 abandon to the Turkish arms; but the "'^^'"'""pQ""*"*! 
 final extinction of the two last dynas- P»^«^»l"S"»- 
 ties<» which have reigned in Constantinople, shoirld 
 terminate the decline and fall of the Roman empire in 
 the east. The despots of the Morea, Demetrius and 
 Thomas,' the two surviving brothers of the name of 
 PALiEOLOGUs, wcrc astouishcd by the death of the 
 emperor Constantine, and the ruin of the monarchy. 
 Hopeless of defence, they prepared, with the noble 
 Greeks who adhered to their fortune, to seek a refuge 
 in Italy, beyond the reach of the Ottoman thunder. 
 Their first apprehensions were dispelled by the victo- 
 rious sultan, who contented himself with a tribute 
 of twelve thousand ducats; and while his ambition 
 
 Chap. XXIX, 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 461 
 
 I 
 
 1 For the restilulion of ConsUntinople and the Turkish founda. 
 Uons, see Cantemir, (p. 102—109.) Ducas, (c. 42.) with Thevenoi, 
 Tourriefort, and the rest of our modern travellers. From a gigantic 
 picture of the greatness, population, Sec. of Constantinople and the 
 Ottoman empire, (Abreg»^ de I'Histoire Oltomane, torn. i. p. 16—21.) 
 we may learn, that in the year 1586, the Moslems were less numerous 
 ni the capital than the christians, or even the Jews. 
 
 m The Turbe, or sepulchral monument of Abu Ayub, is described 
 f"£*neravfd ii, the Tableau General de I'Empire Ottoman, (Paris, 
 
 fi^^ '5"^%^^- o l;.*'^ * ^^""^ ^^ 1«" ""^J perhaps, than magnificence, 
 (torn. 1. p. 30o, 30G.) ' r r I e > 
 
 II Phranar (1. in. c. 19.) relates the ceremony, which has possibly 
 been adorned in the Greek reports to each other, and to the Latini. 
 1 he fact IS confirmed by Emanuel Malaxus, who wrote, in vuli»ar 
 Greek, the History of the Patriarchs after the taking of Constantino- 
 pie, inserted in the Turco-Graecia of Crusius, (1. v. p. 106—184.) But 
 the most patient reader will not believe that Mahomet adopted the 
 catholic form, "SanctaTrinitas quae mihi donavit imperium te in 
 patriarchain nov» Romae deligit." 
 
 m" oi'"T.-oHt'^".^5°*9'"*^'* «<■ Crusius, &c. Spondanus (A. D. 1453, 
 XNO. Zl. l4o«. No. 16.) describes th'^ slavery and domestic quarrels of 
 the Greek church. The patriarch who succeeded Gennadius, threw 
 himself in despair into a well. 
 
 P Cantemir, (p. 101—105.) insists on the unanimous consent of the 
 lurkish historians, ancient as well as modern, and argues, that they 
 vvould not have violated the truth to diminish their national glory, 
 since It is esteemed more honourable to take a city by force than by 
 composition. But, 1. I doubt this consent, since he quotes no parti- 
 cular historian, and the Turkish Annals of Leunclavius affirm, with- 
 out exception, that Mahomet took Constantinople per rim, (p. 329 ) 
 2. The same argument may be turned in favour of ilie Greeks of the 
 times, who would not have f >rgotten this honourable and salutary 
 treaU. Voltaire, as usual, prefers the Turks to the christians. 
 
 q For the genealogy and fall of the Comneni of Trebizond, see Du- 
 cange ; (tarn. Byzant. p. 195.) for the la.n Palseologl, the same accu- 
 rate antiquarian, (p. 241. 247, 248.) The Palaeologi of Montferrat 
 were not extinct till the next century ; but they had forgotten their 
 Greek origin and kindred. 
 
 1 ' L" ihe worthless story of the disputes and misfonunes of the two 
 brothers, Phranza (I iii. c. '^1-30.) is too partial on the side of Tho- 
 mas ; l)iicas (c. 44, 45.) is loo brief, and Chalcondvlei (l. viii. ix. x.y 
 too diffuse and digressive. ^ 
 
 explored the continent and the islands in search of 
 prey, he indulged the Morea in a respite of seven 
 years. But this respite was a period of grief, dis- 
 cord, and misery. The hexamilion^ the rampart of the 
 the isthmus, so often raised and so often subverted, 
 could not long be defended by three hundred Ita- 
 lian archers : the keys of Corinth were seized by 
 the Turks; they returned from their summer excur- 
 sions with a train of captives and spoil ; and the 
 complaints of the injured Greeks were heard with 
 indiiference and disdain. The Albanians, a vagrant 
 tribe of shepherds and robbers, filled the peninsula 
 with rapine and murder : the two despots implored the 
 dangerous and humiliating aid of a neiglibcuring ba- 
 shaw ; and when he had quelled the revolt, his lessons 
 inculcated the rule of their future conduct. Neither 
 the ties of blood, nor the oaths which they repeatedly 
 pledged in the communion and before the altar, nor 
 the stronger pressure of necessity, could reconcile or 
 suspend their domestic quarrels. They ravaged each 
 other's patrimony with fire and sword ; the alms and 
 succours of the west were consumed in civil hostility ; 
 and their power was only exerted in savage and arbi- 
 trary executions. The distress and revenge of the 
 f th weaker rival invoked their supreme lord ; 
 ^'illorea,^ and, in the season of maturity and re- 
 A. D. 1460. venge, Mahomet declared himself the 
 friend of Demetrius, and marched into the Morea with 
 an irresistible force. When he had taken possession 
 of Sparta, "You are too weak," said the sultan, " to 
 control this turbulent province ; I will take your daugh- 
 ter to my bed ; and you shall pass the remainder of 
 your life in security and honour." Demetrius sighed 
 and obeyed ; surrendered his daughter and his castles; 
 followed to Adrianople his sovereign and son; and 
 received for his own maintenance, and that of his fol- 
 lowers, a city in Thrace, and the adjacent isles of 
 Imbros, Lemnos, and Samothrace. He was joined 
 the next year by a companion of misfortune, the last 
 of the CoMNENiAN Tace, who, after the taking of Con- 
 stantinople by the Latins, had founded a new empire 
 on the coast of the Black sea." In the progress of his 
 Anatolian conquests, Mahomet invested with a fleet 
 and army the capital of David, who presumed to style 
 himself emperor of Trebizond ; * and the negociation 
 was comprized in a short and peremptory question, 
 **Will you secure your life and treasures by resign- 
 ing your kingdom? or had you rather forfeit your 
 kingdom, your treasures, and your life V* The feeble 
 Comnenus was subdued by his own fears, and the 
 example of a mussulman neighbour, the prince of 
 Sinope," who, on a similar summons, had yielded a 
 fortified city with four hundred cannon and ten or 
 of Trebizond, twelve thousand soldiers. The capitu- 
 A. D. 1461. laiion of Trebizond was faithfully per- 
 formed ; and the emperor, with his family, was trans- 
 ported to a castle in Romania; but on a slight suspi- 
 cion of corresponding with the Persian king, David, 
 and the whole Comnenian race, were sacrificed to the 
 jpalf)usy or avarice of the conqueror. Nor could the 
 name of father long protect the unfortunate Demetrius 
 from exile and confiscation; his abject submission 
 moved the pity and contempt of the sultan ; his fol- 
 lowers were transplanted to Constantinople ; and his 
 poverty was alleviated by a pension of fifty thousand 
 
 • See the loss or conquest of Trebizond in Chalcondyleg, 1. ix. 
 p. 263-266.) Ducas, (c. 45.) Phranza, (I. iii. c. 27.) and Cantemir, 
 
 t Though Tournefort (torn. iii. lettre xvii. p. 179.) speaks of Trebi- 
 xond as mal peupU-e, Peyssonel, the latest and most accurate obser- 
 ver, can find 100,000 inhabitants. (Commerce de la Mer Noire, torn, 
 ii. p. 72. and for the province, p. 53-90.) Its prosperity and trade 
 are perpetually disturbed by the factious quarrels of two odaa o\ 
 janizaries, in one of which 30,000 Lazi are commonly enrolled. (Me- 
 moirs de Tott. torn. iii. p. 16, 17.) . , . . a 
 
 u Ismael Beg, prince of Sinope, or Sinople, was possessed (chiefly 
 from his copper mines) of a revenue of 200,000 ducats. (Chalcond. 1. 
 iz. p. 258, 259.) Peyssonel (Commerce de la Mer Noire, torn. ii. p. 
 100.) ascribes to the modern city 60,000 inhabitants. This account 
 •eeins enormous ; yet it is by trading with a people thai we become 
 acquaiateU with their wealth and numbers. 
 
 aspers, till a monastic habit and a tardy death releaseo 
 Palaeologus from an earthly master. It is not easy to 
 pronounce whether the servitude of Demetrius, or the 
 exile of his brother Thomas,* be the most inglorious. 
 On the conquest of the Morea, the despot escaped to 
 Corfu, and from thence to Italy, with some naked 
 adherents: his name, his sufferings, and the head of 
 the apostle St. Andrew, entitled him to the hospitality 
 of the Vatican ; and his misery was prolonged by a 
 pension of six thousand ducats from the pope and 
 cardinals. His two sons, Andrew and Manuel, were 
 educated in Italy; but the eldest, contemptible to his 
 enemies and burthensome to his friends, was degraded 
 by the baseness of his life and marriage. A title was 
 his sole inheritance ; and that inheritance he succes- 
 sively sold to the kings of France and Arragon.^ 
 During this transient prosperity, Charles the eighth 
 was ambitious of joining the empire of the east with 
 the kingdom of Naples: in a public festival, he as- 
 sumed the appellation and the purple of Augustus: 
 the Greeks rejoiced, and the Ottoman already trem- 
 bled at the approach of the French chivalry." Manuel 
 Palaeologus, the second son, was tempted to revisit 
 his native country : his return might be grateful, and 
 could not be dangerous, to the Porte : he was main- 
 tained at Constantinople in safety and ease ; and an 
 honourable train of christians and Moslems attended 
 him to the grave. If there be some animals of so gene- 
 rous a nature that they refuse to propagate in a domestic 
 state, the last of the imperial race must be ascribed to 
 an inferior kind : he accepted from the sultan's liberal- 
 ity two beautiful females; and his surviving son was 
 lost in the habit and religion of a Turkish slave. 
 
 The importance of Constantinople was Grief and terror 
 felt and magnified in its loss : the pon- of Europe, 
 tificate of Nicholas the fifth, however A. D. 1453. 
 peaceful and prosperous, was dishonoured by the fall 
 of the eastern empire ; and the grief and terror of the 
 Latins revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthu- 
 siasm of the crusades. In one of the most distant 
 countries of the west, Philip duke of Burgundy enter- 
 tained, at Lisle in Flanders, an assembly of his no- 
 bles ; and the pompous pageants of the feast were 
 skilfully adapted to their fancy and feelings.* In the 
 midst of the banquet^a gigantic Saracen entered the 
 hall, leading a fictitious elephant, with a castle on his 
 back : a matron in a mourning robe, the symbol of 
 religion, was seen to issue from the castle : she de- 
 plored her oppression, and accused the slowness of 
 her champions; the principal herald advanced, bearing 
 on his fist a live pheasant, which, according to the 
 rites of chivalry, he presented to the duke. At this 
 extraordinary summons, Philip, a wise and aged prince, 
 engaged his person and powers in the holy war against 
 the Turks: his example was imitated by the barons 
 and knights of the assembly; they swore to God, the 
 Virgin, the ladies, and the pheasant ; and their parti- 
 cular vows were not less extravagant than the general 
 sanction of their oath. But the performance was made 
 to depend on some future and foreign contingency; 
 and during twelve years, till the last hour of his life, 
 the duke of Burgundy might be scrupulously, and 
 
 X Spondanus (from Gobelin Comment. Pii II. 1. v.) relates the ar- 
 rival and reception of the despot Thomas at Rome, (A. D. 14G1, No. 3.) 
 
 y By an act dated A. D. 1494, Sept. 6. and lately transmitted! from 
 the archives of the Capitol to the royal library of Pans, the despot 
 Andrew Palaeologus, reserving the Morea, and stipulating some pri- 
 vate advantages, conveys to Charles VIII. king of France, the em- 
 pires of Constantinople and Trebizond. (Spondanus, A. D. 14Jo, No. 
 2.) M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de I'Academie dcs Inscriptions, torn, 
 xvii. p. 539—578.) has bestowed a dissertation on this national title, 
 of which he had obtained a copy from Rome. ... 
 
 z See Philippe de Comines, (1. vii. c. 14.) who reckons with plea- 
 sure the number of Greeks who were prepared to rise, 60 miles of an 
 easy navigation, eighteen days' journey from Valona to Conslanlino- 
 ple, &c. On this occasion the Turkish empire was saved by the 
 
 policy of Venice. . ^. , , ,. ^ ,i,r 
 
 a See the original feast in Oliver de la Marche, (Memoires, p. ». c. 
 29 30.) with the abstract and observations of M. de Ste. Palaye. 
 (Memoires sur la Chevalerie, torn. i. p. iii. p. 182—185.) The pe«r 
 cock and the pheasant were aialinguished aa rojal birds. 
 
462 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX, 
 
 Chap* XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 463 
 
 perhaps sincerely, on the eve of his departure. Had 
 every breast glowed with the same ardour; had the 
 union of the christians corresponded with their bra- 
 very; had every country, from Sweden'' to Naples, 
 supplied a just proportion of cavalry and infantry, of 
 men and money, it is indeed probable that Constanti- 
 nople would have been delivered, and that the Turks 
 miuht have been chased beyond the Hellespont or the 
 Euphrates. But the secretary of the emperor, who 
 composed every epistle, and attended every meeting, 
 iBneas Sylvius,' a statesman and orator, describes 
 from his own experience the repugnant state and spirit 
 of Christendom. "It is a body," says he, " without 
 a head ; a republic without laws or magistrates. The 
 pope and the emperor may shine as lofty titles, as 
 splendid images: but ihey are unable to command, 
 and none are willing to obey : every state has a sepa- 
 rate prince, and every prince has a separate interest. 
 What eloquence could unite so many discordant and 
 hostile powers under the same standard ? Could they 
 be assembled in arms, who would dare to assume the 
 office of greneral 1 What order could be maintained ? 
 — what military discipline 1 Who would undertake to 
 feed such an enormous multitude t Who would under- 
 stand their various languages, or direct their strange and 
 incompatible manners 1 What mortal could reconcile 
 the English with the French, Genoa with Arragon, the 
 Germans with the natives of Hungary and Bohemia t 
 If a smajl number enlisted in the holy war, they must 
 be overthrown by the infidels ; if many, by their own 
 weight and confusion." Yet the same ./Eneas, when 
 he was raised to the papal throne, under the name of 
 Pius the second, devoted his life to the prosecution 
 of the Turkish war. In the council of Mantua he 
 excited some sparks of a false or feeble enthusiasm ; 
 but when the pontiff appeared at Ancona, to embark 
 in person with the troops, enoragements vanished in 
 excuses; a precise day was adjourned to an indefinite 
 term ; and his effective army consisted of some Ger- 
 man pilgrims, whom he was obliged to disband with 
 indulgences and alms. Regardless of futurity, his 
 successors and the powers of Italy were involved in 
 the schemes of present and domestic ambition ; and 
 the distance or proximity of each object determined, 
 in their eyes, its apparent magnitude. A more en- 
 larged view of their interest would have taught them 
 to maintain a defensive and naval war against the 
 common enemy ; and the support of Scanderbeg and 
 his brave Albanians might have prevented the subse- 
 quent invasion of the kingdom of Naples. The siege 
 and sack of Otranto by the Turks diffused a general 
 consternation ; and pope Sixtus was preparing to fly 
 beyond the Alps, when the storm was instantly dis- 
 Death of Ma- pelled by the death of Mahomet the 
 A°D*^l49l second, in the fifty-first year of his age.** 
 May 3. or* His lofty genius aspired to the conquest 
 July 2. of Italy : he was possessed of a strong 
 city and a capacious harbour; and the same reign 
 mi^ht have been decorated with the trophies of the 
 New and the Ajicient Rome.* 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 State of Rome from the tuielfth century. — Temporal domin- 
 ion of the pones. — Seditions of the city. — Political hereby 
 of Arnold of Brescia — Restoration of the republic. — The 
 senators. — Pride of the Romans. — Their wars. — They are 
 deprived of the election cm d presence of the popes, who re- 
 tire to Aviffnon. — TTie jubilee. — Noble families of Rome. — 
 Feud of the Colonnaand Ursini, 
 
 revo- 
 
 b It was found by an actual enumeration, that Sweden, Gothland, 
 and Finland, contained 1,800,000 fighting men, and consequently 
 were far more populous than at present. 
 
 c In the year 1454, Spondanus has given, from iEneas Sylvius, a 
 view of the state of Europe, enriched witli his own observations. 
 That valuable annalist, and the lulian Muratori, will continue the 
 ■eries of events from the year 1453 to i481, the end of Mahomet's life, 
 and of this chapter. 
 
 d Besides the two annalists, the readier may consult Giannone (Is- 
 toria Civile, torn. iii. p. 449-— 155.) fur the Turkish invasion of the 
 kingdom of Naples. For the reign and conquests of Mahomet II. I 
 have occasionally used the Memorie Istoriche de Monarch! Otto- 
 manni di Giovanni Sagredo. (Venezia, 1677, in 4tn.) In peace and 
 ■war, the Turks have ever engaged the aitention of the republic of 
 Venice. All her despatches and archives were open to a procurator 
 of St. Mark, and Sagredo is not contemptible either in sense or 
 style. Yet he too bitterly hates the infidels ; he is ignorant of their 
 language and manners ; and his narrative, which allows only seventy 
 pages to Mabomet II. (p. 69—140.) becomes more copious and au- 
 thentic as ho approaches the years 1640 and 1644, the term of the 
 historic labours of John Sagredo. ^ 
 
 • As I am now taking an everlasting farewell of the Greek empire, 
 I shall briefly meutiou the great collection of Byzantine wriierS| 
 
 Iw the first ages of the decline and fall guie and 
 of the Roman empire, our eye is invaria- lutionsof Rome^ 
 bly fixed on the royal city, which had uoJli^ 
 given laws to the fairest portion of the 
 globe. We contemplate her fortunes, at first with ad- 
 miration, at length with pity, always with aitention ; 
 and when that attention is diverted from the capital to 
 the provinces, they are considered as so many branch* 
 es which have been successively severed from the im- 
 perial trunk. The foundation of a second Rome on 
 the shores of the Bosphorus, has compelled the histo- 
 rian to follow the successors of Constantine; and our 
 curiosity has been tempted to visit the most remote 
 countries of Europe and Asia, to explore the causes 
 and the authors of the long decay of the Byzantine 
 monarchy. By the conquest of Justinian, we have 
 been recalled to the banks of the Tiber, to the deliver- 
 ance of the ancient metropolis ; but that deliverance 
 was a change, or perhaps an aggravation, of servitude. 
 Rome had been already stripped of her trophies, her 
 gods, and her Caesars : nor was the Gothic dominion 
 more inglorious and oppressive than the tyranny of the 
 Greeks. In the eighth century of the christian aera, a 
 reliijious quarrel, the worship of images, provoked the 
 Romans to assert their independence ; their bishop be- 
 came the temporal, as well as the spiritual, father of a 
 free people ; and of the western empire, which was 
 restored by Charlemagne, the title and image still de- 
 corate the singular constitution of modern Germany. 
 The name of Rome must yet command our involuntary 
 respect ; the climate (whatsoever may be its influence) 
 was no longer the same:" the purity of blood had been 
 contaminated through a thousand channels ; hut the 
 venerable aspect of her ruins, and the memory of past 
 greatness, rekindled a spark of the national character. 
 The darkness of the middle ages exhibits some scenes 
 not unworthy of our notice. Nor shall I dismiss ihe 
 present work till I have reviewed the state and revo- 
 lutions of the Roman city, which acquiesi-ed under 
 the absolute dominion of the popes, about the same 
 time that Constantinople was enslaved by the Turkish 
 arms. 
 
 In the beginning of the twelfth centu- The Frencl. and 
 ry," the aera of the first crusade, Rome Germar r mpe- 
 was revered by the Latins, as the metro- . '',T',*;L'?'"r,7^ 
 polis of the world, as the throne of the *'*"^-"^'"- 
 pnpe and the emperor, who, from the eternal city, de- 
 rived their title, their honours, and the right or exer- 
 
 whoae names and testimonies have been successively repealed in this 
 work. The Greek presses of Aldus and the Iialinns were cnnfin^-d to 
 the classics of a better age ; and the first rude editions uf Pmcopiiis,. 
 Agalhias, Cedrenus, Zonaras, Ac. wf>rp published by the l»>arnf*d ilili- 
 gence of the Germans. The whole Byzamine series (ihiriy six vol- 
 umes in folio) has gradually issued (A. D. 164S, &c.) from ih« royal 
 press of the Louvre, with some collateral aid from Rome and I.pipsic ; 
 but the Venetian edition, (A. D. 1729,) though cheaper and mor*> co- 
 pious, is not lees inferior in correctness than in masnifirence to ihut- 
 of Paris. The merits of the French ^-dilors are various ; but th*" value 
 of Anna Comnena,Cinnamus, Villehardouin, &c. is enh.aiiccd by the 
 historical notes of Charles du Fresne du Cangp. His supplemental 
 works, the Greek Glossary, the Constantinopulis Christian!!, the Fa- 
 milias Byzantinas, diflTuse a steady light over the darkness uf the 
 Lower Empire. 
 
 » The Abbe Dubos, who, with less genius than his successor Mon- 
 tesquieu, hats asserted and magnified the influence of clim.iip, obj< cis 
 to himself the degeneracy of the Romans and Batavians. To the 
 first of these examples he replies, I. That the change is less real than 
 apparent, and that the modern Romans prudently conceal in ih«>m- 
 selves the virtuesofiheir ancestors. 2. That the air, the soil, and the 
 climate of Rome have suffered a great and visible alteration. (Kellex- 
 ions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, part ii. sect. 16.) 
 
 b The reader has been so long absent from Rome, that I wnuldr 
 advise him to recollect or review the tenth chapter, vol.ii. of this his- 
 tory. 
 
 cise of temporal dominion. After so long an interrup- 
 tion, it may not be useless to repeat that the succes- 
 sors of Charlemagne and the Othos were chosen be- 
 yond the Rhine in a national diet; but that these prin- 
 ces were content with the humble names of kings of 
 Germany and Italy, till they had passed the Alps and 
 the Appenine, to seek their imperial crown on the 
 banks of the Tiber.* At some distance from the city, 
 their approach was saluted by a long procession of the 
 clergy and people with palms and crosses ; and the 
 terrific emblems of wolves and lions, of dragons and 
 eagles, that floated in the military banners, represen- 
 te<l the departed legions and cohorts of the republic. 
 The royal oath to maintain the liberties of Rome was 
 thrice reiterated, at the bridge, the gate, and on the 
 stairs, of the Vatican ; and the distribution of a custo- 
 mary donative feebly imitated the magnificence of the 
 first Caesars. In the church of St. Peter, the corona- 
 tion was performed by his successor : the voice of God 
 was confounded with that of the people; and the pub- 
 lic consent was declared in the acclamations of, 
 "Long life and victory to our lord the pope ! long life 
 and victory to our lord the emperor ! long life and 
 victory to the Roman and Teutonic armies."* ThH 
 names of Caesar and Augustus, the laws of Constan- 
 tine and Justinian, the example of Charlemagne and 
 Otho, established the supreme dominion of the empe- 
 rors ; their title and image was engraved on the papal 
 coins ; • and their jurisdiction was marked by the 
 sword of justice, which they delivered to the prasfect 
 of the city. But every Roman prejudice was awaken- 
 ed by the name, the language, and the manners of a 
 barbarian lord. The Caesars of Saxony or Franconia, 
 were the chiefs of a feudal aristocracy; nor could they 
 exercise the discipline of civil and military power, 
 which alone secures the obedience of a distant people, 
 impatient of servitude, though perhaps incapable of 
 freedom. Once, and once only, in his life, each empe- 
 ror, with an army of Teutonic vassals, descended from 
 the Alps. I have described the peaceful order of his 
 entry and coronation ; but that order was commonly 
 disturbed by the clamour and sedition of the Romans, 
 who encountered their sovereign as a foreign invader; 
 his departure was always speedy, and often shameful ; 
 and, in the absence of a long reign, his authority was 
 insulted, and his name was forgotten. The progress 
 of independence in Germany and Italy undermined the 
 foundations of the imperial sovereignty, and the tri- 
 umph of the popes was the deliverance of Rome. 
 Authority of the Of her two sovereigns, the emperor 
 popes in Rome, had precariously reigned by the right 
 of conquest; but the authority of the popes was foun- 
 ded on the soft, though more solid, basis of opinion 
 and habit. The removal of a foreitjn influence restor- 
 ed and endeared the shepherd to his flock. Instead of 
 the arbitrary or venal nomination of a German court, 
 . . the vicar of Christ was freely chosen by 
 ' the college of cardinals, most of whom 
 were either natives or inhabitants of the city. The 
 applause of the magistrates and people confirmed his 
 election ; and the ecclesiastical power that was obey- 
 ed in Sweden and Britain, had been ultimately derived 
 from the suff*rage of the Romans. The same suff'rage 
 gave a prince, as well as a pontifl*, to the capital. It 
 was universally believed, that Constantine had inves- 
 ted the popes with the temporal dominion of Rome ; 
 
 e The coronation of the German emperors at Rome, more especial- 
 ly in the eleventh century, is best represented from the original mon. 
 uments by Muratori, (An:iquitat. Ilaliae m^dii ^vi, tom. i. dissertat. 
 Ii. p. 99, &c.) and Cenni, (Monument. Domin. Poniif. tom. ii. diss. vi. 
 p. 261.) the latter of whom I only know from the copious extract of 
 Schmidt. (Hist, des AUemands, u«m. iii. p. 255— 266.) 
 
 d Exercitui Romano et Teutonico! The latter was both seen and 
 felt ; but the former was no more than maeni nominis umbra. 
 
 e Muratori has Hi ven the series of the papal coins. (Aniiquiiat. tom. 
 ii. diss, xxvii. p. 548—554 ) He finds only two more early than the 
 year 8(K), fifty are still extant from Leo III. to Leo IX with addition 
 of the reignin? emperor; none remain of Gregory VII. or Urban II. 
 but in those of Faschal II. he seems to have renounced this badge of 
 depeudeuce. 
 
 virtue ; 
 
 and the boldest civilians, the most profane sceptics^ 
 were satisfied with disputing the right of the emperor 
 and the validity of his gift. The truth of the fact, 
 the authenticity of his donation, was deeply rooted in 
 the ignorance and tradition of four centnries: and the 
 fabulous origin was lost in the real and permanent ef- 
 fects. The name of dominus or lord ri'^ht- 
 was inscribed on the coin of the bishops : 
 their title was acknowledged by acclamations and 
 oaths of allegiance, and with the free, or reluctant, 
 consent of the German Caesars, they had long exercis- 
 ed a supreme or subordinate jurisdiction over the city 
 and patrimony of St. Peter. The reign of the popes, 
 which gratified the prejudices, was not incompatible 
 with the liberties, of Rome; and a more critical inqui- 
 ry would have revealed a still nobler source of their 
 power ; the gratitude of a nation, whom they had res- 
 cued from the here-^y and oppression of the Greek ty- 
 rant. In an age of superstition, it should seem that 
 the union of the royal and sacerdotal characters would 
 mutually fortify each other; and that the keys of para- 
 dise would be the surest pledge of earthly obedience. 
 The sanctity of the oflTice might indeed be degraded by 
 the personal vices of the man ; but the 
 scandals of the tenth century were oblit- 
 erated by the austere and more dangerous virtues of 
 Greofory the seventh and his successors; and in the 
 ambitious contests which they maintained for the 
 rights of the church, their suflerings or their success 
 must equally tend to increase the popular veneration. 
 They sometimes wandered in poverty and exile, the 
 victims of persecution ; and the apostolic zeal with 
 which they oflTered themselves to martyrdom, must en- 
 gage the favour and sympathy of every catholic breast. 
 And sometimes, thundering from the Vatican, they 
 created, judged, and deposed the kings of the world : 
 nor could the proudest Roman be disgraced by submit- 
 ting to a priest, whose feet were kissed, and whose 
 stirrup was held, by the successors of Charlemagne.' 
 Even the temporal interest of the city should have 
 protected in peace and honour the residence of the 
 popes ; from whence a vain and lazy people derived 
 the greatest part of their subsistence and benefits 
 riches. The fixed revenue of the popes 
 was probably impaired : many of the old patrimonial 
 estates, both in Italy and the provinces, had been in- 
 vaded by sacrilegious hands ; nor could the loss b» 
 compensated by the claiin, rather than the possession, 
 of the more ample gifis of Pepin and his descendants.. 
 But the Vatican and Capitol were nouri.<4hed by the in- 
 cessant and increasing swarms of pilgrims and sup- 
 pliants: the pale of Christianity M'as enlarged, and the^ 
 pope and cardinals were overwhelmed by the judg- 
 ment of ecclesiastical and secular causes. A new ju- 
 risprudence had established in the Latin church the 
 right and practice of appeals ;k and from the north and 
 west, the bishops and abbots were invited or summon- 
 ed to solicit, to complain, to accuse, or to justify, be- 
 fore the threshold of the apostles. A rare prodigy is 
 once recorded, that two horses belonginir to the arch- 
 bishops of Mentz and Cologne, repassed the Alps, yet 
 laden with gold and silver: * but it was soon under- 
 stood, that the success, both of the pilgrims and 
 clients, depended much less on the justice of their 
 
 t See Ducaoge, Gloss, media et infimae Latinitat. tom vi. p. 364. 
 365. Staffa. This homase was paid by kings to archbishops, and 
 by vassals to their lords; (Schmidt, tom. iii. p. '^62) and it was the 
 nicest policy of Rome, to confound the marks of filial and of feudal 
 subjection. 
 
 g The appeals from all the churches to the Roman pontiff, are de- 
 plored by the zeal of Si. Bernard (de Consideratione, 1. iii. tom. ii. p. 
 431—442. edit. Mabillon, Venpi. 1750.) and tho judgment of Fleury, 
 (Discourssurl'HisuEcclesiastique.iv. & vii.) But the saint, who be- 
 lieved in the false decretals, condemns only the abuse of these ap- 
 peals; the more enlightened historian investigates the origin, and re- 
 jects the principles, of this new jurisprudence. 
 
 b Germanici .... summarii non levaiissarcinisonusli nihilominuS' 
 repatriant invill. Nova r s! quando hacienusatirum Roma refudill 
 Et nunc Romanorum cunsilio id usurpatum non credimus. (Bernard 
 de Consideratione, I. iii. c. 3. p 437.) The first words uf the passa*» 
 are obscure, and probably corrupt. 
 
 \T\ 
 
464 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 cause than on the value of their offering. The wealth 
 and piety of these strangers were ostentatiously dis- 
 played ; and their expenses, sacred or profane, circu- 
 lated in various channels for the emolument of the 
 Romans. 
 Inconstancy of Such powerful motives should have 
 superauuon. firmly attached the voluntary and pious 
 obedience of the Roman people to their spiritual and 
 temporal father. But the operation of prejudice and 
 interest is often disturbed by the sallies of ungoverna- 
 ble passion. The Indian who fells the tree, that he 
 may gather the fruit,* and the Arab who plunders the 
 caravans of commerce, are actuated by the same im- 
 pulse of savage nature, which overlooks the future in 
 th present, and relinquishes for momentary rapine the 
 long and secure possession of the most important bless- 
 ings. And it was thus, that the shrine of St. Peter 
 was profaned by the thoughtless Romans ; who pil- 
 laged the offerings, and wounded the pilgrims, with- 
 out computing the number and value of similar visits, 
 which they prevented by their inhospitable sacrilege. 
 Even the influence of superstition is fluctuating and 
 precarious : and the slave, whose reason is subdued, 
 will often be delivered by his avarice or pride. A 
 credulous devotion for the fables and oracles of the 
 priesthood, most powerfully acts on the mind of a bar- 
 barian: yet such a mind is the least capable of prefer- 
 ring imagination to sense, of sacrificing to a distant mo- 
 tive, to an invisible, perhaps an ideal, object, the appe- 
 tites and interests of the present world. In the vigour 
 of health and youth, his practice will perpetually con- 
 tradict his belief; till the pressure of age, or sickness, 
 or calamity, awakens his terrors, and compels him to 
 satisfy the double debt of piety and remorse. I have 
 already observed, that the modern times of religious 
 indifference are the most favourable to the peace and 
 security of the clergy. Under the reign of superstition, 
 they had much to hope from the ignorance, and much 
 to fear from the violence, of mankind. The wealth, 
 whose constant increase must have rendered them the 
 sole proprietors of the earth, was alternately bestowed 
 by the repentant father and plundered by the rapacious 
 son: their persons were adored or violated; and the 
 same idol, by the hands of the same votaries, was 
 Seditions of placed on the altar, or trampled in the 
 Rome agai nit dust. In the feudal system of Europe, 
 the popes, ^y^g ^y^fg ,t^g tjjig Qf distinction and the 
 
 measure of allegiance ; and amidst their tumult, the 
 still voice of law and reason was seldom heard or obey- 
 ed. The turbulent Romans disdained the yoke, and 
 insulted the impotence, of their bishop;* nor would 
 his education or character allow him to exercise, with 
 decency or effect, the power of the sword. The mo- 
 tives of his election and the frailties of his life were ex- 
 posed to their familiar observation; and proximity must 
 diminish the reverence, which his name and his decrees 
 impressed on a barbarous world. This difference has 
 not escaped the notice of our philosophic historian : 
 *' Though the name and authority of the court of Rome 
 were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe, 
 which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were en- 
 tirely unacquainted with its character and conduct, the 
 pope was so little revered at home, that his inveterate 
 enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself, and even 
 controlled his government in thatrity ; and the ambas- 
 sadors, who, from a distant extremity of Europe, car- 
 
 i Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulpnt avoirdu fruit, its cou- 
 pent I'arbre au pied e! cueillunl le fruit. Voila le gouvernement des- 
 potique ; (Esprit des Loix, 1. v. c. 13.) and passion and ignorance are 
 always despotic. 
 
 k In a free conversation with his countryman Adrian IV. John of 
 Salisbury accuses the avarice of the pope and clergy : Provinciarum 
 diripiunt spolia, ac si thesaun.>s Crousi siudeant reparare. Sed recte 
 cum eis agit Altissimtis, ({uoniam et ipsi aliis et ssepe vilissimis ho- 
 minibus dali sunt in direplioneoi. (de Nugis Curiulium, l.vi.c. 24 p. 
 387.) In the next pa^e, he blames the rashness and infidelity of the 
 Romans, whom their bi.shops vainly strove to conciliate by gifts, in- 
 stead of virtues. It is a pity that this miscellaneous writer has not 
 given us less moralitjr and erudition, and more pictures of himself and 
 the times. 
 
 ried to him the humble, or rather abject, submissions 
 of the greatest potentate of the age, found the utmost 
 difficulty to make their way to him, and to throw them- 
 selves at his feet.^" 
 
 Since the primitive times, the wealth e --.o e 
 
 . , ' , ' , . Successors of 
 
 of the popes was exposed to envy, their Gregory VIL 
 power to opposition, and their persons to .no?* Non- 
 violence. But the long hostility of the »»SG-I30a. 
 mitre and the crown increased the numbers, and in- 
 flamed the passions, of their enemies. The deadly 
 factions of the Guelphsand Ghibelines, so fatal to Ita- 
 ly, could never be embraced with truth or constancy 
 by the Romans, the subjects and adversaries both of 
 the bishop and emperor; but their support was solicit- 
 ed by both parties; and they alternately displayed in 
 their banners the keys of St. Peter and the German 
 eagle. Gregory the seventh, who may be adored or 
 detested as the founder of the papal monarchy, was 
 driven from Rome, and died in exile at Salerno. Six 
 and thirty of his successors," till their retreat to Avig- 
 non, maintained an unequal contest with the Romans: 
 their age and dignity were often violated ; and the 
 churches, in the solemn rites of religion, were polluted 
 with sedition and murder. A repetition ■ of such ca- 
 pricious brutality, without connexion or design, would 
 be tedious and disgusting; and I shall content myself 
 with some events of the twelfth century, which repre- 
 sent the state of the popes and the city. On holy 
 Thursday, while Paschal officiated be- paachal ll. 
 fore the altar, he was interrupted by the A. D. 
 clamours of the multitude, who imperi- 1099— lliS- 
 ously demanded the confirmation of a favourite magis- 
 trate. His silence exasperated their fury: his pious 
 refusal to mingle the affairs of earth and heaven was 
 encountered with menaces and oaths, that he should 
 he the cause and the witness of the public ruin. D«i 
 ring the festival of Easter, while the bishop and the 
 clergy, barefoot and in procession, visited the tombs 
 of the martys, they were twice assaulted, at the bridge 
 of St. Angelo, and before the capitol, with a volley of 
 stones and darts. The houses of his adherents were 
 levelled with the ground : Paschal escaped with diffi- 
 culty and danger : he levied an army in the patrimony 
 of St. Peter; and his last days were imbittered by 
 suffering and inflicting the calamities of civil war. 
 The scenes that followed the election of GelasiusII. 
 his successor Gelasius the second were A. D. 
 still more scandalous to the church and 1118,111.9 
 city. Cencio Frangipani," a potent and factious baron, 
 burst into the assembly furious and in arms : the car- 
 dinals were stripped, beaten, and trampled under foot; 
 and he seized, without pity or respect, the vicar of 
 Christ by the throat. Gelasius was dragged by his 
 hair along the ground, buffeted with blows, wounded 
 with spurs, and bound with an iron chain in the house 
 
 1 Hume's History of England, vol. i. p. 419. The same writer has 
 given us, from Fitz-Stephen, a singular act of cruelty perpetrated on 
 the clergy by Geoffrey, the father of Henry II. "When he was master 
 of Normandy, the chapter of Seez presumed, without his consent, to 
 proceed to the election of a bishop; upon which he ordered all of 
 them, with the bishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their testi- 
 cles be brought him in a platter." Of the pain and danger they might 
 justly complain ; yet, since they had vowed chastity, he deprived 
 them of a superfluous treasure. 
 
 m From Leo IX. and Gregory VII. an authentic and contemporary 
 seriesof the lives of the popes by the cardinal of Arragon,Fandulphu3 
 Pisanus, Bernard Guido, &c. is inserted in the Italian Historians of 
 Muratori, (torn. iii. p. i. p. 277—685.) and has been always before my 
 eyes. 
 
 n The dates of years in the margin, may throughout this chapter be 
 understood as tacit references to the Annals of Muratori, my ordinary 
 and excellent guide. He uses, and indeed quotes, with the freedom 
 of a master, his great Collection of the Italian Historians, in twenty- 
 eight volumes ; and as that treasure is in my library, I have thought 
 it an amusement, if not a duty, to consult the ori2;inals. 
 
 o I cannot refrain from transcribing the high-cojoured words of Pan- 
 dulphus Pisanus: (p. 384.) Hocaudiens inimicuspacisatque turbator 
 jam fatiis Centius Frajapane, more draconis immanissimi sibilans, et 
 ab imis pectoribus trahens longa suspiria, accinctus retro gladiosine 
 mora cucurrit, valvas ac fores confregit. Ecclcsiam furibundus in- 
 troiit, inde custode remoto papam per gulam accepit, distraxii, pugnis 
 calcibusque percussit, et tanquam brutum animal intra liraen eccle- 
 siae acriter calcaribus cruentavit ; etlatroUntum dominum per ca- 
 pillos et brachia, Jesu bono interim dormiente, detrazit, ad domum 
 usque deduxit, iuibi caieaavii et incluait. 
 
 465 
 
 .of bis brutal tyrant. An insurrection of the people de- 
 livered their bishop : the rival families opposed the 
 violence of the Frangipani ; and Cencio, who sued for 
 pardon, repented of the failure, rather than of the guilt, 
 of his enterprise. Not many days had elapsed, when 
 the pope was again assaulted at the altar. While his 
 friends and enemies were engaged in a bloody contest, 
 he escaped in his sacerdotal garments. In this un- 
 worthy flight, which excited the compassion of the Ro- 
 man matrons, his attendants were scattered or unhors- 
 ed : and, in the fields behind the church of St. Peter, 
 his successor was found alone and half-dead with fear 
 and fatigue. Shaking the dust from his feet, the apos- 
 ile withdrew from a city in which his dignity was in- 
 jsulted and his person was endangered ; and the vanity 
 of sacerdotal ambition is revealed in the involuntary 
 confession, that one emperor was more tolerable than 
 twenty .P These examples might sufl!ice ; but I cannot 
 forget the sufferings of two pontiffs of the same age, 
 Lucius II. the second and third of the name of Lu- 
 1144* Pu" cius. The former, as he ascended in 
 •' ni ^^^''® array to assault the capitol, was 
 
 A. D. struck on the temple by a stone, and ex- 
 1181—1185. pired in a few days. The latter was se- 
 Terely wounded in the persons of his servants. In a 
 civil commotion, several of his priests had been made 
 prisoners ; and the inhuman Romans, reserving one as 
 a guide for his brethren, put out their eyes, crowned 
 them with ludicrous mitres, mounted them on asses 
 with their faces to the tail, and extorted an oath, that, 
 in this wretched condition, they should offer themselves 
 as a lesson to the head of the church. Hope or fear, 
 lassitude or remorse, the characters of the men, and 
 the circumstances of the times, might sometimes ob- 
 tain an interval of peace and obedience ; and the pope 
 was restored with joyful acclamations to the Lateran 
 or Vatican, from whence he had been driven with 
 threats and violence. But the root of mischief was 
 deep and perennial ; and a momentary calm was pre- 
 ceded and followed by such tempests as had almost 
 sunk the bark of St. Peter. Rome continually present- 
 ed the aspect of war and discord: the churches and 
 palaces were fortified and assaulted by the factions and 
 Calistus II. families; and after giving peace to Eu- 
 
 A. D. rope, Calistus the second alone had reso- 
 Innoceni IL lution and power to prohibit the use of 
 
 A. D. private arms in the metropolis. Among 
 1130—1143. jjjQ nations who revered the apostolic 
 throne, the tumults of Rome provoked a general indig- 
 nation ; and in a letter to his disciple Eu^enius the 
 third, St. Bernard, with the sharpness of his wit and 
 zeal, has stigmatized the vices of the rebellious peo- 
 Characierofthe P'e.' *;Who is ignorant," says the monk 
 Romans by St. of Clairvaux, ** of the vanity and arro- 
 Uernard. gance of the Romans 1 a nation nursed in 
 
 sedition, cruel, untractable, and scorning to obey, un- 
 less they are too feeble to resist. When they promise 
 to serve, they aspire to reign ; if they swear allegiance, 
 they watch the opportunity of revolt ; yet they vent 
 their discontent in loud clamours if your doors or your 
 <;ounsels are shut against them. Dexterous in mis- 
 •chief, they have never learnt the science of doing good. 
 Odious to earth and heaven, impious to God, seditious 
 among themselves, jealous of their neighbours, inhu- 
 man to strangers, they love no one, by no one are they 
 beloved ; and while they wish to inspire fear, they live 
 in base and continual apprehension. They will not 
 submit; they know not how to govern; faithless to 
 their superiors, intolerable to their equals, ungrateful 
 to their benefactors, and alike impudent in their de- 
 
 P Ego coram Deo etecclesi&dico.si unquam possibileesset, mallem 
 uijuin imperatorem quam tot dominos. (Vit. Gelas. II. p. 398.) 
 
 q Quid lam notum seculis quam protervia et cervicositas Romano- 
 rutn ? Gens insueta paci, tumuUui assueta, gens iminitis et in- 
 tr.ictabilis usque adhuc, subdi nescia, nisi cum non valet resistere, 
 (de Considerat. 1. iv. c. 2. p. 441.) The saint takes breath, and then 
 begins again: Hi, invisi terras et ccelo, utrique injecere nianus, &c. 
 (p. 443) 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 I 30 
 
 mands and their refusals. Lofty in promise, poor in 
 execution ; adulation and calumny, perfidy and treason, 
 are the familiar arts of their policy." Surely this dark 
 portrait is not coloured by the pencil of christian char- 
 ity ; ' yet the features, however harsh and ugly, express 
 a lively resemblance of the Romans of the twelfth 
 century.' 
 
 The Jews had rejected the Christ when poiuicai heresy 
 lie appeared among them in a plebeian of Arnold oC 
 character; and the Romans might plead Brescia, 
 their ignorance of his vicar wh° n he as- ^* **^' 
 
 sumed the pomp and pride of a temporal sovereign. 
 In the busy age of the crusades, some sparks of curiosi- 
 ty and reason were rekindled in the western world : the 
 heresy of Bulgaria, the Paulician sect, was successful- 
 ly transplanted into the soil of Italy and France ; the 
 Gnostic visions were mingled with the simplicity of 
 the gospel ; and the enemies of the clergy reconciled 
 their passions with their conscience, the desire of free- 
 dom with the profession of piety.* The trumpet of 
 Roman liberty was first sounded by Arnold of Brescia," 
 whose promotion in the church was confined to the 
 lowest rank, and who wore the monastic habit rather 
 as a garb of poverty than as the uniform of obedience. 
 His adversaries could not deny the wit and eloquence 
 which they severely felt : they confess with reluctance 
 the specious purity of his morals ; and his errors were 
 recommended to the public by a mixture of important 
 and beneficial truths. In his theological studies, he had 
 been the disciple of the famous and unfortunate Abe- 
 lard,' who was likewise involved in the suspicion of he- 
 resy : but the lover of Eloisa was of a soft and flexible 
 nature ; and his ecclesiastic judges were edified and dis- 
 armed by the humility of his repentance. From this 
 master, Arnold most probably imbibed some metaphysi- 
 cal definitions of the Trinity, repugnant to the taste of 
 the times : his ideas of baptism and the eucharist are 
 loosely censured ; but a political heresy was the source 
 of his fame and misfortunes. He presumed to quote 
 the declaration of Christ, that his kingdom is not of 
 this world : he boldly maintained, that the sword and 
 the sceptre were intrusted to the civil magistrate ; that 
 tempered honour and possessions were lawfully vested 
 in secular persons ; that the abbots, the bishops, and 
 the pope himself, must renounce either their state or 
 their salvation ; and that after the loss of their revenues, 
 the voluntary tithes and oblations of the faithful would 
 suffice, not indeet^ for luxury and avarice, but for a fru- 
 gal life in the exercise of spiritual labours. During a 
 short time, the preacher was revered as a patriot ; and 
 the discontent, or revolt, of Brescia against her bishop, 
 was the first-fruits of his dangerous lessons. But the 
 favour of the people is less permanent than the resent- 
 ment of the priest; and after the heresy of Arnold had 
 been condemned by Innocent the second,' in the gene* 
 
 r As a Roman citizen, Petrarch takes leave to observe, that Bernard, 
 though a saint, was a man ; that he might be provoked by resentment, 
 and possibly repent of his hasty passion, &c. (Memoires sur la Vie de 
 Peirarque, torn. i. p. 330.) 
 
 I Baronius, in his index to the tvrelfth volume of his Annals, has 
 found a fair and easy excuse. He makes two heads of Romani Calho- 
 lici, and Schismatici ; to the former he applies all the good, to the lat- 
 ter all the evil, that is told of the city. 
 
 t The heresies of the twelfth century may be found in Mosheim, 
 (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p.4l9 — 427.) who entertains a favourable opin- 
 ion of Arnold of Brescia. In the fifteenth chapter, vol. ii. I have de- 
 scribed tlie sect of the Paulicians, and followed their migration from 
 Armenia to Thrace and Bulgaria, Italy and France. 
 
 u The original pictures of Arnold of Brescia are drawn by Otho, 
 bishop of Frisingen, (Chron. 1. vii. c. 31. de Gestis Frederici 1. 1. i. c, 
 27. 1, ii. c. 21.) and in the third book of the Ligurinus, a poem of Gun- 
 ther, who flourished A. D. 1200, in the monastery of Pans near Basil. 
 (Fabric. Bibliot. Latin, med. et infimae ^tatis, torn. iii. p. 174, 175.) 
 The long passage that relates to Arnold, is produced by Guelliman, 
 (de Rebus Helvelicis, I. iii. c. 5. p. 108.) 
 
 X The wicked wit of Bayle was amused In composing, with much 
 levity and learning, the articles of Abelabd, Foulq,ues, Heloisk, 
 In his Dictionnaire Critique. The dispute ofAbelard and St. Ber- 
 nard, of scholastic and positive divinity, is well understoofj by Mos- 
 heim. (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 412—415.) 
 
 J Damnatus ab iilo 
 
 Praesule, qui numeros vetiium contingere nostrof 
 Nomen ab innocua ducit laudabile vita. 
 We may applaud the dexterity and correctness of Ligurintis, who 
 turns the unpoetical name of lunoceat II, into a compliment, 
 
 
 '■ ii 
 
466 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 lal council of the Lateran, the magistrates themselves 
 were urged by prejudice and fear to execute the sen- 
 tence of the church. Italy could no longer afford a re- 
 fuge; and the disciple of Abelard escaped beyond the 
 Afps,till he found a safe and hospitable shelter in Zu- 
 rich, now the first of the Swiss cantons. From a Ro- 
 man station," a royal villa, a chapter of noble virgins, 
 Zurich had gradually increased to a free and flourishing 
 city ; where the appeals of the Milanese were some- 
 times tried by the imperial commissaries.* In an age 
 less ripe for reformation, the praecursor of Zuinglius 
 was heard with applause; a brave and simple people 
 imbibed and long retained the colour of his opinions : 
 and his art, or merit, seduced the bishop of Constance, 
 and even the pope's legate, who forgot, for his sake, 
 the interest of their master and their order. Their tar- 
 dy zeal was quickened by the fierce exhortations of St. 
 Bernard ; •» and the enemy of the church was driven 
 by persecution to the desperate measure of erecting his 
 standard in Rome itself, in the face of the successor of 
 St. Peter. 
 
 He exhorts the Yet the courage of Arnold was not 
 Romans to re- devoid of discretion : he was protected, 
 •tore the repub- ^^^^ j^^j ppj^aps been invited, by the 
 
 A. D. nobles and people; and in the service of 
 
 1144—1154. freedom, his eloquence thundered over 
 the seven hills. Blending in the same discourse the 
 texts of Livy and St. Paul, uniting the motives of gos- 
 pel and of classic enthusiasm, he admonished the Ro- 
 mans, how strangely their patience and the vices of 
 the clergy had degenerated from the primitive times of 
 the church and the city. He exhorted them to assert the 
 inalienable rights of men and christians ; to restore the 
 laws and magistrates of the republic ; to respect the 
 name of the emperor ; but to confine the shepherd to the 
 spiritual government of his flock.* Nor could his spi- 
 ritual government escape the censure and control of the 
 reformer; and the inferior clergy were taught by his 
 lessons to resist the cardinals, who had usurped a des- 
 potic command over the twenty-eight regions or parish- 
 es of Rome.^ The revolution was not accomplished 
 without rapine and violence the effusion of blood and 
 the demolition of houses : the victorious faction was 
 enriched with the spoils of the clergy and the adverse 
 nobles. Arnold of Brescia enjoyed, or deplored, the 
 effects of his mission : his reign continued above ten 
 years, while two popes. Innocent the second and An- 
 astasius the fourth, either trembled in the Vatican, or 
 wandered as exiles in the adjacent cities. They were 
 succeeded by a more vigorous and fortunate pontiff, 
 Adrian the fourth,* the only Englishman who has as- 
 cended the throne of St. Peter ; and whose merit emerg- 
 ed from the mean condition of a monk, and almost a 
 beggar, in the monastery of St. Albans. On the first pro- 
 vocation, of a cardinal killed or wounded in the streets, 
 
 1 A Roman inscription of Siatio Turicensis has been found at Zu- 
 rich, (D'Anville, Notice de I'ancienne Gaule, p. 642— 644.) but it is 
 wiihout sufficienl warrant, that the city and canton have usurped, 
 and even monopolized, the names of Tignrum and Pagus Tigurinus. 
 
 a Guilliman (de Kebus Helveticis, 1. iii. c. 5. p. 106) recapitulates 
 the donation (A. D.833.)of the emperor Lewis the Pious to his daugh- 
 ter the Abbess Hildegardis. Curtim nostram Turegum in ducatu 
 Alamannise in PagoDursaugensi, with villages, woods, meadows, wa- 
 ters, slaves, churches, kc. a noble gift. Charles the Bald gave the 
 jus monetae, the city was vralled under Otho 1. and the line of the 
 bishop of Frisingen, 
 
 Nobile Turegum muUarum copia rerum, 
 Is repealed with pleasure by the antiquaries of Zurich. 
 
 b Bernard, epistol. czcv. cxcvi. torn. i. p. 187 — 190. Amidst his in- 
 vectives he dropg a precious acknowledgment, qui utinam quam 
 lana esset doctrlniae quam districts est vits. He owns that Arnold 
 would be a valuable acquisition to the church. 
 
 e He advised the Romans, 
 
 Consiliis armisque sua moderamina summa 
 Arbitrio tractare suo : nil juris in hac re 
 FontificI summo, modicum concedere regi 
 Suadebat populo. Sic laesa stultus utrique 
 Majestate, reum eemina se fecerat aulas. 
 Nor is the poetry of Gunther different from the prose of Otho. 
 
 d See Baronius (A. D. 1148, No. 38, 39.) from the Vatican MSS. 
 He loudly condemns Arnold, (A. D. 1141, No. 3.) as the father of the 
 political heretics, whose influence then hurt him in France. 
 
 • The English reader may consult the Biographia Britannica, Ad- 
 KUM lY. but our own writers have added uoihiiif to Ibe feme or 
 OMrits of Uieir countryman. 
 
 Chap. XXIXt 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 467 
 
 he cast an interdict on the guilty people; and, from 
 Christmas to Easter, Rome was deprived of the real 
 or imaginary comforts of religious worship. The Ro- 
 mans had despised their temporal prince; they submit- 
 ted wiih grief and terror to the censures of their spirit- 
 ual father; their guilt was expiated by penance, and 
 the banishment of the seditious preacher was the price 
 of their absolution. But the revenge of Adrian was 
 yet unsatisfied, and the approaching coronation of 
 Frederic Barbarossa was fatal to the bold reformer, 
 who had offended, though not in an equal degree, the 
 heads of the church and state. In their interview at 
 Viterbo, the pope represented to the emperor the furi- 
 ous ungovernable spirit of the Romans; the insults, 
 the injuries, the fears, to which his person and his cler- 
 gy were continually exposed ; and the pernicious ten- 
 dency of the heresy of Arnold, which must subvert the 
 principles of civil, as well as ecclesiastical, subordina- 
 tion. Frederic was convinced by these arguments, or 
 tempted by the desire of the imperial crown : in the 
 balance of ambition, the innocence or life of an indi- 
 vidual is of small account; and their common enemy 
 was sacrificed to a moment of political concord. After 
 his retreat from Rome, Arnold had been protected by 
 the viscounts of Campania, from whom he was extort- 
 ed by the power of Caesar : the praefect of the city pro- 
 nounced his sentence ; the martyr of free- His execution, 
 dom was burnt alive in the presence of A-^- **5^' 
 a careless and ungrateful people; and his ashes were 
 cast into the Tiber, lest the heretics should collect and 
 worship the relics of their master.' The clergy tri- 
 umphed in his death : with his ashes, his sect was dis- 
 persed ; his memory still lived in the minds of the Ro- 
 mans. From his school they had probably derived a 
 new article of faith, that the metropolis of the catholic 
 church is exempt from the penalties of excommunica- 
 tion and interdict. Their bishops might argue, that 
 the supreme jurisdiction, which they exercised over 
 kings and nations, more especially embraced the city 
 and diocese of the prince of the apostles. But they 
 preached to the winds, and the same principle that 
 weakened the effect, must temper the abuse, of the 
 thunders of the Vatican. 
 
 The love of ancient freedom has en- Restoration of 
 couraged a belief, that as early as the the senate, 
 tenth century, in their first struggles A. D. 1144. 
 against the Saxon Othos, the commonwealth was 
 vindicated and restored by the senate and people of 
 Rome ; that two consuls were annually elected among 
 the nobles, and that ten or twelve plebeian magistrates 
 revived the name and office of the tribunes of the com- 
 mons.* But this venerable structure disappears be- 
 fore the light of criticism. In the darkness of the 
 middle ages, the appellations of senators, of consuls, 
 of the sons of consuls, may sometimes be discovered.'' 
 They were bestowed by the emperors, or assumed by 
 the most powerful citizens, to denote their rank, their 
 honours,' and perhaps the claim of a pure and patrician 
 descent ; but they float on the surface, without a series 
 
 f Besides the historian and poet already quoted, the last adven* 
 tures of Arnold are related by the Biographer of Adr'an IV. (Mura- 
 tori. Script. Rprum Ilal. tom. iii. p. i^ p. 441, 442.) 
 
 g Ducan^p (Gloss. Laiiniiaiis medise ei infime .Siatis, Decarchones, 
 tom. ii. p. 726.) gives me a ((uotation from Blondus: (decad. ii. 1. ii.) 
 Duo consules ex nobilitate quotannis fiebant, qui ad vetustum con- 
 sulum exemplar summas rerum prKessent. And in Sigonius (de 
 Regno Italiae, 1. vi. Opp. tom. ii. p. 4()0.) I read of the consuls aiiJ 
 tribunes of the tenth century. Both Blondus, and even Sigonius, too 
 freelr copied the classic method of supplying from reaison or fancy 
 the aeficiency of records. 
 
 h In the panegyric of Berengarius (Mtrratori, Script. Rer. Ital. tom. 
 ii. p. i. p. 408.) a Roman is mentioned as consulis natus in the begin- 
 ning of the tenth century. Muratori (dissert, v.) discovers in the years 
 952 and 956. Graiianus in Dei nomine consul et dux, Georgius consul 
 et dux; ana in 1015, Romanus, brother of Gregory VIII. proudly, but 
 vaguely, styles himself consul et dux et omnium Romanorum senator. 
 
 i As late as the tenth century, the Greek emperors conferred on 
 the dukes of Venice, Naples, Amalphi, &c. the title of b5r«T:,- or con- 
 suls ; (see Chron. Saeornini, passim ;) and the successors of Charle* 
 magne would not abdicate any of their prerogative. But in general, 
 the names of consul and senator, which may be found among the 
 French and Germans, signify no more than count and lord. (Signeurt 
 ^ucange, Glossar.) The muakish writers are often ambiiiouB of fiue 
 classic words. 
 
 or a substance, the titles of men, not the orders of gov- 
 ernment;^ and it is only from the year of Christ one 
 thousand one hundred and forty-four, that the estab- 
 lishment of the senate is dated, as a glorious aera, in 
 the acts of the city. A new constitution was hastily 
 framed by private ambition or popular enthusiasm ; 
 nor could Rome, in the twelfth century, produce an 
 antiquary to explain, or a legislator to restore, the har- 
 mony and proportions of the ancient model. The as- 
 sembly of a free, of an armed people, will ever speak 
 in loud and weighty acclamations. But the regular 
 distribution of the thirty-five tribes, the nice balance 
 of the wealth and numbers of the centuries, the de- 
 bates of the adverse orators, and the slow operation of 
 votes and ballots, could not easily be adapted by a 
 blind multitude, ignorant of the arts, and insensible of 
 the benefits, of legal government. It was proposed 
 by Arnold to revive and discriminate the equestrian 
 order; but what could be the motive or measure of 
 such distinction V The pecuniary qualification of the 
 knights must have been reduced to the poverty of the 
 times : those times no longer required their civil func- 
 tions of judges and farmers of the revenue ; and their 
 primitive duty, their military service on horseback, 
 was more nobly supplied by feudal tenures and the 
 spirit of chivalry. The jurisprudence of the republic 
 was useless and unknown : the nations and families of 
 Italy who lived under the Roman and barbaric laws 
 were insensibly mingled in a common mass ; and some 
 faint tradition, some imperfect fragments, preserved 
 the memory of the Code and Pandects of .lustinian. 
 With their liberty the Romans might doubtless have 
 restored the appellation and oflfice of consuls ; had 
 they not disdained a title so promiscuously adopted in 
 the Italian cities, that it has finally settled on the hum- 
 ble station of the agents of commerce in a foreign 
 land. But the rights of the tribunes, the formidable 
 word that arrested the public counsels, suppose or 
 must produce a legitimate democracy. The old patri- 
 cians were the subjects, the modern barons the ty- 
 rants, of the state; nor would the enemies of peace 
 and order, who insulted the vicar of Christ, have long 
 respected the unarmed sanctity of a plebeian magis- 
 trate." 
 
 The Capitol. ^" ^^® revolution of the twelfth centu- 
 ry, which gave a new existence and aera 
 to Rome, we may observe the real and important 
 events that marked or confirmed her political indepen- 
 dence. I. The Capitoline hill, one of her seven emi- 
 nences," is about four hundred yards in length, and 
 two hundred in breadth. A flight of a hundred steps 
 led to the summit of the Tarpeian rock ; and far steep- 
 er was the ascent before the declivities had been 
 smoothed and the precipices filled by the ruins of fal- 
 len edifices. From the earliest ages, the Capitol had 
 been used as a temple in peace, a fortress in war; after 
 the loss of the city, it maintained a siege against the 
 
 k The most constitutional form, is a diploma of Otho III. (A. D. 
 998.) Consulibus senatus populique Romani ; but the act is probably 
 spurious. At the coronation of Henry I. A. D. 1014, the historian 
 Diihniar (apud Muratori, dissert, xxiii.) describes him, a senatoribus 
 duotlpcim vallatum, quorum sex rasi barba, alii prolixa, mystice in- 
 cedpbant cum baculis. The senate is mentioned in the ]»negyric 
 of Berengarius, (p. 406.) 
 
 1 In ancient Rome, the equestrian order was not ranked with the 
 senate and people as a third branch of the republic till the consul- 
 ship of Cicero, who assumes the merit of the establishment. (Plin. 
 Hi^t. Natur. xxxiii. 3. Beaufurt, Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 144 
 -155.) 
 
 n The republican plan of Arnold of Brescia is thus stated by Gun- 
 ther : 
 
 Quin etiam litulos urbis renovare vetustos; 
 Nomine plebeio secernere nomen equeslre, 
 Jura tribunorum, sanctum reparare senaium, 
 Et senio fessas muia8(]ue reponere leges. 
 Lapsa ruiuosis, et adhuc pendentia muris 
 Reddere primaevo Capilolia prisca nilori. 
 But of these reformaiions, some were no more than ideas, othen no 
 more than words. 
 
 B After many disputes among the antiquaries of Rome, it seems 
 determined, that the summit of the Capitoline hill next the river is 
 strictly the Mons Tarpeius, the Arx ; and that on the other summit, 
 the church and convent of Araceli, the barefoot fr:ars of St. Francis 
 occupy the temple of Jupiter. (Nardiui, Roma Antica, I. v. c. 11 — 16.) 
 
 victorious Gauls, and the sanctuary of empire wag 
 occupied, assaulted, and burnt, in the civil wars of 
 Vitellius and Vespasian.® The temples of Jupiter and 
 his kindred deities had crumbled into dust; their place 
 was supplied by monasteries and houses; and the 
 solid walls, the long and shelving porticoes, were de- 
 cayed or ruined by the lapse of time. It was the first 
 act of the Romans, an act of freedom, to restore the 
 strength, though not the beauty, of the Capitol ; to 
 fortify the seat of their arms and counsels ; and as 
 often as they ascended the hill, the coldest minds must 
 have glowed with the remembrance of their ancestors, 
 II. The first Caasars had been invested _ 
 with the exclusive coinage of the gold T**®*^**""- 
 and silver; to the senate they abandoned the baser 
 metal of bronze or copper : p the emblems and legends 
 were inscribed on a more ample field by the genius of 
 flattery ; and the prince was relieved from the care of 
 celebrating his own virtues. The successors of Dio- 
 cletian despised even the flattery of the senate ; their 
 royal ofiicers at Rome, and in the provinces, assumed 
 the sole direction of the mint ; and the same preroga- 
 tive was inherited by the Gothic kings of Italy, and 
 the long series of the Greek, the French, and the Ger- 
 man dynasties. After an abdication of eight hundred 
 years, the Roman senate asserted this honourable and 
 lucrative privilege : which was tacitly renounced by 
 the popes, from Paschal the second to the establish- 
 ment of their residence beyond the Alps. Some of 
 these republican coins of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries are shown in the cabinets of the curious. 
 On one of these, a gold medal, Christ is depictured 
 holding in his left hand a book with this inscription : 
 " The vow of the Roman senate and people : Rome 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD ;" ou the rcvcrso, St. Pe- 
 ter delivering a banner to a kneeling senator in his cap 
 and gown, with the name and arms of his family in. 
 pressed on his shield.** III. With the The pnefect of 
 empire, the prasfect of the city had de- the city, 
 clined to a municipal officer ; yet he still exercised in 
 the last appeal the civil and criminal jurisdiction ; and 
 a drawn sword, which he received from the successors 
 of Otho, was the mode of his investiture and the em- 
 blem of his functions.' The dignity was confined to 
 the noble families of Rome : the choice of the people 
 was ratified by the pope ; but a triple oath of fidelity 
 must have often embarrassed the praefect in the con- 
 flict of adverse duties.' A servant, in whom they pos- 
 sessed but a third share, was dismissed by the inde- 
 pendent Romans : in his place they elected a patri- 
 cian ; but this title, which Charlemagne had not dis- 
 dained, was too lofty for a citizen or a subject; and, 
 after the first fervour of rebellion, they consented with- 
 out reluctance to the restoration of the a. D. 
 praefect. About fifty years after this 1198-^1216. 
 event. Innocent the third, the most ambitious, or at 
 least the most fortunate, of the pontifl^s, delivered the 
 Romans and himself from this badge of foreign domin* 
 
 o Tacit. Hist. iii. 69, 70. 
 
 p This partition of the noble and baser metals between the emper- 
 or and senate, must however be adopted, not as a positive fact, but 
 as the probable opinion of the best antiquaries. (See the Science de» 
 Medailles of the rere Joubert, tom. ii. p. 208—211. in the improved 
 and scarce edition of the Baron de la Bastie.) 
 
 q In his twenty-seventh dissertation on the Antiquities of Italy 
 (torn. ii. p. 559—569.) Muratori exhibits a series of the senatorian 
 coins, which bore the obscure names of Affortiati, Jnfortiati, Provi* 
 sini, Paparini. During this period all the popes, without excepting 
 Boniface VIII. abstained from the right of coining, which was re- 
 sumed by his successor Benedict XI. and regularly exercised in the 
 court of Avignon. 
 
 r A German historian, Gerard of Reicherspeg, (in Baluz. Miscell. 
 tom. ▼. p. 64. apud Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, tom. iii. p. 266.) 
 thus describes the constitution of Rome in the eleventh century : 
 (}randiora urbis et orbis negotia spectant ad Romanum pontificem 
 itemque ad Romanum imperatorem, sive illius vicarium urbis pr»- 
 fectum, qui de sua dignitate respicit utrumque, videlicet dominum 
 papam cui facit hominum, et dominum imperatorem a quo accipit 
 su»_pote8tatis insigne, scilicet gladium exertum. , 
 
 t The words of a contemporary writer (Pandulph. Fisan. in Vit, 
 Paschal H. p. 357, 35S.) describe the election and oath of the pnsfect 
 in 1118, inconsultis patribus .... loca praefectoria .... Laudec pras- 
 fectoriae .... comitorum applausum .... juraturum populo in amtXH 
 nem sublevant .... confinnari eum in urbe prsfectum petunU 
 
468 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX, 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 469 
 
 ion ; he invested the pr«fect with a banner instead of a 
 sword, and absolved him from all dependence of oaths 
 or service to the German emperors.* In his place an 
 ecclesiastic, a present or future cardinal, was named 
 by the pope to the civil grovernment of Rome; but his 
 jurisdiction has been reduced to a narrow compass ; 
 and in the days of freedom, the right or exercise was 
 derived from the senate and people. IV. After the re- 
 Number and vival of the senate," the conscript fathers 
 choice of the (if I may use the expression) were m- 
 senate. vested with the legislative and executive 
 
 power; but their views seldom reached beyond the 
 present day ; and that day was most frequently disturb- 
 ed by violence and tumult. In its utmost plenitude, 
 the order or assembly consisted of fifty-six senators,* 
 the most eminent of whom were distinguished by the 
 title of counsellors ; they were nominated, perhaps an- 
 nually, by the people ; and a previous choice of their 
 electors, ten persons in each region, or parish, might 
 afford a basis for a free and permanent constitution. 
 The popes, who in this tempest submitted rather to 
 bend than to break, confirmed by treaty the establish- 
 ment and privileges of the senate, and expected from 
 time, peace, and "religion, the restoration of their go- 
 vernment. The motives of public and private interest 
 might sometimes draw from the Romans an occasional 
 and temporary sacrifice of their claims; and they re- 
 newed their oath of allegiance to the successor of St. 
 Peter and Constantine, the lawful head of the church 
 and the republic.^ 
 
 The office of The union and vigour of a public coun- 
 senavor. cil was dissolved in a lawless city ; and 
 the Romans soon adopted a more strong and simple' 
 mode of administration. They condensed the name 
 and authority of the senate in a single magistrate, or 
 two colleagues; and as they were changed at the end 
 of a year, or of six months, the greatness of the trust 
 was compensated by the shortness of the term. But 
 in this transient reign, the senators of Rome indulged 
 their avarice and ambition: their justice was perverted 
 by the interest of their family and faction ; and as 
 they punished only their enemies, they were obeyed 
 only by their adherents. Anarchy, no longer tem- 
 pered by the pastoral care of their bishop, admonished 
 the Romans that they were incapable of governing 
 themselves ; and they sought abroad those blessings 
 which they were hopeless of finding at home. In the 
 same age, and from the same motives, most of the 
 Italian republics were prompted to embrace a mea- 
 sure, which, however strange it may seem, was adapted 
 to their situation, and productive of the most salutary 
 effects." They chose, in some foreign but friendly 
 city, an impartial magistrate of noble birth and un- 
 blemished character, a soldier and a statesman, recom- 
 mended by the voice of fame and his country, to 
 whom they delegated for a time the supreme admin- 
 istration of peace and war. The compact between 
 the governor and the governed was sealed with oaths 
 
 X Urbis praefectum ad ligiam fidelitatem recepit, et per mantum 
 quod illi donavit de prafeclura eum publico inveslivit, qui usque ad 
 id tempus jiiramenlo fidelitalis imperatori fuit oblieatus el ab eo prae- 
 fecturae tenuii honorem. (Gesta Innocent III. in Muratori, torn. iii. 
 
 u See Otho Frising. Chron. y\\. 31. de Gest. Frederic I. I. I. c. 27. 
 
 X Our countryman, Roger Hoveden, speaka of the single senators, 
 
 of the Capuzzi family, tec. quorum lemporibus melius regebalur 
 
 Roma qnain nunc (A. D. 1 194.) est temporibus Ivi. senatorum. (Du- 
 
 cangp, Gloss, torn. vi. p. 191. Senatores.) 
 
 y "Muratori (dissert, xlii. lom. iii. p. 795—788.) has published an 
 original treaty. Concordia inter D. nostrum papam Clementem III. 
 et senatores populi Romani super regalibus et aliis dignitatibus ur- 
 bis, &c. anno 44'=' senatus. The senate speaks, and sneaks with au- 
 thority : Reddimus ap praesens habebimus .... dabuis presby- 
 
 teria .... jurabimus pacem ei fidelitatem, &c. A chartula de Tene- 
 mentis Tusculani, dated in the 47ih year of the same aera, and con- 
 firmed decreto amplissimi ordinis senatus, acclamalione P. R. pub- 
 lice Capitolio consistentis. It is there we find the difference of 
 •enatores consiliarii and simple senators. (Muratori, dissert, xlii. lom. 
 Iii. p. 787— 789.) , , . ^ 
 
 « Muratori (dissert, xlv. lom. It. p. 64-92.) has fully explained 
 this mode of government; and the Octilus Pastoralis, which he has 
 given at the end, ia a treatise or sermoa oa the duties of these foreign 
 magistrates. 
 
 a In the Latin writers, at least of the silver age, the title of Poles- 
 tat was transferred from the office to the magistrate : 
 Hujus qui trahitur praetexlam sumere mavis; 
 An Fidenarum Gabjorumque esse Potestaa. 
 
 (Juvenal. Satir. x. 99.) 
 
 b See the life and death of Brancaleone, in the Hisloria Major of 
 Matthew Paris, p. 741. 757. 79-2. 797. 799. 810. 8-23. 833. 8<M\. &40. The 
 multitude of pilgrims and Biiilors connected Rome and St. Alban's, 
 and the resentment of the English clergy prompted them to rejoice 
 whenever the popes were humbled and oppressed. 
 
 c Malihew Paris thus ends his account : Caput vero ipsius Branca- 
 leonis in vase prelioso super marmoream columnam coUocatum, in 
 signum sui valoris et probilalis, quasi reliquias, superstitiose nimis 
 et pompose sustulerunt. Fuerat euim superborum potentum et male- 
 factorum urbis malleus el extirpator, et populi protector et defensor, 
 veritatis et justitias imitator et amator. (p. &40.) A biographer of In- 
 nocent IV. (Muratori, Script, lom. iii. P. i. p. 591, 592.) draws a less 
 favourable portrait of this Crbibeline senator. 
 
 I and subscription ; and the duration of his power, the 
 measure of his stipend, the nature of their mutual f 
 obligations, were defined with scrupulous decision 
 They swore to obey him as their lawful superior; he 
 pledged his faith to unite the indifference of a stran- 
 ger with the zeal of a patriot. At his choice, four or 
 six knights and civilians, his assessors in arms and 
 justice, attended the Podesta,* who maintained at his 
 own expense a decent retinue of servants and horses : 
 his wife, his son, his brother, who might bias the 
 affections of the judge, were left behind; during the 
 exercise of his office he was not permitted to purchase 
 land, to contract an alliance, or even to accept an invi- 
 tation in the house of a citizen ; nor could he honoura- 
 bly depart till he had satisfied the complaints that 
 might be urged against his government. 
 
 It was thus, about the middle of the Brancaieone, ■ 
 thirteenth century, that the Romans call- A.D.1252-12&S. 
 ed from Bologna the senator Brancaleone,** whose fame 
 and merit have been rescued from oblivion by the pen 
 of an English historian. A just anxiety for his repu- 
 tation, a clear foresight of the difficulties of the task, 
 had engaged him to refuse the honour of their choice: 
 the statutes of Rome were suspended, and his office 
 prolonged to the term of three years. By the guilty 
 and licentious he was accused as cruel ; by the clergy 
 he was suspected as partial ; but the friends of peace 
 and order applauded the firm and upright magistrate 
 by whom those blessings were restored. No crimi- 
 nals were so powerful as to brave, so obscure as to 
 elude, the justice of the senator. By his sentence two 
 nobles of the Annibaldi family were executed on a 
 gibbet; and he inexorably demolished, in the city and 
 neighbourhood, one hundred and forty towers, the 
 strong shelters of rapine and mischief. The bishop, 
 as a simple bishop, was compelled to reside in his 
 diocese ; and the standard of Brancaleone was dis- 
 played in the field with terror and effect. His ser- 
 vices were repaid by the ingratitude of a people 
 unworthy of the happiness which they enjoyed. By 
 the public robbers, whom he had provoked for their 
 sake, the Romans were excited to depose and impri- 
 son their benefactor; nor would his life have been 
 spared, if Bologna had not possessed a pledge for his 
 safety. Before his departure, the prudent senator had 
 required the exchange of thirty hostages of the noblest 
 families of Rome: on the news of his danger, and at 
 the prayer of his wife, they were more strictly guard- 
 ed ; and Bologna, in the cause of honour, sustained the 
 thunders of a papal interdict. This generous resis- 
 tance allowed the Romans to compare the present 
 with the past; and Brancaleone was conducted from 
 the prison to the capitol amidst the acclamations of a 
 repentant people. The remainder of his government 
 was firm and fortunate; and as soon as envy was 
 appeased by death, his head, enclosed in a precious 
 vase, was deposited on a lofty column of marble.* 
 
 The impotence of reason and virtue Charles of A nj mi, 
 recommended in Italy a more effectual A- D. 1265-1276. 
 choice : instead of a private citizen, to whom they 
 yielded a voluntary and precarious obedieiice, the Ro- 
 mans elected for their senator some prince of indepen- 
 dent power, who could defend them from their ene- 
 
 mies and themselves. Charles of Anjou and Provence, 
 the most ambitious and warlike monarch of the age, 
 accepted at the same time the kingdom of Naples 
 from the pope, and the office of senator from the Ro- 
 man people.** As he passed through the city, in his 
 road to victory, he received their oath of allegiance, 
 lodged in the Lateran palace, and smoothed in a short 
 visit the harsh features of his despotic character. Yet 
 even Charles was exposed to the inconstancy of the 
 people, who saluted with the same acclamations the 
 passages of his rival, the unfortunate Conradin ; and 
 a powerful avenger, who reigned in the capitol, alarm- 
 ed the fears and jealousy of the popes. The absolute 
 term of his life was superseded by a renewal every 
 third year; and the enmity of Nicholas the third 
 obliged the Sicilian king to abdicate the government 
 of Rome. In his bull, a perpetual law, the imperious 
 pontiff asserts the truth, validity, and use, of the dona- 
 tion of Constantine, not less essential to the peace of 
 the city than to the independence of the church ; esta- 
 blishes the annual election of the senator; and for- 
 mally disqualifies all emperors, kings, princes, and 
 Pope Martin IV. persons of an eminent and conspicuous 
 A. D. 1281. rank.* This prohibitory clause was re- 
 pealed in his own behalf by Martin the fourth, who 
 humbly solicited the suffrage of the Romans. In the 
 presence, and by the authority, of the people, two elec- 
 tors conferred, not on the pope, but on the noble and 
 faithful Martin, the dignity of senator, and the supreme 
 administration of the republic,' to hold during his 
 natural life, and to exercise at pleasure by himself or 
 , ^ his deputies. About fifty years after- 
 
 ' Lewis'of Ba- wards, the same title was granted to 
 Taria, the emperor Lewis of Bavaria; and the 
 
 A. D. 1328. liberty of Rome was acknowledged by 
 her two sovereigns, who accepted a municipal office 
 in the government of their own metropolis. 
 Addresses of In the first moments of rebellion, when 
 Rome to the Arnold of Brescia had inflamed their 
 emperors. minds against the church, the Romans 
 
 artfully laboured to conciliate the favour of the em- 
 peror, and to recommend their merit and services in 
 Conrad III. the cause of Caisar. The style of their 
 A. D. 1144. ambassadors to Conrad the third and 
 Frederic the first, is a mixture of flattery and pride, 
 the tradition and the ignorance of their own history.' 
 After some complaint of his silence and neglect, they 
 exhort the former of these princes to pass the Alps, 
 and assume from their hands the imperial crown. 
 " We beseech your majesty, not to disdain the humi- 
 lity of your sons and vassals, not to listen to the accu- 
 sations of our commmon enemies, who calumniate the 
 senate as hostile to your throne, who sow the seeds 
 of discord, that they may reap the harvest of destruc- 
 tion. The pope and the Sicilian are united in an im- 
 pious league to oppose our liberty and your corona- 
 tion. With the blessing of God, our zeal and courage 
 has hitherto defeated their attempts. Of their power- 
 ful and factious adherents, more especially the Fran- 
 gipani, we have taken by assault the houses and ter- 
 rets : some of these are occupied by our troops, and 
 
 i The election of Charles of Anjou to the office of perpetual sena- 
 tor of Rome, is mentioned by the historians in the eighth volume of 
 the Collection of Muratori, by Nicholas de Jamsilla^ (p. .'592.) the 
 monk of Padua, (p. 724.) Sabas Malaspina, (I. ii. c. 9. p. 808.) and 
 Ricordano Malcspini, (c. 177. p. 999.) 
 
 e The high sounding bull of Nicholas III. which founds his tempo- 
 ral sovereignly on the donation of Constantine, is still extant; and 
 as it lias been inserted by Boniface VIII. in the Sexte of the Decre- 
 tals, it must be received by the catholics, or at least by the papists, 
 as a sacred and perpetual law. 
 
 f I am indebted to Fleury (Hist. Eccles. lom. xviii. p. 306.) for an 
 extract of this Roman act, which he has taken from the Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, A. D. 1291, No. 14, 15. 
 
 f These letters and speeches are preserved by Otho bishop of Fri- 
 flingen, (Fabric. Bibliot. Lat. med. et. infim. tom. v. p. 196, 187.) per- 
 haps the noblest of historians: he was son of Leopold marquis of 
 Austria; his mother, Asnes, was daught^•r of the emperor Henry IV. 
 and he was half-brother and uncle to Conrad III. and Frederic I. 
 He has left, in seven btx)k8, a Chronicle of tlie Times; in two, the 
 Gesta Frederici I. the last of which is inserted in the sixth volume 
 of Muraiori's historians. 
 
 some are levelled with the ground. The Milvian 
 bridge, which they had broken, is restored and forti- 
 fied for your safe passage ; and your army may enter 
 the city without being annoyed from the castle of St. 
 An^elo. All that we have done, and all that we 
 design, is for your honour and service, in the loyal 
 hope, that you will speedily appear in person, to vin- 
 dicate those rights which have been invaded by the 
 clergy, to revive the dignity of the empire, and to 
 surpass the fame and glory of your predecessors. 
 May you fix your residence in Rome, the capital of 
 the world : give laws to Italy, and the Teutonic king- 
 dom ; and imitate the example of Constantine and 
 Justinian,* who, by the vigour of the senate and peo- 
 ple, obtained the sceptre of the earth."' But these 
 splendid and fallacious wishes were not cherished by 
 Conrad the Franconian, whose eyes were fixed on the 
 Holy Land, and who died without visiting Rome 
 soon after his return from the Holy Land. 
 
 His nephew and successor, Frederic Frederici. 
 Barbarossa, was more ambitious of the ^- ^' '^55. 
 imperial crown ; nor had any of the successors of 
 Otho acquired such absolute sway over the kingdom 
 of Italy. Surrounded by his ecclesiastical and secular 
 princes, he gave audience in his camp at Sutri to the 
 ambassadors of Rome, who thus addressed him in a 
 free and florid oration : " Incline your ear to the queen 
 of cities; approach with a peaceful and friendly mind 
 the precincts of Rome, which has cast away the yoke 
 of the clergy, and is impatient to crown her legitimate 
 emperor. tJnder your auspicious influence, may the 
 primitive times be restored. Assert the prerogatives 
 of the eternal city, and reduce under her monarchy 
 the insolence of the world. You are not ignorant, that, 
 in former ages, by the wisdom of the senate, by the 
 valour and discipline of the equestrian order, she 
 extended her victorious arms to the east and west, 
 beyond the Alps, and over the islands of the ocean. 
 By our sins, in the absence of our princes, the noble 
 institution of the senate has sunk in oblivion : and with 
 our prudence, our strength has likewise decreased. 
 We have revived the senate, and the equestrian order: 
 the counsels of the one, the arms of the other, will be 
 devoted to your person and the service of the empire. 
 Do you not hear the language of the Roman matron t 
 You were a guest, I have adopted you as a citizen ; a 
 Transalpine stranger, I have elected you for my sove- 
 reign;* and given you myself, and all that is mine. 
 Your first and most sacred duty, is to swear and sub- 
 scribe, that you will shed your blood for the republic ; 
 that you will maintain in peace and justice the laws 
 of the city and the charters of your predecessors ; and 
 that you will reward with five thousand pounds of 
 silver, the faithful senators who shall proclaim your 
 titles in the capitol. With the name, assume the 
 character, of Augustus." The flowers of Latin rhe- 
 toric were not yet exhausted ; but Frederic, impatient 
 of their vanity, interrupted the orators in the high 
 tone of royalty and conquest. "Famous indeed have 
 been the fortitude and wisdom of the ancient Romans; 
 but your speech is not seasoned with wisdom, and I 
 could wish that fortitude were conspicuous in your 
 actions. Like all sublunary things, Rome has felt 
 the vicissitudes of time and fortune. Your noblest 
 families were translated to the east, to the royal city 
 of Constantine ; and the remains of your strength and 
 freedom have long since been exhausted by the Greeks 
 and Franks. Are you desirous of beholding the an- 
 cient glory of Rome, the gravity of the senate, the 
 spirit of the knights, the discipline of the camp, the 
 valour of the legions? you will find them in the Ger- 
 man republic. 1[t is not empire, naked and alone; 
 
 h We desire (said the ignorant Romans) to restore the empire in 
 eum statum, quo fuit tempore Conslantini et Justiniani, qui lolum 
 orbem vijrore senatus et populi Romani siiis tenuere manibus. 
 
 i Otho Frisins. de Gestis Frederici I. 1. i. c. 28. p. 662-664. 
 
 k Hospes eras, civem feci. Advena fuisti ex Trausalpinis parll- 
 buB, principem coustitui. 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
\Ai 
 
 47U 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 CuAP XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 471 
 
 the ornaments and virtues of empire have likewise 
 migrated beyond the Alps to a more deserving peo- 
 ple.' They will be employed in your defence, but 
 they claim your obedience. You pretend that myself 
 or my predecessors have been invited by the Romans : 
 you mistake the word ; they were not invited ; they 
 were implored. From its foreign and domestic tyrants, 
 the city was rescued by Charlemagne and Otho, whose 
 ashes respose in our country ; and their dominion was 
 the price of your deliverance. Under that dominion 
 your ancestors lived and died. I claim by the right 
 of inheritance and possession, and who shall dare 
 to extort you from my hands? Is the hand of the 
 Franks" and Germans enfeebled by age 1 am I van- 
 quished? am I a captive? am I not encompassed 
 with the banners of a potent and invincible army? 
 You impose conditions on your master; you require 
 oaths: if the conditions are just, an oath is super- 
 fluous; if unjust, it is criminal. Can you doubt my 
 equity ? It is extended to the meanest of my subjects. 
 Will not my sword be unsheathed in the defence of 
 the capitol ? By that sword the northern kingdom of 
 Denmark has been restored to the Roman empire. 
 You prescribe the measure and the objects of my 
 bounty, which flows in a copious but a voluntary 
 stream. All will be given to patient merit ; all will 
 be denied to rude importunity."" Neither the em- 
 peror nor the senate could maintain these lofty preten- 
 sions of dominion and liberty. United with the pope, 
 Bnd suspicious of the Romans, Frederic continued his 
 inarch to the Vatican : his coronation was disturbed 
 by a sally from the capitol ; and if the numbers and 
 valour of the Germans prevailed in the bloody conflict, 
 he could not safely encamp in the presence of a city 
 of which he styled himself the sovereign. About 
 twelve years afterwards, he besieged Rome, to seat 
 an antrpope in the chair of St. iPeter ; and twelve 
 Pisan galleys were introduced into the Tiber; but the 
 senate and people were saved by the arts of negocis^^ 
 tion and the progress of disease; nor did Frederic or 
 his successors reiterate the hostile attempt. Their 
 laborious reigns were exercised by the popes, the cru- 
 sades, and the independence of Lombardy and Ger- 
 many; they courted the alliance of the Romans; and 
 Frederic the second offered in the capitol the great 
 standard, the Caroccto of Milan." After the extinction 
 of the house of Swabia, they were banished beyond 
 the Alps ; and their last coronations betrayed the im- 
 potence and poverty of the Teutonic Csesars.P 
 Wara of the Under the reign of Adrian, when the 
 
 Romans against empire extended from the Euphrates to 
 the neighbour- the ocean, from mount Atlas to the Gram- 
 ng cities. pian hills, a fanciful historian •> amused 
 
 I Noncessit nobis nudum imperium,Tirtute suaamictum venit, or- 
 namenta pua secum traxit. Penes nos sunt consules tui, &c. Cicero 
 or Livy would not have rejected these images, the eloquence of a 
 barbarian born and educated in ihe Hercynian forest. 
 
 m Otho of Frisingen, who surely understood the language of the 
 court and diet of Germany, speaks of the Franks in the twelfth cen- 
 tury as the reignin; nation ; (Proceres Franci, equites Franci, manus 
 Francorum ;) he adds, however, the epithet of Teutonic*. 
 
 n OlhoFrising.deGestisFrederici I. l.li.c.22. p.720— 723. These 
 original and auiheniic acts I have translated and abridged with free- 
 dom, yet with fidelity. 
 
 o From the Chronicles of Ricobaldo and Francis Pepin, Muratori 
 (dissert. xx\i. torn. ii. p. 492.) has transcribed this curious fact with 
 the doggrel verses that accompanied the gift. 
 
 Ave decus orbis, ave ! victus tibi destinor, ave! 
 Currus ab Auguslo Frcderico Caesare justo. 
 Va Mediolanum ! jam sentis spernere vanum 
 Imperii vires, proprias tibi tollere vires. 
 Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor esse priorum 
 Quos tibi millebant reges qui bella gerebant. 
 NesI dee iacere(l now use the Italian Dissertations, torn. i. p. 444.) 
 che neir anno 1727, una ropia desso Caroccio in marmo dianzi igno- 
 to si scopri, nel CampidLiglio, presso alle carcere di quel luogo, dove 
 Sisto V. I'avea falio rinchiudere. Stava esso posto sopra quatro co- 
 lonne di niarmo fino colla sequente inscrizione, Jcc. to the same pur- 
 pose as the old inscription. 
 
 P The decline of the imperial arms and authority in Italy is related 
 vrith impartial learning in the Annals of Muratori ; (tom. x. xi. xii ) 
 and the reader may compare his narrative with the Histoire des Al- 
 lemands (tom. iii. iv.) by Schmidt, who has deserved the esteem of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 q Tibur nunc, suburbanum, et »stivae Praeneste deliciae, nuncupa- 
 iu m Capitoljy voiis petebauiur. The whole passage of Florus (I. i. 
 
 the Romans with the picture of their infant wars. 
 "There was a time," says Florus, "when Tibur and 
 Praeneste, our summer retreats, were the objects of 
 hostile vows in the capitol, when we dreaded the 
 shades of the Arician groves, when we could triumph 
 without a blush over the nameless villapres of the 
 Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could afford a 
 title not unworthy of a victorious general." The pride 
 of his contemporaries was gratified by the contrast of 
 the past with the present ; they would have been 
 humbled by the prospect of futurity; by the predic- 
 tion, that after a thousand years, Rome, despoiled of 
 empire and contracted to her primaeval limits, would 
 renew the same hostilities, on the same ground which 
 was then decorated with her villas and gardens. The 
 adjacent territory on either side of the Tiber was 
 always claimed, and sometimes possessed, as the patri- 
 mony of St. Peter ; but the barons assumed a lawless 
 independence, and the cities too faithfully copied the 
 revolt and discord of the metropolis. In the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, the Romans incessantly laboured 
 to reduce or destroy the contumacious vassals of the 
 church and senate; and if their headstrong and selfish 
 ambition was moderated by the pope, he often encour- 
 aged their zeal by the alliance of his spiritual arms. 
 Their warfare was that of the first consuls and dicta- 
 tors, who were taken from the plough. They assem- 
 bled in arms at the foot of the capitol ; sallied from 
 the gates, plundered or burnt the harvests of iheir 
 neighbours, engaged in tumultuary conflict, and return- 
 ed home after an expedition of fifteen or twenty days. 
 Their sieges were tedious and unskilful ; in the use 
 of victory, they indulged the meaner passions of jea- 
 lousy and revenge ; and instead of adopting the valour, 
 they trampled on the misfortunes, of their adversaries. 
 The captives, in their shirts, with a rope round their 
 necks, solicited their pardon: the fortifications, and 
 even the buildings, of the rival cities were demo- 
 lished, and the inhabitants were scattered in the adja- 
 cent villages. It was thus that the seats of the car- 
 dinal bishops, Porto, Ostia, Albanum, Tusculura, Pr«- 
 neste, and Tibur or Tivoli, were successively over- 
 thrown by the ferocious hostility of the Romans.' Of 
 these,* Porto and Ostia, the two keys of the Tiber, are 
 still vacant and desolate ; the marshy and unwhole- 
 some banks are peopled with herds of buffalos, and 
 the river is lost to every purpose of navigation and 
 trade. The hills which afford a shady retirement from 
 the autumnal heats, have again smiled with the bless- 
 ings of peace; Frescati has arisen near the ruins of 
 Tusculum ; Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honours 
 of a city,' and the meaner towns of Albano and Pales- 
 trina are decorated with the villas of the cardinals and 
 princes of Rome. In the work of destruction, the 
 ambition of the Romans was often checked and re- 
 pulsed by the neighbouring cities and their allies: in 
 the first siege of Tibur, they were driv- g^me of Tu«- 
 en from their camp ; and the battles of culum, 
 Tusculum ■ and Viterbo* might be com- ^* ^- ^^^' 
 
 c. 11.) may be read with pleasure, and has deserved the praise of a 
 man of genius. (CBuvres cte Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 634, b35. quarto 
 edition.) 
 
 r Ne a feriiate Romanorum, sicut fuerant Hostienses, Porluenses, 
 Tusculanenses, Albanenses, Labicenses, et nuper Tibunini desirue- 
 rentur. (Matthew Paris, p. 757.) These events are marked in the 
 Annals and Index (the eighteenth volume) of Muratori. 
 
 ■ For the state or ruin of these suburban cities, the banks of the 
 Tiber, kc. see the lively picture of the P. Labat, (Voyage en Espag. 
 et en Italie,) who had not long resided in the neighbourhooa of 
 Rome: and the more accurate description of which P. Eschinard 
 (Koma, 1750. in octavo) has added to tbe topographical map of Ciugo- 
 lani. 
 
 t Labat (tom. iii. p. 233.) mentions a recent decree of the Roman 
 government, which has severely mortified the pride and poverty of 
 Tivoli : in civitate Tiburtina non viviiur civiliter. 
 
 u I depart from my usual method, of nuoting only by the date the 
 Annals of Muratori, in consideration of tne critical balance in which 
 he has weighed nine contemporary writers who mention the battle 
 of Tusculum, (tom. x. p. 42—44.) 
 
 X Matthew Paris, p. 345. This bishop of Winchester was Peter de 
 Pupibus, who occupied the see thirty-two years, (A. D. 1206—1238.) 
 and is described, by the English historian, as a soldier and a sutes- 
 man, (p. 178-399.) 
 
 1 
 
 nared in their relative state to the memorable fields of 
 Thrasymene and Cannae. In the first of these petty 
 wars thirty thousand Romans were overthrown by a 
 thousand German horse, whom Frederic Barbarossa 
 ■ had detached to the relief of Tusculum; and if we 
 [ number the slain at three, the prisoners at two, thou- 
 sand, we shall embrace the most authentic and mod- 
 erate account. Sixty-eight years afterwards they 
 Battle of Viterbo, marched against Viterbo in the ecclesi- 
 A. D. 1234. astical state with the whole force of the 
 city : by a rare coalition the Teutonic eagle was blend- 
 i ed, in the adverse banners, with the keys of St. Peter; 
 and the pope's auxiliaries were commanded by a count 
 of Thoulouse and a bishop of Winchester. The Ro- 
 mans were discomfited with shame and slaughter ; but 
 the English prelate must have indulged the vanity of 
 a pilgrim, if he multiplied their numbers to one hun- 
 dred, and their loss in the field to thirty, thousand 
 men. Had the policy of the senate and the discipline 
 of the legions been restored with the capitol, the divi- 
 ded condition of Italy would have offered the fairest 
 opportunity of a second conquest. But in arms the 
 modern Romans were not above, and in arts, they were 
 far below, the common level of the neighbouring re- 
 publics. Nor was their warlike spirit of any long 
 continuance; after some irregular sallies they subsi- 
 ded in the national apathy, in the neglect of military 
 institutions, and in the disgraceful and dangerous use 
 of foreign mercenaries. 
 
 The election of Ambition is a weed of quick and early 
 the popes. vegetation in the vineyard of Christ. 
 Under the first Christian princes, the chair of St. Pe- 
 ter was disputed by the votes, the venality, the vio- 
 lence, of a popular election ; the sanctuaries of Rome 
 were polluted with blood ; and, from the third to the 
 twelfth century, the church was distracted by the mis- 
 chief of frequent schisms. As long as the final ap- 
 peal was determined by the civil magistrate, these 
 mischiefs were transient and local : the merits were 
 tried by equity or favour; nor could the unsuccessful 
 competitor long disturb the triumph of his rival. But 
 after the emperors had been divested of their preroga- 
 tives, after a maxim had been established, that the 
 vicar of Christ is amenable to no earthly tribunal, 
 each vacancy of the holy see might involve Christen- 
 dom in controversy and war. The claims of the car- 
 dinals and inferior clergy, of the nobles and people, 
 were vague and litigious : the freedom of choice was 
 overruled by the tumults of a city that no longer own- 
 ed or obeyed a superior. On the decease of a pope, 
 two factions proceeded in different churches to a doii- 
 ble election : ihe number and weight of votes, the pri- 
 ority of time, the merit of the candidates, might bal- 
 ance each other : the most respectable of the clergy 
 were divided ; and the distant princes, who bowed be- 
 fore the spiritual throne, could not distinguish the 
 spurious, from the legitimate, idol. The emperors 
 were often the authors of the schism, from the politi- 
 cal motive of opposing a friendly to an hostile pontiff; 
 and each of the competitors was reduced to suffer the 
 insults of his enemies, who were not awed by con- 
 science ; and to purchase the support of his adherents. 
 Right of the who were instigated by avarice or ambi- 
 caniinais esta- i[qj^^ j^ peaceful and perpetual succes- 
 aiderliL ^^"* sion was ascertained by Alexander the 
 A. D. 1179. third ,y who finally abolished the tumul- 
 tuary votes of the clergy and people, and defined the 
 right of election in the sole college of cardinals.' 
 The three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, 
 
 y See Moshelm, Institul. Histor. Ecclesiast. p. 401. 403. Alexander 
 himself had nearly been the victim of a contested election ; and the 
 doubtful merits of Innocent had only preponderated by the weight 
 of genius and learning which St. Bernard cast into the scale. (See 
 his life and writings.) run 
 
 > The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency, «c., of the Ro- 
 man cardinals, are very ably discussed by Thomasin : (Discipline de 
 I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1-262—1287.) but their purple is now much faded. 
 The sacred coUesje was raised to the definite number of seventy -two, 
 to represent, uuder his vicar, the disciples of Christ. 
 
 were assimilated to each other by this important pri- 
 vilege ; the parochial clergy of Rome obtained the first 
 rank in the hierarchy; they were indifferently chosea 
 among the nations of Christendom ; and the posses- 
 sion of the richest benefices, of the most important 
 bishoprics, was not incompatible with their title and 
 office. The senators of the catholic church, the coad- 
 jutors and legates of the supreme pontifl[i were robed 
 in purple, the symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they 
 claimed a proud equality with kings: and their dignity 
 was enhanced by the smallness of their number, which 
 till llie reign of Leo the tenth, seldom exceeded twenty 
 or twenty-five persons. By this wise regulation, all 
 doubt and scandal were removed, and the root of 
 schism was so effectually destroyed, that in a period 
 of six hundred years a double choice has only once 
 divided the unity of the sacred college. But as the 
 concurrence of two thirds of the votes had been made 
 necessary, the election was often delayed by the pri- 
 vate interest and passions of the cardinals ; and while 
 they prolonged their independent reign, the christian 
 world was left destitute of a head. A institution of 
 vacancy of almost three years had pre- tiie conclave b/ 
 ceded the elevation of Gregory the tenth, ^'"^"g^ ^^ 
 who resolved to prevent the future abuse ; 
 and his bull, after some opposition, has been con- 
 secrated in the code of the canon law.* Nine days 
 are allowed for the obsequies of the deceased popci 
 and the arrival of the absent cardinals: on the te.nlh, 
 they are imprisoned, each with one domestic, in a 
 common apartment or conclave, without any separatioa 
 of walls or curtains ; a small window is reserved for 
 the introduction of necessaries ; but the door is locked 
 on both sides, and guarded by the magistrates of the 
 city, to seclude them from all correspondence with 
 the world. If the election be not consummated ia 
 three days, the luxury of their tables is contracted to 
 a single dish at dinner and supper; and after the 
 eighth day, they are reduced to a scanty allowance of 
 bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy of the 
 holy see, the cardinals are prohibited from touching 
 the revenues, or assuming, unless in some rare emer- 
 gency, the government of the church ; all agreements 
 and promises among the electors are formally annul- 
 led ; and their integrity is fortified by their solemn 
 oath and the prayers of the catholics. Some articles 
 of inconvenient or superfluous rigour have been gra- 
 dually relaxed, but the principle of confinement is 
 vigorous and entire; they are still nrged by the per- 
 sonal motives of health and freedom to accelerate the 
 moment of their deliverance : and the improvement of 
 ballot or secret votes has wrapt the struggles of the 
 conclave'' in the silky veil of charity and politeness.* 
 By these institutions, the Romans were excluded from 
 the election of their prince and bishop : and in the 
 fever of wild and precarious liberty, they seemed 
 insensible of the loss of this inestimable privilege. 
 The emperor Lewis of Bavaria revived a. D. 1328. 
 the example of the great Otho. After 
 some negociation with the magistrates, the Roman peo- 
 ple were assembled ^ in the square before St. Peter's; 
 
 a See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro concilio, in the 
 Sexte of the Canon Law, (1. i. tit. 6. c. 3.) a supplement to the Decre- 
 tals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated at Rome in 1298, and address- 
 ed to all the universities of Europe. 
 
 b The genius of cardinal de Retz had a right to paint a conclave, 
 (of 16G5.) in which he was a spectator and an actor: (Memoirs, tom. 
 iv. p. 15—57.) but I am at a loss to appreciate the knowledge or au- 
 thority of an anonymous Italian, whose history (Conclavi de Ponii- 
 fici Roman! in 4to, 1667.) has been continued since the reign of 
 Alexander Yll. The accidental form of the work furnishes a lesson, 
 though not an antidote, to ambition. From a labyrinth of intriguee, 
 we emerge to the adoration of the successful candidate ; but the next 
 page opens with his funeral. , . ... 
 
 c The expressions of cardinal de Retz are positive and pictur- 
 esque • On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le meme respect, et la 
 meme civilit6 que Ton observe dans le cabinet des rois, avec la 
 meme politesse qu'on avoit dans la cour de Henri III. avec la m€me 
 familiarite que Ton voit dans les noviciats ; et avec la meme charity, 
 du inoins en apparence, qui pourroit ctre entre des freres parfaite- 
 
 d Rechiesti per bando (says John Yillani) sanatori di Roma, e 62 
 
 1\ 
 
 w 
 
 ji 
 
472 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 the pope of Avignon, John the twenty-second, was 
 deposed ; the choice of his successor was ratified by 
 their consent and applause. They freely voted for a 
 new law, that their bishop should never be absent 
 more than three months in the year, and two days' 
 journey from the city: and that if he neglected to 
 return on the third summons, the public servant should 
 be degraded and dismissed.* But Lewis forgot his 
 own debility and the prejudices of the times : beyond 
 the precincts of a German camp, his useless phantom 
 "was rejected ; the Romans despised their own work- 
 manship ; the antipope implored the mercy of his law- 
 ful sovereign;' and the exclusive right of the cardi- 
 nals was more firmly established by this unseasonable 
 attack. 
 
 Absence of the ^^d the election been always held in 
 popes from the Vatican, the rights of the senate and 
 Rome. people would not have been violated 
 
 with impunity. But the Romans forgot, and were 
 forgotten, in the absence of the successors of Gregory 
 the seventh, who did not keep as a divine precept their 
 ordinary residence in the city and diocese. The care 
 of that diocese was less important than the govern- 
 ment of the universal church ; nor could the popes de- 
 light in a city in which their authority was always 
 opposed, and their person was often endangered. 
 From the persecution of the emperors, and the wars of 
 Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospita- 
 ble bosom of France ; from the tumults of Rome they 
 prudently withdrew to live and die in the more tran- 
 quil stations of Anagni, Perugia, Viterbo, and the ad- 
 jacent cities. When the flock was offended or impo- 
 verished by the absence of the shepherd, they were re- 
 called by a stern admonition, that St. Peter had fixed 
 his chair, not in an obscure village, but in the capital 
 of the world ; by a ferocious menace that the Romans 
 "Would march in arms to destroy the place and people 
 that should dare to afford them a retreat. They re- 
 turned with timorous obedience ; and were saluted 
 with the account of a heavy debt, of all the losses 
 "which their desertion had occasioned, the hire of lodg- 
 ings, the sale of provisions, and the various expenses 
 of servants and strangers who attended the court.* 
 After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of authori- 
 ty, they were again banished by new tumults, and 
 again summoned by the imperious or respectful invita- 
 tion of the senate. In these occasional retreats, the 
 exiles and fugitives of the Vatican were seldom long, 
 or far, distant from the metropolis ; but in the begin- 
 ning of the fourteenth century the apostolic throne was 
 transported, as it might seem for ever, from the Tiber 
 to the Rhone ; and the cause of the transmigration may 
 Boniface VIII. ^^' deduced from the furious contest be- 
 i' A. D. tween Boniface the eighth and the king 
 ' 1294-1303. ^f France.'* The spiritual arms of ex- 
 communication and interdict were repulsed by the 
 
 del popolo, et capitani de' 25 e consoli, (eonsoli?} el 13buone huom- 
 ini, uno per rione. Our knowledge is too imperfect to pronounce, 
 how much of this constitution was temporary, and how much ordinary 
 and permanent. Yet it is faintly illustrated by the ancient statutes 
 of Rome. 
 
 e Villani (1. x. c. G8-71. In Muratori Script, lom. xiii. p. Ml— 645.) 
 relates this law, and the whole transaction, with much less abhorrence 
 than the prudent Muratori. Any one conversant with the darker ages 
 must have observed how much the sense (I mean the nonsense) of 
 •uperstition is fluctuating and inconsistent. 
 
 f In the first volume of the popes of Avignon, see the second origi- 
 nal Life of John XXII. p. 142—145. the confession of the antipope, p. 
 145—152. and the laborious notes of Baluze, p. 714, 715. 
 
 g Romani autem non valentcs nee volentes ultra suam celare cu- 
 piditatem gravissimam contra papam movere cceperunt quesiionem, 
 exigentes, ab eo urgentissime omnia quae subierant per ejus absen- 
 liam damna et jaciuras, videlicet in hospiiiis locandis, in mercimo- 
 niis, in usuris, in reddiiibus, in provisionibus, et in aliis modis innu- 
 merabilibus. Quod cum audisset papa, praecordialiter ingemuii, et 
 se comperiens muscipulatum, Sec. Matt. Paris, p. 757. For the ordi- 
 nary history of the popes, their life and death, their residence and 
 absence, it is enough to refer to tlie ecclesiastical annalists, Sponda- 
 nus and Fleury. 
 
 b Besides the general historians of the church of Italy and of 
 
 /tH*^^' we possess a valuable treatise composed by a learned friend 
 
 01 Thuanus, which his last and best editors have published in the ap- 
 
 E®"^'*« (Histoire particulifire du grand Differend entre Boniface 
 
 \m. et Philippe 1« Bel, par Pierre du Puis, torn. vii. p.xi. p. 61—82.) 
 
 union of the three estates, and the privileges of the' 
 Gallican church ; but the pope was not prepared against 
 the carnal weapons which Philip the Fair had courage 
 to employ. As the pope resided at Anagni, without 
 the suspicion of danger, his palace and person were 
 assaulted by three hundred horse, who had been se- 
 cretly levied by William of Nogaret, a French minis- 
 ter, and Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile family^ 
 of Rome. The cardinals fled ; the inhabitants of Anag- 
 ni were seduced from their allegiance and gratitude ; 
 but the dauntless Boniface, unarmed and alone, seated 
 himself in his chair, and awaited, like the conscript 
 fathers of old, the swords of the Gauls. Nogaret, a 
 foreign adversary, was content to execute the orders 
 of his master: by the domestic enmity of Colonna, he 
 was insulted with words and blows ; and during a con- 
 flnement of three days his life was threatened by the 
 hardships which they inflicted on the obstinacy which 
 they provoked. Their strange delay gave time and 
 courage to the adherents of the church, who rescued 
 him from sacrilegious violence ; but his imperious soul 
 was wounded in a vital part ; and Boniface expired at 
 Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His memory 
 is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride ; 
 nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this eccle- 
 siastical champion to the honours of a saint : a magnan- 
 imous sinner, (say the chronicles of the times,) who 
 entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a 
 dog. He was succeeded by Benedict the eleventh, the 
 mildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicated the im- 
 pious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the city and 
 people of Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects 
 are still visible to the eyes of superstition.' 
 
 After his decease, the tedious and Translation of 
 equal suspense oi the conclave w^as fixed the holy see to 
 by the dexterity of the French faction. "^^I^IJ^.'qoo 
 A specious offer was made and accepted, " * 
 that in the term of forty days, they would elect one of 
 the three candidates who should be named by their 
 opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, a furious 
 enemy of his king and country, was the first on the 
 list; but his ambition was known ; and his conscience 
 obeyed the calls of fortune and the commands of a ben- 
 efactor, who had been informed by a swift messenger 
 that the choice of a pope was now in his hands. The 
 terms were regulated in a private interview ; and with 
 such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, 
 that the unanimous conclave applauded the elevation 
 of Clement the fiflh.* The cardinals of both parties 
 were soon astonished by a sumn-ons to attend him be- 
 yond the Alps; from whence, as they soon discovered, 
 they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by 
 promise and aflTection, to prefer the residence of France ; 
 and, after dragging his court through Poitou and Gas- 
 cogny, and devouring, by his expense, the cities and 
 convents on the road, he finally reposed at Avignon,' 
 which flourished above seventy years'" the seat of the 
 Roman pontiff, and the metropolis of Christendom. 
 
 I It is difficult to know whether Labat (torn. iv. p. 53—57.) be in 
 jest or in earnest, when he supposes that Anagni still feels the 
 weight of this curse, and that the corn-fields, or vineyards, or olive- 
 trees, are annually blasted by nature, the obsequious handmaid of the 
 popes. 
 
 k See in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani, (1. viii. c. S3, 64. 80. in 
 Muratori, torn, xiii.) the impriaonmeni of Boniface VIII. and the 
 election of Clement V. the last of which, like most anecdotes, is em- 
 barrassed with some Jifllculties. 
 
 ) The original livesof the eight popes of Avignon, Clement V.John 
 XXII. Benedict XII. Clement VI. Innocent VI. Urban V. Gregory Xf. 
 and Clement VII. are published by Stephen Baluze, (Vitae Paparum 
 Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols, in 4to,) with copious and elabo- 
 rate notes, and a second volume of acts and documents. With the 
 true zeal of an editor and a patriot, he devoutly justifies or ezcuaea 
 the characters of his countrymen. 
 
 m The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians with Babylon, 
 and the Babylonish captivity. Such furious meupljors, more suita- 
 ble to the ardour of Petrarch than to the juilgment of Muratori, are 
 gravely refuted in Baluze'a preface. The Abbe de Sade is distracted 
 between the love of Petrarch and of his country. Yet he modestly 
 pleads that many of the local inconveniences of Avignon are now re- 
 moved; and many of the vices against which the poet declaims, had 
 been imported with the Roman court by the strangers of Italy, (torn, 
 i. p. 23-28.) ' 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 473 
 
 
 By land, by sea, by the Rhone, the position of Avig- 
 non was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces 
 of France do not yield to Italy itself ; new palaces arose 
 for the accommodation of the pope and cardinals ; and 
 the arts of luxury were soon attracted by the treasures 
 of the church. They were already possessed of the 
 adjacent territory, the Venaissin county," a populous 
 and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of Avignon was 
 afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of 
 Jane, the first queen of Naples and countess of Pro- 
 vence, for the inadequate price of fourscore thousand 
 florins.* Under the shadow of the French monarchy, 
 amidst an obedient people, the popes enjoyed an 
 honourable and tranquil state, to which they long had 
 been strangers : but Italy deplored their absence ; and 
 Rome, in solitude and poverty, might repent of the un- 
 governable freedom w^hich had driven from the Vati- 
 can the successor of St. Peter. Her repentance was 
 tardy and fruitless : after the death of the old members, 
 the sacred college was filled with French cardinals,? 
 who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and con- 
 tempt, and perpetuated a series of national, and even 
 provincial, popes, attached by the most indissoluble 
 ties to their native country. 
 Institution of ^''^^ progress of industry had produced 
 the jubilee or and enriched the Italian republics: the 
 hojyj®?^ sera of their liberty is the most flourish- 
 ing period of population and agriculture, 
 of manufactures and commerce ; and their mechanic 
 labours were gradually refined into the arts of elegance 
 and genius. But the position of Rome was less fa- 
 vourable, the territory less fruitful ; the character of 
 the inhabitants was debased by indolence and elated 
 by pride; and they fondly conceived that the tribute 
 of subjects must forever nourish the metropolis of the 
 church and empire. This prejudice was encouraged 
 in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the shrines 
 of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the 
 institution of the holy year,*i was not less beneficial 
 to the people than to the clergy. Since the loss of 
 Palestine, the gift of plenary indulgences, which had 
 been applied to the crusades, remained without an 
 object; and the most valuable treasure of the church 
 was sequestered above eight years from public circu- 
 lation. A new channel was opened by the diligence 
 of Boniface the eighth, who reconciled the vices of 
 ambition and avarice; and the pope had suflieient 
 learning to recollect and revive the secular games, 
 which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of 
 every century. To sound without danger the depth 
 of popular credulity, a sermon was seasonably pro- 
 nounced, a report was artfully scattered, some aged 
 witnesses were pronounced ; and on the first of Janua- 
 ry of the year thirteen hundred, the church of St. Pe- 
 ter was crowded with the faithful, who demanded the 
 customary indulgence of the holy time. The pontiff, 
 who watched and irritated their devout impatience, was 
 soon persuaded by ancient testimony of the justice of 
 
 n The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273 by Philip 
 III. king of France, after he had inherited the dominions of llie count 
 of Thouiouse. Forty years before, the heresy of count Raymond had 
 given them a pretence of seizure, and they derived some obscure 
 claim from the eleventh century to some lands citra Rhodanum. 
 (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 459. GIO. Longuerue, Description de la 
 France, torn. i. p. 376 — 381.) 
 
 o If a possession of four centuries were not itself a title, such objec- 
 tions might annul the bargain ; but the purchase-money must be re- 
 funded, for indeed it was paid. Civiiatem Avenionem emit .... per 
 ejusmodi venditionem pecunia redundantes, &c. (2da Vila Clement 
 VI. in Baluz. tom. i. p. 272. Muratori, Scipt. torn. iii. p. ii. p. 565.) 
 The only temptation for Jane and her second husband was ready 
 moury, and without it they could not have returned to the throne of 
 Naples. 
 
 P Clement V. immediately promoted ten cardinals, nine French 
 and one English. (Vita 4ta, p. 63. et Baluz. p. 625, &c.) In 1331, the 
 pope refused two candidates recommended by the king of France, 
 quod XX. Cardinales, de quibus xvii. de Regno Fraiiciae originem 
 traxisse noscuniur in memorato coltegio exisiant. (Thomasin, Disci- 
 pline de FEglise, tom. i. p. 1281.) 
 
 q Our primitive account is from Cardinal James Caietan ; (IVTaxima 
 Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xxv.) and I am at a loss to determine whether 
 the nephew of Boniface VIII. be a fool or a knave : the uncle is a 
 much clearer character. 
 
 Vol. 11— 3 K 
 
 their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution ta 
 all catholics who, in the course of that year, and at 
 every similar period, should respectfully visit the apos- 
 tolic churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. The welcome 
 sound was propagated through Christendom ; and at 
 first from the nearest provinces of Italy, and at length 
 from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and Britain, iha 
 highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims, 
 who sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however 
 costly or laborious, which was exempt from the perils 
 of military service. All exceptions of rank and sex, 
 of age or infirmity, were forgotten in the common 
 transport ; and in the streets and churches many per- 
 sons were trampled to death by the eagerness of devo- 
 tion. The calculation of their numbers could not be 
 easy nor accurate; and they have probably been mag- 
 nified by a dexterous clergy, well apprized of the con- 
 tagion of example; yet we are assured by a judicious 
 historian, who assisted at the ceremony, that Roma 
 was never replenished with less than two hundred 
 thousand strangers ; and another spectator has fixed at 
 two millions the total concourse of the year. A tri- 
 fling oblation from each individual would accumulate 
 a royal treasure ; and two priests stood night and day, 
 with rakes in their hands, to collect, without counting, 
 the heaps of gold and silver that were poured on the- 
 altar of St. Paul.' It was fortunately a season of 
 peace and plenty ; and if forage was scarce, if inns and 
 lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible 
 supply of bread and wine, of meat and fish, was pro- 
 vided by the policy of Boniface and the venal hospi- 
 tality of the Romans. From a city without trade or 
 industry, all casual riches will speedily evaporate : but 
 the avarice and envy of the next generation solicited 
 Clement the sixth* to anticipate the distant period of 
 the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their 
 wishes ; afforded Rome this poor consolation for his 
 loss ; and justified the change by the name and practice 
 of the Mosaic jubilee.* His summons The second ju- 
 was obeyed ; and the number, zeal, and biiee, 
 liberality, of the pilgrims did not yield ^- ^- **^- 
 to the primitive festival. But they encountered the 
 triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine : many 
 wires and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy ; 
 and many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the 
 savage Romans, no longer moderated by the presence 
 of their bishop." To the impatience of the popes we 
 may ascribe the successive reduction to fifty, thirty- 
 three, and twenty-five years ; although the second of 
 these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ. 
 The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the protes- 
 tants, and the decline of superstition, have much di- 
 minished the value of the jubilee : yet even the nine- 
 teenth and last festival was a year of pleasure and pro- 
 fit to the Romans ; and a philosophic smile will not 
 disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of 
 the people.* 
 
 In the beginning of the eleventh cen-xhe Nobles or ba- 
 tury, Italy wa3 exposed to the feudal ronsofRome. 
 tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the 
 people. The rights of human nature were vindicated 
 by iher numerous republics, who soon extended their 
 
 r See John Villani (1. viii. c. 36.) in the twelfth, and the Chronicon 
 Asiense, in tiie eleventh, volume (p. 191, 192.) of Muratori's Collec- 
 tion. Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab eisdem accepit, nam duo 
 clerici, cum rastris, &c. 
 
 • The two bulla of Boniface VIII. and Clement VI. are inserted in 
 the Corpus Juris Canonici. (Extravagant. Commun. I. v.tii.ix. c. 1, 2.> 
 
 t The sabbatic years and jubilees of the Mosaic lavv, (Car. Sigon. 
 de Republica Hebraeorum, 0pp. tom. iv. 1. iii. c 14, 15. p. 151, 152.) 
 the suspension of all care and labour, the periodical release of lands, 
 debts, servitude, &c. may seem a noble idea, but the execution would 
 be impracticable '\tidi profane republic ; and I should be glad to learn 
 that this ruinous festival was observed by the Jewish people. 
 
 u See the chronicle of Maiteo Villani (1. i. c.56.) in the fourteenth 
 volume of Muratori, and the Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, torn* 
 
 iii. p. 75— S9. ^ . . . 
 
 X The subject is exhausted by M. Chais, a French mmister at the 
 Hague, in his Lettres Hisloriques et Dogmalitiues, sur les Jubiles et 
 les Indulgences; la Haye, 1751, 3 vols, in 12mo; an elaborate and- 
 pleasinz work, had not the author preferred the character of a polemic 
 to that of a philosopher. 
 
 
 I 
 
 •t 
 
474 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXX. 
 
 Chap* XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 475 
 
 liberty and dominion from the city to the adjacent 
 xjountry. The sword of the nobles was broken ; their 
 slaves were enfranchised ; their castles were demolish- 
 ed ; they assumed the habits of society and obedience ; 
 their ambition was confined to municipal honours, and 
 in the proudest aristocracy of Venice or Genoa, each 
 patrician was subject to the laws.^ But the feeble and 
 ilisorderly government of Rome was unequal to the 
 task of curbing her rebellious sons, who scorned the au- 
 thority of the magistrate within and without the walls. 
 It was no longer a civil contention between the nobles 
 aod plebeians for the government of the state : the ba- 
 Tons asserted in arms their personal independence ; their 
 palaces and castles were fortified against a siege ; and 
 their private quarrels were maintained by the numbers 
 of their vassals and retainers. In origin and affection, 
 they were aliens to their country :' and a genuine Ro- 
 man, could such have been produced, might have re- 
 nounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the 
 appellation of citizens, and proudly styled themselves 
 the p/inces, of Rome.* After a dark series of revolu- 
 tions, all records of pedigree were lost; the distinction 
 of surnames were abolislied ; the blood of the nations 
 was mingled in a thousand channels; and the Goths 
 and Lombards, the Greeks and Franks, the Germans 
 and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions 
 by royal bounty, or the prerogative of valour. These 
 examples might be readily presumed : but the eleva- 
 tion of an Hebrew race to the rank of senators and con- 
 suls, is an event without a parallel in the long captivi- 
 ty ol these miserable exiles.'' In the time of Leo the 
 Dinth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to 
 Christianity ; and honoured at his baptism with the 
 name of his godfather, the reigning pope. The zeal 
 Family of Leo and courage of Peter the son of Leo 
 ihe Jew. were signalized in the cause of Gregory 
 the seventh, who intrusted his faithful adherent with 
 the government of Adrian's mole, the tower of Crescen- 
 tius, or, as it is now called, the castle of St. Angelo. 
 Both the father and the son were the parents of a nu- 
 merous progeny : their riches, the fruits of usury, were 
 shared with the noblest families of the city ; and so ex- 
 tensive was their alliance, that the grandson of the 
 proselyte was exalted by the weight of his kindred to 
 the throne of St. Peter. A majority of the clergy and 
 people supported his cause: he reigned several years 
 in the Vatican, and it is only the eloquence of St. Ber- 
 nard, and the final triumph of Innocent the second, that 
 has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope. 
 After his defeat and death the posterity of Leo is no 
 longer conspicuous; and none will be found of the mo- 
 dern nobles ambitious of descending from a Jewish 
 stock. It is not my design to enumerate the Roman 
 families, which have failed at different periods, or those 
 which are continued in different degrees of splendour 
 to the present time.« The old consular line of the 
 Franfripani discover iheir name in the generous act of 
 breakiTiir or dividing bread in a time of famine; and 
 such benevolence is more truly glorious than to have 
 
 7 Muratori (Dissert, xlvii.) alleges Ihe Annals of Florence, Padua, 
 Genoa, &c. the analogy of ihe rest, the evidence of Oihoof Frisiugen, 
 <ile GesLlred. 1. 1. ii. c. 13.) and ihe submission of the maniuis of 
 Esie. * 
 
 « As early as the year 821, the emperor Lothaire I. found it expe- 
 dieni to interrogate the Roman people, to learn from each individu- 
 «1, by what national law he chose to be governed. (Muratori Dissert, 
 xiii.) 
 
 * Petrarch attacks these foreigners, the tyrants of Rome, in a decla- 
 mation or epistle, full of bold truths and absurd pedantry, in which 
 he applies the maxims, and even prejudices, of the old republic to 
 the state of the fourteenth century. (iVlemoires, torn. iii. p. 167—169.) 
 
 b The origin and adventures of this Jewish family are noticed by 
 Pagi, (Critica, torn. iv. p. 435. A. D. 1124. No. 3, 4.) who draws his in- 
 forinaiion from the Chronographus Maiirigniacensis, and Arnulphus 
 Sapiensis de Schismale, (in Muratori, Script. Ital. torn. iii. p. i. p. 4-^3 
 —432.) The fact must in some degree be true ; yet I could wish that 
 it had been coolly related, before it was turned into a reproach against 
 the antipope. 
 
 c Muratori has given two dissertations (xli. and xlii.) to the names, 
 ■urnamfs, and families of Italy. Some nobles, who glory in their 
 domestic fablep, may be offended with his firm and temperate criti- 
 cism ; yet surely some ounces of pure gold are of more value than 
 many pounds of base meul. 
 
 enclosed, with their allies the Corai, a spacious quarter 
 of the city in the chains of their fortifications : the Sa- 
 velltf as it should seem a Sabine race, have maintained 
 their original dignity ; the obsolete surname of the Ca- 
 ptzucchi is inscribed on the coins of the first senators ; 
 the Conti preserved the honour, without the estate, of 
 the counts of Signia; and the Annibaldi must have 
 been very ignorant, or very modest, if they had not de- 
 scended from the Carthaginian hero.* 
 
 But among perhaps above, the peers TheColonn., 
 and princes of the city, I distinguish the 
 rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose private 
 story is an essential part of the annals of modera 
 Rome. I. The name and arms of Colonna* have 
 been the theme of much doubtful etymology; nor 
 have the orators and antiquarians overlooked either Tra- 
 jan^s pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar 
 of Christ*s flagellation, or the luminous column that 
 guided the Israelites in the desert. Their first histo- 
 rical appearance in the year eleven hundred and four, 
 attests the power and antiquity, while it explains the 
 simple meaning, of the name. By the usurpation of 
 Cavae, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the 
 second ; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of 
 Rome, the hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna ; 
 and the latter of these towns was probably adorned 
 with some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple.' 
 They likewise possessed one moiety of the neighbour- 
 ing city of Tusculum ; a strong presumption of their 
 descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the 
 tenth century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. 
 According to their own and the public opinion, the 
 primitive and remote source was derived from the 
 banks of the Rhine;' and the sovereigns of Germany 
 were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a 
 noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred 
 years has been often illustrated by merit, and always by 
 fortune.'' About the end of the thirteenth century, the 
 most powerful branch was composed of an uncle and 
 six brothers, all conspicuous in arms, or in the honours 
 of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator 
 of Rome, introduced to the capitol in a triumphant 
 car, and hailed in some vain acclamations with the 
 title of C»sar; while John and Stephen were declared 
 marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by Nicholas 
 the fourth, a patron so partial to their family, that he 
 has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned 
 
 d The cardinal of St. George, in his poetical, or rather metrical, 
 history of the election and coronation of Boniface VIII. (Muratori, 
 Script. Ital. lorn. iii. p. i p. 641, &c.) describes the slate and families 
 of Rome at the coronation of Boniface VIII. (A. D. 1295.) 
 Interea, titulis redimiti sanguine et armis, 
 Illustresque viri Romana a stirpe trahentes 
 Nomen, in emeriios tantas virtutis honores, 
 Inlulerant se niedios, feslumque colebant, • 
 Aurata fulgentes toga, sociante caterva. 
 £x ipsis devota domus prsetantis ab Ursa 
 Ecclesis, vultumque gerens demiseius altum 
 Festa Columna jocis, necnon Sabellia mitis; 
 Stephanides senior, Comites, Anibalica proles, 
 Praefectusque urbis magnum sine viribus nomen. 
 „. (1. ii. c. 5. lUO. p. 647, 648.) 
 
 The ancient statutes of Rome 0- i»I. c. 59. p. 174, 175.) distinguish 
 eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear in concilio com- 
 muni, before the senator, that they would not harbour or protect any 
 malefactors, outlaws, &c.— a feeble security ! 
 
 e It is a pity that the Colonna themselves have not favoured the 
 world with a complete and critical history oflhelr illustrious house. 
 I adhere to Muratori. (Dissert, xlii. tom. iii. p. 647, 648.) 
 
 f Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori, Script. Ital. 
 tom. iii. p. i. p. 335. The family has still great possessions in the 
 Campagna of Rome ; but they have alienated to the Hospigliosi this 
 original fief of Colonna. (Eschinard, p. 258, 259.) 
 
 K Te longinaua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni, 
 says Petrarch ; and, in 1447, a duke of Guelders and Juliers acknoW' 
 ledges (Lenfant, Hist, du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 539.) his 
 descent from the ancestors of Martin V. (Otho Colonna;) but the 
 royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenberg observes, that the scep- 
 tre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To maintain 
 the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously supposed, (Dia- 
 rio di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533.) that a cousin 
 of the emperor Nero escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in 
 Germany. 
 
 h 1 cannot overlook the Roman triumph or ovation of Marco Anto- 
 nio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at the naval 
 victory of Lepanto. (Thuan. Hist. I. 7. tom li. p. 55, 56. Mureu Oratio 
 X. 0pp. tom. i. p. 130-190.) 
 
 as it were in a hollow pillar.* After his decease, 
 their haughty behaviour provoked the displeasure of 
 the most implacable of mankind. The two cardinals, 
 the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of Boni- 
 face the eighth ; and the Colonna were oppressed for 
 a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms.* He 
 proclaimed a crusade against his personal enemies; 
 their estates were confiscated ; their fortresses on either 
 side of the Tiber were besieged by the troops of St. 
 Peter and those of the rival nobles ; and after the ruin 
 of Palestrina or Praeneste, their principal seat, the 
 ground was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem 
 of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, pro- 
 scribed, the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wan- 
 dered over Europe without renouncing the hope of 
 deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the 
 French court was their surest asylum : they prompted 
 and directed the enterprise of Philip ; and I should 
 praise their magnanimity, had they respected the mis- 
 fortune and courage of the captive tyrant. His civil 
 acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored 
 the honours and possessions of the Colonna ; and some 
 estimate may be formed of their wealth by their losses, 
 of their losses by the damages of one hundred thou- 
 sand gold florins which were granted them against the 
 accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All the 
 spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished* 
 by his prudent successors; and the fortune of the house 
 was more firmly established by this transient hurri- 
 cane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was signa- 
 lized in the captivity of Boniface ; and long afterwards 
 in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria ; and by the 
 gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was 
 encircled with a royal crown. But the first of the 
 family in fame and merit was the elder Stephen, whom 
 Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero superior to 
 his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome. 
 Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his 
 abilities in peace and war; in his distress he was an 
 object, not of pity, but of reverence ; the aspect of 
 danger provoked him to avow his name and country : 
 and when he was asked, "where is now your for- 
 tress 1" he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, 
 *' here." He supported with the same virtue the re- 
 turn of prosperity; and, till the ruin of his declining 
 age, the ancestors, the character, and the children oif 
 Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman 
 
 »n,i TTr-ioi republic, and at the court of Avignon, 
 ana ursini. ■,,* rnt Vt • • • . % f r^ i ^ 
 
 11. 1 he Ursini migrated from Spoleto ; " 
 
 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the twelfth 
 century, from some eminent person, who is only known 
 as the father of their race. But they were soon dis- 
 tinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number 
 and bravery of their kinsmen, the strength of their 
 towers, the honours of the senate and sacred college, 
 and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the third and 
 Nicholas the third, of their name and lineage." Their 
 
 i Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, tom. x. p. 216. 220. 
 k Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna has authorized the Abb* 
 de Sade to expatiate on the slate of the family in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, the persecution of Boniface VIII. the character of Stephen and 
 hia sons, their quarrels with the Ursini, &c. (Memuiros sur Pelrarque, 
 torn. i. p. 98—110. 146--14S. 174-176. 222—230. 275-280.) His cri- 
 ticiam often rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors 
 of the less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen 
 to be now extinct. 
 
 1 Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to the em- 
 peror Frederic I. Incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice ; 
 (Villani, 1. v. c. 1.) and the last stains of annual excommunication, 
 were purified by Sixtus V. (Viu di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Trea- 
 son, sacrilege, and proscription, are often the best titles of ancient 
 nobility. 
 
 Vallis te proxima misit 
 
 Appenninigenae qua prata virentia sylvae 
 Spoletana metunt armenta greges protervi. 
 Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533.) gives the Ursini a French 
 origin, which may be remotely true. 
 
 n In the metrical life of Celestin V. by the cardinal of St. Geor|re, 
 (Muratori, tom. iii. p. i. p. 613, &c.) we find a luminous, and not in- 
 elegant, passage : (1. i. c. 3. p. 203. Jtc.) 
 
 genuit (|uem nobilis Ursas {Ursi ?) 
 
 Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis 
 Fascibus in clero, poinpasque exparta senatus, 
 Bellorumque manu grandi stipata parenium 
 
 riches may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism : 
 the estates of St. Peter were alienated in their favour 
 by the liberal Celestin;® and Nicholas was ambitious 
 for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs ; to 
 found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany ; and 
 to invest them with the perpetual oflice of senators of 
 Rome. All that has been observed of the greatness of 
 the Colonna, will likewise redound to the glory of the 
 Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the 
 long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hun- 
 dred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The 
 jealousy of pre-eminence and power was Their herediurj 
 the true ground of their quarrel ; but as a ^^^uds. 
 specious badge of distinction, the Colonna embraced 
 the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire ; 
 the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause 
 of the church. The eagle and the keys were dis- 
 played in their adverse banners ; and the two factions 
 of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and na- 
 ture of the dispute were long since forgotten.^ After 
 the retreat of the popes to Avignon, they disputed in 
 arms the vacant republic ; and the mischiefs of discord 
 were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of elec- 
 ting each year two rival senators. By their private 
 hostilities, the city and country were desolated, and 
 the fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate 
 success. But none of either family had fallen by the 
 sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ur- 
 sini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen 
 Colonna.^ His triumph is stained with the reproach 
 of violating the truce ; their defeat was basely avenged 
 by the assassination, before the church door, of an 
 innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the victo- 
 rious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared 
 senator of Rome during the term of five years. And 
 the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a pre- 
 diction, that the generous youth, the son of his vene- 
 rable hero, would restore Rome and Italy to their 
 pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the 
 wolves and lions, the serpents and bears^ who laboured 
 to subvert the eternal basis of the marble column.' 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Character and coronation of Petrarch. — Restoration of the 
 freedom and government of Rome by the tribune Rtenzi, 
 — His virtues and vices, his expulsion and death. — /2e- 
 ium of the popes from Avignon. — Great schism of the 
 west. — Re-union of the Latin dmrch. — Last struggles of 
 Roman liberty. — Statutes of Rome. — Final settlement of 
 the ecclesiastical state. 
 
 In the apprehension of modern times, 
 Petrarch * is the Italian songster of Laura 
 and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan 
 rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, 
 
 Petrarch, 
 
 A. D. 1304. 
 
 June 19— 
 
 A. D. 1374. 
 
 July 19. 
 
 Cardincos apices necnon fastigia dudum 
 Papains iterata tenens. 
 Muratori (Dissert, xlii. tom. iii. p. 5.) observes, that the first Ursini 
 pontificate of Celestin IH. was unknown : he is inclined to read 
 Ursi progenies. 
 
 o Filii Ursi, quondam Coelestini papae nepotes, de bonis ecclesia 
 Romanas ditati. (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori, Script, tom. iii. p. 
 1.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in 
 Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews 
 of a modem pope. 
 
 P In his fifiv-first Dissertation on the Italian Antiquitie."}, Muratori 
 explains the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. 
 
 q Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222—230.) has celebrated the victory accord- 
 ing to the Colonna ; but two contemporaries, a Florentine (Giovanni 
 Villani. I. x. c. 220.) and a Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 533, 
 534.) are less favourable to their arms. 
 
 r The Abb6 de Sade (tomil. Notes, p. 61—66.) has applied the sixth 
 Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentii, &c. to Stephen Colonna th« 
 younger : 
 
 Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile, e serpi 
 Ad una gran marinorea Colonna 
 Fanno noja savente e a se dainno. 
 
 a The Memoires sur la Vie de Frangois Petrarque (Amsterdam, 
 1764, 1767, 3 vols, in 4to,) form a copious, original, and entertaining 
 work, a labour of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch 
 and his coniemporaries ; but the hero is too often lost in the general 
 h'mory of the age, and the author too often languishes in ibe affect** 
 
 It 
 
476 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chaf. XXXI. 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 477 
 
 the father of her lyric poetry : and his verse, or at 
 least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm, or affec- 
 tation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the 
 private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial 
 Knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the taste of a 
 learned nation ; yet I may hope or presume, that the 
 Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of son- 
 nets and elegies, with the sublime compositions of 
 their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the 
 Tegular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety 
 of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover 
 I am still less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply 
 interested in a metaphysical passion for a nymph so 
 shadowy, that her existence has been questioned;'' 
 for a matron so prolific,' that she was delivered of 
 eleven legitimate children,"* while her amorous swain 
 sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse.* But in 
 the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contem- 
 poraries, his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivo- 
 lous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, 
 poetry, and eloquence, established his serious reputa- 
 tion, which was soon diffused from Avignon over 
 France and Italy : his friends and disciples were mul- 
 tiplied in every city : and if the ponderous volume of 
 his writings' be now abandoned to a long repose, our 
 gratitude must applaud the man, who by precept and 
 example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan 
 age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the 
 poetic crown. The academical honours of the three 
 faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or 
 doctor in the art of poetry ;« and the title of poet- 
 laureat, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetu- 
 ates in the English court,'' was first invented by the 
 Caesars of Germany. In the musical games of anti- 
 quity, a prize was bestowed on the victor ; ' the belief 
 that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the capi- 
 tol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard ;* and the 
 
 lion of politencM and gallantry. In the preface lo his first volume, 
 he enumerates and weighs iwentjr Italian biographers, who have 
 professedly treated of the same subject. 
 
 b The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they 
 should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed Virgin, 
 or . See the prefaces to the first and second volume. 
 
 c Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was married in January 
 1325 to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of Avignon, whose jealousy 
 was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife within 
 gcven months of her death, which happened the 6ih of April, 1348, 
 precisely one and twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her. 
 
 d Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum : from one of these is issued, 
 in the tenth degree, the Abb6 de Satie, the fond and grateful biogra- 
 pher of Petrarch ; and this domestic motive most probably suggested 
 the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire into every circum- 
 stance that could affect the history and character of his grandmother. 
 (See particularly torn. i. p. 122—133. notes, p. 7—58. torn. ii. p. 455— 
 495. notes, p. 76—82.) 
 
 e Vaucluse, so familiar lo our English travellers, is described from 
 the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of his biographer. 
 (Memoires, tom. i. p. 340—359.) It was, in truth, the retreat of a 
 hermit, and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place Laura 
 and a happy lover in the grotto. 
 
 f Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the sixteenth century, 
 but without the date of the year. The Abb6 de Sade calls aloud for 
 a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works ; but I much doubt whether 
 it would redound to the profit of the bookseller, or the amusement 
 of the public. 
 
 g Consult Selden's Titles of Honour, in his works, (vol. iii. p. 457 
 — 466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St. Francis received the 
 visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat coronatus et exinde rex ver- 
 8uum dictus. 
 
 b From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false and 
 venal : but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a 
 similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reien, and 
 at all events, is bound lo furnish twice a year a measure of praise 
 and verse such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the 
 presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as the best 
 time for abolishing this ridiculous custom, is while the prince is a 
 man of virtue, and the poet a man of genius. 
 
 i Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117. edit. Battle, Cantab. 
 1729.) claims for his native Athens the glory of first instituting and 
 recommending the »yuv»i %»* t» »iK» fnytf* ha ^svov T«'x-y« »»• 
 ^u»/i)t(, »KK» xcti xayMv xxt yvtuftm. The example of the Panathenaea 
 was imitated at Delphi ; but the Olympic games were ignorant of a 
 musical crown, till it was extorted by the vain tyranny of Nero. 
 (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23.; Philostrat. apud Casaubun ad locum ; 
 Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin. 1. Ixiii. p. 1032. 1041. Potter's Greek An- 
 tiquities, vol. i. p. 445. 450.) 
 
 k The Capitoline games (certamen quinquennale, musicum eques- 
 Ire, gymnicum) were instituted by Domiiian (Sueton. c. 4.) in the 
 year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die Natali, c. la p. 100. edit. Haver- 
 camp,) and were not abolished in the fourth century. (Ausonius de 
 Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown were given to superior 
 
 laureP was endeared to the lover by a verbal resem- 
 blance with the name of his mistress. The value of 
 either object was enhanced by the difiiculties of the 
 pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was 
 inexorable," he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, 
 the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the 
 most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of 
 his own labours; his name was popular; his friends 
 were active; the open or secret opposition of envy and 
 prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient 
 merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was so- 
 licited to accept the object of his wishes : and on the 
 same day, in the solitude of Vaucluse, he received a 
 similar and solemn invitation from the senate of Rome 
 and the university of Paris. The learning of a theo- 
 logical school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, 
 were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though im- 
 mortal wreath which genius may obtain from the free 
 applause of the public and of posterity : but the candi- 
 date dismissed this troublesome reflection, and after 
 some moments of complacency and suspense, pre- 
 ferred the summons of the metropolis of the world. 
 
 The ceremony of his coronation - was ^.^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 performed in the capitol, by his friend nation at Rome, 
 
 and patron, the supreme magistrate of the \'^\^^- 
 
 Vi- rn 1 * • • *L Aprils. 
 
 republic. Twelve patrician youths were *^ 
 
 arrayed in scarlet; six representatives of the most il- 
 lustrious families, in green robes, with garlands of 
 flowers, accompanied the procession ; in the midst of 
 the princes and nobles, the senator, count of Anguilla- 
 ra, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne; and 
 at the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discours- 
 ing on a text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows 
 for the prosperity of Rome, he knelt before the throne, 
 and received from the senator a laurel crown, with a 
 more precious declaration, ** This is the reward of 
 merit." The people shouted, ** Long life to the capi- 
 tol and the poet!" A sonnet in praise of Rome was 
 accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude ; and 
 after the whole procession had visited the Vatican, the 
 profane wreath was suspended before the shrine of St. 
 Peter. In the act of diploma® which was presented to 
 Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of poet-laureat are 
 revived in the capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hun- 
 dred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege of 
 wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myr- 
 tle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, dis- 
 puting, interpreting, and composing, in all places what- 
 soever, and on all subjects of literature. The grant 
 was ratified by the authority of the senate and people; 
 and the character of citizen was the recompence of his 
 affection for the Roman name. They did him honour, 
 but they did him justice. In the familiar society of 
 Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an an- 
 cient patriot ; and his ardent fancy kindled every idea 
 to a sentiment, and every sentiment to a passion. The 
 aspect of the seven hills and their majestic ruins con- 
 firmed these lively impressions: and he loved a coun- 
 try by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and 
 adopted. The poverty and debasement of Rome exci- 
 ted the indignation and pity of her grateful son : he dis- 
 sembled the faults of his fellow-citizens ; applauded 
 with partial fondness the last of their heroes and ma- 
 merit, the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia nosirae infiriata lyras, Sylv 
 1. iii. V. 31.) may do honour to the games of the capitol ; but the Latin 
 poets who lived before Domitian were crowned only in the public 
 opinion. 
 
 1 Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant that the laurel 
 was not the Capitoline. but the Delphic, crown. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 
 XV. 39. Hist. Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. i. p. 150— 
 220.) The victors in the capitol were crowned with a garland of oak 
 leaves. (Martial, 1. iv. epigram 54.) 
 
 m The pious grandson of Laura has laboured, and not without suc- 
 cess, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the censures of the 
 grave, and the sneers of the profane, (tom. ii. notes, p. 76 — 8-2.) 
 
 n The whole process of Petrarch's coronation is accurately describ- 
 ed by the Abb^ de Sade, (tom. i. p. 42o-435. tom. ii. p. 1—6. notes, p. 
 1 — 13.) from his own writings, and the Roman Diary of Ludovico Mo- 
 naldischi, without mixing in this authentic narrative the more re- 
 cent fables of Sannuccio Delbene. 
 
 o The original act is printed among the Pieces Justificatives in the 
 Memoires sur Petrar^ue, tom. iii. p. 50—53. 
 
 \ 
 
 trons ; and in the remembrance of the past, in the hope 
 of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of the 
 pnsent time. Rome was still the lawful mistress 
 of the world : the pope and the emperor, her bishop 
 and general, had abdicated their station by an inglori- 
 ous retreat lo the Rhone and the Danube ; but if she 
 could resume her virtue, the republic might again vin- 
 dicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the indul- 
 gence of enthusiasm and eloquence,? Petrarch, Italy, 
 and Europe, were astonished by a revolution which 
 realized for a moment his most splendid visions. The 
 TJse and fall of the tribune Rienzi will occupy the fol- 
 lowino- pages : *» the subject is interesting, the mate- 
 rials are rich, and the glance of a patriot-bard' will 
 sometimes vivify the copious, but simple, narrative 
 of the Florentine,* and more especially of the Roman,* 
 historian. 
 
 Birth character, I" * quarter of the city which was m- 
 aild patriotic de- habited only by mechanics and Jews, the 
 signs of Rienzi. marriage of an inkeeper and a washer- 
 woman produced the future deliverer of Rome." From 
 such parents Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit 
 neither dignity nor fortune ; and the gift of a liberal 
 education,''which they painfully bestowed, was the 
 cause of his glory and untimely end. The study of 
 history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero, Seneca, 
 Livy, Caesar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his 
 equals and contemporaries the genius of the young 
 plebeian: he perused with indefatigable diligence the 
 manuscripts and marbles of antiquity ; Inved to dis- 
 pense his knowledge in familiar language; and was 
 often provoked to exclaim, "Where are now these Ro- 
 mans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why 
 was I not born in those happy times V * When the 
 republic addressed to the throne of Avignon an embas- 
 sy of the three orders, the spirit and eloquence of Ri- 
 enzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen 
 deputies of the commons. The orator had the honour 
 of haranguing pope Clement the sixth, and the satis- 
 faction of conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind ; 
 hut his aspiring hopes were chilled by disgrace and 
 puverty; and the patriot was reduced to a single gar- 
 ment and the charity of the hospital. From this mise- 
 
 p To find the proofs of his enthusiasm forRome.I need only request 
 that the reader would open, by chance, either Petrarch, or his French 
 biographer. The latter has described the poet's first visit to Rome, 
 (lorn. i. p. 3i!3— 335.) But in the place of much Idle rhetoric and mo- 
 rality, Petrarch might have amused the present and future age with 
 an original account of the city and his coronation. _, , _ 
 
 q It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P. du Ceroeati, 
 whose posthumous work, (Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini, dit de Ri- 
 enzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347.) was published at Paris 1748, m 12mo. 
 I am indebted to him for some facts and documents in John Hocse- 
 inius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian. (Fabricius, Bibliot. 
 Lat. med. .«vi,tom. iii. p. 273. tom. iv. p. 85.) 
 
 r The Abb6 de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the history of the 
 fourteenth century, misht treat as his proper subject, a revolution 
 in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply engaged. (Me^noires, 
 tom. ii. p. 50, 51. 320-417. notes, p. 70-76. torn. lu. p. 221-243. 366— 
 375.) Not an idea or a fact in the writings of Petrarch has probably 
 escaped him. . _ , »• 
 
 , Giovanni Villani, I. xii. c. 89. 104. in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum 
 Script..rPs,tom.xiii. p. 909,970. 981-983. ..oxn/r . • 
 
 t In his third volume of Italian antiquities, (p. 249—548.) Wuratori 
 has inserted the Fragmenta Historiae R<»manae ab anno 1327 usque ad 
 annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or Naples in the four- 
 teenth century, and a Latin version for the benefit of stranprs. It 
 contains the most particular and authentic life of Cola (Nicholas) di 
 Rienzi ; which had been printed at Bracciano, 1627, in quarto; under 
 the name of Thomaso Fortifiocca, who is only mentioned in this work 
 as havin- been punislicd by the tribune for forgery. Human nature 
 is scarcely capable of such sublime or stupid impartiality ; but who- 
 soever is the author of these Fragments, he wrote on the Sfwt and at 
 the time, and paints, without design or art, the manners of home and 
 the character of the tribune. _ .^ . . 
 
 u The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his tribunitian govern- 
 nr nt, is contained in the eighteenth chapter of the Fragments, (p. 
 399-479.) which, in the new division, forms the second book ot the 
 history in ihiny-eiuht smaller chapters or sections. . . , -j. 
 
 X The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the original idi- 
 om : Fu da sua juventutiiie nutricato di latie de eloquentia bono gra- 
 matico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo. Deh como et quanlo era 
 veloce leitore ! moito usava Tito Livio, Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio 
 Massimo, moito Ii dilettava le magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccon- 
 lare. Tutta la die se speculava negl' intagli di marmo lequali laccio 
 Iniorno Roma. Non era aliri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi 
 pataflii. Tuite scriiture antiche vulgarizzava: quesae fiure di mar- 
 mo justamente interpret;iva. Oh come spesso diceva, " Dove suono 
 ijuelli buoni Romani 1 dove ene lore sorama justitia 1 poleramine tro- 
 vare in tempo che queui fiuriauo !" 
 
 ry he was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile 
 of favour; and the employment of apostolic notary af- 
 forded him a daily stipend of five gold florins ; a more 
 honourable and extensive connexion ; and the right of 
 contrasting, both in words and actions, his own integ- 
 rity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Ri- 
 enzi was prompt and persuasive : the multitude is al- 
 ways prone to envy and censure : he was stimulated 
 by the loss of a brother and the impunity of the assas- 
 sins ; nor was it possible to excuse or exaggerate the 
 public calamities. The blessings of peace and justice, 
 for which civil society has been instituted, were ban- 
 ished from Rome; the jealous citizens, who might 
 have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were 
 most deeply wounded in the dishonour of their wives 
 and daughters ; ^ they were equally oppressed by the 
 arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of the mag- 
 istrates ; and the abuse of arms or of laws was the on- 
 ly circumstance that distinguished the lions, from the 
 dogs and serpents, of the capitol. These allegorical 
 emblems were variously repeated in the pictures which 
 Rienzi exhibited in the streets and churches; and 
 while the spectators gazed with curious wonder, the 
 bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied 
 the satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a 
 distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The privi- 
 leges of Rome, her eternal sovereignty over her princes 
 and provinces, was the theme of his public and private 
 discourse ; and a monument of servitude became in his 
 hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of 
 the senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives 
 to the emperor Vespasian, had been inscribed on a 
 copper-plate still extant in the choir of the church of 
 St. John Lateran.* A numerous assembly of nobles 
 and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, and 
 a convenient theatre was erected for their reception. 
 The notary appeared, in a magnificent and mysterious 
 habit, explained the inscription by a version and com- 
 mentary,* and descanted with eloquence and zeal on 
 the ancient glory of the senate and people, from whom 
 all legal authority was derived. The supine ignorance 
 of the nobles was incapable of discerning the serious 
 tendency of such representations: they might some- 
 times chastise with words and blows the plebeian re- 
 former ; but he was often suffered in the Colonna pal- 
 ace to amuse the company with his threats and predic- 
 tions ; and the modern Brutus '' was concealed under the 
 mask of folly and the character of a buffoon. While 
 they indulged their contempt, the restoration of the good 
 estate^ his favourite expression, was entertained among 
 the people as a desirable, a possible, and at length as 
 an approaching, event; and while all had the disposi- 
 tion to applaud, some had the courage to assist, their 
 promised deliverer. 
 
 A prophecy, or rather a summons. He assumes th» 
 affixed on the church door of St. George, e°^«^"re? °^ 
 was the first public evidence of his de- a. d. i347. 
 signs; a nocturnal assembly of a hun- May 20. 
 dred citizens on mount Avenline, the first step to their 
 execution. After an oath of secrecy and aid, he repre- 
 sented to the conspirators the importance and facility 
 of their enterprise ; that the nobles, without union or 
 resources, were strong only in the fear of their imagi- 
 nary strength ; that all power, as well as right, was 
 in the hands of the people ; that the revenues of the 
 
 7 Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans withthe easy 
 temper of the husbands of Avignon. (Memoires, torn. i. p. aJU.) 
 
 > The fragments of the Lex Regia may be found in the Inscrip- 
 tions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242. and at the end of the Tacitus of Ernesti, 
 with some learned notes of the editor, tom. li. ., , ^„. 
 
 X I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable blunder of Rienzi. 
 The Lex Regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge the Pomoenum, a 
 word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so to the tribune ; he 
 confounds it with pohiarium, an orchard, translates lo Jardino de 
 Roma cioene Italia, and is copied bv the less excusable ignorance 
 of the Latin translator, (p. 406.) and the French historian, (p. 33.) 
 Even the learning of Muratori has slumbered over the passage. 
 
 b Priori iBrutu) tamen similior, juvenis uterque, longe, ingenic 
 ouam cuius simulationem induerat ut sub hoc obtentu liberator ille 
 P. R. apperiretur tempore suo . . . . Ille regibus, hie tyrannis cott- 
 tempius. (0pp. p. 536.) 
 
 
 1 
 
478 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 479 
 
 apostolical chamber might relieve the public distress ; 
 and that the pope himself would approve their victory 
 over the common enemies of government and freedom. 
 After securing a faithful band to protect his first 
 declaration, he proclaimed through the city, by sound 
 of trumpet, that on the evening of the following day 
 all persons should assemble without arras before the 
 church of St. Angelo, to provide for the re-establish- 
 ment of the gooa estate. The whole night was em- 
 ployed in the celebration of thirty masses of the Holy 
 Ghost; and in the morning, Rienzi, bareheaded, but in 
 complete armour, issued from the church, encompass- 
 ed by the hundred conspirators. The pope*s vicar, 
 the simple bishop of Orvieto, who had been persuaded 
 to sustain a part in this singular ceremony, marched 
 on his right hand; and three great standards were 
 borne aloft as the emblems of their design. In the 
 first, the banner of liberty^ Rome was seated on two 
 lions, with a palm in one hand and a globe in the 
 other: St. Paul, with a drawn sword, was delineated 
 in the banner of justice i and in the third, St. Peter 
 held the keys of concord and peace. Rienzi was en- 
 couraged by the presence and applause of an innu- 
 merable crowd, who understood little, and hoped much ; 
 and the procession slowly rolled forwards from the 
 castle of St. Angelo to the capitol. His triumph was 
 disturbed by some ?ccrei emotion which he labour- 
 ed to suppress: he ascended without opposition, and 
 with seeming confidence, the citadel of the repub- 
 lic ; harangued the people from the balcony; and 
 received the most flattering confirmation of his acts 
 and laws. The nobles, as if destitute of arms and 
 counsels, beheld in silent consternation this strange 
 revolution; and the moment had been prudently 
 chosen, when the most formidable, Stephen Colonna, 
 was absent from the city. On the first rumour, he 
 returned to his palace, affected to despise this ple- 
 beian tumult, and declared to the messengers of Rienzi, 
 that at his leisure he would cast the madman from the 
 windows of the capitol. The great bell instantly rang 
 an alarm, and so rapid was the tide, and so urgent 
 was the danger, that Colonna escaped with precipi- 
 tation to the suburb of St. Laurence: from thence, 
 after a moment's refreshment, he continued the same 
 speedy career till he reached in safety his castle of 
 Palestrina; lamenting his own imprudence, which had 
 not trampled the spark of this mighty conflagration. 
 A general and peremptory order was issued from the 
 capitol to all the nobles, that they should peaceably 
 retire to their estates: they obeyed; and their depar- 
 ture secured the tranquillity of the free and obedient 
 citizens of Rome. 
 
 with ihe title and But Such Voluntary obedience evapo- 
 office uf tribune, rates with the first transports of zeal; 
 and Rienzi felt the importance of justifying his usur- 
 pation by a regular form and a legal title. At his 
 own choice, the Roman people would have displayed 
 their attachment and authority, by lavishing on his 
 head the names of senator or consul, of king or empe- 
 ror: he preferred the ancient and modest appellation 
 or tribune; the protection of the commons was the 
 essence of that sacred office ; and they were ignorant, 
 that It had never been invested with any share in the 
 Laws of the good legislative or executive powers of the 
 estate. republic. In this character, and with 
 the consent of the Romans, the tribune enacted the 
 most salutary laws for the restoration and mainte- 
 nance of the good estate. By the first he fulfils the 
 wish of honesty and inexperience, that no civil suit 
 should be protracted beyond Ihe term of fifteen days. 
 The danger of frequent perjury might justify the pro- 
 nouncing against a false accuser the same penalty 
 which his evidence would have inflicted: the dis- 
 orders of the times might compel the legislator to 
 punish every homicide with death, and every injury 
 with equal retaliation. But the execution of justice 
 was hopeless till he had previously abolished the 
 
 tyranny of the nobles. It was formally provided, that 
 none, except the supreme magistrate, should possess 
 or command the gates, bridges, or towers, of the state : 
 that no private garrisons should be introduced into the 
 towns or castles of the Roman territory ; that none 
 should bear arms, or presume to fortify their houses 
 in the city or country; that the barons should be 
 responsible for the safety of the highways, and the 
 free passage of provisions ; and that the protection of 
 malefactors and robbers should be expiated by a fine 
 of a thousand marks of silver. But these regulations 
 \yould have been impotent and nugatory, had not the 
 licentious nobles been awed by the sword of the civil 
 power. A sudden alarm from the bell of the capitol 
 could still summon to the standard above twenty thou- 
 sand volunteers ; the support of the tribune and the 
 laws required a more regular and permanent force. In 
 each harbour of the coast, a vessel was stationed for 
 the assurance of commerce; a standing militia of three 
 hundred and sixty horse and thirteen hundred foot was 
 levied, clothed, and paid in the thirteen quarters of the 
 city: and the spirit of a commonwealth may be traced 
 in the grateful allowance of one hundred florins, or 
 pounds, to the heirs of every soldier who lost his life 
 in the service of his country. For the maintenance 
 of the public defence, for the establishment of grana- 
 ries, for the relief of widows, orphans, and indigent 
 convents, Rienzi applied, without fear of sacrilege, the 
 revenues of the apostolic chamber: the three branches 
 of hearth-money, the salt-duty, and the customs, were 
 each of the annual produce of one hundred thousand 
 florins ; • and scandalous were the abuses, if in four or 
 five months the amount of the salt-duty could be trebled 
 by his judicious economy. After thus restoring the 
 forces and finances of the republic, the tribune recalled 
 the nobles from their solitary independence ; required 
 their personal appearance in the capitol ; and imposed 
 an oath of allegiance to the new government, and of 
 subniission to the laws of the good estate. Appre- 
 hensive for their safety, but still more apprehensive 
 of the danger of a refusal, the princes and barons re- 
 turned to their houses at Rome in the garb of simple 
 and peaceful citizens : the Colonna and Ursini, the 
 Savelli and Frannipani, were confounded before the 
 tribunal of a plebeian, of the vile buflfoon whom they 
 had so often derided, and their disgrace was aggravated 
 by the indignation which they vainly struggled to dis- 
 guise. The same oath was successively^pronounced 
 by the several orders of society, the clergy and gentle- 
 men, the judges and notaries, the merchants and arti- 
 zans, and the gradual descent was marked by the 
 increase of sincerity and zeal. They swore to live 
 and die with the republic and the church, whose in- 
 terest was artfully united by the nominal association 
 of the bishop of Orvieto, the pope's vicar, to the 
 office of tribune. It was the boast of Rienzi, that he 
 had delivered the throne and patrimony of St. Peter 
 from a rebellious aristocracy ; and Clement the sixth, 
 who rejoiced in its fall, afl'ected to believe the profes- 
 sions, to applaud the merits, and to confirm the title, 
 of his trusty servant. The speech, perhaps the mind, 
 of the tribune, was inspired with a lively reoard for 
 the purity of the faith ; he insinuated his claim to a 
 supernatural mission from the Holy Ghost; enforced 
 by a heavy forfeiture the annual duty of confession 
 and communion ; and strictly guarded the spiritual as 
 well as the temporal welfare of his faithful people.** 
 
 Never perhaps has the energy and 
 effect of a single mind been more re- X^Uy'"? 
 markably felt than in the sudden, though the Roman 
 transient, reformation of Rome by the ^P^^^'c- 
 
 c In one MS. I read (1. H. c. 4. p. 409.) perfumante quatro aolli, in 
 another quatro ^orini, an important variety, since the florin was 
 worth ten Roman solidi. (Muralori, dissert, xxviii.) The former 
 reading would give us a population of 25,000, the latter of 250,000. 
 families ; and I much fear, that the former is more conwsteni with 
 the decay of Rome and her territory. 
 
 i Hocwraiu», p. 398. apud du Cerseau, HiBl. de Rienzi, p. IM, 
 
 tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was converted to 
 the discipline of a camp or convent : patient to hear, 
 swift to redress, inexorable to punish, his tribunal was 
 always accessible to the poor and stranger; nor could 
 birth, or disunity, or the immunities of the church, pro- 
 tect the offender or his accomplices. The privileged 
 houses, the private sanctuaries in Rome, on which 
 no officer of justice would presume to trespass, were 
 abolished ; and he applied the timber and iron of their 
 barricades in the fortifications of the capitol. The 
 venerable father of the Colonna was exposed in his 
 own palace to the double shame of being desirous, 
 and of being unable, to protect a criminal. A mule, 
 with a jar of oil, had been stolen near Capranica ; and 
 the lord of the Ursini family was condemned to restore 
 the damage, and to discharge a fine of four hundred 
 florins for his negligence in guarding the highways. 
 Nor were the persons of the barons more inviolate 
 than their lands or houses: and, either from accident 
 or design, the same impartial rigour was exercised 
 against the heads of the adverse factions. Peter Aga- 
 pet Colonna, who had himself been senator of Rome, 
 was arrested in the street for injury or debt; and jus- 
 tice was appeased by the tardy execution of Martin 
 Ursini, who, among his various acts of violence and 
 rapine, had pillaged a shipwrecked vessel at the mouth 
 of the Tiber.* His name, the purple of two cardinals, 
 his uncles, a recent marriage, and a mortal disease, 
 were disregarded by the inflexible tribune, who had 
 chosen his victim. The public officers dragged him 
 from his palace and nuptial bed : his trial was short 
 and satisfactory: the bell of the capitol convened the 
 people: stript of his mantle, on his knees, with his 
 hands bound behind his back, he heard the sentence 
 of death ; and after a brief confession Ursini was led 
 away to the gallows. After such an example, none 
 who were conscious of guilt could hope for impunity, 
 and the flight of the wicked, the licentious, and the 
 idle, soon purified the city and territory of Rome. In 
 this time (says the historian) the woods began to 
 rejoice that they were no longer infested with robbers; 
 the oxen began to plough ; the pilgrims visited the 
 sanctuaries ; the roads and inns were replenished with 
 travellers ; trade, plenty, and good faith, were restored 
 in the markets ; and a purse of gold might be exposed 
 without danger in the midst of the highway. As 
 soon as the life and property of the subject are secure, 
 the labours and rewards of industry spontaneously 
 revive: Rome was still the metropolis of the christian 
 world ; and the fame and fortunes of the tribune were 
 diffused in every country by the strangers who had 
 enjoyed the blessings of his government. 
 The tribune is "^^^ deliverance of his country inspired 
 respected in Rienzi with a vast, and perhaps vis- 
 Itaiy, &c. ionary, idea of uniting Italy in a great 
 federative republic, of which Rome should be the an- 
 cient and lawful head, and the free cities and princes 
 the members and associates. His pen was not less 
 eloquent than his tongue ; and his numerous epistles 
 were delivered to swift and trusty messengers. On 
 foot, with a white wand in their hand, they traversed 
 the forests and mountains; enjoyed, in the most hos- 
 tile states, the sacred security of ambassadors; and 
 reported, in the style of flattery or truth, that the high- 
 ways along their passage were lined with kneeling 
 multitudes, who implored Heaven for the success of 
 
 The fifteen tribunitian laws may be found in the Roman historian 
 (whom for brevity I shall name) Foriifiocca, 1. ii. c. 4. 
 
 e Fortiliocca, 1. ii. c. 11. From the account of this shipwreck, we 
 learn some circumstances of the trade and navi<!:ation of the age. 1. 
 The ship was built and freighted at Naples for the ports of Mar- 
 seilles and Avignon. 2. The'sailors were of Naples and the isle of 
 (Enaria, less skilful than those of Sicily and Genoa. 3. The naviga- 
 tion from Marseilles was a coasting voyage to the mouth of the Tiber, 
 where they t(X>k shelter in a storm ; but, instead of finding the cur- 
 rent, unfortunately ran on a shoal : the vessel was stranded, the 
 mariners escaped. 4. The cargo, which was pillaged, consisted of 
 the revenue of Provence for the royal treasury, many bags of pepper 
 and cinnamon, and bales of French cloth, to the value of 90,OOU 
 florins : a rich prize. 
 
 their undertaking. Could passion have listened to rea- 
 son, could private interest have yielded to the public 
 welfare, the supreme tribunal and confederate union 
 of the Italian republic might have healed their intestine 
 discord, and closed the Alps against the barbarians of 
 the north. But the propitious season had elapsed ; 
 and if Venice, Florence, Sienna, Perugia, and many 
 inferior cities, offered their lives and fortunes to the 
 good estate, the tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany 
 must despise, or hate, the plebeian author of a free 
 constitution. From them, however, and from every 
 part of Italy, the tribune received the most friendly 
 and respectful answers : they were followed by the 
 ambassadors of the princes and republics ; and in this 
 foreign conflux, on all the occasions of pleasure or 
 business, the low-born notary could assume the fami- 
 liar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign.' The most 
 glorious circumstance of his reign was an appeal to 
 his justice from Lewis king of Hungary, who com- 
 plained, that his brother, and her husband, had been 
 perfidiously strangled by Jane queen of Naples;' her 
 guilt or innocence was pleaded in a solemn trial at 
 Rome ; but after hearing the advocates,* the tribune 
 adjourned this weighty and invidious cause, which 
 was soon determined by the sword of the Hungarian. 
 Beyond the Alps, more especially at Avignon, thfr 
 revolution was the theme of curiosity, wonder, and 
 applause. Petrarch had been the pri- and celebrated 
 vate friend, perhaps the secret counsel- ^J I'etrarch. 
 lor, of Rienzi : his writings breathe the most ardent 
 spirit of patriotism and joy ; and all respect for thfr 
 pope, all gratitude for the Colonna, was lost in the 
 superior duties of a Roman citizen. The poet-laureat 
 of the Capitol maintains the act, applauds the hero, 
 and mingles with some apprehension and advice the 
 most lofty hopes of the permanent and rising greats 
 ness of the republic' 
 
 While Petrarch indulged these pro- His vices and 
 phetic visions, the Roman hero was fast follies 
 declining from the meridian of fame and power ; and the 
 people, who had gazed with astonishment on the ascen- 
 ding meteor, began to mark the irregularity of its course 
 and thevicissitudes of its light and obscurity. More elo- 
 quent than judicious, more enterprising than resolute, 
 the faculties of Rienzi were not balanced by cool and 
 commanding reason : he magnified in a tenfold propor- 
 tion the objects of hope and fear; and prudence, which 
 could not have erected, did not presume to fortify, his 
 throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues were in- 
 sensibly tinctured with the adjacent vices ; justice with 
 cruelty, liberality with profusion, and the desire of 
 fame with puerile and ostentatious vanity. He might 
 have learned, that the ancient tribunes, so strong and 
 sacred in the public opinion, were not distinguished in 
 style, habit, or appearance, from an ordinary plebeian,'' 
 
 f It was thus that Oliver Cromwell's old acquaintance, who remem- 
 bered his vulgar and ungracious entrance into the House of Commons, 
 were astonished at the ease and majesty of the praector on his throne, 
 (see Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 27—34. from Clarendon, Warwick, 
 Whitelock, Waller, fcc.) The consciousness of merit and power will 
 sometimes elevate the manners to the station. 
 
 g See the causes, circumstances, and effects of the death of Andrew, 
 in Giannone, (tom. iii. 1. xxiii. p. 230—229,) and the lifp of Ppirarch, 
 (Memoires, tom. ii. p. 143—143. 245—250.375—379. notes, p. 21—37.) 
 The Abb6 de Sade wishes to extenuate her guilt, 
 
 b The advocate who pleaded against Jane, could add nothing lo the 
 logical force and brevity of his master's epistle. Johanna ! inordinita 
 vita praecedeng, retentio poteslatis in regno, neglecta, viiulicia, vir 
 alter susceptus, et excusatio subsequens, necis viri tui te probant 
 fuisae participem et consortem. Jane of Naples, and Mary of Scot- 
 land, have a singular conformity. 
 
 i Seethe Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda Republica, from Pe- 
 trarch to Nicholas Rienzi, (0pp. p. .535—540.) and the fifth eclogue or 
 pastoral, a perpetual and obscure allegory. 
 
 k In his Roman Questions, Pluiarch, (Opuscul. tom. i. p. 505, 506. 
 edit. Gr»c. Hen Steph ) states, on the most constitutional principles^ 
 the simple greatness of the tribunes, who were properly not magis- 
 trates, but a check on magistracy. It was their duly and interest 
 
 X.ITUIV . . x»Ta7r*TU(r3»i Sn (a saying of C. Curio) »»• Mt ff^ve* ««r»» 
 
 (Tourx fixKKov aui;iTa« th Svv»fitt, &,c. Rieuzi, and Petrarch himself, 
 were incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philosopher; but they 
 might have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favouril* 
 Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus. 
 
 
 
480 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 481 
 
 and that as often as they visited the city on foot, a 
 single viatar, or beadle, attended the exercise of their 
 office. The Gracchi would have frowned or smiled, 
 could they have read the sonorous titles and epithets 
 of their successor, " Nicholas, severe and merciful ; 
 
 DELIVERER OF RoME ; DEFENDER OF ItALY ; ^ FRIEND OF 
 MANKIND, AND OF LIBERTY, PEACE, AND JUSTICE ; TRI- 
 BUNE AUGUST :" his theatrical pageant had prepared the 
 revolution ; but Rienzi abused, in luxury and pride, 
 the political maxim of speaking to the eyes, as well as 
 the understanding, of the multitude. From nature he 
 had received the gift of an handsome person,™ till it 
 was swelled and disfigured by intemperance; and his 
 propensity to laughter was corrected in tlie magistrate 
 by the affectation of gravity and sternness. He was 
 clothed, at least on public occasions, in a party-coloured 
 robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur, and embroidered 
 with gold : the rod of justice, which he carried in his 
 hand, was a sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a 
 globe and cross of gold, and enclosing a small fragment 
 of the true and holy wood. In his civil and religious pro- 
 cessions through the city, he rode on a white steed, the 
 symbol of royalty : the great banner of the republic, a 
 8un with a circle of stars, a dove with an olive branch, 
 was displayed over his head ; a shower of gold and sil- 
 ver was scattered among the populace; fifty guards 
 with halberds encompassed his person ; a troop of 
 horse preceded his march ; and their tymbals and trum- 
 pets were of massy silver. 
 
 The ambition of the honours of chi- 
 knWh^d,"' valry betrayed the meanness of his 
 A. D. 1347.' birth, and degraded the importance of his 
 August 1. office; and the equestrian tribune was 
 not less odious to the nobles, whom he adopted, than 
 to the plebeians, whom he deserted. All that yet re- 
 mained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted on 
 that solemn day. Rienzi led the procession from the 
 capitol to the Lateran ; the tediousness of the way was 
 relieved with decorations and games; the ecclesiasti- 
 cal, civil, and military orders marched under their va- 
 rious banners; the Roman ladies attended his wife; and 
 the ambassadors of Italy might loudly applaud, or se- 
 cretly deride, the novelty of the pomp. In the even- 
 ing, when they had reached the church and palace of 
 Constantine, he thanked and dismissed the numerous 
 assembly, with an invitation to the festival of the en- 
 suing day. From the hands of a venerable knight he 
 received the order of the Holy Ghost; the purification 
 of the bath was a previous ceremony ; but in no step 
 of his life did Rienzi excite such scandal and censure 
 as by the profane use of the porphyry vase, in which 
 Constantine (a foolish legend) had been healed of his 
 leprosy by pope Sylvester." With equal presumption 
 the tribune watched or reposed within the consecra- 
 ted precincts of the baptistery ; and the failure of his 
 state-bed was interpreted as an omen of his approach- 
 ing downfall. At the hour of worship, he showed 
 himself to the returning crowds in a majestic attitude, 
 with a robe of purple, his sword, and gilt spurs; but 
 the holy rites were interrupted by his levity and inso- 
 lence. Rising from his throne, and advancing towards 
 
 1 I could not exprefls in English the forcible, though barbarous, title 
 c( Zelator Ilaliae, which Rienzi assumed. 
 
 m Era bell' huonio. (1. ii. c. 1. p. 399.) It is remarkable, that the 
 riso sarcastico of the Bracciano edition is wanting in the Roman MS. 
 from which Muratori has given the text. In his second reign, when 
 he is painted almost as a monster, Rienzi travea una venlresca tonna 
 Irionfale, a modo de uno Abbaie Asiano, or Asinino, (1. iii. c. 18. p. 
 623.) 
 
 n Strange as it may seem, this festival was not without a precedent. 
 In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna and an Ursini, the usual bal- 
 ance, were created knights by the Roman people : their bath was of 
 rose-water, their beds were decked with royal magnificence, and 
 they were served at St. Maria of Araceli in the capitol, by the twenty- 
 eight 6uont Auomint. They afterwards received from Robert king 
 of Naples the sword of chivalry. (Hist. Rom. I. i. c. 2. p. 259 ) 
 
 o All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of Constantine, (Pe- 
 trarch, Epist. Famil. vi. 2.) and Rienzi justified his own conduct by 
 observing to the court of Avignon, that a vase which had been used 
 by a {)agan could not be profined by a pious christian. Yet this crime 
 Is specified in the bull of excomiauuicatioD, CHocsemius, apud de 
 Cerceau, p. 189, 190.) 
 
 the congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice : "We 
 summon to our tribunal pope Clement; and command 
 him to reside in his diocese of Rome : we also summon 
 the sacred college of cardinals.^ We again summon 
 the two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of 
 Bavaria, who style themselves emperors : we likewise 
 summon all the electors of Germany, to inform us on 
 what pretence they have usurped the inalienable right 
 of the Roman people, the ancient and lawful sovereigns 
 of the empire." •» Unsheathing his maiden sword, he 
 thrice brandished it to the three parts of the world, and 
 thrice repealed the extravagant declaration, *' And this 
 too is mine !" The pope's vicar, the bishop of Orvie- 
 to, attempted to check this career of folly; but his fee- 
 ble protest was silenced by martial music; and instead 
 of withdrawing from the assembly, he consented to 
 dine with his brother tribune, at a table which had hith- 
 erto been reserved for the supreme pontiff. A banquet, 
 such as the Caesars had given, was prepared for the 
 Romans. The apartments, porticoes, and courts of the 
 Lateran were spread with innumerable tables for ei- 
 ther sex, and every condition ; a stream of wine flowed 
 from the nostrils of Constantine's brazen horse; no 
 complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be 
 heard; and the licentiousness of the multitude was 
 
 curbed by discipline and fear. Asubse- , ., 
 
 . 1 "^ ^ • . J r ^ L *na coronation, 
 
 quent day was appomted for the corona- 
 tion of Rienzi;' seven crowns of different leaves or 
 metals were successively placed on his head by the 
 most eminent of the Roman clergy ; they represented 
 the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost ; and he still profess- 
 ed to imitate the example of the ancient tribunes. 
 These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or flatter 
 the people ; and their own vanity was gratified in the 
 vanity of their leader. But in his private life he soon 
 deviated from the strict rule of frugality and absti- 
 nence ; and the plebeians, who were awed by the 
 splendour of their nobles, were provoked by the luxury 
 of their equal. His wife, his son, his uncle, (a barber 
 in name and profession,) exposed the contrast of vulgar 
 manners and princely expense : and without acquiring 
 the majesty, Rienzi degenerated into the vices, of a 
 king. 
 
 A simple citizen describes with pity, pear and hatred 
 or perhaps with pleasure, the humiliation of the nobles of 
 of the barons of Rome. "Bare-headed,^*""®- 
 their hands crossed on their breast, they stood with 
 downcast looks in the presence of the tribune; and 
 they trembled, good God, how they trembled !"' As 
 long as the yoke of Rienzi was that of justice and their 
 country, their conscience forced them to esteem the 
 man, whom pride and interest provoked them to hate : 
 his extravagant conduct soon forfeited their hatred by 
 contempt ; and they conceived the hope of subverting 
 a power which was no longer so deeply rooted in the 
 public confidence. The old animosity of the Colonna 
 and Ursini was suspended for a moment by their com- 
 mon disgrace : they associated their wishes, and per- 
 haps their designs; an assassin was seized and tor- 
 tured ; he accused the nobles ; and as soon as Rienzi 
 deserved the fate, he adopted the suspicions and max- 
 ims of a tyrant. On the same day, under various pre- 
 tences, he invited to the capitol his principal enemies, 
 among whom were five members of the Ursini and 
 three of the Colonna name. But instead of a council 
 or a banquet, they found themselves prisoners under 
 
 p This verbal summons of Pope Clement VI. which rests on tho 
 authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican MS. is disputed by tho 
 biographer of Petrarch, (torn. ii. not. p. 70—76.) with arguments rather 
 of decency than of weight. The court of Avignon might not choose 
 to agitate this delicate question. 
 
 q The summons of the two rival emperors, a monument of freedom 
 and folly, is extant in Hocsemius. (Ceroeau, p. 163—166.) 
 
 r It is singular, that the Roman historian should have overlooked 
 this sevenfold coronation, which is sufTicienlly proved by internal 
 evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and even of Rienzi. (Cer- 
 ceaii, p. 167—170. 229.) 
 
 • Pool se faceva stare denante a se, mentre sedeva, Ii baroni tutti 
 in piedi ritli co lo vraccia piecate, e co Ii capncci tralti. Deh como 
 stavano paurosi ! (Hist. Rom. I. ii. c. 20. p. 439.) He saw them, and 
 we see them. 
 
 the sword of despotism or justice; and the conscious- 
 j ness of innocence or guilt might inspire them with 
 1 equal apprehensions of danger. At the sound of the 
 1 great bell the people assembled ; they were arraigned 
 for a conspiracy against the tribune's life; and though 
 some might sympathize in their distress, not a hand, 
 nor a voice, was raised to rescue the first of the nobili- 
 ty from their impending doom. Their apparent bold- 
 ness was prompted by despair; they passed in sepa- 
 rate chambers a sleepless and painful night; and the 
 venerable hero, Stephen Colonna, striking against the 
 door of his prison, repeatedly urged his guards to de- 
 liver him, by a speedy death, from such ignominious 
 servitude. The great hall of the capitol had been de- 
 corated for the bloody scene with red and white hang- 
 ino-s ; the countenance of the tribune was dark and se- 
 vere; the swords of the executioners were unsheathed ; 
 and the barons were interrupted in their dying speech- 
 es by the sound of trumpets. But in this decisive mo- 
 ment, Rienzi was not less anxious or apprehensive than 
 his captives : he dreaded the splendour of their names, 
 their surviving kinsmen, the inconstancy of the people, 
 the reproaches of the world, and, after rashly offering a 
 mortal injury, he vainly presumed that, if he could for- 
 give, he might himself be forgiven. His elaborate 
 dration was that of a christian and a suppliant; and, as 
 the humble minister of the commons, he entreated his 
 masters to pardon these noble criminals, for whose 
 repentance and future service he pledged his faith and 
 authority. " If you are spared," said the tribune, " by 
 the mercy of the Romans, will you not promise to sup- 
 port the good estate with your lives and fortunes." 
 Astonished by this marvellous clemency, the barons 
 bowed their heads ; and while they devoutly repeated 
 the oath of allegiance, might whisper a secret, and 
 more sincere, assurance of revenge. A priest, in the 
 name of the people, pronounced their absolution ; they 
 received the communion with the tribune, assisted at 
 tho banquet, followed the procession ; and, after every 
 spiritual and temporal sign of reconciliation, were 
 dismissed in safety to their respective homes, with 
 the new honours and titles of generals, consuls, and 
 patricians.* 
 
 They oppose Ri- During some weeks they were check- 
 enzi In arms, ed by the memory of their danger, rather 
 than of their deliverance, till the most powerful of 
 the Ursini, escaping with the Colonna from the city, 
 erected at Marino the standard of rebellion. The for- 
 tifications of the castle were instantly restored ; the 
 vassals attended their lord ; the outlaws armed against 
 the magistrate ; the flocks and herds, the harvests and 
 vineyards, from Marino to the gates of Rome, were 
 swept away or destroyed; and the people arraigned 
 Kieiizi as the author of the calamities which his govern- 
 ment had taught them to forget. In the camp, Rienzi 
 appeared to less advantage than in the rostrum ; and 
 he neglected the progress of the rebel barons till their 
 numbers were strong, and their castles impregnable. 
 P'rom the pages of Livy, he had not imbibed the art, 
 or even the courage, of a general : an army of twenty 
 thousand Romans returned without honour or effect 
 from the attack of Marino : and his vengeance was 
 amused by painting his enemies, their heads down- 
 wards, and drowning two dogs (at least they should 
 have been bears) as the representatives of the Ursini. 
 The belief of his incapacity encouraged their opera- 
 tions : they were invited by their secret adherents ; 
 and the barons attempted, with four thousand foot and 
 sixteen hundred horse, to enter Rome by force or sur- 
 prise. The city was prepared for their reception : the 
 alarm-bell rung all night ; the gates were strictly guard- 
 ed, or insolently open ; and after some hesitation they 
 sounded a retreat. The two first divisions had passed 
 along the walls, but the prospect of a free entrance 
 
 t The original letter, in which Rienzi justifies his treatment of 
 the Colonna, (Hocsemius, apud du Cergeau, p. 222—229.) displays, in 
 geni:ine colours, the mixture of the knave and the madman. 
 Vol. II.— 3 L 31 
 
 tempted the headstrong valour of the nobles in the 
 rear; and after a successful skirmish, they were over- 
 thrown and massacred without quarter by the crowds 
 
 of the Roman people. Stephen Colonna -. , ., 
 
 . f, *^ , , r .^ ^ , Defeat and T 
 
 the younger, the noble spirit to whom death of the 
 
 Petrarch ascribed the restoration of Italy, Colonna, 
 was preceded or accompanied in death ot. 20. 
 
 by his son John, a gallant youth, by his brother Peter, 
 who might regret the ease and honours of the church, 
 by a nephew of legitimate birth, and by two bastards 
 of the Colonna race; and the number of seven, the 
 seven crowns, as Rienzi styled them, of the Holy 
 Ghost, was completed by the agony of the deplorable 
 parent, of the veteran chief, who had survived the 
 hope and fortune of his house. The vision and pro- 
 phecies of St. Martin and pope Boniface had been 
 used by the tribune to animate his troops:" he dis- 
 played, at least in the pursuit, the spirit of a hero : but 
 he forgot the maxims of the ancient Romans, who 
 abhorred the triumphs of civil war. The conqueror 
 ascended the capitol ; deposited his crown and sceptre 
 on the altar ; and boasted with some truth, that he had 
 cut off an ear, which neither pope nor emperor had 
 been able to amputate.' His base and implacable 
 revenge denied the honours of burial ; and the bodies 
 of the Colonna, which he threatened to expose with 
 those of the vilest malefactors, were secretly interred 
 by the holy virgins of their name and family .^ The 
 people sympathized in their grief, repented of their 
 own fury, and detested the indecent joy of Rienzi, 
 who visited the spot where these illustrious victims 
 had fallen. It was on that fatal spot that he conferred 
 on his son the honour of knighthood : and the cere- 
 mony was accomplished by a slight blow from each 
 of the horsemen of the guard, and by a ridiculous and 
 inhuman ablution from a pool of water, which was yet 
 polluted with patrician blood." 
 
 A short delay would have saved the Fall and flight 
 Colonna, the delay of a single month, of the tribune 
 which elapsed between the triumph and a. d! 1347, 
 exile of Rienzi. In the pride of victory, Dec. is. 
 he forfeited what yet remained of his civil virtue, 
 without acquiring the fame of military prowess. A 
 free and vigorous opposition was formed in the city ; 
 and when the tribune proposed in the public council* 
 to impose a new tax, and to regulate the government 
 of Perugia, thirty-nine members voted against his 
 measures ; repelled the injurious charge of treachery 
 and corruption ; and urged him to prove, by their for- 
 cible exclusion, that, if the populace adhered to his 
 cause, it was already disclaimed by the most respecta-- 
 ble citizens. The pope and the sacrt^ college had 
 never been dazzled by his specious professions ; they 
 were justly offended by the insolence of his conduct ; 
 a cardinal legate was sent to Italy, and after some 
 
 n Rienzi, in the above-mentioned letter, ascribes to St. Martin the 
 tribune, Boniface Vlll. the enemy of Colonna, himself, and the Ro- 
 man people, the glory of the day, which Villani likewise (1. 12. c. 
 104.) descrit)es as a regular battle. The disorderly skirmish, the 
 flight of the Romans, and the cowardice of Rienzi, are painted in 
 the simple and minute narrative of Fortifiocca, or the anonymous 
 citizen, (1. ii. c. 34—37.) 
 
 X In describing the fall of the Colonna, I speak only of the family^ 
 of Stephen the elder, who is often confounded by the F. du Cergeau 
 with his son. That family was exlinsuislied, but the house has 
 been perpetuated in the collateral branches, of which I have not a 
 very accurate knowledge. Circumspice (says Petrarch) famili« 
 tuse statum, Columniensium domos : sulito pauciores habeat colum- 
 naa. Quid ad rem 7 modo fundamentum stabile, solidnmq; perma- 
 neat. 
 
 y The convent of St. Sylvester was founded, endowed, and protect- 
 ed by the Colonna cardinals, for the daughters of the family who em- 
 braced a monastic life, and who, in the year 1318, were twelve in 
 number. The others were allowed to marry with their kinsmen in 
 the fourth degree, and the dispensation was justified by the small 
 number and close alliances of the noble families of Rome. (Me- 
 moiressur Pelrarque, torn. i. p. 110. tom. ii. p. 401.) 
 
 « Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of consolation. (Fann. I. 
 vii. epist. J3. p. 682, 683.) The friend was lost in the patriot. Nulla 
 toto orbe princlpum farailia carior; carior tamen respublica, carior 
 Roma, carior Italia. „ . 
 
 Je rends graces aux Dieux de n'etre pas Romam. 
 
 t This council and opposition is obscurely mentioned by FoUis- 
 tore, a contemporary writer, who has preserved some curious and 
 original facta. Rer. Italicarum, tom. xxv. c. 31. p. 798—904. 
 
 •M 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 » 
 
 \l 
 
 ^-> 
 
482 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXi 
 
 • I 
 
 iruitless treaty, and two personal interviews, he fulmi- 
 nated a bull of excommunication, in which the tribune 
 is degraded from his office, and branded with the guilt 
 of rebellion, sacrilege, and heresy.'' The surviving 
 barons of Rome were now humbled to a sense of alle- 
 giance; their interest and revenge engaged them in 
 the service of the church ; but as the fate of the 
 Colonna was before their eyes, they abandoned to a 
 private adventurer the peril and glory of the revolu- 
 tion, John Pepin, count of Minorbino' in the king- 
 dom of Naples, had been condemned for his crimes, 
 or his riches, to perpetual imprisonment; and Petrarch, 
 by soliciting his release, indirectly contributed to the 
 ruin of his friend. At the head of one hundred and 
 fifty soldiers, the count of Minorbino introduced him- 
 self into Rome ; barricaded the quarter of the Colonna ; 
 and found the enterprise as easy as it had seemed 
 impossible. From the first alarm, the bell of the 
 capitol incessantly tolled; but, instead of repairing to 
 the well-known sound, the people were silent and 
 inactive ; and the pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their 
 ingratitude with sighs and tears, abdicated the govern- 
 ment and palace of the republic. 
 
 Kevolutions of W*^^°"^ drawing his sword, count 
 Romo, _ Pepin restored the aristocracy of the 
 A. D. ia47— ia>l. church ; three senators were chosen, and 
 the legate assuming the first rank, accepted his two 
 colleagues from the rival families of Colonna and 
 Ursini. The acts of the tribune were abolished, his 
 head was proscribed ; yet such was the terror of his 
 name, thai the barons hesitated three days, before 
 they would trust themselves in the city, and Rienzi 
 was left above a month in the castle of St. Angelo, 
 from whence he peaceably withdrew, after labouring, 
 without effect, to revive the affection and courage of 
 the Romans. The vision of freedom and empire had 
 vanished : their fallen spirit would have acquiesced in 
 servitude, had it been smoothed by tranquillity and 
 order : and it was scarcely observed, that the new sen- 
 ators derived their authority from the Apostolic See ; 
 that four cardinals were appointed to reform, with 
 dictatorial power, the state of the republic. Rome 
 was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, 
 who detested each other, and despised the commons : 
 their hostile fortresses, both in town and country, 
 again rose, and were again demolished ; and the peace- 
 ful citizens, a flock of sheep, were devoured, says the 
 Florentine historian, by these rapacious wolves. But 
 when their pride and avarice had exhausted the pa- 
 tience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Ma- 
 ry protected or avenged the republic: the bell of the 
 capitol was again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled 
 in the presence of an unarmed multitude ; and of the 
 two senators, Colonna escaped from the window of 
 the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of the 
 altar. The dangerous office of tribune was succes- 
 sively occupied by two plebeians, Cerroni and Baron- 
 celli. The mildness of Cerroni was unqual to the 
 times ; and after a faint struggle, he retired with a fair 
 reputation and a decent fortune to the comforts of rural 
 life. Devoid of eloquence or genius, Baroncelli was 
 distinguished by a resolute spirit : he spoke the lan- 
 guage of a patriot, and trod in the footsteps of tyrants ; 
 his suspicion was a sentence of death, and his own 
 death was the reward of his cruellies. Amidst the 
 public misfortunes, the faults of Rienzi were forgot- 
 ten ; and the Romans sighed for the peace and prosper- 
 ity of the good estate.** 
 
 Chap* XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 483 
 
 b The briefs and bulls of Clement VI. against Rlenii, are trans- 
 lated by the P. du Cerjeau (p. J 96. 232.) from the Ecclesiastical An- 
 nals of Odericus Raynaldus, (A. D. 1347, No. 15. 17. 21, &c.) who 
 found them in the archives of the Vatican. 
 
 c Matteo Villani describes the origin, character, and death of this 
 count of Minorbino, a man da nalura inconstante e senza fede, whose 
 gran/lfaiher, a crafty noury, was enriched and ennobled by the spoils 
 •f the Saracens of Nocera, (I. vii. c. 102, 103.) See his imprisonment, 
 •nd the eflTorts of Petrarch, torn. ii. p. 149—161. 
 
 d The troubles of Rome, from the departure to the return of Rienzi, 
 *w related by Matleo Villani, (1. ii. c. 47. 1. iii. c. 33. 67. 78) and 
 
 After an exile of seven years, the first Adveniures ot 
 deliverer was again restored to bis coun- Rienzi. 
 try. In the disguise of a monk or a pilgrim, he. 
 escaped from the castle of St. Angelo, implored the 
 friendship of the kings of Hungary and Naples, tempt- 
 ed the anibilion of every bold adventurer, mingled at 
 Rome with the pilgrims of the jubilee, lay concealed 
 among the hermits of the Apennine, and wandered 
 through the cities of Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. 
 His person was invisible, his name was yet formida- 
 ble; and the anxiety of the court of Avignon supposes, 
 and even magnifies, his personal merit. The emperor 
 Charles the fourth gave audience to a stranger, who 
 frankly revealed himself as the tribune of the repub- 
 lic; and astonished an assembly of ambassadors and 
 princes, by the eloquence of a patriot and the visions 
 of a prophet, the downfall of tyranny and the kingdom 
 of the Holy Ghost.* Whatever had been his hopes, 
 Rienzi found himself a captive ; but he supported a 
 character of independence and dignity, and obeyed, 
 as his own choice, the irresistible summons of the 
 supreme pontiff. The zeal of Petrarch, which had 
 been cooled by the unworthy conduct, was rekindled 
 by the sufferings and the presence, of his friend ; and 
 he boldly complains of the times, in which the saviour 
 of Rome was delivered by her emperor into the hands 
 of her bishop. Rienzi was transported a prisoner at 
 slowly, but in safe custody, from Prague Avignon, 
 to Avignon ; his entrance into the city A. D. 1351. 
 was that of a malefactor ; in his prison ho was chained 
 by the leg; and four cardinals were named to inquire 
 into the crimes of heresy and rebellion. But his trial 
 and condemnation would have involved some questions, 
 which it was more prudent to leave under the veil of 
 mystery : the temporal supremacy of the popes ; a duty 
 of residence ; the civil and ecclesiastical privilege of 
 the clergy and people of Rome. The reigning pontiff 
 well deserved the appellation of Clement^ the strange 
 vicissitudes and magnanimous spirit of the captive 
 excited his pity and esteem; and Petrarch believes 
 that he respected in the hero the name and sacred 
 character of a poet.' Rienzi was indulged with an 
 easy confinement and the use of books ; and in the 
 assiduous study of Livy and the Bible, he sought the 
 cause and the consolation of his misfortunes. 
 
 The succeeding pontificate of Inno- Rjenzi, senator 
 cent the sixth opened a new prospect of of Rome, 
 his deliverance and restoration ; and the ^* ^- ^^^^' 
 court of Avignon was persuaded, that the successful 
 rebel could alone appease and reform the anarchy of 
 the metropolis. After a solemn profession of fidelity, 
 the Roman tribune was sent into Italy, with the title 
 of senator ; but the death of Baroncelli appeared to 
 supersede the use of his mission; and the legate, car- 
 dinal Albornoz,* a consummate statesman, allowed 
 him with reluctance, and without aid, to undertake 
 the perilous experiment. His first reception was equal 
 to his wishes: the day of his entrance was a public 
 festival ; and his eloquence and authority revived the 
 laws of the good estate. But this momentary sun- 
 shine was soon clouded by his own vices and those of 
 the people ; io the capitol, he might often regret the 
 
 Thomas Fortifiocca, (1. hi. c.-4.) I have slightly passed oyer these 
 secondary characters, who imitated the original tribune. 
 
 • These visions, of which the friends and the enemies of Rienzi 
 seem alike ignorant, are surely magnified by the zeal of Pollisiore. a 
 Dominican inquisitor. (Rer. Ilal. lom. xxv. c. 36. p. 819.) Had the 
 tribune taught, that Christ was succeeded bv the Holy Ghost, that 
 the tyranny of the pope would be abolished, he might have been 
 convicted of heresy and treason, without offend i ng the Roman people 
 
 f The astonishment, the envy almost, of Ppirarch is a proof, if not 
 of the truth of this incredible fact, at least of his own veracity The 
 Abb6 de Sade (Memoires. tom. iii. p. 242.) (luotos the sixth epistle of 
 the thirteenth book of Petrarch, but it is of the royal MS. which he 
 consulted, and not of the ordinary Basil edition, (p. 920.) 
 
 f ^.gidius, or Giles Albornoz, a noble Spaniard, archbishop of 
 Toledo, and cardinal legale in Italy, (A. D. 1353—1367.) restored, by 
 his arms and counsels, the temporal dominion of the popes. His lile 
 has been separately written by Sepulveda; but Dryden could not 
 reasonably suppose, that his name, or that of Wolsey, had rMdl«d 
 the ears of ibe Mufti ia Doa Sebaaiiaa, " *••**«»« 
 
 ..\ 
 
 prison of Avignon ; and after a second administration 
 of four months, liienzi was massacred in a tumult 
 which had been fomented by the Roman barons. In 
 the society of the Germans and Bohemians, he is said 
 to have contracted the habits of intemperance and 
 cruelty : adversity had chilled his enthusiasm, with- 
 out fortifying his reason or virtue ; and that youthful 
 hope, that lively assurance, which is the pledge of 
 success, was now succeeded by the cold impotence 
 of distrust and despair. The tribune had reigned 
 with absolute dominion, by the choice, and in the 
 hearts, of the Romans: the senator was the servile 
 minister of a foreign court ; and while he was suspect- 
 ed by the people, he was abandoned by the prince. 
 The legate Albornoz, who seemed desirous of his ruin, 
 inflexibly refused all supplies of men and money ; a 
 faithful subject could no longer presume to touch the 
 revenues of the apostolical chamber ; and the first idea 
 of a tax was the signal of clamour and sedition. Even 
 his justice was tainted with the guilt or reproach of 
 selfish cruelty : the most virtuous citizen of Rome 
 was sacrificed to his jealousy ; and in the execu- 
 tion of a public robber, from whose purse he had 
 been assisted, the magistrate too much forgot, or 
 too much remembered, the obligations of the debt- 
 or.^ A civil war exhausted his treasures, and the pa- 
 tience of the city : the Colonna maintained their hos- 
 tile station at Palestrina; and his mercenaries soon 
 despised a leader whose ignorance and fear were 
 envious of all subordinate merit. In the death as in 
 the life of Rienzi, the hero and the coward were 
 strangely mingled. When the capitol was invested by 
 a furious multitude, when he was basely deserted by 
 his civil and military servants, the intrepid senator, 
 waving the banner of liberty, presented himself on the 
 balcony, addressed his eloquence to the various pas- 
 sions of the Romans, and laboured to persuade them, 
 that in the same cause himself and the republic must 
 either stand or fall. His oration was interrupted by a 
 volley of imprecations and stones ; and after an arrow 
 had transpierced his hand, he sunk into abject despair, 
 and fled weeping to the inner chambers, from whence 
 he was let down by a sheet before the windows of the 
 prison. Destitute of aid or hope, he was besieged till 
 the evening: the doors of the capitol were destroyed 
 with axes and fire; and while the senator attempted 
 to escape in a plebeian habit, he was discovered and 
 dragged to the platform of the palace, the fatal scene 
 of his judgments and executions. A whole hour, 
 without voice or motion, he stood amidst the multi- 
 tude half naked and half dead ; their rage was hushed 
 into curiosity and wonder: the last feelings of reve- 
 rence and compassion yet struggled in his favour; 
 His death, ^"^ ^^^X flight have prevailed, if a bold 
 A. D. 1354. assassin had not plunged a dagger in 
 Sept. 8. jjjs breast. He fell senseless with the 
 first stroke ; the impotent revenge of his enemies in- 
 flicted a thousand wounds; and the senator's body 
 was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to the 
 flames. Posterity will compare the virtues and fail- 
 ings of this extraordinary man ; but in a long period 
 of anarchy and servitude, the name of Rienzi has often 
 been celebrated as the deliverer of his country, and 
 the last of the Roman patriots.' 
 
 Petrarch invite. '^^^ ^^^^ and most generous wish of 
 
 and upbraids Petrarch was the restoration of a free 
 
 Ch ^."^^fv'" republic ; but after the exile and death 
 
 A. D. 1355. of his plebeian hero, he turned his eyes 
 
 January— from the tribune, to the king, of the 
 
 ***'• Romans. The capitol was yet stained 
 
 h From Matteo Villani and Fortifiocca, the P. du Cergeau (p. 344— 
 394.) has extracted the life and death of the chevalier Montreal, the 
 life of a robber and the death of a hero. At the head of a free com- 
 any, the first that desolated Italy, he became rich and formidable : 
 e had money in all the banks, 60,000 ducats in Padua alone. 
 i The exile, second government, and death of Rienzi. are minutely 
 related by the anonymous Roman, who appears neither his friend 
 nor his enemy, (1. iii. c 12—25) Petrarch, who loved the tribune, 
 was indiffereai vo the lata of Ihe $enator. 
 
 I 
 
 with the blood of Rienzi, when Charles the fourth 
 descended from the Alps to obtain the Italian and 
 imperial crowns. In his passage through Milan he 
 received the visit, and repaid the flattery, of the poet- 
 laureat; accepted a medal of Augustus ; and promised, 
 without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Ro- 
 man monarchy. A false application of the names and 
 maxims of antiquity was the source of the hopes and 
 disappointments of Petrarch ; yet he could not over- 
 look the difference of times and characters; the im- 
 measurable distance between the first Caesars and a 
 Bohemian prince, who by the favour of the clergy 
 had been elected the titular head of the German aris- 
 tocracy. Instead of restoring to Rome her glory and 
 her provinces, he had bound himself, by a secret 
 treaty with the pope, to evacuate the city on the day 
 of his coronation; and his shameful retreat was pur- 
 sued by the reproaches of the patriot bard.* 
 
 After the loss of liberty and empire. He solicits the 
 his third and more humble wish, was P^P^* of Avi^- 
 to reconcile the shepherd with his flock ; Sence It ^ 
 to recall the Roman bishop to his ancient Rome. 
 and peculiar diocese. In the fervour of youth, with 
 the authority of age, Petrarch addressed his exhorta- 
 tions to five successive popes, and his eloquence was 
 always inspired by the enthusiasm of sentiment and 
 the freedom of language.* The son of a citizen of 
 Florence invariably preferred the country of his birth 
 to that of his education ; and Italy, in his eyes, was 
 the queen and garden of the world. Amidst her domes- 
 tic factions, she was doubtless superior to France both 
 in art and science, in wealth and politeness; but the 
 difference could scarcely support the epithet of bar- 
 barous, which he promiscuously bestows on the coun- 
 tries beyond the Alps. Avignon, the mystic Babylon, 
 the sink of vice and corruption, was the object of his 
 hatred and contempt; but he forgets that her scanda- 
 lous vices were not the growth of the soil, and that in 
 every residence they would adhere to the power and 
 luxury of the papal court. He confesses, that the 
 successor of St. Petei is the bishop of the universal 
 church; yet it was not on the banks of the Rhone, 
 but of the Tiber, that the apostle had fixed his ever- 
 lasting throne : and while every city in the christian 
 world was blessed with a bishop, the metropolis alone 
 was desolate and forlorn. Since the removal of the 
 holy see, the sacred buildings of the Lateran and th& 
 Vatican, their altars and their saints, were left in a 
 state of poverty and decay; and Rome was often paint- 
 ed under the image of a disconsolate matron, as if the 
 wandering husband could be reclaimed by the homely 
 portrait of the age and infirmities of the weeping 
 spouse." /TBut the cloud which hung over the seven 
 hills, would be dispelled by the presence of their law- 
 ful sovereign : eternal fame, the prosperity of Rome, 
 and the peace of Italy, would be the recompence of the 
 pope who should dare to embrace this generous resolu- 
 tion.^ Of the five whom Petrarch exhorted, the three 
 first, John the twenty-second, Benedict the twelfth, and 
 Clement the sixth, were importuned or amused by the 
 boldness of the orator; but the memorable change 
 which had been attempted by Urban the fifth, was fi- 
 nally accomplished by Gregory the eleventh. The 
 
 k The hopes and the disappointment of Petrarch are agreeably de- 
 scribed in his own words by tne French biographer ; (Memoires, tom. 
 iii. p. 375—413.) but the deep, thouph secret, wound, was the corona- 
 tion of Zanubi the poet-laureat, by Charles IV. 
 
 1 See in his accurate and amusins biographer, the application of 
 Petrarch and Rome to Benedict XII. in the year 1334. (Memoires. 
 tom. i. p. 261—265.) to Clement VI. in 1342. (torn. ii. p. 45—47.) and 
 to Uurban V. in 1366, (tom. iii. p. G77— 691.) his praise, (p. 711— 715.) 
 and excuse, (p. 772.) of the last of these pontiffs. His angry contro- 
 versy on tlie respective merits of France and Italy may be found. 
 (0pp. p. 1068-1085.) 
 
 Squalida sed quoniam facies, neglectaque cultu 
 Caesaries ; inultisque malis lassata senectus 
 Eripuit solitam effigiem : vetus accipe nomen ; 
 Roma vocor, (Carm. 1. 2. p. 77.) 
 
 He spins this allegory beyond all measure or patience. The Epistle* 
 to Urban V. in prose are more simple and persuasive. (Senilium, I. 
 vii. p. 811—827. 1, ix. episl. i.p. 844—854.) 
 
 '1 
 
484 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 485 
 
 execution of their design was opposed by weighty and 
 almost insuperable obstacles. A kii»g of France who 
 has deserved the epithet of wise, was unwilling to re- 
 lease them from a local dependence : the cardinals, for 
 the most part his subjects, were attached to the lan- 
 guage, manners, and climate, of Avignon ; to their 
 stately palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. 
 
 Return of Ur- In their eyes, Italy was foreign or hos- 
 ban V. tile; and they reluctantly embarked at 
 
 OctobeMS* Marseilles, as if they had been sold or 
 A. D. 1370.* banished into the land of the Saracens. 
 April 17. Urban the fifth resided three years in the 
 Vatican with safety and honour : his sanctity was pro- 
 tected by a guard of two thousand horse ; and the kinff 
 of Cyprus, the queen of Naples, and the emperors of 
 the east and west, devoutly saluted their common fa- 
 ther in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch 
 and the Italians was soon turned into grief and indig- 
 nation. Some reasons of public or private moment, 
 his own impatience or the prayers of the cardinals, re- 
 called Urban to France; and the approaching election 
 was saved from the tyrannic patriotism of the Romans. 
 The powers of heaven were interested in their cause : 
 Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved 
 the return, and foretold the death, of Urban the fifth : 
 the migration of Gregory the eleventh, was encouraged 
 
 Final return of ^y ^[- Catherine of Sienna, the spouse 
 Gregory XI. of Uhnst and ambassadress of the Ho- 
 "^'j^**i7^' rentines ; and the popes themselves, the 
 great masters of human credulity, appear 
 to have listened to these visionary females.*^ Yet those 
 celestial admonitions were supported by some argu- 
 ments of temporal policy. The residence of Avignon 
 had been invaded by hostile violence : at the head of 
 thirty thousand robbers, a hero had extorted ransom 
 ar»d absolution from the vicar of Christ and the sacred 
 college; and the maxim of the French warriors, to 
 spare the people and plunder the church, was a new 
 heresy of the most dangerous import." While the pope 
 was driven from Avignon, he was strenuously invited 
 to Rome. The senate and people acknowledged him 
 as their lawful sovereign, and laid at his feet the keys 
 of the gates, the bridges, and the fortresses ; of the 
 quarter at least beyond the Tiber.' But this loyal of- 
 fer was accompanied by a declaration, that they could 
 no longer suffer the scandal and calamity of his ab- 
 sence; and that his obstinacy would finally provoke 
 them to revive and assert the primitive right of elec- 
 tion. The abbot of mount Cassin had been consulted, 
 whether he would accept the triple crown •» from the 
 clergy and people : " I am a citizen of Rome,'*' replied 
 that venerable ecclesiastic, "and my first law is the 
 voice of my country."" 
 
 B I have not leisure to expatiate on the legenda of St. Bridget, or 
 St. Catherine, the last of which might furnish some amusing stories. 
 Their efffct on the mind of Gregory XI. is atteeted by the lastHolemn 
 wordfl of the dying pope, who admonished the assistants, ut caverent 
 ab hominibus, si ve viris, si ve mulieribus, sub specie religionis loquen- 
 tibus visiones sui capitis, quia per tales ipse seductus, kc. (Baluz. 
 Not. ad Vit. Pap. Avenionensium, torn. i. p. 1223.) 
 
 ro This predatory expedition is related by Froissard, (Chronique, 
 torn. i. p. 230.) and in the life of du Guesclin. (Collections Generale 
 de« Wemoires Historiques, tom. iv. c. 16. p. 107—113.) As early as 
 the year 1361 the court of Avignon had been molested by similar free- 
 booters, who afterwards passetl the Alps. (Memoires sur Tetrarque, 
 torn. iii. p. 563-569.) "^ ^ ' 
 
 P Fleury alleges, from the annals of Oder ioue Raynaldus, the origl- 
 nal treaty which was signed the twenty-first of December 1376, be- 
 Iween Gregory XI. and the Romans, (Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 275.) 
 
 q The first crown or regnum (Uucange, Gloss. Latin, tom. v. p. 702.) 
 on the episcopal mitre of the popes, is ascribed to the gift of (^onstan- 
 tine, or Clovis. The second was added by Boniface VIII. as the em- 
 blem not only of a spiritual, but of a temporal kingdom. The three 
 states of the church are represented by the triple crown whicii was 
 introduced by John XXII. or Benedict ill. (Memoires sur Peirarque, 
 tom. i. p. 258, 259.) 
 
 r Baluze (Not. ad Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 1194, 1195.) produces the 
 original evidence which attests the threats of the Roman ambassadors, 
 and the resignation of the abbot of mount Casaiu, qui ullro se offe- 
 rens, respondit se civem Romanum esse, et illud velle uuod ipsi vel- 
 leni. 
 
 • The return of the popes from Avignon to Rome, and their recep- 
 tion by tho people, are related in the original Lives of Urban V. and 
 Ijregory XI. m Baluze (Vit. Paparum Avenionensium, tom. I. p.363— 
 4b6.) and Muraiori. (Script. Rer. Iialicarum, tom. iii. p. I. p. 610—712.) 
 in Uie dispute* of the vchism, ©rery circunMiunce was flcreroly, 
 
 If superstition will interpret an un- His death, 
 timely death;' if the merit of counsels A. D. 1378. 
 be judged from the event ; the heavens Warch27. 
 may seem to frown on a measure of such apparent 
 reason and propriety. Gregory the eleventh did not 
 survive above fourteen months his return to the Vati- 
 can ; and his decease was followed by the great schism 
 of the west, which distracted the Latin church above 
 forty years. The sacred college was then composed 
 of twenty-two cardinals : six of these had remained 
 at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and 
 four Italians, entered the conclave in the usual form. 
 Their choice was not yet limited to the Election of Ur. 
 purple; and their unanimous votes ac- ban VI. 
 quiesced in the archbishop of Bari, a April 9. 
 subject of Naples, conspicuous for his zeal and learn- 
 ing, who ascended the throne of St. Peter under the 
 name of Urban the sixth. The epistle of the sacred 
 college affirms his free and regular election; whioh 
 had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy Ghost: he 
 was adorned, invested, and crowned, with the custom- 
 ary rites ; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome 
 and Avignon, and his ecclesiastical supremacy was 
 acknowledged in the Latin world. During several 
 weeks, the cardinals attended their new master with 
 the fairest professions of attachment and loyalty; till 
 the summer heats permitted a decent escape from the 
 city. But as soon as they were united at Anagni and 
 Fundi, in a place of security, they cast aside the mask, 
 accused their own falsehood and hypocrisy, excommu- 
 nicated the apostate and anticbrist of Election of Cl©. 
 Rome, and proceeded to a new election ment VIL 
 of Robert of Caneva, Clement the sev- Sepi.2L 
 enth, whom they announced to the nations as the true 
 and rightful vicar of Christ. Their first choice, an 
 involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by the fear 
 of death and the menaces of the Romans ; and their 
 complaint is justified by the strong evidence of proba- 
 bility and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above 
 two-thirds of the votes, were masters of the election ; 
 and whatever might be their provincial jealousies, it 
 cannot fairly be presumed that they would have sacri- 
 ficed their right and interest to a foreign candidate, 
 who would never restore them to their native country. 
 In the various, and often inconsistent, narratives," the 
 shades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly 
 coloured: but the licentiousness of the seditious Ro- 
 mans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and 
 the danger of a second emigration. The conclave 
 was intimidated by the shouts, and encompassed by 
 the arms, of thirty thousand rebels; the bells of the 
 capitol and St. Peter's rang an alarm ; " Death, or an 
 Italian pope !" was the universal cry ; the same threat 
 was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the 
 quarters, in the form of charitable advice ; some pre- 
 parations were made for burning the obstinate cardi- 
 nals ; and had they chosen a Transalpine subject, it is 
 probable that they would never have departed alive 
 from the Vatican. The same constraint imposed the 
 necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of 
 the world : the pride and cruelty of Urban presented 
 a more inevitable danger; and they soon discovered 
 the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his gar- 
 den and recite his breviary, while he heard from an 
 adjacent chamber six cardinals groaning on the rack. 
 His inflexible zeal, which loudly censured their lux- 
 ury and vice, would have attached them to the sta- 
 
 thouphpariially, scrutinized; more especially in the great inquest, 
 which decided the obedience of Castillo, and to which Baluze, in his 
 notes, so often and so largely appeals from a MS. volume in the Har- 
 lay library, (p. 1281. &,c.) 
 
 t Can the death of a good man be esteemed a punishment by those 
 who believe in the immortality of the soul 1 They betray the insta- 
 bility of their faith. Yet as a mere philoeopher, I cannot agree with 
 the Greeks, et- oJ Sisi ^»x.ouo-.»f x«-o$viirxf< vio«. (Brunck, Poeiae Gno- 
 mici, p. 231.) See in Herodotus (I. i. c. 31.) the moral and pleasing 
 tale of the Argive youths. 
 
 u In the first book of the Histoire du Concile de Pise, M. Lenfant 
 has abridged and compared the original narratives of the adherent* 
 Of Urban aud Clement, of the Italians and Germans, the French and 
 
 tions and duties of their parishes at Rome; and had 
 he not fatally delayed a new promotion, the French 
 cardinals would have been reduced to a helpless mi- 
 nority in the sacred college. For these reasons, and 
 in the hope of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated 
 the peace and unity of the church, and the merits of 
 their double choice are yet agitated in the Catholic 
 schools.' The vanity rather than the interest of the 
 nation determined the court and clergy of France.* 
 The states of Savoy, Sicil3% Cyprus, Arragon, Cas- 
 lille, Navarre, and Scotland, were inclined by their 
 example and authority to the obedience of Clement 
 the seventh, and, after his decease, of Benedict the 
 thirteenth. Rome and the principal states of Italy, 
 Germany, Portugal, England,' the Low Countries, 
 and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior 
 election of Urban the si.xth, who was succeeded by 
 Boniface the ninth, Innocent the seventh, and Gregory 
 the twelfth. 
 
 . . , From the banks of the Tiber and the 
 
 the west, Rhone, the hostile pontiffs encountered 
 
 A. D. each other with the pen and the sword : 
 
 1378— . ^i^g ^j^ji ^^^ ecclesiastical order of soci- 
 ety was disturbed, and the Romans had their full share 
 of the mischiefs of which they may be arraigned as 
 the primary authors.* They had vainly flattered them- 
 selves with the hope of restoring the seat of the eccle- 
 siastical monarchy, and of relieving their poverty with 
 
 Calamities of the tributes and off*erings of the nations ; 
 Rome. but the separation of France and Spain 
 diverted the stream of lucrative devotion; nor could 
 the loss be compensated by the two jubilees which 
 were crowded into the space of ten years. By the 
 avocations of the schism, by foreign arms, and popu- 
 lar tumults, Urban the sixth and his three successors 
 were often compelled to interrupt their residence in th« 
 Vatican. The Colonna and Ursini still exercised their 
 deadly feuds : the bannerets of Rome asserted and 
 abused the privileges of a republic : the vicars of 
 Christ, who had levied a military force, chastised 
 their rebellion with the gibbet, the sword, and the 
 dagger; and, in a friendly conferenc^e, eleven deputies 
 of the people were perfidiously murdered and cast into 
 the street. Since the invasion of Robert the Norman, 
 the Romans had pursued their domestic quarrels with- 
 out the dangerous interposition of a stranger. But in 
 the disorders of the schism, an aspiring neighbour, 
 Ladislaus king of Naples, alternately supported and 
 betrayed the pope and the people : by the former he 
 was declared gonfalonier^ or general, of the church, 
 while the latter submitted to his choice the nomination 
 of their magistrates. Besieging Rome by land and 
 water, he thrice entered the gates as a barbarian con- 
 queror; profaned the altars, violated the virgins, pil- 
 laged the merchants, performed his devotions at St. 
 Peter's, and left a garrison in the castle of St. Angelo. 
 His arms were sometimes unfortunate, and to a delay 
 of three days he was indebted for his life and crown ; 
 but Ladislaus triumphed in his turn, and it was only 
 his premature death that could save the metropolis and 
 the ecclesiastical state from the ambitious conqueror 
 
 Spaniards. The latter appear to be the most active and loqua. 
 cious, and every fact and word in the original Lives of Gregory 
 XI. and Clement VII. are supported in the notes of their editor Ba- 
 
 X The ordinal numbers of the popes seem to decide the question 
 against Clement VII. and Benedict XIII. who are boldly stigmatized 
 as aniipopes, by the Italians, while the French are content with au- 
 thorities and reasons to plead the cause of doubt and toleration. (Ba- 
 luz. In Pr«fat.) It is singular, or rather it is not singular, that saints, 
 visions, and miracles, should be common to both parlies. 
 
 y Baluze strenuously labours (Not. p. 1271—1280.) to justify the 
 pure and pious motives of Charles V. king of France ; he refused to 
 hear the arguments of Urban ; but were not the Urbanists equally 
 deaf to the reasons of Clement, &c.1 
 
 I An epistle, or declamation, in the name of Edward III. (Baluz. 
 Vit. Pap. Avenion. tom. I. p. 553 ) displays the zeal of the English 
 nation against the Clementines. Nor was their zeal confined to 
 words : the Bishop of Norwich led a crusado of 60,000 bigots beyond 
 sea. (Hume's History, vol. iii. p. 57, 53.) 
 
 a Besides the general historians, the Diaries of Delphinus Gentilis, 
 Peter Anlonius, and Stephen Infessura, in the great Collection of 
 lluratori, represent the stale and niisfonunes of Kume. 
 
 who had assumed the title, or at least the powers, of 
 king of Rome.*' 
 
 I have not undertaken the ecclesiasti- i,t • • « 
 
 ,,., /•.! 1- 1..7-* Nesociations for 
 
 cal history of the schism; but Rome, peace and union, 
 the object of these last chapters, is „ A. D. 
 deeply interested in the disputed succes- ** ^^~^^' 
 sion of her sovereigns. The first counsels for the 
 peace and union of Christendom arose from the uni- 
 versity of Paris, from the faculty of the Sorbonne, 
 whose doctors were esteemed, at least in the Galilean 
 church, as the most consummate masters of theologi- 
 cal science.' Prudently waving all invidious inquiry 
 into the origin and merits of the dispute, they propos- 
 ed, as a healing measure, that the two pretenders of 
 Rome and Avignon should abdicate at the same time, 
 after qualifying the cardinals of the adverse factions 
 to join in a legitimate election ; and that the nations 
 should substract^ their obedience, if either of the com- 
 petitors preferred his own interest to that of the pub- 
 lic. At each vacancy, these physicians of the church 
 deprecated the mischiefs of a hasty choice; but the 
 policy of the conclave and the ambition of its mem- 
 bers were deaf to reason and entreaties ; and whatso- 
 ever promises were made, the pope could never be 
 bound by the oaths of the cardinal. During fifteea 
 years, the pacific designs of the university were elu- 
 ded by the arts of the rival pontiflTs, the scruples or 
 passions of their adherents, and the vicissitudes of 
 French factions, that ruled the insanity of Charles the 
 sixth. At length a vigorous resolution was embraced : 
 and a solemn embassy, of the titular patriarch of Alex- 
 andria, two archbishops, five bishops, five abbots, 
 three knights, and twenty doctors, was sent to the 
 courts of Avignon and Rome, to require, in the name 
 of the church and king, the abdication of the two pre- 
 tenders, of Peter de Luna, who styled himself Bene- 
 dict the thirteenth, and of Angelo Corrario, who as- 
 sumed the name of Gregory the twelfth. For the an- 
 cient honour of Rome, and the success of their com- 
 mission, the ambassadors solicited a conference with 
 the magistrates of the city, whom they gratified by a 
 positive declaration, that the most christian king did 
 not entertain a wish of transporting the holy see from 
 the Vatican, which he considered as the genuine and 
 proper seat of the suc(5essor of St. Peter. In the 
 name of the senate and people, an eloquent Roman 
 asserted their desire to co-operate in the union of the 
 church, deplored the temporal and spiritual calamities 
 of the long schism, and requested the protection of 
 France against the arms of the king of Naples. The 
 answers of Benedict and Gregory were alike edifying 
 and alike deceitful ; and, in evading the demand of 
 their abdication, the two rivals were animated by a 
 common spirit. They agreed on the necessity of a 
 previous interview, but the time, the place, and the 
 manner, could never be ascertained by mutual consent. 
 "If the one advances,'\ says a servant of Gregory, 
 " the other retreats ; the one appears an animal fearful 
 of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of the 
 water./ And thus, for a short remnant of life and 
 power, will these aged priests endanger the peace and 
 salvation of the christian world."* j 
 
 b It is supposed by Giannone (tom. iii. p. 292.) that he styled himself 
 Rex KomsB, a title unknown to the world since the expulsion of Tar- 
 quin. But a nearer inspection has justified ihe reading of Rex Rame, 
 of Rama, an obscure kingdom annexed to the crown of Hungary. 
 
 c The leading and decisive part which France assumed in the 
 schism is stated by Peter du Puis in a separate history, extracted 
 from authentic records, and inserted in the seventh volume of lh» 
 last and best edition of his friend Thuanus. (P. x\. p. 110—164.) 
 
 d Of this measure, John Gerson, a stout doctor, was the author or 
 the champion. The proceedings of the university of Pans and the 
 Galilean church were often prompted by his advice, and are copi- 
 ously displayed in his theological writings, of which Le(:ierc (Bib- 
 liotheque Choisie, tom. x. p. 1-78.) has given a valuable extract. 
 John Gerson acted an important part in the councils of Visa, and 
 
 Constance. . , , . r i _-•„ i «» 
 
 e Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, one of the revivers of classic learn- 
 ing in Italy, who, after serving many years as secretary m the Ko- 
 man court, retired to the honourable office of chancellor of the re- 
 public of Florence. (Fabric. Bibliot. medii jEvi, torn. i. p. 290.) 
 Lenfant has given the version of this curious epistle. (Concile de 
 fise, tom. i. p. 192—195. 
 
 i\ 
 
 »j 
 
 /I 
 
486 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chaf. XXXI. 
 
 -Chap. XXXL 
 
 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 487 
 
 Council of Pisa, 
 A. D. 1409. 
 
 The christian world was at length pro- 
 voked by their obstinacy and fraud : they 
 were deserted by iheir cardinals, who embraced each 
 other as friends and colleagues; and their revolt was 
 supported by a numerous assembly of prelates and 
 ambassadors. With equal justice, the council of Pisa 
 deposed the popes of Rome and Avignon; the conclave 
 was unanimous in the choice of Alexander the fifth, 
 and his vacant seat was soon filled by a similar elec- 
 tion of John the twenty-third, the most profligate of 
 mankind. But instead of extinguishing the schism, 
 the rashness of the French and Italians had given a 
 third pretender to the chair of St. Peter. Such new 
 claims of the synod and conclave were disputed : three 
 kings, of Germany, Hur»gary, and Naples, adiiered to 
 the cause of Gregory the twelfth; and Benedict the 
 thirteenth, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by 
 the devotion and patriotism of that powerful nation. 
 The rash proceedings of Pisa were corrected by the 
 Council of Con- council of Constance ; the emperor Sigis- 
 siance, mond acted a conspicuous part as the 
 A. D. advocate or protector of the catholic 
 ~ church ; and the number and weight of 
 
 civil and ecclesiastical members might seem to consti- 
 tute the states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, 
 John the twenty-third was the first victim ; he fled and 
 was brought back a prisoner : the most scandalous 
 charges were suppressed ; the vicar of Christ was only 
 accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest; 
 and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expia- 
 ted in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to 
 a free city beyond the Alps. J) Gregory the twelfth, 
 whose obedience was reduced (o the narrow precincts 
 of Rimini, descended with more honour from the throne, 
 and his ambassador convened the session, in which he 
 renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To 
 vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict the thirteenth or 
 his adherents, the emperor in person undertook a jour- 
 ney from Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Cas- 
 tillo, Arragon, Navarre, and Scotland, obtained an equal 
 and honourable treaty : with the concurrence of the 
 Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council ; but 
 the harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to ex- 
 communicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which 
 had deserted his cause. After thns eradicating the re- 
 mains of the schism, the synod of Constance proceeded 
 with slow and cautious steps to elect the sovereign of 
 Home and tfie head of the church. On this momentous 
 occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals was 
 fortified with thirty deputies; six of whom were cho- 
 sen in each of the five great nations of Christendom, 
 the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and 
 the English:^ the interference of strangers was soften- 
 ed by their generous preference of an Italian and a Ro- 
 Eieciion of man; and the hereditary, as well as 
 personal, merit of Otho Colonna recom- 
 
 Marlin V. 
 
 f I cannot overlook this great national cause, which was rigorously 
 maintained by the English ainbassatiors against those of France. The 
 u ®J <^onlendeil, that Christendom was essentially distributed into 
 the four groat nations and votes, of Italy. Germany, Franco, and 
 Spam; and that the lesser kingdoms, (such as England, Denmarit, 
 rortugal, &c.) were comprehended under one or other of these great 
 divisions. The English asserted, that the British islands, of which 
 they were the head, should be considered as a fifth and co-ordinate 
 nation, with an equal vote ; and every arj;ument of truth or fable was 
 introduced to exalt the dignity of their country. Including England, 
 Scotland, Wales, the four kingdoms of Ireland, and the Orkneys, the 
 Britisli islands are decorated with ei^hi royal crowns, and discrimi- 
 nated by fiujr or five languajres, English, Welch, Cornish, Scotch, 
 Irish. *c. The greater island trom north to south measures 800 miles 
 or forty days' journey ; and England alone contains 3-2 counties, and 
 52,«KX) parish churches, (a bold account!) bt sides cathedrals, col- 
 leges, priories, and hi spiiais. They celebrate the mission of St. Jo- 
 seph of Ariinathea, the birth of Consianline, and the legantine pow- 
 ers of the two primates, without forgetting the testimony of Barthole. 
 my de Glanvill.", (A. I). 13G0.) who reckons only four christian king. 
 doms, 1. of Rome, 2. of Con.staiitiiioplp, 3. of Ireland, which had been 
 transferred to the English rnoiiarchs, and, 4. of Spain. Our country- 
 men prevailed in the council, but the victories of Henry V. added 
 much weight to their arguments. The adverse pleadings wore found 
 at Constance by Sir Robert Wincfield, ambassador from Henry Vlll. 
 U>the emperor Maximilian I. and by him printed in 1517 at Louvain. 
 *rom a Leipsic MS. they are more correctly published in the Collec- 
 tion of Von der Hardt, torn. v. but I have only seen Lenfant's abstract 
 01 these acta. (Concile de Constance, torn. if. p. 447. 453, &c.) 
 
 mended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with 
 joy and obedience the noblest of her sons; the eccle- 
 siastical state was defended by his powerful family, 
 and the elevation of Martin the fifth is the aera of the 
 restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vati- 
 can.« 
 
 The royal prerogative of coining money, which had 
 been exercised near three hundred years by the senate, 
 was first resumed by Martin the fifth,'' Manin v. 
 and his image and superscription intro- ^* ^' *^^^' 
 duce the series of the papal medals. Of his two im- 
 mediate successors, Eugenius the fourth Eugenius IV. 
 was the last pope expelled by the tumults A. D. 1431. 
 of the Roman people,' and Nicholas the fifth, the last 
 who was importuned by the presence of Nicholas V. 
 a Roman emperor.^ I. The conflict of A. D. 1447. 
 Eugenius, with the fathers of Basil, and the weight 
 or apprehension of a new excise, imbold- Last revolt of 
 ened and provoked the Romans to usurp . 'd'"i434 
 the temporal government of the city. May 29— * 
 They rose in arms, elected seven govern- October 28. 
 ors of the republic, and a constable of the capitol ; im- 
 prisoned the pope's nephew : besieged his person in 
 the palace ; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark 
 as he escaped down the Tiber in the habit of a monk. 
 But he still possessed in the castle of St. Angelo a 
 faithful garrison and a train of artillery : their batteries 
 incessantly thundered on the city, and a bullet, more 
 dexterously pointed, broke down the barricade of the 
 bridge, and scattered with a single shot the heroes of 
 the republic. Their constancy was exhausted by a re- 
 bellion of five months. Under the tyranny of the Ghi- 
 beline nobles, the wisest patriots regretted the domin- 
 ion of the church ; and the repentance was unanimous 
 and effectual. The troops of St. Peter again occupied 
 the capitol ; the magistrates departed to their homes ; 
 the most guilty were executed or exiled ; and the le- 
 gate, at the head of two thousand foot and four thou- 
 sand horse, was saluted as the father of the city. The 
 synods of Ferrara and Florence, the fear or resentment 
 of Eugenius, prolonged his absence; he was received 
 by a submissive people; but the pontiff understood 
 from the acclamations of his triumphal entry, that to 
 secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant 
 without delay the abolition of the odious excise. 11. 
 piome was restored, adorned, and enlightened, by the 
 peaceful reign of Nicholas the fifth.) In the midst of 
 these laudable occupations, the pope was alarmed at 
 the approach of Frederic the third of Aus- Last coronation 
 tria ; though his fears could not be justi- »<" a German em. 
 fied by the character or the power of the v^'^'^^^lf^^^^ 
 irnperial candidate. After drawing his A. D. 1452. 
 military force to the metropolis, and im- March 18. 
 osing the best security of oaths' and treaties, Nicho- 
 as received with a smiling countenance the faithful 
 advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the 
 times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his 
 coronation was accomplished with order and harmony: 
 
 g The histories of the three successiTe councils, Pisa, Constance, 
 and Basil, have been written with a tolerable degree of candour, in- 
 dustry, and elegance, by a proteslant minister, M. Lenfant, who re- 
 tired from France to Berlin. They form six volumes in quarto ; and 
 as Basil is the worst, so Constance is the best, part of the collec- 
 tion, 
 
 h See the twenty-seventh Dissertation of the antiquities of Muraio- 
 ri, and the first Instruction of the Science des Medailles of the Pere 
 Joubert and the Baron de la Bastie. The Metallic History of Martin 
 V. and his successors has been composed by two monks, Moulinel a 
 Frenchman, and Bonnani an Italian : but I understand, that the first 
 part of the series is restored from more recent coins. 
 
 I Besides the Lives of Eugenius IV. (Rerum Italic, torn. iii. p. I. p. 
 869. and loin. xxv. p. 256.) the Diaries of Paul Pelroni and Stephen 
 Infessura are the best original evidence for the revolt of the Romans 
 against Eugenius IV. The former, who lived at the lime, and on the 
 spot, speaks the language of a citizen, equally afraid of priestly and 
 popular tyranny. 
 
 k The coronation of Frederic III. is described by Lenfant (Concile 
 de Basle, torn. ii. p. 276—283.) from .ffineas Sylvius, a spectator and 
 actor In that splendid scene. 
 
 J The oaih of fidelity imposed on the emperor by the pope, is re- 
 corded and sanctified in the Clementines ; (I. ii. tit. ix.) and ]E.i\e&a 
 Sylvius, who objects to this new demand, could not foresee, that in a 
 few yeare he should ascend the throne, and imbibe the maxims, of 
 Boniface VIU. 
 
 I 
 
 but the superfluous honour was so disgraceful to an ] five hundred and eighty, the ancient statutes were col- 
 independent nation, that his successors have excused |lected, methodized in three books, and adapted to pre- 
 thcnisclves from the toilsome pilgrimage to the Vail- I sent use, under the pontificate, and with the approba- 
 
 can ; and rest their imperial title on the choice of the 
 electors of Germany. 
 
 The statutes and A cilizen lias remarked, with pride 
 government of and pleasure, that the king of the Ro- 
 Kome. mans, after passing with a slight salute 
 
 the cardinals and prelates who met him at the gate, 
 distinguished the dress and person of the senator of 
 Rome ; and in this last farewell, the pageants of the 
 empire and the republic were clasped in a friendly 
 embrace." According to the laws of Rome," her first 
 magistrate was required to be a doctor of laws, an ali- 
 en, of a place at least forty miles from the city ; with 
 -whose inhabitants he must not be connected in the 
 third canonical degree of blood or alliance. The elec- 
 tion was annual : a severe scrutiny was instituted into 
 the conduct of the departing senator; nor could he be 
 lecalled to the same office till after the expiration of 
 two years. A liberal salary of three thousand florins 
 was assigned for his expense and reward ; and his pub- 
 lic appearance represented the majesty of the republic. 
 His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or 
 in the summer season of a lighter silk; he bore in his 
 hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of trumpets announc- 
 ed his approach ; and his solemn steps were preceded 
 at least by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands 
 were enveloped with bands or streamers of the golden 
 colour or the livery of the city. His oath in the capi- 
 tol proclaims his right and duty, to observe and assert 
 the laws, to control the proud, to protect the poor, and 
 to exercise justice and mercy within the extent of his 
 jurisdiction. In these useful functions he was assist- 
 ed by three learned strangers ; the two collaterals^ and 
 the judge of criminal appeals : their frequent trials of 
 robberies, rapes, and murders, are attested by the laws ; 
 and the weakness of these laws connives at the licen- 
 tiousness of private feuds and armed associations for 
 mutual defence. But the senator was confined to the 
 administration of justice : the capitol, the treasury, and 
 the government of the city and its territory, were in- 
 trusted to the three conservators^ who were changed four 
 times in each year : the militia of the thirteen regions 
 assembled under the banners of their respective chiefs, 
 or caportont } and the first of these was distinguished 
 by the name and dignity of the p-tor. The popular 
 legislature consisted of the secret and the common 
 councils of the Romans. The former was composed 
 of the magistrates and their immediate predecessors, 
 -with some fiscal and legal officers, and three classes of 
 thirteen, twenty-six, and forty counsellors; amounting 
 
 Conspiracy of 
 
 Porcam, 
 
 A. D. 1453. 
 
 January 9. 
 
 tion, of Gregory the thirteenth.® This civil and crimi- 
 nal code is the modern law of the city; and, if the 
 popular assemblies have been abolished, a foreign 
 senator, with the three conservators, still resides in the 
 palace of the capitol. p The policy of the Caesars has 
 been repeated by the popes ; and the bishop of Rome 
 affected to maintain the form of a republic, while he 
 reigned with the absolute powers of a temporal, as well 
 as spiritual monarch. 
 
 It is an obvious truth, that the times 
 must be suited to extraordinary charac- 
 ters, and that the geiiius of Cromwell 
 or Retz might now expire in obscurity. 
 The political enthusiasm of Rienzi had exalted him 
 to a throne ; the same enthusiasm, in the next century, 
 conducted his imitator to the gallows. The birth of 
 Stephen Porcaro was noble, his reputation spotless ; 
 his tongue was armed with eloquence, his mind was 
 enlightened with learning; and he aspired, beyond the 
 aim of vulgar ambition, to free his country and immor- 
 talize his name. The dominion of priests is most 
 odious to a liberal spirit ; every scruple was removed 
 by the recent knowledge of the fable and forgery of 
 Constantino's donation ; Petrarch was now the oracle 
 of the Italians; and as often as Porcaro revolved the 
 ode which describes the patriot and hero of Rome, he 
 applied to himself the visions of the prophetic bard. 
 His first trial of the popular feelings was at the fune- 
 ral of Eugenius the fourth : in an elaborate speech he 
 called the Romans to liberty and arms; and they lis- 
 tened with apparent pleasure, till Porcaro was inter- 
 rupted and answered by a grave advocate, who plead- 
 ed for the church and state. By every law the sedi- 
 tious orator was guilty of treason ; but the benevo- 
 lence of the new pontiflf, who viewed his character 
 with pity and esteem, attempted by an honourable 
 office to convert the patriot into a friend. The inflexi- 
 ble Roman returned from Anagni with an increase of 
 reputation and zeal ; and, on the first opportunity, the 
 games of the place Navona, he tried to inflame the 
 casual dispute of some boys and mechanics into a 
 general rising of the people. Yet the humane Nicho- 
 las was still averse to accept the forfeit of his life; 
 and the traitor was removed from the scene of tempta- 
 tion to Bologna, with a liberal allowance for his sup- 
 port, and the easy obligation of presenting himself 
 each day before the governor of the city. But Porcaro 
 had learned from the younger Brutus, that with tyrants 
 no faith or gratitude should be observed: the exile 
 
 in the whole to about ene hundred and twenty persons, declaimed against the arbitrary sentence ; a party and 
 
 In the common council all male citizens had a right to a conspiracy were gradually formed ; his nephew, a 
 
 vote; and the value of their privilege was enhanced daring youth, assembled a band of volunteers ; and on. 
 
 by the care with which any foreigners were prevented the appointed evening a feast was prepared at his 
 
 from usurping the title and character of Romans. The 
 tumult of a democracy was checked by wise and jea- 
 lous precautions : except the magistrates, none could 
 propose a question ; none were permitted to speak, ex- 
 cept from an open pulpit or tribunal ; all disorderly ac- 
 clamations were suppressed ; the sense of the majori- 
 ty was decided by a secret ballot; and their decrees 
 were promulgated in the venerable name of the Roman 
 senate and people. It would not be easy to assign a 
 period in which this theory of government has been re- 
 duced to accurate and constant practice, since the es- 
 tablishment of order has been gradually connected with 
 the decay of liberty. But in the year one thousand 
 
 m Lo senatore di Roma, veslito di brocarto con quella beretta, e con 
 quelle maniche, et ornamenti di pelle, co' quali va alle feste di Tes- 
 taccio e Nasone, might escape the eye of JEneas Sylvius, but he is 
 viewed with admiration and complacency by the Roman citizen. 
 (Diorio di Siephano Infessura, p. 1133.) 
 
 n See in the statutes of Rome, the senator and three judges, (I. i. 
 c. 3—14.) the conservators, (I. i. c. 15—17. I. iii. c. 4.) the caportoni, 
 (I. i. c. IS. I. iii. c. 8.) the secret council, (I. iii. c. 2.) the common 
 council, (I. iiii. c. 3.) The tide of feuds, defiances, acts of violence, 
 Ac. is spread through many a chapter, (c. 14—40.) of the second book. 
 
 house for the friends of the republic. Their leader, 
 who had escaped from Bologna, appeared among them 
 in a robe of purple and gold : his voice, his counte- 
 nance, his gestures, bespoke the man who had devoted 
 his life or death to the glorious cause. In a studied 
 oration, he expatiated on the motives and the means 
 of their enterprise : the name and liberties of Rome; 
 the sloth and pride of their ecclesiastical tyrants ; the 
 active or passive consent of their fellow-citizens ; three 
 hundred soldiers, and four hundred exiles, long exer- 
 cised in arms or in wrongs ; the licence of revenge to 
 edge their swords, and a million of ducats to reward 
 
 o Slatuta alma Urhis Roma Auctoritate S. D. N. Gregorii 1XW. 
 Pont. Max. a Senatu Populoque Rom. reformata et edita. Roma, 
 1580, in folio. The obsolete, repugnant statutes of antiquity were 
 confoundfed in five books, and Lucas Paelus, a lawyer and antiqua- 
 rian, was appointed to act as the modern Tribonian. Yet I regret 
 the old code, with the rusged crust of freedom and barbarism. 
 
 p In my time, (1765,) and in M. Grosley's, (Observations sur I'lU- 
 lie, torn. ii. p. 361.) the senator of Rome was M. Bielke, a nobla 
 Swede, and a proselyte to the catholic faith. The pope's right to ap- 
 point the senior antl the conservator is implied, rather than affirmed^ 
 lu the sututes. 
 
488 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXI. 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 their victory. It would be easy, (he said,) on the 
 next day, the festival of the Epiphany, to seize the 
 pope and his cardinals, before the doors, or at the 
 altar, of St. Peter's ; to lead them in chains under the 
 walls of St. Angelo ; to extort by the threat of their 
 instant death a surrender of the castle ; to ascend the 
 vacant capitol ; to ring" the alarm-bell ; and to restore 
 in a jpopular assembly the ancient republic of Rome. 
 While he triumphed, he was already betrayed ; the 
 senator, with a strong guard, invested the house ; the 
 nephew of Porcaro cut his way through the crowd ; 
 but the unfortunate Stephen was drawn from a chest, 
 lamenting that his enemies had anticipated by three 
 hours the execution of his design. After such mani- 
 fest and repeated guilt, even the mercy of Nicholas 
 was silent. Porcaro, and nine of his accomplices, 
 were hanged without the benefit of the sacraments; 
 and amidst the fears and invectives of the papal court, 
 the Romans pitidd, and almost applauded, these mar- 
 tyrs of their country .*» But their applause was mute, 
 . their pity ineffectual, their liberty forever extinct; and 
 , if they have since risen in a vacancy of the throne or 
 . a scarcity of bread, such accidental tumults may be 
 found in the bosom of the most abject servitude. 
 Last disordera ^"^ ^^^® independence of the nobles, 
 of the nobles which was fomented by discord, survi- 
 of Rome. ^^j ^^^ freedom of the commons, which 
 
 . must be founded in union. A privilege of rapine and 
 oppression was long maintained by the barons of 
 Rome ; their houses were a fortress and a sanctuary : 
 and the ferocious train of banditti and criminals whom 
 they protected from the law, repaid the hospitality 
 with the service of their swords and daggers. The 
 private interest of the pontiffs, or their nephews, some- 
 times involved them in these domestic feuds. Under 
 the reign of Sixtus the fourth, Rome was distracted 
 by the battles and sieges of the rival houses ; after the 
 
 489 
 
 conflagration of his palace, the protonotary Colonna 
 was tortured and beheaded ; and Savelli, his captive 
 friend, was murdered on the spot, for refusing to join 
 in the acclamations of the victorious Ursini.' ''But the 
 popes no longer trembled in the Vatican : they had 
 strength to command, if they had resolution to claim, 
 the obedience of their subjects; and the strangers, 
 who observed these partial disorders, admired the easy 
 taxes and wise administration of the ecclesiastical 
 The popes ac state.' The spiritual thunders of the 
 
 llTdominion ^^^^^.^^ ^^P^^^. ^n the force of opinion ; 
 of Rome, and It that opinion be supplanted by rea- 
 
 A. D. 1500, &c. son or passion, the sound may idly waste 
 itself m the air; and the helpless priest is exposed to 
 the brutal violence of a noble or plebeian adversary. 
 But after their return from Avignon, the keys of St. 
 Peter were guarded by the sword of St. Paul. Rome 
 was commanded by an impregnable citadel : the use 
 of cannon is a powerful engine against popular sedi- 
 tions : a regular force of cavalry and infantry was 
 enlisted under thr. banners of the pope: his ample 
 levenues supplied the rescources of war; and, from 
 the extent of his domain, he could brina down on a 
 
 q Besides the curioHs ihough concise narrative of Machiavel, (Isto- 
 re Florentina, 1. vi. Opere, torn. i. p. 210, 21). edit. Ix)ndra, 1747, in 
 410.) the Porcanan conspiracy is related in the Diary of Stephen In 
 fessura, (Ren Iial. toin. ii. p. ii. n 1134 11 v, x «n,i n » cl^o^H 
 tract by Leo Baptista Al^bert?.-(Re?lUu 'tom^iiJ.^p. m-ltlT Ii 
 i'!.iri!!l'"%'^*'°™P*'? the style and sentiments of the courtier and 
 eu zen. Facinus profecto quo ... . neqne periculo horribilius n«jue 
 audac.a detestabilius, neque crudeliiaie teirius. a quoqua^^^ Sis 
 simo uspiani exco^uatum sit ... . Perdette la vita quell' huomo da 
 bene, e amatore dello bene et liberta di Roma. "uomo ua 
 
 .• ',.7'*'®^^e?'"'^^"i'if ^°'"^' ^^''^^ *®'"® """^^^ inflamed by the par- 
 ^^fl'^^ of Sixtus IV. are exposed in the Diaries of two spocfatora, 
 Stephen Infessura, and an anonymous citizen. See the troubles of 
 the year 1434, and the death of the protonotary Colonna, in torn. iii. 
 p. Ii. p. itKx). iioy. 
 
 • Est toute la terre de I'eglise troubli^e pourcette partiality (des 
 Lolonnos et des Ursins,) comme nous dirions Luce et Grammont, ou 
 en HoUande Houc et Cabaljan : et quand ce ne seroit ce differend la 
 lorre de I'eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation pour les sujeis, 
 ?M r!! iT^^'x^"' le monde, (car ils ne payent ni tailles ni gueres 
 T.^lr.^,'''^ ®' seroient toujours bien conduits (car tou>)urs les pa- 
 Jrand^i.^r^ffif ' ^'®" conseill(i8 ;) mais tres souveni en advient de 
 granaa et crueileg meunres et pilleries. 
 
 rebellious city an army of hostile neighbours and loyaj 
 subjects.' Since the union of the duchies of Ferrara 
 and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the 
 Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines 
 of Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the 
 sixteenth century, the greater part of that spacious and 
 fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and 
 temporal sovereignty of tlie Roman pontiffs. Their 
 claims were 1-eadily deduced from the genuine, or 
 fabulous, donations of the darker ages : the succes- 
 sive steps of their final settlement would engage us 
 too far in the transactions of Alexander the sixth, the 
 martial operations of Julius the second, and the liberal 
 policy of Leo the tenth, a theme which has been 
 adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the 
 times." In the first period of their conquests, till the 
 expedition of Charles the eighth, the popes might 
 successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and 
 states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to 
 their own. But as soon as the monarchs of France, 
 Germany, and Spain, contended with gigantic arms 
 for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the 
 deficiency of strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth 
 of wars and treaties, their aspiring views, and the im- 
 mortal hope of chasing the barbarians beyond the 
 Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often 
 subverted by the soldiers of the north and west, who 
 were united under the standard of Charles the fifth r 
 the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the seventh 
 exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; 
 and Rome was abandoned seven months to a lawless 
 army, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths and 
 Vandals.* After this severe lesson, the popes con- 
 tracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, 
 resumed the character of a common parent, and ab- 
 stained from all offensive hostilities, except in a hasty 
 quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sul- 
 tan were armed at the same time against the kingdom 
 of Naples.y The French and Germans at length with- 
 drew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, 
 Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany, were firmly 
 possessed by the Spaniards ; and it became their in- 
 terest to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy, 
 which continued almost without disturbance from the 
 middle of the sixteenth to the opening of the eigh- 
 teenth century. The Vatican was swayed and pro- 
 |tected by the religious policy of the catholic king; 
 his prejudice and interest disposed him in every dfs- 
 pute to support the prince against the people; and 
 instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, 
 which they obtained from the adjacent states, the 
 friends of liberty, or the enemies of law, were enclosed 
 on all sides within the iron circle of despotism. The 
 long habits of obedience and education subdued the 
 turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. 
 The barons forgot the arms and factions of their an- 
 cestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury 
 and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of 
 tenants and followers, the produce of their estates was 
 
 t By the economy of Sixtua V. the revenue of the •cclesiastlcal 
 state was ra'sed to two millions and a half of Roman crowns (Vita, 
 torn. n. p. 291—296.) and so recular was the military establishment, 
 that in one month Clement VIII. could invade the duchy of Ferrara 
 with three thousand horse and twenty thousand foot, (lom. iii. p 64 ) 
 Since that time, (A. D. 1597,) the papal arms are happily rusted ; but 
 the revenue must have pained some nominal increase. 
 
 u More especially by Guicciardini and Machiavel ; in the general 
 history of the former, in the Florentine history, the Prince, and the 
 political discourses of the latter. These, with their worthy succes- 
 sors, !• ra-Paolo and Davila, were justly esteemed the first historians 
 of modern languages, till, in the present age, Scotland arose, to dis- 
 pute the prize with Italy herself. 
 
 X In the history of the Gothic siege, I have compared the barba. 
 nans with the subjects of Charles V. (vol. i. p. 431.) an anticipa- 
 tion, which, like that of the Tartar conquests, I indulged with the 
 less scruple, as I could scarcely hope to reach the conclusion of my 
 
 y The ambitious and feeble hostilities of the Caraffa pope, Paul IV. 
 u7 ^f'.T'Vi." Thuanus (1. xvi-xviii.) and Giannune. (tom. iv. p. 
 I49-1G3.) Those catholic bigots, Philip II. and the duke of Alva, 
 ^I??v.'"u*,'° aeparate the Roman prince from the vicar of Christ; 
 yet the holy character, which would have sanctified his victory, was 
 decently applied to protect his defeat. ^' 
 
 consumed in the private expenses, which multiply 
 the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord.* 
 The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the 
 decoration of their palaces and chapels ; and their 
 antique splendour was rivalled or surpassed by the 
 sudden opulence of the papal families. In Rome the 
 voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard ; and 
 instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant 
 lake reflects the image of idleness and servitude. 
 The ecciesiasii- A christian, a philosopher,' and a pa- 
 cal goverumeni. triot, will be equally scandalized by the 
 temporal kingdom of the clergy ; and the local majesty 
 of Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, 
 may seem to imbitter the sense, and aggravate the 
 shame, of her slavery. If we calmly weigh the merits 
 and defects of the ecclesiastical government, it may 
 be praised in its present state, as a mild, decent, and 
 tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of minority, 
 the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the 
 calamities of war. But these advantages are over- 
 balanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial, election 
 of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country : 
 the reign of a young statesman of threescore, in the 
 decline of his life and abilities, without hope to ac- 
 complish, and without children to inherit, the labours 
 of his transitory reign. The successful candidate is 
 drawn from the church, and even the convent; from the 
 mode of education and life the most adverse to reason, 
 humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of servile 
 faith, he has learned to believe because it is absurd, 
 to revere all that is contemptible, and to despise what- 
 ever might deserve the esteem of a rational being ; to 
 punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and 
 celibacy as the first of virtues ; to place the saints of 
 the kalendar** above the heroes of Rome and the sages 
 of Athens ; and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, 
 as more useful instruments than the plough or the 
 loom. In the oflice of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, 
 he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the 
 primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners ; 
 from study and experience he may suspect the mystery 
 of his profession ; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe 
 some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The 
 
 Sixtus V. genius of Sixtus the fifth* burst from 
 A. D. the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In 
 
 1585—1590. a reign of five years, he exterminated 
 the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanc- 
 tuaries of Rome,** formed a naval and military force, 
 restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, 
 and after a liberal use and large increase of the reve- 
 nue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St. 
 Angelo, But his justice was sullied with cruelty, his 
 activity was prompted by the ambition of conquest ; 
 after his decease, the abuses revived ; the treasure was 
 dissipated ; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new tax- 
 « I .III 
 
 I This gradual change of manners and expense is admirably ex- 
 plained by Dr. Adam Smith, (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 495—504.) 
 who proves, perhaps too severely, that the most salutary effects have 
 flowed from the meanest and most selfish causes. 
 
 a Mr. Hume (Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 389.) too hastily concludes, 
 that if the civil and ecclesiastical powers be united in the same per- 
 son, it is of little moment whether he be styled prince or prelate, 
 since the temporal character will always predominate. 
 
 b A protesiant may disdain the unworthy preference of St. Francis 
 or St. Dominic, but he will not rashly condemn the zeal or judgment 
 of Sixtus V. who placed the statues of the apostles, St. Peter and St. 
 Paul, on the vacant columns of Trajan and Antonine. 
 
 c A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has ^iven the Vita di Sisto, 
 Quinto, (Amsiel. 1721, 3 vols, in l2mo,) a copious and amusine work, 
 but which does not command our absolute confidence. Yet the cha- 
 racter of the man, and the principal facts, are supported by the an- 
 nals of Spondanus and Murattiri,(A. D. 1585—1590.) and the contem- 
 rorary history of the great Thuanus, (1. Ixxxii. c. 1, 2. 1. Ixxxiv. c. 10. 
 c. c. 8.) 
 
 d These privileged places, the quartieri or franchises, were adopt- 
 ed from the Roman nobles by the foreign ministers. Julius II. had 
 once abolished the abominandum et detestandum franchiliarum hu- 
 jusmodi nomen ; and after Sixtus V. they asain revived. I cannot 
 discern eiiii*»r the justice or magnanimity of Louis XIV. who, in 16S7, 
 sent his ambassador, the marquis de Lavardin, to Rome, with an arm- 
 ed force of a thousand officers, guards, and domestics, to maintain this 
 iniquitous claim, and insult pope Innocent XI. in the heart of his 
 capital. (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 260—278. Muratori, Annali 
 Dlialia, tom. xv. p. 494—490. and Voltaire, Sitcle de Louis XIV. 
 lom. ii. c. 14. p. oS, 59.) 
 
 Vol. 11.— 3 M 
 
 es and the venality of oflices ; and, after his death, hi» 
 statue was demolished by an ungrateful or an injured 
 people.* The wild and original' character of Sixtus 
 the fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs : the 
 maxims and effects of their temporal government may 
 be collected from the positive and comparative view 
 of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, 
 the wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical state. 
 For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all 
 mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to 
 oflend even the pope and clergy of Rome.' 
 
 CHAP. XXXIL 
 
 Prospect of the ruins of Rome in the fifteenth century, — 
 Four causes of^decay and destruction. — Example of the 
 Coliseum. — Renovation of the city, — Conclusion of the 
 whole work. 
 
 In the last days of pope Eugenius the View and dls- 
 fourth, two of his servants, the learned ^?""J ^^ ^je- 
 Poggius * and a friend, ascended the Cap- capitoUne hiu, 
 itoline hill ; reposed themselves among A. D. 1430. 
 the ruins of columns and temples ; and viewed from 
 that commanding spot the wide and various prospect 
 ' ' ' ■ II. a 
 
 e This outrage produced a decree, which was inscribed on marble, 
 and placed in the capitol. It is expressed in a style of manly sim- 
 plicity and freedom : Si quis, sive privatus, sive magistratum gerena, 
 de collocanda viro pontifici statua mentionem facere ausit, legitimo 
 S. p. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum 
 expers esto. MDXC. mense Auguslo. (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) 
 I believe that this decree is still observed, and I know that every 
 monarch who deserves a statue, should himself impose the prohibi- 
 tion. 
 
 f The histories of the church, Italy, and Christendom, have contri- 
 buted to the chapter which I now conclude. In the original Lives 
 of the Popes, we often discover the city and republic of Rome ; and 
 the events of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are preserved in 
 the rude and domestic chronicles which I have carefully inspected, 
 and shall recapitulate in the order of time. 
 
 1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium Roman.. 
 A. D. 1328, in the Scripiores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, torn, 
 xii. p. 525. N. B. The credit of this fragment is somewhat hurt by 
 a singular interpolation, in which the author relates his own death 
 at the age of 115 years. 
 
 2. Fragment® Historiae RomanaB,(Vulgo Thomas Fortifioccae,) in Ro- 
 mana Dialecto vulgari, (A. D. 1327—13.54.) in Muratori, AntiquitaU 
 medii ^vi Iialiae, tom. iii. p. 247 — 548. the authentic ground-work 
 of the history of Rienzi. 
 
 3. Delphini (C^entilis) Diarium Romanum, (A. D. 1370—1410.) in the 
 Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 846. 
 
 4. Antonii (Petri) diarium Rom. (A. D. 1404—1417.) lom. xxiv. p. 969. 
 
 5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A. D. 1433—1446.) 
 tom. xxiv. p. 1101. 
 
 6. Voleterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1472— 14S1.) tom. xziii. 
 p. 81. 
 
 7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romae, (A. D. 14S1— 1492.) tom. iii. p. iL 
 p. 1069. 
 
 8. Infessuras (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A. D. 1294, or 1338 — 
 1494.) tom. iii. p. ii. p. 1109. 
 
 9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Liario Joh. Bar- 
 cardi, (A. D. 1492 — 1503.) edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Han- 
 over, 1697, in 4to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard 
 mi^ht be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy 
 and France. (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de I'Acad, des 
 Inscript. tom. xvii. p. 594 — 606.) 
 
 Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the 
 Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy. 
 His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following 
 works on that subject : 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, (A. D. 5U0 
 — 1500,) quorum, potisaima pars nunc privium in tucem prodit, &c. 
 twenty-eight vols, in folio, Milan, 1723—1738, 175i. A volume of 
 chronological and alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this 
 great work, which is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2. An- 
 tiquitates Italia medii jEvi-, six vols, in folio, Milan, 1738— J743, in 
 seventy-five curious dissertations, on the manners, government, reli- 
 gion, &c. of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement 
 of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. Dissertazioni sopra le Aniiquita 
 Italiane, three vols, in 4to, Milano, 1751, a free version by the author, 
 which may be quoted with the same confidence as ihe Latin text of 
 the Antiquities. 4. Annali d' Italia, eighteen vols, in octavo, Milan,. 
 1753—1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment of the his- 
 tory of Italy from the birth of Christ to the middle of the eighteenth 
 century. 5. DelV Antichita Estensee et Italiane, two vols, in folio, 
 Modena, 1717, 1740. In the history of this illustrious race, the parent 
 of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not seduced by the loyalty or 
 gratitude of the subject. In all his works, Muratori approves him- 
 self a diligent and laborious writer, who aspires above the prejudices 
 of a catholic priest. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the 
 year 1750, after passing near sixty years in the libraries of Milan and 
 Modena. (Vita del Proposlo Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his ne- 
 phew and succegsjr, Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori, Venezia, 1756, 
 in 4to.) 
 
 a I have already (vol. i. note d. chap. xxxi. p. 419.) mentioned the 
 age, character, and writings of Poggius ; and particularly noticed the 
 date of this elegant mural lecture ou the varieties of fortune. 
 
490 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXU. 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 491 
 
 '■] 
 
 of desolation.* The place and the object gave ample 
 scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, 
 which spares neither man nor the proudest of his 
 works, which buries empires and cities in a common 
 grave ; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her 
 former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more 
 awful and deplorable. "Her primaeval state, such as 
 she might appear in a remote age, when Evander 
 entertained the stranger of Troy,* has been delineated 
 by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then 
 a savage and solitary thicket : in the time of the poet, 
 it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the 
 temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the 
 wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, 
 and the sacred ground is ajjairi disfiorured with thorns 
 and brambles. The hill of the capitol, on which we 
 sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the 
 citadel of the earth, the terror of kings ; illustrated by 
 the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the 
 spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spec- 
 tacle of the world, how is it fallen ! how changed ! 
 how defaced ! the path of victory is obliterated by 
 vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed 
 by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, 
 and seek among the shapeless and enormous frag- 
 ments, the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal 
 statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace; survey the 
 other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted 
 only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman 
 people, where they assembled to enact their lau'S and 
 elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cul- 
 tivation of potherbs, or thrown open for the reception 
 of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifi- 
 ces, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, 
 and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant ; and the 
 ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics 
 that have survived the injuries of time and fortune."*^ 
 Hia description These relics are minutely described 
 of the ruin. ^y Poggius, One of the first who raised 
 his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those 
 of classic, superstition." 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, 
 a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could 
 discern, of the age of the republic, a double row of 
 vaults, in the salt-office of the capitol, which were 
 inscribed with the name and munificence of Catullus. 
 2. Eleven temples were visible in some degree, from 
 the perfect form of the pantheon, to the three arches 
 iind a marble column of the temple of Peace, which 
 Tespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish 
 triumph. 3. Of the number, w hich he rashly defines, 
 of seven thermae^ or public baths, none were suffi- 
 ciently entire to represent the use and distribution of 
 the several parts : but those of Diocletian and Antoni- 
 nus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, 
 and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observ- 
 ing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, 
 the size and multitude of the columns, compared the 
 labour and expense with the use and importance. Of 
 the baths of Constantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, 
 or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 
 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Con- 
 stantine, were entire, both the structure and the in- 
 scriptions ; a ftilling fragment was honoured with the 
 name of Trajan : and two arches, still extant, in the Fla- 
 minian way, have been ascribed to the baser memory 
 of Faustina and Gallienus. 5. After the wonder of 
 the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked a small 
 
 b Consedimus in ipai Tarpriae arcis minis, pone ingena portae cujuB- 
 dam, ut pulo, lempli, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim confrac- 
 tas columnas, unde masna ex pane prospeclus urbis puiei, (p. 5.) 
 
 c ^.neid viii. 97.— 3G9. This ancient picture, so artfully intro- 
 duced, and an exquisitely finished, must have been highly interest- 
 ing to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early studies allow us to sym- 
 pathize in the ff eliiigs of a Roman. 
 
 d Capitolium adeo .... immutatum ul vineae in senatorum subsel- 
 lia successprint, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. 
 Respice ad Palatinum montein .... vasta rudera .... caeieros colles 
 perlustra omnia vacua sedificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta conspicies. 
 .^Pogjiius de Varielat. Fortuna, p. 21.) 
 
 • See Poggius, p. 8—22. 
 
 amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of 
 the praetorian camp : the theatres of Marcellus and 
 Pompey were occupied in a great measure by public 
 and private buildings; and in the Circus Agonalis and 
 Maximus, little more than the situation and the form 
 could be investigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and 
 Antonine were still erect : but the Egyptian obelisks 
 were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, 
 the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian 
 figure of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of 
 which the most conspicuous were the two horses of 
 Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or 
 sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally 
 be lost ; but the former was only visible as a mound 
 of earth ; and the latter, the castle of St. Angelo, had 
 acquired the name and appearance of a modern for- 
 tress. With the addition of some separate and name- 
 less columns, such were the remains of the ancient 
 city : for the marks of a more recent structure might 
 be detected in the walls, which formed a circumfe- 
 rence of ten miles, included three hundred and seven- 
 ty-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thir- 
 teen gates. 
 
 This melancholy picture was drawn Gradual decay 
 above nine hundred years after the fall of Rome, 
 of the western empire, and even of the Gothic king- 
 dom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, 
 in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated 
 from the banks of the Tiber, was incapable of restor- 
 ing or adorning the city; and as all that is human 
 must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive 
 age must have hastened the ruin of the works of anti- 
 quity. To measure the progress of decay, and to as- 
 certain, at each aera, the state of each edifice, would 
 be an endless and useless labour, and I shall content 
 myself with two observations, which will introduce 
 a short inquiry into the general causes and effects. 
 1. Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint 
 of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a descrip- 
 tion of Rome.' His ignorance may repeat the same 
 objects under strange and fabulous names. Yet this 
 barbarous topographer had eyes and ears, he could ob- 
 serve the visible remains, he could listen to the tradi- 
 tion of the people, and he distinctly enumerates seven 
 theatres, eleven balhs, twelve arche.^, and eighteen 
 palaces, of which many had disappeared before the 
 time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately 
 monuments of antiquity survived till a late period,* 
 and that the principles of destruction acted with vigo- 
 rous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be ap- 
 plied to the three last ages; and we should vainly 
 seek the Septizonium of Severus;*' which is celebrated 
 by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the 
 first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were 
 resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony 
 of the parts ; but the slightest touch would precipitate 
 the fragments of arches and columns, that already nod- 
 ded to their fall. 
 
 After a diligent inquiry, I can discern Fot:r causes of 
 four principal causes of the ruin of destruction. 
 Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more 
 than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and 
 nature. II. The hostile attacks of the barbarians and 
 
 f Liber de Mirabilibus Kom», ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis do 
 Arragonia, in Biblioiheca St. laidorl Armario IV. No. 69. This trea- 
 tise, with some short but pertinent notes, has been published by 
 Montfaucon, (Diarium Iiaiicum, p. 283— 301.) who thus delivers hia 
 own critical opinion : Scriptor xiii""' circiier saeculi, ut ibidem nota- 
 tur; antiquarias rei imperitus, el, ut ab illo sevo, nugis et anilibiis 
 fabellis refertus: sed, quia monumenta, quae iis temporibus Romse 
 supererant pro modulo recenset, mm parum inde lucis njutuabitur 
 qui Romanis antiquilatibus indasandia operam navabit, (p. 283.) 
 
 g The Pete Wabillon (Analecta, torn. iv. p. 502.) has published an 
 anonymous pilgrim of the ninth century, who, in his visit round tlie 
 churches and holy places of Rome, touches on several buildings, es- 
 pecially porticoes, which had disappeared before the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 I ^,'' ^? ^''® Septizonium, see the Memoires sur Pelrarque, (torn. i. p. 
 1 32a.) Donatus, (p. 338.) and Nardini, (p. 117. 414.) 
 
 fires; 
 
 christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. 
 
 And, iV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans. 
 
 I The injuries !• The art of man is able to construct 
 
 ' of nature; moniiments far more permanent than the 
 narrow span of his own existence: yet these monu- 
 ments, like himself, are perishable and frail ; and in 
 the boundless annals of time, his life and his labours 
 must equally be measured as a fleeting moment. Of a 
 simple and solid edifice, it is not easy however to cir- 
 cumscribe the duration. As the wonders of ancient 
 days, the pyramids ' attracted the curiosity of the an- 
 cients: a hundred generations, the leaves of autumn,*' 
 have dropt into the grave; and after the fall of the 
 Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Caesars and caliphs, the 
 same pyramids stand erect and unshaken above the 
 floods of the Nile. A complex figure of various and 
 minute parts is more acceptable to injury and decay ; 
 hurricanes and and the silent lapse of time is often ac- 
 
 earthquakes ; ceierated by hurricanes and earthquakes, 
 by fires and inundations. The air and earth have 
 doubtless been shaken ; and the lofty turrets of Rome 
 have tottered from their foundations ; but the seven 
 hills do not appear to be placed on the great cavities 
 of the globe ; nor has the city, in any age, been expo- 
 sed to the convulsions of nature, which, in the climate 
 of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few- 
 moments the works of ages into dust. 
 Fire is the most powerful agent of life 
 and death : the rapid mischief may be kindled and 
 propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind ; 
 and every period of the Roman annals is marked by 
 the repetition of similar calamities. A memorable 
 conflagration, the guilt or misfortune of Nero's reign, 
 continued, though with unequal fury, either six or nine 
 days." Innumerable buildings, crowded in close and 
 crooked streets, supplied perpetual fuel for the flames ; 
 and when they ceased, four only of the fourteen re- 
 gions were left entire ; three were totally destroyed, 
 and seven were deformed by the relics of smoking and 
 lacerated edifices.'" In the full meridian of empire, 
 the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her ashes ; 
 yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable 
 losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the 
 monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the 
 days of distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, 
 every fall irretrievable ; nor can the damage be restored 
 either by the public care of government, or the activity 
 of private interest. Yet two causes may be alleged, 
 which render the calamity of fire more destructive to 
 a flourishing than a decayed city. 1. The more com- 
 bustible materials of brick, timber, and metals, are 
 first melted or consumed ; but the flames may play 
 without injury or effect on the naked walls, and massy 
 nrches, that have been despoiled of their ornaments. 
 2. It is among the common and plebeian habitations, 
 that a mischievous spark is most easily blown to a 
 conflagration ; but as soon as they are devoured, the 
 greater edifices which have resisted or escaped, are 
 left as so many islands in a state of solitude and safe- 
 
 , . ty. From her situation, Rome is expos- 
 inundations. 1 .. »i j e r * • j *• 
 
 ed to the danger of frequent inundations. 
 
 i The age of the pyramids is remote and unknown, since Diodorus 
 Siculus, (tom. i. 1. i. c. 44. p. 72.) is unable to decide whether they 
 were constructed 1000, or 3400, years before the hundred and eighti- 
 Plh Olympiad. Sir John Marsham's contracted scale of the Egyptian 
 dynasties would fix them abore 2000 years before Christ. (Canon 
 Chronicus, p. 47.) 
 
 k See the speech of Glaucus in the Iliad, (^. 146.) This natural 
 but melancholy picture is familiar to Homer. 
 
 I The learning and crilicisVn of M. des Vignoles (Hialoire Critique 
 de la Rppublique des Letlres. torn. viii. p. 74—118. ix. p. 172—187.) 
 dales the fire of Rome from A. D. 64, July 19, and the subsequent 
 persecution of the christians from November 15, of the same year. 
 
 m Quippe in regiones quatuordecim Roma dividitur, quorum qua- 
 tuor integrae manebant, trcs solo tenus dejectae : septem reliquis 
 pauca tectorum vestigia supererant, lacera et semiusta. Among the 
 old relics that were irreparably lost, Tacitus enumerates the temple 
 of the moon of Servius i'uUius ; the fane and altar consecrated by 
 Evander praesenti Herculi ; the temple of Jupiter Stator, a vow of 
 Romulus ; the palace of Numa ; the temple of Vesta cum Penatibus 
 populi Romani. He then deplores the opes lot victoriis quaesitae et 
 Graecarum ariium decora .... multa quae seniores meminerant, quae 
 reparari nequibanl. (Annal. xv. 40, 41) 
 
 Without excepting the Tiber, the rivers that descend 
 from either side of the Apennine have a short and ir- 
 regular course : a shallow stream in the summer heats; 
 an impetuous torrent, when it is swelled, in the sum- 
 mer or winter, by the fall of rain, and the melting of 
 snows. When the current is repelled from the sea by 
 adverse winds, when the ordinary bed is inadequate to 
 the weight of waters, they rise above the banks, and 
 overspread, without limits or control, the plains and 
 cities of the adjacent country. Soon after the triumph 
 of the first Punic war, the Tiber was increased by 
 unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing all for- 
 mer measure of time and place, destroyed all the build- 
 ings that were situate below the hills of Rome. Ac- 
 cording to the variety of ground, the same mischief 
 was produced by different means; and the edifices 
 were either swept away by the sudden impulse, or 
 dissolved and undermined by the long continuance, of 
 the flood." Under the reiorn of Aujjustus, the same 
 calamity was renewed : the lawless river overturned 
 the palaces and temples on its banks ;" and, after the 
 labours of the emperor in cleansing and widening the 
 bed that was encumbered with ruins.P the vigilance of 
 his successors was exercised by similar dangers and 
 designs. The project of diverting into new channels 
 the Fiber itself, or some of the dependent streams, 
 was long opposed by superstition and local interests;' 
 nor did the use compensate the toil and cost of the 
 tardy and imperfect execution. The servitude of riv- 
 ers is the noblest and most important victory which 
 man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature ;' 
 and if such were the ravages of the Tiber under a firm 
 and active government, what could oppose, or who can 
 enumerate, the injuries of the city, after the fall of the 
 western empire? A remedy was at length produced 
 by the evil itself: the accumulation of rubbish, and 
 the earth that has been washed down from the hills, is 
 supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome fourteen 
 or fifteen feet, perhaps, above the ancient level ;• and 
 the modern city is less accessible to the attacks of the 
 river.* 
 
 11. The crowd of writers of every tt tu u .-i^ 
 
 , . » ^t J , X- "i 11. The hostile 
 
 nation, who impute the destruction of attacks of the 
 
 the Roman monuments to the Goths and barbarians and 
 
 the christians, have neglected to inquire ^ ""istiana. 
 
 how far they were animated by a hostile principle, and 
 
 how far they possessed the means and the leisure to 
 
 satiate their enmity. In the preceding chapters of this 
 
 History, I have described the triumph of barbarism 
 
 n A. U. C. .507, repentina subversio ipsius Romae praerenit trium- 
 phum Romanorum .... diversae ignium aquarumque clades pene ab- 
 sumsere urbem. Nam Tiberis insolitis auctus imbribus et ultra 
 opinionem, vel diuturnitate vel magnitudine redundans, omnia Ro- 
 mae sedificia in planoposita delevit. Diversae qualiiates locorum ad 
 unam convenere perniciem : quoniam et quae signior inundatio tenuit 
 niadefacta dissolvit, et quae curaus torrentis invenit impulsa dejecit. 
 (Orosius, Hist. 1. ir. c. 11. p. 244. edit. Havercamp.) Yet we may ob- 
 serve, it is the plan and study of the chrisiian apologist, to magnify 
 the calamities of the pagan world. 
 
 Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retorlis 
 Littore Etrusco violenter undis, 
 Ire dejectum monumenta Regis 
 
 Templaque Vestae. (Horat. Carm. i. 2.) 
 
 If the palace of Numa, and temple of Vesta, were thrown down in 
 Horace's time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero's fire 
 could hardly deserve the epithets of vetusiissima or incorrupta. 
 
 P Ad coercendas inundaiiones alveum Tiberis laxavit, ac repurga- 
 vit, completum olim ruderibus, et aedificiorum prolapsiunibus coarc- 
 tatum. (Suetonius in Augusto, c. 30 ) 
 
 q Tacitus (Annal. i. 79.) reports the petitions of the different towng 
 of Italy to the senate against the measure ; and we may applaud the 
 progress of reason. On a similar occasion, local interests would un- 
 doubtedly be consulted : but an English House of Commons would 
 reject with contempt the arguments of superstition, "that nature 
 had assigned to the rivers their proper course," &c. 
 
 r See the Epoques de la Nature of the eloquent and philosophic 
 Buffon. His picture of Guyana in South America, is that of a new 
 and savage land, in which the waters are abandoned to themselves 
 without being regulated by human industry, (p. 212. 561. quarto 
 edition.) 
 
 ■ In his Travels in Italy, Mr. Addison (his Works, vol. ii. p. 98. 
 Baskerville's edition) has observed this curious and unquestionable 
 fact. 
 
 t Yet in modern limes, the Tiber has sometimes damaged the city, 
 and in the years 1530, 1557, 1538, the Annals of Muratori record three 
 mischievous and memorable inundations, (tom. xiv. p. 26d. 429. torn. 
 XV. p. 99, &c.) 
 
 /i 
 
492 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXII. 
 
 
 •nd religion ; and I can only resume, in a few words, 
 their real or imaginary connexion with the ruin of an- 
 cient Rome. Our fancy may create, or adopt, a pleas- 
 ing romance, that the Goths and Vandals sallied from 
 Scandinavia, ardent to avengre the flight of Odin ;" to 
 break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of 
 mankind ; that they wish to burn the records of clas- 
 sic literature, and to found their national architecture 
 on the broken members of the Tuscan and Corinthian 
 orders. But in simple truth, the northern conquerors 
 were neither sufficiently savage, nor suflliciently refin- 
 ed, to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and 
 revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and Germany 
 had been educated in the armies of the empire, whose 
 discipline they acquired, and whose weakness they 
 invaded ; with the familiar use of the Latin tongue, 
 they had learned to reverence the name and titles of 
 Rome; and, though incapable of emulating, they were 
 more inclined to admire, than to abolish, the artg and 
 studies of a brighter period. In the transient posses- 
 sion of a rich and unresisting capital, the soldiers of 
 Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by the passions 
 of a victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence 
 of lust or cruelty, portable wealth was the object of 
 their search : nor could they derive either pride or 
 pleasure from the unprofitable reflection, that they had 
 battered to the ground the works of the consuls and 
 Caesars. Their monuments were indeed precious ; 
 the Goths evacuated Rome on the sixth,' the Vandals 
 on the fifteenth, day;^ and, though it be far more diffi- 
 cult to build than to destroy, their hasty assault would 
 have made a slight impression on the solid piles of 
 antiquity. We may remember, that both Alaric and 
 Genseric aflfected to spare the buildings of the city; 
 that they subsisted in strength and beauty under the 
 auspicious government of Theodoric ;' and that the 
 momentary resentment of Totila* was disarmed by 
 his own temper and the advice of his friends and ene- 
 mies. From these innocent barbarians, the reproach 
 may be transferred to the catholics of Rome. The 
 statues, altars, and houses of the daemons, were an 
 abomination in their eyes; and in the absolute com- 
 mand of the city, they might labour with zeal and 
 perseverance to erase the idolatry of their ancestors. 
 The demolition of the temples in the east'' affords to 
 them an example of conduct, and to us an arsfument of 
 belief; and it is probable, that a portion of guilt or 
 merit may be imputed with justice to the Roman pro- 
 selytes. Yet their abhorrence was confined to the 
 monuments of heathen superstition ; and the civil struc- 
 tures that were dedicated to the business or pleasure 
 of society might be preserved without injury or scan- 
 dal. The change of religion was accomplished, not 
 by a popular tumult, but by the decrees of the empe- 
 rors, of the senate, and of time. Of the christian 
 hierarchy, the bishops of Rome were commonly the 
 most prudent and least fanatic : nor can any positive 
 charge be opposed to the meritorious act of saving 
 and converting the majestic structure of the pantheon.' 
 III. The use and ^^^' 'I''^© value of any object that sup- 
 
 feriaffl"'^^^^ '"** -^^'^^ ^^® wants or pleasures of mankind, 
 
 i« compounded of its substance and its 
 
 form, of the materials and the manufacture. Its price 
 
 o I take this opportunity of declaring, ihr.t in the course of twelve 
 years, I have far|oiten, or renounced, the flight of Odin from Azoph 
 to bweden, which I never very seriously believed, (vol. j. p. 94.) The 
 Goths are apparently Germans : but all beyond Caesar and Tacitus is 
 darkness or fable, in the antiquities of Germany. 
 
 X History of the Decline, Sec. vol. i. p. 431. 
 
 J vol. i. p. 480. 
 
 * vol. i. p. 537. 
 
 » vol. ii. p. 69- 
 
 b — 
 
 — vol. i. p. 386, 390. 
 
 c Eodem tempore petiit a Phocate principe templum. Quod appella- 
 tur Pantheon, in quo fecit ecciesiam Sanciae Mariae semper Virginis, 
 et omnium martyrum; in qua ecclesise princeps multa bona obiulit. 
 (Anastasius vel polius Liber Poutificalis in Bonifacio IV. in Muratori, 
 script. Rerum Italicarum, torn. iii. p. i. p. 135) According to the 
 anonymous writer in Montfaugon, the Pantheon had been vowed by 
 Agnppa to Cybele and Neptune, and was dedicated by Boniface IV. 
 on the calends of November, to the Virgin, qu» eel mater omnium 
 •anctorum, (p. 297, 298.) o » * 
 
 must depend upon the number of persons by whom it 
 may be acquired and used ; on the extent of the mark 
 et; and consequently on the ease or difficulty of remoir. 
 exportation, according to the nature of the commodity 
 its local situation, and the temporary circumstances of 
 the world. The barbarian conquerors of Rome usurp, 
 ed in a moment the toil and treasure of successive 
 ages; but, except the luxuries of immediate consunip. 
 tion, they must view without desire all that could not 
 be removed from the city in the Gothic waggons or 
 the fleet of the Vandals."* Gold and silver were the 
 first objects of their avarice; as in every country, and 
 in the smallest compass, they represent the most am- 
 ple command of the industry and possessions of man- 
 kind. A vase or a statue of those precious nsetals 
 might tempt the vanity of some barbarian chief; but 
 the grosser multitude, regardless of the form, were te- 
 nacious only of the substance ; and the melted ingrts 
 might be readily divided and stamped into the current 
 coin of the empire. The less active or less fortunate 
 robbers were reduced to the baser plunder of brass, 
 lead, iron, and copper : whatever had escaped the Goths 
 and Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants ; and 
 the emperor Constans, in his rapacious visit, stripped 
 the bronze tiles from the roof of the pantheon.* The 
 edifices of Rome might be considered as a vast and va- 
 rioils mine; the first labour of extracting the materials 
 was already performed ; the metals were purified and 
 cast ; the marbles were hewn and polished ; and after 
 foreign and domestic rapine had been satiated, the re- 
 mains of the city, could a purchaser have been found, 
 were still venal. The monuments of antiquity had 
 been left naked of their precious ornaments, but the 
 Romans would demolish with their own hands the 
 arches and walls, if the hope of profit could surpass 
 the cost of the labour and exportation. If Charlemagne 
 had fixed in Italy the seat of the western empire, his 
 genius would have aspired to restore, rather than to 
 violate, the works of the Caesars; but policy confined 
 the French monarch to the forests of Germany; his 
 taste could be gratified only by destruction ; and the 
 new palace of Aix la Chapellewas decorated with the 
 marbles of Ravenna 'and Rome.* Five hundred years 
 after Charlemagne, a king of Sicily, Robert, the wisest 
 and most liberal sovereign of the age, was supplied 
 with the same materials by the easy navigation of the 
 Tiber and the sea; and Petrarch sighs an indignant 
 complaint, that the ancient capital of the world should 
 adorn from her own bowels the slothful luxury of Na- 
 ples."" But these examples of plunder or purchase 
 
 d Flaminius Vacca (apud Montfaugon, p. 155, 156. His Memoir is 
 likewise printed, p. 21. at the end of the RomaAntica of Nardini) 
 and 8everal Romans, doctrina graves, were persuaded that the Goihj 
 buried their treasures at Rome, and be(iuealhed the secret mark filiis 
 nepotibusque. He relates s«)me anecdotes to prove, that, in his own 
 lime, these places were visited and rifled by the Transalpine pil- 
 grims, the heirs of the Gothic conquerors. 
 
 e Omnia quae erant in sere ad ornatum civitatis deposuit; sed el 
 ecciesiam B. Mariae ad martyres quae de tesulis aereis cooperta dis- 
 cooperuit. (Anast. in Viulian. p. 141 ) The base and sacrilegious 
 Greek had not even the poor pretence of plundering an heathen tem- 
 ple ; the pantheon was already a catholic church. 
 
 f For the spoils of Ravenna (musi va atque marmora) see the original 
 grant of pope Adrian I. to Charlemagne. (Cordex Carolin episl. Ixvii. 
 in Muratori, Script. Ital. torn. iii. p. ii. p. 223.) 
 
 g I shall quote the authentic testimony of the Saxon poet, (A. P. 
 887—899.) de Rebus gestis Carol i magni, I. v. 437—440. in the Histo- 
 rians of France: (torn. v. p. 180.) 
 
 Ad qus marmoreas praestabat Roma columnas, 
 Quasdara praecipuas pulchra Ravenna dedit. 
 De lam longiiiqua poterit regione veiusias 
 Illius ornatum Francia ferre libi. 
 And I shall add, from the Chronicje of Sigebert, (Historians of France, 
 tom. V. p. 378.) extruxit etiam Aquisarani basilicani plurimae pulchri- 
 tudinis, ad cujus structuram a Roma et Ravenna columnas et marmo- 
 ra devehi fecit. 
 
 hi cannot refuse to transcribe a lon^ passage of Petrarch, (Opp. p. 
 536, 537.) in Epislola horuu>ria ad Nicolaum Laurentium ; it is so 
 strong and full to the point: Nee pudoraui pietascontinuitquominus 
 inipii spoliala Dei templa, occupatas arces, opes publicas, regiones 
 urbis, atque honores magisiratuuin inter se divisos ; (habeant ;) quatn 
 una in re, turbulenii ac seditiosi homines et tolius relitiuae vii» con- 
 sillis et raiionibus discordes, inhumani faderis slupenda societal* 
 convenerant in pontes et nia>nia atque immeritos lapidesdesaevirenu 
 Denique post vi vel senio collapsa palatia, quae quondam ingenies 
 lenuerunt viri, post diruploa arcus triumphales, (unde majores ho- 
 rum forsitan corrueruni,) de ipiius veiustatis ac propri* inipiclalii 
 
 Cmap. XXXII. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 493 
 
 were rare in the darker a^es ; and the Romans, alone 
 I and unenvied, might have applied to their private or 
 public use the remaining structures of antiquity, if in 
 ^ thnir present form and position they had not been use- 
 \ less in a great measure to the city and its inhabitants. 
 The walls still described the old circumference, but the 
 city had descended from the seven hills into the Cam- 
 pus Martius ; and some of the noblest monuments which 
 had braved the injuries of time were left in a desert, far 
 remote from the habitations of mankind. The palaces 
 of the senators were no longer adapted to the manners 
 or fortunes of their indigent successors ; the use of 
 baths' and porticoes was forgotten ; in the sixth centu- 
 ry, the games of the theatre, amphitheatre, and circus, 
 had been interrupted : some temples were devoted to 
 the prevailing worship ; but the christian churches pre- 
 ferred the holy figure of the cross ; and fashion, or rea- 
 son, had distributed after a peculiar model the cells 
 and offices of the cloister. Under the ecclesiastical 
 reign, the number of these pious foundations was enor- 
 mously multiplied; and the city was crowded with 
 forty monasteries of men, twenty of women, and sixty 
 chapters and colleges of canons and priests,'' who ag- 
 gravated, instead of relieved, the depopulation of the 
 tenth century. But if the forms of ancient architecture 
 were disregarded by a people insensible of their use 
 and beauty, the plentiful materials were applied to eve- 
 ry call of necessity or superstition ; till the fairest 
 columns of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the richest 
 marbles of Pares and Numidia, were desrraded, perhaps 
 to the support of a convent or stable. The daily havoc 
 which is perpetrated by the Turks in the cities of 
 Greece and Asia, may afford a melancholy example; 
 and in the gradual destruction of the monuments of 
 Rome, Sixtus the fifth may alone be excused for em- 
 ploying the stones of the Septizonium in the glorious 
 edifice of St. Peter's.' A fragment, a ruin, howsoever 
 mangled or profaned, may be viewed with pleasure 
 and regret ; but the greater part of the marble was de- 
 prived of substance as well as of place and proportion ; 
 it was burnt to lime for the purpose of cement. Since 
 the arrival of Poggius, the temple of Concord," and 
 many capital structures, had vanished from his eyes ; 
 and an epigram of the same age expresses a just and 
 pious fear, that the continuance of this practice would 
 finally annihilate all the monuments of antiquity." The 
 smallness of their numbers was the sole check on the 
 demands and depredations of the Romans. The imagi- 
 nation of Petrarch might create the presence of a migh- 
 ty people ;® and I hesitate to believe, that, even in the 
 fourteenth century, they could be reduced to a con- 
 
 fragminibiis vilem quawlum turpi merclmonio captare non pudait. 
 liaque nunc, heu dolor! heu scelus indignum! de Vestris marmoreis 
 culumnis, de liminibos templorum, (ad quae nuper ex orbe toto con- 
 cursus devoiissimus fiebat,) de imaginibus sepulchrorum sub quibus 
 patruin vestrorum venerabilis civis {cinis ?) erai, ut reliquas sileam, 
 desidiosa Neapolis adornatur. Sic pauUatim ruinse ipsae deficiunt. 
 Yet king Robert was a friend of Petrarch. 
 
 i Yt't Charlemagne washed and swam at Aix la Chapelle with a 
 hundred of his courtiers, (Esinhart, c. 22. p. 103, 109.) and Muratori 
 dt'scribes, as late as the year 814, the public baths which were built at 
 Spojpto in Italy. (Annali, tom. vi. p. 416.) 
 
 k See the Annals of Ititly, A. D. 988. For this and the preceding 
 fict, Muratori himself is indebted to the Benedictine history of Fdre 
 Mubillon. 
 
 I Vila di Sislo Quinto, da Gregorio Leti, tom. iii. p. 50. 
 
 m Purlieus adis Concordia, quam cum primum ad urbem accessi 
 vidi fere integram opere mannoreo admodum specloso ; Romani post- 
 niiidum ad calcem «dem totam et ponicus partem disjeciis columnis 
 sunt demoliii, (p 12.) The temple of Concord was therefore not de- 
 siniyed by a sedition in the thirteenth century, as I have read in a 
 Ms. treatise del' Gov«-rno civile di Rome, lent me formerly at Rome, 
 and ascribed (I believe falsely) to tihe celebrated Gravina. Poggius 
 likewise affirms, that the sepulchre of Csecilia Metalla wai burnt for 
 lime, (p. 19, '2(1.) 
 
 n Composed by .^neas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II. and pub- 
 lished by Mabilion, from a MS. of the queen of Sweden. (Museum 
 luiicum, tom. i. p. 97.) 
 
 Oblectat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas: 
 
 Ex cujus lapsu gloria prista patet. 
 Sed tuus hie populus muris def.jssa vetuptis 
 
 Calais in obsequium marmora dura coi{Uit. 
 Impia tercentum si sic gens egerit annos 
 Nullum hinc indicium nobilitatis erit. 
 
 c Vagabamur pariter in ilia urbc tarn magnfi; quae, cum propter 
 •paiiuni vacua videretur, populum habet immensum. (Opp. p. C05. 
 £pist. Familiares, ii. 14.) 
 
 temptible list of thirty-three thousand inhabitants. 
 From that period to the reign of Leo the tenth, if they 
 multiplied to the amount of eighty-five thousand,? the 
 increase of citizens was in some degree pernicious to 
 the ancient city. 
 
 IV. I have reserved for the last, the jy i-^e domes- 
 most potent and forcible cause of destruc- tic quarrels of 
 tion, the domestic hostilities of the Ro- ^^^ Romans, 
 mans themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek 
 and French emperors, the peace of the city was dis- 
 turbed by accidental, though frequent, seditions : it is 
 from the decline of the latter, from the begitming of 
 the tenth century, that we may date the licentiousness 
 of private war, which violated with impunity the laws 
 of the code and the gospel, without respecting the ma- 
 jesty of the absent sovereign, or the presence and per- 
 son of the vicar of Christ. In a dark period of five 
 hundred years, Rome was perpetually afflicted by the 
 sanguinary quarrels of the nobles and the people, the 
 Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Ursini; 
 and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is 
 unworthy of the notice, of history, I have exposed in 
 the two preceding chapters the causes and effects of 
 the public disorders. At such a time, when every 
 quarrel was decided by the sword, and none could 
 trust their lives or properties to the impotence of law ; 
 the powerful citizens were armed for safety, or offence, 
 against the domestic enemies whom they feared or ha- 
 ted. Except Venice alone, the same dangers and de- 
 signs were common to the free republics of Italy ; and 
 the nobles usurped the prerogative of fortifying their 
 houses, and erecting strong towers*! that were capable 
 0*" resisting a sudden attack. The cities were filled 
 with these hostile edifices ; and the example of Lucca, 
 which contained three hundred towers; her law, which 
 confined their height to the measure of fourscore feet, 
 may be extended with suitable latitude to the more 
 opulent and populous states. The first step of senator 
 Brancaleonc in the establishment of peace and justice, 
 was to demolish (as we have already seen) one hun- 
 dred and forty of the towers of Rome ; and, in the last 
 days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of 
 Martin the fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the 
 thirteen or fourteen regions of the city. To this mis- 
 chievous purpose, the remains of antiquity were most 
 readily adapted: the temples and arches afforded a 
 broad and solid basis for the new structures of brick 
 and stone; and we can name the modem turrets that 
 were raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius 
 Caesar, Titus, and the Antonines.' With some slight 
 alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum, 
 was transformed into a strongr and spacious citadel. 
 I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has assum- 
 ed the title and form of the castle of St. Angelo;' the 
 Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against 
 a royal army : * the sepulchre of Metella has sunk un- 
 der its outworks ; " the theatres of Pompey and Marcel- 
 
 P These states of the population of Rome at different periods, are 
 derived from an ingenious treatise of the physician Lancisi,de Roma- 
 ni Coeli Qualitatibus. (p. 122.) 
 
 q All the facts that relate to the towers at Rome, and in other free 
 cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious and entertaining com- 
 pilation of Muratori, Antiqultales Italia: medii JEvi, dissertat. xxvi. 
 (tom. ii. p. 493— 496. of the Latin, tom. i. p. 44S. of the Italian work.) 
 
 r As for instance, Templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii Frangi- 
 panis; et sane Jano impositae turris lateritiae conspicua hodieque ves- 
 tigia sapersunt. (Montfaucon Diarium Italicum, p. 186.) The anony- 
 mous writer (p. 283.) enumerates, arcus liti, turres Cartularia ; arcus 
 Julii CsBsaris et Senalorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris 
 de Coseciis, &c. , . 
 
 I Hadriani molem magna ex parte Romanorum injuria .... 
 
 disiurbavit; quod certe funditus everiissent, si eonun manibus pervia, 
 absumptisgrandibus saxis, reliqua moles exstitisset. (Poggius de Va- 
 rietaie Foriunae, p. 12.) 
 
 t Against the emperor Henry IV. (Muratori, Annali d'ltaha, tom. 
 ix. p. 147.) ^ », . . 
 
 u I must copy an important passage of Montfaugon : Turns mgens 
 
 rotunda Csecilse Metella .... sepulchrum erai, cujus muri tam 
 
 solidi, ut spatium perquam minimum intus vacuum pupersit: et 
 Torre di Bore dicitur, a boum capiiibus muro inscriptia. Hulc 
 sequiori levo, tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta 
 fuit, cujus ma?niaet turres etiamnum visuntur; itaut sepulchrum Me- 
 tella? quasi arxoppiduli fuerit. Ferveniibr.s in urbe partlbus, cum 
 Ursini atque Columnenses mutuis cladibus perniciem inferrent civi- 
 tati, in utriusve pariia ditionem cederet magni momeuii erat, (p. 143.) 
 
 iVi 
 
 A 
 
I.^ 
 
 494 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXn. 
 
 Chap. XXXH. 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 495 
 
 u 
 
 lu8 were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families;' I an eternal duration. The curious antiquaries, wha 
 and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to i have compuied the numbers and seats, are disposed to. 
 the splendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even | believe, that above the upper row of stone steps, the 
 the churches were encompassed with arms and bul- j amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several 
 warks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Pe- j stages of wooden galleries, which were repeatedly 
 ter's were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of | consumed by fire, and restored by the emperors, 
 the christian world. Whatever is fortified will be at- j Whatever was precious, or portable, or profane, the 
 tacked : and whatever is attacked may be destroyed, statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments 
 '^ ' . - . of sculpture, which were cast in brass, or overspread 
 
 with leaves of silver and gold, became the first prey 
 
 I 
 
 Could the Romans have wrested from the popes the 
 castle of St. Angelo, they had resolved by a public de- 
 cree to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every 
 building of defence was exposed to a siege; and in 
 every siege the arts and engines of destruction were 
 laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas 
 the fourth, Rome, without a sovereign or a senate, was 
 abandoned to the fury of civil war. "The houses," 
 says a cardinal and a poet of the times,y " were crush- 
 ed by the weight and velocity of enormous stones;" 
 the walls were perforated by the strokes of the batter- 
 ing-ram ; tlje towers were involved in fire and smoke ; 
 and the assailants were stimulated by rapine and re- 
 venge." The work was consummated by the tyranny 
 of the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exer- 
 cised a blind and thoughtless vengeance on their ad- 
 versaries, whose houses and castles they razed to the 
 ground.* In comparing the daj/s of foreign, with the 
 ages of domestic, hostility, we must pronounce, that 
 the latter have ])een far more ruinous to the city ; and 
 our opinion is confirmed by the evidence o( Petrarch. 
 ** Behold," says the laureat, ** the relics of Rome, the 
 image of her pristine greatness ! neither time, nor the 
 barbarian, can boast the merit of this stupendous de- 
 struction : it was perpetrated by her own citizens, by 
 the most illustrious of her sons, and your ancestors 
 (he writes to a noble Annibaldi) have done with the 
 battering-ram, what the Punic hero could not accom- 
 plish with the sword." '• The influence of the two last 
 principles of decay must in some degree be multiplied 
 by each other; since the houses and towers, which were 
 subverted by civil war, required a new and perpetual 
 supply from the monuments of antiquity. 
 The Coliseum or These general observations may be 
 amphitheatre of separately applied to the amphitheatre 
 ^''"^' of Titus, which has obtained the name 
 
 of the Coliseum,' either from its magnitude, or from 
 Nero's colossal statue : an edifice, had it been left to 
 time and nature, which might perhaps have claimed 
 
 X See the testimonies of Ponattis, Nardini, and Montfaugon. In 
 the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still 
 great and conspicuous. 
 
 y James, cardinal of St. George, ad velum aureum, ill his metrical 
 life of pope Celestin V. (Muratori, Script. Ital. torn. i. P. iii. p. 621. 
 t. i. c. 1. ver. 132. &c.) 
 
 Hoc dixisse sat est, Roman caruisse Senatu 
 Mensibus exactis heu sex ; belloque vocatum (vocatos) 
 In scelus, in socios fraternaque vulnera patres ; 
 Tormenlis jpciese viros immania saxa ; 
 Perfodisse domus trabibus, fecisse ruinas 
 Ignibus ; incensas turres, obscurataque fumo 
 Lumiiia vicino, quo sit spoliala supellex. 
 » Muratori (Disserlazione sopra le Antiquiu Italiane, torn. i. p. 427 
 —431.) finds, that stone bullets of two or three hundred pounds' 
 weight were not uncommon ; and they are sometimes computed at 
 twelve or eighteen cantari of Genoa, each eantara weighiDK 150 
 poands. ° 
 
 m The sixth law of the Visconli prohibits this common and mis- 
 chievous practice ; and strickly enjoins, that the houses of banished 
 citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate, (Gualvaneus de 
 la Flainma, in Muratori, Script, Reruin Italicarum, torn. xii. p. 1041.) 
 b Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame and tears, 
 had shown him the mo-nia, laceraj specimen iniserabile Rome, and 
 declared his own intention of restoring them. (Carmiaa Laiina, 1. ii. 
 epist. Paulo Annibalensi, xii. p. 97, 98.) 
 
 Nee te parva manet servatis fama minis. 
 Quanta quod integrse fuit olim gloria Romae 
 Reliquia lestantur adhuc ; quas longior stas 
 Frangere non valuit ; non vi.s aut ira cruenti 
 Uostis, ab egregiis franguntur civibus, heu ! heu ! 
 
 Quod tile nequivit {Hannibal) 
 
 Perficit hie aries. 
 
 e The fourth part of the Verona lUusirala of the marquis Meffei, 
 professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly those of Rome and 
 Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries, &.c. It is from magni- 
 tude that he derives the name of Colosseum or Coliseum : since the 
 same appellation wag applied to the amphitheatre of Capua, without 
 the aid of a colossal statue ; since that of Nero was erected in the 
 *^o""^ (»« airio) of his palace, and not in the Colifeum, (p. It, p. 16 
 ^19. 1. i. c. 4.} 
 
 of conquest or fanaticism, of the avarice of the barba- 
 rians or the christians. In the massy stones of the 
 Coliseum, many holes are discerned ; and the two 
 most probable conjectures represent the various acci- 
 dents of its decay. These stones were connected by 
 solid links of brass or iron, nor had the eye of rapine* 
 overlooked the value of the baser metals;"* the vacant 
 space was converted into a fair or market ; the artisans 
 of the Coliseum are mentioned in an ancient survey; 
 and the chasms were perforated or enlarged to receive 
 the poles that supported the shops or tents of the 
 mechanic trades.' Reduced to its naked majesty, the 
 Flavian amphitheatre was contemplated with awe and 
 admiration by the pilgrims of the north; and the rude 
 enthusiasm broke forth in a sublime proverbial expres- 
 sion, which is recorded in the eighth century, in the 
 fragments of the venerable Bede : ** As long as the 
 Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coli- 
 seum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the 
 world will fall."' In the modern system of war, a 
 situation commanded by three hills would not be 
 chosen for a fortress ; but the strength of the walls 
 and arches could resist the engines of assault; a 
 numerous garrison might be lodged in the enclosure; 
 and while one faction occupied the Vatican and the 
 capitol, the other was entrenched in the Lateran and 
 the Coliseum.* 
 
 The abolition at Rome of the ancient 
 games must be understood witli'^ome 
 latitude; and the carnival sports, of the Testacean 
 mount and the Circus Agonalis,** were regulated by 
 the law ' or custom of the city. The senator presided 
 with dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the 
 prizes, the gold ring, or the palliumy^ as it was styled, 
 of cloth or silk. A tribute on the Jews supplied the 
 annual expense;' and the races, on foot, on horseback, 
 or in chariots, were ennobled by a tilt and tournament 
 of seventy-two of the Roman youth. In 
 the year one thousand three hundred and 
 thirty-two, a bull-feast, after the fashion 
 of the Moors and Spaniards, was cele- 
 
 Games of Rome. 
 
 A bull-feast ia 
 
 the Coliseum, 
 
 A. D. 1332. 
 
 Sept. 3. 
 
 d Joseph Maria Suan^s, a learned bishop, and the author of an his- 
 tory of Prceneste, has composed a separate dissertation on the seven 
 or eight probable causes of these holes, which has been since reprint- 
 ed in the Roman Thesaurus of Sallengre. Montfauoon (Diariiim, p. 
 233.) pronounces the rapine of the barbarians to be tile uuam germa- 
 namquc causam furaminum. 
 
 • Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285. 
 
 t Quamdiu slabii Colyseus,stabit ct Roma; quando cadet Colyseus^ 
 cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus. (Beda in Ex- 
 cerptis seu CoUectaneis apud Ducange Glossar. med. et infima?, Lati- 
 nitatis, tom. ii. p. 407. edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribi d to 
 the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome before the year 735, the 
 (Bra of Bede's death ; for I do not believe that our venerable monk 
 ever passed the sea. 
 
 g I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of the Popes, 
 (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. i.) the passage that attests this 
 hostile partition, which must be applied to the end of the eleventh 
 or the beginning of the twelfth century. 
 
 h Although the structure of iho Circus Agonalis be destroyed, it 
 still retains its form and name (Agona, Nagona, Navana;) and the 
 interior space affords a sufficient level for the purpose of racing. But 
 the Monte Testaceo, that strange pile of broken pottery, seems only 
 adapted for the annual practice of hurling from top to bottom some 
 waggon loads of live hogs for the diversion of the populace. (Sialuia 
 Urbis Roma-, p. 18U.) 
 
 I See the Siatuta Urbis Romie, 1. iii. c. 87, 88, 89. p. 1S3, 186. 1 have 
 already given an idea of this municipal code. The races of Nagona 
 and Monte Testaceo are likewise mentioned in the Diary of Peter 
 Antonius from 1404 to 1417. (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, 
 loin, xxi v. p. 1124.) 
 
 k The Pallium, which Menage so foolishly derives from Palma- 
 rtum, IS an easy extension of the idea and the words, from the robe 
 or cloak, to the materials, and from thence to their application as a 
 prize. (Muratori, dissert, xxxiii.) 
 
 1 For these expenses, the Jews of Rome paid each year 1 130 florins, . 
 01 which lh« odd thirty reprewni^U the pieces of silver for which 
 
 brated in the Coliseum itself; and the living manners 
 are painted in a diary of the times." A convenient 
 order of benches was restored ; and a general procla- 
 mation, as far as Rimini and Ravenna, invited the 
 nobles to exercise their skill and courage in this per- 
 ilous adventure. The Roman ladies were marshalled 
 in three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, 
 which on this day, the third of September, were lined 
 with scarlet cloth, The fair Jacova di Rovere led the 
 matrons from beyond the Tiber, a pure and native 
 race, who still represent the features and character of 
 antiquity. The remainder of the city was divided as 
 usual between the Colonna and Ursini : the two fac- 
 tions were proud of the number and beauty of their 
 female bands : the charms of Savella Ursini are men- 
 tioned with praise ; .and the Colonna regretted the 
 absence of the youngest of their house, who had 
 sprained her ancle in the garden of Nero's tower. 
 The lots of the champions were drawn by an old and 
 respectable citizen : and they descended into the arena, 
 or pit, to encounter the wild bulls, on foot as it should 
 seem, with a single spear. Amidst the crowd, our 
 annalist has selected the names, colours, and devices, 
 of twenty of the most conspicuous knights. Several 
 of the names are the most illustrious of Rome and the 
 ecclesiastical state; Malatesta, Polenta, della Valle, 
 Cafarello, Savelli, Capoccio, Conti, Annabaldi, Altieri, 
 Corsi; the colours were adapted to their taste and 
 situation ; the devices are expressive of hope or de- 
 spair, and breathe the spirit of gallantry and arms. 
 "I am alone, like the youngest of the Horatii," the 
 confidence of an intrepid stranger: *' I live disconso- 
 late," a weeping widower : '* I burn under the ashes," 
 a discreet lover : '* I adore Lavinia or Lucretia," the 
 ambiguous declaration of a modern passion : ** My 
 faith is as pure," the motto of a white livery : " Who 
 is stronger than myself?" of a lion's hide : "If I am 
 drowned in blood, what a pleasant death," the wish 
 of ferocious courage. The pride or prudence of the 
 Ursini restrained them from the field, which was occu- 
 pied by three of their hereditary rivals, whose inscrip- 
 tions denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name: 
 "Though sad lam strong:" '* Strong as I am great :" 
 " If I fall," addressing himself to the spectators, " you 
 fall with me :" — intimating (says the contemporary 
 writer) that while the other families were the subjects 
 of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the 
 capitol. The combats of the amphitheatre were dan- 
 gerous and bloody. Every champion successively 
 encountered a wild bull; and the victory may be as- 
 cribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than eleven 
 were left on the field, with the loss of nine wounded 
 and eighteen killed on the side of their adversaries. 
 Some of the noblest families might mourn, but the 
 pomp of the funerals, in the churches of St. John 
 Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore, aflfordcd a second 
 holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in such 
 conflicts that the blood of the Romans should have 
 been shed ; yet, in blaming their rashness we are com- 
 pelled to applaud their gallantry; and the noble volun- 
 teers, who display their magnificence, and risk their 
 lives, under the balconies of the fair, excite a more 
 generous sympathy than the thousands of captives and 
 malefactors who were reluctantly dragged to the scene 
 of slaughter." 
 
 . . This use of the amphitheatre was a 
 
 iDjtiries, y^j.^^ perhaps a singular, festival : the 
 
 demand for the materials was a daily and continual 
 want, which the citizens could gratify without re- 
 Judas had betrayed his Master to their ancestors. There was a foot- 
 race of Jewish as well as of christian youths. (Statuta Urbis, ibidom.) 
 
 M This extraordinary bull-feast in the Coliseum is described, from 
 tradition rather than memory, by Ludovico Buonconle Monaldesco, 
 in the most ancient fragments of Roman annals : (Muratori, Script. 
 Rerum Italicarum, tom." xii. p. 535, 536.) and however fanciful they 
 may seem, they are deeply marked with the colours of truth and 
 nature. 
 
 n Muratori has given a separate disserlatioQ (the twenty-niuih) to 
 ihe games uf the Italians in the middle ages. 
 
 straint or remorse. In the fourteenth century, a scan- 
 dalous act of concord secured to both factions the pri- 
 vilege of extracting stones from the free and common 
 quarry of the Coliseum ;° and Poggius laments, that 
 the greater part of these stones had been burnt to lime 
 by the folly of the Romans.? To check this abuse, 
 and to prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be per- 
 petrated in the vast and gloomy recess, Eugenius the 
 fourth surrounded it with a wall ; and, by a charter 
 long extant, granted both the ground and edifice to the 
 monks of an adjacent convent.*" After his death, the 
 wall was overthrown in a tumult of the people ; and 
 had they themselves respected the noblest monument 
 of their fathers, they might have justified the resolve 
 that it should never be degraded to private property. 
 The inside was damaged; but in the middle of the 
 sixteenth century, an aera of taste and learning, the 
 exterior circumference of one thousand six hundred 
 and twelve feet was still entire and inviolate; a triple 
 elevation of fourscore arches, which rose to the height 
 of one hundred and eight feet. Of the present ruin» 
 the nephews of Paul the third are the guilty agents ;. 
 and every traveller who views the Farnese palace 
 may curse the sacrilege and luxury of these upstart 
 princes.' A similar reproach is applied to the Barbe- 
 rini ; and the repetition of injury might be dreaded 
 from every reign, till the Coliseum was and consecration 
 placed under the safeguard of religion ***^ ^h® Coliseum 
 by the most liberal of the pontiflfs, Benedict the four- 
 teenth, who consecrated a spot which persecution and 
 fable had stained with the blood of so many christian 
 martyrs.^ 
 
 When Petrarch first gratified his eyes ignorance and 
 with a view of those monuments, whose barbarism of 
 scattered fragments so far surpass the ihe Roman*, 
 most eloquent descriptions, he was astonished at the 
 supine indifference* of the Romans themselves;" he 
 was humbled rather than elated by the discovery, that, 
 except his friend Rienzi and one of the Colonna, a 
 stranger of the Rhone was more conversant with these 
 antiquities than the noblest natives of the metropolis.* 
 The ignorance and credulity of the Romans are elabo- 
 rately displayed in the old survey of the city, which 
 was composed about the beginning of the thirteenth 
 century ; and, without dwelling on the manifold errors- 
 of name and place, the legend of the capitol ^ may 
 
 o In a concise bul instructive memoir, the abb6 Barthelemy (Me- 
 moires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 5S5.) has men- 
 tioned this agreement of the factions of the fourteenth century, da 
 Tiburtino faciendo in the Coliseum, from an original act in the ar- 
 chives of Rome. 
 
 p Coliseum . . . . ob stultitiam Romanorum majori ex parte ad 
 calcem deletum. says the indignant Poggius : (p. 17.) but his expres- 
 sion, too strong for the present age, must be very tenderly applied to 
 the fifteenth century. 
 
 q Of the Olivelan monks, Montfaueon (p. 142.) affirms this fact 
 from the memorials of Flaminius Vacca. (No. 72.) They still hoped, 
 on some future occasion, to revive and vindicate their grant. 
 
 r After measuring the priscus amphitheatri gyrus, Montfaugon (p.. 
 142.) only adds, that it was entire under Paul III. tacendo cjamat. 
 Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, tom. xiv. p. 371.) more freely reports the 
 guilt of the Farnese pope, and the inaignation of the Roman people. 
 Against the nephews of Urban YIII. I have no other evidence than 
 the vulgar saying, " Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecere Barberini," 
 which was perhaps suggested by the resemblance of the words. 
 
 ■ As an antiquarian and a priest, Montfauoon thus deprecates th» 
 ruin of the Coliseum ; Quod si non suopte inerito atque pulchriludine 
 dignum fuissetquod iinprobas arceret manus, indigna res utique ia 
 locum tot martyrum cruore sacrum tantopere ssevitum esse. 
 
 t Yet the statutes of Rome (1. iii. c. 81. p. 182.) impose a fine of 600' 
 aurei on whosover shall demolish any ancient edifice, ne ruinis civi- 
 las deformetur, et ut anliqua cdificia decorem urbis perpetuo repre- 
 sentent. 
 
 u lu his first visit to Rome (A. D. 1337. See Memoires sur Petrarque, 
 tom. i. p. 322. &c.) Petrarch is struck mute miraculo rerum taniarumi 
 et stuporis mole obruius .... Pnesentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil im- 
 minuit : vere major fuit Roma majoresque sunt reliquia.- quam rebar. 
 Jam non orbem ab hac urbe domiium, sed tarn sero domitum, miror.. 
 (Opp. p. 605. Familiares, ii. 14. Joanni Columna.) 
 
 X He excepts and praises the rare knowledge of John Colonna. 
 Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanorum, quam Romant 
 cives 1 Invitus dico nusquam minus Roma cognoscitur quam Romse. 
 
 y After the description of the capitol, he adds, stalua.- eraot quot 
 sunt mundi provincia;; et habebat qua libel liniiiinabulum ad col- 
 lum. Et eraut ita per magicam artem dispoeitac, ui quando aliqua- 
 regio Romano Imperio rebeliis erat, statim imago illius provincia 
 veriebat ee contra illam ; unde tintinnabulum resonabat quod pende- 
 bat ad coUum ; tuncque vaies.Capiiolii qui eraut cusloUes seaatuii^ 
 
 ;) 
 
 '' I 
 
 A 
 
496 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 Chap. XXXIL 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 497 
 
 (: 
 
 proToke a smile of contempt and indignation. ** The 
 capitol," says the anonymous writer, " is so named as 
 being the head of the world : where the consuls and 
 senators formerly resided for the government of the 
 city and the globe. The strong and lofty walls were 
 covered with glass and gold, and crowned with a roof 
 of the richest and most curious carving. Below the 
 citadel stood a palace, of gold for the greatest part, 
 decorated with precious stones, and whose value migrht 
 be esteemed at one-third of the world itself. The 
 statues of all the provinces were arranged in order, 
 each with a small bell suspended from its neck; and 
 such was the contrivance of art or magic,' that if the 
 province rebelled against Rome, the statue turned 
 round to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, the 
 prophet of the capitol reported the prodigy, and the 
 senate was admonished of the impending danger.'* 
 A second example of less importance, though of equal 
 absurdity, may be drawn from the two marble horses, 
 led by two naked youths, which have since been trans- 
 ported from the baths of Constantine to the Quirinal 
 hill. The groundless application of the names of 
 Phidias and Praxiteles may perhaps be excused ; but 
 these Grecian sculptors should not have been removed 
 above four hundred years from the age of Pericles to 
 that of Tiberius ; they should not have been trans- 
 formed into two philosophers or magicians, whose na- 
 kedness was the symbol of truth or knowledge, who 
 revealed to the emperor his most secret actions ; and, 
 after refusing all pecuniary recompence, solicited the 
 honour of leaving this eternal monument of them- 
 selves.* Thus awake to the power of magic, the Ro- 
 mans were insensible to the beauties of art : no more 
 than five statues were visible to the eyes of Poggius : 
 and of the multitudes which chance or design had 
 buried under the ruins, the resurrection was fortunate- 
 ly delayed till a safer and more enlightened age.*' 
 The Nile, which now adorns the Vatican, had been 
 explored by some labourers, in di^tring a vineyard 
 near the temple, or convent, of the Minerva; but the 
 impatient proprietor, who was tormented by some 
 visits of curiosity, restored the unprofitable marble to 
 its former grave.* The discovery of a statue of Pom- 
 pey, ten feet in length, was the occasion of a law-suit. 
 It had been found under a partition-wall: the equita- 
 ble judge had pronounced, that the head should be 
 separated from the body to satisfy the claims of the 
 contiguous owners; and the sentence would have been 
 executed, if the intercession of a cardinal, and the libe- 
 rality of a pope, had not rescued the Roman hero from 
 the hands of his barbarous countrymen.* 
 Restoration and ^"* *^® clouds of barbarism were gra- 
 ornamenia of dually dispelled ; and the peaceful autho- 
 A*V'i420 k '^'^ °^ Martin the fifth and his successors 
 ' ' restored the ornaments of the city as 
 
 &c. He mentions an example of the Saxons and Suevi, who, after 
 they had been subdued by Agrippa, again rebelled tintinnabulum 
 eonuit ; sacerdoa qui erat in speculo in iiebdomada aenatoribus nuntia- 
 
 vit: Agrippa marched back and reduced the Persians. (Anonym. 
 
 in Monifauson. p. 297, 29S.) 
 
 « The same writer affirms, that Virgil captus a Romania invisibi- 
 liter exiit, ivitque Neapolim. A Roman magician, in the eleventh 
 century, is introduced by William of Malmsbury ; (de Vesiis Reeum 
 Anglorum, I. ii. p. 86.) and in the time of Flaminius Vucca (No"; 81. 
 103.) it was the vulgar belief that the strangers (the Got/is) invoked 
 the daemons for the discovery of hidden treasures. 
 
 * Anonym, p. 289. Montfauson (p. 191.) jusily observes, that if 
 Alexander be represented, these statues cannot be the work of Phi- 
 dias. (Olympiad Ixxxiii.) or Praxiteles, (Olympiad civ.) who lived 
 before that conqueror. (Plin. Hist. Naiur. xxxiv. 19.) 
 
 b William of Malmsbury (1. ii. p. 86, 87.) relates a marvellous dis- 
 covery (A. D. 1046.) of Pallas, the son of Evander, who had been 
 elain by Turnus ; the perpetual light in his sepulchre, a Latin epi- 
 taph, the corpse, yet entire, of a youn^ giant, the enormous wound 
 in his breast, (pectus perforat ingens,) «c. If this fable rests on the 
 slightest foundation, we may pity the bodies, as well as the statues, 
 that were exposed to the air in a barbarous age. 
 
 c Prope poriicum Miuervae, statua est recubantis, cuius caput In- 
 tegra effigie tantas magnitudin'is, ut signa omnia excedat. Quidam 
 ad planiandos arbores scrobes faciens deiexit. Ad hoc visendum cum 
 plures indies magis cnncurrerent, strepituni adeunlium faslidiuiiique 
 periaesus, horti paironus congeata humo texit. (Poggius de Varietate 
 Fortunae, p. 12.) 
 
 d See the Memorials of Flaminia Vacc^^ No. 57. p. 11, 12. at the 
 end of the Roma Arnica of Nardini, (1704, in quarto.) 
 
 well as the order of the ecclesiastical state. The 
 improvements of Rome, since the fifteenth century, 
 have not been the spontaneous produce of freedom and 
 industry. The first and most natural root of a great 
 city, is the labour and populousness of the adjacent 
 country, which supplies the materials of subsistence, 
 of manufactures, and of foreign trade. But the greater 
 part of the Campagna of Rome is reduced to a drea- 
 ry and desolate wilderness : the overgrown estates 
 of the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the 
 lazy hands of indigent and hopeless vassals ; and the 
 scanty harvests are confined or exported for the ben- 
 efit of a monopoly. A second and more artificial 
 cause of the growth of a metropolis, is the residence 
 of a monarch, the expense of a luxurious court, and 
 the tributes of dependent provincJfes. Those provinces 
 and tributes had been lost in the fall of the empire : 
 and if some streams of the silver of Peru and the gold 
 of Brasil have been attracted by the Vatican ; the 
 revenues of the cardinals, the fees of office, the obla- 
 tions of pilgrims and clients, and the remnant of 
 ecclesiastical taxes, afford a poor and precarious sup- 
 ply, which maintains however the idleness of the court 
 and city. The population of Rome, far below the 
 measure of the great capitals of Europe, does not ex- 
 ceed one hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants;' 
 and within the spacious enclosure of the walls, the 
 largest portion or the seven hills is overspread with 
 vineyards and ruins. The beauty and splendour of 
 the modern city may be ascribed to the abuses of the 
 government, to the influence of superstition. Each 
 reign (the exceptions are rare) has been marked by 
 the rapid elevation of a new family, enriched by the 
 childish pontiff at the expense of the church and coun- 
 try. The palaces of these fortunate nephews are the 
 most costly monuments of elegance and servitude ; the 
 perfect arts of architecture, painting, and sculpture, 
 have been prostituted in their service, and their galle- 
 ries and gardens are decorated with the most precious 
 works of antiquity, which taste or vanity has prompt- 
 ed them to collect. The ecclesiastical revenues were 
 more decently employed by the popes themselves in 
 the pomp of the catholic worship ; but it is superfluous 
 to enumerate their pious foundations of altars, chapels, 
 and churches, since these lesser stars are eclipsed by 
 the sun of the Vatican, by the dome of St. Peter, the 
 most glorious structure that ever has been applied to 
 the use of religion. The fame of Julius the second, 
 Leo the tenth, and Sixtus the fifth, is accompanied by 
 the superior merit of Bramante and Fontana, of Ra- 
 phael and Michael Angelo: and the same munificence 
 which had been displayed in palaces and temples, 
 was directed with equal zeal to revive and emulate 
 the labours of antiquity. Prostrate obelisks were 
 raised from the ground, and erected in llie most con- 
 spicuous places ; of the eleven aqueducts of ihe Caesars 
 and consuls, three were restored ; the artificial rivers 
 were conducted over a long series of old, or of new, 
 arches, to discharge into marble basins a flood of salu- 
 brious and refreshing waters : and the spectator, im- 
 patient to ascend the steps of St. Peter's, is detained 
 by a column of Egyptian granite, which rises between 
 two lofty and perpetual fountains, to the height of one 
 hundred and twenty feet. The map, the description, 
 the monuments of ancient Ronie, have been elucidated 
 by the diligence of the antiquarian and the student:' 
 
 e In the year 1709, the inhabitants of Rome (without including 
 eight or ten thousand Jews) amounted to 139,568 souls. (Labat, 
 Voyages en Espagne et in Ilalie, torn. iii. p. 217, 2J8.) In 1740, they 
 had increased to 146,080; and in 1765, I left them, without the Jews, 
 161,899. I am ignorant whether they have since continued in a pro- 
 gressive state. 
 
 f The Pere Montfaueon distributes his own observations into twenty 
 days, he should have styled them weeks, or months, of his visits to 
 the ditTerent parts of the city, (Dlarium Iialicum, c. &— 20. p. 104— 
 301.) That learned Benetlicline reviews the lopt^graphers of Ancient 
 Rome ; the first efforts of Blondns, Fulvius, IMartianus, and Faunus, 
 the superior labours of Pyrrhus Ligorius, had his learning been equal 
 to his labours : the writings of Onuphrius Panvinius, qui omnes ob- 
 scuravii, and the recent but imperfect books of Donatus and Nardini. 
 ' Yei Monifaugon still sighs for a more complete plan and descriptioa 
 
 and the footsteps of heroes, the relics, not of s*upersli- 
 tion, but of empire, are devoutly visited by a new race 
 of pilgrims from the remote, and once savage, coun- 
 tries of the north. 
 
 Final conclu 
 iion. 
 
 Of these pilgrims, and of every reader, 
 the attention will be excited by a His- 
 tory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; 
 the greatest, perhaps, and most awful, scene in the 
 history of mankind. The various causes and progres- 
 sive effects are connected with many of the events 
 most interesting in human annals : the artful policy 
 
 of the old city, which must be attained by the three following rae- 
 ihixls :~1. The measurement of the space and intervals of the ruins. 
 
 2. The study of inscriptions, ».nd the places where they were found. 
 
 3. The investigation of all the acts, charters, diaries of the middle 
 ages, which name any spot or building of Rome. The laborious 
 work, such as Monlfaucon desired, must be promoted by princely or 
 public munificence : but the great modern plan of Nolli (A. D. 1748.) 
 would furnish a tolid and accurate basis for the ancient topography 
 «f Rome. 
 
 Vol. 11.-3 N 
 
 33 
 
 of the Caesars, who long maintained the name and 
 image of a free republic; the disorder of military 
 despotism; the rise, establishment, and sects of Chris- 
 tianity; the foundation of Constantinople; the divi- 
 sion of the monarchy ; the invasion and settlements of 
 the barbarians of Germany and Scythia ; the insti- 
 tutions of the civil law; the character and religion of 
 Mahomet ; the temporal sovereignty of the popes ; the 
 restoration and decay of the western empire of Charle- 
 magne ; the crusades of the Latins in the east ; the 
 conquests of the Saracens and Turks ; the ruin of the 
 Greek empire ; the state and revolutions of Rome in 
 the middle age. The historian may applaud the im- 
 portance and variety of his subject; but, while he is 
 conscious of his own imperfections, he must often 
 accuse the deficiency of his materials. It was among 
 the ruins of the capitol that I first conceived the idea 
 of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty 
 years of my life, and which, however inadequate to 
 my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and 
 candour of the public. 
 
 Lausanne, June 37, 1787. 
 
 / 
 
REPLY TO GIBBON; 
 
 OR 
 
 AN APOLOGY FOR CHRISTIANITY 
 
 IV 
 
 LETTERS TO EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 BY R. WATSON, D. D., F. R. 8., 
 
 BISHOP OF LANDAFF, AND PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 LETTER 1. 
 
 Sir : — ^It would give me much uneasiness to be reputed 
 an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as capable 
 of being animated into any degree of personal malevolence 
 against those who dijffer from me in opinion. On the contra- 
 ry, I look upon the right of private judgment, in every concern 
 respecting God and ourselves, as superior to the control of hu- 
 man authority ; and have ever regarded free disquisition as the 
 best means of illustrating the doctrine and establishing the 
 truth of Christianity. Let the followers of Mahomed, and 
 the zealots of the church of Rome, support their several reli- 
 gious systems by damping every effort of the human intellect 
 to pry into the foundations of their faith ; but never can it be- 
 come a Christian to be afraid of being asked ** a reason of the 
 hope that is in him ;" nor a Protestant to be studious of en- 
 veloping his religion in mystery and ignorance ; or to aban- 
 don that moderation by which she permits every individual et 
 sentire quas velit, et qux seniiat dicere : [both to think what 
 he will, and to speak what he thinks.] 
 
 It is not, sir, without some reluctance, that, under the in- 
 fluence of these opinions, I have prevailed upon myself to ad- 
 dress these letters to you ; and you will attribute to the same 
 motive my not having given you this trouble sooner. I had, 
 moreover, an expectation that this task would have been un- 
 dertaken by some person capable of doing greater justice to 
 the subject, and more worthy of your attention. Perceiving, 
 however, that the two last chapters, the fifteenth in particular, 
 of your very laborious and classical history of the Decline and 
 Fall of the Roman Empire, had made upon many an im- 
 pression not at all advantageous to Christianity ; and that the 
 silence of others, of the clergy especially, began to be looked 
 upon as an acquiescence in what you had therein advanced, 
 I have thought it my duty, with the utmost respect and good 
 will towards you, to take the liberty of suggesting to your 
 consideration a few remarks upon some of the passages which 
 have been esteemed (whether you meant that they should be 
 so esteemed or not) as powerfully militating against that rev- 
 elation, which still is to many, what it formerly was •* to the 
 Greek^foolishness ;" but which we deem to be true, to " be 
 the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
 
 To the inquiry, by what means the Christian faith obtain- 
 ed so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the 
 earth, you rightly answer, by the evidence of the doctrine it- 
 self, and the ruling providence of its author. But, afterwards, 
 in assigning to tWs astonishing event, ^ve secondary causes, 
 derived from the passions of the human heart, and the gene- 
 ral circumstances of mankind, you seem to some to have in- 
 sinuated that Christianity, like other impostures, might have 
 made its way into the world, though its origin had been as 
 human as the means by which you suppose it was spread. 
 It is no wish or intention of mine to fasten the odium of this 
 insinuation upon you ; I shall simply endeavour to show that 
 the causes you produce, are either inadequate to the attain- 
 ment of the end proposed, or that their efficiency, great as you 
 imagine it, was derived from other principles than those you 
 have thought proper to mention. 
 
 Your first cause is, '* the inflexible, and, if you may use the 
 expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived, it is 
 true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow 
 and unsocial spirit which, instead of invitmg, had deterred 
 the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses." Yes, sir, we 
 are agreed that the zeal of the Christians was inflexible; 
 " neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come," could bend it into a sep- 
 aration *• from the love of God which was in Christ Jesus 
 their Lord." It was an inflexible obstinacy, in not blas- 
 pheming the name of Christ, which every where exposed 
 them to persecution ; and which even your amiable and phi- 
 losophic Pliny thought proper, for want of other crimes, to 
 punish with death in the Christians of his province. We are 
 agreed, too, that the zeal of the Christians was intolerant; for 
 it denounced *' tribulation and anguish upon every soul of 
 
 man that did evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile :" 
 it would not tolerate in Christian worship those who suppli« 
 cated the image of Cssar, who bowed down at the altars of 
 Paganism, who mixed with the votaries of Venus, or wallow- 
 ed in the filth of Bacchanalian festivals. 
 
 But, though we are thus far agreed with respect to the in- 
 flexibility and intolerance of Christian zeal, yet, as to the 
 principle from which it was derived, we arc toto cado divided 
 in opinion. You deduce it from the Jewish religion ; I would 
 refer it to a more adequate and a more obvious source — a full 
 persuasion of the truth of Christianity. What ! think you 
 that it was a zeal derived from the unsocial spirit of Judaism, 
 which inspired Peter with courage to upbraid the whole peo- 
 ple of the Jews, in the very capital of Judea, with having 
 "delivered up Jesus, with having denied him in the pre- 
 sence of Pilate, with having desired a murderer to be grant- 
 ed them in his stead, with having killed the Prince of 
 Lifel" Was it from this principle that the same apostle, 
 in conjunction with John, when summoned, not before the 
 dregs of the people, (whose judgment they might have 
 been supposed capable of misleading, and whose resentment 
 they might have despised,) but before the rulers and the 
 elders, and the scribes, the dread tribunal of the Jewish 
 nation, and commanded by them to teach no more in the 
 name of Jesus, boldly answered, ** that they could not but 
 speak the things which they had seen and heard 1" They 
 had " seen with their eyes, they had handled with their hands 
 the word of life ;" and no human jurisdiction could deter them 
 from being faithful witnesses of what they had seen and 
 heard. Here, then, you may perceive the genuine and un- 
 doubted origin of that zeal which you ascribe to what appears 
 to me a very insufficient cause ; and which the Jewish rulers 
 were so far from considering as the ordinary effect of their 
 religion, that they were exceedingly at a loss how to account 
 for it "Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and 
 John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant 
 men, they marveled." The apostles, heedless of consequences, 
 and regardless of every thing but truth, openly every where 
 professed themselves witnesses of the resurrection of Christ ; 
 and with a confidence which could proceed from nothing but 
 conviction, and which pricked the Jews to the heart, bade 
 " the house of Israel know assuredly, that God had made 
 that same Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and 
 Christ." 
 
 I mean not to produce these instances of apostolic zeal as 
 direct proofs of the truth of Christianity ; for every religion, 
 nay, every absurd sect of every religion, has had its zealots, 
 who have not scrupled to maintain their principles at the ex- 
 pense of their lives ; and we ought no more to infer the truth 
 of Christianity from the mere zeal of its propagators, than the- 
 truth of Mahomedanism from that of a Turk. When a man 
 suffers himself to be covered with infamy, pillaged of his pro- 
 perty, and dragged at last to the block or the stake, rather 
 than give up his opinion, the proper inference is, not that his 
 opinion is true, but that he believes it to be true ; and a ques- 
 tion of serious discussion immediately presents itself — ^upon 
 what foundation has he built his belief] This is often an in- 
 tricate inquiry, including in it a vast compass of human leam-^ 
 ing. A Brahmin or a Mandarin, who should observe a mis- 
 sionary attesting the truth of Christianity with his blood,, 
 would, notwithstanding, have a right to ask many questions, 
 before it could be expected that he should give an assent to 
 our faith. In the case, indeed, of the apostles, the mquiry 
 would be much less perplexed, since it would briefly resolve 
 itself into this — whether they were credible reporters of facts 
 which they themselves professed to have seen — and it would 
 be an easy matter to show, that their zeal in attesting what 
 they were certainly competent to judge of, could not proceed 
 from any alluring prospect of worldly interest or ambition, or 
 from any other probable motive than a love of truth. 
 
 But the credibility of the apostles' testimony, or their com- 
 petency to judge of the facts which they relate, is now to be 
 examined : the question before us simply relates the principle 
 
 601 
 
502 
 
 WAl SON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 * 
 
 by which their zeal was excited ; and it is a matter of real as- 
 tonishment to me, that any one conversant with the histoiy 
 of the first propagation of Chrfetianity, acquainted with the 
 opposition it every where met with from the people of the 
 Jews, and aware of the repugnancy which must ever subsist 
 between its tenets and those of Judaism, should ever think 
 of deriving the zeal of the primitive Christians from the Jew- 
 ish religion. 
 
 Both Jew and Christian, indeed, believed in one God, and 
 abominated idolatry ; but this detestation of idolatry, had it 
 been unaccompanied with the belief of the resurrection of 
 Christ, would probably have been just as inefficacious in ex- 
 citing the zeal of the Christian to undertake the conversion 
 of the Gentile world, as it had for ages been in exciting that 
 of the Jew. But supposing, what I think you have not prov- 
 ed, and what I am certain cannot be admitted without proof, 
 that a zeal derived from the Jewish religion inspired the first 
 Christians with fortitude to oppose themselves to the institu- 
 tions of Paganism ; what was it that encouraged them to at- 
 tempt the conversion of their own countrymen 1 Amongst 
 the Jews they met with no superstitious observances of idola- 
 trous rites; and therefore amongst them could have no oppor- 
 tunity of *• declaring and confirming their zealous opposition 
 to Polytheism, or of fortifying, by frequent protestations, their 
 attachment to the Christian faith." Here, then, at least, the 
 cause you have assigned for Christian zeal ceases to operate ; 
 and we must look out for some other principle than a zeal 
 against idolatry, or we shall never be able satisfactorily to ex- 
 plain the ardour with which the apostles pressed the disciples 
 of Moses to become the disciples of Christ. 
 
 Again : does a determined opposition to, and an open abhor- 
 ronce of, even the minutest part of an old established religion, 
 appear to you to be the most likely method of conciliating to 
 another faith those who profess iti The Christians, you 
 contend, could neither mix with the heathens in their convi- 
 vial entertainments, nor partake with them in the celebration 
 of their solemn festivals ; they could neither associate with 
 them in their hymenial nor funeral rites ; they could not cul- 
 tivate their arts, or be spectators of their shows : in short, in 
 order to escape the rites of Polytheism, they were, in your 
 opinion, obliged to renounce the commerce of mankind, and 
 all the offices and amusements of life. Now, how such an 
 extravagant and intemperate zeal, as you here describe, can, 
 humanly speaking, be considered as one of the chief causes 
 of the quick propagation of Christianity, in opposition to all 
 the established powers of Paganism, is a circumstance I can 
 by no means comprehend. The Jesuit missionaries, whose 
 human prudence no one will question, were quite of a contra- 
 ry way of thinking ; and brought a deserved censure upon 
 dfiemselves for not scrupling to propagate the faith of Christ 
 by indulging to their Pagan converts a frequent use of idola- 
 trous ceremonies. Upon the whole, it appears to me, that 
 the Christians were in nowise indebted to the Jewish religion 
 for the zeal with which they propagated the gospel amongst 
 Jews as well as Gentiles; and that such a zeal as you de- 
 scribe, let its principles be what you please, could never have 
 been devised by any human understanding as a probable 
 means of promoting the prog^ress of a reformation in religion, 
 much less could it have been thought of, or adopted, by a few 
 ignorant and unconnected men. 
 
 In expatiating upon this subject, you have taken an op- 
 portunity of remarking, that '* the contemporaries of Moses 
 and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference, the most 
 amazing miracles — and that, in contradiction to every known 
 principle of the human mind, that singular people (the Jews) 
 seem to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the 
 traditions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of 
 their own senses." This observation bears hard upon the 
 veracity of the Jewish Scriptures; and, was it true, would 
 force us either to reject them, or to admit a position as extra- 
 ordinary as a miracle itself — that the testimony of others pro- 
 duced in the human mind a stronger degree of conviction, 
 concerning a matter of fact, than the testimony of the senses 
 themselves. It happens, however, in the present case, that 
 we are under no necessity of either rejecting the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures, or of admitting such an absurd position; for the fact is 
 not true, that the contemporaries of Moses and Joshua beheld 
 with careless indifference the miracles related in the Bible to 
 have been performed in their favour. That these miracles 
 were not sufficient to awe the Israelites into a uniform obedi- 
 ence to the Theocracy, cannot be denied; but whatever rea- 
 sons may be thought best adapted to account for the propen- 
 
 sity of the Jews to idolatry, and their frequent defection firom 
 the worship of one true God, a " stubborn incredulity" cannot 
 be adinitted as one of them. 
 
 To men, indeed, whose understandings have been enlight- 
 ened by the Christian revelation, and enlarged by all the 
 aids of human learning; who are under no temptations to 
 idolatry from without, and whose reason from within would 
 revolt at the idea of worshipping the infinite Author of the uni- 
 verse under any created symbol ; to men who are compelled, 
 by the utmost exertion of their reason, to admit, as an irrefra- 
 gable truth, what puzzles the first principles of all reasoning, 
 the eternal existence of an uncaused being, and who are con- 
 scious that they cannot give a full account of any one phe- 
 nomenon in nature, from the rotation of the great orbs of the 
 universe to the germination of a blade of grass, without hav- 
 ing recourse to him as the primary incomprehensible cause of 
 it ; and who, from seeing him every where, have, by a strange 
 fatality, (converting an excess of evidence into a principle of 
 disbelief,) at times doubted concerning his existence any 
 where, and made the very universe their God : to men of such 
 a stamp, it appears almost an incredible thing, that any hu- 
 man being, which had seen the order of nature interrupted, 
 or the uniformity of its course suspended, though but for a mo- 
 ment, should ever afterwards lose the impression of reveren- 
 tial awe which they apprehend would have been excited in 
 their minds. But whatever effect the visible interposition of 
 the Deity might have in removing the scepticism or confirm- 
 ing the faith, of a few philosophers, it is with me a very great 
 doubt, whether the people in general of our days would be 
 more strongly affected by it than they appear to have been in 
 the days of Moses. 
 
 Was any people under heaven to escape the certain de- 
 struction impending over them, from the close pursuit of an 
 enraged and irresistible enemy, by seeing the waters of the 
 ocean " becoming a wall to them on their right hand and on 
 their left," they would, I apprehend, be agitated by the very 
 same passions we are told the Israelites were, when they saw 
 the sea returning to his strength, and swallowing up the host 
 of Pharaoh ; they *' would fear the Lord, they would believe 
 the Lord," and they would express their faith and their fear 
 by praising the Lord : they would not behold such a great 
 work with '* careless indifference," but with astonishment and 
 terror ; nor would you be able to detect the slightest vestige of 
 ** stubborn incredulity" in their song of gratitude. No length 
 of time would be able to blot from their minds the memory of 
 such a transaction, or induce a doubt concerning its author ; 
 though future hunger and thirst might make them call out for 
 water and bread with a desponding and rebeilious importu- 
 nity. 
 
 But it was not at the Red Sea only that the Israelites re- 
 garded, with something more than a " careless indifference," 
 the amazing miracles which God had wrought; for, when the 
 law was declared to them from Mount Sinai, ** all the people 
 saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the 
 tempest, and the mountain smoking; and when the people 
 saw it, they removed and stood afar off: and they said unto 
 Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not 
 God speak with us, lest we die." This again, sir, is the 
 Scripture account of the language of the contemporaries of 
 Moses and Joshua ; and I leave it to you to consider whether 
 this is the language of " stubborn increduUty and careless in- 
 difference." 
 
 We are told, in Scripture, too, that whilst any of the 
 "contemporaries" of Moses and Joshua were alive, the whole 
 people served the Lord ; the impression which a sight of the 
 miracles had made was never effaced ; nor the obedience, which 
 might have been expected as a natural consequence, refused, 
 till Moses and Joshua, and all their contemporaries, were 
 gathered unto their fathers; till, *' another generation after 
 them arose, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works 
 which he had done for Israel." But •* the people served the 
 Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that 
 outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the 
 Lord that he did for Israel." 
 
 I am far from thinking you, sir, unacquainted with Scrip- 
 ture, or desirous of sinking the weight of its testimony ; but as 
 the words of the history, from which you must have derived 
 your observation, will not support you in imputing "careless 
 indifference" to the contemporaries of Moses, or ♦* stubborn 
 incredulity" to the forefathers of the Jews, I know not what 
 can have induced you to pass so severe a censure upon them, 
 except that you look upon a lapse into idolatry as a proof of 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 503 
 
 Jelity. In answer to this, I would remark, that with equal 
 odness of argument we ought to infer, that every one who 
 igresses a religion, disbelieves it ; and that every individu- 
 who in any community incurs civil pains and penalties, 
 a disbeliever of the existence of the authority by which they 
 are inflicted. The sanctions of the Mosaic law were, in your 
 opinion, terminated within the narrow limits of this life; in 
 that particular, then, they must have resembled the sanctions 
 of all other civil laws; " transgress and die," is the language 
 of every one of them, as well as that of Moses ; and I know 
 not what reason we have to expect that the Jews, who were 
 animated by the same hopes of temporal rewards, impelled by 
 the same fears of temporal punishments, with the rest of man- 
 kind, should have been so singular in their conduct, as never 
 to have listened to the clamors of passion before the still voice 
 of reason, as never to have preferred a present gratification of 
 sense, in the lewd celebration of idolatrous rites, before the 
 rigid observance of irksome ceremonies. 
 
 Before I release you from the trouble of this letter, I can- 
 not help observing, that I could have wished you had furnish- 
 ed your reader with Limborch's answers to the Jew Orobio, 
 concerning the perpetual obligation of the law of Moses. 
 You have, indeed, mentioned Limborch with respect, in a 
 short note ; but, though you have studiously put into the 
 mouths of the Judaising Christians in the apostolic days, and 
 with great strength inserted into your text whatever has been 
 said by Orobio, or others, against Christianity, from the sup- 
 posed perpetuity of the Mosaic dispensation, yet you have not 
 favoured us with any one of the numerous replies which have 
 been made to these seemingly strong objections. You are 
 pleased, it is true, to say, " that the industry of our learned 
 divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of 
 the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apos- 
 tolic teachers." It requires, sir, no learned industry to ex- 
 plain what is so obvious and so expressive, that he who runs 
 may read it. The language of the Old Testament is this: 
 « Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a 
 new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house 
 of Judah ; not according to the covenant that I made vvith 
 their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring 
 them out of the land of Egypt" This, methinks, is a clear 
 and solemn declaration; there is no ambiguity at all in it; 
 that the covenant with Moses was not to be perpetual, but was, 
 in some future time, to give way to a "new covenant" I 
 will not detain you with an explanation of what Moses him- 
 self has said upon this subject ; but you may try, if you please, 
 whether you can apply the following declaratiori, which Mo- 
 ses made to the Jews, to any prophet, or succession of proph- 
 ets, with the same propriety that you can to Jesus Christ: 
 *• The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from 
 the midst of thee, of thy brethren, Uke unto thee : unto him 
 shall ye hearken." If you think this ambiguous or obscure, 
 I answer, that it is not a history, but a prophecy; and, as 
 such, unavoidably liable to some degree of obscurity, till inter- 
 preted by the event. 
 
 Nor was the conduct of the apostles more ambiguous than 
 the language of the Old Testament; they did not, indeed, at 
 first comprehend the whole of the nature of the new dispen- 
 sation ; and when they did understand it better, they did not 
 think proper, upon every occasion, to use their Christian lib- 
 erty ; but, with true Christian charity, accommodated them- 
 «elves in matters of indifference to the prejudices of their 
 weaker brethren. But he who changes his conduct with a 
 change of sentiments, proceeding from an increase of know- 
 ledge, is not ambiguous in his conduct ; nor should he be ac- 
 cused of a culpable duplicity, who, in a matter of the last im- 
 portance, endeavours to conciliate the good-will of all, by con- 
 forming in a few innocent observances to the particular per- 
 suasions of different men. 
 
 One remark more, and I have done. In your account of 
 the Gnostics, you have given us a very minute catalogue of 
 the objections which they made to the authority of Moses, 
 from his account of the creation, of the patriarchs, of the law, 
 and of the attributes of the Deity. I have not leisure to ex- 
 amine whether the Gnostics of former ages really made all the 
 objections you have mentioned; I take it for granted, upon 
 your authority, that they did: but I am certain, if they did, 
 that the Gnostics of modem times have no reason to be puff- 
 ed up with their knowledge, or to be held in admiration as 
 men of subtle penetration or refined erudition ; they are all 
 miserable copiers of their brethren of antiquity ; and neither 
 Morgan, nor Tindal, nor BoUngbroke, nor Voltaire, have been 
 
 able to produce scarce a single new objection. You think 
 that the Fathers have not properly answered the Gnostics. I 
 make no question, sir, you are able to answer them to your 
 own satisfaction, and informed of every thing that has been 
 said by our " industrious divines" upon the subject; and we 
 should have been glad if it had fallen in with your plan to 
 have administered, together with the poison, its antidote. 
 But since that is not the case, lest its malignity should spread 
 too far, I must just mention it to my younger readers, that Le- 
 land, and others, in their rephes to the modem deists, have 
 given very full, and, as many learned men apprehend, very 
 satisfactory answers to every one of the objections which you 
 have derived from the Gnostic heresy. I am, &c 
 
 LETTER II.' 
 
 Sir : — ^**The doctrine of a future life, improved by every 
 additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy 
 to that important truth," is the second of the causes to which 
 you attribute the quick increase of Christianity. Now, if we 
 impartially consider the circumstances of the persons to whom 
 the doctrine, not simply of a future life, but of a future life ac- 
 companied with punishments as well as rewards ; not only of 
 the immortality of the soul, but of the immortality of the soul 
 accompanied with that of the resurrection, was delivered, I 
 cannot be of opinion that, abstracted from the supernatural 
 testimony by which it was enforced, it could have met with 
 any very extensive reception amongst them. 
 
 It was not that kind of future hfe which they expected ; it 
 did not hold out to them the punishments of the infernal re- 
 gions as anmles fabulaa. [Old wives' fables.] To the ques- 
 tion. Quid si post mortem maneant animi ? [What if souls 
 exist after death 1] they would not answer with Cicero and 
 the philosophers, Beatos esse cm\cedo ; [They are happy;] 
 because, there was a great probability that it might be quite 
 otherwise with them. I am not to learn that there are pas- 
 sages to be picked up in the writings of the ancients, which 
 might be produced as proofs of their expecting a future state 
 of punishment for the flagitious ; but this opinion was worn 
 out of credit before the time of our Saviour : the whole di^u- 
 tation in the first book of the Tusculan Questions goes upon 
 the other supposition. Nor was the absurdity of the doctrine 
 of future punishments confined to the writings of the philoso- 
 phers, or the circles of the learned and polite ; for Cicero, to 
 mention no others, makes no secret of it in his public plead- 
 ings before the people at large. You, yourself, sir, have re- 
 ferred to his oration for Cluentius. In this oration, you may 
 remember, he makes great mention of a very abandoned fel- 
 low who had forged, I know not how many wills, murdered, 
 I know not how many wives, and perpetrated a thousand 
 other villanies ; yet, even to this profligate, by name Oppiani- 
 cus, he is persuaded that death was not the occasion of any 
 evil. Hence, I think, we may conclude, that such of the 
 Romans as were not wholly infected with the annihilating 
 notions of Epicurus, but entertained (whether from remote 
 tradition or enlightened argumentation) hopes of a future life, 
 had no manner of expectation of such a life as included in it 
 the severity of punishment denounced in the Christian scheme 
 
 against the wicked. , . , , • x •, ^ 
 
 Nor was it that Kind of future life which they wished : they 
 would have been glad enough of an Elysium which could 
 have admitted into it men who had spent this life in the per- 
 petration of every vice which can debase and pollute the hu- 
 man heart. To abandon every seducing gratification of sense, 
 to pluck up every latent root of ambition, to subdue every 
 impulse of revenge, to divest themselves of every inveterate 
 habit in which their glory and their pleasure consisted : to do 
 all this, and more, before they could look up to the doctrme 
 of a future life without terror and amazement, was not, one 
 would think, an easy undertaking ; nor was it likely, that 
 many would foraake the religious institutions of th^r ances- 
 tors, set at naught the gods under whose auspices the capitol 
 had been founded, and Rome made mistress of the world ; and 
 suffer themselves to be persuaded into the belief of a tenet, 
 the very mention of which made Felix tremble, by any thmg 
 less than a full conviction of the supernatural authonty of 
 
 those who taught it. ,.,,,•! -i- j 
 
 The several schools of Gentile philosophy had discussed, 
 with no small subtlety, every argument which reason could 
 
 \ 
 
 ■^v 
 
502 
 
 WAl SON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON*S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 503 
 
 by which their zeal was excited ; and it is a matter of real as- 
 tonishment to me, that any one conversant with the history 
 of the first propagation of Chrfctianity, acquainted with the 
 opposition it every where met with from the people of the 
 Jews, and aware of the repugnancy which must ever subsist 
 between its tenets and those of Judaism, should ever think 
 of deriving the zeal of the primitive Christians from the Jew- 
 ish religion. 
 
 Both Jew and Christian, indeed, believed in one God, and 
 abominated idolatry ; but Uus detestation of idolatry, had it 
 been unaccompanied with the belief of the resurrection of 
 Christ, would probably have been just as inefficacious in ex- 
 citing the zeal of the Christian to undertake the conversion 
 of the Gentile world, as it had for ages been in exciting that 
 of the Jew. But supposmg, what I think you have not prov- 
 ed, and what I am certain cannot be admitted without proof, 
 that a zeal derived from the Jewish religion inspired the first 
 Christians with fortitude to oppose themselves to the institu- 
 tions of Paganism ; what was it that encouraged them to at- 
 tempt the conversion of their own countrymen 1 Amongst 
 the Jews they met with no superstitious observances of idola- 
 trous rites ; and therefore amongst them could have no oppor- 
 tunity of *• declaring and confirming their zealous opposition 
 to Polytheism, or of fortifying, by frequent protestations, their 
 attachment to the Christian faith." Here, then, at least, the 
 cause you have assigned for Christian zeal ceases to operate ; 
 and we must look out for some other principle than a zeal 
 against idolatry, or we shall never be able satisfactorily to ex- 
 plain the ardour with which the apostles pressed the disciples 
 of Moses to become the disciples of Christ. 
 
 Again : does a determined opposition to, and an open abhor- 
 rence of, even the minutest part of an old established religion, 
 appear to you to be the most likely method of conciliating to 
 another faith those who profess it"? The Christians, you 
 contend, could neither mix with the heathens in their convi- 
 vial entertainments, nor partake with them in the celebration 
 of their solemn festivals ; they could neither associate with 
 them in their hymenial nor funeral riles ; they could not cul- 
 tivate their arts, or be spectators of their shows : in short, in 
 order to escape the rites of Polytheism, they were, in your 
 opinion, obliged to renounce the commerce of mankind, and 
 all the offices and amusements of life. Now, how such an 
 extravagant and intemperate zeal, as you here describe, can, 
 humanly speaking, be considered as one of the chief causes 
 of the quick propagation of Christianity, in opposition to all 
 the established powers of Paganism, is a circumstance I can 
 by no means comprehend. The Jesuit missionaries, whose 
 human prudence no one will question, were quite of u contra- 
 ry way of thinking ; and brought a deserved censure upon 
 ttiemselves for not scrupling to propagate the faith of Christ 
 by indulging to their Pagan converts a frequent use of idola- 
 trous ceremonies. Upon the whole, it appears to me, that 
 the Christians were in nowise indebted to the Jewish religion 
 for the zeal with which they propagated the gospel amongst 
 Jews as well as Gentiles; and that such a zeal as you de- 
 scribe, let its principles be what you }>lcase, could never have 
 been devised by any human understanding as a probable 
 means of promoting the progress of a reformation in religion, 
 much less could it have been thought of, or adopted, by a few 
 ignorant and unconnected men. 
 
 In expatiating upon this subject, you have taken an op- 
 portunity of remarking, that " the contemporaries of Moses 
 and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference, the most 
 amazing miracles — and that, in contradiction to every known 
 principle of the human mind, that singular people (the Jews) 
 seem to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the 
 traditions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of 
 their own senses." This observation bears hard upon the 
 veracity of the Jewish Scriptures; and, was it true, would 
 force us either to reject them, or to admit a position as extra- 
 ordinary as a miracle itself — that the testimony of others pro- 
 duced in the human mind a stronger degree of conviction, 
 concerning a matter of fact, than the testimony of the senses 
 themselves. It happens, however, in the present case, that 
 we are under no necessity of either rejecting the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures, or of admitting such an absurd position ; for the fact is 
 not true, that the contemporaries of Moses and Joshua beheld 
 with careless indifference the miracles related in the Bible to 
 have been performed in their favour. That these miracles 
 were not sufficient to awe the Israelites into a uniform obedi- 
 ence to the Theocracy, cannot be denied; but whatever rea- 
 sons may be thought best adapted to account for the propen- 
 
 sity of the Jews to idolatry, and their frequent defection firom 
 the worship of one true God, a " stubborn incredulity" cannot 
 be adinitted as one of them. 
 
 To men, indeed, whose understandings have been enlight- 
 ened by the Christian revelation, and enlarged by all the 
 aids of human learning; who are under no temptations to 
 idolatry from without, and whose reason from within would 
 revolt at the idea of worshipping the infinite Author of the uni- 
 verse under any created symbol ; to men who are compelled, 
 by the utmost exertion of their reason, to admit, as an irrefra- 
 gable truth, what puzzles the first principles of all reasoning, 
 the eternal existence of an uncaused being, and who are con- 
 scious that they cannot give a full account of any one ph^ 
 nomenon in nature, from the rotation of the great orbs of the 
 universe to the germination of a blade of grass, without hav- 
 ing recourse to him as the primary incomprehensible cause <^ 
 it ; and who, from seeing him every where, have, by a strange 
 fatality, (converting an excess of evidence into a principle of 
 disbelief,) at times doubted concerning his existence any 
 where, and made the very universe their God : to men of such 
 a stamp, it appears almost an incredible thing, that any hu- 
 man being, which had seen the order of nature interrupted, 
 or the uniformity of its course suspended, though but for a mo- 
 ment, should ever afterwards lose the impression of reveren- 
 tial awe which they apprehend would have been excited in 
 their minds. But whatever effect the visible interposition of 
 the Deity might have in removing the scepticism or confirm- 
 ing the faith, of a few philosophers, it is with me a very great 
 doubt, whether the people in general of our days would be 
 more strongly affected by it than they appear to have been in 
 the days of Moses. 
 
 Was any people under heaven to escape the certain de- 
 struction impending over them, from the close pursuit of an 
 enraged and irresistible enemy, by seeing the waters of the 
 ocean '* becoming a wall to them on their right hand and on 
 their left," they would, I apprehend, be agitated by the very 
 same passions we are told the Israelites were, when they saw 
 the sea returning to his strength, and swallowing up the host 
 of Pharaoh ; they " would fear the Lord, they would believe 
 the Lord," and they would express their faith and their fear 
 by praising the Lord : they would not behold such a great 
 work with ** careless indifference," but with astonishment and 
 terror; nor would you be able to detect the slightest vestige of 
 " stubborn incredulity" in their song of gratitude. No length 
 of time would be able to blot from their minds the memory of 
 such a transaction, or induce a doubt concerning its author; 
 though future hunger and thirst might make them call out for 
 water and bread with a desponding and rebellious importu- 
 nity. 
 
 But it was not at the Red Sea only that the Israelites re- 
 garded, with something more than a " careless indifference," 
 the amazing miracles which God had wrought ; for, when the 
 law was declared to them from Mount Sinai, " all the people 
 saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the 
 tempest, and the mountain smoking; and when the people 
 saw it, they removed and stood afar off: and they said unto 
 Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not 
 God speak with us, lest we die." This again, sir, is the 
 Scripture account of the language of the contemporaries of 
 Moses and Joshua ; and I leave it to you to consider whether 
 this is the language of " stubborn increduUty and careless in- 
 difference." 
 
 We are told, in Scripture, too, that whilst any of the 
 "contemporaries" of Moses and Joshua were alive, the whole 
 people served the Lord ; the impression which a sight of the 
 miracles had made was never effaced ; nor the obedience, which 
 might have been expected as a natural consequence, refused, 
 till Moses and Joshua, and all their contemporaries, were 
 gathered unto their fathers; till, *' another generation after 
 them arose, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works 
 which he had done for Israel." But " the people served the 
 Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that 
 outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the 
 Lord that he did for Israel." 
 
 I am far from thinking you, sir, unacquainted with Scrip- 
 ture, or desirous of sinking the weight of its testimony ; but as 
 the words of the history, from which you must have derived 
 your observation, will not support you in imputing "careless 
 indifference" to the contemporaries of Moses, or ♦' stubborn 
 incredulity" to the forefathers of the Jews, I know not what 
 can have induced you to pass so severe a censure upon them, 
 except that you look upon a lapse into idolatry as a proof of 
 
 infidelity. In answer to this, I would remark, that with equal 
 eoundness of argument we ought to infer, that every one who 
 trangresses a religion, disbelieves it ; and that every individu- 
 al who in any community incurs civil pains and penalties, 
 is a disbeliever of the existence of the authority by which they 
 are inflicted. The sanctions of the Mosaic law were, in your 
 opinion, terminated within the narrow limits of this life; in 
 that particular, then, they must have resembled the sanctions 
 of all other civil laws; ♦' transgress and die," is the language 
 of every one of them, as well as that of Moses ; and I know 
 not what reason we have to expect that the Jews, who were 
 animated by the same hopes of temporal rewards, impelled by 
 the same fears of temporal punishments, with the rest of man- 
 kind, should have been so singular in their conduct, as never 
 to have listened to the clamors of passion before the still voice 
 of reason, as never to have preferred a present gratification of 
 sense, in the lewd celebration of idolatrous rites, before the 
 rigid observance of irksome ceremonies. 
 
 Before I release you from the trouble of this letter, I can- 
 not help observing, that I could have wished you had furnish- 
 ed your reader with Limborch's answers to the Jew Orobio, 
 concerning the perpetual obligation of the law of Moses. 
 You have, indeed, mentioned Limborch with respect, in a 
 short note ; but, though you have studiously put into the 
 mouths of the Judaising Christians in the ^;)ostolic days, and 
 with great strength inserted into your text whatever has been 
 said by Orobio, or others, against Christianity, from the sup- 
 posed perpetuity of the Mosaic dispensation, yet you have not 
 favoured us with any one of the numerous replies which have 
 been made to these seemingly strong objections. You are 
 pleased, it is true, to say, " that the industry of our learned 
 divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of 
 the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apos- 
 tolic teachers." It requires, sir, no learned industry to ex- 
 plain what is so obvious and so expressive, that he who runs 
 may read it. The language of the Old Testament is this: 
 « Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a 
 new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house 
 of Judah ; not according to the covenant that I made with 
 their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring 
 them out of the land of Egypt" This, methinks, is a clear 
 and solemn declaration; there is no ambiguity at all in it; 
 that the covenant with Moses was not to be perpetual, but was, 
 in some future tune, to give way to a "new covenant" I 
 will not detain you with an explanation of what Moses him- 
 self has said upon this subject ; but you may try, if you please, 
 whether you can apply the following declaration, which Mo- 
 ses made to the Jews, to any prophet, or succession of proph- 
 ets, with the same propriety that you can to Jesus Christ: 
 ** The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from 
 the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto thee : unto him 
 shall ye hearken." If you think this ambiguous or obscure, 
 I answer, that it is not a history, but a prophecy; and, as 
 such, unavoidably liable to some degree of obscurity, till inter- 
 preted by the event. 
 
 Nor was the conduct of the apostles more ambiguous than 
 the language of the Old Testament; they did not, indeed, at 
 first comprehend the whole of the nature of the new dispen- 
 sation ; and when they did understand it better, they did not 
 think proper, upon every occasion, to use their Christian lib- 
 erty ; but, with true Christian charity, accommodated them- 
 «elves in matters of indifference to the prejudices of their 
 weaker brethren. But he who changes his conduct with a 
 change of sentiments, proceeding from an increase of know- 
 ledge, is not ambiguous in his conduct ; nor should he be ac- 
 cused of a culpable duplicity, who, in a matter of the last im- 
 portance, endeavours to conciliate the good-will of all, by con- 
 forming in a few innocent observances to the particular per- 
 suasions of different men. 
 
 One remark more, and I have done. In your account of 
 the Gnostics, you have given us a very minute catalogue of 
 the objections which they made to the authority of Moses, 
 from his account of the creation, of the patriarchs, of the law, 
 and of the attributes of the Deity. I have not leisure to ex- 
 amine whether the Gnostics of former ages really made all the 
 objections you have mentioned; I take it for granted, upon 
 your authority, that they did: but I am certain, if they did, 
 that the Gnostics of modem times have no reason to be puff- 
 ed up with their knowledge, or to be held in admiration as 
 men of subtle penetration or refined erudition ; they arc all 
 miserable copiers of their brethren of antiquity ; and neither 
 Morgan, nor Tindal, nor Bolingbroke, nor Voltaire, have been 
 
 able to produce scarce a single new objection. You think 
 that the Fathers have not properly answered the Gnostics. I 
 make no question, sir, you are able to answer them to your 
 own satisfiiction, and inf(»rmed of every thing that has been 
 said by our " industrious divines" upon the subject; and wo 
 should have been glad if it had fallen in with your plan to 
 have administered, together with the poison, its antidote. 
 But since that is not the case, lest its malignity should qnread 
 too far, I must just mention it to my younger readers, that Le- 
 land, and others, in their repUes to the modem deists, have 
 given very full, and, as many learned men apprehend, very 
 satisfactory answers to every one of the objections which you 
 have derived from the Gnostic heresy. I am, &c 
 
 LETTER II.' 
 
 Sir : — "The doctrine of a future life, improved by every 
 additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy 
 to that important truth," is the second of the causes to which 
 you attribute the quick increase of Christianity. Now, if we 
 impartially consider the circumstances of the persons to whom 
 the doctrine, not simply of a future life, but of a future life ac- 
 companied with punishments as well as rewards ; not only of 
 the immortality of the soul, but of the immortality of the soul 
 accompanied with that of the resurrection, was delivered, I 
 cannot be of opinion that, abstracted from the supernatural 
 testimony by which it was enforced, it could have met with 
 any very extensive reception amongst them. 
 
 It was not that kind of future hfe which they expected ; it 
 did not hold out to them the punishments of the infernal re- 
 gions as anniles fabulas. [Old wives' fables.] To the ques- 
 tion. Quid si post mortem maneani animi? [What if souls 
 exist after death 1] they would not answer with Cicero and 
 the philosophers, Beaios esse cmcedo ; [They are happy;] 
 because, there was a great probability that it might be quite 
 otherwise with them. I am not to leam that thpre are pas- 
 sages to be picked up in the writings of the ancients, which 
 might be produced as proofs of their expecting a future state 
 of punishment for the flagitious ; but this opinion was worn 
 out of credit before the time of our Saviour : the whole dispu- 
 tation in the first book of the Tusculan Questions goes upon 
 the other supposition. Nor was the absurdity of the doctrine 
 of future punishments confined to the writings of the philoso- 
 phers, or the circles of the learned and polite ; for Cicero, to 
 mention no others, makes no secret of it in his public plead- 
 ings before the people at large. You, yourself, sir, have re- 
 ferred to his oration for Cluentius. In this oration, you may 
 remember, he makes great mention of a very abandoned fel- 
 low who had forged, I know not how many wills, murdered, 
 I know not how many wives, and perpetrated a thousand 
 other villanie» ; yet, even to this profligate, by name Oppiani- 
 cus, he is persuaded that death was not the occasion of any 
 evil. Hence, I think, we may conclude, that such of the 
 Romans as were not wholly infected with the annihilating 
 notions of Epicurus, but entertained (whether from remote 
 tradition or enlightened argumentation) hopes of a future life, 
 had no manner of expectation of such a life as included in it 
 the severity of punishment denounced in the Christian scheme 
 
 against the wicked. , . , , . , , , 
 
 Nor was it that Kind of future life which they wished : they 
 would have been glad enough of an Elysium which could 
 have admitted into it men who had spent this life in the per- 
 petration of every vice which can debase and pollute the hu- 
 man heart. To abandon every seducin g gratification of sense, 
 to pluck up every latent root of ambition, to subdue every 
 impulse of revenge, to divest themselves of every inveterate 
 habit in which thar glory and their pleasure consisted : to do 
 all this, and more, before they could look up to the doctnne 
 of a future life without terror and amazement, was not, one 
 would think, an easy undertaking; nor was it likely, that 
 many would foreake the religious institutions of thor ances- 
 tors, set at naught the gods under whose auspices the capitol 
 had been founded, and Rome made mistress of the world ; and 
 suffer themselves to be persuaded into the belief of a tenet, 
 the very mention of which made Felix tremble, by Miy thmg 
 less than a full conviction of the supernatural authority of 
 
 those who taught it. , .. , , , ,- j 
 
 The several schools of Gentile philosophy had discussed, 
 with no small subtlety, every argument wbidi reason could 
 
504 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 505 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i: 
 
 suggest, for and against the immortality of the soul ; and those 
 uncertain glimmerings of the light of nature would have pre- 
 pared the minds of the learned for the reception of the full il- 
 lustration of this subject by the Gospel, had not the resurrec- 
 tion been a part of the doctrine therein advanced. But that 
 this corporeal frame, which is hourly mouldering away, and 
 resolved at last into the undistinguished mass of elements 
 from which it was first derived, should ever it be " clothed 
 ■with immortality ; that this corruptible should ever put on in- 
 corruption," is a truth so far removed from the apprehension 
 of philosophical research, so dissonant from the common con- 
 ceptions of mankind, that amongst all ranks and persuasions 
 of men it was esteemed an impossible thing. At Athens, the 
 philosophers had listened with patience to St Paul, whilst 
 they conceived him but a " setter forth of strange gods ;" but 
 as soon as they comprehended, that by the etvAo-ToLa-i; he meant 
 the resurrect ion f they turned from him with contempt. It 
 was principally the insisting upon the same topic which made 
 Festus think '* that much learning had made him mad." And 
 the questions, "How are the dead raised up?" and, " With 
 what body do they come 1" seem, by Paul's solicitude to an- 
 swer them with fullness and precision, to have been not un- 
 irequently proposed to him by those who were desirous of be- 
 coming Christians. 
 
 The doctrine of a future life, then, as promulged in the 
 Gospel, being neither agreeable to the expectations, nor cor- 
 responding with the wishes, nor conformable to the reason of 
 the Gentiles, I can discover no motive (setting aside the true 
 one, the divine power of its first preachers,) which could in- 
 duce them to receive it ; and, in consequence of their belief, 
 to conform their loose morals to the rigid standard of Gospel 
 purity, upon the mere authority of a few contemptible fisher- 
 men of Judea. And even you, yourself, sir, seem to have 
 changed your opinion concerning the efficacy of the expecta- 
 tion of a future life in converting the heathen, when you ob- 
 serve in the following chapter, that " the Pagan multitude, 
 reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected 
 the inestimable present of life and immortality which was 
 offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth." 
 
 Montesquieu is of opinion that it will ever be impossible for 
 Christianity to establish itself in China and the East, from 
 the circumstance that it prohibits a plurality of wives. How 
 then could it have been possible for it to have pervaded the 
 voluptuous capital, and traversed the utmost limits of the em- 
 pire of Rome, by the feeble efforts of human industry or hu- 
 man knavery 1 
 
 But tlie Gentiles, you are of opinion, were converted by 
 their fears ; and you reckon the doctrine of Christ's speedy 
 appearance, of the millennium, and of the general conflagra- 
 tion, amongst those additional circumstances which gave 
 weight concerning a future state. Before I proceed to the ex- 
 amination of the efficiency of these several circumstances in 
 alarming the apprehensions of the Gentiles, what if 1 should 
 grant your position ? Still the main question recurs. From 
 what source did they derive the fears which converted them I 
 Not surely from the mere human labours of men who were 
 every where spoken against, made a spectacle of, and consid- 
 ered as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things ; 
 not surely from the human powers of him, who professed 
 himself " rude in speech, m bodily presence contemptible," 
 and a despiser of " the excellency of speech, and the enticing 
 words of man's wisdom." No, such wretched instruments 
 were but ill fitted to inspire the haughty and the learned Ro- 
 mans with any other passions than those of pity or con- 
 tempt. 
 
 Now, sir, if you please, we will consider that universal ex- 
 pectation of the approaching end of the world, which, you 
 think, had such great influence in converting the Pagans to 
 the profession of Christianity. The near approach, you «ay, 
 of this wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles, 
 ** though the revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed 
 us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophe> 
 cy and revelation." That this opinion, even in the times of 
 the apostles, had made its way into the Cluristian church, I 
 readily admit; but that the apostles ever either predicted this 
 event to others, or cherished the expectation of it in them- 
 selves, does not seem probable to me. As this is a point of 
 some difficulty and importance, you will suffer me to explain 
 it at some length. 
 
 It must be owned that there are several passages in the 
 writmgs of the apostles which, at the first view, seem to coun- 
 tttianc© the opinion you have adopted. **Now,'* says St 
 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, "it is high time to awake 
 out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we 
 believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." And 
 in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians he comforts such of 
 them as were sorrowing for the loss of their friends, by assur- 
 ing them, that they were not lost for ever; but that the Lord, 
 when he came, would bring them with him; and that they 
 would not, in the participation of any blessings, be in any- 
 wise behind those who should happen then to be alive: 
 " We," says he, (the Christians of whatever age or country, 
 agreeable to a frequent use of the pronoun we,) " which are 
 alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not pre- 
 vent them which are asleep ; for the Lord himself shall de- 
 scend from heaven with a shoUt, with the voice of the arch- 
 angel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first ; then we which are alive, and remain, shall be 
 caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord." 
 In his Epistle to the Philippians he exhorts his Christian 
 brethren not to disquiet themselves with carking cares about 
 their temporal concerns, from this powerful consideration, 
 that the Lord was at hand : " Let your moderation be known 
 to all men ; the Lord is at hand : be careful for nothing." In 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews he inculcates the same doctrine, 
 admonishing his converts " to provoke one another to love, 
 and to gootl works; and so much the more, as they saw the 
 day approaching." The age in which the apostles lived is 
 frequently called by them the end of the world, the last days, 
 the last hour. I think it unnecessary, sir, to trouble you with 
 an explication of these and other similar texts of Scripture, 
 which are usually adduced in support of your opinion, since 
 I hope to be able to give you a direct proof, that the apostles 
 neither comforted themselves, nor encouraged others, with 
 the delightful hope of seeing their Master coming again into 
 the world. 
 
 It is evident, then, that St John, who survived all the oth- 
 er apostles, could not have had any such expectation ; since, 
 in the book of the revelation, the future events of the Chris- 
 tian church, which were not to take place, many of them, till 
 a long series of years after his death, and some of which have 
 not yet been accomplished, are there minutely described. St 
 Peter, in like manner, strongly intimates, that the day of the 
 Lord might be said to be at hand, though it was at the dis- 
 tance of a thousand years or more ; for in replying to the taunt 
 of those who did then, or should in future ask, ** Where is 
 the promise of his coming 1" he says, " Beloved, be not igno- 
 rant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years as one day : The Lord 
 is not slack concerning his promise, as some rnen count slack- 
 ness." And he speaks of putting off his tabernacle, as the 
 Lord had showed him ; and of his endeavour that the Chris- 
 tians after his decease might be able to have these things in 
 remembrance : so that it is past a doubt, he could not be of opin- 
 ion that the liOrd would come in his time. As to St. Paul, up- 
 on a partial view of whose writings the doctrine concerning the 
 speedy coming of Christ is principally founded, it is mani- 
 fest, that he was conscious he should not live to sec it, not- 
 withstanding the expression before mentioned, "we which) 
 are alive ;" for he foretells his own death in express terms : 
 " The time of my departure is at hand ;" and he speaks of his 
 reward, not as immediately to be conferred upon him, but as 
 laid up, and reserved for him till some future day. "I have 
 fought a good fight, I liave finished my course ; henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
 Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." There 
 is, moreover, one passage in his writings, which is so express, 
 and full to the purpose, that it will put the matter, I think, 
 beyond all doubt; it occurs in his Second Epistle to the Thes- 
 salonians. They, it seems, had, either by misinterpreting 
 some parts of his former letter to them, or by the preaching 
 of some, who had not the spirit of truth, by some means or 
 other they had been led to expect the speedy coming of Christ, 
 and been greatly disturbed in mind upon that account To 
 remove this error, he writes to them in the following very so- 
 lemn and affectionate manner : ** We beseech you, brethren, 
 by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gather- 
 ing together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, 
 or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as 
 from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand ; let no man 
 deceive you by any means." He then goes on to describe a 
 falling away, a great corruption of the Christian church, 
 which was to happen before the day of the Lord. Now, by 
 this revelation of the man of sin, this mystery of iniquity, 
 
 which is to be consumed with the spirit of his mouth, destroy- 
 ed by the brightness of his coming, we have every reason to 
 believe, is to be understood the past and present abominations 
 of the church of Rome. How then can it be said of Paul, 
 who clearly foresaw this corruption above seventeen hundred 
 years ago, that he expected the coming of the Lord in his 
 own day 1 Let us press, sir, the mysterious language of 
 prophecy and revelation as closely as you please ; but let us 
 press it truly : and we may, perhaps, find reason from thence 
 to receive, with less reluctance, a religion which describes a 
 corruption, the strangeness of which, had it not been foretold 
 in unequivocal terms, might have amazed even a friend to 
 Christianity. 
 
 I will produce you, sir, a prophecy, which, the more close- 
 ly you press it, the more reason you will have to believe, that 
 the speedy coming of Christ could never have been ** predict- 
 ed" by the apostles. Take it, as translated by Bishop New- 
 ton : " But the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
 times, some shall apostatize from the faith ; giving heed to er- 
 roneous spirits, and doctrines concerning demons, through 
 the hypocrisy of liars; having their conscience seared with a 
 hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain 
 from meats." Here you have an express prophecy ; the Spi- 
 rit hath spoken it ; that in the latter times, not immediately, 
 but at some distant period, some should apostatize from the 
 faith; some, who had been Christians, should, in truth, be so 
 no longer, but should give heed to erroneous spirits, and doc- 
 trines concerning demons. Press this expression closely, and 
 you may, perhaps, discover in it the erroneous tenets, and the 
 demon or saint worship of the church of Rome. " Through 
 the hypocrisy of liars :" you recognize, no doubt, the priest- 
 hood, and the martyrologists. "Having their conscience 
 seared with a hot iron:" callous, indeed, must his conscience 
 be, who traffics in indulgence. " Forbidding to marry, and 
 commanding to abstain from meats:" this language needs no 
 pressing ; it discovers, at once, the unhappy votaries of mo- 
 nastic life, and the mortal sin of eating flesh on fast days. 
 
 If, notwithstanding what has been said, you should still be 
 of opinion that the apostles expected Christ would come in 
 their time ; it will not follow that this their error ought in any 
 wise to diminish their authority as preachers of the Gospel. 
 I am sensible that this position may alarm even some well- 
 wishers to Christianity ; and supply its enemies with what 
 they will think an irrefragable argument The apostles, they 
 will say, were inspired with the Spirit of truth ; and yet they 
 fell into a gross mistake concerning a matter of great import- 
 ance; how is this to be reconciled? Perhaps, in the follow- 
 ing manner: When the time of our Saviour's ministry was 
 nearly at an end, he thought proper to raise the spirits of his 
 disciples, who were quite cast down with what he had told 
 them about his design of leaving them, by promising that he 
 would send to them the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit 
 of truth, who should teach them all things, and lead them in- 
 to all truth. And we know, that this his promise was accom- 
 plished on the day of Pentecost, when they were all filled 
 with the Holy Ghost ; and we know farther, that from that 
 time forwanl they were enabled to speak with tongues, to 
 work miracles, to preach the word with power, and to com- 
 prehend the mystery of the new dispensation which was com- 
 mitted unto them. But we have no reason ffom hence to 
 conclude, that they were immediately inspired with the ap- 
 prehension of whatever might be known : that they became 
 acquainted with all kinds of truth. They were undoubtedly 
 led into such truths as it was necessary for them to know, in 
 order to their converting the world to Christianity ; but in 
 other things, they were probably left to the exercise of their 
 understanding, as other men usually arc. But surely they 
 might be proper witnesses of the life and resurrection of 
 Christ, though they were not acquainted with every thmg 
 wliich might have been known ; though, in particular, they 
 were ignorant of the precise time when our Lord would come 
 to judge the worid. It can be no impeachment either of their 
 integrity as men, or their ability as historians, or their hones- 
 ty as preachers of the Gospel, that they were unacquainted 
 with what had never been revealed to them ; that they follow- 
 ed their own understandings where they had no better light 
 to guide them ; speaking from conjecture, when they could 
 not speak from certainty ; of themselves, when they had no 
 commandment of the Lord. They knew but in part, and 
 they prophesied but in part; and concerning this particular 
 point, Jesus himself had told them, just as he was about final- 
 VoL. II.— 3 O 
 
 ly to leave them, that it was not for them to "know the times 
 and the seasons, which the Father had put in his own pow- 
 er." Nor is it to be wondered at, that the apostles were left 
 in a state of uncertainty concerning the time in which Chriet 
 should appear; since beings far more exalted, and more high- 
 ly favoured of heaven than they, were under an equal degree 
 of ignorance : " Of that day," says our Saviour, " and of that 
 hour, knoweth no man ; no, not the angels which are in 
 heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." I am afraiii^ 
 sir, I have tired you with Scripture quotations; but if I have 
 been fortunate enough to convince you, either that the speedy 
 coming of Christ was never expected, much less " predicted,"^ 
 by the apostles; or that their mistake in that particular expec- 
 tation can in no degree diminish the general weight of their 
 testimony as historians, I shall not be sorry for the ennui I 
 may have occasioned you. 
 
 The doctrine of the Millennium is the second of the circum- 
 stances which you produce as giving weight to that of a fu- 
 ture state ; and you represent this doctrine as having beea 
 " carefully calculated by a succession of the fathers, from Jua^ 
 tin Martyr and Irencus, down to Lactantius ;" and observe,, 
 that when "the edifice of the church was almost completed,, 
 the temporary support was laid aside :" and in the notes you 
 refer us, as a proof of what you advance, to " Irenaeus, thc- 
 disciple of Papias, who had seen the apostle John," and to- 
 the second dialogue of Justin with Trypho. 
 
 I wish, sir, you had turned to Eusebius for the character 
 of this Papias, who had seen the apostle John : you would 
 there have found him represented as little better than a credu- 
 lous old woman ; very averse to reading, but mightily given to- 
 picking up stories and traditions next to fabulous; amongst 
 which, Eusebius reckons this of the Millennium one. Nor is 
 it, I apprehend, quite certain, that Papias ever saw, much less 
 discoursed, as seems to be insinuated, with the apostle John» 
 Eusebius thinks rather, that it was John the presbyter he 
 had seen. But what if he had seen the apostle himselfl 
 Many a weak-headed man had undoubtedly seen him as well 
 as Papias; and it would be hard indeed upon Christians, if 
 they were compelled to receive, as apostolical traditions, the 
 wild reveries of ancient enthusiasm, or such crude conceptions 
 of ignorant fanaticism as nothing but the rust of antiquity can 
 render venerable. 
 
 As to the works of Justin, the very dialogue you refer to 
 contains a proof that the doctrine of the millennium had not, 
 even in his time, the universal reception you have supposed;, 
 but that many Christians of pure and pious principles reject- 
 ed it I wonder how this passage escaped you ; but it may 
 lie that you followed Tillotson, who himself followed Mede, 
 and read in the original or instead of ar ; and thus inwardly 
 violated the idiom of the language, the sense of the context, 
 and the authority of the best editions. In the note you ob- 
 serve, that it is unnecessary for you to mention all the inter- 
 mediate fathers between Justin and Lactantius, as the fact, 
 you say, is not disputed. In a man who has read so many 
 books, and to so good a purpose, he must be captious indeed, 
 who cannot excuse small mistakes. That unprejudiced re- 
 gard to truth, however, which is the great characteristic of 
 every distinguished historian, will, I am persuaded, make you 
 thank me for recalling to your memory that Origen, the most 
 learned of all the fathers ; and Dionysius, bishop of Alexan- 
 dria, usually, for his immense erudition, sumamed the Great, 
 were both of them prior to Lactantius, and both of them im- 
 pugners of the millennium doctrine. Look, sir, into Mosheim, 
 or almost any writer of ecclesiastical history, and you will 
 find the opposition of Origen and Dionysius to this system 
 particulariy noticed : look into so common an author as Whit- 
 by, and in his learned treatise upon this subject you will find 
 that he has well proved these two propositions : first, that this 
 opinion of the millennium was never generally received in the 
 church of Christ; secondly, that there is no just ground to 
 think it was derived from the apostles. From hence, I think,, 
 we may conclude, that this millennium doctrine, (which, by 
 the by, though it be new-modelled, is not yet thrown aside) 
 could not have been any very serviceable scaffold in the erec- 
 tion of that mighty edifice which has crushed by the weight 
 of its materials, and debased by the elegance of its structure,, 
 the stateliest temples of heathen sujterstition. With tlicsa 
 remarks, I take leave of the millennium; just observing, that 
 your third circumstance, the general conflagration, seems to 
 be effectually included in your first, the speedy coming ot 
 Christ I am, &c. 
 
 6. ^ 
 
5C6 
 
 WATSON^S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 507 
 
 LETTER in. 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 fl) 
 
 Sin,— You esteem "the miraculous powers ascribed to the 
 primitive church," as the third of the secondary causes of the 
 rapid growth of Christianity. I should be wilhng to account 
 the miracles, not merely ascribed to the pnmitive church, but 
 leally performed by the apostles, as the one great primary 
 cause of the conversion of the Gentiles. But waiving this 
 consideration, let us see whether the miraculous powers which 
 you ascribe to the primitive church, were m any emment de- 
 gree calculated to spread the belief of Christiamty amongst a 
 great and enlightened people. ^ 
 
 They consisted, you tell us, " of divine mspirations, con- 
 veyed sometimes in the form of a sleeping, sometimes of a 
 waking vision ; and were liberally bestowed on all ranks of 
 the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as upon 
 bishops." « The design of these visions," you say, " was for 
 the most part either to disclose the future history, or to guide 
 the present administration of the church." You speak of 
 *• the expulsion of demons as an ordinary triumph of religion, 
 usually performed in a public manner; and when the patient 
 was relieved by the skill or the power of the exorast, the van- 
 quished demon was heard to confess that he was one of the 
 fabled gods of antiquity, who had impiously usurped tlie ado- 
 ration of mankind;" and you represent even the miracle of 
 the resurrection of the dead as frequently performed on neces- 
 sary occasions. Cast your eye, sir, upon the church of Rome, 
 and ask yourself, (I put the question to your heart, and beg 
 you will consult that for an answer; ask yourself,) whether 
 her absurd pretensions to that very kind of miraculous pow- 
 ers you have here displayed as operating to the increase of 
 Christianity, have not converted half her numbers to Protest- 
 antism, and the other half to infidelity] Neither the sword 
 of the civil magistrate, nor the possession of the keys of heav- 
 en, nor the terrors of her spiritual thunder, have been able to 
 keep within her pale even those who have been bred up in 
 her faith; how then should you think, that the very cause 
 which has almost extinguished Christianity among Christians, 
 should have established it among Pagans? I beg I may not 
 be misunderstood. I do not take upon me to say, that all the 
 miracles recorded in the history of the primitive church after 
 the apostolical age were forgeries: it is foreign to the present 
 purpose to deliver any opinion upon that subject : but I do 
 beg leave to insist upon this, that such of them as were for- 
 geries must, in that learned age, by their easy detectioii.have 
 rather impeded than accelerated the progress of Christianity ; 
 and it appears very probable to me, that nothing but the re- 
 cent prevailing evidence of real, unquestioned, apostolical 
 miracles, could have secured the infant church from being 
 destroyed by those which were falsely ascribed to it. 
 
 It is not every man who can nicely separate the corrup- 
 tions of religion from religion itself, or justly apportion the 
 degrees of credit due to the diversities of evidence, and those 
 who have ability for the task are usually ready enough to 
 emancipate themselves from Gospel restraints (which thwart 
 the propensities of sense, check the ebullitions of passion, and 
 combat the prejudices of the world at every turn) by blend- 
 ing its native simplicity with the superstitions which have 
 been derived from it. No argument is so well suited to the 
 indolence or the immortality of mankind, as that priests of all 
 ages and religions are the same: we see the pretensions of the 
 Romish priesthood to miraculous powers, and we know them 
 to be false ; we are conscious that they, at least, must sacrifice 
 their integrity to their interest or their ambition ; and being 
 persuaded that there is a great sameness in the passions of 
 mankind and in their incentives to action; and knowing that 
 the history of past ages is abundantly stored with similar 
 claims to supernatural authority, we traverse back, in imagi- 
 nation, the most distant regions of antiquity ; and finding, 
 from a superficial view, nothing to discriminate one set of 
 men or one period of time from another, we hastily conclude 
 that all revealed religion is a cheat, and that the miracles at- 
 tributed to the apostles themselves are supported by no better 
 testimony, nor more worthy of our attention than the prodigies 
 of Pagan story or the lying wonders of Papal artifice. I have 
 no intention, in this place, to enlarge upon the many circum- 
 stances by which a candid inquirer after truth might be ena- 
 bled to distinguish a pointed difference between the miracles 
 of Christ and his apostles and the tricks of ancient or modern 
 superstition. One observation I would suggest to you upon 
 this subject: the miracles recorded in the Old and New Tes- 
 tament are so intimately united with the narration of common 
 
 events, and the ordinary transactions of life, that you cannot, 
 as in profane history, separate the one from the other. My 
 meaning will be illustrated by an instance : Tacitus and Sue- 
 tonius have handed down to us an account of many great ac- 
 tions performed by Vespasian; and, among the rest, they in- 
 form us of his having wrought some miracles; of his having 
 cured a lame man, and restored sight to one that was blmd. 
 But what they tell us of these miracles is so unconnected 
 with every thing that goes before and after, that you may re- 
 ject the relation of them without injuring, in any degree, the 
 consistency of the narration of the other circumstances of his 
 life: on the other hand, if you reject tlie relation or the nura- 
 cles said to have been performed by Jesus Christ, you must 
 necessarily reject the account of his whole life, and of several 
 transactions, concerning which we have the undoubted testi- 
 mony of other writers besides the evangelists. But if this ar- 
 gument should not strike you, perhaps the following observa- 
 tion may tend to remove a little of the prejudice usually con- 
 ceived against Gospel miracles by men of lively imaginations, 
 on account of the gross forgeries attributed to the first ages 
 
 of the church. . 
 
 The phenomena of physics are sometimes happily illustra- 
 ted by an hypothesis : and the most recondite truths of mathe- 
 matical science, not unfrequently, investigated from an ab- 
 surd position. What if we try the same method of argumg 
 the case before usi Let us suppose, then, that a new reve- 
 lation was to be promulged to mankind ; and that twelve un- 
 learned and unfriended men, inhabitants of any country most 
 odious and despicable in the eyes of Europe, should, by the 
 power of God, be endowed with the faculty of speaking lan- 
 guages they had never learned, and performing works sur- 
 passing all human ability ; and that, being strongly impress- 
 ed with a particular truth which they were commissioned to 
 promulgate, they should travel, not only through the barba- 
 rous regions of Africa, but through all the learned and polish- 
 ed states of Europe, preaching every where with unremitted 
 sedulity a new religion, working stupendous miracles in at- 
 testation of their mission, and communicatmg to their first 
 converts (as a seal of their conversion) a variety of spiritual 
 gifts: does it appear probable to you that, after the death of 
 these men, and probably after the deaths of most of their im- 
 mediate successors who had been zealously attached to the 
 faith they had seen so miraculously confirmed, none would 
 ever attempt to impose upon the credulous or the ignorant by 
 a fictitious claim to supernatural powers'? Would none of 
 them aspire to the gift of tongues'? would none of them mis- 
 take phrenzy for illumination, and the delusions of a heated 
 brain for the impulses of the Spirit 1 would none undertake 
 to cure inveterate disorders, to expel demons, or to raise the 
 dead 1 As far as I can apprehend, we ought, from such a 
 position, to deduce, by every rule of probable reasoning, the 
 precise conclusion which was, in fact, verified in the case of 
 the apostles : every species of miracles which heaven had ena- 
 bled the first preachers to perform, would be counterfeited, 
 either from misguided zeal or interested cunning: either 
 through the imbecility or the iniquity of mankind; and we 
 might just as reasonably conclude that there never was any 
 piety, charity, or chastity in the worid, from seeing such plen- 
 ty of pretenders to these virtues, as that there never were any 
 real miracles performed, from considering the great store 
 of those which have been forged. 
 
 But, I know not how it has happened, there are many m 
 the present age (I am far from including you, sir, in the 
 number,) whose prejudices against all miraculous evente have 
 arisen to that height, that it appears to them utterly impossi- 
 ble for any human testimony, however great, to establish 
 their credibility. I beg pardon for styling their reasoning, 
 prejudice. I have no design to give offence by that word. 
 They may, with equal right, throw the same imputation upon 
 mine; and I think it jUst as illiberal in divines to attribute 
 the scepticism of every deist to wilful infidelity, as it is in the 
 deists to refer the faith of every divine to professional bias. 
 I have not had so little intercourse with mankind, nor shun- 
 ned so much the delightful freedom of social converse, as to 
 be ignorant that there are many men of upright morals and 
 good understandings, to whom, as you express it, "a latent 
 and even involuntary scepticism adheres ;" and who would 
 be glad to be persuaded to be Christians. For the sake of 
 such men, if such should ever be induced to employ an hour 
 in the perusal of these letters, sufier me to step for a moment 
 out of my way, whilst I hazard an observation or two upon 
 the subject. 
 
 Knowledge is rightly divided by Mr. Locke into intuitive, 
 sensitive, and demonstrative. It is clear, that a past miracle can 
 neither be the object of sense nor of intuition, nor consequent- 
 ly of demonstration: we cannot, then, pliilosophically speak- 
 inT be said to know, that a miracle has ever been performed. 
 But in all the great concerns of life, we are influenced by 
 probability rather than knowledge : and of probability, the 
 same great author establishes two foundations; a conformity 
 to our own experience, and the testimony of others. Now, 
 it has been contended, that by the opposition of these two 
 principles probability is destroyed ; or, in other terms, that 
 human testimony can never influence the mind to assent to 
 a proposition repugnant to uniform experience. Whose ex- 
 perience do you mean'? You will not say, your own; for 
 the experience of an individual reaches but a little way ; and, 
 no doubt, you daily assent to a thousand truths in politics, 
 in physics, and in the business of common life, which you 
 have never seen verified by experience. You will not pro- 
 duce the experience of your friends; for that can extend it- 
 self but a little way beyond your own. But by uniform ex- 
 perience, I conceive, you are desirous of understaiiding the 
 experience of all ages and nations since the foundation of the 
 worid. I answer, first ; how is it that you become acquaint- 
 ed with the experience of all ages and nations? You will re- 
 ply, from history. Be it so: peruse, then, by far the most 
 ancient records of antiquity ; and if you find no mention of 
 miracles in them, I give up the point. Yes ; but every thing 
 related therein respecting miracles is to be reckoned fabulous. 
 Why'? Because miracles contradict the experience of all 
 ages and nations. Do you not perceive, sir, that you beg the 
 very question in debate? for we affirm, that the great and 
 learned nation of Egypt, that the heathen inhabiting the land 
 of Canaan, that the numerous people of the Jews, and the 
 nations which, for ages, surrounded them, have all had great 
 experience of miracles. You cannot otherwise obviate this 
 conclusion, than by questioning the authenticity of that book, 
 concerning which Newton, when he was writing his commen- 
 tary on Daniel, expressed himself to the person* from whom 
 I had the anecdote, and which deserves not to be lost ; " I 
 find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any 
 profane history whatsoever," 
 
 However, 1 mean not to press you with the argument ad 
 rcrecundiam ; it is needless to solicit your modesty, when it 
 may be possible, perhaps, to make an impression upon your 
 judgment : I answer, therefore, in the second place, that the 
 admission of the principle by which you reject miracles will 
 lead us into absurdity. The laws of gravitation are the most 
 obvious of all the laws of nature ; every person in every part 
 of the globe must of necessity have had experience of them. 
 There was a time when no one was acquainted with the laws 
 of magnetism: these suspend m many instances the laws of 
 gravity : nor can I see, upon the principle in question, how 
 the rest of mankind could have credited the testimony of their 
 first discoverer ; and yet to have rejected it would have been 
 to reject the truth. But that a piece of iron should ascend 
 gradually from the earth, and fly at last with an increasing 
 rapidity through the air, and attaching itself to another piece 
 of iron, or to a particular species of iron ore, should remain 
 suspended, in opposition to the action of its gravity, it will be 
 alleged, is consonant to the laws of nature. I grant it; but 
 there was a time when it was contrary, I say not to the laws 
 of nature, but to the uniform experience of all preceding ages 
 and countries ; and at that particular point of time, the testi- 
 mony of an individual, or of a dozen individuals, who should 
 have reported themselves eye-witnesses of such a fact, ought, 
 according to your argumentation, to have been received as 
 fabulous. And what are those laws of nature, which, you 
 think, can never be suspended'? Are they not different to 
 different men, according to the diversities of their comprehen- 
 sion and knowledge'? And if any of them (that, for m- 
 stance, which rules the operations of magnetism or electrici- 
 ty) should have been known to you or to me alone, whilst 
 a'll the rest of the worid were unacquainted with it; the effects 
 of it would have been new, and unheard of in the annals, and 
 contrary to the experience of mankind ; and therefore ought 
 not, in your opinion, to have been believed ! Nor do I un- 
 derstand what difference, as to credibility, there could be be- 
 tween the effects of such an unknown law of nature, and a 
 miracle ; for it is a matter of no moment, in that view, wheth- 
 er the suspension of the known laws of nature be effected ; that 
 
 is, whether a miracle be performed, by the mediation of other 
 laWs that arc unknown, or by the ministry of a person divine- 
 ly commissioned ; since it is impossible for us to be certain 
 that it is contradictory to the constitution of the universe, that 
 the laws of nature, which appear to us general, should be sus- 
 pended, and their action overruled by others, still more gene- 
 ral, though less known; that is, that miracles should be per- 
 formed before such a being as man, at those times, in those 
 places, and under those circumstances, which God, in his 
 universal providence, had preordained. I am, &c 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 ♦ Dr. Smith, late Master of Trinity College. 
 
 Sir;— I readily acknowledge the utility of your fourth 
 cause, « the virtues of the first Christians," as greatly conduc- 
 ing to the spreading of their religion ; but then you seem to 
 quite mar the compliment you pay them, by representing 
 their virtues as proceeding either from their repentance for 
 having been the most abandoned sinners, or from the lauda- 
 ble desire of supporting the reputation of the society in which 
 they were engaged. 
 
 That repentance is the first step to virtue, is true enough ; 
 but I see no reason for supposing, according to the calumnies 
 of Celsus and Julian, ** that the Christians allured iiito their 
 party men who washed away in the waters of baptism the 
 guilt for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them 
 any expiation." The apostles, sir, did not, like Romulus, 
 open an asylum for debtors, thieves and murderers; for they 
 had not the same sturdy means of securing their adhe- 
 rents from the grasp of civil power; they did not persuade 
 them to abandon the temples of the gods because they could 
 there obtain no expiation for their guilt, but because every 
 degree of guilt was expiated in them with too great facility, 
 and every vice practiced, not only without remorse of private 
 conscience, but with the powerful sanction of public approba- 
 tion. ^ , . TV- . >» 
 
 "After the example," you say, " of their Divine Master, 
 the missionaries of the Gospel addressed themselves to men, 
 and especially to women, oppressed by the consciousness, and 
 very often by the effects, of their vices."— This, sir, I really 
 think, is not a fair representation of the matter ; it may catch 
 the applause of the unlearned, embolden many a stripling to 
 cast oflf for ever the sweet blush of modesty, confirm many a 
 dissolute veteran in the pracrice of his impure habits, and 
 suggest great occasion of merriment and wanton mockery to 
 the flagitious of every denomination and every age ; but still 
 it will want that foundation of truth which can alone recom- 
 mend it to the serious and judicious. The apostles, sir, were 
 not like the Italian Fratricdli of the thirteenth, nor the 
 French Turlupins of the fourteenth century : in all the dirt 
 that has been raked up against Christianity, even by the 
 worst of its enemies, not a speck of that kind have they been 
 able to fix, either upon the apostles or their Divine Master. 
 The Gospel of Jesus Christ, sir, was not preached in single 
 houses or obscure villages, not in subterraneous caves and 
 impure brothels, not in lazars and in prisons; but in the syn- 
 agogues and in the temples, in the streets and the market 
 places of the great capitals of the Roman provinces ; in Jeru- 
 salem, in Corinth, and in Antioch ; in Athens, in Ephesus, 
 and in Rome. Nor do I any where find, that its missiona- 
 ries were ordered particularly to address themselves to the 
 shameless women you mention : I do indeed find the direct 
 contrary ; for they were ordered to turn away from, to have 
 no fellowship or intercourse with such as were wont "to 
 creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with 
 sins, led away with divers lusts." And what if a few w<> 
 men, who had either been seduced by their passions, or had 
 fallen victims to the licentious manners of their age, should 
 be found amongst those who were most ready to receive a re- 
 ligion that forbad all impurity 1 I do not apprehend that this 
 circumstance ought to bring an insinuation of discredit, either 
 upon the sex, or upon those who wrought their reformation. 
 
 ^hat the majority of the' first converts to Chnstianity were 
 of an inferior condition in life, may readily be allowed; and 
 you yourself have, in another place, given a good reason for 
 It • those who are distinguished by riches, honours, or know- 
 ledge being so very inconsiderable in number when compared 
 with the bulk of mankind. But though not many mighty, 
 not many noble were called— yet some mighty, and some no- 
 
 |i 
 
 ll 
 
 ti 
 
 If 
 
508 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 509 
 
 ble, some of as ^eat reputation as any of the age in which 
 they lived, were attached to the Christian faith. Short in- 
 deed are the accounts which have been transmitted to us of 
 the first propagating of Christianity ; yet, even in these we 
 meet with the names of many who would have done credit 
 to any cause. I will not pretend to enumerate them all ; a 
 few will be sufficient to make you recollect that there were, 
 at least, some converts to Christianity, both from among the 
 Jews and the Gentiles, whose lives were not stained with in- 
 expiable crimes. Among these we reckon Nicodemus, a ru- 
 ler of the Jews ; Joseph of Arimathea, a man of fortune and 
 a counsellor ; a nobleman and a centurion of Capernaum ; 
 Jairus, Crispus, Sosthenes, rulers of synagogues; Apollos, an 
 eloquent and learned man ; Zenas, a Jewish lawyer; the trea- 
 surer of Candace, queen of -^tliiopia; Cornelius, a centu- 
 rion of the Italian band; Dionysius, a member of the Areop- 
 agus at Athens, and Sergius Paulus, a man of proconsular 
 or prffitorian authority, of whom it may be remarked, that if 
 he resigned his high and lucrative office in consequence of 
 his turning Christian, it is a strong presumption in its fa- 
 vour ; if he retained it, we may conclude that the profession 
 of Christianity was not so utterly incompatible with the dis- 
 charge of the offices of civil life as you sometimes represent it. 
 This catalogue of men of rank, fortune, and knowledge, 
 who embraced Christianity, might, was it necessary, be much 
 enlarged ; and probably another conversation with St. Paul 
 would have enabled us to grace it with the names of Festus, 
 and king Agrippa himself; not that the writers of the books 
 of the New Testament seem to have been at all solicitous in 
 mentioning the great or the learned men who were converted 
 to the faith. Had that been part of their design, they would, 
 in the true style of impostors, have kept out of sight the pub- 
 licans and sinners, the tanners and tent-makers with whom 
 they conversed and dwelt, and introduced to our notice none 
 but those who had been " brought up with Herod or the chief 
 men of Asia," whom they had the honour to number among 
 their friends. 
 
 That the primitive Christians took great care to have an 
 unsullied reputation by abstaining from the commission of 
 whatever might tend to pollute it, is easily admitted; but we 
 do not so easily grant that this care is a "circumstance which 
 usually attends small assemblies of men when they separate 
 themselves from the body of a nation, or the religion to which 
 they belonged." It did not attend the Nicolaitanes, the Si- 
 monians, the Menandrians, and the Carpocratians, in the first 
 ages of the church, of which you are speaking ; and it cannot 
 be unknown to you, sir, that the scandalous vices of these 
 very early sectaries brought a general and undistinguished 
 censure upon the Christian name ; and, so far from promoting 
 the increase of the church, excited in the minds of the Pagans 
 an abhorrence of whatever respected it. It cannot be un- 
 known to you, sir, that several sectaries, both at home and 
 abroad, might be mentioned, who have departed from the re- 
 ligion to which they belonged; and which, unhappily for 
 themselves and the community, have taken as little care to 
 preserve their reputation unspotted, as those of the first and 
 second centuries. If, then, the first Christians did take the 
 care you mention, (and I am wholly of your opinion in that 
 point,) their solicitude might as candidly, perhaps, and as 
 reasonably be derived from a sense of their duty, and an hon- 
 est endeavour to discharge it, as from the mere desire of in- 
 creasing the honour of their confraternity by the illutrious in- 
 tegrity of its members. 
 
 You are eloquent in describing the austere morality of the 
 primitive Christians, as adverse to the propensities of sense, 
 and abhorrent from all the innocent pleasures and amuse- 
 ments of life; and you enlarge, with a studied minuteness, 
 upon their censures of luxury, and their sentiments concern- 
 ing marriage and chastity : but in this circumstantial enume* 
 ration of their errors or their faults (which I am under no ne- 
 cessity of denying or excusing) you seem to forget the very 
 purpose for which you profess to have introduced the men- 
 tion of them ; for the picture you have drawn is so hideous, 
 and the colouring so dismal, that instead of alluring to a clos- 
 er inspection, it must have made every man of pleasure or of 
 sense turn from it with horror or disgust ; and so far from con- 
 tributing to the rapid growth of Christianity by the austerity 
 of their manners, it must be a wonder to any one, how the 
 first Christians ever made a single convert. It was first ob- 
 jected by Celsus, that Christianity was a mean religion, in- 
 culcating such a pusillanimity and patience under affironts, 
 such a contempt of riches and worldly honours, as must 
 
 weaken the nerves of civil government, and expose a society 
 of Christians to the prey of the first invaders. This objection 
 has been repeated by Bayle ; and though fully answered by 
 Bernard and others, it is still the favourite theme of every es- 
 prit fort [brave spirit] of our own age : even you, sir, think 
 the aversion of Christians to the business of war and govern- 
 ment, " a criminal disregard to the public welfare." To all 
 that has been said upon this subject it may with justice, I 
 think, be answeretl, that Christianity troubles not itself with 
 ordering the constitutions of civil societies, but levels the 
 weight of all its influence at the hearts of the individuals who 
 compose them ; and, as Origen said to Celsus, was every in- 
 dividual in every nation a Gospel Christian, there would be 
 neither internal injustice, nor external war ; there would be 
 none of those passions which embitter the intercourse of civil 
 life, and desolate the globe. What reproach then can it be 
 to a religion, that it inculcates doctrines, which if universally 
 practiced, would introduce universal tranquillity, and the most 
 exalted happiness amongst mankind ? 
 
 It must pfocecd from a total misapprehension of the design 
 of the Christian dispensation, or from a very ignorant inter- 
 pretation of the particular injunctions, forbidding us to make 
 riches or honours a primary pursuit, or the prompt gratifica- 
 tion of revenge a first principle of action, to infer, that an in- 
 dividual Christian is obliged by his religion to offer his throat 
 to an assassin, and his property to the first plunderer, or that 
 a society of (Christians may not repel, in the best manner they 
 are able, the unjust assaults of hostile invasion. 
 
 I know of no precepts in the Gospel which debar a man 
 from the possession of domestic comforts, or deaden the ac- 
 tivity of his private friendships, or prohibit the exertion of his 
 utmost ability in the service of the public: the nisi quieium 
 nihil heatum [no happiness without rest] is no part of the 
 Christian's creed : his virtue is an active virtue : and we just- 
 ly refer to the school of Epicurus the doctrines concerning 
 abstinence from marriage, from the cultivation of friendship, 
 from the management of public affairs, as suited to that sel- 
 fish indolence which was the favourite tenet of his philosophy. 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Sin, — "The union and the discipline of the Christian 
 church," or, as you are pleased to style it, of the Christian 
 republic, is the last of the five secondary causes to which you 
 have referred the rapid and extensive spread of Christianity. 
 It must he acknowledged that union essentially contributes to 
 the strength of every association, civil, military, and religious; 
 but, unfortunately for your argument, and much to the re- 
 proach of Christians, nothing has been more wanting amongst 
 them, from the apostolic age to your own, than union. *'I 
 am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of 
 Christ," are expressions of disunion, which we meet with in 
 the earliest period of church history ; and we cannot look in- 
 to the writings of any, either friend or foe to Christianity, but 
 we find the one of them lamenting, and the other exulting in 
 an immense catalogue of sectaries: and both of them thereby 
 furnishing us with great reason to believe that the divisions 
 with respect to doctrine, worship, and discipline, which have 
 ever subsisted in the church, must have greatly tended to hurt 
 the credit of Christianity, and to alienate the minds of the 
 Gentiles from the reception of such a various and discordant 
 faith. 
 
 I readily grant, that there was a certain community of doc- 
 trine, an intercourse of hospitality, and a confederacy of dis- 
 cipline established among the individuals of every church ; 
 so that none could be admitted into any assembly of Chris- 
 tians without undergoing a previous examination into his 
 manner of life, (which shows, by-the-by, that every repro- 
 bate could not, as the fit seized him, or his interest induced 
 him, become a Christian,) and without protesting in the most 
 solemn manner, that he would neither be guilty of murder, 
 nor adultery, nor theft, nor perfidy ; and it may be granted 
 also, that those who broke this compact were ejected by com- 
 mon consent from the confraternity into which they had been 
 admitted. It may be farther granted, that this confederacy 
 extended itself to independent churches; and that those who 
 had, for their immoralities, been excluded from Christian 
 community in any one church, were rarely, if ever, admitted 
 
 to it by another ; just as a mernber who has been expelled 
 any one college in a university, is generally thought unwor- 
 thy of being admitted by any other: but it is not admitted, 
 that this severity and this union of discipline could ever have 
 induced the Pagans to forsake the gods of their country, and 
 to expose themselves to the contemptuous hatred of their 
 neighbours, and to all the severities of persecution, exercised 
 with unrelenting barbarity, against the Christians. 
 
 The account you give of the origin and progress of episco- 
 pal jurisdiction, of the pre-eminence of the metropolitan 
 churches, and of the ambition of the Roman pontiff, I believe 
 to be in general accurate and true ; and I am not in the least 
 surprised at the bitterness which now and then escapes you 
 in treating this subject: for to see the most benign religion 
 that imagination can form, becoming an instrument of op- 
 pression, and the most humble one administering to the 
 pride, and the avarice, and the ambition of those who wish- 
 ed to' be considered as its guardians, and who avowed them- 
 selves its professors, would extort a censure from men more 
 attached probably to church authority than yourself. Not 
 that I think it either a very candid, or a very useful under- 
 taking, to be solely and industriously engaged in portraying 
 the characters of the professors of Christianity in the worst 
 colours : it is not candid, because " the great law of impar- 
 tiality, which obliges an historian to reaveal the imperfections 
 of the uninspired teachers and believers of the Gospel," obliges 
 him also not to conceal, or to pass over with niggard and reluct- 
 ant mention, the illustrious virtues of those who gave up fortune 
 and fame, all their comforts, and all their hopes in this life; 
 nay, life itself, rather than violate any one of the precepts of 
 that Gospel which, from the testimony of inspired teachers, 
 they conceived they had good reason to believe : it is not use- 
 ful, because " to a careless observer," (that is, to the generality 
 of mankind,) "their faults may seem to cast a shade on the 
 faith which they professed ;" and may really infect the minds 
 of the young and unlearned especially, with prejudices against 
 a religion, upon their rational reception or rejection of which, 
 a matter of the utmost importance may (believe me, sir, it 
 may, for aught you or any person else can prove to the con- 
 trary) entirely depend. 
 
 It is an easy matter to amuse ourselves and others with the 
 immoralities of priests and the ambition of prelates; with the 
 absurd virulence of synods and councils; with the ridiculous 
 doctrines which visionary enthusiaste or interested churchmen 
 have sanctified with the name of Christian ; but a display of 
 ingenuity or erudition upon such subjects is much misplaced, 
 since it excites, almost in every person, an unavoidable suspi- 
 cion of the purity of the source itself from which such polluted 
 streams have been derived. Do not mistake my meaning. 
 I am far from wishing that the clergy should be looked up to 
 with a blind reverence, or their imperfections screened by the 
 sanctity of their functions from the animadversion of the 
 world ; quite the contrary. Their conduct, I am of opinion, 
 ought to be more nicely scrutinized, and their deviation from 
 the rectitude of the Gospel more severely censured than that 
 of other men; but great care should be taken not to represent 
 their vices, or their indiscretion, as originating in the pnnci- 
 ples of their religion. Do not mistake me. I am not here 
 begging quarters for Christianity, or contending that even 
 the principles of our religion should be received with implicit 
 faith ; or that every objection to Christianity should be stifled 
 by a representation of the mischief it might do if publicly pro- 
 mulged: on the contrary, we invite, nay, we challenge you 
 to a direct and liberal attack, though oblique glances and dis- 
 ingenuous insinuations we are willing to avoid ; well know- 
 ing that the character of our religion, like that of an honest 
 man, is defended with greater difficulty against the sugges- 
 tions of ridicule, and the secret malignity of pretended fnends 
 than against positive accusations and the avowed malice of 
 
 open enemies. r _*u »i. * 
 
 In your account of the primitive church, you set forth that 
 •* the want of discipline and human learning was supplied by 
 the occasional assistance of the prophets, who were called to 
 that function without distinction of age, sex, or natural abili- 
 ties." That the gift of prophecy was one of the spintual gifts 
 by which some of the firet Christians were enabled to co-ope- 
 rate with the apostles in the general design of preaching the 
 Gospel; and that this gift, or rather as Mr. Locke thinks, the 
 gift of tongues (by the ostentation of which many of them 
 were prompted to speak in their assemblies at the same time) 
 was the occasion of some disorder in the church of Connth, 
 which required the interposition of the apostle to compose, 
 
 is confessed on all hands. But if you mean that the piophcta 
 were ever the sole pastors of the faithful, or that no provision 
 was made by the apostles for the good government and edifi- 
 cation of the church, except what might be accidentally de- 
 rived from the occasional assistance of the prophets, you are 
 much mistaken, and have undoubtedly forgot what is said 
 of Paul and Barnabas having ordained elders in Lystra, 
 Iconium, and Antioch ; and of Paul's commission to Titus, 
 whom he had left in Crete, to ordain elders in every city ; 
 and of his instructions both to him and Timothy concerning 
 the qualifications of those whom they were to appoint bish- 
 ops; one of which was, that a bishop should be able, by sound 
 doctrine, to exhort and to convince the gainsay er. Nor is it 
 said, that this sound doctrine was to be communicated to the 
 bishc^ by prophecy, or that all persons, without distinction, 
 might be called to that office ; but a bishop was to be " able 
 to teach," not what he had learned by prophecy, but what 
 Paul publicly preached, " the things that thou hast heard of 
 me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful 
 men, who shall be able to teach others also." And in every 
 place almost, where prophets are mentioned, they are joined 
 with apostles and teachers, and other ministers of the Gospel : 
 so that there is no reason for your representing them as a dis- 
 tinct order of men, who were, by their occasional assistance, 
 to supply the want of discipline and human learning in the 
 church. It would be taking too large a field to inquire wheth- 
 I er the prophets you speak of were endowed with ordinary or 
 extraordinary gifts : whether they always spoke by the imme- 
 diate impulse of the Spirit, or according to " the analogy of 
 faith;" whether their gift consisted in the foretelling of future 
 events, or in the interpreting of Scripture to the «iification, 
 and exhortation, and comfort of the church, or in both. I 
 will content myself with observing, that he will judge very 
 improperly concerning the prophets of the apostolic church 
 who takes his idea of their office or importance from your de- 
 scription of them. 
 
 In speaking of the community of goods, which, you say, 
 was adopted for a short time in the primitive church, you 
 hold as inconclusive the arguments of Mosheim, who has en- 
 deavoured to prove that it was a community quite diflfercnt 
 from that recommended by Pythagoras or Plato, consisting 
 principally in a common use derived from an unbounded lib- 
 erality, which induced the opulent to share their riches with 
 their indigent brethren. There have been others, as well as 
 Mosheim, who have entertained this opinion; and it is not 
 quite so indefensible as you represent it: but whether it be 
 reasonable or absurd, need not now be examined ; it is far 
 more necessary to take notice of an expression which you 
 have used, and which may be apt to mislead unwary readers 
 into a very injurious suspicion concerning the integrity of the 
 apostles. In process of time, you observe, " the converts who 
 embraced the Jiew religion were permitted to retain the pos- 
 session of their patrimony." This expression, " permitted to 
 
 retain," in ordinary acceptation, implies an antecedent obli- 
 gation to part with. Now, sir, I have not the shadow of a 
 doubt in afllirming that we have no account in Scripture of 
 any such obligation being imposed upon the converts to Chris- 
 tianity, either by Christ himself, or by his apostles, or by any 
 other authority ; nay, in the very place where this communi- 
 ty of goods b treated of, there is an express proof (I know 
 not how your impartiality has happened to overlook it) to the 
 contrary. When Peter was about to inflict an exemplary 
 punishment upon Ananias (not for keeping back a part of 
 the price, as some men are fond of representing it, but) for 
 his lying and hypocrisy, in offering a part of the price of hia 
 land as the whole of it ; he said to him, " Whilst it remains! 
 (unsold) was it not thine ownl and after it was sold, vras it 
 not in thine own power 1" From this account it is evident 
 that Ananias was under no obligation to part with his patri- 
 mony ; and after he had parted with it, the price was in his 
 own power. The apostle would have " permitted him to re- 
 tain" the whole of it, if he had thought fit, though he would 
 not permit his prevarication to go unpunished. 
 
 You have remarked, that " the feasts of love, the agapst, 
 as they were called, constituted a very pleasing and essential 
 part of public worship." Lest any one should from hence 
 be led to suspect that these feasts of love, this pleasmg part 
 of the public worship of the primitive church, resembled tha 
 unhallowed meetings of some impure sectaries of our own 
 times, I will take the liberty to add to your account a short 
 explication of the nature of these agape. Tertullian, in the 
 39th chapter of his Apology, has done it to my hands. « The 
 
 11 
 
 ti 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
510 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 511 
 
 nature of our supper," says he, ** is indicated by its name ; it 
 is called by a word which, in the Greek language, signifies 
 /bee. We are not anxious about expense of the entertain- 
 ment, since we look upon that as gain which is expended, 
 with a pious purpose, in the relief and refreshment of all our 
 indigent The occasion of our entertainment being so hon- 
 ourable, you may judge of the manner of its being conducted : 
 it consists in the discharge of religious duties ; it admits no- 
 thing vile, nothing immodest. Before we sit down, prayer is 
 made to God. The hungry eat as much as they desire, and 
 every one drinks as much as can be useful to sober men. 
 We so feast as men who have their minds impressed with 
 the idea of spending the night in the worship of God ; we so 
 converse as men who are conscious that the Lord heareth 
 them," &C. Perhaps you may object to this testimony in fa- 
 vour of the innocence of Christian meetings as liable to a par- 
 tiality, because it is the testimony of a Christian ; and you 
 may, perhaps, be able to pick out, from the writings of this 
 Christian, something that looks like a contradiction of this 
 account : however, I will rest the matter upon this testimony 
 for the present; forbearing to quote any other Christian wri- 
 ter upon the subject, as I shall, in a future letter, produce you 
 a testimony superior to every objection. You speak too of 
 the agapse as an essential part of the public worship. This 
 is not according to your usual accuracy ; for, had they been 
 essential, the edict of a heathen magistrate would not have 
 been able to put a stop to them; yet Pliny, in his letter to 
 Trajan, expressly says, that the Christians left them off upon 
 his publishing an edict prohibiting assemblies. We know 
 that in the council of Carthage, in the fourth century, on 
 account of the abuses which attended them, they began to be 
 interdicted, and ceased, almost universally, in the fifth. 
 
 I have but two observations to make upon what you have 
 advanced concerning the severity of ecclesiastical penance : 
 the first is, that even you yourself do not deduce its institu- 
 tion from the Scriptures, but from the power which every vol- 
 untary society has over its own members ; and, therefore, how- 
 ever extravagant, or however absurd — however opposite to 
 the attributes of a commiserating God, or the feelings of a fal- 
 lible man, it may be thought; or upon whatever trivial occa- 
 non, such as that you mention, of calumniating a bishop, a 
 presbyter, or even a deacon, it may have been inflicted, Christ 
 and his apostles are not answerable for it. The other is, that 
 it was, of all possible expedients, the least fitted to accom^Jish 
 the end for which you think it was introduced, the propaga- 
 tion of Christianity. The sight of a penitent, humbled by a 
 public confession, emaciated by fasting, clothed in sackcloth, 
 prostrated at the door of the assembly, and imploring for years 
 together the pardon of his offences, and a readmission into the 
 bosom of the church, was a much more likely means of deter- 
 ring the Pagans from Christian community, than the pious 
 liberality you mention was of alluring them into it. This pi- 
 ous liberality, sir, would exhaust even your elegant powers 
 <tf description, before you could exhibit it in the amiable man- 
 ner it deserves. It is derived from the "new commandment 
 of loving one another;" and it has ever been the distin- 
 guishing characteristic of Christians, as opposed to every other 
 denomination of men, Jews, Mahomedans, or Pagans. In 
 the times of the apostles, and in the first ages of the church, 
 it showed itself in voluntary contributions for the relief of the 
 poor and the persecuted, the infirm and the unfortunate. As 
 soon as the church was permitted to have permanent posses- 
 sions in land, and acquired the protection of the civil power, 
 it exertetl itself in the erection of hospitals of every kind ; in- 
 stitutions like these, of charity and humanity, which were 
 forgotten in the laws of Solon and Tiycurgus; and for even 
 one example of which, you will, I believe, in vain explore the 
 boasted annals of Pagan Rome. Indeed, sir, you will think 
 too injuriously of this liberality, if you look upon its origin as 
 superstitious, or upon its application as an artifice of the priest- 
 hood to seduce the indigent into the bosom of the church : it 
 was the pure and uncorrupted fruit of genuine Christianity. 
 
 You are much surprised, and not a Ihtle concerned, that 
 Tacitus and the younger Pliny have spoken so slightly of the 
 Christian system ; and that Seneca and the elder Pliny have 
 not vouchsafed to mention it at all. This difficulty seems to 
 have struck others as well as yourself; and I might refer you 
 to the conclusion of the second volume of Ur. Lardner's Col- 
 lection of Ancient, Jewish, and Heathen Testimonies to the 
 Truth of the Christian Religion, for full satisfaction in this 
 point; but perhaps an observation or two may be sufficient to 
 diminish your surprise. 
 
 Obscure sectaries of upright morals, when they separate 
 themselves from the religion of their country, do not speedily 
 acquire the attention of men of letters. The historians are 
 apprehensive of depreciating the dignity of their learned la- 
 bour, and contaminating their splendid narration of illustrious 
 events, by mixing with it a disgusting detail of religious com- 
 binations ; and the philosophers are usually too deeply engag. 
 ed in abstract science, or in exploring the infinite intricacy 
 of natural appearances, to busy themselves with what they, 
 perhaps hastily, esteem popular superstitions. Historians 
 and philosophers, of no mean reputation, might be mention* 
 cd, I believe, who were the contemporaries of Luther and the 
 first reformers ; and who have passed over, in negligent or 
 contemptuous silence, their daring and unpopular attempts 
 to shake the stability of St. Peter's chair. Opposition to the 
 religion of a people must become general before it can deserve 
 the notice of the civil magistrate ; and till it does that, it will 
 mostly be thought below the animadversion of distinguished 
 writers. This remark is peculiarly applicable to the case in 
 point. The first Christians, as Christ had foretold, were 
 "hated of all men for his name's sake:" it was the name it- 
 self, not any vices adhering to the name, which Pliny punish- 
 ed ; and they were every where held in exceeding contempt, 
 till their numbers excited the apprehension of the ruling pow- 
 ers. The philosophers considered them as enthusiasts, and 
 neglected them ; the priests opposed them as innovators, and 
 calumniated them ; the great overlooked them ; the learned de- 
 spised them ; and the curious alone, who examined into the 
 foundation of their faith, believed them. But the negligence 
 of some half dozen of writers (most of them, however, bear 
 incidental testimony to the truth of several facts respecting 
 Christianity) in not relating circumstantially the origin, the 
 progress, and the pretensions of a new sect, is a very insuffi- 
 cient reason for questioning, either the evidence of the princi- 
 ples upon which it was built, or the supernatural power by 
 which it was supported. 
 
 The Roman historians, moreover, were not only culpably 
 incurious concerning the Christians, but unpardonably igno- 
 rant of what concerned either them or the Jews: I say, un- 
 pardonably ignorant, because the means of information were 
 within their reach ; the writings of Moses were every where 
 to be had in Greek ; and the works of Josephus were publish- 
 ed before Tacitus wrote his history ; and yet even Tacitus has 
 fallen into great absurdity, and self-contradiction, in his ac- 
 count of the Jews ; and though Tertullian's zeal carried him 
 much too far, when he called him Mendaciorum loguaeissi' 
 mus, [the most loquacious of liars,] yet one cannot help re- 
 gretting the little pains he took to acquire proper information 
 upon that subject. He derives the name of the Jews, by a 
 forced interpolation, from mount Ida in Crete: and he repre- 
 sents them as abhorring all kinds of images in public worship, 
 and yet accuses them of having placed the image of an ass in 
 the holy of holies ; and presently after he tells us, that Pom- 
 pey, when he profaned the temple, found the sanctuary en- 
 tirely empty. Similar inaccuracies might be noticed in Plu- 
 tarch, and other writers who have spoken of the Jews ; and 
 you yourself have referred to an obscure passage in Suetoni- 
 us, as offering a proof how strangely the Jews and Christians 
 of Rome were confounded with each other. Why, then, 
 should we think it remarkable, that a few celebrated writers, 
 who looked upon the Christians as an obscure sect of the Jews, 
 and upon the Jews as a barbarous and detested people, whose 
 history was not worth the perusal, and who were moreover 
 engaged in the relation of the great events which either occa- 
 sionetl or accompanied the ruin of their eternal empire; why 
 should we be surprised that men occupied in such interesting 
 subjects, and influenced by such inveterate prejudices, should 
 have left us but short and imperfect descriptions of the Chris- 
 tian system 1 
 
 "But how shall we excuse," you say, "the supine inat- 
 tention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences 
 which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to 
 their reason but to their senses 1" " The laws of nature were 
 perpetually suspended for the benefit of the church ; but the 
 sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spec- 
 tacle." To their shame be it spoken that they did so ; " and, 
 pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appear- 
 ed unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical 
 government of the world." To this objection I answer in the 
 first place, that we have no reason to believe that miracles 
 were performed as often as the philosophers deigned to give 
 their attention to them ; or that, at the period of time yon 
 
 allude to, the laws of nature were " perpetually" suspended 
 for the benefit of the church. It may be, that not one of the 
 few heathen writers, whose books have escaped the ravages of 
 time, was ever present when a miracle was wrought ; but will 
 it follow, because Pliny, or Plutarch, or Galen, or Seneca, or 
 Suetonius, or Tacitus, had never seen a miracle, that no mira- 
 cles were ever performed 1 They, indeed, were learned and 
 observant men ; and it may be a matter of surprise to us, that 
 miracles so celebrated, as the friends of Christianity suppose 
 the Christian ones to have been, should never have been 
 mentioned by them, though they had not seen them. Had 
 an Adrian, or a Vespasian been the author of but a thousandth 
 part of the miracles you have ascribed to the primitive church, 
 more than one, probably, of these very historians, philosophers 
 as they were, would have adorned his history with the narra- 
 tion of them ; for though they turned aside from the awful 
 spectacle of the miracles of a poor despised apostle, yet they 
 beheld, with exulting complacency, and have related, with 
 unsuspecting credulity, the ostentatious tricks of a Roman 
 emperor. It was not for want of faith in miraculous events 
 that these sages neglected the Christian miracles, but for want 
 of candour and impartial examination. 
 
 I answer, in the second place, that in the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles we have an account of a great multitude of Pagans of 
 every condition of life, who were so far from being inattentive 
 to the evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnip- 
 otence to their senses, that they contemplated them with re- 
 verence and wonder; and, forsaking the religion of their an- 
 cestors, and all the flattering hopes of woridly profit, reputa- 
 tion, and tranquillity, adhered with astonishing resolution to 
 the profession of Christianity. From the conclusion of the 
 Acts, till the time in which some of the sages you mention 
 flourished, is a very obscure part of church history ; yet we 
 are certain, that many of the Pagan, and we have some rea- 
 son to believe, that not a few of the philosophic worid, during 
 that period, did not turn aside from the awful spectacle of mi- 
 racles, but saw, and believed : and that a few others should be 
 found, who probably had never seen, and therefore would not 
 believe, is surely no very extraordinary circumstance. Why 
 should we not answer to objections such as these with the 
 boldness of St. Jerome ; and bid Celsus, and Porphyry, and 
 Julian, and their followers, learn the illustrious characters of 
 the men who founded, built up, and adorned the Christian 
 church 1 Why should we not tell them, with Arnobius, of 
 the orators, the grammarians, the rhetoricians, the lawyers, 
 the physicians, the philosophers, " who appeared conscious 
 of the alterations in the moral and physical government of 
 the world ;" and from that consciousness, forsook the ordina- 
 ry occupations of life and study, and attached themselves to 
 the Christian discipline 1 
 
 I answer, in the last place, that the miracles of Christians 
 were ftdsely attributed to magic ; and were, for that reason, 
 thought unworthy the notice of the writers you have referred 
 to. Suetonius, in his life of Nero, calls the Christians men 
 of a new and a magical superstition. I am sensible that you 
 laugh at those " sagacious conrunentators" who translate the 
 original word by magical ; and, adopting the idea of Mosheim, 
 you think it ought to be rendered mischievous or pernicious: 
 unquestionably it frequently has that meaning; with due de- 
 ference, however, to Mosheim and yourself, I cannot help 
 being of opinion, that in this place, as descriptive of the 
 Christian religion, it is rightly translated magical. The 
 Theodoeian Code must be my excuse for dissenting from 
 sucft respectable authority ; and in it I conjecture you will 
 find good reason for being of my opinion. Nor ought any 
 friend to Christianity to be astonished or alarmed at Suetoni- 
 us applying the word magical to the Christian religion ; for 
 the miracles wrought by Christ and his apostles principally 
 consisted in alleviating the distresses by curing the obstinate 
 diseases of human kind ; and the proper meaning of magic, as 
 understood by the ancients, is a higher and more holy branch 
 of the art of healing. The elder Pliny lost his life in an erup- 
 tion of Mount Vesuvius, about forty-seven years after the 
 death of Christ: some fifteen years before the death of Pliny, 
 the Christians were persecuted at Rome for a crime of which 
 every person knew them innocent; but from the description 
 which Tacitus gives of the low estimation they were held in 
 at that time, (for which, however, he assigns no cause, and 
 therefore we may reasonably conjecture it was the same for 
 which the Jews were every where become so odious, an op- 
 position to polytheism,) and of the extreme sufferings they 
 underwent, we cannot be much surprised that their name is 
 
 not to be found in the works of Pliny or of Seneca : the sect 
 itself must, by Nero's persecution, have been almost destroy* 
 ed in Rome ; and it would have been uncourtly, not to say 
 unsafe, to have noticed an order of men whose innocence an 
 emperor had determined to traduce, in order to divert the dan* 
 gerous but deserved stream of pupular censure from himself. 
 Notwithstanding this, there is a passage in the Natural His- 
 tory of Pliny which, how much soever it may have been over* 
 looked, contains, I think, a very strong allusion to the Chris* 
 tians, and clearly intimates he had heard of their miracles. 
 In speaking concerning the origin of magic, he says : there is 
 also another faction of magic, derived from the Jews, Moses, 
 and Lotopea, and subsisting at present. The word faction 
 does not ill denote the opinion the Romans entertained of the 
 religious associations of the Christians ; and a magical faction, 
 implies their pretensions, at least, to the miraculous gifts of 
 healing; and its descending from Moses is according to the 
 custom of the Romans, by which they confounded the Chris- 
 tians with the Jews; and its being then subsisting seems ta 
 have a strong reference to the rumours Pliny had negligently 
 heard reported of the Christians. 
 
 Submitting each of these answers to your cool and candid 
 consideration, I proceed to take notice of another difficulty in 
 your fifteenth chapter, which some hare thought one of the 
 most important in your whole book ; the silence of profane 
 historians concerning the preternatural darkness at the cruci* 
 fixion of Christ. You know, sn-, that several learned men 
 are of opinion, that profane history is not silent upon this 
 subject; I will neither trouble you with the testimony of 
 Phlegon, nor with the appeal of Tertullian to the public re- 
 gisters of the Romans; but, meeting you upon your own 
 ground, and granting you every thing you desire, I will en- 
 deavour, from a fair and candid examination of the histoiy of 
 this event, to suggest a doubt, at least to your mind, whether 
 this was " the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye- 
 has been witness since the creation of the globe." 
 
 This darkness is mentioned by three of the four evangelists ; 
 St. Matthew thus expresses himself: " Now from the sixth 
 hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth 
 hour ;" St Mark says ; " And when the sixth hour was come 
 there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour ;" 
 St. Luke : "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was 
 darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour ; and the sun 
 was darkened." The three evangelists agree that there was 
 darkness ; and they agree in the extent of the darkness : for it 
 is the same expression in the original, which our translator* 
 have rendered earth in Luke, and land in the two other ac- 
 counts; and they agree in the duration of the darkness — ^it 
 lasted three hours. Luke adds a particular circumstance, « that 
 the sun was darkened." I do not know whether this event be 
 any where else mentioned in Scripture, so that our inquiry 
 can neither be extensive nor difficult. 
 
 In philosophical propriety of speech, darkness consists in 
 the total absence of light, and admits of no degrees : however^ 
 in the more common Rcceptation of the word, there are de- 
 grees of darkness as well as of light; and as the evangelists 
 have said nothing, by which the particular degree of daricness 
 can be determinal, we have as much reason to suppose it was 
 slight, as you have that it was excessive ; but if it was slight, 
 though it had extended itself over the surface of the whole 
 globe, the difficulty of its not being recorded by Pliny or Sen* 
 eca vanishes at once. Do you not perceive, sir, upon what a. 
 slender foundation this mighty objection is grounded, when 
 we have only to put you upon proving that the darkness at 
 the crucifixion was of so unusual a nature as to have excited 
 the particular attention of all mankind, or even of those who 
 were witnesses to it 1 But I do not mean to deal so logical- 
 ly with you ; rather give me leave to spare you the trouble of 
 your proof, by proving or showing the probability, at least, of 
 the direct contrary. There is a circumstance mentioned by 
 St. John which seems to indicate that the darkness was not 
 so excessive as is generally supposed; for it is probable that 
 during the continuance of the darkness, Jesus spoke both to^ 
 his mother, and to his beloved disciple, whom he saw from 
 the cross; they were near the cross; but the soldiers which 
 surrounded it must have kept them at too great a distance for 
 Jesus to have seen them and known them, had the darkness 
 at the crucifixion been excessive, like the preternatural dark- 
 ness which God brought upon the land of Egypt; for it is ex- 
 pressly said, that during the continuance of that darkness, 
 " they saw not one another." The expression of St. Luke, 
 " the sun was darkened," tends rather to confirm than Uy 
 
 11 
 
 « ■ 
 
 II 
 
 It 
 
612 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 513 
 
 overthrow this reasoning. I am sensible this expression is 
 generally equivalent to another; the sun was eclipsed: but the 
 Bible is open to us all ; and there can be no presumption in 
 endeavouring to investigate the meaning of Scripture for our- 
 selves. Happily for the present argumentation, the very 
 phrase of the sun's being darkened, occurs, in so many words, 
 in one other place (and in only one) of the New Testament ; 
 and from that place you may possibly see reason to imagine 
 that the darkness might not, perhaps, have been so intense 
 as to deserve the particular notice of the Roman naturalists: 
 **And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke 
 out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun 
 vrtLS darkened, and the air, by reason of the smoke of the pit.'' 
 If we should say, that the sun at the crucifixion was obnubi- 
 lated, and darkened by the intervention of clouds, as it is here 
 represented to be by the intervention of a smoke, like the 
 ■smoke of a furnace, I do not see what you could object to our 
 account ; but such a phenomenon has surely no right to be 
 esteemed the greatest that mortal eye has ever beheld. I may 
 be mistaken in this interpretation ; but I have no design to 
 misrepresent the fact in order to get rid of a didiculty : the 
 darkness may have been as intense as many commentators 
 have supposed it ; but neither they nor you can prove it was 
 so; and I am surely under no necessity, upon this occasion, 
 of granting you, out of deference to any commentator, what 
 you can neither prove nor render probable. 
 
 But you still, perhaps, may think that the darkness, by its 
 extent, made up for this deficiency in point of intenseness. 
 The original word, expressive of its extent, is sometimes in- 
 terpreted by the whole earth ; more frequently, in the New 
 Testament, of any little portion of the earth : for we read of 
 the land of Judah, of the land of Israel, of the land of Zabu- 
 lon, and of the land of Nepthalim ; and it may very properly, 
 I conceive, be translated in the place in question by region. 
 But why should all the world take notice of a darkness which 
 extended itself for a few miles about Jerusalem, and lasted 
 but three hours 1 The Italians, especially, had no reason to 
 remark the event as singular; since they were accustomed at 
 that time, as they are at present, to see the neighbouring re- 
 gions so darkened for days together by the eruptions of Etna 
 and Vesuvius, that no man could know his neighbour. We 
 Icam from the Scripture account, that an earthquake accom- 
 panied this darkness ; and a dark clouded sky, I apprehend, 
 very frequently precedes an earthquake; but its extent is not 
 great, nor is its intenseness excessive, nor is the phenomenon 
 itself so unusual as not commonly to pass unnoticed in ages 
 of science and history. I fear I may be liable to misrepresen- 
 tation in thb place : but I beg it may be observed, that how- 
 ever slight in degree, or however confined in extent the dark- 
 ness at the crucifixion may have been, I am of opinion that 
 the power of God was as supernaturally exerted in its produc- 
 tion and in that of the eardiquake which accompanied it, as 
 in the opening of the graves, and the resurrection of the 
 saints, which followed the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 In another place, you seem not to believe " that Pontius 
 Pilate informed the emperor of the unjust sentence of death 
 which he had pronounced against an innocent person." And 
 the same reason which made him silent as to the death, ought, 
 one would suppose, to have made him silent as to the miracu* 
 lous events which accompanied it : and if Pilate, in his dis- 
 patches to the emperor, transmitted no account of the dark- 
 ness (how great soever you suppose it to have been) which 
 happened in a distant provuice, I cannot apprehend that the 
 report of it could have ever gained such credit at Rome as to 
 induce either Pliny or Seneca to mention it as an authentic 
 fact. I am, &c 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Sir : — ^I mean not to detain you long with my remarks 
 upon your sixteenth chapter ; for in a short Apology for Chris- 
 tianity, it cannot be expected that I should apologize at length 
 for the indiscretions of the first Christians. Nor have I any 
 disposition to reap a malicious pleasure from exaggerating, 
 which you have had so much good-natured pleasure in ex- 
 tenuating, the truculent barbarity of their Roman persecu- 
 tors. 
 
 M. de Voltaire has embraced every opportunity of contrast- 
 ing the persecuting temper of the Christians with the mild 
 tolerance of the ancient heathens ; and I never read a page 
 
 of his upon this subject without thinking Christianity mate- 
 rially, if not intentionally, obliged to him, for his endeavour to 
 depress the lofty spirit of religious bigotry. I may with jus- 
 tice pay the same compliment to you ; and I do it with sincer- 
 ity, heartily wishing that, in the prosecution of your work, 
 you may render every species of intolerance universally detest- 
 able. There is no reason why you should abate the asperity 
 of your invective, since no one can suspect you of a design 
 to traduce Christianity under the guise of a zeal against per- 
 secution ; or if any one should be so simple, he need but oj^en 
 the Gospel to be convinced that such a scheme is too palpa- 
 bly absurd to have ever entered the head of any sensible and 
 impartial man. 
 
 I wish, for the credit of human nature, that I could find 
 reason to agree with you in what you have said of the " uni- 
 versal toleration of Polytheism ; of the mild indifference ot 
 antiquity ; of the Roman princes beholding without concern 
 a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their 
 gentle sway." But there are some passages in the Roman 
 history which make me hesitate at least in this point, and al- 
 most induce me to believe that the Romans were exceedingly 
 jealous of all foreign religions, whether they were accompanied 
 with immoral manners or not. 
 
 It was the Roman custom, indeed, to invite the tutelary 
 gods of the nation, which they intended to subdue, to aban- 
 don their charge, and to promise them the same, and even a 
 more august worship, in the city of Rome ; and their triumphs 
 were graced as much with the exhibition of their captive gods, 
 as with the less humane one of their captive kings. But 
 this custom, though it filled the city with hundreds of gods 
 of every country, denomination, and quality, cannot be 
 brought as a proof of Roman toleration ; it may indicate the 
 excess of their vanity, the extent of their superstition, or the 
 refinement of their policy ; but it can never show that the re- 
 ligion of individuals, when it differed from public wisdom, 
 was either connived at as a matter of indifference, or tolerated 
 as an inalienable right of human nature. 
 
 Upon another occasion, you, sir, have referred to Livy as 
 relating the inlrotluction and suppression of the rites of Bac- 
 chus ; and in that very place we find him confessing, that the 
 prohibiting of all foreign religions, and abolishing every mode 
 of sacrifice which differed from the Roman mode, was a busi- 
 ness frequently entrusted by their ancestors to the care of the 
 proper magistrates ; and he gives this reason for the proce- 
 dure : that nothing could contribute more effectually to the 
 ruin of religion than the sacrificing after an external rite, and 
 not after the manner instituted by their fathers. 
 
 Not thirty years before this event, tlie Praitor, in conformi- 
 ty to a decree of the senate, had issued an edict, that no one 
 should presume to sacrifice in any public place after a new or 
 foreign manner. And in a still more early period, the aediles 
 had been commanded to take care that no gods were worship- 
 ped except the Roman godn ; and that the Roman gods were 
 worshipped after no manner but the established manner of the 
 country. 
 
 But to come nearer to the times of which you arc writing. 
 In Dion Cassius you may meet with a great courtier, one of 
 the interior cabinet, and a polished statesman, in a set speech 
 upon the most momentous subject, expressing himself to the 
 emperor in a manner agreeable enough to the practice of an- 
 tiquity, but utterly inconsistent with the most remote idea of 
 religious toleration. The speech alluded to contains, I con- 
 fess, nothing more than the advice of an individual ; but it 
 ought to be remembered that that individual was Mscenas, 
 that the advice was given to Augustus, and that the occasion 
 of giving it was no less important than settling the form of 
 the Roman government. He recommends it to Cssar to 
 worship the gods himself according to the established form, 
 and to force all others to do the same, and to fiaie and to/ww- 
 ish all those who should attempt to introduce foreign reli- 
 gions; nay, he bids him, in the same place, have an eye upon 
 the philosophers also: so that free thinking, free speaking at 
 least, upon religious matters, was not quite so safe uiider the 
 gentle sway of the Roman princes as, thank God, it is under 
 the much more gentle government of our own. 
 
 In the Edict of Toleration, published by Galerius after sir 
 years unremitted persecution of the Christians, we perceive 
 his motive for persecution to have been the same with that 
 which had influenced the conduct of the more ancient Ro- 
 mans, an abhorrence of all innovations in religion. You 
 have favoured us with the translation of this edict, in which 
 he says, ** we were particularly desirous of reclaiming into the 
 
 ^^r&y of reason and nnture," ad bonas mentes (a good pretence 
 this for a polytheistic persecutor,) "the deluded Christians, 
 who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by 
 their fathers:" this is the precise language of Livy, describing 
 a persecution of a foreign religion three hundred years before, 
 <'turba erat nee sacrificantium nee prccaniium deos patrio 
 more." And the very expedient of forcing the Christians to 
 deliver up their religious books, which was practiced in this 
 persecution, and which Mosheim attributes to the advice of 
 Hierocles, and you to that of the philosophers of those times, 
 seems clear to me, from the places in Livy before quoted, to 
 have been nothing but an old piece of state policy, to which 
 the Romans had recourse as often as they apprehended their 
 established religion to be in any danger. 
 
 In the preamble of the letter of toleration, which the empe- 
 ror Maximin reluctantly wrote to Sabinus about a year af- 
 ter the publication of Galerius's Edict, there is a plain avow- 
 al of the reasons which induced Galerius and Diocletian to 
 commence their persecution ; they had seen the temples of the 
 pods forsaken, and were determined by the severity of punLsh- 
 ment to reclaim men to their worship. 
 
 In short, the system recommended by Msecenas, of forcing 
 every person to be of the emperor's religion, and of hating 
 and punishing every innovator, contained no new doctrine : 
 it was correspondent to the practice of the Roman senate, in 
 the most illustrious times of the republic, and seems to have 
 been generally adopted by the emperors in their treatment of 
 Christians, whilst they themselves were pagans; and in their 
 treatment of pagans, after they themselves became Chris- 
 tians; and if any one should be willing to derive those laws 
 against heretics (which are so abhorrent from the mild spirit 
 of the Gospel, and so reproachful to the Roman code) from 
 the blind adherence of the Christian emperors to the intole- 
 rant policy of their pagan predecessors, something, I think, 
 might be produced in support of his conjecture. 
 
 But I am sorry to have said so much upon such a subject. 
 In endeavouring to palliate the severity of the Romans to- 
 wards the Christians, you have remarked, "It was in vain that 
 the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of con- 
 science and private judgment." " Though his situation might 
 excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the under- 
 standing, either of the philosophic, or of the believing part of 
 the pagan world." How is this, sir 1 are the arguments for li- 
 berty of conscience so exceedingly inconclusive that you think 
 them incapable of reaching the understanding, even of phi- 
 losophers 1 A captious adversary would embrace with avidi- 
 ty the opportunity this passage affords him, of blotting your 
 character with the odious stain of being a persecutor; a stain 
 which no learning can wipe out, which no genius or ability 
 can render amiable. I am far from entertaining such an 
 opinion of your principles; but this conclusion seems fairly 
 deducible from what you have said, that the minds of the pa- 
 gans were so pre-occupied with the notions of forcing, and ha- 
 ting, and punishing those who differed from them in religion ; 
 that arguments for the inalienable rights of conscience, winch 
 would have convinced yourself, and every philosopher m Eu- 
 rope, and staggered the resolution of an inquisitor, were incapa- 
 ble of reaching their understandings, or making any impression 
 on their hearts; and you might, perhaps, have spared your- 
 self some perplexity in the investigation of the motives which 
 induced the Roman emperors to persecute, and the Roman 
 people to hate the Christians, if you had not overiooked the 
 true one, and adopted with too great facility the erroneous 
 idea of the extreme tolerance of pagan Rome. 
 
 The Christians, you observe, were accused of atheisni: and 
 it must be owned that they were the greatest of all atheists, 
 in the opinion of the polytheists : for, instead of Hesiod s thir- 
 ty thousand gods, they could not be brought to acknowledge 
 above one; and even that one they refused, at the hazard ol 
 their lives, to baspheme with the appellation of Jupiter. 13 ut 
 is it not somewhat singular, that the pretensions of the Chris- 
 tians to a constant intercourse with superior beings, in the 
 working of miracles, should have been a principal cause of 
 converting to their faith those who branded them with the 
 imputation of atheism 1 
 
 They were accused, too, of forming dangerous conspiracies 
 against the state : this accusation, you own, was as unjust as 
 the preceding : but there seems to have been a peculiar hard- 
 ship in the situation of the Christians, since the very same 
 men who thought them dangerous to the state, on account 
 of their conspiracies, condemned them, as you have observed, 
 for not interfering in its concerns ; for their criminal disregard 
 Vol. II.— 3 P 
 
 to the business of war and government, and for their enter- 
 taining doctrines which were supposed " to prohibit them 
 from assuming the character of soldiers, of magistrates, and 
 of princes:" men, such as these, would have made but poor 
 conspirators. 
 
 They were accused, lastly, of the most horrid crimes. This 
 accusation, it is confessed, was mere calumny ; yet as calum- 
 ny is generally more extensive in its influence than truth, 
 perhaps this calumny might be more powerful in stopping 
 the progress of Christianity than the virtues of the Christians 
 were in promoting it; and, in truth, Origen observes, that the 
 Christians, on account of the crimes which were maliciously 
 laid to their charge, were held in such abhorrence that no one 
 would so much as speak to them. It may be worth while to 
 remark from him, that the Jews, in the very beginning of 
 Christianity, were the authors of all tho.se calumnies which 
 Celsus afterwards took such great delight in urging against 
 the Christians, and which you have mentioned with such 
 great precision. 
 
 It is no improbable supposition, that the clandestine man- 
 ner in which the persecuting spirit of the Jews and Gentiles 
 obliged the Christians to celebrate their eucharist, together 
 with the expressions of eating the body and drinking the 
 blood of Christ, which were used in its institution, and the 
 custom of imparting a kiss of charity to each other, and of 
 calling each other by the appellations of brother and sister, 
 (which the Romans often used in an impure sense,) gave oc- 
 casions to their enemies to invent, and induced careless ob- 
 servers to believe, all the odious things which were said against 
 the Christians. 
 
 You have displayed at length, in expressive diction, the ac- 
 cusations of the enemies of Christianity ; and you have told 
 us of the imprudent defence by which the Christians vindica- 
 ted the purity of their morals; and you have huddled up in a 
 short note (which many a reader will never see) the testimo- 
 ny of Pliny to their innocence. Permit me to do the Chris- 
 tians a little justice, by producing in their cause the whole 
 
 truth. r^v • 
 
 Between seventy and eighty years after the deatli of Christ, 
 Pliny had occasion to consult the emperor Trajan concern- 
 ing the manner in which he should treat the Christians; it 
 seems as if there had been judicial proceedings against them, 
 though Pliny had never happened to attend any of them. 
 He knew, indeed, that men were to be punished for being 
 Christians, or he would not, as a sensible magistrate, have re* 
 ceived the accusations of legal, much less of illegal, anony- 
 mous informers against them ; nor would he, before he wrote 
 to the emperor, have put to death those whom his threats 
 could not hinder from persevering in their confession that 
 they were Christians. His harsh manner of proceeding " in 
 an office the most repugnant to his humanity," had made 
 many apostatize from their profession. Persons of this com- 
 plexion were well fitted to inform him of every thing they 
 knew concerning the Christians ; accordingly, he examined 
 them, but not one of them acx;used the Christians of any 
 other' crime than of praying to Christ, as to some God, and 
 of binding themselves 'by an oath not to be guilty of any 
 wickedness. Not contented with this information, he put two 
 maid servants, which were called ministers, to the torture; but 
 even the rack could not extort from the imbecility of the sex 
 a confession of any crime, any account different from that 
 which the apostates had voluntarily given ; not a word do we 
 find of their feasting upon murdered infants, or of their mix- 
 ing in incestuous commerce. x\ftcr all his pains, Pliny pro- 
 nounced the meal of the Christians to be promiscuous and 
 innocent ; persons of both sexes, of all ages, and of every con- 
 dition, assembled promiscuously together; there was nothing 
 for chastity to blush at, or for humanity to shudder at in these 
 meetings : there was no secret initiation of proselytes by ab- 
 horred rites, but they ate a promiscuous meal in Christian 
 charity, and with the most perfect innocence. Plin. Epist. 
 97: lib. 10. , , ., 
 
 V^^hatever faults, then, the Christians may have been guiI- 
 ty of in after-times— though you could produce to us a thou- 
 sand ambitious prelates of Carthage, or sensual ones of Anti- 
 och, and blot ten thousand pages with the impurities of the 
 Christian clergy, yet, at this period while the memory of 
 Christ and his apostles was fresh in their mmds--or in the 
 more emphatic language of Jerome, " while the blood of our 
 Lord was warm, and recent faith was fervent m the believ- 
 ers " we have the greatest reason to conclude that they were 
 eminently distinguished for the probity and the purity of their 
 
 5 ^ 
 
 
 33 
 
514 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 515 
 
 lives. Had there been but a shadow of a crime in their as- 
 •emblies, it must have been detected by the industrious search 
 of the intelligent Pliny ; and it is a matter of real surprise 
 that no one of the apostates thought of paying court to the 
 governor by a false testimony, especially as the apostasy seems 
 to have been exceeding general ; since the temples, which 
 had been almost deserted, began again to be frequented; and 
 the victims, for which a little time before scarce a purchaser 
 was to be found, began again every where to be bought up. 
 This, sir, is a valuable testimony in our favour ; it is not that 
 of a declaiming apologist, of a deluding priest, or of a deluded 
 martyr of an orthodox bishop, or of any " of the most pious 
 of men," the Christians; but it is that of a Roman magistrate, 
 philosopher, and lawyer, who cannot be supposed to have 
 wanted inclination to detect the immoralities or the conspira- 
 cies of the Christians, since, in his treatment of them, he had 
 stretched the authority of his office, and violated alike the laws 
 of his country and of humanity. 
 
 With this testimony I will conclude my remarks, for I have 
 no disposition to blacken the character you have given of Ne- 
 ro ; or to lessen the humanity of the Roman magistrates ; or to 
 magnify the number of Christians or of martyrs; or to under- 
 take the defence of a few fanatics, who by their injudicious 
 zeal brought ruin upon themselves and disgrace upon their 
 profession. I may not, probably, have convinced you that 
 you are wrong in any thing which you have advanced, or 
 that the authors you have quoted will not support you in the 
 inferences you have drawn from their works ; or that Chris- 
 tianity ought to be distinguished from its corruptions : yet I 
 may, perhaps, have had the good fortune to lessen, in the 
 minds of others, some of that dislike to the Christian religion 
 ■which the perusal of your book had unhappily excited. I 
 have touched but upon general topics, for I should have weari- 
 ed out your patience, to say nothing of my reader's, or my 
 own, had I enlarged upon every thing in which I dissent from 
 you: and a minute examination of your work would, more- 
 over, have had the appearance of a captious disposition to de- 
 scend into illiberal personalities, and might have produced a 
 certain acrimony of sentiment or expression which may be 
 serviceable in supplying the place of argument, or adding a 
 xest to a dull composition, but has nothing to do with the in- 
 vestigation of truth. Sorry shall I be if what I have written 
 should give the least interruption to the prosecution of the 
 great work in which you are engaged. The world is now 
 possessed of the opinion of us both upon the subject in ques- 
 tion, and it may, perhaps, be proper for us both to leave it in 
 this state. I say not this from any backwardness to acknow- 
 ledge my mistakes, when I am convinced that I am in error, 
 but to express the almost insuperable reluctance which I feel 
 to the bandying abusive argument in public controversy. It 
 is not, in good truth, a difficult task to chastise the froward 
 petulence of those who mistake personal invective for reason- 
 ing, and clumsy banter for ingenuity; but it is a dirty busi- 
 ness at best, and should never be undertaken by a man of 
 any temper except when the interests of truth may suffer by 
 his neglect. Nothing of this nature, I am sensible, is to be 
 expected from you; and if any thing of the kind has happen- 
 ed to escape myself, I hereby disclaim the intention of saying 
 it, and heartily wish it unsaid. 
 
 Will you permit me, sir, through this channel (I may not, 
 perhaps, have another so good an opportunity of doing it) to 
 address a few words, not to yourself, but to a set of men who 
 disturb all serious company with their profane declamation 
 against Christianity ; and who, having picked up in their trav- 
 els, or in the writings of the Deists, a few flimsy objections, 
 infect, with their ignorant and irreverent ridicule, the ingenu- 
 ous minds of the rising generation ? 
 
 APPEAL TO INFIDELS. 
 
 Gewtlbiciw, — Suppose the mighty work accomphshed, 
 the cross trampled upon, Christianity everywhere proscribed, 
 and the religion of nature once more become the religion of 
 Christendom; what advantage will you have derived to your 
 country, or to yourselves, from the exchange 1 I know your 
 answer : you will have freed the world from the hyprocrisy 
 of priests, and the tyranny of superstition. No ; you forget 
 that Lycurgus, and Numa, and Odin, and Mango-Copac, 
 and all the great legislators of ancient and modem story, have 
 
 been of opinion that the affairs of civil society could not well 
 be conducted without some religion ; you must of necessity 
 introduce a priesthood, with probably as much hypocrisy ; a 
 religion with assuredly more superstition, than that which 
 you now reprobate with such indecent and ill-grounded con- 
 tempt. But I will tell you from what you will have freed 
 the world : you will have freed it from its abhorrence of vice, 
 and from every powerful incentive to virtue ; you will, with 
 the religion, have brought back the depraved morality of Pa- 
 ganism ; you will have robbed mankind of their firm assurance 
 of another life, and thereby you will have despoiled them of 
 their patience, of their humility, of their charty, of their cha». 
 tity, of all those mild and silent virtues, which (however des- 
 picable they may appear to your eyes) are the only cnes 
 which meliorate and sublime our nature ; which Paganism 
 never knew, which spring from Christianity alone, which do 
 or might constitute our comfort in this life, and without the 
 possession of which, another life, if after all there should hap- 
 pen to be one, must (unless a miracle be exerted in the alter- 
 ation of our disposition) be more vicious and miserable than 
 this is. 
 
 Perhaps you will contend that the universal light of reason, 
 that the truth and fitness of things, are of themselves sufficient 
 to exalt the nature, and regulate the manners of mankind. 
 Shall we never have done with this groundless commendation 
 of natural law 1 Look into the first chapter of Paul's Epistle 
 to the Romans, and you will see the extent of its influence 
 over the Gentiles of those days ; or if you dislike Paul's au- 
 thority, and the manners of antiquity, look into the more ad- 
 mired accounts of modern voyagers ; and examine its influence 
 over the pagans of our own times, over the sensual inhabit- 
 ants of Otaheite, over the cannibals of New Zealand, or the 
 remorseless savages of America. "But these men are barba- 
 rians." Your law of nature, notwithstanding, extends even 
 to them. " But they have misused their reason :" they have 
 then the more need of, and would be the more thankful for, 
 that revelation which you, with an ignorant and fastidious 
 self-sufficiency, deem useless. "But they might of them- 
 selves, if they thought fit, become wise and virtuous." I an- 
 swer with Cicero, ** Ut nihil interest, utrum nemo valeat, an 
 nemo valere possit ; sic non intelligo quid intersit, utrum ne- 
 mo, sit sapiens, an nemo esse possit:" i. e. if they in fact con- 
 tinue in ignorance and vice, the evil is as great as if they had 
 no means of learning a better way. 
 
 These, however, you will think, are extraordinary instances: 
 and that we ought not from these to take our measure of the 
 excellency of the law of nature, but rather from the civilized 
 states of China and Japan, or from the nations which flourish- 
 ed in learning and in arts before Christianity was heard of in 
 the world. You mean to say, that by the law of nature, 
 which you are desirous of substituting in the room of the 
 Gospel, you do not understand those rules of conduct which 
 an individual, abstracted from the community, and deprived 
 of the institution of mankind, could excogitate for himself: 
 but such a system of precepts as the most enlightened men 
 of the most enlightened ages have recommended to our ob- 
 servance. Where do you find this system? We cannot 
 meet with it in the works of Stobfleus, or the Scythian Ana- 
 charsis ; nor in those of Plato, or Cicero ; nor in those of the 
 Emperor Antonius, or the slave Epictetus; for we are per- 
 suaded that the most animated consideration of the 9r§iTer> 
 and the honesium, of the beauty of virtue, and the fitness of 
 things, are not able to furnish even a Brutus himself with 
 permanent principles of action ; much less are they able to 
 purify the polluted recesses of a vitiated heart, to curb the ir- 
 regularity of appetite, or restrain the impetuosity of passion 
 in common men. If you onler us to examine the works of 
 Grotius, or Puffendoif, or BuHamaqui, or Hutchinson, for 
 what you understand by the law of nature, we apprehend 
 that you are in a great error, in taking your notions of natural 
 law, as discoverable by natural reason, from the elegant sys- 
 tems of it, which have been drawn up by Christian philoso- 
 phers: since they have all laid their foundations, either tacitly 
 or expressly, upon a principle derived from revelation; a 
 thorough knowledge of the being and attributes of God: and 
 even those amongst yourselves who, rejecting Christianity, 
 still continue theists, are indebted to revelation (whether you 
 are either aware of, or disposed to acknowledge the debt, or 
 not^ for those sublime speculations concerning the Deity 
 which you have fondly attributed to the excellency of your 
 own unassisted reason. If you would know the real genius 
 of natural law, and how far it can proceed in tlie investiga- 
 
 tion or enforcement of moral duties, you must consult the 
 manners and writings of those who have never heard of eith- 
 er the Jewish or the Christian dispensation, or of those other 
 manifestations of himself which God vouchsafed to Adam, and 
 to the patriarchs before and after the flood. It would be diffi- 
 cult, perhaps, anywhere to find a people entirely destitute of 
 traditionary notices concerning the Deity, and of traditionary 
 fears or expectations of another life ; and the morals of man- 
 kind may have, perhaps, been nowhere quite so abandoned 
 as they would have been, had they been left wholly to them- 
 selves in these points : however, it is a truth which cannot be 
 denied, how much soever it may be lamented, that though 
 the generality of mankind have always had some faint con- 
 ceptions of God and his providence, yet they have been al- 
 ways gi«atly ineflTicacious in the production of good morality, 
 and highly derogatory to his nature, amongst all the people 
 of the earth, except the Jews and Christians ; and some may 
 perhaps be desirous of excepting the Mahomedans, who de- 
 rive all that is good in their Koran from Christianity. 
 
 The laws concerning justice, and the reparation of damag- 
 es; concerning the security of property, and the performance 
 of contracts ; concerning, in short, whatever affects the well- 
 being of civil society, have been everywhere understood with 
 eutficient precision ; and if you choose to style Justinian's 
 code, a code of natural law, though you will err against pro- 
 priety of speech, yet you are so far in the right, that natural 
 reason discoveretl, and the depravity of human nature com- 
 pelled human kind to establish, by proper sanctions, the laws 
 therein contained ; and you will have, moreover, Carneades, 
 no mean philosopher, on your side; who knew of no law of 
 nature different from that which men had instituted for their 
 common utility, and which was various according to the 
 manners of men in different climates, and changeable with a 
 change of times in the same. And, in truth, in all countries 
 where Paganism has been the established religion, though a 
 philosopher may now and then have stepped beyond the pal- 
 try prescript of civil jurisprudence in his pursuit of virtue, yet 
 the bulk of mankind have ever been contented with that scan- 
 ty pittance of morality which enabled them to escape the 
 lash of civil punishment; I call it a scanty pittance, because 
 a man may be intemperate, iniquitous, impious, a thousand 
 ways a profligate and a villain, and yet elude the cognizance 
 and avoid the punishment of civil laws. 
 
 I am sensible you will be ready to say, " what is all this to 
 the purpose 1 Though the bulk of mankind may never be 
 able to investigate the laws of natural religion, nor disposed 
 to reverence their sanction^ when investigated by others, nor 
 solicitous about any other standard of moral rectitude than 
 civil legislation ; yet the hiconveniences which may attend 
 the extirpation of Christianity can be no proof of its truth." 
 I have not produced them as a proof of its truth ; but they are 
 a strong and conclusive proof, if not of its truth, at least of its 
 utility ; and the consideration of its utility may be a motive to 
 yourselves for examining whether it may not chance to be true ; 
 and it ought to be a reason with every good citizen, and with 
 every man of sound judgment, to keep his opinions to himself, 
 if from any particular circumstances in his studies or in his 
 education he should have the misfortune to think that it is 
 not true. If you can discover to the rising generation a bet- 
 ter religion than the Christian, one that will more effectually 
 animate their hopes, and subdue their passions, make them 
 better men or better members of society, we importune you 
 to publish it for their advantage ; but till you can do that, we 
 beg of you not to give the reins to their passions, by instilling 
 into their unsuspicious minds your pernicious prejudices. 
 Even now, men scruple not, by their lawless lust, to ruin the 
 repose of private families, and to fix a stain of infamy upon the 
 noblest; even now, they hesitate not in lifting up a murder- 
 ous arm against the life of their friend, or against their own, 
 as often as the fever of intemperance stimulates their resent- 
 ment, or the satiety of a useless life excites their desponden- 
 cy : even now, whilst we are persuaded of a resurrection from 
 the dead, and of a judi^ment to come, we find it diflicult 
 enough to resist the solicitations of sense, and to escape un- 
 spotted from the licentious manners of the world : but what 
 will become of our virtue, what of the consequent peace and 
 happiness of society, if you persuade us that there arc no such 
 things 1 In two words, you may ruin yourselves by your 
 attempt, and you will certainly ruin your country by your 
 
 success. 
 
 But the consideration of the inutility of your design is not 
 the only one which should induce you to abandon it ; the ar- 
 
 gument a tuto [from safety] ought to be warily managed, or 
 it may tend to the silencing of our opposition to any system 
 of superstition which has had the good fortune to be sanctified 
 by public authority : it is, indeed, liable to no objection in the 
 present case : we do not, however, wholly rely upon its co- 
 gency. It is not contended that Christianity is to be received 
 merely because it is useful, but because it is true. This you 
 deny, and think your objectitms well grounded : we conceive 
 them originating in your vanity, your immorality, or your 
 misapprehension. There are many worthless doctrines, ma- 
 ny superstitious observances, which the fraud or folly of man- 
 kind have every where annexed to Christianity, (especially 
 in the church of Rome,) as essential parts of it: if you take 
 these sorry appendages to Christianity for Christianity itself, 
 as preached by Christ, and by the apostles ; if you confound 
 the Roman with the Christian religion, you quite misappre- 
 hend its nature, and are in a state similar to that of men 
 mentioned by Plutarch, in his Treatise of Superstition : who, 
 flying from superstition, leapt over religion, and sunk into 
 downright atheism. Christianity is not a religion very pal- 
 atable to a voluptuous age; it will not conform its precepU to 
 the standard of fashion ; it will not lessen the deformity of 
 vice by lenient appellations ; but calls keeping, whoredom ; 
 intrigue, adultery ; and duelling, murder : it will not pander to 
 lust, it will not license the intemperance of mankind; it is a 
 troublesome monitor to a man of pleasure ; and your way of 
 life may have made you quarrel with your religion. As to 
 your vanity, as a cause of your infidelity, suffer me to produce 
 the sentiments of M. Bayle upon that head: if the description 
 does not suit your character, you will not be offended at it ; 
 and if you are offended with its freedom, it will do you good. 
 " This inclines me to believe that libertines, like Des-Bar- 
 reaux, are not greatly persuaded of the truth of what they 
 say. They have made no deep examination ; they have learn- 
 ed some few objections, which they are perpetually making a 
 noise with; they speak from a principle of ostentation, and 
 give themselves the lie in the time of danger. Vanity has a 
 greater share in their disputes than conscience; they imagine 
 that the singularity and boldness of the opinions which they 
 maintain, will give them the reputation of men of parts : by 
 degrees, they get a habit of holding impious discourses ; and 
 if their vanity be accompanied by a voluptuous life, their pro- 
 gress in that road is the swifter." 
 
 The main stress of your objections rests not upon the in- 
 sufiiciency of the external evidence to the truth of Christiani- 
 ty ; for few of you, though you may become the future orna- 
 ments of the senate, or of the bar, have ever employed an hour 
 in its examination ; but upon the difficulty of the doctrines 
 contained in the New Testament: they exceed, you say, your 
 comprehension; and you felicitate yourselves that you are 
 not arrived at the true standard of orthodox faith — credo miia 
 impossibile. [I believe it, because it is impossible.] You 
 think it would be taking a superfluous trouble to inquire into 
 the nature of the external proofs by which Christianity is 
 established; since, in your opinion, the book itself carries 
 with it its own refutation. A gentleman as acute, probably, 
 as any of you, and who once believed, perhaps, as little as 
 any of you, has drawn a quite different conclusion from the 
 perusal of the New Testament: his treatise exhibits not only 
 a distinguished triumph of reason over prejudice, of Christian- 
 ity over deism, but it exhibits, what is infinitely more rare, the 
 character of a man who has had courage and candour enough 
 to acknowledge it.* 
 
 But what if there should be some incomprehensible doc- 
 trines in the Christian religion; some circumstances which 
 in their causes, or their consequences, surpass the reach of 
 human reason : are they to be rejected on that account ? You 
 are, or would be thought, men of reading, and knowledge^ 
 and enlarged understandings : weigh the matter fairiy, and 
 consider whether revealed religion be not, in this respect, just 
 upon the same footing with every other object of your con- 
 templation. Even in mathematics, the science of demonstra- 
 tion itself, though you get over its first principles, and learn 
 to digest the idea of a point without parts, a hue without 
 breadth, and a surface without thickness, yet you will find 
 yourself at a loss to comprehend the perpetual approximaUon 
 of lines which can never meet; the doctrine of mcommensura- 
 bles and of an infinity of infinites, each infinitely greater or 
 infinitely less, not only than any finite quantity, but than 
 each other. In physics, you cannot comprehend the pnmary 
 
 ♦ See the view of the Internal Evidence, by Soame Jenyns. 
 
 I 
 
 '■{ 
 
 I* 
 
 P^ 
 
516 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 517 
 
 \ 
 
 eause of any thing ; not of the light by which you see; nor of 
 the elasticity of the air, by which you hear; nor of the fire by 
 which you are warmed. In physiology, you cannot tell what 
 first gave motion to the heart, nor what continues it, nor why 
 its motion is less voluntary than that of the lungs ; nor why 
 you are able to move your arm to the right or left, by a sim- 
 ple volition : you cannot explain the cause of animal heat, 
 nor comprehend the principle by which your body was at first 
 formed, nor by which it is sustained, nor by which it will be 
 reduced to earth. In natural religion you cannot comprehend 
 the eternity or omnipresence of the Deity ; nor easily under- 
 stand how his prescience can be consistent with your free- 
 dom, or his immutability with his government of moral 
 agents ; nor why he did not make all his creatures equally 
 perfect ; nor why he did not create them sooner; in short, you 
 cannot look into any branch of knowledge but you will meet 
 with subjects above your comprehension. The fall and the 
 redemption of human kind are not more incomprehensible than 
 the creation and the conservation of the universe ; the infinite 
 Author of the works of providence, and of nature, is equally 
 inscrutible ; equally past our finding out, in them both. And 
 it is somewhat remarkable, that the deepest inquirers into na- 
 ture have ever thought with most reverence, and spoken with 
 most diffidence, concerning those things which, in revealed 
 religion, may seem hard to be understood: they have ever 
 avoided that self-sufficiency of knowledge which springs from 
 ignorance, produces indiffijrence, and ends in infidelity. Ad- 
 mirable to this purpose is the reflection of the greatest mathe- 
 matician of the present age, when he is combating an opinion 
 of Newton's by an hypothesis of his own, still less defensible 
 than that which he opposes : " Tous les jours que je vois de 
 ces esprits forts, qui critique les verites de notre religion, ct 
 s'en mocquent meme avec la plus impertin^nte suffisance, je 
 pcnse, chetifs mortels ! combien et combien des choses sur 
 lesquelles vous raissonez si legerement, sont elles plus subli- 
 mes, et plus el^ves, que celles sur lesquelles le grand New- 
 ton s'egare si grossi6rement ! [When I see these pretended 
 free-thinkers cavilling at the truths of our religion, and scoff- 
 ing at them with the most impertinent self-sufficiency, I think, 
 poor mortals ! how many things on which you argue so flip- 
 pantly are more sublime and elevated than those on which 
 the great Newton so much erred !] Euler. 
 
 Plato mentions a set of men who were very ignorant, and 
 thought themselves supremely wise, and who rejected the ar- 
 guments for the being of a God, derived from the harmony 
 and order of the universe, as old and trite. There have been 
 men it seems in all ages, who, in affecting singularity, have 
 overlooked truth : an argument, however, is not the worse for 
 being old; and surely it would have been a more just mode 
 of reasoning if you had examined the external evidence for 
 the truth of Christianity, weighed the old arguments from 
 miracles, and from prophecies, before you had rejected the 
 "whole account from the difficulties you met with in it. You 
 Tvould laugh at an Indian, who, in peeping into a history of 
 England, and meeting with the mention of the Thames being 
 frozen, or of a shower of hail, or of snow, should throw the 
 book aside as unworthy of his farther notice, from liis want 
 of ability to comprehend these phenomena. 
 
 In considering the argument from miracles, you will soon 
 be convinced that it is possible for God to work miracles ; and 
 you will be convinced that it is as possible for human testi- 
 mony to establish the truth of miraculous, as of physical or 
 historical events : but before you can be convinced that the 
 miracles in question are supported by such testimony as de- 
 serves to be credited, you must inquire at what period, and 
 by what persons, the books of the Old and New Testament 
 were composed. If you reject the account without making 
 this examination, you reject it from prejudice, not from reason. 
 
 There is, however, a short method of examining this argu- 
 ment, which may, perhaps, make as great an impression on 
 your minds as any other. Three men, of distinguished abili- 
 ties, rose up at different times, and attacked Christianity with 
 every objection which their malice could suggest or their learn- 
 ing could devise ; but neither Celsus in the second century, 
 nor Porphyry in the third, nor the emperor Julian himself 
 in the fourth century, ever questioned the reality of the 
 miracles related in the Gospels. Do but you grant us what 
 these men (who were more likely to know the truth of the 
 matter than you can be) granted to their adversaries, and 
 we will very readily let you make the most of the magic, 
 to which, as the last wretched shift, they were forced to at- 
 tribute them. We can find you men, in our days, who, 
 
 from the mixture of two colourless liquors, will j)roduce yon 
 a third as red as blood, or of any other colour you desire; et 
 dido citius, [quicker than a word,] by a drop resembling wa. 
 ter, will restore the transparency ; they will make two iluids 
 coalesce into a solid body ; and from the mixture of liquors, 
 colder than ice, will instantly raise you a horrid explosion 
 and a tremendous flame, 'i'hcse, and twenty other tricks, 
 they will perform, without having been sent with our Saviour 
 to Egypt to learn magic; nay, with a bottle or two of oil they 
 will compose the undulations of a lake ; and, by a little art, 
 they will restore the functions of life to a man who has been 
 an hour or two under water, or a day or two buried in the 
 snow. But in vain will these men, or the greatest magician 
 that Egypt ever saw, say to a boisterous sea, ** Peace, be 
 still ;" in vain will they say to a carcass rotting in the grave, 
 " Come forth ;" the winds and the sea will not obey them, 
 and the putrid carcass will not hear them. You need not 
 suffer yourselves to be deprived of the weight of this argument 
 from its having been observed that the fathers have acknow- 
 ledged the supernatural part of Paganism, since the fathers 
 were in no condition to detect a cheat which was supported 
 by the disposition of the people, and the power of the civil 
 magistrate; and they were, from that inability, forced to attri- 
 bute to infernal agency what was too cunningly contrived to 
 be detected, and contrived for too impious a purpose to be 
 credited as the work of God. 
 
 With respect to prophecy, you may, perhaps, have accus- 
 tomed yourselves to consider it as originating in Asiatic en- 
 thusiasm, in Chaldean mystery, or the subtle stratagem of in- 
 terested priests, and have given yourselves no more trouble 
 concerning the predictions of sacred, than concerning the ora- 
 cles of Pagan historj'. Or, if you have ever cast a glance up- 
 on this subject, the dissensions of learned men concerning the 
 proper interpretation of the Revelation, and other diflicult 
 prophecies, may have made you rashly conclude that all pro* 
 phecies were equally unintelligible, and more indebted for 
 their accomplishment to a fortunate concurrence of events, 
 and the plain ingenuity of the expositor, than to the inspired 
 foresight of the prophet. In all that the prophets of the Old 
 Testament have delivered concerning the destruction of par- 
 ticular cities, and the desolation of particular kingdoms, you 
 may see nothing but shrewd conjectures, which any one ac- 
 quainted with the history of the rise and fall of empires, might 
 certainly have made; and as you would not hold him for a 
 prophet who should now affirm that London or Paris would 
 afford to future ages a spectacle just as melancholy as that 
 which we now contemplate, with a sigh, in the ruins of Agri- 
 gentum or Palmyra, so you cannot persuade yourselves to be- 
 lieve that the denunciations of the prophets against the haugh- 
 ty cities of Tyre or Babylon, for instance, proceeded from the 
 inspiration of the Deity. There is no doubt, that by some 
 such general kind of reasoning, many are influenced to pay 
 no attention to an argument which, if properly considered, 
 carries with it the strongest conviction. 
 
 Spinoza said that he would have broken his atheistic sys- 
 tem to pieces, and embraced, without repugnance, the ordina- 
 ry faith of Christians, if he could have persuaded himself of 
 the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead: and I question not 
 that there are many unbelievers who would relinquish their de- 
 istical tenets, and receive the Gospel, if they could persuade 
 themselves that God had ever so far interfered in the moral go- 
 vernment of the world as to illumine the mind of any one man 
 with the knowledge of future events. A miracle strikes the 
 senses of the persons who see it; a prophecy addresses itself to 
 the understandings of those who behold itij completion ; and it 
 requires, in many cases, some leaniing, in all gome attention, 
 to judge of the correspondence of events with the predictions 
 concerning them. No one can be convinced that what Jere- 
 miah and the other prophets foretold of the fate of Babylon, 
 that it should be besieged by the Medes; that it should be ta- 
 ken when her mighty men were drunken, when her springs 
 were dried up ; and that it should become a pool of water, 
 and should remain desolate for ever; no one, I say, con be 
 convinced that all these and other parts of the prophetic de- 
 nunciation have been minutely fulfilled, without spending 
 some time in reading the accounts which profane historians 
 have delivered down to us concerning its being taken by Cy- 
 rus; and which modern travellers have given us of its present 
 situation. 
 
 Porphyry was so persuaded of the coincidence between the 
 prophecies of Daniel and the events, that he was forced to 
 affirm the prophecies were written after the things prophesied 
 
 had happened. Another Porphyry has, in our days, been so 
 astonished at the correspondence between the prophecy con- 
 cerning the destruction of Jerusalem, as related by St. Mat- 
 thew, and the history of that event, as recorded by Josephus, 
 that, rather than embrace Christianity, he has ventured (con- 
 trary to the faith of all ecclesiastical history, the opinion of 
 the learned of all ages, and all the rules of good criticism) to 
 jissert that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel after Jerusalem had 
 been taken and destroyed by the Romans. You may, from 
 these instances, perceive the strength of the argument from 
 prophecy ; it has not been able indeed to vanquish the preju- 
 dices of either ihe ancient or the modern Porphyry ; but it has 
 been able to compel them both to be guilty of obvious false- 
 hoods, which have nothing but impudent assertions to sup- 
 port them. Some over zealous interpreters of Scripture have 
 found prophecies in simple narrations, extended real predic- 
 tions beyond the times and circumstances to which they natu- 
 rally were applied, and perplexed their readers with a thou- 
 sand quaint allusions and allegorical conceits; this proceed- 
 ing has made men of sense pay less regard to prophecy in 
 general. There are some predictions, however, such as those 
 concerning the present state of the Jewish people, and the 
 corruptions of Christianity, which are now fulfilling in the 
 world ; and which, if you will take the trouble to examine them, 
 you will find of such an extraordinary nature that you will not 
 perhaps hesitate to refer them to God as their author; and if 
 you once become persuaded of the truth of any one miracle, 
 or of the completion of any one prophecy, you will resolve all 
 your difficulties (concerning the manner of God's interposi- 
 tion in the moral government of our species, and the nature 
 of the doctrines contained in revelation) into your own ina- 
 bility fully to comprehend the whole scheme of divine provi- 
 dence. 
 
 We are told, however, that the strangeness of the narra- 
 tion, and the difficulty of the doctrines contained in the New 
 Testament, are not the only circumstances which induce you 
 to reject it; you have discovered, you think, so many contra- 
 dictions in the accounts which the evangelists have given of 
 the life of Christ, that you are compelled to consider the 
 whole as an ill-digested and improbable story. You would 
 not reason thus upon any other occasion ; you would not re- 
 ject, as fabulous, the accounts given by Livy and Polybius, of 
 Hannibal and the Carthaginians, though you should discov- 
 er a difference betwixt them in several points of little impor- 
 tance. You cannot compare the history of the same events, 
 as delivered by any two historians, but you will meet with 
 many circumstances which, though mentioned by one, are 
 cither wholly omitted, or differently related by the other; and 
 this observation is peculiariy applicable to biographical writ- 
 tings: but no one ever thought of disbelieving the leading cir- 
 cumstances of the lives of Vitellius or Vespasian, because Taci- 
 tus and Suetonius did not in every thing correspond in their 
 accounts of these emperors. And if the memoirs of the life 
 and doctrines of M. de Voltaire himself were, some twenty or 
 thirty years alter his death, to be delivered to the worid by 
 four of his most intimate acquaintance, I do not apprehend 
 that we should discredit the whole account of such an extra- 
 ordinary man, by reason of some slight inconsistencies and 
 contradictions, which the avowed enemies of his name might 
 chance to discover in the several narrations. Though we 
 should grant you, then, that the evangelists had fallen into 
 some trivial contradictions in what they have related concern- 
 ing the life of Christ, yet you ought not to draw any other 
 inference from our concession than that they had not plotted 
 together, as cheats would have done, in order to give an un- 
 exceptionable consistency to their fraud. We are not, how- 
 ever, disposed to make you any such concession ; we will 
 rather show you the futility of your general argument, by 
 touching upon a few of the places which you think are most 
 liable to your censure. 
 
 You observe that neither Luke, nor Mark, nor John, have 
 mentioned the cruelty of Herod in murdering the infants of 
 Bethlehem ; and that no account is to be found of this mat- 
 ter in Josephus, who wrote the life of Herod ; and therefore 
 the fact recorded by Matthew is not true. The concurrent 
 testimony of many independent writers concerning a matter 
 of fact, unquestionably adds to its probability; but if nothing 
 is to be received as true, upon the testimony of a single au- 
 thor, we must give up some of the best writers, and disbelieve 
 some of the most interesting facts of ancient history. 
 
 According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there was only 
 an interval of three months, you say, between the baptism 
 
 and crucifixion of Jesus; from which time, taking away the 
 forty days of the temptation, there will only remain about six 
 weeks for the whole period of his public ministry ; which last- 
 ed, however, according to St. John, at the least above three 
 years. Your objection, fairiy stated, stands thus: Matthew, 
 Mark, and Luke, in writing the history of Jesus Christ, men- 
 tion the several events of his life, as following one another in 
 continued succession, without taking notice of the times in 
 which they happened. But is it a just conclusion, from their 
 silence, to infer, that there were really no intervals of time be- 
 tween the transactions which they seem to have connected? 
 Many instances might be produced, from the most admired 
 biographers of antiquity, in which events are related as imme- 
 diately consequent to each other, which did happen at very 
 distant periods: we have an obvious example of this manner 
 of writing in St. Matthew, who connects the preaching of 
 John the Baptist with the return of Joseph from Egypt, 
 though we are certain that the latter event preceded the for- 
 mer by a great many years. 
 
 John has said nothing of the institution of the Lord's Sup- 
 per; the other evangelists have said nothing of the washing 
 of the disciples' feet. What then 1 arc you not ashamed to 
 produce these facts as instances of contradiction ? If omis- 
 sions are contradictions, look into the history of the age of 
 Louis XIV. or into the general history of M. de Voltaire, and 
 you will meet with a great abundance of contradictions. 
 
 John, in mentioning the discourses which Jesus had with 
 his mother and his beloved disciple, at the time of his crucifix- 
 ion, says that she, with Mary Magdalene, stood near the cross. 
 Matthew, on the other hand, says that Mary Magdalene and 
 the other women were there, beholding afar off. This you 
 tliink a manifest contradiction ; and scoffingly inquire wheth- 
 er the women and the beloved disciple, which were near the 
 cross, could be the same with those who stood far from the 
 cross ? It is difficult not to transgress the bounds of modera- 
 tion and good manners, in answering such sophistry. What ! 
 have you to learn that, though the evangelists speak of the 
 crucifixion as of one event, it was not accomplished in one 
 instant, but lasted several hours 1 And why the women, 
 who were at a distance from the cross, might not, during its 
 continuance, draw near the cross; or, from being near the 
 cross, might not move from the cross, is more than you can 
 explain to either us or yourselves. And we take from you 
 your only refuge, by denying expressly that the different 
 evangelists, in their mention of the women, speak of the same 
 point of time. 
 
 The evangelists, you affirm, have fallen into gross contra- 
 dictions in their accounts of the appearances by which Jesus 
 manifested himself to his disciples, after his resurrection from 
 the dead ; for Matthew speaks of two, Mark of three, Luke 
 of two, and John of four. That contradictory propositions 
 cannot be true, is readily granted; and if you will pro- 
 duce the place in which Matthew says that Jesus Christ ap- 
 peared twice, and no oftener, it will be further granted that 
 he is contradicted by John in a very material part of his nar- 
 ration ; but till you do that, you must excuse me if I cannot 
 grant that the evangelists have contradicted each other in this 
 point ; for to common understandings, it is pretty evident that 
 if Christ appeared four times according to John's account, he 
 must have appeared twice according to that of Matthew and 
 Luke, and thrice according to that of Mark. 
 
 The different evangelists are not only accused of contra- 
 dicting each other, but Luke is said to have contradicted him- 
 self; for in his Gospel he tells us, that Jesus ascended into 
 heaven from Bethany; and in the Acts of the Apostles, of 
 which he is the reputed author, he informs us that he ascend- 
 ed from Mount Olivet Your objection proceeds either from 
 your ignorance of geography, or your ill-will to Christianity ; 
 and upon either supposition deserves our contempt : be pleas- 
 ed, however, to remember for the future, that Bethany was 
 not only the name of a town, but of a district of Mount Oli- 
 vet adjoining to the town. 
 
 From this specimen of the contradictions ascribed to the his- 
 torians of the life of Christ, you may judge for yourselves what 
 little reason there is to reject Christianity upon their account; 
 and how sadly you will be imposed upon (in a matter of more 
 consequence to you than any other) if you take every thing 
 for a contradiction which the uncandid adversaries of Chris- 
 tianity think proper to call one. 
 
 Before I put an end to this address, I cannot help taking 
 notice of an argument by which some philosophers have of 
 late endeavoured to overturn the whole system of revelation ; 
 
 'I 
 
 /}^ 
 
518 
 
 WATSON'S REPLY TO GIBBON. 
 
 ■ i 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 and it is the more necessary to give an answer to their objec- 
 tion, as it is become a common subject of philosophical con- 
 versation, especially among those who have visited the con- 
 tinent. The objection tends to invalidate, as is supposed, the 
 authority of Moses, by showing that the earth is much older 
 than it can be proved to be from his account of the creation, 
 and the Scripture chronology. We contend, that six thou- 
 sand years have not yet elapsed since the creation ; and these 
 philosophers contend, that they have indubitable proof of the 
 earth's being at the least fourteen thousand years old ; and 
 they complain that Moses hangs as a dead weight upon them, 
 and blunts all their zeal for inquiry. 
 
 The Canonico Recupero, who, it seems, is engaged in 
 writing the history of Mount ^tna, has discovered a stratum 
 of lava which flowed from that mountain, according to his 
 opinion, in the time of the second Punic war, or about two 
 thousand years ago ; this stratum is not yet covered with soil 
 sufficient for the production of either corn or vines ; it requires, 
 then, says the Canon, two thousand years at least to convert 
 a stratum of lava into a fertile field. In sinking a pit near 
 Jaci, in the neighbourhood of -cEtna, they have discovered 
 evident marks of seven distinct lavas, one under the other ; 
 the surfaces of which are parallel, and most of them covered 
 with a thick bed of rich earth. Now, the eruption which 
 formed the lowest part of these lavas (if we may be allowed 
 to reason, says the Canon, from analogy) flowed from the 
 mountain at least fourteen thousand years ago. It might be 
 Driefly answered to this objection, by denying, that there is 
 any thing in the history of Moses repugnant to this opinion 
 concerning the great antiquity of the earth ; for though the 
 rise and progress of arts and sciences, and the small multipli- 
 cation of the human species, render it almost to a demonstra- 
 tion probable that man has not existed longer upon the sur- 
 face of this earth than according to the Mosaic account, yet 
 that the earth itself was then created out of nothing, when 
 man was placed upon it, is not, according to the sentiments of 
 some philosophers, to be proved from the original text of sa- 
 cred Scripture : we might, I say, reply with these philosophers 
 to this formidable objection of the Canon, by granting it in 
 its fullest extent; we are under no necessity, however, of 
 adopting their opinion, in order to show the weakness of the 
 Canon's reasoning. For, in the first place, the Canon has 
 not satisfactorily established his main fact, that the lava in 
 question is the identical lava which Diodorus Siculus mentions 
 to have flowed from ^tna in the second Carthaginian war ; 
 and, in the second, place, it may be observed, that the time 
 necessary for converting lava into fertile fields must be very 
 different, according to the different consistencies of the lavas, 
 and their diflerent situations, with respect to elevation or de- 
 pression ; to their being exposed to winds, rains, and to other 
 circumstances ; just as the time in which the heaps of iron 
 slag (which resembles lava) are covered with verdure, is dif- 
 ferent at different furnaces, according to the nature of the slag 
 and- situation of the furnace ; and something of this kind is 
 deducible from the account of the Canon himself; since the 
 crevices of this famous stratum are really full of rich, good 
 soil, and have pretty large trees growing in them. 
 
 But if all this should be thought not sufficient to remove 
 the objection, I will produce the Canon an analogy in oppo- 
 sition to his analogy, and which is founded on more certain 
 facts, ^tna and Vesuvius resemble each other in the caus- 
 es which produce their eruptions, and the nature of their la- 
 vas, and in the time necessary to mellow them into soil fit for 
 vegetation ; or if there be any slight difference in this respect, 
 it is probably not greater than what subsists between differ- 
 ent lavas of the same mountain. This being admitted, which 
 no philosopher will deny, the Canon's analogy will prove 
 just nothing at all, if we can produce an instance of seven 
 different lavas (with interjacent strata of vegetable earth) 
 which have flowed from Mount Vesuvius within the space, 
 not of fourteen thousand, but of somewhat less than seven- 
 teen hundred years; for then, according to our analogy, a 
 stratum of lava may be covered with vegetable soil in about 
 two hundred and fifty years, instead of requiring two thou- 
 sand for the purpose. The eruption of Vesuvius which de- 
 stroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, is rendered still more fa- 
 mous by the death of Pliny, recorded by his nephew in his let- 
 
 ter to Tacitus. This event happened in the year 79. It is not 
 then quite seventeen hundred years since Herculaneum was 
 swallowed up; but we are informed by unquestionable autho- 
 rity, that *' the matter which covers the ancient town of Her- 
 culaneum is not the produce of one eruption only ; for there 
 are evident marks that the matter of six eruptions has taken 
 its course over that which lies immediately above the town, 
 and was the cause of its destruction. These strata are either 
 of lava or burnt matter, with veins of eood soil betwixt 
 themJ^* I will not add another word upon this subject, except 
 that the bishop of the diocese was not much out in his advice 
 to Canonica Recupero, to take care not to make his mountain 
 older than Moses ; though it would have been full as well to 
 have shut his mouth with a reason, as tu have stopped it with 
 the dread of an ecclesiastical censure. 
 
 You perceive with what ease a little attention will remove 
 a great difficulty ; but had we been able to say nothing in ex- 
 planation of this phenomenon, we should not have acted a 
 very rational part in making our ignorance the foundation of 
 our infidelity, or suffering a minute philosopher to rob us of 
 our religion. 
 
 Your objections to revelation may be numerous ; you may 
 find fault with the account which Moses has given of the cre- 
 ation and the fall ; you may not be able to get water enough 
 for a universal deluge ; nor room enough in the ark of Noah 
 for all the different kinds of ierial and terrestrial animals ; you 
 may be dissatisfied with the command for sacrificing Isaac, 
 for plundering the Egyptians, and for extirpating the Canaan- 
 ites ; you may find fault with the Jewish economy, for its 
 ceremonies, its sacrifices, and its multiplicity of priests ; you 
 may object to the imprecations in the Psalms, and think the 
 immoralities of David a fit subject for dramatic ridicule ; you 
 may look upon the partial promulgation of Christianity as an 
 insuperable objection to its truth, and waywardly reject the 
 goodness of God toward yourselves, because you do not com- 
 prehend how you have deserved it more than others ; you may 
 know nothing of the entrance of sin and death into the world 
 by one man's transgression ; nor be able to comprehend the 
 doctrine of the cross, and of redemption by Jesiis Christ: in 
 short, if your mind is so disposed, you may find food for your 
 scepticism in every page of the Bible, as well as in every ap- 
 pearance of nature ; and it is not in the power of any person, 
 but yourselves, to clear up your doubts. You must read, 
 and you must think for yourselves; and you must do both 
 with temper, with candour, and with care. Infidelity is a 
 rank weed ; it is nurtured by our vices, and cannot be pluck- 
 ed up as easily as it may be planted. Your difficulties with 
 respect to revelation may have first arisen from your own re- 
 flection on the religious indifference of those whom, from 
 your earliest infancy, you have been accustomed to revere 
 and imitate : domestic irreligion may have made you a willing 
 hearer to libertine conversation ; and the uniform prejudices 
 of the world may have finished the business, at a very early 
 age, and left you to wander through life, without a principle 
 to direct your conduct, and to die without hope. We are far 
 from wishing you to trust the word of the clergy for the truth 
 of your religion ; we beg of you to examine it to the bottom, 
 io try it, to prove it, and not to hold it fast unless you find it 
 good. Till you are disposed to undertake this task, it becomes 
 you to consider with great seriousness and attention, whether 
 it can be for your interest to esteem a few witty sarcasms, or 
 metaphysic subtleties, or ignorant misrepresentations, or un- 
 warranted assertions, as unanswerable arguments against re- 
 velation ; and a very slight reflection will convince you that 
 it will certainly be for your reputation to employ the flippan- 
 cy of your rhetoric, and the poignancy of your ridicule, upon 
 any subject rather than upon the subject of religion. 
 
 I take my leave with recommending to your notice the ad- 
 vice which Mr. Locke gave to a young man who was desirous 
 of becoming acquainted with the doctrines of the Christian 
 religion : — *' Study the holy Scripture, especially the New 
 Testament : therein are contained the words of eternal life. 
 It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth with- 
 out any mixture of error for its matter." I am, &c. 
 
 ♦ See Sir William Hamilton's Remarks upon the Nature of Jtua 
 Soil of Naples and its Neighbourhood, in the Phil. Tran. vol. 61, p. 7. 
 
 Ik 
 
 It 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Abah. the Saracen, heToisra of hi« widow, page 
 
 Abassides. ilevation of the houseof, to the oflSco 
 
 ofcaliphoftbo Saracens, 254, II.. 
 Abdallah, the Saracen, hia excursion to plunder 
 
 the fair of Ab> la, 229, a. His African expedi- 
 
 Abdalmalek, caliph of the Saracens, refuacs tri- 
 bute to the em>H!ror of Consianunople, an(^s- 
 lablishesanatjonal mint.'iSO.ii. 
 
 Abdalrahman, the Saracen. establishes his throne 
 at Cordova in Spain, 255. ii. Splendour of his 
 court, 256, ii. His estimate of hia happinesa, 
 
 Abdelaiir. the Saracen, hi| treaty with Theodc- 
 mir the Gothic pnnce of Spain. 244, h. Mis 
 death, 245. ii. ,. . _, . • .^ 
 
 Abderame. his expedition to France, and victo- 
 ries there. 253, ii. His death, I*. 
 
 Abdol Motalleb, the grandfather of the prophet 
 Mahomet, hi.B history, 200, II. 
 
 AbgaruB, inquiry into ihe authenticity of his cor- 
 respondence with Jesus. Christ, 17J, n.. . 
 
 Abgnrus, the last king of Edussa, sent in chains 
 to Rome, 82, i. ^ , . , . ^ j r< _ 
 
 Ablavius. the confidential prefect under t.on- 
 ■tantine the Great, a conspiracy formed against 
 him on that .emperor's death, 2J0, i. Is put to 
 
 Abu Ayub. his history, and the veneration paid 
 to his memory hy the Mahometans., 24y. n- 
 
 Abubeker, the friond.ot M;iho^.,et. i« one of his 
 first converts. 20i),i I., Flios from Mecca with 
 him. 207, ii. Succeeds^Mahomet as cahp.h ol 
 the Saracens, 215. ii. , His character. 220. ii. 
 
 Abu Caab. commands the Andalusian Moors who 
 subdued the island of Creje, 2b0, u. . 
 
 Abu Sophian, prince ot Mecca. con.«.pirPS the 
 death of Mahomet, 200. ii. H-ittles of Beder 
 and Ohud, 20S». ii. Besieges Med iim without 
 success, ib. Surrenders Mecca to. Mahomet, 
 ami receives him^as a prophet. 2JU, ii. 
 
 Abu Taher, tho Carmaihian, pillages Mecca, 
 
 Abuifeda. his account of the splendour of the 
 calipli Moctader.25G. li. » „„k:,„„ 
 
 Abulpharagius. primate of the eastern Jacobites, 
 some account of, 145. ii. ..His encomium on 
 wisdom and learning, 257, n. „„„„„ „f 
 
 Abundantius. geiieralof the.east. and patroii ot 
 tho eunuch Eutropius, is disgraced and exiled 
 
 Abvla,.the fa'ir of, plundered by the Saracens, 
 
 Abvssinia, the inhabitants of, described,. 59, ii. 
 Their alliance with the emperor Justinian, 10. 
 Ecclesiastical history of. 14a, II. __„„ ;„ 
 
 Acacius, bishop of Amida. an uncommon in- 
 stance of episcopal benevolence, 4ol. i. 
 
 Achaia, iu extent, 20, i. „,.,„„ Ja.- 
 
 Acre. the memorable siege of, by tho crusaders, 
 351, ii. Final loss of, aSG, II. _ ,;„- qo :: 
 
 Actions, institutes i>f Justinian respecting. |«,ii. 
 
 Aciium, a review of Roman affairs after the bat- 
 
 Adau^ius.'the only martyr of distinction during 
 the persecution under Dioelelipn, JJl, i. 
 
 Adolphus, the brother of A aric, brings him a 
 reinforcement of troops, 42b, i. Is made count 
 of the domestics to the new emperor Attains, 
 427. i. Succeeds his brother as king of .the 
 Goths, and concludes a peace with Hoiiorius, 
 
 32 i 
 
 Adoption, the two kinds of, under the Greek em- 
 pire, 333, ii. note. . , 
 
 Adoration of the Roman emooror, custom ol, and 
 derivation of 1 he term, 273. II. 
 
 Adorno. the Gen(»ese governor of Phocaea, con- 
 veys Amurath II. from Asia to Europ<',423. ii. 
 
 Adrian I. iwpe. his alliance with. Charlemagne 
 against tl,e l^>mbard8, 179. 180, ik His recep- 
 tion of Charlemagne at Rome, 180, ii. Asserts 
 the fictitious donation of Coiistantine theureat, 
 181 ii 
 
 Adultery, distinction" of. and how punished by 
 Augustus, 96, ii. By the christian emperors, 
 
 iEli'a Capitolina, founded on Mount Sion by Ha- 
 
 iElVu8"Pffiiu9, his Tripartite.,. the oldest work of 
 Roman jurisprudence, 80. 11. j m-..;.. 
 
 yEmilianus, governor of Pannonia and Mscsia, 
 routs the barbarous invaders of the e_m pi re, and 
 is declared emperor by his.trooPs.y7,.i. 
 
 iEneasofGaza, his attestation of the miraciilogs 
 gift of speech to the catholic confessors ot 11- 
 uasa, who^e tongues had been cut out, aU7, i.. 
 
 Alneas Sylvius, his account of the impractJcabil- 
 iiy of a European crusade against the lurks, 
 462. ii. His epigram on the destruction ol an- 
 cient buildings in Rome, 493, ii. note. . . 
 
 JRiti of tho world, remarkable epochas m, point- 
 ed ont, 23. ii. wofe. _ , , ..i„j orift 
 - - Gelalnan, ot the Turks, when settled. 320, 
 
 Aerial tribute, io tho eastern empire, what, 13, ii. 
 
 jRt'xnt, romamed the Atheist, hit character and 
 adventures, 272, 275. 5?7U. 1. ,. , . . ,., 
 
 - • the Roman general under Valenlinian 111. 
 his character. 453. i. Hw treacherous scheme 
 to ruin count Boniface, tb. .Is forced to retire 
 into Pannonia, 456, i. His invitaiipn of the 
 Huns into the empire, 459, i. .Seizes the ad- 
 ministration of the wcsiern empire, 4bo,i. His 
 character, as given by Renatus, a contempora- 
 ry historian, 469, i. Employs the Huns and 
 Alani in the defence ot Gaul, I*. .Concludes a 
 l)eace with Theodoric, 470, i. Raises the siege 
 of Orleans, 473. i. Battle of Chalons, tb. His 
 prudence on the invasion of Italy by Atiila, 4/b, 
 1. Is murdered by Valentinian.47P, I.. 
 
 Africa, its situation and reyolution8,21. i. .Oreat 
 revenue raised from, t»y the Romans, tjo, i. rro- 
 gress of Christianity there, 176, 1. . 
 
 - - - is distracted with religious djscord in 
 the time of Constantine the Great, 26o, i. Cha- 
 racter and revolt of the Circumcellions, 283, i. 
 Oppressions of, under the government of count 
 Romanus, 343, i. General state ol Alrica, 
 
 344, i ro • 
 
 - .' - revolt of count Boniface there, 4^. i. 
 Arrival of Genseric king of the Vandals, 454, i. 
 Persecution of the Donaiist?. »6., Devastations 
 of. by the Vandals, 455, i. Carthage surprised 
 by Genseric. 457, i. Persecution of the caiho- 
 
 lies, 505, i. ... ,„ ,. . , or •• I,..- 
 • - - expedition of Belisarius to, 25. 11. Isre- 
 covered by the Romans. 29, ii. The govern- 
 ment of. settled bv Justinian, ifc. Revolt of the 
 troops there, under Sioza, 61, n. Devastation 
 
 of the war, 62. ii. „ , , c c»oq :: 
 
 - - - Invasion of, by the Saracens, 238, u. 
 Conquest of. by Akbah, 2J9, ii. Decline and 
 extinction of Christianity there, 247, ii. Revolt 
 and independence of the Saracens there, 2t>4, 
 
 Agiabites. the Saracen dynasty of, 264, ii. . 
 Aglae. a Roman lady, patronizes St. Boniface, 
 
 Agricola, review of his conduct in Britain, 14, i. 
 
 Agriculture, great improvement of, m the wes- 
 tern countries of the Roman empire, M. i. 
 State of. .in ihe eastern empire, under Justi- 
 
 Ajax, tho 'sepulchre of, how distinguished, 207, 
 
 A'iznadin, battle of, between the Saracens and 
 
 the Greeks, 226, ii. . . .,..„„ o«in 
 
 A.kbah, the Saracen, his exploits in Alrica, 2JU, 
 
 Alani, occasion of these people invading Asia, 
 119, i. Conquest of. by the Huns, 35b, i. Join 
 the Goths, who had emigrated into Thrace, 
 361, i. See Goths and Vandals. 
 
 Alaric, the Goth, learns the art of war under 
 Theodosius the Great, 3d5. i. Becomes the 
 leader of the Gothic revolt, . and ravagcsOrcece, 
 403, i. E^•ca^)es from Stiiicho, 405, i. Is ap- 
 pointed master-general of the eastern lllyri- 
 cum.ift. His invasion^ ot Italy, 406,1. Is de- 
 feated by Siilicho at f oljentia, 407, i. Is dri- 
 ven out of Italy. 408, i. Is, by treaty with Ho- 
 norius, declared master-general of the Roman 
 armies ihroughout the pra;feclu.reot lllyr.icum, 
 414, i. His pleas and motives lor marching to 
 Rome, 417, i. Encamps under the walls ol that 
 city. 418. i. Accepts a ransom, and rait«s the 
 siege. 425, i. His negociations with theempe- 
 ror Honorius, 42<>, i. Ilia second siege of Rome, 
 127, i. Places Attalus on the imperial throne. 
 
 . i. Degrades him, tb. Seizes the city ot 
 R5me. ib. llis sack of Ron^ i^T'^'^^'^i' !*;'''l 
 that by the emperor Charles V. 431, \,.^^\}ff^ 
 from Rome, and ravages Italy, tft. His death 
 
 Alarlc^Il'.'kinfof "the Gplhs. his overthrow by 
 Clovis king of the Franks, 515, i. 
 
 Alberic, the son of Marozi.a, hia revolt and go- 
 vernment of Rome, 189, u. . 
 
 Albigeois of France, perpcc ut ion of. 285, ii. 
 
 Albom, king of the Lombards, his history, 99, ii. 
 His alliance with the Avars, against the Gepi- 
 d».99, ii. Reduces the Gepidie.ffr, Heunder- 
 takeV the conquest of Italy. JOO, •'•„ Oyerruns 
 what is now called Lombarcly, 101 "j,^ As- 
 sumes the repal title there, tft. Takes Pavia, 
 and makes it his capital city, i6. Is murdered 
 at the instigation of his .queen Rosamond, tO. 
 
 Alchemy, the iHw.ks of, lu Egypt, destroyed by 
 Diocleiian. 133. i. . , ., ^ c-.»-«na 
 
 Aleppo, siege and rapture of. by the Sarapens, 
 231, ii. Is recovered by the Greeks. 266, II. Is 
 taken and sacked by Tamer ane. 417, n. 
 
 Alexander III. iH)pe, establishes the papal elec 
 tion in the college of cardina s,4dO, .n. 
 
 Alexander, archbishop, of Alexandria, excom- 
 municates Arius for bis ppresy. JjV. i. 
 
 Alexander Sevcrus. is declared.Cajsar by the em- 
 peror Elagabalus..62,i.. Is ^?'«^•iL«K'^'°i!|; 
 ib. Examination i.ntohis Prefendejl vie ory over 
 Artaxerxes, 82. i. Showed a regard for the 
 christian religion. 195, i. 
 
 Alexandria, a genpral massarre ther^ by. order 
 of the emi>eror Caracalla, 58, i... lie city de- 
 scribed, l06. i. Is ruined by ridicu.'ous mien- 
 tine coram. -tions.ift. By famine and pestilence* 
 ib. Is besieged and taken by Diocletian, IJX, u 
 The christian theology reduc^'d loa sjstemaii- 
 cal form in the school of, 1<8, i. Nuniber.of 
 martyrs who suffered there in the persecutioo 
 by Dtjcius, 190, i. . mt . . l. 
 
 ... - ihe theological system of Plato taught 
 in the school of, and received by the Jews there. 
 266, i. Cluestions concerning the nature otth« 
 Trinity, agitated in the philosophical and chris- 
 tian schools of, 268, 2';0, i. History of the arch- 
 bishop St. Aihanasius, 275, i. Outriiges at- 
 tending his expulsion, and the establihhment 
 of his successor, George of Cappadocia|2fc0 1. 
 The city distracted by pious factioiis, 281, i. 
 Disgraceful life and tragical doaxh ot Georgg 
 of Cappadocia. 300, 310, i. Resioration of 
 Aihanasius, 310, i. Aihanasius banished by 
 Julian, i6. Suffers greatly by an earthquake. 
 
 349 i 
 
 - .' .' . Historyof the temple of Serapisthere. 
 
 390, i. This temple, and the famous librarr* 
 destroyed by bishop TheophiljjS. ;?Jl, i. 
 . - - • is taken by Am rou the Saracen, xjd* 
 ii. The famoas library there, ib. ^^^^ 
 
 Alexius Angelus, his usurpation of the Greek 
 empire, and character, J59, ii. I lies before tho 
 crusaders, 365, ii. ,_ ^ . .^ 
 
 Alexius l.Comnenue, emperor of Constantinople* 
 166, ii. New titles of dignity invented by him, 
 272, ii. Battle of Durazzo, 306, n. Solicits 
 the aid of theemi»eror Henry 111. o07, n. 
 • . - - solicits ihe aid of the christian. prin- 
 ces against the Turks, :i25. ii. His suspiriou* 
 policy on the arrival of the crusaders, 3 J2.ii. 
 Exacts homaaefrom them, 3.33. ii... Prohts by 
 the succegs of the crusaders. 343. m. 
 Alexius.II... Comnenue, emperor ot Constantino- 
 Alexius Sirategopulus,^ the Greek general, .re- 
 takes Constantinople from the Latins, ,ny, u. 
 Alexius, the son of Isaac Angelus, his escape 
 from his uncle, who had deposed his lather. 
 359. ii. His trea»y wnh the crusaders for hi» 
 restoration, 363. ii. Restoration of his lather* 
 366.ii. His death, 367, II. , , ■ ^ c a^ 
 Alfred, sends an embassy to the shrine cl Ot. 
 
 Thomas in India, 144, ii. .. 
 
 Algebra, by whom invented, 257. 11.. . 
 
 All. joins Mahomet in his prophetical mission, 
 2()6, ii. His heroism,, 210, n- His character, 
 215, ii. Is chosen caliph of the. Saracens, i*. 
 Devotion paid at his tomb, 217, ii. Hid poste- 
 
 A ligern,* defends Cuma> for his brother Teias» 
 
 kmgoflheGoths. 69, ii. Is reduce. , f ft.. 
 AHectus murders Carausius, and usurps his sta- 
 
 Al«^anni,'the origin and warlike spirit of, 9^ i. 
 Are driven out of Italy by.the senate and peo- 
 ple. t6. Invade the empire under Aurelian, 
 111. i. Are totally routed, tb. Gaul delivered 
 from their depredations by Constantius Chlo- 
 
 f "!' Pui'vade and establish themselves in Gau?, 
 246, i. Are defeated at Strasburgh by Julian. 
 249. i. Are reduced by Julian in his expeditions 
 beyond the Rhine, ib. Invade Gaul under the 
 emperor Valentinian, 3:«5. i. Are reduced bjr 
 Jovinus, ib. And chastised by Valentinian, 
 
 ?*!.'*•. B^re subdued by Clovis king of the 
 
 A^"" Ailkn,"sultan of the Turks, his reign, 317, 
 
 Alypius, governor of Britain, is commissioned bjr 
 the em^n»r Julian to rebuild the temple of Je- 
 
 Amafa! kinfS Ihe Goths, his high credit among 
 
 Anmb^^nthi, qyeen of Italy, her history and 
 
 character, 30, u- Her death. .34, ii. 
 Amalphi. description of the city, and itJ com- 
 
 AmSsfim "robaiility of any society of, 116. 1. 
 
 Ambiiion, reflections on the violcj^ce and various 
 oi«>r«iionsof that tassion, 1/.-:, II. ^, _ . ..^ 
 
 A?^^rose?St coinp<.sed a treatise on theTrinitjr, 
 Ivr the o^ of the emperor Graian, 3/0, i. tiote. 
 hTs birth, and promotion to the archbishopric 
 of Mi an, 377, i Opposes ihe Arian worship 
 Sf the emprels Jostilia.i6. Refuses c^bedience 
 to the imiieria power, 3(8,i. controls me era- 
 Sror Theodos us. 382. i. Imposes penance oa 
 Theodosius for his cruel treatment of 1 hessa- 
 lonira '183. i Employed his influence over 
 &an and TheodiiuL to ip«P^re them wuh 
 
 IIIK A^aXrt^e Vo¥% • oPd^&^/eTl. 
 ^ionV3F«. i. Comforts the citizens of Florence 
 with a dfeam.when besieged by RadagaiBUs, 
 
 411. i. 519 
 
520 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 521 
 
 t 
 
 Amida. iie^e of. bj Sapor kin^ of Persia, 24J, 
 i. Receives the fugitive inhabitantdof Nixibit. 
 327. i. Is besieged and taken by Cabodcs, king 
 of i'ertfia, 1:^0, ii. 
 
 Amir, prince of fnnia. his character, and passage 
 into Europe, 4UH, ii. 
 
 Ammianus. the historian, hin religious charac- 
 ter of the emperor Con.stnntiua. iiTS, i. His re- 
 mark on the enniity of christians lowards each 
 other, 284. i. (lis account of the fiory obstruc- 
 tionn to restoring the temple of Jerusalem. 'Mo, 
 i. If is account of the liostilu contest of J)ama- 
 pus and IJrsinus. lor tho bishopric of Rome. 
 337. i. Testinionj' in favour of his historical 
 merit, ^\^, i. His character of the nobles of 
 Rome. 4-JO. i. 
 
 Ammonius.themathcmntician. his measurement 
 of the circuit of Kome. 4ii4. i. 
 
 Ammonius. the monk of Alexandria, his martyr* 
 dom. l."ij. ii. , , . , . , ... 
 
 Amorium. niece and destruction of, by the caliph 
 Moiassnn, ^(i'i, ii. 
 
 Aniphilo<-,hu:«,biiihopofIconiura, gains the favour 
 of I he rmueror Theodosius by an orthodox bon 
 mot, 372. I. „ 
 
 Amphitheatre at Rome, a description of, 126. i. 
 4H4. ii. 
 
 Amrou. his birth and character. 236. ii. His 
 invNsion and conquest of Egvpt. 234. ii.. His 
 adm;ni<itra(ion iheref237.it. His description of 
 the country, ib. 
 
 Amurath I. sultan of tho Turks, his reipn.400. ii. 
 
 Amurath II. sultan, his reign and character. 
 442. ii. 
 
 Anarhorets. in monkish history, described. 
 501, 1. 
 
 Anurletus. pope, his Jewish extraction, 474. ii. 
 
 Anasta.iius [. marries the empress Arindne. 532. 
 i.. His wor with Theodoric. tho Ostrogoth, 
 kin^of Italy, 536. i. His economy celebrated. 
 
 ii, li. His long wall from the Propontis to the 
 ^uxine. 18, ii. Is humbled by the catholic 
 clergy, 137. ii. 
 
 Annsiasius II. emperor of Constantinople. 134. ii. 
 His prt^parations of defence against the Sara- 
 
 • renp,250, ii. 
 
 Ana.i'taRius. St. his brief history and martyrdom. 
 ICO. II. vote. 
 
 Anaiho. the city of. on the banks of the Euphra- 
 tes, deacribed, 317, i. 
 
 Andalusia, derivation of the name of that pro- 
 vince, 242, ii. »;o<c. 
 
 Andronirus. president of Lvbia. excommunica- 
 ted by Syresius bishop of Piolcmais, 2l>3. i. 
 
 Andronicus Comncnus. his character, and first 
 adventures, H58. ii. S'-izes the empire of Con- 
 stantinople. 170, ii. His unhappy fate, 171. ii. 
 
 Andronicuo. tho Elder, emperor ^f Constantino- 
 ple, his superstition, 393. ii. Hi<) war with his 
 grandson, and abdication. 31>3, 394. ii. 
 
 Andronicus. the Younger, emi^eror of Constant i- 
 npple. his licentious character. IKIS. ii. His 
 rivil war against his grandfather. r'A. His reign. 
 394. ii. Is vanr^uidhf'd and wounded by sultan 
 Orchan. 40^, ii. His private application to 
 pope Benedict, XII. of Rome, 425, ii. 
 
 Angorn. battle of, between Tamerlane and Baja- 
 z.'t.418, ii. 
 
 Anianu<^ l>i.>:hop of Orleanf. his pious anxiety for 
 tho rolief of that city, when besieged by Attila 
 the Hun. 472, i. 
 
 Anic.ian family at Rome, brief history of, 419, i. 
 
 Anna Comnena, character of her history of her 
 lather, Alexius I. emt>eror of C<(n«tanlinople. 
 IW?. ii. Her conspiracy against her brother 
 John. ib. 
 
 Antheinius, emperor of the west, his descent, 
 and investiture by L«»o the fJreat. 488. i. His 
 election ronlirmeff at Rome. ib. Is killed in the 
 
 ^•ack of Rome hy Ririmer, 493, i. 
 
 Anihemju*. prajh-ct of tliO; east, character of his 
 ndministration. in the minority of the emiieror 
 riieodosius the Younger. 449, i. 
 
 Anthemius, the architect, instances of his great 
 knowlndce in mechanics. 15, ii. Formal the de- 
 sign of the church of St. Sophia at Constanti- 
 nople, tb. 
 
 Anthony, St. father of the Egyptian monks, his 
 history, 497, i. 
 
 Anihropomorithites, among the early christians, 
 personifiersof tho IKity. 128. ii. 
 
 Ant loch, taken and destroyed by Sapor king of 
 Persia. 103. i. Flourishing state of the chris- 
 tian church there, in the reign of Theodosius. 
 177, 1. , , 
 
 • - . history of the body of St. Babylas. bish- 
 op of. .309,1. The cathedral of. shut up. and 
 Its wealth confiscate*!, by the emperor Julian. 
 ib. Licentious manners of the citizens, 313. i. 
 Popular discontents during tho residence of Ju- 
 lian there, t/^. 
 
 - • - sedition there, against the emperor The- 
 odosius. :J8I, i. The city p:irdoned, ib. 
 
 • • .- iji tak«n and ruined by ('hosroes kingof 
 rersia. .'S4. ii. Great destruction there by an 
 earthquake, 74, ii. Is again seized by Chosrocs. 
 
 Jl A«/ff II* ^ 
 
 ' j' c^:^i^-^-^^^^-^'^ by the Saracens, and raneom- 
 ed. 232. II.. Is recovered by the flref>ks.2(i<5, ii. 
 
 *. ■ "o-Pflfe*^" *"d taken by tho first crusa- 
 ders, 3,1b, II. 
 
 Antonina.the wife of Belisarins. her character. 
 2.J. II. Lxamines and convicts tiope Sylverius 
 of treachery, 39, ii. Her activity during the 
 siego ot Rome. 40. ii. Her secret historv.44, 
 11. Founds a convent for her retreat, 73. ii. 
 
 Antoninus, a Roman refugt^e at the court of Sa- 
 por king of Persia, stimulates him to an inva- 
 sion of the Roman provincC'91,245, i. 
 
 Antoninus Pius, his character, and that of Ha- 
 drian compared. 15, i. Is adopted by Hadrian, 
 38. i.. 
 
 Antoninus Marcus, his defensive wars, 15, i. Is 
 adopted by Pius at tho instance of Hadrian, 38, 
 I. His character, 40. i. His war against the 
 united Germans, 92. i. Suspicious story of his 
 edict in favour of the christians, 194. i. 
 
 Aper. Arrius. praetorian pra»lect. and father-in- 
 law to the emperor Numerian, is killed bv Dio- 
 cletian as the presumptive murderer of that 
 princf>, 127, i. 
 
 Apharban. the Persian, his embassy from Narses 
 king of Persia, to tho emi)eror Galerins, 135, i. 
 
 Appcalypso, why now admitted into the canon 
 of the Scriptures. KM?, i. note. 
 
 Apocaucus, admiral of Constantinople, hie con- 
 
 federacy against John Cantacuzcne. 396, li. 
 
 His death, 39(), ii. 
 A(>ollinaris, bishup of Laodicca. his hypothesis 
 
 of the divine incarnation of Jesus Christ. 129, 
 
 ii. 
 Apollinaris. patriarch of Alexandria, butchers 
 
 his flock in jlefence of the catholic doctrine of 
 
 the incarnation. 147. ii. 
 Apollonius ot Tyana. hid doubtful character. 114, 
 
 1. vote. 
 Apotheosis of the Roman emperors, how thia cus- 
 tom was introduced, 3t), i. 
 Apsimar dethrones lieontius emperor of Con- 
 stantinople, and usurps his place, 153. ii. 
 Apuliii. is conquered by the Normans. 300, ii. Is 
 
 corifirmed to thtm by papal grant. 301, ii. 
 Aquilcia. besieged by the tmperor Maximin,74, 
 
 i. Is lakpn and destroyed by Attila king of the 
 
 Huns, 475, i. 
 Aquitain, is settled by the Goths, under their 
 
 king Wallia. 4.37. i. Is conquered by Clovis 
 
 kingot the Franks, 515, i. 
 Arabia, its situation, soil, and climate. 193. ii. 
 
 Its division, into the sandy, the stonv. and hap- 
 
 SV, ib. The pastoral Arabs, 194. ii. Their 
 orscs and camels. t6. Cities of, tfr. Manners 
 and customs.of the Arabs. 195. li. Their lan- 
 guage, 197, ii. Their benevolence, i&. History 
 and descrii)tion of the Caaba of Mecca. 198. ii. 
 Religions. t6. Life and doctrine of Mahomet. 
 199, ii. Conquest of. by Mahomet. 211, ii. 
 Character of the caliphs. 220. ii. Rapid con- 
 quests of. 221. ii. Limits of their conquests. 
 249. ii. Three caliphs established. 25.J. ii. In- 
 troduction of learning among the Arabians. 
 2.56, ii. Their pmgrees in the sciences. 257. ii. 
 Their literary deficiencies. 258, ii. Decline and 
 fall of the caliphs, 263, ii. 
 
 Arbetio. a veteran under Constantine the Great, 
 leaves his retirement to oppose the usurper 
 Procopius. 333. i. 
 
 Arbogastes the Frank, his military promotion 
 under Theodosius in Gaul, and conspiracy 
 against Valontinian the Younger, 384, i. Is 
 defeated by Thpoilosius.and kills himself, 385,1. 
 
 Arcadius, son of tho emperor Theodosius, suc- 
 ceeds to the emjuire of the east. 395. i. His 
 magnificence, 440. i. Extent of his dominions. 
 
 ib. Administration of his favourite eunuch 
 ilutrocius. 441, i. His cruel law against trea- 
 son, 442, i. Siens the condemnation of Eutro- 
 pius, 444.i. His interview with the revolters 
 Tribigild and Gainas, ib. His death, and sup- 
 IKised testament , 447. 448. i. 
 
 Architecture, Roman, the general magnificence 
 of, indicated by the existing ruins. 27. i. 
 
 Ardaburius. his expedition to Italy, to reduce 
 the usurper John. 452. i. 
 
 Argonauts, the object of their expedition to Col- 
 c|ios, 56. ii. 
 
 Ariadne, daughter of the emperor Leo, and wife 
 of Zeno. her character, and marriage afterward 
 with AnastasiuR, 532. i. 
 
 Arii.a tritteof the Lygians. their terrific mode 
 of waging war. 121. i. 
 
 Arintha:-u$, is appointed general of the horse by 
 the emji'^ror Julian on nis Persian expedition. 
 316, i. Distinguishes himself against the usur- 
 per Procopius, 3Xi, i. 
 
 Ariovistus seizes two thirds of the lands of the 
 ScQuani in (.aul for himself and his German 
 followers, 519, i. 
 
 Aristobulus. principal minister of the house of 
 Cams, is received into confidence by tho empe- 
 ror Diocletian, 128, i. 
 
 Aristotle, his logic better adapted to the detec- 
 tion of error, than for the discovery of truth, 
 257. ii. 
 
 Arius. is excommnnicated for heretical notions 
 concerning ih« Trinity. 270. i. Strength of his 
 party, ib. His opinions examined in the coun- 
 cil of Nice. 271. i. Account of Arian sects, 
 272, i. Council of Rimini. 27.3. i. His banish- 
 ment and recall. 274. i. His suspicious death. 
 ib. 
 
 ' • The Arians persecute the catholics in Af- 
 rica. 504, i. 
 
 Armenia is seized by Sapor kingof Persia. 103. 
 i. Tiriilaies restored. 133. i. He is again ex- 
 pelled by tho Persians, KM. i. Is resigned to 
 Tiridates by treaty between the Romans and 
 Pcrsiatis. 136, i. 
 
 - - - is rendered tributary to Persia, on the 
 death of Tiridates, 232, i. Character of Arsa- 
 res Tiranus. kir^ of. and his conduct toward 
 the emperor Julian, 315. i. Is reduced by Sa- 
 por to a Persian province, 444, i. 
 
 - • - its distractions anddivinion between the 
 Persians and the Romans, 450, i. 
 
 - - - history of Christianity there, 146, ii. 
 Armifis of tho eastern empire, state of. under the 
 
 emjieror Maurice. 116. li. 
 
 Armorica. the provinces of. form a free govern- 
 ment independent on the Romans. 4^8, i. Sub- 
 rnits to Clovis kingof the Franks. 513. i. Set- 
 tlement of Rritons in, 525. i. 
 
 Armour, defensive, is laid aside bv the Romans, 
 and adopted by th« barbarians, 386, i. 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, his heresy and history, 465. ii. 
 
 Arra^on, derivation of the name of that province, 
 19. 1, note. 
 
 Arrian.his visit to, and description of. Colchos, 
 57. li. 
 
 Arsaces Tiranus. kingof Armenia, his character, 
 and disaffection to the emperor Julian. 315. i. 
 Withdraws his troops tnarherously from the 
 Roman service, 321, i. His disastrous end, 
 344,1. 
 
 Arsenius. patriarch of Constant inople.excommu- 
 mcatf-s the emperor Michael Palocologus, 387. 
 II. Faction of the Arsenites, ib. 
 
 Artahan.king of Parthin. is defeated anl slain 
 by Artax.:rxes king of Persia, 78, i. 
 
 Artnlian. Ins conspiracy a^ainsr Iheemperor Jus- 
 tinian, 06, II. Is intrusted with the conduct of 
 the armament sent to Italy, 67, ii. 
 
 Artasires, kins of Armenia, is deposed by the 
 Persians at the instigation of his own subjects. 
 451, 1. 
 
 Ariavaede?, hi«revolt against theGreekempcror 
 (. onstantme V. at Convtnritinople, 175. ii. 
 
 Artaxerxes restores the Persian monarchy, 78, i. 
 Prohibits every worship but that of Zoroaster, 
 81. 1. His war with the Romans, 82, i. His 
 character and maxims, 83, i. 
 
 Artemius, duke of Egypt under Constantina, is 
 
 conaemned to drath under Julian, for croellTt 
 and corruption, 295. i. 
 
 Arthur, king of the Britons, his history obscured 
 by monkish fictions. 525, i. 
 
 Arvandus. praetorian prefect of Gaul, his trial 
 and condemnation by the Roman senate. 491,1, 
 
 Ascaioi), battlt! of. between Godfrey king of Je- 
 rusalem, and the sultun of Egypt. 341, ii. 
 
 Ai^cetics. in ecclesiastical history, account of, 
 497, i. 
 
 Asclepiodatus reduces and kills the British usct- 
 per Allectus, 131. i. 
 
 Asia, summary view of the revolutions in that 
 quarter of the world. 77. i. 
 
 Asia Minor described. 20. i. Amount of itg tri- 
 bute to Rome. 66, i. Is conquered by the Turks, 
 321. ii. 
 
 Aiiiarch. the nature of this office among the an> 
 cient i)agan8. 176. i. note. 
 
 Aepar is commissioned by Theodosius the Youn- 
 
 fer.to conduct Valentinian III. to Italy. 452,i. 
 'laces his steward Leo on tho throne of tne 
 eastern empire. 488, i. He and his sons mur- 
 dered by L«^o. 532. i. 
 
 Assassins, the jjrincipality of, destroyed by iho 
 Moguls, 404. li. 
 
 A-!semblic8 of the people abolished under the 
 Roman emperors, .\3, i. The nature of, among 
 the ancient Germans, 88, i. 
 
 Assyria, the province of. described, 317. i. Is in- 
 vaded by the emperor Julian, 318. i. His re- 
 treat. 322. i. 
 
 Astarte, her image brought from Carthage to 
 Rome, as a spouse for Elaeabalus. 61. i. 
 
 Astoljihus. king of the Ijomoards. takes the city 
 of Ravenna, and attacks Rome. 179. ii. Is re- 
 pelled by Pepin king of France, ib. 
 
 Astrology, why cultivated by the Arabian astro- 
 nmners, 258, ii. 
 
 Athalaric, the son of Amalasontha queen of Ita- 
 Iv, his education and character, 33. ii. 
 
 Atnanaric the Gothic chief, his war against the 
 emperor Valens. 347, i. His alliance with 
 Theodosius, his death, and funeral. 367, i. 
 
 Alhanasius, St. confesses his undert^tandine be- 
 wildered by meditating on the divinity of the 
 lA)go8, 269. i. General view of his opinions. 
 271. i. Is banished. 274. i. His cbnracter and 
 adventures, 275. 310. 329. 336. i. Was not the 
 aut hor of the f anlous creed under bis name, 507, 
 1. note. 
 
 Athanasius. patriarch of Constantinople, his 
 contests with the Greek emperor Andronicus 
 the Elder. 393, ii. 
 
 Athenais, daughter of the philosopher Leontius. 
 See Eudocia. 
 
 Athens, the libraries in that city, whj said to 
 have been spared by the Goths, 102. i. Naval 
 strength of the republic of. during its prosperi- 
 ty. 156, i. note. 
 
 - • - IS laid under contribution by Alaric tho 
 Goth. 404. i. 
 
 • -..- review of the philosophical history of, 
 20. 11. The schools of. silenced by the emperor 
 Justinian. 22. ii. 
 
 : • - revolutions of, after the crusades, and" 
 Its present state, .392. ii. 
 
 Athps. mount, beatific visions of the monks of, 
 399. ii. 
 
 Atlantic.Ocean, derivation of its name. 21. i. 
 
 Attacotti. a Caledonian tribe of cannibals, ac- 
 count of. 342. i. 
 
 Attalup. prapfect of Rome, is choFcn emperor by 
 the senrtte. under the influence of Alaric. 428, 
 i. Is publicly degraded, ib. His future fortune, 
 436. 1. 
 
 Attains, a n: bio youth of Auvergne. his adven- 
 tures. 521. i. 
 
 Attila. the Hun. 459. i. Description of his per- 
 .son and character, ib. His curquesls, 460. i. 
 Hi.< treatment of his captives. 462. i. Imposes 
 terms of i»eaco on Themlosius the Younger> 
 46.3, i. Oppresses Theodosius by his ambassa- 
 dors, 464 j. Description of his royal residence* 
 4<»5, I His reception of the ambassadors of 
 Theodosius. 466. i. His behaviour on discover- 
 ing the scheme of Theoilosius to get him assas- 
 sinated. 467. i. His haughty messages to the 
 emperors of the east and west. 468, i. His in- 
 vasion of Gaul. 471, i. His oration to his troops 
 on the approach of vT^tius and The<»doric. 473. 
 
 I. Battl9 of ('halons, t&. His invasion of Ita- 
 ly. 474. 1. His retreat purchased by Valenti- 
 nian. 476. i. His death. 477. i. 
 
 Afys and Cjbeie. the fable of, allegorized by the 
 
 pen of Julian. 299. i. 
 Avars, are discomfitted by the Turks. 49, ii. 
 
 riieir embassy to the emperor Justinian, ib. 
 
 1 heir conquests in Poland and GermPny. 50. li. 
 
 Their embassy to Justin II. 98, ii. Thev Join 
 
 thc,Ix)mbards against the Gepids, 99. ii. Pride. 
 
 polio'. and power, of their chagan Baian. 114, 
 
 II. Their, conquests, ib. Invest Constantino- 
 ple. 121, II. 
 
 Averroes. his religious infidelity, how far justifi- 
 able, 25o. II. note. 
 
 A versa, a town near Naples, built as a settle- 
 ment for the Normans, 209, ii. 
 
 Augurs. Roman, their number and peculiar of- 
 fice, 387. i, 
 
 Angustin.his account of the miracles wrought 
 by the bod v of St. Stephen. 3it4. i. Celebrates 
 the piety of the Goths in the sacking: of Rome. 
 429. 1. A ppro ves t he persecut ion of I he Dtma- 
 tists of Africa. 455. i. His death, character, 
 and writings. 456. i. History of his relics. 20, 
 ii. note. 
 
 Augustulus. Bon'of the paf rician Orestes, is cho- 
 sen emiwrnr of the west. 494, i. Is deposed by 
 Odoacer. ib. His banishment to the Lucullan 
 villa in Campania. 495. i. 
 
 Augustus, emperor, his moderate exercise of 
 iU'wer. 13. i. Is imitated by his sucresjinrs. t^*. 
 His naval regulations. 19, i. His division of 
 Gaul,t6. .His situation after the battle of Ac- 
 tium,1^2, i. He reforms the senate. 3,3. i. Prt>- 
 cures a .senatorial grant of the imperial dignity, 
 ib. Division of the provinces between him ana 
 the senate, 34. i. Is allowed his military com- 
 mand and guards in the city of R<.me, ib. Ob- 
 tains the consular and trinonicinn offices for 
 life. tb. His character and policy, 36, i. Adopts 
 riberius. .37. i. Formed an accurate register 
 of the revenues and expenses of tho empire, 65. 
 I. Taxes instituted by him, 66, i. IIi« Qavai 
 establishments at Ravenna, 409, i. 
 
 AtijCostos and C«B<ar, those titles explained and 
 dij^criminated, 36. i. /•■%?, 
 
 Avienus. his chararier and embassy from Valen- 
 titiiim III. to Altiiakinguf the Huns, 4/6, i. 
 
 Avignon, the holy see how i ransferreu from Rorne 
 to that city, 472. ii. Return of pope Urbao v. 
 toRonie,484. ii. ■:..-. m. j • 
 
 Avitus. h's embassy from iEtios to Theodoric 
 kingof ihe VisiBoihs,472, i. Assumes the em- 
 pire, 481. i. His deposition ai.d death. 48.3. i, . 
 
 Aurelian, emperor, his binh and serv-ices, lOlJ, i. 
 His exiiediiion against Palmyra. 114. i- Hi- 
 triumph. 115, i. His cruelty and death, H/- «• 
 
 Aureiigziibe. account of his immense camp. o2. 
 
 Aureolus is invested with tho purple on the Up- 
 per Danube. 107. i. , ^ ^ ,• u- 
 
 Ausonius.the tutor of the emperor Gralian. his 
 promotions, 370, i.7:otc. , . , , •• 
 
 Autharis, king of the Iy>mbard9 m Italy, his 
 wars with the Franks. 104, li. His adventurous 
 gallantry. 106. ii. , ^ , , .... 
 
 Autun. the ciiy ot. stormed and plundered by the 
 legions in Gaul. 113, i. , • ^ . ■ 
 
 Auvergne, province and city of, in Gaul, revolu- 
 tions of, 520, i. . , - 
 
 Auxiliaries, barbarian, fata! consequences of 
 their admission into the Rmnan armies, 218, i. 
 
 AxDch. a Turkish slave, his generous friendship 
 to thi! princess Anna Comnena, 167, u. And to 
 Manuel Comnenus. ib. _,-,,• 
 
 Arimuniium, the citizens of. defend their privi- 
 leges against Peter, brother of the eastern em- 
 ptuor Maurice. 1 15, ii. . , , , 
 
 Arimus. remarkable spirit shown by the citizens 
 of, against Attila and his Huns. 463, i. 
 
 gaalbec. description of the rums of. 229. ii. 
 abylas. St. bishop of Antioch. his posthumous 
 history. 309, i. . - . > 
 
 Bagaudae, in Gaul, revolt of. its occasion, and 
 suppression by Maximian. 129. i. ri.Au 
 
 Bagdad becomes the royal residence of the An- 
 bassid s. 255. ii. Derivation of f lie name. tb. 
 note. The fallen stale of the caliphs of. 265. ii. 
 The city of. stormed and sacked by the Moguls, 
 404 ii. 
 
 Bahriimithe Persian general, his character and 
 exploits. 111. ii. Is provoked to rebellion. 112. 
 li. Dethrones Chosroes.ift. His usurpation and 
 death. 113. ii. , .... .- j 
 
 Baian. chagan of the Avars, his pride, policy, and 
 power. 1 14. ii. His perfidious seizure of Sirmi- 
 nm and Singidunum. 115. ii. His conquests, tft. 
 His treachcr us attempt to seize the emperor 
 Heraclius. 120, ii. Invests Consiantinople in 
 conjunction with the Persians. 123. u. Retires. 
 124 ii. 
 
 Bajazet I. sultan of the Turks, his reign, 410. ii. 
 His correspondence with lamerlane. 415. n. 
 Is defeated and captured by Tamerlane. 417. ii. 
 Inquiry into the story of the iron cage, 418, u. 
 His sons, 422. ii. . , «» • l 
 
 Balbinus elected joint emperor with Maximus by 
 the senate, on the deaths of the two Gordians. 
 72, i. 
 
 Baldwin, count of Flanders, engages in the fourth 
 crusade. 3f)l. ii. Is chosen enip»jror of Constan- 
 tinople. .371. ii. Is taken e!L'?oP.e\ ."V Calo- 
 John, king ot the Bulgarians, 374, ii. His death. 
 
 Baldwin II. emperor of Constantinople. 378,. ii. 
 His distress and expedients, ib. His expulsion 
 from that city. 379, ii.,^ ,„ .„ 
 
 Baldwin, brother ot Go<lfrcy of Bouillon, accom- 
 panies him on the first crusade. 331, u. Founds 
 the principality of Edessa, 330, II. 
 
 Baltic Sea. progressive subsidence of the water 
 of, 84, i. note. How the Romans acquired a 
 knowledge of the naval powers of, 340, i.note._ 
 
 Baptism, tlieory and practice of, among the pri- 
 mitive christians. 258. i. , 
 
 Barbary, the name of that^country. whence de- 
 rived. 241. i. note. The Mo<>r8of. converted to 
 the Mahometan faith, 442. ii. „ . , . 
 
 Barbatio, general of infantry in Gaul under Ju- 
 lian, his misconduct. 248, i. 
 
 Barcochebas. his rebellion against the emperor 
 Hadrian, 182, i. - . . ... 
 
 Bards, Celtic, their power of exciting a martial 
 enthusiasm in the people, 90. 1. 
 
 Bards, British, their peculiar office and duties, 
 
 527. i. , r, • 
 
 Bardas. Cssar, one of the restorers of learning. 
 279, i. 
 
 Bari 'is taken from the Saracens, by the joint. ef- 
 forts of the Latin and Greek empires. 2il7.ii. 
 
 Barlaam. a Cala^rian monk, his dispute with the 
 (Jreek theologians about the light of mount 
 Thabor. .399. ii. His embassy to Rome, from 
 Andronicus the Younger, 425, li. His literary 
 character, 436. ii. ,^ ^ . 
 
 Basil I. the Macedonian, emperor of Constant i- 
 npple, 159, ii. Reduces tho Paulicians, 2t4. 
 
 Basil II. emperor of Constantinople. 163. ii. His 
 great wealth, 270, ii. His inhuman treatment 
 of the Bulgarians. 288, ii. ., ... 
 
 Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, no evidence of his 
 having been persecuted by theemp<^rpr Valens. 
 33(». i. Insults his friend Gregory Naziaii^n, 
 under the appearance of promotion, J7J. i. Ihc 
 father of the monks if Pontus, 498. 1. . . . 
 
 Basiliscus, brother of the empress Verina, is in- 
 trusted with the command of thj armament 
 nent against the Vandals in Africa, 490, i. l.lis 
 fleet destroyed by Genserie. ib, His promotion 
 to the empire and death. 532. 1. . 
 
 Bassianus, high priest of the sun. his parentage, 
 tVO, i. Is proclaimed emperor at Emesa. to. 
 See Elagabalus. _ . 
 
 Bassianus. brother-i.n-law to Constantine, revolts 
 
 agiinst him. 153. i. ... ,nn •■ 
 
 Bassora, its foundation and situation, r.'U. ii. 
 
 5 albs, public, of Rome, described, 423, i. 
 atnip, reception of the emperor Julian there. 
 
 315 I. 
 Beasts, wild, the variety of. introduced in. the 
 
 circus, for «he public games at Rome, 126, i. 
 RMusobre, M. de, rharacier of his Jltstoire Crt- 
 
 tiqtte du Maniclieisme, 127. ii. note. 
 Beder. baffle of, between Mahomet and tho Ko- 
 
 reishofMecr7i.209, ii. . .. 
 
 Bedoweens of Arabia, their mode of life, 194. u. 
 
 Vol. 11.— 3 Q 
 
 Bees, remarks on the structure of their combsand 
 cells. 257. ii. note. , .,. 
 
 Belisarius. his birth and military promotion. 24, 
 ii. Is appointed by Justinian to conduct the 
 African war,2.').ii, Einbarkaiionof his troop?. 
 ib. Land8inAfrica.26.il. Defeats Gejimer. 
 27. li. Is received into Carthage, ib. S<'cond 
 defeat of Gelimer. 28. ii. Reduction of Africa. 
 29. ii. Surrender of Gelimer. 1^0. ii.. His tri- 
 umphant return to Con.stantinople, ib. Is de- 
 clared sole consul. 31 . ii. He menaces the Os- 
 trogoths of lfaly.33. ii. He seizes Sicily. 34, 
 ii. Invades Italy. 35. ii. Takes Naples, ib. 
 He enters Rome, 36. li. He is besieged in Rome 
 by the Goths, ib. The sir ge rat.sed, 41. ii. Cau- 
 ses Constaniine. one of his generals, to ht: kill- 
 ed, ib. Siege of Ravenna. 42, ii. Takes Ra- 
 venna by stratajfem, i*. Returns to Constan- 
 tinople, 43, ii. His character and behaviour, 
 ib. Scandalous liteof his wife Anfonina,44,.ii. 
 His disgrace and submission, 45. ii. Is.sent in- 
 to the east to oppose Chosroes kingot Persia, 
 54, ii. His politic reception of the Persian am- 
 basi^ador.s, .W, ii. His second campaign in Ita- 
 ly, ()3, ii. His inefl'ectual attempt, to raise the 
 siege of Rome, ib. Dissuades Totila from des- 
 troying Rome, (j.5. ii. Recovers the city. ib. 
 His final recall from Italy, 66, ii. Rescues Con- 
 stantinople from the Bulgarians, 72, ii. His dis- 
 grace and death. t6. , . , ^,„ . 
 
 B«Miefice. in feudal language explained. 519, i. 
 
 Benevento, battle of. between Charlesot Anjou. 
 and Mainfroy the Silician usurper. 3110. ii. 
 
 Benevcntum. anecdotes relating to the siege of. 
 
 BfMijainin of Tudela. his account of the riches of 
 Constantinople, 273. ii.. 
 
 Beraja.or Alejipo, reception of the emperor Ju- 
 lian there. 315. i. , . . 
 
 Bernard. St. his character and influence in pro- 
 moting the second crusade. 346. ii. His cha- 
 racter of the Romans, 4f55.i. , , , ,. , . 
 
 BerytuB, account of the law school established 
 there. 216. i. Is destroyed by an earthquake, 
 74. ii 
 
 Brutus the Tro.ian. bis colonization of Britnin. 
 n>>w given up by inieliigent historianE. 341, u 
 note. 
 
 Beffon, M. his extraordinary burning mirrors, 
 15. ii. note. ,„ . . 
 
 Bulgarians, their character. 47. ii. Tneir in- 
 road.s on the eastern empire. 48, ii. Invnsio.n 
 of. under Zabcrgun. 71. ii. Repulsed by Beli- 
 sarius. 72. ii. , , , ....... 
 
 - - - the kingdom of. destroyed by Basil IL. 
 the Greek emperor, 163, 288, ii. 
 
 - - - revolt of, from the Greek rmpire. and 
 submission to the pope of Rome, ;'59. ii. War 
 with ll'.e Greeks under CaloJohn, 373. ii. 
 
 Bull-feast, in the Coliseum at Rome, described, 
 494. ii. 
 
 Burgi'indianp. their settlement on tj^e Elbe, and 
 maxims ot government. 339. i. rlieirsettte- 
 meni in Gaul, 4^8, i. Limits of the kingdom 
 of. under Gundobald.513. i. Are subdued by 
 the Franks, it. ,,. „ , _,, r .u 
 
 Burnet, character of his Sacred Theory of the 
 Earth, 166, i.«o<c. „t - . 
 
 BurramiHioter, source of that river, 415. ii. note. 
 
 Busir. in Egypt, four several places known un- 
 der this name, 254. ii. note. 
 
 Buzurg. the philosophical preceptor of Hormoii.r 
 king of Persia, his high reputation. 111. n. 
 
 Byzantine historians, list and character of. 462, 
 li. note. . « . . £5 
 
 Bvzantium. siege of. by the emperor beverusr 
 "52, i. Is takeii by Maximin, 152. i. S" F^ .of 
 by Constantine the Great, 156. i. Its situation 
 described, 206. i. By whom founded, it. JU)te. 
 See ConstauUnople. 
 
 Caaba, or temple of Mecca, described. 198, ii. 
 The idols in, deslroytd by Mahomet, 210. ii. . 
 
 Cabades. king of Persia, besieges and takes Ami- 
 da, 20, ii. Seizes the straits. of Caucasus, to. 
 Vicipsitudfsof his reign. 51. ii. 
 ,, „ Cadesia. battle of, between the Saracens and th«- 
 
 Bernier.hisaccounlof the camp of Aurengzebe. Persians, 322. II.. ... MoI, „,«, onn ;; 
 
 82. i. note. .. \ Cndijah. her marriage wi'b MahomfU_2liU, i?. 
 
 Bessarion. cardinal, his character. 438, ii. 
 
 Bessas. governor of Rome for Justinian, his ra- 
 pacity during the siege of that city by Totila 
 the Goth, 64. ii. Occasions the loss ot Rome. 
 
 Bezabde. is taken and garri.'joned by Sapor king 
 of Persia, 246. i. Is ineffectually besieged by 
 Consianiius.io. . , ,. 
 
 Bindoes.a Sassanian prince, deposes Hormouz. 
 kingof Persia. 112.il. . - ,, , .. 
 
 Birthright, the least invidious of all human dis- 
 tinctions, 69, i. ... , . . .. r 
 
 Bishops, among the primitive christians, the rt- 
 fice of, explained. 171, i. Proeress of episcopal 
 authority. 172. i. Assumed dignity of episco- 
 pal government, 175. i. 1. ry, . .■ 
 - - - number of, at the time of Constantine 
 the Great, 260. i. Mode of their election. 
 ib. Their power of ordination.. 261. i. Ihe 
 ecclesiastical revenue of each, diocese how di- 
 vided. 262. i. Their civiljurisd let ion. i&. .Their 
 spiritual censures, 263, i. Their legislative as- 
 semblies. 264. j. . , , , ,. nrn ■ 
 
 Bishops, rural, their rank and dutie8,260. i. 
 
 Bissextile, superstitious regard to this year by the 
 Romans, 330. i.. „ , . . u .u r- .i. 
 
 Bithyn.ia, the cities of, plundered by the Goths, 
 
 Blemmyes. their revolt against the emperor Dio- 
 cletian, 132. i. , .„_ .. 
 
 Boccace, his literary character. 437. ii. 
 
 Boethius, the learned senaior of Rome, his his- 
 tory. 540. i. His imprisonment and death, tb. 
 
 Bohemond, the son of Robert Gutscard, his cfia- 
 racter and military exploits. .107. .wl.ii. His 
 route to Constantinople on the crusade. 3.j2. ii. 
 His flattering reception by the ernperor Alex- 
 ius Comnenus. 3.3.1. ii. Takes Antioch and 
 obtains the principality of it. 336. II. . His sub- 
 sequent transactions and death, 34 J, ii. 
 
 Boniface. St. his history. 202. 1. 
 
 Boniface, count, the Roman general under Va- 
 lentiniaii I II. his character, 453. i. Is betrayed 
 into a revolt by ifAius, tb. His reiientance. 
 455, i. Is besieged in Hippo Regius by Gense- 
 ric king of the Vandals, tb. Returns to Italy, 
 and is killed by ACtiup..450,i. 
 
 Boniface VIII. poiw. his violent contest with 
 Philip the Fair, king of France, and his cha- 
 racter. 472, ii. Instiiutes the jubilee, lo. 
 
 Boniface, marquisof Montferrat. is fhnsen gene- 
 ral of the fourth crusade to the Holy Land,.<6.2. 
 ii. Is made kingof Macedo.iiia. 372, II. Is kil- 
 led by the Bulgarians, 374. ii. . 
 
 Bosphorus, revolutions of that kingdom, lUU, i. 
 Ib wMzed by the Goths, it. The strait of, de- 
 scribed. 206. i. „-_ _^- . 
 
 Bosra . siege of. by the Saracens.. 225. 226. . . 
 
 Botheric. the imperial general in Ihessalonica, 
 murdered in a sedition. :i82.i. ^ . .. , 
 
 Boucicault, marshal, .defends Constantinople 
 against Bajazet. 412. ii. /> » • 
 
 Boulogne, the porfe of, recovered from tarausius 
 byC'onstanliusChlorus, 131.i.. .. 
 
 Bowides. the Persian dynasty of.. 265. ii. 
 
 Brancaleone, senator of Rome, his character, 468, 
 
 Bretngne. the province of, in France, settled by 
 Rritons. ."J-.'S. i. note. . r u .u i> 
 
 Britain, reflections on the conquest of, by the Ro- 
 mans, 14. i. Description of. 19. i. Colonies 
 planted in. 24. i.nofe. A colony of Vandals 
 settled there by Probus, 123. i. Revolt of Ca- 
 raasius. 1.30. i 
 
 how first peopled. 341, i. Invasion of. 
 tiy ttie Srotsand Picts.ift. ' '' ■" 
 
 by TheodosiuF,,342. i 
 
 /-IJ. I. ,11 • ili^It... V.., 
 
 Is restored to peace 
 
 - - - revolt of Maximus there, 370, 1. Rfvol.t 
 of the troops there against Honorius, 41J, i. 
 Is abandoned by the Romans. 4:^8. i.. Hate ot, 
 until the arrival of the Saxons. 439. i. Descent 
 of the Saxons on, 524. i. Establishment of the 
 Saxon heptarchy, it. Wars in, it. Saxon de- 
 vastation of the country, .'»26, i. Mann.ers of 
 the independent Britons. 527. i. Description 
 of. by Procopius. 528. i. . . 
 
 - . - conversion of the Britons l.y a mission 
 from pope Gregory the Great, 'O^i "• ^he^ ''[f ' 
 trine of the incarnation received there, nz. »• 
 
 Is converted by him to bis new religion. iitw.ii. 
 Her death, 206. ii. Mahomet's veneration for 
 her memory. 214. ii.„ . , , . »,- j- 
 
 Ca^cilian, the peace of the church in Africa dis- 
 turbed by him and his party, 266, i. , , , 
 
 Caecilius, the authority of his account of the. fa- 
 mous vision of Constantine the Great, inquired 
 into, 256. i. , ^ , ,.■,., 
 
 Ca^lcstian. senator of Carthage, his distress on 
 the taking of that city by Genseric,45/, i. 
 
 Cffsar. Julius, his inducement to the conquest of 
 Britain, 14. i. Degrades the senatorial dignity^ 
 33, i. note. Assumes a place an. one the tutelar 
 deities of Rome, in his life-time. SG, i. His ad- 
 dress in appeasing a military sedition, to, i. 
 note. His prudent application of the coronary 
 gold presented to him. 224. i. , • j j 
 
 Ca-sar and Augustus., those titles explained and 
 discriminated. 36, i. , ,. , , ., ,. , 
 
 Cffisars, of the emperor Julian, the philosophical 
 fableof that work delineated, 312, 1. 
 
 Capsaren, capital of Cappadocia, taken liy bapor 
 king of Persia. 103. i. Is reduced by the Sara- 
 cens. 2.32, ii. , , _- x..r- u I..- 
 
 Cahina. queen of the Moors of Africa, her po.l.icy 
 to drive the Arabs out of the country. 241. n. 
 
 Cairoan.the city of, founded in the kingdom of 
 Tun is. 240. ii. . ., , * u . .i.- 
 
 Caled. deserts from the idolatrous Arabs to the 
 partyof Mahomet .210. ii. His gallant conduct 
 of 1he battle of Muta. 212. ii. , His victories 
 under the caliph Abuln-ker, 221. ii.. .Aitend_g 
 the Saracen army on the Syria nexpedit ion. y^p. 
 ii. His valour at the siege of Damascus, 22b, lu 
 Distil guishes himself at the battle of Aizna- 
 din,227. ii. His cruel treatmentof the refugee* 
 from Damascus, ib. Joins in nlundering the 
 fair of Abyla . 229. ii. Commands the .baracena 
 nt the battle of Yermuk, 230. ii. His death. 
 
 2.33. ii. . . ■ , X.: . A 
 
 Caledonia, and its ancient inhabitants, descri- 
 bed. 341, i. , , „ 
 
 Caledonian war, under the emperor beverus. an 
 account of, 55, i. , . _~^ .. 
 
 Caliphs of the Saracens, character of, 220. ii. 
 Their rapid conquests, 221, ii. Extent and 
 power of. 248. ii. Triple division of ihe. office. 
 254, ii. They patronize learning. 2.5<. n. De- 
 cline and fall of their empire. 264. 404. ii. 
 
 Callinicum. the punishment of a religious sedi- 
 tion in that city opposed by St. Ambroee, 
 
 382 i 
 CallinicusofHeliopolifi.nssists in defending Coii- 
 
 stantinople against the Saracens, byhis chymi- 
 
 cal inflammable compositions. 251, ii. 
 Calmiicks, bhu k. recent emigration of; from the 
 
 confines of Russia to those of China. .100. 1. . 
 Calo-John. the Bulgarian chief, his war wiih 
 
 Baldwin, the Latin emperor of theGrceks. 37.f. 
 
 ii. Defeats, and takes him priwner,. J<4. 11. 
 
 His savage character and death. 2iO, 11. 
 Calocerus. a camel-driver, exrites. an insurrec- 
 tion in the island of Cyprus. 228, 1. note. 
 CalphurniuB. the machinery of his ej;I"Pie on 
 
 the accession of the emperor Carus. ' *'4- 1- 
 Calvin, the reformer, his doctrine of the tucha- 
 
 rist. 285, ii. Examination of his conduct to 
 
 Servetus. 286. ii. , ., . ,_. .. 
 
 Camel.of Arabia, described. 194. 11. 
 
 Camisardes of Langnedoc.i.heir ent husiasm cem- 
 
 pared with .that of the Circomcellione. of Nu- 
 
 midia,264.i. . r j 1 .«.i k.. ,u^ :ii 
 
 Campania, the province of. '^PF^.'n'Pa bv the ill 
 policy of the Roman emperor8.222, 1. Descrip- 
 tion of the Lucullan villa in, 49o, .1. 
 Canada, the present climate and circnmstanccs 
 of. compared with those of ancient Germany, 
 
 C'J j. 
 
 Cannon. enormous one of the sultan Mahomet H. 
 described, 451. ii. .Bursts, 4o4. 11. .. 
 
 Canoes. Russian, a description of. 2!13. 11. 
 
 Cantacuzene. John, character of his Greek His- 
 tory. 393. ii. His go'-d fortune under the Youn- 
 ger Andronicus. 3!'5.,i.i. ..Is driven .to assume 
 the purple, 396. ii. His lively disliPct ion be- 
 tween foreign and civil war.. .ft)/. 11. His entry 
 into Constantinople and reign, it. Abdicnt^ea 
 and turns monk. 3?'8. ii. His war with the Ge- 
 noese factory at Pera, 400, n. Marries tu» 
 
522 
 
 daoihter to a Tarkt4S6. ii. His nogociation 
 
 witn ixtpe Clement Vl. ib. 
 Cantemir fl History of the Ottoman empirct a 
 
 character of, 408, ii. vote. 
 Capelianu<<, guvurtiur of Mauritania, defents the 
 
 younicor Gurdian, and taliex Carthage, 72. i. 
 Capitaiiontax, under the Roman emperors, an 
 
 account of. 'J22. ii, . ... on 
 
 CapiiOt Ateius, the civilian, his character. tSi, 
 
 Capitol or Rome, borning. and restoration of. 
 
 ^lo7 i 
 
 CapL»ad"oeia, famous for ita fine breed of horses, 
 
 '2^^, i 
 Capraria. isle of, character of the monks there. 
 
 Capi'vcs. how treated by the barbarians, 462, 
 
 550, i- r, . • ,<. J 
 
 Caracalla. son of the emporor Sererun, hia fixed 
 antipathy to hi.-i brother Geia. 55, i. Succeeds 
 to the empire jointly with him. 56, i. Tenden- 
 cy of his edict to extend the privileges of Ko- 
 roan citizens to all the free inharmaiits of his 
 emi»ire, tiO, i. His view in lhj« transaction. 6o, 
 i. Ditubles the tax on legacies and inberitan- 
 
 Caraco.rum. the Tartar •etllooient of, described. 
 
 Caravan's, Sogdian, their route to and from Chi- 
 na, for eiik., to supply the Roman empire. Ix, 
 
 Caraasioj), his revolt in Britain, l30, i. Is ac- 
 knowledged by Diocletian and bu colleagues, 
 
 131 i. 
 Curbeas, the Paulician. his revolt.from the Greek 
 
 emperor to the Saracens. 283, ii. ... 
 Cardinals, the election of a pope vested in them, 
 
 471. ii. Institution of the conclave, 10. . 
 Cardueiie, situation and history of that territory, 
 
 136 i. 
 Carinas, the son of Carus, succeeds his father in 
 
 the empire, jointly with his brother Numerian, 
 
 125, i . 
 Carizmians, t!»eir invasion of Syria, 354, il. . 
 Carlovingian race of kings, commencement of, m 
 
 France, 179, ii. . . , ... 
 
 Carmath, the Arabian reformer, his character, 
 
 2«)3, ii. His military exploits, tb. . 
 
 Carmolites, from whom they derive their pedi- 
 
 grte.497, i. note. . ... . or ■ 
 
 Carpathian mountains, tneir situation, ro, i. 
 Carthage, the bishopric of, bought lor Majorinus. 
 
 iy6,i.ii»t«.. , 
 
 - - - religious diKcord gonerafed there by the 
 factions of Csecilian and l)onatus, 265, i. . 
 
 - - • the temple of Venus there, coiivefted in- 
 to a christian church. 390. i. Is surprised by 
 Geoseric king of the Vandals, 45ti., I. . .. 
 
 - - - the gates ot, opened to lk;li8arius..27. n. 
 Natural alterations produced by time in the 
 situation ofthis city, 28, ii.Tiote. The wallsol, 
 repaired by Belisarius. ib._ lusgireciion ot the 
 Roman troops there, CO, ii. , . ,, , 
 
 - - - is reduced and pillaged by Hassan the 
 Saracen. 241. ii. Subsequent history of, tb. . 
 
 Carttiagena. an extratirdinary rich silver mine 
 worked there, for the Romans, 04), i. 
 
 Carus, emperor, his election and character, 
 124 i. 
 
 Caspiaii and Iberian. gates of mount Caucasus, 
 distinguished, 20. ii. . « • -i 
 
 Cassians.tho party of, among the Roman civil- 
 ians, explained. 82. ii. . 
 
 CassiodoruR, his Gothic history, '.M, i. "is ac- 
 count of the infant state of the republic ot Ve- 
 nice, 476, i. His long and prosperous lile, 
 
 Caslriot, George, see Scanderbrg. 
 
 Catalans, their service and war in the Greek 
 empire, 301, ii. ~ . ,- ■ - 
 
 Catholic church, the doctrines of. how discrimina- 
 ted from the opinions of the Platonic school, 
 269, i. The authority of. extended to the minds 
 of mankind, ib. Faiili ot the western or Latin 
 church. 273, i. Is distracted by factions m the 
 cauKC of Aihanasiu8.276. i- The doxology, mjw 
 introduced, and how perverted, 282, i. The 
 revenue of, transferred to the heathen priests 
 by Julian. 307, i. , , .... 
 
 • ■ - edict of TheodosiuB, for the establish- 
 ment of the catholic faith, 372, i. The pro- 
 gressive steps, of idolatry in. 3i>3. i. jPer'^ecu- 
 tion of the catholics in Africa. 505, i. rious 
 frauds of the catholic clergy, 507. i. . 
 
 - - - how bewildered by the doctrine of the 
 Incarnation, 130, ii. Union of the Greek and 
 Latin churches. 142. ii. , , „_. ., 
 
 • - - schism of the Greek church, 356, 11. 
 Celestine, pope, espou<ies the party of Cyril 
 
 against Nestnrius. and pronounces the degra- 
 dation of the latter from hia episcopal dignity. 
 132. ii. . ^ , 
 
 Celtic language, driven to the mountains by the 
 Latin, 25. i. no(«. 
 
 Censor, the office of. revived under the emperor 
 Deciu«.%. i. But without effect, i6. 
 
 Ceos. the manufacture of silk first introduced to 
 Europe from that island. 12, ii. 
 
 Cerca, the principal queen of Attila, kingof the 
 Huns, her receution of Maximin the Roman 
 am>)assador. 465. i. 
 
 Cerinthus. his opinion of the two-fold nature of 
 Jesus Christ, 120, ii. 
 
 Ceylon, ancient names given to that island, and 
 the imperfect knowledge of. by the Romans, 
 312. i. 
 
 Chalcedon.the injudicious situation of this city 
 stigmatised by proverbial contempt. 206. i. A 
 tribunal erected there by the. emperor Julian, 
 to try and punish the evil ministers ot his pre- 
 decessor Consiantius, 204. i. 
 
 - - - a stately church built there by Runnus. 
 the infamous minister of the emperor Theodo- 
 ■ius, 3iKt,i. ,, . . , „ 
 
 - • - is taken by Chosroes, II. king of Persia, 
 
 119. ii. ... 
 
 ChalcoiidylcB. the Greek historian, his remarks 
 on the several nations of Europe, 428, ii. note. 
 
 Chalons, battle of. between the Romans and At- 
 tila king of the Huns. 473, i. 
 
 Chamavians reduced and generously treated by 
 Julian. 249. i. 
 
 Chancellor, the original and modern application 
 of this word compared. 125. i. note. 
 
 Characters, national, the distinction of. how 
 fiinned, 272, i. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Chariots of the Romans described, 421. i, note. 
 
 Charlemagne conquers the kingdiun of Lonibttr- 
 dv. 179, ii. His reception at Rome, JeO, ii. 
 Eudes fulfilling the proniist-s of Pepin and 
 himself to the Roman pontiff. 181, n. His co- 
 ronation at Rome by the ix)pe Leo III. 183, ii. 
 Ilia reign and character, 184, ii. Extension of 
 his empire, 185, ii. His neighbours ainf ene- 
 mies, 186, li. His successors, 187, ii. His ne- 
 gociations and treaty with the eastern empire, 
 tb. Slate of his farnily and dominions in the 
 tenth centur>', 278, ii. , , „ ,,._ 
 
 Charles the Fat, emperor of the Romans, lo7. 
 
 Charles of A njou subdues Naples and Sicily, 389. 
 ii. The Sicilian ye^pers,:fM), ii. His charac- 
 ter as a senator of Rome, 469. ii. . . , 
 
 Charles IV. em{)eror of Germany, his weakness 
 and poverty, 192, ii. His public ostentation. 
 ib. Contrast l>etween him and Augustus, tb. 
 
 Charles V. emperor, parallel between him and 
 
 giocletian, 139, i. And between the sack of 
 ome by him. and that by Alaric the Goth. 
 
 Chastity* »fs high esteem among the ancientGer- 
 mans. 89, i. And the primitive christians. 
 
 Chem'istrr. the art of. from whom derived. 258. 
 
 Chcrsonesus^ lliraciaii, how fortified by the em- 
 peror Justinian, 18, ii. 
 
 Chersonites assist Constantine the Great against 
 the Goths. 230, i. Are cruelly w^rsecuieu by 
 the Greek emiK-ror Justinian |I. 154, ii. 
 
 Ches.a. the object of the game of', by whom inven- 
 ted. 53, ii. ^„ . . , 
 
 ChildericKing of France, deposed under papal 
 sanction, 180. ii. _ ... . - 
 
 Children, the exposing of, a prevailing vice of 
 nntiquity. 86. ii. Natu.ral. according tu the 
 Roman laws, what. 89. ii. . 
 
 China, how distinguished in ancient history, 133, 
 i. note. Great numbers of children annually 
 exposed theie, 175. i-noje- 
 - - - its situation, 35J, I. The high chrono- 
 logy claimed by the historians of. t*. The great 
 wall of. when erected. 354. i. Was twice con- 
 quered by the northern tribes. 354. 355. i. 
 
 • • -the Romans supplied with silk by the 
 caravans from, 11, ii. , ,, , ^-„ ^.^ .. 
 
 • • - is conquered by the Moguls, 403, 407. U- 
 Expulsion of the Moguls. 407. ii. 
 
 Chivalry, origin of the order of, lilJI, II. 
 
 Chnodomar. prince of the Alemanoi, taken pris- 
 oner by Julian, at the battle oi Strasburg, 
 249. i. . , ^ 
 
 Chosroes. king of Armenia, assassinated by the 
 emissaries of StiiMtr king of Persia. 103, i.. 
 
 Chosroes, eon of Tiridatca, king of Armenia, his 
 character, 232. i. 
 
 Chosroes I. kingof Persii, protecti the last sur- 
 viving philo.sophers of Athens, in his treaty 
 with the emt)eror Justinian, 22. ii. Reviewof 
 his history, 51, ii. Sell* a peace to Justinian, 
 53. ii. His invasion of Syria, ib. His negoci.a- 
 lions with Justinian. .59. ii. His prosperity, to. 
 Battle of Meiitene, 110, ii. His (leath,ift. 
 
 Chosroes tl. kingof Persia, is raised to the ihronjB 
 on the deiHisition of his father Hormouz. 112,ii. 
 Is reduced to implore the assistance of the em- 
 peror Maurice, ib. His restoration and policy, 
 113, ii. Conquers Syria. 119. ii. Palestine, ift. 
 Egypt and A.^^ia Minor, ib. His reign and mag- 
 nificence, 120, ii. Rejects the Mahometan re- 
 ligion, ib. Imposes an ignominious iwace on 
 the emperor Heraclius. l2l, ii. His nigh"., de- 
 position, and death. 126, ii. 
 
 Cnozars, the horde of. sent bv the Turks to. the 
 assistance of the emperor H( radius. 124. it. 
 
 Christ, the festival of his birth, wliv fixed by the 
 Romans at the winter solstice. 2?'0, i. note. , 
 
 Christians, primitive, the vnrious sects into 
 which they branched out, ItiO. i. Ascril)ed tho 
 pagan idolatry to the agency of (la;mons,t6. Be- 
 lieved the end of the world to l)o near at hand, 
 Hi5, i. The miraculous powers ascrilwd to the 
 primitive church. 167. i. Their faith stronger 
 than in modern times. lf)8. i. Their superior 
 virtue and austerity, ib. Repentance, a virtue 
 in high esteem among them, tb. Their notions 
 of marriage and chastity, 170, i. They dis- 
 claim war and government, ib. Were active 
 however in the internal government of their 
 own society, 171, i. Bishops, ib. Svnods, ib. 
 Metropolitans and primates, 173, i. Bishop of 
 Rome, ib. Their probable proportion to the 
 pagan subjects of the empire before the conver- 
 sion of (/onstantine the Great, J79, i. Inquiry 
 into their persecutions, 182, i. Why more 
 odious to the governing powers than the Jews, 
 ib. Their religious meetings suspected, 1.84, i. 
 Are iHjrsecuted by Nero, as the incendiaries of 
 Rome, 186, i. tnsirurtionsof the emin-rorTra- 
 an to Pliny the Younger for the regnlution of 
 ,iis conduct towards them, 188, i. Remained 
 exp«)sed to popular resentment on public festi- 
 vities. 189, 1. i.rf>gal mode of proceeding against 
 them. ib. The ardour with which t hey courted 
 martyrdom, 192, i. When allowed to erect pla- 
 ces for public worship. I95. i. Their persecy.- 
 tion under Diocletian and his associates. 198. i. 
 An edict of toleration for them published by 
 Galerius just before his death. ^2, i. Son^e 
 considerations necessary to be attended to in 
 reading the sufferings of the martyrs. 203, i. 
 Edict of Milan published by Constantine the 
 Great. 252, i. Political recommendations of 
 the christian morality to Constantine, 253,. i. 
 Theory and practice of passive obedience, ib. 
 Their loyaltv and zeal. 254. i. The sacrament 
 of biiptism. now administered in early times, 
 258, 1. Extraordinary propagation of Christi- 
 anity after it obtained the imwrial sanction, 
 ib. Becomes the established religion of the no- 
 man empire, 259. i. Spiritual and temporal 
 powers distinguished, ib. Reviewof the epis- 
 copal order in the churrh. 2()0, i. The ecclesi 
 astical revenue of each diocese, how divided. 
 262, i. Their legislati*-* assemblies, 264, i. 
 Edict of (!?onstantine the Great against here- 
 tics, tfc. Mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, 268, 
 I. The doctrines of the catholic church, how 
 discriminated from the opinions of the Platonic 
 scho<d, 269. i. General character of the chris- 
 tian sects, 284, i. tJhristinn schools prohibited 
 by the emperor Julian. 307, i- They aro remo- 
 
 C 
 
 ved from all oilices of trust, ib. Are obliged to 
 reinstate the pagan temples, 308, i. Tbeir im- 
 prudent and irregular zeal against idolatry. 
 
 •illl'' 
 Christ ians, distinction of. into vvlear and asect 
 
 ic. 497. i. Conversion of the barbarous nations, 
 502. i. . . 
 
 Christianity, inquiry into the progress and esta- 
 blishment of. 157, i. Religion and chararterof 
 the Jews, 158, i. The Jewish religion the basis 
 of Christianity, 159, i. Is offered to all man- 
 kind, ifr. The sects into which the christians 
 divided, lf»0. i. The theology of. reduced to a 
 systematical form in the school of Alexandria. 
 IT?, i. Injudicious conduct of its early advo- 
 cates. 161.1- Its persecutions, t&. First erec- 
 tion of churches. 195. i. . . „. . . 
 ■ - • • the system of, found m Platos doc- 
 trine of the I-Mgos. 267, i. . . , 
 
 • • . • salutary effects resnitinf frnin the 
 conversion of the barbarous nations, 504, i. 
 
 • • - • its progress in the North of Europe* 
 296. ii. 
 
 Chrysaphiustheennuchengages Edccon toacMs- 
 sinate his king Attila, 467, i. Js put to death 
 by the empress Pujcheria,t&. Assisted at tho 
 second council of Ephesus, 135. ii. . 
 
 Chrysochier. general of the revolted Pauljcians, 
 overruns and pillages Asia Minor. 283, ii. Hii 
 death. 284. ii. ., ^ 
 
 Chrysoloras. Manuel, the Greek envoy, his rb«- 
 racter, 437. ii. His admiration of Rome and 
 Constant iiiople, 440, ii. 
 
 Chrysoi)olis. iiattle of. between Constantine the 
 Great and Licinjus, 157. i. , 
 
 Chrysostoni, St. his account of the oompous lux- 
 ury of the emj)eror Arcadius, 440. i. Protect* 
 his fugitive patron the eunuch Eu'ropius, 444. 
 i. fiistorj' of his promotion to the archiepisco- 
 pal see of Constantinople. 445. i. His charac- 
 ter and administration. 446, i. His persecu- 
 tion, jft. His death, 447. i. His relics removed 
 to Constantinople, ib. His encomium on too 
 monastic life, 4'.>8, i.Tio/«. _ ,__ . 
 
 Churches, christian, the first erection of, 195, U 
 Demolition of, under Diocletian, 200, i. Splen- 
 dour of, under Constantine the Great. 268. i. 
 Seven, of Asia; the fate of, 408, ii. 
 
 Cybalis. bat tic of. between Constantino the Great 
 and Licinius, 154, i. 
 
 Cicero, his view of the philosophical opinions ai 
 to the immortality of the soul, lt'»4, i.. His en- 
 comium on the study of the law. 77, ii. System 
 of his r«77«6/ic,81, il. 
 
 Cimmerian darkness, the expression of. whence 
 derived, 421, i. nof<. . 
 
 Circumcellions of Africa. Donatiet schi.smattct, 
 history of their revolt, 283, i. Their religious 
 suicides, 284. i. Persecution of, by the empe- 
 ror Honorius, 454. i. , • , 
 
 Circumcision of both sexes, a physical custom m 
 ^Ethiopia, unconnected with religion, 149, ii. 
 
 Circus, Roman, the four factions in, described. 
 7f ii. Constantinople, and the eastern empire* 
 distracted bv' these factions, 8. ii. . 
 
 (Cities in the Roman empire enumerated, 29. i. 
 
 Cities, commercial, of Italy, rise and government 
 
 Citizens of Rome, motive of Caracal la for extend- 
 ing the privileges of. to all the free inhabitants 
 of the empire, 65, 68, i. Political tendency of 
 this grant, 68, i. , , . . . u 
 
 City, the birth of a new one, how celebrated by 
 the Romans. 208, i. no/«. . 
 
 Civilians of Rome, origin of the profess ion,, and 
 the three pcriotls in the history ot. 80, 81, ii. 
 
 Civilis, the Batavian. his successful revolt 
 ogainst the Romans, 91, i. /. a -i- u 
 
 Claudian the poet, and panegvrlst of Stilicho* 
 his works supply the deficiencies of history, 
 398, i. Celcltrates the murder of Rufinus. .i99, 
 i. His death and character. 416. i. .His cha- 
 racter of the eunuch Eutropius, 441, i. 
 
 Claudius, pmi)eror, cho.sen by the prsetorian 
 guards, without the concurrence of the acoate* 
 
 37, i. .^ ,1- !_• 
 
 Claudius, emperor, successor to Gallienus, ni« 
 character and ele vat ion to the throne, 107, i. 
 
 Cleander, minister of the emperor CommoduB* 
 his history, 43, i. .<.«..„ . 
 
 Clemens, Flavins, and his wife Domif illa, why 
 distinguished as christian martyrs, 188, i. 
 
 Clement HI. poj<e, and the emperor Henry III. 
 mutually confirm each other's sovereign cha- 
 racters, 308, ii. _ . . , /. 
 
 Clement V. pope, transfers the holy see from 
 Rome to Avignon, 472. ii.. . , , . , . 
 
 Clergy, when first distinguished from the laity* 
 
 - •' * the rank* and numbers of. how multi- 
 plied. 261. i. Their prowrfy. ib. Their offen- 
 ces only cognizable by their own order. 262, i. 
 Valentinian's edict to restrain the avarice of, 
 337, i. 
 
 Ciodion, the first of the Merovingian race of 
 kings of the Franks in Gaul, bis reign. 4#0, i. 
 
 Clodius Albinus. governor of Britain, his steaaf 
 fidelity during the revolutions at Rome, 49, 1. 
 I>eclare8 bin self against Julianus, ib. . 
 
 Clotilda, niece of the kingof Burgundy, is marri- 
 ed to Clovis king of the Franks, and convtrti 
 her pagan husband, 512, i. .Exborta her hus- 
 band to the Gothic war, 514, i. . 
 
 Clovis. king of the Franks, his descent and reig.i* 
 
 Cluve'rius, his account of the objects of adoration 
 
 among the ancient Germans. 90, i. wt^* . 
 Cochineal, importance of the discovery of, in the 
 
 art of dyeing, 10, ii. nofe. , ^^ ., .^^ 
 Co<le of Justinian, how formed, 83, ii. New edi- 
 
 t ion of, 85, ii... ...»,« . 
 
 Codicils, how fur admitted by the Roman law 
 
 resiM»cting testaments.. 92. ii. . . 
 
 Coenobites, in monkish history, described. 501, i. 
 Coinage, how regulated by the Roman emperors. 
 
 Colch'os, the modern Mingrelin, described. 5.5. ii. 
 Manners of the natives, 56. ii. Revolt of. from 
 the Romans to the Persians, and repentance, 
 57. ii. Colchian war. in consequence,. 58, ii. 
 
 Coliseum, of the emperor Titus, observations on* 
 45M, ii. Exibitionof a bull-feast in. t6... 
 
 Collyridiun heretics, an account of. 211, u. 
 
 Colonies, Roman, how planted. 24. I. . 
 
 Colonna, hi«'orv of the Roman family of, 474. lU 
 
 ColoMus of Rhodes, some account of. 233, ii. 
 
 'Golomna of Hercules, their situation, 21, i. 
 •Comana, the rich temple of, suppressed, and the 
 revenues confiscated, by the emperors of the 
 
 east. 219. 220, i. . . ^ • , o r i ^ia 
 
 Conibat.judicial.originof, in the Salic laws, 518, 
 
 i. The law.-i of, according to the assize of Je- 
 rusalem. 421. ii. Apology for the practice of. 
 385, ii. nofe. ^ ^ . . ^ j • .u 
 
 Comets, account of those, which appeared in toe 
 rcignof Justinian, 73, ii. _, - 
 
 Cominentiolus, his disgraceful warfare against 
 the Avars, 115, ii. 
 
 Comniodus, emperor, his education, character, 
 and reign, .41, i. . - ., - ... 
 
 Comneni, origin of the family of. on the throne 
 of Constanuiiople. 164. ii. lu extinction. 460. 
 
 Conception, immaculate, of the .Virgin Mary, 
 the doctrine of, from whence derived. 202. ii. 
 
 Concubine, according to the Roman civil law. 
 explained. 89. ii. . 
 
 Conflagration, general ideoi of the primitive 
 christians concerning, 166. i. . ._ . , , 
 
 Conquest, the vanitv of, not so justifiable as the 
 desire of spoil. .342. i. Is rather achieved by 
 art than personal valour, 459, i. 
 
 Conrad llf. emperor, engages in the second cru- 
 sade. 344* ii. His disaairous expedition, 345. 
 
 Conrad of Afontferrat. defends Tyre against Sale- 
 din, .351. ii. Is assassunated. 352. ii. 
 
 Constance, treaty of. 190, ii. 
 
 CoD8tan8,tbe third son of Constantine the Great, 
 is sent to govern the western provinces of the 
 empire, 228, i. Division of the empire a inong 
 him and his brothers, on the death of their fa- 
 ther, 2^U,i. Is invaded by his brother Constan- 
 tine, 234, i. Is killed, on the usurpation of 
 Magnentius, 235, i. Espoused the cause of 
 Athanasius against his brother Coostantius, 
 
 Constans II. emperor of Constantinople, 152, ii. 
 
 Constantia. princess, grand-daughter of Constan- 
 tine the Great, is carried by her m«^er to the 
 camp of the usurper Procopius, 332, i. Nar- 
 Towfy escapes falling into the hands of the 
 Quadi, 3^. i. Marries the emperor G'^atiau. 
 349, i. 
 
 Coostaiitina, daughter of Constantine the Great, 
 and widow of Hannibalianus, places tlie dia- 
 
 dem on the head of the ge.neral Veiramo, 2io, 
 i. Is married to 
 ib. Dies. 240. i 
 
 fencra 
 39. i. 
 
 Her character. 
 
 Copstantina. widowof the eastern emperor Mau- 
 r.ice, the cruel fate of, and her daughters, 11/. 
 
 Constantine the Great, the several opinions as to 
 the place of his birth. 143, i. His history, tb. 
 He is saluted emperor by the British legions on 
 the death of his father, ib. Marries Fausta, 
 the daughter of Maximian, 145, i. Puts Max- 
 imian to death, 147, i. General review of his 
 administration in Gaul. 148, i. Undertakes tu 
 deliver Rome from the tyranny of Maxentius, 
 149. i. Defeats Maxentius, and enters Rome, 
 l5l,i. His alliance with Licinius, 152. 1. l>e- 
 feats Licinius, 153, i. Peace concluded with 
 Licinius. 154, i. His laws, ib. Chastises the 
 Coths. 155. i. Second civil war with Licinius. 
 156, i. 
 
 - - • motives which induced him to make By- 
 zantium the capital of his empire, 205, i. . De- 
 clares his determination to spring from divine 
 command, 208. i. Despoils other cities of thei.r 
 ornaments t<) decorate his new capjtal,209, i. 
 
 i/crcmony of dedicating his new city, 211, i. 
 ■"orm of civil ai-d military administration esta- 
 blished there, ib. Seimrates the civil from the 
 military administration, 210, i. Corrupted mili- 
 tary discipline, ifr. His character, 224, i. Ac- 
 count of his fuinily . 225, i. His iealt>usy of his son 
 CrisDus. 226, i. Mysterious deaths of Crispus 
 and Licinius, tft. Ifis re|)entance and acts of" 
 atonemei<t inquired into,2i7, i. His sons and 
 nephews, 228, i. Sends them to superintend 
 the several jirovinces of the empire, ib. Assists 
 the Sarmatians, and provokes the Goths, 2i29, 
 i. Reduces the Goths to peace, 230, i. Hjs 
 death, ib. Attcmi>i to ascertain the date of his 
 convi-rsion to Christianity. 251. i. His pag^n 
 superstition. 252, i. Protects the christians in 
 Gaul, ib. Publishes the edict of Milan, tb. 
 Motives whi<"h recommended the christians to 
 his favour, 253, i. Exhorts his subje.cts to em- 
 brace the chri.atian jirofession, 254. i. His fa- 
 mous standard the Labarum described. 255, i. 
 His celebrated vision previous to his battle 
 with Maxentius, 256, i. Story of the miracu- 
 lous cross in the air, ib. His conversion ac- 
 counted fi»r, from natural and probable causes. 
 257. i. Hia theological discourses. i6. His de- 
 votion and privilpgeg, 258, i. The delay of his 
 baptism accounted for, ift. Is commemorated 
 as a saint by the Greeks, ib. His edict against 
 heretics, 265. i. Favours the cause of Ca5cilian 
 against Donatus. ib. His sensible letter to the 
 bishop of Alexandria. 273. i. How prevaile.d 
 on to ratify the Nicene creed. 274, i. His levi- 
 tyin religion, ift. Granted a toleration to his pa- 
 gan subjects, 285, i. His r.-form of pagan abu- 
 ses, ib. Was associated with the heathen dei- 
 ties after hia death, by a decree of the f^enate. 
 ^6, i. His discovery of the holy sepulchre. 
 
 Constaritine, publication of hi* fictitious donation 
 to the bishops of Rome, 180, li. Fabulous in- 
 terdiction of marriage with strangers, ascribed 
 to him, 274, ii. „^ . . « 
 
 Constantine II. the son of Constantine the Great, 
 is sent to preside over Gaul, 228, i. Division 
 of the empire among him and his brothers, on 
 the death of their father, 231, i. Invades his 
 brother Constans, and is killed. 234, I. . 
 
 Constaritine III. emperor of Constantinople. 
 
 Constantine IV. Pogonatus. emperor of Constan- 
 tinople, 152. ii. , - ., 
 
 Constantino V. Copronymus. emperor of l>on- 
 8tantinople,155, il. Fates of his five sons, 157, 
 ii. Revolt of Artavasdes. and troubles on ac- 
 count of image worship, 175, ii. Abolishes the 
 monkish order, i6. __ . , ,_, 
 
 Copetantine VI. emperor of Constantinople, 157. 
 
 Oop'stanline VII. Porphyrogenitus. emperor of 
 *• iOwistantinopIe. 161. ii. His cautions against 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 discovering the secret of the Greek fire, 251, 
 ii. Account of his works, 267, it. Their, im- 
 perfections pointed out, lA. Hisaccountpl the 
 ceremonies tif the Byzantine court, 274, ii. Jus- 
 tifies ibe marriage of his son with the princess 
 Bertha of France, ifr. 
 
 Constantine VIU. emperor of Constantinople. 
 161. ii. 
 
 Constantine IX. emperor of Constantinople, 163, 
 ii. 
 
 Constantine X. Monomachus. emperor of Con- 
 stantinople, 164, ii. 
 
 Constantine XI. Ducas. emperor of Constantino- 
 ple, 165, li. • 1 r^ , 
 
 Constantine PalsBologus, the last of he Greek 
 emperors, his reign, 447, ii. 
 
 Constantine Sylvanus. founder of the Paulicians. 
 his death. 2)B3, ii. « . . ^ 
 
 Constantine, a private soldier in Britain, elected 
 emperor for tne sake of his name, 413, i. He 
 reduces Gaul and Spain, 413, 434. i. His re- 
 duction and death, 435, i. 
 
 Constantine, general under Belisariua in Italy, 
 his death. 41. ii. . ..... 
 
 Constantinople, iu situation described, with the 
 motives which induced Constantine the Great 
 fomake this city the capitnl of his empire. 206, 
 i. Its local advanta^S;. 208. i. Its extent, tfr. 
 Progress of the work, 209, i. Principal edifices, 
 ib. How furnished with inhabitants, 210, i. 
 Privileges granted to it.ib. Its dedication. 211, 
 i. Review of the new form of civil and milita- 
 ry administration established there, ib. Is al- 
 lotted to Constantine the Younger, in the divi- 
 sion of the empire, on the emperor's death, 231, 
 i. Violent contests there between the rival 
 bishops, Paul and Maoedonius. 282. i. Bloody 
 engagements between the Athanasians and 
 Arians on the removal of the body of Consian- 
 
 iine. 5^3. i. Triumphant entry of the emperor 
 ulian. 293, i. The senate of, allowed the same 
 powers and honours as that at Rome. 296, i. 
 Arrival of Valens. as emperor of the East. 331. 
 i. Revolt of Procopius, 332, i. 
 
 continued the principal seat of the 
 
 Arian heresy, during the reign of Constantius 
 and Valens, 372, i. Is purged from Arianism 
 by the emperor Theodosius. 373. i. Council of. 
 3*4. i. Is enriched by the bodies of saims and 
 martyrs. 3i>3, i. Insurrection against Gainas 
 and his Arian Goths. 444, i. Persecution of the 
 archbishop St. Chrysostom, 446. i. Popular tu- 
 mults on hia account, ib. Earthquake there, 
 
 461. i. ... . ^. 
 
 - - - - the city and eastern empire distrac- 
 ted by the factions of the circus, 7, ii. Foun- 
 dation of the church of St. Sophia, .15, ii. Oth- 
 er churches erected there by Justinian, 16, li. 
 Triumph of Belisarius over the Vandals, 30. 
 ii. State of the arTiies under the emperor 
 Maurice, 116, ii. The armies and city revolt 
 against him, ib. Deliverance of the city from 
 the Persians and Avars, 123, ii. Religious war 
 about the Trisagion, 138, ii. .... 
 
 - • - - prospectusof the remaining history of 
 the eastern empire, 150. ii. Summary, review 
 of the five dynasties of the Greek empire, 171. 
 ii. Tumults in the city to oppose the destruc- 
 tion of images, 175, ii. Abolition of the monk- 
 ish order by Constantine, ib. First siege of. by 
 the Saracens. 249, ii. Second siege by the Sa- 
 racens, 250, ii. Review of the provinces of the 
 Greek empire in the tenth centurv. 268. ii. 
 Riches of the city of Constantinople. 271. ii. 
 The imperial palace of, ib. Onttces of state, 
 272, ii. Military character of the Greeks, 276, 
 ii. The name and character of Romans sup- 
 ported to the last, 279, ii. Decline and revival 
 of literature, ib. The city menaced by the 
 Turks, 290. ii. Account of the Varangians, 
 292, il. Naval expeditions of the Russians 
 against the city, 293. ii. .. . ^ . 
 
 - - . - origin of the separation of the Greek 
 and Latin churches, .357, ii. Massacre of the 
 Latins, 359, ii. Invasion of the Greek empire 
 and conquest of Constantinople by the crusa- 
 ders, .364. ii. The citv taken, and Isaac Angc- 
 lus restored. .3t>6. ii. Part of the city burnt hy 
 the Latins. .367. ii. Second siege of the city by 
 the Latins, ib. is pillaged. 368, ii. Account 
 of the statues destroyed. 370. ii. Partition of 
 the Greek empire hy the French and Vene- 
 tians, 371, ii. The Greeks rise against their 
 Latin conquerors, 373. ii. The city retaken by 
 the Greeks. 379. li. The suburb of G a lata as- 
 signed ti> the Genoese, 399, ii. Hostilities be- 
 tween the Genoese and the emperor, 400, ii. 
 How the city escaped the Moguls. 407. n. Is 
 besieged by the sultan Amurath II. 423. ii. Is 
 compared with Rome. 440. ii. Is besieged by 
 Mahomet II. sultan of the Turks. 452. ii. Is 
 stormed and taken. 457. ii. Becomes the capi- 
 tal of the Turkish empire, 45tt. ii 
 
 Constantius Chlorus. governor of Dalmatia, was 
 intended to be adopted by the emperor Carus. 
 in the room of his vicious son Carinus, 126, '. 
 Is associated as CsRsar by Diocletian in his au- 
 ministrp.tion. 12^>, i. Assumes the title of Au- 
 
 fustus, on the abdication of Diocletian, 142, i. 
 lis dqath, 143, i. Granted a toleration to the 
 christians, 201, i. , ^ . .. .. 
 
 Constantius, the second son of Constantine the 
 Great, his education, 228, i. Is sent. to govern 
 the eastern pJ-ovinces Of the empi.re, to. Seizes 
 Constantinople on the death of his father, 231, 
 i. Conspires the death of his kinsmen, tft. Di- 
 vision of the empire among him and his bro- 
 thers, ib. Restores Chosro«.'s king of Armenia, 
 2.32, I. Battle of Singara with Sapor, king of 
 Persia, ib. Rejects the offers of. Magnentius 
 and Vetranio, on the plea of a vision. 2^15. i. 
 His oration to the lllynan troops ar the inter- 
 view with Vetranio. ib. Defeats Magnentius 
 at the battle of Mursa.236. i. His councils go- 
 verned bv eunuchs. 238, i. Education of his 
 cousins Gallus and Julian, ib. Disgrace and 
 death of Gallus, 240. i. Sends for Julian to 
 court. 241, i. Invests him with the titleof Cte- 
 sar. 242. i. Visits Rome. lA. Presents an ot)e- 
 lisk to that city, 243. i. The Quadian and Sar- 
 matian wars. tb. His Persirin negociations, 
 244, i. Mismanagement of affairs in the east, 
 246, i. Favours the Arians, 274. i. His reli- 
 gious character by Ammianus the Mtstorian. 
 275. i. His restless endeavours to .establish an 
 unirarmity of christian doctrine, to. Athana- 
 
 523 
 
 sius driven into exile by the council of Ant ioch, 
 277. i. Is intimidated by his brother Constans. 
 and invites Athanasius back sgaiii, 278, i. His 
 severe treatment of those bit-hops who rflfoscd 
 to concur in deposing Aihana^ius, 279, i. His 
 scrupulous orthodoxy, ib. His cautious con- 
 duct in expelling Athanasius fruni Alexandria, 
 280, i. His strenuous efforts to seize his per- 
 son, 281. i. Athanasius writes invectives to 
 expose his character. lA. is cuQstruii:ed to re- 
 store Liberius, bishop of Rome, 282, i. Pup- 
 ports Macedonius. bishop of Constant irtople. 
 and countenances his persecutions ot the ca- 
 tholics and Nuvatians. 283. i. His conduct to- 
 w^ards his pagan subjects, 285. i. Envies the 
 fame of Julian, 286. i. Recalls the let:ioiis 
 from Gaul, 287, i. Negociations between him 
 and Julian. 289, i. His prejiarations to oppose 
 Julian, 292, i. His death and character. 21»2, i. 
 Constantius. general, relieves the British empe- 
 ror Constantine when liesieged in Aries, 43.), i. 
 His character and victories, tfc. His mbrriage 
 with Placidia, and death, 452, i. 
 Constantius, secretary to Attila kingof the Huns, 
 his matrimonial negociation at the court ot 
 Constantinople, 4f>4, i. 
 Consul, the office of. explained, 34, i. Altera- 
 tions this office underwent under the emperors, 
 and whin Const an linoule became the seat of 
 empire, 212, i. The office of, suppressed by the 
 emi>eror Justinian, 22, ii. Is now sunk to a 
 commercial agent, 467, ii. .. 
 
 Contracts, the Roman laws respecting, 92. it 
 Coptsof Egypt, brief history of, 147, li. 
 Corinth, reviving as a Roman colony, celebrate* 
 the Isthmian games, under the emperor Julian. 
 296, i. The isthmus of, fortified by the emperw 
 Justinian, 18. ii. . 
 
 Cornwall, reduction of, by the Saxons, 525, i. 
 Coronary gold, nature of those offerings to tho 
 
 Roman emperors, 224. i. 
 Corvinus. Matthias, king of Hungary, his cha- 
 racter, 445. ii. ...•.•• 
 Cosmus Indicopleustes. account of his christian 
 
 topography. 12. ii. note, 143. ii. note. .. 
 Cosmo of Medicis. his character. 439. u. 
 Councils and synods of 
 Antioch.277. i. 
 Aries. 278, i. 
 Basil, 4;»,ii 
 
 CsBsarea, 276, i. . 
 
 Cartilage, 505. 506, i. 29, ii. 
 Chalcedon, 446, i. 135, ii. 
 Clermont, 325, ii. w 
 
 Constancy. 42t|, 430,486,41..^, ,,^ .__ .. 
 Constantinople. .374, i. 140, 141, 174,358. ii. 
 Ephesus, i:«, 135, Ji. 
 Ferrara, 432. ii. 
 Florence, 432. ii. 
 Frankfort.183. ii. .^ .. 
 Lyons. 513, i. 377. 388, ii. 
 Milan, 278, i. 
 Nice. 271, 1. 182. ii. 
 Pisa, 430, ii. 
 Place ntia. 324. ii. 
 Rimini, 273. i. 
 Pnrdica. '.'77, i. 
 Toledo. .501>, 523, i. 
 _ Tyre. 276, i. . , • . - j 
 
 Count, great difference between.the ancient and 
 modern application of this title. 210, i. By 
 whom first invented. 217, i. Of tho sacredlar- 
 gesses, under Constantine the Great, his otftce* 
 220. i. Of the domestics in the eastern empire* 
 his office, tft. ^ ., _ _o, .. 
 
 Courtenay, history of the family of, 381. ii. 
 Crescentius, consul of Rome, his vicissitudes, and 
 disgraceful death, IflO, ii.. . _, ___ 
 
 Crete, the isle of. subdued by the Saracens. 259. 
 ii. Is recovered by Nicephorus Phocas, 260, ll. 
 Is purchased by the Venetians. 372. ii. 
 Crimes, how distinguished by the penal laws of 
 
 the Romans. 95, II. , _ • , , 
 
 Crispus, son of Constantine the Great,.is declar- 
 ed Caesar, 154, i. Distinguishes his . valour 
 against the Franks and Alemanni, 155, i. ror- 
 ces the pa.ssage of the Hellespont, and defeats 
 the fleet of Licinius. 156, i.. His character, 226. 
 i. His mysterious death, ib. , , , _ 
 
 Crispus. the patrician, marries the daughter (A 
 Phocas, and contributes to deiiose him, 118. ii. 
 Is obliged to turn monk. i6. ^ no-, •• 
 
 Croatia, accoiint of the kingdom of. 287, ii. . 
 Cross, the different sentiments entertained of this 
 instrument of punishment, by the Pagan and 
 cbriftian Romans. 255. i. TTie.fampus stan- 
 dard of, in the armyof Constant me I he.Great, 
 described, tfr. His vision of. 25b, 257. i. ITie 
 holy sepulchre and cross of Chri.<t discovered, 
 305, i. The cross of Christ undiminished by 
 distribution to pilgrims, ift. 
 Crown of thorns, us uausfer from Constantinople 
 
 to Paris. 377, ii. , .• • . . 
 
 Crowns, mu ral and obeidionai, the distinction be- 
 tween, 319, i. note. , ., _ 
 Crusade, the first resolved on at the conricil of 
 Clermont. 325, ii. Inquiry into the justice of 
 the holy war, 326, ii. Examination into the 
 private motives of the crusaders, 328. n. 1^- 
 parture of the crusaders. 329. ii. Account ql 
 the chiefs, 3:>0, ii. Their march to Constanti- 
 nople 332. ii. Review of their nutnbf"- "P**"- 
 They take Nice. 335, ii. Battle of Dorylaeum. 
 ib. They take Anlioch,.^36. 11.^ Their distres- 
 ses, 337. ii. Are relieved, by the discovery of 
 the holy lance. 338, ii. Siege and .conquest of 
 Jerusalem, 339, ii. tJodfrey of Bouillon chosen 
 king of Jerusalem, 340, ii. .The second cru- 
 sade, 344, ii. The crusader^ ill-treated by the 
 Greek emperors. 345, n. The third crusade, 
 •i5\, ii. Sieffc of Acre, tb. Fourth aiid fifth 
 crusades, .35.3, ii. Sixth crusade, 354, ".Se- 
 venth cru.sade. .355. ii. Recapitulation of the 
 fourth cru.sade. 3t>2, i.i. General consequences 
 of the crusades, 379, ii. . . . t» 
 Ctesiphon. the city of, plundered Ijy the.Komant, 
 81, i. Its situation described, 319, i. Julian 
 declines the siege of that city, 321, i. Is sack- 
 ed by the Saracens. 222, ii. 
 Cublai. emperor of China, his character. 400f 
 
 Curopalata. his office under the Greek emperors* 
 
 272, ii. 
 Customs, duties of. imposed by Augustus, 67, L 
 Cvcle, of indications, the origin ol traced, and 
 
 how now employed, 221. i. note. 
 
524 
 
 Cyprian, bishop of Carthafe. his history and 
 
 martyrdom. 191. i. 
 Cyprus, the kingdom of. wstowen on th*" boose 
 
 of Lusignan. uy Richard I. of England, 359. 
 
 Cyr'ene, the Greek colonies there finally extermi- 
 nated by ChosroBB II. kin^ of Persia. 119, ii. 
 
 Cyriadea. an obscure fugitive, is set up. by »a- 
 por the Persian monarch, as emperor oi ilome. 
 
 Cyril.' bishop of JeruHalem. his pompous relation 
 of a miraculous apiKjarance ol a cel'-sual cross, 
 274, i. His ambiguous character, JOj. I. 
 
 Cyril, patriarch ot Altxaridria, his lile atui char- 
 ractor. 130, ii. Condemtis the heresy of Nesio- 
 rius. 1^2, ii. Procures the decision of the coun- 
 cil of EpheKus against Nestorius, lb. His court 
 
 intrigues, 134, ii. , , , .. r _» .i.^ 
 
 Cyzicus, how It escaped destruction from the 
 Goths, 101, i. Is at length ruined by them, 102, 
 i. The island and city of, seized by the usur- 
 per Procopiai, 332> i. 
 
 Daeia, conquest of. by the emperor Trajan, 14. i. 
 Itt situation. 20. i. Is overrun by the Goths, 
 95, i. Is resigned to them by Aurelnin. 110. >• 
 
 Dsmons. supinjsed to be the authors and olgects 
 of pagan idolatry, by the primitive christians, 
 
 Dagrs'teu". general of the emperor Justinian, be- 
 
 . sieges Peirn , 57. ii. Commands Iho Huns in It- 
 aly under Narses. 67,^ it.. , ,, , . , 
 
 Daimbert archbishop. of Pisa, installed patriarch 
 of Jerusalem, 341, ii;. . „ , , •. 
 
 Dalmatia. described, 20, i. Produce of a silver 
 mine there, 6fi, i. Tio^«. . , ^ » • 
 
 Dalmatius, nephew of Constantine the Great, is 
 created Caesar, 228, i.. Is sent to govern the 
 Gothic frontier, ib. Is cruelly destroyed by 
 Con8tantiufl.231,i. . . „ ^o^ .. 
 
 Damascus, siege of, by the Saracens. 220, ii. 
 The city reduced both by storm and by treaty. 
 227. ii. Remarks on Hughes's tragedy of this 
 siege, 228. ii. note. Taken and destroyed by 
 Tamerlane, 417, ii.„ ,. , ,, , 
 
 Damasus, bishop of Rome, edict of Vnlentinian 
 addressed to him. to restrain the crafty avarice 
 of the Roman clergy, 337. i. His bjoofly cx>n- 
 test with Ursinus for the episcopal dignity, tb. 
 
 Dames, the Arab, his gallant enterprise against 
 the castle of Aleppo, 232. ii. 
 
 Damietia is taken by Louis IX. of France, Joo, 
 
 Damophilas, archbishop of Constantinople, re- 
 signs his see. rather than subscribe the Nicene 
 creed, 374, i. . * ., . ... 
 
 Dandolo, Henry, doge of Venice, his character. 
 301. ii. Is made despot of Romania. 371. it. 
 
 Daniel, first bishop of Winchester, his instruc- 
 tions to St. Boniface, for the conversion of infi- 
 dels. 503. i. 
 
 Danielis, a Grecian matron, her presents to the 
 emperor Rasil. 270. ii. Her visit to him at Con- 
 stantinople, 273, ii. Her testament, i&. 
 
 Danube, course ot the river, and the provinces of, 
 described, 20, i. , , . 
 
 Daphne, the sacred srove and temple of. at An- 
 lioch. described, 308, i. Is converted to chris- 
 tian purposes by Gallus, and restored to the pa- 
 fans by Julian. 309, i. The templo burned, 
 
 Dara. the fortification of, by Justinian, described, 
 20. ii. The demolition of. by the Persians, pre- 
 vented bv peace. 53. ii. Is taken by Chosrocs. 
 king of Persia. 1 10. ii. 
 
 Darius, his scheme for connecting the continents 
 of Europe and Asia. 200, i. 
 
 Darkness, preternaturul, at the time of the pas- 
 sion, is unnoticed by the heathen philosophers 
 and historians. 181. i. .. , , . 
 
 Dasiagard. the Persian royal seat of, plundered 
 bytheemperorHeraclius.125.il. 
 
 Dalianus, governor of Spain, yields ready obe- 
 dience to the imperial edicts against the chris- 
 tians. 201. i. . . 
 
 Datius. bishop of Milan, instigates the revolt of 
 the Ligiirians to Justinian. 40. ii. Rscapes to 
 Constantinople on the taking ot Milan by the 
 Rurgundians. 41. ii. , . , 
 
 Debtors, insolvent, cruel punishment of. by the 
 law of the twelve tables, 93, ii. 
 
 Decemvirs, review of the laws of the twelve ta- 
 bles, 77, li. Their laws suj^erseded by the per- 
 petual edict, 79. ii. Seventy of. 93. ii.. 
 
 Dccius. his exaltation to the empire,. 92, i. Was 
 a persecutor of the christians, .190, i. 
 
 Decurions. in the Roman empire, are severely 
 treated by the imperial laws, 221. i. 
 
 Deification of the Roman emperors, how this 
 si)ecies of idolatry was introduced. 36. i. 
 
 Delators, are encouraged bv the emperor Commq- 
 dus. to gratify his hatred of the. senate. 42, i. 
 Are supitressed by Pertinax, 40, i. 
 
 Delphi, the the sacred ornaments of the temiue 
 of, removcfl to (Constantinople by Constantino 
 the Great, 20*.», i. vote. 
 
 Democracy, a form of government unfavourable 
 to t'reedom in a large state. 24, i. 
 
 Demosthenes, governor of Csepiarea. liis gallant 
 defence against, and heroic escape from. Sapor 
 kingofPeisia, 103. i.^ , 
 
 Deografias, bishop of Carthage, humanely suc- 
 cours the captives brought from Rome by Gen- 
 seric king of the Vandals, 481, i. .. 
 
 D«rar, the Saracen, his character, 22". u. 
 
 D<3sidcriu8, the last king of t he. Lombards, con- 
 quered by Charlemagne. 171>. ii. 
 
 D''spot, nature of that title in the Greek empire, 
 
 n''sp<)tism originates ?n superstition, 88. i. note. 
 
 J)iadem assumed by Diocletian, what. 1.38. i. 
 
 Diamond-", the art of cutting them, unknown to 
 the ancients, 67. i.Tiofff. . . , ,. . 
 
 Didius Julianus, purchases the imperial dignity 
 at a public auction. 48. i. 
 
 Dioceses of the Roman empire, their number and 
 government, 215, i. . 
 
 Diocletian, the ma^inerof his military election to 
 the empire. 128. i. His birth and character, to. 
 Takes Ma.ximian for his colleague. 129, i. As- 
 sociates as Ctpsars, Galerius. and Constantius 
 Chlorus, ih. His triumph, in conjunction with 
 Maximian. 136. i. Fixes his court at the city 
 of Nicomcdia, i37> i. Abdicatca the empire. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 139. i. Parallel between htm and the emperor 
 Charles V. ib. Pai-ses his life in retirement at 
 Saluna. 140. i. His mipartiul behaviour toward 
 the christians, 197. i. Causes that t>iodu<ed 
 the iK'rsecution of the christians under his reign, 
 
 197, i. 
 
 Dion 'Cussius, the historian, screened from the 
 fury of the s.ddiers, by the emperor Alexander 
 Severus, 64, i. , . ^ , .... 
 
 Dioscorus. patriarch of Alexandria, his outrage- 
 ous behaviour at ihe second council of Ephe- 
 8us, 135. ii. Is deposed by the council ot Chal- 
 cedon, 136. ii. . ..„,.,. 
 
 Di.<Hbul, great khan of the Turks, his reception 
 of the ambassadors of Justinian, 50, ii. 
 
 Divorce, the liberty and abuse ot. by the Roman 
 laws, 88, ii. Limitations of, I'ft. . .. 
 
 Docetes, their peculiar tenets, 2t)8. i. 128, u. JJe- 
 rivation of their name, 2<J8. i. «o<e. . 
 
 Dominic. St. Loricatus, his fortitude in flagella- 
 tion, 327. ii> , . . , ,. , . 
 
 Dominus. when this epithet was applied to tlie 
 Roman emperors, 13o, i. . 
 
 Doinitian. emperor, his treatment of his kinsmen 
 Flavins Sabinus. and Fluvius Clemei's. 188, i. 
 
 Doinitian. the oriental prefect, is sent by the em- 
 peror Constantius to reform the state of the east, 
 then oppressed by Gallus, 239, i. Is put to death 
 
 there, 240, i. . . ^ ... /. . r 
 
 Donatus. his contest with Ciecilian for. the see of 
 Carthage, 2(i5. i. History of the schijrn of the 
 Donatists, 283. i. Persecution of the Donatists 
 by the emi»eror Hunoriu8,454. i. 
 
 DoryliEum, battle of. between sultan Soliman and 
 the first crusaders, 3.35, ii.. 
 
 Doxology, how introduced into the church-ser- 
 vice, and how perverted, 282. i. 
 
 Dramatic representations at Rome, a character 
 of, 424, i. . . , , . . 
 
 Dreams, the popular opinion of the preternatural 
 origin of, favourable to that of Constantine pre- 
 vious to his battle with Maxentius.256. i.. 
 
 Dromedary, extraordinary speed of this animal. 
 115. i. note. 
 
 Dromoncs of the Greek empire described. 273, 
 
 Druids, their power in Gaul suppressed by the 
 emperors Tiberius and Claudius, 23, 1. .. 
 
 Druses of mount Libaiius, a character of, J23, ii. 
 note. ... . . 
 
 Duke, derivation of that title, and great change 
 in the modern, from the ancient, application of 
 
 Durazzo, siege of, by Robert Guiscard. 305, ii. 
 Battle of. between him and the Greek emperor 
 Alexius, 30t), ii. 
 
 E 
 
 Earthquake, an extraordinary one over great 
 part of the Roman empire, 349, i. Accoun.t of 
 those that hap(>vned in the reign of Justinian, 
 74, ii. 
 
 East India, the Roman commercial, intercourse 
 with that region, 31, i. Commodiliea of, taxed 
 by Alexander Severus, 67, i. . 
 
 Ebionites, account of that sect, 161, i. 
 • • • -a confutation oftheir errors, supposed, 
 by the primitive fathers, to be a particular ob- 
 ject in the wriiingsof St. John the evangelist, 
 
 - • - - Their ideas of the person of Jesus 
 Christ. 127. ii. . . , , ,., , ^ ^ 
 
 Ecclesiastes. the book of. why not likely to be the 
 production of king S<tloman. 31. u. note. 
 
 Ecclesiastical and civil fiowers. distinguished by 
 the fathers of the christian church, 259, i. 
 
 Ecdicius, son of the emperor Avitus, his gallant 
 conduct in Gaul. 491. i. 
 
 Eothesis of the emperor Heraclius. 141. ii. 
 
 Edda. of Iceland, the system of mythology in. 
 93, i. 
 
 Edecon. is sent from Attila king of the Huns, as 
 his ambassador to the emperor Tlieo«lo«ius the 
 Younger, 4<)4, i. Engages in a pro|)osal to as- 
 sassinate Atiila. 467. i. His son .Odoacer. the 
 first barbarian king of Italy. 494. i. 
 
 Edessa. the purest dialect of the Syriac language 
 spoken there. 82. i. ne/e. The property of the 
 christians there, confiscated by the emperor Ju- 
 lian, for the dinorderlv conduct of the Arians, 
 310, i. Revolt of the Roman troops there, 116, 
 ii. Account of the school of. 143, li. History of 
 the famous image there. 173. ii. The city and 
 principality of, seized by Baldwin the crusader, 
 336, ii. Is retaken by Zenghi, 347, ii. The 
 counts of. 381, ii. 
 
 Edict of Milan, published by Constantine the 
 Great, 252. i. 
 
 Edicts of the prietors of Rome, under the repub- 
 lic, their nature and tendency, 78. ii. 
 
 Edom. why that name was applied to the Roman 
 empire by the Jews. 182. i. note. 
 
 Edrisiteg. the Saracen dynasty of. 264, ii. 
 
 Edward I. of F^igland, his crusade to the Holy 
 I^nd. 356. ii. 
 
 Eeidius. his character, and revolt in Gaul, 487, i. 
 His son Syagrius,5ll, i. . 
 
 Egypt, general description of,21,i. Thn super- 
 stitions of, with difficulty tolerated at Komf , 
 23, i. Amount of its revenues. 6t). i. .Public 
 works executed there by Prnbus, 123, i. (.'on- 
 duct of Diocletian there 132, i. Progress of 
 Christianity there. 177. i- ,„ , , 
 
 . • • edict of the emperor Valens, to restrain 
 the number of recluse monks there. 336, i. 
 
 • - - the worship of Serapis. how introduced 
 there. 390. i. His temple and the Alexandrian 
 library destroyed b^ bishop Theophilus. 391, i. 
 Oiigiii of monkish institutions in. 497. i. 
 
 - - • great supplies of wheat furnished by. 
 for the city of Constantinople, in the time of 
 Justinian, 10. ii. Ecclesiastical history of. 147. 
 ii. 
 
 • - • reduced by the Saraccns.234. ii. Cap- 
 ture of Alexandria. 235. ii. Administration of. 
 2.37, ii. Description of, by Amrou. ib. 
 
 • • • the Eifvptians take Jerusalem from the 
 Turks. 339, ii. Egypt conquered by the Turks, 
 348. ii. Government of the Mamalukes there, 
 3.55. ii. 
 
 EIngabaius. Is declared emncror by the troops at 
 Emesa, 60. i. Whs the first Roman who wore 
 garmentsof pure silk. 11, ii. 
 
 Elephants, ingnirv into the number of. brought 
 into the field by the ancient princes of the ea^st, 
 
 82. i. note. With what view intrmloced in the 
 circus «t Rome in the first Pui:ic \»ar. 126. i. 
 Eleusinian mysteries, why tolerated by ilifc em- 
 peror Valeiitinian,3;!5. i. 
 
 pet... . .«- — - 
 
 Emigration of the ancient northern nations, the 
 nature and motives of, examined. 88, i. 
 
 Emperors of Rome, a review of iheir consti- 
 tutions. 79, li. Their legislative jower, ib. 
 Their rescripts, ib. , ... 
 
 - - - - of Germany, their limited rowers. 
 191, ii. Of Consinntinoiile. their pomp and 
 luxury, 271. ii. OfTicers of the palace, Kiate^ 
 and army. 272. ii. Adoration of the emj>eror. 
 mode of. 273, ii. Their public »i>pearanre, tft. 
 Their despotic power. 2/5. ii. Tiicir navy. ib. 
 They retain the name of Romans to the last. 
 279. ii. 
 
 Empire, Roman, divi-ion of. info the F.ffst and 
 HeH empires by Valeniinian. 3.31, i. Exlinc 
 tion of the western empire, 494. i., . 
 
 Encampment, Roman. di'Fcril»ed, 18. I. . 
 
 Ennodius. the servile flatterer of Theodoric the 
 Ostrojfoih king of Italy, is made bishop of Pa- 
 via, 534. i. wo/e. 
 
 Epagathus, leader of the mutinous pra^torisns, 
 wh<» murdered their prefect Ulpian, punished 
 hy the emperor Alexander Severns. 64. i. 
 
 Ephesus, the famous temple of Diana at. «Ies- 
 trojed by the Goths. 102. i... Council of, 132, li. 
 Episcopal riots there, J33. ii. . 
 
 Epicurus, his legncy to his philosophical disci- 
 ples, at Athens. 21, li. 
 
 Enirus. dei^jwis of", on. the dismemberment of the 
 Greek empire, 373. ii. ,,,•/• 
 
 Equitius, master-general of the Illvrian frontier, 
 is defeated by th«' Sarmatians,348. i... 
 
 Erasmus, his merit as a reformer, 286, ii. 
 
 Essenians. their distinguishing tenets and prac- 
 tices. 177. i. , . , _ . 
 
 Eucharist, a knotty subject to the first reformers. 
 
 285. ii. . . , , ^ . e 
 
 Eudes. duke of Aquitain. repels the first baracen 
 invasion of France. 252. li. Implores llic aid 
 of Charles Martel, ib. Recovers bis dukedom, 
 
 Eudocia, her birth, character, and marriage with 
 the emperor Tlieodosius the. lounger, 449, i. 
 Her disgrace and death. 450. i. 
 
 Eudoxia. her mnrringe with the emperor Arca- 
 diuB. 397, i. Stimulates him to give up hia 
 favourite Eutropius. 444, i. Persecutes Bt. 
 Chrysostom, 447, i. Her death and character. 
 
 Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius the Youn- 
 ger, is betrothed to the young etpperor Valen- 
 tinian III. of the west, 453, i. Her character, 
 478, i. Is married to the emperor Miixi ni us, 
 480, i. Invites Genseric, king of the Vandala 
 to Italy, ift. . . .• L 
 
 Eudoxus. bishop of Constantinople, baptizes the 
 emperor Valens. 3.3<i. i. . , . 
 
 Eogenius. the rhetorician, is made emperor of 
 the west by Arf)ogastes the Frank, 384. i. 1» 
 defeated nnd killed by Theodosius. 385, i. 
 
 Eugenius IV. pope, bis contest with the council 
 of Basil. 43<K li. Procures a re-union of the 
 Latin and Greek churches. 434, li. Forms a 
 lengue against the Turks. 442. n. Revolt of the 
 Roman citizens against him, 486, 11. . 
 
 Eumenius the orator, some account of, 141, i. 
 note. ... /. u 
 
 Eunapius. the sophist, his character of monks, 
 and of the objects of their worship, SIM, i. 
 
 Eunomians. punishment of, bv the.edict^ot.lne 
 emperor Theodosius against heretics. 3/3. i. 
 
 Eunuchs, enumerated in the list of eastern com- 
 modities imported and taxed in. the time of 
 A lexander Severus. 67, i. They infest the pa- 
 lace of the third Gordian. 76, i. 
 
 - - - their ascendency in the court of Constan. 
 tins, 238, i. Why ttiey favoured the Arians, 
 274. \._note. Procure the .banishment ot Libe- 
 rius bishop of Rome. 282, i. . 
 
 - - - a conspiracy of. to disappoint the FChemea 
 
 of Rufinus. and marrv the emi>eror Arcadius to 
 Eudoxia. im. i. They distract the court of 
 the emperor Honorius. 426. 427. i. And govcru 
 that of^ Arcadius. 440. i. S;- he me of Chrysa- 
 phius to assassinate Attila king of the Huns, 
 
 - -' - the bishop ofScez and his whole chapter 
 castrated, 464. li. ffo^f. . ^ , ,- 
 
 Euric, king of the Visigoths in Gaul, his con 
 quests in Spain. 490. i. Is vested with all the 
 Roman conquest* beyond the Alps by Odoacer 
 ^kingof Italy. 510. i. . ,. -. , 
 
 Europe, evidences that theclimate ot, wasrrnep 
 colder in ancient than in modern times, 85, i. 
 This alferal ion accounted for, ib. 
 
 - - - final division of. between the yeslem 
 and eastern empires, 395. i. Is ravaged by At- 
 tila king of the Huns, 461, i. Is now one great 
 republic. 529, i. ^ ... 
 
 Eosebia, empress, wife of Cons'antius, ncr stea- 
 dy friendship to Julian. 24.1. i. Is accused of 
 arts to deprive Julian of chiblren. 242. i. 
 
 Eusebius, bis cbnracter of the followers of Ar'e- 
 mon, 180. i. His own character. 203. i. Hi» 
 story of the miraculous appea ranee of the.croff 
 in Ihe sky loConstnntine the Great. 2o<), l. 
 
 Eutropius the eunuch, great chamberlain to the 
 emperor Arcadius. concerts his marriage with 
 Endoxin. in opposition to the views of Rufinus* 
 3<I7, i. Snccieds Rufinus in the cmr>eror s con- 
 fidence. 400, i. His character and administra- 
 tion. 441. i. Provides for his owrisecurity, in a 
 new law Rrainst treason. 442. i. Tak^s sanctu- 
 ary with St. Chrysostom, 444, i. His death, 
 
 * it 
 
 Eutyches, his opinion on the subject of the incar- 
 nation Fupjwiried bv the second council at 
 Ephesus. 1,35, ii. And adhered to by the Arme- 
 nians. Hl», ii. 
 
 Euxine Sea. description of the vessels used m na- 
 viealing. K.K), i. . . , . , r 
 
 Exaltation of ihe cross, origin of the annual fes- 
 tival of, 126. ii. 
 
 Exarch, und/'r the Greek empire, the ofncc ana 
 rank of. 180. ii. Of Ravenna, the go\ernment 
 of Italy settled in. and administered by, I04» 
 ii. 
 
 Excise duties, imposed by Augustus, C7, 1. . ' 
 
 Excommunication from christian rx)minunion» 
 the origin of. 175. 2fi3, i. 
 
 Exil". voluntary, under accusation and consciop.*' 
 guilt, its advantages among the Romans, 97, u. 
 
 faith and its operations, defined, 16«.i. . 
 alcandus. Hugu, character of his //i«t«riaS»cic- 
 la, 312, ii. note. Hin lamentation on the trans- 
 fer of ino sovereignly of the island to the empe- 
 ror Henry VI. 312. i.i. , . *• .u • 
 
 Fathers ot the chri<»tian church, cause of tlieir 
 austere morality, 169. i. .u n 
 
 Fausia. empress, wife ot Constantine the Great, 
 causes of her being put to death, 22/, i. 
 
 Faustina, wife of Marcus Antoninus, her cha- 
 racter. 41. i. . , - , „ . .• _ 
 
 Faustina, the widowof the emperor Constantius, 
 countenances the revolt of Procopios against 
 the emperor Valens, 332. i. . . .u 
 
 Festival.s, pagan, gn at offence taken at, by the 
 primitive christians. 163. 1. r . l r j 
 
 Feudal giivernm>'nt,the rudiments of.to be lonnd 
 among the Scythians, 352, I. .... ,,. 
 
 Figures, numeral, occasion of their first public 
 and familiar use, 250, ii. , ,. , „«• 
 
 Finances of the Roman empire, when the seat of 
 it was removed to Constantinople, reviewed. 
 0-21 i 
 
 Fuiga'u'his questionable history-, whether to be 
 connected with the invasion ot Caledonia by the 
 emp«^ror Severus. 55. i. _ ,, . ,, •„ i 
 
 Pire. Greek, the Saracen fleet destro.yed hy, in | 
 the harbour of Constantinople, 251. ii. is Jong 
 preserved as a secret. 252, li. Its effects not to 
 bo compared with gunpowder, 27b, ii. 
 
 Firmus, an Egy plian.nierchatii, his revolt against 
 the emperor Aurelian, 115,. i. ■ ..u 
 
 Firmus the Moor, history ot his revolt against the 
 emiKTor Valentinian, 343, I. 
 
 Flagellation, its eflScacy in penance, and now 
 proiMirtioncd, 327, ii. , , ,. 
 
 Flamens. Ruman, their number, and peculiar 
 
 ofBce. 346. i. . ^ •• j eo •• — <- 
 
 Flaminian way, its course described, do,.ii. tujie. 
 Flavian, archbishop of Constantinople, is killed 
 
 at the second council ot Ephesus. 135. ii. 
 Fleece, golden, probable origin of the table ol, 
 
 sis ii 
 Florence, the foundation of that city, 411. i. note. 
 
 Is besieged by Radagaisus, and relieved by Sii- 
 
 Florcntius, pr»torian praefect of Gaul under Con- 
 stantius. bis characier.^250, 287, «-. l»co"'!e»": 
 ned by the tribunal of Chaicedon, but suffered 
 to escape by Julian. 294, i. ,. 
 
 riorianus, brother of the emi>eror Tacitus, his 
 eagpr usurpulioiof the imjwrial dignity. l<Jo,i. 
 
 FcbIix is consecrated bisbop..f Rome to supersede 
 Liberius. who wa8exiled,282,i. He IS violently 
 expelled and his adherents slaughtered, tb. 
 'elix. an African bishop, his martyrdom, .^UU. i. 
 '"ornication. a doubtful plea for divorce, by gos- 
 pel authority, 88. ii. note._ , 
 
 France, modern, computation of the numt)er oi 
 its inhabitants, and the average of their taxa- 
 tion. 222, i. _ , J • ^A K>A : 
 - - • the name of, whence derived. 520, i. 
 Derivation of the French language, 522, i. note. 
 Childeric deposed, and Fepin apiwinted 
 
 Reign and 
 Invasion of. 
 
 king, by papal sanction, 179, ]i 
 character of Charlemagne, lo4,u 
 by the Saracens, 252. ii. . , .• r.i.- 
 
 Frangipani, Censio, his profane violatioti of the 
 persons of tnipe Gelasius II. and bis college .of 
 cardinals. 464. ii. Derivation of his tamily 
 
 name, 474, ii. . . , <- , no : rru^^ 
 
 Franks, their origin and confederacy, yH.i. I ney 
 invade Gaul, and ravage Spain, ift. They pass 
 over into Africa. 99. i. Bold and sucxiessful re- 
 turn of a colony of, from the sea of Pontus, by 
 ■ea 123. i. 
 
 - -' • they overrun and establish themselves 
 at Toxandria in Germany, 247. i. 
 
 . . - thiir fidelity to the Roman government, 
 412, i. Origin of the Merovingian race of their 
 kings. 470. i. How converted t(. Christianity, 
 503. i. R"ign of their king Clovis, 510, i. J" i- 
 nal establinhment of the French inonarchy m 
 Gaul, 516. i. Their laws. 517, i. Give the 
 name of France to their conquests in Gaul, 
 520. i. They degenerate into a slate of anarchy, 
 
 52*' i I 
 
 - '* - thoy invade Italy. 41, 70, iL ,. 
 . - - their military character, 278, 11. 
 
 Fravitta. the Goth, his character and deadly 
 quarrel with bis countryman, Priult, JOy, l. 
 His operations against Gainas, 444, i. 
 
 Frederic f. emperor of Germany, his tyranny in 
 Italy, 191. ii. Engages in Uio. third crusade. 
 344, li. His disastrous expediiion. ,M5, J4b. 
 351. ii. Sacrifices Arnold of Brescia to the 
 pope,4f>6. ii... His reply to the Roman arabas- 
 sadors. 4<)9, ii. . ..,. , m, u- 
 
 Frederic II. is driven out of Ita y, 191, ii. His 
 disputes with the pope, and reluctant crusade, 
 *J54. ii. Exhorts the Euroi>ean princes to unite 
 in i.pixising the Tartars, 405. ii. 
 
 Frederic III. the last emperor crowned at Rome, 
 
 Freemeii of Laconia, account of, 269, ii. 
 
 Friti^ern. the Gothic chief, extricates himself 
 from the haiids of Lumcinus. ft^v^fnoUT 
 Thrace. 359, i. Defeats him. tb.. Battle of Sa- 
 lices. 3f)0. i. His strength recruited by the ac- 
 Session of new tribes. 3«j.l . i. NeS"^'* ^f « Yi^ ^ 
 Valens, 362, i. Battle of Hsidrianople. ift. i he 
 union of the Gothic triues broken by his death, 
 
 ^7 i 
 
 Freetlmcn. among iho Romans, their rank in so- 
 ciety. P."!. ii. . _ . • • • • 
 
 Frumentius was the first christian missionary m 
 Abyssinia. 2.'i9, i. . i • .u 
 
 Fulk of Neuilly. h«s .ardour in preaching the 
 fourth crusade, 360. ii. 
 
 GabiniuR, king ofthe^Quadi. is treacherously 
 murdered by Marcolliiius governor ot Valeria, 
 
 Gaillar'd, M,.. character of his IRstorie de Charle- 
 magne, l84,ii.nofe. . . a -i- u . 
 
 Cainas the Goth is commissioned byStilicho to 
 execute his revenge on Rufinus. pra»rect of Ihe 
 east 35Ht. i. His conduct in the war against 
 the rev'olter Tribigild. 443. i.. Joins him, 444, 
 i. Hisflight anddeath.44.^, I. .. 
 
 <5ala. probable derivation of the term, sr73, ii. 
 n»t». 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Galato. the suburb of, at Constantinople, assign- 
 ed to the Genoese. ^>9, ii. ... 
 
 Galerius is associated in the administration, as 
 Caisar, by ihe emperor Diocletian, 129, i. Is 
 defeated by the Persians, 134. i. Surprises and 
 overthrows Narses, 135, i. Assumes the title 
 of Augustus, on the abdication ot Diocletian, 
 142, i. His jealousy of Constantine, 144, i. 
 Deems it prudent to acknowledge him Cajsar, 
 ib. His unsuccessful invasion of Italy, ib. In- 
 vests Licinius with the purple on the death of 
 Severus, 146, i. His death, 147, i. From what 
 causes he entertained an aversion to the chris- 
 tians, 198, i. Obtains the countenance of Dio- 
 cletian for persecuting them, 198. i. Publishes 
 an edict of toleration just before his death, 
 202, i. 
 
 Galilceans. two-fold application of that naine 
 in the infancy of Christianity, 187, i. Why the 
 cmpernr Julian applied this name to the chris- 
 tians, 306, i. „ . .r . • . 
 
 Gallienus, son of the emperor Valerian, is asso- 
 ciated bv him in the imperial throne, 98, i. .Pro- 
 hibits the senators from exercising inili.tary 
 employments. 99, i. Character of his adminis- 
 traiion after the captivity of his father,. 104. i. 
 Names Claudius for his successor, 107, i- Fa- 
 voured the christians. 196, i. , r. r ■• 
 
 Galleys of the Greek empire described, 2 /.5.ii. . 
 
 Gallus elected emp<-ror on the minority ot Uosti- 
 lianufl, the son of Docius.97. i. 
 
 Gallus, nephew of Constantine the Great, his 
 education. 238, i. Is invested with the title of 
 Ca>sar. 239, i. His cruelty and imprudence. 
 2;R), i. His disgrace and death. 240. i. Embra- 
 ced the doctrine, but neglected the precepts, 
 of Christianity. 298, i. Converts the grove of 
 Daphne, at Antioch, to a christian burial- 
 place, 309, i. „ . _. , .. , _- tan 
 
 Games, public, oft he Romans, described, 77, 4.23, 
 i. Account of the factions of the circus, 7, ii. 
 
 Ganges, source of that river, 415, ii. note. 
 
 Gaudentius, the notary, is condcinned to death 
 under the emjjeror Julian, 2l>5, i. . 
 
 Gaul, the province of, described, 19, i. The pow- 
 er of the Druids suppressed there by liberius 
 and Claudius, 23. i. Cities in. 29, i. Amount 
 of the tribute paid by that province to Rome, 
 66, i. Is defended against the Franks by Pos- 
 thumous. 98. i. Succession of usurpers there, 
 112, i. Invasion of, by the Lygians. 121, i. 
 Revolt of the Bagaudae, suppressed by Max- 
 imian, 129. i. Progress of Christianity there. 
 
 - .'Proportion of the capitation-.tax levied 
 there by the Roman emperorst222, i. Is inva- 
 ded by the Germans, 246. i. The government 
 of, assigned to Julian. 247, i. His civil admin- 
 istration. 250, i. Is iiivaded by the Alemanni, 
 under tho emperor Valentinian, J38, i. And 
 under Gratian, 361. i. , .u k 
 
 . - destruction of idols and temples there, by 
 Martin bishop of Tours. 38;». i. Is overrun by 
 the barbarous troops of Radagaisus. after fiis 
 defeat by Stiiicho, 412, i. Is settled by the 
 Goths, Burgundians, and Franks. 438, i. As- 
 sembly of the seven provinces in, 440, i. Keign 
 of Theodoric king of the Visigoths in. 4W. 
 
 Origin of the Merovingian race of kin« of the 
 Franks in. 470. i. .Invasion of. by -Mtila. king 
 of the Huns. 471,1. Battle of Chalons, 4/3, i. 
 Revolutions of, on the death of the enfii>eror 
 Majorian. 490, i. Conversion of, to Christianity 
 by the Franks, 508, i. Reprcst;ntation of the 
 advantages it enjoved under the Roman go- 
 vernment, 510. i. Conquests and prosperity ol 
 Euric king of the Visigoths, i*. Character and 
 reign of Clovis. 510. i. The Alemanni. con- 
 quered. 511, i. Submission of the Armoricans, 
 and the Roman troops. 513. i. Final establish- 
 ment of the French monarchy in Gaul. 51b, i. 
 History of the Salic laws. 517. i., The lands of, 
 how claimed and divided by the barbarian con- 
 querors of. 519. i. Domain and l)enefices of the 
 Merovingian princes, ib. Usurpation of the 
 Seniors, ib. Privileges of the Romans m, 
 
 522, i. 
 Gedrosia. revolutions of the sea-coast of, 81, i. 
 
 Gelalican a;ra of the Turks, when settled, 320, 
 
 Gelasius. pope, his zeal against the celebration 
 of the feast of Lupercalia, 489, i. Deplores the 
 miserable decay of Italy, 496. i. ^ , n> 
 
 Gelasius H. pope, his rough treatment by Cen- 
 sio Frangipani, 464, ii. . . „ , , . • „ ^r 
 
 Gelimer deposes Hilderic the Vandalki.ng ol 
 Africa, and usurps the goyernnient, ^. ii. is 
 defeated by Beli.sarius.27.ii. Hi? fi"al defeat, 
 29, ii. His distressful flight, 30. ii. Surrenders 
 himself to Bclisarius, ib. Graces his triumph, 
 31, ii. His peaceful retirement, ift. . 
 
 General of the Roman army, his extensive power, 
 33 i 
 
 Generosity, Arabian, striking instances of, 197, 
 
 Gennadius. the monk. his denunciation awinst a 
 
 Gre«'k union with the Latiij church, 4o.<. ii. 
 Gennerid. the Roman general, under the emperor 
 
 Honorius, his character, 42b, 1. 
 Genoese, their mercantile establishrnent in the 
 
 suburb of Pera at Constantinople, 399, ii. 
 
 Their, war with the emperor Cantacuzenus, 
 
 Genseric, king of the Vandals iii Spain, his .chti- 
 racter, 454, i. Goes over to Africa on the invi- 
 tation of count Boniface, tb. His. successes 
 there by the assistance of the I)onatisig.45o, i. 
 Devastation of Africa by his troops, ift. Besie- 
 ges Boniface in Hippo Regius, tft. . His treach- 
 erous surprisal of (^arlhagc,.457. i. Strength- 
 ens himself by an alliance wuh Attila king of 
 the Huns, 461, i. His brutal tr.eatrnent of his 
 son's wife, daughter of Thcpdoric, 4/0. i. . Kni- 
 ses a naval force, and invades Italy. 4/9. i- Mis 
 sack of Rome, 480. i. Destroys the fleet of Ma- 
 jorian. 486. i. His naval depredations ori Ital.y, 
 4«7, i. His claims on the eastern empire, »ft. 
 Destroys the Roman fleet under Basil icus,4'.K.). 
 i. Was an Arian, and persecuted his catholic 
 
 subii'cts. 505, i. , .. . . „ ooi :: ,,^. 
 
 Gentleman, etymology of the term..3.'?l.ii. note. 
 GeoponicsoftheemierorConstanlinePorphyro- 
 
 genitus. account of, 267. II. . .^, . _ 
 
 George of Cappadocia supprjedes Athanasius 
 
 ID Die See of Alexandria, 280. i. Hw scandal- 
 
 525 
 
 ouB history, and tragical death, 309. i. Beromet 
 the tutelar saint of England. 3J0. i. 
 
 Gepidap. their encroachments on the eastern em- 
 pire checked by the Lombards, 46, ii. Are re- 
 duced by them. 911, ii. 
 
 Germanus, nephew of the emperor Jo8tinian,hi» 
 character and promotion to the command of 
 the army sent lo Italy, 67, ii. His death, 68, 
 ii. .... . , 
 
 Germany, the rude institutions of that country 
 the original principles of European laws and 
 manners. 84, i. Its ancient extent. tA. How 
 peopled, 85, i. The natives uiiorquainted with 
 letters in the time of Tacitus. Hi. i. Had no 
 cities, ifr. Mannersof the ancient Germans, 8/, 
 i. Population, i6. State of liberty amongtbem, 
 88, i. Authority of their magistrates.ift. .Con- 
 jugal faith and chastity, 89. 1. Their religion. 
 m.i. Arms and discipline, 91, i. Iheirleods. 
 !f2, i. General idea of the German tribes, tb. 
 Probus carries the Roman arms into t*ermany, 
 
 122, i. A frontier wall built by Probus from -^ 
 the Rhine to the Danube, ib. 
 
 .... Invasions of Gaul by the Germans, 
 246, 338, i. , , , ^. , 
 
 . - • - state of. under the emperor Charle- 
 magne, 186, ii. The imperial crown ef^tablish- 
 ed in the name and nation of Germany, by the 
 first Otho, 187, ii. Division of, among inde- 
 pendent princes, 191, ii. Formation of the Ger- 
 manic constitution, ift. State asBumed by the 
 emperor, 192, ii. . 
 
 Geroniius, count, sets up Maximus as emperor m 
 
 Spain, and loses his life in the attempt, 4.», i. 
 
 Geta, and Caracalla, sons of the emperor Seve- 
 rus, their fixed antipathy to each other, 55, i.. 
 
 Gildo the Moor, his revolt in Africa, 400, i. Mia 
 defeat and death, 401, i. 
 
 Gladiators, desperate enterprise and fate ol a 
 party of. reserved for the triumph of Probus. 
 
 123, i. The combats of, abolished by the empe- 
 ror Honorius, 408. i. 
 
 Glycerins is first emperor of Rome, and tneii 
 bishop of Salona, 493. i. Murders Julius Ae- 
 pos, and is made archbishop of Milan, tb. 
 
 Gnostics, character and account ot the Rcct of. 
 
 161, i. Principal sects into which they divided, 
 
 162, i. Their peculiar tenets, 268. i. 128, ii. 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, his character and engage- 
 ment in the first crusade, 330. ii. Ilis route to 
 Constantinople, 3.32. ii. Is elected king . f Je- 
 rusalem. :^0. ii. Compiles the Assise of Jeru- 
 salem, 342, ii. Form of his administration, tb. 
 
 Gog and Marog, the famous rampart of. descri- 
 bed, 20 i. 
 
 Goisv'iruha, wife of l.<ovigild, king f^f SP"]"' her 
 pious cruelly to the princess Ingundis, 3Ue, i. 
 
 Gold of affliction, the tax so denominated in the 
 eastern empire, abolished by tire empero Anas- 
 
 tasius, 12. li. . „ , l. • j .u- 
 
 Golden horn, why the Bosphorus obtained thia 
 
 appellation in remote antiquity, .iO/, i. 
 Gor/fianus, proconsul of Africa, his character 
 
 and elevation to the empire of Home, 71,. i- 
 
 His son associated with nim in the imperial 
 
 Gordian, 'the third, and youngest, declared C»- 
 sar, 73, i. Is declared emperor oy the army, 
 on the murder of Maximus and Ualbinns, 73. 
 
 mt* • 
 
 Goths'of Scandinavia, their origin. 93, i. Their 
 religion, ib. The Goths and Vandals euppoeed 
 to be originally one freat people.'.'4..i. ••''eir 
 emigrations to Prussia and the CKraine,5J0, i. 
 The^ invade th<^ Roman provinces, tft. iner 
 receive tribute from the Romans, \I7, i. iney 
 subdue the Bosphorus, 100. i. Plunder the 
 cities of Bithynia. lOl. i. They ravage Greece, 
 102. i. Conclude a treaty with th.; emperor 
 Aurelian, 110. i. They ravage Ijlyricum. and 
 are chastised by Constantine the Great. lOO. i. 
 
 - - their war with the Sarmatians, .«y,. i. Are 
 again routed by Constantine. tb. Got lite war 
 under the emperors Valentinian and .Valens, 
 347, i. Are defeated by the Huns, 356, |. Ihey 
 implore the protection of the emperor Valens, 
 357. i. They are received into the empire, MO, 
 i. They are oppressed by the Roman goyernora 
 of Thrace, ib. Are provoked to hostilities and 
 defeat Lupicinus. 359. i. Tl;ey ravage ITirace, 
 ib. Battle of Salices. 360. i.They are strength- 
 ened by fresh swarms oftheir countrymen. JDl, 
 i. Battle of Hadrianople, 362, i. Scour ihe 
 country from Hadrianople to Const ant inppie, 
 364. i. Massacre of the Gothic youth in Asia. 
 ib. Their formidable union broken by the death 
 ofFritiEern.367. i. Death and Juneral of Atha- 
 naric. ib. Invasion and defeet of the O^I^! 
 goths, 368, i. Are settled m Thrace, by Theo- 
 dosius. ib. Their hostile sent iments. 369, i. 
 
 - - revolt of, under Honorius, 403, i. Ihey 
 ravage Greece, under the command ot Alaric. 
 ib. They invade Italy. 405. u The sack of 
 Rome by. 428, i. IVath of .\laric, 432, i. Vic- 
 tories of' Wallia in Spam, 437, i. Thpv are s(^t- 
 fied in Aquitain. i*. See Ofln/, and Ihe^orte. 
 Conquest of the Visigoths in Gaul and J*pain. 
 490.1. How the Goths were converted lo the 
 christian religion. 503. 508, i; n»»r«. 
 
 - - - reign of Theodoric king of t.ho Ostro- 
 goths, 53i; i. The Goths in Italy extinguished, 
 
 71. ii. .... • • r QQ : 
 
 Government, Civil, the origm of. W, i- 
 Governors of provinces, under the croperora, 
 
 Gf^i^^' wi« rhrfi^sr einX"S^-h^^^ «He 
 
 ^S>n?ificel robe! 286. i. n^e. .Marries the prin- 
 cess Constaniia. and succeeds }o i)\e emme, 
 •W) i Defeats the Alemanni in Gaul.3ol, i. 
 Invpsts Theodosius with the empire of the east, 
 
 ^^.' V his character and conduct. 369, i. Hia 
 flight from Maximus, and death, .171, i. Over- 
 thfew the ecclesiastical establishment of pa- 
 
 Gree"Jo!"i;??J«ged by the Goth,, 102, i. Is over- 
 run by Alaric the Goth. 403, 1. I8 reduced by 
 the Turks, 461, i.. „ , ,. r oe/j ii«»>i 
 
 Greek church, origin of the schism of, 33b, 434, 
 
 441, ii 
 
 Greek empire. See Cowi/flw'Jnor/*. 
 
 Greeks, whv averse to the Roman language ar.rt 
 manners. 25, i. The GrceK becomes a scien'j- 
 fic language among the Rotrians.jft. . Characl»r 
 of the Greek language of Con8tantiii.ople,4»j 
 ii. When first taugnt ia Italy. 437, lu 
 
 i 
 
:{ 
 
 626 
 
 Greek learning, revival of, in Italy, 436, ii. 
 
 Gregory the Great, pop«, his pious presents to 
 Kttcarcd. king of apaiii. 509, i. Exhorts Tlieo- 
 delinda, queen of the Lombardfi. to propagate 
 the Nir«;m! faith, ib. His enmity to the vener- 
 ahle buildings and learning of Runne, 107, ii- 
 Hie birth and early profession, 1U8, ii. ii's 
 elevation to the pontificate, ib. Sends a mis- 
 sion to convert the Britons. iO;», ii. ainrtifies 
 the usurpation of the emperor Phoras, 117. ii. 
 
 Gregry II. pope, his epistles to Leoill. emperor 
 of(:(>n8tauiiiiople. 176, ii. Revolla against the 
 Greek emi>eror, 177, ii. ... , ,q„ 
 
 Gregory Vll. pope, his ambitious schemcB, JWJ, 
 ii. His contest with the emperor lienr;; 111. 
 307, ii. His retreat to Salerno, J08, 404, II. 
 
 Gregory, pratifect of Africa, history of hira and 
 his daughter, 138, ii, 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, his lamentation on the dis- 
 graceful discord among chrisliarjs, Iwvl,. i. 
 Load:} the memory of the emperor Julian with 
 invective, 2H9, i. Censures Constanlius for 
 having spared his life, 300, i.nofe. 
 ... - is presented to the wretched see of 
 Sasima. by his friend archbishop Basil, 373, i. 
 His misiion to Constantinople, ib. Is placed on 
 the arehiepiscopal throne by rheodosius, 374, 
 i. His resignation and character, 375, i. 
 
 Grumbaies, king of the Chionites, attends Sapor 
 king ol Persia, in his invasion of Mesoi'O.tamia, 
 S45. i. Loses his son at the siege of Ainida, to. 
 Reliirns homo in grief, 24d, i. . 
 
 Gaardiansiiip. how vested and exercised, accord- 
 ing to the Roman civil laws, 81), i. . , „, 
 
 Gubazes, king ofColchos, his alliance with Cho«- 
 roes king of Persia, 57, i. Returns to. h"" i<>'- 
 
 fier connection with the emperor Justinian, f6. 
 8 treaclieroosly killed, 58, I. . ,. - , 
 Guelphs. and Ghibelines, the parties of. in Italy, 
 
 191. 475. ii. , . . , , /. .k^ 
 
 Gnilt, the degrees of. in the penal lavrB of tho 
 Romans. 94, ii. ..... . , . -n. 
 
 Guiscard. Robert, hts birth and character, 301. 
 ii. A'-quircs the dukedom of Apulia. MrZ. ii. 
 His Italian conquests, 30.». ii. Beiieges Duraz- 
 lo, 3<t5. ii. Defeats the Greek emperor Alex- 
 ius there. 30t>, ii. Eng > ges in the cause of pope 
 Gregory VII. 308. ii- His second expedition to 
 Greece, and death, f 6. „ ,. . . j 
 
 Gundobald. king of the Burgundians, ip reduced 
 b» Clovis king of the Franks. 51 J. i. His mode 
 or justifying the judicial combat. 518. i. .. 
 
 Guni»owder, ihe invention and use ol, 4.i4, ii. 
 
 Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, his charac- 
 ter. 350, iiT Is defeated and taken prisoner by 
 Saladiii,t6. ...,..,_,. • 
 
 Gyarus. a small island in the iGgian sea, an in- 
 stance of its poverty, 66, i. 
 
 II 
 
 Hadrian, emperor, relinquishes the eastern con- 
 quests of Trajan. 15. i. Their characters com- 
 pared, ib. His character contrasted with that 
 of Antoninus Pius. ib. His several adoptions 
 of succes.Bors, 38, i. Founds the city of iElia 
 Capitolina on Mount Sion. 1(50, i.. 
 . - . reforms the laws of Rome in the perpet- 
 ual edict, 71», ii. . -, i-i . .: 4i 
 
 nadriaiiople, battle of, between Constanline the 
 Great and Licinius, 156. i. . I" i'«effectuai I v be- 
 sieged by Fritigern the Goth. 3<)0. i. Battle of. 
 b«nween the emperor Valens and tho tjotns, 
 3(i2. i. 
 
 Hakem". caliph of the Saracens, asjirnies a di- 
 vine character to supplant the Mahometan 
 faith, :W3.ii. , r • m 
 
 Hamadaniies, the Saracen dynasty of, in Meso- 
 riotaniia. i2(i5. ii. *" _ „ . , 
 
 Hannibal, review of the state of Rome when he 
 i.esieged that city, 418, i. - „ , ,. .. 
 
 Hannibalianus, nephew of .Constantine the 
 Great, is dignified with the title ot king, ifja. i. 
 Provinces assigned to him for a kiiigdom, tb. 
 Is cruelly destroyed by Con-Jtantius, 2J1. i. 
 
 Happiness, instance how •'tt'e. "t depends on 
 power and magnificence. 256, II. . 
 
 Harmozan. the Persian satrap, his interview 
 with the caliph Omar, 223. II. . , 
 
 Harpies, an ancient mythologir h>Btory, J^e 
 Clerc'e conjecture concerninp, "JOo. i. note. 
 
 Harunal Rashid, caliph, his friendly corrj^pon- 
 deuce with the emi>eror Charlemagne, IcO, ii. 
 His wars with the Greek empire. 259. ii. 
 
 Hassan, the Saracen, conquers Carthage, Ml, 
 
 Hawking, tho art and sport of, introduced into 
 
 Italy bv the Lombards. 106. ii. 
 H^'gira. the aira of. how fixed, 207, n. 
 ll<lena, the mother of Consiantine, her parejilago 
 
 ascertained, 143. i. Was converted to Christi- 
 anity by her son. 252. i. note. 
 
 Helena. Fiater of the emperor Constantius. mar- 
 rietl to Julian. 241, i. Is reported to be deoriv. 
 ed of children by the arts of the empress buse- 
 bia.2^.!.i. Her death. 289. i. ^^^ . 
 
 Heliop<ilis. taken by the Saracens, 229. K .. 
 
 Hell, According to Mahomet, described, SOo, ii. 
 
 Hellespont describtMl, 207. i. ... 
 
 Helvetia.nmount of its population in the time of 
 C»sar, 87, i. note. 
 
 H'-ngist, his arrival in Britain with succours for 
 Vorfigern.again't the Caledonians, 524, i. His 
 estabfi.shment in Kent. 524. .')25. i. 
 
 Henoticon of the emperor Zeno, character of, 
 137, ii. . . « .J • 
 
 Henrv »ucce<«d« his brother Baldwin as emperor 
 of Constantinople. 374, ii. His character and 
 administration. 375. ii. . , ^ 
 
 Henry III. emperor, his contest with pope Greg- 
 ory Vll. .307, ii. Takes Rome, and sets up 
 pope Clement III. 308, ii. ^ ... . 
 
 Henry VI. emperor, conquers and pillages the 
 island of Sicily, 313. ii. jr. 
 
 Henry the Fowler, emperor of Germany, deleats 
 the Turkish invaders. 291. 11. .. n- ■ 
 
 Heptarchv. Saxon, establishment of. in Britain, 
 525, i. Review of t he stale of. 526. i. 
 
 Heraclian. count of Africa, retains that province 
 in obedience to Honorius, 428, i. Ins cruel 
 usage of the refugees from the sack of lutnne by 
 Alaric. 431. i. His revolt and death, 4J4, i. 
 
 Heracleonas, emperor of Constantinople, 15^, 
 ii. 
 
 Heraclius, deposes the eastern usBrpcr Fhocas, 
 and is cboMn emperor* 118* ii. Oonooeita of 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Chosroes II. king of Persia. 119, ii. His dis- 
 tressful situation. 120, ii. Accepts an ignomin- 
 ious peace from Cliosroes, 121 , li. il.is first ex- 
 pedition against the Persians. 122. li. His se- 
 cond Persian expedition, ib. Strengthens him- 
 self by an alliance with the Turks. 124. ii. His 
 third Pernian expedition, ib. His treaty ol 
 peaco with Persia, 126, ii. His triumph and 
 pilgrimage to Jerusalem, ib. His theological 
 inquirie8.140.141.il. . _, . 
 
 Heraclius marries his niece Martina. 151, ii. 
 Leaves his two sons joint successors to the em- 
 pire, 152, ii. Invasion of his provinces by the 
 Saracens, 226, ii. Flies from Syria, 232, li. 
 
 Heraclius the praefect. his expedition against the 
 Vandals in Africa, 489, i. . 
 
 Heraclius the eunuch, instigates the emperor 
 Valentinian ill. to the murder of the patrician 
 iEtiu", 478, i. His death. i6. . 
 
 Herb»!lot. character of his Bihlioiheque Orten- 
 tale, ^ii,i. note. , . ^ 
 
 Hercynian forest, the extent of, unknown in the 
 time ofCaisar, 85. i. note. ,,/•,• 
 
 Heresy in religion, the origin of, traced, lol.i. 
 Edict of Constant ine the Great against, 2(>4, i. 
 
 Hermanric. king of the Ostrogoths, his conquests 
 340, i. His death. 357. i. 
 
 Hcrmenegild. prince of Boetica. his marriage 
 with Initundis, princess of Austrasia. and con- 
 version io the Niccne faith, 508, i. Revolt and 
 death, tfr. . . .^ , .,.. 
 
 Hermits of the east, their mortified course of life. 
 502. i. Miracles performed by them and their 
 relics, tfr. , „ , . . „ 
 
 Hermodorns. tho Ephesian, assists the Komans 
 in compiling their twelve tables of laws, 77. i.i. 
 
 Hefinogenes, master-general of the cavalry, is 
 killed in the attempt to banish Paul, bishop of 
 Constantinople, 28^1, i. 
 
 Hero and Leander, the story of. by whom con- 
 troverted and defended, 207, i. note. 
 
 Hcrodian, his life of Alexander Sevcrus, why 
 preferable to that in the Augustan history. 
 r>5, i. note. 
 
 Herodes Atticus, his extraordinary fortune and 
 munificence, 28, i. , . „ . ,. 
 
 Hero<lotus, his character of the Persian worship, 
 79, i. 
 
 Heruli, of Germany and Poland, their character, 
 535, 1. 
 
 Hilariqn. the monk of Palestine, account of. 
 
 Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, his remarkable obser- 
 vnfionson the diversity of christian d«)Ctrines. 
 272. i. His exposition of the term Hoinoiou- 
 sion.tfr. , « . • 
 
 Hilarv, pope, cen.our^s the emperor Anthemius 
 for nis tolerating principles. 48^J..i. ,. . , , 
 
 Hilderic. the Vanffal king of Africa, his indul- 
 gence to his catholic subjects djspleases both 
 the Ariansand Athana8ians.23. II. Isdepoecd 
 by Gelimcr, ib. Is put to death, 27, ii. 
 
 Hindoos of the east, not the disciples of Zoroas- 
 ter, 247, ii. wote. , . _, , .,r . 
 
 Hindostan, conquest of. by Tamerlane .415. ii. 
 
 Hii>po Regius, siege of, by Genseric king of the 
 Vandals, 455, i. . n^ ■ 
 
 History, tho principal subjects of. 92. i.. 
 
 Holy war, the justice of it inquired into, j2b, 
 
 Homicide, how commoted by the Salic laws, 
 
 517 i. 
 Homoonsion. origin and use of that term, at the 
 
 council of Nice, 271, i. And Homoiousion, the 
 
 distinction between. 272, i. 
 Honain. war of, 211, ii. . .... 
 
 Honoralus, archbishop of Milan, is. with hts 
 
 clerg>;. driven from his see by the Lombards, 
 
 . 100. li. . - , -tr 1 •• 
 
 Honoria. princess, sister of the emperor vaienti- 
 nian Iir her hifiory. 471. i.. ^ . , , 
 
 Honorius, son ofTheoilosius the Great, is declar- 
 ed emperor of the west by hisdying lather. J84), 
 i. Marries Maria, the daughter of Stilicbo, 
 402, i. His character, ib. Flies Irom Milan on 
 the invasion of Italy bv Alaric, 407. i. His tri- 
 umphant entry into Rome. 408. i. Abolishes 
 the combats of gladiatots, ift.. Fixes his resi- 
 dence at R.ivenna. 40<), i. Orders the death of 
 Stilicho. 416. i. His impolitic measures and 
 cruelty unite his barbarian stddierw against him 
 under Alaric. 417. i. His councils distracted 
 by the eunuchs. 426. i. His abject overtures to 
 Attalus »nd Alaric, 428. i. His last acts, and 
 death, 434. i. His triumph for the reduction ot 
 Spain, by Wallia the Goth, 437. i. . Is suspecl- 
 e«l of incest with his sister Placidia, 452. i. 
 His persecution of the Donatists in Africa, 
 454. f. 
 
 Honour, the new ranks of. introduced in the city 
 ofCon8fantinople.212.272. ii. . . . 
 
 Hormisdas. a fugitive Persian prince in the court 
 of the emperor Constantius. his remarks on the 
 city of Rome, 243, i. note. His history and sta- 
 tion under Julian, 316, i. ,n • !_• 
 
 Hormouz, the son of Chosroes, king of Persia, his 
 accession. Ill, ii. His character. to. Isdepos- 
 ed, and at length killed, 112. ii. .. 
 
 Horw^ of Arabia, their f)eculiar qualities, 194. ii. 
 
 Hoeein Ihcsonof All, his trarical death, 217, ii. 
 
 Hospitallers, knights of St. John of Jerusalein. 
 popularity and character of the order of .341. ii. 
 
 Hoetilianus, the minor son of the emperor I>ecius, 
 elected emperor under the guardianship of Gal- 
 lus. 97. i. . _ ... • . »» 
 
 Hugh, king of Burgundy, his marriage with Ma- 
 rorjar and expulsion from Rome by Alberic, 
 
 189. ii. . L i. » 
 
 Hugh, count of Vermandois. engages m the first 
 crosade,330. ii. Is shipwrecked,. and made 
 captive b^vthe Greek emi>eror Alexius Comne- 
 nus,332, ii. His return, .338, ii. . . .^^ . 
 
 Human nature, its natural propensities. 169, i. 
 
 Hume. Mr. his natural history of religion, the 
 b<38t commentary on the polytheism of the an- 
 cients, 22. i. note. His difl^culty. as to the ex- 
 tent of the imperial palace at Ro'i.e. resolved. 
 5G,i.ncte. Charges the most refined and phi- 
 losophic sects with intolernncy. 81. i. note. . 
 
 Hungary, establishment of the Huns in. 459^1. 
 State of. under the emperor (.'harlemagne, 186. 
 ii. Terror excited by their first approach to 
 Europe, 288, ii. Their character. 289, ik 
 
 Huniarfes. John, his exploits agamst the 1 nrks, 
 443. II. His defence of Belgrade and death, 
 445* ii. 
 
 Hnnneric. the son of Genseric, king of the Van. 
 
 (tals. persecutes his catholic Fubjects. 505, i. 
 
 His cruelty to the catholics of I'lpasa, 507, i. 
 Huns, their original seat, and their conquests, 
 
 353. i. Their decline, 354. i. Their emigra- 
 tions. 355, i. Their victories over the Goths, 
 356, 357. i. ... ... 
 
 Huns, they drive other barbarous tribes before 
 them, upon the Roman provinces. 410. i. Their 
 establishment in Hungan'. 459. i. Character 
 of their king Attila, ib. Their invasion of Per- 
 sia, 460. i. The empire of, extinguished by the 
 death of Attila, 477. i. 
 
 Hunting of wild beasts, when a virtue, and when 
 a vice, 44, i. Is the .Kch(K)l of war, 352, i. 
 
 Hypatia, the female philosopher, murdered io 
 the church at Alexaixlria, 131, ii. .. 
 
 Hypalius, sedition of, at Constantinople, 9, ii.^ 
 
 I and J 
 
 Jacobites of tho east, history of the sect of, 145. 
 
 ii. . . « 
 
 James, St., his legendary exploits in Spain. 
 
 179. i. 
 Janizaries, first institution of those troops, 410, 
 
 Iberian and Caspian gates of mount Caucasus,. 
 distinquished,22, ii. The Iberian gates occu- 
 pied by Cabades king of Persia, i6. 
 
 Idalius. his account of the misfortunes of Spain 
 by an irruption of the t>arbarou8 nations. 4.'i6.i. 
 
 Idolatry ascribed to the agency of da-mons, by the 
 primitive christians, 162, i. Derivation of the 
 term, and its successixe applications, 286, i. 
 note. , . . 
 
 Jerom. his extravagant representation of the d^- 
 VHKtalion of Paiitionia ny the Goths, 364, i. 
 His influence over the widow Paula, 499, i. 
 
 Jerusalem, its situation, destruction, and profa- 
 nation. 304. i. Pilgrimages to, and curious re- 
 lics preserved there, ib. Abortive attemplg 
 of the emperor Julian to rebuild the temple. 
 305, i. 
 
 • - - a magnificent church erected there to 
 the Virgin Mary by Justinian. 17, ii. The ves- 
 sels of ine temple brought frorn Africa to Con- 
 stantinople by Belisarius, 31, ii. Is conquered 
 by (yhosroes Jl. king of Persia, 119, ii. Iiunr- 
 rection of the monks there, 137. ii. 
 
 • • - the city conquered by the Saracens, 231. 
 ii. Great resort »>1 pilgrims to, 322, ii. Con- 
 quest cf. by the Turks, 323, ii. . , „ 
 
 - • • is taken from the Turks by the E«yp- 
 tians,339, ii. Is taken bv the crusaders. 340.. 
 ii. la erected into a kingdom under Godfrey of 
 Bouillon, tfr. Succession of its christian prin- 
 ces, 349, ii. Is pillaged by the Carizmians, 
 
 354, ii. ... 
 Jerusalem, New, described according to the 
 
 ideasof the primitive christians, 165, I. . 
 
 Jesuits. Portuguests persecute the eastern chris- 
 tians. 144. ii. Their labours in, and expulsion 
 from, Abyssinia, 149, ii- , . 
 
 Jews, an obscure, unsocial, obstinate race of 
 men, 158, i. Review of their history. .159,. i. 
 Their religion is the basis of Christianity, i*. 
 The promises of divine favour extended. by 
 Christianity to all mankind, ItiO, i. The im- 
 mortality of (he poul, not inculcated in the law 
 of Moses. 165. i. Why there are no Hebrew 
 gospels extant. 176, i. Provoked the persecu- 
 tions of the Roman emperors. 181. i.. 
 
 • ■ - thoj-e of a more liberal spirit. adopted 
 the theological system of Plato. 206, i.. Their 
 condition under the emperors Constantine and 
 Constantius, 304, i. Abortive attempt of Ju- 
 lian to rebuild t he temple of Jerusalem, 305, i. 
 
 - - - miraculous conversion of a number qf,- 
 at Minorca. 394. i. note. Persecution of, in 
 Spain, 509, i. . ,. • r i 
 
 • • are persecuted by the catholics in Kal^. 
 39, i. And by Cyril at Alexandria, 130, ii. 
 'ow plagued by the emperor Justinian, l.ft), ii. 
 
 • - - those in Arabia subdued by Mahomet, 
 209. ii. Assist the Saracens in the reduction 
 of Spain, 244, ii. ,. . ^ , , -oo 
 
 • ■ ' massacres of, by the first crusaders, 329. 
 
 Jezdegerd, king of Persia, is said to be left guar- 
 dian to Thecdosius the Younger, bv (he empe- 
 ror Arcadiua, 448, i. His war with Thcodosius, 
 450. i. . „ , , 
 
 Igilium, the small island of, serves as a place of 
 refuge for Romans who flew from the sack of 
 Rome by Alaric, 430, i. ... , • 
 
 Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, the christian forti- 
 tude displayed in bis epistles. 193. i,. . 
 
 Ikshidites. the Saracen dynasty of. 264. i. 
 
 Illiisi rifius. the title of. how limited in the times 
 of Ron. an simplicity, and how extended when 
 Constantinople became the seat of empire. 
 212. i. 
 
 Illyricum described, 20. i. .... , , 
 
 1 mages, introduct ion of.into the christian church, 
 172. ii. The worship of. derived from pagan- 
 ism, ib. Are condemned by the council of Con- 
 stantinople. 175, ii. The adoration of, justified 
 by pope Gregory II. 176, ii. And sanctified by 
 the second council of Nice, 182, II. 
 
 Imperator. in the Roman history, explaincd^^j, 
 i. note. The imperial prerogatives, 35. i. 1 he 
 court, ib. The sense of this appellation altered 
 by long use. 138. i. . ... i. . j . • 
 
 Incarnation, theological history of the doctrine 
 
 Ince'st, natural, and arbitrary, distinguished, 89. 
 
 India, account of the christiansof St. Thomas in. 
 144. ii. Persecution of, by the Portuguese, tb. 
 
 Indict ions, the memorable sera of, w-hence daten. 
 l-'iO, i. note. The name and use of, in the mid- 
 dle ages, whence derived. 221, i. 
 
 Indulgences, in the Romish church, the nature 
 of, explained, :i27,ii., . . • a t^ 
 
 Ingundis. princess of Austrasia, is married to 
 Ilermenegild prince of Boptica, and .cruelly 
 treated by his mother Goisvintha, 508. i. 
 
 Inheritance, paternal, subject to parental discre- 
 tion amongthc Romans, 67, i- The Koman law 
 of, 90, ii. Testamentary disposit ions of proper- 
 ty. 92, ii. Voconian law. how evaded, ift. 
 
 Injuries, review of the Roman laws lor the rc- 
 rtress of. 93. ii. , , , .» j # .^ 
 
 Innocent III.jpope...enjoyed the plenitado of pa- 
 pal power, 353f ii. 
 
 531 
 He 
 
 lufluisition, the first erection of that tribanal. 
 
 Institutes of Justinian, an analysis of, 85, ii. 
 nierest of.raoiiey, how regulated by the Koman 
 law,93, ii. . _ . . . ,_-, .. , 
 
 Joan. pop<;. the story of. fictitious, 189, ii. note. 
 
 John, principal secretary to the emperor Hono- 
 rius, usurps the empire after his death, 452. t. 
 
 John, the a Imseiver, archbishop ot Alexandria, 
 relieves tho Jewish refugees when J'-rusalera 
 was taken by the Persians. 119, ii. His extra- 
 ordinary liberality of the church treasure, 147, 
 
 John, bishop of Antioch. arrives at Ephesus after 
 the meeting of the council, and. with his bish- 
 ops, decides against Cyril, 1.32, ii. Coalition 
 between him and Cyril, 133, 11. 
 
 John, of Apri. patriarch ot Constantinople, his 
 pride, and .confederacy against JohnCantacu- 
 zene, 396. ii. ,,,..• i 
 
 John, of Bri.'one. emperor of Conttantinople, 
 377 ii. 
 
 John 'of Cappadocia. praetorian prrefbct of the 
 east, under the emperor Justinian, his charac- 
 ter, 14, ii. Is disgraced by the empress Iheo- 
 dora, and becomes a bishop, ib. Opposes the 
 African war, 24, ii. His.fraud, in supplying 
 the army with bread, 26, II. 
 
 John Comoenus. emperor of Constantinople. Itw, 
 
 John Damasconus, St. his historj, 175. ii. note. 
 
 John of LicoiMiiis, the hermit, his character, and 
 oracular promise to the emperor Theodosius 
 the Great, 385, i. . ,.. -. . . , 
 
 John, the Monophysile bishop of Asia, is employ- 
 ed by the emperor Justinian to root out pagans 
 and heretics. 139. ii- . , , ^ -an •• 
 
 John XII. pope, his flagitious character, 189, ii- 
 
 John XXlli. pope, his profligate character, 4ob, 
 
 John. St. the evangelist, reveals the true sense 
 of Plato's doctrine of the Logos, 2b(, i. 
 
 John the Sanguinary, seizes the Gothic treasures 
 in Picenum. and obliges Vitiges to laiso the 
 siege of Rome. 41, ii. . ^ , >t- 
 
 John Zimisces, murders the Greek emperor Ni- 
 cephorns. and succeeds him. 162. ii. His east- 
 ern victories 266, ii. Defeats Swatoslaus, czar 
 of Rusbia. 294. ii. .... , . . ^ 
 
 lona. one of the Hebride islands, Us ancient mo- 
 nastic eminence. 498, i. e naa •• 
 
 Jonas, renegado of Damascus, story oN 220, ii. 
 
 Jordan, character of his work De Ongtmbtu 
 Sclaviris,QS7.u.note. ,_ ..,, 
 
 Joseph the Carismian, governor of Berzem, kills 
 the sultan Alp Arslaii, 319, ii. . ..... 
 
 Josephus, the mention of Jesus Christ in. his his- 
 tory, a forgerv, 186, i.note. His opinion that 
 Plato derived knowledge from the Jews, con- 
 troverted. 267, i. nofe. , , rr 1- 
 
 Jovian is elected emr)eror by (he troopsot Juliaii. 
 on their retreat from Assyria. 324, 325, i. His 
 treaty with Sapor king of Persia, 325, i. His 
 death, 330, i. .. . ,• /• j 
 
 Jovians and Herculians, new bodies, of guards 
 instituted to supersede tho praitorian bands, 
 
 Jovin'ia'n of Verona, his punishment by a Roman 
 synod, for heresy, 4(K), i. . , , ,. . j 
 
 Jovinus reduces the Alemanni, who had invaded 
 Gaul, a38,i. ^.. , .... _ 
 
 - • - account of his revolt against the empe- 
 ror Honorius in Germany, 435, i. 
 
 Jovius, pra»!orian prajfect uiider the emperor Ito- 
 norius, succeeds Olympius as his confidential 
 minister, 426. i. His negociations with Alaric 
 obstructed, ib. Deserts Honorius, and goes 
 over to Alaric, and the new emperor Attains, 
 428 i 
 
 Irene* her marriage with the Greek emperor Leo, 
 150, ii. Her ambition, and barbarity to her mn 
 Constantine. ib. Restores images to public de- 
 votion, IKi.ii. . . -- o .1 J win • 
 
 Ireland was first colonized from Scotland, 341. i. 
 Derivation of the name of Us tutelar saint, 1 a- 
 tick. 495. i.note. -^ . . , 
 
 Isaac I. Comnenufl, emperor of Constantinople, 
 
 Isaac' li. AngeluB, emperor of CotjBlantinople, 
 171, ii. His character and reigii, 359, II. Is de- 
 posed by his brother Alexius. iO., Is restored by 
 the crusaders. 366, ii. Hi.s death, 367, u. 
 
 Isaac, archbishop of Armenia, .his apology for the 
 vicesof king Artasires, 451, 1.. 
 
 Isnuria, the rebellion there against the emperor 
 Gallienus. 106, i. 
 
 Isaurians, reduction of, by the eastern emperors, 
 18 ii 
 
 Isidore*, cardinal, his ill-treatment in Russia, 
 441. li. Receives an act of union .from the 
 Greek clergy at Constantinople. 452, ii. . 
 
 Isocrates, his price for the tuition of his pupils, 
 21. ii. 
 
 Italy, the dominion of, under Odoacer, succeeds 
 the extinction of the western empire, 494, i. 
 Its miserable state at this era, 496, i. Conver- 
 sion of the Lombards of, to the Nicene faith, 
 509 i 
 
 • -' -' is reduced by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. 
 534. i. Hisadministration. JA. Government of, 
 ae.rx)rding to the Roman law. .by Iheojloric. 
 ,•536, i. Its flourishinft state at this tirne, 5.18. i. 
 How supplied with silk irom China. 10. ii. His- 
 tory of Amalasontha, queen of Italy, m,". In- 
 vasion of. by Belisarius. 85. ii. Siege of Kome 
 by the Goths. 36, ii. Invasion of Italy .by the 
 Franks. 41. ii. Revolt of the Goths. 02. ii. Ex- 
 pedition of Ihe eunuch Narses, 67.. ik Invasion 
 of. by the Franks and Alemanni. 70, ii. Go- 
 vernment of. under the exarchs of" Ravenna. 
 71, ii. Conquests of Alboin. king of the Lom- 
 bards in. KX). ii. Distress of. 104. n. How di- 
 vided between the Lombards and the exarchs 
 of Ravenna, t'ft. . .. _ 
 
 Italy, growth of the papal power in, 175, "-^ **?.• 
 volt of, against the Greek emperors, 177, il. 
 The exarchate of Ravenna granted to the pope. 
 181. ii. Extent of'the dominions of Charle- 
 magne there, 185, ii.. The povyer of (he Ger- 
 man Cajsars destroyed by the r;»e of the com- 
 mercial cities there. 190. ii. . Factioiis of the 
 Guelphs and Ghihelines. 191, II; Ojnflictof the 
 Saracens. Latins, and Greeks, in.296. ii... 
 - - - revival of Greek learning ln.436,.ii. Au- 
 thors consulted for the history of. 489. ii. note. 
 
 Jubilee, popiab, a revival of the secular games. 
 
 r. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 77, i. note. 473, ii. The return of, accelerated, 
 ib. 
 
 Jude, St. examination of his grandsons before the 
 tribunal of the procurator of Judsa. 188, i. 
 
 Judgments of God, in the Salic laws, bow deter- 
 mined, 518. i. . „ „ .. , J 
 
 Judgments popular, of the Romans, displayed, 
 96 ii 
 
 Julia IJomna, wife of the emperor Severus, her 
 character, 55, i. Her death. 60. i. 
 
 Julian, the nephew of Constantine the Great, hie 
 education, 238, i. His dangeious situation on 
 the death of his brother GaTlus, 240, i. Is sent 
 lo Athens, where he cultivates philosophy, 
 S41, i. Is recalled by Constantius, ib. Is in- 
 vested with the title of Caesar, 240, i Is ap- 
 oinled to the government of Gaul, 247, j. His 
 rst campaign, ib. Battle of Sirashurgh. 248. 
 I. Reduces the Franks at To.vandria,.249,. i. 
 His three expeditions beyond the Rhine, tb. 
 Restores the cities of Gaul, 250, i. His civil 
 administration, tfr. His account of the theolo- 
 gical calamities of the empire under Coistan- 
 tius,284, i. Constantius grows jealous of him. 
 286, i. The Gaulish legions are ordered into 
 (he east, 2^7. i. Is saluted emperor by the 
 troops. 288, i. His embassy and epist le to Con- 
 stantius. 269, i. His fourth and fifth expedi- 
 tions beiond the Rhine, ib. Declares war 
 against Constantius. and abjures the christian 
 religion. 290, i. His march from the Rhine in- 
 to lllyricum,ift. Enters Sirmium. 291, i. Pub- 
 lishes apologies for hie conduct, ib. His tri- 
 umphant entry into Constantinople on the 
 death of Constantius. 293, i. His private life 
 and civil government, t6. His reformations in 
 the imp«inal palace, 2il4, i. Becomes a sloven 
 to avoid foppery, ib. Erects a tribunal for the 
 trial of the evil ministers of Constantius, ift. 
 Dismisses the spies and informers emjiioyed by 
 his predecessor. 2t'5, i. His k)ve of freedom 
 and the republic. 2*.'6. i. His kindness to tlie 
 Grecian cities, if>. His abilities as an orator, 
 ib. And as a judge, 2<J7, i. His character, tb. 
 Hisapostacy accounted for. 298. i. Adopts the 
 pagan mythology,!*. His theological. system, 
 299. i. His initiation into the Eleusinian mys- 
 teries, and his fanaticism, 300, i. His hypocri- 
 tical duplicity, ifr. Wrilee a vindication of his 
 apostacy, 301, i. His edict for a general tolera- 
 tion, ib. His pagan superstitious zeal, 302, i. 
 His circular letters for the reformation ot the 
 pagan religion, ib. His industry in gaining 
 
 Sroselyies. 30.3. i. His address to the Jews. 
 54, i. History of his attempt to rebuild the 
 temple at Jerusalem, 305. i. Transfers the re- 
 venues of the christian church to the heathen 
 priests. 307, i. Prohibits christian schools, tb. 
 Obliges the christians to reinstate the pagan 
 temples, 308, i. Restores the sacred grove and 
 temple of Daphne, 309. i. Punishes the chris- 
 tians of Antioch for burning that temple, tb. 
 His treatment of (he cities ofLdessa and Alex- 
 andria. 310. i. Banishes Athanasius, 311, i. 
 The philosophical fable of his Ctr^ars delinea- 
 ted. 312. i. Meditates the conquest of Persia, 
 313, i. Popular discontents during his resi- 
 dence at Antioch, t7». Occasion «n writing his 
 Mi-'opogon, 314,1. Hismarch to the Euphrates, 
 315, 1. He enters the Persian territories. 310, 
 i. Invades Assyria, 318. i. His personal con- 
 duct in this enterprise, 319, i. His address to 
 his discontented troops, ib. His successfulpas- 
 sage over the Tigris, 320, i. Burnshis. fleet. 
 321, i. His retreat and distress. 322, i. His 
 death, 324. i. His funeral. :«8.i. . . . ,, 
 
 Julian, count, offers to belrav Spam into the 
 hands of the Arabs. 242, ii. His advice to the 
 victorious Turks, 243, ii. - .. , .. 
 
 Julian, the papal legate, exhorts Ladislaus, ki.ng 
 of Hungary and Poland, to breach of faith with 
 the Turks, 443, ii. His death and character, 
 444. ii. 
 Julius, rnaster-gcneral of the troops in the east- 
 ern empire, cxjncerts a general massacre oi the 
 Gothic youth in Asia, 365, i. .. __ 
 
 Jurisprudence. Roman, a review of. <6,ii. Was 
 polished by Grecian philosophy, 81, ii. Abuses 
 of,97, ii. . « .. 
 
 Justin (he elder, his military proinotion, J, ii. 
 His elevation to the empire, and character, tb. 
 His death. 4, ii. , , . , _ . . 
 
 Justin U.emperor, succeeds his uncle Justinian, 
 98. ii. His firm behaviour to the ambassadors 
 of the Avars, 99. ii. His abdication and inves- 
 titure of Tiberius, as his successor, 102, ii. 
 Justin Martjr. his decision in the case of the 
 Ebionites. 161, i. His extravagant account.of 
 the progress of Christianity, 179, i. Occasion 
 of his own conversion, t6. . . 
 
 Justina.the popular story of her marriage with 
 theemi»eror Valentinian examined, .W.i. Her 
 infant son Valentinian 1 1, invested with (he im- 
 perial ensigns, on the death of his fat her, ift. 
 Her contest with Ambrose archbishop ot Milan. 
 377. i. Flies from, (he invasion of Maximus, 
 with her son. 379. i. ..... j 
 
 Jastinian. emperor of the east, his birth and pro- 
 motion, 3. ii. His orthodoxy, 4,11.. Isinvested 
 with the diadem by his uncle Justin, to. Mar- 
 ries Theodora, 6, li. Patronizes tlie blue fac- 
 tion of the circus, 8, ii. State of agriculture 
 and manufacture in his provinces. 10. ii. In- 
 troduces theculture of the silkworm, and man- 
 ufacture of silk, into Greece, 12, ii. State of 
 his revenue, ib. His avarice and profusion, tb. 
 Taxes and monopolies, 13, ii. His. ministers, 
 14. ii. His public buildings, 15. ii. Founds 
 
 Ihe church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, tb. 
 lis other public works, 16, ii. His European 
 fortifications, 17, ii. His Asiatic fortifications. 
 18. ii. He suppresses tho schools of Athens. 
 20, ii. And the consular dignity. iS2. 11. Pur- 
 chases a peac^ from the Persians. 23. ii. Un- 
 dertakes to restore Hilderic king of Carthage, 
 ib. Reduction of Africa, 29. ii. Hi.s inetruc- 
 tions for (he government of. ib. His acquisi- 
 tions in Spain, 32, ii. His deceitful negocia- 
 tions in Italy. 34. ii. Weakness of his empire, 
 45. ii. Receives an embassy from .t.he Avars, 
 49. ii. And from the Turks, 50. ii. Persian 
 war 54, ii. His negociations with ( hosroes, .w, 
 ii. His alliance with the Abys«inians, i*- Ne- 
 glects the Italian war under Belisarius, 63, ii. 
 Settles the government of Italy under the ex- 
 arch of Ravenna, 7J, ii. Disgrace and death 
 
 527 
 
 nf Belisarius, 72, ii. His death and character*. 
 
 73, li- Comets and calamities in his reign, i^ 
 
 His C-.tAe, Pandects, and Institutes. 76, ii. His 
 
 theological character, and government. 138. ii. 
 
 His persecuting spirit, 139, ii. Uis orthodoxy* 
 
 140. ii. Died a heretic, tfr. 
 Justinian 11. emperor of Constantinople, 153, ii. 
 Justinian, the son of Germanus. his conspiracy 
 
 with the empress Sophia, aud successes against 
 
 the Persians, 103, ii. 
 Juvenal, his remarks on the crowded state of tbo 
 
 inhabitants of Rome. 424, i. 
 
 Khan, import of this title in the northern part* 
 
 of Asia. 352, 410. i. ^ ^^ ^ . . 
 
 King, the title ol, conferred by Constantine the 
 
 Great on his nephew HBnnibalianns.228, i. . 
 Kindred, degrees of, according to the Roman ci« 
 
 vil law, 90. ii. ,, ,,.••. 
 
 Knighthood, how. originally conferred and its ob- 
 
 ligaiioiiF. ri31, ii. , , _ 
 
 Koran of Mahomet, account and character of* 
 
 202, ii. , . , . 
 
 Koreish, (he tribe 'of. acquire the custody of tbO 
 Caaba at Mecca. 198. ii. Pedigree of Mahomet, 
 199. ii. They opi>ose his preiensions to a pro- 
 phetical character. 206, ii. Flight of Mahoinet, 
 tb. Battle of Beder. 209. ii. Battle of Ohud, 
 ib. MeccA surrendered to Mahomet, 210, ii. 
 
 I.abarum. or standard of the crore. in the army 
 of Constantine the Great, described, 255. i. 
 
 Labeo, the civilian, his diligence in business and 
 comi)osilion, 81, ii. His professional character, 
 82 II. 
 
 Lact'antius. difficulties in ascertaining the date 
 of his Divine Institutions, 251, i. vote. .His 
 flattering prediction of the influence of Christi- 
 anity among mankind. 253. i. Inculcates the 
 divine iighi of Constantine to the empire. 
 254, i. 
 
 Ludis'lauB, king of Hungary and Poland, leads aa 
 army against the Turks,443. ii. His breach of 
 faith with them, ift. _ , 
 
 Ladislaus, king of Naples, harasses Rome dur- 
 ing the schism of th<- papacy, 485, ii. 
 
 Lffitus, praetorian prajfect, conspires the death of 
 Commodus, and confers the empire on I'erti- 
 dhx 4ui I 
 
 Laijy, when first distinguished from the clergy, 
 
 Lampadin8,a Roman senator, boldly condemn* 
 the treaty with Alaric the Goth. 41o. i. 
 
 Lance, Holy, narrative of the miraculous disco- 
 very of, 338. ii. . . . „ aaa 
 
 Land, how assessed by the Roman emperors. 222* 
 i. flow divided by the barbarians, 519.1. Al- 
 lodial, and Salic, distinguished, i*- Ot Italy, 
 how partitioned by Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 
 5'M, I. 
 
 lioadicea, its ancient splendour, 29, i. 
 
 Lascaris. Theodore, establishes an empire at 
 Nice. 373. ii. His character, 383, ii- .. 
 
 Lascaris, Theodore II. his character. 384. ii. 
 
 Lascaris Janus, the Greek grammarian, his cha- 
 racter. 438. ii. ^ . .• r _ 
 
 Latin church, occasion of its wparation troni 
 the Greek church. 356. ii. Corruptiori and 
 schism of. 430, ii. Re-union of. with the Greek 
 church. 434. ii. The subsequent Greek schism, 
 
 441. ii. . . . „ ... ft- • 
 Latium, the right of. explained. 25. i. . 
 
 Laura, m monkish history, explained. 301, i. 
 Law. review of the profession of, under the empe- 
 
 Laws 'of R'ome, review of, 76, ii. Those of the 
 kings, ifr. Of the tvrelve tables, 77. II. Of the 
 people, 78, ii. Decrees of the senate,, and edicts 
 of the prsptors. t*. Ctmstitutions ot the empe- 
 rors. 79. ii. Their rescripts, tb. The three 
 codes of. 80. ii. The forms of. tb. Succession 
 of civil lawyers, ib. Reformation, of, ()y Justi- 
 nian, 82, ii. Abolition and revival ol the penal 
 
 laws, 94, ii. ^ . , ^ e k-t '• 
 
 liSzi, the tribe of. in Colchos. account of. 57, ii- 
 
 Le Clerc, character of his ecclesiastical history*^ 
 127. ii. nof«. . . » 
 
 Legacies and inheritances taxed by Augustus, 
 67. i. How regulated by the Roman law. id. ii. 
 
 legion, in the Roman army under the crnperors, 
 described, 16. i. General distributmn of the le- 
 gions, 18, i. The size of. reduced by Constan- 
 tine the Great. 217. i. - , » . .- 
 
 I>>o of Thrace is made emperor of the east, by hi* 
 ma.«(ler Aspar. 488. i. Was the first chrtstiaii 
 potentate who was crowned by a priest.. lO. 
 Confers the empire of the west on Anthemius, 
 ib. His armament against the V anrials in 
 Africa, 489, i. Murders Aepar and his sons, 
 532 i. 
 
 LeoTlI. emperor ofConstantinrple, 154. ii. Hi« 
 edicts against images in churches, 1 <4, ii. re- 
 volt of Italy. 177. li. . , ,.- .. 
 
 Leo IV. emperor of Constantinople. 1.^5,. ii. 
 
 liCO V. empiror of Constantinople. 157. "• . ,. 
 
 Leo VI. (he philosopher, emperor of Constanti- 
 nople. irO. ii. Extinguishes the power of the 
 
 senate. 275. ij. . . a .^^k...., 
 
 Leo. bishop ofRome. his character and embassy 
 
 from Valentinian HI. to Attila, king of he 
 
 Huns, 476. i. Intercedes with Genseric. kine 
 
 of the Vandals, for flfmency. to ihe city of 
 
 Rom?.. 480, i. Calls the council of Chalccdon, 
 
 Leo I'll!' pope, his miraculous recovery from the 
 assault of assassins. 184, u. Crowns Chatle- 
 magne emperor of the Romans. fO. ,. y^^ 
 
 Leo rv..pope. his reign. 261, ii. Founds the Leo- 
 
 Leo"rX.'ro'pe,' his expedition against .the Nor- 
 ^anf of Apulia. 301, ii. His treaty with thetari, 
 
 Leo', archbishop of Thessalonicft, one of the re- 
 storers of Greek learning, 279, ii. _ . . _ 
 
 Leo, general of the east, under the emp»?ror Ar- 
 cadius, his character. 443, i. 
 
 Leo Pilatus, first Greek professor at.. Horence, 
 and in the west, hischa.racter. 43/. n- . 
 
 Leo, the Jew proselyte, history of his lamily,474, 
 li. 
 
 Letinas the ouanstor, his embassy from Constan* 
 tius to Julian. 290, i. 
 
 I* 
 
 k 
 
528 
 
 Leonine city at Rome founded, 26t. ii. 
 
 l,eontiu» is talien from priuon. and chosen empe- 
 ror of Constantinople, on the deposition ol Jus- 
 tinian II. 151). ii> . __ ,. . .„. 
 
 Leovicild. Gothic king of Spain, his character, 
 
 ^08. i. Revolt and death of his son Herraeiie- 
 
 LeilerB.'a knowledge of. the test of civilization 
 in a peopi*'. 86, i. .. „ _«„_ 107 
 
 Lewis the Pious, emperor of the Konmns, jo/, 
 
 Lewis II. emperor of the RomanB, 187. ii. His 
 epistle to the Greek emporor ^asil 1. ^•'7. ij. 
 
 Libanius. his account pf the privaje lile of t^e 
 emperor Julian, 293, 1. And of his divine vis- 
 ions 300. 1 Applauds the dissimulation of Ju- 
 l?an: fft • His character. 314, 1. His eulog.um 
 
 LfbUios!b.^.>.p^^ Rome, is banished by the em- 
 
 ^l^Tor Constantius. »or rfrj^i"* to concur in de- 
 posing Alhanasiu8,i:/'J, *os.i. ,. -. 
 
 Liberty, public, the only sure goardiani of, 
 against an aspiring prince, JJ, 1. 
 
 Liclnius is invested with the purple by the empe- 
 ror Galerius. 146, i. His alliance wiihConslan- 
 tine the Great, 152. 1.. Defeats Maximin. id. 
 His cruelty, ib. h defeated by Constantine at 
 Cibalis. 154. 1. And at Manila, ift. P^^ce con- 
 eluded with Constantine, i/> Second civil war 
 with Constantine, 156,i. Hi« humiliation and 
 
 ?^*^^* fill* of his son, 227, i. Conrurrod with 
 Constantine in publishing the edict of Milan, 
 ti52, I. Violated this engagement by oppress- 
 ing the chri8tiiins,.254, 1. Csecilius^a account 
 of his vision, 256, i. 1 o^ ; 
 
 Lieutenant, imperial, his otiice and rank, •>*»•• 
 
 Lightning, 8U[)er8tition of the llonians with re- 
 ference to persons and places struck witti, i-o.i. 
 
 Limigantes.Sarmatitin siavpji. expcl their mns- 
 tero.and ui'urp possession of their counjry.xou, 
 i. Extincli..n of. by Constantius. 244, «• . 
 
 Literature, revival of. in Italy, 43d. 11. Ancient, 
 use and abuse of, 440. ii. v • .- •»- 
 
 Lithuariia, its late conversion to Christianity. 
 
 Liior'us, count, is defeated and taken captive in 
 Gaul.by Theodoric,409, i. , 
 
 LiutpranH. king of the Lombard*, attacks the 
 citv of Rome. 178, ii. l j .^ 
 
 Liutprand. bishop of Cremona,, ambassador to 
 Constantinople, ceremony of his audience with 
 the emperor, 273, ii. „ «„^ . , ^j»^a 
 
 Logos. Pinto's doctrine of. 266, >^ l".exppunaea 
 by St. John the Evangeli<>t, 267. 1. Aihana- 
 gius confesses himself unable to comprehend 
 it, 269, i. Controversies on the eternity of, 
 
 Logoihete. great, his ofBce under the Greek em- 
 Lombard v, ancient, described, 19. i. Conquest 
 
 of, by Charlemagne. 179, ii. . 
 
 Lombards, derivation of their name, and review 
 of their history. 46, ii.. Are einjjlo>;cd by the 
 emperor Justinian to chock the G.'pidw. 47. 11. 
 Actions of their king Aiboin. 99. 11. They re- 
 duce theGepid»,tft. They ovcrnin. that part 
 of Italy now called I^imbardy, 100. 11. Extent 
 of their kingdom. 105. ii. . Language and man- 
 ners of the. Lombards, ift. Government and 
 laws, IO6, ii. ... I 1 
 
 Longinus, his representation of the degeneracy 
 of his age. 32. i. Is put to death by Aurelian. 
 
 ..*-'- is sent lo saperrode Nnrses, as ex- 
 arch of Ravenna. 100. ii. Receives Rosamond, 
 the fugitive queen of the I..ombards. lU-«, 11. 
 
 Lothair*" l.emporor of the Romans, 187. 11. 
 
 Louis Vll. of France is rescued from 'he.trearh- 
 ery of the Greeks by Roger, king of Stdly.. JIO. 
 ii. UnderiakpH the second crusade, J44, 11. tus 
 disastrous expedition. 346. ii. .. ^. »» 1 
 
 Louis IX. of France, his crusades to the Holy 
 land. 354. li. His death. 355. 11. Procured a 
 valuable stock of relics from Constantinople, 
 
 Lucian.'the severity of his rotirc against the hea- 
 then mythology accounted for. 22, 1. 
 
 Lueian, count of the east, under the emperor Ar- 
 radius. his cruel treatment by the prefect Ku- 
 (inup.3?t7. i. . . , , ■ • 1 
 
 Lucinn, presbyter of Jernsalein. his miraculous 
 discovery of the body of St. Stephen, the first 
 christian martyr, 394. i. . . , 
 
 Lucilinn. governor of Jllyricum. i.s surprised. 
 ■ nd kindly treated by Julian, 291. 1. His death, 
 
 3-yi. i. 
 
 Lucilla. sister of the emperor CommfKlus, her at- 
 tempt to got him assassinated, 42. 1. 
 
 Lucius II. and III. popes, their disastrous reigns, 
 
 446. ii. . . . , • 1 . • . 
 
 Lurrin. lake described, with lU late destruction, 
 
 421.i.no^«. ... • .- J 
 
 Lurullan villa in Campania, its description and 
 history. 495. i. ........ 
 
 Lunercalia. the feast of, described, and. continu- 
 I d undor tliechriBtitin emperors, 4W. I. 
 
 Lupicinus. tue Roman governor of Thrace, op- 
 presses the Gothic emigrants, there. JoS, i. 
 Rashly provokes lh«^m to hostilities, 359, 1. Is 
 df'feated bv them, ifr. 
 
 Lustral contribution in the Roman empire, ex- 
 plained. 224. i- . . . - 
 
 Luther, Martin, hii character, as a reformer, 
 
 285. ii. , r .• .V 
 
 Luxury. ih» only means of correcting the une- 
 qual distribution of proi>erty. 31. 1.. 
 Lygians, a formidable German nation, account 
 
 Lyons, battle of. between the competitors Seve- 
 rua and Albinus, 52, i. 
 
 M 
 
 Macedonins.the Arinn bishop of Constantinople, 
 his contePts with his comiietitor Paul. 282. i. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 tion of the prophecy, 59, i. Purchases a peace 
 with Panhia, 81, i. „_ . • ju .u„a» 
 
 Madayn, the capital of Persia, sacked by the Sa- 
 racens. 222. ii. .. , ^j„ 
 
 M«onius of Palmyra assassinates hia uncle Ude- 
 nathuB, 113, i. . . 
 
 Maesia, iis situation, 20,1. _ . r ->j »,_ 
 
 Magi, the worship of, in Persia, reformed by 
 Artaxerxes, 78, 1. Abridgment of the Persian 
 theology, 79, i. Simplicity of their worship, 
 ib. Ceremonies and moral precepts. oO, 1. iheir 
 power, ift. _ ^ ,,^ 
 
 Magic, severe prosecution of persons lor tne 
 crimeof, at Romeand Antioch, Ai3, 1. . 
 
 Mngnentins a.ssumes the empire in Ijaul. *.H, i. 
 Death of Constans. ib. Sends an embassy to 
 
 Constantius, 235. 1. Makes war « Rain si Con- 
 stantius, 236. i. Is defeatod at the battle of 
 Mursa.iA. Kills himself*. 237. i. 
 
 Mahmud, the Gaznevide, his twelve expeditions 
 into Hindostan, 314, ii. His character, 16. 
 
 Mahomet, the prophet, his cnibaBsy toChosroes 
 II. king of Persia. 1.20. ii. . 
 
 . - - his genealogy, birth, and education, 199, 
 ii. His person anJcharacter. 200, II. Assunus 
 his prophetical mission, 201, 11. .Inculrated 
 the unity of God. ift. His reverential inention 
 of Jesus Christ, 202. ii. His Koran, ifc. His 
 miracles, 203, ii. His precepts, tb. His hell, 
 and paradise. 205, ii. the best authoriiies.tur 
 his history, ib. note. Converts his own family, 
 ib. Preaches publicly at Mecca, 200, 11. t.a- 
 capes from the Koreishites there,.t6. Is recei- 
 ved as prince of Medina, 207, it. His regal 
 dignity, and sacerdotal office, tb. I>^'"lare8 vv nr 
 against infidels. 208. 11. Ilattleot Beder, 209, 
 ii Battle of Ohud.t^. Subdues the Jews ot 
 Arabia, ib. Submissi.n of Meccano himj *'1U^ 
 
 11. He conquers Arabia, 211. II. Ijj? ».'?»'';•:'« 
 and death. 212. ii. His character, '^13. 1.1. His 
 private life, 16. His wives. 2.14, 11. His chil 
 
 (lis i:i>iii,-piji Willi 11m I,... II, -.-..■..■. .•*"■: ~i~'j 
 
 Fatal cons.-quences on his removing the l)f^y 
 of the omporor Constantine to the church of St. 
 Acacins. 283, i. His cruel persrcutioiis of the 
 catholics and NovatianH. tb. Ilia exile, 1J8. 11. 
 
 Mscrianus, prwiorian prttfect under the emi>ewr 
 Valerian, his character, 103. 1. . 
 
 Macriaiius. a prince of the Alemanni, his steady 
 alliance with the emperor Valfntinian. .MU. i. 
 
 Macrinus. his auccrssion to the empire predictod 
 
 by an African, 58, i. Accekraiea the complc- 1 
 
 His character, ?13. 11 
 
 ^ ...e, .«. ji 18 wives. 2.14, II. Hit 
 
 dren, ib. His posterity, 218. 11. Remarks on 
 the great spread and permanency ot his reli- 
 gion, 219. ii. _„ . ,. -00 •• 
 
 Alfihomet, the son of Bajazft, his reign, 422. 11. 
 
 Mahomet II. sultan of tlie Turks, his character, 
 448, ii. His reign, ib. Imlications of his hos- 
 tile intentions against the Greeks, 44y.i;. lie 
 besieges Consiantinoplo. 451. ii; iakes ino 
 city bv Bform. 458. ii. His entry in'V- ®t.^J.^ 
 459, ii. Makes It hu capital, 460,11. Hisdeaih, 
 
 Mnblmetism, by what means propagated, 246, ii. 
 Toleration of Christianity under, ift. 
 
 Majorian, his history, character, and elevation 
 to the westtrn empire. 483, i. His epistle to 
 the senate, 484, i. His salutary lavvs,ift. His 
 preparations to invade Africa, .4N). i- "is 
 fleet destroyed by Genseric. 4bb. i. His death, 
 
 M.al'aterra, hia character of the Normans, 300, 
 
 Ma'iek Shah, saltan of the Turks, his proBperous 
 reign. 319. ii. Reforms the eastern calendar, 
 320. ii. His death, 16. •, . , 
 
 Mallius Theodorus. the great civil honours to 
 which he attained, 216, 1. «oi«. ___ .. 
 
 Mimalukes. their origin and chariicter, JM, 11. 
 Their establishment in Egypt, .»♦), 11. 
 
 Mamffia,motherof the young imv>eror Alexander 
 Severus, acts as regent of ihc empire, 0-, i. 
 Is put to death with him, 70, 1. Iler conference 
 with Origen. 195, i. ,,,... ,00 ; 
 
 Mamgo, an Armenian noble. Ihb hiHiory. i.w,.i. 
 
 Man. the only animal that can accommodate him- 
 self to all climates, 85. i. note. I • ^1 Oft 
 
 Mancipium, in tho Roman law, explained, M, 
 
 Maniohaeans. are devoted to death, by the edict 
 
 of Theodosiusagiin^t heretics. 3/5. 1. 
 Manuel C.-mnenus, emperor of Constantinople, 
 
 J 67, ii. He ropulses the Normans, .ilU. 11. Hut 
 ails in his scheme of subduing the western em- 
 pire, 311,.ii. His illtreaimenl of the crusa- 
 ders, 345, ii. . , » • J ««j .„j 
 
 Maogamalcha, a city of Assyria, reduced and 
 destroyed l)y the omperor Julian, 3J». i. 
 
 Mnrblo, the four 8r)eciesof, most esteemed by the 
 Romans, 71, i. "off. , 
 
 Mnrcellinus, count of the sacred largessej under 
 the emw'ror Constans in Gaul, assists the usur- 
 pation «)f Magnont.ius. 234. 1.. His <'"il'a"y <o 
 Constantius. 235, i. Was killed in the battle 
 of^ Mursa,2.38. i. . . _, , .. _ j«v„,„« 
 
 Marcellinus, his revolt in Dalmatia, and charac- 
 ter. 486, i. Joins the enw>oTor A.nlhrmius, and 
 exi)el8 tho Vandals from bardinia,489, 1. tlis 
 death, 4!K),i. „ . r .»»••„ 1 :. 
 
 Marcellinus, son of the prspfoct Maximin, his 
 
 irearh.irou* murder of Gabiiuus king of the 
 
 Quarli, 348. i. ,r j 
 
 Marccllus. the centurion, martyred for desertion, 
 
 Marcelius, bishop of Rome, exiled to restore 
 i>eace to the ciiy,20-, I. • a • 1 i- 
 
 Ma re 1 1 us. bisbopof Apamea. in Syria, Irwes his 
 life indoBtrojingthc pagan temples, JW. i. 
 
 Marcia. the concubine ot the emi)eror Commo- 
 dui>, a patroness of the christians, 194. 1.. 
 
 Marcian. senator of Constantinople, marries the 
 enu'rcss Pnlclioria, and is acknowledg«'d em- 
 peror, 467. i. His temi>erate refusal of the de- 
 mands of Attiln the.Hun.4(j8. 1. r'^.u- 
 
 Msrcianapolis, the city of, taken by the Goths, 
 
 Marcomanni are subdued, and punished by Mar- 
 CUB Antoninus. 92. i. Alliance made with, by 
 the emperor Gal lienus, 11)0, ^ ten: 
 
 Marcus, elected bishop of the Naza.renes, 1«>0, 1. 
 
 Mardia. battle of. between Constantine the Great 
 and Licinius, 154. i. _. , . .n..- 
 
 Margus. battle of, between Diocletian and Cari- 
 ous. 128. i. ... 1 -. • . 
 
 Margus, bishop, hrfrays his episcopal city into 
 the hands of the Huns, 461. 1. - _, . , 
 
 Maria, daughter of Euda>mon. of Carthage, her 
 remarkable adventures. 457,1 
 
 Maronga. engagement there botween the cmpa- 
 
 ror Julian and Sujwr king of Persia. IK?. 1. 
 Maronjles of the east, character and bwloryof, 
 
 Maro'zia", a Roman prostitute, the mother, grand- 
 mother, and great grand-mother of thiee popes, 
 
 Marri«g'o. regulations of, by the Roman laws, 87, 
 ii. Of Roman citizons with stra.ngers. proscri- 
 bed by their jurisprudence, 274. II. , 
 
 Martel, Charles, duke of the Franks, his charac- 
 ter, 2.'>3, ii. His politic coiuluct on the bjiracen 
 inva.sion of France, tb. Defeats tho baracens, 
 ib. Why he was cimsigned over to hell Haiiiej 
 by the clergy, 254, ii. , . .u -j 1 -. j 
 
 Martin. bishoP of Tours, tlestroys the idols and 
 pagan temples in Gaul, 389, 11. His monkieh 
 institutions there, 498, 1. „ 
 
 M.irtina marries her uiicJc, the emperor lierar. 
 lius, 151, ii. Endeavours to share the imperial 
 dignity with her sons, 152, 11. Her fate. tb. 
 
 Martiiiianus receives thc.title of Caesar from the 
 emperor Licinius, 157, i. . , . 
 
 Martyrs, primitive, no inquiry into the true his- 
 tory of, 182. i. Tho several inducemenlt. to 
 martyrdom, 15>2, i.. Three methods of escaping 
 it, 193, i. Marks bv which learned calho ics 
 distinguished ihe relics of the. martyrs, 191, 1. 
 note. The worship of, and their relics introdu- 
 
 M*ary', virgin, her immacnlat.e conception, bor- 
 rowed from the Koran, 202, n. _ . 
 
 Mascezel. the p.rsecuted brother of Gildo the 
 MwT. tak« s refuge in the imperial court of Ho- 
 norius,401. i. Is intrusted with troops. to re- 
 duco Gildo. ib. . Deftats him. 402, 1. His sus- 
 picious fleath, lA. , _, _,.._,:_- «u. 
 
 Master of the offices, under Constantine the 
 Great, his functions, 219, 1. .».;„„. ,1.- 
 
 Maiernus. his revolt and conspiracy against the 
 emwrorCommodus. 42, 1; . .„,.,„.^.„.i ;- 
 
 Mfltthew, St. Ins gospel originally compoaed in 
 Hebrew, 176, i. notr. 127. 11. note. 
 
 Maurice, hia birth, character, and promotion to 
 the rastern omi ire. 103,ii. Restores Chosrocs 
 II. king of Persia, 112. n.. His war agair-st the 
 Avarsril5,ii. State of hjs. armies, 116, u. Hu 
 abdication and dtath, 11/, 11. „, 
 
 Mauritania, ancient, its situation and extent,.!, 
 i. Character of the native Moors of, 4o4,i. 
 
 MaxontiuM, the son of MHximian, declared em- 
 peror at Aome, 145, i. His tyranny >n Italy and 
 Africa, 148, i. The milita.ry force he had to 
 oppose Consirrtine, 149. 1. H'^.t^cfrat apd 
 death. 151..i. His politic humanity to the chria- 
 
 tians,202, i. , -.u n:«-u 
 
 Maximian, associate in the empire w-ith l'<oc!c- 
 tian. hischaracier. I2<),i. Triumphs wilhD i- 
 ocletian, 136, i. Holds his court at Milan, 137,1. 
 Alidicotes the empire along with Diocletian, 
 140, i. He resumes the purple. 145, 1 Reduces 
 Severus, and puts him to death, tb. H'Sf cond 
 resignation, and unfortunate '^rui. }-il>i- tiK' 
 aversion to the christians accounted for, 1<^» '• 
 Maxim.ilianus, tho African, a christian martyr, 
 
 Maximian. his birth, fort.une, and elevation to 
 the empire of Rome, 69, i. Why deemed a per- 
 secutor of the christians, 195, i. ..„„,•_ „f 
 
 Maximin is declared (ttsar, on the aM'^apo" oj 
 Di«<lctian. 14.3, i. Obtains. the rank ol Aiigus- 
 tus from Galerius. 146.^ i. His rfefrat ""^ 
 death, 152, i. Renewed the persecution of the 
 christians after tlie toleration granted bj Uaie- 
 
 Maxmiini the cruel minister o''y'^*TJ^^?•y,V 
 lentinian, promoted to the prajfecture o. uaui, 
 
 IV^lJimin, hia embassy fro.™ Thood.)eius the 
 Younger, to Attila, kingol the.Huns, 4(j6, i. 
 
 MaxirnGs and Bulbinns eccied Joint e'lU'P^'rsbT 
 Ihe senate, on the deaths ot the twoGordians, 
 ^o i r« • • 
 
 Max'irn.us, his character and revolt in «"!»•"• 
 
 remarKai'H! uovi-niure^, fui , I. .^ 
 
 Mariana, his account of the misfortunes of opain 
 
 by an irruption of the barbarous nations, 4.«), i. 
 Marinus. a subaltern officer, chosen emperor by 
 
 tho legions of Ma'sia, 92. i. 
 Marius the armourer, a candidate for the purple 
 
 among the competitors against Gallienus. his 
 
 character. 10.}. i. , 
 
 Mark bishop of Arethn«a,.i» cruelly treated by 
 
 the emperor Juliao, 308. 1. 
 
 riaximns, nis ciiBracier anu ...-.".. ... ,j^j"-j - 
 
 370, i. His treaty with the emperor. The^o- 
 
 sius. 371, i. Persecutes tljJl/r'SV, L'T.t«t' 
 376, i. His invasion of Italy, 3/8, 1. His defeat 
 and death, 379, i. , ., ^ «-,n«rf.r 
 
 Maximus, the pagan preceptor of the emperor 
 Julian, initiates him into the EleuMnian mys- 
 teries, 299, i. la .honourably l"'''^^'^;^",/;"": 
 ■tantinople by his imperial pupil, .i'iJ-..«- "coi 
 ruptcd by his residence at court, 3UJ. 1. „ , 
 
 Maximus. Potronius his wife ravished by yalei^- 
 tinian 111. emperor of the west, 4 '8, 1. ^is 
 character and elevation to the empire, 4 <y. i- 
 
 Mel)odes, the Persian general, ungratefully trea- 
 ted by Chosroes, 51, li- . , . ^. ,Qj ;: 
 
 Mecca, its situation, and^ description. 194.1'. 
 The Caaba, or temple^. .198, n Its 'If liver- 
 ance from Abrahah, 200, 11.^ The .'joc'r'"* «» 
 Mahon et opposed there. 2()6. i;. His Pfrtpo. 
 ib. The city of. gurren'lored to Mahomet, 21U. 
 ii. Is pillaged by Abu Tnher, 264. 11. 
 
 Medina, recei>tion of Mahomet there, on nil 
 flight from Mecca. 207. ii. _ , ..-.u^a 
 
 Mesalesia. the festival of, at Rome, described, 
 43, i- note. , . 1 ... 
 
 Meletians, an Egyptian aect, persecuted by Ath- 
 
 Mohle ne",' bat I'leof, between the eastern emporrr 
 
 Tiberius, and Chosroes king of Porsia, 1 lO..""- 
 
 Melo. citizen, of Bari,invite8 the Normans into 
 
 MemphiV. it's situation and reduction bylheSa- 
 
 Merovingian kiiigsof the Franks in Gaul, origin 
 of. 470. i. Their domain and beneficos. 519. i. 
 
 Mervan.calii'hof the Saracens, and the last of 
 the house of Ommiyah, his defeat and death, 
 
 Mesopotamia, invasion of, by the emwror Ju 
 lian. 316. 1. DcBcribed by -^p""'. "r pV/J; hU 
 
 Messnia. Valerius, the first prsefectof Rome, his 
 high character. 214, i. ne/e. „„».„j 
 
 Messiah, under what character tej**"" "Pe^'^f.f 
 by the Jews, 160. i. His birth-day. how fixed 
 by the Romans. 290, 1. note. ... 
 
 Metals and monev, their operation in improving 
 the human mind, 87, i. ... .- .^ 
 
 Metellus Nuniidious,. the censor, his invectnc 
 against women, 62, i. we' ^. .... 
 
 Metiu" Falconius. his arflul speech to the empe- 
 ror Tacitus in the Bonate on his election, 1 19. i. 
 
 Metrophanos of Cvzicus, is made patriarch ol 
 Conatanticople, 441, u. 
 
 Metz. cruel treatment of, by Attila, king of the 
 Michae.i l.'Rliangabe, emperor of Constantinople, 
 
 Michael II. the Stammerer, emperor of Constan- 
 tinople, 157, ii. _„ . , ,.„ .. 
 
 Michael 111. emperor of Constantinople, 158, 11. 
 Is defeated by the PuulicianB,283, ii. 
 
 Michael IV. the Paphlagonian, emperor of Con- 
 stantinople. 163, ii. 
 
 Michael V. Calapbaten, emperor of Constantino- 
 ple, 164, ii. . ^ ^ . 
 
 Michael VI. Stratioticua, emperor of Constanti- 
 nople, ir>4. ii. ., _, 
 
 Michael Vll. Parapinaces, emperor of Constan- 
 tinople, 165, ii. 
 
 Milan, how the imperial courtof the western em- 
 pire came to be transferred from Rome to that 
 
 city, 137. i. ,. .. „ . , r^ 
 
 . - - famous edict of Constantine the Great, 
 
 in favour of the christians, published there, 
 
 - • - St. Ambrose elected archbiehop of that 
 city. 376, i. Tumults occasioned by his refus- 
 ing a church for the Arian worship of the em- 
 press Jostina and her son, 377, i. 
 
 • • - revolt of. to Justinian. 40, ii. Is taken 
 and destroyed by the Burgundians, 41. ii. .. 
 
 - - - is again destroyed by Frederic 1. 191, 11. 
 Military force, its strength and efficacy depen- 
 dent on a due proportion to the number of the 
 
 MiTitary' of^cera of the Roman empire at the 
 time of Constantine the Great, a review of. 
 
 Millennium, the doctrine of, explained, 165, i. 
 
 Mingrelia. See Colchos. . . „ 
 
 Mitiority, two distinctions of, in the Roman law, 
 399, i. note. 
 
 Miracles, those of Christ and his apostles, esca- 
 ped the notice of the heathen phili>8opher8 and 
 historians, 181, i. Account of those wrought 
 by the body of St. Stephen, 394. i. 
 
 Miraculous powers .of the primitive church, an 
 inquiry into, 167, i. , - , . , r 
 
 Misitheus, chief minister and father-in-law of 
 the tbird Gordian. his character, 76, i. 
 
 Misopogon of tho emperor Julian, on what occa- 
 sion \vritten. 314, i. ,. , i. . . , . , • 
 
 Missorium, or great golden dish of Adolphus king 
 of the Visigoths, history of, 433, i. 
 
 Moawiyah, assumes the title ot caliph, and 
 makes war against Ali, 217, ii. His character 
 and reign, ib. Lays siege to Constantinople, 
 349, ii. 
 
 Moda'r, prince of the Amali, seduced by the em- 
 peror Theodosius. turns his arms against his 
 own countrymen, 367, i. . . • 
 
 Moguls, primitive, their method of treating their 
 conquered enemies. 462, i. Reign and con- 
 quests of Zingis, 401, ii. Conquests of his suc- 
 cessors, 405, II. See Tamerlane. 
 
 Moguntiacum, the city of, surprised by the Ale- 
 manni, 339, 1. , . ... 
 
 Mohawkas the Egyptian, hu treaty with the 
 
 _ Saracen Amrou, 235, ii. „ .. . ,. , 
 
 Monarchy defined, 32, i. Hereditary, ridiculous 
 in theory, but salutary in fact, 68, 1. 1 he pe- 
 culiar objects of cruelty and of avarice under. 
 
 Monastic institutions, the seeds of, sown by the 
 primitive christians, 170, .i. Origin, progress, 
 and consequences of, 497, i. 
 
 Money, the standard and computation of, under 
 Constantine the Great, and his successors, 222, 
 i. note. 
 
 Monks have embellished the sufferings of the pri- 
 mitive martyrs by fictions, 189, i. . 
 
 • - character of. by Eunapius, 393, 1. By Ku- 
 tilius, 401, i. Origin and history of. 497. 1. 
 Their industry in makiiig proselytes. 498, 1. 
 Their obedience. 49i>, i. Their dress and habi- 
 tations, tft. Their diet, 500. i. Their manual 
 labour, ib. Their riches, ib. Their solMude. 
 501^1. Their devotion and visions. 16. Their 
 division into the classes of Qrnobites and ^na- 
 thorets, ib. . , v r^ 
 
 - • suppression of. at Constantinople, by Con- 
 stantine V. 175, ii. p X e 
 
 Monophysites of the east, history of the sect of, 
 145. ii. r 1 J. •• 
 
 Monolhelite controversy, account of. 141, 11. 
 
 Momesquieu, his description of the military go- 
 vernment of the Roman empire. 77, i. His 
 opinion that the degrees of freedom in astate 
 are measured by taxation, controverted, 221, 1. 
 
 Montius, quaestor of the palace, is sent by the 
 emperor Constantius, with Domitian, to cor- 
 rect the administration of Gallus in the east. 
 2,19. i. Is put to death there. 240, 1. 
 
 Mot>rs of Barbar:^, their miserable poverty, 30, 
 ii. Their invasion of the Roman province pun- 
 ished by S<i!omon the eunuch, 32, ii... 
 
 Morea is reduced by the Turks. 4t)l, 11. 
 
 Mqrosini. Thomas, elected patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople by ihe Venetians, 371. ii. 
 
 M'»seilama.an Arabian chief, endeavours tori.yal 
 Mahomet in his prophetical character, 220. 11. 
 
 Moses, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul 
 not inculcated in his law. 165, i. His sangui- 
 nary laws compared with those of Mahomet. 
 208. ii. 
 
 Mosheim, character of his work De Rebus Chris- 
 tianis ante Con.otantijium, 127. ii. note. 
 
 Moslemnh. the Saracen, besieges Constantino- 
 ple. 250, ii. , , „ u- 
 lotassem. the last caliph of the Saracens, his 
 wars with the Greek emperor Theophilus, 262, 
 ii. Is killi-d by ihe Moftjki. 404. ii. 
 
 Mourzoufle, usurps the Greek empire, and de- 
 strovs Isaac Angelus,and his son Alexius, 367. 
 ii. Is driven from Constantinople by the La- 
 tins. 368. ii. His death. 272, ii. , ., . 
 
 Mousa. the boh of Bajazet, invested with the 
 kingdom of Ana'.olia, by Tamerlane, 418, 11. 
 
 ,IIis reign, 422. ii. ,« . , • j 
 
 Mozarabes, in the history of Spam, explained. 
 
 Municipal cities, their advantageBj24,.i. 
 
 Muratori, his literary character, 489, 11. note. 
 
 Mursa, battle of. between the emperor Constan- 
 tius. and the usurper Magnentius.^16. i. 
 
 Musa. the Saracen, his conquest of Spam, 244, 
 ii. His disgrace. 245, ii. His «leath, t*. 
 
 Mustapiia. the supposed son of Bajazet, bit ato- 
 ry, 422. ii. 
 
 Vol. II.— 3 R 
 
 M^.t 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Muta, battle of. between the forces of the empe- 
 ror Heraclius and those ofMahomet, 211, ii. 
 
 Mygdonius, river, the course of. pi(»pi>ed bv Sat'or 
 king of Persia, ai the siege of Nisibis, 233, i. 
 
 N 
 
 Narbonne. is besieged by Theodoric, and reliev- 
 ed by count Litorius, 469, i. 
 
 Nftcoragau, the Persian general.hisdefeat by the 
 Romans, and cruel fate, 58, ii. 
 
 Naissus. battle of. between the emperor Claudius 
 and the Goths, 109, i. 
 
 Naples IS besieged and taken by BelisariuB,35, ii.. 
 Extent of the duchy of, under the Exarchs of 
 Ravenna, 104. ii. 
 
 Narses, his embassy from Sapor king of Persia to 
 the einiwror Constantius. 244, i. 
 
 Narses, king of Persia, prevails over the preten- 
 sions of his brother Ilormuz, and expels Tirida- 
 tes king of Armenia, 134, i. Overthrows Gale- 
 rius, tfr. Is surprised and routed by Galerius. 
 i:}5, i. Articles of peace between bim and the 
 Romans, 136, i. 
 
 Narses, the Persian general of the emperor Mau- 
 rice, restores Chosroes II. king of Persia, 113, 
 ii. His revolt against Phocas, and cruel death, 
 119, ii. 
 
 Narses, the eunuch, his military promotion, and 
 dissension with Belisarius, 41. ii. His charac- 
 ter and ext)edition to Italy, 67. ii. Battle of 
 Tagina. (58. ii. Takes Rome, 69, ii. Reduces 
 and kills Teias, the last king of the Goths, ib. 
 Defeats the Franks and Alemanni, 70, ii. Go- 
 verns Italy in the capacity of exarch, 71, ii. 
 His disgrace, and death, lOO. ii. 
 
 Nauloliatus. a chief of the Heruli, enters into 
 the Roman service, and is made consul, 102, i. 
 
 Navy of the Roman empire described, 18. i. 
 
 Nazarene church at Jerusalem, account of, 
 
 Nazarius, the pagan orator, his account of mira- 
 culous appearances in the sky in favour of Con- 
 stantine the Great, 256, i. 
 
 Nebridius, prffitorian prefect in Gaul, is maimed 
 and sui>erReded. by his indiscreet opposition to 
 the troops of Julian, 290, i. 
 
 Negroes of Africa, evidencesof their intellectual 
 inferiority to the rest of mankind, 344, i. 
 
 Nectarius is chosen archbishop of Constantino- 
 ple, 375, i. i. . a 
 
 Ncnnius, his account of the arrival of the Saxons 
 in Britain, different from that of Gildaa. Bede, 
 and Wiiikind. 524, i. Tio'e. 
 
 Nepos, Julius, is made emperor of the west by 
 Leu the Great, 549, i. 
 
 Nepolian, account of his revolt in Italy, 237, 1. 
 
 Nero persecutes the christians as the incendia- 
 ries of Rome, 186, i. 
 
 Nerva, emperor, his character, and prudent 
 adoption of Trajan, 38, i. 1 .. 
 
 NestoriuB,archbishopof Constantinople, his cha- 
 racter, 131, ii. His heresy concerning the in- 
 carnation, 132, ii. His dispute with Cyril of 
 Alexandria, ib. Is condemned, and degraded 
 from his episcopal dignity, by the council of 
 Ephesus, 133, ii. Is exiled. 1.34. ii. His death, 
 ib. His opinions still retained in Persia, 14-3, 
 ii. Missions of his disciples in the East Indies, 
 
 Nevers. John, count of, disastrous fate of hirn 
 and his party at the battle of Nicopolis. 411 . 11. 
 
 Nice becomes the capital residence of sultan Sol- 
 iman, 321. ii. Siege of. by the first crusaders, 
 
 335. ii. ^ . , ,rz. 
 
 Ninephnrus, I. emperor of Constantinople, I06, 
 ii. His wars with the Saracens, 259. 11. His 
 death. 287, ii. ^„ 
 
 Nicephorus II. Phocas, emperor of Consiantino- 
 ple, 1G2, ii. His military enterprises, 265, 11. 
 
 Nicephorus III. Botoniate8,emperor of Constan- 
 tinople, lf»5, ii. Was. raised to the throne by 
 sultan Suliman, 321, ii. , . • i.- . 
 
 Nicetas, senator of Constantinople, his flight, on 
 the capture of the city by the Latins, 3o9, 11. 
 His brief history, ib. vote. His account of the 
 statues destroyed at Constantinople, 370, ii. 
 
 Nicholas, patriarch of Constantinople, opposes 
 the fourth marriage of the emperor Leo the 
 philo.sopher, 161. ii. , ._. ,, „ 
 
 Nicholas V. pope, his character.. 439. 11. Ho.w 
 interested in the fall of Constantinople, 451, 11. 
 
 Nicomedia, the court of Diocletian held, there, 
 and the city embellished i.y him, 137, 1. The 
 church of, demolished by Diocletian, 199, 1. 
 His palace fired, 200, i. , „ . . . 
 
 Nicopolis, battle of, between sultan. Bajazet, and 
 Sigismond kingol Hungary, 411, II. .. 
 
 Nika, the sedition of, at Constantinople, 9.11. 
 
 Nineveh, battle of, between the emperor Hera- 
 clius, and the Persians, 125, 11. 
 
 Nisibis, the city of. described, and its obstinate 
 defence against the Persians. 233, 1. Is yielded 
 TO Sapor bv treaty, 325. i. . . . 
 
 Nizam, the Persian vizir, his illustrious charac- 
 ter, and unhappy fate, 320, 11. . 
 
 Noah, his ark very convenient for resolving the 
 diflRculties of Mosaic antiquaritins, 86, 1.. 
 
 Nohiiissimus, a title invented bv Constantine the 
 Great to distinguish his nephew Hannibalia- 
 
 nus. 228, i- ..,,-- . 
 Noricum described, 20. 1. . . - 
 
 Normans, their settlement in the province of 
 Normandy in France, 298. ii. Their introduc- 
 tion to I taly, 2{t9, ii. They serve m Sicily, tb. 
 They conquer Apulia, 300, 11. Their charac- 
 ter, tJ, Their treaty with the pot*. 301, 11. 
 Novatians are exempted by Constantine the 
 Great, in a particular edict, from the general 
 penalties of heresy. 2f>5. i. Are cruelly. perse- 
 cuted by Macedonius bisbopof Constantinople, 
 
 Novels of Justinian, how formed, and their cha- 
 racter, 85, ii.. .. , , , . - O.P, 
 Noureddin, sultan, his exalted character, 347, 
 
 Nubia, convefBion of. to Christianity. 148, i. 
 
 Numerian, the son of Cams, succeeds his fat her 
 in the empire, in conjunction with his brother 
 Carinos, 125, 1. .._ r .u^ d^ 
 
 Numidia. its extent at different era* of the Ro- 
 man history, 21, i. 
 
 Oasifl. in the deaerta of Libya, deaerib«d. 442. i. 
 
 529 
 
 note. Fhree places under this name pointed 
 
 out, 134, ii. vote. 
 Obedience, passive, theory and practice of the 
 
 christian doctrine ot, 253, i. 
 Obelisks, Egyptian, the purt>o6e of tbeir erection* 
 
 Oblations to the church, origin of, 173, i. 
 
 Obligations, human, the sources of, 92, ii. Laws 
 of ihe Romans, respecting, ib. 
 
 OdenathuB, the Palmyiere, his successful oppo- 
 sition to Sapor king of Persia, 103, i. Is amo- 
 ciated in the empire by Gallienus, 105, i. Cha* 
 racttr and fate of his oueen Zenobia. 113, i. 
 
 Odin, the long reign of his family in Sweden. 88* 
 i. note. His history. 93. i. 
 
 Odoacer, the first barbarian king of Italy, 494. u' 
 His character and reign, 496, 1. Resigns all the 
 Roman conquests Itejond the Alps lo Eurie 
 kit g of the Visigoths, 5l0, i. Is reduced and 
 killed by Theodoric the Ostrrgoth, 534, i. . 
 
 Ohud, battle of, between Mahomet and Abu So« 
 phian prince of Mecca, 209, ii. . ., 
 
 Olga, princess of Russia, her baptism, 295, ii. 
 
 Olive, its introduction into the western world* 
 30.i. 
 
 Olyhrius is raised to the western empire by count 
 Ricimer, 492, i. 
 
 Olympiceames compared with the tournament* 
 of the Goths, .331. li. 
 
 Olympiodorus, his account of the magnificence of 
 the city of Rome, 419, i. His account of the 
 marriage of Adolphus king of the Visigotha 
 with the princess Placidia, 433, i. 
 
 Olympius, favourite of the emperor Honorint* 
 alarms him with unfavourable suspicions of the 
 designs of Stiiicho. 415, i. Causes Stilicho to 
 be put to death. 416. i. His disgrace, and igno* 
 miniousdeath, 426. i. .. 
 
 Omar, caliph of the Saracens, 215, 11. His cha- 
 racter, 220, ii. His journey to Jerusalem, 231* 
 
 Ommiyah, elevation of the house of, to the office 
 of caliph of the Saracens, 217. ii. Why not the 
 objects of public favour, 254, ii. Destruction 
 of 255 ii. 
 
 Oracles, heathen, are silenced by Constantine the 
 Great. 285. i. . . . ^-- .. 
 
 Orchan, emir of the Ottomans, his reign, 408. 11. 
 Marries the daughter of the Greek emperor 
 Cantacuzene,409, ii. . , , _ . 
 
 Ordination of the clerey in. the early agei of lh« 
 church, account of, 2bl. i. .-it.- e 
 
 Orestes is sent ambassador from Attila king of 
 the Huns, to the emperor Theodosius the youn- 
 ger, 464, i. His history and promotion under 
 the wes'ern emperors, 494, i. His son Augua- 
 tulus, the last emperor of the ^est, tb. 
 
 Orestes, praitor of Egypt, is in.sulted by a monk- 
 ish mob in Alexantiria, 131. n.. . . 
 
 Origen declares the number of primitive martyrf 
 to be very inconsiderable. 190, 1. Hisconrer- 
 cnce with the empress Mamnuea, 195, i.. Hi« 
 memory prsecuted by the emperor Justinian 
 and his clergy, 140, ii. ^ . », j 
 
 Orleans besieged by Attila kingof the Huns, ana 
 relieved by iEtius and Theodlinc, 471, 472, 1. 
 
 OsiuB, bishop of Cordova, his great influence 
 with Constantine the Great. 257, i. Ptey&ijm 
 on Constantine to ratify the Nicene creed, 5^74, 
 i. is with difficulty prevailed on to concur m 
 deposing Athanasius, 279, i. .. l 
 
 Osrtioene, the small kingdom of. reduced by toe 
 Romans, 82. i. . , ... 
 
 0.ssian, his iHiems, whether to be connected with 
 the invasion of Caledonia by the emperor Sstve- 
 rus, 56, i. Is said to have disputed with a chru- 
 tian missionary^ 179, i. note. 
 
 Ostia, the port of, described, 427, 1. .. 
 
 Othman, caliph of the Saracens, 815, 11. . 
 
 Othman, the lather of the Ottomans, his reign* 
 407, ii. 
 
 Otho I. king of Germany, restores.and appropri- 
 ates the western empire, 187, 11. Claims by 
 treaty the nominal ion of the pope of Rome, lob» 
 ii. Defeats the Turks, 21.0,291.11. ^ , 
 
 Otho II. deposes pope John XII. and chastiaea 
 his party at Rome, 189, ii. 
 
 Otho. bishop of Frisingcn, bis character as aa 
 historian, 469, ii. note.. .. 
 
 Ottomans, origin and history or, 407, 11. ..ihejr 
 obtain an establishment in Europe, 409, 11. 
 
 Ovid is banished to the banks of the Danube* 
 229, i. 
 
 Oxyriiichus, in Egypt, monkish piety of that 
 city, 498, t. 
 
 Pacatus. his encomium on the emperor Theodo- 
 sius the Great, 380, i. .,£,.. , 
 
 Paederasty, how punished by the bcatinian law, 
 95, ii. By Justinian, 96, ii. 
 
 Pagan, derivation and revolutions of the terra, 
 
 286, i. vote j j u .u j 
 
 Paganism, the ruin of, suspended by the divis- 
 ions among the christians. 286, 1. 1 heolojsical 
 systemof ihe emperor Julian, 2119, 1. . . 
 - - - . general review of ihe ecclesiastical 
 establishment and jurisdiction of. before it was 
 subverted by Christianity, 387, 1. , Is renounced 
 by the Roman senate, 388. 1. The pagan sac- 
 rifices prohibited, 389, i. The^ temples demol- 
 ished, tb. The ruin of, deplor«d by the sophists, 
 3513, i. Paean ceremonies revived in christian 
 
 churches, 395, >• . ^ , „„.„. u:. 
 
 Palffologus, Constantine. Greek emperor, hia 
 reign, 477, ii. Is killed in the storm of Constan- 
 tinople by the Turks, 457, II. ..„«:„„,,i.. 
 
 Pala>ologus, John, emiwror of Constantinople, 
 395, ii? Marries the daughter of Johntanta- 
 cuzene. 398, ii. Takes up arms «ea"'^^ <-»"•»- 
 cuzene, and is reduced to flight- tb- Hi.s resto- 
 ration, ib. Discord between him and his sons, 
 412, ii. His treaty with pope Innocent VI. 
 42(). ii. His visit to pope Urban V. at Uomc* 
 
 4'*7 ii 
 
 Paijpologus, John II. Greek emperor, his zeal* 
 4:«, li. His voyage to Iialy, 432. 11. 
 
 PaljBologus, Manuel, associated with his father 
 John, in the Greek en pire. 412, 11. Tribute ex- 
 acted from him by sulta" Bajazet, tb. His trea- 
 ties with Soliman an^i Mahomet, the sons of 
 Bajazet VI. 42.3, ii. His visitB to the cou- ts of 
 Europe, 426, ii. Private mo'ives .of his Euro- 
 pean negociations explained, 439. 11. His death* 
 430. U. 
 
 I 
 \ 
 
Is 
 
 u. 
 
 530 
 
 Falcotocuc* Michael, emperor of Nice. hi« brief 
 replies to the ntgocittlioiis of Baldwin II. em- 
 peror of Constantinople, 378, ii. His lamily 
 and characlPr. 385. li. His elevation to the 
 throne, i^. Hi« return toConBtanlinople.Joo, 
 ii. Blinds and baninhes his young as8i)Ciaie, 
 John Lascaris. 3b7. ii. He is excommunicated 
 by the patriarch Arsenius. i6. Associates his 
 •on Andronicua in the empire. 3do. ii.. Mis 
 onion with ,trie Latin church, to. Instigates 
 the revolt of Sicily. 390. ii. ... e 
 
 Paiatiiws and Bordereru. origin and nature pt 
 these distinctions in the Roman troops. ^17, t. 
 
 Fa), rmo taken by Bclisarius by Blratagem. M, 
 
 Palestine, a characlcrof, 20,1. ,^ . 
 
 Palladium orilome. described, 3^, i- note- 
 
 Palladius. the notary, sent by Valonunian. to 
 Africa to irifluire into the government of count 
 Komanus, connives with him in oppressing the 
 province. 343. i. _ , . , ^ ^. . 
 
 Palmyra, descrij'tion of, and its destruction by 
 the cmiKjror Aurrlian, 114, i. - , -- . ,. 
 
 Pana;iiu8 wax the first teacher of the stoic pni- 
 lofioi'hy Ht Rome. 81, ii. note. . qo •. 
 
 Paiidf-ci.'* of Justinian, how formed, c3, ii. . 
 
 Panhyiwjrsebastos. import of that Ulle in ine 
 (ireek empire. 272. li. . 
 
 Pannoniu, de«(rib(d. 20. 1. . 
 
 Pantheon at Rome, by whom erected, 2< .!.»»«»«• 
 Ik convf!rted into a christian church, SM, l. 
 
 Pantomimes, Roman, described, 424, i. 
 
 PaixT. where, and when the manufacture oi, 
 wa.** first found ouf, 224, ii. 
 
 Papinian. the celebrated lawyer, created priptq- 
 rian pr»'ect. by the emperor Severus, 34, i. 
 His death. 57. i. „ ... ,, . . _ 
 
 Papirius. Caius, reasons for concluding that he 
 could not be the author of the Jus Papman- 
 urn, 71, ii. note. . . ^ . . .u . «• 
 
 Papists. proiH.)rtion their number bore to that or 
 the urotestants in England, at the beginning of 
 the last century, 254. i. note. . . 
 
 Para, king of Armenia, his history, 345, i. 
 troHchorously killed by the Romans. 34to. i. 
 
 Parabolani of Alexandria, account ot, IJU. 
 vote. .. 
 
 Paradise, Mahomet's, described, 205, ii. 
 
 Paris, dtscription of that city, under the govern- 
 ment of Julian. 251, i. Situation of his palace, 
 288. i. note. ... . . .• t> • 
 
 Parthia, subdued by Artaxerxcs king of Persia, 
 81, i. Its cotistitulioD ol government similar to 
 the feinlal system of Euroi>f. lb. Recapitula- 
 tion of the war with Rome. to. 
 
 Fasfhal 11. pope, his troublesome pontificate, 
 
 PawtoVal manners, much better adapted to the 
 fiprceness of war, than to peacetul innocence. 
 
 Paternal authority, extent of, by the Roman 
 laws, FO.ii. Successive limitations of. lo. 
 
 Patras. exiruordinary deliverance, of. from the 
 Sclnvonians and 8.iracens.2U!'. ii. 
 
 Patricians, the ordt-r of. under the Roman repuo- 
 Jir. and under the emperors, compared. 2.1J. }. 
 Under the Greek empire, their rank explained, 
 180 ii 
 
 Patrick.'the tutelar saint of Ireland, derivation 
 of bis name, 495, i. note. -«.,.... 
 
 Favia, mnssacrtj of the friends of Stilicho there, 
 bytl»e instigations of Oiympius, 415. I. Is ta- 
 ken by Alboin. king of the Ijombards, who fix- 
 es his re.^idence th*'re. 101, ii. . 
 
 Paul of S.imosata. bishopof Antioch, his charac- 
 ter and history, 15H), i. , , ■ /. 1 
 
 Paul arrlibisbop of Constantinople, his latal con- 
 test with his competitor Maredonius,2r2. i. 
 
 Paulii. a Roman widow, her illustrious dt-scent, 
 418. i. Was owner of the city of Nicopolis, 430, 
 i. Ilf-r monastic zeal, 4iK), i. , ^q, .. . 
 
 Paulicians, origin and character of. xHl, ii. Are 
 persecuted bv the Greek emperors, 283, ii. 
 Tlipy revolt, ib. Thf«y are reduced, and trans- 
 planted to Thrace, 284, ii. Their present state, 
 
 2H5.ii. .... «, .. 
 
 Paulina, wife of the tyrant Maximin, softena bia 
 ferocity by gentle counsel,;, 70. i. note. . 
 
 Patilinus, master of the offi<;es to Theodo«(us the 
 Younger, his crime, and execution, 450. i. 
 
 Paulinus, bishop of Nola, his historv. 432, i. 
 
 Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia. flies from the 
 Lombards with his treasure, into the island ol 
 Gnido. lOl.ii. , ^ _ 
 
 Frgasians, the party of, among the Koman ci- 
 vilians, explained, 82, ii. . , .« . 
 
 Pekin, th" city of, taken by Zingis the Mogul em- 
 tieror. 403, ii. ,,..,.• , 
 
 Pelagian controversy ngitated bv the Latin cler- 
 gy, 412, i. An<l in Britain, 440. 1. 
 
 Pella. the church of the Nazarcncs settled there, 
 on the destruction of Jerusalem. 1(50, i. 
 
 Peloponnesus, state of. uiub'r the Greek empire, 
 2»)9. ii. Mannraclures.270.il. . . . 
 
 Pena! laws of Rome, the abolition and revival 
 
 *^<"-^-*-''- . „ . . ..« • 
 
 P»'n«lragnn, his office and power in Britain, 440, i. 
 
 Pnnilentials, of the Greek and Latin churches, 
 history of. 327. ii. . , _ 
 
 Pepin, king of France, assists the pr»pe of Korne 
 against the Lombards. 170, ii. Receives the 
 til le of king bv papal sanction, ib. Grants the 
 ex.irchate to the popp, IPO, ii. . 
 
 Pepin. John, count of Minorbino, reduces the 
 tribune Rienzi, and restores aristocracy and 
 church government at Rome, 482, ii. 
 
 PiMipf>r. its high estimation and price at Rome, 
 420. i. note. . , . r, , 
 
 Perennis. minister of the emperor Cornmodus, 
 his great exaltation and downfall. 42, i. 
 
 Perisabor. a city of Assyria, reduced and burned 
 by the emperor Julian. 3J8. i. 
 
 Perezes, king of Persia, his fatal expedition 
 against the Nephtbalites. 19, ii. . . 
 
 Persocutions. ten. of the primitive christians, a 
 review of, 104. i. . ■ r .«. , 
 
 Perseus, amount of the treasures taken irom that 
 prince. (iO. i. , - , . » 
 
 Persia, the monarchy of, restored by Artaxerxes. 
 78. i. The religion of the Magi reformed. |6. 
 Abridgment of the Persian theol«»gy.7y, i. Sim- 
 plicity of their worship, ib. Cer»*monies and 
 moral precei>ts, 80, i. Every other mode of 
 worship prohibited but that of Zoroaster. 81. i. 
 Extent and population of the country, to. Its 
 nililary power. !:^3> i. Account of the audience 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 riven by the emperor Carus to the ambassadors 
 of Varanes. 125. i. The ihrooe of. disputed by 
 the brothers Nars«'8 and Hormouz, .134, i. Va- 
 lerius defeated by the Persians, i*. Narses 
 overthrown in his turn by Galerius. 135. i. Ar- 
 ticles of jH-ace ogroed on between the rersians 
 and the Romans, 13f>. i. 
 Persia, war between Sapor, king of. .and the em- 
 peror Constant i us. 232. i. Battle of Singara.ift. 
 Sapor invades Mesopotamia. 245. i. The Per- 
 sian territories invaded by the emperor Julian. 
 316, i. Passage of the Tigris, 320, i. Julian 
 harassed in his retreat, 322, i. Treaty, of 
 peace between Sapor and the emperor Jovian, 
 325, i. Reduction of Armenia, and death of 
 Sapor. 345, i. . . . . ,• mt.- 
 
 - - - the silk trade, how earned on from Chi- 
 na through Per«*ia,for the supply of the Roman 
 empire, II, ii. Dialh of Perozes, in an expe- 
 dition against the white Huns. 19, n. Review 
 of the reigns of Cabades. and his son t hosroes, 
 51. ii. Anarchy of. after the death of Cho-sroes 
 II. 126. ii. Ecclesiastical history of, 143. ii. 
 
 - - - invasion of. by the caliph. AlMil>eker. 
 221, ii. Battle of Cadesia. 222. ii. Sack of 
 Ctesiphon. ib. Conquest of, by the Saracens, 
 223, li. The Magian religion supplanted by 
 Mahometism. 24t), ii. The power of the Arabs 
 crushed by the dvnastv of the Bowides, ytw, ii. 
 Persia subdued by the Turks. 316. li. .. 
 
 - - - conquest of, by the Moguls. 404. ii. By 
 Tamerlane. 4l4. ii. , • . .u 
 
 Pertinax. his character, and exaltation to the 
 imperial throne, 45, i. His funeral and apo- 
 theosis. 51, i. _ _ 
 
 Pescennius Niger, governor of Srria, assumes 
 the imperial dignity, on the death of Pertinax, 
 49 i. 
 
 PetH vius. character of his Dogmata Theologiea. 
 127. ii. note. _, 
 
 Peter, brother of the eastern emperor Maurice, 
 his injurious treatment of the citizens.ol Azi- 
 muntium, and flight from thence, 115. ii. 
 
 Peter I. czar of Russia, his conduct towards his 
 son. contrasted with that of Constantine the 
 
 Great, 227. i. . , • j ra- 
 
 Peter of Arragon, assumes the kingdom of Bici- 
 
 ly,390. ii. .. , ,. 
 
 Peter. Bartholomew, his miraculous discovery 
 of the holy lance. 338. ii. His strange death, 
 
 Peter of Courtenay, emperor of Constantinople, 
 
 Peter' the hermit, his character and scheme to 
 recover the Holy Land from the infidels,.324, 
 ii. Leads the first CI usaders, 329,11. railure 
 of his zeal, 3.18, ii. . . , « • c-» - 
 
 Petra,tho citv of , token by the Persians, .57, ii. 
 Is besieged by the Romans, tb. Is demolished. 
 58 ii. 
 
 Petrarch, his studies and literary character, 43C, 
 ii. And history, 475, ii. His account of .the 
 rain of the ancient buildings of Rome. 494. ii. 
 
 Pfeflfel, character of his history of Lermany, 192, 
 
 Phalanx. Grecian, conpared with the Roman le- 
 gion, 17, i. , ,. J »• r »!. 
 
 Pharamond, the actions, and foundation of the 
 French monarchy by him, of doubtful authon- 
 
 Pharas commands the Heruli, in the African 
 war, under R«'liparius.25,ii. Pursues Gelimer, 
 30, ii. His letter to Gelimer, tft. , , 
 
 Pharisees, account of that sect among tfie Jews. 
 
 165, i. , •. J rr •• 
 
 Phasis. river, its course described.. oo, ii. . 
 Pheaaaiit.derivationof the name of that bird, OD, 
 
 PhVlelphus, Prancif, his chararter.of the Greek 
 language of Constantinople, 435. ii; 
 
 Philipl. of Fraiice, his limited dignity and pow- 
 er, 32.5. ii. ,_ .u- 4U:.-l 
 
 Philip Augustus, of France, engages in the third 
 
 crusade, 351, ii. ... .u--j r^^. 
 
 Philip, pra3torian prtjfect under the third JUor- 
 dian, raised to the empire on his death. 70, i. 
 Was a favourer of the christians, 195, i. 
 Philip, prjetorian praifect of Constantinope, con- 
 veys the bishop Paul into banishment clandes- 
 tinely, 282. i. ,^ , ,e, :: 
 Philippicus, emperor of Constantinople. 154. ii. 
 hilippopolis taken and sacked by the OotJis, 
 
 9a, i 
 Philo,'a character of his works, 267. i. . 
 
 Philosophy. Grecian, review of the varioua sects 
 of, 22. i. 
 
 Phineus, the situation of his palace. 206, i. 
 
 Phoc«a. is settled by Genoese, who trade m 
 alum, 423, ii. , u_ »u„ 
 
 Phocas. a centurion, is chosen emperor by the 
 /li.saffected troops of the enstern empire, lib. ii. 
 Murders of the emperor Maurice, and his chil- 
 dren, 117, ii. His character, ifr. His fall, and 
 death, 118, ii. ^ . _- . 
 
 Fhoenicia described. 20. 1.. . . . ,. 
 
 hotius, the son of Antonina. distinguishes him- 
 self at the siege of Naples. 44, ii. Is exiled, i*. 
 Betrays his mother's vices to Belisarius. tt>. 
 
 Turns a monk. 45. ii. . 
 
 Photius. the patrician. kills himself to escape U»e 
 
 iHirsecution of Justinian. 139. II. 
 Photius. patriarch of Constantinople, character 
 
 the Goths. 433. i. Is injuriously trealed by the 
 usurper Siiigeric, after the death of her hus- 
 band, 437. i. Her marriage with Constantius, 
 and retreat to Constantinople, 452. I. Her ad- 
 ministration in the west, as guardian of her son 
 theeratieror Valentinian lll.4.'>3, i. History of 
 her daughter Hi>noria,471, i. Her death and bu* 
 
 rial, 478, i. note. , ,. ,• -- •• 
 
 Plague, origin and nature of this ilisease..?.^. ii. 
 Great extent and long duration of that in the 
 reign of Justinian, 76, ii. . . 
 
 Plato, his t lieologica! system. 266, i. Is received 
 by the Alexandrian Jow8.267, i. An/I expoun- 
 ded by St. John the Evangelist, tb. 1 he theo- 
 logical system of the emperor Julian. 299, i. 
 Pl.atonic philosophy iniroiduced into Italy. 438. 
 
 Platonists, new, an account of, 141, j. Unit* 
 
 with the heathen priests to oppose the chru> 
 
 tians, 198, i. , ... 
 
 Plautianus, prwtorian pra«fect under the emperor 
 
 S'verus, his history, 54, i. , . .^^ . 
 
 Plebeians of Rome, state and character of. 4'.«. i. 
 
 Pliny, the Younger, examination ol his conduct 
 
 toward the christians, 188, i. .. 
 
 Poet laureat, a ridiculous appointment. 476. ii. 
 
 note. , ... 
 
 Poxgius. his reflectiona on the ruin of ancient 
 Rome, 489, ii. ^ . „..,_■ r .u 
 
 Poitiers, battle of, between Clovis king of the 
 
 Franks, and Alaric king of the Goths, 5)5, l. 
 Pollentia. battle of. between Siilirho.the Koman 
 
 general, and Alaric the Goth, 407, 1. 
 Polytheism of the Romans, itsorigiii and enrcts, 
 22, i. How accounted for by the primitive 
 christians, 162. i. Scepticism of five people 
 at the time of the publication of Christianity, 
 176. i. The christ ians why more odious to the 
 pagans than the Jews. 182, i. .. • • 
 
 • - - the ruin of. suspended by the divisions 
 among christians. 286, i. Theological system 
 of the empetor Julian,299, 1. ..... 
 
 - - review of the pagan ecclesiastical. eata- 
 
 blishment, 387, i. Revival of. by the christian 
 
 monks. 394, i. , ,„ . j • > 
 
 Ponipeianus, praefeet of Rome, proposes to drive 
 
 Alaric from th«' walls by uiH'Us. 425^. 
 Pompeianus Ruricius, general under Maxentini, 
 debated and killed by Constantine the Ureat* 
 150, i. . , J 
 
 Pompey, his discretional exercise of power dur- 
 ing his command in the east, 33. i. Increase of 
 the tributes of Asia by his conquests, bo. I. 
 Pontiffs, pagan, their jurisdictimi. 387, I. 
 Pontifex Maximus. in pagan Rome, by whom 
 
 that c.ffic*' was exercised. 260, 1. . 
 Popes of Rome, the growth of tbetr powerjl/5. 
 ii. Revolt of. from the Greek emperors, 177. n. 
 Origin of their temporal dominion, 181, ii. 
 Publication of the Decretals, and of the ficti- 
 tious donation of C^mstantiiie the Great. i&. 
 Authority of the German emi»erors in their 
 election, 188, ii. Violent distractions in their 
 election, ib. _ . . , ■. , n ^ 
 
 Popes, foundation of their authority at Kome, 
 463. ii. Thfir mode of election settled, 4/ l,.ii. 
 Schism in the papacy, 484, ii. They acquire 
 the absolute dominion of Kome. 4C5C, ii. IDO 
 ecclesiastical government. 489, II. . 
 
 Population of Rome, a computation of. 4.J4. i. 
 P».>rcaro, Stephen, his conspiracy at Kome, 407. 
 
 Pos'thumu«, the Roman general uiider the empe- 
 ror Gallienus. defends Gaul against the incur- 
 sions of the Franks, 98, i. . L L J 
 
 Power, absolute, the exercise of. how checked, 
 
 Pr»fe*cl*of the sacred bed-chamber, under Con- 
 stantine the Great, his office. 219. 1. 
 
 PrfffeclR of Rome and Constantinople, under the 
 emi)erors. the nature of tht-ir unices. ^14, 1. 
 The office revived at Rome. *b/. II. 
 
 Prartextatus. prscfect of Rome under Valenti- 
 nian, his character, S.'JP. i. . 
 
 Praetorian bands in the Roman aririy, an accoont 
 of. 47. i. They sell the empire of Rome by pub- 
 lic auction. 4P. i. Are^ disgraced by the empe; 
 ror Severus, 51, 1. A new establish 
 
 them, 54, i. 
 
 „,, ,. .. ..^ „ ^„.„ ..ment of 
 
 Authority of the praetorian pre- 
 
 of his Library. 27t),.ii. His quarrel witn the 
 poi»e otRome, 357. li. ..... ^ .^ 
 
 Phranza, George, the Greek historian, ■ome ac- 
 count of, 42!». ii. note. His embassies. 447, 11. 
 His fate on the taking of Constantinople by the 
 Turks. 458. ii. ,, r.i. . • . 
 
 Picardy. derivation of the name of that province, 
 324, ii. note. . . -. , 
 
 Pilate. Pontius, his testimony iii favour of Jesus 
 Christ, much improved by the primitive fa- 
 thers. 194. i. . , <.-«•• 
 
 Pilpay's fables, history and character of, S3,u. 
 
 Pinna marina, a kind of silk manufacturod from 
 the threads spun by this fish, by the Romans, 
 
 Pipa'. a princess of the Marcom.anni. espoused by 
 
 the emiieror Gallienus. 100. i. 
 Piso. Cafphurnius. one ofthe competitor! against 
 
 Gallienus, his illustrious family and character. 
 
 Pity US, the city of. destroyed by the Goths, 
 
 Placidia, daoghter of Thcodosius the Great, her 
 history and marriage with Adolphua king of 
 
 ect, 16. Are reduced, their privileges abolish- 
 ed, and their place Hupphed, by the Joviaiii 
 and Herculians. IIH, i. Their desperate cour- 
 age under Maxentius, 150. k Are totally sup- 
 pressed by Constantine the Great, 151. 1. 
 
 Prttlorian pra-fect, revolutions of this otnce un- 
 der tbeemi)eror8.2I3. i. Their functions wheo 
 it became a civil office. 214. i. _ 
 
 Prwtors of Rome, the nature and tendency Ot 
 Iheiredicts explained, 78. ii. . 
 
 Preaching, a form of devotion onknowri in the 
 temples of paganism. 263, i. Use and abuse of, 
 
 2f^ i. 
 
 Prede'sti nation, influence of the doctrine of, on 
 the Saracens and Turks. 208. ii. . , 
 
 Presbyters, among the i>rimitive christians, the 
 office explained. 172, i.. . . 
 
 Prester John, origin of the romantic stones con- 
 cerning, 143. ii. . - . 
 
 Priests, no distinct order of men among the an- 
 cient paeans, 176. 2f)0, i. 
 
 Priestly. Dr. the ultimate tendency of his opin- 
 ions i>ointed out. 286. ii. note. _ . 
 
 Primogeniture, the prerogative of. unknown to 
 the Roman law. 90, ii. ... -. m •• 
 
 Prince of the waters, m Persia, his office. 52. 11. 
 
 THOtt, r» • ■ ■ i_ I. ' 
 
 Priscillian, bishopof Avila in Spain.js, with hi« 
 
 followers, put to death for heresy, .f/b, i. . 
 Priscus, the historian, his conversation with a 
 
 captive Greek, in the camp of Attila, 403, 1. 
 
 His character, 464. i. note. 
 Pri-cus.the Greek, general, his success against 
 
 the Avars. 11.5. ii. , _ ^ . «• u» 
 
 Proba, widow of the praefeet Petroniiis. her flight 
 
 from the sack of Rome by Alanc, Am, i. 
 Probus assumes the imperial dignity in opposi- 
 tion to Florianus, 120, i. His character and 
 
 history, ib. _ , ,„ • 
 
 Probus. praetorian pripfbct of Illyricum, preserves 
 
 Sirmium from thf Ciuadi. 348, I. 
 Probus. Sicorius. his embassy from the emperor 
 
 Diocletian to Narses, king of Persia, 13.^. 1. 
 Procida. John of. .instigates the revolt of Sicily 
 
 from John of Aniou. .'fitO. ii. 
 ProcluH. story of his extraordinary bruen mif' 
 
 ror, 15. ii. 
 
 Proclos, the Platonic philoaopher of Athens, hia 
 Pr'S'su'lVof'Sial'Achaia. and Africa, their 
 
 Pr°Sm. wife of the Greek emperor Michael I. 
 her martial inclinations, 156,1. . »r 1 
 
 Piocopius, his history, and revolt against Valens. 
 emperor ot the east. :K2. i. Is reduced and put 
 to death, 16. His account of the. testament of 
 the emperor Arcadius. 448, 1. His account of 
 Britainr527, i. Character of his histories, 4. 
 ii Aci^epis the office of secretary under Beli- 
 sarius. 24, ii. His defence of the Roman arch- 
 ers, 25, ii. His account ot the desolation of the 
 African province by war, 02, ii. . 
 
 Proculians, origin ot the sect of, in the Koman 
 
 Pr*oculus, his extraordinary character, and his re- 
 bellion against Probus in Gaul, U-J, >•.._, ,^ 
 Prodigies in ancient history, a philosophical re- 
 
 pjornises, uiider what circumstances the Roman 
 law enforced the fulfilment of, 92, 11. 
 
 P omotus. master-general of the infantry under 
 Theodoeius, is ruined by the enmity ol Kuhnus. 
 
 Prope'rty, personal, the origin of, 9Q. ««• How 
 ascertained by the Roinan laws. xb. resip- 
 mentary dispositions of, how introduced, HI,. 11. 
 
 Prophets, their office among the primitive chris- 
 tians. 171. i. .. , -^_ . 
 
 Propontis described, 2y7, 1. . . ^,,,- , 
 
 Proierius, patriarch of Alexandria, h." martial 
 episcopacy, and violent death, l.i7, 11. noie. 
 
 Protestants, their resistance of oppression, not 
 consistent with the practice of the primitive 
 christians, 254. i. Proportion of ibeir number 
 to that of the catholics, in France, at the l)egin- 
 ningof the last century, ift. not«... Estimate of 
 their reformation of penary, 285, 1.1. r>,*oW 
 
 Protrtjebastos, import of that title in the Greek 
 
 pfo'^erb8',"tG'bli)k of, why not likely to be the 
 production ofkingSc)lomon,.31, 11. note. 
 
 Provinces of the Roman empire described, lUji. 
 Distinction between Latin and .Greek Pyoyin- 
 c»%, 25, i. Account of the tribute received 
 from. 66. i. Their.number and JCO^'frn"!^"^ »[• 
 ter the seat of empire was removed to Constan- 
 tinople, 215. i. .»« .. 
 
 Prusa, conquest of. by the Ottomans, 407, 11. 
 
 Prussia, emigrationofthe Goths to, y4. 1.. 
 
 Pulcheria, sister of the emperor Theqdpeius the 
 Younger, her character and administration, 
 448, i Hor lessons to her brother, 449, i. . Her 
 contests with the etnpress Eudocia, 450, i. Is 
 prwlaimed empress ol the east, on «he death ol 
 Theo(lo«iu.s, 467, i. Her death and canoniza- 
 
 Pu'rple, the' royal colour of, among the ancients, 
 far surpassed by the modern discovery of cochi- 
 neal. 10, li. note. . /. I I _—„.,„» «r 
 
 P«mies of Africa, ancient fabuloua account ol. 
 
 Quadi.the inroads of, punished by the emperor 
 Con«tantius,243,.i. jkcvenge the treacherous 
 murder of thei.r king Gabinius, 348^ I. 
 auestor, historical review of this ofhce, -£{».'■ 
 ttuestion, criminal, how exercised under the Ko- 
 man emiK«rors, 220, i. . J /i^-jUr.B- 
 auintilian brothers, Maxiraas and Condianos. 
 
 auin'i'ilitisl'bnJther of the crnpcror Claudius, his 
 ineff-ctual effort to succeed hirn, 1W9, 1. 
 
 Quintns iTurtius.an attempt to decide the age in 
 which he wrote. 75, i. note. ^.»,»^.„j ,.» 
 
 Quirites, the effect of thai word when opposed to 
 soUiers, 65, i. not4. 
 
 Radagaisus, king of the Goths, his formidable 
 invasion of I taly . 4 10. i.. ,. His savage ^haractor, 
 41 1 . i. Is reduced by Stilicho. and put to death. 
 
 Radigor. king of the Varni. compelled to fulfil 
 his matriinonial obligations by a British hero- 
 Ramadan*, the month of. how observed by the 
 Turks '"04 ii 
 
 Rando.a*chi*efiain of the.Alemanni. his unpro- 
 voked attack of Moguntiacuni. •»•«'.»'•. Ann ; 
 
 Ravenna, the ancuni city of. described, 409, 1. 
 The emp«'ror Honorius fixes his residence there, 
 ib. Invasion of, by a Greek fleet, 177, 11. Is 
 taken by the Lombards, and recovered by the 
 Venetians, 178, ii. Final conquest of. l^ the 
 1 Lombards, ib. The exarchate of, bestowed by 
 Pepin on the pope, 180, ii. „i..,a„ 
 
 Raymond of Thou louse, the crusader, 'his charac- 
 ter. :«0, ii. His route to Constantinople. 3J2, 
 ii. His bold behaviour there, .l.i3, 11. 
 
 Raymond, count of Tripoli. I>e trays Jerusalem 
 into the hands ofSaladin.JoO. II.. 
 
 Raynal. abbe, mistaken in asserting that Con- 
 stantine the Great suppreaaed pagan worship. 
 
 Rebefs/who the most inveterate of, 2?3, ii. 
 
 Aecared, the first catholic kingof Spain,conTeTta 
 his Gothic subjects, 508, 1. e .^i^m 
 
 Reformation from popery, the am.<>nnt of, estima- 
 ted, 285, ii. A secret reformalipn still workiag 
 in the reformed churches, 286, u. 
 
 Reindeer, this animal driven noihward by th? 
 improvement of climate from cultivation, ». 1. 
 
 Relics, the worship of. introdu<»d.by the monks, 
 39^, i. A valuable cargo of. importedf^ 
 Constantinople by Louis IX. o» "^"c^' Aj^V;"- 
 
 Remigius, bishop of Rheims. converu Ctorut, 
 king ofthe Pranks. 512. 1. ^ ^ • „ ^^ 
 
 Repentance, its high esteem, and extensive ope- 
 ration among the primitive christians, 168, 1. 
 
 Resurrection, general, the Mahometan doctrine 
 
 Retiariu's, ih«» mode of his combat with the secu- 
 tor, in the Roman amphith»alre, 44, 1. 
 
 Revenuesof the primitive church, how.distriou- 
 t«#d, 174.262. i. Of the Roman empire, when 
 removed to Constantinople, a review of, 221, 1. 
 
 Rhatium. citv of. its s.iluation, 207. 1. 
 
 &h»lia described,?©, i. , . r ....j --.i k:ii 
 
 Khazates, the Persian general, defeated and kill- 
 ed by the emperor Heraclius. 125. 11. 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Rhetoric, the study of, congenial to a popular 
 state, 21, ii. «„....,, tr 
 
 Rhine, the banks of. fortified by the emperor Va- 
 lentinian,339.i. . , 
 
 Rhodes, account of the colossus of. 333. 1. 1 he 
 knigbtsof, 408. ii. , . , .. j 
 
 Richard I. of Eiigland. engages in the third cru- 
 sade, 352, ii. Bestows the island of Cyprus on 
 the house of Lusjgnan , 359, i.i. H is reply to the 
 exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, 360, 11. 
 
 Richard, monk of Cirencester, his literary cha- 
 racter, 439, i. note. . • »• 
 
 Ricimer, count, his history,483.i. Permits IWa- 
 jorian to assume the imi>crial dignity m the 
 western empire, 484, i. Enjoys supreme power 
 under cover ofthe name of the emperor Libius 
 Severus, 486, i. Marries the daughter of the 
 emperor Anthemius,488, i. Sacks Kome and 
 kills Anthemius, 493, i. His death, tb. 
 
 Rienzi, Nicholas di. his birth, character, and 
 history. 477, ii. . ^ . . , 
 
 Roads, Roman, the construction and great extent 
 of, 30, i. ,„ ^ .. , 
 
 Robert of Courtenay. emperor of Constantinople, 
 
 Robert, count of Flanders, his character and en- 
 gagement in the first crusade, 330, 11. 
 
 Robert, duke of Normandy, his character and en- 
 gagement in the first crusade, 3.^^ 11.. Recalled 
 by the censures ofthe church,.338, II. 
 
 Roderic, the Gothic king of Spam, his defeat and 
 deathbyTariktbe Arab.243, II. 
 
 Rodugune. probable origin of her character, in 
 Rowe's Royal Convert, 528, i. note. 
 
 Roger, count of Sicily, his exploits, and con- 
 quest of that island, 303, ii. ra- I 
 
 Roger, son ofthe former, the first king of Sicily, 
 30i', ii. His military achievements in Africa 
 and Greece,!*. ... . .,„^, 
 
 Roger de Flor. engages as an auxiliary in the ser- 
 vice of the GreeTi emperor Andronicus, 391. 11. 
 His as.sas8ination, ifr. ,_ ... 
 
 Romanus I. Lecapenus. emperor of Constantino- 
 ple, 161, ii. .^ , ,,n .. 
 
 Romanus II. emperor of Constantinople, Ib'i.ii. 
 
 Romanus III. Argyrus, emperor of Constaniino- 
 
 Rornanns'lV. Diogenes, emperor of Constantino- 
 ple, lt>5, ii. Is defeated and taken priso.ner by 
 the Turkish sultan Alp Arslan, 318, 11. His 
 treatment, deliverance, and death, tb. 
 
 Romanus, count, governor of Africa, his corrupt 
 administration, 343. i. •.,„.i...ao 
 
 Romanus. governor of Bosra. betrays it to the Sa- 
 racens, 225, ii. .,,.,,. '• .^j„..» 
 
 Rome, the three periods of its decline pointed out. 
 Preface. Its prosperous circumstances in the 
 second century, 13. i. The principal conquests 
 of, achieved under the republic, ift. Conouests 
 under theemi>eror8.14,i.. -'^•'>'a'[>' ^s'^H'fJ?: 
 ment ofthe emperors, 15, 1. Naval force^of the 
 empire, 18, i. View ofthe provinces qflhe e|n- 
 pire. 19. i. Its general extent, 22,.i. The union 
 and internal prosperity of the empire, in the age 
 ofthe Antonines, accounted for,.ift. 1 reatmeni 
 ofthe provinces. 24, i. Benefits included in the 
 freedom ofthe city, 25, i. . Distinction between 
 the Latin and Greek provinces. %b. Prevalence 
 ofthe Greek, as a scientific language, 16. Num- 
 bers and condition ofthe Roman slaveg.it). ro- 
 pulousness of the empire. 27, 1., Unity and 
 power ofthe government, i6.Monuments.ot 
 Roman architecture, ib. The Roman magnih- 
 
 cence chiefly displayed m public '>"•'? '"Kf'.-tV' 
 i. Principal cities in the empire, 2i»,i. PuDlic 
 roads, 30, i. Great improvements of agricul- 
 ture in the western countrjies of the empire, to. 
 Arts of luxury, 31, i. Commerce with the 
 east, ib. Contemporary repre9«Mitation of the 
 prosperity ofthe empire, 32. 1. ^Dec ine ofcqu- 
 rage and genius, ib. Review, ot Puhlic affairs 
 after the battle of Acfium,tft. The imperial 
 power and dignity confirmed to Augustus by 
 the senate, 33. i. The various c^baracters and 
 powers vested in the emperor. .34, i. General 
 idea of the imperial system, 35, i.. Abortive at- 
 tempt of the senate to repume its rights after 
 the murder of Caligula, 37, i. The emperors 
 associate their intended successors to power, it>. 
 The most happy period in the Roman, history, 
 pointed out, 39, i. . Their peculiar nitsery un- 
 der their tyrants, tb. The empire publicly sold 
 by auction by the prffitorian guards, 48, 1. Civil 
 wars ofthe Romans, how generally decided, 5-i, 
 i. When the army first received regular pay, 
 65, i. How the citizens were relieved from tax- 
 ation. 66, i. General estimate of the. Roman 
 revenue from the provinces, 1*. Miseries flow- 
 ing from the succession to the. empire being 
 elective, 69, i. A summary review ot'"e Ro- 
 man history, 77, i.. Recapitulatioii of the war 
 with Parthia. 81,. i. Invasion of the provitiqes 
 by the Goths. 95, i. The office of censor reviv- 
 ed by the emperor Deci.us, 96, 1. Pea^y-u'- 
 chased ofthe Goths, 97, 1. The emperor Vale- 
 riaP taken prisoner by Sapor, king of lers a, 
 IflS, i. The impular conceit of the thirty ty- 
 rants of Rome investigated, 104,1. Famine and 
 pestilence throughout the empire, 106. 1. Ihe 
 city fortified against the inroads of the Ate- 
 manni. 112. i. Remarks on the alleged sedi- 
 tion of' the officers of the mint under Aurehan, 
 117, i. OI)servations on the peaceful interreg- 
 num af\er the death of Aurelian. 118, i. Colo- 
 Bies of barbarians introduced. into the provinces 
 y Probus, 122, i. Exhibition of the public 
 games by Car in us. 126, i. Treaty of peace be- 
 tween the Persians, and the Romans, 1.16. i. 
 The last triumph celebrated at Rome, 1*. How 
 the imperial cx>urts .came to .be transfbrred to 
 Milan and Nicomediii, 137,.i. The praetorian 
 bands superseded by the Jovian and Herculean 
 guards, tfr. The power of the senate annihila- 
 ted. 138. i. Four divisitMjs pfthB empire under 
 four conjunct princes. 139. 1. ITieir extensive 
 establishments call for niore burdensome taxes, 
 ib. Diocletian and Maximi.an. abdicate theem- 
 pire. ib. Six emperors. existing at one time, 
 146, i. The senate and people apply to Con- 
 stantine to deliver them from the tyranny of 
 Maxentius, 149, i. Constantine eiiters the ciry 
 Victorious, 151. i. Laws of Constantine, 154. 
 j. Constantine remains sole «n'Kr'^/' i^f'J-- 
 History of the progress and est^n' ""1^.?"^"^ % 
 Christianity, ib. Pretensions of the bishop of 
 Rome, whence deduced, 173, 1. rstate 01 tne 
 
 531 
 
 church at Rome at the time of the periK»<^utH)il 
 by Nero, 178, i. Narrai ive of the fire of Kome, 
 in the reign of Nero. 185, i. The christwns 
 persecuted as the incendiaries, 186, i. I he 
 memorable edicts of Diocletian and his asso- 
 ciates against the christians, 199, i. 
 
 - - - account of the building and establish- 
 ment of the rival city of Constantinople, 206, i. 
 New forms of administration established there, 
 211. i. Division of the empi-o amoig the soni 
 of Constantine. 231.. i. Establistimentot chiis- 
 tianity as the national, rtigipn. 259, 1. lu- 
 mults excited by the rival bishops, Liberius 
 and FsRiix, 282, i. Paganism restored by Ju- 
 lian. :W2. i. And Christianity by Jovian. 329, 
 i. The empire divided into the eoat and trest, 
 by the emperor Valentinian. 331, i- Civil in- 
 stitutions of Valentinian, 3.34. i. _ 1 he crafty 
 avarice ofthe clergy retitraincd by Valentinian. 
 337, i. Bloody contest of DHmasus and Ursinns 
 for the bishopric of Rome, ib. Great earthquake, 
 
 349, i. 
 
 - -* - the emperor Theodosius visits the city, 
 380, i. Inquirj into the cause ot the corruption 
 of morals in his reign, 31-6. 1. Review of the 
 pagan establishment, 387, i. The pn^an reli- 
 gion renounced by the senate. 3W»,i.. Sacrifices 
 prohibited, ift. The pagan prohibited, .fiM, .1. 
 Triumph of Honorius and Siilichoover Alaiifl 
 the Goth, 408. i. Alnricencampsundertbe wa Is 
 ofthe city, 418. i. Retrosixciof the stato ofthe 
 city when besieged by Hannibal, jft. VVealth 
 ofthe nobles and magnihccnce of ihe city, 419. 
 i. Character of the nobles of. by Ammianus 
 Marcellinus, 420, i. State and character of. the 
 common f)eople, 422. i. Public distributions 
 ofbread.&c. 423. i. Public baths. 16. Games 
 and spectacles, ib. Attempts to ascertain tf»e 
 population ofthe city, 424, i. Tne cit jzens suf- 
 Ibr by famine. 425. 1. Plague, tb. .The retreat 
 of Alaric purchased bv a ransom, 16. Is again 
 besieged by Alii ric, 427, i. The senate unites 
 with him in electing Attains emperor, ifr.l he 
 city seized by Alaric, and plundered, 4J8, i. 
 Comparison i.etween this event and the sack 
 of Rome by the emi)eror Charles V. 431, i- Al- 
 aric quits Rome and ravages Italy, to. t^Y^^ 
 passed for the relief of Rome, and liiily, xo- 
 Triumph of Honorius for the reduc.tion ot 
 Spain by Wallia, 437, i. Is preserved from the 
 hands of Attila bva ransom, 4^6, 1. ,lndica. 
 lions of the ruin of the empire, at the death pt 
 Valentinian 111. 478. i. , Sack of. the city by 
 Genseric king ofthe Vandals, 480.1. The pub- 
 lic buildings of, protected from depreciation l?y 
 the laws of Majorian,485, i. 1? sacked again 
 by the patrician Ririmer,493, i. . Angustulus 
 the last emperor of the west, 494, 1. Thp decay 
 of the Roman spirit remarked, 495,. 1. History 
 of monastic institutions in, 498, 1. General 
 observations on the history of the Koman em- 
 
 ?"-*''. Italy conquered by Theodoric the Ostro- 
 goth, 534, 1. Prosperity of the city under his 
 government, 537, 1. Accou.nt of the lour fac- 
 tions in the circus, 7, ii. Firs.t. introduction ot 
 silk among the Romans, ILii. The office of 
 consul suppressed f)y Justinian.. -i. y. ine 
 city receives Belisarius, 36. n.^Siegeof.by t be 
 Goih8.t6. Distressful siege of.by Totila. the 
 Goth, 64, ii. Is taken, ib. Is recovpred.by Be- 
 lisarius, 65, ii. Is again taken by Totila. bb, 
 ii. Is taken by the eunuch Narses. b9. it. t^x- 
 tinction ofthe senate, tfc. The city degraded 
 to the second rank under the exarchs of Ra- 
 venna. 71, ii. A review of the Roman laws, <b. 
 ii. Extent of the duchy of. under the exarchs 
 of Ravenna. 104. ii. Miserable state ofthe city, 
 1.07, ii. Pontificate of Gregory the Great, 1U», 
 
 .'* - - the government of the city new model- 
 led under the popes. af\er their revolt from the 
 Greek emperors. 177, li. Is attacked bLj^he 
 Lombards, and delivered by king Pepin, 179, "• 
 The office and rank of exarchs and patricians 
 explained, 180, ii. Reception of Charlemagne 
 by pope Adrian I. ib. Origin of the tempctral 
 power ofthe popes, 181, ii.^ Mode ot electinga 
 pope. 188, ii. Is menaced by the Saracens, 189. 
 li. Prosiierous pontificate of Leo IV. .:t»l, 11. 
 Is besieged and taken by the .emperor Henry 
 in. 308, ii. Great part of the city burnt by Ro- 
 bert Guiscard, in the cause of pope Gregory 
 
 . - ' - The history of. resumed, after the cap- 
 ture 'of Constantinople by the Turks, 46i, 1;. 
 French and German emi)eror« of, to. Authori- 
 ty of the popes, 463, ii. Restoration ofthe re- 
 publican form of government, 466, 11.. t-mice.ol 
 senator. 468. ii. Wars against the neighbourinc 
 cities. 470. ii. Institution of the jubilee, 4 < 3, 
 ii. Revolution in the city, by the triuune Kien- 
 zi, 477, ii. Calamities flowing from theschism 
 of the papacy, 485, ii. Statutes and govern- 
 ment of^he city, 487, ii. Porcaro's conspiracy, 
 ib. The ecclesiastical government of. 481'. . 11. 
 Reflections of Poggius on the ruin of the city, 
 490. ii. Four principal causes of its ruin speci- 
 fied, t&. The coliseum of Titus, 494, n. Res- 
 toration and ornaments ofthe citv, 49f), 11. 
 
 Romilda, the betrayer of Friuli tothe Avars, her 
 cruel treatment by them. 120, 11. . . . _ - .. 
 
 Rosamond, daughter of Cunimund king ot the 
 Gepida-.her marriage with A bom kingof the 
 Lombards, 99, ii. Conspires his murder, 101, 
 ii. Her flight and death, ift. _ j 001 - 
 
 Roum. the Seljukian kingdom of, formed. .«!, 11. 
 
 Rudbeck, Olaus, summary abridgment ofthe ar- 
 gument in his Mlantiea, 86, i. 
 
 Rufinus. the confidential ministrr ofthe emperor 
 Theodosius the Great, stimniates his cruelty 
 af ainst Thessalonica, .382, 1 H is charat^ter and 
 administration. 396, i. His death,399, 1. 
 
 Ruffilas. the Hun, his settlement m Hungary* 
 
 Runic characters, the antiquity of. traced. 86, i. 
 
 Russia, origin ofthe monarchy of. 291. ii. Geo- 
 graphy and trade of, 292. 11. Naval expedi- 
 tions ofthe Russians against Constantinople, 
 293, ii. Reign of the czar Swatqsla.us,294. 11, 
 The Ru8siai>« converted to' hristianity,«jy5. a, 
 1(1 conquered by the Moguls, 404, 11. 
 
 Rustan. a Persian nobleman, a sayin« ot his, ez 
 presslve, ofthe danger of living under destiOt«< 
 40. i. 
 

 4 
 
 632 
 
 Kotilini. hii character of the monks ofCapraria, 
 401. i. 
 
 8 
 
 Sabellins the hercjiarch, his opinions afterward 
 adopied by his iintagonistH, 5gO. i. His doc- 
 trine of ihe Trinity. i6. Ti.e Sabe lian« uni e 
 with the TriiheistB at the .council ol Nice to 
 overpower the Arians, 271. 1. ,„« :: 
 
 Sdliians, their astronomical mytholpgv, i^y- »• 
 
 Sabinian obtains the command of the eastern 
 pr..vince8 from Constaniius, ^4o, i. 
 
 Sabinian. general of the east.is de eated by Ihe- 
 oiloric the Osirogoih.king of Italy. »•«>. i- 
 
 Babinians, origin of the sect of, in the Roman ci- 
 vil law, ti^.ii. -, , _.l.^I-™o 
 
 Badducees, acconnt of that sect among the Jews, 
 
 Balad'in, his birth, pronrjption. and character. 
 
 349. IK Conquer the kingdom of Jerusa cm. 
 
 350. ii. His inefTertual siege of Tyre. 351. ii. 
 Siege of Acre. ift. His negociations with R ^h- 
 ardl. of England. ^352. n. "'^^eath. 353. n. 
 
 Baierno, account of the medical school of, MJ, 
 
 Balic laws, history of, 517, i.. /• .w- «-,rw.»nr 
 
 SalluRl.the praefect. and friend of the emperor 
 Julian, declines the offer of the diadeni on his 
 death. 324. i. Declines it again on the death ot 
 JoviaA. 330. i. U retained in his.employment 
 by the emp»'ror Valentiman. JJI, i. .....j 
 
 Sallust. the hisiorian.by w^J^f/lf^^'' -«/5 
 his palace on the Q.uirinal hill, 4JU^.. ««i*-. „ 
 
 Bainiia. the re rcat of the emperor Diocletian, 
 described. 140. i. . . .. , j .„v„ii:„n 
 
 Balviaii. hi« account of the distress and rebellion 
 of the Bagaudip. 479. i. note. 
 
 Bamaiiide«.. the Saracen dynasty of. 204. ii. 
 
 Samariians. r)«rsecui ion and extinction ot. by iho 
 emperor Justinian. 139. ii. ^ 
 
 Bamuel the projphet, his ashes conveyed to Con- 
 stantinoiile. 31)3. i. , :„_,:r,n 
 
 Ba[)or. king of Persia, procures the assassination 
 of Chosrc^s, kina of Armenia, and seizes ifje 
 country. 103. i. Defeats the emperor Valerian, 
 and takes him prisoner. t6. ^Setg upCyriades. 
 as Buccehsor to Valerian in tho Roman empire, 
 103. i. Overruns Syria. Cilicia. and Cappado- 
 cia.ifr. Hisdeaih. 115. i. j l:„. «f 
 
 Ba_por. the 8«m of Hormouz. is crowned king ol 
 ftrsia before his birth. 232. I. "'« character 
 and early heroism, ib. Harasses the eastern 
 
 Srovinces of the Roman empire, ift. Battle oi 
 ingara against the emoemr Lonslantius. ^w, 
 i His son brutally kilM bv Constantius. |6. 
 His several attempts on Nisibis.ift. *^""<^""'*;* 
 a truce withConsiantius.tft. His haughty pro- 
 positions to Constant.us. 244. i. Invades Me- 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 sopotamia. 245. i. Reduces Amida. 24b. i. 
 ReturnH home. ib. His^ peaceful overtures, to 
 Uie emoeror Julian. 313. i. His consternation 
 at the successes of Julian. 321, i.. Harasses the 
 retreat of the Romans. 322, i. ,Hib treaty with 
 the emperor Jovian, 325. i. His reduction of 
 Armenia, and death. 344. 345. 1. ,, . 
 
 Saracen, various definitions ot that appellation, 
 
 Siiracens, successions of the caliphs of. 215. ii. 
 Their rapid conquests. 221. n. ^onQ"t^> V; 
 Persia, tK3, ii. Siege of Damascus. 22t)^ • 
 Battle ofVermuk,and conquest ot Syria, 'fJU, 
 ii. Of Ef ypt, 233, ii. Invasions of Africa. 
 238, ii. Their military character. 2/7, II. 
 
 Barbar. the Persian general, joins. the Avars in 
 besieging Constantinople. 124, ii. Revolts to 
 the emperor Heraclius.ift. r _ k„ 
 
 Sardinia, expulsion of the Vandals from, by 
 Marcellinus, 489. i. Is conquered by Zano. the 
 brother ofGelimer. king of the Vandals, 2b, u. 
 Is surrendered to Belisariua. 29. ii. 
 
 Barmatians. memorable defeat of. by the empe- 
 ror Carus. 124. i. Theirmanners described. 
 228. i. Brief history of. 229. i. . They apply to 
 Constantino the Great for assistance against 
 the Goth*, ib. Are expelled their country by 
 the LimiMntes. 230, i. Are restored by Con- 
 
 Biantius.244, i. .... r tw : a... 
 
 Bavago manners, a brief Tiew.of, BT. i. Are 
 more uniform than those of civilized nations, 
 350 i 
 Barus'. the Goth, plunders the ramppf Stilicho. 
 and drives him into the hands of the emperor 
 at Ravenna. 415. i. In""'" Alaric. and occa- 
 lions the sacking of Rome. 428. i. Is.killed by 
 Adolphuskingoflhe Visigoths, 43b. i. 
 Baturninus. one of the competitors for empire 
 against Gallienus, his ob»ervation on hii in- 
 vestiture. 105, i- , . n ^k... 
 Balurninus. lieutenant under the emperor Probus 
 in t he east, is driven into rebellion by hi« troops, 
 123. i. ... 
 
 Baxoiis. ancient, an account of\ 340. i. Their pi- 
 ratical confederations, t*. Their invasions of 
 Gaul checked by the Romans, id. How con- 
 verted to rhristianitv. 503. i. Descent of the 
 Saxons on Britain, 524. i. Their brutal desola- 
 tion of the country. 526, i. . ..... ..c 
 
 Bcanderbeg, prince of Albania, his history, 443, 
 
 Sc^tinian law of the Romans, account of, 95. ii. 
 
 S«:auru9. the patrician family of, how reduced 
 under the emperors. 213, i. note. . 
 
 Schism in religion, the oriKin of. traced, IbJ, i. 
 
 Science reducible to four classes. 257. ii. .. 
 
 ScUvonians. their national character. 47,. ii. 
 Their barlmrous inroads on the easternempire, 
 48. ii. Of Dalmatia, account of. 288, u. . 
 
 Scots and Pict«, the nations pf.how diilinguish- 
 ed.341.i. Invasionsof Britain by. ift. . 
 
 Scythians, this name vaguely applied to mixed 
 tribes of barbarians. 102, i. .Their pastoral 
 manners, 350.. i.„ Extent and boundaru;s of 
 Scythia.353, 1. Revolutions of, 409, i. Their 
 mode of war. 462. i. .,,.«. j 
 
 Sebastian, master-general of the infantry under 
 the emperor Valens. his successful expedition 
 aaainst the Goths .^362, i. Is killed in the battle 
 of Hadrianople. 363, i., , ... 
 
 Sebastian, the brother of the usurper Joyinns, is 
 associated with him in his assumed imperial 
 dignities. 435. i. ^ , . , . ». ^ l 
 
 Bebastocrator. import of that title m the Greek 
 empire. 272. ii. .... ... r 
 
 Seez. in Normandv.the bishop and chapUr of, 
 all castrated, 464, ii. note. 
 
 Secestan.the princes of. support their indepen- 
 jfency obstinately agaiiisl Artaxerxes. 81. i. 
 
 SeTue'd. emperor of Abyssinia, is vvith his whole 
 
 riourt converted by the Jesuits. 149, ii. 
 Sclden, his sententious character ol transubslan- 
 
 liation, 172, ii.flofe..^ . ■^Ah„t^,^Br^ 
 Seleucia, the great city of, ruined by the Ko- 
 
 SeT/ucus pJicator, number of cities founded by 
 
 him. 81. i. note. , , . r oi« :: 
 
 S^'Iiuk, Turkish dynasty of the house of,316, ii. 
 
 Division of their empire. 320. ii. 
 Serjeant, legal and military import of that term, 
 
 Severus'. Septimiuc. general of the Pannp"'??,'®- 
 gions. assumes the purple on the dca h of P^r- 
 ijnax. 50. j. His conduct towards the chns- 
 
 Senate'of Rome is reformed by Augustus, 33, i. 
 Its legislative and judicial Powers. 35. i, AlJor- 
 live attempt of. to resume its rights alter the 
 murder of Caligula. 37..1. lis >«M5a I Jurisdiction 
 over the em L-erors. 46. i. Is «"b^ctfMlU. mili- 
 tary despotism, by Severus. 54. i. Women ex- 
 cluded fn.m this assembly by a «olemn law, bJ, 
 
 i. The form of a secret n»e«''"*'/^V';Kr^t A 
 Bures taken to support the authority of the two 
 Gordians.iA. The senate ^'eci Maximus and 
 Balbinus emperors on. the deaths of the t^or- 
 dians, T2. i. They drive the^Alemanni out of 
 Italy. 99. i. The senators fjjrbid to. .exercise 
 military employments by Gallienus. tb. i:.\ecX 
 Tacitus the father of the senate, emueror. 1 1.». 
 i Prerogatives gained to the senate, by this 
 election. i6. Their power and authority anni- 
 hilated hy Diocletian, 137, i. . ^„.,„ 
 
 - . - amount of the, coronary fold, or cnsto- 
 mary free gift of, to the emperors.. 224, t-i^e 
 claim of Julian to the empire admitted. i9i. i. 
 
 - . - petit ions of. to the emperors, lor .the re- 
 storation of. the altar of Victorj'. 38/. ■• ihe 
 pagan religion renounced, •«;^' •p.^^'Vu T 
 on the proposals of A lane the Goth, 414, i. 
 Genealogy of the senators. 418. i. Passes a de- 
 cree f^'rTuUing to death &.rena «be widow of 
 Stilicho, 425. i. Under 'he wifluence of Alanc, 
 elects Attains eniperor. 428, i. rnal of Ar- 
 vandus. a prtDtorian prajfect of yauK 4J1, i- 
 Surrenders the sovereign power of Italy to the 
 emperor of the east, 494. 1; . ...„_ki» 
 • -„- extinction of that illustrious assembly, 
 
 P^*-"'. restoration of, in the twelfth. century. 
 466. ii. The assembly resolved into single ma- 
 
 Se'rapionJi'iJlSmentation for the losBof aperson- 
 sJfapis.T.st'orfof his worship, and of his temple 
 %t 7ilexandna,390,i. The temple destroyed, 
 
 Sc*?ena. niece of the ennperor Th»J£<>^o"V!' "T'^jV 
 ed to his general S'llicho. .198. i. Is c^^' y 
 strangled hy order of the Roman senate, 4.5, i. 
 
 Severitrus. St.en.our,.ges.Odoacer to a"U"ie the 
 dominion of Italy. 494, i. His body, how dispo- 
 
 a^erus i^declafed C«sar on the .abdication of 
 Diocletian and Maximian, 143, i. Hit defeat 
 
 and death, 145, i. r .u- -■-•ir. Jn 
 
 Severus is appointed general of the cavalry in 
 
 Gaul, under Julian. 248. •.. . ^ „^_. 
 
 Shepherds and warriors, their respective modes 
 
 of^life compared. ^50, i 
 
 Slaves among the Romans, who, and tlieir eondi* 
 lion.dcM-ril)rd.i!5, i. .• w .u 
 
 Slavery, jiersonal. im^o^ed on captives by the 
 barbarous nations. 5-0. 1, , . , , . , 
 
 Sleepcr*;^. Seven, nariaiive of the legendary tale 
 
 Smy rli: 'capt ure of. by T« merlane 4I8Ji 
 
 oi iiie compareu. .uu, 1. , ,. .-__.-„ 
 
 Shiites. a sect of Mahometans, their distinction 
 from the Sonnites, 210. ii. , , ,• .„ .„j 
 
 Siberia, extreme coldness. of the clin\ate.anq 
 micerable stale of the natives of. JW. i.-. " "ei- 
 Bed and occupied by the Tartars, 405, u. 
 
 Sicily, reflections on the distractions in that 
 island. 106. i. Is conquered by the Saracens, 
 260. ii. Introduction of the silk manufacture 
 there, 270. ii. Exploits of the NormanB iher^ 
 299. ii. Is conquered by count Roger, MX • 
 Roger, son of ihe former, made king of. .luy. ii. 
 ReStn of William the Bad. 312. "i-. J^«'«" ^^^ 
 WiRiam the Good. ift.. Conquest of. bv be em- 
 peror Henrv VI. 313. ii.^. Is subdued by Charlfji 
 S' Anjou, 389. i . The Stethan Fespers. 390. ii. 
 
 Sidonius Apollinaris the p(*t. his hurporous 
 treatment of the capitation tax, 2y.t.i. mis 
 character of Theodoric king of the Visigoths in 
 Gaul. 481. i. His panegyric on the emperor 
 Avitus. 483, i. His panegyric on the emperor 
 
 Sigi8mon'd'."king o^he Burgundians, mo'<|","Jl'? 
 ion. and is canonized. 514, i. I» overwhelmed 
 by an army of Franks, ift. , , 
 
 Silentiarius. Paul, his account of tnc/ariouB 
 species of stone and marble employed in tlje 
 church of St. Sophia at Constantinople. 16. u. 
 
 Si7k, "first manufactured jn China, and then in 
 the small Grecian island of Ceoe. 10, ii. A pc- 
 culiar kind of <ilk prm-ured from the pinna ma- 
 rina. 11. ii. The silkworm, liow introduced to 
 Greece. 12. ii. Progress of the manufacture of. 
 in the tenth century-. 270. II. . »^^.„.. . 
 
 Simeon, persecutor of the Pauliciani, becomci a 
 proselyte to their opinions. 28^-'. II.- _ .. 
 
 Simeon, king of Bulgaria, his exploits. 288, ii. 
 
 Simeon Stylites. the hermit, hiB extraordinary 
 mo<leof life. 502. i. . 
 
 Simony, an early instance of. 1!K). i. note. 
 
 Simplicius.oneof the last surviving Pagan phi- 
 losophers of Athens, his writings and charac- 
 
 Si*niira,'bMlle of. between theemrerprConstM- 
 t us. and Sapor king of Persia. 2.32. "^ The city 
 of, reduced fiy Sapor. 246, i. Is yielded to him 
 by Jovian, 326, i. _ _ , .. «r«i,« 
 
 Singeric, brother of Sarus, it made king of the 
 
 Singidunum 'is perfidiously taken by Baian cha- 
 
 gan of the Avars. 14.ii. , , -» . u-.«.« 
 Sirmium is perfidiously taken by Baian cbagan 
 
 of the Avars, 15, ii. , . /. . r>i,^ .^ 
 
 Sirnes deposes and morderB his father unoaroes 
 
 II. king of Persia. 126. it. Hia treaty of peace 
 
 with the emperor Herarlius, ift. 
 Sisebut. a Gothic king of Spam, pertecntet the 
 
 jews there, 509. ii. - . ..:^„ 
 
 Sixtus y. pope, character of hiB adminiBtration, 
 
 Slave', Btrinre perversio.n of the original sense of 
 that appellalioti, 287, ii. 
 
 c»myrnB, capiurc «M, wj * n"i«.i.»...u. ...... ... 
 
 Society, philosophical refleclionB on the revolu* 
 
 tionsol;5;N). i. , . cor* :: 
 
 a.frarides, the Saracen dynasty of. 204. i . . 
 
 Soldiers, Roman, their obligations and disci- 
 pline, 15, 1(5. i.. When they hrst received re- 
 gular pay, 65, i. . . .«■ oni ■- 
 
 Soliman, sultan, conquers Asm Minor. .«l.ii. 
 Fixes his residence at Nice. r^-^J^ii. Nice ta- 
 ken by the first crusaders. 335, ii. Battle of 
 Dorylirum, ift. .^ . ,. , . jnn 
 
 Soliman. the son of Bajazet.his character. 422» 
 ii. His alliance with.ihe Greek emperor Man- 
 uel PalaM)logus. 423, ii. , f. , 
 
 Solomon, king of the Jews, not the aulhor of the 
 book which liears the name of his Hisaom.Jblt 
 i. Reasons for supposing he did not write ei- 
 ther, the book of KccUiiastes or the Fnrcerbs, 
 
 Solo'ma'n the eunuch relievet the Roman pro- 
 vince in Africa from the depred.itions of the 
 Moors. .32, ii.. Re.volt of his.tr.K.Ps at Car. 
 thage. f)i, li. Ib defeated and killed by Antalus 
 
 the Moor, 62, ii.^ . „ . ..l». ,l- 
 
 Solymon, cnliph of the Saracens, undertakes the 
 siege of Constantinople. 250. ii. His enormous 
 appetite and death, 251, II. . .u.,.:. ,- 
 
 Sonnites, in the Mahometan religion, their te- 
 nets. 216. ii. , . , J jL r,,„ 
 
 Sopator. a Syrian philosopher, beheaded by Con- 
 stantine the Great, on a charge ol binding the 
 wind by magic. 2"7. i. «o<.«- _, . „;,.«„ 
 
 Sophia, the widow of Justin II her. conspiracy 
 against the emperor Tiberius. lO.t, ii. 
 
 Sopliia.St. foundation of the church of, at. Con- 
 stantinople, 15, ii. Its description, 16, u. Is 
 converted into a mosch, 459, u. .;„_, „«• 
 
 Soohian. the Arab, conn.mands the first siege o! 
 (.<m8tantinople. 249, ii. u«- -ir ♦.„ «- 
 
 Sophronia. a Roman inntron. k'"* h"Pe'' 'o es- 
 cape the violence of Maxentius. 148, i.. "."'f.-. „ 
 
 Sories Sanctorum, a mode of christian divination 
 adopted from the pagans. 515. i. vo.e. , ., 
 
 Soul, uncertain opinions of the ancient .phi hjsp- 
 phers as to the immortality of. 164, i. ims 
 doctrine more generally received among the 
 barbarous nations, and for what reason, i6. 
 Was not taught by Moses, 165, i. F«;ur differ- 
 ent prevailing doctrines as to the origin oi, ijk, 
 
 sdzor^t'ra destroyed by the Greek emperor The- 
 ophilus. 2()2. ii. , , i, j to : n,ant 
 
 Spain, the province of, dfscribed, 19, >• . ^reat 
 revenues raised from this province by the Ro- 
 mans, 66. i, Is ravaged by the Franks, 99. i, 
 . - - Review of the history, of. 4.t5, I.. Is in- 
 vaded by the barbarous nations, 4Jb. i- Ihe 
 invaders conquered by VVallia. »^'"«, o". »he 
 Goths, 437, i. Successes of the Vandals there, 
 454, i Expedition of Theodoric king of. the 
 Visgoths into, 482. i. The christian religion 
 received there. 508. i.^Revolt and martyraom 
 of Hermcnegild. ift. Persecution of the ^ew« 
 in, 509, i. I.*gislative asse.mbliesof . S^^i'- . 
 - . - acquisitions of Justinian there. 32. ii. 
 . . - state of. under the ^.^Pcror Charle- 
 ma«e, 185, ii. First introduction of the Arab* 
 [!luftKe^'untry,242. ii. Idlest ?.nd deatbof 
 Roderic the Gothic king of,243,.ii. \ojMi\se%i 
 of bv Musa. 244. ii. Us prosperity ut^der the 
 Saracens 346. 11 The chrisi an faith there, 
 Sl^lante'd bf 'th'at of" Mahomet, ift. The throne 
 of Cordova, filled by Abdalrahman. 2o4. ii. 
 
 Stadium. Olympic, the races of... compared with 
 those in the Roman circus. 7. 11. ,tc ;: 
 
 Stauracius, emiK>ror ol }.'«^»'a."V"opIe. J5^. "• 
 
 Stephen, a freedman of Domitilla, assasBinatei 
 the emperor DomUian, 188,1.. .^,_„. , , . 
 
 Stephen, count of Chartres, his character, and 
 engagement in the first crusade, 3J0, ii. in- 
 serts his standard, 338, ii. . 
 
 Stephen. St. the first chrifltian martyr, miracu- 
 iouB discovery of .his body, and the miracle* 
 
 Ste?h5n^*hV8avage%ent. by the Greek emperor 
 Justi.nian 11. to exterminate the Chersonites. 
 
 Sil^hen III. pope, solicits the aid of PfPJn kjnj 
 
 of France, aga nst the I>ombards, under the 
 
 Bcter of St. Peter. 179. ii. Crowns king 
 
 character _..., 
 
 SiTllcho', I he 'great general of the Y;!*®/!?.!?!.?!? 
 under the emperor Honorius. his character. 
 398. I. Puts to death Rnfinus the tyrannical 
 prefect of the. east, 399, r Hi. exi)edition 
 against Alaric in Greece, 404, i. ."■« J'''^^"* 
 endeavours to check hi* .P">f' e*?^ '"n "'^' IVZ; 
 i. Defeats Alaric at Pol lent la, ift. Drives him 
 out of Italy, 408. i. His triumph at.Rome, ift. 
 His preparations to oppose the invasion 'HKa- 
 (iAffai«us. 411. i. Reduces and^ puts, him to 
 delfh, ift. Support, the claims of Alaric in the 
 Roman senate, 414. i. Is put to death at Ra- 
 venna. 416, i. His memory persecuted, ift. 
 
 Stoza heads the revolted troops of the emperoi 
 Justinian in Africa. 61. 11. j.u-ai- 
 
 Strasbu.rg. bai tie of, between Julian and the Ale- 
 
 Successi'anus'defe.nds the Roman frontier against 
 
 the Goths, 100,1. r oo : 
 
 Suevi, the origin and'eno.^n of- ^y'i^„,„. 
 Sgicide applauded and pitied by the Komant, vn, 
 
 SuVpicius, Servius. was the highest improver of 
 the Roman Jurisprudence. 81 , •>• , . ^..,._ 
 
 Sultan, origin and import of this title of eastern 
 Mvereignty, .314, ii. „..^j. „f ;„ r«mm 
 
 Sumnat, description of the T^po^O-™/ '" V^%' 
 fat, and iu destruction by sultan Mahmud. JJ4> 
 
 Suii. the worship of, introduced at Rome by the 
 emperor Elagabalus. 61. i. Wa» »he Peculiar 
 object of the devotion of Constant ine the Great, 
 before his conversion. 252, i. And ot Julian* 
 after his apostacy, 302, 1. «_.» 
 
 Susa. the city of. taken by Constantino the Great. 
 
 Swatosiaos.citar of Russia, his reign. 294. ii. 
 Swiss cantons, the conlederacy of. how lar llin>- 
 lar to that of the ancient Franks. W. i- 
 
 0wprd ot Marir, the taered weapon of the HunB, 
 
 Byririurting of'the. Frank, and Burgundians, 
 >i5 character. 511. i. !• conquered by Clovis, 
 
 By fl'a the dictator, hi. legislative character. 95, 
 
 Svl'lanus the consul, his speech to the senate, re- 
 coniinenoing the election of the twoGordians to 
 their approbation, 72, i. „ , 
 
 Bylvania, sister of the prefect Rufinufl.her un- 
 common sanctity, 400. i. note. ^ . .. . 
 
 gylvanus. general inGaul under ConBtantius, is 
 ruined by treachery. 242, i. . 
 
 Svlverius, pope, is degraded and sent into exile 
 by Belisarius for an attempt to betray the city 
 of Rome to the Goths, 39, ii. His death, 62, ii. 
 
 Svinmachus, his account of the pagan conformity 
 of the emperor Constantius, during us visit to 
 Bome,2ti5. i. Pleads in behalf of the ancient 
 pagan religion of Rome, to the emperor Valen- 
 
 Syncsiu's! bis'hop of Ptolemais, cxcomrnunicates 
 the president Andronicus, 203. i. His extraor- 
 dinary character, ift. note. His. advice to the 
 eastern emperor Arcadiust. 405, 1. 
 
 Synods, provincial, in the primitive churches, in- 
 stitution of. 171. i. Nature ot ihotie assemblies, 
 264, i. See Councils. ^ „« - t j 
 
 Syria, its revolutions and extent,. 20, i. l.s redu- 
 ced by Chosroes II. king of Persia, 119. ii. Ge- 
 neral description of, 2&, ii.. Is conquered by 
 the Saracens, 230, 11. Invasion of, by lamer- 
 lane, 416, ii. . , . ^, ^.^ . 
 
 Syriac lanjeuage, where spoken in the greatest 
 purity, 82, i. note. _ .. -. r 
 
 SyrianuB, duke of Egypt, surprises the city ot 
 Alexandria, and expels Athanaai us the primate 
 of Egypt. 280. i. 
 
 Tabari, the Arabian hUtorian, account of hi. 
 
 work, 221. i. note. _ . ,., ,.,..••_. 
 Tabenne, the island of, in Upper Thebais, isaet- 
 
 tied with monks, by Pachoinius, 497, i. 
 Table of emerald, in the Gothic treasury in 
 
 Spain, account of, 433, j. . . l . 
 
 Tacitus, emperor, hi. election and character, 
 
 Tacit'us, the historian, his character of the pr.in- 
 ciples of the Portico, 39, i. note. The intention 
 of^his episodes, 77, i. His character as an his- 
 torian, 84, i. His account of the ancient Ger- 
 mans, 86, i. His history, hpwr preserved and 
 transmitted down to us, 118, i. note. Mis ac- 
 count of the persecution of the christians as the 
 incendiaries of Rome, 186, i. . . r 
 
 Tactics of I.ieo and Constantine, character ot, 
 268, ii. Military character o( the Greeks, 576, 
 
 Tagina, battle of. between the eunuch NarBCS, 
 and Totila king of the Goths »n Italy, 68, ii. 
 
 Taherites. the Saracen dynasty of, 2t>4, ii. 
 
 Tamerlane, his birth, reign, and cpnauests, 4lJ, 
 ii. His letter to Bajazet. 416. ii. His confer- 
 ence with the doctors of the^law, at Aleppo, 
 
 417. ii. Defeats and takes Bajaxet prisoner. 
 
 418. ii. How kept out of Europe, 420. II. His 
 triumph at Samarcand, ift. Dies on a march to 
 China, ift. His character, 421, ii. ., ... 
 
 Tancred tho crusader, his character, .Ml,.ii. Mis 
 bold l»ehaviour at Constantinople, 334, u. 
 
 TarasiuK, secjeUry to the empress Irene, made 
 patriarch of Ckinstantinople, 182, i. Presides at, 
 and frames the decree, of, the «ecoud council of 
 Nice, ift. _ „.» .. 
 
 Tarik, the Arab, hi. descent on Spain, 343. .ii. 
 Defeau and kills Roderic the Gothic king of. tft. 
 
 _Hi. disgrace, 244,245, ii. . ^ j u .u 
 
 Terragona, the city of. almost de.troyed by the 
 Franks, 99. i. 
 
 Tartar.. See Seyt/uans. , . m. , 
 
 Tartar;^, eastern, conquest of. by lamerlane, 
 
 Tatia'n.'and his .on Proculu.. destroyed by. the 
 base arU of Rufinus. the confidential minister 
 of the emperor TheodosiuB, 396, »• . ^ .. , 
 
 Taurus, the consul, is banished by the tribunal 
 
 _of Chalcedon,2i^. i- . j 
 
 Taxes, how the Roman citizens were exonerated 
 
 from the burden of, 66, i. Account of those in - 
 
 .tituted by Augustus, «ft. How raised under 
 
 Constantine the Great, and hi. .uccearar., 
 
 221, i. 
 Tayef. iiege of, by Mahomet^ 211, ii. . , . , 
 Teia., the last kinx of the Goths,. defeated and 
 
 killed by the eunuch Narses, 69, 1. ,. ... . 
 Telenoachus. an Asiatic monk. loae. hi. life at 
 
 Rome, in an attempt to prevent tho combat of 
 
 the gladiators. 409, i. , , ,,^ . __. ^ 
 
 Temple of Jerusalem, burned, 187, i. History 
 
 of the emperor Julian", attempt to restore it, 
 ^305. i, „ ^. . 
 Temngin. See Ztngu. , , ....... n ,- 
 
 Tephrioe is occupied and fortified by the Pauli- 
 
 cians, 283, ii. . . . i^ , a 
 
 TertuUiap.hi. piou. exultation in the expected 
 
 damnation of all the pagan world. 166. «.. Sug- 
 
 fe.t. dewrtion to christian soldiers, l/0,.i. note. 
 lis auspicious account of twoedicts of riberius 
 and Marcus Antoninus, in favour ol the chris- 
 tians, 194, i. _ . - 1 ^' nn 
 Testamenu. the Roman law. for regulating, 90, 
 
 ii. Codicil., 92, ii. . . „ , . .l • 
 
 Tetricus, anume. the empire in Gaul, at the. in- 
 •tigafion of Victoria, ll2, i. Betrays his legions 
 into the hands of Aurelian. 113, i. La led in tri- 
 umph by Aurelian, 116, i. t %• i.^ r 
 Thabor, mount, dispute concerning the light ot, 
 
 398, ii. .. ,r • 
 
 rhanet, the island of, granted by Vortifern, a. a 
 
 settlement for his Saxon auxiliaries, 524, i. 
 Theatrical entertainments of the Romans dCBcri- 
 
 bed,423, i. , , , , 
 
 Thebsean legion, the martyrdom of, apocryphal, 
 
 _198, i. note. nn nr •• 
 
 Theft, the Roman laws relating to, 93. 95, ii. 
 Themes, or military jrover.nraenls of the Greea 
 
 empire, account of. 268. ii. . 
 
 Themistius, the orator, hisencomium on religious 
 
 toleration, 329. i. .• . ., ..l 
 
 Theqdatna, hi. birth, and eleration to the thrrwie 
 
 of Italy, 34. ii. His disgraceful treaties with 
 
 the empe.ror Justinian, and revolt against 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 them. 35. ii. Hi. deposition and death. 36, 
 
 Theodebert, king of the Franks in Austrasia. 
 loins the Goths in the siege and destruction of 
 Milan, 41. ii. Invades Italy, 42. u. His death, 
 
 Theodemir, a Gothic prince of Spain, copy of his 
 treaty of submission to the Saracens, 245, ii. 
 
 Theodora, empress, her birth and early history, 
 5, ii. Her marriage with Justinian. G. ii. .Her 
 tyranny, ift. Her virtues, 7, ii. Her death, i6. 
 Her fortitude during the Nika sedition. 9, ii. 
 Account of her palace and gardens of He racum. 
 17. ii. Her pious concern lor the conversion ol 
 Nubia, 149, ii. , , „ , r™ u- 
 
 Theodora, wile of the Greek emperor Theophi- 
 lus, her history, 159, ii. Restored the worship 
 of images. 182, ii. Provokes the Paulicians to 
 rebellion, 283. ii. ^ , „ . n> 
 
 Theodora, daughter of the Greek emperor Con- 
 stantine IX. her history. 163. i. 
 
 Theodora, widow of Baldwin III. king of Jerusa- 
 lem, her adventures as the concubineof Andro- 
 nicus Comnenus, 169, ii. • T. ., 
 
 Theodore Angelus. despot of Epiros. seizes Peter 
 of Courtenay, emperor of Constantinople, pri- 
 soner, 376, ii. Possesses himself of Tliessaloni- 
 
 Theodoric acquires the Gothic sceptre by the 
 muider of his brother Torismond, 481, i. Mis 
 character by Sidonius, 482, i. His expedition 
 into Spain, ift. , . . . , . 
 
 Theodoric, the son of Alaric, his prosperous 
 reign over the Visigoths in Gaul,4p9, i. Un- 
 happy fates of his daughters, 470, i. Is pre- 
 vailed on by iEtius to join his forces against 
 Aitila. 472, i. Is killed at the battle of Cha- 
 
 Thcocforic' the Ostrogoth, his birth .and educa- 
 tion, 531, i. Is forced by his troop, intoa revolt 
 against the emperor Zeno, 532. i. He under- 
 takes the conquest of Italy, 533, i. Reduces 
 and kills Odoacer, 534, i. Is acknowledged king 
 of Italy, ift. Review of his administration, 
 535, i. His visit to Rome, and care pi the pub- 
 lic buildings, 537. i. His religion, 538, i. His 
 remorse and death, 2, ii. . . , • w -u 
 
 TheodosiopoliB, the city of, in Armenia, built, 
 451, i 
 
 Theodosius the Great, his distinction between a 
 Roman prince and a Parthian monarch. iW4..i. 
 note. The province of Msesia preserved by his 
 valour, 348. i. Is associated by Gratian as em- 
 peror of the east, 365, i. . His birth and charac- 
 ter, ift. His prudent and successful conduct of 
 the Gothic war, 366, i. Defeats an invasion ot 
 the Ostrogoths. 368, i. __ . «-, • u-„ 
 
 . - - his treaty with Maximus, 371, i. Mis 
 baptism, and edict to establish orthodox faith, 
 372, i. Purges the city of Constantinople from 
 Ariani8m,373, i. Enforces. the Nicene doctrine 
 throughout the east, 374, i.^Convenes a cx).un- 
 cikat Constantinople, ift.. His edicts against 
 
 633 
 
 Cl.tai »^«>IISHilllIIIUHIC, .W. JilO »;»...•..,»« -B----- J. 
 
 heresy, 375, i. Receives the fugitive family of 
 Valentiman, and marries his. sister Galla, J7y, 
 i. Defeats Maximus. and visits Rome, ift. His 
 character, 380, i. His lenity to the city of An- 
 tioch , 381 , i. His cruel treatment of Theesalo- 
 nica. 382, i. Submits to the penance imiweed 
 by St. Ambrose, for his seventy toThessaloni- 
 ca,383. i. Restores Valentinian, ift. Consults 
 John of Lycopplis, the hermit, on the intended 
 war against Eugenius. 385, i. Defeat. Luge- 
 nio..ift. His death. :i86.i. Procures a senato- 
 rial renunciation of the pagan religion.jjoo. i. 
 Abolishes pagan rite., 389. i. Prohibit, the 
 
 Theudelinda, prinMn of Bavaria, married to 
 Auiharis king of the Lombards. 106. ii. 
 
 Thibaut, count of Champagne, engage, in the 
 fourth crusade. 360, ii. , • , 
 
 Thomas, the Cappadocian, his revolt against tha 
 Greek emperor Michael 11. and cruel punish 
 ment, 157, ii. 
 
 Thomas ot Damascus, his exploits against the 
 Saracens when besieging thai city, 227 ..ii. 
 
 Thomas. St. account of lue chribtians of. in In- 
 dia. l82, ii. Persecution of, by the Portuguew* 
 
 Thrace, is colonised by the BastarnK. in the 
 reign of Probus. 123. i. The fugitive Goth, 
 permitted to settle there by the emperor Va- 
 lens, 357, i. Is ravaged by them, 359, i. Ihe 
 Goths settled there by Theodosius. 368, i. 
 
 Thrasimund, king of the Vandals, his character* 
 505, i. . , ^. 
 
 Three Chapter., the famous dispute concerning, 
 140, ii. 
 
 Thundering Legion, the. story concerning, ot sus- 
 picious veracity, 194, i. ..-..« j 
 
 Tiberius is adopted by Augustus, 37, i. Reducea 
 the Pannonians. 50, i. Reduces Cappadocia. 
 67, i. note. Suspicious sior>r of his edict in fa- 
 vour of the christians, 194, i. 
 
 Tiberius is invested by Justin 11. as his successor 
 in the empire of the east, 102, ii. Ilis charac- 
 ter, and death. 103, ii. , . , , , 
 
 Tiniasius, master-general of the arniy under .the 
 emperor Theodosius, .is disgraced and exiled 
 under Arcadius, 442, i. , , r n . 
 
 Timothy the Cat. conspires the murder ot Prote- 
 rius, archbishop of Alexandria, and succeeda 
 him, 137, ii. . .^ , ... j ..^ 
 
 Tipasa, miraculous gift of speech bestowed on 
 the catholics whose tongue, had been cut out 
 there, 517, i. ..... j 
 
 Tiridates, king of Armenia, his character, and 
 history, 133. i. Is restored to his kingdom by 
 Diocletian, ift. Is exi»elled by the Persians, 
 
 i34. i. Is restored again by treaty between the 
 Lomans and Persians, 136, i. .His conversion 
 to Christianity, and death. 232, 1. . .. 
 
 Titus admitted to sharo the imperial dignity wiin 
 his father Vespasian, 38, i. .... j 
 
 Togrul Beg, sultan of the Turk., his reign and 
 character, 316, ii. He rescues the calipb oT 
 Bagdad from his enemies, ift. _ ., _^_ .. 
 
 Toledo taken by the Arabs under Tyik. 243, ii. 
 
 Toleration, universal, its happy eftects in tne 
 Roman empire, 22, i. What sects the roost m- 
 tolerant, 80, i. note.. . . . ■ ■ ^ ^r 
 
 7*olliu8, objections to his account of the Tision ol 
 Antigonue, 256, i. note. . r.i...T7:-i 
 
 Torismond. son of Theodoric. king of the Visl. 
 goths, attends his father agaiiist Attila, king ot 
 tlie Huns. 472, i. Battle ot Chalons,. 473, i. 
 Is acknowledged king on the death of hi. fa- 
 ther in the fiefd. 474, i. is killed by his brother 
 
 Theodoric. 481, i. ... . . ,i „ r.i,- 
 
 Torture, how admitted in the criminal law ot the 
 
 Romans under the emperors, 220,1. 
 Totila is elected king of Italy.by the GothB.pZ, 
 ii. His justice and moderation, 63, ii. »«■•*• 
 gesand takes the city of Rome, 64.11. t" '"•J." 
 ced to spare Rome from destruction, at the in 
 
 stance of Belisarius. 65, 11. Takes Rome again, 
 '- :;. r:_nder8 Sicily. 67. 11. Battle of Ta- 
 na, 68. ii. His.death, ift. 
 
 pagan religion, 391, 1. „ . - 
 
 Theodosius the Younger, his birth, 44P. 1. is 
 said to be left by his father Arcadius to the care 
 of Jerdegerd king of Persia, ib. His education 
 and character. 449, i. His marriage with Eij- 
 docia, ift. His war with Persia, 450, 1. His 
 pious joy on the death of John, the usurper 
 of the west, 452. i. His treaty with the Huns, 
 459, i. His armies defeated by Attila, 461, i. 
 Is reduced to accept a peace dictated, by Atti- 
 la, 463, i. I. opprMsed by the embassies of At- 
 tila, 464, i. Embassy of Maximin to Altija. 
 ift. Is privy to a scheme for the assassination 
 of Attila, 4157, i. Atiila's em.bawy to him on 
 that occasion, ift. His death, ift. . t^. a.\^ 
 - - - his perplexity at the religiou. feuds be- 
 tween Cyril and. NcBtoriu., 133, 11. Banishe. 
 Nestorius, 134, ii. __, ^ .. .^ ,». 
 
 Theodosiu. III. emperor of Constantinople. 154, 
 
 Theodosius, the .father of the emwror. hi. .nc- 
 cessful expedition to Britain, »«2, 1. .Suppress- 
 es the revolt of Firmus the Moor. in. Africa, 
 343, i. Is beheaded at Carthage..344.. 1. 
 
 Theodosius. patriarch of Alexandria, hi. fiomP?- 
 tition with Gaian. how decided. 147, 11. me 
 negociation. at the court of Bysantium, l4e, 
 
 TheodosiuB, the deacon, jrandson of theemperor 
 Heraclius, murdered by hi. brother Con.tanB 
 
 Theodosius', the lover of Antonina, detected by 
 Belisarius, 44. ii. Turns monk to escape her, 
 ift. Hisdeath,45, ii.^ , ., i.a:«..~.i;. 
 
 Theo<lotus, president of the council of HierapoliB, 
 under Constantius, hi. ridiculous flattery to 
 
 Theophano, wi'fe of 'the Greek emperor Romanu.s 
 
 II. poisons both him and his father. 162. .11. 
 
 Her connection with Nicephorus I hoca., 16. 
 
 His murder, and her exile, 162, 16.1, 11. 
 Theophilus. emperor of Constantinopbe, 158. 11. 
 
 His Amorian war with the caliph MotaBsem, 
 
 26^ ii 
 
 Theophilus. archbishop of Alexandria, destroys 
 the temple of Serapis, and the Alexandrian li- 
 brary, 390, i. Assists the persecution of St. 
 Chrysostom, 446, i. His invective against hini, 
 447, i. note. . , . 
 
 Theophilus, his pious embassy from the emperor 
 Constantius, to the Last Indies. 259. 1. 
 
 Theophob.us, the Persian, his unfortunate hi.to- 
 
 The'rai>euttt. or Eswnian., .ome account of, 
 177 i 
 
 Thermopylw, the strait, of, fortified by the em- 
 peror Justinian, 17, ii. ..» ,i.-,« ibo 
 
 The.s.lonica. sedition and massacre thfre, •««, 
 ii. Cruel treatment of .the citirens, ift. .Pen- 
 ance of Theodosius for thu wverity. 383. i. 
 
 m"iu PlundeVs'sFciTy.' 67. ii. " Battle of Tag! 
 na, 68. ii. His death, ift. coca ■• 
 
 Toulunides, the Saracen dynasty of,2b4, 11. 
 
 Tournaments preferable exhibitions to the Olym- 
 pic games, 331, ii. ^, , ., . , ..J.U- 
 
 Tours, battle of, between Charles Martel and the 
 Saracens, 253, ii. , .„> 
 
 Toxandria, in Germany, is overrun and occupied 
 by the Frank8,-247. i. . , , , cw»a : 
 
 Traditors, in the primitive church, who, -WO, •-. 
 
 Trajan, emperor, his conquest of Uacia, \*f}' 
 His conquests in the east, ift. Contrast be- 
 tween the characters of him and Hadrian. 10, 1. 
 His pillar de.scribed, 29, i.,.Why adopted by 
 the emperor Nerva. 38, 1. His instructions to 
 Pliny the younger for his conduct towards the 
 christians. 189, i. Description of his farooua 
 bridge over the Danube, 17, 11. «««- . _, 
 
 Trajan, count, his treacherous murder ol rara 
 king of Armenia, 346, i. , ..«.«.v 
 
 Transubstantiation. the doctrine of, when e.Ub« 
 
 li6hed,353,ii. ... , , a^^^a k« 
 
 Trebizond, the city of, taken and plundered by 
 the Goths, lOl. i. The dukes of, be.' ome ipde- 
 pendent on the Greek empire, J73, u. " yieia- 
 ed to the Turks, 461, ii. , ... . d.,„„-_ 
 
 Tribigild the Ostrogoth, his rebellion m Phrygia 
 against the emperor Arcadius, 44J,.i. 
 
 Tribune, the oflSce of, expained. 34, 1. .. 
 
 Tribonian, his genius and character, iw, 11. i. 
 employed by Justinian to reform the code ol 
 Roman laws, 83. ii. , . . „-« . . 
 
 Trinity, the mysterious doctrine ot.^e, i. .!■ 
 violentlyagitated in the schools of Alexandria, 
 270, i. Three systems of. ift. ^Decisions of the 
 council of Nice, concerning, 2d, i. Diftcrent 
 forms of the doxology,282, 1, Frauds used to 
 support the doctrine of, 507, 1. ,, __. 
 
 Tripoli, the confederacy of, cruelly opprewd, 
 under the government of count. Komnnus. .n*,i. 
 
 Trisagion. religious war cx>iicerning. 138, "^. 
 
 Troops, Roman, their discipline, lb. «;.,*T'lTf 
 they first received pay, 65. 1. Cause of the dif- 
 ficulty in kjvying them. 218. i. See Jovxans, 
 Palatines, and Prctorxan bands. 
 
 Troy, the situation of that citj. and of the Gre- 
 cian camp of besiegers, describert, -}''t ••p,,^,, 
 
 Turin, battle of. between Constantine th? Great 
 and the lieutenants of Maxentius. 149, >- 
 
 Turisund. king of the GepidH% his honourable re- 
 ception of Alboin Ihe Lombard, who had slain 
 
 T!;ilI?"^eif^liijiS^M- Their Primitive hj- 
 Btitulions. 49, II. Their conouests, tft. Th^i^ 
 alliance with the emperor Justinian, 50, 11. 
 Send auxiliaries to Heraclius, 12.4. 11. 
 
 - - . grow powerful and liceniious under the 
 Saracens, 262, ii. Terror excited by their me- 
 nacing Europe. 288, ii. Their military charac- 
 ter.289, ii. Theyeittend ihemseKesover Asia, 
 314. ii. Reign of Mahmud !>>« «aj"f.v'd;^' «*- 
 Their manners and emigration. J15. 11. tbfT 
 subdue Persia. 316. 11. Dynasty of the Selju- 
 kians. ift. Thev invade the provinces of the 
 Greek empire. 317, ii., , . „, j . 
 
 - - . Reformation of the M.tern wlendar, 
 380, ii. They conquer Asia Minor, 321, u. 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
M< 
 
 ■ .* 
 
 634 
 
 Turks, their mpital city, Nice, taken by the 
 crusaders. 335. ii. The seal of government re- 
 moved to Iconium, 344, ii. Valour and con- 
 guests of ZenKhi, 347, ii. Character ot sulian 
 Noureddin. ib. Conquest of Lgypt. 34^. ii- 
 Origin and history of the Ottomans. Mh. n- 
 Their first passage into Europe, 4<.to, ii. i ne"" 
 education and discipline, 4'i4, ii. JbmtmMy 
 from, to the emperor Sigismond, 43J» ii- la»e 
 the city of Constantinople. 45P, II. . 
 
 Turpin, the romance ol, by whom, and wnen 
 written, 325. i I. nofe. - . , e 'r- :i 
 
 Twelve Tables, review of the lawB of, 77. ii. 
 Their Beyerity, 1(3. ii. How the criminal code 
 of, sunk into disuse, 94, ii. r.i.^.u:- 
 
 Tyranis of Rome, the popular conceit ot tne tnir- 
 ty, investigated. J04. i. .. 
 
 Tyre ia besieged by Saladin, 351, ii. 
 
 Tythes assigned to the clergy as well by Zoroas- 
 ter as by Mcwes. m. i. note. Were first granted 
 to the church by Charlemagne, lo5, a. 
 
 Vadomair, prince of the Alemanni, i« •«"*?".- 
 Boner to Spain bv the emperor Jui'5"» '*^' '• 
 His son murdercrf by the Romans, 3.'io, i. 
 
 Valens, general of the Illvrian.frontier,.receivc8 
 the title of Capsar from Ijicintus, 154, i. Lioaea 
 his new title and his litiB, i*. ,, , ^. . 
 
 Valens, the brother of the emperor Valentiman. 
 is associated with him in the empiie, 3.il, i. 
 Obtains from his brother the eastern portion ot 
 the empire, ib. His timidity on therevolt ot 
 Procopius, 33-i. i. His character, 334, i. Is 
 baptized by Eudoxus, and patronizes the 
 Arians, 330, i. Is vindicated trom the charge 
 of persecution.!*. His edict against the Egyp- 
 tian monks, 337, i. His war with the Goths, 
 346, i. Receives the suppliant Goths into the 
 Roman territories. 358, i, His war with them. 
 360, i. Is defeated and killed at the battle of 
 Hadrittnople, 353, i. Hiseulogium by Lioanius, 
 
 Valens, the Arian bishop of.Mursa, his crafty 
 pretensions to divine revelation, '274, 1. 
 
 Valentia. a new province in Britain, settled by 
 Theodo8iu8,.342, i. . , • i 
 
 Valeiitinian I. his election to the empire, and 
 character, 330, i. Asw^ciates his brother Va- 
 lens with him, 331, i. Divides the empire into 
 the East and fVest, and retains the latter, tb. 
 
 Bis cruelty, 334, i. His civil institutions, tb. 
 is edicts to restrain the avarice of the clergy. 
 337, i. Chastises the Alemanni, and fortifies 
 the Rhine, 3.3!», i. Hisexpedition to I lyricum, 
 and death, 348. i. Js vindicated from the charge 
 of polygamy, 349, i. ...... ■ i 
 
 Valentiman II. is invested with the imperial 
 ornaments in his mother's arms, on the death 
 of his father, 349, i. Is refused by St. Anibroso 
 the privilege of a church for him and his. mo- 
 ther Justina, on account of their Arian princi- 
 ples. 377, i. His flight from the invasion of 
 Maximum, 37J), i. Is restored by the emperor 
 Theodoflius, 383, i. Hitf character, tb. Hia 
 
 death. 384, i. .... ^ ^ 
 
 Valentinian III. is established emperor of the 
 west, by his cou<<in Thoodosius the Younger, 
 452, 1. Is committed to the guardianshipot his 
 mother Placidia, 453, i. Flies, on the invasion 
 of Italy by Attila, 470, i. Sends an embassy to 
 Attila to purchase his retreat, tb. Murders 
 the patrician Mliaa, 478, i. Ravishes the wite 
 of PetroniusMaximus.iA. His death, and cha- 
 racter, ift. _ , .... 
 
 Valentinians, their confused ideas of the divinity 
 of Jesus Christ, 12*.», ii. nol«. 
 
 Valeria, empress, widow of Galerius. the. unfor- 
 tunate fates of her and her mother, 152, i. 
 
 Valerian is elected censor under the emperor 
 Decius. 96, i. His elevation to the empire, and 
 his character, 98, i. Is defeated and laken pri- 
 ■oner by Sapor king of Persia, 103. i.. His treat- 
 ment, 104, i. His inconsistent bohaviour toward 
 the christians, J(H5, i. 
 
 Vandals. See Ootks. ^ . ^_ . . _. . 
 
 - - ■ their luccesses in Spam, 454, i. .Ihqir 
 expedition into Africa under Genseric, to. 
 They raise a naval force and invade Italy. 4711, 
 i. ^ck of Rome. 480. i. Their naval depre- 
 dations on the coast of the Mediterranean, 487, 
 i. Their conversion to the christian religion, 
 503, i. Persecution of the catholics, 50d. i. 
 
 Vandals, expedition of Belisarius agaiiisi (.eli- 
 m«r, 25, ii. Conquest of. 2}). ii. Their name 
 and distinction loit in Africa. 31, ii. Remains 
 of their nation still found in Germany, to. 
 
 Varanes. See Bahrain. 
 
 Verangiaod of the north, origin and historr of, 
 292, li. 
 
 Varronian, the infant son of the emperor Jorian, 
 hia history, 330, i. 
 
 Vataces. John, his long and prosperous reign at 
 Nice, 376. 378, ii. Ilis character, 383, ii. 
 
 Vegetius, his remarks on the degeneracy of the 
 Roman discipline at the time ofTheodoviut the 
 Great, 386. i. 
 
 Veii, the siege of that city, the sera of the Roman 
 army first receiving regular (>ay.G5. i. 
 
 Venice, foundation of that repubiie, 475, i. It* 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Infant slate under theexarchtof Ravenna. 104, 
 ii. Its growth and pro,'iHvit>at the iimt-of the 
 lounh crusade. 361, ii. Alliance with rrance, 
 t*. Divides theGrcek empire with the Irench, 
 
 Veratius, his mode of obeying the law of the 
 twelve tables, respecting personal insults. »J. 
 
 Verina, empress, the widow of I^eo, deposes Ze- 
 no. 532. i. Her turbulent life. lA. 
 
 Verona, siege of, by Constantine the Great, 13U, 
 i. Battle of, between Stilicho the Roman gen- 
 eral, and Alaric the Goth, 408, i. 
 
 Verre«i, why his punishment was inadequate to 
 his offences. 95. ii. ... , . . , 
 
 Vespasian, his prudence in sharing the imperial 
 dignity with his son Titus, 37. 1. 
 
 Vestals. Roman, their number and peculiar of- 
 fice, 387. i. „ . . .1, . 
 
 Vetranio, the Roman general in lllyricum, as- 
 sumes the purple, and enters into an alliance 
 with the Gaulish usurper Magneniius,234, i. 
 Is reduced to abdicate his new dignity. 2.i5, i. 
 
 Victoria, exerci.aes the governmfnl over the le- 
 gions and province of Gaul, 1 12, i. 
 
 Victory, her statue and altar, in the senate-house 
 at Rome, described, 387. i. The senate peti- 
 tions the christian emperors to have it restored, 
 
 ViVilantius. the presbyter, is abused by. Jerom 
 for opposing monkish superstition, 393, '• wore. 
 
 VigiliuH, interpreter to the embassy I rom 1 heo- 
 dosius the Younger to Attila, is privy to a 
 scheme for the assassination of Attila, 4l>4. i. 
 Is detected by Attila, 467. i. . ._,. 
 
 Vigilius purchases the papal chair of Belisarius 
 and his wife, 39, ii. Instigates the emperor 
 Justinian to resume the conquest of Italy. 07, 
 
 Vine, its progress, from the time of Homer. 30. i. 
 
 Virgil, his fourth eclogue interpreted into a pro- 
 phecy of the coming of the Messiah. 257. i. 
 Is the most aripient writer who mentions the 
 manufacture ofsiik, 10. ii. , , 
 
 Vitalian. the Gothic chief, is treacherously mur- 
 dered at Constantinople. 4, ii. 
 
 Vitalianus, prajtorian praefect under tiie emperor 
 Maximin, put to death by order of the senate, 
 72, i. 
 
 Vite'liius. emperor, his character, 39, i. 
 
 Vitiges. general of I he barbarians under Ihepda- 
 tus king of Italy, is by his trcxips declared king 
 of Italy. 36, li. He besieges Behsarius in 
 Rome. ib. Is forced to raise the siege, 41, n. 
 He i^ besieged by Belisarius in Ravenna. 42, ii. 
 Is taken prisoner in Ravenna. 43, ii. Conlorms 
 to the Athanasian faith, and is honourat.ly set- 
 tled in Asia. ib. His embassy to Chosroes king 
 of Persia, 53, ii. , . , . . ., 
 
 Viiruvius, the architect, his remarks on the 
 buildings of Rome, 424, i. .. 
 
 Vizir, derivation of that appellation. 206. ii. 
 
 note. _ , ne ' 
 
 Ukrainp.descriptionofthat country, 93,. I. . 
 
 Uldin, king of the Huns, reduces and killsGai- 
 nas the (Joth, 445. i. Is driven back by the vi- 
 gilance of the imvierial ministers. 448, i.. 
 
 Ulphilas. the ap«mle of the Goths, his pious la- 
 bours, 503, i. Propagated Arianism, 504, i. 
 
 Ulpian, the lawyer, placed at the head ot the 
 council of state, under the emwror Alexander 
 Severus. 63, i. is murdered by the prctorian 
 guards, 64, i. ... . , - - , ■ 
 
 Voconian law abolished the right of female in- 
 heritance. IK), ii. How evaded . !»2, 11. 
 
 Voltaire prefers the labarum ol Const antinn to 
 the angel of Lirinius, 256, i. note. His reflec- 
 tions on the expenses of a siege. 530. i.note. 
 
 Vortigern.king ofSoulh Britain, his invitation ot 
 the Saxons for assistance against his enemies, 
 524 i. 
 
 Vouti. emperor of China, his exploits against the 
 Huns, 354, i. - . ^ i ■. > 
 
 Upsal, anciently famous for its Gothic temple, 
 
 93. i. „ .. „ 
 
 l/rhan II. pope, patronires Peter the Hermit in 
 his proWict for recovering the Holy JLand. Jz4, 
 ii. Exhorts the i)eoplo t.o a crusade, at the 
 council of Clermont, .t26, ii. , ^, 
 
 Urban V. pop**, removes the papal court from 
 Avignon to Rome. 484, ii. .. 
 
 Urban VI. pope, his disputed election, 484, ii. 
 
 Ursarius. mar»ier of the offices under the ernpe- 
 ror Valentinian, occasions a revolt of the Ale- 
 manni. by his parsimony, 338, i. . 
 
 Ursicinius. a Roman general, his treacherous 
 conduct to Sylvanus in Gaul. 242, i. Is super- 
 seded in bis command over the eastern provin- 
 ces. 246. i. Is sent back again to .conduct the 
 war with Persia, under Sabinian, i*. Is again 
 disgraced. ift. . . „ ^ ., r tmc •• 
 
 Ursini. history of the Roman family of, 475, ii. 
 
 Ursulus. treasurer of the empire uncler.Constan- 
 lius. unju.<tly put to death by the tribunal ol 
 Chalcedon.2?»5. ii. , 
 
 Usury. SeelnUrMiofmonev. 
 
 W 
 
 VValachians. the present, de#w,«»ndanl« from the 
 Reman settlers in Booieat Daoia. 110, i. iwm. 
 
 V»^a 
 
 Wales is settled by British refugees from Sazoa 
 t y ranny . 525. 52»i. i. The bards of. 527, i. 
 
 Wallia is rhusen king ot the Goths. 4:{7, i.. He 
 reduces the barbarous invaders ot Spam, t9. is 
 nettled in Aquitain. i6.,.^ ^^ .. „ 
 
 War and robbt-ry. their diflTerenre, 1P6. ii. Evo- 
 lutions and military exercise oft he Greeks. 276. 
 ii. Military character of the Saracens, 377. ii. 
 Of the Franks and l^atins, ift. 
 
 Warburlon, bishop of Gloucester, his literary 
 character, 305, i. note. His labours to establihh 
 the miraculous interruption to Juliairs build- 
 ing the temple of Jerusalem, 305. i. notes. 
 r'^arna, battle of. between the sultan Amuratk 
 11. and Ladislaus. king of Hungary and Po 
 i&fifi 4*l4 ii 
 
 Werdan, the Greek general, defeated by the 8a 
 racens at Aiznadin, 226, ii. 
 
 Wheat, the average price of, under the sacces- 
 sorsofCorstantinc the Great, 313. i.note. 
 
 Whitaker, Mr. remarks on his account of lh» 
 Irish descent of the Scottish nation, 341, t 
 
 note. ..^ - , . 
 
 While. Mr. Arabic professor at Oxford, character 
 of his sermons at Bampton's lecture, 253, ii. 
 
 Wilfrid, the apostle of Sussex, his benerolent 
 
 entablishment at Selsey, 527, i. ^ ^ .. 
 William I. the Bad, kinf of Sicily. 312. ii... 
 William II. the Good, king of Sicily. 31.2. ii. 
 Vyindraills, the use of. from whence derived, 3o0, 
 
 Wine, the use of, expressly prohibited by Maho- 
 met, 204, ii. . , L .L . 
 
 Wi.sdom of Solomon, when, and by whom, that 
 hook was written, 267, i. - „ . 
 
 Wolodomir. great prince of Russia, marriet 
 Anne, daughter of the emi>eror Romanus, 274, 
 ii. His conversion to Christianity, 2tH>. II. 
 
 Women, in hereditary monarchies, allowed lo 
 exercise sovereignty, though incai>able of sub- 
 ordinate state ofllices. 62. i. . H^w treated by 
 the Roman civil laws, 87. ii. The V(joonian 
 law, flow evaded, 92, ii. Are.not excluded from 
 paradise by Mahomet, 205, ii. 
 
 Xenophon, his description of the desert of Meso- 
 potamia. 317. i. /.,..., rt. . e 
 
 Xerxes, the situation of his bridge of hjwt.s lor 
 passing over lo Europe, pointed oat, 207. i. 
 
 Yermuk, battle of, between the Greeks and the 
 Saracens, 2.30. ii. ^ . , . . c 
 
 Yezdegerd. king of Persia, his reign the Bra ot 
 the fal! of the Sassanian dynasty, and ol tlie re- 
 ligion of Zoroaster. 222, ii. .. 
 
 YezJd, caliph of the Saracens, 217, n. 
 
 "Zabergan invades the eastern empire with an ar- 
 my of Bulgarians, 71, ii. !» repulsed by Belt- 
 .sarins, 72, ii. . , ... - 
 
 Zachary, pope, pronounces the deposition ot 
 Childeric. king of France, and the appointment 
 of Pepin to succeed him, 180, ii. 
 
 Zano. brothrr of Gelimer the Vandal usurper, 
 conquers Sardinia. 28. ii. Is recalled to assist 
 his brother, tft. Iskilhd.ifr. 
 
 Zara, a city on the Sclavonian coast, reduced by 
 the crusaders for the republic ol Venice, Jt)J, 
 
 Zeiighi, sultan, his valour and conquests, 347. 
 
 Zeiio, emperor of the east, receives a surrender 
 of the imperial government of the w;estern eni- 
 pire from the senate of Rome, f.*o, i. Ipe vi- 
 cissitudes of his life and reign, 5J2, i. Ills lie- 
 not icon, 1.37. ii. „ . , . . a 
 
 Zenobia. queen of Palmyra, her character and 
 
 history. 113, i. . . -, , j m »- - 
 
 Zingis. first emperor of the Moguls and Tartars, 
 parallel between him and Attila, king. of the 
 Huns, 459, i. His proposal tor improving his 
 conquests in China. 462, i.,. His birlh and early 
 military exploits. 40l,ii. His laws. 402. II.. His 
 invasion of China, ib. Cansme, 1 ransoxiana, 
 and Persia. 403. ii. His death. i6. 
 
 Zizais.a noble Sarmatian. is made king pi that 
 nationby theemperorConstantiuB. 244. i. 
 
 Zobeir. the Saracen, his bravery in the invasion 
 
 of Africa. 2:W, ii. ... i. «• .u 
 
 Zoe, first the concubine, becomes the founn 
 
 wife of the emperor Leo the philosopher, lol, 
 
 Zoe, wife of Rnmanus III. and Michael IV 
 emperors, 163. ii. . ,.,...•• 
 
 Zoroaster, the Persian prophet, his high antiqui- 
 ty. 78. i. note. Abridgment of his theology. 7tJ, 
 I. Provides for the encouragement of.agricul- 
 lure. 80, i. Assigns tythes to the priests, i*. 
 
 note. . , . • r 
 
 Zosimns. his reprpsenlationof the oppression or 
 
 the lustral contribution. 224, i. , . 
 
 Zuinglius. the Reformer, his coneeptioM of tM 
 
 Eucharist, 2H5. ii ,. . ^^„ ., 
 
 Zurich, brief hisiory of that eity. 466. li. 
 
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